Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo

JANUARY, 1940

4th January, 1940

Disciple : I had a talk with G about Rigveda and on the Aryan-Dravidian question. He gave me one or two arguments to support his contention. According to him the fact of different children in the same family having different colours is a positive argument that race of the parents is a mixed one. Secondly, in the Rigveda itself there is mention of dark-skinned people and "Anasa."

I said "Anasa" figures only in one Rik out of more than ten thousand Riks and it may not mean "nose-less" or "flat-nosed."

Sri Aurobindo : "Anasa" is not flat-nosed, it means nose-less.

Disciple : I consulted the Rigveda and found that it refers only to the Dasyus and not to non-Aryans.

Sri Aurobindo :  The Orientalists also wanted to prove the

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existence of Linga worship in the Rigveda by citing a Rik in which the word "Shishnadevah" occurs.

Disciple : K. M. Munshi in tracing the origin of Bhakti long ago wrote that devotion is nothing else but sublimation of the sex-impulse, and he tried to trace the origin in the Rigveda.I contradicted his view even then and showed that "Shishna-deva" only means sensualists.

Sri Aurobindo : Quite so. And what have they to say about the Dravidian tribe in Baluchistan? Is it black and flat-nosed? How on earth do they find out these things from the Rigveda – nomadic existence, gambling, and crossings of the rivers, which to me is mystical. I also find that the fight between Tristsu and Sudansah in the eighth Mandala is not merely a battle, it is something symbolic.

Disciple : That is one of their strongest points in the Indologist armoury. If one can get the clue to the symbol of the ten Kings that would be the end of their theory.

Disciple : Did you hear J's interpretation of your poem Trance? He says that the "star" in the poem stands for the individual, and the "moon" in the poem is the Universal.

Sri Aurobindo : If it is there I am not aware of it. His interpretation is not very much unlike that of a Western scholar; he seems to read his own mind into the text but that is not poetry – it is metaphysics. I have explained the terms myself: "star" is the star of creation, and "moon" is the sudden upheaval of the inner life, and "ocean-self" is true-being. There is no philosophy in it.

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5th January, 1940

Disciple : I am trying to get intuition but I fail.

Sri Aurobindo : Perhaps you were disappointed with Brinjal so it is not coming.

Disciple : But N. began to have guidance as soon as he started his Yoga. He has a mind which seems to be opened to the intuitive faculty.

Disciple : Guidance in what way?

Disciple : Guidance when ever he is in difficulty.

Sri Aurobindo : A man of successful action gets a sort of insight which is half - intuition; while a man of intellect is generally handicapped and thinks of various possibilities saying: this will happen, that will happen.

Disciple : Has a man of successful action no intellect?

Sri Aurobindo : He has but for action he feels what will happen and seizes upon it. He acts upon the suggestion and in most cases it turns out to be right. Not that he does not go wrong at all. The nature of his mind is such that he is open to this intuitive faculty of action. The English people are so successful because they have a knack of getting vital intuition which leads to success. Even if they commit mistakes and jumble things together, in the end their intuition comes to their help and pulls them out of the difficulty. The French on the other hand are more logical. They think and reason.

Disciple : The English are thinking of Finland more actively because they are afraid of German-Russian naval combination in the Baltic.

Sri Aurobindo : But how are they going to help? They

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require ammunition and military equipment for themselves. I don't know how they have enough to spare. Referring to N

Are you trying to get intuition in the medical faculty? Instead of limiting to one special field of activity why not try in a general way?

Disciple : In what way?

Sri Aurobindo : For everything. For example, what X. is going to do next or if you are a reader of novel you try to get what will follow. Of course, it is for an expert novel reader to say that. After all, many people get intuition without knowing it.

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