Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo

MAY, 1939

6th May, 1939

Arjava died on the 5th May – at Bangalore. He was treated by Dr. Brunitzer. Post mortem examination revealed pericardiatis, six ounces of water from the right side of the heart.

Disciple : Our Dr. X sticks to his Rheumatism theory. The French doctor started with typhoid, but it was negatived by blood examination. Dr. Brunitzer, in the beginning said that it was Septisemia.

Disciple : So, even after the post mortem nobody was wiser. How is this possible that even after the post mortem, they don't accept the diagnosis?

Sri Aurobindo : You can see that Dr. X is not ready to admit anything other than what he believes. He takes into

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consideration only those facts that support his views, and puts all other facts away. So nothing else can come in.

Disciple : What is the way out?

Sri Aurobindo : Intuition is the only way. But even there mental intuition may be right but not always. Mind deals with the possibilities and some may come true. Again true intuition has to be distinguished from the mental imitation of the same, or from mere suggestion or a strong impression.

Disciple : How can one save himself from error?

Sri Aurobindo : There is outer rule; you have to get the psychic tact which throws out the error. For example, the Mother used to feel about the soundness of houses and our engineer used to find out afterwards that her feeling was true, though she does not know architecture or engineering. Another necessity is that one must be sincere about finding the truth by intuition. That is to say, one must not jump at the first idea and run away with it. The mind must be absolutely impartial and also one must be patient and one must wait. One must also test his intuitions.

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