Evening Talks with Sri Aurobindo

MARCH, 1940

Undated

Disciple : Does this article show any change in Barin's attitude?

Sri Aurobindo : It depends. He says what is uppermost in his mind, and what suits him at the moment, according to his moods. But it may be a change in his attitude, but difficult to say if there is any progress. The change may be due to his having failed in every thing after going from here and the Ashram growing out since. That may have impressed him. It may be due to mental causes also.

Disciple : He admits that he had fallen from the path and his attitude towards Mother.

Disciple : Somebody said that he used to speak highly of the Mother.

Disciple : No, he was critical.

Sri Aurobindo : Yes. He says things according to his own mood and what suits him. He wrote one book on Mother and

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asked Andrews for introduction. Andrews refused saying: "I know the Mother". About the Ashram Moore also refused to believe his criticisms.

Disciple : Mother says this is "a year of silence and expectation." For this what is to be done?

Sri Aurobindo : Year of silence means "observe silence and be expectant."

Disciple : He wants to know whether the literary work he is doing by the approval of the Mother is not going to interrupt the silence especially if he goes for controversy.

Sri Aurobindo : I suppose one can do the work in silence. But he should not engage in controversy. He has too combative a mind. If he goes in for controversy naturally silence will be interrupted.

Disciple : If he does this sort of work and somebody contradicts, naturally he will have to re-contradict.

Sri Aurobindo : Why? Many people criticize me. I don't answer. It is not necessary that he should answer.

Disciple : N and I decided not to convert any other people about Vedic interpretations but to go on repeating over and over again our own point.

Sri Aurobindo : That is Hitler's method.

Disciple : That is why nobody contradicts N.

Sri Aurobindo : Yes. When people find that the opponent does not answer they lose all interest.

Disciple : He says it is true he has lost touch with the reality of the external world. Now if he reads Manchester Guardian and New Stateman will it disturb his silence?

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Sri Aurobindo : It depends on his mind. If he can read all these things in order to know what is going on, it is alright, but he should not run away with any idea or programme. He was asked not to read papers because his mind was slave to politics and attracted by the ideas. The fundamental peace and silence is all right, but he should bring the attitude of the Purusha in his reading also.

Disciple : I did not know at all that he has also such difficulties!

Sri Aurobindo : You thought he has reached Supreme Siddhi!

Disciple : Not so much, but a Cosmic Consciousness.

Sri Aurobindo : All-India consciousness. You can tell him that he must not attack or contradict people. When he reads anything he must not allow his mind to run away with any ideas, but take up the attitude of the witness and see from where these things come. And if he does not allow the mind to identify with any of them he will know the right source of action and knowledge. You were talking of Cosmic Consciousness. All these ideas are there in the general Prana and have equal validity from the point of Cosmic Consciousness. They may be as much true as his own i.e. when Basanta Chatterji contradicts him there is some truth in what he says. He has to see what distortion the mind has brought in democracy-personal ambitions-boycott-S-he has lost his head-like Europe-part of universal movement.

Disciple : D also used to have many brilliant ideas e. g. common kitchen, cleaning, Baroda city.

Sri Aurobindo : Ideas are always brilliant. Co-operation is always possible, because each finds his self-interest in the interest of others.

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Disciple : A – what he a political leader?

Sri Aurobindo : He was just beginning his career. That sort of leadership is nothing. If you have the gift of the gab and power of ideas and putting form into them, you can always succeed. All politics is a show. In British Parliament it is the Civil service who are behind, and whose names are never known, that really do the work. The Ministers are only their mouthpieces except a man like Churchill and Hore-Belisha who can do something.

Mother's brother, for instance, he organized the Congo land in Africa, but the Minister got all the credit for it. He was one of the great colonial administrators and even when he was officer in Equatorial Africa, sometimes Governor or Governor General, the whole job was done by him. He hardly had a bed and used to lie in easy chair. Now he is nearly seventy but, as soon as the war was declared he went to the Office and asked for his work and now he is working eighteen hours a day.

A is living in his mind. No "isms" or mental programme will do, if you want to base things on the Spirit. They are all out of count. It is the repetition of the old mental way. Are the villagers going to understand my philosophy? If he goes to work, he will find himself out of touch with realities and will have the same fall as B. B went out to revolutionize the world.

Disciple : And he ended by revolutionizing himself.

Disciple : These things can be only done by Government. It is better to get the Government.

Disciple : Yes, but both constructive work and this kind of political work can go together as Gandhi is doing.

Sri Aurobindo :  With very little success.

A is talking of common kitchen! Why not have every thing common?

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