The Concept of Hero in Aurobindonian Poetry

THE CONCEPT OF HERO IN
AUROBINDONIAN POETRY

Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry

Each poet or dramatist has his own concept of the hero as expressed in his creation. Each poet manifests a world of his own and this world is dominated by one protagonist, the hero. Generally, unless the case is uncommon, the poets repeat this outstanding form. Shakespeare, Homer, Vyasa are amongst the exceptions. The plays of Marlowe, Moliere or Racine, the satires of Sheridan, or even the plays of Shaw in our times are examples picked at random that show the lack of a central living figure. Brilliant oratory or exquisite rhetoric or poetry or even a great idea behind the drama, do not make the characters live, rest alone the hero. He must be truly exceptional if he must deserve the name.

If we study Sri Aurobindo’s poetry, specially his longer poems and dramas, and of course his epic Savitri, we are struck by the array of characters, each different from the other, each living and articulate with beauty, power, nobility and strength. In this brief survey we shall outline a few of his outstanding characters.

Before we actually launch with the subject, we must answer two pertinent questions: What constitutes a hero and what do we mean by one?

The hero, it goes without saying, must be an outstanding person, in character, action, thought, emotions and perception and in all things that constitute humanity. A critic has said, “It is a quality of being slightly larger than life. But more than being slightly larger than life, a hero has to be slightly larger than death.” ¹ Carlyle thinks “they were leaders of men, these great ones; the modellers and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass contrived to do or attain.” ²  

Sanskrit literature gives us a more precise description and assessment. It is said that the hero must possess innumerable good qualities: modest, handsome, generous, prompt, skilled in action, affable, beloved of the people, of good lineage, ready of speech and action; further he must be young, intelligent and skilled in arts and science. Heroes must possess these qualities: Sattvika (of high character), shova (graceful), Vilasa (luxurious), Madhuriya  (handsome), Gambhiriya (impassive) Sthirya (steadfast), Tejas (bold) and Audariya (honour and nobility which presupposed a readiness for sacrifice). ³

In the modern concept which prides itself to adhere itself to the tenets of realism, almost anybody could become a hero, or take its place. Even negative qualities were not shunned, in fact uglier, more abhorring, and more gruesome the better. Thus one of Dostoevsky’s hero is a murderer, Shaw’s is a cynic, Maupassant’s a degenerate and licentious character. Two of Hugo’s heroes are positively ugly and repulsive. These are antipodes of the Hellenic and the Sanskritic concepts. Does Sri Aurobindo agree with the past tradition, or does he merely continue the present accepted idea?

Action, which is only an external expression of the man within, forms one part of the hero’s complex make-up. In the past stress was laid on outer heroism, physical valour and courage. The Hellenic, Teutonic and Persian heroes were of this type. The Sanskrit concept added to it the idea of the lover and the man of sacrifice. No doubt some of Sri Aurobindo’s heroes are of this genre like Baji Prabhou, Eric, Perseus or Bappa. But they posses greater depth and have wider vision and are conscious of a greater power making them instruments. Thus, this psychological element gives them almost a modern character without its repulsiveness. Instead of being mere physical or moral entities, they assume an intensely human and spiritual role. These form one type of characters painted by Sri Aurobindo.

We have also another type of concept; that of the romantic hero. Here not courage or valour, but love and sacrifice stand out as the outstanding element. Again we find a difference. The heroes of Sanskrit romances lack the dignity and nobility which Aurobindonian heroes possess. For example, the Pururavas of Kalidas or Vatsa Udayana of Subandu are effeminate in comparison with the heroes with the same names in Sri Aurobindo, Again Ruru or tradition and Ruru of ‘Love and Death’ are entirely different. While the former was only a primitive man with some culture, the latter was a person of great passion and nobility.

Yet another type of heroes has been described by Sri Aurobindo. These men are outstanding due to their attempt to break away from the past and move towards the future. In these men a consummation takes place out of the type of heroes examined earlier; In the first type, these men have grown conscious of the indwelling godhead, although they are essentially men of action. In the next stage they assume an altered character due to the birth of love and its resultant element, sacrifice. In the last stage the men discover the soul and spirit within. These are the men of the future represented by Rishi, Ashwapathy and Satyavan. Not body or mind control these beings. A higher light, a mightier destiny awaits them these exceptional ones. We, could introduce these men thus: in external semblance, the first hero was an ascetic, but he had met face to face his deepest being; he had passed beyond the temptation of desire and, by rising above all human failings, had become the master of his fate, and could lead men from that soul attitude. The second was a king and because he aspired to know the truth and great was his will and can, the world-Mother consented to descend into human birth. The last was the fully awakened human soul, the child and the consort of the Supreme Power.

This is how Sri Aurobindo describes Ruru:

“Boundlessly
He revelled in swift air of life, a creature
Of wide and vigorous morning.”⁴

At the premature loss of Priyamvada, his mate, Ruru cries to the power of Death:

“O grim and cold death
But I will not like ordinary men
Satiate thee with cries and falsely woo thee,
And make my grief thy theatre, who lie
Prostrate beneath thy thunderbolt and make
Night witness of their moans ...
O secrecy terrific, darkness vast,
At which we shudder! Somewhere I know not where
Somehow, I know not how, I shall confront
Thy gloom, tremendous spirit, and seize with hands
And prove what thou art and what man.”⁵

Mark the words; they are packed with power and passion. But they are not exuberant or flamboyant. It is this uncurbed spirit which makes Ruru a hero. Told in a mythical context, devoid of this singular intensity, the poem would have lost its significance and the miracle of retrieving Priyamvada from the clutches of Death, a mere fanciful fairy tale. But this triumphant spirit, this heroic dynamism which brooks no defeat, creates for us a possible atmosphere where such a miracle may seem not only feasible but inevitable. The Pauranic hero is outstanding in name, but Sri Aurobindo’s Ruru is a living figure, a human being, who can, by his sacrifice, outstrip the gods, a personality of relentless passion, dignity–a true hero.

But Baji Prabhou is another kind. Taken from the proud Maratha history, he too is a lover, a lover of his motherland. A stalwart fighter, a man of unflinching courage, he is different from his Teuton or Persian brothers. This is his voice:

Tanaji Malsure not in this living net
Of flesh and nerve, nor in the flickering mind
Is a man’s manhood seated. God within
Rules us, who in the Brahmin and the dog
Can, if He will, show equal godhead. Not
By men is mightiness achieved; Baji
Or Malsure is but a name, a robe,
And covers One alone. We but employ
Bhavani’s strength, who in an arm of flesh
Is mighty as in the thunder and the storm.” ⁶

In this utterance we find a significant truth, which enhanced greatness to Maharashtra in general and Shivaji and his followers in particular. It is the faith in Bhavani the goddess-Mother of men. This reliance enhances human strength and gives the hero unbound stature. This is a thing particularly Indian, and one does not discover instances elsewhere.

It is not true that Sri Aurobindo concerns himself with Indian themes and characters alone. Syrian, Turkish, Scandinavian, and Greek characters are treated by him with equal success. In each case he touches something essential of the race, the culture and the level of development.

Here we listen to Perseus:

“Syrians, I am Perseus,
The mighty son of Zeus and Danae.
The blood of gods is in my veins, the strength
Of gods is in my arms: Athene helps me,
Behold her aegis which, if I uncover,
Will blind you with its lightnings; and this sword
Is Herpe, which can pierce the earth and Hades.
What I have done is by Athene’s strength.”

Here the hero briefly narrates his travels and his exploits concluding thus:

All this I have done, yet not I, but one greater
Such is Athene’s might and theirs who serve her.” ⁷

We have only one comment: the Perseus of mythology is essentially a superhuman character, but in spite of this, he is a physical being and nothing more. The Perseus of Sri Aurobindo reveals the cause and source of his greatness and this admission and acceptance of Athene as his inspiration of strength makes him greater due to his humility, which is the hall-mark of greatness. To the Greeks he was the product of Zeus’ lust. To Sri Aurobindo he was born from the wedlock of heaven and earth, thus he was the ideal man, who possessed the humility of an evolving spirit, while his strength was of divine origin. Mark what he utters in conclusion which is typically Aurobindonian:

“Yet shall truth grow and harmony increase:
The day shall come when men feel close and One.
Meanwhile one forward step is something gained,
Since little by little earth must open to heaven
Till her dim soul awakes into the Light.” ⁸

Here Perseus makes a prophetic utterance, that of a greater harmony established on earth and the coming of the godhead in man.

Rishi too is a hero, but wholely different from those we have examined so far. Not the common herohood associated with a kings and fighters, the men of iron and sovereign will. His heroism is in quest and his unswerving aspiration for truth. He represents man’s highest search to know himself and his godhead, he therefore says:

“O King I spurned this body’s death, a power
There was concealed
That raised me. Rescued from the pleasant bars
Our longings built,
My winged soul went up above the stars
Questing for God.” ⁹

This quest was a long one, higher than the dominion of the gods, and the zone from where everything appeared unsubstantial except that sovereign light. At last he discovers that God.

“He creates the worlds and heavens above
with a single word,
And these things being Himself, are real, yet
Are they like dreams,
For He awakes to self He could forget
In what He seems.
Yet, king, deem nothing vain, through many veils
This Spirit gleams.” ¹⁰

To Sri Aurobindo the complete man is he who fulfils himself in god and in whom god is fulfilled. In this dual movement of man’s accent and god’s descent and manifestation, lies the secret of real manhood. He then becomes a seer, a guide to men’s destiny–not with force of arms or power of legislation, but with spiritual illumination. Thus his hold on the nations and men are greater, for he uses a puissance far greater than any common king can hope to use.

As in Rishi we discover man’s attempt to discover perfection, we find the same quest in Aswapathy. But their starting points are different. The Rishi is essentially a man ruled by Sattwic qualities of wisdom, austerity the mind’s ascent to unveil the Truth. He is by choice and temperament a man of knowledge. But Aswapathy is a man of action; his dynamic quest is to discover some workable solution to the prevailing conditions of human Ignorance. While the Rishi spans the words of the gods and discovers the ultimate formless presence above all cause, action and form, Aswapathy too spans this entire universe beginning with subtle matter ending with the world of soul, to find the great World-Mother, who moved by his urgent prayer, consents to come down as Savitri. At the outset of that Quest:

“World after world disclosed its guarded power,
Heaven after heaven its deep beatitudes,
But still the invisible Magnet drew his soul.
A figure sole on Nature’s giant stair,
He mounted towards an indiscernible end
On the bare summit of created things.” ¹¹

And at the end of the journey he has the vision of the World-Mother, which alters his entire existence, his view of things and their values. And–  

“All he had done was to prepare a field;
His small beginnings asked for a mighty end.
For all that he had been must now new-shape
In him her joy to embody, to enshrine
Her beauty and greatness in his house of life.
But now his being was too wide for Self;
His heart’s demand had grown immeasurable;
His single freedom could not satisfy,
Her light, her bliss he asked for earth and men.” ¹²

This is the acme of human enterprise, to cross the limits of narrow self and become universal. In this cosmicity is the typical stamp of his herohood. He does not bear the descent of the World-Mother himself but becomes instrumental to it.

Different again is Satyavan. He combines in himself the beauty of Ruru, the nobility of Pururavas, the quest after Truth of the Rishi and the wisdom of a sage one with the simplicity ofachild. Seeing him Savitri exclaims:

“Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens
A tablet of young wisdom was his brow,
Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs.
The joy of life was on his open face.
His look was a wide day-break of the gods,
His head was a lover’s and a king’s .” ¹³

A prince by birth, he is exiled and, along with his blinded parents, lives an ascetic’s life. But external vicissitudes could not hamper his inner growth or curb his spirit. He is in close communion with nature. He does a yoga of his own which unveils all the mysteries of life, soul and matter. The external ill-fate becomes a blessing to him, for perhaps had he been amid his royal environments, this self, nature and god-knowledge could not have come so easily to him. His herohood lies in his complete submission to the supreme Power. We can see if the Rishi represents the mind’s freedom, the hero of the mind. Aswapathy is the hero of life, Satyavan is the portrait of man as a whole, freed from the shackles of Ignorance. He says to Savitri in their meeting:

“And matter slept empty of its Lord,
The spirit was saved, the body lost and mute
Lived still with Death and ancient Ignorance;
The inconscience was its base, the void its fate.
But thou hast come and all will surely change;
I feel the World-Mother in thy golden limbs
And hear her wisdom in thy sacred voice,         
The child of Void shall be reborn in God.” ¹⁴

Baji Prabbou has only a glimmer of this power, so too Perseus.  The Rishi visions her as a formless presence, but Satyavan alone sees and recognises the supreme goddess and offers all he is in sacrifice.

If we assess the Aurobindonian concept of the hero, we would find that: the greatness of man is not due to his own labour effort, environment birth or even ambition. True greatness visits man only when he grows conscious of the inliving deity and submits to it. The great men are those who open to a superior power and obey the higher fiat. Very few grasp this truth and miss the key to human greatness. It is not qualities which go to form a hero; It is not traits, or external factors which determine a man’s greatness. It is a thing behind and above the human personality which is at the base of all man is or becomes–all the rest is of no consequence.

¹ Heroes ed. by William Mayne.
² Heroes and Hero-worship–Carlyle. p. 1
³ Sanskrit Drama by W. Keith.
⁴ Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays. Vol. I p. 87
⁵ Ibid. p. 91-2
⁶  Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays. Vol. I p. 104
⁷ Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays Vol. I p. 295-6
⁸ Ibid p. 306
⁹ Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays Vol. I p. 148
¹⁰ Ibid p. 156
¹¹ Savitri 3rd Edition (1970) p. 102
¹² Savitri 3rd Edition (1970) p. 312
¹³ Savitri 3rd Edition (1970) p. 396
¹⁴ Savitri 3rd Edition (1970) p. 404-5