Hero as Sadhaka: Hindu Thought in Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

HERO AS SADHAKA:
HINDU THOUGHT IN COLERIDGE’S
“THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER”

The ancient mariner was, in the mind of coleridge, the everlasting wandering Jew. He is a wounded survivor who passes through a trauma and the poet, in placing the old sailor on the stage of human heart moves from the particular to the universal. He with his ‘long grey beard and glittering eye’ becomes, a symbol eventually, his life denoting Sadhana. Coleridge blends successfully the two levels of human experience - physical and spiritual, symbolised by the young Wedding - Guest and the ancient mariner respectively.

The ancient mariner is a Sadhaka, a quester involved in the pursuit of Moksha, and his ship journey symbolises the progression of the human spirit from disgust to love. It is a spiritual pilgrimage which assumes ecumenical validity. The metamorphosis of a sinner into a ‘holy vagabond’ is slow and gradual but convincing and his gospel of Universal love acquires the force of a prophecy. He is Arnold’s scholar gipsy, a combination of wisdom and experience.

In the poem, the physical death of the albatross represents the spiritual death of the ancient mariner. He tries to pray, but finds it difficult:

A wicked whisper came, and made my heart as dry as dust. Coleridge gives us a more helpful account of prayer:

“Prayer - First stage - the pressure of immediate calamities without earthly aidance makes us cry out to the invisible. Second stage - the dreariness of visible things to a mind beginning to be contemplative - horrible solitude. Third stage - Repentance and Regret - and self-­inquietude. Fourth stage - the celestial delectation that follows ardent prayer. Fifth stage - Self-annihilation - the soul enters the Holy of Holies”¹.

Though, the poet does not present the five stages of prayer, his emphasis is on repentance and regret which precede prayer.

Before bidding farewell to the wedding guest, the ancient mariner makes a profound observation:

He prayeth well, who loveth, well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

This experiential truth acquires the significance of a cosmic truth and it is much akin to what Isa Upanishad says:

Yasthu Sarvani bhootani
atmanyevanupasyathi
Sarvabhootheshu cha - atmanum
tatho na vijugupsathe

The ancient mariner realises the core of all beings as the core in himself and his own self in every name and form. Thus he becomes a sage, a God-man and a guiding power. Here the key word is ‘jugupsa’. Sri Aurobindo beautifully explains this idea in his commentary on Isa Upanishad:

“Jugupsa is the feeling of repulsion caused by a sense of want of harmony between one’s own limited self-formation and the contacts of the external with a consequent recoil of grief, fear, hatred, discomfort and suffering. It is the opposite of attraction which is the source of desire and attachment. Repulsion and attraction removed, we have Samatva”².

The sudden death of his companions fills the heart of the ancient mariner with disgusts as a result of which he fails to appreciate the beauty of the sea-snakes. He has nothing but Jugupsa for them:

The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.

But with the passing of time, his agony intensifies and through suffering, his soul becomes pure. One day, while watching the water snakes from the ship and a spring of love gushes from his heart:

And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware;

The blood of the albatross is washed away and there is spiritual rebirth. It is a moment of illumination, an instant of insight. Prof. P. S. Sastry aptly observes: “It is love that he needed. The absence of love brought forth the crime; and his redemption began with the emergence of love.”³.

The Gita too emphasises the same principle:

Sarva Bhuthasthamatmanam
Sarva bhootani chatmani
Eekshate yogayuktatma
Sarvathra Samadarsanah (6/29)

The wandering Jew realises that the Awareness in him is the Awareness everywhere in all forms and names and this Divine Aware­ness is the very essence in the entire world of perceptions and expe­rience. He attains ‘Samatva’ as he conquers himself and his objective in life is to spread the message of God.

The life of the ancient mariner represents the ascent of the jivatma. He is at the level of ‘Tamas’ when he shoots the albatross with his cross-bow. The ‘Rajas’ in him makes him detest the sea-snakes and lament the loss of his shipmates. The final stage in the process of Self-realisation comes when ‘sattwa’ replaces ‘Rajas’ and he realises the Life - Principle in himself.

The parting words of the ancient mariner convey his metaphysical preference:

O sweeter than the marriage-feast,
’T is sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk,
With a goodly company! -

Sri Adi Sankara too speaks of the same aspect in his “Moha Mudgara”:

Satsangatwe Nissangatwam
Nissangatwe Nirmohatwam
Nirmohatwe Nischalatatwam
Nischalatatwe Jivanmukthih
Here also, the stress is on “goodly company” (satsangh), Free­dom from delusion arises through detachment which leads to the perception of the Immutable Reality. On experiencing Immutable Reality, there comes the state of “liberated-in-life”.

Thus the ancient mariner conquers ‘Maya’ and sets his foot on the path of ‘moksha’. He is a ‘jivanmukta’ in making, a ‘sthithaprajna’ in the offing.

References

¹ S.T. Coleridge: Note Books. 1.257
² Sri Aurobindo: ISA Upanishad, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1986, P. 30.
³ Dr. P. S. Sastry: The Vision of Coleridge, Kitab Mahal Pvt. Ltd., 1966, P.146.