Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Sri Aurobindo - A Bridge Between Man and God

K. Deva Rao

SRI AUROBINDO
A BRIDGE BETWEEN MAN AND GOD

“A man is great not by his words, nor even by his deeds but by what is inwardly”. “Nobody can write my biography because my life has not been on the surface for men to see”. These are the words of a great seer, Sri Aurobindo which speak volumes. According to The Mother he was always a leader of great spiritual movements that happened in the human history in all his past births. Mother says that she began to feel spiritual vibrations of Sri Aurobindo from 10 Kilometes around Pondicherry. When she visited him she had found in him the solution for all the problems of this world. When Tagore visited Sri Aurobindo he said that he had seen a divine radiance on his face.

Sri Aurobindo is one of the greatest seer poets of the world. He is one of the greatest mystics and yogis of India - a Maharishi who poured his tapsya from subtle fields to accelerate the freedom struggle of India. It is not a mere coincidence that India has won freedom on 15th of August which is the birthday of Sri Aurobindo. In his message he tells the nation on the very day that it was not an accidental coincidence but a seal             and signature of God.

As a yogi he has his unique contribution to yoga. His yoga is known as ‘Purna Yoga’. Right from the dawn of creation all the yogis followed the way of ‘Ascention’. For the first time, Sri Aurobindo tried for ‘Desention’. In Ascention the Atma of yoga soars high into divine fields and attains samadhi. But after sometime it comes down to normal consciousness. Yogi goes up to touch the divine light, but he cannot bring down that divine splendour to theearth. Sri Aurobindo’s achievement is to bring down the Divine splendour to make this very earth a heavan. Then there is no question of losing divine consciousness. In this regard, he compiled all his visions in two great books ‘The Life Divine’ and ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’. Another important book in this field is his ‘Essays on the Geeta’. In the preface, he writes, “These essays are written by the inspiration received from ‘ABOVE’.

As a poet he has an unparalleled place in the world literature. European critics say that his ‘Savitri” is undoubtedly the greatest epic in English literature. Eyen Milton’s Paradise Lost is only next to Savitri in certain aspects. No wonder, he has taken Sixty long years for it’s completion. According to the Mother, it is the only book under the blue sky and every line of it is a Mantra. Such is the greatness of the symbol epic ‘SAVITRI’. He has re-heightened the grandeur, the sublimity and the divinity of Poetry not only in theory but also in practice. He says in his ‘Future Poetry’, that the Poet not only finds the Truth, but also utters it which then becomes an inspired word, and supreme inexorable utterance, and, hence it is Mantra. For this advanced theory of poetry, his own ‘Savitri’ and his Last Poems are the best examples.

‘Savitri’ has become so voluminous, and so valuable because, Sri Aurobindo evinced special interest in mythological Savitri as She challenged, fought and conquered death. More than half of this great epic is filled with the Tapasya of Aswapathi, in which Sri Aurobindo goes on describing the yogic experiences of different levels of sadhana which are in fact his own experiences. Commenting on ‘Savitri’. Sri Aurobindo himself says that he had experimented in English to find out whether it is fit instrument to rise to the levels of Valmiki and Vyasa who wrote in Sanskrit. The epic poem ‘Savitri’ is as vast in its canvas as the universe itself, as magnificent as Almighty’s creation and as mysterious as Divinity itself. Verily it is an encyclopedia of spiritual sadhana. You cannot find anything intrinsically valuable and precious in life which is not found in this epics. It is claimed, it is the Autobiography of God Himself transcending time and space in its scope.

Let me quote some lines of ‘Savitri’ from its first cant, which is the seed of this great Epic.

It was the hour before the Gods awake
...the abysm of unbodied infinite
            A fathomless Zero occupied the world
            A power of fallen boundless self awake.

            Between the first and the last nothingnesses
            An eye of deity pierced through the dumb deeps.
            ...To seek for a spirit sole and desolate
            Too fallen to recollect forgotten bliss.

            And all that was destroyed must be rebuilt.
            And old experience laboured out once more.
            All can be done if Gods touch is there
            Even her humanity was half divine
            ...of her pangs she made a mystic poignant sword.

            Her soul arose confronting Time and Fate
            Immobile in herself, she gathered force.
            This was the day when Satyavan must die.

Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Future Poetry’ indicates in every sense how the future of Poetry should be. He has made a magnificent survey of poets through the length and breadth of the entire world, right from the dawn of the human civilization to the modern age. His survey is quantitative illumined with the vision of a seer. His views are impartial, whether it is about East or West.

Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Last Poems’ undoubtedly occupies the first place among his writings in a way comparable to ‘Savitri’. It clearly shows how he scaled the divine heights of supra consciousness. He is seen in his full effulgence as a great Seer Mistic, Prophet and Yogi. To put it in a nut shell this single volume places him in the highest rank of merit.

Let me quote a few lines from this volume.

All sounds, all voices have become Thy voice,
            And all grows beautiful because Tou art.
            I contain the whole world in my soul’s embrace

            I have wrapped the wide world in my wider self,
            I am the God and demon, ghost and elf
            The worlds joy thrilling runs through me, I bear
            The sorrow of millions in my lonely breast
            I mount to my imperishable home
            I pass beyond Time and Life on measureless wings,
            Yet, still I am one with born and unborn things.

To conclude, Sri Aurobindo’s letters on Literature and Arts are a good guide not only to Artists and Critics, but also to Spiritual Sadhaks. “On Himself” is a unique volume of Sri Aurobindo by Himself. In this volume, to give an absolutely honest and correct picture of his life and work, he corrected so many times the writings of others:

“I am immensely thankful to God, because He has given us His immense radiance, grace and compassion through innumerable Enlightened Mastered in whose light myriads of beings shape their own lives into ideal ones.

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