TRANSLATION OF SRI AUROBINDO'S BENGALI ORIGINAL
KING
What a formidable wild spot, a desolate land
Have we chosen to live in! Pressed under hard rules we are;
We have discarded our fondness for our native land; forbidden for us
To look upon cherished faces. Is it true then
That this world is someone's play, to whose eyes the bondage of rules
Is only an image of his fancy? True then that there is someone
Under whose direction we—blinded by illusion—
Wander in a field hemmed in by delusion on an unreal earth?
There glimmers a city of mirage, light is but the rays of darkness,
The wisdom of the wise is a dream's orderliness.
A dense woodland is the earthly life,
Thoughts there fly about like fireflies
In the darkness. Vainly did we think then
That this utterance was the musing of hopelessness
Of one conquered in the battle of life, only a wailing of the weak.
Now I see that wailing is true; it is the ultimate vision.
Go hence, O happy dream; come thou, sorrow!
An invincible teacher art thou, own brother of wisdom,
The first-born from the womb of the great Delusion.
Come, let me embrace you. It is just meet
You play with me in this dense forest,
It is a fitting playground for the sorrow you are.
In vain the human being dances about
With the short-lived couple, pain and happiness.
Death will come and stay the dance.
PRIEST
Just at this hour art thou defeated in the battle of life,
O King! In your burning heart is the utterance of hopelessness.
The cry of grief is in your voice and not the Knowledge of Brahman.
Other is that acquisition beyond the reach of the weak,
A great truth attained by heroes only, hidden in the cavern.
True it is that it is a dance, the earthly life.
Whose dance is it? The Lord of the people is the master of dancing. Embrace not sorrow but him, O King,
Carry him with you, in battle after battle, flood with frenzy
Your body and soul, the home of delight.
Victory and defeat, the battle-field aloud with wailings
Are various footsteps only of the dancer
On a varying background. The king and the kingdom
Are for the sake of the decorative beauty of the dance
Upon the arena of the stage.
KING
With empty words you comfort me.
The heart knows its own sorrows. Narayana dances?
The demoniac nature dances in the chamber of illusion,
It is the demon-girl's doll's play—she builds and breaks
Always the living dolls. When she sees a broken heart,
She laughs, her curiosity satisfied. Illusion is true,
True this desolate spot, true also the defeat,
Sorrow is true. Happiness is not true upon this earth,
Nor true is the kingdom. True it is that ignorance is punished,
Love is not true in this world filled with lamentation.
PRIEST
Delve then into your sorrowing heart and wallow in its slime,
Probe into your suffering soul and there find the secret of sorrow.
Finally you will recognise Krishna, full of delight, full of love.
It is the play of the great Lover, this life upon earth.
KING
The love that kisses with the lips of thunder,
The love that burns always with the agony of diseases,
The love whose guise is sorrow and hate and death.
That is of the lowest kind. Compassion is there in the human heart;
Creation is not kind, nor Nature, nor God.
Man builds an image of his own compassion, a fanciful idol
In his own heart. That shadow he worships as God. There is Brahman.
God is but a dream, another kind of dream,
A false consolation created by the imagination of the miserable.
PRIEST
O King, through your utterance, I am witnessing Krishna-play
And my body shivers in delight; I hear
As though "Radha, the beloved, is chiding in the words of your mouth.
Never shall I see his face nor hear his name,
Nor shall I know that he exists any more.
Such utterance in the mouth of a mother is the vain fancy of an atheist,
I understand. So I say it is not a mere consolation,
O King! You will surely see my Krishna
Manifesting again in a befitting guise:
[Here one line of the Bengali manuscript is illegible.]
THE VOICE OF KRISHNA
The toy is mine. I have snatched it away and I have given it back again
Only to teach you that I am your Master.
KING
My heart has no trust in these empty words.
Vainly human intelligence creates wordy brilliance
In order to dazzle one's own eyes. Have done with these words.
PRIEST
I obey, but remember, O great King,
What the Vaishnava says.
KING
In vain is such an address.
The tiger is the king of this forest, not I.
As to a beggar, the forest deity doles out
Scanty fruit and roots—just to appease the hunger.
I roam about without my army, abandoned by relatives.
The name king sounds a taunt to my ears.
He is not a king who is abandoned by friends in danger,
One who lies tired in this desolate spot.
PRIEST
There are your subjects, we are there. Always everywhere
You are the king, you are my father,
In no other terms will you hear me address you.
Neither in the woods nor in the city.
Incomplete
A HYMN OF HIRANYASTUPA ANGIRASA
Mandala I, Sukta 31
अङ्गिराः Sayana: because their father जनकत्वात्, cf. Brah-mana येऽङ्गारा आसंस्तेऽङ्गिरसोऽभवन्.
व्रते. Sayana: कर्मणि. Vrata (वर्तन) must mean more = motion, habitual action, law of works, act and motion.
विद्यनापसः . Sayana: so compounded : विद ज्ञाने | विद्यो वेदनम् |.... विद्यनान्यपांसि येषां ते विद्यनापसः
ज्ञानेन व्याप्नुवाना ज्ञातकर्माणो वा. Rather, whose works are governed by knowledge.
1. O Fire, thou becamest1 the first of the sages, a flame seer, a god and benignant2 comrade of the gods; in thy act and motion the Maruts with their blazing lances were born, seers whose works are by knowledge.
परि भूषसि. Sayana: परितोऽलङ्करोषि. Rather भूषसि from भू like वक्षसि from वह.
2. O Fire, thou art the first seer, the most full of thy Angiras flame-force3 and thou encompassest with thy being all the works4 of the gods; pervading thinker of 5 every world, builder (or child) of earth and heaven, in how many ways thou liest ready for man!
3. [Not translated]
1 Or wert 2 Or helpful 3 Or Angiras-power 4 Or motions or act and motion
5 Or to (literally, for)
पूर्वम्... अपरम्. Sayana: eastern (Ahavaniya) . . . western (Garhapatya).
4. O Fire, thou madest heaven voiceful to man the mind of many cries (literally, to Manu Pururavas): good his works but thou a worker of better things. When by pressure (?) thou art loosed abroad, the gods6 brought thee here the pristine and again the later fire.
5. O Fire, thou art the Bull of inspired knowledge that increasest his growth to man when he lifts to thee the ladle of the libation, when he wholly knows the way of the offering and the benediction, and thou standest in front, the one life, and illuminest the peoples.
6 Or they
FOUR HYMNS OF NODHA GAUTAMA TO INDRA
Mandala I, Sukta 61
1. To him, to him, to the strong,1 to the swift2 I send my chant3 like a pleasant offering to the mighty One, to Indra my sacred words of richest opulence, to the equal in the stanza4 of illumination, to the irresistible Ray.
2. To him, to him I give like a pleasant offering and bring a song of power that is a clearness cut in the siege and encumbrance; my thoughts are rubbed bright for Indra, their first and original spouse, by my5 heart and sense and thinking mind.
3. To him, I bear in my mouth that highest song of power which wins the sun-world's light, that I may increase this6 greatest seer by the pure utterances of my clear-cut thoughts.
4. To him, I send my song speeding to get me his strength as a wheel-wright sends a chariot he has made, I send my words, clear cuttings to Indra who upholds man's words, I send my all-pervading song to7 the Wise One.
5. To him, to Indra I make my song of light to shine with the offering flame and make it like a horse for his chariot by my desire for inspired knowing and adore8 the hero who is a house of gifts and adore the render of the sealed cities who brings out the inspired knowledge.
6. For him Twastri the Maker shaped his thunderbolt that is of the sun-world and is mighty for works and gave it to him for battle. He found out by it the vital places even of the Coverer. Speed was of him and speed was of his weapon. He was master and illimitable in works.
1 Or swift 2 Or strong 3 Or song 4 Or verse 5 Or the 6 Or that 7 Or for
8 Or knowing, to adore
7. His, his, this great builder's, was the sacrifice of the wine, in which Vishnu drank the draught, the delicious food. Vishnu in his mighty violence took by force all that was made ready and shooting his arrows pierced the Boar across the mountain.
8. To him, to him, to Indra, the Women, the wives of the gods have woven a song of light in the slaying of the Serpent. He put on for his robe9 the wide earth and heaven, but they could not encircle his greatness.
9. His was the greatness that overflowed around the earth and the heaven and the world of air. Indra, self-king in the house who brings- all things to expression, drove, a strong and splendid fighter, to the battle.
10. His was the strength against which the strength of the Serpent fought10 but Indra clove him with his11 thunder and he with the mind of knowledge let loose the rivers like imprisoned herds to come to us and give the inspired wisdom.12
11. His was the keen blaze with which the rivers played when he worked with his lightning bolt all about them. He who makes man a lord and king, giving to the giver, a swift striker13 through impediments, made a ford for Turviti, the swift traveller.
12. Against him, against him the Coverer, bring hastily thy thunderbolt, be a master of things and illimitable in work. Cleave open sideways the channels as if the joints of the shining Cow and send to range the floods of the waters.
13. His deeds declare, the ancient deeds of the swift One, a new man with thy words, his acts when hurling his weapons for the battle, charging in the fight, he drives out the foemen.
14. In fear of him, the fixed mountains and heaven and earth shake when he is about to be born.14 Nodha hymns the cherishing
9 Or drew around him 10 Or strove 11 Or the 12 Or knowledge 13 Or hastener
14 Or at his birth
power of the happy god and grows at once in his being to puissance.
15. To him that gift of these was given and he took15 joy, the one master of much riches. Indra carried forward on the way the White One of the Wine when he strove in rivalry with the Sun, Surya of the team of swift horses.
16. Thus have the Gotamas made for thee, O Indra, a cut clearness, the sacred words that yoke thy bright horses. Place in them then the thought that gives shape to16 universal things. At dawn may he come soon rich with thought.
Mandala I, Sukta 62
1. We are thinking a hymn of strength, a hymn of power to1 the great One when he puts2 forth his strength, to3 the lover of our words, even as did the Angiras-seers. Praising him with clear cuttings4 of our speech we would sing a song of illumination to the master of the words of light, to the strong god whom on all sides we hear.
2. Bring for the great One a great adoration, the5 Sama of power for the god when he puts forth his strength, by which our ancient fathers the Angirases knew the foothold tracks and singing the word of light found the herd of the rays.
3. In the sacrifice6 of Indra and the Angirases Sarama discovered a foundation for the Son, Brihaspati broke the rock of the mountain and discovered the herd of the rays and the shining cattle lowed and the Strong Ones cried out with them.
4. He of the sun-world by stanzaed hymn and perfect verse with the seven nine-rayed sages rent by his cry the mountain; O Indra, O Puissant, thou, with the Ten-rayed travellers of the path, torest Vala into pieces by thy cry.
15 Or had 16 Or takes the shapes of
1 Or for 2 Or to put 3 Or for 4 Or clearnesses 5 Or a 6 Or seeking
5. Hymned by the Angirases, O potent god, thou laidst open the darkness by the Dawn and the Sun and the herd of the rays. O Indra, thou madest wide the tops of earth and proppedst up the upper shining world of heaven.
6. This is the most worshipful and fairest work of the potent god7 that he increased in the crooked declivity8 the four rivers of the upper world whose streams are honey-wine.
7. Ayasya by the words of light that hymned him uncovered and saw as two the eternal goddesses who lie in one lair; then Indra, a doer of mighty works, held earth and heaven in the highest ether as the Lord of Joy holds his two wives.
8. Two young goddesses of differing forms who are ever reborn, circle eternally to each other by their own motions about9 earth and heaven, Night with her dark, Dawn with her shining limbs.
9. An eternal comradeship held with them the Son of Strength, the god of great deeds, labouring in perfect works. Even in the unripe cows of light thou settest, O Indra, by thy thought, a ripe, even in the black and the dun a shining milk.
10. And eternally the immortal rivers who dwell in one house run not dry, but keep by their strengths his many thousand workings; sisters, they are to him like wives who are mothers and serve him with their works and he deviates not from his labour.
11. That which is eternal seeking, seeking the riches, O potent god, our new thoughts run to thee with adoration, with songs of light. Longing for thee as for a longing husband our minds of thought touch thee, O mighty One.
12. And eternally thy felicitous riches lie in thy arm of light and are not wasted nor destroyed, O potent god. O Indra, thou
7 Or doer 8 Or place 9 Or around
hast light, thou hast will, thou art a wise thinker. Master of powers, teach us of them by thy powers.
13. And for thy eternity of being, O Indra, Nodha the Gautama has carved a sacred word for the yoking of thy bright horses and for thy good leading of us, O mighty One. At dawn may he quickly come rich with thought.
Mandala I, Sukta 63
1. Great art thou, O Indra, who by thy mights even whilst thou wast being born, founded earth and heaven in thy strength when all hugest things, even to the fixed mountains, quivered in their fear like rays of light.
2. O Indra, when thou comest to thy two bright horses which have each its different action, thy adorer sets the thunderbolt in thy arms. O lord of the undeviating will who hearest man's many callings, thou drivest out by it the unfriendly people and castest down their many cities.
3. Thou, thou, art true, O Indra, in thy being, and a violent assailant of those destroyers, thou art he who dwells in the wideness, thou art a soul of power, thou art one who overcomes. Thou wast with young and luminous Kutsa and smotest Sushna in the strength, in the satisfaction, in the summit.
4. Thou, O Indra, thou art the comrade who gavest that impulse, when, O puissant in works, thou didst crush Vritra the Coverer, when, O hero of the puissant mind, with the powers that go beyond thou easily overcamest and hewedst the Destroyers to pieces in the house.
5. Thou, O Indra, when mortals desire not to remain even in the strong fortress, make that movement free from harms. Uncover the regions to our warhorse, break like thick clouds the unfriendly people.
6. Thee, O Indra, thee men call in the battle, in the getting1 of the floods, in the streaming bounty of the sun-world. O lord of thy law of nature, let this increasing2 in thy plenties be the movement we shall get to through3 the clash of the battle.
7. Thou, thou, O Indra, Thunderer, warring brokest for Purukutsa the seven cities. When easily thou hadst cut out the seat of his session for Sudas, then didst thou turn, O King, evil of suffering into good of bliss for the Puru.
8. Thou, thou, O Indra, O pervading godhead, increasedst for us like the waters that rich and varied moving force by which, O hero, thou extendest to us thy self and thy energy and makest it to stream out in every way.
9. A song has been made for thee, O Indra, by the Gautamas, and the sacred words spoken towards thee with thy two bright horses; bring us plenty of thy riches in a beautiful form. At dawn may he quickly come rich with thought.
Mandala I, Sukta 64
1. O Nodhas, bring a clear-cut song to the puissant host, the excellent in sacrifice, creators and ordainers, the Maruts. I make to shine out as if flowing waters, a thinker skilful-handed with my mind, the words that come into being in me in the births1 of knowledge.
2. They are born, the swift2 Bulls of heaven, Rudra's strong smiters, the sinless Mighty Ones. Purifying are they and pure and bright like Suns, dire bodies like rushing warriors.
3. Young, unageing, Rudras, violent ones, slayers, of those take not joy, irresistible rays, they drive like moving mountains and make all the fixed worlds of earth and heaven to move by their might.3
1 Or winning 2 Or cherishing 3 Or come by in
1 Or comings 2 Or great 3 Or strength
4. They shine out with rich and varied lustres to make themselves a4 body. On their breasts they have cast golden ornaments for the delight of beauty. Burning lances are on their shoulders. Together by the law of their nature are5 born the strong ones of heaven.
5. Vehemently rushing they come, makers of men into lords and kings, destroyers of all who would injure, make by their strengths winds and lightnings, press6 the teats of heaven, stream violently its torrents and speeding everywhere feed the earth with milk.
6. The Maruts, great givers who are born to us in the coming of knowledge, feed the waters and make them a milk full of7 the brightness of clarified butter and lead about the master of plenty like a galloping horse that he may rain his bounty and milk the loud unwasting fountain.
7. Great ones, full of creative knowledge and rich with manifold lustres, moving swiftly, strong in your own strength like hills, Maruts, you devour like the trunked beasts the pleasant woods of earth when you have yoked your strength to the ruddy herd of the lightnings.
8. Wise of mind they roar aloud like lions, omniscient and like good moulders who knead all into forms, gladdeners8 of the nights with dappled mares and lances, when beset and stayed, python-passioned9 in their might.
9. In the beauty of your hosts you speak to earth and heaven. You cleave to men, heroes python-passioned in your might. A force stands in the bodies of your chariots, O Maruts, that is like lightning and like a might that has vision.
10. Omniscient are the Strong Ones and dwellers with the riches, inseparably joined to strengths and overflowing in might,
4 Or to have 5 Or have been 6 Or milk 7 Or milk with
8 Or conquerors 9 Or dragon-passioned
shooters who hold10 the javelin11 in their two hands of light, infinite in strengths with daggers of puissance.
11. Increasing the waters the Maruts with their blazing lances grind in their ascent the mountains with their golden wheels like travellers breasting their path, fighters and marchers moving in their own motion, who make havoc and disturb all firm established things.
12. We sing with invocation the blazing, purifying, enjoying, all-seeing children of the Violent One. Cling12 for the glory to the strong and puissant Marut host who move13 with a straight force crossing the middle world.
13. Soon that mortal whom ye have cherished, O Maruts, takes his place in might above all men. He gets with his war-horses and his strong ones wealth and plenty and dwells in a wise will that meets14 the question and increases.
14. Put in the masters of riches, O ye Maruts, a luminous strength active in works and hard to wound in the battles and may we increase for a hundred winters the Son and offspring of our body who is all-seeing and sung by the word and the . . .15
15. Now set in us, O ye Maruts, the firm hundredfold and thousandfold treasure full of hero-strengths that puts forth its might and overcomes in the movement of the path. At dawn may he quickly come rich in thought.
10 Or have set/taken 11 Or arrow 12 Or cleave 13 Or go 14 Or stands
15 Dhanasprtam not translated: elsewhere Sri Aurobindo translates it as "one who brings out the riches."