And all grows beautiful because Thou art.

SRI AUROBINDO

The Divine gives itself to those who give themselves without reserve and in all their parts to the Divine. For them the calm, the light, the power, the bliss, the freedom, the wideness, the heights of knowledge, the seas of Ananda...........Sri Aurobindo.

EDITORIAL I

A PARABLE OF SEA-GULLS

It is written in A Practical Guide to Integral Yoga¹ on page 179:

"The physical nearness to the Mother is indispensable for the , fullness of the sadhana on the physical plane. Transformation of the physical and external being is not possible otherwise."

My question is: How are we to interpret these words in the light of the Mother's recent passing ? Does this mean that a full transformation is no longer possible to the aspirant? Or has discipleship on the material level in the path of the Integral Yoga come to an end ?

¹ Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1970

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OBVIOUSLY, the immediate programme of a physical trans-formation is postponed — not cancelled. 

But what we have been given is not less of a miracle. Mother has prepared for us her new body in the inner world, in the subtle physical which is as living and tangible as her physical body even though not as concrete. In one of her last Notes¹ she refers to this new transformed body and she describes it as presented to her vision. That body she has built up in her long arduous labours, built up in a complete form and left with us and with humanity.

This new body of hers, prepared behind the material curtain, she sought to infuse into the material form, even press into it or force into it this new element; but Matter and man's physical nature were not yet ready: Earth still considered it as an intrusion, as something foreign. The material casing broke down in consequence — perhaps not broke down, rather broke through; but that must be another story.

But it is there living and glorious in its beauty and power and is still at work within us, and around us in the world, incessantly, towards the final consummation of its material embodiment.

What is expected of us is to see this golden Mother within us and try to become, as she always wanted, her golden children, within and without.

Sri Aurobindo speaks of an inner mind, an inner vital, an inner physical. Only the other day the passage was read out at the playground-meditation.² The golden body, the new body, is formed out of an inner mind, an inner vital and an inner physical, renewed and reshaped. We can show our love for her, requite the debt that we owe to her Grace by admitting her Presence into our physical being and allowing her to do the work she has undertaken to do.

(2)

For us now it is time to make amends for the lapses of

¹ Notes on the Way: Bulletin of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education — August 1972 (Notes on 25-3-72).

² Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga, ( Cent. Ed.), Vol. 22, pp. 307-8.

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the past — there were lapses, indeed, grievous lapses. So long her physical body was our protection; we did not suffer the full consequences of our Karma because her body acted as buffer: it broke the force of the impact of the karma and reduced its evil effects to a minimum. Her body bore our burden and relieved us of the misery otherwise due to us. Mankind, the world even, does not know the saving Grace that her material frame brought to them. They would have gone down to destruction and dissolution but for the presence of the Divine Body.

The world has survived, mankind has an assured future, that is the work done by her body. It aimed at a little more, to show us something of the concrete form of the future, but evidently that was not to be, because something from us also, from the world and mankind, some helping hand in the labour was needed — we remember her ringing words: "Si Phumanité consentait à être spiritualisee"¹ — well, that is the minimum, that minimum was also not granted to her body. Her body was made so easily available to all without any trouble and effort on our part that we lost all sense of the precious things brought to us, brought to Our very door. We did not know how to make use of it and have the true benefit out of it. Many a time she did say something to us to that effect regretfully, we wasted a treasure like the pampered prodigal son.

It is regrettable but she has left no cause for our regret. She has left with us the true source of her protective power, her living Consciousness concretised in the earth's atmosphere, in the personal atmosphere of each one of us. We have only to open our grateful eyes and see it. The ladder has been taken away, but she has come nearer to us and a little uplift will re-place us within her arms.

Since we have no longer the support of her body on which we depended almost exclusively, we are compelled to seek the true support, the support of her consciousness, the inner reality — her inner presence, her living Person within — which her body represented, whose acquaintance we were not careful enough to cultivate. Now we are thrown upon the only alternative available. The way will be arduous; we could have much more easily mounted up the ladder of consciousness with the aid of her body, almost playfully like children.

¹ "If only mankind consented to be spiritualised,

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Now a little bit of austerity will be needed to go on our own, the austerity will be needed to bring our external life and physical consciousness in line with her own consciousness, to prepare them, to make them ready. Her material body offered an unconditional help and protection, now all that will be conditional — conditional upon our willing cooperation, our happy and conscious collaboration — of course the Grace will be always there. Once she asked us point-blank, for the crisis was upon us — Are you ready? Almost unthinkingly, in a gesture of bravado and gallantry, many answered "yes, we are." But we were not in fact.

The task then for us and for the world is to make ourselves ready, that is to say, make our physical being and consciousness free of the old reactions, instilling into them the consciousness that she is, with which she still embraces us — so that when the next call comes, although the call is always there, we may answer with truth on our lips — "We are ready."

II

THE MOTHER ABIDES

IF it is a pralaya, even a mahāpralaya, all is not lost, all is not washed away. Something remains, untouched, deathless, the divine part in you, the Mother's part in you, the consciousness incarnate and articulate.

Indeed it was your soul that she salvaged out of the Inconscience and established in you as a living reality. That was her first and primary task and She has fulfilled it. It was there always — true; but it was a far-off, very distant and almost inactive point of light, ah unknown and an uncharted star not yet come into the ken of human measure and potency. She has brought it nearer home and established it in our living and dynamic consciousness. She has buoyed it up from the unconscious depths, or brought it down from vague ethereal nebulous regions, gradually developed it and nourished it and given it a firm dwelling in our inner regions. She moulded it into a personality with a name and a form. If we do not recognise it often or always, it is because the outer shell of the senses has not yet been

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fully opened to it. But it is still there as our inner ruler and guide in spite of and through all obscurities and aberrations.

Exactly the next step, the second part of her work was to build around this soul, the inner being, a body, a material vehicle to express It. To give a concrete divine shape to this sole reality was her labour at this point. The soul was there, but a god has to come and inhabit it; this godhead, that is to say, a Power, a Form of the Mother's own Personality has to be brought down and the soul integrated into it. Apparently it was left off at that point and not completed.

The purpose and aim being not an individual realisation or even a realisation in a few individuals, but an achievement of the human race which means a large or a significant part of it, the effort has had to be directed to that end. The level of the human consciousness has to be lifted up to an extent that it might be capable of holding and embodying the in flatus that was coming into it for the change. Otherwise an individual representing the human level and forming part of the material consciousness would not be able to do it. Not only the earth-consciousness but the material constitution of the earth has to be transfigured. For the human body, the individual human body to pass through and complete the stages of transformation must have parallel echoes in other individuals — not necessarily the whole of humanity, but as I said, presumably a sizeable part of it. Otherwise the purpose of the change, a global, collective change will not be fulfilled. An isolated individual supramentalised body upon earth would be a freak of Nature, a forced miracle as it were, an anomalous object in Nature, and a humanity even at its topmost rung would not find any relation or kinship with it.

So, the earth-nature has to be prepared for that end in view, first of all the earth-consciousness in the physical substance and then the raw substance itself. This has to be done as our immediate and urgent business of life.

(2)

I said the earth-consciousness was not quite ready yet for the final transformation of the Mother's body, that is to say, the material substance of the body. Therefore it could not accommodate the

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incoming transforming force — and it broke: in breaking it must have broken through, through the hard dense outermost crust of Matter — with what results, time will show.

As for us who survive, let us begin from the beginning. Let us start from a scratch as it were. We remember Mother's own story, what she had done for herself when she came to Sri Aurobindo. She effaced altogether her old personality, her achievements and accomplishments, made a clean slate of her consciousness and laid herself at the feet of Sri Aurobindo like a new-born babe, innocent of the past. Let us also in the same way face the day with our baby-soul in front, for that little being is the Mother's Presence in us, still aglow with Her consciousness.

In conclusion let me quote two passages from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri which clinch the issue definitively— and so beautifully.

"Although our fallen minds forget to climb,

Although our human stuff resists or breaks,

She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay;

Failure cannot repress, defeat o'erthrow;

Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue,

The ages have not made her passion less;

No victory she admits of Death or Fate.

Always she drives the souls to new attempt;

Always her magical infinitude

Forces to aspire the inert brute elements;

As one who has all infinity to waste,

She scatters the seed of the Eternal's strength

On a half-animate and crumbling mould,

Plants heaven's delight in the heart's passionate mire, ' '

Pours godhead's seekings into a bare beast frame,

Hides immortality in a mask of death."¹

* * *

"But when the hour of the Divine draws near,

The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time

¹ Book IV. Canto i. (The Centenary Library, Vol. 29, p, 354).

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And God be born into the human clay

In forms made ready by your human lives.

Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men."¹

NOLINI KANTA GUPTA

¹ Book XI, Canto 1. (T he Centenary Library, Vol. 29, p. 709).

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SAVITRI: A STUDY IN DEPTH

Book I, Canto V

The Yoga of the King:

The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom

and Greatness.

This knowledge first he had of time-born men.

..................................................

He found the occult cave, the mystic door

Near to the well of vision in the soul,

..................................................

He shore the cord of mind that ties the earth-heart

 ..................................................

The body's rules bound not the spirit's powers

..................................................

There in the hidden chamber closed and mute

Are kept the record graphs of the cosmic scribe,

..................................................

Significant of the movements of our fate

..................................................

And the secret code of the history of the world

..................................................

Of the dark agreement by which all is ruled.

..................................................

To clothe the Everlasting in new shapes.

ASWAPATHY is the first among men to know That by knowing which everything is known; generally the image is conveyed to the mind by means of a translation into thought by the senses; this curtain between the object and the mind is displaced by his direct perception; he knows the source and the origin of the object in and by itself without the intermediary and obscuring media of the senses; he enters the occult cave, the very centre of consciousness, severing all ties with the base of the Inconscience. His spirit is no longer ruled by the lower trinity; they continue to function in the usual

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fashion even though he suspends their activity; he therefore is able to enter with great ease the chamber where, in charge of the various cosmic functionaries the archetypes that are to manifest on earth, are in a state of slumber or gestation; there are also the record graphs of the cosmic scribe, revealing the order in which these vibrations and possibilities have to effectuate on the earth, the law and destiny which should govern their movements and the agreement and the interaction between the Purusha and the Prakriti by which the cosmos comes into existence.

He could re-read now and interpret new

..................................................

And recognise as a just necessity

Its hard conditions for the mighty work,—

Nature's impossible Herculean toil

..................................................

The will to live under a reign of death

..................................................

The thirst for a rapture in a heart of flesh,

..................................................

The mystery of God's covenant with Night.

..................................................

And the opening verse of the tragedy of Time

..................................................

Who builds in ignorance the steps of Light

..................................................

He read from within the text of the without.

The inner principle once grasped, its outer working according to God's covenant with Night and the opening verse of the tragedy of Time, becomes clear, how the Infinite has become the finite; the friction of the dualities reveals itself to be a pathway hewn for the Infinite to re-emerge from, the finite; in this return movement, man has to produce his credentials, his passport of deserts for admission to higher regions by the cosmic powers; it is for reaching a higher destiny that man amidst the most disheartening circumstances, shows an indomitable will to exist and feels in the drop of his little joy, a

Page-13

foretaste of the enduring ecstasy he aspires for; the directive operation of the Omniscient is seen in all which in ignorance is attributed to chance and he sees a lurking wisdom even in failures which are made a stairway to Light.

He raised his eyes to unseen spiritual heights,

Aspiring to bring down a greater world.

..................................................

The infant soul in its small nursery school

..................................................

Outgrows its early grammar of intellect

..................................................

Its earthly dialect to God-language change

..................................................

And learn the logic of the Infinite

..................................................

His height repelled the lowness of earth's state:

A wideness discontented with its frame

Resiled from poor assent to Nature's terms.

Aswapathy wants to bring down the glory he has glimpsed; not the taper of intellect but the heavenlier sun of realisation can dispel the dusk of Nescience; he must advance from the nursery stage of the grammar of intellect to the real man who can change over from the earthly dialect to God-language; 'he must set out to find the real man; without that he would be stopping short at Nature's primary education and never go on to her deeper and larger teachings; however great his practical knowledge and efficiency, he would be only a little higher than the animals'¹ the supra-terrestrial can not be understood by an application of the logic and the rationale governing the earthly; he must meditate over the infinite for divining its laws; then can be known the principle of unity embracing the multiplicity, the spirit activating the clay, and a covert consciousness working in the animate and the inanimate alike. Aswapathy sees, though through a fog of obscurity, the peak of the eternal Spirit; understands how it has exiled itself into the universe and taken multiple shapes,

¹ The Life Divine p-619.

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thus voluntarily clipping its own freedom; but Aswapathy who has attained the higher consciousness, feels repelled by the lowness of the earth's state and is reluctant to assent to nature's terms for a diminished existence.

Only beginnings are accomplished here;

..................................................

Or we saddle with the vice of earthly form

A hurried imperfect glimpse of heavenly things,

Guesses and travesties of celestial types.

The intellect is a poor instrument to explain the riddle of the cosmos; it gives us travesties of the celestial types when saddled with the vice of earthly forms or language; the aesthetic conceptions or representations fare no better; they give mimicries of flamingos of beauty; love which ought to be the cementing principle of unity is reflected as in a broken mirror sundered and twisted; and the apparent unity is not natural but brought about by the force of circumstances into a tessellated whole.

There is provender for the mind's satiety,

There are thrills of the flesh, but not the soul's desire.

Here even the highest rapture Time can give

Is a mimicry of ungrasped beatitudes,

..................................................

For all we have acquired soon loses worth

An old disvalued credit in Time's bank,

..................................................

In each success a seed of failure lurks.

He saw the doubtfulness of all things here

The incertitude of man's proud confident thought

..................................................

An island in the sea of the Unknown

He is a smallness trying to be great

..................................................

And yet a greater destiny may be his

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The mind always feeds on the provender of material possessions and pursuits; misses the soul and the bliss that it has with princely prodigality diffused all over the cosmos like air or sunshine or ether; it is satisfied with a brief felicity of mind or sense that is a caricature of the enduring delight; several such counterfeits are available in the seraglios of ignorance; but these pleasures become stale; they become cloying and thus these cheques on Time's bank are dishonoured.

All his efforts also are doomed to a similar disappointment for the seed of failure lurks in each success; incertitude and doubt are the shadows that pursue even his most confident thought and his proudest achievements suffer a transience.

In the large ocean of an unthinking world, man is an island of consciousness for he is the only mental being surrounded by the infra and sub-conscient orders of creation; though an animal there lurks a God in him; that is why he is a smallness trying to be great; with the help of the slender consciousness, that like a torch is lit when he is born and is extinguished when he dies, he strives unsuccessfully to reach the star of hope that glows before him, from cradle to the grave; but there is a greater destiny awaiting him, in spite of all this frustration and he can re-make himself and the world around him. 'The finite cannot remain permanently satisfied so long as it is conscious of a finite greater than itself or an infinite beyond itself to which it can aspire. Man is such a finite-seeming infinity and cannot fail to arrive at a seeking after the infinite. He is the first son of the earth who is vaguely aware of God within him, of his immortality or of his need of importantly and the knowledge is a whip that drives and a cross of crucifixion until he is able to turn it into a source of infinite light and joy and power.'

His soul retired from all that he had done.

..................................................

The Silence was his sole companion

..................................................

A figure in the ineffable Witness' shrine

Pacing the vast cathedral of his thoughts

..................................................

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A golden influx flowed through his heart and brain

..................................................

A current from immortal seas of Bliss

Aswapathy with the new-born consciousness cuts away from the old pegs, the moorings of the petty self; he retires into the loneliness of the vast inner self; develops a passivity, a detachment that is possible to one who has procured an admission into the sanctum of the witnessing spirit which observes everything without participating in anything; disports himself in the immensitudes and the amplitudes of the boundless self; keeps companionship with its thoughts and feels an^on-rush of golden bliss bathing his entire being.

The Immobile's ocean-silence saw him pass,

An arrow leaping through eternity

Suddenly shot through the tense bow of Time

A ray returning to its parent sun.

His intense aspiration meets with a corresponding descending grace of the Divine; his centre of ego becomes the shrine of the Reality diffusing its effulgence; but swift as an arrow released from a tensely drawn bow, he escapes to eternity, even though the dragon of nescience lashes its tail in fury at him.

He mounted burning like a cone of fire.

To a few is given that god-like rare release.

..................................................

And left the little lane of human Time

..................................................

He treads the vestibules of the Unseen

Or listens following a bodiless Guide

..................................................

He lives in a hush before the world was born

..................................................

The moulds of forms and persons are undone

..................................................

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He journeys to meet the Incommunicable

..................................................

In the eternal courts of Solitude

One of the God's chosen, Aswapathy from that peak of consciousness realises that death is not the frightful thing it is on the earth but the needed rest given to the individual soul before it reincarnates; he mounts as swiftly as a cone of fire heavenwards; he races forward through the vestibules of the Unseen and the primordial silence before the world has come into being, for snatching the prize divine; he follows the guidance of the shapeless within; he is bent on meeting the Incommunicable in the courts of solitude, a mind devoid of all thoughts for hearing the Transcendent and the moulds and the forms so vital to the earth nature are dissolved in the fire of his passion for the Reality. 'When the divine force working secretly in us has devoured these growths of desire, when in the image of the Rigveda the fire of God has burnt up the shoots of the earth, that which is concealed at the roots of the pains and pleasures, their cause and secret being, the sap of delight in them, will engage in new forms not of desire, but of self-existent satisfaction which will replace mortal pleasure by immortal ecstasy.'¹

His being towered into pathless heights,

..................................................

Naked of its vesture of humanity.

..................................................

A strong Descent leaped down, a Might, a Flame

..................................................

His nature shuddered in the Unknown's grasp.

..................................................

In a whirlwind circuit of delight and force

..................................................

And underwent a new and Bourne less change

..................................................

Aswapathy has the unique distinction of being the precursor of the evolutionary movement of the earth God ward; he passes

¹ The Life Divine p. 99.

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through the realms where he sees the subtle and the seed state of the would-be gross forms to be manifested on the earth; he passes into the pathless ethereal disburdened of all the material and the worldly; he is seized by a Might, a Flame of a preternatural kind; is whirled about on the rounds of delight and undergoes a transformation.

His wakened mind became an empty slate

On which the Universal and the Sole could write.

A fire that seemed the body of a god

Consumed the limiting figures of the past

And made a large room for a new self to five

The new awakening wipes off all the writings of the past and makes of his mind a clean slate; it has now become a page to take in the script of the message of the Universal; his individuality is now lost in the cosmic self that is now bourne less; the petty ring of the ego having a limited range of pursuits and enjoyments, widens into a cosmic centre, feeling itself everywhere, and in everything, thus having within itself both the universal and the individual.

Strange energies wrought and screened tremendous hands

Unwound the triple cord of mind and freed

The heavenly widening of a Godhead's gaze.

..................................................

The little ego's ring could join no more;

..................................................

The body now seemed only a wandering shell,

..................................................

His mind the many-frescoed outer court

Of an imperishable Inhabitant

The higher powers with their unseen hands work out the miracle of breaking the triple cord of Aswapathy's mind limiting its range to thought, feeling and sensation; it is endowed with a wider God-vision; the enclosures of the ego have no more any confining power; the body and the mind which have at one time loomed so important, pale into the insignificance of a garment and a painted window

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respectively; it is the soul that breathes life into them; they exist because of That and That does not exist because of them.

The fixed immovable peripheries

Effaced themselves beneath the Incarnate's tread.

..................................................

The guardian darknesses mute and formidable,

Empowered to circumscribe the wingless spirit

..................................................

Vanished rescinding their enormous role

The boundaries of darkness below and silence above, which have been fixed and which have appeared so rigid as to be immovable, are now violated and completely erased by the spirit which has not only awakened but has become fully self-assertive; the guardians authorised to keep the spirit confined in the narrow cell, beat a retreat abrogating their power ail-along exercised.

Once figure of creation's vain ellipse,

The expanding zero lost its giant curve.

The old adamantine vetoes stood no more:

Overpowered were earth and Nature's obsolete rule;

..................................................

Abolished were the scripts of destiny.

There was no small death-haunted creature more,

..................................................

The soul and cosmos faced as equal powers.

He saw unpathed, unwalled his titan scope

Confined once to the narrow curve of consciousness, Aswapathy reaches a wider consciousness where, in the expanding circle of the giant self, the curves and the boundaries are lost sight of; the rock walls of determinism built up by nature are demolished by the liberated spirit; its fiat of authority runs no more; he has transcended nature so much that its laws cease to have any application to him; he is no more the hunted prey of death; there is no further any necessity for him to protect himself against the cosmic forces since he has

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attained oneness with the cosmos; he is himself the cosmos and defensive measures against himself are uncalled for; breaking the walls of division or separation, he realises the titan, the universal, the vast that he is.

A secret Nature stripped of her defence,

..................................................

Lay bare to the burning splendour of his will.

..................................................

Her potencies of marvel-fraught design

Courted employment by an earth-nursed might.

The scales have fallen from the eyes of Aswapathy; nature deprived of all her defences, is self-exposed; the intricacies of her workings, hitherto a safely guarded secret in a shadowy chamber, stand helplessly revealed to his searching gaze; the wizardry of her effectuations, the invincibility of her strength derived from the subtle physical, vital and mental forces, become obvious; nature becomes servile to the earth-nursed might and seeks employment under the mortal Aswapathy.

An almighty occultist erects in space

..................................................

He builds bodies for his shapeless energy;

..................................................

His sorcery of solid images,

Achieves unerringly an inexplicable

Creation where our error carves dead frames

Of knowledge for a living ignorance

The universe appears to our ignorance a product of a soulless energy or chance; its workings strike the naked eye as a marvel; the occult force behind is masked by matter; the pervading consciousness chooses the appropriate media for its expression; its development follows a pre-charted line determined by its in-dwelling intelligence; it achieves with a baffling precision its objective; and the ignorant engage in the hobby of erecting reason-structures with the

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spirit banished and a shell of formula to explain the inexplicable.

She too as sovereignly creates her field

..................................................

As if her rash superb wagered to outvie

The veiled Creator's cosmic secrecies.

The rapid footsteps of her phantasy

Amid whose falls wonders like flowers rise

Are surer than reason, defter than device

And swifter than Imagination's wings.

Prakriti, a power of the Lord, creates by her workings an impression of her autonomy; it seems to be governed by no other law than her own caprice; she too partakes of the occultism of the Supreme; works behind the veils; all that is staged or projected is the product of a long toil behind the curtain and this accounts for the track of phantasy followed by nature, being strewn by flowers of achievements that are a challenge to human understanding, capability or imagination.

Mind is a mediator divinity:

..................................................

The leaden grip of Matter it can break;

..................................................

Can liberate the Energy, dumb and pent

..................................................

It makes the body's sleep a puissant arm

..................................................

This giant Ignorance, this dwarfish Life

It can illumine with a prophet sight

In our body arouse the demon or the god,

..................................................

Awake a forgotten Almightiness within

Part matter and part spirit, mind is the link connecting both; it is a superficies, a projection of the vast ocean of the supernal within with a gateway to super conscience and the subconscious; it can

Page-22

with proper discipline break away from Matter; for instance the body may perish but not the idea for which man may dare death; he can by summoning the necessary will, call to his aid, sleeping energies; by a withdrawal into the inner zone of silence, he can arm himself with the strength of a god or demon; he can even discover his self-, identity, recall his Almightiness. 'It is this inner being which we must regard as our subliminal self and set apart the subconscious as an inferior, a lowest occult province of our nature. In the same way there is a superconscient part of our total existence in which there is what we discover to be our highest self and this too we can set apart as a higher occult province of our nature.¹

In its own plane a shining emperor,

..................................................

She meditates upon mighty worlds and looks

On the unseen links that join the parted spheres

..................................................

Here where he stands, his feet on a prostrate world,

His mind no more cast into Matter's mould,

..................................................

She carries their magician processes

..................................................

Till heaven and hell become purveyors to earth

And the universe the slave to mortal will

Mind is not entirely the slave it is supposed to be of Matter; a link between the terrestrial and the supra-terrestrial worlds and a child of the subliminal, she reveals herself a shining emperor; she discloses her powers, her secrecies to one who has thrown off the shackles of materialism and developed a heaven-ward look; she places at the beck and call of a man like Aswapathy who has fortified himself with an indomitable will, not only her powers but even those of heaven and hell and earth itself becomes a slave ready to carry out his behests. 'We arrive at a knowledge that our waking mind and ego are only a superimposition upon a submerged subliminal self or more accurately an inner being with a much vaster experience; our

¹ The Life Divine., p.498.

Page-23

mind and ego are like the crown and the dome of a temple jutting out from the waves while the great body of the building is submerged under the surface of the waters.'¹

A mediatrix with veiled and nameless gods

..................................................

Imitating the World-Magician's ways

..................................................

All worlds she makes the partners of her deeds,

..................................................

From every source she has taken her cunning means,

..................................................

Pell-mell she shepherds her occult mightinesses;

Her mnemonics of the craft of the Infinite,

Jets of the screened sub lamina's caprice,

Tags of the gramarye of the Inconscience,

..................................................

And peeps and lightning-leaps of prophecy

..................................................

Have woven her balanced web of miracles

And the weird technique of her tremendous art

Prakriti though a delegate, has the full freedom of the Supreme; she cuts her own grooves of manifestation giving an appearance of determinism; some of her creation's tour-de-force cannot be effected unless she borrows the cunning of extra-cosmic powers; the worlds being graded, there is an interconnection, interaction and inter-play; she has a wonderful weft of knowledge drawn from varied sources; this compendium of divine invention is shown in her creativity, she has a memory of the infinite emerging from the inconscience to the finite; she draws her art and technique from the subliminal and the inconscient and weaves the web of her marvels; it is she that through her craftsmen sends intimations and prophecies and in all and in many other ways she shows the weird workmanship of her art.

¹ Ibid., p.496.

Page-24

She turned against the evil she had helped

..................................................

A greater despot tamed her despotism.

..................................................

She yielded in a vanquished ecstasy,

Her sealed hieratic wisdom forced from her

The regency is now cancelled; the Purusha is fully awake in a consciousness of his omnipotence; his deputy surrenders; she is freed from her weary toilsome upward path from the involution in the inconscience; the powers exercised on his behalf and for his freedom, are placed at his disposal; she steps back to her former position of subordination to the Purusha, shorn of all her glory and grandeur that have been hers during the period of soul's minority and passivity.

A border sovereign is the occult Force.

..................................................

She has canalised the outbreaks of the Gods

And cut through vistas of intuitive sight

A long road of shimmering discoveries.

..................................................

Behind her an ineffable Presence stood:

Their lion forces crouched beneath her feet;

..................................................

This was a forefront of God's thousandfold house

Beginnings of the half-screened Invisible.

..................................................

Its bodies signalling the Bodiless

..................................................

The little fronts unlocked to the unseen Vasts.

Standing on the dividing periphery of the earth and the beyond, is the Shakti, the occult Force who makes the Gods above active to exercise their influence on the universe; she also hews out pathways of intuition making men have the flashes and intimations of the higher and long for ideals unreachable; behind her looms the presence of

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the Everlasting and below the feet of this Durga, crouch the lion-forces, the powers that can fly at her orders to shape the world according to her designs. The terrain is frightening with infernal depths of Nescience and the inspiring altitudes of the Divine; but the power, the fascination of the idea is such that it makes men dare and have the thrill of adventure; Aswapathy is in the magic porch of entry to the edifice of the Eternal; it is dimly lighted so that he may not be overpowered and can pick his way; he now becomes aware how the unseen vasts have been locked up in the little fronts of his outer self; he also sees how the formless assumes forms and the single becomes the multiple.

A giant order was discovered here

Of which the tassel and the extended fringe

Are the scant stuff of our material fives.

..................................................

A map of subtle signs surpassing thought

Was hung upon a wall of inmost mind.

Illumining the world's concrete images

Into significant symbols by its gloss,

It offered to the intuitive exegete

Its reflex of the eternal Mystery

The light of intuition discloses to him that the world is but a fringe of a giant order; the graded planes of consciousness are matched by an ascent, a corresponding descent and integration, leading again to the higher planes with a repetition of the same process; the Eternal's plunge into time, stages a climb back through life's adventure and delight and Matter's shapes and hues. 

The serried kingdoms of the graded Law

..................................................

And rich with life's adventure and delight

..................................................

Climbed back from Time into undying Self

Up a golden ladder carrying the Soul,

Tying with diamond threads the Spirit's extremes.

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Each leaned on the occult Inconscient's power,

The fountain of its needed Ignorance,

Archmason of the limits by which it lives

..................................................

Each lifted tops to That from which it came.

The Eternal who has taken a plunge into the Inconscience for the sheer delight and the adventure of it, stages an ascent back to his undying Self; every rung of the ladder takes the pilgrim of the soul to a higher level of a luminous consciousness; at each stage it has to be re-fashioned by the archmason of ignorance, determining the « proportions of darkness and light; each is a step to That from which it has come, the origin of all that has ever been.

The light began of the Trinity supreme.

All there discovered what it seeks for here.

..................................................

At last clutched passionately the body of Truth

..................................................

A reconciling Wisdom looked on life;

..................................................

A mighty oneness its perpetual theme,

All the great Words that toiled to express the One.

The pilgrim marches from the lower to the higher trinity, the last high world where all words meet, where Sachchidananda reigns; here the vain searching's of man on earth have their fulfillment; the long gropings after truth are rewarded in its body being passionately clutched; the inaudible the inarticulate music of the lower world, finds its distinct articulation and soulful harmony here; a reconciling Wisdom, a mighty Oneness, resolve all the dualities and the 'contradictions into a harmony and unity; all the great Words of the scriptures of the world toil to express the great Truth of the oneness of the Reality; this is the revelation of every creed with a difference of accent only.

Above were the Immortal's changeless seats,

..................................................

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And the stupendous gates of the Alone.

Across the unfolding of the seas of self

..................................................

Affranchised from the net of earthly sense

Calm continents of potency were glimpsed;

..................................................

Sunbelts of knowledge, moonbelts of delight

Stretched out in ecstasy of widenesses

..................................................

There he could enter, there awhile abide.

Himself being immutable, the Being, the Alone, is seated above and beyond his un folding, his becomings of numerous selves; transcending his limitations, Aswapathy reaches calm continents which surprise his vision with beauty, bliss and knowledge; he enters and abides there awhile in those sunbelts of knowledge and moonbelts of delight.

Y. S. R. CHANDRAN

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DIALOGUES AND PERSPECTIVES

WHAT IS RIGHT?

IN this fast changing world outside and in the faster changing one within myself, I have often wondered if there are any real "rights" and "wrongs". I have it on good authority that this is a world of relativities and nothing can ever be always what it appears to be or what it is taken to be. I ask myself what after all is Right? The Right, answers Sri Aurobindo, is Truth in action. Necessarily then the action has to vary according to change in circumstances. At any rate the form in which the truth applies itself must change if it is to be living and dynamic. And it does change. What was true and right for me ten years ago is no more so today. Was I wrong then in the past? Was I deceiving myself? Can a rule which we erect as a working of the truth in certain circumstances hold good in a totally different set up? Are we to be guided by the letter of the Shastra or its spirit? These and other questions came to be focussed before me this morning when I happened to be present at a dialogue and later to participate in it.

Let me first reconstruct the dialogue or, more correctly, the trilogue. Let us leave out the personalities and have X, Y, Z, as the participants in the lively debate.

X: Normally you sit beside my shelf. If one day I find that a book has been left on my shelf, I naturally presume that you may have left it there. What will you say when I ask you whether you have left it there?

Y: Naturally, if I have left it there, I say I have left it. If I have not, I say I have not left it.

X: But if I say I do not believe that you have not left it, what would you say then?

Y: I will repeat that I did not leave it.

X: But if I still persist in expressing my disbelief?

Y: Then it will depend upon who asks me that question. I may simply say "may be" and go away.

X: In that case you are telling a conscious lie !

Y: I do not know. I only know that there are circumstances

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when it is more circumspect and safe to agree or appear to agree with the questioner and get away. For instance, think of a situation between a domestic servant and his master. If the employer insists that the servant has done a particular thing and would not accept the latter's denial, what other course is left to him except to accept his master's verdict? Has he to insist on maintaining his truth at the cost of his master's displeasure and possibly dismissal from the job? There is such a thing as discretion. One cannot always afford to throw truth into everybody's face.

At this point I liked to agree with him, for an incident from my past came alive to my mind. It was during my younger — and perhaps less responsible — days. Something had gone wrong in our office due to a mistake on the part of somebody. It never occurred to me that the fault could be mine. I got angry and started berating my assistant. As I was getting more and more excited, she immediately admitted her negligence and expressed her regret. Tempers cooled down and matters were smoothened out. Sometime later, I discovered that the mistake had been really mine and not hers. I felt highly contrite and asked her why she took the blame on herself when she was not really responsible for it. Her answer was disarming and has ever stood green in my memory. "I did not want you to be further disturbed and lose your peace of mind. And I saw that the only way to prevent things from getting worse was to provide a scapegoat and I volunteered to own the fault. My purpose was served."

Now am I to convict her of falsehood? Can I forget that this seemingly wrong procedure on her part has served to teach me to be more conscious and more responsible in life than any blunt truth would have done? Her wrong has promoted the right in me. What have you to say to that?

To come back to the narrative I joined the discussion as Z.

Z: He is right from the practical point of view. For there are occasions when it is not wise to tell the whole truth. One has to withhold the truth in order to avoid worse situations. But spiritually X is right in insisting that one cannot deviate from the truth under any circumstances. Agreed. But is it always compulsory to express the truth, whole and entire? I do think a distinction has to be made

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in these matters: what is imperative in the spiritual setting and what is permissible in day-to-day life in the world. I concede there are strong possibilities of self-deception. It is a matter of one's sincerity, and commonsense in striking a balance.

Y: X can afford to take his rigid stand because he does not have to deal with people in the world outside. We who have to rub shoulders with them every day and are confronted with all kinds of situations have to take a flexible approach.

X: Maybe. The Divine knows who is to be placed in what circumstances for his growth. But you forget that you and I are also placed together. There must be a meaning in it also.

Z: Quite so. Sri Aurobindo has explained this phenomenon in the life of spiritual seekers, in his letter on evil persona. He explains that it is part of the occult economy of Nature to always place in the environment of the seeker someone who represents the very opposite of his strong points. The purpose is to pose before him difficulties which he needs to solve and work out before his development can be integral. Almost always, it will be observed, the other person sums up in himself contraries which are needed to test and perfect the qualities in him who strives to exceed himself.

Ultimately all agreed that there is a purpose in everybody's being in the situation he finds himself in and each one has to act, react and develop according to his dharma. That again brings us back to the world of relativities. And I am still left undecided on whether there is or there can be an absolute right and an absolute wrong. I prefer to be open minded about it and assess things in each situation as they arise. As X said, one must act in complete sincerity and do one's best, or, as the Mother has repeatedly asked, one must strive to act always from one's highest attained consciousness.

M. P. PANDIT

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ESSENTIALS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIAN ART

WE live to-day in an age of commerce and technology — steeped into the obscuring deeps of materialism and solely motivated by principles of utility. It is an age bent on depriving life of all its flexibility, its organic spontaneity and charm. By mechanizing and ordaining the entire arena of human activity and thus turning it into a "glorified ant-heap or bee-hive" the very significance of life has been mercilessly crushed and neglected. The frightening tendency to over-emphasize the value of the merely useful and ignore the truly beautiful which had suddenly cropped up after the Industrial Revolution has now become excessively rampant. In the future task of laying down the foundations for the future it is essential that art, poetry and idealism are given an equally important place side by side with science and commerce and any neglect of these arts would prove fatal and should not be tolerated. The exaggerated importance given to science, economics, etc., does make one suspicious of the sanity of this new course adopted, by fulfilling and satisfying the most clamorous wants of humanity — i.e. material prosperity, vital gratifications of passions and cravings and by arming them with justification in the confused struggle of conflicting interests and aspirations, "which are now working with solvent and corrosive effect throughout the world".

The value of the other side, i.e., Poetry, Idealism and Art, seems to be unfortunately ignored. Their profound subtle workings elude the general mass which is ready to grasp anything sensational in character, but which falters in doubt when it comes to non-sensational miracles.

Without the latter, civilisation would be plunged into a perilous state, and it is absolutely essential — for the good of humanity and the rich security of the world — that these should be preserved and fostered and revived with utmost diligence and sympathetic precaution.

This depreciation and degeneration of Art to-day has deeper and more far-reaching implications in so far as Indian Art is concerned. If Indian Art is ignored and left to perish, it would not only mean the loss of the soul of a nation, but an irreparable and an

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irretrievable loss for the entire world. Civilisation would be robbed and deprived of one of the most priceless gems of human achievements and the Divine's manifestation would be incomplete and imperfect, if any attempt to ignore this glorious heritage is encouraged. This sad state of affairs on the cultural scene issues forth from two fundamental errors.

First — the bedazzling of the East by the gaudy materialism of the West, which has veiled her eyes to her own subtleties and refinements. Second — the failure to recognise the cultural significance of Indian aesthetic creation and its unique greatness.

Although the question of India being civilised once asked not only by the layman — but by those so-called intellects of the West — is no longer there in the minds of the people, yet attempts to explain such a formidable treasure-house of art are not very convincing and illuminating.

It is not a matter of trivial significance either for this country or for the West that Indian artistic ideals have been thus misunderstood and misinterpreted. There was a time when such great intellectuals like Ruskin and Macaulay, unable to attune themselves to Indian culture — especially its Art — had assailed it lumping together all her greatest achievements, religion, philosophy, music, sculpture, painting, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana in one wholesale condemnation as a repulsive mass of unspeakable barbarism. But at the turn of the century, this estrangement of East and West, and the difficulty of any attempt of rapprochement between the two had considerably been mitigated.

Art affords a revelation of national thought and character. The misapprehension or depreciation of its ideals by an alien mind must inevitably sow intellectual, cultural, even political antipathies, not less dangerous because they are often unconscious ones, which aggravate racial prejudices, create obstacles to the intimate harmonious relationship without which a perfect understanding between different races is impossible, and which are detrimental to those ideals of human unity which have emerged on the horizon and which are struggling for fulfilment.

If any cultural understanding has to be roused — and it is being gradually roused — art critics, whether of the West or the East,

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have to shed their western academic prejudices and prepossessions and in the Indians themselves a love and loyalty to their own art has to be kindled. The cultural values and ideals of India should not be forgotten, for with the obliteration of the cultural life-centre, the soul of the nation would perish too. What would remain then would be a "rationalised and westernised India" — a contradiction in terms—a brown ape of Europe who in a violent fit of amnesia had forgotten all her spiritual, religious, intellectual, poetic and artistic opulence, content to be ruthlessly crushed by a mechanised rationalistic utilitarian civilisation.

It must be clearly understood however that for the integral perfection of the human race, for the "completeness of the human movement" — both the tendencies of the East and West are necessary and it would be foolishness on our part — a retrograde step in the evolutionary curve — to neglect one or the other.

Whether civilisation and India are incompatible is no longer a debatable issue — those possessing a certain profundity of perception and even a little sense of the good and the beautiful have recognized the distinct greatness of this country and have marvelled at its unsurpassed diversity and aesthetic opulence. Some attempts — although devoid of amplitude, whole-heartedness, and clear sight — have however been made to resuscitate our declining art and to project a healthy picture in the right light of appreciation.

In the field of religion for example, the influence of European Christianity has considerably been mitigated in the wake of the revival of Hinduism. With the emergence of the Theosophical Movement and the advent of Swami Vivekananda on the Western scene Hinduism became an evolving, luminous and self-assertive way of life. 

To the Western concept of civilisation, based solely on outward progress and the cult of materialistic reason, anything that goes above this conventional standard, anything that seems unintelligible to this materialistic mind and escapes its ken is not the offspring of civilisation but the freaky product of a "crudely subtle barbarism". Any culture which dallies with the Eternal and the Infinite and the super-rational and is obsessed by Powers and Beings that exceed the Reason, is most unworthy of being called civilised, according to the canons

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and qualifications of a Western mind. The bewildering absurdity and short sightedness of this definition needs no explanation.

If a permanent secure happiness is the prime objective of man on earth, then the finding of the right balance and harmony between the spirit and body or body and mind would be the key to all our human paradoxes and tormenting problems of existence. Now, a culture should be judged in the light of how far it has succeeded in seizing this vital harmony and expressing it in the ordinary material life and traditions of that particular society. This aim could be pursued either from a purely or mainly material perspective like the West, or with a predominantly mental and intellectual like the ancient Graeco-Roman people, or else with a predominantly religious or spiritual standpoint — like the consistent culture of India.

Fundamentally, as in almost every aspect of the two civilisations — Indian and European — no true comparison can be made between the Art of the Orient and the Art of the Occident. Each starts from a different origin, aims at a different power and arrives at a different end. Once we are able to grasp this, then much of this misunderstanding of Indian Art arising chiefly from the disparity between the two ways of life will disappear and the ground for a mutual sympathetic understanding and interchange be prepared. This will also help us to apprehend and appreciate with a more judicious and cosmopolitan eye the essential motives and the indisputable grandeur and magnificence of Indian Art.

For any real and fruitful criticism of Art — two things must be taken into account: first and fundamental, the spirit or the originating impulse from which all artistic creation starts and secondly the expression of that underlying spirit in significant forms.

Every art has its distinctive spirit and without an understanding of this basic spirit which is paramount — the conflict of various cultures now reduced to a conflict between East and West, between Asia of which India is the quintessence and Europe, will tend to become violent and unprofitable.

"India's concept of evolution is basically spiritual", said Sri Aurobindo, "it believes in an eternal spirit encased in Matter, involved and immanent in it and evolving on the material plane by rebirth of the individual up the scale of the being till in mental man, the

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consciousness enters the world of ideas and conscious morality." This victory over unconscious Matter is progressive and with the flow of Time, it develops, enlarges and elevates its levels until the "increasing manifestation of the sattwic or spiritual portion of the vehicle of mind enables the individual mental being in man to identify himself with the pure spiritual consciousness beyond Mind."

Her Art too, like Philosophy and Religion, has been an attempt to seize this Higher Power which will be the key to all our tormenting paradoxes. All her aesthesis has this upward yearning. This artistic impulse gripped India when that wonderful intuition flashed upon the Indian Mind, that the soul of Man is eternal and that all men<-are the manifestation of the Supreme Soul — the Brahman — the Lord and Cause of all things — the perennial source which they strive to discover through noble and exalted paths of Devotion, Knowledge, Work and Art.

Progress in Indian terminology is not primarily the advance in science or an ever-increasing material efficiency and prosperity, but more and essentially the inner progress — the progress of the soul and the evolving consciousness within. Indian Art, based on this lofty conception, was an élan towards the Infinite, the Eternal, the Intangible — the supreme divinity within us, around us and beyond us and artists sought to project life from this spiritual perspective. It is precisely this ingrained, latent spirituality which constitutes the distinctive value of her Art and explains the secret of her amazing persistence and "perpetual force of survival and revival."

It is the seizing of this alchemizing Ananda through the splendour of Beauty in and around us that will lift humanity out of its animal slumber and indifference and help it embark into the "adventure of consciousness." Art is a means of spiritual growth — a path for the realisation of the Ultimate Reality. In ancient India it was always associated with Religion. It is said that Art turned inwards was Religion and Religion turned outwards was Art. Shaping life in the image of the God within us and to find a strong and secure basis of living with the higher truths of the Spirit, have been the primary preoccupation of Indian artists.

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"Their divine foundation was above even while they stood below, let its rays be settled deep."

Indian Art is thus essentially idealistic, mystic, symbolic and transcendental. All artistic creation must originate from the soul. The artist, as Sri Aurobindo tells us, must see first in his own self the truth of the thing he must express and to create its forms from the intuitive mind. The mental instruments are subordinated in the work of transmission and assist only partially in the giving of colour and shape. And therefore, it is primordial that it has to be seen with the "intuitive and spiritual eye."

"A European mind comes to Indian Art with a demand for something other than what its characteristic spirit and motive intend to give" and therefore, says Sri Aurobindo, "is not prepared to enter into another kind of spiritual experience and another range of creative sight and imaginative power."

The whole of modern European academic art teaching has been based upon the un philosophical theory that beauty is a quality which is inherent in certain objects, forms of matter, a quality first apprehended by the Greeks in the old world and rediscovered by the artists of the Renaissance. This is an attempt by the Occident to arrive at a scientific standard of beauty by the selection of what appeared to their physical senses, most admirable in natural forms and appearances. Thus in the West Art became more a pursuit of Beauty in the material physical world than an attempt to disclose something of the Infinite Divine Godhead within through its living finite symbols and through its manifold expressions. They never sought to project life which is within us and without — life in all its fullness and mystery. "European Art seems to have its wings clipped off — it knows the beauty of only earthly things." It does not like the Indian soar into the Elysian heights and depths of our being — to attempt to bring down to earth something of the beauty which is within us and above — a beauty which is supra-sensuous, supra-physical and supra-rational. All great artistic expression is triggered off by a flash of intuition — a sudden apprehension of some profound truth of existence. The European artist is struck by a lightning flash, by a suggestion that originates from an appearance in outward fife and nature — from the

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outer physical world. When in moments of some high intense spiritual excitement, the idea surges up from the soul, even then he tries to bring it down to the workings of the ordinary rational mind — which appears to be his eternal point of reference. Without giving an external support, without conferring upon the inspiration soma external associations, he does not feel contented. His intellectual ideas and vital imagination are vested with the authority and freedom to clothe it with "a mental stuff that will render its forms to the moved reason, emotion and aesthesis." Speaking about the helpless slavery of the Western mind to the external form, Sri Aurobindo tells us that "he is arrested, fascinated by the form and lingers on it, and cannot get away from its charm, loves it for its own beauty, rests on the emotional, intellectual, aesthetic suggestions that arise directly from its most visible language, confines the soul in the body; it might almost be said that for this mind form creates the spirit, the spirit depends for its existence and for everything it has to say on the form."

The appeal of a European chef-d'oeuvre is rarely to the inward spiritual eye, but more often to the superficial vital, imaginative and emotional being. The "unveiled presence of the Infinite" is not given sufficient attention, as it is not considered indispensable for achieving the highest perfection.

Indian Art on the contrary holds the opposite view. It is symbolised in the conception of the Buddha sitting on his lotus-throne, calm, impassive, his thoughts freed from all worldly passions and desires and with both mind and body raised above all intellectual and physical strife, yet filled with more power than human power, derived from a perfect communion with the source of All-Truth, All-Knowledge and All-Strength.

There is an Olympian grandeur and magnificence in this country's art unlike the Japanese and Chinese art. It does not offer such sensuous delights as some other Arts do; it is pinnacled among the -highest Himalayan solitudes never trodden by human feet, often shrouded in mist and cloud only seen sometimes from afar — as in a vision in the rosy fight of dawn or when the last rays of the sun light up its furthest deeps with burnished gold and show to our wondering gaze the gates of Heaven.

The Indian artist has a more comprehensive view of his field of

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creation, because Beauty for him is subjective. It is not inherent in form or matter but belongs to the spirit and can only be apprehended by spiritual vision. The beauty does not lie in the thing itself but in the "divine idea" which is impressed upon those human minds or souls which are turned to receive it. The more perfectly our minds are tuned to this divine beauty, the more we perceive this beauty and the more capable do we become as artists of expressing it. To devote oneself wholly to studying form and matter with the idea of "extracting beauty" then is "as vain as cutting open a drum to see where the sound comes from." The true aim of the artist is not to essay beauty from Nature but to reveal the life within life, the Noumenon within phenomenon - the Reality within unreality and the Spirit within Matter. When that is revealed, beauty reveals itself. To cultivate this spiritual vision, these powers of intuitive perception was the main endeavour of Indian artists.

Bhakti or Devotion permeates the whole atmosphere of Indian Art and is the originating impulse of all its aesthetic creation. There is an intense sincerity, a pure devotion, a total self-surrender and a depth of spiritual or religious conviction — without the slightest parade of virtuosity. It is only when this element of self-giving and bhakti is absent or lost that Art is superseded by the modern commercial instinct. The Indian artist therefore was also a yogi — without being which he could never have achieved the complete harmonious identification or self-projection into the object of his intuition or the surging idea that is yearning within him for self-expression. The merging of the consciousness of the painter or sculptor or architect with the consciousness of that aspect of Nature which he wishes to portray, is paramount for any truly inspired creation of Beauty. Th5 personality of the artist is merged in his own creations. Therefore, of the Indian artist as an individual little is known. The Indian artist, whether a Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist "walks through the pages of history — a vague indefinite elusive being" and that is why Indian Art is often called an anonymous art — art that is not self-conscious. Without this fundamental attitude, he could never have fashioned those remarkable treasure-worlds of Sanchi, Ajanta, Elephant or Ellora, nor grasp the truth he aims at with such a calm and effortless ease.

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To appreciate Indian Art is no doubt difficult and it is a domain that does not give easy access to all viewers. The only way to arrive at its heart is through an intuitive perception that can be cultivated by meditation — dhyāna, and which helps the critic to make himself one with the spiritual life-throb of the particular piece of art. "The physical seeing then becomes a step — an opening into the vaster and more significant spiritual or psychic worlds" from which a real understanding and an intimate revelatory communion might be established. It is only then that this artistic estrangement between the East and West will disappear and mutually bring each other in to an all-embracing clasp of Beauty and Harmony.

I would like to illustrate the point that I have made by giving'' certain basic ideas of Indian fine arts, i.e., architecture, sculpture, and painting, along with some illuminating perceptive examples that Sri Aurobindo has cited in his The Foundations of Indian Culture.

We will begin with Architecture. We have to see Oriental art — whether it be architecture, sculpture, painting or music — in the light of the inner spiritual glow and to discover in it the great limitless self of the Brahman behind the symbol in all His grandeur. To appreciate Indian architecture this inner discovery is even more essential and at the same time difficult. It does not reveal itself easily.

Critics of Indian Art have condemned it as "shockingly primitive", and staggering in its lack of unity and exaggerated ornamentation and detail. Dravidians have invoked in them, by their massive "gigantic barbarism", a sense of horrified awe.

When visualised from the right angle and setting, and not from the fatally foreign canons of Western Art, all these apparent defects vanish into thin air. Through the excessive ornamentation and massiveness, one will then glimpse the infinite unity and multiplicity of the Cosmic Godhead — the "teeming inexhaustible plenitude" of that titanic Self of the Universe. "An original oneness, not a -combined or synthetic or an effected unity, is that from which this art begins and to which its work when finished returns or rather lives in it as in its self and natural atmosphere."

"The temple", says Sri Aurobindo, "is the most significant and typical monument of Indian architecture and admirably sums up the subtle spiritual value of our culture." It is a tirtha, i.e., a

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source of release in a concrete, tangible form created by the human mind. It emanates a mystery that gives mystic suggestions of the Mystery that envelops the Universe and the Divine spirit that shines behind the veil of Mystery and pervades and illumines the world. "An Indian temple to whatever Godhead it may be built is in its inmost reality an altar raised to the divine self, a house of the Cosmic Spirit, an appeal and aspiration to the Infinite," seen in its natural surroundings, "the oneness to which this Nature aspires in her in-conscient self-creation and in which she lives, the oneness to which the soul of man uplifts in his conscious spiritual up building, his labour of aspiration here expressed in stone, and in which so up built, he and ¹ his life work are the same and the soul motive is one."

The architectural languages of the South and North are different but their spiritual motive is the same. The North Indian temples have a singular grace and power, despite their luminous etheriality and exquisite lightness and delicacy. "The great mosques," goes on Sri Aurobindo, "in the same vein, embody often a religious aspiration lifted to a noble austerity. The tombs reach beyond death to the beauty and joy of Paradise. The buildings of Fatehpur Sikri are not monuments of an effeminate luxurious decadence," as some Western critics have condemned it, "but they give form to a nobility, power and beauty which lay hold upon but do not wallow on the earth." They have an immaterial subtle charm and an enchanting magical beauty of the middle world, and in their religious mood touch "with a devout hand the skirts of the Divine."

SCULPTURE — Whereas the Greek conception of the human form confined Beauty to Realism in conformity with our conventional conceptions of realistic beauty, i.e. right proportion and right perspective — the Indian Artist makes no distinction between the beautiful and the ugly, between the good and the evil, as popularly understood but strives to reveal the all-embracing Divine Idea in both which envelops them and at the same time transcends them both. The subtle inspiration of Indian spirituahty animates the lifeless stones and makes one feel that it is not a cold monument of marble but the Divine Himself who fingers in all his inexpressible and inalienable charm and power upon the earth. Compared with the Indian conceptions of the Universal, the anthropomorphic gods

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of Greece and Rome seem puny and devoid of imagination. The baseless condemnation that Indian Art is deficient in technical achievement for lack of anatomical knowledge appears appallingly absurd to one who has sounded the depths of the Infinite immensity and the subtle suggestions that surge up before a perceptive eye. "The sculptural art," says Sri Aurobindo, "is static, self-contained, necessarily firm — one cannot trifle with ease in this sterner material. The latitude which is possible in painting is forbidden in sculpture. The sculptor must always express in static form the idea. Eternity seizes hold of time in its shapes and arrests it in the monumental spirit of stone or bronze." What was sought and attempted in the Indian statues was not a naturalistic physical beauty but a spiritual one, to achieve which, the artist "eliminated and suppressed "all unnecessary details and rendered it to an almost bare austerity and purity of line and form."

Some illustrations from The Foundations of Indian Culture will suffice to reveal the spiritual significance of Indian Art which Sri Aurobindo has grasped with remarkable profundity and depth.

"The figure of the Buddha achieves the expression of the Infinite in a finite image — the illimitable calm of Nirvana in a human form and visage. The Kalasanhara Shiva is supreme not only by the majesty, power, calmly forceful control, dignity and kingship of existence which the whole spirit and pose of the figure visibly incarnates, but much more by the concentrated divine passion of the spiritual overcoming of time and existence which the artist has succeeded in putting into eye and brow and mouth and every feature and has subtly supported by the contained suggestion, not emotional but spiritual, of every part of the body of the godhead and the rhythm of his meaning which he has poured through the whole unity of this creation. Or what of the marvellous genius and skill in the treatment of the cosmic movement and delight of the dance of Shiva, the success with which the posture of every limb is made to bring out the rhythm of the significance, the rapturous intensity and abandon of the movement itself and yet the just restraint in the intensity of motion..."

Indian painting has very recently emerged on the artistic horizon of the West. Those works of art, which less than a few decades ago

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were considered as "curious" are now seen as forms of Indian aesthesis, worthy of serious study. Indian painting like the other two visual arts was meant not only for a narrow coterie of literati — its intention was to make the central ideas of Hindu spirituality — religion and Yoga, — intelligible to all, from the unlettered but not unlearned Hindu peasant to the intellectual Pundit. Therefore we find a simplicity in Indian Symbolism.

The peculiar art of Ajanta springs, says Sri Aurobindo, from the remarkable inward spiritual and psychic turn. They reveal an amazing technical skill in the fertility of invention, and a power of expression of her lofty spiritual ideals. It expresses in a lavish delight the opulence of the spiritual vision "revealing the pure intensities of meaning of the universal beauty" and the eye's free play in gratifying its desire for exuberance and perfection of form and colour. These combine to transmute the piece of art into a means of "an enlightenment of the inner being, through the power of a certain spiritually aesthetic Ananda."

Sri Aurobindo, describing the Adoration Group states: "If we look long at the adoration group of the mother and child before the Buddha, one of the most profound, tender and noble of the Ajanta masterpieces, we shall find that the impression of intense religious feeling of adoration there is only the most outward general touch in the ensemble of the emotion. That which it deepens to is the turning of the soul of humanity in love to the benignant and calm Ineffable which has made itself sensible and human to us in the universal compassion of the Buddha, and the motive of the soul-moment the painting interprets is the dedication of the awakening mind of the child — the coming younger humanity, to that in which already the soul of the mother has learned to find and fix its spiritual joy

These arts should be safeguarded against the alarming onslaught of Modernism and the so-called artistic revolution. Its resurrection is indispensable, so too the revival of the profound spiritual ideals which have been the eternally underlying foundations of Indian life and culture and of which Indian art is a sublime expression.

MAURICE SHUKLA

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PLAYS BY SRI AUROBINDO: A SURVEY (OR)

TRIUMPH OF LOVE IN SRI AUROBINDO'S PLAYS

SRI Aurobindo is one of the foremost writers in the field of Indo-anglian literature in general and Indo-anglian drama in particular. An institution by himself, he was a great patriot, the fiery evangelist of Nationalism, a great scholar, the interpreter of the Veda, the critic of life and literature. Here we consider him as a 'man of letters in excelsis, a master of prose art, and a dramatist and poet of great power and versatility.'¹ With his wonderful mastery over languages like English, Sanskrit and Bengali, "Sri Aurobindo produces in one the impression that he is a born lord of language."² All his writings bear testimony to his genius and knowledge of the Eastern and the Western thought.

Sri Aurobindo is the author of many plays of which only five are complete: Perseus the Deliverer, Vasavadutta, Rodogune, The Viziers of Bassora and Eric. The Hero and the Nymph, a blank verse is a rendering of Kalidasa's Vikramorvasiyam. All the plays underline the need for love, which is the great solvent of all varieties of evil and can defy death and turn dross into gold. Aslaug sings in Eric,

Love is divine

Love is the hoop of the gods

Hearts to combine.

All the plays of Sri Aurobindo are steeped in poetry, romance and prophecy, and are recognizably Elizabethan in cast. But they recall the spirit and flavour of the distinctive dramatic type exemplified in different ways by the Sanskrit dramatists Bhasa, Kalidasa and Bhavabhnti — though, of course, all have Aurobindonian overtones. Though these plays form only a fragment of Sri Aurobindo's phenomenal writing, his contribution to the Indo-anglian Drama deserves a significant mention.

¹ Dr. K. R. S. Iyenger: Indian Writing in English — Asia Publishing House, 1962. Page 117.

² Dr. K. R. S. Iyenger": "Sri Aurobindo as a Literary Artist" in Sri Aurobindo Mandir (Second) Annual, Calcutta, 1943. Page 89.

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This is a play in five Acts, which belongs to the early period of Sri Aurobindo's literary activity. The legend of Perseus is made just the nucleus, around which have grown the scenes of a romantic story of human temperament, and life-impulses on the Elizabethan model. The legend passing through the pen of the playwright finally emerges with the message that love and compassion ultimately defeat hatred and terror and in the words of Perseus,

"...let the shrine

Be cleansed of its red memory of blood,

And the dread Form that lived within its precincts

Transfigure into a bright compassionate God"

and further,

"Man most must change who is a soul of Time;

His gods too change and five in larger fight"

also,

"...little by little earth must open to heaven"

that is, man become superman.

According to the legend, Acrisius, the Argive King, warned by an oracle that his daughter's son would be the agent of his death, hoped to escape his doom by shutting her up in a brazen tower. But Zeus, the King of the Gods, descended into her prison in a shower of gold and Danae bore to him a son named Perseus. Danae and her child .were exposed in a boat without sail or oar on the sea, but here too fate and the gods intervened and, guided by a divine protection, the boat bore her safely to the island of Seraphs. There Danae was received and honoured by the King. When Perseus had grown to manhood, the King wishing to marry Danae, decided to send him to his death and to that end, ordered him to slay the Gorgon Medusa in the wild, unknown and snowy North and bring to him her head,

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the sight of which turned men to stone. Perseus was aided by Athene the Goddess of Wisdom, who gave him the divine sword Herpe, winged shoes to bear him through the air, her shield and the cap of ^visibility. Thus he got success in his quest after many adventures. On his way back he came to Syria.

Here the play begins. First there is the Prologue in which a heated argument is held between the cruel god Poseidon and Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom. In the end of the Prologue, Athene bids farewell to Poseidon, "...until I press My feet upon thy blue enormous mane. And add thy ocean to my growing empire."

The whole of Syria is filled with terror created by Polydaon, the priest of the cruel god Poseidon. The Syrian King Cepheus and the Queen Cassiopea have a beautiful daughter by name Andromeda and a son Iolaus. Polydaon with his evil design, is waiting for a chance to create complete chaos in Syria in the name of Poseidon and, if possible, become its ruler. Meanwhile, Phineus, King of Tyre wants to marry Andromeda and thereby try to usurp the Syrian throne.

Tyrnaus and Smerdas, the merchants of Babylonia are saved from a ship-wreck on the coast of Syria by Perseus who arrives there. The prince Iolaus happens to meet Perseus and makes friends with him. Meanwhile, the two merchants are bound by Polydaon's men at his behest and taken to the temple of Poseidon as sacrifice at the altar. The news reaches the ear of the compassionate Andromeda. She secretly goes to the place and releases the merchants.

Enraged at this, Polydaon goes to the King's Court and demands "justice". Further, he creates confusion and terror throughout Syria in the name of the angry god Poseidon. Many men, women and children were killed. Exploiting the situation, he wins the people over to his side and starts executing his plans. Supported by the mob, he forcibly arrests Andromeda to be finally tied to the rocks near the seashore so that the monsters eat her body. He also plans to put an end to the lives of the King and the Queen after Andromeda's death.

Perseus suddenly goes to the shore and, with the aid of the favours granted by Athene, kills the sea-monsters. Andromeda is thus saved. Meanwhile, the Priest unable to bear the shock and frustration falls dead. Then the powerful Perseus saves the King, the Queen, the Prince and the merchants. The people are moved by the benevolent

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acts of Perseus and again they become obedient to the Syrian throne.

In the end, Perseus rejects all the offers made by the King as a token of gratitude, except the hand of the fair Andromeda. But, when Perseus and Andromeda were about to marry, Phineus, the King of Tyre challenges that he will forcibly take away and marry her. When he and his soldiers lift their hand against Perseus, they were turned into statues by Perseus with his acquired power. In the end, Perseus the Deliverer is praised by all.

The legend of Perseus favourably compares with our Indian legends. (For example, the birth of Perseus and the birth of Krishna). Thus such a story which ought to have been a powerful tragedy, is made to have a happy ending by the intervention of the supernatural. At the same time, the playwright never forgets to give a modern psychological touch to plot and characterisation.

The story of the play is straightforward. There are no puzzling intricacies in the plot, no psychological conundrums to tax the mind. The story finds a parallel in the play Thesmophoriazusae by Aristophanes, in which Mnesilochus, bound to a plank is at last rescued by Euripides. Also it reminds us of a Celtic myth according to which Devorgilla, the daughter of the King of the Isles is redeemed by Cuchulainn; and also of our Indian myth of Krishna who responds to Rukmini's appeal, eliminates his rival and marries her.

In the play, Perseus, is of course the hero. Though he does not appear as often as he ought to have appeared as a hero, he makes his presence and also conspicuous absence felt by all. The audience cannot fail to notice his acts of bravery and compassionate dealings. Similarly, Andromeda, the heroine of the play risks her life for a notes cause and becomes the cynosure of all eyes, not by her beauty alone. Polydaon the wicked Priest of a wicked God, is the symbol of corruption ever practised in the name of religion.

Then there are many minor characters well-portrayed, viz., the sincere prince Iolaus; the honest merchant Tyrnaus (as opposed to the selfish greedy, miser Smerdas); Phineus with evil designs; the Queen Cassiopea who unable to control her emotions, speaks wreck-lessly at times; Cydone the faithful mistress of Iolaus; and a host of other characters.

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There is good suspense in the play as the special powers of Perseus are not known in the beginning. Next, the Priest Poseidon successfully overpowers the King and snatches away Andromeda to punish her cruelly. Can there be a better climax to the story? Then the audience will be stunned to observe the unexpected denouement. The tempo of the play is maintained throughout and the title is very significant.

Indeed the play bears testimony to the intellectual calibre of Sri Aurobindo. In the words of Mr. Gibert Norwood, it is a

"charming love-story full of romance and poetical loveliness."

THE VIZIERS OF BASSORA

This play (A Dramatic Romance') of 5 Acts by Sri Aurobindo is also Elizabethan in cast. The theme is again the triumph of love.

Haroun al Rasheed is the Caliph of Baghdad, having full religious authority over the Muslim kingdoms; Jaafar is his vizier. Alzayni, Haroun's cousin is the King of Bassora. Alfazzal Ibn Sawy, noted for his goodness, is his Chief Vizier, and the wicked Almuene bin Khakan, his second Vizier; Nureddene is the son of Alfazzal and Fareed, the son of Almuene, notorious like his father in cruelty.

Those were the days when slave-girls were bought and sold according to whims and fancies of rich men. Anice-aljalice, a beautiful Persian slave-girl is bought by the Chief Vizier with a view to present her to the King. In spite of the strict guard kept over her at home, Nureddene meets her and both fall in love. Reconciling himself to the situation, the Chief Vizier grants their wish. The wicked Almuene and his son Fareed, an unruly idiot give all sorts of trouble to Nureddene's family.

Meanwhile, the Chief Vizier has to be away from Bassora on an official work for some time. During the period his son Nureddene incurs heavy debt and loses everything except his slave-girl Anice. At last, he is advised to sell her too on a temporary basis. Almuene tries to catch hold of this opportunity at the slave-market; but he falls down at an encounter that follows there. Nureddene returns home with Anice.

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To take full revenge on Nureddene, Almuene poisons the ears of the King, who issues orders to bind both Nureddene and Anice with ropes and present them to his Court and also to raze the Chief Vizier's mansion to the ground. Ajebe, the good nephew of Almuene secretly arranges for their escape to Baghdad.

In Baghdad, Nureddene and Anice happen to become guests of the hypocrite Ibrahim, the gardener of the Caliph Haroun al Rasheed, the Commander of the Faithful. Smelling the unusual activities in Ibrahim's house, the Caliph goes there disguised as a fisherman selling fried fish. Surprisingly enough, he asks for Anice, and sends Nureddene back to Bassora with a letter to the Sultan directing the latter to vacate the throne in favour of Nureddene.

But Nureddene is charged with forgery by the scheming Almuene and the ill-advised Sultan orders the execution of Nureddene. The good Ajebe argues in vain in his favour and is imprisoned.

The Chief Vizier returns to Bassora in time, but his appeal to stop the cruel punishment to his son falls on deaf ears. Finally Jaafar the Caliph's Vizier himself arrives at the spot with his troops, saves Nureddene from danger, makes him Sultan and returns Anice safely according to the Caliph's instructions.

The play, as the playwright himself calls it, is a pure 'dramatic romance'. The love-theme is excellently handled. There are characters of shining contrast: the good Alfazzal Ibn Sawy, the Chief Vizier of Bassora and the wicked Almuene the second Vizier; Nureddene who though full of youth is good like his father and is a thorough contrast to Fareed, who is a lusty tyrant; the Sultan who is wicked enough to be guided by Almuene; Ajebe who is noble unlike his uncle. Above all, there is the kind Caliph, 'the Commander of the Faithful', 'Allah's Vice Regent' who "puts down all evil and pluck the virtuous out of danger's hand." One note-worthy thing is that almost all the women characters — Ameena and Khatoon (both are sisters), Al-fazzal's niece Doonya, Anice the heroine of the play and other slave-girls — are exceptionally good.

Though Elizabethan in cast, the play at times shows the influence of Sanskrit poetry on Sri Aurobindo — particularly in the description of Baghdad in Act IV Scene I. Also we get an echo of the Indian Philosophy in the words of the hypocrite Ibrahim (Act IV Scene I)

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"hanker not unlawfully after perishable earthly goods; for verily, they are a snare and verily they entrap the feet of the soul as it toileth over the straight rough road to heaven."

Both prose and blank verse are effectively employed. The very good suspense maintained is one of the chief attractions of the play; thus the fourth and the fifth Acts demand greater attention and interest from the audience. Unlike in other plays of Sri Aurobindo, lengthy speeches are interspersed with brief conversations here and there in the play. Staging the play will be rather difficult in view of its length and the number of characters.

VlKRAMORVASIE

OR

THE HEROAND THE NYMPH

Though this is a blank verse rendering of Kalidasa's Sanskrit play, Vikramorvasiyam, it is more than a translation in Sri Aurobindo's hands. As the author himself explains in his introduction on Translating Kalidasa, he has shown the talent of his original writing in English: "toning down of strangeness; reproduction of the exact image and not of the exact words, of associations and poetical beauty and flavour of the original; employing verbal expressions instead of sound to render certain impressions created by the dreamy movement and whispering assonances of the lines, sometimes discarding the original image altogether and replacing it by a more intelligent English image, giving importance to a closeness of word-value, not to oneness of word-meaning."

King Pururavas helps the gods and shows his valour. Urvasie, "the ornament of Eden and its joy", half-nymph and half woman is rescued by him from the hands of a Gandharva. Both fall in love with each other. Meanwhile, while staging a play in heaven under the direction of the preceptor Bharata, Urvasie unconsciously utters the name of his lover Pururavas. Enraged by this, Bharata curses her that she should go down to the earth. Thereupon Indra, the Lord of Gods takes pity and limits the curse. According to it, Urvasie goes to the earth, lives a married life with Pururavas and disappears after begetting a son. Stricken with unconsolable grief, the king

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wanders in the forest nearby like a madman. At last, the compassionate gods grant him a passage to Indra's Kingdom by making him immortal to be ever united with Urvasie.

As Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar remarks, "In Urvasie as well as Love and Death, indomitable love is presented as beating against the gates of mortality and gaining a victory over Death in one or another way." Pururavas is romantic unlike the tragic hero Lear of the storm scene. Pururavas is a true lover like Ruru who willingly barters away half his own life to live the other half with his restored wife; and Urvasie is truly worthy of his love. The playwright seems to imply that unlike his Savitri, Urvasie fails to transform our earth-nature and therefore seeks only personal happiness. Anyway, the story is quarried from the ranges of deathless Romance; embedded in the Rigveda, first embellished by the great poet Kalidasa, it is further refined by Sri Aurobindo in his own way.

VASAVADUTTA

According to the Editor of The Collected Plays of Sri Aurobindo, Vasavadutta exists in several versions, not all of them complete. What seems to be the last complete version has this note at the end: "Revised and recopied between April 8th and April 17th, 1916." An earlier version has a similar entry at the end: "Copied Nov. 2, 1915—written between 18th and 30th October, 1915. Completed 30th October. Revised in April 1916, Pondicherry." The first edition was published in 1957 and reprinted in 1965.

The story of Vasavadutta traceable to Somadeva's Katha-saritsagara, dramatised by Bhasa in his Sanskrit play Swapna-Vasavadatta, has been given more psychological treatment by Sri Aurobindo and the romance is heightened in the play. Vuthsa Udayan, the hero of the play, is the young king of Cowsambie; and Yougundharayan, his wise old Minister and until recently his regent. Mahasegn, the king of Avunthie is his principal political rival and Vasavadutta is his beautiful daughter. With the help of his son Gopalaca, he has Udayan kidnapped and keeps him in jail under the vigilance of Vasavadatta, in order to make him a slave and in future a vassal of his empire acknowledging his superiority. But love works

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making the jailor herself a prisoner. Then, to be free from the bondage of Mahasegn, both Udayan and Vasavadutta escape into Cowsambie with the hearty assistance of her other brother Vicurna, her captive princess Munjoolica, and others. This prestige-hurting event increased the wrath of Mahasegn, who suddenly sent his forces to capture Udayan again, but in vain. Meanwhile Gopalaca consoles him with wise words —

"No dishonour tarnishes the deed

But as a hero with a hero's child

Has Vuthsa seized the girl. We planned a snare,

He by a noble violence answers us.

We sought to bribe him to a vassal's state

Dangling the jewel of our house in front;

He keeps his freedom and enjoys the gem.

..................................................

Let there be love' twixt Vuthsa's house and us."

Then reconciling himself to the situation, King Mahasegn sends Gopalaca to endorse Udayan's freedom and make Vasavadutta his queen.

As usual in Sri Aurobindo's other plays, there is redemption by love here also. As both Udayan and Vasavadutta have already heard of each other and are thus mutually infatuated, the romantic audience may rather be disappointed for want of surprise or dramatic development of love between the two, except in the fact that forgetting her promise given to her father, Vasavadutta becomes fully enamoured of Udayan. There is not much suspense apart from their successful attempt to escape. '

Excepting the character of Udayan, other characters are well drawn. Even with all his heroism and prowess, he seems to be inactive in the play. To the modern mind far removed from the chivalrous days of yore it may seem unwise to accept the friendship offered by his enemy's son, much against the will of the ever-cautious Minister Yougundharayan. He is so innocent and good as to find that 'earth is honey'. But he knows his position and thus surrenders everything to Vasavadutta, except his free kingdom; he says — "No, queen.

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What's wholly mine, that wholly take. But this belongs to many other souls". On the other hand, Vasavadutta shines as a lively character. First being obedient to her father, she promises to keep Udayan as her slave and gradually subdue him to the status of vassal. But Nature conquers her and she becomes passionate. She is now prepared even to allow the wheels of Udayan's "fame go trampling over my house's head" and thus she becomes one with him in freeing themselves.

King Mahasegn is characterised as one determined to keep Udayan under subjugation by hook or crook, thus tries to make Vasavadutta his tool and is satisfied with her reply — "My duty to my country and my sire shall rule me". His queen Ungarica is presented as one helpless before his wrath, though she can understand the heart of her daughter. His sons Gopalaca and Vicurna shine by contrast in loyalty to the prestige-stricken father. Opposing the unjust conditions laid down by Mahasegn, Vicurna boldly flings remarks at him —

"Thus are vassals made?

Thus empires built? This is a shameful thing.

Release him first, then with proud war subdue."

Gopalaca, in spite of his support to his adamant father, shows wisdom in giving him a right advice in the end.

In Yougundharayan, we see a wise and cautious person with all the qualifications of a Minister. A 'wise deep-seeing statesman', he rightly expects some harm from Gopalaca (in Act I, Scene 2). Similarly, he demands bona fides of Munjoolica in Act V Scene 5 in spite of his anxiety to get some information about Udayan; he questions her —

"But who art thou and where shall be my surety

That thou art no Avunthian sent to lure

Our force into an ambush?"

Then, we get a host of minor characters duly portrayed: Koomanwath the loyal captain of Udayan's army; Rebha the sincere Governor of Ujjayinie; Munjoolica the tactful captive princess serving

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Vasavadutta; Umba her faithful handmaiden; and others.

Again Sri Aurobindo shows himself as the master of blank verse in this play also. Further, as in other plays of the playwright, the directions of movements and actions are left to the imagination of the reader here also, 

RODOGUNE

Dated February 1906, Rodogune belongs to the end of the period of Sri Aurobindo's stay at Baroda. It was posthumously published first in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1958, and also issued in book form in the same year.

This play in 5 Acts is located in Syria of the playwright's imagination, not the Syria of history and geography. Rodogune, the Parthian Princess is captured by Syria and made attendant of her queen Cleopatra. Antiochus and Timocles, the sons of Cleopatra by her first husband have been brought up in Egypt by their uncle Ptolemy. At the death of Cleopatra's second husband, they return to Syria. The selfish queen mistakes fulsome flattery for real love and rejects Antiochus. He revolts to claim the throne of Syria; and both Rodogune and Antiochus who are mutually attracted by love, join together in this venture. Timocles too falls in love with Rodogune; but temporarily he submits to the Chancellor Phayllus' cunningness and his sister Cleone's seductions. A civil war takes place between the brothers in respect of Rodogune and the throne of Syria. At last, Antiochus returns to Syria with Rodogune and gives up his claims to the throne, but not to Rodogune's love. Knowing that Timocles too is enamoured of Rodogune, Phayllus exploits the situation to meet his selfish ends and gets Antiochus secretely killed. Unable to bear the unexpected shock, Rodogune also dies. Realising the utter futility of his attempts, Timocles now turns upon Phayllus and Cleone and kills them. Thus the tragic end of the play has only Cleopatra and Timocles left to suffer for their misdeeds.

The plot is powerful and the characters of the play are well-drawn. Antiochus is a hero subjected to fate. But, he is frank and straightforward enough to climb the throne 'not by vulgar riot, not by fratricidal murder, but up the heroic steps of ordered battle,'

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Even caught in danger, he turns not his back 'lest the proud Fate avert her eyes from me'; and he likes to face a 'hero's death' if he cannot win the battle. Though brought up along with him by Ptolemy his brother Timocles is different from him and thus becomes a victim to the net spread by the wicked Phayllus and Cleone.

Cleopatra's mother-love is selfish and possessive and she resembles King Lear of Shakespeare in her behaviour towards her sons. The main attraction of the play is Rodogune herself who is 'the haunting creature of beauty and romance and tragedy.' She fully responds to Antiochus' love and in her words:—

I have no country, I have only thee.

I shall be where thou art; it is all

I know And all I wish for.

Then there are other interesting woman characters, viz., Cleone the scheming woman and Eunice the undemanding princess. Other minor characters help the movement of the story.

The play shines with some tense, dramatic situations; for example, the situation existing just after the murder of Antiochus (Act V Scene 4). Further there are many eloquent passages which will be ever-green in our memory. For example, Cleopatra to Rodogune in Act I Scene 3.

"My life begins again,

My life begins again in my dear sons

And my dead husband lives.

All's sweetly mended.

I do not wish for hatred any more.

The horrible and perilous hands of war

Appal me. 0 let our people sit at ease

..................................................

Peace, peace, let us have peace for ever more."

Antiochus to Rodogune in Act II Scene 3.

"O, play not with the hours, my Rodogune,

Why should brief man defer his joys and wait

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As if life were eternal? Time does not pause,

Death does not tarry."

As Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar remarks, "his long soliloquy (Act IV Scene 4) on the eve of his decision to return to Syria and throw himself on his brother's mercy is well-sustained."

The play abounds in crisp talk which accelerates the action.

ERIC

This play in 5 Acts was written by Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry in 1912 or 1913. Several drafts were made of some of its Acts and each carries its own later corrections. The play was first published in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, i960, and also issued in book form in the same year.

Eric is a very powerful dramatic romance which transports us to Norway of ancient times. Eric is the elected king of Norway, a veritable 'Man of Destiny'; and Swegn is his enemy. Aslaug, the sister of Swegn and Hertha his wife, come to Eric's court, dressed as dancing girls, in order to put an end to the life of Eric. But Eric falls in love with Aslaug and she cannot resist her response in spite of her determination to kill him. Even the tactful Hertha becomes helpless. In a highly exciting scene, Aslaug lifts the dagger and lowers it twice, then flings it on the ground falling on her knees at Eric's feet. Eric is bold enough to offer a chance to Aslaug to 'dance with the dagger' and fulfil her design, but love triumphs. In the ensuing battle Swegn is defeated by Eric but left alive according to his promise. Further, Eric honours him with his lost titles and wife and marries Aslaug.

Thus as Sri Aurobindo desires, all are redeemed by love. As Eric says,

"...some day surely.

The world too shall be saved from death by Love."

As Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar writes, "Love triumphs over Hate, Freya over Thor, even as Pallas Athene triumphs over Poseidon in Perseus the Deliverer."

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The whole play almost revolves round Eric and Aslaug; Swegn and Hertha just assist to further the action. Unlike Swegn, Eric is a powerful king, at the same time bold and straightforward. Even after knowing Aslaug's intended aim, he offers her a chance to 'dance with the dagger.' Aslaug's character is also well-drawn. The other characters, viz., Hardicnut, Ragnar, Gunthar and Harald pale into insignificance.

The conflict in the mind of Aslaug is well presented by her throwing of the necklace and taking it back (Act I Scene 3). The situation takes a dramatic turn in Act II, Scene 1. Eric is presented as the Man of Destiny and fate is the dominant element in the play. As Aslaug says in Act III Scene 2 "Fate orders all". Further the necklace presented to Aslaug by Eric appears to be symbolic. Aslaug rightly remarks in Act III Scene I;

"The necklace? I will bring it.

Rubies of passion! Blood-drops still of death!"

Though there is sufficient action in the play, the long Elizabethan speeches and soliloquies reduce scope for much action. The blank verse artistically employed shines throughout the play. Regarding description like 'antelope eyes' in Act I, Scene 1, and granting three demands, the playwright seems to have been influenced by Sanskrit poets and the Ramayana respectively. Whatever be other factors, there is the triumph of love in Sri Aurobindo's plays.

S. KRISHNA BHATIA

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SRI AUROBINDO ON EDUCATION DURING CHILDHOOD

THE present system of education lays over emphasis on curricular material and neglects the medium and instruments of education. Sri Aurobindo has emphasized the need of mastery of the medium of education during the early period, instead of introducing a variety of subjects from the beginning. Sufficient opportunity has to be provided to the child for acquiring the necessary command over language, which would serve as a strong foundation for subsequent learning. Such training in language is possible through the medium of books based on child-interest, which the child selects and reads of his own accord without any outside compulsion. The uninteresting spelling, grammar and reading books have to be replaced by interesting narratives, tales and stories which appeal to the imagination and fancy, facts about nature which satisfy his intellectual curiosity and the inborn spirit of inquiry. During this period, apart from the mother tongue "all other study should be devoted to the perfection of mental functions and the moral character."¹ The natural tendencies of the child have to be utilized for introducing him to the new vistas of knowledge. As Sri Aurobindo says "Every child is a lover of interesting narrative, a hero worshipper and a patriot. Appeal to these qualities in him and through them let him master without knowing it the living and human parts of his nation's history. Every child is an inquirer, an investigator, analyse, a merciless anatomist. Appeal to these qualities in him and let him acquire without knowing it the right temper and the necessary fundamental knowledge of the scientist. Every child has an insatiable intellectual curiosity and turn for metaphysical enquiry. Use it to draw him on slowly to an understanding of the world and himself. Every child has the gift of imitation and a touch of imaginative power. Use it to give him the groundwork of the faculty of the artist."²

For such education, in addition to the mastery of the mother tongue the need for training for the proper development of mental functions is imperative. Sri Aurobindo has stressed the importance of

¹ Sri Aurobindo: A System of National Education, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Education. Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education i960, p. 28.

² Ibid., p. 28.

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SRI AUROBINDO ON EDUCATION DURING CHILDHOOD

sense training as the basis for such training, as the clarity of perception depends on the accuracy and sensitiveness of the senses. This education of senses involves two stages — first the reception of correct information by the sense mind through the agency of the nerves and second the transmission of the undistorted impression from the sense mind to the intellect. This training according to Sri Aurobindo is not merely a mechanical process but is rather associated with the development of steadiness of nerves, discipline of emotions and purification of moral habits.

Training in attention and concentration by arousing the interest of the child in the objects is a pre-requisite for efficiency of sense organs. Still another significant feature of visual sense improvement pointed out by Sri Aurobindo is the drawing of objects seen as he says "It is also very desirable that the hand should be capable of coming to help the eye in dealing with the multitudinous objects of its activity so as to ensure accuracy."¹ "Imitation by hand ensures accuracy of observation. This is one of the first uses of drawing and it is sufficient in itself to make the teaching of this subject a necessary part of the training of the organs."²

The sense training serves on one hand as foundation of the education for the perfection of mental functions on which rests the capacity for all learning, and on the other hand forms the basis of the vital education by enabling the child to appreciate and create the harmony of colours and forms and the rhythm of the sounds.

Sense training as the preliminary mental education helps in accuracy and precision of observation. For the training in observation Sri Aurobindo has stressed the importance of arousing interest which would lead to spontaneous concentration of attention towards the object observed. He suggests that the study of the various aspects of science should start with observation as he says "The observation -and comparison of flowers, leaves, plants, trees, will lay the foundation of botanical knowledge without loading the mind with names and that dry set acquisition of information which is the beginning of cramming and detested by the healthy human mind when it is fresh from nature and unspoiled by unnatural habits. In the same way by the observation of stars, astronomy, by the observation of earth,

¹ Ibid., p. 36.

2 Ibid., p , 36

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stones, etc. geology, by the observation of insects and animals entomology and zoology may be founded. A little later chemistry may be started by interesting observation of experiments without any formal teaching or heaping on the mind of formulas and book knowledge."¹

Incidentally through such observation the child can be trained in comparison, contrast, classification of things, judgment of the various classes of objects, with comparison and contrast the ability for analogical reasoning is bound to develop e.g. the child may be able to draw the analogy when comparing heat produced in the body with the heat produced in burning. Opportunity for drawing analogies may be made available to him while he is comparing plants and animals.

Imagination is another aspect which has to be developed in the child. "It may be divided into three functions, the forming of mental images, the power of creating thoughts, images or imitations or new combinations of existing thoughts and images, the appreciation of soul in things, beauty, charm, greatness, hidden suggestiveness, the emotion and spiritual life that pervades the world."²

The most significant feature stressed by Sri Aurobindo in the training of observation, comparison, contrast and the other mental functions is that these faculties have first to be exercised on concrete objects and later on abstractions i.e. on words and ideas so that the child may be assisted in getting a clear understanding of exact word meanings and in distinguishing between subtle differences in the meanings of similar words and the finer differences between ideas. Through comparison, contrast, the child has also to be helped to understand the differences in the construction and rhythm of different sentences.

R. K. JOSHI

¹ Ibid p. 38-39.

² Ibid p. 40.

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REVIEWS

Gems from the Veda by M. P. Pandit, Ganesh & Company, 1973. Rs. 6.00

With at once a sense of the cosmic and the simplicity of a thirsty flame, light too intense for common sight has been brought within a natural eye field. This is an emblem of the work of Sri M. P. Pandit. Gems from the Veda is another such offering.

Show not beyond us, come. (Rig- Veda, 1.4.3)

There are several ways in which the Divine responds to the call of the ardent seeker. The response may be direct or it may be indirect. The Divine may reveal itself in flashes of illumination that are beyond the ready understanding of the human mind. This calls for a further effort on the part of the seeker to grasp and assimilate its message, an effort which may or may not be entirely successful. That is why the seer prays to the Divine to come down to him, to his attained level so that he may commune fruitfully with its consciousness, become one with it in his being.

Ascent of the lower is seconded and fulfilled by the descent of the higher.

Selections for the opening and passage to the spiritual consciousness and life are presented from Sri Aurobindo's translations with transparent commentary founded upon his interpretation. Thus, the explanations identified with his revelation of the Riks inner ' radiance provide meditative themes for an aspirant.

By the truth in their thoughts

they brought to birth the Dawn. (Rig-. Veda, 7.76.4)

The Dawn is the outbreak of the Divine Light on the being emerging out of the Night of Nescience and Ignoranee.

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It is the herald of the glories of knowledge, power and bliss to come. But this Dawn does not appear all of a sudden. Its advent has to be prepared for, conditions created in one's being and nature that make it ready for the revelation. The seeker has to open himself systematically to the reign of truth, rejecting the rule of falsehood. His mind and its activity of thinking must be filled with the movements of truth. Truth in thought, truth in feeling, truth in speech, must become normal to his life. It is only then that the Dawn consents to manifest and open the gates of Delight.

Perhaps the ultimate appreciation of the work is that in Sri Pandit's hands the brightnesses and strengths of the body of truth which has issued in a voice of light from the Source, from the Vedic Rishis, from Sri Aurobindo, has been held and given purely.

TATSAT

The Quest, The Drugs, and Yoga By S. K. Ramachandra Rao. Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore 4. Price Rs. 2.00

In this striking address on the subjective turn of humanity and the routes taken to arrive at the basic Reality of existence, the author analyses the ways of escape from the din and noise of the world and the more positive means offered by spirituality to live in the midst of the struggle for progress and peace. Inevitably he discusses the question of drugs and the claim made on their behalf as doors of perception of the inner worlds and as providing the easiest means for the exploration and conquest of the realms of the larger consciousness and being. He exposes the untenability of this claim and in pointing out the vast difference between Yoga and the cult of drugs, underlines the superficiality of the changes effected by the latter. To quote his own words:

Drug action is essentially negative. Its effect is temporary and its impact is by no means lasting. The level at which it works is

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strictly physical and the changes it involves are but chemical.

In yoga the visions are not in the nature of hallucinations; the individual is aware of his own subjectivity and can at will withdraw from the visions, unlike with drugs where the individual is a hapless victim to the hallucinations.

The purpose of all yoga is to render the mind utterly passive, to dispossess it and relax it, to loosen it from all thought-activity. Psychedelic drugs do exactly the opposite.

The senses do not function in samadhi whereas in the psychedelic experience the senses are extraordinarily active in their organisational function.

The illumination' that occurs by the drug intake is merely a shift in one's perceptual field; there is only a boundary shift in the awareness and the body-awareness does not in any way get disturbed or dissolved. Yogic illumination eliminates the body awareness altogether for without this detachment the highest purity of mind in perfect concentration (dharma-megha) is not achieved. A mere distortion of spatiotemporal perception should not be mistaken for revelation of reality or what the yoga styles as ritambhara.

Dr. Ramachandra Rao further points out that the drugs only extend — or appear to extend — the normal consciousness; they do not change the order of consciousness and even these extensions are temporary whereas the 'transcendences' in the yoga-states have the effect of steadily drawing the normal consciousness into their own state and transmuting it gradually.

A cogent exposition of the subject deserving wider publicity.

Can One be Scientific and Yet Spiritual? Swami Budhananda. Pab: Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati (U. P.) Rs. 2.00

Discussing this question in a series of talks, the author traces the developments in the realms of science and religion from the primitive times and underlines the price science had to pay at the hands of religionists for every important discovery made. Rightly he pays tribute to the un daunting spirit of the scientists who bore the brunt of the attack, especially in Europe, and records with gratitude the services rendered by science in exploding many of the superstitions

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fostered by organised religion. Citing from the utterances of some of the modern renowned scientists, he points out how the best minds among them have come to recognise that further development of science can only be possible in the light of the Wisdom of the Spirit.

We wish the writer had made a distinction between religion and spirituality. Much of what he writes regarding the services of religion and the future vistas opened by it really applies to spirituality. His effective 'imaginary dialogue' between the scientist and the religious person gains conviction only because it draws upon the spiritual experience and realisation of saints like Sri Ramakrishna Parama-hamsa.

The book concludes on the right note: "Neither 'surface scientist' nor 'surface spirituals' are going to show mankind ways of solving the problems of existence. A time has come, a new time, when we require an altogether new structure of thought, a new realism, a new idealism, and more comprehensive terms of reference to face our highly complicated problems which are today global in their setting, and bewildering in their ramifications .... Man must address himself to these tasks simultaneously — the conquest of inner and outer nature; in other words, to being spiritual and scientific in one."

M. P. PANDIT

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