Excerpts from Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo We have various guesses about your previous lives. The other day I happened to ask Nolini whether you were Shakespeare. He was diffident. My own belief is that you have somehow amalgamated all that was precious in those forces that manifested as Homer, Shakespeare, Valmiki, Dante, Virgil and Milton: if not all, at least the biggest of the lot. Kindly let us know the truth. Among your other and non-poetic incarnations, some surmise Alexander and Julius Caesar. "Good Heavens, all that! You have forgott

Poet and Pioneer in Consciousness Literature LITERATURE is the most flexible and creative self-expression of a people; for it conveys to us in varied ways the message and import of the inner self in its many manifestations. Its greatness lies in the worthiness of its substance, in the strength and value of its thought and the choice of its proper forms. In its highest form and expression, literature tries to "bring out and raise the soul and life or the living and the ideal mind of a people, an age, a culture, through the genius of some of its greatest or most sensitive representative spirits"1. Literature truly can

-24_Sethna on Mallarme^s Symbolist poetry.htm Sethna on Mallarmé's Symbolist poetry MALLARMÉ, the founder of the Symbolist Movement, presented poetry as different from ordinary reportage. He preferred to clothe his verses in deliberate shadow, never alluding to any object by mere words. It is no wonder that such a poet attracted Sri Aurobindo's comment and appreciation. Sethna's research in Mallarmé's symbolist poetry entitled The Obscure and the Mysterious deserves our attention by his painstaking analyses, commentaries and translations which recommend Mallarmé not only to non-French foreign readers but to Indian readers as well. His interesting in-depth analysis of

Amal Kiran: Sadhak, Poet, Friend I WAS introduced to Amal Kiran in the first days of August 1971.  In the intervening 23 years I have met him more or less weekly... sometimes more, occasionally less often.  23 x 52 = 1196 - say 1200 hours... not counting sleeping time, this amounts to only 100 waking days, just over 3 months. Such a statistic does nothing to convey the immense amount of support, encouragement, inspiration and guidance for which I owe him a still-accumulating debt of gratitude.  How to speak about all I have received from and through him? SADHAK First and foremost Amal has been a living example to me

-42_K D Sethna^s Profession of Poetry.htm K.D. Sethna's Profession of Poetry We reproduce in the following a few excerpts from K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar's writings on some of the works of K.D. Sethna.-Editors AN ACCOMPLISHED craftsman in verse, K.D. Sethna has been following the profession of poetry with a sense of dedication for nearly half a century.  Artist Love (1925) was followed by The Secret Splendour (1941) and The Adventure of the Apocalypse (1949).  Like Nirodbaran, Sethna too has been profoundly influenced by the poetry and spiritual philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, and, besides, Sethna has drunk deep in the springs of English and European poetry. Grace could

High Adventure in Historiography: the Historical Vision of K.D. Sethna SRI AUROBINDO, .the seer of modern India, blazed new trails in several worlds of human enterprise and had followers of signal eminence in many of them. Some made their mark in more than one sphere of activity. Integral Yoga and Overhead Poetry arc two such areas in which a number of luminaries have left their mark. No follower of Sri Aurobindo, however, has not only penetrated these areas but also ventured into territories such as science and history. Here is where K.D. Sethna, or Amal Kiran as he was named by his Master, stands distinctly apart. This remarkable mind

A Craving for Thorough Perfection "The Muse is again away" — complains Amal Kiran to Sri Aurobindo. And to invoke her grace the "method" the Master proposes is to "turn upward and inward". — Editors The Muse is again away and I am feeling impatient. Can't you give me some due about the direction of consciousness by which I may draw her back to me or reach out to her ? But, of course, I want the highest and I want a thorough perfection. Perhaps I am too careful and self-critical ? But that is my nature as an artist. Has it got something to do with the Muse's flight from me ? In any case, the experience of uncreativenes

A New Landmark in English Poetry* A Review-Article SOME years ago, in a series of illuminating essays, published in the journal Arya under the title "The Future Poetry", Sri Aurobindo discussed the nature and evolution of future poetry. As the most significant poetic trend in recent times in this development he picked out the attempt to cast off the more externalised forms of poetic expression and to seek for a pure and authentic intuitive language, to bring forth the living truths of the inmost spiritual being, to reveal its light and vision, not in the inadequate speech of the surface mind but in the inspired and revelat

Inner Sight and Inner Song Nirodbaran's Achievement in Mystical Poetry The following article by Amal Kiran on Nirodbaran's poetry, written years ago, is being published, it is understood, in the author's forthcoming book Inspiration and Effort. We reproduce the same here. As reviewer of a poetry book this is perhaps a unique example of his literary writings. — Editors DOCTORS have been good novelists: there are enough unusual incidents of human value in their clinical experience to make arresting stories under the selective surgery of a realistic imagination. But rare is the doctor who turns poet. A Dr. Cronin is conceiv

-33_The Triumphant Call of Sethna^s Poetry.htm The Triumphant Call of Sethna's Poetry A REVIEWER of The Secret Splendour is handicapped at the beginning. For, interspersed with K.D. Sethna's poems are Sri Aurobindo's own appreciative remarks, and who dare disagree with the Colossus of India's spiritual-literary renaissance?  Especially when he uses words like ‘beautiful', 'exceedingly fine' and 'magnificent' quite often ? Fortunately for us, neither Sethna nor Sri Aurobindo are clique-ridden. Ready to face criticism, yes! For Sethna knows very well that mystic poetry has to survive in a highly critical soil. Besides, this is the ruthless age of science and technolog