IX         PLANES OF CONSCIOUSNESS:       STAIR OF WORLDS   The experience of, or should we rather say, disappearance in the unmanifest utter calm of the Spirit thus preceded the experience of the manifest God. Then came the vision of the possibility of man becoming God, of Nature becoming supernature. Last came the realisation of the Overmind, the important first step to the supramentalisation of man and Nature. These experiences, although apparently unconnected, were actually interlinked. The 'earthly paradise' was no mere dream now, but a sure, even if a distant, possibility. The world was to be accepted and transformed, that is, supramentalised, by stages:  

 II         'THE KINGDOM OF SUBTLE MATTER'         From the kingdom of gross matter or the material cosmos of order and harmony, though lacking "the sole timeless word", Aswapati crosses to the world of subtle material existence where "dwell earth-nature's shining origins". This is the world of physical mind, or, in other words, the world of matter shot through by the mind:         The golden issue of mind's labyrinth plots,       The riches unfound or still uncaught by our lives,       Unsullied by the attaint of mortal thought       Abide in that pellucid atmosphere.44    It is "the brilliant roof of our descending plane", it is an intermediate power-house or re

    XVII         ADVOCATUS DIABOLI AND ADVOCATUS DEI         Admittedly the experience that has gone into a poem of such magnitude may be both authentic and of profound significance. The philosophical worldview that serves as the frame-work of the poem may he both impressive and intellectually satisfying. The human drama played in the foreground may be capable of making an immediate appeal to our emotions; it may be sanctified by tradition, it may have a perennial human significance. The symbols employed in the poem may likewise hark back to the glorious childhood of the human race, the Age of the Veda, when the rishis looked out upon Nature with wonder and wild surmise and created th

  IV         'THE KINGDOMS OF THE LITTLE LIFE'         Life in its heavenly origin is no doubt a principle of pristine purity and power; but as it sinks in the mire of the earth, it cannot help sharing for the nonce somewhat of the dolour and density of the soil. For a while, then, life is inevitably yoked to "an instinct driven Ignorance", and must perforce draw the heavy chariot of pain ; only instinct and sense- perceptions rule the Kingdom of the Little Life. But 'mind' is not long in soliciting and directing life, fitfully and uncertainly at first, but presently with more concerted and ambitious aim. Mind-crowned man has made his appearance on earth , and he is rich in endowments

  VIII         'SYMBOLS'   We come at long last to a consideration of 'symbols'. The word 'symbol' like many other words ('love' for example), has suffered from promiscuous use. There are symbols, and symbols, and symbols. There are algebraic symbols, which seem to be mere abstractions; but they too are pointers towards the real. There are election symbols, a hut for one party, a pair of yoked bullocks for another, the hammer and scythe for a third, and so on. Colours, singly or in combination or in lines and patterns, have a symbolic value too, as in national flags. And words, language itself, can be symbolic. Bernard Stambler describes a symbol as, "a tool, a device for expressing a

     REFERENCES   Preface to the First Edition         1. The Hudson Review, Winter 1959-1960, p. 507.       2. Dante the Philosopher, tr. By David Moore, pp. ix-x       3. Quoted by J.B. Leishman in his Introduction to Poems 1906 to 1926       4. The Dawn Eternal, pp. 37-8       5. 18 April 1958       6. Quoted in Purani, 'Savitri': An Approach and a Study, p. 1       7. Rig Veda, V  80, 1   Sri Aurobindo: His Life and Work         1. Translated from the original Bengali by Kshitish Chandra Sen (Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, 1944, p.2)       2. Quoted in K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Sri Aurobindo, pp. 7-8.       3. The A

     III         'THE ENTRY INTO THE INNER COUNTRIES'   Savitri's problem is to penetrate appearance and reach the reality about herself. This is a spiritual quest leading to a spiritual end. The nature of the quest, the stages in the progress, and the configuration of the goal, all must defy description in everyday language, which is no more than one of the functions or manifestations of the appearance. Hence the poet is obliged to resort to a parable and to the language of symbols. The 'parable' of Savitri's search for her soul spans across several cantos, and symbol regions with their contours, laws and inhabitants are passed in review, and Savitri is shown as making her progress thr

  VI         OVERHEAD INFLUENCE IN         SRI AUROBINDO'S POETRY   We shall now turn to Sri Aurobindo's own 'experiments' in the writing of overhead poetry. Mallarmé is reported to have told Dagas: "Poetry is not written with ideas, it is written with words."70 But not mere words, not any words; words are variable and tantalising, they have looks, they have thought and sound values, and they have coils of significance; when coaxed into a particular order the current of rhythm flows through them, the ordonnance leaps to life, and the poetic line is, as it were, projected into eternity; "the secret chords of our being are awakened, we vibrate and thrill in response to it

   IV         THE TALE AND THE EPIC:        A COMPARATIVE ANALYS1S   It is this poem in seven cantos, making a total of about 700 lines in the original Sanskrit, that Sri Aurobindo has expanded and transformed into a modern English epic in twelve Books, of forty-nine cantos, spread over nearly 24,000 lines. What is omitted in the original is supplied by Sri Aurobindo in luxuriant detail (for example, the details of Savitri's 'quest' and the first meeting of Savitri and Satyavan); what is seminal or vaguely implied is elaborated with almost overwhelming effect (for example, Aswapati's Yoga and Savitri's Yoga); and what is seemingly a personal victory is invested with the overtones an

      PART II         SAVITRI         Meet ye the Dawn     as she shines wide     towards you   and with surrender      bring forward     your complete energy.       Exalted in heaven is the force to which she rises  establishing the sweetness; she makes the luminous worlds to shine forth and is a vision of Felicity.                                       Rig Veda     THE EXORDIUM   "If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey towards the stars?"