Hell and Heaven

A poem by Sri Aurobindo


Hell and Heaven

In the silence of the night-time,
    In the grey and formless eve,
When the thought is plagued with loveless
    Memories that it cannot leave,

When the dawn makes sudden beauty
    Of a peevish clouded sky,
And the rain is sobbing slowly
    And the wind makes weird reply,

Always comes her face before me
    And her voice is in my ear,
Beautiful and sad and cruel
    With the azure eyes austere.

Cloudy figure once so luminous
    With the light and life within
When the soul came rippling outwards
    And the red lips laughed at sin!

Com'st thou with that marble visage
    From what world instinct with pain
Where we pay the price of passion
    By a law our hearts disdain?

Cast it from thee, O thou goddess!
    Earning with a smile release
From these sad imaginations,
    Rise into celestial peace.

Travel from the loveless places
    That our mortal fears create,
Where thy natural heavens claim thee
    And the Gods, thy brothers, wait.

Then descend to me grown radiant,
    Lighting up terrestrial ground
With the feet that brighten heaven
    When the mighty dance goes round

And the high Gods beating measure
    Tread the maze that keeps the stars
Circling in their luminous orbits
    Through the eternal thoroughfares.

All below is but confusion
    Of desires that strive and cry,
Some forbidden, some achieving
    Anguish after ecstasy.

But above our radiant station
    Is from which by doubt we fell,
Reaching only after Heaven
    And achieving only Hell.

Let the heart be king and master,
    Let the brain exult and toil;
Disbelieve in good and evil,
    God with Nature reconcile.

Therefore, O rebellious sweetness,
    Thou tookst arms for joy and love.
There achieve them! Take possession
    Of our radiant seats above.



Part VI : Baroda and Pondicherry (Circa 1902-1936) > Poems Past and Present   




How to read the color-coded changes below? 1. SABCL version : lines with any changes & specific changes 2. CWSA version : lines with any changes & specific changes

Sri-Aurobindo/books/collected-poems/hell-and-heaven.txt CHANGED
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
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  Hell and Heaven
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  In the silence of the night-time,
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- In the grey and formless eve
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+ In the grey and formless eve,
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  When the thought is plagued with loveless
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  Memories that it cannot leave,
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  When the dawn makes sudden beauty
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ With the azure eyes austere.
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  Cloudy figure once so luminous
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  With the light and life within
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  When the soul came rippling outwards
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- And the red lips laughed at sin,
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+ And the red lips laughed at sin!
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  Com'st thou with that marble visage
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  From what world instinct with pain
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  Where we pay the price of passion
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ Rise into celestial peace.
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  Travel from the loveless places
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  That our mortal fears create,
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  Where thy natural heavens claim thee
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- And the gods, thy brothers, wait.
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+ And the Gods, thy brothers, wait.
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  Then descend to me grown radiant,
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  Lighting up terrestrial ground
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  With the feet that brighten heaven
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ Is from which by doubt we fell,
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  Reaching only after Heaven
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  And achieving only Hell.
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  Let the heart be king and master,
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- Let the brain exult and toil,
47
+ Let the brain exult and toil;
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  Disbelieve in good and evil,
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  God with Nature reconcile.
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  Therefore, O rebellious sweetness,

NOTES FROM EDITOR

Circa 1902-30s. The earliest extant draft of this poem is found in the typed manuscript that contains drafts of “To the Ganges”, “To the Boers”, etc. (see above, Part Three). Around 1912 Sri Aurobindo copied the poem out by hand in a notebook. Twenty years later, his secretary Nolini Kanta Gupta typed this and the next two poems out from this notebook and presented them to Sri Aurobindo for revision. Fourteen years after that they were included in Poems Past and Present. There are one handwritten and two typed manuscripts.