All poems in English including sonnets, lyrical poems, narrative poems, and metrical experiments in various forms.
Poems
This volume consists of all poems in English including sonnets, lyrical poems, narrative poems, and metrical experiments in various forms. All such poems published by Sri Aurobindo during his lifetime are included here, as well as poems found among his manuscripts after his passing. Sri Aurobindo worked on these poems over the course of seven decades. The first one was published in 1883 when he was ten; a number of poems were written or revised more than sixty years later, in the late 1940s.
THEME/S
These three poems have an unusual history. They form part of a manuscript containing material apparently intended for three issues of the Karmayogin. This manuscript also contains articles on yoga, historical studies, satirical sketches, and pieces headed “Passing Thoughts”, which was the name Sri Aurobindo gave to his weekly column in the Karmayogin early in 1910. (See the Note on the Texts to Early Cultural Writings, volume 1 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, for more information on this “Chandernagore Manuscript”.) In the middle of February 1910, Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Chandernagore, where he remained for six weeks before departing for Pondicherry. It would appear that he left the manuscript containing these poems behind in Chandernagore, that someone there made copies of the poems and other contents of the manuscript, and that at some point the original manuscript was sent to him in Pondicherry. (See Arun Chandra Dutt, ed., Light to Superlight [Calcutta: Prabartak Publishers, 1972],p. 207.) In 1920-21 defective texts of the poems (as well as some of the other contents of the manuscript) were published in the Standard Bearer, a journal brought out from Chandernagore. Sometime after their publication, Sri Aurobindo revised the Standard Bearer texts. In 1942, the Standard Bearer versions were given to Sri Aurobindo for further revision before inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays. Evidently he and the editors of the volume had by this time forgotten about the existence of the original manuscripts. These manuscripts, however, are superior to the defective Standard Bearer texts and also to the 1942 version, which is based on those texts. The editors of the present volume have therefore based the texts printed here on the original manuscripts, incorporating the deliberate changes made by Sri Aurobindo in 1942. The texts printed in Collected Poems and Plays are included in the Reference Volume.
Know more >
(The Rakshasa, the violent kinetic Ego, establishes his claim to mastery of the world replacing the animal Soul,—to be followed by controlled and intellectualised but unregenerated Ego, the Asura. Each such type and level of consciousness sees the Divine in its own image and its level in Nature is sustained by a differing form of the World-Mother.)
"Glory and greatness and the joy of life, Strength, pride, victorious force, whatever man Desires, whatever the wild beast enjoys, Bodies of women and the lives of men, I claim to be my kingdom. I have force My title to substantiate, and I seek No crown unearned, no lordship undeserved. Ask what austerity Thou wilt, Maker of man, Expense of blood or labour or long years Spent in tremendous meditations, lives Upon Thy altar spent of brutes or men, Or if with gold Thy favour purchasable I may command, rich offerings to glut Thy temples and Thy priests. I have a heart, A hand for any mighty sacrifice, A fiery patience in my vehement mood; I will submit. But ask not this of me, Meek silence and a pale imprisoned soul Made colourless of its humanity; Ask not the heart that quakes, the hand that spares. What strength can give, not weakness, that demand. O Rudra, O eternal Mahádev, Thou too art fierce and mighty, wrathful, bold, Snuffing Thy winds for blood of sacrifice, And angrily Thou rul'st a prostrate world. O Rákshasa Almighty, look on me,
Page 321
Rávan, the lord of all Thy Rákshasas, Give me Thy high command to smite Thy foes; But most I would afflict, chase and destroy Thy devotees who traduce Thee, making Thee A God of love, a God too sweet to rule. I have the knowledge; what Thou art, I know, And know myself, for Thou and I are one." So prayed the Lord of Lunca, and in Heaven Sri Krishna smiled, the Friend of all mankind, A smile of sweetness and divine delight, And asked, "O Masters of the knowledge, Seers Who help me by your thoughts to help mankind, Hearken what Rávan cries against the stars, Demanding earth for heritage. Advise, Shall he then have it?" And a cry arose, "He would root out the Brahmin from the earth, Impose his dreadful Yoga on mankind, And make the violent heart, the iron hand Sovereign of all." Sri Krishna made reply, "From out Myself he went to do My will. He has not lied, he has the knowledge. He And I are one. How then shall I refuse? Does it not say, the Veda that you know, When one knows That, then whatso he desires, It shall be his'?" And Atri sage replied, "Let him then rule a season and be slain." And He who reigns, "Something you know, O Seers, Not all My purpose. It is long decreed, The Rákshasa shall rule the peopled earth. He takes the brute into himself for man, Yielding it offerings, while with grandiose thoughts And violent aspirations he controls; He purifies the demon in the race, Slaying in wrath, not cruelty. Awhile He puts the Vánara out of the world, Accustoming to grandeur all mankind;
Page 322
The Ifrit1 he rejects. Were he denied His period, man could not progress. But since He sees himself as Me, not Me in him, And takes the life and body for the whole, He cannot last. Therefore is Atri's word Accepted." And before the Rákshasa, Out of the terror of the sacrifice, Naked and dark, with a blood-dripping sword And dreadful eyes that seemed to burn the world, Kálí the Rákshasí in flames arose. "Demand a boon!" she cried, and all the gods Trembled. "Give me the earth for my delight, Her gods to be my slaves," the Giant cried, "Of strength and passion let me have my fill, Of violence and pride." "So let it be," She answered. "Shall it be eternal then?" Rávan demanded and she thundered, "No! For neither thou nor I are best nor last. The Asurí shall rise to fill my place, The Asura thy children shall dethrone. An aeon thou hast taken to evolve, An aeon thou shalt rule. But since thy wish I have denied, ask yet another boon." "Let this be mine, that when at last I sink, Nor brute nor demon, man nor Titan's hand, Nor any lesser creature shall o'erthrow, But only God Himself compel my fall." And Kálí answered, smiling terribly, "It is decreed," and laughing loud she passed. Then Rávan from his sacrifice arose.
Page 323
Home
Sri Aurobindo
Books
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.