Overhead Poetry

The Hierarchy of Being

Abysmal shadow of the summit-soul—

Self-blinding grope toward the Sorrowless—

Trance-core of labyrinthine outwardness—

Visage of gloom with flowering aureole.

Streak on gold streak wounding the illusive night—

Miraculous monarchy of eagled gaze—

Eternal truth's time-measuring sun-blaze—

Lonely omnipotence locked in self-light.

Sri Aurobindo's Comment

"I can hardly say—it is quite clear to me, but I don't know what would happen to the ordinary reader. It is a fine poem, the last stanza remarkable."

*

(Now I pick up the overhead theme at its culmination, the supreme plane whose forefront is the Supermind and which bears behind the Supermind the Ananda or Delight-plenitude, the Chit-Tapas or fullness of Consciousness-Force, the Sat or status of immeasurable Existence—yes, I take the supreme manifesting plane and regard it as still less than the very being of the Absolute, the utter unfathomable all-sufficient Divine. But have I poetically succeeded ? Are not my lines somewhat stiff in expression and rhythm?)

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