The Secret Splendour

SOME MATTERS OF FACT

When I joined the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry instead of completing my studies for the M.A. degree from Bombay University, I had already dabbled in verse-making. An earnest self-dedication to poetry came only under the guiding eye of the Master of the Integral Yoga and the benedictory hand of his spiritual co-worker whom the Ashram called the Mother. Their joint aim was not simply to find the illuminations and beatitudes of the inner life but also to fulfil by their aid all the high hopes of outer living and to initiate in the world a new age of human harmony. I was to be prepared for that age under a new evocative Sanskrit name from Sri Aurobindo: "Amal Kiran" - which he translated "The Clear Ray".

As a result of the poetic work done over several years as part of the attempt to practise a many-sided mysticism, a small book of selections was published with the, title, The Secret Splendour. This title has now been considered suitable to cover all the poems brought out afterwards under different captions as well as those that have remained in typescript. However, a number of pieces from the original volume have been omitted in the section bearing this name because they had been included in the later selection called "Overhead Poetry": Poems with Sri Aurobindo's Comments, which now appears in full as the second section. The rest of the books - The Adventure of the Apocalypse and Altar and Flame - have been reproduced as they were first published, except that an epilogue in prose has been added to the former.

The Adventure of the Apocalypse was the only publication to carry its contents in a chronological order. Chronology is also the guide for much of the material pat together towards the end of the volume under the general heading Uncollected Work, save for one group standing last as a Supplement with the name Eros Known and Unknown (a name already used to cover three poems in Altar and Flame).

To make the collection as complete as possible, this group subtitled "Images from Early Moods", has been added. But the question may arise: "Does it strike an unsympathetic note?" Though not always in strict line with the aspirations, insights and experiences outflowing in verse from the via mystica, it yet carries in one mode or another a visionary vein which may be considered

Page xxxi

as straining, however distantly and with whatever secular themes, towards the secret splendour of he spiritual pursuit. Besides, there are already chords in the other sections which are in what may be called transforming tune with a background presence of the known Eros.

Preceding this group come the precious comments made by Sri Aurobindo other than those already a part of "Overhead Poetry" and of the prose section at the end of The Apocalypse. These comments have not been obtruded on the reader in the main body of the book so that he may form his own opinion rather than be influenced by what my Guru has said.

In an appendix to the collection the titles have been arranged in an alphabetical order, followed by an alphabetical index of first lines.

It is highly gratifying to me that without reading Sri Aurobindo's remarks an Englishwoman of wide culture from outside India, though inwardly in deep connection with the Ashram, has come forward on her own to propose and sponsor the present volume, making me her most grateful debtor.

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust was responsible for the first appearance of "Overhead Poetry" is a research-project of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, and the Sri Aurobindo Circle of Bombay for that of The Adventure. Altar and Flame owes its debut to "Aspiration", Charlotteville, Virginia. My cordial thanks are due to all these publishers for granting me permission to reproduce my books.

18.6.93

K. D. SETHNA (AMAL KIRAN)

Page xxxii