Chaitanya and Mira

Appendix

LETTERS OF SRI AUROBINDO

My aim in writing or in encouraging others to write is not personal glory, but to arrive at the expression of spiritual truth and experience of all kinds in poetry.... You are right when you say that up till now the English people have not favoured Indian poets writing verse in English; but the mind of the future will be more international than it is today. In that case the expression of various temperaments in English poetry will have a chance.

*

(In reply to a highbrow critic friend. A.)... It is not true in all cases that one can't write first-class things in a learned language. Both in French and English people to whom the language was not native have done remarkable work although that is rare. What about Jawaharlal's autobiography? Many English critics think it first-class in its own kind; of course he was educated at an English public school, but I suppose he was not born to the language? Some of Toru Datt's poems, Sarojini's, Harin's have been highly placed by good English critics, and I don't think that we need be more queasy than Englishmen themselves. Of course there were special circumstances; I don't find that you handle the English language like a foreigner. If first-class excludes everything inferior to

Shakespeare and Milton, that is another matter. I think, as time goes on people will become more and more polyglot and these mental barriers will begin to disappear.

My view of your poetry is different from A's. Some of your poems have seemed to me to be of a high order and some, specially recent ones, really fine and distinctive in thought and style and if you go on improving your height and power of expression, as you have recently done, I don't see why you shouldn't write first class things if you have not done that already. In spite of A, I would regard it as a sort of psychic calamity, if you stopped in the good way at anybody's suggestion. If for nothing else they would be worth doing as an expression of bhakti (the Indian kind) which in English poetry has had till now no place.

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(Author's note: The last two paragraphs Sri Aurobindo wrote to me in a letter dated October i, 1943. Thereafter I have made bold to use two Sanskrit words; lila which means cosmic play and bhakti which means devotion, love, adoration. I have used the word Raasa which Sri Aurobindo explains in a footnote to his famous poem Ahana: "The dance-round of Krishna with the cowherdesses

in the moonlit groves of Brindavan, type of the dance of Divine Deligit with the souls of men liberated in the world of Bliss secret within us-")

Dilip,

I hive just finished hearing the Second Act of your drama on Sri Chaitanya; there is much fine poetry in it and the dramatic interest of the dialogue and of the presentation of character seems to me considerable. We have not had time yet to read the last Act;

we shall do that tomorrow and then I can write about your drama with more finality. As for the historical question, I do not consider/ that any objections which might be raised from that standpoint would have much value. Poetry, drama, fiction also are not bound to be historically accurate; they cannot indeed develop themselves successfully unless they deal freely with any historical material they may choose to include or take for their subject. One can be faithful to history if one likes but even then one has to expand and deal creatively with characters and events, otherwise the work will come to nothing or little. In many of his dramas Shakespeare takes names from history or local tradition, but uses them as he chooses;

he places his characters in known countries and surroundings but their stories are either his own inventions or the idea only is bor- rowed from facts and the rest is his own making: or else he indulges in pure fantasy and cares nothing even for geographical accuracy or historical possibility. It is true that sometimes he follows closely the authorities he had at his disposal, such as Holinshed or another and in plays like Julius Caesar he sticks to the main events and keeps many of the details, but not so as to fetter the play of his imagina- tion. So C don't think you need care at all about either historians or biographers, even if Chaitanya Charitamrita could be regarded as a biography. That is all, I think, for the present. I shall write again after hearing the Third Act of your drama.

2I-I-I950 SRI AUROBINDO

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Dilip,

We have finished reading your Chaitanya. The Third Act which is the most remarkable of the three confirms the impression already made by the other two of a very fine and successful play outstanding in its dramatic interest and its thought substance. The Third Act is original in its design and structure, especially its idea, admirably conceived and worked out, of a whole scene of action with many persons and much movement shown in the vision of a single charac- ter sitting alone in her room; it was difficult to work out but it has fitted in extremely well. It has also at the same time a remarkable combination of the three unities of the Greek drama into which this distant scene, though not too distant, manages to dovetail very well, — the unity of one place, sometimes one spot in the Greek play or a small restricted area, one time, one developing action completed in that one time and spot, an action rigorously developed and unified in its interest. Indeed, the play as a whole has this unity of action in a high degree.

Advocates of the old style drama might object to the great length of the discussions as detrimental to compactness and vividness of dramatic interest and dramatic action and they might object too that the action (though this does not apply to the Jagai-Madhai episode) is more subjective and psychological than the external objective succession

of happenings or interchanges represented on a stage would seem to demand; this was the objection to Shaw's most characteristic

and important plays. But where the dramatic interest is itself of a subjective and psychological character involving more elaboration

of thought and speech than of rapid or intensive happening and activities, this kind of objection is obviously invalid; what matters is how the subjective interest, the play or development of ideas, or if high ideas are involved that call to the soul how their appeal is presented and made effective. Here it is great spiritual ideals and their action on the mind and lives of human beings that are put before us and all that matters is how they are presented and made living in their appeal. Here there is, I think, full success and that entirely justifies the method of the drama.

For the rest, I have only heard once rapidly read the play in three Acts and it is not possible with that short reading to pass judgment on details of a purely literary character, so on that I can only give my personal impression. A drama has to accommodate itself to different levels and intensities of expression proper to the circumstances and

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different characters, moods and events: but here too, I think, the handling is quite successful. I believe the verdict must be, from every point of view, an admirable "Chaitanya."

23-I-I950 SRI AUROBINDO

Dilip,

An Avatar, roughly speaking, is one who is conscious of the

Presence and Power of the Divine bom in him or descended into him and governing from within his will and life and action; he feels identified inwardly with this Divine Power and Presence.

A Vibhuti is supposed to embody some power of the Divine and is enabled by it to act with great force in the world, but that is all that is necessary to make him a Vibhuti: the power may be very great but the consciousness is not that of an inborn or indwelling Divinity. This is the distinction we can gather from the Gita which is the main authority on this subject. If we follow this distinction, we can confidently say from what is related of them that Rama and Krishna can be accepted as Avatars; Buddha figures as such al- though with a more impersonal consciousness of the Power within him. Ramakrishna voiced the same consciousness when he spoke of Him who was Rama and who was Krishna, being within him. But Chaitanya's case is peculiar; for according to the accounts he ordinarily felt and declared himself a bhakta of Krishna and nothing more, but in great moments he manifested Krishna, grew luminous in mind and body and was Krishna himself and spoke and acted as the Lord. His contemporaries saw in him an Avatar of Krishna, a manifestation of the Divine Love.

Shankara and Vivekananda were certainly Vibhutis; they cannot

be reckoned as more, though as Vibhutis they were very great.

SRI AUROBINDO

Dilip,

It was not my intention to question in any degree Chaitanya's position as an Avatar of Krishna and the Divine Love. That character

of the manifestation appears very clearly from all the accounts about him and even, if what is related about the appearance of Krishna in him from time to time is accepted, these outbursts of the splendour of the Divine Being are among the most remarkable

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in the story of the Avatar. As for Ramakrishna, the manifestation

in him was not so intense but more many-sided and fortunately there can be no doubt about the authenticity of details of his talk and actions since they have been recorded from day to day by so competent an observer as M. I would not care to enter into any comparison as between these two great spiritual personalities;

both exercised an extraordinary influence and did some- thing supreme in their own sphere.

2-2-1950 SRI AUROBINDO

"But also the higher divine consciousness of the Purushottama may itself descend into the humanity and that of the Jiva disappear into it. This is said by his contemporaries to have happened in the occasional transfigurations of Chaitanya when he who in his normal consciousness was only the lover and devotee of the Lord and rejected

all deification, became in these abnormal moments the Lord himself and so spoke and acted, with all the out flooding light and love and power of the divine Presence."

(Essays on the Gita, Vol. I, "THE PROCESS OF AVATARHOOD")

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NOTES BY THE AUTHOR

Page 9. I have been forced to introduce the Indian word, lila, (here as well as later, again and again) meaning the cosmic play of the Divine. The great Irish Poet A.E. had to introduce in his Yogic poems a number of such words because — to quote from a letter he wrote to me years ago:

"English is a great language but it has very few words relating to spiritual ideas. For example, the word karma in Sanskrit em- bodies a philosophy. There is no word in English embodying the same idea. There are many words in Sanskrit charged with meanings which have no counterpart in English (dhyani, sushupti, turiya etc.) and I am sure the language the Hindus speak today must be richer in words fitting for spiritual expression than English, in which there are few luminous words that can be used when there is a spiritual emotion to be expressed. I found this difficulty myself of finding a vocabulary though English is the language I heard about my cradle."

Fortunately for us, English is a remarkably hospitable language and has already accepted Sanskrit words like karma, maya, dharma, amrita, Brahma, mantra if not lila, bhakti, pranam, japa, mukti, bhava, ananda, samskara which, as A.E. rightly says, have no counterparts in English. But as — to quote Sri Aurobindo, the Poet- Seer — "the mind of the future will be more international than it is now" when "the expression of various temperaments will have a chance" — I feel that we have a right to use new words and thus help enlarge the English vocabulary, as Sri Aurobindo, Sarojini Naidu and many others have done. (Sri Aurobindo has used words like ras, apsara, etc.; Sarojini — tilak, koel etc. Koel has since passed into English usage though words like tilak, ras, lila etc. have not. But they will, when, in the near future, Indian poets will have received their due recognition as real creative poets in English.)

Page 19. The opening hymn is translated from an ancient Sanskrit couplet, a hymn to the Sungod:

Javakusumasamkasham kashyapeyam mahadyutim

Dhwantarim sarvapapaghnam pranato'smi divakaram

Page 21. Murari's hymn is translated (freely) from Chandi (Sans- krit):

Yadatra pathe jagadambike maya

visarga-bindvaksharahinamiritam

Tadastu sampurnatamam prasadatah

Samkalpasiddhishcha sadaiva jayatam

Page 21. "He who is ... disdains": translated from the Sanskrit ofKalidasa, the couplet refers to the greatness of Lord Shiva (Ku- marasambhavam):

Atmeshvaranam na hi jatu bighnah samadhibheda-prabhavo bhavanti

Page 22. Panini, who is referred to again and again, is acknow- ledged by all as the greatest grammarian of Sanskrit. Keshav's making a fetish of him is characteristic of many a Bengali pundit as was humourously brought out by the great dramatist Dwijendralal Roy of Bengal in his famous drama, Chandragupta, in the cha- racter of the pundit, Katyayana.

Page 25. Apsara: a dancing girl of Paradise endowed with sur- passing beauty and unfading youth.

Page 26. "OGoddess ... again": translated from Chandi's Sans- krit couplet:

Ya devi sarvabhuteshu kshantirupena samsthita

Namastasyai namastasyai namastasyai namo namah

Page 30. "A fool shines... speech": from a Sanskrit proverb:

Tavachcha shobhate murkho yavat kinchinna bhashate

Page 34. "O Blaze of Fire... imagination": translated, some- what freely, from the eleventh chapter of the Gita in the following order: Couplets 19, i6, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31.

Page 34. "Thou belongs!... to Me": translated from the Maha- bharata:

Mamaiva tvam tavaivahamye madiyastavaiva te

Yastvam dveshti sa mam dveshti yastvam anu sa mom anu

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Page 35. "Renown nor wealth... love": translated from Sri

Chaitanya's own couplet:

Na dhanam na janam na sundarim

Kavitam va Jagadisha kamaye

Mama janmanishvare

Bhavatad bhaktirahaituki tvayi.

Page 37. "Pearls never... them": from Kalidasa's Kumarasam- bhavam:

Na ratnamanvishyati mrigyate hi tat Saraswati — the Goddess of learning, art, music, etc.

Page 42. "Even death ... dharma": from the Gita:

Svadharme nidhanam shreyah paradharmo bhayabahah

Page 44. "It trudges... scent": from a famous Sanskrit proverb:

Ushtro yatha chandanabharavahi bharasya vetta na tu chandanasya

Page 49. "All... Brahman": from Chhandogya Upanishad:

Sarvam khalvidam Brahma

"What is here ... traced": from Katha Upanishad:

Yadeveha tadamutra yadamutra tadanviha

Page 49. "Krishna is ... peaks": from a famous Sanskrit pronun- ciamento:

Jale Krishnah sthale Krishnah Krishnah parvata-mastake

Page 50. "You may discuss... attained": from a couplet in Shankaracharya's Viveka-chudamani:

Na gachchhati vina panam vyadhiroushadha-shabdatah

Vina parokshanubhavam Brahma shabdairna muchyate

Page 53. The opening song is translated from a famous, ancient Sanskrit hymn :

Tvameva mata cha pita tvameva

Tvameva bandhushcha sakha tvameva

Tvameva vidya dravinam tvameva

Tvameva sarvam mama devadeva

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Page 73. "A pauper am I... Friend": from the Bhagavat:

Nishkinchana vayam shashvata nishkinchanjanapriyah

Page 79. "Whether He ... shall be": amplified from Sri Chai- tanya's own famous quatrain in Sanskrit:

Ashlishya va padaratam pinashtu mam

Adarshanan marmahatam karotu va

Yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato

Matprananathastu sa eva naparah

Page 80. Vaikuntha: The Abode of Lord Vishnu.

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