Pictures of Sri Aurobindo's poems

The Godhead

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Above my head a mighty head was seen,
   A face with the calm of immortality
And an omnipotent gaze that held the scene
   In the vast circle of its sovereignty.

13.9.1939

Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: The Godhead

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The delight is to live in the Truth, to live in communion with eternity, with the true Life, the Light that never fails. It is to be free in true Liberty, the Liberty of the constant and invariable union with the divine Will.

The Mother, Questions and Answers (1929 - 1931): Happiness

Once when Sri Aurobindo was on a visit to Chandod he went to one of the temples of Kali on the bank of the Narmada. He went there because of the company. He never had felt attracted to image worship — if anything, till then he was averse to it. Now when he went to the temple he found a presence in the image. He got a direct proof of the truth that can be behind image-worship.

With my European mind I had at that time no faith in the Gods. I had gone to Karnali (near Chandod) and there are several temples there. There is one Kali temple and when I looked at the image I saw the living presence there. For the first time I believed in the presence of God.

5.12.1939

Sri Aurobindo

The idol of Mahakali, Karnali situated on the northern bank of river Narmada, near Chandod in Gujarat.

When Sri Aurobindo visited this shrine in 1906. He realised the living Presence of Kali in the image. The poem which he wrote later. The Stone Goddess, is reproduced here.

"You stand before a temple of Kali beside a sacred river and see what? — a sculpture, a gracious piece of architecture, but in a moment mysteriously, unexpectedly there is instead a Presence, a Power, a Face that looks into yours, an inner sight in you has regarded the World-Mother..."

Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga - I: The Intellect and Yoga