Despair on the Staircase : poem written by Sri Aurobindo in October 1939. “Cats, too, were along with us,” wrote Pujalal, an Ashramite since August 1926, “bright recipients of the bountiful grace of Sri Aurobindo…. \\Next Para// It started like this. A cat persisted in her desire to adopt His house, & although other house-members were at pains not to allow her there, she remained resolute in her will and won. \\NP// Sri Aurobindo thought of working upon cat-consciousness also, & this cat-sādhikā found a home for herself & her progeny. \\NP// It may need a long chapter for dealing with this cat-colony…. I will, therefore, limit myself to one, Bushy by name, one who is immortalized by Sri Aurobindo, the Master-Poet in His poem “Despair on the Staircase”. \\NP// Bushy was a great devotee of the Mother & the Master. She had made it a rule of her life to follow the Mother like a faithful dog, whenever She came down either for the giving of Her soup-prasād or for general meditation. Bushy’s greatest ambition or rather aspiration was to carry her kittens to the Mother & if possible to the Master to be laid at Their feet as her offering. \\NP// It was for this reason that she kept her young ones under the corner-cupboard, halfway up the stairs. From here as soon as the door opened & the Mother came out, she would carry them & lay them at Her feet. It was, indeed, a touching sight. How even a cat aspired to make her offering of her dear ones to the divine Mother! \\NP// And this was not all. She yearned to lay her offering at the Master’s feet also. But before one could reach Sri Aurobindo’s room there was first the main entrance door to be negotiated & then there was a wooden partition over 7 feet high. So at night when the Master was alone & the Mother in the meditation hall, Bushy would wait at the stairs to take her chance & at the first opportunity jump in with her kitten in her mouth & again jump over the wooden partition, & perhaps have the Master’s darshan, but I don’t know whether she laid her baby at His feet or not. \\NP// Sri Aurobindo in His stroll at night must have seen her waiting on the topmost stair at the entrance door, ardently desiring to enter, but being refused the opportunity, showing her pose of self-respect worthy of a cat belonging to the Divine. \\NP// There she was in despair, magnificently upholding her dignity…. He looked upon all beings as forms of the One Brahman, & in this particular case clearly indicated that there was in her cat-body a future woman too. [“A Few Reminiscences”, Breath of Grace, Ed. M.P. Pandit, 1972]
... From St. Helena went, perhaps to Heaven. Thus wagged on the surreal world, until A scientist played with atoms and blew out The universe before God had time to shout. Despair on the Staircase Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, An image of magnificent despair; The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise Wakes in the largeness of her glorious eyes. ... of Mr. Lal's imaginarily "unconquered flag". And when we look back at Sri Aurobindo writing poetry nearly four decades before Independence and confronting not a feline problem as in Despair on the Staircase but one before which he still might wonder "whether she is spirit" or "woman" we find what we may term a magical realism which is the very opposite of nebulousness in a pejorative sense or ...
... Helena went, perhaps to Heaven. Thus wagged on the surreal world, until A scientist played with atoms and blew out The universe before God had time to shout. DESPAIR ON THE STAIRCASE Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, An image of magnificent despair; The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise Wakes in the largeness of her glorious eyes.... Mr. Lai's imaginarily "unconquered flag". And when we look back at Sri Aurobindo writing poetry nearly four decades before Independence and confronting not a feline problem as in Despair on the Staircase but one before which he still might wonder "whether she is spirit" or "woman" we find what we may term a magical realism which is the very opposite of nebulousness in a pejorative sense ...
... Lyrical Poems from Manuscripts (Circa 1934-1947) Collected Poems Despair on the Staircase Know more > Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, An image of magnificent despair; The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise Wakes in the largeness of her glorious eyes. In her beauty's dumb significant pose I find The tragedy of her mysterious ...
... How you may kick and howl and rage and shout, Making a row about your daily platter. "To be aware of self is liberty, Self I have got and, having self, am free." 1 ' (3) Despair on the Staircase: Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, An image of magnificent despair; The grandeur of a sorrowful surmise Wakes in the largeness of her glorious eyes. ...
... One handwritten manuscript. The Cosmic Man. 15 September 1938. One handwritten manuscript. The Island Sun . 13 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Despair on the Staircase . October 1939. Three handwritten manu-scripts. The Dwarf Napoleon . 16 October 1939. Three handwritten manu-scripts. The Children of Wotan . 30 August 1940. Two handwritten ...
... Page 733 Cry of the ocean's surges 653 The Death of a God [1] 665 The Death of a God [2] 666 Descent 578 The Descent of Ahana 495 Despair on the Staircase 639 A Dialogue 286 Discoveries of Science 596 The Divine Hearing 622 Divine Sense 24 Divine Sight 623 The Divine Worker 612 A Doubt 186 ...
... Bushy also attended the soup ceremony and meditations. She would carry her new-born kittens to Mother and the Master and lay them at their feet. Aurobindo's poem “Despair on the Staircase” refers to her.—See Pujalal's “A Few Reminiscences” in Breath of Grace , pp. 80-82. ...
... concluding with the prophecy: The mighty perish in their might; The slain survive the slayer. But, perhaps, the most enjoyable of the shorter poems is Despair on the Staircase which seems to have unaccountably strayed from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats: Page 44 Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, An ...
... animal creation were not alienated from human beings in Mirra's scheme of things. And Sri Aurobindo too fed cats with fish with much solicitude, and once he was even inspired to write "Despair on the Staircase", a piece of poetry on Bushy with her majestic tail: Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair, .. , Her tail is up like an unconquered flag, Its dignity knows not the ...
... 629, 633 The Hour of God 706-7 Poems: The Rishi 52 A God's Labour 94, 347-8. 382, 390 Trance in Waiting 112 Descent 112 Bird of Fire 170, 385-6 Invitation 202 Despair on the Staircase 220 Thought the Paraclete 313, 381, 386 Rose of God 381-2, 386 The Divine Hearing 383-4 In Horis Aeternum 385 Page 922 Trance 386 The Life Heavens 386 ...
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