"Krishna" and "Shiva": Aurobindo

By: Bijay Pant Dubey 

At last I find a meaning of soul’s birth

Into this universe terrible and sweet,

I who have felt the hungry heart of earth

Aspiring beyond heaven to Krishna’s feet.

 

I have seen the beauty of immortal eyes,

And heard the passion of the Lover’s flute,

And known a deathless ecstasy’s surprise

And sorrow in my heart for ever mute.

 

Nearer and nearer now the music draws,

Life shudders with a strange felicity;

All Nature is a wide enamoured pause

Hoping her lord to touch, to clasp, to be.

 

For this one moment lived the ages past;

The world now throbs fulfilled in me at last.

 

Krishna is a poem of its type quite reflective of the Aurobindonian style of writing which is reflected in this shorter piece of writing. With Krishna, he is able to think of the soul’s birth into this universe of terrible and sweet experiences and feelings. He has come to feel the hungry heart of the earth moving beyond the heaven to touch the feet of Krishna.  A sonneteer he has concentrated upon Krishna.

He has come to know of the beauty of the immortal eyes and has heard the passion of the Lover’s flute which is but of Krishna famous for His Leela Divine, Premlila, Raaslila. The sorrow in his heart mutes when he comes to feel deathless ecstasy’s surprise.

The music sounds and resounds, vibrates and re-vibrates to encompass and encircle in and life shudders with a strange felicity. All Nature is but the lush creation of his seeking to get affection from Him.

To pick up Aurobindo and to explain, it is  very tedious to dispense with as his approach of handling or craftsmanship mesmerizes with the meditative ascension and descension and goes by the norms of craftsmanship and composition, following the set rules of prosody and rhetoric.

 

                       Shiva

On the white summit of eternity

A single Soul of bare infinities,

Guarded he keeps by a fire-screen of peace

His mystic loneliness of nude ecstasy.

But, touched by an immense delight to be,

He looks across unending depths and sees

Musing amid the inconscient silences

The Mighty Mother’s dumb felicity.

 

Half now awake she rises to his glance;

Then, moved to circling by her heart-beats’ will,

The rhythmic worlds describe that passion-dance.

Life springs in her and Mind is born; her face

She lifts to Him who is Herself, until

The Spirit leaps into the Spirit’s embrace.

 

Let us see his Shiva poem! How does he describe it to Shiva? On the white summit of eternity, a single Soul of bare infinities, He is so peaceful and serene, non-disturbed and unmindful of, laying it all to rest. His mystic loneliness is of nude ecstasy and here the line says it all that one could not have as Aurobindo’s is pure meditation and contemplation seen through the prism of yoga and yogic practices. Himself a yogi, the Lord can unto a great level, anywhere He can go wandering and purveying as His range is dimensional. The poet means to hint towards how life was born. How was the universe created? How did the creatures start getting birth? How did the seed germinate? Which came from where? When in delight, Shiva looks across unending depths and sees musing amid the unconscious silences the Mighty Mother’s dumb felicity.

The second part is a study in passion. Arisen and awakened, She rises to His glance and then moves to circling by Her heart-beats’ will giving way to the rhythmic dance of passion. Life springs in Her and the Mind is born. Her face She lifts unto Himself which is but She Herself until the Spirit mingles up in the Spirit.

 

Shiva too is a poem in consonant with the art and style of Maharshi Aurobindo which he  employs for most of his poems as the study of the classics hangs heavy over him and he draws the things from yogic reflection and transcendental meditation. The present poem too is no variation from that as it too follows it not the mythical context. The other thing is this that Aurobindo is somewhat devoid of sentimentality and emotion. His structure and feeling remain quite the same. Very often he lapses into logic and yoga.

Through a symbolic language the poet takes to Prakriti-Purusha concept, the Lingam-Yoni motif, but in a way of transcendence and that too through a language of illumination. The Shiva-Sati story also dances upon the mind’s plane while taking to it for a study. But Aurobindo sees it all in terms of Mind, Matter, Spirit and Consciousness.  

A sonneteer here he has chosen Shiva to delve deep and dwell upon meditatively following the yogic reflection. Krishna and Shiva are almost alike, shorter poems of reflection where Aurobindo has striven to transcend the heights of sadhna. A certain sense of illumination is so dazzling in his write-ups. Metaphysics is so strong in his poetry which is not so easy to grasp and grapple as a few can comprehend it.