field. He carried them forth, perfected them to a certain extent and laid the way for further
improvements and possibilities.
It may be concluded that the highest and the essential aim of poetry is not achievable at once.
The poet has to go through successive steps to reach the ultimate. English poetry has also traveled long,
yet it has not arrived at the “highest intensity of the revelatory poetic word from which the Mantra
starts.” (CWSA 26: 26). Sri Aurobindo, through his spiritual experiences and experiments in the field of
poetry, has uncovered the deeper vision where the revelatory word passes from pleasure of the mind
and senses to the pure spiritual revelation. In his hands poetry not only evolved and progressed towards
its aim but also achieved the pure spiritual Ānanda through his creative and revelatory poetic Word. It
may be summarized in Prema Nandkumar’s words that “of very few thinkers and poets can it be said, as
it can be of Sri Aurobindo, that their most characteristic thought and poetry are an expression of their
own unique spiritual experiences and realizations.” (A Study of Savitri: 337)
Chapter 4
“Aesthetics”, “Aesthesis” and the Formation of the “Mantra” in
Sri Aurobindo’s Poetry and Poetics
Beauty is the special divine manifestation in the physical as Truth in the mind,
Love in the heart, Power in the vital. (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA 27: 699)
Beauty is the way in which the physical expresses the Divine – but the principle
and law of Beauty is something inward and spiritual and expresses itself through
the form. (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA 27: 699)
Delight is the soul of existence, beauty the intense impression the concentrated
form of delight. (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA 26: 254)
“Aesthetics” is “the study of beauty, especially in art” (Longman Dictionary). This
definition specifies the scope of the term. It is known as the science, philosophy or art of
appreciating beauty in a work of art. In Literature ‘aesthetics’ has assumed a large connotation
and this term is simultaneously used with literary criticism or appreciation. T. N. Sreekantaiyya
makes a sharp distinction between rhetoric, poetics and aesthetics. “Rhetoric or the science of
figures (Alamkārasastra) which analyses the form, structure and verbal felicities of writing and
speaking and Poetics (kāvyamimānsa) which expounds the essence of poetry, the manner of its
composition etc., and Aesthetics which deals with the nature of beauty which is common
element not only of all the fine arts but is also seen in God’s creation…” (4). By definition
aesthetics pertains to beauty, hence it will be used in relation to beauty alone in this chapter.
One of the major elements of study in any work of art has been beauty. Poetry has
centered itself on expressing a thought beautifully with the help of words, rhythm, rhyme,
imagery and symbols and aesthetics engages in identifying the elements that make poetry
beautiful. What is the importance of beauty? Where does beauty lie? Is it subjective or
universal? How to find the beautiful in literature? Whether the beautiful is only physical or is it
something abstract? Is it tangible or intangible? Many questions may be posed before a single
concept of the beautiful. Different critics and aestheticians have given answers to these
questions in their own way. They have not necessarily described the subject of beauty at length
but most of the critics and aestheticians in the West and in India have responded to this
concept as it is an essential part of perceiving an object of art.
The essential clues and history of the concept of beauty have been taken from The
Indian Concept of the Beautiful, an analytical work by the critic K.S. Ramaswamy Sastri and
Aesthetic, an explanatory work by the aesthetician, Benedetto Croce. Few definitions and
descriptions of beauty given by the Western and the Indian Aestheticians would give an idea of
the history of aesthetics in the West and in India. The deliberations of the Western
aestheticians on beauty begins with the writings of Plato. The Greco-Roman culture encouraged
many aesthetic and literary activities to sprout and blossom. Sastri recounts Socrates’ idea of
beauty which relates to utility, good and virtue. Plato is very sensitive towards beauty. “He
taught that our love of beautiful things on the Earth was due to the search by our soul for
absolute and archetypal loveliness” (13). Aristotle said that the “order and symmetry are the
essence of Beauty” (14).
The Greek definitions on beauty, aesthetics and poetry prevailed in the western
perception for centuries till some comments were put forth by the Renaissance artists. Francis
Bacon (1561-1662) wrote an essay “On Beauty”. He says “that is the best part of Beauty which a
picture cannot express: no, nor the first sight of the eye…there is no excellent beauty that hath
not some strangeness in the proportion” (21). German philosopher H.W.G. Hegel (1770-1831)
wrote elaborately on beauty and its relation to Nature–
…the beauty of Nature comes generally into competition with that of art, we are
justified in maintaining categorically that the beauty of art stands higher than
Nature. For the beauty of art is a beauty begotten, a new birth of spirit; and to
this extent that Spirit and its creations stand higher than Nature and its
phenomena, to that extent the beauty of art is more exalted than the beauty of
Nature. (Reading Hegel: 157)
Eduard von Hartman says, - “the discovery of the beautiful and the creation of the
beautiful by man proceed from unconscious processes,” the results of which come within the
range of consciousness and are apprehended as beautiful (Sastri 17). It is the German
Aesthetician, Alexander Baumgarten who used the word aesthetics in his writings defining it as
“science of sensitive cognition” (Croce 214) The German aestheticians and philosophers gave
vivid dimensions to beauty by relating it to the Idea, showing it superior to nature (Hegel);
relating it to the invisible and intangible in art which has to be grasped and associated with
unconscious activities bringing something (art) into consciousness (Hartman).
Père André the French aesthetician distinguishes between three kinds of beauty – divine
beauty, natural beauty and artificial beautyxvi. Swiss aestheticians Rodolphe Topffer and
Adolphe Pictet had their own views about beauty. William Knight explains Topffer’s views “Beauty proceeds from our thought, but it is implanted in us by the Infinite, in whom all Beauty
resides… God is beauty and the ideas of beauty in us are divine attributes there…beauty in art
was wholly different from beauty in nature, being independent and superior.” (117) Pictet says
– “beauty is the manifestation, ‘immédiate et libre’ of the divine idea”. (qtd in Knight 119)
During the Italian Renaissance, the Italian artists – Leonardo da Vinci, Bellori, Michel Angelo,
Raphael and Rosmini had little to add to that which existed already. Geoberti relates beauty to
sublime – “the sublime creates and contains the beautiful” (qtd in Knight 150). Benedetto Croce
views aesthetic as “the science of the expressive (representative or imaginative) activity” (155).
Sri Aurobindo too defined aesthetics and elaborated about its scope,
Aesthetics is concerned mainly with beauty, but more generally with rasa, the
response of the mind, the vital feeling and the sense to a certain “taste” in things
which often may be but is not necessarily a spiritual feeling. (CWSA 27: 27)
These views on beauty greatly influenced the English Romantic poets. Many poets
before, during and after the Romantic era wrote about beauty. Keats equates beauty to truth
and writes in “Ode on a Grecian Urn” – “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”. The American
aesthetician Emerson says, “truth and goodness and beauty are but different faces of same All”.
(qtd in Sastri 26)
The definitions and views quoted above are only a few examples among the many
aestheticians who have written about beauty. It is in no way exhaustive. The quotations have
been selected to show the range of definitions that the concept of beauty has attained through
the ages and across the nations. Beauty is related to utility, joy, good, truth, harmony,
symmetry, morality, perfection, taste, sentiment, creative imagination, originality, sublime,
nature, Absolute and many such concepts. Each aesthetician proceeded in his approach to
beauty and propounded his own theory of aesthetics, poetics or philosophy. It may be safely
inferred that the perception of beauty tends to be more and more intangible. It is not only
physical beauty but, something beyond and has its own utility to delight or please or any such
motive that various philosophers, aestheticians and critics have described.
“The Greek vision of human beauty was an abstraction, being a combination of the best
elements found in many forms. The Indian visions of human beauty was an inner realization of
an ever-true and immortal forms of the divine in exalted moods of yogic meditation when the
subject and the object blend into something higher than both.” (Sastri: 43). Sastri observes that,
while the West looked for beauty outside, the Indians looked inside. He quotes Swami
Vivekananda – “There is another type in Asia… In the midst of all these surroundings, the
oriental love of the beautiful and the sublime took another turn. It looked inside and not
outside.” (32). Art was never divorced from religion in India. In the similar manner, the
aesthetic and the spiritual concepts went hand in hand. Therefore, the source of aesthetics is
Vedas and Upanishads. Divine Love, Bliss or Ananda and
Truth form the basis of Indian spirituality, so is it with aesthetics. It is not pleasure which is
sought for in any work of art, but bliss or Ananda; it is not the superfluous imitation of nature
that is the subject of Indian art and poetry, but an art of finding the hidden meaning behind the
appearance. Most of the aesthetic schools that developed in India were based and related to
the spiritual aspects. For example, the Taittiriya Upanishad says – “Raso vai sah” which means
“this that is well and beautifully made, verily it is no other than the delight behind existence.”
(CWSA 18: 221) This rasa may be applied to the sweetness of the Divine and may be related to
bliss; in aesthetics it becomes aesthetic sweetness; and literally it refers to the taste or juice of
the fruit.
The rasa school of aesthetics developed by Bharata seems to be inspired by the Veda
and Taittiriya Upanishad. Bharata spoke of eight rasa in his treatise on dramaturgy
Nātyashāstra. He explains the nature of each of them and the way they are produced however,
the complete impact of these rasas is to provide Ānanda. Beauty is the self-expression of Bliss
in senses. It is thus intimately related to Bliss and not to pleasure for the latter is momentary.
The presentation of truth is also relevant to Indian spirituality. Art should lead the perceiver to
the Truth, or it should reveal the Truth. Keats’ view that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” is apt in
connection to Indian aesthetics. Being closely related to spirituality, art and aesthetics are seen
as channels to reach or to see God. Therefore, it axiomatically goes that the poet or the
aesthetician has to undergo sādhana, a preparation like the spiritual seeker in order to create
and analyze it aesthetically. It is an inward look of not only the poet but introspection for the
aesthetician and the reader which may provide the fuller meaning of any given text.
Apart from the rasa school of aesthetics developed by Bharata, other schools sprang up
and explored other dimensions of aesthetics. While rasa is related to beauty through the
generation of Ananda, so is alamkāra school related to it through the ornamentation. Alamkāra
means decoration. Poetry has images, symbols, metaphors, similes, rhymes and rhythm as
adornments. Alāmkara School headed by Bhāmaha who believes that “the vital elements in
poetic beauty are the figures of speech (alamkara)”. (49). He gave importance to figures of
speech in poetry and contended that beauty and meaning in the text come only due to these
embellishments. Similarly, Vāmana wrote Kāvyalamkāra sutra vritti and believed riti (style) to
be the soul of poetry. Beauty and effectiveness of poetry lies in its style according to him.
Ānandhavardhana and Abhinavgupta propounded that dhvani (suggestiveness) is the soul of
poetry. Kuntaka emphasized that vakrokti (deviant meaning) is all important. There were other
minor schools which highlighted the importance of auchitya (aim), chamatkār (magic or
surprise) and tātparya (the inferred meaning) as the soul of poetry. These varied schools, rasa,
riti, alamkāra, vakrokti, dhvani, auchitya, chamatkāra, tātparya and Bhartrhari’s sphota theory
all taken together form the huge corpus of Sanskrit aesthetics. They emerged as independent
schools but presently stand complementary to each other. All these elements are essential for
poetry and its interpretation. They all constitute to beautify the text and the meaning. The
emphasis given to each different aspect in each school of aesthetics is indicative of the fact that
beauty in India is perceived as tangible as well as intangible. Its invisible aspects are as
important as its visible ones.
Beauty is both tangible and intangible. There is beauty portraying the physical world
which gives joy to the reader to realize the physical world through words In the “Rime of
Ancient Mariner” S.T. Coleridge draws vivid pictures of men and nature. An example of the
portrayal of the physical beauty is cited here,
All in a hot and copper sky
The bloody sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.xvii
In the context of the poem this description relates the horrendous condition in which the
sailors are struck. The stillness of the sea and air and the sun and the moon are not pleasing,
rather they are torturing to the sailors. This description of nature is beautiful because it not
only describes the form of nature but also suggests the intensity of the situation. Seen merely
as the description of nature, it has its own charm and value, but it increases when the heat and
stillness explain the plight of men on the ship. This beauty is seen in the most tangible way. It
arouses pity and sympathy. The impact of the poem is that of śoka or sadness, but in readers it
arouses the rasa called karun. The readers pity the plight of the sailors and of the mariner in
particular. The sympathy aroused in the heart of the wedding guest to whom the mariner
delineates his story, makes the guest wiser by the end. Certainly, no element of joy is exposed
by the guest, but after reading this beautiful and heartfelt description, the reader gets a sense
of joy. Beauty does not only lie in its imagery of nature or of human predicament but the rhyme
scheme of the poem makes it interesting to read and easy to grasp. Its style is simple and the
poem abounds in metaphors and similes. Its beauty can be gathered from the rasa, the
alamkāra, the riti, its dhvani and all the various meanings that may be offered by the poem.
Lines from P. B. Shelley’s poem “To a Skylark” – “Till the scent it gives /Makes faint with
too much sweet these” and “Sound of vernal showers” (Golden Treasury: 244) This poem
dedicated to the Skylark gives a sense of beauty particularly to sight, hearing and smelling. The
appeal here is more to the sensory organs. The rose wrapped in “green leaves”, the “warm
winds” give a feel of warmth, the “scent” appeals to the olfactory senses and “sound of vernal
showers” addresses the ears. Different phrases in the poem cater to different sensory organs
and give a wholesome effect. The general tone of the poem is that of praise and persuasion.
These are experienced by the poet and the receptive reader when the bird is compared to
various beautiful things in nature. The rasa is not very clear yet there is a combination of karun,
shānta, ānanda and adbhuta rasa. The style is plain, simple and rhythmic and the poem
abounds in imagery and various figures of speech.
Force of words also invokes beauty. The force with which the thought or the situation is
delineated evokes beauty. The thought might not be beautiful but the force in the lines makes
it beautiful and appealing. Lady Macbeth utters the cruelest of the words, a mother can
pronounce, yet the lines are beautiful because they convey the force and bring forth the
bibhatsa and raudra rasa equally. In Act 1, Scene VI she encourages Macbeth to murder the
king without any fear. She gives him the example of her motherhood and says that she is aware
of the tender feelings for the infant, but if the need of the hour demanded “I would…have
pluckt my nipple…and dashst the brains out”. Sri Aurobindo describes this in one of his letters.
He contends that even an ugly subject can become beautiful because of the vision of the artist
and the force behind the thought – “The artist for instance can look at things only plain or
shabby or ugly or even repulsive to the ordinary sense and see in them and bring out of them
beauty and the delight that goes with beauty” (CWSA 27: 42). The line from Macbeth does not
portray anything beautiful. It generates pity, horror and disgust. It invokes Bibhasta rasa, the
emotion that creates repulsion, yet it is beautiful because it evokes this emotion perfectly. It
brings in a sense of repulsion in the reader.
If an idea is delineated beautifully, it evokes beauty.
Milton’s sonnet- “On His
Blindness” describes his plight but in the sestet it philosophizes an idea which is thought
provoking and enlightening. Milton is sad at his incapability for writing poetry as he has become
blind with the old age. He recounts the Biblical story of the three coins. Along with this story he
pronounces that all are equal in the eyes of God. God does not discriminate between man of
virtue and sin; He blesses all.
….His state
Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait. (Golden Treasury: 62)
These lines describe God as king of the world and his relation to the individual. Very subtly the
poet suggests that God does not discriminate between men and treats all equally. The rich and
the poor in His eyes are all equal. The beauty here lies in the sublimity of thought. It rehashes
the Biblical philosophy and elevates the reader. Beginning with karun rasa it ends in shānta
rasa.
The throb and the joy expressed in poetry may be beautiful. The joy of union with the
beloved, the pang of separation, heart’s yearning for long may evoke beauty. This expression
becomes even more beautiful when the yearning is for God. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s
longing to unite with the Goddess and his songs evoke such beauty. An English poet writes
about such longing for the Lord. Shelley’s poem “To” expresses this beautifully. His yearning for
the Lord is like “The desire of the moth for the star, / Of the night for the morrow” (Golden
Treasury: 201). Sri Aurobindo identifies the psychic touch in this poem of Shelley. It brings out
the bhakti aspect of the poet and also his devotion. The lines are not only beautiful for its
thought for the Lord or for the metaphors of moth and night, but for its emotions and the
intensity of yearning.
The Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata contain multiple rasas (emotions) and
offer multiple interpretations. The great warriors and their dialogues present the veer rasa and
the battleground – Kurukshetra presents rasa like – veer, raudra, bhayanak and karun. The
plight of Gandhari, Kunti, Sita, Savitri, Damayanti and others evoke karun, bhakti and shanta
rasas. These epics are not easy to analyze and it is still more difficult to attribute one particular
rasa to a particular situation or characterization. Kalidasa’s play abhijānshankuntalam is full of
sringāra rasa, as it portrays the erotic love in its sublimity. The songs of Mirabai, Tulsidas,
Surdas, Kabir, Tukāram, Rāmdaas, Chaitanya Māhāprabhu etc., abound in bhakti and shānta
rasa and relate their songs to life, God, Nature, utility, moral and much more.
bada hua to kya hua, jaise ped khajur
panthi ko chaya nahi, phal lage ati doorxviii.
This poetry gives wisdom. It speaks about the elite stature of one who is alienated and is of no
use to the society exactly like that of the palm tree which is tall. It cannot give shade to the
traveler neither are its fruits at hand, even though huge and tall, the tree is useless. These
devotional songs are highly rhythmic and use figures of speech in abundance. There is
alliteration, use of similes, metaphors, analogies and all such poetic devices that give beauty to
the form, thought and content of the song or poetry. These were a few examples of
appreciating beauty in the Western and Indian aesthetics. The examples show that beauty
exists on different levels. It exists in the tangible as well as the intangible. Sri Aurobindo
explains these various levels of beauty and takes forward the aesthetics to aesthesis of beauty.
Beauty as described by Sri Aurobindo exists on all those planes of existence on which an
individual exists. In The Human Cycle he writes –
The search for beauty is only in its beginning a satisfaction in the beauty of form,
the beauty which appeals to the physical senses and the vital impressions,
impulsions, desires. It is only in the middle a satisfaction in the beauty of the
ideas seized, the emotions aroused, the perception of perfect process and
harmonious combination. Behind them the soul of beauty in us desires the
contact, the revelation, the uplifting delight of an absolute beauty in all things
which it feels to be present, but which neither the senses and instincts by
themselves can give, though they may be its channels,—for it is
suprasensuous,—nor the reason and intelligence, though they too are a
channel,—for it is suprarational, supra-intellectual,—but to which through all
these veils the soul itself seeks to arrive. (CWSA 25: 144)
The beauty appealing to the physical senses and the beauty of ideas and the beauty in form
have already been exemplified in the case of the English poets. “The vital expressions,
impulsions, desires” mentioned by Sri Aurobindo may be seen in his own poem “Baji Prabhou”
(1922). The poem is full of patriotism and is impulsive. The desire to serve the Motherland
oozes out of the lives and it has a drive which excites and impregnates the reader with the zeal
and feel of patriotism. These lines describe the readiness and zeal of the warrior to fight for the
Motherland with the Divine strength within as aid and does not demand any reward in return.
His strength and courage, emotions and feelings empower him so much that he does not fear
the consequences of the fierce war that would ask for his life.
… We but employ
Bhavani's strength, who in an arm of flesh
Is mighty as in the thunder and the storm. (CWSA 2: 283)
Here is a warrior Baji Prabhou who is desirous and impulsive to fight for his Motherland.
Desires, emotions and impulsions form a part of the vital energies which are important for life.
The desire, the emotion and the impulse here is for no lower motives. It is the beauty of lifeforce motivating and encouraging the warrior to go forward and fight. The life-force is so strong
that it has risen out of his ego when he finds God in every man and animal. Baji does not fight
for the name for he is sure that God’s work will be done whether by his own instrumentality or
by Malsure’s. In these lines and emotions, the beauty lies in uplifting movement of the lifeforce. There is a force and a will to execute the Bhavani’s Will, surrender to the Divine decision.
This beauty and force are highly motivating to the reader as well. It immediately stirs one with
patriotism and more so to the Divine Will.
From this most tangible and visible level of perception of beauty we move to a level
where perception is a little more subtle. Sri Aurobindo writes – “It is only in the middle a
satisfaction in the beauty of the ideas seized, the emotions aroused, the perception of perfect
process and harmonious combination.” (CWSA 25: 144) Again a few examples may be taken to
show how literature captured ideas, emotions and harmonized the inner and the outer
principles of life.
There are ideas which are captured like a flash. They make us think and ponder. Such is
an idea seized by Keats in his ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ – "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," Then
Coleridge captures an idea in ‘Rime of Ancient Mariner’
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.xix
Beauty, truth, prayer, love are abstract ideas or feelings. Keats and Coleridge have
caught the beauty in these ideas and have expressed them in a way which is appealing and
convincing. The ideas have elevated the moral to a sublime level. In fact in the former, the poet
talks about the high order of aesthesis, a stage where truth is beauty and beauty is truth. The
conclusive lines of Coleridge highlight the beauty of prayer, love and the God’s unbiased
relation to his creation. This idea at once brings peace and contentment to the reader.
Therefore, in the last stanza of the poem the poet remarks that the listener was wiser than
before, perhaps because he learnt a greater truth. The beauty is conveyed through the idea of
abstract concepts like truth, beauty and prayer, yet it strikes the reader with conviction through
its sublimity.
The “harmonious combination” of the inner and the outer principles bring forth the
beauty of creation. Tagore’s poetry “Where the Mind is Without Fear” brings out this beauty
and harmonizes the inner and outer principles of life. “Where the mind is without fear and the
head is held high; / Where knowledge is free”. (1) Tagore longs for a perfect country where
there is harmony between the inner and the outer principles of Nature. A perfect social,
political, geographical and spiritual scenario where there is no place for negative elements and
the positives have their own place. He prays that the mind should not go astray reasoning as is
its habit, neither the narrow limits of borders bind the heart of men. He wishes for freedom and
fearlessness – for the inner and the outer freedom. He wants the expansion of consciousness
and hails the Lord to help his country awake from this horrifying somnambulism. The poet has
very subtly intertwined the inner and the outer and the purport is complete and wholesome.
Only a perfect harmony can help a nation to progress. This harmony between the inner and
outer is the bane of Indian spirituality and here lies its beauty.
On the next level beauty becomes an expression of the soul. It then stands with truth, delight and
tends to express the real beauty through form. Sri Aurobindo says that, ―delight is the soul of existence,
beauty the intense impression, the concentrated form of delight;‖ (CWSA 26: 254) and the two are
inseparable. An example of beauty and delight on Savitri where the birth of Savitri is celebrated by
Nature as it blooms with her coming.
Asocas burned in crimson spots of flame,
Pure like the breath of an unstained desire
White jasmines haunted the enamoured air,
Pale mango-blossoms fed the liquid voice
Of the love-maddened coïl, and the brown bee
Muttered in fragrance mid the honey-buds.
The sunlight was a great god's golden smile.
All Nature was at beauty's festival. (CWSA 34: 352)
The Nature is happy to welcome Savitri. Nature is in the best of its moods and colour to welcome
the ―secret Word‖. Here is the intertwining of Delight and Beauty, the supreme joy of Nature swaying and
smiling at the advent, in turn it has revealed beauty at its best. Every tree, flower and element of Nature
has bloomed and expressed itself perfectly. The advent of Savitri is celebrated by trees, flowers, colours,
rays and all the members of Nature.
Beauty and delight are inseparable; similarly truth and beauty also become inseparable when the
poetry is written from the intangible heights. In one of his letters in Savitri Sri Aurobindo observes –
Truth is not merely a dry statement of facts or ideas to or by the intellect; it can be a
splendid discovery, a rapturous revelation, a thing of beauty that is joy forever. The poet
also can be a seeker and lover of truth as well as a seeker and lover of beauty. He can feel
a poetic and aesthetic joy in the expression of the true as well as in the expression of the
beautiful (CWSA 27: 43).
At the sublime height the seer-poet can have the vision of the future. The poet was called Kavi
in the ancient time because of this quality of vision. Sri Aurobindo as a seer poet does not only
perceive those heights in the Veda. These explanations and definitions given by Sri Aurobindo
may seem to define his aesthetics. However, they do not only form his aesthetics but are his
poetic aesthesis.
Aesthesis has a wider range of perception and it highly depends upon the perception
and receptivity of the receiver or perceiver. Therefore, the term, aesthesis seems applicable to
all that Sri Aurobindo wrote, for it is not mere appreciation or rules and canons, but a
perception much deeper, wider, larger. In order to understand how aesthesis works or what it
means it is required to recount the history and the evolution of the term aesthesis, spelt also as
aisthesis.
The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics spells it as “aisthesis” but for sake of uniformity the
spelling aesthesis will be used in the study. The Greek meaning of the term aesthesis is
sensation, perception, used as an opposition to intellect or sometimes it meant exceeding the
sense perception to the intellectual perception. The Encylopedia of Aesthetics describes that
…in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle aisthesis became the agent of a
higher principle, the soul, conceived as distinct from sense and essentially
rational, specifically in being homologous with the reasons and causes of the
larger world. At this point aisthesis assumed other meanings. Most aisthesis was
still perception, the basis for experience; but some aisthesis provided reflective
access to the nature of the soul itself and the congruence between soul and
sense, experienced as a kind of pleasure, constituted a judgment.” (428)
This term has undergone changes since the time of Plato. From the literal meaning of
perception it was extended to the perception by senses, intellect and soul. Plotinus opined that
the resultant of the “consonance between aisthesis and mind is beauty” (428). However, it is
Plato who gave this term a wider meaning, as the means of transcending the visible. Aristotle
related the sense perception to aisthesis and relied on a balanced perception leading to the
judgment. Aesthesis has acquired various meaning like perception and judgment. The
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics accounts that after these acquired dimensions aesthesis also
acquired a meaning as “internal senses” as opposed to the external ones. The German
philosophers Immanuel Kant and Frederic Von Schiller retained this meaning as the internal
senses or something beyond intellectual judgment. Thomas Aquinas again took its meaning to
the perception of the soul or of the soul-nature. Leonardo da Vinci related the soul of the
painter to his painting by explaining a Florentine proverb – “every painter paints himself” (430)
and related it to “point of view” of the individual. Baumgarten derived the term and meaning of
aesthetics from this ancient term aesthesis and closely retained the original meaning of
“aesthetic being a science of sensitive cognition” (Croce 214). The meaning of the term
aesthesis as derived from the historical review of the term is perception of senses, mind and
soul and the capacity of judgment by the inner senses. Sri Aurobindo widened the meaning of
this term and gave a wholesome definition. In his letters on Savitri he wrote – “by aesthesis is
meant a reaction of the consciousness, mental and vital and even bodily, which receives a
certain element in things, something that can be called their taste, Rasa, which passing through
the mind or sense both, awakes a vital enjoyment of the taste, Bhoga and this can again
awaken us, awaken even the soul in us to something yet deeper and more fundamental than
mere pleasure and enjoyment to some form of the spirit’s delight of existence, Ananda.” (CWSA
27: 40). It is important to note that aesthesis does not pertain to beauty alone. It is an integral
reaction of mind, life and body and has the capacity to reach the soul. Sri Aurobindo extends
aesthesis to the perception of beauty as well as truth. “…the poet can also be a seeker and
lover of truth as well as a seeker and lover of beauty” (CWSA 27: 43).
Sri Aurobindo’s aesthesis not only encompasses rasa, but also rasadhvani (rasa of “word
and sound” and the rasa “of the idea”) and exceeds them into making aesthesis more of a
spiritual than mere artistic or aesthetic experience. The revival of term aesthesis giving it a new
dimension and meaning, is Sri Aurobindo’s original contribution to the perception of poetry.
While the ancients left aesthesis as perception of the soul-nature, or by the internal senses, it
was Sri Aurobindo who organized the whole experience and gave a threadbare analysis of this
aesthesis.
Sri Aurobindo termed the mode of spiritual perception of poetry as Overhead aesthesis,
leading it to the formation of mantra. In the widening of the definition of the term aesthesis he
mentions its static and dynamic aspects. Aesthetics lays down the rules of observation on the
work of art, for both creation and appreciation. It is a mental and intellectual activity; a lot of
mental gymnastics; a judgment by the mind and perception by the senses. This perception may
or may not be of the spiritual nature. However, aesthesis essentially is of a spiritual nature.
Aesthesis as described by Sri Aurobindo is not only a reaction of the body, life and mind, but
extends it to the soul. It is not only a reaction but also “awakens” or acts as a stimulus to
awaken the inner sense or the soul. Besides being a channel for appreciation, it is also a means
of creation. It is through aesthesis that the poet conceives a poem and receives it from the
realms above Mind. Only to term it as the perception of soul does not give it a definite meaning
or connotation. He gives examples of the lines coming from different realms of consciousness
and classifies them into inspiration coming from mind, Higher mind, Illumined mind, Intuition or
Overmind. He has identified this aesthesis in many lines of different poems of various poets.
However, he specifies that he is able to grasp the level of inspiration from where the poem or
the line has come but he cannot give any reason in mental terms. He sees bare inspiration in
these lines and describes their nature, but says that no rule can be laid down for this kind of
appreciation. In his letter he says,
I do not know that it is possible for me to say why I regard one line or passage as
having the overhead touch or the overhead note while another misses… I am
afraid I have to say what Arnold said about the grand style; it has to be felt and
cannot be explained or accounted for. One has an intuitive feeling, recognition of
something familiar to one’s experience or one’s deeper perception in the
substance and the rhythm or in one or the other which rings out and cannot be
gainsaid (CWSA 27: 32).
Therefore, no fixed rule for aesthetic appreciation of the Overhead aesthesis may be laid down.
Few examples may be cited of the lines that have been pointed out by Sri Aurobindo as
belonging to the Overhead planes. He quotes lines from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “Absent thee
from felicity awhile, /and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain.” Then from Milton’s
Paradise Lost “Those thought that wonder through eternity” and Wordsworth’s “The winds
come to me from the fields of sleep” (“Ode on the Intimations of Immortality”).
These are only a few lines. Sri Aurobindo not only highlighted the overhead influence in
European poets but spoke at length about different poets in the ashram (a small community
comprising Sri Aurobindo’s disciples). He has distinctively marked the lines of their poetry which
have the overhead touch. A compilation of these poems and Sri Aurobindo’s comments is
available in a book form called Overhead Poetry edited by the poet-critic, K. D. Sethna.
If any specific aesthetics can be derived out of Sri Aurobindo’s writings, it is his views on
the method of poetic creation and the role of poet and the role of the reader or sarhydaya. The
ways of vision are equally the ways of poetic creation – imitation, imagination, intuition,
inspirations and revelation. From his analysis of the overhead planes of consciousness in the
works of different poets, he observes that there is an overlap of these levels and the lines are
rare. All of Shakespeare’s works have only a few lines from the Overhead plane. What then is
the process of creation through which more and more overhead planes influence the work? It
may be answered that, it depends upon the preparation of the poet. Seeing this preparation as
equivalent to spiritual pursuit, Sri Aurobindo suggests that the poet has to constantly rise in his
consciousness and aspire for the higher inspiration to come down. He has to constantly labour
not only by perfecting himself technically and increasing his scholarship, but constantly labour
for the ascent of his consciousness. The preparation is also required to be able to capture the
inspiration when it comes down. It is not only sufficient to get inspiration but the poet should
be technically equipped to express it. Therefore, the preparation for poetic creation or any art
is extremely important. Sri Aurobindo constantly laboured and prepared his consciousness in
order to receive Savitri from the Overhead planes. He says, that in its final form, it has a
“general Overmind influence” (CWSA 27: 275). He revised many times to attain higher and
higher expression of consciousness in it. He said the criteria were not the perfection of
expression, for it might be perfect at a particular level of consciousness but he laboured to
draw inspiration from higher realms for which he had to revise repeatedly. Savitri is the
exemplification of his own aesthesis of creation.
The reader too has to prepare himself in order to capture and receive the poetry written
from the Overhead planes. The Sanskrit term sahrydaya is applicable for the reader as he has to
become one mind and one heart with the mind and heart of the poet. However, Sri Aurobindo
does not restrict it to the mind and heart alone, he says that the reader should be ready or
receptive enough to realize the consciousness by which the work has been produced or that
which the work embodies. Even the Vedas mention the want of preparation on the part of the
reader, for they are the words which are impregnated with force and have greater potential
than any ordinarily written or spoken word. Vedas therefore were wrapped in symbols so that
the common masses, who had not prepared themselves for receiving it would see the outer
significance and are not adversely affected by its power.
Vedas are multilayered texts containing the spiritual, psychological and material significance
and suit the receptivity of the initiates on these levels. Therefore, preparation of the reader to
receive the levels of overhead inspiration is of equal importance, as in case of the deliverance
of rasa. According to Bharata, rasanishpatti is complete only when the performance of rasa on
the stage and the reaction of the audience corroborate with each other. The higher the level of
poetry, the higher is the preparation required by the poet and the receiver. What then is the
higher or the highest level of poetry? It is the mantra as Sri Aurobindo mentions in The Future
Poetry.
The concept of the higher and the lower form of poetry may be seen as an extension of
the analysis of speech by Bhartrhari which is the analysis of the vāk. “Vag vai brahmeti, Speech,
truly is Brahman” (Coward: 6). In Indian religious and aesthetic traditions, Vedas are considered
to be the “Divine Word”, a text not conceived by the intellect but received by the soul. It is in
the Vedas that the spiritual and the aesthetic elements meet. They are known as mantra.
Mantra is not only an aesthetic conception, it has a spiritual import. The formation or the
reception of mantra can only be achieved after rigorous sādhana and spiritual labour.
Bhartrhari observes that Vedas have divided speech (vāk) into four essential levels based on the
level of manifestation and the intensity of force it carries. They are vaikhari, madhyamā,
pashyanti and parā. Vaikhari is the ordinary articulation, involving day to day conversation and
events. Madhyamā is the speech in its unmanifest or thought form. Pashyanti vāk is considered
to be the highest in manifestation of speech for above it, parā is beyond manifestation. It is a
speech which cannot be translated into intelligible term for the present state of humanity.
Mantra lies in the domain of pashyanti vak literally meaning “seeing speech”. It is important to
add here that pashyanti vak or mantra involves both dṛ şti (seeing) and śruti (listening). Mantra
is not conceived through the intellect, it descends in the form of dṛ şti and śruti on the poet who
is able to receive and document it. Vedas came to be written this way. The rişi who had, by
intense tapasya, prepared himself to receive mantra, simply scribed the Vedas as and when
they dawned on him. It is noteworthy that dṛ şti and śruti are inner perceptions and may not
involve the outer sensory activities necessarily. It is the inner hearing and the inner seeing. Sri
Aurobindo says, “it is the inner hearing, sometimes one hears a line, a passage, a whole poem
or sometimes they come down. The best poetry is always written in that way” (Purani, Evening
Talks: 247). This is the nature of mantra, it is the “seeing word”, the “rhythmic speech”. Sri
Aurobindo defines mantra as “poetic expression of the deepest spiritual reality” (CWSA 26: 19).
The conception of mantra has to be traced to the power of Word,to the force of the
Word. In his analysis and commentary on Kena Upanishad, Sri Aurobindo highlights the power
and the impact of the Word. Speech that consists of words and vibration, has power; it has
power to create. In case of the ordinary speech, it creates with its power the “thought
vibration” and “thought-forms”. It is by word that the action is directed, communication takes
place, opinions are altered or are enforced. Every time a word is heard or read, it sends in the
vibrations of the word and it creates thoughts and ideas in the listener’s mind. Even if the idea
or the word is incomprehensible, there is an attempt to understand it and there is an addition
to the existing knowledge of the listener. Sri Aurobindo observes that speech is creative. He
says, “All creation is expression by Word” (CWSA 18: 29). Brahman created by Word and this
creation is far more powerful than the speech of human beings. The articulation of word is the
application of vibration through the breathing organs. This creates speech. This speech is
powerful as the mantras are, because they carry a denser and a powerful vibration in them.
The ancient Vedic theory and practice extended this creative action of speech by
the use of the Mantra. The theory of the Mantra is that it is a word of power
born out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a
deeper consciousness than the mental, framed in the heart and not originally
constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the
waking mental consciousness and then thrown out silently or vocally—the silent
word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken—precisely for the work
of creation (CWSA 18: 30).
Speech is a combination of Word and Vibration. Rather Sri Aurobindo says that Speech is only a
form of vibration produced by the vocal chords. The scientific theories suggest that the creation
takes place due to vibrations. Combining these two, mantra is actually the utilization of this
power of the Word and Vibration. Mantra is that speech which contains words packed with
power and has the universal rhythm which has the “seed-sound” (CWSA 18: 32) A U M. Sri
Aurobindo describes Mantra as the “highest inspired speech to which the human mind can
attain, the word most unanalysably expressive of supreme truth, the most puissant syllable”
(CWSA 18: 33). There is a process of the formation of mantra. It is not any poetry or just words
put into rhythm.
Sri Aurobindo observed that the Vedic rishis consciously prepared themselves and
attained higher levels of consciousness where they could grasp the mantra and scribe it.
Receiving mantra needs special preparation and qualification as the mantric Word in powerful
and is packed with Truth. The qualified person can receive the rhythmic word and the mantra
descends on him in its perfect form. Sri Aurobindo says that the word and content simply come
down and it is the inner senses, the soul that perceives it. He writes in Savitri,
All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:
Transmuted by the white spiritual ray
He walks in naked heavens of joy and calm,
Sees the God-face and hears transcendent speech: (CWSA 34: 375)
It is in the consciousness belonging to the level of Intuition or Overmind that the mantra is
created. When the poet is able to station himself/ herself on these levels of consciousness it is
then that the mantra is likely to descend. If the consciousness is lower than that, a line or two
may descend. For the poetry to have mantric impact, the inspiration has to come from the
Intuitive or the Overmind levels.
Sri Aurobindo wrote Savitri from these levels. He says that it has a “general Overmind
influence” which means that there are passages which are mantric. However, the general
impact of this epic poem is mantric. Therefore, it is difficult to understand it mentally, but when
receptive, there is an element which penetrates deep within and without the knowledge of the
reader creates different levels of consciousness. Sri Aurobindo explains the working of mantric
word in the reader,
The Mantra can not only create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our
psychical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can
not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, but can
produce vibrations in the mental and vital atmosphere which result in effects, in
actions and even in the production of material forms on the physical plane.
(CWSA 18:31)
The impact of mantra is so powerful that the Vedic rishis wrapped the words in dense symbols.
When an un-initiate read it, he /she would grasp only the surface meaning of the mantric
words. However, they had deeper psychological and spiritual connotations which were only to
be understood by those who could grasp the deeper meaning through experience and not by
mere mental gymnastics. The rhythm and the incantation also played important role in the
deliverance and grasping of the mantra. Therefore, the ancients emphasized that the mantra be
chanted in the right intonation and rhythm for it created the necessary vibrations which again
lead to the creation of the levels of consciousness. The impact of mantra would be that of
creation by Word and vibration. The vāk would have its impact through words and vibration. If
a Word is chanted in a faulty rhythm or if a wrong word be replaced in the rhythm it can have
an opposite impact, the altered mantra would become detrimental. Therefore, mantras are to
be chanted perfectly in a perfect rhythm with perfect articulation of words.
The modern example of the attempts of writing mantra is Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri. He
wrote it from those higher levels of consciousness where poetry becomes mantra. Savitri is
imbued with mantric lines. The opening lines of this epic are mantric,
It was the hour before the Gods awake.
Across the path of the divine Event
The huge foreboding mind of Night, alone
In her unlit temple of eternity,
Lay stretched immobile upon Silence' marge. (CWSA 33: 1)
It has all the qualities that the Vedic poetry had. In fact written in modern English it is more
approachable for the common masses and carries the rhythm on its own. Sri Aurobindo
received the inspiration from the higher planes of consciousness and said that the lines and the
rhythm came automatically shaped and wrapped in power. Mantra thus is rhythmic poetry
which descends from the heights of consciousness and is made available to the common
masses to benefit from them and rise up the ladder of consciousness through the instrument of
mantra.
In The Future Poetry, Sri Aurobindo mentions the “five suns of poetry” which would be
found in the poetry in future. The five essential elements or the “five suns” as he calls it are
“truth, beauty, delight, life and spirit”. Sri Aurobindo observes that poetry has mainly remained
concerned with beauty and delight. When it deliberately documents truth in verse it digresses
from being poetry and becomes dry philosophy or prose. When it tries to express truth, it either
turns to emphasize the material science or dwelling on abstractions it turns into philosophy, but
no longer remains poetry. Sri Aurobindo elaborates the difference between philosophy,
religion, science and poetry in their perception of and dealing with the truth. He contends that
all these disciplines also work on the principle of intuition in their inspired moments, yet their
expression differs. Philosophy, science and religion have to appeal to the intellect; the
statements have to be argued in order to be able to give a logical reason behind every concept.
Philosophy, though talks about truth and other such abstract concepts, however, in expression
it has to convey things lying within the range of human intellect.
Science deals with the empirical and ontological phenomena. Even when it crosses the
border of the visible and ventures into the invisible realms like the study of microorganisms, the
study of quantum mechanics, the function and the play of light, the function of proton and
neutrons and electrons, the formation and explanation of big-bang or the other galaxies and
suns, science has to explain things in the terms that are comprehensible to the intellect and the
reasoning mind. Albert Einstein discovered the law of energy (E= mc2) by intuition, so did Issac
Newton discover the law of gravitation, but all had to explain it in the logical terms, place it in
formulae and in mathematical term for all to understand and verify. Religion, which is mainly
concerned with God, teaches the process of reaching God. It is dogmatic and advices the
performance of rituals. However, its aim is to develop adoration and love for God and finally
realize Him, or unite with Him. At the base it is dogmatic; and its first appeal is to the mind
through which it intends to lead to God through heart.
Poetry may talk about all these truths, but true poetry according to Sri Aurobindo
should not be philosophy, science or religion in rhyme, but the intuitive poetry revealing the
truth of Man, God and Nature. It should neither be a mere statement of facts. It is possible to
deliver truth in poetry as in the Gita. It is inspired poetry and gives the philosophy of life, yet
does not degenerate into a mere philosophical, intellectual statement. Its appeal is to the soul
more than to the intellect and yetis logical. Few lines from Savitri may be quoted here to
exemplify the philosophic expression in poetry,
His nature we must put on as he put ours;
We are sons of God and must be even as he:
His human portion, we must grow divine.
Our life is a paradox with God for key. (CWSA 33: 67)
Yet the highest of religion, philosophy, science and poetry meet at the top. When all these
reach the peaks, they all merge into each other and become pure poetry. Vedic hymns,
Upanishads and the Gita are the meeting points of these varied disciplines. Sri Aurobindo
Its function is not to reach truth of any particular kind, nor indeed to teach at all,
nor to pursue knowledge nor to serve any religious or ethical aim, but to embody
beauty in the word and give delight. But at the same time it is at any rate part of
its highest function to serve the spirit and to illumine and lead through beauty
and build by a high informing and revealing delight the soul of man (CWSA 26:
237).
This function of poetry was envisaged by Sri Aurobindo during 1914-1920 in his essays on the
future poetry which appeared in Arya. The worship of truth can be seen in many poems that he
wrote after 1914. His sonnets and Savitri abound in all the five suns. In fact in his Overmind
aesthesis, he emphatically says that this aesthesis is more concerned with truth than with
beauty and delight. It is the aesthesis of truth. One of the examples of his poetry which is
concerned with truth, yet deals with a scientific subject is his sonnet “Electron”, The electron on
which forms and worlds are built,/ Leaped into being, a particle of God. (CWSA 2: 600)
The subject of this sonnet is the electron which is seen by him as the vehicle of Shiva, the
foundation of the formation of all atoms and molecules and therefore the base of creation. This
electron as the scientific facts define is not a lifeless particle, it is imbued with the presence of
the Supreme and therefore is capable of being the base of all creation. Through this instrument,
creation and destruction take place. The power of an electron is proven by science amply by its
examples of fusion and fission and the working of the nuclear energy. A single electron may be
responsible for an uncontrolled fusion or fission emitting immense energy. The poet does not
see it a dry mechanics of energy, but sees it as a spirited particle, a particle sensitive to the
divine force and working. This poem is only one example of the poetry having the sun of truth,
there are many poems like “Who”, “The Ways of the Spirit” , “Science and Unknowable”, “The
Yogi on the Whirlpool”, “The Kingdom Within”, “Liberation”, “Transformation”, “Cosmic
Consciousness” that embody truth in poetry. The varied range of themes in his poetry proves
what he wrote in his essays on the future of poetry that anything that concerns with life and
truth can form the subject of poetry. That is how, science, religion, personal spiritual
experience, surreal subjects and the philosophical and the religious subjects too have found the
poetic expression. The appeal of his poetry is to the soul. An attempt at mentally understanding
can help finding a philosophy or a scientific truth in it, but the reading of the poem gives an
appeal to something beyond the mere intellect. It makes an appeal to the inner chambers of
the reader, even when one is not able to define and describe it mentally.
The representation and expression of truth is important in poetry and the future poetry
would have truth as one of its essential elements. However, Sri Aurobindo says that it will not
be dry statement or a mere philosophical abstraction, but will have the force and the throb of
life. It will be the truth of life of humanity; the life not only as seen from outside but the life
within. To drive his point home he recounts the portrayal of the life in the poetry of Chaucer.
Chaucer portrayed the men as he perceived them from their outer appearance and their
profession. He drew the stereotypical caricatures of those whom he saw around him. There is
rarely any insight into the mind of the characters. It is a beautiful and complete presentation of
the life that is visible to all.
Sri Aurobindo then exemplifies the poetry of Homer. Homer too draws the physical life
of his heroes and gods in the Illiad, but he sees them not as human being would see, but as
gods perception of the heroes. Therefore, he finds a better portrayal of the life of men in
Odyssey than in Illiad. This portrayal is not of the chivalrous nature of men but the inner zeal,
the inner will for action and war and the resultant action outside. The life that comes out in
these epics has some force of thought and is carried through by action. Shakespeare’s plays
portray “life” in its full force. The ambition, desire, jealousy, the zeal, love, hatred and such
passions find their fullest expression in the characters of Shakespeare. When read or seen on
the stage, the reader or the audience experiences the life-force acting and moving the
characters and the plot all through. There is not as much as of thought involved as there is the
force that comes out of the life plane. Therefore, Sri Aurobindo observes the power and play of
the life force in the plays of this English bard. However, he says that this is not enough. Life is
not restricted to the passions and emotions alone. It has a larger and profounder dimension too
which the poets like Whitman, Carpenter and Tagore have explored, though not to the fullest.
Life as found in the poetry of Whitman and Tagore reflects a meaning larger than
emotions and passions. Life attains the touch of the spirit and tends to be taken up by the spirit.
Sri Aurobindo finds only the seed of such fuller life in these latter poets. He opines that poetry
with greater breath of life is yet to evolve. In fact the poetry in the future will have this breath
of life, for poetry to be throbbing and affecting in beauty and delight, has to have truth and life
touched by the spirit. Therefore, the future poetry aims at a fuller expression of life in poetry.
This expression is not the description of the outer life, the appearances, or the passions and
ambitions of the individuals. It will voice the inner life as experienced by the poet - the inner life
that is in itself a vast realm and can be explored in the tranquil moods. Wordsworth and some
other Romantic poets who escape into the supernature have the strains of exploring the inner
life, the inner peace, quietude and to discover that temple within, where the God resides. Sri
Aurobindo discovered these inner worlds and the greater life and expressed his experiences in
his poetry. Sri Aurobindo’s sonnets clearly mark each of his spiritual experiences and
attainments. They express the larger inner life of the poet. “Surrender”, “The Dual Being”,
“Lila”, “The Godhead”, “The Inconscient”, “The Pilgrim of the Night”, “The Witness Spirit” and
many other sonnets express the larger life of which Sri Aurobindo wrote in The Future Poetry.
“The Pilgrim of the Night” presents life from the dark abysms to the highest peaks. The
dark lanes of the Inconscient that the poet treads in his spiritual journey and the heights of
consciousness which he touches and explores and experiences are reflected in the sonnets. Sri
Aurobindo ventures into the abysmal chambers of the Inconscient and takes God’s light there.
Similarly, in “Bliss of Identity”, he experiences the identity with the Supreme therefore he is
able to see and identify himself not only with the things of nature, but experiences the rapture,
the joy and the light of God with him and around him. His life throbs with “eternity” he
concludes. The largeness of life, its heights and peaks are expressed here. To identify oneself
with the Supreme, to find him all around and to throb in His consciousness gives largeness to
life. As Sri Aurobindo expresses in another poem, that he is not bound by the “I” but exceeds it
and experiences the universal consciousness. The life has acquired a larger dimension and
meaning for him, as may be inferred from this poem. Life is not only an upward ascent, there
are realms which are utterly dark in which the spiritual seeker has to descend. Life expands to
all these realms; hence, it is larger than the surface consciousness on which any ordinary
human being lives. In these sonnets there is a glimpse of the larger and the inner life of which
Sri Aurobindo has repeatedly spoken in The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, Savitri and The
Future Poetry. He did not write it only to make a theory in his treatise on the future poetry, but
exemplified it in his writings and in his sonnets and Savitri.
The representation and expression of truth and larger life is indispensible for poetry, but
delight and beauty are the elements that save poetry from oblivion. Sri Aurobindo writes –
“Delight is the soul of existence, beauty the intense impression, the concentrated form of
delight… for the poet the moon of beauty and delight is a greater godhead even than the sun of
truth and the breath of life…” (CWSA 26: 254). Delight and beauty are the souls of poetry and
therefore saving factors of poetry. He observes that for centuries, poets have indulged in
expressing something that is beautiful and in what gives pleasure whether in imagery, rhyme,
rhythm or through word pictures. The prime aim of the poets has been to express beauty in
verse and prose and the result would be pleasure; rather they created out of pleasure to give
pleasure. However, he differentiates between pleasure and Ananda or the bliss of creation. He
observes that there has come about a difference in the perception, the aesthesis of delight and
beauty down the ages. There was an instinct for beauty in the ancients. The perception of
beauty was spontaneous and its deliverance into art too was spontaneous. The instinct and the
intuition worked in art, in poetry and made beauty central to the artistic expression. He
especially mentions the riches of the Indian classical age, the age of Kalidasa, when beauty was
worshipped for its own sake and was expressed in every form of art. The Chinese, the Persians,
the Celts, and the Greeks had a subtle sense of beauty which later percolated into the English
poetry. However, he observes that the spontaneity for beauty, observes Sri Aurobindo in the
later English poets diminished and they had to strive to get to the imaginative beauty.
Down the ages the perception of beauty seems to have lost. The ancients expressed the
inner selves and the deeper truths in their artistic expressions. The moderns strive to achieve
that which ancients did with ease. The intuitive quality of the artist or the perceiver has got
mingled with the increased capacity to reason and argue. Spontaneous perception of beauty
has been replaced by a mental analysis and deconstruction of the art.
Sri Aurobindo observes that there is a delight and beauty intrinsic to things that catch
the eyes of the poet who is a seer of the things beyond the appearances. Therefore, even an
ugly subject becomes a thing of beauty for the poet. The description of murder or other
perverse ideas may be ugly to think about, but its deliverance and its relevance in relation to
the entire impact of the work may arouse wonder, beauty and delight. Shakespeare’s tragedies
are such examples. Murders and conspiracies abound his tragedies, such ugly things too have
taken a beautiful shape in his plays because the portrayal and the suggestion is beautiful. The
Russian Classics Anna Karenina and Crime and Punishment deal with grave subjects. But the
presentation of the characters and the incidents in these texts are beautiful and delights the
reader through its wisdom and moral. Therefore, down the century, these texts have become
classics.
The poet has the capacity to see the mundane and mutate it through his vision. He does
not necessarily portray all that his senses perceive, yet the commonplace subjects can form his
theme. Sri Aurobindo remarks that the poet has a “double personality”. He can experience and
feel like any common human being and at the same time have a distinct vision to see the things
beyond. This distinct vision makes him a poet. The genius in the poet can lead him to express
the eternal beauty and truth. By choice and practice he can become a conscious instrument of
the Word which comes to him in the moment of inspiration and create immortal poetry. When
the poet becomes an instrument of inspiration and lets his genius be used by it, poetry
becomes a revelation for him, it dawns on him. Sri Aurobindo allowed himself to be an
instrument of this inspiration and created poetry which not only expresses truth and life but
also delight and beauty of the spirit. The description of Nature in Savitri, when Savitri is born
evokes beauty, grandeur and delight. The Nature rejoices with the birth of Savitri.
The life of the enchanted globe became
A storm of sweetness and of light and song,
A revel of colour and ecstasy,
A hymn of rays, a litany of cries: (CWSA 34: 352)
In Savitri, there are many such passages describing nature. Nature changes its moods and forms
according to the incidents and events in the epic. When Savitri and Satyavan meet in the forest,
Nature once again rejoices. Similarly, when Satyavan is taken away by death, nature too
becomes dull and lifeless. The description of Ashwapati, Savitri, Satyavan, Narad’s arrival and
Savitri and Satyavan’s return to earth after the mutation of death, have sheer beauty and joy in
them. Along with the truth they express delight and beauty.
“Spirit” is the fifth sun of poetry which Sri Aurobindo envisages for the poetry to have in
future. The highest truth, the portrayal of higher life, the highest forms of beauty and delight all
are possible only when the spirit takes over the poet and his poetry. Every written or spoken
word has a force behind which impacts the listener. If the word is sent out through anger it will
act likewise and if it goes out full of spiritual fervor, it influences the listener in a positive way.
Sri Aurobindo writes that spirit or the spiritual force is the future of poetry. “A poetry born
direct from and full of the power of the spirit and therefore a largest and a deepest selfexpression of the soul and mind of the race is that for which we are seeking and of which the
more profound tendencies of the creative mind seem to me in travail” (CWSA 26: 268). He
believes that the poetry which expresses the spirit is most profound because spirit is the real
self of human beings. He sees the progressive expression of the spirit in poetry and says that
there is no limit to such an expression for the spirit is infinite and therefore the poetic
expression of the spirit too is infinite.
Poetry would express the inmost of all the beings in an individual. An individual is made
up of layers of vital, mental and spiritual sheaths of consciousness. Some are on the superficial
level and others more connected to the inmost spirit. The expression of these parts of being in
their inmost aspect is what Sri Aurobindo envisages for the future. His sonnets and Savitri
exemplify this in abundance. Even while writing about the darkest chambers of Inconscient and
Night, he speaks about the spirit that lies dormant in these realms of consciousness. Savitri is
seen by him as a spiritual journey, or a soul’s journey into the higher realms of consciousness.
The subject of the poetry can be anything new or old, but the manner of presentation and the
force behind it would be sublime and elevated. He recounts that poetry in the Vedic times had
spiritual force, but it would come only to a select few and could be read only by the initiates.
However, the new poetry with spiritual force will be available for all as it is the new
spirit and force that will affect the reader and the text itself would do the needful work of
initiation. The poetry of the future will have an essential character of sight unlike thought and
imagination which is the characteristic of present day poetry. Imagination of the mind will be
surpassed by a direct vision of the spirit in things and it will be delineated in poetry. It will be
the spirit that will shape the poetic utterance and not thought or imagination. Sri Aurobindo
sees this kind of poetry taking shape in Whitman, Tagore and Carpenter, but it is only a
beginning. The expression of the spirit has just begun in their poetry, a fuller expression would
come in the future. This kind of poetry is Savitri. It has truth, beauty, delight, life and spirit. Sri
Aurobindo has made an attempt to write poetry with the aesthesis of inner senses, with his
vision and his ascension of consciousness. However, he contends that Savitri too can be
surpassed and poetry expressing these elements in a deeper and heightened dimension is
possible in the future. The lines from Savitri exemplify his theory of future poetry where the
elements of new kinds of poetry are expressed for example,
He is the maker and the world he made,
He is the vision and he is the seer;
He is himself the actor and the act,
He is himself the knower and the known,
He is himself the dreamer and the dream. (CWSA 33: 61)
This is where the poet realizes God everywhere as being the cause and the effect of all His
creation. This is the expression that the future of poetry might turn into if the poets labour in
this direction. Else as Sri Aurobindo points out, if there is stagnation and the poet keeps only to
the mental imagination it will end up in decay and disintegration of poetry. If efforts are made
in the direction he suggests then certainly this is the turn that poetry might acquire in future for
which his poetry has already set the platform.
Sri Aurobindo wrote the importance of genius, definition and use of poetry and the role
of poet and reader in the formation of meaning. His aesthesis comprises of all these concepts
which the ancient and the modern critics have remained concerned with. According to him, the
author has to be very well equipped with his instruments. He has to prepare consciously by
hard labour and study to be able to create something. Rather, the best work of art is one which
is received from a higher source and not the one mentally conceived. Therefore, Sri Aurobindo
contends that the author, the artist or the poet has to train himself to receive the descent of
inspiration when it comes. He gives full credit to the inborn genius but says that even the
genius has to be pruned and trained so that he becomes a better receiving end. What is the role
of his genius (pratibhā) and the role of study and practice in his becoming a poet? Genius says
Plato, is a divine power and creative activity ensues from it. These lines throw light on the
importance that Plato gave to genius in a poet. Indian aestheticians like Bhāmaha, Vāman,
Mammata, Ānandavardhana, Abhinavgupta emphasized the importance of genius. Dandin
however, did not agree to this view and opined that practice and study are responsible for
making an individual a poet. The role of genius cannot be negated; the role of practice can
neither be dismissed. In his essay, “Tradition and Individual Talent” T.S. Eliot highlights both.
Tradition does not necessarily mean imitating the ancestors, it means a systematic study of art.
Individual talent is that genius of the poet through which the latter can surpass the ancestors in
the poetic/artistic creation. However, the two are incomplete without each other. Genius
though is inborn, needs pruning and training through study and contemplation. All great poets
studied the pre-existing works and developed their own individuality for the same. The study is
a kind of preparation of the ground for the seed of talent to sprout. It is also true that without
practice genius cannot produce the same quality of poetry as it would when aided by study and
labour. Sri Aurobindo has written in his letters about the role of genius and study.
He writes – “Poetic genius – without which there cannot be any originality – is inborn,
but it takes time to come out – the first work even of great poets is often unoriginal.” (CWSA
27: 104) He too gives full credit to genius while acknowledging the importance of practice and
labour. This axiomatically makes it clear that one who is not born with the poetic genius cannot
become a poet and cannot produce the highest order of poetry. This rule is applicable to those
who strive and struggle to write poetry mechanically. They usually end up writing verse and not
poetry. Sri Aurobindo calls it the “ordinary rule”. However, he says that the one who is involved
in yoga, may experience the opening of unmanifest dimensions of his/her personality and can
become a poet. Nirodbaran was one of the disciples of Sri Aurobindo who was into the
profession of medicine and had no seeds of poetry in him. But through yoga Sri Aurobindo
helped him become a poet of the high order (he was able to draw inspiration from the higher
realms of consciousness) and now his collection of poetry is available for the readers. About the
birth of a new quality he writes, “in Yoga poetic originality can come by an opening from
within” (CWSA 27: 104). Therefore, when Dandin said that there is no role of the inborn genius
and that poet can be made by practice and labour is true in the context of yoga. It might not be
possible for the ordinary life, but highly possible in yogic life.
T. S. Eliot opined that the poet or the artist has to study the tradition and exceed it and
show his individual talent in his creativity. This individuality seen in Sri Aurobindo’s perspective
could be the preparation of consciousness to receive inspiration. The more one is prepared the
fluent and frequent the inspiration would be. As may be evidenced from Sri Aurobindo own life,
he consciously prepared himself to receive inspiration from the higher realms of consciousness.
He received inspiration, organized it with his capacity as he had prepared himself with
conscious training and study. To quote what he wrote about the importance of technical
perfection of the poet –
The poet least of all artists needs to create with his eye fixed anxiously on the
technique of his art. He has to possess it, no doubt; but in the heat of creation
the intellectual sense of it becomes a subordinate action or even a mere
undertone in his mind, and in his best moments he is permitted, in a way, to
forget it altogether. (CWSA 26: 13)
He explains this with reference to the form of poetry. The descent of poetry brings with it the
form and a well equipped poet alone is able to receive it and organize it. His Savitri is an
example of such ascension of consciousness and the reception of inspiration.
In the context of interpretation of any text, the reader’s role cannot be ignored. Equal is
the importance of the reader. The interaction of the reader with the text gives birth to the
meaning of the text. The reader approaches the text with his expectations, his pre-conceived
notions, ideas, formations and experiences and with his level of consciousness. All he receives
from the text is in accordance with all these factors and especially the consciousness. In case of
the texts like Veda, Upanishad, Gita, Bible or other scriptures the level of consciousness gains
becomes importance. It is because these scriptures have been scribed and are packed with
spiritual force. The words convey a consciousness, a force which is capable of creating new
levels of consciousness and the force descends on the reader. Therefore, the reader has to be
prepared to hold the force that the words of these scriptures contain.
This relation, impact and importance of the consciousness are not taken much into
consideration because most of the texts are written with an ordinary mental consciousness and
only some mental perception is sufficient to understand the text. The awareness of
‘consciousness’ is a rare thing. It is Sri Aurobindo who brought forth this criterion to perceive
everything around; the play, the perception and the power of consciousness.
The new
postmodernist theories advocate – “reading facilitates reading”. This refers briefly to the
preparation required by the reader. It also stands true because the more one reads and
explores, the more one comes in touch with the huge cultural, psychological and spiritual
structures of different societies. The perception thus widens and helps in a better mental
understanding of the world. However, with the expanse and rise of consciousness, the
perception not only widens, it deepens and heightens; therefore the preparation is
indispensible.
Text carries the consciousness of the writer. The school of New Criticism advocates the
autonomy of the text and invites the reader to interpret it without having the writer’s
background in view. The knowledge of the writer’s background gives way to the formation of
certain fixed ideas about the milieu and mindset in which a text was produced. Sri Aurobindo
however says, that the background knowledge is important to a certain extent. It should not
overshadow the interpretation, but a writer, an artist, and a text or works of art are formed by
the essential national character in which the writer grows. Therefore, some amount of
background is important to read the text. He also emphasizes the power of words. Words have
the power to affect the consciousness. The quality and intensity of the power affects the reader
in its proportion. He emphasizes this by recounting the force of the language when it was
originated. He says, that language was not arbitrary, not a random selection of signifier
attached to any signified. This holds true for language today; with common consensus among a
group of people, any sound may denote any object. This forms the Saussurian concept of
arbitrariness of signifier and signified. Sri Aurobindo explains the force that language carried
when it was born and was used in ancient times:
Ordinary speech uses language mostly for a limited practical utility of
communication; it uses it for life and for the expression of ideas and feelings
necessary or useful to life... The intellectual sense in its precision must have been
a secondary element which grew more dominant as language evolved along with
the evolving intelligence. (CWSA 26: 14)
This is how Sri Aurobindo invalidates the importance of reader, author, text and
language. His writings fall into the modernist era of art and literature, but a few concepts may
be corroborated with the intellectual movements in criticism that took place in the latter half of
the twentieth century. Sri Aurobindo thus may be placed among those who succeeded him,
because of his avant gard views on criticism. There has been a general trend to move from the
tangible to the intangible; a development from the formal aspects of art and poetry to the
subtle aspects of understanding and creation. From Formalism to Postcolonialism,
Poststructuralism, there is a move from form to content to that subtle element which the critics
call reading between the lines, discovering the underlying meaning through deconstruction and
transcending the mental boundaries of cultures in multiculturalism. There is a greater emphasis
on the importance of the word, of the language. The theories of language and language
learning, the structure of language and the act of its communication, all indicate a slow
progression towards discovering the importance of the word. Sri Aurobindo wrote about the
importance of word, its relation to the spirit and the power of consciousness the word conveys.
It may be argued that the importance of word is emphasized in the Vedas and highlighted by
Bhartrhari in his sphota theory. However, it is Sri Aurobindo who related the importance of the
word to the consciousness. It is now more comprehending and perceivable and may be
concretely experienced by those who want to experience it.
This dimension of aesthesis or the appreciation of poetry on the basis of consciousness
is Sri Aurobindo’s original contribution. The Indian aestheticians had quite subtle parameters to
appreciate poetry, than the outer parameters of form and structure. Like Longinus’ sublime,
Indian aestheticians focused on rasa (emotive element), dhvani (suggestive element), anumiti
(inferential element) to count on the meaning and appreciation of literature or poetry. Making
it more subtle and more experiential Sri Aurobindo gave the parameter of consciousness, by
which any work of art may be appreciated and understood. Selecting and integrating the
tradition of the acharyas like Bharata, Ānandavardhan, Abhinavgupta, Mammata in
commenting upon existing works of art, literature and criticism, he exceeded them all in giving
his aesthesis, which is an entirely new dimension to the appreciation of poetry and art. All these
Indian aestheticians propounded their own theories and brought forth one or the other
element of dhvani or anumiti, alāmkara or riti. Sri Aurobindo read them and wrote extensively
on the suggestive meaning, importance and role of alamkāra (figures of speech), style,
movement of poetry, the process of poetic creation and many more concepts explored by the
older aestheticians. His contribution thus stands apart as he takes into consideration all that
was done before and integrates it with a new spiritual dimension.
In conclusion it may be said that aesthetics emphasizes on appreciation with the help of
mind whereas poetry that is written beyond mind cannot be appreciated on the basis of the
parameters set by the mind. A special kind of aesthesis is required to appreciate a higher kind
of poetry. The perception of poetry through the inner senses is what is known as aesthesis. Sri
Aurobindo says that,