Spiritual poetry

Sri Aurobindo was born on 15 August, 1872. Auroville Today has often published something related to Sri Aurobindo in this, his birth month, and this year we feature an article on his epic poem, Savitri, by Richard Hartz.

Jyoti Khare recently opened an exhibition at the Unity Pavilion, consisting of twelve paintings inspired by twelve poems by Sri Aurobindo.

The couplets and songs of the fifteenth century Indian poet-saint, Kabir, have been woven into the cultural fabric of north India for centuries.

Although relationships between Iran and India have been close for centuries, less than ten Iranians have joined Auroville. Is this because of Iran's conservative theocratic regime?

“Sri Aurobindo announced that mankind will enter the subjective age, that a new civilisation is going to come where the primary thrust will be inwards,” says Shraddhavan.

“There is nothing which gives you a joy equal to that of gratitude. One hears a bird sing, sees a lovely flower, looks at a little child, observes an act of generosity, reads a beautiful sentence, looks at the setting sun, no matter what, suddenly this comes upon you, this kind of emotion – indeed so deep, so intense – that the world manifests the Divine, that there is something behind the world which is the Divine.”

“I have tried to explain the meaning of some words and phrases and images that might be difficult to understand … to assist those who aspire to take some first steps towards experiencing the inexhaustible magic and richness and power of Sri Aurobindo’s incomparable poetry”, writes Shraddhavan in The English of Savitri.