Of the significance of his date of birth, Sri Aurobindo himself spoke thus:
August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity.
August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the beginning of its full fruition.
Indeed, on this day I can watch almost all the world-movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime, though then they looked like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition or on their way to achievement. In all these movements free India may well play a large part and take a leading position.
(CWSA, Vol. 36, p. 478)
During the 1930s, a number of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples wrote poems in Bengali, which they submitted to him for comment and criticism. Most were informal efforts but all were expressions of the growing aspiration in the disciples’ hearts. On some occasions Sri Aurobindo translated or thoroughly revised translations of such poems.
‘The New Creator’ was one such poem written by Aruna (1895-1993). It speaks of a disciple’s deep love and adoration for his master, and also of what the Yoga of Sri Aurobindo means for the future of earth, humanity and India.
THE NEW CREATOR
Poem by Aruna, Translated by Sri Aurobindo
You rose in India, O glorious in contemplation, O Sun, Illuminator of the vast ocean of life,
Clarioning the new Path of an unstumbling progression.
You have dug up the immense, sombre bedrock of the earth’s ignorance,
And sought to unite in eternal marriage the devotion of the heart And the Force of life.
We bow to you, Sri Aurobindo, O Sun of the New Age, Bringer of the New Light!
May India, irradiated by your rays, become the Light-house of the world!
To the country which, by losing its soul-mission, had lost the rhythm Of its life’s advance,
And was darkened and blinded by the gloom of the ages,
To point the inward way and reduce all obstacles to subservient aids,
You have brought the message of the night’s end, O divine Ambidexter, wisdom-bright!
We bow to you, Sri Aurobindo, O Sun of the New Age, Bringer of the New Light!
May India, irradiated by your rays, become the Light-house of the world!
The dust of your feet turned the prison into a temple,
Your lofty ideal has lifted the nation’s life to a sublime aim,
Your accomplishment has brought to our door the supreme treasure of Supermanhood,
Your feet faltered not even when the heart of the world trembled.
We bow to you, Sri Aurobindo, O Sun of the New Age, Bringer of the New Light!
May India, irradiated by your rays, become the Light-house of the world!
You have made humanity hear the message, the great Truth which none has ever uttered:
That man’s birth-right is not only to freedom from slavery, but to eternal divinity.
You have proclaimed: The whole earth shall march forward with India in the van;
India will set the example and the earth will follow her ideal.
We bow to you, Sri Aurobindo, O Sun of the New Age, Bringer of the New Light!
May India, irradiated by your rays, become the Light-house of the world!
Of the true significance of advent of Sri Aurobindo, the Mother spoke thus:
Sri Aurobindo has brought to the world the assurance of a divine future.
Sri Aurobindo has come on earth not to bring a teaching or a creed in competition with previous creeds or teachings, but to show the way to overpass the past and to open concretely the route towards an imminent and inevitable future.
(CWM, Vol. 13, p. 4)
Offered at the Lotus Feet of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo on this special day of 15 August 2022.
Also see:
The Timeless Relevance of Sri Aurobindo
~ Design: Beloo Mehra
