Vol. VII, Issue 10
Video and Commentary: Suhas Mehra
Editor’s Note: We feature a video rendition of Sri Aurobindo’s Usha Stotra (Hymn to Usha). Written in Bengali in the manner of the Suktas of the Rigveda, Sri Aurobindo composed it in Pondicherry. It was translated into English by Nolini Kanta Gupta.
Hymn to Usha
Composed by Sri Aurobindo; Translated by Nolini Kanta Gupta
Lo, Dawn the Beloved, appears in her gleaming young body. She impels all Life on the path towards the goal. Fire, the Divine Force, is born to be kindled in man. Dawn drives away all Darkness and fulfils herself in creating Light.
She, the Goddess, rises lifting her forward gaze towards the Vast, the Universal. She has put on the robe of Light and displays the white brilliance of her subtle norms of Truth. Heaven-gold is her hue, her vision is all-round seeing: verily, she is the mother of the herd of brilliances of knowledge, a leader of our bright days; her luminous body is disclosed.
The Goddess, All-Enjoyment she is: she comes carrying the Sun, the Eye of the Gods, bringing here the white Life-steeds that have the perfect vision, she comes, the Goddess wholly revealing herself in the rays of the Sun. Behold her in her multiple divine riches, behold her manifest everywhere, in all things, behold her the Mother of Radiance.
All delight is within, all that is hostile to man is afar: so let it be in thy dawning. Build our pasture of infinity, illumined with truth, build our home of delight freed from fear. Drive away all that divides and antagonises, bring to us all the wealth of the human soul, O Mother of Plenty, send forth into life all the plenitude of delight.
Goddess Dawn, manifest thyself in our hearts in the play of thy supreme Effulgence, widen the life of this embodied being. O Mother of Delight, give us stable impulsion. Give us that plenty whose wealth is the luminous herd of Truth, where range the chariots and horses of Life moving towards Infinity.
We are rich in those riches, we the steadfast aspirants, O Goddess, born in perfection, Daughter of Heaven! We foster Thee with our thought-streams and Thou too holdest in our bosom the knowledge won and the Vast and the Seas of Delight.
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Commentary
“Usha Stotra” by Sri Aurobindo is deeply steeped in the symbolism and style of the ancient Vedic hymns. Dawn symbolises a spiritual awakening within human consciousness. She represents the first glimmer of divine consciousness and light appearing in the darkness and ignorance of the ordinary human mind. Her primary function is to drive away the Darkness, which symbolises ignorance, falsehood, limitation, and suffering.
With the coming of Dawn, Agni, the Divine Force, is born to be kindled in man.” In Vedic symbolism, Agni is the divine will or the force of aspiration that burns within the heart, yearning to rise towards the divine. The dawn of awareness awakens this inner fire. Usha is the harbinger of the Sun, the “Eye of the Gods”. The Sun represents the full blaze of the Supreme Truth. Dawn thus prepares the way for this greater illumination to manifest.
The Rishi prays for the spiritual wealth. This wealth consists of the luminous Herd of Truth, a classic Vedic image where cows or herds of light (Go in Sanskrit) represent the rays of spiritual knowledge and illumination. He also prays for “white Life-steeds” and “chariots and horses of Life” which symbolize a purified, powerful, and divinely guided life-energy (Ashva) moving towards the infinite.
Dawn is the “Mother of Delight” and brings the plenitude of delight, signifying that the spiritual path is one of joy and divine ecstasy, not dry asceticism. Usha’s gaze is towards “the Vast, the Universal,” (Mahas) which refers to the infinite and true consciousness, beyond the narrow confines of the ego.
The hymn is thus an invocation for the divine light to break into the aspirant’s inner world, dispelling ignorance, kindling the will for transformation, and establishing a new life of vastness, truth, and delight.
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~ Design: Suhas Mehra
