Some people are blessed to have the touch of Goddess Saraswati on their fingers and Her kiss in their hearts; as a result they are able to compose remarkable verses. Due to this special blessings, they can dive into the ocean of thoughts and realizations and bring out the most precious pearls which they knit together to form a priceless necklace. This necklace is also known as “poetry”. There are some who think, analyze and evaluate subjects and occurrences of incidents from a different angle or perspective. They are the intellectuals and researchers who not only think but make others think as well. There is another class of people gifted with the special power of speech. They are superb conversationalists who mesmerize the audience whenever they speak. They have the touch of the Goddess of Learning in their tongue. In the fourth category of people there are the seers, the Yogis—who, despite being a part of this world, belong to the Divine. They are here to guide us, help us, lead us from Darkness to Light and from Falsehood to Truth. They enlighten us with their wisdom (practical and spiritual) and we feel secure when we are in their company. But is it possible to have these four traits in a single person? Yes, it indeed is possible. We still have such great men amidst us—K.D. Sethna alias Amal Kiran, who is not only a great Yogi but also a poet par excellence, a researcher, an Indologist, a prose-writer, a critic and what not! In this article, we shall try to discuss the various aspects of Amal Kiran, the universal genius…   more »

High in the Himalayas, surrounded by Gods and legends, life is simple and uncomplicated. The Himalayas hold untold secrets, a zillion attractions. Sacred temples, tarns, hot springs, holy rivers, unimaginable flora and fauna, and a vast palette of cultures, each existing, effortlessly, as part of a whole. The huge effort in the journey up the mountains to the shrine of Badrinath leaves little energy to see much else. Those able to brave the cold, and the steep climb, venture on to Mana, three km away…   more »

The seasons bring variety to my morning walk around Mumbai’ Five Gardens. The quality of light changes, new flowers splash across the branches, and different bird song filters out of the dense foliage. Thus it was that as I walked with downcast eyes, came upon a swathe of purple prose. No, call it poetry. The pavement and the road beyond it had been dyed like a royal robe, though not evenly Here, it was of deep rich hue, there, the fuchsia segued into a paler mauve. I marvelled over this unfamiliar beauty. The end-of summer breezes cover the pavements with the golden blooms of the copper pod tree, and the first showers do the same with the resplendent gulmohur, spreading out a red carpet which might be the envy of Cannes. But that recent morning, the night’s rainfall had changed the accustomed palette, it had brought down hundreds of jamuns...   more »

Poetry is truly a complete expression of beauty because it combines many different kinds of beauty: the beauty of sounds, of images, of thought, of emotions and of expression. And yet, unfortunately, the word “poetry” conjures up only images of school life. Those images often have in the background the voice of an unkind teacher or the stress of having to struggle with incomprehensible or archaic words. Most people think that one bids goodbye to poetry when one steps out of the student life. This may be why poems don’t usually form a part of our general reading. A combination of factors has made the poems of Sri Aurobindo so little appreciated. English poetry was a natural part of his education and therefore helped to form his mental make-up. In the late 19th century, a school like St Paul’s taught Greek and Latin from the lowest level of classes, and the entire focus was on literature. Education for the upper classes in England was structured around acquiring general culture, and this is why poetry was given a place of great importance at school level and was also commonly studied at colleges. It was an age when science, commerce and technology were generally considered to be inferior to literature. Having studied poetry so thoroughly, it was a natural step for Sri Aurobindo to compose his own poems. Yet there is a puzzle, and we could continue to look for less evident reasons to justify why so enjoyable a book as Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems remains so little known.   more »

There are numerous genre of literature, yet more are the schools of criticism aiming at appreciating and analyzing literature. Like every poet and writer differs from each other, similarly every critic and school of criticism differs from the other. The basis of these differences for the poets and writers may be of that of temperament, style and other techniques; critics differ on the subject and method of appreciation. Even in each school of criticism every critic differs from the other due to the subjective elements and temperamental differences that come in. The focus in the present essay is on the method of appreciation more than the subject, the tool of appreciation being consciousness. We see how consciousness plays an important role in creation and reception of a text. The words, as they have power, create the corresponding vibrations and can deliver this vibration into the creation and subsequently into the recipient if he or she is prepared to receive it. We see how beautifully consciousness binds the author, the text and the reader. All the disputes and differences of opinions end when we find these three (the author, the text and the reader) as parts of a continuum and not as distinct entities.   more »

Reference that prompted this posting is Rich's The Origin of the Words check at http://www.sciy.org/blog/_archives/2008/6/25/3762846.html   more »