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Love and Death
Love & Death
by Sri Aurobindo
"This is a blank-verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) retelling of a popular story from the Mahabharata, the tale of Ruru and Priyumvada. The hero, Ruru, quests into the afterlife to beg for the resurrection of his beloved bride, Priyumvada, killed by snake-bite. Death's bargain with Ruru is that he is to give up half his life so that Priyumvada can live again. This is a common theme in world Orpheus, Gilgamesh, and many others take the same journey."
About the
"Sri Aurobindo (August 15, 1872 - December 5, 1950) was an Indian/Hindu nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru. After a short political career in which he became one of the leaders of the early movement for the freedom of India from British rule, Sri Aurobindo turned to the development and practice of a new spiritual path which he called the "integral yoga," the aim of which was to further the evolution of life on earth by establishing a high level of spiritual consciousness which he called the Supermind that would represent a divine life free from physical death. Sri Aurobindo wrote prolifically in English on his spiritual philosophy and practice, on social and political development, on Indian culture including extensive commentaries and translations of ancient Indian scriptures, on literature and poetry including the writing of much spiritual poetry."
by Sri Aurobindo
"This is a blank-verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) retelling of a popular story from the Mahabharata, the tale of Ruru and Priyumvada. The hero, Ruru, quests into the afterlife to beg for the resurrection of his beloved bride, Priyumvada, killed by snake-bite. Death's bargain with Ruru is that he is to give up half his life so that Priyumvada can live again. This is a common theme in world Orpheus, Gilgamesh, and many others take the same journey."
About the
"Sri Aurobindo (August 15, 1872 - December 5, 1950) was an Indian/Hindu nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru. After a short political career in which he became one of the leaders of the early movement for the freedom of India from British rule, Sri Aurobindo turned to the development and practice of a new spiritual path which he called the "integral yoga," the aim of which was to further the evolution of life on earth by establishing a high level of spiritual consciousness which he called the Supermind that would represent a divine life free from physical death. Sri Aurobindo wrote prolifically in English on his spiritual philosophy and practice, on social and political development, on Indian culture including extensive commentaries and translations of ancient Indian scriptures, on literature and poetry including the writing of much spiritual poetry."
44 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2010
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About the author
Sri Aurobindo
1,180 books426 followersSri Aurobindo (Bengali: শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo) was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, major Indian English poet, philosopher, and yogi. He joined the movement for India's freedom from British rule and for a duration (1905–10), became one of its most important leaders, before turning to developing his own vision and philosophy of human progress and spiritual evolution.
The central theme of Sri Aurobindo's vision is the evolution of life into a "life divine". In his own words: "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of Nature's process."
The principal writings of Sri Aurobindo include, in prose, The Life Divine, considered his single great work of metaphysics,The Synthesis of Yoga, Secrets of the Vedas, Essays on the Gita, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, Renaissance in India and other essays, Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, The Future Poetry, Thoughts and Aphorisms and several volumes of letters. In poetry, his principal work is Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol in blank verse.
The central theme of Sri Aurobindo's vision is the evolution of life into a "life divine". In his own words: "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution. It is inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner spirit and the logic of Nature's process."
The principal writings of Sri Aurobindo include, in prose, The Life Divine, considered his single great work of metaphysics,The Synthesis of Yoga, Secrets of the Vedas, Essays on the Gita, The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, Renaissance in India and other essays, Supramental Manifestation upon Earth, The Future Poetry, Thoughts and Aphorisms and several volumes of letters. In poetry, his principal work is Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol in blank verse.
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January 11, 2024
This is an extraordinary love poem in which the poet has discovered with might and vibrancy, almost every phase of sexual love. In it unconquerable love beats against the very gates of death and gets victory over it. In this great love-poem there is that struggle against mortality and fate which demarcates ordinary life.
Ruru descends into an underworld to bring back Priyumvada killed before she was ripe. Earth's heart storming beyond earth to gain fulfilment, either by attaining the supra-terrestrial and remaining in its light or by invading the infra-terrestrial and reclaiming from its obscurity what it has snatched and inundated this is the psychological keynote behind Sri Aurobindo's early love-poetry.
It is a kind of foreshadowing of the treatment of love in ‘Savitri’. There is that daring struggle against Death which in ‘Savitri’ assumes the form of struggle against the law of Determinism --- the Karmic law, and raises her to the loftiness of a martyr, and makes her one of the redeemers of mankind, like Christ.
Though Ruru attains only personal felicity, and not the redemption of mankind, it would be going too far to say that the poem is a failure.
The title of the poem is appropriate and evocative. It suggests the theme of the poem which is the power of true love to master death itself. It is a great love-poem in which the poet's conduct of love attains a delicate lyric passion.
Ruru descends into an underworld to bring back Priyumvada killed before she was ripe. Earth's heart storming beyond earth to gain fulfilment, either by attaining the supra-terrestrial and remaining in its light or by invading the infra-terrestrial and reclaiming from its obscurity what it has snatched and inundated this is the psychological keynote behind Sri Aurobindo's early love-poetry.
It is a kind of foreshadowing of the treatment of love in ‘Savitri’. There is that daring struggle against Death which in ‘Savitri’ assumes the form of struggle against the law of Determinism --- the Karmic law, and raises her to the loftiness of a martyr, and makes her one of the redeemers of mankind, like Christ.
Though Ruru attains only personal felicity, and not the redemption of mankind, it would be going too far to say that the poem is a failure.
The title of the poem is appropriate and evocative. It suggests the theme of the poem which is the power of true love to master death itself. It is a great love-poem in which the poet's conduct of love attains a delicate lyric passion.
Displaying 1 of 1 review