(A dream experience)
I
Leaped into the sky
And flew and flew
And had a bird's eye-view
Of many places,
Many new faces,
Beings of variety,
Small and mighty,
And landed upon a sea-shore,
Where I saw fishes, and fishes more;
But alas! they were
At peace nowhere.
I found
Violence all around —
Everyone was after
The blood of another,
By biting,
Or by smiting.
This blood lust
Brought me disgust.
This atmosphere
Of ugly inconscient hunger and fear
Made me sick,
At heart, I had many a pinprick.
I left the place
And leaped into the Space.
And down I came again
To regain
The earthly touch
Which I missed so much.
I saw a mansion
With a vast expansion,
Where many men
And women
Greeted me
With mirth and smile and joy,
Without any alloy.
Suddenly came there
From nowhere
A person strange,
But below the range
Of goodness and normalcy
Or sweetness and decency.
He was violent and ego-blind,
Notorious and unkind.
All the men around were
Afraid and astounded there ;
They were all scattered,
To them, escape only mattered.
And then,
During the fleeing of all men,
Broke out a luminous, huge fire,
Which consumed him like a pyre,
Witnessed by all,
Big and small.
And lo!
Can you dream so?
When the fire was put out slowly,
When the fumes were lowly,
We saw the dead again rise
To all our surmise.
The stranger looked calm, serene and gracious,
With a body, new and glorious.
[This was originally written on 15-01-1984, based on a dream experince in the early morning. This was not published ever before. According to Sri Aurobindo, 'fish' symbolises the ever-moving vital mind, making all sorts of formations. 'Fire' stands for the Light, the tapasya, askesis or aspiration, or the pure and purifying Flame, the Immortal Fire, which "illumines and fortifies the hewers of the Ways of the Truth, Light and Immortality, the travellers on the Ways of the Spirit". (S S Jhunjhunwalla : The Immortal Fire). Building stands for a new creation, according to
Sri Aurobindo.]
O Silence, O Solitude!
Far away from the crowd and the mob,
I am here in an infinite ocean
Of silence and solitude.
I see the wide, vast, infinite sky,
I hear the chirping of the birds,
Known and unknown,
And distant human noises
Which make no meaning.
The vast horizon enlightens me
With an limitless awareness within:
I contemplate!
O humankind!
I belong no more to the mortal world,
I comprehend not the meaning of all sufferings,
Of all frustration and failure and fall,
Of all darkness and division and death.
To the Beyond I belong,
Where I find
Eternal Joy and Consciousness limitless,
And Existence immortal,
Where all is sublime,
Where there is no enmity, no fear,
Where there is no sorrow, no discord.
I come from the Eternal’s realm
Of ever-bright white Light,
Where reigns Truth luminously,
Where Love and Joy flow with glory,
Where there is no division, no darkness,
Where there is no transience, no death.
I undergo all sufferings and pain
And embrace all chaos here,
Upon earth, the vale of tears,
And bring the message
Of joy and love and hope,
And bring joyous visions and dreams
To share the divine possibilities here.
In this silent solitude
Amid this wide vastness
Of nature and sky,
I dive into the Ocean of Consciousness,
And find the kingdom of Light,
The Abode wherefrom I come,
Full of peace and bliss and joy.
From this height of sublime solitude,
I observe men and women
With a global vision.
Days and months and years are lost,
While they seek and value futility
In utter blind ignorance.
I find the people yell for help,
When seized by failures and frustrations.
Help comes and waits unattended.
Centuries and millennia are lost in vain,
And darkness prevails.
Dark and dark everywhere,
All hopes are lost,
All faith is shattered.
Caught in the network frenzies,
In the whirlpool of dark forces,
Human beings have lost all ways.
O humankind!
O Mother earth!
Weep not,
Be not aggrieved and sad.
The days of your sorrows shall be over.
The Time has come,
When the Nectar of Immortality
Has been brought for you!
I come to join the Great Yajna,
That has been commenced on earth
Invisibly and silently
By the Supreme
Through the Descent of the Gnosis
To save the earth from all Darkness
And transform it into the Divine Abode.
Barindranath Chaki
