Sri Aurobindo and Mother to Prithwi Singh

18 March 1944

My Lord,¹⁸

According to Rishabhchand the explanation of the Four Movements of Thought in its upward ascent to Infinity as brought out by Dr. Iyengar is not correct, and he thinks that in the lines

        The face
Lustred, pale-blue-lined of the hippogriff,
Eremite, sole, daring the bourneless ways,
Over world-bare summits of timeless being
Gleamed

Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: Thought the Paraclete

the Overmind is already crossed, and the lines

Sun-realms of supernal seeing,
Crimson-white mooned oceans of pauseless bliss
Drew its vague heart-yearnings with voices sweet

Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems: Thought the Paraclete

are a description of Supermind and Ananda planes. For greater accuracy here is the explanation of those lines in his own words:

"Thought the Paraclete is passing rapidly through the planes of Intuition and Overmind 'daring the bourneless ways.' When these planes are crossed, from over the 'world-bare summits of timeless being,' it gleams down upon the world only to find 'its deep twilights' fail below. Time and Space have been overpassed and the Paraclete is now being 'drawn' by the sweet voices of the 'sun-realms' of the Supermind and the mooned oceans of the Bliss-planes. And thus drawn Paraclete advances, 'hungering and large-souled,' traverses 'power-swept silences' and finally disappears 'seeking the last Beyond.'"

This explanation, however, does not appear to be satisfactory for the following reasons:

1) 'World-bare summits of timeless being' seems obviously to be connected with the previous line 'Space and Time's mute vanishing ends' and they seem to me to be the description that is not meant to be applicable to any intermediate higher ranges but rather to the Infinity beyond time and space which is the goal of the Thought's pilgrimage. From the higher inter-mediate ranges, possibly the Illumined Mind, Thought has already envisaged, conceptively 'trod Space and Time's mute vanishing ends,' for its 'sleepless ... wings of wind bore the gold-red seeking' which can only end when it has found the object of its seeking, the Supramental. And from the heights of the Intuition plane this vision has widened so that it shone forth (gleamed) over' world-bare summits of timeless being.' Therefore the lower world of Ignorance has now lost all hold over it. For, in such condition only will Overmind draw it up into its own supernal seeing (for in its own plane it receives the direct Light from the Supermind) and its 'oceans of pauseless bliss.'

2) 'Hungering' is a state which ought to precede the act of being drawn. If Thought was already drawn by Supermind into itself, its next step would be the final disappearance. But to say that it is first drawn up, then advances hungering and finally disappears does not seem to me to fit very well.

3) If 'world-bare summits of timeless being' were a description of Supermind, then why 'with voices sweet' have the 'vague heart-yearnings' of Thought been drawn up and not with 'rapture-stunned silences'?

4) If' sun-realms of supernal seeing' were a description of Supermind and 'crimson-white mooned oceans of pauseless bliss' that of Ananda plane, then it would be difficult to explain a repetition of the same description in slightly varying language in the subsequent lines reversed:

power-swept silences rapture-stunned and high far ethers eternal-sunned.

But if the first two lines speak of Overmind, then the latter varying expression would appear to have great significance, subtlety and power, indicating a transition to yet higher plane.

5) Another point to note is that the 'face lustred, paleblue-lined of the hippogriff gleamed over 'world-bare summits. 'According to Rishabhchand this pale-blue or intuitivised aspect of face is only at the start, when it 'gleamed' it had already overpassed the Overmind plane beyond which only is the 'world-bare' summits!

The intermediate transitions are implied, not expressly stated. But this seems very far-fetched indeed.

[Sri Aurobindo's comment in the margin:] How do you know there are not many world-bare summits one above the other? Where do you place the self of the last line?

These are my chief difficulties in accepting Rishabhchand's reading of the poem, but I may not be right.

As it is a difficult poem liable to many interpretations I shall be very happy if it be possible for my Lord to give a brief analysis of the thought-structure of the poem or at least to indicate the main lines of the ascent in the poem.

[Sri Aurobindo's comment on this last sentence:] Well, then leave each to find out one of the many interpretations for himself. Analysis! Well, well!

With deep devotion
Prithwi Singh

There is no thought-structure in the poem; there is only a succession of vision and experience; it is a mystic poem, its unity is spiritual and concrete, not a mental and logical building. When you see a flower, do you ask the gardener to reduce the flower to its chemical components? There would then be no flower left and no beauty. The poem is not built upon intellectual definitions or philosophical theorisings; it is something seen. When you ascend a mountain, you see the scenery and feel the delight of the ascent; you don't sit down to make a map with names for every rock and peak or spend time studying its geological structure—that is work for the geologist, not for the traveller. Ayengar's geological account (to make one is part of his metier as a critic and a student and writer on literature) is probably as good as any other is likely to be; but each is free to make his own according to his own idea. Reasoning and argumentation are not likely to make one account truer and invalidate the rest. A mystic poem may explain itself or a general idea may emerge from it, but it is the vision that is important or what one can get from it by intuitive feeling, not the explanation or idea; it is a vision or revelation of an ascent through spiritual planes, but gives no names and no photographic descriptions of the planes crossed. I leave it there.

Sri Aurobindo