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The Word of The Silence by Aurobindo (1872 - 1950) Timeline Yoga / Hindu 20th Century A bare impersonal hush is now my mind, A world of sight clear and inimitable, A volume of silence by a Godhead signed, A greatness pure, virgin of will. Once on its pages Ignorance could write In a scribble of intellect the blind guess of Time And cast gleam-messages of ephemeral light, A food for souls that wander on Nature's rim. But now I listen to a greater Word Born from the mute unseen omniscient Ray: The Voice that only Silence's ear has heard Leaps missioned from an eternal glory of Day. All turns from a wideness and unbroken peace To a tumult of joy in a sea of wide release.   1939	Themes   Birth, Rebirth   Bliss   Food   Light   Silence Recommended Books Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty, Edited by Alan Jacobs
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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

This poem describes the profound silence that engulfs you in the states of deepest communion -- and the true healing it brings. The rumble of the mind is quiet, emotions are still. All projections onto reality cease, making your "sight clear," revealing the world as it is, "inimitable."

Sri Aurobindo describes past efforts to help the world, to provide "food for souls" through the process of mental chatter, the "scribble of the intellect," but he eventually recognized that as an expression of "Ignorance." At best, such activity produces "gleam-messages of ephemeral light" -- the results are not lasting, they to do not get to the root of the problems of worldly existence, they do not touch on the eternal.

Sri Aurobindo has recognized in deep, mystic silence, "the Word," the meta-word that contains all words, all forms, all possibilities. It is a wordless "voice" that can be heard only in silence, but it frees the "eternal glory" of enlightenment, of "Day."

And, in that "Day" of enlightenment, in that "wideness and unbroken peace," everything -- everything! -- turns "to a tumult of joy" and ecstatic freedom.

This is the real healing for the world that Sri Aurobindo seeks. This is what the world truly hungers for. It cannot be found through mental work, or through any activity that is a mere rearrangement of forms and systems. Real healing, real service always returns people and the world to their original, eternal source, which is revealed by "The Word of The Silence."

Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
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