The Fear of Life and Death-
Sri Aurobindo
About the Poet:
Sri Aurobindo born on 15th August, 1872, dies on 5th December 1950. He joins the Indian movement for Independence from British rule. He founds the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His famous philosophies are Integral Yoga, Involution, Evolution, Integral Psychology, Intermediate Zone and Supermind. His disciples are Champaklal, N.K. Gupta, Amal Kiran, Nirodbaran, Pavitra, M.P. Pandit, A.B. Purani, D.K. Roy, Satprem and Indra Sen. His famous literary works are The Life of Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, and Savitri.
Summary and Analysis:
Death resides with everyone, it is inside us. It wishes to encounter us
one day. Death lives every moment of our
life and feels the same way as we do. The
poet questions the reader,
‘Why do you fear her?’
Her refers death.
Why does poet think death must be a woman? It is just because, a woman can give and take
lives. The poet refers death as Lovely
Maiden, she is beautiful, smiling face, cheerful. The Lovely Maiden is culling
flowers in beautiful bower, which denotes that the Death is taking away the
lives (soul) of people. As we all know, death
and birth are the common cycle of life.
Death takes the life and nature gives it back. Therefore, embrace with love and do not fear
of her.
“A kind and lovely maiden culling flowers
In a sweet garden fresh with vernal showers,”
The Portress, once again the poet refers death as
woman. The lovely woman opens the gate
of another world in where no one going to meet her again. The poet asks again do not fear of death, it
is not painful at all. It approaches
mildly. You cannot feel her when she touches you with her tender hands. He raises another question, do you bother
about your appearance? Yes, you may look horrible. People look at you, they step away from
you. Of course, you are really dirty
when she picks up you and leaves your body behind.
“Is it because the flowerless stalk droops
dull
And ghastly now that was so beautiful?”
Afraid of your
destiny?, Poet asks. When Death meets,
she takes you along with her. To the
eternity, where there is no beginning and end.
Do you (soul) scared of eternity? It happens when people approaches something
that they never feared of. Therefore the
poet asks the readers not to afraid of destiny after death.
“Or is it the opening portal’s horrid jar
That shakes you, feeble souls of courage
bare?”
Aurobindo
answers all the questions that death moves the soul from one vessel to another. He emphasizes the rebirth of the soul when he
mention the robes (vessels). Death is
just a shifting agent, she knows what lies in the other side of the gate. So, she dresses you with wedding garments for
the grand entering.
SYMBOLS:
The poet constructs the
poem with ample symbols and implied meanings.
These symbols are related to death and eternity. He has used these kinds of mild and soft
symbols to eradicate the fear of death that lies inside the people’s heart as a
terrible thing.
1.
Lovely Maiden and Young
Portress: Death
2.
Flower: Soul
3.
Stalk: Human body
4.
Horrid Jar: Eternity.
5.
Robes: human body.
Figure of Speech:
Oxymoron: The figure of speech, in which apparently contradictory terms appear
in conjunction.
‘Sweet Death’.
Personification: The figure of speech where non-living things are described to seem
like people. It represents a non-human
thing as if it were human.
‘Lovely maiden’, ‘Young
Portress’.
Thus the poet advise
the readers not to fear of death which is inevitable, it is common to Prince
and Paupers. Therefore do not be scared
of death and ruin the present.
No comments:
Post a Comment