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Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry
Part One
Section One
Poetic Creation
Three Elements of Poetic Creation
Poetry, or at any rate a truly poetic poetry, comes always from some subtle plane through the creative vital and uses the outer mind and other external instruments for transmission only. There are three elements in the production of poetry; there is the original source of inspiration, there is the vital force of creative beauty which contributes its own substance and impetus and often determines the form, except when that also comes ready made from the original sources; there is, finally, the transmitting outer consciousness of the poet. The most genuine and perfect poetry is written when the original source is able to throw its inspiration pure and undiminished into the vital and there takes its true native form and power of speech exactly reproducing the inspiration, while the outer consciousness is entirely passive and transmits without alteration what it receives from the godheads of the inner or the superior spaces. When the vital mind and emotion are too active and give too much of their own initiation or a translation into more or less turbid vital stuff, the poetry remains powerful but is inferior in quality and less authentic. Finally, if the outer consciousness is too lethargic and blocks the transmission or too active and makes its own version, then you have the poetry that fails or is at best a creditable mental manufacture. It is the interference of these two parts either by obstruction or by too great an activity of their own or by both together that causes the difficulty and labour of writing. There would be no difficulty if the inspiration came through without obstruction or interference in a pure transcript ―that is what happens in a poet’s highest or freest moments when he writes not at all out of his own external human mind, but by inspiration, as the mouthpiece of the Gods.
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The originating source may be anywhere; the poetry may arise or descend from the subtle physical plane, from the higher
or lower vital itself, from the dynamic or creative intelligence, from the plane of dynamic vision, from the psychic, from the
illumined mind or Intuition, ―even, though this is the rarest, from the Overmind widenesses. To get the Overmind inspiration is so rare that there are only a few lines or short passages in all poetic literature that give at least some appearance or
reflection of it. When the source of inspiration is in the heart or the psychic there is more easily a good will in the vital channel,
the flow is spontaneous; the inspiration takes at once its true form and speech and is transmitted without any interference or
only a minimum of interference by the brain-mind, that great spoiler of the higher or deeper splendours. It is the character
of the lyrical inspiration, to flow in a jet out of the being ―whether it comes from the vital or the psychic, it is usually
spontaneous, for these are the two most powerfully impelling and compelling parts of the nature. When on the contrary the
source of inspiration is in the creative poetic intelligence or even the higher mind or the illumined mind, the poetry which comes
from this quarter is always apt to be arrested by the outer intellect, our habitual thought-production engine. This intellect
is an absurdly overactive part of the nature; it always thinks that nothing can be well done unless it puts its finger into the
pie and therefore it instinctively interferes with the inspiration, blocks half or more than half of it and labours to substitute its
own inferior and toilsome productions for the true speech and rhythm that ought to have come. The poet labours in anguish
to get the one true word, the authentic rhythm, the real divine substance of what he has to say, while all the time it is waiting
complete and ready behind; but it is denied free transmission by some part of the transmitting agency which prefers to translate
and is not willing merely to receive and transcribe. When one gets something through from the illumined mind, then there is
likely to come to birth work that is really fine and great. When there comes with labour or without it something reasonably
like what the poetic intelligence wanted to say, then there is
Page-6 something fine or adequate, though it may not be great unless there is an intervention from the higher levels. But when the
outer brain is at work trying to fashion out of itself or to give its own version of what the higher sources are trying to pour down,
then there results a manufacture or something quite inadequate or faulty or, at the best, “good on the whole”, but not
the thing
that ought to have come.
2 June 1931 Creation by the Word
The word is a sound expressive of the idea. In the supra-physical
plane when an idea has to be realised, one can by repeating the word-expression of it, produce vibrations which prepare the
mind for the realisation of the idea. That is the principle of the Mantra and of japa. One repeats the name of the Divine and the
vibrations created in the consciousness prepare the realisation of the Divine. It is the same idea that is expressed in the Bible, “God
said, Let there be Light, and there was Light.” It is creation by the Word.
6 May 1933
Creative Power and the Human Instrument
A poem may pre-exist in the timeless as all creation pre-exists there or else in some plane where the past, present and future
exist together. But it is not necessary to presuppose anything of the kind to explain the phenomena of inspiration. All is here a
matter of formation or creation. By the contact with the source of inspiration the creative Power at one level or another and the
human instrument, receptacle or channel get into contact. That is the essential point, all the rest depends upon the individual
case. If the substance, rhythm, form, words come down all together ready-formed from the plane of poetic creation, that is
the perfect type of inspiration; it may give its own spontaneous gift or it may give something which corresponds to the idea or
the aspiration of the poet, but in either case the human being is only a channel or receptacle, although he feels the joy of the
creation and the joy of the
āveśa, enthousiasmos, elation of the
Page-7 inrush and the passage. On the other hand it may be that the creative source sends down the substance or stuff, the force and
the idea, but the language, rhythm etc. are formed somewhere in the instrument; he has to find the human transcription of
something that is there in diviner essence above; then there is an illumination or excitement, a conscious labour of creation
swift or slow, hampered or facile. Something of the language may be supplied by the mind or vital, something may break
through from somewhere behind the veil, from whatever source gets into touch with the transcribing mind in the liberating or
stimulating excitement or uplifting of the consciousness. Or a line or lines may come through from some plane and the poet
excited to creation may build around them constructing his material or getting it from any source he can tap. There are
many possibilities of this nature. There is also the possibility of an inspiration not from above, but from somewhere within on
the ordinary levels, some inner mind, emotional vital etc. which the mind practised in poetical technique works out according
to its habitual faculty. Here again in a different way similar phenomena, similar variations may arise.
As for the language, the tongue in which the poem comes or the whole lines from above, that offers no real difficulty.
It all depends on the contact between the creative Power and the instrument or channel, the Power will naturally choose the
language of the instrument or channel, that to which it is accustomed and can therefore readily hear and receive. The Power
itself is not limited and can use any language, but although it is possible for things to come through in a language unknown
or ill-known ―I have seen several instances of the former ―it
is not a usual case, since the sanskāra of the mind, its habits of action and conception would normally obstruct any such unprepared receptiveness; only a strong mediumistic faculty might be unaffected by this difficulty. These things however are obviously
exceptional, abnormal or supernormal phenomena. If the parts of a poem come from different planes, it is
because one starts from some high plane but the connecting consciousness cannot receive uninterruptedly from there and as
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soon as it flickers or wavers it comes down to a lower, perhaps
without noticing it, or the lower comes in to supply the continuation of the flow or on the contrary the consciousness starts from
a lower plane and is lifted in the āveśa, perhaps occasionally,
perhaps more continuously higher for a time or else the higher force attracted by the creative will breaks through or touches or
catches up the less exalted inspiration towards or into itself. I am speaking here especially of the overhead planes where this
is quite natural; for the Overmind for instance is the ultimate source of
intuition, illumination or heightened power of the planes
immediately below it. It can lift them up into its own greater
intensity or give out of its intensity to them or touch or combine
their powers together with something of its own greater power ―or
they can receive or draw something from it or from each other. On
the lower planes beginning from the mental downwards there can also
be such variations or combinations, but the working is not the same,
for the different powers here stand more on a footing of equality
whether they stand apart from each other, each working in its own
right, or cooperate.
29 April 1937
*
Human creation comes from the vital planes into the physical ―but there is often enough something more behind it than is
expressed ―it gets altered or diminished in the human physical transcription.
9 March 1933
Joy of Poetic Creation
Poetry takes its start from any plane of the consciousness, but, like all art, one might even say all creation, it must be passed
through the vital, the life-soul, gather from it a certain force for manifestation if it is to be itself alive. And as there is always a
joy in creation, that joy along with a certain enthousiasmos ―not enthusiasm, if you please, but an invasion and exultation of
creative force and creative ecstasy, ānandamaya
āveśa ―must always be there, whatever the source. But where the inspiration
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comes from the linking of the vital creative instrument to a deeper psychic experience, that imparts another kind of intensive
originality and peculiar individual power, a subtle and delicate perfection, a linking on to something that is at once fine to
etheriality and potent, intense as fire yet full of sweetness. But this is exceedingly rare in its absolute quality,
―poetry as an
expression of mind and life is common, poetry of the mind and life touched by the soul and given a spiritual fineness is to be
found but more rare; the pure psychic note in poetry breaks through only once in a way, in a brief lyric, a sudden line, a
luminous passage. It was indeed because this linking-on took place that the true poetic faculty suddenly awoke in you,
―for
it was not there before, at least on the surface. The joy you feel, therefore, was no doubt partly the simple joy of creation,
but there comes also into it the joy of expression of the psychic being which was seeking for an outlet since your boyhood. It is
this inner expression that makes the writing of poetry a part of sadhana.
29 May 1931
Essence of Inspiration
There can be inspiration also without words ―a certain intensity in the light
and force and substance of the knowledge is the essence of inspiration.
18 June 1933
Inspiration and Effort
Inspiration is always a very uncertain thing; it comes when it
chooses, stops suddenly before it has finished its work, refuses to descend when it is called. This is a well-known affliction,
perhaps of all artists, but certainly of poets. There are some who can command it at will; those who, I think, are more full
of an abundant poetic energy than careful for perfection; others who oblige it to come whenever they put pen to paper but with
these the inspiration is either not of a high order or quite unequal in its level. Again there are some who try to give it a habit of
coming by always writing at the same time; Virgil with his nine
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lines first written, then perfected every morning, Milton with his fifty epic lines a day, are said to have succeeded in regularising their inspiration. It is, I suppose, the same principle which makes gurus in India prescribe for their disciples a meditation
at the same fixed hour every day. It succeeds partially of course, for some entirely, but not for everybody. For myself, when the
inspiration did not come with a rush or in a stream, ―for then there is no difficulty,
―I had only one way, to allow a certain
kind of incubation in which a large form of the thing to be done threw itself on the mind and then wait for the white heat in
which the entire transcription could rapidly take place. But I think each poet has his own way of working and finds his own
issue out of inspiration’s incertitudes.
26 January 1932
* Merciful heavens, what a splashing and floundering! When you
miss a verse or a poem, it is better to wait in an entire quietude about it (with only a silent expectation) until the true inspiration
comes, and not to thrash the inner air vainly for possible variants ―like that the true form is much more likely to come, as people
go to sleep on a problem and find it solved when they awake. Otherwise, you are likely to have only a series of misses, the
half-gods of the semi-poetic mind continually intervening with their false enthusiasms and misleading voices.
11 July 1931
*
Few poets can keep for a very long time a sustained level of the highest inspiration. The best poetry does not usually come
by streams except in poets of a supreme greatness though there may be in others than the greatest long-continued wingings at a
considerable height. The very best comes by intermittent drops, though sometimes three or four gleaming drops at a time. Even
in the greatest poets, even in those with the most opulent flow of riches like Shakespeare, the very best is comparatively rare.
13 February 1936
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Aspiration, Opening, Recognition
Impatience does not help ―intensity of aspiration does. The use of keeping the
consciousness uplifted is that it then remains ready for the inflow from above
when that comes. To get as early as possible to the highest range one must keep
the consciousness steadily turned towards it and maintain the call. First one
has to establish the permanent opening ―or get it to establish itself, then the
ascension and frequent, afterwards constant descent. It is only afterwards that
one can have the ease.
21 April 1937
*
Perhaps one reason why your mind is so variable is because
it has learned too much and has too many influences stamped upon it; it does not allow the real poet in you who is a little
at the back to be himself ―it wants to supply him with a form instead of allowing him to breathe into the instrument his own
notes. It is besides too ingenious. . . . What you have to learn is the art of allowing things to come through and recognising
among them the one right thing ―which is very much what you have to do in Yoga also. It is really this recognition that is the
one important need ―once you have that, things become much easier.
3 July 1932
Self-criticism
It is no use being disgusted because there is a best you have not reached yet; every poet should have that feeling of “a miraculous
poetic creation existing on a plane” he has not reached, but he should not despair of reaching it, but rather he has to regard
present achievement not as something final but as steps towards what he hopes one day to write. That is the true artistic temper.
1 May 1934
*
It is precisely the people who are careful, self-critical, anxious for perfection who have interrupted visits from the Muse. Those
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who don’t mind what they write, trusting to their genius, vigour or fluency to carry it off are usually the abundant writers. There
are exceptions, of course. “The poetic part caught in the mere mind” is an admirable explanation of the phenomenon of interruption. Fluent poets are those who either do not mind if they do not always write their very best or whose minds are sufficiently
poetic to make even their “not best” verse pass muster or make a reasonably good show. Sometimes you write things that are
good enough, but not your best, but both your insistence and mine ―for I think it essential for you to write your best always,
at least your “level best” ―may have curbed the fluency a good deal.
The check and diminution forced on your prose was compensated by the much higher and maturer quality to which it
attained afterwards. It would be so, I suppose, with the poetry; a new level of consciousness once attained, there might well be
a new fluency. So there is not much justification for the fear.
6 October 1936
*
You seem to suffer from a mania of self-depreciatory criticism.
Many artists and poets have that; as soon as they look at their work they find it awfully poor and bad. (I had that myself often
varied with the opposite feeling, Arjava also has it); but to have it while writing is its most excruciating degree of intensity. Better
get rid of it if you want to write freely.
14 December 1936
Correction by Second Inspiration
It is a second inspiration which has come in improving on the
first. When the improving is done by the mind and not by a pure inspiration, then the retouches spoil more often than they
perfect.
8 August 1936
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