{"id":56,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=56"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:36","slug":"21-the-genius-of-valmiki-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/21-the-genius-of-valmiki-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-21_The Genius of Valmiki.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nSECTION
\n<\/span>FOUR<\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\nVALMIKI AND VYASA<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

\nThe Genius of Valmiki<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nO<\/font><\/b>UT
\n<\/b><\/font>
\nof the infinite silence of the past,
\npeopled only to the eye of history or the ear of the Yogin, a few
\nvoices arise which speak for it, express it and are the very utterance
\nand soul of those unknown generations, of that vanished and now
\nsilent humanity. These are the voices of the poets. We whose
\nsouls are drying up in this hard and parched age of utilitarian
\nand scientific thought when men value little beyond what gives
\nthem exact and useful knowledge or leads them to some outward
\nincrease of power and pleasure, we who are beginning to neglect
\nand ignore poetry and can no longer write it greatly and well,
\n\u2014 just as we have forgotten how to sculpture like the Greeks,
\npaint like the mediaeval Italians or build like the Buddhists \u2014
\nare apt to forget this grand utility of the poets, one noble faculty
\namong their many divine and unusual powers. The Kavi or
\nVates, poet and seer, is not the manīsī<\/i>; he is not the logical
\nthinker, scientific analyser or metaphysical reasoner; his knowledge is one not with his thought, but with his being; he has not
\narrived at it but has it in himself by virtue of his power to become
\none with all that is around him. By some form of spiritual, vital and emotional
\noneness he is what he sees; he is the hero thundering in the forefront of the battle, the mother weeping over her
\ndead, the tree trembling violently in the storm, the flower warmly
\npenetrated with the sunshine. And because he is these things,
\ntherefore he knows them; because he knows thus, spiritually
\nand not rationally, he can write of them. He feels their delight
\nand pain, he shares their virtue and sin, he enjoys their reward
\nor bears their punishment. It is for this reason that poetry
\nwritten out of the intellect is so inferior to poetry written out of
\nthe soul, is, \u2014 even as poetical thinking, \u2014 so inferior to the
\nthought that comes formed by inscrutable means out of the soul.
\nFor this reason, too, poets of otherwise great faculty have failed
\nto give us living men and women or really to show to our inner
\nvision even the things of which they write eloquently or sweetly<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 137<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nbecause they are content to write about them after having seen
\nthem with the mind only, and have not been able or have not
\ntaken care first to be the things of which they would write and
\nthen not so much write about them as let them pour out in speech
\nthat is an image of the soul. They have been too easily attracted
\nby the materials of poetry, artha<\/i> and śabda<\/i>; drawn by some
\npower and charm in the substance of speech, captivated by some
\nmelody, harmony or colour in the form of speech, arrested by
\nsome strong personal emotion which clutches at experience or
\ngropes for expression in these externals of poetry, they have forgotten to bathe in the Muses’ deepest springs.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nTherefore among those ancient voices, even when the literature of the ages has been winnowed and chosen by Time, there
\nare very few who recreate for us in poetic speech deeply and
\nmightily the dead past, because they were that past, not so much
\nthemselves as the age and nation in which they lived and not so
\nmuch even the age and nation as that universal humanity which
\nin spite of all differences, under them and within them, even expressing its unity through them, is the same in every nation and
\nin every age. Others give us only fragments of thought or outbursts of feeling or reveal to us scattered incidents of sight, sound
\nand outward happening. These are complete, vast, multitudinous,
\ninfinite in a way, impersonal, many-personed in their very personality, not divine workmen merely but fine creators endowed
\nby God with something of His divine power and offering therefore in their works some image of His creative activity.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n(Incomplete<\/i>)<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 138<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n2<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nT<\/font>HE <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/b>greatest poets are usually those who
\narise either out of a large, simple and puissant environment or
\nout of a movement of mind that is grandiose, forceful and elemental. When man becomes increasingly refined in intellect,
\ncurious in aesthetic sensibility or minute and exact in intellectual
\nreasoning, it becomes more and more difficult to write great
\nand powerful poetry. Ages of accomplished intellectuality and
\nscholarship or of strong scientific rationality are not favourable
\nto the birth of great poets or if they are born, not favourable to
\nthe free and untrammelled action of their gifts. They remain
\ngreat, but their greatness bends under a load: there is a lack of
\ntriumphant spontaneity and they do not draw as freely or directly
\nfrom the sources of human action and character. An untameable
\nelemental force is needed to overcome more than partially the
\ndenials of the environment. For poetry, even though it appeals
\nin passing to the intellect and aesthetic sense, does not proceed
\nfrom them but is in its nature an elemental power proceeding
\nfrom the secret and elemental Power within which sees directly
\nand creates sovereignly, and it passes at once to our vital and elemental parts. Intellect and the aesthetic faculties are necessary
\nto the perfection of our critical enjoyment; but they are only
\nassistants, not the agents of this divine birth.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n(Incomplete<\/i>)<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 139<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SECTION FOUR VALMIKI AND VYASA     The Genius of Valmiki   OUT of the infinite silence of the past, peopled only to the eye…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","wpcat-4-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}