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"Twenty-First Century English Poetry Towards Mantric Planes of Consciousness"

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Vol.5(7), pp. 211- 222, October 2014 DOI: 10.5897/IJEL2014.0617 Article Number: 3D8046A47560 International Journal of English and Literature ISSN 2141-2626 Copyright © 2014 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/IJEL Full Length Research Paper "Twenty-first Century English Poetry towards Mantric Planes of Consciousness" Nikhil Kumar Department of English, V.K.S.University, Arrah (Bihar) India-802301. Received 08 July, 2014; Accepted 21 August, 2014 Sri Aurobindo, a man of the supramental plane of consciousness has found ‘Mantra’ to be the future of Poetry, the poetry which expresses the deepest spiritual reality. He discovers that poetry written from some higher plane of, what he calls, the Intuitive Mind Consciousness and Over mind Consciousness, the two uppermost planes of spiritual consciousness on the plane of Mind is the Mantra. Since man is yet to evolve to these higher planes of the spiritual mind-consciousness, the Mantra is the future poetry. On examination of Tomas Transtromer’s Answers to Letters and some other poems of the present century it is found that the evolution of consciousness is going on, and the poetic consciousness is destined to evolve to such higher planes of the Mantric Consciousness. Key words: Poetry of Future, Mantra, Sri Aurobindo, Tomas Transtromer. INTRODUCTION It raises the thought which goes beyond the strict limits of sciousness which is irrefutably the ‘central significant the author’s subject and suggests the whole question of motive of the terrestrial existence’ (1990: 824). In fact, the the future of poetry in the age which is coming upon us, English literature, and the Indian Mind and temperament the higher functions open to it—as yet very imperfectly come to be the one integral factor for determining the fulfilled —and the part which English literature on one trend of the future poetry. It is for the reason that on side and the Indian mind and temperament on the other examination of Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri the supra- are likely to take in determining the new trend (Sri mental consciousness is found to have emerged in Aurobindo 1991: 1). English poetry. Consequently, being the evolutionary Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the ‘English literature on the culmination the supramental consciousness in it will one side and the Indian mind and temperament on the shape the course of future poetry. other’ as the determining factors of the new trend of the future of poetry is unmistakably the key-point to look into the future of poetry as the evolution of consciousness Spiritual Potency in English Poetry upon which the future of poetry depends has reached its zenith in English literature and in Indian mind and It is on account of Sri Aurobindo’s yogic attainment that temperament manifesting the spiritual1 and finally the the English Poetry could be able to manifest the supramental2 consciousnesses-the evolution of con- supramental consciousness in Savitri. Transcending the 1 According to Sri Aurobindo, spiritual consciousness is a higher plane of mental consciousness where we have the knowledge and realisation of the One that the mental consciousness is the divisive, or to say, the separative Divine, the One Cosmic Self or wherein we are aware of the existence of the consciousness whereas the supramental is the integral consciousness. The Divine Self in our being. supramental consciousness exists beyond the plane of the dimensionality, the 2 The’supramental’, as the word discloses, is the consciousness which exists dimensionality being the manifestation of separativity. It is the sovereign plane beyond the plane of the mental consciousness. Sri Aurobindo has discovered of the Consciousness of the Divine, the Transcendent Divine. 212 Int. J. English Lit. Vedic Rishis and the Yogi in the Gita Sri Aurobindo retaining enough not to be too light of balance or too undertook the yoga of supramentalisation and brought sensitive to the shocks of life; therefore, a nation easily down the supramental consciousness from its sovereign first in practical intelligence and practical dealing with the supramental plane of existence into his being. It was an facts and difficulties of life. Not, be it noted, by any power evolutionary breakthrough. He did it for the subsequent of clear intellectual thought or by force of imagination or supramentalisation of the terrestrial existence. Savirti is mental intuition, but rather by a strong vital instinct, a sort one of his actions in this direction. One can, therefore, of tentative dynamic intuition. No spirituality, but a robust unmistakably view that the supramental consciousness ethical turn; no innate power of thought and the word, but begins to descend into the terrestrial existence through a strong turn for action; no fine play of emotion or Savitri, for which the ‘submerged Celtic genius’ (1991: quickness of sympathy, but an abundant energy and 47) in English literature provides base. One finds the force of will. This is one element of the national mind; the base in the ‘Celtic genius’ for the supramental conscious- other is the submerged, half-insistent Celtic spirit, gifted ness to descend into the English poetry for the reason with precisely the opposite qualities, inherent spirituality, that mysticism is the essential attribute of Celticism. the gift of the word, the rapid and brilliant imagination, the Spirituality is inherent in it. Sri Aurobindo finds such a quick and luminous intelligence, the strong emotional Celtic genius to be ‘a decisive force to liberate and uplift force and sympathy, the natural love of the things of the the poetic spirit’ (47) from the ‘Teutonic heaviness and mind and still more of those beyond the mind, left to it crudity’ (45) in the body of English literature. However, from an ancient mystic tradition and an old forgotten the pre-dominantly Anglo-Saxon, or to be more strictly, culture, forgotten in its mind, but still flowing in its blood, the Anglo-Norman element provides necessary material still vibrant in its subtler nerve-channels (45-46). and strength to English literature to produce a suitable form for the English poetry to express the spiritual truth He further states: brought into it by the Celtic element. Because of a harmonious fusion of the Anglo-Saxon, or to say, the And as a necessary aid we have the fortunate accident of Anglo-Norman and the Celtic elements we find the the reshaping of a Teutonic tongue by French and emergence of the spiritual consciousness in the poetry of Latinistic influences which gave it clearer and more the Romantic Revival period of English literature. It is on flowing forms and turned it into a fine though difficult account of such a harmonious fusion that James linguistic material sufficiently malleable, sufficiently plastic Cousins, a poet and writer of considerable force in the for Poetry to produce in it both her larger and her subtler Irish movement, could be able to visualise the strong effects, but also sufficiently difficult to compel her to put possibility in the English poetry of the discovery of a new forth her greatest energies. A stuff of speech which, Word which, as he says in his New Ways in English without being harsh and inapt, does not tempt by too Literature, ‘lies in the apprehension of something stable great facility, but offers a certain resistance in the behind the instability of word and deed, something that is material, increases the strength of the artist by the a reflection of the fundamental passion of humanity for measure of the difficulty conquered and can be thrown something beyond itself, something that is a dim into shapes at once of beauty and of concentrated power. shadowing of the Divine urge which is prompting all That is eminently the character of the English language creation to unfold itself and to rise out of its limitations (47-48). towards God-like possibilities’(9). Such a discovery of the Such a character of the English language has finally new word is the result of the ‘divine movement’ (9) in the been able to effect a splendid fusion with the ‘Indian mind very psyche and body of the English literature. The divine and temperament’ as we see, for example, in Sri movement makes the word expressive of the Divine Aurobindo’s poetic consciousness to play a decisive role Truth. Sri Aurobindo finds the word to be ‘the form of in determining the trend of the future of poetry. thought proper to the reality’ (9), the Divine Reality. Of the character of the English language he says: Manifestation of Spiritual Consciousness in English We have first the dominant Anglo-Saxon strain quickened, Poetry lightened and given force, power and initiative by the Scandinavian and Celtic elements. This mixture has On the higher spiritual planes of consciousness, Sri made a national mind remarkably dynamic and practical, Aurobindo says, the future poetry, the ‘Mantra’ as he with all the Teutonic strength, patience, industry, but calls, exists, the potency of which he finds in the poetry of liberated from the Teutonic heaviness and crudity, yet Wordsworth, Byron, Blake, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats. E-mail:[email protected], [email protected]. Author agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Kumar 213 These poets manifest spiritual consciousness on account ness in him on account of which he could see the of which they are, to him, ‘six great voices’ (91) of, what supraphysical plane of existence. Sri Aurobindo finds ‘an he calls, the ‘new poetry’ (91). In his spiritual cons- unfailing divinity of power’ (70) in Shakespeare too. The ciousness Wordsworth experiences the presence of the spiritual consciousness continues to take hold of the Divine Consciousness in Nature.
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