Sri Aurobindo’s concern about Nishikanto’s health
Nishikanto’s illnesses couldn’t
take away his indomitable spirit. His occasional pranks and humour were enjoyed
even by Sri Aurobindo who would remark with a smile: “What a fellow!” On one
occasion when his condition deteriorated to a great extent Sri Aurobindo was
informed and he said: “Let him stick anyhow.” Nirodbaran conveyed to
Nishikanto: “Well, Kavi [meaning, the poet as he was addressed by all], Guru
has given you unchartered freedom. No need of bothering about Yoga. Just stick
anyhow.” From time to time Sri Aurobindo would also inquire about Nishikanto’s
health. In his Twelve Years with Sri
Aurobindo, Nirodbaran writes: “One day, after [Sri Aurobindo’s]
concentration, I remember him saying, apropos of nothing, ‘I was seeing how
Nishikanto was.’ At that time Nishikanto was not keeping well.” [62]
The following excerpts reveal how
Nishikanto’s health was discussed in the talks Sri Aurobindo used to have with
his attendants:
Nirodbaran: Nishikanto is having
his old trouble—pain, vomiting, etc.
Sri Aurobindo: Has he been eating
anything?
Nirodbaran: I don’t think so. No
resources.
Sri Aurobindo: No resources?
Nirodbaran: No pocket money, but he
took some sweets which people had brought during the Darshan period.
Sri Aurobindo: Ah, I thought so.
Nirodbaran: But they were nothing
much—
Sri Aurobindo: Nothing much?
Nirodbaran: I mean, not so much in
quantity—about three or four, he said.
Sri Aurobindo: How was he cured
last time?
Nirodbaran: By your Force, he says.
Sri Aurobindo: And now he is
brought back to his old condition by his own force? [63]
[1 March 1940]
Nirodbaran: Nishikanto has passed a
distressing night. He says that whatever little faith and devotion he had has
left him. Now the physical also, with which he wanted to serve the Divine, is
out of gear. So he is getting depressed.
Sri Aurobindo: Why depression? The
thing is to get cured.
Nirodbaran: He doesn’t believe he
will be cured. He was thinking he would go where his eyes took him.
Sri Aurobindo: …But what is his
complaint at present?
Nirodbaran: Pain. Pain is constant
though he doesn’t feel it. (Laughter)
Sri Aurobindo: How is that? If he
doesn’t feel it, how can there be pain?
Nirodbaran: I don’t understand
either. He says that with any jerk the pain comes.
Sri Aurobindo: Oh, he means that.
But one can get spiritual experiences in illness too. The illness doesn’t stand
in the way of getting spiritual experiences…
Nirodbaran: …Nishikanto has lost
faith. His faith comes with a cure and goes with an illness. (laughter) [64]
[8 March 1940]
Nirodbaran: Yesterday Nishikanto
gave a triplet banana to show to the Mother and asked if he could take it. The
Mother laughed and inquired, “Is he starving? He can take it with milk after
mashing it sufficiently.” This morning he said he couldn’t take the whole. Even
then there was some heaviness. I said I would report it to you.
Satyendra: But why does he want to
attract Sri Aurobindo’s notice? To have pity on him because he can’t take even
a banana? (laughter)
Sri Aurobindo: He seems to be
forced into yogic austerity! (laughter)
Nirodbaran: The vision he had some
time back seems to have come true. Once during his sleep he saw a vital being
pointing to his abdomen and saying, “That is the source of your strength. I am
going to finish it.” Then the being struck at the pit of his stomach like a
bull with his head down. Nishikanto groaned and retaliated by suddenly giving a
sharp squeeze to the being’s scrotum. At this the being fled. (laughter)
Sri Aurobindo: The being appears to
have been right about Nishikanto. The pit of the stomach is the vital-emotional
centre, which is the source of the strength. But it would be interesting to
know what happened to the scrotum of the vital being. (laughter) [65]
[4 April 1940]
A little known fact: For some time
Nishikanto had taught Bengali in the
An interesting personality
Yet Nishikanto remained an
interesting personality in the eyes of the younger generation of the Ashramites
though ‘not an inspiring figure to behold’ as confessed by R Prabhakar who also
reminisces: “I knew Kobi from the early days i.e. 1945-46, just as an elder,
who was a friend of my uncle [Roopanagunta Subramanyam Pantulu]. He dropped in,
at our house, when invited for lunch on some special occasions…They got along
well. To my aunt he was just ‘Nidra Moham’—sleepy face—because of his dreamy
eyes. What interested us children was his eating. He ate with
deep-felt-delight. Once he was served hot vadas… on his banana leaf. He liked
them well as they slipped down his gullet. Thinking of reliving the experience
later he quietly slipped some into his kurta pocket. My sharp-eyed uncle caught
him in the act and, ‘Hey, you fool, they are oily. They will ruin your kurta.’
Kobi smiled sheepishly and reluctantly stopped filling his pocket. My aunt
brought him a can to fill and take home. He was so glad.” And he adds: “He had,
as most of us do, several photos of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in his room.
But, unlike most of us, one of the Mother’s photos was always smudged with a
patch of oil. It was called ‘Mecho Ma’—Mother of Fish. The oil patch was from
his well-oiled hair, where his head touched in pranam as he prayed to her: ‘May
good and big fish be caught today. I am going to the market to buy some.’ ” [67]
Some compositions
15 August 1947 marked the
seventy-fifth birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo as well as the birth of a free
but divided
I want the undivided country, I
want Integral India.
Whose soil enshrines the idol of
the Eternal Mother
In this earth-temple; whose
snow-capped mountains
Embody the sky high, unshakeable,
great and vast ideal;
Whose Jahnavi of affection pours in
an undisturbed clear stream
The ambrosia of
Mother-Consciousness into the heart
Of all humanity; whose mud blossoms
the lotus of life
To end the darkness of the world;
in whose lap
All the fragments of limitation
disappear
With the advent of the Unlimited;
here the heroic revolutionary
Annihilates the rakshasa sucking
blood
From the breast of the
mother-country, and realises
The Universal Mother; here the
earth becomes the fire-chariot
For the descended Rudrani in the
victory celebration of her children
In their battle against the asuras,
the land where the Mahashakti treads;
I want that land, I want Integral
India. [68]
On 5 December 1950 Sri Aurobindo
left his body. His unexpected departure came as a bolt-from-the blue to all of
his disciples and followers and Nishikanto was shocked beyond imagination. Gone
was the one whom he had addressed:
The earth is holy ground since thou
art born
And walk’st her clay.
At thy angel tread a new-lit sun at
morn
Wakes every day.
All pathways at thy footfall break
to flowers
Of harmony
And the winds repeat thy hallowed
name for hours
In ecstasy.
The evening-star met in thy eyes of
flame
Her love’s own fire,
And greeting thee the silent moon
became
Transformed to a
lyre.
Rainbows descend below, thy robes
to dye,
O ageless Gleam!
A-heave with hue and vision the
poets cry:
“Come true, our Dream!” [69]
But he could understand the reason
for the departure of his Guru and his pen gave birth to thirty poems which were
published in 1951 under the title of Nabodipan.
When Sri Aurobindo was being lowered into the Samadhi on 9 December, a
spontaneous prayer rose from Nishikanto’s heart: “Now that you have gone
physically, assure us that your work will be done.” “Something made him look up
at the Service Tree and suddenly he saw against it Sri Aurobindo; his undraped
upper body was of a golden colour. He said firmly with great energy and power
in Bengali, ‘Habe, habe, habe’— ‘It will be done, it will be done, it will be
done.’ ” [70]
Let’s not forget what Nishikanto
had sung of him:
In your high self has found its
shrine:
The tranquil brow of the universe
Implores your signature divine.
Earth’s fuel of blood upflamed in
you
Nevermore to be quenched again
And its light soared higher day by
day
Which the Gods from out of the blue
sustain.
In this dim land you came to pave
The swift white path to liberty
And the world its freedom shall
attain
And kiss your feet in ecstasy.
The past dawns never trammelled
your feet
Nor halted your march to the
Future’s noon,
And the whirl of Shiva’s delivering
dance
Its rhythm imparts to you alone.
Dauntless breaker of outworn
moulds!
You slay the night like a sword of
morn:
To burn tradition’s mountain-walls
A sun-blaze, you, to us were born:
An emblem of the heavenly dare,
A wielder of thunder none could
tame:
The darkling maws of Fate’s abysm
Were closed in fear when you, Lord,
came.
O ocean of love, life’s radiant
flood!
How shall Time’s prison encincture
you
To whom the cell was a
trysting-place,
Where
Through Time you won to
Timelessness
And temples flashed where dungeons
fell
And there outwelled heart’s hymns
as you
Quelled aeoned glooms of tyrant
Hell.
Hark, conchs are loud and light’s
in spate
Behold, upon our soil of pain
The King of Kings descends at last
With
O Leader of India, now hailed
By the world as its Teacher, to
your feet
We bow as the stars, lo, sing
athrill
Their anthem your high soul to
greet! [71]
With Sri Aurobindo’s passing into
the Beyond all eyes now turned towards the Mother for the completion of the
Yoga of Transformation and manifestation of the Supermind. In Nishikanto’s
words, she was:
O quintessential Fire of the
universe,
Primeval Queen, whose youth no
ravage mars,
Vicegerent of Lord Shiva! thou
rainest still
All boons—faith, courage, power
invincible
And yet remain’st ethereal, robed
by skies:
At thy flower-like feet the Soul,
in homage, lies.
A young sun-glint upon earth’s
ancient brow,
Thou heraldest a New Dawn’s tender
glow:
Life’s avenues with new blooms
flare apace
Where birds sing in a new
sky-consciousness.
Thou bring’st to deserts sylvan
harmonies:
At thy flower-like feet the Soul,
in homage, lies.
Colonies of an unglimpsed
loveliness
Are gifts to earth of thy imperial
Grace.
By thee inspired, surrendering our
all
We win thy lustre’s endless
carnival.
O Light that sees and Flame that
purifies,
At thy flower-like feet the Soul,
in homage, lies. [72]
A mobile hospital
By 1955 Nishikanto’s body had
become a mobile hospital; he was already suffering from tuberculosis, high
blood pressure, stomach ulcer, acute diabetes (“ants would swarm to wherever a
drop of his urine chanced to fall. His night-pot had to be islanded by a ring
of DDT” [73]) and he had also suffered a heart attack. And in 1955 he was
diagnosed with an abscess in his lungs. “The very source of his unbounded
energy was in peril,” remarks Nirodbaran. [74] The doctors, despite being
witness to his earlier miraculous recoveries, were sceptical about his survival
this time. Operation was the only solution but the condition of his health was
so bad that it was doubted whether he would be able to bear the strain of it.
But Nishikanto had little faith in the medicines and more on the blessings of
the Mother so even in such debilitated condition he continued to go for the
Balcony Darshan of the Mother with a stick and also went out for an evening
walk and visited the Playground to receive the Mother’s blessings. Even wind
and rain couldn’t deter him from going for the Darshan of the Mother. Sometimes
he would visit Tinkori Banerjee, the composer who, after Dilip Kumar left the
Ashram in 1953, used to set tunes to his lyrics. According to him:
Liberation or truce I do not seek
of You, O Mother!
I seek of You my glorious bondage
as Your prisoner.
Enchain the monster
of my impatient life-force
In a thousand twists,
and at its very source
Squeeze out my ego’s vim in Your
iron grip, O Mother!
Forgiveness, affection, love I do
not seek of You, O Mother!
Drain out my teeming wants, my
bartering hopes shatter.
Hurl back my dark
demands’ tumultuous roll,
Burn up the brutal
core of my desire-soul,
Place me under Your feet as Your
slave, free in surrender.
Victory or boon or refuge I do not
seek of You, O Mother!
Crush my rebel selfhood with the
victor’s gracious power.
To live in the beauty
of Your divine terror
In total submission I
give my whole world of error.
Batter my crown to fashion Your
anklets of jingling wonder. [75]
To take care of Nishikanto’s health
his sister Aparna came to
The day of glorious destiny
One day as Nishikanto was about to
leave his house in the morning with his stick, he suddenly felt that his legs
had lost all sensation and he almost fell down. He returned to his room and
took to bed. When Nirodbaran, whom he had sent for, came to see him, Nishikanto
said: “I have so long managed to carry the body’s burden; now the limbs are
half-dead, the mind is more so for fear of losing the Mother’s Darshan. … If
the blessings are stopped, what’s the use of life? I have sent for you to tell
the Mother that I may not be deprived of her Darshan… I am not upset, neither
am I sorry to die. How often have I wanted to discard this rotten frame and
come back as a frolicking child in the Green Group! But to live like a dummy
without the Mother’s touch—to that I will never agree.” Nirodbaran assured him
that the numbness, which was due to diabetes, was temporary in nature and it
would pass away. When the Mother was informed about Nishikanto’s illness and
his prayer to her, she told Nirodbaran that Nishikanto had informed her that
the insulin was doing him great harm so the insulin should be ceased at once.
Meanwhile Nishikanto’s condition began to deteriorate further. He had lost his
faith in the efficacy of medicines long ago. Fever, pain in joints and hourly
urination continued to trouble him and gradually his condition began to drift
towards a coma but he kept alive the hope of seeing the Mother.
Nirodbaran was deeply perturbed by
Nishikanto’s failing health. One day Champaklal suggested to him that a certain
doctor be consulted for Nishikanto, instead of the one who was treating him as
the former “carries a silent force with him”. On the following day when
Nirodbaran went to visit Nishikanto, he observed that the early signs of uremia
were beginning to show in him. Nishikanto requested Nirodbaran to take him to
the Playground as he wanted to bow down at the Mother’s feet. When the Mother
was informed about Nishikanto’s request, she refused to meet him till 24 April
and told Nirodbaran: “Listen, one year ago he wrote to me a letter in which he
prayed that I must keep him alive till April 24th, that is three days more from
now. And I gave him my word. You know how the whole of last year has been for
him a series of upheavals and storms. Like a sentinel star, I kept my watch
over him and never relaxed a moment in my protecting power. The last attack was
the abscess. That too was healing up; but when on his last birthday he came for
my blessings, I saw that something had gone wrong, there was a fissure in his
faith and this dangerous attack has come upon that psychological trouble. You
will tell him I want to see him on the 24th. Gathering all his strength, he
must come on that solemn occasion.” [77]
At the same time the Mother asked
Nirodbaran to approach the same doctor whose name Champaklal had referred to.
When the doctor was approached he immediately started his “gigantic treatment”.
Champaklal also visited Nishikanto and assured him that he would be all right.
At last the “day of destiny dawned”.
On 24 April 1956 in the morning, Nishikanto was given a sponge-bath. Volunteers
came with a stretcher to take him to the Meditation Hall for the Mother’s Darshan.
The Mother too had sent word that she would come down in the Meditation Hall
after the Darshan and at that time no one should be present near about. At
10:30 in the morning Nishikanto was taken to the Meditation Hall by the
volunteers. The Mother came downstairs. The stretcher was raised knee-high so
that the Mother could bless him. He stretched out his feeble hands which the
Mother “clutched and drew them into her own and silently smiled into his wide
open supplicating eyes”. Suddenly Nishikanto, pointing to his chest, said:
“Mother, your foot here.” The stretcher was put down and the Mother placed her
right foot over his heart and Nishikanto pressed it with his eager hands. In
the evening when Nirodbaran went to see Nishikanto, he could notice that the
feverish restlessness was no longer present in him; on being asked how he felt,
Nishikanto replied: “The hell-fire within has subsided.” When asked how he felt
when the Mother had placed her foot on his chest, he said: “Ah, the relief! the
body seemed to have become ice-cold. Every cell was soothed with peace and
peace.” [78]
The recovery
From that day onwards Nishikanto
began to recover. In his own words:
Today my expectations will not be
satiated with a little,
I care for the aeons
and further;
My love demands a plenty,
I am Thy ever-green
versifier.
I hanker for Thy love
eternal,
Will not accept the
bonds mortal,
I shall draw Thy everlasting
figure…
Today is my birthday, O Mother!
And I have come to
Thee.
Keep me in Thy lap today,
Today You envelop me.
Today You have made
me reborn
Kissing the cheeks of
my life anon,
Rejuvenation rings in the blood in
me…
The birth from the human-mother is
over
With
Supramental-Mother’s kiss;
The eyes blaze with a new sight
In body and mind new
consciousness’ bliss.
I see this world and
life anew
Having a message from
another world drew
In the appearance of a new light in
the earthly abyss…
What shall I give Thee as
birthday-offering?
This birth given by
Thee be my offering made.
Which way wilt Thou take me? Oh
take,
I take refuge in Thy
tread;
In Thy lap of
profound fathomlesness
In the swing of Thy
advent’s blazing boundlessness
My entire being in surrender laid. [79]
Years rolled by. Nishikanto
continued to move on with his life and poetry though the torrential downpour of
inspiration had slowed down. As a result, after the publication of his book Nabodipan in 1951 there was no further
publication of his works till 1973 when his Lilayan
and Shikha-satadal were published
posthumously. However he stopped painting; when R Prabhakar asked him: “Why
don’t you paint? You are not too well and can’t roam around. You have time on
your hands. I will help you gather the materials”, he replied: “No more…It
takes a great amount of concentration, thus energy, and I have not much
energy.” [80] Though he could embrace the beauty of Nature but he no longer
could reproduce them on the canvas.
R Prabhakar shares his
reminiscences about Nishikanto: “He was inducted into our group (now ‘group D’,
at that time ‘group C’) sometime in the late fifties—for his abilities as a
cook…Our group went to the
Nishikanto used to attend the
Mother’s distribution of ground-nuts in the Playground with the other inmates
of the Ashram. The Mother walked in front of the lined groups and with a wooden
ladle gave the ground-nuts into the cupped hands of the inmates. They had to
tell her “plein”, “moitiѐ” or “très peu” (meaning full, half
and very little, respectively) and she would give them accordingly. Nishikanto,
due to ill-health, was given only “très peu” everyday. But he wanted more so he
thought of a noble procedure; he stitched himself a bag from the sleeve of his
Kurta and contacted some sympathetic children and told them to ask for “plein”
everyday. He then stood with his bag at a pre-arranged spot and his suppliers
would drop in it the ground-nuts they got from the Mother. Some time later when
the Mother came to know about it, she put an end to it. Nishikanto composed a
couplet following the prohibition: “Playground er Madam/
In 1960 Nishikanto had a relapse of
tuberculosis and once again his condition turned critical. A year earlier he
had said: “No more death-days, henceforth only birthdays,” [83] but it seemed
that he had spoken a bit too soon. His condition deteriorated and the Mother
felt that it was necessary to shift him to some hospital. Like a very obedient
child he went to the hospital where he became immensely popular among the
nurses. He would compose poems on them in English, Hindi and Tamil; one of such
poems still remains unforgotten: “Our sister Mathews still moving with virginal
splendour/ Like a beautiful goose without a gander.” [84] But at times when his
condition grew bad he expressed his desire to leave his body and come back in
the body of a new-born. R Prabhakar remembers: “He used to say, ‘…I am going to
die, but I will come back here. Do find me a nice, young healthy couple who can
bring me forth here.’ Suggestions were given… ‘Look out’, he said, ‘for a boy
with big eyes and a penchant for sweets.’ ” [85]
Never afraid of death
During one of his illnesses he was
admitted to JIPMER and Darshan was a few days away.
Nishikanto was desirous to have the Mother’s Darshan but the doctor refused.
When all persuasion failed, Nishikanto said to the doctor: “You sit in the car
with me and hold my wrist, feel the pulse. We start for the Ashram. If you feel
any deterioration (in the pulse) we turn around and back to bed. But, if no
change, then we both have the Darshan of Mother.” R Prabhakar remarks: “The
doctor gave in to this simple, strange solution to the impasse. He probably
thought it an easy way out—he was in for a surprise. The car was brought and
off they went, a strange duo—a smiling sick man and an anxious doctor, holding
hands it seemed. As the car approached the Ashram, Kobi’s smile grew broader,
the doctor’s eyes wider, amazed. The pulse got better and better. The Mother
appeared and both had Darshan.” [86] However, in spite of his numerous ailments
Nishikanto was never afraid of death. When he was asked once: “How do you feel
with Death standing at your door-step?” pat came his reply: “Why don’t you ask
Death how he feels standing in front of me!” And whenever he would recover, he
would tell R Prabhakar: “…Yama [the God of Death] took me, had one look and
said what to do with this wreck and returned me.” [87] During his last illness,
a sadhak had remarked: “Oh, Nishikanto! He has been dying for the last thirty
years.”
In January 1970 Dilip Kumar wrote
to Nishikanto from his Ashram in Pune and sent two poems of his along with his
photograph. That was the first communication between the two friends since
Dilip Kumar’s departure from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1953. Nishikanto
replied to him on 22 January (Dilip Kumar’s 73rd birthday) and reminisced the
good old days of their association; he also expressed his desire to meet Dilip
Kumar and requested him to pay a visit to the Ashram. In another letter written
on 4 September 1972 he informed Dilip Kumar about a musical soiree that had
been organized in the Ashram Theatre on 29 October where three songs of
Nishikanto set to tune by Dilip Kumar were sung by the Ashram students under
the supervision of Sahana Devi. (When asked how did he like the songs,
Nishikanto replied: “Quite nice but it would have nicer if I had not remembered
the voice of Dilip Kumar who had sung these songs to me. His voice is
unforgettable.”) In the same letter he thanked Dilip Kumar for singing his song
on Sri Aurobindo on Pune Radio and also conveyed to him that Anilbaran [Roy]’s
granddaughter had thanked Dilip Kumar for singing the former’s song In lotus-groves Thy spirit roves: where
shall I find a seat for Thee? (Translated by Sri Aurobindo)
In the early 1970s, Nishikanto met
with a motor accident while on his visit to one of the Ashram farms. His spine
was badly injured; when the doctor came to him, he narrated in flawless Tamil what
exactly had happened. When the doctor asked where did he learn Tamil so well,
he replied: “In the fish market.” Every year just two or three days before the
Darshan he would fall ill. He was desirous to see the Birth Centenary
celebrations of Sri Aurobindo in 1972 but doubted whether he would be able to
survive; however he did witness the centenary celebrations of his Guru, though
on that day (15 August 1972) just half an hour prior to the Balcony Darshan of
the Mother he had suffered a heart attack. He had her Darshan from an open
window of the Ashram Dispensary and then he was taken to bed where he remained
confined for the next three months. During the Darshan of 24 November 1972,
just an hour before the Mother appeared on the Balcony, he suffered another
heart attack. His body, which had been subjected to a number of diseases but
stood victorious in the end, had lost its strength to fight; though the ulcers
in his stomach which were his companions for thirty long years and the
tuberculosis which troubled him for ten years were healed but the continuous
bleeding from his wounds had made his heart extremely weak. But even in such
physical conditions he would say: “Mother, I came here to surrender to you but
it seems I would have to surrender to the doctors.”
In 1972 Nishikanto had the Darshan of
Vasudeva and it prompted him to pen his last work Lilayan which consisted of a thousand lines. Not only can it be
called a ballad but also a ‘devotional idyll on
Now that he had seen the Birth
Centenary of Sri Aurobindo, Nishikanto longed to witness the Mother’s Birth
Centenary as well but he felt that his end was near so he would tell his
admirers: “I would see the Birth Centenary celebrations of the Mother in the form
of a bird sitting on the Service Tree.”
On 2 May 1973 Nishikanto wrote his
last letter to Dilip Kumar giving him the permission to record his song He’s
caught, the Elusive on the gramophone and expressed his happiness on the fact
that the sale proceeds of the records would go to Ramakrishna Mission.
The last sunset
20 May 1973. Nishikanto was lying
on his bed and looking at the sun setting in the west. When Aparna asked him
how he was feeling, he replied: “The exterior consciousness is becoming hazy but
the inner consciousness is fine.” Little did Aparna realize that it would be
the last sunset Nishikanto would witness. As the night approached Aparna saw
Nishikanto looking for something; on her enquiry he asked whether the
blessing-packet of the Mother was in his pocket. “Yes, it is,” and Aparna
placed his hand on the pocket to indicate the location. A lovely smile appeared
on his face. It was the smile of the final farewell. Then he began to have some
breathing problem and the doctor and the others who were in his room tried to
ease his suffering by giving him oxygen. Feeling better he told R Prabhakar to
go and have his dinner and then come back. To Nirodbaran, he said that his end
was near so he can now write whatever he wanted on him. Precisely at 10 pm
Nishikanto breathed his last. The “Brahmaputra of Inspiration” and the
‘Moon-Poet’ was gone “to lay himself down again under the Mother’s feet—to a
greater awakening”. [89] In his own words:
I have shattered the
hard rocky prison
Like a spring my
spirit has risen
And flooded the
desert horizon;
My life illumines the death-dark
night of time and space. [90]
And hence
Sleep, sleep, O my bird, in your
glorious nest
Like a pearl in the
deep’s delight,
Like a star of the sky in its
radiant rest,
Like a flower on a
timeless height. [91]
So
Like lightning among the blind
foldings of cloudy time;
The delivered
consciousness of the imprisoned thirst for light
Brims now with song of celestial
streams, the joyous chime
Glows with an inner
moon-rise melody, gold and white,
Drenching the desert-dark of the
world; O Immortal lore
Of mortal birth, like the
bright-winged bird with you I soar. [92]
[62] Nirodbaran, Twelve Years
with Sri Aurobindo, p. 46
[63] Nirodbaran, Talks with Sri
Aurobindo, Volume II, p. 518-519
[64] Ibid., p. 538
[65] Ibid., p. 588
[66] Prithwindranath Mukherjee,
[67] R. Prabhakar, Among the Not
So Great, p. 29-30
[68] Bonne Fête, p. 29-30
[69] Dream Cadences, p. 2
[70] Nirodbaran, Twelve Years
with Sri Aurobindo, pp. 282-283
[71] Translated by Dilip Kumar Roy
(see Hark! His Flute! pp. 122-123
[72] Ibid., pp. 4-5
[73] Among
the Not So Great,
p. 35
[74] Selected
Essays and Talks of Nirodbaran, p. 177
[75] Slave (translated by
Robi Das), Mother India, April 1978, p. 275
[76] Among the Not So Great,
pp. 33-34
[77] Selected Essays and Talks
of Nirodbaran, p. 183
[78] Ibid., p. 186
[79]Bonne
Fête, pp. 21-27
[80] Among the Not So Great,
p. 33
[81] Ibid., p. 30
[82] Ibid., pp. 31-32
[83] Selected Essays and Talks of
Nirodbaran, p. 186
[84] Kobi Nishikanto, p. 149
[85] Among the Not So Great,
p. 37
[86] Ibid., p. 36
[87] Ibid.
[89] Among the Not So Great,
p. 37
[88] Nishikanto: The Mystic Poet and Artist,
pp. 354-355
[90] Dream
Cadences, p. 19
[91] Ibid., p. 10
[92] Ibid., p. 27
A painting by Nishikanto