Once speaking at the Lingaraj College, Belgaum, on Sri Aurobindo's personality I said that looking round for a personality of the past with whom Sri Aurobindo can be compared in the wideness and the versatility of his genius, in the grandeur of revelation, in a superhuman atmosphere of sympathy for humanity which pervades his temperament and works, in high poetic achievement, in complexity and subtlety of intellect, in a rare synthesising and integrating power, in a total view of human perfection individual and collective, I could not find anybody except perhaps Veda-Vyas, the great seer-poet of India. But, Veda-Vyas has been regarded as a mythical figure by European scholars, for they could not believe that one single person could have written all the various works ascribed to him. They admit he must have written some works, but believe that subsequent generations have gone on adding to his works in order to borrow the halo of his genius and authority. But, if ever I believe now in the existence of Veda-Vyas as one single personality responsible for all the works ascribed to him, it is because I know Sri Aurobindo today. It is not easily possible to believe that one and the same person could have written not only the greatest masterpiece of philosophy of the time but also indicated solutions for social problems and international politics, laid down new lines of poetical criticism and written not only short poems of striking merit both from the point of view of poetical substance and form—some of them ranking equal to the highest lyrical expression in the English language—but also a great epic poem of humanity.

This is an age of what is called "modernist" poetry and even the possibility of an epic being written in modern times is strongly discounted. It is supposed that the epic requires a certain primitive atmosphere for its birth and growth, and as modem times are anything but primitive it is impossible for an epic to be written now. Even though in some of their latest tendencies in painting, sculpture and poetry the modernists are trying hard to reproduce, or create according to primitivism with a vengeance, still, this being a critical age in which reason dominates and materialism is a living force, it is considered a practical impossibility to attempt a great epic and succeed. But we should be prepared for agreeable surprises from the creative spirit which can burst forth at the most unexpected moments in human history, for, the breath of the Lord bloweth where it listeth.

The conclusion about the impossibility of writing an epic in modem times rests mainly upon the examination of the trend of poetical spirit by European critics. They have taken for granted the cultural domination of the world by Europe as they took its economic and political domination. But culture is something much deeper than economics and politics. There are historical instances where a declining culture, politically dominated by another nation, has revived with a remarkable power of creativity. Very often the literary impact of an alien culture stimulates, invigorates and resuscitates the dormant creative possibilities of the subject race. This seems to have happened in the case of modem India. It is true that the various literatures of regional Indian languages were stagnant on account of the decline of national life, and all of them received a powerful impetus by the impact of European culture, especially as represented by the English language. Novel, drama, poetry, criticism, history, research along all the lines of literary effort have received an unprecedented inspiration as a means for the expression of national genius. A remarkable degree of literary progress has been achieved in every Indian language. But apart from these regional languages, English was adopted all over the vast continent not only as a medium of instruction but also as a vehicle of literary expression by its most advanced writers and thinkers. This gave rise to what has been termed Indo-English literature, and has led to a curious literary phenomenon which is a very hopeful prelude to the cultural unification of mankind.

While the creative spirit of European nations is showing distinct signs of exhaustion and even some tendencies of decline, the resurgent spirit of India with all its rich spiritual heritage and possibilities is finding expression in the English language. The first sign of this remarkable achievement in poetic creation was given by the success of Tagore's Gitanjali. It showed that the expression of the Indian Spirit even in a remarkably Indian manner, can find a high place in the cultural achievement of the human spirit. In fact, that which finds expression in Tagore is something of the fundamental spiritual elements and forms of Indian culture, not its widest sweep and utter depth. National resurgence after a period of political and social decline stirs the soul of the race to its very depths in the process of its re-awakening, throwing up all the elements of the culture with their characteristics into a ferment. Those elements that are found capable of survival, utility and vitality are retained, while those that have outlived their utility are rejected and dissolved. The basis of Indian culture goes back to the living spiritual experience embodied in the Vedas and Upanishads, the Gita, the Tantras and the Vedanta. Apart from the wide diffusion of spirituality in the consciousness of the masses, a traditional continuity of the practical process of self-realisation runs throughout the period of Indian history including the period of her decline. The names of Kabir, Nanak, Ramanand, Tulsi, Dadu, Chaitanya and others easily come to the mind while tracing the continuity to the very dawn of the Indian renaissance, which can be said to begin with the appearance of the colossal figure of Ramkrishna Paramhansa.

The fundamentally spirituo-religious character of the first forms which this movement of awakening took shows that it was not merely in isolated individuals that the Indian spiritual tradition persisted but that it had entered into the conscious life-forms, religious, social and even the subconscious of the whole race. The Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj, the Arya Samaj are some of its well-known expressions. The national awakening and the struggle for political freedom gave inspiration to many writers and poets who boldly experimented with new forms of literary expression.

Poets are not lacking who tried to invent new forms suitable to the expression of the rising spirit of the nation and in almost every Indian regional language all the forms of European poetical expression have been accepted and experimented upon. Blank verse, prose poetry,—all have been tried, some of them with remarkable success. They all contributed to the awakening of the new spirit of literary expression, though it must be acknowledged that a conscious search for an epic form did not meet with success. Usually it ended with a discovery of a new metre, or of new combinations of old metres or a novel use of an old metre by introducing into it new laws of rhythm so as to yield some form very near to the blank verse of English language. But a search for a mere new poetic form for an epic was perhaps bound to fail because though form is important, and very important, in literary expression, yet it is the spirit which the form embodies that really gives life to the form.

It augurs well for the cultural unification of mankind that India has begun to pay back the great cultural debt it owes to Europe by her new creations in the English language. It was therefore a phenomenon of very great significance when Sri Aurobindo turned his remarkable poetical capacity to the creation of an epic in English to embody his grand vision of the Spirit. It is well-known that Sri Aurobindo had devoted himself to the pursuit of spirituality which is the foundation of the Indian culture. He is not merely a revivalist, his spirituality is not of the type of a traditional repetition, it is a resurgence, a reorientation, which carries the tradition many steps forward by his spiritual discovery of the Supermind. In him the Indian spirit finds its greatest exponent. The Divine, the sense of that living Reality, the need of bringing the influence and the presence of the Divine in all human activities and the consequent transformation of human nature and life into an expression of the Divine,—these are some of the fundamental concepts of his great vision of man's future. In the words of KD Sethna, "Philosophical statement lending logical plausibility to facts of the Spirit is necessary in a time like ours when the intellect is acutely in the forefront and Sri Aurobindo has answered the need by writing that expository masterpiece, The Life Divine… To create a poetic mould equally massive and multiform as The Life Divine for transmitting the living Reality to the furthest bound of speech—such a task is incumbent on one who stands as a maker of a new spiritual epoch." Sāvitrī fulfils that task.

Epic as a form of literary expression has not been static and conventional but has been continually developing, both with regard to the subject matter, manner and form. This can be seen from the remark of a critic who says: "Homer fixes the type and way and artistic purpose; Virgil perfects the type; Milton perfects the purpose". Whether one agrees with this opinion or not, it is clear that the epic has not been a stereotyped form of literary expression throughout history. It has not been a form constantly present, it has been recurrent. Looking at the whole field of epic poetry, one may divide it into two main classes: the authentic epic, generally intended for recitation, and the literary epic mainly intended for reading. The first type has a simple concrete subject and a sustained grandeur and splendour. Generally it concerns a great story which has been absorbed into the prevailing consciousness of the people. The story is supposed to have taken place in what has been termed the 'heroic age' in which hot racial elements and nascent cultural trends are brought out boldly and simply. While in the Iliad, Odyssey and in the Niebelungenlied, the subject matter concerns a great fight which has stamped itself indelibly on the memory of the race, in Dante's Divine Comedy there is no story at all in that sense. With regard to this difference, a great critic says, "It is not necessary for the story to be a historical fact. Only it must have poetic reality". The authentic epic tells the story greatly, that is, in a high manner. This consists in endowing life with a significance. One of its purposes can be said to be to create values in life. Life by itself seems to have no significance, it is valueless. When there is this sense of utter want of significance of life, a sense of its ultimate uselessness, "a blankness of unperturbable darkness", then, says a critic, "the word 'hell' is not too strong to express it". In the authentic epic wherein courage in the face of danger, heroism in fighting for a cause is portrayed the significance of life is brought out, its value found. This bringing out of the purpose in the epic may not be intellectually precise, but it is deeply felt. Let us observe in passing also, that courage or heroism are not the only values of life, and that love, sacrifice, attainment of perfection and other ideals can rank even higher.

Another critic of the epic says, "epic-purpose will have to abandon the necessity of telling a story". We have already observed that the Divine Comedy has neither a mythological nor a historical story. It is in fact allegorical. Dante himself distinguishes between two senses in a poem,—a literal and an allegorical sense. The literal sense of the Divine Comedy is the fortunes of a certain soul after death. Its allegorical sense is the destiny of man and the idea of perfect justice". Dante has made a reliable symbol out of his own experience. In Milton's Paradise Lost the pure story element is absent. "Milton from the knowledge of himself created Satan and Christ"—says Lascelles Abercrombie. His angels are not like Homer's Gods. To Homer the Gods are close and real, whereas Milton's angels are far and seem abstract. Milton's story deals with the mystery of the individual will in eternal opposition to the Divine will. Satan, the creator of all evil on earth is conscious—very acutely conscious, of his limitations and also of the Divine Power that contains and drives him. It seems almost certain that after Milton an epic dealing entirely with an objective story is not possible, for, the rationalism with which the modem age began has been pushing man more and more towards a greater and greater subjective trend.

Sometimes it is said that "man and man's purpose in the world" is the theme for all epics. This may be accepted if a progressive evolution of man and of his purpose also is admitted. Man has been trying to discover, or "uncover" his Self—and in this great discovery he is bound to discover also this purpose as an individual and as a collectivity.

Efforts at writing an epic in European languages after Milton have, so far, not been successful. The feeling among the critics is that epic-manner and epic-content are trying for a divorce at present. The last effort, on a sufficiently large scale on the continent, was Goethe's Faust which, however, falls far short of the epic height and grandeur. Efforts in the English language were more or less of the nature of exercises and experiments lacking vitality and inspiration, and have therefore not attained success. Shelley's Revolt of Islam, Keats's incomplete Hyperion have something of the epic accent, but they do not go far enough. Hugo's La Légende des Siècles or Browning's The Ring and the Book, Hardy's Dynasts—all seem to have some element which can be called epic in the sense of a developing significance of life which they see, but they fail to achieve the largeness, the grandeur and the sustained height and an integration which can give the sense of unity. We have already referred to a feeling among critics that the authentic epic as a literary form is doomed. Guesses have been hazarded as to the possible future of the epic content and of the epic form. The question has been debated whether it is possible to combine the epic and the dramatic forms with success. Some have thought of a connected sequence of separate poems like Hugo's as a possible and even an appropriate form. But the creative-spirit has its own surprises for us. This was exemplified once in the past/when the dictum that an epic should be a narrative on a large scale was falsified by Dante. For the modern lover of the muse another such pleasant surprise is offered by Sāvitrī.