There are several facts of Sri Aurobindo as a poet - the epic poet, the lyric poet, the narrative poet, the poet of love and the patriotic poet. His career in politics is as rich as in poetry. On the 9th of November 1905, a mammoth rally was held at Pantir Math, Calcutta, in which Subodh Mallik an affluent patriot announced that he had set apart a lakh of rupees for founding a national college which would be free from the control of the Britishers.
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| Sri Aurobindo As A Patriotic Poet |
Mr. Mallik put forth a very welcome condition that Sri Aurobindo, till then in Baroda Service, must be requested to come down to Calcutta to shape the destiny of the proposed institution. On being requested, Sri Aurobindo accepted the new assignment gladly and entered the open arena of politics in 1906.
The same year Sri Aurobindo received an invitation from Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal, the renowned patriot and freedom fighter, to help him in launching the Bande Mataram. Sri Aurobindo extended his help to Mr. Pal as desired.
Sri Aurobindo soon resigned from the Principalship of Calcutta National College. But in 1907, he was arrested and tried by the British Government for sedition. During the trial the defence counsel celebrated Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das described Sri Aurobindo as the poet of Patriotism. During his jail stay Sri Aurobindo wrote a patriotic poem Invitation in which he trumpeted:
I am the lord of tempest and mountain,
I am the Spirit of freedom and pride.
Stark must he be and a kinsman to danger
Who shares my kingdom and walk of my side.
His main patriotic poem is Baji Prabhou, covering about 500 lines. It is an epillion (an epic in miniature) on the historical incident of the heroic self- sacrifice of Baji Prabhou Deshpande, who, to cover Shivaji's retreat held the pass of Ranagana for two hours with a small company of men against twelve thousand Moghuls. Baji decided to do this brave task with fifty soldiers so that Shivaji could return from Raigarh with his men. Though outnumbered, Baji created havoc in the ranks of the invaders and compelled them to move back, leaving behind ‘corpses, jewels, and gold.’ Soon he was fatally wounded in the shoulder.
Only fifteen of his fifty faithful soldiers were left. Soon the glad tiding came that Shivaji was reaching with his army to fight the Moghuls. When Shivaji arrived with his troops, the Moghuls were thrown back in no time and were forced to retreat in total disorder and confusion, their numbers considerably thinned. Shivaji stood by the corpse of the dead warrior. The poem ends with the following patriotic note, praising Baji's sacrifice:
But Shivaji beside the dead beheld
A dim and mighty cloud that held a sword
And in its other hand, where once the head
Despended, bleeding, raised the turban bright
From Baji's brows still glittering with its gems,
And placed it on the chief’s. But as it rose
Blood - stained with the heroic sacrifice........
The poem, in fact, anticipates a sudden emergence of a tribe of Baji Prabhou, who could withstand the suppression of a tyrannical power and hold arms in their hands to liberate the motherland from its clutches.
Another patriotic poem is Vidula based on the Mahabharata story in which Prince Sunjoy, dethroned by an enemy king, feels so much discouraged that he is ready to forget his duty to fight on till the recovery of the lost kingdom. He wants to lead the life of an ordinary man. But his mother inspires him to do his duty:
Hark, thy foemen mock and triumph, yet to live is still
thy choice
Nor thy hero father got thee, nor I bore thee in any
womb,
Random challenging from some world of petty souls
and coward gloom !.......
Out to battle, do thy man's work, falter not
in high attempt;
So a man is quit before his God and saved from
self - contempt
Sunjoy, Sunjoy, waste not thou thy flame in smoke!
Impetuous, dire
Leap upon thy foes for havoc as a famished lion leaps,
on slaughtered heaps ...........
The words thus spoken by Sunjoy's mother to him are applicable to every son of Mother India.