Subramania Bharati
and Sri Aurobindo
A. RANGANATHAN
Subramania Bharati ranks among the master spirits of the modern Indian
Renaissance, along with such philosopher-poets as Tagore
and Sri Aurobindo and scholar-interpreters like Tilak and Ananda Coomaraswamy. Less of a professional philosopher than his
contemporaries, Bharati added a new dimension to
Tamil poetry by his searching inquiry into the history and civilization in
which he created his poetic world. In all his writing there is, within the
setting of imaginative realism in which he functioned, a fundamental belief in
man's victory over death and timelessness. Indeed from the earlier national
perspective, Bharati, over the years moved into the
wider and deeper waters of the perennial philosophy. And like Sri Aurobindo, Bharati was endowed
with a creativity that fulfilled itself in four different spheres of
intellectual and poetic endeavour–creative
journalism, interpretations of Indian culture, the literature of patriotism and
epic poetry.
In
order to understand Bharati’s importance as a
journalist, it is necessary to know something of the background of his times.
To cite an example, he had to reckon with a generation
to whom Indian art conveyed no meaning. It was during this period that men like
Coomaraswamy, Sri Aurobindo
and Havell had to defend the ideals on which Indian
art was based to answer the criticisms of many Western intellectuals, beginning
with Ruskin who may be termed as the father of the school of misunderstanding
of Indian art in the West. It was also during this period that Coomaraswamy had clashed with Foucher
regarding the Greek origin of the Buddha image. In fact this period witnessed
such publications as Havell’s The Ideals of Indian
Art, Coomaraswamy’s Art and Swadeshi and Essays in National Idealism, Sister
Nivedita’s The Web of Indian Life, Sir John Woodroffe’s Is India Civilized? Lord Ronaldshay’s The Heart of Aryavarta
and Sri Aurobindo’s The Foundations of Indian
Culture. And here is a passage from a Bharati
piece which revealed his insight into the nature of this theme: “Our
forefathers were as well acquainted with the secular branches of human
knowledge as they were in the sphere of the spirit in man. They were masters of
various secular works of their time and were all abreast of the intellectual
life of the Western world. Furthermore, the sculptures of ancient
Just
as Sri Aurobindo ushered in Bharati
to the intimations of the Vedic dawn, so did Bharati
introduce Sri Aurobindo to the world of the Tamil Vaishnavite saints. In fact the Bharati-Sri
Aurobindo dialogue reverberated with the rhythms of
their search for wisdom. Here it is worth-noting that apart from contributing
perceptive essays on Nammalwar and Andal, Sri Aurobindo had
commented on some aspects of the similarities between the Tamil and Sanskrit
languages. Similarly Bharati’s record as an expositor
of Indian culture was impressive. For he had such publications as Veda Rishikalin Kavitai (the
poetry of the Vedic Rishis), Vedanta Padalgal, a translation of the Gita
with a long introduction, and a translation of the Isavasya
Upanishad to his credit.
Sri
Aurobindo from the beginning of his career as an
expositor of Indian culture was not only concerned with the symbolism or Indian
art, but also with the symbol of dawn in Vedic ontology. In fact his unique
distinction lies in his translation of some sections of the Vedas. Incidentally
Coomaraswamy has argued in A New Approach to the
Vedas that a deeper understanding of the Vedas is possible only from the point
of view of the history of religion. The Vedas have been interpreted in the past
as a system of rituals in the light of Sayana’s
commentaries or as a naturalistic body of knowledge by Western scholars. Sri Aurobindo,
however has interpreted the Vedas in their esoteric sense. As he observe Vedic chants “are episodes of the lyrical epic of
the soul in its immortal ascension.” Perhaps Sri Aurobindo’s
interpretation of Agni as a spiritual fire in matter, is a key to his aesthetics.
“I
cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream!” exclaims Savitri.
“A
fire to call eternity into Time
Make
body’s joy as vivid as the soul’s.”
Here it is well to
stress that Bharati found in Sri Aurobindo
a conception also shared with Coomaraswamy of the
perennial tradition of the Vedic poets. In his Agni–The
God-Will, Bharati suggests that knowledge
(symbolized by the descent of Shakti in response to
an ascending aspiration) is sustained in an ambience of creative endeavour. Equally imaginative is his interpretation of The
Dawn. For he observed that “the Dawn is never a product
of existing earthly conditions. It always comes on us from the extremity
of Heaven. It is even from the realms above the mental that the great Light
descends which makes for regeneration in men and in nations ……….. “Agni,
says Sri Aurobindo, “is the illumined Will.” Let your
higher will, the “fire” in you meet the Dawn. It shall then seek and attain to
the “substance of Delight.” And his piece, Rasa–the key-word of Indian
Culture is less an exercise in aesthetic sensibility than an imaginative
interpretation of Shakti. Indeed
according to Bharati, Rasa “is the form of Shakti, the feminine aspect of the Supreme Being……..that
has awakened the mother (Mother India) from her slumber of centuries.”
In
his work entitled The Way of Light, T. V. Kapali
Sastri, a distinguished exponent of the Aurobindo Darshana, gives a
moving account of his meeting with Bharati in 1917. Bharati greeted Kapali Sastri with these words:
“Victory
in this life is certain
O
Mind, fear there is none.”
Soon he burst forth
Guhaney,
paraman mahanay, guhayil valarum kanalay
“In
the secret cave, O growing Flame
Son of the Supreme.”
Here
the poet not only highlights a quint essentially Vedic
conception as the growing Flame in the heart of man, but also identifies Agni as Guha, Son of the Supreme.
“The
body of national thought that Bharati wove into song”
observed Rajaji, “was that which preceded Gandhiji; it was Vivekananda’s
and Dadhabhai Naoroji’s and
Tilak’s India and not that which most of the
present-day admirers of India’s struggle may have in mind–that forms the
material of his poetry.” In fact, some of Bharati’s
patriotic poems such as Liberation and In Thy Arms, Again–a poem
which was composed in the wake of Tilak’s release
from the Mandalay jail in 1914–not only reflect the
Pre-Gandhian era of Indian nationalism but are also
reminiscent of the heroic Aurobindo poems like Baji Prabhou and Vidula. For these poems reflect the first phase
of the heroic age of Indian Nationalism.
Bharati’s Panchali
Sapatham and Sri Aurobindo’s
Savitri constitute that part of modern