This talk is a summary of Sri Aurobindo’s sonnet, written on 11 September, 1939. At the end there is also a brief reading of another poem, To the Hill-tops of Silence (1934).
THE INFINITE ADVENTURE
On the waters of a nameless Infinite
My skiff is launched; I have left the human shore.
All fades behind me and I see before
The unknown abyss and one pale pointing light.
An unseen Hand controls my rudder. Night
Walls up the sea in a black corridor,—
An inconscient Hunger’s lion plaint and roar
Or the ocean sleep of a dead Eremite.
I feel the greatness of the Power I seek
Surround me; below me are its giant deeps,
Beyond, the invisible height no soul has trod.
I shall be merged in the Lonely and Unique
And wake into a sudden blaze of God,
The marvel and rapture of the Apocalypse.
[CWSA 2: 606]
TO THE HILL -TOPS OF SCIENCE
To the hill-tops of silence from over the infinite sea,
Golden he came,
Armed with the flame,
Looked on the world that his greatness and passion must free.
[CWSA 2: 649]