Sri Aurobindo

Collected Poems

SABCL - Volume 5

II. Sonnets
1930–1950

The Guest

I have discovered my deep deathless being:

Masked by my front of mind, immense, serene

It meets the world with an Immortal’s seeing,

A god-spectator of the human scene.

No pain and sorrow of the heart and flesh

Can tread that pure and voiceless sanctuary.

Danger and fear, Fate’s hounds, slipping their leash

Rend body and nerve,– the timeless Spirit is free.

Awake, God’s ray and witness in my breast,

In the undying substance of my soul

Flamelike, inscrutable the almighty Guest.

Death nearer comes and Destiny takes her toll;

He hears the blows that shatter Nature’s house:

Calm sits he, formidable, luminous.

Later edition of this work: The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.- Set in 37 volumes.- Volume 2.- Collected Poems.- Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 2009.- 751 p.