Sri Aurobindo. Vikramorvasie. The Characters [7] // Early Cultural Writings (1890-1910)

Sri Aurobindo

Early Cultural Writings

(1890 — 1910)

Part Two. On Literature
The Poetry of Kalidasa

Vikramorvasie. The Characters

Vikramorvasie. The Characters [7]

When Naraian¹, the primeval and dateless sage of old, entered upon austerities in the most secret and desolate recesses of the Snowy Mountains, Indra, prince of the air, always hostile to asceticism, always distrustful of the philosophic and contemplative spirit, was alarmed for the balance of the world and the security of his own rule. He therefore sent the Opsaras² to disturb the meditations of Naraian³. Then upon the desolate Himalaya Spring set the beauty of his feet; the warm south wind breathed upon those inclement heights, blossoming trees grew in the eternal snow and the voice of the cuckoo was heard upon the mountain tops. It was amidst this vernal sweetness that the Opsaras⁴ came to Naraian⁵; they were the loveliest of all the sisterhood who came, and subtlest and most alluring of feminine arts and enchantments was the way of their wooing; but Naraian⁶, who is Vishnu the World Saviour when he comes in the guise of the ascetic, moved neither by the passion of love nor by the passion of anger, smiled in the large and indulgent mood of his world embracing nature and opening his thigh took from it a radiant and marvellous creature of whose beauty the loveliest Opsaras⁷ seemed but pale and broken reflections. Ashamed they veiled their faces and stole silently away from the snowy hermitage. But Naraian⁸ called this daughter of his creation Urvasie (she who lies in the thigh of the Supreme, the thigh being the seat of sensuousness) and gave her to Indra to be his most potent defence against the austerities of spiritual longing.