From May’s Prison Bars to April’s Silent Shore

Dawn of May 2, 1908, history changed its course;

Handcuffed stood the revolutionary Sri Aurobindo,

Arrested in the wake of the Muzaffarpur bombing.

The world saw a captive; Heaven saw a chosen instrument.

May 5, 1908, prison life commenced.

The human mind and restless vital suffered,

The body dwelt within cold, unyielding walls,

Yet the soul awoke to a boundless sky.

In that lonely Alipore cell,

Silence became the voice of the Divine;

Darkness ripened into revelation,

And prison became God's tabernacle.

Within that cell, God-knowledge poured from above,

A new world-knowledge blossomed from within;

His thoughts looked ever to the Eternal One,

His every act flowed from an inner Light.

Two hundred witnesses examined,

One hundred and thirty-one days of relentless trial;

On May 6, 1909, Justice prevailed—Sri Aurobindo was acquitted.

The bars had opened; the world-mission had begun.

As Chittaranjan Das—Sri Aurobindo’s chief defence counsel—had foretold:

“The poet of patriotism,

The prophet of nationalism,

The lover of humanity.”

The destined dawn arrived—April 4, 1910,

A tranquil shore welcomed a silent pilgrim.

Pondicherry received what Alipore had prepared.

The revolutionary blossomed into a seer.

He penned The Life Divine,

Unfolded Integral Yoga in The Synthesis of Yoga,

Interpreted the eternal wisdom in Essays on the Gita,

And sang the epic of Earth's destiny in Savitri.

Through May's prison bars to April's silent shore—

His flame still illumines humanity's ascent,

Guiding the march of Earth’s conscious evolution

from man to the Divine.

- Dr. Sudevi Basu (India)

SAIEN