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The Sanatan Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you. — Sri Aurobindo

The Mother

Cinematic Presentation

Rose Of God

A Sacred Poem

- Sri Aurobindo

Om Tat Savitur Varam Rupam Jyoti Parasya Dhimahi |
Yannah Satyena Dipayet||

Rose of God

Rose of God, vermilion stain on the sapphires of heaven,
Rose of Bliss, fire-sweet, seven-tinged with the ecstasies seven!
Leap up in our heart of humanhood, O miracle, O flame,
Passion-flower of the Nameless, bud of the mystical Name.

 

Rose of God, great wisdom-bloom on the summits of being,
Rose of Light, immaculate core of the ultimate seeing!
Live in the mind of our earthhood; O golden Mystery, flower,
Sun on the head of the Timeless, guest of the marvellous Hour.

 

Rose of God, damask force of Infinity, red icon of might,
Rose of Power with thy diamond halo piercing the night!
Ablaze in the will of the mortal, design the wonder of thy plan,
Image of Immortality, outbreak of the Godhead in man.

 

Rose of God, smitten purple with the incarnate divine Desire,
Rose of Life, crowded with petals, colour's lyre!
Transform the body of the mortal like a sweet and magical rhyme;
Bridge our earthhood and heavenhood, make deathless the children of Time.

 

Rose of God like a blush of rapture on Eternity's face,
Rose of Love, ruby depth of all being, fire-passion of Grace!
Arise from the heart of the yearning that sobs in Nature's abyss:
Make earth the home of the Wonderful and life Beatitude's kiss.
— Sri Aurobindo

The poem was written on 31 December 1934 by Sri Aurobindo

 

NOTES

29-30 December 1934.

There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript of this poem. The typed manuscript is dated 31December 1934; however Sri Aurobindo wrote in a letter to a disciple that “Rose of God” was ready “on the 30th having been written on that and the previous day”.

On 31 December, he wrote to his secretary that the just-typed “Rose of God” could be “circulated first as a sort of New Year invocation”.

On 2 March 1935, his secretary wrote to him saying that the editor of a quarterly journal had asked for a poem to be published, and asking whether “Rose of God” could be sent.

Sri Aurobindo replied:

“I feel squeamish about publishing the Rose of God' in a magazine or newspaper. It seems to me the wrong place altogether.”

The poem was written on 31 December 1934 and, in response to Parichanda’s query, he wrote a letter on 2 January 1935; in those days Parichanda was looking after the gardens in the Ashram.

A typed copy of the Rose of God must have been kept in the Reading Room where he must have read it and asked Sri Aurobindo about the significance of the flower: “Does the rose of all flowers most perfectly and aptly express the divine ecstasies or has it any symbolic allusion in the Veda or the Upanishad?”

Sri Aurobindo answered:

“There were no roses in those times in India—roses came with the Mahomedans from Persia. The rose is usually taken by us as the symbol of surrender, love, etc. But here it is not used in that sense, but as the most intense of all flowers it is used as symbolic of the divine intensities—Bliss, Light, Love, etc.”

It is remarkable that Sri Aurobindo had written the poem in one go and no further corrections were made afterwards.

It is pure inspiration with a yogic force in it, inspiration carrying classical gold in its bright dense expression.

Bliss-Light-Power-Life-Love, Ananda-Prakasha-Shakti-Jivan-Prema

are the five divine intensities mentioned in the stately incantatory Rose of God.