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.

Rose of God is one of those poems of Sri Aurobindo which remind us of the mystic vision of delving as it is visible in the poem. The poem is Blakian as well as Miltonic. It also tells about Savitri, Urvasie, Rambha, Menaka and so on indirectly. Here one can mark the George Bernard Shawian version of Robert Burns’ My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose. It is actually a  poem of love but explained in an anti-romantic, classical stance. It is inclusive of the love of all, a saint’s love, how does a saint God, a mystic’s love, how does a mystic, a metaphysician’s, how does a metaphysician. How does George Herbert see a red rose? How do the Valentine altar visitors view the roses offered to the Lord? What has a yogi to do with a rose? Is it a vision of God and His Beauty? A mystic, how does he take to the rose?

The rose as the flower of yoga or of St.Valentine or of Kabira or of Osho, whose is it? What the matter is? How the purview of dabbling? Rather than the lotus of meditation, why has Aurobindo taken to the rose of God? Is it about the colour impact? But George Herbertian Virtue matches it. It is definitely Western vision behind his seeing of the rose and the marking of the thin trickle of mysticism coming down to. Whatever be the things relating to the making of the poem, in Rose of God the yogi tries to see, feel and mark how the mysticism in the rose! How rose-coloured is the sky! How does it look the sky as Hopkins sees it in God’s Grandeur and Pied Beauty. How the dawn appears to be when seen from the Vedic hermitage! How the twilight! Even though there lie in the elements Keatsian and Marvellian inherent in the poem, as none can Cupid’s arrow is the truth, instead of it, it is a poem written in the admiration of the mystic love of the rose as seen over the horizons.

Plainly speaking, whose rose is this? God’s, is the answer. Who the Maker of the rose? The Lord-god, whose intrinsic mythic art and beauty embedded in all one can mark in it.
The vermilion stain on the sapphires of heaven appears to be as Rose of God as for the aura  and glow ligthing the sphere. The skies alit, aglow with the fire, the Heavenly Fire or draped in that colour definitely catch our fancy and imagination in the same way as it has that of the poet. Again, the ;poet sys that it is rhe same see in the hues of he rain ow containing the seven wonder containing wonder colours.

The poet asks to strike with the same intensity of miracle and wonder, the same element of mystery and awe as it has the potential of raking up something and moulding in its way. The mystical flame, flicker is but the flame of Creation, the flame of Lord-god which mankind has been looking up in wonder and astonishment and which has also been elemental to his creative urge. The Miracle Divine, the Flame Divine is but the Passion-flower of the Nameless, the Bud of the Mystical Name.

In Rose of God, lie in Rose of Bliss, Rose of Light, Rose of Power and Rose of Life. Rose of God is one of those poems of Sri Aurobindo which tell about the Divine Rose rather than the Divine Lotus, its beauty and brilliance, mystery and glory which he tries to see with his mystic vision of delving and transcendental glance.  The same miracle, the same flame of fire and blaze can be seen in the vermilion stain of the sapphires over heaven. Such a scene one can mark during the dawn break and the dusk time. The red glowing disc of the sun catches our fancy and imagination, but here the poet is mystical about that. Whose mystic glow is herein? Who is behind the paints given to? Rose of God as Rose of Bliss can be felt through the rainbow colours and the ecstasies connected with. What it is needed most is the mystic eyes, the mystic vision with which one can see the marks of Divinity! Rose of God is the rose of yoga. How does a yogi take to a rose? What does it symbolize to him? How is the life force? What is it the metaphysics of life? What is it the metaphysics of the world? How the ascension of the Supreme Mind? How the Super Consciousness? How to feel it the rose, the rose of the heart, the rose of the mind, the rose of the soul? To go through the yogic poetry of Aurobindo is to traverse the course of George Bernard Shaw’s superman and his super mind.

Rose of God, great wisdom abloom on the summits of being as Rose of Light is the ultimate power of seeing the things, grappling with, is the sun on the head of the Timeless. Rose of God, damask force of Infinity, red icon of might is Rose of Power with its diamond halo piercing the night. Mortality, how does he make the image of the Immortality when endowed with light and thinking? Rose of God when smitten purple with the incarnate Divine Desire takes the form of Rose of Life, crowded with petals, colour’s lyre. Rose of Life has the power to transform our lives and mould bridging earthhood and heavenhood.

Rose of God, a blush of rapture on Eternity’s face is but Rose of Love, the ruby depth of all being, fire-passion of Grace which is but earthly and Nature-centric. Love’s world so full of affection, sympathy and attachment, nature’s world so full of vegetation and greenery, homely shelter and refuge tendering and catering to give a look of their own and the poet in abstract words wants to allude to allegorically.

Rose of God with the red strain on the sapphires of the skies takes to Rose of Bliss to Rose of Light to Rose of Power to Rose of Life to Rose of Love. Aurobindo’s poetry is the Superman’s poetry germinating in the Super mind.

Image (c) istock.com