English Literature - Indian English - Thought The Paraclete Poem - by Aurobindo -Notes - Summary

THOUGHT THE PARACLETE – Sri Aurobindo

                “Thought the Paraclete” is a poem written by Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh is one of the greatest poets of Indo-Anglian literature. In this poem, Sri Aurobindo compares thought to a paraclete, a bird.

                Thought is the function of the mind. In this poem, it is meaningfully used for ‘mind’. Mind determines the quality of a person’s experience at ordinary level. Mind is also the medium through which a person works out his self-realization. Through ‘yoga’, the mind is trained to get over its limitations. Then, the mind becomes the cleaned mirror. In it, the divine bliss is reflected.

                The mind progresses from the Manomaya Kosa to Vignanamaya Kosa and from there into ‘Anandamaya Kosa’. Finally it merges with Ananda where the separate identity of individual self is lost.

                There are four separate movements in the poem. The first stage of the ascent is that the mind outgrows the limitations of its nature.  The second movement follows thought’s progress from Mind to Higher mind, from Higher mind to Illuminated Mind, from Illuminated Mind to Intuition and from Intuition to Overmind. The third and final movement brings thought to the threshold of Gnana (Knowledge). There, it attains immortal bliss (Shashwatha Ananda). Finally, the thought loses its identity and becomes one with the universal self.

                Thus, the poem ‘Thought the Paraclete’ reveals the higher level spiritual experience of   Sri Aurobindo as a Yogi.