9. THE FLAME ALTAR OF SRI AUROBINDO

A sun-vast silence, freedom of Void supreme
Around the triumphant Altar of our heart’s king.
His Will bodied, unbodied ever shall last,
Time but a child in his all-embracing Wing.

The far-off rapture and wisdom here we meet;
The Breath of life burns pure within this Shrine.
Here eyeless errors reach the unflickering Fire,
His Immortality, the Boon divine.

On earth obscure to fulfil His mission sublime
The riddles of all the contraries abide.
All worlds are His, He the creation vast
And He our goal, the one unfailing Guide.

The flame-haven, a dawn of deathless birth,
To summit vast a flight of steps from earth.