A grand “Invitation” for fellow humans to follow

[Heaven's wiser love rejects the mortal's prayer;
Unblinded by the breath of his desire,
Unclouded by the mists of fear and hope,
It bends above the strife of love with death;
It keeps for her her privilege of pain.
Book VI The Book of Fate Canto II
The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain Page 456]

Sri Aurobindo began his public writing career with political commentary and polemics. Obviously the thrust was to canvass, provoke, and instigate. Upon turning to yoga and spirituality, again the task was almost similar, to persuade and to seduce, so to say. His whole body of writing, in this sense, is a grand “Invitation” for fellow humans to follow.

The poetic creations of Sri Aurobindo too are not entirely free from this compulsions of contingency. A perceptive reader of Sri Aurobindo’s oeuvre, therefore, would always be sensitive to the distinction between the contextual and the perennial. A firm grandstanding at places in his works surprises in view of his polite personal disposition. But the insistence may be seen as that of a benevolent teacher and a prescient communicator. [TNM]