History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.247

v7.c91.247

¹⁶¹² The Master (Śrī Aurobindo) and the pupil are at variance about the poetic character of the Mantras. Śrī Aurobindo (p. XXXIV) after saying that his translation is a literary and not a strictly literal one speaks of the hymns as '*great poetry*', magnificent in their colouring and images, noble and beautiful in rhythm. Now let us hear the disciple. On p. 65 Mr. Kapali Sastry states 'the hymnal poetry is unusual, different from other poetry, even from the most superb specimen' and then he chides the readers and men like the present author and impliedly his own Master 'it is not permissible (why?) to class Vedic hymns with poetry of a literary and aesthetic kind'. On p. 31 Mr. Sastry asserts that 'mantras have two meanings, the inner which is psychological or spiritual and the true meaning and a gross or external meaning for common men' and he adds that the use of words with double meanings was *deliberate* but was *effortless and natural*.