SRI AUROBINDO
Collected Plays and Short Stories
Part One
A dramatic romance
A room in the palace at Cowsambie.
Alurca, Vasuntha.
He'll rule Cowsambie in the end, I think.
Artist, be an observer too. His eyes
Pursue young Vuthsa like a hunted prey
And seem to measure possibility,
But not for rule or for Cowsambie care.
To reign's his nature, not his will.
This man
Is like some high rock that was suddenly
Transformed into a thinking creature.
There's
His charm for Vuthsa who is soft as spring,
Fair like a hunted moon in cloud-swept skies,
Luxurious like a jasmine in its leaves.
When will this Vuthsa grow to man? Hard-brained
Roomunwath, deep Yougundharayan rule;
The State, its arms are theirs. This boy between
Like a girl's cherished puppet stroked and dandled,
Chid and prescribed the postures it must keep,
Moves like a rhythmic picture of delight 
And with his sunny smile he does it all.
Now in our little kingdom with its law
Of beauty and music this high silence comes
And seizes on him. All our acts he rules
And Vuthsa has desired one master more.
There is a wanton in this royal heart
Who gives herself to all and all are hers.
Perhaps that too is wisdom. For, Alurca,
This world is other than our standards are
And it obeys a vaster thought than ours,
Our narrow thoughts! The fathomless desire
Of some huge spirit is its secret law.
It keeps its own tremendous forces penned
And bears us where it wills, not where we would.
Even his petty world man cannot rule.
We fear, we blame; life wantons her own way,
A little ashamed, but obstinate still, because
We check but cannot her. O, Vuthsa's wise!
Because he seeks each thing in its own way,
He enjoys. And wherefore are we at all
If not to enjoy and with some costliness
Get dear things done, till rude death interferes,
God's valet moves away these living dolls
To quite another room and better play, —
Yet consider this.
Look back upon the endless godlike line.
Think of Parikshit, Janamejoya, think
Of Sathaneke, then on our Vuthsa gaze.
Glacier and rock and all Himaloy piled!
What eagle peaks! Now this soft valley blooms;
The cuckoo cries from branches of delight,
The bee sails murmuring its low-winged desires. 
It was to amuse himself God made the world.
For He was dull alone! Therefore all things
Vary to keep the secret witness pleased.
How Nature knows and does her office well!
What poignant oppositions she combines!
Death fosters life that life may suckle death.
Her certainties are snares, her dreams prevail.
What little seeds she grows into huge fates,
Proves with a smile her great things to be small!
All things here secretly are right; all's wrong
In God's appearances. World, thou art wisely led
In a divine confusion.
The Minister
Watches this man so closely, he must think
There is some dangerous purpose in his mind.
He is the wariest of all ministers
And would suspect two pigeons on a roof
Of plots because they coo.
All's possible.
Yes, I would love to see the ocean's vasts.
Are they as grand as are the mountains dumb
Where I was born and grew? Or is its voice
Like the huge murmur of our forests swayed
In the immense embrace of giant winds?
Wilt thou show
Them to me, Vindhya's crags, where forests dimly
Climb down towards my Avunthie?
We will go
And hunt together the swift fleeing game
Or with our shafts unking the beast of prey.
If we could range alone wide solitudes,
Not soil them with our din, not with our tread
Disturb great Nature in her animal trance,
Her life of mighty instincts where no stir
Of the hedged restless mind has spoiled her vasts.
It is a thing I have dreamed of. Alurca, tell
The Minister that we go to hunt the deer
In Vindhya's forests on Avunthie's verge.
Alurca goes out to the outer palace.
He will, Vuthsa,
Allow thy will. Where does it lead thee, king?
A scourge for thee or a close gag might help.
A bandage for my eyes would serve as well.
Shall we awaken in Alurca's hands
The living voices of the harp?
Or will'st thou 
That I should play the heaven-taught airs thou lov'st
On the Gundharva's magical guitar
Which lures even woodland beasts? For the elephant
Comes trumpeting to the enchanted sound,
A coloured blaze of beauty on the sward
The peacocks dance and the snake's brilliant hood
Lifts rhythmed yearning from the emerald herb.
Vuthsa Udayan, suffer me awhile
To walk alone, for I am full of thoughts.
Thou shouldst not be. Cannot my love atone
For lost Avunthie?
Always; but a voice
Comes to me often from the haunts of old.
Returns no dim cloud-messenger to whisper
To thy great father's longing waiting heart
Far from his banished son?
Thy satire's forced.
Thy earnest less?
One hour, a long pale loss,
I sacrifice to thy thoughts. When it has dragged past,
Where shall I find thee? 
Where the flowers rain
Beneath the red boughs on the river's bank.
There will I walk while thou hearst harp or verse.
Without thee neither harp nor verse can charm.
The harmony of kindred souls that seek
Each other on the strings of body and mind,
Is all the music for which life was born.
Vasuntha, let me hear thy happy crackling,
Thou fire of thorns that leapest all the day!
Give me fuel then,
Your green young boughs of folly for my fire.
I give enough I think for all the world.
It is your trade to occupy the world.
Men have made kings that folly might have food,
For the court gossips over them while they live
And the world gossips over them when they are dead.
That they call history. But our man returns.
Do here and in all things, says the minister,
Thy pleasure. But since upon a dangerous verge
This hunt will tread, thy cohorts armed shall keep
The hilly intervals, himself be close
To guard with vigilance his monarch's life
Against the wild beasts and what else means harm.
That is his care; what he shall do, is good.
To lavish upon all men love and trust
Shows the heart's royalty, not the brain's craft.
I have found my elder brother. Grudge me not,
Alurca, that delight. Thou lov'st me well?
Is it now questioned?
Then rejoice with me
That I have found my brother, joy in my joy,
Love with my love, think with my thoughts; the rest
Leave to much older wiser men whose schemings
Have made God's world an office and a mart.
We who are young, let us indulge our hearts.
Thou takest all hearts and givest thine to none,
Udayan. Yet is this prince Gopalaca,
This breed from Titans and from Mahasegn,
Hard, stern, reserved. Does he repay thy friendship
As we do?
Love itself is sweet enough
Though unreturned; and there are silent hearts.
Suffer this flower to climb its wayside rock.
Oppose not Nature's cunning who will not
Be easily refused her artist joys.
Fierce deserts round the green oasis yearn
And the chill lake desires the lily's pomp.
He is the rock, I am the flower. What part
Playst thou in the woodland?
A thorn beneath the rose
That from the heavens of desire was born
And men call Vuthsa.
Poet, satirist, sage,
What other gifts keepst thou concealed within
More than the many that thy outsides show?
I squander all and keep none, not like thee
Who trad'st in honey to deceive the world.
O, earth is honey; let me taste her all.
Our rapture here is short before we go
To other sweetness on some rarer height
Of the upclimbing tiers that are the world.
A forest-glade in the Vindhya hills.
Vicurna, a Captain.
The hunt rings distant still; but all the way
Troops and more troops besiege. Where is Gopalaca?
Our work may yet be rude before we reach
Our armies on the frontier.
That I desire.
O whistling of the arrows! I have yet
To hear that battle music.
Someone comes,
For wild things scurry forth.
They take cover. Gopalaca enters.
Whither so swiftly?
You are near the frontier for a banished man,
Gopalaca.
Why has my father sent
Thy rash hot boyhood here, imperilling
Both of his sons? I find not here his wisdom.
There will be danger? I am glad. None sent me;
I came unasked. 
And also unasking?
Right.
Trust me to have thee whipped. But since thou art here!
On our left they wait
Screened by the secret tunnel which the Boar
Tusked through the hill to Avunthie. Torches ready
And men in arms stand in the cavern ranked
They call the cavern of the Elephant
By giants carved. But all the forest passages
The enemy guards.
There are some he cannot guard.
I know the forest better than their scouts.
When I shall speak of you and clap my hands,
Surround us in a silence armed.
His men
Resisting?
No, we two shall be alone.
Fie! there will be no fighting?
Goblin, off!
They take cover again. Gopalaca goes;
then arrives from another side Vuthsa
with Vasuntha and Alurca.
We lose our escort!
They lose us, I think.
What fate conspires with what hid treachery?
Our chariot broken, we in woods alone
And the night close.
Roomunwath guards the paths.
The night is close.
Here I will rest, my friends,
Where all is green and silent; only the birds
And the wind's whisperings! Go, Alurca, meet
Our comrades of the hunt; guide their vague steps
To this green-roofed refuge.
It is the best, though bad.
I leave thee with unwarlike hands to guard.
I am no fighter; it is known. Run, haste.
And yet for all your speed, someone will worship
Great Shiva in Avunthie.
I hear a tread.
Where wert thou all this time, Gopalaca?
Far wandering in the woods since a white deer
Like magic beauty drew my ardent steps
Into a green entanglement.
Simple!
You found there what you sought?
No deer, but hunters,
Not of our troop. We spoke of this green glade
Where many wandering paths might lead the king.
Greater the haste to go!
Follow Alurca and come back with him.
What, cast myself into the forest's hands
To wander and be eaten by the night?
Come here and bid me then a long farewell.
Are thy eyes open at least? Is it thou in this
Who movest? Come, I should know that from thee,
If nothing more.
Why ask when thou hast eyes?
Thou seest that mine are open and I walk;
For no man drives me.
Walk! but far away
From thy safe capital.
What harm?
And with
This prince Gopalaca?
Suspicions then?
Why not suspect at once it is my will
To visit Avunthie?
So?
Not so, but if?
Oh, if! And if return were much less easy
Than the going?
Who has talked of easy things?
With difficulty then I will return.
I go, king Vuthsa.
But tell Yougundharayan 
And all who harbour blind uneasy thoughts,
“Whatever seeks me from Fate, man or god,
Leave all between me and the strength that seeks.
War shall not sound without thy prince's leave.
I will tell,
But know not if he'll hear.
He knows who is
His sovereign.
King, farewell.
Vasuntha disappears in the forest.
We two have kept our tryst, Gopalaca.
Hang there, my bow; lie down, my arrows. Now
Of you I have no need. O this, O this
Is what I often dreamed, to be alone
With one I love far from the pomp of courts,
Not ringed with guards and anxious friendships round,
Free like a common man to walk alone
Among the endless forest silences,
By gliding rivers and over deciduous hills,
In every haunt where earth, our mother, smiles
Whispering to her children. Let me rest awhile
My head upon thy lap, Gopalaca,
Before we plunge into this emerald world.
Shall we not wander in her green-roofed house
Where mighty Nature hides herself from men,
And be the friends of the great skyward peaks
That call us by their silence, bathe in tarns, 
Dream where the cascades leap, and often spend
Slow moonless nights inarmed in leafy huts
Happier than palaces, or in our mood
Wrestle with the fierce tiger in his den
Or chase the deer with wind-swift feet, and share
With the rough forest-dwellers natural food
Plucked from the laden bounty of the trees,
Before we seek the citied haunts of men?
Shall we not do these things, Gopalaca?
Some day we shall.
Why some day? why not now?
Have I escaped my guards in vain?
Not vainly.
This sword encumbers; take it from me, friend,
And fling it there upon the bank.
It is far.
I keep my arms lest some wild thing invade
These green recesses.
Keep thy arms and me.
O, this is good to be among the trees
With thee to guard me and no soul besides.
Thyself thou hast given wholly into my hands.
Yes, take me, brother.
I shall use the trust
And yet deserve it.
I love thee well, Gopalaca.
It was hard to speak,
Now I can tell it. As a brother might
Elder and jealous, as a mother loves
Her beautiful flower-limbed boy or grown man yearns
Over some tender girl, his sister, comrade, child,
In all these ways, but many more besides,
But always jealously.
Why?
Because, Vuthsa,
I'ld have thee for my own and not as in
Thy city where a thousand shared thy rays
Who were strangers to me. In my own domain,
Part of a world that's old and dear to me,
Where thou shalt be no king, but Vuthsa only
And I can bind with many dearest ties
Heaped on thee at my will. This, Vuthsa, I desired
And therefore I have brought thee to this glade.
And therefore I have come to thee alone.
Thou must go farther.
A clank of arms amid the silent trees?
Gopalaca restrains him.
Thy escort.
Mine?
My father sends for thee.
I seize upon thee, Vuthsa, thou art mine,
My captive and my prize. I'll bear thee far
As Heaven's great eagle bore thy mother once
Rapt to his unattainable high hills.
As he speaks the armed men appear.
Swift, captain, swift! I hold the royal boy.
Haste, haste!
There is a growing rumour all around.
Care not for that, but follow me and guard.
They disappear among the trees.
After a few moments Vasuntha arrives.
The forest lives with sound. It is too late.
Yougundharayan, Roomunwath, Alurca
and others break in from all sides.
Where is King Vuthsa? where?
His bow hangs there! his sword and arrows lie!
No.
He sent me from him. I think he's travelling
To Shiva in Avunthie.
And thou laugh'st?
Impetuously pursue!
The forest ways and mountain openings flood
That flee to Avunthie. They can yet be seized.
Hear first king Vuthsa's message and command:
“Whatever seeks me from Fate, man or beast,
Let not war sound without thy prince's leave.
Jestest thou yet,
Or was this madness? or careless levity?
See how the lion's cub breaks out, Roomunwath,
Whom we so guarded in our close control,
To measure with the large and dangerous world
The bounding rapture of his youth and force.
He throws himself into his foeman's lair
Alone and scorning every aid. I guess
His purpose, but it's rash, it's rash. What if
He failed? This boy and iron Mahasegn!
He is not yet
Beyond the borders. But we'll seek him out
Armed in Avunthie. To the border speed!
They may be seized before they cross it still.
All depart in a tumult of haste except
Yougundharayan and Alurca.
It will be vain. At least my spies shall pierce
Their inmost chambers, even in his prison
My help be near.
Avunthie, a wooded hill-side overlooking the plain.
Gopalaca in a chariot with Vuthsa; armed men surround them.
Arrest our wheels. Those are our army's lights
That climb to us like fireflies from the plain.
We have passed her bounds.
So, thou dear traitor, this thou from the first
Cam'st planning?
This and more for which it was done.
Thou bearst me to thy father's house?
Where thou
Shalt lie a jewel guarded carefully
Close to the dearest treasures of our house,
Nor all Yougundharayan's wiles prevail
To take thee from our guard.
I must be cooped,
It seems, and guarded in a golden cage,
As I was watched o'er in Cowsambie once.
So all men think to do their will with me.
But now I warn you all that I will have
My freedom and will do my own dear will
By fraud or violence greater than your own.
Thou never! If thou hadst thy bow indeed!
Thou hadst me for the taking. I will break out
As easily.
Thou shalt find the evasion hard,
Such keepers shall enring thy steps.
But I will,
And carry with me something costlier far
Than what thou stealest from Cowsambie's realm.
No wealth we have
More precious than the thing I seize today.
That I will see.
Was't not thy brother rode behind our car?
Vicurna, here!
Come near, embrace me, brother of Gopalaca,
Loved for his sake, now for thy own desired
Since I beheld thee, son of Mahasegn.
Vuthsa Udayan, in the battle's front
I had hoped to meet thee and compel thy praise
As half thy equal in the fight. But this
Is nearer, this is better.
Thou art fair to see.
Thy father has two noble sons. Are there
No others of your great upspringing stock?
Only a sister.
The world has heard of her.
Thou shalt behold.
Oh, then, it is all gain
That awaits me in Avunthie. O the night
With all her glorious stars and from the trees
Millions of shrill cigalas peal one note,
A thunderous melody! Shall we be soon
In the golden city? But it will be night
And I shall hardly see her famous fanes.
Dawn will have passed overtaking in her skies
Our chariots long before Ujjayinie's seen.
The vanguard nears; make haste to join with them.
Roomunwath's cohorts should tread close behind.
They will not come. My fate must ride with me
Unhindered to Ujjayinie.
Captains, march.
Spur towards my father swift-hooved messengers
To cry aloud to him the prize we bring.
Vishnu on me.
Vicurna, mount by us and talk to me.
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