SRI AUROBINDO’S ‘PERSEUS THE DELIVERER’
Author’s Biography: Sri Aurobindo was an Indian philosopher, yoga guru,
maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing
newspapers like Bande Mataram.
Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven
he was taken to England for education. There he studied at St. Paul's School,
London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he
worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the
service of the Maharaja and as a professor in Baroda College. During this
period he also joined a revolutionary society and took a leading role in secret
preparations for an uprising against the British Government in India.
In 1906, soon after the Partition of Bengal, Sri Aurobindo quit his post in
Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he soon became one of the leaders of
the Nationalist movement. He was the first political leader in India to openly
put forward, in his newspaper Bande Mataram, the idea of complete
independence for the country. Prosecuted twice for sedition and once for
conspiracy, he was released each time for lack of evidence.
Sri Aurobindo had begun the practice of Yoga in 1905 in Baroda. In 1908 he
had the first of several fundamental spiritual realisations. In 1910 he
withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in order to devote himself
entirely to his inner spiritual life and work. During his forty years in
Pondicherry he evolved a new method of spiritual practice, which he called
the Integral Yoga. Its aim is a spiritual realisation that not only liberates
man's consciousness but also transforms his nature. In 1926, with the help of
his spiritual collaborator, the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Among his many writings are The Life Divine, The Synthesis of
Yoga and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo left his body on 5 December 1950.
Perseus, in Greek mythology, the slayer of the Gorgon Medusa and the
rescuer of Andromeda from a sea monster. Perseus was the son of Zeus and
Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius of Argos.
The only son of Zeus and Danae – and, thus, a half-god by birth – Perseus
was one of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, most renowned for
beheading the only mortal Gorgon, Medusa, and using her severed
head (capable of turning onlookers into stone) as a mighty weapon in his
subsequent adventures.
Summary: The story of Perseus and Medusa is told to teach various life
lessons. ... His courage, strength, and intelligence was also the reason that
Perseus saved Andromeda from the Cetus and returned home with her,
slaying both Phineus and Polydectes with the head of Medusa by turning
them into stone.
On the way back to the island of Seriphus, Perseus runs into Atlas, the Titan
doomed by Zeus to hold up the sky forever. The hero and the Titan get into a
fight, because Atlas refuses to offer Perseus shelter. Hotheaded Perseus ends
the argument by whipping out Medusa's head and turning Atlas into stone.
Both the short story and the video include the slaying of Medusa as the main
conflict in which Perseus succeeds with much determination and support
from the gods and goddesses.
King Acrisius of Argos has a stunningly beautiful daughter but wants a son,
so he prays to the gods. Apollo tells him not only that Acrisius will never have
a son, but also that the son of his daughter will kill him. The only way to fully
prevent this prophecy would be to kill his daughter, Danae, but Acrisius fears
what the gods would do to him. Instead, he imprisons Danae in a bronze
house without a roof and guards her carefully.
Arcisius does not expect, however, that Zeus will come to her and
impregnate her. Perseus is born, and after Acrisius discovers the baby, he
puts Perseus and Danae in a box and sets it out in the ocean. Luckily (or
thanks to Zeus), the box washes up on a small island, where a kind
fisherman named Dictys takes Danae and Perseus in. They live happily until
Dictys's brother, King Polydectes, falls in love with Danae and decides to get
rid of her son. Polydectes convinces Perseus to kill the Medusa, a horrifying
beast with snakes for hair. But this feat seems impossible because whoever
looks at the snakes will turn instantly to stone.
Hermes gives Perseus guidance and a sword stronger than the Medusa's
scales. He tells Perseus that to fight the Medusa Perseus will need special
equipment from the Nymphs of the North. Their location is a mystery, and
Perseus must ask the Gray Women, three sisters who live in a gray land and
are gray themselves. They share only one eye among the three, and they
alternate using it. Before Perseus sets out to find them, Athena gives him her
shield and tells him that he must look at the Medusa through the shield, like
a mirror, in order to avoid turning to stone.
Perseus finds the Gray Women and steals the eyeball, holding it hostage in
exchange for the location of the Nymphs of the North. Hermes helps Perseus
travel there, where he finds a land of happy people, always banqueting and
celebrating. They give him his three gifts: winged sandals, a magic wallet
that changes to the size of whatever its contents, and, most important of all,
a magic cap that will turn whoever wears it invisible.
With Hermes and Athena at his side, Perseus finds and kills Medusa. He puts
the head in his wallet and flies, invisible, back toward his mother. On the
way, he passes a beautiful woman chained to a rock, Andromeda, and falls in
love with her instantly. She was chained there because her foolish mother
had thought herself more beautiful than any goddess, so as punishment the
gods told her to chain her daughter to a rock, where she would be eaten by a
serpent. Perseus kills the serpent and takes Andromeda home.
When he returns to the island, he discovers that Danae and Dictys have gone
into hiding because Danae will not marry Polydectes. The evil king,
meanwhile, is hosting a banquet with all his supporters. Perseus barges in
and holds up the head of Medusa. Unable to look away in time, all the men
turn to stone. Perseus finds his mother, makes Dictys king, and marries
Andromeda.
Optimistic, Perseus and Danae return to Argos to find her father, King
Acrisius. They hope that his heart has warmed since he put them in a box
out to sea, but when they reach Argos they realize that he fled the land. One
day, Perseus competes in a discus-throwing contest. His disc veers far to the
side and lands on a spectator in the crowd, killing him instantly. This is
Acrisius, in fulfilment of Apollo's prophecy.
Morality: Perseus the Deliverer is merely a dramatic creation to show the
world the divine descent like Perseus, who has been sent to Syria by goddess
Athene, to save the people of Syria. But in real life how can it be possible. Sri
Aurobindo says, “Yoga gives us a means to escape from the dangerous
doctrines of materialism which tend to subvert man’s future and hamper his
evolution.” He further appeals to the people of India, “The time has almost
come when India can no longer keep her light to herself but must pour it out
upon the world. Yoga must be revealed to mankind because without it
mankind cannot take the next step in the human evolution.”
Hence, through the play Sri Aurobindo wants to clear the concept of Fate and
the role of Fate in our life. The world is governed by the Divine Will. The
working of the Divine Will is not arbitrary; it is guided by Law which is
causality, Karma and Karmaphal. Fate is nothing but Karmaphal. The need of
the hour is to recognize those invisible forces at work unknown to the outer
mind of man. This ability can only be attained with the help of Yoga.
