Abstract
AbstractThis essay examines the relationship of aesthetic and religious experience as evidenced by the poetry and yoga of Sri Aurobindo. The fundamental thesis is that the poetic process is transformative and as such is analogous to yoga. Governed by imagination, the poetic experience reveals itself in the categories of symbol and image. Aesthesis being directed by imagination involves not merely the cognitive but also the affective and volitional aspects of the human: a key moment of integration and therefore, of transformation. The development of Aurobindo's work and the transformation of his consciousness by imagination provides the opportunity to examine the relationship between imagination and myth. Two principal insights emerge. First, the goal of the yogic and poetic processes is the transformation of consciousness. Second, the individual's act of aspiration and surrender is neither unconscious nor a giving up of consciousness. Rather, the action of aspiration and surrender as the conscious and voluntary acceptance of the operation of imagination grounds the entire process: poetic, philosophic and yogic.
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