Kaikhushra Dhunjibhoy Sethna As A Poet (26 November 1904 – 29 June 2011) Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

K.D.Sethna, a Parsi boy from Bombay,
Came he hearing about Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga
In 1927 at the age of twenty-three
To be a disciple to learn
From Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa,
A bright and brilliant graduate from Bombay Univ.,
Well-versed in modern writers.

Re-christened as Amal Kiran in 1930 at his request,
‘Clear Ray’ if translated it would be
As so-called by Aurobindo,
Sethna edited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram journal Mother India
For almost fifty years from 1949
As the founding editor
Before retiring from editorship in 2000.

A poet, a scholar, a writer, a philosopher
And a cultural critic,
He is a saint and a thinker,
An ashramite and a sadhak
And an Aurobindonian,
A meditationlist, a spiritualist
Like the master, the teacher.

An avid reader and a researcher,
Knowledgeable and thoughtful,
He traced the development of thought and tradition,
Making a comparative study of,
Tracing the sadhak’s journey of life,
Feeling the impact of truth and beauty perceivable,
The Super Mind endowing with.

Sethna who made a tryst with
Even before his arrival had been an author of collections,
Artist Love (1925) , The Secret Splendour (1941) ,
The Adventure of Apocalypse (1949)
Apart from his critical studies of
Mallarme and other symbolists,
Aurobindo on Shakespeare, correspondences with Kathleen Raine.

The grand man of the ashrama and the letters,
Sethna lived a long life,
A centenarian he was,
An age he saw and lived,
Assessed and interpreted,
Guiding the seekers after truth,
In yoga and philosophy.

A poet feeling the touch of the Sweet Power,
The Power Divine,
He tells of Truth, Light, Mind
And Consciousness,
Human Thought and its evolution,
Life and historicity
Just like the master, the spiritual guru.