☀️ 𝓓epicting 𝓣he 𝓓ivine ☀️

The Hill-top Temple

The Hill-top Temple

After unnumbered steps of a hill-stair
    I saw upon earth's head brilliant with sun
    The immobile Goddess in her house of stone
In a loneliness of meditating air.
Wise were the human hands that set her there
    Above the world and Time's dominion;
    The Soul of all that lives, calm, pure, alone,
Revealed its boundless self mystic and bare.

Our body is an epitome of some Vast
    That masks its presence by our humanness.
        In us the secret Spirit can indite
A page and summary of the Infinite,
    A nodus of Eternity expressed
        Live in an image and a sculptured face.

[This sonnet by Sri Aurobindo [1939] is about an experience he had at a shrine in the temple-complex on Parvati Hill, near Poona, probably in 1902.]

Parvati Hill is a hillock in Pune, 2,100 feet (640 m) above sea level. Atop the hillock is the Parvati Temple, one of the most scenic locations in Pune. The temple is the oldest heritage structure in Pune and was built during the rule of the Peshwas. Parvati hill is also an observation point that offers a panoramic view of Pune. The hill has 103 steps leading to the top of the hill where the temple is situated. [text and images from wikipedia commons]