Who

In the blue of the sky, in the green of the forest,

Whose is the hand that has painted the glow?

When the winds were asleep in the womb of the ether,

Who was it roused them and bade them to blow?

He is lost in the heart, in the cavern of Nature,

He is found in the brain where He builds up the thought:

In the pattern and bloom of the flowers He is woven,

In the luminous net of the stars He is caught.

In the strength of a man, in the beauty of woman,

In the laugh of a boy, in the blush of a girl;

The hand that sent Jupiter spinning through heaven,

Spends all its cunning to fashion a curl.

These are His works and His veils and His shadows;

But where is He then? By what name is He known?

Is He Brahma or Vishnu? A man or a woman?

Bodied or bodiless? Twin or alone?

Excerpted from Who, Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems of Sri Aurobindo, Part III: Baroda and Bengal (Circa 1900-1909), Volume 3 and 4, Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department.