I walked on the high-wayed Seat of Solomon
Where Shankaracharya's tiny temple stands
Facing Infinity from Time's edge, alone
On the bare ridge ending earth's vain romance.
Around me was a formless solitude:
All had become one strange Unnameable,
An unborn sole Reality world-nude,
Topless and fathomless, for ever still.
A Silence that was Being's only word,
The unknown beginning and the voiceless end
Abolishing all things moment-seen or heard,
On an incommunicable summit reigned,
A lonely Calm and void unchanging Peace
On the dumb crest of Nature's mysteries.
Sri Aurobindo's sonnet from manuscripts, circa 1934-1947
Temple of Jyeshteswara - also associated with Shankaracharya. Photo taken 1868 by John Burke
Shankaracharya with disciples - painting by Raja Ravi Varma