Book One. The Book of Beginnings
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V
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Book One: Canto 4 The Secret Knowledge
Man grows conscious of a vaster Self in himself which is not involved in the life-movement, but watches all from its base behind the veil of nature in ignorance. There is the key to the riddle of existence, there the fount of delight without which none could live. Without this perception, world-existence appears to lack meaning and direction; no definite knowledge of its character is possible. Only the movement is seen to be real, a movement carried on by an incessant urge from within. And yet, the earth does not feel left alone in her labour. She senses and becomes aware of mighty Puissances in the Cosmos helping and drawing her upward by their very presence and their irresistible action. The earth-mind seeks and aspires for the Verities of Knowledge, Power and Bliss which are in the keeping of these Gods above, however much they might appear to be out of reach to the terrestrial spirit toiling below. In fact it is the action of these Powers from behind the surfaces of life that determines the course of outer circumstances. Man is not normally aware of this inner working in himself and in the Cosmos. But the impulsion from within and the lead from above goes on till the purpose of the earth-movement is achieved, till the earth-life flowers into a divine existence. The present state of the evolving Consciousness on earth is intermediate; it marks a stage that has moved away from the original Inconscience at the base but is yet far from the plenary Super-conscience at the summit of existence into which it is to grow. Consequently all the operations of this Consciousness are imperfect. However there is a constant pressure on this Consciousness to develop and expand from both the ends of existence-Material Nature and Spiritual Being. Through all the vicissitudes of lives, there is a Light that leads, a Might that pulls, a Bliss that sustains. The Will of the creative Godhead works at each moment of Time, at every level of world-existence towards the destined manifestation of the Divine in the terrestrial universe.
Our
early approaches to the Infinite When one takes to yoga, the Path that leads to God, one gets many experiences. These experiences may be of ebullient joy or coursings of unusual force or descents of solid peace or visions of colours, images and the like. They are not to be mistaken for realisations, much less the goal. They are only preliminary experiences that result from the opening up of faculties thitherto latent but activised and set into operation by the workings of the Yoga-Power. The subtler vision or audition or the senses of the subtle-physical being become active and the consciousness becomes aware of new ranges of experience. All of these are the first indications, the promise of greater realities that await the aspirant. The Sun of Truth is far, not yet arisen in the skies of the being of the seeker; only the distant rays of his Dawn appear in their brightening hues.
...
the epic climb The drab material condition in which the human soul finds itself in life on earth is not its permanent state. It is only a stage in its development upwards. The soul is a growing entity in evolution, ever increasing in its power and consciousness, developing its personality in Nature. Starting from its base in the physical organisation of the body, it develops into embodiment in life, then in mind, and then proceeds further to find and grow into its spiritual personality which is its real and eternal self. The movement is one of progressive ascent from the awaking of the human soul involved in the material encasement to its discovery and realisation of its secret self on the spiritual heights of its being. This self is its own higher term. This World
This
world is a beginning and a base This material world organised on the basis of Matter is not the whole truth of existence. It is only a base, an indispensable firm foundation on which other Powers like Life and Mind manifest and establish their own organisations with some degree of stability. But these do not prove to be lasting. The real, enduring edifice is to be built by a Power greater than Life or Mind, a Power of the Spirit that seeks to manifest on earth the Divine Consci-ousness which is labouring to emerge from its veiled depths and shape a new creation of the Eternal Truth on this terrestrial ground.
A
deathbound littleness is not all we are: Man is a being limited in consciousness, limited in power. The range of his awareness is determined by his physical senses; the duration of his life is at the mercy of death and the agents of death: accident, disease, decay. But that is so only as long as he is content to confine himself to his surface being. If he takes steps to deepen and. enlarge his awareness, he finds large tracts of consciousness opening to him. They are, he finds, parts of his own being of which he had remained ignorant in his out-turned vision. These ranges of consciousness are unlimited; above they extend into the infinites of the Spirit where death holds no sway. Around and below, the consciousness spreads as wide and as deep as he can extend himself. Man external is shut out from his own larger being: the spiritual, the subliminal and the subconscious.
Neighbours of Heaven are Natureâs altitudes. Nature is not all ignorance, governed entirely by limitation, incapacity and death. That may be true to a certain extent of a part of her, the lower Nature. But there is a higher part of the same Nature, the Para Prakriti, where these elements do not exist as determinants any more. This Higher Nature reveals more and more of the characteristics of the Infinite Spirit as man ascends her altitudes. There on the summits he breathes strong winds of Power, beholds immensities of Knowledge and floats on the bosom of Joy. He is on the threshold of the Kingdom of God.
To
these high-peaked dominions sealed to our search The normal walks of life with their petty life-movements, limited mental lights, all confined within the narrow bounds of the laws of material nature are practically shut out from the summits of the higher Nature where reign great powers of light and joy in unbelievable freedom and immensity. The gulf is too vast between them, and human nature, as it is, cannot adjust itself to those conditions. And yet there is always an aspiration in man to reach those heights. That is because deep in his being there are levels of consciousness which have affinity to the heights. Man lives mostly on the superficies of his being and is unaware of these greater states of consciousness within himself which can link him with the supernal peaks of Nature if only they are activised and brought forward in his life.
Even
when we fail to look into our souls Man is a complex being in evolution. He has many parts though he is normally conscious of only the surface exterior of himself. Whether he is aware of them or not, all of them grow in consciousness drawing in their own way from the experiences gathered by the frontal being. Indeed, if the outer man is conscious of his inner parts and cultivates them in the way of the Light and Truth, they all grow quicker. But even if he does not do so, due to his engrossment in material interests, the inner Purusha sees to it that they i.e. the subtle-physical being, the vital being, the emotional being, the mental person, register their own development.
Yet
are there luminous tracts and heavens serene Extrovert that he is, man sees everywhere around him ignorance, obscurity, limitation, suffering and death. If he were to turn his gaze inward he would become aware of regions of his being which are not subject to these limiting and darkening agents in creation but are bright with the light of Knowledge, expanses where reign supreme Happiness and Peace. There are veritable Kingdoms of unearthly Splendour and Bliss even as there are parts within that rise spontaneously towards the Divine. This is the glorious heritage that awaits man, should he but turn to it freeing himself from his self-constricting preoccupations on the superficies of his being.
...
sometimes, when our sight is turned within, The doors of the body, says the Upanishad, are set outwards; therefore man habitually gazes outward and not at the Self within; hardly a wise man turns his eyes inward and beholds the Self. Occasionally the sight of man withdraws from its external field of the senses and looks inward. The usual veil of ignorance that shrouds the faculties absorbed in the objects of the material world is lifted for a while and man gets a swift, though brief, entry into the splendorous worlds within.
This
narrow fringe of clamped experience What is offered to man by material Nature as his field of experience is a very narrow strip of life bounded on all sides. His knowledge is enveloped by Ignorance, his power restricted by limitations, his life surrounded by death, his instruments of the senses restricted in their range and imperfect in their operations. But behind this constricted exterior there are larger expanses of being and on gaining entry into them, the sphere of experience widens for man.
Our
souls can visit in great lonely hours It is possible for the being of man, when its attention is not held captive by external interests, to turn inward and direct its faculties to the exploration of the inner regions of his consciousness. And during these periods of gathered meditation he may enter into domains of Light without shadow, intensities of Power without excitement, states of Bliss without limit, ever-extending Vasts of undisturbable Calm. He can experience them all because they are parts of his own being though inaccessible in conditions of Ignorance. To withdraw the interests from the outer world of sense-objects, to gather all the threads of consciousness and plunge inward into the depths of the soul, and to soar upward into the heights of the Spirit, is the yogic way of attaining to these veiled kingdoms of Light, Power, Bliss and Calm.
In
the unfolding process of the Self This world is a progressive manifestation of the Spirit. The Divine Consciousness seeks to establish and express itself in an ever increasing measure and there is a continuous pressure from the higher planes of existenceânearer to the plenary Home of the manifesting Truthâon the earth-atmosphere. The verities of the Divine Consciousness seek embodiment and the supreme Intelligence governing the whole movement is ever on the lookout for vessels which are ready, or can be made ready, to receive and hold the descents of these truths. The choice is made from above by the Divine Spirit. Not by individual claims of knowledge, power or merit is the choice decided but by the Grace that elects. To him whom He chooses, the Self bares his body, says the Upanishad.
A
breath comes down from a supernal air, There comes, at times, a waft of fresh air from the heights above the terrestrial plains and with that new breath one becomes aware of a Presence within and around oneself; some luminous guidance becomes active. The restless instruments of nature feel a quietude stealing over them and they become still and relaxed. As this settling of peace on the being deepens, the body becomes like an immovable stone, undisturbable; a cold granite-like feeling comes over it. The whole of the being, the life-energies, the emotions, the thought-activities of the mind - all of them are stamped with this peace and stand, as it were, supported by the solid base of the physical body which itself has become a concrete form of the unnameable Peace.
Or a
revealing Force sweeps blazing in; Or, may be, it is a luminous Force that comes down bringing with it a new enlightenment. From the higher domains where knowing is not a result of intellection but a spontaneous action of some supernormal faculties, knowledge sails into the consciousness of the being filling it with illumination and felicity. This manifestation of the Power of higher Knowledge often sets up a vibratory movement in the physical nature which is accustomed to the workings of the mind at a lower key. It takes time for it to adjust itself to the movement of the greater Power, the burning of the increasing light of Knowledge.
A
greater Personality sometimes One becomes conscious of the displacement of one's habitual ego-bound, limited, working self by a new personality which begins to make itself felt and acts. This personality is not altogether foreign to oneself. Somewhere there is a strong recognition that this personality is also one's own. In the process of the involution and formation of nature one has lost touch with this higher self and remained stationed in the lower self. In the unfoldment of the Spirit this hidden Person comes into his own and assumes control over the instrumental nature, from time to time, until the being is ready for this permanent assumption.
Or we adore the Master of our souls. Or, the Divine Lord reveals himself and draws one's spontaneous adoration. He may reveal himself in a form familiar to one's conception or in any other form; or he may make himself felt as some supreme Love or Power or any other Verity natural to him. In either case his presence is unmistakable and the soul flows to him in devotion, worship and surrender. There is an intimate communion between the human and the Divine.
Then
the small bodily ego thins and falls; When the being is pervaded by the influx of Peace or Knowledge of the spiritual heights or possessed by the greater self or brought into the presence of the Divine Lord, the ego individuality identified with the body dwindles and is no more in a position to insist upon maintaining its distinct separateness from all. With the breaking down of these walls of isolation, man enters into a free relation with Nature and with God, with both of whom he realises his common oneness. He does not need any further to guard his precarious self-existence from the movements of universal Nature. He does not feel any more the natural gulf between the finite self and the infinite God.
In
moments when the inner lamps are lit Man is normally preoccupied with his life-interests and his consciousness is ever turned outward attending to the call of the senses, the incessant pulls of desire and the constant flow of thoughts. Occasionally, he is drawn inward, the main part of his consciousness looks within suspending for the time being its outward activities. The inner parts of the being come to life and one communes, undistracted, with these profounder depths of the soul. One goes into meditation.
A
wider consciousness opens then its doors; As one goes deep into meditation and communion with inner depths, one enters into the subliminal consciousness which is behind the normal waking consciousness, wider, freer and more powerful. When the being is poised in this state of consciousness, the range of its awareness and reach is automatically extended and contact is effected with the higher altitudes of the Spirit. There comes down a breath from the Eternal and, however brief its duration, its touch upon the being exposed to its uplifting action produces a permanent effect on the person and his nature. The experience leaves an indelible impression.
In
the oblivious field of mortal mind, Man is normally conscious of only a limited surface front of his mind. But when he withdraws himself into a deep contemplation or meditation, the deeper inward sight opens and reveals to him tracts of the mind that had remained veiled so long. He becomes aware of the larger and deeper ranges of the mind. So also when he enters into the depths of the heart and stays there undisturbed, he finds subtler sense-faculties other than the usual physical senses opening up in his being. And in either state break upon him new phenomena that signalise a different, timeless order of the Reality.
The
truth mind could not know unveils its face, What the mind normally knows is only a fragment of truth constructed by its reasoning. In the action of the higher consciousness upon the mind, however, the truths begin to reveal themselves without mental labour, in quick lightning flashes - as the Upanishad puts itâor in a steady emergence. And the truths so self-revealed are whole. So also there are moments of inspiration which pour knowledge in words, sound-forms that are not fashioned by human faculties. The Word comes reverberating out of the silences of the Infinite, loaded with bright content. The senses too thrill to contacts which are normally beyond the scope of their physical operation. The concrete calm, peace, joy or power that come on their own hold the senses captive. The springs of divine Love are struck and the heart goes out to meet all in the universe, even what is usually feared and avoided by the limited ego-centred being. For this Love sees behind the appearances and recognises what is struggling to express itself through movements that have taken wrong or perverted forms.
Our
minds hush to a bright Omniscient; The activities of the mind slow down and come to a standstill. The mind falls silent in the presence of a vast luminous Knowledge that breaks upon it. In that silence is heard the call of the soul, the call that is normally drowned in the loud clamour of the senses, desire and ego. There in the depths of the being, lit by the flame of aspiration, one is flooded by the irrepressible bliss that flows from the touch of God.
... a
larger self There are two selves in man. One is the outer, the desire-self active on the surface being subject to the limitations of the senses and revolving round the ego. The other is the deeper and truer self behind the exterior personality; this self is not confined to the physical-vital-mental complex projected on the surface but has a consciousness that is subliminal and enters into the universal around and the spiritual above. This larger self is concealed by the veils of ignorance, ego and division from the waking consciousness, but it is always there active in its own way, supporting and guiding the evolution of the being from within.
Only
sometimes a holier influence comes, In the usual course of life man is involved in action and reaction arising from common situations in life based upon impulsions of ego, desire and self-aggrandisement. He moves in the limited circle of his petty self. Occasionally, however, he is moved by greater impulsesâidealistic or spiritualâand he breaks out of his small rounds; he allows himself to be carried by larger forces into movements that go beyond his immediate interests. These are the moments of self-expansion and self-upliftment which prepare the way for the liberation of the soul.
Or
through the earthly coverings something breaks, It is not only from above that a change comes about. It comes from within too. For behind the crust of material coverings thick in obscurity and inertia, behind the turbidities of the desire-infested flowings of life, behind the sense-dominated movements of emotions and thoughts, there are regions of the inner being leading to the soul within. They are the natural source of all upward aspiration, of godly light, urges for beauty and harmony in expression, of all the finer movements that uplift the consciousness of man. They are normally smothered in the smoke of the ego-centred activities of the nature and can hardly reach the surface being. But at times, due to the pressure of the soul, these powers break through the crust and light up the being. The inner aspiration finds articulation. Nachiketas comes to life.
Ourself
and a high stranger whom we feel, It is on the rare occasions when there is a breakthrough in the being from within that man becomes aware of something in him that is at his centre yet untouched by the movements of his surface-life. He becomes aware of his self, his deeper soul that lives on its own carrying and using the complex of his physical-vital-mental personality for its own purpose, in fulfilment of its own truth. This soul may appear to cease with the death of the physical body, but in reality it continues its career taking on other bodies in subsequent births in order to work out the mission with which it has been charged by the Supreme.
Assured
of the Apocalypse to be, This self is in possession of the truth that has sought embodiment and the sure knowledge of its eventual manifestation. It is not involved in the movement in Time through which the process is worked out, though it witnesses the development with its innate immutable look. It watches - and by its very watching promotes - the slow evolution of the embodying form, step by step, in the field of Time and Space under the stress of the cosmic forces that are at work to effectuate the Will of the Supreme.
A
Silence overhead, an inner Voice, This self, the divine Inhabitant in man, reveals itself in various ways. It may be a Silence looming over his life - in action or in inaction,âa pregnant Silence that is at the back of every movement; or, from within an audible voice that speaks and guides; or an entity in the heart visible to the inturned eye. This self is not limited by the corporeality of the body; it is illimitable in its consciousness and extends wide. It cannot be physically pinned down, because though it is huger than the hugest, mahato mahÄ«yÄn, it is also finer than the finest, anoranÄ«yÄn. It cannot be fathomed in its depths. This self holds in itself the truth which all movements in life seek to express. It is the divine goal towards which all life-journeyings move. It is this self that lends eternal significance to the life and evolution of Man.
A
treasure of honey in the combs of God, This self is the true origin of all sweetness experienced by man, it is the source of life-honey, the madhu that leavens all existence. It is an undimmed lustre, bhÄ, that shines for ever behind all the multiple obscurities that veil it in front and around. This light is the individual delegate of the Light of Lights, jyotiÈÄmjyotih. In this self lies the source of the delight of existence, the Ananda that keeps all creation moving and growing. This self does not die with the death of the body that encases it; behind and. through the process of life that is death, it goes on unrolling itself, affirming its immortality of consciousness across all vicissitudes of formative existence. The divinity that seeks to express itself through the individual formation that is man shapes itself as the self at the core of his being.
It
guards for us our fate in depths within Each individual comes to life with a load, of destiny, a definite purpose chosen by the soul to be worked out in that embodiment. This will governs from within the developments in life, influences the circumstances and urges all movements in the direction chosen by it. This determination which decides the course of life and fulfils itself through all its vicissitudes proceeds from the depths of the being, the soul-level, and is normally veiled from the surface awareness.
Always
we bear in us a magic key Every life is a conundrum. The problems and struggles that beset the existence of man are bewildering in their profusion and he is at a loss to understand their course, much, less to find a way out. But all the while, the key to unlock this riddle of life set in circumstances of contradiction lies within himself, concealed in the depths of his being, behind all the convolutions of his physical, vital and mental nature. The soul at the centre of the being holds the key to life.
A
burning witness in the sanctuary Behind all movementâindividual and universalâthere is an unmoved Witness that regards everything that takes place in this field of Time and Space. This regard is conscious, luminous with a knowledge that no veil can obscure. It knows the burthen of the movement, the direction in which it is set to work and the goal towards which all is led. It is this regarding consciousness within -prajnÄ- that compels in the act of its look each form and movement to conform to the truth with which it is charged in its journey.
...
all is screened, subliminal, mystical; The true significance of things lies behind their surface. The meaning, direction and goal of the world-movement are not patent to the normal sense-led eye. These truths are beyond the range of the waking mind and escape the grasp of logical reason. They reveal themselves to those who turn their consciousness inward, withholding it from its usual extrovert movement, and seek to know. These truths can only be intuited in the heart, not reasoned out in the mind. The veils that cover them can be penetrated only by the power of the spiritual eye, not by the superficial searchings of physical sight.
...to
our waking mindâs small moment look Regarded by the fragment of consciosuness that is the waking mindâa regard that is always limited to the time-moment before itâthe world-movement seems to be devoid of purpose or direction. The movement seems to have been initiated by some freak Chance in the cosmos or thrown up by some Will or compelled by some blind Necessity in Nature to come into operation. All seems an involuntary, mechanical movement without any significance.
In
this dense field where nothing is plain or sure, To a superficial and limited view of the mind, the whole world-movement appears to be obscure without anything certain or clear about its process or aim. All is tentative; even one's own existence seems to be so precarious as to raise doubts about the fact of its being alive. Life appears to be little more than an experiment and the soul a feeble light that comes into being in a hostile dark world with the birth of the body and gets extinguished with its dissolution. The earth looks like an accident that has somehow come to be, a mechanism without any consciousness of its own, a field of obscurity and determinism where death is the rule and life an exception.
All
we have learned appears a doubtful guess, Out of the unknown we move to the unknown. There does not seem to be certainty about anything in this world. What is acquired and cherished as definite knowledge at one stage comes to be shaken by subsequent developments and all that one learns passes under the shadow of doubt. So, too, things that are done in the field of execution have no finality about them; they prove to be no more than milestones in transition from one phase to another in a journey whose end is ever veiled from the human eye. All appears to be a play of chance or of some incalculable fate. None knows the origin of this world-movement, from where and when it has commenced; neither does one know where all this is leading to. There is only an uncertain knowledge of the present that has come to be on the surge of an unknown past and which is fast merging into a future beyond human ken.
Ever
surround our brief existence here Human life is constantly pursued by a big question mark. Whence has it come? What for? Where does it end? These and many allied questionings that confront the mind are never answered to satisfaction. There is always a cloud of doubt overhanging the explanations attempted by the limited intelligence. Furthermore, at the very start of the life-movement there is the obscurity of the Inconscient casting its ominous shadow over all existence that emerges from its dense mass, defying all probings to unravel its pregnant mysteries.
An
aspiration in the Nightâs profound, And yet in the depths of the inconscient darknesses there burns a light, a flame of consciousness which aspires to grow and reach out to the parent Light of the Supreme Consciousness from which it is derived. For the Divine Consciousness, which descended from its supernal heights to manifest itself in Creation, underwent a progressive densification in its descent until at the nadir of its involution it well nigh lost itself in an apparent self-denial. All became non-sentience, inconscient. But in the bosom of this inconscience, a ray of the inextinguishable Light remained and that burns for ever. That is the source of all upward movement. It seeks to grow and urges all movements in the direction chosen by it. This determination which decides the course of life and fulfils itself through all its vicissitudes proceeds from the depths of the being, the soul-level, and is normally veiled from the surface awareness.
Always
we bear in us a magic key Every life is a conundrum. The problems and struggles that beset the existence of man are bewildering in their profusion and he is at a loss to understand their course, much, less to find a way out. But all the while, the key to unlock this riddle of life set in circumstances of contradiction lies within himself, concealed in the depths of his being, behind all the convolutions of his physical, vital and mental nature. The soul at the centre of the being holds the key to life.
A
burning witness in the sanctuary Behind all movementâindividual and universalâthere is an unmoved Witness that regards everything that takes place in this field of Time and Space. This regard is conscious, luminous with a knowledge that no veil can obscure. It knows the burthen of the movement, the direction in which it is set to work and the goal towards which all is led. It is this regarding consciousness within -prajnÄ- that compels in the act of its look each form and movement to conform to the truth with which it is charged in its journey.
...
all is screened, subliminal, mystical; The true significance of things lies behind their surface. The meaning, direction and goal of the world-movement are not patent to the normal sense-led eye. These truths are beyond the range of the waking mind and escape the grasp of logical reason. They reveal themselves to those who turn their consciousness inward, withholding it from its usual extrovert movement, and seek to know. These truths can only be intuited in the heart, not reasoned out in the mind. The veils that cover them can be penetrated only by the power of the spiritual eye, not by the superficial searchings of physical sight.
...to
our waking mindâs small moment look Regarded by the fragment of consciosuness that is the waking mindâa regard that is always limited to the time-moment before itâthe world-movement seems to be devoid of purpose or direction. The movement seems to have been initiated by some freak Chance in the cosmos or thrown up by some Will or compelled by some blind Necessity in Nature to come into operation. All seems an involuntary, mechanical movement without any significance.
In
this dense field where nothing is plain or sure, To a superficial and limited view of the mind, the whole world-movement appears to be obscure without anything certain or clear about its process or aim. All is tentative; even one's own existence seems to be so precarious as to raise doubts about the fact of its being alive. Life appears to be little more than an experiment and the soul a feeble light that comes into being in a hostile dark world with the birth of the body and gets extinguished with its dissolution. The earth looks like an accident that has somehow come to be, a mechanism without any consciousness of its own, a field of obscurity and determinism where death is the rule and life an exception.
All
we have learned appears a doubtful guess, Out of the unknown we move to the unknown. There does not seem to be certainty about anything in this world. What is acquired and cherished as definite knowledge at one stage comes to be shaken by subsequent developments and all that one learns passes under the shadow of doubt. So, too, things that are done in the field of execution have no finality about them; they prove to be no more than milestones in transition from one phase to another in a journey whose end is ever veiled from the human eye. All appears to be a play of chance or of some incalculable fate. None knows the origin of this world-movement, from where and when it has commenced; neither does one know where all this is leading to. There is only an uncertain knowledge of the present that has come to be on the surge of an unknown past and which is fast merging into a future beyond human ken.
Ever
surround our brief existence here Human life is constantly pursued by a big question mark. Whence has it come? What for? Where does it end? These and many allied questionings that confront the mind are never answered to satisfaction. There is always a cloud of doubt overhanging the explanations attempted by the limited intelligence. Furthermore, at the very start of the life-movement there is the obscurity of the Inconscient casting its ominous shadow over all existence that emerges from its dense mass, defying all probings to unravel its pregnant mysteries.
An
aspiration in the Nightâs profound, And yet in the depths of the inconscient darknesses there burns a light, a flame of consciousness which aspires to grow and reach out to the parent Light of the Supreme Consciousness from which it is derived. For the Divine Consciousness, which descended from its supernal heights to manifest itself in Creation, underwent a progressive densification in its descent until at the nadir of its involution it well nigh lost itself in an apparent self-denial. All became non-sentience, inconscient. But in the bosom of this inconscience, a ray of the inextinguishable Light remained and that burns for ever. That is the source of all upward movement. It seeks to grow and urges all from below to open and grow upward. The physical body, the life-force, the mindâhowever transitory they may appear to beâare all formations that are put out by a cosmic movement that has this ray of light, this tongue of Fire, in its womb ever pressing for larger and larger expression.
Only
it hears, sole echo of its call, This aspiration prodding from below the inconscient depths finds articulate expression in the heart of man. Man is the only creature on earth who consciously aspires to grow and embodies the earth's aspiration for evolutionary progression. Man may not know the full significance of the labour in which he is involved, but he responds to the urge in Nature to move forward. This insistent and unsatisfied call from below is responded to, as it were, by the sanction of the Supreme from above to this vast game of life which abounds in challenging contradictions like the Eternal manifesting in Time, the Immortal assuming the mask of Death. And thus, though it is not aware of the cause or the process of the Movement, the aspiration forms one end of it.
Along
a path of aeons serpentine The Earth is not just a lifeless formation of Matter. She is an entity with a consciousness of her own, a conscient Form of the Spirit, providing a field for the manifestation of the Divine's Will that she carries in her womb as the seed of Evolution. The course taken by the Earth-Spirit to work out and embody the evolution of the Truth within is slow, uneven and difficult because of the conditions of inconscience, obscurity and inertia in which the movement initially takes place and for long has to proceed.
A
Being is in her whom she hopes to know, The Earth entity is ensouled by a Being that is yet concealed within her depths and can be known only as it reveals itself in the course of its manifestation. The Earth has a heart that houses her soul; but she has still to develop her powers of subtle audition which can listen to that soul. So too she has yet to develop a vision that can perceive the lines of the Truth with which she is loaded, as they emerge. The Earth carries in herself the Being who manifests in her, the Truth that is being expressed and also the Will that works it out, though the means for this manifestation are not yet fully evolved.
In
her unconscious orbit through the Void The first rounds of the Earth-movement in evolution are wholly unconscious, mechanical, repetitive, in an environment that is blank, devoid of any overt Intelligence. She spins through the gulfs of the inconscient and tries to rise upward in the scale of Existence. Her first capital gain in this effort is the outbreak of life in her bosom, a joy of life that she has to struggle to guard and hold in its precarious existence against all that seeks to engulf and extinguish it.
A
Thought that can conceive but hardly knows After the birth of Life from her womb, the Earth delivers of her labours the Mindâa still higher power of consciousness formulated in the faculty of thinking, cognition. This faculty of thought tries to grasp, to understand, but cannot come to know the truth of things. It creates a mental conception, an idea-form of the truths that it seeks for. It goes on to formulate words expressive of its ideation, words that really do not deliver the contents but only describe them from the outside.
A
trembling gladness that is less than bliss With all her struggles, falterings, and disappointments, the Earth pushes on. For she breathes an air of felicity, however thin and fugitive; there is a flow of universal joy from the life-movement and its workings which steps up the endeavour. The joy may be tenuous, the formations of harmony, beauty power and the life which promote this gladness may be impermanent inasmuch as they have constantly to yield place to more and more meaningful manifestations. But there is always a joy of life which sustains
Alarmed
by the sorrow dragging at her feet The Earth-movement is weighed down by inertia at its base. The obscurity and thick density of its inconscient layers constantly pull it back. The unconsciousness that pervades below is felt as an ache. But Earth is not discouraged, she does not resign herself to the state of immobility that drags from below. Something in her is aware of the direction and goal of the movement and keeps up her effort to forge ahead. Her aspiration is a force that does not rest till its objectives are reached. The Earth is alive with this motive-force from within and knows no rest till her purpose is achieved.
Ignorant
and weary and invincible What then is the objective of the Earth-movement? Though she is enveloped by a primeval Ignorance, handicapped by limitations on her force of effectuation, Earth does not give up her effort. She exerts herself and through a process of struggle and imposition of her inner will on the play of forces in the universe, she seeks to win for her imperfect creations the perfection of the Divine Being who is her objective. The Earth-soul puts out its will in order to make its embodying Nature whole and perfect in the mould of the creative Divine at the head of the universal movement.
A
faith she craves that can survive defeat, The Earth-being seeks to perfect its means for attaining its difficult objective. She tries to build up faith, a strong faith in her destiny which is not discouraged by the vicissitudes of the upward struggle. A faith of this kind that is not weakened by adverse happenings on the path is itself a power that ensures success and the Earth-Mother strives to implant that faith in her creatures Similarly, she seeks to develop the power of love, love that is self-existent, not dependent on external circumstances. For a love that is so dependent can only last as long as it is fed from the outside. The love that the Earth-Mother aims at is the love based on the rock of the Self, love that is sure of its steps, love that unites and leads all to the source of Love - the Divine. Furthermore, the Earth-being feels out for a Truth that is certain, a Truth that lights up the way with its shadowless radiance. Many are the partial truths and half-truths that spring to life and claim her allegiance, but they prove to be limited and are discarded. What the Earth-being searches for is a total Truth whose rays of lustre are never dimmed.
A
light grows in her, she assumes a voice, Slowly, consciousness awakes in the Earth-being and she begins to become aware of things - both subjectively and objectively. She is able to divine her own states of being and follow the lines of her active energies - energies that seem to act mechanically, without any overt intelligence guiding them. She is able to articulate in an increasing manner the will that is instinct in her. But she is yet unable to grasp the full significance of her own existence and that of the universe of which she is a significant centre. For the earth holds the key to the riddle of the universe.
An
inarticulate whisper drives her steps Though the Earth-being is not fully self-aware yet, she feels some vague impulsion from within that guides her course. She has no means of knowing the significance of that prompting though she experiences the self-effectuating power that is released into action by it. The meaning reveals itself as the consciousness in her being grows in the evolution.
A few
rare intimations come as guides, Vague promptings are the general feature as long as the Earth-being is still to develop a consciousness that is overtly self-aware. But there are high moments when the guiding intimations break upon her in revealing luminosity. They light up large tracts of the course ahead and make their own meaning clear to the Earth-mind. And it is during such peak hours of contemplation that the Earth-being senses the Truth for which she has been seeking; she feels herself in the presence of that Truth which appears to be both outside and inside of her.
A
change comes near that flees from her surmise Now and again the Earth-evolution seems to be on the verge of a new development, but things fall back at the crucial moment and once again the seemingly old rounds have got to be done once again before conditions are ready for another attempt. The evolutionary movement tries to seize every opportunity to forge ahead, but is thrown back where the preparation is not complete. But development and change are inevitable and that is why the hope and with it the attempt is ever renewed in spite of repeated failures and disappointments.
A
vision meets her of supernal Powers
Then
is she moved to all that she is not The Earth is not left alone to fight her battle. There are great cosmic Powers who are charged by the creative Divine with the furtherance of the Manifestation and they are always active, beckoning to the Earth-Spirit to rise up. They are endowed with celestial puissances of Strength, Knowledge Delight and there is a kinship between them and the aspiring Earthâall being formulations of the one supreme Divinityâand when they come nearer, the Earth is moved to soar up to the heights nearer theirs. They exercise a powerful pull with their advent into the earth-atmosphere.
Outstretching
arms to the unconscious Void, The Earth feels a void around her and, unable to sense the consciousness vibrating there, she stretches out her arms in an invocatory movement. She feels the presence of helpful Gods, though she does not always see them in the absence of a developed sight that can grasp their forms, and she prays to them with fervor for the powers that she lacks. She is aware of a determining Will and an effectuating Process that unrolls itself in terms of Time and seeks from them what she is most in need of but what lies beyond her extent range.
A
Mind unvisited by illusionâs gleams, The Earth-being has indeed a sort of a mind, but the mind is severely limited in its capacities. Rooted in ignorance, it is misled by every streak of brightness and leaps at it as the truth, it mistakes false lights for true ones. The Earth struggles to develop, and prays to the Spirit for a Mind that is not thus subject to error. Her will is vitiated by interferences of many kindsâlife-impulsions, forces of desire etc.âand functions largely as an instrument of her nether impulsions. She prays for a Will that serves only the soul within, projects only the choice of the inner being that is divine. Similarly the strength that she has developed is still unsteady, unable to withstand the shock of the battling forces that build up the, evolution; it tends to flounder whenever it seeks to exceed itself. Her joy too is always followed on its heels by sorrow. It cannot last long partly because the base to support it is not strong enough and there is an exhaustion and a reaction. The Earth-being struggles to develop a Strength that is firm and powerful, a joy that sustains itself without being overcome by its opposite.
For
these she yearns and feels them destined hers: The Earth seeks for what are natural possessions of the Heavens: Mind lit by Truth, Will undeviating, Strength undeflecting, Joy undiminishing. She aspires for them because there is a faith in her that they are to be hers. She has only to work for them through evolutionary struggle and development and in the fullness of time they will be her rightful possessions.
Just
is her claim the all-witnessing Gods approve, The claim of Earth for an infallible Mind, a Truth-Will, an unconquerable Strength and an eternal Joy has the sanction of the Gods, the cosmic Powers governing the universal movement. The objectives may appear to be unrealisable to the logical reason of the thinking mindâBut to a larger consciousness they are seen to be perfectly practical, The intimate glimpses that are vouchsafed to manâson of Earthâconfirm that these Verities are within the reach of the Earth, in fact they belong to her and are only waiting to be reclaimed by her. The mind of man acting behind the veils of ignorance may deny credence to these possibilities, but the soul within him is certain of their inevitable manifestation on earth and sustains her claim on them. The soul is always a surer guide than the mind for it is ever in contact with the divine Truth.
Earthâs
winged chimeras are Truthâs steeds in Heaven, What the Earth-being conceives as possible is a reflection of a truth in the higher regions of existence preparing to manifest in the universe. It is because certain possibilities in the creative Truth take a definite course in the subtler domains towards their realisation n the field of evolution here that the Earth is moved to prepare the ground for them by the processing Faculties of dream, imagination and thought. Things may appear to be impossible of achievement; but the very fact that the human imagination or thought dwells upon them again and again is a sure sign that what is considered not possible is on its way to realisation. The appearance of an impossibility on the horizon of man acts as a challenge to his concealed spirit which Springs into action to render the impossible possible, thereby functioning as an effective instrumentation for the higher Will.
But
few can look beyond the present state For most it is the present that is all that matters. They are so much occupied with fulfilling the immediate demands and desires of their life that they neither look back to the past that has made their present what it is and learn the lesson, nor do they look ahead to the future that lies before them, - the future that can give a perspective for the proper and fit utilisation of the present. Lost in the fleeting present they fail to prepare themselves for the future that beckons. Even of the present they are not aware in a full measure. For man normally looks at things and. takes his experience through the physical senses which have, after all, a limited range and there too their action is constantly vitiated by desire, ego and ignorance. The senses, as has been said, are liars. They are inadequate as instruments. And yet they form, as it were, a fence around the being of man enclosing it in their habitual limitations. Only those who make a conscious effort to transcend the workings of these senses can enter into a wider existence; and they are few.
All
that transpires on earth and all beyond This creation is of one piece. The various constituting planes of existence [1] and. their worlds are not disparate units unconnected with one another, but are parts of one whole, inter-connected, inter-communing. All are the workings of the one Truth in manifestation whose entire process is beyond the understanding of the human mind but is fully pre-visioned and held in seed-form in the creative Real-Idea, the Self-Existent who orders objects according to their truth-nature from years sempitemal. Ail is governed by the one Law which unfolds the One divine Truth in becoming. [1] Planes of Matter, Life, Mind, Supermind, absolute Bliss, Consciousness and Existence, with the worlds that are formed on these different planes.
Our
outward happenings have their seed within, The way that things happen in this world is often most bewildering. Things do not at all seem to be governed by any understandable Law. Often the very reverse of what we would expect according . to the canons of Law and Order takes place, leading one to believe that all is the work of a haphazard Chance and it is vain to look for some basis of order in life. This, however, is only an appearance. The key to the truth of things lies within; the outer is always determined by the inner. The life-movement of every being, the working of every force is ultimately governed by the truth that seeks to manifest in that form or movement. In the process of the working out of this truthânot visible to the outer eyeâmany possibilities may intervene and give the appearance of a meandering course, but in the long run, the will of the soul within prevails. All that takes place is realised to be the result of inner impulsions which follow the order of the manifesting truths.
The
events that shape the appearance of our lives Men are normally conscious only of movements on the surface level of their being. But there are ranges of being, larger and deeper, of which they are hardly aware - at most they may feel them vaguely - and yet it is the movements in these parts that really determine the shape of their lives. All that happens in life gives a clue to the willings and drives that originate on these subliminal levels of the being. The outer measures the inner, says the Upanishad. Many of the impulsions that seethe in the subliminal parts of the being cannot get across the barriers of inertia and mechanical routine into the outer parts and find expression in life. Pushed by the will of the soul within, they work unseen, create tense situations, break through in moments of crises and effectuate themselves.
...who
shall pierce into the cryptic gulf There is a big gulf between the surface awareness in which man normally lives and the deeper ranges of the subliminal being whence events in his life are determined. What happens may at times appear to be accidental, without any definable cause. But as a rule there are no such chance happenings in the economy of Providence. Deep in the being of man there is the central soul which determines what experience it shall have through its instruments of mind, life and body and this imperative is ultimately found to be at the back of all experiences in life. What the soul needs and demands for its evolution works itself out through all instrumentations. One has to learn to delve into the depths of one's being, reach the centre of the soul to understand the true significance of events in one's life.
Absorbed
in a routine of daily acts, The doors of the senses are turned outward, says the Upanishad. Man is habitually extrovert in his consciousness and is preoccupied with the details of his day-to-day external life. His eyes, his thought of his general movements are always turned to what goes on outside of him in the world around. When things take unexpected turns when precipitations take place beyond human calculations, there is surprise, dismay, bewilderment at the turn of events and man begins to speculate on their possible cause which is not apparent to the intelligence of the human mind. The cause is always behind the veil of the external march of events.
... a
foreseeing Knowledge might be ours, The existing limits of mental knowledge are not final. It is possible to extend the range of one's knowledge and know beforehand what is still in the realm of the future. For that it is necessary to shift one's centre of consciousness from the surface, outward poise to a deeper stand nearer the soul. New faculties come into action at that level of the being and the area of one's awareness expands. There is besides an inner voice of the soul that can be heard when one listens to it in the inner chamber. Normally it is lost in the tumult of desires, ego-clamour and mental preferences; at times the cunning vital even imitates this inner voice and misguides. But when the being is sufficiently purified and the consciousness turned inwards, this voice of truth may be heard and acted upon.
Too
seldom is the shadow of what must come What takes place on this earth is worked out first on the subtler planes of the cosmic existence. Things are decided above and then precipitated below. And as this part of the process takes place on planes beyond the reach of the physical senses, men are not normally aware of what is going to happen. But there are some whose senstivity is more developed and they feel the impact of the subtler forces in the cosmos. These are the ones who get sudden intimations of the events in preparation, Their inner sense is open to the vibrations of the inner worlds and at times the workings on those subtler planes are reflected in it.
And
seldom in the few who answer give Not all, however, of those to whom this prevision is extended respond to it in their consciousness and action. Either they do not take it seriously and treat it as part of imagination or they fail to follow it up. But to the few who receive the intimation in their being and mobilise their energies in that direction, the Will that is at work reveals its bearings. For the moment, the individual mind that is chosen shares with the universal Mind the Knowledge and the Strength that flow to it from the directing Will.
Our
range is fixed within the crowded arc The extent of man's awareness is confined to the range of his senses which dart upon the objects that ceaselessly come before them, contact them and report back to his mind; it may be extended a little more by the faculties of his mind viz. thought, imagination etc., but only a little more. His sight is shut up in this small segment of experience and is closed to what is outside it. The rays of the knowledge beyond this limited field which light up the front of the future that is coming, get normally no entry in the domain of his active awareness. Only a few whose subtler faculties are awake are fortunate enough to receive this light which gives them a preview of the course of the future.
The
outward and the immediate are our field, Man is preoccupied with the demands made upon him by his day-to-day life which is usually oriented externally, and mostly filled with interests of the moment. His movements and tendencies are largely governed by the drive of his past activities. Essentially a mental being, man is led by his mind, and his soul waits behind the veil of the mental-vital complex. Carried by the force of his vital energies, man acts helplessly and is involved in his doings. All told he is completely lost in external activity - most of it involuntary - and he is unable to turn his sight upward to the liberating Light.
Inheritor
of the brief animal mind, Man is a mental being, but the mind with which he is born is not yet developed in the full sense. It still carries the rudimentary character of its nature when it was first embodied in the animal. Man has to develop a self-aware and self-effective mind. Man is still not a being who has come into his own. He is, for the most part, a creature in the movement of Nature, subject to the play of forces that constitutes a significant part of her process. He lives from moment to moment in the flux of time, unable to draw consciously upon his past, incapable of visioning and shaping his future. He is never certain of the next moment; his is a precarious existence.
To a
changing present is his narrow right; The limited consciousness of man has a limited vision, a limited range. He holds to the immediate present which is real to him by its urgency of demands on his energies, though even that little strip of time that is called the present, is not constant. It goes on changing, no two moments are the same. The past is no more real to him, however urgent it might have been when it was current; only memory carries impressions of this fast receding past. The future is like a horizon, it moves away even as he advances towards it; for the moment he touches it, it becomes the present. Man is lost in the fleeting current of time. He can be sure of nothing. What man visions is not the truth of things but only their forms and he cannot be sure even of these, for what he sees is often in terms of his own imagination.
Armed
with a limited precarious strength, Man finds himself in a world that is hostile to him. From all sides, universal forces rush upon himâdirectly or indirectly through individualised formations. The shock of these forces, physical, vital and mental, is constant and his own being which has to front their impact represents only a limited concentration of force which eventually goes under. However, as long as he lasts, he uses his little strength to guard his own life and its experiences from being completely engulfed by adverse elements that bear the appearance of Chance.
A struggling ignorance is his wisdomâs mate. Man has a certain discriminative perception. But at every step this power is befogged by his mind's native ignorance which always creates confusion. This ignorance is in search of the truth of things but goes about it in the wrong way; it takes many a meandering course and almost always questions and distorts the deeper intimations that man receives from his being. The rays of wisdom from his soul are dimmed and refracted by the opacities of the ubiquitous ignorance in which his surface self is steeped.
He
waits to see the consequence of his acts, Man acts under the compulsion of events or the impulsion of his own thoughts or desires, but he does not know and cannot foresee with any accuracy the results of his actions. His faculties of knowledge are too limited for that purpose. He has to wait on events to see the consequence of his actions. Similarly, he receives thought-forces from his environment and gives form to them; he allows the thinking activity of his mind to shape thoughts; but he is not sure how far all these thoughts are true. He has to wait for developments to confirm or contradict his thoughts. Nor is man definite of his goal. How much of his objective will be achieved and when is a question that is ever in the background of his mind.
He
knows not whether at last he shall survive, Among the many uncertainties that plague the mind of man is one of the continuity of his species. There have been many creatures that were built up by evolutionary Nature across the ages and later cast aside as useless for her purpose as they grew too huge or too slow-moving to serve her ends. What is the fate man is going to meet with in this cosmic movement? No doubt, at present, he represents the crown of evolutionary labour and rules over a large domain of physical Nature by virtue of his developed intelligence. But will his future development be in consonance with the evolutionary purpose of Nature or will it get out of harmony with it and run the risk of being discarded? He does not know.
He is
ignorant of the meaning of his life, The Ignorance in which man is steeped is manysided; it affects each of his faculties in operation. He is unable to see what is the real purpose of his life, where all the complex movement in which he is involved is leading. Does it have a goal at all, does it have a real significance? His mind cannot say with certitude; for each conclusion it arrives at proves inadequate in the light of subsequent events. He is Dften inclined to dismiss all ideas of a goal as illusory and tends to regard the end of life in death. But there is a purpose in life. There is a glorious future awaiting man who treads the path laid down by evolutionary [Nature, a path which, starting from its beginnings in the apparent Nescience of Matter, is leading towards the heights of the Spirit. Man is being developed by Nature in' order that he may embody and manifest this Spirit at the head of all Creation.
Only
the Immortals on their deathless heights They who can see the meaning, the goal and the course of life are beings other than the creatures who are involved and blinded in the world-movement. They are the great Gods emanated by the Supreme Divine for purposes of His self-manifestation; they exist and function in their own realms, sve dame, high and beyond the domains of Time, Space, Death and the constricting Mind of man-They are not subject to the currents of the life- movement below, but direct it from above, watching the workings of the Process through the constituent elements of fate, chance and will. They regard the development of creation and know at each step its precise need and how to meet it. They know the Truth in the Idea that seeks to manifest and the Power of that Truth to effectuate itself, changing if need be the course taken by the world-movement in Time. For the course taken below may not always correspond to the course envisaged due to the intervention of the intermediate forces at play in the cosmos. Coming down to the actual field of action, aglow with the Light of the consciousness proper to the realms of its origin - realms not accessible to man who has not yet developed the necessary states of consciousness to be able to contact and commune with them - they watch this power at work.
Hear,
while the world toils on with its deep blind heart, The great Gods see behind the appearances, hear the occult reports of things about to precipitate themselves into the open. The world and its creatures are lost in their mechanical labour. Suddenly there bursts on the scene some mighty apocalypse of Force, of Fury, that executes, in a trice, its purpose of demolition and elimination of all resistance to the cosmic Movement onwards, and before the peoples have recovered from the shock of the event, the Rider from Beyond, the Time-Purusha, has gone back to the ineffable heights of the Creative Being. Only the effects of the visit remain and work to further the progress of the world-movement on the intended lines. The Gods from on high are aware of the pre-parings of these mighty interventions and the course they pursue.
Above
the world the world-creators stand, The powers that create and fashion this world in accordance with the Truth with which they are charged, are not involved, lost in the world-movement. They stand above, governing, shaping, directing the growing world-complex. They know precisely what takes place and why. They are not misled by appearances of phenomena; each event is seen by them as developing from its veiled cause which they perceive undeceived by apparent sequences on the surface.
These
heed not the deceiving outward play, The surface happenings are apt to mislead as to their causes and results. A vision confined to the crowded hour of the phenomenon cannot grasp the full significance of the whole movement. Those that guide, the world-creators, do not let themselves be blinded by these local or temporary factors. They are aware that there is a determining truth at the heart of things and they tune themselves to it, undeflected in their attention by the rush of forces that battle with each other to effectuate themselves, imtired by the long time taken by the determinant to emerge from the depths of the manifesting Being.
Attentive
to an unseen Truth they seize The attention of these creators is always focussed behind the outward phenomena for they know that all is governed by factors that operate behind the veil, by the conditions of the truth that is emerging to manifest. Their ears are turned to these inner domains and they are quick to hear the least movements of new advents; they are alert to the vibrations that gather and steadily prepare to formulate themselves from below the crust of the inconscience of Matter. For even in what appears to be devoid of consciousness and movement, there goes on an action of the creative Force, incessant and purposive.
In
the heartâs profound audition they can catch These subtle, meaningful sounds are not caught by any one lost in the rushing movement of life-energies. They can be heard only in the silences of the heart from where all disturbing movements of the mind and life-forces are shut out. They can also be grasped on the peaks of the mind where thought, freed from its involvements in the movements of the physical senses and the currents of life-energies, is gathered in a concentration that reflects an all-seeing knowledge from above; there the significant sounds arrange themselves in a pattern that foreshadows what is to happen.
Above
the illusion of the hopes that pass, Life in the world is full of vicissitudes. Hopes are raised, many are dashed to pieces and even those that are fulfilled in some way prove to be illusory in their results. Things appear in one way, but in truth they are realised to be quite different. Actions that are visible often conceal subtler activities that lead to different results. If regularity and precision mark the life-movement in some respects, in others it is indeterminacy that prevails. All over the world there is a clash of interests, war of forces, struggle to exist; victories are turned into defeats. But life continues its march in spite of all these. That is because behind, below and above this Movement there is a Divine Bliss that pervades like ether, supports every step, every breath, and makes possible the existence and the evolution of the world-life. All creatures seek for this Bliss in life overtly, the Bliss that sustains all covertly.
On
the long road which cannot see its end This Bliss, this Delight of Existence is the goal of all life-effort. The way to reach it may be long, chequered; it may seem to disappear altogether into the woods of disappointments and griefs and give rise to the doubt whether there is such a goal of Joy \ at all. But there is this destination of Bliss and the Path that leads to it. The great Gods guide the world along this route however blind it may be in its steps.
Thus will the masked Transcendent mount his throne.
When
darkness deepens strangling the earthâs breast The Divine Being who is concealed in the obscurities of Matter is slowly emerging and growing behind the veil; outwardly all is opaque, dense with Ignorance and Inertia and the severely limited physical mind of man the only guiding light. And yet, the hidden divinity forges ahead, helped by the missioned Powers from above, and will not rest till it reaches its rightful home, sve dame, in the intensities of Satchidananda.
A
Voice ill-heard shall speak, the soul obey, When the concealed Divine Being grows into its own stature and establishes in the process a bridge between the heights of the Spirit and the depths of Matter, a complete change is bound to come over the earth-Nature. The command from Above -little heard by the senses labouring under the load of Ignorance at present - will secure the ascent of the soul; the subliminal regions of the mind will be slowly filled with an irresistible power from on high dissolving the veils of Ignorance; life will be leavened with the honey flowing through the opened channels of the psychic being and a divine Beauty will replace all ugliness in the world. The Light of the manifesting Truth will dispel all darkness of Ignorance and Falsehood and the Delight of the Divine Being will seep into the heart of mar melting it into its waves of Bliss. Suddenly the Earth-Nature will find itself transmuted into a divine Super-Nature.
In
Matter shall be lit the spiritâs glow, In this transformation of the Earth-Nature, Matter will cease to be divorced from the Spirit; on the other hand it will be animated by the living breath of the Spirit, made bright with its lustre. Each form, each body will be astir with the flame of the divine. Agni. All states of unconsciousness will be lit with flashes of consciousness. Life will become a continuous growth from height to height instead of being the chequered course of ups and downs that it is. Man's will, will be no more an impulsion of ignorant desire but a radiation of the irresistible Power of the Divine; his thought no more an exercise of ignorance seeking for knowledge, but a steady outpouring of the Light of the Sun of Knowledge.
A few
shall see what none yet understands; Human mind, as it is, cannot envisage this possibility. But at least a few of those that dare and attempt will live to see this realisation of the agelong dream of the divinisation of life. Men may pride themselves in their superior learning and discount all possibility of change in Nature; they may argue and debate all through their lives letting precious time pass. But all the while the divine element in the creation goes on increasing behind the veil - behind in order to assure itself freedom of growth uninterrupted by the physical mind - till one day the Divine Spirit steps forward it plenary Manifestation. Only then will the sceptic believe.
A
consciousness that knows not its own truth, The consciousness that is active in the present stage A the evolution of the earth is that of the human mind. This mind is a half-developed faculty of the evolving consciousness and it is aware neither of its real origin nor of the limited nature of its characteristic function which is to perceive in fragments and proceed from part to part, as if they were separate wholes, in search of Knowledge. It mistakes twilights for real light and pursues gleams and flashes in a vain bid to seize the denary radiance of the Reality. Standing in the middle between its base in the Inconscience below and its summits in the Superconscience above, the mind is it best a half-light that claims to be entire, an gnorance that pretends to be Knowledge.
An
interregnum in Reality The stage of this mental consciousness is really of the nature of an interval between the spell of complete Inconscience at the beginning of things in this material universe and the reign of a free, completely manifest consciousness that is inevitably at the peak of this evolutionary development. Because of its limited and limiting character, the mind cuts up the integrality of the movement of Truth in Idea, in Thought, and handles Knowledge piecemeal; similarly all Power gets fragmented when touched by the mental or mind-governed instrument. Totality is foreign to the outlook of the mental intelligence and everything that it handles or expresses is weakened by its characteristic operation of segmentation.
It
circles or stands in a vague interspace, The mind turns round and round itself; it cannot arrive at any definite Knowledge. The field of its normal workings has neither the determination of Matter that lies at its one end nor the certainty of the Spirit at the other; it is yet an unformed and unshaped passage between, the two. In its uncertain groupings, the mind is not sure of its foundation nor of its goal; it doubts everything. By its very constitution, the mind, as it is, is unable to fix upon certainties. It spends itself upon the road of Thought, led relentlessly along the path of its own limited logic, without reaching any destination.
Far
from the original Dusk, the final Flame The mental consciousness, though far from its obscure beginnings, is yet distant from the stage of the luminous truth-consciousness it is intended to grow into. It is still in the grip and domain of the Inconscience from which it has emerged. It is like a little point of light that burns in an area of darkness and semi-darkness, like a purposeful thought that insists on continuing amidst a barren expanse.
As if
an unintelligible phrase When the mind cannot understand the meaning of a word or set of words, it begins to conceive of many possible meanings in a haphazard way. Innumerable ideas float in the mind-stuff. Similarly the mind is unable to make out the precise significance of this world-movement. Endless possibilities present themselves. The mind runs with one possibility at one moment and with another at the next. To it anything seems plausible and each plausible is supported by it.
A
conjecture leaning upon doubtful proofs, What the mind expresses is as unsatisfactory, inadequate and even wrong as what it conceives. It conjectures upon the undependable data supplied by the senses or builds upon imagination based on illegitimate extension of experience; it does receive messages from on high through faculties like inspiration, intuition etc. but it misunderstands them or understands them only partially; similarly when a new idea sails into its horizon, it mentalises it in haste and in the process often fails to grasp its truth. And naturally when it proceeds to put into expression what it so faultily conceives, the result is none too satisfactory; at its best it is only a partial presentation of the truth.
It
leaves two giant letters void of sense The mind tends to concern itself with the present constitution of the universe in Ignorance as if it were all, self-existent, constant. It loses sight of the beginnings of the Creation in the Inconscient and its evolutionary goalâthe Superconscient. It gazes only at the middle state that is, in truth, a link between the two and derives its significance from the two; out of their living context, the universe is a puzzle. When the present alone is concentrated upon - as done by the mindâto the exclusion of the past that has made it and the future that is formed by it, it looks like a meaningless whirl without issue.
Thus
is the meaning of creation veiled; This creation is a significant part of the Divine Manifestation. But when it is seen through the narrow and half-opened eyes of the human mind, its meaning is obscured. It is studied as if it were a whole, but in a reality it is shorn of its background and total perspective. When so looked at, the creation is a bewildering complex the zig-zag patterns of which appear striking and splendid to the eye but baffling to the intelligence.
It
wears to the perishable creatureâs eyes To the human mind encased in a body that is transitory and served by senses that are limited in their scope, this creation with its pulsating life and articulate consciousness in the midst of a general obscurity and pervasive Death, appears to be a constant miracle though the meaning of its existence is not clear. There is an incessant flow of movement through the vicissitudes of life and death, but what is the destination of this movement? Has it an end at all? It appears like a temporary outburst of fire in the midst of an oppressive Darkness.
This
is our deepest need to join once more The two terms that constitute this Creation Soul and Nature, Spirit and Matter, are not two opposites. They are two ends of the same Truth; the Spirit is the Inhabitant of Matter, Matter is the the robe of the Spirit. They are both poises of the same Reality though in the dynamics of the Manifestation they appear to be different and alien to each other like light and darkness. This separation of the two aspects by the intervening Ignorance is the cause of all disharmony and conflict. To restore their unity is the key to the problem of existence.
We
must fill the immense lacuna we have made, Man has shut himself within the formula of the finite and separated himself from the Infinite with which in truth he is one in his deepest being. He has to forge in himself the link that unites the finite to the Infinite. And this he can only do by breaking the self-made walls of his ego and dissipating by Knowledge the veils of Ignorance which have separated in his consciousness the truth of Matter which constitutes his physical base from the truth of the Mind which makes him what he is. Both are in fact formulations of the one Consciousness that is manifesting in him, of the Soul that is growing within him. This gulf between Matter and Mind must be bridged for the upward journey of the inner being.
We
must renew the secret bond in things, There is a oneness that holds together the Many in this Creation. The sense of this unity is lost to the mind in ignorance. This truth of oneness must be recovered. The natural way to do it is-to concentrate in the depths of the heart where the fact-of unity is more readily experienced than in the mind. In the heart, man must dwell with the will to recover the divine-derived truth of oneness clothed in a conceptual form now lost to the surface awareness. Thus shall creationâand all that constitutes itâbe restored to its full integer in the unity of Nature and Spirit which are the two ends,âthe beginning and the finale - the twin aspects of the same Reality.
Two are the ends of the mysterious plan. This whole Creation is not a product of chance nor a figment of a gigantic imagination. It is a deliberate creation. Basing it and governing it there is a Plan. That Plan may not be intelligible to the incomplete mind of man, but to the deeper sense it reveals itself as a vision and a working out of a supreme Truth. Of this unfolding Plan, Matter from which all emerges into life is one end and Spirit towards which all moves is another. Everything functions between these two terms. Matter and Spirit, Nature and Soul, Rayi and PrÄna.
In
the wide signless ether of the Self, Above the workings of Nature characterised by incessant change of form, clashes of forces and multitude of movements struggling to actualise several possibilities, there is the immutable region of the Self which is infinite, illimitable, formless. There in the Silence of the Self the native Powers of the Spirit reign in absolute freedom, without having to limit or veil themselves to suit the conditions of the manifestation as in the lower hemis-phere. They are like the splendours of the original Sun of Truth whose concealing overmental lid, hiranmaya PÄtra, is itself beyond the capacity of the normal human eye to behold. These Powers are manifest in their fullness in the transcendences of the creative Spirit.
A
rapture and a radiance and a hush These Powers of Light and Strength, have their native habitation on the heights of the Spirit that abound in the causeless, natural Bliss of Ananda Brahman, the Delight-Being. In the unspeakable Peace that reigns there, they are beyond the turmoil and the anguish of the lower worlds labouring in Ignorance. They are inaccessible to the Mind that is turned towards the phenomenon of grief and sorrow; they are far above the evolving Force in Nature that is subjected to unbearable blows of pain in its struggle to emerge out of the primitive belts of Inconscience and Ignorance on Earth.
Immaculate
in self-knowledge and self-power, These Powers are by no means mere streams of the Infinite. They are individualised personalities of the Supreme with a distinctive consciousness and Force. Deficient in neither, they are fully aware of the purpose for which they are manifest, the truth they carry in themselves and the precise dynamism with which they are endowed to effectuate that truth. But they do not exercise any choice of their own. They ever wait upon the will of the Supreme Creative Being and move according to its impulsions. All serve the One Divine Will.
Only
his law they count and him obey; These Powers are emanations of the Creative Being for purposes of the manifestation. They are governe by the Truth-Will that bases the manifestation and they function to serve this Will, the Truth in action, Ritam. They have no individual wills or desires of their own to fulfil. They are aware of the One Truth that actuates them and to participate in working it out on the lines laid by the Creator is all their object in existence.
Implacable
in their timeless purity, To serve the Truth and its Law, Satyam, Ritam, is the only aim of these Powers; they are naturally pure and they ever adhere to the Law of their Being, yÄthÄtathyatah. They cannot be diverted from this their sole intention and no inducement - human or other - can move them to change or stray from their path. They may and do accept the self-offering, the dedication of man and respond to it in the way of the truth that actuates, them; but all action that seeks its own object away from the governing Divine Will is rejected by them. Most of the human worship of the Gods is of this kind: it aims at individual advancement in the way of ignorance and tries to obtain the assent of the higher Powers by a motivated laudation or worship or sacrifice.
Unmoved
by cry of revolt and ignorant prayer The Powers of the Creative Spirit are not deflected from their high purpose by pleadings, supplications or even by the threats of challenge that follow the non-fulfilment of hopes in this world of ignorance. Claims of human virtue for special consideration at their hands are as irrelevant to them as the imprecations of the moralist on those that deviate from man-made ethics. On no account do they permit any factors in the lower worlds of ignorance in the shadow of error and falsehood to influence or interfere with their natural movements of truth.
They
are guardians of the silence of the Truth, All movements of these Powers centre round the Truth of which they are the custodians in its stage of self-gathering for manifestation. The firm Law of Truth, satyadharma, basing the entire creative Movement, which is the self-rendering of the Will of the Supreme, is in their keeping. Nothing contrary to the Truth they are charged with touches them in any form.
A deep surrender is their source of might, The strength upon which these Powers base their functionings is not their own. It is the might of the Great Godhead, mahat asuratvam, of whom they are so many emations. The Powers do not solely depend upon the force individualised in their personalities but lay themselves open to the basic Strength of the creative Godhead by the unfailing process of utter surrender. By this unreserved surrender to the Source of Strength they come into identity with It and the Strength flows into and through them unchecked, undeflected.
A still identity their way to know, Their knowledge is not arrived at by any mental process of ratiocination. They do not proceed through the sense-instrumentation to contact the object of knowledge nor do they depend upon the conceptual and interpretative reason to acquire the knowledge. Their way is the real and the only way to gain complete, direct knowledge: they enter into identity with the object in their quieted, stilled consciousness. By so doing they become one in the consciousness with the contents of the object and a full, direct knowledge of it is obtained.
Motionless is their action like a sleep. The process of their action is also unique. There is no hectic movement, no restless motion in it. Their action is based upon a great stability of base, it proceeds in profound calm and achieves in Silence. Just as there is no physical movement in sleep and yet work goes on within its spell of immobility, so also with these Powers action is not attended by visible movement. And that is why it is more effective, more certain of results. There is no dissipation of energies.
At
peace, regarding the trouble beneath the stars, These Powers of the Supreme are not involved in the cosmic Movement. They are stationed in the solid peace of the Spirit above though they see the troubled movement in the worlds below; themselves above the rule of Death, they study the processes of inevitable death and. apparently fortuitous chance in struggling life; they do not move from their position, but they witness the rapid march of Time; the creative Will effectuates itself through the workings of a meaningful Destiny while these Powers stand aloof; they do not put their weight on any side, but watch with an equal vision. They are thus not caught up in the flux of the cosmos. But on that account they are not redundant. In fact the cosmic Movement would not be possible without them. Their very presence lends significance and direction to the world-progression.
Impervious
to desire and doom and hope, It is because their Strength is beyond the vicissitudes of the world's hopes and disappointments and impregnable in its status that it can effectively base the gigantic movement of the cosmos. It is the light of their knowledge that shows the way to the world groping in ignorance. It is the permissive assent in their attitude above concern that makes possible the continuing urge and aspiration for progress in the evolving world below.
As
the height draws the low ever to climb, Though the great Powers of the Supreme thus stand far above the realms of the worlds in Ignorance, their very being exercises a compelling influence on life below. Their existence in the fullness of their might and their knowledge exerts an incessant pressure on the lower bounded creation to grow and to rise to the freer summits above. What is unattained always attracts labour to attain; the heights ever beckon those below to climb up to them, the large always moves the little to enlarge itself and break out of its smallness. Similarly the transcendence of these Powers shows to man the possibility of attaining to a status above the existing boundaries of his being and nature and inspires him to leap beyond the confines of his mundane existence.
Our
passion heaves to wed the eternal calm, The restless senses of man who is constantly engaged in his effort of self-affirmation and self-aggrandizement envy, as it were, the imperturbable calm that they glimpse on the summits and they surge thereward to unite with that calm which endures for ever, unlike their own nature that knows no rest caught as it is in the whirling movement of time. Similarly the human mind is severely limited on all sides and for all its feeble attempts to discover the Reality, a few fleeting glimpses is all that it can get. That is why this small mind strives to link itself with the larger Mind that knows All, to grow into it and assume the vision and power of its knowledge.
Acquiescing
in the wisdom that made hell The world is full of struggle and suffering, grief and tears, pain and death. At every step, life is faced with destruction, adversity and trial. That is so because all here is striving to grow out of an original inconscience and obscurity towards Consciousness and Light. Necessarily the path is not smooth, the transitions are rugged. None can stay without moving, without growing in this vast movement. There is a continuous pressure on each from the concealed evolutionary nisus to move forward and in the measure in which one resists this push or fails to move at the required pace, there is imbalance, resistance, disharmony and consequent suffering: physical pain and mental affliction. These factors keep up the pressure and force man to move forward. Without this goad to impel him to go further, without the compulsion of pain and suffering which forces him to progress and get beyond the causes of the malady, man would not grow. This is the wisdom in Nature that permits the whip of pain and grief to keep up the evolutionary progression of the World. Time is the route of this gradual progression and life renews itself at every significant juncture through the process of death. The Powers above know this role and utility of pain and suffering in the cosmic evolution and hence do not interfere with their operations; they stand as if unconcerned but always Watchful.
Above
joy and sorrow is that grandeurâs walk: The Gods are above the good and the evil with which the world of men abounds. The little good that men strive to do is seen to wither away before the ample evil, anrstasya bhureh, that they perpetrate in this field of Ignorance and Falsehood. Joy always drags sorrow in its wake. But the higher Powers are not touched by these dualities that are a product of an intermediate step in the cosmic evolution: the emergent human mentality. They stand above both good and evil and do not participate in this dialogue. And that is their strength. Because they are untouched, uninfluenced by the elements of good and evil, they have the power to save men from the consequences of their good and evil, when the Grace so moves them. Even among the humans, it is a verifiable experience that he who detaches himself from these dualities and stands aloof from them, is not only himself unaffected by their currents in the environment, but acquires the power to modify their action on others, to help others rise above their operations.
Alive
to the truth that dwells in Godâs extremes, Men look on the superficies of things and miss their truth. The Divine is always aware of their deeper meaning and sees things differently, regards them in their purposeful perspective; Where men see only warring opposites, the Divine perceives complementaries of a developing truth; where men tense only a brute energy at work, the Divine watches an omniscient Force, a self-aware and all-aware Power in operation; where the human eye sees only a meaningless stretch of aeons in the Cosmic Movement, the higher vision traces a definite purpose. The Divine oversees the frequent upsetting of the precarious balance of good and evil erected by the human ethical sense: good arises at times from what s condemned as evil and bad issues from what is lauded as good.
He
looks on hidden aspects and screened powers, The Divine is conscious of the Truth that underlies all this movement of life in the world, of the Will effectuating that Truth in a faultless working which formulates itself as the Law of things that determines the direction and the pace at which they shall move. He sees the much that is occult in this creation, behind and beyond what is apparent to the physical eye and sees also the forces and beings that are in action behind the surface.
Undriven
by a brief lifeâs will to act, In Time he waits for the Eternalâs hour. There are many factors in this world that goad man to precipitate action unmindful of time and consequence. Life is brief in its span and man makes haste to exert himself as much as he can in the fulfilment of his life-desires. He does not get even a brief respite to reflect over the course of his actions, he plunges headlong into the stream of his impulsions. Further, he cannot take right decisions because he is often subjected to the influences and considerations of false pity and baseless fears. The pity and the fear that overcome him are mostly wrong reactions, perversions of the egoy and they have no basis in truth. The Divine is untouched by these eddies of Ignorance and Falsehood. He is hurried by nothing and he acts in the right time, ÅtuthÄ. Whether it is the question of resolving the cosmic Problem of Ignorance, Pain and Evil or of restoring the sundered unity of Matter and Spirit, Earth and Heaven, the Divine respects the Law of Time in which the Eternal's Manifestation is taking place and awaits the hour predetermined in the Creative Idea of the Supreme.
Yet a
spiritual secret aid is there; Nature pursues her quest across the myriad obstructions that face her at every step. She has to hew her virgin way through unknown tracts by tentative gropings, by experiments, by manoeu-vrings. Her advance is marked by many setbacks and is slow. But she is not left alone. All the while there is a flow of help from above. The Divine's aid comes unobtrusively but effectively. The march of Nature becomes possible because of this constant action of the Divine Consciousness which takes the form of an incessant urge from below and a pull that draws upwards. The help from above sustaining the effort enables it to withstand opposition and surmount the barriers with its support and strength. In times of crisis at decisive junctures the Divine's action takes the form of a swift intervention.
Alive
in a dead rotating universe Appearances are misleading. This universe looks like a huge mechanism, without any life or consciousness of its own, ever circling on its own axis. There does not seem to be any meaning, any definite purpose in this incessant movement which goes on on a globe that has somehow come to be. And man, a conscious, living, solitary creature against this unconscious mass of lifeless background, seems to be fighting a losing battle in wanting to affirm himself against the tide of mechanical Nature, in trying to find and give a direction to his life. But in truth, it is not so. The universe is there on purpose. Nature is conscious in her own way and her movement has a direction and a goal. Man is her highest instrument in achieving her mission and in the task he is entrusted with, he is not alone. He is backed up by a mighty Power.
Even
through the tangled anarchy called Fate Circumstances and events In life do not lend themselves to be always anticipated and regulated-They come upon man in bewildering rapidity and complexity leaving him helpless and dazed; he calls it destiny which cannot be escaped. Further, however much he may strive and hold himself in harness in the battle of life, he is tripped by factors over which he has no control, he is overcome by death whether he has fulfilled his task or not. But man is able to go through all these chequered phases and confused happenings in life because he feels supported and guided by some superhuman Help.
It is near us in unnumbered bodies and births; The Divine Hand that helps is there with man not only in his present embodiment but throughout his journey across innumerable births. For the present life is only a chapter in the long epic of his soul. The soul changes its forms according to the needs and conditions of its growth, and physical birth and death are the process of its development All through its evolutionary career, the soul is guided by the Divine.
In
its unshaken grasp it keeps for us safe The soul is always immortal in its essence. To realise this immortality in embodiment, to achieve it in nature was the possibility, the challenge that the soul posed to itself and set out to actualise with the sanction of the Supreme. The being entered the adventure of this becoming, took on the conditions of life and death in the field of evolution in order to build and embody in it the Truth of Immortality-This high objective is constantly held before it by the guiding Divine through all the vicissitudes of the journey and its fulfilment is assured.
One who has shaped this world is ever its lord: The Divine has not simply created this universe and left it to itself to work out its fate. After creating this, says the ancient text, He entered this. He is stationed within this creation, within all that constitutes the creation, as the guiding Intelligence, PrajnÄ. He not only guides from within, but he also oversees from above; He presides over its career. In every way the Creator is identified with His creation in His varying statuses and He leads it on the course determined by Himself. He is the Master throughout.
Our errors are his steps upon the way; Error is not falsehood, a deliberate retrograde step. Error is an incomplete knowledge, a movement that falls short of the right due to some incapacity, limitation. Thus errors are steps towards right knowledge, right action. They are tentative exercises of the evolving spirit in its growth from ignorance to knowledge; they are road-marks in the journey of progress.
He
works through the fierce vicissitudes of our lives, Even what appears contrary to the elements of progress is utilised by the Cosmic Providence for forging the growth of man. All the ups and downs of day-to-day life, all the struggles of the developing being against the resistance of inert and ignorant Nature, within and without, all the deviations from the norms of the truth and the right and their consequences - all these are used as so many resistance exercises for the development of the evolving soul by the presiding Spirit. In fact the harder path is found more conducive to quicker progress than the smoother and pleasanter one. Man may not know, in his ignorance and lack of adequate consciousness, how to utilise the difficult situations for his progress, but the Intelligence seated within turns the tide in favour of the soul.
Whatever
the appearance we must bear, The circumstances that mark the outer life of man may give the appearance of irremediable disharmony, endless sorrow, a maze of chaos. He may seem to be a helpless creature subject to forces over which he has no control. Yet, the truth is otherwise. For the powerful Hand of God is there all the while helping man to withstand the rigours of life and guiding him to grow by experience and emerge into a brighter future.
After
we have served this great divided world This world is shot with division through and through. There is the great wall of separateness caused by Ignorance between form and form creature and creature. Each feels separate from the others. Then in each being itself, there are divisions of consciousness, divisions of energy. Over and above there is the glaring division between Matter and Mind, not to speak of the Spirit. It is man's . task to toil in this field of division and heal the hiatus, first within himself and then extend the operation beyond his physical form. This is possible because the union, the oneness of what is apparently divided is a fact at a deeper level of existence. And man as a conscious being has it within his reach to realise this oneness once he has attained to a sufficient level of maturity in the evolutionary development. With that oneness comes the realisation of union with the Divine in whom all are one; with that union comes the innate Delight of the Divine Being.
A
date is fixed in the calendar of the Unknown, This creation is not an aimless movement leading to a blind alley. It is a purposive project with a direction and a goal set by the Creator whose Intelligence, though unfathomable by the little reason of the human mind, oversees and informs the entire movement. This PrajnÄ, the all-seeing Wisdom, determines the curves and the rounds of each individual world within the universal, the term of each effort and the juncture of each fresh revelation of the manifesting Godhead. In the fullness of this execution, the meaning of the slow growth and apparently meandering course of the human soul involved in this movement will be clear. All that is needed for the completion of the task but is now missing or appears too distant for attainment will become a reality, close and concrete.
These calm and distant Mights shall act at last. The great Gods that are biding their time will move into open action at the destined hour. Till the appointed time they wait as if unconcerned, aloof, in their high station above the human firmament. But all the while their indirect, veiled action of support and sure guidance continues uninterruptedly. It is for an open, direct and decisive intervention that they have to wait for the proper time, the right juncture in the evolutionary career of the world. When the Cosmic Spirit has prepared the necessary conditions in which these Higher Powers can act without the risk of disintegration that is inevitable if the field is exposed to their supernatural charge before it is strong enough to bear it, and when the presiding Divinity gives the sanction, then these mighty Powers will come into operation.
Immovably
ready for their destined task, Though these luminous Powers are far above this world of movement and immutable in their status, they are always poised to swing into action at the call of the Presiding Spirit leading the manifestation. When they are summoned, they will come with all their timeless knowledge to displace the ruling Ignorance, with all their Love to meet and fulfil the unsatisfied wants of Life labouring on earth; they will come to heal the multiple divisions that mar the face of the universe.
Here
meanwhile at the Spiritâs opposite pole In the meanwhileâtill the Greater Powers from the summits come into their plenary actionâthe Force of Consciousness, Shakti, commissioned to work out the divine Intention in this field of manifestation, goes on with its mighty labour. It starts its work in the depths of Matter which in their inconscience are the very opposite of the Conscious Spirit that seeks to manifest. This belt of subterranean darkness and inconscience is unfathomable to the human mind. And yet here too the Spirit abides. It is its first station in the evolutionary Journey.
In
this compromise of a stark absolute Truth All things in this material creation have two ends: one of the Light of the Spirit and the other of its negationâthe darkness of the Inconscience of Matter. All movement proceeds between these two termini. But even in the obscurity of dense Matter there is a veiled light of consciousness tempered to the conditions of that field. The present world represents a meeting ground, a compromise between the Truth as it is in its plenary Consciousness above and the hidden flame of its consciousness burning in the layers of the Inconscient below. It is a transitional station.
In
this tragi-comedy of divine disguise, This world is a Play, a lilÄ, of God. He has put out himself in the form of this creation, his One Being has become the Many, The Many are seeking for the One through all the circumstances of life, -this is the tragi-comedy of itânot knowing that they are themselves, each of them, that One. Each one is in search of happiness, joy, and the activities of life are all directed towards attaining it from the objects in the world while all the time the real, imperishable Bliss is there within each being, making life possible at all.
In
the grandiose dream of which the world is made, This world is a product of a Real-Idea that has arisen in the Being of the Supreme, a scheme that is being unfolded as the Manifestation proceeds. Its origin, its scope and its culmination are all pre-conceived in the Seer-Consciousness and the execution is according to that magnificent Plan of manifesting the unity that is divine in terms of an endless multiplicity. The earth-creation bases itself on a material foundation that is inconscientâa dark Inconscience that is, with its shadowy wings, spread far and wide. But as its edifice rises in the course of evolution, there come into view its brighter summits of Consciousness and light and Beauty.
The conscious Force that acts in Natureâs breast, To all appearances the operations of Nature are mechanical. All looks like the movement of a brute, dumb Energy whose repetitive turns may-give the illusion of an order, a direction. Nature is essentially material and life and mind are but the results of its workings. Even consciousness is an epi-phenomenon of the processes of blind Nature. All this, however, is only the apparent, first look of things. There is an intelligence in Nature, a Consciousness that is alive though hidden in the workings of its Force, devÄtmaÅaktim svagunaih nigÅ«dhÄm. The Force that acts in Nature is a power of this Consciousness held at its core. It is this Consciousness within that lends meaning and direction to the activities of Nature.
A
dark-robed labourer in the cosmic scheme This Force that acts in Nature is an active Force, executing its task in the building of the cosmic edifice in several ways. It organises, impels, activates, brings into the open what lies concealed and is ever at work in furthering this evolutionary manifestation. This Force is instinct with the burthen of the whole movement and carries all its potentialities in their first tentative forms. It is conscious of its purpose, aware of the direction of its processes, it is an Intelligence. But on the surface of it, it appears inconscient, obscure and mechanical.
Executrix of the inevitable Idea All things in creationâlike the creation itselfâhave at their root a basic Idea that has impelled them into manifestation. A perception in the Real moves into Idea, the Real-Idea, and this truth in the originating Idea propels and governsâthrough whatever processesâ, the particular movement of becoming that is set into motion to work out its intention. Thus in all things, behind all their apparently chequered careers, there is a governing Truth-Idea insistent upon fulfilling itself. The Conscious Force that is at work in Nature executes the Will in this Seed-Idea.
Hampered, enveloped by the hoops of Fate, The task to be executed is clear to the Force. The Will at the back of the movement will not be denied. But the actual working out has to be effected through several processes, each one of which has its own laws, its own determinisms. Many factors, arising from the very conditions of inconscience and ignorance in which the purpose is to be effectuated intervene in the course of the execution and the steps of the effecting Power are marked by destruction, delay and struggle.
Patient
trustee of slow eternal Time, This Shakti is indeed irresistible. Neither obstacles nor sufferings can prevent her from achieving what she intends in the manner she chooses. But here in the cosmic scheme, it is the Will of the Eternal who is manifesting himself in Time that she executes. She bides the right hour for every effectuation according to the Law of progressive manifestation. She may appear slow to the human intelligence but in truth she acts, fulfilling the task she is entrusted with, at the just moment; she neither hurries nor delays.
All she foresees in masked imperative depths; This Force carries in itself consciously the truth or truths that are to be projected into manifestation. The lines on which the execution is to proceed are also fore-visaged in its tranced consciousness which appears outwardly inconscient. In these profounds is held the compelling vision of what is to be effected and how.
The
dumb intention of the unconscious gulfs The purpose that is energised by this Force in the depths of the inconscient terrains of Matter is not something fortuitous and independent. It is a reflection, a projection in the lower depths of the cosmic Being of a Truth-Will at the head of creation. This Will not only initiates the cosmos into movement but oversees from its station above and presides over all the subsequent operations. It casts itself into the womb of Nature as the seed-intention and governs all from below and within.
And
the evolving Wordâs first syllable The beginning contains the promise of the culmination. The first term of this creation may be dense, mechanical, inconscient; but it is an evolving factor and holds in itself the seed of all the developments that are to ensue. The inconscient contains in its womb the first stir that is to grow eventually into omniscience.
Privy
to a summit victoryâs vast descent The evolving entity is secretly and potently aware, in spite of all the apparent density of unconsciousness, of the process of its ultimate fulfilment: a massive downflow of the Spirit following the break-up of the last bather of Ignorance to the ascent from below and in result a free winging of the Soul into the infinities of the Eternal. Its vibrations are the first stir of the ascent in the making.
All
here where each thing seems its lonely self Here on this scene of fragmentation, every form is separated from all the rest; there is division between form and form, a multigraded division that shuts off each from the other. Each individual unit seems to pursue its own way, alone. But that is only an appearance. The many are there because of the One that has formulated himself in their forms. It is because of this One Divine who, though himself transcendent, puts out these Many from his own being, constitutes them as their substance, vivifies them as their life, is awake in them as their consciousness that all live and move.
An unseen Presence moulds the oblivious clay. The substance of which all is made, upon which all is based in this physical universe is Matter whose characteristic nature is inconscience and obscurity. And yet out of this dense Matter a living creation and conscient forms emerge. That is because there is a Consciousness, a living Spirit that is at work on and in Matter. Naturally this Agent is not visible to the physical eye but his workings are unmistakable. Brute Matter is taken up, given form and energised into a purposeful evolution.
A
playmate in the mighty Motherâs game, The Cosmos is verily a Play of the Purusha and his Shakti. All is her effort, her manifestation of the endless possibilities in his Being. Nothing is stationary. Everything is on the move; the universe, and the individual universes in it are, as it were, the playthings of the Eternal Power that is the Mother of All. But she is not alone. He of whom she is the Spouse, the One of whom she is the Puissance, is also in the vast game. He seems to hide himself in each of the million forms and forces that people the universe and all life is indeed an effort on the part of the Shakti, the Prakriti, to discover and unveil the Purusha in every form.
A
secret spirit in the Inconscientâs sleep, The Soul, the Conscient Spirit, is not a product of the workings of physical Nature. The Conscious One has been there from the very beginning of the Creation here as the inmost soul, the subtlest element of consciousness. He is the Conscious Spirit in the sleep of the pervading Inconscience, eÈa supteÈu jÄgarti, the potent womb of all that comes to be. He is prior to the manifestation of Matter, of Life, of Mind. In fact all of them have come into being because of the presence and pressure of this Conscious Spirit in the depths of the Cosmic Nature.
Accomplice
of her cosmic huge pretence, Maya erects a whole world of finites out of the Infinite, rolls out the Cosmic Play for the delectation of the Lord of All who supports her action and by his masterful participation invests everything with truth-significance. All appearances and forms have a meaning and a purpose because they are, ultimately, becomings of his Being. All is perceived and conceived in his eternal Truth-Idea and then poured out for manifestation in Time. That is why every form turns out to be the formation of a truth in the being of the Real.
He is the substance, he the self of things; Ultimately, it is the Divine Purusha, the Supreme Lord, who is everything. All is derived from his Being and worked out in accordance with his Will. He is the material cause of all because it is out of the limitless substance of his Being that all evolution is fashioned. He is not merely the substance, but also the supporting self, the basic ground of each becoming. And everything is real because he is in it as its indestructible self. The Purusha is also the Atman.
She
has forged from him her works of skill and might: Maya draws upon the infinite Being of the Lord for all the displays of her cunning and of her strength in the growing manifestation. Now she creates, now she maintains, now destroys but all the while, he, for whose enjoyment she exerts herself, is concealed by her behind the veil of her changing movements. Though he is there covered by her, it is the endless possibilities and potentialities held in his being that go to form the springs of her adventures. Every activity of Maya has its seed in some truth in the Lord.
The
Master of being has come close to her, The Lord does not remain above, aloof from all this movement engendered by Maya - his own self power. He follows her in the adventure in Time and in each form, each movement, he is there manifest to her as the Soul, the divine Infant delivering himself to her tending. Many are the poises taken by the Supreme Being and his Power, Shakti, in the course of their Play, but always they are inseparable in truth,
In
objects wrought, in the persons she conceives, It is his truth-seeings that she, Maya, seeks to realise. In all forms, animate or inanimate, of her creation, she strives to express some truth of his vision, some idea of his conception, however imperfect or incomplete be the execution at the moment. Her effort is continuous and aims at as faithful and whole a rendering as the conditions permit.
Ever he repeats in them his ceaseless births. The Divine manifests the universe out of his own Beingâhe comes to birth as the Universe, as the All. But that is not the whole story. In each individual form in the universe he takes birth as the Soul and builds his manifestation; that is his second birth - as the Individual. In each individual form is repeated the birth of the Infinite in the Finite.
He is the Maker and the world he made,
He is
the vision and he is the seer; This world is not different from Him who has created it. The Divine is not merely the efficient cause of the world, he is also the material cause. He creates it out of his own Being and dwells in it. His relations with the world do not cease with its creation; in fact he constitutes himself as the world. The world is a living representation of a truth visioned in his Consciousness. He it is who as the actor puts out the act of Manifestation; he it is who as the Knower comprehends the world as none other than himself; he it is who both provides the stuff for the Dream of the universe in his, Being and enjoys it in experience. He is the sole origin and himself the object of all vision, action, knowledge and experience.
There are Two who are One and play in many worlds; The Supreme Reality, the Divine is One. But for purposes of manifestation, the Wonder-Plan of Delight, the One becomes the Two. It takes one poise as the Existent and another poise as Consciousness. They are not really two different realities but the same Reality in two self-aspectings. The Consciousness is the Power of the One who exists; it is inseparable from him whose self-ware-ness it is. This biune reality is the dynamic basis of all manifestation; it reproduces itself at different levels of creation as Brahman-Maya, Ishwara-Shakti, Purusha-Prakriti. All World-play is a working out of their respective relations.
In
Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met The Two, the Being and the Power, carry their interplay through all the states of existence, in all conditions of the manifestation. Both are at work in the belt of Knowledge as also in the belt of Ignorance. Also, one presides from his status in Knowledge while the other functions in the limitations of Ignorance; the interaction of the two works, out the evolution of the world from the obscurities of Matter to the luminosities of the Spirit. Light and darkness are circumstances of their play, each acting on the otherâlight entering where darkness is and darkness receding with the advent of light.
Our
pleasure and pain are their wrestle and embrace, The Play of the Two Cosmic Actors is enacted on the stage of life. The vicissitudes in the lives of men and creatures are circumstances of their game. The joys and griefs of the world are like sparring partners that build the strength and sap of life with their combat. All the actions, all the thoughts and all the aspirations of men are so many points in the developing graph of the story of their weaving. All of these prove to be significant as products and byproducts of the interplay of the Two, Purusha-Prakriti, Soul-Nature in the individual and in the universe. For behind all appearances there is this fact of dual operation.
The
universe is an endless masquerade: What is seen in this universe is not the whole truth of it. All is a surface appearance of what truly exists behind the veil of apparent form. What is observed by the physical eye, what is experienced by the physical senses, is not. indeed, false but it is not the entire truth of things. The real truth of each works behind the appearance, strives to express itself more and more through the changing forms it devises to suit its developing stresses. That is why the world presents the appearance of a marked play, the real characters acting under disguise.
It is
a dream-fact vision of a truth The universe is a fact because it is a projection of a truth that has been visualised and brooded upon, tapas tatvÄ , in the Consciousness of the Creative Divine. The universe holds itself together amidst all conditions of falsehood, ignorance, disintegration and death because of this truth-content which itself has been given shape and dynamised in the conceptual Consciousness of the Eternal.
A
phenomenon stands out significant The phenomenon of the universe may appear to be void of real meaning because of its fleeting nature, its transitoriness. But in truth it is meaningful because it is structured⢠out of a Reality that is Eternal and every movement, every form in it is supported by a permanent Self behind it, however veiled it might be to the eye shrouded in ignorance. Time is a circumstance, not the essential nature of the Becoming that is the universe.
We
accept its face and pass by all it means; The real significance of the universe is missed because men look only at appearances without pausing to see their background, their foreground, their inner content. What little is seen through the clipped vision of the limited mind is taken to be the entire fact. This superficial seizing of things and partial vision of the life-movement naturally mislead us into a wrong and false reading of the meaning and purpose of the world.
Thus
have they made their play with us for roles: Thus the Divine is the author of this Cosmic Play: he has conceived the Plot and sown the seed-script in the Real-Idea. He has projected himself and woven this scene of his manifestation from out of his own Being. And it is he again who is the One Actor playing the roles of the Many that we are. Our personalities are only the masks of the real Player. He is the real Centre, the Soul of each and of all, the Purusha; it is his own Power, himself as Power, that figures as Nature, Prakriti, to form the Duality for purposes of the Play.
Here
on the earth where we must fill our parts, Men flit across the stage, playing their parts, speaking their scripts, but they are aware of nothing more than what is allotted to each of them. They are ignorant of the Plot and of the direction in which the Play proceeds. Words are spoken as prescribed and heard as articulated, but the deeper meaning behind is lost.
Her
mighty plan she holds back from our sight: She, the Power that enacts the Play, does not lay pen the plot all at once. She develops it through circumstances and time exposing only as much as the limited vision and intelligence of man can grasp. This is why the world presents a misleading appearance: life is marked with calamities, ups and downs, evil and suffering predominate, struggle and blind mechanical action and reaction feature the course of evolution. All this, however, is only an incomplete picture. To an observing eye which can perceive below the surface movement, the existence of a divine Compassion, Intelligence, Delight, basing and guiding the whole progression is unmistakable.
Of
all the marvel and beauty that are hers Beauty and Wonder are the innate feature of the manifestation worked out by the Shakti. Man misses them because he lacks the perspective and detachment; to observe them. He is too much tied up with himself, his own little ego and its interest, and he regards everything as it affects his immediate personal segment. His sight is clipped and curtained by a self-centred ignorance and very little of the true significance of life is perceived by him; what he experiences is only a shadowy bit, such as his limited falsifying senses render.
He
too wears a diminished Godhead here, As the Divine Shakti has limited herself in her expression and acts, within certain self-imposed confines in this world, so the Divine Lord also expresses himself within the terms and conditions of this manifestation growing from Inconscience through Ignorance. Infinite though he is in reality, he appears here in and as the finite. Though his Power to effectuate himself and his will is boundless, he accepts here the limitations of imperfect life and works his way through them. He puts behind his innate status in Peace and throws himself into the movement of the energies of Time.
He
knows her only, he has forgotten himself; In the conditions of the World-Play the Lord' assumes the poise of a silent Witness and permits the Power, the Shakti, to execute the Plan as she wills. He assents to all that she does; he does not exercise his will and is content to reflect hers. All activity appears to originate from her, all initiative . and movement proceed from her who dominates the scene.
He
hopes in her to find himself anew, He takes the static poise, offering himself as the basic immutable foundation on which She executes her Cosmic Dance of manifestation. In the conjunction of this basis of silent, unshakable peace and this play of delight of the creative Power, the Divine comes to birth in this Manifestation; the Divine emerges in Form with a view to manifesting his Glory within the conditions of his Creation.
Although
possessor of the earth and heavens, He is indeed the Lord of All. All the seven Earths with their Heavens are his habitations. All derives from him and rests upon his Will. And yet he chooses to assume an inactive status, charging his executive Power with the task of building up the Manifestation. He does not, however, turn away from the scene; his look is always turned on the Manifestation and. all the workings of the Power pass under his observation, obtaining his sanction in the process.
A
supernumerary on her stage, In the cast of the Play enacted by her on the cosmic stage, he makes himself a redundant figure. He does not appear on the stage in any role, he does not participate in the dialogue. Whatever part he has, he is content to act it behind the scene. From his unseen position he makes the play possible.
He
takes birth in her world, waits on her will, The Soul comes to birth and grows in this world which is fashioned by Nature. It is her executive Will that effects all creation, maintenance and dissolution. To the onlooker many of her postures may appear ambiguous, many of her tenative movements erratic, but the Soul is aware of the direction, the purpose served by all that Nature executes, though the surface intelligence may be ignorant of it. The Soul knows and participates in his own way in effectuating the inner Purpose in time, however long it may appear to be.
As
one too great for him he worships her; In their poise of Shiva and Shakti, the Shakti assumes a dominant position and Shiva is supine. All initiation, all strength and power, all greatness are vested in her; she is empowered to work out the supreme Will in manifestation. Shiva offers his Being and all that it connotes as support and sustenance to her in her workings in Time. His is the primal sacrifice that has made this Creation possible. It is the archetype of all forms of sacrifice that engender progression in the universe.
A
rapt solicitor for her love and grace, The World-Game is a continual feast of Delight offered by the Shakti to her spouse. She puts out the truths from the Eternal. She executes them for him who is her partner. He looks to her, for to him all is she.
He
grows through her in all his beingâs powers; It is through her exertion that his being develops; she manifests what is latent in his being and enables his expansion as and in this Creation. The purpose of all this movement becomes patent to him as her workings take shape. Power and Knowledge increase in this Manifestation by the action of the Shakti.
Or, a
courtier in her countless retinue, Nature evolves many principles of existence into formsâsubtle and grossâfor purposes of the Manifestation and the Soul takes up a position as if he were one of these. The Soul follows Nature in every movement, draws the essence of every experience in life and experiences the rasa, the enjoyment, of each from his status. It is this delight of the Soul that supports all existenceâin its origin, maintenance and change.
A
glance can make his whole day wonderful, Life becomes meaningful and progresses towards its goal to the extent that there is communion between Nature and the Soul. Nature, executive Nature, refers to the Soul within, communicates her workings to the Soul who responds with the delight of the movement of progression. This evolutionary Manifestation proceeds on this close, active relation between Soul and Nature.
He
leans on her for all he does and is: The Soul depends upon his Power, the many-tiered Nature, for experience on which he grows. He depends upon her for the execution of his will. On her toils and the fruits of these toils he feeds. In her field and on the crest of her activity, his essential delight of existence takes shape and formulates itself in diverse waysâappropriate to the conditions in which it expresses itself.
In a
thousand ways he serves her royal needs; The Soul passively supports Nature in certain poises and actively collaborates with her in some others. In the execution of the Cosmic Purpose, Nature receives an all-sided help from the Soul. His Will, his power of being are constantly active in innumerable ways furthering her workings. He casts the flow of time in accordance with her pace. He exerts himself to see that all in this field of manifestation is supple and responsive to the stresses of the effectuating Nature.
...
all is their play: Thus all Cosmos is a field for the common play of Soul and Nature. All movement here is effected by these two protagonists of the divine manifestation. In whatever form, in whatever condition, all in the world reveals only this double Presence in mutuality of action. The Two form the stage, make the cast and enact their meaningful Play.
This
is the knot that ties together the stars: He and She, the Two that conduct this World-Play are not two different realities. They are in fact one: the Existent and his Power of Consciousness-Force or rather the Existent as Consciousness-Force, the Shiva and Shakti who are one in reality though they poise themselves as two for purposes of the manifestation. It is this double status of the One Divine that provides the lever on which the whole creative activity moves. It is the basic source of the Right, Åtam, the Truth-Law that governs the manifestation, and of the Might, mahat, that executes and guards it. Together they build up the universe.
His
soul, silent, supports the world and her, As Shiva, the Divine provides the stable ground and support for the manifestation. He is immutable in this poise of foundation and does not project himself into the active movement. His self-chosen function is to upbear the activity of the Shakti, reflect and hold her doings, perceive and record the play of her will in his silent, passive being.
Happy,
inert he lies beneath her feet: The world-play is enacted by Kali, the Shakti, in the form of a Cosmic Dance, a gigantic whirl of her Energies. For this creative display of her powers, Shiva, the static partner, provides the stage on his immovable body. His willing person is the ground on which her feet stamp the steps. He supports the world-dance with his will of assent. This Dance of Kali is enacted not only on the universal stage, but also on the stage of each individual life. Each one is able to withstand the pressure of her movement because of the strength of Shiva that is individuated in him and supports the corresponding kinesis. And in spite of all its stresses, none is willing to withdraw from the play because each tastes something of the bliss that the Shiva within derives from it.
His
works, his thoughts have been devised by her, He has no initiative of his own. He is content to be moved by her, to reflect faithfully her moods and her willings. What he seems to think, what he seems to act, all of it proceeds from her consciousness and will.
Active,
inspired by her he speaks and moves; He has his active side, no doubt, but the impulsion comes from her. He expresses in word and act what she impels him to express. He divines her intentions and her requirements and all that he does is in fulfilment of them.
Passive,
he bears the impacts of the world To Shiva the whole universe is nothing else than a mighty movement of the Shakti. He receives all the contacts from the world without resistance, he lets them into himself as specific workings of the Shakti to mould his growth in the figure of her design.
His
journey through the days is her sun-march; Even the direction in which he moves is laid down by her. She builds the way, she leads the path; the goal of his journey is the fulfilment of her objective. All his movements are conducted by her.
A
witness and student of her joy and dole, He has assented to her will and he faithfully follows up this compliance in whatever sphere he appears, in whatever poise of his being. Now as a witness of her unceasing swing of dualities, now as an acolyte carrying out her commands, now as a companion in the vicissitudes of her processes, now as a creature subject to her enticing and tempestuous will, he is ever her ready second.
His
sanctioning name initials all her works; All that she does carries his sanction overtly or covertly, each act of hers carries his authenticating stamp. Whatever is effected by her in the executive process receives the imprimatur of his acceptance either through an active move or a steady regard of his consciousness.
In
the execution of her dramaâs scheme, In the World-Play conducted by the Shakti there is a definite scheme, a purpose of divine manifestation. All is within the frame-work designed by her for the effectuation of this purpose. Within those broad lines of execution, she as Nature experiments according to the working of circumstances, the appearance, of factorsâchanged or new. Her own impulsions vary leading her to launch upon unexpected courses of action.
In
the march of this obvious ordinary world This world looks common and matter-of-fact to the superficial sight; it has for it the appearance of a mechanical creation of a brute material Energy. But to the eye that looks beyond the surface, a deeper movement reveals itself behind the flow of things and events. Every happening has a significance, every moment brings in a new factor. Nothing is really mechanical, nothing a casual product. In each movement, in each form that we see in life, there is the executive Nature at work designing and shaping it for a specific purpose; each form is a wonder testifying to the amazing skill of the creative Intelligence.
She
through his witness sight and motion of might His very status of regarding her actions as a witness is put to capital use by the Shakti. Through that regard issue a continuous sanction and a spontaneous direction of consciousness. From him also issues the potency that is inherent in the self-aware consciousness of his being. The Shakti works out the Cosmic Purpose drawing upon all those collaborative means.
Her
happenings that exalt and smite the soul, The myraid workings of the Shakti strike the beings that are involved in them, according to their stage of development and their need for growth. Some of the events fill men with exultation, some have the effect of depressing their vital exuberance. Some of the powers of the Shakti act to save a life that can serve a purpose while others terminate a career which either disserves or has become useless for the evolutionary progression. Each of her acts has a meaning which may be missed at the moment of its occurrence but its significance reveals itself in time. It is the Shakti that moves all, at every level, in every sphere, to participate in the world-movement conducted by her.
Her Word that in the silence speaks to our hearts, She moves each one to take part in her great activity; she moves in each one in many ways forming and guiding the individual progression. It is possible for man to awaken to her Presence in him and commune with her. The word that she speaks, however, is not of the human kind audible in the human way. One has to withdraw one's consciousness from surface involvement and listen to the inner silence in the deeper recesses of the being; there one hears the intimation, the word instinct with Knowledge and the Power to actualise that Knowledge.
Her silence that transcends the summit Word, She communicates not through the Word alone. There are other ways also by which she transmits her Will and her power and makes her consciousness act in the individual. Beyond the highest formulations of the loaded Word, supporting the expressive movement, there is her being of Silence -a silence not of the vacuous physical kind, but a gathered condition of pregnant Peace and Power from which issues all manifestation of word and action. She makes this Silence accessible to the individual if he turns to it.
Her heights and depths to which our spirit moves, The Shakti that manifests all is omnipresent. She extends herself manifold; her being envelops the universe from all sides, vertically, horizontally, in depth, in fact in all dimensions. Man is normally aware of only the superficies of her material extension. But his inner consciousness, the spirit within, constantly heaves to the altitudes and. the profounds of her self-extension and it is this contact behind the veil that is the real source of man's higher and nobler movements.
Her events that weave the texture of our lives Men think that they fashion their lives as they choose and each one is the architect of his own career. While this is true in a limited sense,âand that too in the case of those who have arrived at a stage of sufficient self-awareness and self-directionâthe larger truth is that the pattern and course of the lives of men is generally determined by the character of the creative movement of the Cosmic Power of which men are a part.
And
all by which we find or lose ourselves, The feeders of life in this world are not of one kind. Experiences, contacts, actions and reactions of various types build up the life-experience, positive and negative. Things may be hard and difficult, and yet promote progress, sreyas; they may be attractive and pleasant, preyas, and yet incline the being downwards, Movements of life and mind may be impelled by higher impulses or lower, leading the soul onwards or otherwise. Things may have a severe appearance or beautiful, but they are all divine in their essence, part of the Process of the manifestation of the Cosmic Power.
Her empire in the cosmos she has built, This universe is not a product of chance that has come into being fortuitously and is careering at random. It is an ordered creation of worlds brought into being by the Shakti, sustained by her and ruled by her. It is she that has produced the universe from the infmite potentiality of the Divine Being, given it shape in accordance with the truth to be manifested and with which she is charged. All here proceeds according to her will and in the moulds fixed by her. She is the creative and also the ruling Intelligence of old, prajnÄ prasÅtÄ purÄni.
He is governed by her subtle and mighty laws. The Cosmic Power, Shakti, does not act on any caprice. She is seized with the Truth that is to be manifested and all her action is a working out of this Seed-Idea. She has the vision of the order she is striving to evolve and she lays down the large lines on which the creative movement is to proceed. These are the great Laws that govern the world-progression. They may not be patent in the crisscross of the operating forces on the surface of life, but they are there established and active behind the gross physical veil. The cosmic Soul, the Purusha, is subject to these Laws of Truth set by the Shakti, the effectuating Nature, for the governance of the universe.
His
consciousness is a babe upon her knees, Involved in this world-movement of evolutionary progression, the Soul-Consciousness is at first submerged in the depths of Inconscience. Then gradually it awakes to self-awareness and emerges slowly upwards along the steps forged by Nature, like an infant led by its mother. It is Nature that provides the canvas on which the Soul-Consciousness etches its tentative essayings. Nature plays the Mother to the Soul.
His being a field of her vast experiment; Nature does not proceed in one set line of advance limiting herself to a narrow field of determination. Her course is splendid and leisurely, her field is vast and she delights in the progression of her manifestation. She builds, she breaks, she casts off, she forms anew constantly and evolves newer and newer forms in her creation. The Soul, the Purusha provides an unlimited field for this Nature-movement in the endless unrolling of the infinitude of his being.
She
binds to knowledge of the shapes of Time Though immortal in his intrinsic nature, the soul that descends into evolution accepts certain self-limitations for the purposes of the adventure; his overt consciousness is limited, his nature of immortality is veiled by the process of change, decay and death. This soul in his changing vesture and modifying circumstance is further handicapped by Nature with certain other meaningful confinements. Though eternal in his being, the soul is obliged to think, see and act in terms of fleeting Time; though omniscient with an inherent knowledge, true and infallible, he is made to progress towards manifest knowledge through the stumblings and errors [1] of a mind that divides and limits; though instinct with infinite freedom in his real self, he is pushed to accept the frame-work of hard determination of forces behind which there is a constant play of the unpredictable. In all ways the soul is forced by Nature to forget his own inalienable character of Immortality, Bliss and Consciousness and to participate in Nature's game of pain, nescience, and death. [1] The errors of this mind, however, are not products of falsehood; they are steps towards the truth, tentative gropings that educate the faculties to feel out, to exert and grow in the direction of true knowledge.
His
soul is a subtle atom in a mass, The Purusha projects himself in this evolution as a tiny dot, as it were, which, in the course of its development, grows into a subtly perceptible formâof the size of a man's thumb, says the Upanishad. This form is enveloped by thick coatings of matter, vitality, mind etc. and is imperceptible to the physical eye. These substances that are gathered round this growing soul form the instrumentations for life-experience and growth. Nature in evolution works upon and through these substances of varying grades for the effectuation of her purpose.
His
spirit survives amid the death of things, In this world of constant change and decay of forms, the bodies die but the soul survives. The soul is deathless and passes from state to state, from form to form. The career of this evolving being is not cut asunder by the end of his form. He takes on another form when he chooses, but during this interval between the discarding of one form and the assumption of another, he continues his labour by assimilating the gains of the past and preparing himself for the greater gains of the future. The ascent Godward is kept up through the process may change from condition to condition. From the beginnings of his emergence in the Nescience of Matter to the Light immortal on the Superconscient summits of Existence, the evolving being is borne by the Nature-Power at work.
This
grand surrender is his free-willâs gift, This subjection of the Purusha to the Shakti, however, is not a helpless condition imposed upon him. It is a disposition of himself-done entirely by his own unfettered will in order to enjoy the delight of manifestation through a poise that is initially of his own choice. His self-force is pristine and beyond all limitations of the cosmic formula, and yet he subordinates it voluntarily to the workings of the Shakti for purposes of the manifestation and progression of the Cosmos. The world-movement proceeds on this interaction between the two.
In the mystery of her cosmic ignorance, Both the Purusha and the Shakti are Divine; they are omniscient, their knowledge is as infallible as their will is omnipotent. Yet, the Cosmos that is evolved by them is characterised by a native Ignorance and its brood of limitations of many kinds. How this Ignorance has come to be in a manifestation that has originated in a Real-Idea in the Truth-Consciousness of the Eternal, how this shadow of unconsciousness could intervene in this universe that is a self-formulation of the supreme Consciousness-Force of the Divine Being, is a mystery.
In the insoluble riddle of her play, The world-game that is being played by the Shakti in her ebullience of delight poses a riddle at every step, at every level. How have the Many come to be where, in truth, there is only One Reality? How has Nescience come into being in this field created and worked upon by a Power of the Supreme Consciousness ? How have arisen pain and death in the bosom of the eternally Blissful? What is the law of life, if there is one? Is it Free-Will or the Determination of a Master-Will or the forge of Karma? The riddles are endless and defy solution by the reasoning mind.
A
creature made of perishable stuff, The evolving Purusha is encased in a living body which starts dying from the moment it is born. Nature prepares the field and the instrumentation for his life-experience. He is so much identified with Nature that his mind reflects and gives shape to such movements as are initiated by her; his emotions and feelings respond to her impulsions; his life-formation follows the lines drawn by her rhythmic will. He grows, as it were, in the mould of his Nature.
Although
she drives him on her fancyâs roads, Nature seems to play with the Purusha as she likes, goading him in the direction of her whims, pushing him about according to her moods. But that is only an appearance. Nature is all the while purposive in her movements. All her operations with the Purusha are aimed at promoting the growth of the being towards freedom from the rule of all non-self, at gaining transcendency and mastery over the flow of Time to which creatures are subject, at establishing the status of immortality above the death-bound world of Ignorance.
Even
in his mortal session in bodyâs house The Purusha in evolution inhabits the human physical body only for a while, till death overtakes it; and this life-journey is also so meandering as to appear almost aimless, tossed in all directions by circumstances. Yet though so conditioned in time and circumstances - eking out a precarious existence in an environment that threatens to devour him at every moment - he still aspires to transcend all limitations and death, to become immortal. That is because in spite of all appearances that point to the subordination of the Purusha to Nature, she secretly inspires him to raise himself above the first state of subjection and assume control and direction over his own life-progression and the environment.
...
He takes up her powers; In the process of this assumption of rulership, the Purusha draws upon the potencies of the Nature-Power and utilises them for his expressive growth-He awakes to the truth that determines the operation of his companion Nature and he sets the workings of her forces in tune with the requirements of that truth. He begins to direct the movements of Nature at the conscious levels.
His face of human thought puts on a crown. The developing soul, the Purusha within, comes into his own with the organisation of the thinking mind. He becomes self-aware, acquires the power of self-direction. Man, the mental being ensouled by this Purusha, stands erect liberated into the first freedom of choice; and he becomes the king of the field of evolution.
Held
in her leash, bound to her veiled caprice, Though endowed with the faculty of the conscious mind that enables him to rise above the hold of Nature under proper conditions, the soul is still dogged by elements like vitality, the material body etc. that continue to be in subjection to Nature-Thus he is constantly held back and is under the pressure of the will of Nature. Yet he uses the power of mental discrimination to probe into the methods of Nature so that he may utilise them for his own purpose, however subtly, however briefly. He works through the instrumentation of Nature by an apparent attunement inducing her to execute his will as her own.
He
makes of her his moment passionâs serf: Thus does the soul, the Purusha, get Nature to fulfill his own impulsions which are swift and intense coming as they do from his imperative will. In executing hi: will, Nature appears to follow and obey her owl subject; she plays the role of a subordinate and seem to put herself always at his service.
But
conquering her, then is he most her slave; This again proves to be only an appearance. For even when he makes Nature carry out his will, it is Nature that wins. He has not only to obtain her consent but to depend upon her energies and her faculties to execute his will. He can move only through her. Even though he has attained a degree of transcendence with the development of the mental faculties, Nature still dominates by virtue of the indispensability of her means.
At
last he wakes to a memory of Self: When the evolutionary development reaches certain maturity, the individual becomes aware of the, true core of his Self within. The knowledge of this Self of his, so far concealed behind the many veils of Ignorance, arises into his awareness. He sees that within there is a God-head of whom he is a projection in the manifestation that is in progression. The divinity embedded in man comes into articulate expression.
Her highest heights she unmasks and is his mate. When the Purusha, the soul, comes to realise his true, inner characterâa specific formation of the one, free Self- then Nature too begins to show her true significance. She unveils her workings on the higher altitudes of existenceâhowever much concealed in the mechanics of the Process they, may be at the lower levelsâand reveals herself as but a companion of the Soul, not his ruler.
Till
then he is a plaything in her game; Till this moment of awakening to the reality of his own Self and assuming his rightful position in the world-game as a partner of Nature, the soul plays a subordinate role. Nature moves him at will. It is only in appearance that he is the master of his own actions; actually and to all effects he functions as a puppet in her hands; it is her energies that activate him and he moves and acts helplessly under their pressure, governed by the determination of the operative forces. He is pushed around by Nature.
His
thought labours, a bullock in Timeâs fields; Man imagines that the faculty of thinking with which he is endowed makes him the master of Nature. Actually his thought, such as it is, is only an imperfect toiler in quest of knowledge and the power it yields, and it is tied to an unimaginable extent by the chains of Nature. Its direction, speed, output are governed by the triple Nature on which it is based. Similarly he thinks his will is a power of his own which he can wield as he chooses. But this will too is built up and shaped by the labours of Nature in evolution; the character of the will and its strength are largely what has been formed by the stress of Nature.
Obedient
to World-Natureâs dumb control, Universal Nature exercises her own indirect, yet effectively real, control over the course of the individual soul in its life-evolution. Besides this, the soul has to bear the impact of the forces of his own nature. He is driven on the roads of life by this nature who is supposed to be his companion in the world-play but in actuality turns out to be a despot who wills what course he shall follow and who decides according to her moods whether he shall have the joy of life or its grief. And that position she has been able to assume because of his initial assent to her.
He
has sold himself into her regal power In surrendering the initiative to her, in submitting himself to her Will, the only return he seeks is what she may choose to give him. The return may be pleasurable or it may be painful in the common run of life, but he receives it in the spirit of the game.
Even
in what is suffering to our sense, Man receives contacts from the universe through the senses. The senses are very limited in their range - governed as they are by the too physical nature of their instrumental organs - and they react to impacts in a superficial way and this becomes a habit. As one shifts the centre of one's consciousness from the sense-dominated surface being and goes deeper towards the soul within, the reactions are found to undergo changes. That is because the soul is not affected by what is painful to the senses nor excited by what is pleasurable to them. The soul takes the rasa of essential delight from all experiences and as one approaches the soul-level, one sees and feels this truth. The soul draws the joy and bliss of each experience brought to him by Nature though it may be experienced by the outer senses as pain or suffering. To him each impact of life is an occasion to feel the touch of delight from the fulfilling and dominating Nature.
On
his heart he bears the happiness of her tread He is vigilant and greets each experience in life, every event in the flow of Time as an opportunity to meet Nature through her workings and to derive joy from the contact. His being stands ever exposed to receive the delight of her touch through the thousand circumstances thrown up by her.
All
she can do is marvellous in his sight: The Soul, the Purusha, is not an indifferent witness to the doings of Nature, Prakriti. He is closely identified with her and takes active interest and joy in her workings at all the levels of existence, body, life, mind and others. He throws himself with gusto into the current of her pouring energies and draws ceaseless delight from their workings. He assents readily to her willings and participates without reserve in her various activities.
The
Spirit, the innumerable One The Spirit, the Soul is indeed essentially one. But he is a One that has become the Many without ever ceasing to be the One basically. In embarking upon this World-Play, he has assumed the role of the Many, leaving his oneness in the background. The Eternal is pouring himself in Time without end; the Infinite Being casts himself into innumerable becomings that constitute the teeming finites in charge of Nature in this indefinite extension that is Space. In becoming the many in the field of manifestation, the one subjects himself to the rule and regulation of Nature at work.
The
master of existence lurks in us Each individual existence is the play-field for the game of the Lord and his Self-Power who between them both put forth the Delight of manifestation. Both are always present in every vibration though the presence of the Purusha may be obscured by the activity of the Prakriti. Whether he is perceived or not, the divine Purusha is ever there behind whatever veils there may be of the executive Prakriti; the Prakriti is, in fact, an instrument for the effectuation of the Will of the Purusha.
The
Immanent lives in man as in his house; The Divine Purusha fills all with his Being. He does not merely create and leave the creation to itself; creating, says the Upanishad, He enters into it. This Immanent Purusha dwells in man as his individual station. He embraces the universe as his rightful field for the play of his will for manifestation-The universe provides the arena for the display of his emerging powers as also for the revelations of greater statures of himself in the evolution in progress.
All-knowing
he accepts our darkened state, The Divine Being who has chosen to manifest on his material Earth has accepted the conditions here though they are totally contrary to his innate nature. Omniscient, he consents to be in a state of obscurity, Ignorance; divine, he puts on Infra-divine forms of various types e.g. animal, human etc. in the course of this evolution; beyond Time, utterly free in his infinity, he lets himself be measured in terms of Time and bound by the determination of cosmic forces; immortal in being and consciousness, he plays with the circumstances of decay and death on the earth-scene.
The
All-Conscious ventured into Ignorance, The Divine Being is self-aware and all-aware. His is a natural state of complete Knowledge of Oneness; but here on Earth, for purposes of evolutionary manifestation, he has risked taking on a state of Ignorance bereft of Knowledge and searching for Knowledge. Similarly the Divine Being is innately blissful, blissful in himself and blissful in all that he puts forth, yet here he has accepted a condition devoid of all sensibility, the very opposite of his natural blissful state.
Incarnate
in a world of strife and pain, Though essentially blissful, the divine Purusha, the soul that descends into this world of Ignorance and consequent division, struggle and pain, accepts to clothe himself in a nature that swings between contraries and reacts now with pleasure, now with grief. Pleasure and pain are not the inherent values of the soul, but they are the characteristics of evolution in Ignorance during an interim period when the consciousness is gradually awaking to a self-awareness and till it becomes fully all-aware. The soul can discard them when it so wills. However, it has chosen to have the experience of life in all its shades and vicissitudes for only so can it grow in evolution, nourished and increased by the essence of each experience. Each experience yields its rasa to the soul and the soul, feeding upon it, develops its strength and stature.
He
whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts, The Divine Being who transcends and commands the infinites of his vast creation which contains the seeds of all that is to blossom, stations himself here in the individual man as the soul in the depths of his being which are not normally accessible to his surface awareness. This individual Divine dwells in each, luminous in form and power, foreknowing in consciousness, apart from the purushas of mind, life and body that are involved in the currents of Nature.
The
Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone The Supreme Being in his highest status above all movement and form is the Absolute. He is the One without a second. His Being, however, is not mere existence. He is the Existent who contains in himself his Self-Power which can be put out into action at his will or withdrawn from it. When this Conscious-Power, Chit-Shakti, is at rest in his Being, there is no activity, no movement, no formulation of any kind. All is silent, static, the Alone is-The potency is held self-gathered in his being. Only the Para Siva is there. One, immutable, without any form, indeterminate. It is only when he chooses to manifest that he summons his Power out of himself and lets her call out of the immensity of his being the truths to be formulated and worked out in the Creation that she builds for the purpose.
The
Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone When the Supreme wills to manifest and his Power moves into action, he goes forth with her in an appropriate self-formulation - Shiva-Shakti. His infinity determines itself for purposes of creation into a suitable self-extension that is called Space. In entering into this state of manifestation, however, he carries in himself his innate status of Silence that bases all movement, all action.
He
has fashioned these countless persons of one self; From his One Being have issued all these million beings, like sparks from a Fire, says the Upanishad. They are all emanations of the Divine Being, basically one with him, formed of one common stuff. He creates all from his own being and he dwells in each form thus created. Thus it comes to be that the Divine who is alone, eka eva, in his infinite Being prior to the manifestation, becomes the Many bahu syÄm, in his self-formulation.
Space is himself and Time is only he. Time and Space in which this Creation is weft and woven are not conditions imposed by Maya on the Divine Being. They are particular forms taken by the Being in his movement of manifestation. The Eternal unrolls himself, and this formulation as self duration is Time. The Infinite spreads himself, and this formulation as self-extension is Space. Both Time and Space are terms of the Divine in manifestation.
The
Absolute, the Perfect, the Immune, The Divine Being is indeed the Absolute who is the highest that can be conceived and also who is beyond all conception. He transcends all that is created and is ineffable. Yet this Transcendent, this Absolute, dwells in us, in each individual, as the self, the secret core around which all being is organised. This self is not patent to the physical eye not palpable to the normal awareness of man; it is veiled by the several layers of ignorance of instrumental nature. It is there in the depths of the being, in the cavern of the heart, the hÅd-guhÄ.
Our
mask of imperfection has assumed, The Perfect One has accepted to put on the cloak of Imperfection that human nature is. He, the Spirit, as the Self, has inhabited this material body. He, the Divine Being, has shaped himself into the human mould in order to pressurise the human to grow into the image of the Divine. It is by the presence of the Divine's Love in this world of imperfection and his full acceptance of the load of Ignorance and the labour of its transformationâ that man can at all hope to change and human nature grow into divine Nature.
Then
in a figure of divinity When man reaches a sufficient degree of evolution where the human nature is ready to pass into the divine, the Creator sets to work through the Ribhus, the divine Artisans of Immortality, who separate and reconstitute the elements of his humanity into a divine whole, give it a form and a stamp that turn man into a god. In the process the limited mind and its faculties are uplifted to this larger and truer term in the unbounded Truth-Consciousness above the cosmic Ignorance; the workings of Time undergo a rapid change with the opening of the Consciousness to the influx of the Eternal, mortality begins to be displaced by immortality.
This
transfiguration is earthâs due to heaven: Heaven and Earth, God and Man, are not two different and opposite entities. They are, in truth interconnected with each other. The Earth is a projection of Heaven; Man, a creation, an ema, nation, a form of God. God takes birth on earth in human form, puts on human nature as a part of the Manifestation. The higher presents itself as the lower, It is incumbent on the lower to grow into the higher, on Man who derives from God to rise into the nature and form of God, on Earth to emerge into the truth of Heaven. If God descends as Man, Man must needs ascend into God. The holocaust of the Supreme calls for an answering response of self-giving and self-transmutation of the Earth-Creation.
Our life is a paradox with God for key. The life of man is a field of contraries. There is a ceaseless clash of forces and each event is an outcome of such friction. There is a reign of dualities all round: the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, strength and weakness, light and obscurity, knowledge and ignorance, life and death, are all in perpetual combat, each claiming man for its dominion. It is a gigantic puzzle which, however, has a solution. And that solution lies in recovering one's identity with the Divine Consciousness which is at the base of all and reconciles all opposites in its oneness. Once man finds his entry into this Consciousness, the Self, the Spirit, the contraries turn into complementaries and reveal themselves as various elements of a growing Harmony in the universe.
But
meanwhile all is a shadow cast by a dream Till, however, the key to the paradox of life is found in the attainment of the Divine Consciousness, all has the appearance of an unsubstantial dream. To the witness, the consciousness that stands aloof and regards all, the whole world looks baseless; both the seer and the seen strike as unreal; the entire movement appears interminable and without any significance.
For
the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; Life is meaningless to one who does not know the purpose behind it, who lacks the means to probe into its mystery. The key to the solution of the problem of life is not to be found on the super-faces that are scanned by the limited mind of man. It is concealed in the depths of the being which are not fathomable by the mind; it is far below the levels of existence of which man is conscious. There in the Inconscient region, far below the floor of awareness, dwells the Spirit, the involved Truth-Consciousness, God who impels and guides the movement on its right course from his nether chamber. He holds the Plan and the Secret.
In a body obscuring the immortal Spirit The physical body that we see is not the whole of man. It is only the material front and base of the larger being of many parts that he is. Actually that body is the organisation of life-force, leading both body and life is the mind. Beyond the mind, behind the subtle organism of the mind-life-body complex is the Divine Spirit supporting all, immortal in nature, luminous in form. This Spirit, however, is veiled by several layers of Ignorance that overlay it, the material structure being the grossest of them all.
A
nameless Resident vesting unseen powers, The Spirit that dwells in each body is the Divine Individual stationed in the heart-centre, hÅddeÅe. He is a Conscious Being to whom no designation can apply. He organises the life-evolution in progress summoning for the purpose higher and subtler powers in the cosmos, providing them with instrumental organs in the physical body, activating them with impulsions that the limited mind cannot divine, and giving them a certain freedom to work out their possibilities whose results cannot always be anticipated.
An
omnipotent indiscernible Influence, This Indweller is all-powerful as he is instinct with his Self-Force which is inalienable from him. Yet, he does not make himself or his Power overtly patent. He reigns only through his influence which percolates through the various instrumentations in the being of man. He cannot be easily experienced or felt, shut in as he is by the opaque veils or sheaths that thickly envelop one another. What man normally feels to be himself is but the shadow-self, the Ego. The real Person is deep within, inaccessible to the outer intelligence. He is naturally conscious of all; his Knowledge is born of Truth-awareness, but he withholds that full Knowledge from the instrumental being until it is developed enough to hold and exercise it. Till then it is the limited mind with its tentative essayings at knowledge that rules. The real, effortless Knowledge waits within.
A
wanderer in a world his thoughts have made, He seeks for Knowledge in the domain of Mind created by himself by his ideations. He wanders in this world of changing error and truth, where error overwhelms the truth that seeks to express itself and truth displaces the reigning error in a seemingly endless combat, searching for a Knowledge which he already possesses on the heights of his own being.
As
one forgetting he searches for himself; Emerging from the involution in Matter, the Individual struggles to affirm himself; he tries to recover his own identity which has been put behind in the process of the involution; he gropes for external knowledge in the absence of the light of inner Knowledge which has been covered up by the obscurities of material evolution. He feels himself lost in surroundings that are foreign to his innate nature and presses on to return to his native station in the Spirit of which, however, he has lost direct contact and effective Knowledge.
His own selfâs truth he seeks who is the Truth; The Individual undergoes all the travail of evolutionary struggle in order to find and attain to that which he himself is, the truth. He battles with the negations that attempt to bar his way; he gains experience after experience, assimilates and grows in stature in furtherance of this end-But all the while he forgets that he himself is the Truth of truths, satyasya satyam, the supreme Transcendent who has poised himself as the Individual in the play of his manifestation.
He is
the Player who became the play, This World-play goes on in the very Being of the Divine. The Divine extends himself and provides the stage for the Play of manifestation which itself is an unrolling of the potentialities in himself. He is the Player who enacts the Play of his own becoming in his own Being. It is again he who perceives the truths to be manifested and conceives the Idea which renders them into terms of Thought on their way to execution.
One and Many He is the many who was the silent One. In his own home, sve dame, the Divine Being is indeed One, but he is not limited to his oneness. For the manifestation that he has projected he becomes the Many, without ever ceasing to be the One. For the Many exist and function on the base of this common oneness. The multitudinous expression occurs on the bosom of a primal Silence. Like sparks from a Fire -as the Upanishad describesâthe Many have issued out of the One.
In
the symbol figures of the cosmic Force All the workings of the Force in operation in the universe, whether they figure a secret design, whether they express themselves in forms moving or unmoving or whether they gather and effectuate themselves in happenings and events that cannot all be foreseen and fixed in order, are really continuing affirmations of the creative Divine Being in conditions that are quite the opposite of his innate nature of omniscience, omnipotence and bliss. The Individual scans these bewildering phenomena in order to find their significance and issue, phenomena which are, in fact, precipitations of his own greater Self that has come abroad as paryagÄt.
Till
the thousandfold enigma has been solved This multiplicity of life, this endless play of forces and beings in the universe, presents a problem which the human mind cannot solve. Each explanation devised by it turns out to be partial and liable to be contradicted by another. This continues till the real key to the problem is found in the One that is at the root of the Many. There is One Self. One Soul that is at the base of All' regarding All in play. When one realises this consciousness of the One Self and looks at the multitudinous universe in the perspective of that One Self, there is no more any mystery. All is seen to be the varied play of the one.
This
was his compact with his mighty mate, When the Divine wills to manifest, it poises itself into Two, Shiva and Shakti, Soul and Nature, and the creative movement proceeds on these two wheels. The Two are never separated whatever the appearance at certain stages of the process. They are freely bound to each other. Each is only conscious of identity with the other and each partners the other in this self-pouring of the Eternal in terms of Time. Both share one Supreme Will amidst all the vicissitudes of the manifestation in progress.
Amid
magic dramas of her sudden moods The course of Nature, the Power that is at work in the Cosmos, is not always predictable. There are movements that are totally unexpected, turn-backs, zig-zags, tentative trials, ups and downs, all of which give the appearance of moods, of unaccountable fancies on the part of Nature. But in truth, nothing is done on caprice; the surprises are only for the mind that cannot see beyond the surfaces of things. There is an impelling Truth-Idea behind every movement in Nature; the Truth that embodies itself in the Idea for its self-expression veils itself in the processes of Nature. All has a purpose.
Two
seem his goals, yet ever are they one Starting on his career of manifestation, the Divine Being moves from the infinities of the Spirit native to him and through a process of self-finitising arrives at Matter which is the terminus, as it were, of the formulation of the finite. From the finite Matter, he aims to journey back to the infinite Spirit. Spirit and Matter are thus the two ends of the manifestation which span the endless spread of Time. From the station of the Spirit, Matter appears as the goal even as from Matter, Spirit appears as the destination. Both of them, however, are not two separate opposites. They are truly two self-statements of the same One for the purpose of manifestation.
A
seeker of hidden meanings in lifeâs forms, The Divine Being in evolution journeys across the waters of infinite Consciousness that is outspread beneath the surface of the physical universe. He travels on the route that is provided and progressively revealed by the Executrix whose ways in furtherance of the Earth's objective are incalculable. He grows by learningâby experienceâthe truth behind events and the truths that are embodied in forms; for each form is ensouled by a truth that seeks expression through that figuration.
He is
the adventurer and cosmologist The earth is not just an expanse of physical Matter. It is a source and field of the manifestation of varied principles of existence e.g. life, mind, psychic etc. It is a divinely activated planet containing in its womb immense potentialities which are emerging in the course of evolutionâevolution being its unique characteristic. More and more of the history, the constitution, the lay-out of its components and the direction of its movement are being revealed to the intelligence of man as his knowledge grows. The Divine Being in evolution leads in this adventure and acquires growing knowledge of his field leading to eventual mastery.
In
her material orderâs fixed design Nature has several orders of existence, each with its unique character. Of these the physical organisation is distinguished by its law of fixity. Forms are definite, processes run in settled grooves; a kind of mathematical working is seen in its movements. Events and changes generally lend themselves to sure anticipations. Even when unforeseen changes are seen to take place at times, the pattern on the whole continues unchanged. Local variations do not affect the general scheme.
Even
though the end is left for ever unknown None knows precisely what is the end or when is the end - if there is one - of this world-movement. The life-stream is never even; the pressure of its currents varies from time to time, from place to place; it changes its course. All the same, the paths for the evolving Soul across the changing terrains towards a goal, unperceived are forged by a secret Will operating through all the vicissitudes of life.
As
stations in the agesâ weltering flood In this venture across the endless waters of life there come into view islands of mental standards and idealisms that beckon the weary traveller to break journey and settle down. But the evolving soul cannot rest permanently on these islets. They prove to be, in course of time, only temporary resting places, for soon they go under. New destinations raise their heads and the mind of man is irresistibly drawn towards them.
There
comes no close to the finiteâs boundlessness, Thus the journey of the soul embodied in finite form goes on and on. Though the form is limited in structure, there is indeed no limit to the soul's expanding consciousness, no finale to its movements. The thinking mind can. never be contained by any formations since the truth it seeks for constantly escapes the formula of thought. There is no finis either to the experience by which the soul grows in consciousness and stature; the field is ever extending and infinite.
A
limit, a farness never wholly reached, There is no end to the experiences to which the soul is drawn. In the spiritual evolution undertaken by the soul, there is no limit to growth because the perfection that is striven for always eludes the grasp. As one perceived height of perfection is attained, another height comes into view from the thitherto unperceived vasts of Existence. Each perfection becomes relative and the Quest moves on.
A long beginning only has been made. What has been achieved so far by Nature who is in charge of the Evolution of the world is just the beginning. All the slow, aeonic labours of Nature have only succeeded in bringing the soul from its original swoon in inconscience to the present stage of self-awareness. The soul stands awakened and in a position to pursue its course of growth at its own direction. The real character of the evolution is beginning to reveal itself Only now: from an unconscious evolution into a conscious evolution.
This
is the sailor on the flow of Time, The soul, the Divine in Evolution, works in the changing conditions of the past, present and future -constituting the duration of Timeâ, gets to know more and more of his material field and gains gradual control over it. When the soul takes the physical embodiment, he is at first tentative in his movements and confines himself to limited venture in keeping with his still undeveloped instrumenta faculties. In due course, however, as he grows and becomes accustomed to the conditions of life, he extends his operations, spreads his sails and boldly sets out of his far-out journey across the endless vasts of the Eternal in manifestation.
In
his world-adventureâs crude initial start At the outset of his terrestrial adventure - to manifest the Divine in conditions of contrariety -the soul is imprisoned, as it were, in a total Inconscience. His Consciousness is completely obscured and he is not actively aware of his own divine nature and its inherent force. Consequently he neither possesses the Knowledge of the immense plan of evolution nor is he sure of his steps as he moves ahead.
An
expert captain of a fragile craft, In the first stages of his journey on the sea of life, the soul confines his precarious embodiment to the shallow and narrow waters of physical existence. He is occupied with the small, local and fleeting interests of this material life and is loath to extend his sight and move into the larger waters that beckon him. He is unsure of the depths and currents of the vital, the mental and other orders of life and would rather play in the safe and accustomed waters of physical life.
He in
a petty coastal traffic plies, At this stage, of his early beginnings in the course of human evolution, the soul keeps to a limited range. His nature is governed almost entirely by the physical mind in whose mechanical grooves all his movements turn. He is content to live and exert in his habitual rounds. The aims are not high, the returns secured quick and brief, the contentments small. The nature is too dull and inert to go outside the safe zone it has fixed for itself within the orbit of the sense-mind. It will not venture into what is beyond the physically sensible.
But now he hears the sound of larger seas.
A
widening world calls him to distant scenes Man, however, does not stay confined to his first narrow physical rounds for long. As he stabilises himself and grows more and more confident, the soul's need for growth and expansion expresses itself in his looking for larger ambits of experience. He awakes to the larger worlds of feelings, emotions, dynamisms and thoughts extending beyond his tiny physical islet and begins to participate in them, to shift his centre of activities to them. The physical man slowly turns into the vital man, the mental man, the aesthetic man etc. on his way to becoming the spiritual man.
On a
commissioned keel his merchant hull Man does not, indeed he cannot, live by himself alone. Nature forces him to act and react to the universal life around him. Consciously or unconsciously he participated in the general movement and, in the measure of his output of energies, contributes to the progression that is manifesting on earth. He breaks out of his initial scaffoldings of the physical sense-based, self-centred existence and plays his part in the larger life-development around and above. Individually he grows in stature by adding more dimensions to his being; collectively he furthers the evolution of the world.
To
reach unknown harbour lights in distant climes Attracted by the thrills of the workings of life-energies, the satisfactions yielded by efforts at self-affirmation, the honeyed delights of passions and emotions, the securities and elegances of systems erected laboriously by thoughtâhowever, brief in their reign as each one is soon replaced by anotherâman strives to extend his empire in as many directions as possible. The fact that most of these gains are fleeting does not deter him; their glamour and pleasure is satisfying to his still undeveloped being.
Or
passing through a gate of pillar-rocks, Though he leaves his base, he sets out on his adventures tentatively and his course is neither steady nor sure. He has to negotiate rough and uneven edges in his transit from the grossly material to the less tangible domains; he is wary of spaces that are not yet charted and made known and does not go too far beyond safe limits He keeps within the reach of sure terrain even when he travels on new routes and tends to halt in mid-way stations however inadequate they may be.
Or,
guided by a sure compass in his thought, The guiding compass needle for man in his voyage from the base in material Inconscience to the plenary Consciousness of the Spirit across the belts of Ignorance is, for a long time, his thinking intelligence. Led by this mind he makes his way through its dubious glow that shuts off the natural guiding lights on the spiritual horizons of his being.
His
prow pushes towards undiscovered shores, In his search for secure dwellings of felicity, the traveller comes upon realms which he had not known before; he gets the joy of repeated discoveries, but he does not tarry for long in these midway stations. He puts them behind him, continues his journey across the vasts that open before him and takes a decisive turn towards the Eternal. He seeks no further the joys that are transient in the flow of time, he is arrested no more by objectives that are only intermediary. He pursues only the Eternal everywhere. The quest of man which is a spearhead of the quest of Nature, or rather of the Divine Being in finite Nature, for the Divine in Infinity and Eternity, takes a firm direction.
Life
changes for him its time-constructed scenes, Once this turn is taken decisively, all begins to change. The circumstances, the course of happenings take on a different hue. They no more oppress with their usual local and immediate bearings. It is seen that they are only appearances which conceal behind their deceptive surfaces the workings of greater truths of the Divine in manifestation. Behind the course of time is the Will of the Eternal.
Earthâs
borders recede and the terrestrial air As man advances in his onward journey of evolution, the hard boundaries of Matter-rooted earth-life are left behind and there is more freedom of movement, more and more facility for adaptation and progress natural to the subtler domain of existence. The downward pull of earthly gravitation loses its force and the very atmosphere that he breathes is lighter and purer; it does not cloud the consciousness as does the dense earthly air.
He
has crossed the limit of mortal thought and hope, A stage comes in the evolutionary progression of man when he stands in his consciousness at the utmost borders of the terrestrial world; human mind has stretched to its extreme and looks beyond itself. It regards from its summit the Vasts that open out across the frontiers of mortality, the unbounded Infinite and Eternal. Man is poised for a lead from the mortal into the Immortal.
A greater world Timeâs traveller must explore. Man has journeyed across the aeons of Time to arrive at his present summit of achievement. He has probed into the mysteries of physical Nature, acquired considerable control over her forces and is now coming to the farthest limits of the finite world in which he lives and moves. Greater domains stretch in front of him calling his spirit to cross into them. The journey ends not at the borders of this limited terrestrial world a larger, boundless world is there beyond and this too man, the explorer of the Infinite, must dare.
At
last he hears a chanting on the heights The realms beyond are not merely glimpsed; they summon him, who is ready in his consciousness, to breathe on their altitudes. Their subtler vibrations impinge upon his being. He hears their notes of call in soundsâthe celestial nÄdaâthat the sense-governed ear cannot catch. What was so far outside the range of the normal workings of the mind now sails into the purview of the extended and newly awakened faculties.
He
crosses the boundaries of the unseen Not, the inner hearing alone, but the inner eye also opens. Man begins to see domains of existence of which he had previously no sight. The limited physical seeing is replaced by a larger, subtler vision and he sees himself and all around him in a new light. Life takes on a new significance in the context of the revelations that come upon him.
He is
a spirit in an unfinished world Man realises that his first view of himself and the world was incomplete and errorful. He perceives that this world, with all its imperfections and inadequacies, is not a finished product and he himself is not wholly a creature of the material world. The world is a growing organism, an evolving creation in which man - carrying in himself a life spark of the Spirit that is prior to and independent of Matter - plays the leading part. Shrouded in Ignorance the world is not conscious of its own character and purpose, nor is it aware of the right significance of man.
The
surface symbol of his goalless quest To the man involved in this world in Ignorance, life appears to have no definite purpose. All activities, all movements, seem mechanical. Life goes on till it is swallowed up by death. In such a world the quest for happiness or any other objective of a lasting kind is well nigh hopeless. But as man emerges into the larger belts of Knowledge and inner Vision, this is found to be only a surface view. His life, his search, his goals, all acquire a new significance: a purpose runs through all the movements.
His
is a search of darkness for the light, The real nature of his quest, man comes to realise is the need to grow out of the darkness of inconscience and ignorance into the light of Consciousness and Knowledge. Man's nature is beset with the legacy of the dense obscurity of his beginnings in material inconscience and he seeks for the Light that dissolves the darkness. Similarly his life is constantly shadowed by death. Due to several factors deriving from unconsciousness and ignorance, bodily life is shot with decay, disintegration and death. He seeks for a state that is free from these disabilities; mortal nature aspires for the immortal.
In
the vessel of an earthly embodiment Afloat on the quick-changing waters of Time in this universe is man in his boat of the physical body activised by life-force. He is confined to the range of his senses and sees and grasps as far as they will go. He is endowed with a mind which feebly lights his way across the enveloping darkness of the world's Ignorance. The body in which he journeys is of limited duration; the senses which are his instruments for contact with the world are limited to their physical reach; the mind which acts as his lamp in the perilous voyage through the dark of the pervading Ignorance is but a feeble light.
There
is limned ever retreating from the eyes, As man travels forth setting sail, he glimpses vague figures of what appears to be his destination. His sight is hazy beyond the immediate range and all that he can see on the horizon is a dim outline. As he advances to reach it, the figured shore also moves ahead. So the journey goes on the goal ever escaping his reach.
A
sailor on the Inconscientâs fathomless sea, That is man. He is a voyager on the endless waters of life, on the bosom of a stark inconscient extension of Matter. The ship in which he sails is of the hard substance of Matter. His route lies through expanses that are lit by tiny fragmentary specks of mental light. The destination is the lustrous Sun of the plenary Consciousness of the Truth spiritual that shines for ever.
Across
the noise and multitudinous cry, The destined goal of man is there beyond the longest and the largest vistas of the earth-world that has been mapped out to a great extent by his intelligence. The route lies across the varied domains that stretch between the earth and the destination beyond. It passes through the vital life-worlds with their hectic, chaotic and turbulent movements, the mental worlds with their innumerable thought-progeny clashing for supremacy and the still higher regions where all is still, all is suffused with states of impregnable silence.
But
none learns whither through the unknown he sails The destination is indeed fixed, but man has no certain knowledge of it. He plies his little craft this way or that, allowing himself to be carried by any current that flows in the direction he is led. He does not know where he is going. Neither is he conscious of the real objective of his life-journey in the welter of the many fleeting purposes that hold his attention and consume his energies on the route. There is a divinely appointed task for each one but man knows it not in his present state of ignorance; it awaits behind the evil its hour of revelation.
In
the hidden strength of her omnipotent Will,
In
the hidden strength of her omnipotent Will, The impulsions for man's voyage from life to life come from the irresistible Will of the great Cosmic Power, the Mahashakti who has a Purpose to be served by him. Through all the obscurities and obstructions of the physical life, through all the violent uprushes and whorls of passions and energies of the vital life, through all the smokescreens and opacities of the ignorant mental life and through the still silences of the farther regions, it is the force of the Cosmic Power that pushes the boat of man who is unaware of his final destination and the purpose for which he is set afloat. That knowledge lies veiled in his heart.
Late
will he know, opening the mystic script, It is only as he advances in the course of his evolutionary journey that man will become conscious of the intention, come to know whether the goal chosen for his soul is a cessation into the Silent Immutable Beyond or the authorised discovery of the greater Glory of God, a vaster Dynamis wherein his body will be new-made and his mind undergo a transforming change.
And
enshrine the Immortal in his gloryâs house To discover the dynamic Being of the Divine beyond the static, immutable poise, to new-create himself in the consciousness and force, the substance and the spirit of that Glory is the goal set for man. Only so can the object of this manifestation be achieved: the establishment and embodiment of the Immortal in conditions of mortality, the affirmation of the Infinite in terms of the finite.
Across
the salt waste of the endless years The boat of the traveller loses its direction now and then, but the breath of the Guiding Power sweeps it ahead. The voyage is long, a good deal of it lying through dreary interminable passages-Oft swift-flowing currents and cross-currents of the universal forces toss him into dangerous adventures that challenge his spirit.
Always he follows in her forceâs wake. Whatever the course, whatever the dangers ahead, the voyager sails where the leading Power takes him. It is the Force of the mighty Nature at work that blazes the trail and man follows along. She leads, she impels man to fulfil the task imposed by her.
He
sails through life and death and other life, The journey is continuous. There is no break in it whether the traveller is awake or asleep. The consciousness goes on working, gaining experience and developing, in all the conditions: waking or dreaming or sleeping. Nor is it interrupted by death of the body in which it is housed. The scene changes, the conditions alter, but the effort and course of advance continues. The soul, the consciousness, gathers up all the experience it has lived while in the body and proceeds to work upon it in the other states of life that lie beyond the passage of death.
A
power is on him from her occult force There is an. incessant pressure of the Cosmic Power on man to work his way through the evolutionary journey on which he is launched. The machinery through which this driving force operates is the chain of action and reaction in the field of his effort. On his strenuous journey, the soul is allowed no rest, no cessation till the shadow of the inconscience and the ignorance that pursued him from the very beginnings of earthly embodiment is dissipated and the unobscured radiance of the Spirit lights up his existence. The stress of evolution is inescapable for man till he outgrows his legacy of original Ignorance and emerges into the reign of the Light of Truth.
As
long as Nature lasts, he too is there; The soul, the Purusha, and his nature, the Shakti the Prakriti, are thus ever at play in this field of manifestation. It is this interaction that is the lever of the whole movementâindividual or universal. Wherever she is seen to be active, he is certain to be there. There may be variations in their poise, one may obscure the other, but both are always together in their oneness.
Even
when he sleeps, he keeps her on his breast: In the course of the Cosmic Play Shiva, the Purusha, may assume an inactive poise. But even in that supine position, he supports on his bosom the Shakti in her gyrations of world-rhythms. Whatever elements in the cast may fail her, Shiva does not. He is always with her in action or in inaction. When he withdraws from the world-movement, the Becoming, she too is withdrawn into his Being of Silence, the Immutable Beyond.
There
is a truth to know, a work to do; This universal movement is not a freak of Chance or a trick or play of some Illusion or a meaningless whirligig of a mechanical Force. It is a purposeful development out of the Infinite Being of the Divine. Behind all movementâindividual and universalâthere is a direction towards an ultimate objective. The Truth of SachidÄnanda, the infinite ExistenceConsciousness-Bliss of the Spirit is to be realised here on earth in conditions of material embodiment. Immortality is to be won and established in the present field of death. Towards this end the evolutionary progression of the soul from Matter to the Supreme Spirit through the intermediate stages of life, mind etc. is to be gradually worked out. This is the mystery of birth and life which the Purusha is at work to unravel. If LilÄ it is, it is a real game of the Eternal with a definite purpose and consequence, all appearances of chance or automatism notwithstanding.
This
ever she meant since the first dawn of life, This is the Purpose the Cosmic Power has before her in her multifarious and aeonic labour. Ever since the first shoot of Consciousness-life appeared on the bleak rock of material existence, the Great Puissance, the Divine Mother, has been single-minded in impelling, the upward growth of the world in Consciousness. Her will, prajnÄ, is active in every movement, at every moment, on earth though its workings may be veiled by the surface appearances of a game with which she amuses herself.
To evoke a person in the impersonal Void, One objective is to evolve out of the indeterminate, vast materiality of this existence a determinate form with a determinant soul. All is an impersonal extension withOut life, without form, at the beginning of this terrestrial venture. The fashioning Power aims to build out of this void a living individuality.
With the Truth-Light strike earthâs massive roots of trance, The roots of the tree of earth-existence are struck deep in the soil of the Inconscient. There the Consciousness of the earth-being is lost in a self-oblivious swoon; all is dark obscurity. To strike at this dark Inconscience with the undeflectable Light of the Divine Truth and eliminate it completely is another objective. By so doing a full reign of the Divine Consciousness down to the nethermost regions of earth-life will be made possible.
Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths The soul-entity that lies involved in the primal Inconscience at the base of this Existence is inarticulate. The Power that seeks to build the evolution of the Divine Consciousness on earth, first works to awake this entity, then make it conscious of itself and gradually active.
And raise a lost power from its python sleep It is not merely the soul-being that is lost in the layers of Inconscience. The power of that being is also heavily asleep in this state of involution. This force is awakened and its energism slowly called into operation. It is this power released from its dormant state that acts as a dynamis in the emergent evolution.
That
the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time As a result of all the workings of the Cosmic Power directed by the Divine Will in her the evolution of the Divine Consciousness in the universe grows apace. The Divine Being progressively builds himself on earth in his increasing power and glory, so that eventually, the Eternal takes his station in the field of Time. The Divine that has been hitherto present and active behind the veils of the triple Ignorance of mental, vital and physical nature, comes into the open and stands manifest in and as the World-existence. This is the glorious objective of the world-movement, the grand finale of the Cosmic Play of the Divine Plan: to manifest the Divine Truth on Earth.
For
this he left his white infinity It is for this fulfilment of manifestation that the Divine, the One moved into the double poise of He and She, the Two, and multiplied himself, bahudhÄ vyajÄyata; involuted his scarless infinity into the fragmented infinitesimal; accepted to put on the cloak of dense Matter over his pure boundless Spirit. He extended himself into primordial Space and cast his Godhead into it so that in its becoming he may reveal himself there. |