Book Two. The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII
Canto IX
Canto X Canto XI Canto XII
Canto XIII Canto XIV
Canto XV
Book Two
The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
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Book Two: Canto V The Godheads of the Little Life
A whole crowd of tiny entities, uncouth, in constant movement appears before his eye—elves, imps, goblins, genii and the rest, half-animal, half-god. They are seen at their work behind the veil, prompting, impelling, pushing, perverting. Their only work seems to be to spoil and vitiate and amuse themselves in the process. Their activities are not confined to their own world but extend to other worlds also. Wherever there is narrowness, chaos and obscurity, there these petty beings cast their influence. They lurk in the unconscious and half-conscious parts of man and lead him astray. The earth is not a closed system. It is open to the action of the powers of other worlds; it is a field of evolution and progress, not a set typal world like the others. All here moves through contradiction and struggle towards an eventual harmony and perfection. But the way is long and the passage is through the belts of inconscience, blindness and ignorance. However, there is a Divine Will and Power that leads the movement and assures a successful culmination into freedom and Light. At the beginning of this mysterious world all appears to be the movement of a brute machine. But in truth there is God within, sitting unseen, and all is his action and his will. In the course of a rapid movement the Spirit became Matter. There was a pervading silence in which forms appeared. There was no sensation yet. Consciousness was not yet patent. All was inconscient. But behind and working through this inconscient was the intelligence of God. Consciousness was concealed; so was concealed the Bliss that is at the origin of all things. All was driven by a mechanical Force. In the first etheric Space there came vibration, touch and friction. This led to the birth of Fire. Electric Energy with its wave-particles came next and this material scheme was the result with the atom holding the high potential of Power. This miraculous world is a riddle to the intellect of man which has to proceed through its obscuring ignorance. is it a parable of Maya? it asks itself. Perpetual motion and Energy on a static base within a fixed orbit is the picture as it appears at first. But after a time, life breaks out in Nature and a new phase of conscious movement begins. Life animated the material forms but was subject to the laws of Matter. Though outwardly it was not conscious of its purpose, its movements bespoke an active Will within. Sensation, feeling, thrill began to reveal themselves. Life stretched itself through desire. Gradually came the first beginnings of mind through the peerings of thought. Animal creation followed. Man was moulded from this stuff. In him appeared the thinking mind that was to uplift life and impose an order on its restless powers. In man Nature became overtly conscious and raised her head towards the Light of Heaven above. A developing conscious rule of Nature began to be formulated through man. The ego—a shadow-figure of the true being within—was first formed by Nature with the little joys, hopes, passions and loves of a brief life centred around it. Within him was the soul that was not affected by these fleeting exercises of life and the cessations of life. It watched the toils of Nature moving steadily towards a greater future under the impulsion of a concealed Intelligence. The mind is unable to unravel the mystery of this vast universe. It scans only the surfaces; its imaginative flights taper off into mystic altitudes. Human life, will and mind are too limited and out of accord with their universal terms to feel and know the great workings of the Cosmic Power behind the Veil. Men are moved from their subliminal and subconscient levels of being by universal impulsions. The mind at this stage is a thinking puppet of the life-force. It is moved and buffeted by little agents of darkness from behind, elemental spirits who are, however, used by a Power greater than themselves. Men think they act on their own; but in fact they are manipulated by these forces and beings from behind the Veil. Men are but actors in the tragi-comedy of their little lives directed by these prompters from across the border. Such is the routine life of man as long as he is content to live subjected to his lower nature. His life turns in petty grooves, happy in small pleasures, suffering in little disappointments. On occasions a help from greater Nature is vouchsafed but the human receptacle cannot hold the gift for long and it recedes. If man were the highest poise of which Nature is capable and his limitations and deformations the final word, then this world would be little more than a meaningless accident in Time, a dream or fantasy. But this is not the truth of things. To a deeper seeing, beyond the limited surface sight of the mind, a greater vision reveals itself. The world vibrates with the Light of God, it is a developing play of the gods developing from the finite to the Infinite, from the Night of Inconscience to the Day of Truth. Behind the apparent, struggling Nature is at work a divine Power sure of its aim. A Presence watches and leads from above. The One is at play as the Many. Behind the pain and suffering of the world is an undying bliss. Within the Form there sits the Soul awaiting its hour of emergence, preparing its nature-parts down to the very physical cells for its manifestation. The Soul casts its rays of bliss, of beauty, of power, now and then, and those are the high moments of the outer being. Through these influxes from within and invoked descents from above the being of man shall grow, climb and rise high into the greater altitudes of the Spirit, into its unsullied realms of Power, Bliss, Light. Aswapathy advances through the mists of the empire of the Little Life: chaotic expanses peopled with little demons of misleading shapes and whispering ghosts. He is a moving point of light showing up, as it were, the surrounding gloom of the region. All is dark here in its immensity, his spirit's flame is the only light.
A
fixed and narrow power with rigid forms,
It
lived upon the margin of the Idea Aswapathy regards this domain of infant life. He sees how narrow and inadequate is the power of life active here and how rigid are its forms—an annexe of misery, unending in duration. It does not embody the Truth-Idea that inspired it at its origin; it exists on its periphery. And this very ignorance of its true origin and nature seems to safeguard its present existence, for if that knowledge were present, this order would cease to be, yielding place to a formulation more in consonance with its Truth-Idea.
Then,
hoping to learn the secret of this world Aswapathy seeks to unravel the secret truth of this world of little Life, to discover the nature of theForce that has brought into being and sustains it in its movement. He would know the precise Truth-Idea that is the seed and the origin of this finite formation in the Infinite, this small bounded world in the limitless expanse of the Vast. For this purpose he directs his gaze beyond the obscurity that lies behind the apparent clarities on the surface.
The
ruling spirit of its littleness, He seeks to know the truth behind this formation of littleness. For unless there is some sustaining truth behind, no creation can exist, least of all one that is contrary to the nature of the Creative Being which is Infinite. If such a small, limited world has been brought into existence there must be some purpose in it, some possibility that calls for fulfilment in the manifestation and gives it a claim on the energies of manifesting Nature.
He
plunged his gaze into the siege of mist Piercing its hazy exterior with his gaze, Aswapathy sees a world which is dimly lit, constricted and narrow, surrounded on all sides by an ignorance which seems to be there to guard it from all contact with the luminous Truth that is the real origin and the Self of all creation. For if it were directly touched by that Reality, its very nature of smallness and darkness would get dissolved.
As
when a search-light stabs the Night’s blind breast Aswapathy's sight alights on the scene like a brilliant searchlight falling on the darkness of the night. The film of obscurity that conceals is broken through and things begin to appear in their full details to his clear vision. Nothing remains hidden or half-hidden from him.
A
busy restless uncouth populace
In
a mist of secrecy wrapping the world-scene He sees a world teeming with uncouth creatures, restless, shabby in their incompleteness, vague and undistinguished in their thousands. He sees too behind the veil, the little godheads of this nether plane, far removed from the active control of the higher Intelligence, absorbed in the little rounds of their kingdom, busy, influencing and moving the creatures of the earth without their knowledge. Men in their ignorance think that all their activities and movements are their own. But in fact, many of these are impelled by agencies like these little deities acting from behind the veil of the physical exterior.
Amused
with the small contrivings, the brief hopes
A
trepidant and motley multitude, These tiny spirits of the life-world in their bizarre forms, each unlike the other, are absorbed in setting up varied life-formations to satisfy their passing whims.
Astonished
by the unaccustomed glow, As Aswapathy's gaze moves acting like a torch lighting up the dim, unlit areas of this world, strange creatures spring to his view. He sees little devilish beings with ill-formed or mal-formed limbs and animal faces and side by side fairy-like creatures gentle and slender. There are also fairer spirits with handsome forms but empty within because there is no soul in them. Higher than these are the godlings, fallen beings who having deviated from the path of Truth forfeited their saving godly element, fell from their rightful state and slid down to this lowly position.
Ignorant
and dangerous wills but armed with power, These entities and beings are queer. Their forms, half--animal and half-god, reflect their states of inner consciousness. They are partly actuated by animal impulses and partly led by godward movements; they are mischievous, sadistic; they are also helpful, kind. It depends on their mood how they act. They have power to influence and move things in the creation, but their will is dangerous because they are ignorant. Their power is liable to be wrongly used.
Out
of the greyness of a dim background Their field of action is the nether plane of Life, the dominion of life-nature. They themselves are not visible but their activities are palpable. They prompt with soft voices but impel with definite force and raise in the minds of the creatures of this world appropriate thoughts and words, induce consent in them to their impulsions. It is thus that they hold creatures under the rule of the small life-nature. Those who react to such promptings and impulsions and follow them feel restless and unhappy due to the presence and pressure of this foreign element. They cannot move and act on their own but as propelled by these unhealthy agents from elsewhere; their inner being resists this influence and action and this causes the unease.
Its
seed of joy they curse with sorrow’s fruit, These entities play havoc in the world governed by their small life-nature. Joy is natural to life, but these beings vitiate its movements and cause sorrow to result instead; whatever light of Consciousness is there, they try to put it out with spurts of false suggestions: even the little truth that manages to reach the surface, they pervert to serve falsehood. Whatever small emotions and passions there are in the creatures here, are stampeded by these entities to end in disaster, or drawn into paths of struggle and arrestation. They twist and spoil all that is helpful and healthy.
Or
else with a goad of hard dry lusts they prick, They plant desires of the flesh, crude wants of the senses, and whip up the indolent life-energies to run hither and thither for satisfaction with no issue at the end. The life-movement, for all its activity, remains bounded in its circle of ignorance.
To
sport with good and evil is their law; These beings delight in opposing good with evil; they enjoy this opposition and struggle as a play. They tempt with glittering prizes and lead men to disappointment; even when they reward with successes, those successes prove to be without content, valueless. They contaminate and spoil standards and corrupt those who uphold them. The ideals by which men evaluate their conduct and movements are rendered deceptive. In their hands even knowledge is turned harmful; they induce men into believing that their little knowings are the whole truth and rush them to disastrous results. Virtue is turned into an unattractive, habitual mode, while its opposite is presented in an attractive garb.
And
lead the endless cycles of desire And they promote the spread of desire. Desires are endless; one desire leads to another and men get wound up in their convolutions. These beings encourage and prolong the play of desires, punctuating the course with apparently pleasant and unpleasant interludes, and finally lead men to the inevitable end, destruction.
All by their influence is enacted there.
Nor
there alone is their empire or their role: To all half-conscious worlds they extend their reign. These beings not only act upon and influence creatures and movements in the world of lower life, but work in other ways also, though less directly. Wherever the soul, the divine element in each creature, is pushed behind and rendered inoperative, where life is allowed to drift without a meaningful guidance, where things run in small grooves centreing round one's little ego, where ignorance, selfishness and narrowness abound shutting out light, love and wideness, there these perverted and perverting agents are busy. They get scope wherever consciousness is not yet wakeful and there is obscurity. Unconscious and semiconscious states provide ideal conditions for these entities to do their mischief.
Here
too these godlings drive our human hearts, These supra-physical beings are always on the lookout for openings in human beings for their entry. Where human nature is still not fully awake and alert, where obscurity and unconsciousness still reign, there they sneak in and establish themselves. From these unlit regions they spread themselves through their characteristic movements of wrong impulses, uncurbed desires, unhealthy thoughts, and drive men helplessly, as they will.
Here
too the darkened primitive heart obeys The unenlightened heart of man is also open to another distorting influence. It receives indirect suggestions from a concealed source of error, the vital mind, which is an instrument of ignorant desire. Whatever the heart naturally knows is misinterpreted and misdirected by the distorting workings of this mind. This mind intervenes between the struggling consciousness of man below and the truth above that can deliver it out of its bondage to lower nature. It distorts, misguides and impels wrongly.
It
speaks to us with the voices of the Night: The promptings of this desire mind lead man not towards the light of knowledge and freedom but unfailingly towards the darkness of deeper ignorance. He walks into the greater obscurity of the vital nature. Hopes are raised which ultimately lead to greater bondage and disaster.
A
structure of unseeing thoughts is built Thinking is a natural faculty of the mind. But the vital mind uses this power for its own unregenerate purposes. Erroneous thoughts are inspired, coloured and fed by it to multiply in their blind brood. Even the faculty of reasoning is not allowed to function for its rightful purpose of discrimination and understanding but is used by this force from below to oppose totally the light of reason.
This
earth alone is not our teacher and nurse; This material plane of which our earth here is a part is not a self-sufficient universe separate from other planes of the Creation. The whole Creation is a system of many planes and the material plane on which the earth is formed is one of them. These planes—and the worlds on each of them—are all interconnected, interpenetrating. The Principles on which each plane is organised and the Powers of that plane act upon the Principles and Powers of other planes and are themselves subject to their operation. Thus beings on earth are acted upon not only by the Powers native to earth, but also by the Powers of other planes and worlds. Man grows and evolves by the pressure and help of Powers that belong both to the terrestrial and to the supra-terrestrial worlds in the Creation.
In
their own fields they follow the wheel of law In each of the supra-physical worlds, the forces that are active conform to the Law of the world. They move within set grooves and are not liable to change. Each of these worlds is a typal creation and is concerned with the maintenance of that order of existence. There is no movement of change as on earth. They are not evolving systems.
On
earth out of their changeless orbit thrown But things are different on earth. The forces are free to work out their possibilities in this field of evolution. They are not obliged to keep to set lines of functioning. The principle of each power remains but not its typal expression. On earth these powers intermingle and undergo modifications as a result.
Into
a creative chaos they are cast All the powers and elements from the other planes are released on earth to manifest their truths. They are thrown together in what looks like a chaos but is really a creative situation. There is an urge for orderly growth from all, but things are driven as if by chance into a meaningful disorder. All have to conform to the laws of earth-nature if they are to function and establish themselves in the earth-field. Underneath all movement there is a constant and relentless drive for true harmony, for true unity. All the disparate elements are forced to work out this harmony by association, by dissociation and by a fresh and stronger union through the interaction of cooperation and resistance, attraction and repulsion.
Our
life’s uncertain way winds circling on, Human life on earth struggling to find the joy of existence turns this way and that pursuing it. It follows a circuitous path learning the same lessons again and again. So also is it with the human mind restless in its quest for knowledge. Both life and mind are ever on the move searching, and this search will continue till they perceive and realise that what they seek for is beyond their present formulation, is ever there in the eternal existence transcending Time and Space, this eternal existence which is also their own source. For from the Delight of the One has issued Life to realise the joy of manifold creation; from the Consciousness of the Eternal is projected the mind-power to manifest the self-existent Knowledge.
But
now the Light supreme is far away: Now, however, in the present stage of the development of human life and mind on earth, the Source-Light of the supreme Consciousness is far away. What operates in life is not the Light of that Consciousness but the law of inconscience in Matter in its compulsive workings. Not only are the unconscious and semiconscious movements governed by the inconscience—that is but natural—but even the movements that are conscious are obliged to obey the dictates of the inconscience.
To
ignorant purposes and blind desires Very few of man's movements are rightly inspired and achieve the ends of a higher evolution towards Light and Truth. Man is generally moved by the force of his nature which is mostly unenlightened and only partly conscious of the purpose of life and he puts out his energies for the fulfilment of small, obscure desires and worthless objects. Even the exertions of his mind—the most developed part of man end in defective results, its movements being mixed due to fallible intrusions from the physical and vital nature.
A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free. Whatever may be the intensity of the human will, it is circumscribed by the nature of the field in which it has to function. This world is still governed by the laws of inconscience, of ignorance; the element of consciousness that is emerging is still inadequate and the change it is able to effect is slow. This fact restricts the action of the will. And so it will be till the emerging soul in evolution completely breaks out from the shell of ignorance and inconscience in which it is enclosed and comes into its own free movement.
A
mighty Hand then rolls mind’s firmaments back, Then only ends this dream of nether life. Once this release of the soul from the clamps of the lower laws is effected, all changes. A Higher Power begins to act. The limited scope of the mind is widened into larger horizons and the Nature hitherto functioning in the obscurities of Ignorance is lifted up into the clarities of a supernal Light. Finite workings are converted into infinite. Thus will pass the evil dream of this lower life of helpless struggle and pain.
At
the outset of this enigmatic world This world of ours is truly enigmatic; its character is baffling. Seen superficially, it looks a gigantic material mechanism without any intelligence, a huge mechanical movement. But when it is observed more closely, there reveals itself, in its movement, a gradual unveiling of an indwelling Spirit, a Consciousness that is everywhere.
In
this revolving chamber without walls This world is not static. It is a continual movement, an endless whirling. But within this dizzying whirl there sits God unmoved, unaffected. He is everywhere, yet it is as if there is no self-awareness; all is apparently unconscious. He is hidden in the folds of the inconscience in which he has plunged himself and is not perceptible to the human eye. Nevertheless, all lives and moves at his will, all is an action of his Force.
In
this whirl and sprawl through infinite vacancy At the outset this is what happened: In the vast self-extension and self-projection of its own Being, the Spirit rapidly converted itself into Matter through a series of devolutionary steps, and lay there self-forgetful. It was in a swoon in the body of Matter; the body was consequently insensate, without articulate consciousness.
A
mass phenomenon of visible shapes This was the appearance of the material creation at that stage: innumerable forms of Matter, with no apparent movement of sensations within, coming into existence in the perspective of the eternal Divine Consciousness and maintained by the pervading Silence of the Vacancy everywhere.
There
was none there to see and none to feel; With no articulate consciousness on the scene there was naturally none to see or feel in that world. The only dominant fact was the existence of an Inconscient which had miraculously appeared in the extension of a supreme Consciousness. And this Inconscient was at work in its own way, not overtly indeed, but behind the veil, with a skill that was amazing in what appeared to be a totally static creation.
Inventing
ways for magical results, The working of this Inconscient was teleological. It aimed at sudden and novel results; it created new and newer ways of achieving them. The wisdom at work was indeed mute, not articulate yet, but it left its impressions at important junctures. The Inconscient was far away yet from the possibility of thinking, but it drew upon the Truth-Idea that is not thought out but exists on its own at the origin of every creation as its seed-pattern. Thus did the Inconscient perform the work of the high Intelligence of God, execute the Will of the supreme Creative Spirit. Behind the mask of Inconscient there was active, the Intelligence and the Will of God pressing through the Real-Idea at the source of things.
Still
consciousness was hidden in Nature’s womb, Being was an inert substance driven by Force. In spite of all these operations that were on, the effecting consciousness was not yet patent; it was still concealed in the womb of Nature. Neither was felt the Delight that was the ultimate Cause of all creation. For, as the Upanishad puts it, from Ananda all is born. Out of the ebullient Bliss of Brahman the universe has come to be. There was no sensibility yet. The Being was not active, wielding the force of its consciousness as it does on its own supreme plane. On the other hand, it was here an inert substance driven by a Force. The conscient, blissful, dynamic Being had turned into inconscient, insentient, inert substance.
At
first was only an etheric Space: The first condition in the formation of this material world was an etheric extension. The creative Spirit formulated itself as a vast spread of ether. But it was not a void. It was instinct with an impulsion that yet to form itself. The ceaseless motion of the vibrations of ether was the commencement of that process.
Upheld
by a supreme original Breath The next stage was the self-modification into air whose characteristic action of expansion and contraction led to the phenomena of touch and friction. Where all was practically a motionless void, there came to be a movement of contact, of friction and of hold. After Ether, whose character is sound-producing vibrations, comes Air with the quality of touch.
Parent
of an expanding universe This action of the element of air in creating a continuous movement of touch and friction initiated the beginnings of a universe of future forms based upon relation. If the creative Force appeared to spend itself in this transaction it also built up simultaneously a vast potentiality.
On
the hearth of Space it kindled a viewless Fire Then came Fire, the self-modification into light and heat. There began the action of the power of luminous heat which resulted in the eruption of shining bodies like the systems of stars spinning in the vasts of Space.
An
ocean of electric Energy The creative Force then formulated itself into a luminous, dynamic Energy which fanned out into wave-particles constantly in motion. These particles in ceaseless movement built this solid pattern of creation. And the mighty Energy shut itself in its tiniest concentration—the atom. The atom, the infinitesimal unit in material creation, holds in itself a reservoir of the Energy that has built the Universe.
Masses
were forged or feigned and visible shapes; Thus came to be forms and appearances of forms of massed Matter; they were lighted up by the play of flashes of light. Revealed was an order of forms patent to the eye.
Thus
has been made this real impossible world, It looks impossible that such a concrete formation as this universe could have come into existence from what was practically a Void, and that too an ordered universe, not a chaos. But it is here and the miracle cannot be denied. If it is not real, then it has an appearance that is real enough to be convincing.
Or
so it seems to man’s audacious mind At any rate that is the appearance the world bears to the eye of man who sees through the spectacles of his fumbling but foolhardy mind. He makes his limited thinking faculty the judge of what is truth and what is not; what he is able to regard in his clipped vision he assumes to be the real nature of things. His own misleading senses and imperfect faculties are his reporters of the world around.
Thus
must he work life’s tangible riddle out And this is the way he has to proceed and learn. The light that his mind sheds on the path is always uncertain, but he has to walk with whatever help he can get from it. So too the workings of his mentality are always exposed to error, but he is obliged to search for truth and hope to arrive at it through the process of trial and error. Thus does man slowly advance, steadily removing the veils of obscurity and ignorance and getting across the surface appearances to the truth of things. Thus is he enabled to solve the pressing problems that life poses before him.
Or
else, forlorn of faith in mind and sense, Man can interpret the reality of the objective world only in terms of the experience of his mind and his senses; the impact seems real and therefore the world seems real. But often he distrusts his mind and the reports of his senses. Warily he forms a knowledge of the world which, however, is only a glittering robe woven by his ignorance. To him this miraculous world appears to be only a cruel deception, a transient show, a fiction created by Maya, the Power of Illusion.
This
vast perpetual motion caught and held This was the picture in the first stages of this material creation: There was a constant motion (jagat) of and in the universe, but the motion was contained in a mysterious determination; there was a continuous change in the situation, from moment to moment, of the containing Time, and yet, looked at from another viewpoint, nothing really changed in terms of the constituting Spirit. The movement went on in circles and things appeared to come back to their original position again and again. Time is duration, a movement of the Eternal. Eternity pouring itself in manifestation from its own transcendent status is Time.
These
static objects in the cosmic dance What appeared to be stationary objects were really formations in rapid motion of an unseen Cosmic Energy, a motion that was repetitive and stretched out by some presiding spirit of that pregnant Void. All awaited the advent of life, of sensation, of the awareness of mind.
A little the Dreamer changed his pose of stone. Where there was absolute immobility and inconscience, there came a motion of Energy. This was significant. For it revealed a modification in the status of the creative Spirit. Even the sheer materiality of the stone is a state assumed by the creative Dreamer at work. The stone is but an appearance of God.
But
when the Inconscient’s scrupulous work was done Thus did the Inconscient operate with faultless accuracy; its unseen Energy worked ceaselessly, precisely, impelled by the hidden Intelligence. No quarter was given for chance happenings; all was determined by the unchanging Laws of the inconscient order of existence. It was only after the work at this stage of evolution was completed that things were ready for the next stage: conscious action replacing the hitherto unconscious operation in Nature.
Then
stirred the Spirit’s mute immobile sleep; Till then all was immobile, inarticulate, in the swoon of sleep. The energy that worked was not patent; it was at work below the surface. But now the Force began to emerge into the open, slowly, without articulate expression.
A
dream of living woke in Matter’s heart, In the heart of Matter there arose an impulse to be alive. A force of life erupted from the bosom of inert Matter and a slender jet of life appeared on the scene. It was tentative, transient, small in formation, yet it was a fact, something new, a departure from the prevailing dead order of existence.
A
subtler breath quickened dead Matter’s forms; The gross forms of Matter were suddenly animated by a fine breath of life. The mechanical rhythms of the world-movement took on a new character of conscious articulation. The Force that was hitherto unconscious and insensible found itself alongside a dynamic and conscious Power. Insensible Force was not all. There came in a conscious Power too. Together they functioned.
Islands
of living dotted lifeless space
A
life was born that followed Matter’s law, Life broke forth here and there in the huge lifeless desert of formed Matter that was. Even in the spread of air that was formless there came into being seed-forms of life. However, the life that was so born followed the laws of Matter in which it had appeared; it was not aware of the purpose behind its movements, it was mechanical in its operations.
Ever
inconstant, yet for ever the same, Unlike Matter from which it sprang forth, life was changeful in its forms of movement but basically it remained the same in nature. All the changing forms and movements of life were really recurrent gyrations of the same life-force. It may not have consciously directed its flowings into various formations, but the patterns revealed that there was a designing Will behind, exerting from within.
Waking
and sleep lay locked in mutual arms; At the stage of the beginnings of life in the material creation, living things were neither fully awake nor completely asleep; they were partly both. Wakefulness easily passed into sleep and sleep tended to break into awakening under the action of the life-force. Sensations started and vague involuntary reactions of pleasure and pain commenced. The living Being began to vibrate with the stirrings of conscious life.
A
strength of life that could not cry or move, Life was not yet sufficiently articulate and organised, but it revealed a beauty that bespoke some profound delight within—beauty being the form taken by delight. Where there was inertia, sleep and somnolence, there broke out vibrations of vague sensations, throbs of blind feeling. There was an unsure movement of the thrill of life. It was as if an eye closed in sleep was opening slowly.
Infant self-feeling grew and birth was born.
A
godhead woke but lay with dreaming limbs; The feeling of being began to take shape and grow. A new formation came into existence. The being of life appeared on the soil of Matter but it was still; awareness was flowing into it but it was not mobile. Its enclosure of Matter would not let it go forth from within its walls.
Insentient
to our eyes that only see The normal human eye sees only the surface of things, the superficial rim of movements. It regards the form but does not perceive the spirit, the soul embodied in that form. It looks at the obvious act but does not see the agent that acts from within. The human sight stops with the body, it does not penetrate within to glimpse the soul that is encased in the body and activises it.
Life
hid in her pulse occult of growth and power To such a surface-bound sight, life was naturally not perceptible in her true nature. She looked to be without palpable sentience. The secret content of growing power and consciousness was concealed with but weak automatic sense-reactions on the surface. Also concealed was the mentality in seed-form that was there, though the element of thinking was not yet. Veiled too was the indwelling spirit which was not yet active but was just holding itself in existence.
At
first she raised no voice, no motion dared: Though animated by a power of cosmic magnitude and loaded with a live force, life at first was not openly articulate, nor mobile in her movements. She held fast to the safety of mother earth. She thrilled to the impacts of light and air but in a mute way. Her first tentative stretchings were in the form of desires. Life asserts herself and expands on the crest of desire. Her innate nature of self-affirmation and self-enlargement first expresses itself as desire.
The
strength in her yearning for sun and light Life yearned and strained for the light and heat of the sun but in the very intensity of her seeking, she failed to feel palpably the response that enabled her to exist. She was wrapt in herself. She was absorbed in the beauty and the colour of her forms.
At
last the charmed Immensity looked forth: However, at long last, this self-absorbed expanse of life stirred, began to vibrate and look for something more, something to guide it, the Mind. Life sought for Mind. A kind of sense came to life and thought was born. With this advent of thought in her being, life was able to compel her encasing material form which was obstinately unconscious to become aware, to grow conscious.
The
magic was chiselled of a conscious form; The material form that was not conscious so far came into a state of consciousness. Its vibrations that were mechanical before took on the character of conscious response; they now reflected an awareness and an instant reaction to impacts. The nerves and the brain were impelled to movements that were conscious; they were no more reflex-centres of unconscious activity from below.
Awoke
in Matter spirit’s identity Matter awoke to the fact that it was one with the Spirit. In Matter an awareness grew that it was not other than Spirit but that both were really one; they were two faces of the same Reality. Further, the physical body was filled with the love flowing out from the awakened heart within. The soul emerged from behind the veil and cast a witnessing gaze on the movements of nature. With the outbreak of consciousness, all came to be informed by and lit into a new life. Nerve and brain thrilled into conscious response, the heart flowed out in characteristic waves of love, the soul stood forth calm and serene with its seeing look, the material frame grew aware of its oneness with the indwelling Spirit.
Impelled
by an unseen Will there could break out There was a general push for things to form themselves individually and move into action. It was the result of a sustained impulsion from a greater Will behind. There was not only a forming activity outward, there were also revelations inward of a Self within. Each was the becoming of a being.
And
the doubtful seeds and force of shapes to be Hitherto all was, as it were, in a swoon of the sleep of inconscience. Now erupted many movements of becoming, of taking form. But these becomings were not definite. Neither their potency nor their effectuating force was adequate to ensure certain results.
An
animal creation crept and ran The animal creation took form. Birds and beasts filled the earth and the sky with their movements. Their life was perpetually threatened by death in some form or other, from one quarter or another, but still they clung to living with a zest and hoped to survive every danger.
Then man was moulded from the original brute.
A
thinking mind had come to lift life’s moods, Then followed man developed from a cruder being between the animal and the human type. He was characterised by a mind that could think and so could elevate the state of life from its common, mechanical and instinctive modes. This thinking mind was the sharp instrument of evolving Nature—composed of elements both high and low, definite and indefinite—for achieving a mode of conscious evolution. Like its creator, Nature, this mind also was mixed in its elements: it was partly involved in the operations of Nature and partly aloof, observant, partly mechanical in its own workings under the force of physical and life-impulses, partly directive in its intelligence.
This
seeming driver of her wheel of works The thinking mind appears to direct the movements of Nature, but that is hardly more than an appearance. It is itself largely driven by the lower formulations of Nature, the physical and the vital, and it remains so till it develops its individuality. It is, of course, intended to develop into a power and an intelligence that will motivate the springs of Nature, chart out her course and impose its own enlightened order on the erratic workings of her forces. When it comes into its own, it will prove to be the master-spring in the delicately designed mechanism of evolutionary Nature.
Aspired
to enlighten its user and refine This mind sought to impart its light to the Nature that was using it and to raise her unconscious and largely mechanical workings to a higher level of awareness in the pattern imaged by the creative Spirit in Nature. The thinking creature that is man lifted up his head and looked upwards to heaven instead of downwards to earth like other creatures. And Heaven's rays of Knowledge revealed an emerging Being.
Amazed
at the works wrought in her mystic sleep, With the advent of the thinking mind, Nature had a full view of the mighty work that had been achieved so far even in her tranced condition. She was wonder-struck. She paused and tried to become aware of her own being and know the aim before her. In the process of this self-enquiry she learnt to function consciously—not unconsciously as before—and her course was governed and led by what she perceived. She no more moved and acted on instinct; thought erected a mould of will around the instincts and all else that was unconscious, the unseeing urge was illumined by the idea grasped by thought.
On
her mass of impulses, her reflex acts, And she impressed her conception of herself on her impulses, her resultant acts, her nether, helpless, enforced movements; she started organising them around this idea of the self which, however, was not the real self at all but a convincing simulacrum, a live but misshapen image of the indwelling Spirit.
On
Matter’s acts she imposed a patterned law; Nature imposed a regular law on the unpredictable movements in material creation. Out of physical cells she created a thinking organism. From what was before a force driven involuntarily into action, she built up an entity, a conscious being.
To
be what she was not inflamed her hope: Nature was inspired by one motive: to become what she yet was not, fully conscious, illuminated, free. She looked and directed her will towards the heights where she sensed some Reality still unknown. A fresh air from the One Spirit, the Supreme above, wafted to the fragmented creation below on earth.
An
opening looked up to spheres above With the stir of responsive vibrations from above, there came an opening looking upwards towards the higher planes of existence. From there the immortal truths native to those higher spheres cast their variegated shadows on earth. Sudden flashes from these worlds of Light and Truth would sometimes descend on the physical and awake nature on earth leaving behind impressions in the form of ideals. It is from such truth-flashes as these that are formed the ideals and the dreams which inspire the upward effort of man.
A
fragile human love that could not last, When man tried to translate these ideals into life, the first results were little more than a parody. Instead of the eternal divine Love, all he could feel was a brittle self-centred human love that could not last by its very nature. Instead of the pure self-surrendering aspiration that could waft the awakened soul to the heights of the Spirit, there appeared the self-regarding flimsy ego to serve as the instrument and the vehicle for the soul. No real formations in the true image of the revealed truths were made; they were only glittering appearances that went out of existence after a brief stay.
Joy
that forgot mortality for a while So too appeared on the scene joy which temporarily put death out of mind, joy which made everything seem lively and beautiful as long as it lasted—but that was not for long. Hopes sprang up only to be dashed by the hard touch of reality and passions blazed brightening life with their fervour but they died in the very act of their flaming.
A
creature insignificant and small Under these conditions man strove on earth—a small patch of Matter in the vast multiple universe—to live, to draw the enjoyment of life, to withstand the inevitable suffering before he was overcome by death. True, he was a puny and weak creature compared with many other specimens of life stalking the earth, but he was upheld and helped by a greater Might that communicated with his being though it was not patent to the outer eye.
A
spirit that perished not with the body and breath The uplifting power was a presence, a spirit that stood behind the form. It did not end with the cessation of life in the body. It survived it. Unseen yet effective, it was like a projection of the great Unmanifest Reality. It held itself behind the forms of embodiment but did not assume control over them yet.
Assenting
to Nature’s long slow-moving toil, This spirit behind the form stations itself as a potent witness of all that is worked out by Nature in the embodiment. The ensouling spirit allows Nature to proceed and build in her own leisurely way. It watches her workings and has as yet not enough knowledge and power to interfere. The Glory that is this spirit is not felt or known on the surface of the embodied life. It stays behind the veil.But all goes on because of the assent and the regard of this Spirit.
A
Wisdom governing the mystic world,
This
huge world unintelligibly turns The movements of this our vast world are mysteriously cast in the ambience of a tranced Inconscience which throws its shadow everywhere. The real meaning of these movements is not patent because the key to them is hidden in the folds of this Inconscience. There is a guiding voice within each one of us, but we are unable to hear it because it is sealed within the subconscient ranges of our being.
An
enigmatic labour of the Spirit, There is here in life a mighty labour of the Spirit the significance of which none is aware. There is also a prevision in the workings, an aesthetic appeal and a skill beyond analysis. Life is a huge orchestra, exact in detail, constantly producing spontaneous notes of ordered harmony, but it all seems senseless to man.
The
mind learns and knows not, turning its back to truth;
It
marks her tireless care of just device, The mind observes the characteristic features of life in her workings: the ceaseless attention she pays to the shaping of her processes in their exactness; the patience she displays in attending to the minutest details of her machinery; the daring plan she conceives and pursues through all the endless exertions of her energies which seems to end in futile works.
Adds
purposeful figures to her purposeless sum, On the apparently meaningless efforts of life, the mind goes on to erect its own deliberate edifices soaring upwards. These structures of the mind built on the bases formed by life are largely of the stuff of imagination with little basis in fact, or of dreams passing into mystic images that transcend realities.
Transient
creations point and hit the sky: The mind is severely limited and uncertain of its grounds. The soaring constructions of its conjectural genius are consequently not lasting; they are transient in their very nature. Even when it succeeds in building something, the results of its hard labour are like its own mode and working fragmentary. It takes parts for the whole and what it erects are partial constructions.
Impenetrable,
a mystery recondite This world-scheme, however, is based upon a basis other than that of the mind. It has its own plan of vast proportions and its meaning is not patent on the surface; it is difficult of access to the human mind which therefore easily mistakes its nature. In the absence of a perception of the true purpose of this creation, its contributory harmonies are taken to be disharmonies. The world-creation has a definite purpose and all the nature-movements serve that purpose. Even what appear to be discords to the limited human mind are in truth harmonies building up the scheme. To one who perceives this vast scheme, the real nature of these movements stands revealed.
Inscrutable work the cosmic agencies.
Only
the fringe of a wide surge we see; The workings of the Cosmic Powers cannot be fathomed by the human intelligence, man sees only the surface ends of their vast movement. His faculties lack that illumination which is needed to perceive deeper; his puny will is not in tune with the Cosmic Will and therefore cannot consciously participate in its workings and know their direction; his vision and his feelings are too self-centred and self-involved in their intensity to enable him to go beyond them and look more widely.
Impotent
to share in Nature’s mystic tact, Human reason lacks the plasticity and the humility that are indispensable to attain to the knowledge of Nature's profounds. It cannot go beyond the limits of its logic and consequently it is shut out from most of the domain of life. It is busy only with some superficial movements on the surface of life, poring over them, analysing them and constructing theories on these inadequate bases. The truth of things is deeper and it escapes the stretch of reason.
It
knows not whence these motions touch and pass, Human reason does not really know the source and the goal of the mighty movements of life-nature. Yet it tries to regulate the flow of these energies and turn them to serve the objectives of man. But this is a vain attempt. Further the instruments available to this reason to achieve its purpose are defective; they are vitiated by the nature of their source which is the Inconscient. Whether it is vision or will or thought or feeling, all are rooted in the ancient sprawling Inconscience.
Unseen
here act dim huge world-energies The creation is the field of many kinds of energies, small and huge, patent and unseen. The greater energies mostly act from behind the veil and men come to know of their action only when their results come to the surface. What comes normally within the human ken are only a few trickles, a few wavelets of the great waters of cosmic energies that are aflow.
Our
mind lives far off from the authentic Light The mind, as it is, is far removed from the light of Knowledge. It is an instrument of ignorance trying to acquire the knowledge of the Truth and what little it can grasp can be only tiny fragments of the Truth which it mistakes for the whole. Its light is phoney, its knowledge, a piecemeal construction. Its field, moreover, is severely limited; it is confined to a small section of the vast universe manageable by its reason and logic. Beyond that it cannot range.
Our lives are inlets of an ocean's force. The whole universe is the field of a mighty Life-Force which flows everywhere. There is no limit to the power and the range of this Cosmic Force of Life which is a projection of the infinite Chit-Shakti. But in man the life-force is limited and therefore weak. This is so because, though in its innate nature it is unlimited, it is here shut up within the walls of his separative ego and it has to function as if it were a distinct force separate from the general Life-Force. It is a small current of the sea of the Universal Life confined to the individual formation. Till the walls that dam it are broken down and it becomes free to be one with its parent ocean, it is necessarily limited and weak.
Our
conscious movements have sealed origins Man thinks that he acts by his own free will. But it is not so in fact. All his movements and acts of consequence, done consciously, are really inspired from sources of which he is not aware and with which he is not in dialogue. He has parts in his being which he knows but vaguely. He is awake only in a few parts and there is no co-ordination between the little that constitutes his wakeful being and the large tracts that are subliminal to it. The origins of most of his acts lie in these parts of which he is not normally conscious. They are concealed from his surface mind.
Our
deepest depths are ignorant of themselves; Man is not aware of the depths of his being. There are belts of his consciousness which are sub-conscient and inconscient. There is in them no self-awareness. Even the physical body which is apparently an open book has features that are not materially explicable. The element of consciousness introduces an unpredictable factor in it. As in the case of the earth, the roots of the mind and life of man are below the surface, veiled from external vision. What takes place in the outer and visible life of man has its origins below the surface exterior.
Our
springs are kept close hid beneath, within; Thus the springs of the activities of man are really within himself, and not in the outside world as it would appear at first sight. His worthwhile thoughts and life-impulsions are mostly inspired from levels of his being which are not patent on the surface and of which he is not normally conscious. Behind the walls of exterior nature, behind the veils of ignorance, there are powers that work within. They are not limited and confined to the outer instrumentation as the more external faculties are. They are larger in range, more effective and in contact with the universal Powers. It is these powers that impel the significant movements of man.
In
the subterranean reaches of the spirit The spirit that ensouls the body is spread all through, behind the external front, above and below the physical ends. It extends below the layers of the physical consciousness even as it extends beyond the mental reaches. There in the depths below the material grounds is an active Power of the spirit which operates spontaneously without having to mentalise its processes. It uses channels and faculties that function instinctively and carry the impress of impulses and movements mechanically, as for example the nerves and sub-conscient layers of consciousness. The origin of man's feelings and thinkings lies in that Power in the depths of the being.
The
troglodytes of the subconscious Mind, The subconscious mind serves as a powerful channel and instrument for the action of the cosmic Force in man. Concealed below the conscious layers of the mind, it is ever busy registering the impressions of the waking or semi-waking experiences, thoughts and feelings. It is always moving in its small rounds mechanically repeating its operations. It is an important part of the mechanism of nature and it always lies open to the influences and impacts of the Universal Nature around. It renders them into personal terms, though inadequately, long after they have been received and absorbed in its own stuff.
A
whisper falls into life’s inner ear Unknown to the wakeful man, his subtler being receives a vibration, a suggestion from the universal Force. It is at once picked up by the absorbent subconscious elements in their obscure regions below the waking levels and from there the impulse comes up and moves the speech, the thought, the heart; the will responds and an automatic action in the physical machinery of nerve and cell follows. Man thinks it is all his own volition.
Our
lives translate these subtle intimacies; Such communications received beneath the surface exterior, unknown to the waking mind, are rendered into life sooner or later. The life of man is really informed, moved and filled with the operations of this occult Power in cosmic Nature.
A
thinking puppet is the mind of life: The mind imagines it works all by itself. In truth, however, it is only a puppet, albeit a thinking puppet, moved by life and its forces. The mind appears to decide, to make its choice; but its choice is really impelled by stronger agents, the elements and forces of life. These forces too act unaware of their own origin, their purpose and the intention of Nature which they subserve.
In
this nether life of man drab-hued and dull, At this level of his existence where the mind is completely controlled and driven by the life-forces, man is little more than a doll that is alive. His life is dull, mechanical and full of petty happenings in their small rounds. He is pushed round and he moves where he is pushed but is not aware from where the driving impulsions come.
For
none can see the masked ironic troupe To these agents that impel and control the movements of man, themselves unseen, the surface-man is little more than a puppet worked by their strings. His actions are in truth effected by them; his passions and his struggles only provide them with amusement. They play with man at their will.
Ignorant
themselves of their own fount of strength
Agents
of darkness imitating light, These entities that pull the strings do not know that they themselves are only agents and their power is derived from a source of which they are ignorant. They are instruments of darkness though they simulate to be the hosts of light. Themselves obscure, they operate in a field that is dimly visible. But, all the same, their activities serve some purpose in this meaningful creation. Though they do not mean to do so, their doings contribute in the long run to the furtherance of the object of the great Power that is at work in the universe. All in this cosmos serves the Purpose of the Creative Spirit, including the opposite elements of darkness and their agents.
Ananke’s
engines organising Chance, Many of the happenings in this world appear as if they were merely chance occurrences. But in fact they are brought about by circumstances and elements which—however deceptive and misleading in their appearance are the instruments of a mighty Will. These agents that use men as their tools are themselves tools of a Power of which they are not aware. There is really no chance in this vast ordered Creation. Chance is merely a name for situations that are unforeseen or inexplicable to the intelligence of man, but which, nevertheless, are steps ordained in the workings of the Creative Will.
Invested
with Power in Nature’s nether state, Men plan and act. But they are surprised when the results are quite different from their expectations because of the interference of these unseen agents who act with impunity in the lower states of consciousness. They have been empowered to do so by the presiding Will which effectuates itself through them when the human mind is either too weak or unwilling to fulfil the wider purpose. Fate is only a name for the working of a higher Will.
Or
make a doom of Time’s slipshod caprice Or they play with men. They use men as playthings and amuse themselves frittering away human lives in the process. That is how many men are found to achieve nothing worthwhile in their lives which they are made to spend either too fast or too slowly; for such men time appears too rapid or too leisurely—in either case their lives are helplessly swallowed up by the Devourer.
Against
all higher Truth their stuff rebels;
Inordinate
their hold on human hearts, These agents active in the nether state of Nature are always in revolt against the higher Truth. They are servile only to the brute Force of the Asura who has set himself against the Divine Truth. They have a strong hold on human nature, its sources of feelings and like movements, and they constantly interfere with and influence the activities of man as they choose.
Insignificant
architects of low-built lives They play a great part in the shaping of the ordinary and lowly lived life. Their main profession, as it were, is to specialise in the formation and promotion of interest in worldly objects and desire for them. With these means they proceed to build out of the first crude responses of material nature edifices of self-will profuse and disorderly and also mansions of thought insufficiently lit. They luxuriate in material grossness, chaotic assertions of the vital and obscurities of the mind.
Or
with the ego’s factories and marts And this is the worst they do: they promote the formation and growth of the ego. The narrow self-regarding spirit of egoism infects all the movements of nature and vulgarises them. These ugly crudities of the ego surround the soul within, smother as it were its elements of beauty, harmony and peace. The temple of the soul is lost to view amidst the crowding structures of the ego.
Artists
minute of the hues of littleness, They are, as it were, artists who create the numerous shades of smallness; they stamp their pettiness on every movement of human nature. They make of life either a variegated comedy or a little tragedy of no real consequence. Either way, it is these who plan the action of the drama of life, assemble the participants of circumstances, and weave the costumes of changing moods.
These
unwise prompters of man’s ignorant heart They have a field day as long as man is undeveloped and confined to the lower stages of the human. In this drama of life, themselves bereft of right knowings, they prompt his ignorant feelings, impel his unsteady will and speech, excite him into his little angers, hatreds and passions, direct his thoughts from one vague idea to another and whip up in him waves of superficial emotions.
These
slight illusion-makers with their masks, They act under several guises and are clever in producing quick illusory situations. They brighten up artificially the dull and drab stage of this ignorant life, cleverly introducing variety and novelty. They are ever occupied conducting the human play on this obscure stage of life.
Ourselves
incapable to build our fate At this stage men are hardly capable of deciding on their own. They are more like actors in a play, speaking and acting their parts as prompted from behind by these agents of ignorance and obscurity And it is only after their roles are played that they move off the stage of this dim and gross existence and pass into the brighter and subtler realms beyond.
Thus
they inflict their little pigmy law This is the way they impose their petty modes and moulds on the life of man. They act as agents of restriction, hold him back in his labour of development and evolutionary ascent and try to keep him ever their helpless plaything. And once his all-too-brief permitted innings are played, they remove him from the scene.
This is the ephemeral creature’s daily life.
As
long as the human animal is lord Such is the petty round of man's life as long as he is content to be ruled by the nether elements of Nature. As long as the animal in him—his desires, passions, blind movements is the dominant factor and his obscure, obstinately ignorant nature is allowed to wall in the indwelling soul a source of light, power and freedom—and thus effectively prevent its emergence into life, man continues to be confined to his small tether.
As
long as intellect’s outward-gazing sight The mind of the common man is turned outward. The doors of his perception are set outward, says the Scripture. He always tends to gaze outward towards the objects of his senses and seize upon his perceptions to serve his little physical and sensational pleasures. His interests, his preoccupations are external and move only on the surface of life; his real being lies unnoticed and neglected within himself. As long as this is so, man turns round and round in his small circle of futile living.
Ever
since consciousness was born on earth, This has been the pattern of life ever since consciousness became articulate on earth. There is practically little to distinguish the life of the common man from that of the insect or the animal; all are lost in securing the fulfilment of their immediate creature needs. And the way of all is the same: the outward gaze through the senses and the exertion of faculties on the nether field of nature for self-satisfaction.
If
new designs, if richer details grow As life develops in its organisation, more and more features begin to be seen; it flows in more patterns, takes on varying hues. Thinking becomes more conscious and prominent but with this thinking come complications of cares and anxieties. There is a gradual but unmistakable brightening of the general appearance of life with this increase of the element of consciousness, and yet, even in man, the highest evolved being, the scheme is not raised to a higher level. Life continues to be played in the lower plains of nature though it may be more extended in range and more filled in detail.
A
gross content prolongs his fallen state; In this low state man is preoccupied with his gross needs and desires and their satisfactions. Each petty success in this direction plunges him deeper in his obsession and leads him away from the call of the soul within. Life is strenuous and disappointments and failures are often his lot though the small joys he wins in the process keep him hopeful and going. And for the right to live this brief life before death overtakes him, man has to pay heavily in toil and suffering.
An
inertia sunk towards inconscience, Even the relaxation, the rest that man is allowed by this nether nature in the course of his hard exertions is no real recuperative pause at all. Man yields to inertia which pulls him down towards total unconsciousness. He is overpowered by sleep in which he loses awareness of himself and, for all practical purposes, ceases to be. He sinks down from the state of self-consciousness that he has attained to the lower depths of semi-consciousness and unconsciousness. He regresses downward.
A
puny splendour of creative force With all these constrictions, man does achieve something. That is because a little jet of the Creative Force at work in the Universe moves him to strive and toil. Also what he succeeds in achieving though tenuous lasts longer and has its effects over a period farther than that of his life.
He
dreams sometimes of the revels of the gods
Trivial
amusements stimulate and waste His little hour is spent in little things. Man is indeed given by Nature sufficient energy wherewith to live usefully, to develop himself in the way of evolutionary progress. In fact that energy is a force that grows with proper utilisation. But he fails to put it to the right use. He fritters it away in petty and slight occupations that provide him with amusement instead of drawing upon it for the purpose for which it is given him. The span of life allotted to him is brief and even that brief opportunity he wastes in inconsequential things.
A
brief companionship with many jars, And this is his pattern of life in its small proportions. He associates himself with many but almost always these associations are of brief duration; they do not last long. His life is characterised by the all-too-human movements of self-regarding love for those who serve his interests, hatred for those who oppose them and jealousy against others who are better placed than himself. The men he is thrown with are all concerned with themselves and care precious little for him; it is with some of these that he seeks to cultivate friendship which, needless to say, is rarely more than skin-deep.
If
something great awakes, too frail his pitch Even if he is moved from within by a greater impulsion, his instrumentation is too inadequate for its full expression in its rightful joy of manifestation; his thought cannot hold its flight for long. Art serves him merely as a source of visual delectation, not as an interpretation of the Infinite, linking him with a greater Reality. So too music is only a means of sensational pleasure for him, not a means to capture the harmonies of the universal rhythms.
Amidst
his harassed toil and welter of cares,
He
is saved by her silence from his rack of self; With puny resources, which are all that are available in his surface existence, man has to struggle and labour hard to make any headway in life. He is weighed down by fears and anxieties, tossed about by his restless mind. At times he seeks succour at the sure hands of Mother Nature in his travail. She draws him into the folds of her deeper silence freeing him from the obsessive preoccupations with his outer self. He learns to find and derive pure joy from Nature's beauty in repose.
A
new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; All dulls down to convention and routine When man thus puts himself in tune with Nature, he begins to live anew; his life expands itself and his vision is enlarged. With this self-enlargement he opens to the action of the greater Spirit from which he had shut himself so far by staying confined to the closed circle of his creature-self. But this action does not continue long enough, for he cannot support it, cannot sustain its presence for long. His system is not used to that powerful charge and it withdraws after a while. As a reaction he sinks back into inertia; the little advance he has made as a result of the higher influx loses its life-spirit and things become mechanical; they petrify into habit.
Or
a fierce excitement brings him vivid joys: Sometimes a new experience brings about a great excitement and under its drive he indulges in movements of uncontrollable desire, passion, violence and similar intensities that bring him sharp vital satisfactions. Man loses his balance; his old primitive nature asserts itself.
Time
has he none to turn his eyes within vert. His vision is outward and he loses the awareness of his real self within. He does not think at all, much less look for his soul the true centre of his being—and for all practical purposes the soul lies ineffective behind the veiling exterior.
His
motion on too short an axis wheels; Man's life-movement is too narrow and his pace naturally slow. He is tied down to his physical terrain. Because of all his handicaps, he cannot hasten on his way. He moves or allows himself to be moved only slowly. Even if some impulse—desire, enthusiasm, eagerness—drives him to go fast, his nature soon tires, his energies get exhausted and his journey comes to a halt. Or he walks on and on, at his own slow pace, only to find the road endless.
Hardly a few can climb to greater life. All tunes to a low scale and conscious pitch. This is so for most men. Life is set in a low key and moves in small grooves at a pace that is slow and halting. It is only a few that dare and succeed in lifting themselves above the common run and build up a wider and a higher life with meaningful results.
His
knowledge dwells in the house of Ignorance; The common man remains in his station and performs his mechanical rounds as well or as badly as he can with his equipment which is imperfect in every way. The knowledge that guides and leads him is only a product of his native ignorance; the force that works to execute his will is limited on every side and weak; his moments of blissful joy are too few and far between; the rare pleasures he gets are always shadowed by pain and are too weak to last.
The
bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake, In this Creation there is a Bliss, ānanda, underlying all things in existence. It is because of this Bliss within that their existence is possible. But one is not normally conscious of it; it flows on levels of being that are not yet awake in active life. It tries to reach the conscious levels but succeeds only in projecting jets of joy, slender and brief. These, however, leaven man's days and provide him with the needed incentive to live on in spite of the many hardships and struggles that beset his life. Man has the will to be because of this underlying Bliss.
He
is satisfied with his common average kind; Man is content with the kind and level of life that he leads. He shuts himself within the narrow round of his accustomed desires, hopes and thoughts and makes no attempt to enlarge or uplift his living. He manages to keep at bay the universal currents of expansion and progress by erecting around himself walls of inertia, habit and small routine.
His
being’s kinship to infinity And yet even this limited man has a relation, a contact with the Infinite. Only he is not aware of it in his conscious life. That innate point of contact is the soul which is effectively hidden under the many veils of ignorance woven by the movements of his nature. In the depths of his being, concealed, lies a Glory separated by unbridged gulfs from his active awareness. Man's extrovert and narrow modes of life prevent him from awaking to the existence of this presence and power within himself.
His
being was formed to play a trivial part The life of this man is so superficial, so confined, so mechanical that it is like a small part played in a small play on a small stage. His being seems designed for just that petty role. Everything about him is narrow—his range, his action, his interests. And yet the setting for his petty drama is the vasts of the Infinite—around, above, within.
He
is the crown of all that has been done: Man is the highest result achieved by Nature in evolutionary labour so far. In him, a self-conscious being with a self-directing Will, all the previous apparently meandering course of the creative effort of Nature has culminated and justified itself. The long line of unconscious evolution has at last ended in man who marks the change into conscious evolution. But is this the last step of Nature? Is man, such as he is, the final goal?
And
if this were all and nothing more were meant, Obviously not. This puny, ignorant and ineffective creature that is man can hardly be the supreme objective for which Nature has laboured across the aeons. Man is a stage—albeit a decisive stage in the conversion of creative evolution from its character of unconscious activity to the conscious, a junction in the long road of the ascent of Nature from the nescience and obscurity of Matter to the super-conscience and the luminous Reality of the Spirit which is the true origin of all. That goal is still to be arrived at. Man represents the mid-station between Matter and Spirit, the two termini of the journey of manifesting Nature.
Well
might interpret our mind’s limited view If the mortal, limited creature that is man were the last term of Nature's labour, then the superficial view of the world that the human mind is apt to take may well be right. To such a view, all here is a domain of death, and life is an accident, an aberration, a temporary formation that is liable to be extinguished at any moment. The world is the uncertain creation of a Mind that moves between two blanks on either side of its consciousness—the nescience below and the vacancy beyond the highest thought. It is a field in which a material and mechanical Force is striving to grow into awareness, in which an informing Mind has somehow come to be in the body of Matter and out of inconscience has emerged the contradiction of a conscious being, the soul.
At
times all looks unreal and remote: There are times when the whole world appears to be meaningless and illusory; if there be some objective at all it is so far removed from the present as to be practically unreachable. The world seems to be little more than a fictitious pattern woven by the mind on the lying reports of the senses. Or it looks as if it were just an impression left on the brain by some movement or incident in the universal spell of Inconscience.
A
somnambulist walking under the moon, It is a picture of unsubstantiality. Man goes through life like a sleepwalker, helplessly, without a will and direction of his own. Not his real self, but a simulacrum of it, his ego, paces across this stretch of dream in Ignorance, haunted by the all-seizing hands of Time.
In
a false perspective of effect and cause, Man's understanding of the process and course of things that governs his movements is not true; it is topsy-turvy. He is misled by rosy appearances of the prospects spread before him. His life moves from change to change without respite, without any willed direction, towards an end it knows not.
All
here is dreamed or doubtfully exists, Or, all existence looks like a vague dream; life here is so precarious as to appear almost unreal. If dream it is, who is it that dreams? Where does this dream come from? This is not known or if thought to be known, it is little more than a surmise without substance.
Or
the world is real but ourselves too small, Or, it looks that the world is quite real; it exists independently of us, whether we believe in it or not. It is an immense fact. Only we are too insignificant before its grandeur, petty figures flitting across the gigantic stage of this world-drama.
A
thin life-curve crosses the titan whirl Or it seems that this universe is a huge mass of matter ever in movement, whirling and spinning across the empty spaces. Life is but a slender current flowing across this mechanical universe on the move. Mind is a speck that looks out from this earth—a small organism existing in the arid vastnesses of the universe and is bewildered, not knowing the meaning of it all, the significance of itself and of all that it sees around.
And
yet to some interned subjective sight But that is not all. There is an inner, inward perception that has somehow formed itself in this obscure organisation of Matter. This sight espies slight impressions of a living self underlying all existence. It glimpses this as the source of consciousness in all.
Such is our scene in the half-light below.
This
is the sign of Matter’s infinite, By and large this is the picture of man and the world as seen in the twilight of ignorance. This is how Science perceives the world. As it looks and surveys the scene before its objective sight, it is struck by the immensity of the spread of Matter—seemingly to an infinite extent—and it proceeds to interpret the scene in terms of quantity. What it is aware of and concerns itself with is only the external world. The world internal does not come into its purview which, however extensive, is outward-turned.
To
Reason bound within the circle of sense, So too it appears to human Reason which restricts itself to and relies solely upon the data assembled by the senses. Anything that is not subject to the grasp of the senses is outside its field. Naturally it does not take cognisance of anything except the objective material world. Equally so is the picture to Thought which is ever occupied in its unending play of unsubstantial ideas, abstractions of concepts and other like movements which have little relation to facts. The real truth of the self, the inner reality of things escapes its notice.
Only
religion in this bankruptcy Amidst all this indigence of the purport of life, it is only Religion that points to some deeper reality behind the obsessive externalities of this material world, and offers treasures which are attractive though their ultimate value may be doubtful. It freely guarantees to its adherents untold riches and joys in the realms beyond this physical world. If men are sparsely endowed here on earth, Religion assures plentiful recompense in heaven.
Our
spirits depart discarding a futile life Religion stresses on the futility of life in this world of Matter and constantly reminds men of the world beyond; it purports to prepare its votaries for the wondrous heaven above where there is no suffering, no end. Death on earth is a door opening into that paradise. Those who do not profess this faith pass into a dark condition which is called hell, a state of which the mind knows or can know nothing because it falls blank in it.
Yet
was this only a provisional scheme, However, all this holds good only for a while, and that too from a limited viewpoint. In the longer run it proves to have been an unreal picture drawn by the senses, the senses which limit everything to their range. It is the first inadequate reading of itself and its world by the mind in its early attempts at knowledge.
This
was a toy to amuse the infant earth; But this is not the real knowledge. Neither the senses—faculties which derive from an enveloping Ignorance and move only on the surface of life with their limited functions and range nor the mind tied to them can attain that knowledge. These powers confine themselves to the superficies of things; they do not and cannot gaze into the profounder depths within or the unknown heights above.
There
is a deeper seeing from within The human mind moves in small circles with which it is familiar. It does not venture beyond them. Its sight is limited to what it can seize within this range. But there is a deeper sight which perceives much more, which is active in ranges deeper than the surface levels of the sense-bound, sense-based mind. So too above these surface levels there are heights of consciousness where greater vistas are thrown open to the eye in the broader and brighter light of the Spirit.
At
last there wakes in us a witness Soul The greater truths that are behind and beyond the normal waking levels of the being cannot be seized by the little mind in ignorance that operates on these levels. It is only as the deeper perception of the soul awakes that they come to be revealed. The soul is within, aloof, not lost in the currents of nature; its calm look takes in what is not seen, probes into what is not known by the mind. And when this soul-sight is active the whole picture changes. All presents itself as a new and wonderful spectacle.
The
world quivers with a God-light at its core, Then does the world appear in its true form. There is a divine Truth, a divine Light in the heart of the world and that we see radiating in all its movements. There is a divine purpose which becomes evident in all its activities. The limits that hedge the flow of life in Ignorance breakdown and life assumes its rightful nature of the infinite.
This
broad, confused, yet rigid scheme becomes What appears of this wide world to the unawakened human eye as a confused but rigid plan, presents itself as a grand, intricate developing Play of the Gods. The Gods have woven the plot of this Play. It is at once a game and a task of the Gods though in its appearance its true character is very much overlaid by the many hues of inferior Nature.
Our
seekings are short-lived experiments Concealed behind the appearances of our movements is the action of a dumb, unfathomable Power in Nature. This Power hidden in the depths of Nescience puts forward energies and forms and urges them to evolve in consciousness more and more and unite with its own (and their own) Self of Truth and Bliss. All the upward seekings of us humans are really the attempts of this veiled Power in the womb of the Inconscience below to reach and embody the Soul of the Superconscience above.
It
peers at the Real through the apparent form; The evolving Power perceives the Reality that en-souls all forms; it is not halted by the frontal appearance of things. It is at work in the activities of our imperfect, limited mind and senses. It is ever in search of the truth of things to which all forms are only an index. The world is full of deformations caused by Ignorance, of evocative sketches drawn by human speech and thought; through them all, the growing Power seeks to seize the truth that underlies and vivifies_
It
looks for the source of Light with vision’s lamp; The Power with its very imperfect outer vision attempts to find the source from where the all-illumining Light proceeds. It works, apparently mechanically, but in truth purposefully to grow conscious of and find—through the very process of the working—the real doer of all, the Lord of works. It strives to grow aware more and more fully of the Self, that superconscious Reality which is the goal of its journey, that is not felt on the surface nor reached by the mind's knowing but yet guides from within.
All
is not here a blinded Nature’s task: All here in this universe is not the activity of a blind, mechanical Nature. There is, above, a potent dynamis, a sempiternal Truth-Wisdom, prajna, presiding over the whole movement. There is also, within the Movement, a witnessing Spirit that sanctions in its very act of seeing the operations of Nature at her various levels of volition and action. In the vast spread of the Universe which is not yet conscious, not yet functioning with an active sight, there regards an Eye creative though it is not perceived by us. That sees and leads.
There
is an Influence from a Light above, The world-movement is guided by a direction from a Truth-Light on high. What is apparent in life is not all. There are thoughts that are not thought out by man but exist far above his active mind and exert their pressure for realisation. So too there are eternal truths which are yet unseen and unknown to him, but nevertheless exist as potentials awaiting their hour. All here in the World-Nature obeys and is moved by a Will that transcends human reasoning.
In
this passage from a deaf unknowing Force This world begins its journey from an inconscient base. It is a movement of a tranced, unconscious Force struggling to emerge into awareness and life, however brief. It points to a destination where this limited and striving nature of the lower domains of matter, life and mind will be taken up by a greater and mightier Nature of the higher realms of the Spirit. The lower nature is slowly evolving towards that higher.
The
world is other than we now think and see, What we think and see of this world, in our present state of ignorance, is not the truth at all. Nor is our life as our mind would make it appear. There is a deeper aspect of this world-movement which is not apparent to the superficial look. The whole movement is a planned progression to a God-state and our minds are participants in this advancing march. And we ourselves are not mere creatures of Nature, but are—in our deepest parts portions and emanations of the supreme creative Spirit projected here on earth with a distinct mission to manifest the Glory of the Supreme.
Across
the cosmic field through narrow lanes The voyager in this cosmic Journey has to make his way through small and constricted paths across Ignorance and Obscurity of all kinds. He has to depend upon many an extraneous element for his survival. His equipment is indigent in the extreme. All these limitations, however, are only masks put on by the wayfarer who is none other than the boundless, omnipotent, one Divine in his cosmic adventure.
Even
in the theatre of these small lives Even as it is, with all its limitations, circumscribings and handicaps, there is felt in life a sustaining happiness. Without that underlying sweetness life would be impossible. And this current of happiness is intrinsic, not due to external causes. It flows from the soul within, dwelling behind the surface of nature. Happiness, bliss, is native to the soul for the soul is a portion, amśa, of the Divine and the nature of the Divine Being is sheer Bliss.
A
mystic passion from the wells of God The soul being a portion of the Divine, with the same nature, there is a free intercourse between the soul and its parent Divine. The spiritual impulsions from the creative Divine Spirit flow into the veiled chamber of the soul and spread from there into life. That is how spiritual force reaches and helps the toiling earth. The Divine is really not far from the world as it might appear to the outward vision. It is near, within, at the core of everything. This presence of the Divine, this secretly flowing bliss of the Divine, this Force deriving from the Divine, supports all life in its struggle to establish and maintain itself against the opposing elements in the Creation.
There
are muffled throbs of laughter’s undertones, At every step in this world life has to struggle; there is pain all round, the pain caused by ignorance and division. Each form has to maintain its separate existence against all other forms whose lives invade it all the time. And yet, amidst all the pain, there is heard the sound of laughter, however inhibited by the prevalence of suffering; there is a current of an inner happiness which has no apparent cause in the world outside; there is a refreshing and invigorating experience in deep sleep. At the core of each and all is a fount of bliss.
An
Infant nursed on Nature’s covert breast, The Divine Lord, as the Infant Krishna, is on Earth growing on the nourishment provided by her Nature whose true form is yet concealed, sporting in the variegated fields and enchanting woods of life, playing delightful notes of joy along the banks of the waters of the Soul. With the celestial music of his flute he summons all to his carnival of bliss and waits for us mortals to turn to his Call.
In
this investiture of fleshly life Indwelling the material frame of the body with all its obscurities and impurities is the soul which is a spark of the Divine. When the life-force ebbs away and the physical body falls off, this soul does not die; it survives and goes on to take another habitation. Normally it stands concealed and ineffective behind the many veils of Nature in ignorance; but on occasions it pushes forward through all the thick barriers and lights up a flame of aspiration that makes man soar above his animal-humanity and breathe a diviner air. Man contacts something of the Divinity above himself and his best part begins to grow towards that, higher Super-Nature.
In
our body’s cells there sits a hidden Power The physical is not all, even in the body; the gross, obscure, materiality is not the whole. In the tiniest body units, the cells, there is a Consciousness and a Power of that Consciousness—which is non-material. It is wide awake and aware of its purpose. What the outer physical shell does not know, this inner Power knows and builds upon in its scheme that is not limited by the life-duration of the particular material frame.
Our
smallest parts have room for deepest needs; Even in those parts of the being that are very small, there is awake this element of Consciousness which makes them aware of their wants and these wants are not all confined to their little exterior. They are of the deeper kind too and they seek fulfilment. In response the higher Agents enter even these small parts.
A
door is cut in the mud wall of self; As a result of this aspiration from these needy parts, an opening takes place in the enclosing nature-walls. And through that opening, however small, powers of bliss and fulfilling surrender enter in suitably modified forms. They take their dwelling in the subtler regions that one becomes aware of in the dream-state and there they set to work, these fashioners of God-like conditions.
Pity
is there and fire-winged sacrifice, At the core of the being, in the chamber of the heart are springs of Godward movements. From there flow currents of identification with others, of feelings of oneness; thence flame up all upward aspirations and self-consecration, all impulsion for self-enlargement and love for others which lift up human nature towards the divine.
A
work is done in the deep silences; Deep in man lie regions of being that are not yet tapped. There behind the veil, far from the noise on the surface, significant work is being done by the native powers of the manifesting Spirit. There are the marvels of the unlimited senses of the spirit, spontaneous joy and eternal beauty, all of which draw the rasa, sap, of the varied life-experience and turn it into the Delight of the soul. Behind the march of Time from moment to moment to which the outer being of man is subject, there is the Eternal that lives in the soul-depths.
In
the sealed hermetic heart, the happy core, This body that is subject to death is only the outer form. Behind it, supporting it from within, is the soul, the divine spark at the core, in the hidden chamber of the inner heart. It is always happy, untouched by the pains and sufferings of the surface being. This divine element is a growing entity and drawing upon life's experience, it organises itself, extends its influence and gradually brings its innate felicity and its potentials into active expression.
Even
in our sceptic mind of ignorance This labour of the evolving soul within to rise above the state and hold of Nature in Ignorance and come into its own state of a divine freedom and knowledge, reflects itself even in the doubting mind as a persistent possibility, even a certainty of a great release from all the extant limitations. The human will also is moved to stir and gear itself to actualise this possibility
Each
part in us desires its absolute: Each faculty, each power, is a formulation, in conditions of ignorance and limitation, of a divine Verity. Each is striving to reach its full figure in its corresponding truth in the Divine Being. Thus the thinking mind seeks to grow into the Light of self-existing Knowledge from which it is derived and of which it is the lower and deformed end in Ignorance. Similarly the limited strength wielded by man has its origin in an omnipotent Force of the Divine Consciousness and it strives to develop into that Omnipotence.
And
since from a veiled God-joy the worlds were made All here is obscure, fleeting, unsubstantial and yet the heart of man is held captive by the surrounding forms that strike it as beautiful; that is because all Form is the developing embodiment of the Divine as Beauty seeking expression. The attraction to beauty is really a seeking to realise the Divine in Form. The senses run after joy everywhere; that is because the whole creation is an ebullition of the self-delight of the Divine Being and this basic Bliss acts as a magnet drawing the senses to itself through every and all movements in life. All flows to its perfect term in the Divine.
Our
error crucifies Reality What could be a spontaneous manifestation of Divine Beauty, Knowledge and Power has been forced to be a struggling and even a painful process as a result of the deviation that has taken place in the course of creation. Due to extreme division and fragmentation, the creative consciousness has lost itself in a total Inconscience; and Ignorance, the child of Inconscience, has plagued earth-existence from of old. This very deformation, however, calls for and exerts through the human instrumentation, imperfect though it be, a pull on the Reality above to descend and embody itself concretely in a self-conscious human form here, displace the existing Ignorance by plenary Knowledge, flood this obscure inconscient material universe with its Light of Consciousness and thus save the creation. The response of the Divine Reality works itself through all the pain and suffering inevitable under the existing conditions of Ignorance and obscurity.
And
when that greater Self comes sea-like down And when, in response to the call and pull from below, the greater Divine Being comes down from the heights of the Spirit, it is a massive descent like that of the sea. It rushes in wave after wave of itself and floods the mortal being with its innate Delight. And by the charge of that supernal Delight all in the being gets transformed. The Delight of the Divine is dynamic; it changes into its own nature whatever it fills.
In
waves of undreamed ecstasy shall roll The mind, the life, the senses, are all flooded with this divine Delight, uplifted from their normal twilight of ignorance by a divine illumination. Even the body is forced to participate in this transforming change. Its very physical tissues awake from their inert state and thrill with this influx; its cells are filled with consciousness and support this mighty luminous change. The metamorphosis is whole and entire.
This
little being of Time, this shadow-soul, As a result, this mortal being of man which is only a distant, pale figure, an obscured, distorted and diminished image of his real self, ever occupied with its small interests and desires, undergoes a radical uplift and change.
Its
shape of person and its ego face The present personality in the figure of the ego is stripped of its falsifying limitations and bequests of Ignorance and moulded into its real form, a true image of the Divine Being seated within. The ego is displaced by the soul of which it is only a shadow-figure.
It
shall be caught to the breast of a white Force Nourished by the pure Power of the Spirit, fired by the impact of the celestial world, bathed in the sweetness of the Higher Grace, intense under its limitless transformation, the being thrills, becomes fully conscious and is rocked by a divine Ecstasy.
As
if reversing a deformation’s spell, The deformation of Ignorance is cast away; subjection to the hold of falsehood and evil, of dark Nescience is transcended. Knowledge dawns of the presence of a veiled Divine Inhabitant at the core and the heart is filled with wonder and worship of this infant Divinity. The being surrenders itself overcome by the beauty, the joy and the love of the Godhead within. The embodied Godhead begins to grow in stature.
But
first the spirit’s ascent we must achieve
The
soul must soar sovereign above the form But before this transforming change from above is possible, there is a good deal to be prepared from below. The consciousness which is imprisoned in the material Inconscient must be released and led up wards in its climb to its full awareness and effectivity in the Spirit, the soul hidden by the outer enclosing form must emerge into the open and go beyond the twilit regions of the mind into the realms of fuller and greater Knowledge, the will in the heart must be linked with a higher Power that is not limited like the earthly power; the animal in man must be displaced by the inner psyche, the delegate of God.
Then
kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice, That done, the soul rescued from the obscurity of lower nature, the consciousness awakened and developed to open itself to the Spirit above the bounds of ignorance, the next step follows. The pathway to the Light and Life Divine is to be built. And that is done by self-consecration, by an inner sacrifice of oneself—all that one is and one has—to the Great Powers of Cosmos. The flame of aspiration reaches the Gods in their world of Light and invokes them to come down into the being of the worshipper, take their dwelling in him and manifest themselves in him i.e. build their powers in his being. The way is forged; the transition effected from the darkness of Nescience to the Splendour of Superconscience. Thus also is rendered possible the direct action of the transforming Light in the nether depths of the subconscient.
Adventuring
once more in the natal mist Aswapathy advances through the dim-lit and chaotic regions of the Little Life, making his way across all its pitfalls, encountering its various denizens the peering visages of ruling demons, the whispering figures of ghosts who appear and disappear at the same time—while being surrounded all the time by the enchanting movements of the unobstructed Life-Force there.
As
one who walks unguided through strange fields It is a novel country that Aswapathy negotiates. There are no guide-paths, he does not know in what direction he treads. The ground beneath his feet often gives way, but he moves on with firm will and unyielding strength hoping to find a terminus which, however, keeps on receding.
His
trail behind him was a vanishing line As he passes, the terrain behind is swallowed up again in misty obscurity, his path glimmering in faint and vanishing dots of light. There is around him, as he moves, a constant murmur of protest by the surrounding gloom of the region at the intrusion of the light that emanates from his being.
A
huge obstruction its immobile heart, Aswapathy's course is obstructed by the density, obscurity and inertia that are at the centre of this world of lower Life-force. He senses and even perceives the hostility projected on his advancing march. The darkness gathers around him.
Around
him an extinguished phantom glare His only sunlight was his spirit’s flame. In that palpable darkness he feels the jostle of wraithlike figures that are misleading in their appearance. He finds himself in a boundless, featureless dark cave of the Inconscient. The only light with which he sees his path is the flame of his own soul. |