Book Four. The Book of Birth and Quest
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV
|
|
Canto Three
The Call to the Quest
"O men, creatures of Fate that you are at present, you are not meant to be always circling in the petty rounds of your little self. You are made of Immortal's substance and mighty Powers are shut in in your nature's cells. A greater destiny awaits you. If only you will, you can acquire a truth-sight, exceed your mortal mind and grow into your godhead. There are other realms of existence than the earth you tread, there is a light behind your life. Immortal Powers await to embody themselves in you. The earth hopes and aspires for this change but the fire still burns dim in human hearts. Men are still in love with their ignorance. Heaven's lights descend but are obliged to return in the face of denial and obstruction by the Inconscient." The Voice ceases. And as if in an answer from the gods Savitri comes to Aswapathy in all her revealing beauty and splendour. Aswapathy's physical sense withdraws and he sees behind the outer form of Savitri, the great and unknown Spirit born as his child. Moved from unseen Heights he speaks to her: "O Spirit, traveller of Eternity, thou hast come for a mighty work. Thou art not come down alone. There waits for thee some destined soul who shall discover thy mission and thy strength. Depart and find him, thy mate. Thou needest not any other guide than the One who is aflame within thee. He who is to be thy partner and companion in the journey of life, waits for thee. With him thou shalt confront Heaven's question, life, break through the immense disguise of Nature and ascend to divinity's heights. These words sink into her being like a Mantra and the seed of change is sown. She awakes in her consciousness to new dimensions and the secrets of unseen realms are felt close. Before the dawn of the next day, Savitri leaves on her quest.
A
morn that seemed a new creation’s front, A day dawns with a brighter sun in happier skies; it is as if a new creation is begun. There is something strange and living about this morning's beauty that has issued out of the immutable source of all things. The origin of all the innumerable changing things in the universe is one and unchanging.
An ancient longing struck again new roots.
The
air drank deep of unfulfilled desire; The earth is once again astir with an ancient, unfulfilled desire. High trees sway to the morning wind like souls that throb with expectation at the imminence of joy. And out of its hiding place in the green forest, a coil sounds its love-cry, never tired of repeating its single note of love.
Away
from the terrestrial murmur turned Aswapathy turns away from the usual earthly noise that is full of mundane concerns and listens, in the dawning revelation, to sounds other than those that are heard by the outer sense-bound ear.
On
a subtle interspace which rings our life Looming over the physical space in which men live and move is a subtler space that lies between the physical earth and the higher regions of the Spirit. In this space, the doors that are normally closed because of the indrawn concentration of the inner Spirit, open to Aswapathy and notes that are inaudible in external nature come to be heard. Above the hectic rounds of life, beyond the pressing cares of the present, rises the intense aspiration of the Earth to the Ineffable. He hears the muffled voice of the Powers that are struggling to be born behind the bright beats of the music of Time.
Again
the mighty yearning raised its flame The ages-old aspiration in the Earth-Soul once again mounts high, claiming a perfect life for man struggling in imperfections, certainty for the human mind fumbling amidst uncertainties, unfailing bliss for suffering humanity, full formulation of Truth in this world of ignorance and divinity for mortal man.
A
word that leaped from some far sky of thought, A message leaps down from beyond the ranges of thought; it is received by the receptive mind of Aswapathy beneath its veils of the intellect; it travels through the corridors of his brain and leaves a strong impression on its cells of active memory.
“O
Force-compelled, Fate-driven earth-born race, And this is the communication Aswapathy receives: Ye men born on this lowly earth, ever compelled by a Force extraneous to yourselves to do what it wants, ever driven by a Fate that is relentless, ever engaged in small pursuits in a world that is infinite, helplessly limited by a stunted human mould, how much longer are you going to turn round and round in the never-ending whirlings of the mind, centred on your petty selves and their pettier concerns?
But
not for a changeless littleness were you meant, But you were not meant, by your creator, to be engaged in this unchanging littleness; you were not shaped for this exercise of repetition without issue. You have been formed out of the being of the Immortal and your actions can be and have to be movements revealing that Truth, your life must be a growing and changing mould for the Powers of that Truth.
A
Seer, a strong Creator, is within,
A
greater destiny waits you in your front: Within you is a divine Seer who watches, a mighty creator who effects; a spotless Glory presides over your days; in the cells of your nature lie unexpressed mighty powers of God. A larger and higher destiny than what seems to be awaits you ahead. If only he wills, however transitory and earthly man's form may be, his actions can be turned into movements of a scheme that transcends his limitations.
He
who now stares at the world with ignorant eyes Man is just awakened from the sleep of the Inconscient and he stares at the world around him with ignorant eyes that light upon images only and do not perceive the Truth behind them. But it is possible for those eyes of his to be activated by the immortal sight.
Yet
shall the godhead grow within your hearts, The godhead concealed in you shall grow in your hearts. Though living on earth, you shall breathe the air of the Spirit, feel the collapse of the walls that shut in your human mind, listen to the Word that overwhelms mortal life, gaze beyond Nature on the Light of the Truth-Spirit and announce your arrival at the doors of the Eternal.
Authors
of earth’s high change, to you it is given You, who have brought about great, uplifting changes on earth, are empowered to brave and cross the untrodden realms of the soul, to move into action the mighty Mother of the worlds, to come face to face with the All-Powerful in this tenement of living Matter and to realise all life as a multiple manifestation of the One.
The
earth you tread is a border screened from heaven,
Immortal
Powers sweep flaming past your doors; The earth on which you move is not the whole creation. It is only a border-land veiled beyond which lie the brighter realms of the heavens; the life you lead covers the light you really are. Divine Powers pass you by, but you are not aware of them. On the heights of your being beat the rhythms of God, your thoughts call you to rise above yourselves; but few hear these summons. And of those that hear, fewer still have the courage to dare to climb, they are those who are ever avid of the flaming bliss of the Divine.
An
epic of hope and failure breaks earth’s heart;
A
goddess in a net of inconscience caught, The earth is torn between hope and disappointment; her form and circumstance are too inadequate for her force and will. She is a veritable goddess caught in the net of inconscience; she has bound herself in the field of death and yet she hopes for eternal life; she submits herself to intense pain and suffering and yet aspires for ceaseless joy; she erects her edifice of hope on the bricks of despair. She knows indeed that one great step ahead taken by her could free all; she strives thereto and suffers so that her sons may be great.
But
dim in human hearts the ascending fire,
He
turns for little gains to ignorant Powers But as a rule this fire of aspiration burns dim in the human hearts; the Divinity within waits unadored, unattended. Man is apt to conceive of the Highest, the Infinite in a bounded form, as a Person, as a Name only. Instead of looking to the Highest, he turns to inferior deities for petty gains or worships a nether power therefor.
He loves the Ignorance fathering his pain. A spell is laid upon his glorious strengths.
He
has lost the inner Voice that led his thoughts, Man is in love with Ignorance which is at the root of all his pain and suffering. The wonderful potentialities within him lie dumb. He has lost touch with the intimations of the soul that once led his mind. The eidolon of Reason has occupied the place of his guiding Daemon.
The
great Illusion wraps him in its veils, Man has lost contact with the truth within him; he lives in the illusory consciousness that encloses him. Seers who see the Truth have been many but they have made little difference to the life of the ordinary human individual. Thinkers ponder in vague, indifferent light, poets sing of surface dreamings, even prophets speak on errant inspiration.
Heaven’s
flaming lights descend and back return, Illuminations from on high come down to earth, but they are not received and they return. The perceiving Wisdom nears but draws back as there is none to hold it. The Knowledge eternal speaks, but none understands; the fate that dogs man's steps is unwilling to accept the higher Truth; the abyss of the nether existence denies it. The sub-conscient and non-conscient waves of the sea of Inconscience bar all progress.
Only a little lifted is Mind’s screen.
The
Wise who know see but one half of Truth, The mind acts as a veil over Truth. With all man's efforts, the screen is lifted but a little. Even the wise ones who know, see only part of the Truth. Even the strong ones who climb, succeed only in scaling low peaks. Those that pine for love are overtaken by time. The minstrel of humanity stops half-way in his narrative. Men are still too earthy; gods in human forms are too few.
The Voice withdrew into its hidden skies.
But
like a shining answer from the gods
Advancing
amid tall heaven-pillaring trees, The Voice recedes into its unseen Source. But as if in answer from the Gods, Savitri comes advancing through a column of tall trees, clad in her shining robe, she looks a veritable torch of incense and flame burning towards the Eternal above, lifted by a pilgrim's hand in a sacred temple of which the earth is the soil and the sky, the roof.
An instant revelation comes upon Aswapathy. His vision is no more limited by his physical eyes; he sees from deeper levels that interpret things truly and he discovers in Savitri a messenger of the Delight that sustains the world, a marvellous handi work of the Divine Artist shaped like a nectar-cup of the gods, a living testament of the Eternal's Joy, a capturing pattern of radiant, intense sweetness.
Transformed
the delicate image-face became
Her
brow, a copy of clear unstained heavens, Her delicate face gets transformed before his sight into a significant form revealing the secrecies of a deeper Nature, a bright script of esoteric content, a solemn, living symbol of the world. Her broad and pure brow is a veritable base for meditation, unshakable; it appears to contain and is lit with the smile of a self-engrossed Space. Its very brooding etches the significant figuration of infinity.
Amid
her tresses’ cloudy multitude Her luxurious hair-tresses shadow her long eyes which beneath the broad and contemplative forehead, pure-gold in hue, are full of world-embracing love and thought; gazing in wonder at life and earth these eyes perceive the truths that are still distant.
A
deathless meaning filled her mortal limbs; An immortal significance is seen to fill her mortal limbs. They seem to be full of the rhythmic, muffled cry of bliss of the earth's dumb adoration towards heaven—the cry of beauty in living forms seeking perfection of the eternal elements in creation.
Transparent
grown the ephemeral living dress
Escaped
from surface sight and mortal sense The outer physical form of Savitri grows transparent and reveals to Aswapthy the manifesting Deity within. The captivating harmony of the lines of her form exceeds the external sight and sense and assumes a new meaningful figure of a Power.
Renewing
its inscrutable descent It is a Power from on high descending once again on its mission into a clear-cut human figure in this field of evolution on earth, a veritable godhead sculptured on the wall of thought, reflected in the flowing stream of time and enshrined in the temple-cave of Matter.
Annulled
were the transient values of the mind,
Awaked
from the close spell of daily use Aswapathy's consciousness undergoes a change; the fleeting values of the mind drop off, the physical sense shifts its focus beyond the earthly range; and the immortal in him greets the immortal in Savitri. Breaking through the walls of the outer form which hide the inner truth, he sees behind the familiar limbs of his child a great and unknown Spirit shaped as Savitri.
An
impromptu from the deeper sight within,
Then
to those large and brooding depths whence Love Suddenly from the seeing depths within him arise thoughts that are not aware of their own implications. And he speaks to Savitri, who is looking at him in her divine, mind-transcending love, words that come direct from the supernal heights that are beyond human sight.
A casual passing phrase can change our life.
For
the hidden prompters of our speech sometimes It happens at times that a casual word or a phrase uttered by someone in passing has an unexpected result in changing the course of our life. That is because the occult agents in this creation of God who really prompt our speech from behind—while we think we are speaking on our own—can load even casual expressions of fleeting moods with a fateful meaning of which the utterer himself is hardly aware.
“O
Spirit, traveller of eternity, A mighty Presence still defends thy frame. Aswapathy addresses Sayan: "O Spirit, voyager of eternity, thou hast come here to this mortal world from thy immortal regions, equipped for the noble adventure of conquering Time and Chance that dominate this earth. But like the moon wrapped in her halo thou art still dreaming. A great super-natural Presence guards thy body.
Perhaps
the heavens guard thee for some great soul, Who knows, the celestial Powers are guarding thee for someone great. The work for which thou hast come, the fate that thou carriest, are still kept by them afar. Surely, thou hast not come down alone.
O
living inscription of the beauty of love The beauty of love is shaped in thy living form, radiant in its virginity. Thou carriest some message of divine strength and bliss direct from the Eternal. Only he to whom thou wilt open thy heart shall come to know it and with it greaten his existence.
O
rubies of silence, lips from which there stole Venture through the deep world to find thy mate. Through thy ruby lips, always silent, rhythms of tranquillity flow in soft laughter; thy lustrous eyes shine like stars in a wide clear night; thy limbs with their glowing curves are shaped by the gods. Love and destiny await thy charm elsewhere; depart and seek they waiting companion in the wide world.
For
somewhere on the longing breast of earth,
Thy
soul has strength and needs no other guide Surely, somewhere unknown to thee waits thy destined lover for thee who art unknown to him. Thou shalt find thy way to him; there is no need for any external guide for thee; thou hast the soul-strength and Him who blazes within thy inner powers.
There
shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps To meet thee, shall draw near thy second half who will companion thee till the last step of thy body's journey is taken, keeping close pace with thy pace, bringing out what lies deeply latent in thee.
Then
shall you grow like vibrant kindred harps, When thou wilt have found thy mate, both of you will grow and prosper like two vibrating kindred harps, one even in beats of variation and joy, responding to each other in divine and equal notes, finding fresh notes in the eternal theme of life.
One
force shall be your mover and your guide,
Ascend
from Nature to divinity’s heights; Though you be in two bodies, one shall be the force to impel you and lead you, one the light around you and within you. Hand in strong hand, meet the question posed in life by the Powers celestial. It is a vast disguise here imposed upon all. Break through it, rise from the low levels of this Nature in Ignorance to the heights of the Spirit, look at the felicitous gods above and then meet an over-God, with thy own self transcending the whole movement in Time.
This word was seed of all the thing to be.
A
hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors These words of Aswapathy become the seed of everything to follow; they start Savitri on her mission in life. Something supernatural opens the sealed doors in her heart and she is shown the great work for which strength has been given to her.
As
when the mantra sinks in Yoga’s ear, When a Mantra is uttered and the ear of the yogin listens to it, its message enters within and the unseeing, mechanical brain is stirred by it; its sound is registered in the ignorant cells of the brain; the hearing takes in only the external form of the words; the mind contemplates upon the significant thought in the Mantra and labours to understand it, but all that it gets is a few bright hints of the embodied truth, not the truth itself.
Then,
falling silent in himself to know When the mind fails to grasp the truth, its thought activity ceases and the mind falls silent in order to make room for knowledge; the deeper hearing of the soul comes up; the charged Word goes on repeating itself in its rhythmic vibrations and his thought, sight, feeling, sense, the very body-consciousness, are seized by it entirely, an ecstasy overtakes them and he undergoes a permanent change.
He
feels a Wideness and becomes a Power, He feels himself becoming a Wideness; he becomes a Power; like a sea, knowledge rushes upon him from all sides; a pure-white Ray of the Spirit bathes him into a transmutation and he traverses the unveiled regions of joy and calm, sees the face of God, hears the speech beyond. A similar greatness is sown in Savitri by the words spoken by Aswapathy.
Accustomed scenes were now an ended play.
Moving
in muse amid familiar powers, As a result, the old accustomed scenes of the past are put aside. Touched by new greatnesses and celestial signs, contemplating, she turns to new vastnesses. Her heart is attracted to new and unknown sweetnesses. An unseen world is about to open up its secrets to her.
The
morn went up into a smiling sky;
Then
all went back into mind’s secret caves; The morn advances into bright noon; the day slides into eve; the moon appears and sinks; the stars are ablaze in the night. Savitri's mind withdraws into its depths, her senses are shut from outer sight by a supernal darkness and she is sucked into the pro-founds of sleep.
When
the pale dawn slipped through Night’s shadowy guard, Delight had fled to search the spacious world. And when the next day dawns, the palace is empty of Savitri. The presiding joy of the place has left; its beauty and divinity have departed; delight has gone adventuring into the wide world.
|
|