{"id":1006,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:56","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:56","slug":"12-book-7-canto-02-the-parable-of-the-search-for-the-soul-vol-29-savitri-volume-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/29-savitri-volume-29\/12-book-7-canto-02-the-parable-of-the-search-for-the-soul-vol-29-savitri-volume-29","title":{"rendered":"-12_Book 7 Canto 02 The Parable of the Search for the Soul.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
\n
\n\n\n\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n
\n

Canto Two<\/i> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Parable of the Search for the Soul<\/font><\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As in
\nthe vigilance of the sleepless night<\/p>\n

Through
\nthe slow heavy-footed silent hours,<\/p>\n

Repressing
\nin her bosom its load of grief,<\/p>\n

She
\nsat staring at the dumb tread of Time<\/p>\n

And
\nthe approach of ever-nearing Fate,<\/p>\n

A
\nsummons from her being’s summit came,<\/p>\n

A
\nsound, a call that broke the seals of Night.<\/p>\n

Above
\nher brows where will and knowledge meet<\/p>\n

A
\nmighty Voice invaded mortal space.<\/p>\n

It
\nseemed to come from inaccessible heights<\/p>\n

And
\nyet was intimate with all the world<\/p>\n

And
\nknew the meaning of the steps of Time<\/p>\n

And
\nsaw eternal destiny’s changeless scene<\/p>\n

Filling
\nthe far prospect of the cosmic gaze.<\/p>\n

As the
\nVoice touched, her body became a stark<\/p>\n

And
\nrigid golden statue of motionless trance,<\/p>\n

A
\nstone of God lit by an amethyst soul.<\/p>\n

Around
\nher body’s stillness all grew still:<\/p>\n

Her
\nheart listened to its slow measured beats,<\/p>\n

Her
\nmind renouncing thought heard and was mute:<\/p>\n

“Why
\ncamest thou to this dumb deathbound earth,<\/p>\n

This
\nignorant life beneath indifferent skies<\/p>\n

Tied
\nlike a sacrifice on the altar of Time,<\/p>\n

O
\nspirit, O immortal energy,<\/p>\n

If
\n’twas to nurse grief in a helpless heart<\/p>\n

Or
\nwith hard tearless eyes await thy doom?<\/p>\n

Arise,
\nO soul, and vanquish Time and Death.”<\/p>\n

But
\nSavitri’s heart replied in the dim night:<\/p>\n

“My
\nstrength is taken from me and given to Death,<\/p>\n

Why
\nshould I lift my hands to the shut heavens<\/p>\n

Or
\nstruggle with mute inevitable Fate <\/p>\n

\n Page – 474<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Or
\nhope in vain to uplift an ignorant race<\/p>\n

Who
\nhug their lot and mock the saviour Light<\/p>\n

And
\nsee in Mind Wisdom’s sole tabernacle,<\/p>\n

In its
\nharsh peak and its inconscient base<\/p>\n

A rock
\nof safety and an anchor of sleep?<\/p>\n

Is
\nthere a God whom any cry can move?<\/p>\n

He
\nsits in peace and leaves the mortal’s strength<\/p>\n

Impotent
\nagainst his calm omnipotent Law<\/p>\n

And
\nInconscience and the almighty hands of Death.<\/p>\n

What
\nneed have I, what need has Satyavan<\/p>\n

To
\navoid the black meshed net, the dismal door,<\/p>\n

Or
\ncall a mightier Light into life’s closed room,<\/p>\n

A
\ngreater Law into man’s little world?<\/p>\n

Why
\nshould I strive with earth’s unyielding laws<\/p>\n

Or
\nstave off death’s inevitable hour?<\/p>\n

This
\nsurely is best to pactise with my fate<\/p>\n

And
\nfollow close behind my lover’s steps<\/p>\n

And
\npass through night from twilight to the sun<\/p>\n

Across
\nthe tenebrous river that divides<\/p>\n

The
\nadjoining parishes of earth and heaven.<\/p>\n

Then
\ncould we lie inarmed breast upon breast,<\/p>\n

Untroubled
\nby thought, untroubled by our hearts,<\/p>\n

Forgetting
\nman and life and time and its hours,<\/p>\n

Forgetting
\neternity’s call, forgetting God.”<\/p>\n

The
\nVoice replied: “Is this enough, O spirit?<\/p>\n

And
\nwhat shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows<\/p>\n

The
\nwork was left undone for which it came?<\/p>\n

Or is
\nthis all for thy being born on earth<\/p>\n

Charged
\nwith a mandate from eternity,<\/p>\n

A
\nlistener to the voices of the years,<\/p>\n

A
\nfollower of the footprints of the gods,<\/p>\n

To
\npass and leave unchanged the old dusty laws?<\/p>\n

Shall
\nthere be no new tables, no new Word,<\/p>\n

No
\ngreater light come down upon the earth<\/p>\n

Delivering
\nher from her unconsciousness,<\/p>\n

Man’s
\nspirit from unalterable fate? <\/p>\n

\n Page – 475<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Cam’st
\nthou not down to open the doors of Fate,<\/p>\n

The
\niron doors that seemed for ever closed,<\/p>\n

And
\nlead man to truth’s wide and golden road<\/p>\n

That
\nruns through finite things to eternity?<\/p>\n

Is
\nthis then the report that I must make,<\/p>\n

My
\nhead bowed with shame before the Eternal’s seat,—<\/p>\n

His
\npower he kindled in thy body has failed,<\/p>\n

His
\nlabourer returns, her task undone?”<\/p>\n

Then
\nSavitri’s heart fell mute, it spoke no word.<\/p>\n

But
\nholding back her troubled rebel heart,<\/p>\n

Abrupt,
\nerect and strong, calm like a hill,<\/p>\n

Surmounting
\nthe seas of mortal ignorance,<\/p>\n

Its
\npeak immutable above mind’s air,<\/p>\n

A
\nPower within her answered the still Voice:<\/p>\n

“I am
\nthy portion here charged with thy work,<\/p>\n

As
\nthou myself seated for ever above,<\/p>\n

Speak
\nto my depths, O great and deathless Voice,<\/p>\n

Command,
\nfor I am here to do thy will.”<\/p>\n

The
\nVoice replied: “Remember why thou cam’st:<\/p>\n

Find
\nout thy soul, recover thy hid self,<\/p>\n

In
\nsilence seek God’s meaning in thy depths,<\/p>\n

Then
\nmortal nature change to the divine.<\/p>\n

Open
\nGod’s door, enter into his trance.<\/p>\n

Cast
\nThought from thee, that nimble ape of Light:<\/p>\n

In his
\ntremendous hush stilling thy brain<\/p>\n

His
\nvast Truth wake within and know and see.<\/p>\n

Cast
\nfrom thee sense that veils thy spirit’s sight:<\/p>\n

In the
\nenormous emptiness of thy mind<\/p>\n

Thou
\nshalt see the Eternal’s body in the world,<\/p>\n

Know
\nhim in every voice heard by thy soul:<\/p>\n

In the
\nworld’s contacts meet his single touch;<\/p>\n

All
\nthings shall fold thee into his embrace.<\/p>\n

Conquer
\nthy heart’s throbs, let thy heart beat in God:<\/p>\n

Thy
\nnature shall be the engine of his works,<\/p>\n

Thy
\nvoice shall house the mightiness of his Word:<\/p>\n

Then
\nshalt thou harbour my force and conquer Death.” <\/p>\n

\n Page – 476<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Then
\nSavitri by her doomed husband sat,<\/p>\n

Still
\nrigid in her golden motionless pose,<\/p>\n

A
\nstatue of the fire of the inner sun.<\/p>\n

In the
\nblack night the wrath of storm swept by,<\/p>\n

The
\nthunder crashed above her, the rain hissed,<\/p>\n

Its
\nmillion footsteps pattered on the roof.<\/p>\n

Impassive
\nmid the movement and the cry,<\/p>\n

Witness
\nof the thoughts of mind, the moods of life,<\/p>\n

She
\nlooked into herself and sought for her soul.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A
\ndream disclosed to her the cosmic past,<\/p>\n

The
\ncrypt-seed and the mystic origins,<\/p>\n

The
\nshadowy beginnings of world-fate:<\/p>\n

A lamp
\nof symbol lighting hidden truth<\/p>\n

Imaged
\nto her the world’s significance.<\/p>\n

In the
\nindeterminate formlessness of Self<\/p>\n

Creation
\ntook its first mysterious steps,<\/p>\n

It
\nmade the body’s shape a house of soul<\/p>\n

And
\nMatter learned to think and person grew;<\/p>\n

She
\nsaw Space peopled with the seeds of life<\/p>\n

And
\nsaw the human creature born in Time.<\/p>\n

At
\nfirst appeared a dim half-neutral tide<\/p>\n

Of
\nbeing emerging out of infinite Nought:<\/p>\n

A
\nconsciousness looked at the inconscient Vast<\/p>\n

And
\npleasure and pain stirred in the insensible Void.<\/p>\n

All
\nwas the deed of a blind World-Energy:<\/p>\n

Unconscious
\nof her own exploits she worked,<\/p>\n

Shaping
\na universe out of the Inane.<\/p>\n

In
\nfragmentary beings she grew aware:<\/p>\n

A
\nchaos of little sensibilities<\/p>\n

Gathered
\nround a small ego’s pinpoint head;<\/p>\n

In it
\na sentient creature found its poise,<\/p>\n

It
\nmoved and lived a breathing, thinking whole.<\/p>\n

On a
\ndim ocean of subconscient life<\/p>\n

A
\nformless surface consciousness awoke:<\/p>\n

A
\nstream of thoughts and feelings came and went, <\/p>\n

\n Page – 477<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

A foam
\nof memories hardened and became<\/p>\n

A
\nbright crust of habitual sense and thought,<\/p>\n

A seat
\nof living personality<\/p>\n

And
\nrecurrent habits mimicked permanence.<\/p>\n

Mind
\nnascent laboured out a mutable form,<\/p>\n

It
\nbuilt a mobile house on shifting sands,<\/p>\n

A
\nfloating isle upon a bottomless sea.<\/p>\n

A
\nconscious being was by this labour made;<\/p>\n

It
\nlooked around it on its difficult field<\/p>\n

In the
\ngreen wonderful and perilous earth;<\/p>\n

It
\nhoped in a brief body to survive,<\/p>\n

Relying
\non Matter’s false eternity.<\/p>\n

It
\nfelt a godhead in its fragile house;<\/p>\n

It saw
\nblue heavens, dreamed immortality.<\/p>\n

A
\nconscious soul in the Inconscient’s world<\/p>\n

Hidden
\nbehind our thoughts and hopes and dreams,<\/p>\n

An
\nindifferent Master signing Nature’s acts<\/p>\n

Leaves
\nthe vicegerent mind a seeming king.<\/p>\n

In his
\nfloating house upon the sea of Time<\/p>\n

This
\nregent sits at work and never rests:<\/p>\n

He is
\na puppet of the dance of Time;<\/p>\n

He is
\ndriven by the hours, the moment’s call<\/p>\n

Compels
\nhim with the thronging of life’s need<\/p>\n

And
\nthe babel of the voices of the world.<\/p>\n

This
\nmind no silence knows nor dreamless sleep,<\/p>\n

In the
\nincessant circling of its steps<\/p>\n

Thoughts
\ntread for ever through the listening brain;<\/p>\n

It
\ntoils like a machine and cannot stop.<\/p>\n

Into
\nthe body’s many-storeyed rooms<\/p>\n

Endless
\ncrowd down the dream-god’s messages.<\/p>\n

All is
\na hundred-toned murmur and babble and stir,<\/p>\n

There
\nis a tireless running to and fro,<\/p>\n

A
\nhaste of movement and a ceaseless cry,<\/p>\n

The
\nhurried servant senses answer apace<\/p>\n

To
\nevery knock upon the outer doors,<\/p>\n

Bring
\nin life’s visitors, report each call, <\/p>\n

\n Page – 478<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Admit
\nthe thousand queries and the calls<\/p>\n

And
\nthe messages of communicating minds<\/p>\n

And
\nthe heavy business of unnumbered lives<\/p>\n

And
\nall the thousandfold commerce of the world.<\/p>\n

Even
\nin the tracts of sleep is scant repose;<\/p>\n

He
\nmocks life’s steps in strange subconscient dreams,<\/p>\n

He
\nstrays in a sublime realm of symbol scenes,<\/p>\n

His
\nnight with thin-air visions and dim forms<\/p>\n

He
\npacks or peoples with slight drifting shapes<\/p>\n

And
\nonly a moment spends in silent self.<\/p>\n

Adventuring
\ninto infinite mind-space<\/p>\n

He
\nunfolds his wings of thought in inner air,<\/p>\n

Or
\ntravelling in imagination’s car<\/p>\n

Crosses
\nthe globe, journeys beneath the stars,<\/p>\n

To
\nsubtle worlds takes his ethereal course,<\/p>\n

Visits
\nthe gods on life’s miraculous peaks,<\/p>\n

Communicates
\nwith Heaven, tampers with Hell.<\/p>\n

This
\nis the little surface of man’s life.<\/p>\n

He is
\nthis and he is all the universe;<\/p>\n

He
\nscales the Unseen, his depths dare the Abyss;<\/p>\n

A
\nwhole mysterious world is locked within.<\/p>\n

Unknown
\nto himself lives a hidden king<\/p>\n

Behind
\nrich tapestries in great secret rooms;<\/p>\n

An
\nepicure of the spirit’s unseen joys,<\/p>\n

He
\nlives on the sweet honey of solitude:<\/p>\n

A
\nnameless god in an unapproachable fane,<\/p>\n

In the
\nsecret adytum of his inmost soul<\/p>\n

He
\nguards the being’s covered mysteries<\/p>\n

Beneath
\nthe threshold behind shadowy gates<\/p>\n

Or
\nshut in vast cellars of inconscient sleep.<\/p>\n

The
\nimmaculate Divine All-Wonderful<\/p>\n

Casts
\ninto the argent purity of his soul<\/p>\n

His
\nsplendour and his greatness and the light<\/p>\n

Of
\nself-creation in Time’s infinity<\/p>\n

As
\ninto a sublimely mirroring glass.<\/p>\n

Man in
\nthe world’s life works out the dreams of God. <\/p>\n

\n Page – 479<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

But
\nall is there, even God’s opposites;<\/p>\n

He is
\na little front of Nature’s works,<\/p>\n

A
\nthinking outline of a cryptic Force.<\/p>\n

All
\nshe reveals in him that is in her,<\/p>\n

Her
\nglories walk in him and her darknesses.<\/p>\n

Man’s
\nhouse of life holds not the gods alone:<\/p>\n

There
\nare occult Shadows, there are tenebrous Powers,<\/p>\n

Inhabitants
\nof life’s ominous nether rooms,<\/p>\n

A
\nshadowy world’s stupendous denizens.<\/p>\n

A
\ncareless guardian of his nature’s powers,<\/p>\n

Man
\nharbours dangerous forces in his house.<\/p>\n

The
\nTitan and the Fury and the Djinn<\/p>\n

Lie
\nbound in the subconscient’s cavern pit<\/p>\n

And
\nthe Beast grovels in his antre den:<\/p>\n

Dire
\nmutterings rise and murmur in their drowse.<\/p>\n

Insurgent
\nsometimes raises its huge head<\/p>\n

A
\nmonstrous mystery lurking in life’s deeps,<\/p>\n

The
\nmystery of dark and fallen worlds,<\/p>\n

The
\ndread visages of the adversary Kings.<\/p>\n

The
\ndreadful powers held down within his depths<\/p>\n

Become
\nhis masters or his ministers;<\/p>\n

Enormous
\nthey invade his bodily house,<\/p>\n

Can
\nact in his acts, infest his thought and life.<\/p>\n

Inferno
\nsurges into the human air<\/p>\n

And
\ntouches all with a perverting breath.<\/p>\n

Grey
\nforces like a thin miasma creep<\/p>\n

Stealing
\nthrough chinks in his closed mansion’s doors,<\/p>\n

Discolouring
\nthe walls of upper mind<\/p>\n

In
\nwhich he lives his fair and specious life,<\/p>\n

And
\nleave behind a stench of sin and death:<\/p>\n

Not
\nonly rise in him perverse drifts of thought<\/p>\n

And
\nformidable formless influences,<\/p>\n

But
\nthere come presences and awful shapes:<\/p>\n

Tremendous
\nforms and faces mount dim steps<\/p>\n

And
\nstare at times into his living-rooms,<\/p>\n

Or
\ncalled up for a moment’s passionate work <\/p>\n

\n Page – 480<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Lay a
\ndire custom’s claim upon his heart:<\/p>\n

Aroused
\nfrom sleep, they can be bound no more.<\/p>\n

Afflicting
\nthe daylight and alarming night,<\/p>\n

Invading
\nat will his outer tenement<\/p>\n

The
\nstark gloom’s grisly dire inhabitants<\/p>\n

Mounting
\ninto God’s light all light perturb.<\/p>\n

All
\nthey have touched or seen they make their own,<\/p>\n

In
\nNature’s basement lodge, mind’s passages fill,<\/p>\n

Disrupt
\nthought’s links and musing sequences,<\/p>\n

Break
\nthrough the soul’s stillness with a noise and cry<\/p>\n

Or
\nthey call the inhabitants of the abyss,<\/p>\n

Invite
\nthe instincts to forbidden joys,<\/p>\n

A
\nlaughter wake of dread demoniac mirth<\/p>\n

And
\nwith nether riot and revel shake life’s floor.<\/p>\n

Impotent
\nto quell his terrible prisoners,<\/p>\n

Appalled
\nthe householder helpless sits above,<\/p>\n

Taken
\nfrom him his house is his no more.<\/p>\n

He is
\nbound and forced, a victim of the play,<\/p>\n

Or,
\nallured, joys in the mad and mighty din.<\/p>\n

His
\nnature’s dangerous forces have arisen<\/p>\n

And
\nhold at will a rebel’s holiday.<\/p>\n

Aroused
\nfrom the darkness where they crouched in the depths,<\/p>\n

Prisoned
\nfrom the sight, they can be held no more;<\/p>\n

His
\nnature’s impulses are now his lords.<\/p>\n

Once
\nquelled or wearing specious names and vests<\/p>\n

Infernal
\nelements, demon powers are there.<\/p>\n

Man’s
\nlower nature hides these awful guests.<\/p>\n

Their
\nvast contagion grips sometimes man’s world.<\/p>\n

An
\nawful insurgence overpowers man’s soul.<\/p>\n

In
\nhouse and house the huge uprising grows;<\/p>\n

Hell’s
\ncompanies are loosed to do their work,<\/p>\n

Into
\nthe earth-ways they break out from all doors,<\/p>\n

Invade
\nwith blood-lust and the will to slay<\/p>\n

And
\nfill with horror and carnage God’s fair world.<\/p>\n

Death
\nand his hunters stalk a victim earth;<\/p>\n

The
\nterrible Angel smites at every door: <\/p>\n

\n Page – 481<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

An
\nawful laughter mocks at the world’s pain<\/p>\n

And
\nmassacre and torture grin at Heaven:<\/p>\n

All is
\nthe prey of the destroying force;<\/p>\n

Creation
\nrocks and tremble top and base.<\/p>\n

This
\nevil Nature housed in human hearts<\/p>\n

A
\nforeign inhabitant, a dangerous guest:<\/p>\n

The
\nsoul that harbours it it can dislodge,<\/p>\n

Expel
\nthe householder, possess the house.<\/p>\n

An
\nopposite potency contradicting God,<\/p>\n

A
\nmomentary Evil’s almightiness<\/p>\n

Has
\nstraddled the straight path of Nature’s acts.<\/p>\n

It
\nimitates the Godhead it denies,<\/p>\n

Puts
\non his figure and assumes his face.<\/p>\n

A
\nManichean creator and destroyer,<\/p>\n

This
\ncan abolish man, annul his world.<\/p>\n

But
\nthere is a guardian power, there are Hands that save,<\/p>\n

Calm
\neyes divine regard the human scene.<\/p>\n

All
\nthe world’s possibilities in man<\/p>\n

Are
\nwaiting as the tree waits in its seed:<\/p>\n

His
\npast lives in him; it drives his future’s pace;<\/p>\n

His
\npresent’s acts fashion his coming fate.<\/p>\n

The
\nunborn gods hide in his house of Life.<\/p>\n

The
\ndaemons of the unknown overshadow his mind<\/p>\n

Casting
\ntheir dreams into live moulds of thought,<\/p>\n

The
\nmoulds in which his mind builds out its world.<\/p>\n

His
\nmind creates around him its universe.<\/p>\n

All
\nthat has been renews in him its birth,<\/p>\n

All
\nthat can be is figured in his soul.<\/p>\n

Issuing
\nin deeds it scores on the roads of the world,<\/p>\n

Obscure
\nto the interpreting reason’s guess,<\/p>\n

Lines
\nof the secret purpose of the gods.<\/p>\n

In
\nstrange directions runs the intricate plan;<\/p>\n

Held
\nback from human foresight is their end.<\/p>\n

And
\nthe far intention of some ordering Will<\/p>\n

Or the
\norder of life’s arbitrary Chance<\/p>\n

Finds
\nout its settled poise and fated hour. <\/p>\n

\n Page – 482<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

Our
\nsurface watched in vain by reason’s gaze,<\/p>\n

Invaded
\nby the impromptus of the unseen,<\/p>\n

Helpless
\nrecords the accidents of Time,<\/p>\n

The
\ninvoluntary turns and leaps of life.<\/p>\n

Only a
\nlittle of us foresees its steps,<\/p>\n

Only a
\nlittle has will and purposed pace.<\/p>\n

A vast
\nsubliminal is man’s measureless part.<\/p>\n

The
\ndim subconscient is his cavern base.<\/p>\n

Abolished
\nvainly in the walks of Time<\/p>\n

Our
\npast lives still in our unconscious selves<\/p>\n

And by
\nthe weight of its hidden influences<\/p>\n

Is
\nshaped our future’s self-discovery.<\/p>\n

Thus
\nall is an inevitable chain<\/p>\n

And
\nyet a series seems of accidents.<\/p>\n

The
\nunremembering hours repeat the old acts,<\/p>\n

Our
\ndead past round our future’s ankles clings<\/p>\n

And
\ndrags back the new nature’s glorious stride,<\/p>\n

Or
\nfrom its buried corpse old ghosts arise,<\/p>\n

Old
\nthoughts, old longings, dead passions live again,<\/p>\n

Recur
\nin sleep or move the waking man<\/p>\n

To
\nwords that force the barrier of the lips,<\/p>\n

To
\ndeeds that suddenly start and o’erleap<\/p>\n

His
\nhead of reason and his guardian will.<\/p>\n

An old
\nself lurks in the new self we are;<\/p>\n

Hardly
\nwe escape from what we once had been:<\/p>\n

In the
\ndim gleam of habit’s passages,<\/p>\n

In the
\nsubconscient’s darkling corridors<\/p>\n

All
\nthings are carried by the porter nerves<\/p>\n

And
\nnothing checked by subterranean mind,<\/p>\n

Unstudied
\nby the guardians of the doors<\/p>\n

And
\npassed by a blind instinctive memory,<\/p>\n

The
\nold gang dismissed, old cancelled passports serve,<\/p>\n

Nothing
\nis wholly dead that once has lived.<\/p>\n

In dim
\ntunnels of the world’s being and in ours<\/p>\n

The
\nold rejected nature still survives;<\/p>\n

The
\ncorpses of its slain thoughts raise their heads <\/p>\n

\n Page – 483<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

And
\nvisit mind’s nocturnal walks in sleep,<\/p>\n

Its
\nstifled impulses breathe and move and rise;<\/p>\n

All
\nkeeps a phantom immortality.<\/p>\n

Irresistible
\nare Nature’s sequences:<\/p>\n

The
\nseeds of sins renounced sprout from hid soil;<\/p>\n

The
\nevil cast from our hearts once more we face.<\/p>\n

Our
\ndead selves come to slay our living soul.<\/p>\n

A
\nportion of us lives in present Time,<\/p>\n

A
\nsecret mass in dim inconscience gropes;<\/p>\n

Out of
\nthe inconscient and subliminal<\/p>\n

Arisen,
\nwe live in mind’s uncertain light<\/p>\n

And
\nstrive to know and master a dubious world<\/p>\n

Whose
\npurpose and meaning are hidden from our sight.<\/p>\n

Above
\nus dwells a superconscient god<\/p>\n

Hidden
\nin the mystery of his own light:<\/p>\n

Around
\nus is a vast of ignorance<\/p>\n

Lit by
\nthe uncertain ray of human mind,<\/p>\n

Below
\nus sleeps the Inconscient dark and mute.<\/p>\n

But
\nthis is only Matter’s first self-view,<\/p>\n

A
\nscale and series in the Ignorance.<\/p>\n

This
\nis not all we are or all our world.<\/p>\n

Our
\ngreater self of knowledge waits for us,<\/p>\n

A
\nsupreme light in the truth-conscious Vast:<\/p>\n

It
\nsees from summits beyond thinking mind,<\/p>\n

It
\nmoves in a splendid air transcending life.<\/p>\n

It
\nshall descend and make earth’s life divine.<\/p>\n

Truth
\nmade the world, not a blind Nature-Force.<\/p>\n

For
\nhere are not our large diviner heights;<\/p>\n

Our
\nsummits in the superconscient’s blaze<\/p>\n

Are
\nglorious with the very face of God:<\/p>\n

There
\nis our aspect of eternity,<\/p>\n

There
\nis the figure of the god we are,<\/p>\n

His
\nyoung unaging look on deathless things,<\/p>\n

His
\njoy in our escape from death and Time,<\/p>\n

His
\nimmortality and light and bliss.<\/p>\n

Our
\nlarger being sits behind cryptic walls: <\/p>\n

\n Page – 484<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

There
\nare greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts<\/p>\n

That
\nwait their hour to step into life’s front:<\/p>\n

We
\nfeel an aid from deep indwelling Gods:<\/p>\n

One
\nspeaks within, Light comes to us from above.<\/p>\n

Our
\nsoul from its mysterious chamber acts;<\/p>\n

Its
\ninfluence pressing on our heart and mind<\/p>\n

Pushes
\nthem to exceed their mortal selves.<\/p>\n

It
\nseeks for Good and Beauty and for God;<\/p>\n

We see
\nbeyond self’s walls our limitless self,<\/p>\n

We
\ngaze through our world’s glass at half-seen vasts,<\/p>\n

We
\nhunt for the Truth behind apparent things.<\/p>\n

Our
\ninner Mind dwells in a larger light,<\/p>\n

Its
\nbrightness looks at us through hidden doors;<\/p>\n

Our
\nmembers luminous grow and Wisdom’s face<\/p>\n

Appears
\nin the doorway of the mystic ward:<\/p>\n

When
\nshe enters into our house of outward sense,<\/p>\n

Then
\nwe look up and see, above, her sun.<\/p>\n

A
\nmighty life-self with its inner powers<\/p>\n

Supports
\nthe dwarfish modicum we call life;<\/p>\n

It can
\ngraft upon our crawl two puissant wings.<\/p>\n

Our
\nbody’s subtle self is throned within<\/p>\n

In its
\nviewless palace of veridical dreams<\/p>\n

That
\nare bright shadows of the thoughts of God.<\/p>\n

In the
\nprone obscure beginnings of the race<\/p>\n

The
\nhuman grew in the bowed apelike man.<\/p>\n

He
\nstood erect, a godlike form and force,<\/p>\n

And a
\nsoul’s thoughts looked out from earthborn eyes;<\/p>\n

Man
\nstood erect, he wore the thinker’s brow:<\/p>\n

He
\nlooked at heaven and saw his comrade stars;<\/p>\n

A
\nvision came of beauty and greater birth<\/p>\n

Slowly
\nemerging from the heart’s chapel of light<\/p>\n

And
\nmoved in a white lucent air of dreams.<\/p>\n

He saw
\nhis being’s unrealised vastnesses,<\/p>\n

He
\naspired and housed the nascent demi-god.<\/p>\n

Out of
\nthe dim recesses of the self<\/p>\n

The
\noccult seeker into the open came: <\/p>\n

\n Page – 485<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

He
\nheard the far and touched the intangible,<\/p>\n

He
\ngazed into the future and the unseen;<\/p>\n

He
\nused the powers earth-instruments cannot use,<\/p>\n

A
\npastime made of the impossible;<\/p>\n

He
\ncaught up fragments of the Omniscient’s thought,<\/p>\n

He
\nscattered formulas of omnipotence.<\/p>\n

Thus
\nman in his little house made of earth’s dust<\/p>\n

Grew
\ntowards an unseen heaven of thought and dream<\/p>\n

Looking
\ninto the vast vistas of his mind<\/p>\n

On a
\nsmall globe dotting infinity.<\/p>\n

At
\nlast climbing a long and narrow stair<\/p>\n

He
\nstood alone on a high roof of things<\/p>\n

And
\nsaw the light of a spiritual sun.<\/p>\n

Aspiring
\nhe transcends his earthly self;<\/p>\n

He
\nstands in the largeness of his soul new-born<\/p>\n

Redeemed
\nfrom encirclement by mortal things<\/p>\n

And
\nmoves in a pure free spiritual realm<\/p>\n

As in
\nthe rare breath of a stratosphere.<\/p>\n

A lost
\nend of far lines of divinity,<\/p>\n

He
\nmounts by a frail thread to his high source;<\/p>\n

He
\nreaches his fount of immortality,<\/p>\n

He
\ncalls the Godhead into his mortal life.<\/p>\n

All
\nthis the spirit concealed had done in her:<\/p>\n

A
\nportion of the mighty Mother came<\/p>\n

Into
\nher as into its own human part:<\/p>\n

Amid
\nthe cosmic workings of the Gods<\/p>\n

It
\nmarked her the centre of a wide-drawn scheme,<\/p>\n

Dreamed
\nin the passion of her far-seeing spirit<\/p>\n

To
\nmould humanity into God’s own shape<\/p>\n

And
\nlead this great blind struggling world to light<\/p>\n

Or a
\nnew world discover or create.<\/p>\n

Earth
\nmust transform herself and equal Heaven<\/p>\n

Or
\nHeaven descend into earth’s mortal state.<\/p>\n

But
\nfor such vast spiritual change to be,<\/p>\n

Out of
\nthe mystic cavern in man’s heart<\/p>\n

The
\nheavenly Psyche must put off her veil <\/p>\n

\n Page – 486<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n

And
\nstep into common nature’s crowded rooms<\/p>\n

And
\nstand uncovered in that nature’s front<\/p>\n

And
\nrule its thoughts and fill the body and life.<\/p>\n

Obedient
\nto a high command she sat:<\/p>\n

Time,
\nlife and death were passing incidents<\/p>\n

Obstructing
\nwith their transient view her sight,<\/p>\n

Her
\nsight that must break through and liberate the god<\/p>\n

Imprisoned
\nin the visionless mortal man.<\/p>\n

The
\ninferior nature born into ignorance<\/p>\n

Still
\ntook too large a place, it veiled her self<\/p>\n

And
\nmust be pushed aside to find her soul.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

End of Canto Two <\/p>\n

\n Page – 487<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Canto Two    The Parable of the Search for the Soul    As in the vigilance of the sleepless night Through the slow heavy-footed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-29-savitri-volume-29","wpcat-22-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}