{"id":1018,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:02","slug":"10-book-6-canto-02-the-way-of-fate-and-the-problem-of-pain-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\/10-book-6-canto-02-the-way-of-fate-and-the-problem-of-pain-vol-29-savitri-volume-29","title":{"rendered":"-10_Book 6 Canto 02 The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n
\n

\n Canto Two<\/i> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain<\/font> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A
\nsilence sealed the irrevocable decree,<\/p>\n

The
\nword of Fate that fell from the heavenly lips<\/p>\n

Fixing
\na doom no power could ever reverse<\/p>\n

Unless
\nheaven’s will itself could change its course.<\/p>\n

Or so
\nit seemed; yet from the silence rose<\/p>\n

One
\nvoice that questioned changeless destiny.<\/p>\n

A will
\nthat strove against the immutable Will,<\/p>\n

A
\nmother’s heart had heard the fateful speech<\/p>\n

That
\nrang like a sanction to the call of death<\/p>\n

And
\ncame like a chill close to life and hope.<\/p>\n

Yet
\nhope sank down like an extinguished fire.<\/p>\n

She
\nfelt the leaden inevitable hand<\/p>\n

Invade
\nthe secrecy of her guarded soul<\/p>\n

And
\nsmite with sudden pain its still content<\/p>\n

And
\nthe empire of her hard-won quietude.<\/p>\n

Awhile
\nshe fell to the level of human mind,<\/p>\n

A
\nfield of mortal grief and Nature’s law<\/p>\n

She
\nshared, she bore the common lot of men<\/p>\n

And
\nfelt what common hearts endure in Time.<\/p>\n

Voicing
\nearth’s question to the inscrutable power<\/p>\n

The
\nqueen now turned to the still immobile seer:<\/p>\n

Assailed
\nby the discontent in Nature’s depths,<\/p>\n

Partner
\nin the agony of dumb driven things<\/p>\n

And
\nall the misery, all the ignorant cry,<\/p>\n

Passionate
\nlike sorrow questioning heaven she spoke.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

O
\nseer, in the earth’s strange twi<\/span>-natured
\nlife<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/sup><\/i><\/p>\n

1<\/span><\/sup> Alternative to the passage starting with
\nAwhile :<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awhile she lost her spirits tranquil poise,<\/span><\/p>\n

Awhile she shared the lot of common souls<\/span><\/p>\n

And bore the heavy hand of Death and Time<\/span><\/p>\n

And felt the anguish in lifes stricken deeps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lending her speech to the surface soul on
\nearth<\/span><\/p>\n

She uttered the suffering in the world’s dumb
\nheart<\/span><\/p>\n

And man’s revolt against his ignorant fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Page – 437<\/span><\/p>\n

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

By
\nwhat pitiless adverse Necessity<\/p>\n

Or
\nwhat cold freak of a Creator’s will,<\/p>\n

By
\nwhat random accident or governed Chance<\/p>\n

That
\nshaped a rule out of fortuitous steps,<\/p>\n

Made
\ndestiny from an hour’s emotion, came<\/p>\n

The
\ndirer mystery of grief and pain?<\/p>\n

Is it
\nthy God who made this cruel law?<\/p>\n

Or
\nsome disastrous Power has marred his work<\/p>\n

And he
\nstands helpless to defend or save?<\/p>\n

A
\nfatal seed was sown in life’s false start<\/p>\n

When
\nevil twinned with good on earthly soil.<\/p>\n

Then
\nfirst appeared the malady of mind,<\/p>\n

Its
\npang of thought, its quest for the aim of life.<\/p>\n

It
\ntwisted into forms of good and ill<\/p>\n

The
\nfrank simplicity of the animal’s acts;<\/p>\n

It
\nturned the straight path hewn by the body’s gods,<\/p>\n

Followed
\nthe zigzag of the uncertain course<\/p>\n

Of
\nlife that wanders seeking for its aim<\/p>\n

In the
\npale starlight falling from thought’s skies;<\/p>\n

It
\nguides the unsure idea, the wavering will.<\/p>\n

Lost
\nwas the instinct’s safe identity<\/p>\n

With
\nthe arrow-point of being’s inmost sight,<\/p>\n

Marred
\nthe sure steps of Nature’s simple walk<\/p>\n

And
\ntruth and freedom in the growing soul.<\/p>\n

Out of
\nsome ageless innocence and peace,<\/p>\n

Privilege
\nof souls not yet betrayed to birth,<\/p>\n

Cast
\ndown to suffer on this hard dangerous earth<\/p>\n

Our
\nlife was born in pain and with a cry.<\/p>\n

Although
\nearth-nature welcomes heaven’s breath<\/p>\n

Inspiring
\nMatter with the will to live,<\/p>\n

A
\nthousand ills assail the mortal’s hours<\/p>\n

And
\nwear away the natural joy of life;<\/p>\n

Our
\nbodies are an engine cunningly made,<\/p>\n

But
\nfor all its parts as cunningly are planned,<\/p>\n

Page – 438<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Contrived
\ningeniously with demon skill,<\/p>\n

Its
\napt inevitable heritage<\/p>\n

Of
\nmortal danger and peculiar pain,<\/p>\n

Its
\npayment of the tax of Time and Fate,<\/p>\n

Its
\nway to suffer and its way to die.<\/p>\n

This
\nis the ransom of our high estate,<\/p>\n

The
\nsign and stamp of our humanity.<\/p>\n

A
\ngrisly company of maladies<\/p>\n

Come,
\nlicensed lodgers, into man’s bodily house,<\/p>\n

Purveyors
\nof death and torturers of life.<\/p>\n

In the
\nmalignant hollows of the world,<\/p>\n

In its
\n subconscient<\/span> cavern-passages<\/p>\n

Ambushed
\nthey lie waiting their hour to leap,<\/p>\n

Surrounding
\nwith danger the sieged<\/span> city of
\nlife:<\/p>\n

Admitted
\ninto the citadel of man’s days<\/p>\n

They
\nmine his force and maim or suddenly kill.<\/p>\n

Ourselves
\nwithin us lethal forces nurse;<\/p>\n

We
\nmake of our own enemies our guests:<\/p>\n

Out of
\ntheir holes like beasts they creep and gnaw<\/p>\n

The
\nchords of the divine musician’s lyre<\/p>\n

Till
\nfrayed and thin the music dies away<\/p>\n

Or
\ncrashing snaps with a last tragic note.<\/p>\n

All
\nthat we are is like a fort beset:<\/p>\n

All
\nthat we strive to be alters like a dream<\/p>\n

In the
\ngrey sleep of Matter’s ignorance.<\/p>\n

Mind
\nsuffers lamed by the world’s disharmony<\/p>\n

And
\nthe unloveliness<\/span> of human things.<\/p>\n

A
\ntreasure misspent or cheaply, fruitlessly sold<\/p>\n

In the
\nbazaar of a blind destiny,<\/p>\n

A gift
\nof priceless values from Time’s gods<\/p>\n

Lost
\nor mislaid in an uncaring world,<\/p>\n

Life
\nis a marvel missed, an art gone wry;<\/p>\n

A
\nseeker in a dark and obscure place,<\/p>\n

An
\nill-armed warrior facing dreadful odds,<\/p>\n

An
\nimperfect worker given a baffling task,<\/p>\n

An
\nignorant judge of problems Ignorance made,<\/p>\n

Page – 439<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Its
\nheavenward flights reach closed and keyless gates,<\/p>\n

Its
\nglorious outbursts peter out in mire.<\/p>\n

On
\nNature’s gifts to man a curse was laid.<\/p>\n

All
\nwalks inarmed<\/span> by its own opposites,<\/p>\n

Error
\nis the comrade of our mortal thought,<\/p>\n

And
\nfalsehood lurks in the deep bosom of truth,<\/p>\n

Sin
\npoisons with its vivid flowers of joy<\/p>\n

Or
\nleaves a red scar burnt across the soul;<\/p>\n

Virtue
\nis a grey bondage and a gaol<\/span>.<\/p>\n

At
\nevery step is laid for us a snare.<\/p>\n

Alien
\nto reason and the spirit’s light,<\/p>\n

Our
\nfount of action from a darkness wells;<\/p>\n

In
\nignorance and nescience are our roots.<\/p>\n

A
\ngrowing register of calamities<\/p>\n

Is the
\npast’s account, the future’s book of Fate:<\/p>\n

The
\ncenturies pile man’s follies and man’s crimes<\/p>\n

Upon
\nthe countless crowd of Nature’s ills;<\/p>\n

As if
\nthe world’s stone load was not enough,<\/p>\n

A crop
\nof miseries obstinately is sown<\/p>\n

By his
\nown hand in the furrows of the gods,<\/p>\n

The
\nvast increasing tragic harvest reaped<\/p>\n

From
\nold misdeeds buried by oblivious Time.<\/p>\n

He
\nwalks by his own choice into hell’s trap;<\/p>\n

This
\nmortal creature is his own worst foe.<\/p>\n

His
\nscience is an artificer of doom;<\/p>\n

He
\nransacks earth for means to harm his kind;<\/p>\n

He
\nslays his happiness and others’ good.<\/p>\n

Nothing
\nhas he learnt from Time and its history;<\/p>\n

Even
\nas of old in the raw youth of Time,<\/p>\n

When
\nearth ignorant ran on the highways of Fate,<\/p>\n

Old
\nforms of evil cling to the world’s soul:<\/p>\n

War
\nmaking nought<\/span> the sweet smiling calm of
\nlife,<\/p>\n

Battle
\nand rapine, ruin and massacre<\/p>\n

Are
\nstill the fierce pastimes of man’s warring tribes;<\/p>\n

An
\nidiot hour destroys what centuries made,<\/p>\n

His
\nwanton rage or frenzied hate lays low<\/p>\n

Page – 440<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The
\nbeauty and greatness by his genius wrought<\/p>\n

And
\nthe mighty output of a nation’s toil.<\/p>\n

All he
\nhas achieved he drags to the precipice.<\/p>\n

His
\ngrandeur he turns to an epic of doom and fall;<\/p>\n

His
\nlittleness crawls content through squalor and mud,<\/p>\n

He
\ncalls heaven’s retribution on his head,<\/p>\n

And
\nwallows in his self-made misery.<\/p>\n

A part
\nauthor of the cosmic tragedy,<\/p>\n

His
\nwill conspires with death and time and fate,<\/p>\n

His
\nbrief appearance on the enigmaed<\/span> earth<\/p>\n

Ever
\nrecurs, but brings no high result<\/p>\n

To
\nthis wanderer through the aeon<\/span>-rings of God<\/p>\n

That
\nshut his life in their vast longevity.<\/p>\n

His
\nsoul’s wide search and ever returning hopes<\/p>\n

Pursue
\nthe useless orbit of their course<\/p>\n

In a
\nvain repetition of lost toils<\/p>\n

Across
\na track of soon forgotten lives.<\/p>\n

All is
\nan episode in a meaningless tale.<\/p>\n

Why is
\nit all and wherefore are we here?<\/p>\n

If to
\nsome being of eternal bliss<\/p>\n

It is
\nour spirit’s destiny to return<\/p>\n

Or
\nsome still impersonal height of endless calm,<\/p>\n

Since
\nThat we are and out of That we came,<\/p>\n

Whence
\nrose the strange and sterile interlude<\/p>\n

Lasting
\nin vain through interminable Time?<\/p>\n

Or if
\nthese beings must be and their brief lives,<\/p>\n

What
\nneed had the soul of ignorance and tears?<\/p>\n

Whence
\nrose the call for sorrow and for pain?<\/p>\n

Or all
\ncame helplessly without a cause?<\/p>\n

What
\npower forced the immortal spirit to birth?<\/p>\n

The
\neternal witness once of eternity,<\/p>\n

A
\ndeathless sojourner mid transient scenes,<\/p>\n

He
\ncamps in life’s half-lit obscurity<\/p>\n

Amid
\nthe debris of his thoughts and dreams.<\/p>\n

Or who
\npersuaded it to fall from bliss<\/p>\n

And
\nforfeit its immortal privilege?<\/p>\n

Page – 441<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Who
\nlaid on it the ceaseless will to live<\/p>\n

A
\nwanderer in this beautiful sorrowful world,<\/p>\n

And
\nbear its load of joy and grief and love?<\/p>\n

Or if
\nno being watches the works of Time,<\/p>\n

What
\nhard impersonal Necessity<\/p>\n

Compels
\nthe vain toil of brief living things?<\/p>\n

A
\ngreat Illusion then has built the stars.<\/p>\n

But
\nwhere then is the soul’s security,<\/p>\n

Its
\npoise in this circling of unreal suns?<\/p>\n

Or
\nelse it is a wanderer from its home<\/p>\n

Who
\nstrayed into a blind alley of Time and chance<\/p>\n

And
\nfinds no issue from a meaningless world.<\/p>\n

Or
\nwhere begins and ends Illusion’s reign?<\/p>\n

Perhaps
\nthe soul we feel is only a dream,<\/p>\n

Eternal
\nself a fiction sensed in trance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then
\nafter a silence Narad<\/span> made reply:<\/p>\n

Tuning
\nhis lips to earthly sound he spoke,<\/p>\n

And
\nsomething now of the deep sense of fate<\/p>\n

Weighted
\nthe fragile hints of mortal speech.<\/p>\n

His
\nforehead shone with vision solemnised<\/span>,<\/p>\n

Turned
\nto a tablet of supernal thoughts<\/p>\n

As if
\ncharacters of an unwritten tongue<\/p>\n

Had
\nleft in its breadth the inscriptions of the gods.<\/p>\n

Bare
\nin that Light Time toiled, his unseen works<\/p>\n

Detected,
\nthe broad-flung far-seeing schemes<\/p>\n

Unfinished
\nwhich his aeoned<\/span> flight unrolls<\/p>\n

Were
\nmapped already in that world-wide look:<\/p>\n

Was
\nthen the sun a dream because there is night?<\/p>\n

Hidden
\nin the mortal’s heart the Eternal lives:<\/p>\n

He
\nlives secret in the chamber of thy soul,<\/p>\n

A
\nlight shines there nor pain nor grief can cross.<\/p>\n

A
\ndarkness stands between thyself and him,<\/p>\n

Thou
\ncanst not hear or feel the marvellous<\/span>
\nGuest,<\/p>\n

Thou
\ncanst not see the beatific sun.<\/p>\n

O
\nqueen, thy thought is a light of the Ignorance,<\/p>\n

Page – 442<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Its
\nbrilliant curtain hides from thee God’s face.<\/p>\n

It
\nillumines a world born from the Inconscience,<\/p>\n

But
\nhides the Immortal’s meaning in the world.<\/p>\n

Thy
\nmind’s light hides from thee the Eternal’s<\/span>
\nthought,<\/p>\n

Thy
\nheart’s hopes hide from thee the Eternal’s<\/span>
\nwill,<\/p>\n

Earth’s
\njoys shut from thee the Immortal’s bliss.<\/p>\n

Thence
\nrose the need of a dark intruding god,<\/p>\n

The
\nworld’s dread teacher, the creator, pain.<\/p>\n

Where
\nIgnorance is, there suffering too must come;<\/p>\n

Thy
\ngrief is a cry of darkness to the Light;<\/p>\n

Pain
\nwas the first-born of the Inconscience<\/p>\n

Which
\nwas thy body’s dumb original base;<\/p>\n

Already
\nslept there pain’s subconscient<\/span>
\nshape:<\/p>\n

A
\nshadow in a shadowy tenebrous womb,<\/p>\n

Till
\nlife shall move, it waits to wake and be.<\/p>\n

In one
\n caul<\/span> with joy came forth the dreadful
\nPower.<\/p>\n

In
\nlife’s breast it was born hiding its twin;<\/p>\n

But
\npain came first, then only joy could be.<\/p>\n

Pain
\nploughed the first hard ground of the world-drowse.<\/p>\n

By
\npain a spirit started from the clod,<\/p>\n

By
\npain Life stirred in the subliminal deep.<\/p>\n

Interned,
\nsubmerged, hidden in Matter’s trance<\/p>\n

Awoke
\nto itself the dreamer, sleeping Mind;<\/p>\n

It
\nmade a visible realm out of its dreams,<\/p>\n

It
\ndrew its shapes from the subconscient<\/span>
\ndepths,<\/p>\n

Then
\nturned to look upon the world it had made.<\/p>\n

By
\npain and joy, the bright and tenebrous twins,<\/p>\n

The
\ninanimate world perceived its sentient soul,<\/p>\n

Else
\nhad the Inconscient never suffered change.<\/p>\n

Pain
\nis the hammer of the gods to break<\/p>\n

A dead
\nresistance in the mortal’s heart,<\/p>\n

His
\nslow inertia as of living stone.<\/p>\n

If the
\nheart were not forced to want and weep,<\/p>\n

His
\nsoul would have lain down content, at ease,<\/p>\n

And
\nnever thought to exceed the human start<\/p>\n

And
\nnever learned to climb towards the Sun.<\/p>\n

Page – 443<\/span><\/p>\n

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

This
\nearth is full of labour, packed with pain;<\/p>\n

Throes
\nof an endless birth coerce her still;<\/p>\n

The
\ncenturies end, the ages vainly pass<\/p>\n

And
\nyet the godhead in her is not born.<\/p>\n

The
\nancient Mother faces all with joy,<\/p>\n

Calls
\nfor the ardent pang, the grandiose thrill;<\/p>\n

For
\nwith pain and labour all creation comes.<\/p>\n

This
\nearth is full of the anguish of the gods;<\/p>\n

Ever
\nthey travail driven by Time’s goad,<\/p>\n

And
\nstrive to work out the eternal will<\/p>\n

And
\nshape the life divine in mortal forms.<\/p>\n

His
\nwill must be worked out in human breasts<\/p>\n

Against
\nthe Evil that rises from the gulfs,<\/p>\n

Against
\nman’s ignorance and its obstinate strength,<\/p>\n

Against
\nthe deep folly of his human mind,<\/p>\n

Against
\nthe blind reluctance of his human heart.<\/p>\n

The
\nspirit is doomed to pain till man is free.<\/p>\n

There
\nis a clamour of battle, a tramp, a march:<\/p>\n

A cry
\narises like a moaning sea,<\/p>\n

A
\ndesperate laughter under the blows of death,<\/p>\n

A doom
\nof blood and sweat and toil and tears.<\/p>\n

Men
\ndie that man may live and God be born.<\/p>\n

An
\nawful Silence watches tragic Time.<\/p>\n

Pain
\nis the hand of Nature sculpturing men<\/p>\n

To
\ngreatness: an inspired labour chisels<\/p>\n

With
\nheavenly cruelty an unwilling mould.<\/p>\n

Implacable
\nin the passion of their will,<\/p>\n

Lifting
\nthe hammers of titanic toil<\/p>\n

The
\ndemiurges of the universe work;<\/p>\n

They
\nshape with giant strokes their own; their sons<\/p>\n

Are
\nmarked with their enormous stamp of fire.<\/p>\n

Although
\nthe shaping god’s tremendous touch<\/p>\n

Is
\ntorture unbearable to mortal nerves,<\/p>\n

The
\nfiery spirit grows in strength within<\/p>\n

And
\nfeels a joy in every titan pang.<\/p>\n

He who
\nwould save himself lives bare and calm;<\/p>\n

Page – 444<\/span><\/p>\n

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

He who
\nwould save the race must share its pain:<\/p>\n

This
\nhe shall know who obeys that grandiose urge.<\/p>\n

The
\ngreat who came to save this suffering world<\/p>\n

And
\nrescue out of Time’s shadow and the Law,<\/p>\n

Must
\npass beneath the yoke of grief and pain:<\/p>\n

They
\nare caught by the Wheel that they had hoped to break,<\/p>\n

On
\ntheir shoulders they must bear man’s load of fate.<\/p>\n

Heaven’s
\nriches they bring, their sufferings count the price<\/p>\n

Or
\nthey pay the gift of knowledge with their lives.<\/p>\n

The
\nSon of God born as the Son of man<\/p>\n

Has
\ndrunk the bitter cup, owned Godhead’s debt,<\/p>\n

The
\ndebt the Eternal owes to the fallen kind<\/p>\n

His
\nwill has bound to death and struggling life<\/p>\n

That
\nyearns in vain for rest and endless peace.<\/p>\n

Now is
\nthe debt paid, wiped off the original score.<\/p>\n

The
\nEternal suffers in a human form,<\/p>\n

He has
\nsigned salvation’s testament with his blood:<\/p>\n

He has
\nopened the doors of his undying peace.<\/p>\n

The
\nDeity compensates the creature’s claim,<\/p>\n

The
\nCreator bears the law of pain and death;<\/p>\n

A
\nretribution smites the incarnate God.<\/p>\n

His
\nlove has paved the mortal’s road to Heaven:<\/p>\n

He has
\ngiven his life and light to balance here<\/p>\n

The
\ndark account of mortal ignorance.<\/p>\n

It is
\nfinished, the dread mysterious sacrifice,<\/p>\n

Offered
\nby God’s martyred body for the world;<\/p>\n

Gethsemane
\nand Calvary are his lot,<\/p>\n

He
\ncarries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed;<\/p>\n

His
\nescort is the curses of the crowd;<\/p>\n

Insult
\nand jeer are his right’s acknowledgment;<\/p>\n

Two
\nthieves slain with him mock his mighty death.<\/p>\n

He has
\ntrod with bleeding brow the Saviour’s<\/span> way.<\/p>\n

He who
\nhas found his identity with God<\/p>\n

Pays
\nwith the body’s death his soul’s vast light.<\/p>\n

His
\nknowledge immortal triumphs by his death.<\/p>\n

Hewn,
\nquartered on the scaffold as he falls<\/p>\n

Page – 445<\/span><\/p>\n

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

His
\ncrucified voice proclaims, I, I
\nam God;<\/p>\n

Yes, all is God, peals back Heaven’s deathless call.<\/p>\n

The
\nseed of Godhead sleeps in mortal hearts,<\/p>\n

The
\nflower of Godhead grows on the world-tree:<\/p>\n

All
\nshall discover God in self and things,<\/p>\n

But
\nwhen God’s messenger comes to help the world<\/p>\n

And
\nlead the soul of earth to higher things,<\/p>\n

He too
\nmust carry the yoke he came to unloose;<\/p>\n

He too
\nmust bear the pang that he would heal:<\/p>\n

Exempt
\nand unafflicted<\/span> by earth’s fate,<\/p>\n

How
\nshall he cure the ills he never felt?<\/p>\n

He
\ncovers the world’s agony with his calm;<\/p>\n

But
\nthough to the outward eye no sign appears<\/p>\n

And
\npeace is given to our torn human hearts,<\/p>\n

The
\nstruggle is there and paid the unseen price;<\/p>\n

The
\nfire, the strife, the wrestle are within.<\/p>\n

He
\ncarries the suffering world in his own breast;<\/p>\n

Its
\nsins weigh on his thoughts, its grief is his:<\/p>\n

Earth’s
\nancient load lies heavy on his soul;<\/p>\n

Night
\nand its powers beleaguer his tardy steps,<\/p>\n

The
\ntitan adversary’s clutch he bears;<\/p>\n

His
\nmarch is a battle and a pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

Life’s
\nevil smites, he is stricken with the world’s pain:<\/p>\n

A
\nmillion wounds gape in his secret heart.<\/p>\n

He
\njourneys sleepless through an unending night;<\/p>\n

Antagonist
\nforces crowd across his path;<\/p>\n

A
\nsiege, a combat is his inner life.<\/p>\n

Even
\nworse may be the cost, direr the pain:<\/p>\n

His
\nlarge identity and all-harbouring<\/span> love<\/p>\n

Shall
\nbring the cosmic anguish into his depths,<\/p>\n

The
\nsorrow of all living things shall come<\/p>\n

And
\nknock at his doors and live within his house;<\/p>\n

A
\ndreadful cord of sympathy can tie<\/p>\n

All
\nsuffering into his single grief and make<\/p>\n

All
\nagony in all the worlds his own.<\/p>\n

He
\nmeets an ancient adversary Force,<\/p>\n

Page – 446<\/span><\/p>\n

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

He is
\nlashed with the whips that tear the world’s worn heart;<\/p>\n

The
\nweeping of the centuries visits his eyes:<\/p>\n

He
\nwears the blood-glued fiery Centaur’s shirt,<\/p>\n

The
\npoison of the world has stained his throat.<\/p>\n

In the
\nmarket-place of Matter’s capital<\/p>\n

Amidst
\nthe chafferings<\/span> of the affair
\ncalled life<\/p>\n

He is
\ntied to the stake of a perennial Fire,<\/p>\n

He
\nburns on an unseen original verge<\/p>\n

That
\nMatter may be turned to spirit stuff:<\/p>\n

He is
\nthe victim in his own sacrifice.<\/p>\n

The
\nImmortal bound to earth’s mortality<\/p>\n

Appearing
\nand perishing on the roads of Time<\/p>\n

Creates
\nGod’s moment by eternity’s beats.<\/p>\n

He
\ndies that the world may be new-born and live.<\/p>\n

Even
\nif he escapes the fiercest fires,<\/p>\n

Even
\nif the world breaks not in, a drowning sea,<\/p>\n

Only
\nby hard sacrifice is high heaven earned:<\/p>\n

He
\nmust face the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell.<\/p>\n

A dark
\nconcealed hostility is lodged<\/p>\n

In the
\nhuman depths, in the hidden heart of Time<\/p>\n

That
\nclaims the right to change and mar God’s work.<\/p>\n

A
\nsecret enmity ambushes the world’s march;<\/p>\n

It
\nleaves a mark on thought and speech and act:<\/p>\n

It
\nstamps stain and defect on all things done;<\/p>\n

Till
\nit is slain peace is forbidden on earth.<\/p>\n

There
\nis no visible foe, but the unseen<\/p>\n

Is
\nround us, forces intangible besiege,<\/p>\n

Touches
\nfrom alien realms, thoughts not our own<\/p>\n

Overtake
\nus and compel the erring heart;<\/p>\n

Our
\nlives are caught in an ambiguous net.<\/p>\n

An
\nadversary Force was born of old:<\/p>\n

Invader
\nof the life of mortal man,<\/p>\n

It
\nhides from him the straight immortal path.<\/p>\n

A
\npower came in to veil the eternal Light,<\/p>\n

A
\npower opposed to the eternal will<\/p>\n

Diverts
\nthe messages of the infallible Word,<\/p>\n

Page – 447<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Contorts
\nthe contours of the cosmic plan:<\/p>\n

A
\nwhisper lures to evil the human heart,<\/p>\n

It
\nseals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard,<\/p>\n

It is
\nthe origin of our suffering here,<\/p>\n

It
\nbinds earth to calamity and pain.<\/p>\n

This
\nall must conquer who would bring down God’s peace.<\/p>\n

This
\nhidden foe lodged in the human breast<\/p>\n

Man
\nmust overcome or miss his higher fate.<\/p>\n

This
\nis the inner war without escape.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hard
\nis the world-redeemer’s heavy task;<\/p>\n

The
\nworld itself becomes his adversary,<\/p>\n

His
\nenemies are the beings he came to save.<\/p>\n

Those
\nhe would save are his antagonists:<\/p>\n

This
\nworld is in love with its own ignorance,<\/p>\n

Its
\ndarkness turns away from the saviour<\/span> light,<\/p>\n

It
\ngives the cross in payment for the crown.<\/p>\n

His
\nwork is a trickle of splendour<\/span> in a long
\nnight;<\/p>\n

He
\nsees the long march of Time, the little won;<\/p>\n

A few
\nare saved, the rest strive on and fail:<\/p>\n

A Sun
\nhas passed, on earth Night’s shadow falls.<\/p>\n

Yes,
\nthere are happy ways near to God’s sun;<\/p>\n

But
\nfew are they who tread the sunlit path;<\/p>\n

Only
\nthe pure in soul can walk in light.<\/p>\n

An
\nexit is shown, a road of hard escape<\/p>\n

From
\nthe sorrow and the darkness and the chain;<\/p>\n

But
\nhow shall a few escaped release the world?<\/p>\n

The
\nhuman mass lingers beneath the yoke.<\/p>\n

Escape,
\nhowever high, redeems not life,<\/p>\n

Life
\nthat is left behind on a fallen earth.<\/p>\n

Escape
\ncannot uplift the abandoned race<\/p>\n

Or
\nbring to it victory and the reign of God.<\/p>\n

A
\ngreater power must come, a larger light.<\/p>\n

Although
\nLight grows on earth and Night recedes,<\/p>\n

Yet
\ntill the evil is slain in its own home<\/p>\n

And
\nLight invades the world’s inconscient base<\/p>\n

Page – 448<\/span><\/p>\n

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

And
\nperished has the adversary Force,<\/p>\n

He
\nstill must labour on, his work half done.<\/p>\n

One
\nyet may come armoured<\/span>, invincible;<\/p>\n

His
\nwill immobile meets the mobile hour;<\/p>\n

The
\nworld’s blows cannot bend that victor head;<\/p>\n

Calm
\nand sure are his steps in the growing Night;<\/p>\n

The
\ngoal recedes, he hurries not his pace,<\/p>\n

He
\nturns not to high voices in the Night.<\/p>\n

He
\nasks no aid from the inferior gods;<\/p>\n

His
\neyes are fixed on the immutable aim.<\/p>\n

Man
\nturns aside or chooses easier paths;<\/p>\n

He
\nkeeps to the one high and difficult road<\/p>\n

That
\nsole can climb to the Eternal’s<\/span> peaks;<\/p>\n

The
\nineffable planes already have felt his tread;<\/p>\n

He has
\nmade heaven and earth his instruments,<\/p>\n

But
\nthe limits fall from him of earth and heaven;<\/p>\n

Their
\nlaw he transcends but uses as his means.<\/p>\n

He has
\nseized life’s hands, he has mastered his own heart.<\/p>\n

The
\nfeints of Nature mislead not his sight,<\/p>\n

Inflexible
\nhis look towards Truth’s far end;<\/p>\n

Fate’s
\ndeaf resistance cannot break his will.<\/p>\n

In the
\ndreadful passages, the fatal paths,<\/p>\n

Invulnerable
\nhis soul, his heart unslain<\/span>,<\/p>\n

He
\nlives through the opposition of earth’s Powers<\/p>\n

And
\nNature’s ambushes and the world’s attacks.<\/p>\n

His
\nspirit stature transcending pain and bliss<\/p>\n

He
\nfronts evil and good with calm and equal eyes.<\/p>\n

He too
\nmust grapple with the riddling Sphinx<\/p>\n

And
\nplunge into her long obscurity.<\/p>\n

He has
\nbroken into the Inconscient’s<\/span> depths<\/p>\n

That
\nveil themselves even from their own regard:<\/p>\n

He has
\nseen God’s slumber shape these magic worlds.<\/p>\n

He has
\nwatched the dumb God fashioning Matter’s frame,<\/p>\n

Dreaming
\nthe dreams of its unknowing sleep,<\/p>\n

And
\nwatched the unconsious Force that built the stars.<\/p>\n

He has
\nlearnt the Inconscient’s<\/span> workings and its
\nlaw,<\/p>\n

Page – 449<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Its
\nincoherent thoughts and rigid acts,<\/p>\n

Its
\nhazard wastes of impulse and idea,<\/p>\n

The
\nchaos of its mechanic frequencies,<\/p>\n

Its
\nrandom calls, its whispers falsely true,<\/p>\n

Misleaders
\nof the hooded listening soul.<\/p>\n

All
\nthings come to its ear but nothing abides;<\/p>\n

All
\nrose from the silence, all goes back to its hush.<\/p>\n

Its
\nsomnolence founded the universe,<\/p>\n

Its
\nobscure waking makes the world seem vain.<\/p>\n

Arisen
\nfrom Nothingness and towards Nothingness turned<\/p>\n

Its
\ndark and potent nescience was earth’s start;<\/p>\n

It is
\nthe waste stuff from which all was made;<\/p>\n

Into
\nits deeps creation can collapse.<\/p>\n

Its
\nopposition clogs the march of the soul,<\/p>\n

It is
\nthe mother of our ignorance.<\/p>\n

He
\nmust call light into its dark abysms,<\/p>\n

Else
\nnever can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep<\/p>\n

And
\nall earth look into the eyes of God.<\/p>\n

All
\nthings obscure his knowledge must relume<\/span>,<\/p>\n

All
\nthings perverse his power must unknot:<\/p>\n

He
\nmust pass to the other shore of falsehood’s sea,<\/p>\n

He
\nmust enter the world’s dark to bring there light.<\/p>\n

The
\nheart of evil must be bared to his eyes,<\/p>\n

He
\nmust learn its cosmic dark Necessity,<\/p>\n

Its
\nright and its dire roots in Nature’s soil.<\/p>\n

He
\nmust know the thought that moves the demon act<\/p>\n

And
\njustifies the Titan’s erring pride<\/p>\n

And
\nthe falsehood lurking in earth’s crooked dreams:<\/p>\n

He
\nmust enter the eternity of Night<\/p>\n

And
\nknow God’s darkness as he knows his Sun.<\/p>\n

For
\nthis he must go down into the pit,<\/p>\n

For
\nthis he must invade the dolorous Vasts<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Imperishable
\nand wise and infinite,<\/p>\n

He
\nstill must travel Hell the world to save.<\/p>\n

Into
\nthe eternal Light he shall emerge<\/p>\n

On
\nborders of the meeting of all worlds;<\/p>\n

Page – 450<\/span><\/p>\n

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

There
\non the verge of Nature’s summit steps<\/p>\n

The
\nsecret Law of each thing is fulfilled,<\/p>\n

All
\ncontraries heal their long dissidence.<\/p>\n

There
\nmeet and clasp the eternal opposites,<\/p>\n

There
\npain becomes a violent fiery joy;<\/p>\n

Evil
\nturns back to its original good,<\/p>\n

And
\nsorrow lies upon the breasts of Bliss:<\/p>\n

She
\nhas learnt to weep glad tears of happiness;<\/p>\n

Her
\ngaze is charged with a wistful ecstasy.<\/p>\n

Then
\nshall be ended here the Law of Pain.<\/p>\n

Earth
\nshall be made a home of Heaven’s light,<\/p>\n

A seer
\nheaven-born shall lodge in human breasts;<\/p>\n

The
\nsuperconscient beam shall touch men’s eyes<\/p>\n

And
\nthe truth-conscious world come down to earth<\/p>\n

Invading
\nMatter with the Spirit’s ray,<\/p>\n

Awaking
\nits silence to immortal thoughts,<\/p>\n

Awaking
\nthe dumb heart to the living Word.<\/p>\n

This
\nmortal life shall house Eternity’s bliss,<\/p>\n

The
\nbody’s self taste immortality.<\/p>\n

Then
\nshall the world-redeemer’s task be done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Till
\nthen must life carry its seed of death<\/p>\n

And
\nsorrow’s plaint be heard in the slow Night.<\/p>\n

O
\nmortal, bear this great world’s law of pain,<\/p>\n

In thy
\nhard passage through a suffering world<\/p>\n

Lean
\nfor thy soul’s support on Heaven’s strength,<\/p>\n

Turn
\ntowards high Truth, aspire to love and peace.<\/p>\n

A
\nlittle bliss is lent thee from above,<\/p>\n

A
\ntouch divine upon thy human days:<\/p>\n

Make
\nof thy daily way a pilgrimage,<\/p>\n

For
\nthrough small joys and griefs<\/span> thou mov’st<\/span> towards God.<\/p>\n

Haste
\nnot towards Godhead on a dangerous road,<\/p>\n

Open
\nnot thy doorways to a nameless Power,<\/p>\n

Climb
\nnot to Godhead by the Titan’s road.<\/p>\n

Against
\nthe Law he pits his single will,<\/p>\n

Across
\nits way he throws his pride of might.<\/p>\n

Page – 451<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Heavenward
\nhe clambers on a stair of storms<\/p>\n

Aspiring
\nto live near the deathless Sun.<\/p>\n

He
\nstrives with a giant strength to wrest by force<\/p>\n

From
\nlife and Nature the immortals’ right;<\/p>\n

He
\ntakes by storm the world and fate and heaven.<\/p>\n

He
\ncomes not to the high world-maker’s seat,<\/p>\n

He
\nwaits not for the outstretched hand of God<\/p>\n

To
\nraise him out of his mortality.<\/p>\n

All he
\nwould make his own, leave nothing free,<\/p>\n

Stretching
\nhis small self to cope with the infinite.<\/p>\n

Obstructing
\nthe gods’ open ways he makes<\/p>\n

His
\nown estate of the earth’s air and light;<\/p>\n

A
\nmonopolist of the world-energy,<\/p>\n

He
\ndominates the life of common men.<\/p>\n

His
\npain and others’ pain he makes his means:<\/p>\n

On
\ndeath and suffering he builds his throne.<\/p>\n

In the
\nhurry and clangour<\/span> of his acts of might,<\/p>\n

In a
\nriot and excess of fame and shame,<\/p>\n

By his
\nmagnitudes of hate and violence,<\/p>\n

By the
\nquaking of the world beneath his tread<\/p>\n

He
\nmatches himself against the Eternal’s<\/span> calm<\/p>\n

And
\nfeels in himself the greatness of a god:<\/p>\n

Power
\nis his image of celestial self.<\/p>\n

The
\nTitan’s heart is a sea of fire and force;<\/p>\n

He
\nexults in the death of things and ruin and fall,<\/p>\n

He
\nfeeds his strength with his own and others’ pain;<\/p>\n

In the
\nworld’s pathos and passion he takes delight,<\/p>\n

His
\npride, his might call for the struggle and pang.<\/p>\n

He
\nglories in the sufferings of the flesh<\/p>\n

And
\ncovers the stigmata with the Stoic’s name.<\/p>\n

His
\neyes blinded and visionless stare at the sun,<\/p>\n

The
\nseeker’s sight receding from his heart<\/p>\n

Can
\nfind no more the light of eternity;<\/p>\n

He
\nsees the beyond as an emptiness void of soul<\/p>\n

And
\ntakes his night for a dark infinite.<\/p>\n

His
\nnature magnifies the unreal’s<\/span> blank<\/p>\n

Page – 452<\/span><\/p>\n

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

And
\nsees in Nought<\/span> the sole reality:<\/p>\n

He
\nwould stamp his single figure on the world,<\/p>\n

Obsess
\nthe world’s rumours<\/span> with his single
\nname.<\/p>\n

His
\nmoments centre the vast universe.<\/p>\n

He
\nsees his little self as very God.<\/p>\n

His
\nlittle I has swallowed the whole world,<\/p>\n

His
\nego has stretched into infinity.<\/p>\n

His
\nmind, a beat in original Nothingness,<\/p>\n

Ciphers
\nhis thought on a slate of hourless<\/span>
\nTime.<\/p>\n

He
\nbuilds on a mighty vacancy of soul<\/p>\n

A huge
\nphilosophy of Nothingness.<\/p>\n

In him
\nNirvana lives and speaks and acts<\/p>\n

Impossibly
\ncreating a universe.<\/p>\n

An
\neternal zero is his formless self,<\/p>\n

His
\nspirit the void impersonal absolute.<\/p>\n

Take
\nnot that stride, O growing soul of man;<\/p>\n

Cast
\nnot thy self into that night of God.<\/p>\n

The
\nsoul suffering is not eternity’s key,<\/p>\n

Or
\nransom by sorrow heaven’s demand on life.<\/p>\n

O
\nmortal, bear, but ask not for the stroke,<\/p>\n

Too
\nsoon will grief and anguish find thee out.<\/p>\n

Too
\nenormous is that venture for thy will;<\/p>\n

Only
\nin limits can man’s strength be safe;<\/p>\n

Yet is
\ninfinity thy spirit’s goal;<\/p>\n

Its
\nbliss is there behind the world’s face of tears.<\/p>\n

A
\npower is in thee that thou knowest<\/span> not;<\/p>\n

Thou
\nart a vessel of the imprisoned spark.<\/p>\n

It
\nseeks relief from Time’s envelopment,<\/p>\n

And
\nwhile thou shutst<\/span> it in, the seal is pain:<\/p>\n

Bliss
\nis the Godhead’s crown, eternal, free,<\/p>\n

Unburdened
\nby life’s blind mystery of pain:<\/p>\n

Pain
\nis the signature of the Ignorance<\/p>\n

Attesting
\nthe secret god denied by life:<\/p>\n

Until
\nlife finds him pain can never end.<\/p>\n

Calm
\nis self’s victory overcoming fate.<\/p>\n

Bear;
\nthou shalt find at last thy road to bliss.<\/p>\n

Page – 453<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Bliss
\nis the secret stuff of all that lives,<\/p>\n

Even
\npain and grief are garbs of world-delight,<\/p>\n

It
\nhides behind thy sorrow and thy cry.<\/p>\n

Because
\nthy strength is a part and not God’s whole,<\/p>\n

Because
\nafflicted by the little self<\/p>\n

Thy
\nconsciousness forgets to be divine<\/p>\n

As it
\nwalks in the vague penumbra of the flesh<\/p>\n

And
\ncannot bear the world’s tremendous touch,<\/p>\n

Thou criest<\/span> out and sayst<\/span>
\nthat there is pain.<\/p>\n

Indifference,
\npain and joy, a triple disguise,<\/p>\n

Attire
\nof the rapturous Dancer in the ways,<\/p>\n

Withhold
\nfrom thee the body of God’s bliss.<\/p>\n

Thy
\nspirit’s strength shall make thee one with God,<\/p>\n

Thy
\nagony shall change to ecstasy,<\/p>\n

Indifference
\ndeepen into infinity’s calm<\/p>\n

And
\njoy laugh nude on the peaks of the Absolute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

O
\nmortal who complainst<\/span> of death and fate,<\/p>\n

Accuse
\nnone of the harms thyself hast called;<\/p>\n

This
\ntroubled world thou hast chosen for thy home,<\/p>\n

Thou
\nart thyself the author of thy pain.<\/p>\n

Once
\nin the immortal boundlessness of Self,<\/p>\n

In a
\nvast of Truth and Consciousness and Light<\/p>\n

The
\nsoul looked out from its felicity.<\/p>\n

It
\nfelt the Spirit’s interminable bliss,<\/p>\n

It
\nknew itself deathless, timeless, spaceless<\/span>,
\none,<\/p>\n

It saw
\nthe Eternal, lived in the Infinite.<\/p>\n

Then,
\ncurious of a shadow thrown by Truth,<\/p>\n

It
\nstrained towards some otherness of self,<\/p>\n

It was
\ndrawn to an unknown Face peering through night.<\/p>\n

It
\nsensed a negative infinity,<\/p>\n

A void
\nsupernal whose immense excess<\/p>\n

Imitating
\nGod and everlasting Time<\/p>\n

Offered
\na ground for Nature’s adverse birth<\/p>\n

And
\nMatter’s rigid hard unconsciousness<\/p>\n

Page – 454<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Harbouring<\/span> the brilliance of a transient soul<\/p>\n

That
\nlights up birth and death and ignorant life.<\/p>\n

A Mind
\narose that stared at Nothingness<\/p>\n

Till
\nfigures formed of what could never be;<\/p>\n

It
\nhoused the contrary of all that is.<\/p>\n

A Nought<\/span> appeared as Being’s huge sealed cause,<\/p>\n

Its
\ndumb support in a blank infinite,<\/p>\n

In
\nwhose abysm spirit must disappear:<\/p>\n

A
\ndarkened Nature lived and held the seed<\/p>\n

Of
\nSpirit hidden and feigning not to be.<\/p>\n

The
\neternal Consciousness became the home<\/p>\n

Of
\nsome unsouled<\/span> almighty Inconscient;<\/p>\n

One
\nbreathed no more as spirit’s native air.<\/p>\n

A
\nstranger in the insentient universe,<\/p>\n

Bliss
\nwas an incident of a mortal hour.<\/p>\n

As one
\ndrawn by the grandeur of the Void<\/p>\n

The
\nsoul attracted leaned to the Abyss:<\/p>\n

It
\nlonged for the adventure of Ignorance<\/p>\n

And
\nthe marvel and surprise of the Unknown<\/p>\n

And
\nthe endless possibility that lurked<\/p>\n

In the
\nwomb of Chaos and in Nothing’s gulf<\/p>\n

Or
\nlooked from the unfathomed eyes of Chance.<\/p>\n

It
\ntired of its unchanging happiness,<\/p>\n

It
\nturned away from immortality:<\/p>\n

It was
\ndrawn to hazard’s call and danger’s charm,<\/p>\n

It
\nyearned to the pathos of grief, the drama of pain,<\/p>\n

Perdition’s
\nperil, the wounded bare escape,<\/p>\n

The
\nmusic of ruin and its glamour and crash,<\/p>\n

The savour<\/span> of pity and the gamble of love<\/p>\n

And
\npassion and the ambiguous face of Fate.<\/p>\n

A
\nworld of hard endeavour<\/span> and difficult toil<\/p>\n

And
\nbattle on extinction’s perilous verge,<\/p>\n

A
\nclash of forces, a vast incertitude,<\/p>\n

The
\njoy of creation out of Nothingness,<\/p>\n

Strange
\nmeetings on the roads of Ignorance<\/p>\n

And
\nthe companionship of half-known souls<\/p>\n

Page – 455<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Or the
\nsolitary greatness and lonely force<\/p>\n

Of a
\nseparate being conquering its world,<\/p>\n

Called
\nit from its too safe eternity.<\/p>\n

A huge
\ndescent began, a giant fall:<\/p>\n

For
\nwhat the spirit sees, creates a truth<\/p>\n

And
\nwhat the soul imagines is made a world.<\/p>\n

A
\nThought that leaped from the Timeless can become,<\/p>\n

Indicator
\nof cosmic consequence<\/p>\n

And
\nthe itinerary of the gods,<\/p>\n

A
\ncyclic movement in eternal Time.<\/p>\n

Thus
\ncame, born from a blind tremendous choice,<\/p>\n

This
\ngreat perplexed and discontented world,<\/p>\n

This
\nhaunt of Ignorance, this home of Pain:<\/p>\n

There
\nare pitched desire’s tents, grief’s headquarters.<\/p>\n

A vast
\ndisguise conceals the Eternal’s<\/span> bliss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then
\n Aswapathy<\/span> answered to the seer:<\/p>\n

Is
\nthen the spirit ruled by an outward world?<\/p>\n

O
\nseer, is there no remedy within?<\/p>\n

But
\nwhat is fate if not the spirit’s will<\/p>\n

After
\nlong time fulfilled by cosmic Force?<\/p>\n

I
\ndeemed a mighty Power had come with her;<\/p>\n

Is not
\nthat Power the high compeer of Fate?<\/p>\n

But Narad<\/span> answered covering truth with truth:<\/p>\n

O Aswapathy<\/span>, random seem the ways<\/p>\n

Along
\nwhose banks your footsteps stray or run<\/p>\n

In
\ncasual hours and moments of the gods,<\/p>\n

Yet
\nyour least stumblings<\/span> are foreseen above.<\/p>\n

Infallibly
\nthe curves of life are drawn<\/p>\n

Following
\nthe stream of Time through the unknown;<\/p>\n

They
\nare led by a clue the calm immortals keep.<\/p>\n

This
\nblazoned hieroglyph of prophet moons<\/p>\n

A
\nmeaning more sublime in symbols writes<\/p>\n

Than
\nsealed Thought wakes to, but of this high script<\/p>\n

How
\nshall my voice convince the mind of earth?<\/p>\n

Heaven’s
\nwiser love rejects the mortal’s prayer;<\/p>\n

Page – 456<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Unblinded<\/span> by the breath of his desire,<\/p>\n

Unclouded
\nby the mists of fear and hope,<\/p>\n

It
\nbends above the strife of love with death;<\/p>\n

It
\nkeeps for her her<\/span> privilege of pain.<\/p>\n

A
\ngreatness in thy daughter’s soul resides<\/p>\n

That
\ncan transform herself and all around,<\/p>\n

But
\nmust cross on stones of suffering to its goal.<\/p>\n

Although
\ndesigned like a nectar cup of heaven,<\/p>\n

Of
\nheavenly ether made she sought this air,<\/p>\n

She
\ntoo must share the human need of grief<\/p>\n

And
\nall her cause of joy transmute to pain.<\/p>\n

The
\nmind of mortal man is led by words,<\/p>\n

His
\nsight retires behind the walls of Thought<\/p>\n

And
\nlooks out only through half-opened doors.<\/p>\n

He
\ncuts the boundless Truth into sky-strips<\/p>\n

And
\nevery strip he takes for all the heavens.<\/p>\n

He
\nstares at infinite Possibility<\/p>\n

And
\ngives to the plastic Vast the name of Chance.<\/p>\n

He
\nsees the long results of an all-wise Force<\/p>\n

Planning
\na sequence of steps in endless Time,<\/p>\n

But in
\nits links imagines a senseless chain<\/p>\n

Or the
\ndead hand of cold Necessity;<\/p>\n

He
\nanswers not to the mystic Mother’s heart,<\/p>\n

Misses
\nthe ardent heavings<\/span> of her breast<\/p>\n

And
\nfeels cold rigid limbs of lifeless Law.<\/p>\n

The
\nwill of the Timeless working out in Time<\/p>\n

In the
\nfree absolute steps of cosmic Truth<\/p>\n

Appears
\na hard machine or unconscious Fate.<\/p>\n

A
\nMagician’s formulas have made Matter’s laws<\/p>\n

And
\nwhile they last, all things by them are bound:<\/p>\n

But
\nthe Spirit’s consent is needed for each act<\/p>\n

And
\nfreedom walks in the same pace with Law.<\/p>\n

All
\nhere can change if the Magician choose.<\/p>\n

If
\nhuman will could be made one with God’s,<\/p>\n

If
\nhuman thought could echo the thoughts of God,<\/p>\n

Man
\nmight be all-knowing and omnipotent;<\/p>\n

Page – 457<\/span><\/p>\n

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

But
\nnow he walks in Nature’s doubtful ray.<\/p>\n

Yet
\ncan the mind of man receive God’s light,<\/p>\n

The
\nforce of man can be driven by God’s force,<\/p>\n

Then
\nis he a miracle doing miracles.<\/p>\n

For
\nonly so can he be Nature’s King.<\/p>\n

It is
\ndecreed and Satyavan must die;<\/p>\n

The
\nhour is fixed, chosen the fatal stroke.<\/p>\n

What
\nelse shall be is written in her soul,<\/p>\n

But
\ntill the hour reveals the fateful script<\/p>\n

The
\nwriting waits illegible and mute.<\/p>\n

Fate
\nis Truth working out in Ignorance.<\/p>\n

O
\nKing, thy fate is a transaction done<\/p>\n

At
\nevery hour between Nature and thy soul<\/p>\n

With
\nGod for its foreseeing arbiter.<\/p>\n

Fate
\nis a balance drawn in Destiny’s book.<\/p>\n

Man
\ncan accept his fate, he can refuse.<\/p>\n

Even
\nif the One maintains the unseen decree<\/p>\n

He
\nwrites thy refusal in thy credit page:<\/p>\n

For
\ndoom is not a close, a mystic seal.<\/p>\n

Arisen
\nfrom the tragic crash of life,<\/p>\n

Arisen
\nfrom the body’s torture and death,<\/p>\n

The
\nspirit rises mightier by defeat;<\/p>\n

Its
\ngodlike wings grow wider with each fall.<\/p>\n

Its
\nsplendid failures sum to victory.<\/p>\n

O man,
\nthe events that meet thee on thy road,<\/p>\n

Though
\nthey smite thy body and soul with joy and grief,<\/p>\n

Are
\nnot thy fate; they touch thee awhile and pass;<\/p>\n

Even
\ndeath can cut not short thy spirit’s walk:<\/p>\n

Thy
\ngoal, the road thou choosest<\/span> are thy fate.<\/p>\n

On the
\naltar throwing thy thoughts, thy heart, thy works,<\/p>\n

Thy
\nfate is a long sacrifice to the gods<\/p>\n

Till
\nthey have opened to thee thy secret self<\/p>\n

And
\nmade thee one with the indwelling God.<\/p>\n

O
\nsoul, intruder in Nature’s ignorance,<\/p>\n

Armed
\n traveller<\/span> to the unseen supernal
\nheights,<\/p>\n

Thy
\nspirit’s fate is a battle and ceaseless march<\/p>\n

Page – 458<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Against
\ninvisible opponent Powers,<\/p>\n

A
\npassage from Matter into timeless Self.<\/p>\n

Adventurer
\nthrough blind unforeseeing Time,<\/p>\n

A
\nforced advance through a long line of lives,<\/p>\n

It
\npushes its spearhead through the centuries.<\/p>\n

Across
\nthe dust and mire of the earthly plain,<\/p>\n

On
\nmany-guarded lines and dangerous fronts,<\/p>\n

In
\ndire assaults, in wounded slow retreats,<\/p>\n

Or
\nholding the ideal’s battered fort<\/p>\n

Or
\nfighting against odds in lonely posts,<\/p>\n

Or
\ncamped in night around the bivouac’s fires<\/p>\n

Awaiting
\nthe tardy trumpets of the dawn,<\/p>\n

In
\nhunger and in plenty and in pain,<\/p>\n

Through
\nperil and through triumph and through fall,<\/p>\n

Through
\nlife’s green lanes and over her desert sands,<\/p>\n

Up the
\nbald moor, along the sunlit ridge<\/p>\n

In
\nserried columns with a straggling rear<\/p>\n

Led by
\nits nomad vanguard’s signal fires,<\/p>\n

Marches
\nthe army of the waylost<\/span> god.<\/p>\n

Then
\nlate the joy ineffable is felt,<\/p>\n

Then
\nhe remembers his forgotten self;<\/p>\n

He has
\n refound<\/span> the skies from which he fell.<\/p>\n

At
\nlength his front’s indomitable line<\/p>\n

Forces
\nthe last passes of the Ignorance:<\/p>\n

Advancing
\nbeyond Nature’s last known bounds,<\/p>\n

Reconnoitring<\/span> the formidable unknown,<\/p>\n

Beyond
\nthe landmarks of things visible,<\/p>\n

It
\nmounts through a miraculous upper air<\/p>\n

Till
\nclimbing the mute summit of the world<\/p>\n

He
\nstands upon the splendour<\/span>-peaks of God.<\/p>\n

In
\nvain thou mournst<\/span> that Satyavan must die;<\/p>\n

His
\ndeath is a beginning of greater life,<\/p>\n

Death
\nis the spirit’s opportunity.<\/p>\n

A vast
\nintention has brought two souls close<\/p>\n

And
\nlove and death conspire towards one great end.<\/p>\n

For
\nout of danger and pain heaven-bliss shall come,<\/p>\n

Page – 459<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Time’s
\nunforeseen event, God’s secret plan.<\/p>\n

This
\nworld was not built with random bricks of chance,<\/p>\n

A
\nblind god is not destiny’s architect;<\/p>\n

A
\nconscious power has drawn the plan of life,<\/p>\n

There
\nis a meaning in each curve and line.<\/p>\n

It is
\nan architecture high and grand<\/p>\n

By
\nmany named and nameless masons built<\/p>\n

In
\nwhich unseeing hands obey the Unseen,<\/p>\n

And of
\nits master-builders she is one.<\/p>\n

Queen,
\nstrive no more to change the secret will;<\/p>\n

Time’s
\naccidents are steps in its vast scheme.<\/p>\n

Bring
\nnot thy brief and helpless human tears<\/p>\n

Across
\nthe fathomless moments of a heart<\/p>\n

That
\nknows its single will and God’s as one:<\/p>\n

It can
\nembrace its hostile destiny;<\/p>\n

It
\nsits apart with grief and facing death,<\/p>\n

Affronting
\nadverse fate armed and alone.<\/p>\n

In
\nthis enormous world standing apart<\/p>\n

In the
\nmightiness of her silent spirit’s will,<\/p>\n

In the
\npassion of her soul of sacrifice<\/p>\n

Her
\nlonely strength facing the universe,<\/p>\n

Affronting
\nfate, asks not man’s help nor god’s:<\/p>\n

Sometimes
\none life is charged with earth’s destiny,<\/p>\n

It
\ncries not for succour<\/span> from the time-bound
\npowers.<\/p>\n

Alone
\nshe is equal to her mighty task.<\/p>\n

Intervene
\nnot in a strife too great for thee,<\/p>\n

A
\nstruggle too deep for mortal thought to sound,<\/p>\n

Its
\nquestion to this Nature’s rigid bounds<\/p>\n

When
\nthe soul fronts nude of garbs the infinite,<\/p>\n

Its
\ntoo vast theme of a lonely mortal will<\/p>\n

Pacing
\nthe silence of eternity.<\/p>\n

As a
\nstar, uncompanioned, moves in heaven<\/p>\n

Unastonished<\/span> by the immensities of space,<\/p>\n

Travelling<\/span> infinity by its own light,<\/p>\n

The
\ngreat are strongest when they stand alone.<\/p>\n

A
\nGod-given might of being is their force,<\/p>\n

Page – 460<\/span><\/p>\n

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

A ray
\nfrom self’s solitude of light the guide;<\/p>\n

The
\nsoul that can live alone with itself meets God;<\/p>\n

Its
\nlonely universe is their rendezvous.<\/p>\n

A day
\nmay come when she must stand unhelped<\/span><\/p>\n

On a
\ndangerous brink of the world’s doom and hers,<\/p>\n

Carrying
\nthe world’s future on her lonely breast,<\/p>\n

Carrying
\nthe human hope in a heart left sole<\/p>\n

To
\nconquer or fail on a last desperate verge.<\/p>\n

Alone
\nwith death and close to extinction’s edge.<\/p>\n

Her
\nsingle greatness in that last dire scene,<\/p>\n

She
\nmust cross alone a perilous bridge in Time<\/p>\n

And
\nreach an apex of world-destiny<\/p>\n

Where
\nall is won or all is lost for man.<\/p>\n

In
\nthat tremendous silence lone and lost<\/p>\n

Of a
\ndeciding hour in the world’s fate,<\/p>\n

In her
\nsoul’s climbing beyond mortal time<\/p>\n

When
\nshe stands sole with Death or sole with God<\/p>\n

Apart
\nupon a silent desperate brink,<\/p>\n

Alone
\nwith her self and death and destiny<\/p>\n

As on
\nsome verge between Time and Timelessness<\/p>\n

When
\nbeing must end or life rebuild its base,<\/p>\n

Alone
\nshe must conquer or alone must fall.<\/p>\n

No
\nhuman aid can reach her in that hour,<\/p>\n

No armoured<\/span> God stand shining at her side.<\/p>\n

Cry
\nnot to heaven, for she alone can save.<\/p>\n

For
\nthis the silent Force came missioned<\/span> down;<\/p>\n

In her
\nthe conscious Will took human shape:<\/p>\n

She
\nonly can save herself and save the world.<\/p>\n

O
\nqueen, stand back from that stupendous scene,<\/p>\n

Come
\nnot between her and her hour of Fate.<\/p>\n

Her
\nhour must come and none can intervene:<\/p>\n

Think
\nnot to turn her from her heaven-sent task,<\/p>\n

Strive
\nnot to save her from her own high will.<\/p>\n

Thou
\nhast no place in that tremendous strife;<\/p>\n

Thy
\nlove and longing are not arbiters there,<\/p>\n

Leave
\nthe world’s fate and her to God’s sole guard.<\/p>\n

Page – 461<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Even
\nif he seems to leave her to her lone strength,<\/p>\n

Even
\nthough all falters and falls and sees an end<\/p>\n

And
\nthe heart fails and only are death and night,<\/p>\n

God-given
\nher strength can battle against doom<\/p>\n

Even
\non a brink where Death alone seems close<\/p>\n

And no
\nhuman strength can hinder or can help.<\/p>\n

Think
\nnot to intercede with the hidden Will,<\/p>\n

Intrude
\nnot twixt her spirit and its force<\/p>\n

But
\nleave her to her mighty self and Fate.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He
\nspoke and ceased and left the earthly scene.<\/p>\n

Away
\nfrom the strife and suffering on our globe,<\/p>\n

He
\nturned towards his far-off blissful home.<\/p>\n

A
\nbrilliant arrow pointing straight to heaven,<\/p>\n

The
\nluminous body of the etereal seer<\/p>\n

Assailed
\nthe purple glory of the noon<\/p>\n

And
\ndisappeared like a receding star<\/p>\n

Vanishing
\ninto the light of the Unseen.<\/p>\n

But
\nstill a cry was heard in the infinite,<\/p>\n

And
\nstill to the listening soul on mortal earth<\/p>\n

A high
\nand far imperishable voice<\/p>\n

Chanted
\nthe anthem of eternal love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

End of Canto Two<\/p>\n

End of Book Six <\/p>\n

Page – 462<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n

\n

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

  Canto Two    The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain    A silence sealed the irrevocable decree, The word of Fate that…<\/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-1018","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\/1018","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=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}