{"id":10646,"date":"2014-07-12T18:58:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T01:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saa.santansoftwaresystems.com\/?p=10646"},"modified":"2014-12-06T21:53:17","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T05:53:17","slug":"savitri-study-book-1-canto-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/savitri-study\/book-1-savitri-study\/savitri-study-book-1-canto-5","title":{"rendered":"Savitri-study-Book-1-Canto-5"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nIntroduction<\/a>   Notes<\/a>   Book 1<\/a>   Book II<\/a>   Book III<\/a>   Book IV<\/a>   
\nBook V<\/a>   Book VI<\/a>   Book VII<\/a>   Book VIII<\/a>   
\nBook IX<\/a>   Book X<\/a>   Book XI<\/a>   Book XII<\/a>
\n<\/br><\/br><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Book One. The Book of Beginnings<\/p>\n

Canto I <\/a> Canto II<\/a> Canto III<\/a> Canto IV<\/a>
\nCanto V<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
\n


\nBook One: Canto 5<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe Yoga of the King:
\nthe Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Summary<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n
Armed with secret
\nKnowledge, Aswapathy cuts off his moorings in material nature and
\nenters swiftly into the bright realm of the Spirit where all
\nknowledge is spontaneous, ready, without the labouring processes of
\nthe mind; where the laws of material life exercise no sway. Here he
\nfinds clues to all that is mysterious in the material universe; here
\nstands revealed the <\/FONT><\/FONT>meaning of
\nthe world-movement, the Plan according to which Spirit and Nature
\nwork out the Divine Intention in the Cosmos.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAdmitted to this secret of
\nthe riddle of existence, Aswapathy casts his look upward to heights
\nunseen hitherto. He is no more satisfied with things that served him
\nere now; he has seen that what obtains in terrestrial life is only a
\ncaricature of the pattern in the <\/FONT><\/FONT>domain of
\nthe Spirit and he seeks <\/FONT><\/FONT>to win that
\nworld for his home.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe withdraws his
\nconsciousness from the din of the old life-movements on earth and
\ndwells in a Silence that opens into the vasts beyond earthly Time and
\nSpace. An immunity of Power, Knowledge and Bliss invades his being
\nand sucks him up into the infinitudes above. There, shorn of his
\nhumanity, he is bathed in the waters of a divine Omniscience,
\nOmnipotence and Ecstasy. His limits are erased, his faculties undergo
\na transforming change, his soul widens to cosmic dimensions.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNature reveals herself to
\nhis veil-free sight as a conscious Power, with a force that is
\nomnipotent, executing a marvellous design of the Soul. She lays open
\nto his illumined Will her whole field of workings, from the
\nrigidities of the material base and form of her making to the
\nsovereign plasticities of her Mind and potencies of her Will which
\nlink the finite to the Infinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOn the threshold of these
\noccult worlds beyond the earth-scene Aswapathy regards a guarding
\nPower behind whom stands an ineffable Divine Presence. Here begin the
\ndomains of the Infinite, the Eternal, realms leading from Light to
\ngreater Light. Here also comes to his sight the giant order that
\nunderlines the system of worlds that constitute this Creation. He
\nperceives the stair of the descending and the ascending planes of
\nconsciousness formed in the course of the devolution and the
\nevolution of the Divine Spirit and up which the Soul in the universe
\ntravels forging its growth to its full stature in the Divine Glory.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe further sees the world
\nof Light, the Mahas, the world of plenary Truth-Consciousness, the
\nTruth, the Right, the Vast, which in its lower ranges is the source
\nall the worlds below and in its upper reaches opens into the
\ninfinities of Sat-Chit-Ananda. Here is the Wisdom that reconciles all
\nthe warring truths in the domain of Ignorance and is the source of
\nall Revelation, Inspiration and Illumination; here is where the
\nEternal casts itself into Time, where the One organises itself into
\nthe Many. Beyond is the One in its infinitude.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInto these Countries of the
\nUnknown adventures Aswapathy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Secret Knowledge<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nknowledge first he had of time-born men. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere is knowledge and
\nknowledge: sense-knowledge, ratiocinative knowledge, ideational
\nknowledge and others depending upon the source and the means used to
\narrive at them. Men have knowledge of one kind or the other according
\nto their state of evolutionary development. But in each case the
\nknowledge is of a partial nature and therefore inadequate. The
\nknowledge that Aswapathy received, however, was of a different kind:
\nit was a whole knowledge of the origin, the process and the purpose
\nof this world-movement which, till then, no mortal had known.
\nAswapathy was admitted into the arcana of the manifestation of the
\nInfinite in the Finite, of the Eternal in Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Curtain of Mind<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAdmitted
\nthrough a curtain of bright mind
That hangs between our thought
\nand absolute sight, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThought is neither the sole
\nnor the direct means of knowledge. Thinking can build up, through a
\nlong process of reasoning, trial and error, a kind of knowledge that
\nanswers in its nature to the type of thought-activity that has led to
\nit. It is more a product of the working of the mind than a revelation
\nof the object of knowledge. All thought obscures the object of which
\nknowledge is sought. Even the most brilliant action of the
\nthought-mind acts as a veil and bars the direct, entire vision of the
\nobject as it is.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis curtain of outer
\nmental thought has to be parted to gain access to the inner seat of
\nrevelation. Aswapathy crossed that barrier.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Well of Vision<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nfound the occult cave, the mystic door
Near to the well of vision
\nin the soul, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe thinking mind is the
\nthreshold, as it were, of a larger consciousness which occupies the
\ninner regions of the being behind the surface physical. The range and
\nintensity of this awareness increases as one goes deeper and deeper
\nstill through a subtle passage that resembles a cavern,-the
\nheart-cave, h?dguh?, as it is appropriately described till one
\narrives at the centre of the consciousness in the core of the being,
\nthe soul. Here lie the source-depths of all powers of consciousness;
\nthe fount of direct, unerring vision is here.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Where the Wings of
\nGlory Brood<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nentered where the Wings of Glory brood
In the sunlit space where
\nall is for ever known. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere, where Aswapathy
\nentered, following the slender passage across the subtle-physical and
\nthe still subtler ranges of his being, lay the Lotus-City of the
\nsoul. Here were no shadows of Ignorance obscuring the rays of
\nperception; all was lit by the direct light of the soul and
\neverything was held in the secure grasp of timeless Knowledge. Here
\nwere held in creative concentration the truths preparing to manifest.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cord of Mind<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIndifferent
\nto doubt and to belief,
Avid of the naked real’s single shock
He
\nshore the cord of mind that ties the earth-heart
And cast away
\nthe yoke of Matter’s law. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is the mind that binds.
\nThe mind believes in the supremacy of matter in which its own roots
\nare sunk, and all its movements are governed by this basic faith in
\nits subconscious layers even when its more conscious and higher
\nworkings question it. The being of man is centrally tied to the
\nphysical bases of the earth-principle by the knots, h?dayagranthi,
\nforged by the ego.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy grew conscious of
\nthese bonds tying him down and, without caring for whatever
\njustifications there were for the mind’s beliefs in the lower laws or
\nwhatever bases there were for its apprehensions regarding the higher
\nlaws, he sundered them clean in his zeal for the thrill of an
\nuninhibited contact with the Reality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Body’s Rules Bound
\nNot<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nbody’s rules bound not the spirit’s powers:
When life had stopped
\nits beats, death broke not in;
He dared to live when breath and
\nthought were still. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs a direct result of this
\nrelease of the physical body from subjection to the clamps of Matter,
\nthe other powers of the Spirit-life and mind-were freed from the
\nlimitations imposed by their material encasement on their
\ncharacteristic operations. They could function in their own native
\nway. Even when the life-force suspended the physical part of its
\nworkings-like breathing-it did not have to cease to exist as before.
\nSimilarly even when he held the mind free from thought-activity, his
\nliving was not affected. Only the usual habits of physical life and
\nphysical mind were eliminated.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Magic Place<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus
\ncould he step into that magic place
Which few can even glimpse
\nwith hurried glance
Lifted for a moment from mind’s laboured
\nworks
And the poverty of Nature’s earthly sight. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMen are normally engrossed
\nin the mechanical workings of the physical and sense mind; their
\nvision is severely limited by the range of its physical
\ninstrumentation. That is why they are hardly aware of the larger and
\nsubtler regions of being which exist beyond their accustomed
\ndimensions. They may get, at best, some fleeting glimpses of these
\nregions in moments of rare displacements of consciousness, but these
\nexperiences are few and out of the way. Aswapathy, however, freed as
\nhe was from these limitations, could enter these realms with ease.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
All Self-Known<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nthat the Gods have learned is there self-known. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere, in the realms of
\ngestation, can be found the Truth that is to manifest, the lines on
\nwhich the movement is to proceed,-the whole scheme in seed-form is
\nevident. That is the Truth-Knowledge which the Gods, the
\nfunctionaries of the Cosmos, imbibe and express. That
\nTruth-Consciousness is anterior to the birth of the Gods from the
\nSupreme Creative Being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cosmic Script<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nin a hidden chamber closed and mute
Are kept the record graphs of
\nthe cosmic scribe, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere is a layer in the
\nCosmic Consciousness, a special extension of subtle ether called the
\ncid?k??a, where are recorded the minutest happenings in the cosmic
\nspheres. All that takes place there leaves a subtle impression and it
\nis these impressions that go to form the cosmic memory. This hidden
\nrealm contains not only the script of what has passed but also of
\nwhat is to be,-possibilities, as they move towards actualisation,
\ncreate their own vibrations which are received and recorded in this
\nlayer of consciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Truth and Law<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nthere the tables of the sacred Law,
There is the Book of Being’s
\nindex page,
The text and glossary of the Vedic truth are there<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn those subtler levels of
\nconsciousness are also found the scheme of the manifestation that is
\nproceeding. The essential Truth basing all, satyam, the Law of this
\nTruth in action, ?tam, the ordained lines of movement, the chart of
\nthe possibilities inherent in the situation all these are revealed in
\nthis realm.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Stars<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n…
\nthe rhythms and metres of the stars
Significant of the movements
\nof our fate: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere also are seen the
\nmovements of the stars and planets in the universe, movements
\nwhich-though they do not determine-indicate the lines along which
\nevents on earth are proceeding and likely to develop. The positions
\nof these stellar bodies influence to a certain extent the course of
\nevents here, though their action is not absolute. The operations of
\nthese stars and planets have the effect of urging the cosmic forces
\nto move and act in a particular direction. In the case of the
\nindividual, these operations are subject to the working of the
\nindividual will in action.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Written in the
\nMystic Heart<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nsymbol powers of number and of form,
And the secret code of the
\nhistory of the world
And Nature’s correspondence with the soul
\n
Are written in the mystic heart of life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere in the secret cavern
\nof the Being are forecast the values in number and form that each
\ntruth is to carry in manifestation; every form is a special
\nconfiguration of the truth it embodies, every number is charged with
\nthe occult power of the truth or system of truths that it signifies.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll that has passed in the
\ncourse of the development of the world-movement, all that is passing
\nand, in a sense, even what is going to pass is held here in
\nseed-script, as it were. For the Real-Idea behind all stands poised
\nhere for manifestation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll movement in the Cosmos
\nis a transaction between Nature and Soul, Prakriti and Purusha.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNature acts for the
\nfulfilment of the will of the Soul; the Soul sanctions, witnesses, or
\nparticipates in the activity of Nature as he chooses. This course of
\ntheir interaction is also registered in the recording consciousness
\nof the Being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Spirit’s Room of
\nMemories<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe glow of the Spirit’s room of memories
He could recover the
\nluminous marginal notes
Dotting with light the crabbed ambiguous
\nscroll, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy could read this
\nobscure scroll, which is completely illegible to the human eye,
\nbecause he was in a state of illumination. The light of the
\nSpirit-memory which shone around him lit up not only the contents of
\nthe main page but also the helpful hints that had been recorded
\nalongside to help decipher the writing.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe memory of the Spirit
\nholds the past, the present and the future as a whole without break
\nand when it is active all comes to life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Agreement<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nRescue
\nthe preamble and the saving clause
Of the dark Agreement by which
\nall is ruled
That rises from material Nature’s sleep
To
\nclothe the Everlasting in new shapes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll proceeds according to
\nthe Will of the Supreme which works as the sempiternal Law of things.
\nThis Law is served by innumerable processes that are governed by an
\nimplicit harmony of purpose. This was perceived by Aswapathy: he saw
\nhow all that emerges in the Universe out of the swoon of material
\nNature is first subject to the rigid rule of dark Inconscience and
\nIgnorance in execution of the Plan to manifest the One Eternal in the
\nMany.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
He could Interpret<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ncould re-read now and interpret new
Its strange symbol letters,
\nscattered abstruse signs,
Resolve its oracle and its paradox,
\n
Its riddling phrases and its blindfold terms,
The deep
\noxymoron of its truth’s repliques, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf there is a pattern and a
\nlaw underlying this world-movement,-and Aswapathy saw that there is
\none-it does not lend itself to be interpreted and understood on the
\nface of it. It is full of unfamiliar terms, insoluble constructions,
\napparent contradictions and bewildering simulations. In the new light
\nthat dawned on him, Aswapathy could enter into the true meaning of it
\nall; all became clear.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Hard Conditions<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nrecognise as a just necessity
Its hard conditions for the mighty
\nwork,
Nature’s impossible Herculean toil
Only her warlock
\nwisecraft could enforce, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe conditions under which
\nthe manifestation is developing are deliberately exacting so as to
\nensure stability in a world of flux and change. Nothing is allowed to
\nmove on unless what is attempted is completed without danger of
\nreversal or dissolution; the line taken by Nature is one of hard
\nresistance. The emerging evolution is safeguarded and promoted by
\nNature with an incredible number of checks and counterchecks,
\npurposive experiments and tentative creations. All is planned and
\nworked out by the Intelligence in Nature under self-imposed
\nconditions that are meaningfully severe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Opposition of the
\nGods<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts
\nlaw of opposition of the Gods, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Gods are there to help
\nin the cosmic evolution towards Divinity. They promote growth by
\nincreasing their characteristic powers and pressures in the
\nindividual and on the earth. They take birth in man-their positive
\nrole. They also assist by a negative role: they oppose the advance of
\nman beyond their own empire. No one is allowed to surpass a God
\nunless he has completed all the development possible in the sphere of
\nthat God. The password is given only when man has fulfilled the
\nconditions and acquired the right to go further on his journey to the
\nSupreme. The conditions are exacting and the Gods in their stations
\nwatch with winkless gaze.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Contraries<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts
\nlist of inseparable contraries. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLife is full of
\noppositions. Wherever there is light, there is shade: joy is followed
\nby grief, knowledge by ignorance, power by limitation, life by death.
\nIt is a field of dualities. But it is so on purpose. Growth is
\npossible only by the friction and combat of these contraries-the
\npositive and the negative elements in the Creation. Otherwise things
\nstagnate, there would be no progress. The consciousness in. evolution
\nexerts itself to increase the positive factors against the resistance
\nof the negative and in the process grows in stature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Mother Executes
\n(I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\ndumb great Mother in her cosmic trance
Exploiting for creation’s
\njoy and pain
Infinity’s sanction to the birth of form, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is the divine Shakti,
\nthe Mother of All that is at work here in the cosmos as Nature with
\nher Consciousness wrapt in her labour. She executes the Will of the
\nSupreme through every circumstance and every event; all is harnessed
\nby her to her one aim of manifesting the Divine here on earth. The
\nbirth of Form out of the Formless, the emergence of the finite from
\nthe Infinite is a significant part of the Process and Nature is not
\nslow in utilising this phenomenon to awake between form and form,
\nembodiment and embodiment, the dualities of like and dislike,
\nattraction and repulsion, pleasure and pain, in order to set the
\nevolving consciousness and energies into their upward motion. For joy
\nalways seeks to gain over pain, attraction claims precedence over
\nrejection, and the forward movement gains momentum.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Mother Executes
\n(II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAccepts
\nindomitably to execute
The will to know in an inconscient world,
\n
The will to live under a reign of death,
The thirst for
\nrapture in a heart of flesh, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe conditions under which
\nMother-Nature has to work are the very opposite of the truths that
\nseek to manifest through her. In a world originally pervaded by
\ninconscience and unconsciousness, consciousness and knowledge urge
\nfor growth; in the midst of the incessant operation of decay and
\ndeath, life endeavours to last; in a physical body that is subject to
\nlimitation and pain, there is a continuous seeking for joy, for
\nbliss. This mighty and difficult task, Nature undertakes and works
\nout slowly but persistently without tiring.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Mother Executes
\n(III)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nworks out through the appearance of a soul
By a miraculous birth
\nin plasm and gas
The mystery of God’s covenant with the Night. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis is the Intention that
\nis to be fulfilled in the inter-action of Superconscience and
\nNescience, Light and obscurity: to manifest the Divine Glory of the
\nSpirit Infinite in a finite material existence weighed down with
\nInconscience. Nature is able to execute this purpose because of the
\ncrucial birth of the divine element in each of her forms of matter.
\nThis core of Divinity in each form acts as a lever for all the upward
\noperations of Nature in the evolutionary effort.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Eternal’s
\nPromise<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnce
\nmore was heard in the still cosmic Mind
The Eternal’s promise to
\nhis labouring Force
Inducing the world-passion to begin, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhen the Divine Being is
\nmoved to manifest, it is his Self-Power, Shakti, that goes into
\noperation and proceeds to effectuate his Will. The Eternal Purusha
\nnot only impels the movement but bases the action of the Force on his
\nown breast, as it were, with an assurance of constant support and
\noverseeing. It is so that the world-movement starts and develops
\nthrough all its vicissitudes of life and death.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn the silences of the
\nrealms where he found himself, Aswapathy grew aware of this
\npre-creation communion between the Divine Purusha and his Shakti.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Tragedy of Time<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\ncry of birth into mortality
And the opening verse of the tragedy
\nof Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe also became aware of the
\nfirst birth-pangs of this Creation when the Immortal moved out of his
\nsupreme status and came forth to dwell in conditions of decay and
\ndeath, when the Eternal first streamed out in beats of fleeting Time.
\nThe scene was indeed an arena of tragedy: the Immortal losing himself
\nin the mortal and the Eternal in the duration of Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Seal of Wisdom<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOut
\nof the depths the world’s buried secret rose;
He read the
\noriginal ukase kept back
In the locked archives of the spirit’s
\ncrypt,
And saw the signature and fiery seal
Of Wisdom on the
\ndim Power’s hooded work
Who builds in Ignorance the steps of
\nLight. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy perceived behind
\nall the processes of World-Nature the secret truth of a
\nConsciousness-Prajn?-overseeing and actively directing the operations
\nof the Power at work. This Power seems, to all appearances, a
\nmechanical Force, obscure, without intelligence. But to the eye of
\nthe seer Aswapathy, the true character of the Force, the fact of an
\nindwelling Consciousness, stood revealed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt is because of this
\nguiding Intelligence that the Power in Nature is able to lay and
\nforge a path, through all the maze and darkness of Ignorance, for the
\nLight to grow.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Gestation of the
\nGolden Child<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nsleeping deity opened deathless eyes:
He saw the unshaped thought
\nin soulless forms,
Knew Matter pregnant with spiritual sense,
\n
Mind dare the study of the Unknowable,
Life its gestation of
\nthe Golden Child. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe whole sequence that
\nfollowed the advent of the Divine Soul in the material universe was
\nrevealed to Aswapathy: the Idea everywhere organising itself in form;
\nthe Spirit descending and formulating itself in the womb of Matter;
\nLife marking the growing stage of the future Child of Light; the Mind
\nrising and throwing itself in pursuit of the One who ever escapes
\nbeing known.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Interpreting by Soul
\nSigns<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe light flooding thought’s blank vacancy,
Interpreting the
\nuniverse by soul signs
He read from within the text of the
\nwithout:
The riddle grew plain and lost its catch obscure. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLife is an enigma and the
\nworld a riddle because the mind that tries to unravel the mystery is
\ntoo limited in its capacities and range. The reasoning and thinking
\nfaculty with which it functions works either in the narrow
\nsense-bound realm or in its own conceptual vaccum. In either case
\ndeeper realities escape its grasp. It reads what appears on the
\nsurface and what it understands is only partially true, mostly wrong.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo Aswapathy, however, a
\nnew mode of understanding came naturally: a higher light illumined
\nhis thought-mind and instead of looking at things from the outside,
\nhe was led to see them from within; instead of basing itself on
\nsense-reports, his mind proceeded on signs from the soul within. The
\ninner gave the clue to the outer. For as the Upanishad puts it, the
\ninner is the measure of the outer. All became clear, life ceased to
\nbe a paradox; its full significance revealed itself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Purpose in Time<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nlarger lustre lit the mighty page. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\npurpose mingled with the whims of Time, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs a light brighter and
\nlarger than that of the thought-mind dawned within Aswapathy, he
\ncould see more clearly; the picture of the universe revealed lines,
\noutlines, shapes, frames within frames which he had not seen before.
\nHe now came to perceive that behind all the apparently unregulated
\nmovements of the flow of Time that carries everything in its mighty
\ncurrent regardless of human calculations and expectations, there is a
\ngoverning Purpose that works through its instrumentation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Meaning And Chance<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nmeaning met the stumbling pace of Chance <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOn the surface of life all
\nappears to be a game of Chance. There is no certainty about any
\nmovement; ups and downs, vicissitudes, cataclysms, actions, passions
\nand thoughts crowd in medley and it is impossible to anticipate or
\nregulate them with any definiteness. But a deeper scrutiny reveals a
\npattern behind all the apparent workings of Chance. What looks like
\nChance is itself a part of the process; it is called Chance because
\nthe particular operation does not take place within the framework of
\nthe laws erected by the limited empirical mind; there is really no
\nChance in the working out of the divine Intention that is this
\nUniverse.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Fate and Will<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nFate revealed a chain of seeing will; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA fixed law of action and
\nreaction, a determinism in Nature that is ineluctable governs this
\nuniverse. The operations may be swift or delayed but they are
\ncertain. Whether on an individual or a collective level, Fate seems
\nto exercise an inflexible control. But that is not the whole truth of
\nthe matter. The rigidity of Determinism, of Fate, is not absolute; it
\nvaries from level to level of existence, its hardness softening as
\nthe consciousness involved gets subtler and subtler. And this is so
\nbecause what is called Fate is really a part of the mechanism of
\nnature through which a higher Will fulfils itself. This is not a
\nblind will but a will of the Soul that is conscious of the purpose to
\nbe effectuated and chooses the conditions most fitted therefore. Fate
\nis a graded instrument of this conscious Will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Space<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nconscious wideness filled the old dumb Space. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll exists here in. Space.
\nAll moves and ceases in Space. Space is a mute witness and stage on
\nwhich countless lives come into existence and pass away. It strikes
\none as something inanimate that has been there from one knows not
\nwhen. To the illumined vision of Aswapathy, however, the true
\ncharacter of this Space became patent. He saw that Space is not an
\ninanimate frame of the universe, but a self-extension of the
\nConscious Being that is in manifestation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Void<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe Void he saw throned the Omniscience supreme. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd what does this immense
\nSpace contain? Millions of forms appear and disappear leaving the
\nscene the same as before, a huge Void. Is this Void, then, the
\nultimate reality here? Aswapathy looked into this great Void and saw
\nthere an All-Knowing Intelligence, a supreme Consciousness reigning.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWhat appears as a lifeless
\nVoid is really a deeply vibrant self-extension, prasara, of the
\nSupreme Consciousness, All-aware.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Immense Hope<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nWill, a hope immense now seized his heart,
And to discern the
\nsuperhuman’s form
He raised his eyes to unseen spiritual heights,
\n
Aspiring to bring down a greater world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat he saw inspired
\nAswapathy with great hope; a Will took possession of him to try and
\nactualise on earth the higher realities glimpsed in the region of
\nLight. And in order to study that pattern at a closer range he
\nconcentrated his consciousness and directed his inner sight to those
\nspiritual altitudes beyond the normal physical grasp.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Glory<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nglory he had glimpsed must be his home. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy dared to hope to
\nbring down what he had seen on the heights because he did not feel
\nthat order foreign and distant to him. He experienced a close
\nintimacy with the creation that was revealed; something radical in
\nhis being belonged to it and therefore he felt at home with it. No
\nwonder he aspired to establish it on earth, his physical dwelling.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Brighter Sun<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nbrighter heavenlier sun must soon illume
This dusk room with its
\ndark internal stair, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis creation is at present
\ncovered with the thick shadow of Ignorance. The subterranean passages
\nand chambers along the graded levels of its existence are steeped in
\nthe darkness of a primeval Nescience and Subconscience. All needs to
\nbe lit up. But the earthy sun, the feeble light of the human mind, is
\nnot able to dispel all the shades and shadows of darkness. Only the
\nrays of the Sun of the heavens of Truth, the Light of the unveiled
\nSpirit, can effectively dispel and eliminate this clogging darkness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Infant Soul must
\nOutgrow<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\ninfant soul in its small nursery school
Mid objects meant for a
\nlesson hardly learned
Outgrow its early grammar of intellect
And
\nits imitation of Earth-Nature’s art,
Its earthly dialect to
\nGod-language change, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe soul that is here on
\nearth for experience and growth evolves in stages. At first its range
\nof experience and development is limited to physical objects of
\nsenses, only a few souls outgrow this narrow field quickly. The mind
\nlearns to think and construct in terms of the intellect; but once the
\nintellect is sufficiently organised, the mind must move on to develop
\nits other faculties of intuition, revelation, etc. Similarly in the
\nsphere of aesthestics one must go beyond the pattern of harmony and
\nbeauty in physical Nature. Everywhere there are higher and larger
\norders in the universe waiting to be discovered and formulated by
\nman. What the soul now experiences and reactively expresses is
\ntentative, ill-formed; it has to develop and express itself in the
\nfirm and full accents of the perfect Gods.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Logic of the
\nInfinite<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nliving symbols study Reality
And learn the logic of the Infinite.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt present man attempts to
\ngrasp the Reality through artificial representations erected by the
\nmind. The intellect goes on weaving its web of concepts and
\nthought-figures and man is lost in them without getting any hold on
\nthe real object of his pursuit. This has to change and the Reality
\nmust be approached through its direct avenues accessible to the
\nfaculties of perception, intuition, etc.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSimilarly the mind is
\nalways trying-vainly enough-to capture the Infinite within the
\nframework of its logic that is applicable only to the finite. What
\napplies to the finite cannot apply to the Infinite. The mind has to
\ndevelop another mode of understanding which is in keeping with the
\nnature of the Infinite it seeks to know.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Ideal<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nIdeal must be Nature’s common truth, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat is not yet achieved on
\nearth but what must be achieved because it presses for expression
\nfrom above is cherished in the aspiration and thought of man as an
\nIdeal. It is a truth from the higher regions of existence that seeks
\nto formulate itself in this world. It clothes itself in the form of
\nan Idea, organises itself in the human mind through a series of
\nperceptions and leaps of thought as an Ideal to be realised and goes
\non exerting pressure on the evolving spirit of man to actualise it in
\nlife as a working factor. Progress is effected by these translations
\nof the ideal into the actual.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Body Illumined<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nbody illumined with the indwelling God, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe physical body is not an
\nimprisoning cage to be broken through nor a construct of impurities
\nto be demolished. It is a tabernacle of the Spirit that dwells within
\nas the soul. The body derives its full significance from the soul
\nthat activises it. Veils of ignorance and obscurities intervene
\nbetween the inmost soul which is a portion of God and the material
\nbody which is its outermost form. These veils must be torn asunder
\nand the rays of the light of the Indweller allowed to directly touch
\nand illumine the physical form. It is only then that the body can
\nfulfil its destined role as the robe of God on earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Oneness<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nheart and mind feel one with all that is, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nDivision is the rule of
\nlife in the present-day world. Due to ignorance, each one lives
\nseparated from his source in the One and consequently from all others
\nin the world. Movements in the heart, thoughts in the mind revolve
\naround one’s own self as distinct from others and the separativity in
\nconsciousness is sharpened by this self-centred build-up. This
\ndivision in consciousness has to yield to a feeling of commonalty and
\nrealisation of oneness of all in the One Divine Self.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Conscious<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nconscious soul live in a conscious world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs things are in the
\npresent state of the universe, consciousness is more an exception
\nthan the rule. Most of Nature is not conscious, at any rate, not
\novertly. All move mechanically as if driven by some force. Even
\nliving beings like men, live and act, for the most part, with very
\nlittle of consciousness; they react mechanically, are made to move
\nthis way and that by outer factors. They have yet to reach the stage
\nwhen they will live as conscious beings, moving, thinking and acting
\nin a conscious manner. But the time has to come when the emerging
\nConsciousness in the Manifestation shall suffuse all the forms in the
\nworld and man become a fully conscious individual.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Greatness Exiled<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nthrough a mist a sovereign peak is seen,
The greatness of the
\neternal Spirit appeared,
Exiled in a fragmented universe
Amid
\nhalf-semblances of divine things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn this universe where
\neverything is fragmented, tucchyena, spread out in infinitesimal
\nseparativities and all forms are only simulacrums of their divine
\narchetypes, Aswapathy perceived the grandeur of the One
\nDivine-hope-inspiring, calling to adventure. The Greatness of the
\nOne, the Truth, mahat, had moved from its own station, dh?ma, in the
\nsupernal regions and entered into a domain totally foreign in its
\nconditions of division and falsehood.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Call for new Order<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese
\nnow could serve no more his regal turn:
The Immortal’s pride
\nrefused the doom to live
A miser of the scanty bargain made
\n
Between our littleness and bounded hopes
And the
\ncompassionate Infinitudes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy, in his newly
\nattained consciousness of immortality, rejected what is taken to be
\nnatural by the ordinary human state. The work-a-day compromise
\nbetween the little human nature’s petty desires and vanities on the
\none side and the deeper aspirations of man with the answering
\nGreatnesses from above on the other, could no more satisfy and serve
\nas the basis of his life. His inner spirit pressed for a different
\norder.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Old Discarded<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nheight repelled the lowness of earth’s state:
A wideness
\ndiscontented with its frame
Resiled from poor assent to Nature’s
\nterms,
The harsh contract spurned and the diminished lease. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs he grew in his spiritual
\nstature, Aswapathy could not be contained within the framework of
\nNature’s laws designed and suited for the infant stage of the Earth’s
\nevolution. The safe limits set for the workings of ignorant energies
\nwere cast aside as they were found to be cribbing and out of tune in
\nthe new setting of the expanding Vastness in his Consciousness.
\nSimilarly the higher felicities and powers that manifested in his
\nbeing automatically displaced the poorer primitive formations
\ncharacteristic of the predominantly physical life on earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe old balance between
\nSoul and Nature was discarded.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Only Beginnings<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnly
\nbeginnings are accomplished here; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn spite of all the vaunted
\nachievements and progress made by man under the stress of the
\nevolving Spirit on earth, the fact remains that it is only the first
\nstages of the edifice of manifestation that are so far completed.
\nMuch yet remains to be done before the stage of conscious development
\ncomes into its own. The bases have been laid; the powers that build
\nhave been made articulate, but man, the instrument of Nature to shape
\nand direct, is only just awakened and yet to get into a fuller
\nself-effective awareness that is necessary for the task allotted to
\nhim.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Matter without Soul<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nbase’s Matter seems alone complete,
An absolute machine without a
\nsoul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf anything has been at all
\ncompleted it is only the organisation of Matter that serves as a
\nstable base for the evolutionary manifestation to follow. Nature has
\ntaken ages to forge this hard, dense and indestructible mould in
\nwhich the ensuing formulations of the Spirit are to take shape. But
\nthis elaborately designed form and framework of Matter is inert and
\nmechanical in its operation; it is not yet infused with a living and
\nactive Intelligence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Half-Ideas<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nall seems a misfit of half ideas, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThough man is a mental
\nbeing and the claim of Mind to rule has been established, there is
\nstill a long way to go before all the spheres of life are brought
\nunder the effective dominion of the Mind. Besides, the Mind itself is
\nnot yet fully developed so as to assert its power. The mind’s
\nfunctionings, its thoughts and the ideas that clothe themselves in
\nthem are mostly incomplete, partial graspings of truths that seek to
\nmanifest; also they are ill-combined. They are often at variance with
\neach other and hence ineffective in their total incongruity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Travesties of
\nCelestial Types<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr we
\nsaddle with the vice of earthly form
A hurried imperfect glimpse
\nof heavenly things,
Guesses and travesties of celestial types. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven if glimpses of
\nrealities as they are in their own domains of subtler existence are
\nvouchsafed to man at rare moments of openings in his consciousness,
\nthey are not grasped as they are. The vision is not sufficient in
\nduration, nor is it received without interference: states of
\nreceptivity to higher experiences are too brief in the normally
\nextrovert consciousness of man; the habits of the physical and the
\nlogical mind impose themselves too soon and present the truths
\nrevealed in forms that are accustomed to them. What results is a
\ngrotesque representation, in terms of human conceptions and
\nimaginations, of the realities of a higher order.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Chaos<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHere
\nchaos sorts itself into a world,
A brief formation drifting in
\nthe void: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhatever may be the orders
\nof harmony and the undeflected operations of the laws of Truth in the
\nrealms above, here on earth what is reigning is a strange disorder:
\nthere is a constant pell-mell activity of forces and beings, friction
\nand clashes of desires, passions, thoughts, ideas, a chaotic
\nconfusion on a stupendous scale. Only its repetitious habit gives it
\nthe appearance of stability. In truth nothing is lasting; all is in
\nflux in a setting that is utterly unsubstantial.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Imperfect<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nApings
\nof knowledge, unfinished arcs of power,
Flamings of beauty into
\nearthly shapes, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn the present imperfect
\nand ignorant state of his evolving being, man can only possess such
\nsimulations of knowledge as his limited mental faculties can erect,
\nnot the real knowledge. So too his power is as limited as his
\nconsciousness is, for effective power corresponds to the
\nconsciousness that wields it. His aesthetic sensibilities also are
\nconfined to the dimensions of his earthly world and his perceptions
\nof God’s Beauty in the universe are fitted into frames that are
\npredominantly physical.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Broken Love<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLove’s
\nbroken reflexes of unity
Swim, fragment mirrorings of a floating
\nsun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll is divided. Each is a
\nseparate unit and stands apart from the countless other units. That
\nis because the base of unity is missing. Love which is the root of
\nall union is found here in broken forms, twisted expressions.
\nWhatever attempts at unity are found in this world due to its force
\nare imperfect and vitiated in their workings.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere is a Divine Love
\nenveloping the whole universe and holding it together, but in the
\nprevailing Ignorance, its action is weakened and rendered
\nineffective.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Assemblage<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\npacked assemblage of crude tentative lives
Are pieced into a
\ntessellated whole. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEach form, each unit on
\nthis earth is struggling to live, to hold itself against the others;
\neach lives a precarious existence. Nature puts all of them together
\ndespite their mutual shrinkings-and forms some sort of pattern that
\nis variegated. There is no real congruity, no mutual adaptation and
\nreinforcement. All are held together by force of Nature acting
\nthrough circumstances, not by the attraction of the oneness of their
\norigin.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Blind Doors<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis no perfect answer to our hopes;
There are blind voiceless
\ndoors that have no key; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn spite of all the
\ndifficult conditions that surround him, man hopes for a better future
\nand thinks and plans as best as he can in that direction. But his
\nplannings and calculations go away, his expectations are belied as
\nnew factors keep on coming into the situation. and bewilder his
\nmental faculties that are in themselves so limited.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nProblems abound and defy
\nsolution. If solutions appear to be in sight, men lack the means to
\nwork them out. The hold of the Inconscience and the densities of
\nIgnorance prevent a natural dissolution of the difficulties.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Thought Climbs in
\nVain<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThought
\nclimbs in vain and brings a borrowed light,
Cheated by
\ncounterfeits sold to us in life’s mart, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan’s thinking mind finding
\nitself inadequate soars above to catch glimpses of a Knowledge that
\nis not within its normal grasp. But as long as it is active and
\nstraining, it cannot reflect or receive this Knowledge of the Higher
\nMind or the Illumined Mind or the still higher Intuitive Mind. It
\ncatches the distant glows-glows that are often mixed with the
\ndeceptive colours of its own or the vital imaginations that abound in
\nthe subtler regions and satisfies itself that it has won the true
\nlight of Knowledge. In fact the mind deceives itself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Forfeited Bliss<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nhearts clutch at a forfeited heavenly bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe heart and the emotions
\nof man are ever in search of the delight of life which is their
\ndestined object. But due to the vitiating elements A the Inconscience
\nat their roots and the Ignorance pervading their nature, they miss
\nthat delight. Where the delight of union should be they experience
\nthe pain of division. They stretch put to catch whatever bits of
\nhappiness they can get in life, in whatever form, but the divine
\nBliss evades them. The Bliss of the Divine is indeed spread
\neverywhere in the universe like ether, but he blinded emotions fail
\nto see it. Due to Ignorance they have lost the contact and they
\nstruggle to recover it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Not the Soul<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis provender for the mind’s satiety,
There are thrills of the
\nflesh, but not the soul’s desire. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHere in this world there is
\nplenty for the ignorant mind of man to be busy with. The physical
\nmind, the sensational mind, the reasoning mind are ever engaged in
\ntheir respective fields, drawing experience, assimilating it and
\nnever feeling the need to exceed themselves. The physical body and
\nthe vital force also draw their own satisfactions and enjoyments from
\nlife-experience. But the claims of the soul are not heard. They are
\nsmothered in the loud noise of the other members. The soul’s
\naspirations lie unfulfilled.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mimicry of
\nBeatitudes<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHere
\neven the highest rapture Time can give
Is a mimicry of ungrasped
\nbeatitudes,
A mutilated statue of ecstasy,
A wounded
\nhappiness that cannot live,
A brief felicity of mind or sense
\n
Thrown by the World-Power to her body-slave,
Or a simulacrum
\nof enforced delight
In the seraglios of Ignorance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nCompared to the Delight of
\nBrahman that is not caused by any earthly factors, the highest joys
\nand the intensest pleasures that life in this world of Ignorance can
\nyield are pale imitations, brief in duration and maimed in their
\nformations. They are a part of life and, like their opposites of pain
\nand suffering, they often come upon man unsought and give a deceptive
\nglow to his existence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Soon Loses Worth<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor
\nall we have acquired soon loses worth,
An old disvalued credit in
\nTime’s bank,
Imperfection’s cheque drawn on the Inconscient. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven what is won in the
\nbattle of life does not give satisfaction and happiness for long. It
\nbecomes stale, fails to hold the continued interest of the mind. The
\ninherent defects due to the gravitational pulls of the inconscient in
\nthe physical bases of things, the insatiable hunger for the new in
\nthe human vital and the constant changes undergone by the mind in the
\nprocesses of Time, leading to different and larger requirements-all
\ncontribute to quick disappointments with the hard won satisfactions.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Seed of Failure in
\nSuccess<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAn
\ninconsequence dogs every effort made,
And chaos waits on every
\ncosmos formed:
In each success a seed of failure lurks. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn this world of
\nimperfection dogged by inertia and obscurity, human effort fails to
\nproduce the desired result. What ensues is either inadequate or
\ndifferent from what was anticipated. All attempts by the mind to
\nerect an order and system are foredoomed to failure. And even what
\nappears to be a success contains in itself elements that serve to
\ndefeat it. The very complacency induced by the success prepares for
\nits ruin.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Doubtful<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nsaw the doubtfulness of all things here,
The incertitude of man’s
\nproud confident thought,
The transience of the achievements of
\nhis force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNothing is found to last;
\nall changes; what is built breaks down. Man is proud of the thinking
\nfaculty which gives him supremacy among the creatures on the earth;
\nbut even this power suffers in its workings from the same disability.
\nWhat his thought confidently conceives and erects today needs to be
\nmodified, changed or replaced tomorrow by another system. Ultimately
\nthe thinking mind is found to lack finality in its operations.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSimilarly it is with the
\nworkings of the force that man wields in life. They too are seen to
\nbe subject to the impact of time and circumstance they soon lose
\ntheir utility and fresh efforts are called for.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis fleeting character of
\nthings raises a doubt about their reality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man (I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nthinking being in an unthinking world,
An island in the sea of
\nthe Unknown, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis evolving earth is
\nstill ruled by a Nature that is not overtly conscious in its
\noperations. It is only man that has got the power of conscious
\nthinking. But that power is still puny in its stature and limited in
\nits range. In the much that is unconscious, the vast that is yet to
\nbe plumbed and known, the intellect of man has a precarious
\nexistence. Both its hold and its workings are ever threatened by the
\ninvasion of the surrounding forces sub-mental or non-mental in
\ncharacter.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man (II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe is
\na smallness trying to be great,
An animal with some instincts of
\na god, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan is still weighed down
\nby the weight of his animal past. His body and vital force are
\nstrongly embedded, at the roots, in their sub-human origins. The
\nancient limitation to fragmented form continues in a good measure.
\nAnd yet he strives to break out of his moorings and limitations. That
\nis so because within him there is the seed of perfection, freedom,
\ndivinity with an incessant urge to sprout. Man may be an animal in
\nsome parts, but he is also a god in the making in other parts.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man (III)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nlife a story too common to be told,
His deeds a number summing up
\nto nought,
His consciousness a torch lit to be quenched,
His
\nhope a star above a cradle and grave. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere is little that is
\nworth preserving in the life of man which follows the common curve of
\nbirth, living and death. He acts perforce to maintain himself, to
\nexpress however inadequately his longings and his ideas, but
\nultimately his doings come to practically nothing. He comes to birth
\nwith a modicum of awareness that develops into articulate
\nconsciousness as he grows, but that too is extinguished with the end
\nof his body. He is always led by a hope which urges him to exert
\nhimself to realise it. But from the beginning to the close of his
\nlife, the hope remains unfulfilled, a distant star that for ever
\nkeeps out of his reach.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man (IV)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nyet a greater destiny may be his,
For the eternal Spirit is his
\ntruth. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet this is not the whole
\ntruth of the matter. Man is not foredoomed to failure and extinction
\nwhatever his imperfections and inadequacies. the limitations under
\nwhich he labours are not a permanent feature of his existence.
\nMateriality and mortality do not constitute the whole of man. There
\nis in him a greater and a lasting truth, a divine essence that is
\ninfinite and immortal, and if he takes steps to realise this inner
\nreality in himself and live in its force and law, his destiny will be
\ncompletely different. Man can become more than the human creature
\nthat he is at present.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man (V)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ncan re-create himself and all around
And fashion new the world in
\nwhich he lives: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWith the light and
\nconscious-force from the soul, the eternal Spirit within himself, man
\ncan regulate and recast his nature. He can also exert pressure, from
\nhis new station in the inner Consciousness, upon his environment,
\ncast his luminous energy on the world and force a change in its
\ntexture, first subtle and subsequently, even physical. The processes
\nof Nature can be brought to obey the higher laws of the Spirit and
\nthe world-movement set in a different order.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man (VI)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe,
\nignorant, is the Knower beyond Time,
He is the Self above Nature,
\nabove Fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis man can do because his
\npresent way of ignorance is not the sole mode of which he is capable.
\nIgnorance is only a temporary phenomenon in his evolutionary growth.
\nWithin him is the soul that is instinct with direct knowledge,
\nknowledge that is not confined to objects in the bounds of Time and
\nSpace but embraces also the Reality that transcends this Creation.
\nThis Knowledge comes into action when the veil of Ignorance is
\nremoved.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSimilarly he is not always
\ndestined to remain a creature of Nature, subject to the determinism
\nof Fate. Within him is the self that can change its poise of passive
\nacceptance of the workings of Nature and gain freedom from the
\ncompulsions of Fate. The soul rises above Nature and its determinism.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Silence<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nsoul retired from all that he had done. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHushed
\nwas the futile din of human toil,
Forsaken wheeled the circle of
\nthe days;
In distance sank the crowded tramp of life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nSilence was his sole companion left. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWith the realisation of
\nthis greater Knowledge and perception of the change to be effected in
\nthe life of man, Aswapathy’s interest shifted from the normal
\npreoccupations of human life. Nature indeed pursued her mechanical
\nrounds of the daily humdrum activities, but his being ceased to
\nparticipate actively in her movements. It stood aloof and with this
\nstanding apart from the stream of life, the Silence of the Spirit
\nthat is ever at the back of things but is prevented from being
\nexperienced because of the furious bustle of outer nature, took
\npossession of him. He lived in that great Silence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Immune<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nImpassive
\nhe lived immune from earthly hopes,
A figure in the ineffable
\nWitness’ shrine
Pacing the vast cathedral of his thoughts
Under
\nits arches dim with infinity
And heavenward brooding of invisible
\nwings. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe hopes and
\ndisappointments that are common to the normal life on earth could not
\ntouch him. He neither participated in those joys nor suffered those
\npains. He was stationed in the poise of the witness self that regards
\neverything but is involved in nothing, His thoughts were no more
\nconfined to earthly interests; they ranged immensely wider and
\nhigher, purer and more concentrated in their aspirations for the
\nsummits of the Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Heights<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ncall was on him from intangible heights;
Indifferent to the
\nlittle outpost Mind,
He dwelt in the wideness of the Eternal’s
\nreign. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere was a constant
\npressure on him from the higher altitudes of his being to rise higher
\nthan the levels of mind on which man normally lives and thinks. He
\nexperienced that the mind was after all a small projection of a
\nvaster realm that opened beyond the mental outskirts. In that region
\nhe lived, unconcerned with the routine movements of the mind,
\nbreathing the air of infinity and eternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cosmic Thought and
\nSight<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nbeing now exceeded thinkable Space,
His boundless thought was
\nneighbour to cosmic sight: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe mind of Aswapathy
\nreached the utmost limits of the intellect. He broke through the
\nwalls of the human thought-mind and entered the higher ranges where
\ngreater faculties of mind came into play, unlimited in their range.
\nAlong with the powers of that larger and higher Mind, there began to
\nmanifest in him the power of universal vision in place of the narrow
\nhuman perspect. Thought and Vision were uplifted into a new cosmic
\ndimension.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Golden Influx<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nuniversal light was in his eyes,
A golden influx flowed through
\nheart and brain; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn place of the clouded
\nimperfect human knowledge limited to oneself and one’s immediate
\ninterests, a radiance of supernal Knowledge that embraced the whole
\nuniverse shone in his eyes. The substance of Higher Truth descended
\ninto his brain and his heart; the activities of his mind and the
\nmovements of his emotions underwent a change as a result of this
\ningression from above. The range and quality of his consciousness
\nbecame different.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Force and Bliss<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nforce came down into his mortal limbs,
A current from eternal
\nseas of Bliss;
He felt the invasion and the nameless joy. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere was also an uplifting
\naugmentation of power. A force, hitherto unknown to his human body,
\nflowed into him. It did not spend itself out leaving him exhausted;
\nstreaming in it was a delight that was unceasing. Aswapathy felt
\noverpowered by this downpour of an ineffable joy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Turn to Spiritual
\nFate<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAware
\nof his occult omnipotent Source,
Allured by the omniscient
\nEcstasy,
A living centre of the Illimitable
Widened to equate
\nwith the world’s circumference,
He turned to his immense
\nspiritual fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy clearly realised
\nthat his origin was not from this bounded Earth as it seemed, but
\nfrom an Infinite which though unseen is All-Power. He was attracted
\nby the Bliss of that Infinite full of Consciousness. He had ceased to
\nbe a mere material creature and had become one in his depths with the
\nunbounded Infinite, a radiating Centre of the Reality in his being
\nand in his enlarged Consciousness embracing the whole world. Impelled
\nby all these factors, he turned from his lesser earthly
\nresponsibilities to the call of his vast spiritual Destiny.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Climb to the
\nInfinite<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAbandoned
\non a canvas of torn air,
A picture lost in far and fading
\nstreaks,
The earth-nature’s summits sank below his feet:
He
\nclimbed to meet the infinite more above. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe claims of earth ceased
\nto hold his being. Aswapathy found that the boundaries of material
\nnature which had confined him so far to their limited sphere fast
\nfaded away; he was no more held down. He rose to ascend the peaks of
\nthe boundless Spirit, the greater Infinite, b?hat, that opened before
\nhim.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Returning Ray<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nImmobile’s ocean-silence saw him pass,
An arrow leaping through
\neternity
Suddenly shot from the tense bow of Time,
A ray
\nreturning to its parent sun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOn a sustained withdrawal
\nfrom involvement in the world-movement, the being is greeted by a
\ntremendous Silence of the static Self. If it seeks to attain to the
\nheights of the dynamic Divine, the being has to cross through this
\nbelt of silent infinity. Aswapathy passed through this region with
\nthe swiftness of an arrow. From the hold of Time he leapt into
\nEternity. He was a ray of God streaking back to its Source.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Black Inconscient<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOpponent
\nof that glory of escape,
The black Inconscient swung its dragon
\ntail
Lashing a slumberous Infinite by its force
Into the deep
\nobscurities of form: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut Aswapathy had an
\nopponent as all who seek to free themselves from the holds of Matter
\nhave. The Inconscience, in which are embedded the roots of the
\nmaterial being, has its own Law which none embodied in material form
\ncan escape. From its belt of inertia and obscurity it exerts a strong
\npull and places a limit beyond which the consciousness housed in that
\nform cannot pass unless it separates itself from it. Aswapathy was
\nsubjected to this attack by the nether Nescience during his upward
\nflight. In the less lit regions of his being he felt the force of the
\nInconscient trying to arrest his advance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Death<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nDeath
\nlay beneath him like a gate of sleep. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFrom his heights Aswapathy
\nsaw the phenomenon of death not in its usual terrifying form of
\ncessation of life but as an entrance to a state of rest and
\nassimilation. And that is its true function. For the life of the soul
\nis not extinguished by the death of the body. The soul only takes a
\nneeded respite from its labours on earth the field of action and
\nexperience-for the absorption of the experience gained, before it
\nlaunches upon another term of effort and growth with a fresh
\nequipment.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cone of Fire<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOne-pointed
\nto the immaculate Delight,
Questing for God as for a splendid
\nprey,
He mounted burning like a cone of fire. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA flaming aspiration for
\nthe Divine was lit in the whole being of Aswapathy and he turned
\nexclusively to his Quest. The senses were no more turned towards
\nouter objects and their vitiating pleasures; what he now sought was
\nthe pure self-delight of the Divine. With ardour, intensity of will
\nand concentration he soared high to win the coveted prize-the Divine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Rare Release<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTo a
\nfew is given that godlike rare release. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThough many might seek for
\nthe higher Consciousness, for union with the Divine, it is only a few
\nthat are blessed with the necessary facility to translate that
\naspiration into reality. For innumerable are the meshes in which the
\nfaculties of man are caught up, those ingrained and gathered habits
\nand associations, samsk?ras, that obstruct and prevent a free flight
\nto the Spirit. The heavy weight and downward pull of the physical and
\nthe inconscient base hold him to the ground clamplike. By his own
\neffort man cannot wrest himself free from these disabilities. It is
\nonly a higher Power, a Grace of God that can give him this freedom
\nwhich is natural only to the gods. And those that are so elected for
\nthe favour are always few.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Chosen<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOne
\namong many thousands never touched,
Engrossed in the external
\nworld’s design,
Is chosen by a secret witness Eye
And driven
\nby a pointing hand of Light
Across his soul’s unmapped
\nimmensitudes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs a rule, the vast
\nmajority of men are preoccupied with their life in the outer physical
\nworld. They are outward-oriented and rarely look into the inner world
\nbehind the external surface. They are left to continue in the groove
\ntill they ripen. It is only a few prepared by the long evolution of
\ntheir souls who think of things spiritual. From among these, the
\nwatchful Providence chooses those most ready for the journey to the
\nSpirit and guides them step by step to their goal across the
\nexpanding unknown regions of Consciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe Grace of God is ever on
\nthe look out for the likely recipient and once its choice falls upon
\none, it pushes him to his soul’s destination through all
\ncircumstances, all happenings.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Turn to the
\nMeasureless<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\npilgrim of the everlasting Truth,
Our measures cannot hold his
\nmeasureless mind;
He has turned from the voices of the narrow
\nrealm
And left the little lane of human Time.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe chosen one launched
\nupon the voyage to the Eternal is no more subject to the laws and the
\nworkings of the little mortal life he has left behind. The interests
\nof that narrow existence no longer hold him. The standards of the
\nlower world in Ignorance cannot apply to one treading the higher Way
\nof Knowledge. He has his own vaster and freer lines of the Truth, the
\nRight, to follow. He has passed in his consciousness from the realm
\nof the finite to the Infinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Vestibules of the
\nUnseen<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe hushed precincts of a vaster plan
He treads the vestibules of
\nthe Unseen,
Or listens following a bodiless Guide
To a lonely
\ncry in boundless vacancy.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs he advances, the pilgrim
\nof the Spirit steps into a zone of profound Silence which is the
\nthreshold of the Reality that is unseeable by the physical eye. It is
\nthat from which the mind falls back without knowing. Or, if that be
\nthe way he is led by the unfailing Guide, he hears in that infinite
\nvoid the sole note of the primordial Sound that vibrates there for
\never.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The Still Hush<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nthe deep cosmic murmur falling still,
He lives in the hush before
\nthe world was born,
His soul left naked to the timeless One.<\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn that realm of
\nConsciousness even indirect reports of the life-movement in the
\nuniverse are not heard. The Silence that envelops the being is akin
\nto the state of the pregnant stillness that prevailed before the
\nterrestrial manifestation took place. Shorn of all human trappings,
\nthe being stands alone exposed to the eternal One-the One
\ntranscendent.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Ineffable Wideness<\/B>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFar
\nfrom compulsion of created things
Thought and its shadowy idols
\ndisappear,
The moulds of form and person are undone.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nineffable Wideness knows him for its own.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Laws that govern
\nmovements in the universe cease to operate on these altitudes of the
\nSpirit. The thinking activity of the mind and the vague images formed
\nby it lapse by themselves. The frames and bounds of form and
\npersonality so indispensable and inescapable in the terrestrial
\nscheme are dissolved. An impersonality, a vastness that cannot be
\ndescribed comes over the being and claims it as its own.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Forerunner<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nlone forerunner of the Godward earth,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe pilgrim is not just an
\nindividual seeking for his personal salvation in the Divine Being. He
\nrepresents those from whom he is chosen by the Grace. He embodies the
\naspiration for the Divine in the breast of the Earth whose foremost
\nson he is. The Earth aspires incessantly for the Spirit, she is ever
\non the march in the ascent of her Consciousness towards the summits
\nof the unveiled Spirit. The elect human who arrives at the threshold
\nof the destination, though alone, represents more than himself: he is
\nan advance scout, a precursor of Earth-life on the move.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Hiranyagarbha<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAmong
\nthe symbols of yet unshaped things
Watched by closed eyes, mute
\nfaces of the Unborn, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe passes through the
\ndomains of the Hiranyagarbha where things are in the process of
\ntaking their subtle forms in the creatively perceptive regard of the
\nDream-Self. It is a world of symbols where the formless and the
\nnameless are being precipitated into typal form and name.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Journey to the
\nIncommunicable<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\njourneys to meet the Incommunicable,
Hearing the echo of his
\nsingle steps
In the eternal courts of Solitude.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe way to the Truth
\nabsolute, which is beyond the reach of the human faculties of
\naudition and vision, lies through vasts of vacancy in the country of
\nbreakless Silence. The pilgrim who treads these routes finds himself
\nseverely alone, hearing only the sound of his own steps echoed back
\nfrom the vaults of the mysterious.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A Marvel<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nnameless Marvel fills the motionless hours.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nspirit mingles with Eternity’s heart
And bears the silence of the
\nInfinite.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA wonder, adbhuta, for
\nwhich there is no parallel, reigns everywhere around the pilgrim.
\nTime has come to a standstill. He feels his consciousness entering
\ninto the bosom of the Eternal. He receives and holds in himself the
\nboundless Silence that flows to him from all sides.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Sheds the Human
\nVesture<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn a
\ndivine retreat from mortal thought,
In a prodigious gesture of
\nsoul-sight,
His being towered into pathless heights,
Naked of
\nits vesture of humanity.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy shed his human
\ntrappings. He withdrew his consciousness from the thinking activity
\nof the mind and centred it in the direct and ample vision of the
\nsoul. And in so doing he rose above the familiar terrain mapped out
\nby the human intelligence and soared into the virgin altitudes of the
\nSpirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt is not possible to cross
\nconsciously into the supernal ranges of the being unless one silences
\nand puts behind the thought-mind and opens to the perceptive
\nfaculties of the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Descent<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nthus it rose, to meet him bare and pure
A strong Descent leaped
\ndown,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSpiritual evolution is a
\nmovement of two ends-ascent and descent. The lower seeks and
\nstruggles for the higher; the higher stoops to lift up and assume the
\nlower. Man aspires for the Divine, the Divine responds and fulfils
\nhis aspiration by a deliberate moving out towards him. But for this
\noperation to take place successfully, it is necessary that before he
\nis ready to receive the higher influx of the Divine Consciousness,
\nman should dispossess himself of the dead weight of his lower
\nnature-the various kinds of obscurity, impurity and ignorance that
\nprevent the right disposition for the reception and assimilation of
\nthe divine downflow. The descent from above swiftly follows the
\nbuilding up of such a favourable ground below.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe being of Aswapathy was
\nready for such a descent as it had already divested itself of all
\nclogging elements and was a pure flame of aspiration rising to meet
\nthe Divine. In response a powerful charge of Divinity flooded him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Thrilling Grasp of
\nthe Unknown<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n… A
\nMight, a Flame,
A Beauty half-visible with deathless eyes,
A
\nviolent Ecstasy, a Sweetness dire,
Enveloped him with its
\nstupendous limbs
And penetrated nerve and heart and brain
That
\nthrilled and fainted with the epiphany:
His nature shuddered in
\nthe Unknown’s grasp.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Descent was a downpour
\nof the many-powered Dynamic Divinity.* A strength, an intensity, a
\nluminous indefinable beauty, a thrilling bliss, a dangerous sweetness
\noverwhelmed him from all sides and flooded into his head, his heart
\nand his nerves. Aswapathy could not bear the thrill of this inrush
\nfrom above and, for a moment, he lost his bearings, his whole being
\nwas in tremor as it lay in the hold of the Divinity that is beyond
\nthe grasp of the human mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


    \n\t


  • \n\tThe Static Divine
    \n\tmanifests in the form of great Calm, intense Peace, a spiritual
    \n\tSilence: the being becomes immobile within<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n<\/UL>
    \n


    \n
    Into Eternal Arms<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn a
    \nmoment shorter than Death, longer than Time,
    By a power more
    \nruthless than Love, happier than Heaven,
    Taken sovereignly into
    \neternal arms,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe sense of human time was
    \nlost. In a moment that appeared at once briefer than the instant of
    \ndeath and yet seemed to stretch into infinity-due to its unbearable
    \nintensity-, Aswapathy was lifted up by the masterful and
    \never-stretched arms of a divine Power. This Power would brook no
    \nobstruction and was more determined to reach its objective than Love
    \nwhich ruthlessly sweeps away all obstacles that prevent its
    \nfulfilment. It was full with a happiness that surpassed the very
    \nheaven of felicity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Haled by Bliss<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHaled
    \nand coerced by a stark absolute bliss,
    In a whirlwind circuit of
    \ndelight and force
    Hurried into unimaginable depths,
    Upborne
    \ninto immeasurable heights,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAswapathy was sucked into
    \noverpowering currents of unalloyed Bliss. He was seized by the
    \nintensities of that Bliss and turned helplessly in their whirl; he
    \nwas pushed down into bottomless depths; he was tossed up into endless
    \nsummits of existence. Wherever he was thrown it was a sea of Delight.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    New Change<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt
    \nwas torn out from its mortality
    And underwent a new and
    \nbourneless change.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs a result of this
    \ndownpour and its masterful action, the nature of Aswapathy underwent
    \na rapid change. It was lifted out of its mortal limits, old rounds of
    \nconstricted life, and released into a state of freedom that gave it
    \nan altogether new dimension.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nWhen the higher
    \nConsciousness and Power act thus on the being, the effect is always
    \none of assumption of the lower into the nature of the higher.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    God<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAn
    \nOmniscient knowing without sight or thought,
    An indecipherable
    \nOmnipotence,
    A mystic Form that could contain the worlds,
    Yet
    \nmake one human breast its passionate shrine,
    Drew him out of his
    \nseeking loneliness
    Into the magnitudes of God’s embrace.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn his seeking for the
    \nDivine, Aswapathy had put away all else and was severely alone. The
    \nDivine advanced towards him in His amplitude and took him in His
    \ncompleting embrace. Unlike man who needs the instrumentation of
    \nphysical sight or mental thinking in order to know, the Divine that
    \nappeared was in full possession of Knowledge that was direct and not
    \nthe result of the workings of the eye or the mind; He was
    \nall-powerful without the need of special stresses to make Himself
    \nfelt; His was a unique Form that could extend itself and hold the
    \nwhole universe; though thus universal in Form, he could at the same
    \ntime take his station in the Individual for a special purpose. Thus
    \nthe Divine that drew Aswapathy close to Himself was at once
    \nIndividual, Universal and Transcendent in His sway.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Empty Slate<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs
    \nwhen a timeless Eye annuls the hours
    Abolishing the agent and the
    \nact,
    So now his spirit shone out wide, blank, pure:
    His
    \nwakened mind became an empty slate
    On which the Universal and
    \nSole could write.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAswapathy lost his separate
    \nsense of individuality in action. Even as in the gaze of the Eternal,
    \nthe sense of Time disappears, the distinction between the doer, the
    \ndoing and the done fades away, with the advent of the divine Invasion
    \nthe whole of his instrumental personality fell silent. His inner
    \nspirit shone clear, free, void of contents. His mind ceased to be
    \nactive in its usual state of ignorance and turned into a blank page
    \non which the Divine-the One and the All-could write what he chose; it
    \nbecame a faultless instrument for the Divine to work with.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Large Room<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll
    \nthat represses our fallen consciousness
    Was taken from him like a
    \nforgotten load:
    A fire that seemed the body of a god
    Consumed
    \nthe limiting figures of the past
    And made large room for a new
    \nself to live.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nMan’s consciousness has
    \nseparated from its source in the Divine Consciousness and represents,
    \nas it is, a fragmentation, a consciousness severely limited by the
    \nbounds of ego and division. Apart from these restricting factors of
    \nego and division, the consciousness identifies itself with the triple
    \nform of mind, life and body in which it works. The inertia and
    \ninconscience in its material base hold it down, the limited nature of
    \nthe life-force operating in the physical body and the ignorance of
    \nthe half-evolved mind circumscribe it. All these elements in
    \nAswapathy were eliminated in a trice by the impact and action of the
    \ndescending Power and Light of the Divine Consciousness-Force; the
    \nconsciousness widened vastly in keeping with the enlargement in
    \nstature that his being had undergone in the yoga.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Eternity’s Contact<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nEternity’s
    \ncontact broke the moulds of sense.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe consciousness of man
    \nfunctions through the senses; it receives contacts and reacts to them
    \nthrough the five-fold operation of the sense-instrumentation. And
    \nthese senses are very limited in their range, habitual in their
    \nmodes. The consciousness flows according to their moulds which are
    \nvery imperfect and limiting. As one grows into a high state of divine
    \nConsciousness and partakes of its nature that transcends time and
    \nspace, the old narrow moulds of the senses break down and new and
    \nmore adequate channels for its functioning are formed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Freed by a Greater
    \nForce<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \ngreater force than the earthly held his limbs,
    Huge workings
    \nbared his undiscovered sheaths,
    Strange energies wrought and
    \nscreened tremendous hands,
    Unwound the triple cord of mind and
    \nfreed
    The heavenly wideness of a Godhead’s gaze.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn place of the force
    \nlimited to the bounds of his physical, vital and mental beings, there
    \nnow supervened a mightier force coursing through him, acting in a
    \nlarger way, separating and articulating the several subtler bodies
    \nwithin his being-the sheaths of bliss, spirit-knowledge, mind,
    \nvitality, subtle-physical etc. that lie concealed behind the external
    \nphysical body. This force worked through several energies of its own;
    \nbehind them were the hands of the unseen Power which worked to untie
    \nthe threefold knot that bound the mind to its sensational, thinking
    \nand ideative functionings. As a result the inner soul-vision of
    \nAswapathy came into its own and its felicitous wideness replaced the
    \nlimited human look.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Hidden Absolute<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs
    \nthrough a dress the wearer’s shape is seen,
    There reached through
    \nforms to the hidden absolute
    A cosmic feeling and transcendent
    \nsight.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAswapathy’s sight was no
    \nmore limited to forms. Nor was his consciousness confined to his
    \nindividual embodiment separate from all the rest. His eyes looked
    \nbeyond forms, his feeling embraced the universal extension and he
    \ncame upon the One Divine concealed in innumerable forms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nEach form is a
    \nself-figuration of a truth that ensouls it and all truths are so many
    \nself-placements of the one manifesting Truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Heightened
    \nInstruments<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIncreased
    \nand heightened were the instruments.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe soul is always
    \nhandicapped by the limitations of the instruments through which it
    \nhas to gain experience in the world. The physical body, the
    \nlife-force, the emotive faculties, the mental energies, are all
    \nseverely limited by their natural constitution in their capacities
    \nand their range. It is only when a higher or a deeper Power acts on
    \nthem from beyond their natural formation, infuses fresh and greater
    \nenergies into them and increases their capacities, that they get
    \nenlarged and serve the soul in an ampler and more satisfying way.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe instrumentation is not
    \na rigidly fixed apparatus. It is a live organism capable of being
    \nexpanded and heightened in its effectivity by the pressure of the
    \nhigher Consciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Illusion Lost<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIllusion
    \nlost her aggrandising lens;
    As from her failing hand the measures
    \nfell,
    Atomic looked the things that loomed so large.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nMan’s outlook on the world,
    \nhis perspective of life, do not normally correspond to realities, to
    \nthings as they are. His self-regard, desire and ego vitiate his
    \njudgement and he perceives all from the viewpoint of the satisfaction
    \nand aggrandisement of his own self. Some things seem to matter more
    \nthan others; they assume an importance quite out of proportion to
    \ntheir real worth. There is a false premium on those that cater to his
    \nego and vital interests. They are given exaggerated value. When the
    \nhigher Consciousness dawns upon man, this illusion, fostered by
    \nignorance and ego, breaks down and what looked huge before appears in
    \nits true proportion of insignificance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Ego-Ring<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nlittle ego’s ring could join no more;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs long as man lives in
    \nignorance it is his ego that rules his life-movements. All is
    \ndetermined in terms of the satisfaction of this little ego and things
    \nare welcomed or rejected as they serve or disserve its claims. The
    \nego thus puts a ring, as it were, an enclosing fence round man so
    \nthat all the movements of his life may revolve within it alone. With
    \nthe advent of a higher or the outbreak of a deeper Consciousness,
    \nhowever, this wall of the ego is broken and man emerges into wider
    \nspaces. The ego thins and snaps.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Superhuman<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nthe enormous spaces of the self
    The body now seemed only a
    \nwandering shell,
    His mind the many-frescoed outer court
    Of an
    \nimperishable Inhabitant:
    His spirit breathed a superhuman air.<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nWith the loosening of the
    \nconstrictions of the ego, the consciousness begins to expand, spread
    \nout on all sides and, as it touches the inner deeps, it arrives at
    \nthe vaster ranges of the self which is one with the Universal Self.
    \nWhen one breathes and lives in this consciousness of the self, the
    \nbody loses its obsessive hold; one realises that the body is merely a
    \ngarment used by the self to clothe itself. Bodies change but the soul
    \nalways is. The position is reversed: in ignorance, it is the body
    \nthat seems to carry the soul; in the state of knowledge, the soul is
    \nfound to hold the body.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nSimilarly the mind loses
    \nits habitual importance. It is no more taken to be the most developed
    \nand the highest part of man; it is realised to be only a decorated
    \nvestibule to the chamber of the eternal Indweller-the divine Self. In
    \nspite of its varied lights, the mind is still not the sanctum; it is
    \nonly the brilliant outskirts.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nWith all these changes
    \nrapidly coming over him, Aswapathy emerged out of the human belt into
    \nthe superhuman; his spirit rose into a new dimension.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Rent the Fence<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nimprisoned deity rent its magic fence
    As with a sound of thunder
    \nand of seas,
    Vast barriers crashed around the huge escape.<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe spirit embodied in
    \nAswapathy, so long cabined and suppressed by the various elements of
    \nphysical, vital and mental nature that ever wall in the consciousness
    \nwithin their narrow limits, broke out of its confines. In the sudden
    \nexpansion and soaring of his being, all the obstinate obstructions
    \nfell asunder with loud reports.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nIt is a fact of yogic
    \nexperience that when certain long-standing barriers in nature are
    \nbroken, there is heard by the subtle ear at times even by the
    \nphysical-distinct sounds of explosions or snappings.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Peripheries Effaced<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nImmutably
    \ncoeval with the world,
    Circle and end of every hope and toil
    \n
    Inexorably drawn round thought and act,
    The fixed immovable
    \nperipheries
    Effaced themselves beneath the Incarnate’s tread.<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn this material universe
    \nthere are inevitable boundaries beyond which human thoughts and
    \nhopes, efforts and acts cannot go. The states of the basic
    \nInconscience and the pervading Ignorance of this world impose such
    \nlimitations that after a certain point is reached things can only
    \ncircle around themselves; they cannot expand further. These
    \nboundaries disappeared as the being of Aswapathy, seized by the
    \ndivine influx, advanced on its onward journey.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Dread Bounds<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \ndire velamen and the bottomless crypt
    Between which life and
    \nthought for ever move,
    Forbidden still to cross the dim dread
    \nbounds,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nBoth above and below, the
    \nranges of life-movements and thought-activities are circumscribed.
    \nBelow, are the unfathomable depths of Inconscience and Nescience in
    \nwhich the consciousness loses its hold should it plumb beyond safe
    \nlimits. Above are the termini of the dividing and analytical
    \nintellect above which the mind cannot soar without losing its
    \nbearings,<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Vanishing Darkness<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nguardian darknesses mute and formidable,
    Empowered to
    \ncircumscribe the wingless spirit
    In the boundaries of Mind and
    \nIgnorance,
    Protecting no more a dual eternity
    Vanished
    \nrescinding their enormous role:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere are two darknesses
    \nthat confine the soul which has not yet acquired the individuality
    \nand conscious-power to break out of its bounds. One is the nether
    \nbelt of unconsciousness and inconscience where all awareness is lost
    \nin a swoon, as it were, if man tries to go deeper than the levels to
    \nwhich his being is accustomed. The other is the blankness that
    \nbefalls the mind if it tries to shoot beyond the summits of its
    \nthought-skies. They form, so to say, wholesome checks on the
    \nmovements of the evolving being, preventing it from entering into
    \nregions for which its consciousness is not developed enough. As a
    \nresult they keep Matter and Spirit apart, Nature and Soul apart, till
    \na strong bridge between them is built by evolutionary labour.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThese purposive belts of
    \ndarknesses dissolved by themselves as Aswapathy grew in his stature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Zero Lost its Curve<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOnce
    \nfigure of creation’s vain ellipse,
    The expanding zero lost its
    \ngiant curve.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nEnclosed between the two
    \ndarknesses-upper and lower-this creation appears to go on revolving
    \nround and round, repeating the same movements in the cycle of Time, a
    \npurposeless whirl sinking ultimately into a big zero. But that is
    \nonly an appearance. The curve is always an ascending curve and as in
    \nthe case of Aswapathy, before an expanding consciousness the
    \nboundaries finally fade away into an infinite expanse.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature’s Rule
    \nObsolete<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nold adamantine vetoes stood no more:
    Overpowered were earth and
    \nNature’s obsolete rule;
    The python coils of the restricting Law
    \n
    Could not restrain the swift arisen God:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe rigid laws of
    \nterrestrial Nature apply only as long as one lives in their domain.
    \nOnce the consciousness grows beyond its formula, it ceases to be
    \ngoverned by the laws of the surpassed Nature. Newer workings take
    \ntheir place. What was not possible before becomes possible now. The
    \ndownward pull of the inconscient base, the limiting factors acting on
    \nlife operating in the physical embodiment, the constitutional
    \ndisabilities of the mind hedged in by the physical and life elements,
    \nno more hold back the winging spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe being of Aswapathy
    \nemerging into its heights of godhood passed beyond the workings of
    \nearthly Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Destiny Abolished<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbolished
    \nwere the scripts of destiny.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nDestiny is not ineluctable.
    \nEach plane of existence has its own workings of destiny; there are
    \nlayers of destiny. Each person is governed by the destiny of the
    \nplane on which he lives predominantly. As he moves in his
    \nconsciousness to another, higher level of being, the destiny of the
    \nlower one ceases to apply to him. Thus as one grows into the
    \nspiritual consciousness and shifts his centre of life to the higher
    \ndomains of the Spirit, the destiny of the lower physical-vital-mental
    \nplanes is no more valid for him; he has left it behind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    No More Death-Hunted<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere
    \nwas no small death-hunted creature more,
    No fragile form of being
    \nto preserve
    From an all-swallowing Immensity.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAswapathy’s was no more the
    \nprecarious existence of the human creature who is ever pursued by the
    \nspectre of death. He was no more a tiny dot of life in a world of
    \nhunger and death, a?an?y? m?tyutz. Nor did his delicately constituted
    \nindividual form need to be guarded and saved every moment from the
    \ninvasion of the universal forces which are constantly striking at
    \neach formation that seeks to preserve itself as a separate entity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Soul and Cosmos
    \nEqual<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \ngreat hammer-beats of a pent-up world-heart
    Burst open the narrow
    \ndams that keep us safe
    Against the forces of the universe.<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nsoul and cosmos faced as equal powers.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe conflict and struggle
    \nbetween the universal Force and the individually embodied life-force
    \ncontinues only as long as the latter strives to maintain itself as an
    \nindependent, separate, existence. It erects around itself walls of
    \ndivision, of ego and desire, and feels secure in its self-limitation.
    \nBut once the walls are breached by the rushing Waters of the larger
    \nsea of the universal Being, the division is no more. The individual
    \nconsciousness and the universal become one and in consequence the
    \nindividual form feels no longer threatened by the other it meets the
    \nother on equal terms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    His Titan Scope<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nboundless being in a measureless Time
    Invaded Nature with the
    \ninfinite;
    He saw unpathed, unwalled his titan scope.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAswapathy’s mortal nature
    \nsubject to the limitations of Time and Space was overcome by a mighty
    \ninflux; eternity and infinity took possession of him. His range was
    \nsuddenly and vastly expanded and unobstructed virgin vistas stood
    \nrevealed to his vision.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature Uncovered (I)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll
    \nwas uncovered to his sealless eye.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nsecret Nature stripped of her defence,
    Once in a dreaded
    \nhalf-light formidable,
    Overtaken in her mighty privacy
    Lay
    \nbare to the burning splendour of his will.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe sight of Aswapathy was
    \nno more confined to the physical plane. The barrier between the
    \nphysical sight and the subtle sight had been removed and his vision
    \nopened on all that was hitherto beyond and unseen to him. The secret
    \nworkings of Nature that were so long concealed and untraceable in
    \ntheir occult depths-occult to the human sight because of its limited
    \nrange and the imperfect character of the mental intelligence
    \npresiding over it-were now exposed to him; they could be seized and
    \nturned upon by his heightened, illumined will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nIt is the ignorant
    \nlimitation of his faculties to their physical range that puts the
    \nprocesses of Nature beyond man’s grasp and invests them with an air
    \nof mystery.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature Uncovered
    \n(II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nshadowy chambers lit by a strange sun
    And opening hardly to hid
    \nmystic keys
    Her perilous arcanes and hooded Powers
    Confessed
    \nthe advent of a mastering Mind
    And bore the compulsion of a
    \ntime-born gaze.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe secrecies of Nature are
    \nrevealed only in a light other than the physical; only an occult
    \nsight can perceive them. Aswapathy’s consciousness had undergone a
    \nfast change and before its powerful compulsive look, the hidden
    \nrealms of Nature, which are dangerous for the ignorant human tread,
    \nand her various energies normally concealed from the physical sight
    \nstood helplessly exposed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Powers (I)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIncalculable
    \nin their wizard modes,
    Immediate and invincible in the act,
    Her
    \nsecret strengths native to greater worlds
    Lifted above our needy
    \nlimited scope,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn a sense the powers of
    \nphysical Nature and their workings are determinable; they are
    \ngoverned by certain laws that rule the physical universe. They are
    \nlimited in their scope and effectivity in keeping with the limiting
    \nconditions of Inconscience, Inertia and Ignorance that beset the
    \nmaterial universe. But the physical is not all; Nature is
    \nmany-tiered, each domain subtler than the other and the powers that
    \nfunction in these higher, wider and subtler realms have a freer,
    \nlarger and surer action. They cannot be measured or determined in
    \nhuman terms. These powers appear miraculous when their workings-for
    \nany reason-touch the physical plane, but they are natural in their
    \nown worlds which are beyond the convictions of the material formulae.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Powers (II)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \noccult privilege of demigods
    And the sure power-pattern of her
    \ncryptic signs,
    Her diagrams of geometric force,
    Her potencies
    \nof marvel-fraught design
    Courted employment by an earth-nursed
    \nmight.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll the hidden potencies of
    \nthe secret Nature invited Aswapathy, as it were, to harness them to
    \nhis purpose. Hitherto the exclusive preserve of the higher beings of
    \nthe supraphysical worlds, these powers with their significant
    \nconfigurations, their self-multiplying groupings, potent with amazing
    \npossibilities, now beckoned the earth-based Strength of Aswapathy to
    \nhusband them.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    New Normalcy<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nconscious Nature’s quick machinery
    Armed with a latent splendour
    \nof miracle
    The prophet-passion of a seeing Mind,
    And the
    \nlightning bareness of a free soul-force.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n

    <\/FONT><\/FONT>All
    \nonce impossible deemed could now become
    A natural limb of
    \npossibility,
    A new domain of normalcy supreme.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn the present constitution
    \nof the universe based upon Inconscience and dominated by Ignorance,
    \nNature is slow to move; it is not overtly conscious; its movements
    \nare mechanical and determined. The Mind is unable to see beyond its
    \nlogical nose. The soul is enslaved to Nature, covered with the veils
    \nof desire and ego. But all this underwent a tremendous change for
    \nAswapathy when he passed into the new consciousness. Nature grew
    \nconscious and quick in her movements, her course appeared miraculous
    \nbecause of the concealed powers manifesting; the Mind found its scope
    \nvastly enlarged and its vision, thought and power shared in this
    \nincrease; the soul recovered its freedom from Nature and could act
    \nswiftly with its own force. Then what had appeared impossible before
    \nbecame possible. With the advent of a new consciousness, new powers
    \nbecame manifest and what was super-natural hitherto became natural
    \nand normal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Almighty Occultist
    \n(I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAn
    \nalmighty occultist erects in space
    This seeming outward world
    \nwhich tricks the sense;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis universe is not the
    \nproduct of a movement of mechanical Energy, or of a gigantic Chance.
    \nIt is a willed, deliberate creation of a supreme, transcendent,
    \nomnipotent Being wielding a marvellous wizardry. The world that we
    \nsee is changing incessantly; it is not now what it was a moment
    \nbefore. Our senses which seize the objects of this world and report
    \nto the mind are invariably misled by appearances which conceal more
    \nthan what they reveal. The external is a deceptive mask cast on the
    \nreality that thus escapes the scrutiny of the senses.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Almighty Occultist
    \n(II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHe
    \nweaves his hidden threads of consciousness,
    He builds bodies for
    \nhis shapeless energy;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe Creator is one and his
    \nConsciousness is one. But for purposes of creation this primal, pure
    \nConsciousness casts itself into several secondary, tertiary and other
    \nforms. The ?di ?akti formulates itself into jn?na ?akti, icch? ?akti,
    \nkriy? ?akti; they in turn take other forms and all together
    \nconstitute the various strands of the Universal Consciousness that
    \nare not always patent to the eye that looks at surfaces.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe Power of his
    \nConsciousness is infinite even as the Consciousness is infinite. It
    \nhas no intrinsic binding finite form. This Power in its varied action
    \nembodies itself in appropriate forms for effectuating its ensouling
    \ntruth in the creation. Form is essential for manifestation in formal
    \nexistence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Almighty Occultist
    \n(III)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOut
    \nof the unformed and vacant Vast he has made
    His sorcery of solid
    \nimages,
    His magic of formative number and design,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOut of his own infinite,
    \nb?hat, self-extension, formless and nameless, the Creator fashions
    \nthis world of forms and names; out of the stuff of the intangible
    \nSpirit he builds solid material structures according to his own plan
    \nthat unfolds itself through its creative patterns and disposition of
    \nquantity. This divine creation proceeds according to a scheme
    \npre-visioned and worked out in terms of significant truth-values of
    \nform and quantity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Almighty Occultist
    \n(IV)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nfixed irrational links none can annul,
    This criss-cross tangle of
    \ninvisible laws;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe creation is not left to
    \ndevelop by itself. There is a guiding Intelligence that works through
    \na series of truth-laws and their innumerable processes which are all
    \ninterlinked. They form a structural frame as it were in which cosmic
    \nmovement as a whole is set. These interdependent operations proceed
    \nupon certain fundamental self-castings of the Spirit, immutable in
    \ntheir structure, unchangeable by any agency and perplexing to the
    \nscrutiny of the human mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Almighty Occultist
    \n(V)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHis
    \ninfallible rules, his covered processes,
    Achieve unerringly an
    \ninexplicable
    Creation where our error carves dead frames
    Of
    \nknowledge for a living ignorance.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nMan stumbles at every step
    \nguided as he is by the misleading half-light of his mind in
    \nignorance. He mistakes and commits errors, deflects and wanders. What
    \nhe calls knowledge is a lifeless edifice erected by his limited
    \nlogical reason and the occupant of this structure is none other than
    \nan active ignorance. Ignorance parades as knowledge. And yet the
    \ncreation moves unfailingly towards its objectives immediate and
    \nultimate. That is so because underlying it, guiding and leading it
    \nfrom within is the Divine Wisdom whose truth-laws, vrat?ni, though
    \nconcealed in their operation to the human eye, act and fulfil
    \nthemselves without fail. The Master-Intelligence of the creative
    \nSpirit leads the world unerringly despite the blindness and blunders
    \nof the human mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (I)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nher mystery’s moods divorced from the Maker’s laws
    She too as
    \nsovereignly creates her field,
    Her will shaping the undetermined
    \nvasts,
    Making a finite of infinity;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe agency that works out
    \nthis manifestation is Nature, the Self-Power of the Divine Maker.
    \nThis supreme Power, lost in the modes of her working * pursues her
    \nown large lines of effectuation-not always corresponding to the
    \nscheme in the original impelling Idea-and builds an empire,
    \ndetermining certain possibilities out of the endless possible ones,
    \naccording to her Will. Out of the Infinite she fashions this finite
    \nuniverse as a field and frame for the manifestation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (II)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nShe
    \ntoo can make an order of her caprice,
    As if her rash superb
    \nwagered to outvie
    The veiled Creator’s cosmic secrecies.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nWhen she launches upon her
    \nprecipitous career, this Power is perceived to move according to some
    \nharmonies of her own. She may appear to follow no fixed laws in her
    \napparently erratic movements, but in truth, an order is being built
    \nup through all her activities, veiled or unveiled. For like the
    \nCreator, his Power also has her field of subtler workings which
    \nprepare behind the veil the results that emerge into the open at the
    \nright time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (III)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nrapid footsteps of her phantasy,
    Amid whose falls wonders like
    \nflowers rise,
    Are surer than reason, defter than device
    And
    \nswifter than Imagination’s wings.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe course of this Nature
    \nis indeed bewildering. Her movements are not governed by the logical
    \nsteps of mental reasoning. And yet her steps seem to be inspired;
    \neven when there are stumblings or set-backs, the results are
    \nunexpectedly fruitful. Her very impetuosity proves more certain of
    \nits aim than the plodding intellect of the reasoning mind; she
    \nachieves her aim with a cunning that surpasses human cleverness and
    \nwith a speed that puts behind it the wildest flights of man’s
    \nimagination.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (IV)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll
    \nshe new-fashions by the thought and word
    Compels all substance by
    \nher wand of Mind.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHer force acts in several
    \nways. She exerts her formulations of subtle mental energies
    \neffectively on the various grades of the substance of Being, uses her
    \nconceptive and her expressive energies to create and re-create forms
    \nand movements as she chooses.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nMind
    \nis a mediator divinity:
    Its powers can undo all Nature’s work:
    \n
    Mind can suspend or change earth’s concrete law.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nBelow is the reign of
    \nMatter and above, the domain of the Spirit. In between, linking both,
    \nis Mind which has the essential ingredients of both Matter and Spirit
    \nin itself. It is subtler than Matter in its organisation and,
    \nbelonging as it does to a higher grade in the cosmic formulation, it
    \ncan and does effectuate to a considerable extent, its own will-or a
    \nhigher will acting through it-in the lower, the material Nature. The
    \nlaws and movements of physical Nature are constantly under the
    \npressure of the mental workings for modification or change. The
    \nsubtler compels the grosser to yield.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAffranchised
    \nfrom earth-habit’s drowsy seal
    The leaden grip of Matter it can
    \nbreak;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe laws of the
    \ninconscient, the dense inertia and obscurity that characterise the
    \nmaterial formulation in the universe, govern all activity, handicap
    \nall movement in this world based upon the material formulae. All that
    \nis born or derived from Matter carries on it this stamp of
    \nunconsciousness and mechanical movement. But mind, the mind proper,
    \nwhich is a higher power of existence, is free from these deadweights;
    \nit has outgrown them in the course of its emergence from evolutive
    \nMatter. It can act to loosen or break the hold of Matter.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (III)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIndifferent
    \nto the angry stare of Death,
    It can immortalise a moment’s work:<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe realm of Ideas which is
    \nthe characteristic field of the thinking mind is above the reign of
    \ndeath that claims all physical formations in the universe. Where
    \nparticular germinal Ideas take shape in the Mind and are put
    \nout-through the individual mind of a seer, a poet or a prophet-they
    \nstay for good, influencing and directing the course of the general
    \ndevelopment of the race along the lines of their truths. Once they
    \nare released into expression at the psychological moment, they become
    \ninspiring and immortal possessions of humanity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (IV)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nsimple fiat of its thinking force,
    The casual pressure of its
    \nslight assent
    Can liberate the Energy dumb and pent
    Within
    \nits chambers of mysterious trance:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe mind is a
    \nmany-chambered organism. There is the sense-mind, the reasoning mind,
    \nthe ideative mind, the silent mind and so on. Normally only a part of
    \nthese mental faculties is active, the rest lying as unused potential.
    \nIn the deeper or the higher ranges of the mind there are stored up
    \npowerful mental energies which are either not tapped effectively or
    \ncannot effectuate themselves for want of adequate instrumentation. By
    \nexerting a conscious will in thought it is possible to call these
    \nsubtle and varied energies into action.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (V)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt
    \nmakes the body’s sleep a puissant arm,
    Holds still the breath,
    \nthe beatings of the heart,
    While the unseen is found, the
    \nimpossible done,
    Communicates without means the unspoken thought;<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe activities of the body,
    \nthe movements of the physical consciousness, normally interfere with
    \nthe action of the consciousness in the mind, reducing its
    \neffectivity. The mind comes into its own when the body is withdrawn
    \nfrom activity into sleep or immobility of any kind and it exercises
    \ngreater power over a larger range.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nSimilarly, the restless
    \nactivity of the life-force by itself or in association with the
    \nphysical body veils the mental operation and throws the mind into
    \nunrest. But when the mind is intent upon a pursuit viz. the search
    \nfor the Divine within, or is engrossed in any other pursuit, it
    \nstills the movements of the life-energies to a minimum and achieves
    \nits purpose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nSpeech is the usual means
    \nused by the mind to express its thought. But that is so only as long
    \nas the mind is not enveloped in its own conscious power. When it
    \nfrees itself from its customary lower action, it is able to direct
    \nits thought-force where it chooses and communicate its thought
    \ndirectly without the medium of speech.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (VI)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt
    \nmoves events by its bare silent will,
    Acts at a distance without
    \nhands or feet.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe consciousness that is
    \nactive in the upper region of the mind, the buddhi, intelligent will,
    \ncan exert its pressure in the atmosphere for the effectuation of its
    \npurpose. And its actions can be far-reaching especially if it is
    \ndetached from the movements of Prakriti, the lower nature, and is in
    \ntune with the will of the Spirit above. Physical space is no barrier.
    \nThe insistent silent pressure of this will in the mind first produces
    \nchanges in the subtler domains of existence and then precipitates
    \ncorresponding movements on the physical plane.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (VII)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis
    \ngiant Ignorance, this dwarfish Life
    It can illumine with a
    \nprophet sight,
    Invoke the bacchic rapture, the Fury’s goad,<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis material universe is
    \nenglobed as it were in a mighty Ignorance. Its vision is darkened by
    \nthe shades of this Ignorance and the Inconscience which dogs its
    \nfootsteps. The life-force that activates it, is severely limited in
    \nits movements by the inelasticities of Matter. The Mind brightens
    \nboth with its emergent light. Unlike both the physical consciousness
    \nand the life-energy whose awareness is confined to the immediate
    \nmoment, the mind sees ahead and gives a lead to the other members. It
    \ncan whip up the life-force into a frenzy of delight by its drive of
    \nwilled desire or urge it into an uncontrollable course of violence
    \nand destruction.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (VIII)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nour body arouse the demon or the god,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere are in man
    \npropensities for both good and evil, the good deriving from the parts
    \nturned to Light and the bad from those that are still steeped in
    \nignorance and clinging to falsehood. These are the gods powers of the
    \nsoul, growing in the higher nature and the demons agents of the
    \nnether darknesses of Inconscience, dominating the lower nature. The
    \nmind has it in its power to promote either of these ancient
    \ncombatants in the being of man. By dwelling upon the good or the bad,
    \nby calling up either by its will, the mind activises and helps to
    \nform and grow the elements of its preference. Man is essentially a
    \nmental being and it is his mind that effectively decides the course
    \nof his evolution godward or demon-ward.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (IX)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nCall
    \nin the Omniscient and Omnipotent,
    Awake a forgotten Almightiness
    \nwithin. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAt the core of the being of
    \nman there is an Entity that is divine. It is a direct portion, am?a,
    \nof the supreme Divine Being, individualised for the purpose of the
    \nevolutionary manifestation in that form. This element of the Divine
    \nConsciousness embedded within is veiled from the outer awareness by
    \nIgnorance and almost forgotten by man. But it is there always,
    \npotent, self-aware, alive with its divinity-its inalienable Knowledge
    \nand Power waiting for its hour of self-revelation. The mind-once it
    \nawakes to the Presence can call this Divinity into overt action by
    \nits aspiration, will and thought-power.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (X)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nits own plane a shining emperor,
    Even in this rigid realm, Mind
    \ncan be king:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe mind is a subtle power
    \nwith a greater range than either life or matter. It is bright with
    \nthe gleams of Knowledge-and Knowledge gives power-and on its levels
    \nof thought, it is supreme, unobstructed. Even on the physical plane
    \nwhere its operations are perforce restricted by the rigidities of the
    \nmaterial formulae, the mind can and does assert its rule over both
    \nthe domain of matter and of the life-force that activises matter. It
    \ncan impose its will and, to a considerable extent, compel them to
    \nfollow its lead, manomayah pr?n?sar?ranet?.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind (XI)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nlogic of its demigod Idea,
    In the leap of a transitional moment
    \nbrings
    Surprises of creation never achieved
    Even by Matter’s
    \nstrange unconscious skill.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe operations of material
    \nNature are often surprising for the sureness with which they effect
    \nresults and they bespeak the pressure of an intelligence which, even
    \nif it is not overtly conscious in the manner of the human mind, is
    \nunfailing in its purpose. The action of the Mind, however,
    \nparticularly the swift movement that engenders the Idea-a high point
    \nin the workings of the Mind is still more spectacular. All of a
    \nsudden it releases new forces, flashes a new understanding which
    \noften makes, a world of difference in a situation. The force of the
    \nnew Idea brings a new turn in its train.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Miracle<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll’s
    \nmiracle here and can by miracle change.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIf the universe is regarded
    \nobjectively without excessive concern for one’s own interests, life
    \npresents a picture of perpetual miracle.Amidst an all-consuming
    \nHunger that is Death, life still survives. Amidst all the oppressive
    \nfactors of limitation, pain, grief, suffering that beset mortal
    \nexistence, the will to be is indefatigable. Amidst an enveloping
    \ndarkness of Ignorance and Inconscience, gleams of Light enter and
    \nexpand their range. All this is possible because Nature always tries
    \nand succeeds in some measure in making the laws and forces of the
    \nhigher planes active and effective on the lower ones. That is how
    \ncontinuous changes are produced and evolution proceeds through a
    \nseries of miraculous transmutations. To make the higher assume the
    \nlower into itself is the way of secret Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature’s Edge of
    \nMight<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis
    \nis that secret Nature’s edge of might.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOn
    \nthe margin of great immaterial planes,
    In kingdoms of an
    \nuntrammelled glory of force,
    Where Mind is master of the life and
    \nform
    And soul fulfils its thoughts by its own power,
    She
    \nmeditates upon mighty words and looks
    On the unseen links that
    \njoin the parted spheres.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nWhat we see of material
    \nNature is not the all; it is only an external aspect, a segment of
    \nthe greater Nature whose workings are hidden in folds of mystery.
    \nOvertopping and enclosing this limited physical existence, there are
    \nplanes and worlds of the subtle-physical, the vital, the mental and
    \nthe spiritual Consciousness where Life reigns supreme in its own
    \ndomain without the bridle of mind and the constriction of matter.
    \nMind governs all that comes under its sway-dominates life and form
    \nwithout being led or limited by them-while the soul expresses and
    \neffectuates itself directly without the necessity of the aid of
    \ninstruments like the mind or the life-energies or the senses etc.
    \nNature is conscious of all these regions of existence, their several
    \nand total powers, their interaction and brings to bear their
    \npotencies in her universal workings whenever necessary.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature’s Initiate
    \n(I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThence
    \nto the initiate who observes her laws
    She brings the light of her
    \nmysterious realms:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis secret Nature draws
    \nupon these reserves in her workings on earth. She also admits to her
    \nsecrecies the man who puts himself in tune with her. He who refuses
    \nto be a slave of her external mechanical laws but develops an
    \nawareness of her greater workings behind the outer veils and casts
    \nhimself into their mould is chosen by her to be a recipient of her
    \nluminous gifts and an instrument of her mighty powers.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature’s Initiate
    \n(II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHere
    \nwhere he stands, his feet on a prostrate world,
    His mind no more
    \ncast into Matter’s mould,
    Over their bounds in spurts of splendid
    \nstrength
    She carries their magician processes
    And the
    \nformulas of their stupendous speech,
    Till heaven and hell become
    \npurveyors to earth
    And the universe the slave of mortal will.<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nTo such a man who has freed
    \nhimself from the fetters of Matter and stands erect with a mind
    \nlooking upwards freed from imprisonment in its material instrument-in
    \ntune with her harmonies, the greater Nature yields the secret of her
    \ndynamisms, the high modes of her expression that are native to her
    \nlarger realms of being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nAnd in so doing, she
    \nconverts all the joys and pains of life into feeders of the Earth’s
    \ngrowth and builds up man as the king of the universe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (I)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nmediatrix with veiled and nameless gods
    Whose alien will touches
    \nour human life,
    Imitating the World-Magician’s ways
    She
    \ninvents for her self-bound free will its grooves
    And feigns for
    \nmagic’s freaks a binding cause.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis Nature is the
    \nmediating Agency between the Supreme Creator and the universe that
    \nhas been created. She functions with the aid of many powers and
    \npersonalities emanated from the creative Being. Those are the gods
    \nand goddesses that work behind the veil of physical nature-some of
    \nthem perceived and lauded under significant names, some unnamed but
    \nnevertheless active-and impose on its movements a greater Divine Will
    \nfrom above. This creative Power is indeed free in the movements she
    \nchooses for the effectuation of the Supreme’s Purpose, but she forms
    \nher own lines and processes of manifestation and this feature gives
    \nthe appearance of a determining law. In reality, however, she is as
    \nfree as the Supreme Creator, of whom she is the Self-Power, in the
    \nchoice of her will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (II)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll
    \nworlds she makes the partners of her deeds,
    Accomplices of her
    \nmighty violence,
    Her daring leaps into the impossible:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn her creative effort,
    \nthis Power draws upon all that she has manifested from out of the
    \nBeing of the Supreme. She summons and utilises the potentialities and
    \npossibilities of the various planes of existence in her work on
    \nEarth. She releases those supra-terrestrial forces into action in
    \nthis field. of growth and evolution and accomplishes results that
    \nwould be impossible of attainment with the earthly elements alone.
    \nObstinate resistances are shattered and far-off goals are reached
    \nwith incredible speed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (III)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nFrom
    \nevery source she has taken her cunning means,
    She draws from the
    \nfree-love marriage of the planes
    Elements for her creation’s
    \ntour-de-force:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe various planes of
    \nExistence with their respective worlds are not so many water-tight
    \ncompartments. They are grades of one Existence-each based on its
    \nspecial principle, tattva,-and they freely act upon one another. They
    \ninterpenetrate, influence and exert their pressure on each other
    \ngenerally. From all this mixed action of the whole, the creative
    \nPower fashions her remarkable modes and forms the material for her
    \nnotable achievements.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (IV)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nwonder-weft of knowledge incalculable,
    A compendium of divine
    \ninvention’s feats
    She has combined to make the unreal true
    Or
    \nliberate suppressed reality:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn this material world
    \nbased on inconscience and obscurity, consciousness and light would
    \nappear to be foreign, not native to the soil where mechanical energy
    \nand the darkness of Ignorance alone are true. In making consciousness
    \nand the growing light of knowledge permanent and effective elements
    \non earth, in releasing this truth of the spirit from its involution
    \nin the bases of Matter, Nature has drawn upon her varied sources of
    \nTruth-Knowledge and her unsurpassed skill in creative processes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Occult Mightinesses<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nher unhedged Circean wonderland
    Pell-mell she shepherds her
    \noccult mightinesses;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe field in which this
    \nNature works is not bounded in spite of appearances to the contrary.
    \nMaterially it may be limited, but the physical is only one of its
    \ndimensions. Her subtler extensions flow out into infinities of
    \nExistence and in her vast domain she marshalls her Powers, not all of
    \nwhich are patent to the eye. In keeping these puissances of varied
    \norigins ready for her summons, she follows her own mode of free
    \nassemblage which may appear confused and bizarre to the human sense
    \nof order.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (V)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHer
    \nmnemonics of the craft of the Infinite,
    Jets of the screened
    \nsubliminal’s caprice,
    Tags of the gramarye of Inconscience,<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nNature draws upon
    \ninnumerable sources in the execution of her purpose: her memory of
    \nthe process of the Infinite in forming the finite out of itself; the
    \nunexpected but sharply effective action of the vaster subliminal
    \nbeing which is veiled from the surface exterior and normally acts
    \nonly indirectly through the outer limited nature; the sub-mental
    \naction of the inconscient Energy which is sure in fulfilling its
    \nobjectives.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (VI)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nFreedom
    \nof a sovereign Truth without a law,
    Thoughts that were born in
    \nthe immortals’ world,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere is a Divine Truth
    \nthat governs all this universal movement and shapes it in the figure
    \nof its own Idea, in a free action untrammelled by any lower
    \ndeterminism. This free action is a capital feature of the workings of
    \nsecret Nature in its concealed depths or unseen heights.
    \nThought-products of the limited human intelligence may appear to give
    \na direction to the course of Nature, but in truth the thoughts that
    \nreally play a part in the development of the movements of Nature are
    \nthe conceptual moulds of Truth, those that arise in regions far above
    \nthe human mind on the planes of the Gods where the Truth-Powers are
    \nmanifest in undeflected formation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (VII)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOracles
    \nthat break out from behind the shrine,
    Warnings from the daemonic
    \ninner voice
    And peeps and lightning-leaps of prophecy
    And
    \nintimations to the inner ear,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere are unexpected
    \nintimations from the subtler levels of existence to the agents at
    \nwork on the surface levels, physical or mental. The inner being, the
    \nsoul, sends out its warnings, its directions in many forms: strong
    \nfeeling, insistent thought, a small but unmistakable command etc.
    \nThere are also quick perceptions of coming events, sudden revelations
    \nof the preparings in Time; guiding voices or words that come
    \nvibrating from the universal to impinge upon the subtle hearing.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (VIII)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbrupt
    \ninterventions stark and absolute
    And the superconscient’s
    \nunaccountable acts,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere are constant
    \ninterventions in the workings of physical Nature on earth by forces
    \nand beings from the higher planes who precipitate results that break
    \nacross the common rule; the realms of Truth that are above the domain
    \nof human consciousness impose their own influences and project their
    \nown higher workings in the earth-atmosphere and produce consequences
    \nthat are, naturally, inexplicable in terms of the factors that
    \nprevail here below.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Secret Nature (IX)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHave
    \nwoven her balanced web of miracles
    And the weird technique of her
    \ntremendous art.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll these elements have
    \ngone into the pattern under fashioning by creative Nature. It is a
    \ncreation that is a happy combination of regulating laws and
    \nintervening miracles and presents an overall picture of some
    \nsuperhuman Art produced by an interplay of strange processes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature Yields to
    \nAswapathy<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis
    \nbizarre kingdom passed into his charge.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs
    \none resisting more the more she loves,
    Her great possessions and
    \nher power and law
    She gave, compelled, with a reluctant joy;
    \n
    Herself she gave for rapture and for use.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe secrets of Nature stood
    \nunveiled to Aswapathy. Under the compulsions of the new Consciousness
    \nattained by him, Nature yielded the truths of her processes, her
    \nstrengths and her empire. And in the joy of giving, she gave herself
    \ntoo into his hands for whatever use he might make of her as Power.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nNature appears to rule, to
    \ndominate the Soul, but it is so only as long as the Soul is content
    \nto remain under the reign of Ignorance and consents to the rule of
    \nNature. If, however, the Soul awakes to its true status of freedom
    \nand develops its innate consciousness of identity with the Divine
    \nLord, Ishwara, there is an automatic assertion of its mastery over
    \nNature who yields herself joyously to its dominion.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature Absolved<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbsolved
    \nfrom aberrations in deep ways,
    The ends she recovered for which
    \nshe was made:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn placing herself and all
    \nher resources at the disposal of the mastering Soul that was
    \nAswapathy, Nature freed herself from the blinding entanglements-and
    \nthe unexpected modes of action that had sprung therefrom which had
    \novertaken her in the depths of her involution in the Inconscient, and
    \nrecovered the sight of the object for which she had been set to work
    \ni.e. to fulfil the purpose of the manifesting Godhead.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Turned Against Evil<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nShe
    \nturned against the evil she had helped
    Her engined wrath, her
    \ninvisible means to slay;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn the new situation Nature
    \nturned round and directed her effective powers-material and
    \nimmaterial-against the evil that had sprung up in the course of her
    \nworkings down the planes of the Creation, evil that rose from the
    \nchurning of the forces at struggle in the field of evolution and was
    \nmaintained by her for its temporary utility.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nEvil, like its begetter
    \nIgnorance, is a phase in the evolution of the Spirit and it has to
    \npass yielding place to the higher evolutes of Good and Knowledge with
    \nthe growth of Consciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Surrendered to the
    \nSoul<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHer
    \ndangerous moods and arbitrary force
    She surrendered to the
    \nservice of the soul
    And the control of a spiritual will.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere came about a radical
    \nchange in the mode and poise of Nature. Her own will, her caprice and
    \nher uncontrolled force were submitted to a higher Will of the Spirit;
    \nall her means were turned to serve the purpose of the Soul directly
    \nand effectively. Hitherto Nature served the Soul only indirectly,
    \nworking in her own way, for her own immediate ends. Now she came
    \ndirectly under the rule of the Soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Nature Tamed<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \ngreater despot tamed her despotism.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAssailed,
    \nsurprised in the fortress of her self,
    Conquered by her own
    \nunexpected King,
    Fulfilled and ransomed by her servitude,
    She
    \nyielded in a vanquished ecstasy,
    Her sealed hieratic wisdom
    \nforced from her,
    Fragments of the mystery of omnipotence.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn her field of operations
    \nNature is omnipotent and appears to be self-sufficient. But in fact
    \nshe is only a Power, an executive Power of the Lord: Prakriti is a
    \npower of the Purusha, Nature is the executrix of the Will of the
    \nSoul. In the dynamics of the manifestation, the balance may have got
    \ntopsy-turvy with Nature dominating and ruling the Soul who hidden
    \nbehind the many layers of Ignorance and unconsciousness is rendered
    \nineffective. But as the evolution of consciousness proceeds and the
    \nSoul becomes self-aware and emerges into the open, Nature is forced
    \nto subserve her real Lord, the Soul who assumes mastery over her
    \noperations. Thus it was that when Aswapathy rose to the full height
    \nof his awakened soul, Nature yielded herself, her secrets of
    \npower-which were really all derived from the concealed omnipotence of
    \nthe Soul, Purusha-to the Soul and in resuming her natural relation
    \nshe stood fulfilled, joyous under the command of her Master.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Occult Force<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nborder sovereign is the occult Force.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nthreshold guardian of the earth-scene’s Beyond,
    She has canalised
    \nthe outbreaks of the Gods
    And cut through vistas of intuitive
    \nsight
    A long road of shimmering discoveries.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nBetween the material
    \nuniverse below and the supraphysical realms above there stands a
    \nmighty Shakti holding her sovereign sway. She is not seizable by the
    \nphysical sense but her presence and workings have made possible this
    \nuniversal movement according to the will and on the lines determined
    \nby the creative Divinity at the head of this system of worlds. It is
    \nthis Shakti that has borne the manifesting godheads from above and
    \nrendered them active in this universe. It is She who has built
    \nchannels of communication between the physical world here and the
    \nvaster worlds above; She has opened the bright and ever new path that
    \nleads through the altitudes of Intuition-the direct vision of the
    \nsoul-to the Infinite Beyond.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Worlds Unknown<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nworlds of a marvellous Unknown were near,
    Behind her an ineffable
    \nPresence stood:
    Her reign received their mystic influences,
    \n
    Their lion-forces crouched beneath her feet;
    The future
    \nsleeps unknown behind their doors.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis Puissance is not
    \nalone. Looming behind her is a great Divine Presence which cannot be
    \ndescribed in human speech. Worlds after worlds stretch beyond the
    \nknown domains and the empire of the Shakti is constantly acted upon
    \nby their occult and spiritual influences. Below the feet of this
    \nDeity of Durga-Prowess lie the forces of strength from these worlds
    \nready to strike at her command.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nUnknown though these realms
    \nbe, it is here that events that are to take place in our own universe
    \nprepare themselves and wait for their hour. The future of this world
    \nbelow is shaped in the secrecies of these worlds above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Call to Adventure<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbysms
    \ninfernal gaped round the soul’s steps
    And called to its mounting
    \nvision peaks divine:
    An endless climb and adventure of the Idea
    \n
    There tirelessly tempted the explorer mind.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe terrain here is unknown
    \nand new to the pilgrim-soul. If there are yawning hollows caving into
    \nthe nether depths of Falsehood and Nescience and hence dangerous to
    \nits tread, there appear also summits of Being that are divine,
    \nbeckoning the ascending soul to their heights. There opens an immense
    \nrising vista, peak upon peak ", before the mind ever seeking for
    \nfresh objectives of Knowledge; and its power of Idea is incessantly
    \nattracted by the adventure in prospect.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe mind enlarges itself
    \nthrough the questing operations of its idea-power and wherever
    \nappears a new horizon, there the idea rushes to explore it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Voices and Figures<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAnd
    \ncountless voices visited the charmed ear;
    A million figures
    \npassed and were seen no more. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll the faculties of
    \nAswapathy are attracted by the novel phenomena that he comes across.
    \nHis Idea-mind is tempted by the endless vistas of the Infinite that
    \nopen before it. His hearing, s’ruti, is enchanted by the innumerable
    \nvoices of the subtler worlds that crowd around it. His sight, drsti,
    \nis held by the plethora of forms that comes before it and passes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe forces and entities of
    \nthe supraphysical worlds communicate in many ways-some through
    \nvoices, some through forms assumed for the purpose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Thousandfold House<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis
    \nwas a forefront of God’s thousandfold house,
    Beginnings of the
    \nhalf-screened Invisible.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nGod’s creation is not
    \nlimited to the form-fixed material universe that we see before us.
    \nBehind and above it there are planes of existence and worlds in them
    \nwhich are not visible to the physical eye, not confined to one order
    \nlike the physical but of many types, supple and varied in their
    \nmovements. Something of this veiled creation can be glimpsed when the
    \nvision opens into a subtler range. Aswapathy finds himself in the
    \nvestibule of this immense, multi-formed Edifice of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Porch of Entry<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nmagic porch of entry glimmering
    Quivered in a penumbra of
    \nscreened Light,
    A court of the mystical traffic of the worlds,
    A
    \nbalcony and miraculous fa?<\/FONT>de. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAt the entrance to these
    \nsubtler worlds, the workings of the forces are observed to undergo a
    \nchange; they are no more governed by the rigid laws that operate in
    \nthe physical universe. They move according to another Plan and strike
    \nthe observer as miraculous, as magical. The full blaze of the
    \nluminous Consciousness is not yet; what is seen is a subdued and
    \nmodified light in keeping with the state of being which is still not
    \ncome into its own absolute freedom. Here is the meeting place of the
    \nphysical and the supra-physical worlds, the realm from where higher
    \nworkings are precipitated into the material universe. Even the forces
    \nof still higher worlds organise themselves here for effective action
    \non earth. So too influences from the earth are projected here.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    The Unknown (I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbove
    \nher lightened high immensities;
    All the unknown looked out from
    \nboundlessness:
    It lodged upon an edge of hourless Time,
    Gazing
    \nout of some everlasting Now,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nBehind and above the
    \nembodied Puissance looms the vast, the unknown luminous Infinite
    \nlooking at the Finite-that projection of itself which it has suffered
    \nto be known-the Eternal poised on a Moment at once significant and
    \nunending, looking at its own movement in the flow of Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    The Unknown (II)<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIts
    \nshadows gleaming with the birth of gods,
    Its bodies signalling
    \nthe Bodiless,
    Its foreheads glowing with the Oversoul,
    Its
    \nforms projected from the Unknowable,
    Its eyes dreaming of the
    \nIneffable,
    Its faces staring into eternity.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHere is the Transcendent
    \nDivinity putting out its powers and personalities into manifestation;
    \nthe Formless casting itself into forms that constantly bespeak their
    \norigin; the Omniscient gathering itself in concentrated vision; the
    \nUnknowable lending itself to be partly known in its self-chosen
    \nembodiments; the Ineffable shining through dream-filled eyes, the
    \nEternal beheld by the innumerable fronts of the Unknown.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Vasts of Life<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nLife
    \nin him learned its huge subconscient rear;
    The little fronts
    \nunlocked to the unseen Vasts:
    Her gulfs stood nude, her far
    \ntranscendences
    Flamed in transparencies of crowded light.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn this experience
    \nAswapathy awakes to the vast extent of his own life-being; he becomes
    \nconscious of large tracts behind the surface levels of which alone he
    \nwas hitherto aware; he realises that the parts which were overtly
    \nactive in his life-nature are only doors opening on areas which were
    \nunseen and unimagined. The depths of his life are exposed to his
    \ngaze; so too revealed are the heights which are illuminated in the
    \nmassed radiances of the superconscient regions of his being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Giant Order<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \ngiant order was discovered here
    Of which the tassel and extended
    \nfringe
    Are the scant stuff of our material lives.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOur physical world is not
    \nthe whole of the universe. In fact it is only a small-though
    \nsignificant-segment of the multi-tiered Order that constitutes the
    \nCreation. The physical world is enveloped by the subtle-physical
    \nrealm which in turn is enclosed in the vital. Higher and wider are
    \nthe planes and worlds of the mental and the still greater domains of
    \nExistence reaching up to those of Sat-Chit-Ananda.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe material world is but a
    \nsmall projection of this vaster and greater system of subtler worlds
    \nabove.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Glowing Code<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis
    \novert universe whose figures hide
    The secrets merged in
    \nsuperconscient light,
    Wrote clear the letters of its glowing
    \ncode:
    A map of subtle signs surpassing thought
    Was hung upon
    \na wall of inmost mind.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe truths of all the
    \nmovements in this Universe are not always patent to the eye. Forms do
    \nnot reveal the significances that are figured in them. These are held
    \nbehind the surfaces. They do not come under the scrutiny of the
    \nthinking mind but lie concealed in planes of superconscience. The
    \nclues to these secrets of the cosmos are to be found in the deepest
    \nchambers of the mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Clues to Mystery<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIllumining
    \nthe world’s concrete images
    Into significant symbols by its
    \ngloss,
    It offered to the intuitive exegete
    Its reflex of the
    \neternal Mystery.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt is only an intuitive
    \nmind that can grasp the meaning of the clues offered on this plane
    \nbeyond Thought and perceive in that light the full significance of
    \nthings in the physical universe, unravel what is always a mystery to
    \nthe logical intelligence of man.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Serried Kingdoms<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAscending
    \nand descending twixt life’s poles
    The serried kingdoms of the
    \ngraded Law
    Plunged from the Everlasting into Time,
    Then glad
    \nof a glory of multitudinous mind
    And rich with life’s adventure
    \nand delight
    And packed with the beauty of Matter’s shapes and
    \nhues
    Climbed back from Time into undying Self,
    Up a golden
    \nladder carrying the Soul,
    Tying with diamond threads the Spirit’s
    \nextremes.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAcross the entire gamut of
    \nthis Existence is a Cosmos of graded planes of Being, each plane with
    \nits own organisation of worlds. The planes are all interconnected and
    \nconstitute a series of levels of Existence descending from the
    \nsummits of the Eternal down to the domains of Time; this descending
    \ngradation is paralleled by an ascending series from below to the
    \nheights of the Spirit. Each plane is a self-formulation of a
    \nPrinciple, a Power of the Divine Consciousness, and is governed by
    \nthe Law of its constituent Truth. Thus each system of worlds has its
    \nown Law.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nA graded Existence
    \ncorresponding to the graded Being in manifestation, ruled by a graded
    \nTruth seeking several expression on several levels.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Gathered Glory<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThen
    \nglad of a glory of multitudinous mind
    And rich with life’s
    \nadventure and delight
    And packed with the beauty of Matter’s
    \nshapes and hues
    Climbed back from Time into undying Self,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe Spirit, the Divine
    \nConsciousness that issues out of the Eternal Divine Being for the
    \nadventure of manifestation into Time gets enriched with the various
    \nexperience it gathers in the field of its deployment. The One Idea
    \nbecomes the Many and takes the joy of a multitudinous assimilation;
    \nthe Conscious-Force throws itself in the form of life-energy and
    \ntakes the delight of struggle and achievement; the absolute Existence
    \nformulated in Matter adds to itself the value and joy of Beauty of
    \nForm and Colour. Rich with this glory of manifestation the Spirit
    \nclimbs back, by the ladder perfected in evolution, from the field of
    \nTime to the Eternal Self whence it had devolved.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Golden Ladder<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nUp a
    \ngolden ladder carrying the Soul,
    Tying with diamond threads the
    \nSpirit’s extremes.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe means of this return of
    \nthe adventuring Soul, the Divine Spirit in various self-formulations
    \nis the ladder of ascent it builds for itself through its evolutionary
    \nlabour of emergence from the plane of the material Inconscient below
    \nup to the heights of Sat-Chit-Ananda. As it emerges, it forms the
    \nsteps of its ascent to the next plane-from Matter to Life, from Life
    \nto Mind, from Mind to the still higher ranges of Consciousness and
    \nthus erects a permanent ladder of increasingly luminous Consciousness
    \nthat connects the lower end of the manifesting Spirit in inconscient
    \nMatter with the upper terminus of the absolute
    \nExistence-Consciousness-Bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Drop<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nthis drop from consciousness to consciousness
    Each leaned on the
    \noccult Inconscient’s power,
    The fountain of its needed Ignorance,
    \n
    Archmason of the limits by which it lives.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs the descending
    \nConsciousness modified itself, grade by grade, getting less and less
    \nsubtle, becoming more and more gross, its various formulations,-the
    \nmental, the vital, the physical,-leaned for their stability on the
    \nInconscient base that was the nadir of the plunge. This Inconscient
    \nis the solid material ground whose pull exerts itself all over this
    \ntriple universe in some form or other and limits the workings of the
    \npowers based upon it e.g. the physical consciousness, the life-force,
    \nthe mind. This limitation on the powers is wholesome, even
    \nindispensable, in the conditions of Ignorance in which the
    \nconsciousness acts in the lower universal formations. It is again
    \nfrom this Inconscience that Ignorance comes to be. Ignorance is a
    \ntransitional stage between the utter sleep of consciousness in the
    \ntranced condition of inconscience and the fully awakened state of
    \nself-knowledge towards which the emergent consciousness is moving. It
    \nis a temporary but an inevitable and necessary stage in the formation
    \nand establishment of a fully awakened and freely active
    \nconsciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Soar Home<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn
    \nthis soar from consciousness to consciousness
    Each lifted tops to
    \nThat from which it came,
    Origin of all that it had ever been
    And
    \nhome of all that it could still become.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn the ascending evolution
    \nof this universe, each successive power and the organisation built by
    \nit moves upward to the Spirit, the Divine Being from which it has
    \nultimately derived. Matter, Life, Mind, Psychic Soul-all of these
    \npush upwards arising to re-join their origins in the Being of
    \nSat-Chit-Ananda: Matter to Sat, the Existence sole and absolute; Life
    \nto the Chit-Shakti, Force of Consciousness; Mind to Chit, self-aware
    \nand all-aware Consciousness; Psychic Soul to Ananda, the Bliss
    \neternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe Spirit is the origin of
    \nall that has come to be. But this process of becoming is not at an
    \nend; it is a continual manifestation and holds in its womb still more
    \ntruths to be released into expression.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Acts in Calm<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAn
    \norgan scale of the Eternal’s acts,
    Mounting to their climax in an
    \nendless Calm,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe manifesting Power is in
    \naction multitudinously. All its workings are the innumerable notes of
    \nsome orchestral whole in the making, leading to an eventual harmony.
    \nBased upon a solid, unbreakable Calm, they are steadily moving
    \ntowards their objective.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nHuman activities proceed
    \nfrom desire, ego and restlessness and are not sure of their end.
    \nThose of the Divine Spirit, or of one linked with the Divine
    \nConsciousness, arise from a base of Calm and Peace and move
    \nundeflected towards their goal in constantly increasing power.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Paces of the
    \nWonderful<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nPaces
    \nof the many-visaged Wonderful,
    Predestined stadia of the evolving
    \nWay,
    Measures of the stature of the growing soul,
    They
    \ninterpreted existence to itself<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe Cosmic Movement
    \nproceeds in certain large rhythms which are truly the steps of the
    \nViratPurusha, the multiple Universal Person. He advances on the
    \nprevisioned lines that figure the evolutive manifestation of the
    \nSpirit. These steps are in keeping with the growth of the embodied
    \nsoul in creation-individual and universal and they give the meaning
    \nof the whole movement in what direction it is proceeding, to what end
    \nand through which stages.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nExistence is there on
    \npurpose. The soul is its centre and the growth of the soul its
    \nmeaning and significance. The soul follows the curve of evolution
    \nwhich is prefigured in the divine Real-Idea and drawn by the Cosmic
    \nPurusha on the move.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Link<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAnd,
    \nmediating twixt the heights and deeps,
    United the veiled married
    \nopposites
    And linked creation to the Ineffable.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt is these steps of the
    \nCosmic Purusha, the Way laid down and followed by the evolving Soul
    \nin manifestation, that joins together Heaven and Earth, the Spirit
    \nabove and Matter below, the two who are apparently disparate, far
    \nremoved from each other, but in reality at a deeper level found to be
    \nbut two ends of the same Being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThis creation is not left
    \nto itself. The embodied Soul in its growth forges automatically a way
    \nthat links it with the Divine Being above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    World where Worlds
    \nMeet<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nlast high world was seen where all worlds meet;
    In its summit
    \ngleam where Night is not nor Sleep,
    The light began of the
    \nTrinity supreme.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbove this triple world of
    \nMatter, Life and Mind, above this lower hemisphere, apar?rdha, there
    \nis a greater and vaster world, b?hat, of Light, mahas, of the plenary
    \nLaw of Truth, satyam ?tam, which links it to the higher hemisphere,
    \npar?rdha, constituted of the vasts of Sat, Chit and Ananda. It is a
    \nrealm of _Light of Truth without shade of Ignorance, of full
    \nConsciousness without lapse into unconsciousness. The beginnings of
    \nthe direct reign of the Divine Being of Saccidananda are here.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nHere in the world of mahas,
    \nthe supramental Gnosis, all the lower worlds find their harmony.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    World of
    \nConsummation (I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll
    \nthere discovered what it seeks for here.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt
    \nfreed the finite into boundlessness
    And rose into its own
    \neternities.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis is the world where the
    \nIdeals vainly pursued on earth are realised in actuality. In fact it
    \nis because of the existence of these truths in this world of Truth
    \nthat influences are cast in the earth-world and men begin to seek for
    \nthese truths in the form of Ideals.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe finite in this physical
    \nuniverse seeks constantly to enlarge itself in order to attain to
    \nsome infinite term which in some way it feels to be its ultimate.
    \nThis consummation into infinity is arrived at in this vast world
    \nwhich is not only infinite but in its heights arises into Eternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    World of
    \nConsummation (II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nInconscient found its heart of consciousness,
    The idea and
    \nfeeling groping in Ignorance
    At last clutched passionately the
    \nbody of Truth,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nSimilarly, what is
    \ninconscient here on earth and slowly disentangles itself from its
    \nswoon of utter unconsciousness in Matter in the course of
    \nevolutionary progression, emerges there into full, plenary
    \nConsciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nIgnorance, the state of
    \npartial knowledge of truth, which envelops this earth-existence,
    \nceases to be. Thought, idea, feeling, struggling in the domain of
    \nIgnorance to find the truth, at last come into the full blaze of
    \nKnowledge where they attain identity with the Truth of their seeking.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    World of
    \nConsummation (III)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nmusic born in Matter’s silences
    Plucked nude out of the
    \nIneffable’s fathomlessness
    The meaning it had held but could not
    \nvoice;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nFrom the dumb
    \nindeterminacies of original Matter there emerges an incessant
    \nmovement of formation, of articulation. Urged by some Purpose within,
    \nit shapes itself into unmistakable rhythms of action, set harmonies
    \nof growth, which, however, cannot yet give expression to, nor yet
    \nmanifest the truth that ensouls them. This truth and the Purpose that
    \nhas activated them, is discovered by these movements in the profounds
    \nof the Consciousness of the Greater World and fully brought into
    \nexpression there.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe gathering harmonies of
    \nthe worlds below are drawn into this high world into a pattern that
    \nreveals their innate significance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    World of
    \nConsummation (IV)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe
    \nperfect rhythm now only sometimes dreamed
    An answer brought to
    \nthe torn earth’s hungry need
    Rending the night that had concealed
    \nthe Unknown,
    Giving to her her lost forgotten soul.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe earth is ever in search
    \nof the right rhythm in all her movements,-the rhythms glimpsed by a
    \nfew of her seer-vanguards, but is unable to find it due to several
    \nvitiating factors arising from the basic material Inconscience and
    \nthe ubiquitous Ignorance casting its shadow universally. The perfect
    \nnote is to be found only in the World of Truth. If the human spirit
    \nrepresenting the striving quest of the Earth-Nature develops into the
    \nconsciousness of this world of Light, it gains this rhythm of Truth
    \nfor the Earth and in the process the densities of Inconscience and
    \nSubconscience obscuring the Reality are broken through and the Earth
    \nrecovers her soul: the Truth-Consciousness hitherto submerged in the
    \ndepths and therefore inaccessible on the active levels of her being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Grand Solution<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \ngrand solution closed the long impasse
    In which the heights of
    \nmortal effort end.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nWithin the closed circle of
    \nthis triple world of Ignorance, human effort to solve the problems of
    \nexistence and reach perfection can succeed only to a limited extent.
    \nHowever much man may strive, in whichever way, ultimately he comes to
    \na dead end and all his upward endeavour is undermined by the
    \ngravitational pulls of Inconscience and Ignorance that never cease to
    \nact. It is only in a world above this lower triple existence,
    \ntrailokyam, in the world of plenary Knowledge and Will that the real
    \nand full solution is found and a perfect norm is attained.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Reconciling Wisdom
    \n(I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nreconciling Wisdom looked on life;
    It took the striving
    \nundertones of mind
    And took the confused refrain of human hopes
    \n
    And made of them a sweet and happy call:
    It lifted from an
    \nunderground of pain
    The inarticulate murmur of our lives
    And
    \nfound for it a sense illimitable.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe normal human mind is a
    \nfield where various ideas and notions battle for supremacy; no one
    \nidea can claim the allegiance of the mind for long; fresh ones appear
    \nand displace the old. Each one embodies a fresh kind of hope and all
    \ntogether produce a warring medley. A Wisdom that is not involved in
    \nthese movements of the passionate mind takes an impartial, large view
    \nof the whole and forms a synthesis that reconciles the claims of each
    \nin the harmony of its working, producing out of them all a glad
    \nupward movement. Similarly there is always an inexpressible but
    \ninsistent sense of dissatisfaction, bordering on dull pain, recurring
    \nthrough our human lives. The higher Wisdom lifts up life from its
    \nsuppressed state and reads its full meaning in the context of the
    \nevolutionary nisus constantly pushing one forward from station to
    \nstation, never permitting a respite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Reconciling Wisdom
    \n(II)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nmighty oneness its perpetual theme,
    It caught the soul’s faint
    \nscattered utterances,
    Read hardly twixt our lines of rigid
    \nthought
    Or mid this drowse and coma on Matter’s breast
    Heard
    \nlike disjointed mutterings in sleep;<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe central note of the
    \nmany-sided movement of such delivering Wisdom is oneness. It gathers
    \nup all and forges them into a powerful, living unity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThe mind thinks on the
    \nrigorous lines of its logic and amidst the sharp systematisations of
    \nits intellect, one misses the few, occasional, genuine calls of the
    \nsoul which are smothered under the dead weight of its dry thought. In
    \nfact the aspirations of the soul hardly reach the surface awareness
    \nthrough the many levels of unconsciousness and sub-consciousness of
    \nthe material being; what little comes up is heard like incoherent and
    \ninconsequent mutterings in sleep.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nAll these are perceived in
    \ntheir true value by the high wisdom.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Reconciling Wisdom
    \n(III)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIt
    \ngrouped the golden links that they had lost
    And showed to them
    \ntheir divine unity,
    Saving from the error of divided self
    The
    \ndeep spiritual cry in all that is.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThese calls of the soul,
    \naspirations for the Divine, take different forms, point in different
    \ndirections and often produce friction and antagonism among those who
    \nfollow these various calls. The higher Wisdom looks at these
    \nconflicting appearances, recovers their common ground in the one
    \nnatural urge for the One Divinity that beckons through All. This
    \noneness of inspiration and oneness of objective is obscured by the
    \nsense of division caused by the ego. Each feels itself to be
    \ndifferent from the others and claims to be alone right. If this
    \nseparative consciousness rooted in the ego is overpassed, it is seen
    \nhow all aspiration, all longing for the higher Truth, is the same in
    \nall soul movements.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Great Words Lifted
    \nup<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAll
    \nthe great Words that toiled to express the One
    Were lifted into
    \nan absoluteness of light,
    An ever-burning Revelation’s fire
    And
    \nthe immortality of the eternal Voice.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nIn the realm of Truth, the
    \nworld of the supra mental Consciousness, all the great utterances,
    \nmah?v?kya, that try to communicate the One Reality in human language
    \nare taken up into their highest levels of Illumination, their flaming
    \nglow of Revelation, their undying fount of Inspiration, and their
    \nreal significance is realised at its utmost.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nThere is found of each the
    \ntruth-soul revealed, the sense entirely illumined, the sound-body of
    \njust expression at its inspired height.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    From Difference to
    \nUnity<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere
    \nwas no quarrel more of truth with truth;
    The endless chapter of
    \ntheir differences
    Retold in light by an omniscient Scribe,
    \n
    Travelled through difference towards unity,<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nEach human ideal, creed,
    \nfaith embodies a verity of existence, but when it claims monopoly of
    \nTruth it comes into clash with other verities in their own forms. For
    \nthough the Truth is one, its formulations are several, each being an
    \nexpression of a particular power or aspect of the Truth. The truth of
    \none does not negative the truth of another. In their several
    \nworkings, these truths move towards an orchestral whole of which
    \nultimately they reveal themselves to be so many component notes. In
    \nthe light of the Truth-Knowledge of the world supramental this
    \nunderlying and reconciling unity of all the various
    \ntruth-formulations stands self-revealed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Mind Led to its End<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nMind’s
    \nwinding search lost every tinge of doubt
    Led to its end by an
    \nall-seeing speech
    That garbed the initial and original thought
    \n
    With the finality of an ultimate phrase:<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe human mind is ever in
    \nsearch of reality, but each time it perceives something of the
    \nreality, it is haunted by a doubt whether that perception is true. It
    \ndiscards one and follows after another in its uncertain way. This
    \nmeandering course ceases in the realm of the supramental
    \nConsciousness where is found the Real-Idea the origin of all Thought,
    \nof all Creation-in its self-revealing, all-comprehending, absolute
    \nexpression.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Union<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nUnited
    \nwere Time’s creative mood and tense
    To the style and syntax of
    \nIdentity.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe world of Truth is the
    \nlink, the meeting ground of the worlds below, the apar?rdha and the
    \ntriple Creation above, the par?rdha. It is here that the Creative
    \nEternal Saccid?nanda in its infinity organises itself for its
    \nmanifestation in terms of Time. Time and Eternity, the Finite and the
    \nInfinite meet in union on the grounds of the Supramental
    \nConsciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Triune Ecstasies<\/B>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \npaean swelled from the lost musing deeps;
    An anthem pealed to the
    \ntriune ecstasies,
    A cry of the moments to the Immortal’s bliss.<\/FONT>
    \n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nHere in the ranges of the
    \nsupramental Consciousness the being heaves to the invasion of the
    \nBliss of the Infinite. The world of utter Delight, Ananda, is above
    \nthis Gnosis, but it pulls up all towards itself. The highest summits
    \nof the gathered mind thrill to the impact of this undying Bliss of
    \nthe triple Existence of Sat-Chit-Ananda above. Time turns to the
    \nBliss of the Eternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Cosmic ode<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs if
    \nthe strophes of a cosmic ode,
    A hierarchy of climbing harmonies
    \n
    Peopled with voices and with visages
    Aspired in a crescendo
    \nof the Gods
    From Matter’s abysses to the Spirit’s peaks.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nFrom the nether depths of
    \nMatter to the summits of the Spirit there is a hierarchy of planes
    \nand worlds, a rising order of forces and beings-the order of evolving
    \nConsciousness. The Cosmic Movement rises upwards on the wings of the
    \naspiration of the Earth-Soul, the urge in the consciousness involved
    \nin material inconscience to emerge out of its state of nescience and
    \narrive at its highest state of Knowledge and Power in the realm of
    \nthe unveiled Spirit. All the elements in the universal movement
    \nparticipate in this progression-the sub-human, the human, the
    \nsuper-human beings, all joining and furthering from their respective
    \nlevels. Each has a part to play in this scheme whose significance is
    \nrevealed to the eye that pierces behind the surfaces of things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    The One<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAbove
    \nwere the Immortal’s changeless seats,
    White chambers of dalliance
    \nwith Eternity
    And the stupendous gates of the Alone.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAcross
    \nthe unfolding of the seas of self
    Appeared the deathless
    \ncountries of the One.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThis manifestation of the
    \nMany that is the Universe, the various worlds and formulations of
    \nConsciousness and Power are not all. Above them, holding them in
    \ntheir foundation above, upari budhne, is the One of whom they are the
    \nbecomings, All sense, all movement stands still as one approaches the
    \nvestibule of the One: one experiences it as a massive Non-existence.
    \nAcross this belt stands the Sole in its vast Being, above Time, above
    \nchange, above movement: the Immortal, the Eternal, the Siva on the
    \nwhite peaks of Existence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Larger Nature<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nmany-miracled consciousness unrolled
    Vast aim and process and
    \nunfettered norms,
    A larger Nature’s great familiar roads.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThe material insentient
    \nnature that we normally see and experience is not the whole. It is
    \nonly an outer, a lower part of a Nature which to the subtle eye
    \nreveals itself in its higher ranges as a conscious, unlimited and
    \nluminous Power. This Nature has its own vaster ways of execution and
    \nadvance, its varying processes and pliable standards. They are
    \nperceived and experienced as the consciousness grows throwing up new
    \nand newer formulations of its power as it develops each grade of
    \nitself-in the rapid course of its evolution upward.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Worlds Beyond<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAffranchised
    \nfrom the net of earthly sense
    Calm continents of potency were
    \nglimpsed;
    Homelands of beauty shut to human eyes,
    Half-seen
    \nat first through wonder’s gleaming lids,
    Surprised the vision
    \nwith felicity;
    Sunbelts of knowledge, moonbelts of delight
    \n
    Stretched out in an ecstasy of widenesses
    Beyond our indigent
    \ncorporeal range.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nThere
    \nhe could enter, there awhile abide.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nAs Aswapathy thus
    \ntranscended the physical range of the universe in his consciousness,
    \nhe came face to face with new expanses, new worlds of textures
    \ndifferent from that of the earthly world. There were worlds of Power
    \npervaded by calm, free from the limitations and the agitations of the
    \nterrestrial sphere. There were worlds of happy Beauty beyond the
    \nhuman range which gradually took shape before his wondering eyes.
    \nBright expanses glowing with masses of Knowledge, enchanting
    \nVastnesses of flowing Bliss appeared before him beyond the boundaries
    \nof the small physical stretch he had left behind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \nAswapathy felt attracted to
    \nenter and stay in these realms for a while.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
    \n


    \n
    Another Space and
    \nTime<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nA
    \nvoyager upon uncharted routes
    Fronting the viewless danger of the
    \nUnknown
    Adventuring across enormous realms,
    He broke into
    \nanother Space and Time.<\/FONT> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \nOnce he had crossed the
    \nbounds of the terrestrial world he had known, Aswapathy entered into
    \nrealms which were totally new to him and he had to find his way
    \nacross domains which had not been mapped out before and which posed
    \nall the dangers and the challenges of the Unknown. The king launched
    \nupon the adventure and entered into spheres cast into moulds of Space
    \nand Time other than those of the material universe. For each plane of
    \nexistence has its own Space and Time-the special modes of
    \nself-extension and of duration of the manifesting Spirit. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
    \n<\/P>
    \n


    \n


    \n<\/P><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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

Introduction   Notes   Book 1   Book II   Book III   Book IV    Book V   Book VI   Book VII   Book VIII    Book IX   Book X   Book XI   Book XII Book One. The Book of Beginnings Canto I Canto II…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-1-savitri-study","wpcat-244-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646","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=10646"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11056,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions\/11056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}