{"id":10671,"date":"2014-07-12T22:59:46","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T05:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saa.santansoftwaresystems.com\/?p=10671"},"modified":"2014-12-06T23:11:25","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T07:11:25","slug":"savitri-study-book-2-canto-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/savitri-study\/book-2-savitri-study\/savitri-study-book-2-canto-5","title":{"rendered":"Savitri-study-Book-2-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 Two. The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds<\/p>\n

\nCanto I<\/a>    Canto II<\/a>    Canto III<\/a>    Canto IV<\/a>    
\nCanto V<\/a>
\n    Canto VI<\/a>    Canto VII<\/a>    Canto VIII<\/a>    
\nCanto IX<\/a>
\n    Canto X<\/a>    Canto XI<\/a>    Canto XII<\/a>    
\nCanto XIII<\/a>    Canto XIV<\/a>    
\nCanto XV<\/a>           \n<\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Book Two<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Book of the Traveller of the Worlds<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n
\n


\nBook
\nTwo: Canto V<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nGodheads of the Little Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Summary<\/B>
\n
Aswapathy sees the empire of the little Life, a narrow power with
\nrigid forms, an unhappy place, set in ignorance. He seeks to know the
\nsecret of this world and gazes across the surface obscurity to find
\nits law of being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nwhole crowd of tiny entities, uncouth, in constant movement appears
\nbefore his eye\u2014elves, imps, goblins, genii and the rest,
\nhalf-animal, half-god. They are seen at their work behind the veil,
\nprompting, impelling, pushing, perverting. Their only work seems to
\nbe to spoil and vitiate and amuse themselves in the process. Their
\nactivities are not confined to their own world but extend to other
\nworlds also. Wherever there is narrowness, chaos and obscurity, there
\nthese petty beings cast their influence. They lurk in the unconscious
\nand half-conscious parts of man and lead him astray.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nearth is not a closed system. It is open to the action of the powers
\nof other worlds; it is a field of evolution and progress, not a set
\ntypal world like the others. All here moves through contradiction and
\nstruggle towards an eventual harmony and perfection. But the way is
\nlong and the passage is through the belts of inconscience, blindness
\nand ignorance. However, there is a Divine Will and Power that leads
\nthe movement and assures a successful culmination into freedom and
\nLight.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nthe beginning of this mysterious world all appears to be the movement
\nof a brute machine. But in truth there is God within, sitting unseen,
\nand all is his action and his will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe course of a rapid movement the Spirit became Matter. There was a
\npervading silence in which forms appeared. There was no sensation
\nyet. Consciousness was not yet patent. All was inconscient. But
\nbehind and working through this inconscient was the intelligence of
\nGod. Consciousness was concealed; so was concealed the Bliss that is
\nat the origin of all things. All was driven by a mechanical Force.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe first etheric Space there came vibration, touch and friction.
\nThis led to the birth of Fire. Electric Energy with its
\nwave-particles came next and this material scheme was the result with
\nthe atom holding the high potential of Power.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nmiraculous world is a riddle to the intellect of man which has to
\nproceed through its obscuring ignorance. is it a parable of Maya? it
\nasks itself. Perpetual motion and Energy on a static base within a
\nfixed orbit is the picture as it appears at first. But after a time,
\nlife breaks out in Nature and a new phase of conscious movement
\nbegins.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife
\nanimated the material forms but was subject to the laws of Matter.
\nThough outwardly it was not conscious of its purpose, its movements
\nbespoke an active Will within. Sensation, feeling, thrill began to
\nreveal themselves. Life stretched itself through desire.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nGradually
\ncame the first beginnings of mind through the peerings of thought.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnimal
\ncreation followed. Man was moulded from this stuff. In him appeared
\nthe thinking mind that was to uplift life and impose an order on its
\nrestless powers. In man Nature became overtly conscious and raised
\nher head towards the Light of Heaven above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\ndeveloping conscious rule of Nature began to be formulated through
\nman. The ego\u2014a shadow-figure of the true being within\u2014was first
\nformed by Nature with the little joys, hopes, passions and loves of a
\nbrief life centred around it. Within him was the soul that was not
\naffected by these fleeting exercises of life and the cessations of
\nlife. It watched the toils of Nature moving steadily towards a
\ngreater future under the impulsion of a concealed Intelligence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nmind is unable to unravel the mystery of this vast universe. It scans
\nonly the surfaces; its imaginative flights taper off into mystic
\naltitudes. Human life, will and mind are too limited and out of
\naccord with their universal terms to feel and know the great workings
\nof the Cosmic Power behind the Veil. Men are moved from their
\nsubliminal and subconscient levels of being by universal impulsions.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nmind at this stage is a thinking puppet of the life-force. It is
\nmoved and buffeted by little agents of darkness from behind,
\nelemental spirits who are, however, used by a Power greater than
\nthemselves. Men think they act on their own; but in fact they are
\nmanipulated by these forces and beings from behind the Veil. Men are
\nbut actors in the tragi-comedy of their little lives directed by
\nthese prompters from across the border.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSuch
\nis the routine life of man as long as he is content to live subjected
\nto his lower nature. His life turns in petty grooves, happy in small
\npleasures, suffering in little disappointments. On occasions a help
\nfrom greater Nature is vouchsafed but the human receptacle cannot
\nhold the gift for long and it recedes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIf
\nman were the highest poise of which Nature is capable and his
\nlimitations and deformations the final word, then this world would be
\nlittle more than a meaningless accident in Time, a dream or fantasy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nthis is not the truth of things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo
\na deeper seeing, beyond the limited surface sight of the mind, a
\ngreater vision reveals itself. The world vibrates with the Light of
\nGod, it is a developing play of the gods developing from the finite
\nto the Infinite, from the Night of Inconscience to the Day of Truth.
\nBehind the apparent, struggling Nature is at work a divine Power sure
\nof its aim. A Presence watches and leads from above. The One is at
\nplay as the Many. Behind the pain and suffering of the world is an
\nundying bliss. Within the Form there sits the Soul awaiting its hour
\nof emergence, preparing its nature-parts down to the very physical
\ncells for its manifestation. The Soul casts its rays of bliss, of
\nbeauty, of power, now and then, and those are the high moments of the
\nouter being. Through these influxes from within and invoked descents
\nfrom above the being of man shall grow, climb and rise high into the
\ngreater altitudes of the Spirit, into its unsullied realms of Power,
\nBliss, Light.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy
\nadvances through the mists of the empire of the Little Life: chaotic
\nexpanses peopled with little demons of misleading shapes and
\nwhispering ghosts. He is a moving point of light showing up, as it
\nwere, the surrounding gloom of the region. All is dark here in its
\nimmensity, his spirit’s flame is the only light.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unhappy
\nCorner<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nfixed and narrow power with rigid forms,
He saw the empire of the
\nlittle life,
An unhappy corner in eternity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIt
\nlived upon the margin of the Idea
Protected by Ignorance as in a
\nshell. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAswapathy
\nregards this domain of infant life. He sees how narrow and inadequate
\nis the power of life active here and how rigid are its forms\u2014an
\nannexe of misery, unending in duration. It does not embody the
\nTruth-Idea that inspired it at its origin; it exists on its
\nperiphery. And this very ignorance of its true origin and nature
\nseems to safeguard its present existence, for if that knowledge were
\npresent, this order would cease to be, yielding place to a
\nformulation more in consonance with its Truth-Idea.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Smallness
\nin the Infinite (I)<\/B> <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen,
\nhoping to learn the secret of this world
He peered across its
\nscanty fringe of sight,
To disengage from its surface-clear
\nobscurity
The Force that moved it and the Idea that made
\n
Imposing smallness on the Infinite, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAswapathy
\nseeks to unravel the secret truth of this world of little Life, to
\ndiscover the nature of theForce that has brought into being and
\nsustains it in its movement. He would know the precise Truth-Idea
\nthat is the seed and the origin of this finite formation in the
\nInfinite, this small bounded world in the limitless expanse of the
\nVast. For this purpose he directs his gaze beyond the obscurity that
\nlies behind the apparent clarities on the surface.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Smallness
\nin the Infinite (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nruling spirit of its littleness,
The divine law that gave it
\nright to be,
Its claim on Nature and its need in Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHe
\nseeks to know the truth behind this formation of littleness. For
\nunless there is some sustaining truth behind, no creation can exist,
\nleast of all one that is contrary to the nature of the Creative Being
\nwhich is Infinite. If such a small, limited world has been brought
\ninto existence there must be some purpose in it, some possibility
\nthat calls for fulfilment in the manifestation and gives it a claim
\non the energies of manifesting Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Safe
\nfrom Truth and Light<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nplunged his gaze into the siege of mist
That held this ill-lit
\nstraitened continent
Ringed with the skies and seas of ignorance
\n
And kept it safe from Truth and Self and Light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nPiercing
\nits hazy exterior with his gaze, Aswapathy sees a world which is
\ndimly lit, constricted and narrow, surrounded on all sides by an
\nignorance which seems to be there to guard it from all contact with
\nthe luminous Truth that is the real origin and the Self of all
\ncreation. For if it were directly touched by that Reality, its very
\nnature of smallness and darkness would get dissolved.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Veils
\nTorn<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nwhen a search-light stabs the Night\u2019s blind breast
And
\ndwellings and trees and figures of men appear
As if revealed to
\nan eye in Nothingness,
All lurking things were torn out of their
\nveils
And held up in his vision\u2019s sun-white blaze. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAswapathy’s
\nsight alights on the scene like a brilliant searchlight falling on
\nthe darkness of the night. The film of obscurity that conceals is
\nbroken through and things begin to appear in their full details to
\nhis clear vision. Nothing remains hidden or half-hidden from him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Little
\nDeities (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nbusy restless uncouth populace
Teemed in their dusky unnoted
\nthousands there. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\na mist of secrecy wrapping the world-scene
The little deities of
\nTime\u2019s nether act
Who work remote from Heaven\u2019s controlling
\neye,
Plotted, unknown to the creatures whom they move,
The
\nsmall conspiracies of this petty reign <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHe
\nsees a world teeming with uncouth creatures, restless, shabby in
\ntheir incompleteness, vague and undistinguished in their thousands.
\nHe sees too behind the veil, the little godheads of this nether
\nplane, far removed from the active control of the higher
\nIntelligence, absorbed in the little rounds of their kingdom, busy,
\ninfluencing and moving the creatures of the earth without their
\nknowledge.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nMen
\nin their ignorance think that all their activities and movements are
\ntheir own. But in fact, many of these are impelled by agencies like
\nthese little deities acting from behind the veil of the physical
\nexterior.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Little
\nDeities (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAmused
\nwith the small contrivings, the brief hopes
And little eager
\nsteps and little ways
And reptile wallowings in the dark and
\ndust,
And the crouch and ignominy of creeping life. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\nThese petty godheads amuse themselves with the results of their
\nlittle manipulations. The short-lived hopes, eager movements,
\nstruggles to live and the sudden defeats that are so characteristic
\nof the planes of infant, primitive life are like a play to them.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Elfin
\nBrood<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\ntrepidant and motley multitude,
A strange pell-mell of magic
\nartisans
Was seen moulding the plastic clay of life,
An elfin
\nbrood, an elemental kind. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\ntiny spirits of the life-world in their bizarre forms, each unlike
\nthe other, are absorbed in setting up varied life-formations to
\nsatisfy their passing whims.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Sprite
\nPrompters<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAstonished
\nby the unaccustomed glow,
As if immanent in the shadows started
\nup
Imps with wry limbs and carved beast visages,
Sprite
\nprompters goblin-wizened or faery-small,
And genii fairer but
\nunsouled and poor
And fallen beings, their heavenly portion lost,
\n
And errant divinities trapped in Time\u2019s dust. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAs
\nAswapathy’s gaze moves acting like a torch lighting up the dim, unlit
\nareas of this world, strange creatures spring to his view. He sees
\nlittle devilish beings with ill-formed or mal-formed limbs and animal
\nfaces and side by side fairy-like creatures gentle and slender. There
\nare also fairer spirits with handsome forms but empty within because
\nthere is no soul in them. Higher than these are the godlings, fallen
\nbeings who having deviated from the path of Truth forfeited their
\nsaving godly element, fell from their rightful state and slid down to
\nthis lowly position.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Half-Animal,
\nHalf-God<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIgnorant
\nand dangerous wills but armed with power,
Half-animal, half-god
\ntheir mood, their shape. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nentities and beings are queer. Their forms, half–animal and
\nhalf-god, reflect their states of inner consciousness. They are
\npartly actuated by animal impulses and partly led by godward
\nmovements; they are mischievous, sadistic; they are also helpful,
\nkind. It depends on their mood how they act. They have power to
\ninfluence and move things in the creation, but their will is
\ndangerous because they are ignorant. Their power is liable to be
\nwrongly used.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Their
\nWhispers<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOut
\nof the greyness of a dim background
Their whispers come, an
\ninarticulate force,
Awake in mind an echoing thought or word,
To
\ntheir sting of impulse the heart\u2019s sanction draw,
And in that
\nlittle Nature do their work
And fill its powers and creatures
\nwith unease. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nTheir
\nfield of action is the nether plane of Life, the dominion of
\nlife-nature. They themselves are not visible but their activities are
\npalpable. They prompt with soft voices but impel with definite force
\nand raise in the minds of the creatures of this world appropriate
\nthoughts and words, induce consent in them to their impulsions. It is
\nthus that they hold creatures under the rule of the small
\nlife-nature. Those who react to such promptings and impulsions and
\nfollow them feel restless and unhappy due to the presence and
\npressure of this foreign element. They cannot move and act on their
\nown but as propelled by these unhealthy agents from elsewhere; their
\ninner being resists this influence and action and this causes the
\nunease.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
They
\nDrive to the Abyss<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIts
\nseed of joy they curse with sorrow\u2019s fruit,
Put out with
\nerror\u2019s breath its scanty lights
And turn its surface truths to
\nfalsehood\u2019s ends,
Its small emotions spur, its passions drive
\n
To the abyss or through the bog and mire: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nentities play havoc in the world governed by their small life-nature.
\nJoy is natural to life, but these beings vitiate its movements and
\ncause sorrow to result instead; whatever light of Consciousness is
\nthere, they try to put it out with spurts of false suggestions: even
\nthe little truth that manages to reach the surface, they pervert to
\nserve falsehood. Whatever small emotions and passions there are in
\nthe creatures here, are stampeded by these entities to end in
\ndisaster, or drawn into paths of struggle and arrestation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThey
\ntwist and spoil all that is helpful and healthy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Prick
\nwith Goad of Lust<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nelse with a goad of hard dry lusts they prick,
While jogs on
\ndevious ways that nowhere lead
Life\u2019s cart finding no issue
\nfrom ignorance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThey
\nplant desires of the flesh, crude wants of the senses, and whip up
\nthe indolent life-energies to run hither and thither for satisfaction
\nwith no issue at the end. The life-movement, for all its activity,
\nremains bounded in its circle of ignorance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
They
\nSport with Good and Evil<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo
\nsport with good and evil is their law;
Luring to failure and
\nmeaningless success,
All models they corrupt, all measures cheat,
\n
Make knowledge a poison, virtue a pattern dull <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nbeings delight in opposing good with evil; they enjoy this opposition
\nand struggle as a play. They tempt with glittering prizes and lead
\nmen to disappointment; even when they reward with successes, those
\nsuccesses prove to be without content, valueless. They contaminate
\nand spoil standards and corrupt those who uphold them. The ideals by
\nwhich men evaluate their conduct and movements are rendered
\ndeceptive. In their hands even knowledge is turned harmful; they
\ninduce men into believing that their little knowings are the whole
\ntruth and rush them to disastrous results. Virtue is turned into an
\nunattractive, habitual mode, while its opposite is presented in an
\nattractive garb.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAnd
\nlead the endless cycles of desire
Through semblances of sad or
\nhappy chance
To an inescapable fatality. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nthey promote the spread of desire. Desires are endless; one desire
\nleads to another and men get wound up in their convolutions. These
\nbeings encourage and prolong the play of desires, punctuating the
\ncourse with apparently pleasant and unpleasant interludes, and
\nfinally lead men to the inevitable end, destruction.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Empire
\nof Crooked Fashioners<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nby their influence is enacted there. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nNor
\nthere alone is their empire or their role:
Wherever are soulless
\nminds and guideless lives
And in a small body self is all that
\ncounts,
Wherever love and light and largeness lack,
These
\ncrooked fashioners take up their task. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nTo
\nall half-conscious worlds they extend their reign. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nbeings not only act upon and influence creatures and movements in the
\nworld of lower life, but work in other ways also, though less
\ndirectly. Wherever the soul, the divine element in each creature, is
\npushed behind and rendered inoperative, where life is allowed to
\ndrift without a meaningful guidance, where things run in small
\ngrooves centreing round one’s little ego, where ignorance,
\nselfishness and narrowness abound shutting out light, love and
\nwideness, there these perverted and perverting agents are busy. They
\nget scope wherever consciousness is not yet wakeful and there is
\nobscurity. Unconscious and semiconscious states provide ideal
\nconditions for these entities to do their mischief.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
They
\nDrive Human Hearts<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere
\ntoo these godlings drive our human hearts,
Our nature\u2019s
\ntwilight is their lurking place. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nsupra-physical beings are always on the lookout for openings in human
\nbeings for their entry. Where human nature is still not fully awake
\nand alert, where obscurity and unconsciousness still reign, there
\nthey sneak in and establish themselves. From these unlit regions they
\nspread themselves through their characteristic movements of wrong
\nimpulses, uncurbed desires, unhealthy thoughts, and drive men
\nhelplessly, as they will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Misleading
\nLight of a Hidden Mind (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere
\ntoo the darkened primitive heart obeys
The veiled suggestions of
\na hidden Mind
That dogs our knowledge with misleading light
And
\nstands between us and the truth that saves. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nunenlightened heart of man is also open to another distorting
\ninfluence. It receives indirect suggestions from a concealed source
\nof error, the vital mind, which is an instrument of ignorant desire.
\nWhatever the heart naturally knows is misinterpreted and misdirected
\nby the distorting workings of this mind. This mind intervenes between
\nthe struggling consciousness of man below and the truth above that
\ncan deliver it out of its bondage to lower nature. It distorts,
\nmisguides and impels wrongly.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Misleading
\nLight of a Hidden Mind (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nspeaks to us with the voices of the Night:
Our darkened lives to
\ngreater darkness move;
Our seekings listen to calamitous hopes.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\npromptings of this desire mind lead man not towards the light of
\nknowledge and freedom but unfailingly towards the darkness of deeper
\nignorance. He walks into the greater obscurity of the vital nature.
\nHopes are raised which ultimately lead to greater bondage and
\ndisaster.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Irrational
\nForce<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nstructure of unseeing thoughts is built
And reason used by an
\nirrational Force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThinking
\nis a natural faculty of the mind. But the vital mind uses this power
\nfor its own unregenerate purposes. Erroneous thoughts are inspired,
\ncoloured and fed by it to multiply in their blind brood. Even the
\nfaculty of reasoning is not allowed to function for its rightful
\npurpose of discrimination and understanding but is used by this force
\nfrom below to oppose totally the light of reason.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Earth
\nnot Alone our Nurse<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nearth alone is not our teacher and nurse;
The powers of all the
\nworlds have entrance here. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nmaterial plane of which our earth here is a part is not a
\nself-sufficient universe separate from other planes of the Creation.
\nThe whole Creation is a system of many planes and the material plane
\non which the earth is formed is one of them. These planes\u2014and the
\nworlds on each of them\u2014are all interconnected, interpenetrating.
\nThe Principles on which each plane is organised and the Powers of
\nthat plane act upon the Principles and Powers of other planes and are
\nthemselves subject to their operation. Thus beings on earth are acted
\nupon not only by the Powers native to earth, but also by the Powers
\nof other planes and worlds. Man grows and evolves by the pressure and
\nhelp of Powers that belong both to the terrestrial and to the
\nsupra-terrestrial worlds in the Creation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Worlds
\nof Settled Type<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\ntheir own fields they follow the wheel of law
And cherish the
\nsafety of a settled type; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\neach of the supra-physical worlds, the forces that are active conform
\nto the Law of the world. They move within set grooves and are not
\nliable to change. Each of these worlds is a typal creation and is
\nconcerned with the maintenance of that order of existence. There is
\nno movement of change as on earth. They are not evolving systems.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
No
\nFixed Forms on Earth<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOn
\nearth out of their changeless orbit thrown
Their law is kept,
\nlost their fixed form of things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nBut
\nthings are different on earth. The forces are free to work out their
\npossibilities in this field of evolution. They are not obliged to
\nkeep to set lines of functioning. The principle of each power remains
\nbut not its typal expression. On earth these powers intermingle and
\nundergo modifications as a result.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Towards
\nDivine Harmony<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInto
\na creative chaos they are cast
Where all asks order but is driven
\nby Chance;
Strangers to earth-nature, they must learn earth\u2019s
\nways,
Aliens or opposites, they must unite:
They work and
\nbattle and with pain agree:
These join, those part, all parts and
\njoins anew,
Till all have found their divine harmony. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAll
\nthe powers and elements from the other planes are released on earth
\nto manifest their truths. They are thrown together in what looks like
\na chaos but is really a creative situation. There is an urge for
\norderly growth from all, but things are driven as if by chance into a
\nmeaningful disorder. All have to conform to the laws of earth-nature
\nif they are to function and establish themselves in the earth-field.
\nUnderneath all movement there is a constant and relentless drive for
\ntrue harmony, for true unity. All the disparate elements are forced
\nto work out this harmony by association, by dissociation and by a
\nfresh and stronger union through the interaction of cooperation and
\nresistance, attraction and repulsion.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Secret
\nin the Eternal<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nlife\u2019s uncertain way winds circling on,
Our mind\u2019s unquiet
\nsearch asks always light,
Till they have learnt their secret in
\ntheir source,
In the light of the Timeless and its spaceless
\nhome,
In the joy of the Eternal sole and one. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHuman
\nlife on earth struggling to find the joy of existence turns this way
\nand that pursuing it. It follows a circuitous path learning the same
\nlessons again and again. So also is it with the human mind restless
\nin its quest for knowledge. Both life and mind are ever on the move
\nsearching, and this search will continue till they perceive and
\nrealise that what they seek for is beyond their present formulation,
\nis ever there in the eternal existence transcending Time and Space,
\nthis eternal existence which is also their own source. For from the
\nDelight of the One has issued Life to realise the joy of manifold
\ncreation; from the Consciousness of the Eternal is projected the
\nmind-power to manifest the self-existent Knowledge.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The
\nInconscient’s Laws<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nnow the Light supreme is far away:
Our conscious life obeys the
\ninconscience\u2019 laws; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nNow,
\nhowever, in the present stage of the development of human life and
\nmind on earth, the Source-Light of the supreme Consciousness is far
\naway. What operates in life is not the Light of that Consciousness
\nbut the law of inconscience in Matter in its compulsive workings. Not
\nonly are the unconscious and semiconscious movements governed by the
\ninconscience\u2014that is but natural\u2014but even the movements that are
\nconscious are obliged to obey the dictates of the inconscience.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Ignorant
\nPurposes<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo
\nignorant purposes and blind desires
Our hearts are moved by an
\nambiguous force;
Even our mind\u2019s conquests wear a battered
\ncrown. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nVery
\nfew of man’s movements are rightly inspired and achieve the ends of a
\nhigher evolution towards Light and Truth. Man is generally moved by
\nthe force of his nature which is mostly unenlightened and only partly
\nconscious of the purpose of life and he puts out his energies for the
\nfulfilment of small, obscure desires and worthless objects. Even the
\nexertions of his mind\u2014the most developed part of man end in
\ndefective results, its movements being mixed due to fallible
\nintrusions from the physical and vital nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Slowly
\nChanging Order<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nslowly changing order binds our will. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nis our doom until our souls are free. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhatever
\nmay be the intensity of the human will, it is circumscribed by the
\nnature of the field in which it has to function. This world is still
\ngoverned by the laws of inconscience, of ignorance; the element of
\nconsciousness that is emerging is still inadequate and the change it
\nis able to effect is slow. This fact restricts the action of the
\nwill. And so it will be till the emerging soul in evolution
\ncompletely breaks out from the shell of ignorance and inconscience in
\nwhich it is enclosed and comes into its own free movement.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
End
\nof Nether Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nmighty Hand then rolls mind\u2019s firmaments back,
Infinity takes
\nup the finite\u2019s acts
And Nature steps into the eternal Light.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThen
\nonly ends this dream of nether life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOnce
\nthis release of the soul from the clamps of the lower laws is
\neffected, all changes. A Higher Power begins to act. The limited
\nscope of the mind is widened into larger horizons and the Nature
\nhitherto functioning in the obscurities of Ignorance is lifted up
\ninto the clarities of a supernal Light. Finite workings are converted
\ninto infinite. Thus will pass the evil dream of this lower life of
\nhelpless struggle and pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Enigmatic
\nWorld (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nthe outset of this enigmatic world
Which seems at once an
\nenormous brute machine
And a slow unmasking of the Spirit in
\nthings, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nworld of ours is truly enigmatic; its character is baffling. Seen
\nsuperficially, it looks a gigantic material mechanism without any
\nintelligence, a huge mechanical movement. But when it is observed
\nmore closely, there reveals itself, in its movement, a gradual
\nunveiling of an indwelling Spirit, a Consciousness that is
\neverywhere.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Enigmatic
\nWorld (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthis revolving chamber without walls
In which God sits impassive
\neverywhere
As if unknown to himself and by us unseen
In a
\nmiracle of inconscient secrecy,
Yet is all here his action and
\nhis will. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nworld is not static. It is a continual movement, an endless whirling.
\nBut within this dizzying whirl there sits God unmoved, unaffected. He
\nis everywhere, yet it is as if there is no self-awareness; all is
\napparently unconscious. He is hidden in the folds of the inconscience
\nin which he has plunged himself and is not perceptible to the human
\neye. Nevertheless, all lives and moves at his will, all is an action
\nof his Force.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Spirit
\nBecame Matter<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthis whirl and sprawl through infinite vacancy
The Spirit became
\nMatter and lay in the whirl,
A body sleeping without sense or
\nsoul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nthe outset this is what happened:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe vast self-extension and self-projection of its own Being, the
\nSpirit rapidly converted itself into Matter through a series of
\ndevolutionary steps, and lay there self-forgetful. It was in a swoon
\nin the body of Matter; the body was consequently insensate, without
\narticulate consciousness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Insensible
\nWorld<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nmass phenomenon of visible shapes
Supported by the silence of the
\nVoid
Appeared in the eternal Consciousness
And seemed an
\noutward and insensible world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nwas the appearance of the material creation at that stage:
\ninnumerable forms of Matter, with no apparent movement of sensations
\nwithin, coming into existence in the perspective of the eternal
\nDivine Consciousness and maintained by the pervading Silence of the
\nVacancy everywhere.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Miraculous
\nInconscient<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nwas none there to see and none to feel;
Only the miraculous
\nInconscient,
A subtle wizard skilled, was at its task. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWith
\nno articulate consciousness on the scene there was naturally none to
\nsee or feel in that world. The only dominant fact was the existence
\nof an Inconscient which had miraculously appeared in the extension of
\na supreme Consciousness. And this Inconscient was at work in its own
\nway, not overtly indeed, but behind the veil, with a skill that was
\namazing in what appeared to be a totally static creation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Did
\nthe Works of God’s Intelligence<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInventing
\nways for magical results,
Managing creation\u2019s marvellous
\ndevice,
Marking mechanically dumb wisdom\u2019s points,
Using
\nthe unthought inevitable Idea,
It did the works of God\u2019s
\nintelligence
Or wrought the will of some supreme Unknown.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nworking of this Inconscient was teleological. It aimed at sudden and
\nnovel results; it created new and newer ways of achieving them. The
\nwisdom at work was indeed mute, not articulate yet, but it left its
\nimpressions at important junctures. The Inconscient was far away yet
\nfrom the possibility of thinking, but it drew upon the Truth-Idea
\nthat is not thought out but exists on its own at the origin of every
\ncreation as its seed-pattern. Thus did the Inconscient perform the
\nwork of the high Intelligence of God, execute the Will of the supreme
\nCreative Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBehind
\nthe mask of Inconscient there was active, the Intelligence and the
\nWill of God pressing through the Real-Idea at the source of things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Still
\nConsciousness was Hidden<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nStill
\nconsciousness was hidden in Nature\u2019s womb,
Unfelt was the Bliss
\nwhose rapture dreamed the worlds. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nBeing
\nwas an inert substance driven by Force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\nspite of all these operations that were on, the effecting
\nconsciousness was not yet patent; it was still concealed in the womb
\nof Nature. Neither was felt the Delight that was the ultimate Cause
\nof all creation. For, as the Upanishad puts it, from Ananda all is
\nborn. Out of the ebullient Bliss of Brahman the universe has come to
\nbe. There was no sensibility yet. The Being was not active, wielding
\nthe force of its consciousness as it does on its own supreme plane.
\nOn the other hand, it was here an inert substance driven by a Force.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nconscient, blissful, dynamic Being had turned into inconscient,
\ninsentient, inert substance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAt
\nfirst was only an etheric Space:
Its huge vibrations circled
\nround and round
Housing some unconceived initiative: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nfirst condition in the formation of this material world was an
\netheric extension. The creative Spirit formulated itself as a vast
\nspread of ether. But it was not a void. It was instinct with an
\nimpulsion that yet to form itself. The ceaseless motion of the
\nvibrations of ether was the commencement of that process.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nUpheld
\nby a supreme original Breath
Expansion and contraction\u2019s mystic
\nact
Created touch and friction in the void,
Into abstract
\nemptiness brought clash and clasp: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nnext stage was the self-modification into air whose characteristic
\naction of expansion and contraction led to the phenomena of touch and
\nfriction. Where all was practically a motionless void, there came to
\nbe a movement of contact, of friction and of hold.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAfter
\nEther, whose character is sound-producing vibrations, comes Air with
\nthe quality of touch.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nParent
\nof an expanding universe
In a matrix of disintegrating force,
By
\nspending it conserved an endless sum. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\naction of the element of air in creating a continuous movement of
\ntouch and friction initiated the beginnings of a universe of future
\nforms based upon relation. If the creative Force appeared to spend
\nitself in this transaction it also built up simultaneously a vast
\npotentiality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nOn
\nthe hearth of Space it kindled a viewless Fire
That, scattering
\nworlds as one might scatter seeds,
Whirled out the luminous order
\nof the stars. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThen
\ncame Fire, the self-modification into light and heat. There began the
\naction of the power of luminous heat which resulted in the eruption
\nof shining bodies like the systems of stars spinning in the vasts of
\nSpace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Energy-Matter<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nocean of electric Energy
Formlessly formed its strange
\nwave-particles
Constructing by their dance this solid scheme,
\n
Its mightiness in the atom shut to rest; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\ncreative Force then formulated itself into a luminous, dynamic Energy
\nwhich fanned out into wave-particles constantly in motion. These
\nparticles in ceaseless movement built this solid pattern of creation.
\nAnd the mighty Energy shut itself in its tiniest concentration\u2014the
\natom.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\natom, the infinitesimal unit in material creation, holds in itself a
\nreservoir of the Energy that has built the Universe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cosmos
\nof Apparent Things<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nMasses
\nwere forged or feigned and visible shapes;
Light flung the
\nphoton\u2019s swift revealing spark
And showed, in the minuteness of
\nits flash
Imaged, this cosmos of apparent things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThus
\ncame to be forms and appearances of forms of massed Matter; they were
\nlighted up by the play of flashes of light. Revealed was an order of
\nforms patent to the eye.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Obvious
\nMiracle<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThus
\nhas been made this real impossible world,
An obvious miracle or
\nconvincing show. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIt
\nlooks impossible that such a concrete formation as this universe
\ncould have come into existence from what was practically a Void, and
\nthat too an ordered universe, not a chaos. But it is here and the
\nmiracle cannot be denied. If it is not real, then it has an
\nappearance that is real enough to be convincing.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man’s
\nAudacious Mind<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nso it seems to man\u2019s audacious mind
Who seats his thought as
\nthe arbiter of truth,
His personal vision as impersonal fact,
As
\nwitnesses of an objective world
His erring sense and his
\ninstruments\u2019 artifice. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nany rate that is the appearance the world bears to the eye of man who
\nsees through the spectacles of his fumbling but foolhardy mind. He
\nmakes his limited thinking faculty the judge of what is truth and
\nwhat is not; what he is able to regard in his clipped vision he
\nassumes to be the real nature of things. His own misleading senses
\nand imperfect faculties are his reporters of the world around.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Working
\nOut Life’s Riddle<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThus
\nmust he work life\u2019s tangible riddle out
In a doubtful light, by
\nerror seize on Truth
And slowly part the visage and the veil.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nthis is the way he has to proceed and learn. The light that his mind
\nsheds on the path is always uncertain, but he has to walk with
\nwhatever help he can get from it. So too the workings of his
\nmentality are always exposed to error, but he is obliged to search
\nfor truth and hope to arrive at it through the process of trial and
\nerror. Thus does man slowly advance, steadily removing the veils of
\nobscurity and ignorance and getting across the surface appearances to
\nthe truth of things. Thus is he enabled to solve the pressing
\nproblems that life poses before him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Parable
\nof Maya<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nelse, forlorn of faith in mind and sense,
His knowledge a bright
\nbody of ignorance,
He sees in all things strangely fashioned here
\n
The unwelcome jest of a deceiving Force,
A parable of Maya
\nand her might. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan
\ncan interpret the reality of the objective world only in terms of the
\nexperience of his mind and his senses; the impact seems real and
\ntherefore the world seems real. But often he distrusts his mind and
\nthe reports of his senses. Warily he forms a knowledge of the world
\nwhich, however, is only a glittering robe woven by his ignorance. To
\nhim this miraculous world appears to be only a cruel deception, a
\ntransient show, a fiction created by Maya, the Power of Illusion.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Perpetual
\nMotion (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nvast perpetual motion caught and held
In the mysterious and
\nunchanging change
Of the persistent movement we call Time
And
\never renewing its recurrent beat,
These mobile rounds that
\nstereotype a flux, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nwas the picture in the first stages of this material creation:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nwas a constant motion (jagat) of and in the universe, but the motion
\nwas contained in a mysterious determination; there was a continuous
\nchange in the situation, from moment to moment, of the containing
\nTime, and yet, looked at from another viewpoint, nothing really
\nchanged in terms of the constituting Spirit. The movement went on in
\ncircles and things appeared to come back to their original position
\nagain and again.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTime
\nis duration, a movement of the Eternal. Eternity pouring itself in
\nmanifestation from its own transcendent status is Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Perpetual
\nMotion (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThese
\nstatic objects in the cosmic dance
That are but Energy\u2019s
\nself-repeating whirls
Prolonged by the spirit of the brooding
\nVoid,
Awaited life and sense and waking Mind. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhat
\nappeared to be stationary objects were really formations in rapid
\nmotion of an unseen Cosmic Energy, a motion that was repetitive and
\nstretched out by some presiding spirit of that pregnant Void. All
\nawaited the advent of life, of sensation, of the awareness of mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Pose
\nof Stone<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nlittle the Dreamer changed his pose of stone. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhere
\nthere was absolute immobility and inconscience, there came a motion
\nof Energy. This was significant. For it revealed a modification in
\nthe status of the creative Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEven
\nthe sheer materiality of the stone is a state assumed by the creative
\nDreamer at work. The stone is but an appearance of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Scene
\nSet for Conscious Play<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nwhen the Inconscient\u2019s scrupulous work was done
And Chance
\ncoerced by fixed immutable laws,
A scene was set for Nature\u2019s
\nconscious play. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThus
\ndid the Inconscient operate with faultless accuracy; its unseen
\nEnergy worked ceaselessly, precisely, impelled by the hidden
\nIntelligence. No quarter was given for chance happenings; all was
\ndetermined by the unchanging Laws of the inconscient order of
\nexistence. It was only after the work at this stage of evolution was
\ncompleted that things were ready for the next stage: conscious action
\nreplacing the hitherto unconscious operation in Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Force
\nBroke Out<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nstirred the Spirit\u2019s mute immobile sleep;
The Force concealed
\nbroke dumbly, slowly out. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nTill
\nthen all was immobile, inarticulate, in the swoon of sleep. The
\nenergy that worked was not patent; it was at work below the surface.
\nBut now the Force began to emerge into the open, slowly, without
\narticulate expression.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Freak
\nof Living<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\ndream of living woke in Matter\u2019s heart,
A will to live moved in
\nthe Inconscient\u2019s dust,
A freak of living startled vacant Time,
\n
Ephemeral in a blank eternity,
Infinitesimal in a dead
\nInfinite. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\nthe heart of Matter there arose an impulse to be alive. A force of
\nlife erupted from the bosom of inert Matter and a slender jet of life
\nappeared on the scene. It was tentative, transient, small in
\nformation, yet it was a fact, something new, a departure from the
\nprevailing dead order of existence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Serpent
\nPower<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nsubtler breath quickened dead Matter\u2019s forms;
The world\u2019s set
\nrhythm changed to a conscious cry;
A serpent Power twinned the
\ninsensible Force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\ngross forms of Matter were suddenly animated by a fine breath of
\nlife. The mechanical rhythms of the world-movement took on a new
\ncharacter of conscious articulation. The Force that was hitherto
\nunconscious and insensible found itself alongside a dynamic and
\nconscious Power.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInsensible
\nForce was not all. There came in a conscious Power too. Together they
\nfunctioned.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Life
\nFollowed Matter’s Law<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIslands
\nof living dotted lifeless space
And germs of living formed in
\nformless air. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nA
\nlife was born that followed Matter\u2019s law,
Ignorant of the
\nmotives of its steps; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nLife
\nbroke forth here and there in the huge lifeless desert of formed
\nMatter that was. Even in the spread of air that was formless there
\ncame into being seed-forms of life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHowever,
\nthe life that was so born followed the laws of Matter in which it had
\nappeared; it was not aware of the purpose behind its movements, it
\nwas mechanical in its operations.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Heavings
\nof Imprisoned Will<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEver
\ninconstant, yet for ever the same,
It repeated the paradox that
\ngave it birth:
Its restless and unstable stabilities
Recurred
\nincessantly in the flow of Time
And purposeful movements in
\nunthinking forms
Betrayed the heavings of an imprisoned Will.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nUnlike
\nMatter from which it sprang forth, life was changeful in its forms of
\nmovement but basically it remained the same in nature. All the
\nchanging forms and movements of life were really recurrent gyrations
\nof the same life-force. It may not have consciously directed its
\nflowings into various formations, but the patterns revealed that
\nthere was a designing Will behind, exerting from within.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
When
\nLife Began<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWaking
\nand sleep lay locked in mutual arms;
Helpless and indistinct came
\npleasure and pain
Trembling with the first faint thrills of a
\nWorld-Soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nthe stage of the beginnings of life in the material creation, living
\nthings were neither fully awake nor completely asleep; they were
\npartly both. Wakefulness easily passed into sleep and sleep tended to
\nbreak into awakening under the action of the life-force. Sensations
\nstarted and vague involuntary reactions of pleasure and pain
\ncommenced. The living Being began to vibrate with the stirrings of
\nconscious life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unclosing
\nof Secret Eyes<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nstrength of life that could not cry or move,
Yet broke into
\nbeauty signing some deep delight:
An inarticulate sensibility,
\n
Throbs of the heart of an unknowing world,
Ran through its
\nsomnolent torpor and there stirred
A vague uncertain thrill, a
\nwandering beat,
A dim unclosing as of secret eyes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nLife
\nwas not yet sufficiently articulate and organised, but it revealed a
\nbeauty that bespoke some profound delight within\u2014beauty being the
\nform taken by delight. Where there was inertia, sleep and somnolence,
\nthere broke out vibrations of vague sensations, throbs of blind
\nfeeling. There was an unsure movement of the thrill of life. It was
\nas if an eye closed in sleep was opening slowly.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Infant
\nSelf-Feeling Grew<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInfant
\nself-feeling grew and birth was born. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nA
\ngodhead woke but lay with dreaming limbs;
Her house refused to
\nopen its sealed doors. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nfeeling of being began to take shape and grow. A new formation came
\ninto existence. The being of life appeared on the soil of Matter but
\nit was still; awareness was flowing into it but it was not mobile.
\nIts enclosure of Matter would not let it go forth from within its
\nwalls.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our
\nEyes that See Only the Form<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInsentient
\nto our eyes that only see
The form, the act and not the
\nimprisoned God, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nnormal human eye sees only the surface of things, the superficial rim
\nof movements. It regards the form but does not perceive the spirit,
\nthe soul embodied in that form. It looks at the obvious act but does
\nnot see the agent that acts from within. The human sight stops with
\nthe body, it does not penetrate within to glimpse the soul that is
\nencased in the body and activises it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Life
\nHid her Occult Contents<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife
\nhid in her pulse occult of growth and power
A consciousness with
\nmute stifled beats of sense,
A mind suppressed that knew not yet
\nof thought,
An inert spirit that could only be. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nTo
\nsuch a surface-bound sight, life was naturally not perceptible in her
\ntrue nature. She looked to be without palpable sentience. The secret
\ncontent of growing power and consciousness was concealed with but
\nweak automatic sense-reactions on the surface. Also concealed was the
\nmentality in seed-form that was there, though the element of thinking
\nwas not yet. Veiled too was the indwelling spirit which was not yet
\nactive but was just holding itself in existence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Life
\nputs out Fingers of Desire<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nfirst she raised no voice, no motion dared:
Charged with
\nworld-power, instinct with living force,
Only she clung with her
\nroots to the safe earth,
Thrilled dumbly to the shocks of ray and
\nbreeze
And put out tendril fingers of desire; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThough
\nanimated by a power of cosmic magnitude and loaded with a live force,
\nlife at first was not openly articulate, nor mobile in her movements.
\nShe held fast to the safety of mother earth. She thrilled to the
\nimpacts of light and air but in a mute way. Her first tentative
\nstretchings were in the form of desires.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife
\nasserts herself and expands on the crest of desire. Her innate nature
\nof self-affirmation and self-enlargement first expresses itself as
\ndesire.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Absorbed
\nshe Dreamed<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nstrength in her yearning for sun and light
Felt not the embrace
\nthat made her breathe and live;
Absorbed she dreamed content with
\nbeauty and hue. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nLife
\nyearned and strained for the light and heat of the sun but in the
\nvery intensity of her seeking, she failed to feel palpably the
\nresponse that enabled her to exist. She was wrapt in herself. She was
\nabsorbed in the beauty and the colour of her forms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Became
\nConscious<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nlast the charmed Immensity looked forth:
Astir, vibrant,
\nhungering, she groped for mind;
Then slowly sense quivered and
\nthought peered out;
She forced the reluctant mould to grow aware.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHowever,
\nat long last, this self-absorbed expanse of life stirred, began to
\nvibrate and look for something more, something to guide it, the Mind.
\nLife sought for Mind. A kind of sense came to life and thought was
\nborn. With this advent of thought in her being, life was able to
\ncompel her encasing material form which was obstinately unconscious
\nto become aware, to grow conscious.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Magic
\nof Conscious Form<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nmagic was chiselled of a conscious form;
Its tranced vibrations
\nrhythmed a quick response,
And luminous stirrings prompted brain
\nand nerve, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmaterial form that was not conscious so far came into a state of
\nconsciousness. Its vibrations that were mechanical before took on the
\ncharacter of conscious response; they now reflected an awareness and
\nan instant reaction to impacts. The nerves and the brain were
\nimpelled to movements that were conscious; they were no more
\nreflex-centres of unconscious activity from below.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Matter
\nAwoke to Spirit’s Identity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAwoke
\nin Matter spirit\u2019s identity
And in a body lit the miracle
Of
\nthe heart\u2019s love and the soul\u2019s witness-gaze. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMatter
\nawoke to the fact that it was one with the Spirit. In Matter an
\nawareness grew that it was not other than Spirit but that both were
\nreally one; they were two faces of the same Reality. Further, the
\nphysical body was filled with the love flowing out from the awakened
\nheart within. The soul emerged from behind the veil and cast a
\nwitnessing gaze on the movements of nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWith
\nthe outbreak of consciousness, all came to be informed by and lit
\ninto a new life. Nerve and brain thrilled into conscious response,
\nthe heart flowed out in characteristic waves of love, the soul stood
\nforth calm and serene with its seeing look, the material frame grew
\naware of its oneness with the indwelling Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Impulse
\nto Become<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nImpelled
\nby an unseen Will there could break out
Fragments of some vast
\nimpulse to become
And vivid glimpses of a secret self, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThere
\nwas a general push for things to form themselves individually and
\nmove into action. It was the result of a sustained impulsion from a
\ngreater Will behind. There was not only a forming activity outward,
\nthere were also revelations inward of a Self within. Each was the
\nbecoming of a being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAnd
\nthe doubtful seeds and force of shapes to be
Awoke from the
\ninconscient swoon of things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHitherto
\nall was, as it were, in a swoon of the sleep of inconscience. Now
\nerupted many movements of becoming, of taking form. But these
\nbecomings were not definite. Neither their potency nor their
\neffectuating force was adequate to ensure certain results.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Animal
\nCreation<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nanimal creation crept and ran
And flew and called between the
\nearth and sky,
Hunted by death but hoping still to live
And
\nglad to breathe if only for a while. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nanimal creation took form. Birds and beasts filled the earth and the
\nsky with their movements. Their life was perpetually threatened by
\ndeath in some form or other, from one quarter or another, but still
\nthey clung to living with a zest and hoped to survive every danger.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThen
\nman was moulded from the original brute. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nA
\nthinking mind had come to lift life\u2019s moods,
A keen-edged tool
\nof a Nature mixed and vague,
An intelligence half-witness,
\nhalf-machine. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThen
\nfollowed man developed from a cruder being between the animal and the
\nhuman type. He was characterised by a mind that could think and so
\ncould elevate the state of life from its common, mechanical and
\ninstinctive modes. This thinking mind was the sharp instrument of
\nevolving Nature\u2014composed of elements both high and low, definite
\nand indefinite\u2014for achieving a mode of conscious evolution. Like
\nits creator, Nature, this mind also was mixed in its elements: it was
\npartly involved in the operations of Nature and partly aloof,
\nobservant, partly mechanical in its own workings under the force of
\nphysical and life-impulses, partly directive in its intelligence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Master-Spring<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nseeming driver of her wheel of works
Missioned to motive and
\nrecord her drift
And fix its law on her inconstant powers,
This
\nmaster-spring of a delicate enginery, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nthinking mind appears to direct the movements of Nature, but that is
\nhardly more than an appearance. It is itself largely driven by the
\nlower formulations of Nature, the physical and the vital, and it
\nremains so till it develops its individuality. It is, of course,
\nintended to develop into a power and an intelligence that will
\nmotivate the springs of Nature, chart out her course and impose its
\nown enlightened order on the erratic workings of her forces. When it
\ncomes into its own, it will prove to be the master-spring in the
\ndelicately designed mechanism of evolutionary Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Heaven’s
\nLight Mirrored a Face<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAspired
\nto enlighten its user and refine
Lifting to a vision of the
\nindwelling Power
The absorbed mechanic\u2019s crude initiative:
He
\nraised his eyes; Heaven-light mirrored a Face. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nmind sought to impart its light to the Nature that was using it and
\nto raise her unconscious and largely mechanical workings to a higher
\nlevel of awareness in the pattern imaged by the creative Spirit in
\nNature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nthinking creature that is man lifted up his head and looked upwards
\nto heaven instead of downwards to earth like other creatures. And
\nHeaven’s rays of Knowledge revealed an emerging Being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Act
\nby Conscious Rule<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAmazed
\nat the works wrought in her mystic sleep,
She looked upon the
\nworld that she had made:
Wondering now seized the great
\nautomaton;
She paused to understand her self and aim,
Pondering
\nshe learned to act by conscious rule,
A visioned measure guided
\nher rhythmic steps;
Thought bordered her instincts with a frame
\nof will
And lit with the idea her blinded urge. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWith
\nthe advent of the thinking mind, Nature had a full view of the mighty
\nwork that had been achieved so far even in her tranced condition. She
\nwas wonder-struck. She paused and tried to become aware of her own
\nbeing and know the aim before her. In the process of this
\nself-enquiry she learnt to function consciously\u2014not unconsciously
\nas before\u2014and her course was governed and led by what she
\nperceived. She no more moved and acted on instinct; thought erected a
\nmould of will around the instincts and all else that was unconscious,
\nthe unseeing urge was illumined by the idea grasped by thought.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Specious
\nImage of Self<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOn
\nher mass of impulses, her reflex acts,
On the Inconscient\u2019s
\npushed or guided drift
And mystery of unthinking accurate steps
\n
She stuck the specious image of a Self,
A living idol of
\ndisfigured spirit; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nshe impressed her conception of herself on her impulses, her
\nresultant acts, her nether, helpless, enforced movements; she started
\norganising them around this idea of the self which, however, was not
\nthe real self at all but a convincing simulacrum, a live but
\nmisshapen image of the indwelling Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Thinking
\nBody and Conscious Being<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOn
\nMatter\u2019s acts she imposed a patterned law;
She made a thinking
\nbody from chemic cells
And moulded a being out of a driven force.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nNature
\nimposed a regular law on the unpredictable movements in material
\ncreation. Out of physical cells she created a thinking organism. From
\nwhat was before a force driven involuntarily into action, she built
\nup an entity, a conscious being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Breath
\nof One Supreme<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo
\nbe what she was not inflamed her hope:
She turned her dream
\ntowards some high Unknown;
A breath was felt below of One
\nsupreme. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nNature
\nwas inspired by one motive: to become what she yet was not, fully
\nconscious, illuminated, free. She looked and directed her will
\ntowards the heights where she sensed some Reality still unknown.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nfresh air from the One Spirit, the Supreme above, wafted to the
\nfragmented creation below on earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Quick
\nCelestial Flashes<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nopening looked up to spheres above
And coloured shadows limned on
\nmortal ground
The passing figures of immortal things;
A quick
\ncelestial flash could sometimes come:
The illumined soul-ray fell
\non heart and flesh
And touched with semblances of ideal light
\n
The stuff of which our earthly dreams are made. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWith
\nthe stir of responsive vibrations from above, there came an opening
\nlooking upwards towards the higher planes of existence. From there
\nthe immortal truths native to those higher spheres cast their
\nvariegated shadows on earth. Sudden flashes from these worlds of
\nLight and Truth would sometimes descend on the physical and awake
\nnature on earth leaving behind impressions in the form of ideals.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nis from such truth-flashes as these that are formed the ideals and
\nthe dreams which inspire the upward effort of man.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Surface
\nGlamour<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nfragile human love that could not last,
Ego\u2019s moth-wings to
\nlift the seraph soul,
Appeared, a surface glamour of brief date
\n
Extinguished by a scanty breath of Time; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhen
\nman tried to translate these ideals into life, the first results were
\nlittle more than a parody. Instead of the eternal divine Love, all he
\ncould feel was a brittle self-centred human love that could not last
\nby its very nature. Instead of the pure self-surrendering aspiration
\nthat could waft the awakened soul to the heights of the Spirit, there
\nappeared the self-regarding flimsy ego to serve as the instrument and
\nthe vehicle for the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNo
\nreal formations in the true image of the revealed truths were made;
\nthey were only glittering appearances that went out of existence
\nafter a brief stay.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Passions
\nthat Crumble while they Blaze<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nJoy
\nthat forgot mortality for a while
Came, a rare visitor who left
\nbetimes,
And made all things seem beautiful for an hour,
Hopes
\nthat soon fade to drab realities
And passions that crumble to
\nashes while they blaze
Kindled the common earth with their brief
\nflame. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nSo
\ntoo appeared on the scene joy which temporarily put death out of
\nmind, joy which made everything seem lively and beautiful as long as
\nit lasted\u2014but that was not for long. Hopes sprang up only to be
\ndashed by the hard touch of reality and passions blazed brightening
\nlife with their fervour but they died in the very act of their
\nflaming.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Uplifted
\nby an Unknown Power<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\ncreature insignificant and small
Visited, uplifted by an unknown
\nPower,
Man laboured on his little patch of earth
For means to
\nlast, to enjoy, to suffer and die. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nUnder
\nthese conditions man strove on earth\u2014a small patch of Matter in the
\nvast multiple universe\u2014to live, to draw the enjoyment of life, to
\nwithstand the inevitable suffering before he was overcome by death.
\nTrue, he was a puny and weak creature compared with many other
\nspecimens of life stalking the earth, but he was upheld and helped by
\na greater Might that communicated with his being though it was not
\npatent to the outer eye.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Spirit
\nBehind the Form<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nspirit that perished not with the body and breath
Was there like
\na shadow of the Unmanifest
And stood behind the little personal
\nform
But claimed not yet this earthly embodiment. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nuplifting power was a presence, a spirit that stood behind the form.
\nIt did not end with the cessation of life in the body. It survived
\nit. Unseen yet effective, it was like a projection of the great
\nUnmanifest Reality. It held itself behind the forms of embodiment but
\ndid not assume control over them yet.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mighty
\nWitness within<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAssenting
\nto Nature\u2019s long slow-moving toil,
Watching the works of his
\nown ignorance,
Unknown, unfelt the mighty Witness lives
And
\nnothing shows the Glory that is here. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nspirit behind the form stations itself as a potent witness of all
\nthat is worked out by Nature in the embodiment. The ensouling spirit
\nallows Nature to proceed and build in her own leisurely way. It
\nwatches her workings and has as yet not enough knowledge and power to
\ninterfere. The Glory that is this spirit is not felt or known on the
\nsurface of the embodied life. It stays behind the veil.But all goes
\non because of the assent and the regard of this Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\nWisdom governing the mystic world,
A Silence listening to the cry
\nof Life,
It sees the hurrying crowd of moments stream
Towards
\nthe still greatness of a distant hour. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\nThe Spirit is there not merely as a witness. It is an active Wisdom
\ndirecting this world whose movements are beyond the fathomings of
\nreason. It is a fecund Silence attentive to the crying need of life.
\nIt watches the fleeting passage of Time confidently because it
\nperceives that it is moving towards a sure, immutable glory in the
\nfuture.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
In
\nthe Shadow of Inconscience<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nhuge world unintelligibly turns
In the shadow of a mused
\nInconscience;
It hides a key to inner meanings missed,
It
\nlocks in our hearts a voice we cannot hear. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmovements of this our vast world are mysteriously cast in the
\nambience of a tranced Inconscience which throws its shadow
\neverywhere. The real meaning of these movements is not patent because
\nthe key to them is hidden in the folds of this Inconscience. There is
\na guiding voice within each one of us, but we are unable to hear it
\nbecause it is sealed within the subconscient ranges of our being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Orchestrated
\nLife<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nenigmatic labour of the Spirit,
An exact machine of which none
\nknows the use,
An art and ingenuity without sense,
This
\nminute elaborate orchestrated life
For ever plays its motiveless
\nsymphonies. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThere
\nis here in life a mighty labour of the Spirit the significance of
\nwhich none is aware. There is also a prevision in the workings, an
\naesthetic appeal and a skill beyond analysis. Life is a huge
\norchestra, exact in detail, constantly producing spontaneous notes of
\nordered harmony, but it all seems senseless to man.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThe
\nmind learns and knows not, turning its back to truth;
It studies
\nsurface laws by surface thought,
Life\u2019s steps surveys and
\nNature\u2019s process sees,
Not seeing for what she acts or why we
\nlive; <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\nThe mind tries to learn and know the significance of life and the
\nworkings of Nature, but it does not succeed. For it looks in the
\nwrong direction. It is ever busy on the superficies of things,
\nanalysing only the surface process. It regards the movements of life
\nand views the ways of Nature but misses the purpose of it all, the
\nobjective of all life-movements.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nIt
\nmarks her tireless care of just device,
Her patient intricacy of
\nfine detail,
The ingenious spirit\u2019s brave inventive plan
In
\nher great futile mass of endless works, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmind observes the characteristic features of life in her workings:
\nthe ceaseless attention she pays to the shaping of her processes in
\ntheir exactness; the patience she displays in attending to the
\nminutest details of her machinery; the daring plan she conceives and
\npursues through all the endless exertions of her energies which seems
\nto end in futile works.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAdds
\npurposeful figures to her purposeless sum,
Its gabled storeys
\npiles, its climbing roofs
On the close-carved foundations she has
\nlaid,
Imagined citadels reared in mythic air
Or mounts a
\nstair of dream to a mystic moon: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOn
\nthe apparently meaningless efforts of life, the mind goes on to erect
\nits own deliberate edifices soaring upwards. These structures of the
\nmind built on the bases formed by life are largely of the stuff of
\nimagination with little basis in fact, or of dreams passing into
\nmystic images that transcend realities.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nTransient
\ncreations point and hit the sky:
A world-conjecture\u2019s scheme is
\nlaboured out
On the dim floor of mind\u2019s incertitude,
Or
\npainfully built a fragmentary whole. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmind is severely limited and uncertain of its grounds. The soaring
\nconstructions of its conjectural genius are consequently not lasting;
\nthey are transient in their very nature. Even when it succeeds in
\nbuilding something, the results of its hard labour are like its own
\nmode and working fragmentary. It takes parts for the whole and what
\nit erects are partial constructions.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Vast
\nPlan<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nImpenetrable,
\na mystery recondite
Is the vast plan of which we are a part;
Its
\nharmonies are discords to our view,
Because we know not the great
\ntheme they serve. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nworld-scheme, however, is based upon a basis other than that of the
\nmind. It has its own plan of vast proportions and its meaning is not
\npatent on the surface; it is difficult of access to the human mind
\nwhich therefore easily mistakes its nature. In the absence of a
\nperception of the true purpose of this creation, its contributory
\nharmonies are taken to be disharmonies.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nworld-creation has a definite purpose and all the nature-movements
\nserve that purpose. Even what appear to be discords to the limited
\nhuman mind are in truth harmonies building up the scheme. To one who
\nperceives this vast scheme, the real nature of these movements stands
\nrevealed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nInscrutable
\nwork the cosmic agencies. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOnly
\nthe fringe of a wide surge we see;
Our instruments have not that
\ngreater light,
Our will tunes not with the eternal Will,
Our
\nheart\u2019s sight is too blind and passionate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nworkings of the Cosmic Powers cannot be fathomed by the human
\nintelligence, man sees only the surface ends of their vast movement.
\nHis faculties lack that illumination which is needed to perceive
\ndeeper;<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nhis
\npuny will is not in tune with the Cosmic Will and therefore cannot
\nconsciously participate in its workings and know their direction; his
\nvision and his feelings are too self-centred and self-involved in
\ntheir intensity to enable him to go beyond them and look more widely.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Reason
\ncannot Sound<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nImpotent
\nto share in Nature\u2019s mystic tact,
Inapt to feel the pulse and
\ncore of things,
Our reason cannot sound life\u2019s mighty sea
And
\nonly counts its waves and scans its foam; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHuman
\nreason lacks the plasticity and the humility that are indispensable
\nto attain to the knowledge of Nature’s profounds. It cannot go beyond
\nthe limits of its logic and consequently it is shut out from most of
\nthe domain of life. It is busy only with some superficial movements
\non the surface of life, poring over them, analysing them and
\nconstructing theories on these inadequate bases. The truth of things
\nis deeper and it escapes the stretch of reason.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Reason
\ncannot Know or See<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nknows not whence these motions touch and pass,
It sees not
\nwhither sweeps the hurrying flood:
Only it strives to canalise
\nits powers
And hopes to turn its course to human ends:
But
\nall its means come from the Inconscient\u2019s store. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHuman
\nreason does not really know the source and the goal of the mighty
\nmovements of life-nature. Yet it tries to regulate the flow of these
\nenergies and turn them to serve the objectives of man. But this is a
\nvain attempt. Further the instruments available to this reason to
\nachieve its purpose are defective; they are vitiated by the nature of
\ntheir source which is the Inconscient. Whether it is vision or will
\nor thought or feeling, all are rooted in the ancient sprawling
\nInconscience.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unseen
\nAct Huge Energies<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nUnseen
\nhere act dim huge world-energies
And only trickles and currents
\nare our share. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\ncreation is the field of many kinds of energies, small and huge,
\npatent and unseen. The greater energies mostly act from behind the
\nveil and men come to know of their action only when their results
\ncome to the surface. What comes normally within the human ken are
\nonly a few trickles, a few wavelets of the great waters of cosmic
\nenergies that are aflow.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our
\nMind Far from Light<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nmind lives far off from the authentic Light
Catching at little
\nfragments of the Truth,
In a small corner of infinity, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmind, as it is, is far removed from the light of Knowledge. It is an
\ninstrument of ignorance trying to acquire the knowledge of the Truth
\nand what little it can grasp can be only tiny fragments of the Truth
\nwhich it mistakes for the whole. Its light is phoney, its knowledge,
\na piecemeal construction. Its field, moreover, is severely limited;
\nit is confined to a small section of the vast universe manageable by
\nits reason and logic. Beyond that it cannot range.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our
\nLife an Inlet of an Ocean<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nlives are inlets of an ocean’s force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nwhole universe is the field of a mighty Life-Force which flows
\neverywhere. There is no limit to the power and the range of this
\nCosmic Force of Life which is a projection of the infinite
\nChit-Shakti. But in man the life-force is limited and therefore weak.
\nThis is so because, though in its innate nature it is unlimited, it
\nis here shut up within the walls of his separative ego and it has to
\nfunction as if it were a distinct force separate from the general
\nLife-Force. It is a small current of the sea of the Universal Life
\nconfined to the individual formation. Till the walls that dam it are
\nbroken down and it becomes free to be one with its parent ocean, it
\nis necessarily limited and weak.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Sealed
\nOrigins<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nconscious movements have sealed origins
But with those shadowy
\nseats no converse hold;
No understanding binds our comrade parts;
\n
Our acts emerge from a crypt our minds ignore. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan
\nthinks that he acts by his own free will. But it is not so in fact.
\nAll his movements and acts of consequence, done consciously, are
\nreally inspired from sources of which he is not aware and with which
\nhe is not in dialogue. He has parts in his being which he knows but
\nvaguely. He is awake only in a few parts and there is no
\nco-ordination between the little that constitutes his wakeful being
\nand the large tracts that are subliminal to it. The origins of most
\nof his acts lie in these parts of which he is not normally conscious.
\nThey are concealed from his surface mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unseen
\nRoots of Mind and Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\ndeepest depths are ignorant of themselves;
Even our body is a
\nmystery shop;
As our earth\u2019s roots lurk screened below our
\nearth,
So lie unseen our roots of mind and life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan
\nis not aware of the depths of his being. There are belts of his
\nconsciousness which are sub-conscient and inconscient. There is in
\nthem no self-awareness. Even the physical body which is apparently an
\nopen book has features that are not materially explicable. The
\nelement of consciousness introduces an unpredictable factor in it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nin the case of the earth, the roots of the mind and life of man are
\nbelow the surface, veiled from external vision. What takes place in
\nthe outer and visible life of man has its origins below the surface
\nexterior.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Powers
\nBehind the Wall<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nsprings are kept close hid beneath, within;
Our souls are moved
\nby powers behind the wall. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThus
\nthe springs of the activities of man are really within himself, and
\nnot in the outside world as it would appear at first sight. His
\nworthwhile thoughts and life-impulsions are mostly inspired from
\nlevels of his being which are not patent on the surface and of which
\nhe is not normally conscious. Behind the walls of exterior nature,
\nbehind the veils of ignorance, there are powers that work within.
\nThey are not limited and confined to the outer instrumentation as the
\nmore external faculties are. They are larger in range, more effective
\nand in contact with the universal Powers. It is these powers that
\nimpel the significant movements of man.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Puissance
\nin the Subterranean Reaches<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe subterranean reaches of the spirit
A puissance acts and recks
\nnot what it means;
Using unthinking monitors and scribes,
It
\nis the cause of what we think and feel. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nspirit that ensouls the body is spread all through, behind the
\nexternal front, above and below the physical ends. It extends below
\nthe layers of the physical consciousness even as it extends beyond
\nthe mental reaches. There in the depths below the material grounds is
\nan active Power of the spirit which operates spontaneously without
\nhaving to mentalise its processes. It uses channels and faculties
\nthat function instinctively and carry the impress of impulses and
\nmovements mechanically, as for example the nerves and sub-conscient
\nlayers of consciousness. The origin of man’s feelings and thinkings
\nlies in that Power in the depths of the being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Troglodytes
\nof the Subconscious Mind<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\ntroglodytes of the subconscious Mind,
Ill-trained slow stammering
\ninterpreters,
Only of their small task\u2019s routine aware
And
\nbusy with the record in our cells,
Concealed in the subliminal
\nsecrecies
Mid an obscure occult machinery,
Capture the mystic
\nMorse whose measured lilt
Transmits the messages of the cosmic
\nForce. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nsubconscious mind serves as a powerful channel and instrument for the
\naction of the cosmic Force in man. Concealed below the conscious
\nlayers of the mind, it is ever busy registering the impressions of
\nthe waking or semi-waking experiences, thoughts and feelings. It is
\nalways moving in its small rounds mechanically repeating its
\noperations. It is an important part of the mechanism of nature and it
\nalways lies open to the influences and impacts of the Universal
\nNature around. It renders them into personal terms, though
\ninadequately, long after they have been received and absorbed in its
\nown stuff.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A
\nWhisper Falls<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nwhisper falls into life\u2019s inner ear
And echoes from the dun
\nsubconscient caves,
Speech leaps, thought quivers, the heart
\nvibrates, the will
Answers and tissue and nerve obey the call.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nUnknown
\nto the wakeful man, his subtler being receives a vibration, a
\nsuggestion from the universal Force. It is at once picked up by the
\nabsorbent subconscious elements in their obscure regions below the
\nwaking levels and from there the impulse comes up and moves the
\nspeech, the thought, the heart; the will responds and an automatic
\naction in the physical machinery of nerve and cell follows.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nMan
\nthinks it is all his own volition.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our
\nLives Translate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nlives translate these subtle intimacies;
All is the commerce of a
\nsecret Power. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nSuch
\ncommunications received beneath the surface exterior, unknown to the
\nwaking mind, are rendered into life sooner or later. The life of man
\nis really informed, moved and filled with the operations of this
\noccult Power in cosmic Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mind
\na Thinking Puppet<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nthinking puppet is the mind of life:
Its choice is the work of
\nelemental strengths
That know not their own birth and end and
\ncause
And glimpse not the immense intent they serve. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmind imagines it works all by itself. In truth, however, it is only a
\npuppet, albeit a thinking puppet, moved by life and its forces. The
\nmind appears to decide, to make its choice; but its choice is really
\nimpelled by stronger agents, the elements and forces of life. These
\nforces too act unaware of their own origin, their purpose and the
\nintention of Nature which they subserve.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man,
\na Conscious Doll<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthis nether life of man drab-hued and dull,
Yet filled with
\npoignant small ignoble things,
The conscious Doll is pushed a
\nhundred ways
And feels the push but not the hands that drive.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nthis level of his existence where the mind is completely controlled
\nand driven by the life-forces, man is little more than a doll that is
\nalive. His life is dull, mechanical and full of petty happenings in
\ntheir small rounds. He is pushed round and he moves where he is
\npushed but is not aware from where the driving impulsions come.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man,
\na Marionette<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFor
\nnone can see the masked ironic troupe
To whom our figure-selves
\nare marionettes,
Our deeds unwitting movements in their grasp,
\n
Our passionate strife an entertainment\u2019s scene. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nTo
\nthese agents that impel and control the movements of man, themselves
\nunseen, the surface-man is little more than a puppet worked by their
\nstrings. His actions are in truth effected by them; his passions and
\nhis struggles only provide them with amusement. They play with man at
\ntheir will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Agents
\nof Darkness<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIgnorant
\nthemselves of their own fount of strength
They play their part in
\nthe enormous Whole. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAgents
\nof darkness imitating light,
Spirits obscure and moving things
\nobscure,
Unwillingly they serve a mightier Power. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nentities that pull the strings do not know that they themselves are
\nonly agents and their power is derived from a source of which they
\nare ignorant. They are instruments of darkness though they simulate
\nto be the hosts of light. Themselves obscure, they operate in a field
\nthat is dimly visible. But, all the same, their activities serve some
\npurpose in this meaningful creation. Though they do not mean to do
\nso, their doings contribute in the long run to the furtherance of the
\nobject of the great Power that is at work in the universe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nin this cosmos serves the Purpose of the Creative Spirit, including
\nthe opposite elements of darkness and their agents.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Tools
\nof the Unknown<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnanke\u2019s
\nengines organising Chance,
Channels perverse of a stupendous
\nWill,
Tools of the Unknown who use us as their tools, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMany
\nof the happenings in this world appear as if they were merely chance
\noccurrences. But in fact they are brought about by circumstances and
\nelements which\u2014however deceptive and misleading in their appearance
\nare the instruments of a mighty Will. These agents that use men as
\ntheir tools are themselves tools of a Power of which they are not
\naware.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis really no chance in this vast ordered Creation. Chance is merely a
\nname for situations that are unforeseen or inexplicable to the
\nintelligence of man, but which, nevertheless, are steps ordained in
\nthe workings of the Creative Will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Bringing
\nIncoherences of Fate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInvested
\nwith Power in Nature\u2019s nether state,
Into the actions mortals
\nthink their own
They bring the incoherences of Fate, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMen
\nplan and act. But they are surprised when the results are quite
\ndifferent from their expectations because of the interference of
\nthese unseen agents who act with impunity in the lower states of
\nconsciousness. They have been empowered to do so by the presiding
\nWill which effectuates itself through them when the human mind is
\neither too weak or unwilling to fulfil the wider purpose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFate
\nis only a name for the working of a higher Will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Tossing
\nthe Lives of Men<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nmake a doom of Time\u2019s slipshod caprice
And toss the lives of
\nmen from hand to hand
In an inconsequent and devious game.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOr
\nthey play with men. They use men as playthings and amuse themselves
\nfrittering away human lives in the process. That is how many men are
\nfound to achieve nothing worthwhile in their lives which they are
\nmade to spend either too fast or too slowly; for such men time
\nappears too rapid or too leisurely\u2014in either case their lives are
\nhelplessly swallowed up by the Devourer.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Rebels
\nagainst Higher Truth<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAgainst
\nall higher Truth their stuff rebels;
Only to Titan force their
\nwill lies prone. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nInordinate
\ntheir hold on human hearts,
In all our nature\u2019s turns they
\nintervene. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThese
\nagents active in the nether state of Nature are always in revolt
\nagainst the higher Truth. They are servile only to the brute Force of
\nthe Asura who has set himself against the Divine Truth. They have a
\nstrong hold on human nature, its sources of feelings and like
\nmovements, and they constantly interfere with and influence the
\nactivities of man as they choose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Engineers
\nof Interest and Desire<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInsignificant
\narchitects of low-built lives
And engineers of interest and
\ndesire,
Out of crude earthiness and muddy thrills
And coarse
\nreactions of material nerve
They build our huddled structures of
\nself-will
And the ill-lighted mansions of our thought, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThey
\nplay a great part in the shaping of the ordinary and lowly lived
\nlife. Their main profession, as it were, is to specialise in the
\nformation and promotion of interest in worldly objects and desire for
\nthem.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWith
\nthese means they proceed to build out of the first crude responses of
\nmaterial nature edifices of self-will profuse and disorderly and also
\nmansions of thought insufficiently lit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThey
\nluxuriate in material grossness, chaotic assertions of the vital and
\nobscurities of the mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Ego’s
\nFactorie<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nwith the ego\u2019s factories and marts
Surround the beautiful
\ntemple of the soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nthis is the worst they do: they promote the formation and growth of
\nthe ego. The narrow self-regarding spirit of egoism infects all the
\nmovements of nature and vulgarises them. These ugly crudities of the
\nego surround the soul within, smother as it were its elements of
\nbeauty, harmony and peace. The temple of the soul is lost to view
\namidst the crowding structures of the ego.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Artists
\nof Littleness<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nArtists
\nminute of the hues of littleness,
They set the mosaic of Life\u2019s
\ncomedy
Or plan the trivial tragedy of our days,
Arrange the
\ndeed, combine the circumstance
And the fantasia of the moods
\ncostume. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThey
\nare, as it were, artists who create the numerous shades of smallness;
\nthey stamp their pettiness on every movement of human nature. They
\nmake of life either a variegated comedy or a little tragedy of no
\nreal consequence. Either way, it is these who plan the action of the
\ndrama of life, assemble the participants of circumstances, and weave
\nthe costumes of changing moods.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unwise
\nPrompter<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThese
\nunwise prompters of man\u2019s ignorant heart
And tutors of his
\nstumbling speech and will,
Movers of petty wraths and lusts and
\nhates
And changeful thoughts and shallow emotion\u2019s starts,
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThey
\nhave a field day as long as man is undeveloped and confined to the
\nlower stages of the human. In this drama of life, themselves bereft
\nof right knowings, they prompt his ignorant feelings, impel his
\nunsteady will and speech, excite him into his little angers, hatreds
\nand passions, direct his thoughts from one vague idea to another and
\nwhip up in him waves of superficial emotions.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Illusion-Makers<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThese
\nslight illusion-makers with their masks,
Painters of the decor of
\na dull-hued stage
And nimble scene-shifters of the human play,
\n
Ever are busy with this ill-lit scene. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThey
\nact under several guises and are clever in producing quick illusory
\nsituations. They brighten up artificially the dull and drab stage of
\nthis ignorant life, cleverly introducing variety and novelty. They
\nare ever occupied conducting the human play on this obscure stage of
\nlife.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Men
\nas Actors<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOurselves
\nincapable to build our fate
Only as actors speak and strut our
\nparts
Until the piece is done and we pass off
Into a brighter
\nTime and subtler Space. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nthis stage men are hardly capable of deciding on their own. They are
\nmore like actors in a play, speaking and acting their parts as
\nprompted from behind by these agents of ignorance and obscurity And
\nit is only after their roles are played that they move off the stage
\nof this dim and gross existence and pass into the brighter and
\nsubtler realms beyond.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Pigmy
\nLaw<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThus
\nthey inflict their little pigmy law
And curb the mounting slow
\nuprise of man,
Then his too scanty walk with death they close.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nis the way they impose their petty modes and moulds on the life of
\nman. They act as agents of restriction, hold him back in his labour
\nof development and evolutionary ascent and try to keep him ever their
\nhelpless plaything. And once his all-too-brief permitted innings are
\nplayed, they remove him from the scene.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Ephemeral
\nCreature’s Daily Life (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nis the ephemeral creature\u2019s daily life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAs
\nlong as the human animal is lord
And a dense nether nature
\nscreens the soul, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nSuch
\nis the petty round of man’s life as long as he is content to be ruled
\nby the nether elements of Nature. As long as the animal in him\u2014his
\ndesires, passions, blind movements is the dominant factor and his
\nobscure, obstinately ignorant nature is allowed to wall in the
\nindwelling soul a source of light, power and freedom\u2014and thus
\neffectively prevent its emergence into life, man continues to be
\nconfined to his small tether.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Ephemeral
\nCreature’s Daily Life (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nlong as intellect\u2019s outward-gazing sight
Serves earthy interest
\nand creature joys,
An incurable littleness pursues his days,
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmind of the common man is turned outward. The doors of his perception
\nare set outward, says the Scripture. He always tends to gaze outward
\ntowards the objects of his senses and seize upon his perceptions to
\nserve his little physical and sensational pleasures. His interests,
\nhis preoccupations are external and move only on the surface of life;
\nhis real being lies unnoticed and neglected within himself. As long
\nas this is so, man turns round and round in his small circle of
\nfutile living.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nEver
\nsince consciousness was born on earth,
Life is the same in
\ninsect, ape and man,
Its stuff unchanged, its way the common
\nroute. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nhas been the pattern of life ever since consciousness became
\narticulate on earth. There is practically little to distinguish the
\nlife of the common man from that of the insect or the animal; all are
\nlost in securing the fulfilment of their immediate creature needs.
\nAnd the way of all is the same: the outward gaze through the senses
\nand the exertion of faculties on the nether field of nature for
\nself-satisfaction.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Plot
\nMean and Poor<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIf
\nnew designs, if richer details grow
And thought is added and more
\ntangled cares,
If little by little it wears a brighter face,
\n
Still even in man the plot is mean and poor. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAs
\nlife develops in its organisation, more and more features begin to be
\nseen; it flows in more patterns, takes on varying hues. Thinking
\nbecomes more conscious and prominent but with this thinking come
\ncomplications of cares and anxieties. There is a gradual but
\nunmistakable brightening of the general appearance of life with this
\nincrease of the element of consciousness, and yet, even in man, the
\nhighest evolved being, the scheme is not raised to a higher level.
\nLife continues to be played in the lower plains of nature though it
\nmay be more extended in range and more filled in detail.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Gross
\nContent<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\ngross content prolongs his fallen state;
His small successes are
\nfailures of the soul,
His little pleasures punctuate frequent
\ngriefs:
Hardship and toil are the heavy price he pays
For the
\nright to live and his last wages death. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\nthis low state man is preoccupied with his gross needs and desires
\nand their satisfactions. Each petty success in this direction plunges
\nhim deeper in his obsession and leads him away from the call of the
\nsoul within. Life is strenuous and disappointments and failures are
\noften his lot though the small joys he wins in the process keep him
\nhopeful and going. And for the right to live this brief life before
\ndeath overtakes him, man has to pay heavily in toil and suffering.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
His
\nRepose in Inertia and Sleep<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn
\ninertia sunk towards inconscience,
A sleep that imitates death is
\nhis repose. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nEven
\nthe relaxation, the rest that man is allowed by this nether nature in
\nthe course of his hard exertions is no real recuperative pause at
\nall. Man yields to inertia which pulls him down towards total
\nunconsciousness. He is overpowered by sleep in which he loses
\nawareness of himself and, for all practical purposes, ceases to be.
\nHe sinks down from the state of self-consciousness that he has
\nattained to the lower depths of semi-consciousness and
\nunconsciousness. He regresses downward.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man’s
\nSpur to Works<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\npuny splendour of creative force
Is made his spur to fragile
\nhuman works
Which yet outlast their brief creator\u2019s breath.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWith
\nall these constrictions, man does achieve something. That is because
\na little jet of the Creative Force at work in the Universe moves him
\nto strive and toil. Also what he succeeds in achieving though tenuous
\nlasts longer and has its effects over a period farther than that of
\nhis life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Sees
\nthe Dionysian Gesture Pass<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ndreams sometimes of the revels of the gods
And sees the Dionysian
\ngesture pass,\u2014
A leonine greatness that would tear his soul
If
\nthrough his failing limbs and fainting heart
The sweet and joyful
\nmighty madness swept: <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\nMan gets sometimes a glimpse into the riotous and intense activities
\nof beings greater than himself\u2014the gods with their intoxicating
\ngusts of strength and delight. But his limbs are unable to support
\ntheir action and should such a rapturous intensity flow into him, he
\nwould surely break down. He lets the mighty frenzy pass.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Trivial
\nAmusements<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTrivial
\namusements stimulate and waste
The energy given to him to grow
\nand be. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHis
\nlittle hour is spent in little things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan
\nis indeed given by Nature sufficient energy wherewith to live
\nusefully, to develop himself in the way of evolutionary progress. In
\nfact that energy is a force that grows with proper utilisation. But
\nhe fails to put it to the right use. He fritters it away in petty and
\nslight occupations that provide him with amusement instead of drawing
\nupon it for the purpose for which it is given him. The span of life
\nallotted to him is brief and even that brief opportunity he wastes in
\ninconsequential things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man’s
\nHeart-Plan<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nbrief companionship with many jars,
A little love and jealousy
\nand hate,
A touch of friendship mid indifferent crowds
Draw
\nhis heart-plan on life\u2019s diminutive map. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nthis is his pattern of life in its small proportions. He associates
\nhimself with many but almost always these associations are of brief
\nduration; they do not last long. His life is characterised by the
\nall-too-human movements of self-regarding love for those who serve
\nhis interests, hatred for those who oppose them and jealousy against
\nothers who are better placed than himself. The men he is thrown with
\nare all concerned with themselves and care precious little for him;
\nit is with some of these that he seeks to cultivate friendship which,
\nneedless to say, is rarely more than skin-deep.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Too
\nFrail his Pitch<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIf
\nsomething great awakes, too frail his pitch
To reveal its zenith
\ntension of delight,
His thought to eternise its ephemeral soar,
\n
Art\u2019s brilliant gleam is a pastime for his eyes,
A thrill
\nthat smites the nerves is music\u2019s spell. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nEven
\nif he is moved from within by a greater impulsion, his
\ninstrumentation is too inadequate for its full expression in its
\nrightful joy of manifestation; his thought cannot hold its flight for
\nlong. Art serves him merely as a source of visual delectation, not as
\nan interpretation of the Infinite, linking him with a greater
\nReality. So too music is only a means of sensational pleasure for
\nhim, not a means to capture the harmonies of the universal rhythms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAmidst
\nhis harassed toil and welter of cares,
Pressed by the labour of
\nhis crowding thoughts,
He draws sometimes around his aching brow
\n
Nature\u2019s calm mighty hands to heal his life-pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHe
\nis saved by her silence from his rack of self;
In her tranquil
\nbeauty is his purest bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWith
\npuny resources, which are all that are available in his surface
\nexistence, man has to struggle and labour hard to make any headway in
\nlife. He is weighed down by fears and anxieties, tossed about by his
\nrestless mind. At times he seeks succour at the sure hands of Mother
\nNature in his travail. She draws him into the folds of her deeper
\nsilence freeing him from the obsessive preoccupations with his outer
\nself. He learns to find and derive pure joy from Nature’s beauty in
\nrepose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Spirits
\nBreath<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nnew life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide;
The Spirit\u2019s
\nbreath moves him but soon retires:
His strength was not made to
\nhold that puissant guest. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAll
\ndulls down to convention and routine <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhen
\nman thus puts himself in tune with Nature, he begins to live anew;
\nhis life expands itself and his vision is enlarged. With this
\nself-enlargement he opens to the action of the greater Spirit from
\nwhich he had shut himself so far by staying confined to the closed
\ncircle of his creature-self. But this action does not continue long
\nenough, for he cannot support it, cannot sustain its presence for
\nlong. His system is not used to that powerful charge and it withdraws
\nafter a while. As a reaction he sinks back into inertia; the little
\nadvance he has made as a result of the higher influx loses its
\nlife-spirit and things become mechanical; they petrify into habit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Fierce
\nExcitement<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\na fierce excitement brings him vivid joys:
His days are tinged
\nwith the red hue of strife
And lust\u2019s hot glare and passion\u2019s
\ncrimson stain;
Battle and murder are his tribal game. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nSometimes
\na new experience brings about a great excitement and under its drive
\nhe indulges in movements of uncontrollable desire, passion, violence
\nand similar intensities that bring him sharp vital satisfactions. Man
\nloses his balance; his old primitive nature asserts itself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Self
\nLost<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTime
\nhas he none to turn his eyes within
And look for his lost self
\nand his dead soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nvert.
\nHis vision is outward and he loses the awareness of his real self
\nwithin. He does not think at all, much less look for his soul the
\ntrue centre of his being\u2014and for all practical purposes the soul
\nlies ineffective behind the veiling exterior.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Motion
\nSlow<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nmotion on too short an axis wheels;
He cannot soar but creeps on
\nhis long road
Or if, impatient of the trudge of Time,
He
\nwould make a splendid haste on Fate\u2019s slow road,
His heart that
\nruns soon pants and tires and sinks;
Or he walks ever on and
\nfinds no end. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan’s
\nlife-movement is too narrow and his pace naturally slow. He is tied
\ndown to his physical terrain. Because of all his handicaps, he cannot
\nhasten on his way. He moves or allows himself to be moved only
\nslowly. Even if some impulse\u2014desire, enthusiasm, eagerness\u2014drives
\nhim to go fast, his nature soon tires, his energies get exhausted and
\nhis journey comes to a halt. Or he walks on and on, at his own slow
\npace, only to find the road endless.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Hardly
\na Few can Climb<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHardly
\na few can climb to greater life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAll
\ntunes to a low scale and conscious pitch. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nis so for most men. Life is set in a low key and moves in small
\ngrooves at a pace that is slow and halting. It is only a few that
\ndare and succeed in lifting themselves above the common run and build
\nup a wider and a higher life with meaningful results.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man’s
\nLimitations<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nknowledge dwells in the house of Ignorance;
His force nears not
\neven once the Omnipotent,
Rare are his visits of heavenly
\necstasy. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\ncommon man remains in his station and performs his mechanical rounds
\nas well or as badly as he can with his equipment which is imperfect
\nin every way. The knowledge that guides and leads him is only a
\nproduct of his native ignorance; the force that works to execute his
\nwill is limited on every side and weak; his moments of blissful joy
\nare too few and far between; the rare pleasures he gets are always
\nshadowed by pain and are too weak to last.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThe
\nbliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake,
Breaks out in him
\nin a small joy of life:
This scanty grace is his persistent stay;
\n
It lightens the burden of his many ills
And reconciles him to
\nhis little world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\nthis Creation there is a Bliss, \u0101nanda, underlying all things in
\nexistence. It is because of this Bliss within that their existence is
\npossible. But one is not normally conscious of it; it flows on levels
\nof being that are not yet awake in active life. It tries to reach the
\nconscious levels but succeeds only in projecting jets of joy, slender
\nand brief. These, however, leaven man’s days and provide him with the
\nneeded incentive to live on in spite of the many hardships and
\nstruggles that beset his life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nMan
\nhas the will to be because of this underlying Bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man
\nSatisfied<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nis satisfied with his common average kind;
Tomorrow\u2019s hopes and
\nhis old rounds of thought,
His old familiar interests and desires
\n
He has made a thick and narrowing hedge
Defending his small
\nlife from the Invisible; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan
\nis content with the kind and level of life that he leads. He shuts
\nhimself within the narrow round of his accustomed desires, hopes and
\nthoughts and makes no attempt to enlarge or uplift his living. He
\nmanages to keep at bay the universal currents of expansion and
\nprogress by erecting around himself walls of inertia, habit and small
\nroutine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Shut
\nfrom Infinity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nbeing\u2019s kinship to infinity
He has shut away from him into
\ninmost self,
Fenced off the greatnesses of hidden God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nyet even this limited man has a relation, a contact with the
\nInfinite. Only he is not aware of it in his conscious life. That
\ninnate point of contact is the soul which is effectively hidden under
\nthe many veils of ignorance woven by the movements of his nature. In
\nthe depths of his being, concealed, lies a Glory separated by
\nunbridged gulfs from his active awareness. Man’s extrovert and narrow
\nmodes of life prevent him from awaking to the existence of this
\npresence and power within himself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A
\nTrivial Part on a Petty Stage<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nbeing was formed to play a trivial part
In a little drama on a
\npetty stage;
In a narrow plot he has pitched his tent of life
\n
Beneath the wide gaze of the starry Vast. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nlife of this man is so superficial, so confined, so mechanical that
\nit is like a small part played in a small play on a small stage. His
\nbeing seems designed for just that petty role. Everything about him
\nis narrow\u2014his range, his action, his interests. And yet the setting
\nfor his petty drama is the vasts of the Infinite\u2014around, above,
\nwithin.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Man
\nthe Crown of Creation’s Labour<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nis the crown of all that has been done:
Thus is creation\u2019s
\nlabour justified;
This is the world\u2019s result, Nature\u2019s last
\npoise! <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan
\nis the highest result achieved by Nature in evolutionary labour so
\nfar. In him, a self-conscious being with a self-directing Will, all
\nthe previous apparently meandering course of the creative effort of
\nNature has culminated and justified itself. The long line of
\nunconscious evolution has at last ended in man who marks the change
\ninto conscious evolution. But is this the last step of Nature? Is
\nman, such as he is, the final goal?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Is
\nhe the Goal?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nif this were all and nothing more were meant,
If what now seems
\nwere the whole of what must be,
If this were not a stade through
\nwhich we pass
On our road from Matter to eternal Self,
To the
\nLight that made the worlds, the Cause of things, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nObviously
\nnot. This puny, ignorant and ineffective creature that is man can
\nhardly be the supreme objective for which Nature has laboured across
\nthe aeons. Man is a stage\u2014albeit a decisive stage in the conversion
\nof creative evolution from its character of unconscious activity to
\nthe conscious, a junction in the long road of the ascent of Nature
\nfrom the nescience and obscurity of Matter to the super-conscience
\nand the luminous Reality of the Spirit which is the true origin of
\nall. That goal is still to be arrived at. Man represents the
\nmid-station between Matter and Spirit, the two termini of the journey
\nof manifesting Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mind’s
\nLimited View<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWell
\nmight interpret our mind\u2019s limited view
Existence as an
\naccident in Time,
Illusion or phenomenon or freak,
The
\nparadox of a creative Thought
Which moves between unreal
\nopposites,
Inanimate Force struggling to feel and know,
Matter
\nthat chanced to read itself by Mind,
Inconscience monstrously
\nengendering soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIf
\nthe mortal, limited creature that is man were the last term of
\nNature’s labour, then the superficial view of the world that the
\nhuman mind is apt to take may well be right. To such a view, all here
\nis a domain of death, and life is an accident, an aberration, a
\ntemporary formation that is liable to be extinguished at any moment.
\nThe world is the uncertain creation of a Mind that moves between two
\nblanks on either side of its consciousness\u2014the nescience below and
\nthe vacancy beyond the highest thought. It is a field in which a
\nmaterial and mechanical Force is striving to grow into awareness, in
\nwhich an informing Mind has somehow come to be in the body of Matter
\nand out of inconscience has emerged the contradiction of a conscious
\nbeing, the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
All
\nLooks Unreal<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\ntimes all looks unreal and remote:
We seem to live in a fiction
\nof our thoughts
Pieced from sensation\u2019s fanciful traveller\u2019s
\ntale,
Or caught on the film of the recording brain,
A figment
\nor circumstance in cosmic sleep. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThere
\nare times when the whole world appears to be meaningless and
\nillusory; if there be some objective at all it is so far removed from
\nthe present as to be practically unreachable. The world seems to be
\nlittle more than a fictitious pattern woven by the mind on the lying
\nreports of the senses. Or it looks as if it were just an impression
\nleft on the brain by some movement or incident in the universal spell
\nof Inconscience.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A
\nSomnambulist Walks<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nsomnambulist walking under the moon,
An image of ego treads
\nthrough an ignorant dream
Counting the moments of a spectral
\nTime. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIt
\nis a picture of unsubstantiality. Man goes through life like a
\nsleepwalker, helplessly, without a will and direction of his own. Not
\nhis real self, but a simulacrum of it, his ego, paces across this
\nstretch of dream in Ignorance, haunted by the all-seizing hands of
\nTime.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Drift
\nIncessant<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\na false perspective of effect and cause,
Trusting to a specious
\nprospect of world-space,
It drifts incessantly from scene to
\nscene,
Whither it knows not, to what fabulous verge. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nMan’s
\nunderstanding of the process and course of things that governs his
\nmovements is not true; it is topsy-turvy. He is misled by rosy
\nappearances of the prospects spread before him. His life moves from
\nchange to change without respite, without any willed direction,
\ntowards an end it knows not.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
All
\nLooks a Dream<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nhere is dreamed or doubtfully exists,
But who the dreamer is and
\nwhence he looks
Is still unknown or only a shadowy guess.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOr,
\nall existence looks like a vague dream; life here is so precarious as
\nto appear almost unreal. If dream it is, who is it that dreams? Where
\ndoes this dream come from? This is not known or if thought to be
\nknown, it is little more than a surmise without substance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
World
\nReal but Ourselves Small<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nthe world is real but ourselves too small,
Insufficient for the
\nmightiness of our stage. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOr,
\nit looks that the world is quite real; it exists independently of us,
\nwhether we believe in it or not. It is an immense fact. Only we are
\ntoo insignificant before its grandeur, petty figures flitting across
\nthe gigantic stage of this world-drama.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Soulless
\nUniverse<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nthin life-curve crosses the titan whirl
Of the orbit of a
\nsoulless universe,
And in the belly of the sparse rolling mass
A
\nmind looks out from a small casual globe
And wonders what itself
\nand all things are. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nOr
\nit seems that this universe is a huge mass of matter ever in
\nmovement, whirling and spinning across the empty spaces. Life is but
\na slender current flowing across this mechanical universe on the
\nmove. Mind is a speck that looks out from this earth\u2014a small
\norganism existing in the arid vastnesses of the universe and is
\nbewildered, not knowing the meaning of it all, the significance of
\nitself and of all that it sees around.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Little
\nSelf<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nyet to some interned subjective sight
That strangely has formed
\nin Matter\u2019s sightless stuff,
A pointillage minute of little
\nself
Takes figure as world-being\u2019s conscious base. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nBut
\nthat is not all.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis an inner, inward perception that has somehow formed itself in this
\nobscure organisation of Matter. This sight espies slight impressions
\nof a living self underlying all existence. It glimpses this as the
\nsource of consciousness in all.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Science
\nMathematises<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSuch
\nis our scene in the half-light below. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nis the sign of Matter\u2019s infinite,
This the weird purport of the
\npicture shown
To Science the giantess, measurer of her field,
As
\nshe pores on the record of her close survey
And mathematises her
\nhuge external world, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nBy
\nand large this is the picture of man and the world as seen in the
\ntwilight of ignorance. This is how Science perceives the world. As it
\nlooks and surveys the scene before its objective sight, it is struck
\nby the immensity of the spread of Matter\u2014seemingly to an infinite
\nextent\u2014and it proceeds to interpret the scene in terms of quantity.
\nWhat it is aware of and concerns itself with is only the external
\nworld. The world internal does not come into its purview which,
\nhowever extensive, is outward-turned.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Reason
\nand Thought<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo
\nReason bound within the circle of sense,
Or in Thought\u2019s broad
\nimpalpable Exchange
A speculator in tenuous vast ideas,
\n
Abstractions in the void her currency
We know not with what
\nfirm values for its base. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nSo
\ntoo it appears to human Reason which restricts itself to and relies
\nsolely upon the data assembled by the senses. Anything that is not
\nsubject to the grasp of the senses is outside its field. Naturally it
\ndoes not take cognisance of anything except the objective material
\nworld.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEqually
\nso is the picture to Thought which is ever occupied in its unending
\nplay of unsubstantial ideas, abstractions of concepts and other like
\nmovements which have little relation to facts. The real truth of the
\nself, the inner reality of things escapes its notice.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nOnly
\nreligion in this bankruptcy
Presents its dubious riches to our
\nhearts
Or signs unprovisioned cheques on the Beyond:
Our
\npoverty shall there have its revenge. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAmidst
\nall this indigence of the purport of life, it is only Religion that
\npoints to some deeper reality behind the obsessive externalities of
\nthis material world, and offers treasures which are attractive though
\ntheir ultimate value may be doubtful. It freely guarantees to its
\nadherents untold riches and joys in the realms beyond this physical
\nworld. If men are sparsely endowed here on earth, Religion assures
\nplentiful recompense in heaven.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nOur
\nspirits depart discarding a futile life
Into the black unknown or
\nwith them take
Death\u2019s passport into immortality. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nReligion
\nstresses on the futility of life in this world of Matter and
\nconstantly reminds men of the world beyond; it purports to prepare
\nits votaries for the wondrous heaven above where there is no
\nsuffering, no end. Death on earth is a door opening into that
\nparadise. Those who do not profess this faith pass into a dark
\ncondition which is called hell, a state of which the mind knows or
\ncan know nothing because it falls blank in it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Only
\na Provisional Scheme<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nYet
\nwas this only a provisional scheme,
A false appearance sketched
\nby limiting sense,
Mind\u2019s insufficient self-discovery,
An
\nearly attempt, a first experiment. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHowever,
\nall this holds good only for a while, and that too from a limited
\nviewpoint. In the longer run it proves to have been an unreal picture
\ndrawn by the senses, the senses which limit everything to their
\nrange. It is the first inadequate reading of itself and its world by
\nthe mind in its early attempts at knowledge.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Toy
\nKnowledge<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nwas a toy to amuse the infant earth;
But knowledge ends not in
\nthese surface powers
That live upon a ledge in the Ignorance
And
\ndare not look into the dangerous depths
Or to stare upward
\nmeasuring the Unknown. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nBut
\nthis is not the real knowledge. Neither the senses\u2014faculties which
\nderive from an enveloping Ignorance and move only on the surface of
\nlife with their limited functions and range nor the mind tied to them
\ncan attain that knowledge. These powers confine themselves to the
\nsuperficies of things; they do not and cannot gaze into the
\nprofounder depths within or the unknown heights above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Greater
\nVision<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis a deeper seeing from within
And, when we have left these small
\npurlieus of mind,
A greater vision meets us on the heights
In
\nthe luminous wideness of the Spirit\u2019s gaze. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nhuman mind moves in small circles with which it is familiar. It does
\nnot venture beyond them. Its sight is limited to what it can seize
\nwithin this range. But there is a deeper sight which perceives much
\nmore, which is active in ranges deeper than the surface levels of the
\nsense-bound, sense-based mind. So too above these surface levels
\nthere are heights of consciousness where greater vistas are thrown
\nopen to the eye in the broader and brighter light of the Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
New
\nand Marvellous Face<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nlast there wakes in us a witness Soul
That looks at truths unseen
\nand scans the Unknown;
Then all assumes a new and marvellous
\nface. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\ngreater truths that are behind and beyond the normal waking levels of
\nthe being cannot be seized by the little mind in ignorance that
\noperates on these levels. It is only as the deeper perception of the
\nsoul awakes that they come to be revealed. The soul is within, aloof,
\nnot lost in the currents of nature; its calm look takes in what is
\nnot seen, probes into what is not known by the mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nwhen this soul-sight is active the whole picture changes. All
\npresents itself as a new and wonderful spectacle.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
World
\nQuivers with God-Light<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nworld quivers with a God-light at its core,
In Time\u2019s deep
\nheart high purposes move and live,
Life\u2019s borders crumble and
\njoin infinity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThen
\ndoes the world appear in its true form. There is a divine Truth, a
\ndivine Light in the heart of the world and that we see radiating in
\nall its movements. There is a divine purpose which becomes evident in
\nall its activities. The limits that hedge the flow of life in
\nIgnorance breakdown and life assumes its rightful nature of the
\ninfinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Imbroglio
\nof the Gods<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nbroad, confused, yet rigid scheme becomes
A magnificent imbroglio
\nof the Gods,
A game, a work ambiguously divine. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhat
\nappears of this wide world to the unawakened human eye as a confused
\nbut rigid plan, presents itself as a grand, intricate developing Play
\nof the Gods. The Gods have woven the plot of this Play. It is at once
\na game and a task of the Gods though in its appearance its true
\ncharacter is very much overlaid by the many hues of inferior Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Experiments
\nof the Inscrutable Power<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nseekings are short-lived experiments
Made by a wordless and
\ninscrutable Power
Testing its issues from inconscient Night
To
\nmeet its luminous self of Truth and Bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nConcealed
\nbehind the appearances of our movements is the action of a dumb,
\nunfathomable Power in Nature. This Power hidden in the depths of
\nNescience puts forward energies and forms and urges them to evolve in
\nconsciousness more and more and unite with its own (and their own)
\nSelf of Truth and Bliss. All the upward seekings of us humans are
\nreally the attempts of this veiled Power in the womb of the
\nInconscience below to reach and embody the Soul of the
\nSuperconscience above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The
\nPower Seeks the Truth<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt
\npeers at the Real through the apparent form;
It labours in our
\nmortal mind and sense;
Amid the figures of the Ignorance,
In
\nthe symbol pictures drawn by word and thought,
It seeks the truth
\nto which all figures point; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nevolving Power perceives the Reality that en-souls all forms; it is
\nnot halted by the frontal appearance of things. It is at work in the
\nactivities of our imperfect, limited mind and senses. It is ever in
\nsearch of the truth of things to which all forms are only an index.
\nThe world is full of deformations caused by Ignorance, of evocative
\nsketches drawn by human speech and thought; through them all, the
\ngrowing Power seeks to seize the truth that underlies and vivifies_<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The
\nPower Looks for the Source of Light<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nlooks for the source of Light with vision\u2019s lamp;
It works to
\nfind the doer of all works,
The unfelt Self within who is the
\nguide,
The unknown Self above who is the goal. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nPower with its very imperfect outer vision attempts to find the
\nsource from where the all-illumining Light proceeds. It works,
\napparently mechanically, but in truth purposefully to grow conscious
\nof and find\u2014through the very process of the working\u2014the real doer
\nof all, the Lord of works. It strives to grow aware more and more
\nfully of the Self, that superconscious Reality which is the goal of
\nits journey, that is not felt on the surface nor reached by the
\nmind’s knowing but yet guides from within.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
All
\nis not a Blinded Nature’s Task<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nis not here a blinded Nature\u2019s task:
A Word, a Wisdom watches
\nus from on high,
A Witness sanctioning her will and works,
An
\nEye unseen in the unseeing vast; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAll
\nhere in this universe is not the activity of a blind, mechanical
\nNature. There is, above, a potent dynamis, a sempiternal
\nTruth-Wisdom, prajna, presiding over the whole movement. There is
\nalso, within the Movement, a witnessing Spirit that sanctions in its
\nvery act of seeing the operations of Nature at her various levels of
\nvolition and action.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe vast spread of the Universe which is not yet conscious, not yet
\nfunctioning with an active sight, there regards an Eye creative
\nthough it is not perceived by us. That sees and leads.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mystic
\nMotive Drives<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis an Influence from a Light above,
There are thoughts remote and
\nsealed eternities;
A mystic motive drives the stars and suns.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nworld-movement is guided by a direction from a Truth-Light on high.
\nWhat is apparent in life is not all. There are thoughts that are not
\nthought out by man but exist far above his active mind and exert
\ntheir pressure for realisation. So too there are eternal truths which
\nare yet unseen and unknown to him, but nevertheless exist as
\npotentials awaiting their hour. All here in the World-Nature obeys
\nand is moved by a Will that transcends human reasoning.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A
\nMighty Supernature Waits<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthis passage from a deaf unknowing Force
To struggling
\nconsciousness and transient breath
A mighty supernature waits on
\nTime. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nworld begins its journey from an inconscient base. It is a movement
\nof a tranced, unconscious Force struggling to emerge into awareness
\nand life, however brief. It points to a destination where this
\nlimited and striving nature of the lower domains of matter, life and
\nmind will be taken up by a greater and mightier Nature of the higher
\nrealms of the Spirit. The lower nature is slowly evolving towards
\nthat higher.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our
\nLives a Deep Mystery<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nworld is other than we now think and see,
Our lives a deeper
\nmystery than we have dreamed;
Our minds are starters in the race
\nto God,
Our souls deputed selves of the Supreme. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhat
\nwe think and see of this world, in our present state of ignorance, is
\nnot the truth at all. Nor is our life as our mind would make it
\nappear. There is a deeper aspect of this world-movement which is not
\napparent to the superficial look.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nwhole movement is a planned progression to a God-state and our minds
\nare participants in this advancing march. And we ourselves are not
\nmere creatures of Nature, but are\u2014in our deepest parts portions and
\nemanations of the supreme creative Spirit projected here on earth
\nwith a distinct mission to manifest the Glory of the Supreme.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Garbed
\nin Beggar’s Robes Walks the One<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAcross
\nthe cosmic field through narrow lanes
Asking a scanty dole from
\nFortune\u2019s hands
And garbed in beggar\u2019s robes there walks the
\nOne. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nvoyager in this cosmic Journey has to make his way through small and
\nconstricted paths across Ignorance and Obscurity of all kinds. He has
\nto depend upon many an extraneous element for his survival. His
\nequipment is indigent in the extreme. All these limitations, however,
\nare only masks put on by the wayfarer who is none other than the
\nboundless, omnipotent, one Divine in his cosmic adventure.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nEven
\nin the theatre of these small lives
Behind the act a secret
\nsweetness breathes,
An urge of miniature divinity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nEven
\nas it is, with all its limitations, circumscribings and handicaps,
\nthere is felt in life a sustaining happiness. Without that underlying
\nsweetness life would be impossible. And this current of happiness is
\nintrinsic, not due to external causes. It flows from the soul within,
\ndwelling behind the surface of nature. Happiness, bliss, is native to
\nthe soul for the soul is a portion, am\u015ba, of the Divine and the
\nnature of the Divine Being is sheer Bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Support
\nof Suffering Earth<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nmystic passion from the wells of God
Flows through the guarded
\nspaces of the soul;
A force that helps, supports the suffering
\nearth,
An unseen nearness and a hidden joy. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nsoul being a portion of the Divine, with the same nature, there is a
\nfree intercourse between the soul and its parent Divine. The
\nspiritual impulsions from the creative Divine Spirit flow into the
\nveiled chamber of the soul and spread from there into life. That is
\nhow spiritual force reaches and helps the toiling earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nDivine is really not far from the world as it might appear to the
\noutward vision. It is near, within, at the core of everything. This
\npresence of the Divine, this secretly flowing bliss of the Divine,
\nthis Force deriving from the Divine, supports all life in its
\nstruggle to establish and maintain itself against the opposing
\nelements in the Creation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Heart
\nof Bliss in a World of Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nare muffled throbs of laughter\u2019s undertones,
The murmur of an
\noccult happiness,
An exultation in the depths of sleep,
A
\nheart of bliss within a world of pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nevery step in this world life has to struggle; there is pain all
\nround, the pain caused by ignorance and division. Each form has to
\nmaintain its separate existence against all other forms whose lives
\ninvade it all the time. And yet, amidst all the pain, there is heard
\nthe sound of laughter, however inhibited by the prevalence of
\nsuffering; there is a current of an inner happiness which has no
\napparent cause in the world outside; there is a refreshing and
\ninvigorating experience in deep sleep.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nthe core of each and all is a fount of bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
An
\nInfant Fluting to Rapture<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nInfant nursed on Nature\u2019s covert breast,
An Infant playing in
\nthe magic woods,
Fluting to rapture by the Spirit\u2019s streams,
\n
Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nDivine Lord, as the Infant Krishna, is on Earth growing on the
\nnourishment provided by her Nature whose true form is yet concealed,
\nsporting in the variegated fields and enchanting woods of life,
\nplaying delightful notes of joy along the banks of the waters of the
\nSoul. With the celestial music of his flute he summons all to his
\ncarnival of bliss and waits for us mortals to turn to his Call.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Soul
\nKindles a Fire<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthis investiture of fleshly life
A soul that is a spark of God
\nsurvives
And sometimes it breaks through the sordid screen
And
\nkindles a fire that makes us half-divine. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIndwelling
\nthe material frame of the body with all its obscurities and
\nimpurities is the soul which is a spark of the Divine. When the
\nlife-force ebbs away and the physical body falls off, this soul does
\nnot die; it survives and goes on to take another habitation. Normally
\nit stands concealed and ineffective behind the many veils of Nature
\nin ignorance; but on occasions it pushes forward through all the
\nthick barriers and lights up a flame of aspiration that makes man
\nsoar above his animal-humanity and breathe a diviner air. Man
\ncontacts something of the Divinity above himself and his best part
\nbegins to grow towards that, higher Super-Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A
\nHidden Power<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nour body\u2019s cells there sits a hidden Power
That sees the unseen
\nand plans eternity, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nphysical is not all, even in the body; the gross, obscure,
\nmateriality is not the whole. In the tiniest body units, the cells,
\nthere is a Consciousness and a Power of that Consciousness\u2014which is
\nnon-material. It is wide awake and aware of its purpose. What the
\nouter physical shell does not know, this inner Power knows and builds
\nupon in its scheme that is not limited by the life-duration of the
\nparticular material frame.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Golden
\nMessengers (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nsmallest parts have room for deepest needs;
There too the golden
\nMessengers can come: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nEven
\nin those parts of the being that are very small, there is awake this
\nelement of Consciousness which makes them aware of their wants and
\nthese wants are not all confined to their little exterior. They are
\nof the deeper kind too and they seek fulfilment. In response the
\nhigher Agents enter even these small parts.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Golden
\nMessengers (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\ndoor is cut in the mud wall of self;
Across the lowly threshold
\nwith bowed heads
Angels of ecstasy and self-giving pass,
And
\nlodged in an inner sanctuary of dream
The makers of the image of
\ndeity live. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAs
\na result of this aspiration from these needy parts, an opening takes
\nplace in the enclosing nature-walls. And through that opening,
\nhowever small, powers of bliss and fulfilling surrender enter in
\nsuitably modified forms. They take their dwelling in the subtler
\nregions that one becomes aware of in the dream-state and there they
\nset to work, these fashioners of God-like conditions.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Heaven-Lights
\nfrom the Heart<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nPity
\nis there and fire-winged sacrifice,
And flashes of sympathy and
\ntenderness
Cast heaven-lights from the heart\u2019s secluded shrine.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAt
\nthe core of the being, in the chamber of the heart are springs of
\nGodward movements. From there flow currents of identification with
\nothers, of feelings of oneness; thence flame up all upward
\naspirations and self-consecration, all impulsion for self-enlargement
\nand love for others which lift up human nature towards the divine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mystery
\nof Untouched Gulfs<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nwork is done in the deep silences;
A glory and wonder of
\nspiritual sense,
A laughter in beauty\u2019s everlasting space
\n
Transforming world-experience into joy,
Inhabit the mystery
\nof the untouched gulfs;
Lulled by Time\u2019s beats eternity sleeps
\nin us. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nDeep
\nin man lie regions of being that are not yet tapped. There behind the
\nveil, far from the noise on the surface, significant work is being
\ndone by the native powers of the manifesting Spirit. There are the
\nmarvels of the unlimited senses of the spirit, spontaneous joy and
\neternal beauty, all of which draw the rasa, sap, of the varied
\nlife-experience and turn it into the Delight of the soul. Behind the
\nmarch of Time from moment to moment to which the outer being of man
\nis subject, there is the Eternal that lives in the soul-depths.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Eternal
\nEntity Within<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe sealed hermetic heart, the happy core,
Unmoved behind this
\nouter shape of death
The eternal Entity prepares within
Its
\nmatter of divine felicity,
Its reign of heavenly phenomenon.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nbody that is subject to death is only the outer form. Behind it,
\nsupporting it from within, is the soul, the divine spark at the core,
\nin the hidden chamber of the inner heart. It is always happy,
\nuntouched by the pains and sufferings of the surface being. This
\ndivine element is a growing entity and drawing upon life’s
\nexperience, it organises itself, extends its influence and gradually
\nbrings its innate felicity and its potentials into active expression.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Foresight
\nof Release<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEven
\nin our sceptic mind of ignorance
A foresight comes of some
\nimmense release,
Our will lifts towards it slow and shaping
\nhands. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThis
\nlabour of the evolving soul within to rise above the state and hold
\nof Nature in Ignorance and come into its own state of a divine
\nfreedom and knowledge, reflects itself even in the doubting mind as a
\npersistent possibility, even a certainty of a great release from all
\nthe extant limitations. The human will also is moved to stir and gear
\nitself to actualise this possibility<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Each
\nPart Desires its Absolute<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEach
\npart in us desires its absolute:
Our thoughts covet the
\neverlasting Light,
Our strength derives from an omnipotent Force,
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nEach
\nfaculty, each power, is a formulation, in conditions of ignorance and
\nlimitation, of a divine Verity. Each is striving to reach its full
\nfigure in its corresponding truth in the Divine Being. Thus the
\nthinking mind seeks to grow into the Light of self-existing Knowledge
\nfrom which it is derived and of which it is the lower and deformed
\nend in Ignorance. Similarly the limited strength wielded by man has
\nits origin in an omnipotent Force of the Divine Consciousness and it
\nstrives to develop into that Omnipotence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Towards
\nBeauty and Bliss<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nsince from a veiled God-joy the worlds were made
And since
\neternal beauty asks for form
Even here where all is made of
\nbeing\u2019s dust,
Our hearts are captured by ensnaring shapes,
Our
\nvery senses blindly seek for bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAll
\nhere is obscure, fleeting, unsubstantial and yet the heart of man is
\nheld captive by the surrounding forms that strike it as beautiful;
\nthat is because all Form is the developing embodiment of the Divine
\nas Beauty seeking expression. The attraction to beauty is really a
\nseeking to realise the Divine in Form. The senses run after joy
\neverywhere; that is because the whole creation is an ebullition of
\nthe self-delight of the Divine Being and this basic Bliss acts as a
\nmagnet drawing the senses to itself through every and all movements
\nin life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nflows to its perfect term in the Divine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Reality
\nCrucified to Save<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nerror crucifies Reality
To force its birth and divine body here,
\n
Compelling, incarnate in a human form
And breathing in limbs
\nthat one can touch and clasp,
Its knowledge to rescue ancient
\nIgnorance,
Its saviour light the inconscient universe. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nWhat
\ncould be a spontaneous manifestation of Divine Beauty, Knowledge and
\nPower has been forced to be a struggling and even a painful process
\nas a result of the deviation that has taken place in the course of
\ncreation. Due to extreme division and fragmentation, the creative
\nconsciousness has lost itself in a total Inconscience; and Ignorance,
\nthe child of Inconscience, has plagued earth-existence from of old.
\nThis very deformation, however, calls for and exerts through the
\nhuman instrumentation, imperfect though it be, a pull on the Reality
\nabove to descend and embody itself concretely in a self-conscious
\nhuman form here, displace the existing Ignorance by plenary
\nKnowledge, flood this obscure inconscient material universe with its
\nLight of Consciousness and thus save the creation. The response of
\nthe Divine Reality works itself through all the pain and suffering
\ninevitable under the existing conditions of Ignorance and obscurity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Greater
\nSelf Comes Sea-Like<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnd
\nwhen that greater Self comes sea-like down
To fill this image of
\nour transience,
All shall be captured by delight, transformed:
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAnd
\nwhen, in response to the call and pull from below, the greater Divine
\nBeing comes down from the heights of the Spirit, it is a massive
\ndescent like that of the sea. It rushes in wave after wave of itself
\nand floods the mortal being with its innate Delight. And by the
\ncharge of that supernal Delight all in the being gets transformed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nDelight of the Divine is dynamic; it changes into its own nature
\nwhatever it fills.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nwaves of undreamed ecstasy shall roll
Our mind and life and sense
\nand laugh in a light
Other than this hard limited human day,
The
\nbody\u2019s tissues thrill apotheosised,
Its cells sustain bright
\nmetamorphosis. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nmind, the life, the senses, are all flooded with this divine Delight,
\nuplifted from their normal twilight of ignorance by a divine
\nillumination. Even the body is forced to participate in this
\ntransforming change. Its very physical tissues awake from their inert
\nstate and thrill with this influx; its cells are filled with
\nconsciousness and support this mighty luminous change.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nmetamorphosis is whole and entire.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
This
\nLittle Being shall Rise<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nlittle being of Time, this shadow-soul,
This living dwarf
\nfigure-head of darkened spirit
Out of its traffic of petty dreams
\nshall rise. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAs
\na result, this mortal being of man which is only a distant, pale
\nfigure, an obscured, distorted and diminished image of his real self,
\never occupied with its small interests and desires, undergoes a
\nradical uplift and change.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
New-Made
\nImage of the Eternal Guest<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIts
\nshape of person and its ego face
Divested of this mortal
\ntravesty,
Like a clay troll kneaded into a god,
New-made in
\nthe image of the eternal Guest, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\npresent personality in the figure of the ego is stripped of its
\nfalsifying limitations and bequests of Ignorance and moulded into its
\nreal form, a true image of the Divine Being seated within. The ego is
\ndisplaced by the soul of which it is only a shadow-figure.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Shudders
\nwith Ecstasy<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nshall be caught to the breast of a white Force
And, flaming with
\nthe paradisal touch
In a rose-fire of sweet spiritual grace,
In
\nthe red passion of its infinite change,
Quiver, awake, and
\nshudder with ecstasy. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nNourished
\nby the pure Power of the Spirit, fired by the impact of the celestial
\nworld, bathed in the sweetness of the Higher Grace, intense under its
\nlimitless transformation, the being thrills, becomes fully conscious
\nand is rocked by a divine Ecstasy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Kneels
\nto the Child-Godhead<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nif reversing a deformation\u2019s spell,
Released from the black
\nmagic of the Night,
Renouncing servitude to the dark Abyss,
It
\nshall learn at last who lived within unseen
And seized with
\nmarvel in the adoring heart
To the enthroned Child-Godhead kneel
\naware,
Trembling with beauty and delight and love. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\ndeformation of Ignorance is cast away; subjection to the hold of
\nfalsehood and evil, of dark Nescience is transcended. Knowledge dawns
\nof the presence of a veiled Divine Inhabitant at the core and the
\nheart is filled with wonder and worship of this infant Divinity. The
\nbeing surrenders itself overcome by the beauty, the joy and the love
\nof the Godhead within. The embodied Godhead begins to grow in
\nstature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Spirit’s
\nAscent<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nfirst the spirit\u2019s ascent we must achieve
Out of the chasm from
\nwhich our nature rose. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThe
\nsoul must soar sovereign above the form
And climb to summits
\nbeyond mind\u2019s half-sleep;
Our hearts we must inform with
\nheavenly strength,
Surprise the animal with the occult god.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nBut
\nbefore this transforming change from above is possible, there is a
\ngood deal to be prepared from below. The consciousness which is
\nimprisoned in the material Inconscient must be released and led up
\nwards in its climb to its full awareness and effectivity in the
\nSpirit, the soul hidden by the outer enclosing form must emerge into
\nthe open and go beyond the twilit regions of the mind into the realms
\nof fuller and greater Knowledge, the will in the heart must be linked
\nwith a higher Power that is not limited like the earthly power; the
\nanimal in man must be displaced by the inner psyche, the delegate of
\nGod.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Golden
\nTongue of Sacrifice<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nkindling the gold tongue of sacrifice,
Calling the powers of a
\nbright hemisphere,
We shall shed the discredit of our mortal
\nstate,
Make the abysm a road for Heaven\u2019s descent,
Acquaint
\nour depths with the supernal Ray
And cleave the darkness with the
\nmystic Fire. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nThat
\ndone, the soul rescued from the obscurity of lower nature, the
\nconsciousness awakened and developed to open itself to the Spirit
\nabove the bounds of ignorance, the next step follows. The pathway to
\nthe Light and Life Divine is to be built. And that is done by
\nself-consecration, by an inner sacrifice of oneself\u2014all that one is
\nand one has\u2014to the Great Powers of Cosmos. The flame of aspiration
\nreaches the Gods in their world of Light and invokes them to come
\ndown into the being of the worshipper, take their dwelling in him and
\nmanifest themselves in him i.e. build their powers in his being. The
\nway is forged; the transition effected from the darkness of Nescience
\nto the Splendour of Superconscience. Thus also is rendered possible
\nthe direct action of the transforming Light in the nether depths of
\nthe subconscient.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Adventure
\nAcross the Astral Chaos<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAdventuring
\nonce more in the natal mist
Across the dangerous haze, the
\npregnant stir,
He through the astral chaos shore a way
Mid
\nthe grey faces of its demon gods,
Questioned by whispers of its
\nflickering ghosts,
Besieged by sorceries of its fluent force.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAswapathy
\nadvances through the dim-lit and chaotic regions of the Little Life,
\nmaking his way across all its pitfalls, encountering its various
\ndenizens the peering visages of ruling demons, the whispering figures
\nof ghosts who appear and disappear at the same time\u2014while being
\nsurrounded all the time by the enchanting movements of the
\nunobstructed Life-Force there.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Journeys
\nto a Fugitive End<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAs
\none who walks unguided through strange fields
Tending he knows
\nnot where nor with what hope,
He trod a soil that failed beneath
\nhis feet
And journeyed in stone strength to a fugitive end.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIt
\nis a novel country that Aswapathy negotiates. There are no
\nguide-paths, he does not know in what direction he treads. The ground
\nbeneath his feet often gives way, but he moves on with firm will and
\nunyielding strength hoping to find a terminus which, however, keeps
\non receding.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Gloom
\nComplains against Light<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHis
\ntrail behind him was a vanishing line
Of glimmering points in a
\nvague immensity;
A bodiless murmur travelled at his side
In
\nthe wounded gloom complaining against light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAs
\nhe passes, the terrain behind is swallowed up again in misty
\nobscurity, his path glimmering in faint and vanishing dots of light.
\nThere is around him, as he moves, a constant murmur of protest by the
\nsurrounding gloom of the region at the intrusion of the light that
\nemanates from his being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Huge
\nObstruction<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nhuge obstruction its immobile heart,
The watching opacity
\nmultiplied as he moved
Its hostile mass of dead and staring eyes;
\n
The darkness glimmered like a dying torch. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nAswapathy’s
\ncourse is obstructed by the density, obscurity and inertia that are
\nat the centre of this world of lower Life-force. He senses and even
\nperceives the hostility projected on his advancing march. The
\ndarkness gathers around him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Through
\nthe Dark Cave<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAround
\nhim an extinguished phantom glare
Peopled with shadowy and
\nmisleading shapes
The vague Inconscient\u2019s dark and measureless
\ncave. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nHis
\nonly sunlight was his spirit\u2019s flame. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/p>\n


\nIn
\nthat palpable darkness he feels the jostle of wraithlike figures that
\nare misleading in their appearance. He finds himself in a boundless,
\nfeatureless dark cave of the Inconscient. The only light with which
\nhe sees his path is the flame of his own soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/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 Two. The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-2-savitri-study","wpcat-250-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10671","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=10671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11087,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10671\/revisions\/11087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}