{"id":10828,"date":"2014-07-16T00:37:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T07:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saa.santansoftwaresystems.com\/?p=10828"},"modified":"2014-12-07T01:21:16","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T09:21:16","slug":"savitri-study-book-6-canto-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/savitri-study\/book-6-savitri-study\/savitri-study-book-6-canto-2","title":{"rendered":"Savitri-study-Book-6-Canto-2"},"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 Six. The Book of Fate<\/p>\n

\nCanto I<\/a>    Canto II<\/a>           \n<\/p>\n

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

\n
\n\n\n\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n
\n


\nBook
\nSix: Canto II<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe Way of Fate
\nand the Problem of Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Summary<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n
After an initial
\nsilence following the terrible message of Fate from Narad, the queen
\nquestions in anguish:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO seer, what is the
\ntruth of this mystery of grief and pain? Why is it necessary? Why did
\nGod have to make this cruel law? Or is it that some disastrous Power
\nhas interfered with his work and he is helpless? Our life itself is
\nborn in pain and cry. Lethal forces are found within ourselves. We
\nare like a besieged fort. Some curse is laid on man. The dualities
\nare imposed on him from the very start. Every step is a snare, and
\nerrors and miseries multiply.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nMan turns out to be
\nhis own worst foe. His science builds up his doom. He learns nothing
\nfrom Time and history. What is the purpose of his existence here?
\nWhat made the immortal spirit, his soul, come down to this scene of
\nsorrow and pain from its home of bliss? Is there no Being watching
\nand helping this movement of life on earth? Or is it only some hard
\nNecessity that enforces its rule on everything here? Is this all a
\ngiant illusion?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNarad replies after
\na silence:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIs the sun a dream
\nbecause there is night? Hidden in the secret chamber of thy soul
\nthere dwells the Eternal. Thy thought hides him from thee. It is
\nbecause earth’s joys shut thee from the Immortal’s bliss that the
\nneed of Pain and suffering arose. Without undergoing pain there
\ncannot be joy in this world of Ignorance. Pain is the hammer of the
\ngods to break the resistance in the mortal’s heart. Without this
\npressure his soul would remain content, at ease. Till man is freed,
\npain is inevitable. He who would save the world must share its pain.
\nThat is the law for the incarnate God, The Cross and the stake are
\nhis lot.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA concealed dark
\nhostility is lodged in the depths of earthly existence and that
\nopposes the world’s march at every step. This is the Adversary that
\nhas to be fought in a hundred ways in as many places. He misleads,
\ndeforms and defeats. Man must overcome this hidden foe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe task of the
\nworld redeemer is hard; the world he comes to save, itself becomes
\nhis adversary. Man refuses to accept him; only a few are saved. Tilt
\nthe Evil is slain, the labour must go on. One who will accomplish
\nthis high task may yet come. He will invade the last posts of
\nIgnorance and Inconscience with the undying Light of God and conquer
\nMatter’s sleep. Then only shall his task be done.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTill then man must
\nbear the law of pain. He must lean for support on Heaven’s strength.
\nMan should not attempt to storm the gates of heaven by the violence
\nof the titan. The titan’s way leads to destruction. Suffering is not
\nthe end; bliss is the crown. Bliss is the stuff underlying all that
\nlives. It is the soul itself that has chosen this adventure of the
\nAbyss and Ignorance. Out of its blissful felicity it has come to
\ntaste the marvel and the infinite possibility of the Unknown. This
\nvast disguise conceals a Play of the Eternal’s Bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen asks Aswapathy:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIs fate all? Is the
\nspirit ruled by the outward world? Has no Power come with Savitri
\nwhich is as potent as Fate?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNarad replies
\nambiguously:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe ways of mortals
\nmay look like random movements, but their least stumblings are
\nforeseen above. All the curves of life are pre-drawn. Heaven’s love
\noversees all the strife and struggle below. Man thinks in fragments
\nand misses the whole Truth. He mistakes Possibility far Chance;
\nmisreads the results of an all-wise Force for the links in a chain of
\nNecessity. The Will of God working in Time appears to him as Fate.
\nMan can really know the truth and be free only if his will could be
\nmade one with God’s, if his thought could be in tune with the
\nthoughts of God. Even now man’s mind can receive God’s light and his
\nforce be driven by God’s force. Only by so doing, can man rise to be
\nNature’s king.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt is decreed that
\nSatyavan must die; the hour is fixed and also the fatal stroke. What
\nelse is to happen is written in the soul of Savitri. Fate is Truth
\nworking itself out in Ignorance. Man can accept his fate or he can
\nrefuse. Ultimately Fate is what the spirit of man chooses.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe fate of man is
\nto battle and march Gadward against the invisible host of the
\nAdversary. He has got to advance relentlessly whatever the disasters
\non the way. At last he shall cross the last borders of Ignorance and
\narrive on the splendid peaks of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nDo not mourn that
\nSatyavan must die. His death really commences a greater life for man.
\nAll conspires to fulfil God’s secret Plan. The world is not built
\nwith random bricks of Chance. Many are the masons obeying the Unseen
\nthat have built it. And of these master-builders Savitri is one.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO queen, do not
\nstrive any longer to change the secret Will of God. Intervene not
\nbetween the charged life that is Savitri’s and the mighty Fate that
\nshe is facing. She does not need thy help nor any god’s. A day may
\ncome when she has to stand alone and fight to save herself and save
\nthe world. Do not seek to deflect her from her single will. Leave her
\nto her mighty self and Fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThus Narad speaks
\nand leaves the earthly scene. His luminous body soars and disappears
\nlike a receding star in the light of the Unseen.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut still a cry is
\nheard in the Infinite Vasts chanting the anthem of eternal love.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Irrevocable
\nDecree<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nsilence sealed the irrevocable decree,
The word of Fate that fell
\nfrom the heavenly lips
Fixing a doom no power could ever reverse
\n
Unless heaven\u2019s will itself could change its course. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe silence that
\nfollows seems to seal, as it were, the irreversible word of Fate
\nuttered by the heavenly lips of Narad fixing a doom which no power
\ncan change except the will of heaven.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFate can be changed
\nonly by the Higher Will because fate is nothing but the working of
\nthat Will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Questioning
\nVoice<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nso it seemed; yet from the silence rose
One voice that questioned
\nchangeless destiny. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nwill that strove against the immutable Will,
A mother\u2019s heart
\nhad heard the fateful speech
That rang like a sanction to the
\ncall of death
And came like a chill close to life and hope. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt looks as if all
\nare silenced by the pronounced doom. But soon out of that silence
\nrises the voice of the queen questioning the fixity of fate. Hers is
\na will that battles against the unchanging Will behind destiny. The
\nheart of a mother has heard the fateful words, words that sounded as
\nif they sanctioned the demand of death, bringing to a chilly end all
\nlife and hope ahead.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Hope
\nSinks Down<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet
\nhope sank down like an extinguished fire. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nShe
\nfelt the leaden inevitable hand
Invade the secrecy of her guarded
\nsoul
And smite with sudden pain its still content
And the
\nempire of her hard-won quietude. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll hope now dies
\ndown like a fire that is put out. The queen feels the inescapable
\niron hand of Fate entering the chamber of her soul and smiting with
\nsudden pain its pervading calm and the quietude she has attained
\nafter long labour.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>She
\nFalls to Common Level<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAwhile
\nshe fell to the level of human mind,
A field of mortal grief and
\nNature\u2019s law
She shared, she bore the common lot of men
And
\nfelt what common hearts endure in Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor a while the
\nqueen is pulled down to the level of the human mind from the state of
\nquietude to which she had arrived. She finds herself in the field of
\nhuman grief and the law of Nature, she bears the lot of ordinary men
\nand undergoes the struggle and pain that common hearts have to endure
\nin this world subject to the mutations of Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Voices
\nEarth\u2019s Question<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nVoicing
\nearth\u2019s question to the inscrutable power
The queen now turned
\nto the still immobile seer:
Assailed by the discontent in
\nNature\u2019s depths,
Partner in the agony of dumb driven things
\n
And all the misery, all the ignorant cry,
Passionate like
\nsorrow questioning heaven she spoke. <\/FONT><\/FONT>[1]<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/SUP><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nPutting earth’s
\nquestion to the inscrutable Fate, the queen turns to the calm,
\nunmoved seer, Farad.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAgitated by the
\ndiscontent seething in the depths of Nature, sharing in the agony of
\nthe mute, helplessly driven things, their misery and ignorant wail,
\nshe speaks as if she personifies all the passion of earth’s sorrow
\nconfronting heaven.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>[1]<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/SUP>Alternative
\nto the passage starting with \u201cAwhile\u201d:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAwhile
\nshe lost her spirit\u2019s tranquil poise,
Awhile she shared the lot
\nof common souls
And bore the heavy hand of Death and Time
And
\nfelt the anguish in life\u2019s stricken deeps. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLending
\nher speech to the surface soul on earth
She uttered the suffering
\nin the world\u2019s dumb heart
And man\u2019s revolt against his
\nignorant fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor a while the
\nqueen loses the usual calm poise of her spirit and comes down to the
\nlevel of common men. She bears their load of Death and Time and
\nsuffers the anguish in the depths of life under pain. She lends her
\nspeech to the surface soul\u2014not the deeper soul\u2014on earth and
\nvoices the suffering in the dumb heart of the world and the revolt of
\nman against his ignorant fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Why
\nGrief and Pain?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cO
\nseer, in the earth\u2019s strange twi-natured life,
By what pitiless
\nadverse Necessity
Or what cold freak of a Creator\u2019s will,
By
\nwhat random accident or governed Chance
That shaped a rule out of
\nfortuitous steps,
Made destiny from an hour\u2019s emotion, came
\n
The direr mystery of grief and pain? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO seer, how did this
\ndreadful mystery of grief and pain arise in this earth-life of
\ndualities? What caused it to be? Some relentless Necessity? Some
\ncallous freak of God\u2019s will? Some accident? Or some regulated
\nchance that has constructed a rule out of casual steps, shaped a
\ndestiny from some brief passing emotions?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Who
\nmade this Cruel Law?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIs
\nit thy God who made this cruel law? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nsome disastrous Power has marred his work
And he stands helpless
\nto defend or save? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nfatal seed was sown in life\u2019s false start
When evil twinned
\nwith good on earthly soil. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWho made this cruel
\nlaw of grief and pain? Is it thy God who has done so? Or is it some
\ncalamitous Power that has intervened and spoilt God’s work and God
\nhas been helpless against it? Indeed it was a fatal seed that was
\nsown at the very start of life\u2014a false start\u2014when evil was
\nallowed to join with good on this soil of earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Malady
\nof Mind<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nfirst appeared the malady of mind,
Its pang of thought, its quest
\nfor the aim of life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\ntwisted into forms of good and ill
The frank simplicity of the
\nanimal\u2019s acts; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe first result of
\nthis fatal seed was the emergence of the disease of mind with its
\npang of thought and its searching for the goal of life. Before this
\nhuman mind appeared. there was a direct simplicity in the actions of
\nthe animal creation. It was this mind that gave a twist to that
\nsimplicity by bringing into being the dualities of good and evil.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Straight
\nPath Turned into Zigzag<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nturned the straight path hewn by the body\u2019s gods,
Followed the
\nzigzag of the uncertain course
Of life that wanders seeking for
\nits aim
In the pale starlight falling from thought\u2019s skies;
It
\nguides the unsure idea, the wavering will. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe material body
\nhad its direct way of fulfilling its needs before this mind
\ninterfered and turned that straight path into a zigzag and unsure
\ncourse of life which wanders searching for its objective in the dim
\nwavering light thrown by the mind’s thought. It is the mind that
\nguides the uncertain idea and the will that is unsteady.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nLost
\nwas the instinct\u2019s safe identity
With the arrow-point of
\nbeing\u2019s inmost sight,
Marred the sure steps of Nature\u2019s
\nsimple walk
And truth and freedom in the growing soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBefore the mind
\nappeared and introduced its uncertainty into life, there was the
\nsafety of instinct; this instinct was always one with the direct
\nintuitive perception in the depths of the being. But all this was
\nlost with the interference of the mind. Marred also was the sure
\ncourse of primitive Nature and the truth and freedom that had reigned
\nin the growing soul. The mind brought in uncertainty, falsehood and
\nconstriction.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Life
\nborn in Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOut
\nof some ageless innocence and peace,
Privilege of souls not yet
\nbetrayed to birth,
Cast down to suffer on this hard dangerous
\nearth <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
Our
\nlife was born in pain and with a cry. ‘ From some eternal innocence
\nand peace, a state that is natural to souls not yet condemned to
\nbirth in this world, our life was cast down on this hard, dangerous
\nearth to suffer. We come to birth with a cry of pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>A
\nThousand Ills Assail<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough
\nearth-nature welcomes heaven\u2019s breath
Inspiring Matter with the
\nwill to live,
A thousand ills assail the mortal\u2019s hours
And
\nwear away the natural joy of life; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough this
\nearth-nature welcomes the creative breath of heaven which activises
\nMatter with the will to live, countless ills invade mortal life and
\nbreak down the joy that is natural to it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Ransom
\nof our high Estate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nbodies are an engine cunningly made,
But for all its parts as
\ncunningly are planned,
Contrived ingeniously with demon skill
\n
Its apt inevitable heritage
Of mortal danger and peculiar
\npain,
Its payment of the tax of Time and Fate,
Its way to
\nsuffer and its way to die. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nis the ransom of our high estate,
The sign and stamp of our
\nhumanity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOur
\nbody is an engine skillfully made, but wi<\/FONT>th equal skill and
\ndemoniacal ingenuity the heritage of death and special pain are
\nimposed upon it. It has to pay its due to Time and Fate, undergo
\nsuffering and ultimately die.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis is the price we
\nhave to pay for the high soul-destiny which we carry. This is the
\nbadge of our humanity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\ngrisly company of maladies
Come, licensed lodgers, into man\u2019s
\nbodily house,
Purveyors of death and torturers of life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA fearsome host of
\nmaladies approach\u2014all authorised to make their home in the body of
\nman. They inflict untold tortures on life and bring death in their
\nwake.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Waiting
\nfor their Hour<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe malignant hollows of the world,
In its subconscient
\ncavern-passages
Ambushed they lie waiting their hour to leap,
\n
Surrounding with danger the sieged city of life:
Admitted
\ninto the citadel of man\u2019s days
They mine his force and maim or
\nsuddenly kill. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese ills hide
\nthemselves in the evil hideouts and ill-lit passages of the world
\nwaiting for their hour to strike; they lay siege to our life
\nsurrounding it with danger on all sides. Once they get in or are
\nsomehow admitted into the fortress of man’s life, they undermine his
\nforce, weaken or mutilate him or kill him suddenly.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Lethal
\nForces within us<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOurselves
\nwithin us lethal forces nurse;
We make of our own enemies our
\nguests:
Out of their holes like beasts they creep and gnaw
The
\nchords of the divine musician\u2019s lyre
Till frayed and thin the
\nmusic dies away
Or crashing snaps with a last tragic note. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWe nurse deathly
\nforces within ourselves we admit and cherish as our guests what are
\nreally our enemies. Like beasts out of their holes these dangerous
\nelements move surreptitiously and gnaw at the strings of the soul’s
\nharp till the chords are worn out and the music fades away or with a
\nloud crash they snap on a final note that is truly tragic.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Like
\na Fort Beset<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nthat we are is like a fort beset:
All that we strive to be alters
\nlike a dream
In the grey sleep of Matter\u2019s ignorance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMind
\nsuffers lamed by the world\u2019s disharmony
And the unloveliness of
\nhuman things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWe are like a fort
\nunder siege. Whatever we try to become changes like a dream in the
\ndull sleep of Matter in ignorance; we do not succeed, subjected as we
\nare to the constant pulls of the sub-conscient and the inconscient in
\nMatter.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe disharmony in
\nthe world and the sordid nature of human circumstances tell upon the
\nmind; it gets weakened and suffers.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\ntreasure misspent or cheaply, fruitlessly sold
In the bazar of a
\nblind destiny,
A gift of priceless values from Time\u2019s gods
\n
Lost or mislaid in an uncaring world, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLife is a priceless
\ngift from the Gods; but it is either little used or ill-spent; it is
\nwasted in the mart of blind destiny; it is either last or mislaid in
\na world that cares nothing about what happens to it. Life is indeed a
\nwonder that is missed, a fine art that has got twisted.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\nseeker in a dark and obscure place,
An ill-armed warrior facing
\ndreadful odds,
An imperfect worker given a baffling task,
An
\nignorant judge of problems Ignorance made,
Its heavenward flights
\nreach closed and keyless gates,
Its glorious outbursts peter out
\nin mire. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLife is an
\nindefatigable seeker in this dark and obscure place that is our
\nworld; an ill-equipped warrior ranged against fearful odds; an
\nimperfect worker assigned a difficult task; an ignorant judge called
\nupon to deal with problems thrown up by Ignorance. All the upward
\nsoarings of life are baffled by doors that remain shut; all its
\nglorious break-outs peter out in mud, end in nothing.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Curse
\non Nature’s Gifts<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOn
\nNature\u2019s gifts to man a curse was laid. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nwalks inarmed by its own opposites,
Error is the comrade of our
\nmortal thought,
And falsehood lurks in the deep bosom of truth,
\n
Sin poisons with its vivid flowers of joy
Or leaves a red
\nscar burnt across the soul;
Virtue is a grey bondage and a gaol. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan is indeed given
\nmany gifts by Mother-Nature, but on all of them there is a curse.
\nEverything is paired with its opposite. Human thought is accompanied
\nby error, truth carries falsehood in its formation, joy bears the
\nseed of sin which poisons or burns and leaves its red scar on the
\nsoul. Even virtue turns out to be a dull slavery and a prison house;
\nit does not allow progress beyond itself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Our
\nroots in Nescience<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nevery step is laid for us a snare. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlien
\nto reason and the spirit\u2019s light,
Our fount of action from a
\ndarkness wells;
In ignorance and nescience are our roots. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA trap is laid for
\nus at every step in our journey. The source of our impulsion to
\naction lies in a darkness which is foreign and contrary to the mind’s
\nreason and the spirit’s light. Our roots are found in ignorance and
\nnescience.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Register
\nof Calamities<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ngrowing register of calamities
Is the past\u2019s account, the
\nfuture\u2019s book of Fate:
The centuries pile man\u2019s follies and
\nman\u2019s crimes
Upon the countless crowd of Nature\u2019s ills; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe past is nothing
\nbut an unending, list of calamities; they constitute as well our book
\nof Fate in the future to come. Nature’s contribution of ills is huge
\nenough; to that is added, down the centuries, the pile of man’s
\nunconscious follies and conscious crimes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Tragic
\nHarvest<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs
\nif the world\u2019s stone load was not enough,
A crop of miseries
\nobstinately is sown
By his own hand in the furrows of the gods,
\n
The vast increasing tragic harvest reaped
From old misdeeds
\nburied by oblivious Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs though the
\noppressive load of the world’s ills were not enough, man deliberately
\nsows in the field readied by the gods for him, a veritable crop of
\nmiseries. His own wrongs are seeds from which in due time, when he
\nhas forgotten his old misdeeds, he reaps the large tragic harvest he
\nhimself has sown.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>His
\nown worst Foe<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nwalks by his own choice into hell\u2019s trap;
This mortal creature
\nis his own worst foe. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nscience is an artificer of doom;
He ransacks earth for means to
\nharm his kind;
He slays his happiness and others\u2019 good. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan walks into the
\ntrap of hell by his own choice; he does not need to be enticed into
\nit. In truth the human creature is his own enemy, more than any
\nother. His science prepares for doom. He looks everywhere l\/J find
\nweapons to harm his fellows. He kills his own happiness and deNtroys
\nthe good of others.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Old
\nforms of Evil Cling<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNothing
\nhas he learnt from time and its history;
Even as of old in the
\nraw youth of Time,
When earth ignorant ran on the highways of
\nFate,
Old forms of evil cling to the world\u2019s soul: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan has indeed
\nlearnt nothing from history. Things are very much the same now as
\nthey were of old when earth Life was still ignorant and feeling its
\nway on the roads of Time. The same old forms of evil still cling to
\nthe world’s soul even today.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Idiot
\nhour Destroys<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWar
\nmaking nought the sweet smiling calm of life,
Battle and rapine,
\nruin and massacre
Are still the fierce pastimes of man\u2019s
\nwarring tribes;
An idiot hour destroys what centuries made,
His
\nwanton rage or frenzied hate lays low
The beauty and greatness by
\nhis genius wrought
And the mighty output of a nation\u2019s toil. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWar shatters the
\nsweet calm of life. Men still enjoy and indulge in battle and
\nplunder, ruin and killings. One hour of such idiocy destroys what it
\nhas taken centuries to build. Man’s wild rage or violent hate brings
\ndown the beauty and greatness created by his genius, and the mighty
\nresult of the nation’s labour.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Self-made
\nMisery<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nhe has achieved he drags to the precipice. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\ngrandeur he turns to an epic of doom and fall;
His littleness
\ncrawls content through squalor and mud,
He calls heaven\u2019s
\nretribution on his head,
And wallows in his self-made misery. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan drags to the
\nbrink of ruin whatever he has achieved. He turns his glory to a saga
\nof and fall. His small nature is content to crawl and grovel in a
\ndegraded life of squalor and dirt. His actions evoke retribution from
\nthe Gods. He wallows in the misery he has himself created.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Part
\nauthor of Cosmic Tragedy<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\npart author of the cosmic tragedy,
His will conspires with death
\nand time and fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nbrief appearance on the enigmaed earth
Ever recurs, but brings no
\nhigh result
To this wanderer through the aeon-rings of God
That
\nshut his life in their vast longevity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan is partly
\nresponsible for this cosmic tragedy; his will joins the elements of
\ndeath, time and fate in effecting this tragedy. He is born again and
\nagain to live for short periods on this mysterious earth, but with no
\ngreat result. He wanders in the aeonic rounds of God whichhold his
\nlife in their vast duration. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>All
\nan Episode<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nsoul\u2019s wide search and ever returning hopes
Pursue the useless
\norbit of their course
In a vain repetition of lost toils
Across
\na track of soon forgotten lives. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nis an episode in a meaningless tale. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis soul\u2019s quest
\nis wide and unending; his disappointed hopes constantly revive. But
\nhis labour is a waste of futile repetition. His lives fade into quick
\noblivion.All his efforts turn out to be just an episode in a tale
\nwithout issue.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Whence
\nthis Sterile Interlude<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhy
\nis it all and wherefore are we here? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf
\nto some being of eternal bliss
It is our spirit\u2019s destiny to
\nreturn
Or some still impersonal height of endless calm,
Since
\nThat we are and out of That we came,
Whence rose the strange and
\nsterile interlude
Lasting in vain through interminable Time? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhy does all this
\nhappen, for what purpose are we here? If it is the destiny of our
\nsoul to return to some being of eternal bliss or to some impersonal,
\neternal Peace above,\u2014since ultimately we are That and have come
\nfrom That\u2014from where has arisen this strange and barren interlude
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>[1]<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/SUP>
\nwhich lasts
\nendlessly in time ?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>[1]<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/SUP>Between
\nthe felicities of our Source and End.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>What
\nneed had the Soul?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nif these beings must be and their brief lives,
What need had the
\nsoul of ignorance and tears? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhence
\nrose the call for sorrow and for pain? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nall came helplessly without a cause? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat
\npower forced the immortal spirit to birth? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven if man must
\nlive through transient lives here on earth, where is the need of all
\nthis ignorance and sorrow for the immortal soul? Whence this call for
\nmisery and pain? Is it that all souls were simply precipitated here
\nwithout any cause as such? What is the Power that compelled the
\nimmortal spirit to take mortal birth?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Deathless
\nSojourner<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\neternal witness once of eternity,
A deathless sojourner mid
\ntransient scenes
He camps in life\u2019s half-lit obscurity
Amid
\nthe debris of his thoughts and dreams. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis immortal spirit
\nwas once the timeless witness of eternity. Deathless, he stays for a
\nwhile in these transient scenes, pitches his camp in the obscurity of
\nlife in the midst of the fallen debris of his once high thoughts and
\nglorious dreams.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Who
\nPersuaded it to Fall?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nwho persuaded it to fall from bliss
And forfeit its immortal
\nprivilege? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWho
\nlaid on it the ceaseless will to live
A wanderer in this
\nbeautiful, sorrowful world,
And bear its load of joy and grief
\nand love? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWho persuaded the
\nsoul to fail from its innate bliss and give up its high privilege of
\nimmortality? Who forced on it the incessant will to live here as a
\nwanderer in this sorrowful\u2014yet beautiful\u2014world and carry its
\nburden of joy, grief and love?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>A
\nGreat Illusion<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nif no being watches the works of Time,
What hard impersonal
\nNecessity
Compels the vain toil of brief living things? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ngreat Illusion then has built the stars. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nwhere then is the soul\u2019s security,
Its poise in this circling
\nof unreal suns? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf there is no God
\nwatching the career of this earth-life, there must be some impersonal
\nLaw which compels all this vain toil on these transient creatures.
\nWhat Law of Necessity is that ?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nPerhaps a grand
\nIllusion has built this universe. Where, in that case, is there tiny
\nsecurity for the soul which is cast in this circling movement of suns
\nthat are themselves unreal ?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Soul
\nOnly a Dream ?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nelse it is a wanderer from its home
Who strayed into a blind
\nalley of Time and chance
And finds no issue from a meaningless
\nworld. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr
\nwhere begins and ends Illusion\u2019s reign? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPerhaps
\nthe soul we feel is only a dream,
Eternal self a fiction sensed
\nin trance.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr maybe the soul
\nhas strayed away from its home in the Eternal and finds itself in
\nthis world of Time and chance which has no outlet but ends in an
\nimpasse. It sees no meaning in it whatever.Where begins the domain of
\nIllusion and where does it end ? Could it be that what we feel as the
\nsoul is only a dream and what we perceive as the eternal self is only
\na myth thrown up in trance?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Narad
\nReplies<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nafter a silence Narad made reply:
Tuning his lips to earthly
\nsound he spoke,
And something now of the deep sense of fate
\n
Weighted the fragile hints of mortal speech. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA silence follows
\nafter which Narad replies. His lips which are normally accustomed to
\ncelestial sound have first to he tuned to earthly sound before he
\nproceeds to speak. And as he speaks, something of the profound
\nfeeling of Fate is expressed in the frail hints of human speech.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>His
\nRevealing Look<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nforehead shone with vision solemnised,
Turned to a tablet of
\nsupernal thoughts
As if characters of an unwritten tongue
Had
\nleft in its breadth the inscriptions of the gods. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBare
\nin that Light Time toiled, his unseen works
Detected, the
\nbroad-flung far-seeing schemes
Unfinished which his aeoned flight
\nunrolls
Were mapped already in that world-wide look: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIlis forehead glows
\nwith a shining vision. It becomes a veritable tablet of heavenly
\nthoughts which appear like the strange hieroglyphs of the gods
\ninscribed on its broad surface. In that luminous world-embracing book
\nof Narad the unseen toils of Time are caught sight of; mapped out are
\nthe broad-based and far-sighted schemes of Time still unfinished and
\nyet to be worked out.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Marvellous
\nGuest<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cWas
\nthen the sun a dream because there is night? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHidden
\nin the mortal\u2019s heart the Eternal lives:
He lives secret in the
\nchamber of thy soul,
A light shines there nor pain nor grief can
\ncross. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ndarkness stands between thyself and him,
Thou canst not hear or
\nfeel the marvellous Guest,
Thou canst not see the beatific sun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWould you deny the
\nexistence of the sun simply because there comes the night when the
\nsun is not ? The sun is there, only you do not see him then.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn the heart of the
\nmortal, the Eternal dwells but is hidden to sight; he is there
\nconcealed in the inner chambers of thy soul. In that chamber shines a
\nlight that cannot be dimmed by pain or grief. But a darkness
\nintervenes between thee and the divine Inhabitant within, as a result
\nof which thou canst not hear or feel that marvelous Guest\u2014the Guest
\nimmortal in the mortals, thou canst not see that sun of felicity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Thy
\nThought Tides<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nqueen, thy thought is a light of the Ignorance,
Its brilliant
\ncurtain hides from thee God\u2019s face. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nillumines a world born from the Inconscience,
But hides the
\nImmortal\u2019s meaning in the world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThy
\nmind\u2019s light hides from thee the Eternal\u2019s thought,
Thy
\nheart\u2019s hopes hide from thee the Eternal\u2019s will,
Earth\u2019s
\njoys shut from thee the Immortal\u2019s bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO queen, thy thought
\nis but a radiation of thy Ignorance, it only acts as a brilliant
\ncurtain that serves to hide God’s face from thee.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThy thought throws
\nlight on this world which has emerged from Inconscience but conceals
\nthe purpose planted in it by the Immortal Creator.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThy mind sheds some
\nlight through its thought, but that very thought by its activity
\nveils from thee the Eternal’s thought which alone knows. Thy heart’s
\nh4-pes and emotions, by their agitation, hide from thee the Eternal\u2019s
\nWill which alone fulfils itself. So too the petty transient joys of
\nthe earth, by their frothy excitement, keep away from thee the
\nunderlying bliss of the Immortal which alone is undying.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Pain,
\nDread Teacher<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThence
\nrose the need of a dark intruding god,
The world\u2019s dread
\nteacher, the creator, pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhere
\nIgnorance is, there suffering too must come;
Thy grief is a cry
\nof darkness to the Light; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is because of
\nthis separation from the Immortal’s Bliss, from the Eternal’s Thought
\nand Will, that pain had to be born to force man to awake and to
\ncompel him to strive for the higher truths, Where there is Ignorance,
\nsuffering has to come to work it out, otherwise man tends to stay
\nput, stagnate in it without trying to get over it. Pain forces him to
\ntake steps to tackle the roots of suffering\u2014Ignorance. Pain is thus
\na dread teacher, initiator of a new movement. What thou callest grief
\nis really a plaintive call of darkness to the Light above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Pain
\nBorn of Inconscience<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPain
\nwas the first-born of the Inconscience
Which was thy body\u2019s
\ndumb original base;
Already slept there pain\u2019s subconscient
\nshape:
A shadow in a shadowy tenebrous womb,
Till life shall
\nmove, it waits to wake and be. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFrom the
\nInconscience, which is the mute first base of thy body, is born pain.
\nThe source of pain is absence of consciousness. For it is only in
\nunconsciousness that there is division from the truth and this
\ndivision causes pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn that obscure dark
\nwomb of the Inconscience, pain is already there, dormant, a shadow
\nwhich waits for the movement of life in order to stir and become
\nactive. With the outbreak of life and sensation, the vibration of
\npain becomes tangible.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Joy,
\nTwin of Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\none caul with joy came forth the dreadful Power. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nlife\u2019s breast it was born hiding its twin;
But pain came first,
\nthen only joy could be. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis dreadful Power
\nof pain emerges along with its companion, joy; when it appears in the
\nheart of life it hides its twin, joy. Pain comes first and makes
\npossible the coming of joy in its wake.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Pain
\nPloughs<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPain
\nploughed the first hard ground of the world-drowse. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBy
\npain a spirit started from the clod,
By pain Life stirred in the
\nsubliminal deep. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is pain that
\nfirst breaks up the hard ground of the Inconscience, disturbs the
\nheavy sleep of the material world. Pain awakes the spirit dormant in
\nthe soil of Matter and sets astir Life in the subtler depths of this
\nexistence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nInterned,
\nsubmerged, hidden in Matter\u2019s trance
Awoke to itself the
\ndreamer, sleeping Mind;
It made a visible realm out of its
\ndreams,
It drew its shapes from the subconscient depths,
Then
\nturned to look upon the world it had made. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMind, the dreamer,
\ndormant and imprisoned in the depths of tranced Matter, awakes (after
\nthe stir of life). It weaves an apparent dominion out of its own
\ndreams, drawing patterns from the subconscient depths and then poises
\nitself to regard its creation as original.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>The
\nInanimate Perceives its Soul<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBy
\npain and joy, the bright and tenebrous twins,
The inanimate world
\nperceived its sentient soul,
Else had the Inconscient never
\nsuffered change. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWithout the presence
\nand interaction of pain and joy the Inconscient would never have
\nundergone all this change. It is due to these inseparable twins\u2014dark
\nand bright — of pain and joy, that this inanimate world has become
\naware of its conscious soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Pain
\nis the Hammer<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPain
\nis the hammer of the gods to break
A dead resistance in the
\nmortal\u2019s heart,
His slow inertia as of living stone. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf
\nthe heart were not forced to want and weep,
His soul would have
\nlain down content, at ease,
And never thought to exceed the human
\nstart
And never learned to climb towards the Sun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere is a hard,
\nunyielding resistance to movement and change in the heart of man, a
\ndull inertia as if he were a living stone. The gods\u2014the Powers f
\nFormation\u2014use pain as their hammer to break this resistance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIf man\u2019s heart
\nwere not thus forced to feel its need and suffer, his soul would have
\nbeen content to remain passive, quiescent; it would never have
\nthought of striving to go beyond the human starting point and
\nlearning to ascend towards the Sun of the Spirit,<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Earth
\nin Labour<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nearth is full of labour, packed with pain;
Throes of an endless
\nbirth coerce her still;
The centuries end, the ages vainly pass
\n
And yet the godhead in her is not born. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis earth is in
\ncontinuous labour, suffering pangs of birth without break across the
\ncenturies and ages; the godhead of which it would be delivered is
\nstill not born.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThe
\nancient Mother faces all with joy,
Calls for the ardent pang, the
\ngrandiose thrill;
For with pain and labour all creation comes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nearth is full of the anguish of the gods;
Ever they travail
\ndriven by Time\u2019s goad,
And strive to work out the eternal will
\n
And shape the life divine in mortal forms. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe ancient
\nMother-Earth faces all tribulations with joy; she even welcomes the
\npangs of birth which give her a mighty thrill. For on the heels of
\npain and labour, new creation follows and Earth is avid of new and
\nnewer formations.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe earth is full of
\nthe struggle and pain of the Powers that build; these are the gods
\nwho work incessantly under the irresistible impulsion of Time. They
\nlabour in order to work out and fulfil the Will of the Divine; and
\nthat Will is to achieve the immortal, divine life in the mortal forms
\nthat people this Earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Spirit
\nDoomed to Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nwill must be worked out in human breasts
Against the Evil that
\nrises from the gulfs,
Against man\u2019s ignorance and his obstinate
\nstrength,
Against the deep folly of his human mind,
Against
\nthe blind reluctance of his human heart. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nspirit is doomed to pain till man is free. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Divine’s will
\nmust be worked out in man. But it is faced with the opposition of the
\nCosmic Evil rising from the depths of the universal Ignorance and
\nInconscience. It is opposed also by the individual ignorance of man,
\nthe unyielding strength of persistence in his vital, the endless
\nfolly of his mind, the blind unwillingness of his heart to change.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis struggle of the
\nspirit and its attendant pain has to continue till man is liberated
\nfrom these lower bondages which keep him tied to mortality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Men
\nDie that Man may Live<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis a clamour of battle, a tramp, a march:
A cry arises like a
\nmoaning sea,
A desperate laughter under the blows of death,
A
\ndoom of blood and sweat and toil and tears. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMen
\ndie that man may live and God be born. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nawful Silence watches tragic Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis struggle takes
\nthe form of clash and battle between the hosts of Ignorance and
\nDarkness and those of Knowledge and Light. There is bloodshed, misery
\nand death. But the strife continues. Men sacrifice themselves and die
\nso that mankind may live on and progress towards godhood.All these
\ntragic events in time are watched by a profound Silence which is of
\nthe Spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Pain
\nHand of Nature<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPain
\nis the hand of Nature sculpturing men
To greatness: an inspired
\nlabour chisels
With heavenly cruelty an unwilling mould. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus pain is really
\nthe hand of Nature shaping men into greater beings. The human is an
\nunwilling material upon which Nature works with skill; the process is
\nindeed painful and may appear cruel, but it is a deliberate cruelty
\nwith a lofty motive.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Demiurges
\nWork<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nImplacable
\nin the passion of their will,
Lifting the hammers of titanic toil
\n
The demiurges of the universe work;
They shape with giant
\nstrokes their own; their sons
Are marked with their enormous
\nstamp of fire. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe creative Powers
\nof the universe are at their titanic toil with an .undiminishing
\nintensity of will; they build with their characteristic giant strokes
\nof hammer humanity is marked with this huge fiery stamp.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Fiery
\nSpirit Grows<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough
\nthe shaping god\u2019s tremendous touch
Is torture unbearable to
\nmortal nerves,
The fiery spirit grows in strength within
And
\nfeels a joy in every titan pang. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe mighty action of
\nthe shaping god is indeed a painful torture that mortal nerves find
\nunbearable. But the ardent spirit within man\u2014the soul grows
\nstronger with every such stroke and thrills with joy to every mighty
\npang caused by it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Saviour
\nmust Share the Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nwho would save himself lives bare and calm;
He who would save the
\nrace must share its pain: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
This
\nhe shall know who obeys that grandiose urge. . He who strives for his
\nindividual liberation may live alone by himself and in calm. But he
\nwho seeks to free the whole human race from bondage has got to share
\nthe pains of all. Whoever is moved by this great, noble urge to save
\nhumanity shall realise this compulsive truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Must
\nBear Man’s Burden<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\ngreat who came to save this suffering world
And rescue out of
\nTime\u2019s shadow and the Law,
Must pass beneath the yoke of grief
\nand pain:
They are caught by the Wheel that they had hoped to
\nbreak,
On their shoulders they must bear man\u2019s load of fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll great beings who
\ncome on earth to save this world in distress and free it from
\nthraldom to the yoke of Time and Necessity, must undergo the grief
\nand pain of the world. They are caught by the very Wheel of life and
\ndeath they had hoped to break; they are obliged to bear personally
\nman’s burden of Fate which they have come to lighten.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Son
\nof God (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHeaven\u2019s
\nriches they bring, their sufferings count the price
Or they pay
\nthe gift of knowledge with their lives. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nSon of God born as the Son of man
Has drunk the bitter cup, owned
\nGodhead\u2019s debt,
The debt the Eternal owes to the fallen kind
\n
His will has bound to death and struggling life
That yearns
\nin vain for rest and endless peace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThey bring to earth
\nthe treasures of Heaven and pay for them with their own sufferings;
\nthey bring the gift of Knowledge and they pay for it with their
\nlives.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nChrist, the Son of
\nGod, took birth as the Son of Man to save the world. Ile had to drink
\nthe bitter cup of earthly suffering. As the Son of God, he took upon
\nhimself to pay the debt that God owes to the human kind for having
\nbound it with his will to death and struggle, to a life that thirsts
\nin vain for rest and eternal peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Son
\nof God (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNow
\nis the debt paid, wiped off the original score. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nEternal suffers in a human form,
He has signed salvation\u2019s
\ntestament with his blood:
He has opened the doors of his undying
\npeace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThat debt of God has
\nnow been paid and the original account squared. With the Eternal
\ntaking on suffering in his human form, salvation to all has been
\nassured under his signature in blood. He has opened to man the doors
\nof his eternal peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Son
\nof God (III)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nDeity compensates the creature\u2019s claim,
The Creator bears the
\nlaw of pain and death;
A retribution smites the incarnate God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nlove has paved the mortal\u2019s road to Heaven:
He has given his
\nlife and light to balance here
The dark account of mortal
\nignorance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nGod makes good the
\nclaims of the suffering creature. He who has created all this
\nundergoes the law of pain and death to which his creatures are
\nsubjected. Retribution comes to the embodied God in the form of
\nsuffering and death.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWith his love he has
\nlaid the mortal’s path to Heaven. With the sacrifice of his life and
\nlight he has balanced the dark account of the ignorance that is
\nimposed upon the mortals.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Son
\nof God (IV)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nis finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice,
Offered by God\u2019s
\nmartyred body for the world;
Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot,
\n
He carries the cross on which man\u2019s soul is nailed;
His
\nescort is the curses of the crowd;
Insult and jeer are his
\nright\u2019s acknowledgment;
Two thieves slain with him mock his
\nmighty death. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nGod has offered his
\nbody in utter sacrifice on behalf of the world; that sacred martyrdom
\nis over. He himself had to carry the heavy cross on which his body
\nwas nailed, the cross of suffering to which the soul of man is tied.
\nGethsemane (the rock agony) and Golgotha (site of the crucifixion)
\nwere his share. He was accompanied by the curses of the ignorant
\ncrowd; all that his truth and right evoked were the insults and jeers
\nfrom those around. His great death was deliberately mocked at by the
\nkilling of two common thieves alongside of him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Son
\nof God (V)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nhas trod with bleeding brow the Saviour\u2019s way. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nwho has found his identity with God
Pays with the body\u2019s death
\nhis soul\u2019s vast light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nknowledge immortal triumphs by his death. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe walked the
\nSaviours road with bleeding brow. That was the penalty for choosing
\nthe path of the Saviour of the world. He realised his oneness with
\nGod; and for this vast light gained by his soul, he paid with the
\ndeath of his body. His immortal Knowledge triumphed but he had to die
\nin the process.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Son
\nof God (VI)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHewn,
\nquartered on the scaffold as he falls
His crucified voice
\nproclaims, \u201cI, I am God;\u201d
\u201cYes, all is God,\u201d peals back
\nHeaven\u2019s deathless call. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs he fell from the
\ncross, his body was cut up into four, and his crucified voice
\ndeclared that he was none else than God Himself. But another voice,
\nthe eternal voice of Heaven answered: Yes, thou art God, but all else
\nalso is God. See God in all and bear.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nseed of Godhead sleeps in mortal hearts,
The flower of Godhead
\ngrows on the world-tree:
All shall discover God in self and
\nthings,
But when God\u2019s messenger comes to help the world
And
\nlead the soul of earth to higher things,
He too must carry the
\nyoke he came to unloose;
He too must bear the pang that he would
\nheal:
Exempt and unafflicted by earth\u2019s fate,
How shall he
\ncure the ills he never felt? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe seed that is to
\nblossom into Godhead is there dormant in mortal hearts; the flower of
\nGodhead grows steadily on the tree that is the world. All are on the
\nway to discover God in themselves and in the things around. And yet
\ndespite the potentiality of godhead being there everywhere\u2014when a
\nmessenger of God comes to the earth to help the world and lead the
\nevolving soul of earth upwards, he has to pay a terrible price. He
\nmust come under the yoke of the Nature he has come to lift: he must
\nsuffer the pain he would remove. If he were not to share and suffer
\nthe fate of the earth, how could he hope to cure the ills that he
\nhimself has not experienced ? Unless experienced the ills are not
\nreal to him and to that extent his cure also is ineffective. Both the
\ndisease and the cure are first to be worked out in his own being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ncovers the world\u2019s agony with his calm;
But though to the
\noutward eye no sign appears
And peace is given to our torn human
\nhearts,
The struggle is there and paid the unseen price;
The
\nfire, the strife, the wrestle are within. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe messenger of God
\ncontains the agony of the world with his innate calm. Outwardly he
\ndoes not appear to suffer, peace flows from him to the stricken
\nhumanity; but behind the veil of appearance there goes on the
\nstruggle, he pays the pt-ice. Within him are the burning heat, the
\nstrife and the combat.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (III)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ncarries the suffering world in his own breast;
Its sins weigh on
\nhis thoughts, its grief is his:
Earth\u2019s ancient load lies heavy
\non his soul;
Night and its powers beleaguer his tardy steps,
The
\ntitan adversary\u2019s clutch he bears;
His march is a battle and a
\npilgrimage. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe holds and carries
\nthe suffering world in his own breast. Its ills press upon his
\nthoughts, its grief becomes his own. The ages-long burden of the
\nearth sits heavy upon his being. His slow and wary steps are besieged
\nby the Darkness and its powers that engulf the world. He has to bear
\nthe grip of the titan enemy who is in revolt against God and His Law.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe march of God’s
\nmessenger on earth is at once a battle with the elements that oppose
\nand a pilgrimage onwards.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (IV)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLife\u2019s
\nevil smites, he is stricken with the world\u2019s pain:
A million
\nwounds gape in his secret heart. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\njourneys sleepless through an unending night;
Antagonist forces
\ncrowd across his path;
A siege, a combat is his inner life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe prevailing evil
\nin the world smites him and the pain of the world afflicts him. In
\nhis secret heart countless wounds are raw and open. He has to walk
\nthrough a never ending darkness with unwinking vigilance, for hostile
\nforces gather in their multitude across his path. His inner life is a
\ncontinuous battle it is always under the siege of the Enemy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (V)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven
\nworse may be the cost, direr the pain:
His large identity and
\nall-harbouring love
Shall bring the cosmic anguish into his
\ndepths,
The sorrow of all living things shall come
And knock
\nat his doors and live within his house;
A dreadful cord of
\nsympathy can tie
All suffering into his single grief and make
\n
All agony in all the worlds his own. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe messenger of God
\nsuffers for his daring not only because of the opposition faced by
\nhim as an individual, but much more because of the universal aspect
\nof his work. His identification with the whole of humanity and his
\nlove encompassing all act as a channel for the anguish of the cosmos
\nto enter into his being. The sorrow of all living creatures knocks at
\nhis door and lodges itself in his inner being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis sympathy with
\nall becomes a fearful cord tying up the suffering of all into a
\nsingle grief in his heart. It can even compress the agony in all the
\nworlds\u2014not merely in this physical world\u2014into his agony.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (VI)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nmeets an ancient adversary Force,
He is lashed with the whips
\nthat tear the world\u2019s worn heart;
The weeping of the centuries
\nvisits his eyes:
He wears the blood-glued fiery Centaur\u2019s
\nshirt,
The poison of the world has stained his throat. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Adversary who
\nhas been there from the ancient times confronts him his whip-lashes
\nthat tear the tired heart of the world land on him. The grief of the
\nentire past rushes into his eyes, even the bloody sufferings
\nundergone by the brave pre-human species stick to him. The poison
\nthat has been generated in the churning of the world leaves a stain
\non his throat as he drinks it down.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (VII)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe market-place of Matter\u2019s capital
Amidst the chafferings of
\nthe affair called life
He is tied to the stake of a perennial
\nFire,
He burns on an unseen original verge
That Matter may be
\nturned to spirit stuff:
He is the victim in his own sacrifice. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAmidst the petty
\ndealings of transient life on earth\u2014the field of Matter — he is
\ntied to the burning stake of perpetual suffering. He burns on a level
\nof being that is unseen and close to the Spirit in order that this
\nMatter may change into Spirit. His coming down and acting here in
\nthis world is a veritable sacrifice; it ends by his becoming the
\nvictim the oblation of that sacrifice.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God\u2019s
\nMessenger (VIII)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nImmortal bound to earth\u2019s mortality
Appearing and perishing on
\nthe roads of Time
Creates God\u2019s moment by eternity\u2019s beats. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Immortal chooses
\nto get bound to the mortality of the earth in the person of his
\nmessenger. And in thus appearing and dying in the passages of Time,
\nhe prepares the pregnant moment for the fulfilment of God to the
\naccompaniment of the rhythms of the Eternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God’s
\nMessenger (IX)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe dies that the
\nworld may be new-born and live. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven if he escapes
\nthe fiercest fires,
Even if the world breaks not in, a drowning
\nsea,
Only by hard sacrifice is high heaven earned:
He must
\nface the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe suffers and gives
\nup his life in order that by the consequences of his action the world
\nmay get a new birth and live on.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEven if he is spared
\nthe worst ordeals, even if the Karma of the whole world does not
\noverwhelm him, still he must make the hard sacrifice of his life; for
\nonly so can his high aim be attained.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnyone who seeks to
\nconquer the hell ()f evil and pain has got to face a combat with the
\nadversary, suffer the pangs of his blows.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Dark
\nHostility<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ndark concealed hostility is lodged
In the human depths, in the
\nhidden heart of Time
That claims the right to change and mar
\nGod\u2019s work. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere is a dark
\nhostility lying hidden in the depths of the human beings, in the
\nunseen heart of Time. This hostility always claims and asserts a
\nright to interfere with the work of God in this creation, change it
\nand, if possible, ruin it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
**It Stamps
\nStain<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA
\nsecret enmity ambushes the world\u2019s march;
It leaves a mark on
\nthought and speech and act:
It stamps stain and defect on all
\nthings done;
Till it is slain peace is forbidden on earth. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis secret
\nhostility swoops upon the world on its march, leaves its scar on
\nthought, speech and act. It stains and renders defective whatever is
\ndone in the world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis element that
\nopposes and deforms must be destroyed. Till that is done, there can
\nbe no real peace on earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Unseen
\nFoe<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nis no visible foe, but the unseen
Is round us, forces intangible
\nbesiege,
Touches from alien realms, thoughts not our own
\n
Overtake us and compel the erring heart;
Our lives are caught
\nin an ambiguous net. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIndeed there is no
\nenemy visible to our eyes. But the hostility is all around us:
\nintangible forces are incessantly active waning us in; influences and
\nimpacts come on earth from planes other than ours alien
\nthought-movements invade us and well nigh compel our hearts to err.
\nIn a word, our lives are enmeshed in an unpredictable uncertainty.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAn
\nadversary Force was born of old:
Invader of the life of mortal
\nman,
It hides from him the straight immortal path. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn the very
\nbeginnings was born a Force that is antagonistic to the Divine
\nIntention in this Creation. That Force has invaded the life of mortal
\nman. It veils from him the direct path to the Immortal and leads him
\nastray in many a crooked pathway.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\npower came in to veil the eternal Light,
A power opposed to the
\neternal will
Diverts the messages of the infallible Word,
\n
Contorts the contours of the cosmic plan:
A whisper lures to
\nevil the human heart,
It seals up wisdom\u2019s eyes, the soul\u2019s
\nregard,
It is the origin of our suffering here,
It binds
\nearth to calamity and pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA power intervened
\nin order to hide the Light eternal. This power is opposed to the
\neternal Will of God and interferes at every step: it gives a wrong
\ndirection to the intimations of Truth, the infallible Word; it twists
\nthe patterns of the cosmic plan of the Divine Builder; with a whisper
\nit misleads the heart to evil; it blocks the sight of the soul, the
\neyes of the inner wis <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


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


\nThis
\nall must conquer who would bring down God\u2019s peace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nhidden foe lodged in the human breast
Man must overcome or miss
\nhis higher fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nis the inner war without escape. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll who hope to
\nbring down the Peace of God into this world of unrest and strife must
\nfirst conquer this deforming power. Man must subdue this enemy living
\nconcealed in his own. being, otherwise he misses his higher destiny.
\nThere is no escape from this ,inner war with the hidden foe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>World-Redeemer’s
\nTask<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHard
\nis the world-redeemer\u2019s heavy task;
The world itself becomes
\nhis adversary,
His enemies are the beings he came to save. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThose
\nhe would save are his antagonists:
This world is in love with its
\nown ignorance,
Its darkness turns away from the saviour light,
\n
It gives the cross in payment for the crown. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe heavy task of
\nthe world-saviour is hard indeed. The world he comes to redeem,
\nitself opposes him. Those he comes to help turn into his foes, Tie
\nhas to suffer the opposition of those he seeks to save.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis world is truly
\nattached to its own ignorance; it will not let it go. The darkness of
\nthis world turns its back on the light that comes to help and save.
\nFor the crown Of fulfilment that the saviour brings to it, this world
\nreturns only bitter suffering.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>A
\nSun has Passed<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nwork is a trickle of splendour in a long night;
He sees the long
\nmarch of Time, the little won;
A few are saved, the rest strive
\non and fail:
A Sun has passed, on earth Night\u2019s shadow falls. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn the enormous long
\nstretch of darkness that covers this world-life, the work of the
\nworld-redeemer is but a streak of light. lie covers, indeed, a little
\nof the long march of Time, but what stretches ahead is endless. As a
\nresult of his efforts a few are saved, others struggle on but fail.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nwith his departure.
\na Sun has passed and Darkness again settles upon the earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Sunlit
\nPath<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYes,
\nthere are happy ways near to God\u2019s sun;
But few are they who
\ntread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAn
\nexit is shown, a road of hard escape
From the sorrow and the
\ndarkness and the chain;
But how shall a few escaped release the
\nworld? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe human mass
\nlingers beneath the yoke. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNo doubt there are
\neasier and happier paths that are near to God’s luminous Sun. But
\nthose who walk the happy, sunlit paths are few, for one has to be
\nvery pure in soul in order to be able to walk in light. And the truly
\npure are rare.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOf course, there is
\na way of escaping from the whole round of sorrow, darkness and the
\nchainof ignorance; it is hard, nevertheless it is shown to be
\npossible. But even if a few do manage to escape by this doer of exit,
\nhow does it help the world to be free ? The rest of humanity whose
\nnumber is legion, continues to groan under the yoke.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Escape
\nCannot Uplift<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEscape,
\nhowever high, redeems not life,
Life that is left behind on a
\nfallen earth. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEscape
\ncannot uplift the abandoned race
Or bring to it victory and the
\nreign of God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ngreater power must come, a larger light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHowever lofty the
\nindividual escape, it does not deliver the life that is left behind
\non the earth which has fallen into a state suffering and darkness.
\nThe entire race is left abandoned. Escape cannot uplift it in any
\nway, nor can it bring to it victory and the Kingdom of God. For that
\nto be possible. a greater Power, a larger Light than any active so
\nfar, has to come.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Work
\nHalf-Done<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough
\nLight grows on earth and Night recedes,
Yet till the evil is
\nslain in its own home
And Light invades the world\u2019s inconscient
\nbase
And perished has the adversary Force,
He still must
\nlabour on, his work half done. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven though as a
\nresult of the Saviour’s labours and the action from Above, the Light
\nextends and the Night recedes on earth, yet there is much to be done.
\nTill that supernal Light invades and strikes the Inconscient from
\nwhich this world arises and slays the evil rooted there, and destroys
\nthe opposing Force, the Saviour has got to strive on: otherwise his
\ntask is only half fulfilled <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>One
\nmay yet Come<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOne
\nyet may come armoured, invincible;
His will immobile meets the
\nmobile hour;
The world\u2019s blows cannot bend that victor head;
\n
Calm and sure are his steps in the growing Night;
The goal
\nrecedes, he hurries not his pace,
He turns not to high voices in
\nthe Night. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nasks no aid from the inferior gods;
His eyes are fixed on the
\nimmutable aim. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nStill, some special
\nmanifestation of God may come one day, well-armed, unconquerable. His
\nunshakable will shalt confront the mutations of Time. All the blows
\nof the world will not be able to bend that victor’s head. The Night
\nmay extend and grow. but his steps will be calm and certain; the goal
\nmay recede as he advances, but he will not be impatient and quicken
\nhis pace. He will not be decoyed by powerful unknown Voices in the
\nNight: he will not seek the help of inferior deities.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHis eyes will always
\nbe fixed on the immovable aim before him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Heaven
\nand Earth his Instruments<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan
\nturns aside or chooses easier paths;
He keeps to the one high and
\ndifficult road
That sole can climb to the eternal\u2019s peaks;
The
\nineffable planes already have felt his tread;
He has made heaven
\nand earth his instruments,
But the limits fall from him of earth
\nand heaven;
Their law he transcends but uses as his means. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe ordinary man
\nturns away from the difficult terrain and takes to easier paths. But
\nthe chosen one does not deflect from his high road however difficult;
\nfor that alone can lead to the peaks of the Eternal. The occult
\nplanes between the earth below and the peaks above have already felt
\nhis steps. He has turned both heaven and earth into his handmaids;
\nthe limits of earth and heaven do not obtain for him. He transcends
\ntheir law in himself but uses it as his instrument for the
\neffectuation of his purpose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nHe
\nhas seized life\u2019s hands, he has mastered his own heart. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nfeints of Nature mislead not his sight,
Inflexible his look
\ntowards Truth\u2019s far end;
Fate\u2019s deaf resistance cannot break
\nhis will. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe has secured
\ncontrol of life; he has assumed mastery over the emotions of his
\nheart. His eye cannot be misled by Nature; his look is always fixed
\non the goal, the distant Truth. His will cannot be broken by the
\nimplacable opposition of Fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nIn
\nthe dreadful passages, the fatal paths,
Invulnerable his soul,
\nhis heart unslain,
He lives through the opposition of earth\u2019s
\nPowers
And Nature\u2019s ambushes and the world\u2019s attacks. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis soul is
\nunconquerable, his heart is unslain as he crosses the dangerous
\npassages and paths of sure death. He resists the opposition of powers
\nwell-established on earth. survives the sudden blows of hostile
\nNature and meets the attacks of the ignorant world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Grapple
\nwith Sphinx<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nspirit\u2019s stature transcending pain and bliss
He fronts evil and
\ngood with calm and equal eyes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ntoo must grapple with the riddling Sphinx
And plunge into her
\nlong obscurity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis developed
\nspit-it stands above the touches of pain and joy and hence he is able
\nto face evil and good with calm and equality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEven he has to come
\nto grips with the mystery of life, meet her unsolved question and
\ndelve into the depths of her obscurity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Into
\nthe Inconscient’s Depths<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nhas broken into the Inconscient\u2019s depths
That veil themselves
\neven from their own regard:
He has seen God\u2019s slumber shape
\nthese magic worlds. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nhas watched the dumb God fashioning Matter\u2019s frame,
Dreaming
\nthe dreams of its unknowing sleep,
And watched the unconscious
\nForce that built the stars. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

He
\nhas broken into the sealed and unseeing depths of the Inconscient.
\nThere he has seen in the tranced sleep of God the shaping of all
\nthese worlds that look as if sprung from magic. He has observed how
\nGod in his mute spell fashions the Form of Matter. dreams the
\nreveries of the Inconscient’s sleep. He has watched, there the
\nmechanical, somnambulist Force at work building the stars.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nHe
\nhas learnt the Inconscient\u2019s workings and its law,
Its
\nincoherent thoughts and rigid acts,
Its hazard wastes of impulse
\nand idea,
The chaos of its mechanic frequencies,
Its random
\ncalls, its whispers falsely true,
Misleaders of the hooded
\nlistening soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe has studied and
\nknown the workings and the law of the Inconscient its thoughts
\nwithout sequence, its acts that are always unchanging and mechanical,
\nits unsure and meaningless upheavings of impulses and ideas, the
\nchaos of its mechanical repetition, its aimless calls, its promptings
\nthat are false but effective enough to mislead the soul that hears
\nfrom behind its veil.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAll
\nthings come to its ear but nothing abides;
All rose from the
\nsilence, all goes back to its hush. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts
\nsomnolence founded the universe,
Its obscure waking makes the
\nworld seem vain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Inconscient
\nregisters all that happens, but retains nothing for long. From its
\ninarticulate silence all arises and into its hush all sinks back. In
\nthe half-sleep of the Inconscient lie the foundations of the
\nuniverse; its dull and semi-wakeful action makes the world appear
\npurposeless.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nArisen
\nfrom Nothingness and towards Nothingness turned
Its dark and
\npotent nescience was earth\u2019s start;
It is the waste stuff from
\nwhich all was made;
Into its deeps creation can collapse. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts
\nopposition clogs the march of the soul,
It is the mother of our
\nignorance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts nescience arises
\nfrom Nothingness and towards Nothingness it pulls back. From this
\ndark but potent nescience the earth has begun its career.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe Inconscient is
\nthe waste material from which all has been formed, and what has thus
\nbeen created can sink back into its depths. It is the opposition of
\nthis Inconscient that obstructs and slows down the march of the soul.
\nFrom it is born all Ignorance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Call
\nLight into Abysms<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nmust call light into its dark abysms,
Else never can Truth
\nconquer Matter\u2019s sleep
And all earth look into the eyes of God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nthings obscure his knowledge must relume,
All things perverse his
\npower must unknot:
He must pass to the other shore of falsehood\u2019s
\nsea,
He must enter the world\u2019s dark to bring there light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Redeemer must
\nbring the Light into the dark abysms of the Inconscient. Otherwise
\nthe Divine Truth cannot overcome the !-obscure. sleep of Matter and
\nthe earth cannot hope to come face to face with God; Matter and
\nSpirit cannot meet. His knowledge must rekindle all that has become
\nobscure; his power must untie and resolve all perversities. He must
\nreach the nether shore of this expanse of falsehood, enter into the
\ndarkest caverns of world-nature in order to bring light there.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Evil
\nmust be Bared<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nheart of evil must be bared to his eyes,
He must learn its cosmic
\ndark Necessity,
Its right and its dire roots in Nature\u2019s soil. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nmust know the thought that moves the demon act
And justifies the
\nTitan\u2019s erring pride
And the falsehood lurking in earth\u2019s
\ncrooked dreams:
He must enter the eternity of Night
And know
\nGod\u2019s darkness as he knows his Sun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor
\nthis he must go down into the pit,
For this he must invade the
\ndolorous Vasts. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe must see evil at
\nits bare core, know its purpose and its dark Necessity in the cosmos,
\nrealise its justification to plant its ominous roots in the very soil
\nof Nature. He must know also the thought that is responsible for
\ndemoniac movements and justifies the Titan’s pride that errs for
\never. He must recognise the falsehood that hides in the crooked
\ndreams of earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHe must enter the
\nendless Night of obscurity and know intimately the Darkness in
\nCreation even as he knows the light-giving sun. For this purpose he
\nmust deliberately plunge into the pit of Inconscience and invade the
\nempire of pain and sorrow.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Light
\nBeyond Darkness of Hell<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nImperishable
\nand wise and infinite,
He still must travel Hell the world to
\nsave. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nInto
\nthe eternal Light he shall emerge
On borders of the meeting of
\nall worlds;
There on the verge of Nature\u2019s summit steps
The
\nsecret Law of each thing is fulfilled,
All contraries heal their
\nlong dissidence. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThough he is
\nimmortal. wise and limitless in his consciousness, if he wants to
\nsave the world, he must descend into and pass through Hell. He will
\nemerge into the eternal Light that shines on the other side of the
\nDarkness, where all worlds meet. Beyond the nadir of Darkness there
\nare open vistas of Light bordering on the summits of Nature; there is
\nfulfilled the inner law of each and in the process, all opposites
\nfind their gulfs healed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Opposites
\nMeet<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere
\nmeet and clasp the eternal opposites,
There pain becomes a
\nviolent fiery joy;
Evil turns back to its original good,
And
\nsorrow lies upon the breasts of Bliss:
She has learnt to weep
\nglad tears of happiness;
Her gaze is charged with a wistful
\necstasy. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere come together
\nand mingle the eternal opposites. Pain is realised to be only a
\nviolent intensity of joy. Evil resolves itself into the Good from
\nwhich it originally issued. Sorrow finds herself on the bosom of
\nBliss. She sheds happy tears of felicity; in her gaze there is a
\ncertain wistful ecstasy\u2014wistful because of all that she has passed
\nthrough.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>End
\nof Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nshall be ended here the Law of Pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEarth
\nshall be made a home of Heaven\u2019s light,
A seer heaven-born
\nshall lodge in human breasts;
The superconscient beam shall touch
\nmen\u2019s eyes
And the truth-conscious world come down to earth
\n
Invading Matter with the Spirit\u2019s ray
Awaking its silence
\nto immortal thoughts,
Awaking the dumb heart to the living Word. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen will the Law of
\nPain cease to exist here on the earth turned into a home of Heaven’s
\nlight, while in man shall live the seer heaven-born. The ray of the
\nsuperconscience shall light up men’s eyes. The truth-conscious world
\nshall descend on earth and invade Matter with the light of the
\nSpirit. striking its dumb silence into awareness of immortal
\nthoughts, awaking its mute heart to the vibrant Word of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Bliss
\nand Immortality<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nmortal life shall house Eternity\u2019s bliss,
The body\u2019s self
\ntaste immortality. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nshall the world-redeemer\u2019s task be done. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nwill this mortal life be able to hold the bliss of the Eternal\u2014and
\nnot before.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nwill the physical share in the divine immortality\u2014and not before.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOnly
\nwhen all this is achieved, will the task of the world-redeemer be
\ncompleted.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Bear
\nthe Law of Pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTill
\nthen must life carry its seed of death
And sorrow\u2019s plaint be
\nheard in the slow Night. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nmortal, bear this great world\u2019s law of pain,
In thy hard
\npassage through a suffering world
Lean for thy soul\u2019s support
\non Heaven\u2019s strength,
Turn towards high Truth, aspire to love
\nand peace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTill the
\nworld-redeemer brings about this transforming change, life will
\ncontinue to be pursued by death and the cry of sorrow heard in the
\nNight of darkness that passes so slowly.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO man, till then
\nthou bast to bear the mighty law of pain that governs this world. In
\nthy difficult journey through this world of suffering.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Life
\na Pilgrimage<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nlittle bliss is lent thee from above,
A touch divine upon thy
\nhuman days:
Make of thy daily way a pilgrimage,
For through
\nsmall joys and griefs thou mov\u2019st towards God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA little of bliss is
\ngiven to thee from an high; that is a divine touch upon thy human
\ndays\u2014the touch that soothes and sustains. Convert thy mechanical
\ndaily life into a conscious pilgrimage to God, For through all thy
\npetty joys and griefs thou art surely moving\u2014known or unknown to
\nthee\u2014towards God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Titan\u2019s
\nRoad<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHaste
\nnot towards Godhead on a dangerous road,
Open not thy doorways to
\na nameless Power,
Climb not to Godhead by the Titan\u2019s road. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAgainst
\nthe Law he pits his single will,
Across its way he throws his
\npride of might. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut do not in thy
\nhaste to reach God, take the wrong and dangerous road of the Asura,
\nthe Titan. Do not open thyself to the hostile undefined Power. The
\nAsura is in revolt against the Divine Law. He challenges it with the
\npride of his own strength and seeks to interfere with its workings.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>He
\nStorm<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHeavenward
\nhe clambers on a stair of storms
Aspiring to live near the
\ndeathless Sun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nstrives with a giant strength to wrest by force
From life and
\nNature the immortals\u2019 right;
He takes by storm the world and
\nfate and heaven. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Titan climbs up
\nhis stormy path towards heaven hoping to live near the immortal
\nLight_ He labours with his inordinate strength to seize by force from
\nlife and Nature the right that belongs to the Gods alone. He assaults
\nforcibly the world, fate and heaven to conquer them for himself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Stretches
\nhis Small Self<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ncomes not to the high world-maker\u2019s seat,
He waits not for the
\noutstretched hand of God
To raise him out of his mortality. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nhe would make his own, leave nothing free,
Stretching his small
\nself to cope with the infinite. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe does not come
\nbefore the throne of the All-Creator in humility_ He does not wait
\nupon the Grace of God to uplift him from his mortal state. He would
\nlike to claim everything for himself, leaving nothing aside; he
\nattempts to contain the vast infinite in his small embrace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nObstructing
\nthe gods\u2019 open ways he makes
His own estate of the earth\u2019s
\nair and light;
A monopolist of the world-energy,
He dominates
\nthe life of common men. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\npain and others\u2019 pain he makes his means:
On death and
\nsuffering he builds his throne. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nObstructing the free
\npassage of the gods, he claims for himself the air and light of the
\nearth which is meant for all; he seeks to monopolise the world
\nenergy, lie spreads his rule over the lives of common men. As a means
\nto his end he utilises pain\u2014be it his own or others’. He erects his
\nempire on the suffering and death caused by his ambition.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Against
\nthe Eternal’s Calm<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthe hurry and clangour of his acts of might,
In a riot and excess
\nof fame and shame,
By his magnitudes of hate and violence,
By
\nthe quaking of the world beneath his tread
He matches himself
\nagainst the Eternal\u2019s calm
And feels in himself the greatness
\nof a god:
Power is his image of celestial self. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis acts .a might
\nare always hurried and loud: fame and shame vie with each other in
\ntheir abundance; his life is characterised by inordinate hate and
\nviolence; the earth shakes beneath his furious march. In all these
\nways he sets himself up against the calm of the Eternal and fancies
\nhimself to be as great as a god. His conception of godliziod is
\npossession of power.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Sea
\nof Fire and Force<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nTitan\u2019s heart is a sea of fire and force;
He exults in the
\ndeath of things and ruin and fall,
He feeds his strength with his
\nown and others\u2019 pain;
In the world\u2019s pathos and passion he
\ntakes delight,
His pride, his might call for the struggle and
\npang. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nglories in the sufferings of the flesh
And covers the stigmata
\nwith the Stoic\u2019s name. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis being is full of
\nburning intensity and force. He rejoices in the destruction and ruin
\nof things. His strength thrives on pain\u2014his own and that of others.
\nHe delights in the pathetic tragedies and the fierce passions of the
\nworld. His vainglory and might always invite struggle and suffering.
\nHe flaunts his physical sufferings and bears pain with a stoic
\nfortitude.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Eves
\nBlinded<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\neyes blinded and visionless stare at the sun,
The seeker\u2019s
\nsight receding from his heart
Can find no more the light of
\neternity;
He sees the beyond as an emptiness void of soul
And
\ntakes his night for a dark infinite. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe vision of the
\nseeker withdraws from his heart and the light of Gad is no more for
\nhim. With blinded eyes, without vision, he stares blankly at the sun
\nof the Spirit. To him the Beyond is a mere lifeless, soulless Void.
\nHe mistakes his own obscure state for a kind of dark infinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nHis
\nnature magnifies the unreal\u2019s blank
And sees in Nought the sole
\nreality:
He would stamp his single figure on the world,
Obsess
\nthe world\u2019s rumours with his single name. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nmoments centre the vast universe. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe sees his little
\nself as very God. He exaggerates the vacancy of the unreal and looks
\nupon Nil as the sole reality. He hopes to dominate the whole world
\nand stamp his figure upon it, to fill the world with the sound of his
\nname alone. He makes himself and his life the centre of the vast
\nuniverse and regards his own small self as the one God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>\u2018I\u2019’
\nSwallows the World<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nlittle \u201cI\u201d has swallowed the whole world,
His ego has
\nstretched into infinity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis
\nmind, a beat in original Nothingness,
Ciphers his thought on a
\nslate of hourless Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis petty ego
\nstretches itself to cover the infinity, as it were, and his ‘ I’
\nswallows the whole world in its self-importance. His mind, a wave in
\na primal Nothingness, etches his thought on the surface of some
\nunmoving Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>His
\nPhilosophy of Nothingness<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nbuilds on a mighty vacancy of soul
A huge philosophy of
\nNothingness. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nhim Nirvana lives and speaks and acts
Impossibly creating a
\nuniverse. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOn a foundation void
\nof soul, he constructs a philosophy with Nothingness as the sole
\nReality. Fie is an embodiment of Nirvana, Negation, which performs
\nthe impossible feat of fathering a universe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Take
\nnot the Titan’s Stride<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAn
\neternal zero is his formless self,
His spirit the void impersonal
\nabsolute. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTake
\nnot that stride, O growing soul of man;
Cast not thy self into
\nthat night of God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe conceives of his
\nformless self as an eternal zero\u2014not as the womb of All: he takes
\nhis spirit to be a void, an impersonal absolute\u2014not an
\nall-containing Being. O soul of man wir,) art constantly growing, do
\nnot copy him. Do nat. throw thyself into the dark state of rejecting
\n{;ed. an attitude the titan chooses.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Suffering
\nnot the Key<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nsoul suffering is not eternity\u2019s key,
Or ransom by sorrow,
\nheaven\u2019s demand on life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nmortal, bear, but ask not for the stroke,
Too soon will grief and
\nanguish find thee out. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe soul cannot
\nreach the Eternal by mere suffering. Heaven’s demands must be
\nfulfilled. They cannot be substituted by the bearing of sorrow.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO mortal man, bear
\nthe stroke of lain when it comes, but do not seek for it. Grief and
\nsuffering will soon find thee out without thy having to look for
\nthem.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Bliss
\nbehind Face of Tears<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nToo
\nenormous is that venture for thy will;
Only in limits can man\u2019s
\nstrength be safe;
Yet is infinity thy spirit\u2019s goal;
Its
\nbliss is there behind the world\u2019s face of tears. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTo seek to attain
\nthe Eternal by taking on the load of suffering is too great a venture
\nfor thy soul. Human strength is safe only as long as it stays within
\nits limits; if it goes beyond, it breaks. Indeed, infinity is the
\ntrue goal of thy soul; but the way to it is difficult, The bliss of
\ninfinity is always there but veiled by the world’s front of pain and
\ntears.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Seal
\nof pain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\npower is in thee that thou knowest not;
Thou art a vessel of the
\nimprisoned spark. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nseeks relief from Time\u2019s envelopment,
And while thou shutst it
\nin, the seal is pain:
Bliss is the Godhead\u2019s crown, eternal,
\nfree,
Unburdened by life\u2019s blind mystery of pain: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIii thee there
\ndwells a power. but thou knowest it not: thou holdst within thee a
\nspark that is imprisoned there: it seeks to get free from this
\ncontainment in ‘rime. As long as thou keepest this spark shut in,
\nthou sufferest pain. Pain is the feature of life. Bliss is natural
\nonly for a Godhead that is free, uninvolved in time, freed from the
\nload of pain in the heart of life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Signature
\nof Ignorance<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPain
\nis the signature of the Ignorance
Attesting the secret god denied
\nby life:
Until life finds him pain can never end. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nPain is the seal and
\nproclamation of Ignorance testifying to the denial of the concealed
\nGodhead by life. As long as life does not discover God there is bound
\nto be pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Bliss
\nthe Secret Stuff<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nCalm
\nis self\u2019s victory overcoming fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBear;
\nthou shalt find at last thy road to bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBliss
\nis the secret stuff of all that lives,
Even pain and grief are
\ngarbs of world-delight,
It hides behind thy sorrow and thy cry. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nCalm is the
\nunmistakable sign of the self’s conquest of fate. Bear thy pain in
\ncalm. Thou shalt surely find thy path to bliss which is truly the
\nsecret stuff of which all life is made, There is a Delight underlying
\nthis world; pain and grief are its masks. Behind thy sorrow, behind
\nthy cry of pain, there lurks this pervading Delight of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>World\u2019s
\nTremendous Touch<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBecause
\nthy strength is a part and not God\u2019s whole,
Because afflicted
\nby the little self
Thy consciousness forgets to be divine
As
\nit walks in the vague penumbra of the flesh
And cannot bear the
\nworld\u2019s tremendous touch,
Thou criest out and sayst that there
\nis pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThou complainest of
\npain because thy strength is partial, unlike God’s which is whole and
\nunbroken; and because thy consciousness, under the spell of division
\nof thy little self, forgets its divine nature and becomes human in
\nits embodiment in living matter, it is unable to bear the mighty
\nimpact of the world outside.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIf thy consciousness
\nwere whole, unbroken by division of thy separate, little self, then
\nit could meet the tremendous touch of the world without going under.
\nThere would be no pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Body
\nof God’s Bliss<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIndifference,
\npain and joy, a triple disguise,
Attire of the rapturous Dancer
\nin the ways,
Withhold from thee the body of God\u2019s bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Divine Player
\nwho sports in incessant delight in this manifestation of the universe
\nwears this triple mask of indifference, pain and joy. And this outer
\nappearance conceals from thee the sheer bliss of God running through
\nall life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Agony
\ninto Ecstasy<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThy
\nspirit\u2019s strength shall make thee one with God,
Thy agony shall
\nchange to ecstasy,
Indifference deepen into infinity\u2019s calm
\n
And joy laugh nude on the peaks of the Absolute. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is only when thou
\nsummonest the innate strength of thy spirit that thou shalt become
\none with God. Then will thy pain turn into rapture. indifference into
\nthe Calm of the infinite and joy into an uncaused, sheer bliss. All
\nthese three perverted and limited expressions will recover their
\noriginal truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Thy
\nPain<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nmortal who complainst of death and fate,
Accuse none of the harms
\nthyself hast called;
This troubled world thou hast chosen for thy
\nhome,
Thou art thyself the author of thy pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO mortal, thou dost
\ncomplain of death and fate. But why accuse anyone of the harms that
\nthou hast thyself called? Thou hast thyself chosen this afflicted
\nworld as thy home. Thou art thyself responsible for thy pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Soul
\nLooked Out<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnce
\nin the immortal boundlessness of Self,
In a vast of Truth and
\nConsciousness and Light
The soul looked out from its felicity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nfelt the Spirit\u2019s interminable bliss,
It knew itself deathless,
\ntimeless, spaceless, one,
It saw the Eternal, lived in the
\nInfinite. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis is how it has
\nall come to be.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOnce the soul in the
\nimmortal infinity of the Self, the Vastitudes of Truth, Consciousness
\nand Light, looked out from its felicity. It felt the endless bliss of
\nthe Spirit: it knew itself as immortal, eternal, infinite and one: it
\nsaw the Eternal and lived in the Infinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Truth’s
\nShadow<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen,
\ncurious of a shadow thrown by Truth,
It strained towards some
\notherness of self,
It was drawn to an unknown Face peering
\nthrough night. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen it perceived a
\nkind of shadow thrown up by the Truth. And it strained towards that
\nwhich seemed to be something other than the self; it was attracted to
\na strange Appearance looking through that shadowy night.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Negative
\nInfinity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nsensed a negative infinity,
A void supernal whose immense excess
\n
Imitating God and everlasting Time
Offered a ground for
\nNature\u2019s adverse birth
And Matter\u2019s rigid hard
\nunconsciousness
Harbouring the brilliance of a transient soul
\n
That lights up birth and death and ignorant life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt became aware of
\nan infinity that was negative\u2014unlike the positive infinity of ‘,ts
\nown. This was a Void that looked similar to G id and to eternity and
\ngave room for a contrary birth of Nature and the formation 7f the
\nhard, rigid unconsciousness of Matter in which is lodged the
\nsplendour of a fleeting soul that lights up the phenomena of all this
\nbirth, death and ignorant life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Contrary
\nof what Is<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nMind arose that stared at Nothingness
Till figures formed of what
\ncould never be;
It housed the contrary of all that is. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere arose a Mind
\nwhich looked at the confronting Nothingness till out of it were
\nformed shapes of what was not and never could be. It contained all
\nthe contraries of whatever is.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\nNought appeared as Being\u2019s huge sealed cause,
Its dumb support
\nin a blank infinite,
In whose abysm spirit must disappear:
A
\ndarkened Nature lived and held the seed
Of Spirit hidden and
\nfeigning not to be. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA Nothing, a zero
\nappeared to be the hidden Cause of the Being, its mute, ultimate base
\nin an infinite Void. a Nought in the depths of which the spirit must
\ndissolve.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA Nature that had
\nbecome dark. lived and held in itself the seed of Spirit which hid in
\nit and appeared as if it did not exist.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThe
\neternal Consciousness became the home
Of some unsouled almighty
\nInconscient;
One breathed no more the spirit\u2019s native air. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus in the original
\neternal Consciousness there formed a huge, formidable Inconseient
\nwithout a soul. One no more breathed the native air of the Conreious
\nSpirit. There was no Spirit, no Consciousness; it was all an
\nInconscience.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Attraction
\nto the Abyss<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nstranger in the insentient universe,
Bliss was the incident of a
\nmortal hour. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs
\none drawn by the grandeur of the Void
The soul attracted leaned
\nto the Abyss: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn this universe of
\nInconscience, Bliss %vas a stranger\u2014unlike in the eternal
\nConsciousness where it is inalienable\u2014or at best it was a transient
\nphenomenon.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLike one drawn to
\nthe majesty of a huge Void, the soul felt an attraction lo the Abyss
\nand leaned to it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Adventure
\nof Ignorance<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nlonged for the adventure of Ignorance
And the marvel and surprise
\nof the Unknown
And the endless possibility that lurked
In the
\nwomb of Chaos and in Nothing\u2019s gulf
Or looked from the
\nunfathomed eyes of Chance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe soul longed to
\nadventure into the gaping Ignorance and experience the wonder and
\nsurprise of the Unknown, the limitless possibilities that hide in the
\ndepth of Chaos and in the Chasm of Nothing or showed in the ungauged
\nworking of Chance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Tired
\nof Happiness<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\ntired of its unchanging happiness,
It turned away from
\nimmortality:
It was drawn to hazard\u2019s call and danger\u2019s
\ncharm,
It yearned to the pathos of grief, the drama of pain,
\n
Perdition\u2019s peril, the wounded bare escape,
The music of
\nruin and its glamour and crash,
The savour of pity and the gamble
\nof love
And passion and the ambiguous face of Fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe soul bored and
\ntired of the monotony of its unchanging happiness turned away from
\nits state of immortality and was attracted to the Call of Chance and
\nthe charm of danger. It longed to enjoy the appealing notes of grief,
\nthe drama of pain, the peril of fall and destruction. the thrill of
\nhair-breadth escapes, the sound of ruin and its glittering crash, the
\ntaste .of pity, the dice-throw of love and passion and the uncertain
\nturns of Fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\nworld of hard endeavour and difficult toil
And battle on
\nextinction\u2019s perilous verge,
A clash of forces, a vast
\nincertitude,
The joy of creation out of Nothingness,
Strange
\nmeetings on the roads of Ignorance
And the companionship of
\nhalf-known souls
Or the solitary greatness and lonely force
Of
\na separate being conquering its world,
Called it from its too
\nsafe eternity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe soul was moved
\nto leave its safety in eternity – – a safety that was
\nuninteresting\u2014by the thrill of a world of exertion and toil,
\nstruggle, battle and danger, a perpetual clash of forces, a held of
\nuncertainty. It was attracted to a world affording the joy of
\ncreation out of an apparent Nothingness, providing for unexpected
\nmeetings and the temporary companionship, in circumstances of
\nIgnorance, of souls that do not know each other on the surface though
\nthey know each other in their depths a world of division where one
\ncan live in one’s own separate glory and exercise power to conquer
\nthe rest.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\nhuge descent began, a giant fall:
For what the spirit sees,
\ncreates a truth
And what the soul imagines is made a world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWith this attraction
\niind tile response of the soul to this world of pain and suffering
\nthere commenced a precipitous descent, a great fall as it were, from
\nits august state. What was perceived as a possibility turned into
\nactuality. For that is what happens when the spirit sees; what is
\nseen becomes a fact. What the soul imagines develops into a world.
\nThe visions of the spirit, the broodings of the soul translate
\nthemselves into actual truths of existence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>A
\nThought from the Timeless<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nThought that leaped from the Timeless can become,
Indicator of
\ncosmic consequence
And the itinerary of the gods,
A cyclic
\nmovement in eternal Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAn Idea, a Thought
\nthat issues from the Eternal can well form the index of a cosmic
\nunrolling included by the gods in their rounds. This cosmic unrolling
\nseems to be a cyclic movement in a time of uncndin duration<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Origin
\nof this World<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus
\ncame, born from a blind tremendous choice,
This great perplexed
\nand discontented world,
This haunt of Ignorance, this home of
\nPain:
There are pitched desire\u2019s tents, grief\u2019s headquarters.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nvast disguise conceals the Eternal\u2019s bliss.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis is the origin
\nof this great, confused and restless world; it is the result of a
\nchoice. blind and tremendous, of the Eternal. This is how this world
\nhas come to be, this field of Ignorance, this abode of Pain, this
\ncamp of desire, this permanent quarters of grief.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut all is a mask,
\nan appearance, a disguise covering the underlying Bliss of the
\nEternal. Pain and grief are no more than deformations of this Bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>What
\nis Fate?<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen
\nAswapathy answered to the seer:
\u201cIs then the spirit ruled by an
\noutward world? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nseer, is there no remedy within? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nwhat is fate if not the spirit\u2019s will
After long time fulfilled
\nby cosmic Force? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nI
\ndeemed a mighty Power had come with her;
Is not that Power the
\nhigh compeer of Fate?\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAswapathy asks in
\nreply:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nD seer, does then
\nthe outer world determine the movements of the inner soul ? Can no
\nremedy for the world’s malady be found within ? Thou speakest of
\nfate; but what is fate if it is not the will of the spirit that is
\nexecuted by the cosmic force in due time ? What the spirit’s will is
\nabove, appears as fate here below.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nI think that a
\nmighty Power came down along with Sayitri. And is not that, Power the
\nhigh companion of Fate? Is it not equally powerful?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Least
\nStumblings Foreseen<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nNarad answered covering truth with truth:
\u201cO Aswapathy, random
\nseem the ways
Along whose banks your footsteps stray or run
In
\ncasual hours and moments of the gods,
Yet your least stumblings
\nare foreseen above. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nInfallibly
\nthe curves of life are drawn
Following the stream of Time through
\nthe unknown;
They are led by a clue the calm immortals keep. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNarad replies hi.
\nriddles\u2014the surface meaning concealing the deeper import:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO Aswapathy, aimless
\nseem the paths of life along which thou walkest during ordinary times
\nor exceptional moments of revelation. But in truth, thy least
\nstumbles are provisioned above. Things are planned to the last
\ndetail. The lines along which life flows in the passage of Time
\nthrough the great Unknown, have been drawn without error. The clue to
\ntheft design is in the keeping of the immortal gods who are ever calm
\nand unperturbed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Meaning
\nin Symbols<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nblazoned hieroglyph of prophet moons
A meaning more sublime in
\nsymbols writes
Than sealed Thought wakes to, but of this high
\nscript
How shall my voice convince the mind of earth? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe movements of the
\nplanets are an index to profounder things: but the closed thought of
\nman cannot grasp this import. How then can my words make the mind of
\nearth understand !<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Heaven’s
\nWiser Love<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHeaven\u2019s
\nwiser love rejects the mortal\u2019s prayer;
Unblinded by the breath
\nof his desire,
Unclouded by the mists of fear and hope,
It
\nbends above the strife of love with death;
It keeps for her her
\nprivilege of pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan in his ignorance
\nprays for many things. He is bUnded by desire, surrounded by fears
\nand hopes and is ever involved in the struggle of love with death\u2014a
\nmnstant feature of his life. He does not know what is truly good for
\nhim and goes on asking for this and that. But Providence is wiser,
\nand in its true concern for him, it often rejects prayers that, if
\ngranted, would confirm him in his ignorance and delay his progress.
\nIt stands above his desire, his fears and hopes, his involvements in
\nthe strife of love with death. It bends in compass on and preserves
\nfor love its cherished sting of pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn this world of
\nignorance, wherever there is love, there is suffering; love seems to
\nthrive upon it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Must
\nShare Human Grief<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\ngreatness in thy daughter\u2019s soul resides
That can transform
\nherself and all around,
But must cross on stones of suffering to
\nits goal. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough
\ndesigned like a nectar cup of heaven,
Of heavenly ether made she
\nsought this air,
She too must share the human need of grief
And
\nall her cause of joy transmute to pain. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn thy daughter,
\nthere is a greatness of soul that can completely change both herself
\nand all around her. But she has to pass through hard suffering to
\nreach her goal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAlthough she has
\nbeen designed like a heavenly cup of nectar, and is made of heaven’s
\nether, she has chosen this air of earth and therefore she has to
\nundergo grief which is a necessary spur for progress to man she needs
\nmust turn her innate springs of joy into pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Half-Opened
\nDoors<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nmind of mortal man is led by words,
His sight retires behind the
\nwalls of Thought
And looks out only through half-opened doors. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\ncuts the boundless Truth into sky-strips
And every strip he takes
\nfor all the heavens. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe mind ci man [ti
\nled by words and not by truth. His perception is veiled by the
\nactivity of his thought. He looks out on the world through doors that
\nare only partially open. The result is that he catches sight of only
\na part of the Truth; he fragments the Truth that is infinite and
\nevery fragment he mistakes for the entire Truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Chance
\nor Necessity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nstares at infinite Possibility
And gives to the plastic Vast the
\nname of Chance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nsees the long results of an all-wise Force
Planning a sequence of
\nsteps in endless Time,
But in its links imagines a senseless
\nchain
Or the dead hand of cold Necessity; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan looks at the
\nboundless Possibility opening out before him and mistakes this large
\nvariable factor to be Chance. There is at work in this universe an
\nall-wise Force planning a whole line of sequences in unending Time;
\nman sees only the far ends of this operation and mistakes its links
\nfor a chain of mechanical cause and effect or simply the routine
\nworking of a law of Necessity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Mystic
\nMother\u2019s Heart<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nanswers not to the mystic Mother\u2019s heart,
Misses the ardent
\nheavings of her breast
And feels cold rigid limbs of lifeless
\nLaw. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe does not feel the
\nintense love of the universal Mother and fails to respond to her
\npronaptings, What he feels are only the cold and rigid workings of a
\nmechanical Law of things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Will
\nof the Timeless<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nwill of the Timeless working out in Time
In the free absolute
\nsteps of cosmic Truth
Appears a hard machine or meaningless Fate.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat in fact is the
\nWill of the Eternal determining itself in the processes of Time and
\nin the large unfettered freedom of the manifesting Truth in the
\nCosmos, appears to him as a relentless machinery or blind Fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA
\nMagician\u2019s formulas have made Matter\u2019s laws
And while they
\nlast, all things by them are bound:
But the Spirit\u2019s consent is
\nneeded for each act
And freedom walks in the same pace with Law. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll
\nhere can change if the Magician choose. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe rigid laws of
\nMatter have been made by the skill of a supreme Magician and as long
\nas they remain, they are binding. And yet the sanction of the
\npresiding Spirit is necessary for every movement; along with these
\nrigid laws, there exists a freedom of the Spirit. If the Magician
\nwills it, all here on earth can change despite the laws.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Nature\u2019s
\nKing<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf
\nhuman will could be made one with God\u2019s,
If human thought could
\necho the thoughts of God,
Man might be all-knowing and
\nomnipotent;
But now he walks in Nature\u2019s doubtful ray. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet
\ncan the mind of man receive God\u2019s light,
The force of man can
\nbe driven by God\u2019s force,
Then is he a miracle doing miracles. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor only so can he
\nbe Nature\u2019s King. . If only man tunes his will to the Will of God,
\nif only his thought could reflect and vibrate to the thought of God,
\nhe might become as all-knowing and as all-powerful as God Himself.
\nBut man, as at present, lives under the dubious regime of Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nStill he can open
\nhis mind to receive the light of God, he can link his force to the
\ndriving force of God. And if he does so, he turns himself into a
\nstanding miracle performing miracles. Nature’s laws are set aside and
\nhe becomes the King of Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Satyavan\u2019s
\nDeath Decreed<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nis decreed and Satyavan must die;
The hour is fixed, chosen the
\nfatal stroke. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat
\nelse shall be is written in her soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut
\ntill the hour reveals the fateful script
The writing waits
\nillegible and mute. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt has been so
\nordained and Satyavan must surely die. Even the fatal hour is fixed:
\nthe stroke of death is also decided.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWhat more is to
\nhappen is written in the soul of Savitri. But that writing shall
\nremain undecipherable and ineffective till the chosen hour reveals
\nthe script loaded with destiny.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Fate
\nis a Transaction<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFate
\nis Truth working out in Ignorance. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nKing, thy fate is a transaction done
At every hour between Nature
\nand thy soul
With God for its foreseeing arbiter. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFate
\nis a balance drawn in Destiny\u2019s book. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFate is only a name
\nfor the process of truth fulfilling itself in conditions of
\nIgnarance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO King, know that
\nthy fate is a transaction, the result of a constant interchange
\nbetween Nature and thy soul, under the presiding eye of God who
\nforesees all. Fate is the balance drawn in the accounts book of
\nDestiny which records all the credit and debit transactions in the
\nlife of man.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Accept
\nor Refuse Fate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan
\ncan accept his fate, he can refuse. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven
\nif the One maintains the unseen decree
He writes thy refusal in
\nthy credit page:
For doom is not a close, a mystic seal. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMan is free to
\naccept his fate or to refuse to accept it. Even though God keeps the
\ndecree that is not seen by man, he adds the fact of man’s refusal to
\nhis credit, thus enabling the account to grow in his favour.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nDoom is not the end,
\nthe final seal of God. It is only a part of the transaction<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Mightier
\nby Defeat<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nArisen
\nfrom the tragic crash of life,
Arisen from the body\u2019s torture
\nand death,
The spirit rises mightier by defeat;
Its godlike
\nwings grow wider with each fall. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts splendid
\nfailures sum to victory. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nDefeat is not the
\nfinale. From the debris of defeat the spirit rises again. And when
\nthy soul arises from the bitter crash of life, arises from the long
\ntorture and death of the body, it emerges stronger. Its god-like
\ncapacities increase with each fall. All its great failures lead to a
\nfinal victory.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Events
\nare not Fate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nman, the events that meet thee on thy road,
Though they smite thy
\nbody and soul with joy and grief,
Are not thy fate; they touch
\nthee awhile and pass;
Even death can cut not short thy spirit\u2019s
\nwalk:
Thy goal, the road thou choosest are thy fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO man, many are the
\nevents that happen on thy path; they strike thee, in thy body and
\nsoul, now with joy, now with grief, but they are not thy abiding
\nfate. They are transitory circumstances which stay for a time and
\nthen pass. Even death cannot snap the life-line of thy soul.Thy fate
\nis thy choice. The goal and the path thou choosest, these are thy
\nfate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Long
\nSacrifice<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOn
\nthe altar throwing thy thoughts, thy heart, thy works,
Thy fate
\nis a long sacrifice to the gods
Till they have opened to thee thy
\nsecret self
And made thee one with the indwelling God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThou art forging thy
\nfate every moment. And this fate is the long, continuous sacrifice to
\nthe gods, the Cosmic powers, to which thou offerest all thy thoughts,
\nthy works, thy heart-emotions on the altar of thy [laming Will, till
\nthe gods reveal to thee thy inner self and make thee one with the God
\nthat dwells within thee.It is by the Higher Grace that man realises
\nthe Divine seated within himself. And self-consecration and
\nself-sacrifice are the means to move this Grace into action.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Battle
\nand Journey<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nsoul, intruder in Nature\u2019s ignorance,
Armed traveller to the
\nunseen supernal heights,
Thy spirit\u2019s fate is a battle and
\nceaseless march
Against invisible opponent Powers,
A passage
\nfrom Matter into timeless Self. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO soul, thou does
\nnot belong to this realm of Ignorance; thou art here a foreigner m
\ntransit. Thou art travelling to the unseen heights of the Spirit,
\nwell equipped to meet the combat of the invisible adverse Powers who
\nare opposed to thy journey. It is destined that thou must fight them
\nand continue thy march uninterrupted in thy journey from inconscient
\nMatter to the Eternal Self.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAdventurer
\nthrough blind unforeseeing Time,
A forced advance through a long
\nline of lives,
It pushes its spearhead through the centuries. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThy spirit
\nadventures through Time which sees not what lies ahead: it advances
\nwithout respite through a long series of lives, pushing its assault
\nforward through the centuries.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Slow
\nMarch (I)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAcross
\nthe dust and mire of the earthly plain,
On many-guarded lines and
\ndangerous fronts,
In dire assaults, in wounded slow retreats,
Or
\nholding the ideal\u2019s battered fort
Or fighting against odds in
\nlonely posts,
Or camped in night around the bivouac\u2019s fires,
\n
Awaiting the tardy trumpets of the dawn <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis journey and
\nbattle of the soul proceeds through the dust and mire of the lowly
\nplains of earth, across dangerous points and fortified routes,
\npunctuated with terrific onslaughts, wounded fall-backs, Defending
\nthe battered citadels of Ideals, lighting against odds in secluded
\nposts, camping during nights around fires in the open hopefully
\nawaiting the trumpet-note of the dawns which are slow to come, all
\nthis is also part of the journey.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Slow
\nMarch (II)<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nhunger and in plenty and in pain,
Through peril and through
\ntriumph and through fall,
Through life\u2019s green lanes and over
\nher desert sands,
Up the bald moor, along the sunlit ridge
In
\nserried columns with a straggling rear
Led by its nomad
\nvanguard\u2019s signal fires,
Marches the army of the waylost god. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn conditions of
\nhunger and of plenty of pain and of peril, through victory and
\nthrough defeat, through green fertile tracts of life and through her
\ndesert lands, climbing up the wastelands, passing over the sunny
\nridges, the army of this god who has lost his way marches along in
\nregular columns with a rear that often strays from the line while
\nfollowing the signal flares lighted by its ever moving advancing
\nhost.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThen
\nlate the joy ineffable is felt,
Then he remembers his forgotten
\nself;
He has refound the skies from which he fell. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nQuite late in the
\njourney, the striving spirit begins to experience a joy that cannot
\nbe expressed in words. It is then that man remembers his own self
\nwhich he had forgotten so far. He re-discovers the heights of the
\nbeing from which he had apparently fallen.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis causeless
\nspiritual joy reawakens with the memory of the forgotten inner self;
\nawareness of this self leads to the discovery of his Origin.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Splendour-peaks
\nof God<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt
\nlength his front\u2019s indomitable line
Forces the last passes of
\nthe Ignorance:
Advancing beyond Nature\u2019s last known bounds,
\n
Reconnoitring the formidable unknown,
Beyond the landmarks of
\nthings visible,
It mounts through a miraculous upper air
Till
\nclimbing the mute summit of the world
He stands upon the
\nsplendour-peaks of God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt last his untiring
\nadvance host breaks through the last strongholds of Ignorance.
\nPassing beyond the last known frontiers of Nature, beyond the
\nboundaries of the seen, it climbs upward through the strange, new
\nupper air till ascending to the silent summits of the world, he is
\nable to stand upon the peaks of the splendour of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Death
\nSpirit’s Opportunity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nvain thou mournst that Satyavan must die;
His death is a
\nbeginning of greater life,
Death is the spirit\u2019s opportunity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nvast intention has brought the souls close
And love and death
\nconspire towards one great end. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nDo not mourn for the
\ndestined death of Satyavan. Know that his death is not the end but
\nwill signalise the start of a newer and greater life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nDeath is a means fur
\nthe spirit to renew itself. It casts away the old and worn-out
\nembodiment and goes on to take a new and fresh one.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA great
\nintention\u2014which thou dost not perceive now\u2014has brought these two
\nsouls. Savitri and Satyavan, together. The love that brings them
\nclose and the death that would part them, both secretly work for one
\ngreat objective.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God’s
\nSecret Plan<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor
\nout of danger and pain heaven-bliss shall come,
Time\u2019s
\nunforeseeing event, God\u2019s secret plan. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor out of all
\ndanger and pain there shall issue the bliss of heaven. That
\nunexpected event shall take place, for that is the hidden plan of
\nGod. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Not
\na World of Chance<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis
\nworld was not built with random bricks of chance,
A blind god is
\nnot destiny\u2019s architect;
A conscious power has drawn the plan
\nof life,
There is a meaning in each curve and line. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt
\nis an architecture high and grand
By many named and nameless
\nmasons built
In which unseeing hands obey the Unseen,
And of
\nits master-builders she is one. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis world is not a
\nproduct of Chance. It has not been built by stray bricks of chance.,
\nnor is destiny the construction of a blind god. A purposive,
\nconscious Power has drawn the plan of life in advance. That is why
\nevery movement has a meaning, every line and curve a significance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis world is truly
\na high and magnificent edifice built by many masons, many agents\u2014some
\nknown, some unknown. In it many unseen hands are at work obeying the
\ngreat Master Architect.And of such master-builders of the world,
\nSavitri is one.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nQueen,
\nstrive no more to change the secret will;
Time\u2019s accidents are
\nsteps in its vast scheme. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBring
\nnot thy brief and helpless human tears
Across the fathomless
\nmoments of a heart
That knows its single will and God\u2019s as one:
\n
It can embrace its hostile destiny;
It sits apart with grief
\nand facing death,
Affronting adverse fate armed and alone. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO queen, do not
\nstruggle any further to change the secret will that is at work; what
\nappear to be accidents in life are well-determined steps in the
\nscheme of this secret will.Thy human tears are transient and helpless
\ndo not vainly use them to disturb the profound beatings of Savitri’s
\nheart that is conscious that its sole will is one with the will of
\nGod and therefore cannot but be effective. Her heart can take on this
\nhostile destiny, It sits by itself with grief, facing death. Armed
\nwith a will of steel, alone, it confronts adverse fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Her
\nWill Affronting Fate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthis enormous world standing apart
In the mightiness of her
\nsilent spirit\u2019s will,
In the passion of her soul of sacrifice
\n
Her lonely strength facing the universe,
Affronting fate,
\nasks not man\u2019s help nor god\u2019s:
Sometimes one life is charged
\nwith earth\u2019s destiny,
It cries not for succour from the
\ntime-bound powers. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nShe stands apart in
\nthis huge world. The silent will of her soul is mighty; its ardour to
\nsacrifice itself is intense. Her lone strength facing the whole
\nuniverse, opposing fate. does not supplicate for help from man or
\ngod.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt times a single
\nlife is missioned with the destiny of the earth; what it does has
\nconsequences for the entire earth. Such a life does not plead for
\nassistance from powers that are limited by time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Alone
\nshe is Equal<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlone
\nshe is equal to her mighty task. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIntervene
\nnot in a strife too great for thee,
A struggle too deep for
\nmortal thought to sound,
Its question to this Nature\u2019s rigid
\nbounds
When the soul fronts nude of garbs the infinite,
Its
\ntoo vast theme of a lonely mortal will
Pacing the silence of
\neternity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSavitri
\nis equal to her task by herself alo<\/FONT>ne. That task of strife
\nwith Death is too great for thee; do not attempt to intervene in it.
\nMortal thought cannot fathom that struggle which is too deep for it;
\nnor can it grasp that challenge flung to the rigid bounds of this
\nNature when the bare soul faces the infinite, when a single mortal
\nwill waits in the silence of eternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nAs
\na star, uncompanioned, moves in heaven
Unastonished by the
\nimmensities of space,
Travelling infinity by its own light,
The
\ngreat are strongest when they stand alone. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nGod-given might of being is their force,
A ray from self\u2019s
\nsolitude of light the guide;
The soul that can live alone with
\nitself meets God;
Its lonely universe is their rendezvous. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cLike a star
\nmoving alone in the skies, without being overcome by the vastnesses
\nof space, journeying in the infinity by its own self-light, the great
\ngo along alone; and when they do so they are strongest, they are not
\nweakened by the failings of others. Their force is an innate strength
\nof being given by God, their guide is a ray that proceeds from the
\nlight of the soul in solitude. The soul that has or develops the
\ncapacity to live by itself, content in its solitude, meets God, Its
\nlone world becomes their trysting place.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Conquer
\nor Fail<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nday may come when she must stand unhelped
On a dangerous brink of
\nthe world\u2019s doom and hers. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nCarrying
\nthe world\u2019s future on her lonely breast,
Carrying the human
\nhope in a heart left sole
To conquer or fail on a last desperate
\nverge; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt may be that a day
\nwill come when Savitri will have to stand, uncompanioned, un helped,
\non a dangerous brink of the world\u2019s doom\u2014also her own threatened
\ndoom-, bearing the destiny of the world on her one self, carrying all
\nhuman hope in her heart left sole, to win or lose on a final
\ndesperate venture.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Last
\ndire Scene<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlone
\nwith death and close to extinction\u2019s edge,
Her single greatness
\nin that last dire scene,
She must cross alone a perilous bridge
\nin Time
And reach an apex of world-destiny
Where all is won
\nor all is lost for man. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn that last dread
\nscene. alone with death and on the verge of extinction, she in her
\nsolitary greatness will have to cross a dangerous bridge in earthly
\nTime and reach the summit of the Fate of the world where everything
\nis won or everything is lost for man.The future of man will depend
\nupon hei\u2022 unaided, ultimate, perilous adventure,<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Deciding
\nHour<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn
\nthat tremendous silence lone and lost
Of a deciding hour in the
\nworld\u2019s fate,
In her soul\u2019s climbing beyond mortal time
When
\nshe stands sole with Death or sole with God
Apart upon a silent
\ndesperate brink
Alone with her self and death and destiny
As
\non some verge between Time and Timelessness
When being must end
\nor life rebuild its base,
Alone she must conquer or alone must
\nfall. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn that mighty
\nsilence, solitary and well-nigh lost, in the decisive hour in the
\nfate of the world, when her soul ascending beyond human time stands
\nface to face alone with Death or alone with God, apart from all, upon
\na silent desperate edge, atone with her self, death and destiny, on
\nthe borderline between Time and Timelessness where the being must
\neither die or its life reshape its base and renew itself. Savitri
\nmust either conquer all by herself alone. or fall alone.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Cry
\nnot to Heaven<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNo
\nhuman aid can reach her in that hour,
No armoured God stand
\nshining at her side. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nCry
\nnot to heaven, for she alone can save. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor
\nthis the silent Force came missioned down;
In her the conscious
\nWill took human shape:
She only can save herself and save the
\nworld. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn that decisive
\nhour no human aid can reach her nor will there be any battling God by
\nher side to help her.Do not plead to the heavens, they cannot save
\nshe alone can. For this very purpose has the silent Power of God
\ndescended. in Savitri the conscious Will of God has taken human
\nshape. It is she alone who Can save herself and save the world too.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>An
\nHour of Fate<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO
\nqueen, stand back from that stupendous scene,
Come not between
\nher and her hour of Fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer
\nhour must come and none can intervene:
Think not to turn her from
\nher heaven-sent task,
Strive not to save her from her own high
\nwill. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThou
\nhast no place in that tremendous strife;
Thy love and longing are
\nnot arbiters there,
Leave the world\u2019s fate and her to God\u2019s
\nsole guard. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO queen, hold
\nthyself back from that great scene. Come not between her and her
\ndecisive hour of Fate. That hour of hers has to come and none can
\nintervene between her and her Fate. Do not seek to draw her away from
\nthe task with which she is charged by Heaven. Do not vainly try to
\nsave her from the workings of her own high will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSurely, thou hast no
\nplace in that tremendous conflict to be, Thy motherly love and human
\nlongings are not going to be the arbiters there. Leave her\u2014and the
\nfate of the world that is involved in her\u2014to the sole care of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Leave
\nher to Her Self<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven
\nif he seems to leave her to her lone strength,
Even though all
\nfalters and falls and sees an end
And the heart fails and only
\nare death and night,
God-given her strength can battle against
\ndoom
Even on a brink where Death alone seems close
And no
\nhuman strength can hinder or can help. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThink
\nnot to intercede with the hidden Will,
Intrude not twixt her
\nspirit and its force
But leave her to her mighty self and Fate.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven if God seems to
\nleave her to her own resources, her lone strength, even though
\neverything staggers and falls and the end is seen, even though the
\nheart fails and only night and death remain, even on that brink where
\nDeath alone seems to be close, her God-given strength can fight
\nagainst the threatening doom. No human strength can deter or help in
\nthat situation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA secret Will is at
\nwork; think not to intercede with it in thy favour. Stand not between
\nher (Savitri’s) spirit and the effectuating force of that spirit.
\nLeave her alone to her own great self and the contending Fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Narad
\nLeaves<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe
\nspoke and ceased and left the earthly scene. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAway
\nfrom the strife and suffering on our globe,
He turned towards his
\nfar-off blissful home. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA
\nbrilliant arrow pointing straight to heaven,
The luminous body of
\nthe eternal seer
Assailed the purple glory of the noon
And
\ndisappeared like a receding star
Vanishing into the light of the
\nUnseen; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus spoke Narad and
\nleft the earthly scene.From this our globe of strife and suffering he
\nturned away towards his distant home of bliss. The luminous body of
\nthe eternal seer looked. like a brilliant arrow heading straight to
\nheaven. It pierced through the brilliant skies of the and fast
\ndisappeared like a receding star vanishing into the light of the
\nUnseen beyond.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Anthem
\nof Eternal Love<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut
\nstill a cry was heard in the infinite,
And still to the listening
\nsoul on mortal earth
A high and far imperishable voice
Chanted
\nthe anthem of eternal love. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd vet a tote was
\nheard in the bosom of the Infinite. The listening soul on mortal
\nearth below still caught the chant of the anthem of eternal love by a
\nhigh, distant and undying voice. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n


\n<\/P><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\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 Six. The Book of Fate Canto I    Canto II           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-6-savitri-study","wpcat-246-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828","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=10828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11114,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions\/11114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}