{"id":10850,"date":"2014-07-16T01:54:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T08:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saa.santansoftwaresystems.com\/?p=10850"},"modified":"2014-12-07T01:28:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T09:28:35","slug":"savitri-study-book-7-canto-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/savitri-study\/book-7-savitri-study\/savitri-study-book-7-canto-3","title":{"rendered":"Savitri-study-Book-7-Canto-3"},"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 Seven. The Book of Yoga<\/p>\n

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n
\n


\nBook Seven: Canto 3<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe
\nEntry Into The Inner Countries<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Summary<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n
By an inward movement, Savitri enters into a hushed stillness
\naway from the busy hum of the mind. All is blank. She seeks her way
\nfarther and hears a Voice: \u201cThou seekest for man, not for thy self
\nalone. Unless God assumes humanity he cannot save man. Thou must
\naccept man’s darkness to bring Light to him, his sorrow to bring
\nBliss to him. For that purpose, find firs, thy heaven-born soul in
\nthy material body.\u201d<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri surges out
\nof the physical body, stands. a little outside of it. looks into the
\ndepths of tier subtle being and there in its heart divines her secret
\nsoul. She knocks and presses against the door that guards the inner
\nlife; there is a loud cry from within asking her to go back to earth
\nlest she be tortured and put to death.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA dreadful movement
\nrises up. The guardian Serpent at the threshold rises hissing, hounds
\nof darkness growl, strange little beings of varied shapes scoul and
\nstare, wild animal roarings fill the air with terror. All around is
\nmenace. Still. unshaken, she presses on the bars of the gate and the
\ngate opens with a protesting jar. The opposing Powers withdraw.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nShe enters the inner
\nworlds Through the portals of the subconscient that is suffocating,
\nshe enters the region of subtle Matter and forces her way through the
\nbody to the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt first it is all
\nchaos; life is struggling to emerge from Matter into some incipient
\nmind. Nothing is formed, all is drifting, uncertain. After a while,
\nduring which she walks into the corridors of inner Time, she breaks
\nout into a realm of forms, of the beginnings -of finiteness, of the
\nworld of the senses: but the soul is not there. All is the clamour,
\nof life. Voices, visions, movements abound, but without any directing
\nwill. Life’s power attempts to pull down reason from its seat so that
\nit could reign unfettered in its sense-world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri pushes away
\nthis threatened state and goes on through this dark dangerous passage
\nfixing her thought on the saviour Name. Then comes a deliverance. All
\ngrows still. empty, She moves through a blank tranquillity\u2014a vacuum
\nof nameless peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSlowly another
\ndanger arises on the horizon. A giant head of Life with an
\nuncontrolled Force looms ahead. Like a turbulent sea it breaks into
\nthe stillness of her self and floods her being with its lust for
\npower, its cry of hunger. Drunk from the well of the world-libido, it
\nseeks for the primitive joy of Nature. It dreams of the glory of the
\nlife gods and cycles of Desire rise in this infinity. This ardour of
\nLife is not blunted by the weight of the earth and as this Force of
\nLife rises upwards, there is the glow of the mind of Life, the vital
\nmind imitating the light of intuition and its infallibility. But it
\nis a borrowed light mingled with falsehood and error.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn these nether
\nrealms of Life all kinds of contraries are mixed up. Truth and error,
\nWisdom and Ignorance, Death and Life are all mingled in: this valley
\nof fleeting Gleams. Souls trapped in this region become agents of
\nLife’s desires, not their masters. Some, however, warily pass across
\nand reach a greater life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll this streams
\npast Savitri’s vision; the storm and the roar subside and she
\nbreathes once again a free and tranquil air.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nShe journeys on and
\nsteps into a brilliant. ordered Space where Life is tamed and under
\ncontrol, her will and fancy curbed. Mind and sense govern the
\nLife-Force. Reason dominates with its rule of symmetrv. The soul is
\nenthroned on a bench of law.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWisdom is reduced to
\nformula, The ample sweep of Idea is cut into a System and fixed to
\npillars of thought or clamped to the ground of Matter. The soul is
\nlost in its heights. Thought revels in its abstractions. Life’s
\nempire is forced into a scheme of Reason; its course is confined to a
\nsafe level path. It no more dares to adventure, to soar too high or
\nset the world afire.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nUnder this
\ndispensation of Reason, thought cannot fly too high or vast:
\nlife-movements are severely cabined; they are directed by a careful
\nreason or some calm will towards some chosen objective. Life-activity
\nis not a spontaneous projection of the inner being. The soul is
\nwalled in by limited ideas. Meditation, worship, religion\u2014all of
\nthese are narrowed and mentalised. Ethics is brought in to rule life
\nand Knowledge covered over by creed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere comes the
\ncountry of the Thought-Mind, where there is an air of final
\nstability. There she is greeted by a being of imposing
\nself-importance who welcomes her to that land of thought’s finality
\nand urges her to rest there where alone she can find the perfection
\nand certainty she is seeking for. But Savitri perceives that all
\nthere is only a limiting, orderly reign of the intellect and declines
\nto stay in that realm of apparent Knowledge. She must proceed to find
\nher soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSome are astonished
\nto hear such questions; some scoff at her talk of ‘soul’ which they
\nconsider to be but a small gland or a freak of secretion. Some pity
\nher ignorance in mistaking the Spirit to be other than a creation of
\nthe Mind. One, however, with mystic and unsatisfied eyes, still
\nremembering his old unsuccessful quest, wonders that there is still
\nsomeone who seeks for a Beyond.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri goes on
\nacross her silent self. She comes to a road thronged with a luminous
\ncompany of gods, goddesses and beings rushing towards the world to
\nsave it. She asks them the road which she must tread to reach the
\nbirthplace of the Mystic Fire, the abode of her secret soul. One of
\nthem replies to her that they all come from her own hidden soul, they
\nare the occult gods who help men in their struggles. He asks her to
\nfollow the world’s winding highway to its source where she will find
\nin deep, unfrequented Silence the Fire and the silent soul she is
\nsearching for.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri follows the
\ndirection and enters a brooding hush where is felt the silent
\nnearness of the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Hushed
\nEmptiness<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt first out of the
\nbusy hum of mind
As if from a loud thronged market into a cave
\n
By an inward moment\u2019s magic she had come,
A stark hushed
\nemptiness became her self:
Her mind unvisited by the voice of
\nthought
Stared at a void deep\u2019s dumb infinity. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBy an inward-going
\nprocess Savitri leaves the busy, humming region of the active mind
\nand enters within\u2014like one withdrawing from a hectic market
\nthoroughfare into a solitary, silent cave. There she finds in a
\nsheer, still emptiness her inner self. Her mind, no longer crossed by
\nthe sound of thought, stares at the mute infinity of a profound void.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Once
\nmore a Human Thing<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer heights receded,
\nher depths behind her closed;
All fled away from her and left her
\nblank. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut when she came
\nback to her self of thought,
Once more she was a human thing on
\nearth,
A lump of Matter, a house of closed sight,
A mind
\ncompelled to think out ignorance,
A life-force pressed into a
\ncamp of works
And the material world her limiting field.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHer consciousness
\nrises to greater heights, goes within into deeper depths. Everything
\ndisappears, she is left without thought, without feeling\u2014blank.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHowever, when she
\nreturns to her thinking self, she is once again a human being of the
\nearth:a form of Matter, a house without windows, a mind compelled to
\nthink and move in ignorance, a life-energy directed into a vortex of
\nactivity with the material world forming her limited field.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>A
\nVoice Speaks<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAmazed like one
\nunknowing she sought her way
Out of the tangle of man\u2019s
\nignorant past
That took the surface person for the soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen a Voice spoke
\nthat dwelt on secret heights: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHuman ignorance
\nmistakes the surface being for the soul, the real self that is deep
\nwithin. Savitri leaves that confused web of human heritage and seeks
\nher way within wondering like one who knows not the path.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen from the secret
\nheights of her being a Voice speaks:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>God
\nmust Assume Humanity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cFor man thou
\nseekst, not for thyself alone. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOnly if God assumes
\nthe human mind
And puts on mortal ignorance for his cloak
And
\nmakes himself the Dwarf with triple stride,
Can he help man to
\ngrow into the God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThou art not seeking
\nhere for thyself alone, but for all men, for man.To help man grow
\ninto God. God himself must assume the human form; he must accept the
\ninstrumentation of the human mind, put on the cloak of mortal
\nignorance and reduce himself to the puny stature of Vamana, the
\nDwarf-Man Avatar, expanding and covering in his three steps all
\nexistence,\u2014the worlds of Physical earth, Life-regions and the
\nMental-heavens<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Cosmic
\nGreatness Disguised as Man<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs man disguised the
\ncosmic Greatness works
And finds the mystic inaccessible gate
\n
And opens the Immortal\u2019s golden door. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nMan human follows in
\nGod\u2019s human steps. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAccepting his
\ndarkness thou must bring to him light,
Accepting his sorrow thou
\nmust bring to him bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn Matter\u2019s body
\nfind thy heaven-born soul.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n\u201cThe Divine
\nGreatness specially manifest in the Cosmos, the Avatar, works under
\nthe disguise of the human form. It finds the secret gate inaccessible
\nto mortals and opens the golden door of the Immortal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe human being,
\nman, follows in the path laid by the Divine in its human form and
\ngait. Thou must accept the darkness of man before thou canst bring
\nhim light, accept his sorrow before thou canst bring him bliss. Thou
\nhalt to bear his burden before thou canst relieve man of his heavy
\nlot.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nDiscover thy soul,
\ndivinely born, in this body formed of Matter.\u201d<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Savitri
\nSurges.out of her Body<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen Savitri surged
\nout of her body\u2019s wall
And stood a little span outside herself
\n
And looked into her subtle being\u2019s depths
And in its heart
\nas in a lotus-bud
Divined her secret and mysterious soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen Savitri breaks
\nout of the physical barriers of her body, stations herself a little
\nabove it and gazes into the depths .of her subtle being behind the
\nphysical body. And she intuits the seat of her secret and unfathomed
\nsoul to be in the centre, in the lotus bud, of the subtle being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Dim
\nPortal of Inner Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt the dim portal of
\nthe inner life
That bars out from our depths the body\u2019s mind
\n
And all that lives but by the body\u2019s breath,
She knocked
\nand pressed against the ebony gate. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe living portal
\ngroaned with sullen hinge:
Heavily reluctant it complained inert
\n
Against the tyranny of the spirit\u2019s touch. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere is an obscure
\ndoor at the entrance of the inner regions of the being which bars the
\nphysical mind and all else that is physical e.g. the gross senses
\nfrom entry into our depths. Savitri knocks and presses against this
\nhard, dark gate and the live doorway groans with its unyielding
\nhinge: it is obstinately reluctant to be disturbed in its inertness
\nand complains against the compulsion to open by the pressure of the
\nspirit that Savitri brings to bear upon it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Formidable
\nThreat<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA formidable voice
\ncried from within:
\u201cBack, creature of earth, lest tortured and
\ntorn thou die.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA dreadful murmur
\nrose like a dim sea; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA mighty and
\ndreadful voice cries from within: \u201cO creature of earth, turn back\u2019
\notherwise thou shalt be tortured, torn and left to die.\u201d<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA fearful murmur as
\nof a dark sea rises up.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Serpent
\nRises Hissing<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Serpent of the
\nthreshold hissing rose,
A fatal guardian hood with monstrous
\ncoils,
The hounds of darkness growled with jaws agape,
And
\ntrolls and gnomes and goblins scowled and stared
And wild beast
\nroarings thrilled the blood with fear
And menace muttered in a
\ndangerous tongue. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

The
\nguardian Power at the threshold of the interior, the deadly Serpent
\nof unearthly hood and huge coils, rises hissing; the hounds of the
\nnether darkness growl with open mouths; all the little subtler
\nentities and elements that dwell there unseen scowl at this intrusion
\nand stare; the hidden beast in the subconscient roars and spreads
\nalarm; there is an atmosphere of audible menace and danger.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Opponent
\nPowers Withdraw<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nUnshaken her will
\npressed on the rigid bars:
The gate swung wide with a protesting
\njar,
The opponent Powers withdrew their dreadful guard;
Her
\nbeing entered into the inner worlds. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri is not
\nshaken. Resolutely she pushes the rigid bars of the gate which then
\nswings wide albeit with a loud jar of protest, The opponent Powers
\nwithdraw their fierce guard. The passage being opened, Savitri’s
\nbeing enters the inner worlds.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Forces
\nher way to the Soul<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn a narrow passage,
\nthe subconscient\u2019s gate,
She breathed with difficulty and pain
\nand strove
To find the inner self concealed in sense. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInto a dense of
\nsubtle Matter packed,
A cavity filled with a blind mass of power,
\n
An opposition of misleading gleams,
A heavy barrier of
\nunseeing sight,
She forced her way through body to the soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWhile passing
\nthrough the narrow passage of the gate of the subconscient, Savitri
\nhas difficulty even in breathing and is full of pain, yet she strives
\nto get at the inner self behind the outer senses. A mass of blind
\npower is stored in the heaviness of subtle Matter; misguiding flashes
\nact in opposition, there is a strong and thick barrier where sight
\nrefuses to see. Through all these deformations of power, light and
\nsight in the body she forces her way to the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Perilous
\nBorder<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAcross a perilous
\nborder line she passed
Where life dips into the subconscient dusk
\n
Or struggles from Matter into chaos of mind,
Aswarm with
\nelemental entities
And fluttering shapes of vague half-bodied
\nthought
And crude beginnings of incontinent force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nShe crosses a
\ndangerous border line where life enters the obscurity of the
\nsubconscient or struggles from Matter into the chaotic low levels of
\nthe mind crowded with elemental entities and quivering shapes of
\nhalf-formed thoughts and the raw beginnings of uncontrolled force.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Spaces
\nof Inner Self<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt first a difficult
\nnarrowness was there,
A press of uncertain powers and drifting
\nwills;
For all was there but nothing in its place. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt times an opening
\ncame, a door was forced;
She crossed through spaces of a secret
\nself
And trod in passages of inner Time. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInitially she finds
\na narrowness difficult to negotiate; there is a pressing of powers
\nthat are not sure of themselves, of wills that are not steady but
\ndrifting. Indeed all is there around, but nothing is in its right
\nplace. All is in chaos.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt times there comes
\nan opening and she forces open a door; she crosses through the
\ncorridors of a secret self and walks in the passages of a Time that
\npertains to the inner realms (different from the Time of the outer
\nworld).<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Clamorous
\nAir<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAt last she broke
\ninto a form of things,
A start of finiteness, a world of sense:
\n
But all was still confused, nothing self-found. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSoul was not there
\nbut only cries of life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA thronged and
\nclamorous air environed her. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAt last she steps
\ninto a realm of forms, where distinct finitising of things begins, a
\nworld cognisable by sense. But vet, all is confused, nothing is
\ndistinct and standing by itself. There is no soul there; there are
\nonly sounds and cries of life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nShe is surrounded by
\na crowded and ‘agitated air.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Dissonant
\nClash<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA horde of sounds
\ndefied significance,
A dissonant clash of cries and contrary
\ncalls;
A mob of visions broke across the sight,
A jostled
\nsequence lacking sense and suite,
Feelings pushed through a
\npacked and burdened heart,
Each forced its separate inconsequent
\nway
But cared for nothing but its ego\u2019s drive. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere is a medley of
\nsounds without meaning, a confused jumble and clash of cries and
\nopposing calls, a crowd of visions, a disorderly scene with neither
\nsense nor sequence. There is a rush of feelings through a crowded and
\nloaded heart, each forcing its own, separate, disconnected way raring
\nfor nothing else but its ego-impulse.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Rally
\nwithout common will<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA rally without key
\nof common will,
Thought stared at thought and pulled at the taut
\nbrain
As if to pluck the reason from its seat
And cast its
\ncorpse into life\u2019s wayside drain;
So might forgotten lie in
\nNature\u2019s mud
Abandoned the slain sentinel of the soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere is a crowd of
\nthoughts with no coordinating will; each thought looks askance at
\nanother and pulls at the strained brain as if to drag down the reason
\nfrom its secure seat, muffle and throw it away into the roadside
\ndrain thus would reason\u2014the watchful sentinel of the soul\u2014lie
\nslain and forgotten in Nature’s mire.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Shakes
\nOff Mind’s Rule<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSo could life\u2019s
\npower shake from it mind\u2019s rule,
Nature renounce the spirit\u2019s
\ngovernment
And the bare elemental energies
Make of the sense
\na glory of boundless joy,
A splendour of ecstatic anarchy,
A
\nrevel mighty and mad of utter bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOnce the reason is
\noverthrown, the life-power could be free from the rule of the mind,
\nNature break away from the regulation of the Spirit, the raw
\nelemental energies turn sense into an orgy of unbounded joy, a
\ndazzling play of blissful disorder, a reckless and irresistible
\nindulgence of mad ecstasy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Vital
\nGodhead Wakes<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis was the sense\u2019s
\ninstinct void of soul
Or when the soul sleeps hidden void of
\npower,
But now the vital godhead wakes within
And lifts the
\nlife with the supernal\u2019s touch. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSuch is the
\ninstinctive turn of the sense when it is not informed by the soul or
\nwhen the soul lies dormant in its secrecy without dynamism. But there
\nis the vital self within which wakes up and lifts life with the touch
\nof a higher spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>No
\nLight without Mind<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut how shall come
\nthe glory and the flame
If mind is cast away into the abyss?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFor body without
\nmind has not the light,
The rapture of spirit sense, the joy of
\nlife; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nStill, if the mind
\nbe not there, if the mind were thrown away, how can there come the
\nglory and the upward flame of enlightened, aspiring life? For without
\nthe mind to illumine and guide it, the body will remain without
\nlight, without the articulate joy of life, without the ecstasy of the
\nspirit-informed sense.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Mad
\nDisorder<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll then becomes
\nsubconscient, tenebrous,
Inconscience puts its seal on Nature\u2019s
\npage
Or else a mad disorder whirls the brain
Posting along a
\nravaged nature\u2019s roads,
A chaos of disordered impulses
In
\nwhich no light can come, no joy, no peace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen all becomes
\nsubconscious, dark; Inconscience reigns. A wild disorder racks the
\nbrain with a chaos of jostling, disparate impulses rushing through
\nthe natural being, shutting out all light, all joy, all peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Hour
\nAfter Hour She Treads<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis state now
\nthreatened, this she pushed from her. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAs if in a long
\nendless tossing street
One driven mid a trampling hurrying crowd
\n
Hour after hour she trod without release,
Holding by her will
\nthe senseless meute at bay;
Out of the dreadful press she dragged
\nher will
And fixed her thought upon the saviour Name;
Then
\nall grew still and empty; she was free. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA large deliverance
\ncame, a vast calm space. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSuch a state now
\nthreatens to engulf Savitri, but she pushes it away from her. Like
\none driven amid a hurrying crowd on a long road she goes on and on,
\ncompelling by her strong will the brute hounds to stay at a distance
\nfrom her; she forces her will into action in spite of all that
\nterrible compression and fixes her thought upon the Divine Name. Then
\nsuddenly comes a change. All becomes still and empty. She is free.
\nThere is a large freedom, a Nast calm peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Blank
\nTranquillity<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAwhile she moved
\nthrough a blank tranquillity
Of naked Light from an invisible
\nsun,
A void that was a bodiless happiness,
A blissful vacuum
\nof nameless peace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFor a while she
\nmoves on through tracts of blank tranquillity; there pours down a
\ndirect light from a sun that is, however, not visible. It is a void
\nfull of vague happiness, a blissful vaccum of an undefinable peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Giant
\nHead of Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut now a mightier
\ndanger\u2019s front drew near:
The press of bodily mind, the
\nInconscient\u2019s brood
Of aimless thought and will had fallen from
\nher. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nApproaching loomed a
\ngiant head of Life
Ungoverned by mind or soul, subconscient,
\nvast. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe pulls and
\npressures of the physical mind, pointless thought and aimless
\nwill\u2014elements issuing from the Inconscient\u2014have fallen away from
\nher. But a more formidable danger approaches. A giant head of Life
\nappears on the scene; it is not controlled by the mind or the soul:
\nit is subconscient, vast.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Torrent
\nof Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt tossed all power
\ninto a single drive,
It made its power a might of dangerous seas.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nInto the stillness
\nof her silent self,
Into the whiteness of its muse of Space
A
\nspate, a torrent of the speed of Life
Broke like a wind-lashed
\ndriven mob of waves
Racing on a pale floor of summer sand;
It
\ndrowned its banks, a mountain of climbing waves. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis life
\nconcentrates all its strength into a single blow as powerful as the
\nmight of perilous seas. It flings itself with the speed of a torrent
\nto invade the stillness of her silent self, musing in pure white
\nspace. It is as furious in its attack as wind-driven waves rising
\nlike mountains and crashing on the summer sand.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Enormous
\nClamour<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEnormous was its
\nvast and passionate voice. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt cried to her
\nlistening spirit as it ran,
Demanding God\u2019s submission to
\nchainless Force. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA deaf force calling
\nto a status dumb,
A thousand voices in a muted Vast,
It
\nclaimed the heart\u2019s support for its clutch at joy,
For its need
\nto act the witness soul\u2019s consent,
For its lust of power her
\nneutral being\u2019s seal. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe voice of Life is
\nall pervading and clamorous in its cry to the spirit of Savitri
\ndemanding the surrender of God to its unbound Force. It will not
\nsubmit to the rule of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis force is lost
\nin its own movement and works and it cries aloud in an inarticulate
\nvast domain. It clutches at joy and claims the heart’s support for
\nit; it has an innate urge and need to act and it claims the consent
\nof the witnessing soul for it; it lusts for more and more power and
\nseeks the sanction of Savitri’s inner being that is neutral,
\nuninvolved.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Gust
\nof Breath of Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nInto the wideness of
\nher watching self
It brought a grandiose gust of the Breath of
\nLife;
Its torrent carried the world\u2019s hopes and fears,
All
\nlife\u2019s, all Nature\u2019s dissatisfied hungry cry,
And the longing
\nall eternity cannot fill: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis Life-Force
\nbrings a mighty gust of the Breath of Life into the wide spaces of
\nSavitri’s witnessing self; its powerful torrent carries with it the
\nhopes and fears of the entire world, the restless hungry cry of all
\nNature, all Life; its longing is such that all eternity cannot
\nsatisfy it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Its
\nCall<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt called to the
\nmountain secrecies of the soul
And the miracle of the never-dying
\nfire,
It spoke to some first inexpressible ecstasy
Hidden in
\nthe creative beat of Life; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe call of this
\nsurging Life-Force strives to reach the unseen Lights of the soul and
\nthe mystic flame of the undying aspiration. It communicates with the
\nineffable ecstasy that beats secretly in the creative rhythms of
\nlife.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>From
\nWorld-Libido<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOut of the nether
\nunseen deeps it tore
Its lure and magic of disordered bliss,
\n
Into earth-light poured its maze of tangled charm
And heady
\ndraught of Nature\u2019s primitive joy
And the fire and mystery of
\nforbidden delight
Drunk from the world-libido\u2019s bottomless
\nwell,
And the honey-sweet poison-wine of lust and death,
But
\ndreamed a vintage of glory of life\u2019s gods,
And felt as
\ncelestial rapture\u2019s golden sting. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFrom out of the
\nnether hidden depths, the torrent of Life pours its alluring contents
\nof chaotic bliss into the earth region: the intoxicating wine of the
\nprimitive joy of Nature, the intensities and mysteries of the
\ndelights (forbidden by the awakened consciousness.) drunk from the
\nbottomless world-desire, and the outwardly sweet but intrinsically
\npoisonous draught of lust and death. It dreams of and reaches out to
\nthe headier wine of the life-gods and feels the extremes of rapture
\nbordering on pain as something celestial.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Seeking
\nfor the Unfulfille<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe cycles of the
\ninfinity of desire
And the mystique that made an unrealised world
\n
Wider than the known and closer than the unknown
In which
\nhunt for ever the hounds of mind and life,
Tempted a deep
\ndissatisfied urge within
To long for the unfulfilled and ever far
\n
And make this life upon a limiting earth
A climb towards
\nsummits vanishing in the void,
A search for the glory of the
\nimpossible. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe unending cycles
\nof boundless desire and a secret sense of conviction that points to
\nan unrealised world and makes it larger than the world that is known
\nand more intimate than those unknown realms in which the forces of
\nmind and life are ever amuck, draw out a deep dissatisfied urge from
\nwithin to reach out for what is unfulfilled and far away, to make of
\nlife on this limiting earth a climbing towards altitudes that stretch
\ninto the Void, an incessant search for the glory of what looks
\nimpossible now.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Striving
\nfor the Ungrasped<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt dreamed of that
\nwhich never has been known,
It grasped at that which never has
\nbeen won,
It chased into an Elysian memory
The charms that
\nflee from the heart\u2019s soon lost delight; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis Force of Life
\ndreams of what has not been known and realised, clutches at what has
\nnot been secured so far, it pursues the memory of the charms of the
\nshort-lived delights of the heart. The memory of such a state pushes
\nit on to try to actualise it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Dares
\nthe Force that Slays<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt dared the force
\nthat slays, the joys that hurt,
The imaged shape of
\nunaccomplished things
And the summons to a Circean transmuting
\ndance
And passion\u2019s tenancy of the courts of love
And the
\nwild Beast\u2019s ramp and romp with Beauty and Life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt takes on the
\nforce that could kill, embraces the joys that hurt, tries to
\nformulate things that are still not accomplished, responds to the
\ncall of an alluring fast-changing dance of disintegration,
\nparticipates in the passionate intensities of love and the varied
\nplay of the uncontrolled Animal with Beauty and Life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Flame-Ascension<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt brought its cry
\nand surge of opposite powers,
Its moments of the touch of
\nluminous planes,
Its flame-ascensions and sky-pitched vast
\nattempts,
Its fiery towers of dream built on the winds,
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis movement of the
\nvital Force brings with it the clamour and the clang of contrary
\npowers, it touches at times the hem of luminous planes above, it
\nsoars high and throws itself wide into the vasts of the skies, it
\nbuilds flaming dream-towers in its speeding course.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nIts sinkings towards
\nthe darkness and the abyss,
Its honey of tenderness, its sharp
\nwine of hate,
Its changes of sun and cloud, of laughter and
\ntears,
Its bottomless danger pits and swallowing gulfs,
Its
\nfear and joy and ecstasy and despair,
Its occult wizardries, its
\nsimple lines
And great communions and uplifting moves,
Its
\nfaith in heaven, its intercourse with hell. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis mighty
\nlife-movement has its plunges into the nether dark regions, its
\nsweetness of tender feeling, its sting of hatred, its rapid
\nturnabouts of brightness and obscurity, of cheer and depression, its
\nendless pits of danger and engulfing vasts, its changing moods of
\nfear and joy, ecstasy and despair, its involved, magical movements as
\nwell as its direct, simple acts, its intimacies with greater
\nVerities, its large uplifting actions, its perception and faith in
\nthe high felicities of the heavens above, its natural inclination
\ntowards and sorties into the hells below.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Godward
\nImpulses<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese powers were
\nnot blunt with the dead weight of earth,
They gave ambrosia\u2019s
\ntaste and poison\u2019s sting. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere was an ardour
\nin the gaze of Life
That saw heaven blue in the grey air of
\nNight:
The impulses godward soared on passion\u2019s wings.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThese powers of Life
\nare not blunted with the petrified weight of this physical base, the
\nearth. They carry the exhilaration of the drink of the gods as well
\nas the deadly sting of poison. There is an intensity in the powerful
\ngaze of Life that discovers the splendid blue of heaven in the
\npervading greyness of Night. It has its godward impulses that soar
\nhigh on the wings of its irresistible passion.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Vital
\nMind<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMind\u2019s quick-paced
\nthoughts floated from their high necks
A glowing splendour as of
\nan irised mane,
A parure of pure intuition\u2019s light;
Its
\nflame-foot gallop they could imitate:
Mind\u2019s voices mimicked
\ninspiration\u2019s stress,
Its ictus of infallibility,
Its speed
\nand lightning heaven-leap of the Gods. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen come the
\nfast-moving thoughts of the vital mind\u2014with a brilliant glow
\nresembling the light of pure intuition. They can imitate the flashing
\nmovements of intuition. The voices of this mind try to pass off as
\ninspiration with its stress of infallibility\u2014the right inspiration
\nbeing always infallible its speed and its godlike. heavenly leap
\ntowards the truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Not
\nGenuine<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA trenchant blade
\nthat shore the nets of doubt,
Its sword of discernment seemed
\nalmost divine. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nYet all that
\nknowledge was a borrowed sun\u2019s;
The forms that came were not
\nheaven\u2019s native births:
Its puissance dangerous and absolute
\n
Could mingle poison with the wine of God. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFurther this mind
\ndisplays a keen discerning power that cuts across all maze of doubt
\nand seems to be almost divine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut all this display
\nis not the light of the original Sun of Knowledge; it is an imitative
\nlight from a questionable source with forms far from genuine. Its
\npower is strong and dangerous, capable of adding deadly poison to the
\nexhilarating wine of God, cleverly mixing fatal falsehood with the
\ninspiring truth of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Truth
\nin Error’s Arms<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOn these high
\nshining backs falsehood could ride;
Truth lay with delight in
\nerror\u2019s passionate arms
Gliding downstream in a blithe gilded
\nbarge:
She edged her ray with a magnificent lie. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSuch are the high
\nglittering movements on which falsehood rides. Truth sports with
\nerror in delight and slides downwards in attractive formations. Truth
\nallows her light to be surrounded by an imposing falsehood.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Life’s
\nnether realms<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHere in Life\u2019s
\nnether realms all contraries meet;
Truth stares and does her
\nworks with bandaged eyes,
And Ignorance is Wisdom\u2019s patron
\nhere. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThose galloping
\nhooves in their enthusiast speed
Could bear to a dangerous
\nintermediate zone
Where Death walks wearing a robe of deathless
\nLife. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere in the nether
\ndomains of Life all opposites come together. Truth works blindly as
\nif there were a bandage over her eyes while wisdom exists only under
\nthe sufferance of Ignorance. The speeding energies of Life may rush
\none into a perilous intermediate zone where Death stalks under the
\nguise of immortal Life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Valley
\nof Wandering Gleam<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr they enter the
\nvalley of the wandering Gleam
Whence, captives or victims of the
\nspecious Ray,
Souls trapped in that region never can escape.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAgents, not masters,
\nthey serve Life\u2019s desires
Toiling for ever in the snare of
\nTime. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr these
\nLife-energies may enter the Valley of the wandering Gleam where souls
\nare misled by a false light and get trapped without escape. These
\nsouls are not masters but slaves of Life’s desires and for ever they
\ntoil for them in the net of Time.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Spirit
\nEnsnared<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTheir bodies born
\nout of some Nihil\u2019s womb
Ensnare the spirit in the moment\u2019s
\ndreams,
Then perish vomiting the immortal soul
Out of
\nMatter\u2019s belly into the sink of Nought. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe bodies of these
\nsouls are born of the womb of some Nothing and they entrap the spirit
\nin passing dreams of the moment. Then they die ejecting the immortal
\nsoul out of its encasement of Matter into a pit of Nil.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Some
\nReach a Greater Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet some uncaught,
\nunslain can warily pass
Carrying Truth\u2019s image in their
\nsheltered heart,
Pluck Knowledge out of error\u2019s screening grip,
\n
Break paths through the blind walls of little self,
Then
\ntravel on to reach a greater life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nStill, some souls
\ncan with care pass through these dangerous regions without being
\narrested or slain, for they carry some emanation or image of Truth in
\ntheir guarded heart. They can separate and pluck Knowledge from the
\ncovering hold of error, open up paths through the limiting and blind
\nwalls of the little self, and then journey further on to reach the
\ndomains of a larger, greater Life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Clamour
\nof Waters<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll this streamed
\npast her and seemed to her vision\u2019s sight
As if around a high
\nand voiceless isle
A clamour of waters from far unknown hills,
\n
Swallowed its narrow banks in crowding waves
And made a
\nhungry world of white wild foam: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll this flows past
\nSavitri and it seems to her inner sight as if around a high mute
\nisland a torrent of waters from unknown hills afar overflows its
\nnarrow banks with its rushing waves and throws up a hungry world of
\nwhite wild foam.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Foam
\nand Cry<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHastening, a dragon
\nwith a million feet,
Its foam and cry, a drunken giant\u2019s din,
\n
Tossing a mane of Darkness into God\u2019s sky,
It ebbed
\nreceding into a distant roar; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis huge tide
\nthrowing up wave after wave of gleaming foam shouts aloud like a
\ndrunken giant and tosses up a mane of Darkness, as it were, into the
\nskies above and then ebbs away, its roar receding into a distance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Happy
\nJoy of Life<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen smiled again a
\nlarge and tranquil air:
Blue heaven, green earth, partners of
\nBeauty\u2019s reign,
Lived as of old, companions in happiness;
And
\nin the world\u2019s heart laughed the joy of life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOnce again smiles a
\nwide and tranquil air. Beauty reigns with her companions of blue
\nheaven and green earth, radiantly happy as before. The world’s heart
\nis full of laughter and the joy of life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>All
\nStill<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll now was still,
\nthe soil shone dry and pure. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThrough it all she
\nmoved not, plunged not in the vain waves. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOut of the vastness
\nof the silent self
Life\u2019s clamour fled; her spirit was mute and
\nfree. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll now is still;
\nthe terrain is bright, dry and pure.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThroughout all this
\nviolent disturbance. Savitri has not plunged into the vainly
\nrepetitive waves. She has not moved out of the vastitude of her
\nsilent self. The loud clang and din of Life dies away. Her spirit
\ncontinues to be silent and free.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Reason-Ordered
\nSpace<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen journeying
\nforward through the self\u2019s wide hush
She came into a brilliant
\nordered Space. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere Life dwelt
\nparked in an armed tranquillity;
A chain was on her strong
\ninsurgent heart. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri presses
\nforward through the wide stillness of her self and steps into a
\nradiantly bright region where all is set in an ordered manner. Here
\nLife dwells housed in a well guarded quietude; a chain is put, as it
\nwere, on her rebellious spirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe rule of Reason
\nhas begun.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nTamed to the modesty
\nof a measured pace,
She kept no more her vehement stride and
\nrush;
She had lost the careless majesty of her muse
And the
\nample grandeur of her regal force;
Curbed were her mighty pomps,
\nher splendid waste,
Sobered the revels of her bacchant play,
Cut
\ndown were her squanderings in desire\u2019s bazaar,
Coerced her
\ndespot will, her fancy\u2019s dance,
A cold stolidity bound the riot
\nof sense. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife’s wild pace is
\nbrought under a measured control; she no more runs about with her
\nusual vehemence and rush. The free sway of her musings and the large
\ngrandeur of her royal force are no more there, Her imposing displays,
\nhey splendid wastes are under check; her drunken frolics are sobered
\ndown, Her reckless self-spendings in pursuit of desires are reduced.
\nHer imperious will is reined in, so also the play of her fancy. The
\nwild activity of her senses is tied up in a kind of immovable
\nimmobility.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Bound
\nin Rigid Lines<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer spirit\u2019s
\nbounds they cast in rigid lines. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA royalty without
\nfreedom was her lot;
The sovereign throned obeyed her ministers:
\n
Her servants mind and sense governed her house
And guarded
\nwith a phalanx of armoured rules
The reason\u2019s balanced reign,
\nkept order and peace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe spirit of life
\nis bound in rigid limits. She is still sovereign, but she has no real
\nfreedom of action; the monarch is obliged to obey the ministers. Even
\nmind and sense\u2014originally her servants\u2014govern her house, guard
\nwith their own systems of hard rules and regulations the balanced
\nreign of reason; they keep order and peace in this region.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Bench
\nof Law for Throne<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer will lived
\nclosed in adamant walls of law,
Coerced was her force by chains
\nthat feigned to adorn,
Imagination was prisoned in a fort,
Her
\nwanton and licentious favourite;
Reality\u2019s poise and reason\u2019s
\nsymmetry
Were set in its place sentinelled by marshalled facts,
\n
They gave to the soul for throne a bench of Law,
For kingdom
\na small world of rule and line:
The ages\u2019 wisdom, shrivelled to
\nscholiast lines,
Shrank patterned into a copy-book device.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife’s will is
\ncircumscribed by rigid laws, her force kept tinder check by cords
\nseemingly decorative. Imagination which is the favourite indulgence
\nof Life is imprisoned. The status of reality and the symmetrical
\norder of reason are established in their place under the watchful eye
\nof proven facts. The soul is enthroned on the narrow bench of law,
\nwith a small world patterned by rule and line for its kingdom. The
\nwisdom of the ages is substituted by a cut and dried system at the
\nhands of the commentator, and reduced to a codified text-book
\ntabulation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Schoolman
\nMind<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe Spirit\u2019s
\nalmighty freedom was not here:
A schoolman mind had captured
\nlife\u2019s large space,
But chose to live in bare and paltry rooms
\n
Parked off from the too vast dangerous universe,
Fearing to
\nlose its soul in the infinite. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe all-powerful
\nfreedom of the Spirit is not here: The small mind addicted to system
\nand petty orderliness has taken possession of the vaster domains of
\nlife; though these spaces are large this mind constricts itself in
\nbare and tiny rooms. This it does to fortify itself from the vast
\nuniverse around so that it may not run the danger of losing its
\nentity in the widenesses of the universe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Ideas’
\nSweep Cut<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven the Idea\u2019s
\nample sweep was cut
Into a system, chained to fixed pillars of
\nthought
Or rivetted to Matter\u2019s solid ground:
Or else the
\nsoul was lost in its own heights:
Obeying the Ideal\u2019s
\nhighbrowed law
Thought based a throne on unsubstantial air
\n
Disdaining earth\u2019s flat triviality:
It barred reality out
\nto live in its dreams. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEven the Idea is
\nforced to limit its natural wide range; it is cut down to fit into a
\nsystem, tied to fixed formulations of thought or rivetted to the
\nphysical bases of Matter. Or the soul is lost in itself on its
\naltitudes. Following the pull of the Ideal towards the abstract,
\nThought dwells in an unsubstantial air looking down on the concrete
\nearth as something trivial and dull; it shuts itself from reality in
\norder to be free to luxuriate in its own dreams.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nOr all stepped into
\na systemed universe:
Life\u2019s empire was a managed continent,
\n
Its thoughts an army ranked and disciplined;
Uniformed they
\nkept the logic of their fixed place
At the bidding of the trained
\ncenturion mind. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEverything is
\ncontained in a systematised scheme. The large and free domain of life
\nis placed under firm management; life’s thoughts are serried together
\nin an order and a sequence according to fixed logic enforced by the
\ndisciplinarian mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Unchanging
\nHierarchy<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr each stepped into
\nits station like a star
Or marched through fixed and constellated
\nheavens
Or kept its feudal rank among its peers
In the sky\u2019s
\nunchanging cosmic hierarchy. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr each thought
\ntakes its position, lone and shining by itself; or it moves through
\nan ordered and organised system; or it holds itself in its special
\nstatus in the general unchanging set-up of the cosmos.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Life
\nConstrained<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr like a highbred
\nmaiden with chaste eyes
Forbidden to walk unveiled the public
\nways,
She must in close secluded chambers move,
Her feeling
\nin cloisters live or gardened paths. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife is here obliged
\nto be restrained in her movements. She can no more rush about in her
\nprimitive freelance ways. He\u2022 movements must not be too obvious,
\nher feelings must stay concealed or flow into cultivated, elegant
\nchannels.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Life
\nConsigned to Safe Path<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLife was consigned
\nto a safe level path,
It dared not tempt the great and difficult
\nheights
Or climb to be neighbour to a lonely star
Or skirt
\nthe danger of the precipice
Or tempt the foam-curled breakers\u2019
\nperilous laugh,
Adventure\u2019s lyrist, danger\u2019s amateur,
Or
\ninto her chamber call some flaming god,
Or leave the world\u2019s
\nbounds and where no limits are,
Meet with the heart\u2019s passion
\nthe Adorable
Or set the world ablaze with the inner Fire.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife is assigned a
\nwell-bid out course without risk. She no more attempts to scale
\ndifficult altitudes nor shoots up to companion a lonely star in the
\nskies; nor does she dare the danger of the precipice nor brave the
\ndangerous waves of the sea. Life no more sings the paens of adventure
\nnor experiments with danger. She no longer seeks the companionship of
\nsome flaming god. She does not go beyond the safe hounds of the
\nworlds nor seek with passion the Face of the Adorable Lord in the
\ninfinite vasts. Neither does she fire the world with the intensity of
\nher inner flame.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nA chastened epithet
\nin the prose of life,
She must fill with colour just her
\nsanctioned space,
Not break out of the cabin of the idea
Nor
\ntrespass into rhythms too high or vast. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLife has now a more
\nsubdued, mellowed part to play in a less colourful world. She is
\nallotted a limited space within which alone she can display her
\ncharacteristic hues. She is confined to the ruling Idea and cannot
\nbreak out of it; she is not allowed to foray into realms that are
\nconsidered either too high or too vast for her assigned role.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Ught’s
\nFlight Controlled<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven when it soared
\ninto ideal air,
Thought\u2019s flight lost not itself in heaven\u2019s
\nblue:
It drew upon the skies a patterned flower
Of
\ndisciplined beauty and harmonic light. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThought itself
\ncannot soar too high; even when it touches the domains of the Ideal,
\nit cannot lose itself in the purity of those heavens. All it can do
\nis to draw a fine picture of elegance and balanced composition on the
\nskies of the abstract.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Vigilant
\nSpirit Governs<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA temperate vigilant
\nspirit governed life:
Its acts were tools of the considering
\nthought,
Too cold to take fire and set the world ablaze,
Or
\nthe careful reason\u2019s diplomatic moves
Testing the means to a
\nprefigured end,
Or at the highest pitch some calm Will\u2019s plan
\n
Or a strategy of some High Command within
To conquer the
\nsecret treasures of the gods
Or win for a masked king some
\nglorious world, <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA restrained and
\nwatchful spirit governs life. Its acts are the result of deliberating
\nthought and hence lack the animation to fire the world. Its movements
\nare the calculated moves of the careful reason experimenting with
\nways and means to arrive at a chosen goal. Even at their highest,
\nthese movements are part of a plan of some calm unseen Will or the
\nstrategy of some Ruler within to capture the secret powers of the
\ngods or win for a veiled monarch some world of glory.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Not
\nan Index of the being<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNot a reflex of the
\nspontaneous self,
An index of the being and its moods,
A
\nwinging of conscious spirit, a sacrament
Of life\u2019s communion
\nwith the still Supreme
Or its pure movement on the Eternal\u2019s
\nroad. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIts movements are
\nnot spontaneous like those of the self nor are they an index of the
\nbeing and its moods; nor are they the soaring of the conscious
\nspirit, nor an act of worship of life in communion with the still
\ncalm Supreme; nor are they a natural and pure movement of life on the
\npath of the Eternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Wall
\nof small Ideals<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr else for the body
\nof some high Idea
A house was built with too close-fitting
\nbricks;
Action and thought cemented made a wall
Of small
\nideals limiting the soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOr reason builds
\nhere a narrow and rigid construction for some high Idea to live in.
\nBoth action and thought work to raise a circumscribing wall of small,
\npetty ideals around the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Exclusive
\nWorship<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven meditation
\nmused on a narrow seat;
And worship turned to an exclusive God,
\n
To the Universal in a chapel prayed
Whose doors were shut
\nagainst the universe:
Or kneeled to the bodiless Impersonal
A
\nmind shut to the cry and fire of love: <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEven meditation is
\nnot a wide and spontaneous movement it is a contemplation from a
\nsmall, narrow base. Worship itself is directed to an exclusive\u2014not
\nan all-inclusive\u2014God. Prayers are offered to the Universal Spirit
\nin a chapel, whose doors, however, are closed to the wide universe.
\nOr a mind impervious to the call and pa.ion of love kneels in prayer
\nto a cold, formless Impersonal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Rational
\nReligion<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA rational religion
\ndried the heart. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt planned a smooth
\nlife\u2019s acts with ethics\u2019 rule
Or offered a cold and flameless
\nsacrifice. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe sacred Book lay
\non its sanctified desk
Wrapped in interpretation\u2019s silken
\nstrings:
A credo sealed up its spiritual sense. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nReligion is
\nrationalised, shaped and governed by reason; so done, it dries up all
\nthe emotional and psychic movements of the heart.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt seeks to govern
\nsmoothly all the movements of life with the rule of Ethics. The
\nsacrifice it offers to God is cold and lacks the fire of aspiration.
\nIts Scripture, the Book of Wisdom lies shut in the decorative
\nwrappings of interpretation; its spiritual meaning is hidden and
\nsealed in creed\u2014the truth is covered by beliefs and opinions
\norganised into a system.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nHere was a quiet
\ncountry of fixed mind,
Here life no more was all nor passion\u2019s
\nvoice;
A cry of sense had sunk into a hush. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSoul was not there
\nnor spirit, but mind alone;
Mind claimed to be the spirit and the
\nsoul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFurther Savitri
\nenters another space\u2014the quiet realm of the thought-mind. Here life
\nis no longer dominant nor the cry of passion. The clamour of the
\nsenses has sunk into a hush. Neither the individual soul nor the
\nspirit is here; only the mind exists. And mind claims to be the sole
\nreality\u2014the soul and the spirit of all.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThe spirit saw
\nitself as form of mind,
Lost itself in the glory of the thought,
\n
A light that made invisible the sun. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere the mind is not
\nseen as a poise of the spirit. Instead the spirit sees itself as a
\nform taken by the mind. The spirit loses itself in the splendour of
\nthe thought that reigns supreme in this region. But this thought is a
\nlight that obscures and covers the true sun of Knowledge.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Last
\nStability<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nInto a firm and
\nsettled space she came
Where all was still and all things kept
\ntheir place. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nEach found what it
\nhad sought and knew its aim. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll had a final last
\nstability. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri has come
\ninto a region of settled and ordered space. Everything is still, each
\nkeeps to its allotted place. Each has found what it has searched for
\nand knows as its goal, There is an air of achieved stability about
\nthe whole region.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAlternate
\nversion:This narrowed life’s pedestrian thought and will Debauched
\ninto la little continent spaceWhere soul was not nor spirit thinking
\nmindLaboured content with small finalities.It seemed to it the lop of
\nbeing’s areAnd the last circle of the quest of life.It was a paradise
\nfor thought’s crowned easeWhere nothing more was left to find or
\nknow,A tabernacle of wise contented life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis constricted and
\ndulled life-movement breaks into a small domain where neither soul
\nnot spirit is. only the thinking mind is at work satisfied with its
\nsmall certainties. To this mind, this state appears to be the highest
\npossible status of the being, the final phase of the quest of life.
\nIt is a paradise of the felicities of thought, with nothing more left
\nto seek or to know, a writable abode of wise, contented existence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>A
\nbeing Speaks<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere one stood
\nforth who bore authority
On an important brow and held a rod;
\n
Command was incarnate in his gesture and tone;
Tradition\u2019s
\npetrified wisdom carved his speech,
His sentences savoured the
\noracle. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere a being with an
\nair of authority and self-importance comes forward and begins to
\nspeak. His speech is instinct with the spirit and tone of command it
\nis cast into the mould of the hardened wisdom of tradition. His words
\nhave the authority and finality of an oracle.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Thoughts
\nFinality<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cTraveller or
\npilgrim of the inner world,
Fortunate art thou to reach our
\nbrilliant air
Flaming with thought\u2019s supreme finality.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO aspirant to the
\nperfect way of life,
Here find it; rest from search and live at
\npeace. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOurs is the home of
\ncosmic certainty. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO traveller or
\npilgrim to the inner world, thou art indeed fortunate to arrive into
\nour bright kingdom radiant with the final certitude of thought. O
\naspirant to the perfect way of life, here is that perfect way. Cease
\nfrom thy searchings and rest here in peace. This is the home of
\ncosmic certainty where all is finally known.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>We
\nthe Elite<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHere is the truth,
\nGod\u2019s harmony is here. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nRegister thy name in
\nthe book of the elite,
Admitted by the sanction of the few,
\n
Adopt thy station of knowledge, thy post in mind,
Thy ticket
\nof order draw in Life\u2019s bureau
And praise thy fate that made
\nthee one of ours. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe truth is here;
\nGod’s harmony is here. Here are the elite of creation, be thou one of
\nthese; seek the sanction of the elect and choose thy order of
\nknowledge, thy assignation in this domain of the mind. Take the
\nneeded authorisation from life’s bureau here. Thank thy fate for
\nmaking thee one of us\u2014a rare privilege.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>This
\nis the End<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll here, docketed
\nand tied, the mind can know,
All schemed by law that God permits
\nto life. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis is the end and
\nthere is no beyond. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere is the safety
\nof the ultimate wall,
Here is the clarity of the sword of Light,
\n
Here is the victory of a single Truth,
Here burns the diamond
\nof flawless bliss. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA favourite of
\nHeaven and Nature live.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere the mind can
\neasily know everything as all is labelled and arranged. All that is
\nmanifest by God in life is here filled into a scheme of law. This is
\nthe final station, there is nothing beyond. Here is the safety of the
\nlast protecting wall, here the clarity of vision brought about by the
\nbright sword of Light, here the conquest by a single Truth\u2014all
\nothers being eliminated. Here shines bright the flawless diamond of
\nbliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nLive thou here, the
\nchosen of both Heaven and Earth-Nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Reign
\nof Intellect<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut to the too
\nsatisfied and confident sage
Savitri replied casting into his
\nworld
Sight\u2019s deep release, the heart\u2019s questioning inner
\nvoice. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nFor here the heart
\nspoke not, only clear daylight
Of intellect reigned here,
\nlimiting, cold, precise. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nReplying to this too
\ncomplacent sage, Savitri casts into his world her liberating sight
\nand the inner voice of her heart questioning everything that is taken
\nfor granted. For here the warmth of the heart is not articulate; all
\nis a reign of clear, bright intellect, cold, exact, limited.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Single
\nTruth in this Chaos<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cHappy are they
\nwho in this chaos of things,
This coming and going of the feet of
\nTime,
Can find the single Truth, the eternal Law:
Untouched
\nthey live by hope and doubt and fear. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIndeed, they are
\nblessed who in all the chaos of the world, amidst the incessant
\nactivities of Time, can find the unique Truth, the unchanging Law.
\nThey can live unaffected by doubt or hope or fear of any kind,<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Faith
\nas a Rock<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHappy are men
\nanchored on fixed belief
In this uncertain and ambiguous world,
\n
Or who have planted in the heart\u2019s rich soil
One small
\ngrain of spiritual certitude. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHappiest who stand
\non faith as on a rock. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis is a world of
\nuncertainty, of doubtful meaning. Those who can find and attach
\nthemselves to a fixed belief are happy; so too are those who have
\nsucceeded in planting even a small seed of spiritual certitude in the
\nfertile soil of the heart. And happiest are they who have a faith as
\nunshakable as a rock to stand upon.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>I
\nSeek My Soul<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut I must pass
\nleaving the ended search,
Truth\u2019s rounded outcome firm,
\nimmutable
And this harmonic building of world-fact,
This
\nordered knowledge of apparent things. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nHere I can stay not,
\nfor I seek my soul.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut I cannot accept
\nthe intellect’s elegant and harmonious construction of the world’s
\nsignificance as the final answer to the search for Truth. This
\nordered knowledge relates only to the appearance of things; I cannot
\nbe content with it. I am in search of my soul, the core of my being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nNone answered in
\nthat bright contented world,
Or only turned on their accustomed
\nway
Astonished to hear questioning in that air
Or thoughts
\nthat could still turn to the Beyond. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nBut some murmured,
\npassers-by from kindred spheres:
Each by his credo judged the
\nthought she spoke. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNone answers Savitri
\nin that radiant, contented world. Some just turn for a moment while
\non their accustomed path, surprised that anyone can question in that
\nair of finality or have thoughts that can still conceive of a Beyond
\nand turn to it. Some, however, coming from similar realms, passing
\nthrough this kingdom, murmur, each one judging her words according to
\nhis system of beliefs.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Soul,
\na Gland<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cWho then is this
\nwho knows not that the soul
Is a least gland or a secretion\u2019s
\nfault
Disquieting the sane government of the mind,
Disordering
\nthe function of the brain,
Or a yearning lodged in Nature\u2019s
\nmortal house
Or dream whispered in man\u2019s cave of hollow thought
\n
Who would prolong his brief unhappy term
Or cling to living
\nin a sea of death?\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n\u201cWho is this
\nperson who does not know that the soul is only a small gland or a
\nfreak of secretion, upsetting the orderly rule of the mind,
\ninterfering with the normal activity of the brain? Who does not know
\nthat it is only a hope and longing in the mortal embodiment of
\nNature, just a dream-whisper caught in man’s chamber of hollow
\nthought? Who wants to prolong his brief unhappy life-span or to cling
\nto life in this expanse of death?\u201d<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Spirit,
\na Splendid Shadow<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut others, \u201cNay,
\nit is her spirit she seeks. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA splendid shadow of
\nthe name of God,
A formless lustre from the Ideal\u2019s realm,
The
\nSpirit is the Holy Ghost of Mind;
But none has touched its limits
\nor seen its face. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSome, however,
\nremark: She seeks her spirit which is but a splendid shadow of the
\nname of God\u2014so unsubstantial it is an unformed ray from the domains
\nof the Ideal. It is said that the spirit is the Holy Ghost, the
\ndivine essence of the mind, but who has seen how far it extends? Who
\nhas actually looked into its face?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Mind,
\nSole Creator<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEach soul is the
\ngreat Father\u2019s crucified Son,
Mind is that soul\u2019s one parent,
\nits conscious cause,
The ground on which trembles a brief passing
\nlight,
Mind, sole creator of the apparent world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll that is here is
\npart of our own self;
Our minds have made the world in which we
\nlive.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTrue, each soul is
\nthe son of the great Father, suffering on the cross of life. But the
\nparent of that soul is the Mind. Mind is the conscious origin of the
\nsoul, the base on which quivers a brief passing light that they call
\nthe soul. Indeed. Mind is the sole creator of this apparent world,
\nAll that is here in the universe is part of our Thought-Being. It is
\nour minds that have created the world in which we dwell.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Still.
\na beyond<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnother with mystic
\nand unsatisfied eyes
Who loved his slain belief and mourned its
\ndeath:
\u201cIs there one left who seeks for a Beyond? <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nCan still the path
\nbe found, opened the gate?\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nRemarks another
\npasser-by with mystic eyes and unsatisfied look, who still remembers
\nwith love his belief in the Soul and Spirit, the belief that has been
\nkilled and whose death he mourns:Is there still someone left in the
\nworld who seeks for a Beyond! Can the path to it be yet found? Can
\nthat gate he opened again?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Messengers
\nof the Subliminal<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSo she fared on
\nacross her silent self. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nTo a road she came
\nthronged with an ardent crowd
Who sped brilliant fire-footed,
\nsun-light eyed,
Pressing to reach the world\u2019s mysterious wall,
\n
And pass through masked doorways into outer mind
Where the
\nLight comes not nor the mystic voice,
Messengers from our
\nsubliminal greatnesses,
Guests from the cavern of the secret
\nsoul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri advances
\nacross the spaces of her silent self. She arrives at a road thronged
\nwith an eager crowd rushing with brilliant speed, their feet glowing
\nwith fire, their eyes bright with sunlight. They are pressing to
\nreach the yet unseen boundary of the world; they pass through veiled
\ndoorways into the realm of the outer mind where the inner Light does
\nnot come nor the psychic voice reach. They are all the messengers,
\nemanations from our subliminal vasts, guests issuing from the cave of
\nthe secret soul. They are coming out from within to enter the outer
\nworld.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Varied
\nHost<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nInto dim spiritual
\nsomnolence they break
Or shed wide wonder on our waking self,
\n
Ideas that haunt us with their radiant tread,
Dreams that are
\nhints of unborn Reality,
Strange goddesses with deep-pooled
\nmagical eyes,
Strong wind-haired gods carrying harps of hope,
\n
Great moon-hued visions gliding through gold air,
Aspiration\u2019s
\nsun-dream head and star-carved limbs,
Emotions making common
\nhearts sublime. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThey break into the
\nspiritual passage between the states of sleep and waking or look on
\nwith wide wonder on our waking state of being. They are a mixed
\nassortment: ideas that pursue us with their bright footsteps dreams
\nthat are pre-monitary and significant; goddesses with enchanting
\neyes; hope-giving gods of strength with wind-like hair; grand visions
\nof bliss floating through luminous air; soaring aspiration with the
\ndreamt-of sun for its head and the stars for its limbs\u2014so high is
\nits range, emotions that turn even common hearts sublime by their
\nmovements.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Savitri
\nMingles with Them<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd Savitri mingling
\nin that glorious crowd,
Yearning to the spiritual light they
\nbore,
Longed once to hasten like them to save God\u2019s world;
But
\nshe reined back the high passion in her heart:
She knew that
\nfirst she must discover her soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOnly who save
\nthemselves can others save. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIt is a radiant and
\nglorious company. Savitri is attracted by the spiritual light they
\ncarry and mingles with them. She is seized by a longing, like them,
\nto rush out to the world and save it from its pain and suffering. But
\nshe holds herself back from this noble impulse; she knows that she
\nhas first got to discover her soul and draw strength from it before
\nshe is able to achieve anything effective.Only those who have saved
\nthemselves are in a position to save others.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Her
\nEyes in Different Direction<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn contrary sense
\nshe faced life\u2019s riddling truth;
They carrying the light to
\nsuffering men
Hurried with eager feet to the outer world;
Her
\neyes were turned towards the eternal source. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri faces the
\nriddle of the truth of life in a direction that is opposite to the
\none taken by that host. They are hurrying eagerly to the temporal,
\nouter world carrying with them light and solace to its suffering men.
\nBut Savitri’s eyes are turned inwards, towards the eternal Source of
\nall.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Reveal
\nthe Path<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOutstretching her
\nhands to stay the throng she cried:
\u201cO happy company of
\nluminous gods,
Reveal, who know, the road that I must tread,\u2014
\n
For surely that bright quarter is your home,\u2014
To find the
\nbirthplace of the occult Fire
And the deep mansion of my secret
\nsoul.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri stretches
\nout her hands to stay the advancing crowd and says to them: \u201cO
\nhappy host of luminous gods, reveal to me the road that I must take
\nto find the Source of the unseen Fire that creates All and the deep
\nabode of my secret soul, for surely that luminous realm is your home
\nand you know the path.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nOne answered
\npointing to a silence dim
On a remote extremity of sleep
In
\nsome far background of the inner world. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n\u201cO Savitri, from
\nthy hidden soul we come. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nWe are the
\nmessengers, the occult gods
Who help men\u2019s drab and heavy
\nignorant lives
To wake to beauty and the wonder of things
\n
Touching them with glory and divinity;
In evil we light the
\ndeathless flame of good
And hold the torch of knowledge on
\nignorant roads;
We are thy will and all men\u2019s will towards
\nLight. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOne of them speaks,
\npointing to a dim silence on a far-off edge of sleep in some distant
\nbackground of the inner world:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO Savitri, we come
\nfrom thy own hidden soul. We are the messengers of the Spirit, the
\nunseen gods; it is we who help men lost in their dry and ignorant
\nrounds of life to awake to beauty and wonder by touching them with
\nglory and divinity; we light the immortal flame of good in the midst
\nof evil and kindle the light of Knowledge on the paths of ignorance.
\nIndeed, we are thy will and the will of all men turned towards the
\nEternal Light.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Follow
\nthe Winding Highway<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO human copy and
\ndisguise of God
Who seekst the deity thou keepest hid
And
\nlivest by the Truth thou hast not known,
Follow the world\u2019s
\nwinding highway to its source. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere in the silence
\nfew have ever reached,
Thou shalt see the Fire burning on the
\nbare stone
And the deep cavern of thy secret soul.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nO Savitri who art a
\nhuman representation and disguise of God, who searches’. for the
\nDeity that thou bearest hidden in thyself, who livest spontaneously
\nby the Truth that thou bast not known with thy mind, follow the long,
\nwinding highway of the world to its source. There in the Silence that
\nfew have ever reached, thou shalt see the Fire thou seekest, burning
\non the bare stone, thou shalt find the deep hidden cave of thy secret
\nsoul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
<\/FONT><\/FONT>Silent
\nNearness of the Soul<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen Savitri
\nfollowing the great winding road
Came where it dwindled into a
\nnarrow path
Trod only by rare wounded pilgrim-feet. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA few bright forms
\nemerged from unknown depths
And looked at her with calm immortal
\neyes. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere was no sound
\nto break the brooding hush;
One felt the silent nearness of the
\nsoul. <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen Savitri follows
\nthat winding road and reaches there where the road peters into a
\nnarrow hard path walked upon only by those rare pilgrims who do not
\ncare if their feet are hurt on the way.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA few luminous forms
\ncome up from unknown depths and look at her with calm, immortal eyes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere is here no
\nsound to break the silence that broods all over. Here one feels the
\nsilent nearness of the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\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 Seven. The Book of Yoga Canto I    Canto II    Canto III    Canto…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-7-savitri-study","wpcat-247-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850","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=10850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11118,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850\/revisions\/11118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}