{"id":10874,"date":"2014-07-16T11:57:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T18:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saa.santansoftwaresystems.com\/?p=10874"},"modified":"2014-12-07T01:32:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T09:32:05","slug":"savitri-study-book-7-canto-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/savitri-study\/book-7-savitri-study\/savitri-study-book-7-canto-6","title":{"rendered":"Savitri-study-Book-7-Canto-6"},"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
\n6<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nNirvana and the
\nDiscovery of the all Negating Absolute<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n


\n<\/P>
\n


\nSummary
It is
\nautumn. Savitri is happy, she knows the aim of her being. All around
\nher feel the charm of her inner change and receive a heightening
\nimpulsion. Even grief finds solace in her proximity. Savitri no more
\nsees the shadow of Fate above Satyavan’s head. He is luminous and
\nshares her joy always.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nOne day as she is
\nstill breathing the joy of her lover Satyavan, an abyss suddenly
\nyawns beneath her heart. There is a drag of fear on her nerves. An
\ninexplicable Dread follows in its wake and a profound Darkness
\nenvelops all, seeming to abolish her very existence. Out of that
\nnegating emptiness a voice speaks to her, in uttered words,
\nquestioning the reality of her soul and warning her against the
\nimpossibility of happiness in this world of pain, the impossibility
\nof making manifest what is the Unknowable. She is told that only the
\nblank Eternal can be true and all else is a shadow, her soul an
\ninvention of a passing moment and the centre of illusion. "Know
\nthyself and cease from vain existence" \u2014 this is the message.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe Voice ebbs
\nleaving behind it a barren silence; her kingdom of delight is no
\nmore. Only her soul remains, alone, awaiting the unknown eternal
\nWill. And from the heights above, after the voice of Night, there
\ncomes down the Voice of Light. It is the reply of Heaven to the cry
\nof the Abyss. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Do not expose
\nthy kingdom of felicity to the Enemy. But adventure further and make
\nthe whole world thine; do not fear to be nothing that thou mayst be
\nall.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n"Thou hast come
\nto found thy luminous kingdom in God’s Dark. Thou must needs bear the
\nsuffering of the universe if thou wouldst save it. Banish all thought
\nfrom thee and be God’s Void in order to discover the truth of the
\nMystery."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri listens and
\nplunges deep into herself. She becomes a witness and watches the
\ndrama of life and mind in her own inner self. She observes the birth
\nof thought, She sees the activities of the various faculties in the
\nsubtle Centres of Consciousness the several Lotuses. She feels the
\ntotality of the universe, the high meeting the low. She beholds the
\nmighty Power of Nature and the role of the individual as its
\ninstrument. God and Nature do all, only the soul’s acceptance is
\nman’s own. Only when he breaks through the external walls of Matter
\ncan man realise his spiritual vastness and assume mastery.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nSavitri rises above
\nthe mind, above the hold of Nature and sees creation from far above.
\nAll growsalm and tranquil. The body seems to have become a stone. But
\nthe far repose of the Absolute is not yet. She still sees stray
\nthoughts crossing her solitude. Even this stops gradually and all is
\nabsolutely still, silent.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIn this bare
\nstillness she glimpses a supreme all-negating Void. Thought, emotion,
\nfeeling all are as if dead. Her body functions by itself, without a
\nperson to make it act. Only a pure perception remains. It sees
\nimpartially the world go by, it sees only the abysmal unreality of it
\nall. All looks like a cosmic film of scenes and images sketched on a
\nsilent mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAnd yet she
\nperceives behind all, beyond all Time and Space, a One that is solely
\nreal, escaping from all form and hue. It is both an endless No to all
\nthat seems, an endless Yes to all that is still unconceived. To this
\nstupendous lone reality even eternity and infinity seem but words.
\nConsciousness, Truth, Love, Force, Bliss \u2014 they all appear as if a
\nshield before its face.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nA formless
\nliberation comes upon Savitri; she escapes into infinity. She shares
\nthe Superconscient’s high retreat. She is a point in the Unknowable.
\nSome last annulment still remains. Only a memory of being still keeps
\nher separate from Nothingness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAn infinite
\nNothingness appears to be the ultimate. A lonely Absolute, negating
\nall, effaces the ignorant world and drowns her soul in everlasting
\npeace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Tranquil Heavens
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA calm slow sun
\nlooked down from tranquil heavens.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA routed sullen
\nrearguard of retreat,
The last rains had fled murmuring across
\nthe woods
Or failed, a sibilant whisper mid the leaves,
And
\nthe great blue enchantment of the sky
Recovered the deep rapture
\nof its smile. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe last rains are
\nover. All is tranquil. A calm, mild sun shines on the earth. A gentle
\nwind blows amid the wet leaves. The sky is clear, once again
\nblissfully smiling in its enchanting blue.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Autumnal Moons <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts mellow splendour
\nunstressed by storm-licked heats
Found room for a luxury of warm
\nmild days,
The night\u2019s gold treasure of autumnal moons
Came
\nfloating shipped through ripples of fairy air.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAutumn is on. The
\ndays are warm and mild, the nights are richly lit with the golden
\nmoon floating across a magic sky.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Marvellous
\nchange in Savitri <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd Savitri\u2019s life
\nwas glad, fulfilled like earth\u2019s;
She had found herself, she
\nknew her being\u2019s aim.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough her kingdom
\nof marvellous change within
Remained unspoken in her secret
\nbreast,
All that lived round her felt its magic\u2019s charm:
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd Savitri is
\nhappy, her life feeling fulfilled even as the earth feels fulfilled
\nin this felicitous air. For Savitri has found the truth of her being,
\nknows the aim of her life. And although she keeps to herself this
\nmarvellous change within her and does not speak of it to anyone, all
\naround her clearly feel the spell of its charm.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Its Magic Charm
\nAround <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe trees\u2019
\nrustling voices told it to the winds,
Flowers spoke in ardent
\nhues an unknown joy,
The birds\u2019 carolling became a canticle,
\n
The beasts forgot their strife and lived at ease.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAbsorbed in wide
\ncommunion with the Unseen
The mild ascetics of the wood received
\n
A sudden greatening of their lonely muse.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe trees speak in
\nrustles of this marvellous change in Savitri to the winds; flowers
\nexpress it in their flaming colours and new joy. The song of the
\nbirds swells into a joyous hymn. The beasts forget their enmities and
\nlive in peace. The mild ascetics in the forest, absorbed in their
\ncommunion with the Divine, find their contemplation in solitude
\nsuddenly intensified.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Outflow of her
\nperfection <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis bright
\nperfection of her inner state
Poured overflowing into her outward
\nscene,
Made beautiful dull common natural things
And action
\nwonderful and time divine.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven the smallest
\nmeanest work became
A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament,
An
\noffering to the self of the great world
Or a service to the One
\nin each and all.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis radiant inner
\nperfection of Savitri pours out into her outer environment. It turns
\nthe dull common things in life beautiful, ordinary actions wonderful
\nand drab time into something profoundly divine. Even the most
\nordinary, petty work becomes a happy and glorious mode of worship, a
\nmeans of offering oneself to the Self Universal or of serving the One
\nDivinity in All.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Her Light and
\nBliss Invade <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA light invaded all
\nfrom her being\u2019s light;
Her heart-beats\u2019 dance communicated
\nbliss:
Happiness grew happier, shared with her, by her touch
And
\ngrief some solace found when she drew near.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer inner light
\ninvades all. Her very heart-beats pour out bliss around. When others
\nshare their happiness with her, their happiness grows much more by
\nher touch. Those who are grieved find solace even as she draws
\nphysically near; they do not have to express their sorrow to her.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Golden circle
\naround Satyavan’s Head <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAbove the cherished
\nhead of Satyavan
She saw not now Fate\u2019s dark and lethal orb;
A
\ngolden circle round a mystic sun
Disclosed to her new-born
\npredicting sight
The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNo more does she see
\nthe dark formation of Fate around the beloved head of Satyavan;
\ninstead, her newly-opened foreseeing eye perceives a golden halo
\naround a supernal radiance, revealing a fully rounded victorious
\nlife.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
No more victim
\nof death <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn her visions and
\ndeep-etched veridical dreams,
In brief shiftings of the future\u2019s
\nheavy screen,
He lay not by a dolorous decree
A victim in the
\ndismal antre of death
Or borne to blissful regions far from her
\n
Forgetting the sweetness of earth\u2019s warm delight,
Forgetting
\nthe passionate oneness of love\u2019s clasp,
Absolved in the
\nself-rapt immortal\u2019s bliss.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn her visions, in
\nher dreams touching the truth, in the brief glimpses she is
\nvouchsafed of the future, shedoes not see Satyavan under the
\nirrevocable curse of death or transported to the blissful heavens far
\naway from her, from the warm delight of the earth, from the ardent
\nembrace of love, fully absorbed in the bliss of the immortal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Satyavan always
\nwith her <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlways he was with
\nher, a living soul
That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes,
\n
A living body near to her body\u2019s joy.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut now no longer in
\nthese great wild woods
In kinship with the days of bird and beast
\n
And levelled to the bareness of earth\u2019s brown breast,
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSatyavan is always
\nwith her, both body and soul close to hers in joy. But he is no
\nlonger the old Satyavan, companion of the birds and beasts of the
\nwild forest, in close contact with the bare earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Inseparable like
\nEarth and Sky <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut mid the thinking
\nhigh-built lives of men
In tapestried chambers and on crystal
\nfloors,
In armoured town or gardened pleasure-walks,
Even in
\ndistance closer than her thoughts,
Body to body near, soul near
\nto soul,
Moving as if by a common breath and will,
They were
\ntied in the single circling of their days
Together by love\u2019s
\nunseen atmosphere,
Inseparable like the earth and sky.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus for a while she
\ntrod the Golden Path;
This was the sun before abysmal Night.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nShe visions a rich
\nlife of mind and body natural to their princely background. Even when
\nphysically far, he is closer to her than the thoughts in her mind,
\nclose in body, close in soul. It is as if both live and move by a
\ncommon breath and will. They are united in the common round of their
\ndays by the unseen atmosphere of their love, inseparable like the
\nearth and sky.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThus for a while
\nSavitri treads the Golden Path of felicity. This is the bright sun
\nbefore the onset of the dark Night.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Abysm Yawns <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnce as she sat in
\ndeep felicitous muse,
Still quivering from her lover\u2019s strong
\nembrace,
And made her joy a bridge twixt earth and heaven,
An
\nabyss yawned suddenly beneath her heart.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA vast and nameless
\nfear dragged at her nerves
As drags a wild beast its
\nhalf-slaughtered prey;
It seemed to have no den from which it
\nsprang:
It was not hers, but hid its unseen cause.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnce as she is
\nsitting deeply happy in contemplation, still vibrating to the thrill
\nof Satyan\u2019s strong embrace, spanning earth and heaven with her joy,
\ntransported to the very heavens in her bliss, suddenly an abyss opens
\nwide beneath her feet. A vast, vague, indeterminable fear clutches
\nand drags at her nerves like a wild beast dragging its half-killed
\nprey. It seems to have no ascertainable source; it is not hers. Its
\ncause is unseen, hidden.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Formless Dread <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen rushing came
\nits vast and fearful Fount.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA formless Dread
\nwith shapeless endless wings
Filling the universe with its
\ndangerous breath,
A denser darkness than the Night could bear,
\n
Enveloped the heavens and possessed the earth.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen, there rushes
\non her the vast and terrible Fount of fear. A formless Dread with its
\nwild, huge indeterminate wings fills the universe with its dangerous
\nbreath. A darkness more dense than the utmost darkness of the Night
\nenvelops the skies and possesses the earth in its grasp.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Surge of Death <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA rolling surge of
\nsilent death, it came
Curving round the far edge of the quaking
\nglobe;
Effacing heaven with its enormous stride
It willed to
\nexpunge the choked and anguished air
And end the fable of the joy
\nof life. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA powerful wave of
\nbenumbing death comes sweeping from the far end of the trembling
\nearth, negating heaven with its huge stride; it seeks to expel the
\ndistressed and suffocated air and end once for all the unreal tale of
\nthe joy of life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Black Infinity <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt seemed her very
\nbeing to forbid
Abolishing all by which her nature lived
And
\nlaboured to blot out her body and soul,
A clutch of some
\nhalf-seen Invisible,
An ocean of terror and of sovereign might,
\n
A person and a black Infinity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt seems to forbid
\nher very existence, seeking to abolish everything by which her nature
\nlives; it strives to blot out her body and her soul. She is held in
\nthe hard grasp of some half-seen invisible Entity, a veritable ocean
\nof terror and irresistible might. It is at once a person \u2014 an
\nindividual formation \u2014 and some black, unbounded Vast.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Message of Dark
\nInfinity <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt seemed to cry to
\nher without thought or word
The message of its dark eternity
And
\nthe awful meaning of its silences:
Out of some sullen monstrous
\nvast arisen,
Out of an abysmal deep of grief and fear
Imagined
\nby some blind regardless self,
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis invading host
\nappears to proclaim to her, without thought or word, the unnerving
\nmessage of its dark eternity and the fearful meaning of its cold
\nsilences. It has arisen from some dismal monstrous Vast, out of a
\nbottomless pit of grief and fear; it seems to be the imagination of
\nsome blind heedless entity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Voice speaks
\nwithout words <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA consciousness of
\nbeing without its joy,
Empty of thought, incapable of bliss,
\n
That felt life blank and nowhere found a soul,
A voice to the
\ndumb anguish of the heart
Conveyed a stark sense of unspoken
\nwords;
In her own depths she heard the unuttered thought
That
\nmade unreal the world and all life meant.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is a
\nconsciousness of being bereft of its innate joy, vacant of thought,
\nincapable of bliss, feeling life to be all blank, finding nowhere the
\nsoul. Its voice conveys to the dumb anguished heart a wordless
\nmessage, bare and sharp. Savitri hears in her depths its unspoken
\nthought that makes the world unreal and cancels all meaning from
\nlife.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Illusion of
\nSoul’s Reality <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cWho art thou who
\nclaim\u2019st thy crown or separate birth,
The illusion of thy
\nsoul\u2019s reality
And personal godhead on an ignorant globe
In
\nthe animal body of imperfect man?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Who art thou
\nwho seekest a crown of unique birth different from other births that
\nend in death, for thyself, who cherishest the illusion that thy soul
\nis real, who believest in a personal godhead inhabiting the animal
\nbody of the imperfect human being on this ignorant globe?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Hope not to be
\nhappy <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHope not to be happy
\nin a world of pain
And dream not, listening to the unspoken Word
\n
And dazzled by the inexpressible Ray,
Transcending the mute
\nSuperconscient\u2019s realm
To give a body to the Unknowable,
Or
\nfor a sanction to thy heart\u2019s delight
To burden with bliss the
\nsilent still Supreme,
Profaning its bare and formless sanctity,
\n
Or call into thy chamber the Divine
And sit with God tasting
\na human joy. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Do not hope to
\nbe happy in this world which is meant for pain. Do not by listening
\nto that inner Word which makes itself heard without utterance, by
\nbeing carried away by a flash of the supernal Light that cannot be
\ndescribed and by going beyond the absolute Silence of the
\nSuperconscience above, ever dream to be able to make known what is
\nfor ever unknowable. Do not try to achieve thy heart’s joyous desire
\nof realising Bliss in the silent, still Supreme Reality, thereby thou
\nwouldst taint Its austere, bare and formless sacredness. Do not
\ndream, either, of calling the Divine into thy heart-chamber, and with
\nHim as thy companion sit tasting human joy.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
I am Kali, I am
\nMaya <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nI have created all,
\nall I devour;
I am Death and the dark terrible Mother of life,
I
\nam Kali black and naked in the world,
I am Maya and the universe
\nis my cheat. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Know that I
\nhave created all this and it is I that devours all. I am the dark
\nSource of life, I am Death. I am the Deity of tamas in this world,
\nKali black and nude.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAgain I am Maya, the
\nPower of Illusion, and the whole Universe is my fraud, my cunning
\ntrick.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
I Lay Waste <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nI lay waste human
\nhappiness with my breath
And slay the will to live, the joy to be
\n
That all may pass back into nothingness
And only abide the
\neternal and absolute.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"My very breath
\nlays waste all human happiness. I kill the will to live, the joy of
\nexistence, so that all may disappear into a Nothing and only what is
\neternal, what is absolute, remain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mind’s Bright
\nGlass <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor only the blank
\nEternal can be true.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll else is shadow
\nand flash in Mind\u2019s bright glass,
Mind, hollow mirror in which
\nIgnorance sees
A splendid figure of its own false Self
And
\ndreams it sees a glorious solid world.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnly the Eternal
\nVoid can be true and nothing else. All else is unsubstantial shadow,
\na flash in the shining glass of the Mind \u2014 the Mind which is but a
\nhollow mirror in which Ignorance beholds a splendid reflection of its
\nown unreal self and imagines it is seeing a wonderful world which is
\nsolid and real.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cease from vain
\nexistence <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO soul, inventor of
\nman\u2019s thoughts and hopes,
Thyself the invention of the moments\u2019
\nstream,
Illusion\u2019s centre or subtle apex point,
At last
\nknow thyself, from vain existence cease.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nO soul, thou
\ninventest all these thoughts and hopes of man while thou thyself art
\nbut an invention of the passing stream of moments moments that are
\ngone almost as soon as they come, \u2014 a Centre or the fine apex point
\nof Illusion.Know thyself finally for what thou truly art. Know that
\nthou art not real. Cease to strive after all this vain existence."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Voice Ebbs Away <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA shadow of the
\nnegating Absolute,
The intolerant Darkness travelled surging past
\n
And ebbed in her the formidable Voice.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt left behind her
\ninner world laid waste:
A barren silence weighed upon her heart,
\n
Her kingdom of delight was there no more;
Only her soul
\nremained, its emptied stage,
Awaiting the unknown eternal Will.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen this shadow of
\nthe all-negating Absolute passes, the Darkness that would allow
\nnothing else to exist surges past; and the dominating Voice ebbs away
\nleaving behind Savitri’s inner world laid waste by its vibrations. A
\nstark silence weighs heavy upon her heart; her inner kingdom of
\ndelight is there no more. Only her soul is left empty, void, awaiting
\nthe unknown, eternal Will of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A Greater Voice <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen from the
\nheights a greater Voice came down,
The Word that touches the
\nheart and finds the soul,
The voice of Light after the voice of
\nNight:
The cry of the Abyss drew Heaven\u2019s reply,
A might of
\nstorm chased by the might of the Sun:

\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen a greater Voice
\ncomes down from the heights of her being. It is the Word that
\nstraight touches the heart and discovers the soul; it is the voice of
\nthe abiding Light after the Voice of the dark Night dies down. The
\nunnerving cry of the Abyss below has drawn forth the reply from
\nHeaven above. The might of the storm is driven away by the might of
\nthe eternal Sun of Truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Bare not thy
\nself <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n\u201cO Soul, bare not
\nthy kingdom to the foe;
Consent to hide thy royalty of bliss
\n
Lest Time and Fate find out its avenues
And beat with
\nthunderous knock upon thy gates.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHide whilst thou
\ncanst thy treasure of separate self
Behind the luminous rampart
\nof thy depths
Till of a vaster empire it grows part.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"O soul, do not
\nexpose thy kingdom to the enemy. Conceal thy sovereignty of bliss so
\nthat Time and Fatemay not find their way to invade it. Hide, while
\nstill thou canst, thy precious individual self behind thy luminous
\ndepths, till it grows part of a vaster Self and so becomes
\ninvulnerable.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Fear not to be
\nNothing <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut not for self
\nalone the self is won:
Content abide not with one conquered
\nrealm;
Adventure all to make the whole world thine,
To break
\ninto greater kingdoms turn thy force.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFear not to be
\nnothing that thou mayst be all;
Assent to the emptiness of the
\nSupreme
That all in thee may reach its absolute.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"And yet the
\nself is not realised and won for oneself alone. Do not stay content
\nwith the conquest of one realm; essay all to conquer the whole world,
\nuse thy force to break into greater realms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nDo not hesitate, do
\nnot fear to be nothing; only so canst thou be everything. Consent to
\nthe Void, the emptiness of the Supreme in order that all in thyself
\nmay arrive at its fulfilment in its absolute.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Accept to be
\nHuman <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAccept to be small
\nand human on the earth,
Interrupting thy new-born divinity,
That
\nman may find his utter self in God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf for thy own sake
\nonly thou hast come,
An immortal spirit into the mortal\u2019s
\nworld,
To found thy luminous kingdom in God\u2019s dark,
In the
\nInconscient\u2019s realm one shining star,
One door in the Ignorance
\nopened upon light,
Why hadst thou any need to come at all?
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Suspend for a
\nwhile thy state of divinity that thou hast realised lately, and
\nconsent to be small and human on this earth in order that man may
\ncome to discover his real being in God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nIf thou, an immortal
\nspirit, hast come into this world of mortals only for thy own self,
\nto establish thy own bright kingdom in the dark realm of God, so that
\none shining star may sparkle in the domain of the Inconscient, one
\ndoor to light may open in the world of Ignorance, where was the need
\nfor thee to come down at all? Surely thou hast not come down only for
\nthy own glorification!<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Thy Life a
\nBridge <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThou hast come down
\ninto a struggling world
To aid a blind and suffering mortal race,
\n
To open to Light the eyes that could not see,
To bring down
\nbliss into the heart of grief,
To make thy life a bridge twixt
\nearth and heaven;
If thou wouldst save the toiling universe,
The
\nvast universal suffering feel as thine:
Thou must bear the sorrow
\nthat thou claim\u2019st to heal;
The day-bringer must walk in
\ndarkest night.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Thou hast in
\nfact come down into this struggling world to help a blind and
\nsuffering humanity, to open its closed eyes to Light, to bring bliss
\nhere into the heart of grief, to make of thy life a veritable bridge
\nfrom earth to heaven for man. And if thou wouldst save this labouring
\nuniverse, then thou must share its vast universal suffering, thou
\nmust fully bear the sorrow that thou wishest to heal. He who would
\nusher in the day has got to traverse the darkest night.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
God must be as
\nMan <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe who would save
\nthe world must share its pain.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf he knows not
\ngrief, how shall he find grief\u2019s cure?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf far he walks
\nabove mortality\u2019s head,
How shall the mortal reach that too
\nhigh path? <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf one of theirs
\nthey see scale heaven\u2019s peaks,
Men then can hope to learn that
\ntitan climb. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nGod must be born on
\nearth and be as man
That man being human may grow even as God.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"He who hopes
\nto save the world has first got to share its pain; for if he does not
\nknow what grief is, how can he find a cure for grief? If he were to
\nwalk far above the level of mortal man, how would the mortal ever
\nhope to reach and tread that path which is too high for him? But if
\nmen were to see one of their own kind climbing the peaks of heaven,
\nthen they might hope to learn to do likewise. If man, the human, is
\nto grow into the likeness of God, become God, God has first to be
\nborn on earth as man and show the way.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Bear the Grief
\nand Joy of All <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe who would save
\nthe world must be one with the world,
All suffering things
\ncontain in his heart\u2019s space
And bear the grief and joy of all
\nthat lives. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"He who seeks
\nto save the world must first become one with the world, identify
\nhimself with it. He needs to admit and contain in his own heart all
\nthe sufferings of the world, and bear the grief and joy of all that
\nlives.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Soul wider than
\nthe Universe <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHis soul must be
\nwider than the universe
And feel eternity as its very stuff,
\n
Rejecting the moment\u2019s personality,
Know itself older than
\nthe birth of Time,
Creation an incident in its consciousness,
\n
Arcturus and Belphegor grains of fire
Circling in a corner of
\nits boundless self,
The world\u2019s destruction a small transient
\nstorm
In the calm infinity it has become.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"His soul must
\nexpand to become larger than the universe; it must realise that it is
\nnot subject to time but that eternity is woven into its stuff; it
\nmust not identify itself with its personality of the moment but know
\nthat it is prior to the birth of Time; it must know and feel that
\ncreation occurs as a passing incident in a mighty Consciousness, that
\nhuge stars like Arcturus and Belphegor are only living grains of fire
\nmaking their rounds in the vast expanse of the infinite Self, that in
\nits calm infinity the destruction of an entire world would be but a
\nsmall passing storm and nothing more.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Draw back from
\nThe World <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf thou wouldst a
\nlittle loosen the vast chain,
Draw back from the world that the
\nIdea has made,
Thy mind\u2019s selection from the Infinite,
Thy
\nsenses\u2019 gloss on the Infinitesimal\u2019s dance,
Then shalt thou
\nknow how the great bondage came.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"If thou
\nwouldst loosen a bit the vast chain that binds thee, draw back from
\nthe world that has been created by the Idea behind it, the world
\nwhich is nothing more than a particular selection of thy mind from
\nthe vast Infinite, nothing more than a construction of thy senses
\nbased on the dance of the infinitesimal atoms, then thou wilt know
\nhow this great bondage came to be.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Banish all
\nThought <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBanish all thought
\nfrom thee and be God\u2019s void.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen shalt thou
\nuncover the Unknowable
And the Superconscient conscious grow on
\nthy tops;
Infinity\u2019s vision through thy gaze shall pierce,
\n
Thou shalt look into the eyes of the Unknown;
Find the hid
\nTruth in things seen null and false,
Behind things known discover
\nMystery\u2019s rear.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Expunge all
\nthought from thee and be the void of God. Then alone shalt thou
\nunveil the Unknowable and the Superconscient shall reveal itself on
\nthe peaks of thy consciousness; Infinity shall peer through thy gaze
\nand thou shalt come face to face with the Unknown, discover the
\nconcealed truth in all things that appear non-existent and unreal,
\ndiscover also that even behind things that are taken as known there
\nare mysteries that are unrevealed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Matter Spirit’s
\nWilling Bride <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThou shalt be one
\nwith God\u2019s bare reality
And the miraculous world he has become
\n
And the diviner miracle still to be
When Nature who is now
\nunconscious God
Translucent grows to the Eternal\u2019s light,
Her
\nseeing his sight, her walk his steps of power
And life is filled
\nwith a spiritual joy
And Matter is the Spirit\u2019s willing bride.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Thou shalt be
\none with God in his absolute, bare reality, one with him also in this
\nmiraculous world that he has become and the divine miracle that is
\nyet to be when Nature, that is now unconscious of her Godhood, grows
\nluminous and radiates the light of God, when her vision becomes his
\nsight, her movements his steps of puissance, when all life is full
\nwith the joy of the Spirit and Matter accepts to collaborate
\nwillingly with the Spirit, when Matter becomes the happy bride of the
\nSpirit.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Annul Thyself <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nConsent to be
\nnothing and none, dissolve Time\u2019s work,
Cast off thy mind, step
\nback from form and name.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnnul thyself that
\nonly God may be.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\n"Now do thou
\ndissolve everything that is a creation of Time; be nothing, be none;
\neliminate thy mind; withdraw and stand back from all form and name.
\nCancel thyself as a separate being so that only God<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Savitri Muses <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus spoke the
\nmighty and uplifting Voice,
And Savitri heard; she bowed her head
\nand mused
Plunging her deep regard into herself
In her soul\u2019s
\nprivacy in the silent Night.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSavitri hears this
\nmighty and uplifting Voice. She bows her head and muses, delving into
\nher own depths in the solitude of her soul, in that Night of silence.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
She stands back
\nand Watches <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAloof and standing
\nback detached and calm,
A witness of the drama of herself,
A
\nstudent of her own interior scene,
She watched the passion and
\nthe toil of life
And heard in the crowded thoroughfares of mind
\n
The unceasing tread and passage of her thoughts.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nShe stands back,
\ncalm and aloof, and witnesses the drama of her self, studies her own
\ninner being, watches the passion and labour of her life and hears the
\nunending movements of her thoughts in the crowded roads of her mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
She allows all
\nto Rise <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll she allowed to
\nrise that chose to stir;
Calling, compelling nought, forbidding
\nnought,
She left all to the process formed in Time
And the
\nfree initiative of Nature\u2019s will.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSavitri remains
\npassive, she calls up nothing, compels nothing, forbids nothing, but
\nallows everything to rise that chooses to stir. She leaves everything
\nto the natural process that has formed itself in Time, to the free
\nimpulsions of Nature’s will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Complex human
\nplay <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus following the
\ncomplex human play
She heard the prompter\u2019s voice behind the
\nscenes,
Perceived the original libretto\u2019s set
And the organ
\ntheme of the composer Force.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll she beheld that
\nsurges from man\u2019s depths,
The animal instincts prowling mid
\nlife\u2019s trees,
The impulses that whisper to the heart
And
\npassion\u2019s thunder-chase sweeping the nerves;
She saw the Powers
\nthat stare from the Abyss
And the wordless Light that liberates
\nthe soul. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThus Savitri follows
\nthe complex human play that goes on. She hears the voice of the
\nunseen prompter from behind the stage, glimpses the book of the music
\nto be played and the theme composed by the inspiring Force. She
\nbeholds all that surges up from the depths of the being of man: the
\nbrute instincts moving in the domain of the life-force, the delicate
\nimpulses whispering to the heart, the violent run of passion rushing
\nthrough the nerves. She sees the formidable powers staring from the
\nnether depths and also the steady, silent Light from above that
\nliberates the soul from its manifold bondage.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Pursuit of Birth
\nof Thought <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut most her gaze
\npursued the birth of thought.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAffranchised from
\nthe look of surface mind
She paused not to survey the official
\ncase,
The issue of forms from the office of the brain,
Its
\nfactory of thought-sounds and soundless words
And voices stored
\nwithin unheard by men,
Its mint and treasury of shining coin.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nMainly she pursues
\nwith her piercing gaze the source of thought. Liberated from the hold
\nof the surface mind, she is no more distracted by the finished wares
\nof the brain: thoughts expressed or unexpressed, latent voices not
\nheard by the external ear, the endless issue of fresh coins from the
\nmint of the thought-mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mind’s Symbol
\nGame <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese were but
\ncounters in mind\u2019s symbol game,
A gramophone\u2019s discs, a
\nreproduction\u2019s film,
A list of signs, a cipher and a code.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn our unseen subtle
\nbody thought is born
Or there it enters from the cosmic field.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll these thoughts,
\nthought-forms, voices are sensed by her to be only indices used in
\nthe symbol play of the mind, devices of repetition, presentation, a
\nset of code signs.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThought is really
\nborn in the subtle body that is unseen, not in the brain-mind as it
\nseems; or it enters that subtle body from the universal environment.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
From her Soul
\nand Heart <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOft from her soul
\nstepped out a naked thought
Luminous with mysteried lips and
\nwonderful eyes;
Or from her heart emerged some burning face
And
\nlooked for life and love and passionate truth,
Aspired to heaven
\nor embraced the world
Or led the fancy like a fleeting moon
\n
Across the dull sky of man\u2019s common days,
Amidst the
\ndoubtful certitudes of earth\u2019s lore,
To the celestial beauty of
\nfaith gave form
As if at flower-prints in a dingy room
Laughed
\nin a golden vase one living rose.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOften a bare,
\nluminous profound thought would leap out from her soul or some fiery
\nface would emerge from her heart seeking to express itself in life,
\nlove and passion, extending itself to embrace the world or aspiring
\nto reach heaven; or it caught some bright fancy that illumined man’s
\ndull common days; or it gave concrete form to the unearthly beauty of
\nfaithamidst the uncertainties of earth’s knowings, like a living rose
\nstanding out amidst a crowd of flower-prints.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Thaumaturgist in
\nHeart’s Deep <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA thaumaturgist sat
\nin her heart\u2019s deep,
Compelled the forward stride, the upward
\nlook,
Till wonder leapt into the illumined breast
And life
\ngrew marvellous with transfiguring hope.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nShe sees a
\nwonder-worker in the depths of her heart compelling the forward march
\nand the upward vision till wonder springs up in the illumined breast
\nand life grows marvellous with a hope that transforms its nature.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Seeing Will <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA seeing will
\npondered between the brows;
Thoughts, glistening Angels stood
\nbehind the brain
In flashing armour, folding hands of prayer,
\n
And poured heaven\u2019s rays into the earthly form.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe dynamic will and
\nvision centre between her brows govern her action; brilliant and
\nreverent thoughts awake to the higher Truth, wait behind her brain
\nand pour the light of supernal Knowledge into her physical body.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Imaginations and
\nSensations <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nImaginations flamed
\nup from her breast,
Unearthly beauty, touches of surpassing joy
\n
And plans of miracle, dreams of delight:
Around her navel
\nlotus clustering close
Her large sensations of the teeming worlds
\n
Streamed their dumb movements of the unformed Idea;
Invading
\nthe small sensitive flower of the throat
They brought their mute,
\nunuttered resonances
To kindle the figures of a heavenly speech.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFrom her
\nheart-centre of emotions rich imaginations flash up; they are full of
\ncelestial beauty, vibrations of superb joy, wonder plans and dreams
\nof delight.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAround her navel
\ncentre of vital emotions, large sensations of crowded realms flow
\nwith their unexpressed thought-movements of some idea not yet formed.
\nThese thought-movements rush to the throat-centre of expression to
\nfind a speech true and beautiful in which to formulate themselves.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Desires and
\nLongings <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBelow, desires
\nformed their wordless wish,
And longings of physical sweetness
\nand ecstasy
Translated into the accents of a cry
Their grasp
\non objects and their clasp on souls.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFurther down, from
\nher centre of lower vital movements below the navel, petty desires
\narticulate themselves and longings for physical happiness and joy
\nsurge forward to increase their hold on objects and souls.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Body’s Thoughts <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer body\u2019s
\nthoughts climbed from her conscious limbs
And carried their
\nyearnings to its mystic crown
Where Nature\u2019s murmurs meet the
\nIneffable. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe movements of her
\nbody’s consciousness surge from the physical centre at the base and
\ncarry their longings to the mystic, superconscient Centre at the
\ncrown of the head where Nature’s aspirations to meet her Lord are
\nfulfilled.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nBut for the mortal
\nprisoned in outward mind
All must present their passports at its
\ndoor;
Disguised they must don the official cap and mask
Or
\npass as manufactures of the brain,
Unknown their secret truth and
\nhidden source.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHowever, the man who
\nlives only in his surface mind is not aware of the truth and the
\nactual source of his various thought-movements. He cognises their
\nexistence only when they appear at the threshold of this mind; they
\nhide their real nature, they pass for products of his brain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nOnly to the inner
\nmind they speak direct,
Put on a body and assume a voice,
Their
\npassage seen, their message heard and known,
Their birthplace and
\ntheir natal mark revealed,
And stand confessed to an immortal\u2019s
\nsight,
Our nature\u2019s messengers to the witness soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnly the inner mind
\nsees these movements for what they really are; to it they become
\nconcrete. Their source is known, their innate nature is perceived,
\ntheir passage clearly marked, their message heard and understood.
\nThere they stand fully revealed to an immortal’s eye as messengers of
\nour nature to the uninvolved, witness soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Inner Chambers
\nOpen <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nImpenetrable,
\nwithheld from mortal sense,
The inner chambers of the spirit\u2019s
\nhouse
Disclosed to her their happenings and their guests;
Eyes
\nlooked through crevices in the invisible wall
And through the
\nsecrecy of the unseen doors
There came into mind\u2019s little
\nfrontal room
Thoughts that enlarged our limited human range,
\n
Lifted the ideal\u2019s half-quenched or sinking torch
Or peered
\nthrough the finite at the infinite.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nNormally
\ninaccessible to mortal sense, the inner regions reveal to her their
\nmovements and their visitants. Through openings in invisible walls
\nand secret unseen portals, her eyes see thoughts entering into the
\nsmall frontal mind, thoughts that expand the limited human range,
\nuplift the half-satisfied or failing flame of the ideal or perceive
\nthe infinite in finite forms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
The invisible
\nseen <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA sight opened upon
\nthe invisible
And sensed the shapes that mortal eyes see not,
\n
The sounds that mortal listening cannot hear,
The blissful
\nsweetness of the intangible\u2019s touch,
The objects that to us are
\nempty air
Are there the stuff of daily experience
And the
\ncommon pabulum of sense and thought.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nDeep within the
\ninner being, a sight opens upon what is normally invisible and
\nperceives forms that mortal eyes do not see. There, hearing sounds
\nthat the mortal ear cannot hear, feeling a blissful happiness the
\noutcome of a contact with the intangible, seeing objects where we
\nnormally see empty air, are matters of constant experience.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Subtler Realms <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe beings of the
\nsubtle realms appeared
And scenes concealed behind our earthly
\nscene;
She saw the life of remote continents
And distance
\ndeafen not to voices far;
She felt the movements crossing unknown
\nminds;
The past\u2019s events occurred before her eyes.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBeings of subtle
\nregions appear and scenes normally veiled behind our earthly scene
\nbegin to unroll themselves. Savitri sees the life of distant realms
\nof existence and hears voices from far. She feels the
\nthought-movements passing in minds unknown to her; events of the past
\noccur again before her eyes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Subconscient <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe great world\u2019s
\nthoughts were part of her own thoughts,
The feelings dumb for
\never and unshared,
The ideas that never found an utterance,
The
\ndim subconscient\u2019s incoherent hints
Laid bare a meaning twisted
\ndeep and strange,
The bizarre secret of their grumbling speech,
\n
Their links with underlying reality.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThoughts from all
\nover the wide world are felt to be part of her own thoughts. Mute and
\nbottled-up feelings, unexpressed ideas, hints from the obscure
\nsubconscient realms expose their own strange and deeply twisted
\nmeaning, the fantastic contents of their reluctant speech and their
\nlinks with the unseen reality that underlies all things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Superconscient
\nand Subliminal <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe unseen grew
\nvisible and audible:
Thoughts leaped down from a superconscient
\nfield
Like eagles swooping from a viewless peak,
Thoughts
\ngleamed up from the screened subliminal depths
Like golden fishes
\nfrom a hidden sea.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat is normally
\ninvisible grows visible and audible. From the high altitudes of the
\nsuperconscient thoughts leap down; from the hidden subliminal depths
\nthoughts rise up golden gleaming.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unbroken
\nTotality <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis world is a vast
\nunbroken totality,
A deep solidarity joins its contrary powers.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nGod\u2019s summits look
\nback on the mute Abyss.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSo man evolving to
\ndivinest heights
Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn;
\n
The human godhead with star-gazer eyes
Lives still in one
\nhouse with the primal beast.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe high meets the
\nlow, all is a single plan.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis world is of one
\ngreat piece; it is a vast unbroken whole. An underlying oneness
\nunites all its opposite powers. The peaks of the Spirit regard the
\nbottomless pit of Nescience below. That is why man who evolves to the
\ndivine heights of being is still in relation with the animal and the
\nhalf-animal, half-human entities. The godhead in man aspiring for the
\nheights and the primal beast in him dwell in the same body. The high
\nand the low meet together.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll is a single
\nplan.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Eternal’s Powers
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSo she beheld the
\nmany births of thought,
If births can be of what eternal is;
For
\nthe Eternal\u2019s powers are like himself,
Timeless in the
\nTimeless, in Time ever born.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSavitri beholds the
\ninnumerable births of thought. But can one speak of births with
\nregard to what is eternal and unborn? Yes, because the powers of the
\nEternal share his nature; in the domain of the Timeless, they are
\nalso timeless; in the domain of Time, they are constantly being born,
\nmanifested.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


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


\nThis too she saw
\nthat all in outer mind
Is made, not born, a product perishable,
\n
Forged in the body\u2019s factory by earth-force.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis mind is a
\ndynamic small machine
Producing ceaselessly till it wears out,
\n
With raw material drawn from the outside world,
The patterns
\nsketched out by an artist God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nShe also sees that
\nall that is in the outer mind is not something naturally born, but a
\nperishable product manufactured in the factory of the body by an
\nearthbound force. This outer mind is a small active machine producing
\nthings continuously till it wears out; the raw material upon which it
\nworks is drawn from the outer world; what it produces are the
\npatterns outlined by an artist God, not anything original of its own<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Finished Cosmic
\nWares <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOften our thoughts
\nare finished cosmic wares
Admitted by a silent office gate
And
\npassed through the subconscient galleries,
Then issued in Time\u2019s
\nmart as private make.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor now they bear
\nthe living person\u2019s stamp;
A trick, a special hue claims them
\nhis own. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTruly, our thoughts
\nare mostly stuff that is manufactured in the world outside. They are
\nwares that gain admittance through some unobtrusive entry, pass
\nthrough the corridors of the subconscient and then come out of the
\nmind into the open as products of its own make. For they now bear on
\nthem the stamp of the person through whom they have passed; a deft
\noperation takes place, a special colouring is given them which makes
\nthem appear as his own.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Nothing our Own <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll else is Nature\u2019s
\ncraft and this too hers.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOur tasks are given,
\nwe are but instruments;
Nothing is all our own that we create;
\n
The Power that acts in us is not our force:
The genius too
\nreceives from some high fount
Concealed in a supernal secrecy
\n
The work that gives him an immortal name.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nExcept the stamp of
\nthe individual, all else is of Nature’s making. Our tasks are not
\nreally chosen by our selves but assigned to us and we are only
\ninstruments; what we create also is not all ours; the Power that
\neffectuates is not our own force. Even the exceptional achievements
\nof a genius are not completely original. He too receives from
\nelsewhere: his source is hidden in some superconscient; it is from
\nthere that he gets the inspiration for the work that brings him
\nimmortal renown.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Genius <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe word, the form,
\nthe charm, the glory and grace
Are missioned sparks from a
\nstupendous Fire;
A sample from the laboratory of God
Of which
\nhe holds the patent upon earth,
Comes to him wrapt in golden
\ncoverings; <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe word, the form,
\nthe charm, the glory and grace that distinguish the works of the
\ngenius are but sparks from a huge central Fire in the supernal sent
\nto him with the purpose of inspiring him. What the genius creates is
\ntruly a sample received from God’s laboratory; this product over
\nwhich he wields a proprietary right on earth comes to him from above
\nenclosed in bright golden wrappings.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Reception
\nDefective <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe listens for
\nInspiration\u2019s postman knock
And takes delivery of the priceless
\ngift
A little spoilt by the receiver mind
Or mixed with the
\nmanufacture of his brain;
When least defaced, then is it most
\ndivine. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHe receives it
\nthrough the channel of inspiration but in the very reception it is
\nspoilt by the receiving mind, or mixed with the workings of his
\nphysical brain. When what is received is least deformed, then indeed
\nis it most divine it retains most of its original character.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Only acceptance
\nis Man’s <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough his ego
\nclaims the world for its use,
Man is a dynamo for the cosmic
\nwork;
Nature does most in him, God the high rest:
Only his
\nsoul\u2019s acceptance is his own.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAlthough man’s ego
\nclaims the whole world for its benefits, he is only a dynamo for
\npurposes of the cosmos. Most of what he does is really executed by
\nNature, the rest that is lofty is from God. What is his own is only
\nhis choice, the acceptance or rejection by his soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Soul <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis independent,
\nonce a power supreme,
Self-born before the universe was made,
\n
Accepting cosmos, binds himself Nature\u2019s serf
Till he
\nbecomes her freed man\u2014or God\u2019s slave.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis soul of man is
\nanterior to the universe; at one time it was independent, a direct
\npower of the Divine. It has accepted to participate in the
\nmanifestation of this cosmos and so binds itself as a slave of Nature
\na condition that continues till the soul develops and grows into
\nfreedom from the bonds of Nature or becomes the slave of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our
\nConsciousness is Cosmic <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis is the
\nappearance in our mortal front;
Our greater truth of being lies
\nbehind:
Our consciousness is cosmic and immense,
But only
\nwhen we break through Matter\u2019s wall
In that spiritual vastness
\ncan we stand
Where we can live the masters of our world,
And
\nmind is only a means and body a tool.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSuch is the
\nappearance only on the surface. But the greater truth of ourselves is
\nbehind. Our true consciousness is immense and as wide as the
\nuniverse. But it is only when we break out of the limits imposed by
\nthe material embodiment, that we can stand in that spiritual vastness
\nand from there live as masters of our world, the mind becoming only
\nan instrument and the body a tool \u2014 instead of their holding sway
\nover us, posing as our masters.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Our Spirit’s
\nTruth <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nFor above the birth
\nof body and of thought
Our spirit\u2019s truth lives in the naked
\nself
And from that height, unbound, surveys the world.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe truth of our
\nspirit dwells in the bare self, high above the formation of our body
\nand our mind, and from that height, where it is bound by nothing, it
\nsurveys the world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
She Rises above
\nMind <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOut of the mind she
\nrose to escape its law
That it might sleep in some deep shadow of
\nself
Or fall silent in the silence of the Unseen.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSavitri rises above
\nthe mind in order to free herself from the law of the mind so that
\nthe mind may lie wrapt in some profound nearness of the self or fall
\nsilent in the silence of the Reality Unseen.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
High she attains
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHigh she attained
\nand stood from Nature free
And saw creation\u2019s life from far
\nabove,
Thence upon all she laid her sovereign will
To
\ndedicate it to God\u2019s timeless calm:
Then all grew tranquil in
\nher being\u2019s space,
Only sometimes small thoughts arose and fell
\n
Like quiet waves upon a silent sea
Or ripples passing over a
\nlonely pool
When a stray stone disturbs its dreaming rest.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSavitri rises high
\nin her consciousness, stands free from Nature and sees creation from
\nabove. From there she imposes her free and mastering will upon all to
\nconsecrate and offer it to the eternal calm of God. All in her being
\ngrows tranquil; only occasionally small thoughts rise and fall like
\nquiet waves upon a placid sea or like ripples upon a solitary pool
\nwhen its reverie is disturbed by a casual stone.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Vast empty room
\nof mind <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet the mind\u2019s
\nfactory had ceased to work,
There was no sound of the dynamo\u2019s
\nthrob,
There came no call from the still fields of life.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen even those
\nstirrings rose in her no more;
Her mind now seemed like a vast
\nempty room
Or like a peaceful landscape without sound.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis men call
\nquietude and prize as peace.
\n
This men call quietude and prize as peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nDespite these small
\nthoughts rising and falling, the factory of her mind ceases to work;
\nthe vibrations of its dynamo are no more heard. The life-energies are
\nquiet. Finally even the small thoughts die down Her mind appears like
\na vast vacant room or a peaceful landscape without a sound.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThis is what men
\ncall quietude and cherish as peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Suppressed but
\nnot Expunged <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut to her deeper
\nsight all yet was there,
Effervescing like a chaos under a lid;
\n
Feelings and thoughts cried out for word and act
But found no
\nresponse in the silenced brain:
All was suppressed but nothing
\nyet expunged;
At every moment might explosion come.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen this too
\npaused; the body seemed a stone.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut this is so only
\non the surface. To Savitri’s deeper sight all is still present like a
\nchurning mixture under a lid. She finds that feelings and thoughts
\nare still there clamouring for expression, only the silenced brain
\ndoes not respond. She sees that all is held down by force but nothing
\nis extinguished; the suppressed things might explode at any moment.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThen even this state
\nends. The body appears to have become a stone.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Mighty Vacancy <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll now was a wide
\nmighty vacancy,
But still excluded from eternity\u2019s hush;
For
\nstill was far the repose of the Absolute
And the ocean silence of
\nInfinity. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven now some
\nthoughts could cross her solitude:
These surged not from the
\ndepths or from within
Cast up from formlessness to seek a form,
\n
Spoke not the body\u2019s need nor voiced mind\u2019s call.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll becomes a wide
\nand powerful emptiness. And yet the silence of the Eternal is not
\nhere. The repose of the Absolute is still far and so too the oceanic
\nsilence of the Infinite. Some thoughts still pass through her
\nsolitude; these do not rise from within or from the depths of her
\nbeing; they are cast up from some vague existence to shape themselves
\ninto definite forms; they are not concerned with any need of the body
\nor call of the mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Idea’s Shapes <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese seemed not
\nborn nor made in human Time,
Children of cosmic nature from a far
\nworld,
Idea\u2019s shapes in complete armour of words
Posted
\nlike travellers in an alien space.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese thoughts do
\nnot appear to be of human origin at all. They are cosmic in nature
\nand come from a far off world; they are forms taken by Idea in the
\nprotective shape of words and are assigned positions like travellers
\nin an alien territory.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Reach the inner
\near <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOut of some far
\nexpanse they seemed to come
As if carried on vast wings like
\nlarge white sails,
And with easy access reached the inner ear
As
\nthough they used a natural privileged right
To the high royal
\nentries of the soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThese thoughts seem
\nto float in from some vast expanse. They reach the inner, subtler ear
\nwith ease as if they have a natural right of entry into the high
\nroyal portals of the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Through
\nSpiritual Immensity <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs yet their path
\nlay deep concealed in light.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen looking to know
\nwhence the intruders came
She saw a spiritual immensity
\n
Pervading and encompassing the world-space
As ether our
\ntransparent tangible air,
And through it sailing tranquilly a
\nthought. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe precise path of
\nthese thoughts is still not seen; it is concealed by an intense light
\nthat shines around them. Savitri looks to know from where these
\nintruders come and she beholds a spiritual vastitude pervading and
\nenveloping the whole world-space as ether pervades our physical air;
\nthrough it a thought sails in serene.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Barring Will <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs smoothly glides a
\nship nearing its port,
Ignorant of embargo and blockade,
\n
Confident of entrance and the visa\u2019s seal,
It came to the
\nsilent city of the brain
Towards its accustomed and expectant
\nquay,
But met a barring will, a blow of Force
And sank
\nvanishing in the immensity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nLike an authorised
\nship confidently gliding into its port, unaware of any prohibition of
\nentry or any blockade, the thought arrives at the silent city of the
\nbrain towards its usual landing sure of welcome; but there it is met
\nby an opposing will, is hit by a Force and sinks disappearing into
\nthe immensity around.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Silent Spirit
\nPervades <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAfter a long vacant
\npause another appeared
And others one by one suddenly emerged,
\n
Mind\u2019s unexpected visitors from the unseen
Like far-off
\nsails upon a lonely sea.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut soon that
\ncommerce failed, none reached mind\u2019s coast.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThen all grew still,
\nnothing moved any more:
Immobile, self-rapt, timeless, solitary
\n
A silent spirit pervaded silent Space.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAfter a long blank
\npause, another such thought appears followed, one by one, by others
\nsuddenly emerging on the scene; they are unexpected visitors to the
\nmind from the unseen, arriving like ships from afar upon an empty
\nsea. Soon, however, all this traffic ceases and no more thought
\nreaches the coast of the mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nAll grows still,
\nnothing moves. A silent spirit, immobile, self-absorbed, timeless,
\nalone, pervades the silent Space.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
All-Negating
\nVoid <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn that absolute
\nstillness bare and formidable
There was glimpsed an all-negating
\nVoid supreme
That claimed its mystic Nihil\u2019s sovereign right
\n
To cancel Nature and deny the soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven the nude sense
\nof self grew pale and thin:
Impersonal, signless, featureless,
\nvoid of forms
A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn that austere,
\nabsolute and overwhelming stillness, a supreme all-negating Void is
\nglimpsed a mystic Nihil that claims its sovereign right to abolish
\nNature and soul. Before it even the bare sense of the self pales and
\nthins. The mind is no more; in its place there is a blank, unsullied
\nConsciousness which is impersonal, signless, featureless, empty of
\nforms.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Universe a
\nSemblance <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nHer spirit seemed
\nthe substance of a name,
The world a pictured symbol drawn on
\nself,
A dream of images, a dream of sounds
Built up the
\nsemblance of a universe
Or lent to spirit the appearance of a
\nworld. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBefore this Void,
\nher spirit seems to be no more substantial than a name, the world a
\nsymbol figure etched on the self. A dream of images and sounds seems
\nto have built up the appearance of a universe or made the spirit
\nitself seem like a world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Self-Seeing <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis was
\nself-seeing; in that intolerant hush
No notion and no concept
\ncould take shape,
There was no sense to frame the figure of
\nthings,
A sheer self-sight was there, no thought arose.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere remains only
\nthe self-seeing itself. In this severe hush, no notion, no concept is
\nable to form itself. No sense is left to weave shapes. There is only
\nan awareness of the self. No thought arises.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Emotion Slept <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEmotion slept deep
\ndown in the still heart
Or lay buried in a cemetery of peace:
\n
All feelings seemed quiescent, calm or dead,
As if the
\nheart-strings rent could work no more
And joy and grief could
\nnever rise again.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll emotion is
\ndormant in the still heart; it has swooned in that peace. All
\nfeelings look inert, calm or as if dead; it appears as if the snapped
\nheart-strings can no more work, and joy and grief can never arise
\nagain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
No Reaction <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe heart beat on
\nwith an unconscious rhythm
But no response came from it and no
\ncry. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nVain was the
\nprovocation of events;
Nothing within answered an outside touch,
\n
No nerve was stirred and no reaction rose.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe heart continues
\nto beat in its mechanical rhythm, but there is no response from it,
\nno cry; events do not cause any reaction in it; impacts from outside
\nevoke no answer from within. Not a nerve stirs; no reaction arises.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Body Works
\nSpontaneously <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet still her body
\nsaw and moved and spoke;
It understood without the aid of
\nthought,
It said whatever needed to be said,
It did whatever
\nneeded to be done.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere was no person
\nthere behind the act,
No mind that chose or passed the fitting
\nword:
All wrought like an unerring apt machine.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd yet her body
\ncontinues to see, move, speak. It is able to understand without the
\nnecessity of thinking. It says naturally what is to be said, it does
\nwhat needs to be done. Behind the act there is no directing
\nindividual person as such; there is no mind to choose or pass the
\nright word. All works like an absolutely correct and exact machine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Engine Works <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAs if continuing old
\nhabitual turns,
And pushed by an old unexhausted force
The
\nengine did the work for which it was made:
Her consciousness
\nlooked on and took no part;
All it upheld, in nothing had a
\nshare. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt is like an engine
\nworking as designed: the old habitual turns are continued and the
\nimpetus is given by an old force still unexhausted. Her consciousness
\nwitnesses everything but does not participate in anything; it
\nsupports all, but shares in nothing.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Pure Perception <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere was no strong
\ninitiator will;
An incoherence crossing a firm void
Slipped
\ninto an order of related chance.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA pure perception
\nwas the only power
That stood behind her action and her sight.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf that retired, all
\nobjects would be extinct,
Her private universe would cease to be,
\n
The house she had built with bricks of thought and sense
In
\nthe beginning after the birth of Space.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThere is no strong
\nwill to initiate anything. There isonly a chaos which, in passing
\nthrough a firm void, gets bogged and turns into some chance-woven
\norder.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe only power that
\nis behind her action and her sight is a pure perception. If that were
\nto withdraw, all objects would cease to be, her individual universe
\nwould be no more \u2014 the edifice which she had erected at the outset
\nwith the bricks of thought and sense, after the formation of Space.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Direct Seeing
\nand Knowledge <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis seeing was
\nidentical with the seen;
It knew without knowledge all that could
\nbe known,
It saw impartially the world go by,
But in the same
\nsupreme unmoving glance
Saw too its abysmal unreality.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis perceptual
\nseeing is one with what is seen; there is no distinction between
\nthem. It knows everything that can be known, without going through
\nthe process of knowledge; it knows by identity. It watches
\nobjectively the passing world and yet, with the same lofty immutable
\nregard, it sees the utter unreality of the world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Hollow Physical
\nShell <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt watched the
\nfigure of the cosmic game,
But the thought and inner life in
\nforms seemed dead
Abolished by her own collapse of thought:
A
\nhollow physical shell persisted still.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn this seeing and
\nwatching of the moving figure of the cosmic play, it looks as if all
\nthought and pulsation has disappeared from forms as a consequence of
\nher own cessation of thought. Only a hollow physical shell is left.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Film of scenes
\nand images <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll seemed a
\nbrilliant shadow of itself,
A cosmic film of scenes and images:
\n
The enduring mass and outline of the hills
Was a design
\nsketched on a silent mind
And held to a tremulous false solidity
\n
By constant beats of visionary sight;
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEverything appears
\nto be only a brilliant shadow of what had been taken to be real. It
\nis a cosmos-wide film of scenes and figures. Even the lasting mass
\nand outline of hills seem a design drawn on a silent mind, their
\nsolidity is not real, but a vibrating appearance sustained by
\nrecurring operations of the eye.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Illusion of the
\neyes <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe forest with its
\nemerald multitudes
Clothed with its show of hues vague empty
\nSpace,
A painting\u2019s colours hiding a surface void
That
\nflickered upon dissolution\u2019s edge;
The blue heavens, an
\nillusion of the eyes,
Roofed in the mind\u2019s illusion of a world.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe forest with its
\ngreen opulence seems only a splash of colours on empty Space, a
\npainting’s colours that conceal a surface void which is about to be
\ndissolved. The blue skies, an illusion of the eyes, are seen to be
\nonly a roof for what the mind imagines to be a world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
No Soul Within <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe men who walked
\nbeneath an unreal sky
Seemed mobile puppets out of cardboard cut
\n
And pushed by unseen hands across the soil
Or moving pictures
\nupon Fancy\u2019s film:
There was no soul within, no power of life.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe men who walk
\nunder this unreal sky seem to be moving puppets cut out of cardboard,
\nmanipulated by unseen hands across the earth-soil, or so many passing
\npictures on the screen of Fancy. There is no living soul within any,
\nthere is no power of life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Lie of Maya <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe brain\u2019s
\nvibrations that appear like thought,
The nerve\u2019s brief answer
\nto each contact\u2019s knock,
The heart\u2019s quiverings felt as joy
\nand grief and love
Were twitchings of the body, their seeming
\nself,
That body forged from atoms and formed gas
A
\nmanufactured lie of Maya\u2019s make,
Its life a dream seen by the
\nsleeping Void.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nVibrations of the
\nbrain organ appearing as thought, instant and brief reactions of the
\nnerves to impacts from outside, the throbbings of the heart felt as
\njoy, grief and love, all appear to be only twitchings of the body
\nwhich is apparently the self of the brain, nerve and heart. The body
\nitself is a seeming formation created from atoms and gas, a false
\nproduct of illusion, Maya, and the life of that body is only a dream
\nseen by the vast Void in its sleep.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Imaginary Vision
\nof Animals <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe animals lone or
\ntrooping through the glades
Fled like a passing vision of beauty
\nand grace
Imagined by some all-creating Eye.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnimals, whether
\nsingle or moving in herds, pass like a fleeting vision of beauty and
\ngrace in the imagination of some vision-projecting Eye.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Yet something
\nperceived <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet something was
\nthere behind the fading scene;
Wherever she turned, at whatsoever
\nshe looked,
It was perceived, yet hid from mind and sight.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe One only real
\nshut itself from Space
And stood aloof from the idea of Time.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIts truth escaped
\nfrom shape and line and hue.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAnd yet, behind this
\nfading scene there is something that persists. Wherever Savitri
\nturns, whatever she looks at, there it is perceived, though it is
\nconcealed from mind and sight. This is the One, the only thing that
\nis real; but it seems to stand outside all Space, aloof from the
\nconception of Time; its truth constantly escapes all form and shape.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Everlasting <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll else grew
\nunsubstantial, self-annulled,
This only everlasting seemed and
\ntrue,
Yet nowhere dwelt, it was outside the hours.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nExcepting this One,
\nall grows vague and cancels itself. Only this One seems to be true
\nand everlasting; and yet it has no dwelling place and is outside
\ntime.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Unseizable <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis only could
\njustify the labour of sight,
But sight could not define for it a
\nform;
This only could appease the unsatisfied ear
But hearing
\nlistened in vain for a missing sound;
This answered not the
\nsense, called not to Mind.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe effort of sight
\nto see is justified because of the existence of this One; and yet
\nsight cannot catch it in a form. Only this One could satisfy the ear
\nwhich is always expectant; but the hearing waits in vain for this
\nsound which is missing. Neither does this One respond to the sense,
\nnor does it impinge upon the Mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Omnipresent,
\nEternal <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt met her as the
\nuncaught inaudible Voice
That speaks for ever from the
\nUnknowable. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt met her like an
\nomnipresent point
Pure of dimensions, unfixed, invisible,
The
\nsingle oneness of its multiplied beat
Accentuating its sole
\neternity. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt meets Savitri as
\nthe ungrasped, unheard Voice that is ever vibrant from the
\nUnknowable. It meets her like a point of Space that is everywhere,
\nwithout direction, not fixed, not visible. It meets her in the
\nrecurring moment in Time which in its singleness focusses its sole
\neternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Endless No,
\nEndless Yes <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt faced her as some
\nvast Nought\u2019s immensity,
An endless No to all that seems to be,
\n
An endless Yes to things ever unconceived
And all that is
\nunimagined and unthought,
An eternal zero or untotalled Aught,
A
\nspaceless and a placeless Infinite.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt confronts her as
\nthe immensity of some vast Nil, an endless negation of all that
\nclaims to exist; it faces her as a Yes, as an endless affirmation of
\nwhat is beyond conception, imagination and thought \u2014 an eternal
\nzero or an incalculable Existence, a spaceless, unhoused Infinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
World a
\nSpark-Burst <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet eternity and
\ninfinity seemed but words
Vainly affixed by mind\u2019s incompetence
\n
To its stupendous lone reality.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThe world is but a
\nspark-burst from its light,
All moments flashes from its
\nTimelessness,
All objects glimmerings of the Bodiless
That
\ndisappear from Mind when That is seen.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nYet eternity and
\ninfinity seem to be mere labels affixed by the incompetent mind upon
\nthat stupendous bare reality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThe world is only a
\nspark that has issued from the Light of that reality; all moments are
\nonly flashes from its Timelessness; all forms are only glimmerings of
\nthe Formless which disappear from the Mind when that reality is
\nperceived.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Shield before
\nits face <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt held, as if a
\nshield before its face,
A consciousness that saw without a seer,
\n
The Truth where knowledge is not nor knower nor known,
The
\nLove enamoured of its own delight
In which the Lover is not nor
\nthe Beloved
Bringing their personal passion into the Vast,
The
\nForce omnipotent in quietude,
The Bliss that none can ever hope
\nto taste. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThat reality holds,
\nlike a shield before its face, a consciousness that perceives
\nspontaneously, without the need of a perceiver, the Truth where the
\ntriplicities of knower, knowledge and known are not, the Love which
\nis lost in its own delight and where neither the Lover nor the
\nBeloved exist bringing their turbid individual passion into that
\nVast, the omnipotent Force holding itself in quietude, the Bliss
\nbeyond human reach.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Cancels the
\ncheat of self <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIt cancelled the
\nconvincing cheat of self;
A truth in nothingness was its mighty
\nclue. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIf all existence
\ncould renounce to be
And Being take refuge in Non-being\u2019s arms
\n
And Non-being could strike out its ciphered round,
Some
\nlustre of that Reality might appear.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis Reality cancels
\nthe self that has effectively posed itself to be real so far. Its
\nmighty clue is its truth in nothingness. Something of this Reality,
\nsomething of its lustre, might appear if all existence, Being, could
\ncease to exist and dissolve itself in a Non-being and that Non-being
\nerase even its conceptual form of zero.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Formless
\nLiberation <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA formless
\nliberation came on her.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnce sepulchred
\nalive in brain and flesh
She had risen up from body, mind and
\nlife;
She was no more a Person in a world,
She had escaped
\ninto infinity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA liberation into
\nformlessness comes upon Savitri. Once entombed alive in material
\nbrain and flesh she now rises above body, mind, life. She ceases to
\nbe a finite Person in the world; she has escaped into infinity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Superconscient’s
\nHigh Retreat <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nWhat once had been
\nherself had disappeared;
There was no frame of things, no figure
\nof soul. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA refugee from the
\ndomain of sense,
Evading the necessity of thought,
Delivered
\nfrom Knowledge and from Ignorance
And rescued from the true and
\nthe untrue,
She shared the Superconscient\u2019s high retreat
\n
Beyond the self-born Word, the nude Idea,
The first bare
\nsolid ground of consciousness;
Beings were not there, existence
\nhad no place,
There was no temptation of the joy to be.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nAll that was herself
\nbefore has disappeared; there is neither the set-up of things nor the
\nfigure of soul. Escaping from the field of the senses, no more
\nobliged to undergo the process of thought, absolved from both
\nKnowledge and Ignorance, freed from the true and the untrue of the
\nrelative world, she now shares the high retreat of the
\nSuperconscient, beyond even the primordial Word, the sheer Idea, the
\noriginal bare, immutable ground of Consciousness. There are no beings
\nhere, there is no existence; there is no attraction of the joy to be.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A Point in the
\nunknowable <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nUnutterably effaced,
\nno one and null,
A vanishing vestige like a violet trace,
A
\nfaint record merely of a self now past,
She was a point in the
\nunknowable. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nTotally effaced, no
\nmore existing as one, a null so to say, a fast vanishing impression,
\na faint record of what was a self before, she now remains only a
\npoint in the Unknowable.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Last Annulment
\nRemains <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOnly some last
\nannulment now remained,
Annihilation\u2019s vague indefinable step:
\n
A memory of being still was there
And kept her separate from
\nnothingness:
She was in That but still became not That.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nSome final
\ncancelling still remains, a vague indefinable step before
\nannihilation is complete. There is still some memory of being and
\nthis keeps her apart from nothingness. She is in the bosom of That,
\nthe Indeterminable, but has not yet merged into That.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Shadow of
\nHerself <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis shadow of
\nherself so close to nought
Could be again self\u2019s point d\u2019appui
\nto live,
Return out of the Inconceivable
And be what some
\nmysterious vast might choose.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nThis shadow of
\nherself so near to Nothingness, could again form the base for the
\nself to stand upon, and provide for its return to the world from the
\nInconceivable to become what the profound mysterious vast might
\nchoose.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Tenebrous
\nPassage <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven as the
\nUnknowable decreed,
She might be nought or new-become the All,
\n
Or if the omnipotent Nihil took a shape
Emerge as someone and
\nredeem the world.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven, she might
\nlearn what the mystic cipher held,
This seeming exit or closed
\nend of all
Could be a blind tenebrous passage screened from
\nsight,
Her state the eclipsing shell of a darkened sun
On its
\nsecret way to the Ineffable.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nDepending upon what
\nthe Unknowable decrees, she may pass into Nothingness or newly become
\nthe All. Or if the all-powerful Nihil takes a form, she may emerge as
\na redeemer of the world. She may even come to know the content of the
\nmystic Zero; possibly, what now appears to be the exit or blind end
\nof all, could be only a dark passage veiled from sight, her own state
\nonly the shell that eclipses a darkened sun on its secret route to
\nthe Ineffable.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
Splendid being
\nflaming back <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven now her
\nsplendid being might flame back
Out of the silence and the
\nnullity,
A gleaming portion of the All-Wonderful,
A power of
\nsome all-affirming Absolute,
A shining mirror of the eternal
\nTruth
To show to the One-in-all its manifest face,
To the
\nsouls of men their deep identity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nEven now her
\nsplendid being might dart back from this silence and state of
\nnothingness as a shining portion of the All-Wonderful, a power of
\nsome all-affirming Absolute, a bright mirror of the Truth eternal in
\nwhich the One that is in all could behold its own revealed face and
\nin which the souls of men could see their deep identity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
God’s Quietude <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr she might wake
\ninto God\u2019s quietude
Beyond the cosmic day and cosmic night
And
\nrest appeased in his white eternity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nOr she might wake up
\ninto the quietude of God, beyond the creation and withdrawal of the
\ncosmos, and retire content in his pure, bare eternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\n
A Lonely
\nAbsolute <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut this was now
\nunreal or remote
Or covered in the mystic fathomless blank.
\n<\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nIn infinite
\nNothingness was the ultimate sign
Or else the Real was the
\nUnknowable. <\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nA lonely Absolute
\nnegated all:
It effaced the ignorant world from its solitude
And
\ndrowned the soul in its everlasting peace.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n


\nBut all these
\npossibilities are now unreal or remote, or they are veiled by the
\nmystic, profound, blank. A boundless Nothingness seems to be the
\nfinal sign of all; or perhaps the Reality is unknowable.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n


\nThere is now only a
\nbare Absolute negating all. From its solitude the ignorant world is
\nwiped out and in its everlasting peace the soul is drowned.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/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 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-10874","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\/10874","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=10874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11121,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10874\/revisions\/11121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}