\n\t\t\t\t\tBook Ten<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nThe Book of the Double Twilight<\/b><\/p>\n

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

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

\nThe
\nDebate of Love and Death<\/B><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n

\n<\/P>
\n

\nSummary
Savitri
\nreplies to almighty Death: O darkhued, cunning reasoner, who hidest
\neternity with thy dance of death, who weavest the ignorant mind into
\na screen, who turnest sense into a false witness, thou speakest the
\nTruth that slays, I shall answer with the Truth that saves.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nGod made this world
\nof matter his starting point of a journey in which he discovers
\nhimself. He covered his head with the cowl of Matter. Infinity took
\non the form of a boundless zero. All-Knowledge seemed to be a dark
\nNescience, All-Bliss an Insentience. The adventure of the spirit into
\nTime started, the pilgrimage of the soul in the cosmos. God’s
\nPuissance commenced work, things took shape in the Void; life awoke
\nin Matter, mind in life, thought formed itself in mind and Man stood
\nerect, the first of the creatures on earth to do so. He faced and
\nconquered the powers and laws that rule the world. He has seen the
\nUnknown. A ray of the eternal Sun has touched him.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nO Death, thou
\nlookest on an incomplete world and sayest that there is no God and
\nall is in vain. Material Nature is still in travail and labours
\nthrough ignorance and imperfection to reach, to change back into God.
\nThe body is the chrysalis of a soul. In all there is the secret
\npresence and might of the All-Wonderful. This world is the outer garb
\nof God. All is his passion-play; a transcendent Wisdom seeks to meet
\nher Lord in the darkness of the Night. God plays at being bound by
\nNature. All leads to a revelation of the One in the Many. Behind the
\nhuge masquerade, the Light grows, Wisdom dawns and man’s knowledge is
\nlighted by God’s ray. The spirit in man communes with the Eternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nOnce, O Death, all
\nwas plunged into the enigmatic Night but now all is raised to meet
\nthe glorious Sun of Truth. This is the mystery of thy reign. In spite
\nof thy mask, the earth has been made for joy and not sorrow.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nOur spirits breathe
\na secret air of pure felicity; without it the world would sink in the
\nvoid. A hidden Bliss is at the root of things. Because of it, in all
\nthings, there is a will to live, a joy to be. Danger and difficulty
\nwhet the irrepressible joy. Life brings adventure and thrill. The
\nTruth superhuman calls to thinking man and the soul turns to eternal
\nthings and at last immortal Bliss looks upon the world, poised on the
\nbreast of the Eternal’s peace. Love comes into its own and gathers
\nthe whole world into its clasp.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nO Death, I have
\ntriumphed over thee within myself. I can grieve no more. If I ask for
\nSatyavan it is for God’s work on earth. For that we have come,
\nSatyavan and I, to heal with bliss the unhappiness of the world, to
\nfill with Love the hollow in men’s hearts. My will is greater than
\nthy law, O Death, my love stronger than Fate. Love is my sanction
\nfrom God, Love is my strength.But the God of Death replies with an
\nironic laughter in his voice:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSo do men cheat
\nthemselves with splendid thoughts, weave flimsy webs of Ideals. Thy
\nsoul is a product of flesh, God is created in dreams. Recognise that
\nthou art a creature of Nature, accept the futility of thy birth.
\nTruth is hard.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSavitri replies:
\nYes, I am human, but my humanity is a mask of God. By me shall men
\nconquer thee.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nDeath cries back:
\nThou dwellest in a house of Imagination. How can thy will make one
\nwhat is true and what is false? Matter and Spirit can never become
\none. Desist from this vain labour. Take refuge in me, for to all
\nDeath is the last felicity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSavitri: My heart is
\nwiser than thy Reason, O Death. My strength can carry the grief of
\nthe Universe and yet never lose the Calm of the Infinite.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nDeath: Art thou
\nreally so strong, so free? Show me thy strength, thy freedom from my
\nlaws.Savitri: Surely I shall find the way, with Satyavan’s hands in
\nmine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nDeath: Choose
\nearthly joy, I will give thee all that thy soul desires. But my laws
\nare hard and forbid thy dearest wish; Satyavan can never again be
\nthine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSavitri: If thou,
\nDeath, can look straight at Truth, look at my heart, know what I am
\nand give what thou must. I claim nothing but Satyavan alone.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nDeath bows in
\ndisdain like one who yields a point reluctantly and replies: I give
\nto thee what the once living Satyavan had desired for Savitri, worthy
\ndaughters, hero sons, felicity of days. Love shall bind many hearts
\nto thee. Return, O child, to thy abandoned earth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSavitri refuses and
\nreplies: Earth cannot flower if I return alone.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nDeath sends forth
\nonce more his angry cry: Should all joy cease on earth because one
\nman is dead? Grief dies soon in the tired human heart. Other guests
\nsoon fill the empty room.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSavitri: Satyavan is
\nmy only Lord. Give him back to me.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nDeath: Return! Other
\nmen of beauty and strength and truth will appease thee and one of
\nthem will replace Satyavan who shall soon recede into the past. New
\nlove shall push away the old; such is life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSavitri: Thou
\nmockest. I know beyond all doubt that he and I are the eternal
\nbridegroom and eternal bride who are to wed before the immortal Fire
\nfor the victory of heaven on earth. Why dost thou vainly strive with
\nme, O Death?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nThe boundless
\nmembers of the god shudder in silence, as if overpowered by a secret
\necstasy. The twilight around trembles like a bursting veil.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nThus strive the
\ngreat opponents with armed speech. Speech fades away in the haze and
\nmist of that glimmering world. Savitri withdraws her thoughts and
\nturns within into the chambers of her soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nThe procession
\ncontinues, reversing the order of the world: mortal Satyavan leads,
\nfollows the god; Savitri is behind both, leader of their march, with
\nthem in front obeying her will.They journey onward through the
\ndrifting ways. All flees as if perturbed by the clearness of her
\nsoul. Through that enchanted darkness moves her soul; Death walks in
\nfront of her and Satyavan in front of Death. Above hangs the unseen
\nbalance of his fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Sad Voice Sinks <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA sad destroying
\ncadence the voice sank;
It seemed to lead the advancing march of
\nLife
Into some still original Inane.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe voice of Death
\nsinks with a sad and destroying intonation. It seems to lead the
\nforward march of Life into some silent original Void.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

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

\nBut Savitri answered
\nto almighty Death:
\u201cO dark-browed sophist of the universe
Who
\nveilst the Real with its own Idea,
Hiding with brute objects
\nNature\u2019s living face,
Masking eternity with thy dance of death,
\n
Thou hast woven the ignorant Mind into a screen
And made of
\nThought error\u2019s purveyor and scribe,
And a false witness of
\nmind\u2019s servant sense.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replies
\nto almighty Death:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n"O dark-browed
\nquibbling reasoner of the universe who veilest the Real with its own
\nIdea-form, hiding the living face of Nature with mechanical brute
\nobjects, concealing eternity with thy dance of death, thou hast woven
\nthe ignorant Mind into a screen, converted Thought into error’s
\nplentiful supplier and recorder, a false testifier of the movements
\nof the sense which is the servant of the mind.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Aesthete of
\nSorrow <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAn aesthete of the
\nsorrow of the world,
Champion of a harsh and sad philosophy
Thou
\nhast used words to shutter out the Light
And called in Truth to
\nvindicate a lie.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA lying reality is
\nfalsehood\u2019s crown
And a perverted truth her richest gem.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nO Death, thou
\nspeakest Truth but Truth that slays,
I answer to thee with the
\nTruth that saves.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Thou art a
\nfine connoisseur of the sorrow of the world. Championing a harsh and
\nsad philosophy of life, thou hast used words as a shutter keeping out
\nLight, thou hast summoned Truth to prove a falsehood; a truth that is
\nperverted \u2014 contrary to its nature \u2014 is falsehood’s richest gem.
\nO Death, what thou speakest may be Truth, but it is a Truth that
\nkills. I shall answer thee instead with the Truth that saves.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
New-Discovering
\nTraveller <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA traveller
\nnew-discovering himself,
One made of Matter\u2019s world his
\nstarting-point,
He made of Nothingness his living-room
And
\nNight a process of the eternal light
And death a spur towards
\nimmortality. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"A traveller
\nrepeatedly discovering himself in new forms made the realm of Matter
\nthe starting point of his journey. In Nothingness he made his
\ndwelling He made Night a process of the birth of eternal light. He
\nmade death a goad towards acquiring immortality.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
God in Matter\u2019s
\nCowl <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nGod wrapped his head
\nfrom sight in Matter\u2019s cowl,
His consciousness dived into
\ninconscient depths,
All-knowledge seemed a huge dark Nescience;
\n
Infinity wore a boundless zero\u2019s form.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHis abysms of bliss
\nbecame insensible deeps,
Eternity a blank spiritual Vast.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This traveller
\nis God himself in guise.He concealed himself from sight in the hood
\nof Matter. His consciousness plunged into depths where consciousness
\nis not and his All-Knowledge assumed the form of a huge dark
\nNescience \u2014 total absence of Awareness. His infinity appeared to be
\nan unbounded zero. His profounds of bliss turned into unfeeling
\ndepths, his eternity into an empty spiritual Vast.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Original Nullity
\nAnnulled <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAnnulling an
\noriginal nullity,
The Timeless took its ground in emptiness
And
\ndrew the figure of a universe,
That the spirit might adventure
\ninto Time
And wrestle with adamant Necessity
And the soul
\npursue a cosmic pilgrimage.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Cancelling the
\nNothingness that was originally there, the Eternal took position in
\nthe Void and sketched the pattern of a universe in order that the
\nfree spirit might undertake an adventure into Time and engage itself
\nin combat with hard Necessity and the soul might proceed on a
\npilgrimage in the cosmos.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
A Soul was Lit <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA spirit moved in
\nblack immensities
And built a Thought in ancient Nothingness;
A
\nsoul in God\u2019s tremendous Void was lit,
A secret labouring glow
\nof nascent fire.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"A spirit moved
\nin those dark immensities and in that primitive Nothingness it built
\na Thought. In the huge Void of God a soul was lit, a secret toiling
\nglow of inchoate fire.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Mighty Puissance
\nWrought <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn Nihil\u2019s gulf
\nhis mighty Puissance wrought;
She swung her formless motion into
\nshapes,
Made Matter the body of the Bodiless.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"God’s mighty
\nPower worked in the gulf of Nothingness. The Power threw her formless
\nmovement into forms and gave body to the Unbodied in Matter.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Eternal Mights
\nAwoke <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nInfant and dim the
\neternal Mights awoke.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn inert Matter
\nbreathed a slumbering Life,
In a subconscient Life Mind lay
\nasleep;
In waking Life it stretched its giant limbs
To shake
\nfrom it the torpor of its drowse;
A senseless substance quivered
\ninto sense,
The world\u2019s heart commenced to beat, its eyes to
\nsee. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The eternal
\nPowers still weak in their infancy awoke. A slumbering Life breathed
\nin inert Matter; Mind was asleep in a Life that was subconscious. As
\nLife awoke, Mind stretched its huge limbs to shake off the torpor of
\nits sleep. Sense throbbed into a substance that was senseless; the
\nheart of the world began to beat, the eyes of the world began to see.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Thought and
\nSpeech <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn the crowded dumb
\nvibrations of a brain
Thought fumbled in a ring to find itself,
\n
Discovered speech and fed the new-born Word
That bridged with
\nspans of light the world\u2019s ignorance.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"In the mute,
\nmechanical movements of the brain, Thought managed to form and
\nestablish itself, discovered speech to express itself, and nourished
\nthe new-born Word of power that radiated its light across the gulfs
\nof the world’s ignorance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Reasoning Animal
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn waking Mind, the
\nThinker built his house.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA reasoning animal
\nwilled and planned and sought;
He stood erect among his brute
\ncompeers,
He built life new, measured the universe,
Opposed
\nhis fate and wrestled with unseen Powers,
Conquered and used the
\nlaws that rule the world,
And hoped to ride the heavens and reach
\nthe stars,
A master of his huge environment.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The Thinker
\norganised his domain in the waking Mind. Man, the reasoning animal,
\nwilled planned and searched; he stood up erect, \u2014 alone among his
\ncompanions of the animal world to do so; he built life afresh,
\nspanned the universe; he opposed his fate and fought the unseen
\nPowers of the universe; he conquered and utilised for his own purpose
\nthe laws that govern the world; he even hoped to scale the heavens
\nand reach the stars, becoming the undisputed master of his vast
\nenvironment.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Demi-God Stares <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nNow through Mind\u2019s
\nwindows stares the demi-god
Hidden behind the curtains of man\u2019s
\nsoul:
He has seen the Unknown, looked on Truth\u2019s veilless face;
\n
A ray has touched him from the eternal Sun;
Motionless,
\nvoiceless in foreseeing depths,
He stands awake in Supernature\u2019s
\nlight
And sees a glory of arisen wings
And sees the vast
\ndescending might of God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The demi-god
\nveiled by the screens of man’s soul stares out through the windows of
\nthe Mind. He has glimpsed the Unknown, looked on the bare face of
\nTruth. A ray of the eternal Sun of Truth has touched him. And,
\nwithout movement, speechless in the seer-depths of awareness, he
\nstands awake in the light of the Supernature, beholds a glory of
\nsoaring wings and sees the vast might of God descending from above.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Unfinished World
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nO Death, thou lookst
\non an unfinished world
Assailed by thee and of its road unsure,
\n
Peopled by imperfect minds and ignorant lives,
And sayest God
\nis not and all is vain.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"O Death, the
\nworld on which thou lookest is but an incomplete world \u2014 a world
\nthat is under thy attack and uncertain of its course, peopled by
\nimperfect minds and lives that are ignorant. And looking at such an
\nunfinished world, thou sayest that God does not exist and all is in
\nvain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
An Infant <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHow shall the child
\nalready be the man?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBecause he is
\ninfant, shall he never grow?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBecause he is
\nignorant, shall he never learn?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"How can the
\nchild become a man forthwith? Also, because he is an infant now, does
\nit mean that he will never grow up? Simply because he is ignorant
\nnow, does it mean that he will never be able to learn?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Great Tree in
\nFragile Seed <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn a small fragile
\nseed a great tree lurks,
In a tiny gene a thinking being is shut;
\n
A little element in a little sperm,
It grows and is a
\nconqueror and a sage.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"In a small
\nfragile seed there lurks a giant tree. In a tiny gene lies a
\npotential thinking being. That which is a little element in a little
\nsperm grows and develops into a conqueror and a sage \u2014 mighty power
\nand supreme knowledge.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
God’s Mystic
\nTruth <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen wilt thou spew
\nout, Death, God\u2019s mystic truth,
Deny the occult spiritual
\nmiracle? <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nStill wilt thou say
\nthere is no spirit, no God?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"When that
\ncomes to be, then wilt thou, O Death, abhorrently cast forth out of
\nthee the mystic truth of God in the universe? Wilt thou then be able
\nto deny the occult spiritual miracle that will be patent? Wilt thou
\nstill maintain that there is no spirit, there is no God?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Task of Nature <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA mute material
\nNature wakes and sees;
She has invented speech, unveiled a will.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSomething there
\nwaits beyond towards which she strives,
Something surrounds her
\ninto which she grows:
To uncover the spirit, to change back into
\nGod,
To exceed herself is her transcendent task.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"A dumb
\nmaterial Nature awakes and sees. She has invented speech and revealed
\na will at work. There is something waiting beyond her present reach
\ntowards which she strives. There is something which enfolds her and
\nshe grows into it. Her high purpose, the supreme task with which she
\nis charged is to unveil the hidden spirit, to transmute herself back
\ninto God from whom she has come to be, to exceed her present limits.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
To Manifest God <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn God concealed the
\nworld began to be,
Tardily it travels towards manifest God:
Our
\nimperfection towards perfection toils,
The body is the chrysalis
\nof a soul:
The infinite holds the finite in its arms,
Time
\ntravels towards revealed eternity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The world
\ncommenced its existence in the bosom of the unmanifest God; slowly it
\nmoves towards the manifest God; it is to manifest God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nOur imperfection
\nworks towards perfection; the body encloses a budding soul. The
\ninfinite embraces the finite and Time journeys towards manifest
\neternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Eternal Mace <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA miracle structure
\nof the eternal Mage,
Matter its mystery hides from its own eyes,
\n
A scripture written out in cryptic signs,
An occult document
\nof the All-Wonderful\u2019s art.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll here bears
\nwitness to his secret might,
In all we feel his presence and his
\npower. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Matter is a
\nmagic-structure of the eternal Super-magician, God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nIt conceals its
\nmystery from its own sight; this mystery is a veritable scripture
\nwritten in secret code, ail occult record of the art of the
\nAll-Wonderful, the supreme Artist. Everything here in this world
\ntestifies to the secret might of God, we feel his presence, his
\npower, in all.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

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

\nA blaze of his
\nsovereign glory is the sun,
A glory is the gold and glimmering
\nmoon. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA glory is his dream
\nof purple sky.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA march of his
\ngreatness are the wheeling stars.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"God’s supreme
\nglory blazes in the sun. The gold and shining moon and the purple sky
\nreveal his glory. The speeding stars are a march of his greatness.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
God Fulfilled in
\nOutwardness <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHis laughter of
\nbeauty breaks out in green trees,
His moments of beauty triumph
\nin a flower;
The blue sea\u2019s chant, the rivulet\u2019s wandering
\nvoice
Are murmurs falling from the Eternal\u2019s harp.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThis world is God
\nfulfilled in outwardness.
\n
"God’s laughter and beauty break forth in the green trees;
\nhis revelations of beauty shine victorious in a flower. The rhythmic
\nchant of the waves of the blue sea, the flowing voice of the rivulet
\nare but soft notes of the harp of the Eternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nIndeed, this world
\nis the external fulfilment of God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
His ways
\nChallenge <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHis ways challenge
\nour reason and our sense;
By blind brute movements of an ignorant
\nForce,
By means we slight as small, obscure or base
A
\ngreatness founded upon little things,
He has built a world in the
\nunknowing Void.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Our reason and
\nsense cannot follow God’s ways. By the blind mechanical workings of
\nan ignorant Force, and by means which we disdain as small, obscure or
\nlow, he has built in the insensible Void a world that is a greatness
\nbased upon little things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Needed steps of
\nGreat Drama <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHis forms he has
\nmassed from infinitesimal dust;
His marvels are built from
\ninsignificant things.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIf mind is crippled,
\nlife untaught and crude,
If brutal masks are there and evil acts,
\n
They are incidents of his vast and varied plot,
His great and
\ndangerous drama\u2019s needed steps;
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"He has
\nlaboriously shaped his forms from out of tiny dust-particles; his
\nwonders are built from things insignificant in themselves. The mind
\nmay be crippled in its movements, life may be uncontrolled and crude,
\nbrutal appearances may be aplenty and evil may prevail, but they are
\nonly incidents in his glowing, vast and varied plot, necessary steps
\nof the great and dangerous drama he is enacting.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Deep Scheme <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHe makes with these
\nand all his passion-play,
A play and yet no play but the deep
\nscheme
Of a transcendent Wisdom finding ways
To meet her Lord
\nin the shadow and the Night:
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"With all these
\nand other elements he prepares and enacts his play of divine Passion.
\nIt is a play that is yet no play; it is really a profound plan of a
\nhigh, transcendent Wisdom’ finding ways to meet her Lord and Master
\nin conditions of darkness and Night \u2014for in conditions of light and
\nsplendour she is ever one with the Lord.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Divine Embodied
\nin Matter <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAbove her is the
\nvigil of the stars;
Watched by a solitary Infinitude
She
\nembodies in dumb Matter the Divine,
In symbol minds and lives the
\nAbsolute. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This
\ntranscendent wisdom works under the vigil of the celestial stars,
\npowers, above; the sole Infinitude watches her as she ensouls mute
\nMatter with the Divine, as she renders the Absolute in symbols of
\nmind and life.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Miracle-Monger <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA miracle-monger her
\nmechanical craft;
Matter\u2019s machine worked out the laws of
\nthought,
Life\u2019s engines served the labour of a soul:
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nprajna purani
\n(Gita"Her mechanical skill worked out miracles: from Matter’s
\nmachine the laws of Thought were erected; the motion-powers of Life
\nserved the purposeful labours of the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Mighty Mother at
\nWork <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe mighty Mother
\nher creation wrought,
A huge caprice self-bound by iron laws,
\n
And shut God into an enigmatic world:
She lulled the
\nOmniscient into nescient sleep,
Omnipotence on Inertia\u2019s back
\nshe drove,
Trod perfectly with divine unconscious steps
The
\nenormous circle of her wonder-works.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The mighty
\nMother worked at her creation, restraining her great caprice with
\nfixed laws of her own make. She enclosed God in a world that is a
\nriddle, put the Omniscient to sleep in nescience, restrained
\nOmnipotence to the measure of Inertia, and with divine unconscious
\nsteps trod perfectly the huge round of her works of marvel.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Immortality
\nassured by Death <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nImmortality assured
\nitself by death;
The Eternal\u2019s face was seen through drifts of
\nTime. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHis knowledge he
\ndisguised as Ignorance,
His Good he sowed in Evil\u2019s monstrous
\nbed,
Made error a door by which Truth could enter in,
His
\nplant of bliss watered with Sorrow\u2019s tears.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Immortality
\nconfirmed itself through the process of the death of the form. The
\nEternal revealed himself in Time. He concealed his knowledge in
\nIgnorance; he paired good with evil; he made of error a door of entry
\nfor Truth; his bliss was nurtured by pain and sorrow.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Thousand aspects
\nPoint to One <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA thousand aspects
\npoint back to the One;
A dual Nature covered the Unique.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn this meeting of
\nthe Eternal\u2019s mingling masques,
This tangle-dance of passionate
\ncontraries
Locking like lovers in a forbidden embrace
The
\nquarrel of their lost identity,
In this wrestle and wrangle of
\nthe extremes of Power
Earth\u2019s million roads struggled towards
\ndeity. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"All the myriad
\naspects point only to the One of which they are so many
\nself-revelations. A twofold Nature covered the face of the Unique
\nOne.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nIn a struggle of the
\nextremes of Power, the million roads of earth wended their course
\ntowards the Godhead in a commingling of the various masques of the
\nEternal, in an entangling dance of vehement opposites trying to
\nrecover their lost identity in a locking embrace like lovers in a
\nforbidden union.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Towards the One
\nDivine <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll stumbled on
\nbehind a stumbling Guide,
Yet every stumble is a needed pace
On
\nunknown routes to an unknowable goal.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll blundered and
\nstraggled towards the one Divine.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"All went on
\nstumbling behind a veiled Guide who also stumbled. However, every
\nstumble in this course is a necessary step on these unknown tracts to
\na goal that is itself unknown. All blundered and proceeded
\nerratically, but all moved towards the one Divine.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Dubious Face <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAs if transmuted by
\na titan spell
The eternal powers assumed a dubious face:
Idols
\nof an oblique divinity,
They wore the heads of animal or troll,
\n
Assumed ears of the fawn, the satyr\u2019s hoof,
Or harboured
\nthe demoniac in their gaze.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The eternal
\npowers took on, as if transformed by a titan’s spell, an ambiguous
\nappearance. Forms of a deviating Divinity, they wore the heads of
\nanimal or dwarf, put on the ears of the fawn or the hoof of the satyr
\nor had the look of the demon in their eyes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Metamorphosis of
\nMind and Heart <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA crooked maze they
\nmade of thinking mind,
They suffered a metamorphosis of the
\nheart,
Admitting Bacchant revellers from the Night
Into its
\nsanctuary of delights,
As in a Dionysian masquerade.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"They turned
\nthe thinking mind into a twisted maze; the heart underwent a complete
\nchange, with uncontrolled impulses from the nether regions pouring
\ninto its reserved chamber of delight, like inebriate travellers
\njoining in a wild masked ball.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
They Wallowed <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOn the highways, in
\nthe gardens of the world
They wallowed oblivious of their divine
\nparts,
As drunkards of a dire Circean wine
Or a child who
\nsprawls and sports in Nature\u2019s mire.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Forgetting
\ntheir divine parts, these powers wallowed on the high roads and in
\nthe gardens of the world like those who have drunk an intoxicating
\nmagical wine or like a child who sprawls and plays in Nature’s muddy
\nsoil.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Wisdom Joins the
\nDisastrous Game <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nEven wisdom, hewer
\nof the roads of God,
Is a partner in the deep disastrous game:
\n
Lost is the pilgrim\u2019s wallet and the scrip,
She fails to
\nread the map and watch the star.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Even wisdom
\nwho builds the paths to God, joins in this deep, calamitous game. She
\nloses her traveller’s wallet and bag; she fails to consult the map
\nand observe the guiding star during the journey.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
In Utility’s
\nSchool <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA poor
\nself-righteous virtue is her stock
And reason\u2019s pragmatic grope
\nor abstract sight,
Or the technique of a brief hour\u2019s success
\n
She teaches, an usher in utility\u2019s school.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Of this wisdom
\nentangled in the unfortunate game, a self-righteous virtue is the
\nstock; pragmatic gropings of reason or abstract visions are her
\nmeans. She teaches the techniques of temporary successes \u2014 not the
\ndifficult processes of permanent gain; she has always an eye on
\nutility.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Great Thoughts
\nEscape <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOn the ocean surface
\nof vast Consciousness
Small thoughts in shoals are fished up into
\na net
But the great truths escape her narrow cast;
Guarded
\nfrom vision by creation\u2019s depths,
Obscure they swim in blind
\nenormous gulfs
Safe from the little sounding leads of mind,
Too
\nfar for the puny diver\u2019s shallow plunge.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"On the surface
\nof this ocean of vast Consciousness, small, petty thoughts are caught
\nin the fishing net of the mind, but the great truths escape her
\nnarrow throw. These truths are safe from sight in the depths; unknown
\nthey swim in the dark huge gulfs of the ocean, beyond the plumbings
\nof the mind, too far for the shallow plunge of the weak diver.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Knowledge with
\nError’s Staff <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOur mortal vision
\npeers with ignorant eyes;
It has no gaze on the deep heart of
\nthings. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOur knowledge walks
\nleaning on Error\u2019s staff,
A worshipper of false dogmas and
\nfalse gods,
Or fanatic of a fierce intolerant creed
Or a
\nseeker doubting every truth he finds,
A sceptic facing Light with
\nadamant No
Or chilling the heart with dry ironic smile,
A
\ncynic stamping out the god in man;
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Our mortal
\nsight looks with ignorant eyes; it cannot see the core of things. Our
\nknowledge proceeds through error; it swears by false dogmas and false
\ngods; it champions fanatically some intolerant creed; it seeks for
\ntruth, but doubts every truth it finds; it is an inveterate sceptic
\ndenying Light obstinately; it chills the warmth of the heart with its
\ndry, ironic smile of superiority; it is a cynic crushing out the god
\nin man.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Darkness Wallows
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA darkness wallows
\nin the paths of Time
Or lifts its giant head to blot the stars;
\n
It makes a cloud of the interpreting mind
And intercepts the
\noracles of the Sun.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Truly, there
\nis a darkness plaguing the paths of Time in this Creation. It raises
\nits huge head to blot out the stars in the firmament; it obstructs
\nthe mind seeking to interpret and explain the mystery of things; it
\ncuts off the intimations from the Sun of Truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Yet Light is
\nThere <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nYet Light is there;
\nit stands at Nature\u2019s doors:
It holds a torch to lead the
\ntraveller in. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIt waits to be
\nkindled in our secret cells;
It is a star lighting an ignorant
\nsea,
A lamp upon our poop piercing the night.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"All the same,
\nthere is Light. It stands at Nature’s doors which are not yet fully
\nopen. It holds a torch to guide the traveller in. It waits to be
\nlighted in our secret cells. It is a star lighting up the sea of
\nignorance around; it is a lamp on the stern of our ship piercing the
\ndarkness of the night and showing the way.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
A Bow of God <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAs knowledge grows
\nLight flames up from within:
It is a shining warrior in the mind,
\n
An eagle of dreams in the divining heart,
An armour in the
\nfight, a bow of God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"As knowledge
\ngrows, this Light flares up like a flame from within. It is a shining
\nwarrior in the mind, a far-off dreamer in the intuiting heart; it is
\na protecting armour in the fight against the hosts of the Adversary,
\na veritable bow of God from which unfailing arrows are shot.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Science Exposes
\nNature’s Secrets <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen larger dawns
\narrive and Wisdom\u2019s pomps
Cross through the being\u2019s dim,
\nhalf-lighted fields;
Philosophy climbs up Thought\u2019s cloud-bank
\npeaks
And Science tears out Nature\u2019s occult powers,
Enormous
\njinns who serve a dwarf\u2019s small needs,
Exposes the sealed
\nminutiae of her art
And conquers her by her own captive force.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"As the Light
\nflares up, dawns of knowledge \u2014larger than thitherto \u2014 arrive and
\nthe splendour of wisdom breaks through the half lighted fields of the
\nbeing; Philosophy is reared on the peaks of speculative Thought.
\nScience discovers secret powers of Nature, enormous powers that are
\nput in the service of the puny creature that is man in ignorance.
\nScience also reveals the hidden processes of Nature in detail and
\ngoes on to conquer Nature by Nature’s own imprisoned energy-force.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
God’s Supernal
\nRay <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOn heights unreached
\nby mind\u2019s most daring soar,
Upon a dangerous edge of failing
\nTime
The soul draws back into its deathless Self;
Man\u2019s
\nknowledge becomes God\u2019s supernal Ray.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Beyond the
\nhighest summits of the mind’s Thought, on the borders where Time
\nfades into the Timeless, the soul draws back into its own immortal
\nSelf \u2014 the Self of which it is a projection. Then man’s knowledge
\nturns into God’s celestial wisdom.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Mystic Realm <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThere is the mystic
\nrealm whence leaps the power
Whose fire burns in the eyes of seer
\nand sage;
A lightning flash of visionary sight,
It plays upon
\nan inward verge of mind:
Thought silenced gazes into a brilliant
\nVoid. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"There is a
\nmystic region from where comes the power whose intensity shines in
\nthe eyes of the seer and the sage. It is a rapid flash of revelation
\nplaying upon the inner borders of the mind; when that takes place,
\nthought falls silent and gazes into a luminous Void.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Voice from
\nMystic Peaks <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA voice comes down
\nfrom mystic unseen peaks:
A cry of splendour from a mouth of
\nstorm,
It is the voice that speaks to night\u2019s profound,
It
\nis the thunder and the flaming call.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"A voice comes
\ndown from the mystic unseen peaks above; it is a cry of splendour
\nproceeding from some mouth of storm \u2014 source of precipitating
\npower; it is the voice that speaks to the depths of the silent night,
\nit is the imperious thunder and the flaming call to the soul.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Hand Plucks the
\nScreens <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAbove the planes
\nthat climb from nescient earth,
A hand is lifted towards the
\nInvisible\u2019s realm,
Beyond the superconscient\u2019s blinding line
\n
And plucks away the screens of the Unknown;
A spirit within
\nlooks into the Eternal\u2019s eyes.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Above the
\nterrestrial planes of existence, a hand is raised towards the realm
\nof the Invisible beyond the dazzling borders of the superconscient
\nReality and it pushes away the screens that veil the Unknown. The
\nsoul, the spirit within, looks direct into the eyes of the Eternal.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Secrets of
\nEternity <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIt hears the Word to
\nwhich our hearts were deaf,
It sees through the blaze in which
\nour thoughts grew blind;
It drinks from the naked breasts of
\nglorious Truth,
It learns the secrets of eternity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The spirit
\nhears the supernal Word which our hearts could not hear; it sees
\nthrough the bright light which blinded our thoughts; it draws direct
\nfrom the glorious Truth; it comes to know the mysteries of eternity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Mystery of
\nDeath’s Reign <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThus all was plunged
\ninto the riddling Night,
Thus all is raised to meet a dazzling
\nSun. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nO Death, this is the
\nmystery of thy reign.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Thus was all
\nplunged into the mysterious Night of Nescience, and thus is all
\nraised to meet the glorious, dazzling Sun of Truth.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nO Death, this is the
\nhidden truth of thy reign.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
A Darkness
\nOccupied <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn earth\u2019s
\nanomalous and tragic field
Carried in its aimless journey by the
\nsun
Mid the forced marches of the great dumb stars,
A
\ndarkness occupied the fields of God,
And Matter\u2019s world was
\ngoverned by thy shape.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"As the
\nabnormal and tragic spaces of the earth were carried in their aimless
\njourney by the sun amidst the forced marches of the great mute stars
\nin the sky, a huge darkness settled on the fields of God and this
\nworld of Matter was governed by thy form, O Death.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Mask on the
\nEternal’s Face <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThy mask has covered
\nthe Eternal\u2019s face,
The Bliss that made the world has fallen
\nasleep. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAbandoned in the
\nVast she slumbered on:
An evil transmutation overtook
Her
\nmembers till she knew herself no more.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"O Death, thy
\nmask has covered the face of the Eternal on the earth. The Bliss that
\ncaused the birth of the world has become dormant.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nLeft to herself in
\nthe Vast, the creative Bliss continued her slumber. An evil
\ntransformation came over the different parts of her being till she no
\nmore recognised herself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Memories of Joy
\nand Beauty <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOnly through her
\ncreative slumber flit
Frail memories of the joy and beauty meant
\n
Under the sky\u2019s blue laugh mid green-scarfed trees
And
\nhappy squanderings of scents and hues,
In the field of the golden
\npromenade of the sun
And the vigil of the dream-light of the
\nstars,
Amid high meditating heads of hills,
On the bosom of
\nvoluptuous rain-kissed earth
And by the sapphire tumblings of the
\nsea. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The Bliss
\nknows herself no more. But in her creative slumber, some frail
\nmemories flit across, memories of the original joy and beauty of
\nthings under the mirth of the blue sky and midst the green trees and
\nthe happy luxuriance of fragrance and colour, in the bright golden
\ncourse of the sun and the vigil of the dreamily shining stars, amidst
\nthe high contemplative summits of the hills, on the breast of the
\npassionate rain-kissed earth and by the deep blue waves of the sea.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Primal Innocence
\nLost <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut now the primal
\ninnocence is lost
And Death and Ignorance govern the mortal world
\n
And Nature\u2019s visage wears a greyer hue.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nEarth still has kept
\nher early charm and grace,
The grandeur and the beauty still are
\nhers,
But veiled is the divine Inhabitant.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"But that early
\ninnocence is now lost. Death and Ignorance rule the mortal world.
\nNature’s face has a dull, depressing appearance.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nThe earth, however,
\nstill retains her early charm and grace, her grandeur and beauty, but
\nthe divine Indweller of the creation is veiled.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Great Mother
\nturns away <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe souls of men
\nhave wandered from the Light
And the great Mother turns away her
\nface. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe eyes of the
\ncreatrix Bliss are closed
And sorrow\u2019s touch has found her in
\nher dreams. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The souls of
\nmen have strayed away from the Light of God and the Divine Mother
\nwithdraws, her face is no more visible in the world. The eyes of the
\ncreatrix of this world, the Bliss eternal, are closed in sleep and
\nthere is a touch of sorrow even in her dreams.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Luxury of Grief
\nand Tears. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAs she turns and
\ntosses on her bed of Void,
Because she cannot wake and find
\nherself
And cannot build again her perfect shape,
Oblivious
\nof her nature and her state,
Forgetting her instinct of felicity,
\n
Forgetting to create a world of joy,
She weeps and makes her
\ncreatures\u2019 eyes to weep;
Testing with sorrow\u2019s edge her
\nchildren\u2019s breasts,
She spends on life\u2019s vain waste of hope
\nand toil
The poignant luxury of grief and tears.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The eternal
\nBliss tosses restlessly on her bed of Void because she is unable to
\nawake, recover her own self and rebuild her original perfect form.
\nShe forgets her true nature and state, her natural instinct of
\nhappiness; she forgets to create a world of joy which is natural for
\nher to create; on the other hand, she weeps and makes her creatures
\nweep; testing her children with the sharp edge of sorrow, she
\nluxuriates in spending grief and tears on life’s vain waste of hope
\nand labour.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Cruel Mask of
\nPain <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn the nightmare
\nchange of her half-conscious dream,
Tortured herself and
\ntorturing by her touch,
She comes to our hearts and bodies and
\nour lives
Wearing a hard and cruel mask of pain.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"In the
\nnightmare of her half-awake dream, herself tortured and torturing us
\nby her touch \u2014 she visits our hearts, bodies and lives wearing the
\nhard and cruel mask of pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Our Twisted
\nNature <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOur nature twisted
\nby the abortive birth
Returns wry answers to life\u2019s questioning
\nshocks,
An acrid relish finds in the world\u2019s pangs,
Drinks
\nthe sharp wine of grief\u2019s perversity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Our nature,
\ntwisted due to premature formation under the pressure of this pain,
\ngives distorted responses to the stimulating shocks of life, takes a
\npungent relish in the pangs of the world and drinks the strong wine
\nof grief’s perversity.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Curse on Joy of
\nLife <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA curse is laid on
\nthe pure joy of life:
Delight, God\u2019s sweetest sign and Beauty\u2019s
\ntwin,
Dreaded by aspiring saint and austere sage,
Is shunned,
\na dangerous and ambiguous cheat,
A specious trick of an infernal
\nPower
It tempts the soul to its self-hurt and fall.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"There is a
\ncurse on the pure joy of life. Delight which is the sweetest sign of
\nthe presence of God and the inseparable companion of Beauty in
\ncreation, is feared and avoided by the saint who aspires for union
\nwith God, by the sage who engages himself in austerities in order to
\nwin the Spirit. It is shunned as a dangerous and uncertain deception,
\na plausible trick of a dark Power, which tempts the soul to follow
\nthe course of self-destruction and fall; the soul that seeks delight
\nsooner or later hurts itself and perishes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Pleasure a
\nPoisonous Fruit <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA puritan God made
\npleasure a poisonous fruit,
Or red drug in the market-place of
\nDeath,
And sin the child of Nature\u2019s ecstasy.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"In their eyes,
\nGod is a puritan who has made of pleasure a poisonous fruit or a
\ndeadly drug that leads to death. Ecstasy of Nature inevitably
\nproduces sin. Hence it is to be avoided.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Hunt for
\nHappiness <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nYet every creature
\nhunts for happiness,
Buys with harsh pangs or tears by violence
\n
From the dull breast of the inanimate globe
Some fragment or
\nsome broken shard of bliss.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Still, every
\ncreature in the world seeks happiness, pays for it with hard
\nsuffering or rends with force some fragment, some broken piece of
\nbliss from this indifferent, inanimate globe.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
For joy was
\nEarth Made <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nEven joy itself
\nbecomes a poisonous draught,
Its hunger is made a dreadful hook
\nof Fate. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll means are held
\ngood to catch a single beam,
Eternity sacrificed for a moment\u2019s
\nbliss:
Yet for joy and not for sorrow earth was made
And not
\nas a dream in endless suffering Time.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Joy itself
\nbecomes a poisonous wine; its yearning is turned into a dreadful bait
\nof Fate. All means \u2014 even harmful ones \u2014 are justified to catch a
\nsingle ray of happiness, whole eternity is sacrificed to gain a
\nmoment of bliss.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nAnd yet, surely, the
\nearth was made for joy and not for sorrow; it was not made as a dream
\nof unending suffering.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Ignorant Power
\ntook Charge <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAlthough God made
\nthe world for his delight,
An ignorant Power took charge and
\nseemed his Will
And Death\u2019s deep falsity has mastered Life.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll grew a play of
\nChance simulating Fate.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Indeed, God
\ncreated this world for his own play of delight. But a Power of
\nIgnorance intervened, took charge of the world, and pretended as if
\nit were God’s Will; the deep falsehood of Death came to conquer Life.
\nThus all turned into a game of Chance wearing the appearance of the
\nworkings of Fate.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Secret Felicity <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA secret air of pure
\nfelicity
Deep like a sapphire heaven our spirits breathe;
Our
\nhearts and bodies feel its obscure call,
Our senses grope for it
\nand touch and lose.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIf this withdrew,
\nthe world would sink in the Void;
If this were not, nothing could
\nmove or live. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"There is a
\npure secret air of felicity, deep like the azure skies, which our
\nspirits breathe and whose in distinct call is felt by our hearts and
\nbodies. Our senses try to contact it but even as they touch it they
\nlose it. If this secret felicity were to withdraw, the world would
\nlapse in the Void; if this inner felicity were not there, nothing
\nhere could live or move.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Hidden Bliss <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA hidden Bliss is at
\nthe root of things.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA mute Delight
\nregards Time\u2019s countless works:
To house God\u2019s joy in things
\nSpace gave wide room,
To house God\u2019s joy in self our souls were
\nborn. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"There is a
\nsecret, hidden, bliss at the root of all things in the world. A
\nsilent Delight watches the endless workings of Time. Indeed Space
\nextended itself in order to hold God’s joy in all things; our souls
\nwere born to contain God’s joy in the self of things.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
World-Delight <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThis universe an old
\nenchantment guards;
Its objects are carved cups of World-Delight
\n
Whose charmed wine is some deep soul\u2019s rapture-drink:
The
\nAll-Wonderful has packed heaven with his dreams,
He has made
\nblank ancient Space his marvel-house;
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This universe
\nholds an ancient magic. Its objects are carefully carved cups of
\nWorld-Delight whose vintage wine of rapture is drunk by some deep
\nSoul. The All Wonderful Creator has filled heaven with his dreams; he
\nhas turned what was originally a blank Space into his House of
\nmarvel.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
All-Wonderful <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHe spilled his
\nspirit into Matter\u2019s signs:
His fires of grandeur burn in the
\ngreat sun,
He glides through heaven shimmering in the moon;
He
\nis beauty carolling in the fields of sound;
He chants the stanzas
\nof the odes of Wind;
He is silence watching in the stars at
\nnight;
He wakes at dawn and calls from every bough,
Lies
\nstunned in the stone and dreams in flower and tree.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The
\nAll-Wonderful has poured his spirit into the symbolic forms of
\nMatter; his fires of grandeur flame in the sun; he it is who glides
\nthrough the skies in the form of the shimmering moon; he is beauty
\nsinging in the fields of sound; he chants the odes of the Wind; he is
\nsilence watching in the stars during the nights; he is a bird that
\nwakes at dawn calling from every tree; he lies in a swoon in the
\ninconscience of the stone; he dreams in flower and tree.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nHe is manifoldly
\npresent everywhere in Creation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Will to Live <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nEven in this labour
\nand dolour of Ignorance,
On the hard perilous ground of difficult
\nearth,
In spite of death and evil circumstance
A will to live
\npersists, a joy to be.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"What is
\nwonderful is that even in this hard struggle of Ignorance on the
\ndifficult and dangerous ground of earth, in spite of death and evil,
\nthere is a persisting will to live, a joy to be.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Joy in all <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThere is a joy in
\nall that meets the sense,
A joy in all experience of the soul,
A
\njoy in evil and a joy in good,
A joy in virtue and a joy in sin:
\n
Indifferent to the threat of karmic law,
Joy dares to grow
\nupon forbidden soil,
Its sap runs through the plant and flowers
\nof Pain: <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"There is a joy
\nin every sense-contact, a joy in all experience of the soul in the
\nworld, a joy in evil, a joy in good, a joy in virtue, a joy in sin.
\nUndeterred by the law of Karma which threatens every transgression of
\ngood with pain, joy dares to grow upon the forbidden soil; the sap of
\njoy runs through all the flowers of pain.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Joy of Life <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIt thrills with the
\ndrama of fate and tragic doom,
It tears its food from sorrow and
\necstasy,
On danger and difficulty whets its strength;
It
\nwallows with the reptile and the worm
And lifts its head, an
\nequal of the stars;
It shares the fairies\u2019 dance, dines with
\nthe gnome:
It basks in the light and heat of many suns,
The
\nsun of Beauty and the sun of Power
Flatter and foster it with
\ngolden beam;
It grows towards the Titan and the God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This joy of
\nlife thrills in the drama of fate and tragedy; from sorrow and
\necstasy it draws its sustenance. It whets its strength on danger and
\ndifficulty and thrives upon them. If it wallows with meanly creatures
\non earth like the reptile and the worm, it also soars high towards
\nthe stars in the heavens; it dances with elementals like the fairies
\nand gnomes. It sports in the light and the heat of many suns. Beauty
\nand Power brighten it and add to its nourishment. It flourishes and
\ngrows, grows either Titan wards or God-wards.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
It Lingers on
\nEarth <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOn earth it lingers
\ndrinking its deep fill,
Through the symbol of her pleasure and
\nher pain,
Of the grapes of Heaven and the flowers of the Abyss,
\n
Of the flame-stabs and the torment-craft of Hell
And dim
\nfragments of the glory of Paradise.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This joy
\nprolongs itself taking its fill on earth through experiences of
\npleasure and pain, of the fruits of Heaven, and the sombre flowers of
\nthe Abyss, of the tortures of Hell and fragments of the glory of
\nParadise.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
For unknown
\nBliss <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn the small paltry
\npleasures of man\u2019s life,
In his petty passions and joys it
\nfinds a taste,
A taste in tears and torture of broken hearts,
In
\nthe crown of gold and in the crown of thorns,
In life\u2019s nectar
\nof sweetness and its bitter wine.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll being it
\nexplores for unknown bliss,
Sounds all experience for things new
\nand strange. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This joy of
\nlife finds relish in the petty pleasures, small passions and joys of
\nman’s existence, in his tears and pain of broken hearts in exultant
\nsuccess as in hard difficulty, in the sweetness and in the bitterness
\nof life’s experience. It explores all being for new bliss, taps all
\nexperience for the thrill of adventure.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Life Brings
\nTongue of Glory <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nLife brings into the
\nearthly creature\u2019s days
A tongue of glory from a higher sphere:
\n
It deepens in his musings and his Art,
It leaps at the
\nsplendour of some perfect word,
It exults in his high resolves
\nand noble deeds,
Wanders in his errors, dares the abyss\u2019s
\nbrink,
It climbs in his climbings, wallows in his fall.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Life brings
\ninto the days of the earthly creature a flame of glory from a higher
\nrealm. This fire deepens itself in man’s musings and his Art. It
\nshoots up at the discovery of some perfect word of expression; it
\nglories in man’s high resolves and high deeds; it companions him in
\nhis faults, shares the danger of the abyss, soars with his soarings,
\nwallows in his fall<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Enjoyer of
\nCosmic Scene <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAngel and demon
\nbrides his chamber share,
Possessors or competitors for life\u2019s
\nheart. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nTo the enjoyer of
\nthe cosmic scene
His greatness and his littleness equal are,
His
\nmagnanimity and meanness hues
Cast on some neutral background of
\nthe gods: <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Angel and
\ndemon compete with each other to possess the heart of man’s life.
\nThere is one who enjoys this cosmic scene; to him man’s greatness and
\nlittleness appear equal; man’s magnanimity and meanness are only hues
\ncast on some featureless background of the gods.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Truth Superhuman
\nCalls <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe Artist\u2019s skill
\nhe admires who made the plan,
But not for ever endures this
\ndanger game:
Beyond the earth, but meant for delivered earth,
\n
Wisdom and joy prepare their perfect crown:
Truth superhuman
\ncalls to thinking man.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The supreme
\nplanner admires the artistry of the cosmic life. But this danger game
\ndoes not go on for ever. Transcending the earth, but intended for
\nearth delivered from Ignorance, wisdom and joy prepare their
\nfulfilment. A truth that is above man calls man to its contemplation.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Soul Turns to
\nthe Eternal <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAt last the soul
\nturns to eternal things,
In every shrine it cries for the clasp
\nof God. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen is there played
\nthe crowning Mystery,
Then is achieved the longed-for miracle.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"At last the
\nsoul turns to things that are eternal \u2014from those that are fleeting
\n\u2014 and it seeks to find God in every form. At this final stage the
\nsupreme Mystery is enacted, the long awaited miracle performed.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Immortal Bliss <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nImmortal bliss her
\nwide celestial eyes
Opens on the stars, she stirs her mighty
\nlimbs;
Time thrills to the sapphics of her amour song
And
\nSpace fills with a white beatitude.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nImmortal bliss
\nawakes and gazes upon the wide world; Time vibrates to the sensuous
\nnotes of the love song of this bliss; Space is filled with an
\nuntainted beatitude.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Unborn Idea <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen leaving to its
\ngrief the human heart,
Abandoning speech and the name-determined
\nrealms,
Through a gleaming far-seen sky of wordless thought,
\n
Through naked thought-free heavens of absolute sight,
She
\nclimbs to the summits where the unborn Idea
Remembering the
\nfuture that must be
Looks down upon the works of labouring Force,
\n
Immutable above the world it made.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Then this
\nimmortal bliss leaving the human heart to its accustomed grief,
\nwithdraws from this field of manifestation in word and form, soars
\nthrough the mental skies of thought beyond words, through heights of
\nsheer vision far above thought, to the summits where the unformed
\nIdea, awake to the truth that is to formulate itself, oversees the
\nworkings of the striving Force below, itself immutable above the
\nworld it has originated.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Poised on the
\nEternal’s Peace <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn the vast golden
\nlaughter of Truth\u2019s sun
Like a great heaven-bird on a
\nmotionless sea
Is poised her winged ardour of creative joy
On
\nthe still deep of the Eternal\u2019s peace.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"There in the
\nhappy vastitude lit by the sun of Truth, this immortal bliss, in the
\nfiery ardour of her creative joy, is poised like a great bird of
\nheaven on the still sea of the Eternal’s peace.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

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

\nThis was the aim,
\nthis the supernal Law,
Nature\u2019s allotted task when
\nbeauty-drenched
In dim mist waters of inconscient sleep,
Out
\nof the Void this grand creation rose,\u2014
For this the Spirit came
\ninto the Abyss
And charged with its power Matter\u2019s unknowing
\nForce,
In Night\u2019s bare session to cathedral light
In
\nDeath\u2019s realm repatriate immortality.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"This, indeed,
\nwas the aim, this the high Law, the task assigned to Nature when out
\nof the Void this grand, beautiful Creation sunk in the obscurity of
\ninconscient sleep, arose. For this the Spirit came into the Abyss and
\ninfused its power into the mechanical Force of Matter in order to
\ninstal light in its glory in the sombre chamber of Night, in order to
\nreclaim immortality in the kingdom of Death.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Slow
\nTransfiguration Works <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA mystic slow
\ntransfiguration works.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll our earth starts
\nfrom mud and ends in sky,
And Love that was once an animal\u2019s
\ndesire,
Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart,
An
\nardent comradeship in the happy mind,
Becomes a wide spiritual
\nyearning\u2019s space.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"A mystic, slow
\ntransfiguration is at work. AU on earth starts from the mud below but
\nculminates in the sky high above. Love that begins as animal desire
\nchanges into a sweet intoxication in the ecstatic heart, an ardent
\ncompanionship in the happy mind, and then becomes the field of a wide
\nspiritual longing.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Love of God <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA lonely soul
\npassions for the Alone,
The heart that loved man thrills to the
\nlove of God,
A body is his chamber and his shrine.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The soul that
\nfeels lonely heaves in passion for the One, the Alone. The heart that
\nloved a human now beats in rapture to the love of God. The body
\nbecomes the home and the shrine of the Beloved.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
All New-Felt in
\nGod <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen is our being
\nrescued from separateness;
All is itself, all is new-felt in God:
\n
A Lover leaning from his cloister\u2019s door
Gathers the whole
\nworld into his single breast.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"When the
\npresence of God is realised in the body, our being is liberated from
\nits separativity from all. It feels all to be itself, it experiences
\nall anew in the Consciousness of God. The Divine Beloved leans from
\nhis lone dwelling and through our being, embraces the whole world in
\nhis single breast.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Night and Death
\nFail <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen shall the
\nbusiness fail of Night and Death:
When unity is won, when strife
\nis lost
And all is known and all is clasped by Love
Who would
\nturn back to ignorance and pain?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Then shall the
\nwork of the Night of Ignorance and Death cease. When this unity is
\nestablished and strife is no more, when all is known in its reality
\nand held in the embrace of Love, who, indeed, would care to return to
\nthe rule of ignorance and pain?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Mighty Calmness
\nwithin <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nO Death, I have
\ntriumphed over thee within;
I quiver no more with the assault of
\ngrief;
A mighty calmness seated deep within
Has occupied my
\nbody and my sense:
It takes the world\u2019s grief and transmutes to
\nstrength,
It makes the world\u2019s joy one with the joy of God.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"O Death,
\nwithin myself I have conquered thee. I no longer shake when grief
\nattacks me. A great calm seated deep in me fills my body and my
\nsenses. This calm takes up the grief of the world and changes it into
\nstrength. Calm is the alchemist. It makes the joy of the world one
\nwith the joy of God. Calm is the uniter.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Love throned on
\nGod’s Calm <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nMy love eternal sits
\nthroned on God\u2019s calm;
For Love must soar beyond the very
\nheavens
And find its secret sense ineffable;
It must change
\nits human ways to ways divine,
Yet keep its sovereignty of
\nearthly bliss.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"My eternal
\nlove is seated on the imperturbable calm of God. Love must reach
\nbeyond even the heavens and discover its hidden inexpressible
\nmeaning. Only so can it transmute human ways into divine ways and yet
\nmaintain its supremacy of bliss in the world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
For his work and
\nMine <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nO Death, not for my
\nheart\u2019s sweet poignancy
Nor for my happy body\u2019s bliss alone
\n
I have claimed from thee the living Satyavan,
But for his
\nwork and mine, our sacred charge.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"O Death, I
\nclaim Satyavan back to life not for my own heart’s sweet longing nor
\nfor my happy body’s joy only. I want back the living Satyavan for the
\nwork he and I have got to do, the work which is the sacred mission of
\nour lives.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Our lives God’s
\nMessengers <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOur lives are God\u2019s
\nmessengers beneath the stars;
To dwell under death\u2019s shadow
\nthey have come
Tempting God\u2019s light to earth for the ignorant
\nrace,
His Love to fill the hollow in men\u2019s hearts,
His
\nbliss to heal the unhappiness of the world.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"We are truly
\nthe messengers of God on earth. We have come down to live under the
\nshadow of death, drawing to earth God’s light to awaken this ignorant
\nrace, God’s Love to fill the empty human hearts, God’s bliss to heal
\nthe unhappiness of the world.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
My will is
\nGreater <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nFor I the Woman am
\nthe force of God,
He the Eternal\u2019s delegate sole in man.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nMy will is greater
\nthan thy law, O Death;
My love is stronger than the bonds of
\nFate:
Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nI guard that seal
\nagainst thy rending hands.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Know that I as
\nthe representative woman am the force of God and he as the
\nrepresentative man is the delegated soul of the Eternal. O Death, my
\nwill is greater than thy law, my love stronger than the bonds of
\nFate. Our love is the celestial seal of the Supreme and I guard it
\nagainst thy hands which seek to break it.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Love is the Link
\nand Lien <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nLove must not cease
\nto live upon the earth;
For Love is the bright link twixt earth
\nand heaven,
Love is the far Transcendent\u2019s angel here;
Love
\nis man\u2019s lien on the Absolute.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Love must not
\ncease to live upon the earth, for Love is the radiant link between
\nearth and heaven. Love is the angel messenger on earth of the distant
\nTranscendent above. Indeed, Love is a guarantee of man’s claim on the
\nAbsolute; it is an acknowledgment of the debt of God to man who is
\nstruggling here on earth to fulfil His Intention."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Raiment from
\nIdeal’s Gossamer Air <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut to the woman
\nDeath the god replied,
With the ironic laughter of his voice
\n
Discouraging the labour of the stars:
\u201cEven so men cheat
\nthe Truth with splendid thoughts.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThus wilt thou hire
\nthe glorious charlatan Mind,
To weave from his Ideal\u2019s gossamer
\nair
A fine raiment for thy body\u2019s nude desires
And thy
\nheart\u2019s clutching greedy passion clothe?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Death replies
\nwith the ironic laughter which discourages the ceaseless labour of
\nHeaven.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nThis is how men
\ndeceive themselves and falsify the truth with splendid thoughts. Thus
\nwilt thou get the bright deceitful Mind to weave from out of the
\nflimsy air of its Ideal a fine raiment to cover the nude desires of
\nthy body and to clothe the greedy and clutching passion of thy heart?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Thy Soul a
\nProduct of Flesh <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDaub not the web of
\nlife with magic hues:
Make rather thy thought a plain and
\nfaithful glass
Reflecting Matter and mortality,
And know thy
\nsoul a product of the flesh,
A made-up self in a constructed
\nworld. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDo not colour the
\nweb of life with such magical hues. Make thy thought a clear simple
\nglass reflecting Matter and mortality as they actually are and know
\nthat thy soul is only a product of the flesh, a fabricated self in a
\nconstructed world. It is not some immortal being from elsewhere as
\nthou thinkest.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Man a Two-Legged
\nWorm <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThy words are large
\nmurmurs in a mystic dream.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nFor how in the
\nsoiled heart of man could dwell
The inarticulate grandeur of thy
\ndream-built God,
Or who can see a face and form divine
In the
\nnaked two-legged worm thou callest man?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Thy words are
\nmere murmurings in a mystic dream. How can the mute grandeur of thy
\nGod created in thy dreams live in the soiled heart of man? Who can
\nsee a divine face and form in the naked two-legged worm of a creature
\nthou callest man?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Put off the
\nMasks <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nO human face, put
\noff mind-painted masks:
The animal be, the worm that Nature
\nmeant;
Accept thy futile birth, thy narrow life.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nFor truth is bare
\nlike stone and hard like death;
Bare in the bareness, hard with
\ntruth\u2019s hardness live.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"O human face,
\ndo away with these masks painted by thy mind. Be the simple animal,
\nthe worm that Nature meant thee to be. Accept the fact of thy futile
\nbirth, thy narrow life. Truth is bare like the stone and hard like
\ndeath. Live thou bare in that bareness, hard with the hardness of the
\ntruth."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Man shall
\nTranscend <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replied
\nto the dire God:
\u201cYes, I am human. Yet shall man by me,
Since
\nin humanity waits his hour the God,
Trample thee down to reach
\nthe immortal heights,
Transcending grief and pain and fate and
\ndeath. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSavitri replies to
\nthe God of Death:"Yes, indeed, I am human. Still, since God
\nbides his time to manifest himself in humanity, by me shall man put
\nthee down and reach the immortal heights of the Spirit, transcending
\nthe grief, pain, fate and death that infest his world at present.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
He Dwells in me <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nYes, my humanity is
\na mask of God:
He dwells in me, the mover of my acts,
Turning
\nthe great wheel of his cosmic work.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nI am the living body
\nof his light,
I am the thinking instrument of his power,
I
\nincarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast,
I am his conquering and
\nunslayable Will.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"True, my human
\nform is a mask, but it is a mask of God. God dwells in me, he moves
\nme to action turning through me the great wheel of his cosmic work.
\nOf his light I am the living body; of his power I am the thinking
\ninstrument; his wisdom I embody in art earthly breast; his conquering
\nand unslayable Will I am.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Nameless and
\nName <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe formless Spirit
\ndrew in me its shape;
In me are the Nameless and the secret
\nName.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The Spirit
\nthat is formless has taken form in me. Both the Nameless Real and the
\nsecret Name’ of That are in me."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
An Imagination <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath from the
\nincredulous Darkness sent its cry:
\u201cO priestess in
\nImagination\u2019s house,
Persuade first Nature\u2019s fixed immutable
\nlaws
And make the impossible thy daily work.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHow canst thou force
\nto wed two eternal foes?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath cries out from
\nits unbelieving Darkness:"Thou imaginest hugely. First get thou
\nthe consent of the immutable laws of Nature and make it thy daily
\ntask to do what is impossible. How canst thou compel two eternal
\nenemies to unite?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Who has Forged
\nthe Universe? <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIrreconcilable in
\ntheir embrace
They cancel the glory of their pure extremes:
An
\nunhappy wedlock maims their stunted force.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHow shall thy will
\nmake one the true and false?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nWhere Matter is all,
\nthere Spirit is a dream:
If all are the Spirit, Matter is a lie,
\n
And who was the liar who forged the universe?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe two eternal foes
\n\u2014 Matter and Spirit \u2014 are irreconcilable; when they are forced to
\nembrace each other, the glory of each in its pure extreme is denied;
\nan unhappy marriage cripples their stunted force. How indeed can thy
\nwill bring together the true and the false and make them one? Where
\nMatter is all, there the Spirit is not, the Spirit is only a dream;
\nand where all is the Spirit, there Matter is not, Matter is a lie.
\nAnd who, in the first place, was the cheat who forged the universe,
\nwho has erected this semblance of a universe where none really
\nexists?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Real cannot Mate
\nwith the Unreal <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe Real with the
\nunreal cannot mate.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHe who would turn to
\nGod must leave the world;
He who would live in the Spirit, must
\ngive up life;
He who has met the Self, renounces self.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The Real
\ncannot live with the unreal. If one wants God, he must forsake the
\nworld. If one wants to live in the Spirit, he must abandon life. He
\nwho has realised the one Self of all gives up his small individual
\nself.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Extinction sole
\nHarbour <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe voyagers of the
\nmillion routes of mind
Who have travelled through Existence to
\nits end,
Sages exploring the world-ocean\u2019s vasts,
Have
\nfound extinction the sole harbour safe.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nTwo only are the
\ndoors of man\u2019s escape,
Death of his body Matter\u2019s gate to
\npeace,
Death of his soul his last felicity.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn me all take
\nrefuge, for I, Death, am God.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"The travellers
\non the myriad roads of the mind who have traversed this Existence to
\nits end, the sages who have explored the vasts of this world-ocean,
\nhave at last found that extinction is the only safe harbour. And for
\nman’s escape there are only two doors: death of his body which brings
\npeace to Matter and death of his soul which is his final beatitude.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nUltimately all take
\nrefuge in me, for I, Death, am God."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
My Heart alone
\nwith God <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replied
\nto mighty Death:
\u201cMy heart is wiser than the Reason\u2019s
\nthoughts,
My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIt sees and feels
\nthe one Heart beat in all,
It feels the high Transcendent\u2019s
\nsunlike hands,
It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work;
In the
\ndim Night it lies alone with God.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri
\nanswers:"My heart knows more than Reason does, O Death. My heart
\nis stronger than thy bonds. My heart beats with the one Heart in all.
\nIt feels the bright warm hands of the Transcendent above, it sees the
\nCosmic Spirit at work around, and in the dim Night it rests alone
\nwith God.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
My Heart’s
\nStrength <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nMy heart\u2019s
\nstrength can carry the grief of the universe
And never falter
\nfrom its luminous track,
Its white tremendous orbit through God\u2019s
\npeace. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIt can drink up the
\nsea of All-Delight
And never lose the white spiritual touch,
The
\ncalm that broods in the deep Infinite.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"My heart is
\nstrong enough to carry the grief of the whole universe and yet never
\nfalter under that load from its chosen luminous track, from its pure
\nvast orbit of God’s peace. It can drink up the sea of universal
\nDelight and yet not ever lose its own pure spiritual quality, the
\nCalm that broods in the bosom of the Infinite."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Show me thy
\nStrength <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHe said, \u201cArt thou
\nindeed so strong, O heart,
O soul, so free? And canst thou gather
\nthen
Bright pleasure from my wayside flowering boughs,
Yet
\nfalter not from thy hard journey\u2019s goal,
Meet the world\u2019s
\ndangerous touch and never fall?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nShow me thy strength
\nand freedom from my laws.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath speaks: "Art
\nthou so strong, O heart, art thou so free, O soul? Canst thou really
\ndraw happiness and enjoyment from the luxuriance of flowering nature
\nby the wayside and yet not falter from the goal of thy difficult
\njourney of life? Canst thou contact the dangerous touch of the world
\nand yet never fall? If so, show me thy strength, show me thy freedom
\nfrom my laws."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
All is a single
\nPlan <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri
\nanswered, \u201cSurely I shall find
Among the green and whispering
\nwoods of Life
Close-bosomed pleasures, only mine since his,
Or
\nmine for him, because our joys are one.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAnd if I linger,
\nTime is ours and God\u2019s,
And if I fall, is not his hand near
\nmine? <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll is a single
\nplan; each wayside act
Deepens the soul\u2019s response, brings
\nnearer the goal.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSavitri replies:
\n"Surely I shall find dearly loved pleasures among the fresh and
\nvibrant woods of life. They are mine because they are his
\n(Satyavan’s); they are his because they are mine; our joys are one.
\nWhat does it matter if I linger on the way? Time is ours and God’s \u2014
\nit is endless; even if I fall, Satyavan’s hand is in mine and all is
\nwell.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nAll indeed is one
\nplan. Each casual act serves only to deepen the response of the soul
\nto life’s experience, brings it nearer the goal. Nothing is lost."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Choose Earthly
\nJoy <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath the
\ncontemptuous Nihil answered her:
\u201cSo prove thy absolute force
\nto the wise gods,
By choosing earthly joy! For self demand
And
\nyet from self and its gross masks live free.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen will I give
\nthee all thy soul desires,
All the brief joys earth keeps for
\nmortal hearts.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOnly the one dearest
\nwish that outweighs all,
Hard laws forbid and thy ironic Fate.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nMy will once wrought
\nremains unchanged through Time,
And Satyavan can never again be
\nthine.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath, the scornful
\nNihil, answers: "If so, prove to the knowing gods thy supreme
\nforce by experiencing the joys of the earth. Ask what thou desirest
\nand at the same time be free from thy desire self and its
\ndeformations. Then will I give thee all that thou desirest, all the
\ntransient joys that the earth possesses for attracting mortal hearts.
\nBut the hard laws and thy own ironic Fate forbid the granting of the
\none wish that is dearest to thee and outweighs all thy other wishes.
\nOnce exerted, my will remains unchanged for ever: Satyavan can never
\nagain return to thee."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
I claim Satyavan
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replied
\nto the vague Power:
\u201cIf the eyes of Darkness can look straight
\nat Truth,
Look at my heart and, knowing what I am,
Give what
\nthou wilt or what thou must, O Death.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nNothing I claim but
\nSatyavan alone.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSavitri answers to
\nthe shadowy Power: "If at all Darkness can gaze directly at
\nTruth, then look at my heart, know what I am, know the Truth that I
\nembody, and then give what thou wilt or what thou must. I myself
\nclaim only one thing and that is Satyavan."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
I Give what
\nSatyavan Desired <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThere was a hush as
\nif of doubtful fates.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAs one disdainful
\nstill who yields a point,
Death bowed his sovereign head in cold
\nassent:
\u201cI give to thee, saved from death and poignant fate
\n
Whatever once the living Satyavan
Desired in his heart for
\nSavitri. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThere is a hush as
\nthough fates doubtful of what is to be done are hesitating. Like one
\nwho is contemptuous and yet yields a point, Death bows his imperious
\nhead in cold assent and speaks. "Reclaimed from death and
\npainful fate, I give to thee what Satyavan, when he lived, keenly
\ndesired for Savitri.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Daughters and
\nfair Hero Sons <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBright noons I give
\nthee and unwounded dawns,
Daughters of thy own shape in heart and
\nmind,
Fair hero sons and sweetness undisturbed
Of union with
\nthy husband dear and true.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAnd thou shalt
\nharvest in thy joyful house
Felicity of thy surrounded eves.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"I give thee
\nbright noons and happy dawns. I give thee daughters of thy own kind,
\nfair valiant sons and the unbroken sweetness of union with thy
\nhusband, dear and true. In thy joyful house thou shalt have the
\nfelicity of passing thy days surrounded by thy beloved ones.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Two Poles of
\nBliss made One <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nLove shall bind by
\nthee many gathered hearts.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe opposite
\nsweetness in thy days shall meet
Of tender service to thy life\u2019s
\ndesired
And loving empire over all thy loved,
Two poles of
\nbliss made one, O Savitri.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nReturn, O child, to
\nthy forsaken earth.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Thou wilt be
\nthe instrument with which Love shall bind all the many hearts that
\nshall gather together around thee. The bliss of tender service to
\nthose whom thou desirest to live with thee and who need thy help, and
\nthe bliss of loving rule over all whom thou lovest shall meet in
\nthee, O Savitri.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nNow, O child, return
\nto the earth which feels forsaken because thou art not there."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Savitri Refuses
\nGifts <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replied,
\n\u201cThy gifts resist.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nEarth cannot flower
\nif lonely I return.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri answers:
\n"Stop thy gifts. If I were to return alone, without Satyavan,
\nEarth cannot bloom."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Grief Dies soon <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen Death once more
\nsent forth his angry cry,
As chides a lion his escaping prey:
\n
\u201cWhat knowst thou of earth\u2019s rich and changing life
Who
\nthinkst that, one man dead, all joy must cease?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nHope not to be
\nunhappy till the end:
For grief dies soon in the tired human
\nheart;
Soon other guests the empty chambers fill.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen, once again
\nDeath cries out angrily, like a lion rebuking his escaping quarry:<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n"What dost thou
\nknow of the rich and changing life of earth who imaginest that if one
\nman dies all joy on earth will cease? Do not think thou wilt be
\nunhappy till the end of thy life simply because Satyavan is dead.
\nGrief passes away pretty soon from the tired human heart and the
\nempty room is soon filled by other arrivals.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
A Moment’s
\nBeauty <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nTransient painting
\non a holiday\u2019s floor
Traced for a moment\u2019s beauty love was
\nmade. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOr if a voyager on
\nthe eternal trail,
Its objects fluent change in its embrace
Like
\nwaves to a swimmer upon infinite seas.\u201d
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nLove is the beauty
\nof a moment painted temporarily for enjoyment on a holiday. Or if
\nlove be a traveller on the eternal Course, the objects of its embrace
\ngo on changing as the waves on the infinite seas change for a
\nswimmer."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Give back
\nSatyavan <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replied
\nto the vague God,
\u201cGive me back Satyavan, my only Lord.
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThy thoughts are
\nvacant to my soul that feels
The deep eternal truth in transient
\nthings.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSavitri answers the
\nindeterminate god: "Satyavan is my only Lord; nobody can take
\nhis place; give me back Satyavan. Thy thoughts are meaningless to my
\nsoul which perceives and feels the deep eternal truth that lives even
\nin things that are transient."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Who can Dwell
\nAlone? <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath answered her,
\n\u201cReturn and try thy soul!
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSoon shalt thou find
\nappeased that other men
On lavish earth have beauty, strength and
\ntruth,
And when thou hast half forgotten, one of these
Shall
\nwind himself around thy heart that needs
Some human answering
\nheart against thy breast;
For who, being mortal, can dwell glad
\nalone? <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath
\nreplies:"Return to earth and see what thy soul does. Very soon
\nthou shalt notice that there are other men on the bountiful earth,
\nmen of beauty, strength and truth, and thou wilt be appeased. When
\nthou wilt have half-forgotten this episode of Satyavan, thou wilt
\nfind that one of these men will attach himself to thy heart. For,
\nbeing human, thy heart will certainly need another heart to answer
\nits call. Who, in this mortal world, can live alone and yet be happy?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Satyavan shall
\nGlide away <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen Satyavan shall
\nglide into the past,
A gentle memory pushed away from thee
By
\nnew love and thy children\u2019s tender hands,
Till thou shalt
\nwonder if thou lov\u2019dst at all.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSuch is the life
\nearth\u2019s travail has conceived,
A constant stream that never is
\nthe same.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"Then
\nSatyavan’s memory will slip away into the past. A new love and the
\nloving hearts of thy children will push away all traces of that
\ngentle memory. And thou wilt wonder if thou hadst loved at all
\nbefore.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\nSuch is the life
\nconceived by earth in its labour; it is a flowing stream that changes
\nfrom moment to moment."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Thou Mockst <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replied
\nto mighty Death:
\u201cO dark ironic critic of God\u2019s work,
Thou
\nmockst the mind and body\u2019s faltering search
For what the heart
\nholds in a prophet hour
And the immortal spirit shall make its
\nown. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut Savitri replies
\nto Death: "O dark sarcastic critic of the work of God, thou dost
\nmock at the fumbling, slow search of the mind and the body for what
\nthe heart is certain of achieving at a destined moment and what the
\nimmortal spirit shall one day make its own.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
I have Burned in
\nFlame <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nMine is a heart that
\nworshipped, though forsaken,
The image of the god its love
\nadored;
I have burned in flame to travel in his steps.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAre we not they who
\nbore vast solitude
Seated upon the hills alone with God?
\n <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"My heart has
\nalways worshipped, though it was forsaken, the figure of the god it
\nloved. I have indeed burned in the flame of that love to follow in
\nhis footsteps. Have not he and I shared the vast solitude on the
\nhill-tops alone with God?<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Stars Burn with
\nmy Fire <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nWhy dost thou vainly
\nstrive with me, O Death,
A mind delivered from all twilight
\nthoughts,
To whom the secrets of the gods are plain?
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nFor now at last I
\nknow beyond all doubt,
The great stars burn with my unceasing
\nfire
And life and death are both its fuel made.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"My mind is
\nfree from all uncertainties; the secrets of the gods are open to it.
\nWhy dost thou strive with such as me? I now know for certain that the
\ngreat stars in the skies burn with my ceaseless fire and of that fire
\nlife and death are the fuel.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Eternal
\nBridegroom and Eternal Bride <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nLife only was my
\nblind attempt to love:
Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory;
\n
All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss
Casting
\ntheir veils before the marriage fire
The eternal bridegroom and
\neternal bride.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe heavens accept
\nour broken flights at last.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOn our life\u2019s prow
\nthat breaks the waves of Time
No signal light of hope has gleamed
\nin vain.\u201d <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\n"My life was
\nmerely my blind attempt to love. Earth has seen my struggle, heaven
\nhas seen my victory. All difficulties and obstructions shall be
\novercome. The eternal bridegroom and the eternal bride, Satyavan and
\nI shall be eternally united. The high heavens at last accept our
\nflights, however incomplete they be. The hopes that have lit our life
\nhave rot proved to be false."<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Shudder in
\nSecret Ecstasy <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nShe spoke; the
\nboundless members of the god
As if by secret ecstasy assailed
\n
Shuddered in silence as obscurely stir
Ocean\u2019s dim fields
\ndelivered to the moon.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThen lifted up as by
\na sudden wind
Around her in that vague and glimmering world
The
\ntwilight trembled like a bursting veil.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAs Savitri speaks,
\nthe boundless limbs of the god of Death tremble, as if overcome by a
\nsecret ecstasy, even as the waters of the ocean heave in the presence
\nof the moon. Then the twilight around her, in that dim and glimmering
\nworld, is lifted up as though by a sudden waft of wind and trembles
\nlike a veil that is parting.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Great opponents
\nStrive <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThus with armed
\nspeech the great opponents strove.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAround those spirits
\nin the glittering mist
A deepening half-light fled with pearly
\nwings
As if to reach some far ideal Morn.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThus do the two
\ngreat antagonists \u2014 Savitri and Death \u2014 strive against each other
\nwith potent speech as their weapons. Around them is a sparkling mist.
\nA deepening half-light speeds away as if to reach some far-off ideal
\nMorning.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Through the
\nGleaming Haze <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOutlined her
\nthoughts flew through the gleaming haze
Mingling bright-pinioned
\nwith its lights and veils
And all her words like dazzling jewels
\ncaught
Into the glow of a mysterious world
Or tricked in the
\nrainbow shifting of its hues
Like echoes swam fainting into far
\nsound. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nSavitri’s thoughts,
\nin their clear outlines, fly through that shining haze in the air,
\nmingling with its lights and veils; her words, like dazzling jewels,
\nare caught into the glow of that mysterious realm, or are lured into
\nthe changing hues of the rainbow and fade off into distant echoes.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Gossamer robe of
\nUtterance <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll utterance, all
\nmood must there become
An unenduring tissue sewn by mind
To
\nmake a gossamer robe of beautiful change.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIn this realm, it
\nlooks as if all speech, all mood must needs be woven by the mind into
\na fragile tissue to construct a flimsy robe of charming change.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Vague unreal
\nPlains <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nIntent upon her
\nsilent will she walked
On the dim grass of vague unreal plains,
\n
A floating veil of visions in her front,
A trailing robe of
\ndreams behind her feet.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nConcentrated upon
\nher silent will, Savitri walks on the dim grass of these hazy,
\nnone-too-real plains; in front of her is a floating veil of visions;
\nbehind her is a trailing robe of dreams. All is vague and shifting.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Thoughts called
\nback from Speech <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut now her spirit\u2019s
\nflame of conscient force
Retiring from a sweetness without fruit
\n
Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within
In a deep
\nroom in meditation\u2019s house.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nBut now the flaming
\nforce of her consciousness withdrawing from the prevailing sweetness
\n\u2014 without issue \u2014 around, silences her thoughts and gathers them
\nin the depths of her meditative being.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Soul’s firm
\nTruth <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nFor only there could
\ndwell the soul\u2019s firm truth:
Imperishable, a tongue of
\nsacrifice,
It flamed unquenched upon the central hearth
Where
\nburns for the high house-lord and his mate
The homestead\u2019s
\nsentinel and witness fire
From which the altars of the gods are
\nlit. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nFor only in that
\ndeep chamber of the being can the unshakable truth of the soul dwell.
\nLike a tongue of sacrifice, undying, it flames up upon that central
\nhearth where burns for ever the homestead fire serving as sentinel
\nand witness for the lord of the house and his mate. It is from this
\nfire that altars are lit for the gods who are invoked.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Order Reversed <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAll still compelled
\nwent gliding on unchanged,
Still was the order of these worlds
\nreversed:
The mortal led, the god and spirit obeyed
And she
\nbehind was leader of their march
And they in front were followers
\nof her will.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nThe three continue
\nto glide on as though compelled. But the order of going is reversed.
\nInstead of god leading and man following, here the mortal leads and
\nthe god and the spirit (of Satyavan) follow. Instead of the leader of
\nthe march being in front, Savitri who is behind is the leader and the
\ntwo who are in front obey her will.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Onward they
\nJourneyed <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOnward they
\njourneyed through the drifting ways
Vaguely companioned by the
\nglimmering mists;
But faster now all fled as if perturbed
\n
Escaping from the clearness of her soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nA heaven bird upon
\njewelled wings of wind
Borne like a coloured and embosomed fire,
\n
By spirits carried in a pearl-hued cave,
On through the
\nenchanted dimness moved her soul.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nOnward they journey
\nthrough drifting paths and vague gleaming mists. But now everything
\nseems to move faster as if agitated, hastening to escape from the
\nclear light of Savitri’s soul. Her soul moves on through that
\nenchanted dim realm, a celestial bird upon the jewelled wings of the
\nwind borne like a variegated and striking flame carried by spirits in
\na cave of pearly hue.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n
Unseen balance
\nof Fate <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath walked in
\nfront of her and Satyavan,
In the dark front of death, a failing
\nstar. <\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nAbove was the unseen
\nbalance of his fate.
\n<\/FONT><\/FONT>
\n<\/P>
\n

\nDeath walks in front
\nof Savitri and Satyavan who is like a failing star before the dark
\nface of Death. Above theia hangs the unseen balance of Satyavan’s
\nfate still to be decided.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/P>
\n

\n

\n<\/P><\/p>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\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 Ten. The Book of the Double Twilight Canto I Canto…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-10-savitri-study","wpcat-240-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897","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=10897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11129,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897\/revisions\/11129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}