{"id":2446,"date":"2013-07-13T01:41:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2446"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:41:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:40","slug":"27-canto-three-the-call-to-the-quest-vol-33-34-savitri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/33-34-savitri\/27-canto-three-the-call-to-the-quest-vol-33-34-savitri","title":{"rendered":"-27_Canto Three – The Call to the Quest.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n<\/p>\n

\nCanto Three <\/font><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Call to the Quest<\/font><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/font>  <\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/font> A<\/font> MORN<\/font><\/b> that seemed a new creation’s front,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBringing a greater sunlight, happier skies,<\/p>\n

Came burdened with a beauty moved and strange<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of the changeless origin of things.<\/p>\n

An ancient longing struck again new roots:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe air drank deep of unfulfilled desire;<\/p>\n

The high trees trembled with a wandering wind<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLike souls that quiver at the approach of joy,<\/p>\n

And in a bosom of green secrecy<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor ever of its one love-note untired<\/p>\n

A lyric coil cried among the leaves.<\/p>\n

Away from the terrestrial murmur turned<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhere transient calls and answers mix their flood,<\/p>\n

King Aswapati listened through the ray<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo other sounds than meet the sense-formed ear.<\/p>\n

On a subtle interspace which rings our life,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnlocked were the inner spirit’s trance-closed doors:<\/p>\n

The inaudible strain in Nature could be caught;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAcross this cyclic tramp of eager lives,<\/p>\n

Across the deep urgency of present cares,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEarth’s wordless hymn to the Ineffable<\/p>\n

Arose from the silent heart of the cosmic Void;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe heard the voice repressed of unborn Powers<\/p>\n

Murmuring behind the luminous bars of Time.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAgain the mighty yearning raised its flame<\/p>\n

That asks a perfect life on earth for men<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd prays for certainty in the uncertain mind<\/p>\n

And shadowless bliss for suffering human hearts<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd Truth embodied in an ignorant world<\/p>\n

And godhead divinising mortal forms.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA word that leaped from some far sky of thought,<\/p>\n

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Admitted by the cowled receiving scribe<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTraversed the echoing passages of his brain<\/p>\n

And left its stamp on the recording cells.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“O Force-compelled, Fate-driven earth-born race,<\/p>\n

O petty adventurers in an infinite world<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd prisoners of a dwarf humanity,<\/p>\n

How long will you tread the circling tracks of mind<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAround your little self and petty things?<\/p>\n

But not for a changeless littleness were you meant,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot for vain repetition were you built;<\/p>\n

Out of the Immortal’s substance you were made;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYour actions can be swift revealing steps,<\/p>\n

Your life a changeful mould for growing gods.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA Seer, a strong Creator, is within,<\/p>\n

The immaculate Grandeur broods upon your days,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlmighty powers are shut in Nature’s cells.<\/p>\n

A greater destiny waits you in your front:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis transient earthly being if he wills<\/p>\n

Can fit his acts to a transcendent scheme.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe who now stares at the world with ignorant eyes<\/p>\n

Hardly from the Inconscient’s night aroused,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat look at images and not at Truth,<\/p>\n

Can fill those orbs with an immortal’s sight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet shall the godhead grow within your hearts,<\/p>\n

You shall awake into the spirit’s air<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd feel the breaking walls of mortal mind<\/p>\n

And hear the message which left life’s heart dumb<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd look through Nature with sun-gazing lids<\/p>\n

And blow your conch-shells at the Eternal’s gate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAuthors of earth’s high change, to you it is given<\/p>\n

To cross the dangerous spaces of the soul<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd touch the mighty Mother stark awake<\/p>\n

And meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd make of life the million-bodied One.<\/p>\n

The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe life you lead conceals the light you are.<\/p>\n

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Immortal Powers sweep flaming past your doors;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar-off upon your tops the god-chant sounds<\/p>\n

While to exceed yourselves thought’s trumpets call,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeard by a few, but fewer dare aspire,<\/p>\n

The nympholepts of the ecstasy and the blaze.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn epic of hope and failure breaks earth’s heart;<\/p>\n

Her force and will exceed her form and fate.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA goddess in a net of transience caught,<\/p>\n

Self-bound in the pastures of death she dreams of life,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSelf-racked with the pains of hell aspires to joy,<\/p>\n

And builds to hope her altars of despair,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKnows that one high step might enfranchise all<\/p>\n

And, suffering, looks for greatness in her sons.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut dim in human hearts the ascending fire,<\/p>\n

The invisible Grandeur sits unworshipped there;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMan sees the Highest in a limiting form<\/p>\n

Or looks upon a Person, hears a Name.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe turns for little gains to ignorant Powers<\/p>\n

Or kindles his altar lights to a demon face.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe loves the Ignorance fathering his pain.<\/p>\n

A spell is laid upon his glorious strengths;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe has lost the inner Voice that led his thoughts,<\/p>\n

And masking the oracular tripod seat<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA specious Idol fills the marvel shrine.<\/p>\n

The great Illusion wraps him in its veils,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe soul’s deep intimations come in vain,<\/p>\n

In vain is the unending line of seers,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe sages ponder in unsubstantial light,<\/p>\n

The poets lend their voice to outward dreams,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA homeless fire inspires the prophet tongues.<\/p>\n

Heaven’s flaming lights descend and back return,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe luminous Eye approaches and retires;<\/p>\n

Eternity speaks, none understands its word;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFate is unwilling and the Abyss denies;<\/p>\n

The Inconscient’s mindless waters block all done.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly a little lifted is Mind’s screen;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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The Wise who know see but one half of Truth,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height,<\/p>\n

The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis tale half told, falters the secret Bard;<\/p>\n

The gods are still too few in mortal forms.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe Voice withdrew into its hidden skies.<\/p>\n

But like a shining answer from the gods<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tApproached through sun-bright spaces Savitri.<\/p>\n

Advancing amid tall heaven-pillaring trees,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tApparelled in her flickering-coloured robe<\/p>\n

She seemed, burning towards the eternal realms,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA bright moved torch of incense and of flame<\/p>\n

That from the sky-roofed temple-soil of earth<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA pilgrim hand lifts in an invisible shrine.<\/p>\n

There came the gift of a revealing hour:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe saw through depths that reinterpret all,<\/p>\n

Limited not now by the dull body’s eyes,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNew-found through an arch of clear discovery,<\/p>\n

This intimation of the world’s delight,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis wonder of the divine Artist’s make<\/p>\n

Carved like a nectar-cup for thirsty gods,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis breathing Scripture of the Eternal’s joy,<\/p>\n

This net of sweetness woven of aureate fire.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTransformed the delicate image-face became<\/p>\n

A deeper Nature’s self-revealing sign,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA gold-leaf palimpsest of sacred births,<\/p>\n

A grave world-symbol chiselled out of life.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHer brow, a copy of clear unstained heavens,<\/p>\n

Was meditation’s pedestal and defence,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe very room and smile of musing Space,<\/p>\n

Its brooding line infinity’s symbol curve.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAmid her tresses’ cloudy multitude<\/p>\n

Her long eyes shadowed as by wings of Night<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnder that moon-gold forehead’s dreaming breadth<\/p>\n

Were seas of love and thought that held the world;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMarvelling at life and earth they saw truths far.<\/p>\n

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A deathless meaning filled her mortal limbs;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs in a golden vase’s poignant line<\/p>\n

They seemed to carry the rhythmic sob of bliss<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOf earth’s mute adoration towards heaven<\/p>\n

Released in beauty’s cry of living form<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTowards the perfection of eternal things.<\/p>\n

Transparent grown the ephemeral living dress<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBared the expressive deity to his view.<\/p>\n

Escaped from surface sight and mortal sense<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe seizing harmony of its shapes became<\/p>\n

The strange significant icon of a Power<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRenewing its inscrutable descent<\/p>\n

Into a human figure of its works<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat stood out in life’s bold abrupt relief<\/p>\n

On the soil of the evolving universe,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA godhead sculptured on a wall of thought,<\/p>\n

Mirrored in the flowing hours and dimly shrined<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn Matter as in a cathedral cave.<\/p>\n

Annulled were the transient values of the mind,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe body’s sense renounced its earthly look;<\/p>\n

Immortal met immortal in their gaze.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAwaked from the close spell of daily use<\/p>\n

That hides soul-truth with the outward form’s disguise,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe saw through the familiar cherished limbs<\/p>\n

The great and unknown spirit born his child.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn impromptu from the deeper sight within,<\/p>\n

Thoughts rose in him that knew not their own scope.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen to those large and brooding depths whence Love<\/p>\n

Regarded him across the straits of mind,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe spoke in sentences from the unseen Heights.<\/p>\n

For the hidden prompters of our speech sometimes<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCan use the formulas of a moment’s mood<\/p>\n

To weigh unconscious lips with words from Fate:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA casual passing phrase can change our life.<\/p>\n

“O spirit, traveller of eternity,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho cam’st from the immortal spaces here<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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Armed for the splendid hazard of thy life<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo set thy conquering foot on Chance and Time,<\/p>\n

The moon shut in her halo dreams like thee.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA mighty Presence still defends thy frame.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the heavens guard thee for some great soul,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThy fate, thy work are kept somewhere afar.<\/p>\n

Thy spirit came not down a star alone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO living inscription of the beauty of love<\/p>\n

Missalled in aureate virginity,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat message of heavenly strength and bliss in thee<\/p>\n

Is written with the Eternal’s sun-white script,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne shall discover and greaten with it his life<\/p>\n

To whom thou loosenest thy heart’s jewelled strings.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tO rubies of silence, lips from which there stole<\/p>\n

Low laughter, music of tranquillity,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStar-lustrous eyes awake in sweet large night<\/p>\n

And limbs like fine-linked poems made of gold<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStanzaed to glimmering curves by artist gods,<\/p>\n

Depart where love and destiny call your charm.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tVenture through the deep world to find thy mate.<\/p>\n

For somewhere on the longing breast of earth,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown.<\/p>\n

Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThan One who burns within thy bosom’s powers.<\/p>\n

There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe second self for whom thy nature asks,<\/p>\n

He who shall walk until thy body’s end<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace,<\/p>\n

The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWho shall give voice to what in thee is mute.<\/p>\n

Then shall you grow like vibrant kindred harps,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne in the beats of difference and delight,<\/p>\n

Responsive in divine and equal strains,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDiscovering new notes of the eternal theme.<\/p>\n

One force shall be your mover and your guide,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOne light shall be around you and within;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tHand in strong hand confront Heaven’s question, life:<\/p>\n

Challenge the ordeal of the immense disguise.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAscend from Nature to divinity’s heights;<\/p>\n

Face the high gods, crowned with felicity,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen meet a greater god, thy self beyond Time.”<\/p>\n

This word was seed of all the thing to be:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors<\/p>\n

And showed the work for which her strength was born.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs when the mantra sinks in Yoga’s ear,<\/p>\n

Its message enters stirring the blind brain<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd keeps in the dim ignorant cells its sound;<\/p>\n

The hearer understands a form of words<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd, musing on the index thought it holds,<\/p>\n

He strives to read it with the labouring mind,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut finds bright hints, not the embodied truth:<\/p>\n

Then, falling silent in himself to know<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe meets the deeper listening of his soul:<\/p>\n

The Word repeats itself in rhythmic strains:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self<\/p>\n

Are seized unutterably and he endures<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn ecstasy and an immortal change;<\/p>\n

He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll knowledge rushes on him like a sea:<\/p>\n

Transmuted by the white spiritual ray<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe walks in naked heavens of joy and calm,<\/p>\n

Sees the God-face and hears transcendent speech:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn equal greatness in her life was sown.<\/p>\n

Accustomed scenes were now an ended play:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMoving in muse amid familiar powers,<\/p>\n

Touched by new magnitudes and fiery signs,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tShe turned to vastnesses not yet her own;<\/p>\n

Allured her heart throbbed to unknown sweetnesses;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe secrets of an unseen world were close.<\/p>\n

The morn went up into a smiling sky;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCast from its sapphire pinnacle of trance<\/p>\n

Day sank into the burning gold of eve;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n

The moon floated, a luminous waif through heaven<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd sank below the oblivious edge of dream;<\/p>\n

Night lit the watch-fires of eternity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen all went back into mind’s secret caves;<\/p>\n

A darkness stooping on the heaven-bird’s wings<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSealed in her senses from external sight<\/p>\n

And opened the stupendous depths of sleep.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhen the pale dawn slipped through Night’s shadowy guard,<\/p>\n

Vainly the new-born light desired her face;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe palace woke to its own emptiness;<\/p>\n

The sovereign of its daily joys was far;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHer moonbeam feet tinged not the lucent floors:<\/p>\n

The beauty and divinity were gone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDelight had fled to search the spacious world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEND OF<\/font>
\n\t\t\tCANTO<\/font> THREE<\/font><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 <\/font>376<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Canto Three   The Call to the Quest   A MORN that seemed a new creation’s front, Bringing a greater sunlight, happier skies, Came…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-33-34-savitri","wpcat-50-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446","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=2446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}