{"id":2488,"date":"2013-07-13T01:41:57","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2488"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:41:57","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:41:57","slug":"17-canto-twelve-the-heavens-of-the-ideal-vol-33-34-savitri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/33-34-savitri\/17-canto-twelve-the-heavens-of-the-ideal-vol-33-34-savitri","title":{"rendered":"-17_Canto Twelve – The Heavens of the Ideal.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tCanto Twelve <\/font><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe Heavens of the Ideal<\/font><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nA<\/font>LWAYS<\/b> the Ideal beckoned from afar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAwakened by the touch of the Unseen,<\/p>\n

Deserting the boundary of things achieved,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAspired the strong discoverer, tireless Thought,<\/p>\n

Revealing at each step a luminous world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt left known summits for the unknown peaks:<\/p>\n

Impassioned, it sought the lone unrealised Truth,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt longed for the Light that knows not death and birth.<\/p>\n

Each stage of the soul’s remote ascent was built<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInto a constant heaven felt always here.<\/p>\n

At each pace of the journey marvellous<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA new degree of wonder and of bliss,<\/p>\n

A new rung formed in Being’s mighty stair,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA great wide step trembling with jewelled fire<\/p>\n

As if a burning spirit quivered there<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpholding with his flame the immortal hope,<\/p>\n

As if a radiant God had given his soul<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThat he might feel the tread of pilgrim feet<\/p>\n

Mounting in haste to the Eternal’s house.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAt either end of each effulgent stair<\/p>\n

The heavens of the ideal Mind were seen<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn a blue lucency of dreaming Space<\/p>\n

Like strips of brilliant sky clinging to the moon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn one side glimmered hue on floating hue,<\/p>\n

A glory of sunrise breaking on the soul,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn a tremulous rapture of the heart’s insight<\/p>\n

And the spontaneous bliss that beauty gives,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe lovely kingdoms of the deathless Rose.<\/p>\n

Above the spirit cased in mortal sense<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAre superconscious realms of heavenly peace,<\/p>\n

Below, the Inconscient’s sullen dim abyss,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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Between, behind our life, the deathless Rose.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAcross the covert air the spirit breathes,<\/p>\n

A body of the cosmic beauty and joy<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUnseen, unguessed by the blind suffering world,<\/p>\n

Climbing from Nature’s deep surrendered heart<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIt blooms for ever at the feet of God,<\/p>\n

Fed by life’s sacrificial mysteries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHere too its bud is born in human breasts;<\/p>\n

Then by a touch, a presence or a voice<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe world is turned into a temple ground<\/p>\n

And all discloses the unknown Beloved.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn an outburst of heavenly joy and ease<\/p>\n

Life yields to the divinity within<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd gives the rapture-offering of its all,<\/p>\n

And the soul opens to felicity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA bliss is felt that never can wholly cease,<\/p>\n

A sudden mystery of secret Grace<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlowers goldening our earth of red desire.<\/p>\n

All the high gods who hid their visages<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFrom the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes,<\/p>\n

Reveal their names and their undying powers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells,<\/p>\n

A passion of the flesh becoming spirit,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd marvellously is fulfilled at last<\/p>\n

The miracle for which our life was made.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA flame in a white voiceless cupola<\/p>\n

Is seen and faces of immortal light,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe radiant limbs that know not birth and death,<\/p>\n

The breasts that suckle the first-born of the Sun,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe wings that crowd thought’s ardent silences,<\/p>\n

The eyes that look into spiritual Space.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOur hidden centres of celestial force<\/p>\n

Open like flowers to a heavenly atmosphere;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMind pauses thrilled with the supernal Ray,<\/p>\n

And even this transient body then can feel<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIdeal love and flawless happiness<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 2<\/font>78<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\tAnd laughter of the heart’s sweetness and delight<\/p>\n

Freed from the rude and tragic hold of Time,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd beauty and the rhythmic feet of the hours.<\/p>\n

This in high realms touches immortal kind;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhat here is in the bud has blossomed there.<\/p>\n

There is the secrecy of the House of Flame,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe blaze of godlike thought and golden bliss,<\/p>\n

The rapt idealism of heavenly sense;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere are the wonderful voices, the sun-laugh,<\/p>\n

A gurgling eddy in rivers of God’s joy,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine,<\/p>\n

All the fire and sweetness of which hardly here<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA brilliant shadow visits mortal life.<\/p>\n

Although are witnessed there the joys of Time,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPressed on the bosom the Immortal’s touch is felt,<\/p>\n

Heard are the flutings of the Infinite.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHere upon earth are early awakenings,<\/p>\n

Moments that tremble in an air divine,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd grown upon the yearning of her soil<\/p>\n

Time’s sun-flowers’ gaze at gold Eternity:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere are the imperishable beatitudes.<\/p>\n

A million lotuses swaying on one stem,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWorld after coloured and ecstatic world<\/p>\n

Climbs towards some far unseen epiphany.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn the other side of the eternal stairs<\/p>\n

The mighty kingdoms of the deathless Flame<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAspired to reach the Being’s absolutes.<\/p>\n

Out of the sorrow and darkness of the world,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOut of the depths where life and thought are tombed,<\/p>\n

Lonely mounts up to heaven the deathless Flame.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn a veiled Nature’s hallowed secrecies<\/p>\n

It burns for ever on the altar Mind,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIts priests the souls of dedicated gods,<\/p>\n

Humanity its house of sacrifice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnce kindled, never can its flamings cease.<\/p>\n

A fire along the mystic paths of earth,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage \u2013 2<\/font>79<\/font><\/p>\n

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It rises through the mortal’s hemisphere,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTill borne by runners of the Day and Dusk<\/p>\n

It enters the occult eternal Light<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd clambers whitening to the invisible Throne.<\/p>\n

Its worlds are steps of an ascending Force:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA dream of giant contours, titan lines,<\/p>\n

Homes of unfallen and illumined Might,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeavens of unchanging Good pure and unborn,<\/p>\n

Heights of the grandeur of Truth’s ageless ray,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAs in a symbol sky they start to view<\/p>\n

And call our souls into a vaster air.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn their summits they bear up the sleepless Flame;<\/p>\n

Dreaming of a mysterious Beyond,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTranscendent of the paths of Fate and Time,<\/p>\n

They point above themselves with index peaks<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThrough a pale-sapphire ether of god-mind<\/p>\n

Towards some gold Infinite’s apocalypse.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA thunder rolling mid the hills of God,<\/p>\n

Tireless, severe is their tremendous Voice:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tExceeding us, to exceed ourselves they call<\/p>\n

And bid us rise incessantly above.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar from our eager reach those summits live,<\/p>\n

Too lofty for our mortal strength and height,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHardly in a dire ecstasy of toil<\/p>\n

Climbed by the spirit’s naked athlete will.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAustere, intolerant they claim from us<\/p>\n

Efforts too lasting for our mortal nerve<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOur hearts cannot cleave to nor our flesh support;<\/p>\n

Only the Eternal’s strength in us can dare<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo attempt the immense adventure of that climb<\/p>\n

And the sacrifice of all we cherish here.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOur human knowledge is a candle burnt<\/p>\n

On a dim altar to a sun-vast Truth;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMan’s virtue, a coarse-spun ill-fitting dress,<\/p>\n

Apparels wooden images of Good;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPassionate and blinded, bleeding, stained with mire<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n

His energy stumbles towards a deathless Force.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAn imperfection dogs our highest strength;<\/p>\n

Portions and pale reflections are our share.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHappy the worlds that have not felt our fall,<\/p>\n

Where Will is one with Truth and Good with Power;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tImpoverished not by earth-mind’s indigence,<\/p>\n

They keep God’s natural breath of mightiness,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHis bare spontaneous swift intensities;<\/p>\n

There is his great transparent mirror, Self,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd there his sovereign autarchy of bliss<\/p>\n

In which immortal natures have their part,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHeirs and cosharers of divinity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHe through the Ideal’s kingdoms moved at will,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAccepted their beauty and their greatness bore,<\/p>\n

Partook of the glories of their wonder fields,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut passed nor stayed beneath their splendour’s rule.<\/p>\n

All there was an intense but partial light.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIn each a seraph-winged high-browed Idea<\/p>\n

United all knowledge by one master thought,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPersuaded all action to one golden sense,<\/p>\n

All powers subjected to a single power<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd made a world where it could reign alone,<\/p>\n

An absolute ideal’s perfect home.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInsignia of their victory and their faith,<\/p>\n

They offered to the Traveller at their gates<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA quenchless flame or an unfading flower,<\/p>\n

Emblem of a high kingdom’s privilege.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tA glorious shining Angel of the Way<\/p>\n

Presented to the seeking of the soul<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe sweetness and the might of an idea,<\/p>\n

Each deemed Truth’s intimate fount and summit force,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe heart of the meaning of the universe,<\/p>\n

Perfection’s key, passport to Paradise.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet were there regions where these absolutes met<\/p>\n

And made a circle of bliss with married hands;<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLight stood embraced by light, fire wedded fire,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

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\n

But none in the other would his body lose<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTo find his soul in the world’s single Soul,<\/p>\n

A multiplied rapture of infinity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnward he passed to a diviner sphere:<\/p>\n

There, joined in a common greatness, light and bliss,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll high and beautiful and desirable powers<\/p>\n

Forgetting their difference and their separate reign<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBecome a single multitudinous whole.<\/p>\n

Above the parting of the roads of Time,<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAbove the Silence and its thousandfold Word,<\/p>\n

In the immutable and inviolate Truth<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFor ever united and inseparable,<\/p>\n

The radiant children of Eternity dwell<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOn the wide spirit height where all are one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 2<\/font>82<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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

  Canto Twelve   The Heavens of the Ideal   ALWAYS the Ideal beckoned from afar. Awakened by the touch of the Unseen, Deserting the…<\/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-2488","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\/2488","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=2488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}