{"id":3424,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","slug":"02-book-one-canto-two-vol-03-savitri-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/03-savitri-1954\/02-book-one-canto-two-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-02_Book_One_Canto_Two.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO TWO<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

THE ISSUE<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A<\/b><\/font><\/span>
\nWHILE<\/b>, withdrawn in secret fields of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer mind moved in a many-imaged past<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat lived again and saw its end approach:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nDying, it lived imperishably in her;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Transient and vanishing from transient eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInvisible, a fateful ghost of self,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt bore the future on its phantom breast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlong the fleeting event’s far-backward trail<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRegressed the stream of the insistent hours,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd on the bank of the mysterious flood<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Peopled with well-loved forms now seen no more<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the subtle images of things that were,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her witness spirit stood reviewing Time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that she once had hoped and dreamed and been,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlew past her eagle-winged through memory’s skies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs in a many-hued flaming inner dawn,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer life’s broad highways and its sweet bypaths<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLay mapped to her sun-clear recording view,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom the bright country of her childhood’s days<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the blue mountains of her soaring youth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the paradise groves and peacock wings of Love<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo joy clutched under the silent shadow of doom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a last turn where heaven raced with hell.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 14<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn absolute supernatural darkness falls<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn man sometimes when he draws near to God:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

An hour comes when fail all Nature’s means;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Forced out from the protecting Ignorance<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

And flung back on his naked primal need,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

He at length must cast from him his surface soul<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

And be the ungarbed entity within:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

That hour had fallen now on Savitri.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A point she had reached where life must be in vain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr, in her unborn element awake,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer will must cancel her body’s destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor only the unborn spirit’s timeless power<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in time.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Only the Self that builds this figure of self<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Can rase the fixed interminable line<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That joins these changing names, these numberless lives,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

These new oblivious personalities<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And keeps still lurking in our conscious acts<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The trail of old forgotten thoughts and deeds,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Disown the legacy of our buried selves,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The burdensome heirship to our vanished forms<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Accepted blindly by the body and soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn episode in an unremembered tale,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Its beginning lost, its motive and plot concealed,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A once living story has prepared and made<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Our present fate, child of past energies.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The fixity of the cosmic sequences<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Fastened with hidden inevitable links
\nShe must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her past, a block on the immortal’s road,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Make a rased ground aid shape anew her fate.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 15<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

A colloquy of the original Gods<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nMeeting upon the borders of the unknown,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nHer soul’s debate with embodied Nothingness<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Must be wrestled out on a dangerous dim background:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her being must confront its formless Cause,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgainst the universe weigh its single self.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn the bare peak where Self is alone with Nought<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd life has no sense and love no place to stand,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe must plead her case upon extinction’s verge,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the world’s death-cave uphold life’s helpless claim<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd vindicate her right to be and love.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAltered must be Nature’s harsh economy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAcquaintance she must win from her past’s bond,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn old account of suffering exhaust,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStrike out from Time the soul’s long compound debt<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the heavy servitudes of the Karmic Gods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe slow revenge of unforgiving Law<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the deep need of universal pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd hard sacrifice and tragic consequence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of a timeless barrier she must break,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPenetrate with her thinking depths the Void’s monstrous hush:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Look into the lonely eyes of immortal Death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd with her nude spirit measure the Infinite’s night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe great and dolorous moment now was close.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA mailed battalion marching to its doom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe last long days went by with heavy tramp,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLong but too soon to pass, too near the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlone amid the many faces loved,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAware among unknowing happy hearts,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer armoured spirit kept watch upon the hours<\/span><\/p>\n

\nListening for a foreseen tremendous step<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the closed beauty of the inhuman wilds.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 16<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

A combatant in silent dreadful lists,
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe world unknowing, for the world she stood:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

No helper had she save the Strength within;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There was no witness of terrestrial eyes,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The Gods above and Nature sole below<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Were the spectators of that mighty strife.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Around her were the austere sky-pointing hills,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd the green murmurous broad deep-thoughted woods<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Muttered incessantly their muffled spell.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A dense magnificent coloured self-wrapped life<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Draped in the leaves’ vivid emerald monotone<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And set with chequered sunbeams and blithe flowers<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Immured her destiny’s secluded scene, <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There had she grown to the stature other spirit:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The genius of. titanic silences<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSteeping her soul in its wide loneliness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad shown to her her self’s bare reality<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd mated her with her environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts solitude greatened her human hours<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

With a background of the eternal and unique.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA force of spare direct necessity<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Reduced the heavy framework of man’s days<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd his overburdening mass of outward needs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo a first thin strip of simple animal wants,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the mighty wideness of the primitive earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the brooding multitude of patient trees<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the musing sapphire leisure of the sky<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the solemn weight of the slowly passing months<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad left in her deep room for thought and God;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

There was her drama’s radiant prologue lived.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A spot for the eternal’s tread on earth <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Set in the cloistral yearning of the woods<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 17<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And watched by the aspiration of the peaks<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Appeared through an aureate opening in Time<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Where stillness listening felt the unspoken word<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And the hours forgot to pass towards grief and change.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Here with the suddenness divine advents have,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Repeating the marvel of the first descent,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Changing to rapture the dull earthly round,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Love came to her hiding the shadow. Death.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Well might he find in her his perfect shrine.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Since first the earth-being’s heavenward growth began,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Through all the long ordeal of the race,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Never a rarer creature bore his shaft,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That burning test of the godhead in our parts;,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A lightning from the heights on our abyss.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All in her pointed to a nobler kind.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Near to earth’s wideness, intimate with heaven,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Exalted and swift her young large-visioned
\nspirit <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Voyaging through worlds of splendour and
\nof calm <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Overflew the ways of Thought to unborn things.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Ardent was her self-poised unstumbling will;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her mind, a sea of white sincerity,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Passionate in flow, had not one turbid wave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs in a mystic and dynamic dance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA priestess of immaculate ecstasies  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nInspired and ruled from Truth’s revealing vault<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoves in some prophet cavern of the gods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA heart of silence in the hands of joy<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInhabited with rich creative beats <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nA body like a parable of dawn <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThat seemed a niche for veiled divinity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr golden temple door to things beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmortal rhythms swayed in her time-born steps,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 18<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Her look, her smile awoke celestial sense<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven in earth-stuff, and their intense delight<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPoured a supernal beauty on men’s lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA wide self-giving was her native act;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A magnanimity as of sea or sky<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEnveloped with its greatness all that came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd gave a sense as of a greatened world:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her kindly care was a sweet temperate sun,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer high passion a blue heaven’s equipoise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs might a soul fly like a hunted bird,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEscaping with tired wings from a world of storms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd a quiet reach like a remembered breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a haven of safety and splendid soft repose <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nOne could drink life hark in streams of honey-fire,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Recover the lost habit of happiness,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Feel her bright nature’s glorious
\nambiance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd preen joy in her warmth and colour’s rule.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A deep of compassion, a hushed sanctuary,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer inward help unbarred a gate in heaven;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Love in her was wider than the universe,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe whole world could take refuge in her single heart.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe great unsatisfied godhead here could dwell:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Vacant of the dwarf self’s imprisoned air<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer mood could harbour his sublimer breath<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpiritual that can make all things divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor even her gulfs were secrecies of light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt once she was the stillness and the word,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA continent of self-diffusing peace,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn ocean of untrembling virgin fire:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The strength, the silence of the gods were hers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn her he found a vastness like his own,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis high warm subtle ether he refound<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 19<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

And moved in her as in his natural home.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In her he met his own eternity. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nTill then no mournful line had barred this ray.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

On the frail breast of this precarious earth,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Since her orbed sight in its breath-fastened house,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Opening in sympathy with happier stars<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Where life is not exposed to sorrowful change,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Remembered beauty death-claimed lids ignore<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And wondered at this world of fragile forms<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Carried on canvas-strips of shimmering Time,
\nThe impunity of unborn Mights was hers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlthough she leaned to bear the human load,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer walk kept still the measure of the <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Earth’s breath had failed to stain that brilliant glass:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Unsmeared with the dust of our mortal atmosphere<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It still reflected heaven’s spiritual joy.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Almost they saw who lived within her light<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her playmate in the sempiternal spheres<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Descended from its unattainable realms<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In her attracting advent’s luminous wake,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The white-fire dragon bird of endless bliss<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Drifting with burning wings above her days:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Heaven’s tranquil shield guarded the missioned child.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A glowing orbit was her early term,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Years like gold raiment of the gods that pass-<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nHer youth sat throned in calm felicity.
\nBut joy cannot endure until the end:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There is a darkness in terrestrial things<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That will not suffer long too glad a note.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

On her too closed the inescapable Hand;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The armed Immortal bore the snare of Time.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 20<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

One dealt with her who meets the burdened great.
\nAssigner of the ordeal and the path<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho chooses in this holocaust of the soul<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Death, fall and sorrow
\nas the spirit’s goads, <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe dubious godhead with his torch of pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLit up the chasm of the unfinished world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd called her to fill with her vast self the abyss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAugust and pitiless in his calm outlook,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeightening the Eternal’s dreadful strategy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe measured the difficulty with the might<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd dug more deep the gulf that all must cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAssailing her divinest elements,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe made her heart kin to the striving human heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd forced her strength to its appointed road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor this she had accepted mortal breath;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

To wrestle with the Shadow she had come<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd must confront the riddle of man’s birth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd life’s brief struggle in dumb Matter’s night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhether to bear with Ignorance and Death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr hew the ways of Immortality,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo win or lose the godlike game for man,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas her soul’s issue thrown with Destiny’s dice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut not to submit and suffer was she born;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

To lead, to deliver was her glorious part.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHere was no fabric of terrestrial make<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFit for a day’s use by busy careless Powers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn image fluttering on the screen of fate<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHalf-animated for a passing show,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr a castaway on the ocean of Desire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlung to the eddies in a ruthless sport<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd tossed along the gulfs of Circumstance,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nA creature born to bend beneath the yoke,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 21<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

A chattel and a plaything of Time’s lords,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr one more pawn who comes destined to be pushed<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOne slow move forward on a measureless board<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the chess-play of the earth-soul with Doom,\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch is the human figure drawn by Time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA conscious frame was here, a self-born Force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn this enigma of the dusk of God, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis slow and strange uneasy compromise<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf limiting Nature with a limitless Soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere all must move between an ordered Chance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd an uncaring blind Necessity,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nToo high the fire spiritual dare not blaze.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf once it met the intense original Flame,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn answering touch might shatter all measures made<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A gaol is this immense material world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAcross each road stands armed a stone-eyed law,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt every gate the huge dim sentinels pace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA grey tribunal of the Ignorance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn Inquisition of the priests of Night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn judgment sit on the adventurer soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the dual tables and the Karmic norm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRestrain the Titan in us and the God:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Pain with its lash, joy with its silver bribe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGuard the Wheel's circling immobility,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA bond is put on the high climbing mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA seal on the too large wide-open heart;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Death stays the journeying discoverer, Life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus is the throne of the Inconscient safe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhile the tardy coilings of the aeons pass<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the Animal browses in the sacred fence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the gold Hawk can cross the skies no more.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 22<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But one stood up and lit the limitless flame.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Arraigned by the dark Power that hates all bliss  <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In the dire court where life must pay for joy, <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Sentenced by the mechanic justicer<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To the afflicting penalty of man’s hopes, <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her head she bowed not to the stark decree <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Baring her helpless heart to destiny’s stroke.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

So bows and must the mind-born will in man<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Obedient to the statutes fixed of old,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Admitting without appeal the nether gods.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In her the superhuman cast its seed.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Inapt to fold its mighty wings of dream<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her spirit refused to hug the common soil,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or, finding all life’s golden meanings robbed,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Compound with earth, struck from the starry list,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Or quench with black despair the God-given light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAccustomed to the eternal and the true,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer being conscious of its divine founts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAsked not from mortal frailty pain’s relief,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPatched not with failure bargain or compromise.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A work she had to do, a word to speak;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Writing the unfinished story of her soul<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In thoughts and actions graved in Nature’s book,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She accepted not to close the luminous page,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Cancel her commerce with eternity,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or set a signature of weak assent<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To the brute balance of the world’s exchange.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A force in her that toiled since earth was made,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Accomplishing in life the great world-plan,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Pursuing after death immortal aims, .<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Repugned, to admit frustration’s barren role, <\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Forfeit the meaning of her birth in Time,<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 23<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Obey the government of the casual fact<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Or yield her high destiny up to passing Chance.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In her own self she found her high recourse,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She matched with the iron law her sovereign right:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her single will opposed the cosmic rule.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

To stay the wheels of Doom this greatness rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAt the Unseen’s knock upon the hidden gates<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer strength made greater by the lightning’s touch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAwoke from slumber in her heart’s recess.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt bore the stroke of That which kills and saves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAcross the awful march no eye can see,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBarring its dreadful route no will can change,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe faced the engines of the universe;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A heart stood in the way of the driving wheels:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Its giant workings paused in front of a mind,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I Its stark conventions met the flame of a soul.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A magic leverage suddenly is caught<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

That moves the veiled Ineffable’s timeless will:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A prayer, a master act, a king idea<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

 Can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Then miracle is made the common rule,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

One mighty deed can change the course of things,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A lonely thought becomes omnipotent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll now seems Nature’s massed machinery;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

An endless servitude to material rule<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd long determination’s rigid chain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer firm and changeless habits aping Law,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer empire of unconscious deft device <\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnnul the claim of man’s free human will.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe too is a machine amid machines;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A piston brain pumps out the shapes of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA beating heart cuts out emotion’s modes;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 24<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An insentient energy fabricates a soul.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or the figure of the world reveals the signs<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Of a tied Chance repeating her old steps<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In circles around Matter’s binding-posts.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A random series of inept events<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To which reason lends illusive sense, is here,<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Or the empiric Life’s
\ninstinctive search, <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Or a vast ignorant mind’s colossal work.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But wisdom comes, and vision grows within;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Then Nature’s instrument crowns himself her king;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

He feels his witnessing self and conscious power;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His soul steps back and sees the Light supreme.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A Godhead stands behind the brute machine.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This truth broke in in a triumph of fire;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A victory was won for God in man,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The deity revealed its hidden face.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The great World-Mother now in her arose:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A living choice reversed fate’s cold dead turn,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAffirmed the spirit’s tread on Circumstance,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Pressed back the senseless dire revolving Wheel<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And stopped the mute march of Necessity<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A flaming warrior from the eternal peaks<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Empowered to force the door denied and closed<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Smote from Death’s visage its dumb absolute<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI And burst the bounds of consciousness and Time."
\n<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 25<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

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

  CANTO TWO   THE ISSUE   A WHILE, withdrawn in secret fields of thought, Her mind moved in a many-imaged past That lived again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-savitri-1954","wpcat-78-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424","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=3424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}