{"id":3426,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:21","slug":"17-book-two-canto-twelve-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\/17-book-two-canto-twelve-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-17_Book_Two_Canto_Twelve.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CANTO TWELVE<\/font> <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nTHE HEAVENS OF THE IDEAL<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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

\nAwakened by the touch of the Unseen,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAspired the strong discoverer, tireless Thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nIt left known summits for the unknown peaks:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

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

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

\nInto a constant heaven felt always here.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nA new degree of wonder and of bliss,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nA great wide step trembling with jewelled fire<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nUpholding with his flame the immortal hope,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nThat he might feel the tread of pilgrim feet<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAt either end of each effulgent stair<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nIn a blue lucency of dreaming space<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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On one side glimmered hue on floating hue,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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In a glory and surprise of the seized soul<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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And a tremulous rapture of the heart’s insight<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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The lovely kingdoms of the deathless Rose.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Are superconscious realms of heavenly peace,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

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

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Across the covert air the spirit breathes,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Unseen, unguessed by the blind suffering world,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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\n

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It blooms for ever at the feet of God,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Here too its bud is born in human breasts;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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The world is turned into a temple ground<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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And gives the rapture-offering of its all,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

\nFlowers goldening our earth of red desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nFrom the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nA fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAnd marvellously is fulfilled at last<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
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\nPage \u2013 315<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

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A Same in a white voiceless cupola<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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\nThe radiant limbs that know not birth and death,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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\nThe wings that crowd Thought’s ardent silences,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Our hidden centres of celestial force<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Mind pauses thrilled with the supernal Ray,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd even the transient body then can feel<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIdeal love and flawless happiness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd laughter of the heart’s sweetness and delight<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAnd beauty and the rhythmic feet of the hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis in high realms touches immortal kind;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What here is in the bud has blossomed there.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nThe blaze of Godlike thought and golden bliss,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe rapt idealism of heavenly sense;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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There are the wonderful voices, the sun-laugh,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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And the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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A brilliant shadow visits mortal life.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

\n
\nPressed on the bosom the Immortal’s touch is felt,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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Here upon earth are early awakenings,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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And grown upon the yearning of her soil<\/font><\/p>\n

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Tune’s sun-flowers’ gaze at gold Eternity:<\/font>
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There are the imperishable beatitudes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nWorld after coloured and ecstatic world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClimbs towards some far unseen epiphany.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

On the other side of the eternal stairs<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAspired to reach the Being’s absolutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

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

\nIn a veiled Nature’s hallowed secrecies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt bums for ever on the altar Mind,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts priests the souls of dedicated gods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHumanity its house of sacrifice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnce kindled never can its flamings cease.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

\nTill borne by runners of the Day and Dusk<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt enters the occult eternal Light<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd clambers whitening to the invisible Throne.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts worlds are steps of an ascending Force:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A dream of giant contours, titan lines,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nHeavens of unchanging Good pure and unborn,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAs in a symbol sky they start to view<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nOn their summits they bear up the sleepless Flame,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDreaming of a mysterious Beyond,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTranscendent of the paths of Fate and Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nThrough a pale-sapphire ether of God-mind<\/span><\/font>
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Towards some gold Infinite’s apocalypse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA thunder rolling mid the hills of God,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTireless, severe is their tremendous Voice:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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Exceeding us, to exceed ourselves they call<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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Far from our eager reach those summits live,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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Hardly in a dire ecstasy of toil<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

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Austere, intolerant they claim from us<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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\nOur hearts cannot cleave to nor our flesh support;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

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

\n
\nTo attempt the immense adventure of that climb<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

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

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

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Our human knowledge is a candle burnt<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

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

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

\n

Man’s virtue, a coarse-spun ill-fitting dress,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nApparels wooden images of Good;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Passionate and blinded, bleeding, stained with mire<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAn imperfection dogs our highest strength;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

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\n

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Happy the worlds that have not felt our fall,<\/font><\/p>\n

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\n

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

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\n

Impoverished not by earth-mind’s indigence,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nHis bare spontaneous swift intensities;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nAnd there his sovereign autarchy of bliss<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nHeirs and co-sharers of divinity.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
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\n

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He through the Ideal’s kingdoms moved at will,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAccepted their beauty and their greatness bore,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nBut passed nor stayed beneath their splendour’s rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nIn each a seraph-winged high-browed Idea<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPersuaded all action to one golden sense,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nAnd made a world where it could reign alone,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nInsignia of their victory and their faith,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nA quenchless flame or an unfading flower,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nA glorious shining Angel of the Way<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPresented to the seeking of the soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sweetness and the might of an idea,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nThe heart of the meaning of the universe,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nYet were there regions where these absolutes met<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd made a circle of bliss with married hands;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Light stood embraced by light, fire wedded fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nTo find his soul in the world’s single Soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA multiplied rapture of infinity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnward he passed to a diviner sphere:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

\nAll high and beautiful and desirable powers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForgetting their difference and their separate reign<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBecome a single multitudinous whole.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
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\n

\n

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

\nAbove the Silence and its thousandfold Word,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the immutable and inviolate Truth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor ever united and inseparable,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe radiant children of Eternity dwell<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn the wide spirit height where all are one.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
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 <\/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":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3426","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\/3426","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=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}