{"id":3435,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3435"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:27","slug":"18-book-two-canto-thirteen-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\/18-book-two-canto-thirteen-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-18_Book_Two_Canto_Thirteen.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\n

<\/p>\n

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

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

IN THE SELF OF MIND<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A<\/font>T<\/font><\/b><\/span> last there came a bare indifferent sky<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere Silence listened to the cosmic Voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut answered nothing to a million calls;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The soul’s endless question met with no response.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn abrupt conclusion ended eager hopes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA deep cessation in a mighty calm,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA finis-line on the last page of thought<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd a margin and a blank of wordless peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere paused the climbing hierarchy of worlds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHs stood on a wide arc of summit Space<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlone with an enormous Self of Mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich held all life in a corner of its vasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOmnipotent, immobile and aloof,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the world which sprang from it, it took no part:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It gave no heed to the paeans of victory,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt was indifferent to its own defeats,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt heard the cry of grief and made no sign,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImpartial fell its gaze on evil and good,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt saw destruction come and did not move.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn equal Cause of things, a lonely Seer<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Master of its multitude of forms,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt acted not but bore all thoughts and deeds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe witness Lord of Nature’s myriad acts<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 321<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Consenting to the movements of her Force.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

His mind reflected this vast quietism.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This witness hush is the Thinker’s secret base:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Hidden in silent depths the word is formed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom hidden silences the act is born<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the voiceful mind, the labouring world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn secrecy wraps the seed the Eternal sows<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSilence, the mystic birthplace of the soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn God’s supreme withdrawn and timeless hush<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA seeing Self and potent Energy met;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The Silence knew itself and thought took form:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Self-made from the dual power creation rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the still self he lived and it in him;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Its mute immemorable listening depths,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts vastness and its stillness were his own;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

One being with it he grew wide, powerful, free.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs one who builds his own imagined scenes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd loses not himself in what he sees,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpectator of a drama self-conceived,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe looked on the world and watched its motive thoughts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith the burden of luminous prophecy in their eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts forces with their feet of wind and fire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArisen from the dumbness in his soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll now he seemed to understand and know;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Desire came not nor any gust of will,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe great perturbed inquirer lost his task;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Nothing was asked nor wanted any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere he could stay, the Self, the Silence won:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His soul had peace, it knew the cosmic Whole.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Then suddenly a luminous finger fell<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

On all things seen or touched or heard or felt<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd showed his mind that nothing could be known;<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 322<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

That must be reached from which all knowledge comes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe sceptic Ray disrupted all that seems<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd smote at the very roots of thought and sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a universe of Nescience they have grown,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAspiring towards a superconscient Sun,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPlaying in shine and rain from heavenlier skies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey never can win however high their reach<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr overpass however keen their probe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n A doubt corroded even the means to think,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Distrust was thrown upon Mind’s instruments;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

All that it takes for reality’s shining coin,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nProved fact, fixed inference, deduction clear,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFirm theory, assured significance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAppeared as frauds upon Time’s credit bank<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr assets valueless in Truth’s treasury.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn Ignorance on an uneasy throne<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTravestied with a fortuitous sovereignty<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA figure of knowledge garbed in dubious words<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd tinsel thought-forms brightly inadequate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA labourer in the dark dazzled by half-light,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat it knew was an image in a broken glass,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat it saw was real but its sight untrue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll the ideas in its vast repertory<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWere like the mutterings of a transient cloud<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat spent itself in sound and left no trace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA frail house hanging in uncertain air,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe thin ingenious web round which it moves,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPut out awhile on the tree of the universe,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd gathered up into itself again,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas only a trap to catch life’s insect food,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWinged thoughts that flutter fragile in brief light<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut dead, once captured in fixed forms of mind,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 323<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAims puny but looming large in man’s small scale,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Flickers, of imagination’s brilliant gauze<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And cobweb-wrapped beliefs alive no more.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The magic hut of built-up certitudes<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nMade out of glittering dust and bright moonshine<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In which it shrines its image of the Real,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Collapsed into the Nescience whence it rose.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Only a gleam was there of symbol facts<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That shroud the mystery lurking in their glow,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And falsehoods based on hidden realities<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

By which they live until they fall from Time.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Our mind is a house haunted by the slain past,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Ideas soon mummified, ghosts of old truths,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

God’s spontaneities tied with formal strings<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd packed into drawers of reason’s trim bureau,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A grave of great lost opportunities,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or an office for misuse of soul and life<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And all the waste man makes of heaven’s gifts<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And all his squanderings of Nature’s store,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A stage for the comedy of Ignorance.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe world seemed a long aeonic failure’s scene:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All sterile grew, no base was left secure.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Assailed by the edge of the convicting beam<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The builder Reason lost her confidence<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In the successful sleight and turn of thought<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That makes the soul the prisoner of a phrase.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Its highest wisdom was a brilliant guess,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Its mighty structured science of the worlds<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A passing light on being’s surfaces.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

There was nothing there but a schema drawn by sense,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A substitute for eternal mysteries,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A scrawl figure of reality, a plan<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 324<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

And elevation by the architect Word<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImposed upon the semblances of Time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nExistence’ self was shadowed by a doubt,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlmost it seemed a lotus-leaf afloat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn a nude pool of cosmic Nothingness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis great spectator and creator Mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas only some half-seeing’s delegate,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA veil that hung between the soul and Light,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn idol, not the living body of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven the still spirit that looks upon its works<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas some pale front of the Unknowable;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A shadow seemed the wide and witness Self,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts liberation and immobile calm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA void recoil of being from Time-made things,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNot the self-vision of Eternity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeep peace was there, but not the nameless Force:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Our sweet and mighty Mother was not there<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Who gathers to her bosom her children’s lives,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Her clasp that takes the world into her arms<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In the fathomless rapture of the Infinite,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The Bliss that is creation’s splendid grain<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or the white passion of God-ecstasy<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That laughs in the blaze of the boundless heart of Love.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A greater Spirit than the Self of Mind<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Must answer to the questioning of his soul.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

For here was no firm clue and no sure road;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

High-climbing pathways closed in the unknown,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn artist sight constructed the Beyond<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn contrary patterns and conflicting hues;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A part-experience fragmented the Whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe looked above, but all was blank and still;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A sapphire firmament of abstract Thought<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 325<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Escaped into a formless Vacancy.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nHe looked below, but all was dark and mute.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A noise was heard, between, of thought and prayer,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A strife, a labour without end or pause;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A vain and ignorant seeking raised its voice.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A rumour and a movement and a call,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A foaming mass, a cry innumerable<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Rolled ever upon the ocean surge of Life<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Along the coasts of mortal Ignorance.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

On its unstable and enormous breast<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Beings and forces, forms, ideas like waves<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Jostled for figure and supremacy,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And rose and sank and rose again in Time,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And at the bottom of the sleepless stir,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nA Nothingness parent of the struggling worlds,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A huge creator Death, a mystic Void,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

For ever sustaining the irrational cry,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

For ever excluding the supernal Word,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Motionless, refusing question and response,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Reposed beneath the voices and the march<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The dim Inconscient’s dumb incertitude.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Two firmaments of darkness and of light<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Opposed their limits to the spirit’s walk;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

It moved veiled in from Self’s infinity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a world of beings and momentary events<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere all must die to live and live to die.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmortal by renewed mortality,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt wandered in the spiral of its acts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr ran around the cycles of its thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet was no more than its original self<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd knew no more than when it first began.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo be was a prison, extinction the escape.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 326<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

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

  CANTO THIRTEEN   IN THE SELF OF MIND   AT last there came a bare indifferent sky Where Silence listened to the cosmic Voice,…<\/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-3435","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\/3435","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=3435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}