{"id":3444,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:35","slug":"40-book-seven-canto-six-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\/40-book-seven-canto-six-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-40_Book_Seven_Canto_Six.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\n

<\/p>\n

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

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nNIRVANA AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\nALL-NEGATING ABSOLUTE<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

A<\/font> CALM<\/font><\/b> slow sun looked down from tranquil heavens.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

A routed sullen rearguard of retreat,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe last rains had fled murmuring across the woods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr failed, a sibilant whisper mid the leaves,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the great blue enchantment of the sky<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRecovered the deep rapture of its smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts mellow splendour unstressed by storm-licked heats<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFound room for a luxury of warm mild days,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe night’s gold treasure of autumnal moons<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCame floating shipped through ripples of fairy air.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Savitri’s life was glad, fulfilled like earth’s;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She had found herself, she knew her being’s aim.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlthough her kingdom of marvellous change within<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRemained unspoken in her secret breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that lived round her felt its magic’s charm:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The trees’ rustling voices told it to the winds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlowers spoke in ardent hues an unknown joy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe birds’ carolling became a canticle,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe beasts forgot their strife and lived at ease.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbsorbed in wide communion with the Unseen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe mild ascetics of the wood received<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA sudden greatening of their lonely muse.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 604<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

This bright perfection of her inner state<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPoured overflowing into her outward scene,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMade beautiful dull common natural things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd action wonderful and time divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven the smallest meanest work became<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA sweet or glad and glorious sacrament,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn offering to the self of the great world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr a service to the One in each and all.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA light invaded all from her being’s light;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her heart-beats’ dance communicated bliss:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Happiness grew happier, shared with her, by her touch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd grief some solace found when she drew near.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbove the cherished head of Satyavan<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A golden circle round a mystic sun<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDisclosed to her new-born predicting sight<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe cyclic rondure of a sovereign life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn her visions and deep-etched veridical dreams,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn brief shiftings of the future’s heavy screen,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe lay not by a dolorous decree<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA victim in the dismal antre of death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr borne to blissful regions far from her<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForgetting the sweetness of earth’s warm delight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForgetting the passionate oneness of love’s clasp,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbsolved in the self-rapt immortal’s bliss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlways he was with her, a living soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat met her eyes with close enamoured eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA living body near to her body’s joy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut now no longer in these great wild woods<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn kinship with the days of bird and beast<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd levelled to the bareness of earth’s brown breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut mid the thinking high-built lives of men<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 605<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

In tapestried chambers and on crystal floors,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn armoured town or gardened pleasure-walks,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven in distance closer than her thoughts,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBody to body near, soul near to soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoving as if by a common breath and will,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey were tied in the single circling of their days<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTogether by love’s unseen atmosphere,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInseparable like the earth and sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus for a while she trod the Golden Path;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This was the sun before abysmal Night.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Once as she sat in deep felicitous muse,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill quivering from her lover’s strong embrace,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd made her joy a bridge twixt earth and heaven,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn abyss yawned suddenly beneath her heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA vast and nameless fear dragged at her nerves<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs drags a wild beast its half-slaughtered prey;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It seemed to have no den from which it sprang:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

It was not hers, but hid its unseen cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen rushing came its vast and fearful Fount.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA formless Dread with shapeless endless wings<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFilling the universe with its dangerous breath,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA denser darkness than the Night could bear;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Enveloped the heavens and possessed the earth.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A rolling surge of silent death, it came<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Curving round the far edge of the quaking globe;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Effacing heaven with its enormous stride<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It willed to expunge the choked and anguished air<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And end the fable of the joy of life.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It seemed her very being to forbid,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Abolishing all by which her nature lived,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd laboured to blot out her body and soul,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A clutch of some half-seen Invisible,<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 606<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An ocean of terror and of sovereign might,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A person and a black Infinity.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It seemed to cry to her without thought or word<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The message of its dark eternity<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And the awful meaning of its silences:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Out of some sullen monstrous vast arisen,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of an abysmal deep of grief and fear<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImagined by some blind regardless self,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA consciousness of being without its joy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEmpty of thought, incapable of bliss,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat felt life blank and nowhere found a soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA voice to the dumb anguish of the heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nConveyed a stark sense of unspoken words;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In her own depths she heard the unuttered thought<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That made unreal the world and all life meant.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

"Who art thou who claim’st thy crown or separate birth,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The illusion of thy soul’s reality<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And personal godhead on an ignorant globe<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In the animal body of imperfect man?<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Hope not to be happy in a world of pain<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And dream not, listening to the unspoken Word<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And dazzled by the inexpressible Ray,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Transcending the mute Superconscient’s realm<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

To give a body to the Unknowable,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or for a sanction to thy heart’s delight<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

To burden with bliss the silent still Supreme,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Profaning its bare and formless sanctity,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

.Or call into thy chamber the Divine<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And sit with God tasting a human joy.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

I have created all, all I devour;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

I am Death and the dark terrible Mother of life,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI am Kali black and naked in the world,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 607<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

I am Maya and the universe is my cheat.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nI lay waste human happiness with my breath<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And slay the will to live, the joy to be<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That all may pass back into nothingness<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And only abide the eternal and absolute.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

For only the blank Eternal can be true.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All else is shadow and flash in Mind’s bright glass,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nMind, hollow mirror in which Ignorance sees<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A splendid figure of its own false Self<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And dreams it sees a glorious solid world.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\nO soul, inventor of man’s thoughts and hopes,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThyself the invention of the moments’ stream,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Illusion’s centre or subtle apex point,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAt last know thyself, from vain existence cease."<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A shadow of the negating Absolute,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe intolerant Darkness travelled surging past<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And ebbed in her the formidable Voice.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It left behind her inner world laid waste:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

A barren silence weighed upon her heart,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer kingdom of delight was there no more;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Only her soul remained, its emptied stage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAwaiting the unknown eternal Will.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen from the heights a greater Voice came down,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Word that touches the heart and finds the soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe voice of Light after the voice of Night:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The cry of the Abyss drew Heaven’s reply,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A might of storm chased by the might of the Sun:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

"O Soul, bare not thy kingdom to the foe,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Consent to hide thy royalty of bliss<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Lest Time and Fate find out its avenues<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd beat with thunderous knock upon thy gates.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Hide whilst thou canst thy treasure of separate self<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 608<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Behind the luminous rampart of thy depths<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Till of a vaster empire it grows part.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But not for self alone the self is won:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Content abide not with one conquered realm;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Adventure all to make the whole world thine,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Fear nr to be nothing that thou mayst be all;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That all in thee may reach its absolute.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Accept to be small and human on the earth,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Interrupting thy new-born divinity,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That man may find his utter self in God.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

If for thy own sake only thou hast come,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

An immortal spirit into the mortal’s world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo found thy luminous kingdom in God’s dark,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the Inconscient’s realm one shining star,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOne door in the Ignorance opened upon light,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhy hadst thou any need to come at all?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou hast come down into a struggling world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo aid a blind and suffering mortal race,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo open to Light the eyes that could not see,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo bring down bliss into the heart of grief,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo make thy life a bridge twixt earth and heaven;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

If thou wouldst save the toiling universe,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe vast universal suffering feel as thine:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Thou must bear the sorrow that thou claim’st to heal;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

The day-bringer must walk in darkest night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who would save the world must share its pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf he knows not grief, how shall he find grief’s cure?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf far he walks above mortality’s head,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHow shall the mortal reach that too high path?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf one of theirs they see scale heaven’s peaks,<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 609<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Men then can hope to learn that titan climb.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod must be born on earth and be as man<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat man being human may grow even as God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who would save the world must be one with the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll suffering things contain in his heart’s space<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd bear the grief and joy of all that lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis soul must be wider than the universe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd feel eternity as its very stuff,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRejecting the moment’s personality,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nKnow itself older than the birth of Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCreation an incident in its consciousness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArcturus and Belphegor grains of fire<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCircling in a corner of its boundless self,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe world’s destruction a small transient storm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the calm infinity it has become.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf thou wouldst a little loosen the vast chain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDraw back from the world that the Idea has made,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy mind’s selection from the Infinite,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy senses’ gloss on the Infinitesimal’s dance,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen shalt thou know how the great bondage came.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBanish all thought from thee and be God’s void.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen shalt thou uncover the Unknowable<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the Superconscient conscious grow on thy tops;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Infinity’s vision through thy gaze shall pierce,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou shalt look into the eyes of the Unknown;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Find the hid Truth in things seen null and false,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBehind things known discover Mystery’s rear.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou shalt be one with God’s bare reality<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the miraculous world he has become<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the diviner miracle still to be<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen Nature who is now unconscious God<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTranslucent grows to the Eternal’s light,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 610<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her seeing his sight, her walk his steps of power<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And life is filled with a spiritual joy<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Consent to be nothing and none, dissolve Time’s work,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Cast off thy mind, step back from form and name.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Annul thyself that only God may be."<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Thus spoke the mighty and uplifting Voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Savitri heard; she bowed her head and mused<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPlunging her deep regard into herself<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn her soul’s privacy in the silent Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAloof and standing back detached and calm,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA witness of the drama of herself,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA student of her own interior scene,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe watched the passion and the toil of life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd heard in the crowded thoroughfares of mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe unceasing tread and passage of her thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll she allowed to rise that chose to stir;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Calling, compelling nought, forbidding nought,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She left all to the process formed in Time<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And the free initiative of Nature’s will.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Thus following the complex human play<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She heard the prompter’s voice behind the scenes,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Perceived the original libretto set<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And the organ theme of the composer Force.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All she beheld that surges from man’s depths,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The animal instincts prowling mid life’s trees,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The impulses that whisper to the heart<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And passion’s thunder-chase sweeping the nerves;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

She saw the Powers that stare from the Abyss<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the wordless Light that liberates the soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut most her gaze pursued the birth of thought.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 611<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Affranchised from the look of surface mind<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She paused not to survey the official case,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThe issue of forms from the office of the brain,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Its factory of thought-sounds and soundless words<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And voices stored within unheard by men,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Its mint and treasury of shining coin.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThese were but counters in mind’s symbol game,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A gramophone’s discs, a reproduction’s film,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A list of signs, a cipher and a code.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In our unseen subtle body thought is born<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or there it enters from the cosmic field.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nOft from her soul stepped out a naked thought<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Luminous with mysteried lips and wonderful eyes;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Or from her heart emerged some burning face<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd looked for life and love and passionate truth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAspired to heaven or embraced the world<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr led the fancy like a fleeting moon<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAcross the dull sky of man’s common days,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAmidst the doubtful certitudes of earth’s lore,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo the celestial beauty of faith gave form<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if at flower-prints in a dingy room<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLaughed in a golden vase one living rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA thaumaturgist sat in her heart’s deep,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCompelled the forward stride, the upward look,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTill wonder leapt into the illumined breast<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd life grew marvellous with transfiguring hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA seeing will pondered between the brows;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thoughts, glistening Angels, stood behind the brain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn flashing armour, folding hands of prayer,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd poured heaven’s rays into the earthly form.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImaginations flamed up from her breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnearthly beauty, touches of surpassing joy<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 612<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And plans of miracle, dreams of delight:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Around her navel lotus clustering close<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer large sensations of the teeming worlds<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStreamed their dumb movements of the unformed Idea;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Invading the small sensitive flower of the throat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey brought their mute, unuttered resonances<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo kindle the figures of a heavenly speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBelow, desires formed their wordless wish,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd longings of physical sweetness and ecstasy<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTranslated into the accents of a cry<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir grasp on objects and their clasp on souls.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer body’s thoughts climbed from her conscious limbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd carried their yearnings to its mystic crown<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere Nature’s murmurs meet the Ineffable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut for the mortal prisoned in outward mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll must present their passports at its door;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Disguised they must don the official cap and mask<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr pass as manufactures of the brain,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnknown their secret truth and hidden source.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly to the inner mind they speak direct,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPut on a body and assume a voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir passage seen, their message heard and known,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTheir birthplace and their natal mark revealed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd stand confessed to an immortal’s sight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOur nature’s messengers to the witness soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImpenetrable, withheld from mortal sense,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe inner chambers of the spirit’s house<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDisclosed to her their happenings and their guests;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Eyes looked through crevices in the invisible wall<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd through the secrecy of the unseen doors<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere came into mind’s little frontal room<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThoughts that enlarged our limited human range,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 613<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lifted the ideal’s half-quenched or sinking torch<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or peered through the finite at the infinite.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A sight opened upon the invisible<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And sensed the shapes that mortal eyes see not,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The sounds that mortal listening cannot hear,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The blissful sweetness of the intangible’s touch,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The objects that to us are empty air<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Are there the stuff of daily experience<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And the common pabulum of sense and thought.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The beings of the subtle realms appeared<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And scenes concealed behind our earthly scene;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

She saw the life of remote continents<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd distance deafen not to voices far;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She felt the movements crossing unknown minds;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The past’s events occurred before her eyes.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The great world’s thoughts were part of her own thoughts,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The feelings dumb for ever and unshared,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The ideas that never found an utterance,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The dim subconscient’s incoherent hints<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Laid bare a meaning twisted deep and strange,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The bizarre secret of their grumbling speech,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Their links with underlying reality.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The unseen grew visible and audible:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Thoughts leaped down from a superconscient field<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Like eagles swooping from a viewless peak,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Thoughts gleamed up from the screened subliminal depths<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Like golden fishes from a hidden sea.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This world is a vast unbroken totality,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A deep solidarity joins its contrary powers.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

So man evolving to divinest heights<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn;<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 614<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

The human godhead with star-gazer eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLives still in one house with the primal beast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe high meets the low, all is a single plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo she beheld the many births of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIf births can be of what eternal is;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

For the Eternal’s powers are like himself,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTimeless in the Timeless, in Time ever born.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis too she saw that all in outer mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIs made, not born, a product perishable,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForged in the body’s factory by earth-force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis mind is a dynamic small machine<\/span><\/p>\n

\nProducing ceaselessly till it wears out,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith raw material drawn from the outside world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe patterns sketched out by an artist God.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOften our thoughts are finished cosmic wares<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAdmitted by a silent office gate<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd passed through the subconscient galleries,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen issued in Time’s mart as private make.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor now they bear the living person’s stamp;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A trick, a special hue claims them his own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll else is Nature’s craft and this too hers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOur tasks are given, we are but instruments;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Nothing is all our own that we create;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The Power that acts in us is not our force:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The genius too receives from some high fount<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Concealed in a supernal secrecy<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The work that gives him an immortal name.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The word, the form, the charm, the glory and grace<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Are missioned sparks from a stupendous Fire;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

A sample from the laboratory of God<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf which he holds the patent upon earth,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nComes to him wrapt in golden coverings;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 615<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

He listens for Inspiration’s postman knock<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd takes delivery of the priceless gift<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA little spoilt by the receiver mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr mixed with the manufacture of his brain;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

When least defaced, then is it most divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlthough his ego claims the world for its use,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMan is a dynamo for the cosmic work;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Nature does most in him. God the high rest:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Only his soul’s acceptance is his own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis independent, once a power supreme,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSelf-born before the universe was made,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAccepting cosmos, binds himself Nature’s serf<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTill he becomes her freed man\u2014or God’s slave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis is the appearance in our mortal front;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Our greater truth of being lies behind:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Our consciousness is cosmic and immense,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nBut only when we break through Matter’s wall<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In that spiritual vastness can we stand<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nWhere we can live the masters of our world,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And mind is only a means and body a tool.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nFor above the birth of body and of thought<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Our spirit’s truth lives in the naked self<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And from that height, unbound, surveys the world.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Out of the mind she rose to escape its law<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThat it might sleep in some deep shadow of self<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or fall silent in the silence of the Unseen.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nHigh she attained and stood from Nature free<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And saw creation’s life from far above,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThence upon all she laid her sovereign will<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

To dedicate it to God’s timeless calm:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Then all grew tranquil in her being’s space,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly sometimes small thoughts arose and fell<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 616<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Like quiet waves upon a silent sea<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr ripples passing over a lonely pool<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen a stray stone disturbs its dreaming rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet the mind’s factory had ceased to work,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no sound of the dynamo’s throb,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere came no call from the still fields of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen even those stirrings rose in her no more;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her mind now seemed like a vast empty room<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr like a peaceful landscape without sound.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis men call quietude and prize as peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut to her deeper sight all yet was there,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEffervescing like a chaos under a lid;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Peelings and thoughts cried out for word and act<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut found no response in the silenced brain:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

All was suppressed but nothing yet expunged;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

At every moment might explosion come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen this too paused; the body seemed a stone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll now was a wide mighty vacancy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut still excluded from eternity’s hush;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

For still was far the repose of the Absolute<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And the ocean silence of Infinity.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Even now some thoughts could cross her solitude;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

These surged not from the depths or from within<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCast up from formlessness to seek a form,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSpoke not the body’s need nor voiced mind’s call.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThese seemed not born nor made in human Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChildren of cosmic nature from a far world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIdea’s shapes in complete armour of words<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPosted like travellers in an alien space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of some far expanse they seemed to come<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if carried on vast wings like large white sails,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd with easy access reached the inner ear<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 617<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As though they used a natural privileged right<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

To the high royal entries of the soul.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

As yet their path lay deep concealed in light.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Then looking to know whence the intruders came<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She saw a spiritual immensity<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Pervading and encompassing the world-space<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

As ether our transparent tangible air,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And through it sailing tranquilly a thought.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

As smoothly glides a ship nearing its port,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Ignorant of embargo and blockade,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Confident of entrance and the visa’s seal,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It came to the silent city of the brain<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Towards its accustomed and expectant quay,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But met a barring will, a blow of Force<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And sank vanishing in the immensity.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

After a long vacant pause another appeared<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And others one by one suddenly emerged,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Mind’s unexpected visitors from the unseen<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Like far-off sails upon a lonely sea.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But soon that commerce failed, none reached mind’s coast.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Then all grew still, nothing moved any more:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Immobile, self-rapt, timeless, solitary<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA silent spirit pervaded silent Space.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

In that absolute stillness bare and formidable<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was glimpsed an all-negating Void supreme<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat claimed its mystic Nihil’s sovereign right<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo cancel Nature and deny the soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven the nude sense of self grew pale and thin:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer spirit seemed the substance of a name,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 618<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

The world a pictured symbol drawn on self,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dream of images, a dream of sounds<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBuilt up the semblance of a universe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr lent to spirit the appearance of a world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis was self-seeing; in that intolerant hush<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo notion and no concept could take shape,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no sense to frame the figure of things,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA sheer self-sight was there, no thought arose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEmotion slept deep down in the still heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr lay buried in a cemetery of peace:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

All feelings seemed quiescent, calm or dead,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if the heart-strings rent could work no more<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd joy and grief could never rise again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe heart beat on with an unconscious rhythm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut no response came from it and no cry.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVain was the provocation of events;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Nothing within answered an outside touch,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo nerve was stirred and no reaction rose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet still her body saw and moved and spoke;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It understood without the aid of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt said whatever needed to be said,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt did whatever needed to be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no person there behind the act,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo mind that chose or passed the fitting word:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

All wrought like an unerring apt machine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if continuing old habitual turns,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd pushed by an old unexhausted force<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe engine did the work for which it was made:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Her consciousness looked on and took no part;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

All it upheld, in nothing had a share.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no strong initiator will;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An incoherence crossing a firm void<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 619<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Slipped into an order of related chance.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A pure perception was the only power<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That stood behind her action and her sight.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

If that retired, all objects would be extinct,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Her private universe would cease to be,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The house she had built with bricks of thought and sense<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In the beginning after the birth of Space.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This seeing was identical with the seen;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

It knew without knowledge all that could be known,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt saw impartially the world go by,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut in the same supreme unmoving glance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSaw too its abysmal unreality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt watched the figure of the cosmic game,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut the thought and inner life in forms seemed dead<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbolished by her own collapse of thought:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A hollow physical shell persisted still.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll seemed a brilliant shadow of itself,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA cosmic film of scenes and images:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The enduring mass and outline of the hills<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas a design sketched on a silent mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd held to a tremulous false solidity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy constant beats of visionary sight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe forest with its emerald multitudes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClothed with its show of hues vague empty Space,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA painting’s colours hiding a surface void<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat flickered upon dissolution’s edge,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe blue heavens, an illusion of the eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRoofed in the mind’s illusion of a world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe men who walked beneath an unreal sky<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSeemed mobile puppets out of cardboard cut<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd pushed by unseen hands across the soil<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr moving pictures upon Fancy’s film:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 620<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

There was no soul within, no power of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe brain’s vibrations that appear like thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe nerve’s brief answer to each contact’s knock,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe heart’s quiverings felt as joy and grief and love<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWere twitchings of the body, their seeming self,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat body forged from atoms and formed gas<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA manufactured lie of Maya’s make,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts life a dream seen by the sleeping Void.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe animals lone or trooping through the glades<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFled like a passing vision of beauty and grace<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImagined by some all-creating Eye.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet something was there behind the fading scene;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Wherever she turned, at whatsoever she looked,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It was perceived, yet hid from mind and sight.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The One only real shut itself from Space<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And stood aloof from the idea of Time.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Its truth escaped from shape and line and hue.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All else grew unsubstantial, self-annulled,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This only everlasting seemed and true,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Yet nowhere dwelt, it was outside the hours.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This only could justify the labour of sight,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But sight could not define for it a form;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

This only could appease the unsatisfied ear<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut hearing listened in vain for a missing sound;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This answered not the sense, called not to Mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt met her as the uncaught inaudible Voice<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat speaks for ever from the Unknowable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt met her like an omnipresent point<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPure of dimensions, unfixed, invisible,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe single oneness of its multiplied beat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAccentuating its sole eternity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt faced her as some vast Nought’s immensity,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 621<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

An endless No to all that seems to be,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

An endless Yes to things ever unconceived<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And all that is unimagined and unthought,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

An eternal zero or untotalled Aught,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A spaceless and a placeless Infinite.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Yet eternity and infinity seemed but words<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Vainly affixed by mind’s incompetence<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

To its stupendous lone reality.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The world is but a spark-burst from its light,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All moments flashes from its Timelessness,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All objects glimmerings of the Bodiless<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

That disappear from Mind when That is seen.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It held, as if a shield before its face,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A consciousness that saw without a seer,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The Truth where knowledge is not nor knower nor known,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The Love enamoured of its own delight<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

In which the Lover is not nor the Beloved<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Bringing their personal passion into the Vast,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The Force omnipotent in quietude,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

It cancelled the convincing cheat of self;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A truth in nothingness was its mighty clue.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

If all existence could renounce to be<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And Being take refuge in Non-being’s arms<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And Non-being could strike out its ciphered round,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Some lustre of that Reality might appear.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A formless liberation came on her.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Once sepulchred alive in brain and flesh<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She had risen up from body, mind and life;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She was no more a Person in a world,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She had escaped into infinity.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

What once had been herself had disappeared;<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 622<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

There was no frame of things, no figure of soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA refugee from the domain of sense,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEvading the necessity of thought,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDelivered from Knowledge and from Ignorance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd rescued from the true and the untrue,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe shared the Superconscient’s high retreat<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBeyond the self-born Word, the nude Idea,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe first bare solid ground of consciousness;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Beings were not there, existence had no place,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was no temptation of the joy to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnutterably effaced, no one and null,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA vanishing vestige like a violet trace,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A faint record merely of a self now past,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She was a point in the unknowable.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Only some last annulment now remained,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Annihilation’s vague indefinable step:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A memory of being still was there<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And kept her separate from nothingness:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She was in That but still became not That.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This shadow of herself so close to nought<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Could be again self’s point d’appui to live,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Return out of the Inconceivable<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And be what some mysterious vast might choose.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Even as the Unknowable decreed,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She might be nought or new-become the All,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Or if the omnipotent Nihil took a shape<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Emerge as someone and redeem the world.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Even, she might learn what the mystic cipher held,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

This seeming exit or closed end of all<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Could be a blind tenebrous passage screened from sight,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Her state the eclipsing shell of a darkened sun<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

On its secret way to the Ineffable.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 623<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Even now her splendid being might flame back<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Out of the silence and the nullity,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nA gleaming portion of the All-Wonderful,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nA power of some all-affirming Absolute,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A shining mirror of the eternal Truth<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nTo show to the One-in-all its manifest face;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

To the souls of men their deep identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr she might wake into God’s quietude<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBeyond the cosmic day and cosmic night<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd rest appeased in his white eternity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut this was now unreal or remote<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr covered in the mystic fathomless blank.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn infinite Nothingness was the ultimate sign<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOr else the Real was the Unknowable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA lonely Absolute negated all:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It effaced the ignorant world from its solitude<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd drowned the soul in its everlasting peace.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 624<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

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

  CANTO SIX   NIRVANA AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE ALL-NEGATING ABSOLUTE   A CALM slow sun looked down from tranquil heavens. A routed sullen…<\/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-3444","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\/3444","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=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}