{"id":502,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=502"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:25","slug":"09-book-2-canto-03-the-glory-and-the-fall-of-life-vol-28-savitri-volume-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/28-savitri-volume-28\/09-book-2-canto-03-the-glory-and-the-fall-of-life-vol-28-savitri-volume-28","title":{"rendered":"-09_Book 2 Canto 03 The Glory and the Fall of Life.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n
\n


\nCanto Three<\/i> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe
\nGlory and Fall of Life<\/font><\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An uneven broad
\nascent now lured his feet.<\/p>\n

Answering a greater
\nNature’s troubled call<\/p>\n

He crossed the limits
\nof embodied Mind<\/p>\n

And entered wide
\nobscure disputed fields<\/p>\n

Where all was doubt
\nand change and nothing sure,<\/p>\n

A world of search and
\ntoil without repose.<\/p>\n

As one who meets the
\nface of the Unknown,<\/p>\n

A questioner with
\nnone to give reply,<\/p>\n

Attracted to a
\nproblem never solved,<\/p>\n

Always uncertain of
\nthe ground he trod,<\/p>\n

Always drawn on to an
\ninconstant goal<\/p>\n

He travelled through
\na land peopled by doubts<\/p>\n

In shifting confines
\non a quaking base.<\/p>\n

In front he saw a
\nboundary ever unreached<\/p>\n

And thought himself
\nat each step nearer now,\u2014<\/p>\n

A far retreating
\nhorizon of mirage.<\/p>\n

A vagrancy was there
\nthat brooked no home,<\/p>\n

A journey of
\ncountless paths without a close.<\/p>\n

Nothing he found to
\nsatisfy his heart;<\/p>\n

A tireless wandering
\nsought and could not cease.<\/p>\n

There life is the
\nmanifest incalculable,<\/p>\n

A movement of unquiet
\nseas, a long<\/p>\n

And venturement leap of
\nspirit into Space,<\/p>\n

A vexed disturbance
\nin the eternal Calm,<\/p>\n

An impulse and
\npassion of the Infinite.<\/p>\n

Assuming whatever
\nshape her fancy wills,<\/p>\n

Escaped from the
\nrestraint of settled forms<\/p>\n

She has left the
\nsafety of the tried and known.<\/p>\n

Unshepherded by the
\nfear that walks through Time,<\/p>\n

Undaunted by Fate
\nthat dogs and Chance that springs,<\/p>\n

She accepts disaster
\nas a common risk; <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 116<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Careless of
\nsuffering, heedless of sin and fall,<\/p>\n

She wrestles with
\ndanger and discovery<\/p>\n

In the unexplored
\nexpanses of the Soul.<\/p>\n

To be seemed only a
\nlong experiment,<\/p>\n

The hazard of a
\nseeking ignorant Force<\/p>\n

That tries all truths
\nand, finding none supreme,<\/p>\n

Moves on unsatisfied,
\nunsure of its end.<\/p>\n

As saw some inner
\nmind, so life was shaped:<\/p>\n

From thought to
\nthought she passed, from phase to phase,<\/p>\n

Tortured by her own
\npowers or proud and blest,<\/p>\n

Now master of
\nherself, now toy and slave.<\/p>\n

A huge inconsequence
\nwas her action’s law,<\/p>\n

As if all possibility
\nmust be drained<\/p>\n

And anguish and bliss
\nwere pastimes of the heart.<\/p>\n

In a gallop of
\nthunder-hooved vicissitudes<\/p>\n

She swept through the
\nrace-fields of Circumstance,<\/p>\n

Or, swaying, she
\ntossed between her heights and deeps,<\/p>\n

Uplifted or broken on
\nTime’s incessant wheel.<\/p>\n

Amid a tedious crawl
\nof drab desires<\/p>\n

She writhed, a worm
\nmid worms in Nature’s mud,<\/p>\n

Then, Titan-statured,
\ntook all earth for food,<\/p>\n

Ambitioned the seas
\nfor robe, for crown the stars<\/p>\n

And shouting strode
\nfrom peak to giant peak,<\/p>\n

Clamouring for worlds
\nto conquer and to rule.<\/p>\n

Then wantonly
\nenamoured of Sorrow’s face,<\/p>\n

She plunged into the
\nanguish of the depths<\/p>\n

And, wallowing, clung
\nto her own misery.<\/p>\n

In dolorous converse
\nwith her squandered self<\/p>\n

She wrote the account
\nof all that she had lost,<\/p>\n

Or sat with grief as
\nwith an ancient friend.<\/p>\n

A romp of violent
\nraptures soon was spent,<\/p>\n

Or she lingered tied
\nto an inadequate joy<\/p>\n

Missing the turns of
\nfate, missing life’s goal.<\/p>\n

A scene was planned
\nfor all her numberless moods<\/p>\n

Where each could be
\nthe law and way of life,<\/p>\n

But none could offer
\na pure felicity; <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 117<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Only a flickering
\nzest they left behind<\/p>\n

Or the fierce lust
\nthat brings a dead fatigue.<\/p>\n

Amid her swift untold
\nvariety<\/p>\n

Something remained
\ndissatisfied ever the same<\/p>\n

And in the new saw
\nonly a face of the old,<\/p>\n

For every hour
\nrepeated all the rest<\/p>\n

And every change
\nprolonged the same unease.<\/p>\n

A spirit of her self
\nand aim unsure,<\/p>\n

Tired soon of too
\nmuch joy and happiness,<\/p>\n

She needs the spur of
\npleasure and of pain<\/p>\n

And the native taste
\nof suffering and unrest:<\/p>\n

She strains for an
\nend that never can she win.<\/p>\n

A perverse savour
\nhaunts her thirsting lips:<\/p>\n

For the grief she
\nweeps which came from her own choice,<\/p>\n

For the pleasure
\nyearns that racked with wounds her breast;<\/p>\n

Aspiring to heaven
\nshe turns her steps towards hell.<\/p>\n

Chance she has chosen
\nand danger for playfellows;<\/p>\n

Fate’s dreadful swing
\nshe has taken for cradle and seat.<\/p>\n

Yet pure and bright
\nfrom the Timeless was her birth,<\/p>\n

A lost world-rapture
\nlingers in her eyes,<\/p>\n

Her moods are faces
\nof the Infinite:<\/p>\n

Beauty and happiness
\nare her native right,<\/p>\n

And endless bliss is
\nher eternal home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This now revealed its
\nantique face of joy,<\/p>\n

A sudden disclosure
\nto the heart of grief<\/p>\n

Tempting it to endure
\nand long and hope.<\/p>\n

Even in changing
\nworlds bereft of peace,<\/p>\n

In an air racked with
\nsorrow and with fear<\/p>\n

And while his feet
\ntrod on a soil unsafe,<\/p>\n

He saw the image of a
\nhappier state.<\/p>\n

In an architecture of
\nhieratic Space<\/p>\n

Circling and mounting
\ntowards creation’s tops,<\/p>\n

At a blue height
\nwhich never was too high<\/p>\n

For warm communion
\nbetween body and soul,<\/p>\n

As far as heaven, as
\nnear as thought and hope,<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 118<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Glimmered the kingdom
\nof a griefless life.<\/p>\n

Above him in a new
\ncelestial vault<\/p>\n

Other than the
\nheavens beheld by mortal eyes,<\/p>\n

As on a fretted
\nceiling of the gods,<\/p>\n

An archipelago of
\nlaughter and fire,<\/p>\n

Swam stars apart in a
\nrippled sea of sky.<\/p>\n

Towered spirals,
\nmagic rings of vivid hue<\/p>\n

And gleaming spheres
\nof strange felicity<\/p>\n

Floated through
\ndistance like a symbol world.<\/p>\n

On the trouble and
\nthe toil they could not share,<\/p>\n

On the unhappiness
\nthey could not aid,<\/p>\n

Impervious to life’s
\nsuffering, struggle, grief,<\/p>\n

Untarnished by its
\nanger, gloom and hate,<\/p>\n

Unmoved, untouched,
\nlooked down great visioned planes<\/p>\n

Blissful for ever in
\ntheir timeless right.<\/p>\n

Absorbed in their own
\nbeauty and content,<\/p>\n

Of their immortal
\ngladness they live sure.<\/p>\n

Apart in their
\nself-glory plunged, remote<\/p>\n

Burning they swam in
\na vague lucent haze,<\/p>\n

An everlasting refuge
\nof dream-light,<\/p>\n

A nebula of the
\nsplendours of the gods<\/p>\n

Made from the musings
\nof eternity.<\/p>\n

Almost unbelievable
\nby human faith,<\/p>\n

Hardly they seemed
\nthe stuff of things that are.<\/p>\n

As through a magic
\ntelevision’s glass<\/p>\n

Outlined to some
\nmagnifying inner eye<\/p>\n

They shone like
\nimages thrown from a far scene<\/p>\n

Too high and glad for
\nmortal lids to seize.<\/p>\n

But near and real to
\nthe longing heart<\/p>\n

And to the body’s
\npassionate thought and sense<\/p>\n

Are the hidden
\nkingdoms of beatitude.<\/p>\n

In some close
\nunattained realm which yet we feel,<\/p>\n

Immune from the harsh
\nclutch of Death and Time,<\/p>\n

Escaping the search
\nof sorrow and desire,<\/p>\n

In bright enchanted
\nsafe peripheries<\/p>\n

For ever wallowing in
\nbliss they lie. <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 119<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

In dream and trance
\nand muse before our eyes,<\/p>\n

Across a subtle
\nvision’s inner field,<\/p>\n

Wide rapturous
\nlandscapes fleeting from the sight,<\/p>\n

The figures of the
\nperfect kingdom pass<\/p>\n

And behind them leave
\na shining memory’s trail.<\/p>\n

Imagined scenes or
\ngreat eternal worlds,<\/p>\n

Dream-caught or
\nsensed, they touch our hearts with their depths;<\/p>\n

Unreal-seeming yet
\nmore real than life,<\/p>\n

Happier than
\nhappiness, truer than things true<\/p>\n

If dreams these were
\nor captured images,<\/p>\n

Dream’s truth made
\nfalse earth’s vain realities.<\/p>\n

In a swift eternal
\nmoment fixed there live<\/p>\n

Or ever recalled come
\nback to longing eyes<\/p>\n

Calm heavens of
\nimperishable Light,<\/p>\n

Illumined continents
\nof violet peace,<\/p>\n

Oceans and rivers of
\nthe mirth of God<\/p>\n

And griefless
\ncountries under purple suns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This, once a star of
\nbright remote idea<\/p>\n

Or imagination’s
\ncomet trail of dream,<\/p>\n

Took now a close
\nshape of reality.<\/p>\n

The gulf between
\ndream-truth, earth-fact was crossed,<\/p>\n

The wonder-worlds of
\nlife were dreams no more;<\/p>\n

His vision made all
\nthey unveiled its own:<\/p>\n

Their scenes, their
\nhappenings met his eyes and heart<\/p>\n

And smote them with
\npure loveliness and bliss.<\/p>\n

A breathless summit
\nregion drew his gaze<\/p>\n

Whose boundaries
\njutted into a sky of Self<\/p>\n

And dipped towards a
\nstrange ethereal base.<\/p>\n

The quintessence
\nglowed of Life’s supreme delight.<\/p>\n

On a spiritual and
\nmysterious peak<\/p>\n

Only a miracle’s high
\ntransfiguring line<\/p>\n

Divided life from the
\nformless Infinite<\/p>\n

And sheltered Time
\nagainst eternity.<\/p>\n

Out of that formless
\nstuff Time mints his shapes;<\/p>\n

The Eternal’s quiet
\nholds the cosmic act:<\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 120<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

The protean images of
\nthe World-Force<\/p>\n

Have drawn the
\nstrength to be, the will to last<\/p>\n

From a deep ocean of
\ndynamic peace.<\/p>\n

Inverting the
\nSpirit’s apex towards life<\/p>\n

She spends the
\nplastic liberties of the One<\/p>\n

To cast in acts the
\ndreams of her caprice,<\/p>\n

His wisdom’s call
\nsteadies her careless feet,<\/p>\n

He props her dance
\nupon a rigid base,<\/p>\n

His timeless still
\nimmutability<\/p>\n

Must standardise her
\ncreation’s miracle.<\/p>\n

Out of the Void’s
\nunseeing energies<\/p>\n

Inventing the scene
\nof a concrete universe,<\/p>\n

By his thought she
\nhas fixed its paces, in its blind acts<\/p>\n

She sees by flashes
\nof his all-knowing Light.<\/p>\n

At her will the
\ninscrutable Supermind leans down<\/p>\n

To guide her force
\nthat feels but cannot know,<\/p>\n

Its breadth of power
\ncontrols her restless seas<\/p>\n

And life obeys the
\ngoverning Idea.<\/p>\n

At her will, led by a
\nluminous Immanence<\/p>\n

The hazardous
\nexperimenting Mind<\/p>\n

Pushes its way
\nthrough obscure possibles<\/p>\n

Mid chance formations
\nof an unknowing world.<\/p>\n

Our human ignorance
\nmoves towards the Truth<\/p>\n

That Nescience may
\nbecome omniscient:<\/p>\n

Transmuted instincts
\nshape to divine thoughts,<\/p>\n

Thoughts house
\ninfallible immortal sight<\/p>\n

And Nature climbs
\ntowards God’s identity.<\/p>\n

The Master of the
\nworlds self-made her slave<\/p>\n

Is the executor of
\nher fantasies:<\/p>\n

She has canalised the
\nseas of omnipotence;<\/p>\n

She has limited by
\nher laws the Illimitable.<\/p>\n

The Immortal bound
\nhimself to do her works;<\/p>\n

He labours at the
\ntasks her Ignorance sets,<\/p>\n

Hidden in the cape of
\nour mortality.<\/p>\n

The worlds, the forms
\nher goddess fancy makes<\/p>\n

Have lost their
\norigin on unseen heights: <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 121<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Even severed,
\nstraying from their timeless source,<\/p>\n

Even deformed,
\nobscured, accursed and fallen,\u2014<\/p>\n

Since even fall has
\nits perverted joy<\/p>\n

And nothing she
\nleaves out that serves delight,\u2014<\/p>\n

These too can to the
\npeaks revert or here<\/p>\n

Cut out the sentence
\nof the spirit’s fall,<\/p>\n

Recover their
\nforfeited divinity.<\/p>\n

At once caught in an
\neternal vision’s sweep<\/p>\n

He saw her pride and
\nsplendour of highborn zones<\/p>\n

And her regions
\ncrouching in the nether deeps.<\/p>\n

Above was a monarchy
\nof unfallen self,<\/p>\n

Beneath was the
\ngloomy trance of the abyss,<\/p>\n

An opposite pole or
\ndim antipodes.<\/p>\n

There were vasts of
\nthe glory of life’s absolutes:<\/p>\n

All laughed in a safe
\nimmortality<\/p>\n

And an eternal
\nchildhood of the soul<\/p>\n

Before darkness came
\nand pain and grief were born<\/p>\n

Where all could dare
\nto be themselves and one<\/p>\n

And Wisdom played in
\nsinless innocence<\/p>\n

With naked Freedom in
\nTruth’s happy sun.<\/p>\n

There were worlds of
\nher laughter and dreadful irony,<\/p>\n

There were fields of
\nher taste of toil and strife and tears;<\/p>\n

Her head lay on the
\nbreast of amorous Death,<\/p>\n

Sleep imitated awhile
\nextinction’s peace.<\/p>\n

The light of God she
\nhas parted from his dark<\/p>\n

To test the savour of
\nbare opposites.<\/p>\n

Here mingling in
\nman’s heart their tones and hues<\/p>\n

Have woven his
\nbeing’s mutable design,<\/p>\n

His life a
\nforward-rippling stream in Time,<\/p>\n

His nature’s constant
\nfixed mobility,<\/p>\n

His soul a moving
\npicture’s changeful film,<\/p>\n

His cosmos-chaos of
\npersonality.<\/p>\n

The grand creatrix
\nwith her cryptic touch<\/p>\n

Has turned to pathos
\nand power being’s self-dream,<\/p>\n

Made a passion-play
\nof its fathomless mystery. <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 122<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

But here were worlds
\nlifted half-way to heaven.<\/p>\n

The Veil was there
\nbut not the Shadowy Wall;<\/p>\n

In forms not too
\nremote from human grasp<\/p>\n

Some passion of the
\ninviolate purity<\/p>\n

Broke through, a ray
\nof the original Bliss.<\/p>\n

Heaven’s joys might
\nhave been earth’s if earth were pure.<\/p>\n

There could have
\nreached our divinised sense and heart<\/p>\n

Some natural
\nfelicity’s bright extreme,<\/p>\n

Some thrill of
\nsupernature’s absolutes:<\/p>\n

All strengths could
\nlaugh and sport on earth’s hard roads<\/p>\n

And never feel her
\ncruel edge of pain,<\/p>\n

All love could play
\nand nowhere Nature’s shame.<\/p>\n

But she has stabled
\nher dreams in Matter’s courts<\/p>\n

And still her doors
\nare barred to things supreme.<\/p>\n

These worlds could
\nfeel God’s breath visiting their tops;<\/p>\n

Some glimmer of the
\nTranscendent’s hem was there.<\/p>\n

Across the white
\naeonic silences<\/p>\n

Immortal figures of
\nembodied joy<\/p>\n

Traversed wide spaces
\nnear to eternity’s sleep.<\/p>\n

Pure mystic voices in
\nbeatitude’s hush<\/p>\n

Appealed to Love’s
\nimmaculate sweetnesses,<\/p>\n

Calling his honeyed
\ntouch to thrill the worlds,<\/p>\n

His blissful hands to
\nseize on Nature’s limbs,<\/p>\n

His sweet intolerant
\nmight of union<\/p>\n

To take all beings
\ninto his saviour arms,<\/p>\n

Drawing to his pity
\nthe rebel and the waif<\/p>\n

To force on them the
\nhappiness they refuse.<\/p>\n

A chant hymeneal to
\nthe unseen Divine,<\/p>\n

A flaming rhapsody of
\nwhite desire<\/p>\n

Lured an immortal
\nmusic into the heart<\/p>\n

And woke the
\nslumbering ear of ecstasy.<\/p>\n

A purer, fierier
\nsense had there its home,<\/p>\n

A burning urge no
\nearthly limbs can hold.<\/p>\n

One drew a large
\nunburdened spacious breath<\/p>\n

And the heart sped
\nfrom beat to rapturous beat.<\/p>\n

The voice of time
\nsang of the Immortal’s joy; <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 123<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

An inspiration and a
\nlyric cry,<\/p>\n

The moments came with
\necstasy on their wings;<\/p>\n

Beauty unimaginable
\nmoved heaven-bare<\/p>\n

Absolved from
\nboundaries in the vasts of dream;<\/p>\n

The cry of the Birds
\nof Wonder called from the skies<\/p>\n

To the deathless
\npeople of the shores of Light.<\/p>\n

Creation leaped
\nstraight from the hands of God;<\/p>\n

Marvel and rapture
\nwandered in the ways.<\/p>\n

Only to be was a
\nsupreme delight,<\/p>\n

Life was a happy
\nlaughter of the soul<\/p>\n

And Joy was king with
\nLove for minister.<\/p>\n

The spirit’s
\nluminousness was bodied there.<\/p>\n

Life’s contraries
\nwere lovers or natural friends<\/p>\n

And her extremes keen
\nedges of harmony:<\/p>\n

Indulgence with a
\ntender purity came<\/p>\n

And nursed the god on
\nher maternal breast:<\/p>\n

There none was weak,
\nso falsehood could not live;<\/p>\n

Ignorance was a thin
\nshade protecting light,<\/p>\n

Imagination the
\nfree-will of Truth,<\/p>\n

Pleasure a candidate
\nfor heaven’s fire;<\/p>\n

The intellect was
\nBeauty’s worshipper,<\/p>\n

Strength was the
\nslave of calm spiritual law,<\/p>\n

Power laid its head
\nupon the breasts of Bliss.<\/p>\n

There were
\nsummit glories inconceivable,<\/p>\n

Autonomies of
\nwisdom’s still self-rule<\/p>\n

And high dependencies
\nof her virgin sun,<\/p>\n

Illumined theocracies
\nof the seeing soul<\/p>\n

Throned in the power
\nof the Transcendent’s ray.<\/p>\n

A vision of
\ngrandeurs, a dream of magnitudes<\/p>\n

In sun-bright
\nkingdoms moved with regal gait:<\/p>\n

Assemblies, crowded
\nsenates of the gods,<\/p>\n

Life’s puissances
\nreigned on seats of marble will,<\/p>\n

High dominations and
\nautocracies<\/p>\n

And laurelled
\nstrengths and armed imperative mights.<\/p>\n

All objects there
\nwere great and beautiful,<\/p>\n

All beings wore a
\nroyal stamp of power. <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 124<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

There sat the
\noligarchies of natural Law,<\/p>\n

Proud violent heads
\nserved one calm monarch brow:<\/p>\n

All the soul’s
\npostures donned divinity.<\/p>\n

There met the ardent
\nmutual intimacies<\/p>\n

Of mastery’s joy and
\nthe joy of servitude<\/p>\n

Imposed by Love on
\nLove’s heart that obeys<\/p>\n

And Love’s body held
\nbeneath a rapturous yoke.<\/p>\n

All was a game of
\nmeeting kinglinesses.<\/p>\n

For worship lifts the
\nworshipper’s bowed strength<\/p>\n

Close to the god’s
\npride and bliss his soul adores:<\/p>\n

The ruler there is
\none with all he rules;<\/p>\n

To him who serves
\nwith a free equal heart<\/p>\n

Obedience is his
\nprincely training’s school,<\/p>\n

His nobility’s
\ncoronet and privilege,<\/p>\n

His faith is a high
\nnature’s idiom,<\/p>\n

His service a
\nspiritual sovereignty.<\/p>\n

There were realms
\nwhere Knowledge joined creative Power<\/p>\n

In her high home and
\nmade her all his own:<\/p>\n

The grand Illuminate
\nseized her gleaming limbs<\/p>\n

And filled them with
\nthe passion of his ray<\/p>\n

Till all her body was
\nits transparent house<\/p>\n

And all her soul a
\ncounterpart of his soul.<\/p>\n

Apotheosised,
\ntransfigured by wisdom’s touch,<\/p>\n

Her days became a
\nluminous sacrifice;<\/p>\n

An immortal moth in
\nhappy and endless fire,<\/p>\n

She burned in his
\nsweet intolerable blaze.<\/p>\n

A captive Life wedded
\nher conqueror.<\/p>\n

In his wide sky she
\nbuilt her world anew;<\/p>\n

She gave to mind’s
\ncalm pace the motor’s speed,<\/p>\n

To thinking a need to
\nlive what the soul saw,<\/p>\n

To living an impetus
\nto know and see.<\/p>\n

His splendour grasped
\nher, her puissance to him clung;<\/p>\n

She crowned the Idea
\na king in purple robes,<\/p>\n

Put her magic serpent
\nsceptre in Thought’s grip,<\/p>\n

Made forms his inward
\nvision’s rhythmic shapes<\/p>\n

And her acts the
\nliving body of his will. <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 125<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

A flaming thunder, a
\ncreator flash,<\/p>\n

His victor Light rode
\non her deathless Force:<\/p>\n

A centaur’s mighty
\ngallop bore the god.<\/p>\n

Life throned with
\nmind, a double majesty.<\/p>\n

Worlds were there of
\na happiness great and grave<\/p>\n

And action tinged
\nwith dream, laughter with thought,<\/p>\n

And passion there
\ncould wait for its desire<\/p>\n

Until it heard the
\nnear approach of God.<\/p>\n

Worlds were there of
\na childlike mirth and joy;<\/p>\n

A carefree
\nyouthfulness of mind and heart<\/p>\n

Found in the body a
\nheavenly instrument;<\/p>\n

It lit an aureate
\nhalo round desire<\/p>\n

And freed the deified
\nanimal in the limbs<\/p>\n

To divine gambols of
\nlove and beauty and bliss.<\/p>\n

On a radiant soil
\nthat gazed at heaven’s smile<\/p>\n

A swift life-impulse
\nstinted not nor stopped:<\/p>\n

It knew not how to
\ntire; happy were its tears.<\/p>\n

There work was play
\nand play the only work,<\/p>\n

The tasks of heaven a
\ngame of godlike might:<\/p>\n

A celestial bacchanal
\nfor ever pure,<\/p>\n

Unstayed by faintness
\nas in mortal frames<\/p>\n

Life was an eternity
\nof rapture’s moods:<\/p>\n

Age never came, care
\nnever lined the face.<\/p>\n

Imposing on the
\nsafety of the stars<\/p>\n

A race and laughter
\nof immortal strengths,<\/p>\n

The nude God-children
\nin their play-fields ran<\/p>\n

Smiting the winds
\nwith splendour and with speed;<\/p>\n

Of storm and sun they
\nmade companions,<\/p>\n

Sported with the
\nwhite mane of tossing seas,<\/p>\n

Slew distance
\ntrampled to death under their wheels<\/p>\n

And wrestled in the
\narenas of their force.<\/p>\n

Imperious in their
\nradiance like the suns<\/p>\n

They kindled heaven
\nwith the glory of their limbs<\/p>\n

Flung like a divine
\nlargesse to the world.<\/p>\n

A spell to force the
\nheart to stark delight,<\/p>\n

They carried the
\npride and mastery of their charm <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 126<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

As if Life’s banner
\non the roads of Space.<\/p>\n

Ideas were luminous
\ncomrades of the soul;<\/p>\n

Mind played with
\nspeech, cast javelins of thought,<\/p>\n

But needed not these
\ninstruments’ toil to know;<\/p>\n

Knowledge was
\nNature’s pastime like the rest.<\/p>\n

Investitured with the
\nfresh heart’s bright ray,<\/p>\n

An early
\nGod-instinct’s child inheritors,<\/p>\n

Tenants of the
\nperpetuity of Time<\/p>\n

Still thrilling with
\nthe first creation’s bliss,<\/p>\n

They steeped
\nexistence in their youth of soul.<\/p>\n

An exquisite and
\nvehement tyranny,<\/p>\n

The strong compulsion
\nof their will to joy<\/p>\n

Poured smiling
\nstreams of happiness through the world.<\/p>\n

There reigned a
\nbreath of high immune content,<\/p>\n

A fortunate gait of
\ndays in tranquil air,<\/p>\n

A flood of universal
\nlove and peace.<\/p>\n

A sovereignty of
\ntireless sweetness lived<\/p>\n

Like a song of
\npleasure on the lips of Time.<\/p>\n

A large spontaneous
\norder freed the will,<\/p>\n

A sun-frank winging
\nof the soul to bliss,<\/p>\n

The breadth and
\ngreatness of the unfettered act<\/p>\n

And the swift
\nfire-heart’s golden liberty.<\/p>\n

There was no
\nfalsehood of soul-severance,<\/p>\n

There came no
\ncrookedness of thought or word<\/p>\n

To rob creation of
\nits native truth;<\/p>\n

All was sincerity and
\nnatural force.<\/p>\n

There freedom was
\nsole rule and highest law.<\/p>\n

In a happy series
\nclimbed or plunged these worlds:<\/p>\n

In realms of curious
\nbeauty and surprise,<\/p>\n

In fields of grandeur
\nand of titan power,<\/p>\n

Life played at ease
\nwith her immense desires.<\/p>\n

A thousand Edens she
\ncould build nor pause;<\/p>\n

No bound was set to
\nher greatness and to her grace<\/p>\n

And to her heavenly
\nvariety.<\/p>\n

Awake with a cry and
\nstir of numberless souls,<\/p>\n

Arisen from the
\nbreast of some deep Infinite, <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 127<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Smiling like a
\nnew-born child at love and hope,<\/p>\n

In her nature housing
\nthe Immortal’s power,<\/p>\n

In her bosom bearing
\nthe eternal Will,<\/p>\n

No guide she needed
\nbut her luminous heart:<\/p>\n

No fall debased the
\ngodhead of her steps,<\/p>\n

No alien Night had
\ncome to blind her eyes.<\/p>\n

There was no use for
\ngrudging ring or fence;<\/p>\n

Each act was a
\nperfection and a joy.<\/p>\n

Abandoned to her
\nrapid fancy’s moods<\/p>\n

And the rich coloured
\nriot of her mind,<\/p>\n

Initiate of divine
\nand mighty dreams,<\/p>\n

Magician builder of
\nunnumbered forms<\/p>\n

Exploring the
\nmeasures of the rhythms of God,<\/p>\n

At will she wove her
\nwizard wonder-dance,<\/p>\n

A Dionysian goddess
\nof delight,<\/p>\n

A Bacchant of
\ncreative ecstasy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This world of bliss
\nhe saw and felt its call,<\/p>\n

But found no way to
\nenter into its joy;<\/p>\n

Across the conscious
\ngulf there was no bridge.<\/p>\n

A darker air
\nencircled still his soul<\/p>\n

Tied to an image of
\nunquiet life.<\/p>\n

In spite of yearning
\nmind and longing sense,<\/p>\n

To a sad Thought by
\ngrey experience formed<\/p>\n

And a vision dimmed
\nby care and sorrow and sleep<\/p>\n

All this seemed only
\na bright desirable dream<\/p>\n

Conceived in a
\nlonging distance by the heart<\/p>\n

Of one who walks in
\nthe shadow of earth-pain.<\/p>\n

Although he once had
\nfelt the Eternal’s clasp,<\/p>\n

Too near to suffering
\nworlds his nature lived,<\/p>\n

And where he stood
\nwere entrances of Night.<\/p>\n

Hardly, too close
\nbeset by the world’s care,<\/p>\n

Can the dense mould
\nin which we have been made<\/p>\n

Return sheer joy to
\njoy, pure light to light.<\/p>\n

For its tormented
\nwill to think and live<\/p>\n

First to a mingled
\npain and pleasure woke <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 128<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

And still it keeps
\nthe habit of its birth:<\/p>\n

A dire duality is our
\nway to be.<\/p>\n

In the crude
\nbeginnings of this mortal world<\/p>\n

Life was not nor
\nmind’s play nor heart’s desire.<\/p>\n

When earth was built
\nin the unconscious Void<\/p>\n

And nothing was save
\na material scene,<\/p>\n

Identified with sea
\nand sky and stone<\/p>\n

Her young gods
\nyearned for the release of souls<\/p>\n

Asleep in objects,
\nvague, inanimate.<\/p>\n

In that desolate
\ngrandeur, in that beauty bare,<\/p>\n

In the deaf
\nstillness, mid the unheeded sounds,<\/p>\n

Heavy was the
\nuncommunicated load<\/p>\n

Of Godhead in a world
\nthat had no needs;<\/p>\n

For none was there to
\nfeel or to receive.<\/p>\n

This solid mass which
\nbrooked no throb of sense<\/p>\n

Could not contain
\ntheir vast creative urge:<\/p>\n

Immersed no more in
\nMatter’s harmony,<\/p>\n

The Spirit lost its
\nstatuesque repose.<\/p>\n

In the uncaring
\ntrance it groped for sight,<\/p>\n

Passioned for the
\nmovements of a conscious heart,<\/p>\n

Famishing for speech
\nand thought and joy and love,<\/p>\n

In the dumb
\ninsensitive wheeling day and night<\/p>\n

Hungered for the beat
\nof yearning and response.<\/p>\n

The poised
\ninconscience shaken with a touch,<\/p>\n

The intuitive silence
\ntrembling with a name,<\/p>\n

They cried to Life to
\ninvade the senseless mould<\/p>\n

And in brute forms
\nawake divinity.<\/p>\n

A voice was heard on
\nthe mute rolling globe,<\/p>\n

A murmur moaned in
\nthe unlistening Void.<\/p>\n

A being seemed to
\nbreathe where once was none:<\/p>\n

Something pent up in
\ndead insentient depths,<\/p>\n

Denied conscious
\nexistence, lost to joy,<\/p>\n

Turned as if one
\nasleep since dateless time.<\/p>\n

Aware of its own
\nburied reality,<\/p>\n

Remembering its
\nforgotten self and right,<\/p>\n

It yearned to know,
\nto aspire, to enjoy, to live. <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 129<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Life heard the call
\nand left her native light.<\/p>\n

Overflowing from her
\nbright magnificent plane<\/p>\n

On the rigid coil and
\nsprawl of mortal space,<\/p>\n

Here too the gracious
\ngreat-winged Angel poured<\/p>\n

Her splendour and her
\nsweetness and her bliss,<\/p>\n

Hoping to fill a fair
\nnew world with joy.<\/p>\n

As comes a goddess to
\na mortal’s breast<\/p>\n

And fills his days
\nwith her celestial clasp,<\/p>\n

She stooped to make
\nher home in transient shapes;<\/p>\n

In Matter’s womb she
\ncast the Immortal’s fire,<\/p>\n

In the unfeeling Vast
\nwoke thought and hope,<\/p>\n

Smote with her charm
\nand beauty flesh and nerve<\/p>\n

And forced delight on
\nearth’s insensible frame.<\/p>\n

Alive and clad with
\ntrees and herbs and flowers<\/p>\n

Earth’s great brown
\nbody smiled towards the skies,<\/p>\n

Azure replied to
\nazure in the sea’s laugh;<\/p>\n

New sentient
\ncreatures filled the unseen depths,<\/p>\n

Life’s glory and
\nswiftness ran in the beauty of beasts,<\/p>\n

Man dared and thought
\nand met with his soul the world.<\/p>\n

But while the magic
\nbreath was on its way,<\/p>\n

Before her gifts
\ncould reach our prisoned hearts,<\/p>\n

A dark ambiguous
\nPresence questioned all.<\/p>\n

The secret Will that
\nrobes itself with Night<\/p>\n

And offers to spirit
\nthe ordeal of the flesh,<\/p>\n

Imposed a mystic mask
\nof death and pain.<\/p>\n

Interned now in the
\nslow and suffering years<\/p>\n

Sojourns the winged
\nand wonderful wayfarer<\/p>\n

And can no more
\nrecall her happier state,<\/p>\n

But must obey the
\ninert Inconscient’s law,<\/p>\n

Insensible foundation
\nof a world<\/p>\n

In which blind limits
\nare on beauty laid<\/p>\n

And sorrow and joy as
\nstruggling comrades live.<\/p>\n

A dim and dreadful
\nmuteness fell on her:<\/p>\n

Abolished was her
\nsubtle mighty spirit<\/p>\n

And slain her boon of
\nchild-god happiness,<\/p>\n

And all her glory
\ninto littleness turned <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 130<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

And all her sweetness
\ninto a maimed desire.<\/p>\n

To feed death with
\nher works is here life’s doom.<\/p>\n

So veiled was her
\nimmortality that she seemed,<\/p>\n

Inflicting
\nconsciousness on unconscious things,<\/p>\n

An episode in an
\neternal death,<\/p>\n

A myth of being that
\nmust for ever cease.<\/p>\n

Such was the evil
\nmystery of her change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nEnd of Canto Three <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 131<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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

  Canto Three    The Glory and Fall of Life    An uneven broad ascent now lured his feet. Answering a greater Nature’s troubled call…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-28-savitri-volume-28","wpcat-10-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","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=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}