{"id":512,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=512"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:29","slug":"07-book-2-canto-01-the-world-stair-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\/07-book-2-canto-01-the-world-stair-vol-28-savitri-volume-28","title":{"rendered":"-07_Book 2 Canto 01 The World-Stair.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Book Two<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Book of the Traveller of the Worlds<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n
\n

Canto One<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n The World-Stair<\/font><\/span> <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alone
\nhe moved watched by the infinity<\/p>\n

Around
\nhim and the Unknowable above.<\/p>\n

All
\ncould be seen that shuns the mortal eye,<\/p>\n

All
\ncould be known the mind has never grasped;<\/p>\n

All
\ncould be done no mortal will can dare.<\/p>\n

A
\nlimitless movement filled a limitless peace.<\/p>\n

In a
\nprofound existence beyond earth’s,<\/p>\n

Parent
\nor kin to our ideas and dreams<\/p>\n

Where
\nSpace is a vast experiment of the soul,<\/p>\n

In a
\ndeep oneness of all things that are,<\/p>\n

The
\nuniverse of the Unknown arose.<\/p>\n

A
\nself-creation without end or pause<\/p>\n

Revealed
\nthe grandeurs of the Infinite:<\/p>\n

It
\nflung into the hazards of its play<\/p>\n

A
\nmillion moods, a myriad energies,<\/p>\n

The
\nworld-shapes that are fancies of its Truth<\/p>\n

And
\nthe formulas of the freedom of its Force.<\/p>\n

It
\npoured into the Ever-stable’s flux<\/p>\n

A
\nbacchic rapture and revel of Ideas,<\/p>\n

A
\npassion and motion of everlastingness.<\/p>\n

There
\nrose unborn into the Unchanging’s surge<\/p>\n

Thoughts
\nthat abide in their deathless consequence,<\/p>\n

Words
\nthat immortal last though fallen mute,<\/p>\n

Acts
\nthat brought out from Silence its dumb sense,<\/p>\n

Lines
\nthat convey the inexpressible.<\/p>\n

The
\nEternal’s stillness saw in unmoved joy<\/p>\n

His
\nuniversal Power at work display<\/p>\n

In
\nplots of pain and dramas of delight<\/p>\n

The
\nwonder and beauty of her will to be.<\/p>\n

All,
\neven pain, was the soul’s pleasure here;<\/p>\n

Here
\nall experience was a single plan, <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 95<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

The
\nthousandfold expression of the One.<\/p>\n

All
\ncame at once into his single view;<\/p>\n

Nothing
\nescaped his vast intuitive sight,<\/p>\n

Nothing
\ndrew near he could not feel as kin:<\/p>\n

He
\nwas one spirit with that immensity.<\/p>\n

Images
\nin a supernal consciousness<\/p>\n

Embodying
\nthe Unborn who never dies,<\/p>\n

The
\nstructured visions of the cosmic Self<\/p>\n

Alive
\nwith the touch of being’s eternity<\/p>\n

Looked
\nat him like form-bound spiritual thoughts<\/p>\n

Figuring
\nthe movements of the Ineffable.<\/p>\n

Aspects
\nof being donned world-outline; forms<\/p>\n

That
\nopen moving doors on things divine,<\/p>\n

Became
\nfamiliar to his hourly sight;<\/p>\n

The
\nsymbols of the Spirit’s reality,<\/p>\n

The
\nliving bodies of the Bodiless<\/p>\n

Grew
\nnear to him, his daily associates.<\/p>\n

The
\nexhaustless seeings of the unsleeping Mind,<\/p>\n

Letterings
\nof its contact with the invisible,<\/p>\n

Surrounded
\nhim with countless pointing signs;<\/p>\n

The
\nvoices of a thousand realms of Life<\/p>\n

Missioned
\nto him her mighty messages.<\/p>\n

The
\nheaven-hints that invade our earthly lives,<\/p>\n

The
\ndire imaginations dreamed by Hell,<\/p>\n

Which
\nif enacted and experienced here<\/p>\n

Our
\ndulled capacity soon would cease to feel<\/p>\n

Or
\nour mortal frailty could not long endure,<\/p>\n

Were
\nset in their sublime proportions there.<\/p>\n

There
\nlived out in their self-born atmosphere,<\/p>\n

They
\nresumed their topless pitch and native power;<\/p>\n

Their
\nfortifying stress upon the soul<\/p>\n

Bit
\ndeep into the ground of consciousness<\/p>\n

The
\npassion and purity of their extremes,<\/p>\n

The
\nabsoluteness of their single cry<\/p>\n

And
\nthe sovereign sweetness or violent poetry<\/p>\n

Of
\ntheir beautiful or terrible delight. <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 96<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

All
\nthought can know or widest sight perceive<\/p>\n

And
\nall that thought and sight can never know,<\/p>\n

All
\nthings occult and rare, remote and strange<\/p>\n

Were
\nnear to heart’s contact, felt by spirit-sense.<\/p>\n

Asking
\nfor entry at his nature’s gate.<\/p>\n

They
\ncrowded the widened spaces of his mind,<\/p>\n

His
\nself-discovery’s flaming witnesses,<\/p>\n

Offering
\ntheir marvel and their multitude.<\/p>\n

These
\nnow became new portions of himself,<\/p>\n

The
\nfigures of his spirit’s greater life,<\/p>\n

The
\nmoving scenery of his large time-walk<\/p>\n

Or
\nthe embroidered tissue of his sense:<\/p>\n

These
\ntook the place of intimate human things<\/p>\n

And
\nmoved as close companions of his thoughts,<\/p>\n

Or
\nwere his soul’s natural environment.<\/p>\n

Tireless
\nthe heart’s adventure of delight,<\/p>\n

Endless
\nthe kingdoms of the Spirit’s bliss,<\/p>\n

Unnumbered
\ntones struck from one harmony’s strings;<\/p>\n

Each
\nto its wide-winged universal poise,<\/p>\n

Its
\nfathomless feeling of the All in one,<\/p>\n

Brought
\nnotes of some perfection yet unseen,<\/p>\n

Its
\nsingle retreat into Truth’s secrecies,<\/p>\n

Its
\nhappy sidelight on the Infinite.<\/p>\n

All
\nwas found there the Unique had dreamed and made<\/p>\n

Tinging
\nwith ceaseless rapture and surprise<\/p>\n

And
\nan opulent beauty of passionate difference<\/p>\n

The
\nrecurring beat that moments God in Time.<\/p>\n

Only
\nwas missing the sole timeless Word<\/p>\n

That
\ncarries eternity in its lonely sound,<\/p>\n

The
\nIdea self-luminous key to all ideas,<\/p>\n

The
\ninteger of the Spirit’s perfect sum<\/p>\n

That
\nequates the unequal All to the equal One,<\/p>\n

The
\nsingle sign interpreting every sign,<\/p>\n

The
\nabsolute index to the Absolute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There
\nwalled apart by its own
\ninnerness <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 97<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

In a
\nmystical barrage of dynamic light<\/p>\n

He
\nsaw a lone immense high-curved world-pile<\/p>\n

Erect
\nlike a mountain chariot of the Gods<\/p>\n

Motionless
\nunder an inscrutable sky.<\/p>\n

As
\nif from Matter’s plinth and viewless base<\/p>\n

To a
\ntop as viewless, a carved sea of worlds<\/p>\n

Climbing
\nwith foam-maned waves to the Supreme<\/p>\n

Ascended
\ntowards breadths immeasurable;<\/p>\n

It
\nhoped to soar into the Ineffable’s reign:<\/p>\n

A
\nhundred levels raised it to the Unknown.<\/p>\n

So
\nit towered up to heights intangible<\/p>\n

And
\ndisappeared in the hushed conscious Vast<\/p>\n

As
\nclimbs a storeyed temple-tower to heaven<\/p>\n

Built
\nby the aspiring soul of man to live<\/p>\n

Near
\nto his dream of the Invisible.<\/p>\n

Infinity
\ncalls to it as it dreams and climbs;<\/p>\n

Its
\nspire touches the apex of the world;<\/p>\n

Mounting
\ninto great voiceless stillnesses<\/p>\n

It
\nmarries the earth to screened eternities.<\/p>\n

Amid
\nthe many systems of the One<\/p>\n

Made
\nby an interpreting creative joy<\/p>\n

Alone
\nit points us to our journey back<\/p>\n

Out
\nof our long self-loss in Nature’s deeps;<\/p>\n

Planted
\non earth it holds in it all realms:<\/p>\n

It
\nis a brief compendium of the Vast.<\/p>\n

This
\nwas the single stair to being’s goal.<\/p>\n

A
\nsummary of the stages of the spirit,<\/p>\n

Its
\ncopy of the cosmic hierarchies<\/p>\n

Refashioned
\nin our secret air of self<\/p>\n

A
\nsubtle pattern of the universe.<\/p>\n

It
\nis within, below, without, above.<\/p>\n

Acting
\nupon this visible Nature’s scheme<\/p>\n

It
\nwakens our earth-matter’s heavy doze<\/p>\n

To
\nthink and feel and to react to joy;<\/p>\n

It
\nmodels in us our diviner parts,<\/p>\n

Lifts
\nmortal mind into a greater air, <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 98<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Makes
\nyearn this life of flesh to intangible aims,<\/p>\n

Links
\nthe body’s death with immortality’s call:<\/p>\n

Out
\nof the swoon of the Inconscience<\/p>\n

It
\nlabours towards a superconscient Light.<\/p>\n

If
\nearth were all and this were not in her,<\/p>\n

Thought
\ncould not be nor life-delight’s response:<\/p>\n

Only
\nmaterial forms could then be her guests<\/p>\n

Driven
\nby an inanimate world-force.<\/p>\n

Earth
\nby this golden superfluity<\/p>\n

Bore
\nthinking man and more than man shall bear;<\/p>\n

This
\nhigher scheme of being is our cause<\/p>\n

And
\nholds the key to our ascending fate;<\/p>\n

It
\ncalls out of our dense mortality<\/p>\n

The
\nconscious spirit nursed in Matter’s house.<\/p>\n

The
\nliving symbol of these conscious planes,<\/p>\n

Its
\ninfluences and godheads of the unseen,<\/p>\n

Its
\nunthought logic of Reality’s acts<\/p>\n

Arisen
\nfrom the unspoken truth in things,<\/p>\n

Have
\nfixed our inner life’s slow-scaled degrees.<\/p>\n

Its
\nsteps are paces of the soul’s return<\/p>\n

From
\nthe deep adventure of material birth,<\/p>\n

A
\nladder of delivering ascent<\/p>\n

And
\nrungs that Nature climbs to deity.<\/p>\n

Once
\nin the vigil of a deathless gaze<\/p>\n

These
\ngrades had marked her giant downward plunge,<\/p>\n

The
\nwide and prone leap of a godhead’s fall.<\/p>\n

Our
\nlife is a holocaust of the Supreme.<\/p>\n

The
\ngreat World-Mother by her sacrifice<\/p>\n

Has
\nmade her soul the body of our state;<\/p>\n

Accepting
\nsorrow and unconsciousness<\/p>\n

Divinity’s
\nlapse from its own splendours wove<\/p>\n

The
\nmany-patterned ground of all we are.<\/p>\n

An
\nidol of self is our mortality.<\/p>\n

Our
\nearth is a fragment and a residue;<\/p>\n

Her
\npower is packed with the stuff of greater worlds<\/p>\n

And
\nsteeped in their colour-lustres dimmed by her drowse; <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 99<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

An
\natavism of higher births is hers,<\/p>\n

Her
\nsleep is stirred by their buried memories<\/p>\n

Recalling
\nthe lost spheres from which they fell.<\/p>\n

Unsatisfied
\nforces in her bosom move;<\/p>\n

They
\nare partners of her greater growing fate<\/p>\n

And
\nher return to immortality;<\/p>\n

They
\nconsent to share her doom of birth and death;<\/p>\n

They
\nkindle partial gleams of the All and drive<\/p>\n

Her
\nblind laborious spirit to compose<\/p>\n

A
\nmeagre image of the mighty Whole.<\/p>\n

The
\ncalm and luminous Intimacy within<\/p>\n

Approves
\nher work and guides the unseeing Power.<\/p>\n

His
\nvast design accepts a puny start.<\/p>\n

An
\nattempt, a drawing half-done is the world’s life;<\/p>\n

Its
\nlines doubt their concealed significance,<\/p>\n

Its
\ncurves join not their high-intended close.<\/p>\n

Yet
\nsome first image of greatness trembles there,<\/p>\n

And
\nwhen the ambiguous crowded parts have met<\/p>\n

The
\nmany-toned unity to which they moved,<\/p>\n

The
\nArtist’s joy shall laugh at reason’s rules;<\/p>\n

The
\ndivine intention suddenly shall be seen,<\/p>\n

The
\nend vindicate intuition’s sure technique.<\/p>\n

A
\ngraph shall be of many meeting worlds,<\/p>\n

A
\ncube and union crystal of the gods;<\/p>\n

A
\nMind shall think behind Nature’s mindless mask,<\/p>\n

A
\nconscious Vast fill the old dumb brute Space.<\/p>\n

This
\nfaint and fluid sketch of soul called man<\/p>\n

Shall
\nstand out on the background of long Time<\/p>\n

A
\nglowing epitome of eternity,<\/p>\n

A
\nlittle point reveal the infinitudes.<\/p>\n

A
\nMystery’s process is the universe.<\/p>\n

At
\nfirst was laid a strange anomalous base,<\/p>\n

A
\nvoid, a cipher of some secret Whole,<\/p>\n

Where
\nzero held infinity in its sum<\/p>\n

And
\nAll and Nothing were a single term,<\/p>\n

An
\neternal negative, a matrix Nought: <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 100<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

Into
\nits forms the Child is ever born<\/p>\n

Who
\nlives for ever in the vasts of God.<\/p>\n

A
\nslow reversal’s movement then took place:<\/p>\n

A
\ngas belched out from some invisible Fire,<\/p>\n

Of
\nits dense rings were formed these million stars;<\/p>\n

Upon
\nearth’s new-born soil God’s tread was heard.<\/p>\n

Across
\nthe thick smoke of earth’s ignorance<\/p>\n

A
\nMind began to see and look at forms<\/p>\n

And
\ngroped for knowledge in the nescient Night:<\/p>\n

Caught
\nin a blind stone-grip Force worked its plan<\/p>\n

And
\nmade in sleep this huge mechanical world,<\/p>\n

That
\nMatter might grow conscious of its soul<\/p>\n

And
\nlike a busy midwife the life-power<\/p>\n

Deliver
\nthe zero carrier of the All.<\/p>\n

Because
\neternal eyes turned on earth’s gulfs<\/p>\n

The
\nlucent clarity of a pure regard<\/p>\n

And
\nsaw a shadow of the Unknowable<\/p>\n

Mirrored
\nin the Inconscient’s boundless sleep,<\/p>\n

Creation’s
\nsearch for self began its stir.<\/p>\n

A
\nspirit dreamed in the crude cosmic whirl,<\/p>\n

Mind
\nflowed unknowing in the sap of life<\/p>\n

And
\nMatter’s breasts suckled the divine Idea.<\/p>\n

A
\nmiracle of the Absolute was born,<\/p>\n

Infinity
\nput on a finite soul,<\/p>\n

All
\nocean lived within a wandering drop,<\/p>\n

A
\ntime-made body housed the Illimitable.<\/p>\n

To
\nlive this Mystery out our souls came here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Seer
\nwithin who knows the ordered plan<\/p>\n

Concealed
\nbehind our momentary steps,<\/p>\n

Inspires
\nour ascent to viewless heights<\/p>\n

As
\nonce the abysmal leap to birth and life.<\/p>\n

His
\ncall had reached the Traveller in Time.<\/p>\n

Apart
\nin an unfathomed loneliness,<\/p>\n

He
\ntravelled in his mute and single strength<\/p>\n

Bearing
\nthe burden of the world’s desire. <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 101<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

A
\nformless stillness called, a nameless Light.<\/p>\n

Above
\nhim was the white immobile Ray,<\/p>\n

Around
\nhim the eternal Silences.<\/p>\n

No
\nterm was fixed to the high-pitched attempt;<\/p>\n

World
\nafter world disclosed its guarded powers,<\/p>\n

Heaven
\nafter heaven its deep beatitudes,<\/p>\n

But
\nstill the invisible Magnet drew his soul.<\/p>\n

A
\nfigure sole on Nature’s giant stair,<\/p>\n

He
\nmounted towards an indiscernible end<\/p>\n

On
\nthe bare summit of created things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

End of Canto One <\/p>\n

\n Page \u2013 102<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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

Book Two   The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds     Canto One   The World-Stair    Alone he moved watched by the…<\/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-512","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\/512","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=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}