Book Ten. The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV
Book Ten
The Book of the Double Twilight
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Book Ten: Canto 4 The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real
Death cries once; again across this spectacle of fruitless labour: "Behold this dream of creation, this malady of man’s hope. Nothing can change, all is ruled by Nature’s law. Man cannot soar beyond the limits the mind sets for him. In vain he prays peopling the void with brilliant Gods. Gods are his imagination. God is beyond the reach of mortal time. There is no final aim in life; life turns in cycles. The world is a myth, a legend told to itself by the Mind. Hope not to make Matter’s world the home of God; Truth cannot come there, only the thought of Truth God is not there, only the name of God. God is above, unconcerned. His solitary joy needs not thy love. Leave this scene of sorrow and vain toil and choose the high station in thy immutable Self in the Eternal. Die to thyself, I, Death, ant the gate of immortality. Savitri answers: Thou makest the Word a dart to slay my living soul. Not for me arc thy boons; give them to the timid spirits who want to flee front the play of God. I cannot seek rest in endless peace; in me is the mighty Mother’s violent force. This world may be a poor translation of the Truth that is beyond idea and speech, but it is not cut off from Truth and God. In vain is thy wall, O Death. The light of Heaven is already on our being’s verge, the powers of the Unknown are emerging from Nature’s sleep. God is near, Truth is close. I have discovered that the world is the body of God. A lonely freedom cannot satisfy me. I am a deputy of the aspiring word. I ask my spirit’s liberty for all. There is a change in the dread form of Death, a change in his voice though it still rings in doubt. He speaks: Thy heart is too violent, too passionate. Touch not the ancient laws. Be tranquil. Be wise. Savitri: Changeless Law is not all. Dull fixity may be well for inanimate things. But man is meant for a noble walk. I trample on thy law, I claim for Time my will’s eternity. Death: Why should the immortal Will stoop to this petty earth? Is thine the right to use high strength and thought to grasp these little shreds of earthly life? Why dolt thou keep him whom thou Invest from the grand release of the heavens? Savitri: I am driven by God to build his glory on earth. My soul is free to play with love and beauty; most bound, the soul is most free. Heaven can wait, the wager of life is wonderful. Death: Whatever be the source of thy strength, the cosmic Law is greater than thy will. What and where is the Truth thou speakest of? All that is patent is the conflict between two contrary Powers in this world. All is an enigma. Eternal truth lives not with mortal men. IF she is within thee, show me the body of the living truth that I too may worship her. I know only one truth and that is that nothing can bring hack the dead to life. Seek thy solace in life, O Savitri. Savitri answers and as she answers her mortality disappears. Her goddess self appears in her eyes. She speaks: O Death, thou too art God, though only his black shadow. Thou art his dark head. All contraries are aspects of God’s face. One and many, Personal and Impersonal, Silence and Word, Darkness and Light — all are contraries needed for his great World-task. He is all and transcends all. There is a plan, an Intelligence in this world-movement. The supreme Truth has forced the world to be. The Infinite flowers in the finite. The soul grows slowly from its imprisonment in Matter’s trance and gazes on the peaks of existence when man wakes into the spiritual mind. The embodied spirit in its flight enters into the cosmic empire of the overmind and then into the glorious kingdom of eternal Light where reigns the Truth supreme. There is the Truth, the Light, the Love, the Bliss for which the whole world yearns. But who can show to the Truth’s glorious face? O Death, if thou wed to touch the Truth, thou wouldst cease to be. Death answers for the last time: If Truth supreme transcends her shadow here, what is the bridge to span the gulf? Truth speaks through thy words, but where is thy strength to conquer Time and Death? O human claimant to immortality, reveal thy power, bare thy spirit’s face; then will I give back Satyavan to thee. Show me the face of the Mighty Mother, if she is with thee. Savitri looks at Death. She does not answer. A mighty transformation comes over her. The Immortal’s lustre fills her and overflows making the air a luminous sea. The Incarnation thrusts aside its veil. A Power and Presence from her being’s summit comes down into her, from centre by centre it moves till it smiles the thousand-hooded Serpent Force which blazes upwards and clasps the World-Self above. Eternity looks into the eyes of Death. A Voice is heard in the stillness "I hail thee, almighty Death, Darkness of the Infinite. Thou art my shadow and my instrument; I have given thee thy awful shape of dread and thy sword of terror to force the soul of man to struggle for light. Thou art the whip to man’s yearning for eternal bliss. Live a while. O Death, be my instrument. But now stand aside and leave the path of my incarnate Force. Release the soul of the world, Satvavan." is the Truth, the Light, the Love, the Bliss for which the whole world yearns. But who can show to the Truth’s glorious face? o Death, if thou wed to touch the Truth, thou wouldst cease to be. But Death still resists. The two oppose each other face to face. Soon her intolerable force weighs upon him, her Light licks him up, his darkness perishes in her blaze. He calls to Night, but she falls back. He calls to Hell but it retires, He turns to the Inconscient for support, but it draws him hack towards its Void. His body is eaten by Light. his spirit is devoured. He recognises that defeat is inevitable and Bees dreading her touch. The Shadow disappears. Savitri and Satyavan are alone. Neither stirs; a mute, translucent wall rises up between them. Nothing moves. All waits on the unknown inscrutable Will of God.
There came a slope
that slowly downward sank;
The dim-heart marvel
of the ideal was lost; As they journey on, they come to a slope that slips towards an uneven dull descent. The vague wonder of the Ideal is no more; its bright delicate dreams and semi-formed greatnesses are left behind. Thought falls downwards towards lower altitudes, seeking intensely for some concrete reality to hold on to.
The twilight floated
still but changed its hues The twilight is still there, but its hues are changed; it is less delightful in its dream-content. It sits heavy and tired, its colours appear dull red. It is almost like a threatening mist of day.
A straining taut and
dire besieged her heart; Savitri feels a fierce tugging at her heart; her senses grow heavy as if weighed down with a dangerous load; her cars begin to hear sadder and louder sounds, Through sharp breakings in the pair glow she catches sight of plains below hurrying past, cloudy mountains, wide brownish-yellow streams, cities climbing in minarets and towers towards an unchanging, uninviting sky. Long quays, landings and harbours dotted with sails catch her eyes awhile and then vanish out of sight.
Amidst them
travailed toiling multitudes Amidst them all, she sees toiling multitudes labouring in ever-changing, transient groups. It is a chequered cinema show of shadowy figures in the dull frame of a dream.
Imagining meanings
in life’s heavy drift, These multitudes imagine there is some meaning in all this heavy drift of life: they trust in their environment which is so uncertain and they wait in patience for death to bring about a change of scene for their labouring spirit.
A savage din of
labour and a tramp The primitive roar of labour, the heavy tramp of armed troops and the boring monotonous hum of unchanging thoughts and acts — like the dull repetitive droning of a huge machine — assail her soul. It is a dull, sullen report like the eerie moaning of a noisy restless sea.
A huge inhuman
Cyclopean voice, A huge, inhuman giant voice, a song of medley-voices soaring to the skies, a throb of machines and a clanging of tools, all bring the deep subdued note of the pain of labour.
As when pale
lightnings tear a tortured sky, As when pale lightnings repeatedly streak .cross the skies, the forced creations of an ignorant Mind flare in a cloud-edged series high above, chasing like smoke ejected from a flaming funnel.
Drifting she saw
like pictured fragments flee Savitri sees drifting before her fleeting phantoms of human thoughts and chequered hopes. Various shapes of Nature and human arts, philosophies, disciplines, laws, the dead spirit of decadent societies, huge constructions of the Titan as well as minute ones of the worm pass before her eyes like fragments of a picture.
As if lost remnants
of forgotten light, Revelations that had faded, words that could once deliver but now with their mission discharged and saving power exhausted, messages of salvation by faith, voices of the prophets and texts of fast disappearing creeds —all these pass before her mind in trailing flight, as though they were the lost remains of some forgotten light.
Each in its hour
eternal claimed went by: But all were dreams crossing an empty vast. Each of these, now passing by, was claimed in its day as eternal. Ideals, systems, sciences, poems, crafts, — all are seen to perish and recur min and again. They are all sought without respite by some creative Power to try and express the truths it wants to manifest. Rut all of them now appear to be unsubstantial, simply dreams passing through a vacant vast.
Ascetic voices
called of lonely seers Ascetic voices are heard calling. They come from lonely seers on the tops of mountains or on the banks of rivers or in the solitary deeps of far woods, seeking the rest of heaven or the silent peace of the spirit. Meditating souls are seen in postures of immobility and in conditions of trance in which all movement of thought is suspended.But again all this also is but a dream.
All things the past
has made and slain were there, All the things that had been created in the past and slain are seen in this procession — all the forms that had once been but since forgotten. Also seen arc the current loves cherished as new revelations, and all the hopes of the future doomed to failure, their efforts wasted — fruitless repetitions age after age.
Unwearied all
returned insisting still But they are not deterred by constant failures; they insist on returning to the scene of life because of the joy in the struggle of the quest, because of the joy of labour, victory and defeat, of creation, preservation and destruction.
The rolling cycles
passed and came again, The revolving and rolling cycles of time pass and come again; they bring the same labours and the same barren endings. The forms are ever new and yet they are ever old.Such are the dismal revolutions of the world.
Once more arose the
great destroying Voice: Once again the great destroying Voice of the God of Death arises. His massive denial’s all-defeating might pursues the ignorant tread of dismal Time across the Vain labour of the worlds.
“Behold the
figures of this symbol realm, ”Look at all the figures of this symbolic realm, its firm outlines of potent, creative dream, which inspire all the great concrete works on the earth.
In its motion
parable of human life "Here in this fleeting parable of man’s life thou perceive unmistakably the outcome that Nature the sin of living and the inherent error in all the desire that compels all to exist and live, incurable disease of hope that afflicts man.
In an immutable
order’s hierarchy "In this hierarchy of unchanging order where Nature never changes, man too cannot really hope to change. He has always to obey her fixed law of alterations in form. It is always the same old tale told in new versions; the same race is run round and round in ever-moving cycles.
His mind is pent in
circling boundaries:
If he could leave
his limits he would be safe:
He is a captive in
his net of mind Man’s mind is shut in the enclosing boundaries. And being essentially a mental being, he cannot soar beyond thought. It he could break out of these confines then he would be safe; he would not be stultified. At present he sees the greater heavens beyond, but he cannot mount to them. Though he has wings he cannot fly high, he sinks back to the earth — his native soil. He is a prisoner in the net of his mind. His soul has wings. true, but he can only beat them in vain against the walls of life.
In vain his heart
lifts up its yearning prayer, "In vain does his heart sear in intense prayer to the brilliant Gods it imagines to be dwelling in what is really a formless Void ; disappointed he turns to the Void, asks for release in its happy Nothingness. He asks for the ending of his dream of a self in a calm Nirvana, a Nirvana where all words end in silence, all names in Zero.
Apart amid the
mortal multitudes, Setting himself apart from his fellowmen, man calls the Godhead that is incommunicable to be the lover of his soul that is lonely; or he throws his spirit into the Godhead’s empty embrace; or he imagines himself the image of the impersonal, impartial All. Man hopes to move the Immobile with his own will; he attributes to the Eternal his human emotions of wrath and love and gives a thousand names to the Ineffable, the Inexpressible.
Hope not to call God
down into his life: There is no house for him in hurrying Time. "O Savitri, do not ever hope to call God down into the life of man. How canst thou bring the Everlasting, the Eternal here and make him dwell in fleeting Time?
Vainly thou seek’st
in Matter’s world an aim; All walk by Nature bound for ever the same. Thou seekest in vain for an aim in this world of Matter. There is really no aim. There is only a will to exist, to live. All move bound to Nature, all remain always the same.
Look on these forms
that stay awhile and pass, "Look on all these forms; they last for a while and then pass away. Look on these lives that hope and strive and then cease to be. Look at all these structures that have no lasting truth to sustain them. Look on the creeds that claim to save but are unable to save themselves; see how they cannot stand the test of time, how they are proved false by Time and are discarded by man. Look on the philosophies that discuss all problems threadbare but have solved none since the beginnings of the earth.
And sciences
omnipotent in vain "Look at these sciences with all their vain omnipotence; men may learn by them what the suns are made of; by them men may transform things to serve their material needs; they may be able to fly in the sky and sail under the waters, but they are unable to know the truth of their own being or the purpose of their existence.
These polities,
architectures of man’s brain, "Look at these politics, edifices built by the brains of man with bricks of evil and good; they only serve to shut in his spirit. They are houses full of cracks; they are at once palaces of enjoyment and jails of confinement. They rot even as they rule and start crumbling before they crash.
These revolutions,
demon or drunken god, "Look at these revolutions — work of the demon or of the inebriated god — which convulse the already wounded body of mankind only to paint in new colours the same old face, only to present in new forms the tyrannies of the past.
These wars, carnage
triumphant, ruin gone mad, "Look at these wars, triumphant in destruction, reckless in the instant ruin they visit on the work of centuries: the blood they shed of the vanquished and the crown they win for the victor are paid for with all the sufferings of the generations to come; their hero has the face of a god on the body of a brute, and in him the grandeur of the demon and that of the demi-god combine their glory is soiled with bestiality and sham.
Why is it all, the
labour and the din,
Song, shouts and
weeping, wisdom and idle words, "What is the purpose of all this labour and din, all these fleeting joys and endless tears, all the longing, the hoping and the cry, the battle, the victory and the fall, the goalless journey that can never stop, the waking struggle and the disordered sleep? Why these, songs, shouts and cries, wisdom and pointless words, laughter of men and the irony of the gods?
Where leads the march, whither the pilgrimage? Who keeps the map of the route or planned each stage? Or else self-moved the world walks its own way?
Or nothing is there
but only a Mind that dreams: Where does this march lead to? In which direction is the pilgrimage? If there is a map of its route who keeps it? Who has planned each stage of the journey? Perhaps the world moves on its own, self-propelled, or nothing is there really and it is only the Mind that dreams it all. Perhaps the world is only a myth that has somehow taken shape, a legend told by the conscious Mind to itself, pictured and staged on an imaginary ground-stage of Matter on which it (the Mind) stands in an empty Vast.
Mind is the author,
spectator, actor, stage:
If Mind is all,
renounce the hope of bliss;
For Mind can never
touch the body of Truth "Mind seems to be everything — itself the author of the play, the spectator, the actor, the stage. There is only Mind and that which it thinks is what is seen. And if Mind is all, then give up all hope of bliss, give up all hope of reaching the Truth. For Mind can never directly contact the body of Truth, it can never behold the soul of God; it grasps only his shadow and does not hear his sardonic laughter when it turns away from him to the vain, unreal, existence of things.
Mind is a tissue
woven of light and shade "Actually Mind is a fabric of light and shade, with right and wrong woven in it. Or else Mind is a marriage authorised by Nature between truth and falsehood, joy and pain and this conflicting pair can never be .separated by any court.
Each thought is a
gold coin with bright alloy "Each thought of the Mind is a gold coin mixed with shining alloy; error and truth arc its two sides. It is issued by the sovereign mint of the brain. All its currency is of this mixed kind.
Think not to plant
on earth the living Truth "Do not hope to plant the living Truth on earth or turn the world of Matter into the home of God. Truth does not come there; what comes is only the thought of Truth. God is not there; what is there is only the name of God.
If Self there is, it
is bodiless and unborn;
Cast off thy life
and mind, then art thou Self, "If at all there is a Self then it is without body, it is unborn; it is no one nor is it possessed by any. On what basis, then, wilt thou build thy happy world? It is only if thou wilt cast away thy life and mind that thou canst be the Self which is an all-seeing Omnipresence, bare, alone.
If God there is he
cares not for the world; "If at all there is Cod, he does not care for the world. He sees all things with a lofty, calm, indifferent gaze. He has condemned all hearts to the doom of sorrow and desire, he has subjected lift to his unappeasable laws. He does not answer the ignorant supplications of prayer.
Eternal while the
ages toil beneath, He sits there above, eternal, while here beneath. the ages toil; he is unmoved, untouched by anything that he has created. For him, the agony of the animal and the fate of man are nothing more than insignificant details in the midst of innumerable stars. He is wise beyond measure, far exceeding thy thought. His solitary joy needs not thy love.
His truth in human
thinking cannot dwell: “His truth cannot dwell in the thought of the human mind. If thou desirest his truth, then calm thy mind, still it for ever, let it be engulfed by the silent, unseen Light of God.
Immortal bliss lives
not in human air: "Immortal bliss does not live in human air. How can the mighty Mother preserve fresh and fragrant her calm delight in this narrow, fragile vase that is man? Or how can she lodge her sweet unending ecstasy in human hearts which are always open to earthly sorrow, in human bodies that can be slain by uncaring Death at its pleasure?
Dream not to change
the world that God has planned,
If heavens there are
whose gates are shut to grief, "Do not dream to change the world which God has planned and created; strive not to change his eternal law. If there are heavens where there is no grief, then seek there the joy that thou hast failed to find on earth. Or, O child of eternity, choose thy high dwelling in the immortal hemisphere above where Light is natural, Delight spontaneous, and the Spirit, the deathless base of all things.
If thou art Spirit
and Nature is thy robe, "If as thou claimest, thou art the Spirit and Nature is only thy robe. then throw away thy garb of Nature and be thy nude, stark self which is immutable in its immortal truth, ever alone in the mute Alone.
Turn then to God,
for him leave all behind; O soul, drown in his still beatitude.
For thou must die to
thyself to reach God’s height: "Turn then to God alone, leaving all else behind; forget this love, forget Satyavan, annul thyself in the immobile peace of God. O soul, drown thyself in his unmoving beatitude. For, to reach Gods height, thou must first die to thyself. I, Death, am the gate to immortality. Thou must pass through me to enter the eternal abode."
But Savitri answered
to the sophist God: Savitri answers the cunning reasoner:"Are you going to call once again brilliant Light to dazzle and blind the eyes of Truth, catch and imprison Knowledge in the net of Ignorance and make of the potent word an arrow to slay my living soul?
Offer, O king, thy
boons to tired spirits "O King, offer thy boons to those whose spirits are tired, whose hearts cannot bear the wounds inflicted by Time let those who are bound to body and mind snap those bonds and flee into the haven of sheer calm, seeking refuge from the play of God in the universe. Indeed thy boons must be great since thou art none other than God himself!
But how shall I seek
rest in endless peace "But that way is not for me. How can I seek to rest in eternal peace I in whom courses the violent force of the mighty Divine Mother whose vision is directed to unveil the mystery of this riddle-world, whose will is readied in the fire of Wisdom and in whose heart of love there is a flaming dynamic silence?
The world is a
spiritual paradox "The world is truly a spiritual paradox brought into being by some need in the Reality that is unseen. It is a poor rendering to the sense of the created being of that Reality which is beyond idea and speech; it is a symbol of That which cannot be so symbolised, a language wrongly pronounced. wrongly spelt and yet, not false.
Its powers have come
from the eternal heights "The powers at work in the world have truly come from the heights of the Eternal and plunged into the obscure Abyss of the inconseient. Thence they halve risen to labour and fulfil their marvellous mission.
The soul is a figure
of the Unmanifest, "The soul is a figure, a form of the Reality that is Unmanifest."The mind labours to think, to put into thought, the Unthinkable; the life tries to invoke the Immortal into birth the body strives to be the temple of the Illimitable.
The world is not cut off from Truth and God.
In vain thou hast
dug the dark unbridgeable gulf, The world is not cut off from Truth and God. O Death, in vain hast thou dug the dark unbridgeable gulf between the world and God; in vain hast thou built the blind and doorless wall between them. Through thee, Death, man’s soul cloth cross to Paradise; through thy dark night, heaven’s sun forces its way to the earth its light is seen upon the horizons of our being.
My mind is a torch
lit from the eternal sun,
Already the torch
becomes the undying ray, "My mind is a torch lighted from the eternal sun; my life is a breath drawn by the Divine Being ensouled in me; my mortal body is the dwelling place of the Eternal. Even now this torch becomes the quenchless immortal ray, this life expresses the force of the Immortal, this body grows one with the owner of the house —the soul eternal.
How sayst thou Truth
can never light the human mind "When this is so, how canst thou say that Truth can never enter and light the human mind, that Bliss can never flood the mortal’s heart or that God can never descend into the world that he has made ?
If in the
meaningless Void creation rose, "If this creation could rise in a meaningless Void, if Matter could he horn out of a formless Force, if Life could course and climb in the unconscious tree if fresh delight could break into green leaves and beauty laugh in the blossoming of the flower, if sense could awake in the insensible tissue, nerve and cell, if Thought could possess the dull physical matter of the brain, if the soul could look out from its hiding through the flesh that covers it, why should not the nameless light of God descend on men, why should not unsuspected and unknown powers emerge from dormant Nature ?
Even now hints of a
luminous Truth like stars "Even as it is, hints of a luminous Truth arise like stars in the sky of ignorance lit by the moon of the mind. Even as it is, we feel the touch of our immortal Lover, God. If the door of the chamber of our being is even a little open, none can prevent God from stealing in and planting his kiss on the soul that is asleep.
Already God is near,
the Truth is close: "God is already near; the Truth is already close. Simply because the ignorant and unbelieving body is not aware of God, must the sage who experiences the Light of Truth deny him? Must the seer who is aware of his soul refuse to accept him?
I am not bound by
thought or sense or shape; "I am not bound by earthly thought or sense or form. I live and breathe in the glory of the Infinite; I am close to the Reality that has no name and that is unknowable. The Ineffable is now my companion.
But standing on
Eternity’s luminous brink I have pursued him in his earthly form. "Standing on the luminous border of Eternity I have discovered that this world is none other than God himself. With my spirit I have met the Spirit of God, with my self I have met the Self of God. But I have also loved the body of my God. The earth is a form of his and I have pursued him in that form.
A lonely freedom
cannot satisfy "Freedom only for myself cannot satisfy a heart like mine that has become one with all the hearts in the world. I am a representative of the entire world that aspires for freedom. I ask for all the liberty that my spirit has."
Then rang again a deeper cry of Death.
As if beneath its
weight of sterile law Once again rings a deeper cry of Death. But this time his cry has no more its old intolerant note, as though it were oppressed under the weight of its barren law and by its own obstinate, pointless will, as though it were disdainful. tired and compassionate.
But seemed like
life’s in her unnumbered paths, Death’s cry seems like the cry of life as she courses through her countless paths toiling for ever but achieving nothing because of constant birth and change and because her mortal powers by which she is sustained turn round and round around fixed boundary posts in a wide aimless race whose course toes on speeding and yet is always the same.
In its long play
with Fate and Chance and Time The earth-mind has long been at play with Fate. Chance and Time; but it knows that whether it wins or loses, the game is fruitless. It is crushed under the weight of ignorance and doubt which seems to increase with knowledge and enlarge with its growth. Under these conditions it sinks, it despairs, it becomes won, and discouraged in its labour.
Yet was all nothing then or vainly achieved?
Some great thing has
been done, some light, some power But that does not mean that nothing has been achieved or what has been achieved is in vain. Something great has been done; sonic light, some power has been liberated from the hold of the huge Inconseient; it has emerged from the dark night. Though its rising is not permanent, it sees that it will rise again and again in an unending round.
This change was in
the godhead’s far-flung voice; This admission is implied in the far-reaching voice of the god of Death. His fearful form has undergone sonic change and it seems to concede the right of our effort, however fleeting, to attain eternity. And yet it casts its huge doubts which discourage what might otherwise have been, the magnificent possibilities of an impossible day.
The great voice
surging cried to Savitri:
If free thou hadst
kept thy mind from life’s fierce stress, The great voice of Death surges towards Savitri:"Thou knowest the wisdom that goes beyond both the acceptance and the rejection of forms; that is why thou art liberated by the watching gods. Arise. If only thou hadst kept thy mind aloof from the fierce pressure of the struggle of life. thou too mightst have been like the gods, omniscient and calm.
But the violent and passionate heart forbids.
It is the storm bird
of an anarch Power "But this calm aloofness is refused by the violent and passionate heart which is a veritable storm-wing of an anarchic Power that means to throw up the world, tear up its decree of Fate, overthrow the rule of Death, the governing Law and Will unknowable that maintains all.
Hasteners to action,
violators of God "They hasten action and they violate the laws of God — these, great spirits who arc fired with excessive love for all in this creation and who are made in thy mould, for thou art both, great of spirit and possessed of too much love, have entered the narrow bounds of life with natures too large For life, exceeding time.
Worshippers of force
who know not her recoil,
The wise are
tranquil; silent the great hills "These great spirits worship force without knowing that force recoils with unexpected consequences, their mighty wills compel the strained years to move in the direction of their choice."But the wise are not like those impetuous ones. They are tranquil; like the great hills they are ever seated firm on their unchanging base, aspiring ceaselessly towards unattained heights, with their minds silent dreamless, in the immutable domain of heaven.
On their aspiring
tops, sublime and still,
Motionlessly moving
with the might of earth, Sublime and still on the aspiring summits of their being, these mighty mediators between Earth and Heaven raise the climbing soul half-way to heaven and stand content watching the revolutions of the stars. They are motionless and yet they move with the might of earth; they watch the ages pass, but they themselves are ever the same.
The wise think with
the cycles, they hear the tread "The wise ones think largely. keeping pace with the cycles of time; they foresee things that are far ahead, they hear their coming steps. But they arc patient, untroubled, and keep their foreknowledge which would be dangerous to reveal prematurely to themselves in case man’s fragile boat may founder and sink like a ship dragged down by an imprisoned leviathan into the depths of its hugeness.
Lo, how all shakes when the gods tread too near! All moves, is in peril, anguished, torn, upheaved.
The hurrying aeons
would stumble on too swift "How everything shakes when the gods come too near! All moves, all is in danger, all is in anguish, torn and thrown up. If heaven’s strength were to surprise this imperfect earth and naked, direct Knowledge were to strike these unfit souls, the speeding ages would be precipitated into chaos.
The deities have
screened their dreadful power: Be still and tardy in the slow wise world.
Mighty art thou with
the dread goddess filled, Use not thy strength like the wild Titan souls! "The deities have veiled their terrible powers. God hides his thought and, at times, he even seems to go wrong. This is a slow wise world; he thou still and slow. Thou art filled with the might of the dread goddess to whom thou didst call at dawn, in the forest. But do not use that strength as the wild Titans do.
Touch not the seated
lines, the ancient laws, "Do not disturb the lines that have been laid out, the taws that are there from of old. Respect thou the serene calm of the great established things."
But Savitri replied
to the huge god:
Is it not the
dull-visioned tread inert Savitri replies:"What is this calm thou boastest of, O Law, O Death? Is it not just a dim-eyed, inert tread of huge, inhuman energies bounded in an unchanging round, soulless, unfeeling, with mechanical dream-movements?
Vain the soul’s
hope if changeless Law is all: "If unchanging Law is the whole truth as thou sayest, then the hope of the soul for growth and change is in vain. But the speeding: ages move on ceaselessly to the new and the unknown and justify the purpose of God in this Creation
What were earth’s
ages if the grey restraint "How could the great ages of the earth conic to be if the dull brake upon change and progress had never been broken and glorious things had not burst into existence from slow obscure beginnings and man’s slow life quickened and hurried into the splendid paths suddenly opened up and revealed by inspiring divine words and men who rose to become gods?
Impose not upon
sentient minds and hearts
Well is the
unconscious rule for the animal breeds "Do not impose the dull fixity that binds things inanimate upon animate minds and hearts. The imposed rule obeyed unconsciously may be good enough for the animal species which are content to live beneath the unchanging yoke of Nature. But it is not so for man; he aspires to a higher walk, to a path that masters all.
I trample on thy law
with living feet;
If I am mighty let
my force be unveiled
I claim from Time my
will’s eternity, With my living and conscious feet I trample upon thy law, O Death, for I was born to arise in full freedom. If I am mighty — as I know I am — let my force reveal itself as equal to the eternal Powers, their companion. It I am not, then let my soul prove unworthy of the Godhead from which it has come and plunge frustrated into the original sleep of inconscience. I claim the eternity of my will from the grasp of Time. I claim God from his becomings in the moments of Time."
… Death replied to
her,
Or is this the high
use of strength and thought, Death answers:"Why should the noble and immortal will from on high stoop to busy itself with the small works of this transient earth, forgetting its own high freedom and its proper path of the Eternal? Is it the right and high use of strength and thought to struggle on earth with the bonds of death and time and waste the effort that might tarn godhood if employed otherwise, to light and bear the inevitable agony of wounds, to snatch the petty joys that the earth holds and guards in her small treasure-box of fleeting things?
Child, hast thou
trodden the gods beneath thy feet Are thy arms sweeter than the courts of God?” "O Child, hast thou done this high feat of rising above the gods and putting them beneath thy feet only to secure the poor scraps of life on earth for Satyavan whom thou lovest so much, cancelling the great please that has been granted to him, keeping him away From the bliss of heaven to which the indulgent deities have called his soul? Are thy arms sweeter than the celestial courts of God to which he is called?"
She answered,
“Straight I trample on the road
I run where his
sweet dreadful voice commands
Why drew he wide his
scheme of mighty worlds Savitri answers: "I walk straight on the road that has been hewed for me by the mighty hand of God who has planned our paths. I run where the sweet and imperious voice of God commands me and where I am driven by the reins in his hands. Why did God draw wide his scheme of the great worlds, why did he fill all infinity with his passionate, intense fervour?
Or wherefore did he
build my mortal form "Or why did he build this human form of mine and plant in me his bright and high desires if not to achieve them, to see them blossom in me, to love? Has he not carved in me his human image richly shaped in thoughts, wide extension of being and truth-illumined powers?
Far Heaven can wait our coming in its calm. Easy the heavens were to build for God.
Earth was his
difficult matter, earth the glory
There are the
ominous masks, the terrible powers; "Heaven beyond can calmly wait for our coming. It was indeed easy for God to build the heavens. It is earth that has been the challenge, it is on earth that the glory is to be found by solving the problems, running the race and engaging in the strife. There on earth are the foreboding masks, the terrible powers to be contended with. It is true greatness to establish godhood, to create the gods there on earth.
Is not the spirit
immortal and absolved Why came it down into the mortal’s Space?
A charge he gave to
his high spirit in man The spirit is always immortal, ever free, beyond the hold of Time. Why did it come down into the Spare of the mortal? It was because God gave a noble mission to his high spirit in man and stamped his hidden decree on Nature’s forehead.
Freedom is this with
ever seated soul, It is a divine game, the wonderful challenge accepted by the Divine to achieve through the indwelling soul in its inner freedom, — large despite the encircling limitations of life, strong despite the binding knots of Matter — a shaping of great action from the worlds, a fashioning of fine wisdom from the coarse and loose strands of life-experience, a creating of love and beauty out of war and darkness.
What liberty has the
soul which feels not free
To seize him better
with her boundless heart This is my answer to thy lures, O Death.” "Certainly the soul has no liberty if it does not feel free unless it is denuded of everything, if it cannot kiss the bonds of its Lover, God, choose his tyranny and rejoice being crushed in his embrace. In order to seize him more effectively with her unbounded heart, the soul accepts the limiting circle of his arms, submits in entire bliss beneath his masterful hands, and joys in his rich constraints; she is most free when she is thus most bound."This. O Death, is my reply to thy temptations.’
Immutable, Death’s
denial met her cry: Death is not moved. He answers by denial:"Whatever be thy secret Name that has been uttered in the secret assembly of the gods — endowing thee with the strength signified by that Name — however powerful its efficacy, the heart’s passing passion cannot break the hard iron rampart of things that have been established, the rampart that has been erected by the great Gods around their camp in Space.
Whoever thou art
behind thy human mask,
Even God himself
obeys the Laws he made: "Whoever thou mayest be behind thy human mask, even if thou be the Mother of the worlds and stakest thy claim upon the realms of Chance, the cosmic Law is certainly greater than thy will. God himself obeys the Laws that he has made. The Law continues to be, it cannot change."The individual Person is after all only a temporary bubble on the sea of Time.
A forerunner of a
greater Truth to come, "Thou art a forerunner of a greater Truth that is to come; thy soul creates a freer Law of its own, drawing upon a Force behind it on which it leans, upon a Light above which only thou hast seen. And thou claimest the first fruits of the victory of the Truth that is to be.
But what is Truth
and who can find her form "But what is Truth? Who indeed can find the true form of Truth amidst all the misleading plausible forms erected by the senses, the countless guesses posed by the mind, the dark and obscure ambiguities of a world full of the uncertainties of Thought?
For where is Truth
and when was her footfall heard Where, indeed, is Truth and when was her foot¬step heard amid the ceaseless noise in the mart of Time? Which is the voice of Truth amid the thousand cries that crowd and pass through the listening brain and deceive the soul?
Or is Truth aught
but a high starry name, "Or perhaps Truth is nothing but a high name remote as a star. Or it is a vague and impressive word which serves to express the mind’s justification of man’s choice; maybe it is a cloak hiding the heart’s wish, maybe a preferred idea most elected among the elect; maybe it is the favourite thought among the many children of mind’s half-light crowding the playgrounds of the mind with their loud voices or filling its dormitories in their infant sleep.
All things hang here
between God’s yes and no, "All moves here between God’s yes and no, powers positive and negative which are real in their respective action but unreal to each other as the one cannot exist in the face of the other. They are two stars each by the side of the other, in the moonlit night of the mind gazing at two opposite horizons. They are the white head and black tail of the mystic drake signifying the earth-soul. They are the swift foot and the lame, the strong wing and the broken of the great multidimensional dragon in the skies sustaining the body of this uncertain world.
Too dangerously thy
high proud truth must live
All in this world is
true, yet all is false: "Indeed, thy high proud Truth must live too dangerously in this world for it is entangled in the mortal littleness of Matter. All here in this world seems to be true, but it is only an appearance, all turns out to be false. Ultimately all thoughts of this world culminate in an eternal zero, all deeds finally come to nothing in Time.
Thus man at once is
animal and god, "Man is at once an animal and a god. Formed of totally different parts, he is an enigma made by God; there is a form of Godhead within him which he is unable to free from its imprisonment. In being still an animal. man is something less than himself; in being a potential god, he is something more than himself. He is an aspiring animal; he is at the same time a frustrated god. And yet he is neither wholly beast rot wholly god; he is man. But man bound to the labour of the kindly earth struggles to go beyond, climbing the stairs of God to reach Things higher.
Objects are seemings
and none knows their truth,
Truth has no home in
earth’s irrational breast: "In this world objects are appearances and no one knows the truth of them. Ideas are only guesses of an ignorant god that man is. Truth can have no place to live in the earth’s breast that is wholly irrational. And yet, without reason life is a confused jumble of dreams, Reason, however, is poised precariously above a dim abyss of the sub-conscious and the plank on which it ultimately manages to stand is a plank of doubt, of uncertainty.
Eternal truth lives not with mortal men.
Or if she dwells not
within thy mortal heart, Then will I give thee back thy Satyavan. "Eternal truth cannot live with mortal beings. If at all she dwells within thee, thy mortal heart, show me the body of that living Truth, draw for me the lines of her face so that I too, Death, may obey and worship her."If you do that, I shall give back thy Satyavan to thee.
But here are only facts and steel-bound Law.
This truth I know
that Satyavan is dead
No magic Truth can
bring the dead to life, "But here we have only facts and hard Law. I know it for truth that Satyavan is dead and even the sweetness that is thine cannot tempt him to come back. No magic Truth whatever can revive the dead, no earthly power cancel what is once done. No joy of the heart can survive death, no bliss can persuade the past that is gone to come back and live again.
But Life alone can
solace the mute Void Leave then thy dead, O Savitri, and live.” "Life alone can comfort and till the mute Void created by death, occupy with thought the vacancy of Time. Leave thou thy dead behind and live a full life."
The Woman answered
to the mighty Shade, Savitri, the Spirit embodied as Woman, answers the mighty Shade. As she speaks, her mortality disappears. The Divinity in her grows visible in her eyes; like a dream of heaven Light flows into her face.
“O Death, thou too
art God and yet not He, "O Death, thou also art God and yet thou art not quite that. Thou art his black shadow on his path as he leaves the Night of Nescience and takes the Way upward, dragging with him the still clinging inconscient Force of the Night.
Of God unconscious
thou art the dark head, Thou art the dark head of the unconsciousness of God. Thou art the unashamed sign of his ignorance, thou art the natural child of the vast dark womb of that Ignorance. Thou art the unholy bar on his immortality.
All contraries are aspects of God’s face.
The Many are the
innumerable One, "All opposites arc truly aspects of the face of God. The Many are only the One showing itself innumerably, the One holds the multitude in himself. God is the Impersonal, undefinable, alone; he is also the limitless Person looking at his manifestation, the world.
The Silence bears
the Eternal’s great dumb seal, "The Silence carries the great unspoken sanction of God and yet the eternal Word is inspired by his light. The deep and deathless hush of the Immutable with its pure, featureless blank all-negating calm is he. And yet he himself is the creator Self, the almighty Lord who watches his will executed by the gods who arc his own forms, watches the compelling desire goad the half-conscious man, goad the unwilling, unseeing Night into movement.
These wide divine
extremes, these inverse powers "These wide divine extremes, these contrary powers are truly the right and left of God’s body. It one Existence poised between two mighty arms that confronts the mind with unplumbed profounds of Thought.
Darkness below, a
fathomless Light above, "Below there is darkness: above there is endless Light.The two contraries are joined in Light but the dividing Mind tears them apart and they stand facing each other, opposites, ever confronting each other. The two contraries are indispensable for the gnat World-task of God: they are the two poles whose opposite currents in their interaction awake the mighty immense World-Force.
In the stupendous
secrecy of his Self, "Standing above the world, in the mighty secrecy of his Self, brooding in concentration with equal wings, he assumes both the contraries in himself, one without beginning, without end. Transcending both of them he enters the state of the Absolute.
His being is a
mystery beyond mind, "God’s being is a mystery unfathomable by the mind; his ways baffle mortal ignorance. The finite in its fragments is amazed and is unable to believe in the audacity of God who adventures in becoming the All unimagined by it, and who sees and acts as one Infinite would.
Against human reason
this is his offence; "This is God’s offence against human reason, this is how he challenges it: he insists on remaining for ever unknowable; he is all and yet he exceeds all. the mystic whole: he is absolute, and yet he dwells in this relative world in Time; he is eternal and all-knowing and yet he undergoes the pangs of birth; he is omnipotent and yet he plays with Chance and Fate as if subject to them; he is the Spirit and yet he becomes Matter, he becomes the Void; he is illimitable, beyond the limitations of form or name and yet he dwells within a body: he is one and supreme and yet he becomes the animal, the human, the divine; he is a stilt, deep sea and yet he laughs in the rolling waves; as the universal, he is all, but as the transcendent, he is none.
To man’s
righteousness this is his cosmic crime, “To man’s sense of righteousness it is a crime of God against the whole cosmos that though Almighty, he chooses to dwell beyond good and evil abandoning the good to the mercy of their fate in this wicked world and letting evil rule in this immense scene.
All opposition seems
and strife and chance "To eyes that see only a pan and miss the whole, oil appears an opposition, strife, chance, a labour without aim, with hardly any sense. Men can plumb and scan only the surfaces, the depths do not yield to their search. The eye is confronted with a mixed mystery or a dis-heartening squalid miracle.
Yet in the exact
Inconscient’s stark conceit,
There is a purpose
in each stumble and fall; "Yet, in the imposing exactness of the workings of the Inconscient, in the careless error of the world’s ignorance, one sees a plan, a secret Intelligence at work. There is some purpose in each stumble and each fall. Even the most careless, lazy movement of Nature is only an appearance, a posturing, preparing behind it some forward step, some significant result.
Ingenious notes
plugged into a motived score, "Like cleverly designed notes filled into a purposive composition, these innumerable discords are only the many tiny points marking the harmonious theme of the huge orchestral dance of Nature’s evolution.
A Truth supreme has
forced the world to be; "A supreme Truth has brought the world into being. It has veiled itself in Matter as in a shroud which is at once a shroud of Death, a shroud of ignorance.Ignorance and Death are not eternal truths; they are only shrouds concealing the Truth that ensouls Matter and impels from within the formation of the material world.
It compelled the
suns to burn through silent Space, "That Truth compels the suns to bum through silent Space; the suns are the flaming flares of its own ungrasped Thought in the formless contemplation of a wide brooding ether. It converted Knowledge into an obscured and struggling light, luminous Being into an inconscient, dense and dumb substance, Bliss into the beauty of an insentient world.
In finite things the
conscious Infinite dwells: "The conscious Infinite dwells in finite things, It is involved and asleep in the pervading trance of Matter. From its dormant, insensible Void it governs the world. In its dream it throws up mind, heart and soul which struggle and labour in their crippled and bound conditions on the hard inhospitable earth. This fragmented whole works through its many scattered points. Its glistening broken pieces are diamond thoughts of Wisdom and its shadowy reflex is our ignorance
It starts from the
mute mass in countless jets, "The hidden Truth starts its emergence from the dumb inconscicnt Matter in numberless jets at innumerable points, it throws itself out in a multitude of forms; out of physical brain and nerve it shapes a conseient being and from the pleasures and pains of life it develops a sentient creature.
A pack of feelings
obscure, a dot of sense "For a while this bundle of obscure feelings, a sense-point, survives meeting the shocks of life. The being, either crushed or exhausted, leaves the form which is dead, departs from the huge universe in which it lived as but a petty, inconsequential sojourner.
But the soul grows
concealed within its house; But all the while, concealed in the body, its dwelling place, the soul grows. It gives to the body its strength and greatness. In this ignorant and apparently aimless world, the soul follows its own aims and it lends meaning to earth’s apparently meaningless life.
A demi-god animal, came thinking man.
He wallows in mud,
yet heavenward soars in thought; The thinking man is both an animal and a half-god. Like an animal, he indulges in low pursuits: yet like a god-in-the-making, he soars high towards heaven in his thought. He plays and yet he thinks deep; he laughs and yet he weeps and dreams, Like the beast he is occupied with satisfying his petty desires: like a potential god he studies the book of life with diligence.
Out of this tangle
of intellect and sense, "Wading through this medley of intellect and sense, this narrow range of finite thought, man at last wakes into a spiritual mind. He begins to feel a high freedom and a luminous expansion.
He glimpses
eternity, touches the infinite, "Here in the spiritual mind he gets a glimpse of eternity, he even touches the infinite. In great and unexpected moments he encounters the gods. He realises the universe to be his own wider self. He utilises the circumstances of Space and Time to link up the heights and the depths of his being in a supernal light. And in the secrecies of his heart he communes alone with God.
But these are
touches and high moments lived; "But all these are just touches, experiences of high moments. A few fragments of the supreme Truth have touched his soul. They are like the reflections of the sun in still waters, not the real sun in possession — they are not his normal life.
A few have dared the
last supreme ascent "A few have dared and attempted to achieve the final supreme ascent. They have broken through the borders of the intense binding light above, breathed a mightier air around, received intimations of a vaster existence and bathed in the outpouring of its Ray of intuition.
On summit Mind are
radiant altitudes "On the highest plane of the Mind are bright altitudes open to the radiance of Infinity, borderlands and extensions of the house of Truth, elevated and boundless estates of Mind.
There man can visit but there he cannot live.
A cosmic Thought
spreads out its vastitudes; "Man can visit those altitudes but he cannot live there. There a cosmic Thought is spread out in its vastnesses; fragments of it become great philosophies here imposing in detail their immensity, each philosophy conceiving its own omniscient scheme of the universe.
But higher still can
climb the ascending light; "It is possible for the ascending light to climb still higher. There are found vasts of vision and suns eternal, veritable oceans of an immortal luminousness, flame-peaks piercing heaven. For one dwelling there everything turns into blazing sight.
A burning head of
vision leads the mind, "An illumined revelation dominates the mind and thought follows the revelation as its comet tail, the heart is illumined and becomes a seer — it does not merely feel but also sees things in their truth. The very sense that has to seize and experience is now lit up into a spontaneous identification with its object.
A highest flight
climbs to a deepest view: "Still higher conies a summit which gives a view into the utmost deeps. In those wide horizons play flashes of intuition in bright companies, hunting out bidden truths from their lairs. The fiery edge of intuitive sight forces its way into the closed and unexplored regions of the self, searches out the high secrecies of the brain, lights up the secret chambers of the heart. Intuition’s piercing power of discovery breaks through the veil of name and form and bares the secret soul of everything.
Thought there has
revelation’s sun-bright eyes; "In that realm of intuition, thought sees with the bright eyes of revelation. The creative Word, the potent and inspiring Voice enters the secret chamber of Truth and tears away the veil that covers the reality of God and of life.
Then stretches the
boundless finite’s last expanse, "Above the altitudes of intuition, are spread out the yams of the Overmind, cosmic in their range, the last expanse of the finite in its boundless extension. It is, as it were, the huller state between Eternity and Time, the belt where the Eternal crosses into the temporal. It is too vast for the normal experience of man’s soul.
All here gathers
beneath one golden sky: "All is gathered below one luminous sky: the Powers that fashion the cosmos take up their positions in this field of unbounded possibilities; each god operates from here building his own world according to his nature; ideas that create are marshalled here like groups of mathematical sums; masses of thought are held together by one Eye: all Time is one frame, all Space is a single book, one extension.
There is the
Godhead’s universal gaze "There in the overmind is the one, universe-wide gaze of the Godhead; there are the last boundaries of the Mind that is truly immortal, that is the line between the tipper and the lower hemispheres of Creation, the border-line that separates from Eternity the field of the labour of the Gods in Time.
In her glorious
kingdom of eternal light "Still above is the glorious kingdom of eternal light where the supreme Truth, ruler of all, ruled by none, all-powerful, all-knowing, alone, dwells in her boundless home in a gold-bright country of the Spirit. There in its corridors she hears the tread of the Eternal coming out of the Umnanifest never to return until the Unknown is made known and seen by men. That is the realm where the Spirit emerges from the unmanifest state to move into manifestation.
Above the stretch
and blaze of cosmic Sight, "There above the expanse and radiance of cosmos-wide Sight, above the Silence of wordless Thought, is the Mighty Mother Creatrix, herself formless, but creator of immortal forms; herself nameless, but hallowed with the divine name: she transcends the flow of Time, she transcends also Timelessness. She sits in her luminous calm holding the eternal Child, creation, upon her knees, awaiting the time when the Child will grow up and take account of his Destiny — the Purpose for which he is brought into being.
There is the image
of our future’s hope; "There is the full figure of our hope for the future; there is the radiant sun for which all the darkness of the world below waits; there is the undying harmony for which the world yearns. There do all the contradictions of the world climb and find their resolution in her, the Mighty Mother.
There is the Truth
of which the world’s truths are shreds, "There is the Truth of which the truths of the world arc little fragments, the Light of which the world’s ignorance is a shade that lasts till the Truth that casts it draws it back; there is the Love which our hearts pine for and call down to heal all strife and conflict; there is the Bliss for which the neglected sorrows of the world long.
Thence comes the
glory sometimes seen on earth, "From there conies the glory that is sometimes seen on earth in the descents of God into the human soul, in the form of special Beauty and dream on the visage of Nature
There the perfection
born from eternity "There in that realm is the perfection of the Eternal summoning to it thy perfection that is preparing in Time. There is the truth of God that overcomes human life with surprise, there is the image of God that overtakes finite shapes giving them a divine significance.
There is a world of
everlasting Light, There in the realms of the immortal Supermind is a world of perennial Light. Truth who conceals her face in mystery in the worlds below, whose structure of the material form is considered an insoluble riddle by reason, lives without ambiguity in this world of Light; her fare is unmasked. There also is found Nature and the general law of things in their stark reality.
There in a body made
of spirit stuff, "There the body is made of the substance of the spirit, it is the hearth on which burns the immortal Fire. Action in that body is a rendering of the movements of the soul within; thought is infallible and absolute in its manifestations; life is a continuous worship, a Sacrifice of joy to the One, the Eternal.
A cosmic vision, a
spiritual sense "A cosmos-wide vision, a spiritual sense feels the entire Infinite dwelling in the finite form; seeing through a scintillating ecstasy of light, it discovers the luminous face of the Bodiless in each form. It can taste the sweet wine of Eternity in the reality of the moment.
A Spirit who is no
one and innumerable, "A Spirit who is not any one and is also innumerable, is the one mystic and infinite Person of his world who throws his infinite personality into the many; and on all his bodies thus multiplied he puts the seal of his divinity and in each body, each form, he dwells immortal and unique.
The Immobile stands
behind each daily act, "Behind each daily act stands the Immobile supporting it, forming the background of that movement and scene. On the base of its might and calm the Immobile upholds the Creation. And all change takes place on the unchanging, deathless poise of the Immutable.
The Timeless looks
out from the travelling hours; "The Eternal looks out through moving time. The inexpressible dons a robe of speech in which words are woven like magic threads, moving beautifully, inspiring with their glow, and every thought occupies its just place and is recorded in the subtle memory of the world.
The Truth supreme,
vast and impersonal "The supreme Truth, vast and impersonal though it is, adjusts itself accurately to the moment and the circumstance. Its substance is a pure bright gold which remains the same always whatever shapes it is cast into for the use of the spirit in manifestation; its gold becomes the wine jar of bliss and the vase of beauty.
All there is a
supreme epiphany: "All in that Truth-world is a supreme manifestation. The All-Wonderful Creator makes of each event a marvel; the All-Beautiful shapes a miracle in each form; the All-Blissful fills with rapture each heart-throb. A pure heavenly joy is the yield of sense. Everything there is a play of celestial wonder, beauty, bliss.
Each being there is
a member of the Self, "Each being there is a part of the Self, a portion of the All who flows in a million streams of thought; each claims to share in the eternal Unity of all, in the sweetness of the many, in the joy of difference that is bordered by the piercing of the intimacy of the One."The bliss of oneness is enhanced by the play of the many.
But who can show to thee Truth’s glorious face? Our human words can only shadow her.
To thought she is an
unthinkable rapture of light, "But who can show to thee the glorious face of Truth? Not our human words; they can only shadow her. For thought, Truth is a rapture of light beyond its range. For speech, Truth is an ineffable marvel.
O Death, if thou
couldst touch the Truth supreme
If our souls could
see and love and clasp God’s Truth, "O Death, if thou couldst only touch the supreme Truth, thou wouldst suddenly glow wise and in so doing thou wouldst cease to be. For thou art a product of Ignorance and Ignorance would get dissolved by the Knowledge that lights up at the touch of Truth. If our souls could see God’s Truth. love and clasp her, her infinite radiance would seize our hearts, our being would be remade in the image of God and life on earth would become the life divine."
Then Death the last
time answered Savitri: Death answers for the last time:"It the supreme Truth transcends her shadow here in the world, separated by the climbing vases of being and the dissolving Knowledge, what bridge can span the gulf that Truth has left between herself and the dream-world of her creation?
Or who could hope to
bring her down to men
Is thine that
strength, O beauty of mortal limbs, "Who could ever hope to bring this supreme Truth down to men and persuade her to walk on this harsh globe with feet that are sure to be wounded, leaving behind her own unreachable glory and bliss and wasting her splendour here on this pale earthly air? Hast thou that strength. O beauty made of mortal limbs, O soul who an struggling to fly away from my net?
Who then art thou hiding in human guise?
Thy voice carries
the sound of infinity, But where is thy strength to conquer Time and Death? Hast thou God’s force to build heaven’s values here? "Who art thou truly, thou who art hiding in this human garb? The sound of infinity is in thy voice; Knowledge is with thee; Truth speaks through thy speech: the light of the beyond shines in thy eyes. But hast thou the strength that alone can conquer Time and Death? Hast thou God’s force to build heaven’s truths here on earth?
For truth and
knowledge are an idle gleam,
A blind Force, not
Truth has made this ignorant world, "For truth and knowledge remain a vain gleam if knowledge does not give the power that is necessary to change the world, if Might does not follow to enable Truth to effectuate herself. Knowledge is barren without Power. Not Truth but a blind Force has created this ignorant world. Not Truth but a blind Force governs the lives of men here. Not by Light, but by Power do the great Gods rule the world. Indeed, Power is the arm of God, Power is the final seal of Fate; God acts through Power, Fate works through Power.
O human claimant to
immortality,
Or if the Mighty
Mother is with thee, "O thou who claimest immortality though thou art human, show me thy power, unveil the force of thy spirit. Then only will I return Saiyavan to thee. If the Mighty Divine Mother is with thee, show me her form so that I may worship her. Let her deathless eyes gaze into the eyes of Death; let an immortal Force touch the mortal things of earth and transform death, that plagues the earth, into life immortal.
Then can thy dead
return to thee and live, "Then alone can thy dead (Satyavan) come back to thee and live. Then, perhaps, this prostrate earth will lift up her gaze and feel nor herself the secret body of God and love and joy get the better of fleeting Time and establish themselves eternally."
And Savitri looked on Death and answered not.
Almost it seemed as
if in his symbol shape Savitri looks on Death, but does not speak in reply. It almost looks as if in Death’s symbol form the world’s darkness has yielded to Heaven-light and God no more needs the veil of the Inconscient for his working.
A mighty transformation came on her.
A halo of the
indwelling Deity, A great transformation comes over Savitri. A halo of the Deity dwelling in her, the lustre of the Immortal that has ever lit her face and occupied her body with its radiance, overflows and turns the air around into a sea of light.
In a flaming moment
of apocalypse
A little figure in
infinity In a flaming moment of revelation the Incarnation that is Savitri casts aside its human veil. In the immensity of the infinite, that little figure still stands and seems the actual home of the Eternal. It looks as if her soul is actually the centre of the world and the entire wide space is only the outer robe of her soul.
A curve of the calm
hauteur of far heaven Like a curve of the calm, high dignity of celestial heavens coming down into the humility of earth. the gaze of the Omniscient shines across her forehead ; her two eyes are like two stars watching the whole universe
The Power that from
her being’s summit reigned, The Power that reigns from the supreme heights of her being, the Presence that dwells in the secret chamber of the thousand-petalled Lotus 1 at the crown of her head, comes down and occupies the Centre in the middle of her eye-brows 2 from where the seeing Will in the mind functions. 1 sahasrāra2ājni
There throned on
concentration’s native seat There sits the Lord of the mind on his natural seat of concentration. He opens the third eye in man — an eye that is secret in addition to the two outer physical eyes; it is the subtle eye of the Unseen that looks at all that is not seen by the physical eyes. It opens when a Light with spiritual ecstasy fills his brain, when the wisdom of the Eternal compels his choice and the eternal Will occupies his mortal will.
It stirred in the
lotus of her throat of song, The Power moves and vibrates in the mystic lotus of her throat. the Centre of expression: 3 and the immortal, inspired Word throbs in her speech. The World-Soul reverberates in her lips, its movements in harmony with the cosmic Thought. Savitri’s life-movements are taken up by the. World-Soul and set in tune with the cosmic Thought-movements. 3 vishuddha
As glides God’s
sun into the mystic cave Like God’s sun gliding into the secret rave and hiding his light from the lesser powers who are in pursuit of him, the Power moves smoothly into the lotus of her heart, the Centre of emotions, 4 and wakes up in it the irresistible Force that can change even Fate. 4 anāhata
It poured into a
navel’s lotus depth, The Power pours into the lotus of the navel, the centre of the vita! Moventents, 5 then goes further down into the centre of the petty lower-vital desires 6; as a result a heavenly rapture begins to flow from the grosser physical longings and desire turns into a pure celestial flame. 5 manipūra6 svādhisthāna
Broke into the cave
where coiled World-Energy sleeps The Power breaks into the secret station at the base of the spine 7 where sleeps the World-Energy coiled three and a half times and strikes the multiple headed serpent-force, Kundalini. Thus struck, the serpent-force rises and thrusts its way upwards till it meets and joins the World-Self seated above in the thousand-petalled lotus at the crown of the head. And as this meeting of the Force from below and the Self seated above — Shakti and Shiva — takes place, the dumb state of Matter is joined to the silence of the Spirit, movements of the physical earth are filled with the silent Power of the Spirit. 7 muladhara
Thus changed she waited for the Word to speak. Eternity looked into the eyes of Death. And Darkness saw God’s living Reality.
Then a Voice was
heard that seemed the stillness’ self Thus changes Savitri; she waits for the inspired Word. Through her, Eternity gazes into the eyes Death and in her, Darkness beholds the living Reality of God.Then is heard a Voice that seems to be the very self of stillness or the low-pitched, calm utterance of Infinity when it speaks to the silence that reigns in heart of sleep.
“I hail thee
almighty and victorious Death,
O Void that makest
room for all to be, "I greet thee. O almighty and conquering Death, thou who art the imposing Darkness of the Infinite. O Void that makest room for all. O Hunger that bitest at the universe eating away the remnants of the suns of creation when they cease to burn and become cold, and who eatest the entire world with thy huge jaws of fire. O waster of the energy that has made the stars,
Inconscience,
carrier of the seeds of thought, "O Inconscience that carries the seeds of thought in its bosom, O Nescience in which All-Knowledge is dormant and from which it emerges slowly wearing the mask of the bright Ignorance of the mind.
Thou art my shadow and my instrument.
I have given thee
thy awful shape of dread "Thou art only my shadow, my instrument. It is I who has given thee thy dreadful form and also thy sharp sword of terror, grief and pain wherewith to compel the soul of man to move forward and struggle for light in the brief period of life that is given to him, a period of life which he lives half-consciously.
Thou art his spur to
greatness in his works, Live, Death, awhile, be still my instrument. "Thou spurrest man to achieve greatness in his works. Thou goadest him to yearn for endless bliss, to feel the sharp need of immortality, O Death, live for a while more, be my instrument still.
One day man too
shall know thy fathomless heart "One day man too shall come to know thy profound, fathomless heart of silence, thy brooding peace of Night, thy solemn obedience to the eternal Law that governs all, know too the calm, unbending pity In thy eyes.
But now, O timeless
Mightiness, stand aside
Relieve the radiant
god from thy black mask; "But now, O timeless Mightiness, stand aside and leave thou the path of Savitri, my incarnate Force. Relieve Satyavan. the radiant god, from thy black mask release Satyavan who is the soul of the world from thy grip of pain and ignorance so that he may stand up as the master of life and fate, as the representative of man in the mansion of God, as the companion of Wisdom, spouse of Light, the eternal bridegroom of the eternal bride that is Savitri."
She spoke; Death
unconvinced resisted still, Unshakable he stood claiming his right.
His spirit bowed;
his will obeyed the law Savitri has spoken. But Death is unconvinced and still resists. Although he knows the truth he still refuses to admit it; although he sees it he still refuses to see. He claims his right to be and stands unshakable.His spirit, however, bows don; his will obeys the law of its own nature which is binding even on the Gods.
The two opposed each other face to face.
His being like a
huge fort of darkness towered; The two antagonists, Death and Savitri, stand face to face and oppose each other. Like a mighty fort of darkness his being towers high. Around it grows Savitri’s life like an ocean, holding his being in siege.
Awhile the Shade
survived defying heaven: For a while the Shade (Death) continues to defy the Spirit. He is a concentrated mass of conscious power. Attacking in the front, oppressing from above, he resists the force of Savitri’s divine desire to conquer him.
A pressure of
intolerable force The pressure of her unendurable force presses upon his unbent head and unyielding breast. Like a flame-tongue, Light laps up his thoughts; Light tortures his heart with its luminosity; Light courses through his nerves, and he undergoes a splendid agony. His darkness murmurs as it perishes in her blaze of Light.
Her mastering Word
commanded every limb The mastering Word takes control of every part of his being and pushes away his huge will into some forlorn space so that it is unable to re-enter and he is left devoid of will.
He called to Night
but she fell shuddering back, Death calls in the aid of Night but she shudders and falls back. He calls to Hell but it retires sullenly. He turns for support to the source of his origin, the Inconscient that is his vast sustaining self, but it pulls him back towards its boundless void wanting him to swallow himself into himself as it were. He calls to his strength. but it does not respond.
His body was eaten by light, his spirit devoured.
At last he knew
defeat inevitable His body is eaten up by light, his spirit is devoured by it. He realises that now defeat is inevitable and leaves to crumble the form he had worn; he abandons the hope he had to make of man’s soul his prey and to force the immortal spirit to be mortal.
Afar he fled
shunning her dreaded touch
In the dream
twilight of that symbol world Death flees far shunning the dreaded touch of luminous Savitri and takes refuge in the Night that is retreating. In the dreamy half-light of that symbol world, the fearful universal Shadow disappears, vanishing into the huge Void from which it had come.
As if deprived of
its original cause,
But neither stirred:
between those figures rose
In the long blank
moment’s pause nothing could move: As though its cause of existence was no more, with the disappearance of Death, the twilight realm passes from the souls of Savitri and Satyavan.Savitri and Satyavan are left alone, but neither of them stirs. Between them arises a mute. invisible and luminous wall.In that pause of a long blank moment nothing is able to move. All waits upon the unknown, inscrutable Will of God.
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