Book Two. The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI Canto VII Canto VIII
Canto IX
Canto X Canto XI Canto XII
Canto XIII Canto XIV
Canto XV
Book Two
The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
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Book Two, Canto 3 The Glory and Fall of Life
As he advances, Aswapathy perceives realms of griefless life looming above the worlds of struggle and suffering below. They appear bright with the splendour of the gods unlike any the human mind has conceived. And yet they are not outside the reach of man. For deep in his being are states of beatitude which are of this immortal nature. And man does get glimpses of them at rare moments of inner experience. Aswapathy is attracted to the Life-planes at the summits which melt into the vasts of the Self where the Finite blends with the Infinite and where Time fades into the Eternal. Out of this Eternal and One the World-Force brings out the Many into Space and Time. The cosmic act proceeds out of and is upheld by the Eternal’s Quiet. The One supports the Many and the Creative Force is impelled and guided by the Spirit as Intelligence within. All creation is a play of the Being and his Force, of God and Nature. In this process there are ups and downs and on the plane of Life Aswapathy beholds both the higher worlds where Life holds sway in all her glory and the nether worlds where Life suffers fall, diminution and deformation. In the realms above all is laughter and joy, wisdom and freedom. In the realms below all is struggle and strife, fear and sorrow. It is as if Life is enamoured of her opposite—Death,—and sports with it. This attraction and taste for the opposites of experience on the part of the Life-Force has converted this creation into a passion-play of contraries. In between are worlds that are not beyond the human reach. Something of the high purity and bliss from above is patent here; the breath of God is palpable on their heights. There is a strong aspiraton here for the Divine Love and Bliss to descend and rule. The sense here is purer and fiercer than the earthly sense. Creation is nearer God, nearer His Beauty, here than on earth. All the clashing contraries on earth are seen as complementaries here. There is here no falsehood and therefore no weakness can thrive. They are kingdoms of joy, of beauty, of love. Knowledge is one with Power. Life is a rapturous consort of the illumined Spirit. There is no care, no fatigue, no decay. Work is play and play the only work. The beings of these realms are ever young, splendid and conquering. Mind functions naturally, without the instrumentation of labouring thought. Thrills of joy and bliss course in this creation where all lives and moves in utter freedom but in a spontaneous order. There is no crookedness to reduce the force of truth. Nature here is self-guided and there is yet no shadow to obscure her vision in her creative Dance weaving the patterns of the rhythms of God. Aswapathy feels attracted to this world of bliss but feels a gulf in between. For there is still in his nature some legacy of the darkness, the pain and sorrow he has undergone during life on earth. This vitiation prevents him from responding naturally to the higher joy and light. The contraries of joy and pain, light and darkness are still part of his nature. That indeed is the ingrained habit of life-nature on earth. In the primitive beginnings of the earth-creation, there was no life, no mind, no sense. All was dead matter. Slowly there gathered an urge within for movement, for expression and the original harmony was disturbed. There was an awakening and a call went forth to Life to descend from her native plane above and activate the myriad forms into movement. Life heard the call and invaded the material kingdom in order to fill it with all her joy and power. There was a wider movement of joy and happiness and the glory of Life thrilled in the swiftness of the beauty of beasts. It became possible for man to appear and front the world with his thought and soul. But before Life could establish her full sway a dark Power of Nescience cast its shadow on the soul and imposed a purposeful ordeal on the Spirit that was manifesting through its Life-Power. Life underwent an arrestation of her dynamisms, a diminution and deformation of her natural beauty and bliss. Her immortality got veiled and in her constricted movement, desire and struggle afflicted Life. Life turned into a purveyor of Death.
An uneven broad ascent now lured his feet. Answering
a greater Nature’s troubled call Leaving behind the safe area cut out and mapped by the limited mind, Aswapathy steps into a wider world—the world of Life—where limits are not, segmented certainties are not. He is drawn into a domain where everything is in a flux, everywhere movements without rest, satisfied with nothing, ever intent on the new. The Force of Life is in an untrammelled action and the whole realm is in a constant agitation. Here there is none of the limited order imposed by the reasoning mind. Nothing is allowed to stay fixed, all is being continually made and remade by a greater Nature in ferment.
As
one who meets the face of the Unknown, Aswapathy travels in this strange realm where everything is uncertain. The very grounds on which he walks are not firm, the routes opening before him are bewildering, the boundaries are on the move. There are no guide-posts anywhere. He is both perplexed and attracted by this challenge of the new and the unknown.
In
front he saw a boundary ever unreached Unlike the physical and the subtle physical worlds which he has left behind, this realm has no perceivable limits. The more he advances, the farther recedes the horizon. The expanse of Life here on its own plane where she has full sway is unbounded. Apparent boundaries are found to dissolve in the ever advancing spread of Life.
A
vagrancy was there that brooked no home, All in this world is on the move. Nothing is minded to stay fixed. There is, further, a multitude of paths on which the movement of Life speeds on without ending. There is neither station nor goal in this ordering of Existence; an incessant coursing is the law of this Life-Nature.
Nothing
he found to satisfy his heart; Aswapathy wanders in this realm of Life where nothing is fixed. Nothing is bounded, nothing wearies, but also nothing is final and nothing can come to a stop. His seeking fails to achieve satisfaction in this volatile world.
There
life is the manifest incalculable, This domain is a formulation of the creative Consciousness-Force. It represents the self-projection of cit in the terrestrial hemisphere as Life, prana. It is a conscious Energy throwing itself into incessant movement in order to bring out and formulate the innumerable potentials from the being of the Infinite. Against the background of the Calm of the eternal Existence it appears like an agitated ocean, a mighty stir of the Spirit on the move for manifestation.
Assuming
whatever shape her fancy wills, In the material world Life is encased in material forms. She has perforce to adjust herself to the nature, quality and quantity of these forms. Her functionings are determined by the type of the bodies through which she has to act. In the physical world of set forms, the movements of life are correspondingly set and regulated. But it is not so in the Life-world, where Life is free to function on her own, independently, unrestricted by any kind of containing moulds. Life there is free to act in whatever way she wills, take whichever form she chooses.
She
accepts disaster as a common risk; In these regions above where nothing is rigidly determined and regulated as in the field of material Nature, Life throws herself into free movements, uninhibited by circumstances or forces that may act in interference. Life shirks nothing, she accepts boldly the consequences of her actions and is only intent on manifesting herself and her possibilities to the full. She is deterred by nothing in the pursuit of her objectives. She accepts all vicissitudes of rise and fall, expansion and depression, as incidental in her course of manifestation.
To be
seemed only a long experiment, The Life-force here is ever on the move, now trying this possibility now trying that, never sure of itself because it is not possessed of certain knowledge. It is a Force that seeks to affirm but it does not know in what way and in which form it is to affirm itself; it goes on tentatively trying, changing, recasting itself again and again.
As
saw some inner mind, so life was shaped: Though this Life is not conscious, yet she is impelled by some Intelligence from within. According to these impulsions the movements of the Life-force form themselves, changing with the change of the moods of that Intelligence. At times this Life-Power is confident in her steps, imperious; at times she is helplessly stampeded by her own impulses over which she has no control. She has no firm settled poise.
A
huge inconsequence was her action’s law, The Life-world is a world of intensities. Pain and delight in their extremes follow the violent indul gences of activity by the Life-force. The actions of this force do not produce any lasting consequences, for the force goes on to try one possibility after another without halting. Nothing of permanent value is achieved in spite of all this incessant and hectic movement.
In a
gallop of thunder-hooved vicissitudes The course of Life even in her own world is set under certain conditions inherent in the creation of that plane of existence. There is a large freedom of movement and effectuation but it is governed by the operations of a Time-rhythm relevant to its order of existence. All the violent rushes, the ups and downs of the Life movements, are contained in an overall scheme determined by the creative Spirit.
Amid
a tedious crawl of drab desires The movements of Life are not all of one kind. They vary from level to level in their action. In her lower regions where she is involved in the material strata of existence, she is engrossed in small and repetitive movements of desire, turns in their grooves and advances but slowly. In her higher reaches, however, she throws herself in wider and still wider movements of expansion, aiming as it were to embrace the whole of infinity in her sweep. There is no limit to her objectives; she seeks to dominate all existence.
Then
wantonly enamoured of Sorrow’s face, If there is no limit to Life’s capacity for enjoyment, neither is there a point beyond which she breaks down under suffering. Life is, so to say, fascinated by the appearance of pain and insists on plumbing pain to its utmost depths. Her capacity to endure is endless and she takes up the cup of misery as if to drink it to its dregs.
In
dolorous converse with her squandered self Life spends herself with reckless abandon, but has no regrets. She takes stock of the situation and varies her movements, but does not resign herself to inactivity. She broods, but broods in preparation for a further spurt. Such moods of depression are aids for her self-gathering.
A
romp of violent raptures soon was spent, Life seeks enjoyment. And in her own world there is no limit extraneously imposed on her unbridled indulgence in enjoyments. But she tires on her own and falls back or she slows down into a movement of lesser joy, missing in the process the achievement that would be hers if she were steadier and more purposive.
A
scene was planned for all her numberless moods In the Life-world, there is the utmost freedom for the manifestation of Life. Every possibility that she chooses to try out is given the fullest scope. Still, no movement yields the unadulterated happiness that is sought by this reigning Power, Life. There is either a fadin& of the vital enthusiasm or an exhaustion caused by the fierce intensity of her driving force; in either case the result is not one of satisfied joy.
Amid
her swift untold variety There is no forward movement in the Life-world. All tends to repeat itself, now in an enlarged manner, now in a changed mode. There is speed of action, plethora of variety, but no advance. The vague self-dissatisfaction that urges life into motion is never fully set at rest; it continues to be.
A
spirit of her self and aim unsure, This Life-Power is not possessed of Knowledge. Her movements are not purposive. Her immediate object is the joy of self-effectuation, but in the very nature of things this joy palls when it becomes continuous. She seeks for a change, for another drive to propel her movements, welcomes lesser transient joys and even pain for her impulsions. She exerts herself again and again to achieve complete self-fulfilment but that she cannot do because she is not endowed with the Truth-Consciousness that is indispensable for that purpose.
A
perverse savour haunts her thirsting lips: Unbridled Life is chaotic in her movements. By the violence of her tempestuous workings she brings upon herself reactions of pain. But she does not turn away from them; she wallows in pain. She seeks for joy everywhere but when she meets with intense ecstasy as a result of successful effectuation, she finds it unendurable for long. And yet she goes on with her quest for enjoyment though the modes of her workings result in a good deal of pain and grief.
Chance
she has chosen and danger for playfellows; Life is a bold gambler. There is no reasoned calculation in her movements. She does not play for safety. She runs with danger in her adventure; she plays with Chance taking the unexpected in her stride. She converts the ups and downs of imperious Fate into swayings of her moods.
Yet
pure and bright from the Timeless was her birth, Life, however, is not in her origin a power of Ignorance. She is in fact a self-projection of the Consciousness-Force, cit-śakti, of the Supreme in the conditions of their evolving manifestation. She is instinct with this consciousness, force and bliss of the eternal, infinite Sat-Chit-Ananda in her depths. That is why her myriad movements are in truth so many rhythms of the Infinite. Joy of feeling and joy in form are pursuits natural to this Power that derives from the domain of utter Bliss; for Bliss is the nature of the Consciousness-Force that Life is in her ultimate origin.
This
now revealed its antique face of joy, In the midst of her disappointments and dissatisfactions, in the throes of her pain and grief, Life gradually glimpses this truth of joy of her origin, and she gets the needed strength to endure the travails of her lower workings with the sure prospect of the reign of bliss on the heights of her being. It is some vision or assurance of a prospective happier state that makes it possible for her to bear the present pain and suffering.
Even
in changing worlds bereft of peace, In his wary tread on the constantly changing grounds of the Life-world, Aswapathy breathes an oppressive air of unease, uncertainty, agitation—characteristic of the lower realms of this plane. There is no peace anywhere. But he senses and becomes aware of the existence of happier conditions further ahead.
In an
architecture of hieratic Space Above the lower planes of Life subject to erratic changes of moods and passions, pleasures and pains, there lie realms that are beyond grief and suffering. They stretch out in the wider spaces of Infinity above; their hue is blue—blue being the colour of the first grounds of the higher Consciousness. In a sense this higher Consciousness is above the reach of what is lost in the grooves of the lower Nature; but it is ever close to that which is open to it at some point or level of its being. It is both inaccessible and accessible at the same time.
Above
him in a new celestial vault Towered
spirals, magic rings of vivid hue This kingdom of griefless Life is not what is pictured by human imagination which can conceive only of an uninhibited rendering of the vital desires and passions of man. It has a diviner quality of joy and intensity, a celestial nature free and limitless, unlike any experienced on the lower levels of the Life-world. Extending towards receding summits, exuding happiness of an unearthly kind, these domains are enchantingly picturesque, almost unreal in their rarefied existence.
On
the trouble and the toil they could not share, Absorbed
in their own beauty and content, These higher planes of Life are not affected by the strife, struggle and suffering that abound in the worlds below, especially on the physical plane. Unlike the earth-world where there is a continuous movement of evolutionary struggle and progress towards light and bliss, these planes are typal formations of the Creative Spirit, set within their permanent moulds, unmoving, satisfied in their endowments of eternal joy and beauty. There is no pining for what is not, no reaching for what is beyond.
Apart
in their self-glory plunged, remote These realms are lost in their own splendours, far far away from the drab obscurities and dullness of the material world, so remote as to appear like a dream. They form, as it were, a bright camp in which luminous beings projected from the self-regarding Mind of the Eternal dwell. As the Creative Spirit looks within himself and regards the truths and possibles seeking expression from within his being, things begin to actualise themselves in their various stresses depending upon the Will behind them.
Almost
unbelievable by human faith, As
through a magic television’s glass These worlds are not of the concrete stuff of which the earthly creation is made. Their basic nature, their forms and hues, are beyond the credible range of the human senses. They reveal themselves only to the subtler perception and that too in their own strange dimensions and vibrations that appear too distant, too impalpable to the grasp of man.
But
near and real to the longing heart The various planes and worlds of the higher existence may appear to be too distant, almost unreachable to man. They may call for great effort of ascension before they become accessible. But the domains of Bliss are not far. They are ever near, ever close to the spirit that seeks them with ardour, with intensity of aspiration. For behind all that exists here on earth there is the flow of Ananda; in fact it is this Bliss that makes all existence at all possible. All breathes and lives, says the Upanishad, because this Bliss is there coursing through all. One has only to turn to it, to seek for it, with faith and persistence, to probe behind the appearances—however contradictory they may seem—and it yields itself to experience in a variety of ways.
In
some close unattained realm which yet we feel, These realms of Beatitude are outside the reach of the normal human faculties which are mostly turned outwards. They are untouched by the stress and struggle of circumstances and forces obtaining in the outer world. Though they are thus far away from the field of toil and suffering, they are yet palpable to some deeper feeling somewhere in man. Their inviolable bliss makes itself felt near though it has not been possible to possess it.
In
dream and trance and muse before our eyes, It is in brief moments of subtler experience as in dream or inward concentration of the being or during deep meditation, when the consciousness is relatively freed from the clamping hold of physical existence, that these realms of Beatitude are glimpsed, even beheld for a time. These experiences in the inner domains, however, leave a bright and unforgettable impression on the consciousness.
Imagined
scenes or great eternal worlds, These realms of Beatitude come into the ken of man in various ways. It may be that they appear as part of his imaginations or linger as transcripts of his dream-experience, not concrete as physical things on earth, and disappear before they are firmly held. All the same they are facts of some eternal existence somewhere, and the impact they have on the being of man is more vivid, more lasting in its joyous trail than any of the earth’s fleeting experiences.
In a
swift eternal moment fixed there live These are the domains of deathless Light, luminous soothing belts of Peace, flowing seas of Joy, sunlit realms, where grief is not, that vouchsafe themselves to the grasp of man’s consciousness for however brief a moment. Such an experience can impress itself on man and form a permanent part of his consciousness or leave a memory which comes alive at will. What is once so experienced can always be called back in recollection and relived in a subtle way.
This,
once a star of bright remote idea Realities beyond the sense-bound existence of man first put forth their antennae as it were in the form of vague ideas or as figures etched out in flights of fancy or as dream-formations. These tend to repeat themselves in one way or the other, form grooves in the Earth-atmosphere and take clear shape on the way to their effectuation. Thus what was once a distant idea or a possible in the world of imagination now appears before Aswapathy as art actualised reality.
The
gulf between dream-truth, earth-fact was crossed, What was imagined or dreamt of is found to be actual. The gulf between fact of experience on earth and the truth glimpsed in the dream-world is no more. All that was behind the veil springs to life in a palpable manner. What he sees spread out before him makes a direct impact on his being and he is struck by the beauty and the bliss of it all.
A
breathless summit region drew his gaze The quintessence glowed of Life’s supreme delight. Aswapathy catches sight of a new region above him, stirless, whose upper horizons disappear into the still rarefactions of the Self and whose lower ends plunge into some impalpable expanse. It is the bright world of the sheer bliss of Life.
On a
spiritual and mysterious peak Here on the indefinable summits that appear to his vision is the borderline that marks off the domain of seething forms from the Formless, the becomings in Time from the Eternal Being. Here begins the miraculous emergence of the Finite from the Infinite.
Out
of that formless stuff Time mints his shapes; From the boundless Being of the Eternal are all Forms projected in Time. The Formless throws itself into Form, the Timeless pours itself into Time. All creation derives from and is supported by the Eternal. All movement takes place on the bosom of the Eternal’s Calm. The workings of the Cosmic Force are possible because they are based upon and supported by an unfathomable Peace, a Peace that is not static and unconcerned but dynamic, regarding, alive. Action is effective and lasting only when it proceeds from a base of peace. Activity that is agitated produces little result.
Inverting
the Spirit’s apex towards life The Creative Force of the Supreme turns the face of the Eternal Being towards manifestation. The self-absorbed gaze of the One moves into a seeing that multiplies into the Many. The Power that acts draws upon the immense potentialities in the Eternal in working out the possibilities she chooses to put forth.
The workings of this Cosmic Shakti may appear to be erratic, but all the while they are guided and governed from within by the Truth-Intelligence in the Being of the Eternal. All her movements take place upon the immutable ground of His Being. His status founds and supports her effectuating dynamisms that produce the miracle of this creation.
Out
of the Void’s unseeing energies In forming this solid universe of Matter from out of the innumerable possibilities in the womb of the Infinite, the creative Puissance is governed by the Truth-Idea at the origin. By it she determines the modes of the universal Movement. Even in apparently mechanical activities there is the effective direction of an omniscient Knowledge. Behind every Energy in Nature there is an Intelligence; guiding all Power, there is Wisdom, Prajnā.
At
her will the inscrutable Supermind leans down The Supermind is the Knowledge-Will of the Divine in Manifestation—Knowledge of the Truth to be manifested and, simultaneously, the Will to effectuate that Knowledge. The Cosmic Shakti is guided in its workings by this Supermind with its Real-Idea and irresistible Vast Power working out the Truth in the Idea. The kinetic energies of the World-Force are ultimately controlled and directed by this Knowledge-Will of the Supreme from above.
At
her will, led by a luminous Immanence The guiding Intelligence is not only above; it is also within. The Knowledge that illumes dwells in the depths as well. Impelled by it, the mind with all its tentative gropings in Ignorance arrives at some effectuation in this world of numberless possibilities, some vague and inchoate, some better formed. This is a world enveloped in Ignorance where one does not know the next step and all appears a play of chance. Possibilities vie with each other, clash and some succeed in actualising themselves as if by chance. Underneath all this activity, however, there is the operation of an immanent Light of. Knowledge through the instrument of the Mind.
Our
human ignorance moves towards the Truth The real meaning of this Earth-Life movement is the evolution of Nescience into full Omniscience. From the original state of complete absence of consciousness in this material universe there is a slow emergence of rudiments of consciousness and thence a steady growth of consciousness towards its full state of all-awareness. The ignorance that prevails and envelops the human mind in its functionings is only an intermediate state of transition from unconsciousness to full developed consciousness. It is not a static nor a permanent condition. It is a process in the movement towards Knowledge-Truth. In this process of growth of consciousness what were once instincts get converted into right thoughts, intimations of truth through the thinking faculties; thoughts develop into faultless perceptions, illuminations from a self-existent Knowledge. The Earth-Nature ascends, through the development of its consciousness, towards union with the Spirit.
The
Master of the worlds self-made her slave Though the manifesting Spirit is the Lord, omnipotent, infinite, yet he subjects himself to the rule and play of his Shakti who effects the manifestation. As the Soul involved in Nature, he acts as she wills. She is the Maya who shapes selectively the forces and strengths required for the needs of creation out of the eternal vasts of the Supreme Power, who finitises for the purposes of the Play the boundless Infinite. She lays down the lines of working according to which the Soul has to move.
The
Immortal bound himself to do her works; As the Soul evolving in Nature, the Spirit that is immortal in his original status above, assumes the mask of mortality. He passes in his mortal forms through the necessary changes of birth and death and works his way up the ladder of ascent from the Inconscience to the Superconscience through the conditions of Ignorance imposed by Nature.
The
worlds, the forms her goddess fancy makes All that is built by evolving Nature has its original scheme on the higher planes of Truth above. Each form follows or attempts to follow the line presaged in the seed-Idea at its origin. But in the course of its transition to the material plane, in the process of this rendering by creative Nature the original truth in the Idea suffers diminution due to several factors intervening e.g. Ignorance, Inconscience etc.
Even
severed, straying from their timeless source, Separated from their origin in the Creative Truth, these world-formations depart from their basic scheme in the Real-Idea. As a result, they develop into forms and movements which are not along the intended lines; they are malformed or deformed. They undergo changes that veil the guiding Light as they precipitate themselves into conditions that are far removed from their summit-origins, indeed, they are the very opposite of the pristine states of Being, Consciousness and Bliss that they are at their base above.
Since
even fall has its perverted joy In the process of her evolutionary manifestation, Nature takes delight in every movement; every movement is purposive and even those turns which appear to go backwards, downwards and seem to defeat her aim are made to serve her intention all to the better. She draws delight from all movements and developments in her process and nothing is allowed to go waste. What look like set-backs, defeats, falls in the movement of Manifestation only add to her zest and contribute to a surer and larger effectuation on her part. To one who is not lost in the movement but is sufficiently detached always to keep the aim in the front, even failures do not depress. He turns them into opportunities for self-examination, learns the lesson, sets right what needs to be rectified, and moves forward with greater confidence and strength. Thus used, even failures are welcome. In a sense they contribute more to the eventual result than easy successes.
These
too can to the peaks revert or here As such, even these half-formations and deformations of the lower worlds are pressed by Nature to undergo the processes of evolution by which they gradually shed their imperfections and perversions and grow into their native forms of the Truth-planes above. This transforming change can be effected here on the scene of manifestation and the real divine character of the formations can be established here or the formations may withdraw from the zone of deformation and return to their source.
At
once caught in an eternal vision’s sweep Above
was a monarchy of unfallen self, In the vast vision vouchsafed to him, Aswapathy beholds the entire range of the Life-planes. He regards the great, bright, masterful and glorious realms of the upper zones; he also sees the nether regions below, opposite in character, obscure, shrinking, depressing and dangerous.
There
were vasts of the glory of life’s absolutes: In the veiled planes of Life there are expanses bubbling with delight and happiness. There, there are no limitations of any kind on the supremacy of Life. The shadow of darkness, the chilling winds of pain and grief have not yet appeared to afflict the natural efflorescence of life and create division in its forms. There is a vibrant freedom, a fresh and direct Knowledge at play in these realms where the Sun of Truth suffers no obscuration.
There
were worlds of her laughter and dreadful irony, Lower down on the Life-planes are regions where the joy of life gets subdued, changes its character till it lapses into strife, struggle and grief. Laughter and tears are very near each other. Immortal Life begins to take a perverse joy in dallying with Death and it undergoes spells of inactivity that bear semblance to total cessation.
The
light of God she has parted from his dark Life stands between the Light of the creative Truth above and its shadow below, as if to partake of both at the same time e.g. the Knowledge, the Power, the Immortality of the Truth-Consciousness and the Ignorance, the limitations and the mortality of the Nescience. On its peaks Life shares in the perfection of the Being Eternal, on its lower levels it is afflicted with the imperfections of the Nature based on Inconscience.
Here
mingling in man’s heart their tones and hues The being of man is not cast in a fixed mould. It is a changing and developing entity holding in itself the mixed and contradictory elements of both the Inconscience below and the Superconscience above. The pattern of the being of man depends upon the manner in which these varying elements are combined in it; it changes in the measure in which the nether elements are displaced or transmuted into the higher.
His
life a forward-rippling stream in Time, Man is a strange but meaningful mixture of opposites. His life is a continuous movement in the duration of Time. The flow of this movement may appear at times backward and regressive but on closer scrutiny of its results it is seen to be always contributive to a forward sweep. Man’s life is never stationery, even for a moment. But his nature is pretty fixed in its mould and its lines. Even when it participates in the life-movement of progress it clings to its pattern. The positive elements exert for progress and change, the negative ones retard this movement.
His
soul a moving picture’s changeful film, The soul of man is the centre of constant development, continuous evolution from stage to stage. Each experience that it lives adds a hue, a grade to its formation. Nothing stays for a moment what it was before. The various elements of light and obscurity, of joy and pain, are in perpetual strife on the battlefield of the soul and, in the personality that grows around this soul in evolution, there is always a complex web of lines of progressive order and harmony and of unrest and disharmony.
The
grand creatrix with her cryptic touch All creation is a rendering, by the Consciousness-Force, of the vision of the Supreme in his creative mood. This Force as Life builds the worlds and impels their movements in order to manifest something of the ineffable mystery of the Absolute. The creation shaped by this mighty Power is many-toned and varied in its strains; a vivid symbol, intense and wonderful.
But here were worlds lifted half-way to heaven. The
Veil was there but not the Shadowy Wall; The worlds that presently greet Aswapathy are neither the nether realms of struggle and darkness nor the bright summits of power and rapture. They are mid-way pointing to happier altitudes. They are indeed separated by a subtle veil in consciousness from the higher regions but not shut out by any gross barrier, They are not completely beyond the human grasp; man can, by inner effort, contact them and their forms in which some intensity of the higher, indestructible purity manages to be and something too of the Bliss from above.
Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure. The earth is denied lasting joy because it cannot hold it. There are vitiating elements of desire, ego and a host of other impurities and falsehoods arising there from which soon infect the play and the source of joy and bring in suffering. The mind and the vital are not content with the happiness granted to them; they hunger for more, grab at things to have more of joy, and struggle ensues. The physical body, riddled as it is with the impurities of vital desire and ego, is too unsteady and inadequate to contain the intenser joys without spilling them. It does not have the expandable quality that can grow with the intensities of greater joys and hold them. It is only in the strength of purity that real ecstasy can be contained and supported. Purity gives an unshakable stability and spontaneously rejects all weakening elements.
There
could have reached our divinised sense and heart If there were sufficient protective strength and dissolvent power of purity in him, the state of man would indeed be different. His senses and his emotions would not be tainted with desire and forced to move in impure channels as now; they would be lifted into the workings of a higher Consciousness: the human consciousness transmuted into the divine. Purity subtilises the consciousness and renders it fit to receive and live in the power, knowledge and felicity that belong to the higher, diviner Nature.
All
strengths could laugh and sport on earth’s hard roads There would be a natural efflorescence and play of greater powers on earth without the restricting and diminishing action arising from the vitiating elements in her nature. There would be no pain and grief due to the wrong reception and pervasion by the forces of Ignorance and Falsehood. No inhibitions of imperfect nature would interfere with the freedom of the soul in the expression of its consciousness of unity with others.
But
she has stabled her dreams in Matter’s courts A free play of the higher powers on earth is not possible because, of the obscurities and impurities arising from the Inconscience of Matter on which this world is firmly based. All the aspirations and higher movements of Earth-Nature are held down by inertia and other clamping holds of Nescience in Matter. The earth-consciousness has to liberate itself from these nether tetherings before the greater powers can manifest in it.
These
worlds could feel God’s breath visiting their tops; The worlds that Aswapathy now sees, though not the highest, are high enough to receive the direct breath of the Divine on their summits. A distant glow of the lower reaches of the Reality that is beyond the manifest creation is perceived there. They are open to the influences and touches of the Eternal Divine.
Across
the white aeonic silences On the summits of these worlds there reigns a Silence, pure and timeless. They open into regions of absolute Peace. They are peopled by beings who are veritable embodiments of Delight and are immortal. They are not touched by pain and death inevitable in the lower worlds of the Creation.Purity and Silence are the gates to immortal Delight and absolute Peace.
Pure
mystic voices in beatitude’s hush The sweetnesses of Divine Love are untarnished by any kind of depression or perversion arising out of desire and ego as in the case of human love. Divine Love exists and pours itself out; its bliss is not dependent upon any outside factor. It requires perfect purity to receive and hold this Love. In these worlds where Aswapathy finds himself, there is an intense aspiration and call to the Divine Love to manifest. The appeal is pure in its formulation and mounts in the silence of utter happiness.
Calling
his honeyed touch to thrill the worlds, It is the touch of Divine Love that imparts delight to all forms and movements in Creation. And it is because of this pulsating joy within that existence and evolution are at all possible in conditions that are most discouraging in this hemisphere of Ignorance. There is consequently a continuous reaching out to this Love, in whatever form—inadequate or deformed—on the part of all the creatures in this Creation. Love heals the division effected by Ignorance and restores the unity between form and form.
His
sweet intolerant might of union Love first expresses itself in action as attraction of form to form and it will not be denied till a union is effected. The Divine Love that is at work in this universe—albeit behind the veil—embraces all that is manifest and it presses on all to draw together, realise their oneness behind the manifold exterior. In their pervading ignorance, many resist this movement of reclamation and suffer in the process; they deny themselves the bliss of union arising from Love. But Love is an imperious God whose noose cannot be escaped forever; his empire is ever-expanding.
A
chant hymeneal to the unseen Divine, There is here in the atmosphere an intense and pure aspiration for the Divine. It renders itself in the rising notes of a chant to the still invisible Divinity, setting up a wave of celestial music throbbing in the heart of the hearer and striking at the fount to ecstasy within. Aspiration formulated in words, in concrete sound values, creates an atmosphere favourable to its realisation; it emanates vibrations of rhythms of charged sound-power and sets even the physical body aflame with the consuming joy of evocation.
A
purer, fierier sense had there its home, This life-world region is the field for the play of a sense which is far purer, far intenser than the sense that is active in the material world on earth. The physical body can support the action only of senses which are in tune with the state of obscurity of living matter. The consciousness that actuates this physical form is only partly articulate and this fact limits the capacity of the body to bear the free workings of the senses. Perforce the senses have to be of a modified order. But in the life-world where this limitation of matter is not, the sense action is freer, intenser. It is also purer because it is not infected with the obscurity of the physical instrument.
One
drew a large unburdened spacious breath The
voice of time sang of the Immortal’s joy; In this region one is not weighed down by the pull of material inconscience nor pressed in by the constricting factors of ignorance. One has a freer life-movement and this evokes a natural joy and delight. Everything vibrates with notes of rapturous happiness. Delight comes naturally where there is freedom for life to flow unimpeded.
Beauty
unimaginable moved heaven-bare Here too lives Beauty without the deformations and modifications inevitable in the lower worlds of ignorance and obscurity. Unearthly Beauty manifests directly without any veil and spreads itself freely in this subtle domain without physical barriers. There is a marvellous surge of evocation in the air calling upon the still higher worlds of Light and Immortality to manifest.
Creation
leaped straight from the hands of God; Only
to be was a supreme delight, Here creation has not yet suffered any deformation or diminution as it has on the earth. This Divine emanation preserves its true character. Wonder and Bliss are prominent features of this self-formulation of the Creative Spirit. Here one does not have to exert oneself, to go into action in order to derive happiness from life. To exist is itself a supreme delight. It is natural here to be happy. The blissful radiance of the soul is nowhere obscured. Love and its consummation in Joy of union are manifest everywhere.
The spirit’s luminousness was bodied there. Truth, says the Upanishad, has light for its form, bhārūpah. On earth the Spirit reveals itself initially in the form of flashes of light* as the earthly sense cannot bear the brilliance for long. It reveals itself, it withdraws. But in the higher worlds of Life the splendour of the Spirit lends itself to experience in a sustained embodied form. All is luminous with the glow of the Spirit. vidyuto vyariyutat (Kena Up.)
Life’s
contraries were lovers or natural friends What normally feature in life on earth as conflicting elements ever mutually opposite, ever at strife, show themselves to be quite different in nature under different circumstances, in other states of consciousness; they reveal themselves to be not contradictories but complementaries, even close and mutually enriching elements. It is thus that the dualities of earth-life, e.g. good and bad, bright and dark, are experienced to be complementaries. Even the extremes of sense experience like joy and pain are realised to be but the two sharp ends of the one and the same reality of harmony.
Indulgence
with a tender purity came The growth of godlike elements in this realm is not effected by the pressures of a Nature following the ‘rule of tooth and claw’ as in the material world. These elements are cherished and tended by a Nature that is not subject to the rule of Ignorance and Inconscience—and therefore obliged to be harsh in her methods—but is suffused with a purity of spirit and sympathy of love born of knowledge.
There none was weak, so falsehood could not live; Falsehood is the mark of the weak. It is the weak who seek to cover up their deficiencies with the pretensions of falsehood. The strong have no need to resort to falsehood either to guard themselves or to achieve their purpose. They are endowed with the self-effectuating strength and power which derives from some truth. Where there is truth, there there is real strength. And this strength is straight, not devious in its workings. It is so that in the higher realms of existence, where strength of Truth prevails, there is no falsehood.
Ignorance
was a thin shade protecting light, As one develops in one’s consciousness and scales the heights of being one begins to perceive that the ignorance which obscures and obstructs the play of the light of truth on the physical plane thins out into a light shadow guarding the flame of knowledge from the violent gusts of vital nature; similarly imagination which is normally a play of fantasy or an unregulated indulgence of the vital mind, turns into a purposive exercise of the manifesting truth in the play of possibilities on the subtler planes, while pleasure which is repelled by pain develops into a longing for the higher intensities of truth although their pressure may be well beyond its endurance.
The
intellect was Beauty’s worshipper, Unlike as on the lower levels of the mind where the intellect claims the sole right to determine what is true and what is not true, where it exists for its own sake and claims the allegiance of all other powers and values of life, here on the higher reaches the intellect pays homage to the Divine as the Beautiful, the Truth as Beauty, satyam as sundaram. It realises that where there is Beauty, there there is Truth. The harmonies of Beauty are the formulations of Truth. Similarly strength does not seek to exist or exercise on its own. It bases itself on a foundation of Calm and functions on the lines of the workings of the Truth of the Spirit. Strength is effective only when it proceeds from an unshakable base; it is irresistible when it is an undeviating action of the Truth. When it is not backed by an uninvolved calm and where elements of falsehood and ignorance enter into its action, there strength fails. Power too ceases to throw itself out for the dubious satisfaction derived from incessant self-effectuation and self-aggrandisement. It finds at last and rests in the self-existent Bliss in Existence, self-content, self-satisfied.
There
were summit glories inconceivable, Here on the summits are domains that are beyond the conception of man in their riches of Knowledge, Power and Splendour. Wisdom reigns in her calm not needing the instrumentation of the intellect, The light of the sun of these altitudes illumines chaste without interference. Here are realms that are the empires of the soul that embraces all in its vision and rules with its power derived from the Truth-Sun above.
A
vision of grandeurs, a dream of magnitudes Aswapathy sees in movement these lofty worlds of Life-Powers, bright in their glories, vast in their extent, governed imperiously with firm will by their gods of hallowed strengths and irresistible ‘nights. These worlds are distinguished by their brilliant order, dominating Power and a high ease of movement. There is no lack of anything, no chaos of any kind.
All
objects there were great and beautiful, There
sat the oligarchies of natural Law, It is a world of uplifting beauty that Aswapathy beholds. In all objects there is a mask of nobility and also of beauty, a dignity of power. All authority stems from a Law that has grown from within—not imposed from without—and all strengths, powers and impulsions serve a lordship that is calm in its unquestioned sovereignty. Each poise and attitude of the soul takes on a divine character. The soul no more moves in the grooves of ignorant Nature.
There
met the ardent mutual intimacies There are conditions in which mastery by another ceases to be restraining and servitude ceases to be painful. Both turn into sources of joy in the alchemy of love. When this love is of the purer and wholesouled kind as obtains on the higher levels of consciousness, the yoke of Love indeed becomes rapturous. The joy of mastering love at one end is met by the equally intense joy of utter surrender by love from the other and both merge in the bliss of union.
All was a game of meeting kinglinesses. For
worship lifts the worshipper’s bowed strength Here there is no difference of high and low in stature. None feels inferior or demeaned in discharging his role. All meet in a natural dignity. Between him who rules and those that are ruled there is no gulf; both meet in their consciousness which is one. If one adores and worships another, this very act of worship brings about a union between the being that looks up in adoration and the high being that is sought. The strength and the joy of the latter lifts up the limited but surrendered strength of the other. The weaker is linked to the stronger, the stronger flows into the weaker and there is a fruitful issue: the weaker acts with a strength greater than his own, the stronger effectuates through an instrument that is weaker by nature.
To
him who serves with a free equal heart To serve is not lowly. Service is an indispensable function in the Divine Manifestation and one who serves with the right consciousness, without the claims and taint of ego, discharging with an attitude of equality whatever function comes to him, grows in his soul. He does not look upon obedience as a mark of inferiority. To him it is a valuable experience in self-discipline, a training ground for an effective manifestation. Humility is a sign of his inner richness and sensitivity to the Divine Presence. His faith in the Divine Wisdom in allotting to him his function is an expression of the evolved state of his nature. In serving he verily rules. He is not helplessly subject to circumstances but governs his own evolution through the means chosen for his nature by the indwelling soul.
There
were realms where Knowledge joined creative Power There are planes of existence high up where Knowledge is not divorced from Power as it mostly is on earth. Here on earth knowledge and power are, as it were, in two different segments. Knowledge is ineffective by itself; a process is to be found to translate it into life. Power is virtually blind and can be utilised to any purpose or no purpose. But it is not so on the levels nearer to the Truth in manifestation. There Knowledge joins Power. Power is filled with a guiding and controlling Knowledge; Knowledge freely and spontaneously draws upon Power to effectuate itself. They become at their best two complementary aspects, each completing the other. Cit and śakti fuse into each other.
Apotheosised,
transfigured by wisdom’s touch, When Power—of any kind—is thus illumined by Knowledge, it undergoes a transmutation in its workings. It no longer works mechanically but exerts itself in service, in consecration to the Truth that presides, indwells and surrounds it as a light, a flame of self-existent and self-effectuating Knowledge. Power grows conscious, gets absorbed and becomes the dynamism of Knowledge.
A captive Life wedded her conqueror. In
his wide sky she built her world anew; When the Life-Power is open to Knowledge, when it turns into a direct dynamis of that Consciousness, the mode and the scope of her workings undergo a radical change. Things are new-built in a vaster context by this uplifted Life whose range gets enlarged into the new horizons lit up by the leading Light. Life proceeds to impart her characteristic force of movement to the measured activity of the mind; she impresses upon the mind an urgency to translate into action the perceptions of the inner being even as her own faculties and powers are impelled by it to share in the knowledge gained and function with an increasing element of consciousness. It is the uplifted and purified Life that dynamises the mind into a power of the soul and makes possible the growing manifestation of the truth of the soul by the raising of its own powers to a greater degree of consciousness.
His
splendour grasped her, her puissance to him clung; The glory of Knowledge takes the Power of Life in its grasp, the Power of Life accepts Knowledge as her master. Knowledge formulated in Idea becomes the ruler and Life yields to it her own control over the host of powers and forces that operate in the vital world. Life casts forms in the mould and the rhythm of the perceptions in the Idea above and her own movements and actions embody the creative Will in that Idea. Life-Power subserves and seeks to fulfil the greater Knowledge and Will pressing upon her.
A
flaming thunder, a creator flash, Scintillating Knowledge suffused and vehicled by an intense, undiminishing Force of Life is instantly creative. It is not handicapped by any lack of support or want in the instrument, in its creative movement. So too the Life-Force is not dispersed or wasted for want of an unfailing direction. Both at a high pitch of purity and intensity effectuate the creative Purpose without fail.
Life throned with mind, a double majesty. Life by itself is not adequate. Without the guiding intelligence of the mind she is blind, mechanical. Mind too without the instrumentation of the Life-Force is ineffective in the world. It is only when both these agents are joined, function as complementaries that a purpose and effectuating Puissance comes into being.
Worlds
were there of a happiness great and grave These higher regions are suffused with a profound happiness that elevates, not like the earthly happiness, exciting but precarious. Activity is accompanied by a vision that inspires it; mirth has a serious strain of thought in its background. Aspiration, longing for the higher Truth, the Divine, is not impatient, impetuous and wasteful, but gathered and consistent. It holds itself in faith awaiting the Response.
Worlds
were there of a childlike mirth and joy; There is here in these worlds a spontaneous joy unbridled by care or fear. The mind and heart are not weighed down or covered by the obscurities and pulls of Ignorance and materiality. The very body, which acts as a drag and an impediment to their free play on the earth, turns here in the subtler planes into a ready and joyous instrument for their action. It bears their charge and renders their rhythms without diminution or deformation.
It
lit an aureate halo round desire This unbounded verve lifts up desire from its lowly levels and invests it with a glow of higher light, turning it into loftier channels; liberates the being’s vitality from its chains in the encasing body and lets it free to participate in the natural play of untarnished beauty, love and bliss on these higher planes. It does not have to strain and catch whatever bits of deformed beauty, love and bliss it can seize as in its hampered movements on the earth.
On a
radiant soil that gazed at heaven’s smile There is here a close rapport between the ground of activity and the Consciousness that regards and lights it up. There is a palpable flow of bliss between the two. As a result the accelerated life-force does not spare itself in exertion, does not ever cease to work. It is constantly replenished from the higher Source and even when the activity is exacting, it breathes in a contented joy of effectuation.
There
work was play and play the only work, With the absence of strain due to the goadings of desire and ego, all activity becomes an enjoyable pastime. The life-energy throws itself for the sheer joy of effectuation without subjection to the incessant claims and reactions of tainted desires. All that is to be done is achieved effortlessly with a strength that is irrepressible. All the difference between work and play, between laboured exertion and stimulating activity is due to subjective factors in the doer. If one is actuated by the narrow considerations of ego, of desire for self-satisfaction, which provoke protesting reactions in the field or those of unfulfilled claims in oneself, then work becomes a strenuous movement instead of a joyous exertion in growth and an expansion of the faculties of the being.
A
celestial bacchanal for ever pure, By itself Life is an immortal Force—amŗtam as the Upanishad describes it. Its nature is deep delight. And that is because it is really a projection in the terrestrial world of the Force of Consciousness, śakti and cit, that is full of bliss, ānanda. But when it is enclosed in the physical body subject to decay and death and identified with it, the Life-Force in action perforce shares the disabilities of the physical frame. When this restriction is removed and the Life-Force enabled to function on its own without the necessity of the instrumentation of the physical, without having to share in the obscurities of its encasement, then Life comes into her own characteristic operation. Life is purer, radiant and exalted in movements. Life is not depressed, not decaying, not dying.
Imposing
on the safety of the stars These regions of the Life-world are fields for the play of an untrammelled Life-Force. There is here a purity, a brightness of the spirit that renders all movement delightful. Uninterrupted by flaws and twists that come with Ignorance, joy, strength, speed and adventure have a free range and the beings embodying these forces sport in utter freedom without restraints of any kind.
Imperious
in their radiance like the suns The mmediacy of Life is indispensable for the manifestation of the Spirit in Matter. The riches of Being, Consciousness, Puissance, Bliss and Immortality can be transmitted and rendered active in the lower worlds only through the agency of the pristine Life-Force acting in all its mastery. What is static above is dynamised by the action of this Force for the purpose of effective manifestation in the terrestrial universe.
A
spell to force the heart to stark delight, a lofty mastery over the course in progress, a beauty of movement and a sheer insistent delight. Beauty, strength, delight are the hallmarks of pure, unrestricted Life in action.
Ideas
were luminous comrades of the soul; On these higher levels of existence the mind does not need to labour with its faculties of ideation, thinking and formulating in order to arrive at a knowledge of things. Knowledge here is more direct and spontaneous. It shines luminously in the form of true ideas in the natural movements of the soul. And if the mind does exercise its faculties of thought and the like, it is more as a play than a necessity in order to know.
Investitured
with the fresh heart’s bright ray, Here the self-formulations of the creative Spirit are yet fresh and bright, not yet obscured, not yet overcome by the shadows of Nescience. The movement has entered the zone of Time but the self-awareness and bliss of the creative stir in the Eternal are still vibrant and all existence breathes the vigour of a youthful spirit.
An
exquisite and vehement tyranny, Apart from the undimmed legacy of Knowledge and Bliss, there is active here an insistent will to manifest, to effectuate the Delight of existence. This will presses itself in its full power and there issue from it flowing currents of joy all over. All creation, in fact, proceeds on the impulsion of a basic ānanda, Delight of Existence, and aims to manifest that Delight in the becoming. But the will to this purpose finds a freer play only on the higher planes of the Creation where it does not have to work under the several limiting conditions that characterise the lower field.
There
reigned a breath of high immune content, But with all this joy and thrill of life, there is felt here the presence of something that is not lost in that current, something above, something calm and serene, a vast expanse of Love, a peace unlimited. What is aloof, not involved in the movement is tranquil, calm. The calm deepens into Peace and on the bosom of Peace lies unending Love, causeless, objectless.
A
sovereignty of tireless sweetness lived There is here no flagging of the joyful movement, either due to the inability of the instruments or receptacles to hold the joy for long or to the dilution of the joy by opposite elements from the lower nature of Ignorance. Happiness uninterrupted holds a festive sway over the whole domain.
A
large spontaneous order freed the will, One does not have to impose an order on things and movements here. No constrictive regulation becomes necessary. A natural and free self-organisation takes place in which the will is not under any external compulsion; the being is able to aspire for and reach the divine Bliss in an uninhibited direct movement; a large and high dynamic action becomes possible in the absence of the clamping and narrowing factors of ego, desire and ignorance of the lower nature; the heart catches the flame of Godward soar and burns bright without the obscuring smoke of the earthly elements.
There
was no falsehood of soul-severance, All falsehood comes into being when there is a departure from the truth that is the base of every existence. This basic truth formulates itself as the soul of the creation that is meant to express and manifest it. Where there is some deviation in the movement, the rays of this sun of the soul are obscured, deflected, and crookednesses, vŗjināni, twists, deformations take place at different levels, mental, vital etc. The Force of the truth also gets diminished and diverted. Where, however, there is not this obscuration of the soul, no gulf between the soul and the nature in which the manifestation is being built up, there is a directness of movement. All aspires to express the impelling truth without detraction of any kind; nature is sincere and where there is sincerity there flows the natural power of the truth to which one is sincere. Truth and its powers are self-effective.
There freedom was sole rule and highest law. In
a happy series climbed or plunged these worlds: Here in the upper realms of Life there are no limiting constrictions imposed either from below or from above, as there are on earth where the rigidities of the material inconscience and the interferences of the labouring mind in ignorance restrict the scope and effectivity of the Life-Force. Life-Power is free to build, to re-build, to form, to change, to soar, to delve with all her unbounded strength in the way she chooses, in all the majesty of her glory.
A
thousand Edens she could build nor pause; Life is free on these planes to display her powers of varied manifestation without any kind of restriction. Her field is endless, her capacities are unchecked and she pours all her grandeur, beauty and power in luxurious abundance. There are no elements to vitiate her creations of joyous vitality, no factors to limit her workings qualitatively or quantitatively.
Awake
with a cry and stir of numberless souls, The creative Life-Power on these levels of existence carries fresh from the Being of the Supreme the truth-formation that she has to launch into manifestation. She holds in herself the guiding Knowledge, the timeless Will and deathless Power of the Supreme and turns with joy to her task. She does not need any lead or any aid from elsewhere as she bears in herself all the creative charge that is needed for the purpose direct from the Supreme.
No
fall debased the godhead of her steps, At this level in the creative manifestation, there is no departure from the governing truth of things. The will in the Force executes itself infallibly. The spell of Nescience is not here as it is on the Earth where the pall of Inconscience and the veils of Ignorance blind the eye of evolving Nature. There is here no disabling interference by the Life-Force with the manifestation under sway. The creative Light continues to show the way undimmed, unobscured by the darknesses of the nether formation.
There
was no use for grudging ring or fence; This self-effective element of Knowledge-Will within her keeps her movements in accord with the truth-intention. Her actions do not deflect or swerve from the lines foreseen at the outset. Each deployment fulfills itself delightfully, completely, exactly. No limitations need to be placed on her movements to avoid misdirection of effort, to ensure execution without waste.
Abandoned
to her rapid fancy’s moods This Life-Power is a wonderful builder. She brings out numberless truths out of the Infinite and casts them in shapes and rhythms apparently at the fancy of her changeful moods but really on lines envisaged in the original creative Idea. It is she who masterfully manifests the Glory of the Supreme in the manifold, picturesque patterns of form and movement on the crest of her waves of might and delight. Underneath all her dizzying rapidities and ecstatic sweeps there is a purposive direction.
This
world of bliss he saw and felt its call, A
darker air encircled still his soul It is not possible to bear unalloyed bliss for long as long as one’s system is not rid of impurities, of agitations and excitements. A solid base of quietude and calm is indispensable to support the action of the higher ecstasy. Aswapathy finds that he has still this disability which creates a gulf between him and the state of bliss he is watching and which he is attracted to. His being is not yet free from the stamp of the agitated life-movement with its shadows of ego and desire, struggle and Pain, natural in the worlds below. He is unable to enter this kingdom of bliss.
In
spite of yearning mind and longing sense, His mind is still coloured by the result of sad experiences in earth-life. His vision has been narrowed and obscured by the uncertainty, grief and exhaustion of that life. That is why, with all his aspiration and intense longing for the pure bliss of the heights, when the desired state is actually presented before him, it appears like a dream, a prospect imagined and hoped for by one in pain and suffering.
Although
he once had felt the Eternal’s clasp, Aswapathy’s being has indeed had experience of union with the Divine Consciousness and is not new to the Bliss that beckons. But his nature has been accustomed too long to respond to the movements of pain and suffering of the earth world. It is still close in its sensitivity to vibrations of pain. Besides, in the vital worlds where he finds himself, there are passages leading to the darker worlds. They are dose by and his nature is not immune to their pull.
Hardly,
too close beset by the world’s care, The human system, used as it is to the vibrations and stresses of struggle and suffering natural to the world of Ignorance in which it has to live and grow, is unable to respond rightly to contacts of joy and happiness. The obscurities and vitiating elements of ego, desire and ignorance that form part of its nature interfere at every step and prevent the full and right response to movements of light, of joy. The reactions are always mixed and dilute the experience. A sustained effort of purification and subtilisation is needed before a healthier response is possible from human nature.
For
its tormented will to think and live When the human consciousness awakes out of its torpor to the vibrations of life and reacts to them through the doors of the senses, it finds that the impacts evoke two kinds of sensations: pleasurable and painful. All experience is mixed with these two opposite elements. This duality persists and reaches out to other fields—mental, moral, emotional etc.—as the embodied consciousness grows. And all life is thus experienced in terms of the opposites, of pleasure and pain, good and evil etc., at every level. In spite of this duality, the will to live and grow persists because of the relentless pressure from evolving Nature to undergo the experience and develop the consciousness in enlarging fields.
In
the crude beginnings of this mortal world When this material universe came into existence, all was sheer materiality. It was a world of inert, physical extension. There was no life-breath to activate matter, no mentality to infuse thought into the material manifestation, no movement of emotional faculties. All was still. Consciousness was not yet.
When
earth was built in the unconscious Void At this stage when all was a spread of inert Matter there was no consciousness. An immense unconscious Void contained all. But this was so only on the surface. Within the material forms there was latent a consciousness that was pressing to emerge and articulate itself. Behind the dead appearance a ferment was gathering for the release of a dormant, unformed consciousness. The agents of Manifestation, the gods, strove to effect this outbreak of consciousness.
In
that desolate grandeur, in that beauty bare, Sound reverberated but there was none to hear. There was no life and hence there was no need of any kind. Consequently the pressure of the divine consciousness to deliver itself from the womb of Matter was unanswered. There was no seconding response, no seeking for it from an environment that had not yet awakened to a need for anything. But the pressure within increased more and more.
This
solid mass which brooked no throb of sense Finally, the persistent push of the consciousness within, the evolutionary nisus, could not be contained for long in the inert denseness of Matter however hard. It broke forth and the first stir of movement, the throb of the spirit commenced replacing the initial poise of immobility of the material creation. The first condition of a stationary organisation of Matter was disturbed by the beginnings of the movement of consciousness.
In
the uncaring trance it groped for sight, The evolutionary Spirit emerging from the trance of Matter in the form of consciousness started feeling out for sensation, for action, for organs of expression and experience. It sought for contact and response in an environment that was wholly inert, indifferent and as if dead. It struggled for conscious articulation, for evocation of answering movement and the means therefore.
The
poised inconscience shaken with a touch, At the first stir of the concealed consciousness there was a radical movement that broke the spell of inconscient sleep in the material creation. The quietude that reigned—not entirely nescient, for in its depths there lay a divine, intuitive element—began to throb with a vibration of potent sound. There went forth a cry, an aspiration and a call to the Power of Life to descend into the material universe and infuse it with a living sense, to awake by its pressure the divine consciousness dormant in the lifeless forms of Matter. Life descends from its plane above in response to the call from the plane of Matter below, enlivens Matter and organises itself in the material world.
A
voice was heard on the mute rolling globe, With the outbreak of this movement of life, there commenced a general articulation of the hitherto dumb need in things. A call for the breath of life pervaded. There also rose in that bleak desert a muffled sound as if of protest at this disturbance of the settled order of insentient inertia.
A
being seemed to breathe where once was none: There was the breath of life where before all was as if dead. The soul in things came to life. What had been so far lying suppressed, insensitive, unconscious turned over as though from a long, long sleep.
Aware
of its own buried reality, This awakened being, the soul, began to remember, It became aware of its own concealed truth of existence: its innate nature of consciousness and delight and their claim which had passed out of its memory with its involuntary plunge into Nescience. It now longed to live, to know the full truth of all, to take delight in all.
Life heard the call and left her native light. Overflowing
from her bright magnificent plane Life on its own plane above heard the call from the earth below and in response moved down with her immeasurable power, bliss, splendour—so natural to her—in order to infuse them in dead Matter and create a world of movement, joy and brightness where all was inert, insentient and obscure. Abundant in power, swift in movement and bright with joy, Life descended into the material universe.
As
comes a goddess to a mortal’s breast Like a divine Power entering the being of man and putting its characteristic stamp on his movements, Life entered the material world with all that she carries and sought to enrich it with her gifts. Though her own home is unconfined and imperishable, she chose to house herself on earth in limited forms that are subject to death. In Matter which is inert and mortal, Life planted the nisus of Immortality, in a desert of Nescience she awoke consciousness and aspiration. To brute forms of Matter she imparted her own beauty and grace and where there was stark, she aroused the thrill of delight.
Alive
and clad with trees and herbs and flowers With the effective descent of Life into the material world all began to change. Forms and shapes hitherto inert and immobile stirred with life, and movement commenced. Sentient creatures appeared where before there had been only inert formations. Creation lifted up its face and broke forth into living picturesque patterns. The upward aspiration and movement became articulate. Beauty of forms ceased to be statuesque; it raced on earth proclaiming the glory of Life. It became possible in time for man to appear, to think, to become more and more conscious, to adventure and confront the outer world.
But
while the magic breath was on its way, But before Life could establish her full sway on material Earth and impart her untiring power, natural bliss and innate immortality to the forms which she vivified, there was a challenge and interference by an opposite Power of Nescience and Darkness which was already in possession of the Earth-field.
The
secret Will that robes itself with Night Even this factor of darkness, however, is a part of the process of the working of the Divine Will in creation. It is an element that has sprung up as a result of an exclusive concentration of the manifesting Power. In consequence the Spirit has got involved in the hard crust of Matter and in its emergence out of it, it is subjected to the operations of pain and death inevitable in those first conditions of inconscience and obscurity Behind this development too there is the Will of the Supreme: to raise all the possibilities inherent in the situation and work them out, to give full scope to the opposite possibilities of darkness, nescience and death and then to change and transform them ultimately into Light, Consciousness and Immortality.
Interned
now in the slow and suffering years Life has to obey the laws of the inconscient Matter in which she has descended to organise herself. This is particularly so in the earlier stages till more and more of Matter is informed by the Life-Force and acquires her character more and more. Till then the laws of inertia, obscurity, cessation are binding on embodied Life and her characteristic powers have to function under severe limitation. Where there is no sensibility, sense has to awake slowly, where there is brute dead mass, there the beauty of vibrant Life has to emerge and this entails a struggle in which joy and sorrow appear in their duality.
A dim
and dreadful muteness fell on her: Life underwent a great diminution of her native power. She lost her freedom of articulation and movement; she shrank. She could no more radiate her innate verve and joy. Constricted in movement and suppressed in spring, Life was afflicted with desire to reach out to what she had not.
To feed death with her works is here life’s doom. Here on earth Death is more powerful than Life. Whatever is hatched, nourished and built by Life has to ultimately pass into the jaws of Death which engulfs all terrestrial creation. And yet, Life goes on with her labour of creating and supporting a myriad forms endlessly. It is as if Life is sentenced to this task of providing food for hungry Death that devours all she creates.
So
veiled was her immortality that she seemed, Such was the evil mystery of her change. The change Life underwent on the earth-field was so far-reaching that her immortal nature was obscured, practically eliminated. It looked as if all things were by themselves not conscious but Life was forcing consciousness upon them and pressing them to be awake, but they lapsed back into unconsciousness after a time. The workings of Life in this domain governed by Death seemed transient, almost an unreal appearance that was obliged to fade away. Death, not Life, claimed to be eternal.
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