Book Seven. The Book of Yoga
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V Canto VI Canto VII
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Book Seven: Canto 4 The Triple Soul-Forces
She meets a Woman with a bright face who is sitting on a rugged ground with a sharp and wounding stone beneath her feet. She embodies divine pity, for she is a spirit touched by the grief of all that lives in the world. She is the Mother of Seven Sorrows. She tells Savitri that she is her own secret soul that has come to share the suffering of the world. She is present wherever there is grief, pain and sorrow. She brings pity, sympathy and compassion. She works and suffers hoping that one day God will come and give succour As she ceases speaking there comes up like an echo the voice of the Man of Sorrows who complains bitterly that God has deliberately inflicted suffering and sorrow on him. He is ever doomed to disappointment, failure and death. He has no force to revolt against this dispensation of God; he must accept to live with grief and misery. Savitri tells the Madonna of suffering that she is a portion of her own self put out to bear the sorrow of the world; but hers is the power to solace, not to save. She then answers the Mother of divine grief and compassion that one day she will return with the Strength of the Eternal and the world shall be freed from pain and suffering. Savitri ascends further and meets a woman in gold on a throne-like boulder, armed with trident and thunderbolt, with her feet upon a lion lying below. She is the Mother of Might guarding the hosts of Light from the forces of Night and Death. She tells Savitri that she is her own secret soul come down into the human world to protect and save the threatened, to reward the strong. She topples down tyranny and injustice. She is Durga, she is Lakshmi, she is Kali, who is charged to do God’s mighty work. She awaits the advent of God. Immediately there arises a warped echo from the dwarf-Titan, the Ego of the world of desire. This Voice of the vital Man declares that he is heir to the forces of the earth, the premier claimant to the throne of heaven. All Nature is to serve his ambitions and he is to complete what God has left imperfect. He has exploded the atom, conquered Space and soon he shall make of the gods his menials. Savitri tells the Madonna of Might that she is her own portion put forth to help mankind onward on the route to the Supreme. But though she has given strength to men, she could not give wisdom. Savitri assures her that one day she will return with the saving Light; hatred, fear and weakness shall go, and the cry of the ego shall be hushed for ever. Savitri ascends still further and steps into a happy felicitous air. Here she meets the Mother of Light who tells her that she is her (Savitri’s) own secret soul that has come down to heal the pangs of earth, draw down the harmony of the higher spheres, establish peace in man. She is Knowledge, she is the Power leading towards God. She is all that is the best in humanity and she works to lift man’s soul towards the Light, to prepare the ground for Love to tread the earth’s soil. A warped echo rises from the sense-shackled mind of man, proud even in its self-evident limitation in ignorance. This voice of man the limited mental being claims to have fathomed matter and life by its all-discovering Thought, but confesses to have come to a dead end before a wall of all-round mystery which it cannot solve. It wonders, however, if it is not best after all to stay confined to its known natural limits and leave it to the wizard Gods to dream of greater heights. Savitri tells the Madonna of Light that she is a portion of her own self come to awaken and raise the soul to its rightful destiny in God. But it is vain to shower the golden rain of heaven on the hard soil of the intellect. The mind of man mistakes even the rays of intuition to be its own flamings, his spiritual ego swells and he stays content in the shell of his sainthood. Nevertheless Savitri assures the Madonna of Light that one day she will return with the hands of God in hers so that the Face of the Supreme may be seen, the divine family be born and light and peace reign in all the worlds.
Here from a low and
prone and listless ground
A rugged and ragged
soil was her bare seat, Here from a narrow path, from a low-lying, dull ground begins the intense saga of the first ascent. On a bare, rough and ragged soil is found seated a Woman in a pale but lustrous robe. Her face is bright like the moon, her hair dark, cloudlike. Her feet rest on a sharp stone that hurts.
A divine pity on the
peaks of the world, An embodiment of divine ‘pity on the summits of the world, a spirit that is moved by the grief of all that lives in the world, this woman looks out far and with her inner mind sees this doubtful world full of things that are turned outwards, of appearances that are false, of forms that are but seemingly true; she sees this uncertain cosmos spread out in a Void of Ignorance. She observes the pangs of the struggling earth, the labour and the movement of the stars, the painful birth and the sad end of life.
Accepting the
universe as her body of woe,
Her heart was riven
with the world’s agony She is the Mother of Sorrows who accepts the whole universe with its suffering as her body. She bears the seven’ stabs of sorrow that pierce her bleeding heart. On her face is a hesitating beauty of sadness; her eyes are dim with the long past stain of tears; her heart is cut through by the agony of the world, loaded with its sorrow and struggle down the ages in Time; there is a note of poignant music in her intent voice. even in number corresponding to the seven principles of existence which undergo deformation in this world of Ignorance e.g. Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Truth-will, Mind, Life and Matter.
Absorbed in a deep
compassion’s ecstasy,
To share the
suffering of the world I came,
I am the nurse of
the dolour beneath the stars; Wrapt in the ecstasy of her deep compassion, raising her mild, patient gaze, slowly she speaks in soft, sweet succession of words; "O Savitri, I am none else than thy own secret soul. I have come to share the suffering of the world. All are my children and their pangs I draw into my breast. I nurse all the sorrow and distress that exists below the starry skies of the world. I am the soul of all who cry and struggle in pain under the pitiless goad of the Gods.
I am woman, nurse
and slave and beaten beast; I am in all that suffers and that cries. "I am in all that suffers and cries in pain-in woman, in nurse, in slave, in the flogged beast. I nourish the hands that give me heartless blows. I serve the hearts that have spurned my love and zeal. I am most sought after by all — the courted queen, the doll on whom all indulgence is lavished. I take on the suffering of all; I give food to the hungry; I preside over the homesteads of ‘men and relieve their pain; they worship me as the Angel of the house.
Mine is the prayer
that climbs in vain from earth,
The scream of
tortured flesh and tortured hearts "I pray for the suffering but my prayer goes forth in vain. The agonies of the creatures I look after stream into me. I am the spirit that indwells this world of pain. The cry of the tortured body and the heart subjected to painful suffering is not heard by the Gods and it falls back on the body and heart in agony; this vain cry tears my soul with helpless grief and anger.
I have seen the
peasant burning in his hut,
I have brought no
arm of strength to aid or slay; "Helpless, I have watched the poor peasant burning in agony in his thatched hut, seen the murder of the innocent child, heard the cries of the woman dragged, stripped and raped amid the roar of the frenzied mob. I could only look on, for I had no power to save. I have no arm of strength to help the needy or destroy the wicked. God has given me only love with which I feel the sufferings of all, he has not given me his force to help them.
I have shared the
toil of the yoked animal drudge "Not only do I share in the sufferings of the human kind but equally those of bird and beast. I have suffered with the yoked animal toiling under the lashes of the whip and the pressings of the goad. I have participated in the fear-ridden life of bird and beast, in its incessant hunt for the day’s food, in its stealthy approaches, its fell swoop, its hungry prowl, its pain and terror when seized by the merciless beak and claw of the devourer.
I have shared the
daily life of common men, "I have shared the humdrum life of the common man, its small pleasures and petty cares, its run of troubles and its weary crowd of ills. I have experienced the never ending sorrow of earth with no prospect of relief, the forced tiring labour without any joy, the load of misery and the strokes of the whip of fate.
I have been pity,
leaning over pain "I have been the pity that leans over those who suffer from pain, the tender smile that comforts and heals the wounded heart, the sympathy that soothes and helps and makes life less difficult to bear.
Man has felt near my
unseen face and hands; "Man has felt the closeness of my face and hands though they are unseen; I have identified myself and become one with the sufferer and his moan; I have shared the pain of the attacked and the slain; I have lived with the prisoner in his dark, nether cell. The yoke of Time that I bear weighs heavy on my shoulders.
Nothing refusing of
creation’s load, "I have refused nothing of the burden of creation;I have borne fully and I know that I still have tobear more. Maybe, when the world at last lapses into the final sleep, I too may be able to rest, in mute, unbroken peace.
I have borne the
calm indifference of Heaven,
Yet have I cried not
out against his will, "I have borne the undisturbed indifference of Heaven to the sufferings on the earth below; I have watched Nature’s cruelty — when there should be sympathy — to suffering things, while God silently passed by without turning to help. Still I have not arraigned the Cosmic Law, made by him, which inflicts suffering and is unmoved by it.
Only to change this
great hard world of pain "However, an untiring prayer has risen from my heart to change this hard and difficult world of pain. Meanwhile I am quietly resigned to wait. There is in me a sure, blind faith that all this will change, an unfailing mercy awaits all. In me is the unquenchable fire of call and aspiration, in me also is the compassion that sustains the universe.
I am the hope that
looks towards my God, "Mine is the undying hope that looks towards my God, who, however, has not come to me as yet. But I hear his voice constantly assuring me of his corning, and I know for certain that one day he will indeed come."
She ceased, and like
an echo from below She ceases speaking and like an echo from below, as if in answer to her tragic, divine complaint of the world’s suffering, a voice of anger rises to take up the dire intoning. It is like the rumble of thunder, the roar of an angry beast crouching and growling in the nether depths of man. It is the voice of a tortured Titan who was once a God before he wilfully forsook the truth of his godhood and struck out on his own deviation.
“I am the Man of
Sorrows, I am he
He has sent me naked
into his bitter world "I am the eternal man of sorrows, the creature who has been given birth in order to suffer, I am the one who is ever nailed on the cross that is the universe. Indeed God built this earth in order that he may enjoy my agony; he has made my intense suffering the theme of his play. Into this cold, bitter world he has sent me naked, beaten me with his rods of grief and pain in order that I might cry out and roll at his feet and worship him with my blood and tears.
I am Prometheus
under the vulture’s beak, "I am that Prometheus’ who first brought Fire for Man stealing it from Heaven and was made to suffer therefor by being chained to a rock while an eagle tore at his flesh; I am the man who had to bum like a moth in the flame he kindled. I am he who seeks but can never find what is sought; I am he who fights but can never win what he fights for; I am he who runs but can never reach the goal he aims at. Hell tortures me in the form of my painful thoughts; Heaven tortures me by making me dream splendid things which I shall never realise.
What profit have I of my human soul? I toil like the animal, like the animal die.
I am man the rebel,
man the helpless serf; of the Greek legend."The fact that I have a human soul has gained me nothing; I have to toil like the animal and die like the animal. I am the man that revolts, the man who has to slave helplessly. I am always cheated of my dues by my fellowmen and by Fate.
I loosen with my
blood my servitude’s seal "I revolt, I shed my blood to free myself from the yoke of the oppressor, only to find that I have replaced the old tyrant with a new one. My teachers train me to live in slavery. I am shown the seal of God and my own consent through my Karma to the binding hold of my fate.
I have loved, but
none has loved me since my birth; "I have loved others, but none has ever loved me since I was born. I work, but the fruit of my works is always given to others. What is left for me is only my evil thoughts, my mean quarrel against men and God, my envy of the riches that others have but I have not, my hatred of a happiness that others enjoy but I do not.
I know my fate will
ever be the same, "I know that this my fate will be the same for ever. For it is the product of my own Nature which cannot change. I have loved, but for my own selfish sake, not unselfishly for the sake .of the ‘beloved. In 1oving others, I have loved myself and for myself, not truly for others in themselves.
Each in himself is
sole by Nature’s law, "Each is for himself; that is the law of Nature. That is how God the creator has made thiF cruel and dreadful world; that is how he has formed the petty – small and mean — heart of man. Man can survive in the struggle for existence in this world only by force and cunning. His pity is a weakness in his heart, his goodness an inability of his nerves to be otherwise. When he is kind, his kindness is not genuine, but only a calculated move for some future benefit to accrue from that act. His altruism is another form of ego; through that he seeks some aggrandisement of his ego — fame, prominence etc. When he serves the world, he serves with the joie intention that the world in return may serve him.
If once the Titan’s
strength could wake in me, But God has taken from me the ancient force. "If only the rebellious Titan’s strength dormant in the could awake, if only the giant lying submerged in my nether regions could arise, I would make myself the master of the world and delight in joy and pain like a God. But God has robbed me of the force that belonged to me of old.
There is a dull
consent in my sluggish heart, "In my dull heart there is a lifeless consent to all this. I have a fierce satisfaction in my special pains as though they make me more distinguished, special, from the rest of mankind. It seems as if I can excel others only by suffering more than they suffer.
I am the victim of
titanic ills, I suffer and toil and weep; I moan and hate.” "Of all the huge ills of the world I am the victim. Of all evi-, frenzied deeds I am the doer. I was made for evil and evil is my destined lot. I needs must be evil and live by evil. I cannot do anything else but be myself – live out my evil existence. What Nature has made me, that I am and that I must remain. I suffer, toil and weep; I moan under my load and hate all for this my lot."
And Savitri heard
the Voice, the echo heard
Because thou art,
men yield not to their doom, But thine is the power to solace, not to save. Savitri hears the Voice and then the echo (by the Man of Sorrows); she turns to her who is her own being of pity and speaks: "Madonna of suffering, Mother of divine grief, thou art really a portion of my own soul specially put forth to bear the sorrow of the world that none else can bear. Because thou art here bearing the suffering, men do not go under the heels of their doom; they claim happiness and struggle with fate to obtain it. Because thou art, the miserable ones can still hope for better things. However, the power thou hast is only the power to comfort; it cannot save men from suffering.
One day I will
return, a bringer of strength,
Thy love shall be
the bond of human kind, There shall be peace and joy for ever more.” "One day I shall return bringing strength with me and make thee drink from the cup of the Eternal Being. His streams of force shall glory in thy limbs, and the calm of Wisdom shall control thy heart which is so passionate. Thy love shall act as the common bond of mankind, thy Compassion shall radiantly rule over Nature’s acts. Misery shall cease upon earth. The world shall be freed from the uncontrollable anger of the nether Beast, freed from the cruelty of the Titan and the pain inflicted by him. There shall reign only peace and joy for ever and thereafter.
On passed she in her spirit’s upward route.
An ardent grandeur
climbed mid ferns and rocks, All beautiful grew, subtle and high and strange. Savitri passes on along the upward route of her Spirit. There is a pressing grandeur of forests and rocks. A quiet wind warms the heart. From the slender trees emanates a delicate perfume. All grows beautiful, subtle, lofty and strange.
Here on a boulder
carved like a huge throne
A formidable smile
curved round her lips, Here on a throne-like boulder is seated a Woman in golden and purple splendour. She has a trident and a thunderbolt in her hands. Her feet rest upon a prone lion’s back. There is a formidable smile round her lips, a celestial fire scintillates in her glance; her body exudes massive courage and unearthly strength. She threatens the triumph of the lower powers.
A halo of lightnings
flamed around her head Around her head is a halo of lightnings, an aura of sovereignty surrounds her robe. In the battlefield of the cosmos, majesty and victory accompany her, guarding against Death the leveller and the all-swallower and against uprushing Night, the hierarchical organisation of the Powers of Creation, the high, eternal Values,the lofty heights, the privileged nobility of Truth, the triple rulership of wisdom, love and bliss under the sun of the governing Ideal, and the sole, unquestioned rule of the absolute Light.
August on her seat
in the inner world of Mind,
Amid the swaying
forces in their strife Majestic on her seat in the inner realms of the Mind, the Mother of Might looks down upon the passing phenomena of the world, listens to the onward march of Time, sees the unimpeded revolutions of the suns and hears the thunder of the approach of God. Amidst the clash of the forces asway, her word of luminous command is imperious, her speech rings like a booming war-cry or like a grand pilgrim-chant.
A charm restoring
hope in failing hearts,
I have come down
into the human world Her powerful voice rises up in its harmony, restoring hope in drooping hearts like a charm: "O Savitri, I am thy own secret soul. I have come down into this human world, into this movement watched by the winkless Eye of God,’ the incessant conflict raging between the bright and the dark Powers: a conflict of oppositions that forms the dark and contradicting fate of the earth.
I stand upon earth’s
paths of danger and grief
To the strong I
bring the guerdon of their strength, I stand and wait upon the paths of danger and grief and help those who are unfortunate, save those who asvapnajah (of the Veda)are doomed. To them who are strong, I bring the reward for their exertions of strength; to those who are weak I bring the protection of my Force. To those who long for it I bring the desired joy. I am Fortune who smiles upon the great and the wise confirming their greatness and wisdom by the approval of the populace and then tramples them under the heels of Fate.
My ear is leaned to
the cry of the oppressed,
Men hail in my
coming the Almighty’s force ‘My listening is always turned to the cry of those who are oppressed. I pull down the thrones of kings who are tyrants. The cries of those who are persecuted and hunted appealing to me for succour against a pitiless world reach me; so too the voice of the abandoned, forlorn and lonely prisoner from his dungeon cell. On my advent men either salute and greet the Force of the Almighty God or they praise with movedgratitude his saviour Grace.
I smite the Titan
who bestrides the world
I am Durga, goddess
of the proud and strong, "I smite the Titan who dominates the world; I slay the man-eating giant in his bloody den. I am Durga the goddess worshipped by the proud and the strong. I am Lakshmi, adored of the fair and the fortunate. I put on the mask of Kali when I kill and I trample beneath my feet the dead bodies of the demon hosts.
I am charged by God
to do his mighty work,
I reason not of
virtue and of sin
I fear not for the
angry frown of Heaven, "God has charged me with his mighty work. In serving the Will of God who has sent me forth, I care for nothing, neither for peril nor material consequence. I do not reason whether my acts are virtuous or sinful; I go on to do what he inspires me to do. I do not fear the anger and disapproval of Heaven; I do not shrink from the bloody assault of Hell; I crush the opposition of the gods who come in my way; I trample down the obstacles of distracting demons in their millions.
I guide man to the
path of the Divine
I set in his mortal
hand my heavenly sword
I break the ignorant
pride of human mind "I guide man to the path that leads to the Divine, I guard him from hostile violence and treachery. I place my celestial sword in his mortal hand and put on him the protecting breastplate of the gods. I break the ignorant, self-complacent pride of the human mind and lead thought into the widenesses of Truth that are closed to the mind as long as it stays content in its limiting ignorance and the pride arising from it. I tear asunder man’s narrow and pettily successful life and compel him to look upwards, force his eyes full of the tears of earthly sorrow to gaze at the sun above, in order that he may turn away from the life of the body and live the higher life of his soul.
I know the goal, I
know the secret route:
But the great
obstinate world resists my word, "I know what the goal is and I also know the secret route to it. I have studied the chart of the supra-physical, invisible worlds in this Cosmos. I am the chief of the battle, the star that guides the journey. But this great world, in its ignorant obstinacy, opposes and resists my lead. The crookedness and the evil that are lodged in the heart of man are stronger than his Reason, deeper than his subconscious. The harmful wickedness of hostile Powers cunningly slows down the course of destiny and it looks as if it is stronger than the Will of the Eternal.
The cosmic evil is
too deep to unroot:
A few I guide who
pass me towards the Light;
His seal is on my
task, it cannot fail: "The evil that infects the cosmos is too deep to be dislodged; the suffering that pervades the world is too vast to be healed. Of those who pass by me, I am able to guide only a few towards the Light; I am able to save only a few, the rest — the bulk — fall back unsaved; I am able to help only a few, the rest struggle and fail. Yet I have steeled my heart and I do my work. Slowly the Light of God’s Sun grows stronger in the East and slowly the world moves forward on God’s road. My task cannot fail because the seal and sanction of God is on it. One day I shall hear the sweet sound of the opening of the gates of Heaven when God will come out to greet the aspiring and ascending Soul of the world.”
She spoke and from
the lower human world As the speech of the Mother of Might ceases, there comes from the lower human world a deformed echo in answer. This voice coming through the spaces of the mind is of the diminutive Titan, the perverted god in chains who struggles to conquer his rebellious nature and through that mastery utilise the whole universe as an instrument for his own purpose. The Titan is the fallen god who strives to dominate the world by the powers acquired through his asuric tapasya, his self-coercing askesis.
The Ego of this
great world of desire The Ego of this world full of desire claims the entire earth and the spacious heavens for the aggrandisement of man who is the crown of the life it builds on earth, man who is at once its agent and its conscious centre — the soul —, a symbol of the growing light and force on earth and the vehicle of the godhead that is to come…
A thinking animal,
Nature’s struggling lord Man is an animal that has learnt to think; he is the struggling lord of Nature who uses Nature as his ‘nurse, his tool and his slave. But an inexorable law in Creation, makes him pay Nature as her wage and allowance with his heart’s grief and his body’s pain and death. By his sufferings Nature grows, learns to see and feel. Through his death she gains immortality. Man lords over Nature but is obliged to pay for this with suffering and death. And Nature grows through his pain and suffering.
A tool and slave of
his own slave and tool,
His soul is her
guest, a sovereign mute, inert, Man imagines he is free, that he is the master of Nature. In fact he is a tool and slave of Nature. He praises his will as free and his mind as the master, but all the while it is Nature who pushes him along the roads that she has chosen. Possessor of Nature in a sense, he is possessed by her; ruler of Nature, he is ruled by her. Man is a mechanical creature of Nature made conscious; he is the cheated victim of her desire. His soul is only a guest of Nature — not her master an inert, mute sovereign; his body is her mechanical instrument; it is she who lives in his life, his life is her mode of living; his mind that has become conscious is really her slave who tries hard but uselessly to rebel against. her.
The voice rose up
and smote some inner sun:
The last born of the
earth I stand the first; The voice rises up and strikes some shining chord within: "I, I inherit all the forces that belong to this earth; this is my estate and slowly I shall establish my right to it. A godhead growing in earth-matter as it is being divinised, I climb, claiming the throne of heaven for myself. Of all the creatures born on earth I am the last in time but the first in importance. Earth has waited for my birth during the millenniums of her slow evolution.
Although I live in
Time besieged by Death,
Immortal spirit in
the perishing clay, "True, I live in passing Time under the siege of Death; I own my body and soul but uncertainly; the earth on which I live is but a tiny speck amid the huge galaxies of stars, yet all this universe was made for me and for my use. I am the immortal spirit in the perishing body of Matter, I am God who is yet to evolve in human form. Even if God did not exist at first, he comes into being in me.
The sun and moon are
lights upon my path; The earth is my floor, the sky my living’s roof. "The sun and the moon were created to light my path; air was invented for my lungs to breathe and it is formulated as vast and unbounded space in which my chariot can forge its course; the sea was made for me to swim in and to sail upon and to bear my fleet carrying rich commerce; the sea breaks into laughter when my ships of pleasure cleave its surface and course through it and I laugh at the ominous stare of its angry waters. The earth is designed to be my floor and the sky my roof; the whole space in between is my dwelling place.
All was prepared through many a silent age.
God made experiments
with animal shapes,
I was born weak and
small and ignorant, "For many silent ages preparation for my advent was made. God made experiments with many an animal form and only when all was ready, I took birth on earth. It is true that when I was born I was weak, small and ignorant, a helpless creature in a hostile world, living my brief life, constantly threatened by death; but now I have grown greater than Nature herself, I have grown wiser than God.
I have made real
what she never dreamed, "What Nature could never even dream of I have made real. I have taken hold of her many powers and harnessed them for my purpose. I have used and shaped her metals, I have in fact made metals of my own. I shall make glass and cloth even out of milk, turn hard iron into soft velvet, convert flowing water into hard, rigid stone.
Like God in his
astuce of artist skill, There is no miracle I shall not achieve. "Like God with his creative skill, I shall mould varying forms from one original plasm, bring out innumerable lives from one single nature, rebuild anew into matter’s plastic solid and concrete all the intangible conceptions of the imagination and the mind. My magic’s skill cannot be surpassed by any other magic.
What God imperfect
left, I will complete, "I shall improve upon God. What he left imperfect, incomplete, I shall complete. I shall eliminate his sin and error from the enmeshed mind and half-made soul that he has left; what he has not invented, I shall invent. He was the first creator, but I am the last.
I have found the
atoms from which he built the worlds: "I have discovered the atoms from which God built the worlds. Directed by me, this tremendous cosmic primal energy shall explode and kill my enemy, eliminate a nation or abolish a whole race; it shall displace laughter and joy with the silence of death.
Or the fissured
invisible shall spend God’s force
I will take his
means of sorcery from his hands "Or, the exploded unseen atom shall release energy to multiply my comforts and add to my wealth, to speed up my car which is driven by electricity at present and run the motors of my miracles. I will take in my hands God’s means of magic and with them perform greater miracles than the best he has done.
Yet through it all I
have kept my balanced thought;
I have tamed the
wild beast trained to be my friend; I have taught my kind to serve and to obey. "And yet, in the midst of all these triumphs I have kept my balance of mind, remained cool. I have studied both myself within and the world without. I have developed and mastered the various arts that build and embellish life. I have tamed the wild menacing animal and trained it to be my friend; he now guards my house and waits upon my will. I have taught men also to serve and obey me.
I have used the
mystery of the cosmic waves "I have fathomed and used the mystery of the cosmic waves to see far distance, to hear words from afar; I have bridged all Space, brought the whole earth close together. Very soon I shall plumb the secrets of the Mind too. With ease I sport with Knowledge and with ignorance. Sin and virtue are truly my inventions; I may rise above them both or use them as I will.
I shall know mystic truths, seize occult powers.
I shall slay my
enemies with a look or thought,
When earth is
mastered, I shall conquer heaven; "I shall come to know the mystic truths that are still unknown, I shall seize powers that are still hidden; with a mere look or thought I shall be able to kill my foes. I shall be aware of the unexpressed feelings in the hearts of all around me, I shall see and hear the secret thoughts of men. When I complete my mastery of the earth, I shall proceed to conquer heaven, make the very gods my aids or servants. Not a single wish of mine shall go unfulfilled. I shall be omnipotent, omniscient, all-powerful, all-knowing.
And Savitri heard
the voice, the warped echo heard
Because thou art in
him, man hopes and dares; Then Savitri, after hearing the voice and its warped echo, turns to her being of power and speaks: "Madonna of might, Mother of works and force, thou art none else but a portion of my own soul put out to help mankind in the hard labour of Time. It is because thou livest in man that he can hope and dare in life; it is because thou art here, that the souls of men can climb to the heights of heavens and walk like the Gods even before the Supreme. Thou makest it all possible.
But without wisdom
power is like a wind, Thou hast given men strength, wisdom thou couldst not give. "But power without wisdom accompanying it is like a wind that can reach and breathe upon the heights and touch the sky; it cannot, however, build the supreme, eternal things. Thou hast given strength to men, but thou couldst not give them wisdom.
One day I will
return, a bringer of light, Thy wisdom shall be vast as vast thy power. "One day I shall return with the needed light of wisdom. Then shall I give to thee the Mirror of God with which thou shalt be able to see reflected in the bright pool of thy soul, the self and world as seen by God. Then shall wisdom be as vast in thee as power now is.
Then hate shall
dwell no more in human hearts, "Then hatred shall no more find a dwelling place in the hearts of men and fear and weakness shall depart from their lives. Then shall the cry of the ego be silenced, the ego whose loud lion-roar claims the whole world as its food. Then all shall be might and bliss and happy force. Then Wisdom shall guide force and the result shall be bliss and light."
Ascending still her
spirit’s upward route Savitri continues her ascent. She arrives at a high and happy region, a wide tower of vision from where all can be seen focussed in a single view somewhat in the manner of different scenes appearing as one, or clashing colours fusing into a harmony when seen from a distance.
The wind was still and fragrance packed the air.
There was a carol of
birds and murmur of bees,
A nearness thrilled
of the spirit to its source The wind is still and the air is full of fragrance. Birds sing and the bees murmur. Everything that is common, natural and sweet and yet closely divine to the heart and soul is there. The spirit feels near to its source and thrills to it. The profoundest things seem here so obvious, close and true; there is no more any mystery about them.
Here, living centre
of that vision of peace, Here in clear and transparent light is seated a Woman who is the living centre of this vista of peace. The lustre of heaven is shining in her eyes, her feet are lucent like moonbeams, her face glows like a bright sun; her smile is so enchanting that it can make a deadened, bleeding heart come to life again and feel the soothing touch of calm.
A low music heard
became her floating voice:
I have come down to
the wounded desolate earth The Woman’s flowing voice is like soft music. She says:"O Savitri, I am none else than thy own secret soul. I have come down to this wounded and forlorn earth in order to heal her pangs of pain, soothe her heart to rest, and lay her head upon the sheltering lap of the protecting universal Mother so that she may dream of God, experience his peace, and draw the harmony of the higher spheres into the rugged and troubled rhythm of the earth.
I show to her the
figures of bright Gods
I am peace that
steals into man’s war-worn breast, "I show to earth the images of bright Gods to testify that she has the help of higher Beings, I bring strength and solace to her life that is struggling against odds. The high things that are now known only in word and form I reveal to earth in their concrete power. I am peace that comes unseen into the heart of war-weary man. In the midst of the hell let loose by the acts of man, I am the sanctuary for the messengers from Heaven.
I am charity with
the kindly hands that bless; "I am the benevolent charity that brings blessings to all; I am the sustaining silence amidst all the noisy walks of life. I am Knowledge that deliberates upon her world-wide field.
In the anomalies of
the human heart "Amidst the confusions that abound in the human heart, there where the Good is companioned by Evil, where Light is shadowed by Darkness at every step, where Knowledge, even at its best turns out to be ignorance, I am the power that strives to reach the best works for God and always keeps the vision high.
I make even sin and
error stepping stones
Out of the
Inconscient I build consciousness "I turn even sin and error into stepping stones towards Light, make all experience a trek — though a long one — towards Light. I build consciousness out of the stuff of the Inconscient. I lead all through the portals of death to Life immortal.
Many are God’s
forms by which he grows in man; God grows in man through various forms which impart divinity to his thoughts and deeds, which raise the level of the material human stuff, or slowly change that earth-clay into heaven’s gold.
He is the Good for
which men fight and die, "God is the Good for which men combat and lay down their lives; he is the ceaseless war between the Right divine and the confronting Wrong of the Titan; he is the Freedom that refuses to die and rises up like a phoenix from every pyre; he is the Bravery that defends the desperate pass, or stands alone and erect on the broken barricade, or is the sentinel who guards in the dangerous Night full of fearful echoes.
He is the crown of
the martyr burned in flame
He is Wisdom
incarnate on a glorious throne "God is the crown of him who is martyred by being burnt in the fire for his dedication to a right cause; he is the contented resignation that is found in the saint; he is the courage that cares not for the wounds that are inflicted in the relentless course of Time; he is the might of the hero that does not meekly accept but fights with death and Fate. God is the embodied Wisdom that reigns in sovereignty; he is the undisturbed, lofty rule of the sage.
He is the high and
solitary Thought
He is Beauty nectar
of the passionate soul, "God is the high Thought that dwells alone, apart and above the ignorant crowd. He is the imperious voice of the prophet, the far-seeing eye of the seer. He is Beauty, the ambrosia that is sought after by the intense soul. He is Truth by which the Spirit exists in the world.
He is the riches of
the spiritual Vast "God is the bounty of the Vasts of the Spirit that is poured abundantly in healing streams on the needy, suffering life. He is Eternity that is drawn to flow in the durations of Time. He is Infinity that compresses itself in the little finite. He is Immortality that companions Death.
These powers I am and at my call they come. Thus slowly I lift man’s soul nearer the Light.
But human mind
clings to its ignorance, "I am all these Powers and they come whenever I call them. With them I slowly raise the human soul nearer the Divine Light. But man does not co-operate. His mind clings to its limiting ignorance, it does not allow itself to expand in Knowledge; his heart is attached to its littleness, it refuses to grow in largeness; and life on earth cherishes its right to grief, it is unwilling to abandon it.
Only when Eternity
takes Time by the hand,
I bring meanwhile
the gods upon the earth; "Only when the transcendent Eternity joins Time in manifestation, only when the vast infinity joins the limited thought of the finite, is it possible for man to be liberated from his own petty self and to live in companionship with God, the Eternal and the Infinite. Meanwhile I bring from on high the gods, the assisting Powers, on the earth; I rekindle hope in the heart that is in despair; I give peace to both the humble and the great; I shower my grace equally on the foolish and tile wise.
I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved.
Then Love shall at
last unwounded tread earth’s soil; "If only earth is willing to be saved (and does not resent my action), I shall save it. Then will Love walk the earth without getting wounded as it does at present, man’s closed self-assertive mind shall open to the governing rule of Truth and the physical body be able to hold the mighty, immense descent of God without breaking."
She spoke and from
the ignorant nether plane
A voice of the
sense-shackled human mind As she ceases, a cry, a perverted echo rises in shudder from the nether ignorant plane. It is the voice of the sense-bound human mind carrying the proud complaint of its innate Godlike power for knowledge which is hedged by the bounds of human thought and is unable to go farther, chained as it is to earth’s ignorance.
Imprisoned in his
body and his brain As he is imprisoned in his body and his brain-apparatus, with which he identifies himself, man is unable to see God in his mighty fullness or live with God in vast and deep identity, — God who lives unknown within all hearts that are ignorant of him, God who knows all things because he is one with all of them.
Man only sees the cosmic surfaces.
Then wondering what
may lie hid from the sense Man normally sees the outer surfaces of things in the world. He wonders what may lie hidden beyond the reach of his senses and plumbs a little into the depths of life; but he does not go deep enough, he stops a little below the surface. He is unable to reach the core of life or enter into communion with the pulsating heart of things.
He sees the naked
body of the Truth
Then, furious for a
knowledge absolute, All that man is able to see is the bare body of Truth, though often he is distracted and bewildered by her endless garbs; he cannot see her soul within the body. He then becomes impatient to arrive at an absolute Knowledge and furiously tears away all details, stabs into the surfaces and digs; he takes hold of the contents of the form, but the real spirit that actuates the form either escapes or is killed beneath the dissecting and plunging knife of his intellect.
He sees as a blank
stretch, a giant waste
The finite he has
made his central field, Man mistakes the rich profusions of infinity for a blank vast, a huge waste. He makes the finite his main field, dissects its plan, masters its processes. But what impels and moves all from within is hidden from him; his searching eyes miss what lies behind the processes, unseen.
He has the blind
man’s subtle unerring touch
Yet is he visited by
intuitive light He has the sure, subtle touch of the blind man, the far-grasping sight of the slow traveller; but he misses the revelatory contacts of the soul. Still there are times when the light of intuition visits him, when sudden inspiration comes down from the Unknown. But he does not make use of them. He relies only on his reason and his senses of which he feels sure; they alone are his trusted witnesses.
Thus is he baulked,
his splendid effort vain; It is because he thus limits himself that man is thwarted and his mighty effort turns out to be in vain. All his knowledge serves only to scan the vain. All his knowledge serves only to scan the bright little pebbles on the shore of the huge ocean of his ignorance.
Yet grandiose were
the accents of that cry,
“I am the mind of
God’s great ignorant world Despite this failure of the mental man, the accents of his cry that is heard are pompous. And yet in their tone there is a touch, a tremor of a cosmic pathos."I am the mind of this great ignorant world created by God; I ascend to knowledge by the steps made by God; I am human thought that discovers all.
I am a god fettered
by Matter and sense, "I, the mind, am truly a god, but a god who is chained to his base of Matter and his servant-senses (thought-mind); I am a restless animal confined within a thorny fence, a beast doing hard work pleading for food (vital mind); a smith tied to his monotonous job with the anvil and the forge (physical, mechanical mind).
Yet have I loosened the cord, enlarged my room.
I have mapped the
heavens and analysed the stars, "Still I have succeeded in loosening the cord that ties me down and in expanding the field available to me. I have built up the science of astronomy: charted the heavens, studied the movements of the stars, described the courses of the planets through Space, measured the distances between the suns and estimated the duration of their life in terms of Time.
I have delved into
earth’s bowels and torn out
I have classed the
changes of her stony crust "I have built up the science of geology: I have dug into the depths of the earth’s soil and brought out the hidden riches, classified the changing strata of her crust of stone, found out the periods of her life-story and preserved safely the records of the whole plan of Nature.
The tree of
evolution I have sketched, "I have sketched out the growth of evolution in the universe, fixing the place of every branch, twig and leaf in the scheme. I have traced the development of forms to their origin in the embryo, I have constructed the genealogy of all that lives.
I have detected
plasm and cell and gene, "I have built the science of biology; I have traced the ancestry of man to the tiny living cell, gene and protozoa; I know all about his birth and all about his death, though I do not yet know what is the purpose of his life. I do not know for certain, whether there is any aim or goal or any creative impulsion of joy in these large workings of terrestrial Nature.
I have caught her
intricate processes, none is left:
I have pored on her
infinitesimal elements "I have grasped and understood all the intricate processes of terrestrial Nature; her entire machinery is in my hands; I have seized the cosmic energies and put them to my use. I have studied and analysed the smallest elements of Nature and unveiled her invisible atoms. I have read the book of Matter, only a few pages still remain to be covered. Almost the entire range of Matter has been scrutinised by me.
I have seen the ways
of life, the paths of mind; If God is at work his secrets I have found. "I have beheld the ways of life and the paths of mind, I have known their courses. I have studied well the methods of the animal-kind, from the ant to the ape, learnt the behaviour patterns of man, of life-forms down to the worm. If there be a God at work in this creation, I have discovered his secrets.
But still the Cause
of things is left in doubt, "And yet, after all my discoveries, I find that the original Cause of all is not determined; it is still uncertain. The truth of things recedes from my pursuit into a blank. I find that after everything has been explained to my satisfaction, I really know nothing.
What chose the
process, whence the Power sprung
A mystery is this
mighty Nature’s birth; "I do not know and maybe I shall never know who or what chose the process that I have to follow, I know not the source of the Power at work in this terrestrial universe. This mighty Nature’s birth is a mystery to me; so too is the unarrestable flow of mind a mystery; the original appearance of life from nowhere is also a mystery.
What I have learnt,
Chance leaps to contradict;
I can foresee the
acts of Matter’s force, "What I have learnt for certain is often upset and contradicted by chance happenings; what I have laboriously built up is destroyed by Fate. Nothing lasts. I can chart out in advance the movements of material energy, but I am unable to foresee the course of man’s destiny. Man is driven upon paths that are not of his choice; he falls and gets run over by the rolling wheels of destiny in motion.
My great
philosophies are a reasoned guess; "At best my great philosophies are reasoned speculations. The heavens of the Spirit that attract the human soul are a deceitful trickery of mental imagination. All is either speculation or simply a dream. The reality of the world itself turns out at the end to be adoubtful proposition. The tiniest poses a challenge to the huge and the joke becomes complete when it is realised that the finite is only a mask put on by the infinite.
Perhaps the world is
an error of our sight, "Who knows, the world may be a mistaken perception of our sight, a deceit that each movement of the senses perpetuates. The soul is cheated by a vision of an unreal reality woven by a mind that is itself unreal. Or maybe the whole thing is a play of Maya, the Power of Illusion, veiling a Void that is Unmanifest.
Even if a greater
consciousness I could reach, "Even if I were to attain to a consciousness greater than my present state, of what use will it be for Thought to reach a Reality that can never be expressed? What use to pursue to its source the Self that has no body or set the Unknowable Reality as the objective of the soul. What is ineffable, formless, unknowable, can have no meaning for me here in this world of expression, form and growing Knowledge.
Nay, let me work
within my mortal bounds, "Let me confine myself to the limits of my mortal state and toil. Let me not try to exceed the life given to me, nor transcend the mind in thought. Truly, our smallness, our self-limitation guards us from being overwhelmed by the Infinite. Only thus can we retain our individual existence
In a frozen grandeur
lone and desolate "Do not call me to dissolve myself in the bleak, solitary grandeur of the Absolute, in the cold vastitude of the boundless spirit, leaving behind all the vesture of my humanity.
Each creature by its
nature’s limits lives,
Human I am, human
let me remain "Each creature here is able to exist as long as it lives within the limits of its nature. It is not possible for one to bypass the fate that is natural to him, inevitable to his kind. I am, after all, human, and I want to remain human till I am exhausted and sink into the Inconscient that is my base.
A high insanity, a
chimera is this,
How can man grow
immortal and divine This wizard Gods may dream, not thinking men.” “It is sheer madness, a mere fancy to think that God is there concealed in the clay of Matter, that the Truth that is eternal can live in the realm of Time and that we can call to that Truth to save ourselves and the world. How is it possible for the mortal human to grow immortal and divine, transforming the basic material substance of which he is made into divine stuff? Magic-performing Gods may dream of this, but not thinking men."
And Savitri heard
the voice, the warped answer heard Savitri hears this perverted argument, turns to her being of light and speaks: "Madonna of light, Mother of joy and peace, thou art verily a portion of my own self put forth in this Creation to raise the spirit to heights that are its own but which it has forgotten, to awake the dormant soul by touches from on high.
Because thou art,
the soul draws near to God;
But not by showering
heaven’s golden rain "It is because thou art here that it is possible for the soul to draw near to God. It is because thou art here that it is possible for love to grow despite the hate that flourishes and knowledge to walk unslain in this pit of Darkness. But, certainly, it is not by pouring the golden rain of heaven upon the hard, arid soil of the intellect that the tree of Paradise can blossom on earthly ground, the Bird of Paradise alight upon the bough of earthly life, the wind of Paradise blow in mortal regions. The intellect cannot deliver the earth to heaven, man to God.
Even if thou rain
down intuition’s rays, "Even if thou pour on it the rays of intuition, the mind of man will think it to be earth’s own light; his spiritual ego will swell and engulf his spirit or his soul will be shut within itself dreaming in the brilliant shell of its sainthood where not God but only a bright shadow of God can come. Thou must tend and increase man’s hunger for the Eternal, fill his yearning heart with the flame of heaven and bring down God into his body and life.
One day I shall
return, His hands in mine
Then shall the holy
marriage be achieved, There shall be light and peace in all the worlds.” "One day I shall return with the hands of God in mine and thou shalt behold the Absolute face to face. Then shall the holy marriage of Earth and Heaven, Matter and Spirit, be achieved, the whole universe become a divine family. Light and Peace shall reign in all the worlds.
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