Book One. The Book of Beginnings
Canto I Canto II Canto III Canto IV Canto V
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Book One: Canto 3 The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Soul’s Release
Aswapathy himself was no ordinary mortal resigned to the pace and will of evolutionary Nature. He was a special being assigned with the specific task of preparing struggling humanity for the next step in Godward evolution. Outwardly he wore all the trappings of common humanity, but inwardly he was conscious of his higher origin, his role and the powers that were preparing in his being for their hour of manifestation. He turned his being to the demands of the Master of Evolution, set his movements in harmony with the workings of the higher cosmic Spirit and grew into a conscious receptacle of the mighty Forces of Supernature that descended into him. He widened his being to embrace the universe in his consciousness; he struck out upwards across the firmaments of the mind and formed a bridge, as it were, between the physical universe and the Divinity beyond. In him Earth and Heaven joined hands. He saw great changes taking place in himself, greater faculties of knowledge, power, sensation and bliss replacing the limited ones natural to mental man. All became an open book to himâthe life of the individuals around him and the worlds above. To him stood revealed the roots of the cosmos in the Superconscient, the fount of the divine Desire from which creation has sprouted as from a seed, the large lines of the Process in which the manifestation is pursuing its destined course. He experienced in himself not only those intensities of the creative Light, Power and Bliss but also the reactions and the pull backs caused by the still untransformed elements of inconscience, obscurity and inertia in his physical parts. He pushed further carrying all of himselfâleaving out no part however recalcitrant and arrived at a firm, immovable status in the Eternal Spirit. From this station above the eddies of Nature, he reached his help to the toiling world, help that was all the more effective because of his liberated condition and the mastery he had acquired over the Powers and Energies of Greater Nature. His illumined perception of the manifesting Truth of the Spirit and his will to promote and shape the evolutionary movement of the race in the mould of this vision stamped themselves indelibly on the life and mind of men.
A world’s desire compelled her mortal birth. . The growth of the world in evolution is a two-way process. It proceeds by an upward effort from below and a downward descent from above. The aspiration from the ascending Soul on earth calls for a response from the Grace of the Divine that oversees from the supreme heights of the Spirit. When conditions on earth are ready for a next turn which cannot be effected without an intervention from the Divine or when they are helplessly heading towards chaos as a result of some wrong deviation, a pull is exerted by the aspiring will in creation and a special manifestation of the Divine takes place in answer to it. The Avatar appears. Such an aspiration from humanity focussed through the will of King Aswapathy brought a special puissance of the Divine Mother into human birth as Savitri.
…
the mysterious play This vast manifestation is like a Play whose plot is not yet fully revealed. The One from whom all this has issued seeks to become conscious of himself in the innumerable Many which are really his own forms. Apparently they are all different from each other but as they awake in consciousness they come to realise that each is the One and that it is the One in each that greets the One in the others. The One loses himself in the Many; to find himself again through the Many is the Play. He is timeless, eternal, but for the purpose of the Play he enters into Time and pours out his manifestation into its terms. The Play is also the scene where the Nescience into which the Spirit has condensed itself is labouring to develop the rudiments of life-sensations, a sentience, in order to breathe into life and become aware.
A colonist from immortality. King Aswapathy had come to birth on earth with a special mission from the higher realms of the Spirit: to prepare the conditions for a divine advent, to embody in himself the soul of evolving humanity and to de velop its aspiration for the Divine Life. He was conscious of the purpose for which he had sojourned in this mortal Nature and strove to extend here the reign of his native country of Infinity and Immortality. In a sense each man is a colonist here from the Kingdom of the Spirit. His original and permanent home is there on the Divine summits; he has come to establish on earth the rule of the Spirit.
A
pointing beam on earth’s uncertain roads, This world is a vast field for the working out of possibilities. No one can be certain of the direction that events may take the next moment. The mind feels lost in the life-movement under these conditions and begins to wonder whether there is any meaning at all in living and if there be any, what the right course could be to arrive at the goal. A highly missioned life acts as a pointer to a road among the many bewildering by-paths of life. The purpose for which such a being strives, marks the objective in life for his fellowmen. He becomes a symbol of the aspiring soul in humanity reaching out to unscaled heights. The superhuman energies which he pours into his effort indicate that a Power greater than the human exists and can be called into overt action here on earth. Such a birth was Aswapathy’s.
… the All-Wise who leads the unseeing world. Things move in this world blindly, as it were. Objects and forms that are inconscient, unconscious, subconscient, half-sentient, half-conscious are all on the move in the march of Nature without any awareness of where they go and why. Even man, who has an awakened consciousness in him, is hardly able to see beyond his immediate step. None sees either the purpose or the direction. And yet there seems to be some order; all proceeds according to some plan, leads to inevitable results. That is because involved in all is a Divine Intelligence that orders this existence and impels all to the determined goal, prajnÄnetro lokah.
…paying here Godâs debt to earth and man The Divine has launched the Earth-life into evolution and the creatures of the Earth are in the throes of the evolutionary labour. There is an incessant pressure for growth amidst the clash of the opposing forces of progression and arrestation. The world is in travail as a result of the Divine’s Will. But the Divine does not remain all above the Movement he has originated. He is immanent in it in Spirit and participates in it in a deep way. Even overtly he takes human birthâeither in embodiments of his Consciousness or in concentrations of his Powerâand struggles along with man and the rest on Earth in furtherance of the objective. He discharges, as it were, his obligation to his creatures for having involved them in the hard process of evolution.
A
strength of the original Permanence A special emanation of the Eternal that he was, Aswapathy never lost himself in the conditions under which he had to work. He was always conscious of the Infinite grounds of his being however much his immediate preoccupations were confined to the narrow and fleeting demands of the work-a-day life in which he participated. A puissance of the Timeless Consciousness that transcends the terrestrial ranges was active in him. He was above the world even while he lived and acted in it.
He
bore the stamp of mighty memories Though Aswapathy took a human birth and was subject to the characteristic limitations of humanity on every side, his consciousness carried in itself strong and living impressions of the greatnesses of the supernal worlds of Knowledge, Power, Bliss that were his original Home. The brightness of those memories did not remain concealed in his being; it cast its light wherever he went, on whatever he touched, in whatever he did. He brought the breath of a greater life to a humanity struggling in its narrow bounds.
His days were a long growth to the Supreme. The lives of god-men resemble the lives of common mortals only on the surface. Outwardly they may go through the same daily rounds as the others, but their life-content is different, the real course and the result of their lives are different. Life as ordinarily lived follows a set pattern: apart from some incidental growth of the being in the process, the general movement is towards decay and cessation. At every moment such a life spends itself without any conscious replenishment. Not so the lives of men like Aswapathy. They are continuous movements of enlargement, self-heightening and growth, not for brief periods with subsequent reactions but over long stretches of time. The growth of such men is not in extension of their own image but towards the Divine Heights that beckon. In the act of their self-exceeding there is an automatic drawing of the energies that sustain further effort.
A
skyward being nourishing its roots The gaze and direction of Aswapathy was upward, not downward; he was not engrossed in earthly interests but always looked and moved towards higher spheres of the mental and the ideal heavens above. He did not live upon material energies, nor did he draw his motive-force from desire and ego in the manner of the common herd but lived mainly upon higher energies flowing into him from the worlds of life and mind and acted on the impulsions of the awakened soul within. His path was truly a sunlit path; the distant Sun of Truth and Knowledge for which he aspired and to arrive at which he was ascending the heights of his being, lit up his path with its rays of impeccable lustre.
His
soul lived as eternity’s delegate, The entire being of Aswapathy was awake and exerting itself in the great effort. His soul was not lost in the usual entanglements of human desires and attachments, covered under the folds of ignorance; it was fully conscious of its true statusâa projection of the Eternal Divine transcending Nature in ignoranceâand it functioned as such. His mind was not occupied with mundane objectives; it was a veritable flame of aspiration for the truths of higher life and its soaring thoughts constantly impinged upon the luminous realms of Knowledge above. His will too was not a slave of the blind impulses of life; it was a concentrated force of his being ever alert in search of the Light of God and constantly on the move in its wake. Thus his being, his consciousness, his force were united in one single aim and effort.
An
ocean impulse lifted every breath; Though Aswapathy lived in a human body his life was not of the human mould. He was in tune with the universal Life around and each outgoing movement of his was charged with the mighty force of the larger life. It was not stunted by the limited energies of the individual frame. His actions were not performed with the puny strength of ordinary human effort. He was open to the inspirations and strengths of the Gods with whom he was in contactâconscious or otherwiseâand naturally in all that he did the impress of the higher source of action was patent. No time was allowed to be lost, wasted in weakness of will or exhaustion of energies. He embodied a Power that was not subject to human limitations of decay and decrease but was ever pouring in its intensity, making every moment of his life a significant step in execution and progression.
The
little plot of our mortality Compared to the vasts of the Infinite where his native Home was, this earth, which Aswapathy came to inhabit for the time being, looked a small plot where limitation and death were the rule. And yet because he was conscious of his high origin, embodied its characteristic powers in his being and manifested something of that infinitude in his life; the scene ceased to wear any more the appearance of a prison house; it became a field for the play of unusual largenesses and intensitiesâa play in which certain limitations of time and space were voluntarily ‘accepted as part of the game.
This
bodily appearance is not all; Appearances are only surfaces of things. The physical body is not the man. It is only an external front, a form which conceals much that is not apparent. Behind the physical exterior there are the formations of life-force, mind-energy, soul-power and many others which are not evident on the gross material surface. The simplicity of the outer form gives no indication of the complexity within. The body may be nothing more than a mortal frame, the outer personality may be just human, but within and behind there are powersâand their workingsâwhich are more than human; at times they can even be of godlike dimensions.
His
fragile ship conveys through the sea of years The career of man is truly an adventure of God. His life is a long voyage across the aeons of Time, collecting the precious fuel and cargo of experience en route in the ship of his physical body, which is constantly wearing out and exposed to the risks of damage, accident and disaster. And who is the occupant of this moving ship? He is the Eternal himself under the mask of mortal man, the divine Soul that journeys in human disguise.
A
spirit that is a flame of God abides, Man is not wholly a creature of limitation, incapacity and ignorance, subject to decay and death. Admidst all these features of his life there is something in him that is above them, something that is unlimited in its being, capable of wielding inexhaustible power, source of all knowledge, undying. It is the Spirit, the Divine that formulates itself as the soul, holds all together and leads the conglomerate life to a certain preconceived destination. This soul is a spark of the One Fire of the Spirit that is eternal and naturally it shares the spirit’s abiding permanence, its Consciousness that transcends all the norms of reason, its amazing Power that cannot be vanquished by any phenomenal factor, its innate Bliss which expresses itself continually in the urge for Beauty and Love. The soul is the centre and source of all that is Godlike and Godward in man.
This
sculptor of the forms of the Infinite, Whether in the universal or in the individual creation as in man, the Intelligence that plans, guides and builds is the Soul, the concealed divine Being. It prepares and assumes forms that suit its objective in each incarnation. Itself veiled behind its multiple operations and hardly ever noticed by eyes that mistake results for causes, the Soul knows precisely the meaning and course of each life as it unrolls itself, for it has itself set the purpose and drawn the chart. The Soul holds in its vision the Truth that is to be worked out, conceives it in Idea, organises it in limitless Thought and compressing it in an infinitesimal, inarticulate form, casts it as a seed into the womb of the future.
…the
mute strength of the occult Idea Each form in Creation is governed by the Real-Idea which has impelled it into existence. Behind every object in manifestation, every formation that comes into being, there is a truth which demands fulfilment in and through it. It is a truth from the Being of the Divine that seeks expression. Each truth that so urges to manifest forms itself into a source-Idea, a concentration of the perception and the power to effectuate it. This Idea is always there in the depths of every manifestation ruling its forms and its movements according to its Will in execution. All formations and activities proceed according to the law of this indwelling Truth-Idea.
He
regards the icon growing by his gaze The divine Inhabitant in the evolving form keeps the concentrated force of the seed-perception focussed on the progression of the entity projected into Nature, and this very regard directs the development along the intended lines, speeds up its growth into an individuated personality. Even when the entity that is the subject of the developing movement is inchoate, insignificant, the presiding Agent knows that it is only a beginning of a course that will surely culminate into a glorious efflorescence of the divine Person.
A
beam of the Eternal smites his heart, As man develops his inner life and arrives at a stage when his mind, heart and the rest of his conscious being are united in the central aspiration and endeavour to outgrow the limitations of lower nature and break into the freedom of the Higher Consciousness, he finds that his own strength and effort are not adequate to effect the release. A helping hand from above, a reaching out of the Grace is indispensable. When this takes place in response to the ardent call from man, when a Ray of the Divine Consciousness, the Supreme Light, comes down and touches his being, there is a sudden change: the dour doors of obstinate nature fall open and all in him, his mentality held within its conceptual walls, his vitality confined to its psycho-physical frame, everything limited and constricted opens out into the immensities of the Spirit.
His
soul breaks out to join the Oversoul, When at the touch of the supreme Grace the triple knot that binds the being of man to the post of the lower nature of body, life and mind in Ignorance is snapped, his soul soars out of its long confinement in the cage of division and unites with the larger Soul of the Universe. The individual and the Universal become one, for in truth they are both different terms of the same Divine Reality. The identity that had been lost as a result of separativity and self-forgetfulness on the part of the individual is recovered. His life no more remains the little segment that it was, confined to the bounds of his ego. The cosmic Life flows into him and his expanse embraces the universe.
A topless supernature fills his frame: When man exceeds the formulations of the Nature in him by psychological and spiritual growth, the barriers to his development upwards into the Spirit break down. Bounded Nature of Ignorance yields to a higher Nature of infinite Knowledge, Strength and joy which assumes the evolving being into itself. This Nature beyond the domain of Ignorance and limitation is infinite as it is the Self-Power of the Divine; there is no limit to its progression from knowledge to greater knowledge, from light to greater light, from bliss to greater bliss.
Her
face is seen through his face, her eyes through his eyes; Then is revealed in man the overt Divine. Once the being of man in the course of its spiritual progression and enlargement exceeds its human bounds and passes into the freer altitudes of the higher Consciousness, the Creatrix of the worlds no more needs to act from behind the veil in terms of his limitation. She acts freely in and through his wide-opened faculties; his actions and movements bear the stamp of this greater Puissance with whom he has attained identity in nature. He is no more a limiting instrument, not even a faithful channel. He becomes the very universal Power in embodiment, the Divine openly in action in a human frame.
A
static Oneness and dynamic Power It is possible to conceive and realise the Divine as the static Oneâthe Reality that is ever one, above all movement, beyond manifestation. It is also possible to perceive and realise the Divine as a Power ever in action, manifesting worlds after worlds. But either of these is only a partial truth of the total Reality which contains both as its aspects. Both are true, they are different poises of the same Divine Reality. They are simultaneous states, characteristics, one basing the other, the other drawing from that one. The static holds the truth to be expressed and the concentrated power for that purpose; the dynamic draws that force into action and works out the manifestation of the truth. In him who is ready to receive and express this integral truth, the Divine descends in both these statuses and embodies them in his personâthe self functioning as the static base and the body manifesting the dynamic power.
A long dim preparation is man’s life, This life of man is neither his first nor his last. Behind his present innings there have been many before which have led up to this, even as there will be many more to follow on the close of the present. Each life of man is a preparation for the distant but eventual transmutation of his humanity into divinity. Life after life man gathers experience, develops his personality, equips himself for that glorious end. He may not be, and usually is not, aware how his struggles, his joys and griefs, his chequered advances and violent throw-backs contribute to the needed preparation; but the Intelligence that presides over his career knows and directs.
A
circle of toil and hope and war and peace A long winding ascent to the heights of the Spirit that remain inaccessible is the effort of man. The terrain of Matter is hard and rugged, but the life-force that insists on the adventure forces the way, forms the route across all the inhospitable cliffs of danger, disaster and death. The path is one of continual alternations of struggle and ease, disappointment and achievement, friction with other formations of life and concord, confrontation with obstructions from forces of Nature and assistances from friendly powers.
He
seeks through a penumbra shot with flame The Reality that man seeks to arrive at and know through his mental reason always escapes his grasp. For the reason that guides his intelligence is at best a half-light. It is no doubt a faculty for knowing but it can know only in segments, in bits. And what it so knows becomes a misleading partial seeing unable to break through the veil of conceptual Maya that covers the Face of the Truth.
A
search for something or someone never found, The mind or the religious imagination of man conceives of the Reality as some Indeterminate Truth or as God and proceeds to erect a system of beliefs and practices in order to push towards that supreme goal. But the effort fails and the Ideal remains unrealised because both the perceptions and the constructions of the human mind are clouded by an Ignorance that at once blinds and lames.
An endless spiral of ascent and fall Life is a series of successes and defeats, advances and retreats, gains and losses. They alternate with an almost mechanical consistency and the wheel of life turns round and round repeating the same movement. This, however, is only an appearance. For even while turning round and repeating the turn in another round, the wheel does move forward in the spiral of evolution. Amidst all the repetitive happenings in which the same movements seem to take place with the same alternations, the experiencing consciousness, the soul, grows in stature and range.
…
at last is reached the giant point It is after a long course of development, assimilation after assimilation of life-experiences, that man arrives at a culminating stage which marks his transition from the conditions of bounded human nature to the boundless state of the Divine Being. The greatnesses of the higher Existence begin to manifest and assume his nature into their being; all the limitations of the lower nature get erased and man partakes of the infinitude of the Divine. It is then, as a centre of the Infinity, that he realises the purpose of his life and evolution: he is intended to manifest the Glory of the Divine in all its amplitude. All life, from its small beginnings to its ultimate fulfilment, is directed to this end.
Across
our natureâs border line we escape The nature with which the human soul is saddled is one of limitations. It moves in the twilight of Ignorance, shades of error and imperfect vision. By psychological and spiritual effort it is possible to outgrow this primal nature and to pass into another nature that is above and free, the divine nature that transcends the human nature. In the domain of this super-nature there is no darkness, no shade; all is lightâlight that illumines whatever comes within its range. Only a part of it gets revealed initially to the ascending consciousness of man; the farther reaches of this englobing lustre await a fuller development of the being in the new status.
Original
and supernal Immanence The activities of Nature that seem so bewildering and wasteful at first sight, are not haphazard movements of any blind and mechanical Force or forces. They reveal themselves, on a closer scrutiny, to be well regulated processes of an action that moves to a definite end. And that is possible because this Nature is informed, instinct with an Intelligence, a divine Spirit that is present behind the veil of the material exterior. This Spirit is immanent everywhere and all is a result of its working; even the apparently disorderly and unintelligible activities in Nature are steps in the working out of a Plan by this concealed Consciousness.
The
cosmic Worker set his secret hand Aswapathy was chosen by the Divine Spirit at work in the universe for the high purpose of embodying the aspiration of Earth-Nature for a divine life. His material frame energised by a limited life-force was indeed fragile in the manner of all mortal bodies. But the divine Planner set out to harness it to his purpose and proceeded to build the being of the King from within into a growing shape of the perfection indispensable for the task.
It beat his soil to bear a Titanâs weight, The being of man, as it is, is unable to bear the charge of higher voltages of consciousness than what it is accustomed to in the human range. Impacts greater than these are apt to unbalance, if not to break the system. The Divine Worker prepared the being and nature of Aswapathy to withstand higher and still higher pressures so that they would not be found wanting when the Divine’s powers started manifesting in him for the great work he was destined to shoulder. It was a process of strengthening, fortifying and raising the capacity of his being till his soul became, as it were, a very God in a form, firm and inflexible, capable of bearing any impact, any load.
Modelled in inward Time his rhythmic parts. Outwardly the appearance of the King may not have shown any perceptible change. But within a mighty change was being effected. The various parts of the being, which in man are normally wanting in harmony with each other, were set into a rhythmic working, related to each other in their movements and shaped into a harmonic whole. He was built from within into an integrated being.
… the abrupt transcendent miracle: A miracle is always the result of an intervention of some element that transcends the existing scheme of things and its laws. It is abrupt too. There comes a sudden precipitation of a process, a working that is proper to another scheme of organisation, into this world of ours governed by its own laws. And it is because the happening is contrary to the operations natural to this plane of existence that it is called a miracle. This is precisely what happened in the case of Aswapathy. Something super-human, divine, came into the human frame of the king and he ceased to be merely human. Both the human and the divineânormally distinct and different in structure and functioningâjoined together.
For
him mindâs limiting firmament ceased above, The mind acts as a barrier to the uplooking intelligence of man. His consciousness is imprisoned in the nets of the reasoning and conceptual mind which effectively block the blossoming of other liberative faculties. This bar no more held back the upward growth of Aswapathy. An opening was effected in this obstructive lid which had prevented what was beyond the mind from coming down and what was aspiring from below from soaring above, making it possible for his multiple consciousnessâwhether in its luminous moments or obscureâto expand continuously.
The
landmarks of the little person fell, The natural limits of Aswapathy, the human person, got erased. The little, self-divided and self-centred ego-personality, usual to man, dissolved and he became one with the Divine Being. All boundsâmental, vital, subtle-physicalâhad been acted upon and increasingly stretched by the Power at work till they gave way and all divisions ceased. The consciousness formally confined to human boundaries flowed out and joined the larger divine consciousness, of which it is in truth a segment.
Abolished
were conception’s covenants With this breaking of bounds, the age-old balance between Matter and Spirit, nature and soul that had governed the life movements of Aswapathy was overthrown. Till then the inconscience in physical nature was a partyâan insistent oneâto the venture of life and the soul was subject to its rule; the mind too had the right to impose its conceptual moulds on all awakenings to knowledge. But now these became matters of the past and neither the nescience of the physical nor the confused reasonings and conceivings of the mind could arrest the flight of the soul.
Truth unpartitioned found immense sky-room; The intellect always seizes truth in parts. It divides what is whole into segments, studies them piece by piece and seeks to erect a knowledge by re-joining them variously. It is only when this fragmenting faculty of the mind is discarded or outgrown that truth can be received and understood in its entirety. This is what took place in Aswapathy. With the breaking of the lid of the intellect, truth was no more subjected to division, it had no more to confine itself to the narrow mould of the conceptual mind; it could spread itself in its natural wholeness in his consciousness.
The
bounded mind became a boundless light, The mind was flooded with the light of Knowledge that came pouring down with the removal of its obstructing faculty of segmentation. The habitual limitations of the mind ceased to exist and the mental consciousness became one with the luminous Knowledge that came. So too, the self of Aswapathy, involved hitherto in ignorant nature and its limiting instruments, was freed from its bondage and it found its identity with the Infinite. His being in finite form could now freely join the Infinite in the play of their common cosmic game.
Out
of apprenticeship to Ignorance The long stage of evolution that follows the awakening from the sleep of Inconscience is characterised by Ignorance. But it is not a period of waste. It is a stage of development in which all the faculties of man are deliberately fashioned by Nature to absorb more and more of consciousness, to move steadily from half-light to more of light till they are ready to emerge into the belt of Knowledge. Ignorance itself is a power seeking for Knowledge and it is a halfway house, a transitional state in which man learns and finally awakens to the light of unclouded wisdom. Aswapathy has outgrown this tutelage of Ignorance and has been lifted up into the masteries of Knowledge.
And
made him an arch-mason of the soul, The knowledge that claimed Aswapathy admitted him into the secrecies of the soul where the inner edifice of the Divine dwelling in man is being shaped. For it is the soul that builds the destiny for the Divine in the human frame, drawing material from life-experience. Aswapathy grew into identity with this deeper soul and attained its creative power.
Freedom and empire called to him from on high; As his limitations were being shed, Aswapathy was spontaneously drawn to the higher altitudes of his being where there were no bounds to his consciousness, where he was free, master of himself, svarat. There he was also master of nature and of all to which he turned his liberated power of consciousness, samrrat.
Above
mindâs twilight and lifeâs star-led night The dark belt of life, in which there is practically no light of consciousness except the faint glimmer of the awakenings to self-awareness on the horizon, had been crossed; the half-lit passage of mental consciousness also had been traversed. Now Aswapathy was face to face with the dawn of the Day of Spiritual Consciousness. The reign of the Spirit had begun after the preparatory stages of life and mind through which the consciousness had gradually awakened and formed itself. The semi-consciousness of life is followed by the still incomplete consciousness of the mind which in its turn is succeeded by the birth of the plenary consciousness of the Spirit.
Humanity
framed his movements less and less, As one overpasses the reign of the mind and emerges out of the bounds of Ignorance into the vaster regions of the spiritual consciousness, human nature, accustomed to function within the limits imposed by the incapacities that are constitutional to it, ceases to govern one’s life. A higher nature takes its place and serves the higher and larger being that has displaced the dwindling ego-self; a greater vision forms and the perspective becomes greater.
The
lines of safety reason draws that bar The reasoning faculty, whatever its value in organising and ordering the mass of perceptions and thinkings that float about in the mind region, becomes a bar to the fuller development of the mind by imposing its narrow tests and standards on all its activities, even those that are beyond its reach, It acts as a brake on the freer movement of the mind into the regions of ideation, intuition, etc. So also it interferes with the spontaneous movements of the deeper soul which ever seeks an identity with the Infinite of which it is born. The hesitations and doubtings of the reasoning mind, its narrow lines of functioning, impede the natural flowings of the soul Godward.
Left
slumbering in a sealed and secret cave Man is conscious of only a small part of his being. The faculties and powers that are active in him are only a selection that suffices for the limited range of his normal living. There lie in him larger areas of consciousness still to be opened up, vaster powers waiting to be tapped. As man developsâin the course of nature or by means of concentrated effortâthese powers which lie latent in regions that are veiled to his surface awareness, get activised and come to life.
The gifts of the spirit .
A
pure perception lent its lucent joy: In the new status of consciousness he had attained, Aswapathy did not have to grasp things through the usual mechanism of the senses, presided over and coordinated by mental thought, that serves man normally. A power of immediate perception became active in him, lighting up all that came within his purview with a spontaneous ease and directness, without the labour of thinking; it took in comprehensively and not piecemeal, it went straight to the heart of things and was not deflected or misled by appearances as the ordinary perception is liable to be.
In
beings it knew what lurked to them unknown; This faculty of perception now awakened in Aswapathy was like a piercing searchlight that lost sight of nothing, exposed even what lay concealed in men, unknown to their waking parts. For in men there are movements, motives, of which they are not conscious but which yet are the secret spring of their actions. This sight perceived the idea in their minds even before it took thought-form, the wish in their heart before it formulated itself in their thinking. Usually man becomes conscious of motives only when they present themselves as thoughts; but these motives prepare the being long before they come to the surface of the mind. Though in many, motives are not wholly unconscious, the cunning of the vital effectively conceals them from the scrutiny of the active sense of mental judgment. But they could not escape the eye of Aswapathy.
He
felt the beating life in other men With the shedding of the ego-sense of separativity and the growth of his being beyond the bounds of mentality, Aswapathy’s consciousness extended itself wider and wider till it embraced the consciousness of all. One with them in his consciousness, he experienced the flow of their energiesâemotional, vital and subtle-physicalâin his own being; their hopesâarticulate and inarticulate,âtheir passions and their loves; their sorrows and their joys seeped in or came like waves upon waves into the still and limitless ocean of his extended being. All this, however, did not affect or perturb him whose consciousness had attained the imperturbable calm natural to his status. He neither suffered nor rejoiced at these impacts.
He
heard the inspired sound of his own thoughts On the mental level too he was one with all. His thought-forces flowed freely into their minds and shaped their thinkings, so much so that when he became aware of the thoughts of others, he found them to be echoes of his own. There was also an unobstructed flow of thoughts from elsewhereâfrom the minds of men as also from the general atmosphereâinto his awareness. He could always thus sense the thought currents in the world and influence and turn them in the direction of his choice.
His
inner self grew near to othersâ selves Aswapathy felt attuned to others not only at the life level and the mind-level, but even deeper within himself, at the soul-level, he experienced a closeness to the soul-consciousness of others. He realised the common nature of his self and the selves of others and underwent the impact of this affinity. All the same he did not allow himself to be swept into the common current, overwhelmed by it. He retained the individuality of his being, self-governed, unique.
A
magical accord quickened and attuned The human system is accustomed, by nature and by habit, to respond spontaneously to the touches and calls of the physical world. Dominated by its base in the material substance, its actions and reactions are largely confined to material nature; even when they have other elements of a vital or mental character, the physical character is inescapable. All this underwent a change in Aswapathy. His system began to respond to rhythms of a subtler kind which started vibrating upon his being as it expanded beyond the terrestrial bounds; it bore and thrilled to contacts from the higher domains of the Spirit.
…
it made As a result of this change, the faculties of mind, life and sensation, which are normally at the service of the body-self of man, developed into instruments of the soul, carrying and recording its responses, sharing in its innate light and bliss. The means fashioned by matter and subservient to matter passed into the happy service of the Spirit.
The
soul’s experience of its deeper sheaths The physical is not the only body encasing the soul. Ensouling it, as it were, and subtler than it, is the vital body; finer than the vital is the mental body; still finer is the causal body and the finest of them all is the body of bliss. All these bodies, each subtler than the other, are termed sheaths in view of their functions as so many coverings of the being at the core. The soul lives in all these sheaths simultaneously, at different levels of embodiment, but its experience of them is not normally communicated to the surface consciousness in which man habitually lives, because of the veil of obscurity thrown by the density of material inconscience and unconsciousness which practically seals off the inner domains of the being from external awareness. This ceased with Aswapathy. With the overpassing of the bounds of physical nature the passage was opened and lit up letting the experiences of the deeper sheaths come up whole and living.
A
world unseen, unknown by outward mind As a rule, man is aware only of the little world that is presented to him by his sense-faculties. He has no entry into the larger domains that extend behind his surface being and above the mental levels on which he lives. When, however, as a result of concentration, or any other inner discipline or by a stroke of Grace, the door between the outer awareness and the regions of subtler consciousness is opened, he becomes aware of and experiences these belts of existence that lie spread out in the domains of the soul and are far removed from the mind’s world of incessant thought-activity and extrovert movements.
…
the luminous countries of the unborn The human mind always likes to think of, to imagine possibilities beyond the actualities of the present. These imaginations and dreamings are not, all of them, baseless and unrealisable. They correspond to certain actuals on planes of existence that prepare the truths that are to be cast into manifestation in this universe. It is there that things still to be born on earth already exist in forms that are proper to those states of consciousness. In fact, it is these truths on the move towards manifestation that cast their influences on the terrestrial world and come to the surface in the consciousness of man in the form of ideals, dreams, imaginations of the mind and the strainings of the life-force towards newer possibilities.
He
saw the Perfect in their starry homes In his newly awakened vision, Aswapathy could see the perfect beingsâthe archetypes that project themselves in the form of Ideals on the mental horizons of manâin their luminous homes. All the elements of perfection were there: their Forms were not subject to decay and death in the manner of earthly forms; they were immortal. They were enveloped in an immutable Peace which ensured their transcendence of disintegration and death. But the beings were not, on that account, devoid of sensation, feeling; they were full of the intimate and constant ecstasy which comes only in oneness with God. All other ecstasy is dependent on outer causes. It is this divine rapture on the solid foundation of immovable Peace that makes deathlessness possible.
…
the mystic space where thought is born Aswapathy ceased to live and think with the thought-mind. He found his station in a region of consciousness beyond the conceptual mentality where lies the origin of thoughts. It is there that true thought comes into being, yet unmodified and unmixed with the workings of the lower levels of the mind, and the thought develops into a will. This nascent will is helped to grow by the reigning higher Power and shaped into form by the infusion of a divine Strength natural to that plane of consciousness till it acquires the force and effectivity of the gods above.
In those higher domains
will is not separated from thought as is the case in the human mind;
nor is that will mixed with weakening elements like desire and
self-regarding ego. Undivided Time He owned the house of undivided Time. In the state of consciousness attained by Aswapathy, Time changed its character. It no more held the being prisoner of the present, with the past receding into the oblivion of memory and the future concealed to sight. Time was experienced as one continuous extension, without the usual demarcations of the past, present and future. All was seen in one vision. Further, it did not contain him; it became rather a circumstance of his existence.
Lifting
the heavy curtain of the flesh Aswapathy crossed the barrier of the physical consciousness which shuts off all the regions of subtler existence and found himself at the entrance of a new world which was guarded by the sentinel of the gods, the mystic serpent that allows no one to cross unless he has fulfilled the conditions demanded: the leaving behind of the all too human elements of desire and ego. To enter the higher worlds we must cast away the legacies of the lower ones.
A
consciousness of beauty and of bliss, The separativity of being natural to the ego-bound existence of man was no more there. Instead there was felt a oneness with all. There were no more the disfigurements of division, the incapacities and denials of limitation; they gave way to unmarred beauty of form and undiminished bliss of the Spirit. He did not have to know things in the old ways of the mind in ignorance to which the object to be known is always foreign to itself; his was a new kind of knowing in which knowledge was one of identity,âthe perceiving faculty entered into the very substance of the object and made it part of its consciousness.
…the hidden worlds.
Air
glowed and teemed with marvellous shapes and hues, This physical world is not the only one in the Creation. There are many other worlds with their respective governing truths and constituting elements which are in conformity with their principles of existence. They are differently made, their rhythms are different, their forms are different. The shapes and the colours in those realms are less fixed than those in the material world and much more varied and picturesque. The fragrances and the sweetnesses that pervade some of these worlds are of an unearthly kind. Sight, smell, taste run into different dimensions.
A
channel of universal harmony, So also with sounds. The sound natural to the human ear is only the gross form of a Sound that is highly subtle and spiritual in its origin. It passes through several grades of densification before it takes the form proper to the physical hearing. To hear these subtle sounds one needs to be tuned into their respective levels of being. Only a trained ear, processed in the subtilisation of consciousness, can be receptive tothese higher rhythms which are too subtle, too rarefied to be heard by the physical audition. These are the rhythms, notes of the creative nada, that constitute the essential Harmony sustaining the worlds and their beings and forces, and it is only he who is attuned to that Harmony in his consciousness that can receive those sounds.
In
the nostrils quivered celestial fragrances, This physical world is not the only one in the Creation. There are many other worlds with their respective governing truths and constituting elements which are in conformity with their principles of existence. They are differently made, their rhythms are different, their forms are different. The shapes and the colours in those realms are less fixed than those in the material world and much more varied and picturesque. The fragrances and the sweetnesses that pervade some of these worlds are of an unearthly kind. Sight, smell, taste run into different dimensions.
Out
of a covert tract of slumber self Behind the surfaces of the consciousness on which man lives normally, there are layers of which he is only half-aware and others of which he is not aware at all; he is asleep in them, suÈupta, the real truth of life is concealed there. The voice of this truth is not heard by the physical ear attuned only to physical existence. It is heard in the pregnant silence that reigns on the deeper levels of the consciousness, a silence that is not empty and void but full of the undelivered contents of Knowledge. And that audition is not received in the reasoning mind but in the heart that perceives and feels directly, intuitively; it is not seized by the groping outer senses but held by the suresense-faculty within that is at the root of all the senses.
It
caught the burden of secrecies sealed and dumb, This voice revealed to Aswapathy the secret intention in Nature: it impressed upon him the fact of the earth’s aspiration for the divine life still lying unfulfilled; it held before him the sure prospect of the glories of the divine Spirit that await human effort to scale them. And more. It communicated to him all else that holds itself in the in-turned folds of Consciousnessâsupremely potentâwaiting for its hour of manifestation.
…
the worldâs From a certain standpoint the world-movement bears a big question mark. What is the purpose of it all? Or is there any purpose at all? If aim there be, why is it that all things do not always subserve it? Perhaps there is no meaning and it is only the limited mind of man that reads its own notions in the cosmos? And so on. These doubts afflict every movement and even if, somehow, one doubt is met, another arises, and this goes on indefinitely. For it is the nature of doubt, as Sri Aurobindo has observed, to doubt always. There is no finis to it.
… murmurings of desire that cannot die: Desire, that afflicts all life in this world and generally forms the main motive-spring of activity, is endless. A desire fulfilled breeds further desires; a desire denied builds up an obsession of itself. In either case, the proddings of Desire are incessant and they impel man to constant exertion. Desire hides behind many camouflages with high-sounding names like duty, responsibility, altruism and it pursues man till he overcomes it, overpasses the need of it for his life-movement. For in the scheme of Nature, Desire has an important role to play in stirring the being out of the sleep of the sub-conscience and in propelling its growth upwards in the scale of consciousness.
… the world’s delight to be Basic to the existence of the worlds is the Delight of the Supreme Being in Becoming. The Sat-Chit-Ananda of the Creative Spirit pours itself out in the Delight of manifestation and it is this Delight that supports all existence. Behind all the pain, suffering and struggle so patent in this world, there is, underlying, this flow of Delight which keeps things in existence and expresses itself as the will-to-live in each. Unbaffled by all opposite formations and malformations in the course of the development of life and consciousness, the substantial Bliss at the core goes on asserting its right to be and to expand.
The grandeur and greatness of its will to live, The will-to-live that characterises all forms in this creation is really a projection of the Will of the Supreme Being in manifestation. This will is there because the Divine has willed it so. And this will is supported by the Delight of the Divine in becoming. It is not deterred by the labour involved in asserting itself, whatever be the odds, against the elements of Inconscience and Ignorance. It is not limited in its vision to the immediate and the local. It may change its circumstances, or it may change its forms to suit the circumstances, but it will not flag. The will stays undeflected, irreversible.
… the soul’s adventure into space, Each soul is here on earth for a purpose. From the heights and infinities of the Supreme Being, the soul has emanated into this field of circumstances in order to realise and manifest here its innate divine nature in a manifold becoming. It has dared to involve and lose itself, as it were, in the conditions of obscurity, inconscience and death within the limitations of time and space. And from there it seeks to build up and express its own powers of light, consciousness and bliss through the progression of lives in which it participates.
The
murmur and whisper of the unheard sounds In the world of our experience, only a few of the possibilities are actualised. There are innumberable truths and forces striving for expression in this creation but they are unable to get the assent of the mind and the consciousness of man which are either not ready to receive them or too much lost in other formations to take cognisance of them. In either case these truthsâof whatever kind, of knowledge, of power, of beauty, of blissâare denied openings to manifest themselves. But they go on pressing upon the human consciousness, prompting it, making themselves felt in many waysâdirect and indirect.
The
wide world-rhythms wove their stupendous chant This creation is a cosmos with its large lines of development proceeding according to the impulsions of the governing truths that are put out by the Creative Divine for manifestation. There is an order which arises from the Truth in action and rules from above, and within, all movements in progression. All activities of the worlds, all the beings and the forces, are inwardly impelled to follow these great vibrations of the Creative Movement. The meaning of progress, of evolution, of life-endeavour is to get attuned to these profound rhythms and flow in line with them. Only so can the limitations and bounds of finite nature be absorbed and assumed into the widenesses and freedoms of the greater term of the Infinite. Each one has its own natural rhythm; to set it in tune with the universal rhythms is the art of life. The worlds came into being on the rhythms of the creative Word, vyÄhÅtis, they are developing into their growing symphonies and the entire Movement is going to reveal itself as an orchestral whole vibrating with divine harmonies.
A low
muttering rose from the subconscient caves, Aswapathy became conscious of the effort of the evolving spirit on the lower levels of existence also. In those regions where consciousness is still half asleep and not yet awakened to awareness, where the light of consciousness is not yet and all is still in dark, he heard the stirrings of the concealed spirit. The dense sleep of the inconscient had receded and a state of half-awareness was trying to articulate itself into a fuller awakening. This movement was still inchoate, in the first steps of its formation.
Answer
to that inarticulate questioning, However weak and stumbling the seeking in the subconscient parts of the being may be, it is not without help, left to its own resources. There is always an uplifting response from the higher levels, the regions of the super-conscious. The help that comes is swift and effective, full of the light and glory characteristic of its place of origin. It is this interaction between the callâhowever feebleâfrom the subconscious and the powerful responsive inflow from the super-conscious levels of existence that builds the gradations of consciousness emerging from the sleep of inconscience to the summits of superconscience.
Vision
and dream were fables spoken by truth In the subtler worlds that opened out to the vision of Aswapathy in his ascent, things were communicated in a language that was different from that of the terrestrial human world. Not by words was knowledge given. It was a continuous revelation of truths through visions that impinged upon the eye, dreams that figured the workings of truths to the perceiving mind and vivid symbols more concrete and alive with the truths behind them than the facts of earthly experience. Truths did not need to be formulated and justified in the ways of mental reason; each truth carried its own stamp of authenticity that was self-sufficient.
…beings
of many kingdoms neared and spoke: Many were the worlds through which Aswapathy passed. Far beyond the physical world which his consciousness had outgrown, there were tiers of worlds in different planes of existence. Each world was organised into a unit working out the growing principle of truth special to it. There Aswapathy was met by the beings who were the natural denizens of those domains, and also by those who were there in the course of their transit to different destinations. Among the latter were those who are called the dead by the humans on earth because they have left their physical bodies. In truth, however, one is not dead in consciousness simply because the material sheath is shed; the soul, the real person, lives and continues to live in other sheaths on the subtler planes of being. It is these who greeted the high-soaring King.
… the wisdom which exceeds all phrase: True wisdom, the self-formulation of Truth in terms of knowledge, does not need to be clothed in verbal form. In fact, it suffers a diminution when pressed into human language because the full connotation of the knowledge far exceeds the most that can be conveyed through words which are fit only to transmit a lower experience. Human speech, says the Upanishad, returns baffled from the Knowledge Supreme.
The
gods of light and titans of the dark There is a continuous struggle between the hosts of Darkness and the children of Lightâthe Asuras, the Rakshasas, the Demons and their brood of falsehood and egoism on the one hand and the Gods and their Powers of radiance on the otherâfor the domination and possession of this creation of the Divine. And man, as the spear-head of this evolving manifestation, is the special centre of this battle. His life is a field for the concentrated projection of this universal combat, and a soul gained or lost is a significant victory or setback for either side. At each moment of his life, man is confronted with the choice between good and evil, with their protagonists ever on the watch to seize the situation.
In
every hour loosed from the quiver of Time The worlds are continually on the move. There is nothing static in this manifestation. All is in incessant movement towards the progression of the universe in a growing fullness. New truths, new forces, new possibilities are being thrown in by the manifesting Godhead all the time, and each moment is fresh with newer factors entering into the situation. For one who perceives this truth in the creation, life is a perpetual adventure, a thrilling discovery.
And
honeyed pleadings breathed from occult lips The beings of the subtler worlds called upon Aswapathy to abandon himself to the bliss that is naturally aflow in those realms. They pleaded with him but in vain, for he was all set to reach a higher goal and would not tarry at wayside stations participating in their proffered enjoyments. Each world in the stair of the divine Creation has its characteristic formulations of the manifest Consciousness; they are domains of varying degrees of Power, of Knowledge, of Joy, with their respective guardians of an occult order.
And
with a silver cry of opening gates The road of the pilgrim to the Infinite is not an open highway. From plane to plane, from level to level of consciousness, there are checkposts, doors of admission which open only to those who have acquired the right to get across. These gates, daivih dvÄrÄh, swing open only at the assent of the concerned gods to the mounting aspirations of man. And when they part, new horizons come into view; what was unseeable before lies exposed to the seeking eye.
… a silent self where world was not Beyond the region of the active mind is a state of consciousness which is not involved in the movement. It is aloof, silent and intense in its self-gathering. When one steps into this belt of consciousness, the Being, the Self that is there is alone experienced and all else appears distant, vague, quite unreal. The world and its activities do not have their usual sense of reality to one who has arrived at this state of consciousness; the Self constituting that consciousness alone exists. Against that background the world looks no more than a moving picture.
…
all was known by the light of identity There is a state of consciousness where one does not need to exercise the faculties of the intellect to know things. One knows by a kind of oneness in consciousness. There is no separate object to be reached and grasped by means of the cognitive mind. There is instead a natural extension of one’s consciousness which becomes one with the object of knowledge and the contents of the object reveal themselves spontaneously to it. This is the highest kind of knowledge, knowledge by identity. It is infallible. In such a condition, no proof is needed of the existence of the Spirit. It becomes self-evident to the consciousness which sees what it feels and feels what’ it sees.
There
unity is too close for search and clasp Aswapathy has arrived, in the course of his ascent in consciousness, at a zone where divisions cease to be. The Many are there but governed by the dominant spirit of Oneness of the manifesting Divine. All is felt and realised as the One in extension. There is here no ‘other’ to be sought for and embraced. Love flows out not from one to anotherâfor there is no other — but from the One poised here to Itself poised elsewhere. The same One stresses Itself differently for purposes of its play and in that self-variation lies beauty. The Many are a fact but all are ensouled, energised by a ruling Oneness.
There
all the truths unite in a single truth, On this level of manifestation, all the truths formulated by the mind and warring with each other on the lower planes of mentality converge into the one Truth of which they were the deflected rays. All recover this element of truth in this fulfilling meeting. All ideas, which are really sparks of the One Reality caught and formulated in its conceptual mould by the mind as if they were independent truths, recover their source and fall into the right pattern.
There knowledge needs not words to embody Idea; It is in the region of the thought-mind that knowledge needs to formulate itself in words. Unless the idea clothes itself in words it does not acquire enough concreteness to be handled by the mind. But above this domain, Knowledge delivers itself in many other ways: ways of revelation, of intuition, and the consciousness receives it without the medium of words.
…
thoughtâs carved brilliant cell to rest The mind has several strata of consciousness each of which has its own mode of working. The thought-mind for instance, needs to give the form of thought to every bit of incoming knowledge; all have to take the mould of thought. But the range and width of this thought-world, however wide it may seem when compared with the still lower formulations of the mental consciousness, is narrow. It sees and grasps only in tiny bits and cuts into segments before it can understand. That is why its knowledge is always partial.
While there, one can be wider than the world; As long as man lives confined to the physical consciousness of the body, he is a part, an infinitesimal part, of the world. He is contained in one of its million forms and lives a prisoner. But as he develops in his mind and soul, he is able to expand in his consciousness till he arrives at a state of being which embraces the whole world. He can go further and grow into a consciousness which goes beyond the world and contains it in his wide existence. All this is possible even while remaining in the physical body; only the centre of life is shifted to the deeper and the higher levels of consciousness which are then activised.
… the still consciousness sustaining all. The mobile is not all. It needs some base on which to move and live. The worlds on the move in which live all creatures are upheld and sustained by an unmoving Self, a Consciousness that is immobile. All action is supported by a Power that withholds from activity, all words issue from a Silence that bases them. The kÈara moves upon the bosom of the akÈara.
The
voice that only by speech can move the mind The mind, which normally serves as the instrument of knowledge, is not the only means of knowledge, nor is its way of formulating in words before it can understand, the sole possible process. A truer and larger understanding is possible by the direct action of the soul; if the consciousness is gathered in Silence in the depths of the soul, Knowledge arises in a spontaneous movement. No mental activity is necessary. Besides, the knowledge acquired by the mind is limited and vitiated by the very nature of the imperfect mentality. What is perceived and received in the soul is whole and unmodified.
The
strength that only in action feels its truth One is commonly accustomed to recognise strength only when it operates in some activity. Where there is no perceptible action one is apt to think there is no power present. But that is not a fact. Power can hold itself immobile, self-gathered in status; in such a condition, it is more dynamic because it is more concentrated, not dispersed. All movement, all action is possible because basing it there is this potent strength holding itself in Silence, in immutable Peace, Shakti acts because there is Shiva to sustain.
A vast unanimity ended lifeâs debate. Life in this material universe is a field of combat. At every step, at every level, there is a clash of possibilities, a friction of forces trying to effectuate themselves. In each individual and also between the individual and others there is this constant movement of claims and counter claims; thoughts, feelings, willings are ever pouring out, striving for supremacy. There is, however, a state of being, a level of consciousness, where this feature of struggle ceases to be. All falls into a pattern of one scheme which embraces everything in its totality. Each element finds its just place and all together combine into a living whole.
The
clash of forces struggling to prevail Creative Nature bestows as much care and attention on the fashioning of a gigantic form as of an infinitesimal one. For both are manifestations of the same Divine. Brahman is present equally in the big and in the small. From this point of view, quantity and size are an illusion. Brahman gives himself entirely in each form; he does not measure himself out according to the physical dimensions of each. To the Divine all are equally significant.
…
the dire force of lust Material nature is characterised in its beginnings by inconscience, inertia, obscurity. There is resistance to every kind of movement. And yet, a dynamic, variegated creation is outflowing on this base of immobility. That is because contained in physical matter there is an impulsion of desire, desire to possess and to enjoy, and this force for conquest and appropriation goes into action, gathers round itself the necessary elements for the fulfilment of its objective and out of the inert mass shapes living and conscious individualities that can take the joy.
The sorrow by which Natureâs hunger is fed, ‘Hunger that is death’, says the Upanishad. For hunger is to feed oneself with what is other than oneself, to swallow and absorb something else. And this means death to what is so eaten. Life feeds upon life; what is joy and nourishment to one brings sorrow and death to another. This is a constant feature of life in this world.
The oestrus which creates with fire of pain, With all the inertia and dullness that so strongly characterise Matter in Nature, there is movement, there is growth. That is because embedded in the density of Matter is an impulsion of the Spirit which acts like an oestrus, constantly astir, always trying to break out and manifest itself and in the process exerting mounting pressure upon the resistant material. This insistent impulsion from within, gathering force in the heat of its movement and friction, makes all new creation possible.
The fate that punishes virtue with defeat, Man looks for handsome reward for his virtue, expects virtue to win and vice to lose. But wiser fates have other ways to promote the ends of Nature which go beyond both virtue and vice. The path of virtue is hard like all paths that lead upwards and the path of vice easy like the downward slopes. Virtue is its own reward because of the inner strength it builds up in its practice and if very often its way is strewn with difficulties and material disappointments, it should be remembered that these act, in the long run, like feeders to the development of the soul which grows more quickly under the stress of adversity than in the laxities natural to an easier life. In all seeming punishments there is a hidden intention of the life-spirit.
This
huge material universe became From the status to which Aswapathy had attained, the whole perspective of this world was found to have changed. This material universe, which is imposing in its massive size and gives the appearance of a self-existent reality, was seen to be a creation, a product of the workings of a Force, a Shakti that is illimitable. Compared to the vastness of this Power the universe looked paltry in its extent; it was seen to be only one of the many universes put out by the Force. He also glimpsed the much that was not yet manifested and realised that what was manifested was only a fraction of what still remained unmanifest.
His
soul could sail beyond thoughtâs luminous bar; The faculty of thought is a powerful factor in the evolution of man from the animal into a thinking being. It enables man to become self-aware and capable of taking charge of his life-movement. It also enables him to organise and speed up his growth in the direction he chooses. But after a stage, this very helpful mind faculty becomes an obstruction. It does not allow anything that surpasses its bounds to become effective unless that subjects itself to the requirements and standards set up by the thinking finite reason. All that is above the thought-range of the mind, all that overflows the finite limits of the mind, is convicted of unreality and tabooed. It holds up the evolutionary progression of man until he learns to outgrow its narrow boundaries and extend his consciousness beyond it.
Movement was married to the immobile Vast; Movement and status are not contradictory terms as their surface appearance would suggest. Movement is related to what does not move, it is supported by the moveless. It becomes possible because the stable and the unmoving holds it at the base. As one goes deeper in consciousness, the whole world-movement is realised to be possible because there is an immobile status upholding it. The movement of the worlds takes place on the grounds of the Self. The Divine first stations itself as the Immobile and upon that base all its mobile formulations move.
He
plunged his roots into the Infinite, Enclosed in a finite form of the body and moving within the terms of time, man’s life has a limited range. His consciousness is confined by habit within these limits and its power is naturally stunted. But if he frees his consciousness from this subjection to the limitations of form and time, he finds his true soul-nature which is boundless, infinite. And once he partakes of this freedom into the Infinite, he is no more bound by the shackles of time; he lives in a consciousness that is eternal. The eternal is realised as a term of the Infinite.
The
high and luminous tension breaks too soon, When one comes into deeper or higher states of consciousness there is experienced a spontaneous uplifting of the being in all its parts. The physical body finds its habitual restlessness yielding to a solid calm which begins to settle in its members. The constant outward movements of the life-force get folded back as it were and gather themselves inward in a state of immobility. Even the mind, ever occupied with its never ending thoughts and dissipating itself in helplessly running with the senses, becomes quiet, its movement gets steadied and with it the movement of the life-breath that supports it. A quieted mind automatically reduces and thins the action of the prc7na till it practically ceases to make itself felt in the condition of deep silence. But all these states do not stay permanentlyâat least till they are normalised into natural conditions. The uplifting supernatural tension that pervades during such periods cannot be supported by the system for long; the constitution is accustomed to a lesser voltage. Either it snaps suddenly or gradually weakens and passes.
The restless nether members tire of peace; The lower nature of man is always governed by desire. Desire makes him restless till it is satisfied. One desire follows another and so it goes on, endlessly. The life-force that activates the nature is afflicted with these desires and consequently there is a ceaseless agitation and movement. This becomes natural to the body, the vitality and the mind governed by that nature. Even if by some means peace and calm are imposed upon those members, they cannot sustain it for long. They swing back to their usual state. A minimum of purity and gathered will are necessary to hold this peace.
The need to rest in a natural poise of fall, The weight of inertia and dullness in the physical and obscure parts of the being constantly pulls back the system into a state of tiredness and inaction. The effort at awareness and the readiness for exertion pall and the body is forced to slide into positions that conduce to rest and recuperation. From the erect and the alert, one sinks to the slouching and sleeping postures.
On the heartâs altar dim the sacred fire. The aspiration in the heart burns bright initially and for some time. Thereafter other impulses rise up in the nature; the pull of inertia in the physical, lack of enthusiasm in the vital, distraction and doubts in the mind, cover the flame of aspiration with their smoke. This is the period of dryness, of struggle calling for the exertion of the will to subdue the obstructing elements and keep the flame burning bright with appropriate feeders of stimulating movements.
… a
dull gravitation drags us down The movement of consciousness in evolution is always upward; degree by degree it works its way up, developing suitable embodiments for its expression and organisation. But all the time it is subject to pulls from below. For the Matter on which it bases itself in its ascent is inert in mass, inconscient in its energy, and this character of its matrix imposes its characteristic handicaps on the ascending movement. There is a constant holding back, a habit in Nature of pulling from under and this impedes the progression.
He makes our fall a means for greater rise. In the scheme of the divine Providence that governs this evolutionary world, even set-backs, failures, defeats, have a meaning. They reveal chinks in the armour, force one to turn round and look into oneself for the causes, the deficienciesâphysical and psychologicalâthat have led to the fall. And if one is sincere and takes the necessary steps to rectify the hindering elements, then a new possibility is opened and with better equipment progress is ensured. It is thus that failures become means for eventual success and successes can prove to be arrestations of growth by promoting a false sense of accomplishment.
The
formless Power, the Self of eternal light This Creation is not something that has issued out of a supreme Spirit and then left to itself to work out its career. In the very process of its descent from the heights of the Spirit, the Divine has followed and involved itself in the movement in two poises that are necessary for working out its intention in Creation. It holds itself as the supporting Self of all and each, a concentration of its innate, luminous consciousness as the guiding Intelligence. And it pours itself out as an effectuating Force which acts in the many kinds of energies that flow from it. This is the dual status taken by the Divine in the CreationâSoul and Nature, Purusha and Prakritiâin order to build it in the full figure of the Truth to be manifested.
He
comes unseen into our darker parts Man is so much steeped in ignorance, his faculties and powers are so deeply rooted in inertia and in-conscience, that it is a wonder he moves forward at all. That he does so is because, behind the veils of obscurity in his nature, a higher Power is at work to release him from the holds of materiality and lift him up in his consciousness. The Powerâthe divine Intelligenceâdoes this unknown to the outer being, behind the curtain of the external nature, so that the limited outer mind may not interfere with the working and vitiate the results. The Intelligence that dwells within is a direct Power of the Divine Being that takes station in the mortal to build him into an immortal. It knows all in deep identity and it guides the whole movement to its destination.
All
here must learn to obey a higher law, Life is a continual movement forward and upward. And all that moves in it has necessarily to adapt itself to changing conditions. The rhythm of today fails tomorrow and one has to find a new step if one would move onward. All the various parts of man are accustomed to certain laws of work which are natural to them in their particular states of being. But if they are to progress with evolving nature, it is indispensable that they open to the operations of still higher laws and lift themselves into the higher mould. The physical body, for instance, is accustomed to live and function within the bounds of inertia, incapacity and death imposed upon it by material Nature. That, however, is not its whole destiny. By aspiring and training itself to respond to the demands of the higher parts it can grow into the domain of their higher laws, till one day it becomes capable of housing the Immortal Spirit.
Else
would the spirit reach alone its source If this world and all its beings who are rescued from the grip of a total inconscience and immobility by the saving Power of the Divine Light, did not move in the direction of higher truths and their laws, then they would remain unfinished where they were, stagnant, and the evolving spirit that is emerging in the cosmic movement would have to reach its destination without carrying these various constituents of the creation intended by the Divine to participate and share in the growing progression. Only the soul would be saved, the body, the life, the mind, being left behind in a half-done labour.
Always
the power poured back like sudden rain, There are in the spiritual journey of man periods of bright activity and periods of slow assimilation, the mystic Day and Night. The power of the higher consciousness ever looms above and as soon as conditions are ready in the adhara, the receptacle of the aspiring system, it descends swiftly and fills as much as can be held. The rain of Indra pours suddenly and swiftly. Thereafter follows a period of gestation and so it goes on. A complementary process is the growth of the higher consciousness in the individual. Starting as an aspiration, a gathering will, the spiritual element slowly takes shape, fed and fashioned by the descending or manifesting consciousness. Soon it grows into a palpable Presence in the heartâthe cavern of the Heartâand the Son of Man, Agra tanÅ«napÄt is born.
It
clambered back to some remembered height The consciousness of the seeker on the path of ascent always looks upward. Its workings may seem to be backwards at times, especially when there are areas in the being that have been left out in the process of organisation. Action is shifted to the lower plains till the latter are ready. But once the assimilation is done, the consciousness lifts itself back to the height to which it had attained, or,âas a result of the force acquired by strengthening the baseâit leaps beyond the level from which it had to retreat.
A
union of the Real with the unique, As one grows into communion with the Higher Consciousness, one begins to experience and realise the true nature of this manifestation. There is an omnipotent Reality; but it is not a featureless indeterminate. It formulates itself and to each Form it gives individual significance. Every Form is a special ray of the Infinite. Basically all forms are one. The sole Reality does not merely indwell in each form; it manifests itself through each. At first sight, fleeting time appears to hold all life in its grip. But to a deeper experience Time reveals itself to be a special working of the Timeless. There is an underlying Eternity which is not affected by temporal changes incidental to its self-pouring. There is no real gulf between the Reality and the world. This truth is realised as man’s partial being and limited look get enlarged in the fullness of spiritual experience.
… a
firm spiritual poise, A shifting of the centre of one’s consciousness and activity from the surface mentality involved in a living body to a deeper or higher level of being in the spirit is imperative for any definitive spiritual realisation. This change becomes stabilised and natural when one normally lives in the consciousness of eternity without being caught in the flowing vicissitudes of time, when one functions from the position of strength of a supernal Peace and luminous Knowledge, when one fixes oneself to the underlying base of the Self that is not involved in the Movement.
Where
the God-child lies on the lap of Night and Dawn All creation is a manifestation put out from the Being of the Divine. The manifesting Soul is slowly growing under the conditions of Inconscience and emerging Consciousness, Ignorance and Knowledge, Death and Life, drawing upon both the Mothers for its sustenance. The manifestation proceeds in terms of Time, but what so manifests is indeed beyond the bounds of Time; it is the Eternal Divine who chooses to play with certain possibilities in his Being.
To
the still heights and to the troubled depths To be equal to all things is an essential condition for a spiritual consciousness. Whether it is the outer contacts or the inner states, one must front them with an utter equality without agitation or preference of any kind. Only so can the being grow into and acquire the spiritual consciousness which is above all dualities. Aswapathy had arrived at this state of development wherein his being could, impartially and equally, uphold and participate at the same time in the still Peace on its higher summits and in the vicissitudes of the workings of nature on the lower levels.
His spiritâs stillness helped the toiling world. The power of a movement depends upon the strength of its base. Life-movementâuniversal and individualâbecomes significant and purposeful to the extent that it is effectively supported and directed by a consciousness that is not involved and lost in that activity, but holds itself collected and serves as a sustaining reserve. Aswapathy took his position in this stillness of consciousness and from there directed his gaze which poured the strength of his calm into the world-movement.To throw oneself into outer action is not the only way to help the world. To detach oneself, gather one’s force in a calm strength and function from that deeper level of consciousness is another and more effective way.
Inspired
by silence and the closed eyes’ sight From his status in the stillness of the Spirit, all the faculties of Aswapathy derived a new power, their range was expanded. New perceptions broke in, fresh springs of power opened up and the force of his being became more and more conscious and dynamic, with the result that he could act more effectively and meaningfully in the obscure field of Nature, handle her rough material to a nobler end.
The
illusion and mystery of the Inconscient The Inconscient which dominates material Nature in its origin is really not devoid of consciousness as it appears to be. That is only an appearance. On deeper scrutiny, it is found that even in the state of ‘Inconscience’ there is present a Consciousness, though the degree of its vibrations is different from that of a more overt kind. The consciousness here is in a condition of self-inyolutiye trance in which the Being has set to work. Such an exclusive concentration of consciousness on the action at hand, oblivious of all else, gives the appearance of inconscience. Actually, the consciousness is there, working intently behind a purposeful screen of total obscurity.
God found in Nature, Nature fulfilled in God. That is the purpose of creationâto bring together and unite the two ends of the Truth in manifestation. God and Nature are not alien truths irreconcilable with each other. They are really two poles of one Reality, which when brought together complete each other and reveal their global oneness. An integral knowledge, a fuller spiritual experience justifies both God and Nature in their mutual fulfilment in this Manifestation: God unveils himself in Nature; Nature manifests God. All world-movement moves towards this supreme culmination, consciously or unconsciously. With inner awakening, the effort becomes more purposive.
His soul, mind, heart became a single sun; Ordinarily the different parts of the being are variously developed and each follows its own trend, with the result that there is a good deal of disharmony among the members, a clash of pursuits, avoidable wastage of energy. It is a sign and part of progress to organise the activities of all the members into a whole, gather and integrate them around a central Idea or Motif, so that each falls into its appropriate place and all together promote a developing harmony. This took place naturally in Aswapathy. The emotions, the thought-movements, the deeper aspirations of the soulâall these were lit up by the spirit and radiated a common light.
Only lifeâs lower reaches remained dim. Even when the general system is awakened to the call of the higher life and participates in it under the lead of the more developed parts like the mind or the heart, there are areas which are reluctant to receive the transforming light. They prefer to continue in their long accustomed obscurities, wallow in their quagmires of petty desires and mechanical rounds. These are the lower ranges of the life (and also the physical) being which need to be exposed to special concentrations of higher light and power before they fall into line with the rest of the being in progression.
Strange
riches sailed to him from the Unseen; Among the many experiences that came upon Aswapathy in his journey to the heights of the Spirit were the gifts of new faculties. In his state of silent receptivity, all thought activity had ceased, creating an ideal condition for the higher and infallible power of insight to function. Thought-movements interfere with and distort the workings of higher faculties like direct insight; in their absence, Aswapathy’s mind was filled with the perceptions that lit up things instantly and revealed their contents.
Knowledge spoke to the inconscient stillnesses, Even those parts of the being which are normally devoid of the waking consciousness came in for illumination. They had been freed of the mechanical activity of the blind forces that filled their existence and in that state of quietude, knowledge awoke and communicated itself to them. They did not have to go through the labours of thought-process to gain knowledge; they were informed by knowledge directly.
Rivers
poured down of bliss and luminous force, Human contentment, pleasure, happiness depend upon the satisfaction of desires and they are always fleeting, chequered. But the bliss that flows from above, from the heights of the Spirit, is dependent upon no such external factors; it is self-existent because it is the nature of the Divine and the Divine is self-existent. This bliss needs a minimum of purity and calm strength to bear and sustain it. Aswapathy received both in an abundant measure. Visions of beauty came to him spontaneously and filled him with thrills of Delight. Revealed to him were the Beauty, Power and Bliss aspects of the Divine in Manifestation.
Thence stooped the eagles of Omniscience. The Divine is not only Bliss and Power but also Knowledge. The Divine Consciousness is Self-aware and All-aware. That is because it is the Divine Consciousness that has become this All. As one grows in being towards the Divine, one participates in a progressive measure in this omniscience of the Divine. This action of the Divine Consciousness as Knowledge, an all-comprehending Knowledge from on high, takes many forms in its communication with the mind across the barriers that intervene.
The
voices that an inner listening hears The communication from the supreme heights takes the form of words, but words that cannot be heard by the physical ear. They are words that have different vibrations which can be received only by the subtle hearing which opens by such means as yoga. These auditions come direct from the realms of Truthâthey are the Mantras that are the sound bodies of Truth. So too, there are illuminations from a higher light that act upon the subtle vision. As one grows into the deeper or higher levels of consciousness, the inner vision behind the outer sight opens and it is visited by sudden flashes of a greater light than the physical which reveal in a moment or moments much more than what the thinking intelligence of man can hope to grasp at the end of its labour. This is a direct revelation, infallible and instantaneous.
An
inspired Knowledge sat enthroned within The means of acquiring knowledge undergo a change. Thinking reason which is the normal human instrument for knowing, is replaced by a higher faculty which pours knowledge direct from its sources in Truth. There is no need for the mind to labour in the ways of the reasoning intellect; what is sought for is spontaneously channelled by the power of Inspiration into the receptive consciousness. An inspired living Knowledge takes the place of the figure of knowledge drawn by reason.
An
ictus of revealing lustre fell There is also an effortless Knowledge that is presented to the eye. Things are revealed as they are; rays of illumination fall upon the object of knowledge and bring before the sight its truth-content. Not all the coverings of ignorance and falsehood can obstruct the action of this search-light of Revelation.
…like
a sky-flare showing all the ground There is yet another operation of this high knowledge. It is the play of intuition, an instant and direct perception of the truth of things. This intuitive faculty, when it becomes active, stamps the power of discrimination with its own character of rapid, infallible perception. There is an automatic sifting of the true from the false wherever the gaze is directed.
To
check the claimants crowding through mindâs gates The number of ideas, thoughts, inspirations that pour into the mind are endless. Many of them are, obviously, unsubstantial and the reason has no difficulty in dismissing them. But there are quite a number that appear authentic and try to occupy the being. They appear to be inspired from some higher sources and their impact carries a force with it that is misleading. One is apt to take them to be directions from the Divine and instal them as governing truths in one’s life. It needs a purified and intuitive discrimination to scan and scrutinise the credentials of these claimants for the mind’s acceptance, to see how far they are true and how far they are false, to see through the camouflage.
Oft
inspiration with her lightning feet, Inspiration is always simple and spontaneous, not slow and laboured like reason. It does not arrive at a conclusion after a long process of reasoning. It is a ray or a current from a direct Knowledge that is self-existent on the heights of the spiritual being. The mind needs to be silent, freed from all activity and agitation, in order that the play of inspiration may be recognised and its content grasped in its purity and fullness. When properly received, this message of inspiration is found to deliver the secret elements of harmony.
As if
from a golden phial of the All-Bliss, Into the heart of Aswapathy that was emptied of all the turbidities of human natureâits passions and desires, its agitations and excitementsâthere poured streams of Delight from above. The Delight of the Blissful manifested itself in the joy of illumination, the joy of revelation; it came also as the thrill of the immortal Wordâthe creative Word of the Mantraâreverberating in his being. It was a many-sided inflow of divine Bliss.
A
repetition of Godâs first delight This burst of delight in the being of Aswapathy was something akin to the ebullitions of the Bliss of the Divineâthe Ananda Brahman — on the crest of which all creation came to be. For it was in the manifestation of the Delight of Becoming that the Divine Being moved into creation, the Eternal poured itself into Time. The outbreak of the higher Delight in Aswapathy heralded the birth of a new creation in his consciousness.
All-vision
gathered into a single ray, In the middle of the forehead, between the eyebrows, is the centre of vision. When one gathers up all the outspread threads of one’s consciousness and concentrates the sight at this point, intensely and continuously, the physical veil breaks and a whole world of subtle forms comes before the eye. One begins to see with this awakened inner vision more deeply and more largely than is possible with the grosser sight, and one gains insight into the origins and ends of things which were normally beyond the range of the physical sense. In the state of consciousness at which Aswapathy had arrived, this came to be naturally; one gaze was enough to seize all that was to be known.
A
great nude arm of splendour suddenly rose; The ranges of the active consciousness of man are limited on both sides, above and below. Below, the awareness thickens into belts of semi-consciousness and unconsciousness which are gradually overtaken by complete inconscience where there is no consciousness at all. Above, beyond the thought-summits of the mind, everything grows blank, the consciousness falls mute. The heights of super-conscience are beyond the reach of mental awareness. Both these veils were rent for Aswapathy by a luminous Power of Consciousness that broke through the obscurity of the lower ranges by its irresistible pressure and opened, with its edge beyond the thought-mind, the doors of the super-conscient through the intensity of his aspiration.
The high black wall hiding superconscience, As the mind ascends the heights of the being beyond the farther ranges of thought, it comes face to face with states of consciousness that are unthinkable; thought gets benumbed and fails, the mind is dazed and falls into a swoon, as it were. All appears and is experienced as a great Darkness, beyond which everything seems to disintegrate. All is a dense Sleep of consciousness. This is the high barrier at which many cease their journey as the end of existenceâNirvana. But that is not the finale. If one persists, one finds greater realms of Light and Consciousness across this belt of blankness.
Oceans
of being met his voyaging soul Above are revealed vaster stretches of being and consciousness ablaze with the splendour of a superconscient Truth. They are the worlds of Ananda without interruption, Power without diminution, manifestations that are not subject to the conditions of Time and Space. All, however, are found to exist in a supernal ether of Silence where the restless activity of Thought and the agitations of the Life energies are not.
Its
symmetry of self-arranged effects This world is not a product of chance. It is part of a planned cosmic movement of the creative Divine with a definite Purpose. It is He that has gone abroad, says the Upanishad, the Self-Existent that has ordered all things perfectly according to their nature from years sempiternal. All is envisaged by the Seer and all movement proceeds according to this determining Vision in the heart of things. There is a Law of Truth that governs. Its many-sided process may appear to escape the systematising grasp of the human intelligence, but it is nonetheless an effective mode of ensuring the fulfilment of its object. The vast Intelligence that is at work, the prajnii of old, has its own measures and steps moving from truth to truth. And the facility with which the Eternal pours itself in the hours of Time and possesses through self-modifications without interruptions is a marvel.
A
glimpse was caught of things for ever unknown Aswapathy saw what is normally unseen, unknown the origins of creation. He perceived the Word from which the world has come to beâthe immutable self-gathered Force from which issues the universe. He also saw the first manifestations out of the Word, the matrkcis, the various self-configurations as Letters that base and found the world of Names and Forms. These Letters provide the essential sound patterns and form-constituting concentrations for the manifestation in emergence.
In
the immutable nameless Origin Aswapathy saw the creative movement at its origin. There was the Immutable beyond all Name and Form, an indeterminable Infinite Consciousness at still. From this silent Vast emerged the series of truths to be manifested and these truths embodied themselves in Ideas. These were the Truth-Ideas in the working of which this world has come to be. This sequence was shown to Aswapathy.
And,
sown in the black earth of Nature’s trance, Seen also was the further development of how the Truth-will of the manifesting Divine embedded itself in the obscure depths of the Inconscienceâthe state of utter self-involution of the creative Spirit that is the material base of this universe. It is this illimitable irresistible Will in seed-form, the Kama of the primaeval Purusha, that is at the root of this variegated creation that has sprung up and is growing abundantly in all directions, a veritable Aswattha tree of the cosmos whose real foundations are above, inasmuch as the Will that impels here is projected from the Beyond.
There
looked out from the shadow of the Unknown The Supreme Reality cannot be known by the human mind. It is beyond its reach, in the realm that is unknown to it. Neither form nor name can determine that reality in its transcendent status. But it is out of this indeterminable Existence that the Divine as Being comes into manifestation. And the purpose of this manifestation is for the Divine without Name and Form in its utter Superconscience to acquire a Form that cannot perish and a Name that does not limit but reveals the Reality in the conditions of mortality and obscurity.
The
immobile lips, the great surreal wings, Aswapathy glimpsed also the PrÄjna, the great sleep-Self who holds in his being all that is to be manifested, in the creative incubation of his massed consciousness, fully awake in his state of tranced concentration, preparing for the emergence of the creation out of the womb of Superconscience.
The
original Desire born in the Void Aswapathy beheld the Desire at the source of all this creation, the Will to manifest in the Divine Being. It is this supreme Will to radiate His Glory that has expressed itself in this varied Becoming of the Divine and it is this impulsion that is behind every effort, the Force that never tires in the universal Movement. It is active incessantly, discouraged by nothing, ever advancing towards the fulfilment of the objective. This Truth-Will gives significance to every bit of this vast world-movement which is apt to appear, otherwise, as a purposeless, perpetual dream. Failures and set-backs, determinism and chance, are all part of the process of the working out of this Parent Desireâthe Will of the Divine to manifest.
As if
a torch held by a power of God, The highest of the worlds of the lower hemisphere is the world of the Overmind. Though at the summit of this rising tier, bright with the lights of illumination, intuition, inspiration etc., it is still under the shadow of the Ignorance which envelopes this lower half of creation, the trailokyam. The principle of division has its roots in this world. The truth of oneness is held in the background allowing a free run for the force of multiplicity. One has to cross over its borders, break its golden lid before one can enter into the realm of the plenary Light of the Divine Truthâthe world of Mahas, the vast Light. This is the world of Truth-knowledge and Truth-power that stands at the head of this manifestation drawing it in the figure of its verities.
The smile of love that sanctions the long game, The regard that the Supreme Being has on this creation is one of Love. And this divine Love is a Power. It not merely sanctions the creative movement but supports it, furthers it on its career. This Love manifests itself in many forms, notably as Beauty and Delight, as Compassion and Grace, giving meaning and direction to the entire Movement.
The
calm indulgence and maternal breasts Chance, erratic happening, is only an appearance. It is not the governing truth or feature of this existence. What looks like unregulated result is really an effect foreseeable by an Intelligence higher than .the mental reason; in fact, it is part of a process initiated and conducted by a divine Wisdom, prajnÄ, that rules the universe. What passes for chance is a purposive movement permitted and contained in the larger operations of the Law.
Silence
the nurse of the Almightyâs power, All power that is active in the universe is based on the immutable status of the creative Being. There in the Silence all power gathers itself and from there all derives its strength. But this state of unmoving consciousness where all is still is not on that account blind and inert. It holds all knowledge in itself and there all is powerfully known. It is again the source from which issues the Word, the expressive form of the self-existent Knowledge. The great silence of the spirit is the fount of all Power, Knowledge, Expression.
… the creative eye of Eternity. The very look of the Supreme is dynamic. When He looks at Himself, He perceivesâvimarÅaâthe truths that seek to manifest and in that very perception there is a spontaneous impulsion, a resultant throb, spanda, which stirs into movement the self-manifestation. He continues this regard which follows the whole sequence and it is this regard of His that keeps things to their Law, the Truth-imperative.
The
inspiring goddess entered a mortalâs breast, Inspiration found her home in Aswapathy; she was no more an erratic visitor as she is wont to be in common humanity. She entered through the wide doors of his expanded being and occupied the chambers of his mind. She enlivened his thought-faculties moving them infallibly in the direction of Truth. She impelled his speech to express precisely what was perceived within; and because the utterance carried faithfully the truths that were precognised by inspired thought, it always proved prophetic. Thought must be guided by true inspiration and speech must be faithful to the thought-perception.
All was made wide above, all lit below. The whole being was set in tune with the higher Truth-Consciousness, the self-imposed limits of the reasoning mind were erased and the domains of the mind were thrown open to a free and uninhibited action of the higher faculties of consciousness. So also the nether members of the being were exposed to the charge of that higher Light and their obscurities and darknesses of sub-conscience and inconscience were eliminated. Nothing remained to restrict or limit the working of greater powers.
In darknessâ core she dug out wells of light, The Higher Power bored through the thick crusts of the sub-conscience and the inconscience in the being of Aswapathy and released the light of consciousness lying concealed below. For even in the thickest density of the inconscient there is involved a fully aware consciousness. The streams of this consciousness were set free and the nether regions were flooded with their illumination.
On the undiscovered depths imposed a form, Areas which had not yet emerged into the belt of awarenessâthe depths of the subliminal beingâwith their unformed movements, tendencies and impulsions, were lifted up into articulate expression and their vague seekings given precise forms in which to effectuate themselves.
A
voice in the heart uttered the unspoken Name, The Name is a Power. It stands for a particular formulation of Consciousness and Force and when utteredâaudibly or otherwiseâacts like a spring summoning all that it represents into action. This was done in the being of Aswapathy. His aspirations and seeking for the Eternal took wing and darted into regions that are covered by the obscurities of Ignorance and In-conscience; and there was found the Light that never sets. Hidden in the darkness was the lost Sun.
In
the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp; Deep in the being of man are powers and faculties that are lying unused. Man lives very much on the surface drawing upon only a little of his resources, so much as is necessary to eke out his precarious existence. But within himself, in the inner recesses of his subtler being are springs of powers and energies that can, if released into action, make a god out of the bounded creature that he is. However, he is not aware of them; or else, he knows of their presence within, but he is too inert, too self-contended, to venture into their realms and awaken them. His long established habits, routine-bound senses and timid faculties playing within known bounds of safety keep him a prisoner within the walls of limitation imposed by primitive Nature. All the unexhausted possibilities of power, of consciousness, lie effectively concealed by the densities of the subconscience and inconscience, usurped, so to say, by the deformed and deforming agents of the primeval Ignorance, the Panis, who will not themselves utilise, nor allow others to draw upon the treasures of the Spirit.
A
darkness carrying morning in its breast The darkness prevailing in the nether regions of the subconscience and the inconscience is not all darkness. There is concealed within it a light that seeks to emerge from that state. The dark Night carries in its womb the bright Dawn. But it cannot effect the breakthrough by itself. It has to be helped by a greater, unveiled Light to come out. The rays of the creative Sun of Truth which have got imprisoned in the densities of the self-involutive spirit await the liberating stroke of the super-conscient Truth-Light for this reclamation and participation in the progressive movement of the universe.
…
stolen by the robbers of the Deep, There are elements and beings in creation who seize the gifts of God to man and deny him their use so that he may not be able to make much headway in his Godward progression, but be obliged to stay in the domain of Ignorance under the rule of the anti-Divine powers. They are always on the look-out for openings provided by wrong or false movements in thought or act to enter and snatch away precious richesâpsychological and spiritualâand keep them out of the reach of humanity. They are put away in the hidden depths of the reigning Ignorance.
A
vision lightened on the viewless heights, On the summits of the being of Aswapathy dawned a new vision; a fresh light broke in from the inaccessible regions of the Spirit revealing a new perspective. This knowledge gathered in the depths of his being and focussed itself as an intelligence throwing its light on everything that came into its view. As a result, all underwent a change in significance to Aswapathy. The truths he had cherished and followed yielded a larger and deeper meaning. States of consciousness which were obscure and dense before became luminous and light; the states in which he was wont to live, that looked bright before, turned pale in comparison with these. Values changed, circumstances assumed different significances and the very aim of life got enlarged.
A
secret sense awoke that could perceive That the Divine Consciousness is all-pervading, that the Divine Power is omnipotent and active everywhere in the universe is a truth that is proclaimed again and again in the Scriptures. But until it is realised in actual experience it remains a belief, an intellectual conviction, a deep faith at the best. The faculty that perceives and senses this truth of existence is not the mind nor the physical sense but an inner consciousness, the soul-being, that sees and feels concretely the Presence and the Might of the Divine in the universe, mahimÄnam asya. This deeper awareness comes to the fore.
The
universe was not now this senseless whirl With the awakening of the soul-faculties that seize the truth behind all appearances, the very character of the universe around changes its colour to the perceiving eye. Its look of a mechanical whirligig operated by a great material Force or of an inert mass of Matter with bubbles of life and mind energies on its surface or of a fortuitous product of a stupendous chance with no real significance, disappears and it reveals itself as a vibrant movement of the Spirit, an embodiment of the Divine. It is He who is aboardâsa paryagÄt.
The
formless Everlasting moved in it That is the purpose of this manifestation. The Eternal in itself has no form; it is above all form. But on that account it is not incapable of assuming a form. In fact, it is the Formless wanting to express itself in a perfect Form that is the meaning of this creation. Forms are being evolved and developed to house greater and greater concentrations of the Formless Spirit, so that the full figure of the Soul finds its just embodiment in each Form.
In
the struggle and upheaval of the world This world is the scene of clash and strife, struggle for existence and effort for self-affirmation and self-aggrandisement. Everywhere there is disharmony and conflict of wills, thoughts, desires and passions. That is so because this is a field for the working out of possibilities. Each possibility is given the scope to effectuate itself. Behind all of them, however, is the Will of the Divine seeking to manifest here its own Truth through the working of all forces and possibilities. A birth of the divine Harmony and Oneness is in the offing.
A secret knowledge masked as Ignorance; What appears as Ignorance in this world is really a projecting point of a Knowledge that is behind the veil. This self-existent Knowledge is feeling its way in the maze of paths and by-paths that criss-cross the evolutionary course of Nature. Ignorance is part-knowledge growing into the fuller figure of Knowledge. Knowledge is building itself gradually, fashioning its instruments; the form in which it works out its emergence is called Ignorance. Ignorance is not falsehood, which is really nonexistent but poses to exist. It is a formation of temporary utility, a chrysalis of the knowledge that is labouring to manifest.
Fate
covered with unseen necessity What looks like unalterable fate in life is really a mode of working of the Divine Will in the universe. In the execution of this Will there are various modes which play their part at times singly by themselves, at others in combinations. At certain levels there appears to be nothing but determinism, at others all looks like a game of chance. So also there is scope for the exercise of free-will. Behind all is the one Will of the Divine now using this means and now another. That alone is the governing truth, all else is subsidiary, parts of its mechanism for self-effectuation.
The
All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart; So too,. all the pains and sufferings that characterize life in the world are not the final truth of things. They are obscurations, malformations and perversions of the Delight at the core seeking expression in the universe. Due to various factors like ignorance, division and ego-limitation which are thrown up in the course of the earth-evolution, the Bliss that underlies each form in creation is unable to formulate itself in its true character. It undergoes modifications at the hands of the receiving and expressing media which are yet imperfect and is experienced variously as pain or pleasure or ecstasy. Through these steps of sensational experience, life is preparing for the unimpeded and unmodified flow of the secret Delight of existence.
The
trudge of time changed to a splendid march; The pace of Aswapathy’s life was speeded up. Time hangs heavy only on those who do not keep step with Nature in progression, but wallow in tamas and inertia. For Aswapathy, whose entire being soared in aspiration, time assumed a rapid movement. The entity of the divine spark that once occupied so little a space in the heart grew to cosmic dimensions and rose from the physical Earth to envelop the worlds beyond. It claimed the whole of creation for its divine empire. The being of Aswapathy extended beyond its physical moorings and spread itself in the higher planes of the divine Existence.
Once
only registering the heavy tread At the beginningâand the beginning lasts quite longâhuman life appears to be little more than a narrow tract constantly trampled upon by a soul-less mechanical Energy. But as the consciousness awakens and gains direction, this first impression fades away and a truer picture begins to emerge. Life is gradually realised to be a pathway to the Divine Truth, the high road to be trodden by the pilgrim of the Spirit. Existence is seen to be not a product of a stupendous Chance or a blind Force without meaning, but a purposeful Play of the divine Creator. The universe is realised to be the field and the means of progress for the human soul to grow towards its godhead, for it is on the experience provided by life in this universe that the soul builds itself into the full figure of the Spirit.
The
world was a conception and a birth This world has come to be because of the self-involution of the Spirit into Matter. Out of this Matter that enwombs it, the Spirit gradually unfolds itself in various forms, inanimate and animate. This process of the outflowering of life in many grades of formations is executed by Nature, of whom Matter is the first status, in order that through this growth and organisation of the immortal Spirit, she herself could arrive at a deathless state of life which is the acme of the evolution of the manifesting Spirit.
Even
his bodyâs subtle self within In the positive and all-inclusive way of spiritual evolution, no part of the being is left out of the movement of upward progression. Even the most outward, the physical parts preoccupied with earthly interests as a rule, are subjected to the uplifting pressure. The very body in all its materiality is not left out. The subtle being that governs it from within breathes and embodies the higher spirit in an increasing manner, exerts its influence on the outer and grosser parts, transmits to them the vibrations of the greater consciousness and in all ways urges them to grow upwards.
Upbuoyed
upon winged winds of rapid joy, As the physical body opens to the vibrations of the subtler being within and receives the infusion of that deeper consciousness, it feels lighterâfreed as it is from the load of inertia and obscurity that weigh it down normallyâand currents of joy begin to course through it. It gets uplifted and feels itself afloat on a sea of felicity. It turns naturally to the Light of the higher consciousness which it could not receive and hold before due to its innate tendency to sink down into obscurity and sub-conscience. It ceases to follow the dictates of the limited mental reason, which always draws a line beyond which the body and the other members cannot soar. It feels and aspires on its own and draws nearer to God. Finally, its limitations, due to division in consciousness and consequent narrowing of its powers, are outgrown. Its content of wakefulness is increased, and therefore its capacities. The body can now respond to and contain intensities of joy, of ecstasy, without spilling them, without getting unbalanced under their impact.
… first spiritual change.
A
wide God-knowledge poured down from above, As the inner spiritual growth proceeds, certain changes are effected in the being of man. One such capital change is the replacement of the ignorance of the limited mind by a spontaneous knowledge which fills from above and from within. Massess of knowledge flow into the being from the heights of the Spirit above the mind, knowledge that pertains to the infinites of the Divine, taking in the glories of His consciousness and Bliss. The knowledge that thus grows is not only of the Divine above, but equally of the universe around. An identity is felt within between oneself and the world and this translates itself effectively as knowledge of all the world and it begins to base and govern one’s relations and movements in life. All thoughts and movements in the mind group themselves around the One Reality that reveals itself more and more and seek to express that vision. Even the day-to-day activities proceed from this base of the knowledge of oneness that is growing within.
Awakened
to the lines that Nature hides, As one awakens to a new knowledge, knowledge of God and knowledge of the world, and it organises itself in one’s being, faculties that were inactive or only partly active before begin to function. The range of one’s consciousness expands and a subtler sight, a subtler audition, open bringing one face to face with the organisation of the subtler universe behind the gross physical Nature. One sees the pre-determining movements in the subtle worlds before they form themselves in the physical. It is possible, by putting oneself in harmony with the rhythms of these planes of existence, to attain identity with life there, even as one arrives at oneness with the All-life in the material world.
… the unknown Guardians of the worlds, This creation is an ordered manifestation of the Divine. There is a central Will, expressing the originating Truth-vision, impelling the whole movement. But also, there are special emanations from the Divine charged with specific tasks in the organisation and maintenance of the emerging creation. These are the gods and goddesses, deities, Powers and Personalities that are in charge of their respective domains, on different levels of existence. Each world has its own guardians entrusted by the Supreme Creative Spirit with the work of building and furthering the manifestation of the particular Truth-principle that pushes for expression in that world-formula.
His
wide eyes bodied viewless entities, In the subtle worlds there are entities without any fixed forms busying themselves with small activities which have consequencesâbeneficial or otherwiseâin the physical world. There are forces of various kinds, the major ones having beings at their head, which are always active and produce results in the external universe. Men plan and move as if they were wholly independent agents, whereas in much of what they think and do they are really impelled by these entities working behind the veil.
The
records of the future and the past There is a subliminal layer in the universal being, a very subtle expanse of ether, an inner space, cidÄkÄÅa, where all that has been in the past in Time is recorded; also recorded is what is going on at present and even what is in the process of happening and is going to beâwhat may be called the memory of the future. Whatever takes place at any level of existence leaves an impress on that extension, whether all has been translated yet into terms of earthly existence or not.
One
and harmonious by the Makerâs skill, The human elements in manâhis tendencies and activities of mind, heart, life and body,âare hard to change. They insist on their right of tenure and often vitiate the workings of the higher Power in man. It is a part of the yoga of fulfilment to induce them to fall into line with the progressive march of the soul-powers, and this task of ensuring their collaboration is carried out by the Yoga-shakti, the Divine Powers at work for the upliftment and transformation of the aspirantâthe Ribhus of the Vedas.
A
genius heightened in his bodyâs cells As the consciousness of Aswapathy grew in height and range, the whole of his being was lit up with a spontaneous knowledge. The very cells in his bodyâthe most insentient parts of the material encasementâbecame conscious, and all in him was fully aware of the significance of the works that had devolved on him, however much they might appear to be subject to the decrees of fate or to Nature’s determinism. Even set-backs and failures in the normal run of the world’s activities had a different connotation to his penetrating eye, which perceived, behind all, the working of greater Powers that were active in the worlds beyond this limited physical universe.
One
soulâs ambition lifted up the race; This is the way in which the Chosen work for God’s humanity. They take up the burden of all in a fundamental way and strive to communicate to others their own growth in consciousness by thought, by word, by action, veiled or unveiled. Each advance that they make in their own inner life has its impact on the mind and life of the general humanity. As a result, men feel an upliftment in their consciousness, in their hopes and aspirations, though they are not aware of the source of that impulsion. Their progress is speeded up. Men that thus relate themselves to the progression of the race and channelise their inner gains into the general life-movement are the saviours of humanity. Aswapathy became one such.
The
universal strengths were linked with his; Identified as he was with the universal Being in his extended consciousness, Aswapathy came to acquire a hold on the powers that are active in the universe. He summoned and directed the creative energies that proceed from the height of the Truth above and work on a cosmic scale. In that context he held, as it were, the whole earth-life in the hollow of his palm and treated it to the enlarging action of the transfiguring forces so as to usher in a new phase in its progression.
Lonely his days and splendid like the sunâs. Due to the immense gulf between his transformed consciousness and that of common humanity, Aswapathy found no meeting ground for close association or intimacy with others. He lived in an inner solitude, in communion with the Spirit that was drawing him upward. And yet his very presence cast a glow of radiance and warmth on the humanity that surrounded him. The consciousness that was housed in his being radiated incessantly its rays of illumination and energised all that came within their range.
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