Book-4-Study-Canto-3

Canto Three

The Call to the Quest

Summary
On a bright, happy morning, when the air is full of longing and expectation, Aswapathy hears the subtle voice of unborn Powers:

"O men, creatures of Fate that you are at present, you are not meant to be always circling in the petty rounds of your little self. You are made of Immortal’s substance and mighty Powers are shut in in your nature’s cells. A greater destiny awaits you. If only you will, you can acquire a truth-sight, exceed your mortal mind and grow into your godhead. There are other realms of existence than the earth you tread, there is a light behind your life. Immortal Powers await to embody themselves in you. The earth hopes and aspires for this change but the fire still burns dim in human hearts. Men are still in love with their ignorance. Heaven’s lights descend but are obliged to return in the face of denial and obstruction by the Inconscient."

The Voice ceases. And as if in an answer from the gods Savitri comes to Aswapathy in all her revealing beauty and splendour. Aswapathy’s physical sense withdraws and he sees behind the outer form of Savitri, the great and unknown Spirit born as his child. Moved from unseen Heights he speaks to her:

"O Spirit, traveller of Eternity, thou hast come for a mighty work. Thou art not come down alone. There waits for thee some destined soul who shall discover thy mission and thy strength. Depart and find him, thy mate. Thou needest not any other guide than the One who is aflame within thee. He who is to be thy partner and companion in the journey of life, waits for thee. With him thou shalt confront Heaven’s question, life, break through the immense disguise of Nature and ascend to divinity’s heights.

These words sink into her being like a Mantra and the seed of change is sown. She awakes in her consciousness to new dimensions and the secrets of unseen realms are felt close.

Before the dawn of the next day, Savitri leaves on her quest.

A new Morn

A morn that seemed a new creation’s front,
Bringing a greater sunlight, happier skies,
Came, burdened with a beauty moved and strange
Out of the changeless origin of things.

A day dawns with a brighter sun in happier skies; it is as if a new creation is begun. There is something strange and living about this morning’s beauty that has issued out of the immutable source of all things. The origin of all the innumerable changing things in the universe is one and unchanging.

Ancient Longing

An ancient longing struck again new roots.

The air drank deep of unfulfilled desire;
The high trees trembled with a wandering wind
Like souls that quiver at the approach of joy,
And in a bosom of green secrecy
For ever of its one love-note untired
A lyric coïl cried among the leaves.

The earth is once again astir with an ancient, unfulfilled desire. High trees sway to the morning wind like souls that throb with expectation at the imminence of joy. And out of its hiding place in the green forest, a coil sounds its love-cry, never tired of repeating its single note of love.

Aswapathy Listens to other Sounds

Away from the terrestrial murmur turned
Where transient calls and answers mix their flood,
King Aswapathy listened through the ray
To other sounds than meet the sense-formed ear.

Aswapathy turns away from the usual earthly noise that is full of mundane concerns and listens, in the dawning revelation, to sounds other than those that are heard by the outer sense-bound ear.

Inner Doors Unlocked

On a subtle interspace which rings our life
Unlocked were the inner spirit’s trance-closed doors:
The inaudible strain in Nature could be caught;
Across this cyclic tramp of eager lives,
Across the deep urgency of present cares,
Earth’s wordless hymn to the Ineffable
Arose from the ardent heart of the cosmic Void;
He heard the voice repressed of unborn Powers
Murmuring behind the luminous bars of Time.

Looming over the physical space in which men live and move is a subtler space that lies between the physical earth and the higher regions of the Spirit. In this space, the doors that are normally closed because of the indrawn concentration of the inner Spirit, open to Aswapathy and notes that are inaudible in

external nature come to be heard. Above the hectic rounds of life, beyond the pressing cares of the present, rises the intense aspiration of the Earth to the Ineffable. He hears the muffled voice of the Powers that are struggling to be born behind the bright beats of the music of Time.

Mighty Yearning

Again the mighty yearning raised its flame
That asks a perfect life on earth for men
And prays for certainty in the uncertain mind
And shadowless bliss for suffering human hearts
And Truth embodied in an ignorant world
And godhead divinising mortal forms.

The ages-old aspiration in the Earth-Soul once again mounts high, claiming a perfect life for man struggling in imperfections, certainty for the human mind fumbling amidst uncertainties, unfailing bliss for suffering humanity, full formulation of Truth in this world of ignorance and divinity for mortal man.

Word Leaps Down

A word that leaped from some far sky of thought,
Admitted by the cowled receiving scribe
Traversed the echoing passages of his brain
And left its stamp on the recording cells.

A message leaps down from beyond the ranges of thought; it is received by the receptive mind of Aswapathy beneath its veils of the intellect; it travels through the corridors of his brain and leaves a strong impression on its cells of active memory.

Men Petty Adventurers

“O Force-compelled, Fate-driven earth-born race,
O petty adventurers in an infinite world
And prisoners of a dwarf humanity,
How long will you tread the circling tracks of mind
Around your little self and petty things?

And this is the communication Aswapathy receives:

Ye men born on this lowly earth, ever compelled by a Force extraneous to yourselves to do what it wants, ever driven by a Fate that is relentless, ever engaged in small pursuits in a world that is infinite, helplessly limited by a stunted human mould, how much longer are you going to turn round and round in the never-ending whirlings of the mind, centred on your petty selves and their pettier concerns?

Made of Immortal’s Substance

But not for a changeless littleness were you meant,
Not for vain repetition were you built;
Out of the Immortal’s substance you were made;
Your actions can be swift revealing steps,
Your life a changeful mould for growing gods.

But you were not meant, by your creator, to be engaged in this unchanging littleness; you were not shaped for this exercise of repetition without issue. You have been formed out of the being of the Immortal and your actions can be and have to be movements revealing that Truth, your life must be a growing and changing mould for the Powers of that Truth.

A Greater Destiny Waits

A Seer, a strong Creator, is within,
The immaculate Grandeur broods upon your days,
Almighty powers are shut in Nature’s cells.

A greater destiny waits you in your front:
This transient earthly being if he wills
Can fit his acts to a transcendent scheme.

Within you is a divine Seer who watches, a mighty creator who effects; a spotless Glory presides over your days; in the cells of your nature lie unexpressed mighty powers of God. A larger and higher destiny than what seems to be awaits you ahead.

If only he wills, however transitory and earthly man’s form may be, his actions can be turned into movements of a scheme that transcends his limitations.

Immortal’s Sight Possible

He who now stares at the world with ignorant eyes
Hardly from the Inconscient’s night aroused
That look at images and not at Truth
Can fill those orbs with an immortal’s sight.

Man is just awakened from the sleep of the Inconscient and he stares at the world around him with ignorant eyes that light upon images only and do not perceive the Truth behind them. But it is possible for those eyes of his to be activated by the immortal sight.

Godhead shall Grow

Yet shall the godhead grow within your hearts,
You shall awake into the spirit’s air
And feel the breaking walls of mortal mind
And hear the message which left life’s heart dumb
And look through Nature with sun-gazing lids
And blow your conch-shells at the Eternal’s gate.

The godhead concealed in you shall grow in your hearts. Though living on earth, you shall breathe the air of the Spirit, feel the collapse of the walls that shut in your human mind, listen to the Word that overwhelms mortal life, gaze beyond Nature on the Light of the Truth-Spirit and announce your arrival at the doors of the Eternal.

Meet the Omnipotent

Authors of earth’s high change, to you it is given
To cross the dangerous spaces of the soul
And touch the mighty Mother stark awake
And meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh
And make of life the million-bodied One.

You, who have brought about great, uplifting changes on earth, are empowered to brave and cross the untrodden realms of the soul, to move into action the mighty Mother of the worlds, to come face to face with the All-Powerful in this tenement of living Matter and to realise all life as a multiple manifestation of the One.

Call to Exceed Yourselves

The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven,
The life you lead conceals the light you are.

Immortal Powers sweep flaming past your doors;
Far-off upon your tops the god-chant sounds
While to exceed yourselves thought’s trumpets call,
Heard by a few, but fewer dare aspire,
The nympholepts of the ecstasy and the blaze.

The earth on which you move is not the whole creation. It is only a border-land veiled beyond which lie the brighter realms of the heavens; the life you lead covers the light you really are. Divine Powers pass you by, but you are not aware of them. On the heights of your being beat the rhythms of God, your thoughts call you to rise above yourselves; but few hear these summons. And of those that hear, fewer still have the courage to dare to climb, they are those who are ever avid of the flaming bliss of the Divine.

Sobbing Earth

An epic of hope and failure breaks earth’s heart;
Her force and will exceed her form and fate.

A goddess in a net of inconscience caught,
Self-bound in the pastures of death she dreams of life,
Self-racked with the pains of hell aspires to joy,
And builds to hope her altars of despair,
Knows that one high step might enfranchise all
And, suffering, looks for greatness in her sons.

The earth is torn between hope and disappointment; her form and circumstance are too inadequate for her force and will. She is a veritable goddess caught in the net of inconscience; she has bound herself in the field of death and yet she hopes for eternal life; she submits herself to intense pain and suffering and yet aspires for ceaseless joy; she erects her edifice of hope on the bricks of despair. She knows indeed that one great step ahead taken by her could free all; she strives thereto and suffers so that her sons may be great.

Man Turns to Ignorant Powers

But dim in human hearts the ascending fire,
The invisible Grandeur sits unworshipped there;
Man sees the Highest in a limiting form
Or looks upon a Person, hears a Name.

He turns for little gains to ignorant Powers
Or kindles his altar lights to a demon face.

But as a rule this fire of aspiration burns dim in the human hearts; the Divinity within waits unadored, unattended. Man is apt to conceive of the Highest, the Infinite in a bounded form, as a Person, as a Name only. Instead of looking to the Highest, he turns to inferior deities for petty gains or worships a nether power therefor.

He Loves Ignorance

He loves the Ignorance fathering his pain.

A spell is laid upon his glorious strengths.

He has lost the inner Voice that led his thoughts,
And masking the oracular tripod seat
A specious Idol fills the marvel shrine.

Man is in love with Ignorance which is at the root of all his pain and suffering. The wonderful potentialities within him lie dumb. He has lost touch with the intimations of the soul that once led his mind. The eidolon of Reason has occupied the place of his guiding Daemon.

Illusion Wraps Him

The great Illusion wraps him in its veils,
The soul’s deep intimations come in vain,
In vain is the unending line of seers,
The sages ponder in unsubstantial light,
The poets lend their voice to outward dreams,
A homeless fire inspires the prophet tongues.

Man has lost contact with the truth within him; he lives in the illusory consciousness that encloses him. Seers who see the Truth have been many but they have made little difference to the life of the ordinary human individual. Thinkers ponder in vague, indifferent light, poets sing of surface dreamings, even prophets speak on errant inspiration.

Heaven’s Lights Return

Heaven’s flaming lights descend and back return,
The luminous Eye approaches and retires;
Eternity speaks, none understands its word;
Fate is unwilling and the Abyss denies;
The Inconscient’s mindless waters block all done.

Illuminations from on high come down to earth, but they are not received and they return. The perceiving Wisdom nears but draws back as there is none to hold it. The Knowledge eternal speaks, but none understands; the fate that dogs man’s steps is unwilling to accept the higher Truth; the abyss of the nether existence denies it. The sub-conscient and non-conscient waves of the sea of Inconscience bar all progress.

Gods too Few

Only a little lifted is Mind’s screen.

The Wise who know see but one half of Truth,
The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height,
The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love,
His tale half-told, falters the secret Bard;
The gods are still too few in mortal forms.”

The mind acts as a veil over Truth. With all man’s efforts, the screen is lifted but a little. Even the wise ones who know, see only part of the Truth. Even the strong ones who climb, succeed only in scaling low peaks. Those that pine for love are overtaken by time. The minstrel of humanity stops half-way in his narrative. Men are still too earthy; gods in human forms are too few.

Savitri Approaches in Answer

The Voice withdrew into its hidden skies.

But like a shining answer from the gods
Approached through sun-bright spaces Savitri.

Advancing amid tall heaven-pillaring trees,
Apparelled in her flickering-coloured robe,
She seemed burning towards the eternal realms
A bright moved torch of incense and of flame
That from the sky-roofed temple-soil of earth
A pilgrim hand lifts in an invisible shrine.

The Voice recedes into its unseen Source. But as if in answer from the Gods, Savitri comes advancing through a column of tall trees, clad in her shining robe, she looks a veritable torch of incense and flame burning towards the Eternal above, lifted by a pilgrim’s hand in a sacred temple of which the earth is the soil and the sky, the roof.

Intimations of World’s Delight
There came the gift of a revealing hour:He saw through depths that reinterpret all, Limited not now by the dull body’s eyes, New-found through an arch of clear discovery, This intimation of the world’s delight,This wonder of the divine Artist’s make Carved like a nectar-cup for thirsty gods, This breathing Scripture of the Eternal’s joy, This net of sweetness woven of aureate fire.

An instant revelation comes upon Aswapathy. His vision is no more limited by his physical eyes; he sees from deeper levels that interpret things truly and he discovers in Savitri a messenger of the Delight that sustains the world, a marvellous handi work of the Divine Artist shaped like a nectar-cup of the gods, a living testament of the Eternal’s Joy, a capturing pattern of radiant, intense sweetness.

Her Face Reveals

Transformed the delicate image-face became
A deeper Nature’s self-revealing sign,
A gold-leaf palimpsest of sacred births,
A grave world-symbol chiselled out of life.

Her brow, a copy of clear unstained heavens,
Was meditation’s pedestal and defence,
The very room and smile of musing Space,
Its brooding line infinity’s symbol curve.

Her delicate face gets transformed before his sight into a significant form revealing the secrecies of a deeper Nature, a bright script of esoteric content, a solemn, living symbol of the world. Her broad and pure brow is a veritable base for meditation, unshakable; it appears to contain and is lit with the smile of a self-engrossed Space. Its very brooding etches the significant figuration of infinity.

Her long Eyes

Amid her tresses’ cloudy multitude
The long eyes shadowed as by wings of Night
Under that moon-gold forehead’s dreaming breadth
Were seas of love and thought that held the world;
Marvelling at life and earth they saw truths far.

Her luxurious hair-tresses shadow her long eyes which beneath the broad and contemplative forehead, pure-gold in hue, are full of world-embracing love and thought; gazing in wonder at life and earth these eyes perceive the truths that are still distant.

Deathless Meaning

A deathless meaning filled her mortal limbs;
As in a golden vase’s poignant line
They seemed to carry the rhythmic sob of bliss
Of earth’s mute adoration towards heaven
Released in beauty’s cry of living form
Towards the perfection of eternal things.

An immortal significance is seen to fill her mortal limbs. They seem to be full of the rhythmic, muffled cry of bliss of the earth’s dumb adoration towards heaven—the cry of beauty in living forms seeking perfection of the eternal elements in creation.

Expressive Deity

Transparent grown the ephemeral living dress
Bared the expressive deity to his view.

Escaped from surface sight and mortal sense
The seizing harmony of its shapes became
The strange significant icon of a Power

The outer physical form of Savitri grows transparent and reveals to Aswapthy the manifesting Deity within. The captivating harmony of the lines of her form exceeds the external sight and sense and assumes a new meaningful figure of a Power.

Descending Power

Renewing its inscrutable descent
Into a human figure of its works
That stood out in life’s bold abrupt relief
On the soil of the evolving universe,
A godhead sculptured on a wall of thought,
Mirrored in the flowing hours and dimly shrined
In Matter as in a cathedral cave.

It is a Power from on high descending once again on its mission into a clear-cut human figure in this field of evolution on earth, a veritable godhead sculptured on the wall of thought, reflected in the flowing stream of time and enshrined in the temple-cave of Matter.

Unknown Spirit Born his Child

Annulled were the transient values of the mind,
The body’s sense renounced its earthly look,
Immortal met immortal in their gaze.

Awaked from the close spell of daily use
That hides soul-truth with the outward form’s disguise,
He saw through the familiar cherished limbs
The great and unknown spirit born his child.

Aswapathy’s consciousness undergoes a change; the fleeting values of the mind drop off, the physical sense shifts its focus beyond the earthly range; and the immortal in him greets the immortal in Savitri.

Breaking through the walls of the outer form which hide the inner truth, he sees behind the familiar limbs of his child a great and unknown Spirit shaped as Savitri.

Impromptu Words

An impromptu from the deeper sight within,
Thoughts rose in him that knew not their own scope.

Then to those large and brooding depths whence Love
Regarded him across the straits of mind,
He spoke in sentences from the unseen Heights.

Suddenly from the seeing depths within him arise thoughts that are not aware of their own implications. And he speaks to Savitri, who is looking at him in her divine, mind-transcending love, words that come direct from the supernal heights that are beyond human sight.

Casual Phrase can Change Life

A casual passing phrase can change our life.

For the hidden prompters of our speech sometimes
Can use the formulas of a moment’s mood
To weigh unconscious lips with words from Fate.

It happens at times that a casual word or a phrase uttered by someone in passing has an unexpected result in changing the course of our life. That is because the occult agents in this creation of God who really prompt our speech from behind—while we think we are speaking on our own—can load even casual expressions of fleeting moods with a fateful meaning of which the utterer himself is hardly aware.

Traveller of Eternity

“O Spirit, traveller of eternity,
Who camest from the immortal spaces here
Armed for the splendid hazard of thy life
To set thy conquering foot on Chance and Time,
The moon shut in her halo dreams like thee.

A mighty Presence still defends thy frame.

Aswapathy addresses Sayan:

"O Spirit, voyager of eternity, thou hast come here to this mortal world from thy immortal regions, equipped for the noble adventure of conquering Time and Chance that dominate this earth. But like the moon wrapped in her halo thou art still dreaming. A great super-natural Presence guards thy body.

Thy Spirit Came not Alone

Perhaps the heavens guard thee for some great soul,
Thy fate, thy work are kept somewhere afar,
Thy spirit came not down a star alone.

Who knows, the celestial Powers are guarding thee for someone great. The work for which thou hast come, the fate that thou carriest, are still kept by them afar. Surely, thou hast not come down alone.

Message of Strength and Bliss

O living inscription of the beauty of love
Missalled in aureate virginity,
What message of heavenly strength and bliss in thee
Is written with the Eternal’s sun-white script,
One shall discover and greaten with it his life
To whom thou loosenest thy heart’s jewelled strings.

The beauty of love is shaped in thy living form, radiant in its virginity. Thou carriest some message of divine strength and bliss direct from the Eternal. Only he to whom thou wilt open thy heart shall come to know it and with it greaten his existence.

Depart to Find Thy Mate

O rubies of silence, lips from which there stole
Low laughter, music of tranquillity,
Star-lustrous eyes awake in sweet large night
And limbs like fine-linked poems made of gold
Stanzaed to glimmering curves by artist gods,
Depart where love and destiny call your charm.

Venture through the deep world to find thy mate.

Through thy ruby lips, always silent, rhythms of tranquillity flow in soft laughter; thy lustrous eyes shine like stars in a wide clear night; thy limbs with their glowing curves are shaped by the gods. Love and destiny await thy charm elsewhere; depart and seek they waiting companion in the wide world.

Unknown Lover Waits

For somewhere on the longing breast of earth,
Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown.

Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide
Than One who burns within thy bosom’s powers.

Surely, somewhere unknown to thee waits thy destined lover for thee who art unknown to him. Thou shalt find thy way to him; there is no need for any external guide for thee; thou hast the soul-strength and Him who blazes within thy inner powers.

Thy Second Half

There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps
The second self for whom thy nature asks,
He who shall walk until thy body’s end
A close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace,
The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords
Who shall give voice to what in thee is mute.

To meet thee, shall draw near thy second half who will companion thee till the last step of thy body’s journey is taken, keeping close pace with thy pace, bringing out what lies deeply latent in thee.

Kindred Harps

Then shall you grow like vibrant kindred harps,
One in the beats of difference and delight,
Responsive in divine and equal strains,
Discovering new notes of the eternal theme.

When thou wilt have found thy mate, both of you will grow and prosper like two vibrating kindred harps, one even in beats of variation and joy, responding to each other in divine and equal notes, finding fresh notes in the eternal theme of life.

Ascend to Divinity’s Heights

One force shall be your mover and your guide,
One light shall be around you and within;
Hand in strong hand confront Heaven’s question, life:
Challenge the ordeal of the immense disguise.

Ascend from Nature to divinity’s heights;
Face the high gods, crowned with felicity,
Then meet a greater God, thy self beyond Time.”

Though you be in two bodies, one shall be the force to impel you and lead you, one the light around you and within you. Hand in strong hand, meet the question posed in life by the Powers celestial. It is a vast disguise here imposed upon all. Break through it, rise from the low levels of this Nature in Ignorance to the heights of the Spirit, look at the felicitous gods above and then meet an over-God, with thy own self transcending the whole movement in Time.

Work Shown

This word was seed of all the thing to be.

A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors
And showed the work for which her strength was born.

These words of Aswapathy become the seed of everything to follow; they start Savitri on her mission in life. Something supernatural opens the sealed doors in her heart and she is shown the great work for which strength has been given to her.

Mantra (I)

As when the mantra sinks in Yoga’s ear,
Its message enters stirring the blind brain
And keeps in the dim ignorant cells its sound;
The hearer understands a form of words
And, musing on the index thought it holds,
He strives to read it with the labouring mind,
But finds bright hints, not the embodied truth:

When a Mantra is uttered and the ear of the yogin listens to it, its message enters within and the unseeing, mechanical brain is stirred by it; its sound is registered in the ignorant cells of the brain; the hearing takes in only the external form of the words; the mind contemplates upon the significant thought in the Mantra and labours to understand it, but all that it gets is a few bright hints of the embodied truth, not the truth itself.

Mantra (II)

Then, falling silent in himself to know
He meets the deeper listening of his soul:
The Word repeats itself in rhythmic strains:
Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self
Are seized unalterably and he endures
An ecstasy and an immortal change;

When the mind fails to grasp the truth, its thought activity ceases and the mind falls silent in order to make room for knowledge; the deeper hearing of the soul comes up; the charged Word goes on repeating itself in its rhythmic vibrations and his thought, sight, feeling, sense, the very body-consciousness, are seized by it entirely, an ecstasy overtakes them and he undergoes a permanent change.

Mantra (III)

He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power,
All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:
Transmuted by the white spiritual ray
He walks in naked heavens of joy and calm,
Sees the God-face and hears transcendent speech:
An equal greatness in her life was sown.

He feels himself becoming a Wideness; he becomes a Power; like a sea, knowledge rushes upon him from all sides; a pure-white Ray of the Spirit bathes him into a transmutation and he traverses the unveiled regions of joy and calm, sees the face of God, hears the speech beyond.

A similar greatness is sown in Savitri by the words spoken by Aswapathy.

She Turns to Vastnesses

Accustomed scenes were now an ended play.

Moving in muse amid familiar powers,
Touched by new magnitudes and faery signs,
She turned to vastnesses not yet her own;
Allured her heart throbbed to unknown sweetnesses,
The secrets of an unseen world were close.

As a result, the old accustomed scenes of the past are put aside. Touched by new greatnesses and celestial signs, contemplating, she turns to new vastnesses. Her heart is attracted to new and unknown sweetnesses. An unseen world is about to open up its secrets to her.

Watch-Fires of Eternity

The morn went up into a smiling sky;
Cast from its sapphire pinnacle of trance
Day sank into the burning gold of eve;
The moon floated, a luminous waif through heaven
And sank below the oblivious edge of dream;
Night lit the watch fires of eternity.

Then all went back into mind’s secret caves;
A darkness stooping on the heaven-bird’s wings
Sealed in her senses from external sight
And opened the stupendous depths of sleep.

The morn advances into bright noon; the day slides into eve; the moon appears and sinks; the stars are ablaze in the night. Savitri’s mind withdraws into its depths, her senses are shut from outer sight by a supernal darkness and she is sucked into the pro-founds of sleep.

Savitri Departs

When the pale dawn slipped through Night’s shadowy guard,
Vainly the new-born light desired her face;
The palace woke to its own emptiness;
The sovereign of its daily joys was far;
Her moonbeam feet tinged not the lucent floors:
The beauty and divinity were gone.

Delight had fled to search the spacious world.

And when the next day dawns, the palace is empty of Savitri. The presiding joy of the place has left; its beauty and divinity have departed; delight has gone adventuring into the wide world.