Index

Book One Canto IV: The Secret Knowledge

As Aswapati stood on the high peak of existence, still higher peaks came into his ken. For the vistas of the Infinite are endless and what man achieves by way of ascent is only a promise of greater conquests in store. Aswapati came to see and realise that the present state of limitation and death is not the permanent condition of earth-life. States of freedom and immortality await discovery by man. Whether he is conscious of it or not, his being steadily grows towards them in the stress of the evolutionary labour to which he is subject. At times man is aware of this growth, at times he experiences in himself descents of supernal Light, Power, Peace and sees his own little ego-bound life dissolve.

Man grows conscious of a vaster Self in himself which is not involved in the life-movement, but watches all from its base behind the veil of nature in ignorance.

There is the key to the riddle of existence, there the fount of delight without which none could live.

Without this perception, world-existence appears to lack meaning and direction; no definite knowledge of its character is possible. Only the movement is seen to be real, a movement carried on by an incessant urge from within. And yet, the earth does not feel left alone in her labour. She senses and becomes aware of mighty Puissances in the Cosmos helping and drawing her upward by their very presence and their irresistible action. The earth-mind seeks and aspires for the Verities of Knowledge, Power and Bliss which are in the keeping of these Gods above, however much they might appear to be out of reach to the terrestrial spirit toiling below.

In fact it is the action of these Powers from behind the surfaces of life that determines the course of outer circumstances. Man is not normally aware of this inner working in himself and in the Cosmos. But the impulsion from within and the lead from above goes on till the purpose of the earth-movement is achieved, till the earth-life flowers into a divine existence.

The present state of the evolving Consciousness on earth is intermediate; it marks a stage that has moved .away from the original Inconscience at the base but is yet far from the plenary Superconscience at the summit of existence into which it is to grow.

Consequently all the operations of this Consciousness are imperfect. However there is a constant pressure on this Consciousness to develop and expand from both the ends of existence — Material Nature and Spiritual Being.

Through all the vicissitudes of lives, there is a Light that leads, a Might that pulls, a Bliss that sustains.

The Will of the creative Godhead works at each moment of Time, at every level of world-existence towards the destined manifestation of the Divine in the terrestrial universe.