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Book Seven Canto II: The Parable of the Search
for the Soul |
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One
night as Savitri is sitting musing upon the approaching Fate, a summons from the
summits of her being comes in a mighty Voice. Her body becomes rigid and all
grows still. She listens to the Voice: "Was it to nurse this grief and
helplessly await thy doom that thou camest to earth? Spirit, immortal energy,
arise and conquer Time and Death." Savitri answers: "My strength is
taken away from me and given to Death. Why should I struggle with Fate, why
should I strive to uplift this ignorant race that is satisfied with its lot
and mocks at the saving Light? Is there a God who can be moved by any cry? He
leaves man to the mercy of Law and Death. Why should I and Satyavan fight
Death? Why not we pass through the night to the sun beyond?" The Voice
replies: "Is that enough, spirit? What will thy soul say when it wakes
and realises that the work for which it came remains undone? Was it for this
that thou earnest on earth with a mandate from eternity? Art thou going to
leave the old laws unchanged? Shall there be no new world, no deliverance for
man from unchanging Fate? Hast thou not come down to open the doors of Fate
and lead man to the wide and golden road of truth? Am to confess to the
Eternal that His power kindled in thee has failed and his labourer returns
with her tasks unfulfilled?" Savitri's heart falls mute; she does not
speak. But a Power within her answers: "I am thy portion here on earth.
Command, I will do thy work." The Voice replies: "Remember why thou
camest. Find out thy soul, seek God's meaning in thy depths. Change mortal
nature into the divine. Open God's door and enter into communion with Him.
Cast away thought and sense; let His vast Truth awake and see. Then shalt
thou behold the Eternal's body in the world, meet Him everywhere; thy heart
shall beat in God. Then shalt thou embody my Force and vanquish Death."
Savitri continues to sit in her motionless pose. She
looks into herself and seeks for her soul. The
Cosmic past is revealed to her in a series of dream images: the first steps
of creation, the soul embodying itself in the body, Matter slowly learning to
think, Space filled with seeds of life and the human creature being born in
Time. At first a being appears out of an infinite Nought, a Consciousness
looks out at the Inconscient vast around, pleasure and pain vibrate in an
insensible Void. All
looks like the motion of a blind World-Energy working unconsciously shaping a
universe out of a veritable Void. Slowly sensibilities gather round a
pinpoint of ego; a sentient creature finds its poise. Gradually
a formless Consciousness appears, thoughts, and feelings stir, repetition
forms habit, habit gives the appearance of permanence and a conscious being
is built. Behind
all our thoughts, hopes and dreams there is a conscious Soul assenting to
Nature's acts, leaving the mind to function as its vice-regent. This mind is
ever active, tossed about on the sea of Time, buffeted by waves of Life. It
knows no silence, thoughts move in it in an endless stream. The senses bring
in reports from the outside every moment. Even in sleep there is a rush of
activity, though of another kind. This is the little surface of man's life.
But within him is locked a mysterious world. Deep within lives a hidden King
in the solitude of the spirit, a portion of God. Man
is truly a little front of Nature's action. All the opposites in creation are
there in him. In his subconscious and unconscious regions he harbours all the
dangerous dark forces which at times rise up and besiege his conscious being.
This evil Nature can even dislodge the soul that is the real owner of the
house. Always,
there is a contrary to God threatening God's creation. But
there is a Grace that guards, Hands that save. Calm divine eyes regard this
human scene. All the possibilities of the world wait in man as the tree in
its seed. His past determines his future, his present acts shape his fate.
Within him lie the gods and demons that create the moulds in which he grows. Our
surface is aware of only a little of its course; a vast subliminal and a dim
subconscient are there overpowering in their range and force. Our past is
never wholly dead. Something clings and drags back our nature's forward
stride. We live in the mind's dubious light and know not the the meaning and
purpose of the world. Above
us is the superconscience, around us is the ignorance, below us is the
inconscience. But
this is only the first appearance of the material world. This is not all that
we are. On the summits of our being, beyond the thinking mind our greater
self of knowledge awaits us. It is a surface light that shines in a
truth-conscious Vast; when that Light descends, earth's life will turn
divine. That is our real godhead. Behind
our surface exterior, there are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts. They
project their influences and urge us to move forward. Our soul in its secret
chamber seeks for Good, Beauty and God. There
is an inner mind that dwells in a larger light, an inner life-self that gives
the dynamism to soar to our summits, an inner, subtle physical self which is
instinct with a truth-sense of its own. Man
was the first creature to lift up his head, look upwards and behold the
friendly stars. He saw his unrealised vastnesses and his secret aspiration
found articulation. Slowly he grew in vision and power and approached the
ranges of the Omniscient and the Omnipotent. He climbed the stairs of
evolution and saw the light of the special sun. At long last man is able to
ascend to his high source and reach his fount of immortality. From there he
calls the Godhead into his mortal life. All
this has been done in Savitri by the spirit in her. A portion of the mighty
Mother comes into her. She
is made the Centre of a wide-drawn scheme to mould humanity into God's own
shape, to discover a new world or create one. Earth
must transform herself and become the equal of Heaven or Heaven must descend into
earth. But
for this transmutation to be possible, the Psyche — the inner Soul — must
come out of her secrecy and step into the outer nature, assume rulership over
its domain of mind, life and body. Savitri
sits obedient to the Command from above. Her
sight has to break through the veils of inferior nature and ignorance which
conceal her self and find her soul within. |