Sri Aurobindo: His Writings - Complete Works (36 Volumes) [1-36]

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Sri Aurobindo: His Writings - Complete Works (36 Volumes) [1-36]

Table of contents :
Early Cultural Writings
Part One - The Harmony of Virtue
The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence
The Harmony of Virtue
Book One - The Harmony of Virtue
Book Two - The Harmony of Virtue
Book Three - The Harmony of Virtue
Beauty in the Real
Stray Thoughts
Part Two - On Literature
Bankim Chandra Chatterji
I - His Youth and College Life
II -The Bengal He Lived In
III - His Official Career
IV - His Versatility
V - His Literary History
VI - What He Did for Bengal
VII - Our Hope in the Future
On Poetry and Literature
Poetry
Characteristics of Augustan Poetry
Sketch of the Progress of Poetry from Thomson to Wordsworth
Appendix: Test Questions
Marginalia On Madhusudan Dutt's Virangana Kavya
Originality in National Literatures
The Poetry of Kalidasa
A Proposed Work on Kalidasa
The Malavas
The Age of Kalidasa
The Historical Method
The Seasons
Hindu Drama
Vikramorvasie - The Play
Vikramorvasie - The Characters
The Spirit of the Times
On Translating Kalidasa
Appendix: Passages and Fragments
On the Mahabharata
Notes on the Mahabharata
Part Three - On Education
Address at the Baroda College Social Gathering
Education
The Brain of India
I - The Brain of India
II - The Brain of India
III - The Brain of India
IV - The Brain of India
A System of National Education
Publisher’s Note to the 1924 Edition
I - The Human Mind
II - The Powers of the Mind
III - The Moral Nature
IV - Simultaneous and Successive Teaching
V - The Training of the Senses
VI - Sense-Improvement by Practice
VII - The Training of the Mental Faculties
VIII - The Training of the Logical Faculty
Message for National Education Week (1918)
National Education
A Preface on National Education
1 - A Preface on National Education
2 - A Preface on National Education
Part Four - On Art
The National Value of Art
I - The National Value of Art
II - The National Value of Art
III - The National Value of Art
IV - The National Value of Art
V - The National Value of Art
VI - The National Value of Art
Two Pictures
Indian Art and an Old Classic
The Revival of Indian Art
An Answer to a Critic
Part Five - Conversations of the Dead
I - Dinshah, Perizade
II - Turiu, Uriu
III - Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi
IV - Shivaji, Jaysingh
V - Littleton, Percival
Part Six - The Chandernagore Manuscript
Passing Thoughts [1]
Passing Thoughts [2]
Passing Thoughts [3]
Hathayoga
Rajayoga
Historical Impressions: The French Revolution
Historical Impressions: Napoleon
In the Society’s Chambers
At the Society’s Chambers
Things Seen in Symbols [1]
Things Seen in Symbols [2]
The Real Difficulty
Art
Part Seven - Epistles/Letters From Abroad
Epistles from Abroad
Letters from Abroad
Part Eight - Reviews
“Suprabhat”
“Hymns to the Goddess”
“South Indian Bronzes”
“God, the Invisible King”
“Rupam”
About Astrology
“Sanskrit Research”
“The Feast of Youth”
“Shama’a”
Part Nine - Bankim – Tilak – Dayananda
Rishi Bankim Chandra
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
A Great Mind, a Great Will
DayanandaThe Man and His Work
Dayananda and the Veda
The Men that Pass
Appendix One: Baroda Speeches and Reports
Speeches Written for the Maharaja of Baroda
Medical Department
The Revival of Industry in India
Report on Trade in the Baroda State
General Suggestions.
Opinions Written as Acting Principal, Baroda College
Resolving a Problem of Seniority in the High School
On a Proposed Examination for Teachers
On a Head Assistant for the High School
Appendix Two: Premises of Astrology
Chapter I - Elements
Chapter II - The Signs
Chapter III - The Planets
Note on the Texts
Collected Poems
Part One - England and Baroda 1883 – 1898
Poem Published in 1883
Light
Songs to Myrtilla
Songs to Myrtilla
O Co¨ıl, Co¨ıl
Goethe
The Lost Deliverer
Charles Stewart Parnell
Hic Jacet
Lines on Ireland
On a Satyr and Sleeping Love
A Rose of Women
Saraswati with the Lotus
Night by the Sea
The Lover’s Complaint
Love in Sorrow
The Island Grave
Estelle
Radha’s Complaint in Absence
Radha’s Appeal
Bankim Chandra Chatterji
Madhusudan Dutt
To the Cuckoo
Envoi
Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1891 – 1898
To a Hero-Worshipper
Phaethon
The Just Man
Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1891 – 1892
Thou bright choregus
Like a white statue
The Vigil of Thaliard
Part Two - Baroda Circa 1898 – 1902
Complete Narrative Poems
Urvasie
Canto I - Urvasie
Canto II - Urvasie
Canto III - Urvasie
Canto IV - Urvasie
Love and Death
Love and Death
A Note on Love and Death
Incomplete Narrative Poems Circa 1899 – 1902
Khaled of the Sea
Prologue - Alnuman and the Peri
Canto I - The Story of Almaimun and the Emir’s Daughter
Uloupie
Canto I - Uloupie
Sonnets from Manuscripts Circa 1900 – 1901
O face that I have loved
I cannot equal
O letter dull and cold
My life is wasted
Because thy flame is spent
Thou didst mistake
Rose, I have loved
I have a hundred lives
Still there is something
I have a doubt
To weep because a glorious sun
What is this talk
Short Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1900 – 1901
The Spring Child
A Doubt
The Nightingale
Euphrosyne
A Thing Seen
Epitaph
To the Modern Priam
Song
Epigram
The Three Cries of Deiphobus
Perigone Prologuises
Since I have seen your face
So that was why
World’s delight
Part Three - Baroda and Bengal Circa 1900 – 1909
Poems from Ahana and Other Poems
Invitation
Who
Miracles
Reminiscence
A Vision of Science
Immortal Love
A Tree
To the Sea
Revelation
Karma
Appeal
A Child’s Imagination
The Sea at Night
The Vedantin’s Prayer
Rebirth
The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou
Life and Death
Evening
Parabrahman
God
The Fear of Death
Seasons
The Rishi
In the Moonlight
Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1900 – 1906
To the Boers
Vision
To the Ganges
Suddenly out from the wonderful East
On the Mountains
Part Four - Calcutta and Chandernagore 1907 – 1910
Satirical Poem Published in 1907
Reflections of Srinath Paul, Rai Bahadoor, on the Present Discontents
Short Poems Published in 1909 and 1910
The Mother of Dreams
An Image
The Birth of Sin
Epiphany
To R.
Transiit, Non Periit
Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1909 – 1910
Perfect thy motion
A Dialogue
Narrative Poems Published in 1910
Baji Prabhou - Author’s Note
Baji Prabhou
Chitrangada
Chitrangada
Poems Written in 1910 and Published in 1920 – 1921
The Rakshasas
Kama
The Mahatmas
Part Five - Pondicherry Circa 1910 – 1920
Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters
Ilion
Book I - The Book of the Herald
Book II - The Book of the Statesman
Book III - The Book of the Assembly
Book IV - The Book of Partings
Book V - The Book of Achilles
Book VI - The Book of the Chieftains
Book VII - The Book of the Woman
Book VIII - The Book of the Gods
Book IX
Ahana
Ahana
Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1912 – 1913
The Descent of Ahana - I
The Descent of Ahana - II
The Meditations of Mandavya
Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1912 – 1920
Thou who controllest
Sole in the meadows of Thebes
O Will of God
The Tale of Nala [1]
The Tale of Nala [2]
Part Six - Baroda and Pondicherry Circa 1902 – 1936
Poems Past and Present
Musa Spiritus
Bride of the Fire
The Blue Bird
A God’s Labour
Hell and Heaven
Kamadeva
Life
One Day The Little More
Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Six Poems
The Bird of Fire
Trance
Shiva
The Life Heavens
Jivanmukta
In Horis Aeternum
Notes
Poems
Transformation
Nirvana
The Other Earths
Thought the Paraclete
Moon of Two Hemispheres
Rose of God
Note
Poems Published in On Quantitative Metre
Ocean Oneness
Trance of Waiting
Flame-Wind
The River
Journey’s End
The Dream Boat
Soul in the Ignorance
The Witness and the Wheel
Descent
The Lost Boat
Renewal
Soul’s Scene
Ascent (1) The Silence
Ascent (2) Beyond the Silence
The Tiger and the Deer
Sonnets
Three Sonnets
Man the Enigma
The Infinitesimal Infinite
The Cosmic Dance
Sonnets from Manuscripts Circa 1934 – 1947
Man the Thinking Animal
Contrasts
The Silver Call
Evolution [1]
The Call of the Impossible
Evolution [2]
Man the Mediator
Discoveries of Science
All here is Spirit
The Ways of the Spirit [1]
The Ways of the Spirit [2]
Science and the Unknowable
The Yogi on the Whirlpool
The Kingdom Within
Now I have borne
Electron
The Indwelling Universal
Bliss of Identity
The Witness Spirit
The Hidden Plan
The Pilgrim of the Night
Cosmic Consciousness
Liberation [1]
The Inconscient
Life-Unity
The Golden Light
The Infinite Adventure
The Greater Plan
The Universal Incarnation
The Godhead
The Stone Goddess
Krishna
Shiva
The Word of the Silence
The Self’s Infinity
The Dual Being
Lila
Surrender
The Divine Worker
The Guest
The Inner Sovereign
Creation
A Dream of Surreal Science
In the Battle
The Little Ego
The Miracle of Birth
The Bliss of Brahman
Moments
The Body
Liberation [2]
Light
The Unseen Infinite
“I”
The Cosmic Spirit
Self
Omnipresence
The Inconscient Foundation
Adwaita
The Hill-top Temple
The Divine Hearing
Because Thou art
Divine Sight
Divine Sense
The Iron Dictators
Form
Immortality
Man, the Despot of Contraries
The One Self
The Inner Fields
Lyrical Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1934 – 1947
Symbol Moon
The World Game
Who art thou that camest
One
In a mounting as of sea-tides
Krishna
The Cosmic Man
The Island Sun
Despair on the Staircase
The Dwarf Napoleon
The Children of Wotan
The Mother of God
The End?
Silence is all
Poems Written as Metrical Experiments
O pall of black Night
To the hill-tops of silence
Oh, but fair was her face
In the ending of time
In some faint dawn
In a flaming as of spaces
O Life, thy breath is but a cry
Vast-winged the wind ran
Winged with dangerous deity
Outspread a Wave burst
On the grey street
Cry of the ocean’s surges
Nonsense and “Surrealist” Verse
A Ballad of Doom
Surrealist
Surrealist Poems - 1
Surrealist Poems - 2 The Crossing of the Moro
Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts Circa 1927 – 1947
Thou art myself
Vain, they have said
Pururavus
The Death of a God [1]
The Death of a God [2]
The Inconscient and the Traveller Fire
I walked beside the waters
A strong son of lightning
I made danger my helper
The Inconscient
In gleam Konarak
Bugles of Light
The Fire King and the Messenger
God to thy greatness
Silver foam
Torn are the walls
O ye Powers
Hail to the fallen
Seer deep-hearted
Soul, my soul [1]
Soul, my soul [2]
I am filled with the crash of war
In the silence of the midnight
Here in the green of the forest
Voice of the Summits
Appendix: Poems in Greek and in French
Greek Epigram
Lorsque rien n’existait
Sur les grands sommets blancs
Note on the Texts
Note on the Texts
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines
Collected Plays and Stories
The Viziers of Bassora – A Romantic Comedy
Persons of the Drama
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Act II, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Act III, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Act IV, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Act V, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Scene 7
Rodogune – A Dramatic Romance
Persons of the Drama
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act II, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act III, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act IV, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act V, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Perseus the Deliverer – A Drama
The Legend of Perseus
Persons of the Drama
Prologue
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act II, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act III, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act IV, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act V, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Eric – A Dramatic Romance
Characters
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Act II, Scene 1
Scene 2
Act III, Scene 1
Scene 2
Act IV, Scene 1
Scene 2
Act V, Scene 1
Vasavadutta – A Dramatic Romance
Characters
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Act II, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act III, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act IV, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act V, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Incomplete and Fragmentary Plays
The Witch of Ilni – A dream of the woodlands
Characters
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Act II, Scene 1
Act III, Scene 1
Scene 2
The House of Brut – A Play
Act II, Scene 1
The Maid in the Mill or Love Shuffles the Cards – A Comedy
Dramatis Personae
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act II, Scene 1
The Prince of Edur
Persons of the Drama
Act I, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act II, Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Act III, Scene 1
The Prince of Mathura
Act I, Scene 1
The Birth of Sin – A Drama
Prologue – Act I
Fragment of a Play
Act I, Scene 1
Stories
Occult Idylls
The Phantom Hour
The Door at Abelard - Chapter I
The Door at Abelard - Chapter II
Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories
Fictional Jottings
Fragment of a Story
The Devil’s Mastiff
The Golden Bird
Note on the Texts
Translations
Part One - Translations from Sanskrit
Section One - The Ramayana
Pieces from the Ramayana
An Aryan City
The Book of the Wild Forest
The Defeat of Dhoomraksha
Section Two - The Mahabharata
Sabha Parva or Book of the Assembly-Hall
Virata Parva – Fragments from Adhyaya 17
Udyoga Parva – Two Renderings of the First Adhyaya
Udyoga Parva – Passages from Adhyayas 75 and 72
The Bhagavad Gita – The First Six Chapters
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Appendix I: Opening of Chapter VII
Appendix II: A Later Translation of the Opening of the Gita
Vidula
Section Three - Kalidasa
Vikramorvasie or The Hero and the Nymph
Characters
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
In the Gardens of Vidisha or Malavica and the King
Dramatis Personae
Act I, Scene I
Scene II
Appendix: A Fragment from Act II
The Birth of the War-God
The Birth of the War-God – Stanzaic Rendering of the Opening of Canto I
The Birth of the War-God – Blank Verse Rendering of Canto I
The Birth of the War-God – Expanded Version of Canto I and Part of Canto II
Canto II
Notes and Fragments
Skeleton Notes on the Kumarasambhavam – Canto V
The Line of Raghou
The Cloud Messenger
Section Four - Bhartrihari
The Century of Life
Invocation
On Fools and Folly
On Wisdom
On Pride and Heroism
On Wealth
On the Wicked
On Virtue
On Firmness
On Fate
On Karma
Miscellaneous Verses
Appendix: Prefatory Note on Bhartrihari
Section Five - Other Translations from Sanskrit
Opening of the Kiratarjuniya
Bhagawat
Bhavani
Part Two - Translations from Bengali
Section One - Vaishnava Devotional Poetry
Radha’s Complaint in Absence
Radha’s Appeal
Karma
Appeal
Twenty-two Poems of Bidyapati
Selected Poems of Bidyapati
Selected Poems of Nidhou
Selected Poems of Horo Thacoor
Selected Poems of Ganodas
Section Two - Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Hymn to the Mother – Bande Mataram
Bande Mataram (Translation in Prose)
Anandamath
Prologue
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix: A Later Version of Chapters I and II
Section Three - Chittaranjan Das
Songs of the Sea
Section Four - Disciples and Others
Hymn to India
Mother India
The Pilot
Mahalakshmi
The New Creator
Lakshmi
Aspiration (The New Dawn)
Farewell Flute
Uma
Faithful
Since thou hast called me
A Beauty infinite
At the day-end
The King of kings
Part Three - Translations from Tamil
Andal
Andal – The Vaishnava Poetess
To the Cuckoo
I Dreamed a Dream
Ye Others
Nammalwar
Nammalwar -- The Supreme Vaishnava Saint and Poet
Nammalwar’s Hymn of the Golden Age
Love-Mad
Kulasekhara Alwar
Refuge
Tiruvalluvar
Opening of the Kural
Part Four - Translations from Greek
Two Epigrams
Opening of the Iliad
Opening of the Odyssey
Hexameters from Homer
Part Five - Translations from Latin
Hexameters from Virgil and Horace
Catullus to Lesbia
Note on the Texts
Bande Mataram
Part One - Writings and a Resolution 1890 – 1906
India Renascent
New Lamps for Old with India and the British Parliament
India and the British Parliament
New Lamps for Old – I
New Lamps for Old – II
New Lamps for Old – III
New Lamps for Old – IV
New Lamps for Old – V
New Lamps for Old – VI
New Lamps for Old – VII
New Lamps for Old – VIII
New Lamps for Old – IX
At the Turn of the Century
Old Moore for 1901
The Congress Movement
Fragment for a Pamphlet
Unity: An open letter
The Proposed Reconstruction of Bengal
On the Bengali and the Mahratta
Bhawani Mandir
OM Namas Chandikayai.
Appendix.
Ethics East and West
Resolution at a Swadeshi Meeting
A Sample-Room for Swadeshi Articles
On the Barisal Proclamation
Part Two - Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 20th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 27th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 28th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 30th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 1st, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 3rd, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 4th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 8th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 10th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 11th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 12th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 13th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 14th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 17th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 18th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 20th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 1st, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 11th, 1906}
Part Three - Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 29th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 30th, 1906}
Articles Published in Bande Mataram in November and December 1906
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 26th, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 31st, 1906}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 25th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 28th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 15th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 18th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 29th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 2nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 3rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 5th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 6th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 8th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 9th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 10th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 11th, 1907}
The Doctrine of Passive Resistance
I - Introduction
II - Its Object
III - Its Necessity
IV - Its Methods
V - Its Obligations
VI - Its Limits
VII - Conclusions
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 12th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 13th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 16th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 17th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 18th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 19th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 22nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 23rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 24th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 25th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 26th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 27th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 29th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 30th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 1st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 2nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 3rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 6th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 8th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 9th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 10th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 11th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 13th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 14th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 15th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 16th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 17th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 20th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 22nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 23rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 24th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 25th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 27th, 1907}
Part Four - Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 28th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 29th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 30th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 1st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 4th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 5th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 6th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 7th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 8th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 12th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 14th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 17th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 18th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 19th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 20th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 21st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 22nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 24th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 25th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 26th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 27th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 28th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, June 29th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 1st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 2nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 3rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 4th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 5th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 9th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 11th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 13th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 15th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 16th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 18th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 19th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 20th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcuta, July 22nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 25th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 26th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 29th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, July 30th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 6th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 7th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 10th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 12th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 13th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 17th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 20th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 21st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 23rd, 1907}
Advice to National College Students
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 24th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 26th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 27th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, August 31st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 3rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 12th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 14th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 20th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 21st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 25th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 26th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, September 28th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 4th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 5th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 7th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 8th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 11th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 23rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 29th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, October 31st, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, November 4th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, November 5th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, November 16th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, November 18th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, November 19th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 2nd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 3rd, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 4th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 5th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 6th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 12th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 13th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 14th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 17th, 1907}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, December 18th, 1907}
Part Five - Speeches
Our Experiences in Bengal
National Education
The Present Situation
The Meaning of Swaraj
Swadeshi and Boycott
Bande Mataram
The Aims of the Nationalist Party
Our Work in the Future
Commercial and Educational Swarajya
Part Six - Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo with Speeches Delivered during the Same Period
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 6th, 1908}
Speeches at Pabna
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 18th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 19th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 20th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 21st, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 22nd, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, February 24th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 3rd, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 4th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 5th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 7th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 10th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 11th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 12th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 13th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 14th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 16th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 17th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 19th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 20th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 21st, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 23rd, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 24th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 25th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 26th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 27th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 28th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 30th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, March 31st, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 1st, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 2nd, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 3rd, 1908}
Speech at Panti’s Math
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 4th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 6th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 7th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 9th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 10th, 1908}
United Congress
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 11th, 1908}
Baruipur Speech
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 13th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 14th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 18th, 1908}
Palli Samiti
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 22nd, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 23rd, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 24th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 25th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 29th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, April 30th, 1908}
Bande Mataram {Calcutta, May 2nd, 1908}
Part Seven - Writings from Manuscripts
The Bourgeois and the Samurai
The New Nationalism
The Mother and the Nation
The Morality of Boycott
A Fragment
Appendixes
Appendix One: Incomplete Drafts of Three Articles
Appendix Two: Writings and Jottings Connected with the Bande Mataram
Appendix Three: Nationalist Party Documents
Appendix Four: A Birthday Interview
Note on the Texts
Karmayogin
Uttarpara Speech
Beadon Square Speech – 1
Karmayogin No. 1, 19th June 1909 - Ourselves
The Ideal of the Karmayogin
“Swaraj” and the Musulmans
Jhalakati Speech
Bakarganj Speech
Khulna Speech
Karmayogin No. 2, 26th June 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Awakening Soul of India
The Right of Association
Karmayogin No. 3, 3rd July 1909 - Opinion and Comments
A Task Unaccomplished
Mr. Mackarness’ Bill
Kumartuli Speech
Karmayogin No. 4, 17th July 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Exit Bibhishan
College Square Speech – 1
Karmayogin No. 5, 24th July 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Doctrine of Sacrifice
Karmayogin No. 6, 31st July 1909 - Facts and Opinions
An Open Letter to My Countrymen
Karmayogin No. 7, 7th August 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Youth and the Bureaucracy
Karmayogin No. 8, 14th August 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Boycott Celebration
A Birthday Talk
Karmayogin No. 9, 21st August 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Power that Uplifts
Karmayogin No. 10, 28th August 1909 - Facts and Comments
Bengal and the Congress
Karmayogin No. 11, 4th September 1909 - Facts and Comments
The Hughly Resolutions
Appendix: Bengal Provincial Conference Hughly – 1909
Speech at the Hughly Conference
Karmayogin No. 12, 11th September 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Hughly Conference
Karmayogin No. 13, 18th September 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Karmayogin No. 14, 25th September 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Past and the Future
Karmayogin No. 15, 2nd October 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Nationalist Organisation
An Extraordinary Prohibition
Karmayogin No. 16, 9th October 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Nationalist Work in England
College Square Speech – 2
Bhawanipur Speech
Beadon Square Speech – 2
Karmayogin No. 17, 16th October 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Union Day
Karmayogin No. 18, 6th November 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Assassination of Prince Ito
The Hindu Sabha
Karmayogin No. 19, 13th November 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Great Election
Karmayogin No. 20, 20th November 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Reformed Councils
Karmayogin No. 21, 27th November 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Alipur Judgment
Karmayogin No. 22, 4th December 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Karmayogin No. 23, 11th December 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Transvaal Indians
Karmayogin No. 24, 18th December 1909 - Facts and Opinions
The Moderate Manifesto
Karmayogin No. 25, 25th December 1909 - Facts and Opinions
Creed and Constitution
To My Countrymen
Karmayogin No. 26, 1st January 1910 - Facts and Opinions
National Education
Karmayogin No. 27, 8th January 1910 - Facts and Opinions
A Practicable Boycott
Karmayogin No. 28, 15th January 1910 - Facts and Opinions
A Thing that Happened
Karmayogin No. 29, 22nd January 1910 - Facts and Opinions
The New Policy
Karmayogin No. 30, 29th January 1910 - Facts and Opinions
The Viceroy’s Speech
Karmayogin No. 31, 5th February 1910 - Facts and Opinions
The Necessity of the Situation
The Elections
Karmayogin No. 32, 12th February 1910 - Passing Thoughts
Karmayogin No. 33, 19th February 1910 - Passing Thoughts
Sj. Aurobindo Ghose
In Either Case
Appendix: Karmayogin Writings in Other Volumes of the Complete Works
Note on the Text
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Record of Yoga
Introduction - Sapta Chatusthaya
Sapta Chatusthaya
Outline of the Seven Chatusthayas
Incomplete Notes on the First Chatusthaya
Part One - Diary Entries 1909 – 1912
17 – 25 June 1909
28 January – 17 February 1911
13 January – 8 February 1912
1 – 25 July 1912
12 October – 26 November 1912
Part Two - Record of Yoga 1912 – 1920
26 November – 31 December 1912
1 – 31 January 1913
1 – 14 February 1913
1 and 12 April, 19 and 21 May 1913
4 – 30 June 1913
1 – 11 July 1913
5 – 21 September 1913
22 – 30 September 1913
11 – 23 November 1913
24 November – 2 December 1913
1 – 12 December 1913
12 – 21 December 1913
22 December 1913 – 15 January 1914
12 March – 14 April 1914
15 April – 1 June 1914
10 June – 29 September 1914
29 – 30 September – 31 December 1914
1 January – 27 February 1915
22 April – 26 August 1915
19 February – 20 March 1916
9 January – 14 February 1917
15 February – 31 March 1917
15 August – 28 September 1917
14 – 28 February 1918
3 – 27 March 1918
20 April – 20 May 1918
21 Mat – 1 July 1918
24 June – 14 July 1919
15 – 26 July 1919
27 July – 13 August 1919
14 August – 24 September 1919
1 – 29 February 1920
1 March – 10 April 1920
7 – 26 June 1920
17 – 19 October 1920
Part Three - Record of Yoga 1926 – 1927
December 1926 – 6 January 1927
7 January – 1 February 1927
7 – 22 April 1927
24 – 31 October 1927
Part Four - Materials Written by Sri Aurobindo Related Directly to Record of Yoga
Undated Record and Record-Related Notes
Sortileges of May and June 1912
Undated Noted, c. November 1912
Draft Programme of 3 December 1912
Undated or Partly Dated Script, 1912 – 1913
Sortilege of 15 March [1913]
Accounts of 31 May – 15 June 1913
Record Notes, 13 and 15 September 1913
Vedic Experience, 14 and 15 December 1913
Undated Notes, c. 1914
Notes on Images Seen in March 1914
Undated Script, c. 1920
Undated Notes, c. December 1926
Undated Notes, c. January 1927
Notes on Physical Transformation, c. January 1927
Diagrams, c. January 1927
The Manifestation
Miscellaneous Notations, c. February – April 1927
Record of Drishti, 30 July 1927
Undated Script, c. 1927
Undated Script, c. 1927-1928
Notes on Prophetic Vision, 1929
Diagrams, c. 1931
Undated Script Jottings
Part Five - Automatic Writing
“The Scribblings”, c. 1907
Yogic Sadhan
Editor's Epilogue
Automatic Writings, c. 1914 (First Set)
Automatic Writings, c. 1914 (Second Set)
Automatic Writing, c. 1920
Automatic Writings, c. 1920
Appendix: Material from Disciples’ Notebooks
Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914
Sapta Chatusthaya – Scribal Version
Note on the Texts
Essays Divine and Human
Part One - Essays Divine and Human
Section One - Circa 1911
Certitudes
Moksha
Man
Philosophy
The Siddhis
The Psychology of Yoga
Section Two - 1910 – 1913
Na Kinchidapi Chintayet
The Sources of Poetry
The Interpretation of Scripture
On Original Thinking
The Balance of Justice
Social Reform
Hinduism and the Mission of India
The Psychology of Yoga
The Claims of Theosophy
Science & Religion in Theosophy
Sat
Sachchidananda
The Silence behind Life
Section Three - Circa 1913
The Psychology of Yoga - Initial Definitions and Descriptions
The Psychology of Yoga - The Object of Our Yoga
Purna Yoga – I The Entire Purpose of Yoga
Purna Yoga – II Parabrahman, Mukti& Human Thought-Systems
Purna Yoga – III Parabrahman and Parapurusha
Natural and Supernatural Man - The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga
The Fullness of Yoga — In Condition
Nature
Maya
Section Four - 1914 – 1919
The Beginning and the End
The Hour of God
Beyond Good and Evil
The Divine Superman
Section Five - 1927 and after
The Law of the Way
Man and the Supermind
The Involved and Evolving Godhead
The Evolution of Consciousness
The Path
Part Two - From Man to Superman
Section One - Philosophy
God: The One Reality
Nature: The World-Manifestation
Man and Superman
Section Two - Psychology
The Problem of Consciousness
Consciousness and the Inconscient
The Science of Consciousness
Section Three - Yoga
The Way of Yoga
Partial Systems of Yoga
Integral Yoga
Part Three - Notes and Fragments on Various Subjects
Section One - The Human Being in Time
The Marbles of Time
A Theory of the Human Being
A Cyclical Theory of Evolution
Section Two - The East and the West
A Misunderstanding of Continents
Towards Unification
China, Japan and India
Section Three - India
Renascent India
Where We Stand in Literature
Section Four - Genius, Poetry, Beauty
The Origin of Genius
Poetic Genius
The Voices of the Poets
Pensées
A Dream
The Beauty of a Crow’s Wings
Section Five - Science, Religion, Reason, Justice
Science
Religion
Reason and Society
Justice
Part Four - Thoughts and Aphorisms
Jnana
Karma
Bhakti
Additional Aphorisms
Note on the Texts
Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Part One - Essays from the Karmayogin, 1909 – 1910
The Ideal of the Karmayogin
Karmayoga
Man—Slave or Free?
Yoga and Human Evolution
Yoga and Hypnotism
The Greatness of the Individual
The Process of Evolution
Stead and the Spirits
Stead and Maskelyne
Fate and Free-Will
The Three Purushas
The Strength of Stillness
The Principle of Evil
The Stress of the Hidden Spirit
Part Two - The Yoga and Its Objects, Circa 1912
The Yoga and Its Objects
Appendix: Explanations of Some Words and Phrases
Part Three - Writings from the Arya, 1914 – 1921
Notes on the Arya
The “Arya’s” Second Year
Appendix: Passages Omitted from “Our Ideal”
The “Arya’s” Fourth Year
On Ideals and Progress
On Ideals
Yoga and Skill in Works
Conservation and Progress
The Conservative Mind and Eastern Progress
Our Ideal
The Superman
All-Will and Free-Will
The Delight of Works
Evolution
The Inconscient
Materialism
Thoughts and Glimpses
Aphorisms
Thoughts and Glimpses
Heraclitus
Heraclitus – 2
Heraclitus – 3
Heraclitus – 4
Heraclitus – 5
Heraclitus – 6
Heraclitus – 7
The Problem of Rebirth
Section I - Rebirth and Karma
Rebirth
The Reincarnating Soul
Rebirth, Evolution, Heredity
Rebirth and Soul Evolution
The Significance of Rebirth
The Ascending Unity
Involution and Evolution
Karma
Karma and Freedom
Karma, Will and Consequence
Rebirth and Karma
Karma and Justice
Section II - The Lines of Karma
The Foundation
The Terrestrial Law
Mind Nature and Law of Karma
The Higher Lines of Karma
Appendix I: The Tangle of Karma
Appendix II: A Clarification
Other Writings from the Arya
The Question of the Month
The Needed Synthesis
“Arya”—Its Significance
Meditation
Different Methods of Writing
Occult Knowledge and the Hindu Scriptures
The Universal Consciousness
The News of the Month August – September 1914
The News of the Month
South Indian Vaishnava Poetry
Andal: The Vaishnava Poetess
Nammalwar: The Supreme Vaishnava Saint and Poet
Arguments to The Life Divine
Chapter XIX - Life
Chapter XX - Death, Desire and Incapacity
Chapter XXI - The Ascent of Life
Chapter XXII - The Problem of Life
Chapter XXIII - The Double Soul in Man
Chapter XXIV - Matter
Chapter XXV - The Knot of Matter
Chapter XXVI - The Ascending Series of Substance
Chapter XXVII - The Sevenfold Chord of Being
Chapter XXVIII - The Knowledge and the Ignorance
Chapter XXIX - Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Ignorance
Chapter XXX - Memory, Ego and Self-Experience
Chapter XXXI - The Boundaries of the Ignorance
Chapter XXXII - The Integral Knowledge
Chapter XXXIII - The Progress to Knowledge
Appendix I: Chapter I - The Human Aspiration
Appendix II: Chapter XXIV - Matter
Part Four - From the Standard Bearer, 1920
Ourselves
Part Five - From the Bulletin of Physical Education, 1949 – 1950
The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth
Message
Perfection of the Body
The Divine Body
Supermind and the Life Divine
Supermind and Humanity
Supermind in the Evolution
Mind of Light
Supermind and Mind of Light
Note on the Texts
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The Secret of the Veda
Part One - The Secret of the Veda
Chapter I - The Problem and Its Solution
Chapter II - A Retrospect of Vedic Theory
Chapter III - Modern Theories
Chapter IV - The Foundations of the Psychological Theory
Chapter V - The Philological Method of the Veda
Chapter VI - Agni and the Truth
Chapter VII - Varuna-Mitra and the Truth
Chapter VIII - The Ashwins—Indra—the Vishwadevas
Chapter IX - Saraswati and Her Consorts
Chapter X - The Image of the Oceans and the Rivers
Chapter XI - The Seven Rivers
Chapter XII - The Herds of the Dawn
Chapter XIII - Dawn and the Truth
Chapter XIV - The Cow and the Angiras Legend
Chapter XV - The Lost Sun and the Lost Cows
Chapter XVI - The Angiras Rishis
Chapter XVII - The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas
Chapter XVIII - The Human Fathers
Chapter XIX - The Victory of the Fathers
Chapter XX - The Hound of Heaven
Chapter XXI - The Sons of Darkness
Chapter XXII - The Conquest over the Dasyus
Chapter XXIII - Summary of Conclusions
Part Two - Selected Hymns
Author’s Note
I - The Colloquy of Indra and Agastya
II - Indra, Giver of Light
III - Indra and the Thought-Forces
IV - Agni, the Illumined Will
V - Surya Savitri, Creator and Increaser
VI - The Divine Dawn
VII - To Bhaga Savitri, the Enjoyer
VIII - Vayu, the Master of the Life Energies
IX - Brihaspati, Power of the Soul
X - The Ashwins, Lords of Bliss
XI - The Ribhus, Artisans of Immortality
XII - Vishnu, the All-Pervading Godhead
XIII - Soma, Lord of Delight and Immortality
Part Three - Hymns of the Atris
Foreword
The Doctrine of the Mystics
Hymns to Agni
Agni, the Divine Will-Force
The First Hymn to Agni
The Second Hymn to Agni
The Third Hymn to Agni
The Fourth Hymn to Agni
The Fifth Hymn to Agni
The Sixth Hymn to Agni
The Seventh Hymn to Agni
The Eighth Hymn to Agni
The Ninth Hymn to Agni
The Tenth Hymn to Agni
The Eleventh Hymn to Agni
The Twelfth Hymn to Agni
The Thirteenth Hymn to Agni
The Fourteenth Hymn to Agni
The Fifteenth Hymn to Agni
The Sixteenth Hymn to Agni
The Seventeenth Hymn to Agni
The Eighteenth Hymn to Agni
The Nineteenth Hymn to Agni
The Twentieth Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-First Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Second Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Third Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Fourth Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Fifth Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Sixth Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Seventh Hymn to Agni
The Twenty-Eighth Hymn to Agni
Hymns to the Lords of Light
The Guardians of the Light
The First Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Second Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Third Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Fourth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Fifth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Sixth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Seventh Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Eighth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Ninth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Tenth Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
The Eleventh Hymn to Mitra-Varuna
Hymn to Varuna
The First Hymn to the Dawn
The Second Hymn to the Dawn
A Hymn to Savitri
Part Four - Other Hymns
A Vedic Hymn
A Hymn of the Thought-Gods
The God of the Mystic Wine
The Vedic Fire
A Vedic Hymn to the Fire
Parashara’s Hymns to the Lord of the Flame
Appendix
Interpretation of the Veda
Note on the Texts
Hymns To The Mystic Fire
Part One - Hymns to the Mystic Fire
Foreword
The Doctrine of the Mystics
Hymns of Gritsamada
Hymns of Bharadwaja
Hymns of Parashara
Hymn of Paruchchhepa
Part Two - Other Hymns to Agni
Mandala One
Mandala Three
Mandala Four
Mandala Five - The Atris
Mandala Seven
Mandala Eight
Mandala Ten
Appendix to Part Two
Translations of the First Hymn of the Rig Veda
Part Three - Commentaries and Annotated Translations
Mandala One
Mandala Two
Mandala Three
Mandala Four
Mandala Five
Mandala Six
Mandala Seven
Note on the Texts
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Isha Upanishad
Part One - Translation and Commentary Published by Sri Aurobindo
Isha Upanishad
Analysis
Prefatory - Plan of the Upanishad
First Movement - The Inhabiting Godhead: Life and Action
Second Movement [1] - Brahman: Oneness of God and the World
Second Movement [2] - Self-Realisation
Third Movement [1] - The Lord
Third Movement [2] - Knowledge and Ignorance
Third Movement [3] - Birth and Non-Birth
Fourth Movement [1] - The Worlds—Surya
Fourth Movement [2] - Action and the Divine Will
Conclusion and Summary
Part Two - Incomplete Commentaries from Manuscripts
Isha Upanishad: All that is world in the Universe
The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English
The Karmayogin: A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad
Note
Chapter I - The Law of Renunciation.
Chapter II - Salvation through Works
Part II - Karmayoga; the Ideal
Book III - Chapter I
Ish and Jagat
The Secret of the Isha
Chapters for a Work on the Isha Upanishad
The Upanishad in Aphorism
The Life Divine [Draft A]
Appendix
The Life Divine [Draft B]
The Life Divine [Draft C]
Note on the Texts
Kena and Other Upanishads
Kena Upanishad
The Kena Upanishad
Commentary
I - The Subject of the Upanishad
II - The Question. What Godhead?
III - The Supramental Godhead
IV - The Eternal Beyond the Mind
V - The Supreme Word
VI - The Necessity of Supermind
VII - Mind and Supermind
VIII - The Supreme Sense
IX - Sense of Our Senses
X - The Superlife—Life of Our Life
XI - The Great Transition
XII - Mind and the Brahman
XIII - The Parable of the Gods
XIV - The Transfiguration of the Self and the Gods
XV - A Last Word
Katha Upanishad
The Katha Upanishad of the Black Yajurveda
Mundaka Upanishad
Readings in the Taittiriya Upanishad
The Knowledge of Brahman
Truth, Knowledge, Infinity
Part Two - Translations and Commentaries from Manuscripts
Section One - Introduction
On Translating the Upanishads
Section Two - Complete Translations
The Prusna Upanishad of the Athurvaveda
The Mandoukya Upanishad
The Aitereya Upanishad
Taittiriya Upanishad: Shiksha Valli
Taittiriya Upanishad: Brahmananda Valli
Taittiriya Upanishad: Bhrigu Valli
Section Three - Incomplete Translations and Commentaries
Svetasvatara Upanishad
Chhandogya Upanishad
Notes on the Chhandogya Upanishad
Satyakama Jabala
The Brihad Aranyak Upanishad
The Great Aranyaka
The Kaivalya Upanishad
Nila Rudra Upanishad
Section Four - Incomplete Commentaries on the Kena Upanishad
Kena Upanishad: An Incomplete Commentary
A Commentary on the Kena Upanishad
Three Fragments of Commentary
Kena Upanishad: A Partial Translation with Notes
Section Five - Incomplete Translations of Two Vedantic Texts
The Karikas of Gaudapada
Sadananda’s Essence of Vedanta
Part Three - Writings on Vedanta
Four Fragments
The Spirit of Hinduism
The Philosophy of the Upanishads
An Incomplete Work of Vedantic Exegesis
The Religion of Vedanta
Evolution in the Vedantic View
The Means of Realisation
A Fragmentary Chapter for a Work on Vedanta
God and Immortality
Note on the Texts
Essays on the Gita
Essays on the Gita First Series
I - Our Demand and Need from the Gita
II - The Divine Teacher
III - The Human Disciple
IV - The Core of the Teaching
V - Kurukshetra
VI - Man and the Battle of Life
VII - The Creed of the Aryan Fighter
VIII - Sankhya and Yoga
IX - Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta
X - The Yoga of the Intelligent Will
XI - Works and Sacrifice
XII - The Significance of Sacrifice
XIII - The Lord of the Sacrifice
XIV - The Principle of Divine Works
XV - The Possibility and Purpose of Avatarhood
XVI - The Process of Avatarhood
XVII - The Divine Birth and Divine Works
XVIII - The Divine Worker
XIX - Equality
XX - Equality and Knowledge
XXI - The Determinism of Nature
XXII - Beyond the Modes of Nature
XXIII - Nirvana and Works in the World
XXIV - The Gist of the Karmayoga
Essays on the Gita Second Series
Part I - The Synthesis of Works, Love and Knowledge
I - The Two Natures
II - The Synthesis of Devotion and Knowledge
III - The Supreme Divine
IV - The Secret of Secrets
V - The Divine Truth and Way
VI - Works, Devotion and Knowledge
VII - The Supreme Word of the Gita
VIII - God in Power of Becoming
IX - The Theory of the Vibhuti
X - The Vision of the World-Spirit - Time the Destroyer
XI - The Vision of the World-Spirit - The Double Aspect
XII - The Way and the Bhakta
Part II - The Supreme Secret
XIII - The Field and its Knower
XIV - Above the Gunas
XV - The Three Purushas
XVI - The Fullness of Spiritual Action
XVII - Deva and Asura
XVIII - The Gunas, Faith and Works
XIX - The Gunas, Mind and Works
XX - Swabhava and Swadharma
XXI - Towards the Supreme Secret
XXII - The Supreme Secret
XXIII - The Core of the Gita’s Meaning
XXIV - The Message of the Gita
Note on the Text
The Renaissance in India with A Defence of Indian Culture
The Renaissance in India – 1
The Renaissance in India – 2
The Renaissance in India – 3
The Renaissance in India – 4
Indian Culture and External Influence
“Is India Civilised?” – 1
“Is India Civilised?” – 2
“Is India Civilised?” – 3
A Defence of Indian Culture
I - A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture – 1
II - A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture – 2
III - A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture – 3
IV - A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture – 4
V - A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture – 5
VI - A Rationalistic Critic on Indian Culture – 6
VII - Indian Spirituality and Life – 1
VIII - Indian Spirituality and Life – 2
IX - Indian Spirituality and Life – 3
X - Indian Spirituality and Life – 4
XI - Indian Spirituality and Life – 5
XII - Indian Art – 1
XIII - Indian Art – 2
XIV - Indian Art – 3
XV - Indian Art – 4
XVI - Indian Literature – 1
XVII - Indian Literature – 2
XVIII - Indian Literature – 3
XIX - Indian Literature – 4
XX - Indian Literature – 5
XXI - Indian Polity – 1
XXII - Indian Polity – 2
XXIII - Indian Polity – 3
XXIV - Indian Polity – 4
Note on the Texts
The Life Divine
Book One - Omnipresent Reality and the Universe
Chapter I - The Human Aspiration
Chapter II - The Two Negations: The Materialist Denial
Chapter III - The Two Negations: The Refusal of the Ascetic
Chapter IV - Reality Omnipresent
Chapter V - The Destiny of the Individual
Chapter VI - Man in the Universe
Chapter VII - The Ego and the Dualities
Chapter VIII - The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge
Chapter IX - The Pure Existent
Chapter X - Conscious Force
Chapter XI - Delight of Existence: The Problem
Chapter XII - Delight of Existence: The Solution
Chapter XIII - The Divine Maya
Chapter XIV - The Supermind as Creator
Chapter XV - The Supreme Truth-Consciousness
Chapter XVI - The Triple Status of Supermind
Chapter XVII - The Divine Soul
Chapter XVIII - Mind and Supermind
Chapter XIX - Life
Chapter XX - Death, Desire and Incapacity
Chapter XXI - The Ascent of Life
Chapter XXII - The Problem of Life
Chapter XXIII - The Double Soul in Man
Chapter XXIV - Matter
Chapter XXV - The Knot of Matter
Chapter XXVI - The Ascending Series of Substance
Chapter XXVII - The Sevenfold Chord of Being
Chapter XXVIII - Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya
Book Two - The Knowledge and the Ignorance—The Spiritual Evolution
Part I - The Infinite Consciousness and the Ignorance
Chapter I - Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable
Chapter II - Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara—Maya, Prakriti, Shakti
Chapter III - The Eternal and the Individual
Chapter IV - The Divine and the Undivine
Chapter V - The Cosmic Illusion; Mind, Dream and Hallucination
Chapter VI - Reality and the Cosmic Illusion
Chapter VII - The Knowledge and the Ignorance
Chapter VIII - Memory, Self-Consciousnessand the Ignorance
Chapter IX - Memory, Ego and Self-Experience
Chapter X - Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge
Chapter XI - The Boundaries of the Ignorance
Chapter XII - The Origin of the Ignorance
Chapter XIII - Exclusive Concentration of Consciousness-Force and the Ignorance
Chapter XIV - The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil
Part II - The Knowledge and the Spiritual Evolution
Chapter XV - Reality and the Integral Knowledge
Chapter XVI - The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence
Chapter XVII - The Progress to Knowledge—God, Man and Nature
Chapter XVIII - The Evolutionary Process—Ascent and Integration
Chapter XIX - Out of the Sevenfold Ignorance towards the Sevenfold Knowledge
Chapter XX - The Philosophy of Rebirth
Chapter XXI - The Order of the Worlds
Chapter XXII - Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality
Chapter XXIII - Man and the Evolution
Chapter XXIV - The Evolution of the Spiritual Man
Chapter XXV - The Triple Transformation
Chapter XXVI - The Ascent towards Supermind
Chapter XXVII - The Gnostic Being
Chapter XXVIII - The Divine Life
Note on the Text
The Synthesis of Yoga
The Synthesis of Yoga: “All life is Yoga.”
Introduction: The Conditions of the Synthesis
Chapter I - Life and Yoga
Chapter II - The Three Steps of Nature
Chapter III - The Threefold Life
Chapter IV - The Systems of Yoga
Chapter V - The Synthesis of the Systems
Part I - The Yoga of Divine Works
Chapter I - The Four Aids
Chapter II - Self-Consecration
Chapter III - Self-Surrender in Works—The Way of the Gita
Chapter IV - The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice
Chapter V - The Ascent of the Sacrifice – 1
Chapter VI - The Ascent of the Sacrifice – 2
Chapter VII - Standards of Conduct and Spiritual Freedom
Chapter VIII - The Supreme Will
Chapter IX - Equality and the Annihilation of Ego
Chapter X - The Three Modes of Nature
Chapter XI - The Master of the Work
Chapter XII - The Divine Work
Appendix to Part I
Chapter XIII - The Supermind and the Yoga of Works
Part II - The Yoga of Integral Knowledge
Chapter I - The Object of Knowledge
Chapter II - The Status of Knowledge
Chapter III - The Purified Understanding
Chapter IV - Concentration
Chapter V - Renunciation
Chapter VI - The Synthesis of the Disciplines of Knowledge
Chapter VII - The Release from Subjection to the Body
Chapter VIII - The Release from the Heart and the Mind
Chapter IX - The Release from the Ego
Chapter X - The Realisation of the Cosmic Self
Chapter XI - The Modes of the Self
Chapter XII - The Realisation of Sachchidananda
Chapter XIII - The Difficulties of the Mental Being
Chapter XIV - The Passive and the Active Brahman
Chapter XV - The Cosmic Consciousness
Chapter XVI - Oneness
Chapter XVII - The Soul and Nature
Chapter XVIII - The Soul and Its Liberation
Chapter XIX - The Planes of Our Existence
Chapter XX - The Lower Triple Purusha
Chapter XXI - The Ladder of Self-Transcendence
Chapter XXII - Vijnana or Gnosis
Chapter XXIII - The Conditions of Attainment to the Gnosis
Chapter XXIV - Gnosis and Ananda
Chapter XXV - The Higher and the Lower Knowledge
Chapter XXVI - Samadhi
Chapter XXVII - Hathayoga
Chapter XXVIII - Rajayoga
Part III - The Yoga of Divine Love
Chapter I - Love and the Triple Path
Chapter II - The Motives of Devotion
Chapter III - The Godward Emotions
Chapter IV - The Way of Devotion
Chapter V - The Divine Personality
Chapter VI - The Delight of the Divine
Chapter VII - The Ananda Brahman
Chapter VIII - The Mystery of Love
Part IV - The Yoga of Self-Perfection
Chapter I - The Principle of the Integral Yoga
Chapter II - The Integral Perfection
Chapter III - The Psychology of Self-Perfection
Chapter IV - The Perfection of the Mental Being
Chapter V - The Instruments of the Spirit
Chapter VI - Purification—The Lower Mentality
Chapter VII - Purification—Intelligence and Will
Chapter VIII - The Liberation of the Spirit
Chapter IX - The Liberation of the Nature
Chapter X - The Elements of Perfection
Chapter XI - The Perfection of Equality
Chapter XII - The Way of Equality
Chapter XIII - The Action of Equality
Chapter XIV - The Power of the Instruments
Chapter XV - Soul-Force and the FourfoldPersonality
Chapter XVI - The Divine Shakti
Chapter XVII - The Action of the Divine Shakti
Chapter XVIII - Faith and Shakti
Chapter XIX - The Nature of the Supermind
Chapter XX - The Intuitive Mind
Chapter XXI - The Gradations of the Supermind
Chapter XXII - The Supramental Thought and Knowledge
Chapter XXIII - The Supramental Instruments—Thought-Process
Chapter XXIV - The Supramental Sense
Chapter XXV - Towards the Supramental Time Vision
Appendix to Part IV
Chapter XXVI - The Supramental Time Consciousness
Note on the Text
The Human Cycle - The Ideal of Human Unity - War and Self-Determination
The Human Cycle
Chapter I - The Cycle of Society
Chapter II - The Age of Individualism and Reason
Chapter III - The Coming of the Subjective Age
Chapter IV - The Discovery of the Nation-Soul
Chapter V - True and False Subjectivism
Chapter VI - The Objective and SubjectiveViews of Life
Chapter VII - The Ideal Law of SocialDevelopment
Chapter VIII - Civilisation and Barbarism
Chapter IX - Civilisation and Culture
Chapter X - Aesthetic and Ethical Culture
Chapter XI - The Reason as Governor of Life
Chapter XII - The Office and Limitations of the Reason
Chapter XIII - Reason and Religion
Chapter XIV - The Suprarational Beauty
Chapter XV - The Suprarational Good
Chapter XVI - The Suprarational Ultimate of Life
Chapter XVII - Religion as the Law of Life
Chapter XVIII - The Infrarational Age of the Cycle
Chapter XIX - The Curve of the Rational Age
Chapter XX - The End of the Curve of Reason
Chapter XXI - The Spiritual Aim and Life
Chapter XXII - The Necessity of the Spiritual Transformation
Chapter XXIII - Conditions for the Coming of a Spiritual Age
Chapter XXIV - The Advent and Progress of the Spiritual Age
The Ideal of Human Unity
Preface to the First Edition
The Ideal of Human Unity - Part I
Chapter I - The Turn towards Unity: Its Necessity and Dangers
Chapter II - The Imperfection of Past Aggregates
Chapter III - The Group and the Individual
Chapter IV - The Inadequacy of the State Idea
Chapter V - Nation and Empire: Real and Political Unities
Chapter VI - Ancient and Modern Methods of Empire
Chapter VII - The Creation of the Heterogeneous Nation
Chapter VIII - The Problem of a Federated Heterogeneous Empire
Chapter IX - The Possibility of a World-Empire
Chapter X - The United States of Europe
Chapter XI - The Small Free Unit and the Larger Concentrated Unity
Chapter XII - The Ancient Cycle of Prenational Empire-Building—The Modern Cycle of Nation-Building
Chapter XIII - The Formation of the Nation-Unit—The Three Stages
Chapter XIV - The Possibility of a First Step towards International Unity—Its Enormous Difficulties
Chapter XV - Some Lines of Fulfilment
Chapter XVI - The Problem of Uniformity and Liberty
The Ideal of Human Unity - Part II
Chapter XVII - Nature’s Law in Our Progress—Unity in Diversity, Law and Liberty
Chapter XVIII - The Ideal Solution—A Free Grouping of Mankind
Chapter XIX - The Drive towards Centralisation and Uniformity—Administration and Control of Foreign Affairs
Chapter XX - The Drive towards Economic Centralisation
Chapter XXI - The Drive towards Legislative and Social Centralisation and Uniformity
Chapter XXII - World-Union or World-State
Chapter XXIII - Forms of Government
Chapter XXIV - The Need of Military Unification
Chapter XXV - War and the Need of Economic Unity
Chapter XXVI - The Need of Administrative Unity
Chapter XXVII - The Peril of the World-State
Chapter XXVIII - Diversity in Oneness
Chapter XXIX - The Idea of a League of Nations
Chapter XXX - The Principle of Free Confederation
Chapter XXXI - The Conditions of a Free World-Union
Chapter XXXII - Internationalism
Chapter XXXIII - Internationalism and Human Unity
Chapter XXXIV - The Religion of Humanity
Chapter XXXV - Summary and Conclusion
A Postscript Chapter
War and Self-Determination
Foreword to the First Edition
The Passing of War?
The Unseen Power
Self-Determination
A League of Nations
1919
After the War
Appendixes
Appendix I
Appendix II
Note on the Texts
The Future Poetry with On Quantitative Metre
The Future Poetry - Part I
Chapter I - The Mantra
Chapter II - The Essence of Poetry
Chapter III - Rhythm and Movement
Chapter IV - Style and Substance
Chapter V - Poetic Vision and the Mantra
Chapter VI - The National Evolution of Poetry
Chapter VII - The Character of English Poetry – 1
Chapter VIII - The Character of English Poetry – 2
Chapter IX - The Course of English Poetry – 1
Chapter X - The Course of English Poetry – 2
Chapter XI - The Course of English Poetry – 3
Chapter XII - The Course of English Poetry – 4
Chapter XIII - The Course of English Poetry – 5
Chapter XIV - The Movement of Modern Literature – 1
Chapter XV - The Movement of Modern Literature – 2
Chapter XVI - The Poets of the Dawn– 1
Chapter XVII - The Poets of the Dawn– 2
Chapter XVIII - The Poets of the Dawn– 3
Chapter XIX - The Victorian Poets
Chapter XX - Recent English Poetry – 1
Chapter XXI - Recent English Poetry – 2
Chapter XXII - Recent English Poetry – 3
Chapter XXIII - Recent English Poetry – 4
Chapter XXIV - New Birth or Decadence?
The Future Poetry - Part II
Chapter I - The Ideal Spirit of Poetry
Chapter II - The Sun of Poetic Truth
Chapter III - The Breath of Greater Life
Chapter IV - The Soul of Poetic Delight and Beauty
Chapter V - The Power of the Spirit
Chapter VI - The Form and the Spirit
Chapter VII - The Word and the Spirit
Chapter VIII - Conclusion
Appendixes to The Future Poetry
Appendix I: New Ways in English Literature
Appendix II
Appendix III
On Quantitative Metre
On Quantitative Metre: The Reason of Past Failures
Poems in Quantitative Metres
Ocean Oneness
Trance of Waiting
Flame-Wind
The River
Journey’s End
The Dream Boat
Soul in the Ignorance
The Witness and the Wheel
Descent
The Lost Boat
Renewal
Soul’s Scene
Ascent
The Tiger and the Deer
Ilion
Note on the Texts
Letters on Poetry and Art
Part One - Poetry and Its Creation
Section One - The Sources of Poetry
Poetic Creation
Sources of Inspiration
Overhead Poetry
Examples of Overhead Poetry
Section Two - The Poetry of the Spirit
Psychic, Mystic and Spiritual Poetry
Poet, Yogi, Rishi, Prophet, Genius
The Poet and the Poem
Section Three - Poetic Technique
Technique, Inspiration, Artistry
Rhythm
English Metres
Greek and Latin Classical Metres
Quantitative Metre in English and Bengali
Metrical Experiments in Bengali
Rhyme
English Poetic Forms
Substance, Style, Diction
Grades of Perfection in Poetic Style
Examples of Grades of Perfection in Poetic Style
Section Four - Translation
Translation: Theory
Translation: Practice
Part Two - On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section One - On His Poetry and Poetic Method
Inspiration, Effort, Development
Early Poetic Influences
On Early Translations and Poems
On Poems Published in Ahana and Other Poems
Metrical Experiments
On Some Poems Written during the 1930s
On Savitri
Comments on Some Remarks by a Critic
On the Publication of His Poetry
Section Two - On Poets and Poetry
Great Poets of the World
Remarks on Individual Poets
Comments on Some Examples of Western Poetry (up to 1900)
Twentieth-Century Poetry
Comments on Examples of Twentieth-Century Poetry
Indian Poetry in English
Poets of the Ashram
Comments on the Work of Poets of the Ashram
Philosophers, Intellectuals, Novelists and Musicians
Comments on Some Passages of Prose
Section Three - Practical Guidance for Aspiring Writers
Guidance in Writing Poetry
Guidance in Writing Prose
Remarks on English Pronunciation
Remarks on English Usage
Remarks on Bengali Usage
Part Three - Literature, Art, Beauty and Yoga
Section One - Appreciation of Poetry and the Arts
Appreciation of Poetry
Appreciation of the Arts in General
Comparison of the Arts
Appreciation of Music
Section Two - On the Visual Arts
General Remarks on the Visual Arts
Problems of the Painter
Painting in the Ashram
Section Three - Beauty and Its Appreciation
General Remarks on Beauty
Appreciation of Beauty
Section Four - Literature, Art, Music and the Practice of Yoga
Literature and Yoga
Painting, Music, Dance and Yoga
Appendixes
Appendix I: The Problem of the Hexameter
Appendix II: An Answer to a Criticism
Appendix III: Remarks on a Review
Note on the Texts
Letters on Yoga - I
Part One - The Divine, the Cosmos and the Individual
Section One - The Divine, Sachchidananda, Brahman and Atman
Chapter One - The Divine and Its Aspects
Chapter Two - Sachchidananda: Existence, Consciousness-Force and Bliss
Chapter Three - Brahman
Chapter Four -The Self or Atman
Section Two - The Cosmos: Terms from Indian Systems
Chapter One - The Upanishadic and Puranic Systems
Chapter Two - The Sankhya-Yoga System
Section Three -The Jivatman and the Psychic Being
Chapter One - The Jivatman in the Integral Yoga
Chapter Two - The Jivatman in Other Indian Systems
Untitled
Part Two - The Parts of the Being and the Planes of Consciousness
Section One - The Organisation of the Being
Chapter One - The Parts of the Being
Chapter Two - Classification of the Parts of the Being
Section Two - The Concentric System: Outer to Inner
Chapter One - The Outer Being and the Inner Being
Chapter Two - The True Being and the True Consciousness
Chapter Three - The Psychic Being
Section Three - The Vertical System: Supermind to Subconscient
Chapter One - The Planes or Worlds of Consciousness
Chapter Two - The Supermind or Supramental
Chapter Three - The Overmind
Chapter Four - The Higher Planes of Mind
Chapter Five - The Lower Nature or Lower Hemisphere
Chapter Six - The Mind
Chapter Seven - The Vital Being and Vital Consciousness
Chapter Eight - The Physical Consciousness
Chapter Nine - The Environmental Consciousness
Chapter Ten - The Subconscient and the Inconscient
Section Four - The Chakras or Centres of Consciousness
Chapter One - The System of the Chakras
Chapter Two - The Parts of the Body and the Centres
Part Three - The Evolutionary Process and the Supermind
Section One - The Supramental Evolution
Chapter One - The Problem of Suffering and Evil
Chapter Two - Spiritual Evolution and the Supramental
Section Two - The Supramental Descent and Transformation
Chapter One - The Descent of the Supermind
Chapter Two - Descent and Transformation
Chapter Three - The Supramental Transformation
Chapter Four - Transformation and the Body
Part Four - Problems of Philosophy, Science, Religion and Society
Section One - Thought, Philosophy, Science and Yoga
Chapter One - The Intellect and Yoga
Chapter Two - Doubt and Faith
Chapter Three - Philosophical Thought and Yoga
Chapter Four - Science and Yoga
Section Two - Religion, Idealism, Morality andYoga
Chapter One - Religion and Yoga
Chapter Two - Idealism and Spirituality
Chapter Three - Morality and Yoga
Chapter Four - Social Duties and the Divine
Part Five - Questions of Spiritual and Occult Knowledge
Section One - The Divine and the Hostile Powers
Chapter One - Terminology
Chapter Two - The Gods
Chapter Three - The Hostile Forces and Hostile Beings
Section Two - The Avatar and the Vibhuti
Chapter One - The Meaning and Purpose of Avatarhood
Chapter Two - Specific Avatars and Vibhutis
Chapter Three - Human Greatness
Section Three - Destiny, Karma, Death and Rebirth
Chapter One - Fate, Free Will and Prediction
Chapter Two - Karma and Heredity
Chapter Three - Death
Chapter Four - Rebirth
Section Four - Occult Knowledge and Powers
Chapter One - Occult Knowledge
Chapter Two - Occult Powers or Siddhis
Note on the Texts
covers for cwsa 19-36.pdf
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Letters on Yoga - II
Part One - The Path of the Integral Yoga
Section One - The Path and the Goal
Chapter One - Seeking the Divine
Chapter Two - The Aim of the Integral Yoga
Section Two - Basic Requisites of the Path
Chapter One - The Call and the Capacity
Chapter Two - Qualities Needed for Sadhana
Chapter Three - Purity
Chapter Four - Sincerity
Chapter Five - Aspiration
Chapter Six - Rejection
Chapter Seven - Surrender
Chapter Eight - Faith
Chapter Nine - Consecration and Offering
Chapter Ten - Opening
Chapter Eleven - Patience and Perseverance
Chapter Twelve - Vigilance
Section Three - The Foundation of the Sadhana
Chapter One - Peace—The Basis of the Sadhana
Chapter Two - Equality—The Chief Support
Chapter Three - Quiet and Calm
Chapter Four - Peace
Chapter Five - Silence
Section Four - The Divine Response
Chapter One - The Divine Grace and Guidance
Chapter Two - The Divine Force
Chapter Three - The Guru
Part Two - The Synthetic Method of the Integral Yoga
Section One - A Yoga of Knowledge, Works, Bhakti and Self-Perfection
Chapter One - The Central Processes of the Sadhana
Chapter Two - Combining Work, Meditation and Bhakti
Section Two - Sadhana through Work
Chapter One - Work and Yoga
Chapter Two - Becoming Conscious in Work
Chapter Three - The Divine Force in Work
Chapter Four - Practical Concerns in Work
Chapter Five - Creative Activity
Section Three - Sadhana through Concentration,
Meditation and Japa
Chapter One - Concentration and Meditation
Chapter Two - Mantra and Japa
Section Four - Sadhana through Love and Devotion
Chapter One - Divine Love, Psychic Love and Human Love
Chapter Two - Bhakti, Devotion, Worship
Part Three - The Integral Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths
Section One - A Yoga of Transformation
Chapter One - Distinctive Features of the Integral Yoga
Chapter Two - Asceticism and the Integral Yoga
Chapter Three - A Realistic Adwaita
Chapter Four - Transformation in the Integral Yoga
Section Two - Other Spiritual Paths and the Integral Yoga
Chapter One - The Newness of the Integral Yoga
Chapter Two - The Veda and the Upanishads
Chapter Three - Jainism and Buddhism
Chapter Four - Sankhya and Yoga
Chapter Five - The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita
Chapter Six - The Adwaita of Shankaracharya
Chapter Seven - Tantra
Chapter Eight - Bhakti Yoga and Vaishnavism
Chapter Nine - The Teachings of Some Modern Indian Yogis
Chapter Ten - Christianity and Theosophy
Note on the Texts
Letters on Yoga - III Experiences and Realisationsin the Integral Yoga
Part One - The Place of Experiences in the Practice of Yoga
Section One - The Nature and Value of Experiences
Chapter One - Experiences and Realisations
Chapter Two - The Value of Experiences
Chapter Three - Inner Experience and Outer Life
Chapter Four - The Danger of the Ego and the Need of Purification
Chapter Five - Suggestions for Dealing with Experiences
Section Two - Vicissitudes on the Way to Realisation
Chapter One - Variations in the Intensity of Experience
Chapter Two - Emptiness, Voidness, Blankness and Silence
Part Two -
The Opening of the Inner Senses
Section One - Visions, Sounds, Smells and Tastes
Chapter One - The Value of Visions
Chapter Two - Kinds of Vision
Chapter Three - Subtle Sights, Sounds, Smells and Tastes
Section Two - Lights and Colours
Chapter One - Light
Chapter Two - Colours
Section Three - Symbols
Chapter One - Symbols and Symbolic Visions
Chapter Two - Sun, Moon, Star, Fire
Chapter Three - Sky, Weather, Night and Dawn
Chapter Four - Water and Bodies of Water
Chapter Five - Earth
Chapter Six - Gods, Goddesses and Semi-Divine Beings
Chapter Seven - The Human World
Chapter Eight - The Animal World
Chapter Nine - The Plant World
Chapter Ten -Constructions
Chapter Eleven - Objects
Chapter Twelve - Numbers and Letters
Part Three -
Experiences of
the Inner Consciousness
and the Cosmic Consciousness
Section One - Experiences on the Inner Planes
Chapter One - Experiences on the Subtle Physical, Vital and Mental Planes
Chapter Two - Exteriorisation or Going Out of the Body
Section Two - Experiences of the Inner Being and the Inner Consciousness
Chapter One - The Inward Movement
Chapter Two - Inner Detachment and the Witness Attitude
Chapter Three - Inner Experiences in the State of Samadhi
Chapter Four - Three Experiences of the Inner Being
Section Three - Experiences of the Cosmic Consciousness
Chapter One - The Universal or Cosmic Consciousness
Chapter Two - Aspects of the Cosmic Consciousness
Chapter Three - The Universal or Cosmic Forces
Section Four - The Dangers of Inner and Cosmic Experiences
Chapter One - The Intermediate Zone
Chapter Two - Inner Voices and Indications
Part Four -
The Fundamental Realisations
of the Integral Yoga
Section One - Three Stages of Transformation: Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental
Chapter One - The Psychic and Spiritual Realisations
Chapter Two - Conditions of Transformation
Section Two - The Psychic Opening, Emergence and Transformation
Chapter One - The Psychic Being and Its Role in Sadhana
Chapter Two - The Psychic Opening
Chapter Three - The Emergence or Coming Forward of the Psychic
Chapter Four - Experiences Associated with the Psychic
Chapter Five - The Psychic and Spiritual Transformations
Section Three - Spiritual Experiences and Realisations
Chapter One - Experiences of the Self, the One and the Infinite
Chapter Two - Experiences on the Higher Planes
Section Four - The Spiritual Transformation
Chapter One - Ascent and Descent
Chapter Two - Ascent to the Higher Planes
Chapter Three - The Descent of the Higher Consciousness and Force
Chapter Four - The Descent of the Higher Powers
Chapter Five - Descent and Other Kinds of Experience
Chapter Six - Feelings and Sensations in the Process of Descent
Chapter Seven - Difficulties Experienced in the Process of Descent
Chapter Eight - Descent and the Lower Nature
Note on the Texts
Letters on Yoga - IV Transformation of Human Nature in the Integral Yoga
Part One - Sadhana on the Level of the Mind
Section One - The Mind and Sadhana
Chapter One
- The Mind and Other Levels of Being
Chapter Two - Intellect and the Intellectual
Chapter Three -
Mental Difficulties
and the Need of Quietude
Chapter Four -
The Physical Mind and Sadhana
Chapter Five -
Thought and Knowledge
Section Two -
Cultivation of the Mind in Yoga
Chapter One -
Mental Development and Sadhana
Chapter Two -
The Place of Study in Sadhana
Chapter Three -
The Power of Expression and Yoga
Chapter Four -
Speech and Yoga
Part Two -
Sadhana on the Level of the Vital
Section One -
The Vital Being and Sadhana
Chapter One -
The Nature of the Vital
Chapter Two -

The Vital and Other Levels of Being
Chapter Three -

Wrong Movements of the Vital
Chapter Four -

The Lower Vital Being
Section Two -

Vital Temperament
Chapter One -

Cheerfulness and Happiness
Chapter Two -

Sorrow and Suffering
Chapter Three -

Depression and Despondency
Chapter Four - Sentimentalism, Sensitiveness,
Instability, Laxity
Section Three - Vital Defects
Chapter One - Ego and Its Forms
Chapter Two - Desire
Chapter Three - Anger and Violence
Chapter Four - Fear
Section Four - Human Relations in Yoga
Chapter One - Human Relationsand the Spiritual Life
Chapter Two - Interactions with Othersand the Practice of Yoga
Chapter Three - Problems in Human Relations
Part Three - Sadhana on the Physical, Subconscient and Inconscient Levels
Section One - Sadhana on the Levelof the Physical
Chapter One - The Transformation of the Physical
Chapter Two - Levels of the Physical Being
Chapter Three - Difficulties of the Physical Nature
Section Two - Food, Sleep, Dreams and Sex
Chapter One - Food
Chapter Two - Sleep
Chapter Three - Dreams
Chapter Four - Sex
Section Three -Illness, Doctors and Medicines
Chapter One - Illness and Health
Chapter Two - Doctors and Medicines
Chapter Three - Specific Illnesses, Ailmentsand Other Physical Problems
Section Four - The Subconscient and the Inconscientand the Process of Yoga
Chapter One - The Subconscientand the Integral Yoga
Chapter Two - The Inconscientand the Integral Yoga
Part Four - Difficulties in the Practice of the Integral Yoga
Section One -
Difficulties of the Path
Chapter One - The Difficulties of Yoga
Chapter Two - The Difficulties of Human Nature
Chapter Three - Imperfections and Periods of Arrest
Chapter Four - Resistances, Sufferings and Falls
Section Two - Overcoming the Difficulties of Yoga
Chapter One - The Right Attitude towards Difficulties
Chapter Two - Steps towards Overcoming Difficulties
Chapter Three - Vigilance, Resolution, Will and the Divine Help
Chapter Four - Time and Change of the Nature
Chapter Five - Dealing with Depression and Despondency
Section Three - The Opposition of the Hostile Forces
Chapter One - The Hostile Forces and the Difficulties of Yoga
Chapter Two - Attacks by the Hostile Forces
Chapter Three - Dealing with Hostile Attacks
Chapter Four - Accidents, Possession, Madness
Note on the Texts
The Mother with Letters on the Mother
Part One - The Mother
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
Part Two - Letters on the Mother
Section One - The Mother: Individual, Universal, Transcendent
The Mother and the Purpose of Her Embodiment
The Mother: Some Events in Her Life
Three Aspects of the Mother
The Mother, the Divine and the Lower Nature
Forms, Powers, Personalities and Appearances of the Mother
Section Two - The Mother, Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga
Two in One
Appendix - Two Texts
Incarnation and Evolution
Difficulties of the Pathfinders
Helpers on the Way
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in Dreams, Visions and Experiences
Section Three - The Mother and the Practice of the Integral Yoga
Aspiration and Surrender to the Mother
Opening, Sincerity and the Mother’s Grace
The Mother’s Presence
The Mother’s Force
Sadhana through Work for the Mother
The Mother’s Lights
The Mother in Visions, Dreams and Experiences
The Mother’s Help in Difficulties
Section Four - The Mother in the Life of the Ashram
The Mother and the Sadhana in the Ashram
The Mother as Guru and Guide
The Mother and the Discipline in the Ashram
Work for the Mother in the Ashram
Relation between the Mother and Her Children
Meeting the Mother
Aspects of the Mother’s Life in the Ashram
Section Five - On Three Works of the Mother
On Pri`eres et M´editations de la M`ere
On Conversations with the Mother
On Entretiens avec la M`ere
Part Three - Translations of Prayers of the Mother
Prayers and Meditations
Prayers and Meditations
Radha’s Prayer
Note on the Texts
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Savitri a Legend and a Symbol
Author’s Note
Part One - Books I – III
Book One - The Book of Beginnings
Canto One: The Symbol Dawn
Canto Two: The Issue
Canto Three: The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Soul’s Release
Canto Four: The Secret Knowledge
Canto Five: The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness
Book Two - The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto One: The World-Stair
Canto Two: The Kingdom of Subtle Matter
Canto Three: The Glory and the Fall of Life
Canto Four: The Kingdoms of the Little Life
Canto Five: The Godheads of the Little Life
Canto Six: The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life
Canto Seven: The Descent into Night
Canto Eight: The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness
Canto Nine: The Paradise of the Life-Gods
Canto Ten: The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind
Canto Eleven: The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind
Canto Twelve: The Heavens of the Ideal
Canto Thirteen: In the Self of Mind
Canto Fourteen: The World-Soul
Canto Fifteen: The Kingdoms of the Greater Knowledge
Book Three - The Book of the Divine Mother
Canto One: The Pursuit of the Unknowable
Canto Two: The Adoration of the Divine Mother
Canto Three: The House of the Spirit and the New Creation
Canto Four: The Vision and the Boon
Part Two - Books IV – VIII
Book Four - The Book of Birth and Quest
Canto One: The Birth and Childhood of the Flame
Canto Two: The Growth of the Flame
Canto Three: The Call to the Quest
Canto Four: The Quest
Book Five - The Book of Love
Canto One: The Destined Meeting-Place
Canto Two: Satyavan
Canto Three: Satyavan and Savitri
Book Six - The Book of Fate
Canto One: The Word of Fate
Canto Two: The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain
Book Seven - The Book of Yoga
Canto One: The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge of Death and the Heart’s Grief and Pain
Canto Two: The Parable of the Search for the Soul
Canto Three: The Entry into the Inner Countries
Canto Four: The Triple Soul-Forces
Canto Five: The Finding of the Soul
Canto Six: Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute
Canto Seven: The Discovery of the Cosmic Spirit and the Cosmic Consciousness
Book Eight - The Book of Death
Canto Three: Death in the Forest
Part Three - Books IX – XII
Book Nine - The Book of Eternal Night
Canto One: Towards the Black Void
Canto Two: The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness
Book Ten - The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto One: The Dream Twilight of the Ideal
Canto Two: The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal
Canto Three: The Debate of Love and Death
Canto Four: The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real
Book Eleven - The Book of Everlasting Day
Canto One: The Eternal Day: The Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation
Book Twelve - Epilogue
Epilogue: The Return to Earth
Note on the Text
Letters on Himself and the Ashram.pdf
Part One - Remarks on His Life and Works and on His Contemporaries and Contemporary Events
Section One - Reminiscences and Remarks on Events in His Outer Life
His Life and Attempts to Write about It
His Name
Life in England, 1879 – 1893
Life in Baroda, 1893 – 1906
Political Career, 1906 – 1910
Outer Life in Pondicherry 1910 – 1950
Section Two - General Remarks on His Life
Remarks on His Life in Pondicherry after 1926
His Temperament and Character
Heredity, Past Lives, Astrology
Section Three - Remarks on Himself as a Writer and on His Writings
On Himself as a Writer
Writing for Publication
On His Published Prose Writings
The Terminology of His Writings
Section Four - Remarks on Contemporaries and on Contemporary Problems
Remarks on Spiritual Figures in India
Remarks on European Writers on Occultism
Remarks on Public Figures in India
Remarks on Public Figures in Europe
Remarks on Indian Affairs 1930 – 1946
Remarks on the World Situation 1933 – 1949
Part Two - His Sadhana or Practice of Yoga
Section One - Sadhana before Coming to Pondicherry in 1910
Ordinary Life and Yoga
Early Experiences
The Realisation of January 1908
Experiences in Alipur Jail 1908 – 1909
Section Two - Sadhana in Pondicherry 1910 – 1950
The Early Years in Pondicherry 1910 – 1926
The Realisation of 24 November 1926
The Sadhana of 1927 – 1929
General Remarks on the Sadhana of the 1930s
The Supramental Yoga and Other Spiritual Paths
Remarks on the Current State of the Sadhana, 1931 – 1947
Section Three - Some Aspects of the Sadhana in Pondicherry
Inner Vicissitudes and Difficulties
Unusual Experiences and States of Consciousness
Part Three - The Leader and the Guide
Section One - The Guru and the Avatar
The Guru
The Question of Avatarhood
Section Two - Help and Guidance
Help from the Guide
Utility of Correspondence
Sri Aurobindo’s Force
Therapeutic Force and Healing
Lights, Visions, Dreams
Darshan
Contact with People Outside the Ashram
Part Four - The Practice of Yoga in the Ashram and Outside
Section One - The Practice of Yoga in the Ashram 1926 – 1950
Entering Sri Aurobindo’s Path
Admission, Staying, Departure
The Ashram and Its Atmosphere
Sadhana in the Ashram
Discipline in the Ashram
Rules in the Life of the Ashram
The Ashram and Religion
Human Relations and the Ashram
Work in the Ashram
Life and Death in the Ashram
Miscellaneous Matters
Section Two - The Practice of Yoga in the Ashram and the Outside World
The Ashram and the Outside World
Yoga Centres and Movements
Part Five - Mantras and Messages
Section One - Mantras
On Mantras
Mantras Written by Sri Aurobindo
Section Two - Messages
Messages Written for Special Occasions
Note on the Texts
covers for cwsa vol.35.pdf
Page 11
Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest
Part One - Autobiographical Notes
Section One - Life Sketches and Other Autobiographical Notes
Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch
Appendix - Letters on “Sri Aurobindo: A Life Sketch”
Incomplete Life Sketches
Other Autobiographical Notes
Section Two - Corrections of Statements Made in Biographies and Other Publications
Early Life in India and England, 1872 – 1893
Life in Baroda, 1893 – 1906
Political Life, 1893 – 1910
The Departure from Calcutta, 1910
Life in Pondicherry, 1910 – 1950
Early Spiritual Development
Philosophy and Writings
Appendix - Notes of Uncertain Origin
Part Two - Letters of Historical Interest
Section One - Letters on Personal, Practical and Political Matters, 1890 – 1926
Family Letters, 1890 – 1919
Letters Written as a Probationer in the Indian Civil Service, 1892
Letters Written While Employed in the Princely State of Baroda, 1895 – 1906
Letters and Telegrams to Political and Professional Associates, 1906 – 1926
Open Letters Published in Newspapers, 1909 – 1925
Section Two - Early Letters on Yoga and the Spiritual Life, 1911 – 1928
Extracts from Letters to the Mother and Paul Richard, 1911 – c.1922
To People in India, 1914 – 1926
To Barindra Kumar Ghose and Others, 1922 – 1928
To People in America, 1926 – 1927
Draft Letters, 1926 – 1928
Section Three - Other Letters of Historical Interest on Yoga and Practical Life, 1921 – 1938
On Yoga and Fund-raising for the Ashram, 1921 – 1938
To and about Public Figures, 1930 – 1937
Part Three - Public Statements and Other Communications on Indian and World Events, 1940–1950
Section One - Public Statements, Messages, Letters and Telegrams on Indian and World Events, 1940 – 1950
On the Second World War, 1940 – 1943
On Indian Independence, 1942 – 1947
On the Integration of the French Settlements in India, 1947 – 1950
Messages on Indian and World Events, 1948 – 1950
Section Two - Private Letters to Public Figures and to the Editor of Mother India, 1948 – 1950
Private Letters to Public Figures, 1948 – 1950
Notes and Letters to the Editor of Mother India on Indian and World Events, 1949 – 1950
Part Four - Public Statements and Notices concerning Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram and Yoga, 1927 – 1949
Section One - Public Statements and Notices concerning the Ashram, 1927 – 1937
Public Statements about the Ashram, 1927 and 1934
Notices for Members of the Ashram, 1928 – 1937
Section Two - Public Statements about Sri Aurobindo’s Path of Yoga, 1934 and 1949
Sri Aurobindo’s Teaching
A Message to America
Note on the Texts

Citation preview

1

Early Cultural Writings

VOLUME 1 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2003 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

Early Cultural Writings

Publisher’s Note Early Cultural Writings consists of essays and other prose writings on literature, education, art and other cultural subjects. Most of them were written between 1890 and 1910, a few between 1910 and 1920. The editors have arranged the material by topic in nine parts and two appendixes. Many of the pieces were published in journals or books during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The others are reproduced from his manuscripts. The editors have checked all the texts against the relevant printed or manuscript versions. Simple editorial problems arising from incomplete revision, etc., are indicated by means of the system explained in the Guide to Editorial Notation on the next page. More complex problems are discussed in footnotes or in the Note on the Texts at the end of the volume.

Guide to Editorial Notation About half the material in this volume was not prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication. This material has been transcribed from manuscripts that present a variety of textual difficulties. As far as possible the editors have indicated these problems by means of the notation shown below. Notation

Textual Problem

[word]

Word(s) omitted by the author or lost through damage to the manuscript that are required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors

[

Blank left by the author to be filled in later but left unfilled, which the editors were not able to fill

[note]

]

Situations requiring textual explication; all such information is printed in italics

CONTENTS Part One The Harmony of Virtue The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence The Harmony of Virtue Beauty in the Real Stray Thoughts

3 9 78 84

Part Two On Literature Bankim Chandra Chatterji His Youth and College Life The Bengal He Lived In His Official Career His Versatility His Literary History What He Did for Bengal Our Hope in the Future On Poetry and Literature Poetry Characteristics of Augustan Poetry Sketch of the Progress of Poetry from Thomson to Wordsworth Appendix: Test Questions Marginalia on Madhusudan Dutt’s Virangana Kavya Originality in National Literatures

91 94 99 103 107 112 116

123 125 134 142 144 146

CONTENTS

The Poetry of Kalidasa A Proposed Work on Kalidasa The Malavas The Age of Kalidasa The Historical Method The Seasons Hindu Drama Vikramorvasie: The Play Vikramorvasie: The Characters The Spirit of the Times On Translating Kalidasa Appendix: Alternative and Unused Passages and Fragments

264

On the Mahabharata Notes on the Mahabharata Notes on the Mahabharata [Detailed]

277 345

151 152 156 168 175 187 194 196 236 239

Part Three On Education Address at the Baroda College Social Gathering Education The Brain of India A System of National Education The Human Mind The Powers of the Mind The Moral Nature Simultaneous and Successive Teaching The Training of the Senses Sense-Improvement by Practice The Training of the Mental Faculties The Training of the Logical Faculty Message for National Education Week (1918)

353 357 363 383 386 389 393 397 402 404 408 411

CONTENTS

National Education A Preface on National Education

414 415

Part Four On Art The National Value of Art Two Pictures Indian Art and an Old Classic The Revival of Indian Art An Answer to a Critic

431 455 460 464 468

Part Five Conversations of the Dead Dinshah, Perizade Turiu, Uriu Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi Shivaji, Jaysingh Littleton, Percival

473 476 479 483 486

Part Six The Chandernagore Manuscript Passing Thoughts [1] Passing Thoughts [2] Passing Thoughts [3] Hathayoga Rajayoga Historical Impressions: The French Revolution Historical Impressions: Napoleon In the Society’s Chambers At the Society’s Chambers

491 495 499 503 507 512 518 523 527

CONTENTS

Things Seen in Symbols [1] Things Seen in Symbols [2] The Real Difficulty Art

532 534 536 538

Part Seven Epistles / Letters From Abroad Epistles from Abroad Letters from Abroad

545 554

Part Eight Reviews “Suprabhat” “Hymns to the Goddess” “South Indian Bronzes” “God, the Invisible King” “Rupam” About Astrology “Sanskrit Research” “The Feast of Youth” “Shama’a”

565 569 576 585 590 595 603 614 623

Part Nine Bankim — Tilak — Dayananda Rishi Bankim Chandra Bal Gangadhar Tilak A Great Mind, a Great Will Dayananda: The Man and His Work Dayananda and the Veda The Men that Pass

637 642 658 661 667 676

CONTENTS

Appendix One Baroda Speeches and Reports Speeches Written for the Maharaja of Baroda Medical Department The Revival of Industry in India Report on Trade in the Baroda State Opinions Written as Acting Principal

683 685 694 723 743

Appendix Two Premises of Astrology Premises of Astrology Note on the Texts

755 765

ii

List of Illustrations Following page 458 1. Nadir Shah Ordering a General Massacre, by Hakim Muhammad Khan 2. Engraving of The Vision of the Knight, by Raphael (original painting, generally known as Allegory, in The National Gallery, London) Following page 584 3. Kalasamhara Shiva, Chola dynasty, c. 10th century (The Art Gallery, Thanjavur) 4. Sundaramurti, the Shaivite Saint, Chola dynasty, c. 11th century (Colombo Museum) Following page 590 5. Princely Doorkeeper, Pallava dynasty, 7th – 8th century (Arjuna’s Ratha, Mahabalipuram) 6. Poseidon of Artemision, c. 450 B.C. (National Museum, Athens) Following page 626 7. Rose-Rhythm, by John Duncan Fergusson (1874 – 1961) 8. Raga, artist unknown (20th century) Plates 1 and 2 are reproduced from plates in The Modern Review, vol. 6, no. 1 (July 1909). Plates 3, 4 and 5 are reproduced from recent photographs taken directly from the sculptures. The framing and angles of vision of these photographs are similar to those of the plates seen by Sri Aurobindo in South Indian Bronzes (1915) and Rupam, vol. 1, no. 1 (January 1920). Plates 7 and 8 are reproduced from plates in Shama’a, vol. 1, no. 2 (July 1920), and volume 1, no. 1 (April 1920).

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Sri Aurobindo in Baroda, 1906

ii

Part One The Harmony of Virtue Sri Aurobindo wrote all the pieces in this part in England between 1890 and 1892. He did not publish any of them during his lifetime.

The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence The banquet was half over and the wine in lively progress round the table; yet the ladies did not retire. The presence of women over the wine was one of the cardinal articles of Julian’s social creed. The conversation turned on the Christian religion which finally emerged from the arena stripped of all its plumes and in a condition woefully besmirched and bedraggled. Julian, who had taken the lead in blasphemy, closed the subject by observing “The popular Gods should be denied but respected.” “Yet you couple women and wine in your banquet-room” said Erinna. “Ah, my friend, I only observe Nature’s ordinances: in social life sex does not exist. Besides conversation requires speech as well as reason.” “You insinuate?” “Nature gave man reason, speech to woman.” The men laughed. “I will quote you two sentences from my new catechism, Julian” said Helen Woodward. “To what end has man used reason? To make Truth incredible. To what purpose has woman employed speech? To say nothing.” Julian felt that the tone of talk was becoming too serious and he glided away from the subject. During the flow of the wine someone coupled the names of Aphrodite and Bacchus. “Ah yes” said Julian “how is it that we have not honoured the goddess who presides over this feast?” “Let Julian do it in his master’s fashion” suggested Corydon. “I cannot tread beaten ground, Lionel.” “Ah but Love is as bottomless as the sea.” “Yet Plato was an excellent diver and brought up the richest pearls.”

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“Scarcely in one dive, Julian” said Powell. “In five, if I remember aright.” “Yet Agathon’s pearl was not flawless.” “Do you propose to amend it?” “I should but spoil it; but I could dive for a pearl of my own finding perhaps.” “You shall have a rich meed of praise.” “But, my dear critic” said Erinna “what ground was untrod by Plato?” “Agathon painted the loveliness of Love but not Love himself.” “Describe him then you” said Julian and raised his hand for silence. Powell lay back a moment with his dark Welsh eyes fixed upon the ceiling and then spoke. “I am told to describe Love” began Powell “yet in order to describe I must first define. And how is that possible with a being intangible as the air and inconstant as the moon? For Love is as slippery and mutable as Proteus, chameleon-hued, multiform, amorphous, infinite; the transmigrations of a Hindu soul are not more various and elastic; the harmony of his outlines are not blurred by chaos or the weird; rather like poetry and summer he wraps himself in a cool soft robe of velvet air and his feet are kissed by the laughing sea. But the translucent air which promises to reveal is a cloak far thicker than the gathering dusk. Thus the Eros of Praxiteles is not Love himself but the soul of the sculptor in one of her phases. Yet though Love has no one form, the idea, the soul of Love, that strange essence which walks for ever in the peopled Shadow-land, he is shackled in a single and uniform shape. How then shall I paint the idea of Love? The Greeks have described a child with a warlike bow of horn and bitter arrows tipped with steel, and modern poets inspired by this rude conception have fabled of the smart which is the herald of Love’s shaft. But these ideas however happy in themselves are by no means suitable to Love; for they are without two of his most essential elements, the subtle and the impalpable. The Hindus are more felicitous when they sing of Kama — for poetry

The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence

5

alone can express him — the divine and radiant youth mounted on [an] emerald parrot, and bearing in his right hand a bow of flowers; the arrows too must be of the same soft and voluptuous material — for a preference I would name the shefali, the only blossom which has a soul. For Love’s arrow never pains while in the wound — it is too subtle and flower-like — if a lover is in pain, it is because he loves himself more than Love — and that is the fault of Nature, not of Eros. Again Love has been painted as blind; and in this too the poets of Europe have conceived a lyrical fiction; for they say that Love looses his shafts and knows not whom they strike, whereas indeed he knows too well. It is his delight to unite those who should never have so much as met and to blind them to their own misery until the shefali arrow has withered in their hearts; and this he does with eyes open and of deliberate purpose. So far poets have sinned; but it is a vulgar error to suppose Love garrulous, a bastard child of Momus and Aphrodite; whereas in truth he is the lawful son of Hephaistos; but he has swallowed his father down, and for that reason those lovely lips, the scarlet portals of Passion’s treasury, do not yield up their store of pearls and rubies — nay dare not so much as open lest Hephaistos escape and in his anger blast the world. “Thus then I paint Love.” A murmur of applause flew like a wild spirit from mouth to mouth. “Record me a confirmed Pythagorean” said Julian “the soul of Agathon did not perish in Macedonia.” “Yet I dare say, Vernon” replied Erinna “you do not believe a word of what Agathon has been saying.” “Yet your belief is the bastard of Momus rather than the heir of Peitho” rejoined Helen Woodward. “I confess, Powell” replied Julian “that the manner pleased me better than the matter.” “Your reason, Julian?” “Your picture was too beautiful to be true.” “That is a recommendation” said Erinna. “To the artist but not to the critic.” “How would you define Love, Julian?” asked Corydon.

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“Give me a moment to think.” “You will be harshly criticised.” “Heine speed me! How will this do — the smile of a drunken God.” There was applause. “Ah but it is perfect” exclaimed Dufresne between a laugh and a sigh. “But Marc might give us a better” suggested Philip. “In its own way” assented Marc “Love is spiritual champagne, the best of wines if the briefest.” The characteristic answer set the echoes rocking to Homeric mirth. “A poisonous purple flower” said Helen “but its chalice collects the pure wine of heaven.” “It is the paean of the soul heavenward or its dithyramb hell-ward” subjoined Corydon. O’Ruark dissented. “It is a strange mania which everyone is bound to catch, mostly at a certain age — in short the spiritual measles.” A burst of laughter greeted this Irish flight. “Love is a runner in the race of life with the parsley wreath of joy for his prize” said Philip, formulating the sensations of the moment in an aphorism. “Alas, to wear it for a day” said Pattison Ely “he is the bridegroom of Sin and the father of Satiety.” “Ah no, but the child of Sin” corrected Julian “beautiful child of a more beautiful mother.” “Is it not Sin itself” suggested Erinna “Sin, the true philosopher’s stone which turns life from dull lead to gold.” “What is Sin?” asked Julian smiling. “The invention of spiritual alchemists; it turns a leaden life to gold.” “A modern discovery, I think” said Powell. “A modern revival” corrected Erinna “they lost the secret in the Dark Ages; that is why the history of the time is so dull. Sin was legalised and therefore gave no pleasure.” Julian laughed.

The Sole Motive of Man’s Existence

7

“You have given me what I have long been in search of.” “What is that, Julian?” “A good reason for the existence of Laws.” Erinna smiled and went on. “They lost the secret of Love too and found in its place the gorgeous phantasm of chivalry. I maintain that Love is only a form of Sin.” “Yet they recognise marriage.” “They raise a monument over the corpse of Love.” “She who could best tell us what Love is, sits silent” said Helen Woodward, looking at Ella. “It is the sole motive of man’s existence” replied Ella. It was the first time she had opened her lips but the thought in her mind leaped out before she could bring it back. There was tender laughter as of disillusioned September lenient to the emerald hopes of April; yet in the company no one save only Julian had passed the farther bourne of youth. In these days men live too fast to reckon their age by years. But Helen Woodward looked at Ella with a world of compassion in her beautiful wild eyes. Night flew on wing´ed feet and the wine was in their speech. At last the ladies rose and left the room; to the heart of Ella it seemed as [incomplete]

The Harmony of Virtue

Book One Keshav Ganesh — Broome Wilson Keshav — My dear Broome, how opportune is your arrival! You will save me from the malady of work, it may be, from the dangerous opium of solitude. How is it I have not seen you for the last fortnight? Wilson — Surely, Keshav, you can understand the exigencies of the Tripos? Keshav — Ah, you are a happy man. You can do what you are told. But put off your academical aspirations until tomorrow and we will talk. The cigarettes are on the mantelpiece — pardon my indolence! — and the lucifers are probably stowed on the fruit-shelf. And here is coffee and a choice between cake and biscuits. Are you perfectly happy? Wilson — In Elysium. But do not let the cigarettes run dry; the alliance of a warm fire and luxurious cushions will be too strong for my vigilance. Do you mean to tell me you can work here? Keshav — Life is too precious to be wasted in labour, & above all this especial moment of life, the hour after dinner, when we have only just enough energy to be idle. Why, it is only for this I tolerate the wearisome activity of the previous twelve hours. Wilson — You are a living paradox. Is it not just like you to pervert indolence into the aim of life? Keshav — Why, what other aim can there be? Wilson — Duty, I presume. Keshav — I cannot consent to cherish an opinion until I realise the meaning of duty. Wilson — I suppose I have pledged myself to an evening of metaphysics. We do our duty when we do what we ought to do. Keshav — A very lucid explanation; but how do we know

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that we are doing what we ought to do? Wilson — Why, we must do what society requires of us. Keshav — And must we do that, even when society requires something dissonant with our nature or repugnant to our convictions? Wilson — I conceive so. Keshav — And if society requires us to sacrifice our children or to compel a widow to burn herself we are bound to comply? Wilson — No; we should only do what is just and good. Keshav — Then the fiat of society is not valid; duty really depends on something quite different. Wilson — It appears so. Keshav — Then what is your idea of that something quite different on which duty depends? Wilson — Would it be wrong to select morality? Keshav — Let us inquire. But before that is possible, let me know what morality is or I shall not know my own meaning. Wilson — Morality is the conduct our ethical principles require of us. Keshav — Take me with you. This ethical principle is then personal, not universal? Wilson — I think so. For different localities different ethics. I am not a bigot to claim infallibility for my own country. Keshav — So we must act in harmony with the code of ethics received as ideal by the society we move in? Wilson — I suppose it comes to that. Keshav — But, my dear Broome, does not that bring us back to your previous theory that we should do what society requires of us? Wilson — I am painfully afraid it does. Keshav — And we are agreed that this is not an accurate plumbline? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — You see the consequence? Wilson — I see I must change my ground and say that we must do what our personal sense of the right and just requires of us.

The Harmony of Virtue

13

Keshav — For example if my personal sense of the right and just, tells me that to lie is meritorious, it is my duty to lie to the best of my ability. Wilson — But no one could possibly think that. Keshav — I think that the soul of Ithacan Ulysses has not yet completed the cycle of his transmigrations, nor would I wrong the author of the Hippias by ignoring his conclusions. Or why go to dead men for an example? The mould has not fallen on the musical lips of the Irish Plato nor is Dorian Gray forgotten on the hundred tongues of Rumour. Wilson — If our sense of right is really so prone to error, we should not rely upon it. Keshav — Then, to quote Mr.s. Mountstuart, you have just succeeded in telling me nothing. Duty is not based on our personal sense of the right and just. Wilson — I allow it is not. Keshav — But surely there is some species of touchstone by which we can discern between the false and the true? Wilson — If there is I cannot discover it. Keshav — Ah, but do try again. There is luck in odd numbers. Wilson — The only other touchstone I can imagine is religion; and now I come to think of it, religion is an infallible touchstone. Keshav — I am glad you think so; for all I know at present you are very probably right. But have you any reason for your conviction? Wilson — A code of morality built upon religion has no commerce with the demands of society or our personal sense of the right and just, but is the very law of God. Keshav — I will not at present deny the reality of a personal God endowed with passions & prejudices; that is not indispensable to our argument. But are there not many religions and have they not all their peculiar schemes of morality? Wilson — No doubt, but some are more excellent than others. Keshav — And do you cherish the opinion that your own

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peculiar creed — I believe it to be Christianity without Christ — is indubitably the most excellent of all religions? Wilson — By far the most excellent. Keshav — And your own ethical scheme, again the Christian without the emotional element, the best of all ethical schemes? Wilson — I have no doubt of it. Keshav — And they are many who dissent from you, are there not? Wilson — Oh without doubt. Keshav — And you would impose your ethical scheme on them? Wilson — No; but I imagine it to be the goal whither all humanity is tending. Keshav — That is a very different question. Do you think that when a man’s life is in harmony with his own creed, but not with yours, he is therefore not virtuous, or in your own phrase, deviates from his duty? Wilson — God forbid! Keshav — Then you really do believe that a man does his duty when he lives in harmony with the ethical scheme patronised by his own religion, as a Mohammadan if he follows the injunctions of the Prophet, a Hindu if he obeys the Vedic Scriptures, a Christian, if his life is a long self-denial. Wilson — That I admit. Keshav — Then the ethical scheme of Islam is as much the very law of God, as the ethical scheme of Christianity, and the morals of Hinduism are not less divine than the morals of Islam. Wilson — I hardly understand how you arrive at that conclusion. Keshav — Did you not say, Broome, that religion is an infallible test of duty, because it is the very law of God? Wilson — I still say so. Keshav — And that everyone must adopt his own religion as the test of what he should do or not do? Wilson — I cannot deny it. Keshav — Then must you not either admit the reason to be

The Harmony of Virtue

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invalid or that anyone’s peculiar religion, to whatever species it may belong, is the very law of God? Wilson — I prefer the second branch of the dilemma. Keshav — But tho’ every religion is the very law of God, nevertheless you will often find one enjoining a practice which to another is an abomination. And can God contradict himself? Wilson — You mistake the point. Islam, Hinduism, indeed all Scriptural religions were given, because the peoples professing them were not capable of receiving a higher light. Keshav — Is not God omnipotent? Wilson — A limited God is not God at all. Keshav — Then was it not within his omnipotent power to so guide the world, that there would be no necessity for different dealings with different peoples? Wilson — It was within his power, but he did not choose. Keshav — Exactly: he did not choose. He of set purpose preferred a method which he knew would bring him to falsehood and injustice. Wilson — What words you use! The truth is merely that God set man to develop under certain conditions and suited his methods to those conditions. Keshav — Oh, then God is practically a scientist making an experiment; and you demand for him reverence and obedience from the creature vivisected. Then I can only see one other explanation. Having created certain conditions he could not receive the homage of mankind without various and mutually dissentient revelations of his will. Now imagine a physician with theosophical power who for purposes of gain so modified the climatic features of Judaea & Arabia that the same disease required two distinct methods of treatment in the one & the other. This he does wilfully and deliberately and with foreknowledge of the result. As soon as his end is assured, our physician goes to Judaea and gives the people a drug which, he tells them, is the sole remedy for their disease, but all others are the property of quacks and will eventually induce an increase of the malady. Five years later the same

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physician goes off to Arabia and here he gives them another drug of an accurately opposite nature about which he imparts the same instructions. Now if we remember that the climatic conditions which necessitated the deception, were the deliberate work of the deceiver, shall we not call that physician a liar and an impostor? Is God a liar? or an impostor? Wilson — We must not measure the Almighty by our poor mortal standards. Keshav — Pshaw, Broome, if the legislator overrides his own laws, how can you hope that others will observe them? Wilson — But if God in his incomprehensible wisdom and goodness — Keshav — Incomprehensible indeed! If there is any meaning in words, the God you have described, can neither be wise nor good. Will you show me the flaw in my position? Wilson — I cannot discover it. Keshav — Then your suspicion is born of your disgust at the conclusion to which I have forced you. Wilson — I am afraid it is. Keshav — Well, shall we go on with the discussion or should I stop here? Wilson — Certainly let us go on. I need not shy at a truth however disagreeable. Keshav — First let me give you a glass of this champagne. I do not keep any of those infernal concoctions of alcohol and perdition of which you in Europe are so enamoured. Now here is the conclusion I draw from all that we have been saying: There are two positions open to you. One is that of the fanatic. You may say that you and those who believe with you are the specially chosen of God to be the receptacles of his grace and that all who have heard and rejected his gospel together with those who have not so much as imagined its possibility must share a similar fate and go into the outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. If that is the line you take up, my answer is that God is an unjust God and the wise will prefer the torments of the damned to any communion with him. The fanatic of course would be ready with his retort that the potter

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has a right to do what he will with his vessels. At that point I usually abandon the conversation; to tell him that a metaphor is no argument would be futile. Even if he saw it, he would reply that God’s ways are incomprehensible and therefore we should accept them without a murmur. That is a position which I have not the patience to undermine, nor if I had it, have I sufficient self-control to preserve my gravity under the ordeal. Wilson — I at least, Keshav, am not in danger of burdening your patience. I have no wish to evade you by such a back-door as that. Keshav — Then is it not plain to you, that you must abandon the religious basis as unsound? Wilson — Yes, for you have convinced me that I have been talking nonsense the whole evening. Keshav — Not at all, Broome: only you like most men have not accustomed yourself to clear and rigorous thought. Wilson — I am afraid, logic is not sufficiently studied. Keshav — Is it not studied too much? Logic dwindles the river of thought into a mere canal. The logician thinks so accurately that he is seldom right. No, what we want is some more of that sense which it is a mockery to call common. Wilson — But if we were to eliminate the divine element from the balance, would not religion be a possible basis? Keshav — No, for religious ethics would then be a mere expression of will on the part of Society. And that is open to the criticism that the commands of Society may be revolting to the right and just or inconsistent with the harmony of life. Wilson — But supposing everyone to interpret for himself the ethics approved by his own creed? Keshav — The Inquisitors did that. Do you consider the result justified the method? Wilson — The Inquisitors? Keshav — They were a class of men than whom you will find none more scrupulous or in their private lives more gentle, chivalrous & honourable, or in their public conduct more obedient to their sense of duty. They tortured the bodies of a few, that the souls of thousands might live. They did murder in the

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sight of the Lord and looked upon their handiwork and saw that it was good. Wilson — My dear Keshav, surely that is extravagant. Keshav — Why, do you imagine that they were actuated by any other motive? Wilson — Yes, by the desire to preserve the integrity of the Church. Keshav — And is not that the first duty of every Christian? Wilson — Only by the permissible method of persuasion. Keshav — That is your opinion but was it theirs? Duty is a phantasm spawned in the green morass of human weakness & ignorance, but perpetuated by vague thought and vaguer sentiment. And so long as we are imperatively told to do our duty, without knowing why we should do it, the vagueness of private judgment, the cruelty of social coercion will be the sole arbiters and the saint will be a worse enemy of virtue than the sinner. Will you have another cigarette? Wilson — Thanks, I will. But, Keshav, I am not disposed to leave the discussion with this purely negative result. Surely there is some guiding principle which should modify and harmonize our actions. Or are you favourable to an anarchy in morals? Keshav — No, Broome. If culture and taste were universal, principle would then be a superfluous note in the world’s composition. But so long as men are crude, without tact, formless, incapable of a balanced personality, so long the banner of the ideal must be waved obtrusively before the eyes of men, and education remain a necessity, so long must the hateful phrase, a higher morality, mean something more than empty jargon of sciolists. Yes, I think there is that guiding principle you speak of, or at least we may arrive at something like it, if we look long enough. Wilson — Then do look for it, Keshav. I am sure you will find something original and beautiful. Come, I will be idle tonight and abandon the pursuit of knowledge to waste time in the pursuit of thought. Begin and I will follow my leader. Keshav — Before I begin, let me remove one or two of those popular fallacies born of indolence which encumber the wings

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of the speculator. And first let me say, I will not talk of duty: it is a word I do not like, for it is always used in antagonism to pleasure, and brings back the noisome savour of the days when to do what I was told, was held out as my highest legitimate aspiration. I will use instead the word virtue, whose inherent meaning is manliness, in other words, the perfect evolution by the human being of the inborn qualities and powers native to his humanity. Another thing I would like to avoid is the assumption that there is somewhere and somehow an ideal morality, which draws an absolute and a sharp distinction between good and evil. Thus it is easy to say that chastity is good, licence is evil. But what if someone were to protest that this is a mistake, that chastity is bad, licence is good. How are you going to refute him? If you appeal to authority, he will deny that your authority is valid; if you quote religion, he will remind you that your religion is one of a multitude; if you talk of natural perception, he will retort that natural perception cancels itself by arriving at opposite results. How will you unseat him from his position? Wilson — Yes, you can show that good is profitable, while evil is hurtful. Keshav — You mean the appeal to utility? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — That is without doubt an advance. Now can you show that good is profitable, that is to say, has good effects, while evil is hurtful, that is to say, has bad effects? Wilson — Easily. Take your instance of chastity and licence. One is the ground-work of that confidence which is the basis of marriage and therefore the keystone of society; the other kills confidence and infects the community with a bad example. Keshav — You fly too fast for me, Broome. You say chastity is the basis of marriage? Wilson — Surely you will not deny it? Keshav — And licence in one leads to prevalent unchastity? Wilson — It has that tendency. Keshav — And you think you have proved chastity to be profitable and licence hurtful?

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Wilson — Why, yes. Do not you? Keshav — No, my friend; for I have not convinced myself that marriage is a good effect and prevalent unchastity a bad effect. Wilson — Only paradox can throw any doubt on that. Assuredly you will not deny that without marriage and public decency, society is unimaginable? Keshav — I suppose you will allow that in Roman society under the Emperors marriage was extant? And yet will you tell me that in those ages chastity was the basis of marriage? Wilson — I should say that marriage in the real sense of the word was not extant. Keshav — Then what becomes of your postulate that without marriage and public decency society is unimaginable? Wilson — Can you bestow the name on the world of Nero & Caracalla? Keshav — Certainly, if I understand the significance of the word. Wherever the mutual dependence of men builds up a community cemented by a chain of rights and liabilities, that, I imagine, is a society. Wilson — Certainly, that is a society. Keshav — And will you then hesitate to concede the name to imperial Italy? Wilson — Yes, but you will not deny that from the unreality of marriage and the impudent disregard of common decency, — at once its cause and effect — there grew up a prevalence of moral corruption, but for which the Roman world would not have succumbed with such nerveless ease to Scythia and its populous multitude. Keshav — What then? I do not deny it. Wilson — Was not that a bad effect? Keshav — By bad, I presume you mean undesirable? Wilson — That of course. Keshav — Perhaps it was, but should we not say that Rome fell because barbarism was strong not because she was feeble? Wilson — Rome uncorrupted was able to laugh at similar perils.

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Keshav — Then to have Rome safe, you would have had her remain barbarous? Wilson — Did I say so? Keshav — You implied it. In Rome the triumphal chariot of Corruption was drawn by the winged horses, Culture and Art. And it is always so. From the evergreen foliage of the Periclean era there bloomed that gorgeous and overblown flower, Athens of the philosophers, a corrupt luxurious city, the easy vassal of Macedon, the easier slave of Rome. From the blending of Hellenic with Persian culture was derived that Oriental pomp and lavish magnificence which ruined the kingdoms of the East. And Rome, their conqueror, she too when the Roman in her died and the Italian lived, when the city of wolves became the abode of men, bartered her savage prosperity for a splendid decline. Yes, the fulness of the flower is the sure prelude of decay. Look at the India of Vikramaditya. How gorgeous was her beauty! how Olympian the voices of her poets! how sensuous the pencil of her painters! how languidly voluptuous the outlines of her sculpture! In those days every man was marvellous to himself and many were marvellous to their fellows; but the mightiest marvel of all were the philosophers. What a Philosophy was that! For she scaled the empyrean on the wing`ed sandals of meditation, soared above the wide fires of the sun and above the whirling stars, up where the flaming walls of the universe are guiltless of wind or cloud, and there in the burning core of existence saw the face of the most high God. She saw God and did not perish; rather fell back to earth, not blasted with excess of light, but with a mystic burden on her murmuring lips too large for human speech to utter or for the human brain to understand. Such was she then. Yet five rolling centuries had not passed when sleepless, all-beholding Surya saw the sons of Mahomet pour like locusts over the green fields of her glory and the wrecks of that mighty fabric whirling down the rapids of barbarism into the shores of night. They were barbarous, therefore mighty: we were civilized, therefore feeble. Wilson — But was not your civilization premature? The

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building too hastily raised disintegrates and collapses, for it has the seeds of death in its origin. May not the utilitarian justly condemn it as evil? Keshav — What the utilitarian may not justly do, it is beyond the limits of my intellect to discover. Had it not been for these premature civilizations, had it not been for the Athens of Plato, the Rome of the Caesars, the India of Vikramaditya, what would the world be now? It was premature, because barbarism was yet predominant in the world; and it is wholly due to our premature efflorescence that your utilitarians can mount the high stool of folly and defile the memory of the great. When I remember that, I do not think I can deny that we were premature. I trust and believe that the civilization of the future will not come too late rather than too early. No, the utilitarian with his sordid creed may exalt the barbarian and spit his livid contempt upon culture, but the great heart of the world will ever beat more responsive to the flame-wing`ed words of the genius than to the musty musings of the moralists. It is better to be great and perish, than to be little and live. But where was I when the wind of tirade carried me out of my course? Wilson — You were breaching the defences of utilitarian morality. Keshav — Ah, I remember. What I mean is this; the utilitarian arrives at his results by an arbitrary application of the epithets “good” and “bad”.1 This mistake is of perpetual occurrence in Bentham and gives the basis for the most monstrous and shocking of his theories. For example the servitude of women is justified by the impossibility of marriage without it. Again he condemns theft by a starving man as a heinous offence because it is likely to disturb security. He quite forgets to convince us, as the author of a system professedly grounded on logic should 1 The following passage was written at the top of the manuscript page. Its place of insertion was not marked: When we say a fruit is wholesome or unwholesome, we mean that it is harmless & nutritious food or that it tends to dysentery & colic, but when we say that anything is good or bad, we apply the epithets like tickets without inquiring what we mean by them; we have no moral touchstone that tells gold from spurious metal.

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have done, that the survival of marriage is a desirable effect or property more valuable than life. Wilson — I confess that Bentham on those two subjects is far too cavalier and offhand to please me, but the utilitarian system can stand on another basis than Bentham supplies. Keshav — Yours is a curious position, Broome. You are one of those who would expunge the part of Hamlet from the play that bears his name. Your religion is Christianity without Christ, your morality Benthamism without Bentham. Nevertheless my guns are so pointed that they will breach any wall you choose to set up. For this is common to all utilitarians that they lose sight of a paramount consideration: the epithets “good” and “bad” are purely conventional and have no absolute sense, but their meaning may be shifted at the will of the speaker. Indeed they have been the root of so many revolting ideas and of so many and such monstrous social tyrannies, that I should not be sorry to see them expelled from the language, as unfit to be in the company of decent words. Why do you smile? Wilson — The novelty of the idea amused me. Keshav — Yes, I know that “original” and “fool” are synonymous in the world’s vocabulary. Wilson — That was a nasty one for me. However I am afraid I shall be compelled to agree with you. Keshav — Do you admit that there is only one alternative, faith without reason or the recognition of morality as a conventional term without any absolute meaning? Wilson — I should rather say that morality is the idea of what is just and right in vogue among a given number of people. Keshav — You have exactly described it. Are you content to take this as your touchstone? Wilson — Neither this, nor faith without reason. Keshav — Two positions abandoned at a blow? That is more than I had the right to expect. Now, as the time is slipping by, let us set out on the discovery of some law, or should I not rather say, some indicating tendency by which we may arrive at a principle of life? Wilson — I am anxious to hear it.

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Keshav — Let us furnish ourselves with another glass of claret for the voyage. You will have some? Wilson — Thanks. Keshav — My first difficulty when I set out on a voyage of discovery is to select the most probable route. I look at my chart and I see one marked justice along which the trade winds blow; but whoever has weighed anchor on this path has arrived like Columbus at another than the intended destination, without making half so valuable a discovery. Another route is called “beauty” and along this no-one has yet sailed. An Irish navigator has indeed attempted it and made some remarkable discoveries, but he has clothed his account in such iridescent wit and humour, that our good serious English audience either grin foolishly at him from a vague idea that they ought to feel amused or else shake their heads and grumble that the fellow is corrupting the youth and ruining their good old Saxon gravity; why he actually makes people laugh at the beliefs they have been taught by their venerable and aged grandmothers. But as for believing his traveller’s tales — they believe them not a whit. Possibly if we who do not possess this dangerous gift of humour, were to follow the path called beauty, we might hit the target of our desires: if not we might at least discover things wonderful and new to repay us for our labour. And so on with other possible routes. Now which shall we choose? for much hangs on our selection. Shall we say justice? Wilson — Let me know first what justice is. Keshav — I do not know, but I think no-one would hesitate to describe it as forbearance from interfering with the rights of others. Wilson — That is a good description. Keshav — Possibly, but so long as we do not know what are the rights of others, the description, however good, can have no meaning. Wilson — Can we not discover, what are the rights of others? Keshav — We have been trying for the last three-thousand years; with how much or how little success, I do not like to say.

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Wilson — Then let us try another tack. Keshav — Can you tell me which one we should choose? My own idea is that the word “beauty” is replete with hopeful possibilities. Wilson — Is not that because it is used in a hundred different senses? Keshav — I own that the word, as used today, is like so many others a relative term. But if we were to fix a permanent and absolute meaning on it, should we not say that beauty is that which fills us with a sense of satisfying pleasure and perfect fitness? Wilson — Yes, I think beauty must certainly be judged by its effects. Keshav — But are there not minds so moulded that they are dead to all beauty and find more charm in the showy and vulgar than in what is genuinely perfect and symmetrical? Wilson — There can be no doubt of that. Keshav — Then beauty still remains a relative term? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — That is unfortunate. Let us try and find some other test for it. And in order to arrive at this, should we not take something recognized by all to be beautiful and examine in what its beauty lies? Wilson — That is distinctly our best course. Let us take the commonest type of beauty, a rose. Keshav — Then in what lies the beauty of a rose if not in its symmetry? Why has the whole effect that satisfying completeness which subjugates the senses, if not because Nature has blended in harmonious proportion the three elements of beauty; colour, perfume, and form? Now beauty may exist separately in any two of these elements and where it does so, the accession of the third would probably mar the perfection of that species of beauty; as in sculpture where form in its separate existence finds a complete expression and is blended harmoniously with perfume — for character or emotion is the perfume of the human form; just as sound is the perfume of poetry and music — but if a sculptor tints his statue, the effect

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displeases us, because it seems gaudy or tinsel, or in plain words disproportionate. In some cases beauty seems to have only one of these elements, for example frankincense and music which seem to possess perfume only, but in reality we shall find that they have each one or both of the other elements. For incense would not be half so beautiful, if we did not see the curling folds of smoke floating like loose drapery in the air, nor would music be music if not harmoniously blended with form and colour, or as we usually call them, technique and meaning. Again there are other cases in which beauty undoubtedly has one only of the three elements: and such are certain scents like myrrh, eucalyptus and others, which possess neither colour nor form, isolated hues such as the green and purple and violet painted on floor and walls by the afternoon sun and architectural designs which have no beauty but the isolated beauty of form. The criticism of ages has shown a fit appreciation of these harmonies by adjudging the highest scale of beauty to those forms which blend the three elements and the lowest to those which boast only of one. Thus sculpture is a far nobler art than architecture, for while both may compass an equal perfection of form, sculpture alone possesses the larger harmony derived by the union of form and perfume. Similarly the human form is more divine than sculpture because it has the third element, colour; and the painting of figures is more beautiful than the portrayal of landscapes, because the latter is destitute of perfume, while figures of life have always that character or emotion which we have called the perfume of the living form. Again if we take two forms of beauty otherwise exactly on the same level, we shall find that the more beautiful in which the three elements are more harmoniously blended. As for instance a perfect human form and a perfect poem; whichever we may admire, we shall find our reason, if we probe for it, to be that the whole is more perfectly blended and the result a more satisfying completeness. If we think of all this, it will assuredly not be too rash to describe beauty by calling the general effect harmony and the

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ulterior cause proportion. What is your opinion, Broome? Wilson — Your idea is certainly remarkable and novel, but the language you have selected is so intricate that I am in the dark as to whether it admits of invariable application. Keshav — The usual effect of endeavouring to be too explicit is to mystify the hearer. I will try to dive into less abysmal depths. Can you tell me, why a curve is considered more beautiful than a straight line? Wilson — No, except that the effect is more pleasing. Keshav — Ah yes, but why should it be more pleasing? Wilson — I cannot tell. Keshav — I will tell you. It is because a curve possesses that variety which is the soul of proportion. It rises, swells and falls with an exact propriety — it is at once various and regular as rolling water; while the stiff monotony of a straight line disgusts the soul by its meaningless rigidity and want of proportion. On the other hand a system of similar curves, unless very delicately managed, cannot possibly suggest the idea of beauty: and that is because there is no proportion, for proportion, I would impress on you, consists in a regular variety. And thus a straight line, tho’ in itself ugly, can be very beautiful if properly combined with curves. Here again the like principle applies. Do you now understand? Wilson — Yes, I admit that your theory is wonderfully complete and consistent. Keshav — If you want a farther illustration, I will give you one. And just as before we selected the most commonly received type of beauty, I will now select the most perfect: and that, I think, is a perfect poem. Would you not agree with me? Wilson — No, I should give the palm to a perfectly beautiful face. Keshav — I think you are wrong. Wilson — Have you any reason for thinking so? Keshav — Yes, and to me a very satisfying reason. The three elements of beauty do not blend with absolutely perfect harmony in a human face. Have you not frequently noticed that those faces which express the most soul, the most genius, the most

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character, are not perfectly harmonious in their form? Wilson — Yes, the exceptions are rare. Keshav — And the reason is that to emphasize the character, the divine artist has found himself compelled to emphasize certain of the features above the others, for instance, the lips, the eyes, the forehead, the chin, and to give them an undue prominence which destroys that proportion without which there can be no perfect harmony. Do you perceive my meaning? Wilson — Yes, and I do not think your conclusions can be disputed. Keshav — In a perfectly beautiful face the emotion has to be modified and discouraged, so as not to disturb the harmony of form: but in a perfectly beautiful poem the maker has indeed to blend with exquisite nicety the three elements of beauty, but though the colour may be gorgeous, the emotion piercingly vivid, the form deliriously lovely, yet each of these has so just a share of the effect, that we should find it difficult to add to or to detract from any one of them without fatally injuring the perfection of the whole. And so it is with every form of beauty that is not originally imperfect; to detract or add would be alike fatal; for alteration means abolition. Each syllable is a key-stone and being removed, the whole imposing structure crumbles in a moment to the ground. Can we better describe this perfect blending of parts than by the word proportion? or is its entire effect anything but harmony? Wilson — There are indeed no better words. Keshav — And this harmony runs through the warp and woof of Nature. Look at the stars, the brain of heaven, as Meredith calls them. How they march tossing on high their golden censers to perfume night with the frankincense of beauty! They are a host of wing`ed insects crawling on the blue papyrus of heaven, a swarm of golden gnats, a cloud of burning dust, a wonderful effect of sparkling atoms caught and perpetuated by the instantaneous pencil of Nature. And yet they are none of all these, but a vast and interdependent economy of worlds.

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Those burning globes as they roll in silent orbits through the infinite inane, are separated by an eternity of space. They are individual and alone, but from each to each thrill influences unfathomed and unconscious, marvellous magnetisms, curious repulsions that check like adverse gales or propel like wind in bellying canvas, and bind these solitary splendours into one supernal harmony of worlds. The solar harmony we know. How gloriously perfect it is, how united in isolation, how individual in unity! How star answers to star and the seven wandering dynasts of destiny as they roll millions of leagues apart, drag with them the invisible magnetic cord which binds them for ever to the sun. We believe that those lights we call fixed are each a sun with a rhythmic harmony of planets dancing in immeasurable gyrations around one immovable, immortal star. More, is it extravagant to guess that what to us is fixed, is a planet to God? Perhaps to the inhabitants of the moon this tumbling earth of ours is a fixed and constant light, and perhaps the glorious ball of fire we worship as the Lord of Light, is the satrap of some majesty more luminous and more large. Thus we may conceive of the universe as a series of subordinate harmonies, each perfect in itself and helping to consummate the harmony which is one and universal. Well may the poet give the stars that majestic synonym The army of unalterable law. But the law that governs the perishable flower, the ephemeral moth, is not more changeful than the law that disciplines the movements of the eternal fires. The rose burns in her season; the moth lives in his hour: not even the wind bloweth where it listeth unless it preserve the boundaries prescribed by Nature. Each is a separate syllable in the grand poem of the universe: and it is all so inalterable because it is so perfect. Yes, Tennyson was right, tho’ like most poets, he knew not what he said, when he wrote those lines on the flower in the crannies: if we know what the flower is, we know also what God is and what man. Wilson — I begin to catch a glimpse of your drift. But is there no discordant element in this universal harmony?

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Keshav — There is. As soon as we come to life, we find that God’s imagination is no longer unerring; we almost think that he has reached a conception which it is beyond his power to execute. It is true that there are grand and beautiful lines in the vast epic of life, but others there are so unmusical and discordant that we can scarcely believe but that Chance was the author of existence. The beautiful lines are no doubt wonderful; among the insects the peacock-winged butterfly, the light spendthrift of unclouded hours; the angry wasp, that striped and perilous tiger of the air; the slow murmuring bee, an artist in honey and with the true artist’s indolence outside his art: and then the birds — the tawny eagle shouting his clangorous aspiration against the sun; the cruel shrike, his talons painted in murder; the murmuring dove robed in the pure and delicate hue of constancy: the inspired skylark with his matin-song descending like a rain of fire from the blushing bosom of the dawn. Nay the beasts too are not without their fine individualities: the fire-eyed lion, the creeping panther, the shy fawn, the majestic elephant; each fill a line of the great poem and by contrast enhance harmony. But what shall we say of the imaginations that inspire nothing but disgust, the grub, the jackal, the vulture? And when we come to man, we are half inclined to throw up our theory in despair. For we only see a hideous dissonance, a creaking melody, a ghastly failure. We see the philosopher wearing a crown of thorns and the fool robed in purple and fine linen: the artist drudging at a desk and the average driving his quill thro’ reams of innocent paper: we see genius thrust aside into the hedges and stupidity driving her triumphal chariot on the beaten paths of social existence. Once we might have said that nature like a novice in art was rising through failures and imperfections into an artistic consummation and that when Evolution had exhausted her energies, her eyes would gaze on a perfect universe. But when we come to the human being, her most ambitious essay, the cynicism of frustrated hope steals slowly over us. I am reminded of some lines in a sonnet more remarkable for power than for felicitous expression.

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She crowned her wild work with one foulest wrong When first she lighted on a seeming goal And darkly blundered on man’s suffering soul. It is as if nature in admitting action into her universe were in the position of a poet who trusted blindly to inspiration without subjecting his work to the instincts of art or the admonitions of the critical faculty; but once dissatisfied with his work begins to pass his pen repeatedly thro’ his after performances, until he seems at last to have lighted on a perfect inspiration. His greatest essay completed he suddenly discovers that one touch of realism running thro’ the whole work has fatally injured its beauty. Similarly Nature in moulding man, made a mistake of the first importance. She gave him the faculty of reason and by the use of her gift he has stultified the beauty of her splendid imaginations. Tennyson, by one of his felicitous blunders, has again hit upon the truth when he conceives the solemn wail of a heavenborn spirit in the agony of his disillusioning. I saw him in the shining of his stars, I marked him in the flowering of his fields, But in his ways with men I found him not. How true is every syllable! God burns in the star, God blossoms in the rose: the cloud is the rushing dust of his chariot, the sea is the spuming mirror of his moods. His breath whistles in the wind, his passion reddens in the sunset, his anguish drops in the rain. The darkness is the soft fall of his eyelashes over the purple magnificence of his eyes: the sanguine dawn is his flushed and happy face as he leaves the flowery pillow of sleep; the moonlight is nothing but the slumberous glint of his burning tresses when thro’ them glimmer the heaving breasts of Eternity. What to him are the petty imaginings of human aspiration; our puny frets, our pitiable furies, our melodramatic passions? If he deigns to think of us, it is as incompetent actors who have wholly misunderstood the bent of our powers. The comedian rants in the vein of Bombastes; the tragic artist plays the buffoon in the pauses of

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a pantomime, and the genius that might have limned the passion of a Romeo, moulds the lumpish ineptitude of a Cloten. God lifting his happy curls from the white bosom of Beauty, shoots the lightning of his glance upon our antics and we hear his mockery hooting at us in the thunder. Why should he squander a serious thought on a farce so absurd and extravagant? Wilson — And are these the ultimate syllables of Philosophy? Keshav — You are impatient, Broome. What I have arrived at is the discovery that human life is, if not the only, at any rate the principal note in Nature that jars with the grand idea underlying her harmony. Do you agree with me? Wilson — He would be a hopeless optimist who did not. Keshav — And are you of the opinion that it is the exercise by man of his will-power to which we owe the discord? Wilson — No, I would throw the blame on Nature. Keshav — After the example of Adam? “The woman tempted me and I did eat.” I too am a son of Adam and would throw the blame on Nature. But once her fault is admitted, has not the human will been manifestly her accomplice? Wilson — Her instrument rather. Keshav — Very well, her instrument. You admit that? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Then if the human will, prompted by Nature or her servant, False Reason, has marred the universal harmony, may not the human will, prompted by Right Reason who is also the servant of Nature, mend the harmony he has marred? Or if that puzzles you, let me put the question in another form. Does not a wilful choice of sensuality imply an alternative of purity? Wilson — It does. Keshav — And a wilful choice of unbelief an alternative of belief? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Then on the same principle, if the human will chose to mar the harmony of nature, was it not within its power to choose the opposite course and fulfil the harmony? Wilson — Certainly that follows.

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Keshav — And through ignorance and the promptings of False Reason we preferred to spoil rather than to fulfil? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — And we can mend what we mar? Wilson — Sometimes. Keshav — Well then, can we not choose to mend the harmony we originally chose to mar? Wilson — I do not think it probable. Keshav — An admission that it is possible, is all I want to elicit from you. Wilson — I do not know that. Keshav — Have not some episodes of the great epic rung more in unison with the grand harmony than others? Wilson — Yes; the old-world Greeks were more in tune with the Universe than we. Keshav — The name of the episode does not signify. You admit a race or an epoch which has fallen into the harmony more than others? Wilson — Freely. Keshav — Then as you admit the more and the less, will you not admit that the more may become in its turn the less — that there may be the yet more? May we not attain to a more perfect harmony with the universe than those who have been most in harmony with it? Wilson — It is possible. Keshav — If it is possible, should we not go on and inquire how it is possible? Wilson — That is the next step. Keshav — And when we have found an answer to our inquiries, shall we not have solved this difficult question of a new basis for morality? Wilson — Yes, we shall: for I see now that to be in harmony with beauty, or, in other words, to take the guiding principle of the universe as the guiding principle of human life, is the final and perfect aim of the human species. Keshav — Broome, you have the scent of a sleuth-hound. Wilson — I am afraid that is ironical. You must remember

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that we are not all philosophers yet. Still I should have liked to see how the idea came out in practice. Keshav — If you can spare me another night or it may be two, we will pursue the idea through its evolutions. I am deeply interested, for to me as to you it is perfectly novel. Wilson — Shall you be free on Thursday night? Keshav — As free as the wind. Wilson — Then I will come. Goodnight. Keshav — Goodnight, and God reward you for giving me your company.

End of Book the First

Book Two Keshav Ganesh [Desai] — Trevor — Broome Wilson Keshav — Ah, Broome, so the magnetism of thought has broken the chains of duty? May I introduce you? M..r Trevor of Kings, M..r Broome Wilson of Jesus. Would you like wine or coffee? Wilson — Perhaps for an evening of metaphysics wine is the most appropriate prelude. Keshav — You agree then with the Scythians who made a point of deliberating when drunk? They were perhaps right; one is inclined to think that most men are wiser drunk than sober. I have been endeavouring to explain my line of argument to Trevor, I am afraid with indifferent success. Wilson — Can I do anything to help you? Keshav — I have no doubt you can. Would you mind stating your difficulty, Trevor? I think you allow that every other basis of morality is unsound but uphold the utilitarian model as perfectly logical and consistent. Trevor — Yes, that is what I hold to, and I do not think, Desai, you have at all shaken its validity. Keshav — You do not admit that the epithets “good” and “bad” have a purely conventional force. Trevor — Yes, I admit that, but I add that we have fixed a definite meaning on the epithets and adhered to it all through our system. Keshav — If so, you are fortunate. Can you tell me the definite meaning to which you refer? Trevor — The basis of our system is this, that whatever is profitable, is good, whatever is the reverse, is evil. Is not that an unassailable basis? Keshav — I do not think so; for two ambiguous words you have merely substituted two others only less ambiguous.

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Trevor — I fail to see your reasoning. Keshav — I will endeavour to show you what I mean. You will admit that one man’s meat is another man’s poison, will you not? Trevor — Yes, and that is where our system works so beautifully; for we bring in our arithmetical solution of balancing the good and the evil of an action and if the scale of the evil rises, we stamp it as good, if the scale of the good rises, we brand it as evil. What do you say to that? Keshav — Dear me! that does indeed sound simple and satisfying. I am afraid, Broome, we shall have to throw up our theory in favour of Bentham’s. Your system is really so attractive and transparent, Trevor, that I should dearly like to learn more about it. Trevor — Now you are indulging in irony, Desai; you know Bentham as well as I do. Keshav — Not quite so well as all that; but I avow I have studied him very carefully. Yet from some cause I have not discovered, his arguments seldom seemed to me to have any force, while you on the other hand do really strike home to the judgment. And therefore I should like to see whether you are entirely at one with Bentham. For example I believe you prefer the good of the community to the good of the individual, do you not? Trevor — Not at all: it is the individuals who are the community. Keshav — It is gratifying to learn that: but if the interests of a few individuals conflict with the interests of the general body, you prefer the interests of the general body, do you not? Trevor — As a matter of course. Keshav — And, as a general rule, if you have to deal with a number of persons and the good of some is not reconcilable with the good of others, you prefer the good of the greater number? Trevor — That again is obvious. Keshav — So you accept the dogma “the greatest good of the greatest number”, for if one interest of a given person or number of persons conflict with another interest, you prefer the greater?

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Trevor — Without hesitation. Keshav — And so the Athenians were right when they put Socrates to death. Trevor — What makes you advance so absurd a paradox? Keshav — Why, your arithmetical system of balancing the good and the evil. The injury to Socrates is not to be put in comparison with the profit to the State, for we prefer the good of the greater number, and the pleasure experienced by the youths he corrupted in his discourse and the enjoyment of their corruption is not to be so much considered as the pain they would experience from the effects of their corruption and the pain inflicted on the state by the rising generation growing up corrupt and dissolute, for among conflicting interests we prefer the greatest. Trevor — But Socrates did not corrupt the youth of Athens. Keshav — The Athenians thought he was corrupting their youth and they were bound to act on their opinion. Trevor — They were not bound to act on their opinion, but on the facts. Keshav — What is this you are telling me, Trevor? We are then only to act when we have a correct opinion, and, seeing that a definitely correct opinion can only be formed by posterity after we are dead, we are not to use your arithmetical balance or at least can only use it when we are dead? Then I do not see much utility in your arithmetical balance. Trevor — Now I come to think of it, the Athenians were right in putting Socrates to death. Keshav — And the Jews in crucifying Christ? Trevor — Yes. Keshav — I admire your fortitude, my dear Trevor. And if the English people had thought Bentham was corrupting their youth, they would have been right in hanging Bentham, would they not? Trevor — What a fellow you are, Desai! Of course what I mean is that the Athenians & the Jews did not listen to their honest opinion but purely to the voice of malice. Keshav — Then if these wicked people who put wise men to death not in honest folly but from malice, were to have said

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to you, “Come now, you who accuse us of pure malice, are you not actuated by pure benevolence? If our approval is founded on sentiment, your disapproval is founded on the same flimsy basis; you have no reasonable objection to the poisoning of Socrates or the crucifixion of Christ or the hanging of Bentham as the case may be” and you were to tell them that your arithmetical balance said it was not profitable, would they not be justified in asking whether your arithmetical balance was infallible and whether you had a satisfactory principle which guided your calculations? Trevor — Yes, and I should tell them that I valued as profitable what conduces to happiness and as unprofitable what detracts from or does not add to happiness. Keshav — I am afraid that would not satisfy them, for the nature of happiness is just as disputable as the nature of profit. You do not think so? Well, for example do not some think that happiness lies in material comfort, while others look for it in the province of the intellect? Trevor — These distinctions are mere nonsense; both are alike essential. Keshav — Indeed we have reason to thank heaven that there are still some of the sages left who are sufficiently impartial to condemn every opinion but their own. Yet under correction, I should like to venture on a question; if the good that conduces to material comfort is not reconcilable with the good that conduces to intellectual pleasure, how do you manage your arithmetical balance? Trevor — Material comfort before all things! that is a necessity, intellect a luxury. Keshav — You are a consistent change-artist, Trevor; yet may there not be diverse opinions on the point? Trevor — I do not see how it is possible. The human race may be happy without intellectual pleasure, but never without material comfort. Keshav — Have you any historical data to bear out your generalisation? Trevor — I cannot say I have, but I appeal to common sense.

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Keshav — Oh, if you appeal to Caesar, I am lost; but be sure that if you bring your case before the tribunal of common sense, I will appeal not to common, but to uncommon sense — and that will arbitrate in my favour. Trevor — Well, we must agree to differ. Keshav — At any rate we have arrived at this, that you assign material comfort as the most important element in happiness, while I assign the free play of the intellect. Trevor — So it seems. Keshav — And you maintain that I am wrong because I disagree with you? Trevor — No, because you disagree with reason. Keshav — That is, with reason as you see it. Trevor — If you like. Keshav — And you think I am unique in my opinion? Trevor — No indeed! there are too many who agree with you. Keshav — Now we have gone a step farther. Apparently the nature of happiness is a matter of opinion. Trevor — Oh, of course, if you like to say so. Keshav — And happiness is the basis of morality. You agree? Very well, the nature of the basis is a matter of opinion, and it seems to follow that morality itself is a matter of opinion. And so we have come to this, that after rejecting as a basis of morality our individual sense of what is just and right, we have accepted our individual sense of what conduces to happiness. Therefore it is moral for you to refrain from stealing and for me to steal. Trevor — That is a comfortable conclusion at any rate. Keshav — Yet I think it is borne out by our premisses. Do you not imagine the security of property to be essential to happiness and anything that disturbs it immoral? Trevor — That goes without saying and I admit that it is immoral for me to steal. Keshav — Now I on the other hand am indeed of the opinion that material comfort is essential to happiness, for without it the intellect cannot have free play, but believing as I do that

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the system of private property conduces to the comfort of the few, but its abolition will conduce to the comfort of the many, I, on the principle you have accepted, the greatest good of the greatest number, am opposed to the system of private property. And I believe that the prevalence of crimes against property will accelerate the day of abolition. I recognise indeed that the immediate effects will be evil, but put a greater value on the ultimate good than on the immediate evil. It follows that, if my reasoning be correct and we agreed that individual judgment must be the arbiter, it is perfectly moral for me to steal. Trevor — There is no arguing with you, Desai. You wrest the meaning of words until one does not remember what one is talking about. The enormous length to which you carry your sophistries is appalling. If I had time, I would stop and refute you. As it is, I will leave you to pour your absurdities into more congenial ears. Keshav — You are not going, Trevor? Trevor — I am afraid I must. Goodnight. Keshav — Goodnight. That was rather brisker towards the close. I hope you were not bored, Broome. Wilson — No, I was excellently amused. But do your arguments with him usually terminate in this abrupt fashion? Keshav — Very often they do so terminate. Trevor is a good fellow — a fine intellect spoiled — but he cannot bear adversity with an equal mind. Now let us resume our inquiry. I think we had gone so far as to discover that human life is the great element of discord in the Cosmos, and the best system of morality is that which really tends to restore the harmony of the universe, and we agreed that if we apply the principles governing the universe to human life, we shall discover the highest principle of conduct. That was the point where we broke off, was it not? Wilson — Yes, we broke off just there. Keshav — So we profess to have found a sense in which the theory advanced by philosophers of every age has become true, that life ought to be lived in accordance with nature and not in

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accordance with convention. The error we impute to them was that they failed to keep nature distinct from human nature and forgot that the latter was complicated by the presence of that fallible reason, of which conventions are the natural children. Thus men of genius like Rousseau reverted to the savage for a model and gave weight to the paradox that civilization is a mistake. Let us not forget that it is useless to look for unalloyed nature in the savage, so long as we cannot trace human development from its origin: to the original man the savage would seem nothing but a mass of conventions. We have nothing to learn from savages; but there is a vast deal to be learned from the errors of civilized peoples. Civilization is a failure, not a mistake. Wilson — That is a subtle distinction. Keshav — Not at all. Civilization was necessary, if the human race was to progress at all. The pity of it is that it has taken the wrong turn and fallen into the waters of convention. There lies the failure. When man at the very first step of his history used his reason to confound the all-pervading Cosmos or harmonious arrangement of Nature, conventions became necessary in order to allure him into less faulty modes of reasoning, by which alone he could learn to rectify his error. But after the torrent had rolled for a time along its natural course and two broad rivers of Thought, the Greek and the Hindu, were losing themselves in the grand harmony, there was a gradual but perceptible swerve, and the forces of convention which had guided, began to misguide, and the Sophists in Greece, in India the Brahmans availed themselves of these mighty forces to compass their own supremacy, and once at the helm of thought gave permanence to the power by which they stood, until two religions, the most hostile to Nature, in the east Buddhism, her step-child Christianity in the west, completed the evil their predecessors had begun. Hear the legend of Purush, the son of Prithivi, and his journey to the land of Beulah, the land of blooming gardens and yellow-vested acres and wavering tree-tops, and two roads lead to it. One road is very simple, very brief, very direct, and this leads over the smiling summit of a double-headed peak, but the other through the gaping abysses of a lion-throated antre and

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it is very long, very painful, very circuitous. Now the wise and beautiful instructress of Purush had indeed warned him that all other wayfarers had chosen the ascent of the beautiful hill, but had not explicitly forbidden him to select the untried and perilous route. And the man was indolent and thought it more facile to journey smoothly through a tunnel than to breast with arduous effort the tardy and panting slope, yet plumed himself on a nobler nature than all who had gone before him, because they had obeyed their monitress, but he was guided by his reason and honourably preferred the unknown and perilous to the safe and familiar. From this tangle of motives he chose the cavernous lion-throat of the gaping antre, not the swelling breasts of the fruitful mother. Very gaily he entered the cave singing wild ballads of the deeds his fathers wrought, of Krishna and Arjun and Ram and Ravan and their glory and their fall, but not so merrily did he journey in its entrails, but rather in hunger and thirst groped wearily with the unsleeping beak of the vulture Misery in his heart, and only now and then caught glimpses of an elusive light, yet did not realise his error but pursued with querulous reproaches the beautiful gods his happy imagination had moulded or bitterly reviled the double-dealing he imputed to his lovely and wise instructress — “for she it was” he complained “who told me of the route through the cavern”. None the less he pers´evered until he was warmed by the genuine smiles of daylight and joy blossoming in his heart, made his step firmer and his body more erect. And he strode on until he arrived where the antre split in two branches, the one seeming dark as Erebus to his eyes, though indeed it was white and glorious as a naked girl and suffused by the light of the upper heaven with seas of billowing splendour, had not his eyes, grown dim from holding communion with the night and blinded by the unaccustomed brilliance, believed that the light was darkness, through which if he had pers´evered, he had arrived in brief space among the blooming gardens and the wavering tree-tops and the acres in their glorious golden garb and all the imperishable beauty of Beulah. And the other branch

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he thought the avenue of the sunlight, because the glimmer was feeble enough to be visible, like a white arm through a sleeve of black lace. And down this branch he went, for ever allured by unreal glimpses of a dawning glory, until he has descended into the abysmal darkness and the throne of ancient night, where he walks blindly like a machine, carrying the white ashes of hope in the funeral urn of youth, and knows not whence to expect a rescue, seeing the only heaven above him is the terrible pillared roof, the only horizon around him the antre with its hateful unending columns and demogorgon veil of visible darkness, and the beautiful gods he imagined are dead and his heart is no longer sweetened with prayers, and his throat no longer bubbles with hymns of praise. His beautiful gods are dead and her who was his lovely guide and wise monitress, he no longer sees as the sweet and smiling friend of his boyhood, but as a fury slinging flame and a blind Cyclops hurling stones she knows not whither nor why and a ghastly skeleton only the more horrible for its hideous mimicry of life. He sends a wailing cry to heaven, but only jeering echoes fall from the impenetrable ceiling, for there is no heaven, and he sends a hoarse shriek for aid to hell, but only a gurgling horror rises from the impenetrable floor, for there is no hell, and he looks around for God, but his eyes cannot find him, and he gropes for God in the darkness, but his fingers cannot find him but only the clammy fingers of night, and goblin fancies are rioting in his brain, and hateful shapes pursue him with clutching fingers, and horrible figures go rustling past him half-discerned in the familiar gloom. He is weary of the dreadful vaulted ceiling, he is weary of the dreadful endless floor. And what shall he do but lie down and die, who if he goes on, will soon perish of weariness and famine and thirst? Yet did he but know it, he has only to turn back at a certain angle and he will see through a chink of the cavern a crocus moon with a triple zone of burning stars, which if he will follow, after not so very painful a journey, not so very long an elapse of hours, he will come into a land of perennial fountains, where he may quench his thirst, and glistening fruit-groves where he may fill his hunger, and sweet cool grass where he may solace

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his weariness, and so pursue his journey by the nearest way to the wavering tree-tops, and the blooming gardens and the acres in their yellow gaberdines for which his soul has long panted. This is the legend of Purush, the son of Prithivi and his journey to the land of Beulah. Wilson — That is a fine apologue, Keshav; is it your own, may I ask? Keshav — It is an allegory conceived by Vallabha Swami, the Indian Epicurus, and revealed to me by him in a vision. Wilson — There we see the false economy of Nature; only they are privileged to see these beautiful visions, who can without any prompting conceive images not a whit less beautiful. Keshav — The germ of the story was really a dream, but the form and application are my own. The myth means, as I dare say you have found out, that our present servitude to conventions which are the machinery of thought and action, is principally due to weaknesses forming a large element in human nature. Our lives ought not to be lived in accordance with human nature which can nowhere be found apart from the disturbing element of reason, but according to nature at large where we find the principle of harmony pure and undefiled. Wilson — On that we are both at one; let us start directly from this base of operations. I am impatient to follow the crocus moon with her triple zone of burning stars into the Eden of murmuring brooks and golden groves and fields of asphodel. Keshav — The basis of morality is then the application to human life of the principles governing the universe; and the great principle of the universe is beauty, is it not? Wilson — So we have discovered. Keshav — And we described beauty as harmony in effect and proportion in detail. Wilson — That was our description. Keshav — Then the aim of morality must be to make human life harmonious. Now the other types in the universe are harmonious not merely in relation to their internal parts, but in relation to each other and the sum of the universe, are they not?

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Wilson — Yes. Keshav — We mean, I suppose, that the star fills its place in the Cosmos and the rose fills her place, but man does not fill his. Wilson — That is what we mean. Keshav — Then the human race must not only be harmonious within itself, but must be harmonious in relation to the star and the rose and so fill its place as to perfect the harmony of the universe. Wilson — Are we not repeating ourselves? Keshav — No, but we are in danger of it. I am aiming at a clear and accurate wording of my position and that is not easy to acquire at a moment’s notice. I think our best way would be to consider the harmony of man with the universe and leave the internal harmony of the race for subsequent inquiry. Wilson — Perhaps it would be best. Keshav — When we say that man should fill his place in the Cosmos, we mean that he should be in proportion with its other elements, just as the thorn is in proportion to the leaf and the leaf to the rose, for proportion is the ulterior cause of harmony. And we described proportion as a regular variety, or to use a more vivid phrase, a method in madness. If this is so, it is incumbent on man to be various in his development from the star, the rose and the other elements of the Cosmos, in a word to be original. Wilson — That follows. Keshav — But is it enough to be merely original? For instance if he were to hoist himself into the air by some mechanical contrivance and turn somersaults unto all eternity, that would be original, but he would not be helping much towards universal harmony, would he? Wilson — Well, not altogether. Keshav — Then if we want to describe the abstract idea of virtue, we want something more than originality. I think we said that proportion is not merely variety, but regular variety? Wilson — Yes, that is obvious. Keshav — Then man must be not merely original but regular in his originality. Wilson — I cannot exactly see what you mean.

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Keshav — I cannot at all see what I mean; yet, unless our whole theory is unsound, and that I am loth to believe, I must mean something. Let us try the plan we have already adopted with such success, when we discovered the nature of beauty. We will take some form of harmony and inquire how regularity enters into it; and it occurs to me that the art of calligraphy will be useful for the purpose, for a beautifully-written sentence has many letters just as the universe has many types and it seems that proportion is just as necessary to it. Wilson — Yes, calligraphy will do very well. Keshav — I recollect that we supposed beauty to have three elements, of which every type must possess at least one, better two, and as a counsel of perfection all three. If we inquire, we shall find that form is absolutely imperative, seeing that if the form of the letters is not beautiful or the arrangement of the lines not harmonious, then the sentence is not beautifully written. Colour too may be an element of calligraphy, for we all know what different effects we can produce by using inks of various colours. And if the art is to be perfect, I think that perfume will have to enter very largely into it. Let us write the word “beautiful”. Here you see the letters are beautifully formed, their arrangement is beautiful, this bright green ink I am using harmonizes well with the word, and moreover the sight of this peculiar combination of letters written in this peculiar way brings to my mind a peculiar association of ideas, which I call the perfume of the written word. Wilson — But is it not the combination, not of letters but of sounds, which lingers in your mind and calls up the idea? Keshav — I do not think so, for I often find sentences that seem to me beautiful in writing or in print, but, once I utter them aloud, become harsh and unmusical; and sometimes the reverse happens, especially in Meredith, in whom I have often at first sight condemned a sentence as harsh and ugly, which, when I read it aloud, I was surprised to find apt and harmonious. From this I infer that if a writer’s works appear beautiful in print or manuscript, but not beautiful when read aloud, he may be set down as a good artist in calligraphy, but a bad artist in literature,

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since suggestion to the eye is the perfume of the written, but suggestion to the ear the perfume of the spoken word. In this however I seem to have been digressing to no purpose; for whatever else is uncertain, this much is certain, that form is essential to calligraphy, and this is really all that concerns us. Now if the form is to be beautiful it must be harmonious in effect, and to be harmonious in effect it must be proportionate in detail, and to be proportionate in detail, the words and letters of which it is made must exhibit a regular variety. We can easily see that the letters and words in a sentence are various, but how can they be said to be regular in their variety? Wilson — I do not know at present, but I can see that the variety is regular. Keshav — This we must find out without delay. Let us take the alphabet and see if the secret is patent there. Wilson — That is indeed looking for Truth at the bottom of a well. Keshav — Do you not see at a glance that the letters in the Latin alphabet are regular in this sense, that the dominant line is the curve and there is no written letter without it, for the straight lines are only used to prevent the monotony generated by an unrelieved system of curves? In the Bengali alphabet again, which is more elaborate, but less perfect than the Latin, there is a dominant combination of one or more straight lines with one or more curves and to obviate monotony letters purely composed of straight lines are set off by others purely composed of curves. In the Burmese and other dialects, I believe but from hearsay only, no line but the curve is admitted and I am told that the effect is undeniably pretty but a trifle monotonous. Here then we have a clue. If we consider, as we have previously considered, every type in the universe to be a word, then, if the sentence is to be beautifully written each word must not only be various from its near companions but must allow one dominant principle to determine the lines on which it must vary; and to avoid monotony there must be straight lines in the letters, that is to say each type must have individual types within it departing from the general type by acknowledging another dominant principle. I am afraid

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this is rather intricate. Would you like it to be made clearer? Wilson — No, I perfectly understand; but I should like to guard myself against being misled by the analogy between a beautifully-written sentence and the beautifully-arranged universe. If this rule does not apply to every other form of beauty, we may not justly compare the universe to one in which it does happen to apply. Keshav — I hope you will only require me to adduce examples of perfect beauty, for the aim of morality is to arrange a perfect, not an imperfect harmony. Wilson — Oh certainly, that is all I am entitled to require. Keshav — Then you will admit that the stars are various, yet built on a dominant principle? Wilson — Without doubt. Keshav — And in making the flowers so various, the divine artist did not fail to remember a dominant principle which prevails in the structure and character of his episode in flowers. Wilson — But this is merely to take an unfair advantage of the method of species so largely indulged in by Nature. Keshav — Well, if you prefer particulars to generals, we will inquire into the beauty of a Greek design, for the Greeks were the only painters who understood the value of design, and we will as usual take an example of perfect beauty. Do you know the Nereid and Sea-Horse? Wilson — Very intimately. Keshav — Then, if you have not forgotten how in that incomparable work of art to every mass there is another and answering mass and to the limbs floating forward limbs floating backwards and to every wisp of drapery an answering wisp of drapery, and in short how the whole design is built on the satisfying principle of balancing like by like, you will admit that here is a dominant idea regulating variety. And the principle of balancing like with like is not peculiar to Greek designing but prevalent in the designs of Nature, for example, the human face, where eye answers to luminous eye and both are luminous with one and the same brilliance, nor is one hazel while the other is azure, and the porches of hearing are two but similar in their

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curious workmanship, and the sweep of the brow to one ear does not vary from the sweep of the brow to the other and the divergence of the chin describes a similar curve on either face of the design, nor is one cheek pallid with the touch of fear while the other blushes with the flag of joy and health, but in everything the artist has remembered the principle of balancing like with like, both here and in the emerald leaf and swaying apple which if you tear along the fibrous spine or slice through the centre of the core, will leave in your hands two portions, diverse in entity but alike in material and workmanship. And yet the impertinent criticism of the moderns claims for themselves a keener appreciation of Nature, than those great pupils who learned her lessons so gloriously well. If you would like farther examples of the dominant principle regulating variety in a design, you need only look at a blowing rose, a wind-inspired frigate, an evergreen poem, and you will not be disappointed. With all this in your mind, you will surely admit that even if we compare the universe to a system of designs we shall not arrive at other results than when we compared it to God’s episode in flowers and his marshalled pomp of stars and a sentence beautifully written. Wilson — Yet I should like to ask one more question. Keshav — My dear Broome, you are at liberty to ask a thousand, for I am always ready to answer. Wilson — A single answer will satisfy me. Why do you compare the universe to a system of designs and not to a single design? Keshav — The universe itself is a system of designs, first the harmony of worlds and within it the lands and seas and on that the life of flowers and trees & the life of birds and beasts and fishes and the life of human beings. Imagine the Greeks in search of a dominant idea to regulate the variety of their designs and hitting on the human figure as their model; would they not have been foolish, if they had gone away from their study of the human figure and drawn a system, balancing like design by like design? Wilson — I suppose they would.

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Keshav — Nor should we be less foolish to draw up an ideal universe or system of designs on the principle of a single design. Are you satisfied? Wilson — Perfectly. Keshav — And our conclusion is that we ought to regulate the variety of the types in the universe, not by balancing like with like, but by determining the lines of variance on one dominant principle. Wilson — That is the indisputable conclusion. Keshav — And so, now we have panted up to the ridge we once thought the crowning summit, we find that we have to climb another slope as arduous which was lying in wait for us behind. We have discovered the presence of a dominant idea in the variety of types, but we do not know what the idea may be. Wilson — That is what we have to find. Keshav — But if we find that all the diverging types observe a single requisite in divergence, shall we not infer that we have found the idea of which we are inquisitive? Wilson — Obviously. Keshav — And we shall find it most easily by comparing one type with another, shall we not? Wilson — That is our first idea. Keshav — But if we compare a rose to a star, we shall not find them agree in any respect except the brilliance of their hues and that is not likely to be the dominant idea. Wilson — They are both beautiful. Keshav — Exactly, but we wish to learn the elements of their beauty, and we agreed that these were variety, to begin with, and method in variety. Now we are inquiring what the method is they observe in their variety. We know that they are both beautiful; but we wish to know why they are both beautiful. Wilson — And how are you going to do it? Keshav — Well, since it will not do to compare a rose with a star, we will compare a star with a star; and here we find, that, however widely they differ, there is a large residuum of properties, such as brilliance and light, which are invariably present in one and the other, and they diverge not in the possession

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and absence of properties peculiar to a star, but in things accidental, in their size and the exactness of their shape and the measure of their brilliance and the character of the orbits they are describing. And if we compare flower with flower, we shall find a residuum of properties invariably present in one and the other but the divergence of flower from flower, just like the divergence of star from star, not in properties peculiar to a flower, but in accidents like size and peculiarities of shape and varying vividness of hues and time and length of efflorescence. Moreover we perceive that the star is content to pierce the darkness with its rays and to burn like a brilliant diamond in the bodice of heaven, and is not ambitious to shed sweet perfumes upon space or to burden the heart of the night with song, but develops the virtues of a star without aspiring to the virtues of a flower or a bird, and the rose content to be an empress in colour and perfume and a gorgeous harmony of petals and is not ambitious to give light in the darkness or to murmur a noontide song in response to the bee, but develops the virtues of a rose without aspiring to the virtue of a bee or a star. And so if we compare with the help of this new light the rose and the star, we see that they are both alike in developing their own virtues without aspiring to the virtues of one another. And this is the case with every natural form of beauty animate or inanimate, is it not? Wilson — There can be no doubt of that. Keshav — Then have we not found the dominant idea which governs the variety of types? Wilson — I really believe we have. Keshav — And man if he wishes to be in proportion with the other elements of the Cosmos, must be content to develop the virtues of a man without aspiring to the virtues of a rose or a star, or any other element of the Cosmos? Wilson — So it seems. Keshav — And when we talk of the virtues of a star, do we not mean the inborn qualities and powers which are native to its sidereal character, for example brilliance and light? Wilson — Of course.

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Keshav — And by the virtues of a flower the inborn qualities and powers which are native to its floral character, such as fragrance, colour, delicacy of texture? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Then by the virtues of a man we shall have to mean the inborn qualities and powers which are native to his humanity, such as — what shall we say? Wilson — That we can discover afterwards. Keshav — Very well; but at any rate we can see already that some things are not inborn qualities and powers native to our humanity; and we know now why it is not an act of splendid virtue to turn somersaults in the air without any visible means of support; for if we did that, we should not be developing the virtues of a man, but we should be aspiring to the virtues of a kite; or, to use one of our phrases, we should be mad without method. Wilson — That is evident. Keshav — So a man’s virtue lies not in turning somersaults without any visible means of support, but in the perfect evolution of the inborn qualities and powers which are native to his humanity. Wilson — Yes, and I believe these are the very words in which you described virtue before we started on our voyage of discovery. Keshav — That is indeed gratifying: and if we have shown any constancy and perseverance in following our clue through the labyrinth, I at least am amply rewarded, who feel convinced by the identity of the idea I have derived from the pedestrian processes of logical inference with the idea I once caught on the wings of thought and instinct, that as far as human eyes are allowed to gaze on the glorious visage of Truth unveiled, we shall be privileged to unveil her and embrace her spiritual presence, and are not following a will-o’-the-wisp of the imagination to perish at last in a quagmire. We have then laid a firm hold on that clear and accurate wording, for which we were recently groping as blindly as Purush in his delusive cavern. And since the human brain is impatient of abstract ideas but easily fixed and taken by concrete

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images, let me embody our ideas in a simile. I have an accurate remembrance of climbing a very steep and ragged rock on the Yorkshire beaches, where my only foothold was a ladder carved in the rock with the rungs so wide apart that I had to grasp tightly the juts and jags and so haul myself up as slowly as a lizard, if I did not prefer by a false step or misplaced confidence to drop down some thirty feet on a rough sediment of sharp and polished pebbles. It occurs to me that what I did then in the body, I am doing now in the spirit, and it is a reason for self-gratulation that I have mounted safely to the second rung of the perilous ladder and am not lying shattered on the harsh and rasping pebbles of disappointment. And if I aspire to the third rung, I shall have less cause for apprehension than in my Yorkshire peril, since I can hardly fall to the beach but shall merely slip back to the rung from which I am mounting. Let us then estimate our progress. Our first rung was the basis of morality which we may describe by the golden rule “apply to human life the principles dominant in the Cosmos”, and our second, as we now see, is the conception of abstract virtue or the perfect expression of the human being as a type in the Cosmos, and this we describe as “the consistent evolution of the inborn qualities and powers native to our humanity”. Here then we have two rungs of the ladder, we must now be very careful in our selection of the third. Wilson — Is it not obviously the next stage to discover what are the inborn qualities and powers native to our humanity? Keshav — Possibly. Yet have we not forgotten a signal omission we made when we drew inferences from the comparison of a beautifully written sentence to the beautifully arranged universe? Wilson — I am afraid I at least have forgotten. What was it? Keshav — Did we not compare the broad types in the Cosmos to the words in a sentence and infer that as the dominant principle governing the word was the prevalence of the curve, so there must be a dominant principle governing the type? Wilson — We did. Keshav — And also that as in the letters within the word

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there were two prevalent lines, the curve and the straight line, so within the broad or generic type there are individual types governed by quite another principle. Wilson — That also. But surely you are not going to argue from analogies? Keshav — Did we not argue from the beautifully written sentence merely because the principles of calligraphy proved to be the principles of every sort of harmony? Wilson — I confess we did; otherwise all we have been saying would be merely a brilliant explosion of fancy. Keshav — Then we are logically justified in what we have been doing. Consider then how in a system of harmony, every part has to be harmonious in itself or else mar the universal music. Wilson — That is true. Keshav — And the human race is a part of such a system, is it not? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Then must the human race become harmonious within itself or continue to spoil the universal harmony. Wilson — Of course. How foolish of me to lose sight of that. Keshav — And so we have been elucidating the harmony of man with the Cosmos and saying nothing about the harmony of man with man? Wilson — Did we not relegate that for subsequent inquiry? Keshav — We did, but I think the time for subsequent inquiry has come. Wilson — It is too late in the day for me to distrust your guidance. Keshav — I do not think you will have reason to regret your confidence in me. Our line then will be to consider the internal harmony of the race before we proceed farther. Wilson — So it is best. Keshav — Here again we must start from our description of beauty as harmony in effect and proportion in detail and our description of the latter as a regular variety or method in

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madness. Then just as in the Cosmos, the individual type must vary from all the other types, so in the human Cosmos the individual man must vary from all other men. Wilson — That is rather startling. Do you mean that there ought to be no point of contact? Keshav — No, Broome; for we must always remember that the elements of a generic type must have certain virtues without which they would not belong to the type: as the poet says One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. Wilson — Then where do you find your variety? Keshav — If you will compare the elements of those types in which the harmony is perfect, your ignorance will vanish like a mist. You will see at once that every planet develops indeed his planetary qualities, but varies from every other planet, and if Venus be the name and the star be feminine, is a dovelike white in complexion and yields an effulgence more tender than a girl’s blush, but if he is Mars, burns with the sanguine fire of battle and rolls like a bloodshot eye through space, and if he is Saturn, has seven moons in his starry seraglio, and is richly orange in complexion like vapour coloured by the sun’s pencil when he sets, and wears a sevenfold girdle of burning fire blue as a witch’s eye and green as Love’s parrot and red as the lips of Cleopatra and indeed of all manner of beautiful colours, and if he is Jupiter or any one of the planets, has the qualities of that planet and has not the qualities of another, but develops his own personality and has no regard for any model or the example of any other planet. And if you drop your eyes from the sublimer astral spaces to the modest gauds of Earth our mother, you will see that every flower has indeed the qualities of its floral nature, but varies widely from her sister beauties, and if she is a lily, hides in her argent beaker a treasure of golden dust and her beauty is a young and innocent bride on her marriage-morning, but if she is a crocus, has a bell-like beauty and is absorbed in the intoxication of her own loveliness and wears now the gleaming robe of sunrise and now a dark and delicate purple, and now a

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soft and sorrowful pallor, but, if she is a rose, has the fragrance of a beautiful soul and the vivid colour of a gorgeous poem, yet conceals a sharp sting beneath the nestling luxury of her glorious petals, and if she is a hyacinth or honeysuckle or meadow-sweet, has the poisonous perfume of the meadow-sweet or the soulsubduing fragrance of the honeysuckle or the passionate cry of the hyacinth, and not the beautiful egoism of the crocus or the oriental splendour of the rose, but develops her own qualities without aspiring to the qualities of any and every flower. May we not then say that the dominant principle regulating the variety of individual types is the evolution of individual as distinct from generic virtues? Wilson — That is the logical consequence. Keshav — Then the description of individual virtue runs thus, the evolution by the human being of the inborn qualities and powers native to his personality; that is to say, just as every beautiful building has the solid earth for its basis but is built in a distinct style of architecture, so the beautiful human soul will rest on the solid basis of humanity but build up for itself a personality distinct and individual. Wilson — That is exactly what the virtuous man must do. Keshav — And so with infinite ease and smoothness we have glided up to the third rung of our ladder, as if we were running up a broad and marble stair-case. Here then let us stop and reflect on all we have said and consider whether from confusion of mind or inability to comprehend the whole situation we have made any mistake or omission. For my part I avow that my thoughts have not been so lucid tonight as I could have wished. We are then to continue the inquiry in the Gardens on Tuesday afternoon? I think that was what you suggested. Wilson — Yes, on Tuesday at half-past two. Keshav — Would you mind my bringing Prince Paradox with me? He is anxious to hear how we are dealing with our idea and as he will be perfectly willing to go the lengths we have so far gone, we need not fear that he will be a drag on us. Wilson — I am perfectly willing that he should come. The more, the merrier.

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Keshav — Not at this stage; for this intellectual ascent up the precipice of discovery, is indeed very exciting and pleasant, but strains the muscles of the mind more than a year’s academical work; and I trust that next time we shall bring it to a satisfying conclusion. End of the Second Book

Book Three Keshav Ganesh — Broome Wilson — Treneth Treneth — But we must not forget our purpose in being here. Keshav — Well, Broome, what do you say to our resuming our cruise for the discovery of virtue? I avow the speculation weighs on me, and I am impatient to see the last of it. Wilson — I have not to learn that you are the most indolent of men. No sooner are you in a novel current of thought than you tire and swim back to the shore. I am indignant with Nature for wasting on you a genius you so little appreciate. Treneth — Ah but you are really quite wrong, Wilson. Genius is a capacity for being indolent. Wilson — Enter Prince Paradox! But seriously, Keshav, I think the argument will live beyond this afternoon and I give warning that I shall drag you all over the field of ethics before we have done with it. Keshav — It will be the corpse of my intellect you will maltreat. But in extremity I rely upon Treneth to slay my Argus with the bright edge of a paradox. Wilson — We were at the third rung of the ladder, were we not? Keshav — Yes, thou slave-driving Ishmaelite. I declare it is impious on a day like this to bury ourselves in the gloomy vaults of speculation. But as you will. To remember how far we have climbed, is the best incentive to climb farther, and will give Treneth an idea of the situation. We happened to be weighing the ordinary principles of morality and finding them all wanting cast about for a new principle and discovered that beauty was the sole morality of the universe, and it had colour, form and perfume as elements, harmony as its general effect and proportion, which we described as regular

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variety or method in madness, as the ulterior cause of the harmony, and we ventured to imagine that as all the other elements of the universe were harmonious notes in a perfect sonata, but the human element had wilfully chosen to jar upon and ruin the exquisite music, the right principle of virtue was wilfully to choose to mend the harmony we had ruined. With these projections from the rock of speculation to help us we climbed up the three steep and difficult rungs I am going to describe to you. We argued that the only way to remedy a note that rebels against the spirit of the composition is to reduce it into harmony with that spirit, and so arrived at the conclusion that the principle of morality is to apply to human life the principles that govern the rest of the Cosmos. There you have the first rung of our ladder. We recommenced from this basis and by remembrance of the nature of proportion or regular variety which is the cause of harmony and throughout every natural type of beauty appears in the common principle which determines their line of variance from each other, we thought that in the elements of the Cosmos there must be such a common principle and found it to be the evolution by each element of its own peculiar virtue as distinct from the peculiar virtues of every other element, and so reached our second conclusion, that just as astral virtue lies in the evolution by the star of the inborn qualities and powers native to its astral character, just so human virtue lies in the evolution by the human being of the inborn qualities and powers native to his humanity. This is the second rung of our ladder. With this second secure basis behind us, we went on to discover that within generic types such as the star, the flower, the human being, there were individual types governed by the similar but different principle of evolving the individual as distinct from the generic virtues, or, when applied to the human being, of evolving the inborn qualities and powers native to his personality. This is the third rung of our ladder. Have I been correct in my statement, Broome? Wilson — Perfectly correct. Treneth — My only quarrel with your conclusions is that

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you have wasted a couple of evenings in arriving at them. Why, except the first they are mere axioms. Keshav — Yes, to the seeing eye they are axioms, but to the unseeing eye they are paradoxes. The truths that are old and stale to the philosopher, are to the multitude new and startling and dangerous. But now that we have all mounted to the same rung, let us pursue the ascent. And I suppose our immediate step will be to find whether the mere evolution of the inborn qualities and powers is or is not the sole requisite for virtue. Wilson — Before we go to that, Keshav, you will have to meet a difficulty which you show every sign of evading. Keshav — Whatever difficulty there is, I am ready to solve, but I cannot guess to what you refer. Wilson — I suppose you will admit that a definition, to be adequate, must have nothing vague or indefinite about it? Keshav — If there is anything vague, it must be elucidated or our statement falls to the ground. Treneth — I dissent: a definite definition is a contradiction in terms. I am for definite indefinitions. Keshav — I am not in extremities yet, Prince Paradox. Wilson — Well now, is not your phrasing “the inborn qualities and powers native to our humanity” very vague and indefinite? Keshav — Indefinite, I admit, and I cannot think that an objection but I plead not guilty to the charge of vagueness. Wilson — You think with Treneth that a definition should not be definite? Keshav — If by being definite is implied reduction to its primal elements you will agree with me that a definition need not be definite: or do you want me to enumerate the qualities native to our humanity such as physical vigour, and the faculty of inference and sexual passion and I do not know how many more? Wilson — You shall not escape me so easily, Keshav. You are merely spinning dialectical cobwebs which give a specious appearance to the pit in which you would have us fall. Keshav — Then by pointing out the trap, you can easily sweep away my sophistical cobwebs, my good Broome.

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Treneth — What penalty for a pun? Keshav — No penalty, for to punish a lie on the information of Beelzebub is to do God’s work at the devil’s bidding. Wilson — Yes, a penalty: you shall be taken at your word. You are setting a trap for us, when you try to shuffle in your phrase about the qualities native to our humanity. If we leave this inexplicit and unlimited, you will be at liberty to describe any quality you choose as a virtue and any other quality you choose as a defect by assuming in your own insinuating manner that it is or is not native to our humanity. And in reality there is a very distinct gulf between those of our qualities which are native to our humanity and those others which belong to the animal nature we are working out of our composition; for example between lust and love, of which one belongs to the lower animal nature and the other to the higher spiritual. You are ignoring the distinction and by ignoring it, you ignore the patent fact of evolution. Treneth — To ignore facts is the beginning of thought. Keshav — No, but to forget facts for the time being — that is the beginning of thought. Wilson — My dear Keshav, pray don’t trail a red paradox across the path. Keshav — It was the other boy who did it. To return to the subject, are you really unconscious of the flagrant errors of which you have been so lavish in a little space? Wilson — I am quite unconscious of any error. Keshav — You have made three to my knowledge, and the first is your assumption that what is animal, cannot be human. Wilson — Can you disprove it? Keshav — Can you prove it? In the first place you cannot tell what is animal and what is not. Wilson — Why, the qualities possessed by human beings as distinct from animals are those which are not animal. Keshav — And, I suppose, qualities possessed in common by human beings and animals, are animal? Wilson — You are right. Keshav — And such qualities ought to be worked out of our composition?

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Keshav — Then we ought to get rid of fidelity, ought we not? Wilson — Why so? Keshav — Because it is a quality possessed in common by the dog and the human being, and the dog is an animal. Treneth — Of course we should. Fidelity is a disease like conscience. Keshav — And infidelity is a quality possessed in common by the cat and the human being, and therefore we ought to get rid of infidelity. Treneth — Again of course; for infidelity is merely a relative term, and if fidelity is not, then how can infidelity be? Keshav — And so we must get rid of all opposing qualities and acquire a dead neutrality? Your ambition then is not to be a personality, but to be a — negative? Treneth — I confess you have taken me in the flank: even my paradoxes will not carry me so far. Keshav — And you, Broome, are you willing to break down the ladder by which we are climbing? Wilson — Not for a moment. What I mean is that the qualities possessed in common by all the animals and the human being are animal. Keshav — Is not the human being an animal? Wilson — Yes, scientifically. Keshav — But not really? Wilson — Well, he is something more than an animal. Keshav — You mean he has other qualities besides those which belong to the animal type? Wilson — That is what I mean. Keshav — And has not the planet other qualities besides those which belong to the astral type? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Does that warrant us in saying that a planet is not really a star?

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Wilson — No. Keshav — And are we warranted in saying that man is not really an animal? Wilson — We are not. Keshav — And the animal world is an element in the Cosmos, is it not? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Is it not then the virtue of an animal to evolve the qualities and powers native to his animality? Wilson — I suppose so. Keshav — And man, being an animal, ought also to evolve the qualities and powers native to his animality? Wilson — That seems to follow, but is not this to cancel our old description of human virtue and break down our second rung? Keshav — No, for just as the qualities native to a planet include the qualities native to a star, so the qualities native to the human type include the qualities native to the animal type. Wilson — I quite agree with you now. What was my second error? Keshav — You talked of the lower animal nature and the higher spiritual nature and in so talking assumed that the qualities peculiar to the human being are higher than the qualities he shares with some or all of the animals. Is dissimulation higher than love? You reject the idea with contempt: yet dissimulation is peculiar to the human being but love, and love of the most spiritual kind, he shares with the turtle-dove and with the wildduck of the Indian marshes, who cannot sleep the live-long night because Nature has severed him from his mate but ever wails across the cold and lapping water with passionate entreaty that she may solace his anguish with even a word, and travellers straying in the forest hear his forlorn cry “Love, speak to me!” No, we can only say of varying qualities that one is beautiful and another less beautiful, or not beautiful at all; and beauty does not reside in being animal or being more than animal but in something very different. Wilson — And my third error?

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Keshav — Your third error was to confound evolution with elimination. Wilson — And does it not really come to that? Keshav — The vulgar opinion, which finds a voice as usual in Tennyson — what opinion of the British average does he not echo? — the vulgar opinion learns that the principle of evolution or gradual perfection is the reigning principle of life and adapts the idea to its own stupid fallacy that perfection implies the elimination of all that is vivid and picturesque and likely to foster a personality. Evolution does not eliminate but perfects. Wilson — But surely perfection tends to eliminate what is imperfect? Keshav — Oh I don’t deny that we have lost our tails, but so has a Manx cat. Treneth — Dear me! that is a fruitful idea. A dissertation proving that the Manx cat is the crowning effort of Evolution might get me a Fellowship. Keshav — It would deserve it for its originality. Moreover if we have lost our tails, we have also lost our wings. Treneth — I maintain that the tails are the more serious loss. Wings would have been useful and we do not want them but we do want tails, for they would have been lovely appendages and a magnificent final flourish to the beauty of the human figure. Just fancy the Dean and Provost pacing up to the Communion Table with a fine long tail swishing about their ears! What a glorious lesson! What a sublime and instructive spectacle! Wilson — You are incorrigibly frivolous, Treneth. Keshav — If Prince Paradox is frivolous, he is virtuous, insofar as he is developing the virtue most intimately native to his personality; and the inquiry is dull enough at present to bear occasional touches of enlivening laughter. Wilson — Yet the inquiry must pass through stifling underground galleries and to avoid them is puerile. Keshav — I am at one with you, but if we must dive under the ground, there is no need to linger there. Evolution does not eliminate, but perfects. The cruelty that blossoms out in the tiger, has its seeds deep down in the nature

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of man and if it is minimised in one generation will expand in another, nor is it possible for man to eradicate cruelty without pulling up in the same moment the bleeding roots of his own being. Yet the brute ferocity that in the tiger is graceful and just and artistic, is in the man savage and crude and inharmonious and must be cultured and refined, until it becomes a virtue and fits as gracefully and harmlessly into the perfect character, as its twin-brother physical courage and physical love, its remote relative. Wilson — You are growing almost as paradoxical as Prince Paradox, Keshav. Keshav — Look for Truth and you will find her at the bottom of a paradox. Are you convinced that animal qualities are not the worse for being animal? Wilson — Perfectly convinced. Keshav — And here I cannot do better than quote a sentence that like so many of Meredith’s sentences, goes like a knife to the root of the matter. “As she grows in the flesh when discreetly tended, nature is unimpeachable, flowerlike, yet not too decoratively a flower; you must have her with the stem, the thorns, the roots, and the fat bedding of roses.” And since I have quoted that immortal chapter so overloaded with truth critical, truth psychologic and truth philosophic, let me use two other sentences to point the moral of this argument and bid you embrace “Reality’s infinite sweetness” and “touch the skirts of Philosophy by sharing her hatred of the sham decent, her derision of sentimentalism.” May we not now ascend to the fourth rung? Wilson — Yes, I think we may go on. Keshav — I am especially eager to do so because I am more and more convinced that our description of virtue is no longer adequate: for if the only requisite is to evolve our innate qualities, will it not be enough to be merely cruel and not to be cruel in a refined and beautiful manner? Wilson — Plainly it will. Keshav — And is it really enough to be merely cruel? Treneth — No, for to be inartistic is the only sin.

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Keshav — Your paradox cuts to the heart of the truth. Can you tell me, Broome, whether is the rose more beautiful than the bramble or the bramble than the rose? Wilson — Obviously the rose than the bramble. Keshav — And why is this? Is it not because the thorn develops unduly the thorn and does not harmonize it with leaves but is careless of proportion and the eternal principle of harmony, and is beautiful indeed as an element in the harmony of plants but has no pretensions to personal beauty but the rose subdues the thorn into harmony with the leaf and the blossom and is perfectly beautiful in herself no less than as an element in the harmony of flowers? Wilson — I believe you are right. Keshav — And must not cruelty, the thorn of our beautiful human rose, be subdued into harmony with his other qualities and among them tenderness and clemency and generous forbearance and other qualities seemingly the most opposed to cruelty and then only will it be a real virtue but until then nothing more than a potential virtue? Wilson — You are right; then only will it be a real virtue. Keshav — So we must modify our description of virtue by affixing an epithet to the word “evolution”, and preferably I think the epithet “perfect” which does not imply size or degree or intensity or anything but justness of harmony, for example in a poem, which is not called perfect when it is merely longdrawn-out or overflowing with passion or gorgeous even to swooning, but when it blends all the elements of beauty into an irreproachable harmony. We shall then describe virtue as the perfect evolution by the human being of the inborn qualities and powers native to his personality. Wilson — With that I have no quarrel, but am I too inquisitive when I ask you how cruelty and tenderness can live together? Keshav — My dear Broome, I shall never think you too inquisitive but above all things desire that you should have a clear intelligence of my meaning. Have you never learned by experience or otherwise how a girl will torment her favoured

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lover by a delicate and impalpable evasion of his desires and will not give him even the loan of a kiss without wooing, but must be infinitely entreated and stretch him on the rack of a half-serious refusal and torture him with the pangs of hope just as a cat will torture a mouse, yet all the while means to give him everything he asks for and would indeed be more bitterly disappointed than he, if any accident precluded her from making him happy? Wilson — Yes, I know, some women are like that. Keshav — If you had said most women were like that, you would have hit the truth more nearly. And this trait in women we impute to feminine insincerity and to maiden coyness and to everything but the real motive, and that is the primitive and eternal passion of cruelty appearing in the coarse fibre of man as crude and inartistic barbarity, but in the sweet and delicate soul of woman as a refined and beautiful playfulness and the inseparable correlative of a gentle and suave disposition. Wilson — But I am inclined to credit the girl with the purpose of giving a keener relish to the gratified desire by enhancing the difficulty of attainment, and in that case she will be actuated not by cruelty but always by tenderness. Keshav — You think she is actuated by the principles of Political Economy? I cannot agree with you. Treneth — And I deny the truth of the principle. A precious thing easily acquired is treasured for its beauty and worth, but if acquired with pain and labour, the memory of the effort leaves a bad taste in the mouth which it is difficult to expunge. I read Vergil at school and never read a line of him now but Catullus I skimmed through in my arm-chair and love and appreciate. Keshav — Your distinction is subtle and suggestive, Treneth, but it never occurred to me in that light before. Treneth — It never occurred to me in that light before. Keshav — Yet I do not think it applies to our lovers, and it does not apply always, for the poem I have perfected with labour and thought is surely dearer to me than the light carol thrown off in the happy inspiration of the moment. Rapid generalities seldom cover more than a few cases. So I will take Broome on his own ground, not because I cannot adduce other instances of

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cruelty and tenderness living in wedded felicity, but because I do not want to fatigue myself by recollecting them. And now, Broome, will you say that a tyrant who desires to give his favourite a keener relish of luxury and strains him on the rack and washes him with scalding oil and dries him with nettles and flays him with whips and then only comforts him with the luxury of downy pillows and velvet cushions and perfect repose, has not been actuated by cruelty but always by tenderness? Wilson — Oh, of course, if you cite extravagant instances—! Keshav — And will you say that the girl who wishes to give her kiss a sweeter savour on the lips of her favourite and strains him on the rack of suspense and washes him with the scalding oil of despair and dries him with the nettles of hope and flays him with the whips of desire and then only comforts him with the velvet luxury of a kiss and the downy cushion of an embrace and the perfect repose of desire fulfilled, has not been actuated by cruelty but always by tenderness and not rather that all unnecessary pain is cruelty to the sufferer? Wilson — Certainly, unnecessary pain is cruelty. Keshav — Are you perfectly satisfied? Wilson — Perfectly satisfied. Keshav — We have discovered then that perfect evolution is requisite for perfect virtue, but I do not think we have distilled its full flavour into the epithet. Or are you of the opinion that we want nothing more than the harmonizing of all the inborn qualities? Wilson — I cannot think of any other requisite. Keshav — Can you, Treneth? Treneth — I was much attracted by something you said in the beginning about the elements of beauty and I suspect it is these we want now. Keshav — You have exactly hit it. We described it as not merely harmony in effect and proportion in detail but as possessed of one of the three elements, colour, perfume and form, and in most types combining at least two and in many all three. But in confining our outlook to harmony and proportion we have talked as if human virtue were merely possessed of one

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of the elements; yet is there any reason to suppose that human virtue does not possess the whole three? Wilson — No reason whatever. Keshav — Well, might we not inquire whether it does possess all three, and if it does not, whether it may not legitimately or, to speak more properly, may not artistically possess all three? Wilson — By all means, let us inquire. Keshav — And if we find that it may artistically possess them, then, if our theory that beauty should be the governing principle in all things, is really correct, must we not say that they not only may but ought to possess all three? Wilson — Evidently we must. Treneth — That is as plain as a Cambridge laundress. Keshav — And it is clear that all qualities may, with diligence, be entirely divested of colour, form and perfume, and when they have reached the stage of wanting every single element of beauty, we need take no notice of them, for they have no longer anything to do with virtue, until they begin to redevelop. Wilson — Obviously, for we are talking of perfect virtue or perfect beauty of character. Keshav — Now if we have not the qualities requisite for a given action, we shall not achieve the action, supposing we attempt it, but shall only achieve a blunder, is it not so? Wilson — Clearly. Keshav — But if we have the qualities, we are likely to achieve the action? Wilson — Necessarily. Keshav — Then is not action the outward manifestation of a quality, and I include in action any movement physical or intellectual which is visible or whose effects are visible to the human understanding? Wilson — Yes, but may not an action manifest the want of a quality? Keshav — No doubt, but we need not touch on those, since we have not to develop defects in order to be virtuous, or do you think we need?

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Treneth — Clearly not: negatives cannot be virtues. Keshav — That is a very just sentiment and I shall have occasion to recall it. Now is not a battle the outward manifestation of the warlike qualities? Wilson — Evidently. Keshav — And composition the outward manifestation of the poetical qualities, I mean, of course, the qualities of a maker? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — And do we not mean that the poetical qualities express themselves in composition just as the sidereal in a star? Wilson — We do. Keshav — And is not the star the form of the sidereal qualities? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Then is not composition the form of the poetical qualities? Wilson — That follows. Keshav — And battle of the warlike qualities? Wilson — That also. Keshav — Then is not action the form of a quality, that is to say the shape in which it expresses itself? Wilson — So it seems. Keshav — So we find that virtue has a form. Wilson — But may not qualities have a form apart from action? Treneth — For example, thought. Keshav — But the expression of thought is included in action for our purpose. Treneth — For our purpose only. Keshav — As you please. I merely want to use one projection from the rock and not imperil my neck by clutching two in one hand. Treneth — I am satisfied. Keshav — I suppose, Broome, you mean by form a concrete shape? Wilson — I suppose so. Keshav — Then you must see that qualities unexpressed in

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action are wholly chaotic and formless; and I mean within the scope of action, the expression of thought and the act of sitting or standing or lying down and the act of being indolent and anything that by any legitimate stretch of language may be called an act. Wilson — I too am satisfied. Keshav — Then we are agreed that a quality must possess form, that is to say, express itself in action or it will not be a virtue? Treneth — May it not prefer to express itself in perfume and colour? Keshav — I had forgotten that. Now if we inquire what colour is, we shall see that it is nothing concrete but merely an effect on the retina of the eye, and its prosperity lies in the eye that sees it, and if the retina of the eye is perfect, every different shade impresses itself, but if imperfect, then the eye is blind to one or more colours. Will you agree with me when I say that anything to which we give the name of colour must be the reverse of concrete? Wilson — That follows. Keshav — Then the colour of a virtue must be the reverse of concrete. Wilson — Evidently. Keshav — Now let us take metaphor into our counsel, for metaphor has sometimes an intuitive way of chiming consonantly with the truth; and metaphor tells us that we often talk of a scarlet and sinful character and of a white and innocent character and of a neutral and drab-coloured character, and assign various colours to various women and call one woman a splendid carnation, for we are fond of comparing women to flowers and another a beautiful and gorgeous rose, and a third a pure and sinless lily and yet another a modest violet betraying herself only by her fragrance, and are all the while implying that to the imaginative eye, if the retina is perfect, various characters have various colours. Do you follow me? Treneth — Yes, the idea is fine. Wilson — And true.

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Treneth — That is immaterial. Keshav — And character is the composition of qualities just as a poem is the composition of sounds and a painting the composition of pigments. Wilson — Yes, just in that sense. Keshav — Then is it not plain that if a character has colour, the qualities of which it is composed must have colour. Wilson — I think it is. Keshav — And colour is not concrete, but an effect on the retina of the eye? Wilson — So we said. Keshav — Then is not the colour of a quality its effect on the retina of the imaginative eye? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — And a quality in itself may be formless? Wilson — Yes. Keshav — Then to the imaginative eye is not a quality pure colour? Wilson — I suppose so. Keshav — But the imaginative eye is not one with the perceptive eye, for it perceives what does not exist, but the perceptive eye only what does exist. Wilson — You are right. Keshav — I mean that nothing without form can have an effect on the retina of the perceptive eye. Wilson — That is evident. Keshav — Then to be visible to the perceptive eye, the colour of a quality, which is really the soul of the quality, must suffuse the action which expresses it, which is the body of the quality. Wilson — It must. Keshav — And is colour without form a perfect type of beauty? Wilson — No. Keshav — Then a quality must suffuse its body with its soul, or, since the word action is growing ambiguous, its expression with its colour.

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Wilson — Yes, I agree to that. Keshav — And so the quality will so suffuse its expression as to be visible to the perceptive eye, just as the soul of a rose, which is the effect on the retina of the imaginative eye, suffuses her form with colour which is the effect on the retina of the perceptive eye, and varies according to the variety of colours, and if two roses have the same form but one is crimson and the other yellow, the soul of the red rose is seen to be scarlet with unholy passion, but the soul of the yellow rose is seen to be dull and blanched and languid, like the reaction after intensely voluptuous enjoyment. And so virtue may possess both form and colour, and, I suppose, may artistically possess both, or will colour be detrimental to the perfection of virtue as tinting to the perfection of sculpture? Treneth — By no means; for qualities are not hewn out of marble or cast in beaten gold or chiselled in Indian ivory, but are moulded in the delicate and flower-like texture of human emotion and, if colourless, are scarcely beautiful. Keshav — Then we are agreed that a quality must possess both form and colour, or will not be a perfect virtue? Treneth — Plainly. Wilson — I am afraid I hardly understand what we are saying. Keshav — I am certain I do not; but we must follow where the argument leads us, and I have a glimmering intelligence which I hope to see expanding into perfect daylight; but I do not want any side issue to distract my thoughts and will go on to inquire what is the perfume of a quality: for I am like a frail canoe that wavers through a tranquil to be buffeted outside by the swelling waters and have with difficulty plunged through these two waves of form and colour, when I see rolling down on me with its curled forehead this third wave of perfume which I do not hope to outlive. But to the venturous Fortune is as compliant as a captive Briseis and I will boldly plunge into the crash of the breaking water and call manner the perfume of a quality, for in manner resides the subtle aroma and sense of

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something delicious but impalpable which is what we mean by perfume. Treneth — With your usual good luck you have notched your mark in the centre. Keshav — So by audacity I have outlived the third wave and am more than ever convinced that you must take liberties with Fortune before she will love you. I suppose you will agree with me that for a virtue to be beautiful, there must be a perfect harmony in the elements of beauty, and the colour not too subdued as in the clover nor too glaring as in the sunflower, and the perfume not too slight to be noticeable as in the pansy nor too intense for endurance as in the meadow-sweet, and the form not too monotonous as in a canal or too irregular as in the leafless tree, but all perfectly harmonious in themselves and in fit proportion to each other? Wilson — From our description of beauty, that is evident. Treneth — I plead not guilty on behalf of the sunflower, but agree with the sentiment. Keshav — And now since Broome and I are at a loss to conjecture what we mean, do you not think we shall be enlightened by a concrete example? Treneth — It is likely. Wilson — Let us at least make an attempt. Keshav — We will call on the stage the girl and her lover, who have been so useful to us. It is clear at once that if she is not virtuous but harmonizes the elements of beauty unskilfully, the passion of her favourite will wither and not expand. Wilson — That is clear. Keshav — What then will be her manner of harmonizing them? Wilson — I return the question to you. Keshav — Well now, will she not harmonize the phases of her dalliance, and hesitate on the brink of yielding just at the proper pitch of his despair, and elude his kiss just at the proper pitch of his expectancy, and fan his longing when it sinks, and check it when it rises, and surrender herself when he is smouldering with hopeless passion?

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Wilson — That is probably what she will do. Keshav — And is not that to cast her dalliance in a beautiful form? Wilson — It is. Keshav — But she will not do this grossly and palpably, but will lead up to everything by looks and tones and gestures so as to glide from one to the other without his perceiving and will sweeten the hard and obvious form by the flavour of the simple and natural, yet will be all the while the veriest coquette and artist in flirtation. Wilson — Yes, that is what a girl like that would do. Keshav — And is not that to give a subtle perfume to her dalliance? Wilson — I suppose it is. Keshav — But if she is perfect in the art, will she not, even when repulsing him most cruelly, allow a secret tenderness to run through her words and manner, and when she is most tenderly yielding, will she not show the sharp edge of asperity through the flowers, and in a word allow the blended cruelty and sweetness of her soul to be just palpable to his perceptive senses? Wilson — She will. Keshav — And is not that to suffuse her dalliance with colour? Wilson — Plainly. Keshav — And moreover she will not allow her affectation of the natural to be too imperfect to conceal her art or so heavily scented as to betray the intention, or the colour to be unnoticeable from slightness or from intensity to spoil the delicate effect of her perverseness, or the form to engross too largely the attention, or indeed any element to fall too short or carry too far, but will subdue the whole trio into a just and appropriate harmony. Wilson — If she wants to be a perfect flirt, that is what she will do. Keshav — And if coquetry is native in her, to be a perfect flirt will be highest pinnacle of virtue. Wilson — That follows from the premisses.

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Keshav — And so here we have a concrete example of perfect virtue, and begin to understand what we mean by the perfect evolution of an inborn quality, or are you still unenlightened? Wilson — No, I perfectly understand. Keshav — Hither then we have climbed with much more laborious effort and have almost cut our hands in two on the projections, but do at last really stand on the fourth and last rung of the ladder. Wilson — The last? I rather fancy we are only half way up and shall have to ascend another three or four rungs before we are kissed by the fresh winds that carol on the brow. I have many things to ask you and you have as yet spoken nothing of the relations between man and man and how this new morality is to be modified by the needs of society and what justice means and what self-sacrifice and indeed a thousand things which will need many hours to investigate. Keshav — I am Frankenstein saddled with a monster of my own making and have made a man to my ruin and a young man to my hurt. Nevertheless “lead on, monster: we’ll follow.” Treneth — Will you not rest on the fourth rung and have a cup of tea in my rooms before you resume? Keshav — But shall we not put a stop to your spheroids and trianguloids and asinoids and all the other figures of mathematical ingenuity? Treneth — I am at present watching a body which revolves on six screws and is consequently very drunk, and a day off will sensibly assist my speculations. Keshav — So let it be, but before we go I may as well recall to you at a glance what is our fourth rung. We have expanded our description of virtue as the evolution of the inborn qualities native to our personality, by throwing in the epithet “perfect”, and have interpreted the full flavour of the epithet in words to the effect that qualities in their evolved perfection must be harmonious one with another and have a beautiful form or expression, and a beautiful colour or revelation of the soul, and a beautiful perfume or justly-attempered manner and must subdue all three into a just and appropriate harmony.

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With this conviction in our souls we will journey on, despising the censure and alarm of the reputable, and evolve our inborn qualities and powers into a beautiful and harmonious perfection, until we walk delicately like living poems through a radiant air, and will not stunt the growth of any branch or blossom, but will prefer to the perishable laurels of this world a living crown of glory, and hear through the chaotic murmur of the ages the solemn question of Christ “What profiteth it a man if he own the whole world and lose his own soul?” and will answer according to the melodious doctrines of philosophy and acquire by a life of perfect beauty the peace of God that passeth all understanding.

Beauty in the Real I had ridden down by Shelsford thro’ the glittering lustre of an afternoon in March and as I was returning somewhat cold and tired, saw at a distance the pink hat and heavy black curls of Keshav Ganesh and with him Broome Wilson and Prince Paradox. As I trotted up Prince Paradox hailed me. “Come round and have tea with me” he said “we are speculating at large on the primitive roots and origin of the universe, and I know your love for light subjects.” “I shall be a delighted listener” I said, and was genuine in the assurance, for I had many a while listened with subtle delight to the beautiful and imaginative talk of Keshav Ganesh. I rode to the stables and returned to the College and quickly changing my apparel repaired to Chetwynd Court, but found them already drinking tea with the liberality of artists. “A cup of nectar” I cried “ere the bowl be empty!” “It seems that Pegasus is blind” said Wilson “or he would not see the drink of Gods in the brown tincture of tea-leaves and the chased bowls of Hephaestus in a common set of China.” “If not the drink of Gods” I replied “it is the nectar of poets and women.” “And that is a more splendid title” put in Prince Paradox. “You are right” said Keshav “poets and women are the efflorescence of being and the crowning rapture of creation, and if poets are roses in their delicate texture and have the crimson luxury and the heavy fragrance and the petalled sublimity of a blowing rose, women are moulded of as fine material but are flowers perpetually in the bud and are only seen in a glint of peeping splendour and not in the consummated outburst of glory, which is only fostered by the living waters of culture and the nurturing warmth of independence.” Broome interposed. “No more of that” he said “if you escape into a byway, Keshav, you will never be wooed back into the high-road.” “But what is the high-road?” I inquired. Broome Wilson, who was gifted with a retentive memory undertook to

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inform me. “I understand” I said when he had finished “and am pleased to see my own ideas garbed in the beautiful dialect of poetical analogy; but have you not finished or is there more wine to be pressed from the cluster?” “There is more to be pressed” he answered. Then began an amusing scene, for Broome baited his hook for the argument and kept throwing the line repeatedly, but Keshav was the wariest fish that ever cheated an angler and if he ever appeared to bite, was seen, as the line went flying up, to dart away into some fine thought or voluptuous image. At last when we least expected it, he plunged into the argument. “And so on the gnarled brow of Pisgah we stand and look down on a land flowing with milk and honey. Now whether is it wiser to descend and take the kingdom of heaven by violence or to linger here and feel on our temples the breath of the winds wafting us hints of the beauty we relinquish? Below there are truculent peoples to conquer and strong cities to storm and giants, the sons of Anak, to slaughter, but above the stainless heavens and the sweet, fresh morning and one lingering star.” “Let us go down” I said “and enjoy the full meaning of the beauty below us.” “Yes” added Broome eagerly “leave hints to the spiritually indolent.” Treneth threw in a paradox. “I love the pleasure of anticipation better than the pain of enjoyment.” “We are very far from the enjoyment” said Keshav “for we have yet to make the descent of Pisgah.” “But what is Pisgah?” I asked. “In thought, the knowledge of virtue, and, in action, the purpose of evolving the inborn qualities and powers native to our personality.” “Shall I let you off, Keshav,” said Broome “or are you ready to answer my inquiries?” “Pray do not” he said “for like Gorgias I profess to answer any question and not be at a loss however strange the inquiry.” “I am glad to hear it, and I hope you will answer and tell me why you have ignored the qualities that are native neither to

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our human nature nor to our personality but to a more subtle part of us.” “I see;” he replied with a smile “you shy at the spectre of heredity. Well, we will lay the spectre.” “And a spectre it is, or rather a scarecrow;” put in Prince Paradox “for it seems to me neither beautiful as an idea nor sound as a theory but merely the last resource of bad psychologists.” “I see the lovers of the past are as iconoclastic from regret as the lovers of the future from aspiration. We are then agreed that our first step will be to reject or accept heredity?” We all assented. “And now, Prince Paradox” he said “will you tell me that you do not believe in race?” “God forbid.” “And you agree with me that an Aryan is various from a non-Aryan, and a Teuton from a Celt and a Celt from a Hindu, and a Rajput from a Mahratta, and that this is fine as an idea and sound as a theory and consonant with Nature, which is fond of sphering harmony within harmony?” “Yes, I agree with all that.” “And by origin the Saxon varies from the Celt, and is meant for the drudgery of Life and not for its beauty and splendour, just as by origin the thistle varies from the rose and is not glorious nor wonderful but simply decent and useful and good diet for donkeys?” “That is true.” “Then if race divergences result from origin, and origin is heredity, is it not?, is not heredity real and not a sciolism?” “Yes, in broad masses, but not in the individual. What is sauce for the goose abstract is not sauce for the positive gander.” “It would take a positive goose to deny that. But synthesis is the secret of Philosophy and not analysis, and we err widely when we work from without rather than from within. Let us rectify our methods or we shall arrive at incomplete results. I trust none of you are proficient in text-book Psychology?” We all disclaimed the text-book.

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“That is fortunate, for I can now make ridiculous mistakes without fear of ridicule. This is the theory of race as I conceive it. Temperament is the basis or substratum of character, and the character built on anything other than temperament is an edifice rooted in the sea-waves which in a moment will foam away into nothing or tumble grovelling under the feet of fresh conquerors. Indeed it would be more apt to call temperament the root of character, and the character itself the growing or perfect tree with its hundred branches and myriads of leaves. And temperament is largely due to race, or, in another phrasing, varies with the blood, and if the blood is quick and fiery the temperament is subtle and sensitive and responds as promptly to social influences and personal culture as a flower to sunlight and rain, and shoots up into multitudinous leaves and branches, but if the blood is slow and lukewarm, the temperament is dull and phlegmatic and will not answer to the most earnest wooing, but grows up stunted and withered in aspect and bald of foliage and miserly of branches and altogether unbeautiful. On the blood depends the sensitiveness of the nerves to impressions and the quick action of the brains and the heat of the passions, and all that goes to the composition of a character, which if they are absent, leave only the heavy sediment and dregs of human individuality. Hence the wide gulf between the Celt and the Saxon.” “You are the dupe of your own metaphors, Keshav” said Broome “the quick nature is the mushroom, but the slow is the gradual and majestic oak.” “If the Athenians were mushrooms and the Lowland Scotch are oaks, the mushroom is preferable. To be slow and solid is the pride of the Saxon and the ox, but to be quick and songful and gracile is the pride of the Celt and the bird. There is no virtue in inertia, but only absence of virtue; for without growth there is no development, and the essence of growth and the imperative need of the spirit is movement, which if you lose, you lose all that separates the human from the brute.” Broome avowed that on our theory of virtue the remark was convincing.

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“And do we all recognize” said he “blood as the seed of temperament and temperament as the root of character?” We all signified assent. “Then, Prince Paradox, does it not follow that if our ancestors had quick blood, we shall have quick blood and a quick temperament, and if they had slow blood, we shall have slow blood and a slow temperament, and if they had some of both characters, we shall have the elements of either temperament, and either they will amalgamate, one predominant and the other subordinate or driven under, or they will pervert our souls into a perpetual field of battle?” “Obviously” he assented. “Then here we have heredity in the individual as in the broad masses.” “But only a racial heredity and to that I do not object, but what I loath is to be told that my virtues are mere bequests and that I am not an original work but a kind of anthology of ancestral qualities.” “But if I called you a poem, in which peculiar words and cadences have been introduced and assimilated and blended in a new and beautiful manner, would you loath to be told that?” “Dear me, no: it quite reconciles me to the idea.” “And it is the more accurate comparison. Nature does not go to work like a mere imitator of herself, as modern poets do, but transplants the secrets of her old poems and blends them with new secrets, so as to enrich the beauty of her new poem, and however she may seem to grow grapes from thistles, is really too wise and good, to do anything so discordant, and only by her involved and serpentine manner gives an air of caprice and anarchy to what is really apt and harmonious. She often leaves the ground fallow for a generation and the world is surprised when it sees spring from Sir Timothy Shelley, Baronet and orthodox, Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet and pioneer of free-thought, but learns in a little while that Percy Shelley had a grandfather, and marvels no longer. Could we trace the descent of Goethe and Shakespeare we should find the root of the Italian in the one and the Celt in the other — but the world did not then and

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does not now appreciate the value of genealogies to philosophy. We are vexed and are sceptical of harmony in nature, when we find Endymion a Londoner, but look back a step and learn that his parents were Devonshire Celts and recover our faith in the Cosmos. And why should we exclaim at the Julian emperors as strange products for stoical virtue-ridden Rome, when we know that Tiberius was a Clausus, one of the great Italian houses renowned for its licence, cruelty, pride and genius, and Caligula the son and Nero the grandson of Germanicus, who drew his blood from Mark Antony. Science is right in its materialist data, though not always in the inferences it draws from them and when she tells us that nothing proceeds from nothingness and that for every effect there is a cause and for every growth a seed, we must remember that her truths apply as much to the spiritual as to the material world. Mommsen has said rightly that without passion there is no genius. We shall not gather beauty from ugliness, nor intellect from a slow temperament, nor fiery passion from disciplined apathy, but in all things shall reap as we sow, and must sow the wind before we can reap the whirlwind.”

Stray Thoughts Flowers and trees are the poetry of Nature; the gardener is a romantic poet who has added richness, complexity of effect and symmetry to a language otherwise distinguished merely by facility, by directness and by simplicity of colour and charm. Sound is more essential to poetry than sense. Swinburne who often conveys no meaning to the intellect, yet fills his verse with lovely & suggestive melodies, can put more poetry into one such line than Pope into a hundred couplets of accurate sense and barren music. A noble thought framed in a well-rounded sentence, will always charm by virtue of its satisfying completeness, but will never convey that exquisite agony of rapture which a line of perfect melody conveys to the sensitive soul. The melody of words has this advantage over the melody of mere sounds that it needs only a soul to understand poetry but to comprehend music a technical education as well. To govern life by fixed laws and a pocket-hand-book. Beware of heavy touches above all in tragedy: comedy heavily stressed becomes the grotesque, which has its value in Art: tragedy heavily stressed becomes melodrama, which has no value anywhere. One step beyond the sublime & you are in the grotesque. The Greek mythology was evolved by poets and sculptors; therefore it is beautiful. The Hindu mythology fell into the hands of priests and moralists; therefore it has become hideous. Art holds the mirror up to Nature that Nature may see her own image beside that of Art and realise her own deformity and imperfections.

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It was Meredith who taught me that the epigram is the soul of style, and Plato who whispered that rhythm is its body. Words are the texture of the flesh and sentences the system of hard matter that gives it consistency: the texture of the flesh may be coarse or delicate, and as you design so you shall build. Just as Socrates was nothing without his daemon, so the artist is helpless if he has not his daemon at his elbow. And who is the artist’s daemon? The artistic conscience. Inspiration means that the papyrus of your imagination is held to the fire of memory and reveals characters written in Indian ink by unseen compositors.

Part Two On Literature Sri Aurobindo wrote all the pieces in this part in Baroda between 1893 and 1906. He published the essays making up Bankim Chandra Chatterji in a newspaper in 1893 – 94. He published two of the essays on Kalidasa, “The Age of Kalidasa” and “The Seasons”, in 1902 and 1909 respectively. He did not publish any of the pieces in the sections headed “On Poetry and Literature” and “On the Mahabharata”.

Bankim Chandra Chatterji

I

His Youth and College Life

B

ANKIM Chandra Chattopadhyaya, the creator and king of Bengali prose, was a high-caste Brahman and the son of a distinguished official in Lower Bengal. Born at Kantalpara on the 27th June 1838, dead at Calcutta on the 8th April 1894, his fifty-six years of laborious life were a parcel of the most splendid epoch in Bengali history; yet among its many noble names, his is the noblest. His life shows us three faces, his academical career, his official labours and his literary greatness; it will be here my endeavour to give some description of each and all. The first picture we have of his childhood is his mastering the alphabet at a single reading; and this is not only the initial picture but an image and prophecy of the rest. Even thus early men saw in him the three natural possessions of the cultured Bengali, a boundless intellect, a frail constitution and a temper mild to the point of passivity. And indeed Bankim was not only our greatest; he was also our type and magnified pattern. He was the image of all that is most finely characteristic in the Bengali race. At Midnapur, the home of his childhood, the magnificence of his intellect came so early into view, that his name grew into a proverb. “You will soon be another Bankim,” — for a master to say that was the hyperbole of praise, and the best reward of industry. He ascended the school by leaps and bounds; so abnormal indeed was his swiftness that it put his masters in fear for him. They grew nervous lest they should spoil by over-instruction the delicate fibre of his originality, and with a wise caution they obstructed his entrance into the highest class. Bankim had always an extraordinary luck. Just as at school his fine promise was saved by the prudence of its guardians from the altar of High Education, the Moloch to whom we stupidly sacrifice India’s most hopeful sons, so it was saved at Hugly College by his own distaste for hard work. At Hugly College

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quite as much as at Midnapur he had the reputation of an intellectual miracle. And indeed his ease and quickness in study were hardly human. Prizes and distinctions cost him no effort in the attaining. He won his honours with a magical carelessness and as if by accident while others toiled and failed. But while unconquerably remiss in his duties, he bestowed wonderful pains on his caprices. He conceived at this time a passion for Sanskrit and read with great perseverance at a Pandit’s tol. In a single year he had gone through the Mugdhabodh, Raghuvansa, Bhatti and the Meghaduta. Advancing at this pace he managed in something under four years to get a sense of mastery in the ancient tongue and a feeling for its literary secrets which gave him immense leverage in his work of creating a new prose. Not that there is the least touch of pedantry in his Bengali style: rather it was he and Madhu Sudan Dutt who broke the tyranny of the Sanskrit tradition: but one feels how immensely his labour was simplified by a fine and original use of his Sanskrit knowledge. At the age of seventeen, being then a student of five years’ standing, he cut short his attendance at Hugly College. He left behind him a striking reputation, to which, except Dwarkanath Mitra, no student has ever come near. Yet he had done positively nothing in the way of application or hard work. As with most geniuses his intellectual habits were irregular. His spirit needed larger bounds than a school routine could give it, and refused, as every free mind does, to cripple itself and lose its natural suppleness. It was his constant habit, a habit which grew on him with the lapse of time, to hide himself in a nook of the College Library and indulge his wandering appetite in all sorts of reading. At the eleventh hour and with an examination impending, he would catch up his prescribed books, hurry through them at a canter, win a few prizes, and go back to his lotus-eating. I believe this is a not uncommon habit with brilliant young men in all countries and it saves them from the sterilizing effects of overinstruction; but it hardly strikes one as a safe policy for slower minds. At the Presidency College, his next seat of instruction, he shaped his versatile intellect to the study of law. He had then some project of qualifying as a High Court Pleader, but at the

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right moment for literature the Calcutta University came into being and Bankim took literary honours instead of legal. The Courts lost a distinguished pleader and India gained a great man. Bankim, however, seems to have had some hankering after Law; for he subsequently snatched time from hard official drudgery and larger literary toil to appear with his usual distinguished success for the B.L. But his chief pretension to academical originality is perhaps that he was, together with Jodunath Bose, our first B.A., even in this detail leading the way for his countrymen. His official appointment followed close on the heels of his degree. At the age of twenty he was sent as Deputy Magistrate to Jessore. I have drawn out in a manner as little perfunctory as I could manage, this skeleton of Bankim’s academical life. In any account of an eminent Hindu a dry sketch of this sort is a form that must be gone through; for we are a scholastic people and in our life examinations and degrees fill up half the book. But examinations and degrees are a minor episode in the history of a mind. An European writer has acutely observed that nothing which is worth knowing can be taught. That is a truth which Dr. Bhandarkar, when he can spare time from his Carlyle, might ponder over with profit. Not what a man learns, but what he observes for himself in life and literature is the formative agency in his existence, and the actual shape it will take is much determined by the sort of social air he happens to breathe at that critical moment when the mind is choosing its road. All else is mere dead material useless without the breath of a vivifying culture. If examinations and degrees are the skeleton of university life, these are its soul and life-blood, and where they exist poorly or not at all, education, except for the one or two self-sufficing intellects, becomes mere wind and dust. Among what sort of men did the student Bankim move? From what social surroundings did his adolescent personality take its colour? These are questions of a nearer interest than the examinations he passed or the degrees he took; and to them I shall give a larger answer.

II

The Bengal He Lived In

T

HE SOCIETY by which Bankim was formed, was the young Bengal of the fifties, the most extraordinary perhaps that India has yet seen, — a society electric with thought and loaded to the brim with passion. Bengal was at that time the theatre of a great intellectual awakening. A sort of miniature Renascence was in process. An ardent and imaginative race, long bound down in the fetters of a single tradition, had had suddenly put into its hands the key to a new world thronged with the beautiful or profound creations of Art and Learning. From this meeting of a foreign Art and civilisation with a temperament differing from the temperament which created them, there issued, as there usually does issue from such meetings, an original Art and an original civilisation. Originality does not lie in rejecting outside influences but in accepting them as a new mould into which our own individuality may run. This is what happened and may yet happen in Bengal. The first impulse was gigantic in its proportions and produced men of an almost gigantic originality. Rammohan Ray arose with a new religion in his hand, which was developed on original lines by men almost greater one thinks than he, by Rajnarain Bose and Debendranath Tagore. The two Dutts, Okhay Kumar and Michael Madhu Sudan, began a new Prose and a new Poetry. Vidyasagara, scholar, sage and intellectual dictator, laboured hugely like the Titan he was, to create a new Bengali language and a new Bengali society, while in vast and original learning Rajendra Lal Mitra has not met his match. Around these arose a class of men who formed a sort of seed-bed for the creative geniuses, men of fine critical ability and appreciative temper, scholarly, accomplished, learned in music and the arts, men in short not only of culture, but of original culture. Of these perhaps the most finished patterns were Madhu Sudan’s friends,

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Gourdas Byshak, and that scholarly patron of letters, Rajah Jyotindra Mohun Tagore. At the same time there arose, as in other parts of India, a new social spirit and a new political spirit, but these on a somewhat servilely English model. Of all its channels the released energies of the Bengali mind ran most violently into the channel of literature. And this was only natural; for although the Bengali has by centuries of Brahmanic training acquired a religious temper, a taste for law and a taste for learning, yet his peculiar sphere is language. Another circumstance must not be forgotten. Our renascence was marked like its European prototype, though not to so startling an extent, by a thawing of old moral custom. The calm, docile, pious, dutiful Hindu ideal was pushed aside with impatient energy, and the Bengali, released from the iron restraint which had lain like a frost on his warm blood and sensuous feeling, escaped joyously into the open air of an almost Pagan freedom. The ancient Hindu cherished a profound sense of the nothingness and vanity of life; the young Bengali felt vividly its joy, warmth and sensuousness. This is usually the moral note of a Renascence, a burning desire for Life, Life in her warm human beauty arrayed gloriously like a bride. It was the note of the sixteenth century, it is the note of the astonishing return to Greek Paganism, which is now beginning in England and France; and it was in a slighter and less intellectual way the note of the new age in Bengal. Everything done by the men of that day and their intellectual children is marked by an unbounded energy and passion. Their reading was enormous and ran often quite out of the usual track. Madhu Sudan Dutt, besides English, Bengali and Sanskrit, studied Greek, Latin, Italian and French, and wrote the last naturally and with ease. Toru Dutt, that unhappy and immature genius, who unfortunately wasted herself on a foreign language and perished while yet little more than a girl, had, I have been told, a knowledge of Greek. At any rate she could write English with perfect grace and correctness and French with energy and power. Her novels gained the ear of the French public and her songs breathed fire into the hearts of Frenchmen in their fearful struggle with Germany. And as was their reading so was their life. They were

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giants and did everything gigantically. They read hugely, wrote hugely, thought hugely, and drank hugely. Bankim’s student days did not happen among that circle of original geniuses; his time fell between the heroes of the Renascence and the feebler Epigoni of our day. But he had contemporary with him men of extraordinary talent, men like Dinabandhu Mitra and Dwarkanath Mitra, men so to speak of the second tier. Bankim was the last of the original geniuses. Since then the great impulse towards originality has gone backward like a receding wave. After Bankim came the Epigoni, Hemchandra Banerji, Nobin Sen, Robindranath Tagore, men of surprising talent, nay, of unmistakable genius, but too obviously influenced by Shelley and the English poets. And last of all came the generation formed in the schools of Keshab Chandra Sen and Kristo Das Pal, with its religious shallowness, its literary sterility and its madness in social reform. Servile imitators of the English, politicians without wisdom and scholars without learning, they have no pretensions to greatness or originality. Before they came the first mighty impulse had spent itself and Bengal lay fallow for a new. It rests with the new generation, the generation that will soon be sitting in the high places and judging the land, whether there shall be scope for any new impulse to work itself out. Two years ago it looked as if this mighty awakening would lose itself, as the English sixteenth century lost itself, in Puritanism and middle-class politics. But when Bankim was a student, the traditions of the Hindu college were yet powerful, the Hindu college, that nursery of geniuses, where the brain of the New Age had worked most powerfully and the heart of the New Age had beat with the mightiest vehemence. The men around Bankim were calmer, sedater, more temperate; but they walked in the same ways and followed the same ideals. To that life of hard thinking and hard drinking Bankim was drawn not merely, as some were, by the power of youthful imitativeness, but by sympathy of temperament. He had the novelist’s catholicity of taste and keen sense for life, and the artist’s repugnance to gloom and dreariness. Even when the thoughts turned to old faith, the clear sanity of the

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man showed itself in his refusal to admit asceticism among the essentials of religion. He never indulged in that habit of frightful and inveterate riot which has killed one or two of our secondrate talents, but it cannot quite be said that he never overstepped the limits or always observed the principle of “nothing in excess,” which is the only sure rule for a man’s conduct. Some would like to see in this sensuous exuberance the secret of his early decay. It may be so; but speculation on this subject will remain a solemn farce, until it is taken up in a disinterested spirit. At present all our wise disquisitions proceed from unchastened sentiment. Dr. Bhandarkar is a violent social reformer and wants to throw odium upon Hindu society; Mr. Ranade’s hobby is a Conservative Radicalism and the spirit moves him to churn the ocean of statistics in a sense more agreeable to his own turn of mind; a third authority, prejudiced against Western Culture, traces all premature deaths to pleasure and wine-bibbing. Each starts from his own sensations, each builds his web of argument in the spirit of a sophist. To this Dr. Bhandarkar brings his moral ardour and grave eloquence, Mr. Ranade his trained reason and distinguished talent, the religionist his prejudices and cold precepts. Widely as they differ, they have this in common that they have not for their aim to speak usefully: they are simply trying to find reasons for their own likes and dislikes. Dealing with subjects of scientific interest in a spirit of this sort is only to invite confusion and exclude light. We in Bengal with our tendency to the sins of the blood are perhaps more apt than others to call to our aid the gloomy moralities of the Puritan; in censuring Bankim we are secretly fortifying ourselves against ourselves; but in this instance it is a false caution. The cultured Bengali begins life with a physical temperament already delicate and high-strung. He has the literary constitution with its femineity and acute nervousness. Subject this to a cruel strain when it is tenderest and needs the most careful rearing, to the wicked and wantonly cruel strain of instruction through a foreign tongue; put it under the very worst system of training; add enormous academical labour, immense official drudgery in an unhealthy climate and constant mental application; crown all with the

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nervous expense of thought and fever of composition plus the unfailing exhaustion that comes after; and we need not go to the momentary excesses of a generous blood to find the explanation of broken health and an early decline. The miracle of it is not that the victims die prematurely but that they live so long. Perhaps we might begin to enquire into the causes of that phenomenon for a change. One thing however is certain that whatever else Bankim lost, he gained from his youthful surroundings much emotional experience and great flexibility of mind. There too he got his initial stimulus. Like Telang, and perhaps even more than Telang, Bankim was blessed or cursed with an universal talent. Everything he touched, shaped itself to his hand. It would have been easy for him to make disastrous mistakes, to miss his vocation, waste himself in English and at the end to leave no enduring monument of his personality behind. What saved him? It was the initial stimulus and the cultured environment; it was that he lived among men who could distinguish a talent when they saw it and once distinguished were bent on realizing it; among men in fact who had some instinct for finding their way. With a limited creature like man, the power of the environment is immense. Genius it is true exists independently of environment and by much reading and observation may attain to self-expression but it is environment that makes self-expression easy and natural; that provides sureness, verve, stimulus. Here lies the importance to the mind in its early stage of self-culture of fine social surroundings; — that sort of surroundings which our Universities do nothing and ought to have done everything to create.

III

His Official Career

T

HUS equipped, thus trained Bankim began his human journey, began in the radiance of joy and strength and genius the life which was to close in suffering and mortal pain. The drudgery of existence met him in the doorway, when his youth was still young. His twenty-first year found him at Jessore, his fifty-third was the last of his long official labour. Here too however his inveterate habit of success went always with him. The outward history of his manhood reads more brilliantly even than that of his youth, and if he did not climb to the highest posts, it was only because these are shut to indigenous talent. From start to finish, his ability, delicacy of judgment and careful work were recognised as something unusual: yet it would not be easy to find a more careful or cleverer set of administrators than the Hindu civilians of Bengal. At Jessore his life was chequered by a great boon and a great sorrow. It was here that he made fast his friendship with the dramatist Dinabandhu Mitra, which remained close-soldered to the end, and it was here that his young wife died. At Kanthi, the next stage of his official wanderings, he married again and more fortunately. Khulna, the third step in the ladder, was also the theatre of his most ambitious exploits. Entangled in the Sundarban, that rude and unhealthy tract of marsh and jungle, the zillah was labouring under two morbid ailments, for which none of its official doctors had found an efficient panacea, — the smallpox of piracy and the greater pox of Indigoism. Ruffians from Europe were in hot competition with the native breed which should deserve best the Government Scholarship for lawlessness and brutality; and as they had a racial gift for these things and a wider field it might have been safely awarded to them. Unluckily Bankim stept into their happy hunting-grounds and spoiled the game. But to the unhappy ryots, the battle-field for these rival

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rascalities, he came as a champion and a deliverer. At Khulna this mild, thoughtful Bengali wears the strange appearance of a Hercules weeding out monsters, clearing augean stables, putting a term to pests. His tranquil energy quite broke the back of the Indigo tyrants. Their master-criminals and chief indigocrats fled to Anam and Brindaban, but they were overtaken by Bankim’s warrant and persuaded to come back. Fine and imprisonment meted out with a healthy severity, shattered their prestige and oppressed their brutal spirit. Khulna then saw the last of government by organised ruffiandom. No less terse and incisive were Bankim’s dealings with the water-thieves who lurking in creek and brushwood dominated to the perpetual alarm and molestation of travellers the hundred waters of the Sundarban. The out-laws were hunted down and imprisoned and their principal spirits relegated where there was less room for their genius to find self-expression. The hydra of the waters had been crushed as effectually as the indigo pest; and since the era of Bankim’s magistracy one may travel the length and breadth of Khulna without peril except from malaria and ague. By a little quiet decisiveness he had broken the back of two formidable tyrannies and given an object-lesson in what a Government can do when it heartily intends the good of the people. Baruipur, consecrated a place in the calendar of literature, was next put into his hands. The event of his residence here was his appointment vice Mr. Justice Princep to the chair of an Official Emoluments Commission then sitting. The Government intended this to look like an extraordinary distinction, and had not the genius of the man raised him unmeasurably above any Englishman in the country, we might have regarded it as such. Barhampur was the next step in his journey, and after Barhampur Maldeh, and after Maldeh the important Suburban district of Hugly. He was now nearing his high-water mark and his official existence which had been till then more than ordinarily smooth, began to be ploughed up by unaccustomed storms. The Government wanted to give some inadequate expression to its sense of his extraordinary merits and could think of nothing better than a place in the Secretariat. It was here

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that he came into collision with the spirit of bureaucracy. His superior was a certain Macaulay, a hard working official, whose brains were tied together with red tape. The diligent mediocrity of this man was goaded to extra hours by flickering visions of a Lieutenant-Governorship, but Bankim, having no such high incentive, was careful to close his work at the strict office-hour. For this Macaulay took him severely to task. “It is natural enough” replied Bankim, forgetting unfortunately that he was talking to a piece of red tape “it is natural enough for you to work hard. You are of the ruling caste and may rise, who knows? to be Lieutenant-Governor. But why should I be subservient to your example? Here is the bourne and goal of my promotion. Beyond it what prospect have I? No, I have no idea of sweating myself to death over extraordinary work.” When independence and red tape come into collision, it is usually independence that gets tripped up. Bankim was sent back in a hurry to Magistrate’s work, this time at Alipur. But his ill-luck followed him. He was shipwrecked again in a collision with Anglo-Indianism. Walking in Eden Garden he chanced across Munro, the Presidency Commissioner, a farouche bureaucrat with the manners of an Englishman and the temper of a badly-educated hyena. Bankim examined the queer curiosity, as one might any queer curiosity, with a certain lazy interest, but no signal of respect. He was unaware at this time that to Salaam any stray European you may meet is the highest privilege of a Hindu and the whole duty of a Deputy Magistrate. But he was soon to receive instruction: for His Hyenaship was off in a rage to the Government and by a little private roaring easily got Bankim transferred to Jahajpur in Orissa. Bankim was considerably taken aback and not a little angry. “Have I then committed some grave fault?” he enquired of the Chief Secretary “or is it that the Government has found out a new way to pay its old debts? Resolve me, for I am in doubt.” The gibe told. He had hardly set foot in Orissa, when he was gazetted back to Hugly. After a lapse of time, — Munro, I believe, had in the mean time been struck by his own astonishing likeness to the founder of Christianity and was away to spread the light of the Gospel among the heathen — after a lapse of time

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Bankim was allowed to come back to Alipur. But this was the last stage of that thankless drudgery in which he had wasted so much precious force. His term of service was drawing to a close, and he was weary of it all: he wished to devote his remnant of life to literature. But the days that remained to him were few and evil. One or two years clouded with sickness, sorrow and suffering stood between him and the end.

IV

His Versatility

W

HENEVER a literary man gives proof of a high capacity in action people always talk about it as if a miracle had happened. The vulgar theory is that worldly abilities are inconsistent with the poetic genius. Like most vulgar theories it is a conclusion made at a jump from a few superficial appearances. The inference to be drawn from a sympathetic study of the lives of great thinkers and great writers is that except in certain rare cases versatility is one condition of genius. Indeed the literary ability may be said to contain all the others, and the more so when it takes the form of criticism or of any art, such as the novelist’s, which proceeds principally from criticism. Goethe in Germany, Shakespeare, Fielding and Matthew Arnold in England are notable instances. Even where practical abilities seem wanting, a close study will often reveal their existence rusting in a lumber-room of the man’s mind. The poet and the thinker are helpless in the affairs of the world, because they choose to be helpless: they sacrifice the practical impulse in their nature, that they may give full expression to the imaginative or speculative impulse; they choose to burn the candle at one end and [not] at the other, but for all that the candle has two ends and not one. Bankim, the greatest of novelists, had the versatility developed to its highest expression. Scholar, poet, essayist, novelist, philosopher, lawyer, critic, official, philologian and religious innovator, — the whole world seemed to be shut up in his single brain. At first sight he looks like a bundle of contradictions. He had a genius for language and a gift for law; he could write good official papers and he could write a matchless prose; he could pass examinations and he could root out an organised tyranny; he could concern himself with the largest problems of metaphysics and with the smallest details of word-formation: he had a feeling for the

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sensuous facts of life and a feeling for the delicate spiritualities of religion: he could learn grammar and he could write poetry. What shall we say in the presence of this remarkable versatility? Over-borne by the pomp of it and the show, shall we set it down as an adjunct of intellectual kingliness? Yes, to have it is an adjunct of intellectual kingliness, but to give expression to it is an intellectual mistake. To give impartial expression to all your gifts is to miss your vocation. Bankim was never so far led astray as that. His province was literature, prose literature, and he knew it. His lyrics are enchanting, but few; metaphysics he followed at the end of his life and law at the beginning; and he used scholarship and philology, simply as other great writers have used them, to give subtlety of suggestion and richness of word-colour to his literary style. Even in the province of prose literature, where he might have worked out his versatility to advantage, he preferred to specialise. He never stepped unpardonably out of his province, but he was occasionally led astray by this or that lure to allow small drains on his fund of energy; and so far as he did so, he sinned against his own soul. The one great and continuous drain was the tax put upon him by official drudgery. Under the morbid and wasteful conditions of middle-class life in India genius, when not born in the purple, has put before it, like the fair Rosamund of Norman romance, a choice between two methods of suicide, the Services and the Law. It must either take the poisoned bowl or the dagger. And in this limited circle of professions the Educational Service with its system of respites and remissions, and the Executive Service with its indirect rather than direct tax on the pure intellect, present, it may be, the points of least repulsion. But they are none the less a fearful drain because they are, under existing circumstances, necessary. In this versatility Bankim was only a type of the intellectual Hindu. This gift, at once a blessing and a curse, is the most singular characteristic of those two Hindu races, which have the destinies of the country in their keeping. It is the evidence of our high blood, our patent of nobility among the nations; for

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it comes of the varied mental experience of our forefathers, of the nation’s three thousand years of intellectual life. But it is at the same time a rock ahead, of which the Hindu genius has yet to pilot itself clear. To find your vocation and keep to it, that is not indeed a showy, but it is a simple and solid rule of life. We however prefer to give an impartial expression to all our gifts, forgetting that the mind is as mortal and as much subject to wear and tear as any perishable thing, forgetting that specialism is one condition of the highest accomplishment, forgetting that our stock of energy is limited and that what we expend in one direction, we lose in another. We insist on burning the candle at both ends. This spirit appears in our system of public instruction, the most ingeniously complete machine for murder that human stupidity ever invented, and murder not only of a man’s body but of a man’s soul, of that sacred fire of individuality in him which is far holier and more precious than this mere mortal breath. It appeared too with melancholy effects in the literary fate of Kashinath Telang. It was one reason why he, a man of such large abilities, the most considerable genius a highly intellectual people has produced, yet left nothing to which the world will return with unfailing delight. Telang, it is true, worked mainly in English, a language he had learned; and in a language you have learned, you may write graciously, correctly, pleasingly, but you will never attain to the full stature of your genius. But it was a yet more radical mistake that he, whose power was pre-eminently literary, as any eye trained to these things can see that it was, yet allowed it to run in every direction except the very one that nature had marked out for it. Bankim was more fortunate. He wrote in his own beautiful mothertongue, his best work was literary and his immense originality would in any case have forced its way out. But one cannot think without a pang of the many delightful master-pieces he might have brought into his garner, if he had had leisure to work single-heartedly in the field of his richest harvests. The body of work he gave us in nearly forty years of intellectual activity amounts to ten novels, two critical works on religion and some scattered literature. Small in quantity, it is pure gold

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in quality. And it may be that in no case would he have written much. Nature gives us quartz profusely and mixed alloy in abundance, but pure gold only in rare parcels and infinitesimal portions.

V

His Literary History

B

ANKIM’S literary activity began for any serious purpose at Khulna, but he had already trifled with poetry in his student days. At that time the poet Iswara Chandra Gupta was publishing two papers, the Sangbad Prabhakar and the Sadhuranjan, which Dwarkanath Mitra and Dinbandhu Mitra were helping with clever school-boy imitation of Iswara Chandra’s style. Bankim also entered these fields, but his striking originality at once distinguished him from the mere cleverness of his competitors, and the fine critical taste of Iswara Chandra easily discovered in this obscure student a great and splendid genius. Like Madhu Sudan Dutt Bankim began by an ambition to excel in English literature, and he wrote a novel in English called Rajmohan’s Wife. But, again like Madhu Sudan, he at once realised his mistake. The language which a man speaks and which he has never learned, is the language of which he has the nearest sense and in which he expresses himself with the greatest fulness, subtlety and power. He may neglect, he may forget it, but he will always retain for it a hereditary aptitude, and it will always continue for him the language in which he has the safest chance of writing with originality and ease. To be original in an acquired tongue is hardly feasible. The mind, conscious of a secret disability with which it ought not to have handicapped itself, instinctively takes refuge in imitation, or else in bathos and the work turned out is ordinarily very mediocre stuff. It has something unnatural and spurious about it like speaking with a stone in the mouth or walking upon stilts. Bankim and Madhu Sudan, with their overflowing originality, must have very acutely felt the tameness of their English work. The one wrote no second English poem after the Captive Lady, the other no second English novel after Rajmohan’s Wife. Bankim’s first attempt of any importance was begun at

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Khulna and finished at Baruipur, the birthplace of some of his finest work. It was the Durgesh Nandini, a name ever memorable as the first-born child of the New Prose. At Baruipur he wrote also Kopal Kundala and Mrinalini and worked at the famous Poison-Tree. At Barhampur, his next station, he began editing the Bangadarshan, a magazine which made a profound impression and gave birth to that increasing periodical literature of to-day, of which Bharati, the literary organ of the cultured Tagore family, is the most finished type. Since then Bankim has given us some very ripe and exquisite work, Chandrashekhar, Krishna Kanta’s Will, Debi Chaudhurani, Anandmath, Sitaram, Indira and Kamal Kanta. Dating from his magistracy at Barhampur broken health and increasing weakness attended the great novelist to his pyre; but the strong unwearied intellect struggled with and triumphed over the infirmities of the body. His last years were years of suffering and pain, but they were also years of considerable fruitfulness and almost unceasing labour. He had been a sensuous youth and a joyous man. Gifted supremely with the artist’s sense for the warmth and beauty of life, he had turned with a smile from the savage austerities of the ascetic and with a shudder from the dreary creed of the Puritan. But now in that valley of the shadow of death his soul longed for the sustaining air of religion. More and more the philosophic bias made its way into his later novels, until at last the thinker in him proved too strong for the artist. Amid his worst bodily sufferings he was poring over the Bhagavadgita and the Vedas, striving to catch the deeper and sacred sense of those profound writings. To give that to his countrymen was the strenuous aim of his dying efforts. A Life of Krishna, a book on the Essence of Religion, a rendering of the Bhagavadgita and a version of the Vedas formed the staple of his literary prospects in his passage to the pyre. The first realised themselves and the Bhagavadgita was three parts finished, but the version of the Vedas, which should have been a priceless possession, never got into the stage of execution. Death, in whose shadow he had so long dwelt, took the pen from his hand, before it could gather up the last gleanings of that royal intellect. But his ten master-

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pieces of fiction are enough. They would serve to immortalise ten reputations. HIS PLACE IN LITERATURE To assign Bankim’s place in Bengali literature is sufficiently easy: there is no prose-writer, and only one poet who can compete with him. More difficulties enter into any comparison of him with the best English novelists; yet I think he stands higher than any of them, except one; in certain qualities of each he may fall short, but his sum of qualities is greater; and he has this supreme advantage over them all that he is a more faultless artist. In his life and fortunes, and sometimes even in his character, he bears a striking resemblance to the father of English fiction, Henry Fielding; but the literary work of the two men moves upon different planes. Philosophical culture, and deep feeling for the poetry of life and an unfailing sense of beauty are distinguishing marks of Bankim’s style; they find no place in Fielding’s. Again, Bankim, after a rather silly fashion of speaking now greatly in vogue, has been pointed at by some as the Scott of Bengal. It is a marvellous thing that the people who misuse this phrase as an encomium, cannot understand that it conveys an insult. They would have us imagine that one of the most perfect and original of novelists is a mere replica of a faulty and incomplete Scotch author! Scott had many marvellous and some unique gifts, but his defects are at least as striking. His style is never quite sure; indeed, except in his inspired moments, he has no style: his Scotch want of humour is always militating against his power of vivid incident; his characters, and chiefly those in whom he should interest us most, are usually very manifest puppets; and they have all this shortcoming, that they have no soul: they may be splendid or striking or bold creations, but they live from outside and not from within. Scott could paint outlines, but he could not fill them in. Here Bankim excels; speech and action with him are so closely interpenetrated and suffused with a deeper existence that his characters give us the sense of their being real men and women. Moreover to the

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wonderful passion and poetry of his finest creations there are in English fiction, outside the Bront¨es and that supreme genius, George Meredith, no parallel instances. Insight into the secrets of feminine character, that is another notable concomitant of the best dramatic power, and that too Bankim possesses. Wade as you will through the interminable bog of contemporary fiction, you will meet no living woman there. Even novelists of genius stop short at the outside: they cannot find their way into the soul. Here Fielding fails us; Scott’s women are a mere gallery of wax figures, Rebecca herself being no more than a highlycoloured puppet; even in Thackeray the real women are only three or four. But the supreme dramatic genius has found out this secret of femineity. Shakespeare had it to any degree, and in our own century Meredith, and among ourselves Bankim. The social reformer, gazing, of course, through that admirable pair of spectacles given to him by the Calcutta University, can find nothing excellent in Hindu life, except its cheapness, or in Hindu woman, except her subserviency. Beyond this he sees only its narrowness and her ignorance. But Bankim had the eye of a poet and saw much deeper than this. He saw what was beautiful and sweet and gracious in Hindu life, and what was lovely and noble in Hindu woman, her deep heart of emotion, her steadfastness, tenderness and lovableness, in fact, her woman’s soul; and all this we find burning in his pages and made diviner by the touch of a poet and an artist. Our social reformers might learn something from Bankim. Their zeal at present is too little ruled by discretion. They are like bad tailors very clever at spoiling the rich stuffs given over to their shaping but quite unable to fit the necessities of the future. They have passed woman through an English crucible and in place of the old type, which, with all its fatal defects, had in it some supreme possibilities, they have turned out a soulless and superficial being fit only for flirtation, match-making and playing on the piano. They seem to have a passion for reforming every good thing out of existence. It is about time this miserable bungling should stop. Surely it would be possible, without spoiling that divine nobleness of soul, to give it a wider culture and mightier channels! So we should have

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a race of women intellectually as well as emotionally noble, fit to be the mothers not of chatterers and money-makers, but of high thinkers and heroic doers. Of Bankim’s style I shall hardly trust myself to speak. To describe its beauty, terseness, strength and sweetness is too high a task for a pen like mine. I will remark this only that what marks Bankim above all, is his unfailing sense of beauty. This is indeed the note of Bengali literature and the one high thing it has gained from a close acquaintance with European models. The hideous grotesques of old Hindu Art, the monkey-rabble of Ram and the ten heads of Ravan, are henceforth impossible to it. The Shakuntala itself is not governed by a more perfect graciousness of conception or suffused with a more human sweetness than Kopal Kundala and the Poison-Tree.

VI

What He Did for Bengal

I

HAVE kept so far to Bankim’s achievement looked at purely as literature. I now come to speak of it in the historic sense, of its relations to the Bengali language and potency over the Bengali race. Of this it is not easy to suggest any image without speaking in superlatives. I had almost said in one place that he created the language, and if one couples his name with Madhu Sudan Dutt’s, the statement is hardly too daring. Before their advent the Bengali language, though very sweet and melodious, was an instrument with but one string to it. Except the old poet Bharatchandra, no supreme genius had taken it in hand; hence while prose hardly existed except in Baital Pachisi and some other tales about Vikramaditya, Bengali verse had very little to recommend it beyond a certain fatiguing sweetness. Virility, subtlety, scope, these were wanting to it. Then came Madhu Sudan and Bankim, and, like Terpander and Orpheus added fresh strings to the lyre. In Madhu Sudan’s hands that nerveless and feminine dialect became the large utterance of the early Gods, a tongue epic and Titanic, a tongue for the storms and whirlwinds to speak in: he caught and studied his diction from the echo and rumour of the sea. All the stormiest passions of man’s soul he expressed in gigantic language. We seem to hear Milton’s Satan speaking in every line he wrote. But in Bankim’s hands the Bengali language, before stammering and inarticulate, became a rich, musical and flexible organ vibrating to every human emotion and expressive of every beautiful or noble thought. I do not mean that there were no labourers in the field before Bankim and Madhu Sudan. The paths of the Gods are always prepared for them. Many daring minds were already at work, but they fell short of their high conception. Rammohan Ray, the great Vidyasagara, Okhay Kumar Dutt and the Bengali playwrights were all working bravely towards the same consummation. But

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Vidyasagara, though he had much in him of the scholar and critic, was nothing of an artist; Okhay Kumar’s audience ran only to the subscribers of a single magazine; and the literary originality of the rest was not equal to their audacity. None of them could transform and recreate with that sure and easy touch, which reveals the true maker of language. Bankim moreover has this splendid distinction, that he more than anyone exalted Bengali from the status of a dialect to the majesty of a language. The immediate effect of English education had been to foster an undiscriminating love of things English and an unwise contempt for things Bengali. Among the rest the Bengali tongue was put by as an instrument hopelessly bad and unsatisfying; even Madhu Sudan in his youth neglected and forgot it. The strivings of Vidyasagara and Okhay Kumar Dutt were the strivings of a few far-sighted and patriotic men in a generation misled by false ideals. On that generation Madhu Sudan’s first great poems, Sharmishtha and Tilottama, had a complex effect much of a piece with the sensation created by Marlowe’s Tamburlaine in Elizabethan England or Hugo’s Hernani in nineteenth century France. They took men’s imaginations by storm with their splendour, passion and mighty imagery; by creating the Bengali blank verse they freed poetry from the facilities and prettinesses of the old rhymed stanza; by their magnificencies of style and emotion they brought new elements into Hindu literature, and they gave battle with their strange and fiery coloured music to the classic frigidity of the Sanscritists. They first sounded the note of Romanticism which still governs our literature. They revealed too those magnificent possibilities, latent in every Sanscritic language, which only wait for the magic touch of original genius to open out their store; and they set flowing that perennial fountain of gracious and noble poetry which is doing so much to bring beauty and high feeling into our lives and to produce a race of Bengalis braver and better than we. But at the same time they had to overcome a vast opposition. Lauded with rapturous enthusiasm by the cultured, they were anathematised by the pedants. All the Pandits, all the Sanscritists, all the fanatics of classicism, even the great

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Vidyasagara himself, then the intellectual dictator of Bengal, were startled out of their senses by these magnificent and mighty poems. Tilottama was a gauntlet thrown down by the Romantic school to the classical. Romanticism won: it was bound to win: it had on its side youth, fire, enthusiasm, the future, and the poems of an unexampled genius for its battle-cry. Tilottama had been the casus belli; that marvellous epic, the Meghnad-badh, was the ˆ When Vidyasagara praised the Meghnad-badh as coup de grace. a supreme poem, the day of the Sanscritists was over. That cabal of Pandits which had shouted against Madhu Sudan, could only murmur weakly against Bankim; the conscience of the nation had passed out of their keeping. But still the victor’s audience was small and went little beyond the class that followed him into battle, the geniuses, the literary men, the women, the cultured zamindars and those men of the stamp of Rajah Jyotindra Mohan Tagore, men of an extraordinary and original culture, who were then so common in Bengal, but are now almost obsolete. The great poet died with a limited audience and before the full consummation of his fame. Bankim came into that heritage of peace which Madhu Sudan had earned. There is, indeed, a curious contrast between these two builders of the Bengali language, so alike in their mission, but in their fortunes so dissimilar. Both were equipped with enormous stores of reading, both were geniuses of a vast originality, both had creative power, a fine sense for beauty, and a gift for emotion and pathos: both made the same false start. But here all likeness between them stops. One was the king of prose, the other the king of poetry; and their lives were of a piece with their writings. Madhu Sudan’s is full of sound and passion, violence of heart, extravagance, intemperance, selfwill, a life passing through grief, bitterness and anguish to a mournful and untimely doom. As we read the passage of that Titanic personality over a world too small for it, we seem to be listening again to the thunder-scene in Lear, or to some tragic piece out of Thucydides or Gibbon narrating the fall of majestic nations or the ruin of mighty kings. No sensitive man can read it without being shaken to the very heart. Even after his death

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Madhu Sudan’s evil star followed him. Though a great poet among the greatest, he is read nowhere outside Bengal and the Panjab; and his name is not heard even in Bombay and Madras, provinces of his own native land. How different was it with Bankim, the genius of prose. His nature, with plenty of strength in it, was yet mild, calm and equable, clear and joyous, but not intemperate. Fortune’s favourite to whom every door opened without keys, his life had in it that sedate maturity and august quiet, which, according to Epicurus, is the true attitude of the Gods, and which the Gods only give to those mortals, who, like themselves, have seen life steadily and seen it whole. And if his last years were stained with suffering, yet he died in the fruition of his greatness, amid the mourning of a nation which he had done much to create and whose imagination he had filled with so many beautiful thoughts and so many tender, passionate or glorious images. Bankim’s influence has been far-reaching and every day enlarges its bounds. What is its result? Perhaps it may very roughly be summed up thus. When a Mahratta or Gujerati has anything important to say, he says it in English; when a Bengali, he says it in Bengali. That is, I think, the fact which is most full of meaning for us in Bengal. It means besides other things less germane to literature, that, except in politics and journalism which is the handmaid of politics, English is being steadily driven out of the field. Soon it will only remain to weed it out of our conversation; and even to that wheel I am told that Babu Kali Prasunna Ghose has set his shoulder. However that may be, the works of this distinguished prose-writer are a remarkable proof of what I have just been saying. Not long ago anyone moving in that province of the mind which Babu Kali Prasunna has annexed, would have held it beneath the dignity of his subject to write in any medium but English. Work like Babu Kali Prasunna’s marks an important stage in the great revolution of sentiment which our literary class has set going, the revolution of sentiment which promises to make the Bengalis a nation.

VII

Our Hope in the Future

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UT PROFOUND as have been its effects, this revolution is yet in its infancy. Visible on every side, in the waning influence of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, in the triumph of the Bengali language, in the return to Hinduism, in the pride of birth, the angry national feeling and the sensitiveness to insult, which are growing more and more common among our young men, it has nevertheless only begun its work and has many more fields to conquer. Calcutta is yet a stronghold of the Philistines; officialdom is honeycombed with the antinational tradition: in politics and social reform the workings of the new movement are yet obscure. The Anglicised Babu sits in the high place and rules the earth for a season. It is he who perorates on the Congress, who frolics in the abysmal fatuity of interpellation on the Legislative Council, who mismanages civic affairs in the smile of the City Corporation. He is the man of the present, but he is not the man of the future. On his generation, a generation servilely English and swayed by Keshab Chandra Sen and Kristo Das Pal, Bankim had little effect. Even now you will hear Anglicised Bengalis tell you with a sort of triumph that the only people who read Bengali books are the Bengali ladies. The sneer is a little out of date, but a few years ago it would not have been so utterly beside the mark. All honour then to the women of Bengal, whose cultured appreciation kept Bengali literature alive! And all honour to the noble few who with only the women of Bengal and a small class of cultured men to appreciate their efforts, adhered to the language our forefathers spoke, and did not sell themselves to the tongue of the foreigner! Their reward is the heartfelt gratitude of a nation and an immortal renown. Yes, the women of Bengal have always been lovers of literature and may they always remain so; but it is no longer true that they are its only readers. Already we see the embryo of a new generation

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soon to be with us, whose imagination Bankim has caught and who care not for Keshab Chandra Sen and Kristo Das Pal, a generation national to a fault, loving Bengal and her new glories, and if not Hindus themselves, yet zealous for the honour of the ancient religion and hating all that makes war on it. With that generation the future lies and not with the Indian Unnational Congress or the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. Already its vanguard is upon us. It has in it men of culture, men of talent, men of genius. Let it only be true to itself and we shall do yet more marvellous things in the future than we have done in the past. A Bengali may be pardoned who looking back to a splendid beginning and on to a hopeful sequel, indulges in proud and grandiose hopes. Literature and learning are the provinces in which the Bengali is fitted to have kingship, and of the two literature rather than learning; but signs are not wanting that in other spheres also he may win laurels only less splendid. In painting and sculpture, in the plastic arts, the Hindu imagination has had no gift. The favourite style is evidence of a debauched eye and a perverted taste. Yet even in this alien sphere a Bengali has been winning noble renown, and that too in Italy, the native land of painting, the land of Raphael, Da Vinci and Angelo, and among Italians, with whom artistic taste is an instinct. In religion too, the Bengali has the future in his hands. He was the first to revolt against the shortcomings of Hinduism, and he is the first who has attempted to give some shape to that New Hinduism, which is, one feels, his religious destiny. He has sojourned for some time in the religious thought of the foreigner, but he is now coming back to the creed of his fathers with strange and precious gifts in his hands. In politics he has always led and still leads. The Congress in Bengal is dying of consumption; annually its proportions shrink into greater insignificance; its leaders, the Bonnerjis and Banerjis and Lalmohan Ghoses have climbed into the rarefied atmosphere of the Legislative Council and lost all hold on the imagination of the young men. The desire for a nobler and more inspiring patriotism is growing more intense; and already in the Hindu revival and the rise of an Indigenous

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Trade Party we see the handwriting on the wall. This is an omen of good hope for the future; for what Bengal thinks tomorrow, India will be thinking tomorrow week. Even towards commerce and science, spheres in which he has been painfully helpless, the Bengali is casting wistful glances; but whether he will here as elsewhere ascend the ladder, can only be settled by experiment. He is almost too imaginative, restless and swayed by his feelings for paths in which a cold eye or an untroubled brain is the one thing needful. Nevertheless let Bengal only be true to her own soul, and there is no province in which she may not climb to greatness. That this is so, is largely due to the awakening and stimulating influence of Bankim on the national mind. Young Bengal gets its ideas, feelings and culture not from schools and colleges, but from Bankim’s novels and Robindranath Tagore’s poems; so true is it that language is the life of a nation. Many are carrying on the great work in prose and poetry: Hemchandra, Nobin, Kamini Sen, Robindranath and Robindranath’s sister, that flower of feminine culture in Bengal, Swarna Kumari Devi, and many more whose names it would take long to repeat; but another Bankim, another Madhu Sudan comes not again. Some are pointing to this as a sign of intellectual barrenness; but it is not so. Shakespeare and Milton came within the limits of a century! Since then there have been Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, but not a second Shakespeare or Milton. Dante and Boccaccio came successively: since then there have been Berni, Boiardo, Alfieri, Tasso, but not a second Dante or Boccaccio. Such men come rarely in the lapse of centuries. Greece alone has presented the world an unbroken succession of supreme geniuses. There is nothing to prevent us Hindus, a nation created for thought and literature, from repeating that wonderful example. Greece is a high name, but what man has once done, man may again strive to do. All we need is not to tie ourselves down to a false ideal, not to load our brains with the pedantry of a false education, but to keep like those first builders a free intellect and a free soul. If we are careful to do that, there is no reason why the creative impulse in Bengal should for a moment die out. But whatever

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else may perish or endure, Bankim’s fame cannot die. Already it has overleaped the barrier between East and West; translations of his works are already appearing in English and German, and wherever they are read, they excite admiration, wonder and delight. O sage politicians, and subtle economists, whose heads run on Simultaneous Examinations and whose vision is bounded by Legislative Councils, what a lesson is here for you! Not in this way shall we exalt ourselves in the scale of nations, not in this way, O sages of the bench and sophists of the bar, but by things of which your legal wisdom takes little cognizance, by noble thoughts, by high deeds, by immortal writings. Bankim and Madhu Sudan have given the world three noble things. They have given it Bengali literature, a literature whose princelier creations can bear comparison with the proudest classics of modern Europe. They have given it the Bengali language. The dialect of Bengal is no longer a dialect, but has become the speech of Gods, a language unfading and indestructible, which cannot die except with the death of the Bengali nation, and not even then. And they have given it the Bengali nation; a people spirited, bold, ingenious and imaginative, high among the most intellectual races of the world, and if it can but get perseverance and physical elasticity, one day to be high among the strongest. This is surely a proud record. Of them it may be said in the largest sense that they, being dead, yet live. And when Posterity comes to crown with her praises the Makers of India, she will place her most splendid laurel not on the sweating temples of a place hunting politician nor on the narrow forehead of a noisy social reformer, but on the serene brow of that gracious Bengali who never clamoured for place or for power, but did his work in silence for love of his work, even as nature does, and just because he had no aim but to give out the best that was in him, was able to create a language, a literature and a nation.

On Poetry and Literature

Poetry Poetry I take to be the measured expression of emotion. Of prose one asks, does the matter please, stimulate or instruct the intellect; does the style satisfy a cultured taste & observant literary sense; if it does so, it is good prose, whether it moves the heart or not. Of poetry we ask, does the matter move, stimulate, enlarge, heighten, or deepen the feelings; does it excite emotions of delight, sorrow, awe, sublimity, passionate interest, or if the nature of the subject matter is not such as to excite actual emotions, does it excite certain vague & nameless sensations, the quiet stirring of the heart which attends the perception of beauty, or the august tumult which goes with the sense of largeness & space or the quick delight of increased horizons & heart-searching perceptions, does it give us the sense of power & passion? If it does, we have the material of poetry, but not yet poetry. Prose can and often does create similar effects. Great thoughts, beautiful description, noble narrative will always have this power on the soul. We have also to ask, does the language & verse harmonise with the emotion, become part of it & expressive of it, swell with its fullness and yet bound & restrain it? If it does, then we have poetry, a thing mighty & unanalysable, to usurp whose place prose vainly aspires. Matter by itself does not make poetry; skill in verse & diction is not poetry; striking & brilliant phrases, melodious weavings of sound are not poetry; it is the natural & predestined blending or rather inseparable existence of great matter with great verse producing high emotions or beautiful matter with beautiful verse producing soft emotions that gives us genuine poetry. An identity of word & sound, of thought & word, of sound & emotion which seems to have been preordained from the beginning of the world and only awaited its destined hour to leap into existence, or rather was

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there from the beginning of the world & only dawned into sight at the right time, this rare identity is what we call poetry.

Characteristics of Augustan Poetry Relation of Gray to the poetry of his times The poetry of Gray marks the transition from the eighteenthcentury or Augustan style of poetry to the nineteenth-century style; i.e. to say almost all the tendencies of poetry between the death of Pope and the production of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798 are to be found in Gray’s writings. Of the other poets of the time, Johnson & Goldsmith mark the last development of the Augustan style, while Collins, Blake, Cowper, Burns, Chatterton each embody in their poetry the beginnings of one or more tendencies which afterwards found their full expression in the nineteenth century. Gray alone seems to include in himself along with many characteristics of the conservative school of Johnson & Goldsmith all the revolutionary tendencies, not one or many but all, of the later poets. His earliest poem, the Ode on Spring, has many of the characteristics of Pope and Dryden; one of his latest, the Ode on Vicissitude, has many of the characteristics of Wordsworth. He is therefore the typical poet of his age, which, as regards poetry, was an age of transition. What is meant by the Augustan or eighteenth-century style? In what sense is it less poetical than the poetry of Wordsworth & Shelley? The poetry of the eighteenth century differs entirely from that of another period in English literature. It differs alike in subjectmatter, in spirit and in form. Many modern critics have denied the name of poetry to it altogether. Matthew Arnold calls Pope and Dryden classics not of poetry, but of prose, he says that they are great in the regions of half poetry; other critics while hesitating to go so far, say in substance much the same thing; Gosse, for instance, calls their poetry the poetry of English rhetoric, which exactly amounts to Matthew Arnold’s description of it as

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half poetry. Its own admirers give it the name of classic poetry, that is to say a poetry in which imagination and feeling are subordinated to correctness and elegance. Poetry as generally understood, the poetry of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, may be defined as a deeper and more imaginative perception of life and nature expressed in the language and rhythm of restrained emotion. In other words its subject-matter is an interpretation of life and nature which goes deeper into the truth of things than ordinary men can do, what has been called a poetic criticism of life; its spirit is one of imagination and feeling, it is not intellectual but imaginative, not rational but emotional; and its form is a language impassioned and imaginative but restrained by a desire for perfect beauty of expression; and a rhythm generally taking the form of metre, which naturally suits the expression of deep feeling. It differs from rhetoric in this that rhetoric expresses feeling which is not deep & not quite sincere, and tries to strike and influence the reader instead of being satisfied with expressing itself and for that purpose relies mainly on tricks of language such as antithesis, epigram etc. Rhetoric tries to excite admiration and appeals to the intellect; poetry is content with adequate self-expression and appeals to the heart. Eighteenth-century poetry differs from ordinary poetry, in subject-matter, in spirit and in form. Spirit The spirit of ordinary poetry is one of imagination and feeling, that is to say imaginative and emotional; that of eighteenthcentury poetry is one of commonsense and reason, that is to say intellectual and rational. Pope and Johnson are the two chief critics of the school. Pope expressly lays it down in his Essay on Criticism that sense and wit are the bases of all true poetry and Johnson is continually appealing to them as criterions, especially in his life of Gray, where he objects to what he considers the excess of imagery, the incredibility of his subjects, the use of imaginative mythological language and the occasional absence of a didactic purpose. In their opinion nothing should

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be admitted in poetry which is not consistent with sense & wit, that is to say which is not intellectual and rational. Accordingly we find no striking imagery & no passion in eighteenth-century poetry; the poets as a rule avoid subjects in which emotion is required and when they do try to deal with the passions and feelings, they fail, their expression of these is rhetorical and not poetic. This is the reason why the drama in the eighteenth century is such an utter failure. Subject-matter The difference in subject-matter is manifold. In the first place, instead of dealing with the whole of life and nature, they limit themselves to a very narrow part of it. This limitation is partly due to the restriction of poetry to sense and wit and partly to the nature of the audience the poets addressed. It was a period in which literature depended mainly on the patronage of the aristocracy, and it was therefore for the English aristocracy of the time that the poets wrote. They were therefore bound to limit themselves to such subject-matter as might suit the tastes of their patrons. These two considerations led to three very important limitations of subject-matter. 1s.t. The exclusion of the supernatural from poetry. The temper of the times was rationalistic and sceptical and to the cultured aristocracy of the times Shakespeare’s ghosts and fairies and Milton’s gods and angels would have seemed absurdities; it resulted also from the idea of commonsense as the cardinal rule of poetry, that nothing incredible should be admitted unless it was treated humorously, like the sylphs and gnomes in Pope’s Rape of the Lock or the beasts in the fables of Gay & Swift. Poetry however seems naturally to demand the element of the supernatural & the only way to admit the supernatural without offending against reason was by Personification. We therefore find a tendency to create a sort of makeshift mythology by personifying the qualities of the mind. Otherwise the supernatural practically disappears from English poetry for a whole century. 2d.. The exclusion of rural life and restriction to the life of the

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town and of good society. The aristocracy of the time took no interest in anything but the pleasures, occupations and mental pursuits of the town and it is accordingly only with this part of life that eighteenth-century poetry deals. The country is only treated as a subject of ridicule as in Gay’s Shepherd’s Week or of purely conventional description as in Pope’s Pastorals and Windsor Forest.1 3d.. As a natural result of this, the exclusion of external Nature. The sense of natural beauty is quite absent from eighteenthcentury poetry and we do not have even so much as the sense of the picturesque except in subjects such as landscape gardening where art could modify nature. Whenever the poets try to write of natural scenery or natural objects, they fail; their descriptions are either conventional and do not recall the object at all or only describe it in a surface manner recalling just so much as may be perceived by a casual glance. Of sympathy with Nature or close observation of it, there is hardly a single instance in English poetry between Dryden and Thomson. 4t.h. The exclusion of human emotion, i.e. to say poetry was not only limited to the workings of the human mind and human nature but to cultured society and to the town, & not only to this but to the intellect and weaknesses of men purely; the deeper feelings of the heart are not touched or only touched in an inadequate manner; and it is a characteristic fact that the passion of love which is the most common subject of English poetry, is generally left alone by these poets or if handled, handled in a most unreal and rhetorical manner. It followed from the exclusion of so much subject-matter that the forms of poetry which demanded this subject-matter almost disappeared. Lyrical poetry & the drama, both of which demand passion, feeling and fancy, epic poetry, which requires a grasp of entire human and external nature, a wide view of 1 The poets of the time have a tendency to the false or conventional pastoral; i.e. to say a mechanical imitation of Latin & Greek rural poetry, & especially when they try to write love poetry, they use Latin & Greek pastoral names; but these pastorals have nothing to do with any real country life past or present, nor do they describe any rural surroundings and scenery that ever existed, but are mere literary exercises.

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life and some element of the supernature, and serious narrative poetry are very little represented in the age of Pope and then only by second-rate productions. The poetry of the age is mainly didactic, i.e. its subjects are literary criticism, ethics, science or theology or humorous, i.e. consists of satire, mockepic, humorous narrative and light society verse. All these are subjects which are really outside the scope of poetry strictly so called, as they give no room for imagination and emotion, the cardinal elements of poetry. The subjects and the way they are treated, making allowance for the difference involved by the use of metre & especially the heroic metre which necessitates a very condensed expression of thought, is not very different from that of the prose periodicals of the time. The poetry of the age taken in the mass gives one the impression of a great social journal in verse, somewhat more brilliant and varied than the Tatler and Spectator but identical in spirit. Form Lastly the poetry of the eighteenth century differs widely in form, i.e. in language & metre, from that of preceding & subsequent poetry. This difference proceeds from a revolt against the poetical language of the seventeenth century, just as the language of Wordsworth & Keats is a revolt against that of the eighteenth. The Elizabethan poets aimed at a poetry which should be romantic, sensuous and imaginative; romantic, that is to say, full of the strange and wonderful, sensuous, that is to say, expressing the perceptions of the senses & especially the sense of the beautiful in vivid and glowing colours, and imaginative in the sense of being full of splendid and original imagery, & especially of striking phrases & vivid metaphors. In the later Elizabethans & even many of the earlier all this was carried to great excess; the love of the strange and wonderful was carried into unnaturalness and distortion, sensuousness became lost in exaggeration and poetry became a sort of hunt for metaphors, metaphors used not as aids to the imagination, but for their own sake, and the more absurd and violent, the better. Waller &

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Dryden first and Pope to a much greater extent revolted against this style of forced ingenuity and proclaimed a new kind of poetry. They gave to Elizabethan language the name of false wit and Pope announced the objects of the new school in an often quoted couplet True wit is nature to advantage dressed What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed. This couplet gives the three main principles of eighteenthcentury style out of which all its distinctive characteristics rise. (1) The poets were to write only of what oft was thought; they were to avoid the Elizabethan romantic tendency to search after the strange & wonderful. But these poets went much farther. Not only all that was peculiar or eccentric but all that was original, individual or unusual was avoided as offensive to reason & commonsense. There are no ideas in Augustan poetry which are not perfectly obvious and common, nothing which might not occur to an average educated man. This was fatal to poetry which to be poetry at all must be unusual; unusually lofty, unusually beautiful or unusually impassioned, & which dries up in an atmosphere of commonsense and commonplace. Augustan poetry has neither feeling for greatness nor for beauty nor for passion and it is therefore not without justice that it is described as at best a half poetry or a poetry of rhetoric. But the obvious & commonplace will not be read, unless it is made to look new & interesting by brilliant language. (2) The second principle is that while the obvious & commonplace should be the staple of poetry, it should be expressed in new and brilliant language, and this should be done by means of true wit. That is to say, while false ingenuity should be avoided, true ingenuity should be the rule of poetry. Accordingly we find that striking poetical expressions are singularly absent, the imagery is cold, obvious & conventional & their place is taken by brilliant cleverness and rhetoric. In order to conceal the barrenness of subject-matter every line is made an antithesis, an epigram or some other rhetorical turn of language. The Augustan poets did not realise that wit, whether false or true, has

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nothing to do with poetry & so they fell from one extreme to the other; poetry with them became even more an exercise for mere ingenuity than with the Elizabethans, in a way less open to ridicule but more barren & prosaic.2 (3) The eighteenth century was not contented with nature, it wanted nature to be dressed & dressed to advantage. Elizabethan poetry had been even at its best either rude & unpolished or extravagant & lawless. It broke through all the ordinary rules which restrain poetry; in their recoil from this tendency the Augustans determined to restrict themselves by the greatest number of rules possible, not only those rules which are universal and for all time but many which were artificial & unsuitable. They made the language & metre of their poetry not only smooth & elegant, but formal and monotonous; the tendency was, as has been often said, to cut out poetry according to a uniform & mechanical pattern. Cowper said that Pope Made poetry a mere mechanic art; And every warbler has his tune by heart and Taine has expanded the charge in his History of English Literature, II p. 194, “One would say that the verse had been fabricated by a machine, so uniform is the make.” The charge though exaggerated is well founded; there is a tendency to a uniform construction & turn of sentence and the unchanging repetition of 3 or 4 rhetorical artifices. It is the language of a school rather than of individual genius. When we examine the metre, we find it treated in the same way. Poetical harmony depends upon two things, the choice of the metre and the combination of all the various cadences possible within the limits of the metre chosen. The poet chooses 2 The following passage was written on a separate page of the manuscript. Its place of insertion was not marked: Besides this in order to dignify the obviousness of their ideas & sentiments, a sort of conventional poetic language was adopted, wherever wit and epigram could not be employed; ordinary words were avoided as ignoble and literary words often with an artificial meaning were employed, or else a sounding paraphrase was employed or a pretentious turn of language. The universal rule was that an idea should not be stated simply, but either cleverly or as it was called nobly.

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a particular stanza or a couplet form or blank verse just as he thinks most suitable to his subject; but the pauses and accents in the lines of the stanza or successive verses may be arranged many different ways, the disposition of long and short syllables and the combination of assonances and alliterations are almost infinite in their variety & great poets always vary one line from another so that not only the language but the sound of the verse, or as it is technically called the movement may suggest the exact emotion intended. This variation of cadences is a matter not for rules, but for individual genius to work out. But the Augustan poets in their passion for regularity determined to subject even this to rules. They chose as their favourite & almost only form of verse, the couplet and especially the heroic couplet. All ambitious poetical work of Pope’s school is in the heroic couplet; only in light verse do they try any other. The part of their poetry in lyrical metres or in stanzas is insignificant in quantity and almost worthless in quality. Having confined themselves to the heroic couplet, they tried to make even this as formal and monotonous as possible; they put a pause regularly at the end of the first line and a full stop or colon at the end of the second; they place the accent almost invariably on every second syllable; they employ assonance without the slightest subtlety and, though without some skill in the disposition of long & short syllables good metre itself is impossible, yet they only use it in the most elementary manner. The only variety then possible was a very minute and almost imperceptible one which gave great scope for ingenuity but little for real poetic power.3 One more characteristic of the school must be noticed, i.e. the narrowness of its culture. In the eighteenth century it was the tendency to consider all the age between the third and sixteenth centuries as barbarous and best forgotten; even the sixteenth and early seventeenth were regarded as half barbarous times; and the only things besides contemporary science, philosophy 3 The following sentence was written on a separate page. Its place of insertion was not marked: These restrictions forced the writers to be extremely condensed & ingenious and as has been said reduced every couplet to the point of an epigram.

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and literature which were regarded with interest were ancient classical literature and French civilisation. Even of the classics, little was known of Greek literature though it was held in formal honour; French & Latin and Latin rather of the second best than the best writers were the only foreign influences that affected Augustan literature to any appreciable extent. The main characteristics of eighteenth-century poetry may therefore be summed up as follows; — a rational & intellectual rather than imaginative & emotional spirit; a restriction to town society and town life, and inability to deal with rural life, with Nature, with passion or with the supernatural; a tendency to replace the supernatural by personification; an almost exclusive preference for didactic, satirical and humorous poetry; a dislike of originality and prevalence of merely obvious ideas and sentiments; an excess of rhetorical artifice in style; a monotonous, rhetorical and conventional style; a restricted and cut-and-dried metre and an exclusion of all poetic influences & interests except the Latin writers & contemporary and French thought & literature. Its merits were smoothness, regularity & correctness; great cleverness and brilliance of wit; great eloquence; and the attainment of perfection within its own limits & according to its own ideals.4

4 The following sentence was written on a separate page. Its place of insertion was not marked: The history of our period is partly that of a breaking away from formality in language and metre & a revival of lyric poetry, but still more of a struggle to widen the range of poetry by bringing all nature and all human activity both past & present into its scope, to increase interests and subject-matter as well as to inspire new life and sincerity into its style.

Sketch of the Progress of Poetry from Thomson to Wordsworth The Age of transition from the poetry of Pope to that of Wordsworth begins strictly speaking with Thomson. This transition was not an orderly and consistent development, but consisted of different groups of poets or sometimes even single poets each of whom made a departure in some particular direction which was not followed up by his or their successors. The poetry of the time has the appearance of a number of loose and disconnected threads abruptly broken off in the middle. It was only in the period from 1798 to 1830 that these threads were gathered together and a definite, consistent tendency imparted to poetry. It was an age of tentatives and for the most part of failures. Meanwhile the main current of verse up till 1798 followed the direction given it by Pope only slightly modified by the greater and more original writers. These different groups of writers may be thus divided. (1) The school of natural description & elegiac moralising, consisting of Thomson, Dyer, Green, Young and other inferior writers. (2) The school of Miltonic Hellenists, begun by Warton & consisting besides of Gray, Collins, Akenside and a number of followers. (3) The school of Johnson, Goldsmith & Churchill, who continued the eighteenth-century style tho’ some of them tried to infuse it with emotion, directness and greater simplicity. To this school belong the minor writers who formed the main current of verse during the time; of whom Erasmus Darwin & Gifford are the only notable ones. (4) The school of country life and the simpler feelings, consisting of Cowper and Crabbe. (5) The school of romantic poets & restorers of mediaevalism, consisting of Chatterton, Macpherson and Percy. (6) The Scotch lyric poets of whom Ferguson and Burns are the head. (7) William Blake standing by himself as a romantic, mystical & lyric poet. Besides these there are two writers who cannot

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be classed, Smart & Beattie. Last come the first nineteenthcentury poets, who published their earliest work in 1798 – 1800, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Landor & Campbell. School of Natural Description The first to break away from Pope were Thomson & Dyer. The original departures made by their school were as follows. (1) In subject-matter an almost exclusive devotion of their poetry to the description of natural objects and natural scenery. In dealing with human emotion or human life they are generally even more incapable than the Pope school.1 There is beside a tendency to force poetry to the service of the most unpoetical subjects, Armstrong writing in verse of the Art of Medicine, Dyer of Agriculture & Thomson of jail reform. On the other hand Satire is less practised or even abandoned. (2) In language, the discarding of the idea of wit as the basis of poetry; there is no straining for wit and cleverness, but its place is taken by a pseudo-Miltonic eloquence or an attempt at Miltonic imaginativeness. The influence of Milton is paramount in these writers. (3) In metre an almost entire abandonment of the heroic couplet and the return to old metres, especially blank verse, the Spenserian stanza & the octosyllabic couplet as used by the later Elizabethans. The main influences of this school on future poetry are (1st) the habit of describing Nature for its own sake (2) the Thomsonian form of blank verse which was afterwards adopted by Cowper & Wordsworth and improved by Shelley (3) the use of the Spenserian stanza in narrative poetry (4) the sense for antiquity & for the picturesque as regards ruins (5) the habit of moralising on subjects of general human interest as opposed to those which concern towns & highly civilized society only. 1 The following sentence was written on the opposite page of the manuscript. Its exact place of insertion was not marked: An attempt is made to reintroduce emotion and a more general appeal to all humanity, in the form of elegiac moralizing on the subjects of death & decay, as shown in Dyer’s Ruins of Rome & Young’s Night Thoughts.

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The Thomsonian school however broke off suddenly about the middle of the century & was replaced by the school of Gray. School of Gray There are considerable differences between Gray, Collins and Akenside, who are the chief representatives of the school, but they all resemble each other in certain main tendencies. The general aim of all seems to have been to return to the Miltonic style of writing while preserving the regularity and correctness of the eighteenth-century style. They attempted in other words to substitute the true classical style of writing for the pseudoclassical. By classical poetry is meant verse which with entire correctness and perfection of form, i.e. of metre and language and a careful observance of restraint, i.e. to say avoidance of that extravagance & excess which injure the work of Shakespeare and the Elizabethans, unites a high imagination and deep emotion. This is the character of Milton’s poetry, which is based upon Greek & Latin models. Pope and his school aimed at correctness & restraint without high imagination and deep emotion; their poetry is therefore not really classical. Gray, Collins and Akenside endeavoured by study of Milton & the Greek writers to recover the true classical style. They were however all greatly hampered by the traditions of eighteenth-century poetry and none of them quite succeeded. Besides this similarity in general aim, there are several particular resemblances. 1st in metre. They all avoided the heroic couplet. Collins’ Persian Eclogues, the work of his youth, & a few of Gray’s fragments are in this metre, but in their mature & accomplished work it is not represented. Akenside wrote either in blank verse or in lyrical metres. Secondly Gray and Collins are the restorers of the English lyric; since the reign of Charles II no one had written any even decently good lyrics, if a few of Gay’s & Prior’s are excepted, until this school appeared. The only form of lyric however which the three writers tried were Odes, which is the most stately & the least lyrical of lyrical forms; i.e. the true lyrical stanza is always short & simple so

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as to express particular emotion freely & naturally; the stanza of an Ode is long and elaborate and expresses properly high and broad, not intense emotion. This restriction to the statelier lyrical forms partly results from the attempt at classical dignity. But the Augustan tradition of smooth & regular verse has also hampered the writers; the cadences are not managed with sufficient subtlety and the infinitely varied and flexible verse of Shakespeare & Milton has remained beyond their reach. Their verse at its best is on the second plane, not on the first; it shows however a great advance in freedom & variety on that of the Augustans. 2d.. in language. The aim of all three is at an elevated style of language, a diction more or less Miltonic. Here again none of them are successful. Akenside’s elevation is mainly rhetorical, rarely, at his best, as in the Hymn to the Naiads, it is poetical; there he almost catches something of the true Miltonic tone; Gray’s is marked by nobleness, strength, much real sublimity, but he is often betrayed into rhetoric tho’ even then more vigorous than Akenside’s and the Augustan love of epigram and antithesis often spoil his work; Collins’ elevation tho’ free from these faults is usually wanting in power. There is to some extent in Collins and still more in Gray a tendency to what the eighteenth century thought noble language, to the avoidance of simple and common words & phrases as below the dignity of poetry.2 3d.. in subject-matter. It was in this that there was the farthest departure from the eighteenth century. All the poets have a tendency to dwell on rural life and rural scenes; all turn away from town life. Both Gray & Collins, so far as they deal with Nature, deal with it in a really poetical manner, but unlike the Thomsonian school, they have not described Nature for the sake of describing it but only in connection with the thoughts or feelings suggested by it. The one exception to this is Collins’ 2 The following sentence was written on the opposite page of the manuscript. Its exact place of insertion was not marked: On the other hand their language is mainly imaginative & not drily intellectual like Augustan language.

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Ode to Evening. There is also an attempt to reintroduce the supernatural into poetry. This is partly done by carrying the eighteenth-century habit of personification to an almost ridiculous extreme, but more successfully by dwelling like Milton on the images of Greek mythology, as in the Hymn to the Naiads, or Gray’s earlier poems, especially the Progress of Poesy; also by dwelling on the ideas of the Celtic romantic fancy, such as ghosts, fairies, spirits as in Gray’s Bard & Collins’ Ode or of Norwegian mythology as in Gray’s translations from the Norse. This impulse towards the supernatural is extremely marked in Gray & finds its way even into his humorous poems; & tho’ less prominent in Collins, it was sufficient to offend Johnson, the chief critic of the Pope school, who especially animadverts on it in his life of Collins & his remarks on Gray’s sister Odes. Again they tried to deal with human emotion but there also they were hampered by the Augustan tradition. They deal with it rather in an abstract than a direct manner; Collins’ Ode on the Passions is the main instance of this abstract handling of emotion which is peculiar to the school. In the same spirit they dealt with high & general feelings, especially the love of Liberty, which inspires Collins’ Ode to Liberty, Gray’s Bard & Progress of Poesy, and much of Akenside’s writing. It is noticeable that Collins was a republican, Akenside had republican sympathies and Gray was a pronounced Whig. Over the personal emotions Collins & Akenside had no mastery, & Gray only shows it occasionally as in the Elegy & then only over the most general of all of them, the love of life and the melancholy feelings attending death. (4) In spirit, the school departed from the critical, didactic and satiric tendency of eighteenth-century poetry; so far as their poetry teaches or criticises it is with some exceptions in the indirect, incidental & emotional manner proper to poetry. Even Akenside who wrote on a philosophical theme aimed at teaching poetically, tho’ he did not succeed. Their poetry is inspired not by intellect & reason, but by imagination and feeling. On the other hand it must be noticed that their ideas & sentiments are always obvious & on the surface like those of the Pope school and the feeling that inspires their poetry, tho’ not false, is not

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very deep; Collins & Akenside are extremely cold compared with poets of other periods & Gray is rather enthusiastic or at his best sublime than impassioned.3 (5) It was in the influences which governed their poetry that this school departed most radically from Pope. They rejected French influence altogether & were little influenced by the inferior Latin poets; they were above all things Hellenists, lovers & followers of Greek literature; the English poet who influenced them most was Milton whom Johnson considers to be rough in his verse & language; Gray even declared the diction of Shakespeare to be the true poetic diction. Besides this they opened new fields of interest. Collins took an interest [in] late mediaeval history & literature & Gray was the first Englishman of eminence who studied the Norse language or interested himself in Welsh literature or was a competent & appreciative critic of Gothic architecture. The Thomsonian school had a little but only a little influence on that of Gray. The Elegy carries to its highest point of perfection the vein of elegiac moralising started by Young & Dyer, Collins’ Ode to Evening is a study of Nature as faithful but more sympathetic and imaginative than Thomson’s descriptions; & his Ode on Popular Superstitions recalls several passages in the Seasons; but this is practically all. The influences of Gray’s school on future poetry consist mainly in (1) the first attempt to handle Nature in a new poetic fashion afterwards perfected by Wordsworth, (2) the reintroduction of the supernatural influencing all subsequent writers but mainly Coleridge, Shelley & Keats, (3) the introduction of Hellenism into poetry, carried out by Keats & Shelley & (4) the restoration of the lyric & especially the Ode form, which became a favourite one in the early nineteenth century & of the general subjects suited to the Ode form. 3 The following sentence was written on the facing page of the manuscript. Its exact place of insertion was not marked: It was perhaps partly as a result of this that none of these poets was able to write much or to write long poems; Akenside’s Pleasures of Imagination is the only exception and that is a failure.

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Later Augustan School The Gray school exhausted itself almost as quickly as the Thomsonian school. It was followed by a reaction in favour of the eighteenth-century ideal. This movement had been already anticipated by Johnson who wrote contemporaneously with Gray & even with Thomson. It was now taken up by Goldsmith, carried on by Churchill & culminated in Erasmus Darwin. Johnson & Goldsmith returned to the ideals of Pope, they violently opposed & disparaged Gray, they kept to the use of the heroic couplet & conventional language, to the narrowness of culture and to the exclusion of all that does not square with or proceed from the reason & intellect; their characteristics are broadly the same as the Pope school’s, but there is a difference which shows that the dryness of this school could no longer satisfy the mind. In Johnson at least in his Vanity of Wishes there is a far deeper & wider tone of thought & feeling & a far greater sincerity; tho’ the style is so different, the tone is almost the same as that of Gray’s Elegy; in fact in tone & subjectmatter it belongs to the same type of elegiac moralizing as the Elegy & the Night Thoughts. Goldsmith carried this departure in tone from Pope yet farther; he wrote what were professedly didactic poems, but instead of teaching by satirical portraits [and] epigrammatic maxims, he tried to do it by touching the feelings & drawing portraits full of humour rather than wit, of natural truth & pathos rather than cleverness & eloquence. While not touching subjects of general appeal like Johnson & Gray, he goes more widely afield than Pope, dealing with foreign countries in the Traveller, with the rural life of an Irish village in the Deserted Village. [There is a sort of natural lyrical power in Goldsmith which is always breaking through the restraints of the mechanical metre & style he chose to adopt.]4 Churchill reverted to Pope far more than either Goldsmith or Johnson; he is purely satirical & has neither Goldsmith’s feeling & sweetness nor Johnson’s depth & strength; he is hardly a poet at all, but he 4 Sentence bracketed in the manuscript. — Ed.

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also helped the disintegration of the eighteenth-century style by a complete abandonment of Pope’s elaborate & rhetorical art, which he attempted to replace by a rude & direct vigour. Lastly Erasmus Darwin took the exact model of Pope’s style, not only the metre & language but the very construction & balance of his sentences & reduced this & the didactic spirit to absurdity by trying to invest with poetical pomp of style & imagery a treatise on botany. This school may be considered as an attempt in various directions to make the eighteenth-century style compatible with the new impulses in poetry, the impulses towards sincerity on the one hand & sublimity on the other. In the poetry of Darwin this attempt finally breaks down. No poet of eminence except Byron afterwards attempted the style. Besides these four writers however there was a crowd of versifiers, of whom only Gifford need be named, who went on making feeble copies of Pope right into the nineteenth century.

APPENDIX

Test Questions The Mediaevalists 1. Describe the nature & influence on English poetry of Percy’s Reliques. 2. Sketch the career of Chatterton. 3. Describe the character of Chatterton’s forgeries and estimate their effects on the value of his poetry. 4. Discuss the conflicting estimates of Chatterton’s poetry. 5. What is the Ossian controversy? What stage has the controversy reached at present? 6. Macpherson’s work is often condemned as empty and turgid declamation. How far is this view justified? 7. State the author & nature of the following works: Ella, an Interlude; Bristow Tragedy. 8. Who were the distinctly mediaevalist writers of the period? What was their importance in the history of the period? * [Draft-answers to the first three questions] 1. 1765 Percy’s Reliques 2. Chatterton born 1752. Colston’s Hospital. 1764 first Rowley forgery Elinoure & Juga. 1767 apprenticed to Lambert. 1768 – 9 contributions to London magazines. 1768 attempt to get Dodsley to publish especially Ella. 1769 attempt to interest Horace Walpole. 1770 life in London & death. 3. Speght’s Glossary to Chaucer. Kersey’s Dictionary. metres not 15t.h. century; rhymes inconsistent with 15t.h. century pronunciation; words either noted down from above & often incorrectly used; or invented by C. himself.

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Pope School 1. Trace the history of the classical eighteenth-century style thro’ this period. 2. Describe the career of Goldsmith, or of a typical man of letters during this period. 3. Estimate Goldsmith as a poet. 4. Describe briefly the subject & character of the following poems; the Deserted Village, the Traveller, Retaliation. 5. What rank would you assign to Churchill among English satirists? Give your reasons for your answer. 6. Describe briefly the subject & character of the Rosciad, the Ghost, Gotham, the Times, the Prophecy of Famine. * [Incomplete draft-answer to the second question] 1728 Goldsmith born in Ireland. Father a clergyman, the original of Dr Primrose. Education. 1744 Dublin Uny.. Made attempts to become clergyman, private tutor; [incomplete]

Marginalia ON MADHUSUDAN DUTT’S VIRANGANA KAVYA

A Virgilian elegance and sweetness and a Virgilian majesty of diction ennoble the finer epistles of these Heroides; there is too a Virgilian pathos sad & noble breaking out in detached lines and passages, as in Shacountala’s sorrowful address to the leaf and the single melancholy line  ik er fel fl e pm t-SAeK, but the more essential poetical gifts, creative force, depth or firmness of meditation, passionate feeling, a grasp of the object, consistency & purity of characterisation are still absent. They were not in the poet’s nature and such gifts if denied by Nature, are denied for ever. What exists even faintly can be developed, transformed, strengthened but what does not exist, cannot be produced by labour. nAsto Evt  BAvo nABAvo Evt  st,

* The Epistle of Tara is perhaps less satisfactory; the fiery outbursts of a monstrous and lawless passion needed a stronger imagination than Madhusudan’s to conceive and execute them. The elegances of the Epistle, with its graceful rephrasing of outworn classical images and its stately love-conceits is out of place where the volcanic sheerness of a Webster could alone have been appropriate. Nevertheless the passage in which Tara complains of the unclean love she cannot avoid or control is not without a noble dignity of passion; and shows with what charm the poet could invest the plainest and most hackneyed images. And there are lines in this latter part which have the true note of that terrific passion, [for example] her cry edh ivA, edh ivA; the magnificent

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distichs klI SSA etc. and iliKnu elKn etc. and the powerful closing line have all a dramatic simplicity, fire and force which belong to the highest poetry only. Would that Madhusudan had written not only stray lines, distichs, passages, but whole poems in this spirit. The deplorable want of a discerning criticism and false conceptions of poetry early imbibed have done untold harm to our best and most promising writers.

Originality in National Literatures It is a singular and as yet unexplained phenomenon in the psychology of mankind that out of so many magnificent civilisations, so many powerful, cultured & vigorous nations & empires whose names and deeds crowd the pages of history, only a select few have been able to develop a thoroughly original and selfrevealing literature. Still fewer have succeeded in maintaining these characteristics from beginning to end of their literary development. There have been instances in which a nation at some period of especial energy and stress of life has for a moment arrived at a perfect self-expression, but with the effort the literary originality of the race seems to exhaust itself. We have the picture of an age, not the spiritual and mental history of a nation. Such a period of partial self-revelation we find in the flowering of Italian literature; in the Divine Comedy, the Decameron, the works of Petrarch, Machiavelli, Cellini, Castiglione, mediaeval Italy lives before our eyes for all time; but the rest of Italian prose and poetry is mere literature and nothing more. Again when we have seen the romantic spirit of Spain, its pride, punctilious sense of honour, courage, cruelty, intrigue, passion and the humour & pathos of its decline mirrored in the work of Calderon & Cervantes we seem to have exhausted all that need interest the student of humanity in Spanish literature. Similar instances offer themselves in the Sagas of the Scandinavian peoples and Germany’s Nibelungenlied, in the extraordinary picture of Mahomedan civilisation of which the Thousand & One Nights are the setting. On the other hand there are literatures of high quality and world-wide interest which are yet almost purely derivative in their character and hardly succeed in rendering the national spirit to us at all, so overloaded are they with foreign material, with things learned rather than experienced; such are the American literature, the modern German literature. Instances there

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are again of the nation freeing itself from foreign domination in one or two kinds of writing which partially reflect its inner mind and life, while the rest of its literature remains derivative and secondhand in its every fibre. We get to the heart of Roman life and character in Roman Satires, the annalistic histories of Livy & Tacitus, the Letters of Cicero or Pliny, but in the more splendid & ambitious portions of Latin literature we get only the half Greek dress in which the Roman mind learned to disguise itself. Let us suppose that all historical documents, archives, records were destroyed or disappeared in the process of Time and the catastrophes of civilisation, and only the pure literature survived. Of how many nations should we have the very life, heart & mind, the whole picture of its life & civilisation and the story of its development adequately revealed in its best writing? Three European nations would survive immortally before the eyes of posterity, the ancient Greeks, the modern English and French, and two Asiatic nations, the Chinese & the Hindus, — no others. Of all these the Hindus have revealed themselves the most perfectly, continuously and on the most colossal scale, precisely because they have been the most indomitably original in the form & matter of their literature. The Vedas, Upanishads & Puranas are unique in their kind; the great Epics in their form and type of art stand apart in the epic literature of the world, the old Sanscrit drama has its affinities with a dramatic species which developed itself in Europe more than a thousand years later, and the literary epic follows laws of form and canons of art which are purely indigenous. And this immense body of firstrate work has left us so intimate & complete a revelation of national life & history, that the absence of pure historical writings becomes a subject of merely conventional regret. The same intense originality and depth of self-expression are continued after the decline of the classical language in the national literatures of Maharashtra, Bengal & the Hindi-speaking North.

The Poetry of Kalidasa

A Proposed Work on Kalidasa Chapter I. Kalidasa’s surroundings. Chapter II. Kalidasa & his work. The Malavas — the three ages, Valmekie.. Vyasa.. Kalidasa.. materialism & sensuousness..] the historic method.. psychological principles of criticism.. variety of Kalidasa’s work.. probable chronological succession of his works. Chapter III. The Seasons. Chapter IV. The House of Raghu; its scope & outline; nature of the poem; descriptive epic of later Hindu civilisation; its limitations. Qualities of verse diction. Similes. Description. Sentiment; pathos and eloquence. Relative merits of later & earlier cantos. Comparison of Kalidasa’s pathos & Bhavabhuti’s. Chapter V. The Cloud Messenger. Kalidasa’s treatment of the Supernatural.. Substance of the poem.. Chastened style.. Perfection of the harmony.. moderation & restraint.. pathos & passion. Chapter VI. The Drama before Kalidasa; elements of Hindu drama.. the three plays studies of one subject. Chapter VII. The Agnimitra; its plot; perfection of dramatic workmanship; Kalidasa’s method of characterisation; the characters. Dramatic style. Relation of the Agnimitra to the Raghu. Chapter VIII. The Urvasie.. dramatic workmanship & conception; character of the poetry; relation to Meghaduta. Chapter IX. The Characters. Chapter X XI XII. The Shacountala. Chapter XIII XIV. The Kumara. Chapter XV. Retrospect; poetic greatness of Kalidasa; comparisons with other classical [writers]. Chapter XVI XVII. Hindu civilisation in the time of Kalidasa (this may go with Raghu or Kumara).

The Malavas Once in the long history of poetry the great powers who are ever working the finest energies of nature into the warp of our human evolution, met together and resolved to unite in creating a poetical intellect & imagination that, endowed with the most noble & various poetical gifts, capable in all the great forms used by creative genius, should express once & for all in a supreme manner the whole sensuous plane of our life, its heat & light, its joy, colour & sweetness. And since to all quality there must be a corresponding defect, they not only gifted this genius with rich powers and a remarkable temperament but drew round it the necessary line of limitations. They then sought for a suitable age, nation and environment which should most harmonise with, foster and lend itself to his peculiar powers. This they found in the splendid & luxurious city of Ujjaini, the capital of the great nation of the Malavas, who consolidated themselves under Vikramaditya in the first century before Christ. Here they set the outcome of their endeavour & called him Kalidasa. The country of Avunti had always played a considerable part in our ancient history for which the genius, taste and high courage of its inhabitants fitted it & Ujjaini their future capital was always a famous, beautiful & wealthy city; but until the rise of Vikrama it seems to have been disunited and therefore unable to work out fully the great destiny for which the taste, genius [ ] marked it out. Moreover the temperament of the nation had not fitted it to be the centre of Aryan civilisation in the old times when that civilisation was preponderatingly moral and intellectual. Profoundly artistic and susceptible to material beauty and the glory of the senses, they had neither the large, mild and pure temperament, spiritual & emotional, of the eastern nations which produced Janaca, Valmekie & Buddha, nor the bold intellectual temperament, heroic, ardent and severe, of the

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Central nations which produced Draupadie, Bhema, Urjouna, Bhishma, Vyasa and Srikrishna; neither were they quite akin to the searchingly logical, philosophic & scholastic temperament of the half Dravidian southern nations which produced the great grammarians and commentators and the mightiest of the purely logical philosophers, Madhva, Ramanuja, Shankaracharya. The Malavas were Westerners and the Western nations of India have always been material, practical & sensuous. For the different races of this country have preserved their basic temperaments with a marvellous conservative power; modified & recombined they have been in no case radically altered. Bengal colonised from the west by the Chedies & Haihayas & from the north by Coshalas & Magadhans, contains at present the most gentle, sensitive and emotional of the Indian races, also the most anarchic, self-willed, averse to control and in all things extreme; there is not much difference between the characters of Shishupal and that thoroughly Bengali king & great captain, Pratapaditya; the other side shows itself especially in the women who are certainly the tenderest, purest & most gracious & loving in the whole world. Bengal has accordingly a literature far surpassing any other in an Indian tongue for emotional and lyrical power, loveliness of style & form and individual energy & initiative. The North West, inheritor of the Kurus, has on the other hand produced the finest modern Vedantic poetry full of intellectual loftiness, insight and profundity, the poetry of Suradasa & Tulsi; its people are still the most sincerely orthodox and the most attached to the old type of thought & character, while the Rajputs, who are only a Central Nation which has drifted westward, preserved longest the heroic & chivalrous tradition of the Bharatas. The Dravidians of the South, though they no longer show that magnificent culture and originality which made them the preservers & renovators of the higher Hindu thought & religion in its worst days, are yet, as we all know, far more genuinely learned & philosophic in their cast of thought & character than any other Indian race. Similarly the West also preserves its tradition; the Punjab is typified by its wide acceptance of such crude, but practical & active religions as those of Nanak

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& Dayanunda Saraswati, religions which have been unable to take healthy root beyond the frontier of the five rivers; Gujarat & Sindh show the same practical temper by their success in trade & commerce, but the former has preserved more of the old Western materialism & sensuousness than its neighbours. Finally the Mahrattas, perhaps the strongest and sanest race in India today, present a very peculiar & interesting type; they are southwestern & blend two very different characters; fundamentally a material and practical race — they are for instance extremely deficient in the romantic & poetical side of the human temperament — a race of soldiers & politicians, they have yet caught from the Dravidians a deep scholastic & philosophical tinge which along with a basic earnestness & capacity for high things has kept them true to Hinduism, gives a certain distinction to their otherwise matter-of-fact nature and promises much for their future development. But the Malavas were a far greater, more versatile and culturable race than any which now represent the West; they had an aesthetic catholicity, a many sided curiosity and receptiveness which enabled them to appreciate learning, high moral ideals and intellectual daring & ardour and assimilate them as far as was consistent with their own root-temperament. Nevertheless that root-temperament remained material and sensuous. When therefore the country falling from its old pure moral ideality and heroic intellectualism, weakened in fibre & sunk towards hedonism & materialism, the centre of its culture & national life began to drift westward. Transferred by Agnimitra in the second century to Videsha of the Dasharnas close to the Malavas, it finally found its true equilibrium in the beautiful and aesthetic city of Ujjaini which the artistic & sensuous genius of the Malavas had prepared to be a fit & noble capital of Hindu art, poetry and greatness throughout its most versatile & luxurious age. That position Ujjaini enjoyed until the nation began to crumble under the shock of new ideas & new forces and the centre of gravity shifted southwards to Devagirrie of the Jadhavas and finally to Dravidian Vijayanagara, the last considerable seat of independent Hindu culture & national greatness. The consolidation of

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the Malavas under Vikramaditya took place in 56 BC, and from that moment dates the age of Malava preeminence, the great era of the Malavas afterwards called the Samvat era. It was doubtless subsequent to this date that Kalidasa came to Ujjaini to sum up in his poetry, the beauty of human life, the splendours of art & the glory of the senses.

The Age of Kalidasa

V

ALMIKI, Vyasa and Kalidasa are the essence of the history of ancient India; if all else were lost, they would still be its sole and sufficient cultural history. Their poems are types and exponents of three periods in the development of the human soul, types and exponents also of the three great powers which dispute and clash in the imperfect and half-formed temperament and harmonise in the formed and perfect. At the same time their works are pictures at once minute and grandiose of three moods of our Aryan civilisation, of which the first was predominatingly moral, the second predominatingly intellectual, the third predominatingly material. The fourth power of the soul, the spiritual, which can alone govern and harmonise the others by fusion with them, had not, though it pervaded and powerfully influenced each successive development, any separate age of predominance, did not like the others possess the whole race with a dominating obsession. It is because, conjoining in themselves the highest and most varied poetical gifts, they at the same time represent and mirror their age and humanity by their interpretative largeness and power that our three chief poets hold their supreme place and bear comparison with the greatest world-names, with Homer, Shakespeare and Dante. It has been said, truly, that the Ramayana represents an ideal society and assumed, illogically, that it must therefore represent an altogether imaginary one. The argument ignores the alternative of a real society idealised. No poet could evolve entirely out of his own imagination a picture at once so colossal, so minute and so consistent in every detail. No number of poets could do it without stumbling into fatal incompatibilities either of fact or of view, such as we find defacing the Mahabharata. This is not the place to discuss the question of Valmiki’s age and authorship. This much, however, may be said that after excluding the

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Uttarakanda, which is a later work, and some amount of interpolation, for the most part easy enough to detect, and reforming the text which is not unfrequently in a state of truly shocking confusion, the Ramayana remains on the face of it the work of a single mighty and embracing mind. It is not easy to say whether it preceded or followed in date Vyasa’s epic; it is riper in form and tone, has some aspects of a more advanced and mellow culture, and yet it gives the general impression of a younger humanity and an earlier less sophisticated and complex mind. The nature of the poem and much of its subject matter might at least justify the conclusion that Valmiki wrote in a political and social atmosphere much resembling that which surrounded Vyasa. He lived, that is to say, in an age of approaching if not present disorder and turmoil, of great revolutions and unbridled aristocratic violence, when the governing chivalry, the Kshatriya caste, in its pride of strength was asserting its own code of morals as the one rule of conduct. We may note the plain assertion of this stand-point by Jarasandha in the Mahabharata and Valmiki’s emphatic and repeated protest against it through the mouth of Rama. This ethical code was like all aristocratic codes of conduct full of high chivalry and the spirit of noblesse oblige, but a little loose in sexual morality on the masculine side and indulgent to violence and the strong hand. To the pure and delicate moral temperament of Valmiki, imaginative, sensitive, enthusiastic, shot through with rays of visionary idealism and ethereal light, this looseness and violence were shocking and abhorrent. He could sympathise with them, as he sympathised with all that was wild and evil and anarchic, with the imaginative and poetical side of his nature, because he was a universal creative mind driven by his art-sense to penetrate, feel and re-embody all that the world contained; but to his intellect and peculiar emotional temperament they were distasteful. He took refuge therefore in a past age of national greatness and virtue, distant enough to be idealised, but near enough to have left sufficient materials for a great picture of civilisation which would serve his purpose, — an age, it is important to note, of grandiose imperial equipoise, such as must have existed in some form at least since

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a persistent tradition of it runs through Sanskrit literature. In the framework of this imperial age, his puissant imagination created a marvellous picture of the human world as it might be if the actual and existing forms and material of society were used to the best and purest advantage, and an equally marvellous picture of another non-human world in which aristocratic violence, strength, self-will, lust and pride ruled supreme and idealised or rather colossalised. He brought these two worlds into warlike collision by the hostile meeting of their champions and utmost evolutions of their peculiar character-types, Rama and Ravana, and so created the Ramayana, the grandest and most paradoxical poem in the world, which becomes unmatchably sublime by disdaining all consistent pursuit of sublimity, supremely artistic by putting aside all the conventional limitations of art, magnificently dramatic by disregarding all dramatic illusion, and uniquely epic by handling the least as well as the most epic material. Not all perhaps can enter at once into the spirit of this masterpiece; but those who have once done so, will never admit any poem in the world as its superior. My point here, however, is that it gives us the picture of an entirely moralised civilisation, containing indeed vast material development and immense intellectual power, but both moralised and subordinated to the needs of purity of temperament and delicate ideality of action. Valmiki’s mind seems nowhere to be familiarised with the high-strung intellectual gospel of a high and severe Dharma culminating in a passionless activity, raised to a supreme spiritual significance in the Gita, which is one great keynote of the Mahabharata. Had he known it, the strong leaven of sentimentalism and femininity in his nature might well have rejected it; such temperaments when they admire strength, admire it manifested and forceful rather than self-contained. Valmiki’s characters act from emotional or imaginative enthusiasm, not from intellectual conviction; an enthusiasm of morality actuates Rama, an enthusiasm of immorality tyrannises over Ravana. Like all mainly moral temperaments, he instinctively insisted on one old established code of morals being universally observed as the only basis of ethical stability, avoided

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casuistic developments and distasted innovators in metaphysical thought as by their persistent and searching questions dangerous to the established bases of morality, especially to its wholesome ordinariness and everydayness. Valmiki, therefore, the father of our secular poetry, stands for that early and finely moral civilisation which was the true heroic age of the Hindu spirit. The poet of the Mahabharata lives nearer to the centre of an era of aristocratic turbulence and disorder. If there is any kernel of historic truth in the story of the poem, it records the establishment of those imperial forms of government and society which Valmiki had idealised. Behind its poetic legend it celebrates and approves the policy of a great Kshatriya leader of men who aimed at the subjection of his order to the rule of a central imperial power which should typify its best tendencies and control or expel its worst. But while Valmiki was a soul out of harmony with its surroundings and looking back to an ideal past, Vyasa was a man of his time, profoundly in sympathy with it, full of its tendencies, hopeful of its results and looking forward to an ideal future. The one might be described as a conservative idealist advocating return to a better but departed model, the other is a progressive realist looking forward to a better but unborn model. Vyasa accordingly does not revolt from the aristocratic code of morality; it harmonises with his own proud and strong spirit and he accepts it as a basis for conduct, but purified and transfigured by the illuminating idea ¯ of the nis.kama dharma. But above all intellectuality is his grand note, he is profoundly interested in ideas, in metaphysics, in ethical problems; he subjects morality to casuistic tests from which the more delicate moral tone of Valmiki’s spirit shrank; he boldly erects above ordinary ethics a higher principle of conduct having its springs in intellect and strong character; he treats government and society from the standpoint of a practical and discerning statesmanlike mind, idealising solely for the sake of a standard. He touches in fact all subjects, and whatever he touches he makes fruitful and interesting by originality, penetration and a sane and bold vision. In all this he is the son of the civilisation

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he has mirrored to us, a civilisation in which both morality and material development are powerfully intellectualised. Nothing is more remarkable in all the characters of the Mahabharata than this puissant intellectualism; every action of theirs seems to be impelled by an immense driving force of mind solidifying in character and therefore conceived and outlined as in stone. This orgiastic force of the intellect is at least as noticeable as the impulse of moral or immoral enthusiasm behind each great action of the Ramayana. Throughout the poem the victorious and manifold mental activity of an age is prominent and gives its character to its civilisation. There is far more of thought in action than in the Ramayana, far less of thought in repose; the one pictures a time of gigantic creative ferment and disturbance; the other, as far as humanity is concerned, an ideal age of equipoise, tranquillity and order. Many centuries after these poets, perhaps a thousand years or even more, came the third great embodiment of the national consciousness, Kalidasa. There is a far greater difference between the civilisation he mirrors than between Vyasa’s and Valmiki’s. He came when the daemonic orgy of character and intellect had worked itself out and ended in producing at once its culmination and reaction in Buddhism. There was everywhere noticeable a petrifying of the national temperament, visible to us in the tendency to codification; philosophy was being codified, morals were being codified, knowledge of any and every sort was being codified; it was on one side of its nature an age of scholars, legists, dialecticians, philosophical formalisers. On the other side the creative and aesthetic enthusiasm of the nation was pouring itself into things material, into the life of the senses, into the pride of life and beauty. The arts of painting, architecture, song, dance, drama, gardening, jewellery, all that can administer to the wants of great and luxurious capitals, received a grand impetus which brought them to their highest technical perfection. That this impetus came from Greek sources or from the Buddhists seems hardly borne out: the latter may rather have shared in the general tendencies of the time than originated them, and the Greek theory gives us a maximum of conclusions with a minimum

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of facts. I do not think, indeed, it can be maintained that this period, call it classical or material or what one will, was marked off from its predecessor by any clear division: such a partition would be contrary to the law of human development. Almost all the concrete features of the age may be found as separate facts in ancient India: codes existed from old time; art and drama were of fairly ancient origin, to whatever date we may assign their development; physical yoga processes existed almost from the first, and the material development portrayed in the Ramayana and Mahabharata is hardly less splendid than that of which the Raghuvamsa is so brilliant a picture. But whereas, before, these were subordinated to more lofty ideals, now they prevailed and became supreme, occupying the best energies of the race and stamping themselves on its life and consciousness. In obedience to this impulse the centuries between the rise of Buddhism and the advent of Shankaracharya became, though not agnostic and sceptical, for they rejected violently the doctrines of Charvak, yet profoundly scientific and outward-going even in their spiritualism. It was therefore the great age of formalised metaphysics, science, law, art and the sensuous luxury which accompanies the arts. Nearer the beginning than the end of this period, when India was systematising her philosophies and developing her arts and sciences, turning from Upanishad to Purana, from the high rarefied peaks of early Vedanta and Sankhya with their inspiring sublimities and bracing keenness to physical methods of ascetic yoga and the dry intellectualism of metaphysical logic or else to the warm sensuous humanism of emotional religion, — before its full tendencies had asserted themselves, in some spheres before it had taken the steps its attitude portended, Kalidasa arose in Ujjayini and gathered up in himself its present tendencies while he foreshadowed many of its future developments. He himself must have been a man gifted with all the learning of his age, rich, aristocratic, moving wholly in high society, familiar with and fond of life in the most luxurious metropolis of his time, passionately attached to the arts, acquainted with the sciences, deep in law and learning, versed in the formalised

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philosophies. He has some notable resemblances to Shakespeare; among others his business was, like Shakespeare’s, to sum up the immediate past in the terms of the present: at the same time he occasionally informed the present with hints of the future. Like Shakespeare also he seems not to have cared deeply for religion. In creed he was a Vedantist and in ceremony perhaps a Sivaworshipper, but he seems rather to have accepted these as the orthodox forms of his time and country, recommended to him by his intellectual preference and aesthetic affinities, than to have satisfied with them any profound religious want. In morals also he accepted and glorified the set and scientifically elaborate ethics of the codes, but seems himself to have been destitute of the finer elements of morality. We need not accept any of the ribald and witty legends with which the Hindu decadence surrounded his name; but no unbiassed student of Kalidasa’s poetry can claim for him either moral fervour or moral strictness. His writings show indeed a keen appreciation of high ideal and lofty thought, but the appreciation is aesthetic in its nature: he elaborates and seeks to bring out the effectiveness of these on the imaginative sense of the noble and grandiose, applying to the things of the mind and soul the same aesthetic standard as to the things of sense themselves. He has also the natural high aristocratic feeling for all that is proud and great and vigorous, and so far as he has it, he has exaltation and sublimity; but aesthetic grace and beauty and symmetry sphere in the sublime and prevent it from standing out with the bareness and boldness which is the sublime’s natural presentation. His poetry has, therefore, never been, like the poetry of Valmiki and Vyasa, a great dynamic force for moulding heroic character or noble or profound temperament. In all this he represented the highly vital and material civilisation to which he belonged. Yet some dynamic force a poet must have, some general human inspiration of which he is the supreme exponent; or else he cannot rank with the highest. Kalidasa is the great, the supreme poet of the senses, of aesthetic beauty, of sensuous emotion. His main achievement is to have taken every poetic element, all great poetical forms, and subdued them to a harmony of artistic

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perfection set in the key of sensuous beauty. In continuous gift of seizing an object and creating it to the eye he has no rival in literature. A strong visualising faculty such as the greatest poets have in their most inspired descriptive moments, was with Kalidasa an abiding and unfailing power, and the concrete presentation which this definiteness of vision demanded, suffused with an intimate and sovereign feeling for beauty of colour and beauty of form, constitutes the characteristic Kalidasian manner. He is besides a consummate artist, profound in conception and suave in execution, a master of sound and language who has moulded for himself out of the infinite possibilities of the Sanskrit tongue a verse and diction which are absolutely the grandest, most puissant and most full-voiced of any human speech, a language of the Gods. The note struck by Kalidasa when he built Sanskrit into that palace of noble sound, is the note which meets us in almost all the best work of the classic literature. Its characteristic features of style are a compact but never abrupt brevity, a soft gravity and smooth majesty, a noble harmony of verse, a strong and lucid beauty of chiselled prose, above all an epic precision of phrase, weighty, sparing and yet full of colour and sweetness. Moreover it is admirably flexible, suiting itself to all forms from the epic to the lyric, but most triumphantly to the two greatest, the epic and the drama. In his epic style Kalidasa adds to these permanent features a more than Miltonic fullness and grandiose pitch of sound and expression, in his dramatic an extraordinary grace and suavity which makes it adaptable to conversation and the expression of dramatic shade and subtly blended emotion. With these supreme gifts Kalidasa had the advantage of being born into an age with which he was in temperamental sympathy and a civilisation which lent itself naturally to his peculiar descriptive genius. It was an aristocratic civilisation, as indeed were those which had preceded it, but it far more nearly resembled the aristocratic civilisations of Europe by its material luxury, its aesthetic tastes, its polite culture, its keen worldly wisdom and its excessive appreciation of wit and learning. Religious and ethical thought and sentiment were cultivated much as in France under Louis XIV, more in piety and profession than

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as swaying the conduct; they pleased the intellect or else touched the sentiment, but did not govern the soul. It was bad taste to be irreligious, but it was not bad taste to be sensual or even in some respects immoral. The splendid and luxurious courts of this period supported the orthodox religion and morals out of convention, conservatism, the feeling for established order and the inherited tastes and prejudices of centuries, not because they fostered any deep religious or ethical sentiment. Yet they applauded high moral ideas if presented to them in cultured and sensuous poetry much in the same spirit that they applauded voluptuous description similarly presented. The ideals of morality were much lower than of old; free drinking was openly recognised and indulged in by both sexes; purity of life was less valued than in any other period of our civilisation. Yet the unconquerable monogamous instinct of the high-class Hindu woman seems to have prevented promiscuous vice and the disorganisation of the home which was the result of a similar state of society in ancient Rome, in Italy of the Renascence, in France under the Bourbons and in England under the later Stuarts. The old spiritual tendencies were also rather latent than dead, the mighty pristine ideals still existed in theory, — they are outlined with extraordinary grandeur by Kalidasa, — nor had they yet been weakened or lowered to a less heroic key. It was a time in which one might expect to meet the extremes of indulgence side by side with the extremes of renunciation; for the inherent spirituality of the Hindu nature finally revolted against the splendid and unsatisfying life of the senses. But of this phase Bhartrihari and not Kalidasa is the poet. The greater writer lived evidently in the full heyday of the material age, and there is no sign of any setting in of the sickness and dissatisfaction and disillusionment which invariably follow a long outburst of materialism. The flourishing of the plastic arts had prepared surroundings of great external beauty of the kind needed for Kalidasa’s poetic work. The appreciation of beauty in nature, of the grandeur of mountain and forest, the loveliness of lakes and rivers, the charm of bird and beast life had become a part of contemporary culture. These and the sensitive appreciation of trees and plants and hills

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as living things, the sentimental feeling of brotherhood with animals which had influenced and been encouraged by Buddhism, the romantic mythological world still farther romanticised by Kalidasa’s warm humanism and fine poetic sensibility, gave him exquisite grace and grandeur of background and scenic variety. The delight of the eye, the delight of the ear, smell, palate, touch, the satisfaction of the imagination and taste are the texture of his poetical creation, and into this he has worked the most beautiful flowers of emotion and intellectual or aesthetic ideality. The scenery of his work is a universal paradise of beautiful things. All therein obeys one law of earthly grace; morality is aestheticised, intellect suffused and governed with the sense of beauty. And yet this poetry does not swim in languor, does not dissolve itself in sensuous weakness; it is not heavy with its own dissoluteness, heavy of curl and heavy of eyelid, cloyed by its own sweets, as the poetry of the senses usually is. Kalidasa is saved from this by the chastity of his style, his aim at burdened precision and energy of phrase, his unsleeping artistic vigilance. As in the Ramayana and Mahabharata we have an absorbing intellect impulse or a dynamic force of moral or immoral excitement driving the characters, so we have in Kalidasa an intense hedonistic impulse thrilling through speech and informing action. An imaginative pleasure in all shades of thought and of sentiment, a rich delight of the mind in its emotions, a luxuriousness of ecstasy and grief, a free abandonment to amorous impulse and rapture, a continual joy of life and seeking for beauty mark the period when India, having for the time exhausted the possibilities of soul-experience attainable through the spirit and the imaginative reason, was now attempting to find out the utmost each sense could feel, probing and sounding the soul-possibilities in matter and even seeking God through the senses. The emotional religion of the Vaishnava Puranas which takes as its type of the relation between the human soul and the Supreme the passion of a woman for her lover, was already developing. The corresponding Tantric development of Shaivism may not yet have established itself fully; but the concretisation of the idea of Purusha-Prakriti, the union of Ishwara and Shakti,

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from which it arose, was already there in the symbolic legends of the Puranas and one of these is the subject of Kalidasa’s greatest epic poem. The Birth of the War-God stands on the same height in classical Sanskrit as the Paradise Lost in English literature: it is the masterpiece and magnum opus of the age on the epic level. The central idea of this great unfinished poem, the marriage of Siva and Parvati, typified in its original idea the union of Purusha and Prakriti, the supreme Soul and dynamic Nature by which the world is created; but this type of divine legend was used esoterically to typify also the Nature-Soul’s search for and attainment of God, and something of this conception pierces through the description of Parvati’s seeking after Siva. Such was the age of Kalidasa, the temper of the civilisation which produced him; other poets of the time expressed one side of it or another, but his work is its splendid integral epitome, its picture of many composite hues and tones. Of the temperament of that civilisation the Seasons is an immature poetic self-expression, the House of Raghu the representative epic, the Cloud Messenger the descriptive elegy, Shakuntala with its two sister loveplays intimate dramatic pictures and the Birth of the War-God the grand religious fable. Kalidasa, who expressed so many sides and facets of it in his writings, stands for its representative man and genius, as was Vyasa of the intellectual mood of Indian civilisation and Valmiki of its moral side. It was the supreme misfortune of India that before she was able to complete the round of her experience and gather up the fruit of her long millenniums of search and travail by commencing a fourth and more perfect age in which moral, intellectual and material development should be all equally harmonised and all spiritualised, the inrush of barbarians broke in finally on her endless solitary tapasya of effort and beat her national life into fragments. A preparation for such an age may be glimpsed in the new tendencies of spiritual seeking that began with Shankara and continued in later Vaishnavism and Shaivism and in new turns of poetry and art, but it found no opportunity of seizing on the total life of the nation and throwing it into another mould. The work was interrupted before it had well begun;

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and India was left with only the remnants of the culture of the material age to piece out her existence. Yet even the little that was done afterwards, proved to be much; for it saved her from gradually petrifying and perishing as almost all the old civilisations, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, petrified and perished, as the material civilisation of Europe, unless spiritualised, must before long petrify and perish. That there is still an unexhausted vitality in her, that she yet nourishes the seeds of re-birth and renewal, we owe to Shankara and his successors and the great minds and souls that came after them. Will she yet arise, new combine her past and continue the great dream where she left it off, shaking off on the one hand the soils and filth that have grown on her in her period of downfall and futile struggle, and re-asserting on the other her peculiar individuality and national type against the callow civilisation of the West with its dogmatic and intolerant knowledge, its still more dogmatic and intolerant ignorance, its deification of selfishness and force, its violence and its ungoverned Titanism? In doing so lies her one chance of salvation.

The Historical Method Of Kalidasa, the man who thus represents one of the greatest periods in our civilisation and typifies so many sides and facets of it in his writing, we know if possible even less than of Valmekie and Vyasa. It is probable but not certain that he was a native of Malwa born not in the capital Ujjaini, but in one of those villages of which he speaks in the Cloud-Messenger and that he afterwards resorted to the capital and wrote under the patronage of the great Vicramaditya who founded the era of the Malavas in the middle of the first century before Christ. Of his attainments, his creed, his character we may gather something from his poetry, but external facts we have none. There is indeed a mass of apocryphal anecdotes about him couching a number of witticisms & ingenuities mostly ribald, but these may be safely discredited. Valmekie, Vyasa and Kalidasa, our three greatest names, are to us, outside their poetical creation, names merely and nothing more. This is an exceedingly fortunate circumstance. The natural man within us rebels indeed against such a void; who Kalidasa was, what was his personal as distinguished from his poetic individuality, what manner of man was the great King whose patronage he enjoyed, who were his friends, who his rivals and how he dealt with either or both, whether or not he was a lover of wine & women in practice as well as in imagination, under what special surroundings he wrote and who were the minds by whom he was most influenced, all this the natural man clamours to know; and yet all these are things we are very fortunate not to know. The historical method is certainly an attractive one and it leads to some distinct advantages, for it decidedly aids those who are not gifted with fine insight and literary discrimination, to understand certain sides of a poet’s work more clearly and intelligently. But while it increases our

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knowledge of the workings of the human mind it does not in the end assist or improve our critical appreciation of poetry; it helps to an understanding of the man and of those aspects of his poetry which concern his personal individuality but it obstructs our clear and accurate impression of the work and its value. The supporters of the historical method put the cart before the horse and placing themselves between the shafts do a great deal of useless though heroic labour in dragging both. They insist on directing that attention to the poet which should be directed to the poem. After assimilating a man’s literary work and realising its value first to ourselves and then in relation to the eternal nature and scope of poetry, we may and indeed must, — for if not consciously aimed at, it must have been insensibly formed in the mind, — attempt to realize to ourselves an idea of his poetic individuality from the data he himself has provided for us; and the idea so formed will be the individuality of the man so far as we can assimilate him, the only part of him therefore that is of real value to us. The individuality of Shakespeare as expressed in his recorded actions & his relations to his contemporaries is a matter of history and has nothing to do with appreciation of his poetry. It may interest me as a study of human character & intellect but I have no concern with it when I am reading Hamlet or even when I am reading the Sonnets; on the contrary it may often come between me and the genuine revelation of the poet in his work, for actions seldom reveal more than the outer, bodily and sensational man while his word takes us within to the mind and the reason, the receiving and the selecting parts of him which are his truer self. It may matter to the pedant or the gossip within me whether the sonnets were written to William Herbert or to Henry Wriothesley or to William Himself, whether the dark woman whom Shakespeare loved against his better judgment was Mary Fitton or someone else or nobody at all, whether the language is that of hyperbolical compliment to a patron or that of an actual passionate affection; but to the lover of poetry in me these things do not matter at all. It may be a historical fact that Shakespeare when he sat down to write these poems intended to use the affected language of conventional and fulsome flattery; if

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so, it does not exalt our idea of his character; but after all it was only the bodily and sensational case of that huge spirit which so intended, — the food-sheath and the life-sheath of him, to use Hindu phraseology; but the mind, the soul which was the real Shakespeare felt, as he wrote, every phase of the passion he was expressing to the very utmost, felt precisely those exultations, chills of jealousy and disappointment, noble affections, dark and unholy fires, and because he felt them, he was able so to express them that the world still listens and is moved. The passion was there in the soul of the man, — whether as a potential force or an experience from a past life, matters very little, — and it forms therefore part of his poetic individuality. But if we allow the alleged historical fact to interfere between us and this individuality, the feelings with which we ought to read the Sonnets, admiration, delight, sympathy, rapt interest in a soul struggling through passion towards self-realisation, will be disturbed by other feelings of disgust and nausea or at the best pity for a man who with such a soul within him, prostituted its powers to the interests of his mere bodily covering. Both our realisation of the true Shakespeare & our enjoyment of his poetry will thus be cruelly and uselessly marred. This is the essential defect which vitiates the theory of the man and his milieu. The man in D..r Johnson expressed himself in his conversation and therefore his own works are far less important to us than Boswell’s record of his daily talk; the man in Byron expresses himself in his letters as well as his poetry and both have therefore to be read. It is only the most sensational and therefore the lowest natures that express themselves mainly by their actions. In the case of great poets with whom expression is an instrument that answers spontaneously and accurately to the touch of the soul, it is in their work that we shall find them, the whole of them and not only that meagre part which struggled out brokenly and imperfectly in the shape of action. It is really this difference that makes the great figures of epic poetry so much less intimately and thoroughly known to us than the great figures of drama. Kalidasa was both an epic poet and a dramatist, yet Sheva and Parvatie are merely grand paintings while Dushyanta, Shacountala, Sharngarava,

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Priyumvada & Anasuya, Pururavus and Urvasie and Chitraleqha, Dharinie and Iravatie and Agnimitra are living beings who are our friends, whom we know. The difference arises from the importance of speech in self-revelation and the comparative inadequacy of acts, except as a corroboration or a check. The only epics which have creations equal to dramatic creation in their nearness to us are the Mahabharata and the Ramayan; and the art-form of those far more closely resembles the methods of the modern novel than those of epic poetry as it is understood in Europe; they combine, that is to say, the dramatic method with the epic and introduce a minuteness of observant detail with which European poets would have shrunk from tempting the patience of the sensational and soon-wearied West. The importance of the milieu to criticism has likewise been immensely exaggerated. It is important as literary history, but history is not criticism; a man may have a very wide and curious knowledge of literary history and yet be a very poor critic and the danger of the present times lies in the immense multiplication of literary historians with their ass’s load of facts and theories and opinions and tendencies and the comparative rarity of really illuminating critics. I do not say that these things are not in a measure necessary but they are always the scaffolding and not the pile. The tendency of the historical method beginning with and insisting on the poet rather than the poem is to infer from him as a “man” the meaning & value of his poetry, — a vicious process for it concentrates the energies on the subordinate and adds the essential as an appendix. It has been said that in a rightly constituted mind the knowledge of the man and his milieu will help to a just appreciation of his poetry; but this knowledge in its nature rather distorts our judgment than helps it, for instead of giving an honest account to ourselves of the impression naturally made by the poem on us, we are irresistibly led to cut & carve that impression so as to make it square with our knowledge and the theories, more or less erroneous & ephemeral, we deduce from that knowledge. We proceed from the milieu to the poem, instead of arguing from the poem to the milieu. Yet the latter is the only fair method, for it is not the whole of the milieu that

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affects the man nor every part of it that affects him equally; the extent to which it affects him and the distribution of its various influences can only be judged from the poem itself. The milieu of Shakespeare or of Homer or of Kalidasa so far as it is important to an appreciation of their poetry, can be gathered from their poetry itself, and a knowledge of the history of the times would only litter the mind with facts which are of no real value as they mislead and embarrass the judgment instead of assisting it. This is at least the case with all poets who represent their age in some or most of its phases and with those who do not do this, the milieu is of very small importance. We know from literary history that Marlowe and Kyd and other writers exercised no little influence on Shakespeare in his young and callow days; and it may be said in passing that all poets of the first order & even many of the second are profoundly influenced by the inferior and sometimes almost worthless work which was in vogue at the time of their early efforts, but they have the high secret of mental alchemy which can convert not merely inferior metal but even refuse into gold. It is only poets of a onesided or minor genius who can afford to be aggressively original. Now as literary history, as psychology, as part of the knowledge of intellectual origins this is a highly important and noteworthy fact. But in the task of criticism what do we gain by it? We have simply brought the phantoms of Marlowe & Kyd between ourselves and what we are assimilating and so disturbed & blurred the true picture of it that was falling on our souls; and if we know our business, the first thing we shall do is to banish those intruding shadows and bring ourselves once more face to face with Shakespeare. The historical method leads besides to much confusion and is sometimes a veil for a bastard impressionism and sometimes a source of literary insincerity or at the best anaemic catholicity. As often as not a critic studies, say, the Elizabethan age because he has a previous sympathy with the scattered grandeurs, the hasty and vehement inequalities, the profuse mixture of flawed stones, noble gems and imitation jewellery with which that school overwhelms us. In that case the profession with which he

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starts is insincere, for he professes to base his appreciation on study, whereas his study begins from, continues with and ends in appreciation. Often on the contrary he studies as a duty and praises in order to elevate his study; because he has perused all and understood all, he must sympathise with all, or where is the proof of his having understood? Perfect intelligence of a man’s character and work implies a certain measure of sympathy and liking; antipathy has only half sight and indifference is blind. Hence much false criticism misleading the public intelligence and causing a confusion in critical weights & measures, a depreciation of the literary currency from which in the case of the frank impressionist we are safe. In mere truth the historical method is useful only with inferior writers who not having had full powers of expression are more interesting than their work; but even here it has led to that excessive and often absurd laudation of numberless small names in literature, many of them “discoveries”, which is the curse of latterday criticism. The historical method is in fact the cloven foot of science attempting to insinuate itself into the fair garden of Poetry. By this I mean no disrespect to Science. The devil is a gentleman, & Shakespeare himself has guaranteed his respectability; but he is more than that, he is a highly useful and even indispensable personage. So also is Science not only a respectable branch of intellectual activity, — when it does not indulge its highly civilized propensity for cutting up live animals, — but it is also a useful and indispensable branch. But the devil had no business in Paradise and Science has no business in the sphere of Poetry. The work of Science is to collect facts and generalize from them; the smallest and meanest thing is as important to it as the highest, the weed no less than the flower and the bug that crawls & stinks no less than man who is a little lower than the angels. By introducing this method into criticism, we are overloading ourselves with facts and stifling the literary field with the host of all the mediocrities more or less “historically” important but at any rate deadly dull & uninspiring, who at one time or another had the misfortune to take themselves for literary geniuses. And just as scientific history tends to lose individual genius in movements, so the historical

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method tends to lose the individual poem in tendencies. The result is that modern poets instead of holding up before them as their ideal the expression of the great universal feelings and thoughts which sway humanity, tend more and more to express tendencies, problems, realisms, romanticisms, mysticisms and all the other local & ephemeral aberrations with which poetry has no business whatever. It is the sign of a decadent & morbid age which is pushing itself by the mass of its own undigested learning into Alexandrianism and scholasticism, cutting itself off from the fountainheads of creation and wilfully preparing its own decline and sterility. The age of which Callimachus & Apollonius of Rhodes were the Simonides & the Homer and the age of which Tennyson is the Shakespeare & Rudyard Kipling the Milton present an ominous resemblance.

The Seasons I ITS AUTHENTICITY

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HE “SEASONS” of Kalidasa is one of those early works of a great poet which are even more interesting to a student of his evolution than his later masterpieces. We see his characteristic gift even in the immature workmanship and uncertain touch and can distinguish the persistent personality in spite of the defective self-expression. Where external record is scanty, this interest is often disturbed by the question of authenticity, and where there is any excuse for the doubt, it has first to be removed. The impulse which leads us to deny authenticity to early and immature work, is natural and almost inevitable. When we turn from the great harmonies and victorious imaginations of the master to the raw and perhaps faltering workmanship of these uncertain beginnings, we are irresistibly impelled to cry out, “This is not by the same hand.” But the impulse, however natural, is not always reasonable. The maxim that a poet is born and not made is only true in the sense that great poetical powers are there in the mind of the child, and in this sense the same remark might be applied with no less truth to every species of human genius; philosophers, sculptors, painters, critics, orators, statesmen are all born and not made. But because poetical genius is rarer or at any rate wider and more lasting in its appeal than any other, the popular mind with its ready gift for seizing one aspect of truth out of many and crystallizing error into the form of a proverb, has exalted the poet into a splendid freak of Nature exempt from the general law. If a man without the inborn oratorical fire may be trained into a good speaker or another without the master’s inspiration of form and colour

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work out for himself a blameless technique, so too may a meagre talent become by diligence a machine for producing elegant verse. But poetic genius needs experience and self-discipline as much as any other, and by its very complexity more than most. This is eminently true of great poets with a varied gift. A narrow though a high faculty works best on a single line and may show perfection at an early stage; but powerful and complex minds like Shakespeare or Kalidasa seldom find themselves before a more advanced period. Their previous work is certain to be full of power, promise and genius, but it will also be flawed, unequal and often imitative. This imperfection arises naturally from the greater difficulty in imposing the law of harmony of their various gifts on the bodily case which is the instrument of the spirit’s selfexpression. To arrive at this harmony requires time and effort, and meanwhile the work will often be halting and unequal, varying between inspiration expressed and the failure of vision or expression. There is no more many-sided, rich and flexible genius in literature than Kalidasa’s, and in his case especially we must be on our guard against basing denial of authenticity on imperfection and minor differences. We have to judge, first, by the presence or absence of the essential and indefinable self of Kalidasa which we find apparent in all his indubitable work, however various the form or subject, and after that on those nameable characteristics which are the grain and fibre of his genius and least imitable by others. In the absence of external evidence, which is in itself of little value unless received from definite and contemporary or almost contemporary sources, the test of personality is all-important. Accidents and details are only useful as corroborative evidence, for these are liable to variation and imitation; but personality is a distinguishable and permanent presence as fugitive to imitation as to analysis. Even a slight fineness of literary palate can perceive the difference between the Nalodaya and Kalidasa’s genuine work. Not only does it belong to an age or school in which poetic taste was debased and artificial, — for it is a poetical counterpart of those prose works for whose existence the display of scholarship seems to be the

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chief justification, — but it presents in this matter of personality and persistent characteristics no sufficient point of contact either with the Shakuntala or the Kumarasambhava or even with the House of Raghu. But in the Seasons, Kalidasa’s personality is distinctly perceived as well as his main characteristics, his force of vision, his architecture of style, his pervading sensuousness, the peculiar temperament of his similes, his characteristic strokes of thought and imagination, his individual and inimitable cast of description. Much of it is as yet in a half-developed state, crude consistence not yet fashioned with the masterly touch he soon manifested, but Kalidasa is there quite as evidently as Shakespeare in his earlier work, the Venus and Adonis or Lucrece. Defects which the riper Kalidasa avoids, are not uncommon in this poem, — repetition of ideas, use of more words than are absolutely required, haphazard recurrence of words and phrases, not to produce a designed effect but from carelessness, haste or an insufficient vocabulary; there is moreover a constant sense of uncertainty in the touch and a frequent lack of finished design. The poet has been in too much haste to vent his sense of poetic power and not sufficiently careful that the expression should be the best he could compass. And yet immature, greatly inferior in chastity and elegance to his best work, marred by serious faults of conception, bearing evidence of hurry and slovenliness in the execution, the Seasons is for all this not only suffused by a high though unchastened beauty, but marked with many of the distinctive signs of Kalidasa’s strong and exuberant genius. The defects are those natural to the early work of a rich sensuous temperament, eagerly conscious of poetic power but not yet instructed and chastened. II THE SUBSTANCE OF THE POEM Kalidasa’s Seasons is perhaps the first poem in any literature written with the express object of describing Nature. It is precisely similar in its aim to a well-known eighteenth-century

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failure in the same direction — Thomson’s Seasons. The names tally, the forms correspond, both poems adopting the plan of devoting a canto to each season, and the method so far agrees that the poets have attempted to depict each season in its principal peculiarities, scenes and characteristic incidents. But here all parallel ends. Wide as the gulf between the genius of one of the greatest world-poets and the talent of the eighteenth-century versifier is the difference between the gathered strength and compact force, the masterly harmonies and the living truth of the ancient Indian poem and the diffuse artificiality and rhetoric of the modern counterpart. And the difference of spirit is not less. A poet of the prosaic and artificial age when the Anglo-Saxon mind emerged in England and got itself Gallicised, Thomson was unable to grasp the first psychological laws of such descriptive poetry. He fixed his eye on the object, but he could only see the outside of it. Instead of creating he tried to photograph. And he did not remember or did not know that Nature is nothing to poetry except in so far as it is either a frame, setting or ornament to life or else a living presence to the spirit. Nature interpreted by Wordsworth as a part of his own and the universal consciousness, by Shakespeare as an accompaniment or note in the orchestral music of life, by more modern poets as an element of decoration in the living world-picture is possible in poetry; as an independent but dead existence it has no place either in the world itself or in the poet’s creation. In his relations to the external, life and mind are the man, the senses being only instruments, and what he seeks outside himself is a response in kind to his own deeper reality. What the eye gathers is only important in so far as it is related to this real man or helps this expectation to satisfy itself. Kalidasa with his fine artistic feeling, his vitality and warm humanism and his profound sense of what true poetry must be, appears to have divined from the beginning the true place of Nature in the poet’s outlook. He is always more emotional and intellectual than spiritual, like Shakespeare to whom he has so many striking resemblances. We must not expect from him the magical insight of Valmiki, still less the spiritual discernment of Wordsworth. He looks inside, but not

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too far inside. But he realises always the supreme importance of life as the only abiding foundation of a poem’s immortality. The first canto is surcharged with the life of men and animals and the life of trees and plants in summer. It sets ringing a note of royal power and passion and promises a poem of unexampled vigour and interest. But to play variations on this note through six cantos seems to have been beyond the young poet’s as yet limited experience and narrow imaginative mastery. He fell back on the life of sensuous passion with images of which, no doubt, his ungoverned youth was most familiar. But instead of working them into the main thought he turned to them for a prop and, when his imaginative memory failed him, multiplied them to make up the deficiency. This lapse from artistic uprightness brought its own retribution, as all such lapses will. From one error indeed Kalidasa’s vigorous and aspiring temperament saved him. He never relaxed into the cloying and effeminate languor of sensuous description which offends us in Keats’ earlier work. The men of the age with all their sensuousness, luxury and worship of outward beauty were a masculine and strenuous race, and their male and vigorous spirit is as prominent in Kalidasa as his laxer tendencies. His sensuousness is not coupled with weak self-indulgence, but is rather a bold and royal spirit seizing the beauty and delight of earth to itself and compelling all the senses to minister to the enjoyment of the spirit rather than enslaving the spirit to do the will of the senses. The difference perhaps amounts to no more than a lesser or greater force of vitality, but it is, for the purposes of poetry, a real and important difference. The spirit of delightful weakness swooning with excessive beauty gives a peculiar charm of soft laxness to poems like the Endymion, but it is a weakening charm to which no virile temperament will trust itself. The poetry of Kalidasa satisfies the sensuous imagination without enervating the virile chords of character; for virile energy is an unfailing characteristic of the best Sanskrit poetry, and Kalidasa is inferior to none in this respect. His artistic error has nevertheless had disastrous effects on the substance of his poem. It is written in six cantos answering to the six Indian seasons,

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Summer, Rain, Autumn, Winter, Dew and Spring. Nothing can exceed the splendour and power of the opening. We see the poet revelling in the yet virgin boldness, newness and strength of his genius and confident of winning the kingdom of poetry by violence. For a time the brilliance of his work seems to justify his ardour. In the poem on Summer we are at once seized by the marvellous force of imagination, by the unsurpassed closeness and clear strenuousness of his gaze on the object; in the expression there is a grand and concentrated precision which is our first example of the great Kalidasian manner, and an imperial power, stateliness and brevity of speech which is our first instance of the high classical diction. But this canto stands on a higher level than the rest of the poem. It is as if the poet had spent the best part of his force in his first enthusiasm and kept back an insufficient reserve for the sustained power proper to a long poem. The decline in energy does not disappoint at first. The poem on the Rains gives us a number of fine pictures with a less vigorous touch but a more dignified restraint and a graver and nobler harmony, and even in the Autumn, where the falling off of vigour becomes very noticeable, there is compensation in a more harmonious finish of style, management and imagery. We are led to believe that the poet is finding himself and will rise to a finale of flawless beauty. Then comes disappointment. In the next two cantos Kalidasa seems to lose hold of the subject; the touches of natural description cease or are, with a few exceptions, perfunctory and even conventional, and the full force of his genius is thrown into a series of extraordinary pictures, as vivid as if actually executed in line and colour, of feminine beauty and sensuous passion. The two elements, never properly fused, cease even to stand side by side. For all description of Winter we have a few stanzas describing the cold and the appearance of fields, plants, waters in the wintry days, by no means devoid of beauty but wanting in vigour, closeness of vision and eagerness. In the poem on Dew-tide the original purpose is even fainter. Perhaps the quietness of these seasons, the absence in them of the most brilliant pictorial effects and grandest distinctive features, made them a subject uninspiring to the unripeness and

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love of violence natural to a richly-endowed temperament in its unschooled youth. But the Spring is the royal season of the Indian year and should have lent itself peculiarly to Kalidasa’s inborn passion for colour, sweetness and harmony. The closing canto should have been the crown of the poem. But the poet’s sin pursues him and, though we see a distinct effort to recover the old pure fervour, it is an effort that fails to sustain itself. There is no falling off in harmonious splendour of sound and language, but the soul of inspired poetic observation ceases to inform this beautiful mould and the close fails and languishes. It is noticeable that there is a double close to the Spring, the two versions having been left, after the manner of the old editions, side by side. Kalidasa’s strong artistic perception must have suffered acutely from the sense of failure in inspiration and he has accordingly attempted to replace the weak close by an improved and fuller cadence. What is we may presume, the rejected version, is undoubtedly the weaker of the two but neither of them satisfies. The poem on Spring which should have been the finest, is the most disappointing in the whole series III ITS POETIC VALUE Nevertheless the Seasons is not only an interesting document in the evolution of a poetic genius of the first rank, but in itself a work of extraordinary force and immense promise. Many of the most characteristic Kalidasian gifts and tendencies are here, some of them in crude and unformed vigour, but characteristic and unmistakable, giving the poem a striking resemblance of spirit and to some extent of form to the House of Raghu, with a far-off prophecy of the mature manner of Kalidasa in the four great masterpieces. There is his power of felicitous and vivid simile; there is the individual turn of his conceits and the single-minded force with which he drives them home; there is his mastering accuracy and lifelikeness in description conspicuous

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especially in the choice and building of the circumstantial epithets. That characteristic of the poet, not the most fundamental ¯ and important, which most struck the ancient critics, upamasu ¯ asah ¯ . , Kalidasa for similes, is everywhere present even in kalid such early and immature work, and already they have the sharp clear Kalidasian ring, true coin of his mint though not yet possessed of the later high values. The deep blue midsummer sky is like a rich purple mass of ground collyrium; girls with their smiling faces and lovelit eyes are like “evenings beautifully jewelled with the moon”; the fires burning in the forest look far-off like clear drops of vermilion; the new blades of grass are like pieces of split emerald; rivers embracing and tearing down the trees on their banks are like evil women distracted with passion slaying their lovers. In all these instances we have the Kalidasian simile, a little superficial as yet and self-conscious, but for all that Kalidasian. When again he speaks of the moon towards dawn growing pale with shame at the lovelier brightness of a woman’s face, of the rains coming like the pomp of some great king all blazing with lights, huge clouds moving along like elephants, the lightning like a streaming banner and the thunder like a peal of drums, of the clouds like archers shooting their rains at the lover from the rainbow stringed with lightning, one recognises, in spite of the occasional extravagance of phrase and violent fancifulness, the Kalidasian form of conceit, not only in the substance which can be borrowed, but in the wording and most of all in the economy of phrase expressing a lavish and ingenious fancy. Still more is this apparent in the sensuous and elaborate comparison of things in Nature to women in ornamental attire, — rivers, autumn, the night, the pale priyungou creeper. Most decisive of all are the strokes of vivid description that give the poem its main greatness and fulfil its purpose. The seasons live before our eyes as we read. Summer is here with its sweltering heat, the sunbeams burning like fires of sacrifice and the earth swept with whirling gyres of dust driven by intolerable gusts. Yonder lies the lion forgetting his impulse and his mighty leap; his tongue lolls and wearily from time to time he shakes

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his mane; the snake with lowered head panting and dragging his coils labours over the blazing dust of the road; the wild boars are digging in the dried mud with their long snouts as if they would burrow their way into the cool earth; the bisons wander everywhere dumbly desiring water. The forests are grim and parched, brown and sere; and before long they are in the clutch of fire.... But the rains come, and what may be yonder writhing lines we see on the slopes? It is the young water of the rains, a new-born rivulet, grey and full of insects and dust and weeds, coiling like a snake down the hillside. We watch the beauty of the mountains streaked everywhere with waterfalls, their high rocks kissed by the stooping clouds and their sides a gorgeous chaos of peacocks: on the horizon the great clouds blue as lotus-petals climb hugely into the sky and move across it in slow procession before a sluggish breeze. Or look at yonder covidara tree, its branches troubled softly with wind, swarming with honeydrunken bees and its leaves tender with little opening buds. The moon at night gazes down at us like an unveiled face in the skies, the racing stream dashes its ripples in the wild-duck’s face, the wind comes trembling through the burdened rice-stalks, dancing with the crowding courboucs, making one flowery ripple of the lotus-wooded lake. Here there can be no longer any hesitation. These descriptions which remain perpetually with the eye, visible and concrete as an actual painting, belong, in the force with which they are visualised and the magnificent architecture of phrase with which they are presented, to Kalidasa alone among Sanskrit poets. Other poets, his successors or imitators, such as Bana or even Bhavabhuti, overload their description with words and details; they have often lavish colouring but never an equal power of form; their figures do not appear to stand out of the canvas and live. And though we do not find here quite the marvellous harmonies of verse and diction we meet in the Raghu, yet we do come across plenty of preparation for them. Here for instance is a verse whose rapidity and lightness restrained by a certain half-hidden gravity is distinctly Kalidasa’s:

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>vlEt pvnv, pvtAnA\ drFq; -P;VEt pV;EnnAd {, f; kv\f-TlFq;. srEt tZm@y  lNDvE, "Z n `lpyEt mgvg Atl`no dvAE`n,  “Clinging to the woodland edges the forest fire increases with the wind and burns in the glens of the mountains; it crackles with shrill shoutings in the dry bamboo reaches; it spreads in the grasses gathering hugeness in a moment and harasses the beasts of the wilderness.” And again for honeyed sweetness and buoyancy what can be more Kalidasian than this?

p\; -koEkltrsAsv n m, E y\ c;MbEt rAg,. g;n^ Er Po_=yymMb;j-T, E y\ E yAyA, kroEt cAV;  “The male cuckoo, drunk with wine of the juice of the mango flower, kisses his beloved, glad of the sweet attraction, and here the bee murmuring in the lotus-blossom hums flattery’s sweetness to his sweet.” There are other stanzas which anticipate something of the ripest Kalidasian movements by their gravity, suavity and strength.

aAkMpyn^ k;s;EmtA, shkArfAKA Ev-tAryn^ prBt-y vcA\Es Ed";. vAy;EvvAEt dyAEn hrrAZA\ nFhArpAtEvgmAt^ s;Bgo vst  “Making to tremble the flowering branches of the mango trees, spreading the cry of the cuckoo in the regions the wind ranges ravishing the hearts of mortals, by the passing of the dewfalls gracious in the springtide.” If we take Kalidasa anywhere in his lighter metres we shall

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at once perceive their essential kinship with the verse of the Seasons.

idms;lBv-t; ATnAd;EnvAr\ TmmEp mno m  pbAZ, E"ZoEt. Ekm;t mlyvAtomFEltApA X;vZ– m;pvnshkAr {dEft  v\k;rq;  “Already Love torments my mind importunate in prayer for a thing unattainable; what shall it be when the woodland mangotrees display their buds, a pallid whiteness opening to the southern wind?” It is the same suave and skilful management, the same exquisite and unobtrusive weaving of labial, dental and liquid assonances with a recurring sibilant note, the same soft and perfect footing of the syllables. Only the language is richer and more developed. We do not find this peculiar kind of perfection in any other master of classical verse. Bhavabhuti’s manner is bold, strenuous, external; Jayadeva’s music is based palpably upon assonance and alliteration which he uses with extraordinary brilliance and builds into the most enchanting melodies, but without delicacy, restraint or disguise. If there were any real cause for doubt of the authorship, the verse would clearly vindicate the Seasons for Kalidasa. Such is this remarkable poem which some, led away by its undoubted splendours, have put in the first rank of Kalidasa’s work. Its artistic defects and its comparative crudity forbid us to follow them. It is uncertain in plan, ill-fused, sometimes raw in its imagery, unequal in its execution. But for all that, it must have come upon its contemporaries like the dawning of a new sun in the skies. Its splendid diction and versification, its vigour, fire and force, its sweetness of spirit and its general promise and to some extent actual presentation of a first-rate poetic genius must have made it a literary event of the first importance. Especially is it significant in its daring gift of sensuousness. The prophet of a hedonistic civilisation here seizes with no uncertain hand on the materials of his work. A vivid and virile interpretation

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of sense-life in Nature, a similar interpretation of all elements of human life capable of greatness or beauty, seen under the light of the senses and expressed in the terms of an aesthetic appreciation, — this is the spirit of Kalidasa’s first work as it is of his last. At present he is concerned only with the outward body of Nature, the physical aspects of things, the vital pleasures and emotions, the joy and beauty of the human body; but it is the first necessary step on the long road of sensuous and poetic experience and expression he has to travel before he reaches his goal in his crowning work, the Birth of the War-God, in which he takes up for treatment one of the supreme fables of the life of the Gods and the Cosmos and in its handling combines sublimity with grace, height of speech with fullness and beautiful harmony of sound, boldness of descriptive line with magnificence of sensuous colour in a degree of perfection never before or afterwards surpassed or even equalled in poetic literature.

Hindu Drama The origin of the Sanscrit drama, like the origin of all Hindu arts and sciences, is lost in the silence of antiquity; and there one might be content to leave it. But European scholarship abhors a vacuum, even where Nature allows it; confronted with a void in its knowledge, it is always ready to fill it up with a conjecture and this habit of mind while it has led to many interesting discoveries, has also fostered a spirit of fantasy and dogmatism in fantasy, which is prejudicial to sane and sober thinking. Especially in the field of Sanscrit learning this spirit has found an exceptionally favourable arena for the exercise of its ingenuity; for here there is no great body of general culture and well-informed lay opinion to check the extravagances to which a specialised knowledge is always prone. Undaunted therefore by the utter silence of history on the question, European scholars have set about filling up the void with theories which we are asked or rather bidden to accept not as ingenious scholastic playthings, but as serious solutions based upon logical and scientific deduction from convincing internal evidence. It is necessary for reasons I shall presently touch on to cast a cursory glance at the most important of these attempts. The first thought that would naturally suggest itself to an average European mind in search of an origin for Hindu drama is a Greek parentage. The one great body of original drama prior to the Hindu is the Greek; from Greece Europe derives the beginnings of her civilization in almost all its parts; and especially in poetry, art and philosophy. And there was the alluring fact that Alexander of Macedon had entered India and the Bactrians established a kingdom on the banks of the Indus before the time of the earliest extant Hindu play. To the European mind the temptation to build upon this coincidence a theory was irresistible, more especially as it has always been

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incurably loath to believe that the Asiatic genius can be original or vigorously creative outside the sphere of religion. In obedience to this [incomplete] Deftness & strength in dialogue, masterly workmanship in plotmaking & dramatic situation and vital force of dramatic poetry are enough in themselves to make a fine and effective poetical play for the stage, but for a really great drama a farther & rarer gift is needed, the gift of dramatic characterisation. This power bases itself in its different degrees sometimes on great experience of human life, sometimes on a keen power of observation and accurate imagination making much matter out of a small circle of experience but in its richest possessors on a boundless sympathy with all kinds of humanity accompanied by a power of imbibing and afterwards of selecting & bringing out from oneself at will impressions received from others. This supreme power, European scholars agree, is wanting in Hindu dramatic literature. A mere poet like Goethe may extend unstinted & even superlative praise to a Shacountala but the wiser critical & scholarly mind passes a far less favourable verdict; there is much art in Hindu poetry, it is said, but no genius; there is plenty of fancy but no imagination; beautiful and even moving poetry is abundant, but the characters are nil; the colouring is rich but colour is all. Indian scholars trained in our schools to repeat what they have learnt do not hesitate to add their voice to the chorus. A Hindu scholar of acute diligence and wide Sanscrit learning has even argued that the Hindu mind is constitutionally incapable of original & living creation; he has alleged the gigantic, living and vigorous personalities of the Mahabharat as an argument to prove that these characters must have been real men and women, copied from the life; since no Hindu poet could have created character with such truth and power. On the other side the Bengali critics, men of no mean literary taste and perception though inferior in pure verbal scholarship, are agreed in regarding the characters of Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti as beautiful and energetic creations, not less deserving of study than the personalities of Elizabethan drama.

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This contradiction, violent as it is, is not difficult to understand, since it takes its root in an element always more or less present in criticism, the national element. National character, national prejudices, national training preordain for the bulk of us the spirit in which we shall approach unfamiliar poetry. Now the average English mind is capable of appreciating character as manifested in strong action or powerfully revealing speech, but constitutionally dull to the subtleties of civilized character which have their theatre in the mind and the heart and make of a slight word, a gesture or even silence their sufficient revelation. The nations of Europe, taken in the mass, are still semicivilized; their mind feeds on the physical, external and grossly salient features of life; where there is no brilliance & glare, they are apt to condemn the personality as characterless. A strength that shuns ostentation, a charm that is not luxuriant, not naked to the first glance, are appreciable only to the few select minds who have chastened their natural leanings by a wide and deep culture. The Hindu on his side distastes violence in action, excess in speech, ostentation or effusiveness in manner; he demands from his ideal temperance and restraint as well as nobility, truth and beneficence; the Aryan or true gentleman must be EmtAcAr, and EmtBAqF, restrained in action and temperate in speech. This national tendency shows itself even in our most vehement work. The Mahabharat is that section of our literature which deals most with the external and physical and corresponds best to the European idea of the epic; yet the intellectualism of even the Mahabharat, its preference of mind-issues to physical and emotional collisions and catastrophes, its continual suffusion of these when they occur with mind and ideality, the civilisation, depth and lack of mere sensational turbulence, in one word the Aryan cast of its characters, are irritating to European scholars. Thus a historian of Indian literature complains that Bhema is the one really epic character in this poem. He meant, evidently, the one character in which vast and irresistible strength, ungovernable impetuousness of passion, warlike fury & destroying anger are grandiosely displayed. But to the Hindu, whose ideas of epic are not coloured with the wrath of Achilles,

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epic motive and character are not confined to what is impetuous, huge and untamed; he demands a larger field for the epic and does not confine it to savage and half savage epochs. Gentleness, patience, self-sacrifice, purity, the civilized virtues, appear to him as capable of epic treatment as martial fire, brute strength, revenge, anger, hate and ungovernable self-will. Rama mildly and purely renouncing the empire of the world for the sake of his father’s honour seems to them as epic & mighty a figure as Bhema destroying Kechaka in his wild fury of triumphant strength and hatred. It is noteworthy that the European temperament finds vice more interesting than virtue, and in its heart of hearts damns the Christian qualities with faint praise as negative, not positive virtues; the difficulty European writers experience in making good men sympathetic is a commonplace of literary observation. In all these respects the Hindu attitude is diametrically opposed to the European. This attitude of the Hindu mind as evinced in the Mahabharata is so intolerable to European scholars that they have been forced to ease their irritation by conjuring up the phantom of an original ballad-epic more like their notions of what an epic should be, an epic in which the wicked characters of the present Mahabharata were the heroes and the divine champions of right of the present Mahabharata were the villains! The present Mahabharata is, they say, a sanctimonious monastic corruption of the old vigorous and half-savage poem. To the Hindu the theory naturally seems a grotesque perversion of ingenuity but its very grotesqueness is eloquent of the soil it springs from, the soil of the half barbarous temperament of the martial & industrial Teuton which cannot, even when civilised, entirely sympathise with the intellectual working of more radically civilised types. This fundamental difference of outlook on character, generating difference in critical appreciation of dramatic and epic characterisation is of general application, but it acquires a peculiar force when we come to consider the Hindu drama; for here the ingrained disparity is emphasized by external conditions. It has been pointed out, perhaps too often, that the Hindu drama presents some remarkable points of contact with the

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Elizabethan. In the mixture of prose and poetry, in the complete freedom with which time & scene vary, in the romantic lifelikeness of the action, in the mixture of comedy with serious matter, in the gorgeousness of the poetry and the direct appeal to the feelings, both these great literatures closely resemble each other. Yet the differences, though they do not strike us so readily as the similarities, are yet more vital and go deeper; for the similarities are of form, the differences of spirit. The Elizabethan drama was a great popular literature which aimed at a vigorous and realistic presentation of life and character such as would please a mixed and not very critical audience; it had therefore the strength and weakness of great popular literature; its strength was an abounding vigour in passion & action, and an unequalled grasp upon life; its weakness a crude violence, imperfection and bungling in workmanship combined with a tendency to exaggerations, horrors & monstrosities. The Hindu drama, on the contrary, was written by men of accomplished culture for an educated, often a courtly audience and with an eye to an elaborate and well-understood system of poetics. The vital law governing Hindu poetics is that it does not seek to represent life and character primarily or for their own sake; its aim is fundamentally aesthetic, by the delicate & harmonious rendering of passion to awaken the aesthetic sense of the onlooker and gratify it by moving or subtly observed pictures of human feeling; it did not attempt to seize a man’s spirit by the hair and drag it out into a storm of horror & pity & fear and return it to him drenched, beaten and shuddering. To the Hindu it would have seemed a savage and inhuman spirit that could take any aesthetic pleasure in the sufferings of an Oedipus or a Duchess of Malfi or in the tragedy of a Macbeth or an Othello. Partly this arose from the divine tenderness of the Hindu nature, always noble, forbearing & gentle and at that time saturated with the sweet & gracious pity & purity which flowed from the soul of Buddha; but it was also a necessary result of the principle that aesthetic & intellectual pleasure is the first object of all poetic art. Certainly poetry was regarded as a force for elevation as well as for charm, but as it reaches these

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objects through aesthetic beauty, aesthetic gratification must be the whole basis of dramatic composition; all other objects are superstructural. The Hindu mind therefore shrank not only from violence, horror & physical tragedy, the Elizabethan stock-intrade, but even from the tragic moral problems which attracted the Greek mind; still less could it have consented to occupy itself with the problems of disease, neurosis and spiritual medicology generally which are the staple of modern drama and fiction. An atmosphere of romantic beauty, a high urbanity and a gracious equipoise of the feelings, a perpetual confidence in the sunshine & the flowers, are the essential spirit of a Hindu play; pity and terror are used to awaken the feelings, but not to lacerate them, and the drama must close on the note of joy and peace; the clouds are only admitted to make more beautiful the glad sunlight from which all came & into which all must melt away. It is in an art like this that the soul finds the repose, the opportunity for being, confirmed in gentleness and in kindly culture, the unmixed intellectual and aesthetic pleasure in quest of which it has turned away from the crudeness & incoherence of life to the magic regions of Art. When therefore English scholars, fed on the exceedingly strong & often raw meat of the Elizabethans, assert that there are no characters in the Hindu drama, when they attribute this deficiency to the feebleness of inventive power which leads “Asiatic” poetry to concentrate itself on glowing description and imagery, seeking by excess of ornament to conceal poverty of substance, when even their Indian pupils perverted from good taste and blinded to fine discrimination by a love of the striking & a habit of gross forms & pronounced colours due to the too exclusive study of English poetry, repeat & reenforce their criticisms, the lover of Kalidasa & his peers need not be alarmed; he need not banish from his imagination the gracious company with which it is peopled as a gilded & soulless list of names. For these dicta spring from prejudice and the echo of a prejudice; they are evidence not of a more vigorous critical mind but of a restricted critical sympathy. Certainly if we expect a Beautiful White Devil or a Jew of Malta from the Hindu dramatist, we

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shall be disappointed; he deals not in these splendid or horrible masks. If we come to him for a Lear or a Macbeth, we shall go away discontented; for these also are sublimities which belong to cruder civilisations and more barbarous national types; in worst crimes & deepest suffering as well as in happiness & virtue, the Aryan was more civilized & temperate, less crudely enormous than the hard, earthy & material African peoples whom in Europe he only half moralised. If he seeks a P`ere Goriot or a Madame Bovary, he will still fail in his quest; for though such types doubtless existed at all times among the mass of the people with its large strain of African blood, Hindu Art would have shrunk from poisoning the moral atmosphere of the soul by elaborate studies of depravity. The true spirit of criticism is to seek in a literature what we can find in it of great or beautiful, not to demand from it what it does not seek to give us.

Vikramorvasie The Play Vikram and the Nymph is the second, in order of time, of Kalidasa’s three extant dramas. The steady development of the poet’s genius is easy to read even for a superficial observer. Malavica and the King is a gracious and delicate trifle, full of the sweet & dainty characterisation which Kalidasa loves, almost too curiously admirable in the perfection of its structure and dramatic art but with only a few touches of that nobility of manner which raises his tender & sensuous poetry and makes it divine. In the Urvasie he is preening his wings for a mightier flight; the dramatic art is not so flawless, but the characters are far deeper and nobler, the poetry stronger and more original and the admirable lyrical sweetness of the first and fourth acts as well as the exaltation of love and the passion of beauty which throb through the whole play, lift it into a far rarer creative atmosphere. It is a worthy predecessor of the Shacountala, that loveliest, most nobly tender and most faultless of all romantic plays. Other indications of this development may be observed. The conventional elements of an Indian romantic comedy, the humours of the Brahmin buffoon and the jealousy of the established wife for the new innamorata occupy the whole picture in the Malavica, though they are touched with exquisite skill and transfigured into elements of a gracious and smiling beauty. In the Urvasie the space given to them is far more limited and their connection with the main action less vital; and they are less skilfully handled: finally in the Shacountala we have only vestiges of them, — a perfunctory recognition of their claims to be admitted rather than a willing use of them as good dramatic material. The prologues of the three plays point to a similar conclusion. In producing the Malavica Kalidasa comes forward as a new and unrecognized poet challenging the fame of the great dramatic classics and apprehensive of severe criticism for

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his audacity, which he anticipates by a defiant challenge. When the Urvasie is first represented, his position as a dramatist is more assured; only the slightest apology is given for displacing the classics in favour of a new play and the indulgence of the audience is requested not for the poet but for the actors. The prologue of the Shacountala on the other hand breathes of the dignified and confident silence of the acknowledged Master. No apology is needed; none is volunteered. The prologue of this play contains an apparent allusion to the great Vikramaditya, Kalidasa’s patron, and tradition seems to hint, if it does not assert, connection of a kind between the plot of the drama and, perhaps, some episode in the King’s life. At any rate the name of the drama is an obvious compliment to that great ruler & conqueror and one or two double entendres in the play which I have not thought it worth while to transfer into English, are, it is clear, strokes [of] delicate flattery pointed to the same quarter. The majority of European scholars identify this Vikrama with Harsha of Ujjaini, the Grand Monarque of classical India; indigenous scholarship mostly dissents from this view, and an imaginative mind may well prefer to associate our greatest classical poet with the earlier and more heroic, if also more shadowy, Vikram, who united the Malavas and founded the power of that great nation, the most gifted and artistic of the earlier Hindu peoples. There are no sufficient data to fix Kalidasa’s epoch; he was certainly not later than the 6t.h. century after Christ, certainly not earlier than the 1s.t. century before; but a chronological margin of seven hundred years is too wide to encourage dogmatism. The legend which forms the subject of the plot is one of the older Indian myths; it may have been a sun myth dear to the heart of the late Prof. Max Muller, — or it may have meant something very different. The literary critic is only concerned with the changes and developments it has undergone in the hands of Kalidasa; that these are all in the direction of emotional sweetness and artistic beauty, may easily be seen by comparing with the drama a translation of the original story as it appears in the [Shatapatha Brahmana.]

Vikramorvasie The Characters Pururavus is the poet’s second study of kinghood; he differs substantially from Agnimitra. The latter is a prince, a soldier & man of the world yielding by the way to the allurements of beauty, but not preoccupied with passion; the subtitle of the piece might be, in a more innocent sense than Victor Hugo’s, “Le Roi s’amuse”. He is the mirror of a courteous & self-possessed gentleman, full of mildness & grace, princely tact, savoir-faire, indulgent kindliness, yet energetic withal & quietly resolute in his pleasure as well as in his serious affairs. “Ah, Sire” says Dharinie with sharp irony “if you only showed as much diplomatic skill & savoir-faire in the affairs of your kingdom, what a good thing it would be”. But one feels that these are precisely the gifts he would show in all his action, that the innocently unscrupulous & quite delightful tact & diplomacy with which he pursues his love-affair is but the mirror of the methods he pursued in domestic politics. We see in him the typical & ideal king of an age hedonistic, poetic, worldly but withal heroic & capable. Pururavus is made of very different material. He is a king and a hero, a man of high social & princely virtues, otherwise Kalidasa would not have taken the trouble to depict him; but these qualities are like splendid robes which his nature has put on, & which have become so natural to him that he cannot put them off if he would; they are not the naked essential man. The fundamental Pururavus is not the king and the hero but the poet & lover. The poet on a throne has been the theme of Shakespeare in his Richard II and of Renan in his Ant´echrist; and from these two great studies we can realise the European view of the phenomenon. To the European mind the meeting of poet & king in one man wears always the appearance of an anomaly, a misplacement, the very qualities which have fitted him to be a poet unfit him to rule. A mastering egotism

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becomes the mainspring of the poetic temperament so placed; the imagination of the man is centred in himself, and the realm & people whose destinies are in his hands, seem to him to be created only to minister to his ingenious or soaring fancies & his dramatic, epic or idealistic sense of what should be; his intellect lives in a poetic world of its own and thinks in tropes & figures instead of grappling with the concrete facts of the earth; hence he is unfitted for action and once absolute power is out of his hands, once he is no longer able to arrange men & events to his liking as if he were a dramatist manoeuvring the creatures of his brain but is called upon to measure his will & ability against others, he fails & his failure leads to tragic issues; for he persists in attempting to weave his own imaginations into life; he will not see facts; he will not recognize the inexorable logic of events. Hence, though not necessarily a coward, though often a man of real courage & even ability, he plays the part of an incompetent or a weakling or both. Moreover he tends to become a tyrant, to lose moral perspective & often all sense of proportion and sanity; for he regards himself as the centre of a great drama, and to all who will not play the part he assigns them and satisfy his emotional needs & impulses, to all who get in the way of his imaginative egotism he becomes savage & cruel; his rage when a word of his life-drama is mispronounced or a part ill-studied or a conception not complied with is a magnified reflection of the vexation felt by a dramatist at a similar contretemps in the performance of his darling piece; and unfortunately unlike the playwright he has the power to vent his indignation on the luckless offenders in a fashion only too effective. The last end of the poet-king is almost always tragic, the madhouse, the prison, suicide, exile or the dagger of the assassin. It must be admitted that this dramatic picture largely reflects the facts of history. We know some instances of poet-kings in history, Nero & Ludwig of Bavaria were extreme instances; but we have a far more interesting because typical series in the history of the British isles. The Stuarts were a race of born poets whom the irony of their fate insisted upon placing one after the other upon a throne; with the single exception of Charles II (James VI was a pedant, which

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for practical purposes is as bad as a poet) they were all men of an imaginative temper, artistic tastes & impossible ideals, and the best of them had in a wonderful degree the poet’s faculty of imparting this enthusiasm to others. The terrible fate which dogged them was no mysterious doom of the Atridae, but the natural inexorable result of the incompatibility between their temperament & their position. Charles II was the only capable man in his line, the only one who set before him a worldly & unideal aim & recognising facts & using the only possible ways & means quietly & patiently accomplished it. The first James had some practical energy, but it was marred by the political idealism, the disregard of a wise opportunism and the tyrannical severity towards those who thwarted him which distinguished his whole dreamy, fascinating & utterly unpractical race. Nor is the type wanting in Indian History. Sriharsha of Cashmere in the pages of Kalhana affords a most typical picture of the same unhappy temperament. It is interesting therefore to see how Kalidasa dealt with a similar character. To our surprise we find that the Hindu poet does not associate incompetence, failure & tragedy with his image of the poet-king; on the contrary Pururavus is a Great Emperor, well-loved of his people, an unconquered hero, the valued ally of the Gods, successful in empire, successful in war, successful in love. Was then Kalidasa at fault in his knowledge of the world and of human nature? Such a solution would be inconsistent with all we know of the poet’s genius as shown in his other work. The truth is that Kalidasa simply gives us the other side of the shield. It is not an invariable law of human nature that the poetic temperament should be by its nature absolutely unfitted for practical action & regal power. Nero & Charles I were artistic temperaments cursed with the doom of kingship. But Alexander of Macedon & Napoleon Buonaparte were poets on a throne, and the part they played in history was not that of incompetents & weaklings. There are times when Nature gifts the poetic temperament with a peculiar grasp of the conditions of action and an irresistible tendency to create their poems not in ink & on paper, but in living characters & on the great canvas of the world; such men become portents

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& wonders, whom posterity admires or hates but can only imperfectly understand. Like Joan of Arc or Mazzini & Garibaldi they save a dying nation, or like Napoleon & Alexander they dominate a world. They are only possible because they only get full scope in races which unite with an ardent & heroic temperament a keen susceptibility to poetry in life, idealism, & hero worship. Now the Hindus, before the fibre of their temperament had been loosened by hedonistic materialism on the one side & Buddhistic impracticability on the other, were not only the most ardent & idealistic race in the world, the most ready to put prose behind them, the most dominated by thought & imagination, but also one of the most heroic, and they still preserved much of this ancient temper in the days of Kalidasa. It was only natural therefore that the national dramatist in representing the great legendary founder of the Kurus as of the poet-emperor type, should mould him of stronger make & material & not as one of the beautiful porcelain vessels that are broken. Yet always, even when gifted with the most extraordinary practical abilities, the poetic temperament remains itself and keeps a flaw of weakness in the heart of its strength. The temperaments of Alexander & Napoleon were both marked by megalomania, gigantic imaginations, impossible ideals; though not wantonly cruel or tyrannical, they at times showed a singular insensibility to moral restraints and the demands of generous & humane feeling; especially in times of abnormal excitement or temporary indulgence of their passions, the birthmark came out and showed itself in acts of often insane tyranny. This was especially the case with Alexander; but Napoleon was not free from the same taint. Alexander, we know, strove consciously to mould his life into an Iliad; Napoleon regarded his as a Titanic epic and when facts would not fit in ideally with his conception of himself as its great protagonist, he would alter & falsify them with as little scruple as a dramatist would feel in dealing licentiously with the facts of history. All men of this type, moreover, show a strange visionary impracticability in the midst of their practical energy & success, make huge miscalculations & refuse to receive correction, insist that facts shall mould themselves according to

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their own imaginations and are usually dominated by an unconquerable egoism or self-absorption which is not necessarily base or selfish; their success seems as much the result of a favouring destiny as of their own ability & when the favour is withdrawn, they collapse like a house of cards at one blow. Joan of Arc dreamed dreams & saw visions, Mazzini & Garibaldi were impracticable idealists and hated Cavour because he would not idealise along with them. The rock of St Helena, the blazing stake at Rouen, the lifelong impotent exile of Mazzini, the field of [ ]1 & the island of Caprera, such is the latter end of these great spirits. Alexander was more fortunate, but his greatest good fortune was that he died young; his next greatest that the practical commonsense of his followers prevented him from crossing the Ganges; had Napoleon been similarly forced to recognise his limit, his end might have been as great as his beginning. Pururavus in the play is equally fortunate; we feel throughout that the power & favour of the Gods is at his back to save him from all evil fortune and the limits of a legend help him as effectually as an early death helped Alexander. Kalidasa’s presentation of Pururavus therefore is not that of a poetic nature in a false position working out its own ruin; it is rather a study of the poetic temperament in a heroic & royal figure for no issue beyond the study itself. This is in accordance with the temper of the later poetry which, as I have said, troubles itself little with problems, issues & the rest, but is purely romantic, existing only to express disinterested delight in the beauty of human life & emotion & the life & emotion of animate & inanimate Nature. When Pururavus first appears on the scene it is as the king and hero, the man of prompt courage and action, playing the part which he has assumed like a royal robe of purple; but it is not in the practical side of his character that Kalidasa is interested. He has to introduce it only as a background to his inner temperament, in order to save him from the appearance 1 Blank in manuscript. Apparently Aspromonte or Mentana, sites of defeats suffered by Garibaldi, was intended. — Ed.

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of frivolous weakness & unworthiness which always surrounds the dilettante in life, the epicure of his own emotions. This he does with his usual consummate art. Pururavus is introduced to us at the very beginning in a scene of extraordinary swiftness, decision & tumultuous excitement like an eagle cleaving the winds in the rushing swoop upon his prey. The remembrance of this rapid & heroic episode lingers with us & gives us a sense of concealed iron behind his most feminine moods as lover & poet. Then again at the end of the play Kalidasa skilfully strikes the same note & when we take leave of the Ilian it is again as the King & hero whose strong arm is needed by the Gods in their approaching war with the Titans. Thus finding & leaving him as the warlike prince, we always have the impression that however great the part played by his love for Urvasie in his life, it is not the whole; that we are listening only to a love episode in some high epic. This impression again is skilfully aided by brief but telling touches in each Act, such as the song of the Bards, for example, which remind us of the King of Kings, the toiling administrator & the great warrior; in not a single Act are these necessary strokes omitted & the art with which they are introduced naturally & as if without design is beyond praise. But here again Kalidasa does not depart from his artistic principle of “nothing too much, nothing too little”; the purple robes of the Emperor and the bow of the hero being needed only for the background are not allowed to intrude upon the main interest, which is Pururavus the man in his native temperament. From the very first utterance that temperament reveals itself; the grandiose & confident announcement of his name & his communion with the Gods is characteristic of the epic megalomaniac; we are not deceived by his proud assumption of modesty, which he only wears as a fit outward ornament of the role he is playing on the world’s stage, part of the conventional drapery of the heroic king. “For modesty was ever valour’s crown.” Through this drapery we see the man glorying in himself as a poet might glory in some great creation & when madness has removed all conventional disguise, his temper breaks out with the most splendid frankness. We see his mind empurpled with

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the consciousness of his worldwide fame, “This is too much; it is not possible he should not know me”; of his marvellous birth “the grandson to the Sun & Moon”; of his matchless achievements as “the chariot-warrior, great Pururavus”; of his mighty empire, “the universal sceptre of the world and sovran footstool touched by jewelled heads of tributary monarchs”. The glory of this triple purple in which he has wrapped himself, matchless valour, matchless fame, matchless empire, dominates his imagination, and he speaks in the proud brief language of the hero but with an evident consciousness of their fine suitability to the part. We seem to see Napoleon robing himself in the dramatic splendour of his despatches and proclamations or Alexander dragging Batis at his chariot wheels in order that he may feel himself to be Achilles. Shall we accuse these men as some do of being liars, theatrical braggarts, inhuman madmen, mountebanks? Let us not so in our feeble envy spit our venom on these mighty souls to half whose heights we could never rise even if we have no opportunity given us of sinking to their depths! And then as he rushes in pursuit of the Titan and revels in the speed of his chariot and the scenic splendour of the crumbling thunderclouds flying up like dust beneath it, all the poet in him breaks out into glories of speech. Surely no king before or after, not even Richard II, had such a royal gift of language as this grandson of the Sun & Moon. It is peculiar to him in the play. Others, especially those who habitually move near him, Manavaca, the Chamberlain, the Huntsman, the Charioteer, catch something at times of his enthusiastic poetry, but their diction is usually simple & unpretending and when it is most ambitious pale to the colour, energy & imaginativeness which floods all his utterance. For example in the scene of the vulture how he catches fire from a single trope of the Huntsman’s and his imagination continues coruscating & flashing over the jewel until it has vanished from sight. I have said that his imagination has become empurpled; but the tendency is really inborn in him; he sees, thinks & speaks in purple. Not only is his mind stored with pictures which break out in the most splendid tropes and similes, but he cannot see any natural object or feel any simplest

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emotion without bathing it in the brilliant tones of his imagination & expressing it in regal poetry. He has also the poet’s close & inspired observation, the poet’s visualising power, the poet’s sensuousness & aim at the concrete. Little things that he has seen in Nature, a portion of the bank of a river collapsing into the current, the rapid brightening of a dark night by the moon, fire at night breaking its way through a volume of smoke, a lotus reddening in early sunlight, a wild swan flying through the sky with a lotus fibre in his beak, remain with his inner eye and at a touch burst out in poetry. So inveterate is this habit of seizing on every situation & emotion & turning it into a poem, that even when he affects a feeling as in his flattery of the queen, he takes fire & acts his part with a glory & fervour of speech which make the feigned emotion momentarily genuine. Thus with a mind stored & brimming with poetry, a habit of speech of royal splendour & fulness and an imagination fired & enlarged by the unequalled grandeur of his own destiny, Pururavus comes to the great event which shall be the touchstone of his nature. Such a man was alone fit to aspire to & win the incarnate Beauty of the world & of its sensuous life, the Opsara who sprang from the thigh of the Supreme. The Urvasie of the myth, as has been splendidly seen & expressed by a recent Bengali poet, is the Spirit of imaginative beauty in the Universe, the unattainable ideal for which the soul of man is eternally panting, the goddess adored of the nympholept in all lands & in all ages. There is but one who can attain her, the man whose mind has become one mass of poetry & idealism and has made life itself identical with poetry, whose glorious & starlike career has itself been a conscious epic and whose soul holds friendship & close converse with the Gods. This is Pururavus, “the noise of whom has gone far & wide”, whose mother was Ida, divine aspiration, the strange daughter of human mind (Manu) who was once male & is female, and his father Budha, Hermes of the moonlike mind, inspired & mystic wisdom, and his near ancestors therefore are the Sun & Moon. For Urvasie he leaves his human wife, earthly fame & desire, giving her only the passionless kindness which duty demands & absorbs his whole real soul in the divine. Even he,

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however, does not enjoy uninterrupted the object of his desire; he transgresses with her into that fatal grove of the Virgin WarGod where ethereal beauty & delight are not suffered to tread but only ascetic self-denial & keen swordlike practical will; at once she disappears from his ken. Then must his soul wander through all Nature seeking her, imagining her or hints & tokens of her in everything he meets, but never grasping unless by some good chance he accept the Jewel Union born from the crimson on the marvellous feet of Himaloy’s Child, Uma, daughter of the mountains, the Mighty Mother, She who is the Soul behind Nature. Then he is again united with her and their child is Ayus, human life & action glorified & ennobled by contact with the divine. It is therefore one of the most profound & splendid of the many profound & splendid allegories in the great repertory of Hindu myth that Kalidasa has here rendered into so sweet, natural & passionate a story of human love & desire. [The religious interpretation of the myth, which is probably older than the poetical, is slightly but not materially different.]2 In one sense therefore the whole previous life of Pururavus has been a preparation for his meeting with Urvasie. He has filled earth & heaven even as he has filled his own imagination with the splendour of his life as with an epic poem, he has become indeed Pururavus, he who is noised afar; but he has never yet felt his own soul. Now he sees Urvasie and all the force of his nature pours itself into his love for her like a river which has at last found its natural sea. The rich poetry of his temperament, the sights & images with which his memory is stored, his dramatic delight in his own glory & greatness & heroism, are now diverted & poured over this final passion of his life, coruscate & light it up & reveal it as in a wonderful faeryland full of shimmering moonlight. Each thought, image, emotion of his mind as it issues forth, connects itself with his love and for a moment stands illumined in the lustre of his own speech. The same extraordinary vividness of feeling & imagination is poured over Ayus when Pururavus finds himself 2 The square brackets are Sri Aurobindo’s. — Ed.

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a father; never has the passion of paternity been expressed with such vivid concreteness or with such ardent sensuousness of feeling. Yet the conventions of life & the dramatic part in it he feels bound to sustain cling about him and hamper his complete utterance. In order therefore to give him his full opportunity, Kalidasa has separated him from Urvasie by a more romantic device than the dramatically unmanageable contrivance of the original legend, and liberated him into the infinite freedom of madness. The fourth Act therefore which seems at first sight episodical, is really of essential importance both to the conduct of the play & the full revelation of its protagonist. Yet madness is hardly the precise word for the condition of Pururavus; he is not mad like Lear or Ophelia;3 it is rather a temporary exaltation than a perversion or aberration from his natural state. An extraordinarily vivid & active imagination which has always felt a poetic sense of mind & sympathy in brute life & in “inanimate” Nature leaps up under the shock of sudden & inexplicable loss & the encouragement of romantic surroundings into gigantic proportions; it is like a sudden conflagration in a forest which transfigures & magnifies every petty object it enlightens and fills the world with the rush & roar & volume of its progress. The whole essential temperament of the man comes whirling out in a gyrating pomp of tropes, fancies, conceits, quick & changing emotions; everything in existence he gifts with his own mind, speech, feelings and thus moves through the pageantry of Nature draping it in the regal mantle of his imagination until the whole world exists only to be the scene & witness of his sorrow. For splendour of mere poetry united with delicate art of restraint and management, this scene is not 3 Sri Aurobindo wrote the following passage on a separate page of the manuscript

used for this essay. He did not mark its place of insertion: That accomplished scholar & litterateur Prof Wilson in introducing the Vicramorvaseum to English readers, is at pains to inform them that in the “mad scene” of this play they must not expect the sublime madness of King Lear, but a much tamer affair conformable to the mild, domestic & featureless Hindu character & the feebler pitch of Hindu poetic genius. The good Professor might have spared himself the trouble. Beyond the fact that both Lear & Pururavus go about raving in a storm, there is no point of contact between the two dramas.

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easily surpassed. We may note one of the smaller & yet essential features of its beauty, the skill with which the gradations of his excitement are indicated. When he first rushes in he is in the very height & tumult of it mistaking the cloud for a Titan who carries off his Urvasie and threatening him with a clod of earth which he imagines to be a deadly weapon. But he is not really mad; the next moment he realises his hallucination, and the reaction produces a certain calming down of the fever; yet his mind is still working tumultuously & as he ranges through the forest, every object is converted for a moment into a sign of Urvasie and the megalomaniac in him bursts out into the most splendid flights of self-magnification. But each fresh disappointment brings a reaction that sobers him just a little more; he turns from the inanimate objects of nature to the bee in the flower, then to the birds, then to the beasts; he gifts them with a voice, with articulate words, with thoughts lent out of the inexhaustible treasury of his teeming imagination. Next he appeals to the God of the mountain and fancies the Echo to be his answer. Mark that now for the first time it is a real articulate voice that he hears, though but the reflection of his own. Immediately afterwards his mind coming nearer & nearer to sanity, hits upon something very close to the truth; he realises that a divine force may have transformed her to some object of nature & at first by a natural misapprehension imagines that it must be the river which has the appearance Urvasie wore when she fled from him. Then reason as it returns tells him that if he wishes to find her, it must be nearer the place where she disappeared. As he hurries back, he appeals for the last time to an animal to speak to him, but does not lend him a voice or words; again also he sees tokens of her in flower & tree, but they are no longer hallucinations but real or at least possible tokens. He touches the Jewel Union & hears the actual voice of the sage; he is now perfectly restored to his normal state of mind & when he embraces the creeper, it is not as Urvasie but as an “imitatress of my beloved”. Through the rest of the scene it is the old natural Pururavus we hear though in his most delicate flights of imagination. What a choice of a “conveyance” is that with which the scene closes & who but

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Pururavus could have imagined it? I dwell on these subtle and just perceptible features of Kalidasa’s work, the art concealing art, because the appreciation of them is necessary to the full reception on our mind-canvas of Kalidasa’s art & genius and therefore to the full enjoyment of his poetry. And while Pururavus glorifies & revels in his passion, he is also revealed by it; and not only in the strength of the poetic temperament at its strongest, its grasp of, devotion to & joy in its object, its puissant idealism & energy & the dynamic force with which for a time at least it compels fate to its will, but also in its weaknesses. I have spoken of his self-magnification & touches of megalomania. There is besides this a singular incompetence or paralysis of activity in occasional emergencies which, as I have before suggested, often overtakes the poetic temperament in action even in its most capable possessors. His helplessness when confronted by Aushinarie compares badly with the quiet self-possession & indulgent smile with which Agnimitra faces Iravatie in a much more compromising situation. Characteristic too is his conduct when the jewel is lost. We feel certain that Agnimitra when rushing out of his tent would have caught up his bow & arrows & and shot the thief on the spot; Pururavus occupies time in pouring out splendid tropes & similes over the bird & the jewel and appeals helplessly to Manavaca for advice. This is characteristic of the poetic temperament whose mind has long trained itself to throw out its imagination to meet every new object or situation and not its acting faculties; except in natures of a very firm balance the habit must lead to paralysis of the will. Such a sapping of vigour has been going on in Pururavus during the long years of absorption in his romantic passion.4 One must hope that when he stands again in the forefront of battle “Heaven’s great soldier” will have sufficient elasticity of character to recover in the shock of action what he has lost in the peace of the seraglio. Then there are certain 4 Alternative to this sentence:

This growing incompetence is the result of vigour being sapped by long indulgence in the poetical sensibilities to the comparative exclusion of the practical side of the temperament.

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moral insensibilities, certain feelings which seem to have been ˆ left out in his composition. It is part of his self-assumed role in life to be the ideal king, the mirror of gallantry & conjugal duty, the champion of the gods & of religion. Yet it is Urvasie and not he who remembers that his “high capital awaits him long” and who shrinks from the displeasure of the people. He exhibits deference & a show of love to Aushinarie because he “owes” her respect & affection, but in spite of his glowing language and fine acting we feel that he cherishes towards her none of the genuine respect & affection or of the real & indulgent kindliness Agnimitra feels for Dharinie & Iravatie. In the last Act he expresses some fear that he may lose religious calm; one feels that religious calm in Pururavus must have been something like the King’s robe in Hans Andersen’s story. But it was one of the necessary “belongings” of the great semi-divine king which Pururavus considered his “part” in life, just as impassive calm & insensibility to human misfortune & grief was one of the necessary “belongings” of the great demigod, the human Jove ˆ which Napoleon thought to be his destined role. If that vast, flaming and rushing mass of genius & impetuosity which we call Napoleon was incompatible with stoical calm & insensibility, so was the ardent mass of sensuousness & imagination which Kalidasa portrayed in Pururavus incompatible with the high austerity of religion. It is in the mouth of this champion of Heaven Kalidasa has placed one of the few explicit protests in Sanscrit of the ordinary sensuous man against the ascetic idealism of the old religion And yet I cannot think of her Created by a withered hermit cold. How could an aged anchoret dull & stale With poring over Scripture & oblivious To all this rapture of the senses build A thing so lovely? The minor male characters of the piece look too wan in the blaze of this great central figure to command much attention except as his adjuncts. As such the Charioteer, the Huntsman &

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the Chamberlain, Latavya, appear; the former two merely cross the stage and are only interesting for the shadow of tropical magnificence that their master’s personality has thrown over their mode of speech. In nothing does the delicacy & keen suavity of Kalidasa’s dramatic genius exhibit itself with a more constant & instinctive perfection than in his characterisation of women. He may sometimes not care to individualise his most unimportant male figures, but even the slightest of his women have some personality of their own, something which differentiates them from others & makes them better than mere names. Insight into feminine character is extraordinarily rare even among dramatists for whom one might think it to be a necessary element of their art. For the most part a poet represents with success only one or two unusual types known to him or in sympathy with his own temperament or those which are quite abnormal and therefore easily drawn; the latter are generally bad women, the Clytaemnestras, Vittoria Corombonas, Beatrice Joannas. The women of Vyasa & of Sophocles have all a family resemblance; all possess a quiet or commanding masculine strength of character which reveals their parentage. Other poets we see succeeding in a single feminine character & often repeating it but failing or not succeeding eminently in the rest. Otherwise women in poetry are generally painted very much from the outside. The poets who have had an instinctive insight into women, can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. Shakespeare in this as in other dramatic gifts is splendidly & unapproachably first or at least only equalled in depth though not in range by Valmekie; Racine has the same gift within his limits & Kalidasa without limits, though in this as in other respects he has not Shakespeare’s prodigal abundance and puissant variety. Other names I do not remember. There are a few poets who succeed with coarse easy types, but this is the fruit [of] observation rather than an unfailing intuitive gift. The Agnimitra is a drama of women; it passes within the women’s apartments and pleasure gardens of a great palace and is full of the rustling of women’s robes, the tinkling of their ornaments,

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the scent of their hair, the music of their voices. In the Urvasie where he needs at least half the canvas for his hero, the scope for feminine characterisation is of necessity greatly contracted, but what is left Kalidasa has filled in with a crowd of beautiful & shining figures & exquisite faces each of which is recognizable. These are the Opsaras and Urvasie the most beautiful of them all. To understand the poetry & appeal of these nymphs of heaven, we must know something of their origin & meaning. In the beginning of things, in the great wide spaces of Time when mankind as yet was young and the azure heavens & the interregions between the stars were full of the crowding figures of luminous Gods & gigantic Titans by the collision of whose activities the cosmos was taking form & shape, the opposing forces once made a truce and met in common action on the waves of the milky ocean. The object for which they had met could not have been fulfilled by the efforts of one side alone; good must mingle with evil, the ideal take sides with the real, the soul work in harmony with the senses, virtue & sin, heaven & earth & hell labour towards a common end before it can be accomplished; for this object was no less than to evolve all that is beautiful & sweet & incredible in life, all that makes it something more than mere existence; and in especial to realise immortality, that marvellous thought which has affected those even who disbelieve in it, with the idea of unending effort and thus lured men on from height to height, from progress to progress, until mere beast though he is in his body & his sensations, he has with the higher part of himself laid hold upon the most distant heavens. Therefore they stood by the shore of the milky Ocean and cast into it the mountain Mundara for a churning stick and wound round it Vasuqie, the Great Serpent, the snake of desire, for the rope of the churning and then they set to with a will, god & devil together, and churned the milky ocean, the ocean of spiritual existence, the ocean of imagination & aspiration, the ocean of all in man that is above the mere body and the mere life. They churned for century after century, for millennium upon millennium and yet there was no sign of the nectar of immortality. Only the milky ocean swirled & lashed & roared, like

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a thing tortured, and the snake Vasuqie in his anguish began to faint & hang down his numberless heads hissing with pain over the waves and from the lolling forked tongues a poison streamed out & mingled with the anguish of the ocean so that it became like a devastating fire. Never was poison so terrible for it contained in itself all the long horror & agony of the ages, all the pain of life, its tears & cruelty & despair & rage & madness, the darkness of disbelief & the grey pain of disillusionment, all the demoniac & brute beast that is in man, his lust & his tyranny & his evil joy in the sufferings of his fellows. Before that poison no creature could stand and the world began to shrivel in the heat of it. Then the Gods fled to Shankara where he abode in the ice and snow & the iron silence & inhuman solitudes of the mountains where the Ganges streams through his matted locks; for who could face the fire of that poison? who but the great ascetic Spirit clothed in ashes who knows not desire and sorrow, to whom terror is not terrible & grief has no sting, but who embraces grief & madness & despair and5 And now wonderful things began to arise from the Ocean; Ucchaisravus arose, neighing & tossing his mighty mane, he who can gallop over all space in one moment while hooves make music in the empyrean; Varunie arose, Venus Anadyomene from the waters, the daughter of Varuna, Venus Ourania, standing on a lotus & bringing beauty, delight and harmony & all opulence into the universe; Dhunwuntari arose, cup in hand, the physician of the Gods, who can heal all pain & disease & sorrow, minister to a mind diseased & pluck out from the bosom its rooted sorrow; the jewel Kaustubha arose whose pure luminousness fills all the world & worn on the bosom of the Saviour & helper becomes the cynosure of the suffering & striving nations;6 There is nothing more charming, more attractive in Kalidasa than his instinct for sweet & human beauty; everything he 5 Here there is an abrupt break in the text. — Ed. 6 Here there is another abrupt break with nothing to link this paragraph to what

follows. — Ed.

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touches becomes the inhabitant of a moonlit world of romance and yet — there is the unique gift, the consummate poetry — remains perfectly natural, perfectly near to us, perfectly human. Shelley’s Witch of Atlas & Keats’ Cynthia are certainly lovely creations, but they do not live; misty, shimmering, uncertain beings seen in some half dream when the moon is full and strange indefinable figures begin to come out from the skirts of the forest, they charm our imagination but our hearts take no interest in them. They are the creations of the mystic Celtic imagination with its singular intangibility, its fascinating otherworldliness. The Hindu has been always decried as a dreamer & mystic. There is truth in the charge but also a singular inaccuracy. The Hindu mind is in one sense the most concrete in the world; it seeks after abstractions, but is not satisfied with them so long as they remain abstractions. But to make the objects of this world concrete, to realise the things that are visited by sun & rain or are, at their most ethereal, sublimated figures of fine matter, that is comparatively easy, but the Hindu is not contented till he has seized things behind the sunlight also as concrete realities. He is passionate for the infinite, the unseen, the spiritual, but he will not rest satisfied with conceiving them, he insists on mapping the infinite, on seeing the unseen, on visualising the spiritual. The Celt throws his imagination into the infinite and is rewarded with beautiful phantoms out of which he evolves a pale, mystic and intangible poetry; the Hindu sends his heart & his intellect & eventually his whole being after his imagination and for his reward he has seen God and interpreted existence. It is this double aspect of Hindu temperament, extreme spirituality successfully attempting to work in harmony with extreme materialism, which is the secret of our religion, our life & our literature, our civilisation. On the one side we spiritualise the material out of all but a phenomenal & illusory existence, on the other we materialise the spiritual in the most definite & realistic forms; this is the secret of the high philosophic idealism which to the less capable European mind seems so impossible an intellectual atmosphere and of the prolific idolatry which to the dogmatic & formalising Christian reason seems so gross.

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In any other race-temperament this mental division would have split into two broadly disparate & opposing types whose action, reaction & attempts at compromise would have comprised the history of thought. In the myriad minded & undogmatic Hindu it worked not towards mental division but as the first discord which prepares for a consistent harmony; the best & most characteristic Hindu thought regards either tendency as essential to the perfect & subtle comprehension of existence; they are considered the positive & negative sides of one truth, & must both be grasped if we are not to rest in a half light. Hence the entire tolerance of the Hindu religion to all intellectual attitudes except sheer libertinism; hence also the marvellous perfection of graded thought-attitudes in which the Hindu mind travels between the sheer negative & the sheer positive and yet sees in them only a ladder of progressive & closely related steps rising through relative conceptions to one final & absolute knowledge. The intellectual temperament of a people determines the main character-stamp of its poetry. There is therefore no considerable poet in Sanscrit who has not the twofold impression, (spiritual & romantic in aim, our poetry is realistic in method), who does not keep his feet on the ground even while his eyes are with the clouds. The soaring lark who loses himself in light, the ineffectual angel beating his luminous wings in the void are not denizens of the Hindu plane of temperament. Hence the expectant critic will search ancient Hindu literature in vain for the poetry of mysticism; that is only to be found in recent Bengali poetry which has felt the influence of English models. The old Sanscrit poetry was never satisfied unless it could show colour, energy & definiteness, & these are things incompatible with true mysticism. Even the Upanishads which declare the phenomenal world to be unreal, yet have a rigidly practical aim and labour in every line to make the indefinite definite & the abstract concrete. But of all our great poets Kalidasa best exemplifies this twynatured Hindu temperament under the conditions of supreme artistic beauty & harmony. Being the most variously learn´ed of Hindu poets he draws into his net all our traditions, ideas, myths, imaginations, allegories; the grotesque

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& the trivial as well as the sublime or lovely; but touching them with his magic wand teaches them to live together in the harmonising atmosphere of his poetic temperament; under his touch the grotesque becomes strange, wild & romantic; the trivial refines into a dainty & gracious slightness; the sublime yields to the law of romance, acquires a mighty grace, a strong sweetness; and what was merely lovely attains power, energy & brilliant colour. His creations in fact live in a peculiar light, which is not the light that never was on sea or land but rather our ordinary sunshine recognisable though strangely & beautifully altered. The alteration is not real; rather our vision is affected by the recognition of something concealed by the sunbeams & yet the cause of the sunbeams; but it is plain human sunlight we see always. May we not say it is that luminousness behind the veil of this sunlight which is the heaven of Hindu imagination & in all Hindu work shines through it without overpowering it? Hindu poetry is the only Paradise in which the lion can lie down with the lamb. The personages of Kalidasa’s poetry are with but few exceptions gods & demigods or skiey spirits, but while they preserve a charm of wonder, sublimity or weirdness, they are brought onto our own plane of experience, their speech and thought & passion is human. This was the reason alleged by the late Bunkim Chundra Chatterji, himself a poet and a critic of fine & strong insight, for preferring the Birth of the War God to Paradise Lost; he thought that both epics were indeed literary epics of the same type, largely-planned and sublime in subject, diction and thought, but that the Hindu poem if less grandiose in its pitch had in a high degree the humanism and sweetness of simple & usual feeling in which the Paradise Lost is more often than not deficient. But the humanism of which I speak is not the Homeric naturalism; there is little of the sublime or romantic in the essence of the Homeric gods though there is much of both in a good many of their accidents & surroundings. But Kalidasa’s divine & semidivine personages lose none of their godhead by living on the plane of humanity. Perhaps the most exquisite masterpiece in this kind is the Cloud Messenger. The

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actors in that beautiful love-elegy might have been chosen by Shelley himself; they are two lovers of Faeryland, a cloud, rivers, mountains, the gods & demigods of air & hill & sky; the goal of the cloud’s journey is the ethereal city of Ullaca upon the golden hill crowned by the clouds and bathed at night in the unearthly moonlight that streams from the brow of Sheva, the mystic’s God. The earth is seen mainly as a wonderful panorama by one travelling on the wings of a cloud. Here are all the materials for one of those intangible harmonies of woven & luminous mist with which Shelley allures & baffles us. The personages & scenery are those of Queen Mab, Prometheus Unbound & the Witch of Atlas. But Kalidasa’s city in the mists is no evanescent city of sunlit clouds; it is his own beautiful & luxurious Ujjayini idealised & exempted from mortal affection; like a true Hindu he insists on translating the ideal into the terms of the familiar, sensuous & earthy. For death and birth keep not their mystic round In Ullaca; there from the deathless trees The blossom lapses never to the ground But lives for ever garrulous with bees All honey-drunk — nor yet its sweets resign. For ever in their girdling companies. etc.7 And when he comes to describe the sole mourner in that town of delight eternal & passion unsated, this is how he describes her.8 How human, how touching, how common it all is; while we read, we feel ourselves kin to & one with a more beautiful world than our own. These creatures of fancy hardly seem to be an imaginary race but rather ourselves removed from the sordidness & the coarse pains of our world into a more gracious existence. This, I think, is the essential attraction which makes his countrymen to this day feel such a passionnate delight in Kalidasa; after reading a poem of his the world and life and 7 The “etc.” indicates that Sri Aurobindo intended to quote more from his now-lost translation of The Cloud Messenger. — Ed. 8 Sri Aurobindo evidently intended to insert another passage from his translation of The Cloud Messenger here. — Ed.

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our fellow creatures human, animal or inanimate have become suddenly more beautiful & dear to us than they were before; the heart flows out towards birds & beasts and the very trees seem to be drawing us towards them with their branches as if with arms; the vain cloud & the senseless mountain are no longer senseless or empty, but friendly intelligences that have a voice to our souls. Our own common thoughts, feelings & passions have also become suddenly fair to us; they have received the sanction of beauty. And then through the passion of delight & the sense of life & of love in all beautiful objects we reach to the Mighty Spirit behind them whom our soul recognizes no longer as an object of knowledge or of worship but as her lover, to whom she must fly, leaving her husband the material life & braving the jeers & reprobation of the world for His sake. Thus by a singular paradox, one of those beautiful oxymorons of which the Hindu temperament is full, we reach God through the senses, just as our ancestors did through the intellect and through the emotions; for in the Hindu mind all roads lead eventually to the Rome of its longing, the dwelling of the Most High God. One can see how powerfully Kalidasa’s poetry must have prepared the national mind for the religion of the Puranas, the worship of Kali, Our Mother & of Srikrishna, of Vrindavun, our soul’s Paramour. Here indeed lies his chief claim to rank with Valmekie & Vyasa as one of our three national poets, in that he gathered the mind-life of the nation into his poetry at a great & critical moment and helped it forward into the groove down which it must henceforth run. This method is employed with conspicuous beauty & success in the Urvasie. The Opsaras are the most beautiful & romantic conception on the lesser plane of Hindu mythology. From the moment that they arose out of the waters of the milky Ocean robed in ethereal raiment & heavenly adornments, waking melody from a million lyres, the beauty and light of them has transformed the world. They crowd in the sunbeams, they flash & gleam over heaven in the lightnings, they make the azure beauty of the sky; they are the light of sunrise & sunset, and the haunting voices of forest & field. They dwell too in the life of

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the soul; for they are the ideal pursued by the poet through his lines, by the artist shaping his soul on his canvas, by the sculptor seeking a form in his marble; for the joy of their embrace the hero flings his life into the rushing torrent of battle; the sage, musing upon God, sees the shining of their limbs & falls from his white ideal. The delight of life, the beauty of things, the attraction of sensuous beauty, this is what the mystic & romantic side of the Hindu temperament strove to express in the Opsara. The original meaning is everywhere felt as a shining background, but most in the older allegories, especially the strange and romantic legend of Pururavus as we first have it in the Brahmanas and the Vishnupurana. But then came in the materialistic side of the Hindu mind and desired some familiar term, the earthlier the better, in which to phrase its romantic conception; this was found in — the Hetaira. The class of Hetairae was as recognized an element in Hindu society as in Greek, but it does not appear to have exercised quite so large an influence on social life. As in the Greek counterpart they were a specially learned and accomplished class of women, but their superiority over ladies of good families was not so pronounced; for in ancient India previous to the Mahomedan episode respectable women were not mere ignorant housewives like the Athenian ladies, they were educated though not in a formal manner; that is to say they went through no systematic training such as men had but parents were always expected to impart general culture & accomplishments to them by private tuition at home; singing, music, dancing and to some extent painting were the ordinary accomplishments, general knowledge of morality, Scripture and tradition was imperative, and sometimes the girls of highborn, wealthy or learned families received special instruction in philosophy or mathematics. Some indeed seem to have pursued a life of philosophic learning either as virgins or widows; but such instances were in preBuddhistic times very rare; the normal Hindu feeling has always been that the sphere of woman is in the home and her life incomplete unless merged in her husband’s. In any case the majority of the kulabadhus, women of respectable families, could hardly

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be more than amateurs in the arts & sciences, whereas with the Hetairae (Gunicas) such accomplishments were pursued and mastered as a profession. Hence beside their ordinary occupation of singing & dancing in the temples & on great public occasions such as coronations & holy days, they often commanded the irregular affections of highborn or wealthy men who led openly a double life at home with the wife, outside with the Hetaira. As a class, they held no mean place in society; for they must not be confused with the strolling actor or mountebank caste who were a proverb for their vileness of morals. Many of them, no doubt, as will inevitably happen when the restraints of society are not recognized, led loose, immoral & sensual lives; in such a class Lais & Phryne must be as common as Aspasia. Nevertheless the higher & intellectual element seems to have prevailed; those who arrogated freedom in their sexual relations but were not prostitutes, are admirably portrayed in Vasunts´ena of the Toy Cart, a beautiful melodrama drawn straight from the life; like her they often exchanged, with the consent of their lover’s family, the unveiled face of the Hetaira for the seclusion of the wife. This class both in its higher & lower type lasted late into the present century, but are now under the auspices of Western civilisation almost entirely replaced by a growing class of professional prostitutes, an inevitable consummation which it seems hardly worth while to dub social reform & accelerate by an active crusade. The Opsaras then are the divine Hetairae of Paradise, beautiful singers & actresses whose beauty and art relieve the arduous & worldlong struggle of the Gods against the forces that tend towards disruption & dissolution, of disruption represented by the Titans who would restore matter to its original atomic condition or of dissolution by the sages & hermits who would make phenomena dissolve prematurely into the One who is above Phenomena. They rose from the Ocean, says Valmekie, seeking who should choose them as brides, but neither the Gods nor the Titans accepted them, therefore are they said to be common or universal.

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We see then the appropriateness of the Hetaira as a material form into which the vague idea of sensuous beauty in the world might run. For the charm of the Opsara even when working on the plane of the mind, is still vital & sensational; it does not belong to the more rarefied regions of the spirit. Now vital & sensational charm in seeking its fulfilment demands that the pursuit of sensuous beauty shall be its sole object, that it shall be without check as without any sideglance or afterthought; it does not seek to be immoral, but simply rejects all moral tests; it recognizes no law but the fulfilment of its own being. This is the very spirit of the Hetaira. The beauty of nakedness sculptured, painted or shaped into words, is not immoral; but the moment we apply the test of morality, it becomes clear that we must either rule it out as not belonging to the world of morality, or rule out morality itself for the moment as not belonging to the world of beauty, which is essentially a world of nakedness in the sense that dress there is an occasional ornament, not a necessary covering — not because there is any essential opposition between them but because there is no essential connection or necessary point of contact. The ideals of all the plastic & sensuous arts fall within the scope of the Opsara; she is actress, songstress, musician, painter. When they arose from the waves, neither the gods nor the demons accepted them; accepted by none, they became common to all; for neither the great active faculties of man nor the great destructive recognize sensuous delight & charm as their constant & sufficient mistress, but rather as the joy & refreshment of an hour, an accompaniment or diversion in their constant pursuit of the recognized ideal to which they are wedded. Moreover sensuous beauty has a certain attraction & splendour which seem to some minds finally & occasionally to most, fairer & brighter than that other ideal which by daily occupation with it, by permissibility & by sameness, grows stale for some, fades into homeliness & routine for others & preserves its real undying, unageing and unforsakeable freshness & delight only to the few constant & unswerving souls, who are the elect of our human evolution. In all this the idea of the Opsara coincides with the actuality of the Hetaira. In choosing the Hetaira therefore for the

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Opsara’s earthly similitude, the Hindu mind showed once more that wonderful mythopoeic penetrativeness which is as unerring & admirable in its way as the Greek mythopoeic felicity & tact. But in the Opsaras the beauty and allurements of the sensuous universe are diffused, scattered, broken up into a million facets just as they first present themselves to human observation. The Hindu imagination needed some one figure into which all this should be compressed, a figure essential & superlative, compressed & running over with beauty. This was at first sought in Tilottama, the wonderful maiden to whose loveableness every gracious thing in the world gave a portion of its own subtlest charm; but this was too much of a fancy, not sufficiently profound & searching for the Hindu mind. It attempted to find a more perfect expression of its idea & created for the purpose a characteristic & therefore favourite legend. When Naraian, the primeval and dateless sage of old, entered upon austerities in the most secret & desolate recesses of the Snowy Mountains, Indra, prince of the air, always hostile to asceticism, always distrustful of the philosophic & contemplative spirit, was alarmed for the balance of the world and the security of his own rule. He therefore sent the Opsaras to disturb the meditations of Naraian. Then upon the desolate Himalaya Spring set the beauty of his feet; the warm south wind breathed upon those inclement heights, blossoming trees grew in the eternal snow and the voice of the cuckoo was heard upon the mountain tops. It was amidst this vernal sweetness that the Opsaras came to Naraian; they were the loveliest of all the sisterhood who came, & subtlest & most alluring of feminine arts & enchantments was the way of their wooing; but Naraian, who is Vishnu the World Saviour when he comes in the guise of the ascetic, moved neither by the passion of love nor by the passion of anger, smiled in the large & indulgent mood of his world embracing nature and opening his thigh took from it a radiant and marvellous creature of whose beauty the loveliest Opsaras seemed but pale & broken reflections. Ashamed they

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veiled their faces & stole silently away from the snowy hermitage. But Naraian called this daughter of his creation Urvasie (she who lies in the thigh of the Supreme, the thigh being the seat of sensuousness) and gave her to Indra to be his most potent defence against the austerities of spiritual longing. The legend is characteristic of the Hindu mythopoeic faculty both in its slight and unpretentious build and in the number of searching & suggestive thoughts with which it is packed. Indra is the universal cosmic energy limited in the terrestrial forces of conservation; like all active & conservative forces he distrusts the contemplative spirit of philosophy because it is disruptive and tends to cast thought & therefore life into solution towards the creation of fresh forms. Thus he is besieged by a double anxiety; on one side the spirits entrusted with the work of destruction & anarchy are ever endeavouring to seat themselves in the place of Indra, the high conserving force, on the other he dreads to be dethroned by some embodiment of the contemplative spirit, examining, analysing, synthetising new forms. His method of defence against the former is usually though by no means invariably open warfare, against the latter sensuous seduction. He tempts the mind of the philosopher to sacrifice that aloofness from ordinary sensuous life & its average delights on which his perfect effectiveness depends; or if he cannot succeed in this, to move him to an angry and abhorrent recoil from sensuousness which is equally fatal to complete philosophic efficiency. This then is the inwardness of the sending of the Opsaras by Indra. Naraian conquers the temptation, not by ignoring or repelling it, but by producing out of the sensuous in himself a lovelier sensuousness than any that can be brought to tempt him. Here is a peculiarity in the highest Indian conception of ascetism. The sage who delivers the world by his philosophy must not be a half nature; he must contain the whole world in himself. It is told that the great Shankaracharya in the midst of his triumphant religious activity had to turn aside and learn by personal experience the delights of sensuous life and the love of women, because the defect of this experience left him maimed for his philosophic

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task. The philosopher must be superior to sensuousness not because he is incapable of experiencing passion & delight, but because he has fathomed their utmost depth and measured their utmost reach, and far passed the stage of soul-evolution where they can satisfy. And yet the work of the philosophic mind incidentally serves sensuous and material life by increasing its resources and the depth of its charm. For the power of the philosophic ideals which have profoundly affected humanity is not limited to the domain of the intellect but also affects, enlarges and strengthens man’s aesthetic outlook upon the world. The sensuous world becomes fuller of beauty, richer in colours, shades and suggestions, more profound and attractive with each widening of the human ideal. It is Urvasie who sprang from the thigh of the withered hermit cold and not any of those original daughters of the inconstant waves who is the loveliest and most dangerous of the Opsaras. Such then is Urvasie, Naraian born, the brightness of sunlight & the blush of the dawn, the multitudinous laughter of the sea, the glory of the skies and the leap of the lightning, all in brief that is bright, far-off, unseizable & compellingly attractive in this world; all too that is wonderful, sweet to the taste & intoxicating in human beauty, human life, the joy of human passion & emotion: all finally that seizes, masters & carries away in art, poetry, thought & knowledge, is involved in this one name. Of these outward brilliances Kalidasa’s conception of Urvasie is entirely void. His presentation of her is simply that of a beautiful and radiant woman deeply in love. Certainly the glories of her skiey residence, the far-off luminousness and the free breath of the winds are about her, but they are her atmosphere rather than part of herself. The essential idea of her is a natural, frank & charming womanliness; timidity, a quick temper, a harmless petulance and engaging childishness afterwards giving way to a matronly sedateness & bloom, swift, innocent & frank passion, warm affections as mother, sister & friend, speech

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always straight from the heart, the precise elements in fact that give their greatest charm to ideal girlhood & womanhood are the main tones that compose her picture. There is nothing here of the stately pace & formal dignity of the goddess, no cothurnus raising her above human stature, no mask petrifying the simple & natural play of the feelings, the smile in the eyes, the ready tears, the sweetness of the mouth, the lowered lashes, the quick and easy gesture full of spontaneous charm. If this is a nymph of heaven, one thinks, then heaven must be beautifully like the earth. Her terror & collapse in the episode of her abduction & rescue, where Chitraleqha manages pretty successfully to keep up her courage as a goddess should, is certainly not Opsaralike — Chitraleqha with sisterly impatience expresses her sense of that, “Fie, sweet! thou art no Opsara” — but it is nevertheless attractively human and seizes our sympathies for her from the outset. Still more engaging is her timidity. There is also a sensitiveness in her love, a quickness to take alarm & despond which makes her very human. If this is jealousy, it is a quick & generous jealousy having nothing in it of “jealous baseness”, but rather born of a panic of timidity and an extreme diffidence & ignorance of the power of her own beauty. This detail is very carefully observed & emphasized as if Kalidasa wished to take especial pains to prevent even the most hidebound commentator from reading in her character any touch of the heavenly courtesan. The ostentatious splendours, the conscious allurements of the courtesan are not here, but rather a divine simplicity and white candour of soul. It is from an innate purity & openness that the frankness & impulsiveness of her love proceeds. Incapable of disguise, hastily open, even tremulously playful at times, she is easily dashed in her advances & quick to distrust her own merit. There are few more graceful touches in lighter love-drama than her hasty appearance, unconsciously invisible, before Pururavus, and her panic of dismay when he takes no notice of her. In the same scene, her half playful, half serious selfjustification on embracing her lover and her immediate abashed silence at his retort, portray admirably the mixture of frank impulsiveness and shy timidity proper to her character. These

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are the little magic half-noticeable touches of which Kalidasian characterisation is mainly composed, the hundred significant trifles which Kalidasa’s refined taste in life felt to be the essence of character in action. A shade of wilfulness, the occasional childlike petulance, the delighted abandonment of herself to her passion, which are part of her charm, proceed also from the same surface lightness & quickness of a deep & strong nature. With all this she can be very sweet and noble too, even dignified as in a few utterances of the Third Act, her reunion with Pururavus in the fourth and all through the fifth where she is wife and mother and while losing the girlishness, petulance & playfulness of the earlier scenes has greatly deepened her charm. I see nothing of the heavenly courtesan which some over-precise commentators insist on finding in her; within the four corners of the play, which is all Kalidasa allows us to consider, she is wholly delightful, innocent, even modest, at any rate not immodest. Certainly she is more frank and playful in her love than Shacountala or even Malavica could venture to be, but something must be allowed to a goddess and her demeanour is too much flavoured with timidity, her advances too easily dashed to give any disagreeable impression of forwardness. Urvasie’s finest characteristic, however, is her sincerity in passion and affection. The poet has taken great pains to discharge her utterance of all appearance of splendour, ornament & superfluity; her simple, direct & earnest diction is at the opposite pole to the gorgeous imaginativeness of the Ilian. And while her manner of speech is always simple and ordinary, what she says is exactly the unstudied & obvious thing that a woman of no great parts, but natural and quick in her affections would spontaneously say under the circumstances; it is even surprisingly natural. For example when she sees Ayus fondled by Pururavus, “Who is this youth” she asks with the little inevitable undertone of half-jealousy “Himself my monarch binds his hair into a crest! Who should this be so highly favoured”; and then she notices Satyavatie & understands. But there is no poetical outburst of maternal joy & passion. “It is my Ayus! How he has grown!” That is all; & nothing could be better or truer. Yet for all the surface colourlessness there is a charm in

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everything Urvasie says, the charm of absolute sincerity & direct unaffected feeling. Her passion for Pururavus is wonderfully genuine and fine from her first cry of “O Titans! You did me kindness!” to her last of “O a sword is taken Out of my heart!” Whatever the mood its speech has always a tender force and reality. Her talk with Chitraleqha and the other Opsaras from the outburst “O sisters, sisters, take me to your bosoms” to her farewell “Chitraleqha, my sister! do not forget me”, is instinct, when moved, with “a passion of sisterliness” and at other times, bright & limpid in its fair kindness & confidence. To her son she comes “with her whole rapt gaze Grown mother, the veiled bosom heaving towards him And wet with sacred milk.” & her farewell to the Hermitess sets a model for the expression of genuine & tender friendship. Urvasie is doubtless not so noble & strong a portraiture as Shacountala, but she is inferior to no heroine of Sanscrit drama in beauty & sweetness of womanly nature. In dramatic tone and build therefore this is an admirable creation, but there is so far no hint of the worldwide divineness of Urvasie, of the goddess within the woman. In direct allegory Kalidasa was too skilful an artist to deal, but we expect the larger conception of this beautiful and significant figure to enter into or at least colour the dramatic conception of the woman; some pomp of words, some greatness of gesture, some large divinity whether of speech or look to raise her above a mere nymph, however charming, into the goddess we know. Yet in rigidly excluding the grandiose or the coloured Kalidasa has shown, I think, his usual unerring dramatic and psychological tact. Dramatically, to have made Pururavus & Urvasie equally romantic in spirit & diction, to have clothed both in the external purple of poetry, would have been to offend the eye with unrelieved gorgeousness and converted the play from an interesting & skilfully woven drama into a confused splendour of lyrical dialogue. Psychologically, the divinity and universal charm of Urvasie would have been defaced rather than brought out by investing her with grandeur of feeling or a pomp of poetic

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ornament. Perfect beauty has in it a double aspect, its intrinsic self and the impression it makes on the vivid & receptive mind. In itself it is simple, unconscious & unadorned, most effective when it is most naked, ceasing to be these, it loses its perfection and a great part of its universal charm. The nude human figure in painting and sculpture, unadorned magic or strength of style & conception in poetry, clear, luminous & comprehensive thought in philosophy, these are what the pursuing human spirit feels to be ideal, highest, most worthy of itself. Drapery blurs the effulgence of the goddess, ornament distracts the spirit and disappoints it of its engrossed and undisturbed sense of possession. On the other hand the mind while most moved by what is simple and natural in its appeal, is romantic in its method of receiving the impression; becoming engrossed and steeped with the idea of it, it directs to it and surrounds it with all the fresh impressions that continually flow in on the consciousness, gathers from it colour, fire & passion, creates around it a host of splendid associations and clothes it in the pomp of its own passionate imagery. The first period of a literary race when its mind is yet virgin & has to create beauty is invariably simple and classical, the last period when its mind is saturated and full of past beauty is always romantic and aesthetic. The relations of Urvasie & Pururavus are true to this psychological principle. She herself is mere beauty and charm sufficient to itself and commanding delight and worship because she is herself, not because of any graces of expression, imagination or intellectual profundity. But the mind of Pururavus receiving her pure and perfect image steeps her in its own fire and colour, surrounding her with a halo of pomp and glory, which reveals himself while seeking to interpret her. Minor Characters Nothing more certainly distinguishes the dramatic artist from the poet who has trespassed into drama than the careful pain he devotes to his minor characters. To the artist nothing is small; he bestows as much of his art within the narrow limit of his small

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characters as within the wide compass of his greatest. Shakespeare lavishes life upon his minor characters, but in Shakespeare it is the result of an abounding creative energy; he makes living men, as God made the world, because he could not help it, because it was in his nature and must out. But Kalidasa’s dramatic gift, always suave and keen, had not this godlike abundance; it is therefore well to note the persistence of this feature of high art in all his dramas. In the Urvasie the noble figure of Queen Aushinarie is the most striking evidence of his fine artistry, but even slight sketches like the Opsaras are seen upon close attention to be portrayed with a subtle & discriminating design; thought has been bestowed on each word they speak, an observable delicacy of various touch shows itself in each tone & gesture they employ. A number of shining figures crowded into a corner of the canvas, like in meaning, like in situation, like in nature, they seem to offer the very narrowest scope for differentiation; yet every face varies just a little from its sister, the diction of each tongue has its revealing individuality. The timid, warmhearted Rumbha, easily despondent, full of quick outbursts of eagerness and tenderness is other than the statelier Menaca with her royal gift of speech and her high confidence. Sahajunya is of an intenser, more silent, less imaginative, more practical type than either of these. It is she who gives Pururavus the information of the road which the ravisher has taken, and from that point onward amid all the anxious and tender chatter of her sisters she is silent until she has the practical fact of Pururavus’ reappearance to seize upon. This she is again the first to descry and announce. Her utterance is brief, of great point & substance. From the few words she has uttered we unconsciously receive a deep impression of helpfulness, earnestness and strength; we know her voice and are ready [to] recognise it again in the Fourth Act. Her attitude there is characteristic; since help she cannot, she will not waste time over vain lamentation; Fate has divided the lovers, Fate will unite them again; so with a cheerful & noble word of consolation she turns to the immediate work in hand. Chitraleqha, more fortunate than the other Opsaras in obtaining through three acts a large canvas as the favourite and

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comrade of Urvasie, suffers dramatically from her good fortune, for she must necessarily appear a little indistinct so near to the superior light of her companion. Indeed dramatic necessity demands subdued tones in her portraiture lest she should deflect attention from Urvasie where it is her task to attract it to her; she must be always the cloud’s dim legion that prepares us to watch for the lightning. Richness of colour & prominence of line are therefore not permissible; yet in spite of these hampering conditions the poet has made her a sufficiently definite personality. Indeed her indulgent affection, her playful kindliness, her little outbreaks of loving impatience or sage advice, — the neglect of which she takes in excellent part — her continual smiling surrender to Urvasie’s petulance & wilfulness and her whole half matron-like air of elder-sisterly protection, give her a very sensible charm and attractiveness; there is a true nymphlike & divine grace, tact & felicity in all that she says & does. Outside the group of Opsaras the Hermitess Satyavatie is a slighter but equally attractive figure, venerable, kind, a little impersonal owing to the self-restraint which is her vocation, but with glimpses through it of a fine motherliness and friendliness. The perpetual grace of humanness, which is so eminently Kalidasian, forming the atmosphere of all his plays, seems to deepen with a peculiar beauty around his ascetics, Kunwa, Satyavatie, the learned & unfortunate lady of the Malavica. The “little rogue of a tiringwoman” Nipounica, sly & smoothtongued, though with no real harm in her beyond a delight in her own slyness and a fine sense of exhilaration in the midst of a family row, pleasantly brings up the rear of these slighter feminine personalities. The masculine sketches are drawn in more unobtrusive outlines and, after Kalidasa’s manner, less individualized than his women. The Charioteer & the Huntsmen are indeed hardly distinct figures; they have but a few lines to utter between them and are only remarkable for the shadow of the purple which continual association with Pururavus has cast over their manner of speech. The Chamberlain again, fine as he is in his staid melancholy, his aged fidelity, his worn-out and decrepit venerableness and that continual suggestion of the sorrowfulness of grey hairs, is still

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mainly the fine Kalidasian version of a conventional dramatic figure. The one touch that gives him a personal humanity is the sad resignation of his “It is your will, Sire” when Pururavus, about to depart to asceticism in the forests, commands the investiture of his son. For it is the last & crowning misfortune that the weary old man must bear; the master over whose youth & greatness he has watched, for whose sake he serves in his old age, with the events of whose reign all the memories of his life are bound up, is about to depart and a youthful stranger will sit in his place. With that change all meaning must go out of the old man’s existence; but with a pathetic fidelity of resignation he goes out to do his master’s last bidding uttering his daily formula, — how changed in its newly acquired pathos from the old pompous formality “It is your will, Sire.” Manavaca & Ayus need a larger mention, yet they are less interesting in themselves than for their place, one in the history of Kalidasa’s artistic development, the other among the finest evidences of his delicacy in portraiture & the scrupulous economy, almost miserliness, with which he extracts its utmost artistic utility, possibility, value from each detail of his drama. The age of childhood, its charm and sportive grace and candour, seems to have had a peculiar charm for Kalidasa’s imagination; there is an exquisite light and freshness of morning and dew about his children; an added felicity of touch, of easy and radiant truth in his dramatic presentation. Vasuluxmie in the Malavica does not even appear on the stage, yet in that urbane & gracious work there is nothing more charming than her two fateful irruptions into the action of the play. They bring up a picture of the laughing, lighthearted and innocent child, which remains with us as vividly as the most carefully-drawn character in the piece. The scene of the child playing with the lion’s cub in the Shacountala has the same inevitable charm; ninety-one poets out of a hundred would have hopelessly bungled it, but in Kalidasa’s hands it becomes so admirably lifelike and spontaneous that it seems as natural as if the child were playing with a kitten. Kalidasa’s marvellous modesty of dramatic effect and power

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of reproducing ordinary hardly observable speech, gesture and action magicalising but not falsifying them saves him from that embarrassment which most poets feel in dealing dramatically with children. Even Shakespeare disappoints us. This great poet with his rich & complex mind usually finds it difficult to attune himself again to the simplicity, irresponsibility & naive charm of childhood. Arthur, whom the Shakespeare-worshipper would have us regard as a masterpiece, is no real child; he is too voulu, too eloquent, too much dressed up for pathos and too conscious of the fine sentimental pose he strikes. Children do pose & children do sentimentalise, but they are perfectly naive and unconscious about it; they pose with sincerity, they sentimentalise with a sort of passionate simplicity, indeed an earnest businesslikeness which is so sincere that it does not even require an audience. The greatest minds have their limitations and Shakespeare’s overabounding wit shut him out from two Paradises, the mind of a child and the heart of a mother. Constance, the pathetic mother, is a fitting pendant to Arthur, the pathetic child, as insincere and falsely drawn a portraiture, as obviously dressed up for the part. Indeed throughout the meagre and mostly unsympathetic list of mothers in Shakespeare’s otherwise various & splendid gallery there is not even one in whose speech there is the throbbing of a mother’s heart; the sacred beauty of maternity is touched upon in a phrase or two; but from Shakespeare we expect something more, some perfect & passionate enshrining of the most engrossing & selfless of human affections. And to this there is not even an approach. In this one respect the Indian poet, perhaps from the superior depth and keenness of the domestic feelings peculiar to his nation, has outstripped his greater English compeer. Kalidasa like Shakespeare seems to have realised the paternal instinct of tenderness far more strongly than the maternal; his works both dramatic and epic give us many powerful & emotional expressions of the love of father & child to which there are few corresponding outbursts of maternal feeling. Valmekie’s Cowshalya has no parallel in Kalidasa. Yet he expresses the true

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sentiment of motherhood with sweetness & truth if not with passion. Ayus & Urvasie in this play were certainly not intended for the dramatic picture of mother & child; this mother has abandoned her child to the care of strangers; this child is new to the faces of his parents. Such a situation might easily have been made harsh and unsympathetic but for the fine dramatic tact of the poet which has purified it from everything that might repel and smoothed away all the angles of the incident. But here the circumstances excuse if not justify Urvasie. Acting under hard conditions, she has chosen the lesser of two evils; for by keeping Ayus, she would have lost both her child and Pururavus; by delivering him into wise and tender hands she has insured his welfare & for her part only anticipated the long parting which the rule of education in ancient India demanded from parents as their sacrifice to the social ideal. Knowing that the child was in good hands she solaces herself with the love of her husband, but it is not from maternal insensibility that she bears quietly the starvation of the mother within her. When he returns to her, there is a wonderful subdued intensity characteristic of her simple & fine nature in the force with which that suppressed passion awakes to life. She approaches her son, wordless, but her veiled bosom heaves towards him and is “wet with sacred milk”; in her joy over him she forgets even that impending separation from the husband to avert which she has sacrificed the embrace of his infancy. It is this circumstance, not any words, that testifies to the depth of her maternal feeling; her character forbids her to express it in splendours of poetic emotion such as well spontaneously from the heart of Pururavus. A look, a few ordinary words are all; if it were not for these & the observation of others, we should have to live with her daily before we could realise the depth of feeling behind her silence. Ayus himself is an admirable bit of dramatic craftsmanship. There is a certain critical age when the growing boy is a child on one side of his nature and a young man on the other, and of all psychological states such periods of transitional unstable

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equilibrium are the most difficult to render dramatically without making the character either a confused blur or an illjoined piece of carpenter’s work. Here Kalidasa excels. He has the ready tact of speech gradations, the power of simple & telling slightness that can alone meet the difficulty. By an unlaboured and inevitable device the necessary materials are provided. The boy comes straight from the wild green & ascetic forest into the luxurious splendours of an Oriental court and the presence of a father and mother whom he has never seen; a more trying situation could not easily be imagined; he inevitably becomes self-conscious, embarrassed, burdened with the necessity of maintaining himself against the oppressions of his surroundings. He attempts therefore to disguise his youthful nervousness behind the usual shield of an overdone & formal dignity, a half unconscious pompousness and an air of playing the man. We are even aware of a slight touch of precocity not unbecoming in one who has been put through the “complete education of a prince” by the mightiest scholar and sage of his time. Confronted with all these new faces making claims upon him to which his past consciousness is an alien, the whole adult side of his nature turns uppermost. But fortunately for our comprehension of his true state of mind, something of the green forest which is his home has come with him in the person of his fostermother, Satyavatie. With her he feels as a child may feel with his mother. When he turns to her or speaks to her, he is again and instinctively in manner, utterance and action the child who ran by her side clutching the skirts of her dress in the free woodland. He speaks like a child, thinks like a child, acts docilely at her bidding like a child. Nothing could be more finely artistic in execution or more charmingly faithful to nature in its conception. Manavaca on the other hand is an element of weakness rather than of strength. I have already spoken of the progressive attenuation of the traditional buffoon part which keeps pace with Kalidasa’s dramatic development. Gautama in the Malavica is a complete and living personality who has much to say to the action of the plot; witty, mischievous, mendacious & irresponsible

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he adds to the interest of the play even independently of this functional importance. But in the Urvasie to have made the main action of the plot turn in any way on the buffoon would have been incongruous with the high romantic beauty of the drama and therefore a serious dramatic error. The function of Manavaca is accordingly reduced to that of an interlocutor; he is there because Pururavus must have somebody to confide in & talk with, otherwise his only dramatic purpose is to give rise by his carelessness to the episode of Aushinarie’s jealousy & selfsubdual. Nevertheless his presence affects the composite tone of the picture. He is other than the buffoons of the Malavica & Shacountala, far more coarse in the grain, far less talented & highspirited than Gautama, yet not a mere stupid block like [Mandhavya]. He has along with the stock characteristics of gluttony, ugliness & cowardice, an occasional coarse humour, infertile & broad, and even a real gift of commonsense and rather cynical practicality, to say nothing of that shadow of the purple flung across the speech of all those who associate habitually with Pururavus; he is at the same time low in mind, unable to understand characters higher than his own. His best virtue is perhaps his absence of all pretensions & readiness to make a gibe of himself. Such a figure necessarily tends to set off by its drab colour & squat dimensions the lyric idealism of Pururavus, the radiant charm of Urvasie & the pale loftiness of the Queen. But it is by his place in the picture and not by what he is in himself that he justifies his existence. He does not attract or interest, indeed he at times only just escapes being tiresome. At the same time he lives. Among all these minor figures who group themselves around the two protagonists and are of purely accessory interest there is one who stands out and compels the eye both by her nobler proportions and her independent personality. Queen Aushinarie has no real claim by any essentiality in her actions to the large space she occupies in the play; her jealousy does not retard and her renunciation sanctifies rather than assists the course of Pururavus’ love for Urvasie. The whole episode in which she figures fits more loosely into the architecture of the piece than can be

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exampled elsewhere in Kalidasa’s dramatic workmanship. The interest of her personality justifies the insertion of the episode rather than the episode that justifies the not inconsiderable space devoted to her. The motif of her appearance is the same conventional element of wifely rivalry, the jealousy of the rose-in-bloom against the rose-in-bud that has formed the whole groundwork of the Malavica. There the groundwork, here its interest is brief and episodical. And yet none of the more elaborated figures in the earlier play, not even Dharinie herself, is as fine and deep a conception as the wife of Pururavus. Princess of Kashie and daughter of the Ushenors, acknowledged by her rival to deserve by right of her noble majesty of fairness “the style of Goddess and of Empress,” we feel that she has a right to resent the preference to her even of an Opsara from heaven and the completeness of Pururavus’ absorption in Urvasie gives a tragic significance to her loss which is not involved in the lighter loves & jealousies of Videsha. The character is more profoundly & boldly conceived. The passion of her love strikes deeper than the mere heyday of youth and beauty and the senses in Iravatie as the noble sadness of her self-renunciation moves more powerfully than the kind & gentle wifeliness of Queen Dharinie. And in the manner of her delineation there is more incisiveness and restraint with a nobler economy of touch. The rush of her jealousy comes with less of a storm than Iravatie’s but it has a fierier & keener edge and it is felt to be the disguise of a deep and mighty love. The passion of that love leaps out in the bitter irony of her self-accusal Not yours the guilt, my lord. I am in fault Who force my hated and unwelcome face Upon you. and again when in the very height of her legitimate resentment she has the sure consciousness of her after-repentance. And yet the terror Of the remorse I know that I shall feel If I spurn his kindness, frightens me. Anger for the time sweeps her away, but we are prepared for her

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repentance and sacrifice in the next act. Even in her anger she has been imperially strong & restrained and much of the poetic force of her renunciation comes from the perfect sweetness, dignity & self-control with which she acts in that scene. The emotion of self-sacrificing love breaks out only once at the half sneering reproach of the buffoon Dull fool! I with the death of my own happiness Would give my husband ease. From this consider How dearly I love him. Putting gently but sorrowfully away from her the King’s halfsincere protestations of abiding love, she goes out of the drama, a pure, devoted & noble nature, clad in gracious white “and sylvanly adorned with flowers, her raven tresses spangled with young green Of sacred grass”; but the fragrance of her flowers of sacrifice and the mild beauty of the moonlight remain behind her. She does not reappear unless it is in the haste of Urvasie to bring her recovered child to his “elder mother”. This haste with its implied fulness of gratitude & affection is one of Kalidasa’s careful side touches telling us better than words that in spirit & letter she has fulfilled utterly the vow she made on the moonlit terrace under seal of The divine wife & husband, Rohinnie And Mrigolanchon named the spotted moon. The deepening of moral perception, the increase in power & pathos, the greater largeness of drawing and finer emotional strength and restraint show the advance Kalidasa has made in dramatic characterisation. Grace, sweetness, truth to life and character, perfect & delicate workmanship, all that reveals the presence of the artist were his before; but the Urvasie reveals a riper & larger genius widening its scope, raising mightier vans before yet it take its last high and surpassing flight.

The Spirit of the Times The life & personality of Kalidasa, the epoch in which he lived and wrote, the development of his poetical genius as evidenced by the order of his works, are all lost in a thick cloud of uncertainty and oblivion. It was once thought an established fact that he lived & wrote in the 6t.h. century at the court of Harsha Vikramaditya, the Conqueror of the Scythians. That position is now much assailed, and some would place him in the third or fourth century; others see ground to follow popular tradition in making him a contemporary of Virgil, if not of Lucretius. The exact date matters little. It is enough that we find in Kalidasa’s poetry the richest bloom and perfect expression of the long classical afternoon of Indian civilisation. The soul of an age is mirrored in this single mind. It was an age when the Indian world after seeking God through the spirit and through action turned to seek Him through the activity of the senses, an age therefore of infinite life, colour and splendour, an age of brilliant painting and architecture, wide learning, complex culture, developing sciences; an age of great empires and luxurious courts and cities; an age, above all, in which the physical beauty and grace of woman dominated the minds and imaginations of men. The spirit of the times pulses through all Kalidasa’s poetry. His pages are often ablaze with its light & colour, often pregnant, sometimes indeed overweighted with its rich and manifold learning, its keen pleasure in every phase and aspect of life fills them with a various vividness and infinite richness of matter. Language & verse thrill with the rustling of woman’s raiment, the heavy scent of her cosmetics, the tinkling and lustre of her ornaments; they are sinuous with the swaying grace of her motion or subtle with the delicate charm of her ways and words; the beauty & pleasure of her body possesses & besieges the poet’s

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imagination. And behind the luxurious ease and sensuousness of court life we hear the clash of arms and glimpse the great & energetic motions of statesmanship and diplomacy. The variety of his genius specially fits Kalidasa for the interpretation of a rich & complex national life. From pages heavy with the obsession of the senses, the delight of the eye and the lust of the flesh we turn to others sweet and gracious with the virgin purity of the woodlands; the same poem which gives us a glowing picture of the luxurious voluptuousness of courts gives us also the sternest philosophy and the most vigorous expression of the noble, aspiring morality proper to an active and heroic age. His wonderful visualising power turns whole cantos into a series of almost physically vivid pictures. All his senses are on the alert, his ear for music and the sweetness of words and laughter, thunder, the cries of birds; his sense of smell for the scent of flowers, incense, the perfumes in women’s attire, his sense of touch for every tactual pleasure, his mind for all subtlety of knowledge and all possible delicacies, richnesses, grandeurs in the world of thought. He will miss nothing; lose no joy of sense or intellect, throw away no chance of feeling himself alive. And he has the touch of the perfect artist, turning all he handles to gold. Among his achievements we number the most exquisite, tender and delicately lovely of romantic dramas; the most varied and splendid panorama of human life; the noblest & most grandiose epic of our classical literature; and its one matchless poem of passionate love and descriptive beauty. In Europe the Shacountala is the one poem of Kalidasa universally known and appreciated. In India the Cloud has gone even nearer home to the national imagination. For this there is good reason. It is, essentially and above all, the poem of India, the poem of the country, its soil and its scenes, its thoughts & its atmosphere. No one who has not lived the life of India, till it has become part of his breathing and woven in with every thread of his imagination, can fully appreciate the poem. If one does not know the charm of its hills, the scent of its flowers, the beauty of its skies, [the] flowing sacredness of its rivers with all the phases & emotions of an Indian river’s life, if one cannot distinguish

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& thrill to the touch of its various winds, if one cannot clothe its local places with ancient historic & mythical association or people them with the strange host of beautiful & weird figures & faces which the imagination of its people has created, if one does not recreate for himself the ancient splendours of its cities, the sense of peace & infinity in its temples & hermitages and the simple sweetness of its rural life, for him the Meghaduta offers only its shell. But all these, everything that is redolent of India, the visible, material, sensuous India has been fused and poured into one perfect mould by the genius of this supreme artist. And then as if more utterly to ensnare the imagination of his race, after showing them the beautiful scenes, sights, sounds, scents, the sacred & cherished places, the historic cities of their country as they are — or alas as they were — he lifts these cherished things into a magic world, bathes them in an immortal beauty. Ullaca, the city without death, is but Kalidasa’s beloved Ujjaini taken up into the clouds & transformed into a seat of ideal bliss & loveliness. In the same moment he strikes straight home at one of the most deepseated feelings in human nature, its repining at the shortness of life & the more tragic shortness of youth, and imaginative dream of an eternal beauty, youth & joy. These he satisfies and turns from a source of unrest into a new source of pleasure & joy, showing himself the great poet as well as the delicate artist. The human interest which gives the breath of life to the poem, is exquisitely treated. A faery attendant of Cuvere, God of Wealth, banished for a year from his home & wife sends his imagination travelling on the wings of the northward-bound cloud over the sacred places, the great cities & rivers of India to the snowbound Himaloy and the homes of the Gods. There his mind sees his wife, breathes to her all its sorrow & longing and prays for an answering message. The love described may not be on the highest altitudes, but it is utterly real & human, full of enduring warmth, tenderness & passion, of strife & joy, tears & kisses, the daily food of love.

On Translating Kalidasa Since the different tribes of the human Babel began to study each other’s literatures, the problem of poetical translation has constantly defied the earnest experimenter. There have been brilliant versions, successful falsifications, honest renderings, but some few lyrics apart a successful translation there has not been. Yet it cannot be that a form of effort so earnestly & persistently pursued and so necessary to the perfection of culture and advance of civilisation, is the vain pursuit of a chimera. Nothing which mankind earnestly attempts is impossible, not even the conversion of copper into gold or the discovery of the elixir of life or the power of aerial motion; but so long as experiment proceeds on mistaken lines, based on a mistaken conception of the very elements of the problem, it must necessarily fail. Man may go on fashioning wings for himself for ever but they will never lift him into the empyrean: the essence of the problem is to conquer the attraction of the earth which cannot be done by any material means. Poetical translation was long dominated by the superstition that the visible word is the chief factor in language and the unit which must be seized on as a basis in rendering; the result is seen in so-called translations which reproduce the sense of the original faultlessly & yet put us into an atmosphere which we at once recognize to be quite alien to the atmosphere of the original; we say then that the rendering is a faithful one or a success of esteem or a makeshift or a caput mortuum according to the nature of our predilections and the measure of our urbanity. The nineteenth century has been the first to recognize generally that there is a spirit behind the word & dominating the word which eludes the “faithful” translator and that it is more important to get at the spirit of a poet than his exact sense. But after its manner it has contented itself with the generalisation and not attempted to discover the lines on which the generalisation must

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be crystallised into practice, its extent & its limitations. Every translator has been a law to himself; and the result is anarchic confusion. As the sole tangible benefit there has been discovered a new art not yet perfected of translation into prose poetry. Such translation has many advantages; it allows the translator to avail himself of manifold delicacies of rhythm without undergoing the labour of verse formation and to compromise with the orthodox superstition by rendering the word unit yet with some show of preserving the original flavour. But even in the best of these translations it is little more than a beautiful show. Poetry can only be translated by poetry and verse forms by verse forms. It remains to approach the task of translation in a less haphazard spirit, to realise our essential aim, to define exactly what elements in poetry demand rendering, how far & by what law of equivalent values each may be rendered and if all cannot be reproduced, which of them may in each particular case be sacrificed without injuring the essential worth of the translation. Most of the translations of Kalidasa here offered to the public have been written after the translator had arrived at such a definite account with himself and in conscientious conformity to its results. Others done while he yet saw his goal no more than dimly and was blindly working his way to the final solution, may not be so satisfactory. I do not pretend that I have myself arrived at the right method; but I am certain that reasoned & thoughtful attempts of this sort can alone lead to it. Now that nations are turning away from the study of the great classical languages to physical & practical science and resorting even to modern languages, if for literature at all then for contemporary literature, it is imperative that the ennobling influences spiritual, romantic & imaginative of the old tongues should be popularised in modern speech; otherwise the modern world, vain of its fancied superiority & limiting itself more & more to its own type of ideas with no opportunity of saving immersions in the past & recreative destructions of the present, will soon petrify & perish in the mould of a rigid realism & materialism. Among their influences the beauty & power of their secular & religious poetry is perhaps the most potent & formative.

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The choice of meter is the first & most pregnant question that meets a translator. With the growth of Alexandrianism and the diffusion of undigested learning, more & more frequent attempts are being made to reproduce in poetical versions the formal metre of the original. Such attempts rest on a fundamental misconception of the bases of poetry. In poetry as in all other phenomena it is spirit that is at work and form is merely the outward expression & instrument of the spirit. So far is this true that form itself only exists as a manifestation of spirit and has no independent being. When we speak of the Homeric hexameter, we are speaking of a certain balance [of] spiritual force called by us Homer working through emotion into the material shape of a fixed mould of rhythmical sound which obeys both in its limiting sameness & in its variations the law of the spirit within. The mere quantities are but the most mechanical & outward part of metre. A fanciful mind might draw a parallel between the elements of man & the elements of metre. Just as in man there is the outward food-plasm and within it the vital or sensational man conditioned by & conditioning the food-plasm & within the vital man the emotional or impressional man similarly related and again within that the intellectual man governing the others and again within that the delight of the spirit in its reasoning existence & within that delight like the moon within its halo the Spirit who is Lord of all these, the sitter in the chariot & the master of its driving, so in metre there is the quantitative or accentual arrangement which is its body, & within that body conditioning & conditioned by it the arrangement of pauses & sounds, such as assonance, alliteration, composition of related & varying letters, and again within it conditioning & conditioned by this sensational element & through it the mechanical element is the pure emotional movement of the verse and again within these understanding and guiding all three, bringing the element of restraint, management, subordination to a superior law of harmony, is the intellectual element, the driver of the chariot of sound; within this again is the poetic delight in the creation of

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harmonious sound, the august & disinterested pleasure of the really great poet which has nothing in it of frenzy or rather has the exultation & increased strength of frenzy without its loss of self-control; and within this even is the spirit, that unanalysable thing behind metre, style & diction which makes us feel “This is Homer, this is Shakespeare, this is Dante.” [All these are essential before really great verse can be produced; everyone knows that verse may scan well enough & yet be very poor verse; there may beyond this be skilful placings of pause & combinations of sound as in Tennyson’s blank verse, but the result is merely artificially elegant & skilful technique; if emotion movement is super-added, the result is melody, lyric sweetness or elegiac grace or flowing & sensuous beauty, as in Shelley, Keats, Gray, but the poet is not yet a master of great harmonies; for this intellect is necessary, a great mind seizing, manipulating & moulding all these by some higher law of harmony, the law of its own spirit. But such management is not possible without the august poetical delight of which I have spoken, and that again is but the outflow of the mighty spirit within, its sense of life & power & its pleasure in the use of that power with no ulterior motive beyond its own delight.]1 But just as the body of a man is also soul, has in each of its cells a separate portion of spirit, so it is with the mechanical form of a verse. The importance of metre arises from the fact that different arrangements of sound have different spiritual and emotional values, tend to produce that is to say by virtue of the fixed succession of sounds a fixed spiritual atmosphere & a given type of emotional exaltation & the mere creative power of sound though a material thing is yet near to spirit, is very great; great on the material & ascending in force through the moral & intellectual, culminating on the emotional plane. It is a factor of the first importance in music & poetry. In these different 1 Paragraph bracketed in the manuscript. Written at the end of the piece, it was apparently intended for insertion here. — Ed.

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arrangements of syllabic sound metre forms the most important, at least the most tangible element. Every poet who has sounded his own consciousness must be aware that management of metre is the gate of his inspiration and the law of his success. There is a double process, his state of mind and spirit suggesting its own syllabic measure, and the metre again confirming, prolonging and recreating the original state of mind and spirit. Inspiration itself seems hardly so much a matter of ideas or feeling as of rhythm. Even when the ideas or the feelings are active, they will not usually run into the right form, the words will not take their right places, the syllables will not fall into a natural harmony. But if one has or succeeds in awaking the right metrical mood, if the metrical form instead of being deliberately created, creates itself or becomes, a magical felicity of thought, diction & harmony attends it & seems even to be created by it. Ideas & words come rapidly & almost as rapidly take their right places as in a well ordered assembly where everyone knows his seat. When the metre comes right, everything else comes right; when the metre has to be created with effort, everything else has to be done with effort, and the result has to be worked on over & over again before it satisfies. This supreme importance of the metrical form might seem at first sight to justify the transplanters of metre. For if it be the aim of good translation to reproduce not merely the mechanical meanings of words, the corresponding verbal counters used in the rough & ready business of interlingual commerce, but to create the same spiritual, emotional & aesthetic effect as the original, the first condition is obviously to identify our spiritual condition, as far as may be, with that of the poet at the time when he wrote & then to embody the emotion in verse. This cannot be done without finding a metre which shall have the same spiritual and emotional value as the metre of the original. Even when one has been found, there will naturally be no success unless the mind of the translator has sufficient kinship, sufficient points of spiritual & emotional contact and a sufficient basis of common poetical powers not only to enter into but to render the spiritual temperament & the mood of that temperament,

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of which his text was the expression; hence a good poetical translation is the rarest thing in the world. Conversely even if all these requisites exist, they will not succeed to the full without the discovery of the right metre. Is the right metre then the metre of the original? Must an adequate version of Homer, a real translation, be couched in the hexameter? At first sight it would seem so. But the issue is here complicated by the hard fact that the same arrangement of quantities or of accents has very seldom the same spiritual & emotional value in two different languages. The hexameter in English, however skilfully managed, has not the same value as the Homeric, the English alexandrine does not render the French; terza rima in Latinised Saxon sounds entirely different from the noble movement of the Divina Commedia, the stiff German blank verse of Goethe & Schiller is not the golden Shakespearian harmony. It is not only that there are mechanical differences, a strongly accentuated language hopelessly varying from those which distribute accent evenly, or a language of ultimate accent like French from one of penultimate accent like Italian or initial accent like English, or one which courts elision from one which shuns it, a million grammatical & syllabic details besides, lead to fundamental differences of sound-notation. Beyond & beneath these outward differences is the essential soul of the language from which they arise, and which in its turn depends mainly upon the ethnological type always different in different countries because the mixture of different root races in two types even when they seem nearly related is never the same. The Swedish type for instance which is largely the same as the Norwegian is yet largely different, while the Danish generally classed in the same Scandinavian group differs radically from both. This is that curse of Babel, after all quite as much a blessing as a curse, which weighs upon no one so heavily as on the conscientious translator of poetry; for the prose translator being more concerned to render the precise idea than emotional effects and the subtle spiritual aura of poetry, treads an immeasurably smoother & more straightforward path. For some metres at least it seems impossible to find adequate equivalents in other languages. Why has there never been a real rendering of Homer

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in English? It is not the whole truth to say that no modern can put himself back imaginatively into the half-savage Homeric period; a mind with a sufficient basis of primitive sympathies & sufficient power of imaginative self-control to subdue for a time the modern in him may conceivably be found. But the main, the insuperable obstacle is that no one has ever found or been able to create an English metre with the same spiritual & emotional equivalent as Homer’s marvellous hexameters. That transmetrisation is a false method, is therefore clear. The translator’s only resource is to steep himself in the original, quelling that in him which conflicts with its spirit, and remain on the watch for the proper metrical mood in himself. Sometimes the right metre will come to him, sometimes it will not. In the latter case effort in this direction will not have been entirely wasted; for spirit, when one gives it a chance, is always stronger than matter & he will be able to impose something of the desired spiritual atmosphere even upon an unsuitable metrical form. But if he seize on the right metre, he has every chance, supposing him poetically empowered, of creating a translation which shall not only be classical, but shall be the translation. Wilful choice of metre is always fatal. William Morris’ Homeric translation failed hopelessly partly because of his affected “Anglosaxon” diction, but still more because he chose to apply a metre good enough possibly for the Volsungasaga to the rendering of a far more mighty & complex spirit. On the other hand Fitzgerald might have produced a very beautiful version in English had he chosen for his Rubaiyat some ordinary English metre, but his unique success was his reward for discovering the true equivalent of the quatrain in English. One need only imagine to oneself the difference if Fitzgerald had chosen the ordinary English quatrain instead of the rhyme system of his original. His Rubaiyat in spite of the serious defect of unfaithfulness will remain the final version of Omar in English, not to be superseded by more faithful renderings, excluding therefore the contingency of a superior poetical genius employing the same metre for a fuller & closer translation. In Kalidasa another very serious difficulty over & beyond

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the usual pitfalls meets the unhappy translator. Few great Sanscrit poems employ the same metre throughout. In the dramas where metrical form is only used when the thought, image or emotion rises above the ordinary level, the poet employs whatever metre he thinks suitable to the mood he is in. In English however such a method would result in opera rather than in drama. I have therefore thought it best, taking into consideration the poetical feeling & harmonious flow of Kalidasa’s prose, to use blank verse throughout varying its pitch according as the original form is metrical or prose & the emotion or imagery more or less exalted. In epic work the licence of metrical variation is not quite so great; yet there are several metres considered apt to epic narrative & Kalidasa varies them without scruple in different cantos, sometimes even in the same canto. If blank verse be, as I believe it is, a fair equivalent for the anustubh, the ordinary epic metre, how shall one find others which shall correspond as well to the “Indra’s thunderbolt sloka”, the “lesser Indra’s thunderbolt sloka”, the “gambolling of the tiger sloka” and all those other wonderful & grandiose rhythmic structures with fascinating names of which Kalidasa is so mighty a master? Nor would such variation be tolerated by English canons of taste. In the epic & drama the translator is driven to a compromise and therefore to that extent a failure; he may infuse good poems or plays reproducing the architecture & idea-sense of Kalidasa with something of his spirit; but it is a version & not a translation. It is only when he comes to the Cloud Messenger that he is free of this difficulty; for the Cloud Messenger is written throughout in a single & consistent stanza. This Mandakranta or “gently stepping” stanza is entirely quantitative and too complicated to be rendered into any corresponding accentual form. The arrangement of metrical divisions is as follows: spondee-long, dactyl, tribrach, two spondee-shorts, spondee; four lines of this build make up the stanza. Thus    





¯ ¯ . purya ¯ ¯ . ah ¯.| |te madhu|ramani|laih. k¯ıca|kah |man s´ abdayan   





˙ samsakt a¯ |bhis tripu|ravija|yo g¯ıya|te kinna|r¯ıbhih., |

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¯ | ¯ nirhradas |te mura|ja iva | cet kanda|res.u dhva|nih. syat 

¯ |tho nanu | pas´ upa|tes tatra | bhav¯ ¯ ı sa|magrah.. | ˙ ıtar sang¯ In casting about for a metre I was only certain of one thing that neither blank verse nor the royal quatrain would serve my purpose; the one has not the necessary basis of recurring harmonies; in the other the recurrence is too rigid, sharply defined & unvarying to represent the eternal swell and surge of Kalidasa’s stanza. Fortunately by an inspiration, & without deliberate choice, Kalidasa’s lines as I began turning them flowed or slipped into the form of triple rhyme and that necessarily suggested the terza rima. This metre, as I have treated it, seems to me to reproduce with as much accuracy as the difference between the languages allows, the spiritual & emotional atmosphere of the Cloud Messenger. The terza rima in English lends itself naturally to the principle of variation in recurrence, which imparts so singular a charm to this poem, recurrence in especial of certain words, images, assonances, harmonies, but recurrence always with a difference so as to keep one note sounding through the whole performance underneath its various harmony. In terza rima the triple rhyme immensely helps this effect, for it allows of the same common rhymes recurring but usually with a difference in one or more of their company. It is a common opinion that terza rima does not suit the English language and cannot therefore be naturalised, that it must always remain an exotic. This seems to me a fallacy. Any metre capable of accentual representation in harmony with the accentual law of the English language, can be naturalised in English. If it has not yet been done, we must attribute it to some initial error of conception. Byron & Shelley failed because they wanted to create the same effect with this instrument as Dante had done; but terza rima in English can never have the same effect as in Italian. In the one it is a metre of woven harmonies suitable to noble & intellectual narrative; in the other it can only be a metre of woven melodies suitable to beautiful description or elegiac sweetness. To occasional magnificences or sublimities it lends itself admirably, but I should doubt whether it could even

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in the strongest hands sustain the burden of a long & noble epic of the soul & mind like the Divina Commedia. But it is not true that it cannot be made in English a perfectly natural, effective & musical form. It is certainly surprising that Shelley with his instinct for melody, did not perceive the conditions of the problem. His lyric metres & within certain limitations his blank verse are always fine, so fine that if the matter & manner were equal to the melody, he would have been one of the few great poets instead of one of the many who have just missed being great. But his Triumph of Life is a metrical failure. We feel that the poet is aiming at a metrical effect which he has not accomplished. The second question, but a far simpler one, is the use of rhyme. It may be objected that as in the Sanscrit there is no rhyme, the introduction of this element into the English version would disturb the closeness of the spiritual equivalent by the intrusion of a foreign ornament. But this is to argue from a quantitative to an accentual language, which is always a mistake. There are certain effects easily created within the rich quantitative variety of ancient languages, of which an equivalent in English can only be found by the aid of rhyme. No competent critic would declare Tennyson’s absurd experiment in Boadicea an equivalent to the rushing, stumbling & leaping metre of the Attis with its singular & rare effects. A proper equivalent would only be found in some rhymed system and preferably I should fancy in some system of unusually related but intricate & closely recurring rhymes. Swinburne might have done it; for Swinburne’s work, though with few exceptions poor work as poetry, is a marvellous repertory of successful metrical experiments. I have already indicated the appropriateness of the triple rhyme system of the terza rima to the Cloud Messenger. English is certainly not a language of easy rhyming like the southern tongues of Europe; but given in the poet a copious command of words and a natural swing and felicity, laeta rather than curiosa, it is amply enough provided for any ordinary call upon its resources. There are however two critical superstitions which seriously interfere with the naturalness & ease rhymed poetry

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demands, the superstition of the perfect rhyme and the superstition of the original rhyme. It is no objection to a rhyme that it is imperfect. There is nothing occult or cryptic in rhyme, no divine law compelling us to assimilate two rhymed endings to the very letter such as the law of the V´edic chant by which a single letter mispronounced sterilizes the mantra. Rhyme is a convenience and an ornament intended to serve certain artistic purposes, to create certain sound-effects, and if the effect of a perfect rhyme is beautiful, melodious and satisfying, an imperfect rhyme has sometimes its own finer effect far more subtle, haunting and suggestive; by limiting the satisfaction of the ear, it sets a new chord vibrating in the soul. A poem with an excessive proportion of imperfect rhymes is unsatisfactory, because it would not satisfy the natural human craving for regularity & order; but the slavish use of perfect rhymes only would be still more inartistic because it would not satisfy the natural human craving for liberty & variety. In this respect and in a hundred others the disabilities of the English language have been its blessings; the artistic labour & the opportunity for calling a subtler harmony out of discord have given its best poetical literature a force & power quite out of proportion to the natural abilities of the race. There are of course limits to every departure from rigidity but the degree of imperfection admissible in a rhyme is very great so long as it does not evolve harshness or vulgarism. Mr.s. Browning’s rhymes are bad in this respect, but why? Because “tyrants” & “silence” is no rhyme at all, while “candles” & “angels” involves a hideous vulgarism; and in less glaring instances the law of double rhymes generally requiring closer correspondence than single is totally disregarded. The right use of imperfect rhymes is not to be forbidden because of occasional abuse. It is also no objection to a rhyme that it is “hackneyed”. A hackneyed thought, a hackneyed phrase there may be, but a hackneyed rhyme seems to me a contradiction in terms. Rhyme is no part of the intellectual warp & woof of a poem, but a pure ornament the only object of which is to assist the soul with beauty; it appeals to the soul not through the intellect or imagination but through the ear. Now the oldest & most often used rhymes are generally the most

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beautiful and we ought not to sacrifice that beauty merely out of an unreasoning impatience of what is old. Common rhymes have a wonderful charm of their own and come to us laden with a thousand beautiful associations. The pursuit of mere originality can only lead us to such unpardonable extravagances as “haunches stir” & “Manchester”. Such rhymes any poet can multiply who chooses to prostitute his genius to the amusement of the gallery, or is sufficiently unpoetic to prefer the freedom of barbarous uncouthness to that self-denial which is the secret of grace & beauty. On the other hand if we pursue originality & beauty together, we end in preciosity or an artificial grace, and what are these but the spirit of Poetry lifting her wings to abandon that land and that literature for a long season or sometimes for ever? Unusual & peculiar rhymes demand to be sparingly used & always for the definite object of setting in relief common rhymes rather than for the sake of their own strangeness. The question of metre and rhymes being satisfactorily settled there comes the crucial question of fidelity, on which every translator has to make his own choice at his own peril. On one side is the danger of sacrificing the spirit to the letter, on the other the charge of writing a paraphrase or a poem of one’s own under the cloak of translation. Here as elsewhere it seems to me that rigid rules are out of place. What we have to keep in mind is not any rigid law, but the object with which we are translating. If we merely want to render, to acquaint foreign peoples with the ideas & subject matter of the writer, as literal a rendering as idiom will allow, will do our business. If we wish to give a poetical version, to clothe the general sense & spirit of the writer in our own words, paraphrase & unfaithfulness become permissible; the writer has not intended to translate and it is idle to criticise him with reference to an ideal he never entertained. But the ideal of a translation is something different from either of these. The translator seeks first to place the mind of the reader in the same spiritual atmosphere as the original; he seeks next to produce in him the same emotions & the same kind of poetical delight and aesthetic gratification, and lastly he seeks to convey to him the thought of the poet & substance in such words as will create,

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as far as may be, the same or a similar train of associations, the same pictures or the same sensuous impressions. This is an ideal to which one can never do more than approximate; but the nearer one approximates to it, the better the translation. How it shall be done, depends upon the judgment, the sympathetic instinct of the poet, the extent to which he is imbued with the associations of both languages and can render not merely word by word but shade by shade, not only signification by signification, but suggestion by suggestion. There is one initial stumbling block which can never be quite got over; the mythology, fauna & flora of Indian literature are absolutely alien to Europe. (We are in a different world; this is no peaceful English world of field or garden & woodland with the cheerful song of the thrush or the redbreast, the nightingale warbling in the night by some small & quiet river, the lark soaring in the morning to the pale blue skies; no country of deep snows & light suns & homely toil without spiritual presences save the borrowed fancies of the Greeks or shadowy metaphysical imaginations of the poet’s brain that haunt thought’s aery wildernesses, no people homely [and] matter of fact, never rising far above earth or sinking far below it. We have instead a mother of gigantic rivers, huge sombre forests and mountains whose lower slopes climb above the clouds;2 the roar of the wild beasts fills those forests & the cry of innumerable birds peoples those rivers; & in their midst lives a people who have soared into the highest heavens of the spirit, experienced the grandest & most illimitable thoughts possible to the intellect & sounded the utmost depths of sensuous indulgence; so fierce is the pulse of life that even trees & inanimate things seem to have life, emotions, a real & passionate history and over all move mighty presences of gods & spirits who are still real to the consciousness of the people.) The life & surroundings in which Indian poetry moves cannot be rendered in the terms of English poetry. Yet to give up 2 An alternative version reads, after “forests”:

under a burning sun or a magical moonlight;

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the problem and content oneself with tumbling out the warm, throbbing Indian word to shiver & starve in the inclement atmosphere of the English language seems to me not only an act of literary inhumanity & a poorspirited confession of failure, but a piece of laziness likely to defeat its own object. An English reader can gather no picture from & associate no idea of beauty with these outlandish terms. What can he understand when he is told that the atimukta creeper is flowering in the grove of k´esara trees and the mullica or the [ ] is sending out its fragrance into the night and the chocrovaque is complaining to his mate amid the still ripples of the river that flows through the jambous? Or how does it help him to know that the scarlet mouth of a woman is like the red bimba fruit or the crimson bandhoul flower? People who know Sanscrit seem to imagine that because these words have colour & meaning & beauty to them, they must also convey the same associations to their reader. This is a natural but deplorable mistake; this jargon is merely a disfigurement in English poetry. The cultured may read their work in spite of the jargon out of the unlimited intellectual curiosity natural to culture; the half-cultured may read it because of the jargon out of the ingrained tendency of the half-cultured mind to delight in what is at once unintelligible & inartistic. But their work can neither be a thing of permanent beauty nor serve a really useful object; & work which is neither immortal nor useful what self-respecting man would knowingly go out of his way to do? Difficulties are after all given us in order that we may brace our sinews by surmounting them; the greater the difficulty, the greater our chance of the very highest success. I can only point out rather sketchily how I have myself thought it best to meet the difficulty; a detailed discussion would require a separate volume. In the first place a certain concession may be made but within very narrow & guarded limits to the need for local colour; a few names of trees, flowers, birds etc. may be transliterated into English, but only when they do not look hopelessly outlandish in that form or else have a liquid or haunting beauty of sound; a similar indulgence may be yet more freely permitted in the transliteration of mythological names. But here

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the licence ends; a too liberal use of it would entirely destroy the ideal of translation; what is perfectly familiar in the original language must not seem entirely alien to the foreign audience; there must be a certain toning down of strangeness, an attempt to bring home the association to the foreign intelligence, to give at least some idea to a cultured but not Orientally erudite mind. This may be done in many ways & I have availed myself of all. A word may be rendered by some neologism which will help to convey any prominent characteristic or idea associated with the thing it expresses; blossom o’ ruby may, for instance, render bandhoula, a flower which is always mentioned for its redness. Or else the word itself may be dropped & the characteristic brought into prominence; for instance instead of saying that a woman is lipped like a ripe bimba, it is, I think, a fair translation to write “Her scarlet mouth is a ripe fruit & red.” This device of expressingly declaring the characteristics which the original only mentions, I have frequently employed in the Cloud Messenger, even when equivalent words exist in English, because many objects known in both countries are yet familiar & full of common associations to the Indian mind while to the English they are rare, exotic and slightly associated or only with one particular & often accidental characteristic.3 A kindred method especially with mythological allusions is to explain fully what in the original is implicit; Kalidasa for instance compares a huge dark cloud striding northwards from Crouncharundhra to “the dark foot of Vishnu lifted in impetuous act to quell Bali”, ¯ ¯ ¯ s´ yamah baliniyamanabhyudyatasyeva vis.n.oh.. This I have . pado translated 3 The following passage was written in the top margins of these pages of the

manuscript. Its place of insertion was not indicated: It is an unfortunate tendency of the English mind to seize on what seems to it grotesque or ungainly in an unfamiliar object; thus the elephant & peacock have become almost impossible in English poetry, because the one is associated with lumbering heaviness & the other with absurd strutting. The tendency of the Hindu mind on the other hand is to seize on what is pleasing & beautiful in all things & even to see a charm where the English mind sees a deformity & to extract poetry & grace out of the ugly. The classical instances are the immortal verses in which Valmekie by a storm of beautiful & costly images & epithets has immortalised the hump of Manthara & the still more immortal passage in which he has made the tail of a monkey epic.

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It will be at once objected that this is not translation, but the most licentious paraphrase. This is not so if my original contention be granted that the business of poetical translation is to reproduce not the exact words but the exact image, associations & poetical beauty & flavour of the original. There is not a single word in the translation I have instanced which does not represent something at once suggested to the Indian reader by the words of the text. Vishnu is nothing to the English reader but some monstrous & bizarre Hindu idol; to the Hindu He is God Himself; the word is therefore more correctly represented in English by “highest ¯ ¯ . is closely represented by God” than by Vishnu; s´ yamah . padah “dark like the cloudy foot”, the word cloudy being necessary both to point the simile which is not so apparent & natural to the English reader as to the Indian and to define the precise sort ¯ of darkness indicated by the term s´ yamah . ; Bali has no meaning or association in English, but in the Sanscrit it represents the same idea as “Titan”; only the particular name recalls a certain theosophic legend which is a household word to the Hindu, that of the dwarf-Vishnu who obtained from the Titan Bali as much land as he could cover with three steps, then filling the whole world with himself with one stride measured the earth, with another the heavens and with the third placing his foot on the head of Bali thrust him down into bottomless Hell. All this immediately arises before the mental eye of the Hindu as he reads Kalidasa’s finely chosen words. The impetuous & vigorous term abhyudyatasya both in sound & sense suggests the sudden starting up of the world-pervading deity from the dwarf shape he had assumed while the comparison to the cloud reminds him that the second step of the three is referred to, that of Vishnu striding “through heaven.” But to the English reader the words of Kalidasa literally transliterated would be a mere artificial conceit devoid of the original sublimity. It is the inability to seize the associations & precise poetical force of Sanscrit words that

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has led so many European Sanscritists to describe the poetry of Kalidasa which is hardly surpassed for truth, bold directness & native beauty & grandeur as the artificial poetry of an artificial period. A literal translation would only spread this erroneous impression to the general reader. It must be admitted that in the opposite method one of Kalidasa’s finest characteristics is, it is true, entirely lost, his power of expressing by a single simple direct & sufficient word ideas & pictures of the utmost grandeur or shaded complexity; but this is a characteristic which could in no case be possible in any language but the classical Sanscrit which Kalidasa did more than any man to create or at least to perfect. Even the utmost literalness could not transfer this characteristic into English. This method of eliciting all the ideavalues of the original of which I have given a rather extreme instance, I have applied with great frequency where a pregnant mythological allusion or a strong or subtle picture or image calls for adequate representation; more especially perhaps in pictures or images connected with birds & animals unfamiliar or but slightly familiar to the English reader. (At the same time I must plead guilty to occasional excesses, to reading into Kalidasa perhaps in a dozen instances what is not there. I can only plead in apology that translators are always incorrigible sinners in this respect and that I have sinned less than others; moreover except in one or two instances these additions have always been suggested either by the sound or substance of the original. I may instance the line A flickering line of fireflies seen in sleep, Kalidasa says nothing equivalent to or suggesting “seen in sleep”, but I had to render somehow the impression of night & dim unreality created by the dreamy movement & whispering assonances of the lines ¯ ¯ m ˙ alpalpabh asa ¯ ıvilasitanibha¯ m ˙ vidyudunmes.adr.s.t.im khadyotal¯ with their soft dentals & their wavering & gliding liquids and sibilants. Unable to do this by sound I sought to do it by verbal

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expression; and in so far made a confession of incompetence, but in a way that may perhaps carry its own pardon.) There is yet another method which has to be applied far more cautiously, but is sometimes indispensable. Occasionally it is necessary or at least advisable to discard the original image altogether and replace it by a more intelligible English image. There is no commoner subject of allusion in Sanscrit poetry than the passionate monotoned threnody of the forlorn bird who is divided at night by some mysterious law from his mate, divided if by a single lotus leaf, yet fatally divided. Such at least was the belief suggested by its cry at night to the imaginative Aryans. Nothing can exceed the beauty, pathos & power with which this allusion is employed by Kalidasa. Hear for instance Pururavus as he seeks for his lost Urvasie Thou wild drake when thy love, Her body hidden by a lotus-leaf, Lurks near thee in the pool, deemest her far And wailest musically to the flowers A wild deep dirge. Such is thy conjugal Yearning, thy terror such of even a little Division from her nearness. Me thus afflicted, Me so forlorn thou art averse to bless With just a little tidings of my love. And again in the Shacountala, the lovers are thus gracefully warned O Chocrovaque, sob farewell to thy mate. The night, the night comes down to part you. Fable as it is, one who has steeped himself in Hindu poetry can never bring himself wholly to disbelieve it. For him the melancholy call of the bird will sound for ever across the chill dividing stream & make musical with pity the huge and solemn night. But when the Yaksha says to the cloud that he will recognize her who is his second life by her sweet rare speech and her loneliness in that city of happy lovers “sole like a lonely Chocrovaque with me her comrade far away”, the simile has no

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pathos to an English mind and even when explained would only seem “an artificiality common to the court-poetry of the Sanscrit age”. I have therefore thought myself justified by the slightness of the allusion in translating “Sole like a widowed bird when all the nests Are making”, which translates the idea & the emotion while suggesting a slightly different but related image. I have indicated above the main principles by which I have guided myself in the task of translation. But there still remains the question, whether while preserving the ideals one may not still adhere more or less closely to the text. The answer to this is that such closeness is imperative, but it must be a closeness of word-value, not merely of word-meaning; into this wordvalue there enter the elements of association, sound and aesthetic beauty. If these are not translated, the word is not translated, however correct the rendering may be. For instance the words ¯ . and jala in Sanscrit all mean water, but if jala may salila, apah be fairly represented by the common English word & the more ¯ . by “waters” or “ocean” according to the context, poetic apah what will represent the beautiful suggestions of grace, brightness, softness & clearness which accompany salila? Here it is obvious that we have to seek refuge in sound suggestions & verse-subtleties to do what is not feasible by verbal rendering. Everything therefore depends on the skill & felicity of the translator and he must be judged rather by the accuracy with which he renders the emotional & aesthetic value of each expression than brought to a rigid [accounting] for each word in the original. Moreover the idiom of Sanscrit, especially of classical Sanscrit, is too far divided from the idiom of English. Literal translation from the Greek is possible though sometimes disastrous, but literal translation from the Sanscrit is impossible. There is indeed a school endowed with more valour than discretion and more metaphor than sense who condemn the dressing up of the Aryan beauty in English clothes and therefore demand that not only should the exact words be kept, but the exact idiom. For instance they would perpetrate the following: “Covering with lashes water-heavy from anguish, her eye gone to meet from former pleasantness the nectar-cool lattice-path-entered feet of

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the moon and then at once turned away, like a land-lotus-plant on a cloudy day not awake, not sleeping.” Now quite apart from the execrable English & the want of rhythm, the succession of the actions and the connexions of thought which are made admirably clear in the Sanscrit by the mere order of the words, is here entirely obscured & lost; moreover the poetic significance ¯ of the words pr¯ıtya¯ (pleasantness) and sabhre, implying here rain as well as cloud and the beautiful force of salilagurubhih. (waterheavy) are not even hinted at; while the meaning & application of the simile quite apparent in the original needs bringing out in the English. For the purpose of immediate comparison I give here my own version. “The moon-beams.”4 This I maintain though not literal is almost as close and meets without overstepping all the requirements of good translation. For the better illustration of the method, I prefer however to quote a more typical stanza. ´ ¯ ¯ . puryam ¯ ¯ . ah ¯ ., Sabd ayante madhuram anilaih. k¯ıcakah an ˙ ¯ Samsakt abhis tripuravijayo g¯ıyate kinnar¯ıbhih.; ¯ ¯ Nirhradas te muraja iva cet kandares.u dhvanih. syat, ˙ ıtartho ¯ ¯ ı samagrah.. Sang¯ nanu pa´supates tatra bhav¯ Rendered into [literal English] this is “The bamboos filling with the winds are noising sweetly, the Tripour-conquest is being sung by the glued-together Kinnaries; if thy thunder should be in the glens like the sound on a drum the material of the concert of the Beast-Lord is to be complete there, eh?” My own translation runs Of Tripour slain in lovely dances joined And link`ed troops the Oreads of the hill Are singing and inspired with rushing wind Sweet is the noise of bamboos fluting shrill; Thou thundering in the mountain-glens with cry Of drums shouldst the sublime orchestra fill. 4 Sri Aurobindo apparently intended to transcribe a passage from his now-lost translation here. — Ed.

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“Of Tripour slain are singing” (tripuravijayo g¯ıyate) requires little comment. The word tripura means the “three cities” [and] refers to the three material qualities of rajas, sattva & tamas, light, passion & darkness, which have to be slain by Sheva the emancipator before the soul can rejoin God; but there is no reference here to the theosophic basis of the legend, but purely to the legend itself, the conquest of the demon Tripoura by Mahadeva. There was no means of avoiding the mythological allusion & its ˙ ¯ unfamiliarity had simply to be accepted. Samsakt abhih . , meaning “linked close together in an uninterrupted chain”, is here rendered by “joined in link`ed troops”; but this hardly satisfies the requirement of poetic translation, for the term suggests to an Indian a very common practice which does not, I think, exist in Europe, women taking each other’s hands and dancing as they sing, generally in a circle; to express this in English, so as to create the same picture as the Sanscrit conveys, it was necessary to add “in lovely dances”. The word Kinnaries presents a serious initial difficulty. The Purana mythologising partly from false etymology has turned these Kinnars into men & women with horsefaces & this description has been copied down into all Sanscrit dictionaries, but the Kinnaries of Valmekie had little resemblance with these Puranic grotesques; they are beings of superhuman beauty, unearthly sweetness of voice & wild freedom who seldom appear on the earth, their home is in the mountains & in the skies; he speaks of a young Kinnar snared & bound by men & the mother wailing over her offspring; and Kekayie lying on the ground in her passion of grief & anger is compared to a Kinnarie fallen from the skies. In all probability they were at first a fugitive image of the strange wild voices of the wind galloping and crying in the mountaintops. The idea of speed would then suggest the idea of galloping horses and by the usual principle of Puranic allegory, which was intellectual rather than artistic, the head, the most prominent & essential member of the human body, would be chosen as the seat of the symbol. Kalidasa had in this as in many other instances to take the Puranic allegorisation of the old poetic figure and new-subject it to the law of artistic beauty. In no case does he depart from the Puranic conception, but his

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method is to suppress the ungainly elements of the idea, often preserving it only in an epithet, and bring into prominence all the elements of beauty. Here the horsefaces are entirely suppressed & the picture offered is that of women singing with unearthly voices on the mountain-tops. The use of the word Kinnarie here would have no poetic propriety; to the uninstructed it would mean nothing and to the instructed would suggest only the ungainly horseface which Kalidasa here ignores and conflict with the idea of wild & divine melody which is emphasized. I have therefore translated “the Oreads of the hills”; these spirits of the mountains are the only image in English which can at all render the idea of beauty & vague strangeness here implied; at the same time I have used the apparently tautologous enlargement “of the hills” because it was necessary to give some idea of the distant, wild & mystic which the Greek Oreads does not in itself quite bring out. I have moreover transposed the two lines in translation for very obvious reasons. The first line demands still more careful translation. The ¯ word s´ abdayante means literally “sound, make a noise,” but unlike its English rendering it is a rare word used by Kalidasa for the sake of a certain effect of sound and a certain shade of signification; while therefore rendering by “noise” I have added the epithet “shrill” to bring it up to the required value. Again ¯ ¯ . ah ¯ . cannot be rendered by its the force & sound of puryam an literal rendering “filled” and anila, one of the many beautiful ¯ & significant Sanscrit words for wind, — vayu, anila, pavana, ¯ ˜ ¯ sam¯ıra, sam¯ıran.a, vata, prabhanjana, marut, sadagati, — suggests powerfully the breath and flowing of wind & is in the Upanishad used as equivalent to prana, the breath or emotional soul; to render adequately the word “inspired” has been preferred to “filled” and the epithet “rushing” added to “wind”. ¯ . puryam ¯ ¯ . ah ¯ . anilaih. in the original suggests at once K¯ıcakah an the sound of the flute, because the flute is in India made of the ¯ . assists the hollow bamboo & the shrillness of the word k¯ıcakah suggestion; in English it was necessary to define the metaphor. The last two lines of the stanza have been rendered with great closeness except for the omission of nanu and the substitution of

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the epithet “sublime” for pa´supates. Nanu is a Sanscrit particle which sometimes asks a rhetorical question but more often suggests one answered; the delicate shades suggested by the Sanscrit particles cannot be represented in English or only by gross effects which would be intolerably excessive & rhetorical. The omission of Pasupati, the name of Sheva as the Lord of Wildlife, though not necessary, is I think justified. He is sufficiently suggested by the last stanza & to those who understand the allusion, by the reference to Tripoura; the object of suggesting the wild & sublime which is served in Sanscrit by introducing this name, is equally served in English by the general atmosphere of wild remoteness & the insertion of the epithet “sublime”. This analysis of a single stanza, ex uno disce omnes, will be enough to show the essential fidelity which underlies the apparent freedom of my translation. At the same time it would be disingenuous to deny that in at least a dozen places of each poem, — more perhaps in the longer ones — I have slipped into words & touches which have no justification in the original. This is a literary offence which is always condemnable and always committed. In mitigation of judgment I can only say that it has been done rarely and that the superfluous word or touch is never out of harmony with or unsuggested by the original; it has sprung out of the text and not been foisted upon it. I may instance the line5 The remarks I have made apply to all the translations but more especially to the Cloud Messenger. In the drama except in highly poetical passages I have more often than not sacrificed subtlety in order to preserve the directness & incisiveness of the Sanscrit, qualities of great importance to dramatic writing, and in the epic to the dread of diffuseness which would ruin the noble harmony of the original. But the Cloud Messenger demands rather than shuns the careful & subtle rendering of every effect of phrase, sound & association. The Meghaduta of Kalidasa is the most marvellously perfect descriptive and elegiac poem 5 Sri Aurobindo did not write the line he intended to “instance” in his manuscript.

— Ed.

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in the world’s literature. Every possible beauty of phrase, every possible beauty of sound, every grace of literary association, every source of imaginative & sensuous beauty has been woven together into an harmony which is without rival & without fault; for amidst all its wealth of colour, delicacy & sweetness, there is not a word too much or too little, no false note, no excessive or defective touch; the colouring is just & subdued in its richness, the verse movement regular in its variety, the diction simple in its suggestiveness, the emotion convincing & fervent behind a certain high restraint, the imagery precise, right & helpful, not overdone as in the Raghuvansa & yet quite as full of beauty & power. The Shacountala and the Cloud Messenger are the ne plus ultra of Hindu poetic art. Such a poem asks for & repays the utmost pains a translator can give it; it demands all the wealth of word & sound effect, all the power of literary beauty, of imaginative & sensuous charm he has the capacity to extract from the English language. At the same time its qualities of diction & verse cannot be rendered. The diffuseness of English will neither lend itself to the brief suggestiveness of the Sanscrit without being too high-strung, nervous & bare in its strength & so falsifying its flowing harmony & sweetness; nor to its easy harmony without losing closeknit precision & so falsifying its brevity, gravity & majesty. We must be content to lose something in order that we may not lose all. The prose of Kalidasa’s dialogue is the most unpretentious & admirable prose in Sanscrit literature; it is perfectly simple, easy in pitch & natural in tone with a shining, smiling, rippling lucidity, a soft, carolling gait like a little girl running along in a meadow & smiling back at you as she goes. There is the true image of it; a quiet English meadow with wild flowers on a bright summer morning, breezes abroad, the smell of hay in the neighbourhood, honeysuckle on the bank, hedges full of convolvuli or wild roses, a ditch on one side with cress & forget-me-nots & nothing pronounced or poignant except perhaps a stray whiff of meadowsweet from a distance. This admirable unobtrusive charm and just observed music (Coleridge) makes it run easily

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into verse in English. In translating one has at first some vague idea of reproducing the form as well as the spirit of the Sanscrit, rendering verse stanza by verse stanza & prose movement by prose movement. But it will soon be discovered that except in the talk of the buffoon & not always then Kalidasa’s prose never evokes its just echo, never finds its answering pitch, tone or quality in English prose. The impression it creates is in no way different from Shakespeare’s verse taken anywhere at its easiest & sweetest Your lord does know my mind: I cannot love him: Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble, Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth; In voices well divulged, free, learned and valiant; And in dimension in the shape of nature A gracious person; but yet I cannot love him. He might have took his answer long ago. Or again still more close in its subtle & telling simplicity Ol. Vi.

What is your parentage? Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. I am a gentleman. Ol. Get you to your lord; I cannot love him: let him send no more; Unless perchance you come to me again To tell me how he takes it. There is absolutely no difference between this & the prose of Kalidasa, since even the absence of metre is compensated by the natural majesty, grace & rhythmic euphony of the Sanscrit language & the sweet seriousness & lucid effectiveness it naturally wears when it is not tortured for effects.

APPENDIX ALTERNATIVE AND UNUSED PASSAGES AND FRAGMENTS 1 [An early fragment] Kalidasa does best in more complicated & grandiose metres where his majesty of sound and subtle power of harmony have most opportunity; his treatment of the Anustubh is massive & noble, but compares unfavourably with the inexhaustible flexibility of Valmekie and the nervous ease of Vyasa. 2 [Alternative opening to “The Historical Method”] Kalidasa Of Kalidasa the man we are fortunate to know nothing beyond what we can gather from the evidence of his own writings. There are many anecdotes current throughout India that have gathered around his name, some of them witty, some merely ribald, some purely strokes of scholastic ingenuity; they differ little in character from the stock facetiae which are associated with the name of famous jesters & wits like Akbar’s Rajah Birbal; in any case the ascription to Kalidasa is fanciful and arbitrary. Even the date of our chief classical poet is a subject for the unprofitable ingenuity of scholars; fixed yesterday in the 11t.h. century B.C. , today in the sixth, tomorrow in the 3d.., there seems to be not even a remote prospect of any finality in the matter. Even to this day no valid reason has been alleged for questioning the traditional ascription of Kalidasa to the 1s.t. century B.C. , a date with which nothing

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in his poetry is inconsistent; on the contrary there is much that seems to demand it. 3 [Passages from the manuscript of “The Seasons — I: Its Authenticity” that Sri Aurobindo did not include in the published version.] The Seasons Early and immature work of a great poet of which the authenticity is not put beyond doubt by definite external evidence, is always the especial joy of scholars, for it gives an opening to the spirit of denial which is the lifebreath of scholastic criticism. To show original scholarship by denying what the past has believed, is easy and congenial, but to establish one’s originality by positive & helpful criticism is not so readily done. No one has suffered more in this respect at the hands of European scholars than Kalidasa, about whom we have no external evidence until the artificial revival of Sanscrit literature in the later centuries of the first millennium of the Christian era. Some * Kalidasa’s authorship of his earliest extant poem has been first questioned in very recent times by a number of European Sanscritists. It is doubtful whether the spirit of modern criticism, restless, revolutionary, & prizing novelty and inventiveness above truth, is superior in all respects to the saner if less subtle outlook of older scholarship. * The old criticism was cautious and quiet, seldom doubting tradition, except under strong justifying reasons. Modern scholarship on the contrary is ready to pursue the most fleeting will-o’-the-

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wisp of theory across the deepest morasses of assumption and petitio principii and once in pursuit shows a radical violence and obstinacy of prejudice to which the prejudice of the conservative is vacillating and feeble. New theories are born with each revolution of the seasons and each while it lasts is dogmatically & even hotly asserted as alone consistent with sane and enlightened scholarship. The arguments which are * The Seasons is the only production included in the reasonable canon of his work which justifies the slightest doubt as to its authenticity. There is a marked difference between this and the rest of Kalidasa’s admitted poetry, consisting mainly in a great inferiority of artistic execution and a far cruder yet not absolutely dissimilar verse & diction which sounds like a rough sketch for the mighty style & movement of Kalidasa. If it is not then an early work of the poet, it must be either a production of an earlier poet who influenced Kalidasa or of a later poet who imitated him. The first hypothesis is hardly credible, unless the writer died young; for it is otherwise impossible that the author of such a work as the Seasons should have executed no later & riper work of a more ambitious & enduring character. A similar difficulty attends though to a less degree the second alternative; a poet who could catch some of the finest characteristics of so great a model without slavishly copying his best work, must have had in him the capacity for much more serious and lasting accomplishment. On the other hand * The imagination of the West has not been trained to recognize that the body is an entity different and initially independent of the spirit within. Yet such a division helps materially to the proper understanding of man & is indeed essential to it unless we rule out a great mass of recorded experience as false or illusory. Each cell out of which the body is built has a life of its own and

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therefore tendencies of its own. These tendencies are largely, if not entirely determined by heredity. The spirit too comes into the womb with an individuality already determined, a future development already built up; and its struggle is to impose the law of that individuality and that development on the plasm of matter in which it has to encase itself. It is naturally attracted to birth in a race & a family where the previous dispositions are favourable to the production of a suitable body; and in the case of great minds this is oftenest where attempts at genius have occurred before, attempts which being unsuccessful have not unfrequently led to madness & physical or moral disease resulting from the refusal of the body to bear the strain of the spirit. Even from the womb it struggles to impose itself on the embryonic plasm, to build up the cells of the brain to its liking and stamp its individuality on every part of the body. Throughout childhood and youth the struggle proceeds; the spirit not so much developing itself, as developing the body into an image of itself, accustoming the body to express it & respond to its impulses as a musical instrument responds to the finger of the performer. And therefore it is that the Upanishad speaks of the body as the harp of the spirit. Hence natural gifts are much more valuable and work with much more freedom and power than acquired; for when we acquire, we are preparing fresh material for our individuality in another existence; when we follow our gifts, we are using what we have already prepared for this. In the first case we are painful & blundering learners, in the second to the extent we have prepared ourselves, masters. This process of subjecting the personality of the body to the personality of the spirit, of finding one’s self, lasts for various periods with various men. But it is seldom really over before the age of 30 in men of a rich and varied genius, and even afterwards they never cease sounding themselves still farther, finding fresh possibilities, developing mightier masteries, until the encasing plasm wears away with the strain of life. The harp grows old & shabby, the strings are worn and frayed, the music deteriorates or ceases, and finally the spirit breaks & throws away its instrument and departs to assimilate its experiences and acquirements for a fresh

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existence. But that the man of genius may successfully find himself, he must have fit opportunities, surroundings, influences, training. If he is not favoured with these, the genius will remain but it will be at the mercy of its body; it will express its body and not its self. The most famous ballads, those which never perish, have been written by such thwarted geniuses. Although the influence of romanticism has made it a literary fashion to couple these ballads with Homer, yet in truth balladwriting is the lowest form of the poetical art; its method is entirely sensational. The impact of outward facts on the body is carried through the vital principle, the sensational element in man, to the mind, and mind obediently answers the knocking outside, photographs the impression with force & definiteness. But there has been no exercise of the higher faculty of understanding, considering, choosing, moulding what it receives. Hence the bare force & realism which so powerfully attracts in the best ballads; but this force is very different from the high strength and this involuntary realism very different from the artistic imaginative & self-chosen realism of great poetry. There is the same difference as separates brilliant melodrama from great tragedy. Another sign of the undeveloped self is uncertainty of work. There are some poets who live by a single poem. In some moment of exaltation, of rapt excitement the spirit throws off for a moment the bonds of the flesh and compels the body to obey it. This is what is vulgarly termed inspiration. Everyone who has felt this state of mind, can recall its main features. There is a sudden exaltation, a glow, an excitement and a fiery and rapid activity of all the faculties; every cell of the body & of the brain feeling a commotion and working in excited unison under the law of something which is not themselves; the mind itself becomes illuminated as with a rush of light and grows like a crowded and surging thoroughfare in some brilliantly lighted city, thought treading on the heels of thought faster than the tongue can express or the hand write or the memory record them. And yet while the organs of sense remain overpowered and inactive, the main organs of action may be working with abnormal rapidity, not only the speech and the hand but sometimes even the feet, so that often the writer cannot

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remain still, but has to walk up and down swiftly or if he sits down, is subject to an involuntary mechanical movement of the limbs. When this state reaches beyond bounds, when the spirit attempts to impose on the mind & body work for which they are not fitted, the result is, in the lower human organisms insanity, in the higher epilepsy. In this state of inspiration every thought wears an extraordinary brilliance and even commonplace ideas strike one as God-given inspirations. But at any rate the expression they take whether perfect or not is superior to what the same man could compass in his ordinary condition. Ideas & imaginations throng on the mind which one is not aware of having formerly entertained or even prepared for; some even seem quite foreign to our habit of mind. The impression we get is that thoughts are being breathed into us, expressions dictated, the whole poured in from outside; the saints who spoke to Joan of Arc, the daemon of Socrates, Tasso’s familiar, the Angel Gabriel dictating the Koran to Mahomet are only exaggerated developments of this impression due to an epileptic, maniac or excited state of the mind; and this, as I have already suggested, is itself due to the premature attempts of the Spirit to force the highest work on the body.1 Mahomet’s idea that in his epileptic fits he went up into the seventh heaven & took the Koran from the lips of God, is extremely significant;2 if Caesar & Richelieu had been Oriental prophets instead of practical & sceptical Latin statesmen they might well have recorded kindred impressions. In any case such an impression is purely sensational. It is always the man’s own spirit that is speaking, but the sensational part of him feeling that it is working blindly in obedience to some 1 Sri Aurobindo wrote the following passage at the top of two pages of the manuscript. He did not mark its place of insertion. A piece of the manuscript is broken off at the beginning; “supported by” is a conjectural reconstruction: The fact, [supported by] overwhelming evidence, that Jeanne could foretell the immediate future in all matters affecting her mission, does not militate against this theory; past, present & future are merely conventions of the mind, to the spirit time is but one, tomorrow as present as today. At the same time I do not wish to exclude the possibility of supracorporeal beings outside her own guiding Jeanne within the limits of her mission; the subject is too profound & subtle a problem to be settled offhand. 2 Sri Aurobindo put a question mark beside this clause in his manuscript. — Ed.

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irresistible power which is not itself, conveys to the mind an erroneous impression that the power comes from outside, that it is an inspiration and not an inner process; for it is as naturally the impulse of the body as of the mind to consider itself the self of the organism and all impressions & impulses not of its own sphere as exterior to the organism. If the understanding happens to be firm and sane, it refuses to encourage the mind in its error, but if the understanding is overexcited or is not sufficiently master of its instruments, it easily allows itself to be deluded. Now when the spirit is no longer struggling with the body, but has become its master and lord, this state of inspiration ceases to be fortuitous and occasional, and becomes more and more within the will of the man and, subject to the necessarily long intervals of repose & recreation, almost a habitually recurring state. At the same time it loses its violent & abnormal character and the outward symptoms of it disappear; the outer man remains placid and the mind works with great power and illumination indeed, but without disturbance or loss of equilibrium. In the earlier stages the poet swears & tears his hair if a fly happens to be buzzing about the room; once he has found himself, he can rise from his poem, have a chat with his wife or look over & even pay his bills and then resume his inspiration as if nothing had happened. He needs no stimulant except healthy exercise and can no longer be classed with the genus irritabile vatum; nor does he square any better with the popular idea that melancholy, eccentricity and disease are necessary concomitants of genius. Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Goethe, the really great poets, were men of high sanity — except perhaps in the eyes of those to whom originality & strong character are in themselves madness. But to arrive at this harmony requires time and effort and meanwhile the work will surely be unequal, often halting, varying between inspiration and failure. Especially will this be the case with a rich, many-sided and flexible genius like Kalidasa’s.3 3 The passage that follows in the manuscript was incorporated in the final version of the second paragraph of “The Seasons — I: Its Authenticity”. — Ed.

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4 [Alternative and unused passages from the manuscript of “Vikramorvasie: The Characters”] We shall now understand why the Opsara is represented as the Hetaira of heaven. They represent all that is sensuous, attractive & voluptuous in the Universe, the element of desire which being unspiritual & non-moral, finds its sphere in the satisfaction of the sense of beauty and for that satisfaction needs freedom * Vishnu, the Almighty Spirit, incarnate in Naraian, the saint and hermit, was meditating in the voiceless solitude of mountains. Indra, always jealous of austerity & sacrifice, sent the Opsaras to allure him & enslave him to the charm of beauty & sensuousness. They came to Naraian in the wilderness and displayed before him all their beauty & every feminine art of conversation, but in vain. Naraian, with an indulgent smile smote his thigh and produced from it a woman of so shining a loveliness that the beauty of all the Opsaras together was as nothing to her beauty According to this story Naraian, the great Rishi, who is also Vishnu & therefore the type of the World-Saviour when he comes in the guise of the Ascetic, was meditating in the Himalayas. Indra, always hostile to ascetism, always distrustful of the contemplative & philosophic mind, sent the Opsaras to break down the concentration of Naraian’s mind and lure him into sensuous feeling. They were the fairest of the worldsisters who went and they displayed before Naraian their most marvellous grace and their sweetest words & arts. So the World Saviour smiled and from his thigh there sprang all the beauty of sensuous existence concentrated into a single form. Then the temptresses covered their faces with their veils & silently returned to heaven. Thus was born Urvasie, she that lay hid in the thigh of the Supreme. *

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The grace of childhood seems to have had a charm for the mind of Kalidasa; for whenever he introduces a child it is with a double measure of his magical felicity and naturalness. There is a child in each of his plays; the princess Vasuluxmie in Malavica does not appear on the stage in the course of the play, yet she twice intervenes with considerable effect in its action, and each time what a delightful fragrance of home, of the beauty and innocence and loveableness of childhood, comes breathing about the scene. It is part of the marvellous genius of Kalidasa that packing beauty into each word he writes with so little he can suggest so much. In Ayus we find not quite the same beauty, but the same tender and skilful portraiture and the same loving knowledge of child nature. It seems to me that in two respects at least Kalidasa far surpasses Shakespeare, in knowledge of a mother’s heart, in knowledge of the child. Shakespeare’s mothers, and how few of them there are! are either null or intolerable. In only one of his plays does Shakespeare really attempt to give us a mother’s heart and a child. But Arthur is not a success, he is too voulu, too much dressed up for pathos, too eloquent and full of unchildlike sentimentality & posing. Children are fond of posing and children are sentimental, but not in that way. As for the Princes in King Henry VI and Richard III no real lover of children could endure them; one feels almost thankful to the crookback for mercifully putting them out of the way. Nor is Constance a sympathetic figure; her shrieking, her rant, her selfishness, her bold and bitter volubility, could Shakespeare give us no sweeter & truer picture of a mother? * Urvasie seems at first sight to be deficient in feeling; she sends Ayus away from her at his birth & though there is an indication that she must have visited him occasionally, yet long years of separation are also implied which she appears to have borne with some equanimity. In reality she has no choice. By keeping him she would lose both husband & child, by *

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Urvasie sends Ayus away from her at his birth, but it is as the choice between a mixed evil and an unmixed calamity; in sending him away she only anticipates the inevitable separation between a royal child & his parents which the necessity of education in the forest always imposed;4 by keeping him she would lose both him and her husband. He returns to her & the mother in her at once wakes to life “her veiled bosom heaving towards him and wet with sacred milk”; so in her joy over her son she even forgets the impending separation from the husband who is all in all to her. It is consistent with Kalidasa’s conception of her that she says little or nothing to show her depth of emotion but reveals it rather by her actions & little side touches in her speech.

4 Urvasie’s words “How he has grown” imply that she must have secretly seen him in the hermitage several times after his birth, though necessarily not for many years, since once the boy’s education began such visits would necessarily cease.

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On the Mahabharata

Notes on the Mahabharata of Krishna Dwypaiana Vyasa. prepared with a view to disengage the original epic of Krishna of the island from the enlargements, accretions and additions made by Vyshampaian, Ugrosravas & innumerable other writers. by Aurobind Ghose Proposita. An epic of the Bharatas was written by Krishna of the Island called Vyasa, in 24,000 couplets or something more, less at any rate than 27,000, on the subject of the great civil war of the Bharatas and the establishment of the Dhurmarajya or universal sovereignty in that house. This epic can be disengaged almost in its entirety from the present poem of nearly 100,000 slokas.

It was hinted in a recent article of the Indian Review, an unusually able and searching paper on the date of the Mahabharata war that a society is about to be formed for discovering the genuine and original portions of our great epic. This is glad tidings to all admirers of Sanscrit literature and to all lovers of their country. For the solution of the Mahabharata problem is essential to many things, to any history worth having of Aryan civilisation & literature, to a proper appreciation of Vyasa’s poetical genius and, far more important than either, to a definite understanding of the great ethical gospel which Srikrishna came down on earth to teach as a guide to mankind in the dark Kali yuga then approaching. But I fear that if the inquiry is to be pursued on the lines the writer of this article seemed to hint, if the Society is to rake out 8000 lines from the War Purvas & dub the result the Mahabharata of Vyasa, then the last state of the problem will be worse than its first. It is only by a patient scrutiny & weighing of the whole poem, disinterestedly, candidly & without preconceived notions, a consideration Canto by Canto, paragraph by paragraph, couplet by couplet that we can arrive at anything solid or permanent. But this implies a vast and heartbreaking labour. Certainly, labour however vast ought not to have any terrors for a scholar, still less for a Hindu scholar; yet before one engages in it, one requires to be assured that the game is worth the candle. For that assurance there are three necessary requisites, the possession of certain, sound and always applicable tests to detect later from earlier work, a reasonable chance that such tests if applied will restore the real epic roughly if not exactly in its original form and an assurance that the epic when recovered will repay from literary, historical or other points of view, the labour that has been bestowed on it. I believe that these three requisites are present in this case and shall attempt to adduce a few reasons for my judgment. I shall try to show that besides other internal evidence on which I do not propose just now to enter, there are certain traits of poetical

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style, personality and thought which belong to the original work and are possessed by no other writer. I shall also try to show that these traits may be used and by whom they may be used as a safe guide through this huge morass of verse. In passing I shall have occasion to make clear certain claims the epic thus disengaged will possess to the highest literary, historical and practical value. It is certainly not creditable to European scholarship that after so many decades of Sanscrit research, the problem of the Mahabharata which should really be the pivot for all the rest, has remained practically untouched. For it is not exaggeration to say that European scholarship has shed no light whatever on the Mahabharata beyond the bare fact that it is the work of more than one hand. All else it has advanced, and fortunately it has advanced little, has been rash, arbitrary or prejudiced; theories, theories, always theories without any honestly industrious consideration of the problem. The earliest method adopted was to argue from European analogies, a method pregnant of error & delusion. If we consider the hypothesis of a rude ballad-epic doctored by “those Brahmins” — anyone who is curious on the matter may study with both profit & amusement Frazer’s History of Indian Literature — we shall perceive how this method has been worked. A fancy was started in Germany that the Iliad of Homer is really a pastiche or clever rifacimento of old ballads put together in the time of Pisistratus. This truly barbarous imagination with its rude ignorance of the psychological bases of all great poetry has now fallen into some discredit; it has been replaced by a more plausible attempt to discover a nucleus in the poem, an Achilleid, out of which the larger Iliad has grown. Very possibly the whole discussion will finally end in the restoration of a single Homer with a single poem, subjected indeed to some inevitable interpolation and corruption, but mainly the work of one mind, a theory still held by more than one considerable scholar. In the meanwhile, however, haste has been made to apply the analogy to the Mahabharata; lynx-eyed theorists have discovered in the poem — apparently without taking the trouble to study it — an early and rude ballad epic worked up, doctored and defaced by those wicked Brahmins, who are made responsible for all the

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literary and other enormities which have been discovered by the bushelful, and not by European lynxes alone — in our literature and civilisation. Now whether the theory is true or not, and one sees nothing in its favour, it has at present no value at all; for it is a pure theory without any justifying facts. It is not difficult to build these intellectual cardhouses; anyone may raise them by the dozen who can find no better manner of wasting valuable time. A similar method of “arguing from Homer” is probably at the bottom of Professor Weber’s assertion that the War Purvas contain the original epic. An observant eye at once perceives that the War Purvas are far more hopelessly tangled than any that precede them except the first. It is here & here only that the keenest eye becomes confused & the most confident explorer begins to lose heart & self-reliance. But the Iliad is all battles and it therefore follows in the European mind that the original Mahabharata must have been all battles. Another method is that of ingenious, if forced argument from stray slokas of the poem or equally stray & obscure remarks in Buddhist compilations. The curious theory of some scholars that the Pandavas were a later invention and that the original war was between the Kurus and Panchalas only and Professor Weber’s singularly positive inference from a sloka which does not at first sight bear the meaning he puts on it, that the original epic contained only 8800 lines, are ingenuities of this type. They are based on the Teutonic art of building a whole mammoth out of a single and often problematical bone, and remind one strongly of M..r Pickwick and the historic inscription which was so rudely, if in a Pickwickian sense, challenged by the refractory [M..r Blotton.] All these theorisings are idle enough; they are made of too airy a stuff to last. ‘Only a serious scrutiny of the Mahabharata made with a deep sense of critical responsibility and according to the methods of patient scientific inference, can justify one in advancing any considerable theory on this wonderful poetic structure.’ Yet to extricate the original epic from the mass of accretions is not, I believe, so difficult a task as it may at first appear. One is struck in perusing the Mahabharata by the presence of a mass of poetry which bears the style and impress of a single,

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strong and original, even unusual mind, differing in his manner of expression, tone of thought & stamp of personality not only from every other Sanscrit poet we know but from every other great poet known to literature. When we look more closely into the distribution of this peculiar style of writing, we come to perceive certain very suggestive & helpful facts. We realise that this impress is only found in those parts of the poem which are necessary to the due conduct of the story, seldom to be detected in the more miraculous, Puranistic or trivial episodes, but usually broken up by passages and sometimes shot through with lines of a discernibly different inspiration. Equally noteworthy is it that nowhere does this poet admit any trait, incident or speech which deviates from the strict propriety of dramatic characterisation & psychological probability. Finally Krishna’s divinity is recognized, but more often hinted at than aggressively stated. The tendency is to keep it in the background as a fact to which, while himself crediting it, the writer does not hope for universal consent, still less is able to speak of it as of a general tenet & matter of dogmatic belief; he prefers to show Krishna rather in his human character, acting always by wise, discerning and inspired methods, but still not transgressing the limit of human possibility. All this leads one to the conclusion that in the body of poetry I have described, we have the real Bharata, an epic which tells plainly and straightforwardly of the events which led to the great war and the empire of the Bharata princes. Certainly if Prof. Weber’s venturesome assertion as to the length of the original Mahabharata be correct, this conclusion falls to the ground; for the mass of this poetry amounts to considerably over 20,000 slokas. Professor Weber’s inference, however, is worth some discussion; for the length of the original epic is a very important element in the problem. If we accept it, we must say farewell to all hopes of unravelling the tangle. His assertion is founded on a single & obscure verse in the huge prolegomena to the poem which take up the greater part of the Adi Purva, no very strong basis for so far-reaching an assumption. The sloka itself says no more than this that much of the Mahabharata was written in so difficult a style that Vyasa himself could remember only 8800 of

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the slokas, Suka an equal amount and Sanjaya perhaps as much, perhaps something less. There is certainly here no assertion such as Prof. Weber would have us find in it that the Mahabharata at any time amounted to no more than 8800 slokas. Even if we assume what the text does not say that Vyasa, Suka & Sanjaya knew the same 8800 slokas, we do not get to that conclusion. The point simply is that the style of the Mahabharat was too difficult for a single man to keep in memory more than a certain portion of it. This does not carry us very far. If however we are to assume that there is more in this verse than meets the eye, that it is a cryptic way of stating the length of the original poem; and I do not deny that this is possible, perhaps even probable — we should note the repetition of v E — ah\ v E f;ko v E syo v E vA n vA. Following the genius of the Sanscrit language we are led to suppose the repetition was intended to recall aO loksh AEZ etc. with each name; otherwise the repetition has no raison d’ˆetre; it is otiose & inept. But if we understand it thus, the conclusion is irresistible that each knew a different 8800, or the writer would have no object in wishing us to repeat the number three times in our mind. The length of the epic as derived from this single sloka should then be 26,400 slokas or something less, for the writer hesitates about the exact number to be attributed to Sanjaya. Another passage further on in the prolegomena agrees remarkably with this conclusion and is in itself much more explicit. It is there stated plainly enough that Vyasa first wrote the Mahabharata in 24,000 slokas and afterwards enlarged it to 100,000 for the world of men as well as a still more unconscionable number of verses for the Gandhurva and other worlds. In spite of the embroidery of fancy, of a type familiar enough to all who are acquainted with the Puranic method of recording facts, the meaning of this is unmistakeable. The original Mahabharata consisted of 24,000 slokas, but in its final form it runs to 100,000. The figures are probably loose & slovenly, for at any rate the final form of the Mahabharata is considerably under 100,000 slokas. It is possible therefore that the original epic was something over 24,000 and under 26,400 slokas, in which case the two passages would agree well

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enough. But it would be unsafe to found any dogmatic assertion on isolated couplets; at the most we can say that we are justified in taking the estimate as a probable and workable hypothesis and if it is found to be corroborated by other facts, we may venture to suggest its correctness as a moral certainty. But it is not from European scholars that we must expect a solution of the Mahabharata problem. They have no qualifications for the task except a power of indefatigable research and collocation; and in dealing with the Mahabharata even this power seems to have deserted them. It is from Hindu scholarship renovated & instructed by contact with European that the attempt must come. Indian scholars have shown a power of detachment and disinterestedness and a willingness to give up cherished notions under pressure of evidence, which are not common in Europe. They are not, as a rule, prone to the Teutonic sin of forming a theory in accordance with their prejudices and then finding facts or manufacturing inferences to support it. When therefore they form a theory on their own account, it has usually some clear justification and sometimes an overwhelming array of facts and solid arguments behind it. German scholarship possesses infinite capacity of labour marred by an irresponsible & fantastic imagination, the French a sane acuteness of inference marred by insufficient command of facts, while in soundness of judgment Indian scholarship has both; it should stand first, for it must naturally move with a far greater familiarity and grasp in the sphere of Sanscrit studies than any foreign mind however able & industrious. But above all it must clearly have one advantage, an intimate feeling of the language, a sensitiveness to shades of style & expression and an instinctive feeling of what is or is not possible, which the European cannot hope to possess unless he sacrifices his sense of racial superiority and lives in some great centre like Benares as a Pundit among Pundits. I admit that even among Indians this advantage must vary with the amount of education and natural fineness of taste; but where other things are equal, they must possess it in an immeasurably greater degree than an European of similar information & critical power. For to the European Sanscrit words are

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no more than dead counters which he can play with and throw as he likes into places the most unnatural or combinations the most monstrous; to the Hindu they are living things the very soul of whose temperament he understands & whose possibilities he can judge to a hair. That with these advantages Indian scholars have not been able to form themselves into a great & independent school of learning, is due to two causes, the miserable scantiness of the mastery in Sanscrit provided by our Universities, crippling to all but born scholars, and our lack of a sturdy independence which makes us overready to defer to European authority. These however are difficulties easily surmountable. In solving the Mahabharat problem this intimate feeling for the language is of primary importance; for style & poetical personality must be not indeed the only but the ultimate test of the genuineness of any given passage in the poem. If we rely upon any other internal evidence, we shall find ourselves irresistibly tempted to form a theory and square facts to it. The late Rai Bahadur Bunkim Chundra Chatterji, a genius of whom modern India has not produced the parallel, was a man of ripe scholarship, literary powers of the very first order and a strong critical sagacity. In his Life of Krishna (Krishnacharitra), he deals incidentally with the Mahabharata problem; he perceived clearly enough that there were different recognizable styles in the poem, and he divided it into three layers, the original epic by a very great poet, a redaction of the original epic by a poet not quite so great and a mass of additions by very inferior hands. But being concerned with the Mahabharata only so far as it covered the Life of Krishna, he did not follow up this line of scrutiny and relied rather on internal evidence of a quite different kind. He saw that in certain parts of the poem Krishna’s godhead is either not presupposed at all or only slightly affirmed, while in others it is the main objective of the writer; certain parts again give us a plain, unvarnished & straightforward biography & history, others are a mass of wonders and legends, often irrelevant extravagances; in some parts also the conception of the chief characters is radically departed from and defaced. He therefore took these differences as his standard and accepted

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only those parts as genuine which gave a plain & consistent account of Krishna the man and of others in their relation to him. Though his conclusions are to a great extent justifiable, his a priori method led him to exaggerate them, to enforce them too rigidly without the proper flexibility & scrupulous hesitation and to resort occasionally to special pleading. His book is illuminating and full of insight, and the chief contentions will, I believe, stand permanently; but some parts of his argument are exaggerated & misleading and others, which are in the main correct, are yet insufficiently supported by reasons. It is the failure to refer everything to the ultimate test of style that is responsible for these imperfections. Undoubtedly inconsistencies of detail & treatment are of immense importance. If we find grave inconsistencies of character, if a man is represented in one place as stainlessly just, unselfish & truthful and in another as a base & selfish liar or a brave man suddenly becomes guilty of incomprehensible cowardice, we are justified in supposing two hands at work; otherwise we must either adduce very strong poetic and psychological justification for the lapse or else suppose that the poet was incompetent to create or portray consistent and living characters. But if we find that one set of passages belongs to the distinct and unmistakeable style of a poet who has shown himself capable of portraying great epic types, we shall be logically debarred from this saving clause. And if the other set of passages show not only a separate style, but quite another spirit and the stamp of another personality, our assurance will be made doubly sure. Further if there are serious inconsistencies of fact, if for instance Krishna says in one place that he can only do his best as a man & can use no divine power in human affairs and in another foolishly uses his divine power where it is quite uncalled for, or if a considerable hero is killed three or four times over, yet always pops up again with really commendable vitality but without warning or explanation until some considerate person gives him ˆ or if totally incompatible statements are made his coup de grace, about the same person or the same event, we may find in either or all of these inconsistencies sufficient ground to assume diversity of authorship. Still even here we must ultimately refer to the

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style as corroborative evidence; and when the inconsistencies are grave enough to raise suspicion, but not so totally incompatible as to be conclusive, difference of style will at once turn the suspicion into certainty, while similarity may induce us to suspend judgment. And where there is no inconsistency of fact or conception and yet the difference in expression & treatment is marked, the question of style & personality becomes all-important. Now in the Mahabharata we are struck at first by the presence of two glaringly distinct & incompatible styles. There is a mass of writing in which the verse & language is unusually bare, simple and great, full of firm and knotted thinking & a high & heroic personality, the imagination strong and pure, never florid or richly-coloured, the ideas austere, original & noble. There is another body of work sometimes massed together but far oftener interspersed in the other, which has exactly opposite qualities; it is Ramayanistic, rushing in movement, full & even overabundant in diction, flowing but not strict in thought, the imagination bold & vast, but often garish & highly-coloured, the ideas ingenious & poetical, sometimes of astonishing subtlety, but at others common & trailing, the personality much more relaxed, much less heroic, noble & severe. When we look closer we find that the Ramayanistic part may possibly be separated into two parts, one of which has less inspiration and is more deeply imbued with the letter of the Ramayan, but less with its spirit. The first portion again has a certain element often in close contact with it which differs from it in a weaker inspiration, in being a body without the informing spirit of high poetry. It attempts to follow its manner & spirit but fails and reads therefore like imitation of the great poet. We have to ask ourselves whether this is the work of an imitator or of the original poet in his uninspired moments. Are there besides the mass of inferior or obviously interpolated work which can be easily swept aside, three distinct & recognisable styles or four or only two? In the ultimate decision of this question inconsistencies of detail & treatment will be of great consequence. But in the meantime I find nothing to prevent me from considering the work of the first poet, undoubtedly the greatest of the four, if four there are, as the original epic.

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It may, indeed, be objected that style is no safe test, for it is one which depends upon the personal preferences & ability of the critic. In an English literary periodical it was recently observed that a certain Oxford professor who had studied Stevenson like a classic, attempted to apportion to Stevenson & Lloyd Osbourne their respective work in the Wrecker, but his apportionment turned out [to] be hopelessly erroneous. To this the obvious answer is that the Wrecker is a prose work and not poetry. There was no prose style ever written that a skilful hand could not reproduce as accurately as a practised forger reproduces a signature. But poetry, at any rate original poetry of the first class is a different matter. The personality and style of a true poet are unmistakeable to a competent mind, for though imitation, echo & parody are certainly possible, it would be as easy to reproduce the personal note in the style as for the painter to put into his portrait the living soul of its original. The successful discrimination between original and copy depends then upon the competence of the critic, his fineness of literary feeling, his sensitiveness to style. On such points the dictum of a foreign critic is seldom of any value; one would not ask a mere labourer to pronounce on the soundness of a great engineering work, but still less would one ask a mathematician unacquainted with mechanics. To a Hindu mind well equipped for the task there ought to be no insuperable difficulty in disengaging the style of a marked poetic personality from a mass of totally different work. The verdict of great artistic critics on the genuineness of a professed Old Master may not be infallible, but if formed on a patient study of the technique & spirit of the work, it has at least considerable chances of being correct. But the technique & spirit of poetry are far less easy to catch by an imitator than those of great painting, the charm [of] words being more elusive & unanalysable than that of line & colour. In unravelling the Mahabharata especially the peculiar & inimitable nature of the style of Vyasa immensely lightens the difficulties of criticism. Had his been poetry of which the predominant grace was mannerism, it would have been imitable with some closeness; or even had it been a rich & salient style

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like Shakespeare’s, Kalidasa’s or Valmekie’s, certain externals of it might be reproduced by a skilled hand and the task of discernment rendered highly delicate and perilous. Yet even in such styles to the finest minds the presence or absence of an unanalysable personality within the manner of expression would be always perceptible. The second layer of the Mahabharata is distinctly Ramayanistic in style, yet it would be a gross criticism that could confuse it with Valmekie’s own work; the difference as is always the case in imitations of great poetry, is as palpable as the similarity.1 Some familiar examples may be taken from English literature. Crude as is the composition & treatment of the three parts [of] King Henry VI, its style unformed & everywhere full of echoes, yet when we get such lines as Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just And he but naked though locked up in steel Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted, we cannot but feel that we are listening to the same poetic voice as in Richard III shadows tonight Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers Armed in proof and led by shallow Richmond. or in Julius Caesar The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interr`ed with their bones. or in the much later & richer vein of Antony & Cleopatra I am dying, Egypt, dying; only I here importune death awhile, until Of many thousand kisses the poor last I lay upon thy lips. 1 Here an incomplete sentence is written between the lines in the manuscript:

This unanalysable quantity is as sure

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I have purposely selected passages of perfect simplicity and straightforwardness, because they appear to be the most imitable part of Shakespeare’s work & are really the least imitable. Always one hears the same voice, the same personal note of style sounding through these very various passages, and one feels that there is in all the intimate & unmistakeable personality of Shakespeare. We turn next & take two passages from Marlowe, a poet whose influence counted for much in the making of Shakespeare, one from Faustus Was this the face that launched a thousand ships And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? and another from Edward II I am that cedar, shake me not too much; And you the eagles; soar ye ne’er so high, I have the jesses that will pull you down; And Aeque tandem shall that canker cry Unto the proudest peer in Brittany. The choice of words, the texture of style has a certain similarity, the run of the sentences differs little if at all; but what fine literary sense does not feel that here is another poetical atmosphere and the ring of a different voice? And yet to put a precise name on the difference would not be easy. The personal difference becomes still more marked if we take a passage from Milton in which the nameable merits are precisely the same, a simplicity in strength of diction, thought & the run of the verse “What though the field be lost”.2 And when we pass farther down in the stream of literature & read “Thy thunder, conscious of the new command”3 we feel that the poet has nourished his genius on the greatness of Milton till his own soft & luxurious style rises into epic vigour; yet we feel too that the lines are only Miltonic, they are not Milton. 2 Paradise Lost 1.105. This sentence and the next were written in the margins of the manuscript. Sri Aurobindo apparently intended to cite longer passages. — Ed. 3 Keats, Hyperion 1.60. — Ed.

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Now there are certain great poetical styles which are of a kind apart; they are so extraordinarily bare and restrained that the untutored mind often wonders what difficulty there can be in writing poetry like that; yet when the attempt is made, it is found that so far as manner goes it is easier to write somewhat like Shakespeare or Homer or Valmekie than to write like these. Just because the style is so bare, has no seizable mannerism, no striking & imitable peculiarities, the failure of the imitation appears complete & unsoftened; for in such poets there is but one thing to be caught, the unanalysable note, the personal greatness which like everything that comes straight from God it is impossible to locate or limit and precisely the one that most eludes the grasp. This poetry it is always possible to distinguish with some approach to certainty from imitative or spurious work. Very fortunately the style of Vyasa is exactly such a manner of poetry. Granted therefore adhikara in the critic, that is to say a natural gift of fine literary sensitiveness & the careful cultivation of that gift until it has become as sure a lactometer as the palate of the swan which rejects the water mingled with milk & takes the milk alone, we have in the peculiar characteristics of this poetry a test of unquestionable soundness & efficacy. But there is another objection of yet more weight & requiring as full an answer. This method of argument from style seems after all as a priori & Teutonic as any other; for there is no logical reason why the mass of writing in this peculiar style should be judged to be the original epic and not any of the three others or even part of that inferior work which was brushed aside so contemptuously. The original Mahabharata need not have been a great poem at all; it was more probably an early, rude & uncouth performance. Certain considerations however may lead us to consider our choice less arbitrary than it seems. That the War Purvas contain much of the original epic may be conceded to Professor Weber; the war is the consummation of the story & without a war there could be no Mahabharata. But the war of the Mahabharata was not a petty contest between obscure barons or a brief episode in a much larger struggle or a romantic & chivalrous emprise for the rescue of a ravished or errant

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beauty. It was a great political catastrophe implying the clash of a hundred nations and far-reaching political consequences; the Hindus have always considered it as the turningpoint in the history of their civilisation and the beginning of a new age, and it was long used as a historical standpoint and a date to reckon from in chronology. Such an event must have had the most considerable political causes and been caused by the collision of the most powerful personalities and the most important interests. If we find no record of or allusion to these in the poem, we shall be compelled to suppose that the poet living long after the event, regarded the war as a legend or romance which would form excellent matter for an epic and treated it accordingly. But if we find a simple and unvarnished though not necessarily connected & consecutive account of the political conditions which preceded the war and of the men who made it and their motives, we may safely say that this also is an essential part of the epic. The Iliad deals only with an episode of the legendary siege of Troy, it covers an action of [ ] days in a conflict lasting ten years, & its subject is not the Trojan War but the Wrath of Achilles. Homer was under no obligation therefore to deal with the political causes that led to hostilities, even supposing he knew them. The Mahabharata stands on an entirely different footing. The war there is related from beginning to end consecutively & without break, yet it is nowhere regarded as of importance sufficient to itself but depends for its interest on causes which led up to it & the characters & clashing interests it involved. The preceding events are therefore of essential importance to the epic. Without the war, no Mahabharata, is true of this epic; but without the causes of the war, no war, is equally true. And it must be remembered that the Hindu narrative poets had no artistic predilections like that of the Greeks for beginning a story in the middle. On the contrary they always preferred to begin at the beginning. We therefore naturally expect to find the preceding political conditions and the immediate causes of the war related in the earlier part of the epic and this is precisely what we do find. Ancient India as we know, was a sort of continent, made up of many great & civilised nations who were united very much

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like the nations of modern Europe by an essential similarity of religion and culture rising above & beyond their marked racial peculiarities; like the nations of Europe also they were continually going to war with each other; & yet had relations of occasional struggle, of action & reaction, with the other peoples of Asia whom they regarded as barbarous races outside the pale of the Aryan civilisation. Like the continent of Europe, the ancient continent of India was subject to two opposing forces, one centripetal which was continually causing attempts at universal empire, another centrifugal which was continually impelling the empires once formed to break up again into their constituent parts: but both these forces were much stronger in their action than they have usually been in Europe. The Aryan nations may be divided into three distinct groups, the Eastern of whom the Coshalas, Magadhas, Chedies, Videhas & Haihayas were the chief; the Central among whom the Kurus, Panchalas & Bhojas were the most considerable; and the Western & Southern of whom there were many, small, & rude but yet warlike & famous peoples; among these there seem to have been none that ever became of the first importance. Five distinct times had these great congeries of nations been welded into Empire, twice by the Ixvaacous under Mandhata son of Yuvanuswa and King Marutta, afterwards by the Haihaya Arjouna Cartoverya, again by the Ixvaacou Bhogiratha and finally by the Kuru Bharata. That the first Kuru empire was the latest is evident not only from the Kurus being the strongest nation of their time but from the significant fact that the Coshalas by this time had faded into utter & irretrievable insignificance. The rule of the Haihayas had resulted in one of the great catastrophes of early Hindu civilization; belonging to the eastern section of the Continent which was always apt to break away from the strict letter of Aryanism, they had brought themselves by their pride & violence into collision with the Brahmins with the result of a civil war in which their Empire was broken for ever by Parshurama, son of Jamadagni, and the chivalry of India massacred and for the time broken. The fall of the Haihayas left the Ixvaacous & the Bharata or Ilian dynasty of the Kurus the two chief powers

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of the continent. Then seems to have followed the golden age of the Ixvaacous under the beneficent empire of Bhogiratha & his descendants as far down at least as Rama. Afterwards the Coshalans, having reached their highest point, must have fallen into that state of senile decay, which once it overtakes a nation, is fatal & irremediable. They were followed by the empire of the Bharatas. By the times of Santanou, Vichitravirya and Pandou this empire had long been dissolved by the centrifugal force of Aryan politics into its constituent parts, yet the Kurus were yet among the first of the nations and the Bharata Kings of the Kurus were still looked up to as the head of civilisation. But by the time of Dhritarashtra the centripetal force had again asserted itself & the idea of another great empire loomed before the imaginations of all men; a number of nations had risen to the greatest military prestige & political force, the Panchalas under Drupada & his sons, the Bhojas under Bhishmuc & his brother Acrity who is described as equalling Parshurama in military skill & courage, the Chedies under the hero & great captain Shishupala, the Magadhas, built into a strong nation by Brihodruth; even distant Bengal under the Poundrian Vasudave and distant Sindhu under [Vriddhakshatra] and his son Jayadrath began to mean something in the reckoning of forces. The Yadava nations counted as a great military force in the balance of politics owing to their abundant heroism and genius, but seem to have lacked sufficient cohesion and unity to nurse independent hopes. Strong, however, as these nations were none seemed able to dispute the prize of the coming empire with the Kurus, until under King Jarasundha the Barhodruth Magadha for a moment disturbed the political balance. The history of the first great Magadhan hope of empire and its extinction — not to be revived again until the final downfall of the Kurus — is told very briefly in the Sabhapurva of the Mahabharata. The removal of Jarasundha restored the original state of politics and it was no longer doubtful that to the Kurus alone could fall the future empire. But here a contest arose between the elder & younger branches of the Bharata house. The question being then narrowed to a personal issue, it was inevitable that it should become largely a history of

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personal strife & discord; other & larger issues were involved in the dispute between the Kaurava cousins; but whatever interests, incompatibilities of temperament & differences of opinion may divide brothers, they do not engage in fratricidal conflict until they are driven to it by a long record of collision & jealousy, ever deepening personal hatreds & the worst personal injuries. We see therefore that not only the early discords, the slaying of Jarasundha & the Rajasuya sacrifice are necessary to the epic but the great gambling & the mishandling of Draupadie. It cannot, however, have been personal questions alone that affected the choice of the different nations between Duryodhana and Yudhisthere. Personal relations like the matrimonial connections of Dhritarashtra’s family with the Sindhus and Gandharas and of the Pandavas with the Matsyas, Panchalas & Yadavas doubtless counted for much, but there must have been something more; personal enmities [counted] for something as in the feud cherished by the Trigartas against Arjouna. The Madras disregarded matrimonial ties when they sided with Duryodhan; the Magadhas & Chedies put aside the memory of personal wrongs when they espoused the cause of Yudhisthere. I believe the explanation we must gather from the hints of the Mahabharata is this, that the nations were divided into three classes, those who desired autonomy, those who desired to break the power of the Kurus and assert their own supremacy and those who imbued with old imperialistic notions desired an united India. The first followed Duryodhana because the empire of Duryodhana could not be more than the empire of a day while that of Yudhisthere had every possibility of permanence; even Queen Gandhari, Duryodhan’s own mother, was able to hit this weak point in her son’s ambition. The Rajasuya Sacrifice had also undoubtedly identified Yudhisthere in men’s minds with the imperialistic impulse of the times. We are given some important hints in the Udyogapurva. When Vidura remonstrates with Krishna for coming to Hastinapura, he tells him it was highly imprudent for him to venture there knowing as he did that the city was full of kings all burning with enmity against him for having deprived them once of their greatness, driven by the fear of him to take refuge

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with Duryodhan and all eager to war against the Pandavas.

aAf\st  v { D trA~-y p;/o mhArA>ymsp\ p ET&yA\. tE-mCm, k vlo nopl mwc g> n fres ke tai mn, fjalmoc n lac kajori . pa , s gr d geln obstruqe kalliprswpe, diktwi ndra kali ka sofn xapati c. od sofc per nr se, dolploke, fximoc odec ka prteroc pntwn doloc rwti sofc.

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Appendix

Lorsque rien n’existait Lorsque rien n’existait, l’amour existait, Et lorsqu’il ne restera plus rien, l’amour restera. Il est le premier et le dernier, Il est le pont de la v´erit´e, Il est le compagnon dans l’angle du tombeau, Il est le lierre qui s’attache a` l’arbre et prend sa belle vie verte dans le cœur qu’il d´evore. ˆ mon fr`ere dou´e d’intelligence pure, C’est pourquoi, O Qui te diriges dans la voie par le tamarin de la direction, Qui p´en`etres le sens cach´e des choses par ton cœur, Qui pr´epares pour toi-mˆeme le jujube de la solitude et la th´eriaque du courage sup´erieur, Qui fr´equentes dans la solitude la divine maˆıtresse Invisible et si visible, Dominatrice des deux Orients et des deux Occidents, La divine amie! ˆ toi dont l’oreille n’est pas dure, O Qui saisis le sens du cri aigre de la porte, Du bourdonnement de la mouche, De la marche des caravanes, Du mouvement de la nu´ee matinale, Du ciel entr’ouvert devenu la rose; ˆ R´eponds! Qu’as-tu compris a` la voix du luth et de la flute?

Poems in Greek and in French

Sur les grands sommets blancs Sur les grands sommets blancs, astre e´ teint et bris´e, Seul dans l’immense nuit de son cœur d´esol´e, L’´er´emite Amita, l’homme e´ lu par les dieux, Leva son vaste front comme un ciel vers les cieux, Et aust`ere il parla, triste, grave, immuable, L’homme divin vaincu au Peuple imp´erissable: ˆ vous que vos soleils brillants, purs et lointains “O Cachent dans les splendeurs, immortels et hautains, ˆ fils de l’Infini, rois de la Lumi`ere! O Guerriers resplendissants de la lutte alti`ere! Nation a` la mort divinement rebelle, Vous qui brisez la loi de la nuit e´ ternelle! ˆ vous qui appelez a` vos sommets ardus O Les pantins de la terre, [ ]1 tribus! * La vaste Nuit parla aux infinis cach´es, L’amante a` ses amants terribles et voil´es.

1 Blank in manuscript. — Ed.

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Note on the Texts

Note on the Texts Sri Aurobindo once wrote that he was “a poet and a politician” first, and only afterwards a philosopher. One might add that he was a poet before he entered politics and a poet after he ceased to write about politics or philosophy. His first published work, written apparently towards the end of 1882, was a short poem. The last writing work he did, towards the end of 1950, was revision of the epic poem Savitri. The results of these sixty-eight years of poetic output are collected in the present volume, with the exception of Savitri, dramatic poetry, poetic translations, and poems written in Bengali and Sanskrit. These appear, respectively, in Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Collected Plays and Stories, Translations, and Writings in Bengali and Sanskrit, volumes 33 – 34, 3 – 4, 5, and 9 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. The poems in the present volume have been arranged in seven chronological parts. The dates of the parts overlap because some of the books that define each period contain poems from a wide range of dates. Within each part, poems from books published by the author are followed by complete and incomplete poems published posthumously. Poems that appeared in books published by Sri Aurobindo during his lifetime are arranged as they were in those books. Otherwise, poems within each section of each part are arranged chronologically. Poems written in Greek and in French appear in an appendix at the end of the volume.

PART ONE: ENGLAND

AND

BARODA, 1883 – 1898

Sri Aurobindo went to England as a child of seven in 1879. He lived in Manchester until 1884, when he went to London to study at St. Paul’s School. From there he went to Cambridge in 1890. Three years later he returned to India, and until 1906 lived and worked in the princely state of Baroda. He began writing poetry in Manchester, and continued

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Collected Poems

in London, Cambridge and Baroda. His first collection, published in Baroda in 1898, contained poems written in England and Baroda. This collection is reproduced in the present part, along with other poems written during these years. Poem Published in 1883 Light. Published 1883. Asked in 1939, “When did you begin to write poetry?”, Sri Aurobindo replied: “When my two brothers and I were staying at Manchester. I wrote for the Fox family magazine. It was an awful imitation of somebody I don’t remember.” The only English journal having a name resembling “the Fox family magazine” is Fox’s Weekly, which first appeared on 11 January 1883 and was suspended the following November. Published from Leeds, it catered to the middle and working classes of that industrial town. A total of nine poems appeared in Fox’s Weekly during its brief existence. All but one of them are coarse adult satires. The exception is “Light”, published in the issue of 11 January 1883. Like all other poems in Fox’s Weekly, “Light” is unsigned, but there can be no doubt that it was the poem to which Sri Aurobindo referred when he said that his first verses were published in “the Fox family magazine”. The poem’s stanza is an imitation of the one used by P. B. Shelley in the well-known lyric “The Cloud”. Sri Aurobindo remarked in 1926 that as a child in Manchester, he went through the works of Shelley again and again. He also wrote that he read the Bible “assiduously” while living in the house of his guardian, William H. Drewett, a Congregationalist clergyman. Songs to Myrtilla This, Sri Aurobindo’s first collection of poems, was printed in 1898 for private circulation by the Lakshmi Vilas Printing Press, Baroda, under the title Songs to Myrtilla and Other Poems. No copy of the first edition survives. The second edition, which was probably a reimpression of the first, is undated. The date of publication must therefore be inferred from other evidence. The book’s handwritten manuscript, as well as the second edition, contains the poem “Lines on Ireland”, dated 1896. The second edition contains a translation from Chandidasa that almost

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certainly was done using an edition of Chandidasa’s works published in 1897. On 17 October 1898, Sri Aurobindo’s brother Manmohan wrote in a letter to Rabindranath Tagore: “My brother . . . has just published a volume of poems at Baroda.” This book evidently is Songs to Myrtilla. In another letter Manmohan tells Tagore: “Aurobinda is anxious to know what you think of his book of verses.” This second letter is dated 24 October 1894, but the year clearly is wrong. Manmohan had not even returned to India from England by that date. When the two letters are read together and when other documentary evidence is evaluated, it becomes clear that the second letter also was written in 1898, and that this was the year of publication of the first edition of Songs to Myrtilla.1 The “second edition” apparently appeared a year or two later. A new edition of the book, entitled simply Songs to Myrtilla, was published by the Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in April 1923. When a biographer suggested during the 1940s that all the poems in Songs to Myrtilla were written in Baroda, except for five that were written in England, Sri Aurobindo corrected him as follows: “It is the other way round; all the poems in the book were written in England except five later ones which were written after his return to India.” The following poems certainly were written in Baroda after his return to India in 1893: “Lines on Ireland” (dated 1896), “Saraswati with the Lotus” and “Bankim Chandra Chatterji” (both written after the death of Bankim in 1894), and “To the Cuckoo” (originally subtitled “A Spring morning in India”). “Madhusudan Dutt” was probably also written in Baroda, as were the two adaptations of poems by Chandidasa. This makes seven poems. The number five, proposed by the biographer and not by Sri Aurobindo, was probably not meant by Sri Aurobindo to be taken as an exact figure. The handwritten manuscript of Songs to Myrtilla contains one poem, “The Just Man”, that was not printed in any edition of the book. (It is reproduced here in the third section of Part One.) The manuscript and the second edition contain a dedication and a Latin epigraph, which Sri Aurobindo later deleted. They are reproduced here 1 Manmohan Ghose’s letters to Tagore are reproduced and discussed in Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, volume 12 (1988), pp. 86 – 87, 89 – 91.

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from the manuscript: To my brother Manmohan Ghose these poems are dedicated. Tale tuum nobis carmen, divine poeta, Quale sopor fessis in gramine, quale per aestum Dulcis aquae saliente sitim restinguere rivo. *** Quae tibi, quae tali reddam pro carmine dona? The Latin lines are from Virgil’s fifth Eclogue, lines 45 – 47 and 81. They may be translated as follows: So is thy song to me, poet divine, As slumber on the grass to weary limbs, Or to slake thirst from some sweet-bubbling rill In summer’s heat . . . How, how repay thee for a song so rare? Four of the poems in Songs to Myrtilla are adaptations of works written in other languages: two in ancient Greek and two in mediaeval Bengali. These adaptations are published here in their original context. They are also published in Translations, volume 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Songs to Myrtilla. Circa 1890 – 98. This, the title-poem of the collection, is headed in the manuscript “Sweet is the night”. O Co¨ıl, Co¨ıl. Circa 1890 – 98. The co¨ıl is the koyel or Indian cuckoo. Goethe. Circa 1890 – 98. The Lost Deliverer. Circa 1890 – 98. In the manuscript and the Baroda edition, this epigram is entitled “Ferdinand Lassalle”. Lassalle (1825 – 64), a German socialist leader, was killed in a duel over a woman. Charles Stewart Parnell. Dated 1891, the year of the Irish nationalist leader’s death. Hic Jacet. Dated 1891 in the manuscript; subtitled in the manuscript

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and in all printed editions: “Glasnevin Cemetery”. This is the cemetery in Dublin where Parnell is buried. Lines on Ireland. Dated 1896 in the manuscript and all printed editions. On a Satyr and Sleeping Love. Circa 1890 – 98. This is a translation of a Greek epigram attributed to Plato. A Rose of Women. Circa 1890 – 98. This is a translation of a Greek epigram by Meleager (first century B.C.). Saraswati with the Lotus. 1894 or later. Written after the death of the Bengali novelist Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838 – 94). Night by the Sea. Circa 1890 – 98. The Lover’s Complaint. Circa 1890 – 98. Love in Sorrow. Circa 1890 – 98. The Island Grave. Circa 1890 – 98. Estelle. Circa 1890 – 98. Radha’s Complaint in Absence. Circa 1890 – 98, probably towards the end of this period. This is an adaptation of a poem by the Bengali poet and mystic Chandidasa (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century). Radha’s Appeal. Circa 1890 – 98, probably towards the end of this period. Another adaptation of a poem by Chandidasa. Bankim Chandra Chatterji. Circa 1894 – 98. Certainly written after Bankim’s death in 1894. The poem is entitled in the manuscript “Lines written after reading a novel of Bunkim Chundra Chatterji”. Madhusudan Dutt. Circa 1893 – 98. To the Cuckoo. Circa 1893 – 98. Subtitled in the manuscript “A Spring morning in India”. The subtitle may have been deleted from the Baroda edition simply for lack of space. Envoi. Circa 1890 – 98, probably closer to 1898. Entitled “Vale” in the manuscript. No title was printed in the Baroda edition, perhaps for lack of space. The title “Envoi” was given when a new edition of Songs to Myrtilla was brought out in 1923. The Latin epigraph is from the Appendix Vergiliana (poems once ascribed to Virgil, but more likely by a contemporary), Catalepton, Carmen 5, lines 8 – 11. The following translation of these lines is by Joseph J. Mooney (The Minor Poems of Vergil [Birmingham, 1916]): O Muses, off with you, be gone with all the rest! Ye charming Muses, for the truth shall be confessed

696

Collected Poems Ye charming were, and modestly and rarely still Ye must revisit pages that I then shall fill. Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1891 – 1898

All but one of the pieces in this section and the next are taken from a notebook Sri Aurobindo used at Cambridge between 1890 and 1892. To a Hero-Worshipper. September 1891. From the Cambridge notebook. Phaethon. Circa 1891 – 92. From the Cambridge notebook. The Just Man. Circa 1891 – 98. This poem forms part of the manuscript of Songs to Myrtilla but was not included by Sri Aurobindo in the printed book. Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1891 – 1892 Thou bright choregus. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1891 – 92. These two stanzas are from the Cambridge notebook. Published here for the first time. Like a white statue. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1891 – 92. This incomplete prose poem is from the Cambridge notebook. In the manuscript, there is a comma at the end of the last line. The Vigil of Thaliard. 1891 – 92. Sri Aurobindo wrote this incomplete ballad in the Cambridge notebook. He dated certain passages of it August and September 1891 and March and April 1892.

PART TWO: BARODA,

CIRCA

1898 – 1902

Complete Narrative Poems Urvasie. Circa 1898. This poem first appeared in a small book printed for private circulation by the Vani Vilas Press, Baroda. (A deluxe edition was printed later by the Caxton Works, Bombay.) In 1942, Sri Aurobindo informed the editors of Collected Poems and Plays that Urvasie was printed “sometime before I wrote ‘Love and Death’”, that is, before 1899. He also indicated that Urvasie was subsequent

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to Songs to Myrtilla, which was published in 1898. Taking these data together, one is obliged to assign Urvasie to 1898 – 99. Love and Death. The handwritten manuscript of this poem is dated “June. July 1899”. The poem first appeared in print in the review Shama’a in January 1921, and was reprinted the same year by Mrinalini Chattopadhyay, Aghore Mandir, Madras. A Note on Love and Death. Circa 1921. This is the longest of three handwritten drafts of a note Sri Aurobindo thought of adding to Love and Death when it was published in 1921. In the event, the poem was published without a note. Incomplete Narrative Poems, circa 1899 – 1902 Khaled of the Sea. 1899. The handwritten manuscript of this poem is dated in three places: “Jan 1899” at the end of the Prologue, “Feb. 1899” in the middle of Canto I, and “March, 1899” at the end. Uloupie. Circa 1901 – 2. A portion of the rough draft of this poem was written below some notes that may be dated to May 1901. The poem was never completed, but was drawn upon in the writing of Chitrangada (see below, Part Four). Sonnets from Manuscripts, circa 1900 – 1901 Sri Aurobindo wrote the twelve sonnets in this section, as well as the fourteen poems in the next section, in a notebook that contains the fair copy of Uloupie, which was written in 1901 – 2. The other contents of the notebook may have been drafted sometime earlier; “The Spring Child” certainly was. The notebook was seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. This made it impossible for him to revise or publish these poems after his release from jail in 1909. In the manuscript, the first four sonnets are grouped together under the heading: “Four Sonnets”. None of the twelve have titles. O face that I have loved. Circa 1900 – 1901. I cannot equal. Circa 1900 – 1901. O letter dull and cold. Circa 1900 – 1901. My life is wasted. Circa 1900 – 1901. Because thy flame is spent. Circa 1900 – 1901.

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Thou didst mistake. Circa 1900 – 1901. Rose, I have loved. Circa 1900 – 1901. I have a hundred lives. Circa 1900 – 1901. Still there is something. Circa 1900 – 1901. I have a doubt. Circa 1900 – 1901. To weep because a glorious sun. Circa 1900 – 1901. What is this talk. Circa 1900 – 1901. Short Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1900 – 1901 Sri Aurobindo wrote these fourteen poems in the notebook he used also for Uloupie and the above sonnets. He wrote the heading “Miscellaneous” above the poems. They are arranged here in the order in which they appear in Sri Aurobindo’s notebook. The Spring Child. 1900. As recorded in the subtitle, this poem was written for Sri Aurobindo’s cousin Basanti Mitra, who was born on 9 Jyestha 1292 (22 May 1886). The title and opening of the poem ¯ involve a play on the Bengali word basant¯ ı, which means “vernal”, “of the spring”. A Doubt. Circa 1900 – 1901. The Nightingale. Circa 1900 – 1901. Euphrosyne. Circa 1900 – 1901. The Greek word euphrosun¯e means “cheerfulness, mirth, merriment”. In Greek mythology, Euphrosyne was one of the three Graces. A Thing Seen. Circa 1900 – 1901. Epitaph. Circa 1900 – 1901. To the Modern Priam. Circa 1900 – 1901. Song. Circa 1900 – 1901. Epigram. Circa 1900 – 1901. The Three Cries of Deiphobus. Circa 1900 – 1901. Perigone Prologuises. Circa 1900 – 1901. Since I have seen your face. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 – 1901. So that was why. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 – 1901. Sri Aurobindo wrote this passage at the bottom of several pages of the notebook that contains the above poems. Dramatic in style, it may

Note on the Texts

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have been intended for a play. World’s delight. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 – 1901.

PART THREE: BARODA

AND

BENGAL,

CIRCA

1900 – 1909

Poems from Ahana and Other Poems Ahana and Other Poems was published in 1915. It consists of the long poem Ahana, written in Pondicherry, and twenty-four shorter poems, most of which were written in Baroda. Sometime after 1915, Sri Aurobindo wrote in his copy of the book, “Written mostly between 1895 and 1908, first published at Pondicherry in 1915.” This inscription shows a degree of uncertainty: “1895” was written over “1900”, while “1908” was written over “1907”. Neither of the dates, written more than a decade after the poems, need be considered exact. Surviving manuscript drafts of these poems do not appear to be earlier than 1900. Near-final drafts of many of them are found in a typed manuscript that may be dated to 1904 – 6. When Sri Aurobindo looked over these poems in 1942 while his Collected Poems and Plays was being arranged, he commented: “I find that most of the poems are quite early in Baroda, others later on and others in the second period [of poems in the book, i.e. 1906 – 9]. It would be a pity to break up these poems, as they form a natural group by themselves.” In the present volume, these twenty-four poems are published in a single group, while “Ahana” is published along with other works written in Pondicherry. Two of the poems in this section, “Karma” and “Appeal”, are adaptations of mediaeval Indian lyrics. They are published here in their original context, and also in Translations, volume 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Invitation. 1908 – 9. This poem was published in Sri Aurobindo’s weekly newspaper Karmayogin on 6 November 1909, under the inscription: “(Composed in the Alipur Jail)”. Sri Aurobindo was a prisoner in Alipore Jail between 5 May 1908 and 6 May 1909. Who. Circa 1908 – 9. Published in the Karmayogin on 13 November 1909.

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Miracles. Circa 1900 – 1906. Reminiscence. Circa 1900 – 1906. A typewritten copy of this poem was an exhibit in the Alipore Bomb Case in 1908 (see Bande Mataram weekly, 5 July 1908, p. 13). A Vision of Science. Circa 1900 – 1906. Immortal Love. Circa 1900 – 1906. A Tree. Circa 1900 – 1906. To the Sea. Circa 1900 – 1906. A version of the poem was published in the Modern Review in June 1909. Revelation. Circa 1900 – 1906. A draft of this poem, entitled “The Vision”, is found in the manuscript notebook that contains “Uloupie” and other poems included in Part Two. This draft differs considerably from the version found in the typed manuscript of 1904 – 6, which was used as the basis of the text published in Ahana and Other Poems. Karma. Circa 1900 – 1906 or later. This is a free rendering of a poem by the mediaeval Bengali poet Chandidasa. Appeal. Circa 1900 – 1906 or later. This poem is based in part on a song by the mediaeval Maithili poet Vidyapati. The first stanza follows Vidyapati’s text fairly closely; the next two stanzas are Sri Aurobindo’s own invention. A Child’s Imagination. Circa 1900 – 1906. The Sea at Night. Circa 1900 – 1906. The Vedantin’s Prayer. Circa 1900 – 1906. Rebirth. Circa 1900 – 1906. The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou. Circa 1900 – 1906. Life and Death. Circa 1900 – 1906. Evening. Circa 1900 – 1906. Parabrahman. Circa 1900 – 1906. God. Circa 1900 – 1906. The Fear of Death. Circa 1900 – 1906. Seasons. Circa 1900 – 1906. The Rishi. Circa 1900 – 1908. Sheets containing draft passages of this poem were seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. Sometime after the poem was published in Ahana and Other Poems, Sri Aurobindo wrote under it in his copy of the book “(1907 – 1911)” — but see the note under the section title above. In the Moonlight. Circa 1900 – 1906.

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Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1900 – 1906 Sri Aurobindo wrote these poems around the same time that he wrote those making up the previous section. Many of them form part of a typed manuscript that contains poems included in Ahana and Other Poems. Sri Aurobindo chose not to include the poems in the present section in that book when it was published in 1915. They first appeared in print posthumously. To the Boers. Circa 1900 – 1902. According to the subtitle, this poem was written “during the progress of the Boer War”. The Boer War began in 1899 and ended in 1902. Vision. Circa 1900 – 1906. To the Ganges. Circa 1900 – 1906. Suddenly out from the wonderful East. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1900 – 1902. This poem is Sri Aurobindo’s earliest surviving attempt to write a poem in dactylic hexameters. A fair copy is found on the same sheet as a fair copy of “To the Boers”, which was written around 1900 – 1902. This and another draft of the poem were seized by the British police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in 1908. Several years later, in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo began what appears to be a new or revised version of this poem, but wrote only three lines: Where in a lapse of the hills leaps lightly down with laughter White with her rustle of raiment upon the spray strewn boulders, Cold in her virgin childhood the river resonant Ganges. On the Mountains. Circa 1900 – 1906.

PART FOUR: CALCUTTA

AND

CHANDERNAGORE, 1907 – 1910

Sri Aurobindo left his teaching position in Baroda in February 1906 and went to Calcutta to join the national movement. Between November 1906 and May 1908 he was the editor of the daily newspaper Bande Mataram, and had little occasion to write poetry. In May 1908 he was arrested and imprisoned in Alipore Jail. During the year of his detention he managed to compose a few poems that were published after his release in May 1909. Between June 1909 and February 1910,

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he was the editor of the weekly journal Karmayogin, in which several of his poems appeared. In February 1910 he went from Calcutta to Chandernagore, and six weeks later to Pondicherry, where he spent the rest of his life. Satirical Poem Published in 1907 Reflections of Srinath Paul, Rai Bahadoor, on the Present Discontents. This poem was published on 5 April 1907 in the daily Bande Mataram. This political newspaper, edited by Sri Aurobindo and others, carried a number of satirical poems, most of which were the work of Sri Aurobindo’s colleague Shyam Sundar Chakravarti. This piece is the exception. Sri Aurobindo remembered writing it in 1942 when his poems were being collected for publication in Collected Poems and Plays. (It was not published in that collection because the file of the daily Bande Mataram was not then available.) Later the poem was independently ascribed to Sri Aurobindo by Hemendra Prasad Ghose, another Bande Mataram editor and writer, who was in a way responsible for its composition. In his report on the session of the Bengal Provincial Conference held in Behrampore in 1907, Hemendra Prasad wrote that the chairman of the Reception Committee, a loyalist named Srinath Paul (who bore the honourary British title Rai Bahadoor), finished his address “perspiring and short of breath” (Bande Mataram, 2 April 1907). This phrase moved Sri Aurobindo to write this amusing piece of political satire. It was published under the heading “By the Way”, which was the headline he used for his occasional column in Bande Mataram. The same words were used in place of a signature at the end. Short Poems Published in 1909 and 1910 The Mother of Dreams. 1908 – 9. Published in the Modern Review in July 1909, two months after Sri Aurobindo’s release from the Alipore Jail. The following note was appended to the text: “This poem was composed by Mr. Aurobindo Ghose in the Alipore Jail, of course without the aid of any writing materials. He committed it to memory and wrote it down after his release. There are several other poems of his, composed in jail.”

Note on the Texts

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An Image. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 20 November 1909. (This was the third poem by Sri Aurobindo that he published in the Karmayogin. The first two, “Invitation” and “Who”, were included in Ahana and Other Poems in 1915, and so are included in Part Three of the present volume.) “An Image”, Sri Aurobindo’s first published lines in quantitative hexameters, may be related in some way to Ilion, his epic poem in that metre, which he began to write in Alipore Jail (see below, Part Five). The Birth of Sin. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 11 December 1909. A fragmentary draft of a related piece is found in one of Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks in handwriting of the 1909 – 10 period. That piece, which is more in the nature of a play than a poem, is published in Collected Plays and Stories, volume 4 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Epiphany. Circa 1909. Published in the Karmayogin on 18 December 1909. Around 1913, Sri Aurobindo copied the Karmayogin text into a notebook, making a few deliberate changes as he did so. Later he revised the opening and close of this version. Three decades later, when Collected Poems and Plays was being compiled, the editors, not knowing about the 1913 version, sent the Karmayogin text to Sri Aurobindo, who made a few revisions to it. This version was used in Collected Poems and Plays (1942) and reproduced in Collected Poems in 1972. The editors of the present volume have selected the more extensively revised version of 1913 for the text reproduced here. The 1942 version is reproduced in the Reference Volume. To R. 1909. Published in the Modern Review in April 1910 under the title “To R — ” and dated 19 July 1909. “R” stands for Ratna, which was the pet name of Sri Aurobindo’s cousin Kumudini Mitra, who was born on 3 Sraban 1289 (18 July 1882). In the Modern Review, the poem was signed “Auro Dada” (big brother Auro). Transiit, Non Periit. 1909 or earlier. This sonnet to Rajnarain Bose, Sri Aurobindo’s maternal grandfather and a well-known writer and speaker, was first published at the beginning of Atmacharit, Rajnarain’s memoirs, in 1909. As mentioned in the note beneath the title, Rajnarain died in September 1899. Sri Aurobindo may have written the poem anytime between 1899 and 1909; but since there are no drafts among his Baroda manuscripts, and since the poem belongs stylistically with

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those of 1909, it seems likely that it was written close to the date of the publication of that book. Quite possibly it was written especially for the book in 1909. The Latin title means: “He has gone beyond, he has not perished.” Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1909 – 1910 Perfect thy motion. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1909. The single manuscript text of this poem is found in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo used for the dramatic version of “The Birth of Sin” (see the previous section) and for the dialogue that follows. All these poems are in the handwriting of the 1909 – 10 period. A Dialogue. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1909. Written in the same notebook and in the same handwriting as “Perfect thy motion” and the dramatic version of “The Birth of Sin”. Unlike that piece, it is not structured as a play, and so has been printed here as a dramatic poem. Narrative Poems Published in 1910 Baji Prabhou. Circa 1904 – 9. Sri Aurobindo wrote that this work was “conceived and written in Bengal during the period of political activity”. This leaves the precise date of its composition unclear. Sri Aurobindo went to Bengal and openly joined the national movement in February 1906, but he had been active behind the scenes for some years before that. A partial draft of Baji Prabhou is found in a notebook he used from around 1902 to around 1910. The handwriting of this draft is that of the later years in Baroda (1904 – 6), and it is probable the poem was written during that period. (Sri Aurobindo spent a good deal of time in Bengal during these years.) Baji Prabhou was published for the first time in three issues of the Karmayogin: 19 February, 26 February and 5 March 1910. At some point he revised the first instalment of the Karmayogin text, but did not make use of this revision subsequently. In 1922 he published the Karmayogin text (with new, very light, revision) at the Modern Press, Pondicherry. This text became the basis of a further revised version published in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. This 1942 version is the basis of the present text. (In the version published in Collected Poems [1972],

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the editors included readings from the revised Karmayogin text. In the present edition these readings have been ignored, but the 1922 and 1942 revisions, both approved by Sri Aurobindo, have been included.) Chitrangada. 1909 – 10. This incomplete poem is related in theme and form to “Uloupie” (see above, Part Two), which Sri Aurobindo wrote around 1901 – 2. The manuscript of “Uloupie” was confiscated by the police in 1908 and never returned. There were, however, two draft passages of the poem in a notebook that Sri Aurobindo had with him in 1909 – 10, and he apparently drew on these to write Chitrangada. Many of the lines in the final version are identical or almost identical to those in the draft passages. Sometime before he left Bengal in February 1910, he gave the manuscript of Chitrangada to the Karmayogin staff for publication. The poem appeared in that newspaper in the issues of 26 March and 2 April 1910. “To be continued” was printed at the end of the second instalment, but the issue in which it appeared was the last to come out. The manuscript of the rest of the poem has been lost. Around 1930, one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples typed the incomplete poem out from the Karmayogin and sent it to Sri Aurobindo, who expressed some dissatisfaction with it. In 1937 he indicated that the poem required some revision before it could be published, but that it was “not the moment” for that. More than a decade later, he revised Chitrangada for publication in the 1949 number of the Sri Aurobindo Circle annual. The following note was printed along with the Circle text: “Sri Aurobindo had completed this poem but the original has been lost, only this fragment remains. It has been revised for publication.” The revision considerably enlarged the passage containing the speech of Chitrangada’s “dying sire”. The new lines appear to be the last poetical lines Sri Aurobindo composed, with the exception of the final revisions and additions to Savitri. Poems Written in 1910 and Published in 1920 – 1921 These three poems have an unusual history. They form part of a manuscript containing material apparently intended for three issues of the Karmayogin. This manuscript also contains articles on yoga, historical studies, satirical sketches, and pieces headed “Passing Thoughts”, which was the name Sri Aurobindo gave to his weekly column in the

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Karmayogin early in 1910. (See the Note on the Texts to Early Cultural Writings, volume 1 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, for more information on this “Chandernagore Manuscript”.) In the middle of February 1910, Sri Aurobindo left Calcutta for Chandernagore, where he remained for six weeks before departing for Pondicherry. It would appear that he left the manuscript containing these poems behind in Chandernagore, that someone there made copies of the poems and other contents of the manuscript, and that at some point the original manuscript was sent to him in Pondicherry. (See Arun Chandra Dutt, ed., Light to Superlight [Calcutta: Prabartak Publishers, 1972], p. 207.) In 1920 – 21 defective texts of the poems (as well as some of the other contents of the manuscript) were published in the Standard Bearer, a journal brought out from Chandernagore. Sometime after their publication, Sri Aurobindo revised the Standard Bearer texts. In 1942, the Standard Bearer versions were given to Sri Aurobindo for further revision before inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays. Evidently he and the editors of the volume had by this time forgotten about the existence of the original manuscripts. These manuscripts, however, are superior to the defective Standard Bearer texts and also to the 1942 version, which is based on those texts. The editors of the present volume have therefore based the texts printed here on the original manuscripts, incorporating the deliberate changes made by Sri Aurobindo in 1942. The texts printed in Collected Poems and Plays are included in the Reference Volume. The Rakshasas. 1910. This poem was intended for the first issue of the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above note. A corrupt version was printed in the Standard Bearer on 14 November 1920. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original manuscript. Kama. 1910. This poem was intended for the second issue of the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above note. A corrupt version was printed in the Standard Bearer on 27 March 1921. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original manuscript.

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The Mahatmas. 1910. This poem was intended for the third issue of the Karmayogin to be printed from the manuscript described in the above note. In the manuscript, the poem is entitled “The Mahatmas: Kutthumi”. A corrupt version was printed under the title “The Mahatma Kuthumi” in the Standard Bearer on 12 and 26 December 1920. This version was revised by Sri Aurobindo for inclusion in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. The present version is based on the original manuscript.

PART FIVE: PONDICHERRY,

CIRCA

1910 – 1920

Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry in 1910 and remained there until his passing in 1950. During this period he published four collections of short poems as well as Collected Poems and Plays (1942). He also published a number of short poems in journals, and wrote scores of poems, long and short, that were not brought out until after his passing. Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters Ilion. Sri Aurobindo began work on this epic in quantitative hexameters in 1908 or 1909. The earliest surviving manuscript lines of the poem — then entitled “The Fall of Troy: An Epic” — were dated by the author as follows: “Commenced in jail, 1909, resumed and completed in Pondicherry, April and May 1910.” Between then and 1914, he worked steadily on this “completed” poem, transforming it from a brief narrative into an epic made up of several books. During the first stage of this enlargement, between April 1910 and March 1913, he produced almost a dozen drafts of the first book and a smaller number of drafts of the second. In March 1913, a sudden fluency permitted him to complete and revise a version of the epic extending up to the end of what is now Book VIII. He wrote the fragmentary ninth book (untitled and not actually headed “Book IX” in the manuscript) in 1914. Probably before then, he copied out the first eight books into notebooks that bear the title Ilion. Subsequently he revised and recopied the completed books, or passages from them, several times. This work continued until around 1917. It would appear that two

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factors — the writing-load of the monthly journal Arya (1914 – 21) and the attention demanded by his other epic, Savitri — caused him to stop work on Ilion before completing what presumably was intended to be a twelve-book epic. During the twenties and thirties, Sri Aurobindo returned to Ilion from time to time. As late as 1935, he complained jocularly that if he could get an hour’s freedom from his correspondence every day, “in another three years Savitri and Ilion and I don’t know how much more would all be rewritten, finished, resplendently complete”. He in fact never found time to complete Ilion, but in 1942 he revised the opening of the first book to serve as an illustration of the quantitative hexameter in “On Quantitative Metre”, an essay that was published in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942 and also in a separate booklet issued the same year. This revised passage of 371 lines was the only portion of Ilion to appear in print during his lifetime. The full text was transcribed from his manuscripts and published in 1957. A new edition, corrected against the manuscripts and with the addition of the opening of the fragmentary ninth book, was brought out in 1989. The present text has been rechecked against the manuscripts. Ahana. This poem in rhymed hexametric couplets, grew out of “The Descent of Ahana” (see below), which took its final form around 1912 – 13. “The Descent of Ahana” is divided into two parts. The first part consists of a long dialogue between Ahana and “Voices”; the second consists of a speech by Ahana, a speech by “A Voice”, and a final speech by Ahana. In the final draft of “The Descent”, the last two speeches of the second part comprise 160 lines. In or before 1915, Sri Aurobindo revised and enlarged these 160 lines into the 171-line poem that was published in Ahana and Other Poems. In this version, Sri Aurobindo added a head-note setting the scene of the poem and a footnote glossing the term “Ras”. Sometime after 1915, he revised the 1915 text, but apparently forgot about this revision, which has never been published. In or before 1942, he again revised the 1915 text for publication in Collected Poems and Plays. This 1942 revision brought the poem to its present length of 518 lines.

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Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1912 – 1913 The Descent of Ahana. Circa 1912 – 13. The earliest known draft of this poem is found among the papers that the police seized from Sri Aurobindo’s room when he was arrested in May 1908. A complete fair copy is found in a manuscript notebook that may be dated circa 1912 – 13. The second part of the fair copy was subsequently revised and published under the title “Ahana” in Ahana and Other Poems (1915). See the note to “Ahana” in the previous section. The Meditations of Mandavya. 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote the date “April 12, 1913” at the end of a draft of the first part of this poem. The incident of the scorpion-sting happened before 14 February 1911, when Sri Aurobindo mentioned it in Record of Yoga as something that had happened in the past. In the mid 1930s, when the book entitled Poems Past and Present was being prepared, a copy of “The Meditations of Mandavya” was typed for Sri Aurobindo, who revised it lightly. He chose however not to include the poem in that collection. The revisions done at that time are incorporated in the text for the first time in the present edition. Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1912 – 1920 Thou who controllest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1912. Sri Aurobindo wrote these lines in dactylic hexameter inside the back cover of a notebook that he used sometime before November 1912. He was working on Ilion at this time, but these lines do not seem to belong to that poem. Neither do they appear to be a translation of lines from the Iliad, the Odyssey or any other classical text. Sole in the meadows of Thebes. No title in the manuscript. 1913. Written on the same manuscript page as the following poem, at around the same time. It is almost certainly to this poem that Sri Aurobindo was referring when he wrote in Record of Yoga on 21 September 1913 of beginning an “Eclogue in hexameter”. O Will of God. No title in the manuscript. 1913. Written on the same manuscript page as the previous poem. The Tale of Nala [1]. Circa 1916 – 20. There are very few clues by

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which this incomplete poem might be dated. Judging from the handwriting, it was composed towards the end of the second decade of the century. It obviously is based on the story of Nala, as recounted in the Mahabharata and later texts, but does not seem to be a translation of any known Sanskrit work. The passages separated by a blank line were written separately and not joined together. The Tale of Nala [2]. Circa 1916 – 20. Sri Aurobindo seems to have written this rhymed version of the opening of his proposed poem on Nala after the blank verse version. He retained several lines from the earlier version unchanged or practically unchanged.

PART SIX: BARODA

AND

PONDICHERRY,

CIRCA

1902 – 1936

Poems Past and Present These eight poems were published as a booklet by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1946. (Four of them — “Musa Spiritus”, “Bride of the Fire”, “The Blue Bird” and “A God’s Labour” — had appeared in journals connected with the Ashram earlier the same year.) All the poems were written at least a decade, one of them four and a half decades, before 1946. The first draft of “Hell and Heaven” dates back to around 1902, early drafts of “Kamadeva” and “Life” to around 1913. A notebook containing these three early poems was uncovered by Sri Aurobindo’s secretary, Nolini Kanta Gupta, in April 1932. He typed out copies and sent them to Sri Aurobindo with this note: “I have copied these poems out of a notebook that was being hopelessly eaten away by insects. I do not know how far I have been able to recover the text.” Sri Aurobindo revised these poems around that time, adding a fourth, “One Day”, while he worked. Several years later these four poems were published along with four that had been written in 1935 and 1936 under the title Poems Past and Present. The eight poems are reproduced here in the order in which they are printed in that book. Musa Spiritus. 1935. An early draft of this poem occurs between drafts of “A God’s Labour” and “The Blue Bird” (see below). Sri Aurobindo wrote the date “31.7.35” at the end of a later draft. There are two

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handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript of this poem. Bride of the Fire. 1935. The first draft of this poem is dated 11 November 1935. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts. The Blue Bird. 1935. The first draft of this poem is dated 11 November 1935. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts. A God’s Labour. 1935 – 36. A late draft of this poem is dated as follows: “31.7.35 / Last 4 stanzas 1.1.36”. There are four handwritten and two typed manuscripts. Hell and Heaven. Circa 1902 – 30s. The earliest extant draft of this poem is found in the typed manuscript that contains drafts of “To the Ganges”, “To the Boers”, etc. (see above, Part Three). Around 1912 Sri Aurobindo copied the poem out by hand in a notebook. Twenty years later, his secretary Nolini Kanta Gupta typed this and the next two poems out from this notebook and presented them to Sri Aurobindo for revision. Fourteen years after that they were included in Poems Past and Present. There are one handwritten and two typed manuscripts. Kamadeva. Circa 1913. The earliest surviving drafts of this poem and the next one are found in the notebook that contains “The Meditations of Mandavya” (see above, Part Five), the opening of which is dated 1913. In 1932 they were typed out and fourteen years later included in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript. Life. Circa 1913. The earliest surviving drafts of this poem and the previous one are found in the notebook that contains “The Meditations of Mandavya” (see above, Part Five), the opening of which is dated 1913. In 1932 they were typed out and fourteen years later included in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript. One Day. Circa 1932. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first draft of this poem in the notebook containing drafts of the previous three poems, which Nolini Kanta Gupta uncovered and sent to him in 1932. This draft was lightly revised and later included in Poems Past and Present. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript.

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Collected Poems PART SEVEN: PONDICHERRY,

CIRCA

1927 – 1947

Sri Aurobindo published three short volumes of poetry, and a volume on poetics that included poems as illustrations, between 1934 and 1946. One of the volumes of poems, Poems Past and Present, comprises Part Six of the present volume. The other volumes are included in this part, which also contains complete and incomplete poems from his manuscripts of the same period. Six Poems These poems were written in 1932, 1933 and 1934. In 1934 a book was planned that would include the six poems along with translations of them into Bengali by disciples of Sri Aurobindo. This book was published by Rameshwar & Co., Chandernagore, before the end of the year. Shown a proposed publicity blurb for the book, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “One can’t blow one’s own trumpet in this monstrous way, nor do I want it to be indicated that I am publishing this book. It is Nolini’s publication, not mine. Why can’t a decent notice be given instead of these terrible blurbs?” He also wrote his own descriptive paragraph stating that the six poems were in “novel English metres” and that the book included “notes on the metres of the poems and their significance drawn from the letters of Sri Aurobindo”. The texts as well as the notes were reprinted in Collected Poems and Plays (1942). The Bird of Fire. 17 October 1933. No handwritten manuscripts of this poem survive. There are three typed manuscripts, two of which are dated 17 October 1933. In a letter written shortly afterwards, Sri Aurobindo said that “Bird of Fire” was “written on two consecutive days — and afterwards revised”. He also wrote that this poem and “Trance” (see below) were completed the same day.2 Trance. 16 October 1933. There are two handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript, which is dated “16.10.33”. In the same letter in which Sri Aurobindo wrote about the composition of “The Bird of Fire” (see above), he noted that “Trance” was written “at one sitting 2 Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Poetry and Art, volume 27 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, p. 244.

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— it took only a few minutes”. In Six Poems “Trance” was placed after “The Bird of Fire”. Shiva. 6 November 1933. There are two handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript, which is dated “6.11.33”. The Life Heavens. 15 November 1933. There are four handwritten and three typed manuscripts. The typed manuscripts are dated “15.11.33”. Jivanmukta. 13 April 1934. There are four handwritten and two typed manuscripts. The typed manuscripts are dated “13.4.34”. The poem was published in the Calcutta Review in June 1934. In Horis Aeternum. 19 April 1932. Sri Aurobindo began this poem while corresponding with Arjava (J. A. Chadwick, a British disciple) about English prosody. He wrote the first stanza in a letter to Arjava and the full poem in a subsequent letter (Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 231 – 34). There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts. One of the typed manuscripts is dated “19.4.32”. Notes. These notes were compiled from Sri Aurobindo’s letters and revised by him for publication while Six Poems was under production. Poems These six poems were written during the early 1930s and published as a booklet by the Government Central Press, Hyderabad, in 1941. The next year they were reprinted in Collected Poems and Plays under the heading “Transformation and Other Poems”. Sometime in the 1940s a small edition of the book was published by the India Library Society, New York. Transformation. Circa 1933. This sonnet was published in the Calcutta Review in October 1934. Two months earlier, Sri Aurobindo asked his secretary to type copies of this poem and three others (“The Other Earths”, “The World Game” and “Symbol Moon”) from the notebook in which they and others had been written. When “Transformation” and “The Other Earths” were published in 1934, Sri Aurobindo informed a disciple that they were “some years old already” (Letters on Poetry and Art, p. 211), but it is unlikely that they were more than a year old at that time. The first draft of “Transformation” occurs in a notebook just after the first draft of “Trance”, which is dated 16

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October 1933; it is probable that “Transformation” was written the same year. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts of this poem. In a note written after “Transformation” and the next two sonnets were typed for publication, Sri Aurobindo said that he wanted the sestets of Miltonic sonnets to be set as they have been set in the present book, irrespective of rhyme scheme. Nirvana. August 1934. This sonnet was written while the texts of “Transformation” and “The Other Earths” were being prepared for publication in the Calcutta Review. It was published along with them in that journal in October 1934. There are two handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript of this poem. The Other Earths. Circa 1933. This sonnet was published in the Calcutta Review in October 1934. Its first draft occurs just after the first draft of “Transformation”, which is dated 16 October 1933; thus it belongs, in all probability, to the year 1933. See the note to “Transformation” for more details. Writing to a disciple who was trying to translate it into Bengali, Sri Aurobindo wrote that the line “Fire importunities of scarlet bloom” meant “an abundance of scarlet blossoms importuning (constantly insisting, besieging) with the fire of their vivid hues”. There are two handwritten and two typed manuscripts of this poem. Thought the Paraclete. 31 December 1934 (this is the date on a typed manuscript; the handwritten manuscripts were probably written in June 1934). This poem originated as a metrical experiment, in which Sri Aurobindo tried to match a Bengali metrical model submitted to him by his disciple Dilip Kumar Roy.3 There are at least three handwritten and two typed manuscripts of this poem. A printed text was produced sometime before 1941, but apparently was never published. Moon of Two Hemispheres. July 1934. Like “Thought the Paraclete”, this poem originated in an attempt to duplicate a Bengali metre proposed by Dilip Kumar Roy. Replying to Dilip, Sri Aurobindo began: “After two days of wrestling I have to admit that I am beaten by your last metre. I have written something, but it is a fake.” He then wrote out the first stanza of the poem, pointing out where he had 3 Dilip Kumar Roy, Sri Aurobindo Came to Me (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1952), p. 237.

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failed to meet Dilip’s specifications. He closed by saying: “I have some idea of adding a second stanza”, though “it may never take birth at all” (Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 235 – 36). He did write a second stanza later. The poem was published in the “Sri Aurobindo Number” (volume 2, number 5) of the Calcutta fortnightly journal Onward in August 1934. There are four handwritten and two typed manuscripts of this poem. Rose of God. 29 – 30 December 1934. There is one handwritten and one typed manuscript of this poem. The typed manuscript is dated 31 December 1934; however Sri Aurobindo wrote in a letter to a disciple that “Rose of God” was ready “on the 30th having been written on that and the previous day”. On 31 December, he wrote to his secretary that the just-typed “Rose of God” could be “circulated first as a sort of New Year invocation”. On 2 March 1935, his secretary wrote to him saying that the editor of a quarterly journal had asked for a poem to be published, and asking whether “Rose of God” could be sent. Sri Aurobindo replied: “I feel squeamish about publishing the ‘Rose of God’ in a magazine or newspaper. It seems to me the wrong place altogether.” Note. This note did not form part of Poems (1941); it was first published in 1942 in Collected Poems and Plays. Poems Published in On Quantitative Metre With two exceptions, these poems were written in 1942 for publication in Collected Poems and Plays. Sri Aurobindo later commented that he wrote them “very rapidly — in the course of a week, I think”. In regard to “Flame-Wind” and “Trance of Waiting”, this would refer not to the composition but the revision, since the first drafts of these pieces were written during the mid 1930s. The fourteen poems, along with the first 371 lines of Ilion, first appeared as an appendix to On Quantitative Metre. This text was published as part of Collected Poems and Plays, and also as a separate book, in 1942. Each of the poems was followed by a footnote written by the author giving details of the metre used. These notes have not been included in the present volume, but may be seen in the text of On Quantitative Metre, published in The Future Poetry with On Quantitative Metre, volume 26 of THE COMPLETE

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WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. The first 371 lines of Ilion appear in Part Five of the present volume as part of the full text of the poem. Ocean Oneness. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts, both entitled “Brahman”, precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Trance of Waiting. Circa 1934. The first draft of this poem was written around the same time as “Jivanmukta”, which is dated 1934. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work in 1942. Flame-Wind. 1937. A handwritten draft of this poem is dated 1937. This draft is entitled “Dream Symbols”. Three other handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work in 1942. The River. 1942. Three handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Journey’s End. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work. The Dream Boat. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Soul in the Ignorance. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work. The Witness and the Wheel. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Descent. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work. The Lost Boat. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Renewal. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Soul’s Scene. 1942. Three handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work. Ascent. 1942. Two handwritten manuscripts precede the On Quantitative Metre revision work. The Tiger and the Deer. 1942. A single handwritten manuscript precedes the On Quantitative Metre revision work.

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Sonnets Sri Aurobindo wrote a total of seventy-five sonnets between 1933 and 1947. Only three of them were published in a book during his lifetime (see above under Poems). The other seventy-two are reproduced in the present section. See the note to “Transformation” for typographical conventions. Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1934 that he intended his sonnets to “be published in a separate book of sonnets”. This was done in the book Sonnets, first published in 1980. Three Sonnets One of these sonnets was written around 1934, the other two in 1939. Sri Aurobindo selected them from among his completed sonnets for publication in the Sri Aurobindo Circle, Bombay, in 1948. They were published under the heading “Three Sonnets”. Man the Enigma. 17 September 1939. Three handwritten and two typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948. The Infinitesimal Infinite. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and four typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948. The Cosmic Dance. 15 September 1939. Four handwritten and two typed manuscripts precede the Circle publication in 1948. Sonnets from Manuscripts, circa 1934 – 1947 On 31 December 1934, Nolini Kanta Gupta wrote in a note to Sri Aurobindo: “Sometime ago I typed Seven Sonnets — Are they not in their final form?” Sri Aurobindo replied: “No. I have had no time to see them — and I am still a little doubtful about their quality.” The seven sonnets were (in the order of Nolini’s typed copies): “Contrasts”, “Man the Thinking Animal”, “Evolution [1]”, “Evolution [2]”, “The Call of the Impossible”, “Man the Mediator”, and “The Infinitesimal Infinite”. Sri Aurobindo later revised most of the seven, along with an eighth, “The Silver Call”, which is related to “The Infinitesimal Infinite”. After further revision he published “The Infinitesimal Infinite” as part of “Three Sonnets” in 1948 (see above).

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Man the Thinking Animal. Circa 1934. Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript, the earliest contemporaneous with closeto-final drafts of “Transformation” and “The Other Earths”. Contrasts. Circa 1934. Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript, the earliest contemporaneous with close-to-final drafts of “Transformation” and “The Other Earths”. The Silver Call. Written on or before 25 April 1934 (when Sri Aurobindo quoted five lines in a letter to Dilip Kumar Roy); revised 1944. Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript; the first handwritten manuscript was written shortly after those of the two preceding sonnets. The original poem went through several versions, eventually becoming two, “The Silver Call” and “The Call of the Impossible”. The final version of “The Silver Call” is dated “193 – (?) / 23.3.44”. Evolution [1]. Circa 1934, revised 1944. Five handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript, that is dated “193 – (?) / 22.3.44”. This poem and the one above were often worked on together, as were the two that follow. The Call of the Impossible. 1934; revised subsequently. Four handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript. This poem began as a variant of “The Silver Call”: the first lines of the two poems were once identical — “There is a godhead in unrealised things” — and the first rhyming words remain the same even in the final versions. Evolution [2]. Circa 1934. Two handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript. The handwritten drafts were written around the same time as early drafts of “The Call of the Impossible”; the final typed versions of the two poems are also contemporaneous. The present sonnet has the same title as the one which forms a pair with “A Silver Call” (see “Evolution [1]” above). There is no textual relation between it and its namesake, but there is some between it and “The Silver Call”: its closing couplet was first used as the close of “The Silver Call” and its second and fourth lines are similar to the tenth and twelfth lines of “The Silver Call”. Man the Mediator. Circa 1934. Four handwritten manuscripts and one typed manuscript. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next five sonnets in 1934 or 1935, at around

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the same time. He did not ask his secretary to make typed copies of any of the five, and gave titles to only three of them. The other two (one of which began as a variant of one of the first three) were found recently among the manuscripts of this group and recognised as separate poems. Discoveries of Science. Circa 1934 – 35. Three handwritten manuscripts. All here is Spirit. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934 – 35. One handwritten manuscript. Published here for the first time. The Ways of the Spirit [1]. Circa 1934 – 35. Four handwritten manuscripts. The Ways of the Spirit [2]. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934 – 35. Three handwritten manuscripts. Science and the Unknowable. Circa 1934 – 35. Three handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next two sonnets in the early part of 1936. The Yogi on the Whirlpool. 1936. Two handwritten manuscripts, neither of them dated, but certainly written just before “The Kingdom Within”. The Kingdom Within. 14 March 1936. Two handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next three sonnets in the early part of 1938. Now I have borne. No title in the manuscript. 2 February 1938. Two handwritten manuscripts. Electron. 15 July 1938. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Indwelling Universal. 15 July 1938. Two handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next nine sonnets in July and August 1938 and revised them in March 1944. Bliss of Identity. 25 July 1938, revised 21 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “Identity”. The Witness Spirit. 26 July 1938, revised 21 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Hidden Plan. 26 July 1938, revised 18 and 21 March 1944. Two

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Collected Poems

handwritten manuscripts. The Pilgrim of the Night. 26 July 1938, revised 18 March 1944. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “In the Night”. Cosmic Consciousness. 26 July 1938, revised apparently on 21 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Cosmic Man”. Liberation [1]. 27 July 1938, revised 22 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Inconscient. 27 July 1938, revised 21 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts. Life-Unity. 8 August 1938, revised 22 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Golden Light. 8 August 1938, revised 22 March 1944. Two handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next thirty-nine sonnets between 11 September and 16 November 1939. He wrote two other sonnets, “Man the Enigma” and “The Cosmic Dance” during the same period (see above under “Three Sonnets”). The Infinite Adventure. 11 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Greater Plan. 12 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Universal Incarnation. 13 September 1939. Four handwritten manuscripts. The Godhead. 13 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. This sonnet is about an experience Sri Aurobindo had during the first year of his stay in Baroda (1893). The Stone Goddess. 13 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. This sonnet is about an experience Sri Aurobindo had at a temple in Karnali, on the banks of the Narmada, near the end of his stay in Baroda (c. 1904 – 6). Krishna. 15 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Shiva. 16 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Word of the Silence. 18 – 19 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Self’s Infinity. 18 – 19 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the second entitled “Self-Infinity”.

Note on the Texts

721

The Dual Being. 19 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Lila. 20 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the second entitled “The Thousandfold One”. Surrender. 20 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Divine Worker. 20 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Guest. 21 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Guest of Nature”. The Inner Sovereign. 22 September 1939, revised 27 September. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Sovereign Tenant”. Creation. 24 September 1939, revised 28 September. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Conscious Inconscient”. A Dream of Surreal Science. 25 September 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. In the Battle. 25 September 1939. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Little Ego. 26 September 1939, revised 29 September. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Miracle of Birth. 27 September 1939, revised 29 September. Six handwritten manuscripts, the second entitled “The Divine Mystery”, the third “The Divine Miracle-Play”, and the fourth and fifth “The Miracle-Play”. The Bliss of Brahman. 29 September 1939, revised 21 October. Five handwritten manuscripts; the first has the epigraph: “He who has found the bliss of Brahman, has no fear from any quarter. / Upanishad [Taittiriya Upanishad 2.4]”. Moments. 29 September 1939, revised 2 October. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Body. 2 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Liberation [2]. 2 – 3 October 1939, revised 5 November. Three handwritten manuscripts. Light. 3 – 4 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Unseen Infinite. 4 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Omnipresent”. “I”. 15 October 1939, revised 5 November. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Cosmic Spirit. 15 October 1939, revised 5 November. Two handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “Cosmic Consciousness”, revised

722

Collected Poems

to “Cosmic Self”. Self. 15 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “Liberty”. Omnipresence. 17 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first two entitled “The Omnipresent”. The Inconscient Foundation. 18 October 1939, revised 7 February 1940. Two handwritten manuscripts. Adwaita. 19 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. This sonnet was written about an experience Sri Aurobindo had while walking on the Takht-i-Sulaiman (“Seat of Solomon”), near Srinagar, Kashmir, in 1903. The Hill-top Temple. 21 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, the first two entitled “The Temple on the Hill-Top”. This sonnet is about an experience Sri Aurobindo had at a shrine in the temple-complex on Parvati Hill, near Poona, probably in 1902. The Divine Hearing. 24 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, one of which is entitled “Sounds”. Because Thou art. 25 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts, all untitled. Divine Sight. 26 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Divine Sense. 1 November 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Iron Dictators. 14 November 1939. Two handwritten manuscripts. Form. 16 November 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next two sonnets in 1940. Immortality. 8 February 1940. One handwritten manuscript. Man, the Despot of Contraries. 29 July 1940. Two handwritten manuscripts, the first entitled “The Spirit of Man”. Sri Aurobindo wrote the next two sonnets during the middle to late 1940s. The One Self. Circa 1945 – 47. One handwritten manuscript, undated, but in the almost illegible handwriting of the late 1940s. The Inner Fields. 14 March 1947. One handwritten manuscript, legible only with difficulty, and another in the handwriting of Nirodbaran, Sri Aurobindo’s scribe.

Note on the Texts

723

Lyrical Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1934 – 1947 Sri Aurobindo once wrote that he wanted his short poems published in two separate books, one of sonnets and one of “(mainly) lyrical poems”. In the present section are published all complete short poems, sonnets excluded, that he wrote between 1934 and 1947. Parodies written as amusements, poems written primarily as metrical experiments, and incomplete poems have been placed in the sections that follow. It sometimes is difficult to determine whether Sri Aurobindo considered a given poem to be complete when he stopped work on it. Symbol Moon. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and two typed manuscripts. On 7 August 1934, Sri Aurobindo asked his secretary to type the first drafts of “Symbol Moon”, “The World Game”, “Transformation” and “The Other Earths” from the notebook in which he wrote these and other poems. The World Game. Circa 1934. Three handwritten and two typed manuscripts. Who art thou that camest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934 – 36. One handwritten manuscript, written in a notebook used otherwise for Savitri. One. 14 March 1936. One handwritten manuscript, written on a sheet of a small “Bloc-Memo” pad. In a mounting as of sea-tides. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936 – 37. One handwritten manuscript. Krishna. Circa 1936 – 37. One handwritten manuscript. The Cosmic Man. 15 September 1938. One handwritten manuscript. The Island Sun. 13 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. Despair on the Staircase. October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Dwarf Napoleon. 16 October 1939. Three handwritten manuscripts. The Children of Wotan. 30 August 1940. Two handwritten manuscripts. The Mother of God. One handwritten manuscript, undated, but in the handwriting of the mid 1940s. The End? 3 June 1945. One handwritten manuscript.

724

Collected Poems

Silence is all. No title in the manuscript. 14 January 1947. (The manuscript is dated “January 14, 1946”, but this is probably a slip, as the rest of the contents of the notebook in which the poem is written are from 1947.) One handwritten manuscript. Poems Written as Metrical Experiments Sri Aurobindo wrote most of these pieces in a somewhat playful effort to match metrical models submitted to him by his disciple Dilip Kumar Roy. As Dilip writes in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me, p. 233: “At the time I was transposing some English modulations into our Bengali verse which he [Sri Aurobindo] greatly appreciated in so much that, to encourage me, he composed short poems now and then as English counterparts to my Bengali bases.” One such experiment resulted in the poem “Thought the Paraclete”, which Sri Aurobindo later revised and included in the book Poems (see above). All but one of the others exist in one or more drafts in Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks of the period. The exception, “In some faint dawn”, is known only by the text published by Dilip in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me. The nine poems published in that book are reproduced here in the same order. Another poem written in response to a letter from Dilip is placed before the rest, while two others, also metrical experiments, have been placed at the end of Dilip’s set. All the poems except the last seem to have been written in 1934. All but one are untitled in the manuscripts. O pall of black Night. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. Three handwritten manuscripts. See Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 236 – 37, for a letter that shows the genesis of this poem. To the hill-tops of silence. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One handwritten transcript in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand. Oh, but fair was her face. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One handwritten transcript in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand. In the ending of time. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One handwritten transcript in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand. In some faint dawn. No title in the printed text in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me. 1934. In a flaming as of spaces. No title in the manuscript. 1934. One

Note on the Texts

725

handwritten manuscript. O Life, thy breath is but a cry. 1934. Early typed copies of this poem are dated 21 June 1934 and are entitled “Life and the Immortal”. Sri Aurobindo took up this poem in 1942 while preparing poems to be published in On Quantitative Metre. He gave the revised draft the title “Life” and indicated the rhyme scheme as follows: “Iambics; modulations, spondee, anapaest, pyrrhic, long monosyllable”. Eventually, however, he decided not to include the revised poem in On Quantitative Metre. The editors have incorporated his final revisions in the text, but used the first line as title as with the other poems in this subsection. Two handwritten manuscripts. Vast-winged the wind ran. No title in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me. 1934. No manuscripts. An early typed copy of this piece is dated 25 June 1934. Note that in Sri Aurobindo Came to Me this piece and the two that follow are placed after the mention of “Thought the Paraclete”. Winged with dangerous deity. No title in the manuscript. 20 June 1934. See Letters on Poetry and Art, pp. 234 – 35 for a letter that shows the genesis of this poem. Two handwritten and two typed manuscripts. Outspread a Wave burst. No title in the manuscript. 26 June 1934. Two handwritten manuscripts, one in Nolini Kanta Gupta’s hand. On the grey street. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. One handwritten manuscript. Cry of the ocean’s surges. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1940 – 41. One handwritten manuscript. Nonsense and “Surrealist” Verse Sri Aurobindo wrote the first of these poems in isolation during the late 1920s or early 1930s. He wrote the other items as an amusement after some of his disciples tried to interest him in the subject of surrealistic poetry. See also the more serious sonnet “A Dream of Surreal Science” in the section ”Lyrical Poems”. A Ballad of Doom. Late 1920s or early 1930s. There is one handwritten manuscript of this piece, the writing of which has completely faded away. A transcription made years ago was published in the

726

Collected Poems

journal Mother India in April 1974. The editors have verified and corrected this transcription using images made by means of infrared photography, scanning and imaging software. Several words in the text remain somewhat doubtful. Surrealist. Circa 1936. One handwritten manuscript, written before 28 December 1936, when Sri Aurobindo mentioned it in a letter to a disciple. Surrealist Poems. Circa 1943. (The Moro River, mentioned in the second poem, is a river in Italy that was the site of a battle between Canadian and German forces in December 1943; the notebook in which the poem is written was in use during the early 1940s.) One handwritten manuscript, consisting of two pages of a “Bloc-Memo” pad. Sri Aurobindo first wrote, in the upper left hand corner, “Parody”, then, as title, “Surrealist Poems”. Beneath the first poem, he wrote a tongue-in-cheek explanation within his own square brackets, then, after “2”, the title and text of the second poem. Incomplete Poems from Manuscripts, circa 1927 – 1947 Thou art myself. No title in the manuscript. 1927 – 29. One handwritten manuscript, jotted down in a notebook used otherwise for diary entries, essays, etc. In the manuscript, the word “Or”, presumably the beginning of an unwritten second stanza, comes after the fourth line. Vain, they have said. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1927. Although written, like “Ahana”, in rhymed dactylic hexameter couplets, these lines do not seem to have been intended for inclusion in that poem. (The phrase “to infinity calling” does occur both here and in “The Descent of Ahana”, but in different contexts.) One handwritten manuscript. Pururavus. Circa 1933. Several handwritten drafts in a single notebook. It would appear from the manuscript that Sri Aurobindo began this passage as a proposed revision to the opening of the narrative poem “Urvasie”. The passage developed on different lines, however, and Sri Aurobindo soon stopped work on it. The Death of a God [1]. Circa 1933. Two handwritten manuscripts; a third manuscript is published as “The Death of a God [2]”. The Death of a God [2]. Circa 1933. One handwritten manuscript. The Inconscient and the Traveller Fire. Circa 1934. Two handwritten

Note on the Texts

727

manuscripts, the first entitled “Death and the Traveller Fire”. I walked beside the waters. No title in the manuscript. April 1934. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first part of this poem (down to “gloried fields of trance”) on 25 April 1934 after Dilip Kumar Roy asked him for some lines in alexandrines (Sri Aurobindo Came to Me, pp. 226 – 29). In an accompanying letter, he explained how the caesura dividing the lines into two parts could come after different syllables. Dilip, noting that in Sri Aurobindo’s passage there were examples of the caesura falling after the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth syllables, asked for an example of a line with the caesura coming after the third syllable. Sri Aurobindo obliged by sending him the couplet: And in the silence of the mind life knows itself Immortal, and immaculately grows divine. On 28 April 1934, three days after Sri Aurobindo sent the first passage, his secretary asked him: “Can your last poem (in Alexandrines, sent to Dilip) be put into circulation?” Sri Aurobindo replied: “No. It is not even half finished.” He wrote two more passages but never wove the three together into a completed poem. The editors have reproduced the passages as they are found in Sri Aurobindo’s notebooks and loose sheets, separating the three passages by blank lines. A strong son of lightning. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. Three handwritten manuscripts. I made danger my helper. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934. Two handwritten manuscripts. Sri Aurobindo wrote these four lines on the back of a typed manuscript of “The World Game”. They do not, however, appear to have been intended for inclusion in that poem. The metre is not the same as, though possibly related to, the metre of “The World Game”. The Inconscient. Circa 1934. Four handwritten manuscripts. In gleam Konarak. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1934 – 35. A single handwritten manuscript on the back of a sheet used for a draft of “Thought the Paraclete”, which is dated 31 December 1934. The fragment consists of three stanzas, the second of which is incomplete. Bugles of Light. Circa 1934 – 35. A single handwritten manuscript on the back of a note written to Sri Aurobindo on 31 December 1934.

728

Collected Poems

The Fire King and the Messenger. Circa 1934 – 35. A single manuscript, written in a notebook near a draft of “Thought the Paraclete”. God to thy greatness. No title in the manuscript. March 1936. A single manuscript, written between drafts of “The Yogi on the Whirlpool” and “The Kingdom Within”, both of which are dated 14 March 1936. Silver foam. No title in the manuscript. March 1936. One handwritten manuscript, written on a sheet of a “Bloc-Memo” pad between “The Kingdom Within” and “One”, both of which are dated 14 March 1936. In the manuscript, there is no full stop at the end, suggesting that the piece is incomplete. Torn are the walls. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936. Two handwritten manuscripts. O ye Powers. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936. Three handwritten manuscripts. In the final manuscript, the last line ends in a comma, indicating that the piece is incomplete. Hail to the fallen. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936. Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in October 1935. Britain and France stopped trying to broker a peace in December, and in May 1936, after a heroic resistance, Emperor Haile Selassie fled the country. “Lion of Judah” was a title borne by the Emperors of Ethiopia. The star towards the end was written by Sri Aurobindo. One handwritten manuscript. Seer deep-hearted. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936 – 37. One handwritten manuscript. Soul, my soul [1]. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936 – 37. Two handwritten manuscripts; a third is published as “Soul, my soul [2]”. Soul, my soul [2]. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1936 – 37. This is the most completely revised, but shortest, manuscript of this poem. I am filled with the crash of war. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1938. Compare the third and fourth line of this poem with the third line of “The Cosmic Man” (see above); the two poems seem to be related. “The Cosmic Man” is dated 15 September 1938. One handwritten manuscript. In the silence of the midnight. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1938. One handwritten manuscript. Here in the green of the forest. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1939. One handwritten manuscript. The star before the last four lines was written by Sri Aurobindo.

Note on the Texts

729

Voice of the Summits. Circa 1946 – 47. One handwritten manuscript. The poem was probably written after “The Inner Fields”, which is dated 14 March 1947.

APPENDIX: POEMS

IN

GREEK

AND IN

FRENCH

As a student in England Sri Aurobindo wrote many poems in Greek and in Latin as school or college assignments. A typical assignment would be to render an English poem into Greek or Latin verse of a given metre. The Greek epigram below appears to be an example of such an assignment. Sri Aurobindo also learned French in England, and in later years wrote two poems in that language. Greek Epigram. January 1892. Sri Aurobindo wrote this epigram in a notebook he used at Cambridge. At the end he wrote “Jan. 1892 (Porson Schol)”. This refers to the Porson Scholarship examination, which was held at Cambridge that month. In order to win this scholarship, candidates had to take twelve papers over the course of a week. One of the papers required contestants to provide a Greek translation of the following poem by Richard Carlton (born circa 1558), an English madrigal composer: The witless boy that blind is to behold Yet blinded sees what in our fancy lies With smiling looks and hairs of curled gold Hath oft entrapped and oft deceived the wise. No wit can serve his fancy to remove, For finest wits are soonest thralled to love. Sir Edmund Leach, late provost of King’s College, Cambridge, who provided the information on the scholarship examination, went on to add: It is possible that [Sri Aurobindo] Ghose was a candidate for the Porson Scholarship; alternatively it is possible that his King’s College supervisor set him the Porson Scholarship paper as an exercise to provide practice for the Classical Tripos examination which he was due to take in June 1892.

730

Collected Poems

Sri Aurobindo’s epigram is not a literal translation of the English poem, but an adaptation of it in Greek verse. Transliterated into the Latin alphabet, the Greek text reads as follows: ¯ ¯ alaos th’; ho d’homos ¯ ha g’eni phresi keitai Moros Eros ¯ ophthalmous on ¯ alaos kathora. H¯emon, ¯ iobostrukhe kalliprosope, ¯ Pai, su gar h¯edu gelon Diktuo¯ andra kalo¯ kai sophon exapatas. Oude sophos per an¯er se, doloploke, phuximos oudeis; ¯ doulos eroti ¯ sophos. Kai proteros panton Lorsque rien n’existait. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1914 – 20. Sri Aurobindo seems to have written this prose poem during a fairly early period of his stay in Pondicherry. Published here for the first time. Sur les grands sommets blancs. No title in the manuscript. Circa 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote this incomplete poem in a notebook he used otherwise for the Record of Yoga of 1927.

PUBLICATION HISTORY During his lifetime, Sri Aurobindo published poetry in a number of periodicals: Fox’s Weekly (1883), Bande Mataram (1907), The Modern Review (1909, 1910), Karmayogin (1909, 1910), Shama’a (1921), The Calcutta Review (1934), Sri Aurobindo Circle (1948, 1949), and others. He also published poetry in twelve books: Songs to Myrtilla and Other Poems (c. 1898), Urvasie (c. 1899), Ahana and Other Poems (1915), Love and Death (1921), Baji Prabhou (1922), Six Poems (1934), Poems (1941), Collected Poems and Plays (1942), On Quantitative Metre (1942), Poems Past and Present (1946), Chitrangada (1949) and Savitri (1950 – 51). Details on the first editions of all these books except the last two may be found in the above notes. Four of the books had further editions during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime: Songs to Myrtilla (1923), Urvasie (c. 1905), Love and Death (1924, 1948), and Baji Prabhou (1949). Collected Poems and Plays was the first attempt to bring out a comprehensive edition of Sri Aurobindo’s known poetic output. It was planned by Nolini Kanta Gupta for release on 15 August 1942, Sri

Note on the Texts

731

Aurobindo’s seventieth birthday. Following Sri Aurobindo’s instructions that “only poems already published should be included in this collection”, Nolini collected all poems, poetic translations and plays that had been published until then, typed them and sent them to Sri Aurobindo for revision. The book was published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, and printed at the Government Central Press, Hyderabad. Work on the book extended from around February to August 1942. Between 1950 and 1971 a number of poems that had remained unpublished at the time of Sri Aurobindo’s passing were printed in various journals connected with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and in three books: Last Poems (1952), More Poems (1957) and Ilion (1957). In 1971, all of Sri Aurobindo’s known poetical works were published in Collected Poems: The Complete Poetical Works, volume 5 of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. A few other poems were included in the Supplement (volume 27) to the Centenary Library in 1973. About a dozen poems discovered between then and 1985 were published in the journal Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research. The first almost complete collection of Sri Aurobindo’s Sonnets was published in 1980. Lyrical Poems 1930 – 1950 came out in 2002. In the present volume are collected all previously published poems and at least three that appear here for the first time in print: “Thou bright choregus”, “All here is Spirit” and “Lorsque rien n’existait”. The poems have been arranged chronologically. As far as possible, books published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime have been presented in their original form. The texts of all the poems have been checked against the author’s manuscripts and printed editions.

Index of Titles Adwaita Ahana All here is Spirit Appeal Ascent

621 475 597 210 581

Baji Prabhou A Ballad of Doom Bankim Chandra Chatterji Because Thou art Because thy flame is spent The Bird of Fire The Birth of Sin The Bliss of Brahman Bliss of Identity The Blue Bird The Body Bride of the Fire Bugles of Light

293 657 34 623 179 547 275 616 601 533 617 532 673

The Call of the Impossible Charles Stewart Parnell The Children of Wotan A Child’s Imagination Chitrangada Contrasts Cosmic Consciousness The Cosmic Dance The Cosmic Man The Cosmic Spirit Creation

595 17 641 211 309 593 603 590 637 619 613

734

Collected Poems

Cry of the ocean’s surges

653

The Death of a God [1] The Death of a God [2] Descent The Descent of Ahana Despair on the Staircase A Dialogue Discoveries of Science The Divine Hearing Divine Sense Divine Sight The Divine Worker A Doubt The Dream Boat A Dream of Surreal Science The Dual Being The Dwarf Napoleon

665 666 578 495 639 286 596 622 624 623 612 186 576 614 610 639

Electron The End? Envoi Epigram Epiphany Epitaph Estelle Euphrosyne Evening Evolution [1] Evolution [2]

600 643 37 189 279 188 31 187 216 594 595

The Fear of Death The Fire King and the Messenger Flame-Wind Form

219 673 574 625

God

218

Index of Titles

735

God to thy greatness The Godhead A God’s Labour Goethe The Golden Light The Greater Plan Greek Epigram The Guest

675 607 534 16 605 606 685 612

Hail to the fallen Hell and Heaven Here in the green of the forest Hic Jacet The Hidden Plan The Hill-top Temple

676 538 680 17 602 622

“I” I am filled with the crash of war I cannot equal I have a doubt I have a hundred lives I made danger my helper I walked beside the waters Ilion An Image Immortal Love Immortality In a flaming as of spaces In a mounting as of sea-tides In gleam Konarak In Horis Aeternum In some faint dawn In the Battle In the ending of time In the Moonlight In the silence of the midnight The Inconscient

619 679 177 181 180 670 668 333 274 206 625 650 636 672 553 650 614 650 237 679 671

736

Collected Poems

The Inconscient [sonnet] The Inconscient and the Traveller Fire The Inconscient Foundation The Indwelling Universal The Infinite Adventure The Infinitesimal Infinite The Inner Fields The Inner Sovereign Invitation The Iron Dictators The Island Grave The Island Sun

604 666 621 601 606 589 627 613 201 624 30 638

Jivanmukta Journey’s End The Just Man

551 576 43

Kama Kamadeva Karma Khaled of the Sea The Kingdom Within Krishna Krishna (Cretics)

324 540 209 145 599 608 637

Liberation [1] Liberation [2] Life Life and Death The Life Heavens Life-Unity Light Light [sonnet] Like a white statue Lila Lines on Ireland The Little Ego

604 617 541 216 549 605 5 618 47 611 18 615

Index of Titles

737

Lorsque rien n’existait The Lost Boat The Lost Deliverer Love and Death Love in Sorrow The Lover’s Complaint

686 579 16 111 28 26

Madhusudan Dutt The Mahatmas Man, the Despot of Contraries Man the Enigma Man the Mediator Man the Thinking Animal The Meditations of Mandavya The Miracle of Birth Miracles Moments Moon of Two Hemispheres The Mother of Dreams The Mother of God Musa Spiritus My life is wasted

35 325 626 589 596 593 509 615 203 616 563 273 642 531 178

Night by the Sea The Nightingale Nirvana Now I have borne

23 186 561 600

O Co¨ıl, Co¨ıl O face that I have loved O letter dull and cold O Life, thy breath is but a cry O pall of black Night O Will of God O ye Powers Ocean Oneness Oh, but fair was her face

15 177 178 651 649 520 676 573 649

738

Collected Poems

Omnipresence On a Satyr and Sleeping Love On the grey street On the Mountains One One Day The One Self The Other Earths Outspread a Wave burst

620 22 653 261 635 542 626 562 652

Parabrahman Perfect thy motion Perigone Prologuises Phaethon The Pilgrim of the Night Pururavus

216 285 189 42 603 663

Radha’s Appeal Radha’s Complaint in Absence The Rakshasas Rebirth Reflections of Srinath Paul Reminiscence Renewal Revelation The Rishi The River Rose, I have loved Rose of God A Rose of Women

32 32 321 213 267 203 580 209 220 575 180 564 22

Saraswati with the Lotus Science and the Unknowable The Sea at Night Seasons Seer deep-hearted Self

22 598 211 219 677 620

Index of Titles

739

The Self’s Infinity Shiva Shiva [sonnet] Silence is all The Silver Call Silver foam Since I have seen your face So that was why Sole in the meadows of Thebes Song Songs to Myrtilla Soul in the Ignorance Soul, my soul [1] Soul, my soul [2] Soul’s Scene The Spring Child Still there is something The Stone Goddess A strong son of lightning Suddenly out from the wonderful East Sur les grands sommets blancs Surrealist Surrealist Poems Surrender Symbol Moon

610 548 609 644 594 675 192 193 519 188 9 577 678 678 580 185 181 608 670 260 687 658 659 611 631

The Tale of Nala [1] The Tale of Nala [2] A Thing Seen Thou art myself Thou bright choregus Thou didst mistake Thou who controllest Thought the Paraclete The Three Cries of Deiphobus The Tiger and the Deer To a Hero-Worshipper

521 525 187 663 47 179 519 562 189 583 41

740

Collected Poems

To R. To the Boers To the Cuckoo To the Ganges To the hill-tops of silence To the Modern Priam To the Sea To weep because a glorious sun Torn are the walls Trance Trance of Waiting Transformation Transiit, Non Periit A Tree The Triumph-Song of Trishuncou

280 247 36 256 649 188 207 182 675 548 573 561 282 207 215

Uloupie The Universal Incarnation The Unseen Infinite Urvasie

163 607 618 65

Vain, they have said Vast-winged the wind ran The Vedantin’s Prayer The Vigil of Thaliard Vision A Vision of Science Voice of the Summits

663 651 212 48 255 204 681

The Ways of the Spirit [1] The Ways of the Spirit [2] What is this talk Who Who art thou that camest Winged with dangerous deity The Witness and the Wheel The Witness Spirit

597 598 182 201 635 652 577 602

Index of Titles

741

The Word of the Silence The World Game World’s delight

609 632 194

The Yogi on the Whirlpool

599

Index of First Lines A bare impersonal hush is now my mind A conscious and eternal Power is here A deep enigma is the soul of man A dumb Inconscient drew life’s stumbling maze A face on the cold dire mountain peaks A far sail on the unchangeable monotone . . . A flame-wind ran from the gold of the east A godhead moves us to unrealised things A gold moon-raft floats and swings slowly A golden evening, when the thoughtful sun A life of intensities wide, immune A naked and silver-pointed star A noon of Deccan with its tyrant glare A perfect face amid barbarian faces A strong son of lightning came down . . . A tree beside the sandy river-beach A trifling unit in a boundless plan After six hundred years did Fate intend After unnumbered steps of a hill-stair All are deceived, do what the One Power dictates All here is Spirit self-moved eternally All is abolished but the mute Alone All is not finished in the unseen decree All my cells thrill swept by a surge of splendour All Nature is taught in radiant ways to move All sounds, all voices have become Thy voice An irised multitude of hills and seas Arise now, tread out the fire Arise, tread out the fire Arisen to voiceless unattainable peaks Aroused from Matter’s sleep when Nature strove

609 642 589 596 548 553 574 595 563 216 549 548 295 16 670 207 593 18 622 626 597 561 595 578 601 622 562 665 666 618 598

744

Collected Poems

Artist of cosmos wrapped in thy occult shadow As some bright archangel in vision flies At last I find a meaning of soul’s birth At the way’s end when the shore raised up . . . Awake, awake, O sleeping men of Troy

671 562 608 579 189

Because Thou art All-beauty and All-bliss Because thy flame is spent, shall mine grow less Behold, by Maya’s fantasy of will Bride of the Fire, clasp me now close Brilliant, crouching, slouching . . . Bugles of Light, bugles of Light . . .

623 179 639 532 583 673

Child of the infant years, Euphrosyne Cool may you find the youngling grass, my herd Councillors, friends, Rai Bahadoors and others Cry of the ocean’s surges . . .

187 189 267 653

Dawn in her journey eternal . . . Day and night begin, you tell me Death wanders through our lives at will . . . Do you remember, Love, that sunset pale

335 219 219 28

Each sight is now immortal with Thy bliss

623

Flame that invadest my empire of sorrow . . . From the quickened womb of the primal gloom

666 5

“Glory and greatness and the joy of life God to thy greatness Goddess, supreme Mother of Dream . . . Gold-white wings a throb in the vastness . . .

321 675 273 547

Hail to the fallen, the fearless . . . Hark in the trees the low-voiced nightingale He is in me, round me, facing everywhere He said, “I am egoless, spiritual, free,”

676 186 620 620

Index of First Lines

745

Hearken, Ganges, hearken . . . Here in the green of the forest . . . How hast thou lost, O month of honey . . . However long Night’s hour, I will not dream

256 680 34 602

I am a single Self all Nature fills I am filled with the crash of war . . . I am greater than the greatness of the seas I am held no more by life’s alluring cry I am swallowed in a foam-white sea of bliss I am the bird of God in His blue I cannot equal those most absolute eyes I contain the wide world in my soul’s embrace I dreamed that in myself the world I saw I dwell in the spirit’s calm nothing can move I face earth’s happenings with an equal soul I have a doubt, I have a doubt which kills I have a hundred lives before me yet I have become what before Time I was I have discovered my deep deathless being I have drunk deep of God’s own liberty I have gathered my dreams in a silver air I have sailed the golden ocean I have thrown from me the whirling dance of mind I have wrapped the wide world in my wider self I heard a foghorn shouting at a sheep I heard the coockcouck jabbering on the lea I housed within my heart the life of things I look across the world and no horizon . . . I looked for Thee alone, but met my glance I made an assignation with the Night I made danger my helper and chose pain . . . I passed into a lucent still abode I sat behind the dance of Danger’s hooves I saw my soul a traveller through Time I saw the electric stream on which is run I shall not die

619 679 626 606 616 533 177 601 204 602 612 181 180 610 612 625 534 638 604 603 658 659 605 637 624 603 670 594 607 615 596 215

746

Collected Poems

I walked beside the waters of a world of light I walked on the high-wayed Seat of Solomon If I had wooed thee for thy colour rare If now must pause the bullocks’ jingling tune If perfect moments on the peak of things If thou wouldst traverse Time with vagrant feet Immense retreats of silence and of gloom Immortal, moveless, calm, alone, august In a flaming as of spaces In a mounting as of sea-tides . . . In a town of gods, housed in a little shrine In Bagdad by Euphrates, Asia’s river In gleam Konarak — Konarak of the Gods In god-years yet unmeasured by a man’s thought . . . In Manipur upon her orient hills In occult depths grow Nature’s roots unshown In some faint dawn In the blue of the sky, in the green of the forest In the ending of time, in the sinking of space In the silence of the midnight . . . In the silence of the night-time In us is the thousandfold Spirit who is one In woodlands of the bright and early world Into the Silence, into the Silence Is this the end of all that we have been

668 621 206 237 616 189 261 279 650 636 608 147 672 632 311 598 650 201 650 679 538 611 113 581 643

Life, death, — death, life; the words . . . Light, endless Light! darkness has room no more Like a white statue made of lilies Lone on my summits of calm . . . Lorsque rein n’existait, l’amour existait Love, a moment drop thy hands Love, but my words are vain as air

216 618 47 573 686 23 209

Many boons the new years make us Me whom the purple mead that Bromius owns Moulded of twilight and the vesper star

186 22 188

Index of First Lines

747

Mute stands she, lonely on the topmost stair My breath runs in a subtle rhythmic stream My life is then a wasted ereme My life is wasted like a lamp ablaze My mind, my soul grow larger than all Space My soul arose at dawn and, listening, heard My soul regards its veiled subconscient base My way is over the Moro river Mystic daughter of Delight

639 561 41 178 617 203 621 660 541

Nala, Nishadha’s king, paced by a stream Nala, Nishadha’s king, paced by a stream Not in annihilation lost, nor given Not soon is God’s delight in us completed Now I have borne Thy presence and Thy light Now lilies blow upon the windy height Now more and more the Epiphany within

521 525 282 213 600 22 613

O Boers, you have dared much and much endured O co¨ıl, honied envoy of the spring O desolations vast, O seas of space O face that I have loved until no face O grey wild sea O heart, my heart, a heavy pain is thine O immense Light and thou . . . O joy of gaining all the soul’s desire O lady Venus, shine on me O letter dull and cold, how can she read O Life, thy breath is but a cry to the Light O love, what more shall I, shall Radha speak O pale and guiding light, now star unsphered O pall of black Night painted with still gold stars O plaintive, murmuring reed, begin thy strain O soul who com’st fire-mantled from the earth O thou golden image O Thou of whom I am the instrument O Will of God that stirrest and the Void

247 15 324 177 207 32 637 509 188 178 651 32 17 649 26 673 211 611 520

748

Collected Poems

O Word concealed in the upper fire O worshipper of the formless Infinite O ye Powers of the Supreme . . . Ocean is there and evening; the slow moan Of Ilion’s ashes was thy sceptre made Of Spring is her name for whose bud . . . Often, in the slow ages’ wide retreat Oh, but fair was her face as she lolled . . . On a dire whirlpool in the hurrying river On the grey street and the lagging . . . On the waters of a nameless Infinite On the white summit of eternity Once again thou hast climbed, O moon . . . One day, and all the half-dead is done One dreamed and saw a gland write Hamlet . . . Out from the Silence, out from the Silence Out of a seeming void and dark-winged sleep Out of a still immensity we came Outspread a Wave burst, a Force leaped . . .

531 625 676 30 188 185 614 649 599 653 606 609 631 542 614 581 604 589 652

Pale poems, weak and few, who vainly use Patriots, behold your guerdon. This man found Perfect thy motion ever within me Poet, who first with skill inspired did teach Pururavus from converse held with Gods Pururavus from Titan conflict ceased Pythian he came; repressed beneath his heel

37 17 285 35 663 67 16

Rishi who trance-held on the mountains old Rose, I have loved thy beauty, as I love Rose of God, vermilion stain . . . Rushing from Troy like a cloud on the plains . . .

220 180 564 274

Seer deep-hearted, divine king of the secrecies She in her garden, near the high grey wall Silence is all, say the sages Silence is round me, wideness ineffable

677 187 644 573

Index of First Lines

749

Silver foam in the dim East Since I have seen your face at the window, sweet Since Thou hadst all eternity to amuse Snow in June may break from Nature So that was why I could not grasp your heart Sole in the meadows of Thebes Teiresias sat . . . Someone leaping from the rocks Soul in the Ignorance, wake from its stupor Soul, my soul, reascend over the edge of life Soul, my soul, yet ascend crossing the marge of life Sounds of the wakening world, the year’s increase Spirit Supreme Stamp out, stamp out the sun from the high blue Still there is something that I lack in thee Strayed from the roads of Time . . . Suddenly out from the wonderful East . . . Sur les grands sommets blancs . . . Surely I take no more an earthly food Sweet is the night, sweet and cool

675 192 613 203 193 519 209 577 678 678 36 212 286 181 495 260 687 624 9

The clouds lain on forlorn spaces of sky . . . The day ends lost in a stretch of even The electron on which forms and worlds are built The grey sea creeps half-visible, half-hushed The mind of a man The repetition of thy gracious years The seven mountains and the seven seas There are two beings in my single self There is a brighter ether than this blue There is a godhead of unrealised things There is a kingdom of the spirit’s ease There is a silence greater than any known There is a wisdom like a brooding Sun There was an awful awful man These wanderings of the suns, these stars at play This body which was once my universe This puppet ego the World-Mother made

580 576 600 211 635 280 325 610 627 594 599 551 607 657 216 617 615

750

Collected Poems

This strutting “I” of human self and pride Thou art myself born from myself, O child Thou bright choregus of the heavenly dance Thou didst mistake, thy spirit’s infant flight Thou who controllest the wide-spuming Ocean . . . Thou who pervadest all the worlds below Thy golden Light came down into my brain Thy tears fall fast, O mother, on its bloom Thy youth is but a noon, of night take heed To the hill-tops of silence . . . To weep because a glorious sun has set Torn are the walls and the borders carved . . . Two measures are there of the cosmic dance

619 663 47 179 519 218 605 22 210 649 182 675 590

Under the high and gloomy eastern hills

165

Vain, they have said, is the anguish of man . . . Vast-winged the wind ran, violent . . . Vision delightful alone on the hills . . . Voice of the summits, leap from thy peaks . . .

663 651 477 681

What is this talk of slayer and of slain What mighty and ineffable desire What opposites are here! A trivial life What points ascending Nature to her goal When in the heart of the valleys and hid . . . When the heart tires and the throb stills recalling Where is the man whom hope nor fear can move “Where is the end of your armoured march . . . Where Time a sleeping dervish is Who art thou in the heart comrade of man . . . Who art thou that camest Who art thou that roamest Who was it that came to me in a boat . . . Why do thy lucid eyes survey Wild river in thy cataract far-rumoured . . . Winged with dangerous deity

182 275 593 597 540 580 43 641 48 577 635 255 576 31 575 652

Index of First Lines With wind and the weather beating round me World’s delight, spring’s sweetness, music’s charm Ye weeping poplars by the shelvy slope

751 201 194 42

3-4

Collected Plays and Stories

VOLUME 3 and 4 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1998 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

Collected Plays and Stories

ii

Publisher’s Note Collected Plays and Stories comprises all Sri Aurobindo’s original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. The material, which occupies two volumes, is divided by type into three parts: complete plays, incomplete and fragmentary plays, and stories, complete, incomplete and fragmentary. The earliest of the pieces collected here was written in 1891, the latest in 1915. Only one of them, Perseus the Deliverer, was published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The rest have been reproduced from his manuscripts.

4

CONTENTS PLAYS The Viziers of Bassora

1

Rodogune

185

Perseus the Deliverer

325

Eric

529

Vasavadutta

619

Incomplete and Fragmentary Plays The Witch of Ilni

749

The House of Brut

777

The Maid in the Mill

783

The Prince of Edur

845

The Prince of Mathura

929

The Birth of Sin

937

Fragment of a Play

943

STORIES Occult Idylls The Phantom Hour

953

The Door at Abelard

965

Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories Fictional Jottings

989

Fragment of a Story

990

The Devil’s Mastiff

991

The Golden Bird

996

4

Sri Aurobindo, c. 1903

4

The Viziers of Bassora A Romantic Comedy

Persons of the Drama HAROUN ALRASHEED, Caliph. JAAFAR, his Vizier. SHAIKH IBRAHIM, Superintendent of the Caliph’s Gardens. MESROUR, Haroun’s friend and companion. MOHAMAD BIN SULYMAN ALZAYNI, Haroun’s cousin, King of Bassora. ALFAZZAL IBN SAWY, his Chief Vizier. NUREDDENE, son of Alfazzal. ALMUENE BIN KHAKAN, second Vizier of Bassora. FAREED, his son. SALAR, confidant of Alzayni. MURAD, a Turk, Captain of Police in Bassora. AJEBE, nephew of Almuene. SUNJAR, a Chamberlain of the Palace in Bassora. AZIZ Merchants of Bassora. ABDULLAH H MUAZZIM, a broker. AZEEM, steward of Alfazzal. HARKOOS, an Ethiopian eunuch in Ibn Sawy’s household. KAREEM, a fisherman of Bagdad. SLAVES, SOLDIERS, EXECUTIONERS, ETC. AMEENA, wife of Alfazzal Ibn Sawy. DOONYA, his niece. ANICE-ALJALICE, a Persian slavegirl. KHATOON, wife of Almuene, sister of Ameena. BALKIS sisters, slavegirls of Ajebe. MYMOONA H SLAVEGIRLS.

Act I Bassora.

Scene 1 An antechamber in the Palace. Murad, Sunjar. MURAD Chamberlain, I tell thee I will not bear it an hour longer than it takes my feet to carry me to the King’s audience-room and my voice to number my wrongs. Let him choose between me, a man and one made in God’s image, and this brutish amalgam of gorilla and Barbary ape whom he calls his Vizier. SUNJAR You are not alone in your wrongs; all Bassora and half the Court complain of his tyrannies. MURAD And as if all were too little for his heavy-handed malice, he must saddle us with his son’s misdoings too, who is as like him as the young baboon is to the adult ape. SUNJAR It is a cub, a monkey of mischief, a rod on the soles would go far to tame. But who shall dare apply that? Murad, be wary. The King, — who is the King and therefore blameless, — will not have his black angel dispraised. Complain rather to Alfazzal Ibn Sawy, the good Vizier.

6

The Viziers of Bassora

MURAD The kind Alfazzal! Bassora is bright only because of his presence. SUNJAR I believe you. He has the serenity and brightness of a nature that never willingly did hurt to man or living thing. I think sometimes every good kindly man is like the moon and carries a halo, while a chill cloud moves with dark and malignant natures. When we are near them, we feel it. Enter Ibn Sawy. IBN SAWY (to himself ) The fairest of all slavegirls! here’s a task! Why, my wild handsome roisterer, Nureddene, My hunter of girls, my snare for hearts of virgins, Could do this better. And he would strangely like The mission; but I think his pretty purchase Would hardly come undamaged through to the owner. A perilous transit that would be! the rogue! Ten thousand golden pieces hardly buy Such wonders, — so much wealth to go so idly! But princes must have sweet and pleasant things To ease their labours more than common men. Their labour is not common who are here The Almighty’s burdened high vicegerents charged With difficult justice and calm-visaged rule. SUNJAR The peace of the Prophet with thee, thou best of Viziers. MURAD The peace, Alfazzal Ibn Sawy. IBN SAWY And to you also peace. You here, my Captain? The city’s business?

Act I, Scene 1

7

MURAD Vizier, and my own! I would impeach the Vizier Almuene Before our royal master. IBN SAWY You’ll do unwisely. A dark and dangerous mind is Almuene’s, Yet are there parts in him that well deserve The favour he enjoys, although too proudly He uses it and with much personal malice. Complain not to the King against him, Murad. He’ll weigh his merits with your grievances, Find these small jealous trifles, those superlative, And in the end conceive a mute displeasure Against you. MURAD I will be guided by you, sir. IBN SAWY My honest Turk, you will do well. SUNJAR He’s here. Enter Almuene. MURAD The peace upon you, son of Khakan. ALMUENE Captain, You govern harshly. Change your methods, captain, Your manners too. You are a Turk; I know you. MURAD I govern Bassora more honestly

8

The Viziers of Bassora

Than you the kingdom. ALMUENE Soldier! rude Turcoman! IBN SAWY Nay, brother Almuene! Why are you angry? ALMUENE That he misgoverns. IBN SAWY In what peculiar instance? ALMUENE I’ll tell you. A city gang the other day Battered my little mild Fareed most beastly With staves and cudgels. This fellow’s bribed police, By him instructed, held a ruffian candle To the outrage. When the rogues were caught, they lied And got them off before a fool, a Kazi. MURAD The Vizier’s son, as all our city knows, A misformed urchin full of budding evil, Ranges the city like a ruffian, shielded Under his father’s formidable name; And those who lay their hands on him, commit Not outrage, but a rescue. ALMUENE Turk, I know you. IBN SAWY In all fraternal kindness hear me speak. What Murad says, is truth. For your Fareed, However before you he blinks angelically,

Act I, Scene 1 Abroad he roars half-devil. Never, Vizier, Was such a scandal until now allowed In any Moslem town. Why, it is just Such barbarous outrage as in Christian cities May walk unquestioned, not in Bassora Or any seat of culture. It should be mended. ALMUENE Brother, your Nureddene is not all blameless. He has a name! IBN SAWY His are the first wild startings Of a bold generous nature. Mettled steeds, When they’ve been managed, are the best to mount. So will my son. If your Fareed’s brute courses As easily turn to gold, I shall be glad. ALMUENE Let him be anything, he is a Vizier’s son. The Turk forgot that. IBN SAWY These are maxims, brother, Unsuited to our Moslem polity. They savour of barbarous Europe. But in Islam All men are equal underneath the King. ALMUENE Well, brother. Turk, you are excused. MURAD Excused! Viziers, the peace. IBN SAWY I’ll follow you.

9

10

The Viziers of Bassora ALMUENE Turk, the peace!

IBN SAWY Peace, brother. See to it, brother. Exit with Murad. ALMUENE Brother, peace. Would I not gladly tweak your ears and nose And catch your brotherly beard to pluck it out With sweet fraternal pulls? Faugh, you babbler Of virtuous nothings! some day I’ll have you preach Under the bastinado; you’ll howl, you’ll howl Rare sermons there. (seeing Sunjar) You! you! you spy? you eavesdrop? And I must be rebuked with this to hear it! Well, I’ll remember you. SUNJAR Sir, I beseech you, I had no smallest purpose to offend. ALMUENE I know you, dog! When my back’s turned, you bark, But whine before me. You shall be remembered. Exit. SUNJAR There goest thou, Almuene, the son of Khakan, Dog’s son, dog’s father, and thyself a dog. Thy birth was where thy end shall be, a dunghill. Exit.

Scene 2 A room in Almuene’s house. Almuene, Khatoon. KHATOON You have indulged the boy till he has lost The likeness even of manhood. God’s great stamp And heavenly image on his mint’s defaced, Rubbed out, and only the brute metal left Which never shall find currency again Among his angels. ALMUENE Oh always clamour, clamour! I had been happier bedded with a slave Whom I could beat to sense when she was froward. KHATOON Oh, you’ld have done no less by me, I know, Although my rank’s as far above your birth As some white star in heaven o’erpeers the muck Of foulest stables, had I not great kin And swords in the background to avenge me. ALMUENE Termagant, Some day I’ll have you stripped and soundly caned By your own women, if you grow not gentler. KHATOON I shall be glad some day to find your courage. Enter Fareed, jumping and gyrating.

12

The Viziers of Bassora

FAREED Oh father, father, father, father, father! KHATOON What means this idiot clamour? Senseless child, Can you not walk like some more human thing Or talk like one at least? ALMUENE Dame, check once more My gallant boy, try once again to break His fine and natural spirit with your chidings, I’ll drive your teeth in, lady or no lady. FAREED Do, father, break her teeth! She’s always scolding. Sometimes she beats me when you’re out. Do break them, I shall so laugh! ALMUENE My gamesome goblin! KHATOON You prompt him To hate his mother; but do not lightly think The devil you strive to raise up from that hell Which lurks within us all, sealed commonly By human shame and Allah’s supreme grace, — But you! you scrape away the seal, would take The full flame of the inferno, not the gusts Of smoke jet out in ordinary men; — Think not this imp will limit with his mother Unnatural revolt! You will repent this. Exit. FAREED Girl, father! such a girl! a girl of girls!

Act I, Scene 2 Buy me my girl! ALMUENE What girl, you leaping madcap? FAREED In the slave-market for ten thousand pieces. Such hands! such eyes! such hips! such legs! I am Impatient till my elbows meet around her. ALMUENE My amorous wagtail! What, my pretty hunchback, You have your trophies too among the girls No less than the straight dainty Nureddene, Our Vizier’s pride? Ay, you have broken seals? You have picked locks, my burglar? FAREED You have given me, You and my mother, such a wicked hump To walk about with, the girls jeer at me. I have only a chance with blind ones. ’Tis a shame. ALMUENE How will you make your slavegirl love you, hunch? FAREED She’ll be my slavegirl and she’ll have to love me. ALMUENE Whom would you marry, hunchback, for a wager? Will the King’s daughter tempt you? FAREED Pooh! I’ve got My eye upon my uncle’s pretty niece. I like her.

13

14

The Viziers of Bassora

ALMUENE The Vizier, my peculiar hatred! Wagtail, you must not marry there. FAREED I hate him too And partly for that cause will marry her, To beat her twice a day and let him know it. He will be grieved to the heart. ALMUENE You’re my own lad. FAREED And then she’s such a nice tame pretty thing, Will sob and tremble, kiss me when she’s told, Not like my mother, frown, scold, nag all day. But, dad, my girl! buy me my girl! ALMUENE Come, wagtail. Ten thousand pieces! ’tis exorbitant. Two thousand, not a dirham more. The seller Does wisely if he takes it, glad to get A piastre for her. Call the slaves, Fareed. FAREED Hooray! hoop! what a time I’ll have! Cafoor! Exit, calling. ALMUENE ’Tis thus a boy should be trained up, not checked, Rebuked and punished till the natural man Is killed in him and a tame virtuous block Replace the lusty pattern Nature made. I do not value at a brazen coin The man who has no vices in his blood,

Act I, Scene 2

15

Never took toll of women’s lips in youth Nor warmed his nights with wine. Your moralists Teach one thing, Nature quite another; which of these Is likely to be right? Yes, cultivate, But on the plan that she has mapped. Give way, Give way to the inspired blood of youth And you shall have a man, no scrupulous fool, No ethical malingerer in the fray; A man to lord it over other men, Soldier or Vizier or adventurous merchant, The breed of Samson. Man with such youth your armies. Of such is an imperial people made Who send their colonists and conquerors Across the world, till the wide earth contains One language only and a single rule. Yes, Nature is your grand imperialist, No moral sermonizer. Rude, hardy stocks Transplant themselves, expand, outlast the storms And heat and cold, not slips too gently nurtured Or lapped in hothouse warmth. Who conquered earth For Islam? Arabs trained in robbery, Heroes, robust in body and desire. I’ll get this slavegirl for Fareed to help His education on. Be lusty, son, And breed me grandsons like you for my stock. Exit.

Scene 3 The slave-market. Muazzim and his man; Balkis and Mymoona; Ajebe; Aziz, Abdullah and other merchants. MUAZZIM Well, gentlemen, the biddings, the biddings! Will you begin, sir, for an example now? BALKIS Who is the handsome youth in that rich dress? MUAZZIM It is Ajebe, the Vizier’s nephew, a good fellow with a bad uncle. BALKIS Praise me to them poetically, broker. MUAZZIM I promise you for the poetry. Biddings, gentlemen. A MERCHANT Three thousand for the pretty one. MUAZZIM Why, sir, I protest! Three thousand pieces! Look at her! Allah be good to me! You shall not find her equal from China to Frangistan. Seven thousand, say I. AZIZ The goods are good goods, broker, but the price heavy.

Act I, Scene 3

17

MUAZZIM Didst thou say heavy? Allah avert the punishment from thee, merchant Aziz. Heavy! BALKIS (to Ajebe) Will you not bid for me? My mirror tells me That I am pretty, and I can tell, who know it, I have a touch upon the lute will charm The winds to hear me, and my voice is sweeter Than any you have heard in Bassora. Will you not bid? AJEBE And wherefore do you choose me From all these merchants, child? BALKIS I cannot say That I have fallen in love with you. Your mother Is kind and beautiful, I read her in your face, And it is she I’ld serve. AJEBE I bid, Muazzim, Five thousand for this little lady. MUAZZIM Five! And she who chose you, too! Bid seven or nothing. AJEBE Well, well, six thousand, not a dirham more. MUAZZIM Does any bid beyond?

18

The Viziers of Bassora MERCHANT Let me see, let me see.

ABDULLAH Fie, leave them, man! You’ll have no luck with her, Crossing her wishes. MERCHANT Let her go, let her go. MUAZZIM To you, sir, she belongs. BALKIS But if you’ll have me, Then take my sister too; we make one heart Inseparably. AJEBE She’s fair, but not like you. BALKIS If we are parted, I shall sicken and die For want of her, then your six thousand’s wasted. MUAZZIM They make a single lot. AJEBE Two thousand more then. Give her in that, or else the sale is off. MUAZZIM That’s giving her away! Well, take her, take her. AJEBE I’ll send the money. Exit with Balkis and Mymoona.

Act I, Scene 3

19

ABDULLAH What, a bargain, broker? MUAZZIM Not much, not much; the owner’ll have some profit. AZIZ The Vizier! Enter Ibn Sawy. ABDULLAH Noble Alfazzal! There will be Good sales today in the market, since his feet Have trod here. MERCHANTS Welcome, welcome, noble Vizier. IBN SAWY The peace be on you all. I thank you, sirs. What, good Abdullah, all goes well at home? ABDULLAH My brother’s failed, sir. IBN SAWY Make me your treasurer. I am ashamed to think good men should want While I indulge in superfluities. Well, broker, how’s the market? Have you slaves That I can profit by? MUAZZIM Admired Vizier, There’s nothing worth the kindness of your gaze. Yet do but tell me what you need, I’ll fit you With stuff quite sound and at an honest price. The other brokers are mere pillagers,

20

The Viziers of Bassora

But me you know. IBN SAWY If there’s an honest broker, You are that marvel, I can swear so much. Now pick me out your sweetest thing in girls, Perfect in beauty, wise as Sheban Balkis, Yet more in charm than Helen of the Greeks, Then name your price. MUAZZIM I have the very marvel. You shall not see her equal in a century. She has the Koran and the law by heart; Song, motion, music and calligraphy Are natural to her, and she contains All science in one corner of her mind; Yet learning less than wit; and either lost In the mere sweetness of her speech and beauty. You’ll hardly have her within fifteen thousand; She is a nonpareil. IBN SAWY It is a sum. MUAZZIM Nay, see her only. Khalid, bring the girl. Exit Khalid. I should not ask you, sir, but has your son Authority from you to buy? He has The promise of a necklet from me. IBN SAWY A necklet! MUAZZIM A costly trifle. “Send it to such an house,”

Act I, Scene 3

21

He tells me like a prince, “and dun my father For the amount. I know you’ll clap it on As high as Elburz, you old swindler. Fleece him!” He is a merry lad. IBN SAWY Fleece me! The rogue! The handsome naughty rogue! I’ll pull his curls for this. The house? To whom is it given? MUAZZIM Well, sir, it is A girl, a dainty Christian. I fear she has given Something more precious far than what he pays her with. IBN SAWY No doubt, no doubt. The rogue! quite conscienceless. I’m glad you told me of this. Dun me! Well, The rascal’s frank enough, that is one comfort; He adds no meaner vices, fear or lying, To his impetuous faults. The blood is good And in the end will bear him through. There’s hope. I’ll come, Muazzim. Exit. MUAZZIM The son repeats the father, But with a dash of quicker, wilder blood. Here’s Khalid with the Persian. Enter Khalid with Anice-aljalice. Khalid, run And call the Vizier; he was here just now. Exit Khalid. Enter Almuene, Fareed and Slaves. FAREED There she is, father; there, there, there!

22

The Viziers of Bassora

ALMUENE You deal, sir? I know you well. Today be more honest than is your wont. Is she bid for? MUAZZIM (aside) Iblis straight out of Hell with his hobgoblin! (aloud) Sir, we are waiting for the good Vizier, who is to bid for her. ALMUENE Here is the Vizier and he bids for her. Two thousand for the lass. Who bids against me? MUAZZIM Vizier Almuene, you are too great to find any opposers, and you know it; but as you are great, I pray you bid greatly. Her least price is ten thousand. ALMUENE Ten thousand, swindler! Do you dare to cheat In open market? two thousand’s her outside. This spindly common wench! Accept it, broker, Or call for bids; refuse at your worst risk. MUAZZIM It is not the rule of these sales. I appeal to you, gentlemen. What, do you all steal off from my neighbourhood? Vizier, she is already bespoken by your elder, Ibn Sawy. ALMUENE I know your broking tricks, you shallow rascal. Call for more bids, you cheater, call for bids. MUAZZIM Abuse me not, Almuene bin Khakan! There is justice in Bassora and the good Ibn Sawy will decide between us.

Act I, Scene 3

23

ALMUENE Us! between us! Thou dirty broking cheat, Am I thy equal? Throw him the money, Nubian. But if he boggle, seize him, have him flat And powerfully persuade him with your sticks. You, beauty, come. What, hussy, you draw back? FAREED Father, let me get behind her with my horse-tickler. I will trot her home in a twinkling. MUAZZIM This is flat tyranny. I will appeal To the good Vizier and our gracious King. ALMUENE Impudent thief! have first thy punishment And howl appeal between the blows. Seize him. Enter Khalid with Ibn Sawy. MUAZZIM Protect me, Vizier, from this unjust man, This tyrant. IBN SAWY What is this? MUAZZIM He takes by force The perfect slavegirl I had kept for you, And at a beggarly, low, niggard’s price I’ld not accept for a black kitchen-girl; Then, when I named you, fell to tyrant rage, Ordering his slaves to beat me. IBN SAWY Is this true,

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Vizier? ALMUENE Someone beat out my foggy brains! I took it for a trick, a broker’s trick. What, you bespoke the girl? You know I’ld lose My hand and tongue rather than they should hurt you. Well, well, begin the bidding. IBN SAWY First, a word. Vizier, this purchase is not for myself; ’Tis for the King. I deem you far too loyal To bid against your master, needlessly Taxing his treasuries. But if you will, You have the right. By justice and the law The meanest may compete here. Do you bid? ALMUENE (to himself ) He baulks me everywhere. (aloud) The perfect slavegirl? No, I’ll not bid. Yet it is most unlucky, My son has set his heart upon this very girl. Will you not let him have her, Ibn Sawy? IBN SAWY I grieve that he must be so disappointed, But there’s no help. Were it my own dear son And he should pine to death for her, I would not Indulge him here. The King comes first. ALMUENE Quite first. Well, shall I see you at your house today? IBN SAWY State business, brother?

Act I, Scene 3 ALMUENE Our states and how to join Their link`ed loves yet closer. I have a thought Touching Fareed here and your orphaned niece. IBN SAWY I understand you. We will talk of it. Brother, you know my mind about your boy. He is too wild and rude; I would not trust My dear soft girl into such dangerous hands, Unless he showed a quick and strange amendment. ALMUENE It is the wildness of his youth. Provide him A wife and he will soon domesticate. Pen these wild torrents into quiet dams And they will fertilize the kingdom, brother. IBN SAWY I hope so. Well, we’ll talk. ALMUENE Fareed, come with me. FAREED I’ll have my girl! I’ll beat them all and have her! ALMUENE Wagtail, your uncle takes her. FAREED Break his head then, Whip the proud broker up and down the square And take her without payment. Why are you The Vizier, if you cannot do your will?

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ALMUENE Madcap, she’s for the King, be quiet. FAREED Oh! ALMUENE Come, I will buy you prettier girls than this By hundredweights and tons. FAREED She has such hair! such legs! God damn the Vizier and the King and you! I’ll take her yet. Exit in a rage, followed by Almuene and Slaves. MUAZZIM This is a budding Vizier! Sir, look at her; were mine mere broker’s praises? IBN SAWY You, mistress? Does the earth contain such beauty? MUAZZIM Did I not tell you so? IBN SAWY ’Tis marvellous, And if her mind be equal to her body, She is an emperor’s portion. What’s your name, Sweet wonder? ANICE Anice-aljalice they call me. IBN SAWY What is your history?

Act I, Scene 3 ANICE My parents sold me In the great famine. IBN SAWY What, is your mould indeed a thing of earth? Peri, have you not come disguised from heaven To snare us with your lovely smiles, you marvel? ANICE I am a slave and mortal. IBN SAWY Prove me that. ANICE A Peri, sir, has wings, but I have none. IBN SAWY I see that difference only. Well now, her price? MUAZZIM She is a gift to thee, O Vizier. IBN SAWY Ceremony? I rate her value at ten thousand clear. MUAZZIM It is the price expected at your hands, Though from a private purse we’ld have full value. Keep her ten days with you; her beauty’s worn With journeying and its harsh fatigues. Give rest, Give baths, give food, then shade your eyes to gaze at her. IBN SAWY You counsel wisely. There’s my poaching rascal, —

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But I will seal her fast even from his questings. The peace, Muazzim. MUAZZIM Peace, thou good Vizier, loaded with our blessings. Exeunt.

Scene 4 A room in the women’s apartments of Ibn Sawy’s house. Ameena, Doonya. AMEENA Call, Doonya, to the eunuch once again, And ask if Nureddene has come. DOONYA Mother, What is the use? you know he has not come. Why do you fret your heart, sweet mother, for him? Bad coins are never lost. AMEENA Fie, Doonya! bad? He is not bad, but wild, a trifle wild; And the one little fault’s like a stray curl Among his clustering golden qualities, That graces more than it disfigures him. Bad coin! Oh, Doonya, even the purest gold Has some alloy, so do not call him bad. DOONYA Sweet, silly mother! why, I called him that Just to hear you defend him. AMEENA You laugh at me, — Oh, you all laugh. And yet I will maintain My Nureddene’s the dearest lad in Bassora, — Let him disprove’t who can, — in all this realm

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The beautifullest and kindest. DOONYA So the girls think Through all our city. Oh, I laugh at you And at myself. I’m sure I am as bad A sister to him as you are a mother. AMEENA I a bad mother, Doonya? DOONYA The worst possible. You spoil him; so do I; so does his father; So does all Bassora, — especially the girls! AMEENA Why, who could be unkind to him or see His merry eyes grow clouded with remorse? DOONYA Is it he who comes? She goes out and returns. It is my uncle, mother, And there’s a girl with him, — I think she is A copy of Nureddene in white and red. Why, as I looked downstairs, she smiled up at me And took the heart out of my body with the smile. Are you going to have a rival at your years, Poor mother? ’Tis late for uncle to go wooing. AMEENA A rival, you mad girl! Enter Ibn Sawy and Anice-aljalice. IBN SAWY Come forward, child.

Act I, Scene 4 Here is a slavegirl, Ameena, I’ve bought For our great Sultan. Keep her from your son, Your scapegrace son. My life upon it, dame! If he touches her, I’m gone. AMEENA I’ll see to it. IBN SAWY Let a strong eunuch with a naked sword Stand at her door. Bathe her and feed her daintily. Your son! see that he does not wheedle you. You’ve spoilt him so, there is no trusting you, You tender, foolish heart. AMEENA I spoil him, husband! IBN SAWY Most damnably. Whenever I would turn Wholesomely harsh to him, you come between And coax my anger. Therefore he is spoilt. DOONYA Oh, uncle mine, when you are harsh, the world Grows darker with your frown. See, how I tremble! IBN SAWY Oh, are you there, my little satirist? When were you whipped last? DOONYA When you last were harsh. IBN SAWY You shall be married off. I will not have you Mocking an old and reverend man like me.

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Whom will you marry, chit? DOONYA An old, old man, Just such a smiling harsh old man as you, None else. IBN SAWY And not a boy like young Fareed? His father wishes it; he too, I think. DOONYA Throw me from this high window to the court, Or tell me ere the day and I will leap. IBN SAWY Is he so bad? I thought it. No, my niece, You marry not with Khakan’s evil stock, Although there were no other bridegroom living. I’ll leave you, Ameena. Anice, I have a son, Handsome and wanton. Let him not behold you! You are wise and spirited beyond your years, Above your sex; I trust in your discretion. ANICE I will be careful, sir. Yet trust in bars And portals, not in me. If he should find me, I am his slave and born to do his will. IBN SAWY Be careful, dame. Exit. AMEENA How fair you are, small lady! ’Tis better truly he should see you not. Doonya, be careful of her. I’ll go before

Act I, Scene 4

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And make your casket ready for you, gem. Bring her behind me, Doonya. Exit. DOONYA (leaping on Anice) What’s your name, You smiling wonder, what’s your name? your name? ANICE If you will let me a little breathe, I’ll tell you. DOONYA Tell it me without breathing. ANICE It’s too long. DOONYA Let’s hear it. ANICE Anice-aljalice. DOONYA Anice, There is a sea of laughter in your body; I find it billowing there beneath the calm And rippling sweetly out in smiles. You beauty! And I love laughers. Wherefore for the King? Why not for me? Does the King ever laugh, I wonder? She runs out. ANICE My King is here. But they would give me To some thick-bearded swart and grizzled Sultan Who’ld see me once a week and keep me penned

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For service, not for mirth and love. My prince Is like our Persian boys, fair-faced and merry, Fronting the world with glad and open looks That make the heart rejoice. Ten days! ’tis much. Kingdoms have toppled in ten days. Doonya returns. DOONYA Come, Anice. I wish my cousin Nureddene had come And caught you here. What fun it would have been! Exeunt.

Act II Bassora.

Scene 1 Ibn Sawy’s house. An upper chamber in the women’s apartments. Doonya, Anice-aljalice. DOONYA You living sweet romance, you come from Persia. ’Tis there, I think, they fall in love at sight? ANICE But will you help me, Doonya, will you help me? To him, to him, not to that grizzled King! I am near Heaven with Hell that’s waiting for me. DOONYA I know, I know! you feel as I would, child, If told that in ten days I had to marry My cruel boisterous cousin. I will help you. But strange! to see him merely pass and love him! Did he look back at you? ANICE While he could see me. DOONYA Yes, that was Nureddene.

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Yes, With all my heart and soul and brains and body. But how? My uncle’s orders are so strict! ANICE And do you always heed your uncle’s orders, You dutiful niece? DOONYA Rigidly, when they suit me. It shall be done although my punishment Were even to wed Fareed. But who can say When he’ll come home? ANICE Comes he not daily then? DOONYA When he’s not hawking. Questing, child, for doves, White doves. ANICE I’ll stop all that when he is mine. DOONYA Will you? and yet I think you will, nor find it A task at all. You can do it? ANICE I will. DOONYA You have relieved my conscience of a load.

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Who blames me? I do this to reform my cousin, Gravely, deliberately, with serious thought, And am quite virtuously disobedient. I almost feel a long white beard upon my chin, The thing’s so wise and sober. Gravely, gravely! She marches out, solemnly stroking an imaginary beard. ANICE My heart beats reassuringly within. The destined Prince will come and all bad spells Be broken; then — You angels up in Heaven Who guard sweet shame and woman’s modesty, Hide deep your searching eyes with those bright wings. It is not wantonness, though in a slave Permitted, spurs me forward. O tonight Let sleep your pens, in your rebuking volumes Record not this. I am on such a brink, A hound of horror baying at my heels, I cannot pause to think what fire of blushes I choose to flee through, nor how safe cold eyes May censure me. I pass though I should burn. You cannot bid me pick my careful steps! Oh, no, the danger is too near. I run By the one road that’s left me, to escape, To escape, into the very arms I love. Curtain

Scene 2 Ibn Sawy’s house. A room in the women’s apartments. Ameena, Doonya. AMEENA Has he come in? DOONYA He has. AMEENA For three long days! I will reprove him. Call him to me, Doonya. I will be stern. DOONYA That’s right. Lips closer there! And just try hard to frown. That’s mildly grim And ought to shake him. Now you spoil all by laughing. AMEENA Away, you madcap! Call him here. DOONYA The culprit Presents himself unsummoned. Enter Nureddene. NUREDDENE (at the door) Ayoob, Ayoob! A bowl of sherbet in my chamber. (entering)

Act II, Scene 2 Well, mother, Here I am back, your errant gadabout, Your vagabond scapegrace, tired of truancy And very hungry for my mother’s arms. It’s good to see you smile! AMEENA My dearest son! NUREDDENE Why, Doonya, cousin, what wild face is this? DOONYA This is a frown, a frown, upon my forehead. Do you not tremble when you see it? No? To tell you the plain truth, my wandering brother, We both were practising a careful grimness And meant to wither you with darting flames From basilisk eyes and words more sharp than swords, Burn you and frizzle into simmering cinders. Oh, you’ld have been a dolorous spectacle Before we had finished with you! Ask her else. AMEENA Heed her not, Nureddene. But tell me, child, Is this well done to wander vagrant-like Leaving your mother to anxieties And such alarms? Oh, we will have to take Some measure with you! DOONYA Oh, now, now, we are stern! NUREDDENE Mother, I only range abroad and learn Of manners and of men to fit myself For the after-time.

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True, true, and of the taste Of different wines and qualities of girls; What eyes Damascus sends, the Cairene sort, Bagdad’s red lips and Yemen’s willowy figures, Who has the smallest waist in Bassora, Or who the shapeliest little foot moonbright Beneath her anklets. These are sciences And should be learned by sober masculine graduates. Should they not, cousin? NUREDDENE These too are not amiss, Doonya, for world-wise men. And do you think, Dear mother, I could learn the busy world Here, in your lap, within the shadowy calm Of women’s chambers? AMEENA No, child, no. You see, Doonya, it is not all so bad, this wandering. And I am sure they much o’erstate his faults Who tell of them. DOONYA Oh, this is very grim! AMEENA But, Nureddene, you must not be so wild; Or when we are gone, what will you do, if now You learn no prudence? All your patrimony You’ll waste, — and then? NUREDDENE Then, mother, life begins. I shall go forth, a daring errant-knight, To my true country out in faeryland;

Act II, Scene 2 Wander among the Moors, see Granada, The delicate city made of faery stone, Cairo, Tangier, Aleppo, Trebizond; Or in the East, where old enchantment dwells, Find Pekin of the wooden piles, Delhi Of the idolaters, its brazen pillar And huge seven-storied temples sculpture-fretted, And o’er romantic regions quite unknown Preach Islam, sword in hand; sell bales of spice From Bassora to Java and Japan; Then on through undiscovered islands, seas And Oceans yet unnamed; yes, everywhere Catch Danger by the throat where I can find him, — DOONYA Butcher blood-belching dragons with my blade, Cut ogres, chop giants, tickle cormorants, — NUREDDENE Then in some land, I have not settled which, — DOONYA Call it Cumcatchia or Nonsensicum. NUREDDENE Marry a Soldan’s daughter, sweet of eye And crowned with gracious hair, deserving her By deeds impossible; conduct her armies Against her foemen, enter iron-walled Cities besieged with the loud clang of war, Rescue imperilled kingdoms, mid the smoke Of desperate cities slay victorious kings, And so extend my lady’s empire wide — DOONYA From Bassora to the quite distant moon.

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NUREDDENE There I shall reign with beauty and splendour round In a great palace built of porphyry, Marble and jasper, with strange columns made Of coral and fair walls bright-arabesqued On which the Koran shall be written out In sapphires and in rubies. I will sit Drinking from cups of gold delightful wine, Watching slow dances, while the immortal strain Of music wanders to its silent home. And I shall have bright concubines and slaves Around me crowding all my glorious house With beautiful faces, thick as stars in heaven. My wealth shall be so great that I can spend Millions each day nor feel the want. I’ll give Till there shall be no poor in all my realms, Nor any grieved; for I shall every night, Like Haroun Alrasheed, the mighty Caliph, Wander disguised with Jaafar and Mesrour Redressing wrongs, repressing Almuenes, And set up noble men like my dear father In lofty places, giving priceless boons, An unseen Providence to all mankind. DOONYA And you will marry me, dear Nureddene, To Jaafar, your great Vizier, so that we Shall never part, but every blessed night Drink and be merry in your halls, and live Felicitously for ever and for aye, So long as full moons shine and brains go wrong And wine is drunk. I make my suit to you from now, Caliph of Faeryland. NUREDDENE Your suit is granted. And meanwhile, Doonya, I amuse myself

Act II, Scene 2 With nearer kingdoms, Miriam’s wavy locks And Shazarath-al-Durr’s sweet voice of song. DOONYA And meanwhile, brother, till you get your kingdom, We shall be grim, quite grim. AMEENA Your father’s angry. I have not known him yet so moved. My child, Do not force us to punish you. NUREDDENE With kisses? Look, Doonya, at these two dear hypocrites, She with her gentle honey-worded threats, He with his stormings. Pooh! I care not for you. AMEENA Not care! NUREDDENE No, not a jot for him or you, My little mother, or only just so much As a small kiss is worth. AMEENA I told you, Doonya, He was the dearest boy in all the world, The best, the kindest. DOONYA Oh yes, you told me that. And was the dearest boy in all the world Rummaging the regions for the dearest girl, While the admiring sun danced round the welkin A triple circuit?

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The Viziers of Bassora NUREDDENE I have found her, Doonya.

DOONYA The backward glance? AMEENA Your father! Enter Ibn Sawy. IBN SAWY Ameena, I’m called to the palace; something is afoot. Ah, rascal! ah, you villain! you have come? NUREDDENE Sir, a long hour. IBN SAWY Rogue! scamp! what do you mean? Knave, is my house a caravanserai For you to lodge in when it is your pleasure? NUREDDENE It is the happiest home in Bassora, Where the two kindest parents in the world Excuse their vagabond son. IBN SAWY Hum! well! What, fellow, You will buy trinkets? you will have me dunned? And fleeced? NUREDDENE Did he dun you? I hope he asked A fitting price; I told him to.

Act II, Scene 2

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IBN SAWY Sir, sir, What game is this to buy your hussies trinkets And send your father in the bill? Who taught you This rule of conduct? NUREDDENE You, sir. IBN SAWY I, rascal? NUREDDENE You told me That debt must be avoided like a sin. What other way could I avoid it, sir, Yet give the trinket? IBN SAWY Logic of impudence! Tell me, you curled wine-bibbing Aristotle, Did I tell you also to have mistresses And buy them trinkets? NUREDDENE Not in so many words. IBN SAWY So many devils! NUREDDENE But since you did not marry me Nor buy a beautiful slave for home delight, I thought you’ld have me range outside for pleasures To get experience of the busy world. If ’twas an oversight, it may be mended.

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IBN SAWY I’m dumb! NUREDDENE There is a Persian Muazzim sells, Whom buy for me, — her rate’s ten thousand pieces — IBN SAWY A Persian! Muazzim sells! ten thousand pieces! (to himself ) Where grows this tangle? I become afraid. NUREDDENE Whom buy for me, I swear I’ll be at home Quite four days out of seven. IBN SAWY Hear me, young villain! I’m called to the palace, but when I return, Look to be bastinadoed, look to be curried In boiling water. (aside) I must blind him well. Ten days I shall be busy with affairs; Then for your slavegirl. Bid the broker keep her. Oh, I forgot! I swore to pull your curls For your offences. NUREDDENE I must not let you, sir; They are no longer my own property. There’s not a lock that has not been bespoken For a memento. IBN SAWY What! what! Impudent rascal! (aside) You handsome laughing rogue! Hear, Ameena, Let Doonya sleep with Anice every night.

Act II, Scene 2

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No, come; hear farther. Exit with Ameena. NUREDDENE O Doonya, Doonya, tall, sweet, laughing Doonya! I am in love, — drowned, strangled, dead with longing. DOONYA For the world’s Persian? But she’s sold by now. NUREDDENE I asked Muazzim. DOONYA A quite absolute liar. NUREDDENE O if she is, I’ll leave all other cares And only seek her through an empty world. DOONYA What, could one backward glance sweep you so forward? NUREDDENE Why, Doonya! DOONYA Brother, I know a thing I know You do not know. A sweet bird sang it to me In an upper chamber. NUREDDENE Doonya, you’re full of something, And I must hear it. DOONYA What will you give me for it?

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None of your nighthawk kisses, cousin mine! But a mild loving kind fraternal pledge I’ll not refuse. NUREDDENE You are the wickedest, dearest girl In all the world, the maddest sweetest sister A sighing lover ever had. Now tell me. DOONYA More, more! I must be flattered. NUREDDENE No more. Come, mischief, You’ll keep me in suspense? (pulls her ears) DOONYA Enough, enough! The Persian — listen and perpend, O lover! Lend ear while I unfold my wondrous tale, A tale long, curled and with a tip, — Oh Lord! I’ll clip my tale. The Persian’s bought for you And in the upper chambers. NUREDDENE Doonya, Doonya! But those two loving hypocrites, — DOONYA All’s meant To be surprise. NUREDDENE Surprise me no surprises. I am on fire, Doonya, I am on fire. The upper chambers?

Act II, Scene 2

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DOONYA Stop, stop! You do not know; There is an ogre at her door, a black White-tusked huge-muscled hideous grinning giant, Of mood uproarious, horrible of limb, An Ethiopian fell ycleped Harkoos. NUREDDENE The eunuch! DOONYA Stop, stop, stop. He has a sword, A fearful, forceful, formidable blade. NUREDDENE Your eunuch and his sword! I mount to heaven And who shall stop me? Exit. DOONYA Stop, stop! yet stop! He’s off Like bolt from bowstring. Now the game’s afoot And Bassora’s Soldan, Mohamad Alzayni, May whistle for his slavegirl. I am Fate, For I upset the plans of Viziers and of Kings. Exit.

Scene 3 Ibn Sawy’s house. The upper chambers of the women’s apartments. Doonya, sleeping on a couch. Enter Nureddene and Anice. NUREDDENE I told you ’twas the morning. ANICE Morning so early? This moment ’twas the evening star; is that The matin lustre? NUREDDENE There is a star at watch beside the moon Waiting to see you ere it leave the skies. Is it your sister Peri? ANICE It is our star And guards us both. NUREDDENE It is the star of Anice, The star of Anice-aljalice who came From Persia guided by its silver beams Into these arms of vagrant Nureddene Which keep her till the end. Sweet, I possess you! Till now I could not patently believe it. Strange, strange that I who nothing have deserved, Should win what all would covet! We are fools Who reach at baubles taking them for stars.

Act II, Scene 3

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O wiser woman who come straight to Heaven! But I have wandered by the way and staled The freshness of delight with gadding pleasures, Anticipated Love’s perfect fruit with sour And random berries void of real savour. Oh fool! had I but known! What can I say But once more that I have deserved you not, Who yet must take you, knowing my undesert, Whatever come hereafter? ANICE The house is stirring. NUREDDENE Who is this sleeping here? My cousin Doonya! DOONYA (waking) Is morning come? My blessing on you, children. Be good and kind, dears; love each other, darlings. NUREDDENE Dame Mischief, thanks; thanks, Mother Madcap. DOONYA Now, whither? NUREDDENE To earth from Paradise. DOONYA Wait, wait! You must not Walk off the stage before your part is done. The situation now with open eyes And lifted hands and chidings. You’ll be whipped, Anice, and Nureddene packed off to Mecca On penitential legs; I shall be married. (opening the door)

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Oh, our fell Ethiopian snoozing here? Snore, noble ogre, snore louder than nature To excuse your gloomy skin from worse than thwacks. Wait for me, Nureddene. Exit. ANICE They will be angry. NUREDDENE Oh, with two smiles I’ll buy an easy pardon. ANICE Whatever comes, we are each other’s now. NUREDDENE Nothing will come to us but happy days, You, my surpassing jewel, on my neck Closer to me than my own heartbeats. ANICE Yes, Closer than kisses, closer than delight, Close only as love whom sorrow and delight Cannot diminish, nor long absence change Nor daily prodigality of joy Expend immortal love. NUREDDENE You have the lore. Doonya returns. DOONYA I have told Nuzhath to call mother here. There will be such a gentle storm. Enter Ameena at the door.

Act II, Scene 3

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AMEENA Harkoos! Sleeping? HARKOOS Gmn — mmn — DOONYA Grunted almost like nature, Thou excellent giant. AMEENA Harkoos, dost thou sleep? HARKOOS Sleep! I! I was only pondering a text of Koran with closed eyes, lady. You give us slaves pitiful small time for our devotions; but ’twill all be accounted for hereafter. AMEENA And canst thou meditate beneath the lash? For there thou’lt shortly be. HARKOOS Stick or leather, ’tis all one to Harkoos. I will not be cudgelled out of my straight road to Paradise. AMEENA My mind misgives me. (enters the room) Was this well done, my child? NUREDDENE Dear, think the chiding given; do not pain Your forehead with a frown.

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Were part of this? DOONYA Part! you shall not abate My glory; I am its artificer, The auxiliary and supplement of Fate. AMEENA Quite shameless in your disobedience, Doonya? Your father’s anger will embrace us all. NUREDDENE And nothing worse than the embrace which ends A chiding and a smile, our fault deserves. You had a gift for me in your sweet hands Concealed behind you; I have but reached round And taken it ere you knew. AMEENA For you, my son? She was not for you, she was for the King. This was your worst fault, child; all others venial Beside it. NUREDDENE For the King! You told me, Doonya, That she was bought for me, a kind surprise Intended? DOONYA I did; exact! AMEENA Such falsehood, Doonya!

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DOONYA No falsehood, none. Purchased she was for him, For he has got her. And surprise! Well, mother, Are you not quite surprised? And uncle will be Most woefully. My cousin and Anice too Are both caught napping, — all except great Doonya. No falsehood, mere excess of truth, a bold Anticipation of the future, mother. NUREDDENE I did not know of this. Yet blame not Doonya; For had I known, I would have run with haste More breathless to demand my own from Fate. AMEENA What will your father think? I am afraid. He was most urgent, grave beyond his wont. Absent yourself awhile and let me bear The first keen breathings of his anger. NUREDDENE The King! And if he were the Caliph of the world, He should not have my love. Come, fellow-culprit. Exit with Doonya. AMEENA Harkoos, go fetch your master here; and stiffen The muscles of your back. Negligent servant! HARKOOS ’Tis all one to Harkoos. Stick or leather! leather or stick! ’Tis the way of this wicked and weary world. Exit. AMEENA Yet, Anice, tell me, is’t too late? Alas!

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Your cheeks and lowered eyes confess the fault. I fear your nature and your nurture, child, Are not so beautiful as is your face. Could you not have forbidden this? ANICE Lady, Remember my condition. Can a slave Forbid or order? We are only trained To meek and quick obedience; and what’s virtue In freemen is in us a deep offence. Do you command your passions, not on us Impose that service; ’tis not in our part. AMEENA You have a clever brain and a quick tongue. And yet this speech was hardly like a slave’s! I will not blame you. ANICE I deny not, lady, My heart consented to this fault. AMEENA I know Who ’twas besieged you, girl, and do not blame Your heart for yielding where it had no choice. Go in. Exit Anice. Enter Harkoos and Ibn Sawy. IBN SAWY I hope, I hope that has not chanced Which I have striven to prevent. This slave Grins only and mutters gibberish to my questions. AMEENA The worst.

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IBN SAWY Why, so! the folly was my own And I must bear its heavy consequence. Sir, you shall have your wage for what has happened. HARKOOS The way of the world. Whose peg’s loose? Beat Harkoos. Because my young master would climb through the wrong window and mistake a rope-ladder for the staircase, my back must ache. Was the windowsill my post? Have I wings to stand upon air or a Djinn’s eye to see through wood? How bitter is injustice! IBN SAWY You shall be thrashed for your poor gift of lying. AMEENA Blame none; it was unalterable fate. IBN SAWY That name by which we put our sins on God, Yet shall not so escape. ’Twas our indulgence Moulded the boy and made him fit for sin; Which now, by our past mildness hampered quite, We cannot punish without tyranny. Offences we have winked at, when they knocked At foreign doors, how shall we look at close When they come striking home? AMEENA What will you do? IBN SAWY The offence here merits death, but not the offender. Easy solution if the sin could die And leave the sinner living!

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AMEENA Vizier, you are perplexed, to talk like this. Because a little’s broken, break not more. Let Nureddene have Anice-aljalice, As Fate intended. Buy another slave Fairer than she is for great Alzayni’s bed, Return his money to the treasury And cover up this fault. IBN SAWY With lies? AMEENA With silence. IBN SAWY Will God be silent? will my enemies? The son of Khakan silent? Ameena, My children have conspired my shame and death. AMEENA Face not the thing so mournfully. Vizier, you want A woman’s wit beside you in the Court. Muene may speak; will you be dumb? Whom then Will the King trust? Collect your wits, be bold, Be subtle; guard yourself, protect your child. IBN SAWY You urge me on a road my weaker heart Chooses, not reason. But consider, dame, If we excuse such gross and violent fault Done in our house, what hope to save our boy, — Oh, not his body, but the soul within? ’Twill petrify in vice and grow encrusted With evil as with a leprosy.

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AMEENA Do this. Show a fierce anger, have a gleaming knife Close at his throat, let him be terrified. Then I’ll come in with tears and seem to save him On pledge of fairer conduct. IBN SAWY This has a promise. Give me a knife and let me try to frame My looks to anger. AMEENA Harkoos, a dagger here! Harkoos gives his dagger. IBN SAWY But see you come not in too early anxious And mar the game. AMEENA Trust me. IBN SAWY Go, call my son, Harkoos; let him not know that I am here. Exit Harkoos. Go, Ameena. Exit Ameena. Plays oft have serious fruit, ’Tis seen; then why not this? ’tis worth the trial. Prosper or fail, I must do something quickly Before I go upon the Caliph’s work To Roum the mighty. But I hear him come. Enter Nureddene and Harkoos.

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NUREDDENE You’re sure of it? You shall have gold for this Kind treason. HARKOOS Trust Harkoos; and if he beats me, Why, sticks are sticks and leather is but leather. NUREDDENE Father! IBN SAWY O rascal, traitor, villain, imp! He throws him down on a couch and holds him under his dagger. I’ll father you. Prepare, prepare your soul, Your black and crime-encrusted soul for hell. I’m death and not your father. NUREDDENE Mother, quick! Help, mother! Ameena comes hurrying in. The poor dear old man is mad. IBN SAWY Ahh, woman! wherefore do you come so soon? NUREDDENE How his eyes roll! Satan, abandon him. Take him off quickly. IBN SAWY Take me off, you villain? NUREDDENE Tickle him in the ribs, that’s the best way.

Act II, Scene 3 IBN SAWY Tickle me in the ribs! Impudent villain! I’ll cut your throat. AMEENA (frightened) Husband, what do you? think, He is your only son. IBN SAWY And preferable I had not him. Better no son than bad ones. NUREDDENE Is there no help then? IBN SAWY None; prepare! NUREDDENE All right. But let me lie a little easier first. IBN SAWY Lie easier! Rogue, your impudence amazes. You shall lie easier soon on coals of hell. AMEENA This goes no farther. ANICE (looking in) They are in angry talk. Oh, kill me rather! NUREDDENE Waste not your terrors, sweetheart. We are rehearsing an old comedy, “The tyrant father and his graceless son”.

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Foolish old man! IBN SAWY What! what! NUREDDENE See now the end Of all your headstrong moods and wicked rages You would indulge yourself in, though I warned you, Against your gallant handsome virtuous son. And now they have turned your brain! Vicious indulgence, How bitter-dusty is thy fruit! Be warned And put a rein on anger, curb in wrath, That enemy of man. Oh, thou art grown A sad example to all angry fathers! IBN SAWY Someone had told you of this. (to Harkoos) Grinning villain! HARKOOS Oh yes, it is I, of course. Your peg’s loose; beat Harkoos. IBN SAWY My peg, you rogue! I’ll loose your peg for you. NUREDDENE No, father, let him be, and hear me out. I swear it was not out of light contempt For your high dignity and valued life More precious to me than my blood, if I Transgressed your will in this. I knew not of it, Nor that you meant my Anice for the King. For me I thought her purchased, so was told, And still believe religiously that Fate Brought her to Bassora only for me.

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IBN SAWY It was a fault, my child. NUREDDENE Which I cannot repent. IBN SAWY You are my son, generous and true and bold, Though faulty. Take the slavegirl then, but swear Never hereafter mistress, slave or wife Lies in your arms but only she; neither, Until herself desire it, mayst thou sell her. Swear this and keep thy love. NUREDDENE I swear it. IBN SAWY Leave us. Exit Nureddene. Anice, in care for thee I have required This oath from him, which he, perhaps, will keep. Do thou requite it; be to him no less Than a dear wife. ANICE How noble is the nature That prompts you to enforce on great offenders Their dearest wishes! IBN SAWY Go in, my child; go, Anice. Exit Anice. Last night of my departure hence to Roum To parley with the Greek for great Haroun I spoke with you, and my long year of absence, —

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AMEENA It is a weary time. IBN SAWY Wherein much evil May chance; and therefore will I leave my children As safe as God permits. Doonya to nuptials. The son of Khakan wants her for his cub, But shall not have her. One shall marry her Who has the heart and hand to guard her well. AMEENA Who, husband? IBN SAWY Murad, Captain of the City. He rises daily in Alzayni’s favour. AMEENA He is a Turk. Our noble Arab branch Were ill engrafted on that savage stock. IBN SAWY A prejudice. There is no stock in Islam Except the Prophet. For our Nureddene, I will divide my riches in two halves, Leave one to him and one for you with Murad, While you are with your kin or seem to be. AMEENA Oh wherefore this? IBN SAWY ’Tis likely that the boy, Left here in sole command, will waste his wealth And come to evil. If he’s sober, well; If not, when he is bare as any rock,

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Abandoned by his friends, spewed out by all, It may be that in this sharp school and beaten With savage scourges the wild blood in him May learn sobriety and noble use: Then rescue him, assist his better nature. And we shall see too how the loves endure Betwixt him and the Persian; whether she Deserves her monarchy in his wild will, Or, even deserving, keeps it. AMEENA But, dear husband, Shall I not see my boy for a whole year? IBN SAWY No tears! Consider it the punishment Of our too fond indulgent love, — happy If that be worst. All will end well, I hope, And I returning, glad, to Bassora Embrace a son reformed, a happy niece Nursing her babe, and you, the gentle mother Like the sweet kindly earth whose patient love Embraces even our faults and sins. Grant it, O Allah, if it be at all Thy will. Exeunt.

Scene 4 A room in Ajebe’s house. Ajebe. AJEBE Balkis, do come, my heart. Enter Balkis. BALKIS Your will? AJEBE My will! When had I any will since you came here, You rigorous tyrant? BALKIS Was it for abuse You called me? AJEBE Bring your lute and sing to me. BALKIS I am not in the mood. AJEBE Sing, I entreat you. I am hungry for your voice of pure delight. BALKIS I am no kabob, nor my voice a curry.

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Hungry, forsooth! Exit. AJEBE Oh, Balkis, Balkis! hear me. Enter Mymoona. MYMOONA It’s useless calling; she is in her moods. And there’s your Vizier getting down from horse In the doorway. AJEBE I will go and bring him up. Mymoona, coax her for me, will you, girl? Exit. MYMOONA It is as good to meet a mangy dog As this same uncle of ours. He seldom comes. She conceals herself behind a curtain. Reenter Ajebe with Almuene. ALMUENE He goes tomorrow? Well. And Nureddene The scapegrace holds his wealth in hand? Much better. I always said he was a fool. (to himself ) Easily I might confound him with this flagrant lapse About the slavegirl. But wait! wait! He gone, His memory waned, his riches squandered quite, I’ll ruin his son, ruin the insolent Turk He has preferred to my Fareed. His Doonya And Anice slavegirls to my lusty boy, His wife — but she escapes. It is enough. They come back to a desolate house. Oh, let Their forlorn wrinkles hug an empty nest In life’s cold leafless winter! Meanwhile I set

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My seal on every room in the King’s heart; He finds no chamber open when he comes. AJEBE Uncle, you ponder things of weight? ALMUENE No, Ajebe; Trifles, mere trifles. You’re a friend, I think, Of Ibn Sawy’s son? AJEBE We drink together. ALMUENE Right, right! Would you have place, power, honours, gold, Or is your narrow soul content with ease? AJEBE Why, uncle! ALMUENE Do you dread death? furious disgrace? Or beggary that’s worse than either? Do you? AJEBE All men desire those blessings, fear these ills. ALMUENE They shall be yours in overflowing measure, Good, if you serve me, ill, if you refuse. AJEBE What service? ALMUENE Ruin wanton Nureddene.

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Gorge him with riot and excess; rob him Under a friendly guise; force him to spend Till he’s a beggar. Most, delude him on To prone extremity of drunken shame Which he shall feel, yet have no power to check. Drench all his senses in vile profligacy, Not mere light gallantries, but gutter filth, Though you have to share it. Do this and you’re made; But this undone, you are yourself undone. Eight months I give you. No, attend me not. Exit. AJEBE Mymoona! girl, where are you? MYMOONA Here, here, behind you. AJEBE A Satan out of hell has come to me. MYMOONA A Satan, truly, and he’ld make you one, Damning you down into the deepest hell of all. AJEBE What shall I do? MYMOONA Not what he tells you to. AJEBE Yet if I do not, I am gone. No man In Bassora could bear his heavy wrath. On the other side —

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Leave the other side. ’Tis true, The dog will keep his word in evil; for good, ’Tis brittle, brittle. But you cannot do it; Our Balkis loves his Anice so completely. AJEBE Girl, girl, my life and goods are on the die. MYMOONA Do one thing. AJEBE I will do what you shall bid me. MYMOONA He has some vile companions, has he not? AJEBE Cafoor and Ayoob and the rest; a gang Of pleasant roisterers without heart or mind. MYMOONA Whisper the thing to them; yourself do nothing. Check him at times. Whatever else you do, Take not his gifts; they are the price of shame. If he is ruined, as without their urging Is likely, Satan’s satisfied; if not, We’ll flee from Bassora when there’s no help. AJEBE You have a brain. Yet if I must be vile, A bolder vileness best becomes a man. MYMOONA And Balkis?

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AJEBE True. MYMOONA Be safe, be safe. The rest Is doubtful, but one truth is sadly sure, That dead men cannot love. AJEBE I’ll think of it. Mymoona, leave me; send your sister here. Exit Mymoona. The thing’s too vile! and yet — honours and place, And to set Balkis on a kingdom’s crest Breaking and making men with her small hands The lute’s too large for! But the way is foul. Enter Balkis. BALKIS What’s your command? AJEBE Bring me your lute and sing. I’m sad and troubled. Cross me not, my girl; My temper’s wry. BALKIS Oh, threats? AJEBE Remember still You are a slave, however by my love Pampered, and sometimes think upon the scourge. BALKIS Do, do! Yes, beat me! Or why beat me only? Kill me, as you have killed my heart already

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With your harsh words. I knew, I knew what all Your love would end in. Oh! oh! oh! (weeps) AJEBE Forgive me, O sweetest heart. I swear I did not mean it. BALKIS Because in play I sometimes speak a little — O scourge me, kill me! AJEBE ’Twas a jest, a jest! Tear not my heart with sobs. Look, Balkis, love, You shall have necklaces worth many thousands, Pearls, rubies, if you only will not weep. BALKIS I am a slave and only fit for scourging, Not pearls and rubies. Mymoona! oh, Mymoona! Bring him a scourge and me a cup of poison. Exit. AJEBE She plays upon me as upon her lute. I’m as inert, as helpless, as completely Ruled by her moods, as dumbly pleasureless By her light hands untouched. How to appease her? Mymoona! oh, Mymoona! Exit.

Act III Bassora.

Scene 1 Ibn Sawy’s house. A room in the outer apartments decorated for a banquet. Doonya, Anice, Balkis. DOONYA Lord, how they pillage! Even the furniture Cannot escape these Djinns. Ogre Ghaneem Picks up that costly chair between his teeth And off to his castle; devil Ayoob drops That table of mosaic in his pocket; Zeb sweeps off rugs and couches in a whirlwind. What purse will long put up with such ill-treatment? BALKIS It must be checked. DOONYA ’Tis much that he has kept His promise to my uncle. Oh, he’s sound! These villains spoil him. Anice, you’re to blame. However you complain, yourself are quite As reckless. ANICE I?

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DOONYA Yes, you. Is there a bright Unnecessary jewel you have seen And have not bought? a dress that took your fancy And was not in a moment yours? Or have you lost A tiny chance of laughter, song and wine, Since you were with him? ANICE A few rings and chains, Some silks and cottons I have bought at times. DOONYA What did these trifles cost? ANICE I do not know. DOONYA Of course you do not. Come, it’s gone too far; Restrain him, curb yourself. BALKIS Next time he calls you To sing among his wild companions, send Cold answers, do not go. ANICE To break the jest, The flow of good companionship, drive out Sweet friendly looks with anger, be a kill-joy And frowner in this bright and merry world! Oh, all the sins that human brows grow wrinkled With frowning at, could never equal this! DOONYA But if the skies grew darker?

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ANICE If they should! It was a bright and merry world. To see him Happy and gay and kind was all I cared for; There my horizon stopped. But if the skies Did darken! Doonya, it shall cease today. Enter Azeem. Well, Azeem. AZEEM Madam, half the creditors, And that means half the shops in Bassora, Hold session in the outer hall and swear It shall be permanent till they get money. ANICE Where is your master? Call him here. A moment! Have you the bills? AZEEM All of them, long as pillars And crammed from head to foot with monstrous sums. ANICE Call him. AZEEM He’s here. Enter Nureddene. NUREDDENE What, cousin Doonya! Balkis! Did you steal down to see the decorations? Are they not pretty? DOONYA Like a painted tombstone

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Sculptured and arabesqued, but death’s inside And bones, my brother, bones. NUREDDENE And there are bones In this fair pleasing outside called dear Doonya, But let us only think of rosy cheeks, Sweet eyes and laughing lips and not the bones. DOONYA You have boned my metaphor and quite disboned it, Until there’s nothing firm inside; ’tis pulpy. ANICE The creditors besiege you, Nureddene; You’ll pay them. NUREDDENE Serious, Anice? ANICE Till you do, I will not smile again. Azeem, the bills! NUREDDENE Is this your doing, Doonya? DOONYA Yours, cousin, yours. NUREDDENE Is’t so? Anice? ANICE I’ve told you.

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NUREDDENE Show me the bills. Go in, you three. ANICE Ah, he is grieved and angry! His eyes are clouded; let me speak to him. BALKIS Now you’ll spoil all; drag her off, Doonya. DOONYA Come. Exit drawing away Anice, Balkis behind. NUREDDENE Well, sir, where are these bills? AZEEM You will see the bills? NUREDDENE The sums, the sums! AZEEM To tailor Mardouc twenty-four thousand pieces, namely, for caftans, robes, shawls, turbans, Damascus silks, — NUREDDENE Leave the inventory. AZEEM To tailor Labkan, another twenty thousand; to the baker, two thousand; to the confectioner, as much; to the Bagdad curiomerchant twenty-four thousand; to the same from Ispahan, sixteen thousand; to the jeweller on account of necklaces, bracelets, waist-ornaments, anklets, rings, pendents and all manner of

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trinkets for the slavegirl Anice-aljalice, ninety thousand only; to the upholsterer — NUREDDENE Hold, hold! Why, what are all these monstrous sums? Hast thou no word but thousands in thy belly, Exorbitant fellow? AZEEM Why, sir, ’tis in the bills; my belly’s empty enough. NUREDDENE Nothing but thousands! AZEEM Here’s one for seven hundred, twelve dirhams and some odd fractions from Husayn cook. NUREDDENE The sordid, dingy rogue! Will he dun me so brutally for a base seven hundred? AZEEM The fruiterer — NUREDDENE Away! bring bags. AZEEM Bags, sir? NUREDDENE Of money, fool. Call Harkoos and all the slaves. Bring half my treasury. Exit Azeem. She frown on me! look cold! for sums, for debts! For money, the poor paltry stuff we dig

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By shovels from base mire. Grows love so beggarly That it must think of piastres? O my heart! Enter Azeem, Harkoos and Slaves with bags of money. Heap them about the room. Go, Azeem, call That hungry pack; they shall be fed. Exit Azeem. Harkoos, Open two bags there. Have you broken the seals? Enter Azeem ushering in the creditors. Who asks for money? COOK I, sir. Seven hundred denars, twelve dirhams and three fourths of a dirham, that is my amount. NUREDDENE Take thy amount, thou dingy-hearted rogue. Throws a bag towards him. You there, take yours. JEWELLER Sir, this is not a hundredth part of your debt to me. NUREDDENE Give him two hundred bags. HARKOOS Bags, sir? NUREDDENE Do you grin, rogue, and loiter? Take that! (strikes him) HARKOOS Exactly. Your peg’s loose, beat Harkoos. Old master or young, ’tis all one to Harkoos. Stick or leather! cuff or kick! these are all the houses of my horoscope.

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NUREDDENE I am sorry I struck thee; there’s gold. Give them all the money; all, I say. Porter that home, you rascals, and count your sums. What’s over, cram your throats with it; or, if you will, throw it in the gutter. CREDITORS (scrambling and quarrelling for the bags) That’s mine! that’s mine! no, mine! Leave go, you robber. Whom do you call robber, thief? NUREDDENE Cudgel them from the room. Exeunt Creditors snatching bags and pursued by the slaves. AZEEM ’Tis madness, sir. Nureddene motions him away. Exit Azeem. NUREDDENE If she were clothed in rags And beggary her price, I’ld follow her From here to China. She to frown on me For money! Enter Anice. ANICE Nureddene, what have you done? NUREDDENE You bade me pay the fellows: I have paid them. ANICE You are angry with me? I did not think you could Be angry with me for so slight a cause.

Act III, Scene 1 NUREDDENE I did not think that you could frown on me For money, for a matter of money! ANICE You Believe that? Is it so you know me? Dear, While for my sake you ruined yourself, must I Look smiling on? Nay, ruin then yourself And try me. NUREDDENE Dear Anice, it was with myself I was angry, but the coward in me turned On you to avenge its pain. Let me forget All else and only think of you and love. ANICE Shall I sing to you? NUREDDENE Do, Anice. ANICE There’s a song — Song Love keep terms with tears and sorrow? He’s too bright. Born today, he may tomorrow Say goodnight. Love is gone ere grief can find him; But his way Tears that, falling, lag behind him Still betray. I cannot sing.

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NUREDDENE Tears, Anice? O my love, What worst calamity do they portend For him who caused them? ANICE None, none! or only showers The sunlight soon o’ertakes. Away with grief! What is it after all but money lost? Beggars are happier, are they not, my lord? NUREDDENE Much happier, Anice. ANICE Let us be beggars, then. Oh, we shall wander blissfully about In careless rags. And I shall take my lute And buy you honey-crusts with my sweet voice. For is not my voice sweet, my master? NUREDDENE Sweet As Gabriel’s when he sings before the Lord And Heaven listens. ANICE We shall reach Bagdad Someday and meet the Caliph in the streets, The mighty Caliph Haroun Alrasheed, Disguised, a beggar too, give him our crusts And find ourselves all suddenly the friends Of the world’s master. Shall we not, my lord? NUREDDENE Anice, we shall.

Act III, Scene 1 ANICE Let us be beggars then, Rich happy paupers singing through the world. Ah, but you have a father and a mother! Come, sit down there and I will stand before you And tell a story. NUREDDENE Sit by me and tell it. ANICE No, no. I’ll stand. NUREDDENE Well, wilful. Now, your tale. ANICE I have forgotten it. It was about A man who had a gem earth could not buy. NUREDDENE As I have you. ANICE Be silent, sir. He kept it With ordinary jewels which he took Each day and threw into the street, and said, “I’ll show this earth that all the gems it has, Together match not this I’ll solely keep.” NUREDDENE As I’ll keep you. ANICE Ah, but he did not know What slender thread bound to a common pearl That wonder. When he threw that out, alas!

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His jewel followed, and though he sought earth through, He never could again get back his gem. NUREDDENE (after a pause) Tomorrow I will stop this empty life, Cut down expense and only live for you. Tonight there is the banquet. It must stand, My word being given. Azeem! Enter Azeem. What money still Is in the treasury? What debts outstand? AZEEM More now than you can meet. But for today’s folly, all would have been well, — your lordly folly! Oh, beat me! I must speak. NUREDDENE Realize all the estate, the house only excepted; satisfy the creditors. For what’s left, entreat delay. AZEEM They will not be entreated. They have smelt the carrion and are all winging up, beak outstretched and talons ready. NUREDDENE Carrion indeed and vile! Wherefore gave God Reason to his best creatures, if they suffer The rebel blood to o’ercrow that tranquil wise And perfect minister? Do what thou canst. I have good friends to help me in my need. Exit. AZEEM Good friends? good bloodsuckers, good thieves! Much help his need will have out of them!

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ANICE There’s always Ajebe. AZEEM Will you trust him? He is the Vizier’s nephew. Exeunt.

Scene 2 The same. Anice, Nureddene. ANICE And they all left? NUREDDENE Cafoor crept down and heard The clamorous creditors; and they all left. Ghaneem’s dear mother’s sick; for my sweet love Only he came, leaving her sad bedside; Friend Ayoob’s uncle leaves today for Mecca: In Cafoor’s house there is a burial toward; Zeb’s father, Omar’s brother, Hussan’s wife Are piteously struck down. There never was So sudden an epidemic witnessed yet In Bassora, and all with various ailments. ANICE This is their friendship! NUREDDENE We will not judge so harshly. It may be that a generous kindly shame Or half-remorseful delicacy had pricked them. I’ve sent Harkoos to each of them in turn For loans to help me. We shall see. Who’s here? Enter Ajebe. Ajebe, you have come back, you only? Yes, You were my friend and checked me always. Man Is not ignoble, but has angel soarings,

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Howe’er the nether devil plucks him down. Still we have souls nor is the mould quite broken Of that original and faultless plan Which Adam spoilt. AJEBE I am your ruin’s author. If you have still a sword, use it upon me. NUREDDENE What’s this? AJEBE Incited by the Vizier, promised Greatness, I in my turn incited these To hurry you to ruin. Will you slay me? NUREDDENE (after a silence) Return and tell the Vizier that work’s done. Be great with him. AJEBE Are you entirely ruined? NUREDDENE Doubt not your work’s well done; you can assure The uncle. Came you back for that? AJEBE If all I have, — NUREDDENE No more! return alive. AJEBE You punish home. Exit.

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NUREDDENE The eunuch lingers. Enter Harkoos. Well, sir, your success? HARKOOS I went first to Ayoob. He has had losses, very suddenly, and is dolorous that he cannot help you. NUREDDENE Ghaneem? HARKOOS Has broken his leg for the present and cannot see anyone for a long fortnight. NUREDDENE Cafoor? HARKOOS Has gone into the country — upstairs. NUREDDENE Zeb? HARKOOS Wept sobbingly. Every time I mentioned money, he drowned the subject in tears. I might have reached his purse at last, but I cannot swim. NUREDDENE Omar? HARKOOS Will burn his books sooner than lend you money.

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NUREDDENE Did all fail me? HARKOOS Some had dry eyes and some wet, but none a purse. NUREDDENE Go. Exit Harkoos. What next? Shall I, like him of Athens, change And hate my kind? Then should I hate myself, Who ne’er had known their faults, if my own sins Pursued me not like most unnatural hounds Into their screened and evil parts of nature. God made them; what He made, is doubtless good. ANICE You still have me. NUREDDENE That’s much. ANICE No, everything. NUREDDENE ’Tis true and I shall feel it soon. ANICE My jewels And dresses will fill up quite half the void. NUREDDENE Shall I take back my gifts? ANICE If they are mine,

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I choose to sell them. NUREDDENE Do it. I forgot; Let Cafoor have the vase I promised him. Come, Anice. I will ask Murad for help. Exeunt.

Scene 3 A room in Ajebe’s house. Balkis, Mymoona. BALKIS Did he not ask after me? I’m sick, Mymoona. MYMOONA Sick? I think both of you are dying of a galloping consumption. Such colour in the cheeks was never a good symptom. BALKIS Tell him I am very, very ill; tell him I am dying. Pray be pathetic. MYMOONA Put saffron on your cheeks and look nicely yellow; he will melt. BALKIS I think my heart will break. MYMOONA Let it do so quickly; it will mend the sooner. BALKIS (in tears) How can you be so harsh to me, Mymoona? MYMOONA You foolish child! Why did you strain your power To such a breaking tightness? There’s a rhythm Will shatter hardest stone; each thing in nature Has its own point where it has done with patience And starts in pieces; below that point play on it,

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Nor overpitch the music. Look, he’s coming. BALKIS I’ll go. MYMOONA (holding her) You shall not. Enter Ajebe. AJEBE I thought you were alone, Mymoona. I am not cheap to thrust myself Where I’m not wanted. BALKIS I would be gone, Mymoona. In truth, I thought it was the barber’s woman; Therefore I stayed. AJEBE There are such hearts, Mymoona, As think so little of adoring love, They make it only a pedestal for pride, A whipping-stock for their vain tyrannies. BALKIS Mymoona, there are men so weak in love, They cannot bear more than an ass’s load; So high in their conceit, the tenderest Kindest rebuke turns all their sweetness sour. AJEBE Some have strange ways of tenderness, Mymoona. BALKIS Mymoona, some think all control a tyranny.

Act III, Scene 3 MYMOONA O you two children! Come, an end of this! Give me your hand. AJEBE My hand? Wherefore my hand? MYMOONA Give it. I join two hands that much desire And would have met ere this but for their owners, Who have less sense than they. BALKIS She’s stronger than me, Or I’ld not touch you. AJEBE I would not hurt Mymoona; Therefore I take your hand. MYMOONA Oh, is it so? Then by your foolish necks! Make your arms meet About her waist. AJEBE Only to satisfy you, Whom only I care for. MYMOONA Yours here on his neck. BALKIS I was about to yawn, therefore I raised them. MYMOONA I go to fetch a cane. Look that I find you

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Much better friends. If you will not agree, Your bones at least shall sympathise and ruefully. Exit. AJEBE How could you be so harsh to my great love? BALKIS How could you be so cruel and so wicked? AJEBE I kiss you, but ’tis only your red lips So soft, not you who are more hard than stone. BALKIS I kiss you back, but only ’tis because I hate to be in debt. AJEBE Will you be kinder? BALKIS Will you be more obedient and renounce Your hateful uncle? AJEBE Him and all his works, If you will only smile on me. BALKIS I’ll laugh Like any horse. No, I surrender. Clasp me, I am your slave. AJEBE My queen of love.

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BALKIS Both, both. AJEBE Why were you so long froward? BALKIS Do you remember I had to woo you in the market? how you Hesitated a moment? AJEBE Vindictive shrew! BALKIS This time had I not reason to be angry? AJEBE Oh, too much reason! I feel so vile until I find a means to wash this uncle stain from me. Enter Mymoona. MYMOONA That’s well. But we must now to Nureddene’s. For hard pressed as he is, he’ll sell his Anice. BALKIS Never! MYMOONA He must. AJEBE I’ll lend him thrice her value. MYMOONA Do not propose it. The wound you gave’s too recent.

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BALKIS Then let me keep her as a dear deposit, The sweet security of Ajebe’s loan, Till he redeems her. MYMOONA He will take no favours. No, let him sell her in the open market; Ajebe will overtop all bids. Till he Get means, she’s safe with us and waiting for him. BALKIS Oh, let us go at once. MYMOONA I’ll order litters. Exit. AJEBE Will you be like this always? BALKIS If you are good, I will be. If not, I will outshrew Xantippe. AJEBE With such a heaven and hell in view, I’ll be An angel. BALKIS Of what colour? AJEBE Black beside you, But fair as seraphs to what I have been. Exeunt.

Scene 4 Ibn Sawy’s house. Anice, alone. ANICE If Murad fails him, what is left? He has No other thing to sell but only me. A thought of horror! Is my love then strong Only for joy, only to share his heaven? Can it not enter Hell for his dear sake? How shall I follow him then after death, If Heaven reject him? For the path’s so narrow Footing that judgment blade, to slip’s so easy. Avert the need, O Heaven. Enter Nureddene. Has Murad failed him? NUREDDENE Murad refuses. This load of debt’s a torture! ANICE The dresses and the gems you made me keep — NUREDDENE Keep them; they are your own. ANICE I am your slavegirl. My body and what it wears, all I am, all I have, Are only for your use.

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NUREDDENE Girl, would you have me strip you then quite bare? ANICE What does it matter? The coarsest rag ten dirhams Might buy, would be enough, if you’ld still love me. NUREDDENE These would not meet one half of what I owe. ANICE Master, you bought me for ten thousand pieces. NUREDDENE Be silent. ANICE Has my value lessened since? NUREDDENE No more! You’ll make me hate you. ANICE If you do, ’Tis better; it will help my heart to break. NUREDDENE Have you the heart to speak of this? ANICE Had I Less heart, less love, I would not speak of it. NUREDDENE I swore to my father that I would not sell you.

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ANICE But there was a condition. NUREDDENE If you desired it! ANICE Do I not ask you? NUREDDENE Speak truth! do you desire it? Truth, in the name of God who sees your heart! Ah, you are silent. ANICE (weeping) How could I desire it? Ajebe is here. Be friends with him, dear love; Forgive his fault. NUREDDENE Anice, my own sins are So heavy, not to forgive his lesser vileness Would leave me without hope of heavenly pardon. ANICE I’ll call him then. Exit. NUREDDENE Let me absolve these debts, Then straight with Anice to Bagdad the splendid. There is the home for hearts and brains and hands, Not in this petty centre. Core of Islam, Bagdad, the flood to which all brooks converge. Anice returns with Ajebe, Balkis, Mymoona.

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AJEBE Am I forgiven? NUREDDENE Ajebe, let the past Have never been. AJEBE You are Ibn Sawy’s son. NUREDDENE Give me your counsel, Ajebe. I have nothing But the mere house which is not saleable. My father must not find a homeless Bassora, Returning. MYMOONA Nothing else? ANICE Only myself Whom he’ll not sell. MYMOONA He must. NUREDDENE Never, Mymoona. MYMOONA Fear not the sale which shall be in name alone. ’Tis only Balkis borrowing her from you Who pawns her value. She will stay with me Serving our Balkis, safe from every storm. But if you ask, why then the mart and auction? We must have public evidence of sale To meet an uncle’s questions.

Act III, Scene 4 ANICE O now there’s light. Blessed Mymoona! NUREDDENE It must not be. My oath! ANICE But I desire it now, yes, I desire it. NUREDDENE And is my pride then nothing? Shall I sell her To be a slavegirl’s slavegirl? Pardon, Balkis. MYMOONA Too fine, too fine! ANICE To serve awhile my sister! For that she is in heart. BALKIS Serve only in name. MYMOONA She will be safe while you rebuild your fortunes. NUREDDENE I do not like it. MYMOONA Nor does anyone As in itself, but only as a refuge From greater evils. NUREDDENE Oh, you’re wrong, Mymoona.

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To quibble with an oath! it will not prosper. Straight dealing’s best. MYMOONA You look at it too finely. NUREDDENE Have it your way, then. MYMOONA Call the broker here. A quiet sale! The uncle must not hear of it. AJEBE ’Twould be the plague. NUREDDENE I fear it will not prosper. Exeunt.

Scene 5 The slave-market. Muazzim with Anice exposed for sale; Ajebe, Aziz, Abdullah and Merchants. MUAZZIM Who bids? AZIZ Four thousand. MUAZZIM She went for ten when she was here first. Will you not raise your bid nearer her value? AZIZ She was new then and untouched. ’Tis the way with goods, broker; they lose value by time and purchase, use and soiling. MUAZZIM Oh, sir, the kissed mouth has always honey. But this is a Peri and immortal lips have an immortal sweetness. AJEBE Five hundred to that bid. Enter Almuene with Slaves. ALMUENE (to himself ) Ah, it is true! All things come round at last With the full wheel of Fate; it is my hour. Fareed shall have her. She shall be well handled To plague her lover’s heart before he dies.

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(aloud) Broker, who sells the girl and what’s her rate? AJEBE All’s lost. MUAZZIM Nureddene bin Alfazzal bin Sawy sells her and your nephew has bid for her four thousand and five hundred. ALMUENE My nephew bids for me. Who bids against? AJEBE Uncle — ALMUENE Go, find out other slavegirls, Ajebe. Do well until the end. Exit Ajebe. Who bids against me? She’s mine then. Come. ANICE I’ll not be sold to you. ALMUENE What, dar’st thou speak, young harlot? Fear the whip. ANICE Vizier, I fear you not; there’s law in Islam. My master will deny the sale. ALMUENE Thy master Shall be a kitchen negro, who shall use thee.

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ANICE Had I a whip, you should not say it twice. MUAZZIM Vizier, Vizier, by law the owner’s acceptance only is final for the sale. ALMUENE It is a form, but get it. I am impatient Until I have this strumpet in my grip. MUAZZIM Well, here he comes. Enter Nureddene and Ajebe. A MERCHANT Shall we go, shall we go? ABDULLAH Stand by! ’Tis noble Ibn Sawy’s son. We must protect him even at our own peril. MUAZZIM She goes for a trifle, sir; and even that little you will not get. You will weary your feet with journeyings, only to be put off by his villains, and when you grow clamorous they will demand your order and tear it before your eyes. That’s your payment. NUREDDENE That’s nothing. The wolf’s cub, hunchback Fareed! The sale is off. MUAZZIM Be advised by me. Catch the girl by the hair and cuff her soundly, abusing her with the harshest terms your heart can consent to, then off with her quickly as if you had brought her to market only to execute an oath made in anger. So he loses his hold on her.

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NUREDDENE I’ll tell the lie. One fine, pure-seeming falsehood, Admitted, opens door to all his naked And leprous family; in, in, they throng And breed the house quite full. MUAZZIM The Vizier wants her. He bids four thousand pieces and five hundred. NUREDDENE ’Tis nothing. Girl, I keep my oath. Suffice it You’re bidden for and priced in open market here. Come home! Be now less dainty, meeker of tongue, Or you shall have more feeling punishments. Do I need to sell thee? Home! my oath is kept. ALMUENE This is a trick to cheat the law. Thou ruffian! Cheap profligate! What hast thou left to sell But thy own sensual filth and drunken body, — If any out of charity would spend Some dirhams to reform thee with a scourge? Vile son of a bland hypocrite! He draws his scimitar. ABDULLAH Pause, Vizier. AZIZ Be patient, Nureddene. ALMUENE I yet shall kill him. Hence, harlot, foot before me to my kitchen.

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ANICE He has abused me filthily, my lord, Before these merchants. ALMUENE Abuse thee, rag? Hast thou An use? To be abused is thy utility. Thou shalt be used and common. NUREDDENE Stand by, you merchants; let none interfere On peril of his life. Thou foul-mouthed tyrant, Into the mire and dirt, where thou wert gendered! ALMUENE Help, help! Hew him in pieces. The slaves are rushing forward. ABDULLAH What do you, fellows? This is a Vizier and a Vizier’s son. Shall common men step in? You’ll get the blows For only thanks. ALMUENE Oh! oh! Will you then kill me? NUREDDENE If thou wouldst live, crave pardon of the star Thou hast spat on. I would make thee lick her feet But that thy lips would foul their purity. ALMUENE Pardon, oh, pardon! NUREDDENE (throwing him away) Live then, in thy gutter. Exit with Anice.

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ABDULLAH Go, slaves, lift up your master, lead him off. Exeunt Slaves with Almuene. He is well punished. AZIZ What will come of this? ABDULLAH No good to Nureddene. Let’s go and warn him; He’s bold and proud, may think to face it out, Which were mere waiting death. AZIZ I pray on us This falls not. Exeunt Merchants. MUAZZIM Here was ill-luck! AJEBE Nor ends with this. I’ll have a ship wide-sailed and well-provisioned For their escape. Bassora will not hold them. Exeunt.

Scene 6 The Palace at Bassora. Alzayni, Salar. ALZAYNI So it is written here. Hot interchange And high defiance have already passed Between our Caliph and the daring Roman. Europe and Asia are at grips once more. To inspect the southward armies unawares Haroun himself is coming. SALAR Alfazzal then Returns to us, unless the European, After their barbarous fashion, seize on him. ALZAYNI ’Tis strange, he sends no tidings of the motion I made to Egypt. SALAR ’Tis too dangerous To write of, as indeed ’twas ill-advised To make the approach. ALZAYNI Great dangers justify The smaller. Caliph Alrasheed conceives On trifling counts a dumb displeasure towards me Which any day may speak; ’tis whispered of In Bagdad. Alkhasib, the Egyptian Vizier,

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Is in like plight. It is mere policy, Salar, to build out of a common peril A common safety. SALAR Haroun Alrasheed Could break each one of you between two fingers, Stretching his left arm out to Bassora, His right to Egypt. Sultan, wilt thou strive Against the single giant of the world? ALZAYNI Giants are mortal, friend, be but our swords As bold as sharp. Call Murad here to me. Exit Salar. My state is desperate, if Haroun lives; He’s sudden and deadly, when his anger bursts. But let me be more sudden, yet more deadly. Enter Murad. Murad, the time draws near. The Caliph comes To Bassora; let him not thence return. MURAD My blade is sharp and what I do is sudden. ALZAYNI My gallant Turk! Thou shalt rise high, believe it. For I need men like thee. MURAD (to himself ) But Kings like thee Earth needs not. VOICE WITHOUT Justice! justice! justice, King! King of the Age, I am a man much wronged.

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ALZAYNI Who cries beneath my window? Chamberlain! Enter Sunjar. SUNJAR An Arab daubed with mud and dirt, all battered, Unrecognizable, with broken lips cries out For justice. ALZAYNI Bring him here. Exit Sunjar. It is some brawl. Enter Sunjar with Almuene. Thou, Vizier! Who has done this thing to thee? ALMUENE Mohamad, son of Sulyman! Sultan Alzayni! Abbasside! how shalt thou long Have friends, if the King’s enemies may slay In daylight, here, in open Bassora The King’s best friends because they love the King? ALZAYNI Name them at once and choose their punishment. ALMUENE Alfazzal’s son, that brutal profligate, Has done this. MURAD Nureddene! ALZAYNI Upon what quarrel?

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ALMUENE A year ago Alfazzal bought a slavegirl With the King’s money for the King, a gem Of beauty, learning, mind, fit for a Caliph. But seeing the open flower he thought perhaps Your royal nose too base to smell at it, So gave her to his royaller darling son To soil and rumple. No man with a neck Dared tell you of it, such your faith was in him. ALZAYNI Is’t so? our loved and trusted Ibn Sawy! ALMUENE This profligate squandering away his wealth Brought her to market; there I saw her and bid Her fair full price. Whereat he stormed at me With words unholy; yet I answered mild, “My son, not for myself, but the King’s service I need her.” He with bold and furious looks, “Dog, Vizier of a dog, I void on thee And on thy Sultan.” With which blasphemy He seized me, rolled in the mire, battered with blows, Kicks, pullings of the beard, then dragged me back And flung me at his slavegirl’s feet, who, proud Of her bold lover, footed my grey head Repeatedly and laughed, “This for thy King, Thy dingy stingy King who with so little Would buy a slavegirl sole in all the world.” SUNJAR Great Hasheem’s vein cords all the Sultan’s forehead. MURAD The dog has murdered both of them with lies.

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ALZAYNI Now by the Prophet, my forefather! Out, Murad! drag here the fellow and his girl; Trail them with ropes tied to their bleeding heels, Their faces in the mire, with pinioned hands Behind their backs, into my presence here. Sack Sawy’s mansion, raze it to the ground. What, am I grown so bare that by-lane dogs Like these so loudly bay at me? They die! MURAD Sultan, — ALZAYNI He’s doomed who speaks a word for them. Exit. ALMUENE Brother-in-law Murad, fetch your handsome brother. Soon, lest the Sultan hear of it! MURAD Vizier, I know my duty. Know your own and do it. ALMUENE I’ll wash, then forth in holiday attire To see that pretty sport. Exit. SUNJAR What will you do? MURAD Sunjar, a something swift and desperate. I will not let them die.

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Run not on danger. I’ll send a runner hotfoot to their house To warn them. Exit Sunjar. MURAD Do so. What will Doonya say When she hears this? How will her laughing eyes Be clouded and brim over! Till Haroun comes! Exit.

Scene 7 Ibn Sawy’s house. Nureddene, Anice. NUREDDENE ’Tis Sunjar warns us, he who always loved Our father. ANICE Oh, my lord, make haste and flee. NUREDDENE Whither and how? But come. Enter Ajebe. AJEBE Quick, Nureddene. I have a ship all ready for Bagdad, Sails bellying with fair wind, the pilot’s hand Upon the wheel, the captain on the deck, You only wanting. Flee then to Bagdad And at the mighty Haroun’s hand require Justice upon these tyrants. Oh, delay not. NUREDDENE O friend! But do me one more service, Ajebe. Pay the few creditors unsatisfied; My father will absolve me when he comes. AJEBE That’s early done. And take my purse. No fumbling, I will not be denied.

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Bagdad! (laughing) Why, Anice, Our dream comes true; we hobnob with the Caliph! Exeunt.

Act IV Bagdad.

Scene 1 The gardens of the Caliph’s Palace outside the Pavilion of Pleasure. Anice, Nureddene. ANICE This is Bagdad! NUREDDENE Bagdad the beautiful, The city of delight. How green these gardens! What a sweet clamour pipes among the trees. ANICE And flowers! the flowers! Look at those violets Dark-blue like burning sulphur! Oh, rose and myrtle And gilliflower and lavender; anemones As red as blood! All Spring walks here in blossoms And strews the pictured ground. NUREDDENE Do you see the fruit, Anice? camphor and almond-apricots, Green, white and purple figs and these huge grapes, Round rubies or quite purple-black, that ramp O’er wall and terrace; plums almost as smooth As your own damask cheek. These balls of gold

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Are lemons, Anice, do you think? Look, cherries, And mid these fair pink-budded orange-blossoms Rare glints of fruit. ANICE That was a blackbird whistled. How the doves moan! It’s full of cooing turtles. Oh see, the tawny bulbuls calling sweetly And winging! What a flutter of scarlet tails! If it were dark, a thousand nightingales Would surely sing together. How glad I am That we were driven out of Bassora! NUREDDENE And this pavilion with its crowd of windows? Are there not quite a hundred? ANICE Do you see The candelabrum pendent from the ceiling? A blaze of gold! NUREDDENE Each window has a lamp. Night in these gardens must be bright as day. To find the master now! Here we could rest And ask our way to the great Caliph, Anice. Enter Shaikh Ibrahim from behind. IBRAHIM So, so! so, so! Cavalier servente with your bona roba! You do not know then of the Caliph’s order forbidding entry into his gardens? No? I will proclaim it, then, with a palmstick about your pretty back quarters. Will I not? Hoh! He advances stealthily with stick raised. Nureddene and Anice turn towards him; he drops the stick and remains with arm lifted.

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NUREDDENE Here is a Shaikh of the gardens. Whose garden is this, friend? ANICE Is the poor man out of the use of his wits? He stares openmouthed. IBRAHIM Glory to Allah who made you! Glory to the angel who brought you down on earth! Glory to myself who am permitted to look upon you! I give glory to Allah for your beauty, O people of Paradise! NUREDDENE (smiling) Rather give glory to Him because he has given thee a fine old age and this long silvery beard. But are we permitted in this garden? The gate was not bolted. IBRAHIM This garden? My garden? Yes, my son; yes, my daughter. It is the fairer for your feet; never before did such flowers bloom there. NUREDDENE What, is it thine? And this pavilion? IBRAHIM All mine, my son. By the grace of Allah to a poor sinful old man. ’Tis by His election, my son, and divine ordination and sanctification, and a little by the power of my prostrations and lustrations which I neglect not, neither morning nor noon nor evening nor at any of the intervals by the law commanded. NUREDDENE When did you buy or lay it out, old father? IBRAHIM A grand-aunt left it to me. Wonder not, for she was indeed aunt’s grandmother to a cousin of the sister-in-law of the Caliph.

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NUREDDENE Oh then indeed! she had the right divine to be wealthy. But I trust thou hast good doctrinal justification for inheriting after her? IBRAHIM I would not accept the Caliphate by any other. O my son, hanker not unlawfully after perishable earthly goods; for, verily, they are a snare and verily, verily, they entrap the feet of the soul as it toileth over the straight rough road to Heaven. ANICE But, old father, are you rich and go so poorly robed? Were I mistress of such a garden, I would float about it in damask and crimson and velvet; silk and satin should be my meanest apparel. IBRAHIM (aside) She has a voice like a blackbird’s! O angel Gabriel, increase this unto me. I will not quarrel with thee though all Houridom break loose on my garden; for their gates thou hast a little opened. (aloud) Fie, my daughter! I take refuge with Allah. I am a poor sinful old man on the brink of the grave, what should I do with robes and coloured raiment? But they would hang well on thee. Praise the Lord who has given thee hips like the moon and a waist indeed! a small, seizable waist, Allah forgive me! ANICE We are weary, old father; we hunger and thirst. IBRAHIM Oh, my son! Oh, my daughter! you put me to shame. Come in, come in; this my pavilion is yours and there is within it plenty of food and drink, — such innocent things now as sherbet and pure kind water. But as for wine, that accurs`ed thing, it is forbidden by the Prophet, whose name is a benediction. Come in, come in. Allah curse him that giveth not to the guest and the stranger.

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NUREDDENE It is indeed thine? we may enter? IBRAHIM Allah! Allah! its floor yearns for thy beauty and for the fair feet of thy sister. If there were youth now instead of poor venerable me, would one not kiss the marble wherever her fair small feet will touch it? But I praise Allah that I am an old man with my thoughts turned to chastity and holiness. NUREDDENE Come, Anice. IBRAHIM (walking behind them) Allah! Allah! she is a gazelle that springeth. Allah! Allah! the swan in my lake waddleth less perfectly. She is as a willow when the wind swayeth it. Allah! Allah! Exeunt to the pavilion.

Scene 2 The Pavilion of Pleasure. Anice, Nureddene, Shaikh Ibrahim on couches, by a table set with dishes. NUREDDENE These kabobs are indeed good, and the conserves look sweet and the fruit very glossy. But will you sit and eat nothing? IBRAHIM Verily, my son, I have eaten at midday. Allah forbid me from gluttony! ANICE Old father, you discourage our stomachs. You shall eat a morsel from my fingers or I will say you use me hardly. IBRAHIM No, no, no, no. Ah well, from your fingers, from your small slim rosy fingers. Allah! Only a bit, only a morsel; verily, verily! Allah! surely thy fingers are sweeter than honey. I could eat them with kisses. ANICE What, old father, you grow young? IBRAHIM Oh, now, now, now! ’Twas a foolish jest unworthy of my grey hairs. I take refuge with Allah! A foolish jest. NUREDDENE But, my aged host, it is dry eating without wine. Have you never a flagon in all this palace? It is a blot, a blot on its fair perfection.

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IBRAHIM I take refuge with Allah. Wine! for sixteen years I have not touched the evil thing. When I was young indeed! ah well, when I was young. But ’tis forbidden. What saith Ibn Batata? That wine worketh transmogrification. And Ibrahim Alhashhash bin Fuzfuz bin Bierbiloon al Sandilani of Bassora, he rateth wine sorely and averreth that the red glint of it is the shine of the red fires of Hell, its sweetness kisseth damnation and the coolness of it in the throat causeth bifurcation. Ay, verily, the great Alhashhash. ANICE Who are these learned doctors you speak of, old father? I have read all the books, but never heard of them. IBRAHIM Oh, thou hast read? These are very distant and mystic Sufis, very rare doctors. Their books are known only to the adepts. ANICE What a learned old man art thou, Shaikh Ibrahim! Now Allah save the soul of the great Alhashhash! IBRAHIM Hm! ’Tis so. Wine! Verily, the Prophet hath cursed grower and presser, buyer and seller, carrier and drinker. I take refuge with Allah from the curse of the Prophet. NUREDDENE Hast thou not even one old ass among all thy belongings? And if an old ass is cursed, is it thou who art cursed? IBRAHIM Hm! My son, what is thy parable? NUREDDENE I will show you a trick to cheat the devil. Give three denars of mine to a neighbour’s servant with a dirham or two for his

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trouble, let him buy the wine and clap it on an old ass, and let the old ass bring it here. So art thou neither grower nor presser, seller nor buyer, carrier nor drinker, and if any be damned, it is an old ass that is damned. What saith the great Alhashhash? IBRAHIM Hm! Well, I will do it. (aside) Now I need not let them know that there is wine galore in my cupboards, Allah forgive me! Exit. NUREDDENE He is the very gem of hypocrites. ANICE The fitter to laugh at. Dear my lord, be merry Tonight, if only for tonight. Let care Expect tomorrow. NUREDDENE You are happy, Anice? ANICE I feel as if I could do nothing else But laugh through life’s remainder. You’re safe, safe And that grim devil baffled. Oh, you’re safe! NUREDDENE It was a breathless voyage up the river. I think a price is on my head. Perhaps Our helpers suffer. ANICE But you are safe, my joy, My darling. She goes to him and kisses and clings about him.

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NUREDDENE Anice, your eyes are full of tears! You are quite overwrought. ANICE Let only you be safe And all the world beside entirely perish. My love! my master! She again embraces and kisses him repeatedly. Shaikh Ibrahim returns with the wine and glasses in a tray. IBRAHIM Allah! Allah! Allah! ANICE Where’s that old sober learning? I want to dance, to laugh, to outriot riot. Oh, here he is. NUREDDENE What a quick ass was this, Shaikh Ibrahim! IBRAHIM No, no, the wineshop is near, very near. Allah forgive us, ours is an evil city, this Bagdad; it is full of winebibbers and gluttons and liars. NUREDDENE Dost thou ever lie, Shaikh Ibrahim? IBRAHIM Allah forbid! Above all sins I abhor lying and liars. O my son, keep thy young lips from vain babbling and unnecessary lying. It is of the unpardonable sins, it is the way to Jahannam. But I pray thee what is this young lady to thee, my son?

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NUREDDENE She is my slavegirl. IBRAHIM Ah, ah! thy slavegirl? Ah, ah! a slavegirl! ah! ANICE Drink, my lord. NUREDDENE (drinking) By the Lord, but I am sleepy. I will even rest my head in thy sweet lap for a moment. He lies down. IBRAHIM Allah! Allah! What, he sleeps? ANICE Fast. That is the trick he always serves me. After the first cup he dozes off and leaves me quite sad and lonely. IBRAHIM Why, why, why, little one! Thou art not alone and why shouldst thou be sad? I am here, — old Shaikh Ibrahim; I am here. ANICE I will not be sad, if you will drink with me. IBRAHIM Fie, fie, fie! ANICE By my head and eyes! IBRAHIM Well, well, well! Alas, ’tis a sin, ’tis a sin, ’tis a sin. (drinks) Verily, verily.

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ANICE Another. IBRAHIM No, no, no. ANICE By my head and eyes! IBRAHIM Well, well, well, well! ’Tis a grievous sin, Allah forgive me! (drinks) ANICE Just one more. IBRAHIM Does he sleep? Now if it were the wine of thy lips, little one! ANICE Old father, old father! Is this thy sanctity and the chastity of thee and thy averseness to frivolity? To flirt with light-minded young hussies like me! Where is thy sanctification? Where is thy justification? Where is thy predestination? O mystic, thou art bifurked with an evil bifurcation. Woe’s me for the great Alhashhash! IBRAHIM No, no, no. ANICE Art thou such a hypocrite? Shaikh Ibrahim! Shaikh Ibrahim! IBRAHIM No, no, no! A fatherly jest! a little little jest! (drinks)

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NUREDDENE (starting up) Shaikh Ibrahim, thou drinkest? IBRAHIM Oh! ah! ’Twas thy slavegirl forced me. Verily, verily! NUREDDENE Anice! Anice! Why wilt thou pester him? Wilt thou pluck down his old soul from heaven? Fie! draw the wine this side of the table. I pledge you, my heart. ANICE To you, my dear one. NUREDDENE You have drunk half your cup only; so, again; to Shaikh Ibrahim and his learned sobriety! ANICE To the shade of the great Alhashhash! IBRAHIM Fie on you! What cursed unneighbourly manners are these, to drink in my face and never pass the bowl? ANICE AND NUREDDENE (together) Shaikh Ibrahim! Shaikh Ibrahim! Shaikh Ibrahim! IBRAHIM Never cry out at me. You are a Hour and she is a Houri come down from Heaven to ensnare my soul. Let it be ensnared! ’Tis not worth one beam from under your eyelids. Hour, I will embrace thee; I will kiss thee, Houri. NUREDDENE Embrace not, Shaikh Ibrahim, neither kiss, for thy mouth smelleth evilly of that accursed thing, wine. I am woeful for the mystic Alhashhash.

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ANICE Art thou transmogrified, O Sufi, O adept, O disciple of Ibn Batata? IBRAHIM Laugh, laugh! laughter is on your beauty like the sunlight on the fair minarets of Mazinderan the beautiful. Give me a cup. (drinks) You are sinners and I will sin with you. I will sin hard, my beauties. (drinks) ANICE Come now, I will sing to you, if you will give me a lute. I am a rare singer, Shaikh Ibrahim. IBRAHIM (drinks) There is a lute in yonder corner. Sing, sing, and it may be I will answer thee. (drinks) ANICE But wait, wait. To sing in this meagreness of light! Candles, candles! She lights the eighty candles of the great candelabrum. IBRAHIM (drinks) Allah! it lights thee up, my slavegirl, my jewel. (drinks) NUREDDENE Drink not so fast, Shaikh Ibrahim, but get up and light the lamps in the windows. IBRAHIM (drinks) Sin not thou by troubling the coolness of wine in my throat. Light them, light them but not more than two. Nureddene goes out lighting the lamps one by one and returns in the same way. Meanwhile Shaikh Ibrahim drinks.

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IBRAHIM Allah! hast thou lit them all? ANICE Shaikh Ibrahim, drunkenness sees but double, and dost thou see eighty-four? Thou art far gone in thy cups, O adept, O Ibn Batatist. IBRAHIM I am not yet so drunk as that. You are bold youths to light them all. NUREDDENE Whom fearest thou? Is not the pavilion thine? IBRAHIM Surely mine; but the Caliph dwells near and he will be angry at the glare of so much light. NUREDDENE Truly, he is a great Caliph. IBRAHIM Great enough, great enough. There might have been greater, if Fate had willed it. But ’tis the decree of Allah. Some He raiseth to be Caliphs and some He turneth into gardeners. (drinks) ANICE I have found a lute. NUREDDENE Give it me. Hear me improvise, Old Sobriety. (sings) Saw you Shaikh Ibrahim, the grave old man? Allah! Allah! I saw him drunk and drinking. What was he doing when the dance began? He was winking; verily, verily, he was winking.

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IBRAHIM Fie! what cobbler’s poetry is this? But thou hast a touch. Let me hear thee rather. ANICE I have a song for you. (sings) White as winter is my beard, All my face with wrinkles weird, Yet I drink. Hell-fire? judgment? who’s afraid? Ibrahim would kiss a maid As soon as think. IBRAHIM Allah! Allah! Nightingale! nightingale! Curtain

Scene 3 The Gardens, outside the Pavilion. Haroun, Mesrour. HAROUN See, Mesrour, the Pavilion’s all alight. ’Tis as I said. Where is the Barmeky? MESROUR The Vizier comes, my lord. Enter Jaafar. JAAFAR Peace be with thee, Commander of the Faithful. HAROUN Where is peace, Thou faithless and usurping Vizier? Hast thou Filched my Bagdad out of my hands, thou rebel, And told me nothing? JAAFAR What words are these, O Caliph? HAROUN What mean these lights then? Does another Caliph Hold revel in my Palace of all Pleasure, While Haroun lives and holds the sword? JAAFAR (to himself ) What Djinn

Act IV, Scene 3 Plays me this antic? HAROUN I am waiting, Vizier. JAAFAR Shaikh Ibrahim, my lord, petitioned me, On circumcision of his child, for use Of the pavilion. Lord, it had escaped My memory; I now remember it. HAROUN Doubly thou erredst, Jaafar; for thou gavest him No money, which was the significance Of his request, neither wouldst suffer me To help my servant. We will enter, Vizier, And hear the grave Faqeers discoursing there Of venerable things. The Shaikh’s devout And much affects their reverend company. We too shall profit by that holy talk Which arms us against sin and helps to heaven. JAAFAR (to himself ) Helps to the plague! (aloud) Commander of the Faithful, Your mighty presence will disturb their peace With awe or quell their free unhampered spirits. HAROUN At least I’ld see them. MESROUR From this tower, my lord, We can look straight into the whole pavilion. HAROUN Mesrour, well thought of!

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The Viziers of Bassora JAAFAR (aside, to Mesrour) A blister spoil thy tongue!

MESROUR (aside, to Jaafar) I’ll head you, Jaafar. HAROUN (listening) Is not that a lute? A lute at such a grave and reverend meeting! Shaikh Ibrahim sings within. Chink-a-chunk-a-chink! We will kiss and drink, And be merry, O very very merry. For your eyes are bright Even by candle light And your lips as red as the red round cherry. HAROUN Now by the Prophet! by my great forefathers! He rushes into the tower followed by Mesrour. JAAFAR May the devil fly away with Shaikh Ibrahim and drop him upon a hill of burning brimstone! He follows the Caliph, who now appears with Mesrour on the platform of the tower. HAROUN Ho, Jaafar, see this godly ceremony Thou gav’st permission for, and these fair Faqeers. JAAFAR Shaikh Ibrahim has utterly deceived me. HAROUN The aged hypocrite! Who are this pair

Act IV, Scene 3 Of heavenly faces? Was there then such beauty In my Bagdad, yet Haroun’s eyes defrauded Of seeing it? JAAFAR The girl takes up the lute. HAROUN Now if she play and sing divinely, Jaafar, You shall be hanged alone for your offence, If badly, all you four shall swing together. JAAFAR I hope she will play vilely. HAROUN Wherefore, Jaafar? JAAFAR I ever loved good company, my lord, And would not tread my final road alone. HAROUN No, when thou goest that road, my faithful servant, Well do I hope that we shall walk together. ANICE (within) Song King of my heart, wilt thou adore me, Call me goddess, call me thine? I too will bow myself before thee As in a shrine. Till we with mutual adoration And holy earth-defeating passion Do really grow divine.

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HAROUN The mighty Artist shows his delicate cunning Utterly in this fair creature. I will talk With the rare couple. JAAFAR Not in your own dread person, Or fear will make them dumb. HAROUN I’ll go disguised. Are there not voices by the river, Jaafar? Fishermen, I would wager. My commands Are well obeyed in my Bagdad, O Vizier! But I have seen too much beauty and cannot now Remember to be angry. Come, descend. As they descend, enter Kareem. KAREEM Here’s a fine fat haul! O my jumpers! my little beauties! O your fine white bellies! What a joke, to catch the Caliph’s own fish and sell them to him at thrice their value! HAROUN Who art thou? KAREEM O Lord, ’tis the Caliph himself! I am a dead fisherman. (falling flat) O Commander of the Faithful! Alas, I am an honest fisherman. HAROUN Dost thou lament thy honesty? What fish hast thou? KAREEM Only a few whitebait and one or two minnows. Poor thin rogues, all of them! They are not fit for the Caliph’s honourable stomach.

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HAROUN Show me thy basket, man. Are these thy whitebait and thy two thin minnows? KAREEM Alas, sir, ’tis because I am honest. HAROUN Give me thy fish. KAREEM Here they are, here they are, my lord! HAROUN Out! the whole basket, fellow. Do I eat live fish, you thrust them in my face? And now exchange thy outer dress with me. KAREEM My dress? Well, you may have it; I am liberal as well as honest. But ’tis a good gaberdine; I pray you, be careful of it. HAROUN Woe to thee, fellow! What’s this filthiness Thou callst a garment? KAREEM O sir, when you have worn it ten days, the filth will come easy to you and, as one may say, natural. And ’tis honest filth; it will keep you warm in winter. HAROUN What, shall I wear thy gaberdine so long? KAREEM Commander of the Faithful! since you are about to leave kingcraft and follow an honest living for the good of your soul,

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you may wear worse than an honest fisherman’s gaberdine. ’Tis a good craft and an honourable. HAROUN Off with thee. In my dress thou’lt find a purse Crammed full of golden pieces. It is thine. KAREEM Glory to Allah! This comes of being honest. Exit. JAAFAR (coming up) Who’s this? Ho, Kareem! wherefore here tonight? The Caliph’s in the garden. You’ll be thrashed And very soundly, fisher. HAROUN Jaafar, ’tis I. JAAFAR The Caliph! HAROUN Now to fry these fish and enter. JAAFAR Give them to me. I am a wondrous cook. HAROUN No, by the Prophet! My two lovely friends Shall eat a Caliph’s cookery tonight. Exeunt.

Scene 4 Inside the Pavilion. Nureddene, Anice, Shaikh Ibrahim.

NUREDDENE Shaikh Ibrahim, verily, thou art drunk. IBRAHIM Alas, alas, my dear son, my own young friend! I am damned, verily, verily, I am damned. Ah, my sweet lovely young father! Ah, my pious learned white-bearded mother! That they could see their son now, their pretty little son! But they are in their graves; they are in their cold, cold, cold graves. NUREDDENE Oh, thou art most pathetically drunk. Sing, Anice. OUTSIDE Fish! fish! sweet fried fish! ANICE Fish! Shaikh Ibrahim, Shaikh Ibrahim! hearest thou? We have a craving for fish. IBRAHIM ’Tis Satan in thy little stomach who calleth hungrily for sweet fried fish. Silence, thou preposterous devil! ANICE Fie, Shaikh, is my stomach outside me, under the window? Call him in.

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IBRAHIM Ho! ho! come in, Satan! come in, thou brimstone fisherman. Let us see thy long tail. Enter Haroun. ANICE What fish have you, good fisherman? HAROUN I have very honest good fish, my sweet lady, and I have fried them for you with my own hand. These fish, — why, all I can say of them is, they are fish. But they are well fried. NUREDDENE Set them on a plate. What wilt thou have for them? HAROUN Why, for such faces as you have, I will honestly ask nothing. NUREDDENE Then wilt thou dishonestly ask for a trifle more than they are worth. Swallow me these denars. HAROUN Now Allah give thee a beard! for thou art a generous youth. ANICE Fie, fisherman, what a losing blessing is this, to kill the thing for which thou blessest him! If Allah give him a beard, he will be no longer a youth, and for the generosity, it will be Allah’s. HAROUN Art thou as witty as beautiful? ANICE By Allah, that am I. I tell thee very modestly that there is not my equal from China to Frangistan.

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HAROUN Thou sayest no more than truth. NUREDDENE What is your name, fisherman? HAROUN I call myself Kareem and, in all honesty, when I fish, ’tis for the Caliph. IBRAHIM Who talks of the Caliph? Dost thou speak of the Caliph Haroun or the Caliph Ibrahim? HAROUN I speak of the Caliph, Haroun the Just, the great and only Caliph. IBRAHIM Oh, Haroun? He is fit only to be a gardener, a poor witless fellow without brains to dress himself with, yet Allah hath made him Caliph. While there are others — but ’tis no use talking. A very profligate tyrant, this Haroun! He has debauched half the women in Bagdad and will debauch the other half, if they let him live. Besides, he cuts off a man’s head when the nose on it does not please him. A very pestilence of a tyrant! HAROUN Now Allah save him! IBRAHIM Nay, let Allah save his soul if He will and if ’tis worth saving; but I fear me ’twill be a tough job for Allah. If it were not for my constant rebukes and admonitions and predications and pestrigiddi — prestigidgidi — what the plague! pestidigitations; and some slaps and cuffs, of which I pray you speak very low, he

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would be worse even than he is. Well, well, even Allah blunders; verily, verily! ANICE Wilt thou be Caliph, Shaikh Ibrahim? IBRAHIM Yes, my jewel, and thou shalt be my Zobeidah. And we will tipple, beauty, we will tipple. HAROUN And Haroun? IBRAHIM I will be generous and make him my under-kitchen-gardener’s second vice-sub-under-assistant. I would gladly give him a higher post, but, verily, he is not fit. HAROUN (laughing) What an old treasonous rogue art thou, Shaikh Ibrahim! IBRAHIM What? who? Thou art not Satan, but Kareem the fisherman? Didst thou say I was drunk, thou supplier of naughty houses? Verily, I will tug thee by the beard, for thou liest. Verily, verily! NUREDDENE Shaikh Ibrahim! Shaikh Ibrahim! IBRAHIM Nay, if thou art the angel Gabriel and forbiddest me, let be; but I hate lying and liars. NUREDDENE Fisherman, is thy need here over?

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HAROUN I pray you, let me hear this young lady sing; for indeed ’twas the sweet voice of her made me fry fish for you. NUREDDENE Oblige the good fellow, Anice; he has a royal face for his fishing. IBRAHIM Sing! ’tis I will sing: there is no voice like mine in Bagdad. (sings) When I was a young man, I’d a very good plan; Every maid that I met, In my lap I would set, What mattered her age or her colour? But now I am old And the girls, they grow cold And my heartstrings, they ache At the faces they make, And my dancing is turned into dolour. A very sweet song! a very sad song! Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. ’Tis just, ’tis just. Ah me! well-a-day! Verily, verily! ANICE I pray you, Shaikh Ibrahim, be quiet. I would sing. IBRAHIM Sing, my jewel, sing, my gazelle, sing, my lady of kisses. Verily, I would rise up and buss thee, could I but find my legs. I know not why they have taken them from me. ANICE (sings) Song Heart of mine, O heart impatient, Thou must learn to wait and weep.

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The Viziers of Bassora Wherefore wouldst thou go on beating When I bade thee hush and sleep? Thou who wert of life so fain, Didst thou know not, life was pain?

HAROUN O voice of angels! Who art thou, young man, And who this sweet-voiced wonder? Let me hear; Tell me thy story. NUREDDENE I am a man chastised For my own errors, yet unjustly. Justice I seek from the great Caliph. Leave us, fisherman. HAROUN Tell me thy story. Walk apart with me. It may be I can help thee. NUREDDENE Leave us, I pray thee. Thou, a poor fisherman! HAROUN I vow I’ll help thee. NUREDDENE Art thou the Caliph? HAROUN If I were, by chance? NUREDDENE If thou art as pressing with the fish as me, There’s a good angler. Exit with Haroun.

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ANICE Will you not have some of this fish, Shaikh Ibrahim? ’Tis a sweet fish. IBRAHIM Indeed thou art a sweet fish, but somewhat overdone. Thou hast four lovely eyes and two noses wonderfully fine with just the right little curve at the end; ’tis a hook to hang my heart upon. But, verily, there are two of them and I know not what to do with the other; I have only one heart, beauty. O Allah, Thou hast darkened my brain with wine, and wilt Thou damn me afterwards? ANICE Nay, if thou wilt misuse my nose for a peg, I have done with thee. My heart misgives me strangely. Enter Nureddene. NUREDDENE He’s writing out a letter. ANICE Surely, my lord, This is no ordinary fisherman. If ’twere the Caliph? NUREDDENE The old drunkard knew him For Kareem and a fisherman. Dear Anice, Let not our dreams delude us. Life is harsh, Dull-tinted, not so kindly as our wishes, Nor half so beautiful. Enter Haroun. HAROUN He is not fit To be a King.

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The Viziers of Bassora NUREDDENE Nor ever was. ’Tis late.

HAROUN Giv’st thou no gift at parting? NUREDDENE You’re a fisher! (opens his purse) HAROUN Nothing more valuable? ANICE Wilt take this ring? HAROUN No; give me what I ask. NUREDDENE Yes, by the Prophet, Because thou hast a face. HAROUN Give me thy slavegirl. There is a silence. NUREDDENE Thou hast entrapped me, fisherman. ANICE Is it a jest? HAROUN Thou sworest by the Prophet, youth. NUREDDENE Tell me,

Act IV, Scene 4 Is it for ransom? I have nothing left In all the world but her and these few pieces. HAROUN She pleases me. ANICE O wretch! NUREDDENE Another time I would have slain thee. But now I feel ’tis God Has snared my feet with dire calamities, And have no courage. HAROUN Dost thou give her to me? NUREDDENE Take her, if Heaven will let thee. Angel of God, Avenging angel, wert thou lying in wait for me In Bagdad? ANICE Leave me not, O leave me not. It is a jest, it must, it shall be a jest. God will not suffer it. HAROUN I mean thee well. ANICE Thy doing’s damnable. O man, O man, Art thou a devil straight from Hell, or art thou A tool of Almuene’s to torture us? Will you leave me, my lord, and never kiss?

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NUREDDENE Thou art his; I cannot touch thee. HAROUN Kiss her once. NUREDDENE Tempt me not; if my lips grow near to hers, Thou canst not live. Farewell. HAROUN Where art thou bound? NUREDDENE To Bassora. HAROUN That is, to death? NUREDDENE Even so. HAROUN Yet take this letter with thee to the Sultan. NUREDDENE Man, what have I to do with thee or letters? HAROUN Hear me, fair youth. Thy love is sacred to me And will be safe as in her father’s house. Take thou this letter. Though I seem a fisherman, I was the Caliph’s friend and schoolfellow, His cousin of Bassora’s too, and it may help thee. NUREDDENE I know not who thou art, nor if this scrap

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Of paper has the power thou babblest of, And do not greatly care. Life without her Is not to be thought of. Yet thou giv’st me something I’ld once have dared call hope. She will be safe? HAROUN As my own child, or as the Caliph’s. NUREDDENE I’ll go play At pitch and toss with death in Bassora. Exit. IBRAHIM Kareem, thou evil fisherman, thou unjust seller, thou dishonest dicer, thou beastly womanizer! hast thou given me stinking fish not worth a dirham and thinkest to take away my slavegirl? Verily, I will tug thy beard for her. He seizes Haroun by the beard. HAROUN (throwing him off ) Out! Hither to me, Vizier Jaafar. (Enter Jaafar.) Hast thou my robe? He changes his dress. JAAFAR How dost thou, Shaikh Ibrahim? Fie, thou smellest of that evil thing, even the accurs`ed creature, wine. IBRAHIM O Satan, Satan, dost thou come to me in the guise of Jaafar, the Persian, the Shiah, the accurs`ed favourer of Gnosticism and heresies, the evil and bibulous Vizier? Avaunt, and return not save with a less damnable face. O thou inconsiderate fiend! HAROUN Damsel, lift up thy head. I am the Caliph.

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ANICE What does it matter who you are? My heart, my heart! HAROUN Thou art bewildered. Rise! I am the Caliph Men call the Just. Thou art as safe with me As my own daughter. I have sent thy lord To be a king in Bassora, and thee I will send after him with precious robes, Fair slavegirls, noble gifts. Possess thy heart Once more, be glad. ANICE O just and mighty Caliph! HAROUN Shaikh Ibrahim. IBRAHIM Verily, I think thou art the Caliph, and, verily, I think I am drunk. HAROUN Verily, thou hast told the truth twice, and it is a wonder. But verily, verily, thou shalt be punished. Thou hast been kind to the boy and his sweetheart, therefore I will not take from thee thy life or thy post in the gardens, and I will forgive thee for tugging the beard of the Lord’s anointed. But thy hypocrisies and blasphemies are too rank to be forgiven. Jaafar, have a man with him constantly and wine before his eyes; but if he drink so much as a thimbleful, let it be poured by gallons into his stomach. Have in beautiful women constantly before him and if he once raise his eyes above their anklets, shave him clean and sell him into the most severe and Puritan house in Bagdad. Nay, I will reform thee, old sinner.

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IBRAHIM Oh, her lips! her sweet lips! JAAFAR You speak to a drunken man, my lord. HAROUN Tomorrow bring him before me when he’s sober. Exeunt.

Act V Bassora and Bagdad.

Scene 1 A room in Almuene’s house. Almuene, Fareed. FAREED You’ll give me money, dad? ALMUENE You spend too much. We’ll talk of it another time. Now leave me. FAREED You’ll give me money? ALMUENE Go; I’m out of temper. FAREED (dancing round him) Give money, money, money, give me money. ALMUENE You boil, do you too grow upon me? There. (strikes him) FAREED You have struck me!

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ALMUENE Why, you would have it. Go. You shall have money. FAREED How much? ALMUENE Quite half your asking. Send me a cup of water. FAREED Oh yes, I’ll send it. You’ll strike me then? Exit. ALMUENE Young Nureddene’s evasion Troubles me at the heart; ’twill not dislodge. And Murad too walks closely with the King, Who whispers to him, whispers, whispers. What? Is’t of my ruin? No, he needs me yet. And Ibn Sawy’s coming soon. But there I’ve triumphed. He will have a meagre profit Of his long work in Roum, — the headsman’s axe. Enter a Slave with a cup of water. Here set it down and wait. ’Tis not so bad. I’ll have their Doonya yet for my Fareed. Enter Khatoon, dragging in Fareed. KHATOON He has not drunk it yet. FAREED Why do you drag me, You naughty woman? I will bite your fingers.

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KHATOON O imp of Hell! Touch not the water, Vizier. ALMUENE What’s this? KHATOON This brat whose soul you’ve disproportioned Out of all nature, turns upon you now. There’s poison in that cup. ALMUENE Unnatural mother, What is this hatred that thou hast, to slander The issue of thy womb? FAREED She hates me, dad. Drink off the cup to show her how you love me. KHATOON What, art thou weary of thy life? Give rather The water to a dog, and see. ALMUENE Go, slave, And make some negro drink it off. Exit Slave. Woman, What I have promised often, thou shalt have, — The scourge. KHATOON That were indeed my right reward For saving such a life as thine. Oh, God Will punish me for it.

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ALMUENE Thou tongue! I’ll strike thee. As he lifts his hand, the slave returns. SLAVE Oh, sir, almost before it touched his throat, He fell in fierce convulsions. He is dead. ALMUENE Fareed! FAREED You’ll strike me, will you? You’ll give half My askings, no? I wish you’d drunk it off; I’ld have rare spendings! He runs out. ALMUENE God! KHATOON Will you not scourge me? ALMUENE Leave me. Exit Khatoon. What is this horrible surprise, Beneath whose shock I stagger? Is my term Exhausted? But I would have done as much, Had I been struck. It is his gallant spirit, His lusty blood that will not bear a blow. I must appease him. If my own blood should end me! He shall have money, all that he can ask. Exit.

Scene 2 The Palace in Bassora. Alzayni, Murad, Almuene, Ajebe. ALZAYNI I like your nephew well and will advance him. For what’s twixt you and Murad, let it sleep. You are both my trusty counsellors. ALMUENE A nothing, I grieve I pressed; forget it, noble Murad. MURAD That’s as you please. ALMUENE Come, you’re my nephew too. VOICE OUTSIDE Ho, Mohamad Alzayni, Sultan, ho! ALZAYNI Who is that Arab? ALMUENE (at the window) God! ’tis Nureddene. MURAD Impossible!

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ALZAYNI Or he is courage-mad. ALMUENE ’Tis he. MURAD The devil and his unholy joy! ALZAYNI Drag him to me! No, bring him quietly, Ajebe. Exit Ajebe. I wonder in what strength he comes. ALMUENE The strength of madness. MURAD Or of Heaven, whose wrath Sometimes chastises us with our desires. Enter Ajebe with Nureddene. NUREDDENE Greeting, Alzayni, King in Bassora. Greeting, sweet uncle. Has your nose got straight? Ajebe and Murad, greeting. Here am I! ALZAYNI How dar’st thou come and with such rude demeanour? Knowst thou thy sentence? NUREDDENE Why, I bring a sentence too, A fishy writing. Here it is. Be careful of it; It is my die on which I throw for death Or more than life.

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NUREDDENE Great King, ’tis from thy friend the fisherman, He with the dirty gaberdine who lives In great Bagdad on stolen fish. ALZAYNI Thinkst thou That thou canst play thus rudely with the lion? NUREDDENE If I could see the mane, I’ld clutch at it. A lashing tail is not enough. The tiger Has that too and many trifling animals. But read the letter. ALZAYNI Read it, Almuene. ALMUENE ’Tis from the Caliph, it appears. Thus runs The alleged epistle: “Haroun Alrasheed, Commander of the Faithful, known by name To orient waters and the Atlantic seas, Whom three wide continents obey, to Mohamad The Abbasside, the son of Sulyman, Men call Alzayni, by our gracious will Allowed our subject king in Bassora, Greeting and peace. As soon as thou hast read Our letter, put from thee thy kingly robe, Thy jewelled turban and thy sceptred pomp And clothe with them the bearer Nureddene, Son of thy Vizier, monarch in thy stead In Bassora, then come to us in Bagdad To answer for thy many and great offences.

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This as thou hop’st to live.” NUREDDENE It was the Caliph. ALZAYNI My mighty cousin’s will must be obeyed. Why turnst thou to the light? ALMUENE To scan it better. King, ’tis a forgery! Where is the seal, Where the imperial scripture? Is it thus On a torn paper mighty Caliphs write? Now on my life the fellow here has chanced Upon some playful scribbling of the Caliph’s, Put in his name and thine and, brazen-faced, Come here to bluster. AJEBE It was quite whole, I saw it. ALMUENE Boy, silence! AJEBE No, I will not. Thou hast torn it. ALMUENE Where are the pieces then? Search, if thou wilt. ALZAYNI Ho, there. Enter Guards. Take Ajebe to the prison hence. He shall have judgment afterwards. Exit Ajebe, guarded.

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Thou, fellow, Com’st thou with brazen face and blustering tongue And forgeries in thy pocket? Hale him hence. After fierce tortures let him be impaled. MURAD Hear me, O King. ALZAYNI Thou art his sister’s husband. MURAD Yet for thy own sake hear me. Hast thou thought, If this be true, what fate will stride upon thee When Haroun learns thy deed? whom doubt not, King, Thy many enemies will soon acquaint. ALZAYNI Send couriers; find this out. ALMUENE Till when I’ll keep My nephew safe under my private eye. MURAD Thou art his enemy. ALMUENE And thou his friend. He will escape from thee once more. ALZAYNI Vizier, Thou keep him, use him well. ALMUENE Ho! take him, Guards. Enter Guards.

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NUREDDENE I lose the toss; ’tis tails. Exit guarded. ALZAYNI All leave me. Vizier, Remain. Exit Murad. Now, Almuene? ALMUENE Kill him and be at rest. ALZAYNI If ’twere indeed the Caliph’s very hand? Vizier, I dare not suddenly. ALMUENE Dare not! Nay, then, put off thy crown at Haroun’s bidding, Who’ll make thee his doorkeeper in Bagdad. The Caliph? How long will this drunken freak Have lodging in his lordly mind? Or fearst thou The half-veiled threat of thy own trusty Turk, Sultan Alzayni? ALZAYNI Him I’ll silence. Keep The boy ten days; then, if all’s well, behead him. Exit. ALMUENE You boggle, boggle; that is not the way To keep a crown. Have him and hold’s the Vizier, Catch him and cut’s the General. Loose your grip? Let the hand shake? So monarchs are unkinged. Ten days are mine at least. I have ten days To torture him, though Caliphs turn his friend.

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Will God befriend him next? My enemies He gives into my potent hand. Murad is gone, And I hold Doonya in my grip, Ameena too Who, I have news, lives secret with her niece. But where’s the girl? God keeps her for me, I doubt not, A last, sweet morsel. It will please Fareed. But there’s Haroun! Why should he live at all, When there are swords and poisons? Exit.

Scene 3 A cell in Almuene’s house. Nureddene alone. NUREDDENE We sin our pleasant sins and then refrain And think that God’s deceived. He waits His time And when we walk the clean and polished road He trips us with the mire our shoes yet keep, The pleasant mud we walked before. All ills I will bear patiently. Oh, better here Than in that world! Who comes? Khatoon, my aunt! Enter Khatoon and a Slave. KHATOON My Nureddene! NUREDDENE Good aunt, weep not for me. KHATOON You are my sister’s child, yet more my own. I have no other. Ali, mend his food And treatment. Fear not thou the Vizier’s wrath, For I will shield thee. SLAVE I’ll do it willingly. KHATOON What is this sound of many rushing feet? Enter Almuene and Slaves.

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ALMUENE Seize him and bind. O villain, fatal villain! O my heart’s stringlet! Seize him, beat to powder; Have burning irons. Dame, what do you here? Wilt thou prevent me then? KHATOON Let no man touch The prisoner of the Sultan. What’s this rage? ALMUENE My son, my son! He has burned my heart. Shall I Not burn his body? KHATOON What is it? Tell me quickly. ALMUENE Fareed is murdered. KHATOON God forbid! By whom? ALMUENE This villain’s sister. KHATOON Doonya? You are mad. Speak, slave. A SLAVE Young master went with a great company To Murad’s house to carry Doonya off Who then was seated listening to the lute With Balkis and Mymoona, Ajebe’s slavegirls. We stormed the house, but could not take the lady; Mymoona with a sword kept all at bay For minutes. Meantime the city fills with rumour,

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And Murad riding like a stormy wind Came on us just too soon, the girl defender Found wounded, Doonya at last in Fareed’s grip Who made a shield of that fair burden; but Balkis Ran at and tripped him, and the savage Turk Fire-eyed and furious lunged him through the body. He’s dead. KHATOON My son! ALMUENE Will you now give me leave To torture this vile boy? KHATOON What is his fault? Touch him and I acquaint the King. Vizier, Thou slewst Fareed. My gracious, laughing babe Who clung about me with his little hands And sucked my breasts! Him you have murdered, Vizier, Both soul and body. I will go and pray For vengeance on thee for my slaughtered child. Exit. ALMUENE She has baulked my fury. No, I’ll wait for thee. Thou shalt hear first what I have done with Doonya And thy soft mother’s body. Murad! Murad! Thou hast no son. Would God thou hadst a son! Exit. NUREDDENE Not upon others fall Thy heavy scourge Who are not guilty. O Doonya, O my mother, In fiercest peril from that maddened tyrant! Curtain

Scene 4 A house in Bassora. Doonya, Ameena. DOONYA Comfort, dear mother, comfort. AMEENA Oh, what comfort? My Nureddene is doomed, Murad is gaoled, We in close hiding under the vile doom This tyrant King decrees. DOONYA I did not think God was so keen-eyed for our petty sins, When great offences and high criminals Walk smiling. But there’s comfort, mother, yet. My husband writes from prison. You shall hear. (reads) “Doonya, I have written this by secret contrivance. Have comfort, dry thy mother’s tears. There is hope. The Caliph comes to Bassora and the King will release me for a need of his own. I have tidings of thy father; he is but two days journey from Bassora and I have sent him urgent and tremulous word to come, but no ill-news to break his heart. We have friends. Doonya, my beloved — ” That’s for me only. AMEENA Let me hear it.

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DOONYA It is Pure nonsense, — what a savage Turk would write. AMEENA Therefore you kissed it? DOONYA Oh, you’re comforted! You’re smiling through your tears. AMEENA My husband comes. He will save all. I never quite believed God would forget his worth so soon. DOONYA (to herself ) He comes, But for what fate? (aloud) True, mother, he’ll save all. AMEENA How is Mymoona? DOONYA Better now. She suffered In our wild rapid flight. Balkis is with her. Let’s go to them. AMEENA My son will yet be saved. Exeunt.

Scene 5 Bagdad. A room in the Caliph’s harem. Anice, with many slavegirls attending on her. ANICE Girls, is he passing? A SLAVEGIRL He is passing. ANICE Quick, my lute! Song The Emperor of Roum is great; The Caliph has a mighty State; But One is greater, to Whom all prayers take wing; And I, a poor and weeping slave, When the world rises from its grave, Shall stand up the accuser of my King. Girls, is he coming up? A SLAVEGIRL The Caliph enters. Enter Haroun and Jaafar. HAROUN Thou art the slavegirl, Anice-aljalice? Why chosest thou that song?

Act V, Scene 5 ANICE Caliph, for thee. Where is my lord? HAROUN A king in Bassora. ANICE Who told thee? HAROUN So it must be. ANICE Is there news? HAROUN No, strange! seven days gone by, nor yet a letter! ANICE Caliph, high Sovereign, Haroun Alrasheed, Men call thee Just, great Abbasside! I am A poor and helpless slavegirl, but my grief Is greater than a King. Lord, I demand My soul’s dear husband at thy hand, who sent him Alone, unfollowed, without guard or friend To a tyrant Sultan and more tyrant Vizier, His potent enemies. Oh, they have killed him! Give back my husband to my arms unhurt Or I will rise upon the judgment day Against thee, Caliph Haroun Alrasheed, Demanding him at that eternal throne Where names are not received, nor earthly pomps Considered. Then my frail and woman’s voice Shall ring more dreadful in thy mighty hearing Than doom’s own trumpet. Answer my demand.

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HAROUN Anice, I do believe thy lord is well. And yet — No, by my great forefathers, no! My seal and signature were on the script And they are mightier than a thousand armies. If he has disobeyed, for him ’twere better He were a beggar’s unrespected child Than Haroun’s kin; — the Arabian simoom Shall be less devastating than my wrath. Out, Jaafar, out to Bassora, behind thee Sweeping embattled war; nor night nor tempest Delay thy march. I follow in thy steps. Take too this damsel and these fifty slavegirls, With robes and gifts for Bassora’s youthful king. I give thee power o’er Kings and Emperors To threaten, smite and seize. Go, friend; I follow As swift as thunder presses on the lightning. Exit. JAAFAR (to the slavegirls) Make ready; for we march within the hour. Exit. Curtain

Scene 6 The public square of Bassora. Alzayni on a dais; in front a scaffold on which stand Nureddene, an Executioner, Murad and others. Almuene moves between the dais and scaffold. The square is crowded with people. EXECUTIONER Ho! listen, listen, Moslems. Nureddene, Son of Alfazzal, son of Sawy, stands Upon the rug of blood, the man who smote Great Viziers and came armed with forgeries To uncrown mighty Kings. Look on his doom, You enemies of great Alzayni, look and shake. (low, to Nureddene) My lord, forgive me who am thus compelled, Oh much against my will, to ill-requite Your father’s kindly favours. NUREDDENE Give me water; I thirst. MURAD Give water. Executioner, When the King waves the signal, wait; strike not Too hastily. EXECUTIONER Captain, I will await thy nod. Here’s water.

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ALMUENE (coming up) Rebellious sworder! giv’st thou drink To the King’s enemies? A VOICE IN THE CROWD God waits for thee, Thou wicked Vizier. ALMUENE Who was that? MURAD A voice. Behead it. ALMUENE Mighty Sultan, give the word. ALZAYNI There is a movement in the crowd and cries. Wait for one moment. ALMUENE It is Ibn Sawy. Oh, this is sweet! CRIES Make way for the Vizier, the good Vizier. He’s saved! he’s saved. Enter Alfazzal; he looks with emotion at Nureddene, then turns to the King. IBN SAWY Greeting, my King; my work in Roum is over. ALZAYNI Virtuous Alfazzal! we will talk with thee As ever was our dearest pleasure; first,

Act V, Scene 6 There is a spotted soul to be dislodged From the fair body it disgraced; a trifle Soon ended. There behold the criminal. IBN SAWY The criminal! Pardon me, mighty King; The voice of Nature will not be kept down. Why wilt thou slay my son? ALZAYNI Nay, ’tis himself Insisted obstinately on his doom; Abused his King, battered and beat my Vizier, Forged mighty Haroun’s signature to wear My crown in Bassora. These are the chief Of his offences. IBN SAWY If this thing is true, As doubtless near inquiry in Bagdad — ALZAYNI Nay, take not up thy duties all too soon. Rest from thy travel, bury thy dear son And afterwards resume thy faithful works, My Vizier. IBN SAWY I would not see my dear child slain. Permit me to depart and in my desolate house Comfort the stricken mother and his kin. ALZAYNI Perhaps a stone of all thy house may stand. The mother and thy niece? It hurts my heart. They too are criminals and punished.

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ALZAYNI Slaves, help my faithful Vizier; he will faint. IBN SAWY Let me alone; God made me strong to bear. They are dead? ALZAYNI Nay, a more lenient penalty. What did I order? To be led through Bassora Bare in their shifts with halters round their necks And, stripped before all eyes, whipped into swooning, Then sold as slaves but preferably for little To some low Nazarene or Jew. Was that The order, Almuene? IBN SAWY Merciful Allah! And it is done? ALZAYNI I doubt not, it is done. IBN SAWY Their crime? ALZAYNI Conspiring murder. They have killed The son of Almuene. Good Ibn Sawy, God’s kind to thee who has relieved thy age Of human burdens. Thus He turns thy thought To His ineffable and simple peace.

Act V, Scene 6 IBN SAWY God, Thou art mighty and Thy will is just. King Mohamad Alzayni, I have come To a changed world in which I am not needed. I bid farewell. ALZAYNI Nay, Vizier, clasp thy son, And afterwards await within my hearing Release. IBN SAWY My Nureddene, my child! NUREDDENE Justice Of God, thou spar’st me nothing. Father! father! IBN SAWY Bow to the will of God, my son; if thou Must perish on a false and hateful charge, A crime in thee impossible, believe It is His justice still. NUREDDENE I well believe it. IBN SAWY I doubt not I shall join you, son. We’ll hold Each other’s hands upon the narrow way. ALZAYNI Hast done, Alfazzal? IBN SAWY Do thy will, O King.

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Strike. Trumpets outside. What are these proud notes? this cloud of dust That rushes towards us from the north? The earth Trembles with horsehooves. ALMUENE Let this wretch be slain; We shall have leisure then for greater things. ALZAYNI Pause, pause! A horseman gallops through the crowd Which scatters like wild dust. Look, he dismounts. Enter a Soldier. SOLDIER Hail to thee, Mohamad Alzayni! Greeting From mightier than thyself. ALZAYNI Who art thou, Arab? SOLDIER Jaafar bin Barmak, Vizier world-renowned Of Haroun, master of the globe, comes hither. He’s in your streets, Alzayni. Thus he bids thee: If Nureddene, thy Vizier’s son, yet lives, Preserve him, Sultan, as thy own dear life; For if he dies, thou shalt not live. ALZAYNI My guards! My soldiers! here to me! SOLDIER Beware, Alzayni.

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The force he brings could dislocate each stone In Bassora within the hour and leave Thy house a ruin. In his mighty wake A mightier comes, the Caliph’s self. ALZAYNI ’Tis well. I have but erred. My Murad, here to me! Murad, thou shalt have gold, a house, estates, Noble and wealthy women for thy wives. Murad! MURAD Erred, King, indeed who took a soldier For an assassin. King, my household gem I have saved and want no others. Were she gone, Thou wouldst not now be living. ALZAYNI Am I betrayed? MURAD Call it so, King. ALZAYNI My throne is tumbling down. The crowd quite parts; the horsemen drive towards us. ALMUENE Sultan Alzayni, kill thy enemies, Then die. Wilt thou be footed to Bagdad, Stumbling in fetters? ALZAYNI They are here. Enter Jaafar and Soldiers.

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This sight Is thy own sentence. Mohamad Alzayni, Allah deprived thee of reason to destroy thee, When thou didst madly disobey thy lord. ALMUENE ’Twas a mistake, great Vizier. We had thought The script a forgery. JAAFAR Issue of Khakan, I have seen many Viziers like thyself, But none that died in peace. Hail, Nureddene! I greet thee, Sultan, lord in Bassora. NUREDDENE It is the second toss that tells; the first Was a pure foul. I thank Thee, who hast only Shown me the edge of Thy chastising sword, Then pardoned. Father, embrace me. IBN SAWY Ah, child, Thy mother and thy sister! MURAD They are safe And in my care. IBN SAWY Nay, God is kind; this world Most leniently ruled. JAAFAR Sultan Alzayni, Vizier Almuene, By delegated power I seize upon you,

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The prisoners of the Caliph. Take them, guards. I’ve brought a slavegirl for you, Nureddene, The Caliph’s gift. NUREDDENE I’ll take her, if I like her. Life is my own again and all I love. Great are Thy mercies, O Omnipotent! Curtain

Scene 7 The Palace in Bassora. Ibn Sawy, Ameena, Nureddene, Anice, Doonya, Ajebe. IBN SAWY End, end embraces; they will last our life. Thou dearest cause at once of all our woes And their sweet ender! Cherish her, Nureddene, Who saved thy soul and body. NUREDDENE Surely I’ll cherish My heart’s queen! ANICE Only your slavegirl. DOONYA You’ve got a King, You lucky child! But I have only a Turk, A blustering, bold and Caliph-murdering Turk Who writes me silly letters, stabs my lovers When they would run away with me, and makes A general Turkish nuisance of himself. ’Tis hard. Sultan of Bassora, great Sultan, Grave high and mighty Nureddene! thy sister And subject — NUREDDENE Doonya, it is not Faeryland.

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DOONYA It is, it is, and Anice here its queen. O faery King of faery Bassora, Do make a General of my general nuisance. I long to be my lady Generaless Of faeryland, and ride about and charge At thorns and thistles with a churning-stick, With Balkis and Mymoona for my captains — They’re very martial, King, bold swashing fighters! — NUREDDENE Ajebe our Treasurer. AJEBE To ruin you again? NUREDDENE We’ll have Shaikh Ibrahim for Lord High Humbug Of all our faeryland; shall we not, Anice? AMEENA What nonsense, children! You a Sultan, child! NUREDDENE Your Sultan, mother, as I ever was. IBN SAWY Let happiness flow out in smiles. Our griefs Are ended and we cluster round our King. The Caliph! Enter Haroun, Jaafar, Murad, Sunjar, Guards with Alzayni and Almuene. The peace, Commander of the Faithful! HAROUN Noble Alfazzal, sit. Sit all of you. This is the thing that does my heart most good, To watch these kind and happy looks and know

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Myself for cause. Therefore I sit enthroned, Allah’s Vicegerent, to put down all evil And pluck the virtuous out of danger’s hand. Fit work for Kings! not merely the high crown And marching armies and superber ease. Sunjar, Murad and Ajebe, you your King Can best reward. But, Ajebe, in thy house Where thou art Sultan, those reward who well Deserve it. AJEBE They shall be my household queens, Enthroned upon my either hand. HAROUN ’Tis well. Sultan Alzayni, not within my realm Shall Kings like thee bear rule. Great though thy crimes, I will not honour thee with imitation, To slay unheard. Thou shalt have judgment, King. But for thy Vizier here, his crimes are open And loudly they proclaim themselves. ALMUENE Lord, spare me. HAROUN For some offences God has punished thee. Shall I, His great Vicegerent, spare? Young King Of Bassora, to thee I leave thy enemy. ALMUENE I did according to my blood and nurture, Do thou as much. NUREDDENE He has beguiled me, Caliph. I cannot now pronounce his doom.

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HAROUN Then I will. Death at this moment! And his house and fortune Are to thy father due. Take him and slay. Exeunt Guards with Almuene. Let not his sad and guiltless wife be engulfed In his swift ruin. Virtuous Alfazzal, — IBN SAWY She is my wife’s dear sister and my home Is hers; my children will replace her son. HAROUN All then is well. Anice, you’re satisfied? I never was so scared in all my life As when you rose against me. ANICE Pardon me! HAROUN Fair children, worthy of each other’s love And beauty! till the Sunderer comes who parts All wedded hands, take your delights on earth, And afterwards in heaven. Meanwhile remember That life is grave and earnest under its smiles, And we too with a wary gaiety Should walk its roads, praying that if we stumble, The All-Merciful may bear our footing up In His strong hand, showing the Father’s face And not the stern and dreadful Judge. Farewell. I go to Roman wars. With you the peace! IBN SAWY Peace with thee, just and mighty Caliph, peace. Curtain

Rodogune A Dramatic Romance

Persons of the Drama twin-brothers, Princes of Syria, sons of Nicanor ANTIOCHUS TIMOCLES H and Cleopatra. NICANOR, of the royal house, general-in-chief of the Syrian armies. Greek nobles of the Kingdom of Syria, generals THOAS LEOSTHENES H of its armies. PHAYLLUS, an official, afterwards Minister of Timocles. PHILOCTETES, a young Greek noble of Egypt, friend of Antiochus. MELITUS, a Court official. CALLICRATES, a young Greek noble of Syria. THERAS, a gentleman in waiting. AN EREMITE. CLEOPATRA, an Egyptian princess, sister of the reigning Ptolemy, Queen of Syria; widow successively of King Nicanor and his brother Antiochus. RODOGUNE, a princess of Parthia, prisoner in Antioch. EUNICE, daughter of Nicanor. CLEONE, sister of Phayllus, in attendance on the Queen. MENTHO, an Egyptian woman, nurse of Antiochus. ¨ , an attendant of Cleopatra. ZOYLA

Act I Antioch. The Palace; a house by the sea.

Scene 1 The Palace in Antioch; Cleopatra’s antechamber. Cleone is seated; to her enters Eunice. CLEONE Always he lives! EUNICE No, his disease, not he. For the divinity that sits in man From that afflicted body has withdrawn, — Its pride, its greatness, joy, command, the Power Unnameable that struggles with its world: The husk, the creature only lives. But that husk Has a heart, a mind and all accustomed wants, And having these must be, — O, it is pitiful, — Stripped of all real homage, forced to see That none but Death desires him any more. CLEONE You pity? EUNICE Seems it strange to you? I pity. I loved him not, — who did? But I am human And feel the touch of tears. A death desired Is still a death and man is always man

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Although an enemy. If I ever slew, I think ’twould be with pity in the blow That it was needed. CLEONE That’s a foolish thought. EUNICE If it were weakness and delayed the stroke. CLEONE The Queen waits by him still? EUNICE No longer now. For while officiously she served her lord, The dying monarch cast a royal look Of sternness on her. “Cease,” he said, “O woman, To trouble with thy ill-dissembled joy My passing. Call thy sons! Before they come I shall have gone into the shadow. Yet Too much exult not, lest the angry gods Chastise thee with the coming of thy sons At which thou now rejoicest.” CLEONE Where is she then Or who waits on her? EUNICE Rodogune. CLEONE That slave! No nobler attendance?

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EUNICE I think I hear the speech Of upstarts. Are you, Cleone, of that tribe? CLEONE I marvel at your strange attraction, Princess, You fondle and admire a statue of chalk In a black towel dismally arranged! EUNICE She has roses in her pallor, but they are The memory of a blush in ivory. She is all silent, gentle, pale and pure, Dim-natured with a heart as soft as sleep. CLEONE She is a twilight soul, not frank, not Greek, Some Magian’s daughter full of midnight spells. I think she is a changeling from the dead. I hate the sorceress! EUNICE We shall have a king Who’s young, Cleone; Rodogune is fair. What think you of it, you small bitter heart? CLEONE He will prefer the roses and the day, I hope! EUNICE Yourself, you think? O, see her walk! A floating lily in moonlight was her sister. Rodogune enters. RODOGUNE His agony ends at last.

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Why have you left Your mistress and your service, Rodogune? RODOGUNE She will not have me near her now; she says I look at her with eyes too wondering and too large. So she expects alone her husband’s end And her release. Alas, the valiant man, The king, the trampler of the fields of death! He called to victory and she ran to him, He made of conquest his camp-follower. How He lies forsaken! None regard his end; His flatterers whisper round him, his no more; His almost widow smiles. Better would men, Could they foresee their ending, understand The need of mercy. CLEONE My sandal-string is loose; Kneel down and tie it, Parthian Rodogune. EUNICE You too may feel the need of mercy yet, Cleone. Cleopatra enters swiftly from the corridors of the Palace. CLEOPATRA Antiochus is dead, is dead, and I Shall see at last the faces of my sons. O, I could cry upon the palace-tops My exultation! Gaze not on me so, Eunice. I have lived for eighteen years With silence and my anguished soul within While all the while a mother’s heart in me Cried for her children’s eyelids, wept to touch

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The little bodies that with pain I bore. The long chill dawnings came without that joy. Only my hateful husband and his crown, — His crown! EUNICE To the world he was a man august, High-thoughted, grandiose, valiant. Leave him to death, And thou enjoy thy children. CLEOPATRA He would not let my children come to me, Therefore I spit upon his corpse. Eunice, Have you not thought sometimes how strange it will feel To see my tall strong sons come striding in Who were two lisping babes, two pretty babes? Sometimes I think they are not changed at all And I shall see my small Antiochus With those sweet sunlight curls, his father’s curls, And eyes in which an infant royalty Expressed itself in glances, Timocles Holding his brother’s hand and toiling to me With eyes like flowers wide-opened by the wind And rosy lips that laugh towards my breast. Will it not be strange, so sweet and strange? EUNICE And when Will they arrive from Egypt? CLEOPATRA Ah, Eunice, From Egypt! They are here, Eunice. EUNICE Here!

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CLEOPATRA Not in this room, dear fool; in Antioch, hid Where never cruel eyes could come at them. O, did you think a mother’s hungry heart Could lose one fluttering moment of delight After such empty years? Theramenes, — The swift hawk he is, — by that good illness helped Darted across and brought them. They’re here, Eunice! I saw them not even then, not even then Could clasp, but now Antiochus is dead, Is dead, my lips shall kiss them! Messengers Abridge the road with tempest in their hooves To bring them to me! EUNICE Imperil not with memories of hate The hour of thy new-found felicity; For souls dislodged are dangerous and the gods Have their caprices. CLEOPATRA Will the Furies stir Because I hated grim Antiochus? When I have slain my kin, then let them wake. The man who’s dead was nothing to my heart: My husband was Nicanor, my beautiful High-hearted lord with his bright auburn hair And open face. When he died miserably A captive in the hated Parthian’s bonds, My heart was broken. Only for my babes I knit the pieces strongly to each other, My little babes whom I must send away To Egypt far from me! But for Antiochus, That gloomy, sullen and forbidding soul, Harsh-featured, hard of heart, rough mud of camps And marches, — he was never lord of me. He was a reason of State, an act of policy;

Act I, Scene 1 And he exiled my children. You have not been A mother! EUNICE I will love with you, Cleopatra, Although to hate unwilling. CLEOPATRA Love me and with me As much as your pale quiet Parthian’s loved Whom for your sake I have not slain. CLEONE She too, The Parthian! — blames you. Was it not she who said, Your joy will bring a curse upon your sons? CLEOPATRA Hast thou so little terror? EUNICE Never she said it! CLEOPATRA Fear yet; be wise! I cannot any more Feel anger! Never again can grief be born In this glad world that gives me back my sons. I can think only of my children’s arms. There is a diphony of music swells Within me and it cries a double name, Twin sounds, Antiochus and Timocles, Timocles and Antiochus, the two Changing their places sweetly like a pair Of happy lovers in my brain. CLEONE But which

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Shall be our king in Syria? CLEOPATRA Both shall be kings, My kings, my little royal faces made To rule my breast. Upon a meaner throne What matters who shall reign for both? ¨ enters. Zoyla ¨ ZOYLA Madam, The banner floats upon that seaward tower. CLEOPATRA O my soul, fly to perch there! Shall it not seem My children’s robes as motherwards they run to me Tired of their distant play? ¨ She leaves the room followed by Zoyla. EUNICE You, you, Cleone! gods are not in the world If you end happily. RODOGUNE Do not reproach her. I have no complaint against one human creature; Nature and Fate do all. EUNICE Because you were born, My Rodogune, to suffer and be sweet As was Cleone to offend. O snake, For all thy gold and roses! RODOGUNE I did not think Her guiltless sons must pay her debt. Account

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Is kept in heaven and our own offences Too heavy a load for us to bear. Rodogune and Eunice go out. CLEONE The doll, The Parthian puppet whom she fondles so, She hardly has a glance for me! I am glad This gloomy, grand Antiochus is dead. O now for pastime, dances, youth and flowers! Youth, youth! for we shall have upon the throne No grey beard longer, but some glorious boy Made for delight with whom we shall be young For ever. (to Phayllus, as he enters) Rejoice, brother; he is dead. PHAYLLUS It was my desire and fear that killed him then; For he was nosing into my accounts. When shall we have these two king-cubs and which Is the crowned lion? CLEONE That is hidden, Phayllus; You know it. PHAYLLUS I know; I wish I also knew Why it was hidden. Perhaps there is no cause Save the hiding! Women feign and lie by nature As the snake coils, no purpose served by it. Or was it the grim king who’ld have it so? CLEONE They are in Antioch.

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PHAYLLUS Before Queen Cleopatra. They do not sleep Who govern kingdoms; they have ears and eyes. CLEONE Knew and they live! PHAYLLUS Why should one slay in vain? A dying man has nothing left to fear Or hope for. He belongs to other cares. Whichever of these Syrian cubs be crowned, He will be hungry, young and African; He will need caterers. CLEONE Shall they not be found? PHAYLLUS In Egypt they have other needs than ours. There lust’s almost as open as feasting is; Science and poetry and learned tastes Are not confined to books, but life’s an art. There are faint mysteries, there are lurid pomps; Strong philtres pass and covert drugs. Desire Is married to fulfilment, pain’s enjoyed And love sometimes procures his prey for death. He’ll want those strange and vivid colours here, Not dull diplomacies and hard rough arms. Then who shall look to statecraft’s arid needs If not Phayllus?

Act I, Scene 1 CLEONE We shall rise? PHAYLLUS It is that I came to learn from you. I have a need for growth; I feel a ray come nearer to my brow, The world expands before me. Will you assist, — For you have courage, falsehood, brains, — my growth? Your own assisted, — that is understood. CLEONE Because I am near the Queen? PHAYLLUS That helps, perhaps, But falls below the mark at which I aim. If you were nearer to the King, — why, then! CLEONE Depend on me. PHAYLLUS Cleone, we shall rise.

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Scene 2 The colonnade of a house in Antioch, overlooking the sea. Antiochus, Philoctetes. ANTIOCHUS The summons comes not and my life still waits. PHILOCTETES Patience, beloved Antiochus. Even now He fronts the darkness. ANTIOCHUS Nothing have I spoken As wishing for his death. His was a mould That should have been immortal. But since all Are voyagers to one goal and wishing’s vain To hold one traveller back, I keep my hopes. O Philoctetes, we who missed his life, Should have the memory of his end! Unseen He goes from us into the shades, unknown: We are denied his solemn hours. PHILOCTETES All men Are not like thee, my monarch, and this king Was great but dangerous as a lion is Who lives in deserts mightily alone. Admire him from that distance. ANTIOCHUS O fear and base suspicion, evillest part Of Nature, how you spoil our grandiose life!

Act I, Scene 2 All heights are lowered, our wide embrace restrained, God’s natural sunshine darkened by your fault. We were not meant for darkness, plots and hatred Reading our baseness in another’s mind, But like good wrestlers, hearty comrades, hearty foes, To take and give in life’s great lists together Blows and embraces. PHILOCTETES A mother’s love, a mother’s fears Earn their excuse. ANTIOCHUS I care not for such love. O Philoctetes, all this happy night I could not sleep; for proud dreams came to me In which I sat on Syria’s puissant throne, Or marched through Parthia with the iron pomps Of war resounding in my train, or swam My charger through the Indus undulant, Or up to Ganges and the torrid south Restored once more the Syrian monarchy. It is divinity on earth to be a king. PHILOCTETES But if the weaker prove the elder born? If Timocles were Fate’s elected king? ANTIOCHUS Dear merry Timocles! he would not wish To wear the iron burden of a crown; If he has joy, it is enough for him. Sunshine and laughter and the arms of friends Guard his fine monarchy of cheerful mind. PHILOCTETES If always Fate were careful to fit in

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The nature with the lot! But she sometimes Loves these strange contrasts and crude ironies. ANTIOCHUS Has not nurse Mentho often sworn to me That I, not he, saw earth the first? PHILOCTETES And when Did woman’s tongue except in wrath or malice Deliver truth that’s bitter? ANTIOCHUS Philoctetes, Do you not wish me to be king? PHILOCTETES Why left I then Nile in his fields and Egypt slumbering Couchant upon her sands, but to pursue Your gallant progress sailing through life’s seas Shattering opponents till your flag flew high, Sole admiral-ship of all this kingly world? But since upon this random earth unjust We travel stumbling to the pyre, not led By any Power nor any law, and neither What we desire nor what we deserve Arrives, but unintelligible dooms O’ertake us and the travesty of things, It is better not to hope too much. ANTIOCHUS It is better To lift our hopes heaven-high and to extend them As wide as earth. Heaven did not give me in vain This royal nature and this kingly form, These thoughts that wear a crown. They were not meant

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For mockery nor to fret a subject’s heart. Do you not hear the ardour of those hooves? My kingdom rides to me. He hastens to the other end of the colonnade. PHILOCTETES O glorious youth Whose young heroic arms would gird the world, I like a proud and anxious mother follow, Desiring, fearing, drawn by cords of hope and love, Admire and doubt, exult and quake and chide. She is so glad of her brave, beautiful child, But trembles lest his courage and his beauty Alarm the fatal jealousy that watches us From thrones unseen. Thoas and Melitus enter from the gates. THOAS Are these the Syrian twins? PHILOCTETES The elder of them only, Antiochus Of Syria. THOAS Son of Nicanor! Antiochus The high Seleucid travels the dull stream And Syria’s throne is empty for his heir. ANTIOCHUS A glorious sun has fallen then from heaven Saddening the nations, even those he smote. It is the rule of Nature makes us rise Despite our hearts replacing what we love, And I am happy who am called so soon To rule a nation of such princely men. Are you not Thoas?

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ANTIOCHUS Thoas, we shall be friends. Will it be long Before we march together through the world To stable our horses in Persepolis? He turns to speak to Timocles who has just entered and goes into the house. MELITUS This is a royal style and kingly brow. THOAS The man is royal. What a face looks forth From under that bright aureole of hair! TIMOCLES I greet you, Syrians. Shall I know your names? MELITUS Melitus. This is Thoas. TIMOCLES Melitus? Oh yes, of Macedon. MELITUS No, Antioch. TIMOCLES It is the same. We talked of you in Alexandria and in Thebes, All of you famous captains. Your great names Are known to us, as now yourselves must be Known and admired and loved.

Act I, Scene 2 MELITUS Your courtesy Overwhelms me; but I am no captain, only The King’s poor chamberlain, your servant come To greet you. TIMOCLES Not therefore less a cherished friend Whose duty helps our daily happiness. Thoas, your name is in our country’s book Inscribed too deeply to demand poor praise From one who never yet has drawn his sword In anger. THOAS I am honoured, Prince. Do not forget Your mother is waiting for you after eighteen years. TIMOCLES My mother! O, I have a mother at last. You lords shall tell me as we go, how fair She is or dark like our Egyptian dames, Noble and tall or else a brevity Of queenhood. And her face — but that, be sure, Is the sweet loving face I have seen so often In Egypt when I lay awake at night And heard the breezes whispering outside With many voices in the moonlit hours. It is late, Thoas, is it not, a child to see His mother when eighteen years have made him big? This, this is Paradise, a mother, friends And Syria. In our swart Egypt ’twas no life, — Although I liked it well when I was there; But O, your Syria! I have spent whole hours Watching your gracile Syrian women pass With their bright splendid faces. And your flowers, What flowers! and best of all, your sun, not like

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That burning Egypt, but a warmth, a joy And a kind brightness. It will be all pleasure To reign in such a country. ANTIOCHUS (returning from the house) Let us ride Into our kingdom. TIMOCLES Antioch in sweet Syria, The realm for gods, and Daphne’s golden groves, And swift Orontes hastening to the sea! Ride by me, Melitus, tell me everything.

Scene 3 Cleopatra’s antechamber in the Palace. Cleopatra, seated; Rodogune. CLEOPATRA It is their horsehooves ride into my heart. It shall be done. What have I any more To do with hatred? Parthian Rodogune, Have you forgotten now your former pomps And princely thoughts in high Persepolis, Or do your dreams still linger near a throne? RODOGUNE I think all fallen beings needs must keep Some dream out of their happier past, — or else How hard it would be to live! CLEOPATRA O, if some hope survive In the black midst of care, however small, We can live, then only, O then only. RODOGUNE Hope! I have forgotten how men hope. CLEOPATRA Is your life hard In Syrian Antioch, Rodogune, a slave To your most bitter foemen?

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Not when you speak So gently. Always I strive to make it sweet By outward harmony with circumstance And a calm soul within that is above My fortunes. CLEOPATRA Parthian, you have borne the hate My husband’s murder bred in me towards all Your nation. When I felt you with my heel, I trampled Tigris and Euphrates then And Parthia suffered. Therefore I let you live Half-loving in your body my revenge. But these are cruel and unhappy thoughts I hope to slay and bury with the past Which gave them birth. Will you assist me, girl? Will you begin with me another life And other feelings? RODOGUNE If our fates allow Which are not gentle. CLEOPATRA My life begins again, My life begins again in my dear sons And my dead husband lives. All’s sweetly mended. I do not wish for hatred any more. The horrible and perilous hands of war Appal me. O, let our peoples sit at ease In Grecian Antioch and Persepolis, Mothers and children, clasping those golden heads Deep, deep within our bosoms, never allow Their going forth again to bonds and death. Peace, peace, let us have peace for ever more.

Act I, Scene 3 RODOGUNE And will peace take me to my father’s arms? CLEOPATRA Or else detain you on a kingly throne. There are happier fetters. RODOGUNE If it must be so! CLEOPATRA Art thou insensible or fearst to rise? I cannot think that even in barbarous lands Any called human are so made that they prefer Serfhood and scourge to an imperial throne. Or is there such a soul? RODOGUNE Shall I not know My husband first? CLEOPATRA I did not ask your choice, But gave you a command to be obeyed Like any other that each day I give. RODOGUNE Shall I be given him as a slave, not wife? CLEOPATRA You rise, I think, too quickly with your fate. Or art thou other than I saw or thou Feignedst to be? Hast thou been wearing all this while Only a mask of smooth servility, Thou subtle barbarian?

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Speak not so harshly to me Who spoke so gently now. I will obey. CLEOPATRA Hop’st thou by reigning to reign over me Restoring on a throne thy Parthian soul? RODOGUNE What shall I be upon the Syrian throne Except your first of slaves who am now the last, The least considered? I hope not to reign, Nor ever have desired ambitious joys, Only the love that I have lacked so long Since I left Parthia. CLEOPATRA Obey me then. Remember, The hand that seats thee can again unthrone. RODOGUNE I shall remember and I shall obey. She retires to her station. CLEOPATRA Her flashes of quick pride are quickly past. After so many cruel, black and pitiless years Shall not the days to come conspire for joy? The Queen shall be my slave, a mind that’s trained To watch for orders, one without a party In Syria, with no will to take my son from me Or steal my sovereign station. O, they come! Slowly, my heart! break not with too much bliss. Eunice comes in swiftly. EUNICE Am I the first to tell you they have come?

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CLEOPATRA O girl, thy tongue rain joy upon the world, That speaks to me of heaven! Cleone enters. CLEONE (to Eunice) They are more beautiful than heaven and earth. (to Cleopatra) Thy children’s feet are on the palace stairs. CLEOPATRA O no! not of the palace but my heart; I feel their tread ascending. Be still, be still, Thou flutterer in my breast: I am a queen And must not hear thee. Thoas and Melitus enter bringing in Antiochus and Timocles. THOAS Queen, we bring her sons To Cleopatra. CLEOPATRA I thank you both. Approach. Why dost thou beat so hard within to choke me? She motions to them to stop and gazes on them in silence. TIMOCLES This is my mother. She is what I dreamed! EUNICE O high inhabitants of Greek Olympus, Which of you all comes flashing down from heaven To snare us mortals with this earthly gaze, These simulations of humanity?

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CLEOPATRA Say to the Syrians they shall know their king In the gods’ time and hour. But these first days Are for a mother. THOAS None shall grudge them to thee, Remembering the gods’ debt to thee, Cleopatra. Thoas and Melitus leave the chamber. CLEOPATRA My children, O my children, my sweet children! Come to me, come to me, come into my arms. You beautiful, you bright, you tall heart-snarers, You are all your father. TIMOCLES Mother, my sweet mother! I have been dreaming of you all these years, Mother! CLEOPATRA And was the dream too fair, my child? O strange, sweet bitterness that I must ask My child his name! TIMOCLES I am your Timocles. CLEOPATRA You first within my arms! O right, ’tis right! It is your privilege, my sweet one. Kiss me. O yet again, my young son Timocles. O bliss, to feel the limbs that I have borne Within me! O my young radiant Timocles, You have outgrown to lie upon my lap: I have not had that mother’s happiness.

Act I, Scene 3 TIMOCLES Mother, I am still your little Timocles Playing at bigness. You shall not refuse me The sweet dependent state which I have lost In that far motherless Egypt where I pined. CLEOPATRA And like a child too, little one, you’ld have All of your mother to yourself. Must I Then thrust you from me? Let Antiochus, My tall Antiochus have now his share. RODOGUNE He is all high and beautiful like heaven From which he came. I have not seen before A thing so mighty. ANTIOCHUS Madam, I seek your blessing; let me kneel To have it. CLEOPATRA Kneel! O, in my bosom, son! Have you too dreamed of me, Antiochus? ANTIOCHUS Of great Nicanor’s widow and the Queen Of Syria and my sacred fount of life. CLEOPATRA These are cold haughty names, Antiochus. Not of your mother, not of your dear mother? ANTIOCHUS You were for me the thought of motherhood, A noble thing and sacred. This I loved.

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CLEOPATRA No more? Are you so cold in speech, my son? O son Antiochus, you have received Your father’s face; I hope you have his heart. Do you not love me? ANTIOCHUS Surely I hope to love. CLEOPATRA You hope! ANTIOCHUS O madam, do not press my words. CLEOPATRA I do press them. Your words, your lips, your heart, Your radiant body noble as a god’s I, I made in my womb, to give them light Bore agony. I have a claim upon them all. You do not love me? ANTIOCHUS The thought of you I have loved, Honoured and cherished. By your own decree We have been to each other only thoughts; But now we meet. I trust I shall not fail In duty, love and reverence to my mother. EUNICE His look is royal, but his speech is cold. RODOGUNE Should he debase his godhead with a lie? She is to blame and her unjust demand.

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CLEOPATRA It is well. My heart half slew me for only this! O Timocles, my little Timocles, Let me again embrace you, let me feel My child who dreamed of me for eighteen years In Egypt. Sit down here against my knee And tell me of Egypt, — Egypt where I was born, Egypt where my sweet sons were kept from me, Dear Egypt, hateful Egypt! TIMOCLES I loved it well because it bore my mother, But not so well, my mother far from me. CLEOPATRA What was your life there? Your mornings and your evenings, Your dreams at night, I must possess them all, All the sweet years my arms have lost. Did you Rising in those clear mornings see the Nile, Our father Nile, flow through the solemn azure Past the great temples in the sands of Egypt? You have seen hundred-gated Thebes, my Thebes, And my high tower where I would sit at eve Watching your kindred sun? And Alexandria With the white multitude of sails! My brother, The royal Ptolemy, did he not love To clasp his sister in your little limbs? There is so much to talk of; but not now! Eunice, take them from me for a while. Take Rodogune and call the other slaves. Let them array my sons like the great kings They should have been so long. Go, son Antiochus; Go, Timocles, my little Timocles. ANTIOCHUS We are the future’s greatness, therefore owe Some duty to the grandeurs of the past.

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The great Antiochus lies hardly cold, Garbed for his journey. I would kneel by him And draw his mightiness into my soul Before the gloomy shades have taken away What earth could hardly value. EUNICE This was a stab. Is there some cold ironic god at work? CLEOPATRA The great Antiochus! Of him you dreamed? You are his nephew! Parthian, take the prince To the dead King’s death-chamber, then to his own. ANTIOCHUS She was the Parthian! Great Antiochus, Syria thou leav’st me and her and Persia afterwards To be my lovely captive. He goes out with Rodogune. TIMOCLES (as he follows Eunice) Tell me, cousin, — I knew not I had such sweet cousins here, — Was this the Parthian princess Rodogune? EUNICE Phraates’ daughter, Prince, your mother’s slave. TIMOCLES There are lovelier faces then than Syria owns. He goes out with Eunice. CLEOPATRA You gods, you gods in heaven, you give us hearts For life to trample on! I am sick, Cleone.

Act I, Scene 3 CLEONE Why, Madam, what a son you have in him, The joyous fair-faced Timocles, yet you are sick! CLEOPATRA But the other, oh, the other! Antiochus! He has the face that gives my husband back to me, But does not love me. CLEONE Yet he will be king. You said he was the elder. CLEOPATRA Did I say it? I was perplexed. CLEONE He will be king, a man With a cold joyless heart and thrust you back Into some distant corner of your house And rule instead and fill with clamorous war Syria and Parthia and the banks of Indus Taking our lovers and our sons to death! Our sons! Perhaps he will take Timocles And offer him, a lovely sacrifice, To the grim god of battles. CLEOPATRA My Timocles! my only joy! Oh, no! We will have peace henceforth and bloodless dawns. My envoys ride today. CLEONE He will recall them. This is no man to rest in peaceful ease While other sceptres sway the neighbouring realms.

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War and Ambition from his eyes look forth; His hand was made to grasp a sword-hilt. Queen, Prevent it; let our Timocles be king. CLEOPATRA What did you say? Have you gone mad, Cleone? The gods would never bless such vile deceit. O, if it could have been! but it cannot. CLEONE It must. Timocles dead, you a neglected mother, A queen dethroned, with one unloving child, — Childless were better, — and your age as lonely As these long nineteen years have been. Then you had hope, You will have none hereafter. CLEOPATRA If I thought that, I would transgress all laws yet known or made And dare Heaven’s utmost anger. Gods who mock me, I will not suffer to all time your wrongs. Hush, hush, Cleone! It shall not be so. I thought my heart would break with joy, but now What different passion tugs at my heart-strings, Cleone, O Cleone! O my sweet dreams, Where have you gone yielding to pangs and fears Your happy empire? Am I she who left Laughing the death-bed of Antiochus? She goes into her chamber. CLEONE We must have roses, sunlight, laughter, Prince, Not cold, harsh light of arms. Your laurels, laurels! We’ll blast them quickly with a good Greek lie. Where he has gone, admire Antiochus, Not here repeat him.

Act II The Palace in Antioch.

Scene 1 A hall in the Palace. Cleone, Phayllus. PHAYLLUS Worry the conscience of the Queen to death Like the good bitch thou art. If this goes well, I may sit unobserved on Syria’s throne. CLEONE Do not forget me. PHAYLLUS Do not forget thyself, Then how shall I forget thee? CLEONE I shall remember. PHAYLLUS If for a game you were the queen, Cleone, And I your minister, how would you start Your play of reigning? CLEONE I would have many perfect tortures made To hurt the Parthian with, for every nerve

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A torture. I would lie in flowers the while Drinking sweet Cyprian wine and hear her moan. PHAYLLUS I do not like your thought; have better ones. CLEONE Shall I not satisfy my love, my hate? Then just as well I might not reign at all. PHAYLLUS O hatred, love and wrath, you instruments By which we are driven! Cleone, the gods use these For their own purposes, not we for ours. CLEONE I’ll do my will, Phayllus; you do yours. PHAYLLUS Our kingdom being won! It is not, yet. (turning away) She’s too violent for my calmer ends; Lust drives her, not ambition. I wait on you, You gods who choose. If Fate intends my rise, She will provide the instruments and cause. Timocles enters from the inner palace. TIMOCLES I think I am afraid to speak to her. I never felt so with the Egyptian girls In Thebes or Alexandria. Are you not Phayllus? PHAYLLUS You remember faces well And have the trick for names, the monarch’s trick.

Act II, Scene 1 TIMOCLES Antiochus, all say, will be the king. PHAYLLUS But I say otherwise and what I say Has a strange gift of happening. TIMOCLES You’re my friend! PHAYLLUS My own and therefore yours. TIMOCLES This is your sister? PHAYLLUS Cleone. TIMOCLES A name that in its sound agrees With Syria’s roses. Are you too my friend, Cleone? CLEONE Your subject, prince. TIMOCLES And why not both? CLEONE To serve is better. TIMOCLES Shall I try your will? (embracing her) Thou art warm fire against the lips, thou rose Cleone.

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Rodogune CLEONE May I test in turn? TIMOCLES Oh, do!

CLEONE A rose examines by her thorns, — as thus. She strikes him lightly on the cheek and goes out. TIMOCLES (looking uncertainly at Phayllus who is stroking his chin) It was a courtesy, — our Egyptian way. PHAYLLUS Hers was the Syrian. Do not excuse yourself; I am her brother. TIMOCLES (turns as if to go, hesitates, then comes back) Oh, have you met, Phayllus, A Parthian lady here named Rodogune? PHAYLLUS Blows the wind east? But if it brings me good, Let it blow where it will. I know the child. She’s fair. You’ld have her? TIMOCLES Fie on you, Phayllus! PHAYLLUS Prince, I have a plain tongue which, when I hunger, Owns that there is a belly. Speak in your language! I understand men’s phrases though I use them not. TIMOCLES Think not that evil! She is not like those, The common flowers which have a fair outside

Act II, Scene 1 Of beauty, but the common hand can pluck. We wear such lightly, smell and throw away. She is not like them. PHAYLLUS No? Yet were they all Born from one mother Nature. What if she wears The quick barbarian’s robe called modesty? There is a woman always in the end Behind that shimmering. Pluck the robe, ’twill fall; Then is she Nature’s still. TIMOCLES I have seen her eyes; they are a liquid purity. PHAYLLUS And yet a fish swims there which men call love, But truth names lust or passion. Fear not, prince; The fish will rise to such an angler’s cast. TIMOCLES Mistake me not, nor her. These things are done, But not with such as she; she is heaven-pure And must like heaven be by worship won. PHAYLLUS What is it then that you desire of her Or ask of me? I can do always much. TIMOCLES O nothing else but this, only to kneel, Look up at her and touch the little hand That fluttered like a moonlit butterfly Above my mother’s hair. If she consenting smiled A little, I might even dare so much.

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PHAYLLUS Why, she’s your slave-girl! TIMOCLES I shall kneel to her Some day and feel her hand upon my brow. PHAYLLUS What animal this is, I hardly know, But know it is the animal for me: My genius tells me. Prince, I need a bribe Before I’ll stir in this. TIMOCLES What bribe, Phayllus? PHAYLLUS A name, — your friend. TIMOCLES O more than merely friend! Bring me into the temple dim and pure Whence my own hopes and fears now bar me out, Then I am yours, Phayllus, you myself For all things. PHAYLLUS Remember me when you have any need. He goes out. TIMOCLES I have a friend! He is the very first Who was not conquered by Antiochus. How has this love like lightning leaped at me!

Scene 2 The same. Eunice, Rodogune. RODOGUNE Heaven had a purpose in my servitude! I will believe it. EUNICE One sees not now such men. What a calm royalty his glances wield! We are their subjects. And he treads the earth As if it were already his. RODOGUNE All must be. I have lived a slave, yet always held myself A nobler spirit than my Grecian lords; But when he spoke, O, when he looked at me, I felt indeed the touch of servitude And this time loved it. EUNICE O, you too, Rodogune! RODOGUNE I too! What do you mean? Are you, Eunice — EUNICE I mean, our thorny rose Cleone too Has fallen in love with pretty Timocles.

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RODOGUNE You slanderer! But I thought a nearer thing That ran like terror through my heart. EUNICE And so You love him? RODOGUNE What have I said, Eunice? what have I said? I did not say it. EUNICE You did not say it, no! You lovely fool, hide love with blushes then And lower over your liquid love-filled eyes Their frightened lashes! Quake, my antelope! I’ll have revenge at least. O sweet, sweet heart, My delicate Parthian! I shall never have Another love, but only Rodogune, My beautiful barbarian Rodogune With the tall dainty grace and the large eyes And vague faint pallor just like twilit ivory. RODOGUNE My own Eunice! They embrace. Phayllus enters. PHAYLLUS (stroking his chin) I always hated waste. EUNICE Your steps too steal, Phayllus? PHAYLLUS I have a message.

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EUNICE I do not like the envoy. Find another And I will hear it. PHAYLLUS Come, you put me out. EUNICE Of your accounts? They say there is too much You have put out already for your credit. PHAYLLUS You’re called. The Queen’s in haste, Cleone said. Eunice goes. Parthian, will you be Syria’s queen or no? I startle you. The royal Timocles By your beauty strives ensnared. Don not your mask Of modesty, keep that for Timocles. I offer you a treaty. By my help You can advance your foot to Syria’s throne: His bed’s the staircase and you shall ascend, Nor will I rest till you are seated there. Come, have I helped you? Shall we be allies? RODOGUNE You speak a language that I will not hear. PHAYLLUS Oh, language! you’re for language, all of you. Are you not Parthia’s daughter? do you not wish To sit upon a throne? RODOGUNE Not by your help, Nor as the bride of Syrian Timocles. What are these things you speak?

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Weigh not my speech, But only my sincerity. I have a tongue Displeasing to all women. Heed not that! My heart is good, my meaning better still. RODOGUNE Perhaps! But know I yearn not for a throne. And if I did, Antiochus is king And not this younger radiance. PHAYLLUS That’s your reason? You are deceived. Besides he loves you not Nor ever will put on a female yoke. Prefer this woman’s clay, this Timocles And by my help you shall have empire, joy, All the heart needs, the pleasures bodies use. RODOGUNE I need no empire save my high-throned heart, I seek no power save that of sceptred love, I ask no help beyond what Ormuzd gives. Enough. I thank you. PHAYLLUS You’re subtler than these Greeks. Must he then pine? Shall he not plead his cause? RODOGUNE I would not have him waste his heart in pain If what you say is true. Let him then know This cannot be. PHAYLLUS He will not take from me An answer you yourself alone can give.

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I think you parry to be more attacked. RODOGUNE Think what you will, but leave me. PHAYLLUS If you mean that, The way to show it is to let him come. You feign and do not mean this, or else you would Deny him to his face. RODOGUNE (flushing angrily) I will; tell him to come. PHAYLLUS I thought so. Come he shall. Remember me. He goes out. RODOGUNE I did not well to bid him come to me. It is some passing fancy of the blood. I do not hear that he was ever hurt But danced a radiant and inconstant moth Above the Egyptian blossoms. Timocles enters hastily, hesitates, then rushes and throws himself at the feet of Rodogune. TIMOCLES Rodogune! I love thee, princess; thou hast made me mad. I know not what I do nor what I speak. What dreadful god has seized upon my heart? I am not Timocles and not my own, But am a fire and am a raging wind To seize on thee and am a driven leaf. O Rodogune, turn not away from me. Forgive me, O, forgive me. I cannot help it

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If thou hast made me love thee. Tremble not, Nor grow so pale and look with panic glances As if a fire had clutched thee by the robe. I am thy menial, thy poor trembling slave And thou canst slay me with a passing frown. RODOGUNE Touch not my hand! ’tis sacred from thy touch! TIMOCLES It is most sacred; even the roseate nail Of thee, O thou pale goddess, is a mystery And a strange holiness. Scorched be his hand Who dares with lightest sacrilegious touch Profane thee, O deep-hearted miracle, Unless thy glorious eyes condone the fault By growing tender. O thou wondrous Parthian, Fear not my love; it grows a cloistered worship. See, I can leave thee! see, I can retire. Look once on me, one look is food enough For many twelvemonths. Eunice returns. EUNICE You wrong your mother, cousin. Her moments linger when you are not there; Always she asks for you. TIMOCLES My mother! You gods, Forbid it, lest I weary of her love. He goes. EUNICE What was this? Speak.

Act II, Scene 2 RODOGUNE Was Fate not satisfied With my captivity? Waits worse behind? It was a grey and clouded sky before And bleak enough but quiet. Now I see Fresh clouds come stored with thunder toiling up From a black-piled horizon. EUNICE Tell me all. What said Phayllus to you, the dire knave Who speaks to poison? RODOGUNE He spoke of love and thrones and Timocles; He spoke as selfish cunning men may speak Who mean some evil they call good. EUNICE And how Came Timocles behind him? RODOGUNE Called by him, With such wild passion burning under his lids I never thought to see in human eyes. What are these movements? EUNICE We move as we must, Not as we choose, whatever we may think. Your beauty is a torch you needs must carry About the world with you. You cannot help it If it burns kingdoms. RODOGUNE I pray it may not. God who only rulest,

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Let not the evil spirit use my love To bring misfortune on Antiochus. Mentho enters. MENTHO Which is the Parthian? EUNICE She. MENTHO Antiochus Desires you in his chamber with a bowl Of Lesbian vintage. EUNICE Does he desire? The gods then choose their hour For intervention. Move, you Parthian piece. RODOGUNE Send someone else. I cannot go. EUNICE I think You have forgotten that you are a slave. You are my piece and I will have you move. Move quickly. RODOGUNE Surely he did not speak my name? MENTHO Why do you fear, my child? He’s good and noble And kind in speech and gentle to his servants. RODOGUNE (low, to herself ) It is not him I fear, it is myself.

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EUNICE Fear me instead. You shall be cruelly whipped Unless you move this instant. RODOGUNE Oh, Eunice! EUNICE Whipped savagely! I’ll sacrifice so much For a shy pawn who will not move? Go, go, And come not back unkissed if you are wise. She pushes Rodogune to the door and she goes, followed by Mentho. His heart’s not free, nor hers, or else I’ld try My hand at reigning. As the gods choose. Through her I may rule Syria.

Scene 3 Antiochus’ chamber. Antiochus, with a map before him. ANTIOCHUS Ecbatana, Susa and Sogdiana, The Aryan country which the Indus bounds, Euphrates’ stream and Tigris’ golden sands, The Oxus and Jaxartes and these mountains Vague and enormous shouldering the moon With all their dim beyond of nations huge; This were an empire! What are Syria, Greece And the blue littoral to Gades? They are Too narrow to contain my soul, too petty To satisfy its hunger and its vastness. O pale, sweet Parthian face with liquid eyes Mid darkest masses and O gracious limbs Obscuring this epitome of earth, You will not let me fix my eyes on Susa. I never yearned for any woman yet. While Timocles with the light Theban dames Amused his careless heart, I walked aside; Parthia and Greece became my mistresses. But now my heart is filled with one pale girl. Exult not, archer. I will quiet thee With sudden and assured possession first, Then keep thee beating an eternal strain. I have loved her through past lives and many ages. The Parthian princess, lovely Rodogune! O name of sweetness! Renowned Phraates’ daughter, A bud of kings, — my glorious prisoner With those beseeching eyes. O high Antiochus,

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Who snatched her from among her guardian spears, Thou hast gone past but left this prophecy Of beautiful conquered Persia grown my slave To love me. It is thou, my Rodogune! Rodogune enters. RODOGUNE (with lowered eyes) I have brought the wine. ANTIOCHUS Thou art the only wine, O Parthian! Wine to flush Olympian souls Is in this glorious flask. Set down the bowl. Lift up instead thy long and liquid eyes; I grudge them to the marble, Rodogune. Thou knowest well why I have sent for thee. Have we not gazed into each other’s eyes And thine confessed their knowledge? RODOGUNE Prince, I am Thy mother’s slave. ANTIOCHUS Mine, mine, O Rodogune, For I am Syria. RODOGUNE Thine. ANTIOCHUS O, thou hast spoken! RODOGUNE Touch me not, touch me not, Antiochus! Son of Nicanor, spare me, spare thyself. O me! I know the gods prepare some death;

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I am a living misfortune. ANTIOCHUS Wert thou my fate Of death itself, delightful Rodogune, Not, as thou art, heaven’s pledge of bliss, I’ld not abstain From thy delight, but have my joy of thee The short while it is possible on earth. O, play not with the hours, my Rodogune. Why should brief man defer his joys and wait As if life were eternal? Time does not pause, Death does not tarry. RODOGUNE Alas! ANTIOCHUS Thou lingerest yet. Wilt thou deny the beating of our hearts That call to us to bridge these sundering paces? O, then I will command thee as a slave. Thou wouldst not let me draw thee, come thyself Into my arms, O perfect Rodogune, My Parthian captive! RODOGUNE Antiochus, my king! ANTIOCHUS So heave against me like a wave for ever. Melt warmly into my bosom like the Spring, O honied breathing tumult! RODOGUNE O release me!

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ANTIOCHUS Thou sudden sorceress, die upon my breast! My arms are cords to bind thee to this stake, Slowly to burn away in crimson fire. RODOGUNE Release me, O release me! ANTIOCHUS Not till our lips have joined Eternal wedlock. With this stamp and this And many more I’ll seal thee to myself. Eternal Time’s too short for all the kisses I yearn for from thee, O pale loveliness, Dim mystery! Press thy lips to mine. Obey. Again! and so again and even for ever Chant love, O marvel, let thy lips’ wild music Come faltering from thy heart into my bosom. Rodogune sinks at his feet and embraces his knees. RODOGUNE I am thine, thine, thine, thine for ever. She rises and hides her face in her hands. ANTIOCHUS (uncovering her face) Beloved, Hide not thy face from love. The gods in heaven Look down on us; let us look up at them With fearless eyes of candid joy and tell them Not Time nor any of their dooms can move us now. The passion of oneness two hearts are this moment Denies the steps of death for ever. RODOGUNE My heart Stops in me. I can bear no more of bliss.

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Oh, leave me now that I may live for thee. ANTIOCHUS Stay where thou art. Or go, for thou art mine And I can send thee from me when I will And call thee when I will. Go, Rodogune Who yet remain with me. Rodogune leaves the chamber with faltering steps. O Love, thou art Diviner in the enjoying. Can I now Unblinded scan this map? No, she is there; It is her eyes I see and not Ecbatana.

Scene 4 The hall in the Palace. Timocles, Phayllus. TIMOCLES O, all the sweetness and the glory gathered Into one smiling life, the other’s left Barren, unbearable, bleak, desolate, A hell of silence and of emptiness Impossible for mortal souls to imagine, Much less to suffer. My mother does this wrong to me! Why should not we, kind brothers all our lives, — O, how we loved each other there in Egypt! — Divide this prize? Let his be Syria’s crown, — Oh, let him take it! I have Rodogune. PHAYLLUS He will consent? TIMOCLES Oh, yes, and with a smile. He is all loftiness and warlike thoughts. My high Antiochus! how could I dream Of taking from him what he’ld wear so well? Let me have love and joy and Rodogune. The sunlight is enough for me. PHAYLLUS It may be, Yet not enough for both. Look! there he comes Carrying himself as if he were the sun Brilliant alone in heaven. Oh, that to darken! Antiochus enters.

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TIMOCLES Brother, it is the kind gods send you here. ANTIOCHUS Dear Timocles, we meet not all the day. It was not so in Egypt. Tell me now, What were you doing all these busy hours? How many laughing girls of this fair land Have you lured on to love you? TIMOCLES Have you not heard? ANTIOCHUS What, Timocles? TIMOCLES Our mother gives the crown And with the crown apportions Rodogune. ANTIOCHUS Our royal mother? Are they hers to give? I do not marry by another’s will. TIMOCLES O brother, no; our hearts at least are ours. You have not marked, I think, Antiochus, This pale sweet Parthian Rodogune? ANTIOCHUS (smiling) No, brother? I have not marked, you say? TIMOCLES You are so blind To woman’s beauty. You only woo great deeds And arms imperial. It is well for me You rather chose to wed the grandiose earth.

Act II, Scene 4 I am ashamed to tell you, dear Antiochus, I grudged the noble crown that soon will rest So gloriously upon you. Take it, brother, But leave me my dim goddess Rodogune. ANTIOCHUS Thy goddess! thine! TIMOCLES It is not possible That you too love her! ANTIOCHUS What is it to thee whom or what I love? Say that I love her not? TIMOCLES Then is my offer Just, brotherly, not like this causeless wrath. ANTIOCHUS Thy wondrous offer! Of two things that are mine To fling me one with “There! I want it not, I’ll take the other”! TIMOCLES (in a suffocated voice) Has she made thee king? ANTIOCHUS I need no human voice to make me anything Who am king by birth and nature. Who else should reign In Syria? Thoughtst thou thy light and shallow head Was meant to wear a crown? TIMOCLES In Egypt you were not like this, Antiochus.

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ANTIOCHUS See not the Parthian even in dreams at night! Remember not her name! TIMOCLES She is my mother’s slave: I’ll ask for her and have her. ANTIOCHUS Thou shalt have My sword across thy heart-strings first. She is The kingdom’s prize and with the kingdom mine. TIMOCLES My dream, my goddess with those wondrous eyes! My sweet veiled star cloistered in her own charm! I will not yield her to thee, nor the crown, Not wert thou twenty times my brother. PHAYLLUS Capital! Delightful! O my fortune! my kind fortune! TIMOCLES Thou lov’st her not who dar’st to think of her As if she were a prize for any arms, Thy slave, thy chattel. ANTIOCHUS Speak not another word. PHAYLLUS More! more! My star, thou risest o’er this storm. ANTIOCHUS I pardon thee, my brother Timocles; Thy light passions are thy excuse. Henceforth

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Offend not. For the Parthian, she is mine And I would keep her though a god desired. Exalt not thy presumptuous eyes henceforth Higher than are her sandals. He goes out. PHAYLLUS This is your brother! Shall he not have the crown? TIMOCLES Nor her, nor Syria. Rodogune and Eunice enter passing through the hall. Timocles rushes to her. My Rodogune, my star! Thou knowest the trade Which others seek to make of thee. Resist it, Prevent the insult of this cold award! Say that thou lov’st me. RODOGUNE Prince, I pity thee, But cannot love. She passes out. EUNICE My cousin Timocles, All flowers are not for your plucking. Roses Enough that crave to satisfy your want, Are grown in Syria; take them. Here be wise; Touch not my Parthian blossom. She passes out. TIMOCLES How am I smitten as with a thunderbolt!

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PHAYLLUS Will you be dashed by this? They make her think Antiochus will reign in Syria. TIMOCLES No, She loves him. PHAYLLUS Is love so quickly born? Oh, then, It will as quickly die. Eunice works here To thwart you; she is for Antiochus. TIMOCLES All, all are for Antiochus, the crown, And Syria and men’s homage, women’s hearts And life and sweetness and my love. PHAYLLUS Young prince, Be more a man. Besiege the girl with gifts And graces; woo her like a queen or force her Like what she is, a slave. Be strong, be sudden, Forestalling this proud brother. TIMOCLES I would not wrong her pure and shrouded soul Though all the gods in heaven should give me leave. PHAYLLUS The graceful, handsome fool! Then from your mother Demand her as a gift. TIMOCLES (going) My soul once more Is hunted by the tempest.

Scene 5 Cleopatra’s chamber. Cleopatra, Cleone. CLEOPATRA I am resolved; but Mentho the Egyptian knows The true precedence of the twins. Send her to me. Cleone goes out. O you, high-seated cold divinities, You sleep sometimes, they say you sleep. Sleep now! I only loosen what your careless wills Have tangled. Mentho enters. Mentho, sit by me. Mentho, You have not breathed our secret? Keep it, Mentho, Dead in your bosom, buy a queen for slave. MENTHO Dead! Can truth die? CLEOPATRA Ah, Mentho, truth! But truth Is often terrible. Justice! but was ever Justice yet seen upon the earth? Man lives Because he is not just and real right Dwells not with law and custom but for him It grows by whose arriving our brief happiness Is best assured and grief prohibited For a while to mortals. MENTHO This is the thing I feared.

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O wickedness! Well, Queen, I understand. CLEOPATRA Not less than you I love Antiochus; But Timocles seeks Parthian Rodogune. O, if these brother-loves should turn to hate And slay us all! Then rather let thy nursling stand, — Will he not rule whoever fills the throne? — Approved of heaven and earth, indeed a king, Protector of the weaker Timocles, His right hand in his wars, his pillar, guard And sword of action, grand in loyalty, Kingly in great subjection, famed for love. Then there shall be no grief for anyone And everything consent to our desires. MENTHO Queen Cleopatra, shall I speak? shall I Forget respect? The god demands my voice. I tell thee then that thy rash brain has hatched A wickedness beyond all parallel, A cold, unmotherly and cruel plot Thou striv’st in vain to alter with thy words. O nature self-deceived! O blinded heart! It is the husband of thy boasted love, Woman, thou wrongest in thy son. CLEOPATRA Alas, Mentho, my nurse, thou knowest not the cause. MENTHO I do not need to know. Art thou Olympian Zeus? Has he given thee his sceptre and his charge To guide the tangled world? Wilt thou upset His rulings? wilt thou improve his providence? Are thy light woman’s brain and shallow love

Act II, Scene 5 A better guide than his all-seeing eye? O wondrous arrogance of finite men Who would know better than omniscient God! Beware his thunders and observe his will. What he has made, strive not to unmake, but shun The tragical responsibility Of such dire error. If from thy act spring death And horror, are thy human shoulders fit To bear that heavy load? Observe his will, Do right and leave the rest to God above. CLEOPATRA Thy words have moved me. MENTHO Let thy husband move thee. How wilt thou meet him in the solemn shades? Will he not turn his royal face from thee Saying, “Murderess of my children, come not near me!” CLEOPATRA O Mentho, curse me not. My husband’s eyes Shall meet me with a smile. Mentho, my nurse, You will not tell this to Antiochus? MENTHO I am not mad nor wicked. Remain fixed In this resolve. Dream not that happiness Can spring from wicked roots. God overrules And Right denied is mighty.

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Act III The Palace in Antioch. Under the hills.

Scene 1 The Audience-Chamber in the Palace. Nicanor, Phayllus and others seated; Eunice, Philoctetes, Thoas apart near the dais. THOAS Is it patent? Is he the elder? do we know? EUNICE Should he not rule? THOAS If Fate were wise, he should. EUNICE Will Timocles sack great Persepolis? Sooner I think Phraates will couch here, The mighty, steadfast, patient, subtle man, And from the loiterer take, the sensualist Antioch of the Seleucidae. THOAS Perhaps. But shall I rise against the country’s laws That harbours me? The sword I draw, is hers.

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EUNICE Are law and justice always one? Reflect. THOAS If justice is offended, I will strike. He withdraws to another part of the hall. EUNICE The man is wise, but when ambition’s heaped In a great bosom, Fate takes quickly fire. It only needs the spark. PHILOCTETES Is it only that That’s needed? there shall be the spark. He withdraws. EUNICE Fate or else Chance Work out the rest. I have given your powers a lead. Nicanor, who has drawn near, stops before her. NICANOR Your council’s finished then? EUNICE What council, father? NICANOR I have seen, though I have not spoken. Meddle not In things too great for you. This realm and nation Are not a skein for weaving fine intrigues In your shut chambers. EUNICE We have other sports. What do you mean?

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See less Antiochus. Carry not there your daring spirit and free rein To passion and ambition nor your bright scorn Of every law that checks your headstrong will. Or must I find a curb that shall restrain you? He withdraws. EUNICE My prudent father! These men think that wisdom Is tied up to beards. We too have heads And finer brains within them, as I think! She goes up on the dais. Leosthenes, Callicrates and others enter together. THOAS Leosthenes from Parthia! Speeds the war? LEOSTHENES It waits a captain. THOAS It shall have today A king of captains. LEOSTHENES I have seen the boy. But there’s a mystery? Shall he be the king? THOAS If Fate agrees with Nature. LEOSTHENES Neither can err So utterly, I think; for, if they could, Man’s will would have a claim to unseat Fate, Which cannot be.

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Cleopatra enters with Antiochus and Timocles; Cleone, Rodogune in attendance, the latter richly robed. PHILOCTETES See where she places him! THOAS ’Tis on her right! PHAYLLUS It is a woman’s ruse. Or must I at disadvantage play the game With this strong piece against? CLEOPATRA The strong Antiochus has gone too early Down the dim gorges to that silent world Where we must one day follow him. A younger hand Takes up his sceptre and controls his sword. These are the Syrian twins, Nicanor’s sons, These are Antiochus and Timocles. Why so long buried, why their right oppressed, Why their precedence tyrannously concealed, Forget. Forget old griefs, old hatreds; let them rest Inurned, nor from their night recover them. NICANOR We need not raise the curtains that conceal Things long inurned, but lest by this one doubt The dead past lay a dark and heavy hand Upon our fairer future, let us swear The Queen shall be obeyed as if she spoke For Heaven. Betwixt the all-seeing gods and her Confine all cause of quarrel.

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Let the princes swear; For how can subjects jar if they agree? CLEOPATRA O not with oaths compel the Syrian blood! My sons, do you consent? TIMOCLES Your sovereign will must rule, Mother, your children and our fraternal kindness Will drown the loser’s natural chagrin In joy at the other’s joy. CLEOPATRA Antiochus, my son! ANTIOCHUS Your question, Madam, was for Timocles; From me it needs no answer. PHAYLLUS You accept Your mother’s choice? ANTIOCHUS God’s choice. My mother speaks A thing concealed, not one unsettled. PHAYLLUS Prince, Syria demands a plainer answer here. ANTIOCHUS Who art thou? Art thou of Seleucus’ blood Who questionest Syria’s kings?

Act III, Scene 1 CLEOPATRA Enough. My sons Will know how to respect their kingly birth. Today begins another era. Rise, Princess of Parthia; sit upon this throne, Phraates’ daughter; thou art peace and love And must today be crowned. Marvel not, Syrians; For it is peace my envoys bear by now Upon their saddles to Persepolis. THOAS This was a secret haste! LEOSTHENES Is it possible? We had our heel upon the Parthian’s throat. CLEOPATRA Since Parthia swept through the Iranian East Wrecking the mighty Macedonian’s toil, War sways for ever like a darkened sea In turmoil twixt our realms. How many heart-strings Have broken, what tears of anguish have been wept And eyes sought eastward unreturning eyes! Joy has been buried in the blood-drenched sands. Vain blood, vain weeping! Earth was made so wide That many might have majesty and joy Upon one mother’s equal breast. But we Arresting others’ portions lose our own. Nations that conquer widest, perish first, Sapped by the hate of an uneasy world. Then they are wisest victors who in time Knowing the limits of their prosperous fate Avoid the violence of Heaven. Syrians, After loud battles I have founded glorious peace. That fair work I began as Syria’s queen; To seal it Syria’s king must not refuse.

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ANTIOCHUS I do refuse it. There shall be no peace. CLEOPATRA My son! ANTIOCHUS Peace! Are the Parthians at our gates? Has not alarm besieged Ecbatana? When was it ever seen or heard till now That victors sued for peace? And this the reason, A woman’s reason, because many have bled And more have wept. It is the tears, the blood Prodigally spent that build a nation’s greatness. I here annul this peace, this woman’s peace, I will proclaim with noise of victories Its revocation. PHAYLLUS Now! THOAS Thou speakest, King! TIMOCLES You are not crowned as yet, Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS Syria forbids it, Syria’s destiny Sends forth her lion voices from the hills Where trumpets blare towards Persepolis, Forbidding peace. CLEOPATRA We do not sue for peace, My son, but give peace, taking provinces And taking Rodogune.

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TIMOCLES Who twenty times Outweighs all hero’s actions and exceeds Earth’s widest conquests. ANTIOCHUS For her and provinces! O worse disgrace! The sword had won us these. We wrong the mighty dead who conquered. Provinces! Whose soil are they that we must sue for them? The princess! She’s my prisoner, is she not? Must I entreat the baffled Parthian then What I shall do with my own slave-girl here In Antioch, in my palace? Queen of Syria, This was ignobly done. CLEOPATRA I know you do not love me; in your cold heart Love finds no home; but still I am your mother. You will respect me thus when you are king? ANTIOCHUS I will respect you in your place, enshrined In your apartments, governing your women, Not Syria. CLEOPATRA Leave it. You will not think of peace? ANTIOCHUS Yes, when our armies reach Persepolis. MELITUS How desperate looks the Queen! What comes of this? NICANOR (who has been watching Eunice) End this debate; let Syria know her king. Cleopatra rises and stands silent for a moment.

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TIMOCLES Mother! CLEOPATRA Behold your king! MENTHO She has done it, gods! There is an astonished silence. NICANOR Speak once more, daughter of high Ptolemy, Remembering God. Speak, have we understood? Is Timocles our king? CLEOPATRA (with a mechanical and rigid gesture) Behold your king! Nicanor makes a motion of assent as to the accomplished fact. NICANOR Let then the King ascend his throne. LEOSTHENES (half-rising) Thoas! PHILOCTETES Speak, King Antiochus, God’s chosen king Who art, not Cleopatra’s. THOAS Speak, Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS Why didst thou give to me alone the name Of Syria’s princes? why upon thy right Hast seated me? or wherefore mad’st thou terms For that near time when I should be the king,

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Chaffering for my consent with arguments Unneeded if the younger were preferred? Wilt thou invoke the gods to seal this lie? CLEOPATRA Dost thou insult me thus before my world? Ascend the throne, my son. ANTIOCHUS Stay, Timocles. Make not such haste, my brother, to supplant Thy elder. TIMOCLES My elder? He looks at Cleopatra. CLEOPATRA I have spoken the truth. MENTHO Thou hast not; thou art delivered of a lie, A monstrous lie. CLEONE Silence, thou swarthy slave! MENTHO I’ll not be silent. She offends the gods. I am Mentho the Egyptian, she who saw The royal children born. She lies to you, O Syrians. Royal young Antiochus Was first on earth. THOAS The truth breaks out at last.

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PHAYLLUS This is a slave the surplus mud of Nile Engendered. Shall we wrong the Queen by hearing her? MENTHO I was a noble Egyptian’s wife in Memphis, No slave, thou Syrian mongrel, and my word May stand against a perjured queen’s. EUNICE (leaning forward) Is’t done? Nicanor who has been hesitating, observes her action and stands forward to speak. NICANOR The royal blood of Egypt cannot lie. Shall Syria’s queen be questioned? Shall common words Of common men be weighed against the breath of kings? Let not wild strife arise, O princes, let it not. Antiochus, renounce unfilial pride; Wound not thy mother and thy motherland, Son of Nicanor. THOAS Shall a lie prevail? NICANOR (looking again at Eunice) It was settled then among you! Be it so. My sword is bare. I stand for Syria’s king. PHILOCTETES (in the midst of a general hesitation) Egyptian Philoctetes takes thy challenge, Nicanor. ANTIOCHUS Who is for me in Syria?

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THOAS I set my sword Against Nicanor’s. LEOSTHENES I am Leosthenes. I draw my victor steel for King Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS Who else for me? OTHERS I! I! and I! and I! CALLICRATES AND OTHERS We for King Timocles. LEOSTHENES Slay them, cut down The party of the liars. There is a shouting and tumult with drawing and movement of swords. NICANOR Protect the King. Let insolent revolt at once be quenched And sink in its own blood. LEOSTHENES I slay all strife With the usurper. THOAS Stay, stay, Leosthenes. ANTIOCHUS Forbear! forbear, I say! let all be still!

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The great Seleucus’ house shall not be made A shambles. Not by vulgar riot, not By fratricidal murder will I climb Into my throne, but up the heroic steps Of ordered battle. Brother Timocles, That oft-kissed head is sacred from my sword. Nicanor, thou hast thrown the challenge down; I lift it up. CLEOPATRA O, hear me, son Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS I have renounced thee for my mother. RODOGUNE Alas! CLEOPATRA O wretched woman! She hurries out followed by Rodogune, Eunice and Cleone. NICANOR Thou shalt not do this evil, Though millions help thee. He goes out with Timocles, Phayllus, Callicrates and the others of his party. PHILOCTETES Can we hold the house And seize the city? We are many here. THOAS Nicanor’s troops hold Antioch.

Act III, Scene 1 LEOSTHENES Not here, not here. Out to the army on the marches! There Is Syria’s throne, not here in Antioch. ANTIOCHUS Mentho, Go with us. Gather swiftly all our strength, Then out to Parthia!

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Scene 2 A hall in the Palace. Rodogune, Eunice. RODOGUNE God gave my heart and mind; they are not hers To force into this vile adultery. I am a Parthian princess, of a race Who choose one lord and cleave to him for ever Through death, through fire, through swords, in hell, in heaven. EUNICE The Queen’s too broken. It was Phayllus said it. He has leaped into the saddle of affairs And is already master. What can we hope for Left captive in such hands? Not Syria’s throne Shall you ascend beside your chosen lord, But as a slave the bed of Timocles. RODOGUNE If we remain! But who remains to die? In Parthian deserts, in Antiochus’ tents! There we can smile at danger. EUNICE Yes, oh, yes! Deserts for us are safe, not Antioch. Come. Antiochus and Philoctetes enter from without. ANTIOCHUS I sought for you, Eunice, Rodogune. To saddle! for our bridal pomp and torches

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Are other than we looked for. Phayllus enters from within with Theras. PHAYLLUS Today, no later. The Egyptian rebel ravishes our queen! Help! help! ANTIOCHUS Off, Syrian weasel! He flings off Phayllus and goes out with Eunice, Rodogune, Philoctetes. PHAYLLUS Theras, pursue them! Theras hastens out; Phayllus rushes to the window. Antiochus escapes! Oppose him, sentinels. A thousand pieces for his head! He’s through. O for a speedy arrow! Timocles enters with Cleone. TIMOCLES Who escapes? PHAYLLUS Thy brother, forcing with him Rodogune, And with them fled Eunice. TIMOCLES Rodogune! PHAYLLUS By force he carried her. TIMOCLES O no, she went Smiling and glad. O thou unwise Phayllus,

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Why dost thou stay with me, a man that’s doomed? He will come back and mount his father’s throne And rule the nations. Why wouldst thou be slain? All, all’s for him and ever was. I have had Light loves, light friends, but no one ever loved me Whom I desired. So was it in our boyhood’s days, So it persists. He is preferred in heaven And earth is his and his humanity. Even my own mother is a Niobe Because he has renounced her. PHAYLLUS I understand, Seeing this, the reason. TIMOCLES Why should he always have the things I prize? What is his friendship but a selfish need Of souls to unbosom himself to, who will share, Mirror and serve his greatness? Yet it was he The clear discerning Philoctetes chose; Upon his shoulder leaned my royal uncle Preferring him to admonish and to love; On me he only smiled as one too light For praise or censure. What’s his kingliness But a lust of grandiose slaughter, an ambition Almost inhuman and a haughty mind That lifts itself above the highest heads As if his mortal body held a god And all were mean to him? Yet proudest men, Thoas, Theramenes, Leosthenes, Become unasked his servants. What’s his love? A despot’s sensual longing for a slave, Carnal, imperious, harsh, without respect, The hunger of the vital self, not raised, Refined, uplifted to the yearning heart. Yet Rodogune, my Rodogune to him

Act III, Scene 2 Has offered up her moonlit purity, Her secret need of sweetness. O she has Unveiled to him her sweet proud heart of love. She would not look at me who worshipped her. You too, Phayllus, go, Cleone, go And serve him in his tents: the future’s there, Not on this brittle throne with which the gods In idle sport have mocked me. PHAYLLUS There must be a man Somewhere within this! CLEONE You shall not speak so to him. Look round, King Timocles, and see how many Prefer you to your brother. I am yours, Phayllus works for you, princely Nicanor Protects you, famed Callicrates supports. Your mother only weeps in fear for you, Not passion for your brother. TIMOCLES Rodogune Has left me. PHAYLLUS We will have her back. Today Began, today shall end this rash revolt. Rise up, King Timocles, and be thyself, Possess thy throne, recover Rodogune. TIMOCLES I cannot live unless you bring her back. PHAYLLUS That is already seen to. My couriers ride

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Before them to Thrasyllus on the hills. Their flight will founder there. TIMOCLES O subtle, quick And provident Phayllus! Thou, thou, deviser, Art the sole minister for me. Cleone, The gods have made thee wholly beautiful That thou mightst love me. He goes out with Cleone. PHAYLLUS Minister! That’s something, Not all I work for. (to Theras who enters) Well? THERAS He has escaped. Your throw this time was bungled, Chancellor. PHAYLLUS I saw his rapid flight; but afterwards? THERAS The band of Syrian Phliaps kept the gates. We shouted loud, but he more quick, more high, Like some clear-voiced Tyrrhenian trumpet cried, “Syrians, I am your king,” and they at once, “Hail, glorious King!” and followed at his word, Galloping, till on the Orient road they seemed Like specks on a white ribbon. PHAYLLUS Let them go. There’s yet Thrasyllus. Or if he returns, Though gods should help, though victory march his friend, I am here to meet him.

Scene 3 Under the Syrian hills. Antiochus, his generals, soldiers; Eunice, Rodogune, Mentho. ANTIOCHUS What god has moved them from their passes sheer Where they were safe from me? THOAS They have had word, No doubt, to take us living. LEOSTHENES On! THOAS They are Three thousand, we six hundred arm`ed men. Shall we go forward? LEOSTHENES Onward, still, I say! ANTIOCHUS Yes, on! I turn not back lest my proud Fate Avert her eyes from me. A hundred guard The princesses. He goes, followed by Thoas, Leosthenes, Philoctetes. EUNICE He’ll break them like sea-spray;

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They shall not stand before him. RODOGUNE You missioned angels, guard Antiochus. As she speaks, the Eremite enters and regards her. EUNICE He is through them, he is through them! How they scatter Before his sword! My warrior! RODOGUNE Who is this man, Eunice? He is terrible to me. EREMITE Who art thou rather, born to be a torch To kingdoms? Is not thy beauty, rightly seen, More terrible to men than monstrous forms Which only frighten? EUNICE What if kingdoms burn, So they burn grandly? EREMITE Spirits like thine think so. Princess of Antioch, hast thou left thy father To follow younger eyes? Alas, thou knowst not Where they shall lead thee! It is to gates accursed And by a dolorous journey. EUNICE Beyond all portals I’ld follow! I am a woman of the Greeks Who fear not death nor hell. Antiochus returns.

Act III, Scene 3 ANTIOCHUS Our swords have hewn A road for us. Who is this flamen? EREMITE Hail! “Rejoice” I cannot say, but greet Antiochus Who never shall be king. ANTIOCHUS Who art thou, speak, Who barst with such ill-omened words my way Discouraging new-born victory? What thou knowest, Declare! Curb not thy speech. I have a mind Stronger than omens. EREMITE I am the appointed voice Who come to tell thee thou shalt not be king, But at thy end shall yield to destiny For all thy greatness, genius, pride and force Even as the tree that falls. March then no farther, For in thy path Fate hostile stands. ANTIOCHUS If Fate Would have me yield, let her first break me. On! EREMITE The guardians of the path then wait for thee Vigilant lest the world’s destiny be foiled By human greatness. March on to thy doom. ANTIOCHUS I will. Straight on, whatever doom it be!

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EREMITE Farewell, thou mighty Syrian, soul misled, Strength born untimely! We shall meet again When death shall lead thee into Antioch. He goes. ANTIOCHUS March.

Act IV The Palace in Antioch. Before the hills.

Scene 1 Cleopatra’s chamber. ¨ Cleopatra, Zoyla. CLEOPATRA Will he not come this morning? How my head aches! ¨ smooth the pain out of it, my girl, Zoyla, With your deft fingers. Oh, he lingers, lingers! Cleone keeps him still, the rosy harlot Who rules him now. She is grown a queen and reigns Insulting me in my own palace. Yes, He’s happy in her arms; why should he care for me Who am only his mother? ¨ ZOYLA Is the pain less at all? CLEOPATRA O, it goes deeper, deeper. Ever new revels, While still the clang of fratricidal war ¨ Treads nearer to his palace. Zoyla, You saw him with Cleone in the groves That night of revel? ¨ ZOYLA So I told you, madam. It is long since Daphne’s groves have gleamed so bright

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Or trembled to such music. CLEOPATRA They were together? ¨ ZOYLA Oh, constantly. One does not see such lovers. CLEOPATRA (shaking her off ) Go! ¨ ZOYLA Madam? CLEOPATRA Thy touch is not like Rodogune’s Nor did her gentle voice offend me. Eunice, ¨ retires. Zoyla Why hast thou left me, cruel cold Eunice? She walks to the window and returns swiftly. God’s spaces frighten me. I am so lonely In this great crowded palace. Timocles enters the room reading a despatch. TIMOCLES He rushes onward like a god of war. Mountains and streams and deserts waterless Are grown our foes, his helpers. The gods give ground Before his horse-hooves. Millions of men arrayed in complete steel Cannot restrain him. Almost we hear in Antioch His trumpets now. Only Nicanor and the hills Hardly protect my crown, my brittle crown! CLEOPATRA Antiochus comes!

Act IV, Scene 1 TIMOCLES The Macedonian legions Linger somewhere upon the wide Aegean. Sea And land contend against my monarchy. Your brother sends no certain word. CLEOPATRA It will come. Could not the Armenian helpers stay his course? They came like locusts. TIMOCLES But are swept away As with a wind. O mother, fatal mother, Why did you keep me from the battle then? My presence might have spurred men’s courage on And turned this swallowing fate. It is alone Your fault if I lose crown and life. CLEOPATRA My son! TIMOCLES There, mother, I have made you weep. I love you, Dear mother, though I make you often weep. CLEOPATRA I have not blamed you, my sweet Timocles. I did the wrong. Go to the field, dear son, And show yourself to Syria. Timocles, I mean no hurt, but now, only just now, Would not a worthier presence at your side Assist you? My royal brother of Macedon Would give his child to you at my desire, Or you might have your fair Egyptian cousin Berenice. Syria would honour you, my son.

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TIMOCLES I know your meaning. You are so jealous, mother. Why do you hate Cleone, grudging me The solace of her love? I shall lose Syria And I have lost already Rodogune: Cleone clings to me. Nor is her heart Like yours, selfish and jealous. CLEOPATRA Timocles! TIMOCLES (walking to the window) O Rodogune, where hast thou taken those eyes, My moonlit midnight, where that wondrous hair In which I thought to live as in a cloud Of secret sweetness? Under the Syrian stars Somewhere thou liest in my brother’s arms, Thy pale sweet happy face upon his breast Smiling up to be kissed. O, it is hell, The thought is hell! At midnight in the silence I wake in warm Cleone’s rosy clasp To think of thee embraced; then in my blood A fratricidal horror works. Let it not be, You gods! Let me die first, let him be king. O mother, do not let us quarrel any more: Forgive me and forget. CLEOPATRA You go from me? TIMOCLES My heart is heavy. I will drink awhile And hear sweet harmonies. CLEOPATRA There in the hall And with Cleone?

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TIMOCLES Let it not anger you. Yes, with Cleone. He goes. CLEOPATRA I am alone, so terribly alone!

Scene 2 A hall in the Palace. Phayllus, Theras. THERAS His fortune holds. PHAYLLUS He has won great victories And stridden exultant like a god of death Over Grecian, Syrian and Armenian slain; But being mortal at each step has lost A little blood. His veins are empty now. Where will he get new armies? His small force May beat Nicanor’s large one, even reach Antioch, To find the Macedonian there. They have landed. He is ours, Theras, this great god of tempest, Our captive whom he threatens, doomed to death While he yet conquers. Timocles enters with Cleone, then the musicians and dancing-girls. TIMOCLES Bring in the wine and flowers; sit down, sit down. Call in the dancers. Through the Coan robes Let their bright flashing limbs assault my eyes Capturing the hours, imprisoning my heart In a white whirl of movement. Sit, Cleone. Here on my breast, against my shoulder! You rose Petalled and armed, you burden of white limbs Made to be kissed and handled, you Cleone! Yes, let the world be flowers and flowers our crown

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With rosy linkings red as our own hearts Of passion. O wasp soft-settling, poignant, sting, Sting me with bliss until I die of it. PHAYLLUS I do not like this violence. Theras, go. Theras leaves the hall. TIMOCLES Drink, brother Phayllus. Your webs will glitter more brightly, You male Arachne. More wine! I’ll float my heart out in the wine And pour all on the ground to naked Eros As a libation. I will hide my heart In roses, I will smother thought with jonquils. Sing, someone to me! sing of flowers, sing mere Delight to me far from this troubled world. Song Will you bring cold gems to crown me, Child of light? Rather quick from breathing closes Bring me sunlight, myrtles, roses, Robe me in delight. Give me rapture for my dress, For its girdle happiness. TIMOCLES Closer, Cleone; pack honey into a kiss. Another song! you dark-browed Syrian there! Song Wilt thou snare Love with rosy brightness To make him stay with thee? The petulant child of a fair, cruel mother, He flees from me to crown another. O misery! Love cannot be snared, love cannot be shared; Light love ends wretchedly.

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TIMOCLES Remove these wine-cups! tear these roses down! Who snared me with these bonds? Take hence, thou harlot, Thy rose-faced beauty! Thou art not Rodogune. CLEONE What is this madness? TIMOCLES Hence! leave me! I am sick Of thy gold and roses. PHAYLLUS Go, women, from the room; The King is ill. Go, girl, leave him to me. All go, Cleone reluctantly, leaving Phayllus with Timocles. TIMOCLES I will not bear it any more. Give me my love Or let me die. PHAYLLUS In a few nights from this Thou shalt embrace her. TIMOCLES Silence! It was not I. What have I said? It was the wine that spoke. Look not upon me with those eyes of thine. PHAYLLUS The wine or some more deep insurgent spirit Burns in thy blood. Thou shalt clasp Rodogune. TIMOCLES Thy words, thy looks appal me. She’s my brother’s wife Sacred to me.

Act IV, Scene 2 PHAYLLUS His wife? Who wedded them? For not in camps and deserts Syria’s kings Accomplish wedlock. She’s his concubine. Slave-girl she is and bed-mate of thy brother And may be thine. Or if she were his soul-close wife, Death rends all ties. TIMOCLES I will not shed his blood. Silence, thou tempter! he is sacred to me. PHAYLLUS Thou needst not stain thy hands, King Timocles. Be he live flesh or carrion, she is thine. TIMOCLES Yet has she lain between my brother’s arms. PHAYLLUS What if she were thy sister, should that bar thee From satisfaction of thy heart and body? TIMOCLES Do you not tremble when you say such things? PHAYLLUS We have outgrown these thoughts of children, king: Nor gods nor ghosts can frighten us. You shake At phantoms of opinion or you feign To start at such, forgetting what you are. The royal house of Egypt heeds them not, Where you were nursed. Your mother sprang from incest. If in this life you lose your Rodogune, Are others left where you may have her bliss? Your brother thought not so, but took her here.

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TIMOCLES I’ll not be tempted by thee. PHAYLLUS No, by thyself Be tempted and the thought of Rodogune. Or shall we leave her to her present joys? Perhaps she sleeps yet by Antiochus Or held by him to sweeter vigilance — TIMOCLES (furiously) Accurs`ed ruffian, give her to my arms. Use fair means or use foul, use steel, use poison, But free me from these inner torments. PHAYLLUS From more Than passion’s injuries. Trust thy fate to me Who am its guardian. He goes out. TIMOCLES I am afraid, afraid! What furies out of hell have I aroused Within, without me? Let them do their will. For I must have her once between my arms, Though Heaven leap down in lightnings.

Scene 3 Before the Syrian hills. Antiochus’ tent. Antiochus, Thoas, Leosthenes, Philoctetes. PHILOCTETES This is Phayllus’ work, the Syrian mongrel. Who could have thought he’ld raise against us Greece And half this Asia? ANTIOCHUS He has a brain. THOAS We feel it. This fight’s our latest and one desperate chance Still smiles upon our fate. ANTIOCHUS Nicanor yields it us Scattering his armies; for if we can seize Before he gathers in his distant strengths This middle pass, Antioch comes with it. So I find it best and think the gods do well Who put before us one decisive choice Not lingering out their vote in balanced urns, Not tediously delaying strenuous fate, — Either to conquer with one lion leap Or end in glorious battle. THOAS We ask no better; With you to triumph or die beside you taking

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The din of joyous battle in our ears, Following your steps into whatever world. PHILOCTETES Have we not strength enough to enforce retreat Like our forefathers through the Asian vasts To Susa or the desert or the sea Or Ptolemy in Egypt, — thence returning With force of foreign levies, if Phayllus Draw even the distant Roman over here, Dispute with him the world? ANTIOCHUS No, Philoctetes. With native swords I sought my native crown, Which if I win not upon Syria’s hills A hero’s death is mine. Make battle ready. Our bodies are the dice we throw again On the gods’ table.

Scene 4 The same. Antiochus, Eunice, Rodogune. ANTIOCHUS I put my hand on Antioch. Thou hast done well, O admirable quick Theramenes. This fight was lionlike. EUNICE And like the lion Thou art, my warrior, thou canst now descend Upon Seleucus’ city. How new ’twill seem After the mountains and the starlit skies To sleep once more in Antioch! RODOGUNE I trust the stars And mountains better. They were kind to me. My blood within me chills when I look forward And think of Antioch. ANTIOCHUS These are the shadows from a clouded past Which shall not be repeated, Rodogune. This is not Antioch that thou knewst, the prison Of thy captivity, thou enterest now, Not Antioch of thy foes, but a new city And thy own kingdom. RODOGUNE Are the gods so good?

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ANTIOCHUS The gods are strong; they love to test our strength Like armourers hammering steel. Therefore ’twas said That they are jealous. No, but high and stern Demanding greatness from the great; they strike At every fault they see, perfect themselves Labour at our perfection. What rumour increases Approaching from the mountains? Thoas, thou? Thoas enters. Thy brow is dark. Is it Theramenes? Returns our fortune broken? THOAS Broken and fallen. We who are left bring back Theramenes Upon whose body twenty glorious wounds Smile at defeat. ANTIOCHUS Theramenes before me! How have you kept me lying in my tent! I thought our road was clear of foemen. THOAS The gods Had other resources that we knew not of. Within the passes, on the summit couch The spears of Macedon. They have arrived From the sea, from Antioch. ANTIOCHUS The Macedonians! Then Our day is ended; we must think of night. We reach our limit, Thoas. THOAS That’s if we choose;

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For there are other tidings. ANTIOCHUS They should be welcome. THOAS Phraates, thy imperial father, comes With myriad hosts behind him thunder-hooved, Not for invasion armed as Syria’s foe, But for the husband of his Rodogune. Shall we recoil upon these helpers? Death Can always wait. ANTIOCHUS Perhaps. Leave me awhile, Thoas; for we must sit alone tonight, My soul and I together. Rodogune, Thoas goes. Wouldst thou go back to Parthia, to thy country? RODOGUNE I have no country, I have only thee. I shall be where thou art; it is all I know And all I wish for. ANTIOCHUS Eunice, wilt thou go To Antioch safe? My mother loves thee well. EUNICE I follow her and thee. What talk is this? I shall grow angry. ANTIOCHUS Am I other, Eunice, Than once I was? Is there a change in me Since first I came into your lives from Egypt?

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EUNICE You are my god, my warrior and the same You ever were. ANTIOCHUS To her and thee I am. Sleep well, my Rodogune, for thou and I, Not sure of Fate, are of each other sure. To thee what else can matter? RODOGUNE Nothing else. Rodogune and Eunice enter the interior of the tent. ANTIOCHUS A god! Yes, I have godlike stirrings in me. Shall they be bounded by this petty world The sea can span? If Rome, Greece, Africa, Asia and all the undiscovered globe Were given me for my garden, all glory mine, All men my friends, all women’s hearts my own, Would there not still be bounds, still continents Unvanquished? O thou glorious Macedonian, Thou too must seek at last more worlds to conquer. Hast thou discovered them? This earth is but a hillock when all’s said, The sea an azure puddle. All tonight Seems strange to me; my wars, ambition, fate And what I am and what I might have been, Float round me vaguely and withdraw from me Like grandiose phantoms in a mist. Who am I? Whence come I? Whither go, or wherefore now? Who gave me these gigantic appetites That make a banquet of the world? who set These narrow, scornful and exiguous bounds To my achievement? O, to die, to pass,

Act IV, Scene 4 Nothing achieved but this, “He tried great things, Accomplished small ones.” If this life alone Be given us to fail or to succeed, Then ’tis worth keeping. The Parthian treads our land! Phraates’ hooves dig Grecian soil once more! The subtle Parthian! He has smiled and waited Till we were weak with mutual wounds and now Stretches his foot towards Syria. Have I then Achieved this only, my country’s servitude? Shall that be said of me? It galls, it stabs. My fame! “Destroyer of Syria, he undid The great Seleucus’ work.” Whatever else O’ertake me, in this the strong gods shall not win. I will give up my body and sword to Timocles, Repel the Parthian, save from this new death, These dangerous allies from Macedon Syria, then die. But wherefore die? Should I not rather go With my sole sword into the changeful world, Create an empire, not inherit one? Are there not other realms? has not the East Great spaces? In huge torrid Africa Beyond the mystic sources of the Nile There must be empires. Or if with a ship One sailed for ever through the infinite West, Through Ocean and still Ocean for three years, Might not one find the old Atlantic realms No fable? Thy narrow lovely littoral, O blue Mediterranean, India, Parthia, Is this the world? I thirst for mightier things Than earth has. But for what I dreamed, to bound Upon Nicanor through the deep-bellied passes Or fall upon the Macedonian spears, It were glorious, yet a glorious cowardice, Too like self-slaughter. Is it not more heroic

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To battle with than to accept calamity? Unless indeed all thinking-out is vain And Fate our only mover. Seek it out, my soul, And make no error here; for on this hour The future of the man Antiochus, What future he may have upon the earth In name or body lies. Reveal it to me, Zeus! In Antioch or upon the Grecian spears, Where lies my fate? While he is speaking, the Eremite enters. EREMITE Before thee always. ANTIOCHUS How Cam’st thou or whence? I know thy ominous look. EREMITE The how inquire not nor the whence, but learn The end is near which I then promised thee. ANTIOCHUS So then, defeat and death were from the first My portion! Wherefore were these thoughts gigantical With which I came into my mother ready-shaped If they must end in the inglorious tomb? EREMITE Despise not proud defeat, scorn not high death. The gods accept them sternly. ANTIOCHUS Yes, as I shall, But not submissively.

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EREMITE Break then, thou hill Unsatisfied with thy own height. The gods Care not if thou resist or if thou yield; They do their work with mortals. To the Vast Whence thou, O ravening, strong and hungry lion, Overleaping cam’st the iron bars of Time, Return! thou hast thy tamers. God of battles! Son of Nicanor! strong Antiochus! Depart and be as if thou wert not born. The gods await thee in Antioch. He departs. ANTIOCHUS I will meet them there. Break me. I see you can, O gods. But you break A body, not this soul; for that belongs, I feel, To other masters. It is settled then. Tomorrow sets in Antioch.

Scene 5 The same. Philoctetes, Thoas, Leosthenes, Eunice. LEOSTHENES Surely this is the change that comes on men Who are to die. PHILOCTETES O me! it is, it is. THOAS Princess Eunice, what think you of it? EUNICE Thoas, what matters what we think? We follow Our king; it is his to choose our paths for us. Lead they to death? Then we can die with him. THOAS That’s nobly spoken. PHILOCTETES But too like a woman. Antiochus enters with Rodogune. ANTIOCHUS To Antioch! Is all ready for our march? PHILOCTETES Antiochus, my king, I think in Egypt We loved each other.

Act IV, Scene 5 ANTIOCHUS Less here, my Philoctetes? PHILOCTETES Then by that love, dear friend, go not to Antioch. Let us await the Parthian in his march. What do you seek at Antioch? A mother angry? A jealous brother at whose ear a fatal knave Sits always whispering? lords inimical? What can you hope from these? Go not to Antioch. I see Death smiling, waving you to go, But do not. ANTIOCHUS Dearest comrade, Philoctetes, Fate calls to me and shall I shrink from her? I know my little brother Timocles, I feel his clasp already, see his smile. But there’s Phayllus! Shall I fall so low As to fear him? Forgive me, friend; I go to Antioch. PHILOCTETES It was decreed! ANTIOCHUS But you, my friends, who have no love To shield you and perhaps great enemies, Will you fall back until I make your peace, To Egypt or Phraates? THOAS Not a man Will leave your side who followed your victorious sword. We follow always. ANTIOCHUS Beat then the drums and march.

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But let an envoy ride in front to Timocles And tell him that Antiochus comes to lay His victor sword between a brother’s knees And fight for him with Parthia. Let us march. All go except Philoctetes. PHILOCTETES (looking after him) O sun, thou goest rushing to the night Which shall engulf thee!

Act V The Palace in Antioch.

Scene 1 A hall in the Palace. Phayllus, alone. PHAYLLUS My brain has loosened harder knots than this. Timocles gets by this his Rodogune; That’s one thing gained. Tonight or else tomorrow I’ll have her in his bed though I have to hale her Stumbling to it through her own husband’s blood. For he must die. He is too great a man To be a subject: nor is that his intention Who hides some subtler purpose. Exile would free him For more stupendous mischief. Death! But how? There is this Syrian people, there is Timocles Whose light unstable mind like a pale leaf Trembles, desires, resolves, renounces. Timocles enters. TIMOCLES Phayllus, It is the high gods bring about this good. My great high brother, strong Antiochus To come and kneel to me! No hatred more! He is the brother whom I loved in Egypt.

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PHAYLLUS Oh, wilt thou always be, thou shapeless soul, Clay for each passing circumstance to alter? TIMOCLES Do you not think I have only now to ask And he will give me Rodogune? She’s not his wife! Cast always together in the lonely desert, Long nearness must have wearied him of her; For he was never a lover. O Phayllus, When so much has been brought about, will you tell me This will not happen too? I am sure the gods Intend this. PHAYLLUS So you think Antiochus comes To lay his lofty head below your foot? You can believe it! Truly, if you think that, There’s nothing left that cannot be believed. This soul that dreamed of conquests at its birth, This strong overweening swift ambitious man Whom victory disappoints, to whom continents Seem narrow, will submit, you say, — to you? You’ll keep him for your servant? TIMOCLES What is it you hint? Stroke not your chin! Speak plainly. Do you know, I sometimes hate you! PHAYLLUS I care not, if you hear me And let me guard you from your enemies. TIMOCLES I know you love me, but your thoughts are evil To every other and your ways are worse.

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Yet speak; what is it you fear? PHAYLLUS How should I know? Yet this seems probable that having failed By violent battle he is creeping in To slay you silently. You smile at that? It is the commonest rule of statesmanship And History’s strewn with instances. Believe it not; Believe your wishes, not mankind’s record; Slumber till with the sword in you you wake And he assumes your purple. TIMOCLES (indifferently) I hear, Phayllus. Let him give me Rodogune And all’s excused he has ever done to me. PHAYLLUS He will keep her and take all hearts besides That ever loved you. TIMOCLES (still indifferently) I will see that first. Cleopatra enters quickly. CLEOPATRA It is true, Timocles? It is even true! Antiochus my son is coming to me, Is coming to me! TIMOCLES Thus you love him still! CLEOPATRA He is my child, he has his father’s face. And I shall have my Parthian Rodogune With her sweet voice and gentle touch, and her,

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My darling, my clear-eyed delight, Eunice, And I shall not be lonely any more. I have not been so happy since you came From Egypt. But, O heaven! what followed that? Will now no stark calamity arise With Gorgon head to turn us into stone Venging this glimpse of joy? Torn by your scourges I fear you, gods, too much to trust your smile. Nicanor enters. NICANOR Antiochus comes. TIMOCLES Hail, thou victorious captain, Syria’s strong rescuer! NICANOR Syria’s rescuer comes, Thy brother Antiochus who makes himself A sword to smite thy dangerous enemies. PHAYLLUS You used not once to praise him so, Nicanor. NICANOR Because I knew not then his nobleness Who had only seen his might. PHAYLLUS Yet had you promised That if he entered Antioch, it would be chained And naked, travelling to the pit or sword, Nicanor. NICANOR He comes not as a prisoner,

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But royally disdaining to enslave For private ends his country to the Parthian. TIMOCLES Comes my dear brother soon? NICANOR Even at this moment He enters. TIMOCLES Summon our court. Let all men’s eyes behold This reconciliation. I shall see Next moment Rodogune! There enter from one side Callicrates, Melitus, Cleone, courtiers; from the other Antiochus, Eunice, Rodogune, Thoas, Leosthenes, Philoctetes. O brother, in my arms! Let this firm clasp Be sign of the recovered amity That binds once more for joy Nicanor’s sons. ANTIOCHUS This is like thee, my brother Timocles. Let all vain strife be banished from our souls. My sword is thine, and I am thine and all I have and love is thine, O Syrian Timocles, Devoted to thy throne for Syria. TIMOCLES All? Brother! O clasp me once again, Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS The Syrian land once cleansed of foemen, rescued From these fierce perils, I shall have thy leave, Brother, to voyage into distant lands; But not till I have seen your Antioch joys

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Of which they told us, I and my dear wife, The Parthian princess Rodogune. See, brother, How all things work out by a higher will. Thou hast the Syrian kingdom, I have her And my own soul for monarchy. TIMOCLES His wife! MELITUS The King is pale and gnaws his nether lip. ANTIOCHUS Mother, I kneel to you; raise me this time And I will not be froward. CLEOPATRA My child! my child! TIMOCLES He will not give me Rodogune! And now he’ll steal My mother’s heart. Captains, I welcome you: You are my soldiers now. LEOSTHENES We thank thee, King. We are thy brother’s soldiers, therefore thine. TIMOCLES Yes! Philoctetes, old Egyptian friend, You go not yet to Egypt? PHILOCTETES I know not where. I have forgotten why I came from thence. I hope that you will love your brother.

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TIMOCLES Him! Oh yes, I’ll love him. ANTIOCHUS Brother Timocles, We have come far today; will you appoint us Our chambers here? TIMOCLES I’ll take you to them, brother. All leave the hall except Cleone and Phayllus. CLEONE Is this their peace? But he’ll have Rodogune And I shall like a common flower be thrown Into the dust-heap. PHAYLLUS Pooh! CLEONE I have eyes; I see. Even then I knew I would be nothing to you Once you were seated. I’ll not be flung away! Beware, Phayllus; for Antiochus lives. PHAYLLUS Make change of lovers then with Rodogune While yet he lives. CLEONE I might do even that. He has a beautiful body like a god’s. I will not have him slain.

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You may be his widow If you make haste in marrying him; for soon He will be carrion. Timocles returns. TIMOCLES I’ld have a word with you, Phayllus. Cleone withdraws out of hearing. Where will they put the Parthian Rodogune? PHAYLLUS Put her? TIMOCLES To sleep, dull ruffian! Her chamber! Where? PHAYLLUS Why, in one bed with Prince Antiochus. TIMOCLES Thou bitter traitor, dar’st thou say it too? Art thou too leagued to slay me? Shall I bear it? In my own palace! In one bed! O God! I will go now and stab him through the heart And drag her, drag her — CLEONE (running to him) The foam is on his lips! PHAYLLUS Restrain thy passions, King! He is transformed. This is that curious devil, jealousy. As if it mattered! He will have her soon.

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TIMOCLES Cleone, I thank you. When I think of this, Something revolts within to strangle me And tears my life out of my bosom. Phayllus, You spoke of plots; where are they? Let me see them. PHAYLLUS That’s hard. Are they not hidden in his breast? TIMOCLES Can you not tear them out? PHAYLLUS Torture your brother! TIMOCLES Torture his generals; let them howl their love for him! Torture Eunice. Let truth come out twixt shrieks! Number her words with gouts of blood! PHAYLLUS You’ll hurt yourself. Be calmer. Torture! To what purpose that? It is not profitable. TIMOCLES I will have proofs. Wilt thou thwart me, thou traitor, even thou? Arrange his trial instantly, arrange His exile. PHAYLLUS Exile! You might as well arrange At once your ruin. TIMOCLES There shall be justice, justice.

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Thou shalt be fairly judged, Antiochus. I will not slay him. Exile! And Rodogune With me in Antioch. PHAYLLUS Listen! the passing people sing his name. They’ll rise to rescue him and slay us all As dogs are killed in summer. Command his death: No man will rise for a dead carcase. Death, Not exile! He’ll return with Ptolemy Or great Phraates, take your Syria from you, Take Rodogune. TIMOCLES I give my power to you. Try him and sentence him. But execution, Let it be execution. I will have No murder done. Arrange it. He goes out followed by Cleone. PHAYLLUS While he’s in the mood, It must be quickly done. But that’s to venture With no support in Syria when it’s done Except this brittle king. It matters not. Fortune will bear me out; she’s grown my slave-girl. What liberties have I not taken with her Which she has suffered amorously, kinder grown After each handling. Watch me, my only lover! Sudden and swift shall be Phayllus’ stroke.

Scene 2 Antiochus’ chamber. Cleopatra, Antiochus, Eunice, Rodogune. CLEOPATRA Eunice, cruel, heartless, sweet Eunice, How could you leave me? EUNICE Pardon me, dear lady. ANTIOCHUS Mine was the error, mother. CLEOPATRA O my son, If you had said that “mother” to me then, All this had never happened. ANTIOCHUS I have been hard To you, my mother, you to me your son. We have both erred and it may be the gods Will punish our offences even yet. CLEOPATRA O, say not that, my child. We must be happy; I will have just a little happiness. RODOGUNE O, answer her with kisses, dear Antiochus.

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CLEOPATRA Do you too plead for me, sweet Parthian? EUNICE Cousin Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS My heart is chastened and I love, Mother, though even now I will not lie And say I love you as a child might love Who from his infancy had felt your clasp. But, mother, give me time and if the gods Will give it too, who knows? we may be happy. Philoctetes enters. PHILOCTETES Pardon me, Madam, but my soul is harried With fierce anxieties. You do not well To linger with your son Antiochus. A jealous anger works in Timocles When he hears of it. CLEOPATRA Is’t possible? PHILOCTETES Fear it! Believe it! CLEOPATRA (shuddering) I will not give the gods a handle. But I may take Eunice and your wife To comfort me a little? ANTIOCHUS Go with her,

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Eunice. Leave me for an hour, my Rodogune. All go from the chamber except Antiochus. When, when will the gods strike? I feel the steps Of Doom about me. Open thy barriers, Death; I would not linger underneath the stroke. Phayllus enters with soldiers. PHAYLLUS Seize him! This is the prince Antiochus. ANTIOCHUS So soon! I said not farewell to my love. Well, Syrian, dost thou carry only warrants Or keeps the death-doom pace with thy arrest? PHAYLLUS Thy plots have been discovered, plotter. ANTIOCHUS Plots! Vain subtle fool, I will not answer thee. What matters the poor pretext? Guards, conduct me. He goes out, guarded. PHAYLLUS Must thou be royal even in thy fall?

Scene 3 The same. Eunice, Rodogune. RODOGUNE Will they not let me go and see him even? EUNICE We’ll make our way to him and out for him To Egypt, Egypt. RODOGUNE There’s only one joy left, To be with him whether we live or die. EUNICE You are too meek. Cleone helps us here Whatever be the spring of her strange pity. When we come back, Phayllus, we shall find out Whether the ingenuity of men Holds tortures huge enough for your deserts. RODOGUNE Why do you pace about with flaming eyes? Be still and sit and put your hand in mine. EUNICE My Parthian sweetness! O, the gods are cruel Who torture such a heart as thine. RODOGUNE Where is

Act V, Scene 3 My mother? EUNICE She is lying in her room Dry-eyed and voiceless, gazing upon Fate With eyes I dare not look at. Till tomorrow. At dawn we’ll have him out. Cleone bribes The sentries; Thoas has horses and a ship Wide-winged for Egypt, Egypt. RODOGUNE O yes, let us leave Syria and cruel Antioch. EUNICE For a while. I would have had him out tonight, my king, But ruffian Theras keeps the watch till dawn. How long will walls immure so huge a prisoner? Trial! When he returns in arms from Egypt, Try him, Phayllus. We must wait till dawn. RODOGUNE I shall behold him once again at dawn.

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Scene 4 A guard-room in the Palace. Antiochus, alone. ANTIOCHUS What were Death then but wider life than earth Can give us in her clayey limits bound? Darkness perhaps! There must be light behind. As he speaks, Phayllus enters. Who is it? PHAYLLUS Phayllus and thy conqueror. ANTIOCHUS In some strange warfare then! PHAYLLUS I came to see Before thy end the greatness that thou wast; For thou wert great as mortals measure. Thou hast An hour to live. ANTIOCHUS Shorter were better. PHAYLLUS An hour! It is strange. The beautiful strong Antiochus In one brief hour and by a little stroke Shall be mere rotten carrion for the flies To buzz about.

Act V, Scene 4 ANTIOCHUS Thinkest thou so, Phayllus? PHAYLLUS I know it, and in thy fall, because thou wert great, I feel my greatness who am thy o’erthrower. I long to probe the mightiness thou art And know the thoughts that fill thee at this hour; For it must come to me some day. The things We are, do and are done to! Let it be. Dost thou not ask to kiss thy wife? She’ld come, Though she must leave thy brother’s bed for it. ANTIOCHUS What a poor lie, Phayllus, for the great man Thou thinkst thyself! PHAYLLUS Thou knowst not then for her Thou diest, that his hungry arms may clasp Her warm sweet body thou hast loved to kiss? ANTIOCHUS So didst thou work it? Thou art a rare study, Thou Graeco-Syrian. PHAYLLUS I am what my clay Has made me. It does not hurt thee then to know That while thou art dying, they are hard at work Even now before thy kingly corpse is cold? ANTIOCHUS What a blind owl thou art that seest the sun And thinkst it darkness! Hence! I weary of thee. Thou art too shallow after all. Outside Is it the dawn?

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PHAYLLUS The dawn. Thou wak’st too early For one who shall not sleep again. ANTIOCHUS Yes, sleep I have done with; now for an immortal waking. PHAYLLUS That dream of fools! Thou art another man Than any I have seen and to my eyes Thou seemst a grandiose lack-wit. Yet in defeat I could not move thee. I have limits then? ANTIOCHUS Yes, didst thou think thyself a god in evil And souls of men thy subjects? Leave me, send Thy executioner. Let him be quick. I wait! Phayllus goes. I fear he still will loiter. Waiting Was ever tedious to me: I will sleep. (he lies down; after a pause) Is this that other country? Theramenes Before me smiling with his twenty wounds And Mentho with the breasts that suckled me! Who are these crowding after me so fast? My mother follows me and cousin Eunice Treads in her footsteps. Thou too, Timocles? Thoas, Leosthenes and Philoctetes, Good friends, will you stay long? The world grows empty. Why, all that’s great in Syria staggers after me Into blind Hades; I am royally Attended. Theras enters.

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THERAS Phayllus’ will compels me to it, Or else I do not like the thing I do. ANTIOCHUS Who is it? Thou art the instrument. Strike in. Keep me not waiting. I ever loved proud swiftness And thorough spirits. THERAS I must strike suddenly or never strike. He strikes. ANTIOCHUS I pass the barrier. THERAS Will not this blood stop flowing? ANTIOCHUS The blood? Let the gods have it; ’tis their portion. THERAS A red libation, O thou royal sacrifice! I have done evil. Will sly Phayllus help me? He was a trickster ever. I have done evil. ANTIOCHUS Tell Parthian Rodogune I wait for her Behind Death’s barrier. THERAS The world’s too still. Will he not speak again Upon this other side of nothingness? O sounds, sounds, sounds! The sentries change, I think. I’ll draw thy curtains, O thou mighty sleeper.

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Rodogune He draws the curtains, extinguishes the light and goes out. All is still for a while, then the door opens again and Eunice and Rodogune enter.

EUNICE Tread lightly, for he sleeps. The curtain’s drawn. RODOGUNE O my Antiochus, on thy hard bed In the rude camp with horses neighing round Thou well mightst slumber nor the undistant trumpet Startling unseal thy war-accustomed ears From the sweet lethargy of earned repose. But in the horrible silence of this prison How canst thou sleep? It clamours in my brain More than could any sound, with terror laden And voices. EUNICE I’ll wake him. RODOGUNE Do not. He is tired And you will spoil his rest. EUNICE He moves no more Than the dead might. RODOGUNE Speak not of death, Eunice; We are too near to death to speak of him. EUNICE He must be waked. Cousin Antiochus, You sleep too soundly for a prisoner. Wake!

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RODOGUNE There is some awful presence in this room. EUNICE I partly feel it. Wake, wake, Antiochus. She draws apart the curtain and puts in her arm, then hastily withdraws it. O God, what is this dabbles so my hand, That feels almost like blood? (tearing down the curtain) Antiochus! She falls half-swooned against the wall. There is a silence, then noise is heard in the corridors and the voice of Nicanor at the door. NICANOR Guard carefully the doors; let no evasion Deceive you. RODOGUNE Antiochus! Antiochus! Antiochus! EUNICE Call him not; he will wake And Heaven be angry. O my Rodogune, Let us too sleep. RODOGUNE Antiochus! Antiochus! Nicanor enters armed with soldiers and lights. NICANOR Am I in time? Thou? thou? How cam’st thou here? Who is this woman with the dreadful face? Can this be Rodogune? Eunice, speak. What is this blood upon thy hands and dress?

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Thou dost not speak! Oh, speak! EUNICE I am going, I am going to my chamber To sleep. NICANOR Arrest her, guards. He approaches the bed and recoils. Awake the house! Sound the alarm! O palace of Nicanor, Thou canst stand yet upon thy stony base Untroubled! The warlike prince Antiochus Lies on this bed most treacherously murdered. Cries and commotion outside. Speak, wretched girl. What villain’s secret hand Profaned with death this royal sanctuary? How cam’st thou here or hast this blood on thee? There enter in haste Callicrates, Melitus, Cleone; afterwards Phayllus and others. CLEONE (to Nicanor) Thou couldst not save him then for all my warning? In vain didst thou mistrust me! PHAYLLUS (entering) It is done. Yet Theras came not! Do I fail? Fortune, my kindly goddess, help me still In the storm I have yet to weather. NICANOR Thou hast come! This is thy work, thou ominous counsellor. PHAYLLUS In all the land who dare impugn me, if it be?

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NICANOR Thou art a villain! Thou shalt die for this. PHAYLLUS One day I shall, for this or something else. But here’s the King. NICANOR No more a king for me Or Syria. Timocles enters, followed by Cleopatra. MELITUS The Queen comes cold and white and shuddering. CLEOPATRA (speaking with an unnatural calmness) Why do these cries of terror shake the house Repeating Murder and Antiochus? Nicanor, lives my son? NICANOR Behold, O woman, The frame you fashioned for Antiochus, Cast from your love before, now cast from life, By whose unnatural contrivance, let them say Who did it. CLEOPATRA It is not true, it is not true! There can be no such horror. O, for this, For this you gave him back! TIMOCLES O gods! Phayllus, I did not think that he would look like this.

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MELITUS Cover this death. It troubles the good King. TIMOCLES (recovering himself ) This is a piteous sight, beloved mother; Would that he lived and wore the Syrian crown Unquestioned. CLEOPATRA Timocles, I will not credit What yet a horror in my blood believes. The eyes of all men charge you with this act; Deny it! TIMOCLES Mother! CLEOPATRA Deny it! TIMOCLES Alas, mother! CLEOPATRA Deny it! TIMOCLES O mother, what shall I deny? It had to be. Blame only the dire gods And bronze Necessity. CLEOPATRA Call me not mother! I have no children. I am punished, gods, Who dared outlive my great unhappy husband For this! She rushes out.

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NICANOR Is this thy end, O great Seleucus? What Fury rules thy house? The Queen is gone With desperate eyes. Who next? There enter in haste Philoctetes, Thoas, Leosthenes and others of Antiochus’ party. PHILOCTETES It is true then, It is most true! O high Antiochus, How are thy royal vast imaginations All spilt into a meagre stream of blood! And yet thy eyes seem to gaze royally Into death’s vaster realms as if they viewed More conquests there and mightier monarchies. When we were boys and slumber came with noon, Often you’ld lay your head upon my knee Even thus. O little friend Antiochus, We are again in hundred-gated Thebes And life is all before us. THOAS O insupportable! Thou styled by men a king, no king of mine, Acquit thyself of this too kindred blood. No murderer sits in great Seleucus’ chair Longer than takes the movement of my sword Out of its scabbard. I live to ask this question. LEOSTHENES Nor think thy royal title nor thy guards Shall fence thy life, thou crown`ed fratricide, Nor many ranks of triple-plated iron Shut out swift vengeance. PHILOCTETES His eyes look up and seem to smile at me.

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NICANOR Thoas, thy anger ranges far too wide. Respect the blood of kings, Leosthenes. THOAS See dabbled on this couch the blood of kings Thus by a kindred blood respected. TIMOCLES The hearts Of kings are not their own, nor yet their acts. This was an execution, not a murder. In better time and place you shall have proofs: Phayllus knows it all. Be satisfied. Lift up this royal dead. All hatred now Forgotten, I will royally inter His ashes guarding still his diadem And sword and armour. All that most he loved Shall go with him into the silent world. RODOGUNE I come. TIMOCLES The voice of Rodogune! That woman’s form The shadowy anguished robe concealed! She here Beside my brother! NICANOR We had forgotten how piteous was this scene. O you who loved the dead, forbear a while; All shall be sternly judged. TIMOCLES O Rodogune, The dead demands thy grief, since he too loved thee, But not in this red chamber pay thy debt,

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Not in this square of horror. In thy calm room Gently bedew his memory with tears And I will help them with my own. Me too He loved once. LEOSTHENES Shall our swords yet sleep? He wooes His brother’s wife beside his brother’s corpse Whom he has murdered. THOAS Yet, Leosthenes. For Heaven has borne enough from him. At last The gods lift up their secret thunderbolts Above us. NICANOR She totters and can hardly move. Assist her or she falls. PHILOCTETES (raising his head) O Rodogune, What wilt thou with my dead? PHAYLLUS Shall it be allowed? TIMOCLES I do not grudge this corpse her sad farewell. O Rodogune, embrace the unresponsive dead; But afterwards remember life and love Are still on earth. THOAS Afterwards, Timocles. Give death a moment. There is a silence while Rodogune bends swaying over the dead Antiochus.

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O my Rodogune, Leave now the dead man’s side whose debt is paid. Return to life, to love. RODOGUNE (stretching out her arms) My king! my king! Leave me not, leave me not! I am behind thee. She falls dead at the feet of Antiochus. EUNICE O, take me also! She rushes to Rodogune and throws herself on the dead bodies. NICANOR Raise the princess up; She has swooned. THOAS Her heart has failed her: she is dead. TIMOCLES Rise up, my Rodogune. THOAS She is dead, Timocles; She’s safe from thee. Thou goest not alone, My king, into the darkness. CLEONE Look to the King! TIMOCLES (speaking with difficulty) Lives she? MELITUS No, she is dead, King Timocles.

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CLEONE Brother, the King! Timocles has been tearing at the robe round his neck. Phayllus, Melitus and others crowd round to support him as he falls. NICANOR It is a fit at worst Which anger and despair have forced him to. PHAYLLUS It is not death? I live then. NICANOR Death, thou intriguer! Art thou not Death who with thy wicked promptings And poisonous whispers worked to dangerous rage The kindly moods of Timocles? Seize him, He shall atone this murder. PHAYLLUS You build too soon Your throne upon these prostrate bodies. Your king Lives still, Nicanor. NICANOR Not to save thee from death, Nor any murderer. Drag him hence. CLEONE The King revives. Save thyself, brother. LEOSTHENES Ten kings should not avail To save him.

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Rodogune NICANOR Drag hence that subtle Satan. TIMOCLES I live

And I remember! CLEONE Sleepest thou, Phayllus? PHAYLLUS My king, they drag me hence to murder me. TIMOCLES (vaguely at first) Who art thou? Thou abhorred and crooked devil, Thou art the cause that she is lost to me. Slay him! And that shrewd-lipped, rose-tinted harlot, Let her be banished somewhere from men’s sight Where she can be forgotten. O brother, brother, I have sent thee into the darkling shades, Myself am barred the way. PHAYLLUS What I have done, I did for this poor king and thankless man. But there’s no use in talking. I am ready. TIMOCLES (half-rising, furiously) Slay him with tortures! let him feel his death As he has made me feel my living. NICANOR Take him And see this sentence ruthlessly performed Upon this frame of evil. May the gods In their just wrath with this be satisfied.

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PHAYLLUS And yet I loved thee, Timocles. He is taken out, guarded. NICANOR Daughter, Eunice, rise. EUNICE I did not know till now Life was so difficult a thing to leave. Her going was so easy! NICANOR Ah, girl, this tragic drama owns in part Thy authorship! Henceforth be wise and humble. To her chamber lead her. EUNICE Do with me what you will. My heart has gone to journey with my dead. O father, for a few days bear with me; I do not think that I shall long displease you Hereafter. She goes, attended by Melitus. NICANOR Follow her, Callicrates, And let no dangerous edge or lethal drink Be near to her despair. Callicrates follows. THOAS This cannot keep us From those we loved.

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Syrians, what yet remains Of this storm-visited, bolt-shattered house Let us rebuild, joining our strength to save The threatened kingdom. For when this deed is known, The Parthian lion leaps raging for blood And Ptolemy’s dangerous grief for the boy he cherished Darkens on us from Egypt. Syria beset And we all broken! TIMOCLES Something has snapped in me Physicians cannot bind. Thou, Prince Nicanor, Art from the royal blood of Syria sprung And in thy line Seleucus may descend Untainted from his source. Brother, brother, We did not dream that all would end like this, When in the dawn or set we roamed at will Playing together in Egyptian gardens, Or in the orchards of great Ptolemy Walked with our arms around each other’s necks Twin-hearted. But now unto eternity We are divided. I must live for ever Unfriended, solitary in the shades; But thou and she will lie at ease inarmed Deep in the quiet happy asphodel And hear the murmur of Elysian winds While I walk lonely. PHILOCTETES We too without thee now Breath-haunted corpses move, Antiochus. Thou goest attended to a quiet air; Doomed still to live we for a while remain Expecting what the gods have yet in store.

Perseus the Deliverer A Drama

The Legend of Perseus Acrisius, the Argive king, warned by an oracle that his daughter’s son would be the agent of his death, hoped to escape his doom by shutting her up in a brazen tower. But Zeus, the King of the Gods, descended into her prison in a shower of gold and Dana¨e bore to him a son named Perseus. Dana¨e and her child were exposed in a boat without sail or oar on the sea, but here too fate and the gods intervened and, guided by a divine protection, the boat bore her safely to the Island of Seriphos. There Dana¨e was received and honoured by the King. When Perseus had grown to manhood the King, wishing to marry Dana¨e, decided to send him to his death and to that end ordered him to slay the Gorgon Medusa in the wild, unknown and snowy North and bring to him her head the sight of which turned men to stone. Perseus, aided by Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom, who gave him the divine sword Herpe, winged shoes to bear him through the air, her shield or aegis and the cap of invisibility, succeeded in his quest after many adventures. In his returning he came to Syria and found Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea, King and Queen of Syria, chained to the rocks by the people to be devoured by a sea-monster as an atonement for her mother’s impiety against the sea-god, Poseidon. Perseus slew the monster and rescued and wedded Andromeda. In this piece the ancient legend has been divested of its original character of a heroic myth; it is made the nucleus round which there could grow the scenes of a romantic story of human temperament and life-impulses on the Elizabethan model. The country in which the action is located is a Syria of romance, not of history. Indeed a Hellenic legend could not at all be set in the environments of the life of a Semitic people and its early Aramaean civilisation: the town of Cepheus must be looked at as a Greek colony with a blonde Achaean dynasty ruling

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a Hellenised people who worship an old Mediterranean deity under a Greek name. In a romantic work of imagination of this type these outrages on history do not matter. Time there is more than Einsteinian in its relativity, the creative imagination is its sole disposer and arranger; fantasy reigns sovereign; the names of ancient countries and peoples are brought in only as fringes of a decorative background; anachronisms romp in wherever they can get an easy admittance, ideas and associations from all climes and epochs mingle; myth, romance and realism make up a single whole. For here the stage is the human mind of all times: the subject is an incident in its passage from a semiprimitive temperament surviving in a fairly advanced outward civilisation to a brighter intellectualism and humanism — never quite safe against the resurgence of the dark or violent life-forces which are always there subdued or subordinated or somnolent in the make-up of civilised man — and the first promptings of the deeper and higher psychic and spiritual being which it is his ultimate destiny to become.

Persons of the Drama PALLAS ATHENE. POSEIDON. PERSEUS, son of Zeus and Dana¨e. CEPHEUS, King of Syria. IOLAUS, son of Cepheus and Cassiopea. POLYDAON, priest of Poseidon. PHINEUS, King of Tyre. TYRNAUS merchants of Babylonia, wrecked on the coast SMERDAS H of Syria. THEROPS, a popular leader. PERISSUS, a citizen butcher. DERCETES, a Syrian captain. NEBASSAR, captain of the Chaldean Guard. CHABRIAS DAMOETES MEGAS townsmen and villagers. GARDAS MORUS SYRAX L CIREAS, a servant in the temple of Poseidon. MEDES, an usher in the palace. CASSIOPEA, princess of Chaldea, Queen of Syria. ANDROMEDA, daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea. CYDONE, mistress of Iolaus. PRAXILLA, head of the palace household in the women’s apartments. DIOMEDE, a slave-girl, servant and playmate of Andromeda. BALTIS Syrian women. PASITHEA H SCENE. — The city of Cepheus, the seashore, the temple of Poseidon on the headland and the surrounding country.

4

Prologue The Ocean in tumult, and the sky in storm: Pallas Athene appears in the heavens with lightnings playing over her head and under her feet. ATHENE Error of waters rustling through the world, Vast Ocean, call thy ravenous waves that march With blue fierce nostrils quivering for prey, Back to thy feet. Hush thy impatient surges At my divine command and do my will. VOICES OF THE SEA Who art thou layest thy serene command Upon the untamed waters? ATHENE I am Pallas, Daughter of the Omnipotent. VOICES What wouldst thou? For we cannot resist thee; our clamorous hearts Are hushed in terror at thy marble feet. ATHENE Awake your dread Poseidon. Bid him rise And come before me. VOICES Let thy compelling voice Awake him: for the sea is hushed.

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Illimitable Poseidon! let thy blue And streaming tresses mingle with the foam Emerging into light. Poseidon appears upon the waters. POSEIDON What quiet voice Compels me from my rocky pillow piled Upon the floor of the enormous deep? VOICES A whiteness and a strength is in the skies. POSEIDON How art thou white and beautiful and calm, Yet clothed in tumult! Heaven above thee shakes Wounded with lightnings, goddess, and the sea Flees from thy dreadful tranquil feet. Thy calm Troubles me: who art thou, dweller in the light? ATHENE I am Athene. POSEIDON Virgin formidable In beauty, disturber of the ancient world! Ever thou seekest to enslave to man The eternal Universe, and our huge motions That shake the mountains and upheave the seas Wouldst with the glancing visions of thy brain Coerce and bridle. ATHENE Me the Omnipotent Made from His being to lead and discipline

Prologue The immortal spirit of man, till it attain To order and magnificent mastery Of all his outward world. POSEIDON What wouldst thou of me? ATHENE The powers of the earth have kissed my feet In deep submission, and they yield me tribute, Olives and corn and all fruit-bearing trees, And silver from the bowels of the hills, Marble and iron ore. Fire is my servant. But thou, Poseidon, with thy kindred gods And the wild wings of air resist me. I come To set my feet upon thy azure locks, O shaker of the cliffs. Adore thy sovereign. POSEIDON The anarchy of the enormous seas Is mine, O terrible Athene: I sway Their billows with my nod. Man’s feeble feet Leave there no traces, nor his destiny Has any hold upon the shifting waves. ATHENE Thou severest him with thy unmeasured wastes Whom I would weld in one. But I will lead him Over thy waters, thou wild thunderer, Spurning thy tops in hollowed fragile trees. He shall be confident in me and dare The immeasurable oceans till the West Mingles with India, and reach the northern isles That dwell beneath my dancing aegis bright, Snow-weary. He shall, armed with clamorous fire, Rush o’er the angry waters when the whale Is stunned between two waves and slay his foe

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Betwixt the thunders. Therefore I bid thee not, O azure strong Poseidon, to abate Thy savage tumults: rather his march oppose. For through the shocks of difficulty and death Man shall attain his godhead. POSEIDON What then desir’st thou, Athene? ATHENE On yonder inhospitable coast Far-venturing merchants from the East, or those Who put from Tyre towards Atlantic gains, Are by thy trident fiercely shaken forth Upon the jagg`ed rocks, and who escape, The gay and savage Syrians on their altars Massacre hideously, thee to propitiate, Moloch-Poseidon of the Syrian coasts, Dagon of Gaza, lord of many names And many natures, many forms of power Who rulest from Philistia to the north, A terror and a woe. O iron King, Desist from blood, be glad of kindlier gifts And suffer men to live. POSEIDON Behold, Athene, My waters! see them lift their foam-white tops Charging from sky to sky in rapid tumult: Admire their force, admire their thunderous speed. With green hooves and white manes they trample onwards. My mighty voices fill the world, Athene. Shall I permit the grand anarchic seas To be a road and the imperious Ocean A means of merchandise? Shall the frail keels Of thy ephemeral mortals score its back

Prologue With servile furrows and petty souls of men Triumphing tame the illimitable sea? I am not of the mild and later gods, But of that elder world; Lemuria And old Atlantis raised me crimson altars, And my huge nostrils keep that scent of blood For which they quiver. Return into thy heavens, Pallas Athene, I into my deep. ATHENE Dash then thy billows up against my aegis In battle! think not to hide in thy deep oceans; For I will drive thy waters from the world And leave thee naked to the light. POSEIDON Dread virgin! I will not war with thee, armipotent. ATHENE Then send thy champion forth to meet my champion, And let their conflict govern ours, Poseidon. POSEIDON Who is thy champion? ATHENE Perseus, the Olympian’s son, Whom Dana¨e in her strong brazen tower, Acrisius’ daughter, bore, by heavenly gold Lapped into slumber: for of that shining rain He is the beautiful offspring. POSEIDON The parricide That is to be? But my sea-monster’s fangs And fiery breathings shall prevent that murder.

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Farewell, Athene! ATHENE Farewell, until I press My feet upon thy blue enormous mane And add thy Ocean to my growing empire. Poseidon disappears into the sea. He dives into the deep and with a din The thunderous divided waters meet Above his grisly head. Thou wingest, Perseus, From northern snows to this fair sunny land, Not knowing in the night what way thou wendest; But the dawn comes and over earth’s far rim The round sun rises, as thyself shalt rise On Syria and thy rosy Andromeda, A thing of light. Rejoice, thou famous hero! Be glad of love, be glad of life, whose bosom Harbours the quiet strength of pure Athene. She disappears into light.

Act I Scene 1 A rocky and surf-beat margin of land walled in with great frowning cliffs. Cireas, Diomede. CIREAS Diomede? You here so early and in this wild wanton weather! DIOMEDE I can find no fault in the weather, Cireas; it is brilliant and frolicsome. CIREAS The rain has wept itself out and the sun has ventured into the open; but the wind is shouting like mad and the sea is still in a mighty passion. Has your mistress Andromeda sent you then with matin-offerings to Poseidon, or are you walking here to whip the red roses in your cheeks redder with the sea-wind? DIOMEDE My mistress cares as much for your Poseidon as I for your glum beetle-browed priest Polydaon. But you, Cireas? are you walking here to whip the red nose of you redder with the sea-wind or to soothe with it the marks of his holiness’s cudgel? CIREAS I must carry up these buckets of sea-water to swab down the blue-haired old fellow in the temple. Hang the robustious stormshaken curmudgeon! I have rubbed him and scrubbed him and

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bathed him and swathed him for these eighteen years, yet he never sent me one profitable piece of wreckage out of his sea yet. A gold bracelet, now, crusted with jewels, dropped from the arm of some drowned princess, or a sealed casket velvet-lined with a priceless vase carried by the Rhodian merchants: that would not have beggared him! And I with so little could have bought my liberty. DIOMEDE Maybe ’twas that he feared. For who would wish to lose such an expert body-servant as you, my Cireas? CIREAS Zeus! if I thought that, I would leave his unwashed back to itch for a fortnight. But these Gods are kittle cattle to joke with. They have too many spare monsters about in their stables trained to snap up offenders for a light breakfast. DIOMEDE And how prosper the sacrifices, Cireas? I hope you keep your god soothingly and daintily fed in this hot summer season? CIREAS Alack, poor old Poseidon! He has had nothing but goats and sea-urchins lately, and that is poor food for a palate inured to homme a` la Ph´enicienne, Diomede. It is his own fault, he should provide wreckage more freely. But black Polydaon’s forehead grows blacker every day: he will soon be as mad as Cybele’s bull on the headland. I am every moment in terror of finding myself tumbled on the altar for a shipwrecked Phoenician and old Blackbrows hacking about in search of my heart with his holy carving-tools. DIOMEDE You should warn him beforehand that your heart is in your paunch hidden under twenty pounds of fat: so shall he have less cutting-exercise and you an easier exit.

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CIREAS Out! would you have me slit for a water-god’s dinner? Is this your tenderness for me? DIOMEDE Heaven forbid, dear Cireas. Syria would lose half her scampishness if you departed untimely to a worse world. CIREAS Away from here, you long sauciness, you thin edge of naughty satire. But, no! First tell me, what news of the palace? They say King Phineus will wed the Princess Andromeda. DIOMEDE Yes, but not till the Princess Andromeda weds King Phineus. What noise is that? CIREAS It was the cry of many men in anguish. He climbs up a rock. DIOMEDE Zeus, what a wail was there! surely a royal Huge ship from Sidon or the Nile has kissed Our ragged beaches. CIREAS A Phoenician galley Is caught and spinning in the surf, the men Urge desperate oars in vain. Hark, with a crash She rushes on the boulders’ iron fangs That rip her tender sides. How the white ship Battered against them by the growling surf Screams like a woman tortured! From all sides The men are shaken out, as rattling peas Leap from a long and bursting sheath: these sink Gurgling into the billows, those are pressed

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And mangled on the jagg`ed rocks. DIOMEDE O it must be A memorable sight! help me up, Cireas. CIREAS No, no, for I must run and tell old Blackbrows That here’s fresh meat for hungry grim Poseidon. He climbs down and out running. DIOMEDE You disobliging dog! This is the first wreck in eighteen months and I not to see it! I will try and climb round the rock even if my neck and legs pay the forfeit. She goes out in the opposite direction.

Scene 2 The same. Perseus descends on winged sandals from the clouds. PERSEUS Rocks of the outland jagg`ed with the sea, You slumbering promontories whose huge backs Jut into azure, and thou, O many-thundered Enormous Ocean, hail! Whatever lands Are ramparted with these forbidding shores, Yet if you hold felicitous roofs of men, Homes of delightful laughter, if you have streams Where chattering girls dip in their pitchers cool And dabble their white feet in the chill lapse Of waters, trees and a green-mantled earth, Cicalas noisy in a million boughs Or happy cheep of common birds, I greet you, Syria or Egypt or Ionian shores, Perseus the son of Dana¨e, who long Have sojourned only with the hail-thrashed isles Wet with cold mists and by the boreal winds Snow-swathed. The angry voices of the surf Are welcome to me whose ears have long been sealed By rigorous silence in the snows. O even The wail of mortal misery I choose Rather than that intolerable hush; For this at least is human. Thee I praise, O mother Earth and thy guardian Sea, O Sun Of the warm south nursing fair life of men. I will go down into bee-murmuring fields And mix with men and women in the corn And eat again accustomed food. But first

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This galley shattered on the sharp-toothed rocks I fly to succour. You are grown dear to me, You smiling weeping human faces, brightly Who move, who live, not like those stony masks And Gorgon visions of that monstrous world Beyond the snows. I would not lose you now In the dead surges of the inhuman flood. He descends out of sight. Iolaus enters with Cireas, Dercetes and soldiers. IOLAUS Prepare your ambush, men, amid these boulders, But at the signal, leave your rocky lairs With level bristling points and gyre them in. CIREAS O Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-swallower, earth-shaker, I have swabbed thee for eighteen years. I pray thee tot up the price of those swabbings and be not dishonest with me nor miserly. Eighteen by three hundred and sixty-five by two, that is the sum of them: and forget not the leap years either, O great Poseidon. IOLAUS Into our ambush, for I hear them come. They conceal themselves. Perseus returns with Tyrnaus and Smerdas. PERSEUS Chaldean merchants, would my speed to save Had matched the hawk’s when he swoops down for slaughter. So many beautiful bodies of strong men Lost in the surge, so many eager hopes Of happiness now quenched would still have gladdened The sunlight. Yet for two delightful lives Saved to the stir and motion of the world I praise the Gods that help us.

Act I, Scene 2 TYRNAUS Thou radiant youth Whose face is like a joyous god’s for beauty, Whatever worth the body’s life may have, I thank thee that ’tis saved. Smerdas, discharge That hapless humour from thy lids! If riches Are lost, the body, thy strong instrument To gather riches, is not lost, nor mind, The provident director of its labours. SMERDAS Three thousand pieces of that wealthy stuff, Full forty chests all crammed with noble gems, All lost, all in a moment lost! We are beggars. TYRNAUS Smerdas, not beggared yet of arm or brain. SMERDAS The toil-marred peasant has as much. PERSEUS Merchant, I sorrow for thy loss: all beautiful things Were meant to shine in the bright day, and grievous It is to know the senseless billows play with them. Yet life, most beautiful of all, is left thee. Is not mere sunlight something, and to breathe A joy? Be patient with the gods; they love not Rebellion and o’ertake it with fresh scourgings. SMERDAS O that the sea had swallowed me and rolled In my dear treasure! Tell me, Syrian youth, Are there not divers in these parts, could pluck My wealth from the abyss?

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Chaldean merchant, I am not of this country, but like thyself Hear first today the surf roar on its beaches. SMERDAS Cursed be the moment when we neared its shores! O harsh sea-god, if thou wilt have my wealth, My soul, it was a cruel mercy then to leave This beggared empty body bared of all That made life sweet. Take this too, and everything. IOLAUS (stepping forward) Thy prayer is granted thee, O Babylonian. The soldiers appear and surround Perseus and the merchants. CIREAS All the good stuff drowned! O unlucky Cireas! O greedy Poseidon! SMERDAS Shield us! what are these threatening spear-points? TYRNAUS Fate’s. This is that strange inhospitable coast Where the wrecked traveller in his own warm blood Is given guest-bath. (draws) Death’s dice are yet to throw. IOLAUS Draw not in vain, strive not against the gods. This is the shore near the temple where Poseidon Sits ivory-limbed in his dim rock-hewn house And nods above the bleeding mariner His sapphire locks in gloom. You three are come, A welcome offering to that long dry altar,

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O happy voyagers. Your road is straight To Elysium. PERSEUS An evil and harsh religion You practise in your land, stripling of Syria, Yet since it is religion, do thy will, If thou have power no less than will. And yet I deem that ere I visit death’s calm country, I have far longer ways to tread. TYRNAUS (flinging away his sword) Take me. I will not please the gods with impotent writhing Under the harrow of my fate. They seize Tyrnaus. SMERDAS O wicked fool! You might have saved me with that sword. Ah youth! Ah radiant stranger! help me! thou art mighty. PERSEUS Still, merchant, thou wouldst live? SMERDAS I am dead with terror Of these bright thirsty spears. O they will carve My frantic heart out of my living bosom To throw it bleeding on that hideous altar. Save me, hero! PERSEUS I war not with the gods for thee. From belching fire or the deep-mouthed abyss Of waters to have saved the meanest thing That wears man’s kindly semblance, is a joy.

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But he is mad who for another’s ease Incurs the implacable pursuit of heaven. Yet since each man on earth has privilege To battle even against the gods for life, Sweet life, lift up from earth thy fellow’s sword; I will protect meanwhile thy head from onset. SMERDAS Alas, you mock me! I have no skill with weapons Nor am a fighter. Save me! The Syrians seize Smerdas. Help! I will give thee The wealth of Babylon when I am safe. PERSEUS My sword is heaven’s; it is not to be purchased. Smerdas and Tyrnaus are led away. IOLAUS Take too this radiance. PERSEUS (drawing his sword) Asian stripling, pause. I am not weak of hand nor feeble of heart. Thou art too young, too blithe, too beautiful; I would not disarrange thy sunny curls By any harsher touch than an embrace. IOLAUS I too could wish to spare thy joyous body From the black knife, whoe’er thou art, O stranger. But grim compulsion drives and angry will Of the sea’s lord, chafing that mortal men Insult with their frail keels his rude strong oceans. Therefore he built his grisly temple here, And all who are broken in the unequal war With surge and tempest, though they evade his rocks,

Act I, Scene 2 Must belch out anguished blood upon that altar Miserably. PERSEUS I come not from the Ocean. IOLAUS There is no other way that men could come; For this is ground forbidden to unknown feet. (smiling) Unless these gaudy pinions on thy shoes Were wings indeed to bear thee through the void! PERSEUS Are there not those who ask nor solid land For footing nor the salt flood to buoy their motions? Perhaps I am of these. IOLAUS Of these thou art not. The gods are sombre, terrible to gaze at, Or, even if bright, remote, grand, formidable. But thou art open and fair like our blue heavens In Syria and thy radiant masculine body Allures the eye. Yield! it may be the God Will spare thee. PERSEUS Set on thy war-dogs. Me alive If they alive can take, I am content To bleed a victim. IOLAUS Art thou a demigod To beat back with one blade a hundred spears?

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PERSEUS My sword is in my hand and that shall answer. I am tired of words. IOLAUS Dercetes, wait. His face Is beautiful as Heaven. O dark Poseidon, What wilt thou do with him in thy dank caves Under the grey abysms of the salt flood? Spare him to me and sunlight. Polydaon and Phineus enter from behind. DERCETES Prince, give the order. IOLAUS Let this young sungod live. DERCETES It is forbidden. IOLAUS But I allow it. POLYDAON (coming forward) And when did lenient Heaven Make thee a godhead, Syrian Iolaus, To set thy proud decree against Poseidon’s? Wilt thou rescind what Ocean’s Zeus has ordered? IOLAUS Polydaon — POLYDAON Does a royal name on earth Inflate so foolishly thy mortal pride, Thou evenest thyself with the Olympians?

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Beware, the blood of kings has dropped ere now From the grey sacrificial knife. IOLAUS Our blood! Thou darest threaten me, presumptuous priest? Back to thy blood-stained kennel! I absolve This stranger. POLYDAON Captain, take them both. You flinch? Are you so fearful of the name of prince He plays with? Fear rather dark Poseidon’s anger. PHINEUS Be wise, young Iolaus. Polydaon, Thy zeal outstrips the reverence due to kings. IOLAUS I need not thy protection, Tyrian Phineus: This is my country. He draws. PHINEUS (aside to Polydaon) It were well done to kill him now, his sword Being out against the people’s gods; for then Who blames the god’s avenger? POLYDAON Will you accept, Syrians, the burden of his sacrilege? Upon them for Poseidon! DERCETES Seize them but slay not! Let none dare shed the blood of Syria’s kings.

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SOLDIERS Poseidon! great Poseidon! PERSEUS Iolaus, Rein in thy sword: I am enough for these. He shakes his uncovered shield in the faces of the soldiers: they stagger back covering their eyes. IOLAUS Gods, what a glory lights up Syria! POLYDAON Amazement! Is this a god opposes us? Back, back! CIREAS Master, master, skedaddle: run, run, good King of Tyre, it is scuttle or be scuttled. Zeus has come down to earth with feathered shoes and a shield made out of phosphorus. He runs off, followed more slowly by Dercetes and the soldiers. PHINEUS Whate’er thou art, yet thou shalt not outface me. He advances with sword drawn. Hast thou Heaven’s thunders with thee too? POLYDAON (pulling him back) Back, Phineus! The fiery-tasselled aegis of Athene Shakes forth these lightnings, and an earthly sword Were madness here. He goes out with Phineus.

Act I, Scene 2 IOLAUS O radiant strong immortal, Iolaus kneels to thee. PERSEUS No, Iolaus. Though great Athene breathes Olympian strength Into my arm sometimes, I am no more Than a brief mortal. IOLAUS Art thou only man? O then be Iolaus’ friend and lover, Who com’st to me like something all my own Destined from other shores. PERSEUS Give me thy hands, O fair young child of the warm Syrian sun. Embrace me! Thou art like a springing laurel Fed upon sunlight by the murmuring waters. IOLAUS Tell me thy name. What memorable earth Gave thee to the azure? PERSEUS I am from Argolis, Perseus my name, the son of Dana¨e. IOLAUS Come, Perseus, friend, with me: fierce entertainment We have given, unworthy the fair joyousness Thou carriest like a flag, but thou shalt meet A kinder Syria. My royal father Cepheus Shall welcome, my mother give thee a mother’s greeting And our Andromeda’s delightful smile

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Persuade thee of a world more full of beauty Than thou hadst dreamed of. PERSEUS I shall yet be glad with thee, O Iolaus, in thy father’s halls, But I would not as yet be known in Syria. Is there no pleasant hamlet near, hedged in With orchard walls and green with unripe corn And washed with bright and flitting waves, where I Can harbour with the kindly village folk And wake to cock-crow in the morning hours, As in my dear Seriphos? IOLAUS Such a village Lurks near our hills, — there with my kind Cydone Thou mayst abide at ease, until thou choose, O Perseus, to reveal thyself to Syria. I too can visit thee unquestioned. PERSEUS Thither Then lead me. I have a thirst for calm obscurity And cottages and happy unambitious talk And simple people. With these I would have rest, Not in the laboured pomp of princely towns Amid pent noise and purple masks of hate. I will drink deep of pure humanity And take the innocent smell of rain-drenched earth, So shall I with a noble untainted mind Rise from the strengthening soil to great adventure. They go out.

Scene 3 The Palace of Cepheus. A room in the women’s apartments. Praxilla, to her enters Diomede. DIOMEDE O Praxilla, Praxilla! PRAXILLA So, thou art back, thou tall inutility? Where wert thou lingering all this hour? I am tired of always whipping thee. I will hire thee out to a timber-merchant to carry logs from dawn to nightfall. Thou shalt learn what labour is. DIOMEDE Praxilla, O Praxilla! I am full to the throat with news. I pray you, rip me open. PRAXILLA Willingly. She advances towards her with an uplifted knife. DIOMEDE (escaping) A plague! can you not appreciate a fine metaphor when you hear it? I never saw so prosaic a mortal. The soul in you was born of a marriage between a saucepan and a broomstick. PRAXILLA Tell me your news. If it is good, I will excuse you your whipping. DIOMEDE I was out on the beach thinking to watch the seagulls flying and crying in the wind amidst the surf dashing and the black cliff-heads —

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PRAXILLA And could not Poseidon turn thee into a gull there among thy natural kindred? Thou wert better fitted with that shape than in a reasonable human body. DIOMEDE Oh then you shall hear the news tell itself, mistress, when the whole town has chewed it and rechewed it. She is going. PRAXILLA Stop, you long-limbed impertinence. The news! DIOMEDE I’ll be hanged if I tell you. PRAXILLA You shall be whipped, if you do not. DIOMEDE Well, your goddess Switch is a potent divinity. A ship with men from the East has broken on the headland below the temple and two Chaldeans are saved alive for the altar. PRAXILLA This is glorious news indeed. DIOMEDE It will be a great day when they are sacrificed! PRAXILLA We have not had such since the long galley from Cnossus grounded upon our shores and the temple was washed richly with blood and the altar blushed as thickly with hearts of victims as the King’s throne with rubies. Poseidon was pleased that year and the harvest was so plentiful, men were brought in from beyond the hills to reap it.

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DIOMEDE There would have been a third victim, but Prince Iolaus drew sword on the priest Polydaon to defend him. PRAXILLA I hope this is not true. DIOMEDE I saw it. PRAXILLA Is the wild boy In love with ruin? Not the King himself Can help him if the grim sacrificant Demand his fair young head: only a god Could save him. And he was already in peril From Polydaon’s gloomy hate! DIOMEDE And Phineus’. PRAXILLA Hush, silly madcap, hush; or speak much lower. DIOMEDE Here comes my little queen of love, stepping As daintily as a young bird in spring When he would take the hearts of all the forest. Andromeda enters. PRAXILLA You have slept late, Andromeda. ANDROMEDA Have I? The sun had risen in my dreams: perhaps I feared to wake lest I should find all dark

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Once more, Praxilla. DIOMEDE He has risen in your eyes, For they are full of sunshine, little princess. ANDROMEDA I have dreamed, Diomede, I have dreamed. DIOMEDE What did you dream? ANDROMEDA I dreamed my sun had risen. He had a face like the Olympian Zeus And wings upon his feet. He smiled upon me, Diomede. PRAXILLA Dreams are full of stranger fancies. Why, I myself have seen hooved bears, winged lions, And many other monsters in my dreams. ANDROMEDA My sun was a bright god and bore a flaming sword To kill all monsters. DIOMEDE I think I’ve seen today Your sun, my little playmate. ANDROMEDA No, you have not. I’ll not have any eyes see him but mine: He is my own, my very own.

Act I, Scene 3 DIOMEDE And yet I saw him on the wild sea-beach this morning. PRAXILLA What mean you, Diomede? DIOMEDE (to Andromeda) You have not heard? A ship was flung upon the rocks this morning And all her human burden drowned. ANDROMEDA Alas! DIOMEDE It was a marvellous sight, my little playmate, And made my blood with horror and admiration Run richer in my veins. The great ship groaned While the rough boulders dashed her into pieces, The men with desperate shrieks went tumbling down Mid laughters of the surge, strangled twixt billows Or torn by strips upon the savage rocks That tossed their mangled bodies back again Into the cruel keeping of the surge. ANDROMEDA O do not tell me any more! How had you heart To look at what I cannot bear to hear? For while you spoke, I felt as if the rocks Were tearing my own limbs and the salt surge Choking me. DIOMEDE I suppose it must have hurt them. Yes, it was pitiful. Still, ’twas a sight. Meanwhile the deep surf boomed their grandiose dirge

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With fierce triumphant voices. The whole scene Was like a wild stupendous sacrifice Offered by the grey-filleted grim surges On the gigantic altar of the rocks To the calm cliffs seated like gods above. ANDROMEDA Alas, the unhappy men, the poor drowned men Who had young children somewhere whom they loved! How could you watch them die? Had I been a god, I would not let this cruel thing have happened. DIOMEDE Why do you weep for them? they were not Syrians. PRAXILLA Not they, but barbarous jabbering foreigners From Indus or Arabia. Fie, my child, You sit upon the floor and weep for these? ANDROMEDA When Iolaus fell upon the rocks And hurt himself, you did not then forbid me To weep! PRAXILLA He is your brother. That was loving, Tender and right. ANDROMEDA And these men were not brothers? They too had sisters who will feel as I should If my dear brother were to die so wretchedly. PRAXILLA Let their own sisters weep for them: we have Enough of our own sorrows. You are young

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And softly made: because you have yourself No griefs, but only childhood’s soon-dried tears, You make a luxury of others’ woes. So when we watch a piteous tragedy, We grace with real tears its painted sorrows. When you are older and have true things to weep for, Then you will understand. ANDROMEDA I’ll not be older! I will not understand! I only know That men are heartless and your gods most cruel. I hate them! PRAXILLA Hush, hush! You know not what you say. You must not speak such things. Come, Diomede, Tell her the rest. ANDROMEDA (covering her ears with her hands) I will not hear you. DIOMEDE (kneeling by her and drawing her hands away) But I Will tell you of your bright sungod. ANDROMEDA He is not My sungod or he would have saved them. DIOMEDE He did. ANDROMEDA (leaping to her feet) Then tell me of him.

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Suddenly there dawned A man, a vision, a brightness, who descended From where I know not, but to me it seemed That the blue heavens just then created him Out of the sunlight. His face and radiant body Aspired to copy the Olympian Zeus And wings were on his feet. ANDROMEDA He was my sungod! DIOMEDE He caught two drowning wretches by the robe And drew them safe to land. ANDROMEDA He was my sungod. Diomede, I have seen him in my dream. PRAXILLA I think it was Poseidon come to take His tithe of all that death for the ancient altar, Lest all be engulfed by his grey billows, he Go quite unhonoured. DIOMEDE Hang up your grim Poseidon! This was a sweet and noble face all bright With manly kindness. ANDROMEDA O I know, I know. Where went he with those rescued? DIOMEDE Why, just then

Act I, Scene 3 Prince Iolaus and his band leaped forth And took them. ANDROMEDA (angrily) Wherefore took them? By what right? DIOMEDE To die according to our Syrian law On dark Poseidon’s altar. ANDROMEDA They shall not die. It is a shame, a cruel cold injustice. I wonder that my brother had any part in it! My sungod saved them, they belong to him, Not to your hateful gods. They are his and mine, I will not let you kill them. PRAXILLA Why, they must die And you will see it done, my little princess. You shall! Where are you going? ANDROMEDA Let me go. I do not love you when you talk like this. PRAXILLA But you are Syria’s lady and must appear At these high ceremonies. ANDROMEDA I had rather be A beggar’s daughter who devours the remnants Rejected from your table, than reign a queen Doing such cruelty.

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Little passionate scold! You mean not what you say. A beggar’s daughter! You? You who toss about if only a rose-leaf Crinkle the creamy smoothness of your sheets, And one harsh word flings weeping broken-hearted As if the world had no more joy in store. You are a little posturer, you make A theatre of your own mind to act in, Take parts, declaim such childish rhetoric As that you speak now. You a beggar’s daughter! Come, listen what became of your bright sungod. DIOMEDE Him too they would have seized, but he with steel Opposed and tranquil smiling eyes appalled them. Then Polydaon came and Phineus came And bade arrest the brilliant god. Our Prince, Seized by his glory, with his virgin point Resisted their assault. ANDROMEDA My Iolaus! DIOMEDE All suddenly the stranger’s lifted shield Became a storm of lightnings. Dawn was blinded: Far promontories leaped out in the blaze, The surges were illumined and the horizon Answered with light. ANDROMEDA (clapping her hands) O glorious! O my dream! PRAXILLA You tell the actions of a mighty god, Diomede.

Act I, Scene 3 DIOMEDE A god he seemed to us, Praxilla. The soldiers ran in terror, Polydaon Went snorting off like a black whale harpooned, And even Phineus fled. ANDROMEDA Was he not killed? I wish he had been killed. PRAXILLA This is your pity! ANDROMEDA (angrily) I do not pity tigers, wolves and scorpions. I pity men who are weak and beasts that suffer. PRAXILLA I thought you loved all men and living things. ANDROMEDA Perhaps I could have loved him like my hound Or the lion in the park who lets me pat his mane. But since he would have me even without my will To foul with his beast touch, my body abhors him. PRAXILLA Fie, fie! you speak too violently. How long Will you be such a child? DIOMEDE Our Iolaus And that bright stranger then embraced. Together They left the beach. ANDROMEDA Where, where is Iolaus?

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Why is he long in coming? I must see him. I have a thousand things to ask. She runs out. DIOMEDE She is A strange unusual child, my little playmate. PRAXILLA None can help loving her, she is in charm Compelling: but her mind is wry and warped. She is not natural, not sound in fancy, But made of wild uncurbed imaginations, With feelings as unruly as winds and waves And morbid sympathies. At times she talks Strange childish blasphemies that make me tremble. She would impose her fancies on the world As better than the eternal laws that rule us! I wish her mother had brought her up more strictly, For she will come to harm. DIOMEDE Oh, do not say it! I have seen no child in all our Syria like her, None her bright equal in beauty. She pleases me Like days of sunlight rain when spring caresses Warmly the air. Oh, here is Iolaus. PRAXILLA Is it he? DIOMEDE I know him by the noble strut He has put on ever since they made him captain. Andromeda comes running.

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ANDROMEDA My brother comes! I saw him from the terrace. Enters Iolaus. Andromeda runs and embraces him. Oh, Iolaus, have you brought him to me? Where is my sungod? IOLAUS In heaven, little sister. ANDROMEDA Oh, do not laugh at me. I want my sungod Whose face is like the grand Olympian Zeus’ And wings are on his feet. Where did you leave him After you took him from our rough sea-beaches? IOLAUS What do you mean, Andromeda? DIOMEDE Some power Divine sent her a dream of that bright strength Which shone by you on the sea-beach today, And him she calls her sungod. IOLAUS Is it so? My little wind-tossed rose Andromeda! I shall be glad indeed if Heaven intends this. ANDROMEDA Where is he? IOLAUS Do you not know, little rose-sister, The great gods visit earth by splendid moments And then are lost to sight? Come, do not weep; He is not lost to Syria.

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Iolaus, Why did you take the two poor foreign men And give them to the priest? My sungod saved them, Brother, — what right had you to kill? IOLAUS My child, I only did my duty as a soldier, Yet grieve I was compelled. ANDROMEDA Now will you save them? IOLAUS But they belong to dread Poseidon now! ANDROMEDA What will be done to them? IOLAUS They must be bound On the god’s altar and their living hearts Ripped from their blood-choked breasts to feed his hunger. Andromeda covers her face with her robe. Grieve not for them: they but fulfil their fate. These things are in the order of the world Like plagues and slaughters, famines, fires and earthquakes, Which when they pass us by killing their thousands, We should not weep for, but be grateful only That other souls than the dear heads we loved Have perished. ANDROMEDA You will not save them?

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PRAXILLA Unhappy girl! It is impiety to think of it. Fie! Would you have your brother killed for your whimsies? ANDROMEDA Will you not save them, brother? IOLAUS I cannot, child. ANDROMEDA Then I will. She goes out. IOLAUS Does she mean it? PRAXILLA Such wild caprices Are always darting through her brain. IOLAUS I could not take Poseidon’s wrath upon my head! PRAXILLA Forget it As she will too. Her strange imaginations Flutter awhile among her golden curls, But soon wing off with careless flight to Lethe. Medes enters. IOLAUS What is it, Medes?

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The King, Prince Iolaus, Requires your presence in his audience-chamber. IOLAUS So? Tell me, Medes, is Poseidon’s priest In presence there? MEDES He is and full of wrath. IOLAUS Go, tell them I am coming. Medes goes out. PRAXILLA Alas! IOLAUS Fear not. I have a strength the grim intriguers dream not of. Let not my sister hear this, Diomede. He goes. PRAXILLA What may not happen! The priest is dangerous, Poseidon may be angry. Let us go And guard our child from peril of this shock. They go.

Act II Scene 1 The audience-chamber in the Palace of Cepheus. Cepheus and Cassiopea, seated. CASSIOPEA What will you do, Cepheus? CEPHEUS This that has happened Is most unfortunate. CASSIOPEA What will you do? I hope you will not give up to the priest My Iolaus’ golden head? I hope You do not mean that? CEPHEUS Great Poseidon’s priest Sways all this land: for from the liberal blood Moistening that high-piled altar grow our harvests And strong Poseidon satisfied defends Our frontiers from the loud Assyrian menace. CASSIOPEA Empty thy treasuries, glut him with gold. Let us be beggars rather than one bright curl Of Iolaus feel his gloomy mischiefs.

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CEPHEUS I had already thought of it. Medes! Medes enters. Waits Polydaon yet? MEDES He does, my lord. CEPHEUS Call him, and Tyrian Phineus. Medes goes out again. CASSIOPEA Bid Tyre save Andromeda’s loved brother from this doom; He shall not have our daughter otherwise. CEPHEUS This too was in my mind already, queen. Polydaon and Phineus enter. Be seated, King of Tyre: priest Polydaon, Possess thy usual chair. POLYDAON Well, King of Syria, Shall I have justice? Wilt thou be the King Over a peopled country? or must I loose The snake-haired Gorgon-eyed Erinnyes To hunt thee with the clamorous whips of Hell Blood-dripping? CEPHEUS Be content. Cepheus gives nought But justice from his mighty seat. Thou shalt Have justice.

Act II, Scene 1 POLYDAON I am not used to cool my heels About the doors of princes like some beggarly And negligible suitor whose poor plaint Is valued by some paltry drachmas. I am Poseidon’s priest. CEPHEUS The prince is called to answer here Thy charges. POLYDAON Answer! Will he deny a crime Done impudently in Syria’s face? ’Tis well; The Tyrian stands here who can meet that lie. CASSIOPEA My children’s lips were never stained with lies, Insulting priest, nor will be now; from him We shall have truth. CEPHEUS And grant the charge admitted, The ransom shall be measured with the crime. POLYDAON What talk is this of ransom? Thinkst thou, King, That dire Poseidon’s grim offended godhead Can be o’erplastered with a smudge of silver? Shall money blunt his vengeance? Shall his majesty Be estimated in a usurer’s balance? Blood is the ransom of this sacrilege. CASSIOPEA Ah God!

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CEPHEUS (in agitation) Take all my treasury includes Of gold and silver, gems and porphyry Unvalued. POLYDAON The Gods are not to be bribed, King Cepheus. CASSIOPEA (apart) Give him honours, state, precedence, All he can ask. O husband, let me keep My child’s head on my bosom safe. CEPHEUS Listen! What wouldst thou have? Precedence, pomp and state? Hundreds of spears to ring thee where thou walkest? Swart slaves and beautiful women in thy temple To serve thee and thy god? They are thine. In feasts And high processions and proud regal meetings Poseidon’s followers shall precede the King. POLYDAON Me wilt thou bribe? I take these for Poseidon, Nor waive my chief demand. CEPHEUS What will content thee? POLYDAON A victim has been snatched from holy altar: To fill that want a victim is demanded. CEPHEUS I will make war on Egypt and Assyria And throw thee kings for victims.

Act II, Scene 1

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POLYDAON Thy vaunt is empty. Poseidon being offended, who shall give thee Victory o’er Egypt and o’er strong Assyria? CEPHEUS Take thou the noblest head in all the kingdom Below the Prince. Take many heads for one. POLYDAON Shall then the innocent perish for the guilty? Is this thy justice? How shall thy kingdom last? CEPHEUS You hear him, Cassiopea? he will not yield, He is inexorable. POLYDAON Must I wait longer? CEPHEUS Ho Medes! Medes enters. Iolaus comes not yet. Medes goes out. CASSIOPEA (rising fiercely) Priest, thou wilt have my child’s blood then, it seems! Nought less will satisfy thee than thy prince For victim? POLYDAON Poseidon knows not prince or beggar. Whoever honours him, he heaps with state And fortune. Whoever wakes his dreadful wrath, He thrusts down into Erebus for ever.

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CASSIOPEA Beware! Thou shalt not have my child. Take heed Ere thou drive monarchs to extremity. Thou hopest in thy sacerdotal pride To make the Kings of Syria childless, end A line that started from the gods. Thinkst thou It will be tamely suffered? What have we To lose, if we lose this? I bid thee again Take heed: drive not a queen to strong despair. I am no tame-souled peasant, but a princess And great Chaldea’s child. POLYDAON (after a pause) Wilt thou confirm Thy treasury and all the promised honours, If I excuse the deed? CEPHEUS They shall be thine. He turns to whisper with Cassiopea. PHINEUS (apart to Polydaon) Dost thou prefer me for thy foeman? POLYDAON See In the queen’s eyes her rage. We must discover New means; this way’s not safe. PHINEUS Thou art a coward, priest, for all thy violence. But fear me first and then blench from a woman. POLYDAON Well, as you choose. Iolaus enters.

Act II, Scene 1 IOLAUS Father, you sent for me? CEPHEUS There is a charge upon thee, Iolaus, I do not yet believe. But answer truth Like Cepheus’ son, whatever the result. IOLAUS Whatever I have done, my father, good Or ill, I dare support against the world. What is this accusation? CEPHEUS Didst thou rescue At dawn a victim from Poseidon’s altar? IOLAUS I did not. POLYDAON Dar’st thou deny it, wretched boy? Monarch, his coward lips have uttered falsehood. Speak, King of Tyre. IOLAUS Hear me speak first. Thou ruffian, Intriguer masking in a priest’s disguise, — POLYDAON Hear him, O King! CEPHEUS Speak calmly. I forbid All violence. Thou deniest then the charge?

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IOLAUS As it was worded to me, I deny it. PHINEUS Syria, I have not spoken till this moment, And would not now, but sacred truth compels My tongue howe’er reluctant. I was there, And saw him rescue a wrecked mariner With his rash steel. Would that I had not seen it! IOLAUS Thou liest, Phineus, King of Tyre. CASSIOPEA Alas! If thou hast any pity for thy mother, Run not upon thy death in this fierce spirit, My child. Calmly repel the charge against thee, Nor thus offend thy brother. PHINEUS I am not angry. IOLAUS It was no shipwrecked weeping mariner, Condemned by the wild seas, whom they attempted, But a calm god or glorious hero who came By other way than man’s to Syria’s margin. Nor did rash steel or battle rescue him. With the mere dreadful waving of his shield He shook from him a hundred threatening lances, This hero hot from Tyre and this proud priest Now bold to bluster in his monarch’s chamber, But then a pallid coward, — so he trusts In his Poseidon!

Act II, Scene 1 POLYDAON Hast thou done? IOLAUS Not yet. That I drew forth my sword, is true, and true I would have rescued him from god or devil Had it been needed. POLYDAON Enough! He has confessed! Give verdict, King, and sentence. Let me watch Thy justice. CEPHEUS But this fault was not so deadly! POLYDAON I see thy drift, O King. Thou wouldst prefer Thy son to him who rules the earth and waters: Thou wouldst exalt thy throne above the temple, Setting the gods beneath thy feet. Fool, fool, Knowst thou not that the terrible Poseidon Can end thy house in one tremendous hour? Yield him one impious head which cannot live And he will give thee other and better children. Give sentence or be mad and perish. IOLAUS Father, Not for thy son’s, but for thy honour’s sake Resist him. ’Tis better to lose crown and life, Than rule the world because a priest allows it. POLYDAON Give sentence, King. I can no longer wait, Give sentence.

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Perseus the Deliverer CEPHEUS (helplessly to Cassiopea) What shall I do? CASSIOPEA

Monarch of Tyre, Thou choosest silence then, a pleased spectator? Thou hast bethought thee of other nuptials? PHINEUS Lady, You wrong my silence which was but your servant To find an issue from this dire impasse, Rescuing your child from wrath, justice not wounded. CASSIOPEA The issue lies in the accuser’s will, If putting malice by he’ld only seek Poseidon’s glory. PHINEUS The deed’s by all admitted, The law and bearing of it are in doubt. (to Polydaon) You urge a place is void and must be filled On great Poseidon’s altar, and demand Justly the guilty head of Iolaus. He did the fault, his head must ransom it. Let him fill up the void, who made the void. Nor will high heaven accept a guiltless head, To let the impious free. CASSIOPEA Phineus, — PHINEUS But if The victim lost return, you cannot then

Act II, Scene 1 Claim Iolaus; then there is no void For substitution. POLYDAON King, — PHINEUS The simpler fault With ransom can be easily excused And covered up in gold. Let him produce The fugitive. IOLAUS Tyrian, — PHINEUS I have not forgotten. Patience! You plead that your mysterious guest Being neither shipwrecked nor a mariner Comes not within the doom of law. Why then, Let Law decide that issue, not the sword Nor swift evasion! Dost thou fear the event Of thy great father’s sentence from that throne Where Justice sits with bright unsullied robe Judging the peoples? Calmly expect his doom Which errs not. CASSIOPEA Thou art a man noble indeed in counsel And fit to rule the nations. CEPHEUS I approve. You laugh, my son? IOLAUS I laugh to see wise men

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Catching their feet in their own subtleties. King Phineus, wilt thou seize Olympian Zeus And call thy Tyrian smiths to forge his fetters? Or wilt thou claim the archer bright Apollo To meet thy human doom, priest Polydaon? ’Tis well; the danger’s yours. Give me three days And I’ll produce him. CEPHEUS Priest, art thou content? POLYDAON Exceed not thou the period by one day, Or tremble. CEPHEUS (rising) Happily decided. Rise My Cassiopea: now our hearts can rest From these alarms. Cepheus and Cassiopea leave the chamber. IOLAUS Keep thy knife sharp, sacrificant. King Phineus, I am grateful and advise Thy swift departure back to Tyre unmarried. He goes out. POLYDAON What hast thou done, King Phineus? All is ruined. PHINEUS What, have the stripling’s threats appalled thee, priest? POLYDAON Thou hast demanded a bright dreadful god For victim. We might have slain young Iolaus: Wilt thou slay him whose tasselled aegis smote

Act II, Scene 1 Terror into a hundred warriors? PHINEUS Priest, Thou art a superstitious fool. Believe not The gods come down to earth with swords and wings, Or transitory raiment made on looms, Or bodies visible to mortal eyes. Far otherwise they come, with unseen steps And stroke invisible, — if gods indeed There are. I doubt it, who can find no room For powers unseen: the world’s alive and moves By natural law without their intervention. POLYDAON King Phineus, doubt not the immortal gods. They love not doubters. If thou hadst lived as I, Daily devoted to the temple dimness, And seen the awful shapes that live in night, And heard the awful sounds that move at will When Ocean with the midnight is alone, Thou wouldst not doubt. Remember the dread portents High gods have sent on earth a hundred times When kings offended. PHINEUS Well, let them reign unquestioned Far from the earth in their too bright Olympus, So that they come not down to meddle here In what I purpose. For your aegis-bearer, Your winged and two-legged lion, he’s no god. You hurried me away or I’ld have probed His godlike guts with a good yard of steel To test the composition of his ichor. POLYDAON What of his flaming aegis lightning-tasselled?

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What of his wing`ed sandals, King? PHINEUS The aegis? Some mechanism of refracted light. The wings? Some new aerial contrivance A luckier Daedalus may have invented. The Greeks are scientists unequalled, bold Experimenters, happy in invention. Nothing’s incredible that they devise, And this man, Polydaon, is a Greek. POLYDAON Have it your way. Say he was merely man! How do we profit by his blood? PHINEUS O marvellous! Thou hesitate to kill! thou seek for reasons! Is not blood always blood? I could not forfeit My right to marry young Andromeda; She is my claim to Syria. Leave something, priest, To Fortune, but be ready for her coming And grasp ere she escape. The old way’s best; Excite the commons, woo their thunderer, That plausible republican. Iolaus Once ended, by right of fair Andromeda I’ll save and wear the crown. Priest, over Syria And all my Tyrians thou shalt be the one prelate, Should all go well. POLYDAON All shall go well, King Phineus. They go.

Scene 2 A room in the women’s apartments of the Palace. Andromeda, Diomede, Praxilla. ANDROMEDA My brother lives then? PRAXILLA Thanks to Tyre, it seems. DIOMEDE Thanks to the wolf who means to eat him later. PRAXILLA You’ll lose your tongue some morning; rule it, girl. DIOMEDE These kings, these politicians, these high masters! These wise blind men! We slaves have eyes at least To look beyond transparency. PRAXILLA Because We stand outside the heated game unmoved By interests, fears and passions. ANDROMEDA He is a wolf, for I have seen his teeth. PRAXILLA Yet must you marry him, my little princess.

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ANDROMEDA What, to be torn in pieces by the teeth? DIOMEDE I think the gods will not allow this marriage. ANDROMEDA I know not what the gods may do: be sure, I’ll not allow it. PRAXILLA Fie, Andromeda! You must obey your parents: ’tis not right, This wilfulness. Why, you’re a child! you think You can oppose the will of mighty monarchs? Be good; obey your father. ANDROMEDA Yes, Praxilla? And if my father bade me take a knife And cut my face and limbs and stab my eyes, Must I do that? PRAXILLA Where are you with your wild fancies? Your father would not bid you do such things. ANDROMEDA Because they’ld hurt me? PRAXILLA Yes. ANDROMEDA It hurts me more To marry Phineus.

Act II, Scene 2

385

PRAXILLA O you sly logic-splitter! You dialectician, you sunny-curled small sophist, Chop logic with your father. I’m tired of you. Cepheus enters. ANDROMEDA Father, I have been waiting for you. CEPHEUS What! you? I’ll not believe it. You? (caressing her) My rosy Syrian! My five-foot lady! My small queen of Tyre! Yes, you are tired of playing with the ball. You wait for me! ANDROMEDA I was waiting. Here are Two kisses for you. CEPHEUS Oh, now I understand. You dancing rogue, you’re not so free with kisses: I have to pay for them, small cormorant. What is it now? a talking Tyrian doll? Or a strong wooden horse with silken wings To fly up to the gold rims of the moon? ANDROMEDA I will not kiss you if you talk like that. I am a woman now. As if I wanted Such nonsense, father! CEPHEUS Oh, you’re a woman now? Then ’tis a robe from Cos, sandals fur-lined Or belt all silver. Young diplomatist,

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I know you. You keep these rippling showers of gold Upon your head to buy your wishes with. Therefore you packed your small red lips with honey. Well, usurer, what’s the price you want? ANDROMEDA I want, — But father, will you give me what I want? CEPHEUS I’ld give you the bright sun from heaven for plaything To make you happy, girl Andromeda. ANDROMEDA I want the Babylonians who were wrecked In the great ship today, to be my slaves, Father. CEPHEUS Was ever such a perverse witch? To ask the only thing I cannot give! ANDROMEDA Can I not have them, father? CEPHEUS They are Poseidon’s. ANDROMEDA Oh then you love Poseidon more than me! Why should he have them? CEPHEUS Fie, child! the mighty gods Are masters of the earth and sea and heavens, And all that is, is theirs. We are their stewards. But what is once restored into their hands

Act II, Scene 2 Is thenceforth holy: he who even gazes With greedy eye upon divine possessions, Is guilty in Heaven’s sight and may awake A dreadful wrath. These men, Andromeda, Must bleed upon the altar of the God. Speak not of them again: they are devoted. ANDROMEDA Is he a god who eats the flesh of men? PRAXILLA O hush, blasphemer! ANDROMEDA Father, give command, To have Praxilla here boiled for my breakfast. I’ll be a goddess too. CEPHEUS Praxilla! PRAXILLA ’Tis thus She talks. Oh but it gives me a shivering fever Sometimes to hear her. CEPHEUS What mean you, dread gods? Purpose you then the ruin of my house Preparing in my children the offences That must excuse your wrath? Andromeda, My little daughter, speak not like this again, I charge you, no, nor think it. The mighty gods Dwell far above the laws that govern men And are not to be mapped by mortal judgments. It is Poseidon’s will these men should die Upon his altar. ’Tis not to be questioned.

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ANDROMEDA It shall be questioned. Let your God go hungry. CEPHEUS I am amazed! Did you not hear me, child? On the third day from now these men shall die. The same high evening ties you fast with nuptials To Phineus, who shall take you home to Tyre. (aside) On Tyre let the wrath fall, if it must come. ANDROMEDA Father, you’ll understand this once for all, — I will not let the Babylonians die, I will not marry Phineus. CEPHEUS Oh, you will not? Here is a queen, of Tyre and all the world; How mutinous-majestically this smallness Divulges her decrees, making the most Of her five feet of gold and cream and roses! And why will you not marry Phineus, rebel? ANDROMEDA He does not please me. CEPHEUS School your likings, rebel. It is most needful Syria mate with Tyre. And you are Syria. ANDROMEDA Why, father, if you gave me a toy, you’ld ask What toy I like! If you gave me a robe Or vase, you would consult my taste in these! Must I marry any cold-eyed crafty husband

Act II, Scene 2

389

I do not like? CEPHEUS You do not like! You do not like! Thou silly child, must the high policy Of Princes then be governed by thy likings? ’Tis policy, ’tis kingly policy That made this needful marriage, and it shall not For your spoilt childish likings be unmade. What, you look sullen? what, you frown, virago? Look, if you mutiny, I’ll have you whipped. ANDROMEDA You would not dare. CEPHEUS Not dare! ANDROMEDA Of course you would not. As if I were afraid of you! CEPHEUS You are spoiled, You are spoiled! Your mother spoils you, you wilful sunbeam. Come, you provoking minx, you’ll marry Phineus? ANDROMEDA I will not, father. If I must marry, then I’ll marry my bright sungod! and none else In the wide world. CEPHEUS Your sungod! Is that all? Shall I not send an envoy to Olympus And call the Thunderer here to marry you? You’re not ambitious?

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It is not that she means; She speaks of the bright youth her brother rescued. Since she has heard of him, no meaner talk Is on her lips. CEPHEUS Who is this radiant coxcomb? Whence did he come to set my Syria in a whirl? For him my son’s in peril of his life, For him my daughter will not marry Tyre. Oh, Polydaon’s right. He must be killed Before he does more mischief. Andromeda, On the third day you marry Tyrian Phineus. He goes out hurriedly. DIOMEDE That was a valiant shot timed to a most discreet departure. Parthian tactics are best when we deal with mutinous daughters. PRAXILLA Andromeda, you will obey your father? ANDROMEDA You are not in my counsels. You’re too faithful, Virtuous and wise, and virtuously you would Betray me. There is a thing full-grown in me That you shall only know by the result. Diomede, come; for I need help, not counsel. She goes. PRAXILLA What means she now? Her whims are as endless as the tossing of leaves in a wind. But you will find out and tell me, Diomede. DIOMEDE I will find out certainly, but as to telling, that is as it shall please me — and my little mistress.

Act II, Scene 2

391

PRAXILLA You shall be whipped. DIOMEDE Pish! She runs out. PRAXILLA The child is spoiled herself and she spoils her servants. There is no managing any of them. She goes out.

Scene 3 An orchard garden in Syria by a river-bank: the corner of a cottage in the background. Perseus, Cydone. CYDONE (sings) O the sun in the reeds and willows! O the sun with the leaves at play! Who would waste the warm sunlight? And for weeping there’s the night. But now ’tis day. PERSEUS Yes, willows and the reeds! and the bright sun Stays with the ripples talking quietly. And there, Cydone, look! how the fish leap To catch at sunbeams. Sing yet again, Cydone. CYDONE (sings) O what use have your foolish tears? What will you do with your hopes and fears? They but waste the sweet sunlight. Look! morn opens: look how bright The world appears! PERSEUS O you Cydone in the sweet sunlight! But you are lovelier. CYDONE You talk like Iolaus.

Act II, Scene 3 Come, here’s your crown. I’ll set it where ’tis due. PERSEUS Crowns are too heavy, dear. Sunlight was better. CYDONE ’Tis a light crown of love I put upon you, My brother Perseus. PERSEUS Love! but love is heavy. CYDONE No, love is light. I put light love upon you, Because I love you and you love Iolaus. I love you because you love Iolaus, And love the world that loves my Iolaus, Iolaus my world and all the world Only for Iolaus. PERSEUS Happy Cydone, Who can lie here and babble to the river All day of love and light and Iolaus. If it could last! But tears are in the world And must some day be wept. CYDONE Why must they, Perseus? PERSEUS When Iolaus becomes King in Syria And comes no more, what will you do, Cydone? CYDONE Why, I will go to him.

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Perseus the Deliverer PERSEUS

And if perhaps He should not know you? CYDONE Then it will be night. It is day now. PERSEUS A bright philosophy, But with the tears behind. Hellas, thou livest In thy small world of radiant white perfection With eye averted from the night beyond, The night immense, unfathomed. But I have seen Snow-regions monstrous underneath the moon And Gorgon caverns dim. Ah well, the world Is bright around me and the quick lusty breeze Of strong adventure wafts my bright-winged sandals O’er mountains and o’er seas, and Herpe’s with me, My sword of sharpness. CYDONE Your sword, my brother Perseus? But it is lulled to sleep in scarlet roses By the winged sandals watched. Can they really Lift you into the sky? PERSEUS They can, Cydone. CYDONE What’s in the wallet locked so carefully? I would have opened it and seen, but could not. PERSEUS ’Tis well thou didst not. For thy breathing limbs Would in a moment have been charmed to stone

Act II, Scene 3

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And these smooth locks grown rigid and stiffened, O Cydone, Thy happy heart would never more have throbbed To Iolaus’ kiss. CYDONE What monster’s there? PERSEUS It is the Gorgon’s head who lived in night. Snake-tresses frame its horror of deadly beauty That turns the gazer into marble. CYDONE Ugh! Why do you keep such dreadful things about you? PERSEUS Why, are there none who are better turned to stone Than living? CYDONE O yes, the priest of the dark shrine Who hates my love. Fix him to frowning grimness In innocent marble. (listening) It is Iolaus! I know his footfall, muffled in the green. Iolaus enters. IOLAUS Perseus, my friend, — PERSEUS Thou art my human sun. Come, shine upon me; let thy face of beauty Become a near delight, my arm, fair youth, possess thee. IOLAUS I am a warrant-bearer to you, friend.

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PERSEUS On what arrest? IOLAUS For running from the knife. A debt that must be paid. They’ll not be baulked Their dues of blood, their strict account of hearts. Or mine or thine they’ll have to crown their altars. PERSEUS Why, do but make thy tender breast the altar And I’ll not grudge my heart, sweet Iolaus. Who’s this accountant? IOLAUS Poseidon’s dark-browed priest, As gloomy as the den in which he lairs, Who hopes to gather Syria in his hands Upon a priestly pretext. CYDONE Change him, Perseus, Into black stone! PERSEUS Oh, hard and black as his own mood! He has a stony heart much better housed In limbs of stone than a kind human body Who would hurt thee, my Iolaus. IOLAUS He’ld hurt And find a curious pleasure. If it were even My sister sunbeam, my Andromeda, He’ld carve her soft white breast as readily As any slave’s or murderer’s.

Act II, Scene 3 PERSEUS Andromeda! It is a name that murmurs to the heart Of strength and sweetness. IOLAUS Three days you are given to prove yourself a god! You failing, ’tis my bosom pays the debt. That’s their decree. CYDONE Turn them to stone, to stone! All, all to heartless marble! PERSEUS Thy father bids this? IOLAUS He dare not baulk this dangerous priest. PERSEUS Ah, dare not! Yes, there are fathers too who love their lives And not their children: earth has known of such. There was a father like this once in Argos! IOLAUS Blame not the King too much. CYDONE Turn him to stone, To stone! IOLAUS Hush, hush, Cydone!

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Perseus the Deliverer CYDONE Stone, hard stone!

IOLAUS I’ll whip thee, shrew, with rose-briars. CYDONE Will you promise To kiss the blood away? Then I’ll offend Daily, on purpose. IOLAUS Love’s rose-briars, sweet Cydone, Inflict no wounds. CYDONE Oh yes, they bleed within. IOLAUS The brow of Perseus grows darkness! PERSEUS Rise, And be my guide. Where is this temple and priest? IOLAUS The temple now? PERSEUS Soonest is always best When noble deeds are to be done. IOLAUS What deed? PERSEUS I will release the men of Babylon

Act II, Scene 3

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From their grim blood-feast. Let them howl for victims. IOLAUS It will incense them more. PERSEUS Me they have incensed With their fierce crafty fury. If they must give To their dire god, let them at least fulfil With solemn decency their fearful rites. But since they bring in politic rage and turn Their barbarous rite into a trade of murder, Nor rite nor temple be respected more. Must they have victims? Let them take and slay Perseus alone. I shall rejoice to know That so much strength and boldness dwells in men Who are mortal. IOLAUS Men thou needst not fear; but, Perseus, Poseidon’s wrath will wake, whose lightest motion Is deadly. PERSEUS Mine is not harmless. IOLAUS Against gods What can a mortal’s anger do? PERSEUS We’ll talk With those pale merchants. Wait for me; I bring Herpe my sword. CYDONE The wallet, Perseus! leave not the dear wallet! Perseus goes out towards the cottage.

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IOLAUS My queen, have I your leave? CYDONE Give me a kiss That I may spend the hours remembering it Till you return. IOLAUS (kissing her) Will one fill hours, Cydone? CYDONE I fear to ask for more. You’re such a miser. IOLAUS You rose-lipped slanderer! there! Had I the time I would disprove you, smothering you with what You pray for. CYDONE Come soon. IOLAUS I’ll watch the sun go down. In your dark night of tresses. Perseus returns. PERSEUS Come. IOLAUS I am ready. CYDONE Stone, brother Perseus, make them stone for ever. Perseus and Iolaus go out.

Act II, Scene 3

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(sings) “Marble body, heart of bliss Or a stony heart and this, Which of these two wilt thou crave? One or other thou shalt have.” “By my kisses shall be known Which is flesh and which is stone. Love, thy heart of stone! it quakes. Sweet, thy fair cold limbs! love takes With this warm and rosy trembling. Where is now thy coy dissembling? Heart and limbs I here escheat For that fraudulent deceit.” “And will not marble even grow soft, Kissed so warmly and so oft?” Curtain

Act III Scene 1 The women’s apartments of the Palace. Andromeda, Diomede. ANDROMEDA All’s ready, let us go. DIOMEDE Andromeda, My little mistress whom I love, let me Beseech you by that love, do not attempt it. Oh, this is no such pretty wilfulness As all men love to smile at and to punish With tenderness and chidings. It is a crime Full of impiety, a deed of danger That venturous and iron spirits would be aghast To dream of. You think because you are a child, You will be pardoned, because you are a princess No hand will dare to punish you. You do not know Men’s hearts. They will not pause to pity you, They will not spare. The people in its rage Will tear us both to pieces, limb from limb, With blows and fury, roaring round like tigers. Will you expose yourself to that grim handling Who cry out at the smallest touch of pain? ANDROMEDA Do not delay me on the brink of action. You have said these things before.

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DIOMEDE You shall not do it. I will not go with you. ANDROMEDA So you expose me To danger merely and break the oath you swore; For I must do it then unhelped. DIOMEDE I’ll tell Your mother, child, and then you cannot go. ANDROMEDA I shall die then on the third day from this. DIOMEDE What! you will kill yourself, and for two strangers You never saw? You are no human maiden But something far outside mortality, Princess, if you do this. ANDROMEDA I shall not need. You threaten me with the fierce people’s tearings, And shall I not be torn when I behold My fellows’ piteous hearts plucked from their bosoms Between their anguished shrieks? I shall fall dead With horror and with pity at your feet: Then you’ll repent this cruelty. She weeps. DIOMEDE Child, child! Hush, I will go with you. If I must die, I’ll die.

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ANDROMEDA Have I not loved you, Diomede? Have I not taken your stripes upon myself, Claiming your dear offences? Have I not lain Upon your breast, stealing from my own bed At night, and kissed your bosom and your hands For very love of you? And I had thought You loved me: but you do not care at last Whether I live or die. DIOMEDE Oh hush! I love you, I’ll go with you. You shall not die alone, If you are bent on dying. I’ll put on My sandals and be with you in a moment. Go, little princess. I am with you; go. She goes. ANDROMEDA O you poor shuddering men, my human fellows, Horribly bound beneath the grisly knife You feel already groping for your hearts, Pardon me each long moment that you wrestle With grim anticipation. O, and you, If there is any god in the deaf skies That pities men or helps them, O protect me! But if you are inexorably unmoved And punish pity, I, Andromeda, Who am a woman on this earth, will help My brothers. Then, if you must punish me, Strike home. You should have given me no heart; It is too late now to forbid it feeling. She is going out. Athene appears. What is this light, this glory? who art thou, O beautiful marble face amid the lightnings? My heart faints with delight, my body trembles, Intolerable ecstasy beats in my veins;

Act III, Scene 1 I am oppressed and tortured with thy beauty. ATHENE I am Athene. ANDROMEDA Art thou a goddess? Thy name We hear far off in Syria. ATHENE I am she Who helps and has compassion on struggling mortals. ANDROMEDA (falling prostrate) Do not deceive me! I will kiss thy feet. O joy! thou art! thou art! ATHENE Lift up thy head, My servant. ANDROMEDA Thou art! there are not only void Azure and cold inexorable laws. ATHENE Stand up, O daughter of Cassiope. Wilt thou then help these men of Babylonia, My mortals whom I love? ANDROMEDA I help myself, When I help these. ATHENE To thee alone I gave This knowledge. O virgin, O Andromeda,

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It reached thee through that large and noble heart Of woman beating in a little child. But dost thou know that thy reward shall be Betrayal and fierce hatred? God and man Shall league in wrath to kill and torture thee Mid dire revilings. ANDROMEDA My reward shall be To cool this anguish of pity in my heart And be at peace: if dead, O still at peace! ATHENE Thou fearst not then? They will expose thee, child, To slaughter by the monsters of the deep Who shall come forth to tear thy limbs. ANDROMEDA Beyond too Shall I be hated, in that other world? ATHENE Perhaps. ANDROMEDA Wilt thou love me? ATHENE Thou art my child. ANDROMEDA O mother, O Athene, let me go. They linger in anticipated pangs. ATHENE Go, child. I shall be near invisibly.

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She disappears. Andromeda stands with clasped hands straining her eyes as if into infinity. Diomede returns. DIOMEDE You are not gone as yet? what is this, princess? What is this light around you! How you are altered, Andromeda! ANDROMEDA Diomede, let us go. They go out.

Scene 2 In the Temple of Poseidon. Cireas. CIREAS I am done with thee, Poseidon Ennosigaios, man-slayer, shipbreaker, earth-shaker, lord of the waters! Never was faithful service so dirtily rewarded. In all these years not a drachma, not an obolus, not even a false coin for solace. And when thou hadst mocked me with hope, when a Prince had promised me all my findings, puttest thou me off with two pauperized merchants of Babylon? What, thou takest thy loud ravenous glut of the treasures that should have been mine and roarest derision at me with thy hundred-voiced laughters? Am I a sponge to suck up these insults? No! I am only moderately porous. I will break thy treasury, Poseidon, and I will run. Think not either to send thy sea-griffins after me. For I will live on the top of Lebanon, and thy monsters, when they come for me, shall snort and grin and gasp for breath and return to thee baffled and asthmatic. As he talks Iolaus and Perseus enter. IOLAUS What, Cireas, wilt thou run? I’ll give thee gold To wing thy shoes, if thou wilt do my bidding. CIREAS I am overheard! I am undone! I am crucified! I am disembowelled! IOLAUS Be tranquil, Cireas, fool, I come to help thee.

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CIREAS Do you indeed! I see, they have made you a god, for you know men’s minds. But could old father Zeus find your newborn godhead no better work than to help thieves and give wings to runaways? Will you indeed help me, god Iolaus? I can steal then under thy welcome protection? I can borrow Poseidon’s savings and run? IOLAUS Steal not: thou shalt have gold enough to buy Thy liberty and farms and slaves and cattle. CIREAS Prince, art thou under a vow of liberality? or being about to die, wilt thou distribute thy goods and chattels to deserving dishonesty? Do not mock me, for if thou raise hopes again in me and break them, I can only hang myself. IOLAUS I mock thee not, thou shalt have glut of riches. CIREAS What must I do? I’ld give thee nose and ears For farms and freedom. PERSEUS Wherefore dost thou bribe This slave to undo a bond my sword unties? IOLAUS I shrink from violence in the grim god’s temple. CIREAS Zeus, art thou there with thy feathers and phosphorus? I pray thee, my good bright darling Zeus, do not come in the way of my earnings. Do not be so cantankerously virtuous, do not

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be so damnably economical. Good Zeus, I adjure thee by thy foot-plumes. IOLAUS Cireas, wilt thou bring forth the wretched captives Who wait the butcher Polydaon’s knife With groanings? we would talk with them. Wilt thou? CIREAS Will I? Will I? I would do any bad turn to that scanty-hearted rampageous old ship-swallower there. I would do it for nothing, and for so much gold will I not? IOLAUS And thou must shut thine eyes. CIREAS Eyes! I will shut mouth and nose and ears too, nor ask for one penny extra. IOLAUS Dost thou not fear? CIREAS Oh, the blue-haired old bogy there? I have lived eighteen years in this temple and seen nothing of him but ivory and sapphires. I begin to think he cannot breathe out of water; no doubt, he is some kind of fish and walks on the point of his tail. PERSEUS Enough, bring forth the Babylonian captives. CIREAS I run, Zeus, I run: but keep thy phosphorus lit and handy against Polydaon’s return unasked for and untrumpeted. He runs out.

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PERSEUS O thou grim calmness imaged like a man That frownst above the altar! dire Poseidon! Art thou that god indeed who smooths the sea With one finger, and when it is thy will, Rufflest the oceans with thy casual breathing? Art thou not rather, lord, some murderous And red imagination of this people, The shadow of a soul that dreamed of blood And took this dimness? If thou art Poseidon, The son of Cronos, I am Cronos’ grandchild, Perseus, and in my soul Athene moves With lightnings. IOLAUS I hear the sound of dragging chains. Cireas returns with Tyrnaus and Smerdas. PERSEUS Smerdas and thou, Tyrnaus, once again We meet. SMERDAS Save me, yet save me. PERSEUS If thou art worth it, I may. SMERDAS Thou shalt have gold. I am well worth it. I’ll empty Babylonia of its riches Into thy wallet. PERSEUS Has terror made thee mad? Refrain from speech! Thine eyes are calm, Tyrnaus.

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TYRNAUS I have composed my soul to my sad fortunes. Yet wherefore sad? Fate has dealt largely with me. I have been thrice shipwrecked, twice misled in deserts, Wounded six times in battle with wild men For life and treasure. I have outspent kings: I have lost fortunes and amassed them: princes Have been my debtors, kingdoms lost and won By lack or having of a petty fraction Of my rich incomings: and now Fate gives me This tragic, not inglorious death: I am The banquet of a god. It fits, it fits, And I repine not. PERSEUS But will these help, Tyrnaus, To pass the chill eternity of Hades? This memory of glorious breathing life, Will it alleviate the endless silence? TYRNAUS But there are lives beyond, and we meanwhile Move delicately amid aerial things Until the green earth wants us. PERSEUS (shearing his chains with a touch of his sword) Yet awhile Of the green earth take all thy frank desire, Merchant: the sunlight would be loth to lose thee. SMERDAS O radiant helpful youth! O son of splendour! I live again. PERSEUS Thou livest, but in chains, Smerdas.

Act III, Scene 2 SMERDAS But thy good sword will quickly shear them. PERSEUS Thou wilt give me all Babylonia holds Of riches for reward? SMERDAS More, more, much more! PERSEUS But thou must go to Babylon to fetch it. Then what security have I of payment? SMERDAS Keep good Tyrnaus here, my almost brother. I will come back and give thee gold, much gold. PERSEUS You’ld leave him here? in danger? with the knife Searching for him and grim Poseidon angry? SMERDAS What danger, when he is with thee, O youth, Strong radiant youth? PERSEUS Yourself then stay with me, And he shall bring the ransom from Chaldea. SMERDAS Here? here? Oh God! they’ll seize me yet again And cut my heart out. Let me go, dear youth, Oh, let me go; I’ll give thee double gold. PERSEUS Thou sordid treacherous thing of fears, I’ll not

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Venture for such small gain as the poor soul Thou holdest, nor drive with danger losing bargains. SMERDAS Oh, do not jest! it is not good to jest With death and horror. PERSEUS I jest not. SMERDAS Oh God! thou dost. DIOMEDE (without) Cireas! CIREAS (jumping) Who? who? who? IOLAUS Is’t not a woman’s voice? Withdraw into the shadow: let our swords Be out against surprise. Hither, Tyrnaus. DIOMEDE Cireas! where are you, Cireas? It is I. CIREAS It is the little palace scamp, Diomede. Plague take her! How she fluttered the heart in me! IOLAUS Say nothing of us, merchant, or thou diest. Iolaus, Perseus and Tyrnaus withdraw into the dimness of the Temple. Andromeda and Diomede enter.

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CIREAS Princess Andromeda! PERSEUS (apart) Andromeda! Iolaus’ rosy sister! O child goddess Dropped recently from heaven! Its light is still Upon thy face, thou marvel! IOLAUS My little sister In these grim precincts, who so feared their shadows! ANDROMEDA Cireas, my servant Diomede means To tell you of some bargain. Will you walk yonder? Cireas and Diomede walk apart talking. Art thou, as these chains say, the mournful victim Our savage billows spared and men would murder? But was there not another? Have they brought thee From thy sad prison to the shrine alone? SMERDAS He, — he, — ANDROMEDA Has terror so possessed thy tongue, It cannot do its office? Oh, be comforted. Although red horror has its grasp on thee, I dare to tell thee there is hope. SMERDAS What hope? Ah heaven! what hope! I feel the knife even now Hacking my bosom. If thou bringst me hope, I’ll know thee for a goddess and adore thee.

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ANDROMEDA Be comforted: I bring thee more than hope. Cireas! CIREAS You’ll give me chains? you’ll give me jewels? ANDROMEDA All of my own that I can steal for you. CIREAS Steal boldly, O honey-sweet image of a thief, steal and fear not. I rose for good luck after all this excellent morning! O Poseidon, had I known there was more to be pocketed in thy disservice than in thy service, would I have misspent these eighteen barren years? ANDROMEDA Undo this miserable captive’s bonds. SMERDAS What! I shall be allowed to live! Is’t true? ANDROMEDA No, I’ll undo them, Cireas; I shall feel I freed him. Is there so much then to unlink? O ingenuity of men to hurt And bind and slay their brothers! SMERDAS ’Tis not a dream, The horror was the dream. She smiles on me A wonderful glad smile of joy and kindness, Making a sunshine. Oh, be quicker, quicker. Let me escape this hell where I have eaten And drunk of terror and have slept with death.

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ANDROMEDA Are you so careless of the friend who shared The tears and danger? Where is he? Cireas! TYRNAUS (coming forward) O thou young goddess with the smile! Behold him, Tyrnaus the Chaldean. ANDROMEDA (dropping the chain which binds Smerdas) Already free! Who has forestalled me? TYRNAUS Maiden, art thou vexed To see me unbound? ANDROMEDA I grudge your rescuer the happy task Heaven meant for me of loosening your chains. It would have been such joy to feel the cold Hard irons drop apart between my fingers! Who freed you? TYRNAUS A god as radiant as thyself, Thou merciful sweetness. ANDROMEDA Had he not a look Like the Olympian’s? Was he not bright like Hermes Or Phoebus? TYRNAUS He was indeed. Thou knowst him then? ANDROMEDA In dreams I have met him. He was here but now?

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TYRNAUS He has withdrawn into the shadow, virgin. SMERDAS Why do you leave me bound, and talk, and talk, As if Death had not still his fingers on me? ANDROMEDA (resuming her task) Forgive me! Tyrnaus, did that radiant helper Who clove thy chains, forget to help this poor Pale trembling man? TYRNAUS Because he showed too much The sordid fear that pities only itself, He left him to his fate. ANDROMEDA Alas, poor human man! Why, we have all so many sins to answer, It would be hard to have cold justice dealt us. We should be kindly to each other’s faults Remembering our own. Is’t not enough To see a face in tears and heal the sorrow, Or must we weigh whether the face is fair Or ugly? I think that even a snake in pain Would tempt me to its succour, though I knew That afterwards ’twould bite me! But he is a god Perhaps who did this and his spotless radiance Abhors the tarnish of our frailer natures. SMERDAS Oh, I am free! I fall and kiss thy robe, O goddess, O deliverer. ANDROMEDA You must

Act III, Scene 2 Go quickly from this place. There is a cave Near to those unkind rocks where you were shipwrecked, A stone-throw up the cliff. We found it there Climbing and playing, reckless of our limbs In the sweet joy of sunshine, breeze and movement, When we were children, I and Diomede. None else will dream of it. There have I stored Enough of food and water. Closely lurk Behind its curtains of fantastic stone: Venture not forth, though your hearts pine for sunlight, Or Death may take you back into his grip. When hot pursuit and search have been tired out, I’ll find you golden wings will carry you To your Chaldea. SMERDAS Can you not find out divers Who’ll rescue our merchandise from the sunk rocks Where it is prisoned? TYRNAUS You have escaped grim murder, Yet dream of nothing but your paltry gems! You will call back Heaven’s anger on our heads. SMERDAS We cannot beg our way to far Chaldea. ANDROMEDA Diving is dangerous there: I will not risk Men’s lives for money. I promised Cireas what I have, And yet you shall not go unfurnished home. I’ll beg a sum from my brother Iolaus Will help you to Chaldea. SMERDAS O my dear riches!

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Must you lie whelmed beneath the Syrian surge Uncared for? ANDROMEDA (to Diomede) Take them to the cave. Show Cireas The hidden mouth. I’ll loiter and expect you Under the hill-side, where sweet water plashes From the grey fountain’s head, our fountain. Merchants, go; Athene guard you! TYRNAUS Not before I kneel And touch thy feet with reverent humble hands, O human merciful divinity, Who by thy own sweet spirit moved, unasked, Not knowing us, cam’st from thy safe warm chamber Here where Death broods grim-visaged in his home, To save two unseen, unloved, alien strangers, And being a woman feared not urgent death, And being a child shook not before God’s darkness And that insistent horror of a world O’ershadowing ours. O surely in these regions Where thou wert born, pure-eyed Andromeda, There shall be some divine epiphany Of calm sweet-hearted pity for the world, And harsher gods shall fade into their Hades. SMERDAS You prattle, and at any moment, comes The dreadful priest with clutch upon my shoulder. Come! come! you, slave-girl, lead the way, accurs`ed! You loiter? ANDROMEDA Chide not my servant, Babylonian. Go, Diomede; darkness like a lid Will soon shut down upon the rugged beach

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And they may stumble as they walk. Go, Cireas. Diomede and Cireas go out, followed by the merchants. Alone I stand before thee, grim Poseidon, Here in thy darkness, with thy altar near That keeps fierce memory of tortured groans And human shrieks of victims, and, unforced, I yet pollute my soul with thy bloody nearness To tell thee that I hate, contemn, defy thee. I am no more than a brief-living woman, Yet am I more divine than thou, for I Can pity. I have torn thy destined prey From thy red jaws. They say thou dost avenge Fearfully insult. Avenge thyself, Poseidon. She goes out: Perseus and Iolaus come forward. PERSEUS Thou art the mate for me, Andromeda! Now, now I know wherefore my eager sandals Bore me resistlessly to thee and Syria. IOLAUS This was Andromeda and not Andromeda. I never saw her woman till this hour. PERSEUS Knew you so ill the child you loved so well, Iolaus? IOLAUS Sometimes we know them least Whom most we love and constantly consort with. PERSEUS How daintily she moved as if a hand She loved were on her curls and she afraid Of startling the sweet guest!

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O Perseus, Perseus! She has defied a strong and dreadful god, And dreadfully he will avenge himself. PERSEUS Iolaus, friend, I think not quite at random Athene led me to these happy shores That bore such beautiful twin heads for me Sun-curled, Andromeda and Iolaus, That I might see their beauty marred with death By cunning priests and blood-stained gods. Fear not The event. I bear Athene’s sword of sharpness. They go out.

Scene 3 Darkness. The Temple of Poseidon. Polydaon enters. POLYDAON Cireas! Why, Cireas! Cireas! Knave, I call you! Is the rogue drunk or sleeps? Cireas! you, Cireas! My voice comes echoing from the hollow shrine To tell me of solitude. Where is this drunkard? A dreadful thing it is to stand alone In this weird temple. Forty years of use Have not accustomed me to its mute threatening. It seems to me as if dead victims moved With awful faces all about this stone Invisibly here palpable. And Ocean Groans ever like a wounded god aloud Against our rocky base, his voice at night Weirdly insistent. I will go and talk With the Chaldeans in their chains: better Their pleasing groans and curses than the hush. He goes out and after a while comes back, disordered. Wake, sleeping Syria, wake! Thou art violated, Thy heart cut out: thou art outraged, Syria, outraged, Thy harvests and thy safety and thy sons Already murdered! O hideous sacrilege! Who can have dared this crime? Could the slave Cireas Have ventured thus? O no, it is the proud God-hating son of Cepheus, Iolaus, And that swift stranger borne through impious air To upheave the bases of our old religion. They have rescued the Chaldeans. Cireas lies

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Murdered perhaps on the sound-haunted cliffs Who would have checked their crime. I’ll strike the gong That only tolls when dread calamity Strides upon Syria. Wake, doomed people, wake! He rushes out. A gong sounds for some moments. It is silent and he returns, still more disordered. Wake! Wake! Do you not hear Poseidon raging Beneath the cliffs with tiger-throated menace? Do you not hear his feet upon the boulders Sounding, a thunderous report of peril, As he comes roaring up his stony ramparts To slay you? Ah, the city wakes. I hear A surge confused of hurrying, cries and tumult. What is this darkness moving on me? Gods! Where is the image? Whose is this awful godhead? The Shadow of Poseidon appears, vague and alarming at first, then distinct and terrible in the darkness. POSEIDON My victims, Polydaon, give me my victims. POLYDAON (falling prostrate) It was not I, it was not I, but others. POSEIDON My victims, Polydaon, give me my victims. POLYDAON O dire offended god, not upon me Fall thy loud scourges! I am innocent. POSEIDON How art thou innocent, when the Chaldeans Escape? Give me my victims, Polydaon.

Act III, Scene 3 POLYDAON I know not how they fled nor who released them. Gnash not thy blood-stained teeth on me, O Lord, Nor slay me with those glaring eyes. Thy voice Thunders, a hollow terror, through my soul. POSEIDON Hear me, unworthy priest. While thou art scheming For thy own petty mortal aims abroad, I am insulted in my temple, laughed at By slaves, by children done injurious wrong, My victims snatched from underneath my roof By any casual hand, my dreadful image Looking deserted on: for none avenges. POLYDAON Declare thy will, O Lord, it shall be done. POSEIDON Therefore I will awake, I will arise, And you shall know me for a god. This day The loud Assyrians shall break shouting in With angry hooves like a huge-riding flood Upon this country. The pleasant land of Syria Shall be dispeopled. Wolves shall howl in Damascus, And Gaza and Euphrates bound a desert. My resonant and cliff-o’ervaulting seas, Black-cowled, with foaming tops thundering shall climb Into your lofty seats of ease and wash them Strangled into the valleys. From the deep My ravening herds pastured by Amphitrite Shall walk upon your roads, devour your maidens And infants, tear your strong and arm`ed men Helplessly shrieking like weak-wristed women, Till all are dead. And thou, neglectful priest, Shalt go down living into Tartarus Where knives fire-pointed shall disclose thy breast

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And pluck thy still-renewing heart from thee For ever: till the world cease shall be thy torments. POLYDAON O dreadful Lord! POSEIDON If thou wouldst shun the doom, And keep my Syria safe, discover then The rescuer of the Babylonian captives And to the monsters of my deep expose For a delicious banquet. Offer the heart Of Iolaus here still warmly alive And sobbing blood to leave his beautiful body; Slaughter on his yet not inanimate bosom The hero for whose love he braved my rage, And let the sacrilegious house of Cepheus Be blotted from the light. Thy sordid aims Put from thy heart: remember to be fearless. I will inhabit thee, if thou deserve it. He disappears thundering. POLYDAON Yes, Lord! shall not thy dreadful will be done? Phineus enters and his Tyrians with torches. PHINEUS Wherefore has the gong’s ominous voice tonight Affrighted Syria? Are you Polydaon Who crouch here? POLYDAON (rising) Welcome, King Phineus. PHINEUS Who art thou? Thine eyes roll round in a bright glaring horror

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And rising up thou shak’st thy gloomy locks As if they were a hungry lion’s mane Preparing for the leap. Speak, Polydaon. POLYDAON Yes, I shall speak, of sacrilege and blood, Its terrible forfeit, and the wrath of Heaven. Cepheus enters with Dercetes and Syrian soldiers, Therops, Perissus and a throng of Syrians; scores of torches. CEPHEUS What swift calamity, O Polydaon, Has waked to clamorousness the fatal gong At which all Syria trembles? What is this face Thou showest like some grim accusing phantom’s In the torches’ light? Wherefore rangst thou the bell? POLYDAON It rang the doom of thee and all thy house, Cepheus. CEPHEUS My doom! PHINEUS (aside) I glimpse a striking plot And ’tis well-staged too. POLYDAON The victims are released, The victims bound for terrible Poseidon. Thou and thy blood are guilty. CEPHEUS Thou art mad!

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POLYDAON ’Tis thou and thy doomed race are seized with madness, Who with light hearts offend against Poseidon. But they shall perish. Thou and thy blood shall perish. CEPHEUS O, thou appalst me. Wherefore rings out thy voice Against me like a clamorous bell of doom In the huge darkness? POLYDAON Poseidon’s self arose In the dim night before me with a voice As angry as the loud importunate surge Denouncing thee. Thou and thy blood shall perish. PHINEUS Cepheus, let search be made. Perhaps the victims Have not fled far, and all may yet be saved. CEPHEUS Scour, captains, scour all Syria for the fugitives. Dercetes and thy troop, down to the coast, Scan every boulder: out, out, Meriones, Callias, Oridamas and Pericarpus, Ring in the countryside with cordons armed, Enter each house, ransack most private chambers, But find them. Dercetes and the captains go out with their soldiers, the people making way for them. POLYDAON People of Syria, hearken, hearken! Poseidon for this sacrilege arouses The Assyrian from the land and from the sea His waves and all their sharp-toothed monsters: your men

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Shall be rent and disembowelled, your women ravished, Butchered by foemen or by Ocean’s dogs Horribly eaten: what’s left, the flood shall swallow. Cries and groans. VOICES Spare us, Poseidon, spare us, dread deity! POLYDAON Would you be spared? Obey Poseidon, people. THEROPS Thou art our King, command us. POLYDAON Bring the woman, Chaldean Cassiopea, and her daughter. Tell them that Syria’s King commands them here. Therops and others go out to do his bidding. PHINEUS What mean you, priest? CEPHEUS Wherefore my queen and princess? POLYDAON I do the will of terrible Poseidon. Thou and thy blood shall perish. PHINEUS Thou then art mad! I thought this was a skilful play. Thinkst thou I will permit the young Andromeda, My bride, to be mishandled or exposed To the bloody chances of wild popular fury In such a moment?

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POLYDAON Phineus, I know not what thou wilt permit: I know what terrible Poseidon wills. PHINEUS Poseidon! thou gross superstitious fool, Hast thou seen shadows in the night and tookst them For angry gods? POLYDAON Refrain from impious words, Or else the doom shall take thee in its net. PHINEUS Refrain thyself from impious deeds, or else A hundred Tyrian blades shall search thy brain To look for thy lost reason. POLYDAON (recoiling) Patience, King Phineus! It may be, thou shalt have thy whole desire By other means. Dercetes returns. DERCETES One of the fugitives is seized. POLYDAON Where, where? DERCETES Creeping about the sea-kissed rocks we found him Where the ship foundered, babbling greedily Of his lost wealth, in cover of the darkness. POLYDAON Now we shall know the impious hand. Tremble,

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Tremble, King Cepheus. CEPHEUS (aside) I am besieged, undone. No doubt it is my rash-brained Iolaus Ruins us all. Soldiers enter, driving in Smerdas. SMERDAS (groaning) I am dragged back to hell. I am lost and nothing now can save me. POLYDAON Chaldean, The choice is thine. Say, wilt thou save thy life And see the green fields of thy land once more And kiss thy wife and children? SMERDAS You mock me, mock me! POLYDAON No, man! thou shalt have freedom at a price Or torture gratis. SMERDAS Price? price? I’ll give the price! POLYDAON The names of those whose impious hands released thee: Which if thou speak not, thou shalt die, not given To the dire god, for he asks other victims, But crushed with fearful tortures. SMERDAS O kind Heaven! Have mercy! Must I give her up, — that smile

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Of sweetness and those kindly eyes, to death? It is a dreadful choice! I cannot do it. POLYDAON It was a woman did this! SMERDAS I’ll say no more. CEPHEUS I breathe again: it was not Iolaus. POLYDAON Seize him and twist him into anguished knots! Let every bone be crushed and every sinew Wrenched and distorted, till each inch of flesh Gives out its separate shriek. SMERDAS O spare me, spare me: I will tell all. POLYDAON Speak truth and I will give thee Bushels of gold and shipment to Chaldea. SMERDAS Gold? Gold? Shall I have gold? POLYDAON Thou shalt. SMERDAS (after a pause) The youth You would have taken on the beach, arrived, And his the sword bit through my iron fetters.

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POLYDAON Palter not! Who was with him? Thou shalt have gold. SMERDAS Young Iolaus. CEPHEUS Alas! PHINEUS Thus far is well. POLYDAON Thou hast a shifty look about the eyes. Thou spokest of a woman. Was’t the Queen? Hast thou told all? His face grows pale. To torment! SMERDAS (groaning) I will tell all. Swear then I shall have gold And safety. POLYDAON By grim Poseidon’s head I swear. SMERDAS O hard necessity! The fair child princess, Andromeda, with her young slave-girl came, She was my rescuer. There is a deep silence of amazement. PHINEUS I’ll not believe this! could that gentle child Devise and execute so huge a daring? Thou liest: thou art part of some foul plot. POLYDAON He has the accent of unwilling truth.

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Phineus, she is death’s bride, not thine. Wilt thou Be best man in that dolorous wedding? Forbear And wait Poseidon’s will. PHINEUS (low) Shall I have Syria? POLYDAON When it is mine to give thee. Therops returns. THEROPS The Queen arrives. POLYDAON Remove the merchant. The soldiers take Smerdas into the background. Cassiopea enters with Andromeda and Diomede, Nebassar and the Chaldean Guard. CASSIOPEA Keep ready hands upon your swords, Chaldeans. What is this tumult? Wherefore are we called At this dim hour and to this solemn place? POLYDAON Com’st thou with foreign falchions, Cassiopea, To brave the Syrian gods? Abandon her, Chaldeans. ’Tis a doomed head your swords encompass. CASSIOPEA Since when dost thou give thy commands in Syria And sentence queens? My husband and thy King Stands near thee; let him speak. POLYDAON Let him. There stands he.

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CASSIOPEA Why hidest thou thine eyes, monarch of Syria, Sinking thy forehead like a common man Unkingly? What grief o’ertakes thee? POLYDAON You see he speaks not. ’Tis I command in Syria. Is’t not so, My people? THEROPS ’Tis so. POLYDAON Stand forth, Andromeda. CASSIOPEA What would you with my child? I stand here for her. POLYDAON She is accused of impious sacrilege, And she must die. CASSIOPEA (shuddering) Die! Who accuses her? POLYDAON Bring the Chaldean. DIOMEDE Oh, the merchant’s seized And all is known. Deny it, my sweet lady, And we may yet be saved. ANDROMEDA Oh poor, poor merchant! Did I unloose thy bonds in vain?

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Perseus the Deliverer DIOMEDE Say nothing.

ANDROMEDA And why should I conceal it, Diomede? What I had courage in my heart to do, Surely I can have courage to avow. DIOMEDE But they will kill us both. ANDROMEDA I am a princess. Why should I lie? From fear? But I am not afraid. Meanwhile the soldiers have brought Smerdas to the front. POLYDAON Look, merchant. Say before all, who rescued thee? She was it? SMERDAS It is she. Oh, do not look With that sad smile upon me. I am compelled. POLYDAON Is this the slave-girl? SMERDAS It is she. CASSIOPEA This wretch Lies at thy bidding. Put him to the question. He said he was compelled. POLYDAON I’ll not permit it.

Act III, Scene 3 PERISSUS Why, man, it is the law. We’ll not believe Our little princess did the crime. CASSIOPEA Syrians, Look at this paltering priest. Do you not see It is a plot, this man his instrument Who lies so wildly? He’ll not have him questioned. No doubt ’twas he himself released the man, — Who else could do it in this solemn temple Where human footsteps fear to tread? He uses The name of great Poseidon to conceal His plottings. He would end the line of Cepheus And reign in Syria. PERISSUS This sounds probable. VOICES Does he misuse Poseidon’s name? unbind Victims? Kill him! CASSIOPEA Look how he pales, O people! Is’t thus that great Poseidon’s herald looks When charged with the god’s fearful menaces? He diets you with forgeries and fictions. CRIES Let him be strangled! PHINEUS This is a royal woman! POLYDAON Well, let the merchant then be put to question.

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PERISSUS Come and be tickled, merchant. I am the butcher. Do you see my cleaver? I will torture you kindly. SMERDAS O help me, save me, lady Andromeda. ANDROMEDA Oh, do not lay your cruel hands upon him. I did release him. CASSIOPEA Ah, child Andromeda. PERISSUS You, little princess! Wherefore did you this? ANDROMEDA Because I would not have their human hearts Mercilessly uprooted for the bloody Monster you worship as a god! because I am capable of pain and so can feel The pain of others! For which if you I love Must kill me, do it. I alone am guilty. POLYDAON Now, Cassiopea! You are silent, Queen. Lo, Syrians, lo, my forgeries and fictions! Lo, my vile plottings! Enough. Poseidon wills That on the beach this criminal be bound For monsters of the sea to rend in fragments, And all the royal ancient blood of Syria Must be poured richly forth to appease and cleanse. CASSIOPEA Swords from the scabbard! gyre in your King from harm, Chaldeans! Hew your way through all opposers!

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Thou in my arms, my child Andromeda! I’ll keep my daughter safe upon my bosom Against the world. POLYDAON What dost thou, Babylonian? CASSIOPEA To the palace, My trusty countrymen! POLYDAON Oppose them, soldiers! They cheat the god of the crime-burdened heads Doomed by his just resentment. DERCETES We are few: And how shall we lay hands on royalty? POLYDAON Nebassar, darest thou oppose the gods? NEBASSAR Out of my sword’s way, priest! I do my duty. POLYDAON Draw, King of Tyre! PHINEUS ’Tis not my quarrel, priest. Nebassar and the Chaldeans with drawn swords go out from the Temple, taking the King and Queen, Andromeda and Diomede. POLYDAON People of Syria, you have let them pass!

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You fear not then the anger of Poseidon? PERISSUS Would you have us spitted upon the Chaldean swords? Mad priest, must we be broached like joints and tossed like pancakes? We have no weapons. Tomorrow we will go to the Palace and what must be done shall be done. But ’tis not just that many should be slain for the crime of one and the house of Syria outrooted. Follow me and observe my commands, brave aristocracy of the shop, gallant commoners of the lathe and anvil, follow Perissus. I will lead you tonight to your soft downy beds and tomorrow to the Palace. All the Syrians go out, led by Therops and Perissus. PHINEUS Thou hast done foolishly in this, O priest. Hadst thou demanded the one needful head Of Iolaus, it was easy: but now The tender beauty of Andromeda Compels remorse and the astonished people Recoil from the bold waste of royal blood Thou appointest them to spill. I see that zeal And frantic superstition are bad plotters. Henceforth I work for my sole hand, to pluck My own good from the storms of civic trouble This night prepares. He goes out with his Tyrians. POLYDAON O terrible Poseidon, Thyself avenge thyself! hurl on this people The sea and the Assyrian. Where is the power Thou saidst should tarry with me? I have failed. He remains sunk in thought for a while, then raises his head. Tomorrow, Syrian? tomorrow is Poseidon’s. Curtain

Act IV Scene 1 The countryside, high ground near the city of Cepheus. A crowd of Syrians, men and women, running in terror, among them Chabrias, Megas, Baltis, Pasithea, Morus, Gardas, Syrax. BALTIS (stopping and sinking down on her knees) Ah, whither can we run where the offended Poseidon shall not reach us? CHABRIAS Stop, countrymen; Let’s all die here together. OTHERS Let’s stop and die. MEGAS Run, run! Poseidon’s monsters howl behind. PASITHEA O day of horror and of punishment! SYRAX Let us stay here; it is high ground, perhaps The monster will not reach us. Damoetes enters. DAMOETES I have seen the terror near, and yet I live.

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It vomits fire for half a league. SYRAX It is As long as a sea-jutting promontory. DAMOETES It has six monstrous legs. SYRAX Eight, eight; I saw it. MEGAS Chabrias, it caught thy strong son by the foot, And dashed his head against a stone, that all The brains were scattered. CHABRIAS Alas, my son! I will Go back and join you in the monster’s jaws. He is stopped by the others. DAMOETES It seized thy daughter, O Pasithea, And tore her limbs apart, which it devoured While yet the trunk lay screaming under its foot. PASITHEA Oh God! She swoons. ALL Lift her up, lift her up. Alas! MEGAS These sorrows may be ours.

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BALTIS Ah Heaven, my son! I did not wake him when this news of horror Plucked me from sleep. GARDAS My wife and little daughter Are in my cottage where perhaps the monster Vomits his fiery breath against the door. I will go back. MORUS Let us go back, Damoetes. DAMOETES I’ll not go back for twenty thousand wives And children. Life is sweet. MANY VOICES Let us not go. They stop Gardas. MEGAS What noise is that? BALTIS Run, run, ’tis some new horror. All are beginning to run. Therops enters. THEROPS Where will you run? Poseidon’s wrath is near you And over you and behind you and before you. His monsters from the ooze ravage howling Along our shores, and the indignant sea Swelled to unnatural tumultuous mountains Is climbing up the cliffs with spume and turmoil.

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DAMOETES O let us run a hundred leagues and live. THEROPS Before you is another death. Last night The Assyrians at three points came breaking in Across the border and the frontier forces Are slain. They torture, burn and violate: Young girls and matrons, men and boys are butchered. Salvation is not in your front and flight Casts you from angry gods to men more ruthless. I wonder not that you are silent, stunned With fear: but will you listen, countrymen, And I will show you a cure for these fierce evils. VOICES Oh tell us, tell us, you shall be our king. MEGAS We’ll set thy image by the great Poseidon’s And worship it. THEROPS What is the unexampled cause of wrath Which whelms you with these horrors? Is’t not the bold Presumptuous line of Cepheus? Is’t not your kings Whose pride, swollen by your love and homage, Syrians, Insults the gods, rescues Poseidon’s victims And with a sacrilegious levity Exposes all your lives to death and woe? There is the fount of all your misery, Syrians, For this the horror eats you up, — your kings. CRIES Away with them! throw them into the sea — let Poseidon swallow them!

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THEROPS But most I blame the fell Chaldean woman Who rules you. What is this Cepheus but a puppet Dressed up in royal seemings, pushed forth and danced At her caprice? Unhappy is the land That women rule, that country more unhappy That is to heartless foreigners a prey. But thou, O ill-starred Syria, two worst evils Hast harboured in a single wickedness. What cares the light Chaldean for your gods, Your lives, your sons, your daughters? She lives at ease Upon the revenues of your hard toil, Depending on favourites, yes, on paramours, — For why have women favourites but to ease Their sensual longings? — and insults your deities. Do you not think she rescued the Chaldeans Because they were her countrymen, and used Her daughter, young Andromeda, for tool That her fair childish beauty might disarm Wrath and suspicion? then, the crime unearthed, Braved all and set her fierce Chaldeans’ swords Against the good priest Polydaon’s heart, — You did not hear that? — the good Polydaon Who serves Poseidon with such zeal! Therefore The god is angry: your wives, sisters, daughters Must suffer for Chaldean Cassiopea. CRIES Let us seize her and kill, kill, kill, kill her! DAMOETES Burn her! MORUS Roast her!

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Perseus the Deliverer MEGAS Tear her into a million fragments.

CHABRIAS But are they not our kings? We must obey them. THEROPS Wherefore must we obey them? Kings are men, And they are set above their fellow-mortals To serve us, friends, — not, surely, for our hurt! Why should our sons and daughters bleed for them, Syrians? Is not our blood as dear, as precious, As human? Why should these kings, these men, go clad In purple and in velvet while you toil For little and are hungry and are naked? CRIES True, true, true! GARDAS This is a wonderful man, this Therops. He has a brain, countrymen. DAMOETES A brain! He is no cleverer than you or I, Morus. MORUS I should think not, Damoetes! DAMOETES We knew these things long ago and did not need wind-bag Therops to tell us! MORUS We have talked them over often, Damoetes.

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MEGAS We’ll have no more kings, countrymen. CRIES No kings, no kings! GARDAS Or Therops shall be king. CRIES Yes, Therops king! Therops king! DAMOETES Good king Lungs! Oh, let us make him king, Morus, — he will not pass wind in the market-place so often. THEROPS Poseidon is our king; we are his people. Gods we must worship; why should we worship men And set a heavenly crown on mortal weakness? They have offended against great Poseidon, They are guilty of a fearful sacrilege. Let them perish. CRIES Kill them! let us appease Poseidon. CHABRIAS Worship Heaven’s power but bow before the king. THEROPS What need have we of kings? What are these kings? CHABRIAS They are the seed of gods.

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Perseus the Deliverer THEROPS

Then, let them settle Themselves their quarrel with their Olympian kindred. Why should we suffer? Let Andromeda Be exposed and Iolaus sacrificed: Then shall Poseidon’s wrath retire again Into the continent of his vast billows. CHABRIAS If it must be so, let it come by award Of quiet justice. THEROPS Justice! They are the judges Who did the crime. Wherefore dost thou defend them? Thou favourest then Poseidon’s enemies? CRIES Kill him too, kill Chabrias. Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon’s people. DAMOETES Let him join his son and by the same road. MORUS Beat his brains out — to see if he has any. Ho! ho! ho! THEROPS Let him alone: he is a fool. Here comes Our zealous good kind priest, our Polydaon. Polydaon enters. CRIES Polydaon! Polydaon! the good Polydaon! Save us, Polydaon! POLYDAON Ah, do you call me now to save you? Last night

Act IV, Scene 1 You did not save me when the foreign swords Were near my heart. MEGAS Forgive us and protect. DAMOETES You, lead us to the palace, be our chief. MORUS We’ll have no kings: lead, you: on to the palace! MEGAS Poseidon shall be king, thou his vicegerent. GARDAS Therops at thy right hand! CRIES Yes, Therops! Therops! POLYDAON Oh, you are sane now, being let blood by scourgings! Unhurt had been much better. But Poseidon Pardons and I will save. CRIES Polydaon for ever, the good Polydaon, Poseidon’s Viceroy! POLYDAON Swear then to do Poseidon’s will. CRIES We swear! DAMOETES Command and watch the effect!

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Perseus the Deliverer POLYDAON

Will not the tongue Of Cassiopea once more change you, people? DAMOETES We’ll cut it out and feed her dogs with it. POLYDAON Shall Iolaus bleed? Andromeda Be trailed through the city and upon the rocks, As the god wills, flung naked to his monsters? Cepheus and Cassiopea die? CRIES They shall! MEGAS Not one of them shall live. POLYDAON Then come, my children. DAMOETES But the beast! Will it not tear us on the road? POLYDAON It will not hurt you who do Poseidon’s will. I am your safeguard; I will march in front. CRIES To the palace, to the palace! We’ll kill the Chaldeans, strangle Cepheus, tear the Queen to pieces. POLYDAON In order, in good order, my sweet children. The mob surges out following Polydaon and Therops: only Damoetes, Chabrias, Baltis and Pasithea are left.

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DAMOETES Come, Chabrias, we’ll have sport. CHABRIAS My dead son calls me. He goes out in another direction. BALTIS Pasithea, rise and come: you’ll see her killed Who is the murderess of your daughter. PASITHEA Let me Stay here and die. DAMOETES Lift her up. Come, fool. They go out, leading Pasithea.

Scene 2 Cydone’s Garden. Cydone, Iolaus, Perseus. CYDONE Perseus, you did not turn him into stone? IOLAUS You cruelty! must one go petrifying One’s fellows through the world? ’Twould not be decent. CYDONE He would have been so harmless as a statue! PERSEUS The morning has broken over Syria and the sun Mounts royally into his azure kingdom. I feel a stir within me as if great things Were now in motion and clear-eyed Athene Urging me on to high and helpful deeds. There is a grandiose tumult in the air, A voice of gods and Titans locked in wrestle. Diomede enters. DIOMEDE Ah, prince! She bursts into tears. IOLAUS Diomede, what calamity?

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DIOMEDE Flee, flee from Syria, save thyself. IOLAUS From Syria! Am I alone in peril? Then I’ll sit And wait. DIOMEDE Poseidon’s monsters from the deep Arise to tear us for our sin. The people In fury, led by Polydaon, march Upon the palace, crying, “Slay the King, Butcher the Queen, and let Andromeda And Iolaus die.” O my sweet playmate, They swear they’ll bind her naked to the rocks Of the sea-beach for the grim monster’s jaws To tear and swallow. IOLAUS My sword, my sword, Cydone! DIOMEDE Oh, go not to the fierce and bloody people! Praxilla stole me out, hiding my face In her grey mantle: I have outrun the wind To warn you. Had the wild mob recognised me, They would have torn me into countless pieces, And will you venture near whose name they join With death and cursings? Polydaon leads them. CYDONE Had he been only stone! IOLAUS My sword! Cydone gives him the sword. Perseus goes out to the cottage.

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You’ll go? What will you do alone against ten thousand? IOLAUS To die is always easy. This canaille I do not fear; it is a coward rabble. DIOMEDE But terror gives them fierceness: they are dangerous. IOLAUS Keep Diomede for your service, love, If I am killed; escape hence with your mother To Gaza; she has gold: you may begin A life as fair there. Sometimes remember me. CYDONE Diomede, will you comfort my dear mother? Tell her I am quite safe and will be back By nightfall. Hush! this in your ear, Diomede. Escape with her under the veil of night, For I shall not come back. Be you her daughter And comfort her sad lonely age, Diomede. IOLAUS What do you mean, Cydone? CYDONE Are you ready? Let us be going. IOLAUS Us, sweet lunatic? CYDONE Often you’ve said that you and I are only one, I shall know now if you mean it.

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IOLAUS You shall not give To the rude mob’s ferocious violence The beautiful body I have kissed so often. You’ll not obey me? CYDONE No. IOLAUS Leave this you shall not. CYDONE I do not know how you will stop me. IOLAUS Shrew! You shall be stopped by bonds. Here you’ll remain Tied to a tree-trunk by your wilful wrists Till all is over. Perseus returns, armed. CYDONE I’ll bring the tree and all and follow you. IOLAUS Oh, will you, Hercules? PERSEUS Forbid her not, My Iolaus; no tress of her shall fall. I have arisen and all your turbulent Syria Shall know me for the son of Zeus. IOLAUS Perseus, Art thou indeed a god? What wilt thou do,

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One against a whole people? What way hast thou? PERSEUS This is no hour to speak or plan, but to act. A presence sits within my heart that sees Each moment’s need and finds the road to meet it. Dread nothing; I am here to help and save. IOLAUS I had almost forgotten; the might thou hast shown Is a sufficient warrant. CYDONE I shall come back, Diomede. PERSEUS My grip is firm on Herpe, Athene’s aegis guards my wrist; herself The strong, omnipotent and tranquil goddess Governs my motions with her awful will. Have trust in me. Borne on my bright-winged sandals Invisibly I will attend your course On the light breezes. He goes out followed by Iolaus and Cydone. DIOMEDE I am too tired to follow, Too daunted with their mad-beast howls. Here let me hide Awaiting what event this war of gods May bring to me and my sweet-hearted lady. O my Andromeda! my little playmate! She goes out towards the cottage weeping.

Scene 3 A room commanding the outer Court of the Palace. Nebassar, Praxilla. PRAXILLA I have seen them from the roof; at least ten thousand March through the streets. Do you not hear their rumour, A horrid hum as of unnumbered hornets That slowly nears us? NEBASSAR If they are so many, It will be hard to save the princess. PRAXILLA Save her! It is too late now to save anyone. NEBASSAR I fear so. PRAXILLA But never is too late to die As loyal servants for the lords whose bread We have eaten. At least we women of the household Will show the way to you Chaldeans. NEBASSAR We are soldiers, Praxilla, and need no guidance on a road We daily tread in prospect. I’ll bring my guards. He goes out saluting Cassiopea who enters.

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CASSIOPEA Swift Diomede must have reached by now, Praxilla. PRAXILLA I hope so, madam. She goes out to the inner apartments. CASSIOPEA Then Iolaus Is safe. My sad heart has at least that comfort. O my Andromeda, my child Andromeda, Thou wouldst not let me save thee. Hadst thou too gone, I would have smiled when their fierce fingers rent me. Cepheus enters. CEPHEUS The mob is nearing; all my Syrian guards Have fled; we cannot hope for safety now. CASSIOPEA Then what is left but to set rapid fire To the rafters and prevent on friendly swords The rabble’s outrage? CEPHEUS Was it for such a fate Thou camest smiling from an emperor’s palace, O Cassiopea, Cassiopea! CASSIOPEA For me Grieve not. CEPHEUS O Lady, princess of Chaldea, Pardon me who have brought thee to this doom.

Act IV, Scene 3 Yet I meant well and thought that I did wisely: But the gods wrest our careful policies To their own ends until we stand appalled Remembering what we meant to do and seeing What has been done. CASSIOPEA With no half soul I came To share thy kingdom and thy joys; entirely I came, to take the evil also with thee. CEPHEUS Is there no truth in our high-winging ideals? My rule was mild as spring, kind as the zephyr: It tempered justice with benevolence And offered pardon to the rebel and sinner; I showed mercy, the rare sign of gods and kings. In this too difficult world, this too brief life To serve the gods with virtue seemed the best. A nation’s happiness was my only care: I made the people’s love my throne’s sure base And dreamed the way I chose true, great, divine. But the heavenly gods have other thoughts than man’s; Their awful aims transcend our human sight. Another doom than I had hoped they gave. CASSIOPEA A screened Necessity drives even the gods. Over human lives it strides to unseen ends; Our tragic failures are its stepping-stones. CEPHEUS My father lived calm, just, pitiless, austere, As a stern god might sway a prostrate world: Admired and feared, he died a mighty king. My end is this abominable fate.

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CASSIOPEA Another law than mercy’s rules the earth. CEPHEUS If I had listened to thee, O Cassiopea, Chance might have taken a fairer happier course. Always thou saidst to me, “The people’s love Is a glimmer on quicksands in a gliding sea: Today they are with thee, tomorrow turn elsewhere. Wisdom, strength, policy alone are sure.” I thought I better knew my Syrian folk. Is this not my well-loved people at my door, This tiger-hearted mob with bestial growl, This cry for blood to drink, this roar of hate? Always thou spok’st to me of the temple’s power, A growing danger menacing the State, Its ambition’s panther crouch and serpent pride And cruel craft in a priest’s sombre face: I only saw the god and sacred priest. To priest and god I am thrown a sacrifice. The golden-mouthed orator of the market-place, Therops, thou bad’st me fear and quell or win Gaining his influence to my side. To me He seemed a voice and nothing but a voice. Too late I learn that human speech has power To change men’s hearts and turn the stream of Time. Thy eyes could read in Phineus’ scheming brain. I only thought to buy the strength of Tyre Offering my daughter as unwilling price. He has planned my fall and watches my agony. At every step I have been blind, have failed: All was my error; all’s lost and mine the fault. CASSIOPEA Blame not thyself; what thou hadst to be, thou wert, And never yet came help from vain remorse. It is too late, too late. To die is left;

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Fate and the gods concede us nothing more. CEPHEUS But strength to meet the doom is always ours. In royal robes and crowned we will show ourselves To our people and look in the eyes of death and fate. What is this armoured tramp? The Chaldean guards enter with Nebassar at their head. CAPTAINS O King, we come To die with thee, the soldiers of Chaldea; For all in Syria have abandoned thee. CEPHEUS I thank you, soldiers. CRIES OUTSIDE Poseidon, great Poseidon! we are Poseidon’s people. In, in, in! Kill the cuckold Cepheus, tear the harlot Cassiopea. CEPHEUS Voices of insolent outrage Proclaim the heartless rabble. On the steps Of our own palace we’ll receive our subjects. CASSIOPEA This, this becomes thee, monarch. NEBASSAR Soldiers, form With serried points before these mighty sovereigns. The mob surges in, Therops and Perissus at their head, Polydaon a little behind, Damoetes, Morus and the rest. Praxilla and others of the household come running in.

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MOB On them! on them! Cut the Chaldeans to pieces! THEROPS Halt, people, halt: let there be no vain bloodshed. CASSIOPEA Here is a tender-hearted demagogue! THEROPS Cepheus and Cassiopea, ’tis vain and heinous To dally with your fate; it will only make you More criminal before the majesty Of the offended people. CEPHEUS Majesty! CASSIOPEA An unwashed majesty and a wolf-throated! THEROPS Insolent woman, to thee I speak not. Cepheus, — CEPHEUS Use humbler terms. I am thy King as yet. THEROPS The last in Syria. Tell me, wilt thou give up Thy children to the altar, and thyself Surrender here with this Chaldean woman For mercy or judgment to the assembled will Of Syria? CASSIOPEA A tearing mercy, a howling judgment!

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POLYDAON Therops, why do you treat with these? Chaldeans! And you, Praxilla! women of the household! Bring out the abominable Andromeda Who brought the woe on Syria. Why should you vainly Be ripped and mangled? CRIES OF WOMEN Bring out Andromeda! Bring out the harlot’s daughter, bring her out! CRIES OF MEN Andromeda! Andromeda! Andromeda! Bring out this vile Andromeda to die! Andromeda enters from the inner Palace, followed by slave-girls entreating and detaining her. PRAXILLA (sorrowfully) Wilt thou be wilful even to the end? CASSIOPEA Alas, my child! ANDROMEDA Mother, weep not for me. Perhaps my death May save you; and ’tis good that I should die, Not these poor innocent people. Against me Their unjust god is wroth. CEPHEUS O my poor sunbeam! ANDROMEDA (advancing and showing herself to the people) O people who have loved me, you have called me And I am here. A fierce roar from the mob.

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Perseus the Deliverer THEROPS How she shrinks back appalled!

PRAXILLA God! What a many-throated howl of demons! Their eyes glare death. These are not men and Syrians. The fierce Poseidon has possessed their breasts And breathed his awful blood-lust into all hearts Deafening the voice of reason, slaying pity: Poseidon’s rage glares at us through these eyes, It is his ocean roar that fills our streets. Cries from the mob. BALTIS Seize her! seize her! the child of wickedness! VOICES OF WOMEN Throw her to us! throw her to us! We will pick The veins out of her body one by one. DAMOETES Throw her to us! We will burn her bit by bit. MORUS Yes, cook her alive; no, Damoetes? Ho, ho, ho! VOICES OF MEN She has killed our sons and daughters: kill her, kill her! VOICES OF WOMEN She is the child of her wicked mother: kill her! MOB Throw her to us! throw her to us! MEGAS We’ll tear her here, and the furies shall tear her afterwards for ever in Hell.

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THEROPS Peace, people! she is not yours, she is Poseidon’s. ANDROMEDA Alas, why do you curse me? I am willing To die for you. If I had known this morn The monster’s advent, I would have gone and met him While you yet slept, and saved your poor fair children Whose pangs have been my own. Had I died first, I should not then have suffered. O my loved people, You loved me too: when I went past your homes, You blessed me always; often your girls and mothers Would seize and bind me to their eager breasts With close imprisonment, kiss on their doorways And with a smiling soft reluctance leave. O do not curse me now! I can bear all, But not your curses. PERISSUS Alack, my pretty lady! What madness made you do it? POLYDAON She has rewarded Your love by bringing death upon you, Syrians, And now she tries to melt you by her tears. MOB Kill her, kill her! Cut the Chaldeans to pieces! We will have her! PASITHEA O do not hurt her! She is like my child Whom the fierce monster tore. MEGAS Unnatural mother! Would you protect her who’s cause your child was eaten?

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PASITHEA Will killing her give back my child to me? MEGAS No, it will save the children of more mothers. DAMOETES Gag up her puling mouth, the white-faced fool! VOICES Tear, tear Andromeda! Seize her and tear her! WOMEN Let us only get at her with our teeth and fingers! NEBASSAR Use swords, Chaldeans. POLYDAON Order, my children, order! Chaldean, give us up Andromeda, And save your King and Queen. NEBASSAR What, wilt thou spare them? CASSIOPEA Thou wilt not give my child to him, Nebassar? Thou dar’st not! NEBASSAR Queen, ’tis better one should die For all. POLYDAON I swear to thee, I will protect them.

Act IV, Scene 3

467

CASSIOPEA Trust not his oaths, his false and murderous oaths. NEBASSAR He is a priest: if we believe him, nothing We lose, something may gain. MEGAS What wilt thou do? The people do not like it. See, they mutter. POLYDAON Let me have first their daughter in my grip, Be sure of the god’s dearest victim. People, I am Poseidon’s priest and your true friend. Leave all to me. CRIES Leave all to Polydaon! the good priest knows what he is doing. POLYDAON Soldier, give up the Princess. NEBASSAR Shall she be only given to Poseidon? Will you protect her from worse outrage? POLYDAON I will. PRAXILLA Look! what a hideous triumph lights the eyes Of that fierce man. He glares at her with greed Like a wild beast of prey, and on his mouth There is a cruel unclean foam. Nebassar, O do not give her.

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If there were any help! Go forth, O princess, O Andromeda. CASSIOPEA My child! my child! ANDROMEDA Give me one kiss, my mother. We shall yet meet, I think. My royal father, Andromeda farewells you, whom you loved And called your sunbeam. But the night receives me. CEPHEUS Alas! DAMOETES How long will these farewells endure? They are not needed: you shall meet presently If Death’s angels can collect your tattered pieces. CASSIOPEA O savage Syrians, let my curses brood Upon your land, an anguished mother’s curse. May the Assyrian come and flay you living, Impale your sons, rip up your ravished daughters Before your agonising eyes and make you feel, Who drag my child from me to butcher her, The horror that you do. I curse you, Syrians. ANDROMEDA Hush, mother, mother! what they demand is just. NEBASSAR Lead back the King and Queen into the Palace, Women. We too will from this sad surrender Remove our eyes.

Act IV, Scene 3

469

CASSIOPEA I will not go. Let them tear her Before me: then surely Heaven will avenge me. CEPHEUS Come, Cassiopea, come: our death’s delayed By a few minutes. I will not see her slain. Cepheus and Praxilla go in, forcibly leading Cassiopea; they are followed by the slave-girls and then by Nebassar and the Chaldeans: Andromeda is left alone on the steps. CRIES OF THE MOB SURGING FORWARD Drag her, kill her, she is ours. POLYDAON Therops and thou, Perissus, stand in front And keep the people off, or they will tear her, Defraud Poseidon. PERISSUS Cheer up, my princess, come! You shall be cleanly killed. THEROPS People of Syria, Rob not Poseidon of his own! ’tis not the way To turn his anger. VOICES Right, right! leave her to Poseidon: out with her to the seamonster. GARDAS Therops is always right. DAMOETES We will have her first: we will dress his banquet for him: none shall say us nay.

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MORUS Good; we will show Poseidon some excellent cookery. Ho, ho, ho! MEGAS No, no, no! To the rocks with her! Strip her, the fine dainty princess, and hang her up in chains on the cliff-face. A WOMAN Strip her! Off with her broidered robe and her silken tunic! Why should she wear such, when my daughter carries only coarse woollen? A WOMAN (shaking her fist) Curse the white child’s face of thee: it has ruined Syria. Die, dog’s daughter. DAMOETES Is she to die only once who has killed so many of us? I say, tie her to one of these pillars and flog her till she drops. MORUS That’s right, skin her with whips: peel her for the monster, ho, ho, ho! BALTIS Leave her: Hell’s tortures shall make the account even. POLYDAON In order, children: let all be done in order. THEROPS She droops like a bruised flower beneath their curses, And the tears lace her poor pale cheeks like frost Glittering on snowdrops. I am sorry now I had a hand in this.

Act IV, Scene 3

471

ANDROMEDA You two have faces Less cruel than the others. I am willing To die, — oh, who would live to be so hated? But do not let them shame or torture me. PERISSUS Off! off! thick-brained dogs, loud-lunged asses! What do you do, yelping and braying here? Will you give a maimed meal to Poseidon’s manhound? Do you know me not? Have you never heard of Perissus, never seen Perissus the butcher? I guard Poseidon’s meat, and whoever touches a morsel of it, I will make meat of him with my cleaver. I am Perissus, I am the butcher. VOICES It is Perissus, the good and wealthy butcher. He is right. To the rocks with her! VOICES OF WOMEN Bind her first: we will see her bound! PERISSUS In all that is rational, I will indulge you. Where is a cord? CRIES A cord, who has a cord? DAMOETES Here is one, Perissus. ’Tis rough and strong and sure. PERISSUS Come, wear your bracelets. ANDROMEDA O bind me not so hard! You cut my wrists. She weeps.

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You are too soft and tender. There, dry your eyes, — but that, poor slip, you cannot. See, I have tied you very lightly: say not That this too hurts. ANDROMEDA I thank you; you are kind. PERISSUS Kind! Why should I not be kind? Because I am a butcher must I have no bowels? Courage, little Princess: none shall hurt thee but thy sea-monster and he, I am sure, will crunch thy little bones very tenderly. Never had man-eater such sweet bones to crunch. Alack! but where is the remedy? POLYDAON Now take her to the beach and chain her there Upon the rocks to bear her punishment. Perissus, lead her forth! We’ll follow you. CRIES Not I! not I! DAMOETES You’ld kill us, Polydaon? Poseidon’s anger walks by the sea-beaches. POLYDAON The fierce sea-dragon will not hurt you, friends, Who bring a victim to Poseidon’s altar Of the rude solemn beaches. I’ll protect you. CRIES We’ll go with Polydaon! with the good Polydaon! POLYDAON Perissus, go before. We’ll quickly come.

Act IV, Scene 3

473

PERISSUS Make way there or I’ll make it with my cleaver. Heart, little Princess! None shall touch thee. Heart! Perissus and others make their way out with Andromeda. POLYDAON Hem, people, hem the Palace in with myriads: We’ll pluck out Cepheus and proud Cassiopea. CRIES Kill Cepheus the cuckold, the tyrant! Tear the harlot Cassiopea. THEROPS Is this thy sacred oath? Had not Nebassar Thy compact, priest? POLYDAON I swore not by Poseidon. Wilt thou oppose me? THEROPS Thy perjury too much Favours my private wishes. Yet would I not Be thou with such a falsehood on my conscience. POLYDAON Why, Therops, be thyself and thou shalt yet Be something great in Syria. DAMOETES Where’s Iolaus? Shall he not also die? POLYDAON Too long forgotten! O that I should forget my dearest hatred!

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By this he has concealed himself or fled And I am baulked of what I chiefly cherished. THEROPS Oh, do them justice! the great house of Syria Were never cowards. The prince has been o’erwhelmed On his way hither with rash sword to rescue: So Aligattas tells, who came behind us. He’s taken to the temple. POLYDAON Heard you? MOB Hurrah! BALTIS But what’s the matter now with our good priest? His veins are all out and his face is blood-red! DAMOETES This joy is too great for him. POLYDAON I am a god, A god of blood and roaring victory. Oh, blood in rivers! His heart out of his breast, And his mother there to see it! and I to laugh At her, to laugh! THEROPS This is not sanity. POLYDAON (controlling himself with a great effort) The sacrilegious house is blotted out Of Cepheus. Let not one head outlive their ending! Andromeda appoints the way to Hades

Act IV, Scene 3

475

Who was in crime the boldest, then her brother Yells on the altar: last Cepheus and his Queen — CRIES Tear her! let the Chaldean harlot die. POLYDAON She shall be torn! but not till she has seen The remnants of the thing that was her daughter: Not till her sweet boy’s heart has been plucked out Under her staring eyes from his red bosom. Till then she shall not die. But afterwards Strew with her fragments every street of the city. CRIES Hear, hear Poseidon’s Viceroy, good Polydaon! MEGAS In! in! cut off their few and foreign swordsmen. CRIES In! in! let not a single Chaldean live. The mob rushes into the Palace; only Therops and Polydaon remain. POLYDAON Go, Therops, take good care of Cassiopea, Or she will die too mercifully soon. THEROPS (aside) How shall we bear this grim and cruel beast For monarch, when all’s done? He is not human. He goes into the Palace. POLYDAON I have set Poseidon’s rage in human hearts; His black and awful Influence flows from me.

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Thou art a mighty god, Poseidon, yet And mightily thou hast avenged thyself. The drama’s nearly over. Now to ring out The royal characters amid fierce howlings And splendid, pitiless, crimson massacre, — A great finale! Then, then I shall be King. (As he speaks, he gesticulates more wildly and his madness gains upon him.) Thou luckless Phineus, wherefore didst thou leave So fortunate a man for thy ally? The world shall long recall King Polydaon. I will paint Syria gloriously with blood. Hundreds shall daily die to incarnadine The streets of my city and my palace floors, For I would walk in redness. I’ll plant my gardens With heads instead of lilacs. Hecatombs Of men shall groan their hearts out for my pleasure In crimson rivers. I’ll not wait for shipwrecks. Assyrian captives and my Syrian subjects, Nobles and slaves, men, matrons, boys and virgins At matins and at vespers shall be slain To me in my magnificent high temple Beside my thunderous Ocean. I will possess Women each night, who the next day shall die, Encrimsoned richly for the eyes’ delight. My heart throngs out in words! What moves within me? I am athirst, magnificently athirst, And for a red and godlike wine. Whence came The thirst on me? It was not here before. ’Tis thou, ’tis thou, O grand and grim Poseidon, Hast made thy scarlet session in my soul And growest myself. I am not Polydaon, I am a god, a mighty dreadful god, The multitudinous mover in the sea, The shaker of the earth: I am Poseidon And I will walk in three tremendous paces Climbing the mountains with my clamorous waters

Act IV, Scene 3

477

And see my dogs eat up Andromeda, My enemy, and laugh in my loud billows. The clamour of battle roars within the Palace! I have created it, I am Poseidon. Sitst thou, my elder brother, charioted In clouds? Look down, O brother Zeus, and see My actions! they merit thy immortal gaze. He goes into the Palace.

Scene 4 On the road to the sea-shore. Phineus and his Tyrians. PHINEUS A mightier power confounds our policies. Is’t Heaven? is’t Fate? What’s left me, I will take. ’Tis best to rescue young Andromeda From the wild mob and bear her home to Tyre. She, when the roar is over, will be left My claim to Syria’s prostrate throne, which force, If not diplomacy shall re-erect And Tyre become the Syrian capital. I hear the trampling of the rascal mob. CRIES OUTSIDE Drag her more quickly! To the rocks! to the rocks! Glory to great Poseidon! PHINEUS Tyrians, be ready. Perissus and a number of Syrians enter leading Andromeda bound. SYRIANS To the rocks with her, to the rocks! bind her on the rocks. PHINEUS Pause, rabble! Yield your prey to Tyrian Phineus. Lift up thy lovely head, Andromeda! For thou art saved.

Act IV, Scene 4

479

PERISSUS Who art thou with thy nose and thy fellows and thy spits? PHINEUS Knowst thou me not? I am the royal Phineus. Yield up the Princess, fair Andromeda. PERISSUS Art thou the royal Phineus and is this long nose thy sceptre? I am Perissus, the butcher. Stand aside, royal Phineus, or I will chop thee royally with my cleaver. ANDROMEDA What wilt thou with me, King of Tyre? PHINEUS Sweet rose, I come to save thee. I will carry thee, My bride, far from these savage Syrian tumults To reign in loyal Tyre. Thou art safe. ANDROMEDA (sorrowfully) Safe! My father and my mother are not safe Nor Iolaus: nor is Syria safe. Will you protect my people, when the god, Not finding me, his preferable victim, Works his fierce will on these? PHINEUS Thou car’st for them? They have o’erwhelmed thee with foul insult, bound thee, Threatened thy lovely limbs with rascal outrage And dragged to murder! ANDROMEDA But they are my people.

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Perissus, lead me on. I will not go with him. PHINEUS Thou strange and beautiful and marvellous child, Wilt thou or wilt thou not, by force I’ll have thee. Golden enchantment! thou art too rare a thing For others to possess. Run, rascal rabble! On, Tyrians! PERISSUS Cleavers and axes to their spits! ANDROMEDA King Phineus, pause! I swear I will prefer Death’s grim embrace rather than be thy wife Abandoning my people. ’Tis a dead body Thou wilt rescue. PHINEUS Is thy resolve unshakable? ANDROMEDA It is. PHINEUS Die then! To Death alone I yield thee. He goes out with his Tyrians. PERISSUS So then thou art off, royal Phineus! so thou hast evaporated, bold god of the Hittites! Thou hast saved thy royal nose from my cleaver. SYRIANS On to the rocks! Glory to great Poseidon. They go leading Andromeda.

Scene 5 The sea-shore. Andromeda, dishevelled, bare-armed and unsandalled, stripped of all but a single light robe, stands on a wide low ledge under a rock jutting out from the cliff with the sea washing below her feet. She is chained to the rock behind her by her wrists and ankles, her arms stretched at full length against its side. Polydaon, Perissus, Damoetes and a number of Syrians stand near on the great rocky platform projecting from the cliff of which the ledge is the extremity. POLYDAON There meditate affronts to dire Poseidon. Rescue thyself, thou rescuer of victims! I am sorry that thy marriage, sweet Andromeda, So poorly is attended. I could have wished To have all Syria gazing at thy nuptials With thy rare Ocean bridegroom! Thy mother most Should have been here to see her lovely princess So meetly robed for bridal, with these ornaments Upon her pretty hands and feet. She has Affairs too pressing. We do some surgery Upon thy brother Iolaus’ heart To draw the bad blood out and make it holy, And she must watch the skilful operation. Do not weep, fair one. Soon, be confident, They’ll meet thee in that wide house where all are going. Think of these things until thy lover comes. Farewell. PERISSUS Art thou mad, priest Polydaon? How thou grinnest and drawest

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back thy black lips from thy white teeth in thy rapture! Hast thou gone clean mad, my skilful carver of hearts! art thou beside thyself, my ancient schoolmate and crony? SYRIANS To the temple! To the temple! POLYDAON Let one remain above the cliff And watch the monster’s advent and his going. Till I have news of dead Andromeda The sacrifice cannot begin. Who stays? DAMOETES Not I! ALL Nor I! nor I! nor I! DAMOETES As well stay here with the girl and be torn with her! PERISSUS Do you quake, my brave shouters? must you curl your tails in between your manly legs? I will stay, priest, who fear neither dog nor dragon. I am Perissus, I am the butcher. POLYDAON I’ll not forget thy service, good Perissus. PERISSUS Will you then make me butcher-in-chief to your viceroy in Damascus and shall I cut my joints under the patronage of King Polydaon? To the temple, Syrian heroes! I will go and cross my legs on the cliff-top. They go. Andromeda is left alone. Curtain

Act V Scene 1 The sea-shore. Andromeda chained to the cliff. ANDROMEDA O iron-throated vast unpitying sea, Whose borders touch my feet with their cold kisses As if they loved me! yet from thee my death Will soon arise, and in some monstrous form To tear my heart with horror before my body. I am alone with thee on this wild beach Filled with the echo of thy roaring waters. My fellowmen have cast me out: they have bound me Upon thy rocks to die. These cruel chains Weary the arms they keep held stiffly out Against the rough cold jagg`ed stones. My bosom Hardly contains its thronging sobs; my heart Is torn with misery: for by my act My father and my mother are doomed to death, My dear kind brother, my sweet Iolaus, Will cruelly be slaughtered; by my act A kingdom ends in miserable ruin. I thought to save two fellowmen: I have slain A hundred by their rescue. I have failed In all I did and die accursed and hated. I die alone and miserably, no heart To pity me: only your hostile waves Are listening to my sobs and laughing hoarsely With cruel pleasure. Heaven looks coldly on.

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Yet I repent not. O thou dreadful god! Yes, thou art dreadful and most mighty; perhaps This world will always be a world of blood And smiling cruelty, thou its fit sovereign. But I have done what my own heart required of me, And I repent not. Even if after death Eternal pain and punishment await me And gods and men pursue me with their hate, I have been true to myself and to my heart, I have been true to the love it bore for men, And I repent not. She is silent for a while. Alas! is there no pity for me? Is there No kind bright sword to save me in all this world? Heaven with its cold unpitying azure roofs me, And the hard savage rocks surround: the deaf And violent Ocean roars about my feet, And all is stony, all is cold and cruel. Yet I had dreamed of other powers. Where art thou, O beautiful still face amid the lightnings, Athene? Does a mother leave her child? And thou, bright stranger, wert thou only a dream? Wilt thou not come down glorious from thy sun, And cleave my chains, and lift me in thy arms To safety? I will not die! I am too young, And life was recently so beautiful. It is too hard, too hard a fate to bear. She is silent, weeping. Cydone enters: she comes and sits down at Andromeda’s feet. CYDONE How beautiful she is, how beautiful! Her tears bathe all her bosom. O cruel Syrians! ANDROMEDA What gentle touch is on my feet? Who art thou?

Act V, Scene 1 CYDONE I am Cydone. Iolaus loves me. ANDROMEDA My brother! lives he yet? CYDONE He lives, dear sweetness, And sent me to you. ANDROMEDA (joyfully) It was a cruel lie! He’s free? CYDONE No, bound and in the temple. Weep not. ANDROMEDA Alas! And you have left him there alone? CYDONE The gods are with him, sister. In a few hours We shall be all together and released From these swift perils. ANDROMEDA Together and released! Oh yes, in death. CYDONE I bid you hope. O child, How beautiful you are, how beautiful, Iolaus’ sister! This one white slight garment Fluttering about you in the ocean winds, You look like some wind-goddess chained in play By frolic sisters on the wild sea-beaches. I think all this has happened, little sister,

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Just that the gods might have for one brief hour You for a radiant vision of childish beauty Exposed against this wild stupendous background. ANDROMEDA You make me smile in spite of all my grief. Did you not bid me hope, Cydone? CYDONE And now I bid you trust: for you are saved. ANDROMEDA I am. I feel it now. CYDONE Your name’s Andromeda? ANDROMEDA Iolaus calls me so. CYDONE I think he cheats me. You are Iolaus changed into a girl. Come, I will kiss you dumb for cheating me With changes of yourself. Kisses her. If I could have My Iolaus always chained like this To do my pleasure with, I would so plague him! For he abuses me and calls me shrew, Monster and vixen and names unbearable, Because he’s strong and knows I cannot beat him. ANDROMEDA The world is changed about me.

Act V, Scene 1

487

CYDONE Heaven’s above. Look up and see it. ANDROMEDA There is a golden cloud Moving towards me. CYDONE It is Perseus. Sweetheart, I go to Iolaus in the temple, — I mean your other fair boy-self. Kiss me, O sweet girl-Iolaus, and fear nothing. She goes out over the rocks. ANDROMEDA I shall be saved! What is this sudden trouble That lifts the bosom of the tossing deep, Hurling the waves against my knees? Save me! Where art thou gone, Cydone? What huge head Raises itself on the affrighted seas? Where art thou, O my saviour? Come! His eyes Glare up at me from the grey Ocean trough Hideous with brutish longing. Like great sharp rocks His teeth are in a bottomless dim chasm. She closes her eyes in terror. Perseus enters. PERSEUS Look up, O sunny-curled Andromeda! Perseus, the son of Dana¨e, is with thee To whom thou now belongest. Fear no more Sea-monsters nor the iron-souled Poseidon, Nor the more monstrous flinty-hearted rabble Who bound thee here. This huge and grisly enemy That rises from the flood, need not affright thee. Thou art as safe as if thy mother’s arms Contained thee in thy brilliant guarded palace

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When all was calm, O white Andromeda! Lift up thy eyes’ long curtains: aid the azure With thy regards, O sunshine. Look at me And see thy safety. ANDROMEDA O thou hast come to me! It was not only a radiant face I dreamed of. PERSEUS In time to save thee, my Andromeda, Sole jewel of the world. I go to meet Thy enemy, confronting grim Poseidon. ANDROMEDA O touch me ere you go that I may feel You are real. PERSEUS Let my kiss, sweet doubting dreamer, Convince thee. Now I dart like a swift hawk Upon my prey and smite betwixt the billows. Watch how I fight for thee. I will come soon To gather thee into my grasp, my prize Of great adventure. He goes out. ANDROMEDA The music of his name Was in my brain just now. What must I call thee? Perseus, the son of Dana¨e! Perseus! Perseus, Athene’s sword! Perseus, my sungod! O human god of glad Andromeda! Forgive, Athene, my lack of faith. Thou art! How like a sudden eagle he has swooped Upon the terror, that lifts itself alarmed, Swings its huge length along the far-ridged billows

Act V, Scene 1

489

And upwards yawns its rage. O great Athene! It belches fiery breath against my Perseus And lashes Ocean in his face. The sea Is tossed upon itself and its huge bottoms Catch chinks of unaccustomed day. But the aegis Of Perseus hurls the flame-commingled flood Back in the dragon’s eyes: it shoots its lightnings Into the horizon like fire-trailing arrows. The world surprised with light gazes dismayed Upon the sea-surrounded war, ringed in With foam and flying tumult. O glorious sight, Too swift and terrible for human eyes! I will pray rather. Virgin, beautiful Athene, virgin-mother of my soul! I cannot lift my hands to thee, they are chained To the wild cliff, but lift my heart instead, Virgin, assist thy hero in the fight. Descend, armipotent maiden, child of Zeus, Shoot from his godlike brain the strength of will That conquers evil: in one victorious stroke Collecting hurl it on the grisly foe. Thou, thou art sword and shield, and thou the force That uses shield and sword, virgin Athene. The tumult ceases and the floods subside. I dare not look. And yet I will. O death, Thou tossest there inertly on the flood, A floating mountain. Perseus comes to me Touching the waves with airy-sandalled feet, Bright and victorious. Perseus returns. PERSEUS The grisly beast is slain that was thy terror, And thou mayst sun the world with smiles again, Andromeda.

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ANDROMEDA Thou hast delivered me, O Perseus, Perseus, My sovereign! PERSEUS Girl, I take into my arms My own that I have won and with these kisses Seal to me happy head and smiling eyes, Bright lips and all of thee, thou sunny Syrian. All thy white body is a hero’s guerdon. ANDROMEDA Perseus! PERSEUS Sweetly thou tak’st my eager kisses With lovely smiles and glorious blushing cheeks Rejoicing in their shame. ANDROMEDA I am chained, Perseus, And cannot help myself. PERSEUS O smile of sweetness! I will unravel these unworthy bonds And rid thee of the cold excuse. ANDROMEDA My chains? They do not hurt me now, and I would wear them A hundred times for such a happy rescue. PERSEUS Thou tremblest yet!

Act V, Scene 1

491

ANDROMEDA Some sweet and sudden fear O’ertakes me! O what is it? I dare not look Into thy radiant eyes. PERSEUS Sweet tremors, grow Upon her. Never shall harsher fears again O’ertake you, rosy limbs, in Perseus’ keeping. How fair thou art, my prize Andromeda! O sweet chained body, chained to love not death, That with a happy passiveness endures My touch, once more, once more. And now fall down Clashing into the deep, you senseless irons, That took a place my kisses only merit. Princess of Syria, child of imperial Cepheus, Step forward free. ANDROMEDA (falling at his feet and embracing them) O Perseus, O my saviour! Wilt thou not also save those dear to me And make this life thou givest worth the giving? My father, mother, brother, all I love, Lie for my fault shuddering beneath the knife. PERSEUS It was a glorious fault, Andromeda. Tremble not for thy loved ones. Wilt thou trust Thy cherished body in my arms to bear Upward, surprising Heaven with thy beauty? Or wilt thou fear to see the blue wide Ocean Between thy unpropped feet, fathoms below? ANDROMEDA With you I fear not.

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Cling to me then, sweet burden, And we will meet our enemies together. He puts his arms round her to lift her and the curtain falls.

Scene 2 The Temple of Poseidon. Polydaon, Therops, Dercetes, Cydone, Damoetes and a great number of Syrians, men and women. Iolaus stands bound, a little to the side: Cepheus and Cassiopea, surrounded by armed men. POLYDAON Cepheus and Cassiopea, man and woman, Not sovereigns now, you see what end they have Who war upon the gods. CASSIOPEA To see thy end My eyes wait only. POLYDAON Let them see something likelier. Is’t not thy son who wears those cords, and that An altar? What! the eyes are drowned in tears Where fire was once so ready? Where is thy pride, O Cassiopea? CASSIOPEA There are other gods Than thy Poseidon. They shall punish thee. POLYDAON If thou knewst who I am, which is most secret, Thou wouldst not utter vain and foolish wishes. When thou art slain, I will reveal myself.

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CASSIOPEA Thou hast revealed thyself for what thou art Already, a madman and inhuman monster. CEPHEUS My queen, refrain from words. DAMOETES Perissus comes. CASSIOPEA Ah God! THEROPS Look, the Queen swoons! Oh, look to her! Perissus enters. POLYDAON Yes, raise her up, bring back her senses: now I would not have them clouded. News, Perissus! Thy face is troubled and thy eyes stare wildly. PERISSUS Stare, do they? They may stare, for they have cause. You too will stare soon, Viceroy Polydaon. THEROPS What rare thing happened? The heavens were troubled strangely, Although their rifts were blue. What hast thou seen? PERISSUS I have seen hell and heaven at grips together. POLYDAON What do I care for hell or heaven? Your news! Did the sea-monster come and eat and go?

Act V, Scene 2 PERISSUS He came but went not. POLYDAON Was not the maiden seized? PERISSUS Ay, was she, in a close and mighty grasp. POLYDAON By the sea-beast? PERISSUS ’Tis said we all are animals; Then so was he: but ’twas a glorious beast. POLYDAON And was she quite devoured? PERISSUS Why, in a manner, — If kisses eat. POLYDAON Ha! ha! such soft caresses May all my enemies have. She was not torn? What, was she taken whole and quite engulfed? PERISSUS Something like that. POLYDAON You speak with difficult slowness And strangely. Where’s your blithe robustness gone, Perissus?

495

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PERISSUS Coming, with the beast. He lifted her Mightily from the cliff to heaven. POLYDAON So, Queen, Nothing is left thee of Andromeda. PERISSUS Why, something yet, a sweet and handsome piece. POLYDAON You should have brought it here, my merry butcher, That remnant of her daughter. PERISSUS It is coming. POLYDAON Ho, ho! then you shall see your daughter, Queen. DERCETES This is a horrid and inhuman laughter. Restrain thy humour, priest! My sword’s uneasy. THEROPS It is a scandal in Poseidon’s temple. POLYDAON Do you oppose me? (to Therops) Wilt thou resist Poseidon, Misguided mortal? DERCETES He glares and his mouth works. This is a maniac. Does a madman rule us?

Act V, Scene 2 THEROPS There has been much of violence and mad fierceness, Such as in tumults may be pardoned. Now It is the tranquil hour of victory When decency should reign and mercy too. What do we gain by torturing this poor Queen And most unhappy King? POLYDAON Hear him, O people! He favours great Poseidon’s enemies. Therops turns traitor. DAMOETES He rails at the good priest. CRIES Therops a traitor! MEGAS Therops, thou favour kings? Thou traitor to Poseidon and his people? GARDAS I say, hear Therops. He is always right, Our Therops; he has brains. CRIES Hear Therops, Therops! THEROPS Let them be punished, but with exile only. I am no traitor. I worked for you, O people, When this false priest was with the King of Tyre Plotting to lay on you a foreign chain.

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CRIES Is it so? Is it the truth? Speak, Polydaon. POLYDAON Must I defend myself? Was it not I Who led you on to victory and turned The wrath of dire Poseidon? If you doubt me, Be then the sacrifice forbidden; let Cepheus And Cassiopea reign; but when the dogs Of grim Poseidon howl again behind you, Call not to me for help. I will not always pardon. CRIES Polydaon, Polydaon, Poseidon’s mighty Viceroy! Kill Therops! Iolaus upon the altar! POLYDAON Now you are wise again. Leave this Therops. Bring Iolaus to the altar here. Lay bare his bosom for the knife. THEROPS Dercetes, Shall this be allowed? DERCETES We must not dare offend Poseidon. But when it’s over, I’ll break in With all my faithful spears and save the King And Cassiopea. Therops, ’twould be a nightmare, The rule of that fierce priest and fiercer rabble. THEROPS With all the better sort I will support thee. PERISSUS Therops, my crowd-compeller, my eloquent Zeus of the marketplace, I know thy heart is big with the sweet passion of

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repentance, but let it not burst into action yet. Keep thy fleet sharp spears at rest, Dercetes. There are times, my little captain, and there is a season. Watch and wait. The gods are at work and Iolaus shall not die. POLYDAON We only wait until our mighty wrath Is shown you in the mangled worst offender Against our godhead. Then, O Cassiopea, I’ll watch thy eyes. PERISSUS Behold her, Polydaon. Perseus and Andromeda enter the temple. CRIES Andromeda! Andromeda! who has unchained her? It is Andromeda! CEPHEUS It is the spirit of Andromeda. THEROPS Shadows were ne’er so bright, had never smile So sunny! she is given back to earth: It is the radiant wing`ed Hermes brings her. DERCETES ’Tis he who baffled us upon the beach. I see the gods are busy in our Syria. Andromeda runs to Cassiopea and clasps and kisses her knees, the soldiers making way for her. CASSIOPEA (taking Andromeda’s face between her hands) O my sweet child, thou livest!

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Mother, mother! I live and see the light and grief is ended. CASSIOPEA (lifting Andromeda into her arms) I hold thee living on my bosom. What grief Can happen now? CEPHEUS Andromeda, my daughter! POLYDAON (awaking from his amazement) Confusion! Butcher, thou hast betrayed me. Seize them! They shall all die upon my mighty altar. Seize them! PERSEUS (confronting him) Priest of Poseidon and of death, Three days thou gav’st me: it is but the second. I am here. Dost thou require the sacrifice? POLYDAON Art thou a god? I am a greater, dreadfuller. Tremble and go from me: I need thee not. PERSEUS Expect thy punishment. Syrians, behold me, The victim snatched from grim Poseidon’s altar. My sword has rescued sweet Andromeda And slain the monster of the deep. You asked For victims? I am here. Whose knife is ready? Let him approach. THEROPS Who art thou, mighty hero? Declare unto this people thy renown And thy unequalled actions. What high godhead

Act V, Scene 2 Befriends thee in battle? PERSEUS Syrians, I am Perseus, The mighty son of Zeus and Dana¨e. The blood of gods is in my veins, the strength Of gods is in my arm: Athene helps me. Behold her aegis, which if I uncover Will blind you with its lightnings; and this sword Is Herpe, which can pierce the earth and Hades. What I have done, is by Athene’s strength. Borne from Seriphos through pellucid air Upon these wing`ed shoes, in the far west I have traversed unknown lands and nameless continents And seas where never came the plash of human oars. On torrid coasts burned by the desert wind I have seen great Atlas buttressing the sky, His giant head companion of the stars, And changed him into a hill; the northern snows Illimitable I have trod, where Nature Is awed to silence, chilled to rigid whiteness; I have entered caverns dim where death was born: And I have taken from the dim-dwelling Graiae Their wondrous eye that sees the past and future: And I have slain the Gorgon, dire Medusa, Her head that turns the living man to stone Locking into my wallet: last, today, In Syria by the loud Aegean surges I have done this deed that men shall ever speak of. Ascending with winged feet the clamorous air I have cloven Poseidon’s monster whose rock-teeth And fiery mouth swallowed your sons and daughters. Where now has gone the sea-god’s giant stride That filled with heads of foam your fruitful fields? I have dashed back the leaping angry waters; His Ocean-force has yielded to a mortal. Even while I speak, the world has changed around you.

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Syrians, the earth is calm, the heavens smile; A mighty silence listens on the sea. All this I have done, and yet not I, but one greater. Such is Athene’s might and theirs who serve her. You know me now, O Syrians, and my strength I have concealed not. Let no man hereafter Complain that I deceived him to his doom. Speak now. Which of you all demands a victim? He pauses: there is silence. What, you have howled and maddened, bound sweet women For slaughter, roared to have the hearts of princes, And are you silent now? Who is for victims? Who sacrifices Perseus? THEROPS Speak! is there A fool so death-devoted? PERSEUS Claims any man victims? CRIES There’s none, great Perseus. PERSEUS Then, I here release Andromeda and Iolaus, Syrians, From the death-doom: to Cepheus give his crown Once more. Does any man gainsay my action? Would any rule in Syria? CRIES None, mighty Perseus. PERSEUS Iolaus, sweet friend, my work is finished. He severs his bonds.

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IOLAUS O mighty father, suffer me for thee To take thy crown from the unworthy soil Where rude hands tumbled it. ’Twill now sit steady. Dercetes, art thou loyal once again? DERCETES For ever. IOLAUS Therops? THEROPS I have abjured rebellion. IOLAUS Lead then my royal parents to their home With martial pomp and music. And let the people Cover their foul revolt with meek obedience. One guiltiest head shall pay your forfeit: the rest, Since terror and religious frenzy moved To mutiny, not their sober wills, shall all Be pardoned. CRIES Iolaus! Iolaus! Long live the Syrian, noble Iolaus! IOLAUS Andromeda, and thou, my sweet Cydone, Go with them. CEPHEUS I approve thy sentence, son. Dercetes and his soldiers, Therops and the Syrians leave the temple conducting Cepheus and Cassiopea, Andromeda and Cydone.

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IOLAUS Now, Polydaon, — POLYDAON I have seen all and laughed. Iolaus, and thou, O Argive Perseus, You know not who I am. I have endured Your foolish transient triumph that you might feel My punishments more bitter-terrible. ’Tis time, ’tis time. I will reveal myself. Your horror-starting eyes shall know me, princes, When I hurl death and Ocean on your heads. PERSEUS The man is frantic. IOLAUS Defeat has turned him mad. PERISSUS I have seen this coming on him for a season and a half. He was a fox at first, but this tumult gave him claws and muscles and he turned tiger. This is the end. What, Polydaon! Good cheer, priest! Roll not thy eyes: I am thy friend Perissus, I am thy old loving schoolmate; are we not now fellow-craftsmen, priest and butcher? POLYDAON Do you not see? I wave my sapphire locks And earth is quaking. Quake, earth! rise, my great Ocean! Earth, shake my foemen from thy back! clasp, sea, And kiss them dead, thou huge voluptuary. Come barking from your stables, my sweet monsters: With blood-stained fangs and fiery mouths avenge me Mocking their victory. Thou, brother Zeus, Rain curses from thy skies. What, is all silent? I’ll tear thee, Ocean, into watery bits

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And strip thy oozy basal rocks quite naked If thou obey me not. IOLAUS (advancing) He must be seized And bound. PERSEUS Pause. See, he foams and clutches! Polydaon falls to the ground. He Is sentenced. PERISSUS Polydaon, old crony, grows thy soul too great within thee? dost thou kick the unworthy earth and hit out with thy noble fists at Heaven? IOLAUS It was a fit; it is over. He lies back white And shaking. POLYDAON (As he speaks, his utterance is hacked by pauses of silence. He seems unconscious of those around him, his being is withdrawing from the body and he lives only in an inner consciousness and its vision.) I was Poseidon but this moment. Now he departs from me and leaves me feeble: I have become a dull and puny mortal. (half rising) It was not I but thou who fearedst, god. I would have spoken, but thou wert chilled and stone. What fearedst thou or whom? Wast thou alarmed By the godhead lurking in man’s secret soul Or deity greater than thy own appalled thee?... Forgive, forgive! pass not away from me. Thy power is now my breath and I shall perish

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If thou withdraw.... He stands beside me still Shaking his gloomy locks and glares at me Saying it was my sin and false ambition Undid him. Was I not fearless as thou bad’st me? Ah, he has gone into invisible Vast silences!... Whose, whose is this bright glory? One stands now in his place and looks at me. Imperious is his calm Olympian brow, The sea’s blue unfathomed depths gaze from his eyes, Wide sea-blue locks crown his majestic shape: A mystic trident arms his tranquil might. As one new-born to himself and to the world He turns from me with the surges in his stride To seek his Ocean empire. Earth bows down Trembling with awe of his unbearable steps, Heaven is the mirror of his purple greatness.... But whose was that dimmer and tremendous image?... A horror of darkness is around me still, But the joy and might have gone out of my breast And left me mortal, a poor human thing With whom death and the fates can do their will.... But his presence yet is with me, near to me.... Was I not something more than earthly man?... (with a cry) It was myself, the shadow, the hostile god! I am abandoned to my evil self. That was the darkness!... But there was something more Insistent, dreadful, other than myself! Whoever thou art, spare me!... I am gone, I am taken. In his tremendous clutch he bears me off Into thick cloud; I see black Hell, the knives Fire-pointed touch my breast. Spare me, Poseidon.... Save me, O brilliant God, forgive and save. He falls back dead. PERSEUS Who then can save a man from his own self?

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IOLAUS He is ended, his own evil has destroyed him. PERSEUS This man for a few hours became the vessel Of an occult and formidable Force And through his form it did fierce terrible things Unhuman: but his small and gloomy mind And impure dark heart could not contain the Force. It turned in him to madness and demoniac Huge longings. Then the Power withdrew from him Leaving the broken incapable instrument, And all its might was spilt from his body. Better To be a common man mid common men And live an unaspiring mortal life Than call into oneself a Titan strength Too dire and mighty for its human frame, That only afflicts the oppressed astonished world, Then breaks its user. IOLAUS But best to be Heaven’s child. Only the sons of gods can harbour gods. PERISSUS Art thou then gone, Polydaon? My monarch of breast-hackers, this was an evil ending. My heart is full of woe for thee, my fellow-butcher. IOLAUS The gods have punished him for his offences, Ambition and a hideous cruelty Ingenious in mere horror. PERSEUS Burn him with rites, If that may help his soul by dark Cocytus.

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But let us go and end these strange upheavals: Call Cireas from his hiding for reward, Tyrnaus too, and Smerdas from his prison, Fair Diomede from Cydone’s house. Humble or high, let all have their deserts Who partners were or causes of our troubles. IOLAUS There’s Phineus will ask reasons. PERSEUS He shall be satisfied. PERISSUS He cannot be satisfied, his nose is too long; it will not listen to reason, for it thinks all the reason and policy in the world are shut up in the small brain to which it is a long hooked outlet. PERSEUS Perissus, come with me: for thou wert kind To my fair sweetness; it shall be remembered. PERISSUS There was nothing astonishing in that: I am as chock-full with natural kindness as a rabbit is with guts; I have bowels, great Perseus. For am I not Perissus? am I not the butcher? They go out: the curtain falls.

Scene 3 The audience-chamber of the Palace. Cepheus, Cassiopea, Andromeda, Cydone, Praxilla, Medes. CEPHEUS A sudden ending to our sudden evils Propitious gods have given us, Cassiopea. Pursued by panic the Assyrian flees Abandoning our borders. CASSIOPEA And I have got My children’s faces back upon my bosom. What gratitude can ever recompense That godlike youth whose swift and glorious rescue Lifted us out of Hell so radiantly? CYDONE He has taken his payment in one small white coin Mounted with gold; and more he will not ask for. CASSIOPEA Your name’s Cydone, child? your face is strange. You are not of the slave-girls. CYDONE O I am! Iolaus’ slave-girl, though he calls me sometimes His queen: but that is only to beguile me. ANDROMEDA Oh, mother, you must know my sweet Cydone.

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I shall think you love me little if you do not Take her into your bosom: for she alone, When I was lonely with my breaking heart, Came to me with sweet haste and comforted My soul with kisses, — yes, even when the terror Was rising from the sea, surrounded me With her light lovely babble, till I felt Sorrow was not in the same world as she. And but for her I might have died of grief Ere rescue came. CASSIOPEA What wilt thou ask of me, Even to a crown, Cydone? thou shalt have it. CYDONE Nothing, unless ’tis leave to stand before you And be for ever Iolaus’ slave-girl Unchidden. CASSIOPEA Thou shalt be more than that, my daughter. CYDONE I have two mothers: a double Iolaus I had already. O you girl-Iolaus, You shall not marry Perseus: you are mine now. Oh, if you have learned to blush! ANDROMEDA (stopping her mouth) Hush, you mad babbler! Or I will smother your wild mouth with mine. Perseus and Iolaus enter. CEPHEUS O welcome, brilliant victor, mighty Perseus! Saviour of Syria, angel of the gods,

Act V, Scene 3 Kind was the fate that led thee to our shores. CASSIOPEA (embracing Iolaus) Iolaus, Iolaus, my son! My golden-haired delight they would have murdered! Perseus, hast thou a mother? PERSEUS One like thee In love, O Queen, though less in royalty. CASSIOPEA What can I give thee then who hast the world To move in, thy courage and thy radiant beauty, And a tender mother? Yet take my blessing, Perseus, To help thee: for the mightiest strengths are broken And divine favour lasts not long, but blessings Of those thou helpest with thy kindly strength Upon life’s rugged way, can never fail thee. CEPHEUS And what shall I give, seed of bright Olympus? Wilt thou have half my kingdom, Argive Perseus? PERSEUS Thy kingdom falls by right to Iolaus In whom I shall enjoy it. One gift thou hadst I might have coveted, but she is mine, O monarch: I have taken her from death For my possession. CEPHEUS My sunny Andromeda! But there’s the Tyrian: yet he gave her up To death and cannot now reclaim her.

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Father, The Babylonian merchants wait, and Cireas: The people’s leaders and thy army’s captains Are eager to renew an interrupted Obedience. CEPHEUS Admit them all to me: go, Medes. As Medes goes out, Diomede enters. ANDROMEDA Diomede! playmate! you too have come quite safe Out of the storm. I thought we both must founder. DIOMEDE Oh, yes, and now you’ll marry Perseus, leave me No other playmate than Praxilla’s whippings To keep me lively! ANDROMEDA Therefore ’tis you look So discontent and sullen? Clear your face, I’ll drag you to the world’s far end with me, And take in my own hands Praxilla’s duty. Will that please you? DIOMEDE As if your little hand could hurt! I’m off, Praxilla, to pick scarlet berries In Argolis and hear the seabirds’ cries And Ocean singing to the Cyclades. I’ll buy you brand new leather for a relic To whip the memory of me with sometimes, Praxilla.

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PRAXILLA You shall taste it then before you go. You’ll make a fine fair couple of wilfulnesses. I pity Perseus. ANDROMEDA You are well rid of us, My poor Praxilla. PRAXILLA Princess, little Princess, My hands will be lighter, but my heart too heavy. Therops and Dercetes enter with the Captains of the army, Cireas, Tyrnaus and Smerdas. ALL Hail, you restored high royalties of Syria. THEROPS O King, accept us, be the past forgotten. CEPHEUS It is forgotten, Therops. Welcome, Dercetes. Thy friend Nebassar is asleep. He has done His service for the day and taken payment. CASSIOPEA His blood is a deep stain on Syria’s bosom. DERCETES On us the stain lies, Queen: but we will drown it In native streams, when we go forth to scourge The Assyrian in his home. THEROPS Death for one’s King Only less noble is than for one’s country.

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This foreign soldier taught us that home lesson. CASSIOPEA Therops, there are kings still in Syria? THEROPS Great Queen, Remember not my sins. CASSIOPEA They are buried deep, Thy bold rebellion, — even thy cruel slanders, If only thou wilt serve me as my friend True to thy people in me. Will this be hard for thee? THEROPS O noble lady, you pay wrongs with favours! I am yours for ever, I and all this people. CIREAS (to Diomede) This it is to be an orator! We shall hear him haranguing the people next market-day on fidelity to princes and the divine right of queens to have favourites. IOLAUS Cireas, old bribe-taker, art thou living? Did Poseidon forget thee? CIREAS I pray you, Prince, remind me not of past foolishness. I have grown pious. I will never speak ill again of authorities and divinities. IOLAUS Thou art grown ascetic? thou carest no longer then for gold? I am glad, for my purse will be spared a very heavy lightening.

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CIREAS Prince, I will not suffer my young piety to make you break old promises; for if it is perilous to sin, it is worse to be the cause of sin in others. IOLAUS Thou shalt have gold and farms. I will absolve Andromeda’s promise and my own. CIREAS Great Plutus! O happy Cireas! IOLAUS Merchant Tyrnaus, art thou for Chaldea? TYRNAUS When I have seen these troubles’ joyous end And your sweet princess, my young rescuer, Happily wedded. IOLAUS I will give thee a ship And merchandise enough to fill thy losses. PERSEUS And prayers with them, O excellent Chaldean. The world has need of men like thee. SMERDAS (aside) I quake. What will they say to me? I shall be tortured And crucified. But she with her smile will save me. IOLAUS Smerdas, thou unclean treacherous coward soul!

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SMERDAS Alas, I was compelled by threats of torture. IOLAUS And tempted too with gold. Thy punishment Shall hit thee in thy nature. Farmer Cireas! CIREAS Prince Plutus! IOLAUS Take thou this man for slave. He’s strong. Work him upon thy fields and thy plantations. SMERDAS O this is worst of all. IOLAUS Not worse than thy desert. For gold thou lustest? earn it for another. Thou’lt save thy life? it is a freedman’s chattel. SMERDAS O speak for me, lady Andromeda! ANDROMEDA Dear Iolaus, — CEPHEUS My child, thou art all pity; But justice has her seat, and her fine balance Disturbed too often spoils an unripe world With ill-timed mercy. Thy brother speaks my will. IOLAUS Thou hast increased thy crime by pleading to her Whom thou betrayedst to her death. Art thou

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Quite shameless? Hold thy peace! ANDROMEDA Grieve not too much. Cireas will be kind to thee; wilt thou not, Cireas? CIREAS At thy command I will be even that And even to him. Noise outside. CEPHEUS What other dangerous clamour Is at our gates? Perissus enters, brandishing his cleaver. PERISSUS Pull out that sharp skewer of thine, comrade Perseus, or let me handle my cleaver. CEPHEUS Thou art angry, butcher? Who has disturbed thy noble serenity? PERISSUS King Cepheus, shall I not be angry? Art thou not again our majesty of Syria? And shall our majesty be insulted with noses? Shall it be prodded by a proboscis? Perseus, thou hast slaughtered yonder palaeozoic ichthyosaurus; wilt thou suffer me to chop this neozoan? PERSEUS Calmly, precisely and not so polysyllabically, my good Perissus. Tell the King what is this clamour. PERISSUS My monarch, Phineus of Tyre has brought his long-nosed royalty to thy gates and poke it he will into thy kingly presence.

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His blusterings, King, have flustered my calm great heart within me. CEPHEUS Comes he alone? PERISSUS Damoetes and some scores more hang on to his long tail of hook-nosed Tyrians; but they are all rabble and proletariate, not a citizen butcher in the whole picking. They brandish skewers; they threaten to poke me with their dainty iron spits, — me, Perissus, me, the butcher! CEPHEUS Phineus in arms! This is the after-swell Of tempest. PERSEUS Let the Phoenician enter, comrade. Perissus goes out. Look not so blank. This man with all his crew Shall be my easy care. Phineus enters the hall with a great company, Tyrians with drawn swords, Damoetes, Morus and others; after them Perissus. CEPHEUS Welcome, Tyre. CASSIOPEA Thou breakest armed into our presence, Phineus. Had they been earlier there, these naked swords Would have been welcome. PHINEUS I am not here for welcome, Lady. King Cepheus, wilt thou yield me right,

Act V, Scene 3 Or shall I take it with my sword? CEPHEUS Phineus, I never have withheld even from the meanest The least thing he could call his right. PHINEUS Thou hast not? Who gives then to a wandering Greek my bride, Thy perfect daughter? CASSIOPEA She was in some peril, When thou wert absent, Tyre. PHINEUS A vain young man, A brilliant sworder wandering for a name, Who calls himself the son of Dana¨e, And who his father was, the midnight knows. This is the lord thou giv’st Andromeda, Scorning the mighty King of ancient Tyre. CEPHEUS He saved her from the death to which we left her, And she was his, — his wife, if so he chose, Or, conquered by the sword from grim Poseidon, His then to take her as he would from that moment. PHINEUS Do his deeds or thy neglect annul thy promise? IOLAUS King Phineus, wilt thou take up and lay down At pleasure? Who leaves a jewel in the mud, Shall he complain because another took it?

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PRAXILLA And she was never his; she hated him. PHINEUS I’ll hear no reasons, but with strong force have her, Though it be to lift her o’er the dearest blood Of all her kin. Tyrians! Andromeda takes refuge with Perseus. Abandon, princess, The stripling bosom where thou tak’st thy refuge. Thou hast mistook thy home, Andromeda. IOLAUS ’Tis thou mistakest, Phineus, thinking her A bride who, touched, shall be thy doom. Get hence Unhurt. PHINEUS Prince Iolaus, the sword that cut Thy contract to Poseidon, cuts not mine, — Which if you void, thou and thy father pay for it. PERSEUS Phineus of Tyre, it may be thou art wronged, But ’tis not at his hands whom thou impugnest. Her father gave her not to me. PHINEUS Her mother then? She is the man, I think, in Syria’s household. PERSEUS Her too I asked not. PHINEUS Thou wooedst then the maid? It shall not help thee though a thousand times

Act V, Scene 3 She kissed thee yes. Pretty Andromeda, Wilt thou have for thy lord this vagabond, Wander with him as beggars land and sea? Despite thyself I’ll save thee from that fate Unworthy of thy beauty and thy sweetness, And make thee Queen in Tyre. Minion of Argos, Learn, ere thou grasp at other’s goods, to ask The owner, not the owned. PERSEUS I did not ask her. PHINEUS Then by what right, presumptuous, hast thou her? Or wherefore lies she thus within thy arm? PERSEUS Say, by what right, King Phineus, thou wouldst take her, Herself and all refusing? PHINEUS By my precontract. PERSEUS Thou gavest her to Death, that contract’s broken. Or if thou seekest to revoke thy gift, Foregather then with Death and ask him for her. The way to him is easy. PHINEUS Then by my sword, Not asking her or any, because I am a king, I’ll take her. PERSEUS If the sword is the sole judge, Then by my own sword I have taken her, Tyrian,

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Not asking her or any, who am king O’er her, her sovereign. This soft gold is mine And mine these banks of silver; this rich country Is my possession and owes to my strong taking All her sweet revenues in honey. Phineus, I wonder not that thou dost covet her Whom the whole world might want. Wrest her from me, Phoenician; to her father she belongs not. (opening his wallet) King Phineus, art thou ready? Yet look once more On the blue sky and this green earth of Syria. PHINEUS Young man, thou hast done deeds I’ll not belittle. Yet was it only a sea-beast and a rabble Whom thou hast tamed; I am a prince and warrior. Wilt thou fright me with thy aegis? PERSEUS Not fright, but end thee; For thou hast spoken words deserving death. Come forth into the open, this is no place For battle. Marshal thy warlike crew against me, And let thy Syrian mob-men help with shouts: Stand in their front to lead them; I alone Will meet their serried charge, Dercetes merely Watching us. PHINEUS Thou art frantic with past triumphs: Argive, desist. I would not rob thy mother Of her sole joy, howe’er she came by thee. The gods may punish her sweet midnight fault, To whom her dainty trickery imputes it. PERSEUS Come now, lest here I slay thee.

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PHINEUS Thou art in love With death: but I am pitiful, young Perseus; Thou shalt not die. My men shall take thee living And pedlars hawk thee for a slave in Tyre, Where thou shalt see sometimes far off Andromeda, A Queen of nations. PERSEUS Thou compassionate man! But I will give thee, hero, marvellous death And stone for monument, which thou deservest; For thou wert a great King and famous warrior, When still thou wert living. Forth and fight with me! Afterwards if thou canst, come for Andromeda; None shall oppose thy seizure. Behind me, captain, So that the rabble here may not be tempted To any treacherous stroke. Phineus goes out with the Tyrians, Damoetes and the Syrian favourers of Phineus, followed by Perseus and Dercetes. Cireas behind them at a distance. CEPHEUS Sunbeam, I am afraid. ANDROMEDA I am not, father. CEPHEUS Alone against so many! IOLAUS Shall I go, father, And stand by him? CEPHEUS He might be angry. Hark!

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The voice of Phineus. IOLAUS He cries some confident order. CEPHEUS The Tyrians shout for onset; he is doomed. There is a moment’s pause, all listening, painfully. IOLAUS The shouts are stilled; there is a sudden hush. CEPHEUS What can it mean? This silence is appalling. Dercetes returns. What news? Thou treadest like one sleeping, captain. DERCETES O King, thy royal court is full of monuments. CEPHEUS What meanest thou? What happened? Where is Perseus? DERCETES King Phineus called to his men to take alive The Greek; but as they charged, great Perseus cried, “Close eyes, Dercetes, if thou car’st to live,” And I obeyed, yet saw that he had taken A snaky something from the wallet’s mouth He carries on his baldric. Blind I waited And heard the loud approaching charge. Then suddenly The rapid footsteps ceased, the cries fell dumb And a great silence reigned. Astonishment For two brief moments only held me close; But when I lifted my sealed lids, the court Was full of those swift charging warriors stiffened To stone or stiffening, in the very posture

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Of onset, sword uplifted, shield advanced, Knee crooked, foot carried forward to the pace, An animated silence, life in stone. Only the godlike victor lived, a smile Upon his lips, closing his wallet’s mouth. Then I, appalled, came from that place in silence. CEPHEUS Soldier, he is a god, or else the gods Walk close to him. I hear his footsteps coming. Perseus returns, followed by Cireas. Hail, Perseus! PERSEUS King, the Tyrians all are dead, Nor needst thou build them pyres nor dig them graves. If any hereafter ask what perfect sculptor Chiselled these forms in Syria’s royal court, Say then, “Athene, child armipotent Of the Olympian, hewed by Perseus’ hand In one divine and careless stroke these statues To her give glory.” CEPHEUS O thou dreadful victor! I know not what to say nor how to praise thee. PERSEUS Say nothing, King; in silence praise the Gods. Let this not trouble you, my friends. Proceed As if no interruption had disturbed you. CIREAS O Zeus, I thought thou couldst juggle only with feathers and phosphorus, but I see thou canst give wrinkles in magic to Babylon and the Medes. (shaking himself ) Ugh! this was a stony conjuring. I cannot feel sure yet that I am not myself a statue.

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PERISSUS (who has gone out and returned) What hast thou done, comrade Perseus? Thou hast immortalised his long nose to all time in stone! This is a woeful thing for posterity; thou hadst no right to leave behind thee for its dismay such a fossil. CEPHEUS What now is left but to prepare the nuptials Of sweet young sunny-eyed Andromeda With mighty Perseus? PERSEUS King, let it be soon That I may go to my blue-ringed Seriphos, Where my mother waits and more deeds call to me. CASSIOPEA Yet if thy heart consents, then three months give us, O Perseus, of thyself and our sweet child, And then abandon. PERSEUS They are given. ANDROMEDA Perseus, You give and never ask; let me for you Ask something. PERSEUS Ask, Andromeda, and have. ANDROMEDA Then this I ask that thy great deeds may leave Their golden trace on Syria. Let the dire cult For ever cease and victims bleed no more On its dark altar. Instead, Athene’s name

Act V, Scene 3 Spread over all the land and in men’s hearts. Then shall a calm and mighty Will prevail And broader minds and kindlier manners reign And men grow human, mild and merciful. PERSEUS King Cepheus, thou hast heard; shall this be done? CEPHEUS Hero, thou cam’st to change our world for us. Pronounce; I give assent. PERSEUS Then let the shrine That looked out from earth’s breast into the sunlight, Be cleansed of its red memory of blood, And the dread Form that lived within its precincts Transfigure into a bright compassionate God Whose strength shall aid men tossed upon the seas, Give succour to the shipwrecked mariner. A noble centre of a people’s worship, To Zeus and great Athene build a temple Between your sky-topped hills and Ocean’s vasts: Her might shall guard your lives and save your land. In your human image of her deity A light of reason and calm celestial force And a wise tranquil government of life, Order and beauty and harmonious thoughts And, ruling the waves of impulse, high-throned will Incorporate in marble, the carved and white Ideal of a young uplifted race. For these are her gifts to those who worship her. Adore and what you adore attempt to be. CEPHEUS Will the fiercer Grandeur that was here permit?

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PERSEUS Fear not Poseidon; the strong god is free. He has withdrawn from his own darkness and is now His new great self at an Olympian height. CASSIOPEA How can the immortal gods and Nature change? PERSEUS All alters in a world that is the same. Man most must change who is a soul of Time; His gods too change and live in larger light. CEPHEUS Then man too may arise to greater heights, His being draw nearer to the gods? PERSEUS Perhaps. But the blind nether forces still have power And the ascent is slow and long is Time. Yet shall Truth grow and harmony increase: The day shall come when men feel close and one. Meanwhile one forward step is something gained, Since little by little earth must open to heaven Till her dim soul awakes into the Light.

A page of Vasavadutta

4

Eric A Dramatic Romance

Characters ERIC SWEGN GUNTHAR HARDICNUT RAGNAR HARALD

ASLAUG HERTHA

Act I Eric’s Palace at Yara.

Scene 1 ERIC Eric of Norway, first whom these cold fiords, Deep havens of disunion, from their jagged And fissured crevices at last obey, The monarch of a thousand Vikings! Yes, But how long shall that monarchy endure Which only on the swiftness of a sword Has taken its restless seat? Strength’s iron hound Pitilessly bright behind his panting prey Can guard for life’s short splendour what it won. But when the sword is broken or when death Proves swifter? All this realm with labour built Dissolving like a transitory cloud Becomes the thing it was, cleft, parcelled out By discord. I have found the way to join, The warrior’s sword, builder of unity, But where’s the way to solder? where? O Thor And Odin, masters of the northern world, Wisdom and force I have; some strength is hidden I have not; I would find it out. Help me, Whatever power thou art who mov’st the world, To Eric unrevealed. Some sign I ask. ASLAUG (singing, outside) Love is the hoop of the gods Hearts to combine.

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Eric Iron is broken, the sword Sleeps in the grave of its lord. Love is divine. Love is the hoop of the gods Hearts to combine.

ERIC Is that your answer? Freya, mother of heaven, Thou wast forgotten. The heart! the seat is there. For unity is sweet substance of the heart And not a chain that binds, not iron, gold, Nor any helpless thought the reason knows. How shall I seize it? where? give me a net By which the fugitive can be snared. It is Too unsubstantial for my iron mind. ASLAUG (singing, outside) When Love desires Love, Then Love is born. Nor golden gifts compel, Nor even beauty’s spell Escapes his scorn. When Love desires Love, Then Love is born. ERIC (calling) Who sings outside? Harald! who sings outside? HARALD (entering) Two dancing-girls from Gothberg. Shall they come? ERIC Admit them. Harald goes out. From light lips and casual thoughts The gods speak best as if by chance, nor knows

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The speaker that he is an instrument But thinks his mind the mover of his words. Harald returns with Aslaug and Hertha. HARALD King Eric, these are they who sang. ERIC Women, Who are you? or what god directed you? ASLAUG The god who rules all men, Necessity. ERIC It was thou who sangst! ASLAUG My lips at least were used. ERIC Thou sayest. Dost thou know by whom? ASLAUG By Fate. For she alone is prompter on our stage, And all things move by an established doom, Not freely. Eric’s sword and Aslaug’s song, Music and thunder are the rhythmic chords Of one majestic harp. With equal mind She breaks the tops that she has built; her thrones Are ruins. She treads her way foreseen; our steps Are hers, our wills are blinded by her gaze. ERIC I think the soul is master. Who art thou?

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HERTHA Expelled from Gothberg with displeasure fierce, Norwegians by the wrathful Swede constrained, To Norway we return. ERIC Why went you forth? HERTHA From a bleak country rich by spoil alone Of kinder populations, far too cold, Too rough to love the sweetness of a song, The rhythm of a dance, with need for spur, We fled to an entire and cultured race, Whose hearts come apt and liberal from the gods Are steel to steel, but flowers to a flower. ERIC And wherefore war they upon women now? ASLAUG By thy aggressions moved. ERIC A nobler choice Of vengeance I will give them, though more hard. (to Gunthar who enters) Gunthar, thou comest from the front. What news? GUNTHAR Swegn, earl of Trondhjem, lifts his outlawed head. By desperate churls and broken nobles joined He moves towards the Swede. ERIC Let Sigurd’s force Cut off from Sweden and his lair the rude

Act I, Scene 1 Revolted lord. He only now resists, Champion of discord, remnant like our seas, The partisan and pattern of the past. They waste their surge of strength in sterile foam, Hungry for movement, careless what they break, Splendid, disastrous, active for no fruit. Such men are better with the gods than here To trouble earth. Taken, let him not live. ASLAUG Taken! Our words are only an arrogant breath, Who all are here, the doomer and the doomed, As captives of a greater doom than ours, To live or die. HERTHA Be silent. ASLAUG I silence my heart Which has remembered what all men forget, That Olaf of the seas was Norway’s head And Swegn his son. ERIC Will you remain with me? Though from my act there flowed on you distress, Make me be fountain of your better days; Your loss shall turn a fall to splendid gains. HERTHA Thy royal bounty shall atone for much. ASLAUG (low, to herself ) Nobler atonement’s needed.

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Eric ERIC

It is yours. Harald, make room for them within my house. Gunthar, we will converse some other hour. (alone) Love! If it were this girl with antelope eyes And the high head so proudly lifted up Upon a neck as white as any swan’s! But how to sway men’s hearts rugged and hard As Norway’s mountains, as her glaciers cold, The houses of their violent desires, Whose guests are interest and power and pride? Perhaps this stag-eyed woman comes for that, To teach me.

Scene 2 Hertha, Aslaug. ASLAUG Hertha, we dance before the man tonight. Why not tonight? HERTHA Because I will not act Lifting in vain a rash frustrated hand. When all is certain, I will strike. ASLAUG To near, To strike while all posterity applauds! For Norway’s poets to the end of time Shall sing in phrases noble as the theme Of Aslaug’s dance and Aslaug’s dagger. HERTHA Yes, If we succeed, but who will sing the praise Of foiled assassins? Shall we risk defeat? While we sleep flung in a dishonoured tomb, And Swegn of Norway roams until the end The desperate snows and forest silences Hopeless, proscribed, alone? ASLAUG No more defeat! Too often, too deeply have we drunk that cup!

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HERTHA The man we come to slay, — ASLAUG A mighty man! He has the face and figure of a god, A marble emperor with brilliant eyes. How came the usurper by a face like that? HERTHA His father was a son of Odin’s stock. ASLAUG His fable since he rose! A pauper house Of one poor vessel and a narrow fiord And some bare pine-trees possessor, — this was he, The root he sprang from. HERTHA But from this to tower In three swift summers undisputed lord Of Norway, before years had put their growth Upon his chin! If not of Odin’s race, Odin is for him. Are you not afraid, You who see Fate even in a sparrow’s flight, When Odin is for him? ASLAUG Aslaug is against. He has a strength, an iron strength, and Thor Strikes hammerlike in his uplifted sword. But Fate alone decides when all is said, Not Thor, nor Odin. I will try my fate. HERTHA He is a pure usurper, is he not? Norway’s election made him king, men say.

Act I, Scene 2 ASLAUG Left Olaf Sigualdson no heirs behind? Was his chair vacant? HERTHA Of Trondhjem; but they cried, The inland and the north were free to choose. ASLAUG As rebels are. HERTHA Discord was seated there. To the South rejoicing in her golden gains, Crying, “I am Norway”, all the rude-lipped North Blew bronze refusal and its free stark head To breathe cold heaven was lifted like its hills. We sought the arbitration of the sword, That sharp blind last appeal. The sword has judged Against our claim. ASLAUG The dagger overrides. HERTHA When it is keen and swift enough! O yet, If kindly peace even now were possible! The suzerainty? it is his. We fought for it, We have lost it. Let it rest where it has fallen. ASLAUG Better our barren empire of the snows! Better with reindeer herding to survive, Or else a free and miserable death Together!

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HERTHA It is well to be resolved. Therefore I flung the doubt before your mind, To strike more surely. Aslaug, did you see The eyes of Eric on you? ASLAUG (indifferently) I am fair. Men look upon me. HERTHA You see nothing more? ASLAUG (disdainfully) What is it to me how he looks? He is My human obstacle and that is all. HERTHA No, Aslaug, there’s much more. Alone with you, Absorbed, — you see it, — suddenly you strike And strike again, swift great exultant blows. ASLAUG It is too base! HERTHA Unlulled, he could not perish. Have you not seen his large and wakeful gaze? This is our chance. Must not Swegn mount his throne? ASLAUG So that I have not to degrade myself, Arrange it as you will. You own a swift, Contriving, careful brain I cannot match. To dare, to act was always Aslaug’s part.

Act I, Scene 2 HERTHA You will not shrink? ASLAUG I sprang not from the earth To bound my actions by the common rule. I claim my kin with those whom Heaven’s gaze Moulded supreme, Swegn’s sister, Olaf’s child, Aslaug of Norway. HERTHA Then it must be done. ASLAUG Hertha, I will not know the plots you weave: But when I see your signal, I will strike. HERTHA (alone) Pride violent! loftiness intolerable! The grandiose kingdom-breaking blow is hers, The baseness, the deception are for me. It was this, the assumption, the magnificence, Made Swegn her tool. To me his lover, counsellor, Wife, worshipper, his ears were coldly deaf. But, lioness of Norway, thy loud bruit And leap gigantic are ensnared at last In my compelling toils. She must be trapped! She is the fuel for my husband’s soul To burn itself on a disastrous pyre. Remove its cause, the flame will sink to rest, — And we in Trondhjem shall live peacefully Till Eric dies, as some day die he must, In battle or by a revolting sword, And leaves the spacious world unoccupied. Then other men may feel the sun once more. Always she talks of Fate: does she not see, This man was born beneath exultant stars,

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Had gods to rock his cradle? He must possess His date, his strong and unresisted time When Fate herself runs on his feet. Then comes, — All things too great end soon, — death, overthrow, The slow revenges of the jealous gods. Submitting we shall save ourselves alive For a late summer when cold spring is past.

Scene 3 Eric, Aslaug. ERIC Come hither. ASLAUG Thou hast sent for me? ERIC Come hither. What art thou? ASLAUG What thou knowest. ERIC Do I know? ASLAUG (to herself ) Does he suspect? (aloud) I am a dancing-girl. My name is Aslaug. That thou knowest. ERIC Where Did Odin forge thy sweet imperious eyes, Thy noble stature and thy lofty look? Thou dancest, — yes, thou hast that motion; song, The natural expression of thy soul, Comes from thy lips, floats, hovers and returns Like a wild bird which wings around its nest. This art the princesses of Sweden use,

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And those Norwegian girls who frame themselves On Sweden. ASLAUG It may be, my birth and past Were nobler than my present fortunes are. ERIC Why cam’st thou to me? ASLAUG (to herself ) Does Death admonish him Of danger? does he feel the impending stroke? Hertha could turn the question. ERIC Why soughtst thou out Eric of Norway? Wherefore broughtst thou here This beauty as compelling as thy song No man can gaze on and possess his soul? ASLAUG I am a dancing-girl; my song, my face Are my best stock. I carried them for gain Here to the richest market. ERIC Hast thou so? I buy them for a price. Aslaug, thy body too. ASLAUG Release me! Wilt thou lay thy hands on death? (wrenching herself free) All Norway has not sold itself thy slave. ERIC This was not spoken like a dancing-girl!

Act I, Scene 3 ASLAUG (to herself ) What is this siege? I have no dagger with me. Will he discover me? will he compel? ERIC Though Norway has not sold itself my slave, Thou hast. Remember what thou art, or else Thou feignst to be. ASLAUG (to herself ) I am caught in his snare. He is subtle, terrible. I see the thing He drives at and admire unwillingly The marble tyrant. ERIC Better play thy part Or leave it. If thou wert fashioned nobler than thou feignst, Confess that mightier name and lay thyself Between my hands. But if a dancing-girl, I have bought thee for a hire, thy face, thy song, Thy body. I turn not, girl, from any way I can possess thee, more than the sea hesitates To engulf what it embraces. ASLAUG Thou speakest words I scorn to answer. ERIC Or to understand? Thou art an enemy who in disguise Invad’st my house to spy upon my fate. ASLAUG What if I were?

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Eric ERIC

Thou hast too lightly then Devised thy chains and close imprisonment, Too thoughtlessly adventured a divine And glorious stake, this body, heaven’s hold, This face, the earth’s desire. ASLAUG What canst thou do? I do not think I am afraid of death. ERIC Far be death from thee who, if heaven were just, Wouldst walk immortal! Thou seest no nearer peril? ASLAUG None that I tremble at or wish to flee. ERIC Let this shake thee that thou art by thy choice Caged with the danger of the lion’s mood, Helpless hast seen the hunger of his eyes And feelst on thee the breath of his desire. ASLAUG (alarmed) I came not here to spy. ERIC Why cam’st thou then? ASLAUG To sing, to dance, to earn. ERIC Richly then earn. Thou hast a brain, and knowest why I looked On thee, why I have kept thee in my house.

Act I, Scene 3 My house! what fate has brought thy steps within? Thou, thou hast found the way to my desire! Thinkst thou thy feet have entered to escape As lightly as a wild bee from a flower, The lair and antre of thy enemy? Disguise? Canst thou disguise thy splendid soul? Then if thy face and speech more nobly express The truth of thee than this vocation can, Reveal it and deserve my clemency. ASLAUG (violently) Thy clemency! (restraining herself ) I am a dancing-girl; I came to earn. ERIC Thou art obstinate in pride! Choose yet. ASLAUG I have not any choice to make. ERIC Wilt thou still struggle vainly in the net? Because thou hast the lioness in thy mood, Thou thoughtst to play with Eric! It is I Who play with thee; thou liest in my grasp, As surely as if I held thee on my knees. I am enamoured of thy golden hair, Thy body like the snow, thy antelope eyes, This neck that seems to know it carries heaven Upon it easily. Thy song, thy speech, This gracious rhythmic motion of thy limbs Walking or dancing, all the careless pride That undulates in every gesture and tone, Have seized upon me smiling to possess.

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But I have only learned from Fate and strength To seize by force, master, enjoy, compel, As I will thee. Enemy and prisoner, Or dancing-girl and purchased chattel, choose! Thou wilt not speak? thou findest no reply? ASLAUG Because I am troubled by thy violent words. I cannot answer thee, or will not yet. (turning away) How could he see this death? Is he a god And knows men’s hearts? This is a terrible And iron pressure! ERIC What was thy design? To spy? to slay? For thou art capable Even of such daring. ASLAUG (to herself ) Swiftly, swiftly done It might be still! To put him off an hour, Some minutes, — O, to strike! ERIC What hast thou chosen? ASLAUG (turning to him) King, mend thy words and end this comedy. I have laughed till now and dallied with thy thoughts, A little amazed. Unfearing I stand here, Who come with open heart to seek a king, Pure of all hostile purpose, innocent Of all the guileful thoughts and blood-stained plans Thou burdenest thy fierce suspicions with. This is the Nemesis of men who rise Too suddenly by fraud or violence

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That they suspect all hearts, yes, every word Of sheltering some direr violence, Some subtler fraud, and they expect their fall Sudden and savage as their rise has been. ERIC Thou art my dancing-girl and nothing more? Assume this chain, this necklace, for thy life. Nor think it even thy price. She dashes the necklace to the ground. Thou art not subtle! ASLAUG (agitated) It is not so that women’s hearts are wooed. ERIC Yet so I woo thee, so do all men woo Enamoured of what thou hast claimed to be. Art thou the dancing-girl of Norway still Or some disguised high-reaching nobler soul? ASLAUG (suddenly) I am thy dancing-girl, King Eric. Look, I lift thy necklace. ERIC Take it, yet be free. Thou canst not slip out from my hands by this. No feigned decision will I let thee make, But one which binds us both. I give thee time, In hope thy saner mind will yet prevail, Not courage most perverse, though ardent, rule. Only one way thou hast to save thyself: Reveal thy treason, Aslaug, trust thy king. Aslaug, alone, lifts the chain, admires it and throws it on a chair.

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ASLAUG You are too much like drops of royal blood. She lifts it again. A necklace? No, my chain! Or wilt thou prove A god’s death-warrant? She puts it round her neck. Hertha, Hertha, here! (to Hertha, as she enters) O counsellor, art thou come? HERTHA I heard thee call. ASLAUG I called. Why did I call? See, Hertha, see How richly Norway’s Eric buys his doom! HERTHA He gave thee this? It is a kingdom’s price. ASLAUG A kingdom’s price! the kingdom of the slain! A price to rid the nations of a god. O Hertha, what has earth to do with gods, Who suffers only human weight? Will she Not go too swiftly downward from her base If Eric treads her long? HERTHA Sister of Swegn, There are new lustres in thy face and eyes. What said he to thee? ASLAUG What did Eric say, Eric to Aslaug, sister of King Swegn? A kingdom’s price! Swegn’s kingdom! And for him,

Act I, Scene 3 My marble emperor, my god who loves, This mortal Odin? What for him? By force Shall he return to his effulgent throne? HERTHA You were not used to a divided mind. ASLAUG Nor am I altered now, nor heart-perplexed. But these are thoughts which naturally arise. HERTHA He loves you then? ASLAUG He loves and he suspects. HERTHA What, Aslaug? ASLAUG What we are and we intend. HERTHA If he suspects! ASLAUG It cannot matter much, If we are rapid. HERTHA If we spoil it all! I will not torture Swegn with useless tears Perishing vainly. I will slay and die. He shall remember that he wears his crown By our great sacrifice and soothe his grief With the strong magnificent circle, or else bear it

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A noble duty to the nobly dead. (after a moment’s reflection) Child, you must humour him, you must consent. ASLAUG To what? HERTHA To all. ASLAUG Hast thou at all perused The infamy which thou advisest? HERTHA Yes. I do not bid you yield, but seem to yield. Even I who am Swegn’s wife, would do as much. But though you talk, you still are less in love, Valuing an empty outward purity Before your brother’s life, your brother’s crown. ASLAUG You know the way to bend me to your will! HERTHA Give freedom, but no licence to his love, For when he thinks to embrace, we shall have struck. ASLAUG And, Hertha, if a swift and violent heart Betrayed my will and overturned your plans? Is there no danger, Hertha, there? HERTHA Till now I feared not that from Aslaug, sister of Swegn.

Act I, Scene 3 But if you fear it! ASLAUG No, since I consent. You shall not blame again my selfishness, Nor my defect of love. HERTHA (alone) Swegn then might rule! (with a laugh) I had almost forgotten Fate between Smiling, alert, and his too partial gods.

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Scene 4 ERIC They say the anarchy of love disturbs Gods even: shaken are the marble natures, The deathless hearts are melted to the pang And rapture. I would be, O Odin, still Monarch of my calm royalty within, My thoughts my subjects. Do I hear her come? (to Aslaug who enters) Thou com’st? thou art resolved? thou hast made thy choice? ASLAUG I choose, if there is anything to choose, The truth. ERIC Who art thou? ASLAUG Aslaug, who am now A dancing-woman. ERIC And afterwards? Hast thou then Understood nothing? ASLAUG What should I understand? ERIC What I shall do with thee. This earthly heaven In which thou liv’st shall not be thine at all.

Act I, Scene 4 It was not fashioned for thy joy but mine And only made for my immense desire. This hast thou understood? ASLAUG (pale and troubled) Thou triest me still. ERIC I saw thee shake. ASLAUG It is not easily A woman’s heart sinks prostrate in such absolute Surrender. ERIC Thy heart? Is it thy heart that yields? O thou unparalleled enchanting frame For housing of a strong immortal guest, If man could seize the heart as palpably, The form, the limbs, the substance of this soul! That, that we ask for; all else can be seized So vainly! Walled from ours are other hearts: For if life’s barriers twixt our souls were broken, Men would be free and one, earth paradise And the gods live neglected. ASLAUG This heart of mine? Purchase it richly, for it is for sale. ERIC Yes, speak. ASLAUG With love; I meant no more.

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With love? Thou namest lightly a tremendous word. If thou hadst known this mightiest thing on earth And named it, should it not have upon thy lips So moving an impulsion for a man That he would barter worlds to hear it once? Words are but ghosts unless they speak the heart. ASLAUG I have yielded. ERIC Then tonight. Thou shak’st? ASLAUG There is A trouble in my blood. I do not shake. ERIC Thou heardst me? ASLAUG Not tonight. Thou art too swift, Too sudden. ERIC Thou hast had leisure to consult Thy comrade smaller, subtler than thyself? Better hadst thou chosen candour and thy frank soul Consulted, not a guile by others breathed. ASLAUG What guile, who give all for an equal price? Thou giv’st thy blood of rubies; I my life.

Act I, Scene 4 ERIC Thou hast not chosen then to understand. ASLAUG Because I sell myself, yet keep my pride? ERIC Thou shalt keep nothing that I choose to take. I see a tyranny I will delight in And force a oneness; I will violently Compel the goddess that thou art. But I know What soul is lodged within thee, thou as yet Ignorest mine. I still hold in my strength, Though it hungers like a lion for the leap, And give thee time once more; misuse it not. Beware, provoke not the fierce god too much; Have dread of his flame round thee. ASLAUG (alone) Odin and Freya, you have snares! But see, I have not thrown the dagger from my heart, But clutch it still. How strange that look and tone, That things of a corporeal potency Not only travel coursing through the nerves But seem to touch the seated soul within! It was a moment’s wave, for it has passed And the high purpose in my soul lives on Unconquerably intending to fulfil.

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Act II A room in Eric’s house.

Scene 1 Hertha, Aslaug. HERTHA See what a keen and fatal glint it has, Aslaug. ASLAUG Hast thou been haunted by a look, O Hertha, has a touch bewildered thee, Compelling memory? HERTHA Then the gods too work? ASLAUG A marble statue gloriously designed Without that breath our cunning maker gives, One feels it pain to break. This statue breathes! Out of these eyes there looks an intellect That claims us all; this marble holds a heart, The heart holds love. To break it all, to lay This glory of God’s making in the dust! Why do these thoughts besiege me? Have I then — No, it is nothing; it is pity works, It is an admiration physical. O he is far too great, too beautiful

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For a dagger’s penetration. It would turn, The point would turn; it would deny itself To such a murder. HERTHA Aslaug, it is love. ASLAUG (angrily) What saidst thou? HERTHA When he lays a lingering hand Upon thy tresses, — Aslaug, for he loves, — Canst thou then strike? ASLAUG What shakes me? Have I learned To pity, to tremble? That were new indeed In Olaf’s race. Give me self-knowledge, Gods. What are these unaccustomed moods you send Into my bosom? They are foreign here. Eric enters and regards them. Hertha, seeing him, rises to depart. ERIC Thou art the other dancing-woman come From Sweden to King Eric! HERTHA He has eyes That look into the soul. What mean his words? But they are common. Let me leave you, Aslaug. She goes out. ASLAUG I would have freedom here from thy pursuit.

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ERIC Why shouldst thou anywhere be free from me? I am full of wrath against thee and myself. Come near me. ASLAUG (to herself ) It is too strange — I am afraid! Of what? Of what? Am I not Aslaug still? ERIC Art thou a sorceress or conspirator? But thou art both to seize my throne and heart, And I will deal with thee, thou dreadful charm, As with my enemy. ASLAUG Let him never touch! ERIC I give thee grace no longer; bear thy doom. ASLAUG My doom is in my hands, not thine. ERIC (with a sudden fierceness) Thou errst, And thou hast always erred. Dar’st thou imagine That I who have enveloped in three years All Norway more rebellious than its storms, Can be resisted by a woman’s strength, However fierce, however swift and bold? ASLAUG I have seen thy strength. I cherish mine unseen. ERIC And I thy weakness. Something yet thou fearst.

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ASLAUG Nothing at all. ERIC Yes! though thy eyes defy me, Thy colour changes and thy limbs betray thee. All is not lionlike and masculine there Within. He advances towards her. ASLAUG Touch me not! ERIC It is that thou fearst? Why dost thou fear it? Is it thine own heart Thou tremblest at? Aslaug, is it thy heart? He takes her suddenly into his arms and kisses her. Aslaug remains like one stricken and bewildered. Lift up thine eyes; let me behold thy strength! ASLAUG O gods! I love! O loose me! ERIC Thou art taken. Whatever was thy purpose, thou art mine, Aslaug, thou sweet and violent soul surprised, Intended for me when the stars were planned! Sweetly, O Aslaug, to thy doom consent, The doom to love, the death of hatred. Draw No useless curtaining of shamed refusal Betwixt our yearnings, passionately take The leap of love across the abyss of hate. Force not thy soul to anger. Leave veils and falterings For meaner hearts. Between us let there be

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A noble daylight. ASLAUG Let me think awhile! Thy arms, thy lips prevent me. ERIC Think not! Only feel, Love only! ASLAUG O Eric, king, usurper, conqueror! O robber of men’s hearts and kingdoms! O Thou only monarch! ERIC Art thou won at last, O woman who disturbst the musing stars With passion? Soul of Aslaug, art thou mine? ASLAUG Thine, Eric? Eric! Whose am I, by whom am held? (sinking on a seat) I cannot think. I have lost myself! My heart Desires eternity in an embrace. ERIC Wilt thou deny me anything I claim Ever, O Aslaug? Art thou mine indeed? ASLAUG What have I done? What have I spoken? I love! (after a silence, feeling in her bosom) But what was there concealed within my breast? ERIC (observing her action) I take not a divided realm, a crown

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That’s shared. Thou hadst a purpose in thy heart I know not, but divine. Thou lov’st at length; But I have knowledge of the human heart, What opposite passions wrestle there with gusts And treacherous surprises. I trust not then Too sudden a change, but if thou canst be calm, Yet passionately submit, I will embrace thee For ever. Think and speak. Art thou all mine? ASLAUG I know no longer if I am my own. The world swims round me and heaven’s points are changed. A purpose! I had one. I had besides A brother! Had! What have I now? You Gods, How have you rushed upon me! Leave me, King. It is not good to trust a sudden heart. The blood being quiet, we will speak again Like souls that meet in heaven, without disguise. ERIC I do not leave thee, for thou art ominous Of an abysm uncrossed. ASLAUG Yet that were best. For there has been too much between us once And now too little. Leave me, King, awhile To wrestle with myself and calmly know In this strange strife the gods have brought me to, Which thing of these in me must live and which Be dumb for ever. ERIC Something yet resists. I will not leave thee till I know it and tame, For, Aslaug, thou wast won.

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King, thou art wise In war and counsel, not in women’s hearts. Thou hast surprised a secret that my soul Kept tremblingly from my own knowledge. Yet, If thou art really wise, thou wilt avoid To touch with a too rude and sudden hand The direr god who made my spirit fear To own its weakness. ERIC Art thou wise thyself? I take thee not for counsellor. ASLAUG Yet beware. There was a gulf between my will and heart Which is not bridged yet. ERIC Break thy will, unless Thou wouldst have me break it for thee. The older Aslaug rises now against the new. ASLAUG It rises, rises. Let it rise. Leave me My freedom. ERIC Aslaug, no, for free thou roamst A lioness midst thy passions. ASLAUG (with a gesture) Do then, O King, Whatever Fate commands.

Act II, Scene 1 ERIC I am master of my Fate. ASLAUG Too little, who are not masters of ourselves! ERIC Art thou that dancing-woman, Aslaug, yet? ASLAUG I am the dancing-girl who sought thee, yet, Eric. ERIC It may be still the swiftest way. Let then my dancing-woman dance for me Tonight in my chambers. I will see the thing Her dancing means and tear its mystery out. ASLAUG If thou demandest it, then Fate demands. ERIC Thy god grows sombre and he menaces, It seems! For afterwards I can demand Whatever soul and body can desire Twixt man and woman? ASLAUG If thy Fate permits. Thy love, it seems, communes not with respect. ERIC The word exists not between thee and me. It is burned up in too immense a fire. Wilt thou persist even after thou hast lain Upon my bosom? Thou claimest my respect?

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Yet art a dancing-woman, so thou sayst? Aslaug, let not the darker gods prevail. Put off thy pride and take up truth and love. ASLAUG (sombre) I am a dancing-woman, nothing more. ERIC The hate love struck down rises in thy heart. But I will have it out, by violence, Unmercifully. He strides upon her, and she half cowers from him, half defies. (taking her violently into his arms) Thus blotted into me Thou shalt survive the end of Time. Tonight! He goes out. ASLAUG How did it come? What was it leaped on me And overpowered? O torn distracted heart, Wilt thou not pause a moment and give leave To the more godlike brain to do its work? Can the world change within a moment? Can Hate suddenly be love? Love is not here. I have the dagger still within my heart. O he is terrible and fair and swift! He is not mortal. Yet be silent, yet Give the brain leave. O marble brilliant face! O thou art Odin, thou art Thor on earth! What is there in a kiss, the touch of lips, That it can change creation? There’s a wine That turns men mad; have I not drunk of it? To be his slave, know nothing but his will! Aslaug and Eric! Aslaug, sister of Swegn, Who makes his bed on the inclement snow And with the reindeer herds, that was a king.

Act II, Scene 1

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Who takes his place? Eric and Aslaug rule. Eric who doomed him to the death, if seized, Aslaug, the tyrant, the usurper’s wife, Who by her brother’s murder is secured In her possession. Wife! The concubine, The slave of Eric, — that his pride intends. What was it seized on me, O heavenly powers? I have given myself, my brother’s throne and life, My pride, ambition, hope, and grasp, and keep Shame only. Tonight! What happens then tonight? I dance before him, — royal Olaf’s child Becomes the upstart Eric’s dancing-girl! What happens else tonight? One preys upon Aslaug of Norway! O, I thank thee, Heaven, That thou restorest me to sanity. It was his fraudulent and furious siege, And something in me proved a traitor. Fraud? O beauty of the godlike brilliant eyes! O face expressing heaven’s supremacy! No, I will put it down, I put it down. Help me, you gods, help me against my heart. I will strike suddenly, I will not wait. ’Tis a deceit, his majesty and might, His dreadful beauty, his resistless brain. It will be very difficult to strike! But I will strike. Swegn strikes, and Norway strikes, My honour strikes, the Gods, and all his life Offends each moment. (to Hertha, who enters) Hertha, I strike tonight. HERTHA Why, what has happened? ASLAUG That thou shalt not know. I strike tonight. She goes out.

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It is not difficult To know what drives her. I must act at once, Or this may have too suddenly a tragic close. Not blood, but peace, not death, you Gods, but life, But tranquil sweetness!

Scene 2 Eric, Hertha. ERIC I sent for thee to know thy name and birth. HERTHA My name is Hertha and my birth too mean To utter before Norway’s lord. ERIC Yet speak. HERTHA A Trondhjem peasant and a serving-girl Were parents to me. ERIC And from such a stock Thy beauty and thy wit and grace were born? HERTHA The Gods prodigiously sometimes reverse The common rule of Nature and compel Matter with soul. How else should it be guessed That Gods exist at all? ERIC Who nurtured thee? HERTHA A dancing-girl of Gothberg by a lord

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Of Norway entertained, to whom a child I was delivered. Song and dance were hers; I made them mine. ERIC Their names? the thrall? the lord? HERTHA Olaf of Norway, earl of Trondhjem then, And Thiordis whom he loved. ERIC Thou knowest Swegn, The rebel? HERTHA Yes, I know. ERIC And lov’st perhaps? HERTHA Myself much better. ERIC Yes? He is a man Treacherous and rude and ruthless, is he not? HERTHA (with a movement) I would not speak of kings and mighty earls: These things exceed my station. ERIC Ah, thou lov’st! Thou wilt not blame.

Act II, Scene 2 HERTHA Thou art mistaken, King. He cannot conquer and he will not yield, But weakens Norway. This in him I blame. ERIC Thou hast seen that? Thy peasant father got A wondrous politician for his child! Do I abash thee? HERTHA I am what the Gods Have made me. But I understand at last; Thou thinkst me other than I seem. ERIC Some thought Like that I had. HERTHA King Eric, wilt thou hear? ERIC I much desire it, if I hear the truth. HERTHA Betray me not to Aslaug then. ERIC That’s just. She shall not know. HERTHA What if I came, O King, For other purpose, not to sing and dance, And yet thy friend, the well-wisher, at least, Of Norway and her peace?

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Eric ERIC Speak plainly now.

HERTHA If I can show thee how to conquer Swegn Without one stroke of battle, wilt thou grant My bitter need? ERIC I would give much. HERTHA Wilt thou? ERIC If so I conquer him and thy desire Is something I can grant without a hurt To Norway or myself. HERTHA It is. ERIC Speak then, Demand. HERTHA I have not finished yet. Meantime If I avert a danger from thy head Now threatening it, do I not earn rewards More ample? ERIC More? On like conditions, then. HERTHA If I yield up great enemies to thy hands

Act II, Scene 2 Thou knowst not of, wilt thou reject my price, Confusing different debts in one account? ERIC Hast thou yet more to ask? Thou art too shrewd A bargainer. HERTHA Giving Norway needed peace, Thyself friends, safety, empire, is my claim Excessive then? ERIC I grant thee three demands. HERTHA They are all. He asks not more who has enough. Thrice shall I ask and thrice shall Eric give And never have an enemy again In Norway. ERIC Speak. HERTHA Thy enemies are here, No dancing-girls, but Hertha, wife of Swegn, And Aslaug, child of Olaf Sigualdson, His sister. ERIC It is well. HERTHA The danger lies In Aslaug’s hand and dagger which she means To strike into thy heart. Tonight she strikes.

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ERIC And Swegn? HERTHA Send me to him with perilous word Of Aslaug in thy hands; so with her life Buy his surrender, afterwards his love With kingly generosity and trust. ERIC Freely and frankly hast thou spoken, Queen Who wast in Trondhjem: now as freely ask. HERTHA The life of Swegn; his liberty as well, Submitting. ERIC They are thine. HERTHA And Aslaug’s life And pardon, not her liberty. ERIC They are given. HERTHA And, last, forgiveness for myself, O King, My treason and my plots. ERIC This too I grant. HERTHA I have nothing left to ask for.

Act II, Scene 2 ERIC Thou hast done? Let me consign thee to thy prison then. HERTHA My prison! Wilt thou send me not to Swegn? ERIC I will not. Why, thou subtle, dangerous head, Restored to liberty, what perilous schemes Might leap into thy thoughts! Shall I give Swegn, That fierce and splendid fighter, such a brain Of cunning to complete and guide his sword? What if he did not yield, rejected peace? Wilt thou not tell him Aslaug’s life is safe? To prison! HERTHA Thou hast promised, King. ERIC I keep My promise to thee, Hertha, wife of Swegn. For Swegn thou askest life and liberty, For Aslaug life and pardon, for thyself Forgiveness only. I can be cunning too. Hertha, thou art my prisoner and thrall. HERTHA (after a pause, smiling) I see. I am content. Thou showest thyself Norway’s chief brain as her victorious sword. Free or a prisoner, let me do homage To Eric, my King and Swegn’s. ERIC Thou art content?

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HERTHA This face and noble bearing cannot lie. I am content and feel as safe with thee As in my husband’s keeping. ERIC (smiling) So thou art, Thou subtle voice, thou close and daring brain. I would I felt myself as safe with thee. HERTHA King Eric, think me not thy enemy. What thou desirest, I desire yet more. ERIC Keep to that well; let Aslaug not suspect. My way I’ll take with her and thee and Swegn. Fear nothing, Hertha; go. Hertha goes out. O Freya Queen, Thou helpst me even as Thor and Odin did. I make my Norway one.

Act III Eric’s Chamber.

Scene 1 Eric, Harald. ERIC At dawn have all things ready for my march. Let none be near tonight. Send here to me Aslaug the dancing-girl. Harald goes out. I have resumed The empire and the knowledge of myself. For this strong angel Love, this violent And glorious guest, let it possess my heart Without a rival, not invade the brain, Not with imperious discord cleave my soul Jangling its ordered harmonies, nor turn The manifold music of humanity Into a single and a maddening note. Strength in the spirit, wisdom in the mind, Love in the heart complete the trinity Of glorious manhood. There was the wide flaw, — The coldness of the radiance that I was. This was the vacant space I could not fill. It left my soul the torso of a god, A great design unfinished, and my works Mighty but crude like things admired that pass Bare of the immortality which keeps The ages. O, the word they spoke was true!

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’Tis Love, ’tis Love fills up the gulfs of Time! By Love we find our kinship with the stars, The spacious uses of the sky. God’s image Lives nobly perfect in the soul he made, When Love completes the godhead in a man. Aslaug enters. Thou com’st to me! I give thee grace no more. What hast thou in thy bosom? ASLAUG Only a heart. ERIC A noble heart, though wayward. Give it me, Aslaug, to be the secret of the dawns, The heart of sweetness housed in Aslaug’s breast Delivered from revolt and ruled by love. ASLAUG Why hast thou sent for me and forced to come? Wilt thou have pity on me even yet And on thyself? ERIC I am a warrior, one Who have known not mercy. Wilt thou teach it me? I have learned, Aslaug, from my soul and Life The great wise pitiless calmness of the gods, Found for my strength the proud swift blows they deal At all resistance to their absolute walk, Thor’s hammer-stroke upon the unshaped world. Its will is beaten on a dreadful forge, Its roads are hewn by violence divine. Is there a greater and a sweeter way? Knowst thou it? Wilt thou lead me there? Thy step Swift and exultant, canst thou tread its flowers?

Act III, Scene 1 ASLAUG I know not who inspires thy speech; it probes. ERIC My mind tonight is full of Norway’s needs. Aslaug, she takes thy image. ASLAUG Mine! O if Tonight I were not Norway! ERIC Thou knowest Swegn? ASLAUG I knew and I remember. ERIC Yes, Swegn, — a soul Brilliant and furious, violent and great, A storm, a wind-swept ocean, not a man. That would seize Norway? that will make it one? But Odin gave the work to me. I came Into this mortal frame for Odin’s work. ASLAUG So deify ambition and desire. ERIC If one could snap this mortal body, then Swegn even might rule, — not govern himself, yet govern All Norway! Aslaug, canst thou rule thyself? ’Tis difficult for great and passionate hearts. ASLAUG Then Swegn must die that Eric still may rule! Was there no other way the gods could find?

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ERIC A deadly duel are the feuds of kings. ASLAUG They are so. She feels for her dagger. ERIC Aslaug, thou feelest for thy heart? Unruled it follows violent impulses This way, that way, working calamity Dreams that it helps the world. What shall I do, Aslaug, with an unruly noble heart? Shall I not load it with the chains of love And rob it of its treasured pain and wrath And bind it to its own supreme desire? Richly ’twould beat beneath an absolute rule And sweetly liberated from itself By a golden bondage. ASLAUG And what of other impulses it holds? Shall they not once rebel? ERIC They shall keep still; They shall not cry nor question; they shall trust. ASLAUG It cannot be that he reads all my heart! The gods play with me in his speech. ERIC Thou knowest Why thou art called?

Act III, Scene 1

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ASLAUG I know why I am here. ERIC Few know that, Aslaug, why they have come here, For that is heaven’s secret. Sit down beside me Nearer my heart. No hesitating! come. I do not seize thy hands. ASLAUG They yet are free. Is it the gods who bid me to strike soon? My heart reels down into a flaming gulf. If thou wouldst rule with love, must thou not spare Thy enemies? ERIC When they have yielded. Is thy choice made? Whatever defence thou hast against me yet Use quickly, before I seize these restless hands And thy more restless heart that flees from bliss. Aslaug rises trembling. ASLAUG Desiredst thou me not to dance tonight, O King, before thee? ERIC It was my will. Is it thine Now? Dance, while yet thy limbs are thine. ASLAUG I dance The dance of Thiordis with the dagger, taught To Hertha in Trondhjem and by her to me.

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ERIC (smiling) Aslaug, my dancing-girl, thou and thy dance Have daring, but too little subtlety. ASLAUG (moving to a distance) What use to struggle longer in the net? Vain agony! he watches and he knows! I’ll strike him suddenly. It cannot be The senses will so overtake the will As to forbid its godlike motion. If I feared not my wild heart, I could lean down And lull suspicion with a fatal gift. My blood would cleanse what shame was in the touch. So would one act who knew her tranquil will But none thus in the burning heart sunk down. ERIC Wilt thou play vainly with that fatal toy? Dance now. ASLAUG My limbs refuse. ERIC They have no right. ASLAUG O Gods, I did not know myself till now, Thrown in this furnace. Odin’s irony Shaped me from Olaf’s seed! I am in love With chains and servitude and my heart desires Fluttering like a wild bird within its cage A tyrant’s harshness. ERIC Wilt thou dance? or wait Till the enamoured motion of thy limbs

Act III, Scene 1

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Remember joy of me? So would I have Thy perfect motion grow a dream of love. Tomorrow at the dawning will I march To violent battle and the sword of Swegn Bring back to be thy plaything, a support Appropriate to thy action in the dance. Aslaug, it shall replace thy dagger. ASLAUG Fate Still drives me with his speech and Eric calls My weakness on to slaughter Eric. Yes, But he suspects, he knows! Yet will I strike, Yet will I tread down my rebellious heart, And then I too can die and end remorse. ERIC Where is thy chain I gave thee, Aslaug? I would watch it rise, Rubies of passion on a bosom of snow, And climb for ever on thy breast aheave With the sea’s rhythm as thou dancest. Dance Weaving my life a measure with thy feet And of thy dancing I will weave the stroke That conquers Swegn. ASLAUG The necklace? I will bring it. Rubies of passion! Blood-drops still of death! She goes out. ERIC The power to strike has gone out of her arm And only in her stubborn thought survives. She thinks that she will strike. Let it be tried! He lies back and feigns to sleep. Aslaug returns.

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ASLAUG Now I could slay him. But he will open his eyes Appalling with the beauty of his gaze. He did not know of peril! All he has said Was only at a venture thought and spoken, — Or spoken by Fate? Sleeps he his latest sleep? Might I not touch him only once in love And no one know of it but death and I, Whom I must slay like one who hates? Not hate, O Eric, but the hard necessity The gods have sent upon our lives, — two flames That meet to quench each other. Once, Eric! then The cruel rest. Why did I touch him? I am faint! My strength ebbs from me. O thou glorious god, Why wast thou Swegn’s and Aslaug’s enemy? We might so utterly have loved. But death Now intervenes and claims thee at my hands — And this alone he leaves to me, to slay thee And die with thee, our only wedlock. Death! Whose death? Eric’s or Swegn’s? For one I kill. Dreadful necessity of choice! His breath Comes quietly and with a happy rhythm, His eyes are closed like Odin’s in heaven’s sleep. I must strike blindly out or not at all Screening out with my lashes love, — as now — or now! For Time is like a sapper mining still The little resolution that I keep. Swegn’s death or life upon that little stands. Swegn’s death or life and such an easy stroke, Yet so impossible to lift my hand! To wait? To watch more moments these closed lids, This quiet face and try to dream that all Is different! But the moments are Fate’s thoughts Watching me. While I pause, my brother’s slain, Myself am doomed his concubine and slave. I must not think of him! Close, mind, close, eyes. Free the unthinking hand to its harsh work.

Act III, Scene 1

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She lifts twice the dagger, lowers it twice, then flings it on the ground. Eric of Norway, live and do thy will With Aslaug, sister of Swegn and Olaf’s child, Aslaug of Trondhjem. For her thought is now A harlot and her heart a concubine, Her hand her brother’s murderess. ERIC Thou hast broken At last. ASLAUG Ah, I am broken by my weak And evil nature. Spare me not, O King, One vileness, one humiliation known To tyranny. Be not unjustly merciful! For I deserve and I consent to all. ERIC Aslaug! ASLAUG No, I deny my name and parentage. I am not she who lived in Trondhjem: she Would not have failed, but slain even though she loved. Let no voice call me Aslaug any more. ERIC Sister of Swegn, thou knowest that I love. Daughter of Olaf, shouldst thou not aspire To sit by me on Norway’s throne? ASLAUG Desist! Thou shalt not utterly pollute the seat Where Olaf sat. If I had struck and slain,

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I would deserve a more than regal chair. But not on such must Norway’s diadem rest, A weakling with a hand as impotent And faltering as her heart, a sensual slave Whose passionate body overcomes her high Intention. Rather do thy tyrant will. King, if thou spare me, I will slay thee yet. ERIC Recoil not from thy heart, but strongly see And let its choice be absolute over thy soul. Its way once taken thou shalt find thy heart Rapid; for absolute and extreme in all, In yielding as in slaying thou must be, Sweet violent spirit whom thy gods surprise. Submit thyself without ashamed reserve. ASLAUG What more canst thou demand than I have given? I am prone to thee, prostrate, yielded. ERIC Throw from thee The bitterness of thy self-abasement. Find That thou hast only joy in being mine. Thou tremblest? ASLAUG Yes, with shame and grief and love. Thou art my Fate and I am in thy grasp. ERIC And shall it spare thee? ASLAUG Spare Swegn. I am in thy hands.

Act III, Scene 1

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ERIC Is’t a condition? I am lord of thee And lord of Swegn to slay him or to spare. ASLAUG No, an entreaty. I am fallen here, My head is at thy feet, my life is in thy hands: The luxury of fall is in my heart. ERIC Rise up then, Aslaug, and obey thy lord. ASLAUG What is thy will with me? ERIC This, Aslaug, first. Take up thy dagger, Aslaug, dance thy dance Of Thiordis with the dagger. See thou near me; For I shall sit, nor shouldst thou strike, defend. What thy passion chose, let thy freed heart confirm; My life and kingdom twice are in thy hands And I will keep them only as thy gift. ASLAUG So are they thine already; but I obey. She dances and then lays the dagger at his feet. Eric, my king and Norway’s, my life is mine No longer, but for thee to keep or break. ERIC Swegn’s life I hold. Thou gavest it to me With the dagger. ASLAUG It is thine to save.

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Norway Thou hast given, casting it for ever away From Olaf’s line. ASLAUG What thou hast taken, I give. ERIC And last thyself without one covering left Against my passionate, strong, devouring love. Thou seest I leave thee nothing. ASLAUG I am thine. Do what thou wilt with me. ERIC Because thou hast no help? ASLAUG I have no help. My gods have brought me here And given me into thy dreadful hands. ERIC Thou art content at last that they have breathed Thy plot into thy mind to snare thy soul In its own violence, bring to me a slave, A bright-limbed prisoner and thee to thy lord? See Odin’s sign to thee. ASLAUG I know it now. I recognise with prostrate heart my fate And I will quietly put on my chains Nor ever strive nor wish to break them more.

Act III, Scene 1 ERIC Yield up to me the burden of thy fate And treasure of thy limbs and priceless life. I will be careful of the golden trust. It was unsafe with thee. And now submit Gladly at last. Surrender body and soul, O Aslaug, to thy lover and thy lord. ASLAUG Compel me, they cannot resist thy will. ERIC I will have thy heart’s heart’s surrender, not Its body only. Give me up thy heart. Open its secret chambers, yield their keys. ASLAUG O Eric, is not my heart already thine, My body thine, my soul into thy grasp Delivered? I rejoice that God has played The grand comedian with my tragedy And trapped me in the snare of thy delight. ERIC Aslaug, the world’s sole woman! thou cam’st here To save for us our hidden hope of joy Parted by old confusion. Some day surely The world too shall be saved from death by love. Thou hast saved Swegn, helped Norway. Aslaug, see, Freya within her niche commands this room And incense burns to her. Not Thor for thee, But Freya. ASLAUG Thou for me! not other gods.

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ERIC Aslaug, thou hast a ring upon thy hand. Before Freya give it me and wear instead This ancient circle of Norwegian rites. The thing this means shall bind thee to our joy, Beloved, while the upbuilded worlds endure. Then if thy spirit wander from its home, Freya shall find her thrall and lead her back A million years from now. ASLAUG A million lives!

Scene 2 ASLAUG The world has changed for me within one night. O surely, surely all shall yet go well, Since Love is crowned. ERIC (entering) Aslaug, the hour arrives When I must leave thee. For the dawn looks pale Into our chamber and these first rare sounds Expect the arising sun, the daylight world. ASLAUG Eric, thou goest hence to war with Swegn, My brother? ERIC What knows thy heart? ASLAUG That Swegn shall live. ERIC Thou knowst his safety from deliberate swords. None shall dare touch the head that Aslaug loves. But if some evil chance came edged with doom, Which Odin and my will shall not allow, Thou wouldst not hold me guilty of his death, Aslaug? ASLAUG Fate orders all and Fate I now

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Have recognised as the world’s mystic Will That loves and labours. ERIC Because it knows and loves, Our hearts, our wills are counted, are indulged. Aslaug, for a few days in love and trust Anchor thy mind. I shall bring back thy joy. For now I go with mercy and from love. He embraces her and goes. ASLAUG Swegn lives. A Mind, not iron gods with laws Deaf and inevitable, overrules.

Act IV Swegn’s fastness in the hills.

Scene 1 Swegn, Hardicnut, with soldiers. SWEGN Fight on, fight always, till the Gods are tired. In all this dwindling remnant of the past Desires one man to rest from virtue, cease From desperate freedom? HARDICNUT No man wavers here. SWEGN Let him depart unhurt who so desires. HARDICNUT Why should he go and whither? To Eric’s sword That never pardoned? If our hearts were vile, Unworthily impatient of defeat, Serving not harassed right but chance and gain, Eric himself would keep them true. SWEGN Not thine, My second soul. Yet could I pardon him Who faltered, for the blow transcends! And were King Eric not in Yara where he dwells,

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I would have seen his hand in this defeat, Whose stroke is like the lightning’s, silent, straight, Not to be parried. HARDICNUT Sigurd smote, perhaps, But Eric’s brain was master of his stroke. SWEGN The traitor Sigurd! For young Eric’s part In Olaf’s death, he did a warrior’s act Avenging Yarislaf and Hacon slain, And Fate, not Eric slew. But he who, trusted, lured Into death’s ambush, when the rebel seas Rejoicing trampled down the royal head They once obeyed, him I will some day have At my sword’s mercy. (to Ragnar who enters) Ragnar, does it come, The last assault, death’s trumpets? RAGNAR Rather peace, If thou prefer it, Swegn. An envoy comes From Eric’s army. SWEGN Ragnar, bring him in. Ragnar goes out. He treats victorious? When his kingdom shook, His party faltered, then he did not treat Nor used another envoy than his sword. (to Gunthar who enters, escorted by Ragnar) Earl Gunthar, welcome, — welcome more wert thou When loyal.

Act IV, Scene 1 GUNTHAR Ragnar, Swegn and Hardicnut, Revolting Earls, I come from Norway’s King With peace, not menace. SWEGN Where then all these days Behind you lurked the Northerner? GUNTHAR Thou art In his dread shadow and in your mountain lair Eric surrounds you. SWEGN (contemptuously) I will hear his words. GUNTHAR Eric, the King, the son of Yarislaf, To Swegn, the Earl of Trondhjem. “I have known The causes and the griefs that raise thee still Against my monarchy. Thou knowest mine That raised me against thy father, — Hacon’s death, My mother’s brother, butchered shamefully And Yarislaf by secret sentence slain. Elected by our peers I seized his throne. But thou, against thy country’s ancient laws Rebelling, hast preferred for judge the sword. Respect then the tribunal of thy choice And its decision. Why electest thou In thy drear fastness on the wintry hills To perish? Trondhjem’s earldom shall be thine, And honours and wealth and state, if thou accept The offer of thy lenient gods. Consider, O Swegn, thy country’s wounds, perceive at last Thy good and ours, prolong thy father’s house.” I expect thy answer.

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I return to him His proffered mercy. Let him keep it safe For his own later use. GUNTHAR Thou speakest high. What help hast thou? what hope? what god concealed? SWEGN I have the snow for friend and, if it fails, The arms of death are broad enough for Swegn, But not subjection. GUNTHAR For their sake thou lov’st, Thy wife’s and sister’s, yield. RAGNAR Thou art not wise. This was much better left unsaid. SWEGN It seems Your pastime to insult the seed of Kings. Yet why Am I astonished if triumphant mud Conceives that the pure heavens are of its stuff And nature? To the upstart I shall yield, The fortune-fed adventurer, the boy Favoured by the ironic Gods? Since fell By Sigurd’s treachery and Eric’s fate In resonant battle on the narrow seas Olaf, his children had convinced the world, I thought, of their great origin. Men have said, “Their very women have souls too great to cry For mercy even from the Gods.” His Fates Are strong indeed when they compel our race

Act IV, Scene 1 To hear such terms from his! Go, tell thy King, Swegn of the ancient house rejects his boons. Not terms between us stand, but wrath, but blood. I would have flayed him on a golden cross And kept his women for my household thralls, Had I prevailed. Can he not do as much That he must chaffer and market Norway’s crown? These are the ways of Kings, strong, terrible And arrogant, full of sovereignty and might. Force in a King’s his warrant from the Gods. By force and not by bribes and managements Empires are founded! But your chief was born Of huckstering earls who lived by prudent gains. How should he imitate a royal flight Or learn the leap of Kings upon their prey? GUNTHAR Swegn Olafson, thou speakest fatal words. Where lodge thy wife and sister? Dost thou know? HARDICNUT Too far for Eric’s reach. GUNTHAR Earl, art thou sure? SWEGN What means this question? GUNTHAR That the Gods are strong Whom thou in vain despisest, that they have dragged From Sweden into Eric’s dangerous hands Hertha and Aslaug, that the evil thou speakst Was fatally by hostile Powers inspired.

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SWEGN Thou liest! They are safe and with the Swede. GUNTHAR I pardon thy alarm the violent word. Earl Swegn, canst thou not see the dreadful Gods Have chosen earth’s mightiest man to do their will? What is that will but Norway’s unity And Norway’s greatness? Canst thou do the work? Look round on Norway by a boy subdued, The steed that even Olaf could not tame See turn obedient to an unripe hand. Behold him with a single petty pace Possessing Sweden. Sweden once subdued, Thinkst thou the ships that crowd the Northern seas Will stay there? Shall not Britain shake, Erin Pray loudly that the tempest rather choose The fields of Gaul? Scythia shall own our yoke, The Volga’s frozen waves endure our march, Unless the young god’s fancy rose-ensnared To Italian joys attracted amorously Should long for sunnier realms or lead his high Exultant mind to lord in eastern Rome. What art thou but a pebble in his march? Consider, then, and change thy fierce response. HARDICNUT Deceives the lie they tell, thy reason, Swegn? Earl Gunthar may believe, who even can think That Yarislaf begot a god! SWEGN Gunthar, I have my fortune, thou thy answer. Go. GUNTHAR I pity, Swegn, thy rash and obstinate soul. He goes out.

Act IV, Scene 1 SWEGN Aslaug would scorn me yielding, even now And even for her. He has unnerved my will, The subtle tyrant! O, if this be true, My Fate has wandered into Eric’s camp, My soul is made his prisoner. Friends, prepare Resistance; he’s the thunderbolt that strikes And threatens only afterwards. It is Our ultimate battle. HARDICNUT On the difficult rocks We will oppose King Eric and his gods.

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Scene 2 Swegn with his earls and followers in flight. SWEGN Swift, swift into the higher snows, where Winter Eternal can alone of universal things Take courage against Eric to defend His enemies. O you little remnant left Of many heroes, save yourselves for Fate. She yet may need you when she finds the man She lifts perpetually, too great at last Even for her handling. HARDICNUT Ragnar, go with him, While I stand here to hinder the pursuit Or warn in time. Fear not for me, assailed. Leave, Ragnar, leave me; I am tired at last. All go out upward except Hardicnut. Here then you reach me on these snows. O if my death Could yet persuade indignant Heaven to change [Scene incomplete]

Act V Eric’s Palace.

Scene 1 ERIC Not by love only, but by force and love. This man must lower his fierceness to the fierce, He must be beggared of the thing left, his pride, And know himself for clay, before he will consent To value my gift. He would not honour nor revere This unfamiliar movement of my soul But would contemn and think my seated strength Had changed to trembling. Strike the audience-bell, Harald. The master of my stars is he Who owns no master. Odin, what is this play, Thou playest with thy world, of fall and rise, Of death, birth, greatness, ruin? The time may come When Eric shall not be remembered! Yes, But there’s a script, there are archives that endure. Before a throne in some superior world Bards with undying lips and eyes still young After the ages sing of all the past And the immortal Children hear. Somewhere In this gigantic world of which one grain of dust Is all our field, Eternal Memory keeps Our great things and our trivial equally To whom the peasant’s moans above his dead Are tragic as a prince’s fall. Some say Atomic Chance put Eric here, Swegn there, Aslaug between. O you revealing Gods,

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But I have seen myself and know though veiled The immortality that thinks in me, That plans and reasons. Masters of Norway, hail! For all are masters here, not I alone Who am my country’s brain of unity, Your oneness. Swegn’s at last in Norway’s hands, Who shook our fates. And what shall Norway do with Swegn, One of her mightiest? GUNTHAR If his might submits Then, Eric, let him live. We cannot brook These discords always. ERIC Norway cannot brook. Therefore he must submit. Bring him within. We’ll see if this strong iron can be bent, This crudeness bear the fire. Swegn Olafson, Hast thou considered yet thy state? hast thou Submitted to the gods; or must we, Swegn, Consider now thy sentence? SWEGN I have seen My dire misfortunes, I have seen myself And know that I am greater. Do thy will, Since what the son of Yarislaf commands, The son of Olaf bears! ERIC Thou wilt not yield? SWEGN My father taught me not the word.

Act V, Scene 1 ERIC Shall I? Thou hast forgotten, Swegn, thy desperate words. Or were they meant only for the free snows, And here retracted? SWEGN Son of Yarislaf, they stand. I claim the cross I would have nailed thee on, I claim the flayer’s knife. ERIC These for thyself. And for thy wife and sister, Swegn? SWEGN Alas! ERIC I think thy father taught thee not that word, But I have taught thee. Since thou lovest yet, — No man who says that he will stand alone, Swegn, can afford to love, — thou then art mine Inevitably. He must be half a god Who can oppose Thor’s anger, Odin’s will Nor dream of breaking. Such the gods delight in, Raising or smiting; such in the gods delight, Raised up or smitten. But thou wast always man And canst not now be more. Thou vauntst thy blood, Thy strength? Thou art much stronger, so thou sayst, Than thy misfortunes. Art thou stronger, Swegn, Than theirs? Can all thy haughty pride of race Or thy heart’s mightiness undo my will In whose strong hands they lie? Swegn Olafson, The gods are mightier than thy race and blood, The gods are mightier than thy arrogant heart. They will not have one violent man oppose

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His egoism, his pride and his desire Against a country’s fate. Use then thy eyes And learn thy strength. At a sign of his hand Aslaug and Hertha are brought in. Thou hast no strength, For thou and these are only Eric’s slaves Who have been his stubborn hinderers. Therefore Fate, Whose favourite and brother I have grown, Turned wroth with you and dragged you all into my grasp. I will that you should live and yield. These yield, But thou withstandest wisdom, Fate and love Allied against thee. Swegn Olafson, submit, Stand by my side and share thy father’s throne. SWEGN (after a silence) Yes, thou art fierce and subtle! Let them pronounce My duty’s preference if not my heart’s, To them or Right. ERIC O narrow obstinate heart! Had this been for thy country or a cause Men worship, then it would indeed have been A noble blindness, but thou serv’st thy pride, Swegn, son of Olaf, not the noble cause Of God or man or country. Look now on these. I give thee the selection of their fate. If these remain my slaves, an upstart’s, Swegn, Who yet are Olaf’s blood and Norway’s pride, I swear ’tis thou that mak’st them so. Now choose. (Swegn is silent) How sayst thou, Swegn Olafson, shall these be Eric’s thralls? Wilt thou abide by their pronouncement, Swegn? Aslaug and Hertha, see your brother and lord, This mighty captive, royal once, now fallen

Act V, Scene 1 And helpless in my hands. I wish to spare His mightiness, his race, his royal heart; But he prefers the cross instead, prefers Your shame — thy brother, Aslaug, — Hertha, he. Thy spouse consents to utmost shame for both If from the ages he can buy this word, “Swegn still was stubborn.” That to him is all. He who forgot to value Norway’s will, Forgets to value now your pride, your love. This was not royal, nor like Olaf’s son! Come, will you speak to him, will you persuade? Walk there aside awhile; aim at his heart. Hertha, my subject, Aslaug, thou my thrall, Save, if he will, this life. SWEGN ’Tis thus we meet, — Were not the snows of Norway preferable, Daughter of Olaf? ASLAUG They were high, but cold. HERTHA Wilt thou not speak to Hertha, Swegn, my lord? SWEGN Hertha, alas, thy crooked scheming brain That brought us here. HERTHA The gods use instruments, Not ask their counsel. O Swegn, accept the gods And their decision. ASLAUG Must we live always cold?

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O brother, cast the snows out of thy heart. Let there be summer. HERTHA Yield, husband, to the sun. There is no shame in yielding to the gods. ASLAUG Nor to a god, although his room be earth And his body mortal. SWEGN There was an Aslaug once Whose speech had other grandeurs. Can it find In all its sweet and lofty harmonies The word or argument that can excuse thy fall, O not to me, but to that worshipped self Thou wast, my sister? ASLAUG I have no argument except my heart Nor need excuse for what I glory in. Brother, were we not always one? ’Tis strange That I must reason with thee. SWEGN O, thou knewest. Therefore I fell, therefore my strength is gone, And where a god’s magnificence lived once, Here, here ’tis empty. O inconstant heart, Thou wast my Fate, my courage, and at last Thou hast gone over to my enemy, Taking my Fate, my courage. I will hear No words from such. Thou wouldst betray what’s left, Until not even Swegn is left to Swegn, But only a coward’s shadow.

Act V, Scene 1 HERTHA Hear me, Swegn. SWEGN Ah, Hertha! what hast thou to say to me? HERTHA Save me, my lord, from my own punishment, Forgetting my deserts. SWEGN Alas! thy love, Though great, was never wise, and must it ask So huge a recompense? Thou hadst myself. Thou askst my honour. ASLAUG Will this persuade thee? I have nothing else. SWEGN Thou only and so only couldst prevail. O thou hast overcome my strength at last. King, thou hast conquered. Not to thee I yield, But those I loved are thy allies. From these Recall thy wrath and on my head pronounce What doom thou wilt, though yielding is doom enough For Swegn of Norway. ERIC Abjure rebellion then; receive my boons, Receive my mercy. SWEGN Mercy. It is received. Let all the world hear Olaf’s son abjure His birth and greatness. I accept — accept! King Eric’s boons, King Eric’s mercy. O torture!

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The spirit of Olaf will no more sit still Within me. O though thou slaughter these with pangs, I will not yield. Take, take thy mercy back. ERIC I take it back. What wouldst thou in its stead? SWEGN Do what thou wilt with these and me. I have done! ERIC Thou castst thy die, thou weak and violent man, I will cast mine And conquer. SWEGN I have endured the worst. ERIC Not so. Thou thinkest I will help thee to thy death, Allowing the blind grave to seal thy eyes To all that I shall do to these. Learn, Swegn, I am more cruel! Thou shalt live and see On these my vengeance. Go, Aslaug, and return Robed as thou wast upon the night thou knowest Wearing thy dagger, wearing too thy ring. SWEGN What wilt thou do with her? God! what wilt thou do? O wherefore have I seen and taken back love Into a heart had shut itself to all But death and greatness? ERIC I will inflict on them What thou canst not endure to gaze upon — Or if thou canst, then with that hardness live

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For die thou shalt not. I have ways for that. Thou thoughtst to take thy refuge in a grave And let these bear thy punishment for thee, Thy heart being spared. It was no valiant thought, No worthy escape for Swegn. Aslaug and Hertha, Remove your outer robes. SWEGN What must I see? ERIC As dancing-girls these women came to me. As dancing-girls I keep them. Thou shalt see Aslaug of Norway at her trade — to dance Before me and my courtiers. That begins, There’s more behind, unless thou change thy mood. SWEGN Thou knowest how to torture. ERIC And to break. Aslaug reenters. Thou seest, Swegn. Shall I command the dance? Shall this be the result of Olaf’s house? SWEGN Daughter of Olaf, wilt thou then obey? ASLAUG Yes, since thou lov’st me not, my brother Swegn, Whom else should I obey, save him I love? If thou hadst loved me still, I should not need. ERIC Dance.

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SWEGN No. Stay, Aslaug. Since thou bad’st me love Thee, not my glory, as indeed I must To save the house of Olaf from this shame, — Whose treacherous weakness works for him and thee, — ERIC Pause not again — for pause is fatal now. SWEGN King, I have yielded, I accept thy boons. Heir of a starveling Earl, I bow my head Even to thy mercies. I am Olaf’s son, Yet yield — that name remember, speak this word — I shall be faithful to my own disgrace. O fear not, King, I can be great again. ERIC Without conditions hast thou yielded? SWEGN No. Let these be spared all shame — for that I yield. My honour has a price — and O ’tis small. ERIC That’s given. Without terms besides? SWEGN One prayer. Give me a dungeon deep enough, O King, To hide my face from all these eyes. ERIC Swear then, Whatever prison I assign thee, be it wide Or narrow, to observe its state, its bounds

Act V, Scene 1 And do even there my will. SWEGN (with a gesture) That too is sworn! Let Thor and Odin witness to my oath. ERIC Four prisons I assign to Olaf’s son. Thy palace first in Trondhjem, Olaf’s roof — This house in Yara, Eric’s court — thy country To whom thou yieldest, Norway — and at last My army’s head when I invade the world. SWEGN (amazed and doubtful) Thou hast surprised me, Eric, with an oath And circumvented. ERIC Hertha, to thy lord Return unharmed — thou seest thou wast safe As in his dearest keeping. Take, Hertha, Trondhjem with thee and Olaf’s treasures; sit The second in the land, beneath our throne. SWEGN Eric, enough. Have I not yielded? Here Let thy boons rest. ERIC ’Tis truth. For my next boon Is to myself. Look not upon this hand I clasp in mine, although the fairest hand That God has made. Observe this ring instead And recognise it. GUNTHAR It is Freya’s ring

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On Aslaug’s hand; she who once wears it sits Thenceforth on Norway’s throne. ERIC Possess thy father’s chair Intended for thee always from the first, Nor be amazed that in these dancing robes I seat her here, for they increase its pomp More than imperial purple. Think not, Swegn, Thy sister shamed or false who came to me, Spilling my blood and hers to give thee back thy crown, A violent and mighty purpose such As only noble hearts conceive; and only She yielded to that noble heart at last Because of Odin’s pressure. SWEGN So they came. Aslaug, thou soughtst my throne, but findst it thine. I grudge it not to thee — for thy great heart Deserved it. Eric, thou hast won at last, Now only. ERIC I could not shame thy sister, Swegn, Save by my wife’s disgrace, and this was none But only a deceit to prove thy heart And now thou seest thou couldst not have rebelled Except by violence to Olaf’s seed That must again rule Norway. SWEGN Eric, for thy boons, They hurt not now, take what return thou wilt, For I am thine. Thou hast found out the way To save from me thy future. It is secured Even with my heart’s strings.

Act V, Scene 1

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ERIC Swegn, I too have boons To ask of thee. SWEGN Let them be difficult then, If thou wouldst have me grant them. ERIC Swegn, excuse and love Thy comrade Hardicnut, for he intended A kind betrayal. SWEGN This is nothing, King. His act my heart had come to understand And it has pardoned. ERIC Forgive then Swegn, dearest, Sigurd, thy foe, as I have pardoned first My father’s slaughterer. This thing is hard. SWEGN He’s pardoned, not forgiven. Let him not come Too often in my sight. ERIC The gods have won. Let this embrace engulf our ended strife, Brother of Aslaug. SWEGN Husband of my sister, Thou assum’st our blood and it ennobles thee To the height of thy great victories — this thy last And greatest. Thou hast dealt with me as a King,

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Then as a brother. Thou adornst thy throne. ERIC Rest, brother, from thy hardships, toils and wars Until I need the sword that matched with mine, To smite my foemen. Aslaug, what thinkst thou? If thou art satisfied, all was well done. ASLAUG Thou hast the tyrant in thy nature still, And so I love thee best, for then I recognise My conqueror. O what canst thou do but well? For in thy every act and word I see The gods compel thee. ERIC O thou hast changed me with thy starry eyes, Daughter of Olaf, and hast made me a man Where was but height and iron; all my roots Of action, mercy, greatness, enterprise, Sit now transplanted to thy breast, O charm, O noble marvel! From thy bosom my strength Comes out to me. Mighty indeed is love, Thou sangst of, Aslaug, once, the golden hoop Mightier, swifter than the warrior’s sword. Dost thou remember what thou cam’st to do, Aslaug, from Gothberg? ASLAUG (wondering) Only ten days ago I came from Gothberg! She turns with a laugh and embraces Eric. ERIC The gods have spoken since and shown their hand.

Act V, Scene 1 They seal our eyes and drive us, but at last Our souls remember when the act is done, That it was fated. Aslaug, now for us The world begins again, — our world, beloved, Since once more we — who since the stars were formed Playing the game of games by Odin’s will Have met and parted — parted, meet again For ever.

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Vasavadutta A Dramatic Romance

Characters VUTHSA UDAIAN, King of Cowsamby. ˆ , his Minister, until recently Regent of YOUGUNDHARAYAN Cowsamby. ROOMUNWATH, Captain of his armies. young men of Vuthsa’s age, his friends and comALURCA VASUNTHA H panions. PARENACA, the King’s door-keeper. CHUNDA MAHASEGN, King of Avunthy. ˆ GOPALACA his sons. VICURNA H ´ REBHA , Governor of Ujjayiny, the capital of Avunthy. A CAPTAIN of Avunthy. ˆ ˆ , Queen of Avunthy. A UNGARIC ˆ ˆ , daughter of Chunda Mahasegn and Ungarica. VASAVADUTT A UMBAˆ , her handmaiden. MUNJOOLICAˆ , the servile name of Bundhumathie, the captive Princess of Sourashtra, serving Vasavadutta. ˆ WOMAN. A KIRATHA

The action of the romance takes place a century after the war of the Mahabharata; the capital has been changed to Cowsamby; the empire has been temporarily broken and the kingdoms of India are overshadowed by three powers, Magadha in the East ruled by Pradyotha, Avunthy in the West ruled by Chunda Mahasegn who has subdued also the Southern kings, and Cowsamby in the Centre where Yougundharayan strives by arms and policy to maintain the house of Parikshith against the dominating power of Avunthy. Recently since the young Vuthsa has been invested with the regal power and appeared at [ ], Chunda Mahasegn, till then invincible, has suffered rude but not decisive reverses. For the moment there is an armed peace between the two empires. The fable is taken from Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara (the Ocean of the Rivers of Many Tales) and was always a favourite subject of Indian romance and drama; but some of the circumstances, a great many of the incidents and a few of the names have been altered or omitted and others introduced in their place. Vuthsa, the name of the nation in the tale, is in the play used as a personal name of the King Udaian.

Act I Scene 1 A room in the palace in Ujjayiny. Chunda Mahasegn, seated; Gopalaca. MAHASEGN Vuthsa Udaian drives my fortunes back. Our strengths retire from one luxurious boy, Defeated! GOPALACA I have seen him in the fight And I have lived to wonder. O, he ranges As lightly through the passages of war As moonbeam feet of some bright laughing girl, Her skill concealing in her reckless grace, The measures of a rapid dance. MAHASEGN If this portentous morning reach our gates, My star is fallen. Yet I had great dreams. Oudh and Cowsamby were my high-carved doors, Ganges, Godavary and Nurmada In lion race besprayed with sacred dew My moonlit jasmines in my pleasure-grounds. All this great sunlit continent lay sleeping At peace beneath the shadow of my brows. But they were dreams. GOPALACA Art thou not great enough

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To live them? MAHASEGN O my son, many high hearts Must first have striven, many must have failed Before a great thing can be done on earth, And who shall say then that he is the man? One age has seen the dreams another lives. GOPALACA Look up towards the hills where Rudra stands, His dreadful war-lance pointing to the east. Is not thy spirit that uplifted spear? MAHASEGN It has been turned by Vishnu’s careless hand! GOPALACA Fear not the obstacles the gods have strewn. Why should the mighty man restrain his soul? Stretch out thy hand to seize, thy foot to trample, A Titan’s motion. MAHASEGN Thou soarst the eagle’s height, But with eyes closed to the tempest. GOPALACA Wilt thou sue To foemen for the end of haughty strife? MAHASEGN That never shall be seen. The boy must fall. GOPALACA He is young, radiant, beautiful and bold. But let him fall. We will not bear defeat.

Act I, Scene 1 MAHASEGN Yet many gods stood smiling at his birth. Luxmie came breathing fortunate days; Vishnu Poured down a radiant sanction from the skies And promised his far stride across the earth; Magic Saruswathie between his hands Laid down her lotus arts. GOPALACA The austere gods Help best and not indulgent deities. The greatness in him cannot grow to man. His hero hours are rare forgetful flights. Excused from effort and difficult ascent Birds that are brilliant-winged, fly near to earth. Wine, song and dance winging his peaceful days Throng round his careless soul. It cannot find The noble leisure to grow great. MAHASEGN There lives Our hope. Spy out, my son, thy enemy’s spirit, Even as his wealth and armies! Let thy eyes Find out its weakness and thy hand there strike. GOPALACA Thou hast a way to strike? MAHASEGN I have a way, Not noble like the sounding paths of war. GOPALACA Take it; let us stride straight towards our goal. MAHASEGN Thy arm is asked for.

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Vasavadutta GOPALACA It is thine to use.

MAHASEGN Invent some strong device and bring him to us A captive in Ujjayiny’s golden groves. Shall he not find a jailor for his heart To take the miracle of its keys and wear them Swung on her raiment’s border? Then he lives Shut up by her close in a prison of joy, Her and our vassal. GOPALACA Brought to the eagle’s nest For the eagle’s child thou giv’st him her heart’s prey To Vasavadutta! King, thy way is good. Garooda on a young and sleeping Python Rushing from heaven I’ll lift him helpless up Into the skiey distance of our peaks. Though it is strange and new and subtle, it is good. Think the blow struck, thy foeman seized and bound. MAHASEGN I know thy swiftness and thy gathered leap. Once here! his senses are enamoured slaves To the touch of every beautiful thing. O, there No hero, but a tender soul at play, A soft-eyed, mirthful and luxurious youth Whom all sweet sounds and all sweet sights compel To careless ecstasy. Wine, music, flowers And a girl’s dawning smile can weave him chains Of vernal softness stronger than can give The unyielding iron. Two lips shall seal his strength, Two eyes of all his acts be tyrant stars. GOPALACA One aid I ask of thee and only one.

Act I, Scene 1 My banishment, O King, from thy domains. MAHASEGN Gopalaca, I banish thee, my child. Return not with my violent will undone.

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Scene 2 A hall in the palace at Cowsamby. Yougundharayan, Roomunwath. YOUGUNDHARAYAN I see his strength lie covered sleeping in flowers; Yet is a greatness hidden in his years. ROOMUNWATH Nourish not such large hopes. YOUGUNDHARAYAN I know too well The gliding bane that these young fertile soils Cherish in their green darkness; and my cares Watch to prohibit the nether snake who writhes Sweet-poisoned, perilous in the rich grass, Lust with the jewel love upon his hood, Who by his own crown must be charmed, seized, change Into a warm great god. I seek a bride For Vuthsa. ROOMUNWATH Wisely; but whom? YOUGUNDHARAYAN One only lives So absolute in her charm that she can keep His senses from all straying, the child far-famed For gifts and beauty, flower born by magic fate On a fierce iron stock.

Act I, Scene 2 ROOMUNWATH Vasavadutta, Avunthy’s golden princess! Hope not to mate These opposite godheads. Follow Nature’s prompting, Nor with thy human policy pervert Her simple ends. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Nature must flower into art And science, or else wherefore are we men? Man out of Nature wakes to God’s complexities, Takes her crude simple stuff and by his skill Turns things impossible into daily miracles. ROOMUNWATH This thing is difficult, and what the gain? YOUGUNDHARAYAN It gives us a long sunlit time for growth; For we shall raise in her a tender shield Against that iron victor in the west, The father’s heart taking our hard defence Forbid the king-brain in that dangerous man. Then when he’s gone, we are his greatness’ heirs In spite of his bold Titan sons. ROOMUNWATH He must Have fallen from his proud spirit to consent. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Another strong defeat and she is ours. ROOMUNWATH Blow then the conchs for battle.

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I await Occasion and to feel the gods inclined. (to Vuthsa entering) My son, thou comest early from thy breezes. VUTHSA The dawn has spent her glories and I seek Alurca and Vasuntha for the harp With chanted verse and lyric ease until The golden silences of noon arrive. See this strange flower I plucked below the stream! Each petal is a thought. YOUGUNDHARAYAN And the State’s cares, King of Cowsamby? VUTHSA Are they not for thee, My mind’s wise father? Chide me not. See now, It is thy fault for being great and wise. What thou canst fashion sovereignly and well, Why should I do much worse? YOUGUNDHARAYAN And when I pass? VUTHSA Thy passing I forbid. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Vuthsa, thou art Cowsamby’s king, not Time’s, nor death’s. VUTHSA O, then,

Act I, Scene 2 The gods shall keep thee at my strong demand To be the aged minister of my sons. This they must hear. Of what use are the gods If they crown not our just desires on earth? YOUGUNDHARAYAN Well, play thy time. Thou art a royal child, And though young Nature in thee dallies long, I trust her dumb and wiser brain that sees What our loud thoughts can never reason out, Not thinking life. She has her secret calls And works divinely behind play and sleep, Shaping her infant powers. VUTHSA I may then go And listen to Alurca with his harp? YOUGUNDHARAYAN Thy will In small things train, Udaian, in the great Make it a wrestler with the dangerous earth. VUTHSA My will is for delight. They are not beautiful, This State, these schemings. War is beautiful And the bright ranks of armoured men and steel That singing kisses steel and the white flocking Of arrows that are homing birds of war. When shall we fight again? YOUGUNDHARAYAN When battle ripens. And what of marriage? Is it not desired? VUTHSA O no, not yet! At least I think, not yet.

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I’ll tell thee a strange thing, my father. I shudder, I know it is with rapture, at the thought Of women’s arms, and yet I dare not pluck The joy. I think, because desire’s so sweet That the mere joy might seem quite crude and poor And spoil the sweetness. My father, is it so? YOUGUNDHARAYAN Perhaps. Thou hast desire for women then? VUTHSA It is for every woman and for none. YOUGUNDHARAYAN One day perhaps thou shalt join war with wedlock And pluck out from her guarded nest by force The wonder of Avunthy, Vasavadutta. VUTHSA A name of leaping sweetness I have heard! One day I shall behold a marvellous face And hear heaven’s harps defeated by a voice. Do the gods whisper it? Dreams are best awhile. YOUGUNDHARAYAN These things we shall consider. PARENACA (entering) Hail, Majesty! A high-browed wanderer at the portals seeks Admittance. Tarnished is he with the road, Alone, yet seems a mighty prince’s son. VUTHSA Bring him with honour in. Such guests I love.

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YOUGUNDHARAYAN We should know first what soul is this abroad And why he comes. VUTHSA We’ll learn that from his lips. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Hope not to hear truth often in royal courts. Truth! Seldom with her bright and burning wand She touches the unwilling lips of men Who lust and hope and fear. The gods alone Possess her. Even our profoundest thoughts Are crooked to avoid her and from her touch Crawl hurt into their twilight, often hating her Too bright for them as for our eyes the sun. If she dwells here, it is with souls apart. VUTHSA All men were not created from the mud. YOUGUNDHARAYAN See not a son of heaven in every worm. Look round and thou wilt see a world on guard. All life here armoured walks, shut in. Thou too Keep, Vuthsa, a defence before thy heart. Parenaca brings in Gopalaca. GOPALACA Which is Udaian, great Cowsamby’s king? VUTHSA He stands here. What’s thy need from Vuthsa? Speak. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Roomunwath, look with care upon this face.

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GOPALACA Hail, then, Cowsamby’s majesty, well borne Though in a young and lovely vessel! Hail! VUTHSA Thou art some great one surely of this earth Who com’st to me to live guest, comrade, friend, Perhaps much more. GOPALACA I have fought against thee, king. VUTHSA The better! I am sure thou hast fought well. Com’st thou in peace or strife? GOPALACA In peace, O king, And as thy suppliant. VUTHSA Ask; I long to give. GOPALACA Know first my name. VUTHSA Thy eyes, thy face I know. GOPALACA I am Gopalaca, Avunthy’s son, Once thy most dangerous enemy held on earth. VUTHSA A mighty name thou speakest, prince, nor one To supplications tuned. Yet ask and have.

Act I, Scene 2 GOPALACA Thou heardst me well? I am thy foeman’s son. VUTHSA And therefore welcome more to Vuthsa’s heart. Foemen! they are our playmates in the fight And should be dear as friends who share our hours Of closeness and desire. Why should they keep Themselves so distant? Thou the noblest of them all, The bravest. I have played with thee, O prince, In the great pastime. GOPALACA This was Vuthsa, then! YOUGUNDHARAYAN And wherefore seeks the son of Mahasegn Hostile Cowsamby? or why suppliant comes To his chief enemy? GOPALACA I should know that brow. This is thy great wise minister? That is well. I seek a refuge. YOUGUNDHARAYAN And thou sayst thou art Avunthy’s son? GOPALACA Because I am his son. My father casts me from him and no spot Once thought my own will suffer now my tread. Therefore I come. Vuthsa Udaian, king, Grant me some hut, some cave upon thy soil, Some meanest refuge for my wandering head. But if thy heart can dwell with fear, as do

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The natures of this age, or feed the snake Suspicion, over gloomier borders send My broken life. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Vuthsa, beware. His words Strive to conceal their naked cunning. VUTHSA Prince, What thou demandst and more than thou demandst, Is without question thine. Now, if thou wilt, Reveal the cause of thy great father’s wrath, But only if thou wilt. GOPALACA Because his bidding Remained undone, my exile was embraced. YOUGUNDHARAYAN More plainly. GOPALACA Ask me not. I am ashamed. Nor should a son unveil his father’s fault. They, even when they tyrannise, remain Most dear and reverend still, who gave us birth. This, Vuthsa, know; against thee I was aimed, A secret arrow. VUTHSA Keep thy father’s counsel. If he shoot arrows and thou art that shaft, I’ll welcome thee into my throbbing breast. What thou hast asked, I sue to thee to take. Thou seekst a refuge, thou shalt find a home: Thou fleest a father, here a brother waits

Act I, Scene 2 To clasp thee in his arms. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Too frank, too noble! VUTHSA Come closer. Child of Mahasegn, wilt thou Be king Udaian’s brother and his friend? This proud grace wilt thou fling on the bare boon That I have given thee? Is it much to ask? GOPALACA To be thy brother was my heart’s desire. Shod with that hope I came. VUTHSA Clasp then our hands. Gopalaca, my play, my couch, my board, My serious labour and my trifling hours Share henceforth, govern. All I have is thine. GOPALACA Thine is the noblest soul on all the earth. VUTHSA Frown not, my father. I obey my heart Which leaped up in me when I saw his face. Be sure my heart is wise. Gopalaca, The sentinel love in man ever imagines Strange perils for its object. So my minister Expects from thee some harm. Wilt thou not then Assure his love and pardon it the doubt? GOPALACA He is a wise deep-seeing statesman, king, And shows that wisdom now. But I will swear, But I will prove to thee, thou noble man,

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That dearest friendship is my will to him Thou serv’st and to work on him proudest love. Is it enough? VUTHSA My father, hast thou heard? A son of kings swears not to lying oaths. YOUGUNDHARAYAN It is enough. VUTHSA Then come, Gopalaca, Into my palace and my heart. He goes into the palace with Gopalaca. YOUGUNDHARAYAN O life Besieged of kings! What snare is this? what charm? There was a falsehood in the Avunthian’s eyes. ROOMUNWATH He has given himself into his foemen’s hands And he has sworn. He is a prince’s son. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Yes, by his sire; but the pale queen Ungarica Was to a strange inhuman father born And from dim shades her victor dragged her forth. ROOMUNWATH There’s here no remedy. Vuthsa is ensnared As with a sudden charm. YOUGUNDHARAYAN I’ll watch his steps. Keep thou such bows wherever these two walk

Act I, Scene 2 As never yet have missed their fleeing mark. ROOMUNWATH Yet was this nobly done on Vuthsa’s part. YOUGUNDHARAYAN O, such nobility in godlike times Was wisdom, but not to our fall belongs. Sweet virtue now is mother of defeat And baser, fiercer souls inherit earth.

639

Act II Scene 1 A room in the palace at Cowsamby. Alurca, Vasuntha. ALURCA He’ll rule Cowsamby in the end, I think. VASUNTHA Artist, be an observer too. His eyes Pursue young Vuthsa like a hunted prey And seem to measure possibility, But not for rule or for Cowsamby care. To reign’s his nature, not his will. ALURCA This man Is like some high rock that was suddenly Transformed into a thinking creature. VASUNTHA There’s His charm for Vuthsa who is soft as Spring, Fair like a hunted moon in cloud-swept skies, Luxurious like a jasmine in its leaves. ALURCA When will this Vuthsa grow to man? Hard-brained Roomunwath, deep Yougundharayan rule; The State, its arms are theirs. This boy between Like a girl’s cherished puppet stroked and dandled,

Act II, Scene 1 Chid and prescribed the postures it must keep, Moves like a rhythmic picture of delight And with his sunny smile he does it all. Now in our little kingdom with its law Of beauty and music this high silence comes And seizes on him. All our acts he rules And Vuthsa has desired one master more. VASUNTHA There is a wanton in this royal heart Who gives herself to all and all are hers. Perhaps that too is wisdom. For, Alurca, This world is other than our standards are And it obeys a vaster thought than ours, Our narrow thoughts! The fathomless desire Of some huge spirit is its secret law. It keeps its own tremendous forces penned And bears us where it wills, not where we would. Even his petty world man cannot rule. We fear, we blame; life wantons her own way, A little ashamed, but obstinate still, because We check but cannot her. O, Vuthsa’s wise! Because he seeks each thing in its own way, He enjoys. And wherefore are we at all If not to enjoy and with some costliness Get dear things done, till rude death interferes, God’s valet moves away these living dolls To quite another room and better play, — Perhaps a better! ALURCA Yet consider this. Look back upon the endless godlike line. Think of Parikshith, Janam´ejoya, think Of Suthaneke, then on our Vuthsa gaze. Glacier and rock and all Himaloy piled! What eagle peaks! Now this soft valley blooms;

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The cuckoo cries from branches of delight, The bee sails murmuring its low-winged desires. VASUNTHA It was to amuse himself God made the world. For He was dull alone! Therefore all things Vary to keep the secret witness pleased. How Nature knows and does her office well. What poignant oppositions she combines! Death fosters life that life may suckle death. Her certainties are snares, her dreams prevail. What little seeds she grows into huge fates, Proves with a smile her great things to be small! All things here secretly are right; all’s wrong In God’s appearances. World, thou art wisely led In a divine confusion. ALURCA The Minister Watches this man so closely, he must think There is some dangerous purpose in his mind. VASUNTHA He is the wariest of all ministers And would suspect two pigeons on a roof Of plots because they coo. ALURCA All’s possible. Vuthsa enters with Gopalaca. VUTHSA Yes, I would love to see the ocean’s vasts. Are they as grand as are the mountains dumb Where I was born and grew? Or is its voice Like the huge murmur of our forests swayed In the immense embrace of giant winds?

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We have that in Cowsamby. GOPALACA Wilt thou show Them to me, Vindhya’s crags where forests dimly Climb down towards my Avunthy? VUTHSA We will go And hunt together the swift fleeing game Or with our shafts unking the beast of prey. GOPALACA If we could range alone wide solitudes, Not soil them with our din, not with our tread Disturb great Nature in her animal trance, Her life of mighty instincts where no stir Of the hedged restless mind has spoiled her vasts. VUTHSA It is a thing I have dreamed of. Alurca, tell The Minister that we go to hunt the deer In Vindhya’s forests on Avunthy’s verge. That’s if my will’s allowed. Alurca goes out to the outer palace. VASUNTHA He will, Vuthsa, Allow thy will. Where does it lead thee, king? VUTHSA A scourge for thee or a close gag might help. VASUNTHA A bandage for my eyes would serve as well.

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VUTHSA Shall we awaken in Alurca’s hands The living voices of the harp? Or willst thou That I should play the heaven-taught airs thou lov’st On the Gundhurva’s magical guitar Which lures even woodland beasts? For the elephant Comes trumpeting to the enchanted sound, A coloured blaze of beauty on the sward The peacocks dance and the snake’s brilliant hood Lifts rhythmic yearning from the emerald herb. GOPALACA Vuthsa Udaian, suffer me awhile To walk alone, for I am full of thoughts. VUTHSA Thou shouldst not be. Cannot my love atone For lost Avunthy? GOPALACA Always; but a voice Comes to me often from the haunts of old. VASUNTHA Returns no dim cloud-messenger to whisper To thy great father’s longing waiting heart Far from his banished son? GOPALACA Thy satire’s forced. VASUNTHA Thy earnest less? VUTHSA One hour, a long pale loss, I sacrifice to thy thoughts. When it has dragged past,

Act II, Scene 1

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Where shall I find thee? GOPALACA Where the flowers rain Beneath the red boughs on the river’s bank. There will I walk while thou hearst harp or verse. VUTHSA Without thee neither harp nor verse can charm. Gopalaca goes. The harmony of kindred souls that seek Each other on the strings of body and mind, Is all the music for which life was born. Vasuntha, let me hear thy happy crackling, Thou fire of thorns that leapest all the day. Spring, call thy cuckoo. VASUNTHA Give me fuel then, Your green young boughs of folly for my fire. VUTHSA I give enough I think for all the world. VASUNTHA It is your trade to occupy the world. Men have made kings that folly might have food; For the court gossips over them while they live And the world gossips over them when they are dead. That they call history. But our man returns. ALURCA Do here and in all things, says the Minister, Thy pleasure. But since upon a dangerous verge This hunt will tread, thy cohorts armed shall keep The hilly intervals, himself be close To guard with vigilance his monarch’s life

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Vasavadutta

Against the wild beasts and what else means harm. VUTHSA That is his care; what he shall do, is good. ALURCA To lavish upon all men love and trust Shows the heart’s royalty, not the brain’s craft. VUTHSA I have found my elder brother. Grudge me not, Alurca, that delight. Thou lov’st me well? ALURCA Is it now questioned? VUTHSA Then rejoice with me That I have found my brother. Joy in my joy, Love with my love, think with my thoughts; the rest Leave to much older wiser men whose schemings Have made God’s world an office and a mart. We who are young, let us indulge our hearts. ALURCA Thou tak’st all hearts and givest thine to none, Udaian. Yet is this prince Gopalaca, This breed from Titans and from Mahasegn, Hard, stern, reserved. Does he repay thy friendship As we do? VUTHSA Love itself is sweet enough Though unreturned; and there are silent hearts. VASUNTHA Suffer this flower to climb its wayside rock.

Act II, Scene 1 Oppose not Nature’s cunning who will not Be easily refused her artist joys. Fierce deserts round the green oasis yearn And the chill lake desires the lily’s pomp. VUTHSA He is the rock, I am the flower. What part Playst thou in the woodland? VASUNTHA A thorn beneath the rose That from the heavens of desire was born And men call Vuthsa. VUTHSA Poet, satirist, sage, What other gifts keepst thou concealed within More than the many that thy outsides show? VASUNTHA I squander all and keep none, not like thee Who trad’st in honey to deceive the world. VUTHSA O, earth is honey; let me taste her all. Our rapture here is short before we go To other sweetness on some rarer height Of the upclimbing tiers that are the world.

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Scene 2 A forest-glade in the Vindhya hills. Vicurna, a Captain. VICURNA The hunt rings distant still; but all the ways Troops and more troops besiege. Where is Gopalaca? CAPTAIN Our work may yet be rude before we reach Our armies on the frontier. VICURNA That I desire. O whistling of the arrows! I have yet To hear that battle music. CAPTAIN Someone comes, For wild things scurry forth. They take cover. Gopalaca enters. VICURNA Whither so swiftly? You are near the frontier for a banished man, Gopalaca. GOPALACA Why has my father sent Thy rash hot boyhood here, imperilling Both of his sons? I find not here his wisdom.

Act II, Scene 2 VICURNA There will be danger? I am glad. None sent me; I came unasked. GOPALACA And also unasking? VICURNA Right. GOPALACA Trust me to have thee whipped. But since thou art here! Where stand the chariots? CAPTAIN On our left they wait Screened by the secret tunnel which the Boar Tusked through the hill to Avunthy. Torches ready And men in arms stand in the cavern ranked They call the cavern of the Elephant By giants carved. But all the forest passages The enemy guards. GOPALACA There are some he cannot guard. I know the forest better than their scouts. When I shall speak of you and clap my hands, Surround us in a silence armed. CAPTAIN His men Resisting? GOPALACA No; we two shall be alone.

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VICURNA Fie! there will be no fighting? GOPALACA Goblin, off! They take cover again. Gopalaca goes; then arrive from another side Vuthsa with Vasuntha and Alurca. ALURCA We lose our escort! VASUNTHA They lose us, I think. ALURCA What fate conspires with what hid treachery? Our chariot broken, we in woods alone And the night close. VASUNTHA Roomunwath guards the paths. ALURCA The night is close. VUTHSA Here I will rest, my friends, Where all is green and silent; only the birds And the wind’s whisperings! Go, Alurca, meet Our comrades of the hunt; guide their vague steps To this green-roofed refuge. ALURCA It is the best, though bad. I leave thee with unwarlike hands to guard.

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VASUNTHA I am no fighter; it is known. Run, haste. Alurca hastens out. And yet for all your speed, someone will worship Great Shiva in Avunthy. I hear a tread. Gopalaca returns. VUTHSA Where wert thou all this time, Gopalaca? GOPALACA Far wandering in the woods since a white deer Like magic beauty drew my ardent steps Into a green entanglement. VASUNTHA Simple! You found there what you sought? GOPALACA No deer, but hunters, Not of our troop. We spoke of this green glade Where many wandering paths might lead the king. In haste I came. VASUNTHA Greater the haste to go! VUTHSA Follow Alurca and come back with him. VASUNTHA What, cast myself into the forest’s hands To wander and be eaten by the night? Come here and bid me then a long farewell. Are thy eyes open at least? Is it thou in this Who movest? I should know that at least from thee,

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Vasavadutta

If nothing more. VUTHSA Why ask when thou hast eyes? Thou seest that mine are open and I walk; For no man drives me. VASUNTHA Walk! but far away From thy safe capital. VUTHSA What harm? VASUNTHA And with This prince Gopalaca? VUTHSA Suspicions then? Why not suspect at once it is my will To visit Avunthy? VASUNTHA So? VUTHSA Not so, but if? VASUNTHA Oh, if! And if return were much less easy Than the going? VUTHSA Who has talked of easy things? With difficulty then I will return.

Act II, Scene 2

653

VASUNTHA I go, King Vuthsa. VUTHSA But tell Yougundharayan And all who harbour blind uneasy thoughts, “Whatever seeks me from Fate, man or god, Leave all between me and the strength that seeks. War shall not sound without thy prince’s leave. Vuthsa will rescue Vuthsa.” VASUNTHA I will tell, But know not if he’ll hear. VUTHSA He knows who is His sovereign. VASUNTHA King, farewell. VUTHSA I shall. Farewell. Vasuntha disappears in the forest. We two have kept our tryst, Gopalaca. Hang there, my bow; lie down, my arrows. Now Of you I have no need. O this, O this Is what I often dreamed, to be alone With one I love far from the pomp of courts, Not ringed with guards and anxious friendships round, Free like a common man to walk alone Among the endless forest silences, By gliding rivers and over deciduous hills, In every haunt where earth our mother smiles Whispering to her children. Let me rest awhile My head upon thy lap, Gopalaca,

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Vasavadutta

Before we plunge into this emerald world. Shall we not wander in her green-roofed house Where mighty Nature hides herself from men, And be the friends of the great skyward peaks That call us by their silence, bathe in tarns, Dream where the cascades leap, and often spend Slow moonless nights inarmed in leafy huts Happier than palaces, or in our mood Wrestle with the fierce tiger in his den Or chase the deer with wind-swift feet, and share With the rough forest-dwellers natural food Plucked from the laden bounty of the trees, Before we seek the citied haunts of men? Shall we not do these things, Gopalaca? GOPALACA Some day we shall. VUTHSA Why some day? why not now? Have I escaped my guards in vain? GOPALACA Not vainly. VUTHSA This sword encumbers; take it from me, friend, And fling it there upon the bank. GOPALACA It is far. I keep my arms lest some wild thing invade These green recesses. VUTHSA Keep thy arms and me. O, this is good to be among the trees

Act II, Scene 2 With thee to guard me and no soul besides. GOPALACA Thyself thou hast given wholly into my hands. VUTHSA Yes, take me, brother. GOPALACA I shall use the trust And yet deserve it. VUTHSA I love thee well, Gopalaca. How dost thou love me? GOPALACA It was hard to speak, Now I can tell it. As a brother might Elder and jealous, as a mother loves Her beautiful flower-limbed boy or grown man yearns Over some tender girl, his sister, comrade, child, In all these ways, but many more besides, But always jealously. VUTHSA Why? GOPALACA Because, Vuthsa, I’ld have thee for my own and not as in Thy city where a thousand shared thy rays Who were strangers to me. In my own domain, Part of a world that’s old and dear to me, Where thou shalt be no king, but Vuthsa only And I can bind with many dearest ties Heaped on thee at my will. This, Vuthsa, I desired

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And therefore I have brought thee to this glade. VUTHSA And therefore I have come to thee alone. GOPALACA Thou must go farther. VUTHSA Yes? Then haste. Was that A clank of arms amid the silent trees? He makes as if to rise, but Gopalaca restrains him. GOPALACA Thy escort. VUTHSA Mine? GOPALACA My father sends for thee. I seize upon thee, Vuthsa, thou art mine, My captive and my prize. I’ll bear thee far As Heaven’s great eagle bore thy mother once Rapt to his unattainable high hills. As he speaks the armed men appear. Swift, captain, swift! I hold the royal boy. On to the tunnel of the Boar. CAPTAIN Haste, haste! There is a growing rumour all around. GOPALACA Care not for that, but follow me and guard. They disappear among the trees. Vasuntha enters.

Act II, Scene 2

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VASUNTHA The forest lives with sound; but here all’s empty. The stake is thrown; it cannot be called in Whatever happens. Armed men break in from all sides; Yougundharayan, Roomunwath, Alurca. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Where is King Vuthsa? where? His bow hangs lonely! sword and arrows lie. VASUNTHA (indifferently) I cannot tell. ALURCA Not tell! but you were here, Were with him! VASUNTHA I was sent away like that. But for a guess he’s travelling far and fast To Shiva in Avunthy. ALURCA And thou laughst, Untimely jester! YOUGUNDHARAYAN Impetuously pursue! The forest ways and mountain openings flood That flee to Avunthy. Over her treasonous borders Drive in your angry search. VASUNTHA Thy king commands thee To leave all twixt him and the strength that seeks Their quarrel; throw not armies in the balance. War shall not sound her conch; but Vuthsa only

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Shall rescue Vuthsa. ROOMUNWATH This is a boy’s madness. What lies behind this message? YOUGUNDHARAYAN Roomunwath, this. The lion’s cub breaks forth Whom we so guarded, from our strict control To measure with the large and perilous world The bounding rapture of his youth and force. He throws himself into his foeman’s lair Alone and scorning every aid. I guess His purpose and find it headlong, subtle, rash. If he failed? This boy and iron Mahasegn! We must obey. ROOMUNWATH There’s time to arrest their flight This side our frontier. Hastily pursue. He goes with Alurca and the armed men, all in a tumult of haste. YOUGUNDHARAYAN It will be vain. A perilous leap and yet Heroic with the bold and antique scorn Of common deeds and the safe guarded paths. This is the spirit that smiled hidden in him Waiting for birth! At least my spies shall enter Their secret chambers, even in his prison My help be timely and near. Back to Cowsamby!

Scene 3 Avunthy. A road on a wooded hill-side overlooking the plain. Gopalaca, Vuthsa in a chariot, surrounded by armed men. GOPALACA Arrest our wheels. Those are our army’s lights That climb to us like fire-flies from the plain. VUTHSA (awakened from sleep) Is this Avunthy? GOPALACA We have passed her bounds. VUTHSA So, thou dear traitor, this thou from the first Cam’st planning. GOPALACA This with more that follows it. VUTHSA Thou bearst me to thy father’s town? GOPALACA Where thou Shalt lie, a jewel guarded carefully, Beside the dearest treasure of our house. VUTHSA I must be cooped up in a golden cage As I was guarded in Cowsamby’s walls.

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You foes and friends think me your wealth inert, And all men hope to do their will with me. But now I warn you all that I will have My freedom and will do my own dear will By fraud or violence greater than your own. GOPALACA Thou canst not. If thou hadst thy bow indeed! VUTHSA Thou hadst me for the taking. I will break forth Almost as easily. GOPALACA Thou shalt find it hard, Such keepers shall enring thy steps. VUTHSA But I will And carry with me something costlier far Than what thou stealest from Cowsamby’s realm. For I will have revenge. GOPALACA No wealth we have More precious than the thing I seize today. Therefore thy boast is vain. VUTHSA That I will see. Was it not thy brother rode behind our car? He passes now; call him. GOPALACA Vicurna, here!

Act II, Scene 3 VUTHSA Come near, embrace me, brother of Gopalaca, Loved for his sake and for thy own desired Since I beheld thee, son of Mahasegn. VICURNA Vuthsa Udaian, in the battle’s front I had hoped to meet thee and compel thy praise As half thy equal in the fight. But this Is nearer, this is better. VUTHSA Thou art fair to see. Thy father has two noble sons. Are there No others of your great upspringing stock? GOPALACA Only a sister. VUTHSA The world has heard of her. GOPALACA Thou shalt behold. VUTHSA Oh then, it is pure gain I go to in Avunthy. O the night With all her glorious stars and from the trees Millions of shrill cigalas peal one note, A thunderous melody! Shall we be soon In the golden city? But it will be night And I shall hardly see her famous fanes. GOPALACA Dawn will have overtaken us in her skies Passing our chariots long before Ujjayiny’s seen.

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Our vanguard nears; unite with them; descend. Roomunwath’s cohorts should tread close behind. VUTHSA They will not come. My fate must ride with me Unhindered to Avunthy. GOPALACA Hasten in front Towards my father fire-hooved messengers To cry aloud to him the prize we bring Richer than booty of his twenty wars. Shiva has smiled on us. VUTHSA Vishnu on me. Godheads, it is by strife that you grow one.

Act III Avunthy. In the palace.

Scene 1 A room in the royal apartments. Mahasegn, Ungarica. MAHASEGN I conquer still though not with glorious arms. He’s seized! the young victorious Vuthsa’s mine, A prisoner in my grasp. UNGARICA (laughing) Thou holdst the sun Under thy arm-pit as the tailed god did. What wilt thou do with it? MAHASEGN Make him my moon And shine by him upon the eastern night. UNGARICA Thou canst? MAHASEGN Loved sceptic of my house, I can. What thing desired has long escaped my hands Since out of thy dim world I dragged thee conquered Into our sun and breeze and azure skies By force, my fortune?

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Vasavadutta UNGARICA

Yes, by force, but this By force thou hast not done. Wilt thou depart From thy own nature, Chunda Mahasegn, And hop’st for victory? MAHASEGN Thou wert my strength, my fortune, But never my counsellor! My own mind’s my seer. UNGARICA I do not counsel, but obey and watch. That is enough for me in your strange world, For in your light I cannot guide myself. Man is a creature blinded by the sun Who errs by seeing; but the world that to you Is darkness, — they who walk there, they have sight. Such am I, for the shades have reared my soul. MAHASEGN What dost thou see? UNGARICA That Vuthsa is too great For thy greatness, too cunning for thy cunning. He Will bend not to thy pressure. MAHASEGN Thou hast bent, The Titaness. This is a delicate boy Softer than summer dews or like the lily That yields to every gentle, insistent wave. A hero? yes: all Aryan boys are that. UNGARICA Thou thinkst thy daughter thy proud fortune’s wave, He its bright flower — a nursling reared by gods

Act III, Scene 1 Only to be thy servant? MAHASEGN Thou hast seen? I kept my counsel hidden in my soul. UNGARICA It is good; it is the thing my heart desires. My daughter shall have empire. MAHASEGN No, thy son. UNGARICA No matter which. The first man of the age Will occupy her heart; the pride and love That are her faults will both be satisfied. She will be happy. MAHASEGN Call thy child, my queen. For I will teach her what her charm must weave. UNGARICA Her heart’s her teacher. Call here, Vullabha, The princess. MAHASEGN O, the heart, it is a danger, A madness! Let the thinking mind prevail. UNGARICA We are women, king. MAHASEGN Be princesses! My daughter Has dignity, pride, wisdom, noble hopes;

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She will not act as common natures do. UNGARICA Love will unseat them all and put them down Under his flower-soft feet. MAHASEGN Thou hast ever loved To oppose my thoughts! UNGARICA That is our poor revenge Who in our acts must needs obey. Vasavadutta enters. Let now Thy princely cunning teach a woman’s brain To use for statecraft’s ends her dearest thoughts. MAHASEGN My daughter Vasavadutta, my delight, Now is thy hour to pay the long dear debt Thou ow’st thy parents by whom thou wast made. Vuthsa, Cowsamby’s king, my rival, foe, My Fate’s high stumbling-block, captive today Is brought to Avunthy. I mean he shall become Thy husband, Vasavadutta, and my slave. By thee he shall become my subject king. Then shall thy father’s fate outleap all bounds, Thy house and nation rule the prostrate world. This is my will, my daughter; is it thine? VASAVADUTTA Father, thy will is mine, as it is fate’s. Thou givest me to whom thou wilt; what share In this have I except only to obey?

Act III, Scene 1 MAHASEGN A greater part which makes thee my ally And golden instrument; for thou, my child, Must be, who only canst, my living sceptre, Thou my ambassador to win his mind And thou my viceroy over his subject will. VASAVADUTTA Will he submit to this? MAHASEGN Yes, if thou choose. VASAVADUTTA I choose, my father, since it is thy will. That thou shouldst rule the world, is my desire; My nation’s greatness is my dearest good. MAHASEGN Thou hast kept my proudest lessons; lose them not. O, thou art not as feebler natures are! Thou wilt not put thy own ambitions first, Nor justify a blind and clamorous heart. VASAVADUTTA My duty to my country and my sire Shall lead me. MAHASEGN I will not teach thy woman’s brain How thou shalt mould this youth, nor warn thy will Against the passions of the blood. The heart And senses over common women rule; Thou hast a mind. VASAVADUTTA Father, this is my pride,

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That thou ennoblest me to be the engine Of thy great fortunes; that alone I am. MAHASEGN Thou wilt not yield then to the heart’s desire? VASAVADUTTA Let him desire, but I will nothing yield. I am thy daughter; greatest kings should sue And take my grace as an unhoped-for joy. MAHASEGN Thou art my pupil; statecraft was not wasted Upon thy listening brain. Thou seest, my queen? UNGARICA As if this babe could understand! Go, go And leave me with my child. I will speak to her Another language. MAHASEGN Breathe no breath against My purpose! UNGARICA Fearst thou that? MAHASEGN No; speak to her. He goes out from the chamber. UNGARICA (taking Vasavadutta into her arms) Rest here, my child, to whom another bosom Will soon be refuge. Thou hast heard the King; Hear now thy mother. Thou wilt know, my bliss, The fiercest sweet ordeal that can seize A woman’s heart and body. O my child,

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Thou wilt house fire, thou wilt see living gods, And all thou hast thought and known will melt away Into a flame and be reborn. What now I speak, thou dost not understand, but wilt Before many nights have kept thy sleepless eyes. My child, the flower blooms for its flowerhood only, To fill the air with fragrance and with bloom, And not to make its parent bed more high. Not for thy sire thy mother brought thee forth But thy own nature’s growth and heart’s delight And for a husband and for children born. My child, let him who clasps thee be thy god That thou mayst be his goddess; make your wedded arms Heaven’s fences; let his will be thine and thine Be his, his happiness thy regal throne. O Vasavadutta, when thy heart awakes Thou shalt obey thy sovereign heart, nor yield Allegiance to the clear-eyed selfish gods. Do now thy father’s will, the god awake Shall do his own. Fear not, whatever threatens. Thy mother watches over thee, my child. She goes out. VASAVADUTTA I love her best, but do not understand; My mind can always grasp my father’s thoughts. If I must wed, it shall be one I rule. Vuthsa! Vuthsa Udaian! I have heard Only a far-flung name. What is the man? A flame? a flower? High like Gopalaca Or else some golden-fair and soft-eyed youth? I have a fluttering in my heart to know.

Scene 2 The same. Mahasegn, Ungarica, Gopalaca, Vuthsa. GOPALACA King of Avunthy, see thy will performed. The boy who rivalled thy ripe victor years, I bring a captive to thy house. MAHASEGN Gopalaca, Thou hast done well, thou art indeed my son. Vuthsa, — VUTHSA Hail, monarch of the West. We have met In equal battle; it has pleased me to approach Thy greatness otherwise. MAHASEGN Pleased thee, vain boy! No, but thy fate indignant that thou strov’st Against heaven-chosen fortunes. VUTHSA Think it so. I am here. What is thy will with me or wherefore Hast thou by violence brought me to thy house? MAHASEGN To serve me as earth’s sovereign and thy own Assuming my great yoke as all have done

Act III, Scene 2 From Indus to the South. VUTHSA This is thy error. Thou hast not great Cowsamby’s monarch here, But Vuthsa only, Suthaneka’s son Who sprang from sires divine. MAHASEGN And where then dwells Cowsamby’s youthful majesty, if not In thee its golden vessel? VUTHSA Where my vacant throne In high Cowsamby stands. Thou shouldst know that. There is a kingship which exceeds the king. For Vuthsa unworthy, Vuthsa captive, slain, This is not captive, this cannot be slain. It far transcends our petty human forms, It is a nation’s greatness. This, O King, Was once Parikshith, this Urjoona’s seed, Janam´ejoya, this was Suthaneke, This Vuthsa; and when Vuthsa is no more, This shall live deathless in a hundred kings. MAHASEGN Thou speakest like the unripe boy thou seemst, With thoughts high-winging. Grown minds keep to earth’s More humble sureness and prefer her touches. I am content to have thy gracious body here, This earth of kingship; with things sensible I deal, for they are pertinent to our days, And not with any high and unseen thought. VUTHSA My body? deal with it. It is thy slave

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Vasavadutta

And captive by thy choice and by my own. What thou canst do with Vuthsa, do, O King; In nothing will I pledge Cowsamby’s majesty, But Vuthsa is a prisoner in thy hands. Him I defend not from thy iron will. MAHASEGN My prisoner, thou shalt not so escape My purpose. VUTHSA I embrace it. If escape Were my desire, I should not now be here. It is not bars and gates can keep me. MAHASEGN But I will give thee other jailors, boy, Surer than my armed sentries, against whom Thou dar’st not lift thy helpless hands. VUTHSA Find such; I am satisfied. MAHASEGN Grow humbler in thy bearing. Be Vuthsa or be great Cowsamby’s king, Know thyself only for a captive and a slave. VUTHSA I accept thy stern rebuke, as I accept Whatever state the wiser gods provide And bend my action to their mood and thought. MAHASEGN Thou knowst the law of the high sacrifice, Where many kings as menials serve the one,

Act III, Scene 2

673

And this compelled have many proud lords done Whose high beginnings disappear in time. Now I will make my throned triumphant days A high continual solemn sacrifice Of kingship. There shalt thou, great Bharuth’s heir, Dwell in my house a royal servitor, And as most fitting thy yet tender years, My daughter’s serf. She with her handmaidens Shall be thy jailors whose firm gracious cordon Thy strength disarmed stands helpless to transgress. To this Thy pride must, forced, consent. VUTHSA Not only consent, But welcome with a proud aspiring mind Since to be Vasavadutta’s servitor Is honour, happiness and fortune’s grace. My greatness this shall raise, not cast it down, King Mahasegn. MAHASEGN Lead now, Gopalaca, Thy gift, her servant, to thy sister’s feet. He has a music that the gods desire, His brush leaves Nature wondering and his song The luminous choristers of heaven have taught. All this is hers to please her. Boy, thou smilest? VUTHSA What thou hast said, is merely truth. And yet I smiled to see how strong and arrogant minds Think themselves masters of the things they do. Gopalaca goes out with Vuthsa towards Vasavadutta’s apartments. MAHASEGN This is a charming boy, Ungarica,

674

Vasavadutta

Who vaunts and yields! UNGARICA What he has shown thee, King, Thou seest. MAHASEGN Wilt thou lend next this graceful child, Almost a girl in beauty, thoughts profound And practised subtleties? I have done well, Was deeply inspired. He goes out. UNGARICA For him and her thou hast. Our own ends seeking, Heaven’s ends are served.

Scene 3 A room in Vasavadutta’s apartments. Vasavadutta, Munjoolica, Umba. VASAVADUTTA But hast thou seen him? MUNJOOLICA Yes! VASAVADUTTA Speak, perverse silence. Thou canst chatter when thou wilt. MUNJOOLICA What shall I say Except that thou art always fortunate. Since first thy soft feet moved upon our earth, O living Luxmie, beauty, wealth and joy Run overpacked into thy days, and grandeurs Unmeasured. Now the greatest king on earth Becomes thy servant. VASAVADUTTA That’s the greatest king’s Proud fortune and not mine; for nothing now Can raise me higher than I am whose father Is sovereign over greatest kings. Nothing are these And what I long to know thou dost not tell. What is he like?

676

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MUNJOOLICA I have seen the lord of love Wearing a golden human body. VASAVADUTTA (with a pleased smile) So fair! MUNJOOLICA As thou art; yes, and more. VASAVADUTTA More! MUNJOOLICA Cry not out. His eyes are proud and smiling like the god’s; His voice is like the sudden call of Spring. VASAVADUTTA O dear to me even as myself, wear this! She puts her own chain round her neck. MUNJOOLICA That is my happiness; keep thy gifts. VASAVADUTTA Think them My love around thy neck. Thou hast spoken truly, Not woven fictions to beguile my heart? Then tell me more, tell tell, thou dearest one. Not that I care for these things, but would know. MUNJOOLICA Let thy eyes care not then, but gaze. Gopalaca comes, bringing in Vuthsa.

Act III, Scene 3 VASAVADUTTA My brother! Long thou wast far from me. GOPALACA For thy sake far. Much have I flung, my sister, at thy feet Nor thought my gifts were worthy of thy smile, Not even Sourashtra’s captive daughter here, The living flower and jewel of her race. But now I give indeed. This is that famous boy, Vuthsa Udaian, great Cowsamby’s king, Brought by my hands to serve thee in our house. Look on him; tell me if I have deserved. VASAVADUTTA (looking covertly at Vuthsa) Much love, dear brother; not that any prize I value as of worth for such as we, But thy love gives it price. GOPALACA My love for both. My gift is precious to me, for my heart Possessed him long before my hands have seized. Then love him well, for so thou lov’st me twice. VASAVADUTTA Dear then and prized although a slave. GOPALACA Are we not all Thy servants? The wide costly world is less, My sister, than thy noble charm and grace And beauty and the sweetness of thy soul Deserve, O Vasavadutta.

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Vasavadutta VASAVADUTTA (smiling, pleased) Is it so?

GOPALACA My sister, thou wast born from Luxmie’s heart, And we, thy brothers, feel in thee, not us, Our father’s fate inherited; our warrings Seek for thy girdle all the conquered earth. VASAVADUTTA I know it, brother. GOPALACA From thy childhood, yes, Thou seem’dst to know, ruling with queenly eyes. But since thou knowest, queen, assume thy fiefs Cowsamby and Ayodhya for our house! VASAVADUTTA (glancing at Vuthsa, then avoiding his eyes) Since he’s my slave, they are already mine. GOPALACA No; understand me, sister; make them thine. Thou, Vuthsa, serve thy mistress and obey. He goes out. VASAVADUTTA He is a boy, a marvellous golden boy. I am surely older! I can play with him. There is no fear, no difficulty at all. (to Vuthsa) What is thy name? I’ll hear it from thy lips. VUTHSA Vuthsa.

Act III, Scene 3 VASAVADUTTA Thou tremblest, Vuthsa; dost thou fear? VUTHSA Perhaps. There is a fear in too much joy. VASAVADUTTA (smiling) I did not hear. My brother loves thee well. Take comfort. If thou serve me faithfully, Thou hast no cause for any grief at all. Thou art Cowsamby’s king — VUTHSA Men call me so. VASAVADUTTA And now my servant. VUTHSA That my heart repeats. VASAVADUTTA (smiling) I did not hear. Cowsamby’s king, my slave, What canst thou do to please me? VUTHSA Dost thou choose To know the songs that shake the tranquil gods Or hear on earth the harps of heaven? dost thou Desire such lines and hues of living truth As make earth’s shadows pale? or wilt thou have The infinite abysmal silences Made vocal, clothed with form? These things at birth The Kinnarie, Vidyadhur and Gundhurva Around me crowding on Himaloy dumb Gave to the silent god that lived in me Before my outer mind held thought. All these

679

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Vasavadutta

I can make thine. VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, I take all these, All thy life’s ornaments that thou wearst, for mine And am not satisfied. VUTHSA Dost thou desire The earth made thine by my victorious bow? Send me then forth to battle; earth is thine. VASAVADUTTA I take the earth and am not satisfied. VUTHSA Say then what thing shall please thee in thy slave, What thou desir’st from Vuthsa. VASAVADUTTA Do I know? Not less than all thou canst and all thou hast, — (hesitating a little) And all thou art. VUTHSA All’s thine. VASAVADUTTA I speak and hear And know not what I say, nor what thou meanst. VUTHSA The deepest things are those thought seizes not; Our spirits live their hidden meaning out.

Act III, Scene 3

681

VASAVADUTTA (after a troubled silence in which she tries to recover herself ) I know not how we passed into this strain. Such words are troubling to the mind and heart; Leave them. VUTHSA They have been spoken. VASAVADUTTA Let them rest. Vuthsa, my slave who promisest me much, Great things thou offerest, small things I’ll demand From thee, yet hard. Since he’s my prisoner, Munjoolica and Umba, guard this boy; You are his jailors. When I need him near me Bring him to me. Go, Vuthsa, to thy room. Vuthsa falls at her feet which he touches. What dost thou? It is not permitted thee. VUTHSA Not this? That’s hard. VASAVADUTTA (troubled and feigning anger) Thou art too bold a slave. VUTHSA Let me be earth beneath thy tread at least. VASAVADUTTA O, take him from me; I have enough of him. Thou, Umba, see he bribes thee not or worse. UMBA I will be bribed to make thee smart for that. Where shall we put him? In the turret rooms Beside the terrace where thou walkst when moonlight

682

Vasavadutta

Sleeps on the sward? VASAVADUTTA There; it is nearest. UMBA (taking Vuthsa’s hand) Come. They go out, leaving Vasavadutta alone. VASAVADUTTA Will he charm me from my purpose with a smile? How beautiful he is, how beautiful! There is a fear, there is a happy fear. But he is mine, his eyes confessed my yoke. Surely I shall do all my will with him. I sent him from me, his words troubled me And yet delighted. They have a witchery, — No, not his words, but voice. ’Tis not his voice, Nor yet his face, his smile, his flower-soft eyes, And yet it is all these and something more. (shaking her head) I fear it will be difficult after all.

Scene 4 The tower-room beside the terrace. Vuthsa on a couch. VUTHSA All that I dreamed or heard of her, her charm Exceeds. She’s mine! she has shuddered at my touch; Thrice her eyes faltered as they gazed in mine. He lies back with closed eyes; Munjoolica enters and contemplates him. MUNJOOLICA O golden Love! thou art not of this earth. He too is Vasavadutta’s! All is hers, As I am now and one day all the earth. Vuthsa, thou sleepst not, then. VUTHSA Sleep jealous waits Finding another image in my eyes. MUNJOOLICA Thou art disobedient. Wast thou not commanded To sleep at once? VUTHSA Sleep disobeys, not I. But thou too wakest, yet no thoughts should have To keep thy lids apart. MUNJOOLICA How knowst thou that?

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Vasavadutta

I am thy jailor and I walk my rounds. VUTHSA Bright jailor, thou art jealous without cause. Who would escape from heaven’s golden bars? Thy name’s Munjoolica? So is thy form A bower of the graceful things of earth. MUNJOOLICA I had another name but it has ceased, Forgotten. VUTHSA Thou wast then Sourashtra’s child? MUNJOOLICA I am still that royalty clouded, even as thou Captive Cowsamby. Me Gopalaca In battle seized, brought a disdainful gift To Vasavadutta. VUTHSA Since our fates are one, Should we not be allies? MUNJOOLICA For what bold purpose? VUTHSA How knowest thou I have one? MUNJOOLICA Were I a man! VUTHSA Wouldst thou have freedom? wilt thou give me help?

Act III, Scene 4 MUNJOOLICA In nothing against her I love and serve. VUTHSA No, but conspire to serve and love her best And make her queen of all the Aryan earth. MUNJOOLICA My payment? VUTHSA Name it thyself, when all is ours. MUNJOOLICA Content; it will be large. VUTHSA However large. MUNJOOLICA Now shall I be avenged upon my fate! What thy heart asks I know; too openly Thou carriest the yearning in thy eyes. Vuthsa, she loves thee as the half-closed bud Thrills to the advent of a wonderful dawn And like a dreamer half-awake perceives The faint beginnings of a sunlit world. Doubt not success more than that dawn must break; For she is thine. VUTHSA Take my heart’s gratitude For the sweet assurance. MUNJOOLICA I am greedy. Only Thy gratitude?

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Vasavadutta VUTHSA What wouldst thou have? MUNJOOLICA The ring

Upon thy finger, Vuthsa, for my own. VUTHSA (putting it on her finger) It shall live happier on a fairer hand. MUNJOOLICA Since thou hast paid me instantly and well, I will be zealous, Vuthsa, in thy cause. But my great bribe is in the future still. VUTHSA Claim it in our Cowsamby. MUNJOOLICA There indeed. Sleep now. VUTHSA By thy good help I now shall sleep. Munjoolica goes out. Music is sweet; to rule the heart’s rich chords Of human lyres much sweeter. Art’s sublime But to combine great ends more sovereign still, Accepting danger and difficulty to break Through proud and violent opposites to our will. Song is divine, but more divine is love.

Scene 5 A room in Vasavadutta’s apartments. VASAVADUTTA I govern no longer what I speak and do. Is this the fire my mother spoke of? Oh, It is sweet, is sweet. But I will not be mastered By any equal creature. Let him serve Obediently and I will load his lovely head With costliest favours. He’s my own, my own, My slave, my toy to play with as I choose, And shall not dare to play with me. I think he dares; I do not know, I think he would presume. He’s gentle, brilliant, bold and beautiful. I’ll send for him and chide and put him down; I’ll chide him harshly; he must not presume. O, I have forgotten almost my father’s will; Yet it was mine. Before I lose it quite, I will compel a promise from the boy. Will it be hard when he is all my own? (she calls) Umba! Bring Vuthsa to me from his tower. His music is a voice that cries to me, His songs are chains he hangs around my heart. I must not hear them often; I forget That I am Vasavadutta, that he is My house’s foe and only Vuthsa feel, Think Vuthsa only, while my captive heart Beats in world-Vuthsa and on Vuthsa throbs. This must not be. Umba brings in Vuthsa and retires. Go, Umba. Vuthsa, stand

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Vasavadutta

Before me. VUTHSA It is my sovereign’s voice that speaks. VASAVADUTTA Be silent! Lower thy eyes; they are too bold To gaze on me, my slave. VUTHSA Blame not my eyes; They follow the dumb motion of a heart Uplifted to adore thee. VASAVADUTTA (with a shaken voice) Dost thou really Adore me, Vuthsa? VUTHSA Earth’s one goddess, yes. VASAVADUTTA (mildly) But, Vuthsa, men adore with humble eyes Upon their deity’s feet. VUTHSA Oh, let me so Adore thee then, thus humble at thy feet, Their sleeping moonbeams in my eyes, and place My hands in Paradise beneath these flowers That bless too oft the chill unheeding earth. Let this not be forbidden to thy slave. So let me worship and the carolling of thy speech So listen. VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, thou must not presume.

Act III, Scene 5 VUTHSA O even when faint thy voice, thy every word Reaches my soul. VASAVADUTTA Wilt thou not let me free? VUTHSA Yes, if thou bid; but do not. VASAVADUTTA (bending down to caress his hair) If really And as my slave thou adorest, nothing more, I will not bid. VUTHSA What more, when this means all? VASAVADUTTA But if thou art such, is not all thou hast Mine, mine? Why dost thou, Vuthsa, keep from me My own? VUTHSA Take all; claim all. VASAVADUTTA (collecting herself ) Cowsamby first. VUTHSA It shall be thine, a jewel for thy feet. VASAVADUTTA Thy kingdom, Vuthsa, for my will to rule. VUTHSA It shall be thine, the garden of thy pomp.

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Vasavadutta VASAVADUTTA

Shall? VUTHSA Is it not far? We must go there, my queen, Thou to receive and I to give. VASAVADUTTA I wish To be there. But, Udaian, thou must vow, And the word bind thee, that none else shall be Cowsamby’s queen and thou my servant live Vowed to obedience underneath my throne. VUTHSA Thou only shalt be over my heart a queen, Yes, if thou wilt, the despot of my thoughts, My hopes, my aims, but I will not obey If thou command disloyalty to thee, My sweet, sole sovereign. VASAVADUTTA (smiling) This reserve I yield. (hesitatingly) But Vuthsa, if as subject of my sire, High Chunda Mahasegn, I bid thee rule? VUTHSA My queen, it will be void. VASAVADUTTA Void? And thy vow? VUTHSA Would it not be disloyalty in me, To serve another sovereign?

Act III, Scene 5 VASAVADUTTA (vexed, yet pleased) O, thou playst with me. VUTHSA No, queen. What’s wholly mine, that wholly take. But this belongs to many other souls. VASAVADUTTA To whom? VUTHSA Their names are endless. Bharuth first, Who ruled the Aryan earth that bears his name, And great Dushyanta and Pururavus’ Famed warlike son and all their peerless line, Urjoona and Parikshith and his sons Whom God descended to enthrone, and all Who shall come after us, my heirs and thine Who choosest me, and a great nation’s multitudes, And the Kuru ancestors and long posterity Who all must give consent. VASAVADUTTA Thy thoughts are high. But if thy life must fade a prisoner here? My father is inflexible and stern. VUTHSA Dost thou desire this really in thy heart? Vuthsa degraded, art thou not degraded too? VASAVADUTTA My rule thou hast vowed? VUTHSA To obey thee in all things Throned in Cowsamby, not as here I must,

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Vasavadutta

Thy father’s captive. There I shall be thine. VASAVADUTTA Leave, Vuthsa, leave me. Take him, Umba, from me. UMBA (entering, in Vasavadutta’s ear) Who now is bribed? We are all traitors now. She goes out with Vuthsa. VASAVADUTTA O joy, if he and all were only mine. O greatness, to be queen of him and earth. I grow a rebel to my father’s house.

Act IV Scene 1 A room in the royal apartments. Ungarica, Vasavadutta. UNGARICA Thou singest well; a cry of Vuthsa’s art Has stolen into thy song. She takes Vasavadutta on her lap. Look up at me, My daughter, let me gaze into thy eyes And from their silence learn thy treasured thoughts. Thou knowest I can read twixt human lids The secrets of the throbbing heart? I search In Vasavadutta’s eyes by what strange skill Vuthsa has crept into my daughter’s voice. Thou keepst thy lashes lowered? thou wilt not let me look? But that too I can read. VASAVADUTTA O mother, mother mine, Plague me not; thou knowst all things; comfort me. UNGARICA Thou needest comfort? VASAVADUTTA Yes, against myself Who trouble my own heart.

694

Vasavadutta UNGARICA

Why? though I know. Thou wilt not speak? I’ll speak then for thee. Vasavadutta alarmed puts her hand over Ungarica’s mouth. Off! It is because thou canst not here control What thy immortal part with rapture wills And the mortal longingly desires; for yet Thy proud heart cannot find the way to yield. VASAVADUTTA If thou knewst, mother. UNGARICA No, thou hast the will But not the art, Love’s learner. O my proud Sweet ignorance, ’tis he shall find the way And thou shalt know the joy of being forced To what thy heart desires. VASAVADUTTA O mother! She hides her face in Ungarica’s bosom. UNGARICA Thou hast done thy father’s will? Thy husband shall be vassal to thy sire? VASAVADUTTA Have I a father or a house? O none, O none, O none exists but only he. UNGARICA Let none exist for thee but the dear all thou lov’st. I charge thee, Vasavadutta, when thou rul’st In far Cowsamby, let this be thy reign

Act IV, Scene 1

695

To heap on him delight and seek his good. Raise his high fortunes, shelter from grief his heart, Even with thy own tears buy his joy and peace, Nor let one clamorous thought of self revolt Against him. VASAVADUTTA Mother, thou canst see my heart; Is this not there? Can it do otherwise, Being thus conquered, even if it willed? UNGARICA Child, ’tis my care to give thy heart a voice And bind it to its nobler loving self. Let this be now thy pride. VASAVADUTTA It is, it is. But, mother, it is very sweet to rule, And if I rule him for his good, not mine? UNGARICA Thou canst not be corrected! Queenling, rule. Go now; thy brother comes. Vasavadutta escapes towards her own apartments; Vicurna enters from the outer door. Why is thy brow A darkness? VICURNA Wherefore was King Vuthsa brought Into Ujjayiny? why is captive kept? UNGARICA Thy father’s will, who knows.

696

Vasavadutta VICURNA But I would know.

UNGARICA Him ask. VICURNA (taking her face between his hands) I ask thee; thou must answer. UNGARICA To wed Thy sister. VICURNA Let him wed and be released. Our fame is smirched; the city murmurs. War Threatens from Vuthsa’s nation and our cause Is evil. UNGARICA Wedding her he must consent To be our vassal. VICURNA Thus are vassals made? Thus empires built? This is a shameful thing. Release him first, then with proud war subdue. UNGARICA Thou knowest thy father’s stern, unbending will Whom we must all obey. VICURNA Not I, or not In evil things.

Act IV, Scene 1

697

UNGARICA Respect thy father! He Will not, unsatisfied, release his foe. Demand not this. VICURNA I will release him then. UNGARICA Him by what right who is thy house’s peril? VICURNA He is a hero and he is my friend. UNGARICA Didst thou not help to bring him captive here? VICURNA For Vasavadutta. I will bear them both Out from the city in my chariot far Into the freedom of the hills. I will hew down All who oppose me. UNGARICA Rash and violent boy, So wilt thou make bad worse. Await the hour When Vuthsa shall himself demand thy aid. VICURNA The hour will come? UNGARICA He will be free. VICURNA Then soon, Or I myself will act. He goes out.

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Vasavadutta UNGARICA

This too is well And most that the proud chivalries of old Are not yet dead in all men’s hearts. O God Shiva, thou mak’st me fortunate in my sons.

Scene 2 Vasavadutta’s chamber. Vuthsa, Vasavadutta. VUTHSA Thy hands have yet no cunning with the strings. ’Tis not the touch alone but manner of the touch That calls the murmuring spirit forth, — as thus. VASAVADUTTA I cannot manage it; my hand rebels. VUTHSA I will compel it then. He takes her hand in his. Thou dost not chide. VASAVADUTTA I am weary of chiding; and how rule a boy Who takes delight in being chidden? And then ’Twas only my hand. What dost thou? Vuthsa takes her by the arms and draws her towards him. VUTHSA What thy eyes Commanded me and what for many days My heart has clamoured for in hungry pain. VASAVADUTTA Presumptuous! wilt thou not immediately Release me?

700

Vasavadutta VUTHSA Not till thy heart’s will is done. He draws her down on his knees, resisting.

VASAVADUTTA What will? I did not bid. What will? Vuthsa! Vuthsa! I did not bid. This is not well. He masters her and holds her on his bosom. Her head falls on his shoulder. VUTHSA O my desire, why should we still deny Delight that calls to us? Strive not with joy, But yield me the sweet mortal privilege That makes me equal with the happiest god In all the heavens of fulfilled desire. O on thy sweet averted cheek! My queen, My wilful empress, all in vain thou striv’st To keep from me the treasure of thy lips I have deserved so long. VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa! Vuthsa! He forces her lips up to his and kisses her. VUTHSA O honey of thy mouth! The joy, the joy Was sweeter. I have drunk in heaven at last, Let what will happen. Vasavadutta escapes and stands quivering at a distance. VASAVADUTTA Stand there! approach me not. VUTHSA I thought ’twould be enough for many ages;

Act IV, Scene 2

701

But ’tis not so. VASAVADUTTA Go from me, seek thy room. VUTHSA Have I so much offended? I will go. He pretends to go. VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, I am not angry; do not go. Sit; I must chide thee. Was this well to abuse My kindness, to mistake indulgence? — No, I am not angry; thou art only a boy. I have permitted thee to love because Thou saidst thou couldst not help it. This again Thou must not do, — not thus. VUTHSA Then teach me how. VASAVADUTTA (with a troubled smile) I never had so importunate a slave. I must think out some punishment for thee. She comes to him suddenly, takes him to her bosom and kisses him with passion. VUTHSA O if ’tis this, I will again offend. She clings to him, kisses him again, then puts him away from her. VASAVADUTTA Go from me, go. Wilt thou not go? Munjoolica! VUTHSA She is not here to help thee against thy heart.

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Vasavadutta

But I will go; thou willst it. VASAVADUTTA Wilt thou leave me? VUTHSA Never! thus, thus into my bosom grow, O Vasavadutta. VASAVADUTTA O my happiness! O Vuthsa, only name that’s sweet on earth I have murmured to the silence of the hours, Give me delight, let me endure thy clasp For ever. O loveliest head on all the earth! VUTHSA If we could thus remain through many ages, Nor Time grow weary ever of such bliss, O Vasavadutta! VASAVADUTTA I have loved thee always Even when I knew it not. Was’t not the love Secret between us, drew thee here by force, Vuthsa? VUTHSA Thou wilt not now refuse thy lips? VASAVADUTTA Nothing to thee. VUTHSA Yes, thou shalt be my queen Surrendered henceforth, I thy slave enthroned. Give me the largess of thyself that I may be

Act IV, Scene 2 The constant vassal of thy tyrant eyes And captive of thy beauty all my days And homage pay to thy sweet sovereign soul. Thus, thus accept me. VASAVADUTTA I accept, my king, Thy service and thy homage and thy love. If in return the bounty of myself I lavish on thee, will it be enough? Can it hold thy life as thou wilt fill all mine? VUTHSA Weave thyself into morn and noon and eve. We will not be as man and woman are Who are with partial oneness satisfied, Divided in our works, but one large soul Parted in two dear bodies for more bliss. For all my occupations thou shalt rule, And those that take me from thy blissful shadow Still with thy sweet remembrance shall inspired Be done by thee. VASAVADUTTA If thy heart strays from me, — VUTHSA Never my heart. VASAVADUTTA If thy eyes stray from me, O Vuthsa, — VUTHSA If I view all beautiful things With natural delight, thou wilt pardon that Because thou wilt share the joy.

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704

Vasavadutta VASAVADUTTA Then must I find

Thy beauty there. VUTHSA Tonight, my love, my love, Shall we not linger heart on heart tonight? VASAVADUTTA Ah, Vuthsa, no. VUTHSA Does not thy heart cry, yes? Are we not wedded? Shall we dally, love, Upon heaven’s outskirts, nor all Paradise This hour compel? VASAVADUTTA (faintly) Munjoolica! VUTHSA Beloved, thy eyes Beseech me to overcome thee with my will. Munjoolica entering, Vuthsa releases Vasavadutta. MUNJOOLICA Princess! VASAVADUTTA Munjoolica! Why camest thou? MUNJOOLICA Call’dst thou not? VASAVADUTTA ’Tis forgotten. Oh, I remember. ’Twas to lead Vuthsa to his prison. (low) Smile,

Act IV, Scene 2

705

And I will beat thee! It was all thy fault. MUNJOOLICA Oh, very little. Come, the hour is late; The Princess’ maidens will come trooping in. Turn not reluctant eyes behind but come. She takes Vuthsa by both wrists and leads him out. VASAVADUTTA There is a fire within me and a cry. My longings have all broken in a flood And I am the tossed spray! O my desire That criest for the beauty of his limbs And to feel all his body with thyself And lose thy soul in his sweet answering soul, Wilt thou not all this night be silent? I Will walk upon the terrace in moonlight; Perhaps the large, silent night will give me peace. For now ’twere vain to sleep. O in his arms! His arms about me and the world expunged!

Scene 3 The tower-room by the terrace. Vuthsa asleep on a couch; Munjoolica. MUNJOOLICA He sleeps and now to lure my victim here. You! princess! Vasavadutta! VASAVADUTTA (appearing at the doorway) Didst thou call? MUNJOOLICA Yes, to come in from moonlight to the moon. Thou hast never seen him yet asleep. VASAVADUTTA He sleeps! MUNJOOLICA His curls are pillowed on one golden arm Like clouds upon the moon. Wilt thou not see? VASAVADUTTA I dare not. I will stand here and will see. MUNJOOLICA Thou shalt not. Either pass or enter in. VASAVADUTTA Thou playst the tyrant? I will stand and see.

Act IV, Scene 3

707

MUNJOOLICA (pushing her suddenly in) In with thee! VASAVADUTTA Munjoolica! MUNJOOLICA Hush, wake him not! She drags her to the couch-side. Is he not beautiful? She draws back and after a moment goes quietly out and closes the door. VASAVADUTTA Oh, now I feel My mother’s heart when over me she bowed Wakeful at midnight! He has never had Since his strange birth a mother’s, sister’s love. O sleeping soul of my belov`ed, hear My vow, that while thy Vasavadutta lives, Thou shalt not lack again one heart’s desire, One tender bodily want. All things at once, Wife, mother, sister, lover, playmate, friend, Queen, comrade, counsellor I will be to thee. Self shall not chill my heart with wedded strife, Nor age nor custom pale my fire of love. I have that strength in me, the strength to love of gods. A tress of her hair falls on his face and awakes him. VUTHSA O Vasavadutta, thou hast come to me! VASAVADUTTA It was not I! Munjoolica dragged me in. O where is she? The door! She hastens to the door and finds it bolted from outside.

708

Vasavadutta

Munjoolica! What is this jest? I shall be angry. Open. MUNJOOLICA (outside, solemnly) Bolted. VASAVADUTTA For pity, sweet Munjoolica! MUNJOOLICA I settle my accounts. Be happy. I Am gone. VASAVADUTTA Go not, go not, Munjoolica. VUTHSA (coming to her) She’s gone, the thrice-blessed mischief, and tonight This happy prison thou gav’st me is thine too. Goddess! thou art shut in with thy delight. Why wouldst thou flee then through the doors of heaven? VASAVADUTTA O not tonight! Be patient! I will ask My father; he will give me as thy wife. VUTHSA Thou thinkst I’ll take thee from thy father’s hands Like a poor Brahmin begging for a dole? Not so do heroes’ children wed, nor they Who from the loins of puissant princes sprang. With the free interchange of looks and hearts Nobly self-given, heaven for the priest And the heart’s answers for the holy verse, They are wedded or by wished-for violence torn Consenting, yet resisting from the midst Of many arm`ed men. So will I wed thee, O Vasavadutta, so will bear by force

Act IV, Scene 3 Out of the house and city of my foes Breaking through hostile gates. By a long kiss I’ll seal thy lips that vainly would forbid. Let thy heart speak instead the word of joy, O Vasavadutta. VASAVADUTTA Do with me what thou wilt, for I am thine.

709

Act V Scene 1 A room in Vasavadutta’s apartments. Vasavadutta, Munjoolica. VASAVADUTTA So thou hast dared to come. MUNJOOLICA I have. Thou, dare To look me in the eyes. Thou canst not. Then? VASAVADUTTA Hast thou no fear of punishment at all? MUNJOOLICA For shutting thee in with heaven? none, none at all. VASAVADUTTA How didst thou dare? MUNJOOLICA How didst thou dare, proud girl, To make of kings and princesses thy slaves? How dare to drag Sourashtra’s daughter here, To keep her as thy servant and to load With gifts, caresses, chidings and commands, The puppet of thy sweet imperious will? Thinkst thou my heart within me was not hot? But now I am avenged on thee and all.

Act V, Scene 1

711

VASAVADUTTA Vindictive traitress, I will beat thee. MUNJOOLICA Do And I will laugh and ask thee of the night. VASAVADUTTA Then take thy chastisement. She seizes and beats her with the tassels of her girdle. MUNJOOLICA Stop! I’ll bear no more. Art not ashamed to spend thy heart in play Knowing what thou hast done and what may come? Think rather of what thou wilt do against Thy dangerous morrow. VASAVADUTTA See what thou hast done! How shall I look my father in the eyes? What speak? what do? my Vuthsa how protect? MUNJOOLICA Thy father must not know of this. VASAVADUTTA Thou thinkst My joy can be shut in from every eye? Besides thee I have other serving-girls. MUNJOOLICA None who’ld betray thee. This thing known, his wrath Would strike thy husband.

712

Vasavadutta VASAVADUTTA

Me rather. I will throw My heart and body, twice his shield, between. MUNJOOLICA You will be torn apart and Vuthsa penned In some deep pit or fiercer vengeance taken To soothe the stern man’s outraged heart. VASAVADUTTA Alas! Thou hast a brain; give me thy counsel. The ill Thyself hast done, must thou not remedy? MUNJOOLICA If thou entreat me much, I will and can. VASAVADUTTA I shall entreat thee! MUNJOOLICA Help thyself, proud child. VASAVADUTTA O, if I have thee at advantage ever! Stay! I beseech thee, my Munjoolica, — MUNJOOLICA More humbly! VASAVADUTTA Oh! She kneels. I clasp thy feet. O friend, In painful earnest I beseech thee now To think, plan, spend for my sake all thy thought. Remember how I soothed thy fallen life

Act V, Scene 1 Which might have been so hard. O thou my playmate, Joy, servant, sister who hast always been, Help me, save him, deceive my father’s wrath, Then ask from me what huge reward thou wilt. MUNJOOLICA Nothing at all. Vengeance is sweet enough Upon thy father and Gopalaca. I’m satisfied now. First give me a promise; Obey me absolutely in all things Till Vuthsa’s free. VASAVADUTTA I promise. Thou art my guide And I will walk religiously thy path. MUNJOOLICA Then think it done. VASAVADUTTA (smiling on Vuthsa who enters) Vuthsa, I asked not for thee. VUTHSA Thou didst. I heard thy heart demand me. MUNJOOLICA Hark! What is this noise and laughter in the court? See, see, the hunchbacked laughable old man! What antics! VUTHSA Surely I know well those eyes. Munjoolica, this is a friend. He must Be brought here to me.

713

714

Vasavadutta MUNJOOLICA

Princess, let us call him. It is an admirable buffoon. VASAVADUTTA Fie on thee! Is this an hour for jests and antics? MUNJOOLICA (looking significantly at her) Yes. VASAVADUTTA Call him. MUNJOOLICA And thou go in. VASAVADUTTA How, in! MUNJOOLICA This girl! Hast thou not promised to obey me? VASAVADUTTA Yes. She goes in. Munjoolica descends. VUTHSA Yougundharayan sends him. O, he strikes The hour as if a god had planned all out. This world’s the puppet of a silent Will Which moves unguessed behind our acts and thoughts; Events bewildered follow its dim guidance And flock where they are needed. Is’t not thus, O Thou, our divine Master, that Thou rulest, Nor car’st at all because Thy joy and power

Act V, Scene 1

715

Are seated in Thyself beyond the ages? Munjoolica returns bringing in Vasuntha disguised. Who is this ancient shape thou bringest? MUNJOOLICA I’ld know If he has a tongue as famous as his hump And as preposterous; that to learn I bring him. VASUNTHA Where is the only lady of the age? Princes or else domestics, — MUNJOOLICA Something, sir, of both. VASUNTHA O masters then of princes, think not that I scorn Your prouder royalty; but now if any Will introduce my hungry old hunchback To Avunthy’s far-famed paragon of girls, He shall have tithe of all my golden gains. MUNJOOLICA Why not to Avunthy’s governor and a prison, Yougundharayan’s spy? VASUNTHA (looking at Vuthsa) What’s this? what’s this? MUNJOOLICA Strong tonic for a young old man. VUTHSA Speak freely Thy message; there are only friends who hear.

716

Vasavadutta

VASUNTHA (to Vuthsa, with a humorous glance at Munjoolica) Thy hours were not ill-spent. But thou hast nearly Frighted these poor young hairs to real grey, My sportive lady. Hear now why I crouch Beneath the hoary burden of this beard And the insignia of a royal hump, — And an end to jesting. Vuthsa, in thy city The people clamour; they besiege thy ministers Railing at treason and demanding thee; Nor can their rage be stilled. Do swiftly then Whatever thou must do yet, swiftly break forth Or war will seek thee clamouring round these doors. To bear thy message back to him I come, Upon Avunthy’s mountain verge who lurks, Or else to aid thee if our help thou needest. VUTHSA Let him restrain my army forest-screened Where the thick woodlands weave a border large To the ochre garment round Avunthy’s loins Nearest Ujjayiny. Under the cavern-hill Of Lokanatha let him lie, but never Transgress that margin till my chariot comes. VASUNTHA ’Tis all? VUTHSA In my own strength all else I’ll do. VASUNTHA Good; then I go? VUTHSA Yes, but with gold, thy fee, To colour thy going. Bring him gold, dear friend,

Act V, Scene 1

717

Or take from Vasavadutta gem or trinket That shall bear out his mask to jealous eyes. Munjoolica goes into the inner chamber. VASUNTHA Leave that to me. VUTHSA Thou hast adventured much For my sake. VASUNTHA Poor Alurca cried to come, But this thing asked for brains and he had only Blunt courage and a harp. The danger’s nothing, But oh, this hump! I shall not soon walk straight, Nor rid myself of all the loyal aches I bear for thee. VUTHSA Pangs fiercer would have chased them, Hadst thou been caught, my friend. I shall remember. Munjoolica returns with gold and a trinket. Take now these gauds; haste, make thy swiftest way, For I come close behind thee. Vasuntha goes. MUNJOOLICA Tell me thy plan. VUTHSA These chambers are too strongly kept. MUNJOOLICA But there’s The pleasure-ground.

718

Vasavadutta VUTHSA

Let Vasavadutta call Her brothers on an evening to the park And wine flow fast. The nights are moonlit now. How many gates? MUNJOOLICA Three, but the southern portal Nearest the ramparts. VUTHSA There, how many guard? MUNJOOLICA Three armed Kiratha women keep the gate. VUTHSA I cannot hurt them. Thou must find a way. MUNJOOLICA They shall be drowned in wine. The streets outside? VUTHSA A chariot, — find one for me. I cannot fight With Vasavadutta on my breast. MUNJOOLICA I think That I shall find one. VUTHSA Do it. The rest is easy, To break the keepers of the city-gate In one fierce moment and be out and far. There are arms enough in the palace?

Act V, Scene 1

719

MUNJOOLICA The armoury I use sometimes. VUTHSA Conceal them in the grounds. No, in the chariot let them wait for me. MUNJOOLICA Thou wilt need both thy hands in such a fight. Vuthsa, I’ll be thy charioteer. VUTHSA Thou canst? MUNJOOLICA Hope not to find a better in thy realms. VUTHSA My battle-comrade then! Words are not needed Between us. He goes out. MUNJOOLICA More than that before all’s done I will be to thee. Good fortune makes hard things Most easy; for the god comes with laden hands. If the strange word the queen half spoke to me Means anything, Vicurna’s car shall bear His sister to her joy and sovereign throne.

Scene 2 The pleasure-groves of the palace in Ujjayiny. Gopalaca, Vuthsa, Vicurna; at a distance under the trees Ungarica, Vasavadutta and Umba. GOPALACA Vuthsa, the wine is singing in my brain, The moonlight floods my soul. These are the hours When the veil for eye and ear is almost rent And we can hear wind-haired Gundhurvas sing In a strange luminous ether. Thou art one, Vuthsa, who has escaped the bars and walks Smiling and harping to enchanted men. VUTHSA It was your earthly moonlight drew me here And thou, Gopalaca, and Vindhya’s hills And Vasavadutta. Thou shalt drink with me In moonlight in Cowsamby. GOPALACA Vuthsa, when? What wild and restless spirit keeps thy feet Tonight, Vicurna? VICURNA ’Tis the wine. I wait. GOPALACA For what?

Act V, Scene 2 VICURNA (with a harsh laugh) Why, for the wine to do its work. GOPALACA Where’s Vasavadutta? Call her to us here. We are not happy if she walks apart. VICURNA There with the mother underneath the trees. GOPALACA Call them. Thou, Vuthsa, she and I will drink One cup of love and pledge our hearts in wine Never to be parted. Thou deceiv’st the days, O lax and laggard lover. VUTHSA ’Tis the last. Tomorrow lights another scene. GOPALACA ’Tis good That thou inclin’st thy heart. My father grows Stern and impatient. This done, all is well. VUTHSA All in this poor world cannot have their will; Its joys are bounded. I submit, it seems. Wilt thou incline thy heart, Gopalaca? GOPALACA To what? VUTHSA To this fair moonlit night’s result And all that follows after.

721

722

Vasavadutta GOPALACA Easily

I promise that. VUTHSA All surely will be well. Munjoolica arrives from the gates; Vicurna returning from the trees with Ungarica, Vasavadutta and Umba, goes forward to meet her. VICURNA Is’t done? MUNJOOLICA They sprawl half-senseless near the gate. VICURNA Whole bound and gagged were best. Give Vuthsa word. He goes towards the gates. UNGARICA Munjoolica, is it tonight? MUNJOOLICA What, madam? UNGARICA (striking her lightly on the cheek) Vicurna rides tonight? MUNJOOLICA He rides tonight. UNGARICA Let him not learn, nor any, that I knew. She returns to the others.

Act V, Scene 2 GOPALACA Come, all you wanderers. Mother, here’s a cup That thou must bless with thy fair magic hands Before we drink it. UNGARICA May those who drink be one In heart and great and loving all their days Favoured by Shiva and by Luxmie blest Until the end and far beyond. GOPALACA Drink, Vuthsa. Three hearts meet in this cup. UNGARICA Who drinks this first, He shall be first and he shall be the bond. GOPALACA Drink, sister Vasavadutta, queen of all. UNGARICA Queen thou shalt be, my daughter, as in thy heart, So in thy love and fortunes. GOPALACA Mine the last. UNGARICA Thou sayest, my son, yet first mid many men. GOPALACA Whatever place, so in this knot ’tis found. UNGARICA (embracing Vasavadutta closely) Forget not thy dear mother in thy bliss.

723

724

Vasavadutta

Gopalaca, attend me to the house, I have a word for thee, my son. GOPALACA I come. They go towards the palace. VUTHSA Is it the moment? MUNJOOLICA Yonder lies the gate. VUTHSA Love! Vasavadutta. VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa! Vuthsa! speak. What has been quivering in the air this night? He takes her in his arms. VUTHSA Thy rapt and rapture far away, O love. Look farewell to thy father’s halls. VASAVADUTTA Alas! What is this rashness? Thou art unarmed; the guards Will slay thee. VUTHSA Fear not! Thou in my arms, Our fates a double shield, thou hast no fear, Nor anything this night to think or do Save in the chariot lie between my knees And listen to the breezes in thy locks Whistling to thee of far Cowsamby’s groves.

Act V, Scene 2

725

He bears her towards the gate, Vicurna crossing him in his return. VICURNA Haste, haste! all’s ready. MUNJOOLICA Umba! Umba! here! UMBA (who comes running up) Oh, what is this? VICURNA Should not this girl be bound? UMBA Give rather thy commands. MUNJOOLICA Thou’lt face the wrath? UMBA O, all for my dear mistress. If the King Slays me, I shall have lived and died for her For whom I was born. MUNJOOLICA Hide in the groves until Thou hearst a rumour growing from the walls, Then seek the house and save thyself. Till then Let no man find thee. UMBA I will lose myself In the far bushes. O come safely through. Could you not have trusted me in this?

726

Vasavadutta MUNJOOLICA Weep not!

I’ll have thee to Cowsamby if thou live. VICURNA Come, follow, follow. He is near the gates. MUNJOOLICA I to my freedom, she her royal crown!

Scene 3 Vasavadutta’s apartments. Mahasegn, Ungarica, Umba bound, armed women. MAHASEGN She is not here. O treachery! If thou Wert privy to this, thou shalt die impaled Or cloven in many pieces. UMBA I am resigned. UNGARICA Thou’lt stain thy soul with a woman’s murder, King? MAHASEGN ’Tis truth; she is too slight a thing to crush. Are not the gardens searched? Who are these slaves Who dare to loiter? If he’s seized, he dies. UNGARICA Wilt thou make ill much worse, — if this be ill? MAHASEGN How sayst thou? ’Tis not ill? My house is shamed, My pride downtrodden; all the country laughs Already at the baffled Mahasegn Whose daughter was plucked out by one frail boy From midst his golden city and his hosts Unnumbered. Who shall honour me henceforth? Who worship? who obey? who fear my sword?

728

Vasavadutta

UNGARICA Cowsamby’s king has kept the Aryan law, Nor is thy daughter shamed at all in this, But taken with noblest honour. MAHASEGN ’Tis a law I spurn. My will is trodden underfoot, My pride which to preserve or to avenge Is the warrior’s righteousness. Udaian dies. Or if he reach his capital, my hosts Shall thunder on and blot it into flame, A pyre for his torn dishonoured corpse. UNGARICA Hast thou forgotten thy daughter’s heart? Her good, Her happiness are nothing then to thee? MAHASEGN Is she my daughter? She’ll not wish to live Her sire’s dishonour. UNGARICA Thinkest thou he seized her, Her heart consenting not? MAHASEGN If it be so And she thus rebel to my will and blood, Let her eyes gaze upon their sensuous cause Of treason mocked with many marring spears. UNGARICA Art thou an Aryan king and threatenest thus? Thy daughter only for thyself was loved?

Act V, Scene 3

729

MAHASEGN Silence, my queen! Chafe not the lion wroth. UNGARICA The tiger rather, if this mood thou nurse. A Kiratha woman enters. MAHASEGN Thou com’st, slow slave! KIRATHIE King, all the grounds are searched. The guards lie gagged below the southern gate; All’s empty. MAHASEGN Where’s Gopalaca? He too Has leisures! KIRATHIE There’s a captain from the walls. MAHASEGN Ha! bring him. The Kirathie brings in the Avunthian captain. Well! CAPTAIN Vuthsa has broken forth. The wardens of the gate are maimed or dead; Triumphant, bearing Vasavadutta, far Exults his chariot o’er the moonlit plains. MAHASEGN O bitter messenger! Pursue, pursue!

730

Vasavadutta

CAPTAIN Rebha with his armed men and stern-lipped speed Is hot behind. MAHASEGN Let all my force that keeps Ujjayiny, be hurled after them, one speed. Call, call Vicurna; let the boy bring back First fame of arms today in Vuthsa slain, His sister’s ravisher. CAPTAIN Let not my words Offend my king. ’Twas Prince Vicurna’s car Bore forth his sister and Vicurna’s self Rode as her guard. MAHASEGN (after an astonished pause) Do all my house, my blood Revolt against me? CAPTAIN The princess Bundhumathie, Thy daughter’s serving-maiden, at Vuthsa’s side Controlled his coursers. MAHASEGN Her I do not blame, Yet will most fiercely punish. Captain, go; Gather my chariots; let them gallop fast Crushing these fugitives’ new-made tracks. As the captain departs, Gopalaca enters. Gopalaca, Head, son, my armies; bear thy sister back Before irrevocable shame is done, Nor with thy father’s greatness unavenged return.

Act V, Scene 3

731

GOPALACA My father, hear me. Though quite contrary To all our planned design this thing has fallen, Yet no dishonour tarnishes the deed, But as a hero with a hero’s child Has Vuthsa seized the girl. We planned a snare, He by a noble violence answers us. We sought to bribe him to a vassal’s state Dangling the jewel of our house in front; He keeps his freedom and enjoys the gem. Then since we chose the throw of dice and lost, Let us be noble gamblers, like a friend Receive God’s hostile chance, nor house blind wounded thoughts As common natures might. Sanction this rapt; Let there be love twixt Vuthsa’s house and us. MAHASEGN I see that in their hearts all have conspired Against my greatness. Thou art Avunthy’s prince, My second in my cares. Hear then! if twixt Ujjayiny and my frontiers they are seized, My fiercer will shall strike; but if they reach Free Vindhya, thou thyself shalt make the peace. Take Vasavadutta’s household and this girl, Take all her wealth and gauds; lead her thyself Or follow to Cowsamby, but leave not Till she is solemnised as Vuthsa’s queen. Sole let her reign throned by Udaian’s side; Then only shall peace live betwixt our realms. GOPALACA And I will fetch Vicurna back. MAHASEGN Son, never. I exile the rebel to his name and house. Let him with Vuthsa whom he chooses dwell,

732

Vasavadutta

My foeman’s servant. He goes out, followed by the guards. Gopalaca unbinds Umba. UNGARICA If we give his rage its hour, ’Twill sink. His pride will call Vicurna back, If not the father’s heart. GOPALACA Haste, gather quickly Her wealth and household. I would make earliest speed, Lest Vuthsa by ill hap be seized for ill. UNGARICA Fear not, my son. The hosts are not on earth That shall prevail against these two in arms.

Scene 4 The Avunthian forests; moonlight. Vuthsa, Vasavadutta, Munjoolica. VUTHSA Thou hast held the reins divinely. We approach Our kingdom’s border. MUNJOOLICA But the foe surround. VUTHSA We will break through as twice now we have done. Vicurna comes. Vicurna arrives ascending. VICURNA Vuthsa, yon Rebha asks For parley; is it given? I’ld hold him here While by a long masked woodland breach I know Silent we pass their cordon. VUTHSA Force is best. VICURNA Vuthsa, to my mind more; but I would spare Our Vasavadutta’s heart these fierce alarms. Though she breathe nothing, yet she suffers. VUTHSA Good!

734

Vasavadutta

We’ll choose thy peaceful breach. Vicurna descends. VASAVADUTTA Vuthsa, if I Stood forth and bade their leader cease pursuit Since of my will I go, he must desist. VUTHSA It would diminish, love, my victory And triumph which are thine. VASAVADUTTA Then let it go. I would not stain thy fame in arms, though over My house’s head its wheels go trampling. MUNJOOLICA (yawning) Ough! If we could parley a truce for sleep. This fighting Makes very drowsy. Vicurna returns with Rebha. VUTHSA Well, captain, thy demand! REBHA Vuthsa, thou art environed. Dost thou yield? VUTHSA Thou mockst! Return; we’ll break the third last time Thy fragile chain. Are thy dead counted? REBHA The living Outnumber their first strength; more force comes on Fast from Ujjayiny. Therefore yield the princess.

Act V, Scene 4

735

Thyself depart a freeman to thy realms. VUTHSA Knowst thou thy offer is an insolence? REBHA Then, Prince, await the worst. Living and bound Or else a corpse we’ll bring thee back to our city. Three times around thee is my cordon passed, Thy steeds are spent, nor hast thou Urjoon’s quiver. The dawn prepares; think it thy last. VUTHSA At noon I give thee tryst within my borders. Rebha goes. VICURNA Swift! Before he reach his men and back ascend, We must be far. Munjoolica, mount my horse, Ride to Yougundharayan, bid him bring on His numbers; for I see armies thundering towards us With angry speed o’er the Avunthian plains. I’ll guide the car. MUNJOOLICA The horse? VICURNA Bound in yon grove. Rein lightly; he’s high-mettled. MUNJOOLICA Teach me not. There is no horse yet foaled I cannot ride. Which is my way through all this leafy tangle?

736

Vasavadutta

VICURNA Thou canst not miss it; for yon path leads only To Lokanatha’s hill beyond our borders. Now on! VUTHSA The moonlight and the glad night-winds Have rustled luminously among the leaves And sung me wordless paeans while I fought. Now let them fall into a rapturous strain Of silence, while I ride with thee safe-clasped Upon my bosom. VASAVADUTTA If I could hold thee safe at last!

Scene 5 On the Avunthian border. Roomunwath, Yougundharayan, Alurca, soldiers. ROOMUNWATH The dawn with rose and crimson crowned the hills, There was no sign of Vuthsa’s promised wheels. Another noon approaches. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Two days only Vasuntha’s here. Yet is Udaian swift With the stroke he in a secret sloth prepares. ROOMUNWATH We learned that though too late. A secret rashness, A boy’s wild venture with his life for stake And a kingdom! Dangerously dawns this reign. ALURCA See, see, a horseman over Avunthy’s edge Rides to us. He quests forward with his eyes. ROOMUNWATH Whoe’er he be, he has travelled far. His beast Labours and stumbles on. YOUGUNDHARAYAN This is no horseman; It is a woman rides though swift and armed.

738

Vasavadutta

ALURCA She has seen us and dismounts. YOUGUNDHARAYAN A woman rides! My mind misgives me. Is’t some evil chance? Comes she a broken messenger of grief? She runs as if pursued. ALURCA She’s young and fair. Munjoolica arrives. MUNJOOLICA Art thou King Vuthsa’s captain? ROOMUNWATH I am he. MUNJOOLICA Gather thy force; for Vuthsa drives here fast, But hostile armies surge behind his wheels. Fast, fast, into the woods your succour bring, Lest over his wearied coursers and spent quiver Numbers and speed prevail. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Roomunwath, swift. Roomunwath goes. But who art thou or where shall be my surety That thou art no Avunthian sent to lure Our force into an ambush? MUNJOOLICA This is surely Yougundharayan of the prudent brain. Thy question I reply; the rest resolve

Act V, Scene 5 But swiftly, lest Fate mock thy wary thoughts. My name is Bundhumathie and my father Sourashtra held; but I, his daughter, taken Served in Avunthy Vasavadutta. Knowest thou This ring? YOUGUNDHARAYAN ’Tis Vuthsa’s. MUNJOOLICA Young Vicurna’s bay I rode, who guards his sister’s ravisher Against the angry rescuers. Will these riddles, Wisest of statesmen, solve thy cautious doubt? YOUGUNDHARAYAN Thy tale is strange; but thou at least art true. MUNJOOLICA Thou art not prudent only! YOUGUNDHARAYAN Forward then. Roomunwath’s camp already is astir.

739

Scene 6 Near the edge of the forest in Avunthy. Roomunwath, Yougundharayan, Alurca, Munjoolica, forces. ROOMUNWATH Stay, stay our march; ’tis Vuthsa’s car arrives. The tired horses stumble as they pause. YOUGUNDHARAYAN There is a noise of armies close behind And out of woods the Avunthian wheels emerge. There arrive Vuthsa, Vicurna, Vasavadutta. VUTHSA My father, all things to their hour are true And I bring back my venture. Am I pardoned Its secrecy? YOUGUNDHARAYAN My pupil and son no more, But hero and monarch! Thou hast set thy foot Upon Avunthy’s head. VUTHSA Yet still thy son. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Hail, Vasavadutta, great Cowsamby’s queen. VASAVADUTTA (smiling happily on Vuthsa) My crown was won by desperate alarms.

Act V, Scene 6

741

VUTHSA It was a perilous race and in the end Fate won by a head. Were it not the difficult paths Baffled their numbers, we were hardly here, So oft we had to pause and rest our steeds. But in less strength they dared not venture on. YOUGUNDHARAYAN They range their battle now. VUTHSA Speak thou to them. War must not break. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Demand a parley there. VUTHSA If we must fight, it shall be for defence Retreating while we war unless they urge Too far their violent trespass. VICURNA Rebha comes. Rebha arrives. REBHA Ye are suitors for a parley? VICURNA Rebha, with beaten men? REBHA Because you had your sister in the car Our shafts were hampered.

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Nor could with swords prevail Against two boys so many hundred men. REBHA O Prince Vicurna, what thou hast done today Against thy name and nation, I forbear To value. ’Tis thy first essay of arms. VICURNA Well dost thou not to weigh thy better’s deeds. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Rebha, wilt thou urge vainly yet this strife? What hitherto was done, was private act And duel; now if thou insist on fight, Two nations are embroiled; and to what end? REBHA I will take Vuthsa and the Princess back. It is my king’s command. YOUGUNDHARAYAN The impossible No man is bound to endeavour. While we fight, King Vuthsa with the captive princess bounds Unhindered to his high-walled capital. REBHA It is my king’s command. I am his arm And not his counsellor; nor to use my brain Have any right, save for the swift way to fulfil His proud and absolute mandate. YOUGUNDHARAYAN If there came Word from Ujjayiny, then pursuit must cease?

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REBHA Then truly. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Send a horseman, Rebha, ask. All meanwhile shall remain as now it stands. REBHA I’ll send no horseman; I will fight. YOUGUNDHARAYAN Then war! REBHA We fear it not. This is strange insolence To stand in arms upon Avunthian ground And issue mandates to the country’s lords. He is going. ROOMUNWATH Rebha, yet pause! No messenger thou needst. Look where yon chariot furious-bounding comes And over it streams Avunthy’s royal flag. REBHA It is the prince Gopalaca. Of this I am glad. VASAVADUTTA O if my brother comes, then all is well. VUTHSA For thou art Luxmie. Thou beside me, Fate And Fortune, peace and battle must obey The vagrant lightest-winged of my desires. Gopalaca arrives; with him Umba.

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GOPALACA Hail, Vuthsa! peace and love between our lands! VUTHSA I hold them here incarnate. Welcome thou, Their strong achiever. GOPALACA As earnest and as proof Receive this fair accomplice of thy flight Unpunished. Sister, take her to thy arms. VASAVADUTTA O Umba, thou com’st safe to me! GOPALACA And all My sister’s household and her wealth comes fast Behind me. Only one claim Avunthy keeps; My sister shall sit throned thy only queen, — Which, pardon me, my eyes must witness done With honour to our name. VUTHSA Cowsamby’s majesty Will brook not even in this, Gopalaca, A foreign summons. Surely my will and love Shall throne most high, not strong Avunthy’s child, But Vasavadutta; whether alone, her will And mine, the nation and the kingdom’s good Consenting shall decide. Therefore this claim Urge not, my brother. GOPALACA Let not this divide us. The present’s gladness is enough: the future’s hers And thine, Udaian, nor shall any man

Act V, Scene 6 Compel thee. Boy, thy revolt was rash and fierce Wronging thy house and thy high father’s will. Exiled must thou in far Cowsamby dwell Until his wrath is dead. VICURNA I care not, brother. I have done my will, I have observed the right. Near Vuthsa and my sister’s home enough And I shall see new countries. VUTHSA Follow behind, Gopalaca; thy sister’s household bring And all the force thou wilt. We speed in front. Ride thou, Alurca, near us; let thy harp Speak of love’s anthems and her golden life To Vasavadutta. Love, the storm is past, The peril o’er. Now we shall glide, my queen, Through green-gold woods and between golden fields To float for ever in a golden dream, O earth’s gold Luxmie, till the shining gates Eternal open to us thy heavenly home.

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Incomplete and Fragmentary Plays 1891 – 1915

The Witch of Ilni A dream of the woodlands

Characters CORILLO, prince of Ilni. VALENTINE, a courtier. IAMBLICHUS foresters. PALLEAS MARCION I MELANDER, a sylvan poet. FORESTERS, COURTIERS. ALACIEL, the witch of Ilni. GUENDOLEN, her sister. MYRTIL forest damsels. DORIS ERMENILD I GIRLS OF THE FOREST.

Act I Scene 1 The woodlands of Ilni. Girls and youths dancing. Song Under the darkling tree Who danceth with thee, Sister say? His hair is the sweet sunlight, His eyes a starry night In May. Under the leaf-wrought screen Who crowns thee his queen Kissing thee? His lips are a ruby bright, His cheek the May-bloom’s light On the tree. Under the grass-green bough Whom pillowest thou On thy breast? His voice is a swallow’s flight, His limbs are jonquils white Dewy-drest. IAMBLICHUS Unwind the link`ed rapture of the dance!

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For in the purple verge and slope of morn Fast-flowering blooms, fire-robed and honey-haired, In stainless wastes the daffodil of heaven. Here till the golden-handed sun upbuilds The morning’s cenotaph blue-domed and vast, On daisy-dotted bank where sunlight nods We’ll spin a curious weft of lyric tales. MYRTIL Be it so. But what occupation stays Our deftest in the jewelry of rhymes, Our liberal dispenser of sweet words, Our laureate with the throstle in his throat? Sleeps he so long? who saw Melander last, Melander ashbud-browed with April hair? ERMENILD Before the russet-hooded morn gave birth In Day’s embraces to the fire-eyed sun I spied him nigh a mossy-mantled cave Which rosy trailers draped, and at his side The silver-seeming witch Alaciel. MYRTIL Pray God, the black-haired witch may do no harm! She is most potent and her science plucks The ruby nightshade, Hecate’s deadly plum, Soul-killing meadow-sweet, the hemlock starred And berries brown crushed in the vats of death, Her mother’s hell-brewed legacy of arts. MARCION Were it not wisely done to call him hither? IAMBLICHUS ’Tis wisely urged, good Marcion. Make good haste

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And drench thy words in Hybla’s golden milk To lure him thence. Exit Marcion. But you with dance and song Beguile the laggard moments into joy.

Scene 2 A glade in the woodlands. ALACIEL Why wilt thou go? Noon has not budded, sweet. Freshfallen dew stars yet the silvered grass, The leaves are lyrical with lisp of birds And piping voices flutter thro’ the grove. Repose thyself where blue-eyed violet Is married to that bugle of pale gold We call the cowslip, and I’ll chain thee here With flowery bands of rosebud-link`ed tales Or murmur Orphic falls to draw thy soul Upon the smoother wings of measured song. Noon has not budded, sweet. Why wilt thou go? MELANDER The sylvan youths expect my lyric touch To gild their leisure: nor am I so bold To linger by thy snowy side too long Whom men call perilous. Oh thou art fair! Dawn reddens in thy vermil-tinted cheeks And on thy tresses pansy-purple night Hangs balsam-drenched with dewdrops for her stars. Thou art a flower with candid petals wide, Moonflushed, most innocent-seeming to the eye; But in thy cup, they say, lurks venomed wine Which whoso sucks, pale Hades on him lays Ensnaring arms to drag from the sweet sun. ALACIEL Whom will not Envy’s livid tooth assail?

Act I, Scene 2 ’Tis true my wisdom dwarfs their ignorance; That is most true: for in my fledgeling days When callow childhood loved the rushy nest, My mother drew my steps thro’ fretted walks, Rose-rubied gardens, acorn-pelted glades, Green seas of pasture, rural sweeps of bloom, And taught the florid sensuous dialect Of simple plants. This way I learned to love The shining sisterhood of rhythmic names, Roses and lilies, honey-hiding thyme, Pied gilliflowers, painted wind-blossoms, Gold crocus, milky bell, sweet marjoram, Fire-coloured furze and wayside honey-suckle. Nor these alone, but all the helpful plants Gave me the liquid essence of their souls Potent to help or hurt, to cure or kill. Indeed the milky juice of pungent roots I poured you in that curious walnut cup With moderation just, were in excess More deadly than the hemlock’s dooming wine. MELANDER It fused new blood into my pulsing veins Raising me twice the stature of a soul. ALACIEL ’Tis margarite, the rare and pungent root, That brewed this foamy vintage in his wand. For twixt the bulb and pithy texture wrapt You find a pod nut-form with misty skin, In size no bigger than the early grape But full and sweet with honey-tempered wine. Such are my potions, philtres, poisons, drugs, Distempered brews, and all the juggling arts Your ignorance rebukes my wisdom with.

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MELANDER From such sweet lips when poppied utterance falls, The carping spirit of disdain must sleep; For subtler logic drops in simple words From woman’s tongue, than phraseful orator Or fine scholastic wit may offer up. ALACIEL Sweet youth, why should I net you with deceit? Ah yet, in truth you are too beautiful! Come, you are skilled in phrases, are you not? You dice with women’s hearts — they tell me ’tis A pastime much in vogue with idle youths. (The philtre works: his eyelids brim with dew.) You throw cogged dice with women for their souls, You barter with them and deny the price, Is it not so? (O rare, fine margarite!) Oh you are deft at such deceits: you make Your beauty lime to cozen linnets with And bid them sing, if they’d have sustenance. Oh you will not deceive me, think it not: You are just such a fowler to my guess. MELANDER Dear linnet, did I lime you in my nets, One fine, sweet Hamadryad note would lift The tangle from your wild-rose-petal wings. ALACIEL Ah but when lurking faces flower the bush Wild birds mock expectation with wild wings. MELANDER Nay, dear, you shall not go: I have you fast. Come, where’s your ransom? the sweet, single note I bargained for, ere you may climb the winds? Prune not your fluttering wings: I have you fast.

Act I, Scene 2 ALACIEL I pray you, make not earnest of my jest. You are too quick: you shall not have a stiver, No, not a coin to bless repentance with. MELANDER Then I will pay myself, sweet: from that warm And flowering bed of kisses, I will pluck Fresh with the dews of youth one red sweet rose. (kisses her) Oh I have sucked out poison from your lips! Physicians say that certain maladies Are by their generating causes killed. Sweet poison, one more drop to cure the last. (kisses her) ALACIEL You shall pluck no more roses from my tree. Unclasp me now or you will anger me. MELANDER Dear, be not angry. I did but accept The written challenge peeping thro’ the lids Of those delicious eyes: O shy soft eyes, Hiding with jetty fringes such a world Of swimming beauty, virgin-sweet desire, You shine like stars upon the rim of night, Like dewdrops thro’ green leaves, mute orators Instinct with dropping eloquence to sway The burning heart of boyhood to your will. If I look on you long, you will seduce My acts from virtue; which to anticipate I’ll kill you both with kisses, thus, and thus. Sweet, do not blush. I claim what is my own, And with my lips I seal your whole self mine From dear, dark head to dainty wild-rose feet. Or, if you will, in sanguine tumult show

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The throbbing conscience of a lover’s touch, That I may watch a sea of springing rose Diffuse its gorgeous triumph in your cheeks. ALACIEL Oh you have golden pieces on your tongue To buy your pleasure: yet this single once I’ll be your fool. Come, throw me clinking coin, The thin flute-music of your flatteries. You shall have favours if you pay for them. MELANDER His lips should dribble honey, who’d make out The style and inventory of your graces. His voice should be the fifing of mild winds To happy song of bees in rose-red June, His every word a crimson-tasselled rose, His lightest phrase a strip of cedar-wood, Each clause a nutmeg-peppered jug of cream; The very stops should argue aloes fetched By spic`ed winds upon the rocking brine. What, have I earned my wage? I am athirst With praising you. Give me your lips to drink. ALACIEL You trifle, sweet. Yours is no mint of coin But scribbled paper-specie large as wind Which I’ll not take. Here comes your paedagogue To school you into more sobriety. Alaciel retires. Enter Marcion. MARCION Well met, Melander. Long thro’ mossy paths Have I with patient footing peered thee out, Thro’ shadow-sundered slopes of racing light, In ferny pales with blots of colour pricked And by the rushy marge of spuming streams

Act I, Scene 2 Till lucky hazard made the Venus throw. Why art thou here? On leafy-sheltered sward Where daubs of sunlight intersperse the shade, The rubious posies thrill to mazy feet Like stars danced over by an angel’s tread And strive with glimmering corollaries To make a twinkling heaven of the green. Moist blow the breezes with the myrrhy tears Of pining night, and ruffle every blade That keeps his pearls from clutch of dewy thieves Until their indignation murmur past. From airy flute, from seraph-string`ed harp, A daedal rain of music drop on drop Wells fast to rule the waft of dove-like feet. The clustered edges of close-heap`ed thyme, A murmurous haven sailed by merchant bees, Are crumbling into fragrance and young flowers Make fat by their decay the greedy earth, While golden youths and silver feet of girls Pass fluttering as with glimpse of gorgeous hues A fleet of moths on emigrating winds. There you shall see upon the pearl`ed grass The forest antelope, brown Ermenild, Iamblichus the honey-hearted boy, Rose-cheeked Iamblichus with roses wreathed, And Myrtil honey-haired, our woodland moon, Myrtil the white, a silver loveliness, But tipped with gold. Thou only lingerest; Only thy voice, the pilot of our moods, Only thy thrushlips welling facile rhymes Mar the sweet harmonies of holiday With one chord missing from the clamorous harp. MELANDER I thank you, Marcion, for your careful pain But cannot guerdon you with more than thanks. I am not well: the fumes of midnight thought

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Unfit me for a holiday attire. MARCION Fie, fie, Melander! When have you before Denied the riches of your tongue to eke Our poorness with? The forest waits for you Dew-drenched with tears because you will not come. MELANDER Well, I will go with you, but not for long. I’ll join you where deep-cushioned in soft grass The stream turns inward like a scimitar. Go on before, I pray you. I will come. Exit Marcion. ALACIEL There, there, I said so! you are docile, sir. Indeed I did not spy the leading-strings, But they must be there. ’Twas your paedagogue, Was it not, come to fetch the truant back? MELANDER Dear, be not vexed with me. I will return Ere noon has dotted with her golden ball The eminence of heaven. It seems not well, When judgment has decreed the award of merit, To disappoint Persuasion of her prize. In sweetly-cultured minds civility Breathes music to the touch of wooing words. ALACIEL Oh words and words enough! but what’s the gist, The run, the purport? Tush, a chattering pie, A pie that steals and chatters, would not deign To jeer this flaunting daw. What, did he deem His gaudy colony of phrases roofed The meaning from my eyes? The prosing fool

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Fibs very vilely: why, he has not conned The rudiments and letters of his craft. MELANDER You do miscall sincerest courtesy, Sweet courtesy that solders our conditions Into the builded structure of a state. ALACIEL Yes, till the winds unbuild it for worse ruin. But go your way. I’ll know you as a man That honeys leisure with a lovely face And coins sweet perjuries to make the hearts Of women bankrupt. No defence, I pray you. I’ll have no slices of your company. MELANDER Leave wrangling, sweet, and tell me soft and kind, Where shall I see you next? I may not tarry. ALACIEL Why nowhere: for I’ll not receive you, sir. But if you love a door shut in your face Come to my cottage on the forest’s hem Where rarer thickets melt into the plain. MELANDER Thither I will outstrip the climbing noon. For this one tedious hour, dear love, farewell. ALACIEL I pray you, sweet, do not break promise with me, For that will kill me. I will think of you And comfort solitude with sighs and tears Until you dawn afresh, a noontide star. Exeunt.

Act II Scene 1 The woodlands as at first. Foresters and girls. Melander leans against a tree absorbed in thought: in one group Marcion and Ermenild are talking: in another Iamblichus and Myrtil: Myrtil comes forward. MYRTIL What passion, dear Melander, numbs thy voice? Why wilt thou cherish humorous peevishness, The nursling of a moment and a mood? Now kernelled in the golden husk of day Pale night with all her pomp of sorrow sleeps, And stinted of softclinging melancholy The elegiac nightingale is hushed. MELANDER Sweet friend, my spirit is too deeply hued With sombre-sweet Imagination’s brush To dress the nimble spirit of the dance In lilt of phrase and honey-packing rhyme. I pray you, urge it not. I am not well. IAMBLICHUS Urge him no more. The rash and humorous spirit That governs him at times, will not be schooled. But since the sweetest tongue of all is mute, Some harsher voice prick on the creeping hour.

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MYRTIL Ah no, Iamblichus! when winds are hushed Fall then the clapping cymbals of the sea, And every green-haired dancing-girl down-drop Her foam-tipped sinuous wand to kiss her feet! The loss of sweetest palls what is but sweet, For should the honey-throated mavis die, Who in the laughing linnet takes delight Or lends ear to the rhyming hedge-priest wren? Let us not challenge passion-pale regret, But hand-in-hand down ruby-tinted walks Gather the poppies of sweet speech, to press For opiates when dank autumn looms and Life Is empty of her rose. Were not this well? IAMBLICHUS Thy words are sweet as joy, more wise than sorrow. Come, friends, let us steal honey from the hours For memory to suck when winter comes. Exeunt all but Melander. MELANDER Ah me, what drug Circean wakes in me? My blood steals from my heart like pulsing fire And the fresh sap exudes upon my brow. O faster, faster urge thy golden wheels, Thou sun that like a fiery lizard creepst Glib-footed to the parapet of heaven! Oh that my hand might clutch thy saffron curls And thrust thee in the loud Atlantic! So The violet mares of Evening may drink up The sweet, damp wind, so dawn the ivory moon And lurk shy-peeping in my darling’s eyes. For my desire is like the passionate sea That calls unto her paramour the wind And only hears a strangled murmur pant, Mute, muffled by the hollow-breasted hills. Enter Iamblichus with Myrtil in his arms.

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MYRTIL No farther drag my steps, Iamblichus! I am not fond to bow my doating neck Under your feet, like other woodland girls Who image beauty’s model in your shape, Heaven in your eyes and nectar in your kiss. Fie, fie, be modest, sir. Let go your grasp. [Here a page of the notebook was torn out.] [MELANDER] Ah me, again a sea of subtle fire Clamours about the ruby gates of Life! My soul expanding like a Pythian seer Thrives upon torture, and the insurgent blood, Swollen as with wine, menaces mutiny. How slowly buildst thou up the spacious noon To dome thy house, O architect of day! Not from the bubbling smithy where Love works Smooth Hebe fetched thy world-revealing fires; Nor to the foam-bound bride-bed of the sea Thou sailest, but like one with doom foreseen Whose bourne and culmination lapses down To sunless hell. Hope thou not to set out My seasons in the golden ink of day: My heart anticipates the pilot moon Who steers the cloudy-wimpled night. Pale orb, Thou art no symbol for my burning soul: Lag thou behind or lag not, I will lead. He is going out. Reenter foresters with Palleas. MARCION What’s this, Melander? Noon not yet has sealed His titles with the signet of the sun. ’Tis early yet to leave. Why will you go?

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MELANDER I am bound down by iron promises, The hour named. Would I not linger else? Even now the promise has outstript the act. MYRTIL Melander, do not go. MELANDER Dear child, I must. IAMBLICHUS Come, come, you shall not go. ’Tis most unkind, Let me not say uncourteous, to withdraw The sunshine of your presence from this day, Our little day of unmixed joy. Be ruled. PALLEAS Boy, let me counsel you. This eager fit And hot eruption does much detriment To youth and bodes no good to waning years. When I was young, I ruled my dancing blood, Abstained from brabbles, women, verses, wine, And now you see me bask in hale old age, Mid Autumn’s gilded ruin one green leaf. Life’s palate dulls with much intemperance, And whoso breaks the law, the law shall break. Love is a specious angler — MELANDER Dotard, off! Confide thy heavy rumours to the grave Where thou shouldst now be rotting. Exit.

Act III Scene 1 Before Alaciel’s house. GUENDOLEN But what you tell me is not credible. Could Love at the prime vision slip your fence And his red bees wing humming to your heart? What, at the premier interchange of eyes Seed bulged into the bud, the bud to flower, Bloom waxing into fruit? can passion sink Thus deep embedded in a maiden soil? Masks not your love in an unwonted guise? ALACIEL Sweet girl, you are a casket yet unused, A fair, unprinted page. These mysteries Are alien to your grasp, until Love pen His novel lithograph and write in you Songs bubbling with the music of a name. Oh, I am faster tangled in his eyes Than, in the net smoke-blasted Vulcan threw, Foam-bosomed Cytherea to her Mars. GUENDOLEN But will he push his fancy to your bent? ALACIEL How else? for in the coy glance of a girl A subtle sorcery lies that draws men on

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As with a thread, nor snaps not ere it should. Love’s palate is with acid flavours edged When what the lips repel, the eyes invite. GUENDOLEN Have you forgotten then, my sister, how Since war’s ensanguined dice have thrown a cast So fatal to our peace, the sweet confines Of Ilni and her primitive content Are hedged and meted by the savage Law? ALACIEL Child, I have not forgotten; but first love Poseidon-like submerges with his sea All barriers, and the checks that men oppose But make him fret and spume against the sky. Who shall withstand him? not the gnawing flame Nor tooth`ed rocks nor gorgon-fronted piles Nor metal bars; thro’ all he walks unharmed. But lo where on the forest’s lip there dawns My noonstar in the garish paths of day. He should not see you, sweet. Prithee, go in. Enter Melander. How now? was this your compact? Lift your glance Where yet the primrose-pale Hyperion clings Upon the purple arches of the air Nor on the cornice prints his golden seal. You are too soon. Why with this fire-eyed haste Have you o’ershot the target of your vows? MELANDER Ah, cruel child! what hast thou done to me? What expiation in the balance pends Against thy fault? Not the low sweets of sound Fetched by thy piping tongue from ruby stops, Nor fluttering glances under velvet lids, Nor the rich tell-tale blush that sweetly steals

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As if a scarlet pencil would indite A love-song in thy cheeks. These candid brows, The hushed seraglio to thy veiled thoughts, These light wind-kissing feet, these milky paps That peep twixt edge and loosely-married edge, Thy slumber-swollen purple-fring`ed orbs, Thy hands, cinque-petalled rose-buds just apart Beneath the wheedling kiss of spring, thy sides, Those continents of warm, unmelting snow, All in the balance are but precious air. Nay, with thy whole dear sum of beauties fill The scale, it will not tremble to the dust Save hooped upon thy breast my weight helps thine. If you deny me my just claim, I’ll snatch You from yourself and torture with the whips Of Love, till you disclose your hoardings. Oh To seize this loaded honeycomb of bliss And make a rich repast! Oh turn from me The serious wonder of those orb`ed fires! Their lustre stabs my heart with agony. Hide in thy hair those passion-moulded lips! Veil up those milky glimpses from my sight! Oh I will drag thy soul out in a kiss! Wilt thou add fire to fire? Torture not My longing with reluctance; forge not now The pouted simulation of disdain. Leap quick into my arms! there lose thyself. She embraces him. Pardon me, sweet: thy beauties in my soul Blow high the leaping billows of desire And temperance is a wreck merged in his sea. ALACIEL Loveliest Melander, if I have offended, Here like a Roman debtor yield I up My body to thy mercy or thy doom. Take my soul too! and in thy princely pomp

Act III, Scene 1 Let this rebellious heart that needs will fret To be thy slave, be dragged to thraldom. See, I hang, a lustrous jewel, on thy neck: Break me or keep me! I am thine to keep Or break: fear not to do thy utmost will. MELANDER Hang there till thou hast grown a part of me! Ah yet, if passion be Love’s natural priest Let not his fire-lipped homage scare thy soul. Thy ripe, unspotted girlhood give to me, For which the whole world yearns. A gift is sweet, And thou, O subtle thief, hast stolen my calm Who was before not indigent of bliss. Oh closer yet! Let’s glue our lips together, That all eternity may be a kiss. ALACIEL What, will you bury me with kisses? Dear, Be modest. Tell me why by a full hour You outran expectation’s reaching eye? MELANDER Inquire the glowing moon why she has dared Forestal the set nor wait the ushering star; Inquire the amorous wind, why he has plucked, Ere Autumn’s breath have tampered with her hair, Petal on crimson petal the red rose: Nay, catechise the loud rebombing sea Who in a thundrous summer dim with rain Conspired with hoarse rebellious winds to merge The lonely life of ocean-wading ships; Then ask fire-footed passion why his rage Has shipwrecked me upon thy silver breasts. Ah love, thyself the culprit, thine the fault. Alaciel, thou, — O sweet unconscious sin! — Hast in my members kindled such a fire

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As only sorcery knows: which to atone Thy virgin hours must sweetly swoon to death While in the snowy summer of thy lap Kind Night shall cool these passion-melted limbs. When thou dost imitate the blushing rose, I swear thy tint is truer than the life, Than loveliness more lovely. Dearest one, Let naked Love abash the curtained prude. Shame was not made to burn thy field of roses Nor in this married excellence of hues Unfurl disorder’s ruby-tinted flag. ALACIEL Dear, if I blush, ’tis modesty, not shame. I can refuse you nothing. When ’tis night And like a smile upon a virgin’s lips Young moonlight dallies with a sleepy rose, Then come and call me gently twice and thrice, And I will answer you. Observe this well In that the harsh and beldam Law excludes Nature’s sweet rites and Paphian marriage Unless her blear`ed eyes be privy too. MELANDER O love, have you forgot the long elapse And weary pomp of hours ere the sun That follows now a path sincere of foam Make sanguine shipwreck in the lurid west? Scarce now his golden eye drops vertical Upon the belt and midline of our scope. Shorten your sentence by a term of hours When I shall ease my pain. Turn caution out To graze in nunneries: his sober feint Of prudence suits not with a lover’s tryst. ALACIEL Content you, sweet: let patience feed on hope

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Until night’s purple awning bar from view The hidden thefts of love. Nay, go not yet. Sit here awhile until yon sloping disk Swings prone above the poplar. Sweet, come in. Exeunt.

Scene 2 Before Alaciel’s house. Melander alone. MELANDER Now, for her widowed state is wooed by night, The sable-vested air puts on her stars And in her bosom pins for brooch the moon. She from her diamond chalice soon will pour Her flowing glories on a rose’s hair, In pity of my love. Sweet crimson rose, Alaciel’s lamp, the beacon of my bliss, O kindle quickly at the moon thy rays. How happy art thou being near my love! For thou who hast the perfume of her breath, Why shouldest thou the spice-lipped Zephyr want? Her dove’s-feet whispering in the happy grass Are surely lovelier to thee than the dawn; Or wilt thou woo the world-embracing orb, Who hast the splendour of her eyes to soothe Thy slumber into waking? O red rose, Might I but merge in thee, how would her touch Thrill all my petals with delicious pain! O could I pawn my beauty for a kiss, How happy were I to waste all myself In shreds of scarlet ruin at her feet! It is my hour! for see, the cowslip-curled Night-wandering patroness of lovers throws Her lantern’s orange-coloured beams, where sleeps A bright, blown rose. Hail, empress of the stars! Be thou tonight my hymeneal torch. Alaciel! Echo, hush thy babbling tongue!

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’Tis not Narcissus calls. I am a thief Who steal from beauty’s garden one sweet bud Nor need like visitants thy tinkling bell. Alaciel! O with thy opiate wand, Thought-killing Mercury, seal every eye On whom the drowsy Morpheus has not breathed. Yet once again the charm. Alaciel! Now at thy window dawn, thou lovelier moon Than sojourns in the sky! look out on me, An ivory face thro’ rippling clouds of hair. Enter Alaciel above. Marcion and Doris behind. ALACIEL Who calls? [The next sixteen pages of the notebook were torn out.]

The House of Brut A Play

Dramatis Personae BRUTUS, Prince of Britain. CORINEUS his brothers. ASSARAC H DEVON, son of Corineus. CAMBRE, Prince of Cambria sons of Brutus. ALBANACT, Prince of Albany I LOCRINE, Prince of Leogrys HUMBER, King of Norway. OFFA Norwegian leaders. SIGFRID H GUENDOLEN, daughter of Corineus. ESTRILD, a Pictish princess, concubine of Humber.

Act II Scene 1 The camp of Humber. Humber, Offa, Norwegians. HUMBER Drinkhael, dragons and stormwinds of the sea! (drinks) Spare not to drain this sweetened force of earth, You Vikings! How it bubbles to the lips Vigorous as newspilt blood. Drink deep, and shout “Glory to Thor and Humber!” With the sun Upon the force of Albanact we march. Shout, Norsemen! Let the heavens hear your menace. Drinkhael! (drinks) ALL Washael! Glory to ancient Thor And Humber. HUMBER I am the hammer old of Thor When he would crush the nations. He is merry With wine and smites the world with me. (drinks) Or wherefore Should I derive my glory? Have I not Rushed through the angry waters when the whale Was stunned between two waves and slain my foe

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Betwixt the thunders? Have not the burning hamlets Of Gaul lighted me homeward for a league? Erin has felt me, Norsemen. ALL Glory to Humber. HUMBER Have I not slain the Alban hosts and bound The necks of princes? Yea, their glorious star And wonder for whom three kingdoms strove, Estrild, Led to my ships? The queens of the Orcades Are slaves and concubines to private Norsemen. ALL Glory to Humber, Thor’s hammer! Humber! Humber! HUMBER Have I not harried Ireland, Denmark, Orkney? Shattered the Pictish wheels, broken their scythes, Unpeopled living tracts? Why then prefer you Thor’s self to me? Has he filled up your ships With gold and wines of France, rich rings and jewels, Metals untold and beautiful sharp steel? Who has enriched and aggrandized you all Till you are gods, to each hand a country’s wealth, To each sword a century’s glory? Who has given The commonest man beauty divine to sleep with, Made queens your slaves and kings your thralls, you Norsemen? ALL Humber, Humber! Not Thor, but mightier Humber. HUMBER Drink, Norsemen. Ye shall all be kings. Scotia And Albany and Ireland shall be mine. I’ll have as many kingdoms as the year

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Has moons. Do you doubt me, Vikings? Do you mutter? But you shall see my glory. Call Estrild, You thralls of Humber. ALL Glory to great Humber! Humber shall now be Thor. He shall new-make The bones of Heimir in his hands. Cry “Humber!” HUMBER This river we ascend, shall now no more Bear its old name but mine; and all this region Be Albany no more but Humberland. The world’s name changed shall be my monument. Enter thralls with Estrild. ESTRILD Gods, if you be, protect me! ALL Glory to Humber. HUMBER Lo she whose starlike eyes enthral the nations, Comes to do reverence to Humber, glad To be his glory’s meanest satellite. Kneel down, daughter of princes, favoured more Than Freya or Gudrun; for these were wives Of gods or demigods, but thou the slave Of Humber. Lo whose pleasure kingdoms strove To do, is made my footstool. I have slain Nations to win her and have ravished her Before her father’s eyes, not yet made blood And faces of a hundred warlike lovers. Yet all these could not help her cries.

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The House of Brut ALL Humber!

OFFA The strong, the noble Humber! HUMBER Girl, arise And serve me. Thou shalt do it royally. This is thy father’s skull [incomplete]

The Maid in the Mill or Love Shuffles the Cards A Comedy

Dramatis Personae CUPID. ATE. KING PHILIP OF SPAIN. COUNT BELTRAN, a nobleman. ANTONIO, his son. BASIL, his nephew. COUNT CONRAD, a young nobleman. RONCEDAS courtiers. GUZMAN H THE FARMER. JACINTO, his son. JERONIMO, a student. CARLOS, a student. FRIAR BALTASAR, a pedagogue. EUPHROSYNE, the maid of the farm. ISMENIA, sister of Conrad. BRIGIDA, her cousin.

Act I Scene 1 The King’s Court at Salamanca. King Philip, Conrad, Beltran, Roncedas, Guzman, Antonio, Basil, Ismenia, Brigida; Grandees. CONRAD Till when do we wait here? RONCEDAS The Court is dull. This melancholy gains upon the King. CONRAD I should be riding homeward. How long it is To lose the noble hours so emptily. RONCEDAS This is a daily weariness. But look: The King has left his toying with the tassels Of the great chair and turns slow eyes to us. KING PHILIP Count Beltran. BELTRAN Your Highness? KING PHILIP What is your masque’s device

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For which I still must thank your loyal pains To cheer our stay in this so famous city? Shall we hear it? BELTRAN Nothing from me, Your Highness. Castilians, forg`ed iron of old time, And hearts that beat to tread of empires, cannot Keep pace with dances, entertainments, masques. But here’s my son, a piece of modern colour, For now our forward children overstep Their rough begetters — ask him, Sire; I doubt not His answers shall reveal the grace men lend him In attribution, — would ’twere used more nobly. KING PHILIP Your son, Lord Beltran? Surely you fatigued The holy saints in heaven and perfect martyrs In your yet hopeful youth, till they consented To your best wish. What masque, Antonio? ANTONIO One little worthy, yet in a spirit framed That may excuse much error; ’tis the Judgment Of Paris and the Rape of Spartan Helen. GUZMAN Is that not very old? ISMENIA Antonio? He Antonio? O my poor eyes misled, Whither have you wandered? BRIGIDA Hush.

Act I, Scene 1 KING PHILIP It has I think Been staged a little often and though, Antonio, I doubt not that fine pen and curious staging Will raise it beyond new things rough conceived, Yet is fresh subject something. ANTONIO For a play It were so; this is none. Pardon me, Sir, I err in boldness, urge too far my answer. KING PHILIP Your boldness, youth, is others’ modesty. Speak freely. ANTONIO Thus I say then. A masque is heard Once only and in that once must all be grasped at But the swift action of the stage speeds on, While slow conception labouring after it Roughens its subtleties, blurs over shades, Sees masses only. If the plot is new, The mind is like a traveller pressed for time, And quite engrossed with incident, omits To take the breath of flowers and lingering shade From haste to reach a goal. But the plot old Leaves it at leisure and it culls at ease Those delicate, scarcely-heeded strokes, which art Throws in, to justify genius. These being lost Perfection’s disappointed. Then if old The subject amplifies creative labour, For what’s creation but to make old things Admirably new; the other’s mere invention, A small gift, though a gracious. He’s creator Who greatly handles great material, Calls order out of the abundant deep,

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Not who invents sweet shadows out of air. KING PHILIP You are blessed, Lord Beltran, in your son. His voice Performs the promise of his eyes; he is A taking speaker. ISMENIA True, O true! He has taken My heart out of my bosom. BRIGIDA Will you hush? KING PHILIP You have, Lord Beltran, lands of which the fame Gives much to Nature. I have not yet beheld them. Indeed I grudge each rood of Spanish earth My eyes have not perused, my heart stored up. But what with foreign boyhood, strange extraction, And hardly reaching with turmoil to power I am a stranger merely. I have swept Through beautiful Spain more like a wind than man, Now fugitive, now blown into my right On a great whirlwind of success. So tell me, Have you not many lovely things to live with? BELTRAN My son would answer better, Sire. I care not Whether this tree be like a tower or that A dragon: and I never saw myself Difference twixt field and field, save the main one Of size, boundary and revenue; and those Were great once, — why now lessened and by whom I will not move you by repeating, Sire, Although my heart speaks of it feelingly.

Act I, Scene 1 KING PHILIP I have not time for hatred or revenge. Speak then, Antonio, but tell me not Of formal French demesnes and careful parks, Life dressed like a stone lady, statuesque. They please the judging eye, but not the heart. When Nature is disnatured, all her glowing Great outlines chillingly disharmonised Into stiff lines, the heart’s dissatisfied, Asks freedom, wideness; it compares the sweep Of the large heavens above and feels a discord. Your architects plan beauty by the yard, Weigh sand with sand, parallel line with line But miss the greatest, since uncultured force Though rude, yet striking home by far exceeds Artisan’s work, mechanically good. ANTONIO Our fields, Sir, are a rural holiday, Not Nature carved. KING PHILIP Has she a voice to you? Silent, she’s not so fair. ANTONIO Yes, we have brooks Muttering through sedge and stone, and willows by them Leaning dishevelled and forget-me-nots, Wonders of lurking azure, rue and mallow, Honeysuckle and painful meadowsweet, And when we’re tired of watching the rich bee Murmur absorbed about one lonely flower, Then we can turn and hear a noon of birds. Each on his own heart’s quite intent, yet all Join sweetness at melodious intervals.

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KING PHILIP You have many trees? ANTONIO Glades, Sire, and green assemblies And separate giants bending to each other As if they longed to meet. Some are pranked out; Others wear merely green like foresters. ISMENIA Can hatred sound so sweet? Are enemies’ voices Like hail of angels to the ear, Brigida? BRIGIDA Hush, fool. We are too near. Someone will mark you. ISMENIA Why, cousin, if they do, what harm? Sure all Unblamed may praise sweet music when they hear it. BRIGIDA Rule your tongue, madam. Or must I leave you? KING PHILIP You have made me sorrowful. How different Is this pale picture of a Court, these walls Shut out from honest breathing; God kept not His quarries in the wild and distant hills For such perversion. It was sin when first Hands serried stone with stone. Guzman, you are A patient reasoner, — is it not better To live in the great air God made for us, A peasant in the open glory of earth, Feeling it, yet not knowing it, like him To drink the cool life-giving brook nor crave The sour fermented madness of the grape Nor the dull exquisiteness of far-fetched viands

Act I, Scene 1 For the tired palate, but black bread or maize, Mere wholesome ordinary corn. Think you not A life so in the glorious sunlight bathed, Straight nursed and suckled from the vigorous Earth With shaping labour and the homely touch Of the great hearty mother, edifies A nobler kind than nourished is in courts? For we are even as children, when removed From those her streaming breasts, we of the sun Defrauded and the lusty salutation Of wind and rain, grow up amphibious nothing, Not man, who are too sickly wise for earth Nor angel, too corrupt for heirs of heaven. GUZMAN I think not so, Your Highness. KING PHILIP Not so, Guzman? Is not a peasant happier than a king? For he has useful physical toil and sleep Unbroken as a child’s. He is not hedged By swathing ceremony which forbids A king to feel himself a man. He has friends, For he has equals. And in youth he marries The comrade of his boyhood whom he loved And gets on that sweet helper stalwart children. Then vigorously his days endure till age Sees his grandchildren climbing on his knees, A happy calm old man; because he lived Man’s genuine life and goes with task accomplished Thro’ death as thro’ a gate, not questioning. GUZMAN Each creature labouring in his own vocation Desires another’s and deems the heavy burden Of his own fate the world’s sole heaviness.

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Each thing’s to its perceptions limited, Another’s are to it intangible, A shadow far away, quite bodiless, Lost in conjecture’s wide impalpable. On its unceasing errand through the void The earth rolls on, a blind and moaning sphere; It knows not Venus’ sorrows, but it looks With envy crying, “These have light and beauty, I only am all dark and comfortless.” The land yearning for life, endeavours seaward, The sea, weary of motion, pines to turn Into reposeful earth: yet were this done Each would repine again and hate the doer, The land would miss its flowers and grass and birds, The sea long for the coral and the cave. For he who made expenditure of life Condition of that life prolonged, made also Each mortal gift dependent on defect And truth to one’s own self the only virtue. The labourer physically is divine, Inward a void; yet in his limits blest. But were the city’s cultured son, who turns Watching and envious, crying “Were I simple, Primeval in my life as he, how happy!”, Into such environs confined, how then His temperament would beat against the bars Of circumstance and rage for wider field. Uninterchangeable their natures stand And self-confined; for so Earth made them, Earth, The brute and kindly mother groping for mind. She of her vigorous nature bore her sons, Made lusty with her milk and strengthening motion Abundant in her veins; her dumb attraction Is as their mother’s arms, else like the lark Aiming from her to heaven. And Souls are there Who rooted in her puissant animalism Are greatly earthy, yet widen to the bound

Act I, Scene 1 And heighten towards the sun. But these are rare And of no privileged country citizens Nor to the city bounded nor the field. They are wise and royal in the furrow, keep In schools their chastened vigour from the soil Full-tempered. Man Antaeuslike is strong While he is natural and feels the soil From which being lifted great communities Die in their intellectual grandeur. Let then The city’s many-minded son preserve And the clear-natured peasant unabridged Their just, great uses, heighten or refresh By breath and force of each a different spirit If may be; one not admit untutored envy, The other vain imagination making Return to nature a misleading name For a reversion most unnatural. KING PHILIP You reason well, Guzman; nor must we pine At stations where God and his saints have set us. And yet because I’ld feel the rural air, Of greatness unreminded, I will go Tomorrow as a private noble, you, My lords, forget for one day I’m the king, Nor watch my moods, nor with your eyes wait on me Nor disillusionize by close observance But keep as to an equal courtesy. MAJORDOMO Your Majesty — KING PHILIP Well, sir, Your Ancient Wisdom — MAJORDOMO The Kings of Spain —

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Are absolute, you’ld say, Over men only? Custom masters kings. I’ll not be ruled by your stale ceremonies As kings are by an arrogating Senate, But will control them, wear them when I will, Walk disencumbered when I will. Enough. You have done your part in protest. I have heard you. And now, my lords. LORDS Your Highness is obeyed. KING PHILIP Tell on, Antonio. Who perform the masque? BELTRAN That can I tell Your Highness; rural girls, The daughters of the soil, whom country air Has given the red-blooded health to bloom. Full of our Spanish sunlight are they, voiced Like Junos and will make our ladies pale Before them. And there’s a Farmer’s lovely daughter, A marvel. Robed in excellent apparel, As she will be, there’s not a maid in Spain Can stand beside her and stay happy. My sons Have spared nor words nor music nor array Nor beauty, to express their loyal duty. KING PHILIP I am much graced by this their gentle trouble And yet, Lord Beltran, there are nobler things Than these brocaded masques; not that I scorn these, — Do not believe I would be so ungracious, — Nor anything belittle in which true hearts Interpret their rich silence. Yet there’s one Desire, I would exchange for many masques.

Act I, Scene 1 ’Tis little: an easy word bestows it wholly, And yet, I fear, for you too difficult. BELTRAN My lord, you know my service and should not Doubt my compliance. Name and take it. Else judge me. KING PHILIP Why, noble reconcilement, Conde Beltran, Sweet friendship between mighty jarring houses And by great intercession war renounced Betwixt magnificent hearts: these are the masques Most sumptuous, these the glorious theatres That subjects should present to princes. Conrad And noble Beltran, I respect the wrath Sunders your pride: yet mildness has the blessing Of God and is religion’s perfect mood. Admit that better weakness. Throw your hearts Wide to the low knock of entering peace: let not The ashes of a rage the world renounces Smoulder between you nor outdated griefs Keep living. What, quite silent? Will you, Conrad, Refuse to me your anger, who so often Have for my sake your very life renounced? CONRAD My lord, the hate that I have never cherished, I know not how to abandon. Not in the sway Of other men’s affections I have lived But walked in the straight road my fortunes build me. Let any love who will or any hate who will, I take both with a calm, unburdened spirit, Inarm my lover as a friend, embrace My enemy as a wrestler: do my will, Because it is my will, go where I go Because my path lies there. If any cross me, That is his choice, not mine. And if he suffer,

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Again it is his choice, not mine. If I, That is my star: I curse him not for it: My fate’s beyond his making as my spirit’s Above affection by him. I hate no man And if Lord Beltran give to me his hand, Gladly I’ll clasp it, easily forget Outdated injuries and wounds long healed. BELTRAN You are most noble, Conrad, most benign. Who now can say the ill-doer ne’er forgives? Conrad has dispossessed my kinsmen, slain My vassals, me of ancient lands relieved, Thinned my great house; but Beltran is forgiven. Will you not now enlarge your generous nature, Wrong me still more, have new and ampler room For exercise to your forgiving heart? I do embrace misfortune and fresh loss Before your friendship, lord. KING PHILIP No more of this. BELTRAN Pardon, Your Highness; this was little praise For so much Christianity. Lord Conrad, I will not trouble you further. And perhaps With help of the good saints and holy Virgin I too shall make me some room to pardon in. CONRAD I fear you not, Lord Count. Our swords have clashed: Mine was the stronger. When I was but a boy I carved your lands out. So had you won mine If you had simply grappled fortune to you And kept her faithful with your sword. ’Tis not Crooked dexterity that has the secret

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To win her. Briefly I hold your lands and satire Has no sharp edge, till it cut that from me. KING PHILIP This is unprofitable. No more of it. Lord Conrad, you go homeward with the dawn? CONRAD Winning your gracious leave to have with me My sisters, Sir. KING PHILIP The Queen is very loth To lose her favourites, but to disappoint you Much more unwilling. Exeunt King, Beltran, Guzman and Grandees. RONCEDAS A word with you, Lord Conrad. CONRAD As many as you will, Roncedas. RONCEDAS This. (whispers) My lord, your good friend always. CONRAD So you have been. Exit Roncedas. Cousin, and sweetest sister, I am bound Homeward upon a task that needs my presence. Don Mario and his wife will bring you there. Are you content or shall I stay for you? ISMENIA With all you do, dear brother, yet would have

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Your blessing by me. CONRAD May your happiness Greatly exceed my widest wishes. Exit Conrad. ISMENIA So It must do, brother, or I am unhappy. What task? BRIGIDA Some girl-lifting. What other task Will he have now? Shall we go, cousin? ISMENIA Stay. Let us not press so closely after them. BRIGIDA Good manners? Oh, your pardon. I was blind. BASIL Are you a lover or a fish, Antonio? Speak. She yet lingers. ANTONIO Speak? BASIL The devil remove you Where you can never more have sight of her. I lose all patience. BRIGIDA Cousin, I know you’re tired

Act I, Scene 1 With standing. Sit, and if you tire with that, As perseverance is a powerful virtue, For your reward the dumb may speak to you. ISMENIA What shall I do, dear girl? BRIGIDA Why, speak the first, Count Conrad’s sister! Be the Mahomet To your poor mountain. Hang me if I think not The prophet’s hill more moveable of the two; An earthquake stirs not this. What ails the man? He has made a wager with some lamp-post surely. ISMENIA Brigida, are you mad? Be so immodest? A stranger and my house’s enemy! BRIGIDA No, never speak to him. It would be indeed Horribly forward. ISMENIA Why, you jest, Brigida. I’m no such light thing that I must be dumb Lest men mistake my speaking. Let hidden frailness Or men suspect to their own purity Guard every issue of speech and gesture. Wherefore Should I be hedged so meanly in? To greet With few words, cold and grave, as is befitting This gentle youth, why do you call immodest? BRIGIDA You must not.

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You must not, child. ISMENIA I will then, not because I wish (why should I?), but because you always Provoke me with your idle prudities. BRIGIDA Good! you’ve been wishing it the last half hour And now you are provoked to’t. Charge him, charge him. I stand here as reserve. ISMENIA Impossible creature! But no! You shall not turn me. BRIGIDA ’Twas not my meaning. ISMENIA Sir — BASIL Rouse yourself, Antonio. Gather back Your manhood, or you’re shamed without retrieval. ISMENIA Help me, Brigida. BRIGIDA Not I, cousin.

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ISMENIA Sir, You spoke divinely well. I say this, Sir, Not to recall to you that we have met — Since you will not remember — but because I would not have you — anyone think this of me That since you are Antonio and my enemy And much have hurt me — to the heart, therefore When one speaks or does worthily, I can Admire not, nor love merit, whosoe’er Be its receptacle. This was my meaning. I could not bear one should not know this of me. Therefore I spoke. BASIL Speak or be dumb for ever. ISMENIA I see, you have mistook me why I spoke And scorn me. Sir, you may be right to think You have so sweet a tongue would snare the birds From off the branches, ravish an enemy, — Some such poor wretch there may be — witch her heart out, If you could care for anything so cheap, And hold it in your hand, lost, — lost — Oh me! Brigida! BASIL O base silence! Speak! She is Confounded. Speak, you sheep, you! ISMENIA Though this is so, You do me wrong to think me such an one, Most flagrant wrong, Antonio. To think that I Wait one word of your lips to woo you, yearn To be your loving servant at a word

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From you, — one only word and I am yours. BASIL Admirable lady! Saints, can you be dumb Who hear this? ISMENIA Still you scorn me. For all this You shall not make me angry. Do you imagine Because you know I am Lord Conrad’s sister And lodge with Donna Clara Santa Cruz In the street Velasquez, and you have seen it With marble front and the quaint mullioned windows, That you need only after vespers, when The streets are empty, stand there, and I will Send one to you? Indeed, indeed I merit not You should think poorly of me. If you’re noble And do not scorn me, you will carefully Observe the tenour of my prohibition. Brigida! BRIGIDA Come away with your few words, Your cold grave words. You’ve frozen his speech with them. Exeunt. ANTONIO Heavens! it was she — her words were not a dream, Yet I was dumb. There was a majesty Even in her tremulous playfulness, a thrill When she smiled most, made my heart beat too quickly For speech. O that I should be dumb and shamefast, When with one step I might grasp Paradise. BASIL Antonio!

Act I, Scene 1 ANTONIO I was not deceived. She blushed, And the magnificent scarlet to her cheeks Welled from her heart an ocean inexhaustible. Rose but outcrimsoned rose. Yes, every word Royally marred the whiteness of her cheeks With new impossibilities of beauty. She blushed, and yet as with an angry shame Of that delicious weakness, gallantly Her small imperious head she held erect And strove in vain to encourage those sweet lids That fluttered lower and lower. O that but once My tongue had been as bold as were mine eyes! But these were fastened to her as with cords, Courage in them naked necessity. BASIL Ah poor Antonio. You’re bewitched, you’re maimed, Antonio. You must make her groan who did this. One sense will always now be absent from him. Lately he had no tongue. Now that’s returned His ears are gone on leave. Hark you, Antonio! Why do we stay here? ANTONIO I am in a dream. Lead where you will, since there is no place now In all the world, but only she or silence.

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Scene 2 A garden at the town-house of Count Beltran. Antonio, Basil. BASIL I am abashed for you. What, make a lady Woo you, and she a face so excellent, Of an address so admirably lovely It shows a goddess in her — at each sentence Let pause to give you opportunity, Then shame with the dead silence of the hall For her continual answer. Fie, you’re not Antonio, you’re not Beltran’s issue. Seek Your kindred in the snowdrifts of the Alps, Or call a post your father. ANTONIO I deserve Your censure, Basil. Yet were it done again, I know I should again be dumb. My tongue Teems in imagination but is barren In actuality. When I am from her, I woo her with the accent of a god, My mind o’erflows with words as the wide Nile With waters. Let her but appear and I Am her poor mute. She may do her will with me And O remember but her words. When she, Ah she, my white divinity with that kindness Celestial in the smiling of her eyes And in her voice the world’s great music, rose Of blushing frankness, half woman and half angel, Crowned me unwooed, lavished on me her heart

Act I, Scene 2 In her prodigious liberality, Could I then speak? O to have language then Had been the index to a shallow love. BASIL Away! you modest lovers are the blot Of manhood, traitors to our sovereignty. I’ld have you banished, all of you, and kept In desert islands, where no petticoat Should enter, so the breed of you might perish. ANTONIO You speak against the very sense of Love Which lives by service. BASIL Flat treason! Was not man made Woman’s superior that he might control her, In strength to exact obedience and in wisdom To guide her will, in wit to keep her silent, Three Herculean labours. O were women Once loose, they would new-deluge earth with words, Sapiently base creation on its apex, Logic would be new-modelled, arithmetic Grow drunk and reason despairing abdicate. No thunderbolt could stop a woman’s will, Once it is started. ANTONIO O you speak at ease. Loved you, you would recant this and without small Torture to quicken you. BASIL I? I recant? I wish, Antonio, I had known your case Earlier. I would have taught you how to love.

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ANTONIO Come, will you woo a woman? Teach me at least By diagram upon a blackboard. BASIL Well, I will so, if it should hearten your weak spirits. And now I think of it, I am resolved I’ll publish a new Art of Love, shall be The only Ovid memorable. ANTONIO Well, quickly teach Your diagram. Suppose your maid and win her. BASIL First, I would kiss her. ANTONIO What, without leave asked? BASIL Leave? Ask a woman leave to kiss her! Why, What was she made for else? ANTONIO If she is angry? BASIL So much the better. Then you by repetition Convince her of your manly strength, which is A great point gained at the outset and moreover Your duty, comfortable to yourself. Besides she likes it. On the same occasion When she will scold, I’ll silence her with wit. Laughter breaks down impregnable battlements. Let me but make her smile and there is conquest

Act I, Scene 2 Won by the triple strength, horse, foot, artillery, Of eloquence, wit and muscle. Then but remains Pacification, with or else without The Church’s help; that’s a mere form and makes No difference to the principle. ANTONIO There should be Inquisitions for such as you. What after? BASIL Nothing unless you wish to assure the conquest, Not plunder it merely like a Tamerlane. I’ll teach that also. ’Tis but making her Realise her inferiority. Unanswerably and o’erwhelmingly Show her how fortunate she is to get you And all her life too short for gratitude; That you have robbed her merely for her good, To civilize her or to train her up: Punish each word that shows want of affection. Plague her to death and make her thank you for it. Accustom her to sing hosannas to you When you beat her. All this is ordinary, And every wise benevolent conqueror Has learnt the trick of it. Then she’ll love for ever. ANTONIO You are a Pagan and would burn for this If Love still kept his Holy Office. BASIL I Am safe from him. ANTONIO And therefore boast securely

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Conducting in imagination wars That others have the burden of. I’ve seen The critical civilian in his chair Win famous victories with wordy carnage, Guide his strategic finger o’er a map, Cry “Eugene’s fault! Here Marlborough was to blame; And look, a child might see it, Villars’ plain error That lost him Malplaquet!” I think you are Just such a pen-and-paper strategist. A wooer! BASIL Death! I will have pity on you, Antonio. You shall see my great example And learn by me. ANTONIO Good! I’m your pupil. But hear, A pretty face or I’ll not enter for her, Wellborn or I shall much discount your prowess. BASIL Agreed. And yet they say, Experimentum In corpore vili. But I take your terms Lest you substract me for advantages. ANTONIO Look where the enemy comes. You are well off If you can win her. BASIL A rare face, by Heaven. Almost too costly a piece of goods for this Mad trial. ANTONIO You sound retreat?

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BASIL Not I an inch. Watch how I’ll overcrow her. ANTONIO Hush, she’s here. Enter Brigida. BRIGIDA ˜ Senor, I was bidden to deliver this letter to you. BASIL To me, sweetheart? BRIGIDA I have the inventory of you in my pock, if you be he truly. I will study it. Hair of the ordinary poetic length — no; dress ˜ indefinable — no; a modest address — I think not you, Senor; a noble manner — Pooh, no! that fits not in; a handsome face — I ˜ am sure not you, Senor. BASIL Humph. ANTONIO Well, cousin. All silent? Open your batteries, open your batteries. BASIL Wait, wait. Ought a conqueror to be hurried? Caesar himself must study his ground before he attempts it. You will hear my trumpets instanter. BRIGIDA Will you take your letter, Sir?

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ANTONIO To me then, maiden? A dainty-looking note, and I marvel much from whom it can be. I do not know the handwriting. A lady’s, seemingly, yet it has a touch of the masculine too — there is rapidity and initiative in its flow. Fair one, from whom comes this? BRIGIDA Why, sir, I am not her signature; which if you will look within, I think you will find unforgotten. BASIL Here is a clever woman, Antonio, to think of that, and she but eighteen or a miracle. ANTONIO Well, cousin? BRIGIDA This Don Witty-pate eyes me strangely. I fear he will recognise me. ANTONIO Ismenia Ostrocadiz. O my joy! BRIGIDA You’re ill, sir, you change colour. ANTONIO Now, by heaven, Were death within my heart’s door or his blast Upon my eyelids, this would exile him. The writing swims before me. BRIGIDA Sir, you pale Extremely. Is there no poison in the letter?

Act I, Scene 2 ANTONIO O might I so be poisoned hourly. Let me No longer dally with my happiness, Lest it take wings or turn a dream. Hail, letter, For thou hast come from that white hand I worship. “To Lord Antonio. ˜ Senor, how you may deem of my bold wooing, How cruelly I suffer in your thoughts, I dread to think. Take the plain truth, Antonio. I cannot live without your love. If you From this misdoubt my nobleness or infer A wanton haste or instability, — As men pretend quick love is quickly spent — Tear up this letter, and with it my heart. And yet I hope you will not tear it. I love you And since I saw our family variance And your too noble fearfulness withhold me From my heart’s lord, I have thrown from me shame And the admir`ed dalliance of women To bridge it. Come to me, Antonio! Come, But come in honour. I am not nor can be So far degenerate from my house’s greatness Or my pure self to love ignobly. Dear, I have thrown from me modesty’s coy pretences But the reality I’ll grapple to me Close as your image. I am loth to end, Yet must, and therefore will I end with this, Beloved, love me, respect me or forget me.” Writing more sweet than any yet that came From heaven to earth, O thou dear revelation, Make my lips holy. Ah, could I imagine Thee the white hand that wrote thee, I were blest Utterly. Thou hast made me twice myself. I think I am another than Antonio: The sky seems nearer to me or the earth Environed with a sacred light. O come! I’ll study to imprint this on my heart,

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That when death comes he’ll find it there and leave it, A monument and an immortal writing. BASIL Damsel, you are of the Lady Ismenia’s household? BRIGIDA ˜ A poor relative of hers, Senor. BASIL Your face seems strangely familiar to me. Have I not seen you in some place where I constantly resort? BRIGIDA O Sir, I hope you do not think so meanly of me. I am a poor girl but an honest. BASIL How, how? BRIGIDA I know not how. I spoke only as the spirit moved me. BASIL You have a marvellously nimble tongue. Two words with you. BRIGIDA ˜ Willingly, Senor, if you exceed not measure. BASIL Fair one — BRIGIDA Oh, sir, I am glad I listened. I like your two words extremely. God be with you.

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BASIL Why, I have not begun yet. BRIGIDA The more shame to your arithmetic. If your teacher had reckoned as loosely with his cane-cuts, he would have made the carefuller scholar. BASIL God’s wounds, will you listen to me? BRIGIDA Well, Sir, I will not insist upon numbers. But pray, for your own sake, swear no more. No eloquence will long stand such drafts upon it. BASIL If you would listen, I would tell you a piece of news that might please you. BRIGIDA Let it be good news, new news and repeatable news and I will thank you for it. BASIL Sure, maiden, you are wondrous beautiful. BRIGIDA ˜ Senor, Queen Anne is dead. Tell me the next. BASIL The next is, I will kiss you. BRIGIDA Oh, Sir, that’s a prophecy. Well, death and kissing come to all of us, and by what disease the one or by whom the other, wise men care not to forecast. It profits little to study calamities

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beforehand. When it comes, I pray God I may learn to take it with resignation, if I cannot do better. BASIL By my life, I will kiss you and without farther respite. BRIGIDA On what ground? BASIL Have I not told you, you are beautiful? BRIGIDA So has my mirror, not once but a hundred times, and never yet offered to kiss me. When it does, I’ll allow your logic. No, we are already near enough to each other. Pray keep your distance. BASIL I will establish my argument with my lips. BRIGIDA I will defend mine with my hand. I promise you ’twill prove the abler dialectician of the two. BASIL Well. BRIGIDA ˜ My lord, I cannot stay. What shall I am glad you think so, Senor. I tell my lady? ANTONIO Tell her my heart is at her feet, and I Am hers, hers only until heaven ceases And after. Tell her that I am more blest In her sweet condescension to my humbleness Than Ilian Anchises when Love’s mother

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Stooped from her golden heavens into his lap. Tell her that as a goddess I revere her And as a saint adore; that she and life Are one to me, for I’ve no heart but her, No atmosphere beyond her pleasure, light But what her eyes allow me. Tell, O tell her — BRIGIDA ˜ You may tell her all this yourself. I would not Hold, hold, Senor. remember the half of it and could not understand the other half. Shall I tell her, you will come surely? ANTONIO As sure as is the sun to its fixed hour Or midnight to its duty. I will come. BRIGIDA Good! there are at last three words a poor girl can understand. Mark then, you will wait a while after nightfall, less than half a bowshot from the place you know towards the Square Velasquez, within sight of the Donna’s windows. There I will come to you. Sir, if your sword be half as ready and irresistible as your tongue, I would gladly have you there with him, though Saint Iago grant that neither prove necessary. You look sad, Sir. God save you for a witty and eloquent gentleman. Exit. ANTONIO O cousin, I am bewitched with happiness. Pardon me that I leave you. Solitude Demands a god and godlike I am grown Unto myself. This letter deifies me. I will be sole with my felicity. Exit. BASIL God grant that I am not bewitched also! Saints and angels! How

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is it? How did it happen? Is the sun still in heaven? Is that the song of a bird or a barrel-organ? I am not drunk either. I can still distinguish between a tree and the squirrel upon it. What, am I not Basil? whom men call the witty and eloquent Basil? Did I not laugh from the womb? Was not my first cry a jest upon the world I came into? Did I not invent a conceit upon my mother’s milk ere I had sucked of it? Death! and have I been bashed and beaten by the tongue of a girl? silenced by a common purveyor of impertinences? It is so and yet it cannot be. I begin to believe in the dogmas of the materialist. The gastric juice rises in my estimation. Genius is after all only a form of indigestion, a line of Shakespeare the apotheosis of a leg of mutton and the speculations of Plato an escape of diseased tissue arrested in the permanency of ink. What did I break my fast with this morning? Kippered herring? bread? marmalade? tea? O kippered herring, art thou the material form of stupidity and is marmalade an enemy of wit? It must be so. O mighty gastric juice! Mother and Saviour! I bow down before thee. Be propitious, fair goddess, to thy adorer. Arise, Basil. Today thou shalt retrieve thy tarnished laurels or be expunged for ever from the book of the witty. Arm thyself in full panoply of allusion and irony, gird on raillery like a sword and repartee like a buckler. I will meet this girl tonight. I will tund her with conceits, torture her with ironies, tickle her with jests, prick her all over with epigrams. My wit shall smother her, tear her, burst her sides, press her to death, hang her, draw her, quarter her, and if all this fails, Death! as a last revenge, I’ll — I’ll beat her. Saints!

Scene 3 Ismenia’s chamber. ISMENIA Brigida lingers. O, he has denied me And therefore she is loth to come, for she Knows she will bring me death. It is not so. He has detained her to return an answer. Yet I asked none. I am full of fear. O heart, I have staked thee upon a desperate cast, Which if I win not, I am miserable. ’Tis she. O that my hope could give her wings Or lift her through the window bodily To shorten this age of waiting. I could not Discern her look. Her steps sound hopefully. Enter Brigida. Dearest Brigida! at last! What says Antonio? Tell me quickly. Heavens! you look melancholy. BRIGIDA Santa Catarina! How weary I am! My ears too! I think they have listened to more nonsense in these twenty minutes than in all their natural eighteen years before. Sure, child, thou hast committed some unpardonable sin to have such a moonstruck lover as this Antonio. ISMENIA But, Brigida! BRIGIDA And his shadow too, his Cerberus of wit who guards this poetical treasure. He would have eaten me, I think, if I had not given him

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the wherewithal to stop the three mouths of him. ISMENIA Why, Brigida, Brigida. BRIGIDA Saints! to think how men lie! I have heard this Basil reputed loudly for the Caesar of wits, the tongue and laughter of the time; but never credit me, child, if I did not silence him with a few stale pertnesses a market-girl might have devised for her customers. A wit, truly! and not a word in his mouth bullet-head Pedro could not better. ISMENIA Distraction! What is this to Antonio? Sure, your wits are bewildered, Brigida. What said Antonio? Girl, I am on thorns. BRIGIDA I am coming to that as fast as possible. Jesus! What a burning hurry you are in, Ismenia! You have not your colour, child. I will bring you sal volatile from my chamber. ’Tis in a marvellous cut bottle with a different hue to each facet! I filched it from Donna Clara’s room when she was at matins yesterday. ISMENIA Tell me, you magpie, tell me. BRIGIDA What am I doing else? You must know I found Antonio was in his garden. Oh, did I tell you, Ismenia? Donna Clara chooses the seeds for me this season and I think she has as rare a notion of nasturtiums as any woman living. I was speaking to Pedro in the summer house yesterday; for you remember it thundered terrifically before one had time to know light from darkness; and there I stood miles from the garden door —

Act I, Scene 3

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ISMENIA In the name of pity, Brigida. BRIGIDA Saints! how you hurry me. Well, when I went to Antonio in his garden — There’s an excellent garden, Ismenia. I wonder where Don Beltran’s gardener had his bignonias. ISMENIA Oh-h-h! BRIGIDA Well, where was I? Oh, giving the letter to Antonio. Why, would you believe it, in thrust Don Wit, Don Cerberus, Don Subtlethree-mouths. ISMENIA Will you tell me, you ogress, you paragon of tyrannesses, you she-Nero, you compound of impossible cruelties? BRIGIDA Saints, what have I done to be abused so? I was coming to it faster than a mail-coach and four. You would not be so unconscionable as to ask me for the appendage of a story, all tail and nothing to hang it on? Well, Antonio took the letter. ISMENIA Yes, yes and what answer gave he? BRIGIDA He looked all over the envelope to see whence it came, dissertated learnedly on this knotty question, abused me your handwriting foully. ISMENIA Dear cousin, sweet cousin, excellent Brigida! On my knees, I entreat you, do not tease me longer. Though I know you would

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not do it, if all were not well, yet consider what a weak tremulous thing is the heart of woman when she loves and have pity on me. On my knees, sweetest. BRIGIDA Why, Ismenia, I never knew you so humble in my life, — save indeed to your brother; but him indeed I do not reckon. He would rule even me if I let him. On your knees, too! This is excellent. May I be lost, if I am not tempted to try how long I can keep you so. But I will be merciful. Well, he scanned your handwriting and reviled it for the script of a virago, an Amazon. ISMENIA Brigida, if you will not tell me directly, without phrase and plainly, just what I want to know and nothing else, by heaven, I will beat you. BRIGIDA Now, this is foul. Can you not keep your better mood for fifty seconds by the clock? O temper, temper. Ah well, where was I? Oh yes, your handwriting. Oh! Oh! Oh! What mean you, cousin? Lord deliver me. Cousin! Cousin! He will come! He will come! He will come! ISMENIA Does he love me? BRIGIDA Madly! distractedly! like a moonstruck natural! Saints! ISMENIA Dearest, dearest Brigida! You are an angel. How can I thank you? BRIGIDA Child, you have thanked me out of breath already. If you have not dislocated my shoulder and torn half my hair out.

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ISMENIA Hear her, the Pagan! A gentle physical agitation and some rearrangement of tresses, ’twas less punishment than you deserved. But there! that is salve for you. And now be sober, sweet. What said Antonio? Come, tell me. I am greedy to know. BRIGIDA I’ll be hanged if I do. Besides I could not if I would. He talked poetry. ISMENIA But did he not despise me for my forwardness? BRIGIDA Tut, you are childish. But to speak the bare fact, Ismenia, I think he is most poetically in love with you. He made preparations to swoon when he no more than saw your name; but I build nothing on that; there are some faint when they smell a pinch of garlic or spy a cockchafer. But he wasted ten minutes copying your letter into his heart or some such note-book of love affairs; yet that was nothing either; I doubt if he found room for you, unless on the margin. Then he began drawing cheques on Olympus for comparisons, left that presently as antique and out of date, confounded Ovid and his breviary in the same quest; left that too for mediaeval, and diverged into Light and Heat, but came not to the very modernness of electricity. But Lord! Cousin, what a career he ran! He had imagined himself blind and breathless when I stopped him. I tremble to think what calamities might have ensued, had I not thrown myself under the wheels of his metaphor. The upshot is, he loves you, worships you and will come to you. ISMENIA O Brigida, Brigida, be you as happy as you have made me. BRIGIDA Truly, the happiness of lovers, children with a new plaything and

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mad to handle it. But when they are tired of the game — No, I’ll be the type and patroness of all spinsters and the noble army of old maids shall gather about my tomb to do homage to me. ISMENIA And he will come tonight? BRIGIDA Yes, if his love lasts so long. ISMENIA For a thousand years. Come with me, Brigida, and help me to bear my happiness. Till tonight!

Scene 4 A street in Madrid. Antonio, Basil. ANTONIO This is the place. BASIL ’Tis farther. ANTONIO This, I know it. Here’s the square Velasquez. There in his saddle Imperial Charles watches the silent city His progeny could not keep. Where the one light Stands beckoning to us, is Don Mario’s dwelling. O thou celestial lustre, wast thou kindled To be her light who is my sun? If so, Thou art most happy. For thou dost inherit The sanctuary of her dear sleep and art The confidant of those sweet secrecies. Though thou live for a night, yet is thy short And noble ministry more rich and costly Than ages of the sun. For thou hast seen, O blessed, her unveiled and gleaming shoulder Make her thick-treasured hair more precious. Thou Hast watched that face upon her heavenly pillow Slumbering amid its peaceful curls. O more! For thou perhaps hast laid one brilliant finger On her white breast mastered with sacred sleep, And there known Paradise. Therefore thou’rt famous Above all lights that human hands have kindled.

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BASIL Here’s a whole epic on an ounce of oil, A poor, drowned wick bought from the nearest chandler And a fly sodden in it. ANTONIO Listen! one comes. BASIL Stand back, abide not question. ANTONIO They’ll not doubt us. We are far from the building. BASIL Am I mad? Do you think I’ll trust a lover? Why, you could not Even ask the time but you would say, “Good sir, How many minutes to Ismenia?” ANTONIO Well, Stand back. BASIL No need. I see it. ’Tis the she-guide, The feminine Mercury, the tongue, the woman. Enter Brigida. Hark to the bell now. BRIGIDA You, my lord Antonio? This way, my lord. ANTONIO Which way you will. I know

Act I, Scene 4 You are my guide to heaven. BRIGIDA O you have come? ˜ I take this kindly of you, Senor. Tell me, Were you not hiding when I came up to you? What was it, Sir? A constable or perhaps A creditor? For to be dashed by a weak girl I know you are too bold. What did you say? I did not hear you. We are there, my lord. Now quietly, if you love her, your sweet lady. (to Basil) ˜ Can you be silent, Senor? We are lost else.

827

Scene 5 Ismenia’s antechamber. Ismenia waiting. ISMENIA It is too dark. I can see nothing. Hark! Surely it was the door that fastened then. My heart, control thyself! Thou beatst too quickly And wilt break in the arms of happiness. Brigida. BRIGIDA Here. Enter, my lord, and take her. ANTONIO Ismenia! ISMENIA Antonio, O Antonio! ANTONIO My heart’s dearest. BRIGIDA Bring your wit this way, Sir. It is not needed. Exit with Basil. ISMENIA O not thus! You shame me. This is my place, dear, at your feet; and then Higher than is my right.

Act I, Scene 5 ANTONIO I cannot suffer Blasphemy to touch my heaven, though your lips Have hallowed it. Highest were low for you. You are a goddess and adorable. ISMENIA Alas, Antonio, this is not the way. I fear you do not love me, you despise me. Come, do you not despise me? ANTONIO The leaf might then Despise the moonbeam that has come to kiss it. I love and reverence. ISMENIA Then you must take me, As I have given myself to you, your servant, Yours wholly, not to be prayed to and hymned As a divinity but to be commanded As a dear handmaid. You must rule me, sweet, Or I shall spoil with liberty and lose you. ANTONIO Must I? I will then. Yet you are so queenly, I needs must smile when I attempt it. Come, Shall I command you? ISMENIA Do, sweet. ANTONIO Lay your head Upon my shoulder so and do not dare To lift it till I give you leave.

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Alas, I fear you’ll be a tyrant. And I meant To bear at most a limited monarchy. ANTONIO No murmuring. Answer my questions. ISMENIA Well, That’s easy and I will. ANTONIO And truly. ISMENIA Oh, But that’s almost impossible. I’ll try. ANTONIO Come, when did you first love me? ISMENIA Dear, today. ANTONIO When will you marry me? ISMENIA Tomorrow, dear. ANTONIO Here is a mutinous kingdom to my hands. Now truly. ISMENIA Truly then, seven days ago,

Act I, Scene 5 No more than seven, at the court I saw you, And with the sight my life was troubled, heard you And your voice tore my heart out. O Antonio, I was an empty thing until today. I saw you daily, but because I feared What now I know, you were Lord Beltran’s son, I dared not ask your name, nay shut my ears To knowledge. O my love, I am afraid. Your father seems a hard vindictive man. What will you do with me, Antonio? ANTONIO Fasten My jewel safe from separating hands Holily on my bosom. My father? He Shall know not of our love, till we are sure From rude disunion. Though he will be angry I am his eldest and beloved son, And when he feels your sweetness and your charm He will repent and thank me for a daughter. ISMENIA When ’tis your voice that tells me, I believe Impossibilities. Well, let me know — You’ve made me blush, Antonio, and I wish I could retaliate — were you not amazed At my mad forwardness, to woo you first, A youth unknown? ANTONIO Yes, even as Adam was When he first saw the sunrise over Eden. It was unsunlike to uplift the glory Of those life-giving rays, unwooed, uncourted. ISMENIA Alas, you flatter. Did you love me, Antonio?

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ANTONIO Three days before I had the bliss to win The wonder of your eyes. ISMENIA Three days! Oh me, Three days, Antonio? Three whole days before I loved you? ANTONIO Three days, dearest. ISMENIA Oh, You’ve made me jealous. I am angry. Three Whole days! How could it happen? ANTONIO I will make You compensation, dear; for in revenge I’ll love you three whole days, when you have ceased To love me. ISMENIA O not even in jest, Antonio, Speak of such separation. Sooner shall The sun divorce his light than we two sunder. But you have given me a spur. I must Love you too much, I must, Antonio, more Than you love me, or the account’s not even. A noise? ANTONIO One passes in the street. ISMENIA We are

Act I, Scene 5

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Too near the window and too heedless, love. Come this way; here ’tis safe; I fear your danger. Exeunt. After a while enter Brigida. BRIGIDA ˜ No sound? Senor! Ismenia! Surely they cannot have embraced each other into invisibility. No, Cupid has flown away with them. It cannot have been the devil, for I smell no brimstone. Well, if they are so tedious I will not mortify myself with solitude either. I have set Don Cerberus on the stairs out of respect for the mythology. There he stands with his sword at point like the picture of a sentinel and protects us against a surprise of rats from the cellar; for what other wild beasts there may be to menace us, I know not. Don Mario snores hard and Donna Clara plays the violin to his bassoon. I have heard them three rooms off. These men! these men! and yet they call themselves our masters. I would I could find a man fit to measure tongues with me. I begin to feel lonely in the Alpine elevation of my own wit. The meditations of Matterhorn come home to me and I feel a sister to Monte Rosa. Certainly this woman’s fever is catching, a most calamitous infection. I have overheard myself sighing; it is a symptom incubatory. Heigh-ho! When turtles pair, I never heard that the magpie lives lonely. I have at this moment a kindly thought for all suffering animals. I begin to pity Cerberus ˜ even. I will relieve him from guard. Hist! Senor! Don Basil! Enter Basil. Is all quiet? BASIL Not a mouse stirring. BRIGIDA Put up your sword, pray you; I think there is no danger, and if one comes, you may draw again in time to cut its tail off. BASIL ˜ At your service, Senorita. If it were not treason to my wit, I

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begin to feel this strip of a girl is making an ass of me. I am transformed; I feel it. I shall hear myself bray presently. But I will defy enchantment, I will handle her. A plague! Must I continually be stalemated by a will-o’-the-wisp, all sparkle and nowhere? Courage, Basil. BRIGIDA ˜ You meditate, Senor? If it be to allay the warmth you have brought from the stairs with the coolness of reflection, I would not hinder you. BASIL ˜ In bare truth, Senorita, I am so chilled that I was even about to beg of you a most sweet and warming cordial. BRIGIDA For a small matter like that, I would be loth to deny you. You shall have it immediately. BASIL With your permission, then. BRIGIDA ˜ beware. Living coals are dangerous; they burn, Senor. ˜ Ah Senor, BASIL I am proof. BRIGIDA As the man said when he was bitten by the dog they thought mad; but ’twas the dog that died. Pray, sir, have a care. You will put the fire out. BASIL Come, I have you. I will take ten kisses for the one you refused me this forenoon.

Act I, Scene 5

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BRIGIDA That is too compound an interest. I do entreat you, Sir, have a care. This usury is punishable by the law. BASIL I have the rich man’s trick for that. With the very coin I have unlawfully gathered, I will stop her mouth. BRIGIDA O sir, you are as wasteful an accountant of kisses as of words. I ˜ foresee you will go bankrupt. No more. Senor, what noise was that on the stair? Good, now you have your distance. I will ev’n trouble you to keep it. No nearer, I tell you. You do not observe the laws of the duello. You take advantages. BASIL With me? Pooh, you grow ambitious. Because I knew that to stop your mouth was to stop your life, therefore in pity I have refused your encounter, in pure pity. BRIGIDA Was it truly? Alas, I could weep to think of the violence you have done yourself for my sake. Pray, sir, do not torture yourself so. To see how goodness is misunderstood in this world! Out of pity? And made me take you for a fool! BASIL Well. BRIGIDA ˜ O no, Senor, it is not well; indeed it is not well. You shall not do this again. If I must die, I must die. You are scatheless. Pray now, disburden your intellect of all the brilliant things it has so painfully kept to itself. Plethora is unwholesome and I would not have you perish of an apoplexy of wit. Pour it out on me, conceit, epigram, irony, satire, vituperation; flout and invective, tu quoque and double-entendre, pun and quibble, rhyme and

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unreason, catcall and onomatopoeia; all, all, though it be an avalanche. It will be terrible, but I will stand the charge of it. BASIL St Iago! I think she has the whole dictionary in her stomach. I grow desperate. BRIGIDA Pray, do not be afraid. I do not indeed press you to throw yourself at my head, but for a small matter like your wit, I will bear up against it. BASIL This girl has a devil. BRIGIDA ˜ Why are you silent, Senor? Are you angry with me? I have given you no cause. This is cruel. Don Basil, I have heard you cited everywhere for absolutely the most free and witty speaker of the age. They told me that if none other offer, you will jest with the statues in the Plaza Mayor and so wittily they cannot answer a word to you. What have I done that with me alone you are dumb? BASIL I am bewitched certainly. BRIGIDA ˜ is it still pity? But why on me alone? O sir, have pity on the Senor, whole world and be always silent. Well, I see your benevolence is unconquerable. With your leave, we will pass from unprofitable talk; I would be glad to recall the sound of your voice. You may come nearer, since you decline the duello. BASIL ˜ I thank you, Senorita. Whose sheep baaed then?

Act I, Scene 5

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BRIGIDA Don Basil, shall we talk soberly? BASIL At your pleasure, Madam. BRIGIDA ˜ No Madam, Senor, but a poor companion. You go to Count Beltran’s house tomorrow? BASIL It is so intended. BRIGIDA O the masque, who play it? BASIL ˜ Masquers, Senorita. BRIGIDA O sir, is this your pity? I told you, you would burst if you kept in your wit too long. But who are they by condition? Goddesses are the characters and by rule modern they should be live goddesses who play them. BASIL They are so. BRIGIDA Are they indeed so lovely? BASIL Euphrosyne, Christofir’s daughter, is simply the most exquisite beauty of the kingdom. BRIGIDA ˜ You speak very absolutely, Senor. Fairer than Ismenia?

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BASIL I speak it with unwillingness, but honestly the Lady Ismenia, rarely lovely as she is, could not stand beside this farmer’s daughter. BRIGIDA I think I have seen her and I do not remember so outshining a beauty. BASIL Then cannot you have seen her, for the wonders she eclipses, themselves speak to their disgrace, even when they are women. BRIGIDA Pardon me if I take you to speak in the pitch of a lover’s eulogy. BASIL Were it so, her beauty and gentleness deserve it; I have seen none worthier. BRIGIDA I wish you joy of her. I pray you for permission to leave you, ˜ Senor. BASIL Save one indeed. BRIGIDA Ah! and who was she? BASIL You will pardon me. BRIGIDA I will not press you, Sir. I do not know her, do I?

Act I, Scene 5

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BASIL O ’tis not so much as that either. ’Twas only an orange-girl I saw once at Cadiz. BRIGIDA Oh. BASIL Ha! she is galled, positively. This is as sweet to me as honey. BRIGIDA ˜ Well, Senor, your taste is as undeniable as your wit. Flour is the staff of life and oranges are good for a season. What does this paragon play? BASIL Venus; and in the after-scene, Helen. BRIGIDA So? May I know the others? You may find one of them to be a poor cousin of mine. BASIL Catriona, the bailly’s daughter to Count Conrad, and Sofronia, the student Jeronimo’s sister; she too is of the Count’s household. BRIGIDA It is not then difficult to act in a masque? BASIL ˜ A masque demands little, Senorita. A taking figure, a flowing step, a good voice, a quick memory — but for that a speaking memory hard by in a box will do much at an emergency. BRIGIDA True, for such long parts must be a heavy tax on the quickest.

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BASIL There are but two such, Venus-Helen and Paris. The rest are only a Zephyr’s dance in, a speech and a song to help the situation and out again with a scurry. BRIGIDA God be with you. You have a learned conversation and a sober, and for such I will always report you. But here comes a colon to it. We will keep the full stop for tomorrow. Enter Antonio and Ismenia. ISMENIA I think the dawn moves in the east, Brigida. Pray you, unlock the door, but noiselessly. BRIGIDA Teach me not. Though the wild torrent of this gentleman’s conversation have swept away half my wit, I have at a desperate peril, saved the other half for your service. Come, Sir, I have need of you to frighten the mice away. BASIL St Iago! Exit Brigida with Basil. ISMENIA Dear, we must part. I would have you my necklace, That I might feel you round my neck for ever; Or life be night and all men sleep, then we Need never part: but we must part, Antonio. Will you forget me? ANTONIO When I cease to feel. ISMENIA I know you cannot, but I am so happy,

Act I, Scene 5

841

I love to play with my own happiness And ask it questions. Dear, we shall meet soon. I’ll make a compact with you, sweet. You shall Do all my will and make no question, till We’re married; then you know, I am your servant. Will you, till then? ANTONIO Till then and after. ISMENIA Go now, Love, I must drive you out or you’ll not go. ANTONIO One kiss. ISMENIA You’ve had one thousand. Well, one more, One only or I shall never let you part. Enter Brigida. BRIGIDA Are you both distracted? Is this, I pray you, a time for lingering ˜ and near dawn over the east? Out with you, Senor, or I will set your own Cerberus upon you, and I wager he bites well, though I think poorly of his bark. Exit with Antonio. ISMENIA O I have given all myself and kept Nothing to live with when he’s gone from me. My life’s his moon and I’m all dark and sad Without him. Yesterday I was Ismenia, Strong in myself, an individual woman. Today I’m but the body of another, No longer separate reality.

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The Maid in the Mill

Well, if I gain him, let me lose myself And I’m still happy. The door shuts. He is gone. Reenter Brigida. Ah, Brigida. BRIGIDA Come, get in, get in. Snatch a little sleep, for I promise you, you shall have none tomorrow. ISMENIA How do you mean by that? Or is it jest merely? BRIGIDA Leave me alone. I have a whole drama in my head, a play in a play and yet no play. I have only to rearrange the parts a little and tomorrow’s sunlight shall see it staged, scened, enacted and concluded. To bed with you. Exeunt.

Act II Scene 1 A room in Conrad’s house. Conrad, a servant. CONRAD Where is Flaminio? SERVANT He’s in waiting, Sir. CONRAD Call him. Exit servant. I never loved before. Fortune, I ask one day of thee and one great night, Then do thy will. I shall have reached my summit. Enter Flaminio. FLAMINIO My lord?

[Work on the play was broken off here. What follows is a sketch by Sri Aurobindo of the plot of three scenes of Acts II and III.] Act II Scene 1. Conrad and Flaminio arrange to surprise the Alcalde’s house and carry off Euphrosyne; Brigida converses with Conrad.

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The Maid in the Mill

Scene 2. Jacinto monologuises; Jacinto and his father; Jacinto and Euphrosyne; students, friends of Jacinto. Conrad and Euphrosyne. Act III Scene 1. Beltran and his sons. Ismenia, Brigida.

The Prince of Edur

Persons of the Drama RANA CURRAN, Prince of Edur, of the Rahtore clan. VISALDEO, a Brahmin, his minister; formerly in the service of the Gehlote Prince of Edur. HARIPAL, a Rajpoot noble, General of Edur; formerly in the service of the Gehlote Prince. BAPPA, son of the late Gehlote Prince of Edur, in refuge among the Bheels. SUNGRAM young Rajpoot refugees, companions of Bappa. PRITHURAJ H KODAL, a young Bheel, foster-brother and lieutenant of Bappa. TORAMAN, Prince of Cashmere. CANACA, the King’s jester of Cashmere. HOOSHKA, Scythian captain. PRATAP, Rao of Ichalgurh, a Chouhan noble. RUTTAN, his brother. A CAPTAIN of Rajpoot lances. ´ , wife of Curran; a Chouhan princess, sister of the MENADEVI King of Ajmere. COMOL CUMARY, daughter of Rana Curran and Menadevi. COOMOOD CUMARY, daughter of Rana Curran by a concubine. NIRMOL CUMARY,daughter of Haripal,friend of Comol Cumary. ISHANY, a Rajpoot maiden, in attendance on Comol Cumary.

Act I The Palace in Edur. The forests about Dongurh.

Scene 1 The Palace in Edur. Rana Curran, Visaldeo. CURRAN He is at Deesa then? VISALDEO So he has written. CURRAN Send out a troop for escort, yielding him Such honours as his mighty birth demands. Let him be lodged for what he is, a Prince Among the mightiest. VISALDEO You have chosen then? You’ll give your daughter, King, to this Cashmerian? CURRAN My brother from Ajmere writes to forbid me, Because he’s Scythian, therefore barbarous. A Scythian! He is Cashmere’s mighty lord Who stretches out from those proud Himalayan hills His giant arms to embrace the North.

850

The Prince of Edur VISALDEO But still

A Scythian. CURRAN Whom many Aryan monarchs crouch to appease When he but shakes his warlike lance. A soldier And conqueror, — what has the earth more noble? And he is of the great Cushanian stock That for these centuries bestride the hills Against all comers. World-renowned Asoca Who dominated half our kingly East, Sprang from a mongrel root. VISALDEO Rana, you’ll wed Your daughter to Prince Toraman? CURRAN I’m troubled By Ajmere’s strong persistence. He controls Our Rajpoot world and it were madly done To offend him. VISALDEO That’s soon avoided. Send your daughter out To your strong fort among the wooded hills, Dongurh; there while she walks among the trees, Let the Cashmerian snatch her to his saddle In the old princely way. You have your will And the rash Chouhan has his answer. CURRAN Visaldeo, You are a counsellor! Call the queen hither; I’ll speak to her. Exit Visaldeo.

Act I, Scene 1

851

O excellently counselled! What is it but a daughter? One mere girl And in exchange an emperor for my ally. It must be done. Enter Menadevi and Visaldeo. MENADEVI You sent for me, my lord? CURRAN How many summers might our daughter count, Mena? MENADEVI Sixteen, my lord. CURRAN She flowers apace And like a rose in bloom expects the breeze With blushing petals. We can delay no longer Her nuptial rites. MENADEVI The Rao of Ichalgurh Desires her. He’s a warrior and a Chouhan. CURRAN A petty baron! O my dearest lady, Rate not your child so low. Her rumoured charm Has brought an emperor posting from the north To woo her. MENADEVI Give me the noble Rajpoot blood, I ask no more.

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The Prince of Edur

CURRAN The son of great Cashmere Journeys to Edur for her. MENADEVI Your royal will Rules her and me. And yet, my lord, a child Of Rajpoot princes might be better mated; So much I’ll say. CURRAN You are your brother’s sister. He says he will not have a Scythian wed her. MENADEVI He cherishes the lofty Chouhan pride. You know, my lord, we hold a Rajpoot soldier Without estate or purse deserves a queen More than a crowned barbarian. CURRAN You are all As narrow as the glens where you were born And live immured. No arrogance can match The penniless pride of mountaineers who never Have seen the various world beyond their hills. Your petty baron who controls three rocks For all his heritage, exalts himself O’er monarchs in whose wide domains his holding’s An ant-hill, and prefers his petty line To their high dynasties; — as if a mountain tarn Should think itself more noble than the sea To which so many giant floods converge. MENADEVI Our tarns are pure at least, if small, they hold Sweet water only; but your seas are brackish.

Act I, Scene 1

853

CURRAN Well, well; tomorrow send your little princess To Dongurh, there to dwell till we decide If great Cashmere shall have her. Visaldeo, Give ten good lances for her escort. MENADEVI Only ten! It is not safe. VISALDEO Rana, the queen is right. The Bheels are out among the hills; they have A new and daring leader and beset All wayside wealth with swarms of humming arrows. CURRAN The lord of Edur should not fear such rude And paltry caterans. When they see our banner Advancing o’er the rocks, they will avoid Its peril. Or if there’s danger, take the road That skirts the hills. Ten lances, Visaldeo! Exit. MENADEVI My blood shall never mingle with the Scythian. I am a Chouhan first and next your wife, Edur. What means this move to Dongurh, Visaldeo? VISALDEO (as if to himself ) Ten lances at her side! It were quite easy To take her from them, even for a Cashmerian. MENADEVI I understand. The whole of Rajasthan Would cry out upon Edur, were this marriage Planned openly to soil their ancient purity.

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The Prince of Edur

The means to check this shame? VISALDEO Lady, I am The Rana’s faithful servant. MENADEVI So remain. I’ll send a horse to Ichalgurh this hour. There may be swifter snatchers than the Scythian. Exit. VISALDEO Or swifter even than any in Ichalgurh. I too have tidings to send hastily. Exit.

Scene 2 The women’s apartments in the Palace at Edur. Comol Cumary, Coomood Cumary. COMOL Tomorrow, Coomood, is the feast of May. COOMOOD Sweetheart, I wish it were the feast of Will. I know what I would will for you. COMOL What, Coomood? COOMOOD A better husband than your father’ll give you. COMOL You mean the Scythian? I will not believe That it can happen. My father’s heart is royal; The blood that throbs through it he drew from veins Of Rajpoot mothers. COOMOOD But the brain’s too politic. A merchant’s mind into his princely skull Slipped in by some mischance, and it will sell you In spite of all the royal heart can say. COMOL He is our father, therefore blame him not.

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COOMOOD I blame his brain, not him. Sweetheart, remember, Whomever you may marry, I shall claim Half of your husband. COMOL If’t be the Scythian, you may have The whole uncouth barbarian with Cashmere In the bad bargain. COOMOOD We will not let him have you. We’ll find a mantra that shall call Urjoon From Eden’s groves to wed you; great Dushyanta Shall leave Shacoontala for these wide eyes Which you have stolen from the antelope To gaze men’s hearts out of their bodies with, You lovely sorceress; or we’ll have Udaian To ravish you into his rushing car, Edur’s Vasavadutta. We’ll bring crowding The heroes of romance out of the past For you to choose from, sweet, and not a Scythian In all their splendid ranks. COMOL But my poor Coomood, Your hero of romance will never look at you, Finding my antelope eyes so beautiful. What will you do then? COOMOOD I will marry him By sleight of hand and never let him know. For when the nuptial fire is lit and when The nuptial bond is tied, I’ll slip my raiment’s hem Into the knot that weds your marriage robes And take the seven paces with you both

Act I, Scene 2

857

Weaving my life into one piece with yours For ever. Enter Nirmol Cumary. NIRMOL News, princesses, news! What will you give me for a sackful of news? COMOL Two switches and a birchrod. A backful for your sackful! NIRMOL I will empty my sack first, if only to shame you for your base ingratitude. To begin with what will please you best, Prince Toraman is arrived. I hear he is coming to see and approve of you before he makes the venture; it is the Scythian custom. COMOL He shall not have his Scythian custom. In India it is we girls who have the right of choice. NIRMOL He will not listen. These Scythians stick to their customs as if it were their skin; they will even wear their sheepskins in midsummer in Agra. COMOL Then, Nirmol, we will show you to him for the Princess Comol Cumary and marry you off into the mountains. Would you not love to be the Queen of Cashmere? NIRMOL I would not greatly mind. They say he is big as a Polar bear and has the sweetest little pugnose and cheeks like two fat pouches. They say too he carries a knout in his hand with which he will touch up the bride during the ceremony as a promise of what

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The Prince of Edur

she may expect hereafter; it is the Scythian custom. Oh, I envy you, Princess. COMOL Nirmol, in sober earnest I will beat you. NIRMOL Strike but hear! For I have still news in my sack. You must gather your traps; we are to start for Dongurh in an hour. What, have I made your eyes smile at last? COMOL To Dongurh! Truth, Nirmol. NIRMOL Beat me in earnest, if it is not. Visaldeo himself told me. COMOL To Dongurh! To the woods! It is three years Since I was there. I wonder whether now The woodland flowers into a sudden blush Crimsoning at the sweet approach of Spring As once it did against that moon`ed white Of myriad blossoms. We shall feel again, Coomood, the mountain breezes kiss our cheeks Standing on treeless ridges and behold The valleys wind unnoticeably below In threads of green. COOMOOD It is the feast of May. Shall we not dance upon the wind-blown peaks And put the peacock’s feather in our hair And think we are in Brindavon the green? NIRMOL With a snubnosed Scythian Krishna to lead the dance. But they say Krishna was neither Scythian nor Rajpoot but a Bheel. Well,

Act I, Scene 2

859

there is another Krishna of that breed out who will make eighthcentury Rookminnies of you if you dance too far into the forest, sweethearts. COOMOOD You mean this boy-captain of robbers who makes such a noise in our little world? Bappa they call him, do they not? NIRMOL ’Tis some such congregation of consonants. Now which sort of husband would the most modern taste approve? — a coal-black sturdy young Bheel, his face as rugged as Rajpootana, or a red and white snubnosed Scythian with two prosperous purses for his cheeks. There’s a problem in aesthetics for you, Coomood. COMOL A barbarous emperor or a hillside thief Are equals in a Rajpoot maiden’s eyes. Yon mountain-peak or some base valley clod, ’Tis one to the heaven-sailing star above That scorns their lowness. NIRMOL Yes, but housed with the emperor the dishonour is lapped in cloth of gold; on the thief’s hillside it is black, naked and rough, its primitive and savage reality. To most women the difference would be great. COMOL Not to me. I wonder they suffer this mountain springald to presume so long. NIRMOL Why, they sent out a captain lately to catch him, but he came back a head shorter than he went. But how do you fancy my news, sweethearts?

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The Prince of Edur

COMOL What, is your sack empty? NIRMOL Your kingly father was the last to stalk out of it. I expect him here to finish my story. Enter Rana Curran, Menadevi and Visaldeo. CURRAN Maid Comol, are you ready yet for Dongurh? COMOL I heard of it this moment, sir. CURRAN Make ready. Prince Toraman arrives. You blush, my lily? MENADEVI There is a maiden’s blush of bashfulness, But there’s her blush of shame too when her cheeks Offended scorn a suitor far too base Should bring such noble blood to flush their whiteness. CURRAN Maid Comol, which was yours? COMOL I would learn that, Father, from your high sovereign will. I am not The mistress of my blushes. CURRAN Keep them for him, Comol, for whom their sweetness was created. Hearken, my little one, you are marked out To reign an empress; ’tis the stars decree it

Act I, Scene 2

861

That in their calm irrevocable round Weave all our fates. Then shrink not if thou hearest The noise of battle round thy palanquin Filling the hills, nor fear its rude event, But veil thy cheeks in scarlet to receive Thy warlike husband. COMOL Father! CURRAN It is so. Thou journeyest not to Dongurh but thy nuptials. COMOL With Toraman? CURRAN With one whose lofty doom Is empire. Keep this in thy joyous bosom Throbbing in a sweet secrecy. Farewell. When we foregather next, I hope to greet My little empress. Exit. MENADEVI Comol, what said he to thee? COMOL What I unwillingly have heard. Mother, Must I be mated to a barbarous stock? MENADEVI No, child. When you shall hear the trumpet’s din Or clash of blades, think not ’tis Toraman, But your dear mother’s care to save her child From shameful mating. Little sweetheart, go.

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The Prince of Edur

When I shall meet you next, you’ll shine a flower Upon the proudest crest in Rajasthan, No Scythian’s portion. Visaldeo, prepare Her going quickly. Exit. COMOL What plots surround me? Nirmol, Give me my sword with me. I’ll have a friend To help me, should the world go wrong. VISALDEO Our self, Lady, is our best helper. COMOL I believe it. Which path’s resolved on? VISALDEO ’Tis the valley road That clings to the deep bases of the hills. COMOL ’Tis not the shortest. VISALDEO The easiest, — to Cashmere. COMOL The other’s safer then for Dongurh. VISALDEO At least ’Tis green and beautiful, and love may walk there Unhindered. Exit.

Act I, Scene 2

863

COMOL Thou seemst to be my friend, But I’ll believe myself and no one else Except my sword whose sharpness I can trust Not to betray me. Come, girls, make we ready For this planned fateful journey. COOMOOD Let them keep Our palanquins together. One fate for both, Sweetheart. COMOL If we must marry Toraman, Coomood, it shall be in that shadowy country. NIRMOL Where, I hope, justice will have set right the balance between his nose and his cheeks. Girls, we are the prizes of this handicap and I am impatient to know which jockey wins. Exeunt.

Scene 3 The forest near Dongurh. Bappa, Sungram, Prithuraj. BAPPA It is the secret friend from whom in childhood I learned to wing my mounting thoughts aloft High as an eagle’s flight. I know the hand, Though yet his name is hid from me. SUNGRAM Let’s hear The very wording. BAPPA “To the Sun’s child, from Edur. Comol Cumary, Edur’s princess, goes With her fair sister and a knot of lances To Dongurh. Bappa, young lion of the hills, Be as the lion in thy ranging; prey Upon earth’s mightiest, think her princesses Meant only for thy spoil and serving-girls, Her kings thy subjects and her lands thy prey. Dare greatly and thou shalt be great; despise Apparent death and from his lifted hand Of menace pluck thy royal destinies By warlike violence. Thus thy fathers did From whose great blood thou springest, child of Kings. Thy friend in Edur.” SUNGRAM Writes he that? The child of Kings!

Act I, Scene 3 He never spoke so plainly of your birth Till now. PRITHURAJ A kindling hint to fire our blood! Two princesses and only a knot of swords For escort? The gods themselves arrange this for us. SUNGRAM Bappa, you are resolved to court this peril? PRITHURAJ Doubt you? Think how ’twill help our treasury. The palanquins alone must be a mint Of money and the girls’ rich ornaments Purchase half Rajasthan. SUNGRAM The immediate gain’s Princely, nor the mere capture perilous. But afterwards the arm`ed wrath of Edur Descends upon us in a thunder and whirlwind. Are we yet strong enough to bear the shock? PRITHURAJ Why, let it come. I shall rejoice to feel The true and dangerous bite of war at last, Not always play the mountain cateran’s part, To skulk among the hills and only assail The weak and timid, or butcher distant force With arrows. I long for open shocks of fight And glorious odds and all the world for audience. BAPPA Sungram, I do not rashly take this step, But with fixed policy. Unless we break Edur’s supreme contempt for our annoyance,

865

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The Prince of Edur

How can we bring him to the difficult hills? So must we take the open where our Bheels Will scatter from the mass`ed Rajpoot swords Nor face their charging horsemen. But if we capture Their princess, inconsiderate rage will hurl them Into our very fastnesses to wear Their strength out under our shafts. Then will I seize At the right moment, they being few and weary, Edur by force or guile and hold it fast Though all the warlike world come up against me. SUNGRAM With Bheels? BAPPA I will invite all Rajpoot swords That now are masterless and men exiled, And desperate fortunes. So the iron hands Join us and the adventurous hearts, to build A modern seat of empire; — minds like Sungram, Wise to forecast and bold to execute, Heroes like Prithuraj, who know not fear Nor put a limit to their vaulting thoughts Save death or unforgettable renown, The Rajpoot’s choice. Are we not strong enough? We have a thousand hardy Bheels, expert In mountain warfare, swift unerring bowmen; We have ourselves to lead them, each worth thousands, Sheva Ekling above us and in our hands Our destiny and our swords. SUNGRAM They are enough. Enter Kodal. KODAL Bappa, our scouts have come in. The prey is in the toils.

Act I, Scene 3

867

BAPPA How many are they, Kodal? KODAL Merely ten lances. The servants and women they have sent round by the lower road; the escort with four palanquins come up through the hills. They have run their heads into the noose. We will draw it tight, Bappa, and choke them. BAPPA Is their escape Impossible? SUNGRAM Bappa, a hundred Bheels surround the pass By which alone they can return. Myself Have posted them. BAPPA Beside the waterfall Surround them, Sungram. Kodal, let there be No random shafts to imperil by mischance Our lovely booty. KODAL Trust me for that, Bappa. We’ll shoot through the twenty eyeballs of them and never even touch the white. Ten lances they are and ten arrows will stretch them flat; there shall be nothing left to be done but the burning. If I cannot do this, I am no Bheel, no Kodal and no foster-brother of Bappa. BAPPA Economise our strength. I will not lose A single man over this easy capture. You’re captain, Sungram. Exeunt Sungram and Kodal. Prithuraj, my friend. Today begins our steep ascent to greatness. Exeunt.

Scene 4 The forest near Dongurh. By the waterfall. Enter Captain and soldiers escorting Comol Cumary, Coomood, Nirmol and Ishany in palanquins. ISHANY (from her palanquin) Set down the palanquins. Captain, make void This region; here the princess would repose Beside the murmuring waterfall awhile And breathe into her heart the winds of Dongurh. Exit Captain with soldiers and palanquinbearers. The girls leave their palanquins. COMOL Coomood, this is the waterfall we loved To lean by, singing to the lyre the deeds Our fathers wrought or listening silently Its soft continuous roar. Beyond that bend We shall see Dongurh, — Dongurh, our delight Where we were children, Coomood. COOMOOD Comol, our tree’s All scarlet, as if splashed with crimson fire, Just as of old. COMOL O it is Spring, and this Is Dongurh. ISHANY Girls, we must not linger long.

Act I, Scene 4

869

Our Scythian, missing us, may take the hills. NIRMOL Purse-cheeks? Oh, he has lifted Mera the servant-girl to his saddle-bow by now and is garlanding her Queen of Cashmere. I wish I were there to be bridesmaid. COMOL That was a sweet touch of thine, Nirmol. But the child deserves her promotion; she has served me willingly. A Scythian throne is no great wages for service to a Rajpoot princess. COOMOOD How the hill gives you back your laughter, repeating Its sweetness with delight, as if it had a soul To love you. COMOL We have shaken them off prettily by turning away through the hills. Alas! my royal father will not greet his little empress this journey, nor my lady mother scent her blossom on a Rajpoot crest. They must even put up with their poor simple Comol Cumary just as she was, — (aside) and as she will be until her heart finds its mate. NIRMOL It is a sin, I tell you, Comol; I am mad when I think of it. Why, I came out to be abducted; I did not come for a quiet stroll through the woodlands. But I have still hopes of our Bheel cateran, our tangle-locked Krishna of the hill-sides; surely he will not be so ungallant as to let such sweet booty pass through his kingdom ungathered. COMOL I would gladly see this same stripling and talk to him face to face who sets his Bheel arrows against our Rajpoot swords. He should be a man at least, no Scythian Toraman.

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The Prince of Edur

ISHANY The presumptuous savage! it will earn him a stake yet for his last session. Were I a man, I would burn these wasps from their nest and catch and crush them in my mailed gauntlet as they buzzed out into the open. SHOUTS OUTSIDE Bappa! Bappa! Ho Sheva Ekling! CAPTAIN (shouting within) Lances, lances, Rajpoots! Bearers, to the palanquins! COMOL Bappa! NIRMOL (laughing) You’ll have that talk with Bappa yet, Comol. COOMOOD Oh, let us flee! They swarm towards us. ISHANY Stand firm! Our gallant lances soon will prick These bold hill-foxes to their lairs. Stand firm! We should but fly into the mouth of danger. COMOL (climbing on to a rock) You Gods! our Rajpoots all are overwhelmed Before they used their weapons. What next, Ishany? Shall we sit still to be made prisoners? ISHANY Get swiftly to your palanquin. The bearers Run hither. Flee towards the valley road! It may be that the swords of Ichalgurh Range there already.

Act I, Scene 4

871

COMOL Shall I escape alone? ISHANY Ah, save the glory of Edur from disgrace Of savage handling! Enter the palanquin-bearers fleeing. Halt! Take your princess, men, And flee with her into the valley road. FIRST BEARER The funeral fire in the mouth of your princess! Every man save himself. Exit with most of the bearers. SECOND BEARER Halt, halt! We have eaten and shall we not pay for the salt? Yes, even with our blood. We four will take her, if we are not cut into pieces first. Into the palanquin, lady. NIRMOL Quick, Comol! or are you longing for your palaver with Tanglelocks? Comol enters the palanquin. COOMOOD What will become of us? NIRMOL We shall become Bheel housewives. After all, a Scythian throne Was better. ISHANY We have our weapons to befriend us yet. Coomood, look not so pale.

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The Prince of Edur NIRMOL

See, see, Ishany! The Bheels are leaping down upon our rear. ISHANY Quick, bearers, bearers. NIRMOL It is too late. She’s taken. Enter Kodal and Bheels. KODAL Whoever wants an arrow through his skull, let him move his shanks. Women, you are my brother Bappa’s prisoners; we have need of some Rajpoot slavegirls for his kitchen. Take them, my children, and tie them. ISHANY Stab any who comes; let not these lumps of dirt Insult your Rajpoot bodies with their fingers. KODAL Shut your mouth, Rajpootny, or I will skewer your tongue to your palate with an arrow. Knock their daggers out of their hands. He lays his hand on Nirmol’s wrist. Enter Sungram. NIRMOL Off, savage! I will have no tongue-skewerer for my husband. SUNGRAM Release her, Kodal. Lay not thy Bheel hand Upon a Rajpoot virgin. Maiden of Edur, Expect no outrage. We are men who keep Some tincture of manners yet, though savage hills Harbour us and our looks and deeds are rugged

Act I, Scene 4

873

As the wild land we dwell in. NIRMOL I grant you that. If you are the master-jockey, the winners of this handicap are no such rank outsiders after all. KODAL Because thou art a Rajpoot, must thou command me? To me, Bheels! Tie up these Rajpootnies hand and leg like so many chickens. Heed not Sungram. SUNGRAM Mutineer! (draws his sword) ISHANY (rapidly approaching the bearers) Slip off unnoticed while they brawl; run, run! O save the princess! SECOND BEARER We will do our man’s best. Silently, men, and swiftly. KODAL I boggle not for your sword, Rajpoot. Taste my arrows. Exeunt bearers with Comol in the palanquin. Bappa and Prithuraj enter from the other side. BAPPA Now, what’s the matter, Kodal? KODAL Why, Bappa, these new servant-girls of yours will not come to heel; they talk proudly. Yet Sungram will not let me teach them manners, because, I think, they are his aunt’s cousins. BAPPA They shall be obedient, Kodal. Leave them to me. Remember Sungram’s your commander, brother.

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The Prince of Edur

What, you, a soldier, and break discipline! KODAL I am your soldier, Bappa. Sungram, you shall have your Rajpootny. I am a soldier, Rajpoot, and know my duty. COOMOOD Is this the Bheel? the rough and uncouth outlaw? He has a princely bearing. This is surely A Rajpoot and of a high-seated blood. BAPPA Which of you’s Edur’s princess? Let her stand Before me. ISHANY Who art thou that speakst so proudly As if a Rajpoot princess were thy slave, Outlaw? BAPPA Whoe’er I am, you are in my hands, My spoil and captives. Speak, which is the princess? COOMOOD Out of thy grip and now almost in safety, Chieftain, upon the valley road. ISHANY Coomood, Thou hast betrayed thy sister by thy folly And into vilest shame. COOMOOD At least I’ll share it. Exit.

Act I, Scene 4

875

BAPPA Ay, so? these maidens are but three. Kodal, Four palanquins were on the road, thou toldst me. KODAL Sungram, give thy sword a twist in my guts. While I wrangled with thee, the best shikar of all has skedaddled. BAPPA Nay, mend it, — intercept the fugitive. Exit Kodal with Bheels. The other too has fled? but she’s on foot. Sungram and Prithuraj, lead these fair captives Into their prison. I will go and seize The runaways. ISHANY They are not for thee yet, Hill-cateran, while I stand between. PRITHURAJ Oh, here’s A Rajpoot spirit. BAPPA Foolish girl, canst thou Oppose the stormblast with a dove’s white wings? As he goes out, she strikes at him with a dagger; he seizes her wrist and puts her by. Exit Bappa. PRITHURAJ Thou hast a brave but headstrong spirit, maiden. It is no savages to whom your Fates Are kind, but men of Rajpoot blood and nurture. Have I your leave? He lays his hand on her wrist.

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ISHANY (sullenly) You take it in these hills Before the asking, as it seems. (throwing away her dagger) Away, Thou useless helper. PRITHURAJ Very useless, maiden. When help is needed, ask it of my sword. ISHANY You play the courteous brigand. I shall need No help to cast myself out of the reach Of villains’ courtesies. PRITHURAJ (lifting her in his arms) ’Tis not so easy. Must I then teach you you’re a prisoner? Come, be more patient. You shall yet be glad Of the sweet violence today we do you. He carries her out. SUNGRAM Must we follow in the same order? NIRMOL By your leave, no. I turn eleven stone or thereabouts. SUNGRAM I will not easily believe it. Will you suffer me to test the measure? NIRMOL I fear you would prove an unjust balance; so I will even walk, if you will help me over the rough places. It seems you were not Krishna after all?

Act I, Scene 4

877

SUNGRAM Why, take me for brother Balaram then. Is not your name Revaty? NIRMOL It is too early in the day for a proposal; positively, I will not say either yes or no till the evening. On, Balaram! I follow. Exeunt.

Scene 5 The forest near Dongurh. Enter Bearers with Comol Cumary in the palanquin. SECOND BEARER Courage, brothers, courage! We are almost out of the wood. Enter Kodal, leaping down from a thicket in front. KODAL But it is too soon to hollo. Stop, you plain-frogs, or you shall gutturalize your last croak. SECOND BEARER Put down the palanquin; we are taken. Great emperor of Bheels, be merciful. KODAL Stand still, rogues. I must first haul the runaway Rajpootny out of her dogbox. As he approaches the palanquin, the Bearer strikes him down suddenly and throws his bow and arrows down the hillside. SECOND BEARER Quick! Let us be off while he’s stunned. Enter Bappa and Coomood, followed by Bheels. BAPPA Your sister cannot overstep the pass, Which is beset and ambushed. Ho, there, halt! Put down the palanquin. Insensate fools,

Act I, Scene 5

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Invite not death. The Bheels crowd in and surround the bearers. Is’t Kodal? is he hurt? KODAL (rising) Only stunned, Bappa. The hillside was a trifle harder than my head. Plain-frog, thou didst that trick handsomely. Give me thy paw, fellow. BAPPA Take these men prisoners and keep them safely. Remove your men; and, Kodal, guard the road Barring all rescue. Exit Kodal and Bheels with the bearers. Princess, take your sister Out of the palanquin. COOMOOD Comol, Comol, Dear fugitive from fate’s arrest, you’re taken. Come out. COMOL How was it? COOMOOD I told him of your flight. You’ll leave me all alone to wed a Bheel? You’ll break our compact? I have dragged you back To servitude. COMOL Nay, let me see my captor then. For if you smile, my Coomood, I must be Out of misfortune’s reach. (leaving the palanquin) Stand back, sweet. Come,

880

The Prince of Edur

Where is this mountain thief who wars with Kings And lays his hands on Edur’s princesses As if his trunk were an immortal piece And he unhangable? BAPPA (advancing) I am the man, Bappa, the outlaw. COMOL This Bappa! this the Bheel? They gaze at one another. (smiling) Why, Coomood, it was Krishna after all. Monarch of caterans, I am Edur’s princess, Comol Cumary. Why didst thou desire me? BAPPA O who would not desire thee, glorious virgin? Thou art the rose of Rajasthan and I Will wear thee on my crest. COMOL ’Twas prophesied me. But roses, King of thieves, have thorns, and see! I have a sword. BAPPA (smiling) Thinkst thou that pretty toy Will save thee from me? COMOL It will do its best. And if you take me still, ’tis at your peril. I am a dangerous creature to possess.

Act I, Scene 5 BAPPA I will embrace the peril as a bride If in thy shape it dwell. COMOL I swear I pity you. You rush upon you know not what. Come now, If ’tis a gentle serving-girl you need, Here is my sister, Coomood, who can cook Divinely. Take her. Let me walk on to Dongurh. You will regret it, youth. COOMOOD Believe her not, ’Tis she’s a Droupadie; and who possesses her Is fated to be Emperor of the West. BAPPA Nay, you are twin sweet roses on one stalk And I will pluck you both, O flowers of Edur. COMOL Why did thy men beset me, mountaineer? What was thy hope? BAPPA At first ’twas policy And some desire of thy imperial ransom. But now I’ve seen thee, I will hold thee fast. Thou art not ransomable. COMOL You shall not have me, sir, till you have fought And beaten me. You shall not get me cheaply. I am a swashbuckler. Bheel, I can fight.

881

882

The Prince of Edur

BAPPA Marvel, thou mayst and with great ease be victor If thou but use thy soft and shining eyes To dazzle me out of all possibility Of sound defence. COMOL Come, measure swords, on guard! BAPPA Thou wilt persist then in this pretty folly? COMOL Halt, halt! I will not fight except on terms. You’ll yield yourself my prisoner, Bheel, and free My maidens, when I’ve drubbed you handsomely? BAPPA If when I’ve conquered, you will utterly Surrender your sweet self into my arms, Princess of Edur. COMOL Take me if you can. BAPPA Thus then I take you. (disarms her) Rose, where is thy thorn? Now thou must yield indeed. COMOL Foul play! foul play! It was not fair to rob me of my sword. Call you this fighting? I’ll not yield myself.

Act I, Scene 5

883

BAPPA Thou hast no choice. He seizes her. COMOL I was not fairly won. Avaunt! this is mere highway robbery. I will not bear it. BAPPA Virgin, this is the moment For which thy loveliness was born. COMOL (faintly) Alas, What will you do with me? BAPPA I’ll carry thee, A hungry lion, to my secret lair Among the mighty hills, where none shall come To save thee from me, O my glorious prey, Bright antelope of Edur! COOMOOD Will you play With the young lion, Comol, and chafe his mood? Now you are borne down by his heavy mane And lie beneath his huge and tawny chest, Trembling and silent. BAPPA Princess, — COOMOOD May I walk on To Dongurh?

884

The Prince of Edur BAPPA

No, thou mayst not. Follow me. Hold fast my arm, nor, princess, fear to hang Thy whole slight weight on me up these abrupt And breathless places, for the high ascent Is steep and rough to our uncouth abodes. Descent’s for your small feet impossible, Coomood, from your green prison on the heights. There Spring shall wall you in with flowers and make Her blossoming creepers chains for your bright limbs Softly forbidding you, when you’ld escape. COOMOOD Comol, tomorrow is the feast of May. Exeunt.

Act II The forest near Dongurh.

Scene 1 In the forest near Dongurh. Bappa, Sungram. The Captain and Rajpoot soldiers, guarded by Bheels. BAPPA Ponder it, captain. Sungram, see the bearers Released, but let those cowards first be scourged Who put their lives above their lady’s honour. Give golden largess to the faithful four And send them with a script. Let Edur know That Bappa holds his cherished daughter fast And frees her not save for a lakh of mohurs, Her insufficient ransom. If it displease him, Let him come here with all his fighting-men And take her from my grip. Word it to wound him So that he shall come thundering up the hills Incensed inexorably. Exit Sungram. Soldier, again, ’Tis not my wont to slay my prisoners, Who am a Rajpoot, and to pen you here Eating your hearts away like prisoned lions Were the world’s loss and to myself no profit. Take then your choice and either follow me Or to your Edur back return unharmed.

886

The Prince of Edur

CAPTAIN Thou art a noble enemy, young chieftain; But change thy boon; for I have lost my charge Ingloriously and now can only entreat The use of my own sword to avenge my honour On its betrayer. Living I go not back To Edur. BAPPA Soldier, thou art too scrupulous. The wariest captain need not think it shame To be surprised among these mountains. If Edur Receive you not, follow my fortunes, Rajpoot. I am as noble as the prince you serve, And he who waits on Bappa’s fateful star, May be more fortunate than kings. CAPTAIN Chieftain, Save my old master’s blood I serve no other Than noble Edur. (suddenly with excitement) What is that jewel, boy, Upon thy sword-hilt? Where hadst thou that weapon? BAPPA What moves thee thus? It is my father’s sword, Though who my father was, Fate hides from me. CAPTAIN (with emotion) I take thy offer, prince. I am thy soldier, And all these men shall live and die for thee. A SOLDIER What dost thou, captain?

Act II, Scene 1

887

CAPTAIN I have never swerved From the high path of Rajpoot honour. Trust me, Rajpoots. SOLDIER Thou wast our chief in war and always We found thee valiant, proud and honourable. Convince us that we may transfer unshamed Our falchions only stained with foemen’s blood, And still we’ll follow thee. CAPTAIN I will convince you At a fit season. BAPPA Knowst thou something, soldier, That’s hid from me? CAPTAIN Pardon my silence, chieftain. All things have their own time to come to light. BAPPA I will expect my hour then and meanwhile Think myself twice as great as yesterday Whom your strong hands now serve. Come, friends, with me; Resume your swords for yet more glorious use In Bappa’s service. Exeunt.

Scene 2 The road through the valley to Dongurh. Toraman, Canaca, Hooshka and Scythians. TORAMAN I know not what impelled these mountain-boars To worry Death with their blunt tusks. This insult I will revenge in kind at first, then take A bloody reckoning. CANACA Fegh! it was a trick even beyond my wits. To put a servant-girl on the throne of Cashmere! All Asia would have been one grin had the jest prospered. TORAMAN They take us for barbarians And thought such gross imposture good enough To puzzle Scythian brains. But I’ll so shame The witty clowns, they shall hang down their waggish heads While they are still allowed to live. You’ll wed A princess of the Rajpoots, Canaca? CANACA I would prefer a haunch of Rajpoot venison any day; they have fat juicy stags in their mountains. TORAMAN I give thee Edur’s daughter. While I ride With half my lances to our mountains, thou Shalt ruffle round as Scythian Toraman And wed the princess.

Act II, Scene 2

889

CANACA Shall I indeed? Do you take me for a lettuce that you would have me sliced for a Rajpoot salad? Oh, I’ld love to be a prince if only to comfort myself with one full meal in a lifetime; but an empty plebeian paunch is a more comfortable possession than a princely belly full of Rajpoot lances. TORAMAN Why should they at all Discover thee, dull fool? None know me here. The Rana and his men have not received me. No doubt the arrogant princeling scorned to eat As host and guest with me in Edur; even to dine With us is thought a soil! Therefore ’twas fixed In this rare plot that I should ride from Deesa On a fool’s errand. Well, it helps me now, Though I’ll avenge it fearfully. ’Tis feasible. None know us, you are richer-robed than I, And what’s uncouth in you, they will put down To Scythia’s utter barbarousness, whose princes Are boors and boors unhuman. Oh, ’twill work. CANACA Will it? Well, so long as I keep my belly unprodded, ’tis a jest after my own heart. TORAMAN And mine. These haughty Rajpoots think themselves The only purity on earth; their girls So excellent in Aryan chastity, That without Rajpoot birth an emperor’s wooing Is held for insult. This they hoped to avenge By foisting a baseborn light serving-wench On the prince of all the North. How will they stare, How gnash their teeth and go stark-mad with shame When they discover their sweet cherished lily, The pride of Rajasthan, they thought too noble

890

The Prince of Edur

To lower herself to Cashmere’s lofty throne, Bedded with the court-jester of Cashmere, Soiled by the embraces of a low buffoon Who patters for a wage, her pride a jest, Her purity a puddle and herself The world’s sole laughing-stock. CANACA Hem! ’Twill be a jest for the centuries. TORAMAN About it, then. Feign to laugh off the insult put on you And urge your suit. Bound by their trick that failed, They must, though with great sullenness, consent; And that’s desirable: the shame will taste A thousand times more bitter afterwards. Have her by force, if they are obstinate; But have her. Soon, be sure, I will be back With an avenging host and ring in Edur With loud assaults till I have crucified King, queen and princess on her smoking ruins. Exit with a number of Scythians. CANACA Well then, I am Prince Toraman of Cashmere; remember that, villains. Or why not Prince Toraman-Canaca or Prince CanacaToraman? it is rounder and more satisfying to the mouth. Yet simple Prince Toraman has a chastity of its own and all the magnificence of Cashmere marches after it. Ho, slave! What sounds are those approaching my majesty? Send scouts and reconnoitre. Prince Toraman, the imperial son of Cashmere! It is a part I shall play with credit; Nature made me for it of sufficient proportions and gave me a paunch imperial.

Act II, Scene 2

891

HOOSHKA (approaching) Prince Canaca-Toraman or Prince Toraman-Canaca or very simple Toraman, I hear tramp of men and the clang of armour. No doubt, the princess of Edur, thinking all safe by now, rides to Dongurh. Will you charge them and seize her? CANACA To cover, thou incompetent captain, to cover. Hast thou learned war and knowest not the uses of ambush? We will hide, slave. See thou pokest not out that overlong nose of thine! Find thyself a branch big enough to cover it. HOOSHKA Humph! What signal shall we expect from your Majesty for the charge? CANACA Prate not to me of signals! How lacking are thy dull soldier-wits in contrivance! If I jump down into the road and howl, you will all come jumping and howling after me; but if I run, you will catch hold of my tail and run too like the very devil. Nay, I have a rare notion of tactics. To cover, to cover! They conceal themselves. Enter the Rao of Ichalgurh, Ruttan and Rajpoots. ICHALGURH She has escaped me, or the Scythian has her. The last were my dishonour. RUTTAN We’ve held the road Since dawn. The Scythian had the serving-women. The princess has escaped. ICHALGURH I’m glad of it.

892

The Prince of Edur

RUTTAN Will you pursue it farther? ICHALGURH Ambition only Engaged me once to woo her; now my honour Is deeply pledged. The spur of chivalry Suffers me not to yield a Rajpoot flower To Scythian handling; nor could I refuse A challenge to adventurous emprise So fairly given. About, to Dongurh! RUTTAN Brother, The place is strong, nor we equipped for sieges. ICHALGURH I’ll have her out even from that fortressed keeping And set her in my crest at Ichalgurh For gods to gaze at. Canaca leaps down into the road brandishing a sword, followed by Hooshka and his Scythians. CANACA Ho Amitabha! Buddha for Cashmere! ICHALGURH The Scythians on us! Swords! CANACA Put up your skewers! Quiver not, ye wretches; steady, steady your quaking kneecaps. Though I have cause for anger, yet am I merciful. Ye would have robbed me of some very pretty property, but ye are mountain-thieves by nature and nurture and know no better. Therefore peace. Sleep in thy scabbard, thou dreadful servant of the wrath of Toraman; await a fitter subject than these carcasses. Courage, Rajpoots, you shall not die.

Act II, Scene 2

893

ICHALGURH (smiling) Who is Your Mightiness? CANACA I am the very formidable and valiant hero and Scythian, Toraman, prince of Cashmere. Nevertheless, tremble not. I am terrible to look at, but I have bowels; — ay, a whole paunchful of them. ICHALGURH You sought the Princess? What, she has slipped through your most valiant fingers? CANACA As if she had greased herself with butter. But I am going to Dongurh straight away to demand her and dinner. ICHALGURH Together then. We’re comrades in her loss; Why not allies to win her? CANACA Am I to be so easily bamboozled? wilt thou insult my cranium? Thou wouldst use my valiant and invincible sword to win her, thinking to steal her from me afterwards when I am not looking. ICHALGURH Who would dare Defraud the formidable Toraman, The valiant and heroic Scythian? CANACA Well! I am content; fall in behind me, mountaineers. ICHALGURH Ruttan, we’ll keep an eye upon this Scythian.

894

The Prince of Edur

His show of braggart folly hides, I fear, A deal of knavishness. CANACA Trumpets! To Dongurh! March! Exeunt.

Scene 3 Bappa’s cot on the hillside. Bappa; the Captain; Coomood, decorating the cot with flowers. BAPPA Where was she when you had the script from her? CAPTAIN Singing of battle on the rocks alone With wrestling winds in her wild hair and raiment, A joyous Oread. BAPPA Said she anything? CAPTAIN She gave it me with glad and smiling eyes And laughed: “This for my noble Bheel, my sovereign Of caterans, my royal beast of prey. These to their mighty owners.” COOMOOD Will you read it? BAPPA (reads) “Cateran, I have given thy captain letters which when thou hast read them, fail not to despatch. I have sent for teachers for thee to beat thee into modesty and lesson thee in better behaviour to a lady and princess. — ” What letters has she given thee, captain? These?

896

The Prince of Edur

CAPTAIN To Pratap, Rao of Ichalgurh; — and one To Toraman the Scythian. BAPPA Deliver them. Thou’lt find at Dongurh both these warlike princes. No, I’ll not read them. Exit Captain. COOMOOD Let me hear the rest. BAPPA “Cateran, I will show thee the sum of thy bold and flagitious offences, though I dare not to hope that it will make thee ashamed. Thou hast laid injurious hands on a royal maiden, being thyself a mere Bheel and outlaw and of no parentage; thou hast carried me most violently to this thy inconsiderable and incommodious hut, treating the body of a princess as if it were a sack of potatoes; thou hast unmercifully and feloniously stripped my body with thy own rude Bheel hands of more ornaments than thou hast seen in thy lifetime and didst hurt me most cruelly in the deed, though thou vainly deniest it; thou hast compelled and dost yet compel me, the princess of Edur, by the infamous lack of women-servants in thy hut, to minister to thee, a common Bheel, menially with my own royal hands, so that my fingers are sore with scrubbing thy rusty sword which thou hast never used yet on anything braver than a hill-jackal, and my face is still red with leaning over the fire cooking thy most unroyal meals for thee; and to top these crimes, thou hast in thy robustious robber fashion taken a kiss from my lips without troubling thyself to ask for it, and thou yet keepest it with thee. All which are high misdoings and mortal offences; yet would I have pardoned them knowing thee to be no more than a boy and a savage. But now thou darest to tell me that I, a Rajpoot maiden, am in love with thee, a Bheel, and that even if I deny it, thou carest not; for I am

Act II, Scene 3

897

thine already whether I will or no, thy captive and thy slavegirl. This is not to be borne. So I have written to my noble suitors of Ichalgurh and Scythia to avenge me upon thy Bheel body; I doubt not, they will soon carry thy head to Edur in a basket, if thou hast the manners to permit them. Yet since thy followers call thee Smiter of the Forest and Lion of the Hills, let me see thee smite more than jackals and rend braver than flesh of mountaindeer. Cateran, when thou trundlest the Scythian down-hill like a ball, thou mayst marry me in spite of thy misdeeds, if thou darest; and when thou showest thyself a better man than the Chouhan of Ichalgurh, which is impossible, thou mayst even keep me for thy slavegirl and I will not deny thee. Meanwhile, thou shalt give me a respite till the seventh morn of the May. Till then presume not to touch me. Thy captive, Comol Cumary.” Why, here’s a warlike and most hectoring letter, Coomood. COOMOOD She pours her happy heart out so In fantasies; I never knew her half so wayward. The more her soul is snared between your hands, The more her lips will chide you. BAPPA Can you tell Why she has set these doughty warriors on me, Coomood? COOMOOD You cannot read a woman’s mind. It’s to herself a maze inextricable Of vagrant impulses with half-guessed tangles Of feeling her own secret thoughts are blind to. BAPPA But yet?

898

The Prince of Edur

COOMOOD Her sudden eager headstrong passion Would justify its own extravagance By proving you unparalleled. Therefore she picks Earth’s brace of warriors out for your opponents. BAPPA Pratap the Chouhan, Rao of Ichalgurh! To meet him merely were a lifetime’s boast; But to cross swords with him! Oh, she has looked Into my heart. COOMOOD You’ll give her seven days? BAPPA Not hours, — the dainty rebel! Great Ichalgurh Will wing here like an eagle; soon I’ll meet him And overthrow, who feel a giant’s strength, Coomood, since yesterday. My fate mounts sunward. COOMOOD Ours, Bappa, has already arrived. Our sun Rose yesterday upon the way to Dongurh. Curtain

Scene 4 Outside Dongurh. Ichalgurh, a letter in his hand; Ruttan, the Captain. ICHALGURH Who art thou, soldier? CAPTAIN The leader of the lances That guarded Edur’s princess and with her Were captived by the Bheels. Their chief I serve. ICHALGURH Thou hast dishonoured then the Rajpoot name Deserting from thy lord to serve a ruffian Under the eyes of death, thou paltry trembler. CAPTAIN My honour, Rao of Ichalgurh, is mine To answer for, and at a fitting time I will return thy insults on my swordpoint. But now I am only a messenger. ICHALGURH I’ll read The princess’ writing. (reads) “Baron of Ichalgurh, My mother’s clansman, warrior, noble Rajpoot, Thrice over therefore bound to help the weak And save the oppressed! A maiden overpowered, Comol Cumary, Edur’s princess, sues For thy heroic arm of rescue, prince, To the Bheel outlaws made a prey, unsought

900

The Prince of Edur

By her own kin; whom if thou save, I am A princess and thy handmaid, else a captive Only and Bappa’s slavegirl.” Go! my warcry Echoing among the hills shall answer straightway This piteous letter. Ruttan, swift! Arm! arm! I will not vent my wrath in braggart words But till it leap into my sword, I suffer. RUTTAN You shall not wait for long. Exit. CAPTAIN I have a letter To Toraman the Scythian. ICHALGURH Give it to him, For this is he. Enter Canaca, Hooshka and Scythians. CANACA It will not fill. This paltry barren Rajpootana has not the wherewithal to choke up the gulf within me. Ha! avaunt! Dost thou flutter paper before me? I have no creditors in Rajpootana. CAPTAIN I understand thee not. This is a script Comol Cumary sends thee, Edur’s princess. CANACA Is it so? Well then, thou mayst kneel and lay it at my feet; I will deign to read it. (The Captain flings it into his hands.) What, thou dirty varlet! (The Captain lays his hand on his sword.) Nay, it is a game? Oh, I can catch, I can catch. Exit Captain.

Act II, Scene 4

901

(reads) “Prince Toraman, they say thou desirest me and camest from Cashmere as far as Edur for my sake. Thou must come a little farther, prince! Bappa, the outlaw, has been beforehand with thee and holds me in durance among the hills. Prince, if thou yet desirest this little beauty one poor body can hold, come up hither and fight for its possession which otherwise I must in seven days perforce yield to my captor. From whom if thou canst rescue me, — but I will not drive bargains with thee, trusting rather to thy knightly princeliness to succour a distressed maiden for no hope of reward. Comol Cumary.” No, no, no; there is too much butter about thee. No hope of reward! What! I shall fight like an enraged rhinoceros, I shall startle the hills by my valour, I shall stick three thousand Bheels with my own princely hand like so many boar-pigs; and all this violent morning exercise for what? To improve my appetite? I have more gastric juice than my guts can accommodate. They roar to me already for a haunch of venison. HOOSHKA Prince Toraman, shall I give the order for the hills? CANACA Ay, Hooshka Longnose, hast thou news of venison, good fellow? HOOSHKA I meant, to rescue the Princess Comol Cumary from the Bheels. CANACA Didst thou mean so? Nay, I will not hinder thy excellent intentions. But bring some venison with thee as thou comest along with her, Hooshka. HOOSHKA Prince of Cashmere, lead us to the hills and tear her from the grip of the outlaws. As a prince and a soldier thou canst do no less.

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The Prince of Edur

CANACA Thou liest through thy long nose! I can do much less than that. I will not suffer thee to put limits to my infinite ability. And I can tell a decoy-duck from a live gander. Shall I waddle my shins into Bappa’s trap? This letter was written under compulsion. HOOSHKA The Princess must be rescued. I wonder, Prince Toraman, that thou wilt jest over a thing so grave and unhappy. CANACA Why, genius will out, you cannot stable it for long, Hooshka; it will break bounds and gallop. Yet go, Hooshka, go; take all my men, Hooshka. Hooshka, slay the Bheel; rescue the lady, Hooshka. I wish I could go with thee and swing my dreadful blade with my mighty arm till the mountains reechoed. But the simple truth is, I have a bleeding dysentery. Willingly would I shed my princely blood for my sweet lady, but it is shedding itself already otherwise. HOOSHKA (aside) Thou fat-gutted cowardly rogue, wilt thou blacken the name of a hero with thy antics? Out at once, or the Rajpoots shall know who thou art and carve thee into little strips for a dog’s dinner. CANACA Sayst thou, my little captain? Thy arguments are strangely conclusive. Arms! arms! my horse! my horse! Out, Scythians, to the hills! My horse, I say! I will do deeds; I will paint the hills in blood and tattoo the valleys. (Enter Scythians.) Amitabha! Amitabha! Yell, you rogues, have you no lungs in your big greasy carcasses? With what will you fight then? SCYTHIANS Amitabha! Enter Ruttan and Rajpoots.

Act II, Scene 4

903

RUTTAN Rajpoots, to save a noble lady captived We march today. No gallant open enemy, But savages who lurk behind the rocks Are our opposers. Sweep them from the hills, Rajpoots, with the mere flashing of your swords And rescue from their villain touch a princess. Exeunt Ichalgurh, Ruttan and Rajpoots. CANACA March, Scythians! (aside) Hooshka, what say you? We will keep behind these mad-dog Rajpoots and fight valiantly in their shadow. That is but strategy. HOOSHKA (aside) If thou dost, I will kick thee into the enemy’s midst with my jackboots. CANACA (aside) Wilt thou muddy such a fine coat as this is? Hast thou the heart? (aloud) Trumpets! Into the breach, into the breach, my soldiers! Exeunt.

Scene 5 In the forest. Ichalgurh, Ruttan and Rajpoots. OUTSIDE Bappa! Bappa! Ho, Sheva Ekling! An arrow descends and a Rajpoot falls. RUTTAN Still upwards! ICHALGURH Upwards still! Death on the height Sits crowned to meet us; downwards is to dishonour And that’s no Rajpoot movement. Brother Ruttan, We’re strangled with a noose intangible. O my brave Rajpoots, by my headlong folly Led to an evil death! RUTTAN What is this weakness, Chouhan of famous Ichalgurh? Remember Thyself, my brother. But a little more And we have reached their wasps’-nest on the hills. ICHALGURH Not one alive. Another arrow. A Rajpoot falls. RUTTAN I ask no better fate, Brother, than at thy side however slain,

Act II, Scene 5

905

Victorious or defeated. ICHALGURH We have acted Like heedless children, thinking we had to stamp Our armoured heel on a mere swarm and rabble, But find ourselves at grips with skilful fighters And a great brain of war. Safe under cover They pick us off; we battle blindly forwards Without objective, smiting at the wind, Stumbling as in a nightmare and transfixed Ignobly by a foe invisible Our falchions cannot reach, — like crows, like jackals, Not like brave men and battle-famous warriors. RUTTAN Still on! ICHALGURH Yes, on, till the last man falls pierced Upon the threshold that immures the sweetness We could not save. Forward the Chouhan! Enter Kodal. KODAL Halt! A parley! ICHALGURH Speak, but talk not of surrender. KODAL ’Tis that I’ll talk of. I am Bappa’s mouthpiece. Rajpoots, you’re quite surrounded. If we choose, Our arrows buzzing through your brains can end you In five swift minutes. Lay then at Bappa’s feet Your humble heads; else like mad dogs be skewered

906

The Prince of Edur

And yelp your lives out. ICHALGURH Return unpunished; the name Of envoy guards thy barbarous insolence. Enter Sungram. SUNGRAM You speak too insolently your message, Kodal. Chouhan of Ichalgurh, thou art too great To die thus butchered. We demand a parley For courteous equal terms, not base surrender. ICHALGURH Thou art a Rajpoot; dost thou lead these arrows? SUNGRAM I lead the shafts that wear thee out; another Surrounds the Scythian; but we are the hands Of one more godlike brain. ICHALGURH With him I’ll parley. SUNGRAM ’Tis well. Go, Kodal, learn our chieftain’s will. Exit Kodal. ICHALGURH Young man, thou hast a Rajpoot form and bearing, Yet herdst with the wild forest tribes, remote From arms and culture. Dost thou hide thy name too? SUNGRAM I am a Chouhan like thyself, of birth As princely. Ask the warriors of Ajmere Who valiant Martund was; his sons are we,

Act II, Scene 5

907

Sungram and Prithuraj. ICHALGURH O youth, thy father Was my great pattern and my guide in war. Brother and enemy, embrace me. They embrace. Sungram, Who is thy captain? For the sons of Martund Serve not a Bheel. SUNGRAM Thine eyes shall answer thee. Enter Bappa and Kodal. ICHALGURH A noble-featured youth! What son of Kings Lives secret in these rugged hills? BAPPA Chouhan Of famous Ichalgurh, now if I’m slain In battle, I can tell the dead I’ve seen thee, Thou god of war. O let there be no hatred, Hero, between us, but only faith. ICHALGURH Young chieftain, Thou bearst a godlike semblance, but thy deeds Are less than noble. Hast thou not seized a princess By robber violence, forced her with thee To thy rude lair and threatenest her sweet body With shameful mastery? BAPPA We are warriors, Rajpoot; Two ways of mating only fit for us,

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The Prince of Edur

By mutual sweet attraction undenied To grow to oneness as they do in heaven, Or else with lion leap to seize our bride And pluck her from the strong protecting spears Taking her heart by violence. We mate not Like castes unwarlike, from a father’s hand Drawing an innocent wide-eyed wondering child Like cattle given or sold. This was the way Of Rajpoots long before the earth grew aged; And shall a Rajpoot blame it? Wherefore then rod’st thou Clanging last morn from Ichalgurh in arms, Pratap the Chouhan? ICHALGURH Chieftain, I am pledged To save the girl from thee. BAPPA But canst redeem The vow with thy dead body only. Hero, I too am sworn to keep her ’gainst the world. Let us in the high knightly way decide it. Deign to cross swords with me and let the victor Possess the maiden. ICHALGURH O thou springing stem That surely yet wilt rise to meet the sun! Agreed. Let no man intervene betwixt us. BAPPA Kodal, restrain thy Bheels. Exit Kodal. They fight. RUTTAN Bold is thy chieftain To match his boyish arm against my brother!

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SUNGRAM He is a mighty warrior, but not age Nor bulk can measure strength; the exultant spirit Pressing towards glory gives the arm a force Mightier than physical. He’s down. Ichalgurh falls wounded. RUTTAN Great Ichalgurh! Who is this godlike combatant? BAPPA Surrender My princess, Chouhan. ICHALGURH Thou hast her who deserv’st Much more than her. He rises. Young hero who in thy first battle o’erbearst Maturer victors! know Pratap the Chouhan Unalterably thy friend. When thou shalt ask My sword, ’tis thine. BAPPA Thou’rt wounded? ICHALGURH (binding his wound) I have been worse And ridden far to meet the foe. Another day We’ll share one rocky pillow on the hills And talk of battles. BAPPA Pratap, I could but offer A rude and hillside hospitality. But when I hold my court in mighty Edur

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I will absolve this morning’s debt. Enter Captain. ICHALGURH Farewell. BAPPA Escort him, friend. Exeunt Sungram, Ichalgurh, Ruttan and Rajpoots. How speeds the battle, comrade, There with the Scythians? CAPTAIN It is finished, prince. They fell in slaughtered heaps. BAPPA Prince Toraman? CAPTAIN Lay flat and bellowed. We’ld have taken him, But Prithuraj, mad for the joy of battle, Leaped on their foremost; while he hewed them down, Like an untiring woodman, one giant Scythian Crashing through bush and boulder hurled himself Out of thy net; with him a loyal handful Carried this Toraman. Enter Prithuraj. PRITHURAJ Pardon my error, Bappa. BAPPA It was a noble fault, my soldier. We have done all we hoped. The amorous Scythian Will not return in haste mid our green hills

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To woo a Rajpoot maiden. Let us go. I wonder when great Edur moves upon us. I long to hear his war assail our mountains. Exeunt.

Scene 6 Outside Bappa’s cot. Comol Cumary alone. COMOL Have I too dangerously ventured my all Daring a blast so rude? The Scythian roar Appals no more the forest, nor the warcry Of Ichalgurh climbs mightily the hills; The outlaws’ fierce triumphant shout is stilled Of their young war-god’s name. Who has won? who fallen? Enter Bappa. COMOL (coming eagerly to him) How went the fight? You’re safe! And Ichalgurh? BAPPA Give me your hands; I’ll tell you. COMOL I see your head’s Not in the basket. He takes her hands and draws her towards him. Cateran, I forbade you To touch me till the seventh day. BAPPA I touch What is my own. To bid or to forbid Is mine upon this hillside where I’m sovereign. Sit down by me.

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COMOL I will not be commanded. She sits down at his feet. BAPPA Oh, you are right, love. At my feet’s more fitting Who am your master and monarch. Come, no rising. Stay there, where I can watch your antelope eyes Look up at me bright with all love’s own sunshine. COMOL Oh, you provoke me. You’ve not met the Chouhan, Or you’ld have been much chastened. BAPPA I have met him. COMOL Great Ichalgurh? BAPPA We soon o’ercame the Scythians. Your lover, Comol, the great Toraman, Was borne, a mass of terror-stricken flesh, By faithful fugitives headlong down the hillside. COMOL You need not triumph. These were only Scythians. But what of Ichalgurh? BAPPA We fought. I conquered. COMOL Thou? thou? It is impossible.

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The Prince of Edur BAPPA But done.

COMOL Why, you’re a boy, a child! O my bright lion, You are a splendid and a royal beast, But very youthful. This was the maned monarch Whose roar shook all the forest when he leaped Upon his opposite. Then the great tusker Went down beneath his huge and tawny front As if it were an antelope. Him you’ve conquered? BAPPA He fell and yielded. COMOL You have learned romance From the wild hill-tops and the stars at night And take your visions for the fact. BAPPA Arch-infidel! Ask Sungram. COMOL Then I understand. You won As in your duel with me, quite unfairly. You used your sleight of hand? BAPPA Perhaps, my princess, His foot slipped and he fell; ’twas my good fortune, Not I that conquered him. COMOL Indeed it was Your high resistless fortune. O my king,

Act II, Scene 6 My hero, thou hast o’erborne great Ichalgurh; Then who can stand against thee? Thou shalt conquer More than my heart. (Bappa takes her into his arms) What dost thou, Bheel? Forbear! I did but jest. BAPPA Do you recall your letter, Comol? I have outdone the Chouhan, girl. COMOL Bheel, I wrote nothing, nothing. BAPPA I’ll keep you now For my sweet slavegirl, princess? You will not Deny me? COMOL ’Twas not my hand. Your Coomood forged it. I’ll not admit it. BAPPA Rebel against your heart! You’re trapped in your own springe. My antelope! (kisses her) I’ve brought you to my lair; shall I not prey on you? Kiss me. COMOL I will not. (kisses him) O not now! O give me The memory of this May to keep with me Till death and afterwards, a dream of greenness With visions of the white and vermeil spring,

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The Prince of Edur

A prelude set to winds and waterfalls Among the mountains of immortal Dongurh Far from the earth, in a delightful freedom Treading the hill-tops, all the joy of life In front of me to dream of its perfection, Bappa. BAPPA When you entreat, who shall refuse you, O lips of honey? COMOL Till the seventh morning, Bappa. BAPPA Only till then. COMOL That is a promise. (escaping from him) Which, having won, I do deny, unsay, Wholly recant and absolutely abjure Whatever flattery I have said or done To win it. You are still my Bheel and brigand, My lawless cateran; I great Edur’s princess. I love you! Do not dream of it. Six days! By then my father’ll smoke you from your lair, And take me from your dreadful claws, my lion, An antelope undevoured. BAPPA Have you yet thought Of the dire punishments you’ll taste for this, Deceiver?

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COMOL Not till the seventh morning, lion. Exit. BAPPA Till then, my antelope, range my hills and make them An Eden for me with thy wondrous beauty Moving in grace and freedom of the winds, Sweetness of the green woodlands; for of these Thou seemst a part and they thy natural country. Exit.

Act III The forest near Dongurh.

Scene 1 Comol, Coomood, meeting in the forest. COOMOOD Where were you hidden, Comol, all this morning? COMOL I have been wandering in my woods alone Imagining myself their mountain queen. O Coomood, all the woodland worshipped me! Coomood, the flowers held up their incense-bowls In adoration and the soft-voiced winds Footing with a light ease among the leaves Paused to lean down and lisp into my ear, Oh, pure delight. The forest’s unnamed birds Hymned their sweet sovran lady as she walked Lavishing melody. The furry squirrels Peeped from the leaves and waved their bushy tails, Twittering, “There goes she, our beloved lady, Comol Cumary”; and the peacocks came Proud to be seen by me and danced in front, Shrilling, “How gorgeous are we in our beauty, Yet not so beautiful as is our lady, Comol Cumary.” I will be worshipped, Coomood. COOMOOD You shall be. There’s no goddess of them all

Act III, Scene 1 That has these vernal looks and such a body Remembering the glory whence it came Or apt to tread with the light vagrant breeze Or rest with moonlight. COMOL That was what they told me, The voices of the forest, sister Coomood, — The myriad voices. COOMOOD What did they tell you, Comol? COMOL They told me that my hair was a soft dimness With thoughts of light imprisoned in’t; the gods, They said, looked down from heaven and saw my eyes Wishing that that were heaven. They told me, child, My face was such as Brahma once had dreamed of But could not, — no, for all the master-skill That made the worlds, — recapture in the flesh So rare a sweetness. They called my perfect body A feast of gracious beauty, a refrain And harmony in womanhood embodied. They told me all these things, — Coomood, they did, Though you will not believe it. I understood Their leafy language. COOMOOD Come, you did not need So to translate the murmurings of the leaves And the wind’s whisper. ’Twas a human voice I’ll swear, so deftly flattered you. COMOL Fie, Coomood, It was the trees, the waters; the pure, soft flowers

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The Prince of Edur

Took voices. COOMOOD One voice. Did he roar softly, sweetheart, To woo you? COMOL Oh, he’s a recreant to his duty. He loves the wild-deer fleeing on the hills And the strong foeman’s glittering blade, not Comol. You must not talk of him, but of the hills And greenness and of me. COOMOOD And Edur, Comol? COMOL Edur! It is a name that I have heard In some dim past, in some old far-off world I moved in, oh, a waste of centuries And many dreams ago. I’ll not return there. It had no trees, I’m sure, no jasmine-bushes, No happy breezes dancing with linked hands Over the hill-tops, no proud-seated hills Softening the azure, high-coped deep-plunging rocks Or flowery greenness round, no birds, no Spring. COOMOOD We are the distance of a world from Edur. Tomorrow is the May-feast’s crowning day, Comol. COMOL Oh then we shall be happy breezes And dance with link`ed hands upon the hills All the Spring-morning.

Act III, Scene 1 COOMOOD It is a May to be Remembered. COMOL It is the May-feast of my life, Coomood, the May-feast of my life, the May That in my heart shall last for ever, sweet, For ever and for ever. Where are our sisters? COOMOOD Nirmol is carrying water from the spring; Ishany hunts the browsing stag today, A sylvan archeress. COMOL What have you in the basket? COOMOOD Flowers I have robbed the greenest woodland of For Bappa’s worship. They must hide with bloom Sheva Ekling today. Tomorrow, sweet, I’ll gather blossoms for your hair instead And weave you silver-petalled anklets, earrings Of bright maybloom, zones of Spring honeysuckle, And hide your arms in vernal gold. We’ll set you Under a bough, our goddess of the Spring, And sylvanly adore, covering your feet With flowers that almost match their moonbeam whiteness Or palely imitate their rose; — our Lady, Comol Cumary. COMOL Will Bappa worship me? But I am an inferior goddess, Coomood, And dare not ask the King of Paradise To adore me.

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The Prince of Edur COOMOOD You must adore him, that’s your part.

COMOL I will, while ’tis the May. COOMOOD And afterwards? COMOL Coomood, we will not think of afterwards In Dongurh, in the springtide. COOMOOD Tomorrow dawns The seventh morning, Comol. COMOL I did not hear you. Are these our hunters? Enter Prithuraj and Ishany. ISHANY I have a better aim Than yours. PRITHURAJ Did I deny it? Oh, you shoot Right through the heart. ISHANY I’ll never marry one Whom I outdo at war or archery. You tell me you are famous Martund’s son, The mighty Gehlote. Wherefore lurk you then In unapproachable and tangled woods Warding off glory with your distant shafts,

Act III, Scene 1 While life sweeps past in the loud vale below? Not breast the torrent, not outbrave its shocks To carve your names upon the rocks of Time Indelibly? PRITHURAJ We will affront, Ishany, The Ganges yet with a victorious gleam Of armour. But our fates are infant still And in their native thickets they must wait To flesh themselves and feel their lion strengths Before they roar abroad. ISHANY Until they do, Talk not of love. PRITHURAJ What would you have me do? O’erbear in arms the Scythian Toraman, And slay the giant Hooshka? meet Ichalgurh And come unharmed, or with my single sword Say halt to a proud score of the best lances You have in Edur? This and more I can For thee, Ishany. ISHANY You talk, but do it first. Doers were never talkers, Prithuraj. PRITHURAJ Oh, that’s a narrow maxim. Noble speech Is a high prelude fit for noble deeds; It is the lion’s roar before he leaps. Proud eloquence graces the puissant arm And from the hall of council to the field Was with the great and iron men of old

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The Prince of Edur

Their natural stepping. ISHANY You only roar as yet. I beat you with the bow today; sometime I’ll fight you with the sword and beat you. PRITHURAJ Will you? Just as your lady did? ISHANY She played, she played, But I would aim in earnest at your heart. One day we’ll fight and see. PRITHURAJ Why, if we do, I’ll claim a conqueror’s right on your sweet body, Ishany. ISHANY And my heart? You must do more, If you’ll have that. PRITHURAJ It cannot now be long Before the mail`ed heel of Edur rings Upon our hillside rocks. Then I’ll deserve it. ISHANY Till then you are my fellow-hunter only, Not yet my captain. Enter Nirmol. NIRMOL Idlers and ne’er-do-weels, home! Here have I carried twelve full jars from the spring, set wood on the stove, kindled the fire,

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while you play gracefully the sylvan gadabouts. Where is the venison? PRITHURAJ Travelling to the cooking-pot on a Bheel’s black shoulders. NIRMOL To your service, Ishany! or you shall not taste the stag you have hunted. ISHANY Child, do not tyrannize. I am as hungry with this hunting as a beef-swallowing Scythian. Exit. NIRMOL Off with you, hero, and help her with your heroic shoulders. Exit Prithuraj. COMOL A pair of warlike lovers! NIRMOL You are there, sister-truants? Have you no occupation but to lurk in leaves and eavesdrop upon the prattle of lovers? COMOL Why, Nirmol, I did my service before I came. NIRMOL Yes, I know! To sweep one room — oh, scrupulously clean, for is it not Bappa’s? and to scrub his armour for a long hour till it is as bright as your eyes grow when they are looking at Bappa, — do they not, Coomood? COOMOOD They do, like stars allowed to gaze at God.

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The Prince of Edur

NIRMOL Exact! I have seen her — COMOL Nirmol, I do not know how many twigs there are in the forest, but I will break them all on your back, if you persevere. NIRMOL Do you think you are princess of Edur here that you threaten me? No, we are in the democracy of Spring where all sweet flowers are equals. Oh, I will be revenged on you for your tyrannies in Edur. I have seen her, Coomood, when she thought none was looking, lay her cheek wistfully against the hilt of his sword, trying to think that the cold hard iron was the warm lips of its master and hers. I have seen her kiss it furtively — COMOL (embracing and stopping her mouth) Hush, hush, you wicked romancer. NIRMOL Go then and cook our meal like a good princess and I will promise not to repeat all the things I have heard you murmur to yourself when you were alone. COMOL Nirmol, you grow in wickedness with years. Wait till I have you back in Edur, maiden; I’ll scourge this imp of mischief out of you. NIRMOL I have heard her, Coomood, — COMOL I am off, I am away! I am an arrow from Kodal’s bow. Exit.

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NIRMOL She is hard to drive, but I have the whiphand of her. COOMOOD Have you the crimson sandal-powder ready? Flowers for the garlands Spring in sweet abundance Provides us. NIRMOL Yes. She shall be wedded fast Before she knows it. COOMOOD Unless my father’s sword Striking us through the flowery walls we hide in, Prevent it, Nirmol. NIRMOL Coomood, our fragile flowers will weave A bond that steel cannot divide, nor death Dissever. Exeunt.

The Prince of Mathura AJAMEDE, Prince of Mathura, a fugitive in the mountains. INDRADYUMNA, his friend and comrade. ATRY, King of Mathura, by the help of the Scythians. TORAMAN, Prince of Cashmere, son of the Scythian overlord of the North-West. CANACA, a Brahmin, his court jester. HOOSHKA, captain of the Scythian bodyguard. MAYOOR, Atry’s general and minister. INDRANY, Queen of Mathura. URMILA, Princess of Mathura, daughter of Atry and Indrany. LILA, daughter of Hooshka.

Act I Scene 1 Mathura. A room in the Palace. Atry, Indrany. ATRY However hard it be, however gross The undisguised compulsion, none can stay Compulsion by impracticable revolt, Indrany. Deeper, viler the disgrace If by rebellion we invite constraint Naked, contemptuous, to a slave subdued. The reed that bows to the insistent wind Is wiser than the trunk which the cyclone Indignantly uproots. To force we yield, But to a force disguised in courtly forms. That’s better than to yield beneath the scourge. INDRANY There’s a defeat more noble, not to yield, Even though we break. And break, I know, we must, But to live fouled for ever, vilely robed In a soiled purple, marked out to all the world For laughter by the puppet’s tinsel crown, That is disgrace indeed. ATRY We hold this realm Because the northern Scythian helps our sword.

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The Prince of Mathura

INDRANY By princely compromise, alliance high, Not yet by purchase or a social stain. ATRY Our child will be an empress. INDRANY And outcaste. ATRY There have been many nuptials mixed like these, Of which world-famous emperors were born. INDRANY Yes, but we took, not gave, were lords, not slaves. As ransom of his fate the conquered Greek To Indian Chandragupta gave his child, Knowing a son by her could never rule. ATRY There is no bar. The Scythian weds with all And makes impartial Time the arbiter Whether a native or a foreign womb Shall be the shelterer of his empire’s heir. INDRANY This honour’s purchased at too vile a cost. ATRY There is no help. If we deny our girl, He’ll have her violently, make her his slave And not his wife. INDRANY Do this then, seem to yield, But send her to your fortress on the hills,

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Whence let one take her with a show of force, Whoever’s noblest now of Aryan lords In Magadha, Avanty or the South, Fit mate for Atry’s stock. Twixt him be strife And the Cashmerian, we escape his wrath. ATRY It shall be so. I’ll choose a trusty man Who shall to Magadha before the morn. Meanwhile prepare your daughter for the hills. Indrany goes out joyfully. It is not good. The man will learn the trick, A fierce barbarian, rapid as the storm, Violent, vindictive, stamping on the world Like a swift warhorse, neighing to the winds With nostrils wide for any scent of war, For men to kill, lands to lay desolate, Haughty and keen amid his violence With the king’s eye that reads the minds of men, — Such is the man she counsels me to tempt By palpable evasion. I will send Urmila to my fortress on the hills. But he, not Magadha, shall take her forth By secret nuptials. He is honourable Though violent, a statesman though too proud. The prejudices of our race and day Must yield to more commanding thoughts and views That suit the changing times. Custom is mutable, Only the breach of it is dangerous If too impetuously we innovate. It’s best To circumvent opinion, not provoke. Who’s there? Call Mayoor! The King’s first task is to preserve his realm, Means honourable or dishonourable Are only means to use impartially, The most effective first. Mayoor enters.

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The Prince of Mathura

Mayoor, you know The motion made by the Cashmerian’s son To wed my daughter. MAYOOR We have spoken of it Already. ATRY You are still of the same mind? You think my subjects will revolt? MAYOOR It’s sure. ATRY The Scythian sword can keep them hushed and still. MAYOOR And you its slave and pensioner, impotent. ATRY Then do it thus. The thing is secret still. Let it remain so. Let Prince Toraman Wed Urmila in secret in the hills As if herself had yielded to his suit, Not my consent. Against whom then, Mayoor, Shall Mathura revolt? MAYOOR It may be done. But will the Scythian’s pride assent, or if The bond is secret, will he own the bond? ATRY He shall, he must. To break by any means The bar of pride that lowers him beneath

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The lowest of his Aryan tributaries, He will consent to much. And for the bond He shall engage his honour, then possess. Yourself go to him, Mayoor, where he’s camped. Persuade him. Let an escort start at once With Urmila to Roondhra in the hills. I trust you, Mayoor, for entire success. My crown, my honour are upon this cast. MAYOOR Your crown is safe with me; your honour, King, I’ll save. ATRY Always few words were yours, Mayoor, But each one solid gold. He goes out. MAYOOR To cheat you’s best Of the dishonour to which you aspire And for the crown, it’s safer in my hands Than Toraman’s, the Scythian giant, bold, Subtle and violent, who spreads his toils Over all India, helping force with guile And guile with force. Enter Mekhala. MEKHALA He is alone. Hear you, Mayoor! MAYOOR It’s from the queen? MEKHALA Read it and see.

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The Prince of Mathura

MAYOOR Tell her my word is pledged and Urmila Saved from the Scythian wedlock. MEKHALA And that means You’ll do it? MAYOOR She shall not wed Toraman. Mekhala goes out. This is another coil. The King, it seems, Deceives his people and deceives his queen. She trusts him not, nor they. A lying King Tortuous and serpentine in policy, Loses as much by the distrust he breeds As all his shufflings gain. I’ll write to Magadha In other terms than Queen Indrany dreams. I will send out my messengers at once. One first to Ajamede, the lion dispossessed, Where in the hills of Roondhra now he lairs. Another to the mighty Magadhan Who gathers up his strength to free the land From the barbarian’s tread. Myself shall go To Toraman and meet the Scythian will. The end shall be as God long since decreed.

The Birth of Sin A Drama

LUCIFER, the Angel of Power. SIRIOTH, the Angel of Love. GABRIEL, the Angel of Obedience. MICHAEL, the Angel of War. RAPHAEL, the Angel of Sweetness. THE ELOHIM. BELIAL, the Angel of Reason. BAAL, the Angel of Worldly Wisdom. MOLOCH, the Angel of Wrath. SUN. ASHTAR, the Angel of Beauty. MEROTH, the Angel of Youth.

Prologue

Act I LUCIFER Master of light and glory, lift thy rays Over the troubled flood; lift up thy rays. Obey me. SUN Lucifer! who gave thee power Over the gods that rule the ancient world? Or why should I obey thee? Art thou God? Hast thou dethroned the Omnipotent from Heaven And cast Him down into His nether glooms, Revolting? Gave He then His supreme command, Speak as a servant then and minister, Not with the accent that controls the stars. LUCIFER Who then compelled thee from thy bright repose, Or wherefore hast thou come? SUN By Him compelled, Before whose mandate tremble all the Gods. LUCIFER By His or mine? That I will see. Rise, Sun, And from thy luminous majestic orb Cast out into the azure hold of Space Creative Energy and pregnant Fire

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The Birth of Sin

Whirling around thee while the years endure. SUN Lucifer, Son of Morning, First in Heaven, What madness seizes thee? What awful force Darkly magnificent, brilliantly ominous Looks out from eyes that own no more the calm? LUCIFER Obey! SUN I cannot choose. Power leaps from thee Upon me. I am seized with fiery pangs. Spare me, thou dreadful Angel. I obey. Exit. LUCIFER Power, power to make and to unmake the world! Power grows in me. I am omnipotent. Children of immortality whose ranks And brilliant armies people the infinite, Creatures of wonder, creatures of desire, O suns that wheel in everlasting fire, O stars that sow the ethereal spaces thick, O worlds of various life! I am your King. This I have learnt that God and I are one. If one, then equal! Rightly too I deemed That God develops, God increases. I, Younger than He am greater than the Power From which I sprang; the new excels the old. BELIAL What dost thou, Lucifer, Angel of God? The infinite spaces murmur like a sea, The ethereal realms are rocked as with a wind, All Nature stands amazed. Whence this revolt?

Act I Who gave thee force to overturn the world? LUCIFER Watch, Belial, watch with me. A crisis comes In the infinite, mobile and progressive world. For God shall cease and Lucifer be God. BELIAL Thou speakst a thing that madness only speaks. If God be God, how can He change or cease? LUCIFER Watch, Belial! I will prove to thee the truth, Thou reasonable Angel.

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Fragment of a Play

Act I Mathura.

Scene 1 A street in Mathura. Ahuca’s house. Sudaman, Ocroor. SUDAMAN What art thou? OCROOR One that walks the Night. SUDAMAN No Ogre! Thou art Ocroor by thy voice. OCROOR Whatever name The Lord has given his creature. Thou shouldst be Sudaman. SUDAMAN If I am? OCROOR Walk not alone When the black-bellied Night has swallowed earth Lest all thou hast done to others should return Upon thee with a sword in the dumb Night

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Fragment of a Play

And no man know it. SUDAMAN Care not; I am shielded. OCROOR Not by the gods! SUDAMAN No, by a greater god Than any that have seats near Vishnu’s throne. OCROOR What god whom even Sudaman worships? SUDAMAN Terror Whose shoe I have enshrined in Mathura And all men kiss it and their tongues declare ’Tis justice and mild rule while their hearts hate And quiver. OCROOR Thou art the Ogre. Has the blood Of many nobles not contented thee? Dost thou not feel enough thy furious greatness yet, Sudaman? SUDAMAN Ocroor, I have a belly to digest Much more than Mathura. OCROOR So Ravan had Who perished.

Act I, Scene 1 SUDAMAN What dost thou in this black night Whose shadows help the lover and the thief, Two kindred traders? Which of these art thou? OCROOR Both, may be. SUDAMAN If thou be, then let thy theft Attain some Yadav’s house, that I may laugh At his dishonour. OCROOR Thou hatest much, it seems, Thy father’s nation! SUDAMAN Whom I have imprisoned That I may mock him daily, else were he dead And with the gods he worships. OCROOR Thou shalt end Evilly yet. SUDAMAN If it is so, ’tis so Because the round of being leads to that, And not because of gods or virtue.

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Stories

Occult Idylls

The Phantom Hour

S

TURGE Maynard rose from the fireside and looked out on the blackish yellow blinding fog that swathed London in the dense folds of its amplitude. In his hand he carried the old book he was reading, his finger was still in the page, his mind directed, not with entire satisfaction, to the tenour of the writer’s imaginations. For, if these pleased his sense of the curious, they disgusted his reason. A mystic, mediaeval in epoch and temperament, the old Latinist dealt with psychological fancies the modern world has long discarded in order to bustle to the polling booth and the counting house. Numerous subtleties occurred repulsive to the rigid and definite solutions of an age which, masterful with knowledge in the positive and external, tries to extend its autocracy in the shape of a confident ignorance over the bounds of the occulter world within, occult — declared the author, — only because we reject a key that is in everyone’s hand, himself. “Prosaist of mysteries,” thought Sturge, “trafficker in devious imaginations, if one could find only the thinnest fact to support the cumbrous web that is here woven! But the fog is less thick than the uncertainty in which these thoughts were content to move.” In a passage of unusual but bizarre interest the German mystic maintained that the principle of brilliancy attended with a ceaseless activity the motions of thought, which, in their physical aspect, are flashes of a pure, a lurid or a murky light. It was, he said, a common experience with seers in intense moments of rapid cerebration to see their heads, often their whole surroundings besieged by a brilliant atmosphere coruscating with violet lightnings. Even while he wondered at these extravagances, it flashed across Sturge’s memory that he himself in his childhood had been in the habit of seeing precisely such violet coruscations

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about his head and had indulged his childish fancy with them until maturer years brought wonder, distrust and the rapid waning of the phenomenon. Was there then some justification of experience for the fancies of the German? With an impulse he tried vainly to resist, he fixed his eye piercingly on the fog outside the window and waited. At the moment he was aware of a curious motion in his head, a crowding of himself and all his faculties to the eye; then came the sight of violet flashes in the fog and a growing excitement in his nerves watched by a brain that was curiously, abnormally calm. A whole world of miraculous vision, of marvellous sound, of ancient and future experience was surely pressing upon him, surging against some barrier that opposed intercourse. Astonished and interested, but not otherwise disturbed, his reason attempted to give itself some account of what was happening. The better to help the effort, he fixed his eye again on the fog for repetition or disproof of what he had seen. There were no further violet flashes, but something surely was hinting, forming, manifesting in the grey swathe outside. It became bright, it became round, it became distinct. Was it a face or a globe? With a disappointed revulsion of feeling he saw himself face to face with nothing more romantic than a clock. He smiled and turned to compare with that strong visualised image his own substantial, unmystic, workday companion on the mantelpiece. His body grew tense with a shock of surprise. There indeed was the clock, his ebony-faced, gold-lettered recorder of hours, balanced lightly on a conventional Father Time in the centre and two winged goddesses at the side; the hands, he noted, were closing upon the twelve and the five, and there would soon ring out the sound of the hour. But, by its side, what was this phantasmal and unwonted companion, fixed, distinct, aping reality, ebony-faced also, but silver-lettered, solidly pedestalled, not lightly balanced, pointing to the hour eight with the same closeness as the real clock pointed to the hour five? He had time to notice that the four of this timepiece was not lettered in the ordinary Roman numerals, but with the four vertical and parallel strokes; then the apparition disappeared.

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An optical hallucination! Probably, the mental image intensely visualised, of some familiar timepiece in a friendly sittingroom. Indeed, was it not more than familiar? Surely he knew it, — had seen it, daily, insistently, — that ebony face, that silver lettering, that strong ornamented pedestal, even that figure four! But where was it, when was it? Some curious bar in his memory baffled the mind wandering vainly for the lost details. Suddenly the clock, his own clock, struck five. He counted mechanically the familiar sounds, sharp, clear, attended with a metallic reverberation. And then, before the ear could withdraw itself from its object, another clock began, not sharp, not clear, not metallic but with a soft, harmonious chime and a musical jangling at the end. And the number of the strokes was eight! Sturge sat down at the table and opened his book at random. If this were a hallucination, it was a carefully arranged and wellexecuted hallucination. Was someone playing hypnotic tricks with his brain? Was he hypnotising himself? His eye fell on the page and met not mediaeval Latin, but ancient Greek, though unHomeric hexameters. Very clear was the lettering, very plain the significance. “For the gods immortal wander always over the earth and come unguessed to the dwellings of mortals; but rare is the eye that can look on them and rarer the mind that can distinguish the disguise from the deity.”1 Hypnotism again! for he knew that the original lucubrations of the old mystic, subtle in substance, but in expression rough, tedious, amorphous, persisted from the beginning to the end in their crabbed Latin and deviated nowhere into Greek, flowered nowhere into poetry. There was yet more of the hexameters, he noticed, and he read on. “And men too live disguised in the sunlight and never from their birth to their death shalt thou see the mask uplifted. Nay, 1 ae gr jeo jnatoi per gaan lntai jnhtn d njr pwn p d mata prosba nousi krupto to c d t c a prosdrketai mmasi kruptoc? eta t daimnion t kenn ka sqma t c ode?

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thou thyself, O Pelops, hast thou seen even once the daemon within thee?”2 There the hexameters ceased and the next moment the physical page reappeared with its native lettering. But sweet, harmonious, clear in his hearing jangled once more the chimes of the phantom hour. And again the number of strokes was eight. Sturge Maynard rose and waited for some more definite sign. For he divined now that some extraordinary mental state, some unforgettable experience was upon him. His expectation was not deceived. Once more the chimes rang out, but this time it seemed to him as if a woman’s voice were crying to him passionately under cover of that perfectly familiar melody. But were the two phantasmal sounds memories of this English land and birth or was it out of some past existence they challenged him, insisting and appealing, inviting him to remember some poignant hour of a form he had worn and discarded, a name he had answered to and forgotten? Whatever it was, it was near to him, it touched potently his heart-strings. And then immediately following the eighth stroke there came, as if far off, an unmistakable explosion of sound, the report of a modern revolver. Sturge Maynard left the fireplace and the room, descended the stairs, put on his hat and overcoat, and moved towards the door of his house. He had no clear idea where he would go or what he must do, but whatever it might be, it had to be done. Then it occurred to him that he had forgotten his revolver which was lying in the drawer of his wardrobe. He went up, possessed himself of the weapon, loaded it, put it in his right-hand side pocket, assured himself that the pocket carried his two latchkeys, once more descended the stairs and walked out into one of the densest of London fogs, damp, choking and impenetrable. He moved through a world that seemed to have no existence 2 krupto ka broto ndrec n agac l ou es n od t tgmat pwjosin krupto d janontai. ka s, Ploy, pte tn sn t ndon da mon pedec?

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except in memory. There was no speed of traffic. Only an occasional cartman hoarsely announced from time to time the cautious progress of his vehicle. Sturge could not see anything before or around him, — except when he neared the curb and a lamppost strove to loom out on him shadowily or on the other side a spectral fragment of wall brushed his coatsleeve. But he was certain of the pavement under his feet, and he felt he could make no false turn. A surer guide than his senses and memory led him. He crossed the road, entered the gates of Hyde Park, traversed in a sure and straight line of advance the fogbound invisible open, passed through the Marble Arch, and in Oxford Street, for the first time, hesitated. There were two women who were dear to him, either of whom by her death could desolate half his existence. To whom should he go? Then his mind, or something within it, decided for him. These speculations were otiose. He need not go to his sister Imogen. What possible evil could happen to her in her uncle’s well-appointed, well-guarded comfortable home, in the happy round of her life full of things innocently careless and harmlessly beautiful. But Ren´ee! Ren´ee was different. He pursued his walk in a familiar direction. As he went, it flashed across his memory that she had forbidden him to visit her today. There was some living reminiscence of her past life coming to her, someone she did not care for Sturge to meet, she had said with her usual frank carelessness; he must not come. He had not questioned. Since he first knew her, he had never questioned, and the past of Ren´ee Beauregard was a void even for the man to whom she had surrendered everything. There was room in that void for unusual incidents, supreme perils. He remembered now that her parting clasp had been almost convulsive in its strength and intensity, her speech vibrant with some unexplained emotion. He had been aware of it without observing it, being preoccupied with his passion. Whatever part of his mind had noted it, had confined its possible cause within the limits of the usual, as men are in the habit of doing, ignoring the unusual until it seizes and surprises them. He reached the square and the house in which she lived,

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opened the door with one of the latchkeys in his pocket, divested himself of his coat and hat, and directed his steps to the drawingroom. A girl of nineteen or twenty rose, calm and pale, fronting the open doorway. The clutch of her hand on the chair, the rigid forward impulse in her frame were the index of a great emotion and an intense expectation. But her face flushed, the hand and figure relaxed, when she saw her visitor. Ren´ee Beauregard was a Frenchwoman of the South, rich in physical endowment, in nervous vitality, in the e´ lan of her tongue and her spirit. Her exquisite full limbs, her buoyant gait, the mobility of her crimson lips, her smiling dark eyes made great demands on life, on success, on pleasure, on love. But in the invincibly happy flame of the eyes there was at the moment the shadow of a tragic disappointment haunting and disfiguring their natural expression. This was plainly a woman with a past, — and a present. And her nature, if not her fate, demanded a future. “Sturge!” She took a step towards the door. Sturge walked over to the fireplace and took her hand. “I forgot your prohibition till I was too near to turn back. And there was the fog; and return was cheerless and you were here!” “You should not have forgotten!” she said, but she smiled, well-pleased at his coming. Then the dark look reusurped those smiling eyes. “And you must go back. No, not now. In a quarter of an hour. You may stop for quarter of an hour.” She had glanced at the clock, and his eyes followed hers. He saw an ebony-faced timepiece, silver-lettered, solidly-pedestalled, rendering the figure four in parallel strokes, and smiled at the curious tricks that his memory had played him. It was five minutes past six. “I will go to Imogen’s,” he said, very deliberately. She looked at him, looked at the clock, then cried impulsively, leaning towards him: “And you will come at eight and dine with me! Rachel shall lay the covers for two,” then drew back, as if repenting her invitation. Eight! Yes, he would dine with her — after he had done his work. That seemed to be the arrangement, — not hers, but

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whose? The daemon’s perhaps, the god’s, within or without. They sat talking for a while, and it seemed to him that never had their talk been so commonplace in form or so vibrant with emotion. At twenty past six he rose, took his farewell and moved out to the fog; but she followed him to the door, helped him on with his overcoat, trembling visibly as she did so. And before he went, she embraced and kissed him once, not vehemently, but with a strong quietude and as if some fateful resolution had at that moment been formed in her heart, and expressed itself in her caress. “I shall be back by eight,” he said quietly. He had accepted, but not returned her embrace. By eight! Yes, and before. But he did not tell her that. He swung through the fog to his uncle’s residence, with a light, clear and careless mind, but an intense quiet in his heart. He reached the place, in a very aristocratic neighbourhood, and was invited in by a portly footman. Sir John was out, at the House, but Miss Imogen Maynard was at home. The next hour Sturge passed calmly and lightly enough; for in his sister’s everyday attractive personal talk coursing lightly over the surface of life, amusements and theatres, books, music, paintings varied with politics and a shade of politely hinted scandal, even his heart insensibly lost its tension and he slipped back into the usual, forgetting the within in the without. The next hour and more. It was Imogen Maynard who rose and said: “Ten minutes to eight, Sturge. I must go and dress. You are sure you won’t dine?” Sturge Maynard looked at the clock and his heart stood still. He bid his sister a hasty adieu, ran down the stairs, clutched his hat and coat and was out in the fog, donning his overcoat as he walked. He made sure of the revolver and the latchkeys, then broke into a run. His great dread was that he might lose the turning in his haste and arrive after the stroke of the hour. But it was difficult to miss it, the only open space for half a mile! And the daemon? was he a spirit of prophecy only? Did he not visit to save?

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He turned into Ren´ee’s square and, as he strode to the house and ascended the steps, the agitation passed from him and it was with an even pulse and a steady nerve that he turned to the drawingroom door. He had flung aside his hat but not waited to divest himself of the coat. His hand was in the pocket and the butt of the revolver was in his hand. The door was open and, unusual circumstance, veiled by the Japanese screen. He stood at its edge and looked into the room which was intensely still, but not untenanted — for on the rug before the fireplace, at either end of it, stood Ren´ee Beauregard and a man unknown to Sturge. He looking at her as if waiting for her speech; she calm, pale, resolute in silence, with the heavy burden of her past in her eyes. The stranger’s back was half turned to Sturge and only part of his profile was visible, but the Englishman quivered with his hatred even as he looked at him. Was this what he had to do? He took out the revolver and put his finger on the trigger. Then he glanced at the clock, — it wanted four minutes to the hour; and at the stranger again, — in his hand, too, was a revolver and his finger also rested on the trigger. Sturge Maynard smiled. Then the man’s voice was heard. “It has to be then, Idalie!” he said, in a thin, terrible, mournful plaint, “You have decided it. Don’t bear any grudge. You know it can’t be helped. You have to die.” Sturge remembered that Idalie was Ren´ee’s second name, but she had always forbidden him to use it. The thin voice continued, this time with a note of curious excitement in its plaintiveness. “And you throw it all on me! What does it matter how I got you, what I did afterwards? Everything’s allowed to a lover. And I loved you. It’s dangerous to play with love, Idalie. You find it now!” Sturge looked at the man. Danger for her there was none, but great danger for this rigid, thin-voiced assassin, this man whom Sturge Maynard hated with every muscle in his body, with every cell of his brain. It seemed to him that each limb of him greatened and vibrated with the energy of the homicide,

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with the victorious impulse to slay. There was a fog outside, what a fog! and he could easily dispose of the body. Really that was a good arrangement. God did things very cleverly sometimes. And he laughed in himself at the grimness of his conceit. Yet somehow he believed it. God’s work, not his. And yet his, too, preordained — since when? But the doomed voice was going on. “I give you still a chance, Idalie — always, always a chance. Will you go with me? You’ve been false to me, false with your body, false with your heart. But I’ll forgive. I forgave your desertion, I’ll forgive this too. Come with me, Idalie. And if not, — Ren´ee Idalie, it is going to strike eight, and when the hour has done striking, I strike. It’s God shoots you with this hand of mine, — the God of Justice, the God of Love. It’s both you have offended. Will you come?” She shook her head. A deadly pallor swept over the man. “It’s done then,” he cried, “you’ve done it. You have got to die.” He trained the pistol on her and his finger closed on the trigger. Sturge remained motionless. Nothing could happen before the hour struck. That was the moment destined, and no one could outrun Fate by a second. The man went on: “Don’t say it till the clock strikes! There’s time till then. When I shoot you, Rachel will run up and I will shoot her. I left the door open so that she might hear the sound. Who else in England knows that I exist? I shall go out — oh, when you are both dead, not before. There’s a fog, there’s not a soul about, and I shall walk away very quietly. No one will see, no one will hear. God with his fog has blinded and deafened the world. You see it’s He or it would not have been so perfectly arranged for me.” Very grimly Sturge Maynard smiled. Men who hated each other might, it seemed, have very similar minds. Perhaps that was why they clashed. Well, if it was God, He was a tragic artist too and knew the poetical effectiveness of dramatic irony! Everything this man reckoned on or had arranged for his deed and his safety, had been or would be helpful to his own executioner! And then the consciousness came upon him that this had all happened before. But not here, not in these English surroundings! A great

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blur of green came before his eyes, obscuring the clock. Then it leaped on him — green grass, green trees, green-covered rocks, a green sea and on the sward a man face downward, stabbed in the back, over him his murderer, the stiletto fresh-stained with blood. A boat rocked on the waters; it had been arranged for the assassin’s escape, and in it there lay a woman, bound. Sturge knew those strange faces very well and remembered how he had lain dead on that sward. It was strange to see it all again in this drawingroom with the fateful modern ebony-faced timepiece seen through the green of Mediterranean trees! But it was going to end very differently this time. Then the voice of the woman rang out, cold, strong, like the clang of iron. “I will not go,” she said, simply. And the hour struck. It struck once, it struck twice, thrice, four times. And then she lifted her eyes and saw Sturge Maynard walking forward from the side of the screen. He was a good shot and there was no chance of his bungling it and killing her. But he would make sure! The woman in her intensity had summoned up a marvellous self-control, and it did not break now; she neither moved, nor uttered a sound. But a look came into her eyes poignant in its appeal, terrible in its suggestion. For it was a cry for life, a command to murder. The doomed man was looking at the clock, not at her, still less at any possible danger behind. He looked up as the eighth musical jangle died away and Sturge saw his light, steady, cruel eyes gleaming like those of a beast. He pressed his finger on the trigger. “It is finished!” cried the man. And as he spoke, Sturge Maynard fired. The room rang with the shot, filled with the smoke. When the smoke cleared, the stranger was seen prostrate on the rug: his head lay at the feet of the woman he had doomed. There was a running of steps in the passage and the maid Rachel entered, — as the man who lay there had foreseen. She was trembling when she came, but she saw the man on the rug, paused, steadied herself, and smiled. “We must carry it out at once into the fog,” she said simply in French. With

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a simultaneous impulse both she and Sturge approached the corpse. Then Ren´ee, breaking into excited motion, ran to Sturge and putting her hand on his shoulder made as if to push him out of the room. “I will see to that!” she panted, “Go!” He turned to her with a smile. “You must go at once,” she reiterated, “For my sake, do not be found in this house. Others besides Rachel may have heard the shot.” But he took her by the wrists, drew her away from the fireplace and set her in a chair. “We lose time, Monsieur,” said Rachel, again. “It is better to lose time, Rachel,” he said, “we will give ten minutes to Fate.” And the serving-woman nodded and proceeding to the corpse began to tie up the wound methodically in her apron. The others waited in absolute stillness, Sturge arranging in his mind the explanation he would give, if any had heard the report and broke in on them. But silence and fog persisted around the house. They took up the body. “If anyone notices, we are carrying a drunken man home,” said Sturge. “Carry it carefully; there must be no trail of blood.” And so into the English fog they carried out the man who had come living from foreign lands, and laid him down in the public road, far from the house and the square where he had perished. When they returned to the room, Rachel took up the bloodstained rug and apron, sole witnesses of the thing that had been done. “I will destroy these,” she said, “and bring the rug from Madame’s room. And then,” she said, as simply as before, “Monsieur and Madame will dine.” Ren´ee shuddered and looked at Sturge. “I remain here,” he said, “till the body is found. We are linked henceforth indissolubly and for ever, Idalie.” And as he stressed lightly the unwonted name, there was a look in his eyes she dared not oppose. That night, when Ren´ee had gone to her room, Sturge, sitting over the fire, remembered that he had not told her the

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strange incident which had brought about one tragedy today and prevented another. When he went into her chamber, she came to him, deeply agitated, and clasped him with violence. “Oh, Sturge, Sturge!” she cried, “to think that if you had not chanced to come, I should be dead now, taken from you, taken from God’s beautiful world!” Chanced! There is no such thing in this creation as chance, thought Sturge. But who then had given him that mystic warning? Who had put the revolver in his hand? or sent him on a mission of slaughter? Who had made Imogen rise just in time? Who had fired that shot in the drawingroom? The God within? The God without? The Easterns spoke of God in a man. This might well be He. And then there returned to his memory those fierce emotions, the hatred that had surged in him, the impulse and delight of slaughter, the song of exultation that his blood yet sang in his veins, because a man that had lived, was dead and could not return to life again. He remembered, too, the command in Ren´ee’s eyes. God in a man? — was God in a man a murderer then? In him? and in her? “It is to enquire too curiously to think so,” he concluded, “but very strangely indeed has He made His world.” Then he told her about the German mystic and the chime of the phantom hour that had brought him to her in the tragic moment of their destinies. And when he spoke of the daemon within, the woman understood better than the man.

The Door at Abelard CHAPTER I

T

HE VILLAGE of Streadhew lay just under the hill, a collection of brown solid cottages straggling through the pastures, and on the top of the incline Abelard with its gables and antique windows watched the road wind and drop slowly to the roofs of Orringham two miles away. For many centuries the house and the village had looked with an unchanged face on a changing world, and in their old frames housed new men and manners, while Orringham beyond adapted itself and cast off its mediaeval slough. The masters of Abelard lived with the burden of a past which they could not change. Stephen Abelard of Abelard, the last male of his line, had lived in the house with the old gables for the past twenty years mixing formally in the society of his equals, discharging the activities incidental to his position with a punctilious conscientiousness, but withdrawn in soul from the life around him. That was since the death of his wife in childbirth followed soon afterwards by the fading of the son to give whom she had died. ¨ Two daughters, Isabel and Aloyse, survived. Stephen Abelard did not marry again; he was content that the old line should be continued through the female side, and when his daughter Isabel married Richard Lancaster, the younger son of a neighbouring country family, he stipulated that the husband should first consent to bear the name of his wife’s ancestors. This attachment to the old name was the one thing known in the lord of the old house that belonged to the past. For Stephen Abelard, in spite of his spiritual aloofness, was a man forward in thought, with a keen emancipated intellect which neither present nor past dogma could bind, and gifted with a high courage to act according to the light that he had.

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A strange series of accidents had helped to bring the old family near to extinction. For the last hundred years no daughter-in-law of the house had been able to survive by many days the birth of her first male child. Girl-children had been born and no harm had happened but some fatality seemed to attend the birth of a son. Stephen’s great-grandfather had male issue, Hugh and Walter, and one daughter, Bertha, who died tragically, murdered in her chamber, no one knew by whom. It was after this incident that the fatality seemed to weigh on the house and popular superstition was not slow to connect the fatality with the deed. Hugh Abelard had already a wife and two sons at the time of the occurrence, but Walter was unmarried. One year after the tragic and mysterious death of his sister he brought a bride home to Abelard and in yet another year a son had been born to him. But only seven days after the birth of her child Mary Abelard was found dead in her room, possibly from some unexplained shock to the heart, for she was strong and in good health when she perished, and Walter, unhinged by the death of his young wife, went into foreign lands where he too died. The tongues of the countryside did not hesitate to whisper that he only paid in his affliction the penalty of an undetected crime. Hugh’s sons grew up and married, but the same fatality fell upon the unions they had contracted; they died early and their sons did not live to enjoy the estate they successively inherited. Then Walter Abelard’s son came with his wife and daughter and took possession. Stephen was born two years later and within three days of his birth his mother had shared the fate of all women who married into the fated house. So strong was the impression made upon Richard Abelard by this fate or this strong recurrent coincidence that when he married again, he would not allow his wife to enter the home of his ancestors. He bought a house in the neighbouring county and lived there till his death from an accident in the hunting-field. After him Stephen reigned, a man modern-minded, full of energy and courage, who returned, scornful of antiquated superstitions, to the old family house, married and had two daughters, and then — well, coincidence insisted and the male child came and the mother, adored of her

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husband, passed away. But there was no mystery about this death. She died of collapse after childbirth, her life fought for by skilful doctors, watched over by careful attendants, sleeplessly guarded at night by her husband. A coincidence, nothing more. Therefore Isabel and Richard Lancaster Abelard came fearlessly to live at the fated house. The daughters of the house had been immune from any fatality, and when she became enceinte, no superstitious fears haunted the mind of any among the numerous friends and relatives who loved her for her charm and her gaiety. About three months before the birth of the child ¨ married, not as the Abelards could be expected her sister Aloyse had hitherto done, into the neighbouring families, but, contrary to all precedent, a young foreign doctor settled at Orringham, a man not only foreign, but of Asiatic blood. Popular as Dr.. Armand Sieurcaye was in the neighbourhood, the alliance had come with something of a shock to the countryside; for the Abelards, though less wealthy than many, were the oldest of the county families. But neither Abelard nor his daughter were troubled with these prejudices. The young man had powerfully attracted them both and the marriage was as much the choice of the father as of the daughter. Armand Sieurcaye came from the south of France, and there was only the glossy blackness of his hair and the richer tint of the olive in his face to suggest a non-European origin. His grandfather, son of the mixed alliance of a Maratha Sirdar with the daughter of a French adventurer in the service of Scindia, had been the first to settle in France purchasing an estate in Provence with the riches amassed and hoarded by battle and plunder on Indian soil. Armand was the younger of two sons and had studied medicine at Nancy and then, driven rather by some adventurous strain in his blood than any necessity, sought his fortune abroad. He went first to Bombay, but did little there beyond some curious investigations which interested his keen, sceptical and inquiring mind, but did not help his purse. At Bombay, he met John Lancaster, Richard’s brother, and was induced by him to try his fortune in the English county town aided by whatever local influence his friend, plucked by an almost

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miraculous cure from the grip of a fatal disease, could afford him in gratitude for the saving of his life. In twelve months Armand Sieurcaye had won for himself universal popularity, a ¨ Abelard. lucrative practice, and Aloyse The old house, bathed in spring sunshine, had little in it of the ominous or weird to Armand Sieurcaye when with his young wife he entered it for a lengthened stay in the month of Isabel’s delivery. He was attracted by its old-world quaintness, by the mass of the green ivy smothering the ancient walls, by the heavenward question of its short pointed towers; but there was nothing there to alarm or to daunt. Isabel had hurried to the study to her father, and Armand guided by Richard Lancaster repaired to the room into which the domestics had already carried his belongings. “Awfully good of you to leave your practice and come,” said Lancaster, “It’s a relief to have you. Herries is a fool and I’m not used to the worry.” Armand looked at him with some surprise. He had not expected even so much nervousness in his cheerful, vigorous, commonplace brother-in-law. “Is there any trouble?” he asked lightly, “Isabel seems strong. There can’t be any reason for fear.” “Oh, there isn’t. But I tell you, I’m not used to the worry,” and, then, starting off from the subject, “How do you like your room?” Armand had not looked at his room, but he looked at it now. It was a comfortable, well-furnished room with nothing apparently unmodern about it except the old oak panelling of the walls and the unusual narrowness and length of the two windows that looked out on the grounds behind the house. His eyes fell on a door in the wall to his right hand. “What’s there?” he asked. “I thought the room was the last at this end of the house.” “I haven’t any idea,” was the indifferent answer. “It can’t be anything more than a balcony or closet.” The door attracted Armand’s attention strangely. Of some slighter wood, not of the oak with which Abelard abounded, it

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was carved with great plainness and struck him as more modern than the rest of the house. Still it was not precisely a modern door. He walked over to it to satisfy his curiosity, but the attempt to turn the handle brought no result. “Locked?” questioned Lancaster, a little surprised. He too sauntered over and turned the handle in vain. “I hope it’s not a haunted chamber,” said Armand, making the useless attempt again. He had spoken carelessly and was not prepared for the unwonted ebullition that followed his words. Richard’s face darkened, he struck the floor with his heel, angrily. “It’s a beastly house,” he cried. “When old Stephen dies, I’ll sell it for a song.” More and more surprised, Armand turned to look closely at his brother-in-law. It might be his fancy which told him that the young man’s face was paler than ordinarily and an uneasy restless look leaped from time to time into the shallowness of his light blue eyes. It was certainly his fancy which said that Richard looked as an animal might look when it is aware of some hidden enemy hunting it. He dismissed the imagination immediately, and put away from him the thought of the door. But it occurred to him again when, returning from a solitary walk in the grounds, he chanced to look up at the angle of the house occupied by his room and the locked closet or balcony. A corner of wall there did jut out beyond what he judged to be the limit of his room and then curved lightly round and formed a porch supporting a small room that could not have been more than eight feet by twelve in size; over the room a peaked tower. The erection was meant to imitate and harmonise with the older pointed towers of the building, but a slight observation confirmed the Doctor’s surmise that here was a later excrescence inharmoniously added for some whim or personal convenience. But the ivy was unusually thick on this side and even covered the great carved and high-arched orifices that all along the length of the erection did duty for windows. It must then be rather in the nature of a closed balcony than a room. It struck him casually how easy it would be for an intruder to climb up the strong thick growths of ivy from outside and enter

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the house by the balcony. The possibility, no doubt, explained the locked door. Greatly relieved, he knew not why, Armand continued his walk. But he thought of the door idly more than once before nightfall. That night, Armand Sieurcaye, sleeping by the side of his wife, was awakened by what seemed to him a noise in or outside his room. The lamp was burning low but nothing stirred in the dimness of the room. His eyes fell on the locked door and a disagreeable attraction rivetted them upon it; to his newlyawakened senses there seemed to be something weird and threatening in the plain mass of wood. With a violent effort he flung the fancy from him and sought slumber again; the noise that awakened him was possibly some figment of senses bewildered by sleep. He knew not after how long an interval he again woke, but this time a cold air upon him, and before he opened unwilling eyes, he was aware of the door of his room being softly opened and closed. Still the lamp burned, — the room was empty. Involuntarily his eyes sought the locked door. It was swung back on its hinges, wide open! And if the closed door had alarmed something sensitive and irrational within him, how much ghastlier, more menacing seemed that open rectangle with the pit of darkness beyond! Cursing his nerves for fools Armand Sieurcaye leaped from the bed, turned up the lamp and, conquering a nervous reluctance the violence of which surprised him, stood, lamp in hand, at the threshold of the darkness beyond. It was, as he had conjectured, a wide balcony walled in so as to form a habitable sitting or sleeping-room in summer, and it seemed as such to have been utilised; for a bare iron bedstead occupied the width of the room near the wall, an old armchair with faded and tarnished cushions stood against the opposite end of the room. But the arched orifices were now heavily curtained with the thick folds of the climbing ivy. Otherwise the room was entirely empty. He decided to look out from these windows into the moonlit world outside. But as he advanced into the room, he was aware of a growing disorder in his nerves which he could not control. It was

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not fear, so much as an intense horror and hatred — of what, he could not determine, but, it almost seemed to him, of that bare iron bed, of that faded armchair. In any case, he carefully kept his full distance from both as he crossed the room to the ivied openings and thrusting aside part of those green curtains peered into the night. A great world of dark green flooded with moonlight met his eyes. And then he noticed in the moonlight a man standing in the grounds of Abelard looking up at the balcony with a hand shading his eyes. It was Richard Lancaster Abelard, heir of the old house, he who knew nothing of the door and the balcony. And then the strong descendant of old French and Maratha fighters recoiled as if he had received a blow. He did not look again but hastily crossed the balcony and entered his room casting a glance of loathing as he passed to each side of him, once at the iron bed, once at the disused armchair. He could almost have sworn that a shadowy form lay propped upon shadowy pillows on the old iron bed, that somebody looked at him ironically from the tarnished cushions of the chair. Wondering at himself Armand put on a dressing gown and sat down in an easy chair. “I must have it out with my nerves,” he said, resolutely; “Whoever entered my room and opened the door, will, I feel sure, return to close it; I will wait, I will see him and prove to my nerves what unspeakable superstitious idiots they are. There is nothing strange in Richard Lancaster being out there in the moonlight; no doubt, he could not sleep and was taking a stroll outside to help pass away some sleepless hours. What I saw in him, was an optical effect of the moonlight — nothing more, I tell you, nothing more.” For about half an hour he kept his vigil. As he sat his mind left its present surroundings and turned to the experiments in occultism he had conducted in Bombay. From his childhood he had been a highly imaginative lad with a nervous system almost as sensitive as an animal’s. But if Armand Sieurcaye had the nervous temperament of the Asiatic mystic, his brain had been invincibly sceptical not only with the material French scepticism but with the merciless Indian scepticism which, once aroused, is far more obstinate and searching than its grosser European

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shadow. Refusing to accept secondhand proof, however strong, and aware of his own rich nervous endowment, he had himself experimented in occult science with the double and inconsistent determination to be rigidly fair to the supernatural and allow it to establish itself if it existed, and, secondly, to destroy and disprove it for ever by the very fairness and thoroughness of his experiments. He had been able to establish as undoubtedly existing in himself a fair power of correct presentiment, but against this he had to set a number of baulked presentiments; he therefore dismissed the gift as merely a lively power of divining the trend of events. He was also aware that his personal attractions and repulsions were practically unerring; but, after all, was not this merely the equivalent in man to the instinct which so often warns children and animals of their friends and enemies? It was probable that the adventurous life of his Maratha forefathers, compelled to be always on the alert against violence and treachery, had stamped the instinct deep into the hereditary temperament of their issue. All the rest of the phenomena valued by occultists he had, he thought, proved to be sensory hallucinations or inordinate subconscious cerebral activity. In the course of his reflections he returned suddenly to his immediate surroundings and, with a start, looked towards the balcony-chamber. The door was closed, that had been open! There it stood shut, plain, dumb, denying that it had ever been anything else. Amazed, Armand leaped to his feet, strode to the door and turned the handle, ignoring a cry within that commanded him to desist. The door yielded not; it was not only closed but locked. Was it possible for any human being to have crossed his room, closed that door and locked it, under his very eyes and yet without his knowledge? Then he remembered the completeness of his absorption and how utterly his mind had withdrawn into itself. “Nothing wonderful in that!” he said. “How often have I been oblivious to time and space and circumstance outside when absorbed in a train of thoughts or in an experiment.” The visitor must have thought him asleep in the easy chair and moved quietly. There was nothing more to be done that night and he returned, baffled, to his slumbers.

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The first man he met next morning was Richard Lancaster who greeted him with his usual shallow and cheerful cordiality. There was no trace of yesterday’s disturbance in his look or demeanour. “Slept well?” asked Armand casually, but carefully watching his features. “Like a top!” answered Richard, heartily. “Didn’t raise my head once from the pillow from eleven to seven.” Wondering Armand passed him and entered the library. Stephen Abelard sat deep in the pages of a book; a cup of tea stood untasted beside his elbow. After some ordinary conversation suggested by the book, Armand suddenly questioned his father-in-law: “By the way, sir, is there a room next to mine? I noticed a locked door between.” Stephen Abelard’s eyes narrowed a little and he looked at his questioner before he replied. He had raised the cup of tea to his lips, but he put it down still untasted. “Disturbed?” he questioned, sharply. “Not at all,” parried Armand. “Why should I be?” “Why indeed? You don’t believe in the supernatural. Who does? But in our nerves and imaginations we are all of us the fools our ancestors made us. I had better tell you.” Stephen Abelard began sipping his tea and then pursued with a careful deliberateness. “The room you sleep in was the chamber occupied by the unfortunate girl, Bertha Abelard, with whose name scandal in her life and superstition after her death have been busy. You’ve heard all that nonsense about the curse on Abelard. I need not repeat the rubbish. But this is true that only two people have slept in the balcony-chamber since her death. One was a guest, and he refused to sleep there after the first night.” “Why?” “Nervous imaginations! Somebody resenting his presence, somebody in the armchair opposite. What will not men imagine? The other was Hugh Abelard’s youngest son and he — ” A shade crossed the face of the master of the house.

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“And he — ” “Was found dead in the iron bed the next morning.” Armand Sieurcaye quivered like a horse struck by the lash. He restrained himself. “Any cause?” “Failure of the heart. The Abelards are subject to failure of the heart. Might it not have happened equally in any other room? It has so happened, in fact, more than once.” Armand nodded. Hereditary weakness of the heart! It might very well be. But what then was Richard Lancaster or the hallucination of him doing outside in the moonlight? “Since that death, out of deference to prejudices the balcony is kept locked and opened twice a week only when Roberts takes the key of the door from Isabel and cleans up. Roberts has no nerves. She believes in the ghost, but argues she, ‘Miss Bertha won’t hurt me; I’m only keeping her quarters clean for her.’” Armand remembered the stories in circulation in the county. Rumour had charged Walter Abelard with the responsibility for the death of his sister, partly on the ground of subsequent incidents, partly on the impossibility of an outside assassin penetrating so far or, even supposing he entered, committing the deed and effecting his escape without leaving one trace behind. Why, there was the ivy. And even if the ivy were not so thick one hundred years ago, an agile man and a gymnast could easily ascend the porch to the arched orifices and descend again after his work had been done. “You are interested?” said Abelard, “well, we’ll go at once and see the room.” And he rang for a servant to bring the key of the ominous chamber. Armand had by this time almost convinced himself that his nocturnal experience was only a peculiarly vivid and disagreeable dream. He followed Stephen with the expectation, — or was it not the hope? — of finding the room quite other than he had seen it in that uncomfortable experience. As Stephen Abelard opened the door and light overcame its native dimness, the first thing Armand saw was a bare iron bed in the width of the outer wall, the next a faded armchair with tarnished cushions against

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the inner masonry. The room was dim by reason of the thickness of the ivy choking its arched stone orifices. No dream then, but a reality! Someone had twice entered his room, once to open, once to shut the door of ill omen. Was it Mr.s. Roberts, somnambulist, vaguely drawn to the door she alone was accustomed to unlock? But where at night could she get the key? for it was, Stephen had said, with Isabel Abelard. Again, it was as if a blow struck him. For, if the key was with Isabel, only Richard Lancaster could easily have got it from her at night, only he or she could have made that nocturnal entry. And it was Richard Lancaster he had seen under the balcony when he looked out into the moonlight. Was it the heir of the house who had entered, opened the door, gone out to look up at the room from outside and afterwards returned to shut it? But on what conceivable impulse? Was it the memory of a somnambulist returning to Armand’s question of the morning? That was a very likely explanation and fitted admirably with all the circumstances. Or was his action in any way linked to those nervous perturbations so new and out of place in this shallow, confident and ordinary nature? That was a circumstance into which the theory did not fit quite so easily. A great uneasiness was growing on Armand Sieurcaye. In a supernatural mystery he did not believe, but he was too practised in life not to believe in natural human mysteries underlying the even surface of things. He knew that men of the most commonplace outside have often belied their appearance by their actions. A presentiment of dangerous and calamitous things was upon him, and he remembered that his presentiments had more often justified themselves than not. But to Stephen Abelard he said nothing; least of all did he say anything to Richard Abelard of that nocturnal outing which he had so glibly denied.

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Another week had passed by, but Armand’s nerves were not reconciled to the door of ill omen that looked nightly at him with the secret of Bertha Abelard’s death behind it. Yet nothing farther had happened of an unusual nature. Richard Abelard was often absent and distracted, a thing formerly unknown in him, and his speech was occasionally irritable, but there was nothing out of the ordinary in his action. He walked, smoked, shot, rode, hunted, played billiards and read the light literature that pleased him, without any deviation from his familiar habits. Armand noticed that on some days he was entirely his old self, and then he invariably spoke with great satisfaction of the profound sleep he had enjoyed all night. Sieurcaye finally dismissed the presentiment from his mind. He had accepted the somnambulist theory; it was sleeplessness that was telling on Richard’s nerves. The whole mystery received a rational explanation on that simple hypothesis. Two nights after he arrived at this cheerful conclusion, he woke at night for the first time after the experience of the open door. Every night he had thought of watching for the somnambulist, but, though he had been accustomed all his life to light slumbers, a sleep as profound as that of which Richard Lancaster boasted, glued his head to the pillow. On this particular night his wife was not with him, for, to satisfy a caprice of Isabel’s, she was sleeping with her sister in their old nursery. Armand turned on his pillow, noticed with the surprise of a half-sleeping man the absence of his wife, then glanced about the room and observed that the door of his chamber was slightly open. A meaningless detail at first, the circumstance began to awaken a ¨ come into the room to sort of indolent wonder — had Aloyse visit his sleep and gone back to the nursery? Or was it Richard the somnambulist driven by the monomania of the locked room? And then, as if galvanised by a shock of electricity, he sat up in bed, suddenly, violently, and stared at the door with unbelieving eyes. It had come back to him that, before turning into bed, on the spur of some unaccountable impulse, he had locked his

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room and lain down wondering at his own purposeless action. And there now was the door he had thus secured, open, with the key in the lock, challenging him for an explanation. Had he got up himself in his sleep and opened it? Had he too grown a somnambulist? He remembered the profound slumber, so unusual to him, so similar to Lancaster’s, that had surprised him for the last few nights. Then an idea occurred to his rapidly working mind; he got out of bed, went to the inner door and turned the handle. It opened! He looked into the room with the iron bed. There was no one there, only the bed and the armchair. Then he closed the door, walked over to his own door, locked it, put the key under his pillow and got into bed again. His heart was beating a little faster than usual as he lay gazing at the door of Bertha Abelard’s death chamber. And then a very simple explanation flashed on him. Baulked by the locked door, Richard had climbed up by the ivy from outside and effected his entry from Bertha’s chamber. But Isabel was not with Richard tonight — how could he have got possession of the key? Well, conceivably, Isabel might have left her keys by oversight in her own chamber, or the somnambulist might have entered the nursery and detached what he needed from his wife’s chatelaine. But what settled waking idea, what persistent fancy of sleep drove Richard Lancaster to the ominous chamber, forced him to devise entrance against every obstacle and by such forbidden means? Armand shuddered as he remembered the story of Bertha Abelard’s death and his own theory of the means by which her assassin had gained entrance. As he expected, he soon fell asleep. Rising the next morning, his first action was to walk over to the inner door and try it. It was locked! Well, that was natural. Somnambulists were often alert and keen-minded even beyond their waking selves and Richard, foiled again by the locked door, had climbed up once more by the ivy to efface all proof of his nocturnal visit. Armand contrived that morning to be alone with Isabel in order to ask her where she kept the key of Bertha Abelard’s chamber. She turned to him with laughing eyes. “You are not haunted, Armand? No? It’s always with me and the ghost, if she’s there, must get through solid wood to

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invade your room. I keep my chatelaine at night under my pillow.” “You had it there last night?” “Armand! I am positive our ancestress has visited you. Yes, last night too.” And then suddenly, “Why, no, it was not. I put it last night in the box where I kept my doll and my toys. Don’t look surprised, Armand. I’m a great baby still in many things and I wanted to have everything last night just as it was when we were children. I was a very careful and jealous little housewife, and before I slept I used always to lock up my chatelaine with my doll and playthings and treasure the tiny key of my box in a locket under my nightgown. I did all that last night. If you have been haunted, I’m not responsible.” “Did you tell anybody what you were going to do?” ¨ knew.” “I did not think of it till we went to bed. Only Aloyse “Does anybody else know of this habit of your childhood?” “Only Roberts and papa. They don’t remember, probably. I had forgotten it myself till last night. What is puzzling you, Armand?” “Oh, it is only an idea I had,” he replied, and rapidly escaped from farther question to the sitting-room set apart for himself ¨ and Aloyse. The thing was staggering. Somnambulism did not make one omniscient, and it was impossible that Richard Abelard should have known this arrangement of Isabel’s far-off childhood, extracted the key from his sleeping wife’s locket, the chatelaine from the box and restored them undiscovered, when his need was finished. The theory involved such a chain of impossibilities and improbabilities that it must be rejected. And then, as always, a solution suggested itself. Richard Abelard must have taken, long ago, the impress of the key and got a duplicate of it made for his own secret use. But if so, what unavowable design, what stealthy manoeuvres must such a subterfuge be intended to serve? What legitimate need could Richard Abelard have of this secret and ominous exit or entry? Was it not Armand’s duty to warn Stephen Abelard of proceedings that must conceal in them something abnormal, perilous or even criminal? But there

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was the danger that Isabel might come to hear of it and receive a shock. Armand decided to wait till after her delivery. A knock at the door roused him from his thoughts and in response to his invitation Richard Abelard himself entered. He walked up to the fireplace, flung himself into a chair opposite Armand and jerked out abruptly: “Dr.. Armand, you are a dab at medical diagnosis. Can’t you tell me what’s the matter with me?” “Name your symptoms.” “You’ve seen some of them yourself. I’ve observed you noticing me. But that’s nothing. It’s the mind.” “What of the mind?” “Oh, how should I know? Dreams, imaginations, sensations, impulses. Yes, impulses.” He grew pale as he repeated the word. “Can’t you be more precise?” “I can’t; the thing’s vague.” He paused a moment; and then his features altered, a look of deep agony passed over them. “Somebody is hunting me,” he cried, “somebody’s hunting me.” A great dread and sickness of heart seized upon Armand Sieurcaye as he looked at his brother-in-law. “Steady!” he cried, “it’s a nervous disorder, of course, nothing more. But you are hiding something from me. That won’t do.” “Nerves! Don’t tell me I’m going mad! Or if I am, prevent it, for Isabel’s sake.” “Of course, I’ll prevent it. But you have got to be frank with me. I must know everything.” A visible hesitation held Richard for a few seconds, then he said, “I’ve told all I can think of, all that’s definite.” Then, suddenly, striking the arm of his chair with his closed hand, “It’s this beastly house,” he cried; “there’s something in it! There’s something in it that ought not to be there.” “If you think so, you must leave it till your nerves are restored. Look here, why not take John’s yacht and go for a cruise, oh, to America, if you like, — or to Japan. Japan will give you a longer spell of the sea.”

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“I’ll do it,” cried Richard Lancaster, “as soon as Isabel’s safe through this, I’ll go. Thank you, Armand.” And with a look of great relief on his face, he rose and left the room. Armand had not much time to ponder over this singular interview, though certain phrases Richard had used, kept ringing in his brain; for that night the pangs of childbirth came upon Isabel and she was safely delivered of a male child. An heir was born to the dying house of Abelard. The strong health of Isabel Abelard easily shook from it the effects of the strain. There was no danger for her and the child seemed likely to inherit the robust physique of his parents. As for Richard, he was joyous, at ease and seemed to have put from him his idea of a flight from Abelard. But on the third night after the delivery Armand Sieurcaye had troubled dreams and wandered through strange afflictions; the rustling of a dress haunted him; a pang of terror, a movement of agony seemed to come from someone’s heart into his own, and there was a laughter in the air he did not love. And in the grey of the autumn morning, Stephen Abelard with a strange look in his eyes stood by his side. ¨ “Get up, Armand; dress and come. Do not disturb Aloyse.” In three minutes Armand was outside on the landing where Stephen Abelard was pacing to and fro under the whip of the sorrow that had leaped upon him. “Isabel is dead,” he said briefly. With a dull brain that refused to think Armand followed the father to the death chamber of his child. The wall lamp was flaring high above the bed. A night-lamp that no one had thought to put out, burned on the toilette-table. In a chair far from the bed Richard Lancaster with his face hidden in his hands sat rocking himself, his body shaken by sobs. When Armand entered, he uncovered his face, cast at him a tragic look from eyes full of tears, and went swaying from the room. Armand stood at the bedside and looked at the dead girl. As he looked, a pang of fear troubled his heart, for his practised perceptions, familiar with many kinds of death, gave him an appalling intimation. Isabel had not died easily! Then something

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peculiar in the pose of the head and neck struck his awakened brain. He bent down suddenly, then rose as suddenly, his olive face sallow with some strong emotion, strode to the toilettetable, seized the night-lamp and returning held it to Isabel’s neck. “What is it?” asked Stephen Abelard. One could see that he was holding himself tight to meet a possible shock. Armand carefully put back the lamp where it had stood and returned to the bedside before he answered. In the shock of his discovery he had forgotten his surroundings, forgotten to whom he was about to speak. “It is a murder,” he said, slowly and mechanically. “Armand!” “It is a murder,” he continued, unheeding the cry of the father, “I cannot be mistaken. And effected by unusual means. There is a spot in the body which has only to be found by the fingers and receive a peculiar pressure and a man dies suddenly, surely, with so light a trace only the eyes of the initiate can discover it — not even a trace, only an indication, but a sure indication. The Japanese wrestlers know the device, but do not impart it except to those who are too self-disciplined to abuse it. That is what has been done here.” Stephen Abelard seized Armand’s shoulder with a tense, violent grip. “Armand,” he cried, “who besides yourself knows of this means of murder?” “John Lancaster knows it.” Stephen’s hand fell limply from his son-in-law’s shoulder. After a time he said in a voice that was again calm, “Armand, my child died of heart-failure as so many of the Abelards have done.” “It is best so,” replied Armand Sieurcaye. “Now go, Armand,” continued Stephen quietly, “go and leave me alone with my child.” Armand did not return to his chamber, but went into his sitting-room, lighted a candle and sat, looking at the chair in which Richard Abelard had consulted him only three days ago. John Lancaster, Richard’s brother, who alone near Orringham knew of the Japanese secret! What share had John Lancaster,

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friend of Armand Sieurcaye, in the murder of Isabel Abelard? Was it for his entry that Richard had provided, by the duplicate key, by his strange and perilous manoeuvres with the ivy and the balcony room? But why not open the front door for him or leave unshuttered one of the lower windows, a much easier and less dangerous passage? Then he remembered that the great dog, Brilliant, lay at the bottom of the stairs and would not allow any but an inmate to pass unchallenged. John Lancaster was his friend, his benefactor, but Armand knew the man, a reckless flamboyant profligate capable of the most glorious and self-immolating actions and capable equally of the most cruel and cynical crimes. He remembered, too, how he himself had taught John that peculiar trick of the Japanese art of slaying. In a certain sense he himself was responsible for Isabel’s death. How wise were the Easterns in their rigid reticence when they taught only to prepared and disciplined natures the secrets that might be misused to harm mankind! And then his mind travelled to Isabel and her sorrowful end slain in the supreme moment of a woman’s joy by the husband she loved. What grim and inexorable Power ruling the world, Fate, Chance, Providence, had singled out for this doom a girl whose whole life had been an innocent shedding of sunshine on all who came near? Providence! He smiled. There were still fools who believed in an overruling Providence, a wise and compassionate God! And then the insoluble problem returned to baffle his mind, what possible motive moved Richard to compass this heartless crime or John to assist him? All that day of sorrow Richard was absent from the house, and Armand had no chance of probing him. It was late at night, about eleven, that he entered. Armand met him on his way to his room, candle in hand. “I should like a word with you, Richard,” he said. Richard turned on him, laughing with a terrible gaiety. “No use, Doctor Armand. You could not save me, you see. The thing was too strong. Mark my words, the thing will be too strong even for you.” And he strode to his room leaving Armand amazed on the staircase.

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¨ had elected to sleep that night with her dead sister’s Aloyse child and Armand once more found himself alone in Bertha Abelard’s chamber with no companion except the locked door, accomplice perhaps in the tragedy that had darkened the house. Again his slumbers were troubled and he dreamed always of the locked door open and someone traversing the room on a mission of evil, a work of horror. He woke with a start, his heart in him dull and heavy as lead and full of the conviction, which it called knowledge, that the tragedy was not finished but more crimes mysterious and unnatural were about to pollute ¨ the old walls of Abelard. Then his thoughts flew to Aloyse. He dressed himself hastily and went to the room where she was ¨ was asleep and the child’s nurse slept on a bed sleeping. Aloyse some five feet away, but Armand cast only a fleeting glance at the two women, for between the beds was the cradle of Isabel’s child and over it was a figure stooping, and as it lifted its face towards the opened door, he saw a face that was and yet was not the face of Richard Lancaster. Richard immediately moved over to the door. As he neared, Armand drew away from it with the first pang of absolute terror in his heart he had ever experienced since his childhood. Richard Lancaster noted the emotion and it seemed to amuse him, for he laughed. And again there was something in the laugh that was not in the laugh of Richard Lancaster or of any human mirth to which Armand Sieurcaye had ever listened. As soon as Richard had left the room, Armand almost ran to the door, locked it and sat down at his wife’s bedside shaking with an excitement he could not control. He soon recovered hold of his nerves, but he did not leave the room and its unconscious inmates. He sat there motionless till at four o’clock in the morning a light knock at the door startled him. When he opened it, Stephen Abelard entered. He took Armand’s presence as a matter of course and went calmly to the side of the child and began looking down on the heir of his house, the little baby who was all that was left to him of Isabel. When he turned from the cradle, Armand spoke. “Sir, you must do something about Richard.” Stephen looked at him. “Come to my room, Armand,” he

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said, “We will talk there.” Before following Stephen, Armand woke the nurse and bade her watch over the child. “Lock the door,” he added, “and keep it locked till I return.” As he went through the corridors, he passed Richard’s room. The door was open, but the room absolutely dark; still his practised eyes perceived in the doorway a figure standing which drew back when he looked at it, obviously not the figure of Richard, for it was shorter, slenderer. When he was entering Stephen’s room, it occurred to him that he had unconsciously carried away in his mind the impression that it was the figure of a woman. After the first disagreeable feeling had passed, he shook the absurdity from him; it must have been the dressing-gown that gave him the idea of a woman’s robe. After a brief talk with Stephen, the two were pulling in silence at the cigars they had lighted, when, perhaps half an hour after his leaving the nursery, someone knocked at the door and the nurse appeared and beckoned to Armand Sieurcaye. There was a look of terrible anxiety on her face that brought Armand striding to the door. “Will you come, sir?” she said, “I don’t know what’s the matter with the child.” “Did you lock the door?” asked Armand, as they went. The nurse looked troubled. “I thought I did, though I could not understand why you wanted it; but it seems I can’t have turned the key well. For when I dozed off for two minutes, I woke to find the door open.” Then she paused and added with great hesitation. “And I almost felt, sir, as if I had noticed a woman in the room standing by the cradle, but I was too sleepy to understand. It wasn’t Mr.s. Sieurcaye, for I had to wake her up afterwards.” A woman! And the locked door that opened! Armand groaned; he could understand nothing, but he knew what he would find even before he bent with the already awakened and ¨ over the dead child who had thus so swiftly anxious Aloyse followed his mother to the grave. And it was by the same way. That morning Stephen Abelard spoke to his elder son-inlaw. “Richard,” he said, “you will start for your sea-voyage today. Take John’s yacht at Bristol. You need not wait for the

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funeral nor mind what people will say. If I were you, I’ld have a doctor on board.” Richard Lancaster was very calm and deliberate as he replied, “I had settled that, sir, before you spoke. I’m going on a long journey and I’m going direct, not by Bristol nor in the yacht. As you suggest, I’ll not wait for the funeral and I’m past caring what people will say.” “Don’t forget the doctor,” insisted Stephen. “The doctor can’t come,” said Richard, “And he wouldn’t like the voyage. I’m not mad, sir, — worse luck!” The two sons-in-law of Stephen Abelard left the house-steps together, Armand for a stroll in the grounds to steady his heated brain and his shaken nerves, Richard in the direction of the stables. When Armand was returning to the house, a pale-faced groom ran up to him and pointed in the direction of the great avenue of stately trees before Abelard. “Mr.. Richard’s lying there,” he faltered, “ — shot!” Armand stood stock-still for a moment, then ran to the spot indicated. Of this last tragedy he had had no presentiment. What was it? What was this maddening and bloody tangle? This death dance of an incomprehensible fate which had struck down mother, father and child in less than thirty hours? No gleam of motive, no shred of coherence illuminated the nightmare. His reason stood helpless at last in the maze. It was the locked door, he thought, that opened and revealed nothing. But his reason insisted. Richard Abelard was mad, and in his madness he had used the device John must have incautiously taught him to slay wife and child; and this last act of self-slaughter was the natural refuge of a disturbed brain made aware by Armand’s looks and by Stephen’s words of discovery. Richard Abelard lay dead on the grass by the avenue, shot through the heart and the revolver lay fallen two feet from his outstretched and nerveless hand. Armand, bending to assure himself that life was extinct, caught sight of a small piece of paper lying close to the knee of the dead man. When he rose, he turned to the groom. “Mr.. Richard’s dead,” he said, “go and tell

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Mr.. Abelard and bring men here to carry him in.” The man reluctantly departed and Armand caught up the paper and put it swiftly into his pocket. It was not till an hour later that he had time to take it out in his parlour and look at it. As he had suspected, it was a brief note in Richard’s handwriting, and thus it ran, brief, pointed, tragic, menacing. “Armand, you knew! But it was not I. God is my Witness, I am not guilty of murder. I can say no more; but in mercy to ¨ look to yourself!” Aloyse, For a long time Armand Sieurcaye held in his hand the dead man’s mysterious warning. Then he flung it into the fire and watched its whiteness blacken, shrivel and turn into ashes.

CHAPTER III [The story was abandoned here.]

Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories 1891 – 1912

Fictional Jottings Mr.s. Bolton was one of those sharp and rancid women whose very aspect gives a cultured man the toothache; it recalls vividly the taste of sour grapes. There had perhaps been a time when she was not elderly, but the boldest flight of metaphor would never have imaged her as young. The slanders of her enemies drew a frightful picture of the low-class Gorgon: they compared her chin to a penknife, her lips to a pair of icicles: her smile was a perpetual reminder of vinegar, her voice was like frost against the teeth. The sobriety of history merely records that her face was twin sister to a ferret, her features sharp and if the word may be used without offence gritty: altogether she was an excellent type of that class of crude failures whose mould nature has left unbroken that there may be a scourge for the refined and a pattern for housewifes. Her face was Nemesis sculptured in marble In her distress the child of the hothouse spoke the language of nature. “I never forgive, but I bear no malice when I have requited” She felt as if she were groping for a coin in the dark A fire of remembrance burned a forgotten sentence into her brain and wrote it in crimson on her cheeks. The voiceful hurry of the indicator copied the pattering footfall of the fugitive hours. His amazement unwound itself in a coil of laughter. Just as the clouds that steal the sunshine cannot throttle the sunlight as well

Fragment of a Story

A

QUIET hilly country on the confines of Bengal after rain. Grey cloud yet banked up the horizon except in the north and sloped over the eastern down-curve in great sheeny ribs brownish and grey like the ribs of a fan. The mango trees by the road with their crowded burden of ruddy or stained-yellow blossom looked moist and quite fresh, the earth discoloured, draggled and limp with the wet, but healed of the dusty thirst and discomfort of many showerless days. The west showed patches of pale bluish steel-grey sky where the veil of cloud was thinnest and the sinking light able to break through; just on the verge one or two of the outlying clouds were ruddy like a dull fire just meaning to go out. The moon must be somewhere eastward, a pale wisp of half-lucid yellow, waiting for the brilliancy to come, but in the east the long dark-ribbed layers ran down with a forbidding thickness. They were the skirts of the retreating storm. The soldier Rajmohan as he reined in his horse on the top of a rise looked behind him once at the western and once at the southern sky and observed with a contraction of the brow the line of the southern horizon growing a heavy black and glaring up with a lowering threat at the half-cleared zenith. “A storm brews there” he muttered to himself “and it may break here or it may pass. Either way there is no moonlight for me tonight.”

The Devil’s Mastiff

T

HERE had been a heavy fall throughout the whole of that December day. The roads were white and indistinguishable in a thick pall of moonlight and dazzling snow; here and there a drift betrayed the footing. In the sky a bright moon pursued by clouds ran timidly up the ascent of the firmament; great arms of darkness sometimes closed over it; sometimes it emerged and proceeded with its still luminous race, ran, swayed, floated, glided forward intently, unfalteringly. Patrick Curran, treading cautiously the white uncertain flooring of earth, stumbling into snowdrifts, scouting into temporary darkness for his right road, cursed the weather and his fortunes. “It is not enough,” he complained, “that I should be a proscribed fugitive hiding my head in every uncertain refuge from the pursuit of this devil’s Cromwell, doomed already to the gallows, owing my life every day to the trembling compassion of my poor father’s tenants; it is not enough that I should have lost Alicia and that Luke Walter should have her; but the very moon and the snow and the night are his allies against me. Since God is so hard on me, I wonder why the devil does not come to my help — I would sell my soul to him this moment willingly. But perhaps he too is afraid of Cromwell.” “It is hardly probable,” said a voice at his side suddenly. Patrick Curran turned with a fierce start and clutched at his dagger. He was aware in the darkness of a dim form pacing beside him with a step much quieter and more assured than his own. “Who are you?” he cried, rigid and menacing. “A wayfarer like yourself,” said the other, “I travel earth as a fugitive.” “From whom or what?” asked Patrick. “How shall I say?” said the shadow, “Perhaps from my own

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thoughts, perhaps from a too powerful enemy.” After the discovery of the recent conspiracy to murder Cromwell and restore Charles Stuart, the country was full of Royalist fugitives, hiding by day, travelling by night, in the hope of reaching a port whence they could sail for Ostende or Calais. For the inquisitions of the Republican magistrates were imperative and undiscriminating. “I would give,” he said to himself, “my soul and the rest of my allotted days as a free gift to Satan, if I might once clasp Alicia in my arms and take with me into Hell the warm sense of the joy of her body and if I might see Luke Walter dead before me or be sure he was following me. Oh if I can once be sure of that, let the brown dog of the Dacres leap on me the next moment, I care not.” “You may be sure of it,” answered the voice at his side, strangely sweet, yet to Patrick’s ear formidable. He turned, thrilling. “You must be the devil himself,” he almost shouted. “I may be only one who can read your thoughts,” said the other in that sweet sinister voice which made the young man fancy sometimes that a woman spoke to him. “And that I can, you will easily judge when I have told you a very little of what I know of you. You are Patrick, the second son of Sir Gerald Curran who got his estate from his wife, Margaret Dacre, his baronetcy from King James and his death from Cromwell who took him prisoner at Worcester and hanged him. You were to have married Lady Alicia Nevil, when the conspiracy of which you were one of the heads as well as the hand destined to strike down the Puritan tyrant, was discovered by the discernment, luck and ruthless skill of Colonel Luke Walter.” The young Cavalier started and uttered a furious imprecation. “It was he;” said the other, “he has great brain-power and penetration and a resolute genius. It is even possible he may succeed Cromwell, if the God of the Puritans gives him a lease long enough.” “If I have the chance, I will shorten it,” cried Patrick Curran.

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“Or I;” said the unknown, “for just now I too am a Royalist. But to proceed. You were proclaimed and doomed to a felon’s death in your absence; the Earl, implicated in the conspiracy, was compelled as the price of his pardon to betroth his daughter to Luke Walter, and the marriage is fixed for tonight.” “Tonight!” groaned the young man, and he smote his thigh miserably with his hand. “At the Church of Worndale.” “But will it matter if Luke Walter perishes before he has consummated his nuptials?” “I promise you that,” said the unknown. “It does not suit you that Alicia should marry another. It does not suit me that there should be a strong successor to Cromwell. Charles Stuart is my good friend, and I wish that he should rule England. Therefore, Patrick, it is a bargain.” “Who the devil are you?” cried the young man again, marvelling. As if to answer the moon peeped out from between two heavy angry masses of black cloud, illumining the earth’s intense and inclement whiteness. He saw beside him a young man of remarkable beauty, whose face was perfectly familiar, but his name could not be remembered. “As for your soul and your life,” said the stranger, and as their eyes met, Patrick shuddered, “you need not give them to the devil whether freely or as part of the bargain, for they are already his.” He laughed a laugh of terrible and ominous sweetness, and in a moment Patrick remembered. He knew that laugh, he knew that face. They were his own. At that moment the moon passed away into the second fragment of cloud. Patrick stood, unable to speak, looking at the dim shadow in front of him. Then it vanished. It was some time before the young man could command himself sufficiently to pursue his way. He tried to think for a moment that it was John Dacre, the illegitimate son of Sir Gerald by his sister-in-law Matilda Dacre, who resembled Patrick strongly and was his sworn comrade and lover. But he knew

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it was not John. That was not John’s face or John’s speech or John’s thinking. It must have been a vivid dream or a waking illusion. He walked forward in the darkness, greatly disturbed, but with recovered courage. Again the moon shone out, this time with a clear gulf of sky just in front of her. Before Patrick the white road stretched long, straight and visible to a great distance and was marked out here by a high snow-covered hedge from the equally white indistinguishable country around. “Come now, that is better,” said Patrick Curran. As he spoke, he saw far off on the road a dark object travelling towards him; he slackened his pace and was minded to turn off the road to avoid it. But it was approaching with phenomenal speed. As it came nearer, he saw that it was only a dog. Again Patrick stood still. A dog! There was nothing in that. It was not what he had feared. But he remembered that singular conversation and the impious prayer that had arisen in his heart about the brown Dog of the Dacres, — the dog which showed itself always when a Dacre was about to die and leaped on him whenever the doom was by violence. He smiled, but a little uncertainly. Then the moonlight seemed to dwell on the swiftly-travelling animal more intensely and he saw that it was brown. Never had Patrick seen any earthly thing master of such a terrible speed. It ran, it galloped, it bounded, and the wretched man watching the terrific charge of that phantasmal monster, — for it was a gigantic mastiff, — felt his heart stop and his warm youthful blood congeal in his veins. It was now within twenty paces; he felt the huge eyes upon him and knew that it was going to leap. He went down heavily with the ponderous frame of the animal oppressing his breast, its leonine paws on his shoulders, its hot breathing moistening his face. And then there was nothing. That was the most terrible part of it, to have been borne down physically by a semblance, an unearthly hallucination, a thing that was this moment and the next was not. Patrick struggled to his feet, overcome by a panic terror; his nerves cried to him to run, to travel away quickly from this accursed night

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and this road of ghastly encounters. But he felt as if hamstrung, helpless, clutched by an intangible destruction. He sat down on the snow, panted and waited. After a few minutes the blood began to flow more quietly through his veins, the pounding of his heart slackened and the sick agitation of his nerves yielded to a sudden fiery inrush. He leaped furiously to his feet. “The Dog of the Dacres,” he cried, “the brown Dog, the Devil’s Mastiff! And no doubt it was his master spoke to me in my own semblance. I am doomed, then. But not to the gallows. No, by God, not to the gallows. God’s doom and the devil’s, since I can resist neither, but not man’s, not Cromwell’s!” Then he paused. “Tonight!” he cried again. “At Worndale Church! But I will see her once before I go down to Hell. And it may be I shall take Luke Walter with me. It may be that is what the Devil wants of me.” He looked about the landscape and thought he could distinguish the trees that bordered the distant Church of Worndale. That was in front of him. Also in front, but much more to the left, was Trevesham Hall, the home of Alicia Nevil. He began walking rapidly, no longer with his first cautious and doubtful treading, but with a bold reckless stride. And it was noticeable that he no longer stumbled or floundered into snowdrifts. Patrick knew that he had only a few brief inches of his life’s road left to his treading; for no man of the Dacre blood had ever lived more than twenty-four hours after the Brown Dog leaped on him. A desperate courage had entered into his veins. He would see [incomplete]

The Golden Bird

I

T WAS in the forests of Asan that the Golden Bird first flew out from a flower-besieged thicket and fluttered before the dazzled eyes of Luilla. It was in the forests of Asan, — the open and impenetrable, the haunt of the dancers and the untrodden of human feet, coiling place of the cobra and the Python, lair of the lion and the jaguar, formidable retreat of the fleeing antelope, yet also the green home of human safety where a man and a maiden could walk in the moonlit night and hear unconcerned the far-off brool of the kings of the wilderness. It was into the friendly and open places that the golden bird fluttered, but it came no less from the coverts of dread and mystery. From the death and the night it flew out into the sunlight where Luilla was happily straying. Luilla loved to wander on the verges of danger just where those flower-besieged thickets began and formed for miles together a thorny and tangled rampart full at once of allurement and of menace. She did not venture in, for she had a great fear of the thorns and brambles and a high respect for her radiant beauty, her constant object of worship and the daily delight of all who dwelt for a while on earth labouring the easy and kindly soil on the verges of the forests of Asan. But always she wandered close to the flowery wall and her mind, safe in its volatile incorporeality, strayed like a many-hued butterfly far into the forbidden region which the gods had so carefully secluded. Perhaps secretly she hoped that one day some kingly and leonine head would thrust itself out through the flowers and compel her with a gaze of friendly and majestic invitation or else that the green poisonous head of a serpent, reposing itself on a flower, would scrutinise her out of narrow eyes and express a cunning approval of her beauty. It was not out of fear of the lions and the serpents that Luilla forbore to enter the secret places. She

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knew she could overcome the most ferocious intentions of any destroyer in the world, four-footed or footless, if only he would give her three minutes before making up his mind to eat or bite her. But neither lion nor serpent strayed out of their appointed haunts. It was the golden bird that first fluttered out from the thickets to Luilla. Luilla looked at it as it flitted from bough to bough, and her eyes were dazzled and her soul wondered. For the little body of the bird was an inconstant flame of flying and fleeting gold and the wings that opened and fluttered were of living gold and the small shapely head was crested gold and the long graceful quivering tail was feathered trailing gold; all was gold about the bird, except the eyes and they were two jewels of a soft everchanging colour and sheltered strange looming depths of love and thought in their gentle brilliance. On the bough where it perched, it seemed as if all the soft shaded leaves were suddenly sunlit. For as Luilla accustomed her eyes to the flickering brightness of the golden bird, it hovered at last over a branch, settled and sang. And its voice also was of gold. The bird sang in its own high secret language; but Luilla’s ear understood its thoughts and in Luilla’s soul as it thirsted and listened and trembled with delight, the song shaped itself easily into human speech. This then was what the bird sang — the bird that came out of the death and night, sang to Luilla a song of beauty and of delight. “Luilla! Luilla! Luilla! green and beautiful are the meadows where the children run and pluck the flowers, green and beautiful the pastures where the calm-eyed cattle graze, green and beautiful the cornfields ripening on the village bounds, but greener are the impenetrable thickets of Asan than her open places of life and more beautiful than the meadows and the pastures and the cornfields are the forests of death and night. More ensnaring to some is the danger of the jaguar than the attractive face of a child, more welcome the foot-tracks of the lion as it hunts than the pastures of the cattle, more fair and fruitful the thorn and the wild-briar than the fields full of ripening grain. And this I know that no such flowers bloom in the safety and ease of

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Asan’s meadows, though they make a thick and divine treading for luxurious feet, as I have seen blooming on the borders of the wild morass, in the heart of the bramble thicket and over the mouth of the serpent’s lair. Shall I not take thee, O Luilla, into those woods? Thou shalt pluck the flowers in the forests of night and death, thou shalt lay thy hands on the lion’s mane. “O Luilla! O Luilla! O Luilla!

Note on the Texts

Note on the Texts COLLECTED PLAYS AND STORIES comprises all of Sri Aurobindo’s dramatic and fictional writings, with the exception of prose dialogues, verse dialogues more in the nature of poems than plays, and translations from Sanskrit drama. Writings in these three categories are published in Early Cultural Writings, Collected Poems, and Translations, volumes 1, 2 and 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Collected Plays and Stories is divided into three parts according to type of material. The first part includes the five complete plays; the second, incomplete and fragmentary plays; the third, prose fiction, complete, incomplete and fragmentary. The first two parts are arranged chronologically, from earliest to latest. The third is subdivided into two sections: Occult Idylls, a series planned by the author, followed by a section consisting of all other pieces of fiction, arranged chronologically. COMPLETE PLAYS The first of these plays was written around 1905, the last in 1915. Only one of them, Perseus the Deliverer, was published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The Viziers of Bassora. The manuscript of this play was seized by the police at the time of Sri Aurobindo’s arrest in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case in May 1908. It seems to have been written a few years before that, towards the end of the period of his employment in the Baroda State (1893 – 1906). Sri Aurobindo never saw the manuscript of The Viziers after his arrest, and he is said to have particularly regretted its loss. Once in Pondicherry he tried to reconstruct one of the missing scenes using a partial draft he had with him, but soon abandoned the effort. In March 1952, fifteen months after his passing, the manuscript was handed over

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to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram by the Government of West Bengal. It was transcribed and in 1959 published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual, as well as separately. The source of the plot of The Viziers of Bassora is “Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis”, a story told in the Arabian Nights (thirty-fourth to thirty-eighth nights). Sri Aurobindo owned in Baroda a multi-volume edition of Richard Burton’s translation of the Arabic text (London, 1894), which he considered “as much a classic as the original”. Rodogune. Two complete, independent versions of this play exist. Sri Aurobindo wrote the first one in Baroda between 31 January and 14 February 1906, on the eve of his departure from the state to join the national movement. In May 1908 the notebooks containing his fair copy of Rodogune, like the notebook containing The Viziers of Bassora, were seized by the police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested. Fortunately, other notebooks remaining in his possession contained much of the penultimate draft of the 1906 version. Basing himself on these passages, he was able to reconstruct the play in Pondicherry around 1912. This version was published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual and separately in 1958. It supersedes the Baroda version, which was recovered in 1952. The plot of Rodogune derives ultimately from the history of Cleopatra, Queen of Syria, as recounted by such classical historians as Appian, Justin and Josephus. The immediate source probably was Rodogune (1645), by the French dramatist Pierre Corneille. Perseus the Deliverer. Sri Aurobindo wrote this play during the period of his political activity, and its publication history is marked by the uncertainties of that era. A notation from the now-lost manuscript, accidentally set in type, gives 21 June 1906 as the date of the writing or copying of Act III, Scene 1. Sri Aurobindo seems to have intended the play to be published in Baroda, and parts of it were composed there by August of the same year. This plan fell through, however, and the play did not appear until 1907, when it was brought out serially between 30 June and 20 October in the weekly edition of the Bande Mataram, a journal of political opinion edited by Sri Aurobindo. The next year a book-edition was printed, but was destroyed by the printer

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at the time of Sri Aurobindo’s arrest. In 1942 the Bande Mataram text of Perseus the Deliverer — with the exception of three passages published in issues of the journal that were not then available, namely, all of Act II, Scenes 2 and 3, and the end of Act V, Scene 3 — was included in Sri Aurobindo’s Collected Poems and Plays. Sri Aurobindo revised this text, adding a new ending but ignoring the missing scenes of Act II. (The issues of Bande Mataram containing these two scenes were subsequently rediscovered, and in 1955 they were restored to the text.) The plot of Perseus the Deliverer derives of course from the Greek legend of Perseus and Andromeda, the most important surviving classical source of which is the fourth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Notable among modern retellings of the story are Corneille’s Androm`ede (1650) and Charles Kingsley’s Andromeda (1859), a poem in English hexameters with which Sri Aurobindo was familiar. Eric. Sri Aurobindo began work on this play in 1910, shortly after his arrival in Pondicherry, and continued intermittently over a period of several years. No complete fair copy of the play survives. The fullest manuscript, a typed copy that contains the last version of Act II, breaks off in the middle of Act IV, Scene 2. Handwritten versions subsequent to the typed copy exist for Acts I and III and part of Act IV. There is only a single draft of Act V. Its interlinear and marginal revisions present unusual textual difficulties. Eric was first published in 1960 in Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual and as a separate book. The present text is thoroughly re-edited. As a rule, the last version of each act has been transcribed as far as it goes; where the last version is incomplete, the previous version is used for the remainder of the act. The order in which the last two manuscripts of Acts I and III were written and revised is not entirely clear. The unused versions of these two acts are reproduced in the reference volume (volume 35), along with two partial rewritings of Act IV, Scene 1, which could not be worked into the text of the play. No specific source of the plot of Eric is known. Sri Aurobindo seems to have made free use of names and events from the history of Norway in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, a period that was the subject of much mediaeval Scandinavian literature.

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Vasavadutta. This play was written in Pondicherry in 1915. The earliest extant draft is dated thus at the end: “Copied Nov. 2, 1915. Written between 18th & 30th October 1915. Completed 30th October. Pondicherry. Revised in April 1916.” The fair copy, used as the text from Act III, Scene 4, to the end, gives details of this revision: “Revised and recopied between April 8th and April 17th 1916.” Subsequently, on three or four different occasions, Sri Aurobindo began to rewrite the play, stopping at an earlier point each time. The editors have used the last version of a given passage as far as it goes and then reverted to the previous version. A typed copy of Vasavadutta was prepared for Sri Aurobindo sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, and he made a few scattered revisions to it. When its publication was proposed, he demurred, saying it was “too romantic”. The play did not appear in print until 1957, when it was published in the Sri Aurobindo Mandir Annual and as a separate book. As stated by Sri Aurobindo in his author’s note, he took the plot of Vasavadutta from the Kathasaritsagara, an eleventh-century Sanskrit story-cycle written by Somadeva Bhatta. INCOMPLETE

AND

FRAGMENTARY PLAYS (1891 – 1915)

The Witch of Ilni. Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge. The manuscript bears dates ranging between October and December 1891. The source of the plot of The Witch of Ilni is not known, but the play evidently owes much to Milton’s Comus and similar works. The House of Brut. Sri Aurobindo wrote this fragment during the early part of his stay in Baroda, probably in 1899. The idea for The House of Brut seems to have come from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae or another chronicle of early Britain. The Maid in the Mill. This piece was written in Baroda, probably around 1902. The source of the plot of The Maid in the Mill was apparently The Maid in the Mill by John Fletcher and William Rowley (1647). The

Note on the Texts

1005

two plays have many characters and situations in common. Certain ´ may also have influenced the plot plays of Shakespeare and Calderon of Sri Aurobindo’s play. The Prince of Edur. Editorial title. Sri Aurobindo wrote the three acts of this incomplete play between 28 January and 1 February 1907, and copied them on 11 and 12 February. He was at that time staying at his family’s house in Deoghar, Bihar, during a brief respite from his political activities. The plot of The Prince of Edur is based loosely on the life of Bappa Rawal, the eighth-century Rajput hero. The scene, which includes parts of what is now eastern Gujarat, was familiar to Sri Aurobindo, who was posted in the area while serving as a Baroda state officer. The Prince of Mathura. Editorial title. This fragment, related in theme to The Prince of Edur, was written a few years later, probably in 1909 or 1910. The Birth of Sin. This fragment, written in the same notebook as The Prince of Mathura, must date from the same period, that is, 1909 – 10. In December 1909 a related piece, also entitled The Birth of Sin, was published in the Karmayogin, a weekly newspaper edited by Sri Aurobindo. The Karmayogin piece is more in the nature of a poem, and was published as such in Collected Poems and Plays (1942). (It is included in Collected Poems, volume 2 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO.) The present draft is structured more as a drama, and is published as such here. The exact relationship between the two texts is not clear. Both obviously owe much to Milton. Fragment of a Play. This piece was written in Pondicherry sometime around 1915. The plot appears to be based on an episode in the Bhagavata Purana. STORIES More than once Sri Aurobindo remarked in conversation that he had written some stories that subsequently were lost. “The white ants have

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finished them and with them has perished my future fame as a storyteller”, he noted ironically in 1939. All his known stories and fragments of fiction are published here in two sections. Occult Idylls Sri Aurobindo wrote fair copies of the two pieces published in this section in the same notebook. On the first page he wrote the general title “Occult Idylls”. The Phantom Hour. Sri Aurobindo wrote this, his only complete story, during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry, 1910 – 12, or perhaps a year or two earlier. The Door at Abelard. This piece was written around the same time as The Phantom Hour, but was never completed. Incomplete and Fragmentary Stories (1891 – 1912) Fictional Jottings. Sri Aurobindo wrote down these lines on two pages of a notebook he used at Cambridge between 1890 and 1892. Fragment of a Story. Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece around 1904, either in Baroda or while on vacation in Bengal. The Devil’s Mastiff. Nothing is known for certain about the date of this piece, but it seems to belong to the period of “Occult Idylls” and may have been intended for that series. The manuscript was lost after being published in the Advent in February 1954. The Golden Bird. This piece was written in Pondicherry, probably in 1911 or 1912. PUBLISHING HISTORY As mentioned above, Perseus the Deliverer was published in the weekly Bande Mataram in 1907, and in Collected Poems and Plays in 1942. All the other pieces in the present volume were brought out posthumously. “Fictional Jottings” and “Fragment of a Story” appear here for the first time. All the texts have been checked against Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts.

5

Sri Aurobindo

Translations

VOLUME 5 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1999 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

Translations

ii

Publisher’s Note Translations comprises all of Sri Aurobindo’s translations from Sanskrit, Bengali, Tamil, Greek and Latin into English, with the exception of his translations of Vedic and Upanishadic literature. The Vedic and Upanishadic translations appear in volumes 14 – 18 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. His translations of some of the Mother’s French Pri`eres et m´editations appear in volume 31, The Mother with Letters on the Mother. His translations from Sanskrit into Bengali appear in volume 9, Writings in Bengali and Sanskrit. The contents of the present volume are divided by original language into five parts. The dates of the translations are given in the Note on the Texts. They span more than fifty years, from 1893 to the mid-1940s. Less than half the pieces were published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime; the rest are reproduced from his manuscripts.

CONTENTS Part One Translations from Sanskrit Section One. The Ramayana Pieces from the Ramayana 1. Speech of Dussaruth 2. An Aryan City 3. A Mother’s Lament 4. The Wife An Aryan City: Prose Version The Book of the Wild Forest The Defeat of Dhoomraksha Section Two. The Mahabharata Sabha Parva or Book of the Assembly-Hall Canto I: The Building of the Hall Canto II: The Debated Sacrifice Canto III: The Slaying of Jerasundh Virata Parva: Fragments from Adhyaya 17 Udyoga Parva: Two Renderings of the First Adhaya Udyoga Parva: Passages from Adhyayas 75 and 72 The Bhagavad Gita: The First Six Chapters Appendix I: Opening of Chapter VII Appendix II: A Later Translation of the Opening of the Gita Vidula Section Three. Kalidasa Vikramorvasie or The Hero and the Nymph In the Gardens of Vidisha or Malavica and the King: Act I Appendix: A Fragment from Act II

5 7 9 11 23 24 27

33 41 56 66 67 72 73 100 101 105 121 227 254

CONTENTS

The Birth of the War-God Stanzaic Rendering of the Opening of Canto I Blank Verse Rendering of Canto I Expanded Version of Canto I and Part of Canto II Notes and Fragments Skeleton Notes on the Kumarasambhavam: Canto V The Line of Raghou: Two Renderings of the Opening The Cloud Messenger: Fragments from a Lost Translation

257 263 271 293 307 309

Section Four. Bhartrihari The Century of Life Appendix: Prefatory Note on Bhartrihari

313 368

Section Five. Other Translations from Sanskrit Opening of the Kiratarjuniya Bhagawat: Skandha I, Adhyaya I Bhavani (Shankaracharya)

379 380 383

Part Two Translations from Bengali Section One. Vaishnava Devotional Poetry Radha’s Complaint in Absence (Chundidas) Radha’s Appeal (Chundidas) Karma: Radha’s Complaint (Chundidas) Appeal (Bidyapati) Twenty-two Poems of Bidyapati Selected Poems of Bidyapati Selected Poems of Nidhou Selected Poems of Horo Thacoor Selected Poems of Ganodas

389 390 392 393 394 416 435 444 453

Section Two. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee Hymn to the Mother: Bande Mataram Anandamath: The First Thirteen Chapters Appendix: A Later Version of Chapters I and II

465 469 519

CONTENTS

Section Three. Chittaranjan Das Songs of the Sea

527

Section Four. Disciples and Others Hymn to India (Dwijendralal Roy) Mother India (Dwijendralal Roy) The Pilot (Atulprasad Sen) Mahalakshmi (Anilbaran Roy) The New Creator (Aruna) Lakshmi (Dilip Kumar Roy) Aspiration: The New Dawn (Dilip Kumar Roy) Farewell Flute (Dilip Kumar Roy) Uma (Dilip Kumar Roy) Faithful (Dilip Kumar Roy) Since thou hast called me (Sahana) A Beauty infinite (Jyotirmayi) At the day-end (Nirodbaran) The King of kings (Nishikanto)

553 555 557 558 559 561 562 564 565 566 568 569 570 571

Part Three Translations from Tamil Andal Andal: The Vaishnava Poetess To the Cuckoo I Dreamed a Dream Ye Others

577 579 580 581

Nammalwar Nammalwar: The Supreme Vaishnava Saint and Poet Nammalwar’s Hymn of the Golden Age Love-Mad

585 587 589

Kulasekhara Alwar Refuge

593

Tiruvalluvar Opening of the Kural

597

CONTENTS

Part Four Translations from Greek Two Epigrams Opening of the Iliad Opening of the Odyssey Hexameters from Homer

601 602 604 606

Part Five Translations from Latin Hexameters from Virgil and Horace Catullus to Lesbia

609 610

1

Part One Translations from Sanskrit

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Sri Aurobindo with students of the Baroda College, c. 1906

The first page of “Selected Poems of Bidyapati”

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Section One The Ramayana

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Pieces from the Ramayana 1 Speech of Dussaruth to the assembled States-General of his Empire Then with a far reverberating sound As of a cloud in heaven or war-drum’s call Deep-voiced to battle and with echoings In the wide roof of his majestic voice That like the resonant surges onward rolled Moving men’s hearts to joy, a King to Kings He spoke and all they heard him. “It is known To you, O princes, how this noblest realm Was by my fathers ruled, the kings of old Who went before me, even as one dearest son Is by his parents cherished; therefore I too Would happier leave than when my youth assumed Their burden, mankind, my subjects, and this vast World-empire of the old Ixvaacou kings. Lo I have trod in those imperial steps My fathers left, guarding with sleepless toil The people while strength was patient in this frame O’erburdened with the large majestic world. But now my body broken is and old, Ageing beneath the shadow of the white Canopy imperial and outworn with long

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Translations from Sanskrit Labouring for the good of all mankind. My people, Nature fails me! I have lived Thousands of years and many lives of men And all my worn heart wearies for repose. Weary am I of bearing up this heavy Burden austere of the great world, duties Not sufferable by souls undisciplined: O folk, to rest from greatness I desire. Therefore with your august, assembled will, O powers and O twice-born nations, I Would share with Rama this great kingdom’s crown, Rama, my warrior son, by kingly birth And gifts inherited confessed my son, Rama, a mighty nation’s joy. Less fair Yoked with his favouring constellation bright The regent moon shall be than Rama’s face When morn upon his crowning smiles. O folk, Say then shall Luxman’s brother be your lord, Glory’s high favourite who empire breathes? Yea, if the whole vast universe should own My son for king, it would be kinged indeed And regal: Lords, of such desirable Fortune I would possess the mother of men; Then would I be at peace, at last repose Transferring to such shoulders Earth. Pronounce If I have nobly planned, if counselled well; Grant me your high permissive voices, People, But if my narrower pleasure, private hope, Of welfare general the smooth disguise Have in your censure donned, then let the folk Themselves advise their monarch or command. For other is disinterested thought And by the clash of minds dissimilar Counsel increases.” Then with a deep sound As when a cloud with rain and thunder armed Invades the skies, the jewelled peacocks loud

Ramayana: An Aryan City Clamour, assembled monarchs praised their king. And like a moving echo came the voice Of the great commons answering them, a thunder And one exultant roar. Earth seemed to rock Beneath the noise. Thus by their Emperor high Admitted to his will great conclave was Of clergy and of captains and of kings And of the people of the provinces And of the people metropolitan. All these Deliberated and became one mind. Resolved, they answered then their aged King.

2 An Aryan City Coshala by the Soroyou, a land Smiling at heaven, of riches measureless And corn abounding glad; in that great country Ayodhya was, the city world-renowned, Ayodhya by King Manou built, immense. Twelve yojans long the mighty city lay Grandiose and wide three yojans. Grandly-spaced Ayodhya’s streets were and the long high-road Ran through it spaciously with sweet cool flowers Hourly new-paved and hourly watered wide. Dussaruth in Ayodhya, as in heaven Its natural lord, abode, those massive walls Ruling, and a great people in his name Felt greater, — door and wall and ponderous arch And market-places huge. Of every craft Engines mechanical and tools there thronged And craftsmen of each guild and manner. High rang With heralds and sonorous eulogists The beautiful bright city imperial.

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Translations from Sanskrit High were her bannered edifices reared, With theatres and dancing-halls for joy Of her bright daughters, and sweet-scented parks Were round and gardens cool. High circling all The city with disastrous engines stored In hundreds, the great ramparts like a zone Of iron spanned in her moated girth immense Threatening with forts the ancient sky. Defiant Ayodhya stood, arm`ed, impregnable, Inviolable in her virgin walls. And in her streets was ever large turmoil, Passing of elephants, the steed and ox, Mules and rich-laden camels. And through them drove The powerful barons of the land, great wardens Of taxes, and from countries near and far The splendid merchants came much marvelling To see those orgulous high-builded homes With jewels curiously fretted, topped With summer-houses for the joy of girls, Like some proud city in heaven. Without a gap On either side as far as eye could reach Mass upon serried mass the houses rose, Seven-storied architectures metrical Upon a level base and made sublime Splendid Ayodhya octagonally built, The mother of beautiful women and of gems A world. Large granaries of rice unhusked She had and husked rice for the fire, and sweet Her water, like the cane’s delightful juice, Cool down the throat. And a great voice throbbed of drums, The tabour and the tambourine, while ever The lyre with softer rumours intervened. Nor only was she grandiosely built, A city without earthly peer, — her sons Were noble, warriors whose arrows scorned to pierce The isolated man from friends cut off Or guided by a sound to smite the alarmed

Ramayana: A Mother’s Lament And crouching fugitive; but with sharp steel Sought out the lion in his den or grappling Unarmed they murdered with their mighty hands The tiger roaring in his trackless woods Or the mad tusk`ed boar. Even such strong arms Of heroes kept that city and in her midst Regnant King Dussaruth the nations ruled.

3 A Mother’s Lament “Hadst thou been never born, Rama, my son, Born for my grief, I had not felt such pain, A childless woman. For the barren one Grief of the heart companions, only one, Complaining, ‘I am barren’; this she mourns, She has no cause for any deeper tears. But I am inexperienced in delight And never of my husband’s masculine love Had pleasure, — still I lingered, still endured Hoping to be acquainted yet with joy. Therefore full many unlovely words that strove To break the suffering heart had I to hear From wives of my husband, I the Queen and highest, From lesser women. Ah what greater pain Than this can women have who mourn on earth, Than this my grief and infinite lament? O Rama, even at thy side so much I have endured, and if thou goest hence, Death is my certain prospect, death alone. Cruelly neglected, grievously oppressed I have lived slighted in my husband’s house As though Kaicayie’s serving-woman, — nay, A lesser thing than these. If any honours,

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Translations from Sanskrit If any follows me, even that man Hushes when he beholds Kaicayie’s son. How shall I in my misery endure That bitter mouth intolerable, bear Her ceaseless petulance. O I have lived Seventeen years since thou wast born, my son, O Rama, seventeen long years have lived, Wearily wishing for an end to grief; And now this mighty anguish without end! I have no strength to bear for ever pain; Nor this worn heart with suffering fatigued To satisfy the scorn of rivals yields More tears. Ah how shall I without thy face Miserably exist, without thy face, My moon of beauty, miserable days? Me wretched, who with fasts and weary toils And dedicated musings reared thee up, Vainly. Alas, the river’s giant banks, How great they are! and yet when violent rain Has levelled their tops with water, they descend In ruin, not like this heart which will not break. But I perceive death was not made for me, For me no room in those stupendous realms Has been discovered; since not even today As on a mourning hind the lion falls Death seizes me or to his thicket bears With his huge leap, — death, ender of all pain. How livest thou, O hard, O iron heart, Unbroken? O body, tortured by such grief, How sinkst thou not all shattered to the earth? Therefore I know death comes not called — he waits Inexorably his time. But this I mourn, My useless vows, gifts, offerings, self-control, And dire ascetic strenuousness perfected In passion for a son, — yet all like seed Fruitless and given to ungrateful soil. But if death came before his season, if one

Ramayana: The Wife By anguish of unbearable heavy grief Naturally might win him, then today Would I have hurried to his distant worlds Of thee deprived, O Rama, O my son. Why should I vainly live without thine eyes, Thou moonlight of my soul? No, let me toil After thee to the savage woods where thou Must harbour; I will trail these feeble limbs Behind thy steps as the sick yearning dam That follows still her ravished young.” Thus she Yearning upon her own beloved son; — As over her offspring chained a Centauress Impatient of her anguish deep, so wailed Cowshalya; for her heart with grief was loud.

4 The Wife But Sita all the while, unhappy child, Worshipped propitious gods. Her mind in dreams August and splendid coronations dwelt And knew not of that woe. Royal she worshipped, A princess in her mind and mood, and sat With expectation thrilled. To whom there came Rama, downcast and sad, his forehead moist From inner anguish. Dark with thought and shaken He entered his august and jubilant halls. She started from her seat, transfixed, and trembled, For all the beauty of his face was marred, Who when he saw his young beloved wife Endured no longer; all his inner passion Of tortured pride was opened in his face. And Sita, shaken, cried aloud, “What grief Comes in these eyes? Was not today thine hour

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Translations from Sanskrit When Jupiter, the imperial planet, joins With Pushya, that high constellation? Why Art thou then pale, disturbed? Where is thy pomp, Thy crowning where? No foam-white softness silk With hundred-shafted canopy o’erhues Thy kingly head, no fans o’erwave thy face Like birds that beat their bright wings near a flower; Minstrel nor orator attends thy steps To hymn thy greatness, nor are heralds heard Voicing high stanzas. Who has then forbade The honeyed curds that Brahmins Veda-wise Should pour on thy anointed brow, — the throngs That should behind thee in a glory surge, — The ministers and leading citizens And peers and commons of the provinces And commons metropolitan? Where stays Thy chariot by four gold-clad horses drawn, Trampling, magnificent, wide-maned? thy huge High-omened elephant, a thunder-cloud Or moving mountain in thy front? thy seat Enriched with curious gold? Such are the high Symbols men lead before anointed kings Through streets flower-crowned. But thou com’st carless, dumb, Alone. Or if thy coronation still, Hero, prepares and nations for thee wait, Wherefore comes this grey face not seen before In which there is no joy?” Trembling she hushed. Then answered her the hope of Raghou’s line, “Sita, my sire exiles me to the woods. O highborn soul, O firm religious mind, Be strong and hear me. Dussaruth, my sire, Whose royal word stands as the mountains pledged To Bharuth’s mother boons of old, her choice In her selected time, who now prefers Athwart the coronation’s sacred pomp Her just demand; me to the Dundac woods

Ramayana: The Wife For fourteen years exiled and in my stead Bharuth, my brother, royally elect To this wide empire. Therefore I come, to visit And clasp thee once, ere to far woods I go. But thou before King Bharuth speak my name Seldom; thou knowest great and wealthy men Are jealous and endure not others’ praise. Speak low and humbly of me when thou speakest, Observing all his moods; for only thus Shall man survive against a monarch’s brow. He is a king, therefore to be observed; Holy, since by a monarch’s sacred hands Anointed to inviolable rule. Be patient; thou art wise and good. For I Today begin exile, Sita, today Leave thee, O Sita. But when I am gone Into the paths of the ascetics old Do thou in vows and fasts spend blamelessly Thy lonely seasons. With the dawn arise And when thou hast adored the Gods, bow down Before King Dussaruth, my father, then Like a dear daughter tend religiously Cowshalya, my afflicted mother old; Nor her alone, but all my father’s queens Gratify with sweet love, smiles, blandishments And filial claspings; — they my mothers are, Nor than the breasts that suckled me less dear. But mostly I would have thee show, beloved, To Shatrughna and Bharuth, my dear brothers, More than my life-blood dear, a sister’s love And a maternal kindness. Cross not Bharuth Even slightly in his will. He is thy king, Monarch of thee and monarch of our house And all this nation. ’Tis by modest awe And soft obedience and high toilsome service That princes are appeased, but being crossed Most dangerous grow the wrathful hearts of kings

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Translations from Sanskrit And mischief mean. Monarchs incensed reject The sons of their own loins who durst oppose Their mighty policies, and raise, of birth Though vile, the strong and serviceable man. Here then obedient dwell unto the King, Sita; but I into the woods depart.” He ended, but Videha’s daughter, she Whose words were ever soft like one whose life Is lapped in sweets, now other answer made In that exceeding anger born of love, Fierce reprimand and high. “What words are these, Rama, from thee? What frail unworthy spirit Converses with me uttering thoughts depraved, Inglorious, full of ignominy, unmeet For armed heroical great sons of Kings? With alien laughter and amazed today I hear the noblest lips in all the world Uttering baseness. For father, mother, son, Brother or son’s wife, all their separate deeds Enjoying their own separate fates pursue. But the wife is the husband’s and she has Her husband’s fate, not any private joy. Have they said to thee ‘Thou art exiled’? Me That doom includes, me too exiles. For neither Father nor the sweet son of her own womb Nor self, nor mother, nor companion dear Is woman’s sanctuary; only her husband Whether in this world or beyond is hers. If to the difficult dim forest then, Rama, this day thou journeyest, I will walk Before thee, treading down the thorns and sharp Grasses, smoothing with my torn feet thy way; And henceforth from my bosom as from a cup Stale water, jealousy and wrath renounce. Trust me, take me; for, Rama, in this breast Sin cannot harbour. Heaven-spacious terraces Of mansions, the aerial gait of Gods

Ramayana: The Wife With leave to walk among those distant stars, Man’s wing`ed aspiration or his earth Of sensuous joys, tempt not a woman’s heart: She chooses at her husband’s feet her home. My father’s lap, my mother’s knees to me Were school of morals, Rama; each human law Of love and service there I learned, nor need Thy lessons. All things else are wind; I choose The inaccessible inhuman woods, The deer’s green walk or where the tigers roam, Life savage with the multitude of beasts, Dense thickets; there will I dwell in desert ways, Happier than in my father’s lordly house, A pure-limbed hermitess. How I will tend thee And watch thy needs, and thinking of no joy But that warm wifely service and delight Forget the unneeded world, alone with thee. We two shall dalliance take in honied groves And scented springtides. These heroic hands Can in the forest dangerous protect Even common men, and will they then not guard A woman and the noble name of wife? I go with thee this day, deny who will, Nor aught shall turn me. Fear not thou lest I Should burden thee, since gladly I elect Life upon fruits and roots and still before thee Shall walk, not faltering with fatigue, eat only Thy remnants after hunger satisfied, Nor greater bliss conceive. O I desire That life, desire to see the large wide lakes, The cliffs of the great mountains, the dim tarns, Not frighted since thou art beside me, and visit Fair waters swan-beset in lovely bloom. In thy heroic guard my life shall be A happy wandering among beautiful things. For I shall bathe in those delightful pools, And to thy bosom fast-devoted, wooed

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Translations from Sanskrit By thy great beautiful eyes, yield and experience On mountains and by rivers large delight. Thus if a hundred years should pass or many Millenniums, yet I should not tire nor change. For wandering so not heaven itself would seem Desirable, but this were rather heaven. O Rama, Paradise and thou not there No Paradise were to my mind; I should Grow miserable and reject the bliss. I rather mid the gloomy entangled boughs And sylvan haunts of elephant and ape, Clasping my husband’s feet, intend to lie Obedient, glad, and feel about me home.” But Rama, though his heart approved her words, Yielded not to entreaty, for he feared Her dolour in the desolate wood; therefore Once more he spoke and kissed her brimming eyes. “Of a high blood thou comest and thy soul Turns naturally to duties high. Now too, O Sita, let thy duty be thy guide; Elect thy husband’s will. Thou shouldst obey, Sita, my words, who art a woman weak. The woods are full of hardship, full of peril, And ’tis thy ease that I command. Nay, nay, But listen and this forestward resolve Thou wilt abandon: Love! for I shall speak Of fears and great discomforts. There is no pleasure In the vast woodlands drear, but sorrows, toils, Wretched privations. Thundering from the hills The waterfalls leap down, and dreadfully The mountain lions from their caverns roar Hurting the ear with sound. This is one pain. Then in vast solitudes the wild beasts sport Untroubled, but when they behold men, rage And savage onset move. Unfordable Great rivers thick with ooze, the python’s haunt, Or turbid with wild elephants, sharp thorns

Ramayana: The Wife Beset with pain and tangled creepers close The thirsty tedious paths impracticable That echo with the peacock’s startling call. At night thou must with thine own hands break off The soon-dried leaves, thy only bed, and lay Thy worn-out limbs fatigued on the hard ground, And day or night no kindlier food must ask Than wild fruit shaken from the trees, and fast Near to the limits of thy fragile life, And wear the bark of trees for raiment, bind Thy tresses piled in a neglected knot, And daily worship with large ceremony New-coming guests and the high ancient dead And the great deities, and three times twixt dawn And evening bathe with sacred accuracy, And patiently in all things rule observe. All these are other hardships of the woods. Nor at thy ease shalt worship, but must offer The flowers by thine own labour culled, and deck The altar with observance difficult, And be content with little and casual food. Abstinent is their life who roam in woods, O Mithilan, strenuous, a travail. Hunger And violent winds and darkness and huge fears Are their companions. Reptiles of all shapes Coil numerous where thou walkest, spirited, Insurgent, and the river-dwelling snakes That with the river’s winding motion go, Beset thy path, waiting. Fierce scorpions, worms, Gadflies and gnats continually distress And the sharp grasses pierce and thorny trees With an entangled anarchy of boughs Oppose. O many bodily pains and swift Terrors the habitants in forests know. They must expel desire and wrath expel, Austere of mind, who such discomforts choose, Nor any fear must feel of fearful things.

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Translations from Sanskrit Dream not of it, O Sita; nothing good The mind recalls in that disastrous life For thee unmeet; only stern miseries And toils ruthless and many dangers drear.” Then Sita with the tears upon her face Made answer very sad and low, “Many Sorrows and perils of that forest life Thou hast pronounced, discovered dreadful ills. O Rama, they are joys if borne for thee, For thy dear love, O Rama. Tiger or elk, The savage lion and fierce forest-bull, Marsh-jaguars and the creatures of the woods And desolate peaks, will from thy path remove At unaccustomed beauty terrified. Fearless shall I go with thee if my elders Allow, nor they refuse, themselves who feel That parting from thee, Rama, is a death. There is no danger! Hero, at thy side Who shall touch me? Not sovran Indra durst, Though in his might he master all the Gods, Assail me with his thunder-bearing hands. O how can woman from her husband’s arms Divorced exist? Thine own words have revealed, Rama, its sad impossibility. Therefore my face is set towards going, for I Preferring that sweet service of my lord, Following my husband’s feet, surely shall grow All purified by my exceeding love. O thou great heart and pure, what joy is there But thy nearness? To me my husband is Heaven and God. O even when I am dead, A bliss to me will be my lord’s embrace. Yea thou who knowst, wilt thou, forgetful grown Of common joys and sorrows sweetly shared, The faithful heart reject, reject the love? Thou carest nothing then for Sita’s tears? Go! poison or the water or the fire

Ramayana: The Wife Shall yield me sanctuary, importuning death.” Thus while she varied passionate appeal And her sweet miserable eyes with tears Swam over, he her wrath and terror and grief Strove always to appease. But she alarmed, Great Janac’s daughter, princess Mithilan, Her woman’s pride of love all wounded, shook From her the solace of his touch and weeping Assailed indignantly her mighty lord. “Surely my father erred, great Mithila Who rules and the Videhas, that he chose Thee with his line to mate, Rama unworthy, No man but woman in a male disguise. What casts thee down, wherefore art thou then sad, That thou art bent thus basely to forsake Thy single-hearted wife? Not Savitry So loved the hero Dyumathsena’s son As I love thee and from my soul adore. I would not like another woman, shame Of her great house, turn even in thought from thee To watch a second face; for where thou goest My heart follows. ’Tis thou, O shame! ’tis thou Who thy young wife and pure, thy boyhood’s bride And bosom’s sweet companion, like an actor, Resignst to others. If thy heart so pant To be his slave for whom thou art oppressed, Obey him thou, court, flatter, for I will not. Alas, my husband, leave me not behind, Forbid me not from exile. Whether harsh Asceticism in the forest drear Or Paradise my lot, either is bliss From thee not parted, Rama. How can I, Guiding in thy dear steps my feet, grow tired Though journeying endlessly? as well might one Weary, who on a bed of pleasure lies. The bramble-bushes in our common path, The bladed grasses and the pointed reeds

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Translations from Sanskrit Shall be as pleasant to me as the touch Of cotton or of velvet, being with thee. And when the stormblast rises scattering The thick dust over me, I, feeling then My dear one’s hand, shall think that I am smeared With sandal-powder highly-priced. Or when From grove to grove upon the grass I lie, In couches how is there more soft delight Or rugs of brilliant wool? The fruits of trees, Roots of the earth or leaves, whate’er thou bring, Be it much or little, being by thy hands Gathered, I shall account ambrosial food. I shall not once remember, being with thee, Father or mother dear or my far home. Nor shall thy pains by my companionship Be greatened — doom me not to parting, Rama. For only where thou art is Heaven; ’tis Hell Where thou art not. O thou who knowst my love, If thou canst leave me, poison still is left To be my comforter. I will not bear Their yoke who hate thee. And if today I shunned Swift solace, grief at length would do its work With torments slow. How shall the broken heart That once has beaten on thine, absence endure Ten years and three to these and yet one more?” So writhing in the fire of grief, she wound Her body about her husband, fiercely silent, Or sometimes wailed aloud; as a wild beast That maddens with the firetipped arrows, such Her grief ungovernable and like the stream Of fire from its stony prison freed, Her quick hot tears, or as when the whole river From new-culled lilies weeps, — those crystal brooks Of sorrow poured from her afflicted lids. And all the moonbright glories of her face Grew dimmed and her large eyes vacant of joy. But he revived her with sweet words, “Weep not;

Ramayana: The Wife If I could buy all heaven with one tear Of thine, Sita, I would not pay the price, My Sita, my beloved. Nor have I grown, I who have stood like God by nature planted High above any cause of fear, suddenly Familiar with alarm. Only I knew not Thy sweet and resolute courage, and for thee Dreaded the misery that sad exiles feel. But since to share my exile and o’erthrow God first created thee, O Mithilan, Sooner shall high serenity divorce From the self-conquering heart, than thou from me Be parted. Fixed I stand in my resolve Who follow ancient virtue and the paths Of the old perfect dead; ever my face Turns steadfast to that radiant goal, self-vowed Its sunflower. To the drear wilderness I go. My father’s stainless honour points me on, His oath that must not fail. This is the old Religion brought from dateless ages down, Parents to honour and obey; their will Should I transgress, I would not wish to live. For how shall man with homage or with prayer Approach the distant Deity, yet scorn A present godhead, father, mother, sage? In these man’s triple objects live, in these The triple world is bounded, nor than these Has all wide earth one holier thing. Large eyes, These therefore let us worship. Truth or gifts, Or honour or liberal proud sacrifice, Nought equals the effectual force and pure Of worship filial done. This all bliss brings, Compels all gifts, compels harvests and wealth, Knowledge compels and children. All these joys, These human boons great filial souls on earth Recovering here enjoy and in that world Heaven naturally is theirs. But me whatever,

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Translations from Sanskrit In the strict path of virtue while he stands, My father bids, my heart bids that. I go, But not alone, o’ercome by thy sweet soul’s High courage. O intoxicating eyes, O faultless limbs, go with me, justify The wife’s proud name, partner in virtue. Love, Warm from thy great, highblooded lineage old Thy purpose springing mates with the pure strain Of Raghou’s ancient house. O let thy large And lovely motion forestward make speed High ceremonies to absolve. Heaven’s joys Without thee now were beggarly and rude. Haste then, the Brahmin and the pauper feed And to their blessings answer jewels. All Our priceless diamonds and our splendid robes, Our curious things, our couches and our cars, The glory and the eye’s delight, do them Renounce, nor let our faithful servants lose Their worthy portion.” Sita of that consent So hardly won sprang joyous, as on fire, Disburdened of her wealth, lightly to wing Into dim wood and wilderness unknown.

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An Aryan City PROSE VERSION Coshala named, a mighty country there was, swollen and glad; seated on the banks of the Sarayu it abounded in wealth & grain; and there was the city Ayodhya famed throughout the triple world, built by Manu himself, lord of men. Twelve leagues was the beautiful mighty city in its length, three in its breadth; large & clearcut were its streets, and a vast clearcut highroad adorned it that ever was sprinkled with water and strewn freely with flowers. Dasaratha increasing a mighty nation peopled that city, like a king of the gods in his heavens; a town of arched gateways he made it, and wide were the spaces between its shops; full was it of all machines and implements and inhabited by all kinds of craftsmen and frequented by herald and bard, a city beautiful of unsurpassed splendours; lofty were its bannered mansions, crowded was it with hundreds of hundred-slaying engines of war, and in all quarters of the city there were theatres for women and there were gardens and mango-groves and the ramparts formed a girdle round its spacious might; hard was it for the foe to enter, hard to assail, for difficult and deep was the city’s moat; filled it was of horses & elephants, cows and camels and asses, crowded with its tributary kings arrived for sacrifice to the gods, rich with merchants from many lands and glorious with palaces built of precious stone high-piled like hills & on ´ the house-tops pleasure-rooms; like Indra’s Amaravati Ayodhya seemed.

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The Book of the Wild Forest Then, possessing his soul, Rama entered the great forest, the forest Dandaka with difficulty approachable by men and beheld a circle there of hermitages of ascetic men; a refuge for all living things, with ever well-swept courts and strewn with many forms of beasts and swarming with companies of birds and holy, high & temperate sages graced those homes. The high of energy approached them unstringing first his mighty bow, and they beheld him like a rising moon & with wonder in their looks gazed at the fabric of his beauty and its glory and softness and garbed grace and at Vydehie too with unfalling eyelids they gazed and Lakshmana; for they were things of amazement to these dwellers in the woods. Great-natured sages occupied in doing good to all living things, they made him sit a guest in their leafy home, and burning with splendour of soul like living fires they offered him guest-worship due and presented all things of auspice, full of high gladness in the act, roots, flowers and fruits they gave, yea, all the hermitage they laid at the feet of Rama high-souled and, learned in righteousness, said to him with outstretched upward palms, “For that he is the keeper of the virtue of all this folk, a refuge and a mighty fame, high worship and honour are the King’s, and he holds the staff of justice & is reverend to all. Of Indra’s self he is the fourth part and protects the people, O seed of Raghu, therefore he enjoys noble & beautiful pleasures and to him men bow down. Thou shouldst protect us, then, dwellers in thy dominions, for whether the city hold thee or the wilderness, still art thou the King and the master of the folk. But we, O King, have laid by the staff of offence, we have put anger from us and the desires of the senses, and ’tis thou must protect us always, ascetics rich in austerity but helpless as children in the womb.” Now when he had taken of their hospitality, Rama towards

Ramayana: The Book of the Wild Forest

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the rising of the sun took farewell of all those seers and plunged into mere forest scattered through with many beasts of the chase and haunted by the tiger and the bear. There he & Lakshmana following him saw a desolation in the midmost of that wood, for blasted were tree & creeper & bush and water was nowhere to be seen, but the forest was full of the screaming of vultures and rang with the crickets’ cry. And walking with Sita there Cacootstha in that haunt of fierce wild beasts beheld the appearance like a mountain peak and heard the thundering roar of an eater of men; deep set were his eyes and huge his face, hideous was he and hideousbellied, horrid, rough and tall, deformed and dreadful to the gaze, and wore a tiger’s skin moist with fat and streaked with gore, — a terror to all creatures even as Death the ender when he comes with yawning mouth. Three lions, four tigers, two wolves, ten spotted deer and the huge fat-smeared head of an elephant with its tusks he had stuck upon an iron spit and roared with a mighty sound. As soon as he saw Rama & Lakshmana & Sita Mithilan he ran upon them in sore wrath like Death the ender leaping on the nations, and with a terrible roar that seemed to shake the earth he took Vydehie up in his arms and moved away and said, “You who wear the ascetic’s cloth and matted locks, O ye whose lives are short, yet with a wife have you entered Dandak woods and you bear the arrow, sword and bow, how is this that you being anchorites hold your dwelling with a woman’s beauty? Workers of unrighteousness, who are ye, evil men, disgrace to the garb of the seer? I Viradha the Rakshasa range armed these tangled woods eating the flesh of the sages. This woman with the noble hips shall be my spouse but as for you, I will drink in battle your sinful blood.” Evilsouled Viradha speaking this wickedness Sita heard his haughty speech, alarmed she shook in her apprehension as a plaintain trembles in the stormwind. The son of Raghu seeing the beautiful Sita in Viradha’s arms said to Lakshmana, his face drying up with grief, “Behold, O my brother, the daughter of Janak lord of men, my wife of noble life taken into Viradha’s arms, the King’s daughter highsplendoured and nurtured in utter ease! The thing Kaikayie desired, the thing dear to her that she chose for a gift,

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Translations from Sanskrit

how quickly today, O Lakshmana, has it been utterly fulfilled, she whose foresight was not satisfied with the kingdom for her son, but she sent me, the beloved of all beings, to the wild woods. Now today she has her desire, that middle mother of mine. For no worse grief can befall me than that another should touch Vydehie and that my father should perish and my own kingdom be wrested from my hands.” So Cacootstha spake, and Lakshmana answered him & his eyes filled with the mist of grief and he panted like a furious snake controlled, “O thou who art like Indra and the protector of this world’s creatures, why dost thou afflict thyself as if thou wert one who had himself no protector, even though I am here, the servant of thy will? Today shall the Rakshasa be slain by my angry shaft and earth drink the blood of Viradha dead. The wrath that was born in me against Bharat for his lust of rule, I will loose upon Viradha as the Thunderer hurls his bolt against a hill.” Then Viradha spoke yet again and filled the forest with his voice, “Answer to my questioning, who are ye and whither do ye go?” And Rama answered to the Rakshasa with his mouth of fire, in his pride of strength he answered his questioning and declared his birth in Ikshwaku’s line. “Kshatriyas accomplished in virtue know us to be, farers in this forest, but of thee we would know who thou art that rangest Dandak woods.” And to Rama of unerring might Viradha made reply, “Java’s son am I, Shatahrada was my dam and Viradha am I called by all Rakshasas on earth.

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The Defeat of Dhoomraksha But in their lust of battle shouted loud, Rejoicing, all the Apes when they beheld The dreadful Rakshas coming forth to war, Dhoomraksha. High the din of mellay rose, Giant and Ape with tree and spear and mace Smiting each other; for the Giants hewed Their dire opponents down on every side, And they too with the trunks of trees bore down Their monstrous foes and levelled with the dust. But in their wrath increasing Lanca’s hosts Pierced the invaders; straight their arrows flew Unswerving, fatal, heron-winged; sharp-knobbed Their maces smote and dreadful clubs prevailed; The curious tridents did their work. But torn, But mangled by the shafts, but pierced with spears The Apes in act heroic, unalarmed, Drew boldness from impatience of defeat; Trees from the earth they plucked, lifted great rocks And with a dreadful speed, roaring aloud, Hurling their shouted names behind the blow, They slew with these the heroes of the isle. Down fell the Giants crushed and from their mouths Vomited lifeblood, pounded were by rocks And with crushed sides collapsed or by ape-teeth Were mangled, or lay in heaps by trees o’erborne. Some with sad faces tore their locks in grief, Bewildered with the smell of blood and death Some lifeless sank upon the earth. Enraged Dhoomraksha saw the rout and forward stormed And made a mighty havoc of the foe, Crushing to earth their bleeding forms with axe

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Translations from Sanskrit And javelin and mace oppressed or torn. Some helpless died, some gave their blood to earth, Some scattering fled the fierce pursuer’s wrath, Some with torn hearts slept on one side relaxed On earth’s soft bosom, some with entrails plucked Out of their bodies by the tridents died Wretchedly. Sweet twanged the bowstrings, lyres of war, The sobbing of the warriors’ breath was time And with a thunder dull, battle delivered Its dread orchestral music. In the front Of all that war Dhoomraksha thundered armed, Laughing aloud, and with fast-sleeting shafts Scattered to every wind his foes. At last The Son of Tempest saw his army’s rout Astonished by Dhoomraksha; wroth he saw And came, carrying a giant crag he came, Red-gazing, and with all his father’s force At dire Dhoomraksha’s chariot hurled. Alarmed Dhoomraksha saw the flying boulder come And rearing up his club from the high car He leaped. Down crashed the rock and ground the car To pieces, wheel and flag and pole and yoke And the forsaken bow. Hanuman too Abandoning his chariot through the ranks Opposing strode with havoc; trees unlopped With all their boughs for mace and club he used. With shattered heads and bodies oozing blood The Giants fell before him. Scattering so The Giant army Hanuman, the Wind’s Tremendous son, took easily in his hands A mountain’s mighty top and ran and strode Where stood Dhoomraksha. Roaring answer loud The mighty Giant with his club upreared Came furiously to meet the advancing foe. Wrathful the heroes met, and on the head Of Hanuman the weapon many-spiked Of dire Dhoomraksha fell; but he the Ape,

Ramayana: The Defeat of Dhoomraksha

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Strong in inheritance of might divine, Not even heeded such a blow, but brought Right on Dhoomraksha’s crown the summit huge And all his limbs were shattered with the stroke And like a broken mountain they collapsed Earthward, o’erwhelmed, in-smitten, prone. The Giants left, Survivors of that slaughter, fled alarmed And entered Lanca by the Apes pursued And butchered as they fled. But from that fight Victorious, weary, rested Hanuman Amid his slaughtered foemen and engirt With the red rivers he had made to flow, Praised by the host, rejoicing in his wounds.

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Section Two The Mahabharata

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Sabha Parva or Book of the Assembly-Hall CANTO I

The Building of the Hall And before Krishna’s face to great Urjuun Maia with clasped hands bending; mild and boon His voice as gratitude’s: “Me the strong ire Had slain of Krishna or the hungry fire Consumed: by thee I live, O Kuuntie’s son: What shall I do for thy sake?” And Urjuun, “Paid is thy debt. Go thou and prosper: love Repays the lover: this our friendship prove.” “Noble thy word and like thyself;” returned The Titan, “yet in me a fire has burned Some deed to do for love’s sake. He am I, The Titan architect and poet high, The maker: something give me to create.” Urjuun replied, “If from the grasp of Fate Rescued by me thou pray’st, then is the deed Sufficient, Titan: I will take no meed. Yet will I not deny thee: for my friend Do somewhat and thy debt to me shall end.” Then by the Titan questioned Vaasudave Pondered a while what boon were best to have. At length he answered: “Let a hall be raised Peerless, thou great artificer highpraised, — If thou wilt needs do somewhat high designed, — For Yudishthere such hall as may thy mind Imagine. Wonderful the pile shall be, No mortal man shall copy although he

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Translations from Sanskrit Labour to grasp it, nor on transient earth Another equal wonder shall have birth. Vast let it be. Let human and divine And the Titanic meet in one design.” Joyful the builder took the word and high The Pandove’s hall he made imperially. But first the heroes to the King repair, Just Yudishthere, and all their story there Tell out: the Titan also they present, Their living proof of great accomplishment. Nobly he welcomed was by that just King. There in high ease, befriended, sojourning The life of elder gods dethroned of old The Titan to the Pandove princes told. Short space for rest took the creative mind And inly planned and mightily designed A hall imperial for those mighty ones. With Krishna then consulting and the sons Of Pritha on a day of sacred light All fate-appeasing ceremonies right He ordered and with rice in sugared milk Sated the priests, silver and herds and silk. In energy of genius next he chose Ten thousand cubits, mapped a mighty close, Region delightful where divinely sweet The joy of all the seasons seemed to meet. Four were the sides, ten thousand cubits all. This was the measure of the Pandove’s hall. But in the Khandav plain abode in ease Junnardun mid the reverent ministries Of the great five: their loves his home renew. But for his father’s sight a yearning grew And drew him thence. He of the monarch just And Pritha craved departure. In the dust His head he lowered at her worshipped feet, He for the whole world’s homage only meet. Him she embraced and kissed his head. Next he

Mahabharata: The Building of the Hall His sister dear encountered lovingly. Wet were his eyes as with low words and few Pregnant and happy, admirably true He greeted that divine fair girl and heard Of her sweet eloquence many a tender word That to her kin should travel; reverent She bowed her lovely head. And Krishna went To Draupadie and Dhaum and took of these Various farewell, — soft words her heart to ease, But to the priest yielded the man divine Obeisance just and customary sign. Thereafter with Urjuun the hero wise His brothers met and in celestial guise, Like Indra with the great immortals round, All rites that to safe journeying redound Performing, bath and pure ablution made And worship due with salutation paid, Garlanded, praying, in rich gems arrayed, All incenses that breathe beneath the sun To gods and Brahmans offered. These things done Departure now was next. Stately he came Outward and all of venerable name Who bore the sacred office, had delight Of fruit and grain yet in the husk and white Approv`ed curds, much wealth; and last the ground He trod and traced the gyre of blessing round. So with a fortunate day and fortunate star And moment in his chariot built for war, Golden, swiftrushing, with the Bird for sign And banner, sword and discus, bow divine And mace round hung, and horses twin of stride, Sugreve and Shaibya, went the lotus-eyed. And in his love the monarch Yudishthere Mounted, Daaruik, the great charioteer, Put quite aside. Himself he grasped the rein, Himself he drove the chariot o’er the plain. And great Urjuuna mounted, seized the white

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Translations from Sanskrit Windbringer with the golden staff and bright And called with his strong arm the circling wind: And Bhema and the princes twin behind Followed, and citizen and holy priest: With the horizon the procession ceased. All these with the far-conquering Krishna wend. As a high Sage whom his disciples tend, So for a league they journeyed; then no more He suffered but Yudishthere’s will o’erbore And forced return; then grappled to his breast Urjuun belov`ed. Greeting well the rest Religiously the monarch’s feet embraced Govinda, but the Pandove raised and kissed The head of Krishna beautiful-eyed. “Go then” He murmured; yet even so the word was vain Until reunion promised. Hardly at length He stayed them with entreaty’s utmost strength From following him on foot; so glad has gone Like Indra thundering to the immortals’ town. But they stood following with the eyes their light Until he vanished from the paths of sight. Ev’n then their hearts, though distance now conceals, Run yet behind his far invisible wheels. But the swift chariot takes their joy and pride, Too swift, alas! from eyes unsatisfied With that dear vision, and reluctant, slow, In thoughts that still with Krishna’s horsehooves go, Ceasing at last to their own town again Silent they wend, the lion lords of men. So entered the immortal Yudishthere Girt round with friends his glorious city; here He left them and in bowers for pleasure made With Draupadie the godlike hero played. But Krishna, glad of soul, in whirling car Came speeding to his noble town afar With Daaruik and the hero Saatyakie. Swift as the great God’s wing`ed favourite he

Mahabharata: The Building of the Hall Entered, and all the Yadove lords renowned Came honouring him, with one the chief and crowned. And Krishna stayed his father old to greet And Ahuik and his glorious mother’s feet And Bullaraam, his brother. His own sons He next embraced and all their little ones. Last of his elders leave he took and went To Rookminnie’s fair house in glad content. In Dwarca he; but the great Titan Mai Still pondered and imagined cunningly A jewelled brightness in his thought begun, An audience-hall supreme for Hades’ son. So with the conqueror unparalleled, Urjuun, the Titan now this discourse held. “To the great hill I go and soon return, Whose northern peaks from Coilas upward burn. There when the Titans sacrifice of yore Intended by the water Windusor, Rich waste of fine material was left, Wondrous, of stone a variegated weft That for the mighty audiencehall was stored Of Vrishapurvun, the truthspeaking lord. Thither I wend and make, if yet endure All that divine material bright and pure, The Pandove’s hall, a glory to behold, Admirable, set with jewelry and gold Taking the heart to pleasure. These besides A cruel mace in Windusor abides, Massive endurance, studded aureate, Ponderous, a death of foes, commensurate With many thousand more in murderous will. There after slaughter huge of foes it still Lies by a king relinquished. This believe For Bheme created as for thee Gandeve. There too the mighty conch Varunian lies: Thunders God-given swell its Ocean voice. Expect these from my hand infallibly.”

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Translations from Sanskrit Thus saying went the Titan hastily To the northeastern edge of heaven where high Soars Mainaac hill into the northward sky From Coilas. Golden soar its ridges large And noble gems it stores and bright the marge Of Windusor. The high conceiving Lord, King of all creatures and by worlds adored, Here grandiose offerings gave and sacrifice By hundreds, and with excellent device, For beauty not to old tradition, made Pillars of sacrifice with gems inlaid And monumental temples massed with gold. Long here enduring Bhogiruth the bold Through tedious seasons dwelt, yearning to see Ganges, his selfnamed river Bhaagirothie. Nor these alone but he, the Argus-eyed Lord of imperial Sachi, to his side Victory by sacrifice compelled. Creating World systems, energy irradiating He sits here whom the awful ghosts attend, Shiva, who no beginning has nor end. Nur and Naraian there and Brahma there And Hades and the Immoveable repair, — Revolving when a thousand ages wend, To absolve with sacrifice the cycle’s end. Here now ambitious of religion gave Long years his mighty offerings Vaasudave, Devoutly, and bright temples raised their head, Memorial columns golden-garlanded, Unnumbered, multitudinous, immense. Thither went Maia and recovered thence Conchshell and mace and for the audiencehall The old Titanic stone marmoreal. All mighty wealth the servile giants guard, The Titan genius gathered and prepared His famous hall unparalleled, divine, Where all the jewels of the world combine.

Mahabharata: The Building of the Hall To Bheme he gave that mighty mace, the shell Godgiven called, whose cry unutterable When from the great conch’s ocean mouth ’tis hurled Far borne, trembling of creatures fills the world, To great Urjuuna. But immense the hall Ten thousand cubits spread its bulk and all Its sides ten thousand, upon mighty boles Columnar elevate: nor either rolls The sun through heaven, moon nor vast fire so bright. Slaying the sunshine with superior light It blazed as if aflame, most luminous, white, Celestial, large, raised like a cloud to soar Against the heavens whose lustre it o’erbore. Nor weariness nor sorrow enter might That wide and noble palace of delight. Of fair material was it made, the walls And arches jewelled were of those rich halls. Such wonder of creative genius won The World’s Designer to comparison. For neither Brahma’s roof nor Vishnu’s high Might equal this for glorious symmetry. No, not Sudhurma, Indra’s council hall, With Maia’s cunning strove. At Maia’s call Eight thousand Helots of the Giant blood Upbore the pile and dreadful sentries stood Travellers on wind, hugebodied, horrible, Shell-eared, far-strikers, with bloodshot eyes and fell. And in the middle a lotus-lake he made Unparalleled, white lotuses displayed, And birds innumerable and all the stems Of that fair blossom were of beauteous gems And all the leaves were sapphires: through them rolled Gold tortoises and wondrous fish of gold. Marble mosaic was the stair: the wave Translucent ran its edges fine to lave, Wrinkled with soft cool winds that over it sped. A rain of pearl drops on the floor was shed.

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Translations from Sanskrit And seats from slabs of precious stone combined The marble banks of that fair water lined. And all around it ever-flowering trees Of various race hung dark and huge with ease Of cool delightful shade, sweet-smelling woods And quiet waters where the white swan broods And ducks and waders of the ripples. Sweet The wind came from them, fragrance in its feet The lotus gave and lily of the land, And with its booty the great brothers fanned. Full fourteen months he laboured: the fifteenth Saw ready jewelled arch and luminous plinth. Then only came the Titan and declared To the just King his mighty hall prepared. Ceremony of entrance Yudishthere Then held. Thousands of Brahmins luscious cheer Of rice with sugared milk enjoyed wherein Honey was mingled; flesh besides they win Of boar and stag and all roots eatable And fruits and sesamum-rice that tastes full well And grain of offering and pedary, Yea, meats of many natures variously Eaten and chewed, of drinks a vast array; And robes brought newly from the loom that day Were given, all possible garlands scented sweetly To Brahmins from all regions gathering, meetly Presented, and to each a thousand cows. O then was air all thunder with their vows: The din of blessing touched the very skies. With these the notes of instruments arise Varied, celestial, and sweet fumes untold. Before the son of Hades mighty-souled Wrestlers and mimes made show and those who play With fencing staves and jongleurs. For that day He who installed the deities, worshipping, Was greatest of the Kuurus and a king. He by his brothers hemmed, high worship done,

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice With saint and hero for companion, In that his palace admirably bright, Like Indra in his heaven, took delight.

CANTO II

The Debated Sacrifice * * * * * * * * * * But when Yudishthere had heard The sage’s speech, his heart was moved with sighs. He coveted Imperial Sacrifice. All bliss went from him. Only to his thought The majesty of royal saints was brought By sacrifice exalted, Paradise Acquired augustly, and before his eyes He most was luminous who in heaven shone, Heaven by sacrificial merit won. He too that offering would absolve; so now Receiving reverence with a courteous brow, The assembly broke, to meditate retiring On that great sacrifice of his desiring. Frequent the thought and ever all its length His mind leaned that way. Yet though huge his strength, His heroism though admired, the King Forgot not Right, but pondered how this thing Might touch the peoples, whether well or ill. For just was Yudishthere and courted still His people and with vast, impartial mind Served all, nor ever from this word declined, “To each his own; nor shall the King disturb With wrath or violence Right, but these shall curb.” So was all speech of men one grand acclaim; The nation as a father trusted him: No hater had he in his whole realm’s bound,

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Translations from Sanskrit By the sweet name of Enemiless renowned. And through his gracious government upheld By Bhema’s force and foreign battle quelled By the two-handed might of great Urjuun; Sahadave’s cultured equity and boon Necoola’s courteous mood to all men shown, The thriving provinces were void of fear; Strife was forgotten and each liberal year The rains were measured to desire; no man The natural limit of his course outran: Usury, tillage, rearing, merchandise Throve with good government and sacrifice Prospered; rack-renting was not nor unjust Extortion; from the land was pestilence thrust, And mad calamity of fire unknown Became while this just monarch had his own. Robbers and cheats and royal favourites Were now not heard of to infringe men’s rights Nor the king’s harm nor mutual injury Intrigue. To yield into his treasury Their taxes traders came and princes high On the sixfold pretexts of policy, Or at Yudishthere’s court good grace to win. Even greedy, passionate, luxurious men His just rule to the common welfare turned. He in the glory of all virtues burned, An all-pervading man, by all adored, — An emperor and universal lord Bearing upon his shoulders the whole State. And from the neatherd to the twice-born great All in his wide domains that lived and moved, Him more than father, more than mother loved. He now his brothers and his ministers Summoning severally their mind infers And often with repeated subtle speech Solicitous questions and requestions each. All with one cry unanimous advise

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice To institute Imperial Sacrifice. “O king,” they said, “the man by God designed Who has acquired the Oceanic mind Of kingship, not with this bounds his pretence, But hungers for imperial excellence. In thee it dwells, high Cowrove; we thy friends See clear that Fate this sacrifice intends. To complete heroes it is subject. Men Who centre chivalry within them, gain Its sanction when with ancient chants the fires Are heaped by sages, lords of their desires Through selfcontrol intense. The serpentine And all rites other in this one rite twine. And he who at its end is safely crowned Is as World Conqueror, is as King renowned. Puissance is thine, great-armed, and we are thine. O King, soon then shall Empire crown thy line: O King, debate no longer; aim thy will At Sacrifice Imperial.” So they still Advised their King together and apart, And deep their accents sunk into his heart. Bold was their speech, rang pleasant to his ear, Seemed excellent and just, yet Yudishthere Still pondered though he knew his puissance well. Again he bade his hardy brothers tell Their mind and priests high-souled and ministers: With Dhaumya and Dwypaian too confers, Wise and deliberate he. “Speak justly, friends, What happy way my hard desire attends. Hard is the sacrifice imperial meant For an imperial mind’s accomplishment.” All answered with a seasonable voice: “Just King, thine is that mind and thou the choice Of Fate for this high ceremony renowned.” Sweet did the voice of friends and flamens sound: Yet still he curbed himself and still he thought. His yearning for the people’s welfare wrought

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Translations from Sanskrit A noble hesitation. Wise the man Who often will his power and vantage scan, Who measures means with the expenditure, Season with place, then acts; his deeds endure. “Not with my mere resolve the enterprise Begins and ends of this great sacrifice.” While thus in a strong grasp his thought he held His mind to Krishna who all beings excelled Of mortal breed, for surest surety ran, Krishna, the strong unmeasurable man Whom Self-born upon earth conjectured he Because his deeds measured with deity. “To Krishna’s mind all things are penetrable: His genius knows not the impossible” Pondered the son of Hades “nor is there A weight his mighty mind cannot upbear.” On Krishna as on sage and guide his mind (Who is indeed the guide of all mankind) He fixed and sent his messenger afar To Yadove land in a swift-rolling car. Then sped the rushing wheels with small delay And reached the gated city Dwaraca, The gated city where Junnardun dwelt. Krishna to Yudishthere’s desire felt Answering desire and went with Indrosane Passing through many lands to Indra-Plain, Fierily passing with impetuous hooves To Indraprustha and the men he loves. With filial soul his brothers Yudishthere And Bheme received the man without compeer: But Krishna to his father’s sister went And greeted her with joyous love; then bent His heart to pleasure with his heart’s own friend, All reverently the courteous twins attend. But after rest in those bright halls renowned Yudishthere sought the immortal man and found At leisure sitting and revealed his need.

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice “King’s Sacrifice I covet, but indeed Thou knowest not practicable by will alone Like other rites is this imperial one, But he in whom all kingly things combine, He whom all men, all lands to honour join, A king above all kings, he finds alone Empire. And now though all my friends are one To bid me forward, yet do I attend From thy voice only certainty, O friend. Some from affection lovingly suppress Their friend’s worst fault and some from selfishness, Speaking what most will please. Others conceal Their own good with the name of commonweal. Such counsel in his need a monarch hath. But thou art pure of selfish purpose; wrath And passion know thee not; and thou wilt tell What shall be solely and supremely well.” Krishna made answer: “All thy virtues, all Thy gifts make thee the man imperial. Thou dost deserve this Sacrifice. Yet well Though thou mayst know it, one thing will I tell. When Raama, Jemadugny’s son, had slain The chivalry of earth, those who were fain To flee, left later issue to inherit The name of Kshettriya and the regal spirit. Of these the rule by compact of the clan Approved thou knowest, and each highborn man Whate’er and all the kingly multitude Name themselves subjects of great Ila’s brood And the Ixvaacuu house. Now by increase The Ixvaacuu Kings and Ilian count no less Than are a hundred clans. Of all most huge Yayaaty of the Bhojas, a deluge Upon the earth in multitude and gift. To these all chivalry their eyes uplift, These and their mighty fortunes serve. But now King Jerasundha lifts his diademed brow

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Translations from Sanskrit And Ila and Ixvaacuu pale their fires, O’erwhelmed. He over kings and nations towers; This way and that way with impetuous hands Assailing overbears; the middle lands Inhabits and by division rules the world Since he in whose sole hand the earth is furled, Who is first monarch and supreme, may claim, He and he only, the imperial name. And him the mighty hero Shishupaal Owns singly nor disdains his lord to call But leads his warfare, and, of captains best, The puissant man and subtle strategist, Vuccar, the Koruush king, and those two famed Grew to his side, Hunsa and Dimbhuc named, Brave men and high of heart; and Corrusus, Duntvuccar, Meghovaahon, Corobhus, Great kings; and the wide-ruler of the west, The Yovun lord upon whose gleaming crest Burns the strange jewel wonderful, whose might Is like the boundless Ocean’s infinite, Whose rule Norac obeys and Muruland. King Bhogadutt owns Jerasundh’s command, Thy father’s ancient friend, and more with hand Serves him than word. He only of the west And southern end of earth who is possessed, The hero Kuuntiewurdhun Puurujit Feels for thee as a tender father might. Chained by affection to thee is his heart And by affection in thy weal has part. To Jerasundh he whom I did not slay Is gathered, he who must forsooth display My signs, gives himself out god humanized And man ideal, and for such is prized Now in the world, a madman soiled of soul, The tyrant of the Ch´edies, whose control Poundra and Keerat own, a mighty lord, King of Bengal and by the name adored

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice Of Poundrian Vaasudave. The Bhoja strong To whom wide lands, one fourth of all, belong, Called friend of Indra — he made tameable Pandya and Cruth and Koyshic by his skill And science, and his brother Aacritie Is very Purshuraam in prowess — he, Even Bheeshmuc, even this high, far-conquering king To Jerasundh is vowed. We worshipping, We who implore his favour, we his kin Are utterly rejected, all our pain Of benefaction met with sharp contempt, Benefit with harm returned or evil attempt. He has forgot his birth, his pride, his name; Blinded by Jerasundha’s burning fame To him is gone. To him high fortune yields; Great nations leave their old ancestral fields. The Bhojas of the North to western plain Their eighteen clans transplanted, Surasegn, Shalwa, Petucchur, Kuuntie, Bhudrocar, Suisthull, Kulind, Sucuitta. All that are Of the Shalwaian Kings brother or friend, Are with their leaders gone, nor yet an end: The Southern Punchaals and in Kuuntie-land The Eastern Coshalas. Their native north Abandoning the Mutsyas have gone forth And from their fear take southern sanctuary: With them the clan Sunnyustopaad. Lastly The warrior great Punchaalas terrified Have left their kingdoms and to every side Are scattering before Jerasundha’s name. On us the universal tempest came, When Kunsa furiously crushed of old The Yadoves: for to Kunsa bad and bold The son of Brihodruth his daughters gave Born younger feminine to male Sahadave, Ustie and Praapthie. In this tie made strong His royal kin he overpowered; nor long,

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Translations from Sanskrit Being supreme, ruled prudently, but grew A tyrant and a fool. Whereupon drew The Bhoja lords together, those whom tired His cruelties, and these with me conspired Seeking a national deliverer. Therefore I rose and Ahuik’s daughter, her The sweet and slender, gave to Ocroor, — then Made free from tyranny my countrymen. With me was Raam, the plougher of the foe; Our swords laid Kunsa and Sunaaman low. Scarce was this inbred peril crossed and we Safe, Jerasundh arose. Then laid their plans By vast majority the eighteen clans, That though we fought for ever, though we slew With mighty blows infallible, o’erthrew Foe upon foe, three centuries might take wing Nor yet be slain the armies of the King. For him and his two men like gods made strong, Unslayable where the weapons thickest throng; Hunsa and Dimbhuc styled. These two uniting, Heroes, and Jerasundh heroic fighting Might battle with assembled worlds and win; Such was my thought, nor mine alone has been, But all the kings this counsel entertain, O wisest Yudishthere. Now there was slain By Raam in eight days’ battle duelling One Hunsa truly named, a mighty King. ‘Hunsa is slain!’ said one to Dimbhuc. Him Hearing the Jumna’s waters overwhelm Devoted. Without Hunsa here alone He had not heart to linger, so is gone His way to death. Of Dimbhuc’s death when knew Hunsa, sacker of cities, he too drew To the same waves that closed above his friend. There were they joined in one o’erwhelming end. This hearing Jerasundha discontent With empty heart to his own city went.

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice The King being gone we in all joy again In Mothura dwelt and our ancestral plain. But she, the royal princess lotus-eyed, Went to her father mourning; she, the pride Of Jerasundh and Kunsa’s wife, and cried, Spurring the mighty Maagudh, weeping: ‘Kill My husband’s murderer, O my father,’ and still: ‘Kill him!’ But we minding the old thought planned With heavy hearts out from our native land, Son, friend and kinsman, all in fear must flee. Our endless riches’ loose prolixity Unportable by division we compressed And with it fared sadly into the west. The lovely city, fair Cuishusthaly, With mountains beautiful, our colony We made, the Ryevut mountains; and up-piled Ramparts which even the gods in battle wild Could hardly scale, ramparts which women weak Might hold — of Vrishny’s swords what call to speak? Five are the leagues our dwelling place extends, Three are the mountain-shoulders and each ends An equal space: hundred-gated the town. Each gate with heroism and renown Is bolted and has eighteen keys close-bound, Eighteen strong bows in whom the trumpet’s sound Wakes headlong lust of war. Thousands as many Our race. Ahuik has hundred sons nor any Less than a god. And Charud´eshna, he With his dear brother, hero Saatyakie, Chucrodave, I, the son of Rohinnie, And Samba and Prodyoumna, seven are we, Seven strong men; nor other seven more weak, Cunca and Shuncou, Kuuntie and Someque, Anadhrishty, Somitinjoy, Critovurm; Undhuc’s two sons besides and the old King: firm As adamant they, heroes energical. These are the Vrishny men who lead there, all

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Translations from Sanskrit Remembering the sweet middle lands we lost. There we behold that flood of danger crossed The Maagudh, Jerasundh, the mountain jaws Impassable behold. There free from cause Of fear, eastern or northern, Modhou’s sons Dwell glad of safety. Lo, we the mighty ones, Because King Kunsa married, to the west, By Jerasundha utterly distressed, Are fled, and there on Ryevut, hill of kine, Find sanctuary from danger Magadhine. Therefore though all imperial gifts and high Vindicate thee, though o’er earth’s chivalry Thou shouldst be Emperor indeed, nowise Shalt thou accomplish, King, the Sacrifice Great Jerasundha living; for he brings The princes of the earth and all her kings And Girivraj with mighty prisoners fills As in a cavern of the lordly hills, A lion’s homestead, slaughtered elephants lie — So they a hecatomb of royalty Wait their dire ending; for Magadha’s King A sacrifice of princes purposing, With fierce asceticism of will adored Mahadave mighty-minded, Uma’s lord. Conquering he moves towards his purpose, brings Army on army, kings on battling kings, Victorious brings and binds and makes of men His mountain-city a huge cattle-pen. Us too his puissance drove in strange dismay To the fair-gated city, Dwaraca. Therefore if of imperial sacrifice Thou art ambitious, first, O prince, devise To rescue all those murdered Kings and slay King Jerasundha, since thus only may The instituted sacrifice attain Its great proportion and immenser plan. King, I have said; yet as thy deeper mind

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice Adviseth thee. Only when all’s designed, All reasons weighed, then give me word.” “O thou Art only wise,” Yudishthere cried. “Lo now A word no other heart might soar so high As utter; yet thy brave sagacity Plainly hath phrased it; nor like thee on earth Another sword of counsel shall take birth. Behold, the earth is full of kings; they still Each in his house do absolutely their will; Yet who attains to empire? Nay, the word Itself is danger. He who has preferred His enemy’s greatness by sad study known, How shall he late forget and praise his own? Only who in his foemen’s shock not thrown Wins by ordeal praise, deserves the crown. This vast and plenteous earth, this mine of gems, Is from a distance judged, how vast its realms, Not from the dells. Nor otherwise, O pride Of Vrishny’s seed, man’s greatness is espied. In calm and sweet content is highest bliss, Mine be the good that springs from chastened peace. I even with attempt hope not the crown Of high supremacy to wear. Renown Girds these and highborn mind; and so they deem “Lo I or I am warrior and supreme”, Yet if by chance one better prove mid men, It is but chance who wins the crown and when. But we by Jerasundha’s force alarmed And all his mighty tyrannies ironarmed Shun the emprise. O hero, O highstarred In whose great prowess we have done and dared, On whose heroic arm our safeties dwell Yet lo thou fear’st him, deem’st invincible And where thou fearest, my conceit of strength Becomes a weakling’s dream until at length I hardly dare to hope by strongest men This mighty Jerasundha can be slain,

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Translations from Sanskrit Urjuun or Bheme or Raama or combined. Thou, K´eshove, in all things to me art Mind.” Out Bhema spoke, the strong man eloquent. “The unstrenuous king, unhardy, unvigilant Sinks like an anthill; nor the weak-kneed less Who on a stronger leans his helplessness. But the unsleeping and resourceful man With wide and adequate attempt oft can His mightier enemy vanquish: him though feeble His wished-for good attends invariable. Krishna has policy and I have strength And with our mother’s son, Dhonunjoy, length Assured of victory dwells; we shall assail Victoriously the Magadhan and quell As triple fire a victim.” Krishna then: “Often we see that rash unthinking men Imprudent undertake, nor consequence Envisage: yet will not his foe dispense Therefore the one-ideaed and headstrong man. Now since the virtuous ages first began Five emperors have been to history known, Maroutta, Bharut, Yuvanuswa’s son, Great Bhogiruth and Cartoverya old. By wealth Maroutta conquered, Bharut bold By arm`ed strength; Mandhata’s victories Enthroned him and his subtle soul and wise. By strenuous greatness Cartoverya bent The world; but Bhogiruth beneficent Gathered the willing nations to his sway. Thou purposing like greatness, to one way Not limited, restor’st the imperial five. Their various masteries reunited live — Virtue, high policy, wealth without dearth And conquest and the rapid grasp at Earth — And yet avail not to make solely great. Strong Jerasundha bars thee from thy fate, Whom not the hundred nations can deter

Mahabharata: The Debated Sacrifice But with great might he grows an emperor; The jewel-sceptred Kings to serve him start. Yet he in his unripe and violent heart Unsatisfied, assumes the tyrant’s part. He, the first man of men, lays his rude hand On the anointed monarchs of the land And pillages. Not one we see exempt. How then shall feebler king his fall attempt? Well-nigh a hundred in his sway are whelmed. With these like cattle cleansed, like cattle hemmed In Sheva’s house, the dreadful Lord of beasts, Purified as for sacrificial feasts, Surely life’s joy is turned to bitterness, Not dying like heroes in the battle’s press. Honour is his who in swift battle falls And best mid swords high death to princes calls. In battle let us ’gainst the Maagudh thrust, By battle ignominy repel. To just Eighty and six the royal victims mount, Fourteen remain to fill the dire account; Who being won his horrid violence No farther pause will brook. Glory immense He wins, glory most glorious who frustrates Interposing the tyrant and amates. Kings shall acclaim him lord inevitably.” But Yudishthere made answer passionately: “Shall I, ambitious of imperial place, Krishna, expose in my mad selfishness, Upbuoyed by naked daring, men to death Whom most I love? O Krishna, what is breath To one that’s mad and of his eyes bereft? What joy has he that life to him is left? These are my eyes, thou Krishna art my mind: Lo I have come as one who stumbles blind Upon the trackless Ocean’s spuming shore, Then wakes, so I all confident before Upon this dreadful man whom even death

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Translations from Sanskrit Dare not in battle cross. What use is breath Of hopeless effort? Mischief only can Result to the too blindly daring man. Better not undertaken, is my mind On riper thought, than fruitlessly designed. Nay, let us leave this purpose; wiser so Than with eyes open to our death to go. For all my heart within is broken and slain Viewing the vast impracticable pain Of Sacrifice Imperial.” Then replied To Yudishthere great Partha in the pride Of wonders selfattained, banner and car, And palace Titan-built and in the war Quiver made inexhaustible and great Unequalled bow. “O King” he said “since Fate Has given me bow and shafts, a sword like flame, Great lands and strength, courage, allies and fame, Yea, such has given as men might covet long And never win; O King, what more? For strong Is birth and conquers, cries the theorist Conversant in deep books; but to my taste Courage is strongest strength. How helps it then The uncourageous that heroic men His fathers were? From uncourageous sires Who springs a hero, he to glory towers. That man the name of Kshettriya merits best Whose soul is ever to the battle drest. Courage, all gifts denied, ploughs through amain A sea of foes: courage without in vain All other gifts conspire; rather all gifts Courage into a double stature lifts. But conquest is in three great strengths complete — Action, capacity, fate: where these three meet, There conquest comes; nor strengths alone suffice; Men by neglect forfeit their Paradise. And this the cause the strong much-hated man Before his enemies sinks. Hard ’tis to scan

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Whether of these flaws strength most fatally, A spirit poor or an o’erweening eye. Both are destruction. Kings who highly aim And court success, must either quite disclaim. And if by Jerasundha’s overthrow, Rescuing Kings, to Sacrifice we go, What fairer, what more glorious? Mighty prince, Deeds unattempted virtue maimed evince. In us when virtue dwells, why deem’st thou, brother, A nothingness the children of thy mother? Easy it is the ochre gown to take Afterwards, if for holy calmness’ sake We must the hermit virtues imitate. But here is Empire! here, a royal fate! Let others quietism’s sweets embrace; We the loud battle seek, the foeman’s face.” “In Kuuntie’s son and born of Bharut’s race What spirit should dwell, Urjuun’s great words express,” Said Krishna. “And of death we have no light Whether it comes by day or comes by night; Nor this of mortal man was ever known That one by going not to fight has grown Immortal. Let him then who’s man indeed Clash forth against his foes, yet rule decreed Of policy forget not: so his mind Shall live at poise. For when in battle combined Conduct meets long felicity, then high Success must come nor two met equally Equal can issue thence: from clash and strife Of equals inequality takes life. But rash impolicy with helplessness Having joined issue in their mutual stress Breed ruin huge; equality inglorious Then doubt engenders, nor are both victorious. Therefore in skilful conduct putting trust If with our foe we grapple, fell him we must As a wild torrent wrestling with a tree

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Translations from Sanskrit Uproots and hurls it downward to the sea. ‘Trying the weak points in thine enemy’s mail, Subtly thine own conceal, then prompt assail;’ So runs the politic maxim of the wise And to my mind rings just. If we devise Secret, yet with no spot of treacherous blame, To penetrate our foeman’s house and limb Grapple with limb, oh, won infallibly then Our object is. Often one man of men Pervades the nations like a soul, whose brow Glory eternal-seeming wears; so now This lion lord of men; but yet I deem Shall that eternal vanish like a dream. In battle slaying him if at the last By many swords we perish, so ’tis best. We shall by death the happy skies attain Saving from tyranny our countrymen.”

CANTO III

The Slaying of Jerasundh Krishna pursued. “Now is the call of Fate: Fallen is Dimbhuc, fallen Hunsa great; Kunsa is slain and all his host; the hour Is sighted when King Jerasundha’s power Must bow to death; yet not in violent war ’Tis conquerable nor all the gods that are, Nor the embattled Titans overwhelm: In deadly duel we must vanquish him. Conduct is mine, strength Bheme’s, and in the field Who is very victory stands here to shield. We will consume the Maagudh, King, believe, As three strong fires a sacrifice achieve. If we three in a lonely place attain

Mahabharata: The Slaying of Jerasundh To see him, no doubt is, the King of men Duel with one of three will undertake, In pride and strength and greed of glory’s sake Grandiose of heart, duel with Bhema claim But Bheme great-armed, Bheme strenuous for him Suffices, even as death that closes all Sufficient is for the immense world’s fall. King, if my heart thou knowest and if trust Thou hast in me at all, then as a just And dear deposit in my hands implied Bheme and Urjuuna give.” And the King cried, “Achyuta, O Achyuta, never so, O hero, speak, O slayer of the foe. Thou art the Pandoves’ lord, their refuge thou. Govinda, all thou speakest I avow Truth merely; whom thou guidest are not men Fortune abandons. Nay, already slain King Jerasundha is, rescued already Those Kings of earth, and won and greatly ready Imperial Sacrifice, now that I stand, O first of men, in thy controlling hand. Quickly this work to accomplish, be it planned But prudently; for without you no zest, No courage I have to live, as one distressed, One overcome with sickness, who lives on When life no meaning has but pain alone. Without the child of Pandu Krishna is none, Nor possible without Krishna Pritha’s son. By Krishna led unvanquishable are these. Splendid in strength, strongest of strong men is, Vricoder: joined and made a third with you, Famous and noble, nought is he may not do. Well led the arm`ed multitudes effect Great deeds, but led must be by men elect. Blind and inert mere strength is, all its force Impetuous but a block. As by that course Where dips the soil, there water’s led and whence

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Translations from Sanskrit A gap most opens rivermen lead thence Water, even such is guiding policy. Therefore, Govinda, in thy hand are we, Whom the world names its hero famousest For conduct and in that great science best. Krishna whose strength is wisdom, counsel, who Is girded with resource, Krishna must you Put in your van with action’s every need: So only action’s purpose may succeed. Urjuun by Krishna led, Bheme by Urjuun; Then conduct, victory, strength, these three triune Shall grow and conquer, making valour good.” He said, and those three huge in hardihood, The Vrishny hero and the Pandoves twain, Went forth to Magadha of happy men. To Girivraj, the city of the hills, A nation of the fourfold orders fills, A prosperous race and glad, they travelled are, Flushed with high festival and void of care, A virgin city inviolable in war. So came they to the city gates where soared The height by Brihodrutha’s sons adored And all the people, one of peaks that stand, Delightful hills, Chytyuc, in Magadh land; — Thither they storming came. There Rishabha, The eater of forbidden flesh, to slay Came Brihodruth the King and slew and bound Three wardrums with its hide whose threatening sound Far borne through a whole month went echoing. These in his city placed the Maagudh King. Covered with dust of glorious blossoms there The drums hurled oft their thunders through the air. But now came storming to the Chytyuc wall The heroes and the wardrums broke and all Upon the rampart fell as if to smite The very head of Jerasundha’s might: Chytyuc, the ancient peak enorm, deep-based,

Mahabharata: The Slaying of Jerasundh Ever with flowers and fragrance worshipped, vast And famous, with Titanic force of arm Assailed and overthrew with loud alarm; So leaped exulting through no usual gate. To war with Jerasundh they came, and yet Weapons of war had none, with their arms merely Sworded and shielded with the vow austerely Assumed wherein men enter worldly life, Snaatucs. A town they saw with riches rife, Food-mart and flower-mart and populous street, In all desirable wealth grandly complete. So went they mid the shops and highroad wide And from the garland-makers in the pride Of hostile strength fresh garlands violently They mastered. Then in bright variety Of garments manyhued the mighty three With wreaths and burnished earrings bright aflame To Jerasundha’s lordly dwelling came. As lions of the Himalaya eye A cattlepen, so they the palace high. But on the Maagudh men amazement fell Seeing those shapes of heroes formidable, Like elephants in strength, broad-breasted, wide And great of shoulder and like boles their arms Of shaal-trees mighty, fit for warlike harms; Now sandal-smeared and rubbed with aloe-scent. They through the courts in courage arrogant Pass sternly, through three crowded courts attain The royal presence freed from anxious pain. And the great king arose, for them he judged Worthy of high guest-offerings, nowise grudged The water for the feet, the honied curds And gifts of kine, but with deserv`ed words Greeted them crying “Welcome, holy men.” And no word answered him the Pandoves twain. Then Krishna in their midst, the man of mind, Said only “King of kings, these two must bind

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Translations from Sanskrit Silence till midnight hour, envisaging Their vow. Then will they speak to thee, O King.” So in the chamber sacrificial placed They sojourned and the King with awe possessed Returned to his high mansion. But when night Was deep, went the strong arbiter of fight To those three twice-born; for his vow preferred Compelled him, through earth famous, when he heard Of Snaatuc Brahmins in his city bright To meet them even in the deep midnight. And they indeed with strange astonishment Dismayed him and their garments hue-besprent Unwonted. As he came the three arose, The lion men, the victors of their foes. “Welfare, O King” they cried, and each on each They looked and scanned the King awaiting speech. Then to those lords concealed in priestly dress The King said with his haughty graciousness, “Sit, holy men.” They sat, heroic forms Blazing with mightier beauty than informs The fires of sacrifice, when a great king Sacrifices. And sternly censuring Disguise and travesty of shape sincere The conqueror steadfast, “Why come you here, Not as the Snaatuc, in this transient world Who takes the household vow, the Brahmin. Curled Garlands he wears not, smears not sandal paste. What names are yours who come in flowers dressed, Upon your mighty arms the bowstring scored And wearing heroism like a sword, Yet Brahminhood pretend? Speak truth, whence springs Your race? Truth is the ornament of kings. Splitting the Chytyuc peak fiercely you came, Yet wear a vain disguise to hide a flame Yourselves reveal. Where no gate was, no path Allowed, you entered, nor a monarch’s wrath Calamitous feared; and are ye Brahmins? Bright

Mahabharata: The Slaying of Jerasundh In speech the Brahmin; speech his only might And prowess. You whose deeds your caste deny, What needing come you to my palace high? And wherefore took you not the offering To guests observed but scorned Magadha’s king?” Then Krishna in a deep and quiet voice Replied, adept in words of exquisite choice. “Brahmins thou deemest us whom duties call Worldward, but Brahmin, Kshettriya, Vyshya, all Equal entitled are to Snaatuchood. Vows personal, vows general, both are good. But those the Kshettriya’s majesty prepare, To Kshettriyas those belong. Flowers if we wear, Who decks his aspiration stern with flowers, The majesty he wins outbraves the hours. Rightly thou sayest, King, the Kshettriya’s might Speaks from his arm, in words has no delight, Wild words and many uses not; for God Set in the arm, its natural abode, The Kshettriya prowess. Which if thou aspire To see, surely we will not baulk desire; Today thou shalt behold it. Nor debate Of path allowable and door and gate. No gate is in the house of enemies. By the plain door a friend’s house entered is, But by no door with ruin impetuous A foeman’s. These are virtue’s gates and thus Enters the self-possessed, right-seeing man. Nor offering hospitable take we can In foemen’s house with deeds upon our hands. This is our vow and this eternal stands.” And Jerasundh replied, “Enmity, strife I can recall not gazing through my life, Brahmins, with you begun, nor aught that men Pervert to hatred. Wherefore call you then A sinless man your enemy? The good One practice keep, one rule well understood;

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Translations from Sanskrit And he, the Kshettriya who with causeless blame Lightly has taxed the innocent, he with maim Virtue curtails inheriting remorse: Be he in virtue conversant, in force A warrior among warriors, if he act Other than good, has with his own hand hacked His own felicity here and there his soul Following the sinner’s way shall reach the sinner’s goal. Throughout the triple universe confessed The Kshettriya virtue, Kshettriya life is best For nobleness; for goodness. Other rule They praise not who have learned in virtue’s school. That virtue and that life are mine. Steadfast Today I stand in them with spirit braced, Sinless before my people. And ye prate Madness.” Krishna made sterner answer: “Great Is he who sent us, of a mighty strain Upbearer, and upon his shoulders lain The burden of a deed for kindred blood. From him we come upon thee like a flood. Sinless dost thou, O Jerasundha, claim And thou the world’s great princes dost o’erwhelm, Gathered for cruel slaughter? When before Did kings on good kings tyranny explore? But thou, a king, hast conquered and subdued, And Rudra’s altar thou wouldst have imbrued With blood of Kings for victims. On our head Their piteous blood shall lie which thy hands shed. For we are virtue’s and in her have force Virtue to bulwark. Giving tyranny course We share the sin. Not yet the world has seen That crowning horror, butchery of men. O man, how couldst thou to a god devise, To Shancara a human sacrifice? It is thy blood, thy kind thou levellest Comparing human natures with the beast. Is there a man in all the world whose mind

Mahabharata: The Slaying of Jerasundh Like thine is violent, like thine is blind? But this remember, not with the deed man does There is an end; he reaps from what he sows And as he planted such the fruit he sees: Footprints his action left, Fate treads in these. Therefore ’gainst thee, destroyer of our caste, We, champions of the miserable oppressed, For rescue of our kindred men are here To slay thee. But thou sayest ‘What should I fear? There is no man in all the Kshettriya race And I am he alone.’ Great witlessness Is thine, O King, and error most unjust. What Kshettriya has a soul and lives but must Recall with pride his birth from valiant men? Who would not by the way of battle then Enter the doors of Paradise eterne, Felicitous gates? When paradise to earn Heroes to war as to a sacrifice Initiate go, resistless then they rise Conquering Nature. V´eda fathers heaven; To glory excellent its gates are given; Austerity masters it. In battle who falls He most infallibly wins the happy halls. For what is Indra’s heaven, what Paradise? Heaven in noble deeds and virtue lies. By these the myriad-sacrificing god Conquered the Titans and the world bestrode. And what more excellent way to heaven than strife With thee? Nor thou by lustiness of life Deceived and thy huge armies Magadhine Maddening with strength thy foemen quite disdain. In many hearts a fire of courage dwells That equals thine, nay, may be, far excels. While these are hidden in the hand of fate, So long thou art supreme, but so long great. Yes, I will speak it, we, even we, can bear The brunt of all thy greatness. King, forbear

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Translations from Sanskrit Pride with thy equals and vain insolence. O King, why wilt thou with thy son go hence, With all thy captains and great men below To Yama’s melancholy mansions go? Were there not kings as great as thou? Who strove With Brihodruth, Cartoverya, Dumbhodbove, High Uttara? All they are sunk unmourned, Great kings and mighty captains; for they scorned Mightier than they. No Brahmins, learn, are we, Antagonists of thy supremacy. Shourian I am and Hrishik´esha styled; These are the Pandove heroes. Brother’s child I to their mother am — Krishna, thy foe. Take our defiance, King. In battle show Thy steadfast courage, prince of Magadha, Or while thou mayst escape. Either this day Release the captive princes all or die.” Then answered Jerasundha puissantly: “Not without conquest I collect amain Princes; who is there penned my walls within And not in equal battle overthrown? This is the law and life to Kshettriyas known, To battle and subdue and work their will Upon the conquered, Krishna. Owable Upon God’s altar I have gathered these; And shall I for ignoble fear release, While yet the Kshettriya blood beats in my veins, And yet one Kshettriya thought unquenched remains? Army with battled army, single gage With single or alone I will engage With two or three together or one by one.” So spake the King and ordered that his son Be straight anointed for the kingdom’s needs. Himself must fight with men of dreadful deeds. And in that hour King Jerasundha sighed Remembering great captains who had died, Cowshic and Chitrosane, (but other names

Mahabharata: The Slaying of Jerasundh Men gave in converse with worldwide acclaims, Hunsa and Dimbhuc calling), them that night Recalled in shadow of the coming fight. Then spake the Yadove pure and eloquent Seeing the monarch upon battle bent. “With which of three will thy heart battle dare, O King, or which of us shall now prepare For battle?” Then that famous royal man, The Maagudh Jerasundh, with Bhemosane Chose battle. Wreaths, pigment of augury Bovine and all auspicious gramary, Medicaments beside that lighten pain Or call the fugitive senses back again, The high priest brought for Jerasundh and read The word of blessing o’er the monarch’s head.

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Virata Parva FRAGMENTS FROM ADHYAYA 17 “Arise! arise! why sleepest thou, Bhemasena, like one that is dead? For how is he other than dead, whose wife a wretch has touched and lives?”

as a queen of beasts Her sleeping lion in the trackless wood Or a she elephant her mate, pressed Bhema All to her bosom. Then as a sweetvoiced lyre Exultantly to music swooning, grasps Gandhara’s strain, with such a cry the pale Panchalian called her lord. “Arise, arise, Why dost thou sleep, O Bhema, like one dead! Not other than dead is he whose wife the wretch That touched, yet lives.”

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Udyoga Parva TWO RENDERINGS OF THE FIRST ADHYAYA Let the reciter bow down to Naraian, likewise to Nara the Highest Male, also to our Lady the Muse, thereafter utter the word of Hail! Vaishampayan continueth. But the hero Kurus & who clove to them thereafter having performed joyously the marriage of Abhimanyu rested that night and then at dawn went glad to the Assembly-hall of Virata. Now wealthy was that hall of the lord of Matsya with mosaic of gems excellent and perfect jewels, with seats set out, garlanded, perfumed; thither went those great among the kings of men. Then took their seats in front the two high kings Drupada & Virata, old they and honoured of earth’s lords, and Rama & Janardan with their father; now by the Panchala king was the hero Shini with the son of Rohinnie, but very near likewise to the Matsya king Janardan & Yudhisthere; and all the sons of Drupada, Bheme, Urjouna and the sons of Madravatie, and Prodyumna & Samba, heroes in the strife, and Abhimanyu with the children of Virata; and all those heroes equal to their fathers in heroism and beauty and strength sat down, the princely boys, sons of Draupadie, on noble seats curious with gold. Thus as those great warriors sat with shining ornaments & shining robes, rich shone that senate of kings like wide heaven with its stainless stars. “To all of you it is known how Yudhisthere here was conquered by Saubala in the hall of the dicing; by fraud was he conquered and his kingdom torn from him and contract made of exile in the forest; and though infallible in the mellay, though able by force impetuous to conquer the whole earth, yet the sons

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of Pandu stood by their honour religiously; harsh & austere their vow but for the six years & the seven they kept it, noblest of men, the sons of Pandu; and this the thirteenth year & most difficult they have passed before all your eyes unrecognised; in exile they passed it, the mighty-minded ones, suffering many and intolerable hardships, in the service of strangers, in menial employments, cherishing their desire of the kingdom that belongeth to their lineage. Since this is so, do ye think out somewhat that shall be for the good both of the King, the son of Righteousness, and of Duryodhan, just & glorious and worthy of great Kurus. For Yudhisthere the just would not desire even the kingship of the Gods unjustly, yet would he cling to the lordship of some small village which he might hold with expediency & with justice. For it is known to you kings how by dishonest proceeding his father’s kingdom was torn from him by the sons of Dhritarashtra and himself cast into great and unbearable danger; for not in battle did they conquer him by their own prowess, these sons of Dhritarashtra; even so the King with his friends desires the welfare of his wrongers. But what the sons of Pandu with their own hands amassed by conquest crushing the lords of earth that these mighty ones demand, even Kuntie’s sons and Madravatie’s. But even when they were children, they were sought by various means to be slain of their banded foemen, savage & unrighteous, for greed of their kingdom; yea all this is known to you utterly. Considering therefore their growing greed and the righteousness of Yudhisthere, considering also their close kinship, form you a judgment each man to himself and together. And since these have always clung to truth and loyally observed the contract, if now they are wronged, they may well slay all the sons of Dhritarashtra. And hearing of any wrong done by these in this business their friends would gather round the Pandavas, yea and repel war with war and slay them. If natheless ye deem these too weak in numbers for victory, yet would they all band together and with their friends at last strive to destroy them. Moreover none knoweth the mind of Duryodhan rightly, what he meaneth to do, and what can you decide that shall be the best to set about when you know not the mind of your foeman? Therefore let one

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go hence, some virtuous, pureminded and careful man such as shall be an able envoy for their appeasement and the gift of half the kingdom to Yudhisthere.” This hearing, the just, expedient, sweet & impartial speech of Janardan, the elder brother of him took up the word, O prince, honouring the younger’s speech even greatly. * So the mighty ones of the Kurus & they of their faction performed joyously the marriage of Abhimanyu, and that night they rested but at dawn fared, pleased of heart, to the Council Hall of Virata. The Hall of the Lord of the Matsyas, opulent, curious with workings of pearl and the best of jewels, with seats disposed, and wreathed with garlands and full of fragrance, thither they fared, the Elders of the Kings of men. And of those that took their seats in the Hall, the first place was for both the Princes of the folk, even Virat & Drupad and those that were aged & revered among the Masters of Earth, and Rama and Janardan with their sire. Next to the King of the Panchalas sat the mighty one of the Shinis with the son of Rohinnie and very nigh to the Matsya King both Janardan and Yudhisthere, and all the sons of Drupad the King, and Bhema and Urjoon, and the sons of Madrie, and Pradyumna and Samba mighty in the battle and with the sons of Virata Abhimanyu. And all those heroes equal to their sires in prowess and beauty and strength, the princes, sons of Draupadie, sat on noble thrones curious with gold. High shone that opulent Place of Kings with the warriors there sitting in glittering ornaments and gleaming robes as heaven shines invaded by the clear bright stars. Then when those mighty ones had done with varied talk of general import they tarried in thought a moment, all those Kings gazing towards Krishna; and talk being over, spurred by the Madhav for business of the sons of Pandu the lion lords assembled hearkened to his word of import mighty and majestic. Srikrishna spake. “Known is it to you all how Yudhisthere here was conquered by Subala’s son in the Hall of Dicing, beaten

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by fraud, and his kingdom wrested from him and compact made of exile in the forest. Though able to win the Earth by violence yet the sons of Pandu stood firmly in the truth, for truth is their chariot, and for years six & seven all the severity of that vow has been kept by these first of men. And hardest to pass this thirteenth year, lo they have passed it undiscovered before your eyes, bearing intolerable ills, even as they had sworn, — that too is known of you all, — appointed to servile office in a house of strangers, mighty, in their own might, O King, they have won through all. Since so it is, ponder now what may be for the good of the King, the son of Righteousness, and the good of Duryodhan and of the Kurus & the Pandavas, and just also and right and for the honour and glory of all. For Yudhisthere the Just would desire not the kingship of the gods itself if with unrighteousness it came. But to lordship of earth he would aspire though even in some hamlet, so it went with justice and prosperous doing. For it is known to the Kings how his father’s kingdom was torn from him by the children of Dhritarashtra and how by that false dealing he fell into great peril and very hard to bear; for neither was the son of Pritha overthrown in battle by the children of Dhritarashtra in the energy of their own might. Yet even so the King and his friends desire that these should not come to hurt; but what the sons of Pandu gathered with their own conquering hands by force done on the lords of land, this these mighty ones seek for, Coonty’s sons and the sons of Madry. But all this is known to you aright, how these even when they were children were pursued to slay them with various device by those their foemen, dishonest & fierce and bent to rob them of their realm. Seeing how that greed of theirs is grown and looking to the righteous mind of Yudhisthere and looking also to their kinship form ye your separate minds and an united counsel. For ever have these made truth and honour their delight and wholly have they kept the compact, and now if they have dealing from the others otherwise than in truth and honour, they will slay the assembled children of Dhritarashtra. For when ’tis heard that these have been evilly dealt with by their cousins, the friends of Dhritarashtra’s sons will gather to

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protect the illdoers and they will oppose these with war, and they, opposed with war, will slay them all. And even if ’tis your mind that these by their fewness are not strong for victory, they will band themselves all together with their friends and yet strive for the destruction of the Dhritarashtrians. Neither do we know aright the mind of Duryodhan and what it is that he will do, and unknowing the mind of the foe, what can you decide that would be truly right to start upon? Therefore let one go hence, a man righteous, pure, well born and heedful, a fit envoy, for pacifying of Dhritarashtra’s sons and the gift to Yudhisthere of half the kingdom.”

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Udyoga Parva PASSAGES FROM ADHYAYAS 75 AND 72 But the mighty-armed Keshava when he heard these words of Bhema, packed with mildness, words such as those lips had never uttered before, laughing a little, — for it seemed to him like lightness in a mountain or in fire coldness, to him the Showrian, the brother of Rama, the wielder of the bow of horn, — thus he spake to Bhema even as he sat submerged with sudden pity, & woke the heat & flame of him with his words as wind the fire hearteneth. *** But when Sanjaya had departed, thus spake the just king, Yudishthere, to the Dasarhan, the bull of all the Satvatas. “Now is that hour arrived of friends, O lover of thy friends; nor see I any but thee who may deliver us in calamity. For in thee reposing our trust fearlessly we challenge Dhritarashtra’s son with his councillors, knowing his arrogance to be but froth. For even as thou protectest the Vrishnis in all their calamities, so too the Pandavas claim thy guardian care; protect us from peril vast.” Krishna sayeth. “Behold me, O great-armed, tell what thou hast to tell, since whatsoever thou sayest, O Bharata, I will do it utterly.”

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The Bhagavad Gita THE FIRST SIX CHAPTERS

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Chapter I ˆ DHRITARASHTRA In the holy Field, the Field of the Kurus, assembled for the fight, what did my children, O Sunjoy, what did Pandou’s sons? SUNJOY ˆ Then the King, even Duryodhan, when he beheld the Pandav army marshalled in battle array, approached the Master and spoke this word. “Behold, O Master, this mighty host of the sons of Pandou marshalled by Drupad’s son, thy disciple deep of brain. There are heroes and great bowmen equal unto Bheme and Urjoona in ˆ and Virata ˆ and Drupad, the mighty car-warrior, war, Yuyudhan ˆ ˆ Dhristak´etou and Ch´ekitana and Kashi’s heroic king; and Purujit Coontybhoja and Shaivya, lion of men; and Yudhamanyu of mighty deeds, and hero Uttamoujas and Subhadra’s son and the sons of Droupady, great warriors all. And they who are our chief and first, them also mark, O best of the twiceborn, — leaders of my army, for the reckoning let me speak their names, thou and Bheeshma and Curna, Cripa & Somitinjoy, ˆ Uswutthaman and Vicurna and Somadutta’s son, and many other courageous hearts that for me have cast their lives behind them, smiters with various weapons and many arms, and all are expert in war. Weak to its task is this our strength but Bheeshma guards the host; sufficient to its task is yonder strength of the foe & Bhema is their guard. Do ye then each stationed to his work stand up in all the gates of the war and Bheeshma, ever Bheeshma do ye guard, yea all guard him alone.” Then giving joy birth in Duryodhan’s heart the Grandsire, elder of the Kurus, thundered loud his warcry’s lion roar and blew his conchshell’s blare, the man of might. Then conchshell and bugle, trumpet and horn and drum, all suddenly were smitten and blown and a huge and rushing sound arose. Then in their ˆ mighty car erect, their car with snowwhite steeds, Madhava &

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ˆ the Pandove blew their divine shells, Hrishikesh on Panchajanya, on D´evadutta, godgiven, Dhanunjoy blew, and on his great shell from far Bengal blew Bhema Wolfbelly, the man of dreadful deeds, and on Anuntavijoy, boundless Conquest, Yudhisthere, the King, even Coonty’s son, and Nacool & Sahodave on Sughosha Far-Sounding and Manipushpaca, Jewel-Flower. ˆ And Kashi’s King, that excellent bowman and Shikhandi, that ˆ and Satyaqy ˆ great fighter and Dhristadyoumna and Virat unconquered, and Drupad and the children of Droupady and Subhadra’s great-armed son, all these from all sides blew each his separate shell, O lord of earth, that the thunder of them tore the hearts of Dhritarashtra’s sons and earth & heaven reechoed with the clamour & the roar. Now as the Ape-bannered, the Pandove, saw the Dhritarashtrians at their warlike posts, so heaved he up his bow and even as the shafts began to fall spake to Hrishik´esha this word, O King. “Right in the midst between either host set thou my car, O unfallen. Let me scan these who stand arrayed & greedy for battle; let me know who must wage war with me in this great holiday of fight. Fain would I see who are these that are here for combat to do in battle the dear will of Dhritarashtra’s witless son.” Thus, O Bharata, to Hrishik´esha Gudak´esha said, who set in the midst between either army the noble car, in front of Bheeshma and Drona and all those kings of earth. “Lo, O Partha,” He said, “all these Kurus met in one field.” There Partha saw fathers and grandsires stand and teachers & uncles & brothers & sons and grandsons and dear comrades and fathers of wives and hearts’ friends, all in either battle opposed. There when the son of Coonty beheld all these dear friends & kindred facing each other in fight, his heart was besieged with utter pity and failed him and he said: “O Krishna, I behold these kinsmen and friends arrayed in hostile arms and my limbs sink beneath me and my face grows dry, and there are shudderings in my body and my hair stands on end, Gandeva falls from my hand and my very skin is on fire. Yea I cannot stand, my brain whirls and evil omens, O K´eshove,

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meet mine eyes. I can see no blessing for me, having slain my kin in fight. I desire not victory, O Krishna, no nor kingship nor delights. What shall we do with kingship, O Govinda, what with enjoyments, what with life? They for whose sake we desire kingship and enjoyments and delight, lo they all stand in battle against us casting behind them their riches and their lives, our teachers and our fathers and our sons, our grandsires and uncles and the fathers of our wives and our grandsons and our wives’ brothers and the kin of our beloved. These though they slay me, O Madhusudan, I would not slay, no not for the empire of heaven and space and hell, much less for this poor earth of ours. Slaying the sons of Dhritarashtra what joy would be left to us, O Janardana? Sin, sin alone would find lodging in us, if we slew these though our adversaries & foes. Therefore we do not right to slay the children of Dhritarashtra and their friends, for how can we be happy, O Madhove, if we slay our kin? Even though these see not, for their hearts are swept away by greed, error done in the ruin of one’s house and grievous sin in treachery to natural friends, how shall we not understand and turn back from this sin, we who have eyes, O Janardan, for error done in the ruin of our house? When the family dwindles, the eternal ideals of the race are lost, and when ideals are lost, unrighteousness besets the whole race; in the prevalence of unrighteousness, O Krishna, the women of the race go astray, and when women grow corrupt, bastard confusion is born again; but confusion brings the slayers of their race and the race itself to very hell; for the long line of fathers perishes and the food ceases and the water is given no more. By these their sins who bring their race to perdition, fathers they of bastard confusion, the eternal ideals of the nation and the hearth are overthrown; and for men who have lost the ancient righteousnesses of the race, in hell an eternal habitation is set apart, ’tis told. Alas a dreadful sin have we set ourselves to do, that from greed of lordship and pleasure we have made ready to slay our own kin. Yea even if the sons of Dhritarashtra slay me with their arm`ed hands, me unarmed and unresisting, it were better & more fortunate for me than this.”

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Thus spake Urjoona and in the very battle’s heart sat down upon his chariot seat and let fall his bow when the arrow was on the string, for his soul was perplexed with grief.

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Chapter II SUNJOY To him thus besieged with pity and his eyes full & bewildered with crowding tears, to him weak with sorrow Madhusudan spake this word. KRISHNA Whence hath this stain of darkness come upon thee in the very crisis & the stress, O Urjoona, this weakness unheavenly, inglorious, beloved of unAryan minds? Fall not into coward impotence, O Partha; not on thee does that sit well; fling from thee the miserable weakness of thy heart; arise, O scourger of thy foes. URJOONA How shall I combat Bheeshma in the fight and Drona, O Madhusudan, how shall I smite with arrows those venerable heads? Better were it, not piercing these great and worshipped hearts to eat even a beggar’s bread on this our earth; I slay our earthly wealth & bliss when I slay these; bloodstained will be the joys I shall taste. Therefore we know not which of these is better, that we should be victors or that we should be vanquished; for they whom slaying we should have no heart to live, lo they face us in the foeman’s van, they are Dhritarashtrians. Pain and unwillingness have swept me from my natural self, my heart is bewildered as to right and wrong; thee then I question. Tell me what would surely be my good, for I am thy disciple; teach me, for in thee I have sought my refuge. I see not what shall banish from me the grief that parcheth up the senses, though I win on earth rich kingship without rival and empire over the very gods in heaven. SUNJOY Thus Gudak´esha to Hrishik´esha; the scourger of his foes said unto Govinda, “I will not fight” and ceased from words. On him thus overcome with weakness in the midmost of either battle, Krishna smiled a little & said:

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KRISHNA Thou grievest for whom thou shouldst not grieve and yet speakest wise-seeming words, but the wise grieve not whether for the dead or for the living. It is not that I was not before, nor thou nor these lords of the folk, nor yet that we all shall not be again hereafter. Even as the embodied spirit passes in this body to boyhood and youth and age, so also it passes away from this body to another; the strong man suffers not his soul to be clouded by this. But the things of material touch, O son of Coonty, which bring cold and warmth, pleasure and pain, they come and they pass; transient are they, these seek to abandon, O Bharata. The man whom these vex not, O lion of men, who is strong and receiveth sorrow & bliss as one, that man is ready for immortality. For that which is not, there is no coming into being and for that which is, there is no ceasing to be; yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end. But That in which all this universe is extended, know to be imperishable; none hath force to bring to nought the One who decays not neither passes away. Finite and transient are these bodies called of the eternal, imperishable and immeasurable embodied Spirit; arise therefore and fight, O seed of Bharat. Who knoweth the Spirit as slayer and who deemeth Him to be slain, both of these discern not: He slayeth not neither is He slain. “He is not born nor dieth ever, nor having once been shall He not be again; He is unborn for ever and perpetual, He is the Ancient One who is not slain with the slaying of the body.” He who knoweth Him to be imperishable, eternal, unborn and undecaying, whom doth that man, O Partha, slay or cause to be slain? As a man casteth from him his worn out robes and taketh to him other & new raiment, so the embodied Spirit casteth away its worn out bodies and goeth to other & new casings. Him the sword cleaveth not, Him the fire cannot burn, Him water wetteth not and the hot wind withereth not away; indivisible, unconsumable, unmergible, unwitherable is He. He is for ever & everywhere, constant and moveth not, He is the One Sempiternal Being. If thou knowest Him as such, thou hast no cause to grieve. And now if yet thou deemest of the Spirit as ever born or

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ever dying, even so thou hast no cause to grieve for him, O strong-armed. For of that which is born the death is certain, and of that which is dead, the birth is sure; therefore in a thing inevitable thou oughtest not to grieve. Unmanifested in their beginning are creatures, manifested in the middle, O Bharata; they become but unmanifest again at death; what room is here for lamentation? As a Mystery one seeth Him, as a Mystery another speaketh of Him, as a Mystery a third heareth of Him, but even with revelation not one knoweth Him. The embodied One is for ever unslayable in the body of every man, O Bharata, and from Him are all creatures; therefore thou hast no cause for grief. Moreover if thou considerest the law of thine own being, thou oughtest not to tremble, for than battle in a just cause the Kshatriya knows no greater bliss. Happy are the Kshatriyas, O Partha, who win such a battle to their portion; ’tis as though one came past by chance and found the door of Paradise open. Now if thou wilt not wage this just & righteous battle, then hast thou cast from thee thy glory and the law of thy being, and brought sin upon thy head; yea thy shame shall be eternal in the mouth of all creatures, and for one who has been honoured, shame is worse than death. The warriors will think that from fear thou hast ceased from battle, and in their eyes who thought highly of thee, thou shalt be belittled. And thine illwishers will speak of thee many unutterable words, disparaging thy might and thy greatness, than which there is no worse bitterness under the skies. Slain thou shalt conquer heaven, victorious thou shalt enjoy earth for thy kingdom, therefore, O son of Coonty, arise with a heart resolute for war. Make thou thy soul indifferent to pain and pleasure, to gain and loss, to victory & defeat, then gird thyself to the combat; sin shall not touch thee then. Thus hath been declared to thee the mind that dwells in the way of Sankhya, hearken now to that which dwells in Yoga, to which being wedded thou shalt cast from thee, O Partha, action’s binding chain. In this path no step once taken is lost, in this path thou shalt meet with no stumblingblock; even a little of this Law saveth the heart from its great fear. One is the mind of

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a man that holds fast to its aim, but infinite are their minds and manybranching who have no resolved goal. ’Tis a flowery word they babble, men of little understanding who take delight in the creed of Veda, disputing, saying “There is nought else”, their souls full of desires, their hopes bent upon Heaven; but he who hearkeneth to their word that giveth but the fruit of life’s actions and is crowded with multifold ritual, aiming only at splendour & enjoyment & lordship, lo it hurrieth away his heart and causeth it to cling to lordship and pleasure and his mind is unfixed to God and cannot set itself on the rock of concentration. The three nature-moods are the stuff of the Vedas, but thou, O Urjoona, rise above the three, high beyond the dualities, steadfast on the plane of the Light; be careless of getting and having, be a man with a soul. As much use as there is in a well, when all the regions are flowing with water, so much is there in all the Vedas to the Brahman who hath the Knowledge. Thou hast a right to action only, to the fruit of action thou hast no manner of right at all; be not motived by the fruits of action, neither to inaction sell thy soul; but put attachment far from thee, O Dhanunjoy, and do thy deeds with a mind in Yoga, awaiting success and failure with an equal heart; for ’tis such equipoise of the soul that is Yoga indeed. For far lower is action than Yoga of the Super-Mind; in the Super-Mind desire thy refuge; for this is a mean and pitiful thing that a man should work for success and rewards. The man whose Super-Mind is in Yoga casteth from him even in this world both righteousness and sin; therefore to Yoga gird thy soul; when thou doest works, Yoga is the one auspicious way. For the wise whose understandings have reached God, cast from them the fruit that is born of their deeds, they are delivered from the fetters of birth, they pass into the sphere where suffering is not, neither any disease. When thy soul shall have voyaged to the other shore over the Chaos of the Great Bewilderment, then shalt thou become careless of the Scripture that is and the Scripture that shalt be, and when the mind that is perplexed and beaten about by the Scripture shall stand fast and motionless in Samadhi, then shalt thou attain Yoga.

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URJOONA What is the speech of him in whom Wisdom hath taken its firm seat, O K´eshove, of him who is in Samadhi, he whose thought standeth on the settled understanding, what speaketh he and what are his sittings, and what his goings? KRISHNA When a man casteth far away from him, O son of Pritha, all the desires that cling to the mind, when he is self-content in the Self, then is it said of him that the Reason hath taken his seat. He whose soul is not shaken in sorrows and in happiness hungereth not after their delight, he to whom fear and liking and wrath are forgotten things, he is the Sage the thought in whom is settled. He who is in all things without affections whether evil come to him or whether good, who delights not in the pleasure neither hateth the pain, he is the man of an established understanding. As a tortoise gathereth in its limbs from all sides, so when this understanding Spirit gathereth in the senses away from the things in which the senses work, then is the Reason in a man safely seated. By fasting and refraining the objects of passion cease from a man but the desire and the delight in them remain, but when the embodied Spirit hath beheld the Most High, the very desire and delight cease and are no more. For very furious and turbulent are the senses, O son of Coonty, and though a man be Godseeking, though he have the soul that discerneth, they seize upon even his mind and ravish it violently away. Let a man coerce all these and sit fast in Yoga utterly giving himself up to Me; for only when a man has his senses in his grip, is the Reason of him firm in its seat. But when a man thinketh much and often of the things of sense, fondness for them groweth upon him, and from fondness desire & passion are born; and passion’s child is wrath; but out of wrath cometh delusion & disturbance of the brain and from delusion cometh confusion of the recording mind and when memory falleth and faileth, the overmind is destroyed, and by the ruin of the overmind the soul goeth to its perdition. When one moveth over the fields of the passions with his senses in the grip of the Self, delivered from

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likings and dislikings, and when the Spirit itself answers to the helm, a pure serenity becometh his. In that bright gladness of the soul there cometh to him a waning away of all grief; for when a man’s heart is like a calm and pure sky, the Thought findeth very quickly its firm foundation. Who hath not Yoga, hath not understanding, who hath not Yoga, hath not infinite and inward contemplation, who thinketh not infinitely and inwardly, hath not peace of soul, and how shall he be happy, whose soul is not at peace? For the mind that followeth the control and working of the senses when they range abroad, hurleth along with it the Thought in the Spirit as the wind hurleth along a ship upon the waters. Therefore it is, O strong-armed, that his reason is firmly based only whose senses are reined in on all sides from the things of their desire. In the night which is darkness to all creatures, the governed soul is awake & liveth; that in which all creatures wake & live, is night to the eyes of the seer. The waters enter into the vast, full & unmoving ocean and the ocean stirs not nor is troubled, and he into whom all desires even in such wise enter, attaineth unto peace and not the lover of passion. That man who casts away all desires and doeth works without craving, not melting to aught because it is his, not seeing in aught his separate self, attaineth his soul’s peace. This is that Godstate, O son of Pritha, to which attaining man is not again bewildered but standing fast in it even in the hour of his ending, mounteth to Cessation in the Eternal.

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Chapter III URJOONA If indeed to thy mind, Thought is mightier than action, O Janardan, vexer of the host, wherefore then dost thou yoke me to a deed dire & fearful? ’Tis as if thou wouldst bewilder me with mixed and tangled speech, therefore speak decidedly one clear thing which shall guide me to my highest welfare. KRISHNA Two are the ways of devotion in this world, already have I declared it to thee, O sinless hero; the devotion of the men of Sankhya is by singleness in knowledge, by singleness in works is the devotion of the men of Yoga. Not by refraining from works shall a man taste actionlessness and not by mere renouncing of the world shall he reach perfection. For verily no man even for a moment remains without doing, since each is made to do whether he will or not by the moods of his essential nature. He who coerceth the organs of action and sitteth remembering in his heart the things in which the senses work, is a man deceived in Spirit, him they call a hypocrite, but he whosoever governeth the senses with his mind, O Urjoona, and entereth on Yoga in works using the organs of action without attachment, is distinguished above all beings. Do thou the works that the law demands of thee, for action is mightier than inaction; yea without works the very maintenance of thy body cannot be. ’Tis by doing works in other spirit than as a sacrifice that this world of creatures falleth into bondage to its works; but do thou practise works as a Sacrifice, O son of Coonty, with a mind free from the yoke of attachment. For with Sacrifice as their companion the Father, of old, created all these peoples and said unto them, “By Sacrifice shall ye beget offspring; lo the chosen joys of your desire, they shall be to you the milk of her udders. Cherish you the gods with sacrifice and the gods shall cherish you in turn; thus by cherishing each other shall ye attain to your highest welfare. Cherished with sacrifice the gods shall bestow on you

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the joys you most desire and he is no better than a thief who enjoyeth what they give and giveth not to them again.” The good who eat the remnants of the Sacrifice are delivered from all their transgressions, but those accursed eat and drink sin who cook their food but for their own selfish bellies. From food all creatures are born and from rain is the birth of food; but rain ariseth from the sacrifice and Sacrifice hath its root in works; works know to be born of the Eternal, for by the imperishable word of the Eternal they were brought into being. Therefore is the Eternal everywhere and in all things; yea He hath His home for ever in the heart of the Sacrifice. This is the Wheel that God hath set going and who goeth not with it, whose days are a wickedness, whose delight & ease are in the senses, O son of Pritha, liveth his life in vain. But for the man whose whole pleasure is in the Self and who satisfies his longing with the Self, yea who is content utterly with the Self, for him there is no needful action. For indeed he hath no end at all to gain by doing neither any by not doing, he hath no dependence for end or aim on any or even this whole world of creatures. Therefore without attachment do ever the work before thee, since by doing works without attachment man reacheth the Highest. ’Twas by works alone that the men of old reached to utter perfection even Junac and the rest. Moreover even if thou lookest to the right government of the world, thou shouldest be doing. What they see their Greatest do, even that the rest of the folk will practise, and the standard that the Best setteth up, the world will surely follow. Behold, O Partha, there is nought at all in the three worlds that I must do, there is nothing I have not or that I yet need to win, and still I move in the path of works. For verily were I not to move sleeplessly in the path of works, lo men follow utterly the way wherein I tread, O son of Pritha, then would all these worlds sink and perish, were I not to do works and I should become the creator of bastard confusion and the slayer of all these creatures. That which the ignorant do with attachment to the work, O Bharata, the wise man should do without attachment, wishing only to keep the world in its traces. Let him not be the cause of division and confusion of

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mind in the ignorant who are attached to their works, but let him, knowing all, set them to all the works of this world by doing works in Yoga. Lo works are done but by the modes of Nature in her inevitable working, but the Spirit of man is deceived by the sense of separate existence and he sayeth in himself “I, even I am the doer.” But he who knoweth to the core how the workings of the modes are parcelled out, believeth that the modes work in and upon the modes, and suffereth not attachment to seize him. Most men are deceived by the modes of Nature, cling to the workings of these modes; these dull brains, these imperfect knowers, let not the perfect knower cause to swerve and stumble. Repose all thy works upon Me and with thy heart spiritually inclined be desireless, be selfless; then arise, fight, O Urjoona, let the fever of thy soul pass from thee. For men who with faith & without carping follow ever this my Word are released, they also, from bondage to their works, but they who carp at and follow not this my word, know of them that all their knowledge is a delusion; their intellect is nought; they are lost men, Urjoona. Lo even the wise man who knoweth can but act according to his own essential nature; for to their nature all creatures come at last and what shall coercing it avail? Only in the field of each & every sense love and hate are there & ever they lie in ambush; let not the Spirit of man fall into their clutches for they are his adversaries in his great journey. Better is it the rule of thy own life ill done than an alien rule well accomplished, yea death in the path of one’s own nature is better; it is a fearful and perilous thing to follow the law of another’s being. URJOONA Who then is this by whom man is impelled that he worketh sin in the world, yea though he will it not, O Varshn´eyan, as if forced to it by very violence? KRISHNA It is craving, it is wrath, the child of Rajoguna, Mode of Passion. Know him for the Fiend, the Enemy of man’s soul here upon

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earth, a great devourer, a mighty sinner. As a fire engirt with smoke, as a mirror covered with dust, as the unborn child with the caul, so is the universe by him enveloped. By him knowledge is besieged and girt round, O son of Coonty, by this eternal enemy of the wise, this insatiable fire of desire and passion. The senses, the soul and the overmind, these are the places of his session, with these he cloudeth over knowledge and bewildereth the embodied spirit. Therefore in the beginning constrain the senses, O lion of the Bharats, and slay that accursed with the sword of Knowledge and Discernment. High, say the wise, reign the senses, but the heart is higher than they & the overmind is higher than the heart, he who is higher than the overmind, that is He. Thus when thou hast understood Him who is higher than the overmind, slay thy enemy, O strong-armed, even that terrible and invincible one, whose shape is passion.

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Chapter IV KRISHNA ˆ the Yoga that cannot perish; This Yoga I declared to Vivasvan, ˆ told it to Manu, Manu to Ixvaacou repeated it. Thus Vivasvan was it handed down from generation to generation and known of the philosopher Kings till in a mighty lapse of time that Yoga was lost, O scourge of thy foemen. This is that ancient Yoga that I today have declared to thee because thou art my worshipper and lover and friend, for ’tis the noblest mystery of all. URJOONA Of these latter times is thy birth, O Krishna, of the high ancient ˆ how should I understand aright time was the birth of Vivasvan; this thy saying that thou in the beginning declaredst it? KRISHNA Many are my births that are past and gone and thine also, Urjoona; all of them I know but thou knowest not, O scourge of thy foemen. Yea, though I be unborn and imperishable Spirit, though I be the Lord of all creatures, yet I resort to my own nature and am born by the power of my Self-Illusion. For whenever and whenever righteousness and justice decline & faint upon the earth, O Bharata, and unrighteousness and injustice arise and flourish, then do I put forth myself; for the salvation of the pure and the destruction of evildoers, to raise up justice and righteousness I am born again from age to age. He who in this sort knoweth aright my divine birth and works, cometh not to rebirth when he leaveth the body, to Me he cometh, Urjoona. Many have sought refuge with me and made themselves full of me, who have risen beyond love and wrath and fear, and they made themselves holy by the austere energisms of knowledge, and became even as Myself. In whatsoever way men come to me, in their own way I accept and love them; utterly do men, O son of Pritha, follow in the path in which I tread. Desiring good success of their works men sacrifice to the gods on earth, for

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very quickly in the world of men cometh the success that is born of works. By me were the four orders created according unto the division of the workings of the stuff of their nature, know me for their maker and yet neither for doer nor maker who am imperishable. On Me actions leave no stain for I have no craving for their fruit; he who really knows this of me, is not bound by his works. Knowing that in this wise works were done by the ancient seekers after salvation, do thou also do works that were done in old time by the men of old. What is action and what is inaction, as to this the very sages are bewildered; therefore I will declare action unto thee by the knowledge whereof thou shalt be delivered out of evil. For of works thou must understand, of miswork thou must understand, and thou must understand also of inaction; very difficult is the way of works and their mystery. He who in action can see inaction and action in inaction, he is the understanding mind among men; he doeth all works, yet is in Yoga. When the imaginations of desire are shut out from all that a man beginneth & undertaketh, and his works have been burned up in the fires of Knowledge, then it is he that the wise call the truly learned. He hath relinquished attachment to the fruit of his works, is ever satisfied of soul and dependeth not on any outward things; such a man though he engage himself deep in works, yet really doeth nothing: — pure of lusts, he is governed in heart and spirit, he has surrendered all sense of belonging, doing actions only with his body he receives no stain of sin: — well-content with the gains that chance & time may bring him, lifted above the plane of the dualities, void of jealousy, receiving success & failure alike as friends, though he do works, yet is he not bound by them: — leaving all heart clingings behind him, a spirit released, a mind safe in its tower of knowledge, performing works for a sacrifice, all his works are swallowed up & vanish. Brahman is his giving and Brahman is his sacrifice, Brahman casteth Brahman into the fire that is Brahman, by Samadhi of his works in Brahman unto Brahman he goeth. Of the Yogins some make to the natural Gods their session of sacrifice, others offer the sacrifice by the sacrifice into the fire that is Brahman.

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And some offer the hearing and all the senses into the fires of selfmastery and some offer sound and the other things of sense into the fires of the senses. And others offer into the Yoga-fire of a controlled Spirit that knowledge hath kindled with her hands all the works of the senses and all the works of vital breathing. And some make the sacrifice of their goods and some make a sacrifice of austerity. Some offer up their Yoga as a sacrifice, others the knowledge of the Veda; lords of askesis are they all, keen in the vow of their undertaking. Some offer the upper breath into the lower and the lower breath into the upper, stopping the passages of the inbreath and outbreath, absorbed in government of Breath that is life; others eating temperately, offer up the breaths into the breaths as into a sacrificial fire. And all these, yea all are wise in sacrifice & by sacrifice the obscuration of sin fades away from them, for they live on the remnants of their Sacrifice deeming it as the food of Gods and pass over into Brahman that is for ever. This world belongeth not to him who doeth not sacrifice, how then shall another, O prince of the Kurus? Thus are many sorts of Sacrifice extended in the mouth of the eternal; know all these to be born of works; so knowing thou shalt find deliverance. Better than the sacrifice that is all of goods is the sacrifice of knowledge, O scourge of thy foemen, for all man’s work upon earth accomplisheth itself utterly in Wisdom. This Wisdom thou must learn by prostration and questioning and service, then shall the Knowers, they who have seen the Truth of Existence initiate thee in the Knowledge which when thou hast learnt thou shalt not again fall into delusion, O son of Pandou; by the knowledge thou shalt see all creatures even to the meanest in the Self, therefore in Me. Yea wert thou the vilest and most lewd in sin of all sinners, yet shouldest thou pass over to the other shore of Perversity in the ship of the Knowledge. As a fire when it hath been kindled, O Urjoona, burneth to ashes the fuel of it, even so doth the Fire of the Knowledge burn all a man’s works to nothingness. In all the world there is nought that is so great and pure as Wisdom and one who hath been made perfect by Yoga findeth Wisdom in his Self naturally and by the mere lapse of time. The man of faith, the selfdevoted who has bridled

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his senses, he wins the Knowledge, and when a man has got the Knowledge he attains very quickly to the high and perfect peace. But the ignorant, the man of little faith, the soul full of doubts, these go to perdition; this world is not for the doubting soul, nor the other world, nor any kind of happiness. But he that reposeth all his works in Yoga and cleaveth Doubt asunder with the sharp edge of Knowledge, the man that possesseth his Self, O Dhanunjoy, his works cannot bind. Therefore take up the sword of Knowledge, O Urjoona, and cleave asunder this Doubt that hath made his seat in thy heart, the child of Ignorance, lay fast hold upon Yoga, arise, O seed of Bharat.

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Chapter V URJOONA Thou declarest the renunciation of works, O Krishna, and again thou declarest Yoga in works. Which one alone of these twain is the better, this tell me clearly to leave no doubt behind. KRISHNA Renunciation of works or Yoga in works, both of these make for the soul’s highest welfare, but of these two Yoga in works is distinguished above renunciation of works. Know him for the perpetual Sunnyasin, who neither hates nor desires aught, for the mind that rises above the dualities, O strong of arm, is easily and happily released from bondage. It is children who talk of Sankhya & Yoga as distinct & different, not the learned; he who cleaveth wholly to even one of these findeth the fruit of both. To the high heaven whereto the Sankhyas win, the men of Yoga go also, and he who seeth Sankhya and Yoga as one, seeth indeed. But without Yoga, O great of arm, renunciation is very difficult to arrive at and the sage that hath Yoga travelleth very swiftly to God. When a man hath Yoga, the self of him is purified from obscuration, he is master [of] the Self and victor over the senses; he whose Self has become one with the self of all created things, though he do works, can receive no defilement. The Yogin sees the reality of things and thinks “Truly I do nothing at all”; yea when he sees or hears or touches, when he smells and when he tastes, in his going and in his sleeping and in his breathing, whether he talk, whether he put out or take in, whether he close his eyes or open them, still he holds to it, “Lo, ’tis but the senses that move in the fields of the senses.” When a man doeth, reposing all his works on the Eternal and abandoning attachment, sin cannot stay on his soul even as water on the leaf of a lotus. With their body, mind and understanding self and with the pure and unaffected senses the Yogins relinquishing attachment do works for the cleansing of the Self. The soul that has Yoga abandons the fruit of its works and gains instead a confident and utter peace,

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but the soul that has not Yoga clings to the fruit of its works and by the working of desire it falls into bondage. When a man is master of his self and has renounced all works in his heart, then the embodied spirit sitteth at ease in his ninegated city, neither doing nor causing to be done. The Lord createth not works nor the authorship of works for His people neither yoketh He them to the fruits of their works; ’tis the nature in a man that is busy & taketh its course. The Lord taketh to himself the sin of none neither accepteth He the righteousness of any; but Wisdom is clouded over with Nescience and ’tis by this that these living beings fall into delusion. But on all of those who by Knowledge have destroyed the nescience of the Self, Wisdom riseth like the sun and lighteth up that Highest Self of All. Then they perceive Him alone and are Self of Him and to Him consecrated in faith and all for Him, and the revolving wheel clutches them not in any more, because wisdom hath washed them pure of all stain. The Brahmin endowed with learning and modest culture, the cow & the elephant and the very dog and the Pariah, all these the wise regard with equal eyes. Even in this human life they have conquered this creation whose minds have taken root in that divine equality, for the Eternal also is without a defect and He looketh on all his creatures with equal eyes; therefore in the Eternal they have their root. He is not overjoyed when he getteth what is pleasant, he groweth not troubled when he tasteth bitterness, whose reason is firm & steadfast and he subjecteth not himself to delusion but knoweth the Eternal and in him abideth. His soul clings not to the touches of outward things but what happiness he finds, he finds in the Self, therefore his Self is made one in Yoga with Eternal Brahman & the happiness he tastes, does not cease or diminish. For the enjoyments that are born of touch and contact are very wombs of misery, they begin and they end; the wise man taketh no delight in these. For he who even on this earth and before his release from this mortal body hath strength to stand up in the speed and rush of wrath and lust, he hath Yoga, he is the happy man. That man is the Yogin whose bliss is within and his delight & ease are inward and an inner light illumines him & not this outer sun; he goeth to cessation

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in Eternal Brahman, for he becometh Brahman. Cessation in Brahman falleth to those who are Rishis from whom all stain & darkness have faded away, who have cut doubt away from their hearts and are masters of Self, whose whole delight & work is to do good to all created things. Round the strivers after perfection, round the governed souls, who are delivered from the grip of wrath and desire, lo the Paradise of cessation in Brahman liveth all about them, who have got the knowledge of the Self within. He who shuts out the touches of outward things from his soul and concentrates sight between his eyebrows, making equal the outbreath and the inbreath as they move within the nostrils, master of his sense and mind and reason who utterly desireth salvation and desire and wrath and fear have departed from him for ever, verily he is already a released and delivered soul. He knows me for the One that feasteth on man’s sacrifices and austerities, a mighty God who is the friend of every created thing, and knowing he travels to the Peace.

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Chapter VI KRISHNA Who doeth the works he hath to do but dependeth [not] on the fruit of his works, he is the Sunnyasin and he is the Yogin and not he who lighteth not the daily fire and doeth not the daily ritual. Know this, O Pandava, that the thing which men call renunciation is nothing but Yoga, since no man becometh a Yogin if he hath not renounced the imaginations of the will. Of the sage who has yet to ascend the hill of Yoga, works are the medium, but calm is the medium of him who sitteth already on the hilltops. For when a man has renounced all the imaginings of the will and his heart clings not to his works and clings not to the objects of the senses, that is the true Sunnyasin, that is the sitter on the hilltop of Yoga. Let a man deliver his soul by its own strength & let him not afflict his spirit to weaken it; for a man’s self is its own & only friend and its own & only enemy. To that man his self is a friend who has conquered self by the Self, but when he is not in touch with his self, it worketh enmity against him like an outward foe. Now when he has mastered self and is at peace, then the Self of him is utterly at its ease, unaffected by heat & cold, pleasure or pain, imperturbable in honour & disgrace. The Yogi whose soul is satisfied with wisdom and discernment, the immovable sitter on his hilltop and victor over his senses, is called the Yogin who hath the Yoga; and gold and gravel, sand or stone is all to him one substance. He who hath one heart for his lover and his friend and foeman and those who care not for him, who stand midway between liking & hating, for men he should love and men he should hate, yea & even his soul maketh no difference between the saint & the sinner, he is the truly great among men. In a silent place let the Yogin gird his self to Yoga, solitary, governed in heart & spirit, devote his soul continually without desires, without the sense of belongings. In a pure & holy region let him set up his steady & unchanging seat, neither very high nor very low, with grass of cusha spread and a deerskin thereon,

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and on that a robe. There with his mind directed to one point, with a rein on the workings of his heart & senses, let him sit on the seat he has made and betake himself to Yoga for the cleansing of the self within. He shall sit steady holding head & neck & body in one line & motionless and he shall keep his gaze fixed on the joining-place of his nostrils so that his eyes shall not wander over the regions; so steadfast in the vow of abstinence & purity with a glad & calm spirit from which fear hath been driven out, with a mind under restraint, with a heart full of Me let him sit in Yoga giving himself utterly to Me. Ever if he yoke himself so to Yoga with a governed heart, the Yogin reacheth that Peace in Me which is entire quietude. Yoga is not for the overeater neither can a man get Yoga by abstaining utterly from food, nor is it for him that is overgiven to sleep nor can one get it by waking always. But when a man eateth his food & giveth his pleasures to God and all his striving in his works & his sleep is for Him & his waking is for Him, Yoga cometh to that man [and] slayeth his sorrows. When the mind is wholly under government & stands well contained in the Self, when all desirable things cannot get the heart to hunger after them, then a man is said to be in Yoga. Even as the flame of a lamp in a windless place moveth not at all, such is the image men have handed down of a Yogin when he practiseth Yoga with his heart under rein. That wherein the conscious heart ceaseth & is blocked in from its workings by constancy in the practice of Yoga, that wherein by the strength of the self the mind of man seeth the Self and is wholly satisfied in the Self, — where this inward Spirit knoweth that extreme & exceeding happiness which is beyond the reach of the senses & which the reason cannot grasp, and it cleaveth to it & moveth not from the truth of things, — that which when a man has won he cannot conceive of any greater gain, to which when he holds he is not moved therefrom even by the most sore poignant grief, that know for a man’s divorce from his long wedlock with sorrow, which is called Yoga; resolutely should a man set himself to that Yoga with a heart that will not despond. He must abandon all the longings that are born of the imaginations of the Will nor keep

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one back for his comfort, he must surround with his mind & force in from their delight the cohort of the senses; so with the understanding self held well within the grasp of Strong-Control he must cabin in the mind into the self and think of nothing at all. Whenever & to whatever side darts away the infirm & restless mind, thou must curb it from its journey to bring it back within the Self & in the Self tame it to obedience — for a high beatitude cometh to such a Yogi whose mind is calmed, whose active nature is tranquillised, who has no sin, who has wholly become Brahman. Easily shall the Yogi who ever thus setteth himself to Yoga put from him the stain of obscuration, easily feel the utter bliss and the touch divine. The soul that is set in Yoga seeth himself in all creatures & all creatures in himself and he hath one heart for all beings that the world containeth. When a man seeth Me everywhere and all the world in Me, I am with him always and he is always with Me, and we are lost to each other never. When a Yogin becometh one with all beings & loveth Me in all creatures, though he live & move in all manner of activities, he liveth & doeth only in Me. For him I deem to be the greatest Yogin, O Urjoona, who looks alike on all beings everywhere as if they were his own self whether it be for happiness or whether it be for pain. URJOONA Nay, O Madhusudan, for the restlessness of man’s mind I can see no sure abiding in this Yoga of oneheartedness which thou hast spoken. For very restless is the mind, O Krishna, and turbulent and strong and hard of mouth and to rein it in I hold as difficult as to put a bridle upon the wind. KRISHNA Surely, O strong of arm, the mind is restless & hard to bridle, but by askesis, O son of Coonty, and by the turning away of the heart from its affections it can be caught & controlled. Very difficult of attainment is Yoga to the ungoverned spirit, so I hold, but when a man governeth himself & striveth by the right means Yoga is not impossible to attain.

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URJOONA When a man hath faith but cannot strive aright & his mind swerveth from Yoga and he attaineth not to success in Yoga, what is the last state of such a man, O Krishna? Doth he lose both this world & that other, doth he perish like a breaking cloud, failing, O strong-armed, to get his immortal seat, losing his way on the path of the Eternal? This doubt of mine must thou solve to its very heart, O Krishna, for I shall not find any other who can destroy this doubt but only thee. KRISHNA Partha, neither in this world nor in the other is there for that man any perdition; no man who doeth good, can come to an evil end, O beloved. But to the world of the righteous he goeth and there dwelleth for endless seasons and then is born again, the man fallen from Yoga, in a house of pure and fortunate men. Or else he even cometh to being in the house of the wise men, in a family of Yogins, for such a birth as this in this world is one of the hardest to win. There he getteth touch again with the mind he had in his former body and with that to start him he striveth yet harder after perfection, O delight of the Kurus. For he is seized and hurried forward even by that former habit & askesis of his, though it be without his own will. Even if a man’s mind is curious after Yoga, he overpasseth the outer Brahman in the Word. The Yogin earnestly striving is purified of sin; perfected by toil of many births he arriveth at his highest salvation. Greater than the men of askesis is the Yogin and greater I hold him even than the men of Knowledge, and than the men of works he is surely greater, a Yogin therefore shouldst thou be, O Urjoona. And of all that are Yogins I deem to have most Yoga him who with his inner Self taking refuge in Me hath faith in Me & loveth Me & worshippeth.

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APPENDIX I

Opening of Chapter VII KRISHNA When thou hast cloven to me with thy whole self, O Partha, taking refuge in me & practising Yoga, hearken how then thou shalt know me without doubt and without imperfection. For I will declare to thee without reserve the whole result of Philosophy & Science which when thou hast known there is nought else that is left to be known in this existence. Among many thousands of men hardly one striveth after perfection and of those even that strive & are spiritually whole, hardly one knoweth me without misprision.

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APPENDIX II

A Later Translation of the Opening of the Gita

DHRITARASHTRA In the sacred field, the field of the Kurus met together with will to battle what did my people and the people of the Pandavas, O Sunjaya? SUNJAYA When Duryodhana the King saw marshalled the Pandava host, he approached the Teacher and spoke this word. “Behold, O Teacher, this mighty army of the sons of Pandu marshalled by Drupad’s son, thy disciple wise of brain. Here are heroes, mighty bowmen, equals of Bhima and Arjuna in the fight

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Vidula This poem is based on a passage comprising four chapters (Adhyayas) in the Udyog-parva of the Mahabharat. It is not a close translation but a free poetic paraphrase of the subject matter; it follows closely the sequence of the thoughts with occasional rearrangements, translates freely in parts, in others makes some departures or adds, develops and amplifies to bring out fully the underlying spirit and idea. The style of the original is terse, brief, packed and allusive, sometimes knotted into a pregnant obscurity by the drastic economy of word and phrase. It would have been impossible to preserve effectively in English such a style; a looser fullness of expression has been preferred sacrificing the letter to the spirit. The text of a Calcutta edition has been followed throughout. The whole passage with its envoi or self-laudatory close reads like an independent poem dovetailed into the vast epic.

I Hearken to the ancient converse of which old traditions tell, Of the youthful Sunjoy with his mother the indomitable Vidula, the passionate princess, royal in her mood and form, Fiery-souled, the resolute speaker with her tameless heart of storm, High her fame in kingly senates where the nations’ princes met, Eloquent and proud and learned, with a soul foreseeing fate. Conquered by the King of Sindhu, hurled down from his lofty throne, As he lay unnerved and abject, came she to her warlike son, Vidula, the passionate princess, and she spoke with burning eyes, Scourging him with words like flakes of fire, bidding him arise. “Son”, she cried, “no son of mine to make thy mother’s heart rejoice! Hark, thy foemen mock and triumph, yet to live is still thy choice. Nor thy hero father got thee, nor I bore thee in my womb,

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Random changeling from some world of petty souls and coward gloom! Passionless and abject nature, stripped and void of bold desire, Nerveless of all masculine endeavour, without force and fire, Reckon not thy name midst men who liest flinging manhood far. Rise and bear thy yoke, thou warhorse, neighing for the crash of war! Make not great thy foemen with thy terrors, panic eyes behind. Thou, a king’s son, canst thou tremble? Be a king indeed in mind, Soar up like a sudden eagle beating high against the wind. Out, arise, thou coward! lie not thus upon the ground o’erthrown, Shorn of pride, thy foes’ delight, thy friends’ shame, making fruitless moan. Easily a paltry river with the meagre floods o’erflows, Easily the fieldmouse with her mite of grain contented goes, Easily the coward ceases fainting from his great emprise. Break the serpent’s fangs between thy hands and perish, not as dies Impotent a whining dog, go deathward; but as circles o’er his prey, But as wheels an angry falcon through the wide and azure day Watching for his moment, thou in fearless silence wait thy time Or with resonant and far-voiced challenge waken war sublime. Wherefore like a dead thing thunder-blasted liest thou on the ground? Rise, thou coward, seek not slumber while the victors jeer around. Turn not miserably to thy set, but smiting with the sword Make the world re-echo! deem that thou wast born to be its lord, Not with middle place content nor abject; all subjection spurn. Stand erect, whate’er befall thee, roaring on thy hunters turn. Blaze out like a firebrand even if for a moment burning high, Not like the poor fire of husks that smoulders long, afraid to die. Better is the swift and glorious flame that mounting dies of power, Not to smoke in squalid blackness, hour on wretched futile hour. Out to battle, do thy man’s work, falter not in high attempt; So a man is quit before his God and saved from self-contempt. For the great heart grieves not though he lose the glorious crown of strife, But he does the work before him holding cheap his body’s life. Show thy prowess, be the hero thou wast born, with flashing glaive Hew thy way with God before thee to the heaven of the brave.

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All the wells that thou hast dug, the beasts that thou hast offered, all Fame is gone to wrack; thy roots of pleasure cut, the tree must fall. Eunuch, wherefore dost thou live? if thou must sink, with thy last breath Seize thy foeman by the thigh and drag him with thee down to death. Though his roots be cut, the strong man stands up stiff, he sinks not prone. Mark the warhorse in the battle with the sunken car o’erthrown, Up he struggles, full of pride and rage. Thou too like him exalt Thy low fortunes, lift thy great house shamed and ruined through thy fault. He whose perfect deeds as of a demigod in strength and mind Make not up the daily talk and glory of amazed mankind, What is he but one more clod to feed the fire and help the soil? He is neither man nor woman. Man is he whose fire and toil, Turned to wealth or turned to wisdom, truth or piety of soul, Travel through the spacious world renowned from pole to ringing pole, Or in austere works or knowledge or in valour quick and high He outdoes his fellow-creatures scaling the immortals’ sky. Be not as the vagrant beggar seeking food from door to door, Shameless with his skull and rosary wretched handfuls to implore. Cowardly, ignoble and unfeeling is the life they lead, Equal to the houseless street-dog whom compassionate hands must feed. Let not ever son of mine be such an one as all men scorn, Without throne and without purple, weak, emaciate and forlorn, Mean and with mean things content and vaunting o’er a little gain. Such an one his foes delight in, but his friends are joyless men. We shall perish, exiles from our country, plagued with wretched want, All obscure who were so glorious, doomed to petty things and scant, Wandering in loveless places, dreaming at an alien door Of delightful things and pleasant in our joyous lives of yore. Death and shame in thee I bore and fondly deemed I had a son. Better were a woman barren than to bear with labour one Sluggish, weak and hopeless, without noble wrath and warlike fire. Sunjoy, Sunjoy, waste not thou thy flame in smoke! Impetuous, dire,

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Leap upon thy foes for havoc as a famished lion leaps, Storming through thy vanquished victors till thou fall on slaughtered heaps. This is manhood to refuse defeat and insult not to bear. He who suffers and forgives, who bows his neck the yoke to wear, Is too weak for man, too base to be a woman. Loiterings Clog a mounting fortune, low contentment fetters, fear unwings, And a fainting over-pitiful heart she scorns for her abode. In thy strength reject these poisons, tread not vile subjection’s road. Make thy man’s heart hard like iron to pursue and take thy own. Out to battle! let not woman’s weakness shame thy manhood, son. Fortune dogs the hero’s goings who like Ocean in his pride Walks through life with puissant footsteps as a lion the hill-side. Even when he has gone where fate shall lead him, still his people climb On the wave of his great actions to a joy and strength sublime. For a King must exile pleasure, turn from safety to waylay Fortune for his nation like a hunter tracking down his prey. Wise and fortunate ministers shall help him, thousands share his joy.” But to Vidula, amazed and angry answered swift the boy. “Where shall be thy bliss, my mother, though the whole wide earth were thine, If thine eyes of me are vacant? the delight of raiment fine, Food and gems and rich enjoyments, what were these without thy son?” But the mother in her surge of passion answered rushing on. “Be that Hell my foeman’s where the loiterer and the coward climb, Who avoid occasion, murmuring, ‘Why today? ’tis not the time.’ May my friends go flocking to that world where the high-crested go, Who respect the self within them and its noble value know. But who, stripped of mastery, eat the bitter bread that others give, Miserable souls and strengthless, is it life that such men live? Live not with such abject living, be a prince and chief of men. Let the Brahmins look toward thee even as to the King of Rain All this world of creatures turns for sustenance with expectant eyes. Mighty Gods to mightier Indra from their golden thrones arise.

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Lo, his hands to whom all creatures for their bliss come crowding fast, As to a ripe-fruited tree the birds innumerably haste, And his life indeed is counted, for he reaps the earth with deeds And on friend and fere and kinsman showers unasked their princely needs, — Living by his arm’s strength, taking only what his hand has won, Gathering here an earthly glory, shining there like Indra’s sun.

II “Evil is thy state, O Sunjoy; lose the manhood from thy soul And thou treadst the path of vilest spirits with their Hell for goal. Shall a warrior born of warriors to whom Heaven gave fire divine, Spend it not in mighty actions lavish of the God within? Shall he hug his life for ever? He is then a thief to Heaven; For to swell the days of earth with glorious deeds that strength was given. Hear me, Sunjoy! Sindhu’s monarch rules in might the conquered folk, But their hearts bend not before him, they abhor the foreign yoke. They from weakness sit with minds bewildered, full of hate and grief, Waiting sullenly a sea of miseries, hopeless of relief. Gather faithful friends and get thee valiant helpers; through our lands Working with a fierce persistence, strengthening still thy mighty hands. Others when they see thy daring shall be stirred to noble strife, Catch thy fire and rise in strong rebellion, scorning goods and life. Make with these a close and mighty following, seek the pathless hills, Regions difficult and strong and sullen passes walled with ills For the rash invader; there in arms expect the tyrant’s hour; He is not a god to be immortal, not for ever lasts his power. Knowst thou not the ancient Brahmin with his deep and inward eye That beholds the ages, told of thee that lowly thou shouldst lie, Yet again arise and prosper? Victor1 named, a victor be. Therefore have I chidden and urged thee, to awake thy destiny. 1 “Sunjoy”, Sanskrit sanjaya, ˜ means “victory”.

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O my son, believe me, he whose victory brings the common gain And a nation conquers with him, cannot fail; his goal is plain And his feet divinely guided, for his steps to Fate belong. O my son, think this whilst thou art fighting: ‘Generations long Of my fathers walk beside me and a nation’s mighty dead Watch me; for my greatness is their own, my slavery bows their head.’ In this knowledge turn thy thoughts to battle; Sunjoy, draw not back! Eviller plight is not nor sinfuller, this day’s bread to lack Nor to know from whence shall come the bitter morrow’s scanty meal. It is worse than death of spouse or child such indigence to feel. That’s a grief that strikes and passes, this a long and living death. In a house of mighty monarchs I derived my earliest breath; As from ocean into ocean sails a ship in bannered pride, To a house of mighty monarchs came I in my marriage-tide, Queen and Empress, filled with joys and blessings, worshipped by my lord, And my kin rejoiced to see me rich in wealth and jewelled hoard, Clothed in smooth and splendid raiment, girt with friends and nobly stored. When thou seest me weak and abject and the weeping of thy wife, Wilt thou in thy breath take pleasure, wilt thou love thy shameful life? Wouldst thou see thy household priests and holy teachers leave our side, Our retainers hopeless of their sustenance who had served thy pride? In thy proud aspiring actions, son, I lived; if these are past, Peace can dwell not in my bosom and my heart shall break at last. Must I then turn back the Brahmin when he sues for gold or lands? Shame would tear my heart-strings; never, Sunjoy, went with empty hands From thy father’s seat or from thy mother’s presence suppliant men. We were ever all men’s refuge; shall we sue to others then? Life shall leave me rather, I will seek that house of nether calms. Never will I tread a stranger’s floor and live upon his insolent alms. Lo! we toss in shoreless waters, be the haven to our sail! Lo! we drown in monstrous billows, be our boat with kindly hail! Save our hopeless fortunes! We are dead men drawing empty breath, Be a hero and deliverer, raise us from this living death.

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Dare to die, O hero! Where is then the foeman half so strong As to overcome thy onset? Who would choose to suffer long Years of sad despondent weakness? sudden death is better far. Single out their mightiest, let thy fame o’ertop the surge of war. Indra by the death of Vritra seized the monarchy of Heaven; Lord of teeming worlds, to him the largest sovereign part is given. Calling to his armoured foes defiance, lo, the hero proud Shouts his name across the roar of battle like a lion loud And he breaks their foremost, and they fall apart like scattered spray, Till he slays their leader and mightiest winning glory wide as day. Then his haters’ hearts are troubled, then they bow reluctant heads. For he hurls his life into the battle and on death he treads Towards victory; all the cowards and the tremblers of the earth Come with gifts and incense crowding to provide his ease and mirth. Is it death thou fleest from? Sunjoy, savage is the fall of Kings, For a wise foe leaves no remnants, hands to stab or fugitive wings. To be King is heaven, O Sunjoy, sweet as nectar to the lip Power is to the mighty. Son of Kings, thou holdest in thy grip Heaven or empire; rush then like a meteor on the vaunting foe! Reaper in the battle! kinglike lay their arm`ed thousands low. Sunjoy, terror of thy foemen, let me see not in thy close A poor crouching coward girt with weeping friends and shouting foes. Vail not thou thy crest to be a mock for Sindhu’s laughing girls: Take her highborn damsels for thy handmaids, with her conquered pearls Wreathe thy queen, be strong and splendid as of yore in youthful pride. Young and shaped to princely beauty, cultured, to great Kings allied, Such a man as thou to deviate from thy bold and radiant mood! Thou to bow thy neck to other yoke than Earth’s, for alien food Speaking sweet to strangers, following with a meek inclin`ed head! If I see thee thus degraded, I shall think my son is dead. But I know this country’s mighty princes and their lordly race Firmer-rooted than the mountains in eternal kingliness. In our fathers and forefathers ’twas the same and in our sons Shall be and their progeny for ever while the Ganges runs. It was made by God a grandeur! Never prince of the ancient seed,

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Never prince who did the deeds of princehood in this land was bred, Who would crouch and gaze for sustenance, who in fear would bow his neck. Like a giant tree he has no joints to bend with, though he break; Break he may, but bends not. If he bows, to holy men in awe Bows he; if he yields, it is to justice and religion’s law, Not to equal or inferiors: them he holds with sternest hand, Smiting still the strong ill-doer and the troublers of the land. Mightily like a maddened elephant through the world he storms abroad Conquering fate through high adventure, kneeling not to bear the load — Little recks if he has helpers or stands lonely, dispossessed; He is what he is and will not alter, lowers not his crest.”

III “Mother, mother stony-natured, ore of pitiless iron black Heaven collected and together forged thy dreadful heart to make. Mother mine heroic-minded, high-disdaining common mould, Dreadful is the warrior code of ethics that our princes hold, Harsh, devoid of love and sweetness; thou my mother driv’st me on To the battle like a stranger, like another woman’s son! Am I not thy child? has any other in thy love a part? Yet thy words are harsh and ruthless. Will it please thy fiery heart If I lie in battle cold and in my stead thou own the earth? What were all life’s splendour, what were bright and fair things worth? When thine eyes seek me in vain, will these things soothe their sad desire?” But the mother answered still with words that breathed her soul of fire. “Dear my son, for joy or sorrow twofold is the great life’s scope, To be righteous in our actions, to fulfil each human hope. Private welfare, high religion, both alike should urge thee on. It has come at last, the mightiest hour of all thy life, O son.

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Now if thou shouldst spurn occasion from vile fear or pitifulness, All thy beauty were dishonoured and thy strength grows thy disgrace. When dishonour stains thee, should I shape my words to soothe thy mind? Like a she-mule’s were my mother’s love, a brutish impulse blind. Leave the path of fools and cowards, vileness hated by the wise. Strange the sorcery of affection sealing up this people’s eyes! But not mine! While only thou art noble, art thou dear and loved. But a graceless son or grandchild by aspiring thoughts unmoved, Crude and brutish-brained with unformed soul, revolts a father’s mind, Knowing he had all in vain his labour to create his kind. Shrink not from a noble action, stoop not to unworthy deed! Vile are they who stoop, they gain not Heaven’s doors, nor here succeed. Kshatriyas on this world were loosed for battle by their Maker high, Sunjoy, for the strife and victory, and they conquer or they die. Ever by their doom of Nature to a labour unrevoked And a fierce hard-hearted action for the people’s safety yoked, Conquering or dying, glorious Indra’s radiant world they share: Yet his heavenly mansions to a warrior’s heart are not so dear As to dare and triumph, as the gust and glory of the strife, As to set his foes beneath his feet and drink the joy of life. When the thinking soul of manhood is insulted and oppressed, Deep he burns with fire for ever and revenge is in his breast, Till he’s strong to hurl disfigured self away and nobly cease Or to crush the proud wrongdoer; other way is none to peace. Wilt thou faint for difficulty and sorrow? they but strengthen men. Even a little pleasure comes not here without a little pain, Without struggle no delight is and without delight the soul Cannot live, but ceases like the Ganges in the ocean’s roll.” Then King Sunjoy answered, faintly now, but making once more moan. “Not such counsel thou shouldst give me. Mother, still I am thy son. Be as dumb men are, my mother, be as dull and joyless things; Look to pity and softness only, not the iron moods of Kings.”

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“Greatest were my joy then if thy thoughts like mine grew eagle-eyed. Thou bidst me to woman’s softness? I bid thee to masculine pride. When the men of Sindhu are not, blotted by thy hands from life, When thou winnest difficult victory from the clutch of fearful strife, I shall know thou art my offspring and shall love my son indeed.” But King Sunjoy, “Where have I a single helper in my need? All alone what man can struggle? Without means who groweth great? I have neither friends nor treasure; when I view my dreadful state, Fallen, helpless, wretched, all my sick heart turns from useless toil As a sinner lost despairs of heaven for a thing so vile. But, O mother, if thy wisdom find an issue from this net, Tell me, mother; I may do thy lofty bidding even yet.” “Never scorn thyself for past defeat; be bold and proud of heart. Fortune goes and comes again; she seeks us only to depart. Foolish are those careful thinkers who would ponder all their days, Thinking this and that, and leap not to their crown, ask perfect ways. Where is in the world an action whose result is wholly sure? Here uncertainty’s the one thing certain. To a noble lure Man puts forth his manhood, wins and is or dies in the attempt. They who act not, try not, they are nothing and their crown contempt. Single is inaction’s nature to forego Fate’s mighty call: Double-edged high aspiration wins life’s throne or loses all. Knowing that his life is transient, sure of its uncertainties, Swift the hero clashing with adversity jostles for increase. All you who are men, awake and rise and struggle; free and great Now resolve to be and shrink not from the dangerous face of Fate. Be you resolute for victory; this shall drag her to your side, For the iron will takes Fortune captive like a vanquished bride. Call the gods to bless thy purpose; set the Brahmin’s subtle brain And the nation’s princes in thy vanguard; fight! thou shalt attain. There are angered bold ambitious natures, many a breast Arrogant and active, there are men insulted and disgraced By the foreign tyrant, there are soaring spirits that aspire, Minds of calm courageous wisdom, quiet strengths and souls of fire, Desperate men with broken fortunes; link thyself to these and dare.

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Care not for his giant armies, care not for his tools of war. With these native flames to help thee, those shall break like piles of cloud When a mighty storm awakes in heaven and the winds grow loud. Give them precedence, rise to yield them courtesy, speak them ever fair; They shall make thee then their leader and for thee shall do and dare. When the tyrant sees his conquered foeman careless grown of death, Bent on desperate battle, he will tremble, he will hold his breath Like a man who sees a Python lashing forward for the grip. Doubtless he will strive to soothe or tame thee, but if thou escape His deceit and violence, he will parley, give and take for peace. So at least there’s gained a respite and good terms for thy increase. Respite and a footing gained, then gather wealth to swell thy force. Friends and helpers crowd around him who has money and resource, But the poor man they abandon and they shun his feeble state, Losing confidence, saying, ‘Where are then his means and favouring fate?’ When thy foe shall grow thy helper, cessions new and treaties make, Then thou’lt understand how easy ’twas to win thy kingdom back.

IV “Never should a prince and leader bow his haughty head to fear, Let his fortune be however desperate, death however near. If his soul grow faint, let him imprison weakness in his heart, Keep a bold and open countenance and play on a hero’s part. If the leader fear and faint, then all behind him faint and fear. So a king of men should keep a dauntless look and forehead clear. Now this nation and this army and the statesmen of the land, All are torn by different counsels and they part to either hand. Some affect as yet the foreign tyrant, many leave his side, Others yet shall leave him, frowning, for his insults and his pride. Some there are, thy friends who love thee, but they serve and eat his bread, Weak, though praying for thy welfare, like poor cattle bound and led,

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Translations from Sanskrit

Like a cow that sees her calf tied, so they serve reluctantly, Yet they sorrow in thy sorrow, weeping as for kin that die. Some there are whom thou hast loved and honoured, loyal friends of old, Who believe yet in the nation though its king grow faint and cold. Yield not to thy fear, O Sunjoy; let not such thy side forsake Scorning thy poor terrors. Wake for victory, Sunjoy! Warrior, wake! I have laboured to provoke the will, the strength thy heart within. All is truth I’ve uttered and thou knowst it; thy despair was sin. Know that thou hast still great treasure, know that I have funds concealed, Mighty stores that I alone know; thou shalt have them for the field. Know that thou hast numerous secret helpers, friends who wait their hour, Daring to endure privation and disaster’s utmost power. They shall turn not backward from the battle, they are helpers, friends Such as daring souls aspirant need for their gigantic ends.” So she spoke with words of varied splendour urging him to dare Till his gloom and shadow left him and his foolish weak despair. “O thou strong and resolute speaker, even the feeblest fainting soul Would put darkness from him, listening, for thy words would make him whole. I will high uphold my country in its swift precipitous fate, Having thee to lead me on whose vision past and future wait. My denial and my silence were but craft; consent deferred Drew thee on to speak lest I should lose even one inspiring word. It is sudden nectar to the desolate to find a friend! Now I rise to smite the foe and cease not till I make an end.” Out he rushed to desperate battle burning in his pride and might, As a noble warhorse wounded rushes faster to the fight. Stung with arrows of her speech he did his mother’s high command Driving out the foe and stranger, freeing all the conquered land. Lo, this strong and famous poem that shall make men gods for might, Kindling fiery joy of battle. When a King has lost the fight By his foemen whelmed and broken, let his well-wishers and friends

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Read to him this poem. All who need high strength for noble ends, Let them read it daily; for the warrior hearing turns to flame, Tramples down a hundred foemen and acquires a deathless name. And the pregnant woman who shall hear it day by day Bears a hero or a strong man dowered with strength to help or slay, Or a soul of grandiose virtues, or a helper of the Light, Or a glorious giver blazing with the spirit’s radiance bright. But a daughter of high princes and a fighter’s wife shall bear Splendid like a flame and swift and fortunate, strong to dare, Unapproachable in battle and invincible in war, Arm`ed champion of the right, injustice’ scourge, some human star.

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Section Three Kalidasa

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Vikramorvasie or The Hero and the Nymph

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Characters PURURAVAS, son of Budha and Ila, grandson of the Moon, King of the world, reigning at Pratisthana. MANAVAKA, a Brahmin, the King’s jester and companion. LATAVYA, Chamberlain of the King’s seraglio. CHITRARATH, King of the Gandharvas, musicians of Heaven. GALAVA disciples of Bharat, Preceptor of the Arts in PELAVA H Heaven. AYUS, son of Pururavas. CHARIOTEER of Pururavas. THE QUEEN AUSHINARIE, wife of Pururavas and daughter of the King of Kashi. URVASIE, an Apsara or Nymph of Heaven, born from the thigh of Narayan. NIPUNIKA, the Queen’s handmaid. CHITRALEKHA SAHAJANYA Nymphs of Heaven, companions of Urvasie. RAMBHA MENAKA J SATYAVATIE, a hermitess. A HUNTRESS. GIRLS, attendant on the King; AMAZONS.

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Act I INVOCATION He in Vedanta by the Wise pronounced Sole Being, who the upper and under world Pervading overpasses, whom alone The name of God describes, here applicable And pregnant — crippled else of force, to others Perverted — and the Yogins who aspire To rise above the human death, break in Breath, soul and senses passionately seeking The Immutable, and in their own hearts find, — He, easily by work and faith and love Attainable, ordain your heavenly weal. After the invocation the Actor-Manager speaks. MANAGER No need of many words. He speaks into the greenroom. Hither, good friend. The Assistant-Manager enters. ASSISTANT Behold me. MANAGER Often has the audience seen Old dramas by our earlier poets staged; Therefore today a piece as yet unknown I will present them, Vikram and the Nymph. Remind our actors then most heedfully To con their parts, as if on each success Depended.

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Translations from Sanskrit ASSISTANT I shall do so. He goes. MANAGER

And now to you, O noble audience, I bow down and pray, If not from kindliness to us your friends And caterers, yet from pride in the high name That graces this our plot, heedful attention, Gentles, to Vikramorvasie, the work Of Kalidasa. VOICES Help! O help, help, help! Whoever is on the side of Heaven, whoever Has passage through the paths of level air. MANAGER What cry is this that breaks upon our prologue From upper worlds, most like the wail distressed Of ospreys, sad but sweet as moan of bees Drunken with honey in deep summer bloom, Or the low cry of distant cuckoo? or hear I Women who move on Heaven’s azure stage Splendid with rows of seated Gods, and chant In airy syllables a liquid sweetness? (after some thought) Ah, now I have it. She who from the thigh Of the great tempted sage Narayan sprang Radiant, Heaven’s nymph, divinest Urvasie, In middle air from great Coilasa’s lord Returning, to the enemies of Heaven Is prisoner; therefore the sweet multitude Of Apsaras send forth melodious cry Of pathos and complaint. He goes.

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The Nymphs of Heaven enter, Rambha, Menaka, Sahajanya and many others. NYMPHS Help, help, O help! Whoever is on the side of Heaven, whoever Has passage through the paths of level air. Pururavas enters suddenly and with speed in a chariot with his charioteer. PURURAVAS Enough of lamentation! I am here, Ilian Pururavas, from grandiose worship In Surya’s brilliant house returned. To me, O women! say ’gainst what ye cry for rescue. RAMBHA Rescue from Titan violence, O King. PURURAVAS And what has Titan violence to you Immortal done of fault, O Heaven’s women? MENAKA King, hear us. PURURAVAS Speak. MENAKA Our sister, our dear sister! The ornament of Eden and its joy! Whom Indra by asceticism alarmed Made use of like a lovely sword to kill Spiritual longings, the eternal refutation Of Luxmie’s pride of beauty, Urvasie! Returning from Cuvera’s halls, O she

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Was met, was taken. Cayshy, that dire Titan, Who in Hiranyapoor exalts his house, Beheld her and in great captiving hands Ravished, Chitralekha and Urvasie. We saw them captive haled. PURURAVAS Say, if you know, What region of the air received that traitor? SAHAJANYA North-east he fled. PURURAVAS Therefore expel dismay. I go to bring you back your loved one, if Attempt can do it. RAMBHA O worthy this of thee! O from the Lunar splendour truly sprung! PURURAVAS Where will you wait my advent, nymphs of Heaven? NYMPHS Upon this summit called the Peak of Gold, O King, we shall expect thee. PURURAVAS Charioteer, Urge on my horses to the far north-east; Gallop through Heaven like the wind. CHARIOTEER ’Tis done.

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PURURAVAS O nobly driven! With speed like this I could O’ertake Heaven’s eagle though he fled before me With tempest in his vans. How much more then This proud transgressor against Heaven’s King! Look, charioteer, beneath my sudden car The crumbling thunder-clouds fly up like dust, And the wheel’s desperate rotation seems To make another set of whirling spokes. The plumes upon the horses’ heads rise tall, Motionless like a picture, and the wind Of our tremendous speed has made the flag From staff to airborne end straight as if pointing. They go out in their chariot. RAMBHA Sisters, the King is gone. Direct we then Our steps to the appointed summit. MENAKA Hasten, O hasten. ALL Hasten, O hasten, come, come, come. They ascend the hill. RAMBHA And O, will he indeed avail to draw This stab out of our hearts? MENAKA Doubt it not, Rambha. RAMBHA No, Menaka, for not so easily Are Titans overthrown, my sister.

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Translations from Sanskrit MENAKA

Rambha, Remember this is he whom Heaven’s King, When battle raised its dreadful face, has called With honour from the middle world of men, Set in his arm`ed van, and conquered. RAMBHA Here too I hope that he will conquer. SAHAJANYA Joy, sisters, joy! Look where the chariot of the moon appears, The Ilian’s great deer-banner rushing up From the horizon. He would not return With empty hands, sisters. We can rejoice. All gaze upwards. Pururavas enters in his chariot with his charioteer; Urvasie, her eyes closed in terror, supported on the right arm of Chitralekha. CHITRALEKHA Courage, sweet sister, courage. PURURAVAS O thou too lovely! Recall thy soul. The enemies of Heaven Can injure thee no more; that danger’s over. The Thunderer’s puissance still pervades the worlds. O then uplift these long and lustrous eyes Like sapphire lilies in a pool when dawn Comes smiling. CHITRALEKHA Why does she not yet, alas! Recover her sweet reason? Only her sighs Remind us she is living.

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PURURAVAS Too rudely, lady, Has thy sweet sister been alarmed. For look! What tremblings of the heart are here revealed. Watch the quick rise and fall incessantly That lift between these large magnificent breasts The flowers of Eden. CHITRALEKHA Sister, O put by This panic. Fie! thou art no Apsara. PURURAVAS Terror will not give up his envied seat On her luxurious bosom soft as flowers; The tremors in her raiment’s edge and little Heavings and flutterings between her two breasts Confess him. Urvasie begins to recover. (with joy) Thou art fortunate, Chitralekha! Thy sister to her own bright nature comes Once more. So have I seen a glorious night Delivered out of darkness by the moon, Nocturnal fire break through with crests of brightness Its prison of dim smoke. Her beauty, waking From swoon and almost rescued, to my thoughts Brings Ganges as I saw her once o’erwhelmed With roar and ruin of her banks, race wild, Thickening, then gradually from that turmoil Grow clear, emerging into golden calm. CHITRALEKHA Be glad, my sister, O my Urvasie. For vanquished are the accurs`ed Titans, foes Of the Divine, antagonists of Heaven.

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URVASIE (opening her eyes) Vanquished? By Indra then whose soul can see Across the world. CHITRALEKHA Not Indra, but this King Whose puissance equals Indra. URVASIE (looking at Pururavas) O Titans, You did me kindness! PURURAVAS (gazing at Urvasie) And reason if the nymphs Tempting Narayan Sage drew back ashamed When they beheld this wonder from his thigh Starting. And yet I cannot think of her Created by a withered hermit cold: But rather in the process beautiful Of her creation Heaven’s enchanting moon Took the Creator’s place, or very Love Grown all one amorousness, or else the month Of honey and its days deep-mined with bloom. How could an aged anchoret, dull and stale With poring over Scripture and oblivious To all this rapture of the senses, build A thing so lovely? URVASIE O my Chitralekha, Our sisters? CHITRALEKHA This great prince who slew our fear Can tell us.

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act I PURURAVAS Sad of heart they wait, O beauty! For with thy sweet ineffugable eyes Who only once was blessed, even he without thee Cannot abstain from pining. How then these Original affections sister-sweet Rooted in thee? URVASIE How courteous is his tongue And full of noble kindness! Yet what wonder? Nectar is natural to the moon. O prince, My heart’s in haste to see once more my loved ones. PURURAVAS Lo, where upon the Peak of Gold they stand Gazing towards thy face, and with such eyes Of rapture as when men behold the moon Emerging from eclipse. CHITRALEKHA O sister, see! URVASIE (looking longingly at the King) I do and drink in with my eyes my partner Of grief and pleasure. CHITRALEKHA (with a smile; significantly) Sister, who is he? URVASIE He? Oh! Rambha I meant and all our friends. RAMBHA He comes with victory. Urvasie’s beside him And Chitralekha. Now indeed this King Looks glorious like the moon, when near the twin

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Bright asterisms that frame best his light. MENAKA In both ways are we blest, our lost dear one Brought back to us, this noble King returned Unwounded. SAHAJANYA Sister, true. Not easily Are Titans conquered. PURURAVAS Charioteer, descend. We have arrived the summit. CHARIOTEER As the King Commands. PURURAVAS O I am blest in this descent Upon unevenness. O happy shock That threw her great hips towards me. All her sweet shoulder Pressed mine that thrilled and passioned to the touch. URVASIE (abashed) Move yet a little farther to your side, Sister. CHITRALEKHA (smiling) I cannot; there’s no room. RAMBHA Sisters, This prince has helped us all. ’Twere only grateful Should we descend and greet him.

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ALL Let us do it. They all approach. PURURAVAS Stay, charioteer, the rush of hooves that she Marrying her sweet-browed eagerness with these May, mingling with their passionate bosoms, clasp Her dearest, like the glory and bloom of spring Hastening into the open arms of trees. NYMPHS Hail to the King felicitous who comes With conquest in his wheels. PURURAVAS To you, O nymphs, As fortunate in your sister’s rescued arms. Urvasie descends from the chariot supported on Chitralekha’s arm. URVASIE O sisters, sisters, take me to your bosoms. All rush upon her and embrace her. Closer, O closer! hurt me with your breasts! I never hoped to see again your sweet Familiar faces. RAMBHA Protect a million ages, Monarch, all continents and every sea! Noise within. CHARIOTEER My lord, I hear a rumour in the east And mighty speed of chariots. Lo, one bright With golden armlet, looming down from Heaven

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Like a huge cloud with lightning on its wrist, Streams towards us. NYMPHS Chitrarath! ’tis Chitrarath. CHITRARATH (approaches the King with great respect) Hail to the Indra-helper! Fortunate Pururavas, whose prowess is so ample, Heaven’s King has grown its debtor. PURURAVAS The Gandharva! Welcome, my bosom’s friend. They clasp each other’s hands. What happy cause Of coming? CHITRARATH Indra had heard from Narad’s lips Of Urvasie by Titan Cayshy haled. He bade us to her rescue. We midway Heard heavenly bards chanting thy victory, And hitherward have turned our march. On, friend, With us to Maghavan and bear before thee This lovely offering. Great thy service done To Heaven’s high King; for she who was of old Narayan’s chief munificence to Indra, Is now thy gift, Pururavas. Thy arm Has torn her from a Titan’s grasp. PURURAVAS Comrade, Never repeat it; for if we who are On Heaven’s side, o’erpower the foes of Heaven, ’Tis Indra’s puissance, not our own. Does not The echo of the lion’s dangerous roar

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act I Reverberating through the mountain glens Scatter with sound the elephants? We, O friend, Are even such echoes. CHITRARATH This fits with thy great nature, For modesty was ever valour’s crown. PURURAVAS Not now nor hence is’t seasonable for me, Comrade, to meet the King of Sacrifice. Thou, therefore, to the mighty presence lead This beauty. CHITRARATH As thou wilt. With me to Heaven! URVASIE (aside to Chitralekha) I have no courage to address my saviour. Sister, wilt be my voice to him? CHITRALEKHA (approaching Pururavas) My lord, Urvasie thus petitions — PURURAVAS What commands The lady? CHITRALEKHA She would have thy gracious leave To bear into her far immortal heavens The glory of the great Pururavas And dwell with it as with a sister. PURURAVAS (sorrowfully) Go then;

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But go for longer meeting. The Gandharvas and Nymphs soar up into the sky. URVASIE Sister, stay! My chain is in this creeper caught. Release it. CHITRALEKHA (looking at the King with a smile) Oh, yes, indeed, a sad entanglement! I fear you will not easily be loosed. URVASIE Do not mock me, sister. Pray you, untwine it. CHITRALEKHA Come, let me try. I’ll do my possible To help you. She busies herself with the chain. URVASIE (smiling) Sister, think what thou hast promised Even afterwards. PURURAVAS (aside) Creeper, thou dost me friendship; Thou for one moment holdest from the skies Her feet desirable. O lids of beauty! O vision of her half-averted face! Urvasie, released, looks at the King, then with a sigh at her sisters soaring up into the sky. CHARIOTEER O King, thy shaft with the wild voice of storm Has hurled the Titans in the salt far sea, Avenging injured Heaven, and now creeps back Into the quiver, like a mighty snake

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Seeking its lair. PURURAVAS Therefore bring near the chariot, While I ascend. CHARIOTEER ’Tis done. The King mounts the chariot. PURURAVAS Shake loose the reins. URVASIE (gazing at the King, with a sigh, aside) My benefactor! my deliverer! Shall I not see thee more? She goes out with Chitralekha. PURURAVAS (looking after Urvasie) O Love! O Love! Thou mak’st men hot for things impossible And mad for dreams. She soars up to the heavens, Her father’s middle stride, and draws my heart By force out of my bosom. It goes with her, Bleeding, as when a wild swan through the sky Wings far her flight, there dangles in her beak A dripping fibre from the lotus torn. They go.

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Act II Scene. — Park of the King’s palace in Pratisthana. — In the background the wings of a great building, near it the gates of the park, near the bounds of the park an arbour and a small artificial hill to the side. Manavaka enters. MANAVAKA Houp! Houp! I feel like a Brahmin who has had an invitation to dinner; he thinks dinner, talks dinner, looks dinner, his very sneeze has the music of the dinner-bell in it. I am simply bursting with the King’s secret. I shall never manage to hold my tongue in that crowd. Solitude’s my only safety. So until my friend gets up from the session of affairs, I will wait for him in this precinct of the House of Terraces. Nipunika enters. NIPUNIKA I am bidden by my lady the King’s daughter of Kashi, “Nipunika, since my lord came back from doing homage to the Sun, he has had no heart for anything. So just go and learn from his dear friend, the noble Manavaka, what is disturbing his mind.” Well and good! but how shall I overreach that rogue, — a Brahmin he calls himself, with the murrain to him! But there! thank Heaven, he can’t keep a secret long; ’tis like a dewdrop on a rare blade of grass. Well, I must hunt him out. O! there stands the noble Manavaka, silent and sad like a monkey in a picture. I will accost him. (approaching) Salutation to the noble Manavaka! MANAVAKA Blessing to your ladyship! (aside) Ugh, the very sight of this little

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rogue of a tiring-woman makes the secret jump at my throat. I shall burst! I shall split! Nipunika, why have you left the singing lesson and where are you off to? NIPUNIKA To see my lord the King, by my lady’s orders. MANAVAKA What are her orders? NIPUNIKA Noble sir, this is the Queen’s message. “My lord has always been kind and indulgent to me, so that I have become a stranger to grief. He never before disregarded my sorrow” — MANAVAKA How? how? has my friend offended her in any way? NIPUNIKA Offended? Why, he addressed my lady by the name of a girl for whom he is pining. MANAVAKA (aside) What, he has let out his own secret? Then why am I agonizing here in vain? (aloud) He called her Urvasie? NIPUNIKA Yes. Noble Manavaka, who is that Urvasie? MANAVAKA Urvasie is the name of a certain Apsara. The sight of her has sent the King mad. He is not only tormenting the life out of my lady, but out of me too with his aversion to everything but moaning. NIPUNIKA (aside) So! I have stormed the citadel of my master’s secret. (aloud) What am I to say to the Queen?

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Translations from Sanskrit

MANAVAKA Nipunika, tell my lady with my humble regards that I am endeavouring my best to divert my friend from this mirage and I will not see her ladyship till it is done. NIPUNIKA As your honour commands. She goes. BARDS (within) Victory, victory to the King! The Sun in Heaven for ever labours; wide His beams dispel the darkness to the verge Of all this brilliant world. The King too toils, Rescuing from night and misery and crime His people. Equal power to these is given And labour, the King on earth, the Sun in Heaven. The brilliant Sun in Heaven rests not from toil; Only at high noon in the middle cusp And azure vault the great wheels slacken speed A moment, then resume their way; thou too In the mid-moment of daylight lay down Thy care, put by the burden of a crown. MANAVAKA Here’s my dear friend risen from the session. I will join him. He goes out, then re-enters with Pururavas. PURURAVAS (sighing) No sooner seen than in my heart she leaped. O easy entrance! since the bannered Love With his unerring shaft had made the breach Where she came burning in.

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act II MANAVAKA (aside) Alas the poor King’s daughter of Kashi! PURURAVAS (looking steadfastly at him) Hast thou kept thy trust, — My secret? MANAVAKA (depressed) Ah! that daughter of a slave Has overreached me. Else he would not ask In just that manner. PURURAVAS (alarmed) What now? Silence? MANAVAKA Why, sir, It’s this, I’ve padlocked so my tongue that even To you I could not give a sudden answer. PURURAVAS ’Tis well. O how shall I beguile desire? MANAVAKA Let’s to the kitchen. PURURAVAS Why, what’s there? MANAVAKA What’s there? The question! From all quarters gathered in Succulent sweets and fivefold eatableness, Music from saucepan and from frying-pan, The beauty of dinner getting ready. There’s A sweet beguiler to your emptiness!

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PURURAVAS (smiling) For you whose heart is in your stomach. I Am not so readily eased who fixed my soul Upon what I shall hardly win. MANAVAKA Not win? Why, tell me, came you not within her sight? PURURAVAS What comfort is in that? MANAVAKA When she has seen you, How is she hard to win? PURURAVAS O your affection Utters mere partiality. MANAVAKA You make me Desperate to see her. Why, sir, she must be A nonpareil of grace. Like me perhaps? PURURAVAS Who could with words describe each perfect limb Of that celestial whole? Take her in brief, O friend, for she is ornament’s ornament, And jewels cannot make her beautiful. They from her body get their grace. And when You search the universe for similes, Her greater beauty drives you to express Fair things by her, not her by lesser fairness: So she’s perfection’s model.

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act II MANAVAKA No wonder then, With such a shower of beauty, that you play The rainbird open-mouthed to let drops glide Graciously down his own particular gullet. But whither now? PURURAVAS When love grows large with yearning, He has no sanctuary but solitude. I pray you, go before me to the park. MANAVAKA (aside) Oh God, my dinner! There’s no help. (aloud) This way. Lo, here the park’s green limit. See, my lord, How this fair garden sends his wooing breeze To meet his royal guest. PURURAVAS O epithet Most apt. Indeed this zephyr in fond arms Impregnating with honey spring-creeper And flattering with his kiss the white May-bloom, Seems to me like a lover girl-divided Between affection smooth and eager passion. MANAVAKA May like division bless your yearning, sir. We reach the garden’s gate. Enter, my lord. PURURAVAS Enter thou first. O! I was blindly sanguine, By refuge in this flowery solitude Who thought to heal my pain. As well might swimmer Hurled onward in a river’s violent hands Oppose that roaring tide, as I make speed Hither for my relief.

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Translations from Sanskrit MANAVAKA And wherefore so?

PURURAVAS Was passion not enough to torture me, Still racking the resistless mind with thoughts Of unattainable delight? But I Must add the mango-trees’ soft opening buds, And hurt myself with pallid drifting leaves, And with the busy zephyr wound my soul. MANAVAKA Be not so full of grief. For Love himself Will help you soon to your extreme desire. PURURAVAS I seize upon thy word, — the Brahmin’s speech That never can be false! MANAVAKA See what a floral Green loveliness expresses the descent And rosy incarnation of the spring. Do you not find it lovely? PURURAVAS Friend, I do. I study it tree by tree and leaf by leaf. This courbouc’s like a woman’s rosy nail, But darkens to the edge; heavy with crimson, Yon red asoka breaking out of bud Seems all on fire; and here the cary mounting Slight dust of pollen on his stamen-ends Clusters with young sweet bloom. Methinks I see The infant honeyed soul of spring, half-woman, Grow warm with bud of youth.

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act II MANAVAKA This arbour, green, With blossoms loosened by the shock of bees Upon a slab of costly stone prepares With its own hands your cushioned honours. Take The courtesy. PURURAVAS As you will. MANAVAKA Here sit at ease. The sensitive beauty of the creepers lax Shall glide into your soul and gently steal The thought of Urvasie. PURURAVAS O no, mine eyes Are spoilt by being indulged in her sweet looks, And petulantly they reject all feebler Enchantings, even the lovely embowering bloom Of these grace-haunted creepers bending down To draw me with their hands. I am sick for her. Rather invent some way to my desire. MANAVAKA Oh rare! when Indra for Ahalya pined A cheapjack was his counsellor; you as lucky Have me for your ally. Mad all! mad all! PURURAVAS Not so! affection edging native wit, Some help it’s sure to find for one it loves. MANAVAKA Good, I will cogitate. Disturb me not With your love-moanings.

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Translations from Sanskrit

PURURAVAS (his right arm throbbing; aside) Her face of perfect moonlight Is all too heavenly for my lips. How canst thou then Throb expectation in my arm, O Love? Yet all my heart is suddenly grown glad As if it had heard the feet of my desire. He waits hopefully. There enter in the sky Urvasie and Chitralekha. CHITRALEKHA Will you not even tell me where we go? URVASIE Sister, when I upon the Peak of Gold Was stayed from Heaven by the creeper’s hands, You mocked me then. And have you now to ask Whither it is I go? CHITRALEKHA To seek the side Of King Pururavas you journey then? URVASIE Even so shameless is your sister’s mind. CHITRALEKHA Whom did you send before, what messenger To him you love? URVASIE My heart. CHITRALEKHA O yet think well, Sister; do not be rash.

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act II URVASIE Love sends me, Love Compels me. How can I then think? CHITRALEKHA To that I have no answer. URVASIE Then take me to him soon. Only let not our way be such as lies Within the let of hindrance. CHITRALEKHA Fear not that. Has not the great Preceptor of the Gods Taught us to wear the crest invincible? While that is bound, not any he shall dare Of all the Heaven-opposing faction stretch An arm of outrage. URVASIE (abashed) Oh true! my heart forgot. CHITRALEKHA Look, sister! For in Ganges’ gliding waves Holier by influx of blue Yamuna, The palace of the great Pururavas, Crowning the city with its domes, looks down As in a glass at its own mighty image. URVASIE All Eden to an earthly spot is bound. But where is he who surely will commiserate A pining heart?

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Translations from Sanskrit

CHITRALEKHA This park which seems one country With Heaven, let us question. See, the King Expects thee, like the pale new-risen moon Waiting for moonlight. URVASIE How beautiful he is, — Fairer than when I saw him first! CHITRALEKHA ’Tis true. Come, we will go to him. URVASIE I will not yet. Screened in with close invisibility, I will stand near him, learn what here he talks Sole with his friend. CHITRALEKHA You’ll do your will always. MANAVAKA Courage! your difficult mistress may be caught, Two ways. URVASIE (jealously) O who is she, that happy she, Being wooed by such a lover, preens herself And is proud? CHITRALEKHA Why do you mock the ways of men And are a Goddess?

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act II URVASIE I dare not, sweet, I fear To learn too suddenly my own misfortune, If I use heavenly eyes. MANAVAKA Listen, you dreamer! Are you deaf? I tell you I have found a way: PURURAVAS Speak on. MANAVAKA Woo sleep that marries men with dreams, Or on a canvas paint in Urvasie And gaze on her for ever. URVASIE (aside) O sinking coward heart, now, now revive. PURURAVAS And either is impossible. For look! How can I, with this rankling wound of love, Call to me sleep who marries men with dreams? And if I paint the sweetness of her face, Will not the tears, before it is half done, Blurring my gaze with mist, blot the dear vision? CHITRALEKHA Heardst thou? URVASIE I have heard all. It was too little For my vast greed of love. MANAVAKA Well, that’s my stock

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Translations from Sanskrit

Of counsel. PURURAVAS (sighing) Oh me! she knows not my heart’s pain, Or knowing it, with those her heavenly eyes Scorns my poor passion. Only the arrowed Love Is gratified tormenting with her bosom My sad, unsatisfied and pale desire. CHITRALEKHA Heardst thou, sister? URVASIE He must not think so of me! I would make answer, sister, but to his face I have not hardihood. Suffer me then, To trust to faery birch-leaf mind-created My longing. CHITRALEKHA It is well. Create and write. Urvasie writes in a passion of timidity and excitement, then throws the leaf between Pururavas and Manavaka. MANAVAKA Murder! murder! I’m killed! I’m dead! help! help! (looking) What’s this? a serpent’s skin come down to eat me? PURURAVAS (looks closely and laughs) No serpent’s slough, my friend, only a leaf Of birch-tree with a scroll of writing traced on it. MANAVAKA Perhaps the invisible fair Urvasie Heard you complain and answers.

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PURURAVAS To desire Nothing can seem impossible. He takes the leaf and reads it to himself, then with joy, O friend, How happy was your guess! MANAVAKA I told you so. The Brahmin’s speech! Read, read! aloud, if it please you. URVASIE (aside) The Brahmin has his own urbanity! PURURAVAS Listen. MANAVAKA I am all ears. PURURAVAS (reading aloud) “My master and my King! Were I what thy heart thinks and knows me not, Scorning thy love, would then the soft-winged breeze Of deathless gardens and the unfading flowers That strew the beds of Paradise, to me Feel fire!” URVASIE What will he say now? CHITRALEKHA What each limb, That is a drooping lotus-stalk with love, Has said already.

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Translations from Sanskrit

MANAVAKA You’re consoled, I hope? Don’t tell me what you feel. I’ve felt the same When I’ve been hungry and one popped in on me With sweetmeats in a tray. PURURAVAS Consoled! a word How weak! I con this speaking of my sweet, This dear small sentence full of beautiful meaning, This gospel of her answering love, and feel Her mouth upon my mouth and her soft eyes Swimming and large gaze down into my own, And touch my lifted lids with hers. URVASIE O even Such sweetness feels thy lover. PURURAVAS Friend, my finger Moistening might blot the lines. Do thou then hold This sweet handwriting of my love. He gives the leaf to Manavaka. MANAVAKA But tell me. Why does your mistress, having brought to bloom Your young desire, deny its perfect fruit? URVASIE O sister, my heart flutters at the thought Of going to my lord. While I cajole And strengthen the poor coward, show yourself, Go to him, tell him all that I may speak.

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CHITRALEKHA I will. She becomes visible and approaches the King. Hail, lord our King. PURURAVAS (joyfully) O welcome, welcome! He looks around for Urvasie. Yet, fair one, as the Yamuna not mixed With Ganges, to the eye that saw their beauty Of wedded waters, seems not all so fair, So thou without thy sister givest not That double delight. CHITRALEKHA First is the cloud’s dim legion Seen in the heavens; afterwards comes the lightning. MANAVAKA (aside) What! this is not the very Urvasie? Only the favourite sister of that miracle? PURURAVAS Here sit down, fairest. CHITRALEKHA Let me first discharge My duty. Urvasie by me bows down Her face thus to her monarch’s feet, imploring — PURURAVAS Rather commanding. CHITRALEKHA She whom in Titan hands Afflicted thou didst pity, thou didst rescue, Now needs much more thy pity, not by hands

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Titan, but crueller violence of love Oppressed, — the sight of thee her sudden cause. PURURAVAS O Chitralekha, her thou tellst me of Passionate for me. Hast thou not eyes to know Pururavas in anguish for her sake? One prayer both pray to Kama, “Iron with iron Melts in fierce heat; why not my love with me?” CHITRALEKHA (returning to Urvasie) Come, sister, to your lord. So much his need Surpasses yours, I am his ambassador. URVASIE (becoming visible) How unexpectedly hast thou with ease Forsook me! CHITRALEKHA (with a smile) In a moment I shall know Who forsakes whom, sister. But come away And give due greeting. Urvasie approaches the King fearfully and bows down, then low and bashfully, URVASIE Conquest to the King! PURURAVAS I conquer, love, indeed, when thy dear lips Give greeting to me, vouchsafed to no mortal But Indra only. He takes her by both hands and makes her sit down. MANAVAKA I am a mighty Brahmin and the friend Of all earth’s lord. O’erlook me not entirely.

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Urvasie smiles and bows to him. Peace follow you and keep you. MESSENGER OF THE GODS (cries from within) Chitralekha, urge haste on Urvasie. This day the wardens of the ancient worlds And the great King of Heaven himself will witness That piece where all the passions live and move, Quickened to gracious gesture in the action Deposed in you by Bharat Sage, O sisters. All listen, Urvasie sorrowfully. CHITRALEKHA Thou hearst the Messenger of Heaven? Take leave, Sweet, of the King. URVASIE I cannot speak! CHITRALEKHA My liege, My sister not being lady of herself Beseeches your indulgence. She would be Without a fault before the Gods. PURURAVAS (articulating with difficulty) Alas! I must not wish to hinder you when Heaven Expects your service. Only do not forget Pururavas. Urvasie goes with her sister, still looking backwards towards the King. O she is gone! my eyes Have now no cause for sight: they are worthless balls Without an object.

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Translations from Sanskrit MANAVAKA

Why, not utterly. He is about to give the birch-leaf. There’s — Heavens! ’tis gone! it must have drifted down, While I, being all amazed with Urvasie, Noticed nothing. PURURAVAS What is it thou wouldst say? There is — ? MANAVAKA No need to droop your limbs and pine. Your Urvasie has to your breast been plucked With cords of passion, knots that will not slacken Strive as she may. PURURAVAS My soul tells me like comfort. For as she went, not lady of her limbs To yield their sweets to me for ever, yet Her heart, which was her own, in one great sob From twixt two trembling breasts shaken with sighs Came panting out. I hear it throb within me. MANAVAKA (aside) Well, my heart’s all a-twitter too. Each moment I think he is going to mention the damned birch-leaf. PURURAVAS With what shall I persuade mine eyes to comfort? The letter! MANAVAKA (searching) What! Hullo! It’s gone! Come now, It was no earthly leaf; it must have gone Flying behind the skirts of Urvasie.

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PURURAVAS (bitterly, in vexation) Will you then never leave your idiot trick Of carelessness? Search for it. MANAVAKA (getting up) Oh, well! well! It can’t be far. Why, here it is — or here — or here. While they search, the Queen enters, with her attendants and Nipunika. AUSHINARIE Now, maiden, is’t true thou tellst me? Sawst thou really My lord and Manavaka approach the arbour? NIPUNIKA I have not told my lady falsehood ever That she should doubt me. AUSHINARIE Well, I will lurk thick-screened With hanging creepers and surprise what he Disburdens from his heart in his security. So I shall know the truth. NIPUNIKA (sulkily) Well, as you please. They advance. AUSHINARIE (looking ahead) What’s yonder like a faded rag that lightly The southern wind guides towards us? NIPUNIKA It is a birch-leaf. There’s writing on it; the letters, as it rolls, Half show their dinted outlines. Look, it has caught Just on your anklet’s spike. I’ll lift and read.

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Translations from Sanskrit She disengages the leaf.

AUSHINARIE Silently first peruse it; if ’tis nothing Unfit for me to know, then I will hear. NIPUNIKA It is, oh, it must be that very scandal. Verses they seem and penned by Urvasie, And to my master. Manavaka’s neglect Has thrown it in our hands. Laughs. AUSHINARIE Tell me the purport. NIPUNIKA I’ll read the whole. “My master and my King! Were I what thy heart thinks and knows me not, Scorning thy love, would then the soft-winged breeze Of deathless gardens and unfading flowers That strew the beds of Paradise, to me Feel fire!” AUSHINARIE So! by this dainty love-letter, He is enamoured then, and of the nymph. NIPUNIKA It’s plain enough. They enter the arbour. MANAVAKA What’s yonder to the wind Enslaved, that flutters on the parkside rockery?

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act II PURURAVAS (rising) Wind of the south, thou darling of the Spring, Seize rather on the flowery pollen stored By months of fragrance, that gold dust of trees. With this thou mightest perfume all thy wings. How wilt thou profit, snatching from me, O wind, My darling’s dear handwriting, like a kiss All love? When thou didst woo thine Anjana, Surely thou knewest lovers’ dying hearts Are by a hundred little trifles kept, All slight as this! NIPUNIKA See, mistress, see! A search In progress for the leaf. AUSHINARIE Be still. MANAVAKA Alas! I was misled with but a peacock’s feather, Faded, a saffron splendour of decay. PURURAVAS In every way I am undone. AUSHINARIE (approaching suddenly) My lord, Be not so passionate; here is your dear letter. PURURAVAS (confused) The Queen! O welcome! MANAVAKA (aside) Ill come, if ’twere convenient To tell the truth.

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PURURAVAS (aside) What shall I do now, friend, Or say? MANAVAKA (aside) Much you will say! A thief red-handed Caught with his swag! PURURAVAS (aside) Is this a time for jesting? (aloud) Madam, it was not this I sought but other, A record of state, a paper that I dropped. AUSHINARIE Oh, you do well to hide your happiness. MANAVAKA My lady, hurry on His Majesty’s dinner. When bile accumulates, dinner does the trick. AUSHINARIE A noble consolation for his friend The Brahmin finds! Heardst thou, Nipunika? MANAVAKA Why, madam, even a goblin is appeased By dinner. PURURAVAS Fool! by force you’ld prove me guilty. AUSHINARIE Not yours the guilt, my lord! I am in fault Who force my hated and unwelcome face Upon you. But I go. Nipunika, Attend me.

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She is departing in wrath. PURURAVAS (following her) Guilty I am. O pardon, pardon! O look on me more kindly. How can a slave Be innocent, when whom he should please is angry? He falls at her feet. AUSHINARIE (aside) I am not so weak-minded as to value Such hollow penitence. And yet the terror Of that remorse I know that I shall feel If I spurn his kindness, frightens me — but no! She goes out with Nipunika and attendants. MANAVAKA She has rushed off like a torrent full of wrath. Rise, rise! she’s gone. PURURAVAS (rising) O she did right to spurn me. Most dulcet words of lovers, sweetest flatteries, When passion is not there, can find no entrance To woman’s heart; for she knows well the voice Of real love, but these are stones false-coloured Rejected by the jeweller’s practised eye. MANAVAKA This is what you should wish! The eye affected Brooks not the flaming of a lamp too near. PURURAVAS You much misjudge me. Though my heart’s gone out To Urvasie, affection deep I owe My Queen. But since she scorned my prostrate wooing, I will have patience till her heart repent.

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MANAVAKA Oh, hang your patience! keep it for home consumption. Mine’s at an end. Have some faint mercy instead And save a poor starved Brahmin’s life. It’s time For bath and dinner! dinner!! PURURAVAS (looking upward) ’Tis noon. The tired And heated peacock sinks to chill delight Of water in the tree-encircling channel, The bee divides a crimson bud and creeps Into its womb; there merged and safe from fire, He’s lurking. The duck too leaves her blazing pool And shelters in cold lilies on the bank, And in yon summer-house weary of heat The parrot from his cage for water cries. They go.

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Act III Scene I. — Hermitage of the Saint Bharat in Heaven. Galava and Pelava. GALAVA Pelava, thee the Sage admitted, happier Chosen, to that great audience in the house Of highest Indra, — I meanwhile must watch The sacred flame; inform my absence. Was The divine session with the acting pleased? PELAVA Of pleased I know not; this I well could see They sat all lost in that poetic piece Of Saraswatie, “Luxmie’s Choice”, — breathlessly Identified themselves with every mood. But — GALAVA Ah, that but! It opens doors to censure. PELAVA Yes, Urvasie was heedless, missed her word. GALAVA How? how? PELAVA She acted Luxmie; Menaka Was Varunie; who asking, “Sister, see, The noble and the beautiful of Heaven, And Vishnu and the guardians of the worlds.

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To whom does thy heart go mid all these glories?” — Urvasie should have answered “Purushottam”, But from her lips “Pururavas” leaped forth. GALAVA Our organs are the slaves of fate and doom! Was not the great Preceptor angry? PELAVA Yes; He cursed her, but high Indra blessed. GALAVA What blessing? PELAVA “Since thou hast wronged my teaching and my fame, For thee no place in Heaven”, — so frowned the Sage. Heaven’s monarch marked her when the piece was ended, Drooping, her sweet face bowed with shame, and said, With gracious brows, “Since thou hast fixed thy heart Upon my friend and strong ally in war, I will do both a kindness. Go to him And love and serve him as thy lord until A child is got in thee and he behold His offspring’s face.” GALAVA O nobly this became Indra; he knows to value mighty hearts. PELAVA (looking at the Sun) Look, in our talk if we have not transgressed Our teacher’s hour for bathing. Galava, We should be at his side.

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GALAVA Let us make haste. They go out.

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Scene II. — Outside the palace of Pururavas, beneath the House of Gems. The terrace of the House of Gems with a great staircase leading up to it. The Chamberlain Latavya enters. LATAVYA (sighing) All other men when life is green and strong Marry and toil and get them wealth, then, aging, Their sons assume the burden, they towards rest Their laboured faces turn. But us for ever Service, a keyless dungeon still renewed, Wears down; and hard that service is which keeps O’er women ward and on their errands runs. Now Kashi’s daughter, careful of her vow, Commands me, “I have put from me, Latavya, The obstinacy of offended love And wooed my husband through Nipunika. Thou too entreat him.” Therefore I linger here Waiting till the King’s greatness swiftly come, His vesper worship done. It dims apace. How beautifully twilight sits and dreams Upon these palace walls! The peacocks now Sit on their perches, drowsed with sleep and night, Like figures hewn in stone. And on the roof The fluttering pigeons with their pallid wings Mislead the eye, disguised as rings of smoke That from the window-ways have floated out Into the evening. In places flower-bestrewn The elders of the high seraglio, gentle souls Of holy manners, set the evening lamps, Dividing darkness; flames of auspice burn. The King! I hear the sound of many feet, Ringed round with torches he appears, his girls Hold up with young fair arms. O form august Like Mainak, when as yet the hills had wings, Moving, and the slim trees along its ridge Flickered with vermeil shaken blooms. Just here

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I’ll wait him, in the pathway of his glance. Enter Pururavas, surrounded by girl attendants carrying torches; with him Manavaka. PURURAVAS (aside) Day passes with some pale attempt at calm, For then work walls the mind from the fierce siege Of ever-present passion. But how shall I Add movement to the tardy-footed night, The long void hours by no distraction winged? LATAVYA (approaching) Long live the King! My lady says, “The moon Tonight in splendour on the House of Jewels Rises like a bright face. On the clear terrace, My husband by my side, I would await With Rohinie, his heavenly fair delight, The God’s embracings.” PURURAVAS What the Queen wills, was ever My law, Latavya. LATAVYA So I’ll tell my lady. He goes. PURURAVAS Think you in very truth for her vow’s sake My lady makes this motion? MANAVAKA Rather I deem ’Tis her remorse she cloaks with holy vows, Atoning thus for a prostration scorned.

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PURURAVAS O true! the proud and loving hearts of women, Who have their prostrate dear ones spurned, repenting Are plagued with sweet accusing memories Of eyes that ask forgiveness, outstretched hands, Half-spoken words and touches on their feet That travel to the heart. Precede me then To the appointed terrace. MANAVAKA Look, my lord, The crystal stairs roll upward like bright waves On moonlit Ganges; yonder the terrace sleeps Wide-bosomed to the cold and lovely eve. PURURAVAS Precede me; we’ll ascend. They ascend to the terrace. MANAVAKA The moon is surely Upon the verge of rise; swiftly the east Empties of darkness, and the horizon seems All beautiful and brightening like a face. PURURAVAS O aptly said! Behind the peak of rise The hidden moon, pushing black night aside, Precedes himself with herald lustres. See! The daughter of the imperial East puts back The blinding tresses from her eyes, and smiles, And takes with undimmed face my soul. MANAVAKA Hurrah! The king of the twice-born has risen all white And round and luscious like a ball of sugar.

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PURURAVAS (smiling) A glutton’s eloquence is ever haunted With images of the kitchen. (bowing with folded hands) Hail, God that rulest The inactive night! O settler with the sun For ritual holy, O giver to the Gods And blessed fathers dead of nectarous wine, O slayer of the vasty glooms of night, Whose soul of brightness crowns the Almighty’s head, O moon, all hail! accept thy offspring’s prayer. MANAVAKA Well now, your grandpapa has heard your vows; You’ll take it from a Brahmin’s mouth, through whom Even he may telepath his message. So, That’s finished. Now sit down and give me a chance Of being comfortable. PURURAVAS (sitting down, then looking at his attendants) The moon is risen; These torches are a vain reiteration Of brightness. Ladies, rest. ALL Our lord commands us. They go. PURURAVAS It is not long before my lady comes. So, let me, while we yet are lonely here, Unburden me of my love-ravaged thoughts. MANAVAKA They are visible to the blind. Take hope and courage By thinking of her equal love.

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Translations from Sanskrit PURURAVAS

I do; And yet the pain within my heart is great. For as a mighty river whose vast speed Stumbles within a narrow pass of huge And rugged boulders, chides his uncouth bed, Increasing at each check, even so does love, His joy of union stinted or deferred, Rebel and wax a hundredfold in fire. MANAVAKA So your love-wasted limbs increase their beauty, They are a sign you soon will clasp your love. PURURAVAS O friend, as you my longing heaviness Comfort with hopeful words, my arm too speaks In quick auspicious throbs. He looks with hope up to the sky. MANAVAKA A Brahmin’s word! There enters in the air Chitralekha with Urvasie in trysting-dress. URVASIE (looking at herself) Sister, do you not think my trysting-dress, The dark-blue silk and the few ornaments, Becomes me vastly? Do you not approve it? CHITRALEKHA O inexpressibly! I have no words To praise it. This I’ll say; it makes me wish I were Pururavas. URVASIE Since Love himself

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Inspires you, bring me quickly to the dwelling Of that high beautiful face. CHITRALEKHA Look, we draw near. Your lover’s house lifts in stupendous mass, As it were mountain Coilas, to the clouds. URVASIE Look, sister, with the eye of Gods and know Where is that robber of my heart and what His occupation? CHITRALEKHA (aside, with a smile) I will jest with her. (aloud) I see him. He, in a sweet region made For love and joy, possesses with desire The body and the bosom of his love. URVASIE (despairingly) Happy that woman, whosoe’er she be! CHITRALEKHA Why, sweet faint-hearted fool, in whom but thee Should his thoughts joy? URVASIE (with a sigh of relief ) Alas, my heart perverse Will doubt. CHITRALEKHA Here on the terraced House of Gems The King is with his friend sole-sitting. Then, We may approach. They descend.

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Translations from Sanskrit PURURAVAS

O friend, the widening night And pangs of love keep pace in their increase. URVASIE Sister, my heart is torn with apprehension Of what his words might mean. Let us, ourselves Invisible, hear their unfettered converse. My fears might then have rest. CHITRALEKHA Good. MANAVAKA Take the moonbeams Whose pregnant nectar comforts burning limbs. PURURAVAS But my affliction’s not remediable With such faint medicines. Neither smoothest flowers, Moonlight nor sandal visiting every limb, Nor necklaces of cool delightful pearl, Only Heaven’s nymph can perfectly expel With bliss, or else — URVASIE (clutching at her bosom with her hand) O me! who else? who else? PURURAVAS Speech secret full of her unedge my pangs. URVASIE Heart that left me to flutter in his hands, Now art thou for that rashness recompensed! MANAVAKA Yes, I too when I cannot get sweet venison

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act III And hunger for it, often beguile my belly With celebrating all its savoury joys. PURURAVAS Your belly-loves, good friend, are always with you And ready to your gulp. MANAVAKA You too shall soon Possess your love. PURURAVAS My friend, I have strange feeling. CHITRALEKHA Hearken, insatiable, exacting, hearken, And be convinced! MANAVAKA What feeling? PURURAVAS This I feel, As if this shoulder by her shoulder pressed In the car’s shock bore all my sum of being, And all this frame besides were only weight Cumbering the impatient earth. CHITRALEKHA Yet you delay! URVASIE (suddenly approaching Pururavas) O me! sister! CHITRALEKHA What is it now?

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I am Before him, and he does not care! CHITRALEKHA (smiling) O thou, All passionate unreasoning haste! Thou hast not Put off as yet invisibility. VOICE (within) This way, my lady. All listen, Urvasie and Chitralekha are despondent. MANAVAKA (in dismay) Hey? The Queen is here? Keep watch upon your tongue. PURURAVAS You first discharge Your face of conscious guilt. URVASIE Sister, what now? CHITRALEKHA Be calm. We are unseen. This princess looks As for a vow arrayed, nor long, if so, Will tarry. As she speaks, the Queen and Nipunika enter with attendants carrying offerings. AUSHINARIE How does yonder spotted moon Flush with new beauty, O Nipunika, At Rohinie’s embracings.

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NIPUNIKA So too with you, Lady, my lord looks fairer than himself. MANAVAKA The Queen, my lord, looks very sweet and gracious, Either because I know she’ll give me sweetmeats Or ’tis a sign of anger quite renounced, And from your memory to exile her harshness She makes her vow an instrument. PURURAVAS Good reasons both; (smiling) Yet to my humble judgment the poor second Has likelier hue. For she in gracious white Is clad and sylvanly adorned with flowers, Her raven tresses spangled with young green Of sacred grass. All her fair body looks Gentle and kind, its pomp and pride renounced For lovely meekness to her lord. AUSHINARIE (approaching) My husband! ATTENDANT Hail to our master! MANAVAKA Peace attend my lady. PURURAVAS Welcome. He takes her hand and draws her down on a seat. URVASIE By right this lady bears the style

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Of Goddess and of Empress, since no whit Her noble majesty of fairness yields To Heaven’s Queen. CHITRALEKHA O bravely said, my sister! ’Twas worthy of a soul where jealous baseness Ought never harbour. AUSHINARIE I have a vow, my lord, Which at my husband’s feet must be absolved. Bear with me that I trouble you one moment. PURURAVAS No, no, it is not trouble, but a kindness. MANAVAKA The good trouble that brings me sweetmeats! often, O often may such trouble vex my belly. PURURAVAS What vow is this you would absolve, my own? Aushinarie looks at Nipunika. NIPUNIKA ’Tis that women perform to win back kindness In eyes of one held dear. PURURAVAS If this be so, Vainly hast thou these tender flower-soft limbs Afflicted with a vow’s austerities, Beloved. Thou suest for favour to thy servant, Propitiatest who for thy propitiated All-loving glance is hungry.

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URVASIE Greatly he loves her! CHITRALEKHA Why, silly one, whose heart is gone astraying, Redoubles words of kindness to his wife. Do you not know so much? AUSHINARIE (smiling) Not vain my vow, That to such words of love has moved already My husband. MANAVAKA Stop, my lord, a word well spoken Is spoilt by any answer. AUSHINARIE Girls, the offering With which I must adore this gentle moonlight That dreams upon our terrace! NIPUNIKA Here, my lady, Are flowers, here costly scents, all needed things. AUSHINARIE Give them to me. She worships the moonbeams with flowers and perfumes. Nipunika, present The sweetmeats of the offering to the Brahmin. NIPUNIKA I will, my lady. Noble Manavaka, Here is for you.

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MANAVAKA Blessings attend thee. May Thy vow bear fruit nor end. AUSHINARIE Now, dear my lord, Pray you, draw nearer to me. PURURAVAS Behold me, love! What must I do? Aushinarie worships the King, then bowing down with folded hands, AUSHINARIE I, Aushinarie, call The divine wife and husband, Rohinie And Mrigalanchhan named the spotted moon, To witness here my vowed obedient love To my dear lord. Henceforth whatever woman My lord shall love and she desire him too, I will embrace her and as a sister love, Nor think of jealousy. URVASIE I know not wholly Her drift, and yet her words have made me feel All pure and full of noble trust. CHITRALEKHA Be confident, Your love will prove all bliss; surely it must When blessed and sanctioned by this pure, devoted And noble nature. MANAVAKA (aside) When from twixt his hands

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Fish leaps, cries me the disappointed fisher, “Go, trout, I spare you. This will be put down To my account in Heaven.” (aloud) No more but this You love my friend, your husband, lady? AUSHINARIE Dull fool! I with the death of my own happiness Would give my husband ease. From this consider How dearly I love him. PURURAVAS Since thou hast power on me To give me to another or to keep Thy slave, I have no right to plead. And yet I am not as thou thinkest me, all lost, O thou too jealous, to thy love. AUSHINARIE My lord, We will not talk of that. I have fulfilled My rite, and with observance earned your kindness. Girls, let us go. PURURAVAS Is thus my kindness earned? I am not kind, not pleased, if now, beloved, Thou shun and leave me. AUSHINARIE Pardon, my lord. I never Have yet transgressed the rigour of a vow. Exeunt Queen, Nipunika and attendants.

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URVASIE Wife-lover, uxorious is this King, and yet I cannot lure my heart away from him. CHITRALEKHA Why, what new trick of wilful passion’s this? PURURAVAS (sitting down) The Queen is not far off. MANAVAKA Never heed that, Speak boldly. She has given you up as hopeless. So doctors leave a patient, when disease Defies all remedy, to his own sweet guidance. PURURAVAS O that my Urvasie — URVASIE Today might win Her one dear wish. PURURAVAS From her invisible feet The lovely sound of anklets on my ear Would tinkle, or coming stealing from behind Blind both my eyes with her soft little hands Like two cool lotuses upon them fallen: Or, oh, most sweet! descending on this roof Shaken with dear delicious terrors, lingering And hanging back, be by her sister drawn With tender violence, faltering step by step, Till she lay panting on my knees. CHITRALEKHA Go, sister,

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And satisfy his wish. URVASIE Must I? well then, I’ll pluck up heart and play with him a little. She becomes visible, steals behind the King and covers his eyes with her hands. Chitralekha puts off her veil of invisibility and makes a sign to Manavaka. MANAVAKA Now say, friend, who is this? PURURAVAS The hands of beauty. ’Tis that Narayan-born whose limbs are sweetness. MANAVAKA How can you guess? PURURAVAS What is there here to guess? My heart tells me. The lily of the night Needs not to guess it is the moon’s cool touch. She starts not to the sunbeam. ’Tis so with me. No other woman could but she alone Heal with her little hands all my sick pining. Urvasie removes her hands and rises to her feet; then moves a step or two away. URVASIE Conquest attend my lord! PURURAVAS Welcome, O beauty. He draws her down beside him.

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CHITRALEKHA Happiness to my brother! PURURAVAS Here it sits Beside me. URVASIE Because the Queen has given you to me, Therefore I dare to take into my arms Your body like a lover. You shall not think me Forward. MANAVAKA What, set the sun to you on this terrace? PURURAVAS O love, if thou my body dost embrace As seizable, a largess from my Queen, But whose permission didst thou ask, when thou Stolest my heart away? CHITRALEKHA Brother, she is Abashed and has no answer. Therefore a moment Turn to me, grant me one entreaty. PURURAVAS Speak. CHITRALEKHA When spring is vanished and the torrid heat Thickens, I must attend the glorious Sun. Do thou so act that this my Urvasie Left lonely with thee, shall not miss her Heaven.

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MANAVAKA Why, what is there in Heaven to pine for? There You do not eat, you do not drink, only Stare like so many fishes in a row With wide unblinking eyes. PURURAVAS The joys of Heaven No thought can even outline. Who then shall make The soul forget which thence has fallen? Of this Be sure, fair girl, Pururavas is only Thy sister’s slave: no other woman shares That rule nor can share. CHITRALEKHA Brother, this is kind. Be brave, my Urvasie, and let me go. URVASIE (embracing Chitralekha, pathetically) Chitralekha, my sister, do not forget me! CHITRALEKHA (with a smile) Of thee I should entreat that mercy, who Hast got thy love’s embrace. She bows down to the King and goes. MANAVAKA Now nobly, sir, Are you increased with bliss and your desire’s Accrual. PURURAVAS You say well. This is my increase; Who felt not half so blest when I acquired The universal sceptre of the world And sovran footstool touched by jewelled heads Of tributary monarchs, as today

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I feel most happy who have won the right To touch two little feet and am allowed To be thy slave and do thy lovely bidding. URVASIE I have not words to make a sweeter answer. PURURAVAS How does the winning of one loved augment Sweet contradictions! These are the very rays Of moonlight burned me late, and now they soothe; Love’s wounding shafts caress the heart like flowers, Thou being with me; all natural sights and sounds, Once rude and hurtful, now caressing come Softly, because of thee in my embrace. URVASIE I am to blame that I deprived my lord So long. PURURAVAS Beloved and beautiful, not so! For happiness arising after pain Tastes therefore sweeter, as the shady tree To one perplexed with heat and dust affords A keener taste of Paradise. MANAVAKA We have courted For a long hour the whole delightfulness Of moonlight in the evening. It is time To seek repose. PURURAVAS Guide therefore this fair friend The way her feet must henceforth tread.

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MANAVAKA This way. PURURAVAS O love, I have but one wish left. URVASIE What wish, my lord? PURURAVAS When I had not embraced thee, my desire, One night in passing seemed a hundred nights; O now if darkness would extend my joys To equal length of real hours with this Sweet face upon my bosom, I were blest. They go.

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Act IV Scene I. — The sky near the doors of the sunrise; clouds everywhere. Chitralekha and Sahajanya. SAHAJANYA Dear Chitralekha, like a fading flower The beauty of thy face all marred reveals Sorrow of heart. Tell me thy melancholy; I would be sad with thee. CHITRALEKHA (sorrowfully) O Sahajanya! Sister, by rule of our vicissitude, I serving at the feet of the great Sun Was troubled at heart for want of Urvasie. SAHAJANYA I know your mutual passion of sisterliness. What after? CHITRALEKHA I had heard no news of her So many days. Then I collected vision Divine into myself to know of her. O miserable knowledge! SAHAJANYA Sister, sister! What knowledge of sorrow? CHITRALEKHA (still sorrowfully) I saw that Urvasie

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act IV Taking with her Pururavas and love — For he had on his ministers imposed His heavy yoke of kingship — went to sport Amorously in Gandhamadan green. SAHAJANYA (proudly) O love is joy indeed, when in such spots Tasted. And there? CHITRALEKHA And there upon the strands Of heavenly Ganges, one, a lovely child Of spirits musical, Udayavatie, Was playing, making little forts of sand; On her with all his soul the monarch gazed. This angered Urvasie. SAHAJANYA O natural! Deep passion always is intolerant. Afterwards? CHITRALEKHA She pushed aside her pleading husband, Perplexed by the Preceptor’s curse forgot The War-God’s vow and entered in that grove Avoidable of women; but no sooner Had trod its green, most suddenly she was A creeper rooted to that fatal verge. SAHAJANYA (in a voice of grief ) Now do I know that Fate’s indeed a thing Inexorable, spares no one, when such love Has such an ending; O all too suddenly! How must it be then with Pururavas?

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CHITRALEKHA All day and night he passions in that grove Seeking her. And this cool advent of cloud That turns even happy hearts to yearning pain, Will surely kill him. SAHAJANYA Sister, not long can grief Have privilege over such beautiful beings. Some God will surely pity them, some cause Unite once more. (looking towards the east) Come, sister. Our lord the Sun Is rising in the east. Quick, to our service. They go.

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Scene II. — Pururavas enters disordered, his eyes fixed on the sky. PURURAVAS (angrily) Halt, ruffian, halt! Thou in thy giant arms Bearest away my Urvasie! He has Soared up from a great crag into the sky And wars me, hurling downward bitter rain Of arrows. With this thunderbolt I smite thee. He lifts up a clod and runs as to hurl it; then pauses and looks upwards. (pathetically) Oh me, I am deceived! This was a cloud Equipped for rain, no proud and lustful fiend, The rainbow, not a weapon drawn to kill, Quick-driving showers are these, not sleety rain Of arrows; and that brilliant line like streak Of gold upon a touchstone, cloud-inarmed, I saw, was lightning, not my Urvasie. (sorrowfully) Where shall I find her now? Where clasp those thighs Swelling and smooth and white? Perhaps she stands Invisible to me by heavenly power, All sullen? But her anger was ever swift And ended soon. Perhaps into her heavens She has soared? O no! her heart was soft with love, And love of me. Nor any fiend adverse To Heaven had so much strength as to hale her hence While I looked on. Yet is she gone from me Invisible, swiftly invisible, — Whither? O bitter miracle! and yet — He scans each horizon, then pauses and sighs. Alas! when fortune turns against a man, Then sorrow treads on sorrow. There was already This separation from my love, and hard Enough to bear; and now the pleasant days, Guiltless of heat, with advent cool of rain

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Must help to slay me. (laughing) Why do I so tamely Accept addition to my pangs? For even The saints confess, “The king controls the seasons”; If it be so, I will command the thunder Back to his stable. (pausing to think) No, I must permit The season unabridged of pomp; the signs Of storm are now my only majesty; This sky with lightning gilt and laced becomes My canopy of splendour, and the trees Of rain-time waving wide their lavish bloom Fan me; the sapphire-throated peacocks, voiced Sweeter for that divorce from heat, are grown My poets; the mountains are my citizens, They pour out all their streams to swell my greatness. But I waste time in idly boasting vain Glories and lose my love. To my task, to my task! This grove, this grove should find her. He moves onward. And here, O here Is something to enrage my resolution. Red-tinged, expanding, wet and full of rain, These blossom-cups recall to me her eyes Brimming with angry tears. How shall I trace her, Or what thing tell me “Here and here she wandered”? If she had touched with her beloved feet The rain-drenched forest-sands, there were a line Of little gracious footprints seen, with lac Envermeilled, sinking deeper towards the heel Because o’erburdened by her hips’ large glories. He moves onward. (exultantly) Oh joy! I see a hint of her. This way Then went her angry beauty! Lo, her bodice

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Bright green as is a parrot’s belly, smitten With crimson drops. It once veiled in her bosom And paused to show her navel deep as love. These are her tears that from those angry eyes Went trickling, stealing scarlet from her lips To spangle all this green. Doubtless her heaving Tumult of breasts broke its dear hold and, she Stumbling in anger, from my heaven it drifted. I’ll gather it to my kisses. He stoops to it, then sorrowfully, O my heart! Only green grass with dragon-wings enamelled! From whom shall I in all the desolate forest Have tidings of her, or what creature help me? Lo, in yon waste of crags the peacock! he Upon a cool moist rock that breathes of rain Exults, aspires, his gorgeous mass of plumes Seized, blown and scattered by the roaring gusts. Pregnant of shrillness is his outstretched throat, His look is with the clouds. Him I will question: Have the bright corners of thine eyes beheld, O sapphire-throated bird, her, my delight, My wife, my passion, my sweet grief? Yielding No answer, he begins his gorgeous dance. Why should he be so glad of my heart’s woe? I know thee, peacock. Since my cruel loss Thy plumes that stream in splendour on the wind, Have not one rival left. For when her heavy Dark wave of tresses over all the bed In softness wide magnificently collapsed On her smooth shoulders massing purple glory And bright with flowers, she passioning in my arms, Who then was ravished with thy brilliant plumes, Vain bird? I question thee not, heartless thing, That joyest in others’ pain. (turning away) Lo, where, new-fired

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With sweet bird-passion by the season cool, A cuckoo on the plum-tree sits. This race Is wisest of the families of birds And learned in love. I’ll greet him like himself. O cuckoo, thou art called the bird of love, His sweet ambassador, O cuckoo. Thou Criest and thy delightful voice within The hearts of lovers like an arrow comes, Seeks out the anger there and softly kills. Me also, cuckoo, to my darling bring Or her to me. What saidst thou? “How could she Desert thee loving?” Cuckoo, I will tell thee. Yes, she was angry. Yet I know I never Gave her least cause. But, cuckoo, dost thou know not That women love to feel their sovereignty Over their lovers, nor transgression need To be angry? How! Dost thou break off, O bird, Our converse thus abruptly and turn away To thine own tasks? Alas, ’twas wisely said That men bear easily the bitter griefs Which others feel. For all my misery This bird, my orison disregarding, turns To attack the plum-tree’s ripening fruit as one Drunken with love his darling’s mouth. And yet I cannot be angry with him. Has he not The voice of Urvasie? Abide, O bird, In bliss, though I unhappy hence depart. He walks on, then stops short and listens. O Heaven? what do I hear? the anklets’ cry That tell the musical footing of my love? To right of this long grove ’twas heard. Oh, I Will run to her. (hurrying forward) Me miserable! This was No anklets’ cry embraceable with hands, But moan of swans who seeing the grey wet sky Grow passionate for Himaloy’s distant tarns.

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act IV Well, be it so. But ere in far desire They leap up from this pool, I well might learn Tidings from them of Urvasie. (approaching) Listen, O king of all white fowl that waters breed. Afterwards to Himaloy wing thy way, But now the lotus fibres in thy beak Gathered by thee for provender resign; Ere long thou shalt resume them. Me, ah, first From anguish rescue, O majestic swan, With tidings of my sweet; always high souls Prefer another’s good to selfish aims. Thou lookest upward to the heavens and sayest, “I was absorbed with thoughts of Himaloy; Her have I not observed.” O swan, thou liest, For if she never trod upon thy lake’s Embankment, nor thou sawest her arch`ed brows, How couldst thou copy then so perfectly Her footing full of amorous delight, Or whence didst steal it? Give me back my love, Thou robber! Thou hast got her gait and this Is law that he with whom a part is found Must to the claimant realise the whole. (laughing) O yes, thou flyest up, clanging alarm, “This is the king whose duty is to punish All thieves like me!” Go then, but I will plunge Into new hopeful places, seeking love. Lo, wild-drake with his mate, famed chocrobacque, Him let me question. O thou wondrous creature, All saffron and vermilion! Wilt thou then Not tell me of my love? Oh, sawest thou not My Goddess laughing like a lovely child In the bright house of spring? For, wild-drake, thou Who gettest from the chariot’s orb thy name, I who deprived am of her orb`ed hips,

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The chariot-warrior great Pururavas, Encompassed with a thousand armed desires, Question thee. How! “Who? Who?” thou sayest to me! This is too much. It is not possible He should not know me! Bird, I am a king Of kings, and grandson to the Sun and Moon, And earth has chosen me for her master. This Were little. I am the loved of Urvasie! Still art thou silent? I will taunt him, then Perhaps he’ll speak. Thou, wild-drake, when thy love, Her body hidden by a lotus-leaf, Lurks near thee in the pool, deemest her far And wailest musically to the flowers A wild deep dirge. Such is thy conjugal Yearning, thy terror such of even a little Division from her nearness. Me afflicted, Me so forlorn thou art averse to bless With just a little tidings of my love! Alas, my miserable lot has made All creatures adverse to me. Let me plunge Into the deeper wood. Oh no, not yet! This lotus with the honey-bees inside Making melodious murmur, keeps me. I Remember her soft mouth when I have kissed it Too cruelly, sobbing exquisite complaint. These too I will implore. Alas, what use? They will despise me like the others. Yet, Lest I repent hereafter of my silence, I’ll speak to him. O lotus-wooing bee, Tell me some rumour of those eyes like wine. But no, thou hast not seen that wonder. Else Wouldst thou, O bee, affect the lotus’ bloom, If thou hadst caught the sweetness from her lips Breathing, whose scent intoxicates the breeze? I’ll leave him. Lo! with his mate an elephant. His trunk surrounds a nym-tree to uproot. To him will I, he may some rumour have

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act IV Or whisper of my love. But softly! Haste Will ruin me. Oh, this is not the time! Now his beloved mate has in her trunk Just found him broken branches odorous And sweet as wine with the fresh leaves not long In bud, new-honied. These let him enjoy. His meal is over now. I may approach And ask him. O rut-dripping elephant, Sole monarch of the herd, has not that moon With jasmines all a glory in her hair And limbs of fadeless beauty, carrying Youth like a banner, whom to see is bliss, Is madness, fallen in thy far ken, O king? Oh joy! he trumpets loud and soft as who Would tell me he has seen indeed my love. Oh, I am gladdened! More to thee I stand Attracted, elephant, as like with like. Sovereign of sovereigns is my title, thou Art monarch of the kingly elephants, And this wide freedom of thy fragrant rut Interminable imitates my own Vast liberality to suppliant men, Regally; thou hast in all the herd this mate, I among loveliest women Urvasie. In all things art thou like me; only I pray, O friend, that thou mayst never know the pang, The loss. Be fortunate, king, farewell! Oh see, The mountain of the Fragrant Glens appears, Fair as a dream, with his great plateaus trod By heavenly feet of women. May it not be, To this wide vale she too has with her sisters Brought here her beautiful body full of spring? Darkness! I cannot see her. Yet by these gleams Of lightning I may study, I may find. Ah God! the fruit of guilt is bounded not With the doer’s anguish; this stupendous cloud Is widowed of the lightning through my sin.

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Yet I will leave thee not, O thou huge pile Of scaling crags, unquestioned. Hear me, answer me! O mountain, has she entered then the woods, Love’s green estate, — ah, she too utter love! Her breasts were large like thine, with small sweet space Between them, and like thine her glorious hips And smooth fair joints a rapture. Dumb? No answer? I am too far away, he has not heard me. Let me draw nearer. Mountain, seen was she, A woman all bereaved, her every limb A loveliness, in these delightful woods? ECHO Nearer, O nearer! Mountain-seen was she, A woman all bereaved, her every limb A loveliness, in these delightful woods. PURURAVAS He has answered, answered! O my heart, I draw Nearer to her! In my own words the hill Answers thee, O my heart. As joyous tidings Mayst thou too hear, mountain. She then was seen, My Urvasie in thy delightful woods? ECHO Mountain! mountain! mountain! She then was seen, My Urvasie in thy delightful woods, In thy delightful woods, delightful woods. PURURAVAS Alas! ’tis Echo mocks me with my voice Rolling amid the crags and mountain glens. Out on thee, Echo! Thou hast killed my heart. O Urvasie! Urvasie! Urvasie! He falls down and swoons. (recovering) I am all weary and sad. Oh, let me rest

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act IV Beside this mountain river for a moment And woo the breeze that dances on the waves. All turbid is this stream with violent rain, And yet I thrill to see it. For, O, it seems Just like my angry darling when she went Frowning — as this does with its little waves, — A wrathful music in her girdle, — and see! This string of birds with frightened clangour rise; She trailed her raiment as the river its foam, For it loosened with her passion as she moved With devious feet, all angry, blind with tears, And often stopped to brood upon her wrongs: But soon indignantly her stormy speed Resumed, so tripping, winding goes the stream, As she did. O most certainly ’tis she, My sweet quick-tempered darling, suddenly changed Into a river’s form. I will beseech her And soothe her wounded spirit. Urvasie? Did I not love thee perfectly? Did not My speech grow sweetness when I spoke to thee? And when did my heart anything but hate To false our love? O what was the slight fault Thou foundest in thy servant that thou couldst Desert him, Urvasie, O Urvasie! She answers not! It is not she, merely A river. Urvasie would not have left Pururavas to tryst with Ocean. And now Since only by refusal to despair Can bliss at last be won, I will return Where first she fled from my pursuing eyes. This couching stag shall give me tidings of her, Who looks as if he were a splendid glance Some dark-eyed Dryad had let fall to admire This budding foliage and this young green beauty Of grass. But why averts he then his head As though in loathing? I perceive his reason. Lo, his fair hind is hasting towards him, stayed

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By their young deerling plucking at her teats. With her his eyes are solely, her with bent Lithe neck he watches. Ho, thou lord of hind! Sawst thou not her I love? O stag, I’ll tell thee How thou shouldst know her. Like thine own dear hind She had large eyes and loving, and like hers That gaze was beauty. Why does he neglect My words and only gaze towards his love? All prosperous creatures slight the unfortunate! ’Tis natural. Then elsewhere let me seek. I have found her, I have found her! O a hint And token of her way! This one red drop Of summer’s blood the very codome was, Though rough with faulty stamens, yet thought worthy To crown her hair. And thou, asoka red, Didst watch my slender-waisted when she gave So cruelly a loving heart to pain. Why dost thou lie and shake thy windy head? How couldst thou by her soft foot being untouched Break out into such bloom of petals stung And torn by jostling crowds of bees, who swarm All wild to have thy honey? Ever be blest, Thou noble trunk. What should this be, bright red, That blazes in a crevice of the rocks? For if it were a piece of antelope’s flesh Torn by a lion, ’twould not have this blaze, This lustre haloing it; nor can it be A spark pregnant of fire; for all the wood Is drowned in rain. No, ’tis a gem, a miracle Of crimson, like the red felicitous flower, And with one radiant finger of the sun Laid on it like a claim. Yet I will take it, For it compels my soul with scarlet longing. Wherefore? She on whose head it should have burned, Whose hair all fragrant with the coral-bloom I loved like Heaven, is lost to me, beyond Recovery lost to me. Why should I take it

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act IV To mar it with my tears? A VOICE Reject it not, My son; this is the jewel Union born From the red lac that on the marvellous feet Was brilliant of Himaloy’s child, and, soon, Who bears it is united with his love. PURURAVAS Who speaks to me? It is a saint who dwells In forest like the deer. He first of creatures Has pitied me. O my lord anchoret, I thank thee. Thou, O Union, if thou end My separation, if with that small-waisted Thou shouldst indeed be proved my Union, Jewel, I’ll use thee for my crown, as Shiva Upon his forehead wears the crescent moon. This flowerless creeper! Wherefore do mine eyes Dwell with its barren grace and my heart yearn Towards it? And yet, O, not without a cause Has she enchanted me. There standst thou, creeper, All slender, thy poor sad leaves are moist with rain, Thou silent, with no voice of honey-bees Upon thy drooping boughs; as from thy lord The season separated, leaving off Thy habit of bloom. Why, I might think I saw My passionate darling sitting penitent With tear-stained face and body unadorned, Thinking in silence how she spurned my love. I will embrace thee, creeper, for thou art Too like my love. Urvasie! all my body Is thrilled and satisfied of Urvasie! I feel, I feel her living limbs. (despairingly) But how Should I believe it? Everything I deem

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A somewhat of my love, next moment turns To other. Therefore since by touch at least I find my dear one, I will not separate Too suddenly mine eyes from sleep. (opening his eyes slowly) O love, ’Tis thou! He swoons. URVASIE Upraise thy heart, my King, my liege! PURURAVAS Dearest, at last I live! O thou hadst plunged me Into a dark abyss of separation, And fortunately art thou returned to me, Like consciousness given back to one long dead. URVASIE With inward senses I have watched and felt Thy whole long agony. PURURAVAS With inward senses? I understand thee not. URVASIE I will tell all. But let my lord excuse my grievous fault, Who, wretch enslaved by anger, brought to this My sovereign! Smile on me and pardon me! PURURAVAS Never speak of it. Thy clasp is thy forgiveness. For all my outward senses and my soul Leap laughing towards thy bosom. Only convince me How thou couldst live without me such an age.

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URVASIE Hearken. The War-God Skanda, from of old Virginity eternal vowing, came To Gandhamadan’s bank men call the pure, And made a law. PURURAVAS What law, beloved? URVASIE This That any woman entering these precincts Becomes at once a creeper. And for limit Of the great curse, “Without the jewel born From crimson of my mother’s feet can she Never be woman more.” Now I, my lord, My heart perplexed by the Preceptor’s curse, Forgot the War-God’s oath and entered here, Rejecting thy entreaties, to the wood Avoidable of women: at the first step, All suddenly my form was changed. I was A creeper growing at the wood’s wild end. PURURAVAS Oh, now intelligible! When from thy breasts Loosening the whole embrace, the long delight, I sank back languid, thou wouldst moan for me Like one divided far. How is it then Possible that thou shouldst bear patiently Real distance between us? Lo, this jewel, As in thy story, gave thee to my arms. Admonished by a hermit sage I kept it. URVASIE The jewel Union! Therefore at thy embrace I was restored. She places the jewel gratefully upon her head.

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PURURAVAS Thus stand a while. O fairest, Thy face, suffused with crimson from this gem Above thee pouring wide its fire and splendour, Has all the beauty of a lotus reddening In early sunlight. URVASIE O sweet of speech! remember That thy high capital awaits thee long. It may be that the people blame me. Let us, My own dear lord, return. PURURAVAS Let us return. URVASIE What wafture will my sovereign choose? PURURAVAS O waft me Nearer the sun and make a cloud our chariot, While lightning like a streaming banner floats Now seen, now lost to vision, and the rainbow With freshness of its glory iridescent Edges us. In thine arms uplift and waft me, Beloved, through the wide and liquid air. They go.

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Act V Scene. — Outside the King’s tents near Pratisthana. In the background the confluence of the rivers Ganges and Yamuna. Manavaka alone. MANAVAKA After long pleasuring with Urvasie In Nandan and all woodlands of the Gods, Our King’s at last returned, and he has entered His city, by the jubilant people met With splendid greetings, and resumed his toils. Ah, were he but a father, nothing now Were wanting to his fullness. This high day At confluence of great Ganges with the stream Dark Yamuna, he and his Queen have bathed. Just now he passed into his tent, and surely His girls adorn him. I will go exact My first share of the ointments and the flowers. MAID (within lamenting) O me unfortunate! the jewel is lost Accustomed to the noble head of her Most intimate with the bosom of the King, His loveliest playmate. I was carrying it In palm-leaf basket on white cloth of silk; A vulture doubting this some piece of flesh Swoops down and soars away with it. MANAVAKA Unfortunate!

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This was the Union, the crest-jewel, dear O’er all things to the King. Look where he comes, His dress half-worn just as he started up On hearing of his loss. I’ll go to him. He goes. Then Pururavas enters with his Amazons of the Bactrian Guard and other attendants in great excitement. PURURAVAS Huntress! huntress! Where is that robber bird That snatches his own death? He practises His first bold pillage in the watchman’s house. HUNTRESS Yonder, the golden thread within his beak! Trailing the jewel how he wheels in air Describing scarlet lines upon the sky! PURURAVAS I see him, dangling down the thread of gold He wheels and dips in rapid circles vast. The jewel like a whirling firebrand red Goes round and round and with vermilion rings Incarnadines the air. What shall we do To rescue it? MANAVAKA (coming up) Why do you hesitate to slay him? He is marked out for death, a criminal. PURURAVAS My bow! my bow! AN AMAZON I run to bring it! She goes out.

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PURURAVAS Friend, I cannot see the bird. Where has it fled? MANAVAKA Look! to the southern far horizon wings The carrion-eating robber. PURURAVAS (turns and looks) Yes, I see him. He speeds with the red jewel every way Branching and shooting light, as ’twere a cluster Of crimson roses in the southern sky Or ruby pendant from the lobe of Heaven. Enter Amazon with the bow. AMAZON Sire, I have brought the bow and leathern guard. PURURAVAS Too late you bring it. Yon eater of raw flesh Goes winging far beyond an arrow’s range, And the bright jewel with the distant bird Blazes like Mars the planet glaring red Against a wild torn piece of cloud. Who’s there? Noble Latavya! LATAVYA Highness? PURURAVAS From me command The chief of the police, at evening, when Yon wing`ed outlaw seeks his homing tree, That he be hunted out.

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Translations from Sanskrit LATAVYA It shall be done. He goes out.

MANAVAKA Sit down and rest. What place in all broad earth This jewel-thief can hide in, shall elude Your world-wide jurisdiction? PURURAVAS (sitting down with Manavaka) It was not as a gem Of lustre that I treasured yonder stone, Now lost in the bird’s beak, but ’twas my Union And it united me with my dear love. MANAVAKA I know it, from your own lips heard the tale. Chamberlain enters with the jewel and an arrow. LATAVYA Behold shot through that robber! Though he fled, Thy anger darting in pursuit has slain him. Plumb down he fell with fluttering wings from Heaven And dropped the jewel bright. All look at it in surprise. Ill fate o’ertaking Much worse offence! My lord, shall not this gem Be washed in water pure and given — to whom? PURURAVAS Huntress, go, see it purified in fire, Then to its case restore it. HUNTRESS As the King wills. She goes out with the jewel.

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PURURAVAS Noble Latavya, came you not to know The owner of this arrow? LATAVYA Letters there are Carved on the steel; my eyes grow old and feeble, I could not read them. PURURAVAS Therefore give me the arrow. I will spell out the writing. The Chamberlain gives him the arrow and he reads. LATAVYA And I will fill my office. He goes out. MANAVAKA (seeing the King lost in thought) What do you read there? PURURAVAS Hear, Manavaka, hear The letters of this bowman’s name. MANAVAKA I’m all Attention; read. PURURAVAS O hearken then and wonder. (reading) “Ayus, the smiter of his foeman’s lives, The warrior Ilian’s son by Urvasie, This arrow loosed.”

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MANAVAKA (with satisfaction) Hail, King! now dost thou prosper, Who hast a son. PURURAVAS How should this be? Except By the great ritual once, never was I Parted from that beloved; nor have I witnessed One sign of pregnancy. How could my Goddess Have borne a son? True, I remember once For certain days her paps were dark and stained, And all her fair complexion to the hue Of that wan creeper paled, and languid-large Her eyes were. Nothing more. MANAVAKA Do not affect With mortal attributes the living Gods. For holiness is as a veil to them Concealing their affections. PURURAVAS This is true. But why should she conceal her motherhood? MANAVAKA Plainly, she thought, “If the King sees me old And matron, he’ll be off with some young hussy.” PURURAVAS No mockery, think it over. MANAVAKA Who shall guess The riddles of the Gods? Enter Latavya.

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LATAVYA Hail to the King! A holy dame from Chyavan’s hermitage Leading a boy would see my lord. PURURAVAS Latavya, Admit them instantly. LATAVYA As the King wills. He goes out, then re-enters with Ayus bow in hand and a hermitess. Come, holy lady, to the King. They approach the King. MANAVAKA How say you, Should not this noble boy be very he, The young and high-born archer with whose name Was lettered yon half-moon of steel that pierced The vulture? His features imitate my lord’s. PURURAVAS It must be so. The moment that I saw him, My eyes became a mist of tears, my spirit Lightened with joy, and surely ’twas a father That stirred within my bosom. O Heaven! I lose Religious calm; shudderings surprise me; I long To feel him with my limbs, pressed with my love. LATAVYA (to the hermitess) Here deign to stand. PURURAVAS Mother, I bow to thee.

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SATYAVATIE High-natured! may thy line by thee increase! (aside) Lo, all untold this father knows his son. (aloud) My child, Bow down to thy begetter. Ayus bows down, folding his hands over his bow. PURURAVAS Live long, dear son. AYUS (aside) O how must children on their father’s knees Grown great be melted with a filial sweetness, When only hearing that this is my father I feel I love him! PURURAVAS Vouchsafe me, reverend lady, Thy need of coming. SATYAVATIE Listen then, O King; This Ayus at his birth was in my hand By Urvasie, I know not why, delivered, A dear deposit. Every perfect rite And holiness unmaimed that princely boys Must grow through, Chyavan’s self, the mighty Sage, Performed, and taught him letters, Scripture, arts, — Last, every warlike science. PURURAVAS O fortunate In such a teacher!

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SATYAVATIE The children fared afield Today for flowers, dry fuel, sacred grass, And Ayus faring with them violated The morals of the hermitage. PURURAVAS (in alarm) O how? SATYAVATIE A vulture with a jag of flesh was merging Into a tree-top when the boy levelled His arrow at the bird. PURURAVAS (anxiously) And then? SATYAVATIE And then The holy Sage, instructed of that slaughter, Called me and bade, “Give back thy youthful trust Into his mother’s keeping.” Therefore, sir, Let me have audience with the lady. PURURAVAS Mother, Deign to sit down one moment. The hermitess takes the seat brought for her. Noble Latavya, Let Urvasie be summoned. LATAVYA It is done. He goes out. PURURAVAS Child of thy mother, come, O come to me!

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Let me feel my son! The touch of his own child, They say, thrills all the father; let me know it. Gladden me as the moonbeam melts the moonstone. SATYAVATIE Go, child, and gratify thy father’s heart. Ayus goes to the King and clasps his feet. PURURAVAS (embracing the boy and seating him on his footstool) This Brahmin is thy father’s friend. Salute him, And have no fear. MANAVAKA Why should he fear? I think He grew up in the woods and must have seen A mort of monkeys in the trees. AYUS (smiling) Hail, father. MANAVAKA Peace and prosperity walk with thee ever. Latavya returns with Urvasie. LATAVYA This way, my lady. URVASIE Who is this quivered youth Set on the footstool of the King? Himself My monarch binds his curls into a crest! Who should this be so highly favoured? (seeing Satyavatie) Ah! Satyavatie beside him tells me; it is My Ayus. How he has grown!

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PURURAVAS (seeing Urvasie) O child, look up. Lo, she who bore thee, with her whole rapt gaze Grown mother, her veiled bosom heaving towards thee And wet with sacred milk! SATYAVATIE Rise, son, and greet Thy parent. She goes with the boy to Urvasie. URVASIE I touch thy feet. SATYAVATIE Ever be near Thy husband’s heart. AYUS Mother, I bow to thee. URVASIE Child, be thy sire’s delight. My lord and husband! PURURAVAS O welcome to the mother! sit thee here. He makes her sit beside him. SATYAVATIE My daughter, lo, thine Ayus. He has learned All lore, heroic armour now can wear. I yield thee back before thy husband’s eyes Thy sacred trust. Discharge me. Each idle moment Is a religious duty left undone. URVASIE It is so long since I beheld you, mother,

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I have not satisfied my thirst of you, And cannot let you go. And yet ’twere wrong To keep you. Therefore go for further meeting. PURURAVAS Say to the Sage, I fall down at his feet. SATYAVATIE ’Tis well. AYUS Are you going to the forest, mother? Will you not take me with you? PURURAVAS Over, son, Thy studies in the woods. Thou must be now A man, know the great world. SATYAVATIE Child, hear thy father. AYUS Then, mother, let me have when he has got His plumes, my little peacock, Jewel-crest, Who’ld sleep upon my lap and let me stroke His crest and pet him. SATYAVATIE Surely, I will send him. URVASIE Mother, I touch thy feet. PURURAVAS I bow to thee, Mother.

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SATYAVATIE Peace be upon you both, my children. She goes. PURURAVAS O blessed lady! Now am I grown through thee A glorious father in this boy, our son; Not Indra, hurler down of cities, more In his Jayanta of Paulomie born. Urvasie weeps. MANAVAKA Why is my lady suddenly all tears? PURURAVAS My own beloved! How art thou full of tears While I am swayed with the great joy of princes Who see their line secured? Why do these drops On these high peaks of beauty raining down, O sad sweet prodigal, turn thy bright necklace To repetition vain of costlier pearls? He wipes the tears from her eyes. URVASIE Alas, my lord! I had forgot my doom In a mother’s joy. But now thy utterance Of that great name of Indra brings to me Cruel remembrance torturing the heart Of my sad limit. PURURAVAS Tell me, my love, what limit. URVASIE O King, my heart held captive in thy hands, I stood bewildered by the curse; then Indra Uttered his high command: “When my great soldier,

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Earth’s monarch, sees the face that keeps his line Made in thy womb, to Eden thou returnest.” So when I knew my issue, sick with the terror Of being torn from thee, all hidden haste, I gave to noble Satyavatie the child, In Chyavan’s forest to be trained. Today This my beloved son returns to me; No doubt she thought that he was grown and able To gratify his father’s heart. This then Is the last hour of that sweet life with thee, Which goes not farther. Pururavas swoons. MANAVAKA Help, help! URVASIE Return to me, my King! PURURAVAS (reviving) O love, how jealous are the Gods in Heaven Of human gladness! I was comforted With getting of a son, — at once this blow! O small sweet waist, I am divorced from thee! So has a poplar from one equal cloud Received the shower that cooled and fire of Heaven That kills it. MANAVAKA O sudden evil out of good! For I suppose you now will don the bark And live with hermit trees. URVASIE I too unhappy! For now my King who sees that I no sooner Behold my son reared up than to my heavens

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act V I soar, will think that I have all my need And go with glad heart from his side. PURURAVAS Beloved, Do not believe it. How can one be free To do his will who’s subject to a master? He when he’s bid, must cast his heart aside And dwell in exile from the face he loves. Therefore obey King Indra. On this thy son I too my kingdom will repose and dwell In forests where the antlered peoples roam. AYUS My father should not on an untrained steer Impose the yoke that asks a neck of iron. PURURAVAS Child, say not so! The ichorous elephant Not yet full-grown tames all the trumpetings Of older rivals; and the young snake’s tooth With energy of virulent poison stored Strikes deadly. So is it with the ruler born: His boyish hand inarms the sceptred world. The force that rises with its task springs not From years, but is a self and inborn greatness. Therefore, Latavya! LATAVYA Let my lord command me. PURURAVAS Direct from me the council to make ready The coronation of my son. LATAVYA (sorrowfully) It is

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Your will, sire. He goes out. Suddenly all act as if dazzled. PURURAVAS What lightning leaps from cloudless heavens? URVASIE (gazing up) ’Tis the Lord Narad. PURURAVAS Narad? Yes, ’tis he. His hair is matted all a tawny yellow Like ochre-streaks, his holy thread is white And brilliant like a digit of the moon. He looks as if the faery-tree of Heaven Came moving, shooting twigs all gold, and twinkling Pearl splendours for its leaves, its tendrils pearl. Guest-offering for the Sage! Narad enters: all rise to greet him. URVASIE Here is guest-offering. NARAD Hail, the great guardian of the middle world! PURURAVAS Greeting, Lord Narad. URVASIE Lord, I bow to thee. NARAD Unsundered live in sweetness conjugal. PURURAVAS (aside) O that it might be so!

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(aloud to Ayus) Child, greet the Sage. AYUS Urvaseian Ayus bows down to thee. NARAD Live long, be prosperous. PURURAVAS Deign to take this seat. Narad sits, after which all take their seats. What brings the holy Narad? NARAD Hear the message Of mighty Indra. PURURAVAS I listen. NARAD Maghavan, Whose soul can see across the world, to thee Intending loneliness in woods — PURURAVAS Command me. NARAD The seers to whom the present, past and future Are three wide-open pictures, these divulge Advent of battle and the near uprise Of Titans warring against Gods. Heaven needs Thee, her great soldier; thou shouldst not lay down Thy warlike arms. All thy allotted days This Urvasie is given thee for wife

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And lovely helpmeet. URVASIE Oh, a sword is taken Out of my heart. PURURAVAS In all I am Indra’s servant. NARAD ’Tis fitting. Thou for Indra, he for thee, With interchange of lordly offices. So sun illumes the fire, fire the great sun Ekes out with heat and puissance. He looks up into the sky. Rambha, descend And with thee bring the high investiture Heaven’s King has furnished to crown Ayus, heir Of great Pururavas. Apsaras enter with the articles of investiture. NYMPHS Lo! Holiness, That store! NARAD Set down the boy upon the chair Of the anointing. RAMBHA Come to me, my child. She seats the boy. NARAD (pouring the cruse of holy oil on the boy’s head) Complete the ritual.

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RAMBHA (after so doing) Bow before the Sage, My child, and touch thy parents’ feet. Ayus obeys. NARAD Be happy. PURURAVAS Son, be a hero and thy line’s upholder. URVASIE Son, please thy father. BARDS (within) Victory to Empire’s heir. Strophe First the immortal seer of Brahma’s kind And had the soul of Brahma; Atri’s then The Moon his child; and from the Moon again Sprang Budha-Hermes, moonlike was his mind. Pururavas was Budha’s son and had Like starry brightness. Be in thee displayed Thy father’s kindly gifts. All things that bless Mortals, descend in thy surpassing race. Antistrophe Thy father like Himaloy highest stands Of all the high, but thou all steadfast be, Unchangeable and grandiose like the sea, Fearless, surrounding Earth with godlike hands. Let Empire by division brighter shine; For so the sacred Ganges snow and pine Favours, yet the same waters she divides To Ocean and his vast and heaving tides.

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NYMPHS (approaching Urvasie) O thou art blest, our sister, in thy son Crowned heir to Empire, in thy husband blest From whom thou shalt not part. URVASIE My happiness Is common to you all, sweet sisters: such Our love was always. She takes Ayus by the hand. Come with me, dear child, To fall down at thy elder mother’s feet. PURURAVAS Stay yet; we all attend you to the Queen. NARAD Thy son’s great coronation mindeth me Of yet another proud investiture, — Kartikeya crowned by Maghavan, to lead Heaven’s armies. PURURAVAS Highly has the King of Heaven Favoured him, Narad; how should he not be Most great and fortunate? NARAD What more shall Indra do For King Pururavas? PURURAVAS Heaven’s King being pleased, What further can I need? Yet this I’ll ask. He comes forward and speaks towards the audience. Learning and Fortune, Goddesses that stand In endless opposition, dwellers rare

Kalidasa: Vikramorvasie – Act V Under one roof, in kindly union join To bless for glory and for ease the good. This too; may every man find his own good, And every man be merry of his mind, And all men in all lands taste all desire.

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In the Gardens of Vidisha or Malavica and the King ACT I

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Dramatis Personae AGNIMITRA, King in Vidisha. VAHATAVA, his Minister. GAUTAMA, the Court jester. HORODUTTA, Master of the Stage to the King. GANADASA, Master of the Stage to the Queen. MAUDGALYA, the King’s Chamberlain. DHARINIE, Queen in Vidisha. IRAVATIE, a royal princess, wife of Agnimitra. MALAVICA,daughter of the Prince Madhavsena of Vidurbha, disguised as a maid in waiting on the Queen. COWSHIQIE, a female anchorite, sister of Madhavsena’s Minister. VOCOOLAVALICA, maid in waiting on the Queen, friend of Malavica. [COMUDICA, maid in waiting on the Queen, friend of Vocoolavalica.]

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Act I Scene I Place. Outside the Hall of Music in the Palace grounds. INVOCATION The One who is Almighty, He Who showers Upon His worshippers all wealth, all joy, Yet wears Himself a hide, nought richer; — Who With His belov`ed is one body and yet The first of passionless ascetics stands; Who in His eightfold body bears the world Yet knows not egoism, may He from you Dispel the darkness and reveal the light, The paths of righteousness to reillume. And after the invocation the Manager speaks. MANAGER Here, friend. Enter his Assistant. ASSISTANT Behold me. MANAGER Friend, the audience bid me Stage for this high and jovial feast of Spring The drama, Malavica and the King, Plotted by Kalidasa. Therefore begin The overture.

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ASSISTANT But, Sir, ’tis very strange. Are there not classics old, are there not works Of Bhasa and Saumilla, famous plays, Great Kaviputra’s name and more to match That thus the audience honours, all these scorned, A living poet’s work? MANAGER Not well hast thou Spoken in this nor like a judging man. For learn, not all that’s old is therefore good Nor must a poem straightway be condemned Because ’tis new. The critic watches, hears, Weighs patiently, then judges, but the fool Follows opinion’s beaten track and walks By others’ seeing. ASSISTANT Well, Sir, you are the judge. MANAGER Haste then, for since with bended head I took The learn`ed audience’ will, I have no ease Till its performance, to which my forward mind Speeds like yon maiden, Dharinie’s attendant, Light-footed to her royal mistress’ will. Exeunt. Enter Vocoolavalica. VOCOOLAVALICA My lady bids me seek out Ganadasa, Her Master of the Stage, from him to learn How in the Dance of Double Entendre progresses Our Malavica, a recent scholar yet Here in this Hall of Music. Enter Comudica, a ring in the palm of her hand. Comudica,

Kalidasa: Malavica and the King What, have you taken to religion then That you go sailing past me with an eye Abstracted, nor one glance for me? COMUDICA What, you, Vocoolavalica? I was absorbed In the delightful jewel on this ring Fresh from the jeweller’s hands for our great lady. Look, ’tis a Python-seal. VOCOOLAVALICA O heavens, how lovely! Well might you have no eyes for aught besides. Your fingers are all blossoming with the jewel! These rays of light are golden filaments Just breaking out of bud. COMUDICA Sweet, whither bound? VOCOOLAVALICA To the Stage-Master. Our lady seeks to know What sort of pupil Malavica proves, How quick to learn. COMUDICA O tell me, is it true That Malavica by this study kept Far from his eye, was by our lord the King Seen lately? VOCOOLAVALICA Seen, but in a picture, — close Beside my lady.

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Translations from Sanskrit COMUDICA How chanced it? VOCOOLAVALICA

I will tell you. My lady in the Painting-School was seated Studying the marvellous colours that enhue The Master’s great design; when suddenly My lord comes on her. COMUDICA Well, what followed? VOCOOLAVALICA Greetings; Then sitting down by her he scanned the painting, There saw of all the attendants Malavica Nearest the Queen and asked of her. COMUDICA Marked you the words? VOCOOLAVALICA “This face the like of which I not remember, And yet she stands just by you — who is she?” COMUDICA Beauty’s indeed a magnet to the affections And seizes at first sight. My lady? VOCOOLAVALICA Made No answer. He in some astonishment Urged her with questions. Then my lady’s sister The princess Vasouluxmy all in wonder Breaks out, “Why, brother, this is Malavica!”

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COMUDICA Oh good! How like the child’s sweet innocence! Afterwards? VOCOOLAVALICA Why, what else? Since then still more Is Malavica from the royal eye Kept close secluded. COMUDICA Well, I should not stop you Upon your errand. I too will to my lady Carry the ring. Exit. VOCOOLAVALICA Who comes out from the Hall Of Music? Oh, ’tis Ganadas himself. I will accost him. Enter Ganadasa. GANADASA Each worker doubtless his own craft exalts Practised by all his sires before him. Yet not A mere vain-glory is the drama’s praise. For drama is to the immortal Gods A sacrifice of beauty visible. The Almighty in his body most divine Where Male and Female meet, disparted it Twixt sweet and terrible. Drama unites In one fair view the whole conflicting world, Pictures man’s every action, his complex Emotions infinite makes harmony; So that each temperament, in its own taste However various, gathers from the stage, Rapt with some pleasing echo of itself, Peculiar pleasure. Thus one self-same art

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Meets in their nature’s wants most various minds. VOCOOLAVALICA (coming forward) Obeisance to the noble Ganadasa. GANADASA Live long, my child. VOCOOLAVALICA My lady sent me here To ask how Malavica makes progress. Sir, Does she learn quickly yet? GANADASA Tell my lady, No swifter brain, no apter delicate taste Has ever studied with me. In one word, Whate’er emotion to the dance translated I show the child, that she improving seems To teach her teacher. VOCOOLAVALICA (aside) Victory! I foresee Iravatie already conquered. (aloud) Sir, The pupil gains his every aim of study Of whom a Master says so much. GANADASA Vocoola, Because such genius is most rare, I ask thee, — Whence did my lady bring this matchless wonder? VOCOOLAVALICA The brother of my lady in a womb Less noble got, who for my lord commands His watchful frontier fortress by the stream Mundaqinie, Verosegn, to his great sister,

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For mistresshood and office in the arts Deemed worthy, sent her. GANADASA (aside) So rare her form and face, Her nature too so modest and so noble, I cannot but conceive that of no mean Material was composed this beauty. (aloud) Child, I shall be famous by her. The Master’s art Into a brilliant mind projected turns To power original, as common rain Dropping into that Ocean-harboured shell Empearls and grows a rareness. VOCOOLAVALICA Where is she now? GANADASA Tired with long studying the five parts of gesture Yonder she rests; enjoying the cool breeze Against the window that o’erlooks these waters, There you shall find her. VOCOOLAVALICA Sir, will you permit me To tell her how much you are pleased with her? Such praise will be a spur indeed. GANADASA Go, child, Embrace your friend. I too will to my house, Taking the boon of this permitted leisure. Exeunt.

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Scene II In a room of the Palace the King is seated with the Minister, Vahatava in attendance, Vahatava reading a letter. The attendants at some distance in the background of the stage. AGNIMITRA Well, Vahatava, what answers the Vidurbhan? VAHATAVA His own destruction. AGNIMITRA Let me hear this letter. VAHATAVA Thus runs his present missive: — In these terms Your Highness writes to me, “Prince Madhavsen, Thy uncle’s son, then journeying to my court For the fulfilment of contracted bonds, Within thy dungeons lies; for by the way The governor of thy frontiers leaped on him And prisoned. Thou, if thou regardest me, Unbind him with his wife and sister straight.” To which I answer thus, “Your Highness knows What conduct kings should use to princes born Their equals. In this quarrel then I look From your great name for just neutrality. Touching his sister, she in the quick scuffle Of capture disappeared, whom to seek out I shall not want in my endeavours. Yet if Your Highness wills indeed to free my cousin, Hear then my only terms. First from your dungeons

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The Premier of the Maurya princes loose And brother of my queen: this done, at once Are Madhavsena’s farther bonds excused.” AGNIMITRA (angrily) How! dares the weakling trade with me in favours? Knows he himself so little? Vahatava, Command towards Vidurbha the division That under Verosegn new-mobilized Stands prompt to arms. I will exterminate This man who rises up my enemy. Vidurbha was my natural foeman first But now grows such in action. VAHATAVA As the King wills. AGNIMITRA Nay, Vahatava, but what thinkst thou in this? VAHATAVA Your Highness speaks by the strict rule of statecraft. Then is a foeman easiest to pluck out When new upon his throne; for then his roots Have not sunk deep into his people’s hearts, And he is like an infant shooting tree Loose in its native earth; soon therefore uprooted. AGNIMITRA Wise is the Tuntra’s author and his word A gospel; we will seize this plea to set Our war in motion. VAHATAVA I shall so give order. Exit. The attendants resume their places each in consonance with his office. To them enter Gautama.

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GAUTAMA (aside) Now can I tell the King that not in vain He looked to me for counsel, when he said “Gautama, know you not some exquisite cunning, Whereby that face of Malavica by chance At first beheld and in dumb counterfeit With the dear life may bless my vision?” By this I think I have planned somewhat worth the telling. AGNIMITRA Here comes my premier in another branch Of politics. GAUTAMA I greet the King. AGNIMITRA Be seated. Well, Gautama? What, was your wisdom’s eye Busy with plan and purpose, has its roving Caught somewhere any glimpse? GAUTAMA Ask me, my lord, Of your desire’s accomplishment. AGNIMITRA So soon! GAUTAMA I’ll tell you in your ear, sir. AGNIMITRA Gautama, Most admirable. Thou hast indeed devised The cunningest adroitness. Now I dare To hope for things impossible, since thou

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Art of my counsels part. In difficulty How necessary is a helpful friend; For when one is befriended, every hindrance Turns to a nothing. Even so without a lamp The eye beholds not in night’s murky gloom Its usual objects. VOICE WITHIN Enough, enough, thou braggart. Before the King himself shall be decision Of less and greater twixt us twain. AGNIMITRA Listen! Here is the flower on your good tree of counsel. GAUTAMA Nor will the fruit lag far behind. Enter the Chamberlain, Maudgalya. MAUDGALYA The Premier Sends word, Sire, that Your Highness’ will ere now Is set in motion. Here besides the great Stage-Masters, Horodutt and Ganadasa, Storming with anger, mad with emulation, Themselves like two incarnate passions, seek Your Highness’ audience. AGNIMITRA Admit them instantly. Exit Maudgalya and re-enter ushering in the Stage-masters. MAUDGALYA This way, high sirs, most noble, worthy signiors.

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GANADASA How quelling-awful in its majesty Is the great brow and aspect of a King. For nowise unfamiliar is this face Of Agnimitra, — no, nor stern, but full Of beauty and kindness; yet with awe I near him. So Ocean in its vast unresting surge Stales never, but each changing second brings New aspects of its grandeur to the eye That lives with waves, even as this kingly brow Each time I see it. HORODUTTA For ’tis no mortal greatness But God’s own glory in an earthly dwelling. Thus I, admitted by this janitor Of princes, led to the foot of his high throne By one that in his eye and puissance moves, Feel wordlessly forbidden by his glories That force me to avert my dazzled gaze. MAUDGALYA Here sits my lord; approach him, worthies. GANADASA AND HORODUTTA Greeting, Our sovereign! AGNIMITRA O welcome, both! Chairs for these signiors. What brings into the presence at this hour Usual to study both the high Stage-Masters? GANADASA Sire, hear me. From a great and worshipped Master My art was studied; I have justified My genius in the scenic pomps of dance;

Kalidasa: Malavica and the King The King and Queen approve me. AGNIMITRA Surely we know this. GANADASA Yet being what I am, I have been taxed, Insulted, censured by this Horodutta. “You are not worth the dust upon my shoes”; — Before the greatest subject in the land Thus did he scorn me. HORODUTTA He first began detraction; Crying to me, “As well, sir, might your worship Compete with me as one particular puddle Equal itself to ocean.” Judge, my lord, Betwixt my art and his as well in science As in the execution. Than Your Highness Where can we find a more discerning critic Or just examiner? GAUTAMA A good proposal. GANADASA Most excellent. Attend, my lord, and judge. AGNIMITRA A moment’s patience, gentlemen. The Queen Might in our verdict tax a partial judgment. Were it not better then she too should watch This trial? The most learn`ed Cowshiqie Shall give her aid too. GAUTAMA This is well-urged, my lord.

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HORODUTTA AND GANADASA Your Highness’ pleasure shall command our patience. AGNIMITRA Then go, Maudgalya, tell Her Highness all That here has chanced and let her come to us With the holy Mother. MAUDGALYA Sire, I go. Exit and re-enter with the Queen and Cowshiqie. Approach, My lady, Dharinie. DHARINIE Tell me, Mother, What think you of this hot and sudden passion Between the two Stage-Masters? COWSHIQIE Idly, daughter, You fear your side’s defeat, since in no point Is Ganadasa less than his opponent. DHARINIE ’Tis so, but the King’s favour weighs him down Wresting preeminence to that other. COWSHIQIE Forget not That you too bear the style of Majesty. Think that you are an Empress. For if fire From the sun’s grace derive his flaming glories, Night too, the imperial darkness, solemnizes The moon with splendour.

Kalidasa: Malavica and the King GAUTAMA Ware hawk, my lord the King. Look where the Queen comes and with her our own Back-scratcher in Love’s wrestling-match, the learn`ed Dame Cowshiqie. AGNIMITRA I see her. How fair, how noble My lady shines adorned with holy symbols And Cowshiqie before her anchorite. Religion’s self incarnate so might move When high Philosophy comes leading her Into the hearts of men. COWSHIQIE Greeting, Your Highness. AGNIMITRA Mother, I greet thee. COWSHIQIE Live a hundred years Blessed with two queens alike in sweet submission And mothers of heroic births, the Earth That bears all creatures and the wife who loves thee. DHARINIE Victory attend my lord. AGNIMITRA Welcome, my Queen. Pray you, be seated, Mother; in this collision Of two great masters, it is just that you Should take the critic’s chair. COWSHIQIE Your Highness seeks

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To laugh at me; for who is the fond man Would leave the opulent, great metropolis To test his jewels in some petty village? AGNIMITRA No, no, you are the learn`ed Cowshiqie. Then too the Queen and I are both suspect For partial judges. GANADASA AND HORODUTTA It is no more than truth. Unbiassed is the learn`ed Mother’s mind; Her censure by defect and merit swayed Leaves no reserves behind. AGNIMITRA Begin debate then. COWSHIQIE The soul of drama in performance lies And not for tilting theories is a field. How says my lady? DHARINIE If I have any voice, I say I quite mislike the whole debate. GANADASA Her Highness must not dwarf me in her thinkings Misdeeming me inferior to my equal. GAUTAMA Come, come, my lady, do not let us lose The sport of these great rams butting each other. Why should they draw their salaries for nothing?

Kalidasa: Malavica and the King DHARINIE You always loved a quarrel. GAUTAMA Good mouse, no. Rather I am your only peacemaker. When two great elephants go mad with strength And counter, until one of them is beaten, There’s no peace in the forest. DHARINIE But surely, Mother, You have already seen them in performance, Judged of their action’s each particular And every studied grace of movement. COWSHIQIE Surely. DHARINIE What else is’t then of which yet uninstructed You need conviction? COWSHIQIE This. One man has art, Another science: performance admirable Distinguishes the first, but in himself Is rooted and confined; the other’s skill, Ranging, in swift transmission lightens forth, At home inert or poor. In both who’s perfect, Him at the head we put of art’s instructors. GAUTAMA Sirs, you have heard the Mother’s argument, The brief and marrow being this, that judgment Goes by some visible proof of your instruction.

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HORODUTTA We both consent. GANADASA Thus then it stands, my lady. DHARINIE Then if a pupil brainless or inapt Blur in the act the Master’s fine instruction, Reflects the blot upon her teacher? AGNIMITRA Madam, So still ’tis judged. GANADASA For who, a block unworthy Accepting, hews from it a masterpiece, Shows the quick marrow of his genius. DHARINIE (aside) What more? Too much already I give my lord the rein, Feeding his eagerness with my indulgence. (aloud) Desist, desist, this is an idle movement And leads to nothing worth. GAUTAMA Well said, my lady. Come, Ganadasa, eat in peace your sweetmeats Upon the Muse’s day, a safe renown Enjoying, while you teach our girls the dance. But in this path of rugged emulation To stumble’s easy and disgrace expects you. Caution were good.

Kalidasa: Malavica and the King GANADASA Indeed my lady’s words Lend themselves to no other fair construction. To all which hear the just and sole reply. That man, styled artist, who, of his mere wage Careful or place established, censure brooks, Most cowardlike withdrawing from debate, To whom the noble gains of learning serve Merely for livelihood, — that man they call A hawker trafficking in glorious art, No artist. DHARINIE But your pupil, recently Initiate, just begins to learn. Teaching Yet inchoate, art of itself not sure ’Tis ’gainst all canons to make public yet. GANADASA Even therefore is my strong persistence, lady. DHARINIE If it be so, unto the Mother both Their show of fair instruction make. COWSHIQIE This were Against all rule; for even with a mind Omniscient in art it were a fault To mount the judge’s seat in camera, Without assessors: the unaided judgment Was ever fallible. DHARINIE (aside) I am awake, fool, And see, though you would to my waking eyes Persuade me that I am asleep and blind.

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Translations from Sanskrit She turns in jealous anger her face from the King. Agnimitra, motioning to Cowshiqie, points to the Queen.

COWSHIQIE Though it be moonlike bright, yet turn not thus Thy face of beauty, child, from eyes that love, For a nothing. Even o’er their subject lords Fair women nobly bred use not to wield, Causeless, a tyrant wrath. GAUTAMA Not causeless, lady. The loyal mind must by whate’er device Save its own party from defeat. You’re lucky, Good Ganadas, — rescued by woman’s wit Under this fair pretence of wrath! I see, Good training always can be bettered, sirs, And tutoring makes perfect. GANADASA Listen, lady, Thus are we construed! Therefore must I deem Myself cast off, disowned, discharged my place Who, challenged in debate and confident To show the skilful transference of my art, Stand by my lady interdict. (rises from his seat as if to go) DHARINIE (aside) What help? (aloud) The Master of his school is autocrat, His pupils’ sovereign. I am dumb. GANADASA In vain Was I so long alarmed then; still I keep

Kalidasa: Malavica and the King My lady’s favour. But since the Queen, my lord, Has given her sanction, name the scenic plot Whose rendering into studied dance shall prove The teacher masterly. AGNIMITRA You rule here, Mother. COWSHIQIE Something still works within my lady’s mind Yet ireful-unappeased. This gives me pause. DHARINIE Apprehend nothing, speak. Always I am Lady and absolute over mine own household. AGNIMITRA O’er these and over me too, dearest lady. DHARINIE Come, Mother, speak. COWSHIQIE I choose, my lord, the dance They call the Dance of Double Entendre, complete In four brief parts of lyric motion. Both Shall so enact a single argument And the gradations twixt these two shall best Be judged of worse or better point by point. HORODUTTA AND GANADASA This we approve. GAUTAMA Let both your factions then Make in the Theatre-Hall good scenic show And when all’s ready, send your messenger

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To call us, or better the deep tambour’s bruit Shall draw us from our chairs. HORODUTTA We shall do so. Ganadasa looks at the Queen. DHARINIE (to Ganadasa) Go and prevail! Think me not heart-opposed Or careless of my Master’s victory. They are about to go. COWSHIQIE Stay! More to mark each studious grace of limb, Movement and beauty, let the characters Enter, not by their stage apparel cumbered, But loosely robed as in their natural hours. I speak this in my office as a judge To both of you. HORODUTTA AND GANADASA We had done this, uncounselled. Exeunt. DHARINIE My lord, my lord, in your affairs of State Could you but show as deft a management, As supple a resource, the realm indeed Would profit! AGNIMITRA Let not your swift brain conceive Misunderstanding merely; not of mine Is this an acted plot. Ever we see Equal proficiency in one same art Breed jealousies emulous of place and justling Each other’s glory.

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The sound of a tambour within. COWSHIQIE Hark, the overture! To the deep Peacock-passion modulated Twixt high and base, the tambour’s rolling voice Its melody half-thundrous measures out To the exultant mind, that lifts itself To listen. Hark! The peacocks cry, misled, With rain-expectant throats upraised to heaven, Thinking a reboant thunder-cloud’s alarum Is riding on the wind. AGNIMITRA (to Dharinie) We should be swift To form the audience, madam. DHARINIE (aside) How has my lord Forgot his breeding! GAUTAMA (aside) Softly ho! Too quick A gallop and my lady puts the snaffle Of disappointment on. AGNIMITRA I strive for patience, But the loud tambour thunders haste to me; It seems the passionate feet of my desire As it descends to me with arm`ed tread Sounding gigantic on the stairs of heaven. Exeunt.

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APPENDIX

A Fragment from Act II GANADASA My lord, the dance we show, epode and ode, Strophe and antistrophe, in four parts Of middle time compact — Sarmishta made, Yayati’s wife in the great olden days — Of which the fourth last act let the Kind Sir Give all his mind to hear. AGNIMITRA From high respect I owe The great Stage-master I am all attention.

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The Birth of the War-God

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EDITORS’ NOTE In the first and third versions of this translation, Sri Aurobindo left some lines or parts of lines blank, apparently with the intention of returning to them later. Such incomplete portions are indicated by square brackets enclosing a blank of appropriate size.

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The Birth of the War-God STANZAIC RENDERING OF THE OPENING OF CANTO I

1 A god mid hills northern Himaloy rears His snow-piled summits’ dizzy majesties, And in the eastern and the western seas He bathes his giant sides; lain down appears Measuring the dreaming earth in an enormous ease.

2 Him, it is told, the living mountains made A mighty calf of earth, the mother large, When Meru of that milking had the charge By Prithu bid; and jewels brilliant-rayed Were brightly born and herbs on every mountain marge.

3 So is he in his infinite riches dressed Not all his snows can slay that opulence. As drowned in luminous floods the mark though dense On the moon’s argent disc, so faints oppressed One fault mid crowding virtues fading from our sense.

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Translations from Sanskrit 4 Brightness of minerals on his peaks outspread In their love-sports and in their dances gives To heavenly nymphs adornment, which when drive Split clouds across, those broken hues displayed Like an untimely sunset’s magic glories live.

5 Far down the clouds droop to his girdle-waist; And to his low-hung plateaus’ coolness won The Siddhas in soft shade repose, but run Soon glittering upwards by wild rain distressed To unstained summits splendid with the veilless sun.

6 Although unseen the reddened footprints blotted By the new-fallen snows, the hunters know The path their prey the mighty lions go; For pearls from the slain elephants there clotted Fallen from the hollow claws the dangerous passing show.

7 The birch-leaves on his slopes love-pages turn; Like spots of age upon the tusky kings Of liquid metal ink their letterings Make crimson pages that with passion burn Where heaven’s divine Circes pen heart-moving things.

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8 He fills the hollows of his bamboo trees With the breeze rising from his deep ravines, Flutes from his rocky mouths as if he means To be tune giver to the minstrelsies Of high-voiced Kinnars chanting in his woodland glens.

9 His poplars by the brows of elephants Shaken and rubbed loose forth their odorous cream; And the sweet resin pours its trickling stream, And wind on his high levels burdened pants With fragrance making all the air a scented dream.

10 His grottoes are love-chambers in the night For the strong forest-wanderer when he lies Twined with his love, marrying with hers his sighs And from the dim banks luminous herbs give light, Strange oilless lamps to their locked passion’s ecstasies.

11 Himaloy’s snows in frosted slabs distress The delicate heels of his maned Kinnaris, And yet for all that chilly path’s unease They change not their slow motion’s swaying grace [ ]

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Translations from Sanskrit 12 He guards from the pursuing sun far-hid In his deep caves of gloom the fallen night Afraid of the day’s eyes of brilliant light: Even on base things and low for refuge fled High-crested souls shed guardian love and kindly might.

13 The mountain yaks lift up their bushy tails And with their lashing scatter gleamings round White as the moonbeams on the rocky ground: They seem to fan their king, his parallels Of symbolled monarchy more perfectly to found.

14 There in his glens upon his grottoed floors When from her limbs is plucked the raiment fine Of the Kinnar’s shamefast love, hanging come in His concave clouds across the cavern doors; Chance curtains shielding her bared loveliness divine.

15 Weary with tracking the wild deer for rest The hunter bares his forehead to the fay Breezes which sprinkle Ganges’ cascade spray Shaking the cedars on Himaloy’s breast, Gambolling with the proud peacock’s gorgeous-plumed array.

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16 Circling his mountains in its path below The sun awakes with upward-glittering wands What still unplucked by the seven sages’ hands Remains of the bright lotuses that glow In tarns upon his tops with heaven-kissing strands.

17 Because the Soma plant for sacrifice He rears and for his mass upbearing earth The Lord of creatures gave to this great birth His sacrificial share and ministries And empire over all the mountains to his worth.

18 Companion of Meru, their high floor, In equal wedlock he to his mighty bed The mindborn child of the world-fathers wed, Mena whose wisdom the deep seers adore, Stable and wise himself his stable race to spread.

19 Their joys of love were like themselves immense And its long puissant ecstasies at last Bore fruit for in her womb a seed was cast; Bearing the banner of her youth intense In moving beauty and charm to motherhood she passed.

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Translations from Sanskrit 20 Mainac she bore, the ocean’s guest and friend Upon whose peaks the serpent-women roam, Dwellers in their unsunned and cavernous home; Mainac, whose sides though angry Indra rend Feels not the anguish of the thunder’s shock of doom.

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The Birth of the War-God BLANK VERSE RENDERING OF CANTO I A god concealed in mountain majesty, Embodied to our cloudy physical sight In snowy summits and green-gloried slopes, To northward of the many-rivered land Measuring the earth in an enormous ease, Immense Himaloy dwells and in the moan Of eastern ocean and in western floods Plunges his giant sides. Him once the hills Imagined as the mighty calf of earth When the Wideness milked her udders; gems brilliant-rayed Were born and herbs on every mountain marge. So in his infinite riches is he dressed, Not all his snows can slay his opulence, And though they chill the feet of heaven, her sons Forget that fault mid all his crowding gifts, As faints in luminous floods the gloomy mark On the moon’s argent disk; they choose his vales For playground, his hill-peaks for divine homes. Brightness of minerals on his rocks is spread Which to the Apsaras give adorning hues In their love-sports and in their dances; flung On the split clouds their brilliant colours ranged, Like an untimely sunset’s glories live. Far down the clouds droop to his girdle-waist; Then by the low-hung plateaus’ coolness drawn The Siddhas in soft shade repose, but flee Soon upward by wild driving rain distressed To summits splendid in the veilless sun. The hunter seeks for traces on his sides,

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Translations from Sanskrit And though their reddened footprints are expunged By the new-falling snows, yet can he find The path his prey the mighty lions go; For, it is told, pearls from slain elephants Are clotted, fallen from their hollow claws, And tell their dangerous passage. When he rests Tired with the chase and bares to winds his brow, They come, fay-breezes dancing on the slopes, Shaking the cedars on Himaloy’s breast, Scattering the peacock’s gorgeous-plumed attire, With spray of Ganges’ cascades on their wings Sprinkling his hair. He makes the grottoed glens His chambers of desire and in the night When the strong forest-wanderer is lain Twined with his love, marrying with hers his sighs, The luminous herbs from the dim banks around, Faint oilless lamps, give light to see her joy. Nor only earthly footsteps tread the grass, Or mortal love finds there its happy scenes. The birch-leaves of the hills love-pages are; Like spots of age upon the tusky kings, In ink of liquid metals letters strange Make crimson signs, pages where passion burns And divine Circes pen heart-moving things. The Kinnars wander singing in his glades. He fills the hollows of his bamboo flutes With the wind rising from his deep ravines, And with a moaning and melodious sound Breathes from his rocky mouths as if he meant To pipe, tune-giver to their minstrelsies. The delicate heels of the maned Kinnari Are by his frosted slabs of snow distressed, Yet for her burden of breasts and heavy hips Can change not their slow motion’s swaying grace To escape the biting pathway’s chill unease. She too in grottoed caverns lies embraced. When from her limbs is plucked the raiment fine

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God Of the Kinnar’s shamefast love, then hanging come The convex clouds across the grotto doors And make chance curtains against mortal eyes, Shielding the naked goddess from our sight. The elephant herds there wander: resinous trees Shaken and rubbed by their afflicting brows Loose down their odorous tears in creamy drops; The winds upon the plateaus burdened pant And make of all the air a scented dream. The yaks are there; they lift their bushy tails And in their lashings scatter gleamings white As moonbeams shed upon the sleeping hills: Brightly they seem to fan the mountain king. He hides in his deep caves the hunted night Fearful of the day’s brilliant eyes. His peaks Seem to outpeer the lower-circling sun, Which sends its upward beams as if to wake Immortal lilies in his tarns unplucked By the seven sages in their starry march. Such is Himaloy’s greatness, such his strength That seems to uplift to heaven the earth. He bears The honey Soma plant upon his heights, Of godward symbols the exalted source. He by the Master of sacrifice was crowned The ancient monarch of a million hills. In equal rites he to his giant bed The mind-born child of the world-fathers bore. The earthly comrade and the help-fellow Of Meru, their sublime celestial home, Stable of soul, to make a stable race Mena he wed whose wisdom seers adored. Their joy of love was like themselves immense And in the wide felicitous lapse of time Its long and puissant ecstasy bore fruit. Bearing the banner of her unchanged youth And beauty to charmed motherhood she crossed. Mainac she bore, the guest of the deep seas,

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Translations from Sanskrit Upon whose peaks the serpent-women play, Their jewelled tresses glittering through the gloom, Race of a cavernous and monstrous world; There fled when Indra tore the mountains’ wings, His divine essence bore no cruel sign, Nor felt the anguish of the lightning’s bite. Next to a nobler load her womb gave place; For Daksha’s daughter, Shiva’s wife, the Lord Of Being, in her angry will who left Her body soulless in her father’s hall, Sought in their mountain home a happier birth, And by her in a trance profound of joy Conceived was born of great Himaloy’s seed. Out of the soul unseen the splendid child Came like success with daring for its sire And for its mother clear-eyed thought sublime. Then were the regions subtle with delight, Soft, pure from cloud and stain; then heaven’s shells Blew sweetly, flowery rain came drifting down, Earth answered to the rapture of the skies And all her moving and unmoving life Felt happiness because the Bride was born. So this fair mother by this daughter shone, So that new beauty radiated its beams As if a land of lapis lazuli Torn by the thunder’s voice shot suddenly forth A jewelled sprouting from the mother bed. Parvati was she called, the mountain’s child, When love to love cried answer in her house And to that sound she turned her lovely face, But after-days the great maternal name Of Uma gave. On her as fair she grew Her father banqueted his sateless look; He felt himself a lamp fulfilled in light, Heaven’s silent path by Ganges voiceful made, Or thought made glorious by a perfect word. Like bees that winging come upon the wind

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God Among the infinite sweets of honeyed spring Drawn to the mango-flower’s delicious breast, All eyes sought her. Her little childlike form Increasing to new curves of loveliness, She grew like the moon’s arc from day to day. Among her fair companions of delight She built frail walls of heavenly Ganges’ sands Or ran to seize the tossing ball or pleased With puppet children her maternal mind, Absorbed in play, the mother of the worlds. And easily too to her as if in play All sciences and wisdoms crowding came Out of her former life, like swans that haste In autumn to a sacred river’s shores; They started from her mind as grow at night Born from some luminous herb its glimmering rays. To her child-body youth, a charm, arrived Adorning every limb, a wine of joy To intoxicate the heart, the eyes that gazed, Shooting the arrows of love’s curving bow. Even as a painting grows beneath the hand Of a great master, as the lotus opens Its petals to the flatteries of the sun, So into perfect roundness grew her limbs And opened up sweet colour, form and light. Her feet limned a red rose at every step On the enamoured earth; like magic flowers They moved from spot to spot their petalled bloom; Her motion studied from the queenly swans With wanton swaying musically timed The sweet-voiced anklets’ murmurous refrain. From moulded knee to ankle the supreme Divinely lessening curve so lovely was It looked as if on this alone were spent All her Creator’s cunning. Well the rest Might tax his labour to build half such grace, Yet was that miracle accomplished. Soft

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Translations from Sanskrit In roundness, warm in their smooth sweep her thighs Were without parallel in Nature’s work. The greatness of her hips on which life’s girdle Had found its ample rest deserved already The lap of divine love where she alone Might hope one day embosomed by God to lie. Deep was her navel’s hollow where wound in Above her raiment’s knot that tender line Of down as slight as the dark ray shot up From the blue jewel central in her zone. Her waist was like an altar’s middle small And there the triple stair of love was built. Twin breasts large, lovely, pale with darkened paps Could not allow the slender lotus thread A passage, on whose either side there waited Softer than delicatest flowers the arms Which Love victorious in defeat would find His chains to bow down the Eternal’s neck. Her throat adorned the necklace which it wore; Its sweep and undulation to the breast Outmatched the gleaming roundness of its gems. Above all this her marvellous face where met The golden mother of beauty and delight At once the graces of her lotus throne And the soft lustres of the moon. Her smile Parted the rosy sweetness of her lips Like a white flower across a ruddy leaf Or pearls that sever lines of coral. Noble Her speech dropped nectar from a liquid voice To which the co¨ıl’s call seemed rude and harsh And sob of smitten lyres a tuneless sound. She had exchanged with the wild woodland deer The startled glance of her long lovely eyes Fluttering like a blue lotus in the wind. The pencilled long line of her arching brows Made vain the beauty of Love’s bow. Her hair’s Tossed masses put voluptuously to shame

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God The mane of lions and the drift of clouds. To clasp all beauty in a little space He who created all this wondrous world Had fashioned only her. Throned in her limbs All possibilities of loveliness Here crowded to their fair attractive seat And now the artist eyes that scan all things Saw every symbol and sweet parallel Of beauty only realised in her. Then was he satisfied and loved his work. The sages ranging at their will the stars Saw her and knew that this indeed was she Who must become by love the beautiful half Of the fair body of the Lord and all His heart. This from the seers of future things Her father heard and his high hope renounced All other but the greatest for her spouse. She waited like an offering for the fire. For to compel himself the divine mind He dared not, but remained like a great soul Which watches for the destined hour’s approach Curbing the impatience of its godlike hopes. But he the spirit of the world, forsaken By that first body of the mother of all Nor to her second birth yet come, abode Unwed, ascetic, stern, mid crowded worlds Alone and passionless and unespoused, The Master of the animal life absorbed In dreamings, wandering with his demon hordes Desireless in the blind desire of things. At length he ceased; like sculptured marble still To meditation turned he yoked his spirit; Clothed in the skins of beasts, with ashes smeared He sat a silent shape upon the hills. Below him curved Himadri’s slope; a soil With fragrance of the musk-deer odorous Was round him, where the awful Splendour mused

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Translations from Sanskrit Mid cedars sprinkled with the sacred dew Of Ganges. Softly murmuring their chants In strains subdued the Kinnar minstrels sang, On oil-filled slabs among the resinous herbs His grisly hosts sat down, their bodies stained With mineral unguents, bark upon their limbs; Ill-shaped they were and their tremendous hands Around their ears had wreathed the hillside’s flowers. On the white rocks compact of frozen snow, His great bull voicing low immortal pride Pawed with his hoof the argent soil to dust, Alarmed the bisons fled his gaze; he bellowed Impatient of the mountain lion’s roar. Concentrating his world-vast energies Built daily his eternal shape of flame He who gives all austerities their fruit, In what impenetrable and deep desire? And though to him the worship even of gods Is negligible, worship the mountain gave And gave his daughter the Great Soul to serve. Nor though to remote trance near beauty brings Its lovely danger, was that gift refused. Surrounded by all sweetness in the world He can be passionless who is creation’s king. She brought him daily offering of flowers And holy water morn and noon and eve And swept the altar of the divine fire And heaped his altar-seat of sacred grass, Then bending over his feet her falling locks Drowned all her soft fatigue of gentle toil In the cool moonbeams from the Eternal’s head. So had they met on summits of the world Like the still Spirit and its unwakened force, Near were they now, yet to each other unknown, He meditating, she in service bowed. Closing awhile her vast and shining lids Fate over them paused suspended on the hills.

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The Birth of the War-God EXPANDED VERSION OF CANTO I AND PART OF CANTO II A god concealed in mountain majesty, Embodied to our cloudy physical sight In dizzy summits and green-gloried slopes, Measuring the earth in an enormous ease, Immense Himaloy dwells and in the moan Of western waters and in eastern floods Plunges his hidden spurs. Of such a strength High-piled, so thousand-crested is his look That with the scaling greatness of his peaks He seems to uplift to heaven our prostrate soil. He mounts from the green luxury of his vales Ambitious of the skies; naked and lost The virgin chill immensity of snow Covers the breathless spirit of his heights. To snows his savage pines aspire; the birch And all the hardy brotherhood which climb Against the angry muttering of the winds, Challenge the dangerous air in which they live. He is sated with the silence of the stars: Lower he dips into life’s beauty, far Below he hears the cascades, now he clothes His rugged sides the gentle breezes kiss With soft grass and the gold and silver fern. Holding upon her breast the hill-god’s feet Earth in her tresses hides his giant knees. Over lakes of mighty sleep, where fountains lapse, Dreaming, and by the noise of waterfalls, In an unspoken solitary joy

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Translations from Sanskrit He listens to her chant. The distant hills Imagined him the calf to which she lows When the wideness milks her udders. Meru is near, The heavenly unseen height; like visible hints Of his great subtle growths of peace and joy Her musing woods arise; gems brilliant-rayed She bears and herbs on every mountain marge, Gifts of the mother to her mighty child. In such warm infinite riches has she dressed His fire of life, from his cold heights of thought The great snows cannot slay its opulence. Though stark they chill the feet of heaven, her sons Forgive the fault amid a throng of joys. As faints from our charmed sense in luminous floods The gloomy stain on the moon’s argent disk, They have forgot his chill severity In sweetness which escapes from him on life. For as from passion of some austere soul Delight and love have stolen to rapturous birth, From iceborn waters his delicious vales Are fed. Indulgent like a smile of God, White grandeurs overlook wild green romance. He keeps his summits for immortal steps. The life of man upon his happier slopes Roams wild and bare and free; the life of gods Pronely from the unattainable summits climbs Down the rude greatness of his huge rock-park. As if rejecting glory of its veils It leaps out from the subtle gleam of air, Visible to man by waterfall and glade, And finds us in the hush of sleeping woods, And meets us with dim whisperings in the night. Of their surrounding presence unaware Chasing the dreadful wanderers of the hill The hunter seeks for traces on his side; He though soft-falling innocent snows weep off The cruelty of their red footprints, finds

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The path his prey the mighty lions go. For glittering pearls from the felled elephants Lain clotted, dropping from the hollow claws Betray their dangerous passage. When he sits Tired of the hunt on a slain poplar’s base And bares to winds the weariness of his brow, They come, fay-breezes dancing on the slopes, Scattering the peacock’s gorgeous-plumed attire. Shaking the cedars on Himaloy’s breast, With spray from Ganges’ cascades on their wings, They have kissed the wind-blown tangles of his hair, Sprinkling their coolness on his soul. He has made The grottoed glens his chambers of desire, He has packed their dumbness with his passionate bliss; Stone witnesses of ecstasy they sleep. And wonderful luminous herbs from night’s dim banks When the strong forest-wanderer is lain Twined with his love, marrying with hers his sighs, Give light to see her joy those thrilled rocks keep Moved to desire in their stony dreams. Nor only human footsteps tread the grass Upon his slopes, nor only mortal love Finds there the lovely setting of the hills Amid the broken caverns and the trees, In the weird moonlight pouring from the clouds And the clear sunlight glancing from the pines: A wandering choir, a flash of unseen forms, Go sweeping sometimes by and leave our hearts Startled with hintings of a greater life. The Kinnar passes singing in his glades. Then stirred to keep some sweetness of their voice, He fills the hollows of his bamboo stems With the wind sobbing from the deep ravines And in a moaning and melodious sound Breathes from his rocky mouths, as if he meant To flute, tune-giver to wild minstrelsies. The delicate heels of the maned Kinnari

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Translations from Sanskrit Are with his frosted slabs of snow distressed. But by the large load of her breasts and hips To escape the biting pathway’s chill unease She is forbidden: she must not break the grace Of her slow motion’s tardy rich appeal. She too in grottoed caverns lies embraced. Forced from the shamefast sweetness of her limbs The subtle raiment leaves her fainting hands To give her striving beauty to the gaze Of her eternal lover. But thick clouds Stoop hastily bowed to the rocky doors And hang chance curtains against mortal eyes, Shielding the naked goddess from our sight. The birch-leaves of his hills love-pages are. In ink of liquid metals letters strange We see make crimson signs. They lie in wait Upon the slopes, pages where passion burns, The flushed epistles of enamoured gods Where divine Circes pen heart-moving things. The Apsaras rhyme out their wayward dance In glen and valley; or upon brown banks They lie close-bosomed of colour amorous. The smooth gold of their limbs by harder hues Stained curiously makes contrasts bright, to seize The straying look of some world-lover’s eyes, As when Himaloy’s metals flinging back Upon the hangings of the tawny heavens From glistened rocks their brilliant colourings Like an untimely sunset’s glories sleep. Far down the clouds droop to his girdle-waist Holding the tearful burden of their hearts, Drifting grey melancholy through the air; There on the low-hung plateaus’ wideness lain The Siddhas in soft shade repose, or up Chased by wild driving rain for refuge flee To summits splendid in the veilless sun. Earth’s mighty animal life has reached his woods.

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God The lion on Himaloy keeps his lair, The elephant herds there wander. Oozing trees Wounded by stormy rubbings of the tuskers’ brows Loose down their odorous tears in creamy drops, And winds upon the plateau burdened pant Weaving the air into a scented dream. The yaks are there; they lift their bushy tails To lash the breezes and white gleamings leap: Such candours casting snares for heart and eye, The moonbeams lie upon the sleeping hills. Like souls divine who in a sweet excess All-clasping draw their fallen enemies To the impartial refuge of their love Out of the ordered cruelties of life, He takes to his cavern bosom hunted night. Afraid of heaven’s radiant eyes, crouched up She cowers in Nature’s great subliminal gloom, A trembling fugitive from the ardent day, Lest one embrace should change her into light. Himaloy’s peaks outpeer the circling sun. He with his upstretched brilliant hands awakes Immortal lilies in the unreached tarns. Morning has found miraculous blooms unculled By the seven sages in their starry march. Such are the grandeurs of Himaloy’s soul, Such are his divine moods; moonlit he bears, Of godward symbols the exalted source, The mystic Soma-plant upon his heights. He by the Father of sacrifice climbs crowned, Headman and dynast of earth’s soaring hills. These were the scenes in which the Lovers met. There lonely mused the silent Soul of all, And to awake him from his boundless trance Took woman’s form the beauty of the world; Then infinite sweetness bore a living shape; She made her body perfect for his arms.

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Translations from Sanskrit With equal rites he to his giant bed The mind-born child of the world-fathers bore. Mena, a goddess of devising heart, Whom for her wisdom brooding seers adored, The shapers of all living images, He won to shape in her his stable race. Their joys of love were like themselves immense. Then in the wide felicitous lapse of time The happy tumult of her being tossed In long and puissant ecstasies bore fruit, Bearing the banner of her unchanged youth And beauty to charmed motherhood she crossed. Mainac she bore, the guest of the deep seas, Upon whose peaks the serpent-women play, Race of a cavernous and monstrous world, With strange eyes gleaming past the glaucous wave, And jewelled tresses glittering through the foam. Not that his natural air, who great had grown Amid the brilliant perils of the sun; From Indra tearing the great mountains’ wings With which they soared against the threatened sky, Below the slippery fields the fugitive sank. His sheltered essence bore no cruel sign, Nor felt the anguish of the heavenly scars. They disappointed of that proud desire Mixed in a larger joy. It took not earth For narrow base, but forced the heavens down Into their passion-trance clasped on the couch Calm and stupendous of the snow-cold heights. Then to a nobler load her womb gave place. For Daksha’s daughter, Shiva’s wife, had left Her body lifeless in her father’s halls In that proud sacrifice and fatal, she The undivided mother infinite Indignant for his severing thought of God. Now in a trance profound of joy by her Conceived, she sprang again to livelier birth

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God To heal the sorrow and the dumb divorce. Out of the unseen soul the splendid child Came like bright lightning from the invisible air, Welcome she came as Fortune to a king When she is born with daring for her sire And for her mother policy sublime. Then was their festival holiday in the world, Then were the regions subtle with delight: Heaven’s shells blew sweetly through the stainless air And flowery rain came drifting down; earth thrilled Back ravished to the rapture of the skies, And all her moving and unmoving life Felt happiness because the Bride was born. So that fair mother by this daughter shone, So her young beauty radiated its beams As might a land of lapis lazuli Torn by the thunder’s voice. As from the earth Tender and green an infant lance of life, A jewelled sprouting from the mother slab, The divine child lay on her mother’s breast. They called her Parvati, the mountain child, When love to love cried answer in the house And to the sound she turned her lovely face. A riper day the great maternal name Of Uma brought. Her father banqueted Upon her as she grew unsated eyes And saw his life like a large lamp by her Fulfilled in light; like heaven’s silent path By Ganges voiceful grown his soul rejoiced; It flowered like a great and shapeless thought Suddenly immortal in a perfect word. Wherever her bright laughing body rolled, Wherever faltered her sweet tumbling steps, All eyes were drawn to her like winging bees Which sailing come upon the wanderer wind Amid the infinite sweets of honeyed spring To choose the mango-flower’s delicious breast.

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Translations from Sanskrit Increasing to new curves of loveliness Fast grew like the moon’s arc from day to day Her childish limbs. Along the wonderful glens Among her fair companions of delight Bounding she strayed, or stooped by murmurous waves To build frail walls on Ganges’ heavenly sands, Or ran to seize the tossing ball, or pleased With puppet children her maternal mind. And easily out of that earlier time All sciences and wisdoms crowding came Into her growing thoughts like swans that haste In autumn to a sacred river’s shores. They started from her soul as grow at night Born from some luminous herb its glimmering rays. Her mind, her limbs betrayed themselves divine. Thus she prepared her spirit for mighty life, Wandering at will in freedom like a deer On Nature’s summits, in enchanted glens, Absorbed in play, the Mother of the world. Then youth a charm upon her body came Adorning every limb, a heady wine Of joy intoxicating to the heart, Maddened the eyes that gazed, from every limb Shot the fine arrows of Love’s curving bow. Her forms into a perfect roundness grew And opened up sweet colour, grace and light. So might a painting grow beneath the hand Of some great master, so a lotus opens Its bosom to the splendour of the sun. At every step on the enamoured earth Her feet threw a red rose, like magic flowers Moving from spot to spot their petalled bloom. Her motion from the queenly swans had learned Its wanton swayings; musically it timed The sweet-voiced anklets’ murmuring refrain. And falling to that amorous support

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God From moulded knee to ankle the supreme Divinely lessening curve so lovely was It looked as if on this alone were spent All her Creator’s cunning. Well the rest Might tax his labour to build half such grace! Yet was that miracle accomplished. Soft In roundness, warm in their smooth sweep, her thighs Were without parallel in Nature’s work. The greatness of her hips on which life’s girdle Had found its ample rest, deserved already The lap of divine love where she alone Might hope one day embosomed by God to lie. Deep was her hollowed navel where wound in Above her raiment’s knot the tender line Of down slighter than that dark beam cast forth From the blue jewel central in her zone. Her waist was like an altar’s middle and there A triple stair of love was softly built. Her twin large breasts were pale with darkened paps, They would not let the slender lotus-thread Find passage; on their either side there waited Tenderer than delicatest flowers the arms Which Love would make, victorious in defeat, His chains to bow down the Eternal’s neck. Her throat adorning all the pearls it wore, With sweep and undulation to the breast Outmatched the gleaming roundness of its gems. Crowning all this a marvellous face appeared In which the lotus found its human bloom In the soft lustres of the moon. Her smile Parted the rosy sweetness of her lips Like candid pearls severing soft coral lines Or a white flower across a ruddy leaf. Her speech dropped nectar from a liquid voice To which the co¨ıl’s call seemed rude and harsh And sob of smitten lyres a tuneless sound. The startled glance of her long lovely eyes

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Translations from Sanskrit Stolen from her by the swift woodland deer Fluttered like a blue lotus in the wind, And the rich pencilled arching of her brows Made vain the beauty of love’s bow. Her hair’s Dense masses put voluptuously to shame The mane of lions and the drift of clouds. He who created all this wondrous world Weary of scattering his marvels wide, To see all beauty in a little space Had fashioned only her. Called to her limbs All possibilities of loveliness Had hastened to their fair attractive seats, And now the artist eyes that scan all things Saw every symbol and sweet parallel Of beauty only realised in her. Then was he satisfied and loved his work. His sages ranging at their will the stars Saw her and knew that this indeed was she Who must become by love the beautiful half Of the Almighty’s body and be all His heart. This from earth’s seers of future things Himaloy heard and his proud hopes contemned All other than the greatest for her spouse. Yet dared he not provoke that dangerous boon Anticipating its unwakened hour, But seated in the grandeur of his hills Like a great soul curbing its giant hopes, A silent sentinel of destiny, He watched in mighty calm the wheeling years. She like an offering waited for the fire, Prepared by Time for her approaching lord. But the great Spirit of the world forsaken By that first body of the Mother of all, Not to her second birth yet come, abode In crowded worlds unwed, ascetic, stern, Alone and passionless and unespoused,

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God The Master of the animal life absorbed In dreamings, wandering with his demon hordes, Desireless in the blind desire of things. At length like sculptured marble still he paused, To meditation yoked. With ashes smeared, Clothed in the skin of beasts [ ] He sat a silent shape upon the hills. Below him curved Himadri’s slope; a soil With fragrance of the musk-deer odorous Was round, and there the awful Splendour mused. Mid cedars sprinkled with the sacred dew Of Ganges, softly murmuring their chants In strains subdued the Kinnar-minstrels sang. Where oil-filled slabs were clothed in resinous herbs, His grisly hosts sat down, their bodies stained With mineral unguents; bark their ill-shaped limbs Clad [ ] and their tremendous hands Around their ears had wreathed the hillside’s flowers. On the white rocks compact of frozen snow His great bull voicing low immortal pride Pawed with his hoof the argent soil to dust. Alarmed the bisons fled his gaze; he bellowed Impatient of the mountain lion’s roar. Concentrating his world-vast energies, He who gives all austerities their fruits Built daily his eternal shape of flame, In what impenetrable and deep desire? The worship even of gods he reckons not Who on no creature leans; yet worship still To satisfy, his awe the mountain paused And gave his daughter the great Soul to serve. She brought him daily offerings of flowers And holy water morn and noon and eve And swept the altar of the divine fire And plucking heaped the outspread sacred grass, Then showering over his feet her falling locks Drowned all her soft fatigue of gentle toils

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Translations from Sanskrit In the cool moonbeams from the Eternal’s head. Though to austerity of trance a peril The touch of beauty, he repelled her not. Surrounded by all sweetness in the world He can be passionless in his large mind, Austere, unmoved, creation’s silent king. So had they met on summits of the world Like the still Spirit and its unwakened force. Near were they now, yet to each other unknown, He meditating, she in service bowed. Closing awhile her vast and shadowy wings Fate over them paused suspended on the hills.

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CANTO II But now in spheres above whose motions fixed Confirm our cyclic steps, a cry arose Anarchic. Strange disorders threatened Space. There was a tumult in the calm abodes, A clash of arms, a thunder of defeat. Hearing that sound our smaller physical home Trembled in its pale circuits, fearing soon The ethereal revolt might touch its stars. Then were these knots of our toy orbits torn And like a falling leaf this world might sink From the high tree mysterious where it hangs Between that voiceful and this silent flood. For long a mute indifference had seized The Soul of all; no more the Mother of forms By the persuasion of her clinging arms Bound him to bear the burden of her works. Therefore with a slow dreadful confidence Chaos had lifted his gigantic head. His movement stole, a shadow on the skies, Out of the dark inconscience where he hides. Breaking the tread of the eternal dance Voices were heard life’s music shudders at, Thoughts were abroad no living mind can bear, Enormous rhythms had disturbed the gods Of which they knew not the stupendous law, And taking new amorphous giant shapes Desires the primal harmonies repel Fixed dreadful eyes upon their coveted heavens. Awhile they found no form could clothe their strength, No spirit who could brook their feet of fire Gave them his aspirations for their home. Only in the invisible heart of things A dread unease and expectation lived, Which felt immeasurable energies In huge revolt against the established world.

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Translations from Sanskrit But now awake to the fierce nether gods Tarak the Titan rose, and the gods fled Before him driven in a luminous rout. Rumours of an unalterable defeat Astonished heaven. Like a throng of stars Drifting through night before the clouds of doom Like golden leaves hunted by dark-winged winds, They fled back to their old delightful seats, Nor there found refuge. Bent to a Titan yoke They suffered, till their scourged defeated thoughts Turned suppliants to a greater seat above. There the Self-born who weaves from his deep heart Harmonious spaces, sits concealed and watches The inviolable cycles of his soul. Thither ascending difficult roads of sleep Those colonists of heaven, the violent strength Of thunderous Indra flashing in their front, Climbed up with labour to their mighty source. But as they neared, but as their yearning reached, Before them from the eternal secrecy A Form grew manifest from all their forms. A great brow seemed to face them everywhere, Eyes which survey the threads of Space, looked forth, The lips whose words are Nature’s ordinances, Were visible. Then as at dawn the sun Smiles upon listless pools and at each smile A sleeping lotus wakes, so on them shone That glory and awoke to bloom and life The drooping beauty of those tarnished gods. Thus with high voices echoing his word They hymned their great Creator where he sits In the mystic lotus, musing out his worlds. “Pure Spirit who wast before creation woke, Calm violence, destroyer, gulf of Soul, One, though divided in thy own conceit, Brahma we see thee here, who from thy deeps Of memory rescuest forgotten Time.

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God We see thee, Yogin, on the solemn snows, Shiva, withdrawing into thy hush the Word Which sang the fiat of the speeding stars. They pass like moths into thy flaming gaze. We adore thee, Vishnu, whose extended steps To thee are casual footprints, thy small base For luminous systems measureless to our mind, Whose difficult toil thy light and happy smile Sustains, O wide discoverer of Space. To thee our adoration, triune Form! Imagining her triple mood thou gav’st To thy illimitable Nature play. When nothing was except thy lonely soul In the ocean of thy being, then thou sowedst Thy seed infallible, O Spirit unborn, And from that seed a million unlike forms Thou variously hast made. Thy world that moves And breathes, thy world inconscient and inert, What are they but a corner of thy life? Thou hast made them and preservest; if thou slayst It is thy greatness, Lord. Mysterious source Of all, from thee we drew this light of mind, This mighty stirring and these failings dark. In thee we live, by thee we act thy thoughts. Thou gav’st thyself a Woman and divine, Thou grewest twain who wert the formless One, In one sole body thou wert Lord and Spouse To found the bliss which by division joins, Thou bor’st thy being, a Spirit who is Man. All are thy creatures: in the meeting vast Of thy swift Nature with thy brilliant Mind, Thou mad’st thy children, man and beast and god. Thy days and nights are numberless aeons; when Thou sleepest, all things sleep, O conscient God; Thy waking is a birth of countless souls. Thou art the womb from which all life arose, But who begot thee? thou the ender of things,

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Translations from Sanskrit But who has known thy end? Beginningless, All our beginnings are thy infant powers, Thou governest their middle and their close, But over thee where is thy ruler, Lord? None knoweth this; alone thou knowest thyself. By thy ineffable identity Knowledge approaches the unknown. We seek Discoveries of ourselves in distant things. When first desire stirred, the seed of mind, And to existence from the plenary void Thy seers built the golden bridge of thought, Out of thy uncreated Ocean’s rest By thy own energy thou sprangest forth. Thou art thy action’s path and thou its law; Thou art thy own vast ending and its sleep. The subtle and the dense, the flowing and firm, The hammered close consistency of things, The clingings of the atoms, lightness, load, What are all these things but thy shapes? Things seen And sensible and things no thought has scanned, Thou grewest and each pole and contrary Art equally, O self-created God. Thou hast become all this at thy desire, And nothing is impossible in thee; Creation is the grandeur of thy soul. The chanting Veda and the threefold voice, The sacrifice of works, the heavenly fruit, The all-initiating OM, from thee, From thee they sprang; out of thy ocean heart The rhythms of our fathomless words are born. They name thee Nature, she the mystic law Of all things done and seen who drives us, mother And giver of our spirits’ seekings, won In her enormous strength, though won from her. They know thee Spirit, far above thou dwellest Pure of achievement, empty of her noise. Silent spectator of thy infinite stage,

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God Unmoved in a serene tremendous calm Thou viewst indifferently the grandiose scene. O Deity from whom all deities are, O Father of the sowers of the world, O Master of the godheads of the law, Who so supreme but shall find thee above? Thou art the enjoyer and the sweet enjoyed, The hunter and the hunted in the worlds, The food, the eater. O sole knower, sole known, Sole dreamer! this bright-imaged dream is thou, Which we pursue in our miraculous minds; No other thinker is or other thought. O Lord, we bow, who from thy being came, To thee in prayer. Is it not thou who prayst, Spirit transcendent and eternal All?” Then to the wise in heaven the original Seer, Maker and poet of the magic spheres, Shedding a smile in whose benignancy Some sweet return like pleasant sunlight glowed, Sent chanting from his fourfold mouth a voice In which were justified the powers of sound, “Welcome, you excellent mightinesses of heaven, Who hold your right by self-supported strengths, The centuries for your arms. How have you risen Together in one movement of great Time? Wherefore bring you your divine faces, robbed Of their old inborn light and beauty, pale As stars in winter mists dim-rayed and cold Swimming through the dumb melancholy of heaven? Why do I see your powers dejected, frail? The thunder in the Python-slayer’s hand Flames not exultant, wan its darings droop, Quelled is the iridescence of its dance. Its dreadful beauty like a goddess shamed Shrinks back into its violated pride. Varoona’s unescaped and awful noose Hangs slack, impuissant, and its ruthless coils

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Translations from Sanskrit Are a charmed serpent’s folds; a child can smite The whirling lasso snare for Titan strengths. In Kuver’s face there is defeat and pain. Low as an opulent tree its broken branch In an insulted sullen majesty His golden arm hangs down the knotted mace. Death’s lord is wan and his tremendous staff Writes idly on the soil, the infallible stroke Is an extinguished terror, a charred line The awful script no tears could ever erase. O you pale sun-gods chill and shorn of fire, How like the vanity of painted suns You glow, where eyes can set their mortal ray Daring eternal splendours with their sight. O fallen rapidities, you lords of speed, With the resisted torrents’ baffled roar Back on themselves recoil your stormy strengths. Why come you now like sad and stumbling souls, Who bounded free and lionlike through heaven? And you, O Rudras, how the matted towers Upon your heads sink their dishevelled pride! Dim hang your moons along the snaky twines, No longer from your puissant throats your voice Challenges leonine the peaks of Night. Who has put down the immortal gods? what foe Stronger than strength could make eternal puissance vain, As if beyond imagination amidst The august immutability of law Some insolent exception unforeseen Had set in doubt the order of the stars? Speak, children, wherefore have ye come to me? What prayer is silent on your lips? Did I Not make the circling suns and give to you My grandiose thoughts to keep? Guardians of life, Keepers of the inviolable round, Why come you to me with defeated eyes? Helpers, stand you in need of help?” He ceased,

Kalidasa: The Birth of the War-God And like a rippling lotus lake whose flowers Stir to a gentle wind, the Thunderer turned Upon the Seer his thousand eyes of thought, The Seer who is his greater eye than these; He is the teacher of the sons of light, His speech inspired outleaps the labouring mind And opens truth’s mysterious doors to gods. “Veiling by question thy all-knowing sense, Lord, thou hast spoken,” Brihaspati began, “The symbol of our sad defeat and fall. What soul can hide himself from his own source? Thy vision looks through every eye and sees Beyond our seeings, thinks in every mind, Passing our pale peripheries of light. Tarak the Titan growing in thy smile As Ocean swells beneath the silent moon, [ ] Discouraged from the godhead of his rays In Tarak’s town the Sun dares not to burn More than can serve to unseal the lotus’ eyes In rippling waters of his garden pools. The mystic moon yields him its nectarous heart; Only the crescent upon Shiva’s head Is safe from the desire of his soul. The violent winds forget their mightier song. Their breezes through his gardens dare not rush Afraid to steal the flowers upon its boughs And only near him sobbingly can pant A flattering coolness, dreadful brows to fan. The seasons are forbidden their cycling round; They walk his garden-keepers and must fill The branches with chaotic wealth of flowers. Autumn and spring and summer joining hands [ ] him with their multitudinous sweets, Their married fragrances surprise the air. Ocean his careful servant brings to birth The ripening jewels for his toys; his mine

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Translations from Sanskrit Of joy is the inexorable abyss. The serpent-gods with blazing gems at night Hold up their hoods to be his living lamps And even great Indra sends him messengers. Flowers from the Tree of bounty and of bliss They bear; to the one fierce and sovereign mind All his desires the boughs of heaven must give. But how can kindness win that violent heart? Only by chastisement it is appeased. A tyrant grandeur is the Titan soul And only by destruction and by pain Feels in the sobs and tears of suffering things A crude reality of [ ] force.

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Notes and Fragments

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Skeleton Notes on the Kumarasambhavam Canto V tTA sm"\ dhtA mnoBv\ EpnAEknA B`nmnorTA stF . EnEnd !p\ dy n pAv tF E y q; sOBA`yPlA Eh cAztA 1 1. Thus by Pinaka’s wielder burning the Mind-born before her eyes baffled of her soul’s desire, the Mountain’s daughter blamed her own beauty in her heart, for loveliness has then only fruit when it gives happiness in the beloved.

tTA may go either with dhtA or B`nmnorTA; but it has more point with the latter. sm"\. The Avachuri takes singularly jyAEvjyA (y"\, i.e. before Jaya & Vijaya, her friends. The point would then be that the humiliation of her beauty was rendered still more poignant by occurring before witnesses. In this case, however, the obscurity caused by the omission of the names would be the grossest of rhetorical faults. sm"\ by itself can mean nothing but “before her (Parvati’s) very eyes” a#Zo, smFp\ as Mallinatha rightly renders it. EnEnd found fault with, censured as defective. Eh. S [Sukhavabodha-tika] takes this as the emphatic Eh (EnEt\). It is more appropriate and natural to take it in the usual sense of “for”, giving the reason or justification (Mallinatha) for her finding fault with her own beauty. E y q; loc. of object (Evqy ) “with regard to those loved” sOBA`y. The “felicity” of women consists in the love and welfare of those they love. Here only the first element is intended; so here = E yvAÃ[˝ [˝Ü„V„`, Y“EıÁ` c˜C** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! [˝_VÁ◊Ã^◊X, ÊY“]VÁ◊Ã^◊X, p˚ÁXVÁ◊Ã^◊X, `◊N˛ÿëˆÃ[˝÷◊Y◊S \ˆ›„], ÂaÏ]ÓÂÃ[˝ÏV–-Ã[˝÷◊Y◊S! L›[˝X-aeG–Á„] \ˆÁÃ[˝Tˆ-aeG–Á„] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÊY“◊Ã[˝Tˆ Â^Áà˘Á %Á]Ã[˝Á, VÁC, ]ÁTˆf, Y“Á„S ]„X %a«„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `◊N˛, %a«„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =VÓ], VÁC, ]ÁTˆf, c˜÷V„Ã^ [˝«◊à˘„Tˆ ÂV„[˝Ã[˝ ªJÙ◊Ã[˝y, ÂV„[˝Ã[˝ p˚ÁX** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! LGd‰`“úˆ \ˆÁÃ[˝TˆLÁ◊Tˆ ◊X◊[˝QÕˆ ◊Tˆ◊]„Ã[˝ %Á¨K˜~ ◊ªK˜_* T«ˆ◊], ]ÁTˆf, GGXY“Á„‹ôˆ %„î %„î =VÃ^ c˜c˜O„TˆˆªK˜, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÿëˆGfiÃ^ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊Tˆ◊]Ã[˝◊[˝XÁ`› %Á\ˆÁÃ^ >bÁÃ[˝ Y“EıÁ` c˜c˜O_* %Á„_ÁEı ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝, ]ÁTˆf, ◊Tˆ◊]Ã[˝ ◊[˝XÁ` EıÃ[˝** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! `ÓÁ]_Á a[[˝Ô„aÏ≥V^ÔÓ-%_· ¯TˆÁ p˚ÁX ÊY“] `◊N˛Ã[˝ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝Ü\…ˆ◊] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝\…ˆ◊Tˆ, ATˆ◊VX `◊N˛aec˜Ã[˝„S %Á±¡„GÁYX Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ◊ªK˜_* %ÁGTˆ ^«G, %ÁGTˆ ◊VX, \ˆÁÃ[˝„TˆÃ[˝ \ˆÁÃ[˝ ïı„µ˘ _c˜OÃ^Á [˝ÜLXX› =◊Pˆ„Tˆ‰ªK˜, Aa, ]ÁTˆf, Y“EıÁ` c˜C** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a‹ôˆÁX %Á]Ã[˝Á, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Y“aÁ„V, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ„[˝, ]c˜d EıÁ„^ÔÓÃ[˝ ]c˜d \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ =Y^«N˛ c˜c˜O* ◊[˝XÁ` EıÃ[˝ l«˘V–TˆÁ, ◊[˝XÁ` EıÃ[˝ ÿëˆÁUÔ, ◊[˝XÁ` EıÃ[˝ \ˆÃ^**

2

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! EıÁ_›Ã[˝÷◊Y◊S, X ]«â¯]Á◊_◊X ◊VG∂ëˆ◊Ã[˝, E ıYÁSYÁ◊S ÂV◊[˝ %a«Ã[˝◊[˝XÁ◊`◊X! y…‘Ã[˝ ◊XXÁ„V %‹ôˆfÿöˆ ◊Ã[˝Y« ◊[˝XÁ` EıÃ[˝* AEı◊ªªRÙOC Â^X %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ L›◊[˝Tˆ XÁ UÁ„Eı, ◊[˝]_ ◊X]Ô_ Â^X c˜c˜O, Ac˜O Y“ÁUÔXÁ, ]ÁTˆf, Y“EıÁ` c˜C** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! ÿëˆÁ„UÔ \ˆ„Ã^ l«˘V–Á`Ã^TˆÁÃ^ ◊∂ɈÃ^]ÁS \ˆÁÃ[˝Tˆ* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]c˜d EıÃ[˝, ]c˜dY“Ã^Áa› EıÃ[˝, =VÁÃ[˝‰ªJÙTˆÁ EıÃ[˝, aTˆÓa·¯î EıÃ[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ %îÁ`›, ◊X‰∏JÙrÙ, %_a, \ˆÃ^\ˆ›Tˆ Â^X XÁ c˜c˜O** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! Â^ÁG`◊N˛ ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Y“Ã^ %Á^ÔÓ-a‹ôˆÁX, _«ä ◊`l˘Á, ªJÙ◊Ã[˝y, Â]W˝Á`◊N˛, \ˆ◊N˛`“à˘Á, TˆYaÓÁ, [˝–°˘ªJÙ^ÔÓ aTˆÓp˚ÁX %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊[˝EıÁ` Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á LGd„Eı ◊[˝TˆÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝* ]ÁX[˝ ac˜Á„Ã^ V«GÔ◊TˆXÁ◊`◊X LGV„∂ëˆ, Y“EıÁ` c˜C** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! %‹ôˆfÿöˆ ◊Ã[˝Y« aec˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á◊[˝H¬ ◊X∂ˆÇÔ…_ EıÃ[˝* [˝_`Á_› YÃ[˝Áy‘]› =~Tˆ‰ªJÙTˆÁ LÁ◊Tˆ \ˆÁÃ[˝„TˆÃ[˝ Y◊[˝y EıÁX„X, =[[˝ÔÃ[˝ Âl˘‰y, GGX-ac˜ªJÙÃ[˝ Y[[˝ÔTˆTˆ„_, Y…Tˆa◊__Á XV›Tˆ›„Ã[˝ AEıTˆÁÃ^ ÊY“„], a„TˆÓ `◊N˛„Tˆ, ◊`„î aÁ◊c˜„TˆÓ, ◊[˝y‘„] p˚Á„X Ê`“úˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á ◊X[˝Áa EıÃ[˝”Eı, ]ÁT ˆªJÙÃ[˝„S Ac˜O Y“ÁUÔXÁ, Y“EıÁ` c˜C** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ Â^ÁG[˝„_ Y“„[˝` EıÃ[˝* ^‹óˆ Tˆ[˝, %£\ˆ◊[˝XÁ`› TˆÃ[˝[˝Á◊Ã[˝ Tˆ[˝, %p˚ÁX◊[˝XÁ`› Y“V›Y Tˆ[˝ %Á]Ã[˝Á c˜c˜O[˝, [˝Ü›Ã^ ^«[˝EıG„SÃ[˝ Ac˜O [˝ÁaXÁ Y…SÔ EıÃ[˝* ^‹óˆ› c˜c˜OÃ^Á ^‹óˆ ªJÙÁ_ÁC, %£\ˆ-c˜‹óˆ› c˜c˜OÃ^Á TˆÃ[˝[˝Á◊Ã[˝ H«Ã[˝ÁC, p˚ÁXV›◊äY“EıÁ◊`X› c˜c˜OÃ^Á Y“V›Y W˝Ã[˝, Y“EıÁ` c˜C** ]ÁTˆf V«„GÔ! ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı YÁc˜O„_ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝a#¤X Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ XÁ, `“à˘Á \ˆ◊N˛ ÊY“„]Ã[˝ ÂQˆÁ„Ã[˝ [˝gÁ≈◊W˝Ã^Á Ã[˝Á◊F[˝* Aa ]ÁTˆf, %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]„X Y“Á„S `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ Y“EıÁ` c˜C** [˝›Ã[˝]ÁGÔY“V◊`Ô˜◊X, Aa! %ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝a#¤X Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ XÁ* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %◊F_ L›[˝X %X[˝◊¨K˜~ V«GÔÁY…LÁ, %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ a[[˝Ô EıÁ^ÔÓ %◊[˝Ã[˝Tˆ Y◊[˝y ÊY“]]Ã^ `◊N˛]Ã^ ]ÁT ˆ„a[˝Á[˝–Tˆ c˜=Eı, Ac˜O Y“ÁUÔXÁ, ]ÁTˆf, >Ã[˝ [˝Ü„V„`, Y“EıÁ` c˜C**

`“›]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO Y“ÁUÔXÁÃ[˝ %X«[˝ÁV Y“\«ˆ, Aa! Y…SÔ Âc˜ÁEı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á, ◊aà˘ Âc˜ÁEı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ^ÔÓ, V ªRÕÙ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á VÁC %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ \ˆ◊N˛, Y…SÔTˆÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %Á±¡a]YÔS* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ YU %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ EıÃ[˝* %Á]Ã[˝Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı aw¯ÁÃ[˝ %W˝›`üÃ[˝Ã[˝÷„Y ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜, Ac˜O %Á`ÁÃ^ Â^ T«ˆ◊] Ac˜O a]ÿôˆ Y ◊U[˝›Ã[˝ %W˝›`üÃ[˝ c˜c˜OÃ^Á Y“EıÁ` c˜C* \ˆÁbÁ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ AFXC %p˚Á„X \ˆÃ[˝Á, p˚Á„X =‡ˆÁ◊aTˆ EıÃ[˝* c˜÷VÃ^ÁEıÁIl˘Á %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %Y…SÔTˆÁÃ^ ]◊_X, £à˘ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á VÁC* Eı∂ˆÇÔ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ V«[[˝Ô_ %l˘], a[˝_ aZı_ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ÂTˆÁ_* Y ◊U[˝› ^‹óˆSÁÃ^ %◊ÿöˆ[à ˝, c˜Ác˜ÁEıÁ„Ã[˝ ◊[˝W[˝ÿˆô , --- LGd Â^X ◊[˝`Ö  _TˆÁ[à ˝ [˝ÁaÿöˆÁX* ATˆ ◊X◊[˝QÕˆ GÁªRÕÙ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ AEı]Áy T«ˆ◊]c˜O %Y„XÁVX Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝* Aa, Y“Eı◊ªªRÙOTˆ EıÃ[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]◊c˜]Á, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ^ÔÓ aÁ◊W˝Tˆ Âc˜ÁEı* `“›%Ã[˝◊[˝≥V (`“›]Á Ã[˝◊ªJÙTˆ Prières et Méditations G–„‹öˆÃ[˝ Le 25 août 1914 TˆÁ◊Ã[˝„FÃ[˝ W˝ÓÁX◊_◊YÃ[˝ %X«[˝ÁV)

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X› 190ª8 a„XÃ[˝ £y‘[˝ÁÃ[˝ 1_Á Â] %Á◊] ""[˝„≥V]ÁTˆÃ[˝]À'' %◊Zı„a [˝◊aÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á], TˆFX `“›^«N˛ `ÓÁ]a«≥VÃ[˝ ªJÙy‘[˝Tˆfi %Á]ÁÃ[˝ c˜Á„Tˆ ]LfZıÃ[˝Y«„Ã[˝Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› ʪRÙO◊_G–Á] ◊V„_X* Y◊QÕˆÃ^Á ÂV◊F_Á] ]LfZıÃ[˝Y«„Ã[˝ Â[˝Á]Á ZıÁ◊ªRÙOÃ^Á‰ªK˜, V«ªRÙO› Ã^«„Ã[˝ÁY›Ã^ÁX ÿ󈛄_ÁEı c˜Tˆ* Âa◊V„XÃ[˝ ""A+ÁÃ^ÁÃ[˝'' EıÁG„L %ÁÃ[˝C Y◊QÕˆ_Á], Y«◊_a Eı◊]`XÁÃ[˝ [˝◊_Ã^Á‰ªK˜X %Á]Ã[˝Á LÁ◊X ÂEı ÂEı Ac˜O c˜TˆÓÁEıÁ„⯠◊_ä A[˝e TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á `›H– ÊG–äÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„[˝* LÁ◊XTˆÁ] XÁ TˆFXC Â^ %Á◊] Ac˜O a„≥V„c˜Ã[˝ ]«FÓ _l˘Óÿöˆ_, %Á◊]c˜O Y«◊_„aÃ[˝ ◊[˝„[˝ªJÙXÁÃ^ Y“W˝ÁX c˜TˆÓÁEıÁÃ[˝›, Ã[˝Ár—Ù◊[˝Y¿[˝Y“Ã^Áa› ^«[˝EıV„_Ã[˝ ]‹óˆVÁTˆÁ C mä ÂXTˆÁ* LÁ◊XTˆÁ] XÁ Â^ Ac˜O ◊VXc˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ L›[˝„XÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ %„·¯Ã[˝ Â`b YÁTˆÁ, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a∂ˆÇ„« F AEı [˝da„Ã[˝[à ˝ EıÁ[à ˝Á[˝Áa, Ac˜O a]„Ã^[à ˝ LXÓ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ L›[˝„XÃ[˝ a„Ü ^Tˆc˜O [˝µ˘X ◊ªK˜_, a[˝c˜O ◊ªK˜~ c˜c˜O„[˝, AEı [˝daÃ[˝ EıÁ_ ]ÁX[˝a]Á„LÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ◊YtÃ[˝Á[˝à˘ Y£Ã[˝ ]Tˆ UÁ◊Eı„Tˆ c˜c˜O„[˝* %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ^FX Eı∂ˆÇÔ„l˘‰y Y“„[˝` Eı◊Ã[˝[˝, TˆUÁÃ^ Âac˜O Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX Y◊Ã[˝◊ªJÙTˆ %Ã[˝◊[˝≥V ÂHÁb Y“„[˝` Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝ XÁ, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ AEıªRÙO› X…TˆX ]ÁX«b, X…TˆX ªJÙ◊Ã[˝y, X…TˆX [˝«◊à˘, X…TˆX Y“ÁS, X…TˆX ]X _c˜OÃ^Á X…TˆX Eı∂ˆÇÔ\ˆÁÃ[˝ G–c˜S Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á %Á◊_Y«Ã[˝ÿöˆ %Á`“] c˜c˜O„Tˆ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ c˜c˜O„[˝* [˝◊_Ã^Á◊ªK˜ AEı [˝daÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Áa, [˝_Á =◊ªJÙTˆ ◊ªK˜_ AEı [˝daÃ[˝ [˝X[˝Áa, AEı [˝daÃ[˝ %Á`“][˝Áa* %„XEı ◊VX c˜÷VÃ^ÿöˆ XÁÃ[˝ÁÃ^„SÃ[˝ aÁl˘Ád V`Ô„XÃ[˝ LXÓ Y“[˝_ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜_Á], =dEıªRÙO %Á`Á ÂYÁbS Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜_Á] LGà˘ÁTˆÁ Y«Ã[˝”„bÁw¯]„Eı [˝µ«˘\ˆÁ„[˝, Y“\«ˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ _Á\ˆ Eı◊Ã[˝* ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô ac˜ÿˆÉ aÁeaÁ◊Ã[˝Eı [˝ÁaXÁÃ[˝ Rª ÙÁO X, XÁXÁ Eı„∂ˆÇÔ %Áa◊N˛, %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ Y“GÁªRÙÕ %µ˘EıÁ„Ã[˝ TˆÁc˜Á YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁc˜O* Â`„b YÃ[˝] VÃ^Á_« a[[˝Ô]Ü_]Ã^ `“›c˜◊Ã[˝ Âac˜O aEı_ `y”„Eı AEı ÂEıÁ„Y ◊Xc˜Tˆ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ a«◊[˝W˝Á Eı◊Ã[˝„_X, Â^ÁGÁ`“] ÂVFÁc˜O„_X, ÿëˆÃ^e mÃ[˝”Ã[˝÷„Y aFÁÃ[˝÷„Y Âac˜O l«˘V– aÁW˝X E«ıªRÙO›„Ã[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁX Eı◊Ã[˝„_X* Âac˜O %Á`“] c˜OeÃ[˝Á„LÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝ÁGÁÃ[˝* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ L›[˝„X Ac˜O %Á∏JÙ^ÔÓ È[˝YÃ[˝›TˆÓ [˝Ã[˝Á[˝Ã[˝ ÂV◊FÃ^Á %Á◊a„Tˆ◊Kª ˜ Â^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊c˜ÍTˆb› [˝µ˘« GS %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ^Tˆc˜O XÁ =YEıÁ[à ˝ Eı[à ˝”X, %◊XrÙEıÁ[à ˝›GS --- `y” EıÁc˜Á„Eı [˝◊_[˝, `y” %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O --- `y”c˜O %◊W˝Eı =YEıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á‰ªK˜X* TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á %◊XrÙ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ÂG„_X, c˜OrÙc˜O c˜c˜O_* [˝ ◊ªRÙO` G[˝SÔ„]‰≥RÙOÃ[˝ ÂEıÁY-V ◊rÙÃ[˝ AEı]Áy Zı_, %Á◊] \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı YÁc˜O_Á]* EıÁÃ[˝ÁG c˜[˝Á„a %Á‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Eı L›[˝„XÃ[˝ c˜O◊Tˆc˜Áa ◊_◊Y[˝à˘ EıÃ[˝Á Ac˜O Y“[˝„µ˘Ã[˝ =„Å`Ó XÃ^, Eı„Ã^EıªRÙO› [˝Á◊c˜ÓEı HªRÙOXÁ ]Áy [˝SÔXÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜O¨K˜Á Eı◊Ã[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ˝ ^Ác˜Á EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ ]«FÓ \ˆÁ[˝ TˆÁc˜Á

8

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

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EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

9

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10

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%Á]ÁÃ[˝ HÃ[˝ Tˆ~ Tˆ~ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ÂV◊F[˝ÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ Y«◊_a YÁ„`Ã[˝ H„Ã[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* Ây‘GÁX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ]Áa›Ã[˝ [˝Áj F«„_X, AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ V«c˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ„Tˆ V ◊rÙYÁTˆ Eı„Ã[˝X ]Áy, TˆdY„Ã[˝ Â]„Ã^„VÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊X„Ã^ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O, Ac˜O [˝◊_Ã^Á TˆÁc˜Á ªK˜Á◊QÕˆÃ^Á ^ÁX* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ AEıTˆ_ÁÃ^ Y«◊_a ]c˜Á±¡Á„VÃ[˝ %Á◊[˝\ˆ¤Á[˝* AEıTˆ_ÁÃ^ [˝◊aÃ^Á Ây‘GÁX ªJÙÁ YÁX Eı„Ã[˝X, %Á◊] AEı ÂYÃ^Á_Á ÂEıÁ„EıÁ C Ã[˝”ªRÙ›O FÁc˜O, Âac˜O a«„^Á„G aÁ„c˜[˝ TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁLÍX◊TˆEı ]Tˆm◊_ ^«◊N˛TˆEÔı ÂVFÁc˜OÃ^Á Y“◊TˆY~ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝X --- %Á◊] %◊[˝Jª Ù◊_Tˆ◊Jª Ù„w¯ Ac˜O ]ÁX◊aEı ^‹óˆSÁ ac˜Ó Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* Tˆ„[˝ ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı◊Ã[˝, XÁ c˜Ã^ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %TˆÓÁªJÙÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á Y«◊_„aÃ[˝ aXÁTˆX Y“UÁ, ]„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝C Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %]ÁX«◊bEı %TˆÓÁªJÙÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á ◊Eı unwritten law-AÃ[˝ ªJÙT«ˆfa›]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Á„a? %Á`Á Eı◊Ã[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ YÃ[˝] ]ÁXÓ ÂV`◊c˜ÍTˆb› `“›^«N˛ Â^Á„G≥V–ªJÙ≥V– ÂHÁb Ac˜O a∂누µ˘ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁYEı a\ˆÁÃ^ Y“`¬ =xÁYX Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X* X›‰ªJÙ[à ˝ HÃ[˝m◊_ C ""X[˝`◊N˛'' %Á◊Zı„aÃ[˝ FÁXÁTˆˆ{Áa›Ã[˝ YÃ[˝ Y«◊_a ""X[˝`◊N˛''Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› Â_Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊a≥V«Eı F«◊_„Tˆ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂVÁTˆÁ_ÁÃ^ ^ÁÃ^* %ÁW˝H∞RÙOÁ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ^FX %E ıTˆEıÁ^ÔÓ c˜c˜O_ TˆFX TˆÁc˜Á UÁXÁÃ^ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁCÃ^Ác˜O ◊PˆEı c˜c˜O_* Ac˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ AEıLX Y«◊_a aÁ„c˜[˝ AEıªRÙO› ◊•ªJÙy‘^ÁX %Á◊[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝X, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ÂÃ[˝„_Ã[˝ Â_„[˝„_ E«ı◊úˆÃ^ÁÃ[˝ XÁ] ◊ªK˜_* %]◊X E«ı◊úˆÃ^ÁÃ^ aÁ„c˜[˝„Eı Â^ m◊_ Eı„Ã[˝ TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝c˜O [˝Ác˜X [˝◊_Ã^Á Ac˜O mÃ[˝”TˆÃ[˝ Y“]ÁS aÁX„≥V _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁX* Y“ÁÃ^ aÁ‰QÕˆ AGÁÃ[˝ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ %Á]Ã[˝Á [˝ÁªRÙO› c˜c˜O„Tˆ ^ÁyÁ Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* ZıªRÙO„EıÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â]„aÁ ]c˜Á`Ã^ A[˝e `“›^«N˛ \…ˆ„Y≥V–XÁU [˝a« GÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ ◊ªK˜„_X* Â]„aÁ ]c˜Á`Ã^ %Á]Á„Eı ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„_X, ""ÂEıÁXÀ %YÃ[˝Á„W˝ ÂG–äÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„_?'' %Á◊] [˝◊__Á], ""%Á◊] ◊EıªK«˜c˜O LÁ◊X XÁ, c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝Á H„Ã[˝ Y“„[˝` Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Ác˜O ÊG–äÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝X, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ c˜Á„Tˆ c˜ÁTˆEı◊QÕˆ ÂVX, [˝◊Qˆ CÃ^Á„Ã[˝∞RÙO ÂVFÁX XÁc˜O*'' Â]„aÁ ]c˜Á`Ã^ c˜ÁTˆEı◊QÕˆ c˜Á„Tˆ ÂVCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝S ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ EıÃ[˝ÁÃ^ ◊[˝„XÁV [˝Á[˝« [˝◊_„_X, ""]c˜Á`Ã^, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %YÃ[˝ÁW˝ XÁc˜,O %Ã[˝◊[˝≥V [˝Á[˝„« Eı ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı[à ˝”X, %Á◊]c˜O aÁ„c˜[˝„Eı [˝◊_Ã^Á c˜ÁTˆEı◊QÕˆ F«_Ác˜OÃ^Á ◊X_Á]*'' \…ˆ„YX [˝Á[˝« %YÃ[˝ÁW˝ ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ EıÃ[˝ÁÃ^ mä ]c˜Á`Ã^ XÃ[˝c˜TˆÓÁÃ[˝ W˝ÁÃ[˝Á ÂVFÁc˜O„_X; c˜Oc˜Á £◊XÃ^Á \…ˆ„YX [˝Á[˝« ÿôˆ◊êˆTˆ c˜c˜O„_X, %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC EıUÁ [˝◊_„_X XÁ* Y„Ã[˝ £◊X_Á], %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a◊_◊aªRÙOÃ[˝ `“›^«N˛ c˜›„Ã[˝≥V–XÁU Vw¯ ÊG– r—Ù›‰ªRÙO %Á◊aÃ^Á FÁXÁTˆ{Áa›„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y„l˘ =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ UÁ◊Eı[˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á Y“EıÁ` Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜„_X, Y«◊_a TgˆÁc˜Á„Eı ◊ZıÃ[˝Ác˜OÃ^Á ÂVÃ^* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ◊TˆXLX„Eı UÁXÁÃ^ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁCÃ^Á ◊[˝„XÁV [˝Á[˝«Ã[˝ \ˆÁÃ[˝* UÁXÁÃ^ ◊Tˆ◊X

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

11

%Á]Á„VÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊[˝„`b \ˆV– [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„_X* Âac˜OFÁ„Xc˜O ÿoˆÁX C %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á _Á_[˝ÁLÁ„Ã[˝ Ã[˝CXÁ c˜c˜O_Á]* _Á_[˝ÁLÁ„Ã[˝ Eı„Ã^Eı H∞RÙOÁ [˝aÁc˜OÃ^Á Ã[˝Ã^QÀˆ r—Ù›‰ªRÙO _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^, Âac˜O £\ˆ ÿöˆÁ„X aµ˘ÓÁ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ EıÁªRÙOÁc˜O_Á]* Ã[˝Ã^QÀˆ r—Ù›‰ªRÙO ◊Qˆ‰ªRÙOEÀı◊ªRÙO\ˆ Y«Ü[˝ Â]Ï_[˝› `Á]Àa-=_-%Á_„]Ã[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“U] %Á_ÁY C Y“›◊Tˆ ÿöˆÁYX c˜Ã^* Â]Ï_[˝› aÁ„c˜„[˝Ã[˝ TˆFX TˆTˆ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ C =daÁ„c˜ÁVÓ] c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O, Â[˝Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]Á]_ÁÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX %„XübSEıÁÃ[˝› ◊Eı∂ëˆÁ XªRÙO¤X aÁ„c˜„[˝Ã[˝ prompter [˝Á L›[˝‹ôˆ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S`◊N˛Ã[˝÷„Y ◊Tˆ◊X TˆFX ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁL Eı„Ã[˝X XÁc˜O, Ã[˝Á]aVÃ^ [˝Á[˝«c˜O TˆFX Ac˜O ]Á]_ÁÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX YÁâ¯Á* Â]Ï_[˝› aÁ„c˜[˝ %Á]Á„Eı W˝∂ˆÇÔ a∂누µ˘ %◊Tˆ`Ã^ aÃ[˝a [˝N ˛TˆÁ £XÁc˜O„_X* ◊c˜≥V«W˝∂ˆÇÔ C c˜OaÀ_Á] W˝„∂ˆÇÔÃ[˝ AEıc˜O ]…_]‹óˆ, ◊c˜≥V«„VÃ[˝ C·¯Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊≈y]ÁyÁ % = ], ÂEıÁÃ[˝Á„SÃ[˝ Y“U] ◊TˆX %l˘Ã[˝ % _ ], \ˆÁbÁTˆ„√º¯Ã[˝ ◊XÃ^„] "_'-AÃ[˝ [˝V„_ "=' [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^, %TˆA[˝ ◊c˜≥V« C ]«a_]Á„XÃ[˝ AEıc˜O ]‹óˆ* TˆUÁ◊Y ◊X„LÃ[˝ W˝„∂ˆÇÔÃ[˝ YÁUÔEıÓ %l«˘| Ã[˝Á◊F„Tˆ c˜Ã^, ]«a_]Á„XÃ[˝ a„Ü %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á ◊c˜≥V«Ã[˝ Y„l˘ ◊X≥VX›Ã^* aTˆÓ[˝ÁV› c˜CÃ^ÁC W˝„∂ˆÇÔÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› Y“W˝ÁX %Ü* aÁ„c˜[˝Ã[˝Á [˝„_X %Ã[˝◊[˝≥V ÂHÁb c˜TˆÓÁEıÁÃ[˝› V„_Ã[˝ ÂXTˆÁ, \ˆÁÃ[˝Tˆ[˝„bÔÃ[˝ Y„l˘ c˜Oc˜Á [˝QÕˆ V«fF C _#ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ, Tˆ„[˝ aTˆÓ[˝Á◊VTˆÁ Ã[˝l˘Á Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝„_ situation saved c˜Ã^* Â]Ï_[˝›Ã[˝ V ªRÕÙ ◊[˝`üÁa, ◊[˝◊YX YÁ_ C %Ã[˝◊[˝≥V ÂHÁ„bÃ[˝ XÓÁÃ^ =¨JÙªJÙ◊Ã[˝y◊[˝◊`rÙ [˝Ó◊N˛GS ^Ác˜Ác˜O Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á UÁE«ıX, TˆÁc˜Á ]«N˛Eı„¢ˆ ÿ눛EıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X* `“›^«N˛ Y…SÔªJÙ≥V– _Á◊c˜QÕˆ› TˆUÁÃ^ =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ ◊ªK˜„_X, ◊Tˆ◊X Ac˜O a∂누µ˘ a„≥Vc˜ Y“EıÁ` Eı◊Ã[˝„_X, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â]Ï_[˝› aÁ„c˜[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ªK˜Á◊QÕˆ„_X XÁ* TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝VÓÁ-[˝«◊à˘ C Y“[˝_ W˝∂ˆÇÔ\ˆÁ[˝ ÂV◊FÃ^Á %Á◊] %◊Tˆ`Ã^ ªJÙ]dE ıTˆ C Y“›Tˆ c˜c˜O_Á]* ◊X„L Â[˝`› EıUÁ [˝_Á W˝ rÙTˆÁ ]Áy ◊[˝„[˝ªJÙXÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á X∂Ɉ\ˆÁ„[˝ TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ %]…_Ó =Y„V` £◊XÃ^Á _c˜O_Á] A[˝e TˆÁc˜Á a^‰±Ûˆ c˜÷V„Ã^ %◊·¯Tˆ Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* ATˆ W˝∂ˆÇ\Ô ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„TˆÁ^à ÁÃ[˝Á c˜c˜^ÃO ÁC Â]Ï_[˝› aÁ„c˜[˝ ◊Qˆ‰Rª ÙEO ıÀ ◊ªRÙ\O ˆ◊G◊Ã[˝ Kª ˜Á‰QÕˆX XÁc˜*O AEı[˝Á[à ˝ [˝◊_„_X, ""%ÁY◊X Â^ %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ ʪK˜ÁRª ÙO \ˆÁc˜„O Eı Â[˝Á]Á ÈTˆ^à ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝[˝Á[à ˝ LXÓ [˝ÁGÁXªRÙ›O ªK˜Á◊QÕˆÃ^Á ◊V„_X, [˝QÕˆ \«ˆ_ Eı◊Ã[˝„_X, c˜Oc˜Á [˝«◊à˘]Á„XÃ[˝ EıÁL c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O*'' TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁÃ[˝ %UÔ [˝«◊MıÃ^Á %Á◊] AEıªR«ÙO c˜Á◊a_Á]; [˝◊__Á], ""]c˜Á`Ã^, [˝ÁGÁX Â^]X %Á]ÁÃ[˝, ÂTˆ]◊X %Á]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁc˜O„Ã^Ã[˝, %Á◊] Â^ TˆÁc˜Á„Eı ªK˜Á◊QÕˆÃ^Á ◊V_Á], [˝Á ªK˜Á◊QÕˆÃ^Á ◊V„_C Â[˝Á]Á ÈTˆÃ^ÁÃ[˝› Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ªK˜Á◊QÕˆ_Á], A F[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ YÁc˜O„_X?'' Â]Ï_[˝› aÁ„c˜[˝ %Y“◊Tˆ\ˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á [˝◊_„_X, ""XÁ XÁ, %Á◊] [˝◊_„Tˆ◊ªK˜ ^◊V TˆÁc˜Á Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á UÁ„EıX*'' Ac˜O ]c˜Á±¡Á ◊X„LÃ[˝ L›[˝XªJÙ◊Ã[˝„TˆÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› YÁTˆÁ %Á]Á„Eı F«◊_Ã^Á ÂVFÁc˜OÃ^Á [˝◊_„_X, ""%Á]ÁÃ[˝ L›[˝„X ^Tˆ ÈX◊TˆEı [˝Á %Á◊UÔEı =~◊Tˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜,

12

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%Á]ÁÃ[˝ [˝Á„YÃ[˝ AEıªRÙ›O %◊Tˆ`^à ]…_Ó[˝ÁX =Y„V`c˜O TˆÁc˜Á[à ˝ ]…_ EıÁÃ[˝S* ◊Tˆ◊X a[[˝VÔ Á [˝◊_„TˆX, a∂ˆÇ«„FÃ[˝ %~ EıFXC ªK˜Á◊QÕˆ„Tˆ XÁc˜O* Ac˜O ]c˜Á[˝ÁEıÓ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ L›[˝„XÃ[˝ ]…_]‹óˆ, c˜Oc˜Á a[[˝ÔVÁ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜ [˝◊_Ã^Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O =~◊Tˆ*'' c˜Oc˜Á [˝◊_[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ Â]Ï_[˝› aÁ„c˜[˝ Â^ Tˆ›[˝– V ◊rÙ„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ªJÙÁ◊c˜„_X, TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜c˜O_ Â^X %Á◊]c˜O TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ a∂ˆÇ«„FÃ[˝ %~* aµ˘ÓÁ„[˝_ÁÃ^ ÿëˆXÁ]FÓÁTˆ `“›^«N˛ Ã[˝Á]aVÃ^ ]«„FÁYÁW˝ÓÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á◊[˝\ˆ¤Á[˝* ◊Tˆ◊X %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %TˆÓ‹ôˆ VÃ^Á C ac˜ÁX«\…ˆ◊Tˆ Y“EıÁ` Eı◊Ã[˝„_X, aEı_„Eı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ C `^ÓÁ a∂누µ˘ ^±Ûˆ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ [˝◊_„_X* YÃ[˝ ]«c˜… „wÔ¯ Eı„^à EıLX %Á◊aÃ^Á %Á]Á„Eı C È`„_≥V–„Eı _c˜^ÃO Á MıQˆÕ [˝◊  rÙ[à ˝ ]„W˝Ó _Á_[˝ÁLÁÃ[˝ c˜ÁL„Tˆ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* Ã[˝Á]aV„Ã^Ã[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ Ac˜O AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ]Áy %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Á_ÁY c˜Ã^* [˝«◊Mı„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝_Á] Â_ÁEıªRÙO› [˝«◊à˘]ÁX C =VÓ]`›_ ◊Eı‹ôˆ« TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ[˝ÁwÔ¯Á, \ˆÁ[˝\ˆÜ›, ÿëˆÃ[˝, ªJÙ_X a[˝c˜O E ı◊≈y] C %ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı, a[[˝ÔVÁ Â^X ◊Tˆ◊X Ã[˝Ü]„á˚ %◊\ˆXÃ^ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ‰ªK˜X* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y AEı AEıLX %Á‰ªK˜ ^Ác˜Á„VÃ[˝ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝, [˝ÁEıÓ, ʪJÙrÙÁ Â^X %X „TˆÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÁÃ[˝* TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á EgıÁªJÙÁ ]X„Eı \«ˆ_Ác˜O„Tˆ ]L[˝«Tˆ, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^Ác˜ÁÃ[˝Á ]X«bÓ ªJÙ◊Ã[˝‰y %◊\ˆp˚ [˝Á %„XEı ◊VX Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]◊`Ã^Á‰ªK˜, TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO Y“U] Y◊Ã[˝ªJÙ„Ã^c˜O TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á W˝Ã[˝Á Y‰QÕˆ* _Á_[˝ÁLÁ„Ã[˝ ÂVÁTˆÁ_ÁÃ^ AEıªRÙO› [˝QÕˆ H„Ã[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ V«'LX„Eı AEıa„Ü Ã[˝ÁFÁ c˜c˜O_* %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O_ %î]Áy L_FÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝* %îl˘S Y„Ã[˝ V«c˜OLX c˜OeÃ[˝ÁL H„Ã[˝ Y“„[˝` Eı„Ã[˝X, Y„Ã[˝ £◊X_Á] AEıLX ÿëˆÃ^e Y«◊_a Eı◊]`XÁÃ[˝ c˜ÓÁ◊_„Qˆ aÁ„c˜[˝* V«c˜OL„X AEıa„Ü %Á◊ªK˜ ÂV◊FÃ^Á c˜ÓÁ◊_„Qˆ aÁ„#¤‰∞RÙOÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ªJÙ◊ªRÙOÃ^Á =◊Pˆ„_X, %Á]Á„Eı =„Å` Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝◊_„_X, F[˝Ã[˝VÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O Â_ÁEıªRÙO›Ã[˝ a„Ü Â^X ÂEıc˜c˜O XÁ UÁ„Eı [˝Á EıUÁ [˝„_* Âac˜O ]«c…˜„wÔ¯c˜O È`„_X„Eı %XÓ H„Ã[˝ aÃ[˝Ác˜OÃ^Á [˝µ˘ Eı„Ã[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ aEı„_ ^FX ªJÙ◊_Ã^Á ^ÁÃ^, c˜ÓÁ◊_„Qˆ %Á]Á„Eı ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı„Ã[˝X, ""Ac˜O EıÁY«Ã[˝”„bÁ◊ªJÙTˆ V«õı„∂ˆÇÔ ◊_ä ◊ªK˜„_X [˝◊_Ã^Á %ÁYÁXÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı _#Á Eı„Ã[˝ XÁ?'' %Á◊] [˝◊__Á], ""%Á◊] ◊_ä ◊ªK˜_Á], c˜Oc˜Á W˝◊Ã[˝Ã^Á _c˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı %◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝?'' =c˜ÁÃ[˝ =w¯„Ã[˝ c˜ÓÁ◊_„Qˆ [˝◊_„_X, ""%Á◊] W˝◊Ã[˝Ã^Á _c˜O XÁc˜O, %Á◊] a[˝c˜O LÁ◊X*'' %Á◊] [˝◊__Á], ""◊Eı LÁ„XX [˝Á XÁ LÁ„XX %ÁYXÁÃ[˝Ác˜O %[˝GTˆ, Ac˜O c˜TˆÓÁEıÁ„â¯Ã[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ aEı_ a+EÔı a+…SÔÃ[˝÷„Y %ÿ눛EıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝*'' c˜ÓÁ◊_„Qˆ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX EıUÁ [˝◊_„_X XÁ* Âac˜O Ã[˝Á‰y %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^EıLX V`ÔEı %Á„a, c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ÁC Y«◊_a* c˜Oc˜Á„VÃ[˝ %ÁaÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEı Ã[˝c˜aÓ ◊X◊c˜Tˆ ◊ªK˜_, Âa Ã[˝c˜aÓ %Á◊] %ÁL Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ Tˆ_Ác˜O„Tˆ

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

13

YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁc˜O* ÊG–äÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂVQÕˆ ]Áa %Á„G AEıªRÙO› %Y◊Ã[˝◊ªJÙTˆ \ˆV–„_ÁEı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü aÁl˘Ád Eı„Ã[˝X, ◊Tˆ◊X [˝„_X, ""]c˜Á`Ã^ %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Á_ÁY XÁc˜O, Tˆ„[˝ %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ \ˆ◊N˛ %Á‰ªªK˜ [˝◊_Ã^Á %ÁYXÁ„Eı aTˆEÔı Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ %Á◊a_Á], %ÁÃ[˝ LÁ◊X„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁ~G„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁXC Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊Eı %Á_ÁY %Á‰ªK˜, Âac˜OFÁ„X EıFX ◊Eı ◊GÃ^Á◊ªK˜„_X [˝Á ÂaFÁ„X [˝ÁQÕˆ› %Á‰ªK˜ ◊Eı?'' %Á◊] [˝◊__Á], ""[˝ÁQÕˆ› XÁc˜,O ÂEıÁ~G„Ã[˝ AEı[˝Á[à ˝ ◊GÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á], Eı„^à EıL„XÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á_ÁYC %Á‰ªK˜*'' ◊Tˆ◊X [˝◊_„_X, ""%ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ [˝◊_[˝ XÁ Tˆ„[˝ c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ ÂEıÁ~G„Ã[˝Ã[˝ EıÁc˜ÁÃ[˝C a◊c˜Tˆ ÂVFÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X XÁ, %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ C %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁc˜O [˝ÁÃ[˝›‰≥V–Ã[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝”„à˘ V«‰rÙÃ[˝Á bQÕˆ^‹ó Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ‰ªK˜, `›H–c˜O %ÁYXÁ◊VG„Eı TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ◊[˝Y„V ÂZı◊_„[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]Á„Eı ÂEıÁXC EıUÁ ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X XÁ*'' %Á◊] [˝◊__Á], ""]c˜Á`Ã^ Ac˜O %a+…SÔ ae[˝Á„V %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı =YEıÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O_ %Á◊] [˝«◊Mı„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝_Á] XÁ, Tˆ„[˝ =YEıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ %Á◊aÃ^Á‰ªK˜X TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ W˝XÓ[˝ÁV* %Á◊] %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ LÁ◊X„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O XÁ* \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ◊[˝`üÁa, ◊Tˆ◊Xc˜O a[[˝ÔVÁ %Á]Á„Eı Ã[˝l˘Á Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X, Âac˜O ◊[˝b„Ã^ ◊X„L ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝Á [˝Á aTˆEÔı c˜CÃ^Á ◊XπY“„Ã^ÁLX*'' TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ Ac˜O a∂누µ˘ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC F[˝Ã[˝ YÁc˜O XÁc˜O* Ac˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Y◊Ã[˝◊ªJÙTˆ ◊c˜ÍTˆb› Â^ ◊]UÓÁ EıîXÁ Eı„Ã[˝X XÁc˜O, Ac˜O Ã[˝Á‰y TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Y“]ÁS YÁc˜O_Á]* AEıLX c˜OXÀ„&kÙÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^EıLX Y«◊_a Eı∂ˆÇJªÔ ÙÁ[à ˝› %Á◊aÃ^Á ÂEıÁ~G„Ã[˝[à ˝ a]ÿôˆ EıUÁ LÁ◊XÃ^Á _c˜„O _X* TgˆÁc˜Á[à ˝Á [˝◊_„_X, ""ÂEıÁ~G„Ã[˝ ◊Eı %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ %Á◊V ÿöˆÁX? ÂaFÁ„X [˝ÁQÕˆ› %Á‰ªK˜ ◊Eı? Âac˜OFÁ„X EıFXC ◊GÃ^Á◊ªK˜„_X? Eı„[˝ ◊GÃ^Á◊ªK˜„_X? ÂEıX ◊GÃ^Á◊ªK˜„_X? [˝ÁÃ[˝›‰≥V–Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ~G„Ã[˝ a+◊w¯ %Á‰ªK˜ ◊Eı?'' ---- Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %„XEı Y“`¬ ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„_X* [˝ÓÁYÁÃ[˝ªRÙOÁ ◊Eı c˜Oc˜Á [˝«◊Mı[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ %Á◊] Ac˜O a[˝ Y“‰`¬Ã[˝ =w¯Ã[˝ ◊V„Tˆ _Á◊G_Á]* Ac˜O ʪJÙrÙÁÃ^ E ıTˆEıÁ^ÔÓ c˜c˜O_Á] XÁ, Tˆ„[˝ Y“`¬m◊_Ã[˝ C Y«◊_„aÃ[˝ EıUÁÃ[˝ W˝Ã[˝„S Â[˝ÁMıÁ ÂG_ Â^ Y«◊_„a ◊Eı F[˝Ã[˝ YÁc˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁc˜Á aTˆÓ ◊Eı ◊]UÓÁ Ac˜O %X«aµ˘ÁX ªJÙ◊_„Tˆ‰ªK˜* %X«]ÁX Eı◊Ã[˝_Á] Â^]X TˆÁc˜O-]c˜ÁÃ[˝Á„LÃ[˝ Â]ÁEıÅ]ÁÃ^ ◊Tˆ_Eı„Eı \ˆâ¯, ◊]UÓÁ[˝ÁV›, Y“[˝á˚Eı C %TˆÓÁªJÙÁÃ[˝› Y“◊TˆY~ Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ c˜c˜OÃ^Á◊ªK˜_ A[˝e Âac˜O ʪJÙrÙÁÃ^ Â[˝Á„∂ëˆ G[˝SÔ„]∞RÙO Â^ÁGVÁX Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Y“LÁÃ[˝ %„UÔÃ[˝ %Y[˝ÓÃ^ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜„_X, --- ÂTˆ]Xc˜O Aÿöˆ„_C Eı„Ã^EıLX %Á]Á„Eı ◊[˝Y„V ÂZı◊_[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ◊ªK˜_* Ã[˝◊[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ◊VX c˜ÁL„Tˆ EıÁ◊ªRÙOÃ^Á ÂG_* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a∂ˆÇ«„F Ÿa◊QÕˆ ◊ªK˜_* aEıÁ„_ ÂV◊F_Á] Eı„Ã^EıLX %î[˝Ã^ïı [˝Á_Eı Ÿa◊QÕˆ„Tˆ XÁ◊]„Tˆ‰ªK˜* ]«F ◊ªJÙ◊X XÁ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Á≥VÁ„L [˝«◊Mı_Á] c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ÁC Ac˜O Â]ÁEıÅ]ÁÃ^ W˝ Tˆ, Y„Ã[˝ LÁ◊X„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝_Á]

14

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ]Á◊XEıTˆ_ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁGÁ„XÃ[˝ ʪK˜„_* AEı ]Áa Y„Ã[˝ ÂL„_ TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á_ÁY c˜Ã^* %îl˘S Y„Ã[˝ c˜ÁTˆ-]«F W˝«c˜O„Tˆ %Á]Á„EıC X›‰ªJÙ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^ --- ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ [˝„≥VÁ[˝ÿôˆ XÁc˜O, EıÁ„Lc˜O ÿoˆÁX Eı◊Ã[˝_Á] XÁ* Âac˜O ◊VX aEıÁ„_ %Ác˜Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó QˆÁ_ \ˆÁTˆ ◊aà˘, Eı„Ã^Eı G–Áa ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á =VÃ[˝ÿöˆ Eı◊Ã[˝_Á], TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ TˆÁc˜Á TˆÓÁG Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜c˜O_* ◊[˝EıÁ_ Â[˝_Á ]«◊QÕˆ* ◊TˆX ◊VX c˜Oc˜Ác˜O %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªK˜_* ◊Eı‹ôˆ« c˜Oc˜ÁC [˝◊_„Tˆ c˜Ã^ Â^ ÂaÁ][˝Á„Ã[˝ aÁ„#¤∞RÙO %Á]Á„Eı ÿëˆTˆfY“[˝ w¯ c˜c˜OÃ^Á ªJÙÁ C Ã[˝”ªRÙO› FÁc˜O„Tˆ ◊V„_X* Y„Ã[˝ £◊X_Á] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =◊Eı_ Eı◊]`XÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO [˝ÁQÕˆ› c˜c˜O„Tˆ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊V[˝ÁÃ[˝ %X«]◊Tˆ ªJÙÁ◊c˜Ã^Á◊ªK˜„_X, c˜ÓÁ◊_„Qˆ aÁ„c˜[˝ TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ a∂ˆÇTˆ c˜X XÁc˜O* c˜Oc˜ÁC £◊X_Á] Â^, %ÁaÁ]›„VÃ[˝ a„Ü =◊Eı_ [˝Á AªRÙOSfiÃ[˝ ÂVFÁ EıÃ[˝Á ◊X◊bà˘* LÁ◊X XÁ Ac˜O ◊X„bW˝ %Ác˜OXaÜTˆ ◊EıXÁ? =◊Eı„_Ã[˝ YÃ[˝Á]`Ô YÁc˜O„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ^◊VC a«◊[˝W˝Á c˜c˜OTˆ, Tˆ„[˝ ◊XTˆÁ‹ôˆ Y“„Ã^ÁLX ◊ªK˜_ XÁ [˝‰ªRÙO, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ %„X„EıÃ[˝ Â]ÁEıÅ]ÁÃ[˝ l˘◊Tˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜* ÂaÁ][˝Á„Ã[˝ Eı◊]`XÁÃ[˝„VÃ[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ c˜Á◊LÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %◊[˝XÁ` C È`„_X ◊ªK˜_* aEı_„Eı ◊\ˆ~ ◊\ˆ~ V_ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* %Á]Ã[˝Á ◊TˆXLXc˜O Y…[[˝ÔL„XΩÃ[˝ Y«SÓZı„_ Y…„[[˝Ô ÂG–äÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜OÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á] A[˝e %Ác˜O„XÃ[˝ L◊ªRÙO_TˆÁ EıTˆEıªRÙOÁ %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜_Á] [˝◊_Ã^Á ◊TˆXLXc˜O Eı◊]`XÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO ÂEıÁXC EıUÁ [˝◊_„Tˆ %ÿ눛E ıTˆ c˜c˜O* YÃ[˝◊VX ]ÓÁ◊L‰r—ÙªRÙO USÔ◊c˜„_Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ‰ªRÙO¤ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* Ac˜O a]Ã^ `“›^«N˛ E«ı]ÁÃ[˝E ıb’ Vw¯, ]ÓÁX«„Ã^_ aÁ„c˜[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ AEıLX %Á±¡›„Ã^Ã[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“U] aÁl˘Ád c˜Ã^* ]ÓÁX«„Ã^_ aÁ„c˜[˝ %Á]Á„Eı ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„_X, ""Y«◊_„a [˝„_ %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ %„XEı a„≥Vc˜LXEı Â_FÁ YÁCÃ^Á ◊GÃ^Á‰ªK˜* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ [˝Á EıÁGL ◊Eı ◊ªK˜_?'' %Á◊] [˝◊__Á], ""◊Xfa„≥V„c˜ [˝◊_„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝, ◊ªK˜_ XÁ, UÁEıÁ a+…SÔ %aêˆ[˝*'' %[˝`Ó TˆFX ◊]rÙÁ~ Yy ("sweets letter') [˝Á "scribbling'AÃ[˝ EıUÁ LÁ◊XTˆÁ] XÁ* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Á±¡›Ã^„Eı [˝◊__Á], ""[˝ÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ [˝'_ ÂEıÁX \ˆÃ^ Â^X Eı„Ã[˝ XÁ, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊X„ŤÁ◊bTˆÁ a+…SÔÃ[˝÷„Y Y“]Á◊STˆ c˜c˜O„[˝*'' %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„X TˆFX c˜c˜O„Tˆ V ªRÕÙ ◊[˝`üÁa L◊XΩÃ^Á◊ªK˜_ Â^ c˜Oc˜Á c˜c˜O„[˝c˜O* Y“U] ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„a ]X AEıªR«ÙO ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜Ã^ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ◊TˆX ◊VX Y“ÁUÔXÁ C W˝ÓÁ„X EıÁªRÙOÁXÃ[˝ Zı„_ ◊X∏JÙ_Á `Á◊‹ôˆ C %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ ◊[˝`üÁa Y«Xf Y“ÁS„Eı %◊\ˆ\…ˆTˆ Eı„Ã[˝* USÔ◊c˜_ aÁ„c˜„[˝Ã[˝ AL_Áa c˜c˜O„Tˆ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %Á◊_Y«„Ã[˝ GÁQÕˆ› Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* Ac˜O V„_ ◊ªK˜_ ◊XÃ[˝ÁYV, V›XVÃ^Á_, Âc˜]ªJÙ≥V– VÁa Y“\ ˆ◊Tˆ* c˜Oc˜Á„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Âc˜]ªJÙ≥V– VÁa„Eı ◊ªJÙ◊XTˆÁ], AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ Â]◊VX›Y«„Ã[˝ TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ =◊Pˆ* ÂEı TˆFX

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

15

LÁ◊XTˆ Â^ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y [˝≥V›\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂL„_Ã[˝ Y„U TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ ÂVFÁ c˜c˜O„[˝* %Á◊_Y«„Ã[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]ÓÁ◊L‰∫ƜىªRÙOÃ[˝ ÂEıÁ‰ªRÙO¤ EıTˆl˘S UÁ◊Eı„Tˆ c˜c˜O_, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]ÓÁ◊L‰∫Ɯ٪‰ªRÙOÃ[˝ a∂ˆÇ«„F %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ c˜Á◊LÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O, ÂEı[˝_ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„Tˆ TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ ßE«ı] ◊_FÁc˜OÃ^Á %Á„X* %Á]Ã[˝Á %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ GÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ =◊Pˆ_Á], TˆFX AEıªRÙO› \ˆV–„_ÁEı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO %Á◊aÃ^Á [˝◊_„_X, ""£◊X„Tˆ◊Kª ˜ c˜cO ˜Á[à ˝Á %ÁYXÁÃ[˝ ◊X#¤X EıÁ[à ˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ [˝Ó[˝ÿˆö Á Eı◊[à ˝^à Á‰ªK˜X, ßE«ı] Â_FÁ c˜c˜O„Tˆ‰ªK˜* c˜Ã^Tˆ EıÁc˜ÁÃ[˝C a„Ü ÂVFÁ-aÁl˘Ád Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ◊V„[˝ XÁ* Ac˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ ^◊V [˝ÁQÕˆ›Ã[˝ Â_ÁEı„Eı ◊EıªK«˜ [˝◊_„Tˆ ªJÙÁX, %Á◊] ae[˝ÁV ÂYgϪK˜Ác˜OÃ^Á ◊V[˝*'' %Á◊] TgˆÁc˜Á„Eı W˝XÓ[˝ÁV ◊V_Á], ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^Ác˜Á [˝◊_[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªK˜_, TˆÁc˜Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Á±¡›„Ã^Ã[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á LÁXÁX c˜c˜OÃ^Á◊ªK˜_ [˝◊_Ã^Á TgˆÁc˜Á„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ [˝◊__Á] XÁ* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ÂV„`Ã[˝ Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ ac˜ÁX«\…ˆ◊Tˆ C %^Á◊ªJÙTˆ %X«G–„c˜Ã[˝ V rÙÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝÷„Y Ac˜O HªRÙOXÁÃ[˝ =‰{F Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* TˆdY„Ã[˝ ÂEıÁªRÙO¤ c˜c˜O„Tˆ %Á]Ã[˝Á ÂL„_ ◊GÃ^Á ÂL„_Ã[˝ Eı∂ˆÇÔªJÙÁÃ[˝›G„SÃ[˝ c˜Á„Tˆ a]◊YÔTˆ c˜c˜O* ÂL„_ ªR«Ù◊Eı[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„G %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ÿoˆÁX EıÃ[˝ÁÃ^, ÂL„_Ã[˝ ÂYÁbÁEı YÃ[˝Ác˜OÃ^Á ◊YÃ[˝ÁS, W˝«◊Tˆ, LÁ]Á ae„`Á◊W˝Tˆ Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ _c˜OÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝ ◊VX Y„Ã[˝ %Á]Ã[˝Á ÿoˆÁX Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ÿëˆGÔa«F %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á aEı_„Eı ◊XL ◊XL ◊X◊ŤrÙ H„Ã[˝ ÂYgϪK˜Ác˜OÃ^Á ÂVÃ^, %Á◊]C %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝ÁGÁ„Ã[˝ ªR«Ù◊Eı_Á], l«˘V– H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ GÃ[˝ÁV [˝µ˘ c˜c˜O_* 5c˜O Â] %Á◊_Y«„Ã[˝ EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Áa %ÁÃ[˝êˆ* YÃ[˝[˝daÃ[˝ 6c˜O Â] ◊Xõ ı◊Tˆ YÁc˜O* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝ÁG c˜ªRÙO› XÃ^ Z«ıªRÙO V›HÔ, YgÁªJÙ ªK˜Ã^ Z«ıªRÙO Y“ÿöˆ ◊ªK˜_* c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ LÁXÁ_Á XÁc˜,O a∂ˆÇF« \ˆÁ„G [˝c  ˜d Â_Ác˜Á[à ˝ GÃ[˝ÁV, Ac˜O ◊YtÃ[˝c˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊X◊ŤrÙ [˝ÁaÿöˆÁX c˜c˜O_* H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› l«˘V– =PˆÁX, YÁU„Ã[˝Ã[˝ L◊], c˜O‰ªRÙOÃ[˝ =¨JÙ ÂVCÃ^Á_, aÁ]„X EıÁ‰PˆÃ[˝ VÃ[˝LÁ* Âac˜O VÃ[˝LÁÃ[˝ =Y◊Ã[˝\ˆÁ„G ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ªJÙl«˘Ã[˝ a]ÁX =¨JÙTˆÁÃ^ l«˘V– ÂGÁ_ÁEıÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝„ µ–˘, VÃ[˝LÁ [˝µ˘ c˜c˜O„_ `Á‹óˆ › Ac˜O Ã[˝‰µ–˘ ªJÙl«˘ _ÁGÁc˜OÃ^Á a]Ã^ a]Ã^ ÂV„F, Eı„Ã^V› ◊Eı Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ‰ªK˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =PˆÁ„XÃ[˝ VÃ[˝LÁ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O ÂFÁ_Á UÁ◊EıTˆ* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ªK˜Ã^ªRÙO› HÃ[˝ YÁ`ÁYÁ◊`, Âac˜Om◊_„Eı ªK˜Ã^ ◊Qˆy‘› [˝„_* ◊Qˆy‘›Ã[˝ %UÔ ◊[˝„`b aÁLÁÃ[˝ HÃ[˝ --- ◊[˝ªJÙÁÃ[˝Y◊Tˆ [˝Á ÂL„_Ã[˝ a«YÁ◊Ã[˝„∞RÙO„⯉∞RÙOÃ[˝ ßE«ı„] ^Ác˜Á„VÃ[˝ ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ V⯠◊Xà˘¤Á◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜Ã^ TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝c˜O Ac˜O l«˘V– l«˘V– G‚º˜„Ã[˝ UÁ◊Eı„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Ac˜O ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝C Eı] Â[˝`› %Á‰ªK˜* ^Ác˜Á„VÃ[˝ ◊[˝„`b aÁLÁ c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ =PˆÁ„XÃ[˝ VÃ[˝LÁ [˝µ˘ UÁ„Eı; ]X«bÓ aeaÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„Tˆ a+…SÔ [˝◊á˚Tˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á `Á‹óˆ›Ã[˝ ªJÙl«˘ C Y◊Ã[˝„[˝`XEıÁÃ[˝› Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝ V«„[˝_ÁÃ^ %ÁG]X TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝

16

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

LG„TˆÃ[˝ a„Ü AEı]Áy a∂눵˘* %Á]Á c˜c˜O„TˆC Âc˜]ªJÙ≥V– VÁa ◊a. %Ác˜O. ◊Qˆ.-Ã[˝ %ÁTˆ·¯ÿöˆ_ [˝◊_Ã^Á TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ Ac˜O [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜c˜O_* Ac˜O aÁLÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝C aÁLÁ %Á‰ªK˜, --- c˜Á„Tˆ-YÁ„Ã^ c˜ÁTˆEıQÕˆÁ C Â[˝QÕˆ› Y◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„a UÁEıÁ* Ac˜O ªJÙÃ[˝] `Á◊ÿôˆ ÂEı[˝_ ÂL„_Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ\ˆÜ EıÃ[˝Á [˝Á ]ÁÃ[˝Á]Á◊Ã[˝Ã[˝ LXÓ XÃ^, [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ FÁªªR«ÙO◊X„Tˆ y”ªRÙO› c˜c˜O„_C Ac˜O `Á◊ÿôˆ c˜Ã^* ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ Â]ÁEıÅ]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁaÁ]›„Eı `Á◊ÿôˆÿëˆÃ[˝÷Y Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y EırÙ ÂVCÃ^Á ◊XÃ^]◊[˝Ã[˝”à˘, Tˆ„[˝ ÿ누V`› [˝Á "[˝„≥V-]ÁTˆÃ[˝]À'Eı„Ã^V› ◊XÃ^„]Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝, Y«◊_„aÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜ÁÃ^ TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ LXÓC a«[˝„≥VÁ[˝ÿôˆ c˜Ã^* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ [˝ÁaÿöˆÁX Tˆ Ac˜[ÃO ˝÷Y ◊ªK˜_, aÁL-aÃ[˝tÁ„]Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘C %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ac˜÷V^à Eıw Ô¯Yl˘ %Á◊TˆUÓ adEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ y”ªRÙO› Eı„Ã[˝X XÁc˜O* AEıFÁXÁ UÁ_Á C AEıªRÙO› [˝ÁªRÙO› =PˆÁX„Eı a«„`Á◊\ˆTˆ Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ* =w¯]Ã[˝÷„Y ]ÁLÁ c˜c˜O„_ Ac˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a[[˝ÔÿëˆÿëˆÃ[˝÷Y UÁ_Á-[˝ÁªRÙO›Ã[˝ A]X Ã[˝÷YÁÃ[˝ XÓÁÃ^ ªJÙÁEÀı◊ªJÙEıÓ c˜c˜OTˆ Â^, Y“ÁS L«QÕˆÁc˜OÃ^Á ^Ác˜OTˆ A[˝e Âac˜O ◊X„ŤÁb ◊EıÃ[˝S]Ã^ =#ù_TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó "ÿëˆGÔLÁTˆ' ◊XFg«Tˆ ◊[˝–◊ªRÙO` Ã[˝ÁLTˆ„‹óˆÃ[˝ =Y]Á YÁc˜OÃ^Á Ã[˝ÁL\ˆ◊N˛Ã[˝ ◊X∂ˆÇÔ_ %ÁX≥V %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝TˆÁ]* ÂVÁ„bÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó UÁ_ÁC TˆÁc˜Á [˝«◊MıÃ^Á %ÁX„≥V ATˆ =dZ«ı{ c˜c˜OTˆ Â^, AEıªR«ÙO ÂLÁ„Ã[˝ %ÁÜ«_ ◊V„_c˜O TˆÁc˜Á %ÁÃ[˝[˝›ÿöˆÁ„XÃ[˝ H…SÔÓ]ÁX VÃ[˝„[˝„`Ã[˝ XÓÁÃ^ ]â¯_ÁEıÁ„Ã[˝ X TˆÓ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ UÁ◊EıTˆ, TˆFX AEı c˜Á„Tˆ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á, AEı c˜Á„Tˆ UÁ_Á W˝◊Ã[˝Ã^Á UÁEıÁ ◊\ˆ~ =YÁÃ^ ◊ªK˜_ XÁ* X‰ªJÙd H«Ã[˝YÁEı FÁc˜O„Tˆ FÁc˜O„Tˆ ÂL„_Ã[˝ %T«ˆ_X›Ã^ ]«rÙÓ~ _c˜OÃ^Á TˆÁc˜Á Y_Ác˜OÃ^Á ^Ác˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ =Yy‘] Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ* UÁ_Á c˜c˜O„Tˆ [˝ÁªRÙO›ªRÙO›c˜O %ÁÃ[˝C ◊Y“Ã^ C =YEıÁÃ[˝› ◊L◊Xb ◊ªK˜_* c˜Oc˜Á LQÕˆ YVÁ„UÔÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Â^X ◊[˝–◊ªRÙO` ◊a◊\ˆ◊_Ã^ÁX* ◊a◊\ˆ◊_Ã^Á„XÃ[˝ Â^]X a[[˝ÔEıÁ„^ÔÓ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝LÁTˆ ÈXY«SÓ C Â^ÁGÓTˆÁ %Á‰ªK˜, LL, `ÁaXEıwÔ¯Á, Y«◊_a, £íı◊[˝\ˆÁ„GÃ[˝ EıwÔ¯Á, ◊]=◊X◊aYÓÁ◊_◊ªRÙOÃ[˝ %W˝Ól˘, ◊`l˘Eı, W˝„∂ˆÇÔÁY„VrÙÁ, ^Ác˜Á [˝_, TˆÁc˜Ác˜O [˝◊_[˝Á]Áy c˜c˜„O Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, --- Â^]X TgˆÁc˜Á[à ˝ Y„l˘ TˆV‹ôˆEıÁÃ[˝›, %◊\ˆ„^ÁGEıwÔ¯Á, Y«◊_a ◊[˝ªJÙÁÃ[˝Eı, A]X ◊Eı a]Ã^ a]Ã^ [˝ÁV›Ã[˝ Y„l˘ ÂEıÏXÀ◊a_›Ã[˝C AEı `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ AEı a]„Ã^ Y“›◊Tˆa◊∂ˆÇ_X c˜CÃ^Á a«FaÁW˝Ó, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁV„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝ÁªRÙO›Ã[˝C TˆV–÷Y* [˝ÁªRÙO›Ã[˝ LÁTˆ XÁc˜O, ◊[˝ªJÙÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O, EıÁÃ[˝ÁG „c˜ ^Ác˜OÃ^Á Âac˜O [˝ÁªRÙO›„Tˆ L_ ◊XÃ^Á Â`ϪJÙ◊y‘Ã^Á Eı◊Ã[˝_Á], Âac˜O [˝ÁªRÙO›„Tˆc˜O ]«F W˝«c˜O_Á], ÿoˆÁX Eı◊Ã[˝_Á], %îl˘S Y„Ã[˝ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜c˜O_, Âac˜O [˝ÁªRÙO›„Tˆc˜O QˆÁ_ [˝Á TˆÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝› ÂVCÃ^Á c˜c˜O_, Âac˜O [˝ÁªRÙO›„Tˆc˜O L_YÁX Eı◊Ã[˝_Á] A[˝e %ÁªJÙ]X Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* A]X a[[˝ÔEıÁ^ÔÓl˘] ]…_Ó[˝ÁX [˝ÿô«ˆ c˜OeÃ[˝Á„LÃ[˝ ÂL„_c˜O YÁCÃ^Á aêˆ[˝* [˝ÁªRÙO› %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O aEı_ aÁeaÁ◊Ã[˝Eı =YEıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Â^ÁGaÁW˝„XÃ[˝ =YÁÃ^ ÿëˆÃ[˝÷YC c˜c˜OÃ^Á VÒÁQÕˆÁc˜O_* H SÁ Y◊Ã[˝TˆÓÁ„GÃ[˝ A]X ac˜ÁÃ^ C

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

17

=Y„VrÙÁ ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ YÁc˜O[˝? ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ Y“U] YÁ_ÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ ^FX %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ AEı a„Ü Ã[˝ÁFÁ c˜Ã^, TˆFX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊a◊\ˆ◊_Ã^Á„XÃ[˝ %◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ Y UEı›EıÃ[˝S c˜Ã^, --- Eıw Ô¯Y„l˘Ã[˝Á Â`ϪJÙ◊y‘Ã^ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ =YEıÃ[˝„SÃ[˝ [˝„≥VÁ[˝ÿôˆ Eı„Ã[˝X* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ AEı]ÁaEıÁ„_ ATˆ•ÁÃ[˝Á Ac˜O %^Á◊ªJÙTˆ H SÁ ae^] ◊`l˘Á_Á\ˆ c˜c˜O_* Â`ϪJÙ◊y‘Ã^ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁc˜O Â^X Ac˜O ae^] ◊`l˘ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı _l˘Ó Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ◊[˝◊c˜Tˆ* [˝_Á c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜, ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Áa ◊[˝„`b `Á◊ÿôˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó GSÓ A[˝e Âac˜O `Á◊ÿôˆÃ[˝ ]…_Tˆ√º¯ ^UÁaÁW˝Ó ]X«bÓ aeaGÔ C ]«N˛ %ÁEıÁ` Âa[˝Á [˝#¤X* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ Â`ωªJÙÃ[˝ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜c˜O„_ Ac˜O Tˆ√º¯ \ˆÜ c˜Ã^ [˝◊_Ã^Á H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝c˜O V«c˜OFÁXÁ %Á_ÀEıÁTˆÃ[˝Á ]ÁFÁX ªR«ÙOEıÃ[˝› ÂVCÃ^Á c˜c˜OTˆ* aEıÁ„_ C ◊[˝EıÁ_ Â[˝_ÁÃ^ Â]UÃ[˝ %Á◊aÃ^Á TˆÁc˜Á Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ, Tˆ›[˝– %Á„≥VÁ_X C ]∂ˆÇÔ&`fi [˝N ˛TˆÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„_ %XÓ a]„Ã^C Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á c˜c˜OTˆ, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %a]„Ã^ YÁÃ^FÁXÁÃ^ ÂG„_ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O Y“ÁÃ^◊∏JÙw¯Ã[˝÷„Y Eı„Ã^Eı H∞RÙOÁ V«GÔµ˘ Â\ˆÁG Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ* ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ ◊•Tˆ›Ã^ YÁ_ÁÃ^ Ac˜O a∂누µ˘ EıTˆEıªRÙOÁ ◊Ã[˝ZıÃ[˝]À c˜Ã^, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ c˜OeÃ[˝Á„LÃ[˝ ◊Ã[˝ZıÃ[˝]À c˜c˜O„Tˆ‰ªK˜ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX %Á]„_Ã[˝ ]…_Tˆ√º¯ a+…SÔ [˝LÁÃ^ Ã[˝Á◊FÃ^Á `ÁaXY“SÁ_› ae„`ÁW˝X* [˝_Á [˝Áß_Ó, Ac˜O l«˘V– H„Ã[˝ A]X [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ UÁEıÁÃ^ a[[˝ÔVÁ, ◊[˝„`bTˆf %Ác˜Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a]Ã^ A[˝e Ã[˝Á◊≈y„Tˆ ◊[˝„`b %„aÁÃ^Á◊ÿôˆ Â\ˆÁG Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ* LÁ◊X, Â`Á[˝Á[à ˝ H„Ã[˝[à ˝ YÁ„`üÔ YÁÃ^FÁXÁ [à ˝ÁFÁ, ÿöˆÁ„X ÿöˆÁ„X ◊[˝_ÁTˆ› a\ˆÓTˆÁ[à ˝ %Ü◊[˝„`b, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ AEıªRÙO› l«˘V– H„Ã[˝ Â`Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ HÃ[˝, FÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ HÃ[˝ C YÁÃ^FÁXÁ --- c˜Oc˜Á„Eıc˜O too much of a good thing [˝„_* %Á]Ã[˝Á E«ı-%\ˆÓÁaG–ÿôˆ \ˆÁÃ[˝Tˆ[˝Áa›, a\ˆÓTˆÁÃ[˝ ATˆ =¨JÙ ÂaÁYÁ„X ÂYgϪK˜Á %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ Y„l˘ EırÙEıÃ[˝* G c˜aÁ]G–›Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó %ÁÃ[˝C ◊ªK˜_ AEıªRÙO› ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ [˝Á_ÀTˆ›, L_ Ã[˝Á◊F[˝ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› ◊ªRÙO„XÃ[˝ X_ÁEıÁÃ[˝ [˝Á_ÀTˆ› A[˝e V«ªRÙO› ÂL„_Ã[˝ Eı∂ëˆ_* ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ [˝Á_ÀTˆ› =PˆÁ„X Ã[˝ÁFÁ c˜c˜OTˆ, Âac˜OFÁ„X ÿoˆÁX Eı◊Ã[˝TˆÁ]* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„GÓ Y“U]Tˆf L_EırÙ ◊ªK˜_ XÁ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁc˜Á Y„Ã[˝ Hª◊ªRÙOÃ^Á◊ªK˜_* Y“U]Tˆf YÁ„`üÔÃ[˝ ÂGÁÃ^Á_ H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Eı„Ã^V› ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ a]Ã^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á]Tˆ [˝Á_ÀTˆ›„Tˆ L_ \ˆ◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ◊VTˆ, Âac˜OLXÓ ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ a]Ã^c˜O ÂL„_Ã[˝ TˆYaÓÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“TˆÓc˜ G c˜„ÿöˆÃ[˝ ◊[˝_Áa[˝ ◊w¯ C a«F◊Y“Ã^TˆÁ„Eı T ˆä Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ %[˝aÃ[˝* %YÃ[˝ %ÁaÁ]›„VÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„GÓ c˜Oc˜ÁC H‰ªRÙO XÁc˜O, AEı [˝Á_ÀTˆ›Ã[˝ L„_c˜O TˆÁc˜Á◊VG„Eı Â`ϪJÙ◊y‘Ã^Á, [˝ÁaX ]ÁLÁ C ÿoˆÁX a+~ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ* Â]ÁEıÅ]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁaÁ]› [˝◊_Ã^Á Ac˜O %◊Tˆ]Áy ◊[˝_Áa Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ÂVCÃ^Á c˜c˜OTˆ, Eı„Ã^V›„VÃ[˝ V«c˜O-ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝ [˝ÁªRÙO› L„_ ÿoˆÁX c˜c˜OTˆ* c˜OeÃ[˝Á„LÃ[˝Á [˝„_ \ˆG[˝d ÊY“] C `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÿ눨K˜≥VTˆÁ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O a]ÁX C V«_Ô\ˆ aVÀmS, TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ ÂL„_ Ac˜O LÁTˆ›Ã^ Y“[˝Á„VÃ[˝ ^ÁUÁUÔÓ Ã[˝l˘SÁUÔ

18

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%U[˝Á %◊Tˆ◊Ã[˝N˛ ÿoˆÁXa«„F Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝ %◊X¨K˜ÁL◊XTˆ TˆYaÓÁÃ^ Ã[˝a\ˆÜ \ˆ„Ã^ Ac˜O [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ Y“ªJÙ◊_Tˆ, TˆÁc˜Á ◊XSÔÃ^ EıÃ[˝Á Eı◊PˆX* %ÁaÁ]›Ã[˝Á Eıw Ô¯Yl˘„VÃ[˝ Ac˜O VÃ^Á„Eı EıÁ„EıÃ[˝ ÿoˆÁX [˝◊_Ã^Á TˆÁ◊¨K˜_Ó Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ* ]ÁX«b]Áyc˜O %a„‹ôˆÁb◊Y“Ã^* ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜c˜O„Tˆ YÁX›Ã^ L„_Ã[˝ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝C ªJÙ]dEıÁÃ[˝* TˆFX G–›πÇEıÁ_, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ l«˘V– H„Ã[˝ [˝ÁTˆÁ„aÃ[˝ Y“„[˝` Y“ÁÃ^ ◊X◊bà˘ ◊ªK˜_* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â] ]Á„aÃ[˝ =G– C Y“FÃ[˝ ÂÃ[˝ÏV– %[˝Á„W˝ Y“„[˝` Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ* HÃ[˝ªRÙO› =w¯ä =X«„XÃ[˝ ]Tˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á =◊PˆTˆ* Ac˜O =X«„X ◊aà˘ c˜c˜O„Tˆ c˜c˜O„Tˆ %V]Ó L_T ˆb’Á _ÁH[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ =YÁÃ^ Cc˜O ◊ªRÙO„XÃ[˝ [˝Á_ÀTˆ›Ã[˝ %à˘¤-=b’ L_* [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁc˜Á YÁX Eı◊Ã[˝TˆÁ], T ˆb’Á Tˆ ^Ác˜OTˆc˜O XÁ [˝Ã[˝e ÂÿëˆV ◊XGÔ]X A[˝e %îl˘„S X[˝›\…ˆTˆ T ˆb’Ác˜O _Á\ˆ c˜c˜OTˆ* Tˆ„[˝ AEı AEıL„XÃ[˝ =PˆÁ„X ]ÁªRÙO›Ã[˝ Eı_a› Ã[˝ÁFÁ ◊ªK˜_, TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á Y…[[˝ÔLXΩE ıTˆ TˆYaÓÁ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ◊X„L„Eı W˝XÓ ]Á◊X„TˆX* c˜Oc˜Á„Tˆ ÂHÁÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝”bÁUÔ[˝ÁV›„EıC %V rÙ ]Á◊X„Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Ó c˜c˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^, EıÁc˜ÁÃ[˝C \ˆÁ„GÓ PˆÁâ¯Á L_ L«◊ªRÙOTˆ, EıÁc˜ÁÃ[˝C \ˆÁ„GÓ T ˆb’Á _Á◊GÃ^Ác˜O UÁ◊EıTˆ, a[˝ EıYÁ„_Ã[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝* Eıw Ô¯Y„l˘Ã[˝Á ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ a+…SÔ Yl˘YÁTˆ`…XÓ c˜c˜OÃ^Á Eı_a› [˝Á ◊ªRÙOX ◊[˝TˆÃ[˝S Eı◊Ã[˝„TˆX* Ac˜O ^V ¨K˜Á _Á„\ˆ %Á◊] a‹ô«ˆrÙ c˜c˜O„_ [˝Á XÁ c˜c˜O„_C %Á]ÁÃ[˝ L_EırÙ ÂL„_Ã[˝ ac˜÷VÃ^ QˆÁN˛ÁÃ[˝[˝Á[˝«Ã[˝ %ac˜Ó c˜Ã^* ◊Tˆ◊X Eı_a› Â^ÁGÁQÕˆ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ =„VÓÁG› c˜X, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O a[˝ [˝„≥VÁ[˝‰ÿôˆ TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ c˜ÁTˆ XÁc˜O [˝◊_Ã^Á ◊Tˆ◊X %„XEı ◊VX TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ E ıTˆEıÁ^ÔÓ c˜X XÁc˜O, Â`„b TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝c˜O EıUÁÃ^ ]«FÓ L]ÁVÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁUÁ c˜c˜O„Tˆ Eı_a› %Á◊[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝_* TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ %Á„Gc˜O %Á◊] T ˆb’ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %„XEı ◊V„XÃ[˝ ÂHÁÃ[˝ aeG–Á„] ◊YYÁaÁ]«N˛ c˜c˜OÃ^Á =◊PˆÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á]* Ac˜O Tˆä G „c˜ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂL„_ ÈTˆÃ^ÁÃ[˝› EıÃ[˝Á V«c˜OªRÙO› Â]ÁªRÙOÁ Eı∂ëˆ_c˜O %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ◊[˝ªK˜ÁXÁ* [˝Á◊_a XÁc˜O, EıÁ„Lc˜O AEıªRÙO› Eı∂ëˆ_ YÁ◊TˆÃ^Á %ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› Eı∂ëˆ_ YÁªRÙO Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝Á◊_a [˝ÁXÁc˜OÃ^Á £c˜OTˆÁ]* ^FX GÃ[˝„]Ã[˝ Êzı` %ac˜Ó c˜c˜OÃ^Á %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEıÁ ^Ác˜OTˆ XÁ, TˆFX ]ÁªRÙO›„Tˆ GQÕˆÁc˜OÃ^Á `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ `›Tˆ_ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á %ÁÃ[˝Á] _Á\ˆ Eı◊Ã[˝TˆÁ]* ]ÁTˆÁ [˝a«µ˘Ã[˝ÁÃ[˝ `›Tˆ_ =daÜ &„`ÔÃ[˝ ◊Eı a«F, TˆÁc˜Á TˆFX [˝«◊MıTˆÁ]* Tˆ„[˝ ÂL„_ Âac˜O =daÜ &`Ô [˝QÕˆ ÂEıÁ]_ XÃ^, TˆÅùÁÃ[˝Á ◊XV–ÁÃ[˝ %ÁG]X [˝ÁW˝Á-Y“Áä c˜c˜OTˆ [˝◊_Ã^Á Eı∂누_Ã[˝ `Ã[˝S _c˜O„Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ* Â^ ◊VX [˝ ◊rÙ c˜c˜OTˆ Âa◊VX [˝QÕˆ %ÁX„≥VÃ[˝ ◊VX c˜c˜OTˆ* c˜Oc˜Á„TˆC AEıªRÙO› Ac˜O %a«◊[˝W˝Á ◊ªK˜_ Â^, MıQÕˆ[˝ ◊rÙ c˜c˜O„_c˜O W˝…_Á, YÁTˆÁ C T ˆSa·«¯_ Y“\ˆt„XÃ[˝ TˆÁâ¯[˝ X „TˆÓÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ FgÁªJÙÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ʪK˜ÁªRÙOFÁªRÙO AEıªRÙO› L_Y¿Á[˝X c˜c˜OTˆ* TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ Ã[˝Á◊≈y„Tˆ ◊\ˆLÁ Eı∂ëˆ_ _c˜OÃ^Á H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ„S Y_ÁÃ^X ◊\ˆ~ =YÁÃ^ ◊ªK˜_ XÁ* Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Ac˜O _›_Á ◊[˝„`b aÁÜ c˜c˜O„_C L_Y¿Á◊[˝Tˆ ]ÁªRÙO› ^Tˆl˘S XÁ £EıÁc˜OTˆ TˆTˆl˘S ◊XV–ÁÃ[˝ %Á`Á Y◊Ã[˝TˆÓÁG

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

19

Y…[[˝ÔEı ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁÃ[˝ %Á`“Ã^ _c˜O„Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ, ÂEıXXÁ Â`ϪJÙ◊y‘Ã^ÁÃ[˝ aÁ]G–›Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙOc˜O AEı]Áy £õıÿöˆ_ UÁ◊EıTˆ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Âac˜O ◊V„Eı Eı∂ëˆ_ YÁ◊Tˆ„Tˆ Y“[˝ ◊w¯ c˜c˜OTˆ XÁ* Ac˜O a[˝ %a«◊[˝W˝Á a„√º¯C Mı‰QÕˆÃ[˝ ◊V„X ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Y“ªJ«ÙÃ[˝ [˝ÁTˆÁa %Á◊aTˆ A[˝e H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Âac˜O Tˆä =X«X-TˆÁTˆ ◊[˝V…◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ [˝◊_Ã^Á MıQÕˆ[˝ ◊rÙ„Eı aÁV„Ã[˝ ÿëˆÁGTˆ Eı◊Ã[˝TˆÁ]* %Á◊_Y«Ã[˝ G[˝SÔ„]∞RÙO Âc˜Á‰ªRÙO„_Ã[˝ Â^ [˝SÔXÁ Eı◊Ã[˝_Á], A[˝e \ˆ◊[˝bÓ„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝C Eı◊Ã[˝[˝, TˆÁc˜Á ◊X„LÃ[˝ EırÙ„\ˆÁG p˚ÁYX Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ XÃ^; --- a«a\ˆÓ [˝ ◊ªRÙO` Ã[˝Á„LÓ Â]ÁEıÅ]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁaÁ]›Ã[˝ LXÓ ◊Eı %‡«ˆTˆ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ, ◊X„ŤÁb›Ã[˝ V›HÔEıÁ_[˝ÓÁY› ◊Eı ^‹óˆSÁ c˜c˜O„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, c˜Oc˜Á ÂVFÁc˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ Ac˜O [˝SÔXÁ* Â^ a[˝ Eı‰rÙÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝S ÂVFÁc˜OÃ^Á◊ªK˜, Âa a[˝ ◊ªK˜_ [˝‰ªRÙO, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ VÃ^Á V ◊rÙ ◊ªK˜_ [˝◊_Ã^Á Eı„Ã^Eı◊VX ]Áy Ac˜O EırÙ %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜_Á], TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ --- ◊Eı =YÁ„Ã^ TˆÁc˜Á Y„Ã[˝ [˝◊_[˝ --- ]X Âac˜O V«f„FÃ[˝ %Tˆ›Tˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á EırÙ %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ %a]UÔ c˜c˜OÃ^Á◊ªK˜_* Âac˜OLXÓ ÂL„_Ã[˝ ÿˆÇ ◊Tˆ ]„X =VÃ^ c˜c˜O„_ Ây‘ÁW˝ [˝Á V«fF XÁ c˜c˜OÃ^Á c˜Á◊ac˜O YÁÃ^* ^FX a[[˝ÔY“U] ÂL„_Ã[˝ ◊[˝◊ªJÙy ÂYÁbÁEı Y◊Ã[˝Ã^Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Yt„Ã[˝ ªR«Ù◊EıÃ^Á UÁ◊Eı[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝„≥VÁ[˝ÿôˆ ÂV◊F_Á], TˆFX Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝c˜O ]„X Y“EıÁ` YÁc˜O_* ]„X ]„X c˜Á◊a„Tˆ _Á◊G_Á]* %Á◊] c˜OeÃ[˝ÁL LÁ◊TˆÃ[˝ c˜O◊Tˆc˜Áa C %ÁW˝«◊XEı %ÁªJÙÃ[˝S ◊XÃ[˝›l˘S Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ ◊[˝◊Jª Ùy C [à ˝c˜aÓ]Ã^ Jª Ù◊[à ˝y %„XEı◊VX %Á„G [˝◊« Mı^à Á _c˜^ÃO Á◊ªK˜_Á]; Âac˜LO XÓ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“◊Tˆ TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ ÂV◊FÃ^ÁC ◊EıªK«˜]Áy %Á∏JÙ^ÔÓÁ◊XüTˆ [˝Á V«f◊FTˆ c˜c˜O_Á] XÁ* aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S V ◊rÙ„Tˆ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ Y„l˘ %◊Tˆ`Ã^ %X«VÁÃ[˝ C ◊X≥VX›Ã^* %Á]Ã[˝Á aEı„_ \ˆV–„_Á„EıÃ[˝ a‹ôˆÁX, %„X„Eı L◊]VÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪK˜„_, Eı„Ã^EıLX [˝e„`, ◊[˝VÓÁÃ^, m„S, ªJÙ◊Ã[˝‰y c˜Oe_„â¯Ã[˝ `›bÔÿöˆÁX›Ã^ Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a]Eıl˘* %Á]Ã[˝Á Â^ %◊\ˆ„^Á„G W˝ Tˆ, TˆÁc˜ÁC aÁ]ÁXÓ F«X ªJ«Ù◊Ã[˝ QˆÁEıÁ◊ªTˆ XÃ^; ÂV„`Ã[˝ LXÓ ◊[˝„V`› Ã[˝ÁLY«Ã[˝”b„VÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«à˘-‰ªJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝Á [˝Á a]„Ã[˝Á„VÓÁ„GÃ[˝ bQÕˆ^‹óˆ* TˆÁc˜Á„TˆC %„X„EıÃ[˝ ÂVÁ„bÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘ Y“]Á„SÃ[˝ ◊XTˆÁ‹ôˆ %\ˆÁ[˝, Y«◊_„aÃ[˝ a„≥Vc˜c˜O TˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ W˝ Tˆ c˜c˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ AEı]Áy EıÁÃ[˝S* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ÿöˆ„_ aÁ]ÁXÓ ÊªJÙÁÃ[˝QˆÁEıÁTˆ„VÃ[˝ ]Tˆ Ã[˝ÁFÁ --- ʪJÙÁÃ[˝-QˆÁEıÁTˆ ÂEıX, Y£Ã[˝ XÓÁÃ^ ◊Yt„Ã[˝ Ã[˝Á◊FÃ^Á Y£Ã[˝ %FÁVÓ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ FÁCÃ^ÁX, L_EırÙ, l«˘d◊YYÁaÁ, ÂÃ[˝ÏV–, [˝ ◊rÙ, `›Tˆ ac˜Ó EıÃ[˝ÁX, c˜Oc˜Á„Tˆ [˝ ◊ªRÙO` Ã[˝ÁLY«Ã[˝”b„VÃ[˝ C [˝ ◊ªRÙO` LÁ◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂGÏÃ[˝[˝ [˝ ◊à˘ c˜Ã^ XÁ* c˜Oc˜Á ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TgˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ LÁTˆ›Ã^ ªJÙ◊Ã[˝yGTˆ ÂVÁb* c˜OeÃ[˝ÁL„VÃ[˝ ÂV„c˜ l˘◊≈y„Ã^Á◊ªJÙTˆ mS UÁ◊Eı„_C `y” [˝Á ◊[˝Ã[˝”à˘ÁªJÙÃ[˝SEıÁÃ[˝›Ã[˝ a„Ü [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ÂbÁ_-%ÁXÁ Â[˝„X* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆFXC ◊[˝Ã[˝◊N˛-\ˆÁ[˝ ]„X ÿöˆÁX YÁÃ^ XÁc˜O, [˝Ã[˝e %Á]ÁÃ[˝ C

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[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

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◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝ÁGÁ„Ã[˝c˜O \ˆG[˝d-aÁ◊~„W˝ÓÃ[˝ ªK˜QÕˆÁªK˜◊QÕˆ aêˆ[˝* ÂL_Ã[˝ %Á◊aÃ^Á Eı∂ëˆ_ C UÁ_Á-[˝ÁªRÙO›Ã[˝ [˝„≥VÁ[˝ÿôˆ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ªJÙ◊_Ã^Á ÂG„_ YÃ[˝ %Á◊] Eı∂누_Ã[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ [˝◊aÃ^Á ÂL„_Ã[˝ V `Ó ÂV◊F„Tˆ _Á◊G_Á]* Ac˜O ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Áa _Á_[˝ÁLÁÃ[˝ c˜ÁLTˆ c˜c˜O„Tˆ %„XEı \ˆÁ_ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜c˜O_* ÂaFÁ„X Âac˜O Y“EıÁ⯠H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊X#¤XTˆÁ Â^X ◊[˝`Á_ [˝Y« ªK˜QÕˆÁc˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ %[˝EıÁ` YÁc˜OÃ^Á %ÁÃ[˝C ◊X#¤XTˆÁ [˝ ◊à˘ Eı„Ã[˝* Ac˜OFÁ„X l«˘V– H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂVCÃ^Á_ aÜ›ÿëˆÃ[˝÷Y Â^X ◊XEı‰ªRÙO %Á◊aÃ^Á [˝–°˘]Ã^ c˜c˜OÃ^Á %Á◊_ÜX Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ =VÓTˆ* Âac˜OFÁ„X ÂVÁTˆÁ_ÁÃ[˝ H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %◊Tˆ =¨JÙ LÁXÁ_Á ◊VÃ^Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %ÁEıÁ`C ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, Ac˜O LG„Tˆ GÁªK˜YÁ_Á, ]ÁX«b, Y£-Yl˘›, [˝ÁQÕˆ›-HÃ[˝ Â^ %Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁc˜Á %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıîXÁ EıÃ[˝Á Eı◊PˆX c˜Ã^* Ac˜O ÿöˆÁ„X =PˆÁ„XÃ[˝ VÃ[˝LÁ ÂFÁ_Á UÁEıÁÃ^ GÃ[˝Á„VÃ[˝ ◊XEı‰ªRÙO [˝◊a„_ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ÂL„_Ã[˝ ÂFÁ_Á LÁÃ^GÁ C Eı„Ã^V›„VÃ[˝ ^ÁTˆÁÃ^ÁTˆ ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^* =PˆÁ„XÃ[˝ ÂVCÃ^Á„_Ã[˝ GÁ„Ã^ AEıªRÙO› [˝ l˘ ◊ªK˜_, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^XÃ[˝tEı X›◊_]ÁÃ^ Y“ÁS L«QÕˆÁc˜OTˆÁ]* ªK˜Ã^ ◊Qˆy‘›Ã[˝ ªK˜Ã^ªRÙO› H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ aÁ]„X Â^ `Á‹óˆ› H«◊Ã[˝Ã^Á UÁ„Eı, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ ]«F C YV`å %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ Y◊Ã[˝◊ªJÙTˆ [˝µ«˘Ã[˝ ÂHÁÃ[˝Á„ZıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ◊Y“Ã^ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜c˜OTˆ* H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ YÁ`üÔ[˝w¯fi ÂGÁÃ^Á_H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝Á H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a∂ˆÇ«F ◊VÃ^Á GÃ[˝” ªJÙÃ[˝Ác˜O„Tˆ _c˜OÃ^Á ^Ác˜OTˆ* GÃ[˝” C ÂGÁYÁ_ ◊XTˆÓ ◊Y“Ã^ V `Ó ◊ªK˜_* %Á◊_Y«„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„a %Y…[[˝Ô ÊY“]◊`l˘Á YÁc˜O_Á]* Ac˜OFÁ„X %Á◊a[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„G ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ]„W˝ÓC %Á]ÁÃ[˝ [˝Ó◊N˛GTˆ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ %◊Tˆ`Ã^ l«˘V– G⯛„Tˆ %Á[˝à˘ ◊ªK˜_ A[˝e Y£-Yl˘›Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ Ã[˝”à˘ ÊY“]‰ÿɈÁTˆ Y“ÁÃ^ [˝◊c˜Tˆ XÁ* ]„X %Á‰ªK˜ Ã[˝◊[˝ [˝Á[˝«Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› Eı◊[˝TˆÁÃ^ ]◊c˜„bÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ G–Á]Ó [˝Á_„EıÃ[˝ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ [˝QÕˆ a«≥VÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ [˝◊SÔTˆ %Á‰ªK˜, Âac˜O Eı◊[˝TˆÁ Y“U] Y◊QÕˆ^à Á ◊EıKª ˜« „Tˆc˜O TˆÁc˜Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ c˜÷V^à Ü] c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O, \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ [˝SÔXÁÃ^ %◊Tˆ`„Ã^Á◊N˛ C %ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝EıTˆÁ ÂVÁb ÂV◊FÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á]* AFX Y◊QÕˆ„_ TˆÁc˜Á %XÓ ªJÙ„l˘ ÂV◊FTˆÁ]* %Á◊_Y«„Ã[˝ [˝◊aÃ^Á [˝«◊Mı„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝_Á], a[[˝ÔY“EıÁÃ[˝ L›„[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Y“Á„S ◊Eı G\ˆ›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ ÿöˆÁX YÁc˜O„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, GÃ[˝”, YÁF›, ◊YY›◊_EıÁ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ÂV◊FÃ^Á ◊Eı Tˆ›[˝– %ÁX≥V ÿˆè«ıÃ[˝„S ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Y“ÁS %◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ Y“U] ◊VX `Á◊‹ôˆ„Tˆ EıÁ◊ªRÙOÃ^Á ÂG_* a[˝c˜O X…TˆX, TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ ]„X ÿˆè…ı◊wÔ¯ c˜c˜O_* _Á_[˝ÁLÁÃ[˝ c˜ÁL„TˆÃ[˝ a„Ü T«ˆ_XÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Tˆc˜O Y“›◊Tˆ_Á\ˆ Eı◊Ã[˝_Á] A[˝e \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ ◊ªK˜_ [˝◊_Ã^Á AFÁ„X ◊X#¤XTˆÁ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O* ÂL„_Ã[˝ %Ác˜Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %‡«ˆTˆ ʪJÙc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ÂV◊FÃ^ÁC Ac˜O \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ [˝ÓÁHÁTˆ c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O* Â]ÁªRÙOÁ \ˆÁTˆ, TˆÁc˜Á„TˆC ÂFÁ_Á, Eı·¯Ã[˝, ÂYÁEıÁ, ªJ«Ù_, ]Ã^_Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V EıTˆ Y“EıÁÃ[˝

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[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

]`_Á ÂVCÃ^Á, --- ÿëˆÁVc˜›X QˆÁ„_ L„_Ã[˝ \ˆÁG %◊W˝Eı, TˆÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝›Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó HÁaYÁTˆÁ £à˘ `ÁEı* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ Â^ ATˆ ÿëˆÁVc˜›X C ◊XfaÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, TˆÁc˜Á %Á◊] %Á„G LÁ◊XTˆÁ] XÁ* Ac˜O `Á„EıÃ[˝ ◊[˝]bÔ GÁªRÕÙ E ıb’ ]…◊wÔ¯ ÂV◊FÃ^Ác˜O \ˆÃ^ YÁc˜O_Á], V«c˜O G–Áa FÁc˜OÃ^Á TˆÁc˜Á„Eı \ˆ◊N˛Y…SÔ X]ïıÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝#¤X Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* aEı_ Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ„GÓ AEıc˜O TˆÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝› ÂLÁ‰ªRÙO, A[˝e AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX Y“EıÁÃ[˝ TˆÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝› %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜c˜O„_ TˆÁc˜Á %X‹ôˆEıÁ_ ªJÙ◊_„Tˆ UÁ„Eı* Ac˜O a]Ã^ `Á„EıÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁL±ºˆ ◊ªK˜_* ◊VX ^ÁÃ^, Yl˘ ^ÁÃ^, ]Áa ^ÁÃ^, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ V«„[˝_Á `Á„EıÃ[˝ TˆÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝›, B QˆÁ_, B \ˆÁTˆ* ◊L◊XbªRÙOÁ [˝V_ÁX V…„Ã[˝Ã[˝ EıUÁ, ʪJÙc˜ÁÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝C Â_`]Áy Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ B ◊XTˆÓ aXÁTˆX %XÁVÓX‹ôˆ %Y◊Ã[˝SÁ]ÁTˆ›Tˆ %◊•Tˆ›Ã^ Ã[˝÷Y* V«c˜O aµ˘ÓÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Óc˜O Eı„Ã^V›„Eı Ac˜O X`üÃ[˝ ]ÁÃ^ÁLG„TˆÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁ◊Ã^±ºˆ a∂누µ˘ Y“Tˆ›◊Tˆ LXΩÁc˜O„[˝* Ac˜O ◊[˝b„Ã^C %XÓ %ÁaÁ]› c˜c˜O„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁGÓ a«Y“a~ ◊ªK˜_, TˆÁc˜ÁC QˆÁN˛ÁÃ[˝[˝Á[˝«Ã[˝ VÃ^ÁÃ^* ◊Tˆ◊X %Á]ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ c˜ÁaYÁTˆÁ_ c˜c˜O„Tˆ V«„W˝Ã[˝ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜„_X, Tˆ•ÁÃ[˝Á Eı„Ã^Eı◊VX `ÁEı-V`ÔX c˜c˜O„Tˆ Y◊Ã[˝yÁS YÁc˜OÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á]* Âac˜O Ã[˝Á‰y aEıÁ_ aEıÁ_ H«]Ác˜O_Á], ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ◊X◊∏JÙ‹ôˆ ◊XV–Á„\ˆÁG EıÃ[˝Á ◊X#¤X EıÁÃ[˝Á[˝Á„aÃ[˝ ◊XÃ^] XÃ^, TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝ a«F◊Y“Ã^TˆÁ LÁ◊G„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* Âac˜O LXÓ Ac˜O ◊XÃ^] %Á‰ªK˜ Â^, ^Tˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ YÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á [˝V_ÁÃ^, TˆTˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^V›„Eı QˆÁEı cg˜ÁEı Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á =PˆÁc˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^, aÁQÕˆÁ XÁ ◊V„_ ªK˜Á◊QÕˆ„Tˆ XÁc˜O* ^gÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ^gÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ªK˜Ã^ ◊Qˆy‘›„Tˆ YÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ◊V„TˆX, TgˆÁc˜Á„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %„X„Eı Ac˜O EıwÔ¯[˝ÓYÁ_„X ◊[˝]«F ◊ªK˜„_X, --◊aYÁc˜›„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“ÁÃ^c˜O Eı‰PˆÁÃ[˝ EıwÔ¯[˝Ó p˚ÁX %„Yl˘Á VÃ^Á C ac˜ÁX«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ %◊W˝Eı ◊ªK˜_, ◊[˝„`bTˆf ◊c˜≥V«ÿöˆÁX›„VÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y* Eı„Ã^EıLX ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ªK˜Á‰QÕˆ XÁc˜O* TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á %Á]Á◊VG„Eı Ac˜OÃ[˝÷„Y =PˆÁc˜OÃ^Á Ac˜O E«ı`_ ae[˝ÁV ◊Lp˚ÁaÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ, ""[˝Á[˝« \ˆÁ_ %Á‰ªK˜X Tˆ?'' Ac˜O %a]Ã^ Ã[˝c˜aÓ a[˝ a]Ã^ Y“›◊TˆEıÃ[˝ c˜c˜OTˆ XÁ, Tˆ„[˝ [˝«◊Mı_Á] ^Ác˜ÁÃ[˝Á Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ‰ªK˜ TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á aÃ[˝_\ˆÁ„[˝ ◊XÃ^] [˝◊_Ã^Á %Á]Á◊VG„Eı =PˆÁc˜O„Tˆ‰ªK˜* Eı„Ã^Eı◊VX ◊[˝Ã[˝N˛ c˜c˜OÃ^ÁC c˜Oc˜Á ac˜Ó Eı◊Ã[˝_Á], Â`„b ◊XV–Á Ã[˝l˘ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ W˝]Eı ◊V„Tˆ c˜c˜O_* V«c˜O ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ W˝]Eı ◊V[˝ÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ ÂV◊F_Á], Ã[˝Á‰y E«ı`_ ae[˝ÁV ÂXCÃ^Á Y“UÁ %ÁY◊Xc˜O =◊PˆÃ^Á ÂG_* YÃ[˝◊VX aEıÁ„_ Jª ÙÁ◊Ã[˝Rª ÙÁO [˝Á◊LÃ^Á Y„XÃ[˝ ◊]◊X‰ªRÙO ÂL„_Ã[˝ H∞RÙÁO [˝Á◊L_* Eı„^à V›„VÃ[˝ =PˆÁc˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ Ac˜O Y“U] H∞RÙOÁ* Eı„Ã^Eı ◊]◊XªRÙO YÃ[˝ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ H∞RÙOÁ [˝Á„L, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝Á ZıÁc˜O„_ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ %Á„a, c˜ÁTˆ ]«F W˝«c˜OÃ^Á _ZÀıa› FÁc˜OÃ^Á FÁªªR«ÙO◊X %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝* ATˆ H∞RÙOÁ [˝ÁLÁ„XÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó H«] c˜CÃ^Á %aêˆ[˝ [˝«◊MıÃ^Á %Á◊]C =◊Pˆ_Á]*

EıÁÃ[˝ÁEıÁ◊c˜X›

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5ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ GÃ[˝ÁV ÂFÁ_Á c˜Ã^, %Á◊] c˜ÁTˆ-]«F W˝«c˜OÃ^Á %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ H„Ã[˝ [˝◊a_Á]* %îl˘S Y„Ã[˝ _ZÀıa› %Á]ÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝LÁÃ^ c˜Á◊LÃ[˝ c˜c˜O_ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Âac˜O ◊VX TˆÁc˜Á FÁc˜O XÁc˜O, ÂEı[˝_ TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ ªJÙÁl«˘b Y◊Ã[˝ªJÙÃ^ c˜c˜O_* c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^Eı◊VX Y„Ã[˝ Y“U][˝ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O YÃ[˝]Á~ Â\ˆÁG c˜Ã^* _ZÀıa›Ã[˝ %UÔ ÂZı„XÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ ◊aà˘ \ˆÁTˆ, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝ ʪK˜ÁªRÙO c˜ÁLÃ[˝›* _ZÀıa›Ã[˝ ◊≈y]…◊wÔ¯ [˝Á ◊TˆX %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á‰ªK˜* Y“U] ◊VX _ZÀıa›Ã[˝ Y“Áp˚\ˆÁ[˝, %◊]◊`“Tˆ ]…_YVÁUÔ, £à˘ ◊`[˝ £}]…◊wÔ¯* ◊•Tˆ›^à ◊VX _ZÀıa›Ã[˝ ◊c˜[à ˝SÓG\ˆ,¤ QˆÁ„_ ◊aà˘, ◊FªJ«Ù◊QÕˆ XÁ„] %◊\ˆ◊c˜Tˆ, Y›Tˆ[˝SÔ, XÁXÁ W˝]Ôa·«¯_* T ˆTˆ›Ã^ ◊V„X _ZÀıa›Ã[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO ]…◊wÔ¯ %î m‰QÕˆ ◊]◊`“Tˆ, W˝…aÃ[˝ [˝SÔ, ◊EıÃ^d Y◊Ã[˝]Á„S ]X«„bÓÃ[˝ [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ Â^ÁGÓ* %Á◊] Y“Áp˚ C ◊c˜Ã[˝SÓG\ˆ¤ Âa[˝X aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]Tˆ¤Ó ]X«„bÓÃ[˝ %Tˆ›Tˆ [˝◊_Ã^Á TˆÓÁG Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜_Á], AEı AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝Á‰ªRÙOÃ[˝ V«G–Áa =VÃ[˝ÿöˆ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝ ◊ªRÙO` Ã[˝ÁL„±ºˆÃ[˝ XÁXÁ aVÀmS C YÁ∏JÙÁTˆÓ a\ˆÓTˆÁÃ[˝ =¨JÙ V„Ã[˝Ã[˝ humanitarianism \ˆÁ◊[˝„Tˆ \ˆÁ◊[˝„Tˆ %ÁX„≥V ]G¬ c˜c˜OTˆÁ]* [˝_Á =◊ªJÙTˆ _ZÀıa›c˜O [˝ÁÜÁ_› Eı„Ã^V›Ã[˝ AEı]Áy Y«◊rÙEıÃ[˝ %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝, %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝c˜O aÁÃ[˝`…XÓ* TˆÁc˜Á c˜c˜O„_C [˝Á ◊Eı c˜c˜O„[˝? TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Â^Ã[˝÷Y ÿëˆÁV, TˆÁc˜Á ÂEı[˝_ l«˘W˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙÁ‰ªRÙOc˜O FÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜ÁC ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á, ]X„Eı EıTˆ [˝«MıÁc˜OÃ^Á Tˆ„[˝ FÁc˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Âa◊VX aÁ‰QÕˆ AGÁÃ[˝ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ ÿoˆÁX Eı◊Ã[˝_Á]* Y“U] ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝ YgÁªJÙ ◊VX [˝ÁQÕˆ› c˜c˜O„Tˆ ^Ác˜Á Y◊Ã[˝Ã^Á %Á◊aÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á], TˆÁc˜Ác˜O Y◊Ã[˝Ã^Á UÁ◊Eı„Tˆ c˜c˜O_* Tˆ„[˝ ÿoˆÁ„XÃ[˝ a]Ã^ Â^ ÂGÁÃ^Á_H„Ã[˝[à ˝ [˝à  ˘ Eı„^à V› CÃ^ÁQÔˆÁ[à ˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ [à ˝l˘SÁ„[˝l˘„S ◊X^«N˛ c˜c˜^ÃO Á◊ªK˜„_X ◊Tˆ◊X AEıRª Ù›O A◊â¯[à ˝ ÂVQÕˆ c˜ÁTˆ Jª ÙCQÕˆÁ EıÁYQÕˆ Â^ÁGÁQÕˆ Eı◊[à ˝^à Á◊ªK˜„_X, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ AEı]Áy [˝ÿóˆ £EıÁX Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ c˜Oc˜Á Y◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝◊aÃ^Á UÁ◊EıTˆÁ]* %Á]ÁÃ^ EıÁYQÕˆ EıÁ◊ªJÙ„Tˆ [˝Á [˝ÁaX ]Á◊L„Tˆ c˜c˜OTˆ XÁ, ÂGÁÃ^Á_H„Ã[˝Ã[˝ AEıLX Eı„Ã^V› c˜Oc˜Á Eı◊Ã[˝Tˆ* AGÁÃ[˝ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ FÁCÃ^Á* H„Ã[˝ ªJ«ÙYQÕˆ›Ã[˝ aÁ◊~W˝Ó [˝#¤X Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ G–›„πÇÃ[˝ ÂÃ[˝ÏV– ac˜Ó Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Y“ÁÃ^c˜O =PˆÁ„X FÁc˜OTˆÁ]* `Á‹óˆ›C c˜Oc˜Á„Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Á ◊V„TˆX XÁ* aµ˘ÓÁÃ[˝ FÁCÃ^Á YgÁªJÙªRÙOÁ, aÁ‰QÕˆ YgÁªJÙªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ c˜c˜OTˆ* TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ GÃ[˝ÁV ÂFÁ_Á ◊X◊bà˘ ◊ªK˜_* aÁTˆªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ aµ˘ÓÁÃ[˝ H∞RÙOÁ [˝Á„L* ]«FÓ L]ÁVÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^V› CÃ^ÁQÔˆÁÃ[˝„VÃ[˝ AEıy Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á =ͨJÙfÿ누Ã[˝ XÁ] Y◊QÕˆÃ^Á ^ÁX, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ aEı„_ ÿëˆ ÿëˆ ÿöˆÁ„X ^ÁÃ^* `“Á‹ôˆ Eı„Ã^V› ◊XV–ÁÃ[˝ `Ã[˝S _c˜OÃ^Á ÂL„_Ã[˝ Âac˜O AEı]Áy a«F %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* Ac˜O a]Ã^ V«[[˝Ô_‰ªJÙTˆÁ ◊X„LÃ[˝ V«\ˆ¤ÁGÓ [˝Á \ˆ◊[˝bÓd ÂL_V«fF \ˆÁ◊[˝Ã^Á EgıÁ„V* \ˆG[˝‡ˆN˛, X›Ã[˝[˝ Ã[˝Á◊≈y„Tˆ X◊[˝e` `TˆÁ囄Tˆ %Á]Ã[˝Á }Á‹ôˆ ◊`l˘ÁÃ^ %ÁYXÁ◊VG„Eı %aÁÃ[˝ C %X«Y„^ÁG› [˝◊_Ã^Ác˜O ◊[˝`üÁa Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ◊`◊FÃ^Á◊ªK˜_Á]* %ÁL Âa }] %YGTˆ* %ÁL %Á]Ã[˝Á [˝«◊MıÃ^Á◊ªK˜, A LÁ◊TˆÃ[˝ L›[˝X&≥VX [˝µ˘ c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O --- A LÁ◊Tˆ L›◊[˝Tˆ* Ac˜O %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆc˜O LÁTˆ›Ã^ =~◊TˆÃ[˝ Y„l˘ ^„UrÙ* %ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆc˜O %Á]Á◊VG„Eı =~◊TˆÃ[˝ YUÁÃ[˝÷ªRÕÙ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Ã[˝ÁLX›◊Tˆ„l˘‰y Â]Ál˘_Á„\ˆ al˘] Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝* A %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ --- %ÁL ^FX =~◊Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ç˘ TˆFX --- Â^ÁGÓTˆÁ-◊[˝ªJÙÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ªK˜_ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á =~◊TˆÃ[˝ G◊Tˆ [˝µ˘ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^Á ]…‰ªRÕÙÃ[˝ EıÁ^ÔÓ* %ÁL LÁTˆ›Ã^ L›[˝„X Â^ a]Ã^ =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ Âa a]„Ã^Ã[˝ G◊Tˆ Ã[˝”à˘ c˜c˜O„_ %Á]Ã[˝Á =~◊TˆÃ[˝ Y„U ◊YªK˜Ác˜OÃ^Á Y◊QÕˆ[˝ --- %G–aÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝[˝ XÁ* a«TˆÃ[˝Áe %Á]Á◊VG„Eı %G–aÃ[˝c˜O c˜c˜O„Tˆ c˜c˜O„[˝; `·¯ÁÃ^ [˝Á a„≥V„c˜ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜c˜OÃ^Á ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ C W˝›Ã[˝Y„V EıwÔ¯[˝ÓY„U %G–aÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^Ác˜O %ÁL %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ EıwÔ¯[˝Ó*

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164

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UÁ„Eı* ÂEıÁX ◊[˝`◊ü [˝VÓÁ_„Ã^[à ˝ a\ˆÁ^à Y“W˝ÁX]‹óˆ› ◊]rÙÁ[à ˝ [˝ÓÁ_„ZıÁ[à ˝ ÂGÁ_]Á„_ [˝N˛  TˆÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝X XÁc˜O, Â`„b V«c˜OLX ªK˜Áy XÁÃ[˝› Â[˝„` ]„á˚ =◊PˆÃ^Á TgˆÁc˜Á„Eı L«TˆÁÃ[˝ ]Á_Á =Yc˜ÁÃ[˝ ÂVÃ^* ◊Tˆ◊X c˜Á◊a„Tˆ c˜Á◊a„Tˆ Âa =Yc˜ÁÃ[˝ G–c˜S Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜„_X* %ÁÃ[˝ AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ªK˜ÁyGS ÂEıÁX [˝N˛ÁÃ[˝ [˝N ˛TˆÁÃ^ %a‹ô«ˆrÙ c˜c˜OÃ^Á ]ÁÃ[˝Á]Á◊Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ C Y«◊_a„Eı ◊[˝b] Y“c˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* ◊[˝ªJÙÁ„Ã[˝ ªK˜Áy◊V„GÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXÃ[˝÷Y V⯠c˜Ã^ XÁc˜O* %Á]Ã[˝Á %[˝`Ó A]X EıUÁ [˝◊_ XÁ Â^, %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ÂV„` [à ˝ÁLX›◊TˆEı %Á„≥VÁ_„X a\ˆÁa◊]◊Tˆ„Tˆ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ªJÙÁá˚_Ó %ÁÃ[˝ç˘ c˜=Eı* %Á]Ã[˝Á Ac˜O EıUÁ [˝◊_„Tˆ ªJÙÁ◊c˜ Â^, Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ªJÙÁá˚„_Ó ÿëˆÁÃ^w¯`ÁaX _Á„\ˆ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %„^ÁGÓTˆÁ Y“◊TˆY~ c˜Ã^ XÁ; YÃ[˝‹ô«ˆ c˜Oc˜Á L›[˝„XÃ[˝ _l˘S* [˝Ã[˝e c˜Oc˜Á„Tˆ Y“◊TˆY~ c˜Ã^ Â^, %Á]Ã[˝Á ^«G[˝ÓÁY›-LQÕˆ±ºˆ-`ÁY]«N˛ c˜c˜OÃ^Á X[˝›X =VÓ„] X[˝›X `◊N˛„Tˆ X…Tˆ X Eı∂ˆÇÔ„l˘‰y Y“„[˝` Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ◊ªK˜*

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""W˝∂ˆÇÔ'' Y◊≈yEıÁÃ[˝ a+ÁVEı›Ã^

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C [˝ßL„XÃ[˝ YÃ[˝Á]`Ô ◊XSfiTˆ Y„U Èa„XÓÃ[˝ XÓÁÃ^ ` Ö_Á C [˝ÁW˝ÓTˆÁ, c˜cO ˜Ác˜O Y“LÁTˆ„‹ó ˆEıÁ^ÔÓ◊a◊à˘Ã[˝ Y“E ıTˆ =YÁÃ^* %TˆA[˝ ßG_› %◊W˝„[˝`„X c˜Oc˜Ác˜O Y“U] =Y_◊ç˘ c˜Ã^ Â^, LÁTˆ›Ã^ Yl˘ AEı [˝da„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊XG–c˜ C \ˆÃ^ Y“V`Ô„X %◊W˝Eı [˝_Á◊XüTˆ C ` Ö_ÁY“Áä c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜* c˜Oc˜Á ATˆ◊V„XÃ[˝ %‹ôˆ◊XÔ◊c˜Tˆ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ◊[˝EıÁ`* ◊•Tˆ›Ã^ Zı_ ]W˝ÓY‹öˆ›„VÃ[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ EıÁ„^ÔÓ Y“EıÁ` c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜* TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á `ÁaXaeïıÁÃ[˝-Y“ÿôˆÁ[˝ G–c˜S Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X, Âa aeïıÁÃ[˝ ◊X„ŤÁb c˜=Eı [˝Á a„VÁb c˜=Eı, ÂV„`Ã[˝ ◊c˜TˆEıÃ[˝ c˜=Eı [˝Á %◊c˜TˆEıÃ[˝ c˜=Eı, TˆÁc˜Á aeïıÁÃ[˝ XÁ„] %◊\ˆ◊c˜Tˆ, %TˆA[˝ G–c˜S›Ã^; TˆÁc˜Á _QÔˆ ]Ã[˝_›Ã[˝ Y“a…Tˆ ]ÁXa-a‹ôˆÁX, %TˆA[˝ G–c˜S›Ã^; Y«Ã[˝ÁEıÁ„_Ã[˝ Eıe‰G–„aÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙÃ[˝[˝Á◊s˙Tˆ V«_Ô\ˆ ÿëˆY¬, %TˆA[˝ G–c˜S›Ã^; =YÃ[˝‹ô«ˆ ]Ã[˝_›-◊Ã[˝YX-Y“a…Tˆ ÿöˆÁX›Ã^ ÿëˆÁ^à w¯`Áa„XÃ[˝ Jª Ù[à ˝] %[˝ÿˆö Á %ÁXÃ^„X Y“◊Tˆp˚Á[˝à˘, %TˆA[˝ G–c˜S›Ã^* TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ LÁTˆ›Ã^ AEıTˆÁÃ[˝ %Á`Á _«äY“ÁÃ^ c˜=Eı [˝Á XÁ c˜=Eı, ÂXTˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ÿëˆY¬ \ˆÁ◊I¯[˝ÁÃ[˝ X„c˜* [˝Ã^EıªRÙO„Eı ◊[˝bÃ[˝◊c˜Tˆ ÊY“]]Ã^ ÿ누V`›„Tˆ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ EıÃ[˝ÁC ÂXTˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ %◊\ˆa◊µ˘* ÿëˆÃ^e a\ˆÁY◊Tˆ ]c˜Á`Ã^ Â`l˘Y›Ã[˝„Eı Y“]ÁS Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á [˝Ã^EıªRÙO XÁ] [˝Ã^EıªRÙO Eı◊Ã[˝[˝Á[à ˝ YÃ[˝Á]`Ô ◊V„_X, YÁ‰ªK˜ ]Ã[˝_›-]QˆÁ„Ã[˝‰Rª Ù[ÃO ˝ ◊]_X]◊≥V„Ã[˝ ◊[˝„•b-[˝◊c˜‘ Y“„[˝` Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á a[˝ \ˆÿˆÇaÁd Eı„Ã[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ Â[˝ÁMıÁ ÂG_ Â^ ]W˝ÓY‹öˆ› ÂXTˆÁGS È[˝W˝ Y“◊Tˆ„Ã[˝ÁW˝ Y◊Ã[˝TˆÓÁG Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ E ıTˆa·¯î* [˝Áÿôˆ◊[˝Eı ◊]_X ^FX c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜, `ÁaX aeïıÁÃ[˝ ^FX G c˜›Tˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜, TˆFX Y“◊Tˆ„Ã[˝Á„W˝Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á[˝`ÓEıTˆÁ ÂEıÁUÁÃ^? ◊[˝Y„l˘ ◊[˝Y„l˘ Y“◊Tˆ„Ã[˝ÁW˝ aêˆ[˝, ÊY“◊]„Eı ÊY“◊]„Eı Y“ÁUÔXÁ %◊\ˆ]ÁX C l˘◊SEı ]„XÁ]Á◊_XÓc˜O Â`Á\ˆÁ YÁÃ^* Ac˜O Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX-X›◊TˆÃ[˝ Y«XfaeÿöˆÁY„XÃ[˝ Zı_, ÂXTˆÁGS EıXÀ„\ˆ≥aX„Eı %ÁÃ[˝C V ªRÕÙ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á %Á◊_ÜX Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Ã[˝◊c˜Ã^Á‰ªK˜X, ]ÁV–Á„L [˝Ã^EıªRÙO [˝#¤X Eı◊Ã[˝„_ a«„Ã[˝≥V–XÁU EıXÀ„\ˆ≥aX TˆÓÁG Eı◊Ã[˝„[˝X [˝◊_Ã^Á Eı„Ã^EıLX Â^ %Á`Á ÂYÁbS Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜„_X, Âac˜O %Á`Á ◊[˝XrÙ c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜* ÂEı[˝_ AEıªRÙO› ◊[˝b„Ã^ AFXC a„≥Vc˜ [˝wÔ¯]ÁX, LÁTˆ›Ã^ ]c˜Áa\ˆÁÃ[˝ Y«XfaeÿöˆÁYX aêˆ[˝ XÁ %aêˆ[˝? AEıY„l˘ Y“Á„V◊`Eı a◊]◊TˆÃ[˝ %◊W˝„[˝`„X ÂVFÁ ÂG_ Â^, a\ˆÁÃ^ ÂEıÁX Y…SÔ LÁTˆ›Ã^\ˆÁ[˝ Y“EıÁ`Eı Y“ÿôˆÁ[˝ G c˜›Tˆ c˜c˜O„_ %Á]Ã[˝Á a◊]◊Tˆ \ˆÁ◊ÜÃ^Á a◊Ã[˝Ã^Á Y◊QÕˆ[˝, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ]W˝ÓY‹öˆ›◊V„GÃ[˝ V ªRÕÙa·¯î c˜c˜OÃ^Á‰ªK˜* TˆÁc˜Á ^◊V c˜Ã^, Tˆ„[˝ Y“E ıTˆ BEıÓ %aêˆ[˝* c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁdY^ÔÓ ◊Eı? Y…SÔ Ã[˝ÁLY«Ã[˝”b-\ˆ◊N˛-Y“EıÁ`Eı ÂEıÁXC Y“ÿôˆÁ[˝ =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ c˜c˜O„_ LÁTˆ›Ã^ Yl˘ TˆÁc˜Á G–c˜S Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Ó, ^Tˆ ◊Xπèı_ Y“ÁUÔXÁ, Y“◊Tˆ[˝ÁV, ◊X„[˝VX G–c˜S Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Ó, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Y…SÔ LÁTˆ›Ã^ \ˆÁ[˝[˝ÓtEı Y“ÿôˆÁ[˝ G c˜›Tˆ c˜c˜O„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* Ac˜O a„wÔ¯ ÂEıÁX Y“[˝_ C [˝à˘¤X`›_ V_ a◊]◊Tˆ„Tˆ UÁ◊Eı„Tˆ a∂ˆÇTˆ c˜c˜O„[˝ XÁ, ◊[˝„`bTˆf

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[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

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""W˝∂ˆÇÔ'' Y◊≈yEıÁÃ[˝ a+ÁVEı›Ã^

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XÁ* Eı„[˝ ÂEıÁXÀ %Tˆ◊EÔıTˆ V«◊[[˝ÔYÁ„Eı [˝Ü„V„`Ã[˝ BEıÓ ◊ªK˜~◊\ˆ~ c˜c˜O„[˝, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ◊ÿöˆ[à ˝TˆÁ XÁc˜*O ]c˜Á[à ˝Ár—Ù, ]ÁV–ÁL, ^«N˛Y“„V` C YtÁ„[˝[à ˝ LÁTˆ›^à Yl˘ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]«„FÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ªJÙÁ◊c˜Ã^Á Ã[˝◊c˜Ã^Á‰ªK˜X* [˝Ü„V` \ˆÁÃ[˝„TˆÃ[˝ ÂXTˆÁ, [˝Ü„V„`Ã[˝ V ªRÕÙTˆÁ, aÁc˜a C Eı∂ˆÇÔE«ı`_TˆÁÃ^ a]ÿôˆ \ˆÁÃ[˝„TˆÃ[˝ =à˘ÁÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„[˝, X‰ªJÙd c˜CÃ^Á %aêˆ[˝* %TˆA[˝ %Á]Ã[˝Á LÁTˆ›Ã^ V_„Eı %Á‚º˜ÁX Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ◊ªK˜, AFX EıÁ^ÔÓ„l˘‰y %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S Eı◊Ã[˝; \ˆÃ^, %Á_aÓ, ◊X‰∏JÙrÙTˆÁ ÂV„`Ã[˝ LXÓ =daGfiE ıTˆ Y“ÁS aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ aÁ„L XÁ, ÂV`]Ã^ LÁTˆ›Ã^ \ˆÁ[˝ Y“[˝_\ˆÁ„[˝ LÁG–Tˆ c˜c˜O„Tˆ‰ªK˜, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Eı∂ˆÇÔ•ÁÃ[˝Á Y“E ıTˆ %Á^ÔÓa‹ôˆÁX [˝◊_Ã^Á Y◊Ã[˝ªJÙÃ^ XÁ ◊V„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝„_ Âac˜O LÁGÃ[˝S, Âac˜O Y“Á[˝_Ó, Âac˜O „àùÔ˘Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› energy ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ higher consciousnessA VÒÁ≈◊QÕˆ„Ã^ %Á‰ªK˜* 30.5.34 *

X: ÂVF_Á] Â^ %Á◊] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O ÂV„c˜ XÁc˜O* AEı◊ªRÙO %ÁX◊≥VTˆ ]«N˛ ʪK˜ÁªRÙO [˝Á◊_EıÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ `“›ªJÙÃ[˝„S %Á◊ªK˜* =: ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ inner beingAÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷Y*

30.5.34

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%[˝`Ó Ac˜O a[˝ %Á„_ÁªJÙXÁ XÁ EıÃ[˝Á Ê`“Ã^ïıÃ[˝ --- ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘ Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] %Á„_ÁªJÙXÁ [Eı„Ã[˝] --- %„XEı \ˆÁ_ aÁW˝EıC Ac˜O %\ˆÓÁa ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ [˝Á YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ A„Tˆ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ l˘◊Tˆ ◊\ˆ~ =YEıÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* 1.6.34 *

cg˜ÓÁ --- ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝ Â\ˆÁG [˝ÁaXÁ c˜TO ˆÓÁ◊V TˆÓÁG Eı[à ˝„Tˆ c˜^à --- [˝Á◊c˜„[à ˝[à ˝ a[˝ `…XÓ Eı[à ˝Á VÃ[˝EıÁ[à ˝ XÁc˜O --- ]Á ^Á ÂVX TˆÁ ◊X„Ã^ %Áa◊N˛`…XÓ c˜„^à UÁEıÁ \ˆÁ_* 8.6.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

437

a]„Ã^ a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝ --- >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ Â^]X [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X Y“Á„S `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ Â[˝‰QÕˆ ^ÁÃ^, [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ Â[˝GC Eı„] ^ÁÃ^, Â`„b %V `Ó c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, %Ã[˝÷„YC UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* 9.6.34 *

ʪJÙTˆXÁ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^, a[˝ a]Ã^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝ XÁ, A ◊EıªK«˜ mÃ[˝”TˆÃ[˝ EıUÁ XÃ^ --- aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Ã^, ^Tˆ◊VX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a+…SÔ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ XÁ c˜Ã^* TˆÁ„Tˆ aY“]ÁS c˜Ã^ XÁ Â^ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ ◊]UÓÁ* 9.6.34 *

`Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ [˝„a ]Á„Eı ÿˆÇÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ Ã[˝ÁF --- W˝ÓÁ„XÃ[˝ ◊XÃ^] Ac˜O* 19.6.34 *

c˜Oc˜Á Tˆ aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O c˜Ã^ --- \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ a[[˝ÔVÁ UÁEıÁ [˝QÕˆ Eı◊PˆX, %„XEı a]Ã^ _Á„G --- ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝Á, ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* a]„Ã^ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* 25.6.34 *

LÁG–Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Tˆc˜O a[˝ XÁ]ÁX, a[˝ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ YÁCÃ^Á A Â^Á„GÃ[˝ ◊XÃ^]* %[˝`Ó Y“U] %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ W˝ÓÁ„Xc˜O Â[˝`› c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ Â`b Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ =YEıÁÃ[˝› c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ £W˝« W˝ÓÁ„X %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ c˜„_ a]ÿôˆ aw¯ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* LÁG–„Tˆ c˜CÃ^Á ÂaLXÓ F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ _l˘S* 25.6.34 *

Y„≤øÃ[˝ C a…„^ÔÓÃ[˝ %UÔ Tˆ LÁX* ◊[˝ªK˜ÁXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂVF„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝„`b ÂEıÁX

438

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%UÔ XÃ^, %UÔ Ac˜O Â^

physical

Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ A a[˝ XÁ]‰ªK˜* 25.6.34 *

X: %ÁL ÂVF_Á] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁ„_Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁ ÂÃ[˝„F Â^X W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* %ÁÃ[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÂVc˜ c˜„Tˆ %◊G¬Ã[˝ ]Tˆ %Á„_Á [˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ]◊_XTˆÁ V…Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊V‰¨K˜, %ÁÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ C F«[˝ =#ù_ AEı [à ˝÷Y [˝Á[à ˝ c˜„^à %Á]Á„Eı `Á‹ôˆ %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜* =: Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ psychicAÃ[˝ aTˆÓ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ, F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ _l˘S* c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O* 25.6.34 *

...[˝Á„L ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ ÂEı XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ --- a[˝ a]Ã^ ]Á„Eıc˜O ÿˆÇÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝, ÂEıc˜c˜O YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ physical mind relax Eı„Ã[˝* >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆXÓ a+…SÔ XÁ]„_, TˆÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ c˜Ã^* 26.6.34 *

ÿëˆSÔ

=

aTˆÓ p˚ÁX]Ã^ ʪJÙTˆXÁ --- Ã[˝÷YÁ

=

%W˝ÓÁ±¡ ʪJÙTˆXÁ* 27.6.34

* ["X'AÃ[˝

Y‰yÃ[˝ ""aÁVÁ %Á„_Á'' A[˝e ""%◊G¬Ã[˝ ]Tˆ %Á„_Á'' EıUÁ V«◊ªRÙOÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ `“›%Ã[˝◊[˝≥V ^UÁy‘„] ""\ˆÁG[˝Tˆ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ %Á„_Á'' A[˝e ""aspiration C TˆYaÓÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á'' Â_„FX*] *

ÂaÁXÁÃ[˝ V◊QÕˆ --- aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a∂눵˘ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü; ÂaÁXÁÃ[˝ ÂGÁ_ÁY --- aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ]Ã^ ÊY“] C a]YÔS; aÁVÁ Y≤ø --- ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ (divine consciousness) higher mindA C psychicA F«_‰ªK˜* ªJÙy‘◊ªRÙOÃ[˝ %UÔ = ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁL ªJÙ_‰ªK˜ ◊X‰∂oˆÃ[˝ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝* 28.6.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

439

c˜›Ã[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á Tˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝c˜O %Á„_Á at its strongest --- Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ c˜„Tˆ Â[˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ YQÕˆÁ F«[˝ ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı, aÁW˝Eı ^◊V \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ UÁ„Eı* 29.6.34 *

ÂEıÁX aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘ %Á„_ÁªJÙXÁ EıÃ[˝Á \ˆÁ_ XÃ^* TˆÁ„Tˆ EıÁ„Ã[˝Á =YEıÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ, [˝[à ˝e %◊XrÙ c˜^à * Ac˜O %Á`“„] aEı„_ Eı„[à ˝, ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô A„Tˆ atmosphere troubled c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı, aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ l˘◊TˆC c˜Ã^* TˆÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ ]Á„Eı ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝Á, Â^Á„GÃ[˝ [˝Á %XÓ \ˆÁ_ EıUÁ [˝_Á ʪRÙÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_* 29.6.34 *

[˝QÕˆ [˝QÕˆ aÁW˝Eı„EıC [˝ÁW˝Á %Áy‘]S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, TˆÁ„Tˆ ◊Eı? Psychic %[˝ÿöˆÁ UÁEı„_, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ UÁEı„_, Ac˜O a[˝ %Áy‘]„SÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ [˝ UÁ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 29.6.34 *

X›_ Tˆ Higher MindAÃ[˝ [˝SÔ --- X›_ Y≤ø = Âac˜O >àùÔ˘]„XÃ[˝ =XΩ›_X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^* 30.6.34 *

c˜Ã^ Tˆ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ W˝ÓÁ„XÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ [˝ÁW˝Á %Á‰ªK˜, ^Á„Tˆ [˝aÁ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ* Tˆ„[˝ c˜Oc˜ÁC %„X„EıÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ^ H‰ªRÙO Â^ aÁW˝XÁ %ÁYXÁ %ÁY◊X ªJÙ„_, ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ [˝„a W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝Á %ÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %]◊X [˝a„Tˆ cg˜Á≈ªRÙO„Tˆ £„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ H«„]Á„TˆC Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ aÁW˝XÁ XÁ„]* 2.7.34 *

440

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: ]Á, ÂVF_Á] Â^ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEı◊ªRÙO F«[˝ [˝QÕˆ [˝ l˘, Â^ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı [˝QÕˆ c˜‰¨K˜...* =: [˝l  ˘Rª Ù›O ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡Eı L›[˝X Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó [˝ÁQÕˆ„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝‰Kª ˜* 6.7.34 *

cg˜ÓÁ, ]Á„Eıc˜O ªJÙÁc˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ÂEıÁX [˝ÁaXÁ VÁ[˝› c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ÂYÁbS XÁ Eı„Ã[˝* C a[˝ A„_ aÁÃ^ XÁ ◊V„Ã^ ÂZı„_ ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^* TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝C Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX %\ˆÓÁ„aÃ[˝ VÃ[˝”S Cm„_Á %Áa„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â`„b %\ˆÓÁaªRÙO› l˘Ã^ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* 6.7.34 * Sex-force ]ÁX[˝

]Á‰yÃ[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜, Âa impulse Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ Y“W˝ÁX ^‹ó ^ÁÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á Âa ]ÁX«b„Eı ªJÙÁ_ÁÃ^, aeaÁÃ[˝ a]ÁL Y◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝, Y“ÁS›Ã[˝ L›[˝X %„XEıªRÙOÁ TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* Âa L„XÓ aEı„_Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó sex impulse %Á‰ªK˜, ÂEı= [˝ÁV ^ÁÃ^ XÁ --- aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„_C Ac˜O sex impulse ªK˜ÁQÕˆ„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ, ac˜„L ªK˜Á‰QÕˆ XÁ, Âa Y“ÁS `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜CÃ^Á Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a* Tˆ„[˝ aÁW˝Eı aÁ[˝W˝ÁX c˜„Ã^ TˆÁ„Eı ae^] Eı„Ã[˝, Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝, ^Tˆ [˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a TˆTˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ÂVÃ^ --- Ac˜O Eı„Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ Â`„b _«ä c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 10.7.34 *

%Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ --- ^Á %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝„_◊ªK˜ --- TˆÁ \«ˆ„_ Â^„Ã^Á XÁ* =Tˆ_Á XÁ c˜„Ã^ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝, TˆÁc˜„_c˜O a[˝ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ ◊PˆEı Y„U %Áa„[˝* =ΨJÙfÿ누Ã[˝ y‘≥VX \ˆÁ_ XÃ^ --- `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı, TgˆÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ a]YÔS EıÃ[˝* Y“ÁS ^Tˆc˜O `Á‹ôˆ c˜Ã^, TˆTˆ aÁW˝XÁ steadily AEı Y„U ªJÙ„_* 17.8.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

441

`Á‹ôˆ C a‰ªJÙTˆX UÁEı, ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı, \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Áa„[˝* a]YÔS a+…SÔ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ a]Ã^ _Á„G --- Â^FÁ„X ÂVFªK˜ c˜Ã^◊X, ÂaFÁXªRÙOÁC a]YÔS EıÃ[˝ --- Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ Â`„b a+…SÔ c˜„[˝* 27.8.34 * It is good.

c˜÷VÃ^ ^◊V ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı ÂFÁ_Á UÁ„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ `›H– F«„_ ^ÁÃ^* 29.8.34 *

cg˜ÓÁ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝c˜O a[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ C XrÙ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^ --- Âa LXÓ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á◊[˝Y◊w¯„Tˆ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ Cc˜O ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a„TˆÓ Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ c˜„Tˆ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ Zı„_ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝C Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜„[˝* 4.10.34 *

^FX F«[˝ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^, TˆFX =Pˆ„_ [˝Á cg˜Á≈ªRÙO„_ ÂaÃ[˝÷Y ]ÁUÁ ÂHÁÃ[˝Á c˜Ã^ --- `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝”S XÃ^, ʪJÙTˆXÁ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂG‰ªK˜, `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ÊªJÙTˆXÁ XÁc˜O [˝„_* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ªJ«ÙY Eı„Ã[˝ [˝„a UÁEıÁ \ˆÁ_ --- `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ^FX ʪJÙTˆXÁ a+…SÔ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a, TˆFX =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝* 24.10.34 *

AªRÙOÁ F«[˝ [˝QÕˆ opening ---- a…„^ÔÓÃ[˝ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ Â^ XÁ]‰ªK˜ Âa a„TˆÓÃ[˝ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ --- Âa aTˆÓ >àùÔ˘ ]„XÃ[˝C %„XEı =Y„Ã[˝* 24.10.34 *

442

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ physicalAÃ[˝ inner centre --- Y«E«ıÃ[˝ªRÙO› ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› opening [˝Á formation, Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó `“›%Ã[˝◊[˝„≥VÃ[˝ presence = _Á_ Y≤ø %ÁÃ[˝ inner physicalA ÊY“„]Ã[˝ ÂGÁ_ÁY› %Á„_Á XÁ]‰ªK˜* 24.10.34 *

EıîXÁ XÃ^* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %„XEı personality %Á‰ªªK˜, Âam„_Á Y“„TˆÓ„EıÃ[˝ different Ã[˝÷Y, Âa a[˝ a]„Ã^ a]„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ [˝ÓN˛ c˜Ã^* aÁQÕˆ›Ã[˝ Ã[˝e Â^]X, ]Á Âa Ã[˝„I¯Ã[˝ %Á„_Á [˝Á `◊N˛ ◊X„Ã^ %Á„aX* EıÁÃ[˝S Y“„TˆÓEı Ã[˝e AEı AEı `◊N˛Ã[˝ (forceAÃ[˝) ÂVÓÁTˆEı* 26.10.34 *

X: ]Á, ]…_ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ _Á_ Y≤ø ÂV◊F W˝›„Ã[˝ W˝›„Ã[˝ Z«ı‰ªRÙO =Pˆ‰ªK˜ TˆÁ„Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_ÁC XÁ]„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜ [˝„_ ]„X c˜Ã^* =: That is very good. CFÁ„Xc˜O `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜Ã^* 26.10.34 *

[˝ÁW˝Á Tˆ ◊[˝„`b ◊EıªK«˜ XÃ^, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ„Tˆ ^Á UÁ„Eı TˆÁc˜O --- Âam„_Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ working •ÁÃ[˝Á y‘„] y‘„] V…Ã[˝›E ıTˆ c˜„[˝* TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊ªJÙ◊‹ôˆTˆ [˝Á V«f◊FTˆ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX EıÁÃ[˝S XÁc˜O* 12.11.34 *

cg˜ÓÁ, ^Á [˝_ªK˜ TˆÁ aTˆÓc˜O* [˝◊c˜‰∏JÙTˆXÁ %p˚ÁX]Ã^, ^Á %Á„a =YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı TˆÁÃ[˝ Â^X AEıªRÙOÁ \«ˆ_ transcription, Â^X \«ˆ_ XEı_ [˝Á \«ˆ_ %X«[˝ÁV EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]Tˆ GQÕˆ„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, ◊X„LÃ[˝ Eı◊îTˆ Â\ˆÁG [˝Á [˝Á◊c˜ÓEı aÁUÔEıTˆÁ [˝Á %c˜e\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ T ˆ◊äÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊ZıÃ[˝Á„Tˆ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝* Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ ]ÁX[˝ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ* \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ LXÓc˜O ªJÙÁc˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^, ◊X„LÃ[˝ ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔTˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ XÃ^* ^FX

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

443

psychic being

◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ a[˝_ c˜Ã^, TˆFX Ac˜O a[˝ [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂVÁb Eı„] Â^„Tˆ Â^„Tˆ Â`„b ◊X∂ˆÇÔ_ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* (1934) *

%p˚ÁX %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ C [˝ÁaXÁc˜O c˜‰¨K˜ [˝ÁW˝Á --- ]XY“ÁS„Vc˜ ^◊V >àùÔ˘ÎªJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^, TˆÁ c˜„_ Ac˜O \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ XÁ]„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝* 8.1.35 *

=Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Ac˜O LGd c˜‰¨K˜ >àùÔ˘ÎªJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ \…ˆ◊] (plane), %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁ •ÁÃ[˝Á XÁ◊]„Tˆ‰ªK˜* YÁ◊UÔ[˝ LGd %ÁLEıÁ_ ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝› Y“ÁSLG„TˆÃ[˝ TˆÁâ¯[˝ X „TˆÓ Y…SÔ C W[˝e„aÁXΩ∆F* 8.1.35 *

◊X‰∂oˆÃ[˝ Y“ÁS C ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝c˜O Sex ImpulseAÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX* G_ÁÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ vital mind AÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX* %UÔÁd ^FX ◊X‰∂oˆ sex impulse c˜Ã^, TˆFX vital mindA TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O (sex impulseAÃ[˝) ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ [˝Á ÂEıÁXC mental Ã[˝÷Y a ◊rÙ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ c˜Ã^, TˆÁ„Tˆ ]„XÃ[˝ ÂGÁ_]Á_ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 15.1.35 *

Â[˝ÁW ˝c˜Ã^ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ &`Ô ÂY„Ã^ Ac˜O a[˝ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* AFX Ac˜O a[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂGÁ_]Á_ Eı„Ã^EıL„XÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜‰¨K˜* AEı LX ÂU„Eı ◊G„Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ AEı L„XÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ^Á‰¨K˜ AEıªRÙOÁ ÂÃ[˝Á„GÃ[˝ ]Tˆ* ◊[˝„`b Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ Â^ %Á◊] ]Ã[˝[˝, %Á◊] Ac˜O `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF[˝ XÁ, Ac˜O `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁ c˜„[˝ XÁ, AªRÙOÁc˜O Y“[˝_* %UªJÙ, Ac˜O ÂVc˜ TˆÓÁG Eı„Ã[˝ %XÓ ÂVc˜ c˜„Tˆ ◊[˝XÁ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ^ Â^ÁG◊aà˘ c˜[˝, Ac˜O W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ %TˆÓ‹ôˆ ◊]UÓÁ* Ac˜O \ˆÁ„[˝ ÂVc˜ TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝„_ YÃ[˝ L„XΩ [˝Ã[˝e %ÁÃ[˝C [˝ÁW˝Á c˜„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü a∂눵˘ UÁEı„[˝c˜O XÁ* Ac˜O a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ ◊[˝Ã[˝”à˘ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %Áy‘]S,

444

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

TˆÁ[à ˝ =„Å`Ó aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁ Â\ˆ„I¯ ◊V„Tˆ, ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ `Ã[˝›[à ˝„Eı Â\ˆ„I¯ ◊V„Tˆ, %Á`“]„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ EıÁL„Eı Â\ˆ„I¯ ◊V„Tˆ* T«ˆ◊] aÁ[˝W˝ÁX c˜„Ã^ UÁEı, Ac˜O a[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Â_ÁEı %Á]Á„Eı `ÁaX Eı‰¨K˜¤, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ F«[˝ Â_„G‰ªK˜, %Á◊] ]„Ã[˝ ^Á[˝, A c˜‰¨K˜ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ EıUÁ, aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ EıUÁ XÃ^* %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı aTˆEÔı Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜, %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* ÂEıc˜ ^◊V ÂEıÁX EıUÁ [˝„_, %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^ `Á‹ôˆa] ◊XÃ[˝c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ UÁEı, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ Ã[˝„Ã^* 27.1.35 *

a…„^ÔÓÃ[˝ %„XEı Ã[˝÷Y %Á‰ªK˜, %„XEı [˝„SÔÃ[˝ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ a…^ÔÓ* Â^]X _Á_, ÂTˆ]Xc˜O ◊c˜Ã[˝SΩÃ^, X›_, a[˝«L c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V* 29.1.35 *

Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊]„` ^ÁCÃ^Ác˜O Y“E ıTˆ ]«◊N˛Ã[˝ _l˘S* 31.1.35 *

Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á„_Á \ˆ„Ã[˝ ÂG„_, aêˆ[˝ c˜Ã^*

physical

ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ 31.1.35

* It is very good.

◊XV–ÁÃ[˝ a]„Ã^ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y„Ã[˝ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^* LG„TˆÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ LG„Tˆ --- Â^]X LGd, ÂTˆ]X ÿëˆY¬ ÂV„F* FÁÃ[˝ÁY ÿëˆY¬ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ LG„TˆÃ[˝ Eı„Ã^EıªRÙO› Y“„V„`Ã[˝ V `Ó C HªRÙOXÁ ]Áy --- %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ XÃ^* 2.2.35 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

445

X: ]Á, %ÁL V«c˜O ◊VX ^Á[˝d Y“SÁ] c˜„Tˆ %Áa[˝ÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ Â^X %XÓ Ã[˝Eı] %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^, ◊EıªK«˜„Tˆc˜O \ˆÁ_ _Á„G XÁ* ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ ^Á[˝, ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ ÂG„_ ]Á„Eı \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı YÁ[˝, `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁX≥V YÁ[˝ C EıFX ◊X„L„Eı ]Á„Eı ÂVCÃ^Á c˜„[˝ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y \ˆÁ[˝ c˜Ã^* =: Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Eı ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ ÂV„[˝ XÁ --- Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁc˜O %„XEıL„XÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ªR«Ù„Eı TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝b] [˝ÓÁHÁTˆ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜ --- TˆÁ„Tˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %a„‹ôˆÁb, %◊ÿöˆ[à ˝ Jª Ùá˚_TˆÁ, Jª Ù„_ ^Á[˝Á[à ˝ c˜¨O K˜Á, ]Ã[˝[˝Á[à ˝ c˜¨O K˜Á, ÿoˆÁ^à ◊[˝Eı V«[[˝_Ô TˆÁ c˜TO ˆÓÁ◊V ʪRÙÁ„Eı* Â^ AEı TˆÁ]◊aEı `◊N˛ %Á`“„] H«Ã[˝‰ªK˜ EıÁ„Eı W˝Ã[˝[˝ Fg«„L, Âac˜O `◊N˛ Ac˜O a[˝ %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ ªR«Ù◊Eı„Ã^ ÂVÃ^, Ca[˝ feelingAÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁ]«â¯ ÂXc˜O --- ]Á„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ ◊G„Ã^ ]Á„Eı YÁ„[˝, `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁX≥V YÁ„[˝* AEı ]«c…˜wÔ¯EıÁ_ Ac˜O a[˝„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* 22.4.35 *

aÁY c˜‰¨K˜ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ `◊N˛ --- ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ (physical centre) TˆÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› Y“W˝ÁX ÿöˆÁX --- ÂaFÁ„X E«ıâ¯◊_Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ a«ä c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı* ^FX aÁW˝XÁ •ÁÃ[˝Á LÁG–Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆFX =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı C‰Pˆ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝„S Âa AÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÿëˆSÔ]Ã^ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, %UÔÁd \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ %Á„_ÁÃ^ \ˆÃ[˝Á* 25.4.35 *

XÁ A EıîXÁ [˝Á ◊]UÓÁ XÃ^ --- =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]◊≥VÃ[˝ >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝, X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ]◊≥VÃ[˝ Ac˜O ]X Y“ÁS `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁ --- ]Á X›‰ªJÙ ÂX„] Ac˜O ]◊≥VÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜X %ÁÃ[˝ ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı a„TˆÓÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ a[[˝Ôy ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ Eı‰¨K˜¤X* 26.4.35 *

X: ]Á, %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊EıªK«˜ ÂV◊F XÁ C %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ XÁ ÂEıX, a[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁ_ c˜„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ [˝«Eı c˜„Tˆ %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ ÂEıX? =: TˆÁ Y“ÁÃ^ aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O c˜Ã^ --- [˝«Eı ÂU„Eıc˜O ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a ◊rÙ `◊N˛ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ A„a

446

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

aEı„_Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊X„LÃ[˝ EıÁL Eı„Ã[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ ÿöˆÁX c˜„TˆC Eı„Ã[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ [˝«„Eıc˜O ÂEı≥V–›E ıTˆ* 26.4.35 *

aÁW˝XÁ Tˆ ]Á„Eı feel EıÃ[˝Á EıÁ‰ªK˜ C ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝, ]Á a[˝ Eı‰¨K˜X [˝„_ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a[˝ ◊L◊Xa ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ receive EıÃ[˝Á* Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ UÁEı„_ YQÕˆÁ„Tˆ ]X ◊V„_ ÂEıÁX l˘◊Tˆ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* 29.4.35 *

]Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ªJÙÁX %ÁÃ[˝ T«ˆ◊] ]Á„Eı ªJÙÁC* ]Á„Eı T«ˆ◊] YÁ¨K˜ A[˝e %ÁÃ[˝C YÁ„[˝* Tˆ„[˝ c˜^à Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ physical consciousnessA AEıªRÙÁO %ÁEıÁIl˘Á %Áa„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı Â^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ H◊Xúˆ a∂눵˘ `ÁÃ[˝›◊Ã[˝Eı aÁ◊~W˝Ó c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V UÁEıÁ ªJÙÁc˜O* ]Á Ca[˝ ◊V‰¨K˜X XÁ ÂEıX, ]Á c˜Ã^Tˆ %Á]Á„Eı ªJÙÁX XÁ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ L›[˝„XÃ[˝ C aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ TˆÁc˜Á c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* A]X ◊Eı ]Á TˆÁc˜Á ◊V„_ aÁW˝Eı TˆÁ„Tˆ ]L„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Áa_ aÁW˝XÁ C Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜„[˝ XÁ* ªJÙÁc˜O ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ H◊Xúˆ a∂눵˘ aÁ◊~W˝Ó A[˝e ªJÙÁc˜O Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X Y“ÁS ÂVc˜ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ TˆÁc˜Á a+…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ EıÃ[˝„[˝ C Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜„[˝* c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ]„X ÂÃ[˝„F ªJÙ_* 17.5.35 *

X: ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ]„X c˜Ã^ Â^ a]ÿôˆ aw¯Á F«„_ EgıÁV„_ %„XEı Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X c˜„[˝* ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ AFX EgıÁVÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝? =: EıÁ~Á ^◊V psychic beingAÃ[˝ c˜Ã^, FgÁ◊ªRÙO ªJÙÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ [˝Á FgÁ◊ªRÙO psychic \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ EıÁ~Á, TˆÁ c˜„_ Âac˜O Zı_ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* Vital V«f„FÃ[˝ [˝Á [˝ÁaXÁÃ[˝ [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝Á`ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ~ÁÃ^ Â_ÁEıaÁXc˜O c˜Ã^* 17.5.35 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

447

%Á◊] A EıUÁ Tˆ %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊_„F◊ªK˜ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Y…SÔ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á %î a]„Ã^ c˜Ã^ XÁ* \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ `◊N˛ ÂaªRÙOÁ„Eı %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ [˝V◊_„Ã^ ÂVÃ^ --- ^Á„Tˆ Â`„b ÂEıÁX ZgıÁEı UÁ„Eı XÁ, ÂEıÁX l«˘V–Tˆ] %e„`C ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX G◊Tˆ XÁ UÁ„Eı* ÂaL„XÓ %ÍW˝^ÔÓ [˝Á haste EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O* £W˝« a[˝„Eı Â^X a]◊YÔTˆ c˜Ã^, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ open c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜Ác˜O ÂVF„Tˆ c˜Ã^* %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ ◊PˆEı c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* 1.6.35 *

X: ...a[˝ a]Ã^ AEıc˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ ---- `Á‹ôˆ X›Ã[˝[˝ C %ÁX◊≥VTˆ --- EıÁ„L Eı„]Ô ªJÙ_ÁÃ^ ÂZıÃ[˝ÁÃ^ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ %‹ôˆ„Ã[˝* =: c˜Oc˜Á F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ --- Y…SÔ a]TˆÁ C %Áa_ p˚Á„XÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ --- ^FX c˜Oc˜Á ÿöˆÁÃ^› c˜Ã^, TˆFX aÁW˝XÁ„Eı V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ [˝_Á ^ÁÃ^* 7.6.35 *

]…_ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÿëˆSÔ aYÔ --- Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ aTˆÓ]Ã^ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Y“Tˆ›Eı* 13.6.35 *

T«ˆ◊] ^◊V ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝ `Á‹ôˆ C a]◊YÔTˆ c˜„^à UÁEı, TˆÁc˜„_ [˝ÁW˝Á◊[˝H¬ c˜TO ˆÓÁ◊V ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ EıÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* %`Á◊‹ôˆ ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ""ÂEıX c˜‰¨K˜ XÁ, Eı„[˝ c˜„[˝'' Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ ◊V„_ [˝ÁW˝Á◊[˝H¬ ÂLÁÃ[˝ YÁÃ^* T«ˆ◊] [˝ÁW˝Á◊[˝‰H¬Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı %Tˆ XLÃ[˝ VÁC ÂEıX? ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı ªJÙÁC* ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ a]◊YÔTˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı* ◊X∂oˆY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ʪK˜ÁªRÙO defect ac˜„L ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* TˆÁ ◊X„Ã^ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜CÃ^Á [˝ UÁ* ]ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ ^FX a]ÿôˆ aw¯Á %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ a+…SÔ VF_ EıÃ[˝„[˝ TˆFX c˜„[˝ --- TˆÁ„Tˆ ^◊V %„XEı◊VX _Á„G TˆÁ c˜„_C l˘◊Tˆ XÁc˜O* a+…SÔ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ LXÓ %„XEı a]„Ã^Ã[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝* 19.6.35 *

448

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

=YÃ[˝ F«[˝ [˝QÕˆ AEıªRÙO› Â^ %Á‰ªK˜, Âa >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %a›] ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ* T«ˆ◊] Â^ %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı¨K˜¤ Â^ ]ÁUÁ Â^ H«„Ã[˝ H«„Ã[˝ ÂX„] %Á„a Âa Tˆ ÿöˆ…_ ]ÁUÁ %[˝`Ó XÃ^ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]X[˝«◊à˘* Âa Cc˜O ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó =‰Pˆ Âac˜O\ˆÁ„[˝ XÁ„]* 22.6.35 *

EıTˆV…Ã[˝ A„a◊ªK˜, %ÁÃ[˝ EıTˆV…Ã[˝ Ac˜O a[˝ Y“‰`¬„Tˆ ◊[˝„`b ÂEıÁXC _Á\ˆ XÁc˜O* ]Á„Eı EıÁâ¯ÁÃ[˝› Eı„Ã[˝ ÊÿɈÁ„Tˆ A◊G„Ã^ ªJÙ_, ◊Tˆ◊X ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı G‹ôˆ[˝Ó ÿöˆÁ„X Yßg◊ªK˜„Ã^ ◊V„[˝X* 25.6.35 *

]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› Y≤ø %Á‰ªK˜, Âa c˜‰¨K˜ Cc˜O >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V–, Âa Y≤øc˜O c˜Ã^Tˆ Z«ıªRÙO„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^* 24.8.35 *

]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX, ◊PˆEı ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ Âa %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı C‰Pˆ %ÁÃ[˝C =Y„Ã[˝ %X„‹ôˆ* ÂaFÁ„X Â^ ◊[˝`Á_ `Á◊‹ôˆ C X›Ã[˝[˝TˆÁ %Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O pressure T«ˆ◊] %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝* Âa `Á◊‹ôˆ C ʪJÙTˆXÁ a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^* 24.8.35 *

^FX ʪJÙTˆXÁ ◊[˝`Á_ C ◊[˝`ü]Ã^ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ◊[˝„`üc˜O ]Á„Eı ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^ TˆFX %c˜e %ÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ, UÁ„Eı £W˝« ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ„_ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Áa_ aw¯Á, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a‹ôˆÁX ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %e`* 24.8.35 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

449

V«fF ÂEıX YÁ¨K˜? ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ a]TˆÁ Ã[˝ÁF„_ V«fF YÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ XÁc˜O* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ a«F C `Á◊‹ôˆ C %ÁX≥V YÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á`Á [˝ UÁ* 8.9.35 *

T«ˆ◊]c˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ [˝«Mı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝ ◊X* %Á◊] AEıUÁ [˝◊_ ◊X Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %a«F XÁc˜O, %Á◊] [˝„_◊ªK˜ Â^ Âa %a«F nervous ÿoˆÁÃ^«LÁTˆ* AEı Ã[˝Eı] [˝Vc˜L] %Á‰ªK˜ ^Á„Eı QˆÁN˛Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝Á [˝„_ nervous dyspepsia ÿoˆÁÃ^«LÁTˆ %L›SÔ* Â^ a[˝ sensation T«ˆ◊] %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ªK˜, G_ÁÃ^ ªK˜Á◊Tˆ„Tˆ FÁCÃ^Á CPˆÁ %ÁªRÙOEıÁX c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V Âa a[˝ Cc˜O ÂÃ[˝Á„GÃ[˝ _l˘S, nervous sensation* A ÂÃ[˝ÁG„Eı aÁÃ[˝ÁX %„XEıªRÙOÁ ]„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* ]X ^◊V ÂÃ[˝Á„GÃ[˝ suggestionA FÁÃ^ VÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜„_ %„XEı◊VX ◊ªRÙOEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* ]X ^◊V Âa a[˝ suggestionÂEı Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝ aÁÃ[˝ÁX ac˜L c˜Ã^, ◊[˝„`b ^FX ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ %Á‰ªK˜* %Á◊] TˆÁc˜O [˝„_◊ªK˜_Á] [˝◊]Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝„Eı accept Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ, ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı* %a«FªRÙO› Âa„Ã[˝ ^Á„[˝* %Á◊] [˝ÁÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› EıUÁ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊_„F◊ªK˜, Âa EıUÁªRÙO› \«ˆ„_ ^ÁC ÂEıX? `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ V  ªRÕÙ \ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ Y„U Am„Tˆ c˜„[˝* %ÍW˝^ÔÓ, ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ÂV„[˝ [XÁ], a]Ã^ _ÁG„_ [˝ÁW˝Á A„_C ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ %W˝›Ã[˝ [˝Á =◊•G¬ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ªJÙ_„Tˆ c˜„[˝* %W˝›Ã[˝ c˜„_, %◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ =◊•G¬ c˜„_ [˝ÁW˝Á Â[˝‰QÕˆ ^ÁÃ^, %Á„Ã[˝Á ◊[˝_∂ëˆ c˜Ã^* A EıUÁªªRÙO› a[[˝ÔVÁ ]„X ÂÃ[˝„F aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝* A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ ÂF„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ XÁc˜O --- TˆÁ„Tˆ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ [˝Á‰QÕˆ, V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ [˝ÁQÕˆ„_ %a«F ◊ªRÙOEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ* ◊XVÁX V«W˝ Tˆ ÂF„Tˆc˜O c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ ^◊V YÁÃ[˝ Tˆ aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S FÁCÃ^ÁÃ^ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂYªRÙO„Eı %\ˆÓÿôˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* ]Á [˝„_‰ªK˜ yellow Eı_Á ◊V„Tˆ, lithineC FÁCÃ^Á \ˆÁ_* A ÂÃ[˝Á„G ^E ı„TˆÃ[˝ disturbances c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* ÂF„_c˜O AEıªªR«ÙO Y„Ã[˝ [˝◊]Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ c˜CÃ^Á* AªRÙOÁ nervous dyspepsia˝Ã[˝ _l˘S* 10.9.35 *

=\ˆÃ^ Ã[˝Eı] EıÃ[˝Á Ê`“úˆ* ^◊V V…„Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı £W˝« aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝Á aêˆ[˝ c˜Tˆ, TˆÁ c˜„_ TˆÁc˜O a[[˝Ô‰`“úˆ c˜Tˆ, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ a[˝ a]Ã^ EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Áa_ EıUÁ

450

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

Ac˜O Â^ psychicAÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ V ªRÕÙ ÿöˆÁX [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝ÁYV V«GÔ Eı„Ã[˝ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- %UÔÁd ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ W˝›Ã[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝Á, %W˝›Ã[˝ XÁ c˜„Ã^ Y“a~ ◊ªJÙ„w¯ ªJÙ_Á* T«ˆ◊] ^Á [˝_ªK˜, TˆÁ aTˆÓ --- Ac˜O ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ʪK˜ÁªRÙO %a+…SÔTˆÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊Vc˜O AFX %Áa_ %‹ôˆÃ[˝ÁÃ^ [˝QÕˆ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Am„_Á %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ [˝ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, %a+…SÔTˆÁ„Eı Y…SÔTˆÁÃ^ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, c˜PˆÁd EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* %TˆA[˝ Âam„_Á ÂV„F V«f◊FTˆ [˝Á %W˝›Ã[˝ c˜„Tˆ XÁc˜O, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛c˜O %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ Âa EıÁL Eı„Ã[˝ ÂZı_„[˝* 12.9.35 *

Â^]X Ac˜O aÁW˝XÁÃ^ ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ V…Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, V«fF„EıC ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ„w¯ `Á‹ôˆ Y“a~ ]„X Am„Tˆ c˜Ã^* ^◊V ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ UÁ„Eı, TˆÁc˜„_ V«f„FÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX ÂEıÁUÁÃ^* ]Á V…„Ã[˝ XX, a[[˝ÔVÁ EıÁ‰ªK˜c˜O UÁ„EıX, Âa p˚ÁX Âa ◊[˝`üÁa a[˝ a]Ã^ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 17.9.35 *

TˆÁ„Tˆ [˝Óÿôˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* a[˝ a]„Ã^ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ]„X Ã[˝ÁFÁ ac˜L XÃ^ --- ^FX ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ presenceA a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ \ˆ„Ã[˝ ^Á„[˝, TˆFX Âac˜O ÿˆÇÃ[˝S %ÁY◊Xc˜O UÁEı„[˝, \«ˆ„_ ^Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Â^Á UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* 23.9.35 *

^Á feel EıÃ[˝ªK˜ TˆÁc˜Á aTˆÓc˜O --- c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á V«fF C %[˝X◊TˆÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝S* ]ÁX«b ◊X„Lc˜O ◊X„LÃ[˝ %£\ˆ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝, aÁÃ^ ÂVÃ^, %ÁgEı‰QÕˆ W˝„Ã[˝* 26.9.35 *

^◊V G\ˆ›Ã[˝ c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ (psychicAÃ[˝) YU W˝Ã[˝, ]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁ„_ ◊`£Ã[˝ ]Tˆ UÁEı, TˆÁ c˜„_ Ac˜O a[˝ sex impulse c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V %Áy‘]S Eı„Ã[˝C ◊EıªK«˜ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

451

XÁ, Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„TˆC YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 30.9.35 *

^◊V ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ £à˘ ÊY“] C \ˆ◊N˛ UÁ„Eı, ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ UÁ„Eı, TˆÁ c˜„_ ]Á„Eı YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^, XÁ UÁEı„_ Tˆ›[˝– ʪJÙrÙÁ •ÁÃ[˝ÁC YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* 2.10.35 *

A a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ ^Á aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝◊V„Eı ÂHÁ„Ã[˝ Y“„[˝` EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]X Y“ÁS ÂVc˜ Ac˜O [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Eı[˝„_ UÁEı„_ Âac˜OÃ[˝÷Y YŤÁ c˜Ã^ [˝‰ªRÙO, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝„_, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ UÁEı„_, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ Âa YŤÁ a◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ]X Y“ÁS ÂVc˜ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ^„‹óˆ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ EıÃ[˝„[˝* 2.10.35 *

`Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ ÂQˆ„Eı A a[˝ [˝ÓUÁ C %a«F„[˝ÁW˝ TˆÁQÕˆÁ„Tˆ c˜„[˝* 9.10.35 * Yes, this is the true psychic attitude.

Â^ Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ªRÙO› Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ a[˝ a]„Ã^, a[˝ HªRÙOXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó, Âa G‹ôˆ[˝Ó Y„U ÂaÁLÁ ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^* 11.10.35 *

]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ]Xc˜O %◊[˝`Áü a EıîXÁ, \«ˆ_ ◊ªJÙ‹ˆô Á^à , %`“à˘Á^à \ˆ[à ˝Á, %p˚Á„X C V«f„FC \ˆÃ[˝Á* Âa %p˚ÁXc˜O Âa %`“à˘ÁÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝S, Âa V«f„FÃ[˝ =da* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ [˝«◊à˘ %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ ^‹óˆ; Y“ÁÃ^c˜O \«ˆ_ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ \«ˆ_ W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ %Á„a, %UªJÙ Âa ]„X Eı„Ã[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝c˜O ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ aTˆÓ* TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁÃ^ \«ˆ_ %Á‰ªK˜ ◊Eı XÁc˜O %ÁÃ[˝ \«ˆ_ ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ TˆÁ ÂV„F ◊[˝„[˝ªJÙXÁ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÈW˝^ÔÓ TˆÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O* A]X ◊Eı \«ˆ_ ÂVFÁ„_ %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝ _Á„G, Ây‘ÁW˝ c˜Ã^

452

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

[˝Á V«fF c˜Ã^, ÿ눛EıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ* %UªJÙ %Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \«ˆ_ ÂVÁb ÂVFÁ„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ F«[˝ T ˆ◊ä c˜Ã^* Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊X≥VÁ £X„_ aTˆÓ [˝„_ G–c˜S Eı„Ã[˝ %]Xc˜O, EıTˆV…Ã[˝ aTˆÓ TˆÁ ◊[˝„[˝ªJÙXÁC Eı„Ã[˝ XÁ* AÃ[˝÷Y ]„XÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó `“à˘Á ◊[˝`üÁa ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ* ÂaLXÓ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ EıUÁ £X„Tˆ XÁc˜O, TˆÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó G–c˜S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O, ^◊V [[˝Á] £X„Tˆ c˜Ã^* %Áa_ EıUÁ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊G„Ã^ psychic being„Eı LÁGÁ„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂU„Eı %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ aTˆÓ [˝«◊à˘ ]„X Â[˝‰QÕˆ ^ÁÃ^, aTˆÓ \ˆÁ[˝ C feeling c˜÷V„Ã^ %Á„a, aTˆÓ ÊY“Ã[˝SÁ Y“Á„S =‰Pˆ, psychicAÃ[˝ %Á„_Á„Tˆ ]ÁX«b [˝ÿô«ˆ HªRÙOXÁ LG„TˆÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ X…TˆX V ◊rÙ Y‰QÕˆ, ]„XÃ[˝ %p˚ÁX C \«ˆ_ ÂVFÁ \«ˆ_ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ %◊[˝`üÁa %`“à˘Á %ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a XÁ* 22.10.35 * [ÂEı=

"X'AÃ[˝ a„Ü %◊Tˆ`Ã^ V«[˝ÔÓ[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜] Ac˜O a]„Ã^ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ =‰Pˆ aÁW˝XÁÃ^ ÂHÁÃ[˝ %‹ôˆÃ[˝ÁÃ^ Eı‰¨K˜¤, %„XEı„Eı %X«◊ªJÙTˆ [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ◊V‰¨K˜* T«ˆ◊] ◊X„L %ªRÙO_ c˜„Ã^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı, TˆÁ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* 23.10.35

* This is very good.

Ac˜O a[˝ %Áy‘]S ^◊V ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ XÁ YÁ„Ã[˝ [˝Á ªR«Ù„EıC ◊ªRÙOEı„Tˆ XÁ YÁ„Ã[˝, [˝«Mı„Tˆ c˜„[˝ Â^ outer beingAÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ LÁG–Tˆ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ £◊à˘ %„XEıªRÙOÁ progress Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜* 27.10.35 *

%Á±¡Ác˜O Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %a›] ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X Y“ÁS physical consciousness ^FX a+…SÔÃ[˝÷„Y ÂFÁ„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ÁC TˆÁc˜O --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X Y“ÁS ÂVc˜ £W˝« ^‹óˆ Ac˜O LG„TˆÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ a„Ü [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ C ÂF_ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X Y“ÁS ÂVc˜C ^FX %Á„_Á]Ã^ ˪JÙTˆXÓ]Ã^ c˜Ã^ TˆFX TˆÁÃ[˝Á %ÁÃ[˝ a·¯›SÔ %Á[˝à˘ [˝„_ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ, TˆÁÃ[˝ÁC %X„‹ôˆÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 30.10.35 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

453

^FX Physical consciousness Y“[˝_ c˜„Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ aEı_„Eı ʪRÙ„Eı a]ÿôˆ ÿöˆÁX ªK˜◊QÕˆ„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝, TˆFX Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^ --- EıÁÃ[˝S Ac˜O ÂVc˜‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ Y“E ı◊Tˆ ^FX Y“EıÁ` c˜Ã^ TˆFX a[˝ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ LQÕˆ[˝à˘ Tˆ„]Á]Ã^, p˚Á„XÃ[˝ Y“EıÁ` Ã[˝◊c˜Tˆ, `◊N˛Ã[˝ ÊY“Ã[˝SÁ Ã[˝◊c˜Tˆ* Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Tˆ a∂ˆÇ◊Tˆ ÂV„[˝ XÁ --- ^◊V %Á„a, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á„_Á C `◊N˛„Eı Ac˜O ÂVc˜‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“„[˝` Eı„Ã[˝ %Á„_Á]Ã^ C `◊N˛]Ã^ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ ÂQˆ„Eı %ÁX„[˝* 30.10.35 *

cg˜ÓÁ, FÁCÃ^Á \ˆÁ_ --- V«[[˝Ô_ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„_ Tˆ„]Á]Ã^ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Áa[˝ÁÃ[˝ aêˆÁ[˝XÁ Â[˝`› c˜Ã^* 31.10.35 *

X: ]Á, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ £W˝« ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ EıÁL EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* Eı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü FÁÃ[˝ÁY [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„_ %Á◊] X›Ã[˝[˝ C `Á‹ôˆ UÁ◊Eı* ...EıÁ„Ã[˝Á ÂEıÁX [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝, ÂEıÁX EıUÁ %Á]Á„Eı ◊EıªK«˜ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* =: EıÁ„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝c˜O \ˆÁ_* a[˝ a]Ã^ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁ„Tˆ EıÁ„L ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜CÃ^Á ac˜L c˜Ã^* 2.11.35 *

TˆÁc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O --- c˜÷VÃ^Y≤ø a[[˝ÔVÁ ÂFÁ_Á, a]ÿôˆ beingAÃ[˝ [˝` c˜CÃ^Á, A„Tˆc˜O X[˝LXΩ c˜Ã^*

nature

c˜÷VÃ^ÿöˆ psychic 3.11.35

*

X: %Á◊] %ÁLC ÂTˆÁ]Á c˜‰ªTˆ [˝ßV…„Ã[˝ %Á◊ªK˜ [˝„_ ÂEıX ]„X EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜, ]Á? =: ÂEıX ]„X EıÃ[˝ªK˜? ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ physical mind„Eı [= •ÁÃ[˝Á] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ inner being„Eı ʪRÙ„Eı ◊V„Tˆ allow EıÃ[˝ªK˜ [˝„_* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ inner being %UÔÁd

454

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

psychic beingc˜O

a[[˝ÔVÁc˜O %Á◊] ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊`£ [˝„_ ◊X„L„Eı ʪJÙ„X, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ„_ UÁ„Eı --- physical mind Âac˜O EıUÁ \ˆÁ[˝„Tˆ Âac˜O aTˆÓ =Y_◊ç˘ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ac˜„L YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* Âac˜O LXÓ a[[˝ÔVÁ G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ psychicA UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^* ^Á ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ soul LÁ„X TˆÁ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı physical mind ◊V„Ã^ ÂFgÁLÁ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı? ^FX [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„X a+…SÔ %Á„_Á %Áa„[˝ TˆFX ÂaC LÁX„[˝* 6.11.35 *

cg˜ÓÁ, a]ÿôˆ aw¯Á„Eı (physical mind C physical vital Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ) AEı◊V„Eıc˜O ◊ZıÃ[˝Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^* TˆÁÃ[˝ÁC ^FX Cc˜O\ˆÁ„[˝ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ TˆFX ÂEıÁXC serious difficulty %ÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ* 7.11.35 *

^Á [˝„_◊ªK˜ EıTˆ [˝ÁÃ[˝, TˆÁ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝_„Tˆ c˜Ã^* `Á‹ôˆ a]Á◊c˜Tˆ c˜„Ã^ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝, a[˝ ◊PˆEı Y„U ªJÙ_„[˝, [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆC [˝V_Á„[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ c˜PˆÁd XÃ^, %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ* %YÃ[˝◊V„Eı ^◊V ◊[˝Jª Ù◊_Tˆ Jª Ùá˚_ c˜C, EıîXÁ [˝Á VÁ[˝› =‰Pˆ, TˆÁc˜„_ ◊XÃ[˝UEÔ ı ÂGÁ_]Á_ C EırÙ a ◊rÙ EıÃ[˝„[˝* ]Á GꈛÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, %Á]Á„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Á„a XÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V --- Ac˜Oa[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Á„y‘Á` ÂEıÁX EıÁ]XÁÃ[˝ [˝Á VÁ[˝›Ã[˝ _l˘S, [˝ÁaXÁ [˝Á VÁ[˝› E ıTˆÁUÔ c˜Ã^ XÁ [˝„_ Ac˜O a[˝ W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ* Ac˜O a[˝„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ, A a„[˝„Tˆ ◊XÃ[˝UÔEı aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ l˘◊Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 29.11.35 *

Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ, Ac˜O [˝«◊à˘c˜O aTˆÓ, a[˝ a]Ã^ Ã[˝ÁFÁ =◊ªJÙTˆ* %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝«◊à˘„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ Â_ÁEı„Eı C HªRÙOXÁ„Eı XÁ ÂV„F Ac˜O %W˝ÓÁ±¡[˝◊« à˘„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ psychicAÃ[˝ V ◊rÙ„Tˆ ÂVF„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 7.12.35 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

455

]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ◊[˝`üÁa C `“à˘Á ^ÁÃ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ Âa a[˝ a]Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ„_, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó UÁ„Eı* [˝ÁW˝Á =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ c˜ÁLÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á TˆÁ„Eı ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* Âa ◊[˝`üÁa, Âa `“à˘Á a[˝ a]Ã^, a[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^, a[˝ HªRÙOXÁÃ^ %ªªR«ÙORÙO Ã[˝ÁFÁ, A c˜_ Â^Á„GÃ[˝ ]…_ EıUÁ* %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ ÂGÏS, AªRÙO›c˜O c˜‰¨K˜ %Áa_* 16.12.35 *

Ac˜O a]Ã^ physical consciousnessAÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ `◊N˛ EıÁL Eı‰¨K˜¤, Âac˜O LXÓ %„X„EıÃ[˝ Ac˜O physical consciousnessAÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á Y“[˝_\ˆÁ„[˝ =‰Pˆ◊ªK˜_ --- ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Jª Ùá˚_TˆÁ[à ˝ EıÁ[à ˝S Ac˜O Â^ Ac˜O [˝Á◊c˜„[à ˝[à ˝ physical consciousnessAÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊X„L„Eı identify Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜„_ Â^X Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁc˜O T«ˆ◊]* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Áa_ aw¯Á ◊\ˆ T ˆ „ à [ ˝ Â^FÁ„X ]Á„à ^ à [ ˝ a„Ü ae„^ÁG UÁ„Eı* Âac˜O LXÓ physical consciousnessAÃ[˝ %p˚ÁX, TˆÁ]◊aEıTˆÁ, \«ˆ_ Â[˝ÁMıÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ◊X„LÃ[˝ [˝„_ G–c˜S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂXc˜O* Â^X [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ^‹óˆ, Âac˜O ^„‹óˆÃ[˝ ^Tˆ ÂVÁb %a+…SÔTˆÁ a[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ aÁ◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ÂV„[˝ Ac˜O p˚ÁXc˜O ÂÃ[˝„F ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı aÁl˘›Ã[˝ ]Tˆ %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂVF„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ◊[˝`üÁa C `“à˘Á ÂÃ[˝„F* 16.12.35 *

◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ a[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜ C ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁL ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ c˜‰¨K˜* Tˆ„[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜„_ Âa a[˝ ʪRÙOÃ[˝ YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, ^Tˆ◊VX Âa ]X Y…SÔ %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ XÁ c˜Ã^, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a„Ü AEı XÁ c˜Ã^* 19.12.35 *

T«ˆ◊] ^Á [˝SÔXÁ Eı„Ã[˝ªK˜, ""◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ]Ã^ ÊY“]]Ã^ Â[˝VXÁ, TˆFX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊Eı„a %Á]Á„Eı ªRÙOÁ„X'' psychic Â[˝VXÁ ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* Ac˜O a[˝c˜O psychic sorrowAÃ[˝ _l˘S* 20.12.35 *

456

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

Ac˜O a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á ÂV„F ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Â^„Ã^ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂV„F ^ÁC, ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı p˚ÁX [˝ÁQÕˆ„[˝* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛c˜O Ac˜O a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ a◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ÂV„[˝* 20.12.35 *

%Áa_ EıUÁ Ac˜O Â^ EıÁ„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝Á [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ [˝` c˜„[˝ XÁ* TˆÁ ^◊V c˜C EıÁL Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ %e` c˜Ã^ XÁ, TˆÁ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ aÁ]ÁXÓ EıÁ„LÃ[˝ a]ÁX* EıÁL„EıC a]◊YÔTˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 27.12.35 *

X: ]Á, %ÁL Eı„Ã^Eı◊VX W˝„Ã[˝ V«fF ◊XÃ[˝ÁX≥V C c˜TˆÁ`Á[˝ÓtEı XÁXÁ EıîXÁ C ÊY“Ã[˝SÁ %Áa„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_* %Á◊] £W˝« ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ◊`£ c˜„Ã^ ]Á ]Á ÂQˆ„Eı ªJÙ„_◊ªK˜* ◊EıªK«˜l˘S Y„Ã[˝ ÂV◊F old YÁTˆÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ a[˝ Mı„Ã[˝ Y‰QÕˆ ÂG_ A[˝e TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ÂV◊F ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ %Á„_Á Y◊[˝yTˆÁ C %ÁX≥V ÂX„] %Áa_* =: Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] reject Eı„Ã[˝, ÂZı„_ ÂZı„_ ◊V„Ã^ Ca[˝ suggestions XrÙ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ --- TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝ y‘]`f Eı„] ◊G„Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Y“ÁS UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* 4.1.36 *

X: £W˝« [˝ÁW˝Á ◊X„Ã^ [˝QÕˆ ªJÙá˚_ c˜„Ã^ Y‰QÕˆ◊ªK˜_Á] C [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ Â[˝`› ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ Eı„[à ˝◊Kª ˜_Á], TˆÁc˜O ATˆ V«fFEırÙ C %ÁHÁTˆ ÂY„Ã^◊ªK˜_Á]* %ÁÃ[˝ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı \«ˆ_[˝ XÁ* =: Ac˜O \ˆÁ_* TˆÁ Eı[à ˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_, [˝ÁW˝Á Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Á [˝„_ %Áa„[˝ XÁ [˝[à ˝e [à ˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ a«◊[˝„W˝Ã[˝ LXÓ %Áa„[˝* 4.1.36 *

Ac˜O a[˝ ÂGÁ_]Á„_Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘ AEıªRÙOÁ EıUÁ [˝_Á %Á[˝`ÓEı c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, Âa Ac˜O --- Ac˜O a]Ã^ F«[˝ aÁ[˝W˝ÁX c˜C EıÁÃ[˝ a„Ü T«ˆ◊] H◊XúˆTˆÁ EıÃ[˝ [˝Á Â[˝`› Â]`*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

457

Â^]X D. R.A "ªJÙ', "L'* "ªJÙ'Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó %£à˘ `◊N˛Ã[˝ F«[˝ ÂF_Á c˜Ã^, TˆFX [TˆÁÃ[˝] `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEıªRÙOÁ LùÁ_Á c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ ◊[˝YÃ[˝›Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁC c˜Ã^, hungerstrike Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Eı ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜ÁÃ[˝ %W˝›X EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, ◊[˝‰V–Ác˜ Eı„Ã[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ◊X≥VÁC Eı„Ã[˝, aÁ◊W˝EıÁ„VÃ[˝ []„X] %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %a„‹ôˆÁb a ◊rÙ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝* %Á◊] ÂV„F◊ªK˜ "ªJÙ'Ã[˝ a„Ü [^ÁÃ[˝Á] Â[˝`› Â]„` Ac˜O ÂY‰ªRÙO %Ám„XÃ[˝ LùÁ_Á ÂGÁ_]Á_ C [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ ◊[˝YÃ[˝›Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó aey‘Á]Eı Ã[˝÷„Y %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜„Ã^◊ªK˜_* "L'Ã[˝ [Âl˘‰y] TˆTˆ c˜Ã^ XÁ, Tˆ„[˝ %c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝ C %£à˘ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ac˜„L =‰Pˆ, TˆFX `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝C %Ám„XÃ[˝ LùÁ_Á C XÁXÁ ÂGÁ_]Á_ c˜Ã^* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÂGÁ_]Á„_Ã[˝, unsafe conditionAÃ[˝ feeling %ÁÃ[˝ red pepper EıÁªRÙOÁ GÁ„Ã^ _ÁGÁÃ[˝ feeling TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Âac˜O %£à˘ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %Áy‘]„SÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* Âa LXÓ [˝_◊ªK˜ aÁ[˝W˝ÁX c˜„Ã^ UÁEı, ]Á ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ„Ã[˝Á EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊X„L„Eı open Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ* Ac˜O EıUÁ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝c˜O LXÓ ◊_„F◊ªK˜, %ÁÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝C EıÁ‰ªK˜ Y“EıÁ` EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂXc˜O* Y“SÁ„] ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂVF◊ªK˜„_X ÂEıX ÂGÁ_]Á„_Ã[˝ feeling c˜‰¨K˜* Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O c˜Ã^ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ÂGÁ_]Á_ ^Á„Tˆ XÁ c˜Ã^ Ac˜O ◊V„Eı aÁ[˝W˝ÁX UÁEıÁ \ˆÁ_* 21.1.36 *

Ac˜O %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ F«[˝ \ˆÁ_* Y“SÁ„] ]Á ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı ◊Eı ◊V‰¨K˜X, TˆÁc˜O feel EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- £W˝« [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ appearance ÂV„F Â_Á„Eı EıTˆ \«ˆ_ [˝«„Mı ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ VÁX ◊X„Tˆ \«ˆ„_ ^ÁÃ^ [˝Á ◊X„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* 22.1.36 *

Ac˜O change (◊YªK˜„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı) F«[˝ \ˆÁ_, %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜X ÂU„Eı Ac˜O W˝Ã[˝„SÃ[˝ %Áy‘]S %Á„a, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ C ˪JÙTˆXÓ ÂaFÁ„X UÁEı„_ %ÁÃ[˝ Y“„[˝` EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* aÁVÁ Y„≤øÃ[˝ %UÔ Ac˜O Â^ ÂaFÁ„X ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ Y“EıÁ` c˜‰¨K˜* ◊YªK˜„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı psychic beingAÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX %ÁÃ[˝ ÂaFÁ„X ^Tˆ ÂEı≥V–, Â^]X heart centre, vital centre, physical centre Â^FÁ„X Â]Ã[˝”V„â¯Ã[˝ a„Ü ae◊`¿rÙ

458

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

c˜Ã^, ÂaFÁ„X TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Y“◊TˆúˆÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX* Ac˜O LXÓ Ac˜O ◊YªK˜„XÃ[˝ ◊VEıªRÙOÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ [˝QÕˆ important. 24.1.36 *

Ac˜O Â^ feeling Â^ ]Á V…„Ã[˝ %Á‰ªK˜, AªRÙO› \«ˆ_ W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ* ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜c˜O, Tˆ„[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X Y“Á„SÃ[˝ YŤÁ Y‰QÕˆ, TˆFX Ac˜O W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ c˜Ã^* Â^ AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ„_ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„l˘ Ac˜O YŤÁ aÃ[˝ÁX Eı◊PˆX XÃ^* 31.1.36 *

A ]„X Ã[˝ÁF Â^ ]Á V…„Ã[˝ ^ÁX XÁ, a[[˝ÔVÁ ◊XEı‰ªRÙO ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ %Á‰ªK˜X --- ^FX [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC Ã[˝Eı] ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ c˜Ã^, TˆFX Âa ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ aTˆÓ ʪRÙ„Eı ÂZı„_ ʪRÙ=Ã[˝ ]Tˆ, TˆÁc˜O CÃ[˝÷Y Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı a[˝ ÂVF, EıÃ[˝* 12.2.36 *

Ac˜O a[˝c˜O aTˆÓ* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝, %p˚ÁX %aTˆÓ* [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝EıÁÃ[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ XÃ^, %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^ [˝„_ reject EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı„Tˆ c˜„[˝, ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı a[˝ [˝«Mı„Tˆ ÂVF„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝* 13.2.36 *

^FX [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ physical consciousnessA %[˝ÿöˆÁX c˜Ã^, TˆFX Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y aÁW˝XÁ`…XÓ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ`…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^ --- TˆÁ aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Ã^* TˆÁ XÁ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ AEı]Áy =YÁÃ^ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı [˝„_◊ªK˜_Á] --- ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEıÁ, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %p˚ÁX %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S Y“ÁS[˝◊  w¯[à ˝ [˝` XÁ c˜„^à ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ psychic being ÂU„Eı Aa[˝„Eı ÂVFÁ, Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝Á* ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ Aa[˝ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ %e`„Eı %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝* ^ÁÃ[˝Á TˆÁc˜O Eı„Ã[˝, TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁC [˝ÁW˝Á ◊V„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* %„X„Eı TˆÁ Eı„Ã[˝ XÁ, physicalAc˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁX Eı„Ã[˝ Âa, physicalAÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ^Tˆ ◊VX

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

459

=YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı %Á„_Á `◊N˛ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V XÁ %Á„a* 23.2.36 *

Ac˜O EıUÁÃ[˝ =w¯Ã[˝ %Á„Gc˜O ◊V„Ã^◊ªK˜* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı a[˝ ÂVF, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ªJÙl«˘„Tˆ XÃ^* [˝◊c˜Î∏JÙTˆ„XÓ UÁEı„_ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁÃ^ %ÁªJÙÃ[˝„S %„XEı \«ˆ_ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı„_ psychic being y‘]`f Y“[˝_ c˜Ã^, psychic beingc˜O aTˆÓ ÂV„F, a[˝ aTˆÓ]Ã^ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂVÃ^* 25.2.36 *

Ac˜O ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ C \ˆ„Ã^Ã[˝ [˝V„_ Ac˜O ◊X∏JÙÃ^TˆÁ C `“à˘Á Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^ Â^ ^FX AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Â^ÁG c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, TˆFX c˜ÁLÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á c˜„_C [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ EıTˆc˜O XÁ ÂVÁb [˝Á %a+…SÔTˆÁ UÁEı„_C ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ LÃ^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %[˝`ÓêˆÁ[˝›, %XÓUÁ c˜„TˆC YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* 26.2.36 *

^FX Ac˜O `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á„a, TˆFX ]X„Eı F«[˝ `Á‹ôˆ EıÃ[˝, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ %Á„_ÁEı„Eı QˆÁEı [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ„Tˆ XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ* 7.3.36 *

Ac˜O a[˝ [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ ÂU„Eı %Á„a* ^FXc˜O %Á„a %Á]ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^ [˝„_ reject EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ^Á %Á„a TˆÁ„Tˆ aÁÃ^ XÁ ◊V„_ Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 9.3.36 *

""Â_Á„Eı %ÁHÁTˆ ◊V„_'' ]Á„X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝ %ÁHÁTˆ YQÕˆ„_* %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝

460

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

^Tˆ◊VX UÁEı„[˝ TˆTˆ◊VX TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %ÁHÁTˆ YQÕˆ„[˝c˜O* %c˜e\ˆÁ[˝„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Ã^ £à˘ a]◊YÔTˆ %‹ôˆfEıÃ[˝„S a]\ˆÁ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› Y“W˝ÁX %e`* TˆÁc˜O EıÃ[˝„_ %ÁHÁTˆ _ÁG„[˝ XÁ, ]Á„Eı YÁCÃ^ÁC ac˜L c˜„[˝* 18.3.36 *

◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı ^Á [˝_Á c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, TˆÁ aTˆÓc˜O* [˝◊c˜‰∏JÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %p˚Á„X ÂU„Eı ÂEı[˝_ \«ˆ_}Á◊‹ôˆ ◊]UÓÁ EırÙ c˜Ã^, ÂaFÁ„X a[˝ l«˘V– %c˜„]Ã[˝ ÂF_Á* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝c˜O UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- %Áa_ aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ aTˆÓ \ˆÁ[˝ aTˆÓ V ◊rÙ ^ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó, %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ %◊\ˆ]ÁX [˝ÁaXÁÃ[˝ VÁ[˝›Ã[˝ Â_` ]Áy UÁEı„[˝ XÁ, TˆÁc˜Ác˜O grow EıÃ[˝„Tˆ VÁC, TˆFX ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ c˜„[˝, ]ÁX[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝ ◊[˝}ÁªRÙO %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* 18.3.36 *

Ac˜O EıUÁ* ]Á„Eı Y“U] ÂY„Tˆ c˜„[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ[à ˝ ÂU„Eı, [˝Á◊c˜[à ˝ ÂU„Eı XÃ^ --- [˝Á◊c˜[à ˝ ÂU„Eı ÂY„Tˆ ÂG„_, TˆÁC c˜Ã^, ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ªRÙOÁC EıFXC TˆÁÃ[˝ aÁ◊~W˝Ó •ÁÃ[˝Á %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ c˜Ã^ XÁ* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ a+…SÔÃ[˝÷„Y ÂY„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ªRÙOÁ ^Á %Á[˝`ÓEı TˆÁ realised c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* Ac˜O aTˆÓ V«'AEıLX ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ ÂEıc˜ AFXC \ˆÁ_ Eı„Ã[˝ [˝«Mı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝◊X* 22.3.36 *

X: ÿëˆY¬ ÂVF_Á] AEı◊ªRÙO Y«Ã[˝”b]ÁX«b %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ A„a‰ªK˜* %Á◊] TˆÁÃ[˝ [˝«„EıÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ =‰Pˆ TˆÁ„Eı Â]„Ã[˝ ÂZı__Á] C TˆÁÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝”bÁÜ ÂEı‰ªRÙO ◊V_Á]* ...TˆFX ÂV◊F %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙc˜ÁÃ[˝Á ]c˜ÁEıÁ_›Ã[˝ ]Tˆ \ˆ›bS c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* =: Ac˜O Y«Ã[˝”bªRÙO› ÂEıÁX vital force c˜„[˝, c˜Ã^Tˆ sex impulseAÃ[˝ AEıªªRÙOÁ force* Ac˜O %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ„Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ vital being TˆÁ„Eı ÂEı‰ªRÙO ÂZı„_‰ªK˜* aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ vital being Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y Â^Áà˘Á c˜CÃ^Á ªJÙÁc˜O --- FÁÃ[˝ÁY vital forceÃ[˝ [˝` XÁ c˜„Ã^, \ˆ›Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ TˆÁ„Eı meet EıÃ[˝„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝XÁ` EıÃ[˝„[˝* 23.3.36

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aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

461

X: ]Á, %Á◊] ÂVF◊ªK˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁªRÙOÁ F«[˝ `Á‹ôˆ Y◊[˝y %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ c˜„Ã^ ◊[˝`ü]Ã^ c˜‰¨K˜* =: F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ* A„Tˆ Â[˝ÁMıÁ ^ÁÃ^ Â^ mindA >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁ XÁ]‰ªK˜, %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ =Y_◊ç˘ ◊X„Ã^ XÁ]‰ªK˜* TˆFXc˜O Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y `Á‹ôˆ Y◊[˝y %Á„_Á]Ã^ ◊[˝`ü]Ã^ c˜Ã^ --- EıÁÃ[˝S %Á±¡Á [˝Á true aw¯Á ÂaÃ[˝÷Y `Á‹ôˆ Y◊[˝y %Á„_Á]Ã^ ◊[˝`ü]Ã^* 27.3.36 *

\ˆÁ_, Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y Eı„Ã[˝ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁ XÁ]Á ªJÙÁc˜O `Á‹ôˆ ◊[˝`ü]Ã^ \ˆÁ[˝ ◊X„Ã^, Y“U] ]ÁUÁÃ^ (]ÁXa Âl˘‰y) TˆÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ c˜÷V„Ã^ (emotional vital C psychicA) TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ XÁ◊\ˆ„Tˆ C XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ (vitalA) Â`„b a]ÿôˆ physical„Eı [˝ÓÁä Eı„Ã[˝* 28.3.36 *

X›_ %Á„_Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝, aÁVÁ %Á„_Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ --- ^FX >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁ (higher consciousness) ◊[˝`ü]Ã^ \ˆÁ[˝ ◊X„Ã^ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ Y“U] XÁ]„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝ TˆFX X›_ %Á„_Á F«[˝ ÂVFÁ ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı* 28.3.36 *

◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVÁb y”◊ªRÙO ÂVF„Tˆ c˜Ã^, ÂV„F ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ [˝Á ◊[˝b| [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝Á` c˜„Tˆ XÁc˜O* ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á„_Á C `◊N˛Ã[˝ ÂLÁ„Ã[˝ £W˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ◊X„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 16.4.36 *

Â^ ◊ªJÙ‹ˆô Á[à ˝ EıUÁ [˝_, Âa ◊ªJÙ‹ˆô Á V…[à ˝ Eı[à ˝„Tˆ c˜^à * %Á◊] ^Á Jª ÙÁc˜,O TˆÁ c˜^à ◊X, ^Á YÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á`Á ◊ªK˜_ TˆÁ YÁc˜O◊X* ÂEı]X [Eı„Ã[˝] EıÃ[˝[˝, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ c˜„[˝ XÁ --- A a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ %`“à˘ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ, Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ªJÙÁCÃ^Á C YÁCÃ^Á XÁ-YÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ* %Á◊] ◊Eı YÁ[˝

462

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ Ac˜O ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ c˜‰¨K˜ %c˜„]Ã[˝, --- ]Á„Eı ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X„L„Eı a[˝ ÂV„[˝, Ac˜O ◊ªJÙ‹ˆô Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ %‹ôˆ[à ˝Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ --- aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Y“Á^à a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á[à ˝ _«hıÁX ]…_ Ac˜O YÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝* Â^ a[˝ ÂVÃ^ \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı, Âa \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ a[˝ YÁÃ^, XÁ ʪJÙ„^à C* Â^ ÂY„Tˆ Jª ÙÁ^à AªRÙÁO CªRÙÁO , Âa AªRÙÁO CªRÙÁO YÁÃ^, ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı YÁÃ^ XÁ* 18.4.36 *

ÂEıc˜ ^◊V a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ a∂ˆÇ«F›X c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ÂLÁ„Ã[˝ W˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ ÊPˆ„_ ÂVÃ^ ^Tˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a, Â`„b Âa [˝ÁW˝Á]«N˛ c˜„[˝c˜O c˜„[˝* 20.4.36 * It is good.

a[˝ a]Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ %ÁÿöˆÁ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^ Â^ TgˆÁÃ[˝c˜O c˜Á„Tˆ %Á◊ªK˜, TgˆÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛„Tˆ a[˝ c˜„[˝* TˆÁ c˜„_ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ V«fF [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á %Áa„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 17.5.36 *

A]X %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜CÃ^Á ªJÙÁc˜O Â^ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜„Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ EıÁL EıÃ[˝Á„[˝, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ Âa `◊N˛Ã[˝ ^‹óˆ c˜„Ã^ EıÁL EıÃ[˝„[˝ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ Y«„Ã[˝ÁY«◊Ã[˝ Ã[˝÷„Y ac˜„L %Á„a XÁ* aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %Á„a %ÁÃ[˝ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ complete c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 23.5.36 *

aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Y„U `…XÓTˆÁ %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a ---- `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Tˆ XÁc˜O* `…XÓTˆÁ %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ X…TˆX =~◊Tˆ„Eı prepare Eı„Ã[˝* Tˆ„[˝ ÂVF„Tˆ c˜„[˝ Â^X `…XÓTˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊[˝bÁV ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ XÁ %Á„a* 25.5.36

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aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

463

c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ◊PˆEı* ÂV„c˜Ã[˝ ]Ã[˝„S ]«◊N˛ c˜Ã^ XÁ, Ac˜O ÂV„c˜c˜O X…TˆX ÂVc˜‰ªJÙTˆXÁ C Âac˜O X…TˆX ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ ªJÙÁc˜O* 25.5.36 *

Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁc˜O ªJÙÁc˜O --- a[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO `Á‹ôˆ X›Ã[˝[˝ ]Á]Ã^ %ÁX≥V]Ã^* 28.5.36 *

"a' a∂누µ˘ ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á] Â^ "Y'Ã[˝ %ÁW˝FÁCÃ^Á Ã[˝”◊ªRÙO G–c˜S EıÃ[˝Á [˝QÕˆ \«ˆ_* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ÿöˆ„_ Âa Â_ÁEıªRÙO›Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ^◊V ÂEıÁX FÁÃ[˝ÁY `◊N˛ %◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ UÁ„Eı TˆÁc˜„_ B %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝„Eı %[˝_∂ëˆX Eı„Ã[˝ Âac˜O `◊N˛ Â^ FÁÃ^ TˆÁÃ[˝ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ Y“ÁSÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Áy‘]S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 3.6.36 *

X: ""Tˆ'' C ""a''Ã[˝ a„Ü %XÓ◊V„XÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ Â[˝`› EıUÁ [˝_Á„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ F«[˝ ]ÁUÁ EıÁ]‰QÕˆ◊ªK˜_ C %ÿëˆ◊ÿôˆ Â[˝ÁW˝ Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_Á]* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^FX AEıªªR«ÙO `Á‹ôˆ X›Ã[˝[˝ c˜„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ^ QˆÁEı_Á] C %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO ÂTˆÁ]Á]Ã^ Tˆ›[˝– c˜O¨K˜Á C ◊[˝`üÁa c˜_ Â^ c˜Oc˜Á V…Ã[˝ c˜c˜O„[˝* AEıªªR«ÙO Y„Ã[˝ ÂV◊F, aTˆÓc˜O V…Ã[˝ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á◊] %a›] `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁX≥V ÊY“] Y◊[˝yTˆÁÃ^ C ÂTˆÁ]Á„Tˆ \ˆ„Ã[˝ =Pˆ◊ªK˜* =: Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ %Áa_ =YÁÃ^ --- Ac˜O =YÁ„Ã^c˜O ʪJÙTˆ XÁÃ[˝ ^Tˆ lowering [˝Á deviation (◊X∂oˆG◊Tˆ [˝Á }Á‹ôˆG◊Tˆ) aÁÃ[˝ÁX ^ÁÃ^* 9.6.36 *

X: aÁÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ÁTˆ Â^X %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝]Ã^ %ΪJÙTˆXÓ]Ã^ Tˆ„]Á]Ã^ LG„Tˆ ]QÕˆÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ Y‰QÕˆ UÁ◊Eı* aEıÁ„_ =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ* ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ =‰Pˆ ÂV◊F `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ªRÙOÁ [˝QÕˆ LQÕˆ %_a [˝_c˜›X =daÁc˜c˜›X `Á◊‹ôˆ C %ÁX≥V`…XÓ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* ]Á A]X c˜„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ H«] V…Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ VÁC*

464

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

=: %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ H«] CÃ[˝Eı]c˜O c˜Ã^ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ XÁ H«]Á„_ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^ ªK˜ÁY Â[˝‰QÕˆ ^ÁÃ^, Eı„] XÁ* A a„[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_Á C ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı %ÁXÁ c˜‰¨K˜ AEı]Áy =YÁÃ^* 20.6.36 *

EıFXC [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ÿöˆÁÃ^› UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ --- ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ_ ÂU„Eı T«ˆ◊] V…„Ã[˝ Â^„TˆC YÁÃ[˝ XÁ --- ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı YŤÁ Y„QÕˆ ]Áy, Âa L„XÓ [˝ÁW˝Á =Pˆ„_ \ˆÃ^ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O, V«fF EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O, [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı reject EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı„Tˆ QˆÁEı„Tˆ \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a --- Â`„b [˝ÁW˝Á =Pˆ„_C %ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁÃ^› a◊TˆÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Eı cover EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 22.6.36 *

Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÂaÁYÁX ---- Ac˜O ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %„XEı plane [˝Á a]Tˆ_ \…ˆ◊], Ac˜O ÂaÁYÁ„X \…ˆ◊]Ã[˝ YÃ[˝ \…ˆ◊]„Tˆ =‰Pˆ Â`„b supermindA =‰Pˆ, \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ a›]Ác˜›X %Á„_Á]Ã^ %ÁX≥V]Ã^ %X„‹ôˆ* 27.6.36 *

^FX %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ ◊]UÓÁ C‰Pˆ TˆFX YU ªRÙÁEıÁ c˜„Ã^ Y‰QÕˆ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÁÃ^ %Á‰ªK˜ Ac˜O --- Ac˜O ◊]UÓÁÃ^ ◊[˝`üÁa XÁ EıÃ[˝Á, A suggestion„Eı reject EıÃ[˝Á A a[˝ aTˆÓ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ [˝„_* [˝ÁW˝Á %Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁ„Tˆ ◊Eı, ÂaÁLÁ Y„U ªJÙ_, [˝ÁW˝Á Â`„b %ÁY◊X F„a YQÕˆ„[˝* 27.6.36 *

Ac˜OªRÙO› [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂGÁ_]Á„_Ã[˝ Zı_* `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Áy‘]S --- `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ae^Tˆ c˜„Ã^ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝*

1.7.36

*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

465

A Tˆ \ˆÁ_c˜O --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ◊Y“Ã^ [˝Á %◊Y“Ã^ ^Ác˜Á HªªR«ÙOEı, a[˝ a]Ã^ %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ UÁEıÁ, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛* c˜Oc˜Ác˜O aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜CÃ^Á =◊ªJÙTˆ* 2.7.36 *

AFXC `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S influencesAÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ C‰Pˆ◊X --- A a◊Ť A a[˝ [˝ ◊rÙ C PˆÁâ¯Á ◊\ˆ„L [˝ÁTˆÁ„aÃ[˝ Zı_ c˜„[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı F«„_‰ªK˜, Â^ `◊N˛„Eı QˆÁEı„_ A a[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ &`Ô `›H– ]«‰ªK˜ ^ÁÃ^* 12.7.36 *

X: AFX %ÁÃ[˝ V«fF EıÁ~Á c˜TˆÁ`Á C ]„Ã[˝ ^Á[˝, JÙ„_ ^Á[˝, ]Á %Á]Á„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Á„aX XÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ]ÁX[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ◊L◊Xa %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Áa„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝‰ªK˜ XÁ* ^◊V ÂEıÁX Ã[˝Eı„] %Á„a, ÂEı %Á]Á„Eı a‰ªJÙTˆX Eı„Ã[˝ ÂVÃ^ A[˝e %Á◊] ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ◊`£Ã[˝ ]Tˆ ]Á ]Á QˆÁ◊Eı C c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ ^Ác˜O...* =: It is very good. Ac˜O \ˆÁ„[˝ ªJÙ_„_ ]ÁX[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ B a[˝ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX movement F„a ^Á„[˝, %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 18.7.36 *

X: ]Á, AFX %Á◊] feel Eı◊Ã[˝ T«ˆ◊] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ◊V„Ã^ a[˝ EıÁL EıÃ[˝ªK˜ C %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ %ÁªK˜... %ÁLEıÁ_ EıÁ„LÃ[˝ LXÓ ÂEıc˜ [˝EıÁ[˝◊Eı EıÃ[˝„_ `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ UÁ◊Eı C aTˆEÔı c˜„Ã^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %ÁX„≥V EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı◊Ã[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ C ]ÁX[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ◊L◊Xb A„a %Á]Á„Eı ʪRÙ„Eı ÂZı„_ %ÁÃ[˝ TˆFX %Á◊] AEıªªR«ÙO ÂGÁ_]Á_ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ C ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ C ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı \«ˆ„_ ^Ác˜O* =: This also is very good. [˝Á◊c˜[à ˝, \«ˆ„_ ^ÁCÃ^Á Ac˜O a[˝ Y“Eı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ habitAÃ[˝ LXÓ c˜Ã^* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ ^◊V a[˝ a]Ã^ ^±Ûˆ Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF, TˆÁ c˜„_ Ac˜O a[˝ habit F„a ^Á„[˝, Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ movementc˜O ]X Y“Á„SÃ[˝ natural habit c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* 18.7.36 *

466

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%Á]Ã[˝Á Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊Vc˜O◊X* ^FX depression c˜Ã^ TˆFX T«ˆ◊] A a[˝ EıUÁ \ˆÁ[˝* ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı T«ˆ◊] [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ A„a %ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Eı feel EıÃ[˝ XÁ, TˆÁc˜O [˝„_ \ˆÁ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ XÃ^ Â^ ]Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Ã^‰ªK˜X* %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ^ÁC, ÂaFÁ„X TgˆÁ„Eı feel EıÃ[˝„[˝* 5.9.36 *

^FX ʪJÙTˆXÁ physicalA XÁ„] TˆFX Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^* TˆÁÃ[˝ %UÔ Ac˜O XÃ^ Â^ a[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Zı_ [˝ UÁ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ [˝Á =Y„Ã[˝ ªJÙ„_ ÂG‰ªK˜ --- a[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Á[˝Ã[˝„SÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊YªK˜„X Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜* Ac˜O obscure physicalA ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ %Á„_Á C `◊N˛ XÁ]Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- ÂaªRÙOÁ ^FX Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ c˜„[˝ TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ A %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^◊V ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜C, depressed c˜C [˝Á Ac˜O a[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ Y“„[˝` Eı„Ã[˝ Â^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ A L›[˝„X c˜„[˝ XÁ, ]Ã[˝Á \ˆÁ_ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V, TˆÁ c˜„_ AEıªRÙOÁ [˝ÁW˝Á c˜Ã^ Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁ `◊N˛ %Á„_Á XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ Y„U* ÂaLXÓ Am„_Á„Eı reject Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁFÁ %ÁÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ aspire EıÃ[˝Á C TgˆÁ„Eı QˆÁEıÁ =◊ªJÙTˆ* 19.9.36 *

]Á Tˆ CÃ[˝Eı] ◊EıªK«˜ [˝„_X◊X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘* Ac˜O EıUÁ aTˆÓ Â^ AEıªRÙO› ]«FÓ EıÁL %Á‰ªK˜ aEı„_Ã[˝ ^Á ]Á ◊V„Ã^‰ªK˜X, ÂaªRÙOÁ Tˆ Y“W˝ÁX EıÁ^ÔÓ* TˆÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ %XÓ a]„Ã^ ^Á TˆÁÃ[˝Á EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, Âa ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ EıUÁ* a[˝ EıÁL right spiritA EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ XÁ ʪJÙ„Ã^, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ªJÙÃ[˝„S a]YÔS Eı„Ã[˝, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O %Áa_ EıUÁ* 21.9.36 *

Cc˜O ÂaÁLÁ %Á„_ÁEı]Ã^ YUc˜O %Áa_ YU, Tˆ„[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó YßgªJÙ„Tˆ a]Ã^ _Á„G* AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ B Y„U YßgªJÙ„_ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝„`b ÂEıÁXC EırÙ [˝ÁW˝Á ñ_X c˜Ã^ XÁ* 21.9.36 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

467

%Á◊] Tˆ [˝„_◊ªK˜ ÂEıX c˜PˆÁd a+…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ physical consciousness CPˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %[˝ÿöˆÁ aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Ã^ --- TˆFX ÈW˝^ÔÓ W˝„Ã[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ XÁ]Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^, %„XEı a]Ã^ _ÁG„_C l˘◊Tˆ XÁc˜O* Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ Tˆ F«[˝ Eı◊PˆX C ]c˜d EıÁL --- a]Ã^ _ÁGÁ ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı* ÈW˝^ÔÓ W˝Ã[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 26.9.36 *

AªRÙOÁ aTˆÓ Â^ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X, ʪJÙÁF, ]«F a[˝ ]Á„Eı ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ◊X„LÃ[˝ XÃ^ Â\ˆ„[˝, ^Á„Tˆ a[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O ^‹óˆ c˜Ã^, %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ XÃ^* 1.10.36 *

Aa[˝ ◊[˝_ÁY C %Á„y‘Á` TˆÁ]◊aEı %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ _l˘S --- %Á◊] YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ, %Á◊] ]Ã[˝[˝, %Á◊] ªJÙ„_ ^Á[˝ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V EıÃ[˝„_ [˝ÁW˝Á %ÁÃ[˝C H◊X„Ã^ A„a TˆÁ]◊aEı %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Eı [˝Á◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ÂVÃ^, A‰ªTˆ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX =~◊TˆÃ[˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó c˜Ã^ XÁ* %Á◊] AEıUÁ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á]* %Áa_ EıUÁ %ÁÃ[˝ AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊_◊F* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁ XrÙ c˜Ã^◊X, ^Á ÂY„Ã^◊ªK˜„_ TˆÁC ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^ ◊X, YŤÁÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜„X Y‰QÕˆ‰ªK˜ £W˝«* aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Y„U AEıªRÙOÁ a]Ã^ %Á„a ^FX ʪJÙTˆXÁ A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ physical planeA ÂX„] ^ÁÃ^* TˆFX ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ aw¯Á[à ˝ =YÃ[˝, ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ %X«\ˆ… ◊Tˆ[à ˝ =YÃ[˝ AEıRª ÙÁO %Y“[˝◊  w¯[à ˝ C %Y“EıÁ„`Ã[˝ YŤÁ Y‰QÕˆ, A]X Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ Â^ aÁW˝XÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O XÁc˜O, aspiration XÁc˜O, %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ XÁc˜O, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ aÁ◊~W˝Ó XÁc˜O, A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ]Tˆ c˜„Ã^◊ªK˜* Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ Â^ £W˝« ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝c˜O c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ TˆÁ XÃ^, aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Ã^ [˝Á c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ [˝Á c˜„[˝, A]X ◊Eı Ê`“úˆ aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝C c˜Ã^* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ aTˆÓ EıUÁ c˜‰¨K˜ Ac˜O Â^ AªRÙOÁ aÁW˝XY„UÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ passage ]Áy, ^◊VC [˝QÕˆ V›HÔ passage* A %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ XÁ XÁ]„_ Y«„Ã[˝Á Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* Ac˜O \…ˆ◊]„Tˆ ÂX„] ÂaFÁ„X ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ÂF_Á, Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ EıÁL ÂQˆ„Eı %ÁX„Tˆ c˜Ã^, %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ a[˝ cleared c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^, %Y“EıÁ„`Ã[˝ [˝V„_ ◊V[˝Ó Y“EıÁ` c˜Ã^, %Y“[˝ ◊w¯Ã[˝ [˝V„_ ◊V[˝Ó `◊N˛ C %X«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ Y“EıÁ` c˜Ã^, £W˝« ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ XÃ^, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝, £W˝« =¨JÙ \…ˆ◊]„Tˆ XÃ^, ◊X∂oˆ \…ˆ◊]„Tˆ, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^, %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^C c˜Ã^* %ÁÃ[˝ Â^ a[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ YŤÁ Y‰QÕˆ◊ªK˜_, Âam„_Á Â[˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ %Á„a, Ac˜O a[˝ \…ˆ◊]„EıC %◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ

468

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

ac˜„L `›H– c˜Ã^ XÁ, %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ c˜Ã^ --- ÈW˝^ÔÓ ªJÙÁc˜O, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊[˝`üÁa ªJÙÁc˜O, V›HÔEıÁ_[˝ÓÁY› a◊c˜b«’TˆÁ ªJÙÁc˜O* Â^ \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı ªJÙÁÃ^ TˆÁ„Eı \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ LXÓ EırÙ ÿ눛EıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Â^ aÁW˝XÁ ªJÙÁÃ^, TˆÁ„Eı aÁW˝XÁ Y„UÃ[˝ EırÙ [˝ÁW˝Á, ◊[˝YÃ[˝›Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Eı ac˜Ó EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* £W˝« aÁW˝XÁÃ^ a«F C ◊[˝_Áa ªJÙÁc˜O„_ ªJÙ_„[˝ XÁ, [˝ÁW˝Á %Á‰ªK˜ [˝„_, ◊[˝YÃ[˝›Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á„a [˝„_ ÂEı[˝_ EıÁ~ÁEıÁ◊ªRÙO C ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á ÂYÁbS EıÃ[˝„_ ªJÙ_„[˝ XÁ* TˆÁ„Tˆ YU %ÁÃ[˝C V›HÔ c˜Ã^* ÈW˝^ÔÓ ªJÙÁc˜O, `“à˘Á ªJÙÁc˜O, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ ªJÙÁc˜O* 14.12.36 *

Ac˜O attitudec˜O \ˆÁ_* ^FXc˜O [˝ÁW˝Á c˜Ã^, ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ YŤÁ Y‰QÕˆ, TˆFX ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ^Tˆl˘S YŤÁ F„a XÁ ^ÁÃ^* YŤÁ Y‰QÕˆ [˝‰ªRÙO ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ◊YªK˜„X a[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜* 15.12.36 *

]Á c˜O¨K˜Á Eı„Ã[˝ %ÁHÁTˆ Eı„Ã[˝X ◊X! Tˆ„[˝ ^◊V ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂEıÁX [˝ÁaXÁ [˝Á %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı, Âam„_Á =‰Pˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ÿ눛E ı◊Tˆ [˝Á ÂYÁbS XÁ ÂY„Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı %Ác˜Tˆ Â[˝ÁW˝ Eı„Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝Eı ]„X Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á %Á]Á„Eı %ÁHÁTˆ ◊V‰¨K˜X* ^◊V [˝Á EıFX %ÁHÁTˆ ÂVX, %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ C [˝ÁaXÁ„Eı %ÁHÁTˆ ÂVX, ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı XÃ^* %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ C [˝ÁaXÁ„Eı [˝#¤X Eı„Ã[˝ a+…SÔ %Á±¡a]YÔS EıÃ[˝„_ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ a[˝ ÂVÁb y‘„] y‘„] %‹ôˆ◊c˜¤Tˆ c˜Ã^, A[˝e ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙÃ[˝aÁ◊~W˝Ó YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* 15.1.37 *

Ac˜O X›‰ªJÙ XÁ]Á `ÁÃ[˝›◊Ã[˝Eı ʪJÙTˆ XÁÃ^ aEı_ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝c˜O c˜Ã^ --- XÁ XÁ]„_ Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^Á Eı◊PˆX* 24.1.37 *

X: %Á◊] Y“ÁÃ^ a]Ã^ ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á C ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

469

ÂQˆ„Eı %ÁX„Tˆ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂTˆ]X ◊EıªK«˜ c˜‰¨K˜ XÁ ]Á, %Á◊] ◊Eı EıÃ[˝[˝? =: ÈW˝^ÔÓ W˝„Ã[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝„_ Â`„b Zı_ c˜„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜Ã^* `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ ÂFÁ„_, %„î %„î Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜Ã^* 24.1.37 *

A„Tˆ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* Â^ÁGY„U Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á„ac˜O --- ^FX ◊X∂oˆTˆ] `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^ C %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^ XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ %Á„a ---- Âa a]ÿôˆ %„XEı◊VX ◊ªRÙEO ı‰Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* ◊Eı‹ôˆ« A YŤÁ[à ˝ ◊YªK˜„X ]Á %Á‰ªK˜X, Y„Ã[˝ ÂVFÁ ÂV„[˝X, Ac˜O ◊X∂oˆ[à ˝ÁLÓ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_Á„EıÃ[˝ Ã[˝Á„LÓ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ c˜„[˝, Ac˜O V ªRÕÙ ◊[˝`üÁa ÂÃ[˝„F a[˝ a]YÔS EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ Ac˜O [˝ÁW˝ÁY…SÔ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ[˝ Â`bY^ÔÓ‹ôˆ A◊G„Ã^ ªJÙ_* 8.3.37 *

]Á ÂTˆÁ]Á ÂU„Eı V…„Ã[˝ ^ÁX◊X, a„Üc˜O %Á‰ªK˜X --- [˝◊c˜‰∏JÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ YŤÁÃ[˝ LXÓ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝ XÁ --- Tˆ„[˝ ◊[˝`üÁa ÂÃ[˝„F UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ Â^ ]Á %Á‰ªK˜X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü, ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝c˜O [à ˝„^à ‰ªK˜X, Âa ◊[˝`Áü „a Jª Ù_„Tˆ c˜^à * Ac˜O a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á Tˆ ◊EıKª ˜« c˜O XÃ^, ]ÁX«b]Á‰yc˜O Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜, ""=Y^«N˛'' Tˆ ÂEıc˜c˜O XÁc˜O --- Ac˜O a[˝ \ˆÁ_ FÁÃ[˝Á„YÃ[˝ GSXÁ [˝ UÁ* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊[˝`üÁa C %ªªR«ÙOªRÙO aspiration Ã[˝ÁFÁc˜O a[˝, TˆÁ„Tˆ Â`„b a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Á c˜Ã^* 14.3.37

*

^Tˆc˜O ◊X‰∂oˆ C %Tˆ_ G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ ^ÁC, ]Á ÂaFÁ„X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á‰ªK˜X* 18.3.37 *

]Á \ˆG[˝ÁX ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ T«ˆ◊] XC --- ]Á Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Üc˜O %Á‰ªK˜X --- aÁW˝Eı YÁTˆÁ„_ XÁ„] ÂaFÁ„X =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_Á C ʪJÙTˆXÁ %ÁX[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ --- Ac˜O ◊[˝`üÁa ÂÃ[˝„F W˝›Ã[˝◊ªJÙ„w¯ ªJÙ_, Âa %Á„_Á Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁ XÁ]„[˝c˜O* 3.4.37

*

470

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

Â`b Y‰y ^Á ◊_„FªK˜, a[˝c˜O aTˆÓ --- Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ a[˝ a]Ã^ UÁEı --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ &„`Ô [˝Á ◊]UÓÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ suggestionA %ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ [˝Á ◊[˝]…ªRÕÙ c˜„Tˆ c˜„[˝ XÁ* ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı Â^FÁ„X ]Á %Á‰ªK˜X --- [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ Tˆ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝, [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝„Eı ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı a„TˆÓÃ[˝ ªJÙl«˘ ◊V„Ã^ ÂVF„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁ c˜„_c˜O aÁW˝Eı ◊XÃ[˝ÁYV c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı* aÁW˝EıÃ[˝Ác˜O %p˚Á„X Q«ˆ„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁªK˜ ÂU„Eı V…Ã[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* ]Á Tˆ EıFX V…Ã[˝ c˜X XÁ, ◊ªJÙÃ[˝EıÁ_ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ a„Üc˜O %Á‰ªK˜X* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı„_ TgˆÁ„Eı c˜ÁÃ[˝ÁÃ^ XÁ* Y«X∏JÙ --- %a«FªRÙOÁ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ Ac˜O %Áy‘]„SÃ[˝ Zı_, `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı `Ã[˝›Ã[˝-ªJÙTˆXÁ F«„_ Ã[˝ÁF --- Âa„Ã[˝ ^Á„[˝* 3.6.37 *

X: AFX Y“◊Tˆ ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ `üÁ„a Y“`üÁ„a Y“„TˆÓEı ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ„Tˆ C V ◊rÙ„Tˆ %aeFÓ ÊªK˜ÁªRÙO ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ◊`◊`Ã[˝◊[˝≥V«Ã[˝ ]Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Á %X«\ˆ[˝ c˜‰¨K˜* Y“ÁÃ^c˜O ]ÁUÁ EıÁ]QÕˆÁÃ^, ◊[˝„`b Eı„Ã[˝ ^FX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Q«ˆ„[˝ UÁ◊Eı TˆFX %ac˜Ó c˜Ã^* EıFXC EıFXC [˝«„EıÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó \ˆ„Ã^Ã[˝ ]Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO Eı+ c˜Ã^ C ]XY“ÁS Â[˝`› ªK˜ªRÙOZıªRÙO Eı„Ã[˝, ÂEıÁX a]Ã^ G_Á„Tˆ EgıÁ≈ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ◊Eı %Á„a...* =: `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ Tˆ A a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á =◊Pˆ„Ã^ ÂV„[˝c˜O* Am„_Á„Eı =„Yl˘Á Eı„Ã[˝ V ªRÕÙ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ^Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ V ªRÕÙ a·¯î Ã[˝ÁF„[˝, Tˆ„[˝ [˝ÁW˝Ám„_Á Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ YU ÂÃ[˝ÁW˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 6.6.37 *

]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó Tˆ %Á‰ªK˜c˜O --- [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊XÃ[˝Á` XÁ c˜„Ã^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ X›Ã[˝[˝ c˜„Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ UÁEı, Âa aÁc˜Á^Ó YÁ„[˝, G–c˜S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝* 31.8.37 *

]Á„Ã^[à ˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ C aÁc˜Á^Ó a[˝ a]Ã^c˜O %Á‰ªK˜, TˆÁc˜Á[à ˝ %\ˆÁ[˝ EıFXC c˜^à XÁ*

26.9.38

*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

471

X: AFXC Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ÂEıX %Á◊] a[˝ a]Ã^ ]Á„Eı EıÁ„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ? =: c˜Oc˜Á ]„XÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ Âa ^Ác˜Á Eı„Ã[˝ TˆÁ„Tˆc˜O ]G¬ UÁ„Eı --- aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ %\ˆÓÁ„aÃ[˝ [˝„_ ]„XÃ[˝ Ac˜O aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S G◊Tˆ %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^* *

a]ÿôˆ aw¯Á a[˝ detailA ÂFÁ_Á C a+…SÔ a]◊YÔTˆ c˜„Tˆ a]Ã^ _Á„G --- ◊[˝„`b lower vital C physicalA (XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ C YÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ Tˆ_ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ) =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ XÁ]„Tˆ a]Ã^ _Á„G* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ higher vital Â[˝` ÂFÁ_Á %Á‰ªK˜, ◊X∂oˆ Y“ÁS C `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ F«_‰ªK˜ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ a+…SÔ ÂFÁ„_ ◊X, Âac˜O LXÓ AFXC [˝ÁW˝Á %Á‰ªK˜ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„Tˆ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Tˆ ÂXc˜O* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁL ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ V–”Tˆ c˜‰¨K˜, a[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

%Á◊] ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á] Â^ ÂEıÁX [˝ÁaXÁ [˝Á VÁ[˝›„Eı %Á`“Ã^ XÁ ◊V„Ã^ ]Á„Eıc˜O ªJÙÁc˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^* [˝ÁaXÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V %Á„a Y“Á„SÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX %\ˆÓÁa VÃ[˝”S --- Tˆ„[˝ ^◊V aÁÃ^ XÁ VÁC %ÁÃ[˝ ÂZı„_ VÁC Y“„TˆÓEı[˝ÁÃ[˝, %\ˆÓÁ„a ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„] ^Á„[˝, Â`„b [˝ÁaXÁ VÁ[˝› %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* * It is very good ---

◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X ^FX c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝C %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, [˝◊c˜faw¯Á ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“EıÁ`, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ^‹óˆ c˜„[˝* *

X: %Á◊] a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S C EıÁL feel EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* ◊YªK˜„X %UÔÁd ◊Y„PˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊EıªK«˜ F«_‰ªK˜ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜‰¨K˜ A[˝e TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ C %Á„_Á ÂVF◊ªK˜ C feel EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* =: c˜Oc˜Á F«[˝ \ˆÁ_* ÂYªK˜„XÃ[˝ aw¯ÁªRÙOÁ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O %‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á [˝ÁW˝Á ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ ac˜„L* Ac˜O ÂYªK˜„XÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ªRÙOÁ ÂFÁ_Á C a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜CÃ^ÁÃ^ F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ Zı_ c˜Ã^* *

472

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

]Á Tˆ %Á‰ªK˜X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝* Â^ YŤÁ Y‰QÕˆ‰ªK˜ physical Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O =YÃ[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁL EıÃ[˝Á c˜‰¨K˜, Âa ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á„_Á„Eı Â`„b transparent c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

H«] XÁ c˜CÃ^Á, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ V«[[˝Ô_ c˜CÃ^Á ◊EıªK«˜„Tˆc˜O \ˆÁ„_Á XÃ^* H«] XÁ c˜„_ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ V«[[˝_Ô c˜„[˝c˜*O H«„]C aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿˆö Á UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* %UÔÁd ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ ÂEıÁ„_ H«„]ÁX, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ H«] ªJÙÁc˜O-c˜O* *

AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝`V %[˝ÿöˆÁ, AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ, A aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Ã^* aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ y‘] Ac˜O* ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı, %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ ◊[˝`V %[˝ÿöˆÁ [˝ÁQÕˆ„[˝, [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ Eı„] ^Á„[˝, Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* *

%`Á◊‹ôˆ C %ΪJÙTˆXÓTˆÁ A„_, `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO a]YÔS EıÃ[˝ --- TˆÁ c˜„_ Cm„_Á ◊ªRÙOEı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* *

]Á„Ã^[à ˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á‰ªK˜c˜O --- ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ [à ˝ÁF„_ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ EıÁL aZı_ c˜„[˝* *

c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O --- ^◊V [˝ÁW˝Á A„aC ªRÙO_Á„Tˆ XÁ YÁ„Ã[˝, TˆÁ c˜„_ Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Â^X AEıªRÙO› V ªRÕÙ Y“◊TˆúˆÁ c˜„Ã^ ^Á‰¨K˜ --- Â^]X ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝, ÂTˆ]Xc˜O [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó* *

zıÁ◊‹ôˆ„[˝ÁW˝ `Ã[˝›[à ˝‰Jª ÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ --- Tˆ„]ÁmS ^ÁÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX _l˘S* ^FX A `Ã[˝›[à ˝‰Jª ÙTˆXÁ \ˆÁ„[˝ Â^ "%Á◊] EıÁL Eı◊¨JÙ¤' TˆFX Ac˜O zıÁ◊‹ôˆ„[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^* %ÁLEıÁ_ %Á`“„] `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^ Ac˜O Tˆ„]ÁmS F«[˝ ÂF_‰ªK˜, AEıL„XÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÂU„Eı %Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“aÁÃ[˝ c˜‰¨K˜* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

473

"]Á %ÁL GꈛÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜X, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊Tˆ◊X %a‹ô«ˆrÙ* %Á◊] Â^Á„GÃ[˝ %„^ÁGÓ, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ c˜„[˝ XÁ' Ac˜O a[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ ÂFÃ^Á_ Eı„Ã[˝ %Á`“„]Ã[˝ %„X„Eı ◊[˝Ã[˝”à˘ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %Áy‘]S ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Y“„[˝` EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂVÃ^, ^‹óˆSÁ Â\ˆÁG Eı„Ã[˝, A]X ◊Eı ªJÙÃ[˝] ◊[˝Y„V YQÕˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ =„VÓÁG Eı„Ã[˝* T«ˆ◊] C„VÃ[˝ ]TˆX Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ* Ac˜O a[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ ^FX %Á„a, TˆFX TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ VÁC* Confidence in the Mother c˜‰¨K˜ Ac˜O Â^Á„GÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX %[˝_∂ëˆX, Âac˜O confidence EıFX c˜ÁÃ[˝Á„Tˆ XÁc˜O* *

%[˝`Ó [˝ÁEıae^] aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Y„U F«[˝ =YEıÁÃ[˝›* %◊Tˆ]Áy (%XÁ[˝`ÓEı) EıUÁ [˝_ÁÃ^ `◊N˛l˘Ã^ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊X∂oˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S ac˜„L c˜Ã^* *

[˝◊c˜∂ˆÇÔ„XÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Á Y“ÁÃ^ a]Ã^ aÁ„Yl˘ EıÁÃ[˝S TˆÁÃ[˝ ]…_ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ ]Á◊ªRÙO„Tˆ ÂYgÁTˆÁ, `N˛ C G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^* Ac˜O [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ^ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜CÃ^Á =◊ªJÙTˆ XÃ^, Ac˜O stageA Âa ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı* Patience C perseverence ªJÙÁc˜O TˆÁ„Eı a+…SÔ ◊X∂ˆÇ…Ô_ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ* *

[˝„_◊ªK˜ EıTˆEıªRÙOÁ [˝ÁW˝Á UÁEı„[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ =Y„Ã[˝, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ UÁEı„_ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ --- aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ Âa =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á y‘„] y‘„] ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝ --- Am„_Á Y“ÁÃ^c˜O c˜PˆÁd ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* *

X: ]Á, W˝ÓÁ„X Â^]X `Á◊‹ôˆ %Á„_Á YÁc˜O, LÁG–„TˆC Â^X TˆÁ YÁ◊¨K˜* T«ˆ◊] ◊Eı AFX %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂX„] A„aªK˜? ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ªJÙÃ[˝S V«FÁXÁ ]„X c˜‰¨K˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂX„] A„a‰ªK˜ C =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ %Á‰ªK˜* =: It is very good. a[˝ ◊ªK˜_ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝, ◊EıªK«˜c˜O c˜ÁÃ[˝ÁC ◊X --- ÂVFªK˜, a[˝ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Áa‰ªK˜* *

474

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: ]Á, EıÁ_ Â^ aÁÃ[˝Á◊VX %Á◊] y‘≥VX Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_Á] ÂEıXXÁ %Á◊] a[˝ a]Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ Xc˜O ÂEıX A[˝e ÂEıX %Á◊] pure C ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı a+…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ open Xc˜O, %ÁL Âa V«fF %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ªJÙ„_ ÂG‰ªK˜* %ÁL„Eı %Á◊] a[˝ a]Ã^ a[˝ ◊EıªK«˜„Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı feel EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ T«ˆ◊] Â^X W˝›„Ã[˝ W˝›„Ã[˝ %Á„Ã[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ A◊G„Ã^ %ÁaªK˜ A[˝e %Á]Á„Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á C `Á◊‹ôˆ ◊V„Ã^ \ˆ„Ã[˝ T«ˆ_ªK˜* =: A a[˝ \ˆÁ_c˜O* AFXC Â^ a[˝a]Ã^ a+…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ, c˜Oc˜Á %Á∏JÙ^ÔÓ XÃ^, V«f„FÃ[˝ EıUÁ XÃ^* ATˆ `›H– Â^ ATˆV…Ã[˝ A◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜ aÁW˝XÁ, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O %Á∏JÙ^ÔÓ C a«„FÃ[˝ EıUÁ* *

X: ]Á, %ÁL Y“SÁ] EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ ◊Eı Âa ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁªK˜ ÂU„Eı ◊EıªK«˜ ÂY„Tˆ ʪJÙ„Ã^◊ªK˜_* ◊Eı EıÁÃ[˝„S %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ AÃ[˝Eı] c˜_? ÂEıX %Á◊] Y“Z«ı{ %‹ôˆ„Ã[˝ ]«N˛\ˆÁ„[˝ a[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `“›ªJÙÃ[˝„S ◊V„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝_Á] XÁ? =: Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^, Y«„Ã[˝ÁX %\ˆÓÁ„aÃ[˝ VÃ[˝”X B ◊EıªK«˜ ÂY„Tˆ ªJÙÁCÃ^Á A„a◊ªK˜_* [˝ÁaXÁ„Tˆ V«fF %Á„a* AEıªªR«ÙO aÁ[˝W˝ÁX c˜„Ã^ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝„_ ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝* *

X: a[[˝ÔVÁ ]Á„Eı a[[˝Ôy ÂVF„Tˆ YÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜‰¨K˜, %ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙÁF %`“”„Tˆ \ˆ„Ã[˝ %Áa‰ªK˜* Ac˜O %`“” Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ V«f„FÃ[˝ LXÓ XÃ^* Tˆ„[˝ c˜Oc˜Á ◊Eı„aÃ[˝ LXÓ? =: %`“” ^FX V«f„FÃ[˝ XÃ^, TˆFX ÊY“]\ˆ◊N˛Ã[˝c˜O %`“”* *

X: ]Á, T«ˆ◊] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊`£„Eı A[˝e ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊`£Ã[˝ a[˝ ◊X„Ã^ ◊X„Ã^ªK˜ A[˝e ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Mı ÂEıÁX Â\ˆV ÂXc˜O* Ac˜O a[˝ ◊Eı ÂVF◊ªK˜ ]Á, V „`ÓÃ[˝ ]Tˆ, EıÁî◊XEı ◊L◊X„aÃ[˝ ]Tˆ? =: Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ \ˆÁ_c˜O* Â\ˆV ^FX XÁc˜O, TˆFX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ◊]„_ %Á‰ªK˜ [˝„_ Âa Ã[˝Eı] Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

475

X: c˜÷V„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„XÃ[˝ V«YÁ„` F«[˝ =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ V«‰ªRÙOÁ Ÿa◊QÕˆ ÂX„] A„a‰ªK˜, AEı◊ªRÙO Ã[˝÷YÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO ÂaÁXÁÃ[˝* Ac˜O Ÿa◊QÕˆ ◊V„Ã^ ʪK˜ÁªRÙO [˝Á◊_EıÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ %„XEı `◊N˛ XÁ]‰ªK˜; TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷Y, ÂYÁ`ÁEı, %Á„_Á V«c˜O Ã[˝Eı] --- ◊[˝£à˘ aÁVÁ %ÁÃ[˝ =#ù_ a…„^ÔÓÃ[˝ ]Tˆ* =: %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡EıTˆÁÃ[˝ YU C %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡Eı `◊N˛ C >„à˘¤Ã[˝ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ YU C Âac˜O a„TˆÓÃ[˝ `◊N˛* *

X: ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı feel Eı◊Ã[˝ Â^ F«[˝ =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ ÂEı %Á]Á„Eı ]W˝«Ã[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ [˝_‰ªK˜X, ""%ÁÃ^, %ÁÃ^, a[˝ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ a]YÔS Eı„Ã[˝ =‰Pˆ %ÁÃ^''* %ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O [˝ÁS› Â`ÁXÁÃ[˝ aÁ„U F«[˝ =#ù_ X›_ %Á„_ÁC YÁc˜O* ]Á, ÂEı %Á]Á„Eı QˆÁEı‰ªK˜X? =: AEı◊VX =Y„Ã[˝ --- ]„XÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ =Pˆ„Tˆ c˜„[˝* =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ `◊N˛ XÁ]Á C =Y„Ã[˝ =‰Pˆ ]„XÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ UÁEıÁ Ac˜O Â^Á„GÃ[˝ Y„l˘ %◊Tˆ Y“„Ã^ÁLX›Ã^* *

X: %ÁL %Á]ÁÃ[˝ aÁ„U ÂEıÁX ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ a∂눵˘ ÂXc˜O, %Á◊] Â^X a[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ c˜„Tˆ ]«N˛ c˜„Ã^ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ ]ÁT ˆ]Ã^ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Q«ˆ„[˝ %Á◊ªK˜* %ÁL V«c˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ V«c˜OªRÙO› FÁÃ[˝ÁY `◊N˛„Eı ÂV„F◊ªK˜_Á] C Â[˝ÁW˝ Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_Á] TˆÁÃ[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝„XÁ ʪJÙTˆXÁ C %µ˘EıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊V„Ã^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ ªJÙÁ‰¨K˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Á◊] %ªJÙá˚_ ÂU„Eı a[˝ ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ `“›ªJÙÃ[˝„S [˝◊_ ◊V„Ã^◊ªK˜* =: It is good. FÁÃ[˝ÁY `◊N˛ [˝Á %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Áa„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O„_c˜O, A]Xc˜O `Á‹ôˆ C a‰ªJÙTˆX ]„X ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı„_ TˆÁ ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝* *

X: ]Á, T«ˆ◊] Â^X AFX ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊`£Ã[˝ EıYÁ„_Ã[˝ ]ÁMıFÁ„X %ÁªK˜* %Á„G ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı c˜÷V„Ã^ feel EıÃ[˝TˆÁ] C ÂVFTˆÁ], AFX ÂEıX EıYÁ„_Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂVF◊ªK˜? =: Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]X >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊[˝„`b\ˆÁ„[˝ F«_„Tˆ ªJÙÁX [˝„_ EıYÁ„_ TgˆÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜X* *

476

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: ]Á, AFX ÂVF◊ªK˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ G_ÁÃ^ AEı◊ªRÙO aÁVÁ Y„≤øÃ[˝ ]Á_Á ÂEı Y◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^‰ªK˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ AFX ATˆ %ÁX≥V ÂEıX c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ LÁ◊X XÁ* =: It is very good. TˆÁÃ[˝ %UÔ physical mindA ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á„EıÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁYX* * [ÿ눉Y¬

aÁ◊W˝EıÁ ÂV„F‰ªK˜ Â^ `“›]Á TˆÁ„Eı Eı‰PˆÁÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ ◊TˆÃ[˝ïıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜X* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝`üÁa Â^ `“›]ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷Y W˝„Ã[˝ ÂEıÁX ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝› `◊N˛ TˆÁ„Eı ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ C [˝Óÿôˆ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜*] =: Ac˜O a[˝ ◊]UÓÁ ÿëˆY¬ %Á„a Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ c˜„Tˆ --- LÁG–Tˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ %ÁÃ[˝ XÁ ÂY„Ã[˝ H«„] %[˝‰ªJÙTˆX %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ◊]UÓÁ ÂV◊F„Ã^ ^◊V ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝, \ˆÁ„_Á %[˝ÿöˆÁ XrÙ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, Ac˜O ʪJÙrÙÁ ◊[˝Ã[˝”à˘ `◊N˛ Eı‰¨K˜¤* Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] ÿ눉Y¬ ÂEıÁX %ÁÿöˆÁ ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ, ÂL„G ÂMı‰QÕˆ ÂZı„_ ÂV„[˝* *

Ac˜O sex-difficulty %Á`“„] %◊W˝EıÁe` aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX [˝ÁW˝Á* AEı]Áy ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ TˆÁc˜Á %YaÁÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ --- ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ Ã[˝ÁF Âa `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ]X Y“Á„S TˆÁÃ[˝ %Y„XÁV„XÃ[˝ LXÓ aspiration EıÃ[˝* *

ATˆ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ XÁ ÂF„Ã^ XÁ H«◊]„Ã^* Ac˜O ]Tˆ [XÁ] FÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ◊V„Tˆ c˜„[˝ --- ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂF„Tˆ c˜„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ y‘„] FÁCÃ^Á [˝Á◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ◊V„Tˆ c˜„[˝, ^Tˆ◊VX %Á„GEıÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ XÁ c˜Ã^* [˝ÓUÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V a[˝ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* \ˆÁ_ ÂF„_ H«]C c˜Ã^* ...%Áa_ EıUÁ T«ˆ◊] ÂÃ[˝ÁG c˜„_ [˝QÕˆ Â[˝`› ªJÙá˚_ c˜C, Âac˜O LXÓ Ac˜O a[˝ c˜Ã^* `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„_ %„î„Tˆ C `›H– Âa„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ DbW˝ ÂF„Tˆ ªJÙÁC XÁ, Âa %ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ ]«◊ïı_ --- DbW˝ ÂF„_ `›H– Âa„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^* %U[˝Á DbW˝ ^◊V XÁ FÁC TˆÁc˜„_ F«[˝ `Á‹ôˆ a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜„_C `›H– aÁÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ aêˆÁ[˝XÁ c˜Ã^* ^Ác˜O Âc˜ÏEı AFX ÂF„_ H«„]Á„_ `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ◊[˝`“Á] EıÃ[˝„_ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \ˆÁ„_Á %[˝ÿöˆÁ `›H– ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Áa„[˝* Ac˜O aÁW˝XÁÃ^ Y“ÁS `Ã[˝›Ã[˝„Eı T«ˆ¨K˜ EıÃ[˝Á, ÂZı„_ ◊V„Tˆ ªJÙÁCÃ^Á ]ÿôˆ AEıªRÙO› \«ˆ_*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

477

A Tˆ Y“ÁSc˜›X %`Ã[˝›[à ˝› Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁ XÃ^* Y“ÁS `Ã[˝›[à ˝ ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ ^‹óˆ, [˝ÁaÿöˆÁX, ]◊≥VÃ[˝* Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^, a[˝_ aLÁG Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^* FÁCÃ^Á, H«] c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V neglect EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O, ^Á„Tˆ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ_ UÁ„Eı TˆÁc˜O EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝* Ac˜O EıUÁ %ÁÃ[˝ \«ˆ„_ Â^C XÁ, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ W˝X* TˆÁc˜Á„Eı a∂ˆÇÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝, \ˆÁ„_Á %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜„[˝* *

X: ]Á, %Á◊] V…„Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ◊EıªK«˜ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂVF„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O XÁ* ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊`£ ÂEıX ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁªK˜ ÂU„Eı V…Ã[˝±ºˆ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝„[˝? =: Âa EıUÁ ◊X„Ã^ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝ XÁ --- ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝c˜O a[˝ ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝, [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ a[˝ Y„Ã[˝ c˜„[˝* *

X: ]Á, AFX %Á◊] ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ C %Á„]Á„V %Á‚Ú˜Á„V Y‰QÕˆ \«ˆ_ Eı◊Ã[˝, aÁeaÁ◊Ã[˝Eı ◊[˝bÃ^ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ Eı◊Ã[˝ C %Á„_ÁªJÙXÁ Eı◊Ã[˝* =: ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ ^Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÿöˆÁX ÂY„Ã^ a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ VF_ Eı„Ã[˝ TˆTˆc˜O Cm„_Á [˝◊c˜õ ıTˆ [˝Á Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜„[˝* TˆTˆ◊VX ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ W˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ªJÙ_* *

X: ]Á, ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ [˝a„_ EıTˆ ◊]UÓÁ LîXÁ EıîXÁ [˝ÁaXÁ %Áa‰ªK˜... =: [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı ◊X„LÃ[˝ XÁ Â\ˆ„[˝ ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ c˜„Ã^ TˆÁ„Eı ÂVF„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^ [˝„_ reject EıÃ[˝„[˝* TˆÁ c˜„_ %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Á Â[˝`› ac˜L c˜Ã^* *

X: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ %Áa‰ªK˜ Â^ T«ˆ◊] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝N˛ C %a‹ô«ˆrÙ, Âa LXÓ T«ˆ◊] %Á]Á„Eı ÂV„F c˜ÁaªK˜ XÁ, ʪJÙ„Ã^C ÂVFªK˜ XÁ* %ÁÃ[˝C ]„X c˜‰¨K˜ Â^ %Á◊] F«[˝ FÁÃ[˝ÁY, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Â^Á„GÃ[˝ %X«Y^«N˛* =: A a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“ÁSY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ suggestion ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊XÃ[˝Á`ÁÃ^ ÂZı_[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ C [˝ÁW˝Á a ◊rÙ EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ --- Ac˜O a[˝ EıîXÁ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* *

478

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: c˜PˆÁd ÈV[˝[˝ÁS›Ã[˝ ]Tˆ ÂEı %Á]Á„Eı [˝__, ""ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O [˝ÁW˝Á Â`b [˝ÁW˝Á, A„Eı LÃ^ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆ…_ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X C Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ [˝ÁW˝Á A„a‰ªK˜* a[˝◊EıªK«˜ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ]ÁT ˆ]Ã^ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ c˜„[˝*'' Ac˜O a[˝ ◊Eı aTˆÓ, ]Á? =: Â^ ◊VX psychic a[˝ a]Ã^ LÁG–Tˆ UÁEı„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝C UÁEı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝, Âa ◊VX Ac˜O [˝ÁS› aZı_ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* AFX TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O LXÓ Y“ÿô«ˆTˆ c˜¨K˜* *

W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O --- %ÁY◊X ^Á c˜Ã^ TˆÁc˜O ^„UrÙ* *

X: ]Á, ÂEı %Á]Á„Eı Â^X [˝__, ""ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O, ÂEıÁX ◊V„Eı ]X ◊V„Tˆ [˝Á ÂVF„Tˆ c˜„[˝ XÁ* £W˝« ◊X„L„Eı ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊Xf„`„b ◊V„Ã^ VÁC %ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Eı a[˝ a]Ã^ ÂQˆ„Eı ªJÙ_* ]Á C ]ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ a[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂX„[˝X*'' =: Ac˜O EıUÁ aTˆÓ* PsychicAÃ[˝c˜O EıUÁ* Â^FÁ„X ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝”„à˘ [˝Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ E ıTˆ [˝Ó[˝ÿöˆÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝”„à˘ aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ =Pˆ„[˝, ÂaFÁ„X aeHbÔ c˜„[˝c˜O --- TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Â^„Ã^Á XÁ, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ ^Á EıÃ[˝„[˝ TˆÁc˜O c˜„[˝* *

X: ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ C EıFX ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁLÓ [˝◊c˜faw¯ÁÃ^ ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„[˝? =: EıFX c˜„[˝ TˆÁ AFXc˜O [˝_Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ ]Á]Ã^ c˜„_, TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O [˝„_ [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆC [˝V_Á„XÁ c˜„[˝, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O [˝_Á ^ÁÃ^* *

%Á◊] Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝„_◊ªK˜ Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Â^]X ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ C [˝ÁW˝Á, Y“ÁÃ^ aEı„_Ã[˝ ÂaÃ[˝÷Y ]ÁX«b-ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ C [˝ÁW˝Á --- A◊VEı C◊VEı difficulties UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Áa„_ aEı„_c˜O ]ÁX«b, [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ AFXC %£à˘ C %◊aà˘* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

479

X: AEı◊ªRÙO ◊Eı„aÃ[˝ ]Á_Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ G_ÁÃ^ M«ı_‰ªK˜, %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁ c˜„Tˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á [˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊`£Ã[˝ a[˝ %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ C ÂTˆÁ]Á]Ã^ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜* =: G_ÁÃ^ %UÔÁd ]X[˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ [˝◊c˜GÔÁ]› %e„` (physical mind), AFÁ„X Â^ EıÁL c˜‰¨K˜ C EıÁ„LÃ[˝ Zı_ c˜‰¨K˜ TˆÁ Â[˝ÁMıÁ ^Á‰¨K˜* *

V«[[˝Ô_ ^◊V Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^, %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ÂQˆ„Eı %ÁX --- [˝_ %Áa„[˝* *

X: ]Á, ʪTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ EıUÁ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â[˝`› ]„X c˜Ã^* aeaÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı [˝ÁÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ]X Â^„Tˆ ªJÙÁ‰¨K˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ F«[˝ ªJÙá˚_, unconscious* ]„XÃ[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %aeFÓ %◊V[˝Ó ◊L◊Xb Â\ˆ„a =Pˆ‰ªK˜* =: T«ˆ◊] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ G◊Tˆ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝ ◊X [˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ =Tˆ_Á c˜„Ã^ %`Á◊‹ôˆ C ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^◊ªK˜„_ [˝„_, Ac˜O a[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Â_Á„Eı Â^ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ atmosphere AFÁ„X %ÁXÁÃ^ %Á`“„]Ã[˝ atmosphereA AEıªRÙOÁ ÂEıÁ_Ác˜_ C confusion A„a◊ªK˜_, TˆÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ Y‰QÕˆ‰ªK˜* ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁC, %`Á◊‹ôˆ„Eı ÿöˆÁX XÁ ◊V„Ã^ V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı Âac˜O %Á„GEıÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊Zı◊Ã[˝„Ã^ %ÁX* *

X: ]Á, %ÁL V«Y«Ã[˝„[˝_Á ÂV◊F %Á]Á„Eı %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ A„a %Á[˝ Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O◊ªK˜_, X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊Eı„a Â^X ªRÙOÁX◊ªK˜_, %ÁÃ[˝ AÃ[˝c˜O ]„W˝Ó ÂVF_Á] =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á XÁ]◊ªK˜_* Y“U„] \ˆÃ^ ÂY„_C V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ [˝__Á] Â^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á %Á‰ªK˜X, %Á]Á„Eı AÃ[˝Á ◊EıªK«˜c˜O EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* ◊EıªK«˜ Y„Ã[˝ ÂVF_Á] a[˝ ªJÙ„_ ÂG‰ªK˜* =: cg˜ÓÁ, Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı]c˜O EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, V ªRÕÙ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- TˆÁ c˜„_ ◊X∂oˆ YE“ ı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ %Áy‘]S ac˜„L AQÕˆÁX ^ÁÃ^* *

480

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: ]Á, %Á◊] ÂEıX AFXC EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ, YQÕˆ„Tˆ ◊G„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı FÁ◊XEıl˘„SÃ[˝ LXÓ \«ˆ„_ ^Ác˜O? =: YQÕˆÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^, EıÁL EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ ]Á„Eı ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝Á ac˜L XÃ^ --- ]X EıÁL [˝Á YQÕˆÁ ◊X„Ã^ [˝Óÿôˆ c˜„Ã^ \«ˆ„_ ^ÁÃ^* ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ %\ˆÓÁa c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* *

X: ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ^FX `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ◊[˝`“Á] Eı„Ã[˝, ÂV◊F C %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ aw¯ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ %e` ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı a]◊YÔTˆ c˜‰¨K˜ A[˝e a«≥VÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ a[˝◊EıªK«˜ ÂTˆÁ]Á]Ã^ c˜„Ã^ =Pˆ‰ªK˜* ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X„L„Eı [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı C EıÁ„LÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊X„Ã^ ÂG„_ Ac˜O a«≥VÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ÂEı]X Â^X XrÙ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* =: ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ F«[˝ =~◊TˆÃ[˝ _l˘S --- Â`„b EıÁ„LÃ[˝ a]„Ã^ Ac˜O ]Á]Ã^ ʪJÙTˆXÁ a+…S[ÃÔ ˝÷„Y UÁ„Eı, ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô AFX ÂLÁÃ[˝ [Eı„[à ˝] EıÁ„LÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı turn Eı[à ˝Á VÃ[˝EıÁ[à ˝ XÁc˜*O *

X: [˝Tˆ¤]Á„X %Á]ÁÃ[˝ H«] Â^X `Á‹ôˆ %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ A[˝e a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* ]„X c˜Ã^ Â^X %Á◊] %Á„_Á %ÁÃ[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó H«„]Á◊¨K˜* =: Ac˜O H«„]Ã[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ [˝QÕˆc˜O \ˆÁ_* H«] Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Yc˜O a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜CÃ^Á ªJÙÁc˜O* Ac˜O aEı_ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ Â[˝` --- ◊VX ◊VX aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ =~◊Tˆ c˜‰¨K˜* *

X: ]Á, ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ ÂV„F ]„X c˜Ã^ T«ˆ◊] %Á]Á„Eı ÂV„F c˜Áa◊X EıÁÃ[˝S %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊EıªK«˜ =~◊Tˆ c˜Ã^ ◊X* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ c˜Ã^Tˆ a[˝ FÁÃ[˝ÁY ◊L◊Xa %Á‰ªK˜* =: AªRÙOÁc˜O %Á◊] [˝ÁÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_Á] EıÁÃ[˝S Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ ]„XÃ[˝ EıîXÁ* Y“U] EıUÁ, aÁW˝EıÃ[˝Á ÂEı[˝_c˜O \«ˆ_ ÂV„F ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘ --- ◊•Tˆ›Ã^ EıUÁ, aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ [˝Á FÁÃ[˝ÁY %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ c˜Á◊a [˝Á GꈛÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX a∂눵˘ XÁc˜O* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ Ac˜O a[˝ EıîXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“Á„SÃ[˝ VÁ[˝› Â]`Á %Á‰ªK˜* ÂaLXÓ ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á EıÁ~ÁEıÁ◊ªRÙO c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V %Á„a Ca[˝ ◊X„Ã^* Âac˜O LXÓ Ac˜O a[˝ EıîXÁ [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝UÔEı %X«]ÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

481

X: %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ a[˝ a]Ã^ Â^X AEı◊ªRÙO %◊G¬ Lù_‰ªK˜ C Â[˝VXÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ◊Eı c˜‰¨K˜, %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ \ˆÁ_ _ÁG‰ªK˜ XÁ* =: Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] LùÁ_Á C \ˆÁ_ XÁ _ÁGÁ %`Á‹ôˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ _l˘S, A„Eı %Á`“Ã^ ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* * Sex impulse ]X«bÓ

ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› Y“[˝_ %e` ÂaLXÓ [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a* ÂEıÁX Ã[˝Eı] a◊c˜ XÁ ◊V„Ã^ (]„XÃ[˝ EıîXÁÃ^ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V) %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^ A %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^ [˝„_ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝„_, Â`„b TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ, A„_C %ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı &`Ô EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ, TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ %ÁaÁC [˝µ˘ c˜„[˝* *

ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı [˝„_◊ªK˜ AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEı XÃ^, %„XEı [˝Ó◊N˛ %Á‰ªK˜ many persons in one being --- aEı„_c˜O ◊[˝◊\ˆ~* Tˆ„[˝ central being ^◊V aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝, aEı„_ Â`„b ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ [˝„` %Á„a* *

Â^]X V `Ó ÂTˆ]Xc˜O Â_FÁ ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^ W˝ÓÁ„X --- A]X◊Eı ÂFÁ_Á ʪJÙÁF ◊V„Ã^ ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^* c˜Oc˜Á„Eı ◊_◊Y [˝Á %ÁEıÁ`◊_◊Y [˝„_* *

X: ]Á, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO ^Ác˜Á VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ ]„X c˜Ã^ TˆÁ ◊_F„Tˆ c˜O¨K˜Á c˜Ã^* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ T«ˆ◊] ◊V„_ TˆÁ ◊X\ˆ¤„Ã^ G–c˜S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ* %UªJÙ XÁ ◊V„_ V«fF c˜Ã^* =: ^◊V XÁ ◊V„_ V«fF Eı„Ã[˝, TˆÁ„Tˆ Y“]ÁS c˜Ã^ Â^ ªJÙÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó [˝ÁaXÁ ◊ªK˜_* [˝ÁaXÁ`…XÓ c˜‰ªTˆ c˜Ã^ aÁW˝Eı„Eı* *

[˝ÁW˝Á ^Tˆc˜O Âc˜ÏEı, aÁW˝XÁ XrÙ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ --- AFÁ„X Âc˜ÏEı [˝Á %XÓy Âc˜ÏEı aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂG„_c˜O [˝ÁW˝Á =‰Pˆ EıÁÃ[˝S Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, Âa Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁÃ[˝ Zı„_ a[˝ =‰Pˆ ÂVFÁ ÂVÃ^ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ^Tˆ ◊L◊Xa, aÁW˝Eı

482

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

TˆÁ„Tˆ \ˆ›Tˆ c˜Ã^ XÁ, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ aÁc˜Á„^Ó a[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂVÃ^* *

X: ÂVF◊ªK˜ Â^ =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ F«[˝ ]W˝«]Ã^ GÁªRÕÙTˆ] `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› ÿôˆ„Ã[˝ XÁ]‰ªK˜* =: Ac˜O `Á◊‹ôˆ„Eı a[[˝Ôy XÁ]Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- Â^X a]ÿôˆ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙÃ[˝`Á◊‹ôˆ„Tˆ \ˆ„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^* *

X: ... ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ÂV◊F AEı◊ªRÙO %Á„_ÁEı]Ã^ ªJÙ„y‘Ã[˝ ]Tˆ ◊Eı H«Ã[˝„Tˆ UÁ„Eı, ]Á* c˜Oc˜Á ◊Eı? =: %Á„_ÁEı]Ã^ ªJÙy‘ ÂHÁÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ %UÔ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ EıÁL Eı‰¨K˜¤ ]„XÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝* *

YgÁªJÙ [˝daÃ[˝ Tˆ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O XÃ^ --- [˝QÕˆ [˝QÕˆ Â^ÁG› Tˆ CÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ F«[˝ Â[˝`› a]Ã^ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝ \ˆG[˝ÁX„EıC YÁX XÁc˜O, Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝C YÁX XÁc˜O --- AÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊ªJÙdEıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á C Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Ã^ ªJÙ„_ ^Á[˝ [˝_Á A]X VÁ[˝› C %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ XÃ^* `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ÈW˝^ÔÓ W˝„Ã[˝ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝ --- ^◊V ◊[˝„`b ÂEıÁX mÃ[˝”TˆÃ[˝ ñ_X c˜Ã^, ÂaªRÙOÁ Z«ı{\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Eı [˝„_ VÁC %ÁÃ[˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó ÊªJÙ„Ã^ XÁC* aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S [˝ÁW˝Á Tˆ aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜, TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı UÁEı, Â`„b Zı_ c˜„[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ A a[˝ ◊XÃ[˝Á`ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ C ◊EıªK«˜ c˜_ XÁ, ◊EıªK«˜ c˜_ XÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V [˝«◊_ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ VÁC* *

A DbW˝ ÂF„Ã^ EıÁc˜ÁÃ[˝C EıFX [˝◊] c˜Ã^ ◊X --- ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ nervous mindAÃ[˝ EıîXÁ [˝QÕˆ Y“[˝_ [˝„_ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ Ac˜O Zı_ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* Tˆ„[˝ ^◊V Db„W˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ATˆ H SÁ UÁ„Eı, ÂF„Ã^ ÂEıÁX _Á\ˆ XÁc˜O* C]Xc˜O ^Á c˜Ã^ forceÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á --- `Ã[˝›Ã[˝„Eı F«_„Tˆ c˜„[˝ ForceÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

483

X: ]Á, %Á◊] EıÁYQÕˆ [˝QÕˆ Â[˝`› TˆÁQÕˆÁTˆÁ◊QÕˆ ŸªK˜‰QÕˆ ÂZı◊_* ʪK˜ÁªRÙO„[˝_Á„TˆC AÃ[˝÷Y c˜Tˆ, ÂaLXÓ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]Á-[˝Á[˝Á F«[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝N˛ c˜„TˆX* =: c˜Oc˜Á, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ `Á‹ôˆ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ÂG„_, £W˝„Ã[˝ ^Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ* *

X: ]Á, %Á◊] ]`ÁÃ[˝› ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ %ÁX„≥V H«]Á„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝, %Á]Á„Eı ]`Á EıÁ]QÕˆÁÃ^ XÁ* %Á◊] %ÁÃ[˝ ^Á %VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝› TˆÁ [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝[˝ XÁ, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `“›ªJÙÃ[˝„S %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]`ÁÃ[˝›ªRÙOÁ %ÁÃ[˝ V«c˜OFÁXÁ l«˘V– ◊L◊Xb %YÔS EıÃ[˝_Á]* =: Am„_Á ÂEıX ◊V„Ã^ªK˜? ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜* ]`Á GÃ[˝„]Ã[˝ a]Ã^ TˆTˆ EıÁ]QÕˆÁÃ^ XÁ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ [˝bÔÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„[˝* ]Á A a[˝ ◊Zı◊Ã[˝„^ ◊V‰¨K˜X, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ VÁX [˝„_ G–c˜S EıÃ[˝* ]Á„Eı ◊EıªK«˜ ◊V„Tˆ c˜„_ ◊X„L„Eı VÁC, ]Á aÁX„≥V G–c˜S EıÃ[˝„[˝X* * Very good. %£à˘ ^Á %Á‰ªK˜, `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %Ám„X ◊V„Ã^ VÁC*

=Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a[˝ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ]«Eı --- Â`„b X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ LXÓ LÁÃ^GÁ %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* *

X: ÂEıX ATˆ ÂX„] ◊G„Ã^◊ªK˜_Á]? ]„X c˜Ã^ a]ÿôˆ ◊EıªK«˜„Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `“›ªJÙÃ[˝„S a]YÔS EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ^Á„Tˆ TˆÁÃ[˝Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ LGd c˜„Tˆ a]…„_ W[˝ea c˜Ã^* Âc˜ \ˆG[˝ÁX, c˜Oc˜Á ◊Eı EıîXÁ? =: c˜Oc˜Á EıîXÁ XÃ^* ◊X‰∂oˆ ^ÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ =„Å`Óc˜O Ac˜O, X›‰ªJÙ ^Áa[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ a]YÔS EıÃ[˝Á, %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝Á* *

X: ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ]ÁUÁÃ^ ÂEı]X ÂEı]X %X«\ˆ[˝ c˜‰¨K˜: ÂEıÁX a]Ã^ %[˝` A[˝e `Á‹ôˆ, %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX a]Ã^ ◊`XÀ ◊`XÀ Eı„Ã[˝ A[˝e TˆÁ c˜„Tˆ ◊Eı Â^X >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı =‰Pˆ ^ÁÃ^, %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX a]Ã^ ]„X c˜Ã^ =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ ◊Eı ÂX„] F«_‰ªK˜* =: =YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı `◊N˛ ]ÁUÁÃ^ XÁ]ÁÃ^ EıFX EıFX Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %X«\ˆ[˝ c˜Ã^* *

484

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: F«[˝ >„àùÔ˘ AEı◊ªRÙO TˆÃ[˝Üc˜›X Y“`Á‹ôˆ ]c˜ÁaÁGÃ[˝ ÂVF◊ªK˜* Âa aÁGÃ[˝◊ªRÙO Â^X %X„‹ôˆÃ[˝ aÁ„U ^«N˛ c˜„Ã^ AEı FÁXÁ ÿëˆSÔ TˆÃ[˝S›„Eı [˝«„Eı Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X‰∂oˆÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı W˝›„Ã[˝ W˝›„Ã[˝ ÂX„] %Áa‰ªK˜* =: >àùÔ˘ÎªJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ÊÿɈÁTˆ XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ _l˘S* *

X: =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ a…„^ÔÓÃ[˝ ]Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ X›_ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ V«c˜O %Á„_Á ÂGÁ_ c˜„Ã^ £W˝« c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó XÁ]‰ªK˜* =: %UÔ Ac˜O, a„TˆÓÃ[˝ %Á„_Á C >àùÔ˘]„XÃ[˝ %Á„_Á %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ XÁ]‰ªK˜* *

X: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝◊V„Eı %aeFÓ l«˘V– l«˘V– [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVF◊ªK˜* ]„X c˜Ã^ %Á◊] a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı Fg«„L [˝ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ V ªRÕÙ c˜„Ã^ a+…SÔÃ[˝÷„Y TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ LÃ^ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁ◊¨K˜ [˝„_ [˝ÁW˝Á A]X\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂVFÁ ◊V‰¨K˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ ◊Eı aTˆÓ? =: ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ aTˆÓ* [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı \ˆÃ^ Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ --- a[˝ ÂV„F a[˝ ÂL„X a◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^, Âa L„XÓ ÂVFÁ ◊V‰¨K˜* *

`Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ [˝◊c˜∂ˆÇÔXc˜O aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O stageA ◊[˝„`b [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVÃ^, Âa [˝QÕˆc˜O obstinate, ªK˜Á‰QÕˆ XÁ ---- aÁW˝Eı„Eı TˆÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^C obstinate c˜„Tˆ c˜Ã^, W˝›Ã[˝ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝, ]Á„Eı ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ YÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ V ªRÕÙY“◊Tˆp˚* Â`„b c˜ÁLÁÃ[˝ obstinate Âc˜ÏEı, Ac˜O ]X %ÁÃ[˝ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ, Y„U %Áa„[˝c˜O* *

X: £X_Á], ÂEı %Á]Á„Eı [˝_‰ªK˜, ""T«ˆ◊], ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]„X Y“Á„S ÂV„c˜ Â^a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á %Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝„Eı Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝ %U[˝Á V…Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ Tˆ„[˝ X…TˆX LXΩ ◊X„Ã^ ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ Â^„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝*'' ]Á, c˜Oc˜Á ◊Eı aTˆÓ? =: A a[˝ EıUÁ aTˆÓ, aEı_ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Y„l˘ FÁ‰ªRÙO* Tˆ„[˝ A a[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó, V›HÔ Y◊Ã[˝[˝w¯Ô „XÃ[˝ y‘„]Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á Â^ a[[˝VÔ Á EıÁ‰ªK˜ [à ˝„^à ‰ªK˜, aÁc˜Á^Ó Eı[à ˝‰Kª ˜ --- A EıUÁ ]„X [à ˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜„[˝, TˆÁ c˜„_ `Á‹ôˆ ]„X ◊XÃ[˝ÁY„V Y„U Jª Ù_Á ac˜L c˜„[˝* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

485

X: %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ Â^ ]X Y“ÁS ʪJÙTˆXÁ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ XÁ ÂU„Eı [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı ªJÙ„_ ^Á‰¨K˜* =: c˜Oc˜Á aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O c˜Ã^* %„XEı A◊G„Ã^ ÂG„_ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Y„U, TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ AEı c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^, TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* *

X: ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ^FX EıÃ[˝”SÁ]Ã^› ]Á„Eı %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ C QˆÁ◊Eı, TˆFX Y“[˝_ Â[˝„G EıÁ~Á %Á„a %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ aÁ„U aÁ„U c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ G\ˆ›Ã[˝Tˆ] Y“„V„` AEı◊ªRÙO ]W˝«]Ã^ C `Á◊‹ôˆ]Ã^ ◊L◊Xb %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝* =: Ac˜OÃ[˝Eı] EıÁ~Á Y“ÁÃ^c˜O psychic being ÂU„Eı %Á„a --- Â^ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ %Á„a TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü, Âa psychic beingAÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ* *

◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ªJÙ_ --- [˝ÁW˝Ám„_Á a]„Ã^ F„a ^Á„[˝* *

X: ]Á, %Á◊] AFX ÂEı[˝_ £õı ]Ã[˝”\…ˆ◊]Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y‰QÕˆ [à ˝„^à ◊ªK˜* ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝ ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊EıªK«˜ XÁc˜O [˝„_ ]„X c˜‰¨K˜* ATˆ ◊X‰∂oˆ ÂEıX Y‰QÕˆ ÂG_Á]? =: aÁW˝XÁÃ^ ʪJÙTˆXÁ CPˆÁ XÁ]Á %◊X[˝Á^ÔÓ --- ^FX XÁ„], TˆFX ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ÈW˝^ÔÓ W˝„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á„_Á `◊N˛ Âa £õı %e„` ÂQˆ„Eı %ÁX„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- c˜Oc˜Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ right attitude C =dE ırÙ =YÁÃ^* *

X: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“ÁSLG„TˆÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO `◊N˛„Eı =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO `◊N˛ A„a ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ `“›ªJÙÃ[˝„S [˝◊_ ◊V_* ◊EıªK«˜l˘S Y„Ã[˝ Ac˜O [˝◊_Ã[˝ Ã[˝„N˛Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂV◊F Y≤øZ«ı_ Z«ıªRÙO_* =: %UÔ --- ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› `◊N˛Ã[˝ ◊[˝XÁ` c˜„Ã^ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ AEı \ˆÁ„G aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ F«„_ ÂG_* *

486

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

AFX Â[˝ÁMıÁ ^ÁÃ^ Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %a«F nervous, EıÁÃ[˝S Ac˜O a[˝ sensation nervous ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O XÃ^* Ac˜O [˝◊]Ã[˝ suggestion TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ VÁC --- ^FX A a[˝ sensation %Á„a TˆFX `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı, ]Á„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı ^ÁC `“à˘ÁÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ* SuggestionAÃ[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„] ÂG„_c˜O %a«FªRÙO› Âa„Ã[˝ ^Á„[˝* *

^FX ÂEıÁX [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı Â[˝Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ ªJÙ_‰ªK˜, C Ã[˝Eı]c˜O c˜Ã^ --- AEı◊VX a[˝ ]«N˛ c˜Ã^, Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ Â^X a[˝ ªJÙ„_ ÂG‰ªK˜, YÃ[˝◊VX %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Âa [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVFÁ ÂVÃ^* Persevere EıÃ[˝„_ Â`„b [˝ÁW˝ÁªRÙO› V«[[˝Ô_ c˜„Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a XÁ, ^◊V [˝Á %Á„a TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ÂLÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ* *

X: ]Á, [˝wÔ¯]Á„X %Á◊] %XÓ ◊L◊X„aÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ [˝ÁS› ÂEıX Â[˝`› £X„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜, A[˝e ◊_◊Y ÂEıX Â[˝`› ÂVF„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜? =: aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ G◊TˆÃ[˝ Â[˝G [˝ÁQÕˆ„Tˆ [˝ÁQÕˆ„Tˆ Ac˜O a[˝ %Á„a* Tˆ„[˝ F«[˝ aÁ[˝W˝ÁX c˜„Ã^ ◊_◊Y C [˝ÁS›„Eı ÂV„F _C C £„X _C --- EıÁÃ[˝S Am„_Á aTˆÓ C =YEıÁÃ[˝› c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, ◊]UÓÁ C ◊[˝Y#XEı c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* *

X: ^FX Eı, F c˜OTˆÓÁ◊VÃ[˝ a„Ü EıUÁ [˝◊_, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ V«[[˝Ô_ _Á„G, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ %`Á◊‹ôˆ %ÿëˆ◊ÿôˆ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^, ]ÁUÁ W˝„Ã[˝, ◊EıªK«˜ \ˆÁ_ _Á„G XÁ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ V, a c˜OTˆÓÁ◊VÃ[˝ a„Ü EıUÁ [˝_„_ EıFXC AÃ[˝Eı] c˜Ã^ XÁ* ÂEıX, ]Á? =: ^FX Â]`Á c˜Ã^ C EıUÁ [˝_Á c˜Ã^, TˆFX Âa Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ vibrations ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ Y‰QÕˆ* V«L„X Â]_Á„]`Á EıUÁ[˝ÁwÔ¯Á Â[˝`› EıÃ[˝„_c˜O Âac˜O Ã[˝Eı] c˜Ã^, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ÂEıc˜ ◊EıªK«˜ Â[˝ÁW˝ Eı„Ã[˝ XÁ, conscious effectC c˜Ã^ XÁ [˝Á ^◊V c˜Ã^ TˆÁ Â_Á„Eı ʪRÙOÃ[˝ YÁÃ^ XÁ Â^ AÃ[˝ LXÓ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^FX aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ aLÁG c˜Ã^ C sensitive c˜Ã^, TˆFX feel EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ %ÁÃ[˝ AÃ[˝Eı] Zı_C c˜Ã^* ^Á„VÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ÊTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ◊]_ c˜Ã^, TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ a„Ü EıÃ[˝„_ ◊EıªK«˜ c˜Ã^ XÁ, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â^FÁ„X ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ◊]_ XÁc˜O %U[˝Á Âa Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó FÁÃ[˝ÁY \ˆÁ[˝ UÁ„Eı ʪTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ TˆFX AÃ[˝Eı] effect c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

487

A c˜‰¨K˜ Y«Ã[˝ÁX vital Y“E ı◊Tˆ Â^ AEıªRÙOÁ VÁ[˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ ◊X„Ã^ C‰Pˆ, Eıc˜O %Á◊] ^Á ªJÙÁc˜O TˆÁ %Á◊] YÁc˜O XÁ Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝* Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ ÂU„Eı ^Tˆ EıîXÁ C‰Pˆ --- ]Á %Á]Á„Eı V…„Ã[˝ Ã[˝Á„F, \ˆÁ_[˝Á„a XÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V* A ^FX C‰Pˆ, TˆFX [˝«MıÁ„Tˆ c˜„[˝, Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝, psychic A a[˝ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ* £W˝« ]Á„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Áa„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, LÁ„X Â^ ]Á„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ `“à˘Á \ˆ◊N˛ ◊V„_ a[˝ c˜Ã^* G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ psychicAÃ[˝ ]W˝Ó UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ a[˝ a]Ã^* *

X: %Á◊] Y“ÁÃ^ a[˝ a]Ã^c˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ aÁ]„X AEı◊ªRÙO ÂaÁLÁ YU ÂVF„Tˆ YÁc˜O* ÂEı Â^X ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ c˜‰ªTˆ [˝„_, ""a[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ V…„Ã[˝ ÂZı„_, ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı _l˘Ó XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ £W˝« ]Á ]Á [˝„_ A◊G„Ã^ ^ÁC --- ]Á ◊X„Ã^ ^Á„[˝X*'' =: AªRÙOÁc˜O aTˆÓ YU --- Âa Y„U [˝ÁW˝Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V A„_ TˆÁ„Tˆ disturbed c˜Ã^ XÁ, ]Ác˜O Ac˜O a[˝ £W˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ÂX„[˝X, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÃ^ [˝Á V«fF EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O XÁc˜O Ac˜O [˝„_ ÂaÁLÁ Y„U A◊G„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* *

◊Eı EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^, ""a''Ã[˝ [˝ à˘ [˝Ã^a, ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ* TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü patient c˜„Ã^ ^TˆV…Ã[˝ possible EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Â^ ◊VX psychic atmosphere a[[˝Ôy ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„[˝, Âa ◊VXc˜O Ac˜O a[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ c˜„[˝ XÁ* *

T«ˆ◊] ◊Eı green Eı_Á ÂF„Ã^◊ªK˜„_? ^Á„VÃ[˝ ◊Yw¯ %Á‰ªK˜, TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Y„l˘ Am„_Á \ˆÁ_ XÃ^* ÂF„_ [˝◊]Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ c˜Ã^* Ac˜Om„_Á ÂF„Tˆ XÁc˜O* %ÁL„Eı ◊Eı c˜Ã^, TˆÁ ÂV„F %Á]Á„Eı LÁXÁC TˆÁÃ[˝Y„Ã[˝ [˝_[˝ FÁ„[˝ [˝Á [˝µ˘ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝ ◊Eı [˝V_Á„Tˆ c˜„[˝* *

Â^ Ã[˝Eı]c˜O c˜Ã^ W˝ÓÁ„X Eı„∂ˆÇÔ [˝Á C]◊X [˝a„_ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ]Á C EıÁL EıÃ[˝Ác˜O %Áa_ --- Â^ \ˆÁ„[˝, Â^ =YÁ„Ã^c˜O Âc˜ÏEı* *

488

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

X: AFÁ„X ÂVF◊ªK˜ aÁW˝Eı aÁ◊W˝EıÁ„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊c˜eaÁ C Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘ ◊X≥VÁ EıÃ[˝Á ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ F«[˝ %Á‰ªK˜* =: T«ˆ◊] ^Á [˝_ªK˜ TˆÁ aTˆÓ --- ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ]X Y“ÁÃ^ Ac˜O a[˝ ÂVÁ„b Y…SÔ --- aÁW˝EıÃ[˝Á AFXC Ac˜Oa[˝ l«˘V–TˆÁ ]X Y“ÁS ÂU„Eı ÂMı‰QÕˆ ÂZı_„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ, c˜Oc˜Á„Tˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ„LÃ[˝ %„XEı ◊[˝H¬ %Á„a* Tˆ„[˝ T«ˆ◊] Ac˜O a[˝ ÂV„F ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ --- ◊X„L„Eı Ac˜O a[˝... ÂU„Eı ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ ÂÃ[˝„F aEı„_Ã[˝ Eı_ÓÁ„S¨K˜Á Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁ `Á‹ôˆ ]„X EıÃ[˝* *

‚—˜„VÃ[˝ %UÔ --- ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ A]X AEıRª Ù›O ÿöˆ Á^à › ÊÿɈ ÁTˆ ^Á„Tˆ >àù˘Ô ÿôˆ[à ˝ C physicalAÃ[˝ a∂눵˘ c˜Ã^ --- Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] a∂눵˘ UÁEı„_ >àùÔ˘ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_Á physicalA XÁ]„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* *

^◊V TˆÁ„Tˆ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ c˜ÁÃ[˝Á„XÁ XÁ ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁ c˜„_ ◊[˝„`b l˘◊Tˆ XÁc˜O* ^Á EıÃ[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó a‰ªJÙTˆX ÂU„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ UÁEıÁ ªJÙÁc˜O, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O %Áa_* *

T«ˆ◊] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ \«ˆ_ [˝«„MıªK˜ --- %Á◊] ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á] V«c˜OÃ[˝Eı] %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ --- AEıªRÙO› c˜‰¨K˜ Ã[˝ÁL◊aEı %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ Â^ ]„X Eı„Ã[˝ %Á◊] `◊N˛]ÁX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Ác˜O a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ --- %ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› %Á‰ªK˜ ◊PˆEı =‰∑ªRÙOÁ --- TˆÁ]◊aEı %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ Â^ ]„X Eı„Ã[˝ %Á◊] aEı„_Ã[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ FÁÃ[˝ÁY c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V Â^]X T«ˆ◊] [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝_ªK˜ ""%Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ FÁÃ[˝ÁY %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEı= XÁc˜O %Á`“„]*'' TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ^◊V [˝_ ""%Á]ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ a[˝ [˝µ˘ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝c˜O [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ^ %Á`“„]Ã[˝ Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ*'' Tˆ„[˝ Ac˜OªRÙO› Â^ Â`„bÁN˛ TˆÁ]◊aEı %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝? *

%Á„G Â^ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊ªK˜_, ^Á ÂY„Ã^◊ªK˜„_, Âa a[˝ XrÙ c˜Ã^ ◊X, XrÙ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝C XÃ^, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %`Á◊‹ôˆ„Tˆ C %aÁ[˝W˝ÁXTˆÁÃ^ ªRÙÁEıÁ Y‰QÕˆ◊ªK˜_* `Á‹ôˆ C a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„_c˜O

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

489

a[˝ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a* TˆÁc˜Ác˜O AFX c˜‰¨K˜* AFX %Á„GEıÁÃ[˝ ]TˆX aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝ --- %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ V–”Tˆ =~◊Tˆ c˜„[˝* *

^FX >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁ]Ã^ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ[˝ [˝V„_ ◊X∂oˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á„a --- A Ã[˝Eı] Tˆ aEı_ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ --- TˆFX ◊X„L„Eı quiet ÂÃ[˝„F ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı QˆÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ^Tˆl˘S >àùÔ˘ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ XÁ %Á„a* ◊X∂oˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ÿöˆÁÃ^› c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ, \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊ZıÃ[˝„[˝c˜O* A Ã[˝Eı] EıÃ[˝„_ Y“„TˆÓEı [˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ EıTˆEıªRÙOÁ =~◊Tˆ c˜Ã^, AEı %e` ---- ^Á %Á„G ÂFÁ_Á ◊ªK˜_ XÁ --- F«„_ ^ÁÃ^ --- Â`„b a[˝ F«„_ UÁEı„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁ]Ã^ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ÿöˆÁÃ^›\ˆÁ„[˝ UÁEı„[˝* *

]Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ÂVX XÁc˜O, ªK˜ÁQÕˆ„[˝XC XÁ* ʪJÙTˆXÁ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^ ÂX„]„ªK˜ [˝„_ A [˝ÁW˝Á VÒÁ≈◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜, %„X„EıÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* A Tˆ ◊ªJÙÃ[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^› XÃ^ --- ÈW˝^ÔÓ ÂÃ[˝„F ªJÙ_ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝ÓC --- \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Áa„[˝* *

"Tˆ'Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘ %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı Y“U] ÂU„Eıc˜O aTˆEÔı Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_Á] %ÁÃ[˝ A a„[˝„Tˆ Y“„[˝` XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁL ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝c˜O LXÓ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ [˝„_◊ªK˜_Á], T«ˆ◊]C TˆÁc˜Á„Tˆ a∂ˆÇTˆ c˜„Ã^◊ªK˜„_* TˆÁ ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ Ac˜O a[˝ ac˜Ó XÁ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ◊`F„_ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ =◊ªJÙTˆ a]TˆÁ ÂEıÁ„x„Eı %Áa„[˝? %◊Y“Ã^ [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝, %◊Y“Ã^ EıUÁ, %◊Y“Ã^ HªRÙOXÁ Ac˜O aEı_c˜O aÁW˝Eı„Eı \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ AEı◊Xúˆ C LG„TˆÃ[˝ a[˝ HªRÙOXÁÃ^ %◊[˝ªJÙ_ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ opportunity Eı„Ã[˝ ÂVÃ^* %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ ^Á ◊_„FªK˜, TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÁÃ^ EıÁ~Á XÃ^, =YÁÃ^ ◊X„LÃ[˝ psychic beingA [˝Áa Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ %G–aÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^Á, ^Á„Tˆ a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á, a[˝ %Y…SÔTˆÁ quietly Eı„] ^Á„[˝, ◊[˝XrÙ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ◊Zı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜ £„X a«F› c˜_Á], Âa %[˝ÿöˆÁ Â^X %ªJÙ_ c˜„Ã^ UÁE«ıEı* * VitalAÃ[˝

ÂGÁ_]Á_ ^FX %ÁÃ[˝ c˜„[˝ XÁ, physicalA ^FX `Á◊‹ôˆ Y«„Ã[˝Á\ˆÁ„[˝

490

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

a[˝ a]Ã^ UÁEı„[˝, Ac˜O a[˝ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ G_V %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* *

X: %ÁL Eı◊VX ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊Tˆ c˜„Tˆ %aeFÓ [˝ÁW˝Á A„a G–Áa C %◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O‰ªK˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O a[˝ ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ ]„W˝ÓC %Á]ÁÃ[˝ c˜÷V„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÿˆÇ ◊Tˆ C ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ %Á±¡a]YÔ„SÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á A[˝e ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ÊY“] %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* =: [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝ÓC [^◊V] Âac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ Âac˜O ÿˆÇ ◊Tˆ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝, TˆÁ c˜„_ Â_`]Áy \ˆÁ[˝XÁÃ[˝ EıÁÃ[˝S XÁc˜O, TˆÁ„Tˆc˜O Â`„b a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı %◊Tˆy‘] Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÿöˆÁÃ^›\ˆÁ„[˝ ◊X[˝Áa EıÃ[˝„[˝* *

A a[˝ Tˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ TˆÁ]◊aEı EıîXÁ, ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ suggestion* ◊[˝Ã[˝”à˘ `◊N˛C A a[˝ %„^ÁGÓTˆÁÃ[˝ ]Ã[˝„SÃ[˝ idea suggest Eı„Ã[˝ ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á C V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ %ÁX[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* Ac˜O a[˝ suggestion„Eı EıFX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Y“„[˝` EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* * Sex-impulse ◊Eı

\ˆÁ„[˝ =Pˆ‰ªK˜? aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S\ˆÁ„[˝ XÁ EıÁÃ[˝C =YÃ[˝ %ÁEıbÔS* ^Á =P«ˆEı XÁ ÂEıX, TˆÁ„Eı %Á`“Ã^ XÁ ◊V„Ã^ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ ÂQˆ„Eı XÁ◊]„Ã^ VÁC --- %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ aTˆÓ ˪JÙTˆXÓ A„a `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„[˝* *

X: ...]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S C ªJÙÁY %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝, TˆFX ]ÁUÁ EıÁ]QÕˆÁÃ^ ÂEıX? =: Âa ]ÁUÁ EıÁ]QÕˆÁX G–Ác˜Ó EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂXc˜O* =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊L◊Xb XÁ]„Tˆ XÁ]„Tˆ Âa„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^* *

X: ]Á, GTˆEıÁ_ ÿ눉Y¬ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ◊UÔ[˝ ]Á„Eı ÂV„F◊ªK˜* Âa [˝__, ""]Á„Eı a+…SÔÃ[˝÷„Y ◊X„L„Eı ◊V„Ã^ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝, %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á ÂV[˝ XÁ* T«ˆc˜O ]Á„Eı ÂY„_ %Á◊] ]«◊N˛ YÁ[˝*''

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

491

=: Ac˜O a[˝ ÿ눉Y¬ YÁ◊UÔ[˝ ]Á %Á„a physical natureAÃ[˝ Y“Tˆ›Eı c˜„Ã^* Â^ Ac˜O a[˝ EıUÁ [˝_◊ªK˜_, Âa ◊ªK˜_ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ◊UÔ[˝ ]Á XÃ^, YÁ◊UÔ[˝ ]ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷Y G–c˜S Eı„Ã[˝ YÁ◊UÔ[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ* *

X: %ÁL c˜„Tˆ %Á◊] ÈW˝^ÔÓc˜›X %`Á‹ôˆ %W˝›Ã[˝ c˜[˝ XÁ C [˝ÁW˝Á ÂV„F \ˆÃ^ EıÃ[˝[˝ XÁ... AFX ^Tˆc˜O [˝ÁW˝Á %Áa«Eı `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ ◊[˝`üÁ„a ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı %Áa[˝ C TˆÁ„VÃ[˝„Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^ ÂV[˝* =: c˜Oc˜Ác˜O right attitude* a[[˝ÔVÁ Ac˜O attitude Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜„_ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ac˜„L EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ Ac˜O %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Âl˘y„Eı Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* *

X: ]Á, %Á◊] TˆÁ„Eı [AEı◊ªRÙO F«[˝ `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ[˝] %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ʪJÙÁ„F ÂVF◊ªK˜ XÁ* Âa %Ã[˝÷„Y ÂEıX UÁEı‰ªK˜? =: `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝ EıÁL Y“ÁÃ^ %Ã[˝÷„Yc˜O c˜Ã^* *

X: %Á◊] ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ◊X„LÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÂEıX c˜Á◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ÂZı◊_? c˜Oc˜Á FÁÃ[˝ÁY XÁ \ˆÁ_? ÂEıÁX ◊EıªK«˜ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂV◊F Â^ ʪJÙTˆXÁªRÙOÁ c˜PˆÁd ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ ªJÙ„_ ÂG‰ªK˜, %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ %ÁYXÁ %ÁY◊X ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a* =: ʪJÙTˆ XÁ ^FX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^ TˆFX B Ã[˝Eı] c˜Ã^* FÁÃ[˝ÁY XÃ^, Tˆ„[˝ EıÁ„LÃ[˝ a]Ã^ Â[˝`› G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ XÁ ^ÁCÃ^Á \ˆÁ_* *

X: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEı◊ªRÙO \ˆÁ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ Â^ T«ˆ◊] %Á]Á„Eı [˝QÕˆ [˝QÕˆ aÁW˝EıaÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ \ˆÁ_[˝Áa XÁ, ÂVF XÁ, ªJÙÁC XÁ, C ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X¨K˜ XÁ...* =: ^Á ÂVFªK˜ TˆÁ aTˆÓc˜O* £W˝« ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O, %Á`“]]Ã^ Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜, %„X„EıÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝b] [˝ÁW˝Á a ◊rÙ Eı‰¨K˜¤* AÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁ]◊aEı %c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝ C l«˘V– vitalAÃ[˝ VÁ[˝›* A \ˆÁ[˝„Eı EıFXC ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* Â^ ]Á„Eı ◊EıªK«˜ XÁ

492

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

ʪJÙ„Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı ÂVÃ^, Âa ]Á„Eı a+…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ YÁÃ^, ]Á„Eı ÂY„_ a[˝c˜O YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^, \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ ˪JÙTˆXÓ, `Á◊‹ôˆ, ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ, \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ p˚ÁX C ÊY“] c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ l«˘V– VÁ[˝› EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂG„_, £W˝« [˝ÁW˝Ác˜O a ◊rÙ c˜Ã^* *

X: V«'◊TˆX ◊VX ^Á[˝d %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁW˝Ã[˝Á c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜...* ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Á„GÃ[˝ ]Tˆ [˝QÕˆ AEıª◊ªRÙO ◊EıªK«˜ %Á‰ªK˜ [˝„_ ]„X c˜‰¨K˜, %ÁÃ[˝ AFX ]ÁUÁ c˜„Tˆ a]ÿôˆ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ªK˜◊QÕˆ„Ã^ YQÕˆ‰ªK˜* =: c˜Ã^ Tˆ Ac˜O ""[˝QÕˆ ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝'' %[˝TˆÃ[˝„S `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ AEıªªR«ÙO difficulty %Á‰ªK˜, Âac˜O LXÓ Ac˜O ]ÁUÁ W˝Ã[˝Á* TˆÁ ^◊V c˜Ã^ ]X„Eı F«[˝ `Á‹ôˆ C wide Eı„Ã[˝ F«„_ ◊V„_ Âac˜O difficulty ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^* *

c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O --- a]ÿôˆ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝

psychic beingAÃ[˝

Y“\ˆÁ[˝ C %Á◊W˝YTˆÓ*

*

AªRÙOÁC EıTˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝„_◊ªK˜ --- `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı --- Â^ a]Ã^c˜O aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ %Á„a, Ac˜O a[˝ ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ aTˆÓ„Eı V…Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝, ÂEı[˝_c˜O ◊]UÓÁ ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V %Á„a* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ W˝›Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ„w¯ UÁEı, [˝ÁW˝Á aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Ã^, [˝ÁW˝Á a„√º¯C ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ Y„U Am„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

AEıRª ÙÁO %Á[˝[à ˝S AFXC %Á‰ªK˜ --- a+…SÔ `◊N˛ AFXC XÁ]„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* TˆÁKª ˜ÁQÕˆÁ %„XEı aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ %ÁW˝ H«]‹ôˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ --- Y«„Ã[˝Á LÁG„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ* *

c˜TˆÁ` c˜„Tˆ ÂXc˜O C V«fF EıÁ~Á EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂXc˜O* `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂVF A[˝e ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ [ÂVÁb-y”◊ªRÙO] £W˝„Ã[˝ _C* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

493

X: %ÁL ÂVF◊ªK˜ Â^ =YÃ[˝ c˜‰ªTˆ AEı◊ªRÙO ªJÙy‘ XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ %e„` XÁ]‰ªK˜* =: %UÔ `◊N˛Ã[˝ working lower vitalA ÂX„] A„a‰ªK˜* *

"Eı'[à ˝ a„Ü ÂVFÁ c˜[˝Á[à ˝ Zı„_ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ LÁG–Tˆ ]„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ XÃ^ ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô %[˝‰Jª ÙTˆXÁÃ^ Â^ a[˝ Y«„Ã[˝Á„XÁ HªRÙOXÁÃ[˝ ªK˜ÁY Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ &`Ô Y‰QÕˆ◊ªK˜_, Â^ LXÓ Ã[˝Á‰y Ac˜O ÿëˆY¬* Ac˜O a[˝ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Y«„Ã[˝Á„XÁ ªK˜ÁY C ÿˆÇ ◊Tˆ ÿ눉Y¬ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O C‰Pˆ, TˆÁ„Tˆ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX EıÁÃ[˝S ÂXc˜O* Ac˜O a[˝ ªK˜ÁY %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ ]«‰ªK˜ ^Á„[˝ --- TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] c˜„[˝ XÁ* *

X: ]Á, AFX AEıªªR«ÙO Â[˝`› EıUÁ [˝_„_ ]ÁUÁ ÂHÁ„Ã[˝ A[˝e ]ÁUÁ EgıÁY„Tˆ UÁ„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ %Á◊] Â`„b V«[[˝Ô_ C AEıªªR«ÙO ªJÙá˚_ c˜„Ã^ Y◊QÕˆ* =: Ac˜O a[˝ XÁ UÁEıÁ \ˆÁ_ --- Â^]X ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEıÁ, ÂTˆ]X `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝C a[˝ `Á‹ôˆ a«F]Ã^ %ªJÙá˚_ UÁEıÁ ªJÙÁc˜O* Peace in the cells, `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %S« Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ `Á◊‹ôˆY…SÔ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, Ac˜O ]ÁUÁ ÂHÁÃ[˝Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* *

X: EıÁ„LÃ[˝ EıUÁ [˝_„Tˆ [˝_„Tˆ %„XEı %XÁ[˝`ÓEı EıUÁ [˝„_ ÂZı◊_* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ÂV◊F Â^ A„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ C GꈛÃ[˝\ˆÁ[˝ XrÙ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* =: ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂU„Eıc˜O, ÂaFÁX c˜„Tˆ a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ EıUÁ [˝_Á --- c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O* A %\ˆÓÁa V ªRÕÙ c˜„_ %ÁÃ[˝ A [˝ÁW˝Á UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* *

C [˝ÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ Â^ AEıªRÙO› disturbance in the atmosphere %Á‰ªªK˜, TˆÁc˜Á aTˆÓ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı Âc˜ÏEı [˝Á ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı Âc˜ÏEı a[˝ disturbanceA W˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ V ªRÕÙTˆÁÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝„_ ÂEıÁX Force ◊EıªK«˜c˜O EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* *

494

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

Very good.

]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ LÃ^ c˜„[˝c˜O Ac˜O ◊[˝`üÁa a[˝ a]Ã^ ÂÃ[˝„F `Á‹ôˆ W˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÃ^`…XÓ c˜„Ã^ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

[˝ÁW˝Á %Á„a ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ ÂX„] [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı ◊[˝XrÙ EıÃ[˝„[˝ [˝„_* ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊Tˆ„Tˆ ÂX„] ^ÁC Âa Y“E ı◊Tˆ„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %Á„_Á `Á◊‹ôˆ `◊N˛„Tˆ \ˆ„Ã[˝ ◊V„Ã^ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* *

c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ◊PˆEı p˚ÁX --- ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V–, ÂaFÁ„X impulseAÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX, ÂaFÁ„X ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁLÓ ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝*

sex

*

X: ...ÂVF◊ªK˜ a„TˆÓÃ[˝, p˚Á„XÃ[˝, `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝, ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝, Y◊[˝yTˆÁÃ[˝ Ÿa◊QÕˆÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ◊Eı ÂX„] A„a‰ªK˜; TˆÁ ◊V„Ã^ ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı >„àùÔ˘ Â^X =‰Pˆ ^Ác˜O A[˝e ÂaFÁ„X %„XEı [˝Á◊_EıÁÃ[˝ aÁ„U %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊]_X c˜Ã^* =: Â^ [˝Á◊_EıÁ„VÃ[˝ EıUÁ ◊_„FªK˜ TˆÁÃ[˝Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ XÁXÁ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁm◊_ Â[˝` \ˆÁ_ --- %[˝ÿöˆÁC \ˆÁ_ --- aÁW˝XÁ \ˆÁ_ ªJÙ_‰ªK˜ --- [˝ÁW˝Ám„_Á %Á„a [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ ÂU„Eı %[˝ÿöˆÁ disturb EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ --- G–c˜S Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ* *

V«ªRÙO› %◊G¬, ]„XÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ C Y“Á„SÃ[˝ Tˆ›[˝– aspiration =‰Pˆ ^ÁÃ^ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ Zı„_ >„àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ∂ˆÇÔÃ^ %Á„_Á XÁ„]* *

X: ...G_Á c˜„Tˆ [˝Á] c˜ÁTˆ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ Â^X ◊EıªK«˜ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ C c˜‰¨K˜... feel Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜ Â^ Ac˜OªR«ÙOE«ı %e` ◊MıXÀ ◊MıXÀ Eı„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ %[˝` c˜„Ã^ ^Á‰¨K˜ %ÁÃ[˝ Y“„TˆÓEı Â_Á]E…ı„YÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó X›_ %Á„_Á„EıÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ◊[˝≥V« ◊[˝≥V« ◊Eı YQÕˆ‰ªK˜* =: >àù˘Ô ˪JÙTˆXÓc˜O XÁ]‰ªK˜* G_ÁÃ^ %Á‰ªK˜ [˝◊c˜Å`¤ ›Ô [˝◊« à˘[à ˝ ÂEı≥V–, [˝Áß Eı„∂ˆÇ≈Ô ◊≥V–„^à [à ˝ AEıªRÙO› ÿöˆÁX --- G_Á EgıÁW˝ [˝Áß [˝«„EıÃ[˝ =Y◊Ã[˝ %e` (c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ =Y„Ã[˝) Eı„∂ˆÇÔÁXΩ∆F

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_› vital mindAÃ[˝

LÁÃ^GÁ* ÂaFÁ„X =Y„Ã[˝Ã[

Force

495

◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ c˜‰¨K˜*

*

aÁVÁ L[˝Á --- ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ £à˘ `◊N˛* *

X: ]Á, Ÿa◊QÕˆ ◊V„Ã^ Y“SÁ] hallA XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ %Á◊] %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ Â^ T«ˆ◊] =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Óc˜O ÂX„] %ÁaªK˜* %ÁÃ[˝ ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝ Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ stepA %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y≤øZ«ı_ Z«ıªRÙO‰ªK˜* =: c˜Oc˜Á aTˆÓ %X«\ˆ[˝* ]Á TˆFX ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂX„] ʪJÙTˆXÁ (Y≤ø)„Eı Z«ı◊ªRÙO„Ã^ ÂVÃ^* *

`Á◊‹ôˆ XÁ]Á \ˆÁ_c˜O --- a]ÿôˆ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ C [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ GÁªRÕÙ c˜„Ã^ XÁ]«Eı* *

X: %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝, [˝ÁaXÁ, EıÁ]XÁ, VÁ[˝›, ◊c˜eaÁ, G[[˝Ô, %Áa◊N˛, %ΪJÙTˆXÓTˆÁ ÂEıÁUÁ c˜„Tˆ %Á„a? TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX ÂEıÁUÁÃ^? ]Á, Ac˜Oa[˝ EıFX A[˝e ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ Y◊Ã[˝Y…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ V…Ã[˝ c˜„[˝? =: TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂEıÁUÁC XÁc˜O --- [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ ÂU„Eı %Á„a* Tˆ„[˝ ^FX ]ÁX«„b ÿöˆÁX ÂY„Ã^‰ªK˜, TˆFX TˆÁÃ[˝Á Y“ÁS\…ˆ◊]„Eı VF_ Eı„Ã[˝ [˝„a Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜, Â^X %◊Tˆ◊U %Ác…˜Tˆ c˜„Ã^ [˝ÁQÕˆ›„Eı VF_ Eı„Ã[˝ [˝„a ÂZı„_* Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁ •ÁÃ[˝Á %Á]Ã[˝Á TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜[à ˝ Eı◊[à ˝, TˆFX [˝Á◊c˜„[à ˝ [à ˝„^à %Á[˝Á[à ˝ VF_ Eı[à ˝[˝Á[à ˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ^à UÁ„Eı --^Tˆ◊VX TˆÁÃ[˝Á ◊[˝XrÙ XÁ c˜Ã^* * Physical consciousnessAÃ[˝ Y«[à ˝ÁTˆX %\ˆÓÁa A]X aÁW˝Á[à ˝S ˪JÙTˆ„XÓ XÁ]Á

aEı„_Ã[˝ ac˜„L c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ V«fF Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ, ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ ^ÁC* Âa ◊Zı„Ã[˝ ^ÁCÃ^Á AFX %Á„GEıÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ ac˜L c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* *

496

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

...aEı„_Ã[˝ [˝◊c˜faw¯ÁÃ^ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y LXΩ_ç˘ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝]Ã^ %e` %Á‰ªK˜* TˆÁ ◊X„L„VÃ[˝ XÃ^, [˝e„`Ã[˝* Ac˜OªRÙO› X…TˆX Eı„Ã[˝ GQÕˆ„Tˆ c˜Ã^* * It is very good ---

^Á ÂV„FªK˜ [˝«„MıªK˜ TˆÁ aTˆÓ* Â^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ YU ÂV„FªK˜, TˆÁ„Tˆc˜O ªJÙ_„Tˆ c˜„[˝, Â^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ _l˘Ó Eı„Ã[˝ªK˜ TˆÁc˜Ác˜O Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜„[˝* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ^Á TˆÁ ÂV„F ÂX„[˝, ^Á VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ TˆÁc˜O Eı„Ã[˝ ÂX„[˝ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„Tˆ ]L„[˝ XÁ, ^«N˛ c˜„[˝ XÁ, [˝ÁaXÁ EıÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ ^◊V ÂEıc˜ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝c˜O Âa aÁW˝XY„U `›H– A„GÁÃ^, [˝ÁW˝Á ◊[˝H¬ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V A„_C TˆÁ„Eı &`Ô EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆC %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ %‹ôˆÃ[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ a«≥VÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ YÁ„[˝* *

X: ÂEıc˜ %Á]Á„Eı ""X'' [˝„_ ◊ªJÙX„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝‰ªK˜ XÁ, ""X'' [˝_„_ aEı„_ %[˝ÁEı c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* ]Á, EıÁ_„Eı A]X ÿ눉Y¬ Â^X aÁÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ÁTˆ ªJÙ„_ ÂG‰ªK˜* aEıÁ„_ LÁG[˝ÁÃ[˝ %„XEıl˘S YÃ[˝ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ AÃ[˝ ÊY“aÁÃ[˝ ÂV„c˜ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ feel EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜_Á]* =: ÿ눉Y¬Ã[˝ %UÔ ◊ªK˜_ Y«„Ã[˝Á„XÁ ÂVc˜ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ ] T«ˆÓ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂVc˜ÎªJÙTˆ„XÓ X[˝LXΩ _Á\ˆ* *

...Y“ÁS a]◊YÔTˆ c˜„_ %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ a]YÔS EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝„`b [˝ÁW˝Á c˜Ã^ XÁ* *

Â^ a[˝ %◊]_ c˜Ã^ "Eı'Ã[˝ a„Ü [˝Á "F'Ã[˝ a„Ü Âa TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ]ÁX[˝ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ natural movementAÃ[˝ Zı_, psychic Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX =YÁÃ^ XÁc˜O* Ac˜O a[˝„Eı ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ AEıªRÙO› `Á‹ôˆ a]TˆÁÃ[˝ \…ˆ◊] ÂU„Eı ÂV„F %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ observe EıÃ[˝Á ◊`F„Tˆ c˜„[˝* ]ÁX[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ ac˜„L [˝V_ÁÃ^ XÁ --- ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ^Á„VÃ[˝ psychic LÁGÃ[˝S C %W˝ÓÁ±¡ ◊\ˆ◊w¯ ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝C Y„U Ac˜O Y“E ı◊Tˆ„Eı a+…SÔ %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Á, Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝Á ac˜L XÃ^* A„VÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ^ÁÃ[˝Á AFXC ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ EgıÁªJÙÁ TˆÁc˜Á AFX EıÃ[˝Á %aêˆ[˝* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

497

]Á„Eı a[[˝ÔVÁ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝, ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı, TˆÁc˜„_ [˝ÁW˝Á ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝* [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı \ˆÃ^ Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ, ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ --- ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı* *

[˝ÁW˝Á %X‹ôˆ appear Eı„Ã[˝ [˝‰ªRÙO, Âa appearance aTˆÓ XÃ^, Ã[˝Ál˘a› ]ÁÃ^Á ]Áy --- ◊PˆEı Y„U ªJÙ_„Tˆ ªJÙ_„Tˆ Â`„b YU Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* * Very good --- ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ªJÙ_ --- y‘„] y‘„] Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝

^Á ◊EıªK«˜ AFXC %Á‰ªK˜ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝* *

Ac˜O [˝ÁW˝Á aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜* Y“◊Tˆ ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ ^«N˛ c˜CÃ^Á ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ* W˝›Ã[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* *

]„XÃ[˝ %„XEıÃ[˝Eı] G◊Tˆ c˜Ã^ ^Á„VÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX aÁ]taÓ XÁc˜O* aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝C c˜Ã^, aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝C c˜Ã^, aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O c˜Ã^ Tˆ„[˝ --- aÁW˝Eı ÂV„F C LÁ„X, aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]ÁX«b ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ◊Eı c˜‰¨K˜ TˆÁ Â[˝Á„Mı XÁ* \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı a[˝ ◊ZıÃ[˝Á„Tˆ ◊ZıÃ[˝Á„Tˆ AEı ]X c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* *

]Á„Ã^[à ˝ a„Üc˜O ^FX ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝ ae„^ÁG c˜„^à ‰ªK˜ TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ \ˆ^à XÁc˜*O ^Á Y◊Ã[˝[˝w¯Ô X EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛c˜O Eı„Ã[˝ ÂV„[˝* Ca[˝ Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X EıÃ[˝„Tˆ a]Ã^ _Á„G ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ \ˆÁ[˝XÁ XÁc˜O* ÂEı[˝_ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ae^«N˛ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO a]◊YÔTˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı, %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ ◊X∏JÙÃ^ c˜„[˝* *

X: ]Á, %Á◊] AFX ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ X›Ã[˝[˝TˆÁ `Á◊‹ôˆ YÁ◊¨K˜, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ YÁ◊¨K˜ XÁ* a[˝ a]Ã^ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı◊Ã[˝ Â^ ÂEıÁX %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ --- EıÁLEı∂ˆÇÔ EıUÁ[˝ÁwÔ¯Á a[˝a]Ã^

498

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘ conscious c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ...* =: Y“U] `Á◊‹ôˆ %Á„a --- a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ XÁ c˜„_ p˚ÁX %ÁaÁ Eı◊PˆX* `Á◊‹ôˆ ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„_ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊[˝`Á_ %X‹ôˆ ˪JÙTˆXÓ %Á„a, TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Q«ˆ„[˝ %Á◊]±ºˆ ]G¬ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^, ‚—˜Áa c˜Ã^ --- Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙc˜‘ UÁ„Eı XÁ* UÁ„Eı ÂEı[˝_ ]Á C ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ aXÁTˆX %e` \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ %ÁX„‹ôˆÓÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó* *

[˝ÁW˝Á ac˜„L a+…SÔ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* F«_„Tˆ F«_„Tˆ, ʪJÙTˆXÁ [˝ÁQÕˆ„Tˆ [˝ÁQÕˆ„Tˆ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ^FX Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜Ã^ TˆFX [˝ÁW˝Á a+…SÔ ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^* TˆÁÃ[˝ %Á„G Eı„] ^Á„[˝, Â[˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ UÁEı„[˝, --- T«ˆ◊] [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ^ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF* [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı ◊X„LÃ[˝ [˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝ ÿ눛EıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ --- TˆÁ c˜„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„] ^Á„[˝* *

Y“ÁS„Eı W[˝ea EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁc˜O, Y“ÁS ◊\ˆ~ ÂEıÁX EıÁL EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, L›[˝XC UÁ„Eı XÁ* Y“ÁS„Eı Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^* \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ^‹óˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ C %Á„_Á ÂÃ[˝„F `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ a[˝ EıÃ[˝ --- TˆÁc˜„_ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O --- a[˝ Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

V«Ã[˝Eı] `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^ --- AEıªRÙOÁ physical TˆÁ]◊aEı LQÕˆ ◊X‰∏JÙrÙTˆÁ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ `…XÓTˆÁ ◊X‰∏JÙrÙTˆÁ c˜Ã^ >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO `Á◊‹ôˆ C %Á±¡„[˝ÁW˝ XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„G* Ac˜O V«‰ªRÙOÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂEıÁXªRÙO› A„a‰ªK˜ ªTˆÁ ÂVF„Tˆ c˜„[˝, EıÁÃ[˝S V«‰ªRÙOÁ„Tˆc˜O a[˝ ÂU„] ^ÁÃ^, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ `…XÓ c˜„Ã^ Y‰QÕˆ UÁ„Eı* *

^FX `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^, TˆFX `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı* `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

499

c˜Ã^, Tˆ„[˝ `Á‹ôˆ `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜„_ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ =YEıÁÃ[˝› c˜Ã^ --- %`Á‹ôˆ c˜„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ Zı_ c˜Ã^ XÁ* *

FÁÃ[˝ÁY `◊N˛ ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ ◊Eı A]X X›‰ªJÙ ªRÙOÁX„[˝ C V«[[˝Ô_ [˝Ó◊Tˆ[˝Óÿôˆ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂZı_„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝? AtmosphereA Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y `◊N˛ %„XEı H«Ã[˝‰ªK˜ aÁW˝EıÃ[˝Á %Á`“Ã^ ÂVÃ^ [˝„_* ^◊V %Á„a ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝, ]Á„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝ VÁC* ◊EıªK«˜ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ, ◊ªRÙOEı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* *

c˜Oc˜Á Tˆ ]ÁX«b ]Áyc˜O Eı„Ã[˝ --- Y“`eaÁÃ^ c˜÷rÙ, ◊X≥VÁÃ^ V«f◊FTˆ c˜Ã^ --- ◊EıªK«˜ %‡«ˆTˆ [˝ÓÁYÁÃ[˝ XÃ^* Tˆ„[˝ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Y„l˘ Ac˜O V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Ác˜O ◊XTˆÁ‹ôˆ Y“„Ã^ÁLX --- ÿô«ˆ◊Tˆ◊X≥VÁÃ^ ]ÁX %Y]Á„X %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ UÁEı„[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁc˜Á ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ --- a]„Ã^ c˜„[˝* *

Ac˜O ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO %[˝ÿöˆÁ ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ ^FX c˜Ã^, CÃ[˝ %UÔ ]X ◊[˝`Á_ c˜„Ã^ ◊[˝`ü]„XÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜„Ã^ ^Á‰¨K˜* G_Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊VÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO c˜CÃ^ÁÃ[˝ %UÔ --- Âa Âa ÂEı‰≥V–Ã[˝ Â^ ʪJÙTˆXÁ TˆÁÃ[˝C Âac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜‰¨K˜* *

^◊V [˝ÁaXÁ ÂYÁbS EıÃ[˝, %W˝›Ã[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁC aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Zı„_Ã[˝ L„XÓ, TˆÁ c˜„_ `Á‹ôˆ X›Ã[˝[˝ ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ UÁEı„[˝* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]Tˆ [˝QÕˆ EıÁL, TˆÁ ◊Eı AEı ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ c˜Ã^? ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ VÁC, TˆÁ c˜„_ a]„Ã^ a[˝ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

%Á]Ã[˝Á V…„Ã[˝C ^Ác˜O ◊X TˆÓÁGC Eı◊Ã[˝ ◊X* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]X Y“ÁS ^FX %`Á‹ôˆ c˜Ã^, TˆFX Ac˜O a[˝ \«ˆ_ EıîXÁ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„X C‰Pˆ* [˝ÁW˝ÁC ^◊V =‰Pˆ, %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝C ^◊V %Á„a, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ \ˆÃ[˝aÁ c˜ÁÃ[˝Á„Tˆ ÂXc˜O --- ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ TgˆÁ„Eı QˆÁEı„Tˆ

500

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

QˆÁEı„Tˆ %ªJÙá˚_ UÁEı, [˝ÁW˝Á %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ a„Ã[˝ ^Á„[˝* *

Y“SÁ„] [˝Á V`Ô„X ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ appearance ÂV„F ◊Tˆ◊X a«F› [˝Á V«f◊FTˆ c˜Oc˜Á %X«]ÁX EıÃ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ XÃ^* Â_Á„Eı TˆÁc˜O Eı'„Ã[˝ ÂEı[˝_c˜O \«ˆ_ Eı„Ã[˝, ◊]UÓÁ %X«]ÁX Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á %a‹ô«ˆ rÙ, ]Á Eı‰PˆÁÃ[˝, ]Á %Á]Á„Eı ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ, V…„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF‰ªK˜ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V EıTˆ ◊]UÓÁ EıîXÁ %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁ„Tˆ ◊XÃ[˝Á` c˜„Ã^ ◊X„LÃ[˝ Y„UÃ[˝ ◊X„L [˝ÓÁHÁTˆ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝* Ac˜O a[˝ XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ love C helpAÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %ªRÙO_ ◊[˝`üÁa ÂÃ[˝„F Y“Z«ı{ `Á‹ôˆ ]„X aÁW˝XÁÃ^ Am„Tˆ c˜Ã^* ^ÁÃ[˝Á TˆÁc˜Ác˜O Eı„Ã[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝Á ◊XÃ[˝ÁYV UÁ„Eı --- [˝ÁW˝Á A„_ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ A„_ Âa TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ &`Ô EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ, TˆÁÃ[˝Á [˝„_ ""XÁ, ]Á-c˜O %Á‰ªK˜X, ◊Tˆ◊X ^Á Eı„Ã[˝X TˆÁc˜O \ˆÁ_ --- TgˆÁ„Eı %Á◊] A ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ XÁ ÂVF„Tˆ ÂY„_C %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜X, %Á]Á„Eı ◊H„Ã[˝ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜X, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX \ˆÃ^ XÁc˜O*'' c˜Oc˜Ác˜O EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ---- Ac˜O \ˆÃ[˝aÁ ÂÃ[˝„F aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

TˆÁ]◊aEı a]YÔS aÁ„U TˆÁ]◊aEı %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁX a∂눵˘ XÁc˜O* TˆÁ]◊aEı %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ ]Á„X ""%Á◊] YÁY›, %Á◊] V«[[˝Ô_, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX =~◊Tˆ c˜„[˝ XÁ, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ, %Á◊] V«fF›, \ˆG[˝ÁX %Á]Á„Eı G–c˜S Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X* ]Ã[˝Sc˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ AEı]Áy %Á`“Ã^, ]Á %Á]Á„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Á„aX XÁ, %ÁÃ[˝ aEı_„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Á„aX'' c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V \ˆÁ[˝* Vital nature A Ã[˝Eı] ◊X„L„Eı c˜›X ÂV◊F„Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı %ÁHÁTˆ Eı„Ã[˝* aEı„_Ã[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ FÁÃ[˝ÁY, V«fF› V«rÙ ◊XY›◊QÕˆTˆ [˝„_ ÂV◊F„Ã^ %c˜e \ˆÁ[˝„Eı ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ --- ◊[˝YÃ[˝›Tˆ \ˆÁ„[˝* Ã[˝ÁL◊aEı %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ ◊PˆEı =_‰ªRÙOÁ, %Á◊] [˝QÕˆ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V [˝„_ ◊X„L„Eı ZgıÁ◊Y„Ã^ ÂVFÁ„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^* *

aÁVÁ %Á„_Á divine consciousnessAÃ[˝ %Á„_Á ---- X›_ %Á„_Á higher consciousnessAÃ[˝ --- ÂÃ[˝Ï„YÓÃ[˝ ]Tˆ %Á„_Á %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊±¡EıTˆÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

501

c˜Oc˜Á c˜‰¨K˜ ]„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆXÓ, Â^FÁ„X ÂU„Eı %Á„a `Á◊‹ôˆ `◊N˛ %Á„_Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V --- aÁVÁ Y≤ø ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ, _Á_ Y≤ø %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ --- ÂaFÁ„X p˚ÁX C a„TˆÓÃ[˝ %Á„_Á a[[˝ÔVÁ %Á‰ªK˜* *

X: V«c˜O ◊TˆX ◊VX ^Á[˝d Y“ÁÃ^ a]Ã^c˜O feel Eı◊Ã[˝ Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ c˜ÁTˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝, T«ˆ◊] %Á`›[[˝ÔÁV EıÃ[˝ªK˜ Â^X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ G\ˆ›Ã[˝Tˆ] `Á◊‹ôˆ„Tˆ C ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ Q«ˆ„[˝ UÁ◊Eı* %Á◊] a[[˝ÔVÁc˜O ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]W˝«]Ã^ ÊY“]]Ã^ %Á‚º˜ÁX £X◊ªK˜* =: c˜Oc˜Ác˜O aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ C V ◊rÙ, G\ˆ›„Ã[˝ UÁEı„_ [˝Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓ A„_ c˜Oc˜Á ^◊V UÁ„Eı, TˆÁ c˜„_ a[˝ ◊PˆEı A◊G„Ã^ ^Á„[˝ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ =„Å„`ÓÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı* *

[˝◊c˜#¤G„TˆÃ[˝ a„Ü a∂눵˘ Tˆ UÁEıÁ ªJÙÁc˜O, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Âa a[˝ =Y◊Ã[˝-=Y◊Ã[˝ (on the surface) UÁEıÁ =◊ªJÙTˆ --- T«ˆ◊] ◊X„L ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO UÁEı„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı Cc˜O a[˝ ÂVF„[˝ --- c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O Eı∂ˆÇÔ„^Á„GÃ[˝ Y“U] ÂaÁYÁX --- TˆÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ •ÁÃ[˝Á a[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Eı∂ˆÇÔ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ªJÙÁ◊_„Ã^ ÂV„[˝, c˜Oc˜Á c˜‰¨K˜ ◊•Tˆ›Ã^ %[˝ÿöˆÁ* c˜Oc˜Á EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ÂGÁ_]Á_ UÁ„Eı XÁ* *

◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊VEı ◊V„Ã^ Y“U] ]Á„Eı ÂY„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Y„Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ªRÙOÁ ^FX a+…SÔ [˝„` %Á„a, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝C a[[˝ÔVÁ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^* *

Ac˜OªRÙO› a[˝ a]Ã^ ]„X Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^ Â^, Â^c˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ Âc˜ÏEı, ^Tˆc˜O [˝ÁW˝Á %Áa«Eı, ^Tˆc˜O a]Ã^ _ÁmEı ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ `“à˘Á ÂÃ[˝„F ªJÙ_„Tˆ c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜„_ G‹ôˆ[˝Ó ÿöˆÁ„X Yg߉JÙ ^ÁCÃ^Á %◊X[˝Á^ÔÓ --- ÂEıÁXC [˝ÁW˝Á, ÂEıÁXC ◊[˝_∂ëˆ, ÂEıÁXC ]≥V %[˝ÿöˆÁ Âa Â`b aZı_TˆÁ„Eı [˝ÓUÔ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* *

aTˆÓ ÂVFÁ*

Psychic consciousnessAÃ[˝

Ã[˝ÁÿôˆÁ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^

502

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

--- Âac˜O psychic„Eı ÂEı≥V– Eı„Ã[˝ a[˝ ÿôˆÃ[˝ AEı\ˆÁ„[˝ \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊ZıÃ[˝„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜* Âac˜O Ã[˝ÁÿôˆÁ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı =Pˆ‰ªK˜ --- ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ◊`£ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ psychic being. *

Eı]_Á„_[˝[ë ˝ [à ˝e„Ã^[à ˝ %UÔ DivineAÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]_X C %YÁ◊UÔ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ &`Ô* *

`Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %G–aÃ[˝ c˜C --- V«fF [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊VC XÁ --- Â`„b a[˝ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ a„Ã[˝ ^Á„[˝* *

Ac˜O feeling, Ac˜O `“à˘Á C ◊[˝`üÁa a[˝ a]Ã^ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^, aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Ac˜O `“à˘Á C ◊[˝`üÁa, faith, conviction, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ Y“W˝ÁX ac˜ÁÃ^* *

aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^ V ªRÕÙ `Á‹ôˆ ]„X, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %ªR«ÙOªRÙO `“à˘Á C ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ ÂÃ[˝„F* Depression„Eı EıFXC ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* ^◊V %Á„a ªTˆ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX Eı„Ã[˝ V…Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊V„Tˆ c˜^à * %Á◊] X›ªJÙ, %W˝], %Á]ÁÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á c˜„[˝ XÁ, ]Á %Á]Á„Eı V…[à ˝ Eı„Ã[˝‰Kª ˜X, %Á◊] ªJÙ„_ ^Á[˝, %Á◊] ]Ã[˝[˝, A a[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ ^◊V %Á„a Tˆ„[˝ LÁX„Tˆ c˜„[˝ Â^ Ac˜O a[˝ ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ suggestions, a„TˆÓÃ[˝ C aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝›* Ac˜O a[˝ \ˆÁ[˝„Eı EıFX %Á`“Ã^ ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* *

%UÔ Ac˜O --- Â^ \ˆÁ_ aÁW˝Eı \ˆÁ_ aÁW˝XÁ Eı„Ã[˝, Âa \ˆÁ_ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝ÓC %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝, %p˚ÁX, [˝ÁaXÁÃ[˝ ªK˜ÁY %„XEı◊VX [˝„Ã^ UÁ„Eı --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ^FX %ÁÃ[˝C F«„_ F«„_ FgÁ◊ªRÙO c˜Ã^ --- Â^]X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ --- TˆFX Ca[˝ %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ ◊]`“S F„a Â^„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

503

Ac˜O a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ◊XÃ[˝UÔEı disturbance, `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ Â^ÁGY„U ªJÙ_„Tˆ c˜Ã^, Âl˘Á\ˆ C ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* *

%[˝`Ó Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y EıUÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %„XEı %£à˘ G◊Tˆ ªR«ÙEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, Âl˘Á\ˆ, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ %a„‹ôˆÁb, %Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊c˜eaÁ, ◊[˝bÁV, V«fF* Ac˜O a[˝ ◊X„Ã^ XÁ UÁEıÁ \ˆÁ_* *

◊`£ªRÙ›O ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ psychic being* ^Á [˝E« ı ÂU„Eı =‰Pˆ C XÁ„[˝, TˆÁ [˝◊c˜fY“Eı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ [˝ÁW˝Á, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ aTˆÓ„Eı ÿ눛EıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ, ʪRÙ„Eı Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^* *

Âa ÿöˆÁX ◊YªK˜„X Â]Ã[˝”V„â¯Ã[˝ ]ÁMıFÁ„X psychic beingAÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX* ^Á [˝SÔXÁ Eı¨K˜¤ Âa a[˝c˜O psychic beingAÃ[˝ _l˘S* *

cg˜ÓÁ, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V– [˝«„Eı Â^FÁ„X

psychic beingAÃ[˝

ÿöˆÁX*

*

]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı YÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ Tˆ_Á Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ physical ÿôˆÃ[˝ [˝_Á ^ÁÃ^, YÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ X›‰ªJÙ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁLÓ* *

%„XEı ÿôˆÃ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ --- =Y„Ã[˝ C ◊X‰∂oˆ, Tˆ„[˝ ]«FÓTˆ %Á‰ªK˜ Cc˜O X›‰ªJÙ ªJÙÁÃ[˝ªRÙO› ÿôˆÃ[˝, ]„XÃ[˝ ÿôˆÃ[˝, psychic ÿôˆÃ[˝, vital ÿôˆÃ[˝, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ÿôˆÃ[˝ --- %ÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ >àùÔ˘ ]„XÃ[˝ %„XEı ÿôˆÃ[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ◊[˝p˚ÁX ÿôˆÃ[˝ C a◊¨JÙVÁX≥V* *

^◊V ÂX„]c˜O ^ÁC, ÂaFÁ„XC `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á `◊N˛ ÂQˆ„Eı XÁ◊]„Ã^

504

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

VÁC* ◊X‰∂oˆ Â^]X =Y„Ã[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁLÓ aeÿöˆÁYX Eı„Ã[˝ VÁC* *

L_ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Y“Tˆ›Eı --- ^Á C‰Pˆ TˆÁc˜Á ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %ÁEıÁIl˘Á [˝Á TˆYaÓÁ* ^◊V aÁVÁ‰ªRÙO X›_ %Á„_Á (whitish blue) c˜Ã^, Âa %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á --- ^◊V aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S X›_ %Á„_Á c˜Ã^, Âa =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ p˚Á„XÃ[˝ %Á„_Á* *

a[[˝ÔVÁ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁ XÁ]„Tˆ VÁC --- TˆÁ„Tˆc˜O [˝◊c˜‰∏JÙTˆXÁ y‘]`f Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

`Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ a]YÔS EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙ_, Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX a„[˝Ã[˝ Â^ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ TˆÁ y‘„] y‘„] c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

\ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ a‹ôˆÁX c˜„_C A]X ÂEıÁXC aÁW˝Eı XÁc˜O ^ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ l«˘V– l«˘V– %„XEı ÂVÁb XÁc˜O* Ac˜O a[˝ ^FX ʪRÙOÃ[˝ YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^, TˆFX reject EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ %Á`“Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝C V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ ªJÙÁc˜O„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ^Á„Tˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ Ac˜O l«˘V– Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂVÁbaEı_ ◊[˝XrÙ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ◊[˝`üÁa C ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝, a]YÔS a[˝ a]Ã^ %ªªR«ÙOªRÙO Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Aa[˝ ÂVÁb a+…SÔ\ˆÁ„[˝ Â[˝Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝Á a]Ã^aÁ„Yl˘, %Á‰ªK˜ [˝„_ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Tˆ XÁc˜O* *

ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝ EıÁÃ[˝Á? ^Á„VÃ[˝ %Á‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Eı \ˆÁ[˝ XÁc˜O, ^Á„VÃ[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊[˝`üÁa C `“à˘Á XÁc˜O, ^ÁÃ[˝Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ c˜O¨K˜ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ ◊X„LÃ[˝ EıîXÁ„Eı [˝QÕˆ [˝„_ ÂV„F, TˆÁÃ[˝Á Â^„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â^ aTˆÓ„Eı ªJÙÁÃ^, ^ÁÃ[˝ `“à˘Á C ◊[˝`üÁa ªJÙÁÃ^, Â^ ]Á„Eı ªJÙÁÃ^, TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX \ˆÃ^ XÁc˜O, TˆÁÃ[˝ ^◊V c˜ÁLÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á c˜Ã^, Âam„_Á Âa %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝„[˝, ^◊V ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ %„XEı ÂVÁb c˜Ã^ Âam„_Á Âa £W˝„Ã[˝ ÂX„[˝, ^◊V YTˆXC c˜Ã^, Âa %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ =Pˆ„[˝ --- Âa Â`„b AEı◊VX aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ G‹ôˆ[˝Ó ÿöˆÁ„X YgߪJÙ„[˝c˜O* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

505

c˜Oc˜Á right attitude XÃ^* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁ W[˝ea c˜Ã^◊X, ]Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı TˆÓÁG Eı„Ã[˝X ◊X, V…„Ã[˝ ^ÁX ◊X, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝N˛ c˜X ◊X --- Ac˜O a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ EıîXÁ, Ac˜O a[˝ EıîXÁ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Tˆ XÁc˜O* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ aÃ[˝_ \ˆÁ„[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝, [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı \ˆÃ^ XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ QˆÁEı --- ^Á ÂY„Ã^ªK˜ Âa a[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ %Á‰ªK˜, X…TˆX =~◊TˆC c˜„[˝* *

ʪJÙTˆXÁ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı F«_‰ªK˜* ÿëˆSÔ]Ã^…Ã[˝ --- a„TˆÓÃ[˝ LÃ^* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛ physical Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ XÁ]‰ªK˜ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ Zı„_ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ %Á„_Á (ÂaÁXÁ_› %Á„_Á) XÁ]‰ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ T«ˆ◊] ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı `›H– A◊G„Ã^ ªJÙ_ªK˜* *

`Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂYªK˜„XÃ[˝ %e` a[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ %‰ªJÙTˆX --- Y“ÁÃ^c˜O a[˝„`„b %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ c˜Ã^* T«ˆ◊] ^Á ÂV„FªK˜, TˆÁ aTˆÓ* *

]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ LÃ^ c˜„[˝c˜O Ac˜O ◊[˝`üÁa a[˝ a]Ã^ ÂÃ[˝„F `Á‹ôˆ W˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÃ^`…XÓ c˜„Ã^ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

]Á-c˜O G‹ôˆ[˝ÓÿöˆÁX, TgˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó a[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜, TgˆÁ„Eı ÂY„_ a[˝ YÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^, TgˆÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó [˝Áa EıÃ[˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ %ÁY◊Xc˜O Z«ı‰ªRÙO ^ÁÃ^* *

]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ Tˆ [˝V_ÁÃ^ XÁ --- AEıc˜O UÁ„Eı* Tˆ„[˝ aÁW˝Eı ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ ]Tˆ ÂV„F Â^ [˝V„_ ÂG‰ªK˜ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ aTˆÓ XÃ^* *

W[˝ea c˜„_ Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X ◊Eı„a c˜„[˝? Y“Á„SÃ[˝ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX Y“E ı◊Tˆ„Eı W[˝ea EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝, Y“ÁS„Eı `Ã[˝›Ã[˝„Eı XÃ^* *

506

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

A EıUÁ aTˆÓ Â^ aEı„_Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á %Á‰ªK˜X C TgˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü AEıªRÙOÁ a∂눵˘ UÁEıÁ ªJÙÁc˜O, Tˆ„[˝ Âa a∂눵˘ personal XÃ^ Âa Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a„Ü, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]ÁÃ[˝c˜O a„Ü, AEıªRÙOÁ ◊[˝`Á_ B„EıÓÃ[˝ a∂눵˘* *

AEı ◊V„Eı `Á◊‹ôˆ C aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ [˝ ◊à˘, %YÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı a]YÔS, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ aTˆÓ YU* *

Y“ÁS„Eı W[˝ea EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á \«ˆ_ c˜O¨K˜Á --- Y“ÁS„Eı W[˝ea EıÃ[˝„_ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ [˝gÁªJÙ„[˝ XÁ, `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ XÁ [˝gÁªJÙ„_ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* T«ˆ◊] Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^ [˝QÕˆ Â[˝`› `◊N˛ ʪRÙO„XªK˜ --- Âa LXÓ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ◊PˆEı W˝ÁÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ‰¨K˜ XÁ* AEıªªR«ÙO `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„_ a[˝ ◊PˆEı c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* *

cg˜ÓÁ, T«ˆ◊] ◊X\«ˆ¤_ ÂV„FªK˜ ---- ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ aÁTˆªRÙO› Y≤ø [˝Á ªJÙy‘ %Á‰ªK˜ --- Tˆ„[˝ >àùÔ˘]X XÁ F«_„_ Am„_Á ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* * PsychicAÃ[˝

◊YªK˜„X, psychic %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜„X %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* Tˆ„[˝ Y“ÁS ÂU„Eı Âa %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ A„a TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* ^◊V Cc˜O Ã[˝Eı] ◊EıªK«˜ ÂVF TˆÁ c˜„_ TˆÁ G–c˜S XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ a]YÔS EıÃ[˝„[˝ TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ* *

ÂaÁLÁ Ã[˝ÁÿôˆÁ psychicAÃ[˝ YU Â^ a]YÔ„SÃ[˝ [˝„_ C aTˆÓ V ◊rÙÃ[˝ %Á„_Á„Tˆ ◊[˝XÁ [˝gÁ„Eı =Y„Ã[˝ ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^ --- Â^ AEıªªR«ÙO ÂaÁLÁ AEıªªR«ÙO H«„Ã[˝Á„XÁ, Âa c˜‰¨K˜ ]ÁX◊aEı TˆYaÓÁÃ[˝ YU* %ÁÃ[˝ A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ H«„Ã[˝Á„XÁ Â^ Âa c˜‰¨K˜ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ YU, %ÁEıÁIl˘Á [˝ÁaXÁÃ^ Y…SÔ, p˚ÁXC XÁc˜O, Tˆ„[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ aTˆÓ ªJÙÁCÃ^Á %Á‰ªK˜ [˝„_ ÂEıÁX Ã[˝Eı„] ^ÁCÃ^Á ^ÁÃ^* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

507

[˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ Â_Á„Eı ^Tˆ Â[˝`› \ˆÁ„[˝, [˝ÁW˝Á Â[˝`› ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝* \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ EıUÁ Â[˝`› \ˆÁ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊X„L„Eı F«„_, --- %Á„_Á, `Á◊‹ôˆ, %ÁX„≥VÃ[˝ EıUÁ* *

Ac˜O %a›] `Á◊‹ôˆ ^Tˆc˜O [˝Á‰QÕˆ, TˆTˆc˜O \ˆÁ_* `Á◊‹ôˆc˜O c˜Ã^ Â^Á„GÃ[˝ Y“◊TˆúˆÁ* *

^Á ÂV„FªK˜, TˆÁ a+…SÔ aTˆÓ* Ac˜O G_ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó aw¯ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ ÂEı≥V– %Á‰ªK˜* Âa c˜‰¨K˜ externalising mind or physical mentalAÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V–, %UÔÁd Â^ ]X [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ a[˝ ÂF_Á„Eı [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %ÁE ı◊Tˆ ÂVÃ^, Â^ ]X speechAÃ[˝ %◊W˝úˆÁTˆÁ, Â^ ]X physical a[˝ ÂV„F, TˆÁ ◊X„Ã^ [˝Óÿôˆ UÁ„Eı* ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ ◊X∂oˆ\ˆÁG %ÁÃ[˝ ]«F TˆÁÃ[˝ %◊W˝EıÁ„Ã[˝ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜* Ac˜O ]X ^◊V =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ [˝Á ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a„Ü ae◊`¿rÙ c˜Ã^, Am„_Á„Eı [˝ÓN˛ Eı„Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝ \ˆÁ_* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁÃ[˝ %Á„Ã[˝Á H◊Xúˆ a∂눵˘ --- ◊X∂oˆ %e„`Ã[˝ a„Ü, lower vital C physical consciousness (^ÁÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V– ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝) TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü* Ac˜O LXÓ A Ã[˝Eı] c˜Ã^* Âac˜O LXÓ [˝ÁEÀı„Eı ae^Tˆ EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ^ [˝QÕˆ Y“„Ã^ÁLX, ^Á„Tˆ Âa =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ C ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı [˝ÓN˛ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %\ˆÓÿôˆ c˜Ã^, ◊X‰∂oˆÃ[˝ [˝Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı XÃ^* *

c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ªJÙÁc˜O --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊L◊Xb ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ^ÁCÃ^Á, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a„Ü AEı c˜CÃ^Á, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝„Eı G–c˜S EıÃ[˝Á* *

ÂVc˜„Eı Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y ÂVFÁ \ˆÁ_* Tˆ„[˝ ÂV„c˜Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ˪JÙTˆXÓ %Á[˝à˘ XÁ UÁEı„_C ˪JÙTˆXÓ ◊[˝`Á_ %a›] c˜„Ã^ ÂG„_C ÂVc˜„Eı ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› %e` C ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ^‹óˆ [˝„_ %Ü›EıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^, `ÁÃ[˝›Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

c˜Oc˜Á F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ _l˘S* ◊X∂oˆ‰ªJÙTˆXÁc˜O =‰Pˆ ^Á‰¨K˜ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]◊_Tˆ

508

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁC XÁ]‰ªK˜ LÁG–Tˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]◊_Tˆ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* *

c˜Oc˜Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Áp˚ÁªJÙy‘ %UÔÁd ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝«◊à˘ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ V ◊rÙ c˜O¨K˜Á`◊N˛Ã[˝ ÂEı≥V– --- Âa AFX pressureAÃ[˝ VÃ[˝”X A]X F«„_ ÂG‰ªK˜, ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ∂ˆÇÔÃ^ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ Â^ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* *

Ac˜O %X«\…ˆ◊TˆªRÙO› F«[˝ a«≥VÃ[˝ C aTˆÓ --- Y“„TˆÓEı %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ A]Xc˜O ]◊≥VÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^Á ªJÙÁc˜O* ^Á £„XªK˜ Â^ ]Á-c˜O a[˝ EıÃ[˝„[˝X, £W˝« TgˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Q«ˆ„[˝ UÁEıÁ ªJÙÁc˜O, c˜Oc˜ÁC F«[˝ [˝QÕˆ aTˆÓ* *

Â^ ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝Kª ˜ TˆÁ[à ˝ ]„W˝Ó >„àù˘Ô [˝Áa EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝, ◊\ˆTˆ„[à ˝ G\ˆ›„Ã[˝c˜O TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O ]„W˝Ó [˝Áa EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ c˜Oc˜Á ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ a[[˝Ôy Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó A]X ◊Eı ◊X∂oˆYE“ ı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ ]„W˝ÓC Âa ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ XÁ]Á Jª ÙÁc˜*O TˆFX ◊X∂oˆYE“ ı  ◊Tˆ C [˝◊c˜fY“Eı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ a+…SÔ [à ˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ ÿöˆÁ^à › Y“◊TˆúˆÁ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* EıÁÃ[˝S Ac˜O ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ --- aeEı›SÔ ◊X∂oˆY“E ı◊Tˆ ^FX ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊[˝`Á_ C ]«N˛ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, TˆFX Âa ]…_Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝* *

%X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ„Eı ^◊V [˝ÓN˛ Eı◊Ã[˝ EıUÁÃ^ [˝Á Â_FÁÃ^, TˆFX Âa Eı„] ^ÁÃ^ [˝Á ÂU„] ^ÁÃ^, Ac˜O Tˆ %„X„EıÃ[˝ c˜Ã^* Â^ÁG›Ã[˝Á Y“ÁÃ^c˜O Âa LXÓ EıÁÃ[˝”„Eı ◊X„LÃ[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ EıUÁ [˝„_ XÁ, %U[˝Á a[˝ V ªRÕÙ c˜„Ã^ ÂG„_ TˆÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ [˝„_* Tˆ„[˝ mÃ[˝”Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ [˝‰{ Eı]„[˝ XÁ, [˝ÁQÕˆ„[˝* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O %\ˆÓÁa a]ÿôˆ ◊L◊X„aÃ[˝ []„W˝Ó] ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ* *

[˝Á_EıªRÙO› c˜÷VÃ^ÿöˆ \ˆG[˝ÁX %ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ Tˆ ]Á-c˜O c˜„[˝* *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

509

ªJÙy‘ H«Ã[˝‰ªK˜, ]Á„X outer beingAÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁL ªJÙ„_‰ªK˜ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜„[˝* *

%X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ ^FX c˜Ã^ TˆFX %◊[˝`üÁa XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ G–c˜S EıÃ[˝Á \ˆÁ_* c˜Oc˜Á ◊ªK˜_ aTˆÓ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ --- =Y^«N˛ %X«Y^«„N˛Ã[˝ EıUÁ c˜‰¨K˜ XÁ, aÁW˝XÁÃ^ Ac˜O a[˝ EıUÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝„`b ÂEıÁX %UÔ XÁc˜O, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ F«_„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_c˜O a[˝ c˜Ã^* *

]ÁUÁÃ^ ^Á %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝, TˆÁc˜Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]X (physical mind) %ÁÃ[˝ XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›ªJÙ ÂU„Eı ^Á %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝ TˆÁ c˜_ (lower vital) ◊X∂oˆ Y“ÁS* *

]ÁUÁÃ^ Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y c˜CÃ^ÁÃ[˝ %UÔ Ac˜O Â^ ]X a+…SÔ F«„_‰ªK˜ C =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ receive Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜* *

cg˜ÓÁ, ^FX H«] a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜Ã^, TˆFX Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Yc˜O c˜Ã^ --- Â^]X LÁG–„Tˆ ÂTˆ]Xc˜O H«„] aÁW˝XÁ %X[˝Ã[˝Tˆ ªJÙ„_* *

[˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ ªK˜ÁQÕˆ‰ªK˜ XÁ [˝„_ [˝ÁW˝Á c˜‰¨K˜* [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ^FX X[˝ LXΩ c˜„[˝ TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* *

Ac˜O V«c˜O [˝ÁW˝Á aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O UÁ„Eı* Y“U]ªRÙO› Y“Á„SÃ[˝, ◊•Tˆ›Ã^ªRÙO› `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ --- ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„_ Eı„] ◊G„Ã^ Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ* *

Ac˜O a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á aEı„_Ã[˝ %Á„a, TˆÁ XÁ c˜„_ Â^ÁG◊a◊à˘ %î◊V„Xc˜O c˜„Ã^ Â^Tˆ* *

510

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

[˝ÁW˝Á ac˜„L ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* F«[˝ [˝QÕˆ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝C ""%ÁLc˜O'' AEı ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á a„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* %Á◊] c˜Oc˜ÁC %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝„_◊ªK˜ Â^ `Á‹ôˆ %ªJÙá˚_ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ \ˆÃ[˝aÁ Eı„Ã[˝ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ Am„Tˆ c˜„[˝ --- AEı ]…c…˜„wÔ¯ c˜Ã^ XÁ* ""%ÁLc˜O'' a[˝ ªJÙÁc˜O Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y VÁ[˝› EıÃ[˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝C [˝ÁW˝Á c˜Ã^* W˝›Ã[˝ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ c˜Ã^* *

^FX %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ ÂU„Eı Tˆ„]Á\ˆÁ[˝ =‰Pˆ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝„Eı %Áy‘]S Eı„Ã[˝, TˆFX Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %a«„FÃ[˝ ]TˆX Eı„Ã[˝ ---- =YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó QˆÁEı --- a[˝ ªJÙ„_ ^Á„[˝* *

%[˝‰Jª ÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á c˜„Tˆ ]«N˛ c˜[˝Á[à ˝ =YÁÃ^ c˜‰¨K˜ Y“U] Âam„_Á„Eı ◊ªJÙ„X ÂXCÃ^Á, TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ Âam„_Á„Eı reject EıÃ[˝Á, Â`„b ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝Á =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_Á ʪJÙTˆXÁ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó XÁ]ÁX* TˆÁ c˜„_ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ^ ignorant movementsÂEı TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ TˆÁÃ[˝ [˝V„_ Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ movements ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„[˝* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ A ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ --- ÈW˝„^ÔÓÃ[˝ a◊c˜Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝ --- V ªRÕÙ patience ªJÙÁc˜O* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ \ˆÃ[˝aÁc˜O a∂ëˆ_* Tˆ„[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ V ◊rÙ C ʪJÙTˆXÁ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_ TˆTˆ EırÙ C Y◊Ã[˝`“] c˜Ã^ XÁ --- TˆÁ a[˝ a]Ã^ YÁÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, TˆFX `“à˘Á C ÈW˝„^ÔÓÃ[˝ ◊XTˆÁ‹ôˆ Y“„Ã^ÁLX c˜Ã^* *

]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ Tˆ a[˝ a]Ã^ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^FX ]Á„Eı ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ a[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ feel EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^, TˆFX Ac˜O difficulty %ÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ* Âac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Áa„[˝* *

%£à˘ Y“E ı◊Tˆc˜O aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝ --- EıÁ]„\ˆÁ„GÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á, %p˚ÁXTˆÁ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ %£à˘ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝c˜O %‹ôˆGÔTˆ* Ac˜Om◊_ aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜ --- ^FX %Á„a ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ ◊X„L„Eı Y UEı Eı„Ã[˝ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

511

^◊V [˝_ ""%Á◊] YÁY›'' c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V TˆÁ„Tˆ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁc˜O [˝Á‰QÕˆ* [˝_„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- ""Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ %£à˘ Y“E ı◊Tˆ* Ac˜Om◊_ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S L›[˝„X UÁ„Eı, UÁE«ıEı --- %Á◊] ªJÙÁc˜O XÁ, %Á◊] \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı ªJÙÁc˜O, \ˆG[˝Tˆ› ]Á„Eıc˜O ªJÙÁc˜O --- Ac˜Om„_Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ◊L◊Xa XÃ^* ^Tˆ◊VX %Áa„[˝ TˆTˆ◊VX ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝[˝ --- ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜[˝ XÁ, aÁÃ^ ◊V[˝ XÁ*'' *

%Á◊] Ac˜O a∂누µ˘ [˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı [˝«◊Mı„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^◊ªK˜ --- Â^ [˝ÁW˝Á AEı ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ --- [˝ÁW˝Á c˜‰¨K˜ Â^ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ Zı_ --- Âa ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ AEı ◊V„X [˝Á %î ◊V„X [˝V_ÁÃ^ XÁ --- Ê`“úˆ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝C XÃ^* Tˆ„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ W˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝ =dEı◊¢ˆTˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ^◊V ]Á„Eı a[[˝ÔVÁ ÂQˆ„Eı A◊G„Ã^ ªJÙ_, [˝ÁW˝Á A„_C ◊EıªK«˜ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ --- a]„Ã^ TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝ Eı„] ^Á„[˝, XrÙ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, %ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* *

Xª: ^FX W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ [˝◊a TˆFX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ ◊MıXÀ ◊MıXÀ Eı„Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO ◊Eı ªK˜ªRÙOZıªRÙO Eı„Ã[˝* Aa[˝ ◊Eı? =: c˜Oc˜Á c˜‰¨K˜ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ (`Ã[˝›Ã[˝ÿöˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝) ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ --- %„X„EıÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ --◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„_ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O ÂEı‰ªRÙO ^ÁÃ^* *

X: %Á◊] %‹ôˆ„Ã[˝ ^Á ÂV◊F ªTˆÁ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ÂFÁ_Á ʪJÙÁ„F ÂEıX ÂV◊F? TˆÁ ◊Eı EıÁî◊XEı ◊L◊Xb? =: XÁ* ^Á ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜Ác˜O [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ physical ʪJÙÁ„FC ÂVFÁ Â^„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ V ◊rÙ ac˜„L %Á„a --- [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ a…©ø V `Ó ÂVFÁ AEıªªR«ÙO Eı◊PˆX* *

AFX physical consciousness F«[˝ =‰Pˆ◊ªK˜_* Âa LXÓ %W˝ÓÁ±¡ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ YŤÁÃ[˝ ÂYªK˜„X a„Ã[˝ ◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜, ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^◊X* *

512

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ X›Ã[˝[˝ c˜CÃ^Á ªJÙ„_ XÁ, \ˆÁ_C XÃ^* Tˆ„[˝ Y“U] %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ^TˆV…Ã[˝ aêˆ[˝ X›Ã[˝[˝ GꈛÃ[˝ c˜CÃ^Á aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ %X«E…ı_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ --- ^FX [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ ]ÁT ˆ]Ã^ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, TˆFX EıUÁ [˝_Á c˜Á◊a c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V„TˆC aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ UÁEı„[˝* *

cg˜ÓÁ, Cc˜O Ã[˝Eı] EgıÁV„_ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ %Á„a* a[˝ a]Ã^, a[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ W˝›Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı* TˆÁc˜„_ \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ `›H– ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a*

""a''„Eı ◊_◊FTˆ a: ]Á, %ÁL %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ ATˆ EıÁ‰ªK˜ %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ --- Tˆ[˝«C ÂEıX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ aw¯ÁÃ^ ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ %\ˆÁ[˝ [˝ÁL‰ªK˜? %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ UÁEı„[˝ ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ ]Á? =: ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ Y…SÔ `“à˘Á Ã[˝ÁFÁ --- [˝ÁW˝Á◊[˝Y◊w¯„Tˆ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ a∂ˆÇ«F c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ [˝„_ %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝Á --- A]X \ˆÁ[˝ Ã[˝ÁF„_ Tˆ„[˝c˜O Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ ÿöˆÁÃ^› c˜Ã^ Â`„b* 7.2.34 *

a: %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX Y“ÁS\…ˆ◊]„Tˆ ÂV◊F AEı◊ªRÙO %à˘¤ªJÙ≥V– --- Â^X Ã[˝ÁßG–ÿôˆ* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ÂVF_Á] a]ÿôˆ ÿôˆÃ[˝ªRÙOÁ \ˆ„Ã[˝ ÂG_ protectionAÃ[˝ %Ám„X* %Á„G ◊ªK˜_ a[˝«L %Á„_Á, AFX %ÁmX Lù„_ =PˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü a„Ü %à˘¤ªJÙ≥V–◊ªRÙO ÂEı‰ªRÙO ◊G„Ã^ AEı◊ªRÙO Y“EıÁ⯠a…^ÔÓ =◊VTˆ c˜_* a]ÿôˆ Y“ÁS\…ˆ◊]ªRÙOÁ a…„^ÔÓÃ[˝ %Ã[˝”S ◊EıÃ[˝„S MıEıMıEı EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜_* =: Y“Á„S Â^ %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡EıTˆÁ Y“EıÁ` c˜„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_, ÂaªRÙO›c˜O %à˘¤ªJÙ≥V–* Jª Ù≥V–Gc– ˜S c˜„^à ◊ªK˜_* a[˝L« [à ˝„I¯[à ˝ %UÔ FgÁ◊ªRÙO Y“ÁS`◊N˛* a…„^ÔÓ[à ˝ =VÃ^ = aTˆÓ‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Y“EıÁ` Y“ÁS\…ˆ◊]„Tˆ* 8.2.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

513

ªJÙ≥V– = %W˝ÓÁ„±¡Ã[˝ %Á„_ÁEı* c˜ÿôˆ› = [˝„_Ã[˝ Y“Tˆ›Eı* ÂaÁXÁÃ[˝ c˜ÿôˆ› = aTˆÓ‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ [˝_* 9.2.34 *

aÁVÁ a◊¨JÙVÁX„≥VÃ[˝ %Á„_Á c˜„TˆC YÁ„Ã[˝ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ c˜_„V Tˆ ]X[˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ %Á„_Á* 10.2.34 *

a: ]Á, H«„] LÁGÃ[˝„S %Á◊] _l˘Ó EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ ""]''AÃ[˝ X›ªJÙ Y“ÁS`◊N˛m◊_ A„a %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“ÁS`◊N˛Ã[˝ a„Ü \ˆÁ[˝ ◊[˝◊X]Ã^ Eı[à ˝„Tˆ Jª ÙÁ‰¨K˜* %Á]Á„Eı V«[[˝_Ô Eı„[à ˝ _l˘Ó}rÙ Eı„Ã[˝ Âÿoˆc˜YÃ[˝[˝` Eı„Ã[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ʪRÙO„X ◊X„Tˆ ªJÙÁ‰¨K˜* =: ""]''Ã[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ [˝ÁaXÁ Ac˜O `◊N˛m„_ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷Y W˝ÁÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ %Áa‰ªK˜* Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝ --- Â`„b %ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* 12.2.34 *

a: ]Á, Ÿa◊QÕˆ„Tˆ [˝„a %Á◊] ÂVF_Á] T«ˆ◊] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„X [˝„aªK˜* AEı◊ªRÙO EıÁ_›]…◊wÔ¯ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ c˜„Tˆ =dY~ c˜„Ã^ aÁrÙÁ„Ü ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı Y“SÁ] EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜* Ac˜Oa[˝ ◊Eı ÂV◊F --- Ac˜Oa[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX aTˆÓTˆÁ %Á‰ªK˜ ◊Eı XÁ! =: Ac˜O a[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁÃ[˝ ]…_Ó %Á‰ªK˜, aTˆÓ %Á‰ªK˜ --- TˆÁ„Tˆ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ =~◊Tˆ c˜Ã^* Tˆ„[˝ Am„_Á ^„UrÙ XÃ^ --- ªJÙÁc˜O %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ, \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ `Á◊‹ôˆ, a]TˆÁ, Y◊[˝yTˆÁ, >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓ, p˚ÁX `◊N˛ %ÁX„≥VÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S, Y“◊TˆúˆÁ --- AªRÙO›c˜O %Áa_* 14.2.34 *

a: ]Á, %Á◊] &rÙ Â[˝ÁW˝ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ Â^ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ Y“ÁS`◊N˛ C Y“ÁSY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ ʪJÙTˆXÁ %Á‰ªK˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ªJÙÁ_ªJÙ_X, FÁCÃ^ÁVÁCÃ^Á, YÃ[˝`“›EıÁTˆÃ[˝TˆÁ ◊c˜eaÁ Â_Á\ˆ Â]Ác˜ %_aTˆÁ Am◊_ a]ÿôˆc˜O Y“ÁSY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ AEı AEı◊ªRÙO %Á[˝Ã[˝S* %Á]Ã[˝Á

514

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ %Á◊ªK˜ [˝„_ Ac˜Om◊_ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ Y“E ıTˆ %Á◊]„Eı ʪRÙ„Eı ÂÃ[˝„F‰ªK˜* ^FX >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ p˚ÁXÁ„_Á„EıÃ[˝ Ã[˝◊`ΩYÁTˆ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ c˜Ã^ TˆFX Ac˜O %Á[˝Ã[˝S-m◊_ l«˘V– c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ C %Á]Ã[˝Á C„VÃ[˝ TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝* %ÁL %Á◊] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a]ÿôˆ ÂF_Ám◊_ Â^]X &rÙ ÂVF„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜, ÂTˆ]◊X [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ LG„TˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝ÓC Âac˜O ÂF_Á◊ªRÙO ÂVF„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜ --- ÂFÁ_Á ʪJÙÁ„Fc˜O ÂVF◊ªK˜, ÂEıÁX ◊EıªK«˜c˜O %p˚ÁX %µ˘EıÁ[à ˝Á¨K˜~ ÿöˆ_… XÃ^* ...a[˝◊EıKª ˜« [à ˝ ]„W˝Óc˜O ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÿëˆ-[à ˝÷Y ÂaÏ≥V^ÔÓ ÂVF„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜* =: cg˜ÓÁ, AªRÙO› aTˆÓ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ --- Â^ Y“ÁSY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂF_Á ÂV„FªK˜ %Á[˝Ã[˝SÃ[˝÷„Y, Âac˜OªRÙO› c˜‰¨K˜ ◊]UÓÁÃ[˝ %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ Y“ÁSY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝, Âa %Á[˝Ã[˝„SÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜„X Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ aTˆÓ Y“ÁSY“E ı◊Tˆ Â^ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ^‹óˆ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 17.2.34 *

a: ]Á, ATˆ %î◊V„X Âac˜O `◊N˛ XÁ]Á„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ ◊_„FªK˜* T«ˆ◊] Âac˜O `◊N˛◊ªRÙO XÁ]Á„_ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %„XEı ◊VEı ◊V„Ã^ a«◊[˝„W˝ c˜Tˆ, XÁ ]Á? =: ...`◊N˛ XÁ]ÁX ◊ªJÙÃ[˝◊V„XÃ[˝ Eı∂ˆÇÔ, %î◊V„XÃ[˝ XÃ^* 24.2.34 * [aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁXÁÃ[˝Eı] a…©ø V`ÔX C %ÁH–ÁS c˜‰¨K˜* a«≥VÃ[˝ Z«ı„_Ã[˝ G„µ˘ ]XY“ÁS

`›Tˆ_ c˜„Ã^ ^Á‰¨K˜* ◊[˝◊\ˆ~ Ã[˝e„Ã^Ã[˝ LGd C ÂV[˝„V[˝›Ã[˝ ÂVFÁ ◊]_‰ªK˜ W˝ÓÁ„XÃ[˝ a]„Ã^* aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ ÂFV Â^ Cc˜Oa[˝ Â^X AEıªRÙOÁ YÁTˆ_Á %Á[˝Ã[˝„SÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜„X ªRÙÁEıÁ, TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Y…SÔ Ã[˝c˜aÓ C %UÔ Â[˝ÁMıÁ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ*] Ac˜O aEı_ vision C %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ a…©ø V ◊rÙ C a…©ø c˜O◊≥V–„Ã^Ã[˝ (Â^]X Gµ˘ªRÙO›) --- B a…©ø ˪JÙTˆXÓ c˜c˜O„Tˆ ÿöˆ…_ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó A„_ --- Cm„_Á UÁ„Eı XÁ, ]„XC Y“ÁÃ^ a[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ* %ÁÃ[˝ %XÓ LG„TˆÃ[˝ c˜Á[˝\ˆÁ[˝m„_Á £W˝« V ◊rÙÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á &rÙ ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* %Á[˝Ã[˝S Tˆ UÁ„Eıc˜O --- ^ÁÃ[˝Á a]Á◊W˝ÿöˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂaFÁ„X Â^„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝Ác˜O ÂV„F, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝C a[˝ ]„X UÁ„Eı XÁ* 27.2.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

515

[FÁCÃ^Á

Eı]Á„XÁ ◊X„bW˝ EıÃ[˝Á„Tˆ aÁ◊W˝EıÁ Â_„F --- FÁCÃ^Á Tˆ ◊X∂oˆY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ LXÓ ^Á ]ÁÃ^ÁÃ[˝ %◊[˝VÓÁÃ^ %Á¨K˜~* a«TˆÃ[˝Áe TˆÁ„Eı ATˆ Â[˝`› ÂF„Tˆ ÂV[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı aÁUÔEıTˆÁ %Á‰ªK˜?] %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ Tˆ ÂVc˜W˝ÁÃ[˝„SÃ[˝ L„XÓ C ÂV„c˜Ã[˝ [˝_Y«◊rÙÃ[˝ L„XÓ* AÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ ]ÁÃ^ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ ªR«Ù„Eı A_ ÂEıÁ„x„Eı? 27.2.34 *

a: ]Á, Â^ a[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁm◊_ ◊_◊F, ^◊V Âam„_Á %aTˆÓ c˜Ã^ [˝Á ÂEıÁX ]…_Óc˜O XÁ UÁ„Eı Tˆ[˝« £W˝« ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊_„F ÂEıX EırÙ ÂV[˝? =: %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ %aTˆÓ XÃ^, Am„_ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX %Á‰ªK˜ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ AFX Y“„Ã^ÁLX Â[˝`› %Áa_ %X«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ --- ^ÁÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜Ã^* 28.2.34 *

a: ]Á, %ÁL ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝◊V„Eı %ÁEıÁ„` [˝ÁTˆÁ„a AEıªRÙO› G\ˆ›Ã[˝ [˝ÓUÁ ÂEıX ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁL EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜? £W˝« ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ LXÓc˜O Ac˜O [˝ÓUÁ* a]ÿôˆ aw¯Á a]ÿôˆ Y“E ı◊Tˆ G\ˆ›Ã[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ÂY„Tˆ ªJÙÁ‰¨K˜, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ %µ˘TˆÁ %p˚ÁXTˆÁ C ]◊_XTˆÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝”X ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ÂY„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝‰ªK˜ XÁ A[˝e \ˆ◊[˝bÓ„TˆÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ʪJÙ„Ã^ ÂEıÁX %Á`Á ÂVF„Tˆ YÁ‰¨K˜ XÁ* TˆÁc˜O Ac˜O V«◊[[˝Ôbc˜ L›[˝X W˝ÁÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝Á [˝ UÁ [˝„_ c˜Á-ßTˆÁ` EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜, EgıÁV‰ªK˜, Â^X VÁ[˝ÁX„_ Lù„_ ^Á‰¨K˜* =: Ac˜O a[˝ c˜Ã^ Y“ÁSY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ◊[˝_ÁY --- A„Tˆ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó c˜Ã^ XÁ, [˝ÁW˝Ác˜O a rÙ c˜Ã^* \ˆG[˝Á„X `Á‹ôˆ a]Á◊c˜Tˆ `“à˘Á, V ªRÕÙ ◊X∏JÙÃ^, a◊c˜b«’TˆÁ aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Y“W˝ÁX ac˜ÁÃ^, V«fF C ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á Â^ÁGY„U A◊G„Ã^ ÂVÃ^ XÁ* 1.3.34 *

%◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ [˝Á„L XÃ^ --- TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX %Á‰ªK˜, ]Á„X %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ prepare Eı„Ã[˝, %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝„Eı F«„_ ÂV[˝ÁÃ[˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó Eı„Ã[˝, %XÓ LG„TˆÃ[˝, XÁXÁ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ p˚ÁX ÂVÃ^* %Áa_ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ c˜Ã^ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ `Á◊‹ôˆ, a]TˆÁ, %Á„_Á, p˚ÁX, Y◊[˝yTˆÁ, ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ,

516

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

\ˆÁG[˝Tˆ aÁ◊~W˝Ó, %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ =Y_◊ç˘, \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ %ÁX≥V, ◊[˝`üΪJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ =Y_◊ç˘ (^Á„Tˆ %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ XrÙ c˜Ã^), ◊X∂ˆÇÔ_ [˝ÁaXÁ`…XÓ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ ÊY“], a[[˝Ôy \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ V`ÔX, c˜OTˆÓÁ◊VÃ[˝ a]ÓEı %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ, Y“◊TˆúˆÁ* Ac˜O aEı_ %X«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ Y“U] ÂaÁYÁX c˜‰¨K˜ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S %ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ C %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝◊V„Eı V ªRÕÙ Y“◊TˆúˆÁ* 1.3.34 *

a: ]Á, %a«FªRÙOÁ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıX %Á]Á„Eı A]◊X Eı„Ã[˝ %Áy‘]S EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜* `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó c˜PˆÁd A]X [˝ÓUÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ _ÁG_ Â^ c˜ÁQÕˆm„_Á Â^X ªJ«ÙÃ[˝]ÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ Y‰QÕˆ ^Á‰¨K˜* cg˜Á≈ªRÙO„Tˆ [˝a„Tˆ EıFX Â^ ÂEıÁXFÁ„X [˝ÓUÁ◊ªRÙO %Áa„[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊PˆEıÁXÁ ÂXc˜O* Eı] ÂF„Ã^ UÁEı◊ªK˜ --- `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ YÁTˆ_Á UÁEı„_ %Áy‘]S Eı] c˜„[˝ A[˝e ac˜Ó EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝[˝ Ac˜O Â\ˆ„[˝ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„Tˆ ÂTˆ]X ◊EıªK«˜ TˆZıÁTˆ c˜Ã^ XÁ* =: Aa[˝ [˝ÓUÁ ÿoˆÁÃ^«Ã[˝ %a«F* Eı] ÂF„_ Eı„] XÁ* ]„XÃ[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂV„c˜Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆc˜O c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ Ê`“úˆ Cb«W˝* 2.3.34 *

GÁ‰ªK˜Ã[˝ Y“ÁS %Á‰ªK˜, ˪JÙTˆXÓ %Á„ªK˜ --- GÁªK˜m◊_Ã[˝ a„Ü \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ ◊[˝◊X]Ã^ ac˜„L c˜Ã^* 3.3.34 *

a: ]Á, >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı YÁTˆ_Á L„_Ã[˝ ]Tˆ ◊Eı XÁ„]? =: >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ÊÿɈÁTˆ ^FX XÁ]„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝, Âac˜OÃ[˝Eı] YÁTˆ_Á L„_Ã[˝ ]Tˆ (current) Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜Ã^* 3.3.34 *

Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ Y“„[˝` --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁÃ[˝ Zı_ÿëˆÃ[˝÷Y

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

517

Â^ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ Âa V›HÔ aÁW˝XÁ aÁ„Yl˘ --- c˜PˆÁd c˜Ã^ XÁ* 6.3.34 *

`Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ ]Á Tˆ %Á‰ªK˜Xc˜O --- G…ªRÕ٠ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^Tˆ◊VX [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ ªK˜ÁY UÁ„Eı, %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ Zı_m„_Á c˜PˆÁd AEı ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ V…Ã[˝›\…ˆTˆ c˜Ã^ XÁ* 6.3.34 *

[˝ÁaXÁ VÁ[˝› ÂFÃ^Á_ EıîXÁÃ[˝ ÂLÁÃ[˝ ^Tˆ ◊VX UÁ„Eı Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %Á◊W˝YTˆÓ Tˆ UÁ„Eıc˜O* Ac˜O a[˝ c˜‰¨K˜ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂFÁÃ[˝ÁEı, ÂFÁÃ[˝ÁEı ◊V„_ Âa Y“EıÁ⯠C [˝_[˝ÁX c˜„[˝ XÁ ÂEıX? 8.3.34 *

^Á ÂV„FªK˜ TˆÁ ◊PˆEı* =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `◊N˛ ÂX„] aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÿöˆÁYX Eı„Ã[˝* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Y“E ı◊Tˆ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ --- %XÓ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ ◊X„Ã^ UÁ„Eı, %[˝„c˜_Á Eı„Ã[˝, ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝C Eı„Ã[˝ --- TˆÁ XÁ c˜„_ `›H– c˜„Ã^ Â^Tˆ* 10.3.34 *

a: ]Á, AEı◊ªRÙO X…TˆX %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Y◊Ã[˝_◊l˘Tˆ c˜‰¨K˜* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ a„Ü EıUÁ [˝_◊ªK˜, ◊]`◊ªK˜ Âa £W˝« Y“„Ã^ÁLX[˝`Tˆf --- TˆÁ„Tˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ªRÙOÁX ÂXc˜O, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ %Á„]ÁVY“„]Á„VC ◊Xÿôˆç˘TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Ã[˝„Ã^◊ªK˜* aÁÃ[˝Á◊VX AEı◊ªRÙO X›_ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Â^X T«ˆ◊]c˜O [˝Áa EıÃ[˝ªK˜, >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÂX„] a]ÿôˆ aw¯Á„Eı EgıÁ‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ÿ눨K˜ C ◊[˝„`b a‰ªJÙTˆX Eı„Ã[˝ ÂÃ[˝„F‰ªK˜* =: c˜Oc˜Á ^◊V c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜Á F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ --- a[[˝ÔVÁ %XÁaN˛ c˜„Ã^ Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]`„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 10.3.34 *

518

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

a: %ÁL Y“SÁ„]Ã[˝ a]Ã^ >àùÔ˘LGd c˜„Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO Y“GÁªRÕÙ `Á◊‹ôˆY“[˝Ác˜ ÂX„] A_ --- TˆFX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ %a«F ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ ÂG_ %Á◊] ʪRÙOÃ[˝C ÂY_Á] XÁ* =: Ac˜OÃ[˝÷Y `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝„Sc˜O a[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ Y“„Ã^ÁLX›Ã^ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ ^Tˆ◊VX a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ a]Á◊c˜Tˆ XÁ c˜Ã^* 13.3.34 *

a: ]Á, %ÁL aEıÁ_ c˜„Tˆ Y“ªJÙ⯠ÂYªRÙO[˝ÓUÁ c˜◊¨K˜_* Y“SÁ] c˜„_ AEı ]„X ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı◊ªK˜_Á] C a]ÿôˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁ C aw¯Á„Eı >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı F«„_ ÂÃ[˝„F◊ªK˜_Á]* A]X a]Ã^ ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO ◊[˝`ü[˝ÓÁYEı AEı◊ªRÙO ʪRÙ= ÂX„] A_ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %X«\ˆ[˝ c˜_ Â^ Ac˜O `◊‹ôˆY“[˝Ác˜ XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ XÁ]„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ ◊X* %Á◊] %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Âac˜O %e`ªªR«ÙOE«ı >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆÃ[˝ Y“[˝Á„c˜Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı F«„_ W˝Ã[˝_Á]* ◊EıªK«˜l˘S %ac˜Ó ^‹óˆSÁ c˜_ --- TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Âa Â[˝`›l˘S UÁEı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝_ XÁ* =: %a«F aÁÃ[˝Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Ê`“úˆ =YÁÃ^ Ac˜O, Tˆ„[˝ a[˝ a]Ã^ ÂV„c˜Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ F«_„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ %ÁÃ[˝ `›H– Y…[[˝Ô %\ˆÓÁ„aÃ[˝ [˝„` Y‰QÕˆ ^ÁÃ^* 15.3.34 *

a: ]Á, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊V[˝Ó ʪJÙTˆXÁ C ◊V[˝Ó V ◊rÙ`◊N˛ ^FX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ ÂX„] %Á„a TˆFX %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡Eı Y◊[˝yTˆÁÃ[˝ ÊÿɈÁ„Tˆ a]ÿôˆ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ G¿Á◊X ]◊_XTˆÁ [˝ÓÁ◊W˝ V…[à ˝›\…ˆTˆ c˜„^à ÿ눨K˜ Y◊[˝y c˜„^à ^ÁÃ^* ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô %◊W˝Eıl˘S ÂEıX Ac˜O %[˝ÿˆö Á UÁ„Eı XÁ? =: %îl˘S c˜„_C ]ÿôˆ _Á\ˆ* Y“U] %îl˘Sc˜O UÁ„Eı --- TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ Â[˝‰QÕˆ ^ÁÃ^* 20.3.34 *

a: ]Á, %ÁL %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]X EıÁÃ[˝”Ã[˝ ae&`Ô Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ YªK˜≥V EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜ XÁ --- ]ÁX«b, ◊L◊Xb Â^ ÂEıÁX ◊EıªK«˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ Â[˝ÁMıÁÿëˆÃ[˝÷Y ]„X c˜‰¨K˜* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ [˝ÓTˆ›Tˆ %XÓ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂEı]X HÁQÕˆ [˝ÓªUÁ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜, ]ÁUÁ W˝Ã[˝‰ªK˜* ÂXc˜ÁTˆ Y“„Ã^ÁLX›Ã^ EıUÁ [˝_„TˆC %Á◊] ÂEı]X cg˜Á≈◊Y„Ã^ =Pˆ◊ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ V«[[˝Ô_ c˜„Ã^ YQÕˆ◊ªK˜*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

=: ATˆV…Ã[˝

sensitive

519

c˜CÃ^Á \ˆÁ_ XÃ^* 20.3.34 *

[aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ [˝N˛[˝Ó Â^ AFX %ÁÃ[˝ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ c˜‰¨K˜ XÁ, %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Óc˜O XÁXÁ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ c˜‰¨K˜*]

a[˝ a]„Ã^ >„àùÔ˘c˜O >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ ÂY„Ã^ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ XÁ ÂY„_ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆÃ[˝ c˜„[˝ ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝? 22.3.34 *

a: ]Á, W˝ÓÁ„X ÂVF_Á] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ a[˝ a]Ã^ AEıªRÙOÁ =#ù_ aÁVÁ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ %Á‰ªK˜* ÿöˆ…_ ]X ^FX ÿöˆ…„_Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ Eı„Ã[˝, %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÿöˆ…_ %e„`Ã[˝ •ÁÃ[˝ [˝µ˘ UÁ„Eı --- TˆÁc˜O >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ C `Á◊‹ôˆ XÁ]„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* ^FXc˜O %Á◊] >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı TˆÁEıÁc˜O TˆFXc˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ LQÕˆ aw¯ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆ…_ %e„` Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ `◊N˛ Y◊[˝yTˆÁ ÂX„] a]ÿôˆ %Á[˝#¤XÁ ÂEı‰ªRÙO ÂVÃ^* =: c˜Oc˜Á TˆÁ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O c˜Ã^* ^FX a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ F«„_ ^ÁÃ^ TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜OÃ[˝Eı] c˜^à XÁ --- ÿöˆ_… ]X ÿöˆ„… _Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ˆô Á Eı‰{ÔC Âac˜O a]Ã^ >„àù˘Ô [à ˝ ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ C `Á◊‹ôˆ UÁ„Eı* 22.3.34 *

a: %Á◊] %ÁL [˝«Mı◊ªK˜ Â^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ∂ˆÇÔÃ^ aw¯Á %Á‰ªK˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ÂEıÁX `◊N˛ TˆÁ„Eı ʪRÙ„Eı ÂÃ[˝„F‰ªK˜* %ÁL ÂVF_Á] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊YÃ^Á„XÁ [˝ÁLXÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ a«Ã[˝m◊_ Â^X p˚ÁX„LÓÁ◊TˆÃ[˝ AEı AEı◊ªRÙO ◊`FÁ* Ac˜O ◊`FÁm◊_ LQÕˆÿôˆ„Ã[˝ ÂX„] A„a Âac˜O %p˚ÁX TˆÁ]aY…SÔ %Á[˝#¤XÁ ÂEı‰ªRÙO ◊V‰¨K˜* =: ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ∂ˆÇÔÃ^ %Á±¡Á aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O %Á‰ªK˜ --- aEı„_Ã[˝c˜O %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ [˝µ˘XC %Á‰ªK˜* a„TˆÓÃ[˝ `◊N˛ Âa [˝µ˘Xm„_Á F«„_ ÂVÃ^* ]Á [˝ÁLÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ aTˆÓ„Eı, Âa a„TˆÓÃ[˝ `◊N˛„Eı XÁ◊]„Ã^ %Á„X* 22.3.34

*

520

a[˝«L Tˆ

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ emotionAÃ[˝

%Á„_ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝e* 22.3.34 *

a: ]Á, aÁVÁ ZıÓÁEıÁ„a X›_ [˝„SÔÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO `◊N˛Y“[˝Ác˜ XÁ]‰ªK˜* ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÿ눨K˜ L„_Ã[˝ ]Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO ÊÿɈÁTˆ ÂX„] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ [˝y‘ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ªRÙOÁ„Eı ÂaÁLÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊V‰¨K˜, V«[[˝Ô_ ÿoˆÁÃ^«„Eı a„TˆL a[˝_ X›„Ã[˝ÁG ◊Xÿôˆ ç˘ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊V‰¨K˜* =: Âa Tˆ >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ Y“[˝Ác˜ ^Á„Tˆ Â`„b a[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 24.3.34 *

V«c˜O ◊[˝YÃ[˝›Tˆ Y“\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ •≥• --- aTˆÓ `◊N˛Ã[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ ^FX ÂVc˜„Eı &`Ô Eı„Ã[˝ TˆFX a[˝ a«ÿöˆ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ --- %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂÃ[˝ÁG [˝ÓUÁ ÿoˆÁÃ^◊[˝Eı ◊[˝EıÁÃ[˝ ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Á„a* 24.3.34 *

Aa[˝ EıUÁ F«[˝ &rÙ, [˝«Mı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝ XÁ ÂEıX? %Á±¡Á %X`üÃ[˝ %X‹ôˆ, V«fF [˝ÓUÁ a[˝ %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ Zı_, %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ A]X◊Eı %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“E ıTˆ W˝∂ˆÇÔ XÃ^* >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆXÓ ^Á„Eı [˝◊_, Âa %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝c˜O W˝∂ˆÇÔ --- Âa =¨JÙ W˝∂ˆÇÔ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝C XÁ]Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^, XÁ]Á„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„_ ÂÃ[˝ÁG V«fF [˝ÓUÁ EırÙ %ÁÃ[˝ UÁ◊Eı„[˝ XÁ* 26.3.34 *

ÂEıÁX ◊XÃ^] YÁ_X Eı„Ã[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ V ªRÕÙa·¯î c˜„Ã^ Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝„_ %„î %„î %◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^* =Tˆ_Á c˜„_ (◊[˝[˝–Tˆ c˜„Ã^ %µ˘ c˜„Ã^ c˜TˆÁ` c˜„Ã^) %◊[˝VÓÁ`◊N˛ %ÁÃ[˝C ÂLÁÃ[˝ ÂY„Ã^ %Áy‘]S EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ aÁc˜a YÁÃ^* 27.3.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

521

a: ]Á, W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁ >„àùÔ˘ =‰Pˆ ^ÁÃ^* %Á◊] A[˝e %Á]ÁÃ[˝ [˝„_ TˆFX ◊EıªK«˜ UÁ„Eı XÁ* ÂEı[˝_ l«˘V– AEı◊ªRÙO ʪJÙTˆXÁ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ [˝„a [˝„a HÃ[˝Eı~ÁÃ[˝, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ UÁ„Eı* >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı XÁ◊]„Ã^ A„X Ac˜O l«˘V– ʪJÙTˆXÁ◊ªRÙO„Eı, ^Á AFXC ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁªK˜ c˜„Tˆ Y UEı Ã[˝„Ã^ ÂG‰ªK˜, Y◊Ã[˝[˝wÔ¯X EıÃ[˝„Tˆ XÁ ÂY„Ã[˝ V«fF YÁc˜O* =: Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] ◊•W˝Á c˜CÃ^Á aÁW˝XÁÃ^ c˜Ã^, TˆÁÃ[˝ Y“„Ã^ÁLX %Á‰ªK˜ --- TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ◊X‰∂oˆÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ XÁ]ÁX Â[˝`› ac˜L c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 29.3.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ A]X %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜Ã^ Â^ Â^X ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ V«ªRÙO› aw¯Á %Á‰ªK˜, AEı ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊L◊Xb ◊X„Ã^ UÁ„Eı, `Á‹ôˆ ◊[˝£à˘ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ V ◊rÙ C %X«\…ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó UÁ„Eı %U[˝Á TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ae^«N˛, %ÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Fg«◊ªRÙOXÁ◊ªRÙO ◊X„Ã^ [˝Óÿôˆ* TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ V«ªRÙO›Ã[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ BEıÓ ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝Á c˜Ã^ --- >àùÔ˘LGd C [˝◊c˜#¤Gd AEı c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 31.3.34 *

a: ]Á, %Á◊] a]ÿôˆ LG„TˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]c˜ÁX %ÁX≥VY…SÔ ÊY“]Eı‰{Á◊_Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO W[˝◊X £X„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %] Tˆ]Ã^ p˚Á„XÁ#ù_ c˜ÁaÓ]Ã^ %ÁX≥Va]›Ã[˝S LG„TˆÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ÈVXÓ, [˝ÓUÁ %YaÁ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜ A[˝e ◊YYÁ◊aTˆ £õı LGd %ÁL a„TˆL c˜„Ã^ =Pˆ‰ªK˜* --- %ÁL W˝ÓÁX Eı◊Ã[˝◊X, FÁ◊_ Ac˜Oa[˝ EıTˆm„_Á ◊Eı ÂVF‰ªTˆ YÁ◊¨K˜* =: Âac˜O Ã[˝Eı] %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ Y“ÁSÿôˆ„Ã[˝ H‰ªRÙO --- ]≥V XÃ^, Tˆ„[˝ AEı]Áy TˆÁc˜O ◊X„Ã^ UÁEıÁ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* 31.3.34 *

Ac˜O a[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ [˝ UÁ ◊[˝_ÁY„Eı =Pˆ„Tˆ ◊V„_ ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ %Áa„[˝, A„_C ◊Eı Eı„Ã[˝ ◊ªRÙOEı„[˝ [˝Á aZı_ c˜„[˝ --- Ac˜O Y“Á„SÃ[˝ EıÁ~Á £W˝« %‹ôˆÃ[˝ÁÃ^ c˜„Ã^

522

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

^ÁÃ^* Ac˜O Â^ F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ A_, %ÁX◊≥VTˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ◊[˝_ÁY C EıÁ~Á ÂEıX? 5.4.34 *

Ac˜O a[˝ ◊[˝_ÁY C c˜ÁßTˆÁ„`Ã[˝ EıUÁ Â^ÁGY‹öˆÁÃ^ %G–aÃ[˝ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ XÃ^ --- £W˝« Y“Á„SÃ[˝ AEıÃ[˝Eı] TˆÁ]◊aEı ÂF_Á* Ac˜O a[˝ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Ã^ `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁ Eı‰{Ô `›H– =~◊Tˆ c˜Ã^* 5.4.34 *

]ÁX«b ◊Eı Eı„Ã[˝ XÁ Eı„Ã[˝ Âa EıUÁ ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ --- aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ ◊Eı EıÃ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ, ◊Eı Eı„Ã[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ =~◊Tˆ c˜Ã^, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ %Áa_ EıUÁ* 6.4.34 *

a: \ˆÁ[˝Á„[˝„GÃ[˝ ÿôˆÃ[˝ aÁ]„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı, ˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ ÿôˆÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı --TˆÁÃ[˝ ]ÁMıFÁ„X AEıªRÙOÁ YÁ◊ªRÙO¤`X ÂVCÃ^Á %Á‰ªK˜* %Á◊] ÂV„F◊ªK˜_Á] E«ıâ¯◊_X› ˪JÙ„TˆÓÃ[˝ ÿôˆÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ [˝ÁÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝Á„[˝„GÃ[˝ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝ ^ÁTˆÁÃ^ÁTˆ Eı„Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ >„à˘¤Ã[˝ a„TˆÓÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ XÁ◊]„Ã^ %Á„X* A V«◊ªRÙO ÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]ÁMıFÁ„XÃ[˝ YÁ◊ªRÙO¤`XªRÙOÁ„Eı E«ıâ¯◊_X› T«ˆ„_ ◊V„Tˆ ªJÙÁ‰¨K˜* =: Emotional being C psychicAÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Â^ %Á[˝Ã[˝S %Á‰ªK˜ Âac˜OªRÙO› =◊Pˆ„Ã^ ÂV[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ Ac˜O %Á„Ã^ÁLX --- TˆÁ c˜„_ vital emotionsAÃ[˝ [˝V„_ psychic emotions c˜÷V„Ã^ ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁL EıÃ[˝„[˝* 6.4.34 *

a: %Á◊] ÿ눉Y¬ ÂVF_Á] ""]'' ]„Ã[˝ ÂG‰ªK˜* =: Y“ÁSÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÿ눉Y¬Ã[˝ C [˝Áÿôˆ[˝ ÿöˆ…_ HªRÙOXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ÂEıÁX a+EÔı XÁc˜O* BÃ[˝÷Y ÿëˆY¬ EıTˆ[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Á„a, TˆÁÃ[˝ ]…_Ó XÁc˜O* 6.4.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

523

a: %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO Y≤ø ÂVF_Á] --- Y≤ø◊ªRÙOÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ side a…^ÔÓÃ[˝◊`ΩÃ[˝ XÓÁÃ^ %ÁÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ side aÁVÁ‰ªRÙO X›_* =: ªJÙ„y‘Ã[˝ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ side YÁÃ^ Overmind C IntuitionAÃ[˝ %Á„_Á, ÂaÁXÁÃ[˝ %Á„_Á [˝Á a…^ÔÓÃ[˝◊`Ω --- X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ side Higher Mind C Spiritual MindAÃ[˝ a„Ü ae◊`¿rÙ ^Á„VÃ[˝ %Á„_Á X›_ C aÁVÁ* 7.4.34 * Psychic being \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝

%e`, a„TˆÓÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı TˆÁÃ[˝ ªRÙOÁX, %ÁÃ[˝ Âa ªRÙOÁX [˝ÁaXÁ `…XÓ, VÁ[˝› XÁc˜O, X›ªJÙ EıÁ]XÁ XÁc˜O* Psychic emotion Y◊[˝y ◊X∂ˆÇÔ_ --- emotional vitalAÃ[˝ %e`, [˝ÁaXÁ, %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝, VÁ[˝›, %◊\ˆ]ÁX c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ^„UrÙ %Á‰ªK˜, \ˆG[˝ÁX„EıC ªJÙÁÃ^ ◊X„LÃ[˝ %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁaXÁ ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ L„XÓ --- Tˆ„[˝ psychicAÃ[˝ &„`Ô £à˘ Y◊[˝y c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 7.4.34 *

=Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ XÁXÁ Ã[˝÷„Y XÁ„] --- [˝ÁÃ^«Ã[˝ ]Tˆ, [˝ ◊rÙÃ[˝ ]Tˆ, ʪRÙ=Ã[˝ ]Tˆ, ÊÿɈÁTˆ [˝Á a]«‰V–Ã[˝ ]Tˆ --- Â^]X `◊N˛Ã[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ [˝Á a«◊[˝„W˝* 7.4.34 *

%Á◊] [˝„_◊ªK˜ A a[˝ EıÁ~ÁEıÁ◊ªRÙO aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, --- aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ Â^ÁGÓ XÃ^, aÁW˝XÁÃ^ %‹ôˆÃ[˝ÁÃ^ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 7.4.34 *

a: %Á◊] Y“Á„SÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ G◊Tˆ„[˝G ÂVF◊ªK˜, =c˜Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ \ˆÁ[˝Á„[˝G --- Âa a[˝ a]Ã^ EıTˆEım◊_ Y“Á◊SEı \ˆÁ[˝Y“[˝STˆÁ, %c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝Á±¡Eı ÂF_Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ʪRÙO„X %Á„X* Âa TˆÁÃ[˝ ÿ눛Ã^ %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı Q«ˆ◊[˝„Ã^ Ã[˝ÁF„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ %ÁÃ[˝ X›ªJÙ [˝ÁaXÁÃ[˝ VÁ[˝› ◊X„Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ªJÙÁÃ^ C ªRÙOÁ„X*

524

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

=: TˆÁc˜O ^◊V Â[˝ÁMı, Âa %c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝Á±¡Eı \ˆÁ[˝Á„[˝G„Eı TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝* ^Á £à˘, ^Á psychic, Âac˜O emotion ]Áy aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ aÁc˜Á^Ó Eı„Ã[˝* 10.4.34 *

a: ...TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ [Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ªJÙÁá˚_Ó, %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ G◊Tˆ C L[˝Ã[˝V◊ÿôˆ] TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ l˘]TˆÁ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂXc˜O* AEı◊V„Eı [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊V„_ XÁXÁ %◊ªK˜_ÁÃ^ [˝Á Ã[˝÷Y W˝„Ã[˝ %XÓ◊V„Eı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ʪRÙÁ„Eı* Âa Â^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ Y“\«ˆ±ºˆ Eı„Ã[˝ Â[˝QÕˆÁ‰¨K˜* =: TˆÁ]◊aEı ÂVc˜ÎªJÙTˆXÓ, Ã[˝ÁL◊aEı Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %L«c˜ÁTˆ* TˆÁÃ[˝Á a∂ˆÇ◊Tˆ ÂVÃ^ [˝„_ Ac˜O Y“\«ˆ±ºˆ --- X‰ªJÙd TˆÁÃ[˝Á aÁÃ^ XÁ ◊V„_ Âa Y“\«ˆ±ºˆ UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝? 12.4.34 *

]„Ã[˝ ^ÁCÃ^ÁÃ^ ÂEıÁXC ]›]ÁeaÁ c˜Ã^ XÁ* Ac˜O L„XΩ Âa a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı XrÙ XÁ Eı‰{Ô, T«ˆ◊] ◊Eı ]„X EıÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ L„XΩ Âam„_Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ÂV„[˝? Ac˜O L„XΩc˜O Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 12.4.34 * [aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝

]„X c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ `“›]Á TˆÁ„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Á„aX XÁ* %◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ Âa %Á`“] ʪK˜‰QÕˆ, ]Á„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ªJÙ„_ Â^„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ UÁEı„TˆC ªJÙÁÃ^* Âa ◊V„`c˜ÁÃ[˝Á*] Ac˜O a[˝ £W˝« %`Á‹ôˆ [˝ÁaXÁY…SÔ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ◊[˝‰V–Ác˜ --- TˆÁc˜Á„Eı aÁÃ^ VÁC ÂEıX? T«ˆ◊] vital„Eı ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ AFÁ„X %Áa ◊X* V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ vital„Eı ae^Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝ Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁ„Eıc˜O L›[˝„XÃ[˝ AEı =„Å`Ó Eı„Ã[˝ VÁC --- TˆÁ c˜„_ Ac˜O a[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Áa„[˝ XÁ* 13.4.34 *

◊X„L„Eı ae^Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂÃ[˝„F Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]`„_ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÂX„] Y‰QÕˆ XÁ* 13.4.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

525

=Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ &`Ô --- Âac˜O =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝, `Á◊‹ôˆ, p˚ÁX, G\ˆ›Ã[˝TˆÁÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝Sc˜O Â^ÁG◊a◊à˘Ã[˝ =YÁÃ^* Y“ÁS„Eı ae^Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝ Âac˜O `◊N˛„Eıc˜O ]XY“ÁS„Vc˜„Eı %◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ◊V„Tˆ c˜„[˝* 14.4.34 *

a: E«ıâ¯◊_X› ÂL„G =‰Pˆ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı =‰Pˆ ^Á‰¨K˜ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ]Á E«ıâ¯◊_X›Ã[˝ Â_L◊ªRÙO AEı◊ªRÙO a[˝«L Ã[˝„I¯Ã[˝ ]Ã^…„Ã[˝ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* =: a[˝«L Ã[˝I¯ emotional powerAÃ[˝ _l˘S* ]Ã^…Ã[˝ ◊[˝L„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙc˜‘* 14.4.34 * [aÁ◊W˝EıÁ

`“›%Ã[˝◊[˝„≥VÃ[˝ H„Ã[˝ EıÁL ªJÙÁÃ^* %Á„G AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıÁL ʪJÙ„Ã^ YÁÃ^ ◊X* AFX `“›%Ã[˝◊[˝„≥VÃ[˝ H„Ã[˝ EıÁL EıÃ[˝Tˆ A]X AEıLX ªJÙ„_ ^ÁCÃ^Á„Tˆ, %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Âa TˆÁÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝„XÁ c˜O¨K˜Á [˝ÓN˛ Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜*] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ \«ˆ_ [˝«„MıªK˜? %Á◊] [˝„_◊ªK˜_Á] ^ÁÃ[˝Á %Á‰ªK˜ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ a◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ◊V[˝ ÂEıX X…TˆX Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ LXÓ? TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ^◊V AEıLX ªJÙ„_ ^ÁÃ^ T«ˆ◊] TˆÁÃ[˝ EıÁL YÁ„[˝ ÂEıX --- %„XEı %Á‰ªK˜ aÁW˝Eı aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ[˝Á Âa EıÁL ʪJÙ„Ã^◊ªK˜_, ]Á ÂVX XÁc˜O, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %„XEı %Á„G ʪJÙ„Ã^◊ªK˜_, A]X◊Eı V` [˝ªK˜Ã[˝ %Á„G* TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ aEı_„Eı (E«ı◊QÕˆL„XÃ[˝ Eı] XÃ^) ªK˜Á◊QÕˆ„Ã^ T«ˆ◊] YÁ„[˝ ÂEıX? AªRÙO› Â^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %c˜eEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ VÁ[˝›, c˜Oc˜Á ◊Eı &rÙ XÃ^? Y“Á„SÃ[˝ VÁ[˝›„Eı Â`ÁX XÁ* `Á‹ôˆ %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝`…XÓ c˜„Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı ÈTˆÃ^Á◊Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝, Â^ÁGY„U =~◊Tˆ„Eı AEı]Áy =„Å`Ó Eı„Ã[˝ ªJÙ_, c˜Oc˜Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ Âa =~◊TˆÃ[˝ Ê`“úˆ =YÁÃ^* 14.4.34 *

>„àù˘Ô [à ˝ %X«\ˆ… ◊Tˆ Jª ÙÁc˜,O ◊X∂oˆ Y“Eı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ [à ˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ[à ˝C Jª ÙÁc˜*O c˜bÔ ◊[˝bÁV c˜TˆÁ`Á ◊XÃ[˝ÁX≥V aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂF_Á, =~◊TˆÃ[˝ %‹ôˆÃ[˝ÁÃ^ --- A a[˝ %◊Tˆy‘] Eı„Ã[˝ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊[˝`Á_ BEıÓ C a]TˆÁ Y“Á„S C a[[˝Ôy XÁ]Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^*

17.4.34

*

526

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

a: ]Á, AFXC ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ YQÕˆÁ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Tˆ c˜O‰¨K˜ c˜Ã^* ]„X c˜Ã^ %Á◊] \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ L„XÓc˜O AFÁ„X A„a◊ªK˜ --- A„Tˆ Â_FÁYQÕˆÁ ÂEıX? %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ]„X c˜Ã^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ªRÙOÁ ÂaÁLÁa«◊L ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ LÁX[˝ÁÃ[˝ =Y^«N˛ c˜CÃ^ÁÃ[˝C Tˆ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜* =: c˜Oc˜Á ]„XÃ[˝ C Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ªJÙá˚_TˆÁ --- ^Á %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝K˜ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ ªJÙÁ_Á„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ^Tˆ◊VX =„Å`Ó ◊aà˘ XÁ c˜Ã^* 17.4.34 *

a: Â`bÃ[˝Á‰y ÂVF_Á], %Á◊] AEıªRÙOÁ YÁTˆ_Á aÁVÁ‰ªRÙO X›_ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Q«ˆ„[˝ ^Á◊¨K˜, £W˝« %ÁX≥V C ÂTˆÁ]Á„VÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁÃ^ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O ÂVc˜◊ªRÙO \ˆ„Ã[˝ ◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜, ÂEıÁUÁC %ÁÃ[˝ ATˆªR«ÙOE«ı ◊XÃ[˝ÁX≥V %Y◊[˝yTˆÁ XÁc˜O* =: Ac˜O %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆm◊_ \ˆÁ_ --- c˜TˆÁ`ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó [˝Áa XÁ Eı„Ã[˝, %ÁX„≥V [˝Áa EıÃ[˝Á aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ aTˆÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁ* 19.4.34 *

Ac˜[ÃO ˝÷Y `…XÓTˆÁ aÁW˝„Eı[à ˝ %Á„a ^FX >„àù˘Ô [à ˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ÂX„] ]X Y“ÁS„Eı %◊W˝EıÁ[à ˝ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ÈTˆÃ^Á◊Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜ --- %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊TˆC ^FX c˜Ã^, TˆÁÃ[˝ Y“U] &„`Ô AEıªRÙO› ◊[˝`Á_ `Á‹ôˆ `…XÓTˆÁc˜O c˜Ã^, TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ Âa `…XÓTˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEıªRÙO› ◊[˝`Á_ GÁªRÕÙ `Á◊‹ôˆ X›Ã[˝[˝TˆÁ, ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ ◊X∏JÙ_ %ÁX≥V XÁ„]* 21.4.34 *

a: %ÁL V«-◊TˆX ◊VX ÂVF◊ªK˜ EıTˆEım◊_ ◊[˝„[à ˝ÁW˝› Èa„XÓÃ[˝ V_ %Á]Á„Eı %Áy‘]S Eı◊[à ˝„Tˆ %Á◊a„Tˆ‰Kª ˜, EıTˆEım◊_ %Á[˝#X¤ Á]Ã^ YÁc˜ÁQÕˆ %µ˘EıÁ„Ã[˝[à ˝ ]Tˆ c˜c˜^ÃO Á %Á◊aÃ^Á %Á]Á„Eı ◊H◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ªJÙÁ◊YÃ^Á Ã[˝Á◊F„Tˆ ªJÙÁ◊c˜„Tˆ‰ªK˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ c˜c˜O„Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO `◊N˛ aÁ]„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı %Á◊aÃ^Á A[˝e ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ =◊PˆÃ^Á ◊GÃ^Á a]ÿôˆ ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝› Èa„XÓÃ[˝ YU„Ã[˝ÁW˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ‰ªK˜, ^«à˘ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á ◊]UÓÁ`◊N˛Ã[˝ G◊Tˆ„Ã[˝ÁW˝ Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ‰ªK˜* Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] %ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı W˝Ã[˝„XÃ[˝ [˝›Ã[˝±ºˆ ÂEıX ÂV◊F„Tˆ◊ªK˜, ]Á?

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

527

=: ^◊V Ac˜O %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜„_ [˝«Mı„Tˆ c˜„[˝, Y“ÁSÿôˆ„Ã[˝ Â^FÁ„X ◊[˝„Ã[˝ÁW˝› `◊N˛Ã[˝ %Áy‘]S ÂaFÁ„X \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ Y“ÁS`◊N˛ Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ Â^ %ÁY◊X Âac˜O %Áy‘]S„Eı [˝ÓUÔ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂVÃ^* 24.4.34 *

a: W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ EıÃ[˝„_ AEı◊ªRÙO `◊N˛ ATˆ ÂLÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a„Ü ÂX„] %Á„a %ÁÃ[˝ ATˆ ªJÙÁY Y‰QÕˆ Â^ %Á◊] ÂEıÁX ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ A[˝e A◊VEıC◊VEı TˆÁEıÁ„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ* `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ^UÁaÁW˝Ó Âac˜O `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ W˝◊Ã[˝, Y„Ã[˝ a]ÿôˆ Y“E ı◊Tˆ ◊X∏JÙ_ `Á‹ôˆ ÿôˆç˘ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* AEıªªRÙOÁ X›Ã[˝[˝ %ÁX„≥V %Á]Á„Eı Q«ˆ◊[˝„Ã^ Ã[˝Á„F* =: Ac˜O \ˆÁ_ >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ (Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ `◊N˛Ã[˝) %[˝TˆÃ[˝S --- ◊X„L„Eı %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ Y“U] %Á„Ã^ÁLX* 26.4.34

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a: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁ FÁ◊_ c˜„Ã^ ◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜, ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ªRÙOÁ ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ %‹ôˆ◊c˜¤Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜ [˝„_ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜‰¨K˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁ„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO Y«Ã[˝”b ÂL„G =‰Pˆ‰ªK˜ Â^ Ac˜O LG„TˆÃ[˝ A[˝e %‹ôˆ#¤G„TˆÃ[˝ ʪK˜ÁªRÙO[˝QÕˆ ^Á ◊EıªK«˜c˜O %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Áa‰ªK˜ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝„Eı ◊[˝Jª ÙÁ[à ˝ Eı„[à ˝ Â[˝‰Kª ˜ aTˆÓRª ÙÁO „Eı ◊X‰¨K˜ A[˝e ◊]UÓÁªRÙÁO „Eı ◊Xf„`„b TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ◊V‰¨K˜* %Á„G ◊]UÓÁÃ[˝ ÂF_Á„Eı TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %„XEı EırÙ c˜Tˆ* AFX Âac˜O LÁG–Tˆ ˪JÙTˆXÓ]Ã^ Y«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ aÁc˜Á„^Ó B aEı_ %Áy‘]S„Eı Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y„l˘ ac˜L c˜„Ã^ =‰Pˆ‰ªK˜* =: Ac˜O Y«[à ˝”b higher mental being --- >àù˘Ô ‰Jª ÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ %[˝Tˆ[à ˝„S Âa LÁG–Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ --- TˆÁÃ[˝ p˚ÁX aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]„XÃ[˝ XÃ^, >àùÔ˘]„XÃ[˝ p˚ÁX* 26.4.34

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Y“U] ʪJÙTˆXÁ `…XÓ C ◊[˝`Á_ ªJÙÁc˜O --- TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %Á„_Á `◊N˛ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ÿöˆÁÃ^›\ˆÁ„[˝ ÿöˆÁX ÂY„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ --- FÁ◊_ XÁ c˜„_ Y«„Ã[˝Á„XÁ movementsc˜O ÂF„_, =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊L◊Xb a«◊[˝„W˝ ]Tˆ ÿöˆÁX YÁÃ^ XÁ* 5.5.34

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528

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ`…XÓ ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ„Eı Y“ÁS \ˆÁ_[˝Á„a XÁ* Âa ªJÙÁÃ^ G◊Tˆ, Â^ Ã[˝Eı] G◊Tˆc˜O Âc˜ÏEı, p˚Á„XÃ[˝ [˝Á %p˚Á„XÃ[˝* ÂEıÁXC %ªJÙá˚_ ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„l˘ X›Ã[˝a _Á„G* 8.5.34

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aw¯ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX %e` TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ◊Ã[˝Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ◊[˝„`b G◊Tˆ TˆÓÁG EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^, aw¯ÁÃ[˝ %e`m„_Á ÿöˆÁÃ^›* 8.5.34

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a: AFXC %Á◊] Âac˜O `…XÓ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ [˝Áa EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ =#ù_ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ XÁ]‰ªK˜* %ÁW˝Á[à ˝◊Rª ÙO `…„XÓÃ[˝ %Tˆ_ Tˆ„_ ^Á‰¨K˜ --- a]ÿôˆ LGd ÿ눨K˜ ◊X∂ˆÇ_Ô ◊XÃ[˝ÁEıÁ[à ˝* Ac˜O ◊XÃ[˝ÁEıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ› X›Ã[˝[˝ ◊Xÿôˆç˘TˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁX≥V %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜* =: c˜Oc˜Ác˜O =~◊TˆÃ[˝ Y“◊TˆúˆÁ --- Ac˜O X›Ã[˝[˝TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó a[˝c˜O XÁ]„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ C Y“EıÁ` c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 10.5.34

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a: ]Á, %ÁL Y“SÁ„]Ã[˝ a]Ã^ ÂVF_Á] ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO [˝QÕˆ Y≤ø* Y≤ø◊ªRÙOÃ[˝ AEıYÁ„` AEı◊ªRÙO c˜O◊tX ◊ZıªRÙO EıÃ[˝Á c˜‰¨K˜* c˜O◊t„XÃ[˝ G◊Tˆ„Tˆ AEıª◊ªRÙO L„_Ã[˝ ÊÿɈÁ„Tˆ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂW˝ÏTˆ c˜‰¨K˜* c˜O◊t„XÃ[˝ %XÓ AEı◊ªRÙO YÁc˜OY ◊V„Ã^ L_ ÂLÁ„Ã[˝ Â[˝Ã[˝ c˜„Ã^ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı ^Á‰¨K˜ A[˝e E«ıÃ^Á`ÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ c˜„Ã^ X›_ %ÁEıÁ„` ◊]„` ^Á‰¨K˜* =: c˜Oc˜Á purificationAÃ[˝ symbol --- >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÊÿɈÁ„Tˆ ÂW˝ÏTˆ c˜„_ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ purified c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 10.5.34

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a: %Á◊] ÂVF_Á], %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡Eı ÿôˆ„Ã[˝ Y“EıÁ⯠AEı◊ªRÙO ªJÙy‘ %◊[˝Ã[˝Á] H«Ã[˝‰ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂHÁÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü a„Ü X›_, aÁVÁ, a[˝«L, _Á_, ÂaÁXÁ_› a…^ÔÓÃ[˝◊`ΩÃ[˝ ]Tˆ %Á„_Á

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

529

%Á]ÁÃ[˝ ˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝ C %XÓÁXÓ ◊X∂oˆ %e`m◊_„Tˆ XÁ]‰ªK˜* AEıªRÙOÁÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ %Á„_Á ÂX„] A„a ªJÙ„y‘Ã[˝ G◊Tˆ„Tˆ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a]ÿôˆ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ W˝«„Ã^ Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂZı_‰ªK˜, Y„Ã[˝ H…SÔ„XÃ[˝ G◊TˆÃ[˝ a„Ü ÊªJÙTˆXÁ„Eı A[˝e aw¯Á„Eı ʪRÙO„X >„àù˘¤Ã[˝ Ã[˝Á„LÓ T«ˆ„_ ◊X„Ã^ ^Á‰¨K˜ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ H…SÔ„XÃ[˝ G◊TˆÃ[˝ a„Ü XÁ◊]„Ã^ ◊V‰¨K˜* =: ªJÙy‘ ÂHÁÃ[˝Á `◊N˛Ã[˝ Eı∂ˆÇÔY“„Ã^ÁG* %W˝ÓÁ±¡ `◊N˛ EıÁL Eı‰¨K˜ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝„Eı Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı >„àùÔ˘ T«ˆ„_ ◊X„Tˆ --- T«ˆ„_ ◊X„Ã^ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ ae^«N˛ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊XL ÿöˆÁ„X %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ XÁ◊]„Ã^ ÂVÃ^* 15.5.34 *

[˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [a„Ü] ae◊`¿rÙ UÁ„Eı ^◊V V«c˜Oc˜O ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ◊XEıªRÙO a+…SÔ a]◊YÔTˆ `Á‹ôˆ Y◊[˝y c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ --- TˆÁ c˜„_ a[˝ aêˆ[˝ c˜Ã^* 17.5.34 *

a: ]Á, %ÁL Y“SÁ„]Ã[˝ a]Ã^ ATˆ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ Ã[˝Á„LÓ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ʪJÙTˆXÁ =‰Pˆ ◊G„Ã^◊ªK˜_ Â^ ÂVc˜◊ªRÙOC =‰Pˆ ◊G„Ã^◊ªK˜_ [˝„_ Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜„Ã^◊ªK˜_* =: ÿöˆ…_ ÂVc˜ Tˆ =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ Ac˜O aEı_ Ã[˝Á„LÓ --- a…©ø ÂVc˜ =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, TˆÁC ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ* Tˆ„[˝ ^FX vital =‰Pˆ ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü physical consciousnessAÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX %e` TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ÊªRÙO„X ◊X„Ã^ Â^„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 19.5.34 *

a: %Á◊] ÂVF_Á] a]ÿôˆ LGd Â^X W˝…∂ɈÁ¨K˜~ %ÁÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ a[˝ L«‰QÕˆ £W˝« AEıªRÙOÁ aÁGÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ Âac˜O aÁG„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]W˝Ó ◊V„Ã^ F«[˝ [˝QÕˆ AEıªRÙOÁ ∫ªRÙO›]Á„Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ T«ˆ◊] %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊X„Ã^ ^Á¨K˜* =: Ac˜O aÁGÃ[˝ C %ÁEıÁ` physical ʪJÙTˆXÁ C Y“Eı  ◊Tˆ[à ˝ obscurity Â[˝ÁMıÁÃ^* aEı„_c˜O TˆÁÃ[˝ ]W˝Ó ◊V„Ã^ ^Á‰¨K˜ ◊V[˝Ó %Á„_ÁEı physicalAC YÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ* 24.5.34 *

530

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

a: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıX ]„X c˜‰¨K˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =~◊Tˆ c˜‰¨K˜ XÁ A[˝e Â^ÁGY„U %ÁÃ[˝ %Á◊] %G–aÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝[˝ XÁ Ac˜O %Y◊[˝y ÂVc˜ C Y“E ı◊Tˆ ◊X„Ã^* =: Physical ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂX„]ªK˜, Âa LXÓ Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı] Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜‰¨K˜, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ A aTˆÓ XÃ^ --- ÂaFÁ„X ÂX„]ªK˜ physicalAÃ[˝ Ã[˝÷YÁ‹ôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ LXÓ* 24.5.34 * Vital mind c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ =Y„Ã[˝, G_ÁÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ* =¨JÙ Y“ÁS c˜÷V„Ã^; central [˝Á ordinary [˝Á middle Y“ÁS* XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ ◊X∂oˆ Y“ÁS* physical ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V–*

XÁ◊\ˆ„Tˆ ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ 24.5.34

*

a: ]Á, %ÁL„Eı W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ÂG„_c˜O ÂVF◊ªK˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ EıTˆEım„_Á Y«Ã[˝”b £W˝« EıUÁ[˝ÁwÔ¯Á [˝_‰ªK˜, AEıLX %XÓ„Eı ßE«ı] EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜ C XÁXÁÃ[˝Eı] %Á„V` EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜* =: Am„_Á c˜^à %[˝‰Jª ÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ XÁXÁ voices XÃ^ general physical mindAÃ[˝ suggestions --- Âa ◊V„Eı attention ÂVCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ Y“„Ã^ÁLX XÁc˜O* 25.5.34 *

a: %Á◊] ÂVF_Á] =YÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO a…^ÔÓ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂX„] A_* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ÂVF_Á] AEıªRÙOÁ aÁY --- aÁ„YÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁªRÙOÁc˜O a…^ÔÓ --- y‘]ÁXü„Ã^ X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı XÁ]‰ªK˜* ^FX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ YÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ X›‰ªJÙ XÁ]_ TˆÁ AEıªRÙOÁ [˝ c˜VÁEıÁÃ[˝ %◊G¬„Tˆ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂG_ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á◊] Âac˜O %◊G¬Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Á◊ªK˜* Ac˜O Ã[˝Eı„] ◊X∂oˆÿôˆ„Ã[˝ XÁ]_Á]* ÂaFÁ„X AEıªRÙOÁ [˝X YÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ Y“EıÁ⯠AEıªªRÙOÁ [˝ÁQÕˆ› ÂVF_Á]* Âac˜O [˝ÁQÕˆ›Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ c˜„Tˆ EıTˆEım◊_ ÈVTˆÓ Ac˜O %◊G¬ ÂV„F ªJÙÁ◊Ã[˝◊VEı ^ÁV«[˝„_ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ ÂZı__ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O %◊G¬◊ªRÙO %Á]Á„Eı ◊H„Ã[˝ ÂÃ[˝„F◊ªK˜_ [˝„_ TˆÁÃ[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX l˘◊Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝◊X* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ÂVF_Á] T«ˆ◊] Âac˜O LG„Tˆ XÁ]„_ A[˝e %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ªRÙOÁ ÂEı‰ªRÙO ◊G„Ã^ a[˝ ÿöˆÁX◊ªRÙO Â^X YÁTˆ_Á AEıÃ[˝Eı] L_]Ã^ c˜„Ã^ ÂG_*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

531

=: A LGd %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁLÓ c˜„[˝ --- Â^FÁ„X %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ C %p˚Á„XÃ[˝ ÂF_Á --- ÂaFÁ„X aTˆÓ %Á„_Á XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ* 25.5.34 *

G_ÁÃ^ %Á‰ªK˜ [˝◊c˜Å¤`fi ]„XÃ[˝ ÂEı≥V– --- physical mental, Âa ◊PˆEı ÿöˆ…_ ]X XÃ^, Âa c˜‰¨K˜ [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ Â^ %e` expression Eı„Ã[˝, EıUÁÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝, ]„XÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ„Eı ÂEıÁXÃ[˝Eı] [˝ÓN˛ Eı„Ã[˝, TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝„Eı [˝◊c˜#¤G„TˆÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó Ã[˝÷Y ◊V„Ã^ aZı_ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V* Tˆ„[˝ ÿöˆ…_ ]„XÃ[˝ a„Ü H◊Xúˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ae◊`¿rÙ [˝‰ªRÙO* 26.5.34 *

◊X∂oˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ =‰Pˆ ]X[˝«◊à˘„Eı %Áy‘]S Eı„Ã[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÊY“Ã[˝SÁÃ^ \ˆÁ◊a„Ã^ ÂV[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ %U[˝Á [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ a∂ˆÇ◊Tˆ C aÁc˜Á^Ó YÁ[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ --- TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ◊X„L„Eı a„LÁ„Ã[˝ EıUÁÃ^ [˝Á EıÁ„^ÔÓ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ Eı„Ã[˝* TˆÁc˜Á XÁ YÁÃ[˝„_ ◊XVÁX [˝«◊à˘„Eı ÿöˆ◊GTˆ Eı„Ã[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ %Á◊W˝YTˆÓ ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝* Higher consciousness and will C psychic„Eı %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ Â[˝`› aLÁG C [˝_[˝ÁX EıÃ[˝Á, a[[˝Ôy a◊y‘Ã^ Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁFÁ Tˆ c˜Oc˜ÁÃ[˝ %Y„XÁV„XÃ[˝ %Áa_ =YÁÃ^* 26.5.34 *

a: EıFX ]„X c˜‰¨K˜ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝Ã[˝”„à˘ %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ YQÕˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜, TˆÁc˜O %Á◊] a«≥VÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜„Tˆ X›‰ªJÙ ÂX„] ÂG◊ªK˜* %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ]„X c˜Ã^ %Á◊] %TˆÓ‹ôˆ %Y◊[˝y --- %Á]ÁÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝Á Ac˜O Â^Á„G %ÁÃ[˝ Â[˝`› =~◊Tˆ aêˆ[˝YÃ[˝ XÃ^* =: Ac˜O a[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ outward Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝GTˆ ---- ac˜„L ◊XÃ[˝Á` c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ --- [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ W˝ÁÃ[˝ W˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ, ◊X„LÃ[˝ EıîXÁ„Eı %Á`“Ã^ Eı„Ã[˝ EıTˆ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝ ^ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC ]…_Ó XÁc˜O* 26.5.34 *

532

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

a: EıÁ_ W˝ÓÁ„XÃ[˝ a]Ã^ AEı◊ªRÙO Y“EıÁ⯠LÁ„XÁÃ^ÁÃ[˝„Eı ÂVF_Á] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ aÁ]„X Vâ¯ÁÃ^]ÁX* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Â^ `◊N˛ XÁ]◊ªK˜_, TˆÁ Â^X XÁ]„Tˆ XÁ YÁ„Ã[˝ Âa\ˆÁ„[˝ Âa TˆÁÃ[˝ Y“EıÁ⯠ÂVc˜◊ªRÙO„Eı ◊[˝ÿô ˆTˆ Eı„Ã[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ aÁ]„X VÒÁ≈◊QÕˆ„Ã^◊ªK˜_* ^FX ˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ %\ˆ›¥aÁÃ^ A[˝e %Á‚º˜Á„X %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ a„LÁ„Ã[˝ ÂX„] A_ TˆFX B ◊[˝EıªRÙO LÁ„XÁÃ^ÁÃ[˝◊ªRÙOÃ[˝ ÂVc˜ ªJ«ÙÃ[˝]ÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ÂG_* Y„Ã[˝ ]„X c˜_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆ…_ X›ªJÙ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝c˜O ÂEıÁX ◊]UÓÁ `◊N˛ c˜„[˝ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ATˆ [˝QÕˆ ◊Eı Eı„Ã[˝ c˜_, ]Á? =: ÿöˆ…_ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝c˜O `◊N˛ --- ◊Eı∂ô«ˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆ…_ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ XÃ^* 2.6.34 *

a: %ÁÃ[˝ %Á„GÃ[˝ ]Tˆ EıÁÃ[˝”Ã[˝c˜O a„Ü ◊]`[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ ◊X„L„Eı Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂF_ÁÃ[˝ ÊÿɈÁ„Tˆ \ˆÁ◊a„Ã^ ◊Vc˜O XÁ, ◊X„L„Eı ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ Ã[˝ÁF[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ a‰ªJÙrÙ c˜c˜O* %Á„G Â^]X Ã[˝ÁG, %a‹ô«ˆ◊rÙ, ◊XÃ[˝ÁX≥V c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V %◊Tˆ ac˜„L %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %ÁaTˆ --- AFX ÂVF„Tˆ YÁc˜O TˆÁÃ[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Áa„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ, iı◊ªJÙd A„_C Âac˜O ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ÂV[˝ÁÃ[˝ l˘]TˆÁ Â^X AEıªªR«ÙO c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* =: Ac˜O =~◊Tˆc˜O Y“U] Jª ÙÁc˜O --- AªRÙÁO XÁ c˜„_ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıKª ˜« ÿöˆÁ^à › c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* 2.6.34 *

a: ]Á, ◊Eı Âc˜T«ˆ ◊X∂oˆ`◊N˛m„_Á ÂL„G =‰Pˆ? H«„]Á„_c˜O Â[˝`› Eı„Ã[˝ %Áa„Tˆ a«„^ÁG YÁÃ^ Â^]X aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ YÁÃ^ XÁ* =: H«„] =Pˆ„_ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁc˜O ]…_ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ --- Tˆ„[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX %e„` Y“E ı◊TˆªRÙOÁ _«◊Eı„Ã^ ÂU„Eı ÂEıÁXC l«˘V– &„`Ô [˝Á %EıÁÃ[˝„SC =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, TˆÁ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O c˜Ã^* 19.6.34 *

a: ]Á, a[˝Ác˜O %Á]Á„Eı ◊X„≥V Eı„Ã[˝ Â^ %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ a∂누µ˘ ◊[˝`“› %`“Á[˝Ó EıUÁ a[˝ ◊_◊F [˝„_* CÃ[˝Á [˝„_ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ, Y“ÁUÔXÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O CÃ[˝Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı Â_„F XÁ*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

533

=: %a«F ^◊V c˜Ã^ --- Âa Â^c˜O %a«Fc˜O Âc˜ÁEı --- Â^]X QˆÁN˛ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ÂÃ[˝ÁG› _«EıÁÃ^ XÁ, [˝_„Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Á Â[˝ÁW˝ EıÃ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ XÃ^, ÂTˆ]Xc˜O ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜C ]«N˛\ˆÁ„[˝ [˝_Á =◊ªJÙTˆ* Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ EıUÁ £X„Tˆ XÁc˜O, TˆÁÃ[˝Á XÁ [˝«„Mı ^Á-TˆÁ [˝„_* 26.6.34 *

^FX `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ =◊•G¬ XÁ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ Ã[˝ÁF, TˆFX ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ `◊N˛ EıÁL Eı[à ˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ AEı◊VX Eı‰PˆÁ[à ˝TˆÁ, AEı◊VX Y“a~TˆÁ, c˜Oc˜Á aÁW˝„EıÃ[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ, [˝Áÿôˆ◊[˝Eı XÃ^* ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ Ã[˝ÁF --- c˜Oc˜Ác˜O c˜‰¨K˜ AEı]Áy %Áa_ EıUÁ* 27.6.34 *

Aa[˝ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁÃ^ C ◊[˝_Á„Y aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX =YEıÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* Y“ÁSc˜O [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝; Âa Y“ÁSC %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊[˝_ÁY C ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á a ◊rÙ Eı„Ã[˝* Â^]X Y“Á„SÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝ÁEıÃ[˝› Â[˝„G ÂEıÁX _Á\ˆ XÁc˜O, ÂTˆ]X [˝ÁW˝ÁL◊XTˆ ◊XÃ[˝Á`ÁÃ^C _Á\ˆ XÁc˜O* TˆÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ X∂Ɉ aÃ[˝_\ˆÁ„[˝ `“à˘Á C a]YÔS Eı„Ã[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ a[˝ %£à˘ movement„Eı TˆÓÁG Eı„Ã[˝ Y“Á„S true consciousness (aTˆÓ ʪJÙTˆXÁ)„Eı XÁ]Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ \ˆÁ_* 28.6.34 *

a: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ £W˝« ÂEıX Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜‰¨K˜ T«ˆ◊] Eı‰PˆÁÃ[˝ ◊XŤÃ^? Y“◊Tˆ ]«c…˜„wÔ¯ %Á◊] ATˆ %XÓÁÃ^ Eı◊Ã[˝ Tˆ[˝«C Â^ T«ˆ◊] AEı ◊[˝≥V« ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ %Á]Á„Eı `Á◊‹ôˆ VÁC TˆÁ %Á◊] \ˆÁ_ Eı„Ã[˝ LÁ◊X --- Tˆ[˝« ÂEıX ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ V ◊rÙÃ[˝ Eı‰PˆÁÃ[˝TˆÁ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ [˝«„Eı [˝ÁL‰ªK˜? =: Y“Á„SÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Y“ÁS [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊L◊Xb ªJÙÁÃ^, Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ a„Ü Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ◊[˝◊X]Ã^ ªJÙÁÃ^, ◊X„LÃ[˝ [˝ÁaXÁ VÁ[˝› Y“\ ˆ◊TˆÃ[˝ a„‹ôˆÁb ªJÙÁÃ^, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ %X«G–c˜C ªJÙÁÃ^ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %]◊X, ◊X„L„Eı XÁ ◊V„Ã^, ]Á %Á]Á„Eı \ˆÁ_[˝Áa„[˝X, %ÁVÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„[˝X, Y“W˝ÁX ÿöˆÁX ÂV„[˝X, EıÃ[˝”SÁ %Á„_Á `Á◊‹ôˆ [˝QÕˆ [˝QÕˆ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ [˝bÔS EıÃ[˝„[˝X --- c˜Oc˜Á c˜‰¨K˜ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıwÔ¯[˝Ó --- %Á◊] ◊V◊[˝Ó Â\ˆÁG EıÃ[˝[˝* ]Á ^◊V XÁ Eı„Ã[˝X, TˆÁc˜„_ ◊Tˆ◊X

534

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

◊XŤÃ^ Eı‰PˆÁÃ[˝ ◊XõıÃ[˝”S* Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %Áa_ \ˆÁ[˝ Ac˜O* Ca[˝ A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝, %Áa_ FgÁ◊ªRÙO a]YÔS EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝ --- TˆÁ c˜„_ [˝ÁW˝Ám„_Á YÁ_Á„[˝* 29.6.34 *

◊[˝QÕˆÁ_ Tˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ (emotional c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V) [˝ÁaXÁÃ[˝ Y“Tˆ›Eı* 30.6.34 *

EıÁL [˝Á YQÕˆÁ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ÂEıÁX ÿöˆÁÃ^› Zı_ c˜Ã^ XÁ* Y“ÁS„Eıc˜O Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ a]TˆÁ Y◊[˝yTˆÁ TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó A„X* 30.6.34 *

a: ]Á, %ÁLEıÁ_ %Á◊] Â^a[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ YÁc˜O Am„_Á ◊Eı ◊]UÓÁ? T«ˆ◊] AFX %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁÃ[˝ =w¯Ã[˝ VÁC XÁ [˝„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a„≥Vc˜ c˜Ã^* =: %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ ◊]UÓÁ XÃ^, Tˆ„[˝ Ac˜O a„[˝Ã[˝ %UÔ %Á„Gc˜O [˝«◊Mı„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^◊ªK˜ Â^LXÓ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ ◊_◊F XÁ Am„_ÁÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘* Ac˜O a[˝ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝, ÂaFÁ„X aTˆÓ, X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ÿôˆ„Ã[˝ aTˆÓ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„¨K˜ ---- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ ◊X∂oˆÿôˆ„Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ X›Ã[˝[˝TˆÁ Y◊[˝yTˆÁ ◊[˝`Á_TˆÁ >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ %[˝TˆÃ[˝S* 2.7.34 *

a: Y“ÁS ªTˆ Y…„[[˝Ô EıFX %Á]Á„Eı [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVÃ^◊X, EırÙ ÂVÃ^◊X* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Y„U ªK«˜‰ªRÙO %Áa„Tˆ a]ÿôˆ YÁ◊UÔ[˝ [˝µ˘X ◊ªK˜~ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ Âa %Á]Á„Eı ^„UrÙ aÁc˜Á^Ó Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜_* %ÁL Âac˜O Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ATˆ %£à˘TˆÁ ÂL„G =Pˆ_ ÂEıX? =: Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %£à˘TˆÁ Tˆ ◊ªK˜_c˜O --- AFÁ„X LÁ„G ◊X* AFÁ„X TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ªJÙÁY YQÕˆ_ [˝V_Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ, Â^LXÓ [˝ÁW˝Á Y“EıªRÙO c˜_* 3.7.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

535

A a[˝ Y“ÁS\…ˆ◊]Ã[˝ ÿëˆY¬ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ Eı◊îTˆ Ã[˝÷Ym„_Á A]X ◊]„` ÂG‰ªK˜ Â^ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX %UÔ [˝Á ]…_Ó ÂXc˜O* %„XEı ÿëˆY¬ Ac˜O W˝Ã[˝„XÃ[˝c˜O c˜Ã^* Â^m„_Á &rÙ %UÔY…SÔ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝c˜O ]…_Ó %Á‰ªK˜* 13.7.34 *

[˝«Mı„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝_Á] XÁ* Â^ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ[˝ [˝SÔXÁ EıÃ[˝, ÂaªRÙO› Ê`“úˆ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡Eı =~◊TˆÃ[˝ Y„l˘ --- Y“E ı◊Tˆ `Á‹ôˆ, ªJÙÁá˚_Ó =„w¯LXÁÃ[˝ %\ˆÁ[˝, `Á‹ôˆ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ %ÁX≥V, ◊XUÃ[˝ =daÁc˜ --- %ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı ªJÙÁC? Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ =~◊TˆÃ[˝ ◊\ˆ◊w¯* 18.8.34 *

a: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]X Y“ÁS %Á±¡Á ÂEıÁUÁÃ^ %‹ôˆW˝ÔÁX Eı„Ã[˝‰ªK˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂVc˜◊ªRÙO AEıªRÙOÁ l˘›S %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ Ã[˝◊`ΩÃ[˝ ]Tˆ Y‰QÕˆ %Á‰ªK˜ --- ÂEıÁX Ã[˝Eı] \ˆÁÃ[˝ EırÙ =„w¯LXÁ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O %Á◊] Â[˝ÁW˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝◊ªK˜ XÁ* ...%Á◊] %„XEı Ã[˝ÁÿôˆÁ ÂVF„Tˆ YÁ◊¨K˜ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ^Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ÂaÁLÁ Ã[˝ÁÿôˆÁ AEı◊ªRÙOC XÁc˜O* ]Á, Y…„[[˝Ô Â^]X ÂaÁLÁ ◊ªK˜_ [˝„_ %Á◊] ÂVF„Tˆ ÂYTˆÁ] AFX ÂEıX TˆÁ ÂVF„Tˆ YÁc˜O XÁ? =: T«ˆ◊] AFX physical ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó [˝„a %ÁªK˜ --- Âa ʪJÙTˆXÁ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ Y“ÿô«ˆTˆ c˜‰¨K˜ %ÁÃ[˝ Y“Tˆ›l˘Á Eı‰¨K˜* 21.8.34 *

[˝ÓUÁÃ^, c˜TˆÁ`ÁÃ^, ◊XÃ[˝ÁX„≥V, ◊XÃ[˝”daÁ„c˜ ÂEı= EıFXC Â^ÁGY„U =~◊Tˆ _Á\ˆ Eı„Ã[˝◊X* Ac˜O a[˝ XÁ UÁEıÁ \ˆÁ_* 24.8.34 *

Ac˜O Â^ÁGY„U ◊]UÓÁc˜O c˜‰¨K˜ [˝QÕˆ %‹ôˆÃ[˝ÁÃ^ --- ÂEıÁX Ã[˝Eı] ◊]UÓÁ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Tˆ ÂXc˜O --- ]„XC XÃ^, EıUÁÃ^C XÃ^, EıÁ„^ÔÓC XÃ^* 1.9.34

*

536

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%◊[˝`üÁa c˜‰¨K˜ ◊X∂oˆY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ W˝∂ˆÇÔ Â^X --- ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ EıUÁ £X„Tˆ ÂXc˜O* ^Á =YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı %Á„a TˆÁc˜Ác˜O aTˆÓ* 1.9.34 *

^FX `Ã[˝›[à ˝‰Jª ÙTˆXÁ Y“ÿˆ«ô Tˆ c˜„^à ^Á„[˝, TˆFX EıÁ„LÃ[˝ •ÁÃ[˝ÁC =~◊Tˆ c˜„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝* 8.9.34 *

◊]UÓÁ Tˆ ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝* ÂaFÁ„X aTˆÓ„Eı ÿöˆÁYX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜„[˝* 11.9.34 *

£W˝« >„àùÔ˘ ^ÁCÃ^ÁÃ^ A Â^Á„GÃ[˝ ◊a◊à˘ c˜Ã^ XÁ --- >„àùÔ˘Ã[˝ aTˆÓ `Á◊‹ôˆ %Á„_Á c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V ÂX„] ]X Y“ÁS ÂV„c˜ Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ c˜„_c˜O ◊a◊à˘ c˜Ã^* ^◊V >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆXÓ XÁ„] %ÁÃ[˝ T«ˆ◊] ]XY“ÁS„V„c˜Ã[˝ a[˝ ◊]UÓÁ„Eı Y“TˆÓÁFÁX EıÃ[˝, TˆÁc˜„_ aTˆÓ Y“◊Tˆ◊úˆTˆ c˜„[˝* 14.9.34 *

^◊V ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ]X ªK«˜‰ªRÙO [˝Á ]ÁX«b„Eı %ÁEıbÔS EıÃ[˝, TˆÁc˜„_ \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı YÁCÃ^Á Eı◊PˆX, Ac˜O EıUÁ F«[˝c˜O aTˆÓ* 19.9.34 *

a: %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ p˚ÁX, %Á„_ÁEı C `◊N˛ ÂX„] %Áa‰ªK˜ A[˝e TˆÁ„VÃ[˝„Eı [˝Ó[˝c˜ÁÃ[˝ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ p˚ÁXC %Áa‰ªK˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝„Eı Y“EıÁ` EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁbÁ ªK˜≥V C YU Fg«„L YÁ◊¨K˜ XÁ* =: \ˆÁbÁ ªK˜„≥VÃ[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O --- Ac˜O ^Á XÁ]„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜Á p˚ÁX --- %Á„G

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

537

p˚ÁX ÂY„Tˆ, p˚Á„XÃ[˝ %Á„_Á„Eı =~◊Tˆ ac˜L c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ --- AFX %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝Ó[˝c˜Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“„Ã^ÁLX XÁc˜O* 25.9.34 *

aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ aÁ]„XÃ[˝ ◊VEıc˜O LÁG–Tˆ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O aÁ]„XÃ[˝ LÁG–Tˆ ˪JÙTˆXÓ a◊TˆÓ a◊TˆÓ LÁG–Tˆ XÃ^, TˆÁc˜Á %◊[˝VÓÁY…SÔ, %p˚* TˆÁÃ[˝ ÂYªK˜„X Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ inner beingAÃ[˝ Âl˘y --- Âa ªRÙÁEıÁ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ Â^X H«]‹ôˆ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Ac˜O %Á[˝Ã[˝SªRÙO› F«_„_ Ac˜O ÂYªK˜„XÃ[˝ ˪JÙTˆXÓc˜O ÂFÁ_Á ÂVFÁ ^ÁÃ^, Âac˜OFÁ„Xc˜O %Á„_Á `◊N˛ `Á◊‹ôˆ c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V Y“U] XÁ„]* ^Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ LÁG–Tˆ aw¯Á EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ, TˆÁc˜Á Ac˜O ÂYªK˜„XÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ aw¯Á ac˜„L EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊[˝`üΪJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ ◊[˝`Á_ ]«N˛ÎªJÙTˆXÓ c˜„Ã^ Â^„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 25.9.34 *

^FX ʪJÙTˆXÁ =Y„Ã[˝ =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝„Eı %◊Tˆy‘] Eı„Ã[˝ --- Âa CPˆÁ Â^Á„GÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› Y“W˝ÁX %Ü --- E«ıâ¯◊_X›C Âac˜OÃ[˝÷Y =Pˆ„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* E«ıâ¯◊_X› ÂEı≥V–◊ÿöˆTˆ mä ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ `◊N˛ ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ XÁc˜O* 29.9.34 *

a: [˝Á[˝Á, ac˜L ÿëˆÁ\ˆÁ◊[˝Eı\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ ◊_F„Tˆ c˜Ã^ TˆÁ Tˆ %Á◊] LÁ◊X XÁ* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â_FÁYQÕˆÁÃ[˝ ÂVÏQÕˆ ATˆªR«ÙOE«ı* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝Á„[˝G >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ Ac˜O a]«VÃ^ ◊L◊Xbm„_Á„Eı Ã[˝÷Y ◊V„Ã^ \ˆÁbÁÃ[˝ ]W˝Ó ◊V„Ã^ A LG„Tˆ Y“EıÁ` EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^* =: p˚ÁX ^◊V %Á„a, TˆÁc˜Ác˜O ^„UrÙ* Â_FÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı Y“„Ã^ÁLX* 29.9.34 *

538

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ^Tˆ Y◊Ã[˝õ ıTˆ c˜Ã^, TˆTˆc˜O \ˆÁ_ --- ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ aÁ◊~W˝Ó ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ C [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ Y“EıÁ` c˜„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝* 6.10.34 *

^◊V ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ a[˝ ◊PˆEı c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜„_ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á ◊Eı EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝? 13.10.34 *

◊X„L„Eı ae^Tˆ Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁFÁ --- EıÁ„Ã[˝Á ◊V„Eı %ÁEıbÔS c˜„Tˆ XÁ ÂVCÃ^Á, EıÁÃ[˝C ªvital ªRÙOÁX„Eı Y“`“Ã^ XÁ ÂVCÃ^Á, ◊X„LC TˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ ÂZı_„[˝ XÁ vital Â]Ác˜ [˝Á %ÁEıbÔS --- c˜Oc˜Á„Eıc˜O [˝„_ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ◊PˆEı UÁEıÁ* 16.10.34 *

a: TˆFX ATˆ %◊\ˆp˚TˆÁ XÁ◊]Ã^Á %Á◊aTˆ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `◊N˛ `Á◊‹ôˆ %Á„_ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü --- AFX %ÁÃ[˝ %Á◊a„Tˆ‰ªK˜ XÁ ÂEıX? AFX £W˝« `Á◊‹ôˆ %ÁX≥V %Á& c˜Á XÁ◊]Ã^Á UÁ„Eı --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ Tˆ %Á◊a_ XÁ* =: ^FX ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC ÿôˆÃ[˝ =‰Pˆ ^ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ a∂눵˘ AFXC ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜Ã^ XÁ %U[˝Á [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ AEıªRÙOÁ ÊPˆ_Á %Á„a ]XY“Á„SÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ]X Y“ÁS TˆÁÃ[˝ [˝`›\…ˆTˆ c˜Ã^, TˆFX A Ã[˝Eı] %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á„a --- A V«ªRÙO› EıÁÃ[˝„SÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó AEıªRÙO› c˜„[˝* 30.10.34 *

%◊[˝VÓÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ^Á UÁ„Eı Âa a[˝ AEı ◊[˝`ü ȪJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ ]„W˝Óc˜O UÁ„Eı %Á„_Á %µ˘EıÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]Tˆ, TˆÁc˜O [˝„_ %Á„_Á %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ Â^ a[˝c˜O a]ÁX TˆÁ XÃ^* %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝„Eı [˝#¤X EıÃ[˝„Tˆ, %Á„_Á„Eı [˝Ã[˝S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 3.11.34 *

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

539

c˜Ã^ psychic %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊XÃ^Á]Eı (ruler, ªJÙÁ_Eı, YUY“V`ÔEı) c˜„Ã^ [˝«◊à˘ ]X Y“ÁS `Ã[˝›Ã[˝-‰ªJÙTˆXÁ„Eı \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı =XΩ∆F EıÃ[˝„[˝, XÃ^ >àùÔ˘ ˪JÙTˆXÓ `Ã[˝›Ã[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ÂX„] a]ÿôˆ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝„Eı VF_ EıÃ[˝„[˝, TˆÁc˜„_ ÿöˆ…_ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ^ `N˛ ◊\ˆ◊w¯ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* 6.11.34 *

Â^ ÿöˆÁXªRÙO› [˝„_ªK˜ --- G_ÁÃ[˝ AEıªªR«ÙO X›‰ªJÙ Âa vital mindAÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ --ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı vital beingAÃ[˝ will C ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ Â[˝„Ã[˝ÁÃ^* 7.11.34 *

a[˝c˜O ◊X\ˆ[ä ˝ Eı„[à ˝ psychicAÃ[˝ Y“ÁW˝Á„XÓÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ --- [˝◊c˜fY“Eı  ◊Tˆ l«˘V– %c˜eEıÁ[à ˝ %ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÁaXÁ EıÁ]XÁ„Eı ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ [˝Óÿôˆ --- ]ÁXa Y«Ã[˝”b %Á±¡Á ◊X„Ã^ [˝Óÿôˆ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ l«˘V– %c˜„]Ã[˝ TˆÁ„Tˆ ÂEıÁX T ˆ◊ä XÁc˜O, l«˘V–±ºˆ„Eıc˜O ªJÙÁÃ^* psychic \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı ◊X„Ã^ [˝Óÿôˆ, a]YÔS TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O EıÁL --- AEı psychicc˜O [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ„Eı [˝` EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 13.11.34 *

Y«Ã[˝”b ◊EıªK«˜c˜O Eı„Ã[˝X XÁ, Y“E ı◊Tˆ [˝Á `◊N˛c˜O a[˝ Eı„Ã[˝X* Tˆ„[˝ Y«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜Á XÁ c˜„_ ◊EıªK«˜c˜O c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ, A ªTˆ LÁXÁ EıUÁ T«ˆ◊] EıFX Â`ÁX ◊X? 8.12.34 *

aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ YU Tˆ ÂV◊F„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^◊ªK˜* ae^Tˆ c˜„Ã^ `Á‹ôˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ◊X„L„Eı F«„_ VÁC, Âa `◊N˛Ã[˝ EıÁ„L a∂ˆÇ◊Tˆ VÁC, ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ÊY“Ã[˝SÁ„Eı Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝* [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ◊X„L„Eı ◊[˝◊_„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ --- \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ LXÓc˜O ◊X„L„Eı Y◊[˝y ÿëˆTˆ‹óˆ Ã[˝ÁF* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ ^◊V ÊY“] UÁ„Eı, Tˆ„[˝ Âa Â^X ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÊY“] Âc˜ÏEı, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ XÃ^, Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %£à˘ ÊY“] XÃ^, [˝ÁaXÁ VÁ◊[˝Ã[˝ XÃ^ --- [˝ÁW˝Á„Eı

540

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

\ˆÃ^ Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ --- ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á„Eı ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ `Á‹ôˆ \ˆÁ„[˝ aÁW˝XÁc˜O Eı„Ã[˝ ^ÁC, Â`„b ^Á AFX `N˛, TˆÁ ac˜L c˜„Ã^ =Pˆ„[˝* 13.12.34 *

ÿoˆÁÃ^◊[˝Eı EıîXÁC %a«F a ◊rÙ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝* 14.12.34 *

`Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÿoˆÁÃ^◊[˝Eı \ˆÁ„G (nervous systemA) `Á◊‹ôˆ C `◊N˛ XÁ[˝ÁX, Ac˜O ªK˜ÁQÕˆÁ =YÁÃ^ XÁc˜O nerves„Eı a[˝_ EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝* 15.12.34 *

a: ]Á, %Á◊] Y“ÁSY„S ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı◊Ã[˝ aÁÃ[˝Á ◊VXÃ[˝ÁTˆ X›Ã[˝[˝ ◊XL¤„X ÂEı[˝_ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊X„Ã^ UÁEı„Tˆ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ a[˝ a]Ã^ TˆÁ ÂY„Ã[˝ =◊Pˆ XÁ* ʪJÙTˆXÁ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ ÂX„] %Á„a A[˝e [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ LG„Tˆ ªK˜◊QÕˆ„Ã^ Y‰QÕˆ* =: [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊V„Eı %ÁEıbÔS %Á‰ªK˜ [˝„_ --- Âa %ÁEıbÔS ATˆ ac˜„L ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* 18.12.34 *

F«[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ªJÙÁ„Y ]ÁUÁ W˝Ã[˝Á c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝ %a«„FÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ XÁc˜O* 3.1.35 *

a: ]Á, ATˆ◊VX Y„Ã[˝ `◊N˛◊ªRÙO„Eı %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁ A[˝e ÂVc˜ ◊[˝XÁEı‰rÙ W˝ÁÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝„Tˆ al˘] c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* a[˝ a]Ã^ Y“U] `◊N˛◊ªRÙO %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ Ac˜OÃ[˝Eı] %◊G¬[à ˝ ]Tˆ c˜„^à XÁ„] ÂEıX? Â^]X [à ˝I¯◊Rª ÙO %Ám„XÃ[˝ XÓÁÃ^, ÂTˆ]◊X ÂTˆLC %Ám„XÃ[˝ XÓÁÃ^*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

=: %£à˘TˆÁ ^◊V UÁ„Eı ]„X Y“Á„S [˝Á `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝, TˆÁc˜„_ %◊G¬Ã[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^*

541 resistance

^◊V UÁ„Eı, 5.1.35

*

◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ nearnessc˜O %Áa_ nearness --- ^ÁÃ[˝Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ EıÁ‰ªK˜ UÁ„Eı, TˆÁÃ[˝Ác˜O Â^ near, Ac˜O W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ ◊]UÓÁ* 15.1.35 *

%a«Ã[˝Ã[˝Á Y„UÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó a[˝ a]Ã^ %Á‰ªK˜, Tˆ„[˝ ]ÁX«b Y“ÁÃ^c˜O ʪJÙ„X XÁ --- ◊X∂oˆ Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ [˝„` Ã[˝„Ã^ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ VÁa c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı* 19.1.35 *

YÁ„YÃ[˝ EıUÁ ÂEıX --- YÁY XÃ^, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ* %Á±¡Á a[[˝ÔVÁ £à˘, psychic being (˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”bC) £à˘, aÁW˝XÁ •ÁÃ[˝Á %‹ôˆÃ[˝TˆÁC (inner mind, vital, physical) £à˘ c˜„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ %UªJÙ external being [˝◊c˜faw¯Á [˝◊c˜fY“E ı◊Tˆ„Tˆ Âac˜O ªJÙ◊Ã[˝‰yÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX V«[[˝Ô_TˆÁ %„XEı ◊VX Â_„G UÁEı„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, a+…SÔ £à˘ EıÃ[˝Á Eı◊PˆX* ªJÙÁc˜O complete sincerity, ªJÙÁc˜O V ªRÕÙTˆÁ C ÈW˝^ÔÓ,ª JÙÁc˜O aVÁLÁG–Tˆ \ˆÁ[˝* Psychic being ^◊V in frontA UÁ„Eı, a[[˝ÔVÁ ÂL„G UÁ„Eı, Y“\ˆÁ[˝ ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝, TˆÁc˜„_ \ˆÃ^ XÁc˜O, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ a[˝ a]„Ã^ c˜Ã^ XÁ* Ã[˝Ál˘a› ]ÁÃ^Á Âac˜O Y«[à ˝Á„XÁ weak point„VÃ[˝ W˝„[à ˝ ]X„Eı \«ˆ◊_„Ã^ Y“„[˝` Eı[à ˝[˝Á[à ˝ YU YÁÃ^* Y“„TˆÓEı[˝Á[à ˝ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ TˆÁ◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ◊V„Ã^ YU ÂÃ[˝ÁW˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 22.1.35 *

a: ]Á, %ÁL Eı„Ã^Eı◊VX W˝„Ã[˝ ÿ눉Y¬Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó ÂVF◊ªK˜ Â^ %Á◊] a[˝Ác˜O„Eı ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ªJÙ„_ ^Á◊¨K˜* Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX a[˝ %Á±¡›„Ã^Ã[˝Á a^‰±Ûˆ %Á]Á„Eı ◊[˝VÁÃ^„\ˆÁLX EıÃ[˝Á‰¨K˜ %ÁÃ[˝ EgıÁV‰ªK˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]X Âa◊V„Eı XÁc˜O* a«≥VÃ[˝ a«≥VÃ[˝ XV›„Tˆ ÿoˆÁX EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ [˝µ˘Xc˜›X

542

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

AEıªRÙOÁ %ÁX„≥V Â^X ◊[˝„\ˆÁÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ Ã[˝„Ã^◊ªK˜* =: Ac˜O a[˝ Y“ÁSLG„TˆÃ[˝ EıUÁ * ÂaFÁ„X Â^ %Á±¡›Ã^„VÃ[˝ ªRÙOÁX C a∂눵˘ ◊ªK˜_, Âa ◊`◊U_ c˜„Ã^ ◊G„Ã^‰ªK˜ %ÁÃ[˝ A„Eı[˝Á„Ã[˝ [˝µ˘ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÈTˆÃ^ÁÃ[˝› c˜‰¨K˜* TˆÁÃ[˝ [˝V„_ aTˆÓ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ %ÁX≥V C ÂaÏ≥V^ÔÓ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı‰ªK˜* ÿ눉Y¬Ã[˝ %UÔ Ac˜O* 23.1.35 *

^FX ÂEıÁXC AEıRª ÙÁO `◊N˛ %ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ XÁ„], TˆFX receive Eı[à ˝[˝Á[à ˝ difficulty[à ˝ VÃ[˝”X Eı+ C %Á„_ÁQÕˆX c˜Ã^* `Á‹ôˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„_, a√º¯m◊_ F«„_ ◊V„_ %ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ absorb C assimilate EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝êˆ Eı„Ã[˝* 26.1.35

*

a: ]Á, AFX H«„], W˝ÓÁ„X %U[˝Á aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ c˜PˆÁd ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ [˝Á EıîXÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Á]ÁÃ[˝ F«[˝ =YEıÁÃ[˝› [˝Á %Á±¡›Ã^ ]ÁX«b ÂEı= %Á„a* %Á◊] TˆÁ„Eı ◊ªJÙX„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ; %U[˝Á ÂEıÁX ◊L◊Xb [˝Á AEı◊ªRÙO V `Ó ÂV◊F ^ÁÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁc˜O ÂXc˜O* ÂEı]X %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Âac˜O ]ÁX«b◊ªRÙO„Eı ]ÁX«b C [˝ÿô«ˆ◊ªRÙO„Eı [˝ÿô«ˆ [˝„_ ]„X c˜Ã^ XÁ* =: %„XEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ Âac˜OÃ[˝÷Y %ÁE ı◊Tˆ W˝„Ã[˝ ÂVFÁ ÂVÃ^ [˝‰ªRÙO --- ÿ눉Y¬ [˝Á W˝ÓÁ„X* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Âaa[˝ Tˆ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ◊L◊Xb XÃ^, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁXC XÁ ÂEıÁXC ◊L◊X„bÃ[˝ a…ªJÙXÁ ◊V„Tˆ %Á„a* 26.1.35

*

a: ]Á, ÂVFÁ AEı◊ªRÙO ◊L◊Xb ---- %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á %XÓ ◊L◊Xb A[˝e [˝«MıÁ ◊\ˆ~ ◊L◊Xb* %Á◊] W˝ÓÁ„X %U[˝Á [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ^Á ÂV◊F TˆÁ c˜÷V„Ã^ Â[˝ÁW˝ Eı◊Ã[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ [˝«◊Mı XÁ, ]Á* =: TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ p˚Á„XÃ[˝ ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ ªJÙÁc˜O* Âa p˚ÁX y‘„] ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı [˝Á =YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı %Áa‰ªTˆ YÁ„Ã[˝*

26.1.35

*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

543

^FX ]XY“ÁS ªK«˜‰ªRÙOÁªK«˜◊ªRÙO Eı„Ã[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝, TˆFX ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁXC Y«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ EıUÁ £X„[˝ ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝? c˜Ã^ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ_Ác˜„_ Âa EıUÁ ÂU„] ^ÁÃ^, XÁ [c˜Ã^] Â`ÁXÁ ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* Tˆ„[˝ A]X %[˝ÿöˆÁ %ÁX„Tˆ c˜Ã^ ^ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ^FX [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ_Ác˜_ c˜Ã^, TˆFXC ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y«Ã[˝”b aLÁG c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı, c˜Ã^ %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂV„F UÁ„Eı, XÃ^ %Á‰ÿôˆ %Á‰ÿôˆ TˆÁÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ C [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂEıÁ_Ác˜_„Eı UÁ◊]„Ã^ ÂVÃ^* ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y«Ã[˝”b %„XEı UÁ„Eı* %Á‰ªK˜ psychic being ˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”b, %Á‰ªK˜ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ]„XÁ]Ã^ Y«Ã[˝”b, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”b, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ physical Y«Ã[˝”b* =Y„Ã[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ ÂEı≥V–›Ã^ aw¯Á --- Ac˜O aEı_ TˆÁÃ[˝c˜O XÁXÁX %ÁE ı◊Tˆ* ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ◊[˝EıÁ„` Ac˜O aEı_„Eı ʪJÙXÁ ^ÁÃ^* 26.1.35 * PhysicalAÃ[˝

ÂEı≥V– Â]Ã[˝”V„â¯Ã[˝ Â`b\ˆÁ„G, ^Á„Eı ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝„_, ÂaFÁ„X --- Tˆ„[˝ Y“ÁÃ^c˜O ÂVFÁ ÂVÃ^ XÁ, TˆÁÃ[˝ presence %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^* 29.1.35 *

A Tˆ Y“ÁS]Ã^ Y«Ã[˝”b, emotional vitalA %◊W˝◊úˆTˆ* Y“ÁS]Ã^ Y«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ ◊TˆXªRÙO› ÿôˆÃ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜ --- c˜÷V„Ã^, XÁ◊\ˆ„Tˆ, XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ* c˜÷V„Ã^ Âa c˜Ã^ emotional being, XÁ◊\ˆ„Tˆ [˝ÁaXÁ]Ã^, XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ sensational %UÔÁd c˜O◊≥V–„Ã^Ã[˝ ªRÙOÁX C l«˘V– l«˘V– Y“Á„SÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝ ◊X„Ã^ [˝Óÿôˆ* 29.1.35 *

ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ --- =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ ªJÙy‘ (EıÁ^ÔÓEıÃ[˝›-G◊Tˆ) XÁ]‰ªK˜ X›ªJÙ Y“E ı◊Tˆ„Eı %Á„_Á◊EıTˆ C a‰ªJÙTˆX EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ, %ÁÃ[˝ A◊V„Eı ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ„^ÔÓÃ[˝ LXÓ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ higher vital Y«Ã[˝”b aÁ]„X A„a‰ªK˜ --- %Á]Ã[˝Á ^Á„Eı [˝◊_ true vital being* ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁL ÂV„F ]Á F«[˝ a‹ô«ˆ rÙ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜X* ÂEıÁX \ˆÃ^ ÂXc˜O --- %c˜eEıÁÃ[˝

544

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V„Eı ÿöˆÁX XÁ ◊V„Ã^ aÃ[˝_\ˆÁ„[˝ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁL Eı„Ã[˝ ^ÁC, a[˝◊V„Eı =~◊ªTˆ c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝* 18.4.35 *

Ac˜O a[˝ difficulties aÁW˝XÁÃ^ c˜^à c˜O --- ◊[˝„`b Y“Á„S C `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ --- aÁ]taÓ c˜CÃ^Á Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ* Âa aÁ]taÓ %Á„a (1) psychic aw¯ÁÃ[˝ %Á◊W˝YTˆÓ ^FX ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜Ã^ ]X Y“ÁS `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝, (2) >àùÔ˘ÎªJÙTˆ„XÓÃ[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ C Y◊[˝yTˆÁ ^FX =YÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı ÂX„[˝ a]ÿôˆ beingA --- ◊XVÁX a]ÿôˆ inner beingA ◊[˝`Á_ %ªRÙO_\ˆÁ„[˝ ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^* 10.6.35 *

EıÁ„LÃ[˝ LXÓ, aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ LXÓ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ \ˆÁ_ %[˝ÿöˆÁ ªJÙÁc˜O* 20.6.35 *

QˆÁN˛ÁÃ[˝ Fg«L‰ªK˜ --- EıÁÃ[˝S ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝ A]X ◊EıªK«˜ ÂVÁb YÁ‰¨K˜ XÁ ^Á„Tˆ Aa[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝Tˆf c˜Ã^* ...^Ác˜O Âc˜ÏEı ATˆ =Tˆ_Á c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC EıÁÃ[˝S XÁc˜O* Â^Á„GÃ[˝ aÁW˝Eı T«ˆ◊], ^Á c˜Ã^ TˆÁ `Á‹ôˆ %◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ ]„X ÂV„F \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ Â^ÁGY„U %G–aÃ[˝ c˜C* c˜Oc˜Ác˜O Ac˜O Y„UÃ[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ Y“ÁÃ^ a[˝ Â^ÁGY„UÃ[˝ ◊XÃ^]* 21.6.35 *

a: ]Á, GTˆÃ[˝Á‰y ÂVF_Á] Y“EıÁ⯠[˝ÁGÁ„X AEı◊ªRÙO ‚—˜V, ‚—˜„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %„XEım„_Á aÁY ÂF_Á EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜* ÂaFÁ„X AEı◊ªRÙO aYÔÁE ı◊Tˆ [˝ c˜d L‹ô«ˆ ]ÿôˆEıc˜›X; ]ÿôˆ„EıÃ[˝ Y◊Ã[˝[˝„wÔ¯ [˝QÕˆ \ˆ›bS AEıFÁ◊X ]«F C V«c˜OYÁ◊ªRÙO VÒÁTˆ* L_Á`„Ã^ _«◊Eı„Ã^ ◊ªK˜_, c˜PˆÁd =‰Pˆ ÂaÁLÁ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı AEıª◊ªRÙO [˝QÕˆ cg˜Á Eı„Ã[˝ G–Áa EıÃ[˝ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ %Áa‰ªK˜* %Á◊] VÒÁ≈◊QÕˆ„Ã^ ÂVF◊ªK˜ CÃ[˝ ÂY‰ªRÙOÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %Á„Ã[˝Á EıTˆ L‹ô«ˆ %Á‰ªK˜* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ %ÁaÁÃ[˝ %Á„Gc˜O AEı◊ªRÙO %a«Ã[˝ÁE ı◊Tˆ L›[˝ %ÁYXÁ%ÁY◊X Â^X CÃ[˝ ]«„F YQÕˆ_

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

545

--- TˆFX Âa %ÁÃ[˝ A_ XÁ, %ÁYXÁ%ÁY◊X ◊Y◊ªK˜„Ã^ YQÕˆ_* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„X c˜_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó %£à˘ `◊N˛ _«EıÁ„Ã^ %Á‰ªK˜* %ÁL %Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı◊ªK˜ [˝„_ %Á]Á„Eı G–Áa EıÃ[˝„Tˆ A„aC G–Áa EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝◊X* =: ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ [˝ÓÁFÓÁ ◊PˆEı --- ‚—˜V c˜_ ◊X∂oˆY“ÁS --- ÂaFÁ„X %„XEım„_Á ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ʪK˜ÁªRÙO ◊X∂oˆY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ `◊N˛ %Á‰ªK˜ --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ %[˝‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a[[˝ÔG–Áa› AEı TˆÁ]a `◊N˛ %Á‰ªK˜ Â^ a[˝ G–Áa Eı„Ã[˝, aÁW˝Eı„Eı C aÁW˝XÁ„Eı G–Áa EıÃ[˝„Tˆ %Á„a* TˆÁÃ[˝ ]«„F ◊X„LÃ[˝ %Áa«◊Ã[˝Eı [˝ ◊w¯ ^Tˆ ^◊V Y‰QÕˆ (W[˝ea c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^), TˆFX %ÁÃ[˝ Âa Tˆ]f aÁW˝Eı„Eı G–Áa EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝ XÁ* 1.7.35

*

^◊V ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı, =Y„Ã[˝[à ˝ ◊V„Eı a[˝a]Ã^ ]XY“ÁS„Eı turned Eı„Ã[˝ [à ˝ÁF, TˆÁc˜„_ X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı Ã[˝Ál˘a [˝Á %ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıc˜ ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ʪRÙO„X ◊X„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ* 4.7.35 *

A aEı_ Y“ÁSLG„TˆÃ[˝ ÿëˆY¬* ÂaFÁ„X ◊X„LÃ[˝ [˝Á Â_Á„EıÃ[˝ ÊY“Ã[˝SÁ, ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ, [˝ÁaXÁ %ÁÃ[˝ ^Tˆ \ˆÁ_ [˝Á FÁÃ[˝ÁY `◊N˛Ã[˝ ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ XÁXÁÃ[˝Eı] %ÁEıÁÃ[˝ G–c˜S Eı„Ã[˝ --- ÿ눉Y¬ Âa a[˝ ÂVFÁ ÂVÃ^ Â^X aTˆÓc˜O c˜‰¨K˜* 22.7.35

*

A a[˝ EıÁ~Á ◊ªJÙdEıÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ =„w¯LXÁ aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ Y„U \ˆÁ_ XÃ^, A a[˝ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^* ◊XÃ[˝c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ[˝, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ, `Á‹ôˆ a]YÔS, Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ Â^ÁGaÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆ◊w¯* EıÁ„LC Âac˜O \ˆÁ[˝c˜O ªJÙÁc˜O* 25.10.35

*

^◊V `Á‹ôˆ ]XY“ÁS ªJÙÁC Tˆ a[˝ VÁ[˝› %Á[˝VÁÃ[˝ %c˜e \ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ [˝ ◊w¯ %◊Tˆy‘] EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* `Á‹ôˆ ]XY“ÁSc˜O aÁW˝XÁÃ[˝ =~◊TˆÃ[˝ ]«FÓ ac˜ÁÃ^* 26.10.35

*

546

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

AEı]Áy YU %Á‰ªK˜ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ [˝` XÁ c˜„Ã^ ◊XÃ[˝c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝\ˆÁ„[˝ EıÁL EıÃ[˝Á C psychicAÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁ EıÃ[˝Á* 23.12.35

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Y“„TˆÓEı Y«[à ˝”„bÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁ^à › %[˝ÿˆö ÁX TˆÁ[à ˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ÂEı‰≥V– [˝Á Âl˘‰y --- ˪JÙTˆÓY«[à ˝”„bÃ[˝ G\ˆ›Ã[˝ c˜÷V„Ã^, Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ c˜÷V„Ã^ XÁ◊\ˆ„Tˆ [˝Á TˆÁÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙÃ[˝ Â^ ÂEı≥V– ÂaFÁ„X* %U[˝Á a]ÿôˆ Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”b„Eı Ac˜O a]ÿôˆ Y“ÁS„l˘y [˝ÓÁä Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á %X«\ˆ[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝* ]…_ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝c˜O Y“ÁS„l˘‰yÃ[˝ Â`b, ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı YÁ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ %~]Ã^ (physical) Y«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ Âl˘y, ]…_ÁW˝Á„Ã[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ [˝a[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^FX Â^Á„GÃ[˝ %\ˆÓÁa c˜Ã^ TˆFX ◊X‰∂oˆÃ[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ =Y„Ã[˝ =Pˆ„Tˆ _Á„G --- Â^]X Y“ÁS‰ªJÙTˆXÁ ---- ÂVF◊ªK˜ c˜÷V„Eı≥V– C TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊XEıªRÙOÿöˆ %e` ÂU„Eı a]ÿôˆ =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Y“ÁS‰ªJÙTˆXÁ =‰Pˆ ^Á‰¨K˜, ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ >àùÔ˘ ʪJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ◊]◊_Tˆ c˜‰¨K˜* AÃ[˝ a„Ü Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”b Â^FÁ„X =Pˆ‰ªK˜, TˆÁC %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝* AÃ[˝ =„Å`Ó Ac˜O Â^ CFÁ„X =‰Pˆ %W˝ÓÁ„±¡Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜Ã^, %W˝ÓÁ„±¡Ã[˝ ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ a„Ü Y“ÁSÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝Ã[˝ ◊]_ c˜Ã^, Â`„b >àùÔ˘‰ªJÙTˆXÁ X›‰ªJÙ ÂX„] a]ÿôˆ Y“ÁS‰ªJÙTˆXÁ Y“ÁSY“Eı  ◊Tˆ„Eı %◊W˝EıÁ[à ˝ Eı„[à ˝, \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ ˪JÙTˆ„XÓ Y◊Ã[˝STˆ Eı„Ã[˝* Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ Â^Á„GÃ[˝ ◊XÃ^]* 10.1.36 *

a: ]Á, aÁÃ[˝Á◊VX a[˝◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ◊V„Ã^ ÂVF◊ªK˜ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ XÁ◊\ˆ c˜„Tˆ AEı◊ªRÙO ◊L◊Xb [˝«„Eı =‰Pˆ ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Âÿoˆ„c˜Ã[˝ EıUÁ ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁ EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁÃ^ %Á]Á„Eı =‡ˆÁ◊aTˆ Eı„Ã[˝ T«ˆ_‰ªK˜* ]ÁUÁ c˜‰ªTˆ %ÁÃ[˝ AEı◊ªRÙO ◊L◊Xb ÂX„] [˝«„Eı A„a \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı YÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ \ˆG[˝d \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁÃ[˝ %ÁEıÁIl˘ÁÃ^ a]ÿôˆ ◊EıªK«˜„Eı a„TˆL Eı„Ã[˝ T«ˆ_‰ªK˜* ...◊Eı c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, ]Á? =: ^Á =‰Pˆ Y“ÁS ÂU„Eı, TˆÁ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ aÁW˝XÁÃ^ AEıªRÙO› Y“W˝ÁX [˝ÁW˝Á, ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ÊY“] C \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁÃ[˝ %ÁEıbÔS --- =Y„Ã[˝Ã[˝ ÂU„Eı XÁ][˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ Eı„Ã[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ =‰∑ªRÙOÁ \ˆÁ[˝, \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ YÁCÃ^ÁÃ[˝ %Á& c˜Á --- A [˝QÕˆ &rÙ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ, TˆÁ„Tˆ A]X ◊EıªK«˜ XÁc˜O Â^ Â[˝ÁMıÁ Eı◊PˆX* 11.3.36

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aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

547

a: %ÁL ◊[˝EıÁ„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ aÁ]„X ÂVF_Á] F«[˝ EıÁ„_Á ªJÙT«ˆπYV AEı◊ªRÙO ◊[˝Ã[˝ÁªRÙO L‹ô«ˆ; Âa◊ªRÙO %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊YªK˜X◊VEı ÂU„Eı A_* TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊L\ˆ XQÕˆ◊ªK˜_ A[˝e G_Á CPˆÁXÁ]Á EıÃ[˝◊ªK˜_ FÁ[˝Á„Ã[˝Ã[˝ LXÓ* %Á◊] Y“ÁSY„S ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı„Tˆ _ÁG_Á], TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ L‹ô«ˆ◊ªRÙO %‹ôˆ◊c˜¤Tˆ c˜„Ã^ ÂG_* =: %UÔÁd AEıªRÙO› ◊X∂oˆ Y“ÁS`◊N˛ ^Á„Eı T«ˆ◊] %Ác˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊V„Tˆ %\ˆÓÿôˆ* 21.4.36 * [EıÁ„]Ã[˝

Y“„EıÁY a+„EÔı] `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ ʪJÙTˆXÁ„Eı purify EıÃ[˝„_ A a[˝ ^Á„[˝, %XÓUÁ ^ÁCÃ^Á Eı◊PˆX* 29.5.36 *

a: ]Á, AEı◊VX ÂVF_Á] %Á]ÁÃ[˝ AEı [˝daÃ[˝ [˝Ã^ïı ◊`£◊ªRÙO F«[˝c˜O Y›◊QÕˆTˆ* %Á◊] TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊EıdaÁÃ[˝ LXÓ Y◊[˝yÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ÂG◊ªK˜ A[˝e Âa ÂÃ[˝ÁG›Ã[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁ %Á]Á„Eı Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ [˝«◊Mı„Ã^ ◊V_ A[˝e ÂV◊F„Ã^ ◊V_* TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ AEı◊VX ÂVF_Á] ◊`£◊ªRÙO \ˆ›bS Y›QÕˆÁÃ^ ]„Ã[˝ ÂG_* ÂEıÁXÀ ◊`£„Eı ÂV◊F ]Á? %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ Â^ ◊`£ ◊ªK˜_ Âa ÂTˆÁ AFX V`-AGÁÃ[˝ [˝ªK˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜* %ÁÃ[˝ ^◊V ˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”b [˝„_ W˝◊Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝ Âa ]Ã[˝„[˝ ÂEıX --- Âa Tˆ ]„Ã[˝ XÁ* =: A Tˆ psychic being XÃ^*, Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ =dY~ %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ ^Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ]„Ã[˝ ÂG_* 7.7.36 *

a: ]Á, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Â^ÁGY„UÃ[˝ ^Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Á, ◊]UÓÁÃ[˝ %Á[˝Ã[˝S c˜„Tˆ Y“Á„SÃ[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á c˜„Tˆ ◊X„L„Eı ]«N˛ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O --- YÁ◊Ã[˝ XÁ* TˆÁÃ[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Á◊W˝YTˆÓ ◊[˝ÿôˆÁÃ[˝ Eı„Ã[˝* ÂEı]X Eı„Ã[˝ ]X Y“ÁS C ÂVc˜ ˪JÙTˆXÓ„Eı Y◊Ã[˝õıÁÃ[˝ C Y◊[˝y EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝[˝, ÂV◊F„Ã^ VÁC* =: Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ c˜„Tˆ Y◊Ã[˝yÁ„SÃ[˝ =YÁÃ^ Ac˜O --- aÃ[˝_ &rÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ a[˝ *

%&rÙ YÁPˆ*

548

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

\«ˆ_, Y“Á„SÃ[˝ a[˝ ÂVÁb ◊ªJÙ„X ÂXCÃ^Á, ◊X„LÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ XÁ _«EıÁ„Ã^ %Á„_Á„Tˆ T«ˆ„_ W˝Ã[˝Á, Y“TˆÓÁFÓÁX EıÃ[˝Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı* AEı◊V„X AªRÙOÁ aZı_ c˜Ã^ XÁ, EıÁÃ[˝S Y“ÁS]X resist EıÃ[˝„[˝c˜O, Y“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ Y«Ã[˝ÁTˆX %\ˆÓÁa ac˜„L ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ sincere will ^◊V UÁ„Eı %ÁÃ[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ a„Ü perseverence, y‘„] ac˜L c˜„Ã^ ^ÁÃ^ %ÁÃ[˝ Â`„b Y…SÔ aZı_TˆÁ c˜Ã^* 10.7.36 *

ÂVc˜ Y“ÁS %]Xc˜O ÿ눨K˜ c˜Ã^ XÁ --- aÁW˝XÁ •ÁÃ[˝Á %Á±¡ae^] •ÁÃ[˝Á Y“ÁS„Eı Y◊[˝y EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- Y“ÁS ÿ눨K˜ c˜„_, ÂV„c˜Ã[˝ %„XEı ÂÃ[˝ÁGEı‰rÙÃ[˝ =Y`] c˜Ã^* 11.7.36 *

a: ]Á, [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ \«ˆ_ a∂누µ˘ T«ˆ◊] ^Á ◊_„FªK˜ TˆÁ %Á◊] W˝Ã[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝◊ªK˜ XÁ* ]X Y“ÁS aÁW˝XY„U [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVÃ^ [˝„_ LÁXTˆÁ] --- ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ Â^ ÂVÁb %Á‰ªK˜ A[˝e [˝«◊à˘ Â^ \ˆÁG[˝Tˆ Y„U ªJÙ_„Tˆ [˝ÁW˝Á ÂVÃ^ TˆÁ Tˆ LÁXTˆÁ] XÁ* =: [˝«◊à˘ ^FX Y“Á„SÃ[˝ }Á◊‹ôˆ„Eı a]UÔX Eı„Ã[˝, %c˜·¯ÁÃ[˝„Eı a]UÔX Eı„Ã[˝, \«ˆ_ %[˝TˆÃ[˝„SÃ[˝ LXÓ justifying reasons Fg«„L =Y◊ÿöˆTˆ Eı„Ã[˝, ◊]UÓÁ EıîXÁ„Eı %Á`“Ã^ ÂVÃ^, A a[˝c˜O [˝«◊à˘Ã[˝ \«ˆ_* %ÁÃ[˝C %„XEı %Á‰ªK˜* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ [˝«◊à˘ %„XEı Ã[˝Eı] %aTˆÓ„Eı ÿöˆÁX ÂVÃ^* 11.7.36 *

%‹ôˆ„[à ˝[à ˝ G\ˆ›[à ˝Tˆ] Y“„V„` Q«ˆ„[˝ UÁEıÁ F«[˝ \ˆÁ_ ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô ÂaFÁX ÂU„Eı EıÁLEı∂ˆÇCÔ Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ aÁ]UÔÓ develop EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 15.9.36 *

^FX ÿëˆ\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂVÁb ÂV„FªK˜ TˆFX TˆÁ„Tˆ %ÁÃ[˝ aÁÃ^ XÁ ◊V„Ã^ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ ÂU„Eı ÂZı„_ VÁC* aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ UÁEı„_C [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

549

ÿëˆ\ˆÁ[˝ [˝V_ÁÃ^ XÁ, Ac˜O c˜‰¨K˜ a[˝ %£„\ˆÃ[˝ ]…_ EıÁÃ[˝S* Ac˜O ◊V„Eıc˜O _l˘Ó C ʪJÙrÙÁ ◊[˝„`b turn EıÃ[˝Á AFX =◊ªJÙTˆ aEı„_Ã[˝*

24.9.36

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]ÁX«b]Á‰yc˜O Ac˜O a[˝ `◊N˛Ã[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ %Á‰ªK˜* A `◊N˛m◊_ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ XÃ^, TˆÁÃ[˝Á ◊[˝`üY“E ı◊TˆÃ[˝ ◊X∂oˆ force, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ Y“\ˆÁ[˝ aEı„_Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝* ^Tˆ◊VX ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ Â^a[˝ wrong movement %Á‰ªK˜, Âaa[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊X XÁ, acknowledge EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁc˜O XÁ TˆTˆ◊VX Ac˜O Y“\ˆÁ[˝ c˜„Tˆ ]«N˛ c˜CÃ^Á Eı◊PˆX* ^◊V ʪJÙXÁ ^ÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜„_ ]«N˛ c˜CÃ^ÁÃ[˝ aêˆÁ[˝XÁ c˜Ã^* Tˆ„[˝ ◊[˝ªJÙ◊_Tˆ XÁ c˜„Ã^ V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ ÂV„F reject EıÃ[˝Á =◊ªJÙTˆ* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `◊N˛„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı a[˝ a◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ◊V„Tˆ c˜Ã^* 13.10.36

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˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”b, %‹ôˆÃ[˝Á±¡Á, a…©øaw¯Á Â^ ]XY“ÁS c˜OTˆÓÁ◊V„Eı W˝ÁÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝ %Á‰ªK˜, Ac˜O a[˝ Tˆ AEıc˜O, psychic being --- %Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX Â]Ã[˝”V„â¯Ã[˝ ]„W˝Ó XÃ^ --- %Á±¡Á Tˆ a[[˝Ô[˝ÓÁY›, aEı„_Ã[˝ %Á±¡Á AEı* 17.7.37

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XÁ FÁCÃ^Á Â^ %ÁW˝ÓÁ◊≈±¡EıTˆÁÃ[˝ AEıªRÙO› %Ü, A W˝ÁÃ[˝SÁ \«ˆ_* Â_Á\ˆ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ, Â_Á„\ˆÃ[˝ LXÓ FÁ„[˝ XÁ, Y“„Ã^ÁL„XÃ[˝ Â[˝`› FÁ„[˝ XÁ Ac˜O ◊XÃ^]m„_Á %[˝`Ó YÁ_X Eı[à ˝„Tˆ c˜^à --- ◊Eı‹ˆ«ô `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝[à ˝ Y„l˘ ^Á VÃ[˝EıÁ[à ˝ TˆÁ ÂF„Tˆ c˜^à * G›TˆÁ^à [˝„_ F«[˝ Â[˝`› ÂF„_ Â^ÁG Eı[à ˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, XÁ ÂF„Ã^, F«[˝ Eı] ÂF„Ã^C Eı[à ˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* 22.7.37 *

ªJÙÁ„Ã^Ã[˝ %YEıÁÃ[˝C %Á‰ªK˜, =YEıÁÃ[˝C %Á‰ªK˜* F«[˝ strong EıÃ[˝„_ [˝Á Â[˝`› ◊ªJÙ◊X ªRÙÁ_„_ `Ã[˝›„Ã[˝Ã[˝ %YEıÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^, ]ÁyÁÃ^ Â[˝`› ÂF„_C TˆÁc˜O c˜Ã^* %î ◊ªJÙ◊X ◊X„_ %ÁÃ[˝ light ªJÙÁ EıÃ[˝„_ (boiling L„_ ªJÙÁ ʪRÙ„_ TˆFXc˜O [˝Á `›H–c˜O EıÁ„Y pour out EıÃ[˝„Tˆ c˜Ã^) %YEıÁÃ[˝ c˜Ã^ XÁ* 14.6.38

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550

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

[aÁ◊W˝EıÁÃ[˝

EıXÓÁÃ[˝ EıÁªK˜ c˜„Tˆ %„XEı ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ %Áa‰ªK˜ XÁXÁÃ[˝Eı] a]aÓÁ ◊X„Ã^* `“›%Ã[˝◊[˝≥V„Eı aÁ◊W˝EıÁ Âaa[˝ ◊_„F LÁXÁ‰¨K˜X*] [˝Á„YÃ[˝ [˝ÁQÕˆ› Â^„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ, ◊V◊V]ÁÃ[˝ %W˝›„X \ˆÁ_ _Á„G XÁ Tˆ ◊Eı EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^? ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ L›[˝„X Âÿ눨K˜Á [˝Á ÿëˆÁTˆ„‹óˆÓÃ[˝ LÁÃ^GÁ F«[˝ Eı], EıwÔ¯[˝Óc˜O Y“W˝ÁX* Â^ F«[˝ `◊N˛]ÁX, TˆÁ„EıC Y“U] %Á±¡ae^] [˝ÁW˝ÓTˆÁ discipline ◊`F„Tˆ c˜Ã^ --- Â^ ªJÙÁÃ^ XÁ TˆÁÃ[˝ V«fF„\ˆÁG %◊X[˝Á^ÔÓ* 6.7.38

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ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ %X«\…ˆ◊Tˆ Tˆ aTˆÓ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Â^ a[˝ XÁ] ◊V„Ã^ªK˜, Âa a[˝c˜O \«ˆ_* ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ Y UEı YÃ[˝]Á±¡Á XÁc˜O, YÃ[˝]Á±¡Á \ˆG[˝ÁX, \ˆG[˝ÁXc˜O aEı„_Ã[˝ YÃ[˝]Á±¡Á* ^Á„Eı YÃ[˝]Á±¡Á [˝_, Âa ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ L›[˝Á±¡Á, ]ÁUÁÃ[˝ =Y„Ã[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆÁX, \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ a„Ü ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ Â^* ^Á„Eı L›[˝Á±¡Á [˝_, Âa L›[˝Á±¡Á XÃ^, Âa ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ Y“ÁSY«[à ˝”b, A]X◊Eı ◊X∂oˆ Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”b* Y“ÁS c˜÷V„Ã^Ã[˝ X›‰ªJÙ ÂU„Eı ]…_ÁW˝ÁÃ[˝ Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ ◊[˝ÿô ˆTˆ, TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó XÁ◊\ˆÃ[˝ X›‰ªJÙ ^Á TˆÁ ◊X∂oˆY“ÁS* ÂTˆ]Xc˜O %Á±¡Á ^Á„Eı [˝_, TˆÁ„Eı %Á±¡Á [˝_Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ, Âa psychic being, c˜÷V„Ã^ ˪JÙTˆÓY«Ã[˝”b* Psychic being (%‹ôˆÃ[˝Á±¡Á [˝_„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝) L›[˝Á±¡Á a„Ü ^«N˛, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ c˜„_ aTˆÓ‰ªJÙTˆXÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆ◊w¯ ÿöˆÁ◊YTˆ c˜Ã^* EıÁÃ[˝S Ac˜O psychic %‹ôˆÃ[˝Á±¡Ác˜O ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ ]XY“ÁS„Vc˜„Eı W˝ÁÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝ ÂYªK˜X ÂU„Eı, Tˆ„[˝ Âa mä, aÁW˝ÁÃ[˝S ]ÁX«„bÃ[˝ ]X Y“ÁS ÂVc˜ TˆÁ„Eı ÂV„F ʪJÙ„X XÁ* ]ÁX«b Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”b„Eı ◊X„LÃ[˝ %Á±¡Á [˝„_ \«ˆ_ Eı„Ã[˝, Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ [˝` c˜„Ã^ V«fF„\ˆÁG Eı„Ã[˝* ^FX Y“ÁSY«Ã[˝”„bÃ[˝ [˝` XÁ c˜„Ã^, %‹ôˆÃ[˝Á±¡ÁÃ[˝ psychic beingAÃ[˝ [˝` c˜^ à , TˆFX a[˝ a«≥VÃ[˝ a«F]Ã^, ]Á„Ã^[à ˝ a„Ü ^«N˛ ]Á-]Ã^ c˜„^à ^ÁÃ^* Ac˜O a[˝ T«ˆ◊] ÂVFªK˜, ^Á ÂV„FªK˜ TˆÁ ◊PˆEı --- £W˝« XÁ]m„_Á„Eı [˝V_Á„Tˆ c˜„[˝*

""A''„Eı ◊_◊FTˆ A]X ◊EıªK«˜Ã[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝ XÁc˜O Â^ H„Ã[˝ [˝„a XÁ Â[˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı„Tˆ c˜„[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ Âac˜O a∂누µ˘ ^Á EıÃ[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁC TˆÁ ]Á YªK˜≥V Eı„Ã[˝X XÁ* EıÁÃ[˝S ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ [˝Ã^a ʪK˜ÁªRÙO, T«ˆ◊] YÁÃ[˝„[˝ XÁ, £W˝« EırÙ YÁ„[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ ]Á TˆÁ ªJÙÁX XÁ Â^ T«ˆ◊] EırÙ YÁC*

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

551

XÁ, TˆÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ Ac˜O \ˆÁ_ Â^ T«ˆ◊] a[˝ a]Ã^ ]„X ]„X ]Á„Eı ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝, ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı --- a«„F V«f„F, a[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ TgˆÁÃ[˝c˜O aÁ◊~W˝Ó, TgˆÁÃ[˝c˜O aÁc˜Á^Ó, TgˆÁÃ[˝c˜O %Á`›b C Ã[˝l˘Á ʪJÙ„Ã^ XÁC, TˆÁc˜„_ a[˝ c˜„[˝* 10.5.35

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LÁ◊X XÁ Eı„[˝ T«ˆ◊] %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ %Áa„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝ --- Â[˝ÁW˝c˜Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ [˝Á[˝Á ATˆ `›H– ◊Zı„Ã[˝ %Áa„Tˆ ÂV„[˝ XÁ, TˆÁ„Tˆ V«f◊FTˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* ]Á„Eı a[[˝ÔVÁ ]„X Ã[˝ÁF, ◊Tˆ◊X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Üc˜O UÁEı„[˝X* ◊Tˆ◊X a„Ü %Á‰ªK˜X, Ã[˝l˘Á Eı‰¨JÙ¤X, Ac˜O V ªRÕÙ ◊[˝`üÁa Â^X a[˝ a]Ã^ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó LÁG–Tˆ UÁE«ıEı* ◊TˆX ]Áa ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝„[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ Zı_ XÁ c˜„_ ʪK˜‰QÕˆ ÂV„[˝, Âa ÂEıÁX EıÁ„LÃ[˝ EıUÁ XÃ^* %Áa_ EıUÁ, TgˆÁ„Eı ]„X Ã[˝ÁF %ÁÃ[˝ QˆÁEı ^Tˆ ◊VXc˜O _ÁmEı, TˆÁc˜O EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ T«ˆ◊] a‰ªJÙTˆX c˜„Ã^ ^Á„[˝, ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á‰ªK˜X c˜Oc˜Á %X«\ˆ[˝ EıÃ[˝„[˝, ÂVFÁC YÁ„[˝* 13.5.35

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%Á◊] [˝ÁÜ_ÁÃ^c˜O ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F_Á]* AÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ TˆÁc˜Ác˜O EıÃ[˝[˝* \ˆ◊[˝bÓ„Tˆ ◊Eı c˜„[˝ [˝_Á Eı◊PˆX, Tˆ„[˝ %Á`Á Eı◊Ã[˝ A]X HªRÙOXÁÃ[˝ a]Á„[˝` c˜„[˝ ^Á„Tˆ Â[˝`› ÂV◊Ã[˝ XÁ Eı„[à ˝ T«ˆ◊] ◊Zı„[à ˝ A„a V`ÔX_Á\ˆ Eı[à ˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝* TˆTˆ◊VX %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]„X ÂÃ[˝„F %„Yl˘Á EıÃ[˝* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ a∂누µ˘ ^Tˆc˜O ]„X ]„X H◊Xúˆ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„[˝, TˆTˆc˜O `›H– L›[˝„X ªJÙ◊Ã[˝TˆÁUÔ c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ aêˆÁ[˝XÁ UÁEı„[˝* 14.5.35

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Â^ [˝ÁQÕˆ›„Tˆ ÂEıc˜ \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı QˆÁ„Eı XÁ, ÂaFÁ„X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ XÁ ^ÁCÃ^Á \ˆÁ_* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ^◊V ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ÂaFÁ„X YÁPˆÁXC c˜Ã^, TˆÁc˜„_C T«ˆ◊] ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı* %XÓ\ˆÁ„[˝ ^◊V XÁ YÁÃ[˝, Â^]X AFX EıÃ[˝, Tˆ„[˝ X›Ã[˝„[˝ ◊X„LÃ[˝ ]„XÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ QˆÁEı --A]X\ˆÁ„[˝ Â^X ÂEıc˜ [˝«Mı„[˝ XÁ, LÁX„[˝ XÁ* TˆÁc˜„_c˜O ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ QˆÁEıÁÃ[˝ Zı_ T«ˆ◊] YÁ„[˝* 17.5.35

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552

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

ÂEıX T«ˆ◊] ◊_FªK˜ Â^ %Á]Ã[˝Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁG Eı„Ã[˝◊ªK˜? %Á]Ã[˝Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC ◊VX Ã[˝ÁG Eı◊Ã[ ˝◊X, %ÁLC Eı◊Ã[˝ ◊X* Ã[˝ÁG EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁXC EıÁÃ[˝SC ◊ªK˜_ XÁ, T«ˆ◊] ÂEıÁXC ÂVÁb EıÃ[˝ ◊X* T«ˆ◊] ◊Eı EıÁ_ aEıÁ„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ YÁC ◊X? %Á◊] Tˆ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á], %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ, T«ˆ◊] Â^ ◊X∏JÙÃ^ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ YÁ„[˝ Âa EıUÁ ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á]* ^Ác˜O Âc˜ÏEı %Á◊] %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ Âa EıUÁ ◊_F◊ªK˜* %Á]Ã[˝Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı F«[˝c˜O \ˆÁ_[˝Á◊a %ÁÃ[˝ Âa \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ ◊ªJÙÃ[˝EıÁ_ %ªªR«ÙOªRÙO c˜„Ã^ UÁEı„[˝* ]X FÁÃ[˝ÁY [˝Á ◊XÃ[˝Á`Á„Eı ]„X ÿöˆÁX ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* Ac˜O V ªRÕÙ ◊[˝`üÁa a[[˝ÔVÁ ]„X ÂYÁbS EıÃ[˝ Â^ %Á◊] ]Á„Eı YÁ[˝c˜O, `“›%Ã[˝◊[˝≥V„Eı YÁ[˝c˜O, V…„Ã[˝ UÁEı„_C AEı◊VX TˆÁ„VÃ[˝ ÂVFÁ YÁ[˝* a[[˝ÔVÁ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ]„X Ã[˝ÁF, a[[˝ÔVÁ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ◊V„Eı ʪJÙ„Ã^ ÂVF* ^ÁÃ[˝Á c˜Oc˜Ác˜O Eı„Ã[˝ TˆÁÃ[˝Á %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ YÁÃ^, T«ˆ◊]C ◊X∏JÙÃ^ YÁ„[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ c˜Oc˜Ác˜O ^◊V EıÃ[˝, TˆÁc˜„_ A]X HªRÙOXÁÃ[˝ a]Á„[˝` c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ Â^ T«ˆ◊] AFÁ„X %Áa„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝, %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ V`ÔX_Á\ˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝* EıÁ_ ◊X∏JÙÃ^ Aa* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ a„Ü ÂVFÁ Eı„Ã[˝ ^ÁC* 17.5.35 *

%Á◊] ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊TˆXªRÙOÁ Yy ÂY„Ã^◊ªK˜, XÁXÁEıÁ„L ◊[˝[˝–Tˆ c˜„Ã^ =w¯Ã[˝ ◊V„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝◊X --- %ÁL ◊TˆXªRÙO› Y‰yÃ[˝ AEıa„Ü Ac˜O =w¯Ã[˝ ◊V_Á]* Ac˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ V`Ô„X %ÁaÁ %aêˆ[˝, Âa %„XEıªRÙOÁ LÁXÁ EıUÁ ◊ªK˜_, Ac˜O %î ]Á„aÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó V«c˜O[˝ÁÃ[˝ %ÁaÁ ac˜„L c˜[˝ÁÃ[˝ XÃ^* V«f◊FTˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ, ◊ÿöˆÃ[˝ c˜„Ã^ ]Á„Eı ÿˆÇÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊[˝`üÁa C [˝_ aeG–c˜ Eı„Ã[˝ UÁEı* T«ˆ◊] ]Á \ˆG[˝Tˆ›Ã[˝ a‹ôˆÁX, `Á‹ôˆ W˝›Ã[˝ `◊N˛]Ã^› c˜„Ã^ ^ÁC* ]Á„Eı QˆÁEıÁÃ[˝ ÂEıÁX ◊[˝„`b ◊XÃ^] [XÁc˜O]* ]ÁÃ[˝ XÁ] EıÃ[˝Á, ]Á„Eı ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝Á, ]Á„Eı Y“ÁUÔXÁ EıÃ[˝Á Ac˜Oa[˝„Eı ]Á„Eı QˆÁEıÁ [˝_Á ^ÁÃ^* Â^]X ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆÃ[˝ ÂU„Eı C‰Pˆ, ʪTˆ]Xc˜O QˆÁEı„Tˆ c˜„[˝* c˜Oc˜ÁC EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝Á Â^ aEıÁ„_Ã[˝ a]Ã^ ʪJÙÁF [˝«„L ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ aÁ]„X %Á‰ªK˜X Ac˜O EıîXÁ [˝Á ]„XÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙy Eı„Ã[˝ TgˆÁ„Eı Y“SÁ] EıÃ[˝, Âa Y“SÁ] ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ÂYgϪJÙ„[˝* ^FX a]Ã^ UÁ„Eı, ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü %Á‰ªK˜X, aÁ]„X [˝„a %Á‰ªK˜X Ac˜O \ˆÁ[˝ ÂÃ[˝„F TgˆÁ„Eı W˝ÓÁX EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝* Ac˜O a[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ Â_Á„Eı Â`„b ]ÁÃ[˝ ÂVFÁ YÁÃ^* %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %Á`›[[˝ÔÁV G–c˜S EıÃ[˝* ]ÁÃ[˝ %Á`›[[˝ÔÁVC AÃ[˝ a„Ü YÁPˆÁ_Á]* ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ∂ˆÇÔÃ^› ]Á„Mı ]Á„Mı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

EıÁ‰ªK˜ Y“SÁ„]Ã[˝ a]„Ã^ %Á`›[[˝ÔÁV› Z«ı_ G–c˜S Eı„Ã[˝ YÁ◊Pˆ„Ã^ ◊V„[˝*

553 28.5.35

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ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ V«FÁXÁ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ÂY„Ã^◊ªK˜* %Á◊] ^Ác˜Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊_„F◊ªK˜_Á] ^FX AFÁ„Xc˜O ◊ªK˜„_, TˆÁ ]„X ÂÃ[˝„F W˝›Ã[˝◊ªJÙ„w¯ ]Á„Eı ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝, ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı* Y“U] ʪJÙÁF [˝g«„L ]Á„Eı ÂVFÁ c˜Ã^, ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ TgˆÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ £X„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝„[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ TˆÁC ac˜„L c˜Ã^ XÁ* ]ÁX«b [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ Ã[˝÷Y ÂV„F, [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝Ã[˝ EıUÁ C `å Â`Á„X --- £W˝« ^Á TˆÁÃ[˝ ÿöˆ…_ ʪJÙÁ„F Y‰QÕˆ C EıÁ„X [˝Á„L, TˆÁc˜O ÂV„F, TˆÁc˜O Â`Á„X* %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ ÂVFÁ [˝Á Â`ÁXÁ TˆÁÃ[˝ Y„l˘ Eı◊PˆX, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ V ◊rÙ C `“[˝S `◊N˛ F«_„Tˆ c˜„[˝, TˆÁÃ[˝ LXÓ ÊªJÙrÙÁÃ[˝ VÃ[˝EıÁÃ[˝, a]Ã^ _Á„G* ^◊V Y“U„] XÁC c˜Ã^, V«f◊FTˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* ]Á ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı a[[˝ÔVÁ \ˆÁ_[˝Áa„[˝ C ]„X Ã[˝ÁF„[˝, T«ˆ◊] AEı◊VX TgˆÁÃ[˝ ÂVFÁ YÁ„[˝, TgˆÁÃ[˝ EıUÁ £X„[˝* V«fF Eı„Ã[˝Á XÁ, ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ `Á◊‹ôˆ C `◊N˛„Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ QˆÁEı, TˆÁÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ aÁ◊~W˝Ó ʪRÙOÃ[˝ YÁ„[˝* 16.6.35 [◊ªJÙ◊PˆÃ[˝

Â`„b `“›]Á Â^ÁG Eı„Ã[˝X]:

Love and blessings to my dear little 'E'. *

XÁ, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %Á]Ã[˝Á Ã[˝ÁG Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ ÂEıX? [˝QÕˆ [˝Óÿôˆ ◊ªK˜_Á], ◊_F[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ ◊ªK˜_ XÁ* AFXC V`Ô„XÃ[˝ ]Áa [˝„_ [˝QÕˆc˜O [˝Óÿôˆ ◊ªK˜_Á]* A[˝ÁÃ[˝ V`Ô„XÃ[˝ LXÓ %„XEı Â_ÁEı %Áa‰ªK˜* %Á`Á Eı◊Ã[˝ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ÿëˆÁÿöˆÓ \ˆÁ_ UÁEı„[˝ AÃ[˝ ʪJÙ„Ã^ --AÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó V«[˝ÁÃ[˝ FÁÃ[˝ÁY c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, ◊_„FªK˜ --- AÃ[˝ YÃ[˝ Â^X `Ã[˝›Ã[˝ \ˆÁ_ c˜„Ã^ UÁ„Eı* Ã[˝gÁ◊ªJÙ ^Á„[˝ ◊_„FªK˜, Eı„[˝ ^Á„[˝ C Eı◊VX UÁEı„[˝? AFXEıÁÃ[˝ %[˝ÿöˆÁÃ^ ◊ªJÙ◊‹ôˆTˆ [˝Á V«f◊FTˆ c˜„Ã^Á XÁ* ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ =YÃ[˝ a+…SÔ \ˆÃ[˝aÁ Eı„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ Y“a~ c˜„Ã^ UÁEı, \ˆÁ_ a]„Ã^Ã[˝ %„Yl˘ÁÃ^ UÁEı* AEı◊VX Tˆ ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ ÂVFÁ YÁ„[˝c˜O* ^gÁÃ[˝Á V ªRÕÙ\ˆÁ„[˝ TgˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ Eı„Ã[˝ C QˆÁ„Eı, TˆÁÃ[˝Á TgˆÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ Â`„b Yg߉ªK˜* Ac˜O YÁ◊UÔ[˝ L›[˝„X %„XEı [˝ÁW˝Á C [˝ÓÁHÁTˆ %Áa„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, a]Ã^ _ÁG„Tˆ YÁ„Ã[˝, Tˆ„[˝C TˆÁÃ[˝Á ]Á„Ã^Ã[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ Yg߉ªJÙ* 4.8.35 *

554

[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

%„XEı◊VX ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ ʪJÙ„Ã^C ◊_F„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝◊X* EıÁ„LÃ[˝ \ˆ›QÕˆ Eı]‰ªK˜ XÁ, ÂEı[˝_c˜O [˝ÁQÕˆ‰ªK˜, AEı◊V„Eı Eı]„_C %XÓ ◊V„Eı [˝Á‰QÕˆ* Aa[˝ EıÁL EıÃ[˝„Tˆ EıÃ[˝„Tˆ Ã[˝ÁTˆ ÂYÁc˜ÁÃ^, TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ Â_FÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ %ÁÃ[˝ UÁ„Eı XÁ* %ÁLC TˆÁc˜O c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜ Tˆ„[˝C A[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ [˝„a◊ªK˜* ÂVF◊ªK˜ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ C ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]ÁÃ[˝ F«[˝ %a«„FÃ[˝ a]Ã^ ÂG‰ªK˜* %Á`Á Eı◊Ã[˝ A]X %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜„[˝ XÁ, A[˝ÁÃ[˝ Â`b c˜„Ã^ ÂG‰ªK˜* %„XEı ◊V„Eı AÃ[˝Eı] c˜„Ã^‰ªK˜, AFÁ„X C [˝ÁÜ_Á ÂV„`Ã[˝ %„XEı LÁÃ^GÁÃ^ aÁW˝Eı„VÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó* Ac˜O %[˝ÿöˆÁ EıÁªRÙOÁX ac˜L c˜Ã^◊X* XÁ, ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ Ã[˝ÁG Eı◊Ã[˝ ◊X* Ã[˝ÁG EıÃ[˝[˝ ÂEıX* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ \ˆÁ_[˝ÁaÁ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ %ªªR«ÙOªRÙO c˜„Ã^ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜, %ªªR«ÙOªRÙO UÁEı„[˝* %ÁÃ[˝ ◊EıªK«˜ ◊_F[˝ÁÃ[˝ a]Ã^ ÂXc˜O, Y„Ã[˝ ◊_F[˝* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ %Á`›[[˝ÔÁV XÁC* 26.12.35 [`“›]Á

◊_„F‰ªK˜X]:

Love and blessings to my dear 'E'. *

ATˆ◊VX ÂÃ[˝ÁL a]ÿôˆ ◊VX EıÁL ◊ªK˜_ [˝„_ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆm„_ÁÃ[˝ =w¯Ã[˝ ◊V„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝◊X* AFXC Âac˜O %[˝ÿˆö Á Jª Ù_‰ªK˜, Tˆ„[˝ %ÁL [à ˝◊[˝[˝Á[à ˝, EıÁL AEıRª Ù« O Eı] Y‰QÕˆ‰Kª ˜, %Á◊] V«_Ác˜OX ◊_F◊ªK˜* %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ EıUÁ \ˆÁ[˝„_, ÿ눉Y¬ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ ÂVF„_ ]X FÁÃ[˝ÁY c˜Ã^ ÂEıX? ÿ눉Y¬ ]Á ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ ÂG‰ªK˜X, Âa %ÁX„≥VÃ[˝ EıUÁ c˜CÃ^Á =◊ªJÙTˆ* AFX ÂVFÁ c˜„[˝ XÁ [˝„_ ]X FÁÃ[˝ÁY c˜„Tˆ ◊V„Ã^Á XÁ* ]Á %Á]Á„Eı ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝‰ªK˜X, \ˆÁ_[˝Áa‰ªK˜X, ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ a[[˝Ôl˘S Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜X Ac˜O ◊[˝`üÁa Eı„Ã[˝ `Á‹ôˆ]„X UÁEı, a]„Ã^Ã[˝ %„Yl˘ÁÃ^ UÁEı, --- Â^ a[˝ [˝ÁW˝Á AFX %Á‰ªK˜, Âam„_Á ◊ªJÙÃ[˝EıÁ_ UÁEı„[˝ XÁ* ]Á„Eı a[˝a]Ã^ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S EıÃ[˝, TgˆÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ ◊X\ˆ¤Ã[˝ EıÃ[˝* a[˝a]Ã^ ÿˆÇÃ[˝S Eı„Ã[˝ Ã[˝ÁF„_ AEı◊VX ÂVFÁ c˜„[˝, ◊X„LÃ[˝ ◊\ˆTˆ„Ã[˝C ÂVFÁ YÁ„[˝* *

ÂVF, %Á◊] ^◊V ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ÂVFÁ Eı◊Ã[˝, %ÁÃ[˝ aEı„_Ã[˝ c˜Á„Tˆ %Á◊] ◊Eı ◊XÿôˆÁÃ[˝ YÁ[˝? TˆÁÃ[˝Á ◊Eı [˝_„[˝ XÁ ""T«ˆ◊] "A'Ã[˝ a„Ü ÂVFÁ EıÃ[˝„_ %ÁÃ[˝ %Á]Á„VÃ[˝ a„Ü YÁÃ[˝„_ XÁ? A ◊EıÃ[˝Eı] %[˝ÿôˆ Á? A ◊Eı %◊[˝ªJÙÁÃ[˝? %Á]Ã[˝ÁC ◊Eı ]ÁX«b Xc˜O?''

aÁW˝XÁ◊[˝bÃ^Eı YyÁ[˝_›

555

TˆÁÃ[˝YÃ[˝ ^FX AEı` Yá˚Á` LX ßQÕˆ]«QÕˆ Eı„Ã[˝ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ A„a YQÕˆ„[˝, TˆFX %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı V`Á c˜„[˝, Â\ˆ„[˝ [˝_ ÂV◊F? [˝ÁÜ_ÁÃ^ [˝QÕˆ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ c˜„[˝? %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ◊Eı Âa l˘]TˆÁ %Á‰ªK˜ XÁ a]Ã^ %Á‰ªK˜? Ac˜O l«˘V– ◊ªJÙ◊PˆÃ[˝ =w¯Ã[˝ ◊_F„Tˆ ◊_F„Tˆ Y“ÁSC Â[˝◊Ã[˝„Ã^ ÂG_, Ã[˝ÁTˆ ÂYÁc˜Á_* A[˝ÁÃ[˝ XÁ c˜Ã^ [˝ÁÜ_ÁÃ^ ◊_F_Á], ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ AÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝ %ÁÃ[˝ A]X EıaÃ[˝d EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝[˝ XÁ, [˝„_ Ã[˝ÁF◊ªK˜* *

%Á◊] %„XEı◊VX ÂTˆÁ]Á„Eı ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝◊X --- c˜O¨K˜Á ◊ªK˜_ ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ c˜„Ã^ =‰Pˆ◊X* A[˝Á[à ˝ V`Ô„X aÁTˆ` Â_Á„Eı[à ˝ =YÃ[˝ A„a‰ªK˜ --- %„X„Eı A„a‰ªK˜ 15thAÃ[˝ %„XEı %Á„G, %„X„Eı Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜ 15thAÃ[˝ Y„Ã[˝, %ÁL Y^ÔÓ‹ôˆ %Á‰ªK˜, AFX ªJÙ„_ ^Á‰¨K˜* AÃ[˝ VÃ[˝”S EıÁL %aêˆ[˝ Ã[˝Eı„] Â[˝‰QÕˆ ÂG◊ªK˜_, %Á`“„]Ã[˝ EıÁLC F«[˝ Â[˝‰QÕˆ‰ªK˜* ◊V„XÃ[˝ Â[˝_Á %ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ Ã[˝Áy›C ÂF‰ªRÙO EıÁL Â`b EıÃ[˝Á ^ÁÃ^ XÁ* AÃ[˝ LXÓ [˝Á◊c˜„Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝ ◊X* AFX AEıªªR«ÙO Eı„] ^Á‰¨K˜, TˆÁc˜O Ac˜O ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ ◊_F„Tˆ YÁÃ[˝◊ªK˜* Tˆ„[˝ ^Á Eı„] ÂG_ TˆÁ ATˆªR«ÙOE«ı ]Áy* AFXC %Á]ÁÃ[˝ %„XEı %Á[˝`ÓEı›Ã^ EıÁL Y‰QÕˆ Ã[˝„Ã^‰ªK˜, EıÃ[˝„Tˆ YÁ◊Ã[˝◊X, AFXC a]Ã^ YÁ◊¨K˜ XÁ* ÂLÓÁ◊Tˆ∂ˆÇÔÃ^›Ã[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊Pˆ C Z«ı_ ÂEıX YÁC ◊X, TˆÁ ◊PˆEı [˝«◊Mı XÁ --- Tˆ„[˝ AÃ[˝ ]„W˝Ó TˆÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙ◊ªPˆ Â[˝ÁW˝c˜Ã^ ÂY„Ã^ªK˜, Âa ◊X∏JÙÃ^ ◊X„L TˆÁÃ[˝ ÈEı◊ZıÃ^Tˆ ◊V„Ã^‰ªK˜* %Á`Á Eı◊Ã[˝ T«ˆ◊] \ˆÁ_ %ÁªK˜* ^◊V EıFXC ]Á„Eı QˆÁEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ ◊X◊ŤrÙ a]Ã^ XÁC YÁC, a[˝ a]Ã^ TgˆÁ„Eı ÂQˆ„Eı ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ a]ÿôˆ L›[˝X %ÁÃ[˝ a[˝ EıÁL TgˆÁ„Eı a]YÔS EıÃ[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ ʪJÙrÙÁ EıÃ[˝* [`“›]Á:] Love and blessings to my dear little 'E'.

EıÁ◊c˜X› C Eı◊[˝TˆÁ

ÿëˆY¬ AEıªRÙO› V◊Ã[˝V– Â_ÁEı %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ E«ıªRÀÙOÃ[˝›„Tˆ [˝◊aÃ^Á ◊XL Â`ÁªJÙX›Ã^ %[˝ÿöˆÁ A[˝e \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ Ã[˝Á„LÓ %XÓÁÃ^ C %◊[˝ªJÙÁ„Ã[˝Ã[˝ EıUÁ \ˆÁ◊[˝„Tˆ◊ªK˜_* V◊Ã[˝V– %◊\ˆ]Á„XÃ[˝ [˝`›\…ˆTˆ c˜c˜OÃ^Á [˝◊_„Tˆ _Á◊G_, ""Â_Á„Eı Eı„∂ˆÇÔÃ[˝ ÂVÁc˜Ác˜O ◊VÃ^Á \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ a«XÁ] [˝gÁªJÙÁc˜O„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^* GTˆ L„XΩÃ[˝ YÁ„Y ^◊V %Á]ÁÃ[˝ Ac˜O V«Å¤`Á c˜c˜OTˆ, %Á◊] ^◊V ATˆc˜O YÁY› c˜c˜OTˆÁ], TˆÁc˜Á c˜c˜O„_ ◊X∏JÙÃ^ Ac˜O L„XΩ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ ]„X YÁY ◊ªJÙ‹ôˆÁÃ[˝ ÊÿɈÁTˆ AFXC [˝◊c˜Tˆ, ATˆ ÂHÁÃ[˝ YÁTˆEı›Ã[˝ ]X ◊Eı AEı◊V„X ◊X∂ˆÇÔ_ c˜Ã^? %ÁÃ[˝ Cc˜O YÁQÕˆÁÃ[˝ ◊TˆXEı◊QÕˆ `›_, TgˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ Â^ W˝X„VÏ_Tˆ ÿëˆSÔ„Ã[˝ÏYÓ VÁaVÁa›, Eı∂ˆÇÔZı_ aTˆÓ c˜c˜O„_ ◊X∏JÙÃ^c˜O Y…[[˝Ô L„XΩ ◊Tˆ◊X LG◊•FÓÁTˆ aÁW˝« ]c˜Á±¡Á ◊ªK˜„_X, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Eıc˜O TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ ◊ªJÙc˜‘]ÁyC Ac˜O L„XΩ ÂV◊F XÁ* A]X ◊Xú«ˆÃ[˝ YÁL› [˝VÀ]Á„Ã^` LG„Tˆ XÁc˜O* XÁ, Eı∂ˆÇÔ[˝ÁV \ˆG[˝Á„XÃ[˝ ZgıÁ≈◊Eı, ]X\«ˆ_ÁX EıUÁ ]Áy* `ÓÁ]a«≥VÃ[˝ [˝QÕˆ ªJÙT«ˆÃ[˝ ªJ…ÙQÕˆÁ]◊S, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ EıÁ‰ªK˜ W˝Ã[˝Á ÂVX XÁ, TˆÁc˜O Ã[˝l˘Á --- X‰ªJÙd =w¯] ◊`l˘Á ◊VÃ^Á a[˝ ªJÙÁ_ÁEı› [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ Eı◊Ã[˝TˆÁ]*'' Ac˜O EıUÁ [˝◊_[˝Á]Áy V◊Ã[˝V– ÂV◊F_ c˜PˆÁd TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ %µ˘EıÁÃ[˝ HÃ[˝ %◊Tˆ`Ã^ =#ù_ %Á„_ÁEıTˆÃ[˝„Ü \ˆÁ◊aÃ^Á ÂG_, %îl˘S Y„Ã[˝ %Á„_ÁEıTˆÃ[˝Ü %µ˘EıÁ„Ã[˝ ◊]_Ác˜OÃ^Á ÂG_, %ÁÃ[˝ Âa ÂV◊F_ TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝ a∂ˆÇ«„F AEıªRÙO› a«≥VÃ[˝ E ıb’[˝SÔ [˝Á_Eı Y“V›Y c˜Á„Tˆ VÒÁQÕˆÁc˜OÃ^Á Ã[˝◊c˜Ã^Á‰ªK˜ --- ] V« c˜Á◊a„Tˆ‰ªK˜, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ ÂEıÁXC EıUÁ Eı◊c˜„Tˆ‰ªK˜ XÁ* ]Ã^…Ã[˝Y«¨K˜ C YÁ„Ã^ X…Y«Ã[˝ ÂV◊FÃ^Á V◊Ã[˝V– [˝«◊Mı_ ÿëˆÃ^e `ÓÁ]a«≥VÃ[˝ %Á◊aÃ^Á TˆÁc˜Á„Eı W˝Ã[˝Á ◊VÃ^Á‰ªK˜X* V◊Ã[˝V– %Y“◊Tˆ\ˆ c˜c˜O_, AEı[˝ÁÃ[˝ \ˆÁ◊[˝_ Y“SÁ] Eı◊Ã[˝, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ [˝Á_„EıÃ[˝ c˜Á◊a]«F ÂV◊FÃ^Á ◊EıªK«˜„Tˆc˜O Y“SÁ] Eı◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ Y“[˝ ◊w¯ c˜c˜O_ XÁ, --- Â`„b ]«F c˜c˜O„Tˆ Ac˜O EıUÁc˜O [˝Á◊c˜Ã[˝ c˜c˜OÃ^Á ÂG_, ""C„Ã[˝ ÂEırÙÁ, T«ˆc˜O A◊_ ÂEıX?'' [˝Á_Eı c˜Á◊aÃ^Á Eı◊c˜_, ""ÂEıX, T«ˆ◊] %Á]Á„Eı QˆÁ◊Eı„_ XÁ? Ac˜]O Áy %Á]Á„Eı Jª ÙÁ[˝E« ı ]Á◊Ã[˝[˝Á[à ˝ Y“[˝_ [˝ÁaXÁ ÂTˆÁ]ÁÃ[˝ ]„X ◊ªK˜_* TˆÁ, W˝[à ˝Á ◊V_Á], =◊PˆÃ^Á ªJÙÁ[˝EıÁC XÁ*'' V◊Ã[˝V– %ÁÃ[˝C %Y“◊Tˆ\ˆ c˜c˜O_, \ˆG[˝ÁX„Eı ªJÙÁ[˝«Eı ]Á◊Ã[˝[˝ÁÃ[˝ c˜O¨K˜ÁÃ[˝ LXÓ %X«TˆÁY X„c˜, ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ Âÿoˆ„c˜Ã[˝ Y◊Ã[˝[˝„wÔ¯ A]X a«≥VÃ[˝ [˝Á_„EıÃ[˝ GÁ„Ã^ c˜ÁTˆ _ÁGÁXªRÙOÁ ◊PˆEı Ã[˝”◊ªJÙaÜTˆ [˝◊_Ã^Á Â[˝ÁW˝ c˜c˜O_ XÁ* [˝Á_Eı %Á[˝ÁÃ[˝ [˝◊__, ""ÂVF c˜◊Ã[˝„]Ác˜X, ^Ác˜ÁÃ[˝Á %Á]Á„Eı \ˆÃ^ XÁ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á aFÁÃ[˝ ]Tˆ ÂV„F, Âÿoˆc˜\ˆÁ„[˝ GÁ_ ÂVÃ^, %Á]ÁÃ[˝ a„Ü ÂF_Á Eı◊Ã[˝„Tˆ ªJÙÁÃ^, TˆÁc˜ÁÃ[˝Á %Á]ÁÃ[˝ [˝QÕˆ ◊Y“Ã^* %Á◊] ÂF_ÁÃ[˝ LXÓc˜O LGd a ◊rÙ Eı◊Ã[˝Ã^Á◊ªK˜, a[[˝ÔVÁ ÂF_ÁÃ[˝ =Y^«N˛ aÜ› Fg«◊L„Tˆ◊ªK˜* ◊Eı‹ô«ˆ, \ˆÁc˜O, YÁc˜O„Tˆ◊ªK˜ XÁ* aEı„_ %Á]ÁÃ[˝ =YÃ[˝ Ây‘ÁW˝ Eı„Ã[˝, VÁ[˝› Eı„Ã[˝, VÁX

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[˝Áe_Á Ã[˝ªJÙXÁ

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=bÁc˜Ã[˝S EıÁ[˝Ó

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700

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702

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: s(y\ RAn\ >yoEtrrEvd *

t(sEvt;vr\ !p\ >yoEt, pr-y DFmEh. y, s(y n dFpy t^

Note on the Texts

Note on the Texts Although born in Calcutta of Bengali parents, Sri Aurobindo grew up fluent in English, but unable to speak his mother tongue. Taken to England when he was seven, he received there a European education and had almost no contact with Indian culture. While studying at Cambridge in his last two years in England, however, he began to learn Bengali and Sanskrit as a candidate for the Indian Civil Service. After his return to India, he continued his study of these languages on his own until he could not only read, but write in them. In the present volume, his writings in Bengali and those in Sanskrit are being published together for the first time. Both are reproduced in the original languages. Writings in Bengali and Sanskrit is divided into two parts accord˙ a¯ Racana¯ (Bengali Writings) and Samskr ˙ . taing to language: Ba¯ ngl ¯ . (Sanskrit Writings). racanah ˙ a¯ Racana¯ Ba¯ ngl Sri Aurobindo wrote poems, essays, translations and letters in Bengali from his years as an administrative officer and professor in Baroda (1893 – 1906), through the period of his political activism in Calcutta, where he edited the Bengali weekly Dharma in 1909 – 10, to the 1930s when he corresponded in Bengali with a few members of his Ashram in Pondicherry. Many of these writings, especially those belonging to the middle period, were published during his lifetime. Others have been transcribed from his manuscripts and published subsequently. They are arranged here in several sections according to subject, form and publication history. Details about the items in these sections are ˜ ı at the end of Ba¯ ngl ˙ a¯ Racana¯ (pages 665 – provided in the Tathyapanj¯ 82).

712

Writings in Bengali and Sanskrit ˙ . taracanah ¯. Samskr

Sri Aurobindo’s writings in Sanskrit are much less extensive than those in Bengali, but likewise include poetry and prose on a significant range of topics. They have been arranged here in chronological order as far as possible. They show in a brief compass Sri Aurobindo’s development from the period when he was assimilating India’s cultural heritage after his return from England, through his days as a nationalist leader, to his flowering as a Yogi, scholar and thinker contributing to the recovery of the ancient wisdom of the Veda and Upanishads. These writings were not published during his lifetime, but were discovered in his manuscripts after his passing. Several of them are appearing here for the first time. ¯ . s´ lokah ¯ . . These verses are found on three pages of a notebook Vividhah used by Sri Aurobindo at various times between 1900 and 1903 for writing in English, Bengali and Sanskrit. The first two Shlokas are reminiscent of the style of Bhartrihari and may have been written around ´ the time when he translated Bhartrihari’s N¯ıti Sataka into English (see Translations, volume 5 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO). The last two verses, mentioning Bana and a cuckoo, seem related to his Bengali poem Ushaharan Kavya (published on pages 595 – 643 of this volume). ¯ . a idam ˙ sarvam. This prose passage, untitled in the manuscript, Pran was apparently intended to form part of a philosophical dialogue of which only one speech was written. It claims to be a restatement of ¯ . t.ha, but also alludes to Western philosoideas found in the Yogavasis phers. It is found in the same notebook as the preceding Shlokas and evidently belongs to the same period (1900 – 1903). ¯ ı Bharat¯ ¯ ı. Sri Aurobindo wrote this Sanskrit poem sometime Bhavan¯ between 1904 and 1908, quite possibly around the time when he wrote in English the text of the pamphlet Bhawani Mandir, issued in 1905. He did not give the poem a title, nor did he get a chance to revise and polish it; the notebook in which it was written was confiscated by the Calcutta police in May 1908 and he never saw it again. It was first published with an English translation in Sri Aurobindo: Archives

Note on the Texts

713

¯ ı Bharat¯ ¯ ı. This and Research in December 1985 under the title Bhavan¯ ¯ ı (verses 22, title was suggested by references in the poem to Bhavan¯ ¯ ı (verse 73), Bharatam ¯ ¯ ¯ a¯ 70, 78, 84), Bharat¯ ataram (verse 30) and Mat ¯ ¯ ¯ Bharatanam (verses 12, 33). Sri Aurobindo used the name “Bhawani Bharati” in Bhawani Mandir, where the following “message of the Mother” sums up the central idea developed in the Sanskrit poem: When, therefore, you ask who is Bhawani the mother, She herself answers you, “I am the Infinite Energy which streams forth from the Eternal in the world and Eternal in yourselves. I am the Mother of the Universe, the Mother of the Worlds, and for you who are children of the Sacred land, aryabhumi, made of her clay and reared by her sun and winds, I am Bhawani Bharati, Mother of India.”1 A number of trivial slips or irregularities in spelling and sandhi occur in the unrevised manuscript of this poem, as in other Sanskrit writings by Sri Aurobindo. In Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research, most of these were corrected — where this could be done without disturbing the metre — and more significant emendations were listed in a table. These corrections have been reproduced in the present edition along with a few further emendations. Some of these emendations were first made in ¯ ı Bharat¯ ¯ ı was published by the Sanskrit Karyalaya 1987, when Bhavan¯ of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram with a verse-by-verse commentary in Sanskrit. At that time the editors reworded some phrases in the poem for the sake of metrical or grammatical regularity, mentioning the original readings in footnotes. In the interest of textual authenticity, only the more minor emendations made by the Sanskrit Karyalaya have been incorporated in the present edition. Those that have not been adopted here are listed in a table in the Reference Volume, along with other textually relevant information. Two lines left incomplete in the manuscript (in verses 85 and 92) have been completed in square brackets using the words supplied in the 1987 edition. ¯ Tantrikasiddhiprakaran . am. This incomplete exposition of a system of spiritual practice similar to the one outlined in the sapta catus.t.aya (see 1 Bande Mataram: Political Writings 1890 – 1908, volume 6 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, p. 89.

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Writings in Bengali and Sanskrit

the next item) was probably written within a year or two after Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Pondicherry in April 1910. The Sanskrit text was first published in Mother India in January 2008 with transliteration and an English translation entitled “A Chapter on Tantric Perfection”. Saptacatus.t.ayam. These formulas related to parts of the sapta catus.t.aya — the system of seven sets of four elements which Sri Aurobindo adopted as a programme for his sadhana early in his stay in Pondicherry — evidently date to the period between 1910 and around 1912. They are also reproduced as part of the Record of Yoga (volume 11 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, pages 1278 – 80). The complete Sanskrit text of the sapta catus.t.aya itself can be found, interspersed with explanations in English, in the Introduction to the Record of Yoga (volume 10 of THE COMPLETE WORKS, pages 3 – 23). ¯ ˙ Brahma. This composition inspired by a wellEkamevadvit¯ ıyam known phrase from the Chhandogya Upanishad, with which it begins, is found in a large notebook used by Sri Aurobindo around 1912 – 13 for Vedic and philological studies, commentaries on the Upanishads and other writings. Untitled in the manuscript, it was first published with an English translation in Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research in ¯ ˙ Brahma (“Brahman, December 1978 under the title Ekamevadvit¯ ıyam one without a second”, the first words of the text), with the subtitle ´ ıaravindopajn˜ a¯ Upanis.ad. As the editorial subtitle suggests, it may Sr¯ be considered a new Upanishad with Sri Aurobindo as its Rishi — upajn˜ a¯ indicating a text received by individual inspiration, not handed down by tradition. Kaivalyopanis.ad. This Sanskrit commentary on the first verse of the Kaivalya Upanishad was written around 1912. In the manuscript, it follows an English translation and commentary under the heading “The Kaivalya Upanishad”. The English translation with commentary is published in Kena and Other Upanishads, volume 18 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO, pages 288 – 89; it appeared previously in The Upanishads, volume 12 of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The Sanskrit commentary is published here for the first time. In both cases the original Sanskrit text of the Upanishad,

Note on the Texts

715

which was not quoted in the manuscript, has been supplied by the editors. R.gvedah.. [1] Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the first verse of Rig Veda VII.1 is reproduced here as in the manuscript, including an English translation and notes on selected words followed by a commentary in Sanskrit. Only the translation and notes are reproduced in Hymns to the Mystic Fire (volume 16 of THE COMPLETE WORKS), omitting the Sanskrit commentary. This commentary was written probably around 1920. [2] Sri Aurobindo wrote out the first verse of Rig Veda X.124 (with accents) followed by a commentary in Sanskrit in a notebook he used in 1916 for various writings mainly in English and Bengali. ¯ This short, untitled and unfinished paragraph (ending in the Sa¯ sarva. manuscript with a cancelled word and no punctuation) is found on the first page of a notebook used by Sri Aurobindo in or around 1927 mainly for essays and an incomplete draft of the last chapter of The Mother. The first two words of the penultimate sentence have been used as the title. ¯ . . Sri Aurobindo wrote the first three of these four mantras Mantrah around 1927 and the last in 1933. They are reproduced with facsimiles of the manuscripts on pages 829 – 31 of Letters on Himself and the Ashram, volume 35 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. Only the Sanskrit texts in Devanagari are duplicated here.

10-11

Record of Yoga

VOLUME 10 and 11 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2001 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

Record of Yoga

ii

i

Publisher’s Note Record of Yoga is a diary of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga between 1909 and 1927. He kept it fairly regularly from 1912 to 1920, and also wrote a few entries in 1909, 1911 and 1927. At different times he gave this diary different names. “Record of Yoga” was the most typical and the editors have used it as the general title of the work. During the years he kept the diary, Sri Aurobindo also wrote other materials relating to his practice of yoga. These include descriptions of the seven “chatusthayas” (groups of four elements), which are the basis of the yoga of the Record. These materials are published in the Introduction, in Parts Four and Five, and in the Appendix. Sri Aurobindo wrote the diary and related materials by hand in various notebooks and on loose sheets of paper. He used a special terminology which included words from Sanskrit and other languages, as well as abbreviations, symbols and markings, some of which are difficult to represent in a printed book. The special terminology is explained in a separate glossary. The editors have tried to reproduce the details of the manuscripts as exactly as possible. Editorial problems arising from damage to the manuscripts, illegibility, etc. are indicated by means of the system explained in the Guide to Editorial Notation on the next page. The text of the diary entries and related materials, transcribed and arranged by the editors, appears here for the first time as a book.

ii

Guide to Editorial Notation Most of this book has been transcribed from unrevised manuscripts. The text published here is as far as possible a verbatim transcript. Problems encountered in reproducing the manuscripts are indicated by means of the notation shown below. Notation

Textual Problem

[......]

Word(s) lost through damage to the manuscript.

[. . .]

Illegible word(s), one group of three spaced dots for each presumed word.

[ ]1

Superfluous word(s), often duplicating what immediately precedes; a footnote shows the word(s) as they occur in the manuscript.

[?

]

Word(s) omitted by the author that could not be supplied by the editors.

[word]

Word(s) omitted by the author or lost through damage to the manuscript that are required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors.

[?word]

Doubtful reading.

[word]1

Emendation required by grammar or sense; a footnote gives the manuscript reading.

w. [word]

Abbreviation expanded by the editors.

w[o]rd

Letter(s) supplied by the editors.

word[,]

Punctuation supplied by the editors.

[note]

Textual situation requiring brief explanation. Longer explanations are provided in editorial footnotes, which are printed in italics followed by “ Ed.” (Sri Aurobindo’s footnotes are printed in roman type.)

iii

CONTENTS Introduction Sapta Chatusthaya Sapta Chatusthaya Outline of the Seven Chatusthayas (Revised Order) Incomplete Notes on the First Chatusthaya

3 24 25

Part One Diary Entries 1909 – 1912 17 – 25 June 1909 28 January – 17 February 1911 13 January – 8 February 1912 1 – 25 July 1912 12 October – 26 November 1912

33 38 47 74 104

Part Two Record of Yoga 1912 – 1920 26 November – 31 December 1912 1 – 31 January 1913 1 – 14 February 1913 1 and 12 April, 19 and 21 May 1913 4 – 30 June 1913 1 – 11 July 1913 5 – 21 September 1913 22 – 30 September 1913 11 – 23 November 1913 24 November – 2 December 1913 1 – 12 December 1913 12 – 21 December 1913 22 December 1913 – 15 January 1914 12 March – 14 April 1914 15 April – 1 June 1914 10 June – 29 September 1914

117 175 228 240 246 274 287 302 305 324 334 342 353 382 444 484

CONTENTS

29 – 30 September – 31 December 1914 1 January – 27 February 1915 22 April – 26 August 1915 19 February – 20 March 1916 9 January – 14 February 1917 15 February – 31 March 1917 15 August – 28 September 1917 14 – 28 February 1918 3 – 27 March 1918 20 April – 20 May 1918 21 May – 1 July 1918 24 June – 14 July 1919 15 – 26 July 1919 27 July – 13 August 1919 14 August – 24 September 1919 1 – 29 February 1920 1 March – 10 April 1920 7 – 26 June 1920 17 – 19 October 1920

631 779 830 909 919 958 994 1021 1033 1038 1083 1095 1125 1147 1169 1184 1200 1225 1239

Part Three Record of Yoga 1926 – 1927 December 1926 – 6 January 1927 7 January – 1 February 1927 7 – 22 April 1927 24 – 31 October 1927

1245 1249 1265 1271

Part Four Materials Written by Sri Aurobindo Related Directly to Record of Yoga, c. 1910 – 1931 Undated Record and Record-related Notes, c. 1910 – 1914 Sortileges of May and June 1912 Undated Notes, c. November 1912 Draft Programme of 3 December 1912

1277 1285 1287 1289

CONTENTS

Undated or Partly Dated Script, 1912 – 1913 Sortilege of 15 March [1913] Accounts of 31 May – 15 June 1913 Record Notes, 13 and 15 September 1913 Vedic Experience, 14 and 15 December 1913 Undated Notes, c. 1914 Notes on Images Seen in March 1914 Undated Script, c. 1920 Undated Notes, c. December 1926 Undated Notes, c. January 1927 Notes on Physical Transformation, c. January 1927 Diagrams, c. January 1927 Miscellaneous Notations, c. February – April 1927 Record of Drishti, 30 July 1927 Undated Script, c. 1927 Undated Script, c. 1927 – 1928 Notes on Prophetic Vision, 1929 Diagrams, c. 1931 Undated Script Jottings

1290 1311 1312 1317 1319 1321 1323 1336 1337 1344 1345 1349 1352 1353 1354 1356 1358 1359 1361

Part Five Automatic Writing “The Scribblings”, c. 1907 Yogic Sadhan Automatic Writings, c. 1914 (First Set) Automatic Writings, c. 1914 (Second Set) Automatic Writing, c. 1920 Automatic Writings, c. 1920

1367 1371 1400 1404 1410 1411

Appendixes Material from Disciples’ Notebooks Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914 Sapta Chatusthaya Scribal Version Note on the Texts

1453 1467 1485

4

Sir Aurobindo in Pondicherry, c. 1915

ii

1

Introduction Sapta Chatusthaya

2

3

SAPTA CHATUSTHAYA

I Shanti-Chatusthaya.

smtA fAEt, s;K\ hA-yEmEt fAEtct;y\. Samata shantih sukham hasyam iti shantichatusthayam. Samata The basis of internal peace is samata, the capacity of receiving with a calm and equal mind all the attacks and appearances of outward things, whether pleasant or unpleasant, ill-fortune and good-fortune, pleasure and pain, honour and ill-repute, praise and blame, friendship and enmity, sinner and saint, or, physically, heat and cold etc. There are two forms of samata, passive and active, samata in reception of the things of the outward world and samata in reaction to them. (1) Passive Passive samata consists of three things

EtEt"odAsFntA nEtErEt smtA. titiksha, udasinata, natih iti samata Titiksha Titiksha is the bearing firmly of all contacts pleasant or unpleasant, not being overpowered by that which is painful, not being carried away by that which is pleasant. Calmly and firmly to receive both and hold and bear them as one who is stronger, greater, vaster than any attack of the world, is the attitude of titiksha. Udasinata Udasinata is indifference to the dwandwas or dualities; it means literally being seated above, superior to all physical and mental touches. The udasina, free from desire, either does not feel the touch of joy & grief, pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, or he feels them as touching his mind and body, but not himself, he

4

Record of Yoga

being different from mind and body and seated above them. Nati Nati is the submission of the soul to the will of God; its acceptance of all touches as His touches, of all experience as His play with the soul of man. Nati may be with titiksha, feeling the sorrow ´ rising superior to but accepting it as God’s will, or with udasinata, it and regarding joy and sorrow equally as God’s working in these lower instruments, or with ananda, receiving everything as the play of Krishna and therefore in itself delightful. The last is the state of the complete Yogin, for by this continual joyous or anandamaya namaskara to God constantly practised we arrive eventually at the entire elimination of grief, pain etc, the entire freedom from the dwandwas, and find the Brahmananda in every smallest, most trivial, most apparently discordant detail of life & experience in this human body. We get rid entirely of fear and suffering; Anan´ na bibheti kutaschana. We may have to dam Brahmano vidvan begin with titiksha and udasinata but it is in this ananda that we must consummate the siddhi of samata. The Yogin receives victory and defeat, success and ill-success, pleasure and pain, honour and disgrace with an equal, a sama ananda, first by buddhi-yoga, separating himself from his habitual mental & nervous reactions & insisting by vichara on the true nature of the experience itself and of his own soul which is secretly anandamaya, full of the sama ananda in all things. He comes to change all the ordinary values of experience; amangala reveals itself to him as mangala, defeat & ill-success as the fulfilment of God’s immediate purpose and a step towards ultimate victory, grief and pain as concealed and perverse forms of pleasure. A stage arrives even, when physical pain itself, the hardest thing for material man to bear, changes its nature in experience and becomes physical ananda; but this is only at the end when this human being, imprisoned in matter, subjected to mind, emerges from his subjection, conquers his mind and delivers himself utterly in his body, realising his true anandamaya self in every part ´ of the adhara.

Sapta Chatusthaya

5

(2) Active It is this universal or sama ananda in all experiences which constitutes active samata, and it has three parts or stages,

rs, FEtrAnd iEt svA nd, Rasah, pritir anandah [iti sarvanandah] ´ Rasa is the appreciative perception of that guna, that aswada, taste and quality which the Ishwara of the lila perceives in each different object of experience (vishaya) and for the enjoyment of which He creates it in the lila. Pritih is the pleasure of the mind in all rasa, pleasant or unpleasant, sweet or bitter. Ananda is the divine bhoga superior to all mental pleasure with which God enjoys the rasa; in ananda the opposition of the dualities entirely ceases. Shanti Only when samata is accomplished, can shanti be perfect in the system. If there is the least disturbance or trouble in the mentality, we may be perfectly sure that there is a disturbance or defect in the samata. For the mind of man is complex and even when in the buddhi we have fixed ourselves entirely in udasinata or nati, there may be revolts, uneasinesses, repinings in other parts. The buddhi, the manas, the heart, the nerves (prana), the very bodily case must be subjected to the law of samata. ´ Shanti may be either a vast passive calm based on udasinata or a vast joyous calm based on nati. The former is apt to associate itself with a tendency to inaction and it is therefore in the latter that our Yoga must culminate. Sukha Sukham is the complete relief & release from duhkha, from vishada, which comes by the fulfilment of samata and shanti. The perfected Yogin has never in himself any touch of sorrow, any tendency of depression, cloud or internal repining and weariness, but is always full of a sattwic light and ease. Hasya Hasyam is the active side of sukham; it consists in an active

6

Record of Yoga

internal state of gladness and cheerfulness which no adverse experience mental or physical can trouble. Its perfection is God’s stamp and seal on the siddhi of the samata. It is in our internal being ´ the image of the smile of Srikrishna playing, balavat, as the eternal balaka and kumara in the garden of the world.

Sapta Chatusthaya

7

Shakti Chatusthaya This may be called the siddhi of the temperament or nature in the lower system, in the internal triloka of mind, life & body, manas, prana, annam. To put it from a higher standpoint, it is the siddhi of the divine Shakti working in these three principles.

vFy fE XFBAv,  Et fE ct;y\. Virya, shakti, chandibhavah, sraddha, iti shaktichatusthayam. Virya The Chaturvarnya By Virya is meant the fundamental swabhavashakti or the energy of the divine temperament expressing itself in the fourfold type of ´ in Brahmanyam, brahmashakti, brahmatejas, the chaturvarnya, in kshatram, kshatrashakti, kshatratejas, in Vaishyaswabhava, shakti and tejas, in Shudraswabhava, shakti and tejas. We must ´ realise that the ancient Aryan Rishis meant by the chaturvarnya not a mere social division, but a recognition of God manifesting Himself in fundamental swabhava, which our bodily distinctions, our social orders are merely an attempt to organise in the symbols of human life, often a confused attempt, often a mere parody and distortion of the divine thing they try to express. Every man has in himself all the four dharmas, but one predominates, in one he is born and that strikes the note of his character and determines the type and cast of all his actions; the rest is subordinated to the dominant type and helps to give it its complement. No Brahmana is a complete Brahmana, unless he has the Kshatratejas in him, the Vaishyashakti and the Shudrashakti, but all these have to serve in him the fullness of his Brahmanyam. God manifests Himself as the four Prajapatis or Manus, the chatwaro manavah of the Gita, & each man is born in the ansha of one of the four; the first characterised by wisdom and largeness, the second by heroism and force, the third by dexterity and enjoyment, the fourth by work and service. The perfected man develops in himself all four capacities and contains at once the god of wisdom & largeness, the god of heroism and force, the god of skill and enjoyment, the god of work & service. Only, one stands dominant and leads and uses the others.

8

Record of Yoga

Brahmatejas

AnEl=sA An kAfo b}vc -y\ -T {y EmEt b}t j,. Jnanalipsa jnanaprakasho brahmavarchasyam sthairyam iti brahmatejah. Lipsa I give only the dominant qualities of the type in these definitions. The purna Yogin does not reduce his nature to inaction but perfects it and uplifts in order to place it at the service of the Ishwara in His lila. He accepts the jnanalipsa and purifying it of desire turns it into a divine reaching out towards prakasha of knowledge; this divine desireless reaching out of Brahman in personality to Brahman in the vishaya or object, is the new sense which lipsa acquires in the language of the siddha. Jnanaprakasha Jnana includes both the Para and the Apara Vidya, the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world; but the Yogin, reversing the order of the worldly mind, seeks to know Brahman first and through Brahman the world. Scientific knowledge, worldly information & instruction are to him secondary objects, not as it is with the ordinary scholar & scientist, his primary aim. Nevertheless these too we must take into our scope and give room to God’s full joy in the world. The methods of the Yogin are also different for he tends more and more to the use of direct vision and the faculties of the vijnana and less and less to intellectual means. The ordinary man studies the object from outside and infers its inner nature from the results of his external study. The Yogin seeks to get inside his object, know it from within & use external study only as a means of confirming his view of the outward action resulting from an already known inner nature. Brahmavarchasya Brahmavarchasya is the force of jnana working from within a man which tends to manifest the divine light, the divine power, the divine qualities in the human being.

Sapta Chatusthaya

9

Sthairya Sthairyam is the capacity of fixity in jnana; the man who is sthira is able to hold the light and power that enters into him without stumbling or being dazzled and blinded by the shock and to receive & express the divine gunas in himself without being carried away by them & subjected to the blind, rushing stream of Prakriti. He has the dharanasamarthyam & does not, from incapacity of the ´ adhara, lose or spill these things as they enter into him. Kshatratejas

aBy\ sAhs\ yfoEl=sA(mAG Et "/t j,. Abhayam, sahasam, yasholipsa, atmaslagha, iti kshatratejah. Abhaya & Sahasa Abhayam is the passive freedom from fear which with a bold calmness meets and receives every menace of danger and shock of misfortune. Sahasam is the active courage and daring which shrinks from no enterprise however difficult or perilous and cannot be dismayed or depressed either by the strength or the success of the opposing forces. Yashas By yashas is meant victory, success and power. Although the Kshatriya must be ready to face and accept defeat, disaster and suffering, yet his objective, the thing towards which he moves, is yashas. He enters the field to conquer, not to suffer. Suffering is only a means towards victory. Here again the reaching out, the lipsa must come to be free from desire & consist in the divine reaching out of God within to His self-fulfilment as the Kshatriya. Therefore the Kshatriya must manifest in himself the nature of the Brahmin, jnana & sthairyam, since without knowledge in some form desire cannot perish out of the system. Atmaslagha ´ a´ in the unpurified Kshatriya is pride, self-confiAtmaslagh dence & the knowledge of his own might. Without these qualities the Kshatriya becomes deficient in force & fails to effect himself in type & action. But with purification it becomes no longer the slagha

10

Record of Yoga

of the aham, but the slagha of the Atman, the divine Self within rejoicing in the shakti of God and its greatness and its power as it pours itself out in battle and action through the human adhara. Vaishyashakti

dAn\ &yy, kOfl\ BogEl=s Et v {yfE ,. Danam, vyayah, kaushalam, bhogalipsa, iti Vaishyashaktih. ´ are the especial dharma of the Vaishya; his Dana & pratidana nature is the nature of the lover who gives and seeks; he pours himself out on the world in order to get back what he has given increased a hundredfold. Vyaya is his capacity to spend freely for this purpose without any mean and self-defeating miserliness in the giving. Kaushalam is the dexterity & skill which is able so to arrange the means, the equipment, the action as to produce the greatest results possible & the best arranged results. Law, arrangement, suiting of means to ends, of expenditure to return, are the joy of the Vaishya. Bhoga is his object; possession & enjoyment, not merely of physical things, but all enjoyment, enjoyment of knowledge, of power, of self-giving, of service, comes within its scope. The Vaishya, purified and liberated, becomes the supreme giver and lover & enjoyer, Vishnu’s ansha preserving & making the most of the world. He is the Vishnushakti, as the Brahmana is the Shivashakti & the Kshatriya the Rudrashakti. Shudrashakti

kAm, m, dA-yEl=sA(msmp ZEmEt fdfE ,. Kamah, premah, dasyalipsa atmasamarpanam iti Shudrashaktih. The Shudra is God descending entirely into the lower world and its nature, giving himself up entirely for the working out of God’s lila in Matter & in the material world. From this standpoint he is the greatest of the four shaktis, because his nature goes direct towards complete atmasamarpana; but the Shudra bound has cut himself off from knowledge, power and skill & lost himself in the tamoguna. He has to recover the Brahmana, Kshatriya & Vaishya in himself and give them up to the service of God, of man, of all beings. The principle of kamah or desire in him must change from

Sapta Chatusthaya

11

the seeking after physical well-being, and self-indulgence to the joy of God manifest in matter. The principle of prema must find itself and fulfil itself in dasyalipsa and atmasamarpana, in the surrender of himself to God and to God in man and the selfless service of God and of God in man. The Shudra is the master-spirit of the Kali, as is the Vaishya of the Dwapara, the Kshatriya of the Treta and the Brahmana of the Satya. Shakti Shakti is that perfection of the different parts of the system which enables them to do their work freely and perfectly. Dehashakti

mhvboDo blAGA lG;tA DArZsAmLy EmEt  dhfE ,. Mahattwabodho, balaslagha, laghuta, dharanasamarthyam iti dehashaktih. The body is the pratistha in this material universe; for the working out of the divine lila on earth it is necessary that it should have especially the dharanasamarthyam or power of sustaining the full stream of force, of ananda, of widening knowledge & being which descends into mind and prana and the vital and bodily functions with the progress of the siddhi. If the body is unfit, the system is unable to hold these things perfectly. In extreme cases the physical brain is so disturbed by the shock from above as to lead to madness, but this is only in entirely unfit & impure adharas or when Kali descends angrily & violently avenging the attempt of the Asura to seize on her and force her to serve his foul & impure desires. Ordinarily, the incapacity of the body, the nervous system and the physical brain shows itself in slowness of progress, in slight derangements and ailments, in unsteady hold of the siddhi which comes & slips away, works & is spilled out. Dharanasamarthya comes by purification of the mind, prana and body; full siddhi depends upon full shuddhi. Pranashakti

pZ tA stA smtA BogsAmLy EmEt AZfE ,. Purnata, prasannata, samata, bhogasamarthyam, iti pranashaktih.

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Record of Yoga

When in the physical sensations we are conscious of a full and steady vital force which is clear and glad and bright and undisturbed by any mental or physical shock, then there is the siddhi of the prana, the vital or nervous system. Then we become fit for whatever bhoga God imposes on the mind and body. Chittashakti

E `DtA t j,AGA kSyAnA msAmLy EmEt Ec"fE ,. Snigdhata, tejahslagha, kalyanasraddha, premasamarthyam, iti chittashaktih. These are the signs of chittashuddhi & shakti of the chitta or emotional parts of the antahkarana. The wider and more universal the capacity for love, a love self-sufficient and undisturbed by want or craving or disappointment and the more fixed the faith in God and the joy in all things as mangalam, the greater becomes the divine force in the chitta. Buddhishakti

Evf;tA kAfo EvEc/boD, AnDArZsAmLy EmEt b;EfE ,. Vishuddhata, prakasha, vichitrabodha, jnanadharanasamarthyam iti buddhishaktih. Manas & Buddhi need not be considered separately as these elements of power apply both to the sixfold indriya and the thoughtpower in the mind. Their meaning is clear. For the full sense of vishuddhata, refer to the explanation of shuddhi in the seventh chatusthaya. Chandibhava Chandibhavah is the force of Kali manifest in the temperament.1 Sraddha Sraddha is necessary in two things:

f#A\ BgvEt c Et A. Shaktyam Bhagawati cha, iti sraddha. 1 The detailed description of this power is deferred.

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13

There must be faith in the love & wisdom of God fulfilling Himself through us, fulfilling the Yogasiddhi, fulfilling our life work, working out all for our good even when it is apparently veiled in evil; and there must be faith in the power of the Shakti ´ to sustain, work out and fulfil the manifested by Him in this adhara divine knowledge, power & joy in the Yoga and in the life. Without sraddha there is no shakti; imperfect sraddha means imperfect shakti. Imperfection may be either in the force of the faith or in its illumination. It is sufficient at first to have full force of the faith, for we cannot from the beginning of the Yoga have full illumination. Then, however we err & stumble, our force of faith will sustain us. When we cannot see, we shall know that God withholds the light, imposing on us error as a step towards knowledge, just as He imposes on us defeat as a step towards victory.

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Record of Yoga Vijnanachatusthaya

Siddhis Siddhis, their justification, dangers and use. The two first chatusthayas of the adhara have reference mainly to the central principle of man’s existence, the antahkarana; but there is one superior faculty and one inferior instrument which have each its peculiar siddhi, the vijnana or supraintellectual faculty and the body. The siddhi of the vijnana and the siddhi of the body belong both of them to that range of experience and of divine fulfilment which are abnormal to the present state of humanity. These are called specially siddhis, because of their abnormal nature[,] rarity and difficulty; they are denied by the sceptic and discouraged by the saint. The sceptic disbelieves in them and holds them to be impostures, fables or hallucinations, as a clever animal might disbelieve in the reasoning powers of man. The saint discourages them because they seem to him to lead away from God; he shuns them just as he shuns the riches, power & attainments of this world, and for the same reason. We need not shun them and cannot shun them, because God is sought by us in His world-fulfilment as well as apart from the world and in the world these are the riches of His power and knowledge which we cannot avoid, once we dwell in Him perceiving and sharing His nature. Indeed, there is a stage reached by the Yogin, when, unless he avoids all action in the world, he can no more avoid the use of the siddhis of power and knowledge than an ordinary man can avoid eating and breathing unless he wishes to leave his body; for these things are the natural action of the vijnana, the plane of ideal consciousness, to which he is rising, just as mental activity and physical motion are the natural action of man’s ordinary life. All the ancient Rishis used these powers, all great Avatars and Yogins and vibhutis from Christ to Ramakrishna have used them; nor is there any great man with the divine power at all manifest in him who does not use them continually in an imperfect form without knowing clearly what are these supreme faculties that he is employing. If nothing else, he uses the powers of intuition & inspiration, the power of ishita which brings him

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the opportunities he needs and the means which make these opportunities fruitful and the power of vyapti by which his thoughts go darting & flashing through the world & creating unexpected waves of tendency both around him and at a distance. We need no more avoid the use of these things than a poet should avoid the use of his poetical genius which is also a siddhi unattainable by ordinary men or an artist renounce the use of his pencil. At the same time there is a justification for the denial of the sceptic and the renunciation by the saint, & of this justification we must take note. The saint renounces because when these siddhis show themselves fragmentarily in a weak adhara dominated by egoism, the egoism becomes enormously enhanced, the ignorant sadhaka thinking that he is the possessor & creator of these abnormal powers and a very great man indeed, (just as we find an abnormal egoism very frequent in the small poet and the half artist, for those who have a really great power, know well enough that the power is not theirs but a gift from God & feel that the power of God is using them & not they ´ goes running after the power); so the sadhaka, misled by ahankara these powers for their own sake and leaves following after God. The denial of the sceptic is justified by the credulity of ordinary men who regard these things as miracles & invent them where they do not exist, and by the weakness & egoism of the sadhakas themselves and of many who are not sadhakas; for if they catch even a glimpse of these things in themselves or others, they exaggerate, puff, distort & build around some petty & imperfect experiences all sorts of jargon, mysticism, charlatanism & bujruki of all kinds which are an offence & a stumbling block to the world. We must therefore keep in view very strictly certain fixed principles; 1. That these powers are not miraculous, but powers of Nature, which manifest of themselves as soon as the vijnanapadma in us begins to open, & are no more a cause for bragging & vanity than the power of eating & breathing or anything else that is Nature’s. 2. That they can manifest fully only when we leave ego and offer up our petty separate being in the vastness of God’s being. 3 That when they manifest in the unpurified state, they are a dangerous ordeal to which God subjects us and we can only pass through it safely by keeping our minds clear of vanity, pride,

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selfishness and by remembering continually that they are His gifts and not our acquirements. 4. That these powers are not to be pursued for their own sake, but developed or allowed to develop as part of the flower of divine perfection which is by God’s grace blossoming out in us. Subject to these cautions, we have not to reject these powers when they come but accept them, to be used in us by God for His own purposes and not by us for ours, to be poured out by vyapti on humanity and not kept for our own use & pride. Vijnana

An\ E/kAld$ErEsE, smAEDErEt EvAnct;ym^. Jnanam, trikaldrishtir, ashtasiddhih, samadhir, iti vijnanachatusthayam. Jnana By jnana is meant that power of direct and divine knowledge which works independently of the intellect & senses or uses them only as subordinate assistants. It perceives the things that are hidden from the ordinary man, helps us to cease seeing the world in the terms of our sense experiences and enables us to become sensitive to the great unseen forces, powers, impulses & tendencies which stand behind our material life and determine and govern it. To jnana the whole machinery of the world reveals itself in its hidden principles; the nature of Purusha, the workings of Prakriti, the principles of our being, God’s purpose in His world-workings, the harmony of His gunas, Brahman, Iswara, Atman, man & beast & object, idea & name and form, reality & relation, all these show themselves to the eye that God has illuminated with the sun of His knowledge, ´ ´ jnanadipena bhaswata.

s(y-y d$E, ;Et, -m$Et, EtboD iEt Anm^. v$"  t; km EZ c s(yDm ev Anm^. Jnana is of three kinds, jnana of thought, jnana of experience, (realisation or pratibodha) and jnana of action or satyadharma. Jnana of thought consists of three powers,

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1. Drishti, revelation or swayamprakasha 2. Sruti, inspiration. 1 Intuition 3. Smriti, consisting of > 2 Viveka. Drishti Drishti is the faculty by which the ancient Rishis saw the truth of Veda, the direct vision of the truth without the need of observation of the object, reasoning, evidence, imagination, memory or any other of the faculties of the intellect. It is as when a man sees an object and knows what it is, even if, sometimes, he cannot put a name on it; it is pratyakshadarsana of the satyam. Sruti Sruti is the faculty by which we perceive as in a flash the truth hidden in a form of thought or in an object presented to our knowledge or in the word by which the thing is revealed. It is that faculty by which the meaning of the mantra dawns on the mind or on the being of the sadhaka, although when he first heard it, he did not know its meaning nor was it explained to him. It is as when a man hears the name of a thing and by the name itself, without seeing the thing, comes to know its nature. A special power of sruti is the revelation of truth through the right & perfect vak in the thought. Smriti Smriti is the faculty by which true knowledge hidden in the mind reveals itself to the judgment and is recognised at once as the truth. It is as when a man has forgotten something he knew to be the fact, but remembers it the moment it is mentioned to him. Intuition & viveka Intuition is the power which distinguishes the truth and suggests at once the right reasons for its being the truth; viveka the power which makes at once the necessary limitations and distinctions & prevents intellectual error from creeping in or an imperfect truth from being taken for the whole satyam. The importance of viveka for the purposes of man’s progress in his present stage, is supreme. At present in the greatest men the

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powers of the vijnana act not in their own power, place & nature, but in the intellect; as helpers of the intellect & occasional guides. Directly we get an intuition or revelation, the intellect, memory, imagination, logical faculty seize hold of it & begin to disguise it in a garb of mingled truth & error, bringing down truth to the level of the nature, sanskaras and preferences of a man instead of purifying & elevating his nature & judgments to the level of the truth. Without viveka, these powers are as dangerous to man as they are helpful. The light they give is brighter than the light of the intellect, but the shadow which the intellect creates around them is often murkier than the mist of ignorance which surrounds ordinary intellectual knowledge. Thus men who use these powers ignorantly, often stumble much more than those who walk by the clear though limited light of the intellect. When these powers begin to work in us, we must be dhira and sthira and not be led away by our enthusiasm; we must give time for the viveka to seize on our thoughts & intuitions, arrange them, separate their intellectual from their vijnanamaya elements, correct their false extensions, false limitations, misapplications & assign them their right application, right extension, right limitation, make, in the image of ´ the Upanishads, the vyuha or just marshalling of the rays of the sun of knowledge, suryasya rashmayah. Knowledge is not for the hasty mind but only for the dhira, who can sit long accumulating & arranging his store and does not rush away with fragments like a crow darting off with the first morsel of food on which it can seize. Realisation Realisation or jnana of experience is the perception of things through bhava, bhava of being or Sat, realising the truths of being, bhava of Chit or knowledge, realising the truths of thought, bhava of tapas or force, realising the truths of force & action, bhava of love or ananda realising the truths of emotion & sensation and bliss. Satyadharma Satyadharma is the carrying out of the jnana in bhava and action.

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Trikaladrishti Trikaldrishti is a special faculty of jnana by which that general power is applied to the actuality of things, their details of event, tendency etc in the past, present & future of the world as it exists, has existed & will exist in Time. It deals with particular fact, just as jnana deals with general truth. Trikaldrishti works in several ways; 1. Directly, without a means or excuse, by drishti, sruti & smriti. 2. By dwelling in concentration on the object, that process which Patanjali calls sanyama on the object, until the mind in observer & observed becoming one, we know what the object contains, whether past, present or future, just as we can know the contents of our own being. 3. By using as a means some external sign or some indicative science, such as samudrik, astrology, augury etc. These sciences are worth little, if not used by the higher vijnanamaya faculties; for the signs they use, are mostly indications of tendencies and to distinguish perfectly tendencies of possibility from actual eventualities cannot be done by following written shastra or by rule of thumb. 4. By the two powers of vyapti & prakamya which constitute what the Europeans call telepathy. Ashtasiddhi

&yAE&, AkAMym {'y mFEftA vEftA mEhmA lEGmAEZm (yEsE,. Vyaptih, prakamyam, aishwaryam, ishita, vashita, mahima, laghima, anima, iti ashtasiddhih. Ashtasiddhi is of three orders, 1. Two siddhis of knowledge, vyapti and prakamya 2 Three siddhis of power, aishwarya, ishita, vashita. 3 Three siddhis of the body, mahima, laghima, anima. Prakamya By prakamya is meant the full prakasha of the senses and the manas, by which they surpass the ordinary limits of the body and become aware by sight[,] hearing, touch or, more usually and more easily, by mental sensation and awareness

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Record of Yoga

1. Of objects, scenes & events at a distance or hidden from the normal operation of the mind & senses. 2. Of objects, scenes & events belonging to other planes of existence. 3 Of objects, etc belonging to the past or future the images of which are contained in the object of our study. 4. Of the present states of mind, feeling, sensation etc of others or of their particular thoughts, feelings & sensations; or of such states or particular thoughts etc which they have had in the past & of which the impression remains in the chitta record or which they will have in the future & of which the image is already prepared in the prescient parts of the chitta. Vyapti To each form of prakamya there is a corresponding form of vyapti, ie reception or communication. By prakamya, for instance, we can have the perception of another’s feelings; by vyapti these feelings are felt striking on our own consciousness or ours are thrown into another. Prakamya is the sight of one looking from a distance & seeing an object; vyapti is the sensation of that object coming towards us or into contact with us. It is possible by vyapti to communicate anything we have in our systems, thought, feeling, power, etc, to another and if he is able to seize and hold it, he can make it his own & use it. This can be done either by a sort of physical throwing of the thing in us into the other or by a will upon the Swabhava compelling it to effect the transfer. The teacher & the guru habitually use this power of vyapti which is far more effective than speech or writing but all men use or suffer it unconsciously. For every thought, feeling, sensation or other movement of consciousness in us creates a wave or current which carries it out into the world-consciousness around and there it enters into any adhara which is able and allowed to receive it. Half at least of our habitual thoughts and feelings are such unconscious borrowings. Aishwarya Aishwarya is effectiveness of the Will acting on object or event without the aid of physical means. It may work

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1, by pressure or tapas of the chaitanya straight on the object that has to be affected 2, by pressure or tapas of chaitanya on the Prakriti (either the general world-Prakriti or Prakriti in the object itself) to bring about directly the result intended 3, by pressure on the Prakriti to bring about circumstances which will compel indirectly the result intended. 4, without pressure by mere thought that is will, the ajna or ajnanam of the Ishwara which Prakriti automatically obeys. The last is the highest power of Aishwarya and its supreme siddhi; for here Chit & Tapas become one as in the Will of God Himself. Ishita Ishita is the same effectiveness of the will acting not as a command or through the thought, by ajnanam, but through the heart or temperament (chitta) in a perception of need or pure lipsa. Whatever the lipsa reaches out towards or even needs without conscious knowledge of the need, comes of itself to the man who possesses Ishita. Ishita also expresses itself either by pressure on the object or Prakriti or by simple perception automatically effective of its aim. The last is again the highest power of Ishita and its supreme siddhi. Vashita Vashita is the control of the object in its nature so that it is submissive to the spoken word, receptive of the thought conveyed or sensitive & effective of the action suggested. Vashita acts automatically through established control of one nature by another, or by the pouring of natural force into the word, thought or suggestion of action so as to produce an effect on the nature of others. The latter is the lower & ordinary siddhi, the former the supreme or entirely divine siddhi. Vyapti is one of the chief agents of Vashita. The Conditions of Power It should be noted that none of the siddhis of power can act perfectly or freely so long as there is impurity of the chitta, egoism in the thought and temperament or domination of desire in the use

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of the siddhi. Under such circumstances there may be occasional use & irregular effectivity of the power, a thing not worth having in itself, but useful only in training the mind to give up its own sanskaras & habitual processes & accept the activity of the vijnanamayi shakti; or there may be a regular & effective use of limited powers by fixed Tantric processes (kriyas). The latter should be shunned by the sadhakas of the purna Yoga. The Conditions of Jnana It should also be noted that perfect jnana and trikaldrishti are only possible by complete shuddhi of the antahkarana, especially the exclusion of desire and vishuddhi of the buddhi, absolute passivity of the manas and, finally, perfected action of the powers of the vijnana. An imperfect & irregular action of these higher powers is always possible & is possessed obscurely by many who are not Yogins or sadhakas. Physical Siddhis The physical powers, Mahima[,] Laghima, Anima, need not be considered at present, as, although belonging to the dharma of the vijnana, they act in the body and are strictly part of the physical siddhi. Samadhi Samadhi is the power by dwelling fixedly of the chaitanya on its object to extend the range of knowledge & consciousness through all the three states of waking, sleep & dream, to the realisation of those tattwas of the Brahman to which the ordinary waking consciousness is blind and to the experience, either in reflected images or in the things themselves, of other worlds and planes of consciousness than the material earth or this waking physical consciousness. The consideration of Samadhi may also be postponed for the present.

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Sharira chatusthaya. Sharirasiddhi The sharirachatusthaya, likewise, need not be at present explained. Its four constituents are named below

aAro`ym;(TApnA sOdy EvEvDAnd iEt frFrct;ym^. Arogyam, utthapana, saundaryam, vividhananda iti sharirachatushtayam. The three general chatushtayas These are the four chatusthayas of the Adhara-siddhi. In addition there are three general chatushtayas 5. Karmachatusthaya or Lilachatusthaya

k$(Z, kAlF kAm, km  Et km ct;y\. Krishnah, Kali, kamah, karma iti karmachatushtayam. 6. Brahmachatushtaya

sv mnt\ AnmAnd\ b} Et b}ct;ym^. Sarvam Anantam Jnanam Anandam Brahma, iti Brahmachatushtayam. 7. Yoga chatushtaya or Sansiddhi chatushtaya.

f;Em; E B; E , EsEErEt yogct;ym^. Shuddhir, muktir, bhuktih, siddhir, iti yogachatushtayam. The last or seventh is at once the means, the sum and the completion of all the rest. Its explanation is essential to the full understanding of the others and will be separately treated.

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OUTLINE OF THE SEVEN CHATUSTHAYAS (REVISED ORDER)

Yoganga Sapta Chatusthaya 1. Siddhichatusthaya Shuddhi, Mukti, Bhukti, Siddhi. 2. Brahma Chatusthaya Sarvam Anantam Jnanam Anandam Brahma. 3. Karma Chatusthaya Krishna, Kali, Karma, Kama 4. Shanti Chatusthaya Samata, Shanti, Sukha, Hasya (Atmaprasada) 5. Shakti Chatusthaya Virya, Shakti, Chandibhava, Sraddha. 6. Vijnana Chatusthaya Jnana, Trikaladrishti, Ashtasiddhi, Samadhi 7. Sharira Chatusthaya Arogya, Utthapana, Saundarya, Vividhananda

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INCOMPLETE NOTES ON THE FIRST CHATUSTHAYA

Shanti Chatusthaya 1. Samata is either negative or positive Negative Titiksha, Udasinata, Nati. Positive Sama rasa, Sama bhoga, Sama Ananda. Negative Samata Titiksha. The power to bear steadily & calmly all sparshas without any reaction in the centre of the being, whether they are pleasant or painful. The mind or body may desire or suffer, but the observing Purusha remains unattracted and unshaken, observing only as Sakshi and as Ishwara holding the system firmly together & calmly willing the passing of the dwandwas. It does not crave for or demand the pleasure. It does not reject the pain. Even when pleasure or pain are excessive, it wills that the mind and body should not shrink from or repel them, but bear firmly. It deals in the same way with all dwandwas, hunger & thirst, heat & cold, health & disease, failure & success, honour and obloquy etc. It neither welcomes & rejoices, nor grieves & avoids. It gets rid of all jugupsa, fear, shrinking, recoil, sorrow, depression etc, ie all the means by which Nature (bhutaprakriti) warns us [against]1 & tries to protect from all that is hostile. It does not encourage them, nor does it necessarily interfere with such means as may be necessary to get rid of the adverse touches; nor does it reject physically, except as a temporary discipline, the pleasant touches; but inwardly it presents an equal front of endurance to all. The result is udasinata or indifference.

1 MS again

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Record of Yoga

Udasinata Indifference may be of four kinds, tamasic, rajasic, sattwic & trigunatita. Tamasic indifference is associated with vairagya, disgust, disappointment, weariness of effort, unwillingness to make an effort. It is not really true udasinata, for it tries to avoid all as equally a cause of suffering, directly or indirectly; it is a generalisation of jugupsa and does not come from titiksha, but from its opposite. It is sometimes called rajasic, because although its nature is tamasic, its cause is rajasic, the disappointment of desire. Tamasic udasinata is useful to the Vairagi who wishes to get rid of the world by any means, but to the striver after perfection it is a stumbling-block. Its only use is to discourage the persistent rajoguna, and when it comes, it has to be admitted for that purpose. But it does almost as much harm as good, & so long as we cannot do without it, our progress is likely to be slow, a series of oscillations between rajasic eagerness and tamasic weariness born of disappointment, with tamasic udasinata as an occasional release from the wear & tear of these opposites. To rest finally in tamasic udasinata is fatal to perfection. Rajasic udasinata is indifference enforced by effort, sustained by resolution, habitualised by long self-discipline. It is the indifference of the moral hero, of the stoic. This is more helpful than the tamasic, but if persisted in, has a hardening and narrowing effect on the soul which diminishes in flexibility & in capacity for delight. Rajasic udasinata if used, must always be surmounted. It is an instrument which may easily become an obstacle. Sattwic udasinata is indifference born of knowledge. It comes with the perception of the world either as an illusion or a play and of all things as being equal in the Brahman. It is calm, luminous, free from effort, tolerant of all things, smilingly indifferent to all happenings, careful to reject rajasic & tamasic reactions. Sattwic indifference is a great help and a stage which is almost unavoidable. But it has its limitations. It stands apart from the world and is a preparation for moksha, for the withdrawal from the Lila. It is unsuitable as a final resting place for the sadhak of perfection. Trigunatita udasinata is that which takes all things alike, making no difference between sattwic, rajasic & tamasic reactions, but

Incomplete Notes on the First Chatusthaya

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holding in soul aloof from all these movements & all the dwandwas, observing them first with an absolute impartiality & by constant refusal to participate in them getting rid of them out of the mind & the prana. It neither rejoices nor grieves at their coming & going, na sochati, na nandate. It regards all these things as the workings of Prakriti & their causes as the will of the Ishwara. This udasinata is the preparation for the third element of [samata],2 nati. Nati. Nati is an equal submission to the will of the Ishwara. It regards all things as that will expressing itself and refuses to grieve or revolt inwardly at anything because it is hurt in its egoistic desires, opinions, preferences etc. Its whole attitude is based on the perception of God in all things & happenings. It accepts pleasure & pain, health & disease, bad fortune & good fortune, honour & disgrace, praise & blame, action & inaction, failure & victory; but attaches itself to none of them. Nati is not a tamasic acquiescence in inaction, a subjection to failure, an indifference to life. That is tamasic udasinata. Nati is active; it accepts life & effort as part of God’s will & His being, but it is prepared equally for all results. It has no longing for fruits, but works for the results pointed out to it as kartavya karma without rajasic straining or tamasic indifference. Shanti Shanti The fullness of negative samata is measured by the firm fixity of Shanti in the whole being. If there is an absolute calm or serenity in the heart & prana, no reactions of trouble, disturbance, yearning, grief, depression etc, then we may be sure that negative samata is complete. If there is any such disturbance, then it is a sign that there is some imperfection of titiksha, of udasinata or of nati. This imperfection may not be in the centre of the being, but only in its outer parts. There will then be a fixed calm in the centre, but some disturbance on the surface. These superficial disturbances may even be violent & veil the inner established shanti, but it always reemerges. Afterwards the disturbance becomes more & more thin 2 MS udasinata´

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in its density & feeble in its force. It ends in an occasional depression of the force & courage & faith & joy in the soul, negative & often without apparent cause, & then disappears entirely. Negative samata & shanti are the necessary preparation of positive samata and ananda. Without this foundation ananda is always liable to be uncertain in its duration & imperfect in its even fullness. Therefore all these things endurance of all contacts, indifference to all dualities, submission to all movements of the divine Will, perfect inner peace and tranquillity are the first step in perfection. Negative samata & shanti are the result of shuddhi & the condition of mukti Positive Samata. On the basis of Nati we proceed to the positive Samata, ie to say, to Sama Ananda. Its foundation is the Atmajnana or Brahmajnana by which we perceive the whole universe as a perception of one Being that manifests itself in multitudinous forms and activities. This One is therefore the one Self of all beings, my Self as well as the self of all others, friend and enemy, saint and sinner, man, bird and beast, tree & stone, and all things in the manifestation are the forms and activities of my Self. Moreover, this Self is again the Lord of the Cosmos, the Purushottama, the divine Vishnu, Shiva or Krishna, of whom every individual soul is a conscious centre, aware of its unity with Him in being and also of its difference in the universe; and the manifestation is a Lila or play of the Lord who is in His being all delight; the play, too, therefore, is not only a play of Existence and Consciousness, but also a play of delight. It is the dualities born of ego-sense in the heart, mind & body which creates grief and pain. We have to unite ourselves with this Self, Lord & One & with all things in Him, viewing them as our self, in order to get rid of pain & enjoy the divine Ananda. But, first, it is necessary that we should accept without revolt the Lila equally in all its details & happenings. This comes by Nati. Titiksha is the attitude of equal acceptance by the sense-mind & body, udasinata the attitude of equal acceptance by mind & heart, Nati the attitude

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of equal acceptance by the soul. The soul accepts all things as the play of the all-Blissful Lord, the Will of the supreme self and Ishwara. It accepts action also & the results of action, without being attached to them. But, though not attached, it must learn to take delight in all things even as the Lord takes delight in them. The first delight is that of the Sakshi or Witness, who looking upon the whole action of the universe & even his own action like one who is watching a play or a drama, takes the rasa or taste of the whole thing by the intellect, the sense and the aesthetic faculties. All things, all events are the manifestation of certain gunas or qualities in universal Being; God is Ananta guna, Infinite Qualities. The rose is a manifestation of form, colour, odour & other less obvious qualities, each stamped with a particular form of the rasa, divine Delight.

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Part One Diary Entries 1909 – 1912

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17 – 25 JUNE 1909

17 Thursday. Started (Amavasya Tryasparsha) for Barisal. The Amavasya is Kali’s day, so favourable to me. The Tryasparsha is the moment destined for a great advance in my Yoga. The ahankara was finally removed. Only faint remnants of it left. J. entered, but did not make herself manifest till next day. In train to Khulna. Small Sun in centre of brilliant Swarupa 18 Friday. On steamer to Barisal. Tratak of Sun. Blue sukshma image of sun elliptical in shape. Pattern of bloodred curves on yellowish background. Violet sword. Bloodred sword. Voice rises from chitta into brain. Kamananda by self, also , also for a moment by mere thought, developed in head only. The others pervade body, last some seconds. Vaidyuta manava bust seen also Chandra (small) filled with vidyut. Body held & moved, the hold always there, not always noticed. Vidyunmandal. Sparks of lightning (vijas). Background red, bloodred or brownish red. Sun dark with broad golden rim. Golden-red scimitar (sattwa-rajas). Realisation of Vasudeva. Vijas of agni, jala, prithivi outside continually seen. Chaya Purusha, bust. Swarupa in red. U.R. exercise with kamananda. Long rope of prithivi, brilliant & coiling, in clouds of vayu. Brilliant rose. Kali blue black bust crowned with sun = Shakti with awakened buddhi (not ugra, simply outline). Savikalpa, Savichara & Avichara Samadhi, brief but very deep in spite of loud noise at ear. Exposure to sharp cold wind, no feeling of cold; to strong sun, only feeling of pleasant warmth. Mass of thick pale green. Sarup dhyan, antardarshi. Face of Shah Alum. Face of Kumudini. Kamananda from feeling (being startled) slight but pervasive. Basket of grapes on cotton, lid off

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to one side. Swapnavastha (imagination playing in Samadhi as in dream[)]. Glass jug with napkin on top. K. Nil Surya with blue black rays. Namadrishta, 1. Tejonama. 2. bill with rose red letters. 3 ordinary black letter. Writing not coherent or noteworthy all print. Open doors and wall behind. Kitten at Namasi’s. Newspaper, probably weekly B.M. [Bande Mataram] Written account. Handwriting some words & forms deciphered. Piece of needlework. Handwriting, deciphered most, not remembered. Golden background in Samadhi. Talked to UW in Samadhi. To someone else, politics. Pang in foot immediately reproduced in face proves nervous current. Namadrishti. Typewritten deciphered coherent, but not remembered. Tennis-racket, dark and soiled. Given food in Samadhi, ruti & chutney. Face of K. Bh. Dark clouded sky with sun & strong light in clouds. Deep dark thick rose-red. Woods with white low railing outside, wooden. Sampatrai’s face in outline. Namasi (pale chayamay) with cup in hand. Long wooden bench. Electric shock moving leg. Sukshma image of network of chair in front of me. Two unknown or unremembered faces.. Rough adhardrishti. Boy wearing a turban stooping over something he stirs with his finger indistinct. Aswini Dutt down to waist, features obscured. Bowl full of vegetables, moving. Most of motions involuntary at bath. Partial utthapana; raised violently up & floating on surface of water with palms for support. Saw wind very clearly against light clouds under thick dark ones and a pillar of cloudy moisture. One strong current blew very violently from right with whirls, eddies & upward and downward pourings; another very slight seemed to come from left & behind. At this time there was a strong wind and rain threatening. Afternoon. All liberty of bodily movement being steadily taken away. Second voice in brain. Sri K.’s voice once in heart. “I come to slay.” First voice sometimes rises from heart still to take its place in brain. First has personality, second none as yet. Night. Bhava of Avesh in steamer shaking body; also in Kalimandir and on way to lodging. Swarupa bright star on dark background. Thin Nil triangle with very sharp apex like old Hindu pinnacle, a bright golden line in the middle. River scenes Thickly

17 – 25 June 1909

35

wooded bank. Bright stream with islands. Padma wide flowing covered with boats. A terraced green bank with steps in middle. Namadrishti of many kinds. Short sentences deciphered & remembered. Felt the Presence in the Kalimandir Image today. J’s prophecy about Barisal. 19 Saturday. Feet of a woman, long & slender. Deep green antah. Tank with man on haunches in front of big shrub. UR. in afternoon. Speech from chitta. Voice insisting on images of kama depicting future action. All relics of fear, disgust, dislike, hesitation rapidly disappearing. Doubt checked, suspension of judgment. Movement of limbs felt always to be alien except in ordinary motions of walking when there is knowledge without upalabdhi. 20 Sunday. Unknown face. Bright yellow outside. Road on bank of stream. Adhar Drishti in trees imperfect but beyond rough stage. The grotesque still predominates. UR. Adhar Drishti much finer on wall. 21 Monday. Warder Masson in boat with another. Little boy’s face with beautiful spiritual expression. Girl’s face, eyes winking violently. Adhardrishti on wall (figure good but not in detail). Training of heart in progress, of mind resumed. Part of small steamer. UR at night. B. trained, silent. J begins. Meghagarjan active since Amavasya. Prophecies of future, but with appeal to reason. Suggestions for practical work begin. 22 Tuesday. Adhardrishti. (Tank with rocks & trees on one side reflected in water, also clouds. Small lake. Figures less rough but details still unexpressed.[)] Antardrishti of stool with circular patch in middle.

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23 Wednesday. Barisal boy Water in bowl. Kettle boiling against Kamananda large fire. Very big & brilliant fire in motion. Touch on body causes more & more ananda. 24 Thursday. Tejorekha of woman’s figure n. Girl’s arm with bracelet. Speech of J continues consecutively in swapnavastha. Prophecies definite for six months. Prison grating. Crowd with one face close & vivid. Sukshma touches on feet frequent first in swapnavastha, then in jagrad. UR Faces & figures frequent. Bedstead on matted floor. Chairs like those in S [Shampukur] office. Dark, thick cross. Namadrishtis. Luminous space developing with chayas. Chayamay of mountainpeaks. Bow of colour, deep red, blue & an exquisite violet-pink. . Face of Upen Sen of Tejorekha of bare arm, of leg lifted up Barisal. Figure of boy rushing on another, catching round shoulders & ankles & lifting up in his arms. Food. Figure of boy putting down vegetable with some wooden instrument. A crowd of Indians sitting; face of Sudhir. A crowd, one figure conspicuous with khaki cap Indian sannyasi with strong face in geruya. Another crowd, my own face, Aswini Babu’s. Mah[o]medan boy pulling a Hindu back; then they stand released. European with a face like Roubey’s. UR. en.. [evening] Heavy sleep full of dreams. Tratak of Sun. After first gaze saw in chittakash most exquisite deep green colour, sun with zigzag of this colour coming out of it. Tratak for minute. Sun sometimes pale yellow, sometimes bluish green. A commotion & waves of some subtle substances in it, coming out of it & whirling round it, apparently prana. Closed eyes in chitta. Yellowish green with roundish patch of blue in it. Gazing into physical sky large patch of deep yellow floated before the eyes. At night; woman in coloured dress; colours very vivid. 25 Friday. Night. Strong utthapana, esp of lower limbs and upper part of trunk. Ny.. Some prananyasas & tratak on floating colours. Rapid visualisations. 1. Ramchandra in Yogic asan. 2. Two English girls in bright red over tea table, one stooping as if busy with something.

17 – 25 June 1909

37

3. Aluminium glass lying on its side. 4. Undetermined scene dashed with green colour, a figure stooping down to ground. 5 A copper bowl with brown & yellow substance half-filling it. 6. A brown brightly polished teapot, two white cups and other tea things. 7. A glass of water which I was in the act of drinking. 8. Water being poured from a brass drinking glass into a small earthen handi almost full of water. 9. Figures of small girls & others. 10. Usha dark & young-looking, a piece of toast in left hand. Others not so vivid, but rapid in succession. Suggestion that these are sukshma images of realities.

38

28 JANUARY – 17 FEBRUARY 1911

Physical Feb 6th 1. Felt the sweet taste of the amrita in the throat and noticed the struggle ibidem of the impure rasa causing nausea with the amrita. 2. Physical, tivra, ananda brief but definite. 3. All the physical anandas together, ahaituka, negative vaidyuta strongest, going to the head to base chidghana. Feb 14th 4 Example of pure raudrananda without discomfort from the strong bite of an ant. Cf experience in jail & the scorpion bite. 5. Sweetness of amrita much stronger, denser and more frequent and continuous, the mixture of phlegm less frequent. Communications. 1. Sukshma Shabda. Gautama about K.E. formerly a beau of the eighteenth century. 2. Writing (not on paper). Prophesy that the trouble in the digestion would almost immediately pass away, by replacement of tejasic by akashic action. A few minutes subsequently it was fulfilled 3. As I was walking outside the house, a large flower (fallen from the tree in the garden and ragged) was thrown to me from the direction of the opposite corner of the front. It traversed, as far as I could see, a distance of some five yards, flew at the level of my head and fell almost beside me. There was no person near; the servant was out, having gone to the bazaar; of the four boys, three were lying down in their rooms, another shut up in his at the other end of the house. The gate was bolted & no one could enter, or, if he did, escape in a second. There was no bird in the air, and the flower was not dropped, or thrown to a slight distance as a bird might throw it but flew horizontally for some yards. The

28 January – 17 February 1911

39

only defect in this proof was that I did not see the starting of the flower in its course, but only noticed it in the air at the distance of some yards from me. This is the first clear instance, the others being merely pushes to the table & doors which were far from conclusive.. It appears that the flower is not of our tree, as it is deep red and a simul flower. The nearest tree of the kind is in a house in the street behind this house. It cannot have been thrown from there as it would have to cross 2 roofs and describe a high curve in the air descending not horizontally but by a high parabola. 4 Statement in sukshmashabda that the worst of Saurin’s illness was past justified by fact. 5. All statements about the Yoga daily justified. Too frequent for a record to be kept. Vision of other worlds. 1. While doing tratak on the physical sun, I saw clearly with sthuladrishti the sun of the pranamay jagat and felt its warmth on my body. Feb 9t.h. Record of the Drishti. from January 28t.h. 1. Sthapatya on windowframe, of (a) a head, half Rakshasa, half animal with the Pisacha & Pramatha bhavas, one tusk (ekadanti), over the eyes sealed in meditation, is written “God”. (b) another, half Rakshasa, half-Asura, with a headdress half Egyptian half Semitic, of an intellectual and formidable type; over the eyes half-open on the world, is written “God”. I take it that in the former type God fulfils Himself, with the eyes of the soul blind; in the latter with the eyes half open; the first is without jnanam, the second with ardhajnanam. 2. A group of young Bengalis walking on a road, only the last clearly seen, two children sitting on a hillock at the side. All remarkable for beauty of figure and grace. Chitra tejas, in a fragment of the lining of a bird’s nest on the floor. Vision of future India 3. An elephant, initial crude condition on wall, ill-kept and spiritless; the same, feebly lifting its trunk to order. Symbol of the Indian people at the present moment. Seen at Chandannagar often, of

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Record of Yoga

the past, charging furiously with lashing trunk. Also of the future, ibidem, controlled by a tender, disciplined and waiting for the order of movement. 4. A beautiful butterfly (dark colours) emerged for a moment from the jagrat chittakash into the sthula chhayayukta. 5. In the akash, head and bust of Assyrian Pallas Athene helmeted over the sun chhayamay Athene and tejoghana sun. Jan 30t.h. 6. 2 small birds on a branch, on the wall, chhaya. Seen sometime afterwards in life on the tree in the next garden. 7. A Ghose a future signature on a cheque in a very different writing from my present handwriting. 8. A short nib tejas in the akash. Revelation that I should have to write followed by the necessity of writing (a cheque) though I had no intention of writing today. It was written with a fountainpen, while usually I write with an ordinary pen and a long thin nib. 9. A scene of the future. An Occidental port with ships, men walking in Indian dress. Sarvatragati. 10 Mountains in the sea. Scene of one of the swargabhumis. Sarvatragati. 11 A Madrasi house, tiled floor bare with an armchair. January 31s.t. 12 Chitra of my grandmother on the wall. 13 A pattern of many colours, (particoloured squares), varnamaya. 14. Sthapatya, tejas, in the leaves of a tree in the next garden, of R, in cap and gown. Prophecy. 15 A. J. Balfour, head and bust only, chitra on wall, ill. The chitra seen in December in the sand showed a more advanced state of illness. 16 A god in heaven, vyaghracharma, not worn, seated. Samadhi 17 A dog, descending the stairs to the terrace, not familiar. Samadhi

28 January – 17 February 1911

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18. A bundle of carbon papers for typewriting, put down, not folded, but partly turned down. Samadhi. 19. Chhaya in Akash of Kali armed, followed by Chhaya of Kalki on horseback. For Feb 4th & 5th see other book.1 Feb 6t.h.. 20 Chhayamay of Sister Nivedita. 21 Tejomays of a collar of pearls and two others of Jogini standing and asleep. 22 Varnamay of a dog brownish yellow All in the 1st stage of the perfect condition and in samadhi. Feb 9th. 23 Nalini, with big whiskers, an ochre-coloured coat and military belt, in a very martial attitude. Prophecy of distant future. Sv. [Svapna] Samadhi 24. Small flags & hint of horses in great number in a State procession. Prophecy of the distant future: Sv Samadhi. 25. Men riding with news, great excitement and alarm. (Bengal). Sv. Sam. 26. Stag at rest. Symb. Trikaldrishti of the present. After tratak. 27. Bull at rest. Jyoti. Symbolical trikaldrishti of the present. 28. Very clear chhaya (initial stage) of a butterfly flying across the corner of the room 29. Jalabindus round about the sun, also a network of the peculiar lines (ringlike curves) indicating the presence of jalam. The sun seen green again instead of blue or blue with a green tendency as yesterday. Feb 14th 30. The face of a watch chhaya & chhayaghan pointing to 10.30, 8.25 and 7.20

1 This “other book” has not survived.

Ed.

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Record of Yoga

31 After tratak on sun A nib, with a bell behind it (jyoti & varna), indicative of the removal of the remaining obstacles to perfect writing. (This process to begin today). The three times indicated in the subsequent2 drishti of the watch seem to indicate times in this process on three successive days 32. Behind the last a naked woman bending over it. Symbolic. 33. My eldest brother in a past state of health & vigour, chhayamay in Samadhi. Indication that he will not recover that health or live long. Feb 16th 34. An anchor (in samadhi) indicating that the dhairyam is now perfect. Prophecy. 35. R. [Ramchandra] broom in hand, 1–2 v. 36. The Rakshasi returning after sarvatragati. 37. The plant Yogini eats in flower. Feb 17th 38. Myself as a baby of 1 or 2 seen in Samadhi. do. 39. A baby of the future. 40 The dog Yogini or one just like it licking the mouth of a[n] upright soda water bottle. Siddhis Feb 9th 1. Aishwaryam on ant to give up its object and go back, done after a short persistence in the forward movement. 2. Ishita and aishwaryam for lessening of Saurin’s diarrhoea, fulfilled as soon as made. 3. Aishwaryam for rapid restoration of health and strength, repeated and fulfilled on the 10t.h. Feb 10t.h. 4. Aishwaryam for M [Moni] to awake. Immediate success. 2 The reference is apparently to drishti 30, which here precedes the present drishti. Perhaps drishti 30 was seen subsequently in time. Ed.

28 January – 17 February 1911

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5. Aishwaryam for him to get up and give the tea. Succeeded after a slight resistance, lasting five to ten minutes. 6. Aishwaryam for the thought to begin (not begun in spite of struggle for many days). Begun. 7. Aishwaryam for the dog to shake off its heavy tamas and manifest the new soul. Rapidly successful, but the tamas still struggles to remain & the old bhava in the face and body persists. A renewed Aishwaryam on the 11t.h. produces an immediate effect, the dog doing what it had never done before. Feb 11th 8. Aishwaryam of restored health & strength to S.[Saurin] succeeds, even the time coming correct. 9. Aishwaryam of particular drishti. Succeeded 10. Aishwaryam of particular forms of siddhi. Partly succeeded. 11 Aishwaryam to stay nausea while eating. Immediately successful. 12. Aishwaryam to clear the stomach of disturbance and heaviness by working of akash. Successful. Feb 13th or 14th 13. Ishitasiddhi for the dog to eat bread which it had always refused. Suddenly it began eating with relish after first refusing. 14. Ishita to refrain from large piece of bread given, but eat others. Persistently refrained even when it was broken into small pieces, except when induced to think it was not the same. N.B. Previously many ishitas had succeeded, but were not noted down especially with regard to vyapti of yogic states or realisations into others or to people coming or not coming. Feb 16th 15. Aishwaryam of S’s regularity in the afternoon, immediately fulfilled. Feb 17th Same aishwaryam fulfilled in half an hour.

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Record of Yoga

Feb 18 The same aishwaryam fulfilled under adverse circumstances (they sat down to cards at 4) within quarter of an hour. Record of Ideal Cognitions 28t.h.

January. from 1. I saw the time by the watch in the sitting room to be 2-40, ideally cognized the time by my watch to be 2-43. Verified, exact to the minute 2. A little later after a chase of the opposite house-dog, having lost the intellectual idea of the time, I ideally cognised it to be just 2.50. Verified, exact to the second 3. All rooms being closed, I ideally perceived that all were asleep. Verified immediately afterwards by no one moving when the servant repeatedly banged for admission at the door. 4. Sortilege with cards. First, I took out cards making a sum of 21 (Jack, nine and ace) and dividing by three got seven-o-clock; then for the minutes, took out queen, ten and nine, making 31, and dividing by three got 101–3 . The cognition then gave the already prophesied ejection of the internal opposition to higher thought as the subject of the sortilege. I took it, by intellectual habit and inference, as meaning 7.10 pm. The incident actually occurred at ten minutes to seven. 5. Figure 3 in drishti. Interpreted as Rs 3 worth of books to be purchased. Subsequently (Feb 2d) selected a number of 6 a[nna]s books without calculating the price; found that it amounted to Rs 3. 6. Two people applied to see me at the door, not seen by me. Cognition that they were detectives. I heard immediately afterwards that they had asked for “[The Indian] Sociologist” and “Liberator”. 7. I had a cognition formerly that the man calling himself Ram Rao Yogi was a detective independent of all inference. Learned on Feb 1 of a police report in which he is mentioned as watching the trains and taken for some time by the others as a Bande Mataram man. 8 Confirmation by B. [Bijoy] of my cognition of the new change of soul in the dog.

28 January – 17 February 1911

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9. Cognition by prakamya of improvements in Saurin’s health, without seeing him, justified by fact. Feb 10t.h. 10. A man came calling outside. Immediate cognition by prakamya on seeing him and revelation acting in confirmation of each other that he was a detective. It turned out to be Ram Rao Yogi, the detective from Maharashtra side. 11 Trikaldrishti that Sri [Srinivasachari] etc would not come this evening. Confirmed. 12 Trikaldrishti that tomorrow S. [Saurin] will be restored to health. Already recovering it. Fully confirmed.3 13 Sukshma shabda of the dog under the table attended with strong prakamya of its presence and motion there. An image of the past. Feb 11t.h. 14 Confirmation of former cognition that M. [Moni] although apparently unconcerned, had really a touch in the prana about his brother’s death. confirmed by his statement about dreams & weeping. 15. Cognition by prakamya trikaldrishti of evacuation in the afternoon. Confirmed Feb 13th 16. Vyapti from Saurin of the idea of making the tea. Immediately after I heard him talk of it, & a minute after he came and made it. Feb 14t.h. 17. Memory by inspiration. The passages of Kalidasa written out & translated by me a year and a half ago, not since read or remembered, were again read two or three times in the morning without particular attention to the words except to one or two lines. Later on memory began to restore the whole thing, not by effort to remember, for that hampered it, but by inspiration. Lines 3 “Fully confirmed” was written after the original entry.

Ed.

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Record of Yoga

came, framework or substance of thoughts were suggested, gaps filled up. Finally, the whole of the first passage with the mistake of dhEt for >vlEt, the whole of the second with no error, the last two lines of the third and two words with an error of the first line, and part of the second line in the fourth were remembered. 18. Cognition in reference to image of the watch that the final epic inspiration would begin from the time indicated, 10.30, fully confirmed by fact. Feb 15th 19. Cognition that the third time indicated in the watch4 7.20 would be fulfilled today by the final inspiration of the dramatic faculty, confirmed by fact. 20. Cognition from a drishti of the face of a watch, hands at 1.28 or 1.29 that at this time just after meals there would be a fresh advance in the siddhi. Finally, after some false speculation in other directions than the siddhi, the general poetical inspiration was fixed on. Fulfilled, since it began at 1.28 and was definite at 1.29. Feb 16t.h. 21. Cognition in reference to the image of the watch that the power of translation would begin today at the time indicated, 8.25; exactly fulfilled. 22. Cognition in the early afternoon of [? ] accompanied by the recurring image of a revolver. Feb 17t.h. 23. The boy from the hotel brought a dish and was told by Bhedi meaning to use the dish to come at 3. He remained, not understanding Hindi. While I was expecting somebody to come & send him off, vyapti came that Bhedi had changed his mind and would return the dish. A minute or two afterwards the dish was brought and given to the boy.

4 See above, Record of the Drishti, numbers 30 and 31.

Ed.

47

13 JANUARY – 8 FEBRUARY 1912

Record of the Yoga. January 13th. 1912 10.15 a.m. The last record covered the period from Dec 12th. 1911 to January 11th 1912.1 Liberated from anticipation, it was a pure record of fact and experience, but its correctness was sometimes vitiated by a misvaluation of the significance of the fact through over-appreciation or depreciation. It is intended that the present record should be free from this defect. Ananda has very fully established itself in the field of the indriyas. All sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, movements, actions, are now pleasurable or give pleasure; all carry with them the rasagrahana or appreciation of the beauty of the gunas which they are in expression, the joy of the vijnana in them (the basis of chidghana ananda), the joy of the heart in them (the basis of premananda), the joy of the body in them (the basis of the kamananda), the joy of the mind as indriya in them (the basis of the ahaituka ananda). All this joy is of the nature of bhoga from which the ananda is beginning to emerge. Joy of the spirit in the Ekam which expresses itself (the basis of shuddhananda, chidananda & sadananda together making kaivalyananda) is as yet obscure & involved in the lower anandas. Since yesterday, the ahaituka kamananda & today the sahaituka tivrananda are manifesting. Yesterday also the discomfort of heat & cold and pain were again exiled, though not entirely. Experiments made with the body show that below a certain intensity all pain now gives ananda of bhoga at the time of the feeling of pain, & pain beyond that degree brings it after the immediate acuteness has passed. Sometimes sahaituka raudrananda results. As I write 1 The Record entries for this period have not survived.

Ed.

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Record of Yoga

ahaituka tivrananda, raudrananda & vaidyutananda (negative) are recommencing; also vishayananda sahaituka and ahaituka, begun yesterday, are becoming more definite. The bhoga of all these forms is already established. The greatest difficulty is found in the prolonged contact of intense heat with a sensitive part of the body, eg. the heated stone of the floor under the midday sun. The intensity of the heat to the sensation can be increased, lessened or inhibited by Will; the prolonged contact tends to remove the element of suffering unless the Will is made to increase or maintain it, or unless the stream of Will (chit-shakti) is kept tamasic suffering weakly the contact instead of meeting it. This daurbalyam has been created in order to bring about certain forms of intense ananda, chiefly viparita. It is possible, as is now clearly seen, to render it a great element of strong positive (not viparita) ananda, but in that case the daurbalyam must be merely a form of balam, in other words, it must be supported by dhairyam and anandadharanashakti. Ananda is now being extended to events. Even depression and sinking are met and claimed by a stream of ananda, and the place, necessity & delight of amangalam, its true mangalamaya nature is being impressed by the jnanam not only on the buddhi but on the sanskaras of the manas, chitta, prana and material body. Pure varna manifested this morning in a form, (dense crude), so that all the material and possible variation of material for the crude forms is, in a way, ready and regularised; only the perfect crude forms have to be subjected to the same process. Other siddhis are in comparative abeyance awaiting the movement of the ananda. 11.20 a.m. The spiritual communications to the ear, this morning, revealed themselves as the communications of two kinds of spirits, those who are merely of the buddha plane, manasic, and given over to error, and those who stand on the borders of the sukshma and the mahat, receiving knowledge from the vijnanam, expressing it in the sukshma. Some of the latter are farther, some nearer to the borderline, some stand upon it, and according to the proximity is the soundness of the expression of the knowledge to the mind and the fullness and force of its substance. Besides these manasic beings, there are the voices of the Suryaloka and Janaloka who have already

13 January – 8 February 1912

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manifested. The mere buddha voices are now very rare and weak. The siddhi has risen to the borders of the mahat and reached over into it, and none have power who are below its line of attainment. The thoughts, perceptions etc may also be classified as on the same levels; there is sometimes even a double movement of knowledge in the mahat echoed in the sukshma. The forward movement of the ananda is now being left to itself and another siddhi taken up, the relations of the Jiva (dasyam) with the Master of the Yoga and those whom he has chosen. All restraint by the mind or any other organ used by the Jiva is to be entirely abandoned. The Vani that announces appears as that of an Angel of God, controlling, but aware of the derivative nature of the control & allowing the vak to flow through her. The derivative control of the world by Angels, Powers, Gods, Mahatmas announced by this Vani preceded by a blowing of trumpets in the Anandaloka. [Written] Next day. 10.20 The afternoon was begun with a suspension of definite progress in the siddhi and, afterwards, an attack on the siddhi of the ananda. The most important siddhi was the perfection of the articulate thought, which resumed rapidly all the characteristics of perfect vijnanamaya thought, prakasha, asu, nischaya, inevitability (adequate, effective and effective illuminative) of the vak, truth of substance, nihshabdata. All these were perfected and delivered from breach or restraint, except the nihshabdata which is still pursued with shabda by the annamaya devatas; but the thought can no longer be strongly impeded or suspended by annamaya interference, only hampered in its speed. Fluency has been acquired, rapidity prepared and declared due at 8.22 a.m. on the morrow. A severe struggle was necessary with the shabda, the attack of the annam being obstinate and furious and added by the necessity of steering clear of the laya of vak in artha-bodha. Involved shabda in implicit vak, not involved vak in arthabodha is the rule of the expression of thought. Trikaldrishti was regularised in the interpretation both by perception and in expression of the 2 Sri Aurobindo generally omitted the “0” when writing the first nine minutes of the hour. Ed.

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Record of Yoga

lipis, drishtis, shakunas, on the basis of right interpretation of the meaning, the fulfilment in the sthula being as yet not guaranteed. There was also perfect prakamya vyapti of the unseen movements of the servant carefully tested for about half an hour, only where inference interfered, was there error. The Vani accompanied by the personal use of the relations established with the Master of the Yoga came to perfection. Exactness is entering into the pure trikaldrishti (subjective & self-existent without prakamya vyapti). The time of several incidents in the Yoga was exactly indicated, also the exact minute when the evening meal would be given. All these siddhis, however, are subject to interruption and obstruction, though not of the old powerful character. Triple sanyama in samadhi has been established by involved process, occurring three times while walking, eg on the thought which [proceeded]3 undisturbed while the waking mind was unconscious, on the walk of the body or something in the immediate surroundings, on the fact of samadhi or an experience in the samadhi. External objects are, in this state, sensed not by the indriyas of the mind and body, but by the karana-indriya.. Ananda sahaituka of raudra and pain with bhoga; the tendency in the morning to the whole kamabhoga was discontinued in the later part of the day. January 14th. 10.45. The rapidity of the thought, promised at 8.2, was effected at that moment. Afterwards the trikaldrishti was taken up and brought to a higher state of general efficiency, but there is an obstinate obstruction to the siddhi of exactness in time, place & circumstance. Time-drishti is more advanced than place, place than circumstance. The lipis 1.2.3.4.7 have been given and afterwards 5 and 15. 1 is the siddhi of thought perception which, in combination with 2, is to give perfect trikaldrishti. 3 is the lipi and drishti which are preparing a more vivid and vigorous activity; 4 the siddhis of power, which are sensibly growing in perfection and from today 3 MS preceded

13 January – 8 February 1912

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are to develop rapidly and be perfect on the 21s.t.; 7, the Ananda; the ratna of the kamananda is becoming more frequent, the rati tending to regularise itself, the discipline of pain continues. 5 is the visvagati (samadhi) which is assured of farther development today. 15 refers to tomorrow which is to be as marked a day of progress as the 13t.h.. The rest of the record of January 14t.h. & the record of January 15t.h. is set down elsewhere in an accompanying memorandum commenced on the 12t.h.

52

Record of Yoga [Here begins the “accompanying memorandum” a set of notes written on a separate sheet. No notes for the twelfth or thirteenth have been found.]

Jan 14. This script will be used always for all kinds of purposes. It stands on a different footing from other means of spiritual communication. Now that the period of uninterrupted siddhi has begun, there will be no relaxation of the karma and the siddhi, the karma only waiting for the effectiveness of the power, the siddhi perfecting its force as the tapas increases in the body. Today, the typical perfection of the remaining elements of the jnanam throughout its whole range, the growth of lipi and drishti, the constant realisation of the Ishwara, the forward movement of the other siddhis. Pain is being given in the body, so that the discomfort of pain may by the habit of bhoga pass away. Pain will continue to be given henceforth till this aim is effected. There is no personality manifest behind this script, but this script belongs to the Master of the Yoga and proceeds from him through a passive channel. There is a siege by the annamaya-chitta. It is allowed in order to get rid of it. Meanwhile the siddhis effected stand and those in preparation are being advanced. Today there will certainly be a partial siddhi of drishti and lipi, of the trikaldrishti with precision, of the ananda, the visvagati and the siddhis of power, not only in their general action, but in particular movement The siege will be over in ten minutes. Lipi. “Efficient tapas”. Interpretation. “commences from today.” " “European civilisation in extremis”. " 21 years4 of strife before Indian civilisation is willingly accepted in its flawless perfection. The siege is broken. From this moment the full unrest[r]aint. 4 The manuscript is torn and the number not certain.

Ed.

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Although the siege is broken, it is renewed from time to time and broken until the whole force is broken up. There is still imperfect statement in this script and the imperfection will remain only so long as the trikaldrishti remains imperfect. The whole action of the consciousness on whatever level has to be made vijnanamaya and this is already being done with no farther regard for the hesitations in the chitta. Until the old movements of the annam are entirely cast out, these obstructions will continue; the thought is free, but the thought perception, trikaldrishti and prakamya-vyapti are not free. Still less the lipi & drishti. These have to be liberated, but the full liberation cannot occur today. Only the perfection has been promised, not the freedom from obstruction, although that freedom will be much more rapidly effected than it could have been formerly. Jan 15. Yesterday’s promises have had a very meagre fulfilment, for they were made merely to whip into life the dying expectation of progress & finality. There has been only an increased persistence in the few drishtis that present themselves perfectly, the rest being mere blurs & smutches, a revival of consecutive fluency in the lipi, a deepening of the conscious samadhi, an activity of the trikaldrishti which cannot be called perfect or new & is not yet proved in those parts which go beyond previous achievement, some strengthening of the siddhis of power, a constantly active relation with the personal Ishwara, a modification of the Jiva’s personality and the permanent (not continuous) consciousness of one Personality in all things & beings, a preparation of constant rati of the general ananda some obscure movements of the arogya which seem to be retrograde rather than progressive, an attempt of the elementary utthapana to recover lost ground, and nothing else tangible. Yesterday’s was in fact a farther purificatory and preparatory activity. Today’s is to be, if prediction can be trusted, an activity like the 13th’s. Too much need not be expected, but there will be a constant progress and firm establishment of positive siddhis.

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Lipi 3. The first progress to be made in 3. Fulfilled by the activity of the lipi Lipi 1.2. Thought has to take trikaldrishti into its province firmly. This had already begun, and the lipi is only an explanation. The trikaldrishti is prakamya and intuition of distant movements and is accepted subject to confirmation. The Vani which was anandamaya of the Prema Natha (dasyamadhura), is this morning ananda-vijnanamaya of the Guru-sakha. Lipi-drishti. 3 clear, 3 dim, 3 clearer but thick, 3 vivid, but thick. That is, first, the lipi in the chitra, perfectly vivid & stable, then, the lipi in the akasha dim & vague but just legible, then clearer but still not vivid, then stable, but not perfectly well defined. Immediately after the succession of predictive lipis, each of these stages was manifested in type. Lipi. “Stability”, sufficiently clear, “steadiness” dim. That is, the akashalipi is ready for a sufficiently clear stability, persistent in manifestation, not yet for a perfect steadiness in place. Immediately afterwards fulfilled. “Satiety”. “safety”. “Therefore satiety has to be forgotten by the system, safety has yet to be perfected.” The lipi is now consecutive in manifestation, simultaneous in stability. It is legible & in a way clear, but all the letters are not at once clear, nor does the clearness amount to vividness. The thought-perception without expression takes place now in the sukshma, but expresses truth of vijnana; if it expresses anything but this truth, it will be inhibited or corrected or inhibited and corrected. Lipi. “Knowledge.” earlier in the morning fulfilled by the development of this increasing habit of right-perception in the thought. The possibilities of the lila are being included in this habit of right-perception; for the type & possibilities of the Yoga have long been fixed and are now being translated into actualities. The type of the lila has been fixed, the possibilities fixed in generality are now being fixed in minute detail, a process that was unnecessary in the Yoga, but the actualisation is still remote. Actuality can only be fixed after upalabdhi & the establishment of sraddha. Sraddha is established with regard to the predictions of

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progress in the Yoga by the correctness of the lipi; there is no sraddha with regard to predictions of eventualities in the lila. Drishti. 8 & the tracing of the walls of a prison. That is, the utthapana is still detained in the prison of physical tamas. There has been a strong revival of tejasic activity in visrishti which seemed likely to become not only momentarily effective to a limited extent, but victorious recovering its old force. In the moment of stress this was twice contradicted by the inspiration which proved to be correct. Prediction has therefore become effective with regard to the bodily movements of the Yoga. The rati in all things (of the prema-ahaituka-chidghana anandas) is established though occasionally interrupted; the establishment of the ratna has now begun. The rati is less forward in events, than in states & vishayas. The corresponding stages of the bhoga have been rapidly passed through without special notice because it is the ananda and not the bhoga that is intended to be the permanent form of the ananda. According to prediction by the Vani there is a simultaneous movement of the jnanam, lipi, trikaldrishti covering the whole range attended by a general manifestation of rupadrishti (akasha & chitra) rough, vague or blurred predicted by the lipis 3, (vague & indistinct), 2 & 1. The movement has begun by the activity of the inspiration and of the viveka rejecting false inspirations. By this means several successive movements of men & animals have been accurately though not completely predicted, a few suggestions of error being rejected in time. Some of the inspirations present themselves at a distance & not as trikaldrishti, but a vague suggestion. Few [of] these prove correct. Collapse of the elementary utthapana with momentary disappearance of the tejas bringing about a cessation of the siddhi about 12. Lipi. J.F. will be C.J.5 Afternoon. Lipi 8. followed by some restoration of the elementary utthapana sufficient for the resumption of the siddhi. 5 Justice Fletcher will be Chief Justice (“Justice Fl” is written below and cancelled.) – Ed.

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Certain predictions of future events have been made which have to be justified by the event before they can be taken as the beginning of correct prediction of the future. A suspension of active progress till after 4 pm. Preparation of the accurate & precise trikaldrishti by inspiration & revelatory perception. The rest of the day was marked only by the [?intrusion] of ordinary thought, the under-current, in the new jnanam.

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[Here resumes the notebook.]

Jan 16t.h. Nothing is as yet final in the sense of being unbreachable except sraddha in the Yoga minus the physical saundaryam, a certain fluency of the new thought, a general freedom from any pronounced contradiction of the first two chatusthayas (sraddha in the Adesha and the daivashakti excepted) and an imperfect activity, very meagre but constant, of the third chatusthaya. Lipi. “satiety” several times repeated. " God. Int[erpretation]. The divine personality will manifest not only behind the Vani, but in all the circumstances of the life and Yoga. " Tonight . . delight . . safety. The Ananda and the confirmation of the conditions of outward action of the Yoga are to be among today’s siddhis. 10.15 The morning has been chiefly devoted to the taking entire possession by the personality of the Ishwara of the thought-expression and the removal of all restraints or government of the thought by the Shakti. The thought has also taken into itself the history of past ages, but is not yet as perfect in that province as in ordinary thought. The nature of the siddhi, as was recently more than once predicted by the Vani, approximates to the sadhan in the jail and is indeed in its nature the same sadhan, without its intensity, passing into siddhi. Sraddha is wanting or deficient. The lipi 8 has been frequent yesterday & was confirmed this morning. The elementary utthapana is once more triumphant over the denial of utthapana though still hampered by sukshma klanti and a strong return of the denial of anima. Walking from 6.20 to 7.35 and again from 8.5 to 10.8. No weariness in the body, the attempts of weariness to return being successfully rejected, but stiffness in the lower limbs & negative electrical ache, sukshma & slightly sthula, in the upper part of the body. The lipis 3 confirmed in the morning & 6 have also been frequent. Arogya is reasserting itself but not yet reestablished in possession of the body. The rupadrishti is still vague & blurred though often stable; perfect

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images come, but, except the prakashamaya, do not wholly or stably materialise. 2.2 pm Walking, from 10.45 to 11.40. Again from 12.25 to 2.2. Altogether 6 hours with three intervals of half an hour and three quarters of an hour ie 6 hours out of 73–4 hours. Result. Elementary utthapana was about to fail only once but was soon reinforced; in the other anima fails repeatedly, the last time entirely, but restores itself by a brief rest, the stiffness in the body & pain in the feet disappearing or reaching a minimum manifestation. The Ishwara is now master of all thought perceptions or expressed thought in the system and is laying his hold upon all feelings and sensations. Walking from 2.35 to 3.45 . . The strain on the utthapanashakti greater than before, but that on the anima slightly more sukshma; the latter is continuous, the former intermittent. Again from 4.15 to 6.15, making 9 hours out of 12. The force of utthapana has increased in the whole system and even at the end of these long trials acknowledges no weariness except in the outer material shell where an inclination to rest shows itself occasionally, but can be removed by a pause, standing, for a minute or a few minutes. The state of the anima varies, the denial sometimes increasing, sometimes diminishing or temporarily decreasing. The power of aisvaryam has greatly increased in the matters of siddhi, producing a much more rapid and spontaneous effect even in things physical than ever formerly. The satyadarshanam with regard to surrounding incidents, suspended for a time, has returned more powerful than when it was suspended but is still hampered by movements of buddha tapas, the one powerful obstacle now to the jnanam, but the power is that of soulless matter, inert and obstructive. A similar suspension of the clear rupadrishti & to some extent of the lipi has been also removed; the prakasha rupas are of great perfection, though not always vivid, and of all kinds and in answer to the aishwaryam is showing colours, red, violet, blue etc. Chhayaprakasha is also often very perfect. Chhaya is becoming perfect, but still shows stability in imperfection, but some instability in perfection. Other rupas are rare and unstable. The mastery of

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the system by the Ishwara is now almost complete, though still of a moderate intensity & force. The second chatusthaya & the nature & realisation of the Shakti Jiva, marked by the appearance of the lipi 11 (Kali), are growing more rounded and permanently real to the consciousness. Sraddha is increasing but falters before anupalabdhi. The movements of the [ ]6 vani & thought, which have become one, of the perceptions & the lipi & drishti seem now to be justified by the event and more & more precise and accurate. Standing & walking 6.35 to 7.35. and again from 9.20 to 11.20. Altogether 12 hours out of 16. Sleep from 3.10 to 6.40. Ananda in all outward things and the established sense of the one Personality in all. Certain defects in the thought perception appeared towards the close of the day. Safety was confirmed to the trikaldrishti, not by events. Jan. 17t.h. The progress of the siddhi today was greatly curbed by another attack of the asiddhi, but the asiddhi has no longer much power over the mind and feelings; all it can do is to affect the sraddha, obscure hamper or suspend the siddhis of the third chatusthaya and bring about some reaction in the fourth. During the morning remnants of sleep-tendency and some lowering of the elementary utthapana helped the asiddhi. Walking from 9 to 12.10. Samadhi in the afternoon, very deep and full of all kinds of drishti & lipi, but very confused and only towards the end sometimes helped by vijnana activity. Walked from 5.20 to 8.20. The utthapana does not fail, but is not intense and powerful as before. There is no positive weariness, but in the afternoon there was a general depression of activity. During the exertion pain & stiffness do not show themselves or very slightly, nor even afterwards, only when the exertion has been suspended for some time. Their hold even when manifest is not great. Occasionally they fill the sukshma body & manifest if there is a pause in the activity. Roga was strong today, nevertheless it yields to the aishwaryam without being removed entirely. The activity is excess of vayu with a slight element 6 MS the

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of tejasic, jalamaya & parthiva action, but the results are dull and feeble compared with former manifestations. Other rogas can no longer make any impression on the system. Ananda of the nature of rati is becoming stable & permanent even in condition & event, as well as in all vishaya, action, movement etc. The personality is now habitually manifest in all things and persons; but is not always remembered. Trikaldrishti was largely inhibited, but reappeared towards the close of the day without recovering complete exactitude except occasionally. Assurance of safety given from outside. The most important development was the confirmation of raudrananda, pain being now invariably attended with pleasure. Formerly only the dull kinds of pain had this attribute, but now it has extended to those which are acute, although the intensity has not yet gone in experience beyond a certain degree. This development has been persistently predicted recently by the ever recurrent rupa of the bee, wasp or hornet. Rupas are now often distinct, stable & perfect on the background as well as in the akasha, but have not advanced otherwise. Sleep 11.45 to 6.45 Jan 18t.h. 9.35 Defect of anima strongly felt on rising. Walking & standing from 7.20 to 9.30; the stiffness more insistent today. The utthapana has not recovered its force. Chhayarupas have still the tendency to vagueness & a blurred or imperfect form, but some are very distinct; these have a tendency to short stability or no stability at all. Momentary asaundaryam of guna, followed by a recovery and increased intensity of shuddha ananda in sarvasaundarya above guna; but this harmony is still imperfect. The rest of the day has passed in the final purification of the system from all trace of rajas or sensibility of the system to rajasic impressions from outside. The sattwic remnants are also being removed, but the process is not yet complete. A relaxation of the elementary utthapana occupied the system. The roga that came, is being slowly eliminated. Its chief characteristic is a dull form of watery nausea, slight in substance but with some tamasic power of oppression. The prithivi, tejas & jala are very weak. Hunger

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persists. Samadhi in the afternoon greatly improved, but not free of the tamas. Sleep 1.0 to 7. Signs of the raising of the objective siege. Jan 19th. Friday Sattwa & Tamas in their remnants are being removed; also the shadowy trace of desire from the lipsa, of ahankara from the buddhi, of self-activity from the thought and action. The control of the buddhi over the action has been eliminated & has now become mere imagination expressing itself outside the system. Sattwic activity is being eliminated from the vijnanamay trigunatita activity, but here the remnants are still not altogether void of obstructive substance. Letter from P.R. [Paul Richard] Safety assured though not absolute. The lipi & thought fulfilled. Walking & short standing from 7.45 to 10.45. No failure of utthapana, but the accumulative effect of adhogati is not yet removed and stiffness hangs about the lower body & in the sukshma as depression without actually occupying it, though strong touches are frequent. Farther exercise of the utthapana twice for an hour at a time. The final elimination of the sattwa approaches completion. There has been a simultaneous activity, insignificant in quantity & force, but pure in quality of all the members of the siddhi from 1 – 17, that is, the whole third, fourth, fifth & sixth chatusthayas. Some of the movements, however, were hardly more than preparatory. }Ev+AyA\ yogfA-/  Fk$(ZAj; ns\vAd  mo"yog,, inLipi. iEt b dicating the completion of the moksha and the establishment of the perfect samata with its three attributes and consequences. Sleep seven hours. Jan 20th. Exercise of elementary utthapana from 6.50 to 12.0 noon. Interval of about 10 minutes at 7.30 standing twice for reading the papers, once for two or three minutes conversation. Some attempt at failure of utthapana about 10.15 removed entirely by the three minutes standing, and again after 11. removed of itself. The body is ceasing to be affected with depression by the defect of anima, itself now much reduced in its stress, even after discontinuation of

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activity. The lipi 8 is persistent and points to the early perfection of elementary utthapana by the removal of all nirveda, klanti or necessity of change of occupation for body or mind. The thought, expression & perception, are entirely liberated from interference of the mind or from watch by the mind except to a slight extent in the immediate trikaldrishti. Thought, trikaldrishti, vyaptiprakamya; all the elements of jnanam, now act freely & rapidly and with a predominant, though not perfect accuracy. Even the general thought in the minds of others is perceived frequently & has been repeatedly proved. Sraddha in the Yoga is acquiring tejas because now supported by the activity of the jnanam, but in the adesha is not yet existent, though prepared to emerge on the first decisive upalabdhi. Rati in all things except roga is now the rule, & is generally the rati of ananda. A dull nausea has been persistent all the morning, but does not interfere with the appetite or disturb the prana. More has been eaten today than ordinarily & with full rati of food. The lipi & rupas are preparing frequency. Sattwa has finally disappeared and now only touches from time to time as rajas did in its last stage. Tamas has been eliminated, except the asraddha, but still attacks though feebly & with a much diminished heaviness. False vijnanam persists, but is losing its insistence & activity. Tamas, after a strong attack in the evening, was finally expelled, except in the body, and now survives only in ineffective touches; but the uncertainty of asraddha remains, eliminated with regard to the Yoga, occasionally reviving with regard to the rapidity of the siddhi, easily sliding into actual sanshaya with regard to the adesha. Exercise of utthapana from 2.25 to 3.55 and from 6 to 7.30. The defect of anima gives trouble still after rest, but, although constantly recurrent, is deprived of continuous persistence. Sleep seven hours Time of completion of cooking fixed at 8.45, actually completed 8.47. Arrival of most of the four fixed at 7 to 7.20. Three arrived, two at 7.8, another about 7.15.

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Jan 21s.t. The 21s.t. has been fixed for the beginning of the perfected siddhis of power, the morning for the beginning of the frequency & stability of the rupa and the lipi. The latter prediction is being fulfilled, but the really vivid & perfect rupas are still prakasha or prakasha-chhaya or occasionally chhaya and there has been some retrogression in the vividness and perfection of lipi & of other rupas, except where the rupas are momentary. The trikaldrishti of the immediate surroundings though of some perfection when left to itself, is still hampered by the activity of foreign suggestions. Exercise of elementary utthapana 7.35 to 10.35 a.m. No weariness but occasional touches of adhogati & stiffness. Relics of watery nausea much water rising into the mouth. Touch of tejas and proof of jala at the time of visrishti, but no strong reaction or disturbance. Exercise of elementary utthapana from 2.20 to 5.5 and from 10 pm to 12.30 am. The siege of adhogati in the sukshma was in both cases strong but not overpowering. The perfect action of the siddhis of power commenced but slowly and on a very small scale. Sleep from 12.30 to 6.30. Jan 22d.. The morning was occupied by a strong attack of asiddhi in which even the finality of the first chatusthaya was denied. Advantage was taken with regard to an error by which the imperfect harmony of pravritti & prakash tending to an imperfect harmony of pravritti & shama was mistaken for persistence of sattwa, rajas & tamas. This error produced strong asraddha and a return of attack by the triguna. The attack came clearly from outside & did not arise in the adhara but was admitted into it by the consent of the Jiva. The harmonisation of prakash, pravritti & shama is proceeding. Meanwhile the particular siddhis are not definitely active except the physical. There was exercise of elementary utthapana for nearly seven hours from 6.30 to 1.30 with a break of eighteen minutes (12.12 to 12.30) for meals. During this time there were only three standing pauses of from two to ten minutes, but only one for rest (two minutes), the two others for reading the paper & bathing. The exercise was pursued in spite of an insufficient tapas in the physical

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aura. It was followed at its close by a stronger denial of anima than usual, but this disappeared directly the exercise was resumed from 3.30 to 6.30 and during these three hours there was no failure of utthapana, no depression, no defect of tapas in the aura. The denial of anima became inoperative for practical purposes and the three hours minimum & six to seven hours maximum was established today as predicted yesterday. In the afternoon there was a strong attack of sleep which prevailed for one hour & more. In samadhi the occurrence of perfect continuous images & scenes (not so perfect) was reestablished. Lipi indicating the death of Binod Gupta at an early date, fixed tentatively either on or by the 25th of the month. No verification of prediction about varta, money from expected source arriving by the 22d... Rati of rasagrahana established but with viparita srotas of virakti impairing its fullness especially with regard to events. Sleep for 6 hours(?). Jan 23d.. Morning occupied by strong attack of duhkha; the rest of the day by reconstitution of the siddhi. The vak of thought rose to the level of the inspired illuminative. Tejas & tapas low. Over nine hours exercise of elementary utthapana, but not continuous. Money from the expected quarter arrived after all on the 22d.., but not the sum expected. There was, however, no prediction about the amount. Rati of bhoga and sarvasaundaryam established, chidghana and suddha strong, prema weak, ahaituka troubled, with a tendency to ratna of bhoga. Sahaituka sharirananda (vishaya and tivra) is establishing and generalising itself, raudra still subject to the limitation of intensity, vaidyuta & kama occasional and fitful. Attack on the health at the weak points still continues. Sleep 12.25 to 6.40 am. Sahitya was today resumed. Jan 24th. Lipi of death of Gupta fulfilled, but he died apparently on the day of the lipi, or possibly the next day, not on the 25th, of heart failure. There had been no previous news of illness etc. It is notable that the death of Sir J. Jenkins had been also foreseen, but

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in that case there was first the news of his illness. Exercise of utthapana 6.55 to 11.40; strong attack of non-anima and temporary failure of utthapana. The tendency to ratna in the bhoga continues and there is occasional ratha. The nirananda is mostly in the physical element of the higher anandas where the indriyas are touched. Motions of contact are now commencing in which, starting with the vishaya and the tivra, all the five physical anandas manifest together raudra, vaidyuta and kama following each other or rather developing out of each other. The same ratna of bhoga is being applied to events and happenings and even to the circumstances of roga. Satiety and dharananyunata interfere with the full consummation, but are being subjected to the general law. This movement is connected with a rapid deepening of the dasyam through which the realisation of all motions mental and bodily being inspired, conducted and imposed by Prakriti is being confirmed not only to Chit in buddhi, but also to Chit in sensation, mental nervous and physical. The movements of the body are being liberated from the shadow of emotional or affective intention and choice. Adverse movements are chiefly of the order of roga, a sore throat having taken hold after an interval of several years, and of bodily slackness and failure of utthapana. Jan 25t.h. & 26t.h. Days of clouded progress, the revolt of the triguna against expulsion from the nature-environment and of attempted relapse. No record was kept. The chief progress in the third chatusthaya has been the effective clearing away of false vijnana so as to leave the perfecting of the vijnanam unhampered, the clearing of the sraddha, increase of the dasyam, the steady progress of the arogyam and the rapid advance of the Ananda. Utthapana & bhautasiddhi have been strongly denied. The Kalibhava is gaining in completeness, firmness and permanence. Jan 27th. Progress, unclouded resumed this morning. The results of the last few days, so far as yet ascertained, may now be summed up. The first chatusthaya, denied by the assault of the triguna, has gained

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in strength by the ejection of the remnants of lower tejas; pravritti, prakasha & shama are arriving at a perfect harmony. The dasyam is being rendered firmer and firmer and combined with ananda is perfecting the shama and divesting it of all tamasic elements, perfecting also the pravritti and divesting it of all rajasic elements. The only tamas left is the physical and the asraddha of the Adesha, the latter the result of insufficient prakasha, the former of the imperfect conquest of the physical being by the vijnanam. The manifestation of the Kalibhava, harmonising the bala, raudra (karali) & shiva Kali, has perfected the second chatusthaya in all but intensity. The remnants of general asraddha in God & swashakti are disappearing and the only province of asraddha is the Adesha and the rapidity of the siddhi. This defect prevents the intensity of kalyanasraddha, and ishwarabhava etc. necessary to the perfection of the second chatusthaya. Jnanaprakasha is now strong and the mithyadharanas (asadgrahas) relating to the Yoga and Lila are disappearing. The Kalibhava and the realisation of self in all and all in the self are growing strong and persistent. The Master of the Yoga is more and more manifest in each detail of experience, but half-veiled by the Prakriti in the surroundings. Sahitya is once more hampered by the refusal of the annam to obey or even contain the vijnanamaya movements of the vak. On the other hand artha becomes more & more full and clear, powerful and luminous. Jnanam & Anandam Brahma are steadily deepening. The chief struggle is over the third & fourth chatusthayas where the annamaya obstruction has concentrated the best of its ˆ strength. Ananda has risen from the ratha of rasagrahana to the ˆ ratna of bhoga with a frequent emergence of ratha, which is especially strong in the sahaituka vishayabhoga & tivra & is spreading to the kama etc. Ananda, even ratha of the kamananda, is beginning definitely to emerge. The other bhogas (chidghana, prema, ahaituka, shuddha) are involved in the sharira and emerge out of it. It is here that the contradictions of ananda are occasionally strong. Ratha of the bhoga of events, conditions etc is prevailing. The contradictions are being overborne; pain & discomfort of heat & cold, contact etc are being dominated. The other field of struggle is the arogya; the sore throat was ejected after a struggle by

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siddhi. The rogas still capable of touching the surface of the system attack frequently, but cannot hold except for short intervals, coming, retiring, succeeding, failing without cause. The disturbances of assimilation are yielding perceptibly to the Arogya; when they come, they cannot hold or make only a brief & seldom violent visit. Three full days of avisrishti were attended with perfect ease and the remaining one and a half with only a vague tendency to disturbance. Two nominal visrishtis occurred on the fifth & sixth days, but with only parthiva pressure, no tejasic, vayavic or jalamaya. Only at the end of the sixth day (this morning) somewhat acute tejahkshobha produced a copious visrishti of the old type. The system, however, dismissed the kshobha in about fifteen minutes and it went leaving behind no acute results. The central arogya still advances slowly. Sarvasaundaryam is not yet continuously permanent. Jnanam increases in force & exactness. The style of the vak rises to the inspired illuminative and is effective at its lowest level. The thought perception is now almost rid of false vijnanam in its material, but not in the arrangement of its material. Nevertheless accuracy of time is growing, accuracy of place has begun, accuracy of circumstance, chiefly, is defective all this in the trikaldrishti. Prakamya & vyapti are strong and more continuous, less chequered by error. The internal motions of animals & to a less extent of men, the forces working on them, the ananda & tapas from above, even the explicit thoughts are being more and more observed and are usually justified by the attendant or subsequent action. The siddhis of power work well & perfectly, in harmony with the trikaldrishti, not so well when divorced from it. The physical tone of the system is recovering its elasticity & with it elementary utthapana and bhautasiddhi are reviving. Samadhi improves steadily, but is much hampered by sleep which has revived its force during these last three or four days. Time-prophecy. Arrival from the match predicted after 11.30, a little before 11.45. Actual arrival 11.43. Sahityasiddhi is being finally prepared.

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Jan 28t.h.. The control of the Ishwara, complete in the script and vani, has extended itself to the thought perceptions. Thought-expression attained by a rapid involved process the siddhi of absolute inevitability; the old slow movements are being progressively abandoned. In this case the effective and illuminative effective were the siddhi with a tendency to frequency of illuminative & inspired illuminative; but now the inspired emerged in a moment and took the place of these lower movements drawing them into itself and was itself drawn next moment into the [inevitable].7 A similarly rapid siddhi is being prepared in the lipi, but there is strong obstruction in the trikaldrishti and rupadrishti. Successful siddhiprayoga of power increases in frequency and perfection. The elementary utthapana is reviving (there was 3 hours exercise continuously with a minute or two of interval) but is still burdened with the bhauta asiddhi. Jan 29th & 30th Spent in the slow modulation of the annamaya mentality in the environment to the movements of the vijnanam. The annam of the body resists the working of the sahitya, the only karma that as yet seeks to proceed regularly, though bhasha, study and nirukta are pressing forward. A strong siege of tamas besets the physical brain. Knowledge floods it from the vijnanam, knowledge of type & possibility, but not yet of actuality; but the brain is unwilling to allow its expression, though willing to perceive & receive it. The third chatusthaya progresses slowly towards regularisation. Rigveda has been resumed & is pursued slowly but regularly. Jan 31s.t.. The lipi & rupa are now less fugitive & more firm in outlines, but not yet sufficiently or spontaneously vivid. In rupa prakasha still predominates. Thought expression is perfect but infrequent; the script bears the burden of the transformation of the remains of asatyam to satyam. Trikaldrishti improves but in things petty 7 MS inspired

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& immediate; nevertheless distant movements are also becoming correct & proved, eg Lourdes’ illness in its progressive stages. Today siddhis of power showed and advance in power of detail, but towards the end they were successfully resisted. There is no definite progress in bhautasiddhi or visvagati though there is some sign of preparation for regularity in the last. The vijnanam is slowly asserting itself in karma. At night according to a previous prediction swapna samadhi established its initial perfection in type, the recorded images being of an extraordinary minute perfection in vividness & multitudinous detail & sufficiently though not preeminently stable, eg a ship of another world. The images were mainly of the Bhuvar. Feb 1s.t. The sahitya begins to extend itself to all types of prose, with freedom of flow and perfection of type but not yet rapidity of flow or perfection in every detail. The silence of the divine element in vani & script was broken & the siddhi moves swiftly. Saundarya bodha has been made finally the natural view of the mind & indriyas, only faint relics of the asundaram remaining in the physical consciousness. The last relics of asamata are finally disappearing, those of depression giving way to a settled tejas & tapas and the defects of the second chatusthaya are in course of removal. The old prediction about the duta was today fulfilled. Kamananda with the ratha recurs daily, but is not yet frequent or continuous. The lipi is proceeding towards finality, gaining in habit of vividness & maintaining the same relative stability of position; the akashic movement in which it occurs is settling down. The non-physical elements of the third chatusthaya increase slowly. The conquest of the roga in the stomach increases; tejasic excess fails to keep its hold, assimilation has a greater force & when visrishti occurs, it is so little as to be hardly worth reckoning. The akashic state is preparing. On the other [hand] bhautasiddhi, elementary utthapana and arogya of the centre are obstinately contradicted, and saundaryam makes indefinite advance. Sleep is once more strong and hampers the visvagati.

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February 2d.. After a long progressive advance the lipi has established finally by a sudden manifestation simultaneity, stability, legibility and is only hampered in spontaneous vividness. The unity of the sentence in the lipi is also broken by the superimposition of other sentences. These difficulties were removed in the afternoon and all that is now left is to eliminate the habit of imperfect lipi and strengthen the habit of perfect lipi. The exactitude of trikaldrishti has finally begun, but is strongly combated. Crude rupas are becoming clearer and of all kinds, but tejas, chhaya and prakash predominate. The visrishti broke out on this the seventh day, but tejasic excess only exerted itself, after and not before, for a short time. Subsequently vayavic excess remained for a long time. Today the samadhi was used persistently as a preparation for sahitya. At night perfect images are the rule, but stability & vividness are not yet the ordinary law of the vision. Farther progress of sahitya. February 3d.. Utthapana & bhauta siddhi seem to be recovering tone. 3 hours with a very slight reaction of defect of anima. The process of removal of jalavisrishti has begun, the frequent evacuation has been brought down to a limit of four times a day, not always copious. Little definite progress today. February 4th. The bhoga of the general (non-physical) ananda manifested once ˆ more in force with a tendency to the habit of the ratha, independent of saundaryabodha which emerges from the ananda. Firmness of the crude rupa established & the establishment of clearness conjoint with firmness and stability begun. The imperfect lipi predominates. The script as substitute for vani is revived. Thought manifests its absolute perfection but with a downward tendency to the inspired illuminative. Perfection of trikaldrishti is inhibited, but exactitude of effect of the aishwaryam is becoming more common. Elementary utthapana morning & afternoon, but with two hours, not three hours limit. Anandavani revived. Sahitya etc do not advance. The Kalibhava is more continuous.

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February 5t.h. Personality of the Master in the vani more perfectly & continuously manifested. The Varahi in the Prakriti. The general ananda is liberated from nirananda in the common, expressionless and vulgar. Lipi predicting richness in rupas, finality of trikaldrishti not immediate; also visvagati. Sortilege. yyA (vyA jg(,A jg(pAtAE" yo jgt^. so_Ep EndAvf\ nFt, k-(vA\ -tot;Emh 'r,. and u"-TO c jgAT-tyA m; o jnAd n,. ekAZ v _EhfynA"t, s dd$f  c tO, relating to the removal of the nidra, the release of the shakti of trikal (ahi) from the sushupti (ekAZ v) and the perfection of the visvagati in the two regions of sukshma & sthula (Bhur, Bhuvah, Swar). After a strong revival of false tejas, false vijnan and general asiddhi, the annamaya atmosphere was finally cleared, tyaga enforced on the lower annamaya devatas and dasyam in the general bhava delivered from the last reserves of liberty. The denial of arogya in the assimilative processes due to retention of jalavisrishti & imperfect assimilation revived with power. There is no real parthiva pressure, but merely the habit of bhauta excess. Feb 6t.h.. (Tuesday) Yesterday’s siddhi confirmed. Both liberty & prejudgment have ceased; passive activity is perfectly effected. The exactitude of satyadrishti is being effected in the lipi-drishti, subjective perceptions (of the lower vijnanam) and prakamya is being displayed. It is not yet quite exact as applied to physical events. The siddhi of the vani is perfect. The distinguishing faculty in vivek acts frequently & perfectly but without intensity or strong illumination, excluding actual error; where it does not [act],8 there is uncertainty. This is especially with regard to the future (in the adesha and important events at a distance). Proofs of effective siddhi acting on the world at large are increasing, but the movements are still uncertain and comparatively rare. The rupa is increasing in frequency & richness of content. Later on the Shakti in its downward descent entered a layer of the annamaya Patala which had not yet been coerced by the vijnanam; there was in consequence a disturbance, 8 MS exact

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a cloud of the old sanskaras flying up and obstructing the siddhi. The finality of trikaldrishti seems to have begun. Feb 7th. Chiefly occupied with the annamaya disturbance. The sahityasiddhi successfully invaded poetry, the epic & dramatic styles. The thought is working to establish the inspired instead of the effective as the persistent style of thought expression and to rise from it to absolute inevitability. It does not now sink below the effective. There has been farther trouble about the vani, the anandabuddha being misused; it now tends to be finally replaced by the anandamahat. Trikaldrishti is so far advanced that the turns of flight of a butterfly, or a bird can all be predicted during the flight, but there is a difficulty about the prediction of the next movement of an animal in a state of rest. It can be foretold but the action is capricious. Trikaldrishti of things unseen is hampered by diffidence, unless there is a knowledge of the actual occupation in which case the general stages, eg of the progress of cooking, can be told without any material data to go upon, by mere trikaldrishti. There is strong & almost perfect prakamya of inner movements, forces, intentions etc, but not yet of the determining force, movement or action. Visvagati revived in force; frequency of sight but not yet the stability. Sukshma smell has revived its activity, but is infrequent. Feb 8th The flight of some score of butterflies & many birds foretold in their turns, only two or three errors due to speculation or tejasic action. Usually siddhi of power & siddhi of knowledge seem to be one. Future movement of animals in rest can now be told with some exactitude, but error is easier because of stronger habit of tejasic speculation. Aishwarya & trikaldrishti have not yet been harmonised. Drishti of an eye, prakasha-chhaya-tejas, in the akasha, perfect but momentary, an indication of the richer drishti (dense & developed) perfect but not yet capable of stability. This is already developing. The vani strongly anandamaya, first of the vijnanamaya ananda, then of the others, reappears full of the Vishnu or Pradyumna personality, taking into it Rudra (Balarama),

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Shiva (Mahavira) and Aniruddha (Kama). The definite personality of the Master in his personal relations to this Yoga and the Jiva in the Yoga has to develop out of the laya; for Vishnu is the Ishwara who incarnates. The present method of the Yoga is a progressive replacement of buddha bhavas by vijnana & ananda bhavas, and of the lower of these by the higher. The firmness and clearness of the stable rupas is much interfered with [ ]9 by unsteady floating waves of the subtle-gross etheric material of which it is formed; these waves mix with the clear form and blur it by excess of material in the attempt to reinforce its distinctness. Perfect satisfaction has now been given to the Aniruddha element in the Jiva, so far as the Yoga is concerned, by the revelation of the scientific means & steady progress used in the siddhi, but the Balarama element awaits satisfaction. The Mahavira element has also been satisfied by the floods of knowledge that are being poured down, but the Pradyumna element awaits satisfaction. In the Adeshasiddhi there has as yet been no perfect satisfaction even to the Aniruddha element. Lipi (on Sultan’s back, chitra formed by the hairs). Satisfaction to Brihaspati, not yet to the other deities. Satisfaction to Bala (due). N.B. Bala is the Titanic force from the Mahat which must eventually conquer & replace Rudra, though conquered by him in the Buddha, because descending into the Buddha he becomes a Daitya disturbing evolution by a premature effort towards perfection. The same is true of all the greater Daityas who are not Rakshasic in temper (Asurim Rakshasincaiva prakritim apaunah). Sahitya siddhi in ordinary poetical forms. Satiety of interest in what is old and familiar, “staleness”, is being overcome. Lipi “zoology” indicating a superior light on the science of life forms bringing zoology into harmony with the general satyam and getting rid of materialistic difficulties; immediately after while casually seeking a book to read, I picked up Haeckel, opened at the chapter on Worm forms ancestral to man and had the predicted illumination. Such detailed trikaldrishti is now becoming very frequent.

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1 – 25 JULY 1912

Journal of Yoga. July 1s.t. 1912 August, 1912, will complete the seventh year of my practice of Yoga. It has taken so long to complete a long record of wanderings, stumbles, gropings, experiments, for Nature beginning in the dark to grope her way to the light now an assured, but not yet a full lustre, for the Master of the Yoga to quiet the restless individual will and the presumptuous individual intelligence so that the Truth might liberate itself from human possibilities & searchings and the Power emerge out of human weaknesses and limitations. The night of the thirtieth marked by a communication from the sahasradala, of the old type, sruti, but clear of the old confusions which used to rise around the higher Commands. It was clearly the Purushottama speaking and the Shakti receiving the command. Already the lipi had given warning of a new life beginning on the 1s.t. July, a new life, that is to say, a new type of action, starting with a temporarily complete realisation of novel Personality and the final inevitable seal on the dasyabhava. Not that anything was done abruptly. In this yoga at least nothing has been abrupt except the beginnings, the consummations are always led up to by long preparation & development, continual ebb & flow, ceaseless struggling, falling & rising a progress from imperfection through imperfections to imperfect and insecure perfections & only at last an absolute finality and security. Even now the dasyam though complete in action, is not free of an intellectual questioning. But this last leaven of asraddha, of nastikya-buddhi, is confined to the truth or untruth of the Adesha given in the jail, the apprehension of certain forms of akalyana; it is not capable any longer of positiveness & even at its highest is unable to generalise itself. For the rest the triple dasyam of the

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body is active beyond doubt, the last shadowy effigies of the double dasyam is fading away in the mind and feelings there is not the same clearness; for the shadow of the double dasyam still persists by the strength of the asraddha, but the express thought, the vak of the divine communication, the experiences & feelings (all except the depression due to doubt) are ordinarily independent of the anumati. Only the perceptions present still a field to the unhappy independence of the soul, its triste liberty to doubt & revolt against God, and from this field the others are sometimes temporarily affected. The three forms of dasyam are now distinct and well-marked. The simple dasyam is that obedience to the divine impulsion which is self-chosen & depends on the individual’s intelligence of God’s will and his consent, his readiness to obey. The Purusha is still karta & anumanta, a servant of God, not His slave. The great step bridging the transition from the simple to the double dasyam is the renouncement of the kartritwa abhimana, by which we perceive that Prakriti is the only doer of all our actions voluntary or involuntary from the most deliberately concerted endeavour even to the simplest trifle and, in consciousness, are aware of the impulse of Prakriti in every movement physical or mental. At first the consciousness tends to make a false division claiming the movement itself to be our own although the determining impulse is felt as a driving or a pressure proceeding from infinite Nature above or around us. The wearing away of this division marks a farther attenuation of servanthood and deepening towards the divine servitude. But so long as the anumanta keeps his abhimana and reserves his right of individual lordship (Ishwara) over Prakriti, we have not passed the stage of simple dasyam. For between the various impulses of Prakriti, we have the sense of choosing, of an active & constant freedom, & although we choose what we understand to be God’s will, it is still our choice that determines the action in the adhara & not His direct and imperative Will. In the double dasyam on the contrary there is no active & constant freedom, but only a general & ultimate freedom which is used little or only exceptionally. We are aware of ourselves as Ishwara & anumanta, the individual ruling & sanctioning authority, but, although we still have the power of refusing our sanction to any particular impulse of

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Prakriti if we choose, we do not choose; we make no choice, we do not determine what is God’s will and act thereby or order Prakriti to act thereby, but leave everything to God to determine; the whole responsibility is His & a given impulse of Prakriti fulfils itself or not as He chooses without our interference. If the will is used, it is used by Prakriti. We are aware of it as being not our will, but the will in the adhar used by Prakriti. In the triple dasyam, even this potential freedom disappears. Whatever impulse of infinite Nature comes, we could not interfere with it if we wished, any more than the drifting leaf can deny itself to the storm or the engine to the force that works it. We are aware of our body as a whole & in its various parts being moved not by will in the body but by a will or force outside the body; our thoughts, feelings, will-power similarly. Each of these stands perfectly apart from the others & is worked separately by Nature. The will wills & has done; it does not try to determine action but leaves the action to happen or not as Nature pleases; the thought thinks & is done, it does not try to determine either the movement of the will or the movement of the action; the feelings equally live for themselves, atmatripta, not striving to compel action & emotion or thought & feeling to agree. What harmony is necessary is determined by the Para Shakti that drives us, which we feel always as a Force driving us. But this Force is itself only an instrument of a conscious Will driving it, the Will or Anumati of the Purushottama, who is Parameshwara & universal Anumanta. This consummation is also attended by a ripening realisation of the Divine Master. Formerly I realised the Impersonal God, Brahma or Sacchidan[an]dam separately from the Personal, Ishwara or Sacchidananda. Brahma has been thoroughly realised in its absolute infinity & as the material & informing presence of the world & each thing it contains, yat kincha jagatyam jagat. But the sense of the One has not been applicable utterly & constantly, there have been lacunae in the unitarian consciousness, partly because the Personality has not been realised with equal thoroughness or as one with the Impersonality. Hence while dwelling on the Paratman, the mind, whenever the Jivatman manifested itself in the sarvam Brahma, has been unable to assimilate it to the predominant realisation and an

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element of Dwaitabhava, of Visishtadwaita has entered into its perception. Even when the assimilation is partly effected, the Jiva is felt as an individual & local manifestation of the impersonal Chaitanya and not as the individual manifestation of Chaitanya as universal Personality. On the other hand the universal Sri Krishna or Krishna-Kali in all things animate or inanimate has been realised entirely, but not with sufficient constancy & latterly with little frequency. The remedy is to unify the two realisations & towards this consummation I feel the Shakti to be now moving. The action of this triple dasyam is now characterised by a harmony of shama & tapas. This harmony has been hitherto impossible owing to the excess of mental tejas which sought perpetually to energise the action & bring about a more rapid or a more perfect fruit, thus impairing the shama which consists in anarambha, shanti & the perfect realisation by the Jnata-Purusha of his own passivity. The state of action vacillated from tamasic vairagya or udasinata to rajasic heat & fervour of action. All this was an importation from outside, from the annamaya devatas, but a constant importation. With the greater perfection of the dasyam this pendulary vacillation between inertia & disturbance is sinking to rest and the hour of intense (chanda) activity in the Prakriti with perfect anarambha in the Purusha is drawing nearer. The third power of action, Prakasha, which is as a light on the path to the tapas, showing it its own works, is more & more active, but not perfect, although rounding towards perfection. This prakasha has been for the most part vijnanamaya, of the nature of discriminative & selective knowledge, acting directly by discrimination & selection as the first process of thought. For instance, I see a bird flying & I discriminate & select the farther course of its flight by an act of determining illumination I do not see the future flight with the self-vision as I see the present flight with the physical vision & so know about it. I see only the truth (ritam, satyam) about this flight, satyam of it, not sat, its truth of existence, not its existence. But this day I realised more certainly what I had previously perceived by fragmentary experience, that the basis of all knowledge is atmaprakasha of sat; by chit, that is to say, or sat luminous to itself. I began to see first the thing-in-itself

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in the Brahman (whether thing objective or thing subjective) and as part of that vision idea or truth of the thing self-manifest. The obstacles of vijnana-siddhi and of all subjective siddhi are no longer in myself but in the circumambient annamaya prakriti, not that attached to myself as an atmosphere by my past karma (for that is purified), but the general prakriti. It is from this besieging environment that imperfections expelled from myself reenter temporarily my system or the old regularised sanskaras of Nature which we miscall laws stand in the way of progress, eg illness, unease, thirst, limitation of power or knowledge, inactivity of power or knowledge. I feel, for instance, no thirst in the body but a sense of dryness around me & besieging me, but not clinging as it does when in the karmadeha or personal environment; I have sometimes to drink in order to satisfy these devatas. When I feel no bodily chill or discomfort in exposure, sleeping out uncovered in the cold wind at night, yet around me there is an unease & a shrinking which I cannot yet ignore. The obstruction & limitation, however, are no longer jealous & malignant, but the voluntary or involuntary expression of the natural incompetence or unwillingness of the annamaya devatas to new movements to which they are unaccustomed & which hurt their ease & their egoism. Notable Lipis today were these 1. Fidelity to the duties laid down by the speech. (This lipi pronounces a principle of the new action which has already begun to be fulfilled). 2. The heart and nature of the child (including the animal), the strength of the Titan, the appetites of the old giants, the intellectuality of Gods. 3. Kindly in intention, tragic in result. (Dharma in the Kali). 4. Finality to the tejas. (One of the immediate siddhis to be expected in the yoga.[)] 5. Rupadrishti. 6 Thaumaturgy. Yesterday, the 30th, there were four apposite sortileges which have an importance of the future and are besides worth noting for their entire appositeness to thought or circumstance.

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(1) EvrjAnljmE`n\ DAy o \ mhEq EB,. aOpAsnsm;(p\ g$h-T y\ sloktA\ jyEt y ev\ v d. Brihad Aranyaka. Uktham (prayer) is here the ishita and to show me that ishita (lipsa without bondage) is one with prayer, the latter rose again at night at the moment of the final establishment of the dasya and the Adeshavani. Ishita is the force of life creating things, raising up from weakness to strength, from nonbeing to being[;] by ishita the soul rises up in strength and climbs from this lower condition to the high divine condition & becomes no longer of this world where ishita weakens into wish & longing but of the world of the Isha and in touch with the conditions of that state of Swarajya in which the ishita is the natural state of the soul. The sortilege was an answer to the depression caused by asraddha and an assurance of fulfilment by ishita. } Et &yjAnAt^. Taittiriya. (3) a\ b 1 MS affected

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The financial condition is now at its worst, a debt of Rs 300, money almost at an end, all sources either denied or suspended & everybody who could help temporarily in a similar condition of destitution. The sortilege came as an answer to the anxiety in the annamaya mind about the sharirayatra.  yE-mk;l  BvEt y ev\ v d y u { hv\EvdA (4) t(k;lmAc"t -pD t _n;f;(y(yn;f;(y { hvAtto Em}yt i(y@yA(m\. Brihad Aranyaka. An answer to doubts about the activity of ill-wishers. July 2d. Nothing of decisive importance today. The vani is active. It seems that the faculty of rapid interpretation of the rupas, lipis etc is being finally established and there is greater firmness of the trikaldrishti. There is stress in the lipi on the word “prodigy”, which seems to be prophetic in its nature. The symbols of physical ananda have been determined and were repeatedly shown a butterfly for kamananda, (this is of long standing), a wasp for raudrananda, a bee or honeyfly for tivrananda, the long Indian bee for vishayananda, a moth for vishayananda.2 Lipi 25th George first end of existing state of destiny. I may note that a former sortilege occurring after the Titanic disaster and pointing to fresh disasters in the struggle of machinery with Nature, which I had supposed to be false or falsely interpreted, is today vindicated. No less than four accidents (three fatal, one extensive) in two days in aviation! It is noteworthy that I was wondering only a day or two ago at the comparative freedom of Germany from these accidents but these accidents (except one, I think) are in Germany. 8, 9 and 7 constantly reappear in the lipi. They indicate the chief points on which the struggle with the objective resistance is now concentrated. The secondary utthapana commenced feebly on the first attained on the night of the second some strength. There was perfect mahima & laghima (perfect in nature, not intensity) in the legs, but the defect of anima prevented sustainment for more 2 The first or, less likely, the second occurrence of “vishayananda” is a slip for “vaidyutananda”. Ed.

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than 15 minutes. In the arms it is general adhogati working through unease and general hostile physical sanskara that opposes; the special defect of anima is less prominent, though entirely absent only in one or two positions. Even in those the adhogati works through kala to recreate it. July 3d. The barrier offered in the annamaya prakriti to all decisive fulfilment of the vijnana-chatusthaya (the siddhis of knowledge & power incidental to the opening of the ideal faculty) [has]3 at last given way. The power of trikaldrishti in those movements which are nearest to the prakamya and vyapti (perception and reception of the truth about objects by sanyama on the objects or contact in consciousness with them), [has]4 triumphed over the obstruction. Instead of a difficult choice of the truth, past, present & future, about things & happenings, a choice hampered by a siege of false suggestions from the physical gods in the material environment, the suggestions themselves are coming to be automatically true. The vijnanam which is satyam ritam is conquering the last fields of mentality & imposing its satyadharma or law of self-existent truth which is necessary for perfect vision of things, satyadharmaya drishtaye. The movement is not yet entirely triumphant, for the enemy returns to the charge and clouds the siddhi with the anritam, but in the siddhi now there is fixity &, though not perfect continuity, yet a prevailing persistence. The enemy cannot prevent the persistence. The condition of success appears to be perfect passivity. If there is any arambha, any setting about to know, mental activity with its tangled web of error starts again; Truth, the satyam, is idea true in itself, self-revealing[,] atmaprakasha, not acquired, not in any way arrived at. The mind with all its guessing, inferring, discovering can only reach a marred & mutilated truth inevitably companioned by error. This breaking of the barrier was presaged by the lipi. “The difficulty is conquered.”

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The siddhis of power have also begun their decisive action but less perfectly than the trikaldrishti of prakamya and vyapti. There are four tendencies that prevent its proper action & effectuality; (1) the tendency to miss the object of the prayoga, as when Pallas Athene turns the shafts from the hero of her preference, so that the aishwarya or vashita does not act upon it at all; (2) the tendency because of habit, previous purpose or tendency or mere recalcitrance to a novel suggestion to pay no heed to it, to shake off the shaft of suggestion from the mental body & go on one’s way, if one is in motion or remain firm, if static, as if the suggestion had not reached; by the sukshmadrishti or by some involuntary movement the hitting of the mark by the force aimed at it can be discerned; (3) the tendency to confusion in the mental current of suggestion & mechanical opposition in the body leading to delay of obedience or deviation from the time, place & circumstance enjoined; (4) the tendency for adverse circumstance to interfere & divert the faultless or generally successful fulfilment begun. However, the frequency of obedience & frequent exactness of the action show the emergence of the successful Shakti. It is notable that both these activities are confined in their success for the most part to the immediate happenings around me of a trifling nature. In the rest there is only a general pressure and ultimate success and a capricious success in details. The therapeutic power has evidently gained in force. The vijnanamaya articulate thought had established its free activity regardless of all doubt & opposition in the mind, but it had not decisively proved its truth & vijnanamaya nature by unvarying result in the objective & subjective happenings of Yoga & life; but this movement of proof has now powerfully commenced. Drishti is also preparing a decisive movement both in lipi & in crude rupa. The lipi “After dinner the siddhi will take a new turn”, came in the afternoon & was fulfilled duly like the script of the morning. The new turn proved to be the final establishment of the first chatusthaya where it was still weak (in the hasyam or active atmaprasada) and its independence even in the annamaya prakriti & its last outworks of favourable & unfavourable happening (mangalam & amangalam). There are a few recesses of environing material mind in which sensitiveness to the apriyam survives feebly, but

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these touches have only a brief persistence. The second chatusthaya is preparing its liberation in the defective points (kalyanasraddha, faith in the adesha, ishwarabhava, etc), but as yet only the sraddha in the yoga siddhi is decisively fulfilled. The reason in the annamaya mind opposes the perfect sraddha, the damyam in the annamaya temperament opposes the ishwarabhava. July 4th The lipi is not yet entirely conquered by the Satyam. Especially when the doubt about the adesha siddhi rises, it gives or suggests false prophecies but the falsehood is usually noted, now, at the time & no longer deceives. Today’s notable lipis (1) Fullest satisfaction of the heart next after the fulfilment of the laughter (hasyam). It is notable that the fulfilment of hasyasiddhi has recently been predicted with great persistence by the lipi “laughter”, which I could not then understand. Cf the old lipi, “Safety” (2) Ekas tisthati viras tisthati. (3) Sadi Carnot. (4) Disorder at once; yes. The last script had reference to the prolonged attack on the first two chatusthayas & also on the new siddhis of the third which had produced in the annam some disorder, mental activity & vague uneasiness; it predicted the immediate removal of the disorder by restoration of passivity & was at once fulfilled. The attack lasted or recurred throughout the day until this script appeared with its immediate fulfilment. The vividness, frequency & simultaneity of the lipi have now been established in fixity, with continuity; but are not yet invariable or intense. Different forms of lipi, chhayamay, varnamaya are becoming more frequent (called in the prophetic script lipikaushalya). Along with this successful issue from a long & weary struggle the details of the lipi are becoming more & more independent of mental activity, eg le resultat decisif where the annamaya mind had blunderingly suggested decisive; the words suggested by the mental thought voice are increasingly rejected and other unexpected words substituted even when the lipi appears progressively and not with an

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unexpected spontaneity; etc. Automatic script recommenced today showed a greater truthfulness in the few statements made about the next movements of the yoga but is still capable of exaggeration. The vani has not yet entirely established its satyam to the mind. It is still taking up all imperative thought-voices suggestive of action & the articulate Thought is taking up all voices suggestive of knowledge. When this movement proceeds, there is a slight return to the old inefficiency of phrase, ambiguity of statement or exaggeration of suggestion; but these faults are only reproduced to be removed & not, as used to be the case, to have bhoga & be exhausted. The siddhis of power progress steadily. One of the difficulties is now removed; the power hits its mark, & where unfavourable circumstances intervene, favourable circumstances have begun to appear to counteract them. But refusal, delay & perversion are still common. Those on whom the power is used for progress in Yoga (S. [Srinivasachari] Bh. [Bharati] Sn. [Saurin] Bj. [Bijoy]) give frequent proofs now of success of siddhi & especially of vyapti of the shakti & jnanam in my or of my thoughts, but this siddhi is not yet decisively regularised. Mental bhukti is now complete (with the exception of adverse events where there is more of samata than bhukti) & is invariable in rasagrahanam, usual in bhoga and, nowadays, occasional as ananda. But the shuddha ananda attended by the realisation of universal saundaryam often fails temporarily, owing to the loss of hold on the inner man and the dwelling on the physical appearance instead, when this happens, and it happens only with regard to human faces, there is a fall in the general tone of the bhukti which ˆ tends to lose hold of the second & third intensities of bhoga (ratha & ratna) and descend to the rati or lowest intensity or else even to go back from bhoga to mere rasagrahana. But the lapse is never long sustained. Physical bhukti of the indriyas is well established except for the occasional failure of chakshush ananda in the movement above described and a failure in certain tastes of the palate, the latter exceptional. Sparshananda is still confined mainly to the low state of the rati, though well capable of the higher states, and is hampered by the persistence of discomfort by prolonged exposure to excessive

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heat, exposure to cold above a certain degree in the state of sleep or after sleep when the nervous vitality is lowered, the intenser touches of pain or poisonous irritation. Thirst is being once more expelled, but hunger is again active. The five physical anandas occur occasionally sahaituka, but the ahaituka activities have for the time being been suspended along with progress in the other physical siddhis. Sleep is strong, also adhogati of weariness, denial of anima, refusal of the saundaryam, persistence of the stray survivals of the phantasm of illness-symptoms. These seem, however, to be losing all hold except on the stomach & central functions, where they are attempting to resist final eviction (fullness, tejasic unease, touches of nausea) or to prevent fixity of siddhi. Visrishti is stronger than it has been for a long time past. Utthapana of neck maintained for about 10 or 15 minutes, finally overcome by pressure of adhogati. July 5t.h. & 6t.h. A day of considerable and constant progress. Two predictions were made during its course of the progress apportioned to it, the first in script after an opening activity of telepathy and thoughtreading, the second in thought and perception. The script ran, “More advance in vyapti & prakamya of thought; decisive effect in siddhi of rupadrishti. Progress in visvagati. Physical siddhi in 6. 7 & 8 (secondary)”. The prediction was fulfilled, but perfunctorily without any generosity or amplitude of effect. It was replaced by the second prediction which promised the beginning of a second totality of the third chatusthaya on a larger scale & with a stronger effectiveness heralded by the extension of trikaldrishti, prakamya, vyapti and the siddhis of power to things distant in place & time and a preparation of totality in the fourth & fifth chatusthayas. There has long been a free & successful telepathy (vyapti) & reading (prakamya) of the characters, feelings & states of mind of others and for longer still an elementary perception & vyapti of their actions. But the thought contents of the minds of others have been hidden from me except occasionally or in abnormal states of my being when it was concentrated in anger, apprehension or sympathy. Or it would be truer to say that I have read & received

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plentifully the thoughts of others, but as I now perceive without knowing their nature & origin, because the discriminative faculty & the sraddha or shastra of the thing were absent. Today, however, the veil was lifted, the barrier finally broken. Not only did telepathy & thought-reading abound, but in a single day the proof of correctness began to be ample. Things distant in time & place have also begun to yield up the secret of their present, future & immediate past, even in the rough of their distant past. Proofs have simultaneously begun to be vouchsafed. Things have even been perceived, denied by the object of the drishti or by apparent events & then proved in spite of denial on more ample evidence. Nevertheless the action is not yet perfectly free; the power of obstruction in the annamaya nature can no longer entirely prevail, but the will persists. Trikaldrishti is still hampered by revivals of the lower movement, when incorrect suggestion resumes for a short time its sway. There are also elements of error in the successful movement, mostly of the nature of mithyagraha or mithyaropa, misconception by which a tendency or passing thought is taken for an intention or an intention for the thing that will happen etc and misplacement by which the thought or action of one is taken for the thought or action of another or falsely placed in time, locality or order of circumstance. The siddhis of power increase always in force and in frequency & accuracy of fulfilment, but are not yet as habitually successful as the siddhis of knowledge. [Five blank pages intervene in the manuscript between the above entry and the one that follows.]

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July 13th. Morning. Experience of perfect unity of shamas, prakasha & tapas first in trikaldrishti, then in action. It was found that the sole error (of final result) in a particular drishti was owing to haste of mental tapas taking the main tendency or intention as the thing that was bound to happen. The right details were given by vyapti-prakamya of the immediate future, but were not accepted by the mind till they were fulfilled. The tapas is not yet chanda. A great & supreme passivity remains in which traigunyamaya utsaha and nirveda try to subsist discouraging as yet the tapas and prakasha. Only shamas is, as yet, entirely victorious. There is no longer any attempt by the manasa buddhi to forecast action; it recognises the impotence of speculation. Ananda Mimansa begun last night; the first adhyaya completed this morning. The proof of preparation of beauty in a very initial stage has during the last few days at last begun to appear. Strongly increased intensity of kamananda and much more continuous and pronounced general tendency to that ananda with its concomitants. Sometimes the force that commences is the tivra. Premananda based on realisation of God as every separate existence animate or inanimate re-becomes, suddenly active and strong. General trikaldrishti but without proper arrangement or nishchaya therefore groping & incorrect in detail is becoming normal. The Shakti has begun to move towards normality of correct detail. Power applied more perseveringly to the bodily siddhi seems to be producing more consistent results. The apana is being dominated, resistance to saundaryam relaxed, urdhwagati tending to recover from its prostration. Three longstanding aishwaryas were fulfilled yesterday & today in public events. Continuity of record promises to become more common in the samadhi. The first chatusthaya is now acting in its completeness by completeness of samata & the hasyam no longer depends on mangala upalabdhi. The body is also being possessed by samata & universal ananda even in what was formerly mere pain or discomfort.

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Sahaituka vishayananda is resuming its old occasional strength which now promises to be normal. The others are also more common. Nirvisesha (ahaituka, but another term must be used) shuddhananda seems about to be established and it is asserted that it is established within and in the body. Aishwarya about P´e [Poincar´e] successful; it remains to be seen whether he keeps his seat. Today’s predictions. 1. Passivity united with tapas and prakasha; removal of moral tamas and partially of mental tamas. Fulfilled; there is shamas, but no tamas except the uncertainty in the mind and a vague tendency to asraddha about the Adeshasiddhi & about the rapidity of the Yogasiddhi. 2. Ananda increased in the body; shuddhananda strengthened. Fulfilled 3 Health increased, linga and stomach strengthened in their chakras, apana dominated by prana. 4. Adhogati dominated by urdhwagati. (In these two respects it remains to be seen whether the apparent improvement is real & permanent.) 5 Beauty prepared. (Fulfilled with the slightness proper to this stage) 6. Vijnanam strengthened in all its parts beginnings of rupadrishti in dense & developed forms. (The latter is still doubtful) 7. Karmakama strengthened. (Not apparent.) 8 Kalikrishna strengthened. (Fulfilled) 9 Adeshasiddhi. The meaning & fulfilment of the last prediction are not apparent. Lipi “Today physical siddhi begins”, fulfilled. July 14t.h. Realisation of God in all attended by shuddhananda (in the state of bhoga like all the mental anandas) both nirvisesha and savishesha. These anandas (mental bhoga of all kinds & the physical

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bhogas) seem to be finally established & incapable of overthrow or effective breach by the nirananda. They have an air of being pratisthita. Only the nirvisesha sharirika anandas are intermittent and obstructed. The nirvisesha shuddha & premabhoga are, however, still dependent on the perfect realisation of Sarvavastushu Ishwara. There is strong tendency to deposit of prithivi & visrishti, & if the apana is dominated by the prana, it is as one who still successfully struggles with his assailant. The same is true of all the physical siddhis that have at all advanced, they are attacking, sometimes prevailing, sometimes in possession, but not yet masters except in the suddhi, bhukti & mukti (the latter most imperfect of the three). Yesterday by a sudden opening of faculty Sanscrit prose, even of the Kadambari type, which was until the last reading difficult to understand, troublesome & wearying to the brain, has become perfectly easy & intelligible at the first reading without labour. A similar result is coming in Sanscrit poetry but more slowly. Prakasha & tapas in the brain have increased, tamas is passing away. It is now apparent that kama was greatly strengthened yesterday & karma in bhava and power, but not, apparently, in actuality. The experience of the afternoon shows that ananda is not yet beyond effective breach by the nirananda & that the samatahasyam, though now normal, can still be interrupted, the traigunya become once more active feebly in rajas & by the use of force on the Jiva in his system, but strongly in tamas & with the consent of the Jiva. The old device of insisting, against the Jiva’s will, on flattering statement & promise which no longer seems supported by experience, has again been used. The exact trikaldrishti accurate in every detail or almost every detail seems to be becoming more normal, but is still very far from being habitual or even common; but it does not need so exceptional a movement of tapas as formerly; it comes, when it comes, easily & naturally The central chakra was stronger than ever before for a short time this morning & almost perfect in type, but collapsed under pressure. The force of arogya in the stomach has not yet removed

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the bhautic symptoms & unease attendant on imperfect assimilation. Apana is active & dominant in the jalavisrishti. The element of rajas in the daily written predictions is now clearly revealed by the extravagance of today’s predictions which run as follows. 1. General physical siddhi established, particularly health, urdhwagati & ananda, in their types, not yet in unbroken possession. 2. Physical mukti & bhukti become more apparent. 3. Vijnana liberated from its limitations, not entirely, but able to move towards the brihat. 4 Adeshasiddhi & totality of the fifth chatusthaya. The bhashasiddhi of Sanscrit prose, tested, proved to be well established. It is now suggested that the predictions were not in themselves intended to indicate the actual fulfilment during the day but the occupation of the shakti with these things during the day & afterwards. In this case it will be a general programme, rather than a prediction. But it was preceded by a phrase which fixed the understanding in the mind in a different sense. The attack of asiddhi in the afternoon was not entirely lifted during the day, especially in the intelligence (buddhi) which remained under the control of the tamas. Rupadrishti of ghana & developed form was active for a time, but the drishti still subject to the old defect, the vivid is unstable & the stable dim or ill-defined. July 15th This morning Samata is perfectly restored and there is a strong increase of the suddhananda with a manifestation of the faery element in the beauty of things, the sense of their beauty of ananda, the pleasure taken in them as visions of his weaving of God. This transcends or contains the beauty of guna proper to the vijnanam; it depends not on knowledge-perception of the separate guna & yatharthya of things, but on being-perception in chit of the universal ananda of things.

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The written prediction today: 1. Finality of shuddhananda. 2. Increase of sharira ananda. 3. Progress of health and utthapana (health in linga & stomach) 4. Preparation of saundaryam. 5. Kali Krishna (finality of mental dasyam and sraddha in the guidance, not in the truth of everything stated.) 6. Karma & kama increase. 7. Trikaldrishti notably, powers less, samadhi somewhat developed. The fifth has been immediately fulfilled; the personality of the balaka Krishna has taken possession of the sources of knowledge and communicates through the vani & vani script & even through the thought and the lipi; only the perceptions still belong to the Prakriti. The bala bhava (with a touch of the balaka) is established in the Shakti. The general tendency to kamananda & sharirananda is increased & more persistent but does not yet pervade & hold the body, but only moves about it in brief & rapid wave-movements. The weakness of the nabhi chakra is the chief obstacle Rupadrishti increases and instances of perfect dense crude & dense developed have manifested, but the latter are without stability. Shuddhananda is universal; questioned at first by the objection of physical ugliness, it has been liberated by the perception of the faery grotesque, the place of the crude, the unformed, the uncouth & the fantastic in the scheme of the universal beauty. The vulgar is the effaced and has the charm of that effacement. The movement of the intellect in difficult Sanscrit poetry is much easier and stronger & sometimes the vijnanamay knowledge manifests (smarta sruti) with regard to the meaning of unknown words. The primary utthapana is now active in removal of general weariness & alasyam, but still subject to the necessity of ample sleep & change of occupation. Health is dominating the defects still existent in the two chakras. Kama is more settled & the general

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tendency to the ananda continues (afternoon). In the trikaldrishti freedom of movement and the frequency of the sruti (which occupies at present all the means of knowledge along with the smriti) are now established, unhampered by the purely provisional nature of the sraddha conceded. This sraddha proceeds from the imagination, heart & general judgment but is refused by the buddhi which trusts only the smriti & drishti, where there is no prominence of sruti. Prakamya-vyapti is strong & frequently or even generally justified. The powers are not yet acting noticeably. Lipi (earlier). “In four days trikaldrishti will be perfect.” Trikaldrishti is being finally liberated from the tejasic movement which instead of waiting for knowledge & allowing it to come, tries to find out & fix the truth, preferring speculation to sight. The general correctness of the trikaldrishti was first made quite normal in those movements which closely follow the incident from step to step as it [proceeds],5 then in the prediction of the event before it begins; afterwards precise correctness of detail was brought to the level of a normal movement (not invariable, but natural, easy & frequent). Next the powers were applied to detail first of time, then of place, then of circumstance and precision of fulfilment was made normal; but the resistance here is greater & renders success less frequent. By several lipis the extension of the siddhi to trailokyadrishti was promised for the day, especially in samadhi. The first step was to attach a perception to rupas seen of their meaning & circumstances. Subsequently in samadhi a series of visions of Patala occurred, brief but some of them representing continuous incidents & scenes, eg, a ghat of many hundred steps descending to an abysmal river, small watersnakes darting through a river, all the scenes in shadow or dimness. Kama strong & the kamachakra tested. Primary utthapana & strength of the chakras was maintained throughout the day. In the evening the vani was active in the highest degree in the buddha. Tendency of sharira ananda was maintained, attended usually 5 MS precedes

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with continuous incipient ananda more or less pronounced, but not intense. Siddhi in sharira mukti was promised & given by positive ananda in heat & cold, and also, so far [as] could be seen by a strong instance in pain. The ananda in cold was especially strong & unmixed; that in heat was qualified by the mildness of the heat inflicted. Farther experience is necessary. Perfect dense & developed crude forms have at last effected their power of manifestation. July 16t.h. Dasyam more strongly confirmed, by emphasis on all action being for Srikrishna’s ananda & bhoga, not for the Shakti’s and by passive acceptance of the truth of the vani as superior to the apparent experience of the moment. Knowledge by sruti has begun to be proved & accepted. The process of finally manifesting the trikaldrishti in things distant has begun, the automatic unsought knowledge proving always truer than the mental opinions, inferences etc. The increased strength of the kamachakra strongly tested last night, has endured the test so far. Visrishti in the morning, but the bhautic symptoms were slight. Programme. 1. Trikaldrishti confirmed & extended; trailokyadrishti & rupadrishti 2. Powers strengthened. 3 Samadhi largely developed 4. Utthapana & health carried forward 5 Ananda established in an intenser movement. 6. Madhurabhava of Kali Krishna. 7 Karma & Kama strengthened. It may be noted that the stranding of the Persia begins the fulfilment of a recorded sortilege which has since been believed to be false. There are numerous instances of such belated fulfilment of old lipis, predictions in the thought, declarations in the vani. The postponement seems to have had for its purpose the indulgence & final refutation of the asraddha so firmly seated in the logical intellect.

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The day was given up to an attack in great force by the Asiddhi disturbing or veiling all the chatusthayas. The strength of the kamachakra began to weaken in the morning & collapsed in the evening. The utthapana persisted almost untouched and the health though attacked held its own; the general ananda only wavered a little in the evening except the inner ahaituka etc in events which was entirely disturbed, but the sharira only came by intervals or persisted as a faint tendency. In the evening, however, there was a brief intense movement. After a violent struggle the powers prevailed over resistance in the evening. Trikaldrishti, likewise. Both attempted to move forward beyond normal action to invariability, but after a time the attempt was suspended. Trailokyadrishti was active, especially in the samadhi, rupadrishti also, but in the chitra, sthapatya & cruder forms and no advance was made. Samadhi advanced considerably. Yesterday’s lipi, “story” explained at the time as the connected tracing out of a story in the night in dreamsamadhi was fulfilled. One or more scenes are presented & the thought traces the development of the connected incidents, often beginning before the appearance of the scene, to the conclusion. In the afternoon there was a struggle between sleep & swapna samadhi, the latter prevailing for the greater part. At night a rapid succession of brilliant visions presented to the eye scenes from the swargabhumis generally, those of the ananda bhumi especially. There is a strong tendency for the disconnected dream with its incoherence & perverted memories to disappear. Sleep was reduced to four hours in the night. The promise was given during the day to confine it henceforth to a six hours maximum to be reduced successively to 4, 21–2 and nil. The Kalibhava was developed in the terms of the second chatusthaya, Mahakali, Mahasaraswati with a previous return to Maheshwari & Mahakali. July 17th Programme 1. Renewal of the force of the siddhi in the body 2. Forward movement of the vijnanam 3. Fifth chatusthaya prepared for life. The force at work today in a state of depression, internal ananda

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wanting. The siddhis were rather in a process of modification than of advance, except the trikaldrishti which is becoming more & more the normal action of the mind, but still chequered with the tejasic habit of exaggerating or misplacing a perception. Speculation recurs frequently. The tapas was depressed in order that the fifth chatusthaya might be arranged for action & the tendency to personal use of power in karma eliminated. The siddhis of power encountered a great resistance, but they were usually successful, though not in the detail. Samadhi with visions of Anandaloka, the swargabhumis, Earth & Swarga. Lipi about the King. Evidences of preparation of saundaryam still slight and indecisive but no longer doubtful. Sleep at night six hours & short sleep in daytime. July 18t.h. Programme. 1 Preparation of karma (sahitya, bhasha, philosophy, nirukta, prerana) " of kama (knowledge, bhava, outflow) Madhurabhava of dasyam in action. 2. Beauty prepared, health & utthapana maintained, physical ananda insisted on 3. Vijnanam made invariable, powers enforced in detail, samadhi extended. Sahitya was resumed today, the Life Divine commenced; also the systematic study of Magha, an orderly arrangement of material (C dhatus) for the Structure of Sanscrit Speech and a review of past Prerana records begun. The insistence on physical ananda was not strong, but health & utthapana were maintained & in the evening the physical capacity of surfeit was, momentarily at least, conquered. The realisation of action as movement of Shakti enjoyed by Purusha came strongly in active dasya with arrangement in knowledge of the kama. There was one remarkable instance of outflow. Vijnanam is now acting invariably, spontaneously, not in particular instances & by special tapas as formerly, but not yet perfectly. The Powers overbore opposition & acted upon detail as well as generally, with great frequency in the evening. Extension of

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samadhi was not noticed in the swapna condition, but in the jagrat there was a temporary living in the pranamay jagat and a strong sensation of the vibrations of its earth & sense of its atmosphere. The annamaya self became finally trigunatita, indifferent to the action of the three gunas, not yet anantaguna. Tejasic tapas is dead in action, feebly phantomlike & ineffective in knowledge, but tamas is still strong, though the depression of the annamaya system, persistent recently, has been modified. Internal ananda is yet weak & overshadowed; only the buddhi keeps its grasp on the Anandam Brahma. Sleep at night six hours, in daytime half an hour. July 19t.h. Programme. 1. Continuation of karma (Bhasha, Sahitya, nirukta, prerana, kavya); preparation of kama with strong action of madhurabhava; Krishnakali finally realised in triple dasya. 2. Health & utthapana to move forward and the intenser ananda to become frequent & normal. Saundarya prepared 3. Vijnana action to be perfected, action of powers rendered invariable and swapna-samadhi completed in its deficient parts. Morning The vijnanam has by a greater activity and extension arrived at a point when the truth underlying every impression & idea in the mind or visiting the mind can be & is perceived, but owing to a tamasic obstruction it cannot always reveal the proper source & placement at the time of the drishti; consequently the mind has still time to misplace the truth & by misplacement turn it into an error. This is especially the case in the trikaldrishti that is not of prakamya vyapti in its nature but independently revelatory. It is now proved beyond doubt that the mind invents nothing, but merely transmits, records and interprets, & interpretation not being its proper function is more liable to misinterpret than to understand correctly. The activity of vijnana is not yet perfect, but it has moved nearer to perfection. The powers are already more active, successful & frequent.

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Karma The Life Divine continued, Rigveda resumed, nirukta & prerana slightly, kavya touched, Bhasha proceeded with. The difficulty of understanding Magha now only persists, ordinarily, where the meaning of important words is unknown. Triple dasya was strongly confirmed in the mind in relation to the Krishnakali bhava. The health & utthapana appear to be a little stronger & the intenser ananda occurs normally in place of the old tendency with inceptual ananda but its frequency was not great & is still strongly resisted. Reading of lipi in samadhi which was deficient, has been confirmed, but continuity of record was not clearly established. The vijnana action is perfected in itself, but still weak in force and not always perfect in action owing to the emergence of yet another layer of unreformed annamaya personality. The reform of this layer proceeded yesterday. The weakness is especially in the fluctuation from ananda vani & vijnana thought to buddha vani. Sleep 6 hours at night; in daytime swapna & sushupta samadhi. July 20t.h. Programme. 1. Karma (sahitya, kavya, bhasha, nirukta, prerana); kama strengthened, madhurabhava & triple dasyam intensified. 2. Intenser ananda made invariable, health & utthapana strengthened. 3. Vijnana, powers & samadhi strengthened continuous record developed. The record from today resumes the character of a communication and includes a view of the future as well as of the present and past. Hitherto the programme has been carried out but often with a feeble & uncertain execution. This has to be changed. Especially, today, the force & joy of the soul has to be revived & the tamasic hue cast over it by the uncertainties of the tamasic intelligence removed. It is already too evident that the Yoga will be fulfilled for the tamasic intelligence to deny it any longer, but the denial is now of the rapidity of Yogasiddhi and of the certainty or probability of the Adeshasiddhi. Bhasha & the Life Divine have already been resumed. Today, yesterday’s trikaldrishti that there would be news in

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the paper today of a fresh Italian attack has been confirmed by the news of cannonade in the Dardanelles & of the ministerial difficulties in Turkey. In this connection it is evident that there is still a slight tejasic influence in the vani colouring the truth with the prepossessions. There is strong resistance to the therapeutic power. The promise of equipment does not materialise. The obstruction to the physical siddhi is stubborn. Even the vijnana is faltering & “mesquin” in its action although increasingly general in its truth & frequency. These are the main helps of the tamasic intelligence. The trikaldrishti is already stronger in its action, though the confused method of working out the details from uncertainty to partly approximate partly complete correctness still continues. The siddhis of power are evidently much stronger & are overbearing in the field of exercise all the resistance brought against them; the only defect is that time is needed &, if time is not given, the prayoga is apt to be fruitless. In the field of life there are plenty of instances of success, but the power of offering a strong & successful resistance still belongs to the annamaya prakriti. Ananda is restored & force is coming to the bhava & the action. During the day the karma was strengthened Rodogune revised, prerana liberated from its shackles, nirukta strongly brought forward (C roots), the RV. proceeded with and, at night, the collection of materials for the R.V.. Bhasha and Sahitya were continued. The triple dasyam & madhura continue to be intensified. Ananda was made invariable & intenser even in touches of discomfort, but the nirvisesha was only increased in frequency. The third chatusthaya strengthens slowly, but lipi & drishti are at present under a cloud. Five hours sleep at night, a little in daytime. July 21s.t. Ananda has been restored, but certainty in the sraddha is at a low ebb & the tamasic intelligence finds still plenty of justification. Today the usual daily programme will not be given. The sixth chatusthaya will now be made permanently manifest in all its parts as a single whole, though not yet a perfect whole; still intensity alone will be wanting. The literary work will in all its parts be brought to a regular activity during the next few days. Outward

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work will commence in the same interval. The third chatusthaya in the next three days will be liberated from pettiness & want of force, the fourth rise above the tamasic obstruction. The doing of work in larger masses has begun this morning with the Rigveda. More of this collection of material will be done today, without interfering with other work. The last suggestion was fulfilled. All the usual work has been done, but the collection of material replaced the usual comment on R.V. Prerana was intermitted. The sixth chatusthaya was rendered vivid & invariable, the fourfold Brahman being seen everywhere in the whole & in each object, very vividly, except when the mind is not free. There is a state in which the infinity of the mind is clouded by preoccupation with a particular idea or subject; the sense of freedom, prakash (transparent luminousness) & lightness is replaced by obscurity & a heavy contraction in the guna of narrowness. This is a remnant of the buddha condition. There is another in which there is a particular movement in mind (special occupation), but the mind itself is infinite[,] free & merely watches its own movement. This is mukti with particular tapas. The second chatusthaya reemerged in the evening bringing with it a restoration of force & faith (not complete), but this reemergence was clouded afterwards. Health was much stronger, but perfect assimilation is still disputed by the apana, though the latter no longer produces distention of flatulence, but only tries to limit food-capacity, maintain the slowness of assimilation & restore the visrishti which has been discontinued for four days; the jalavisrishti is very strong and insistent. Nirvisesha kamananda in its intenser form, but not so intense as it was at times, is normal & frequent, but not long continued. The vyapti prakamya is becoming more decisive & intense. Samadhi is attacking the discontinuity & momentariness of the visible record, thought record has already the power of continuity. Sleep for five & a half hours 1 hour in the daytime.

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July 22d. Lipi 22.23. indicating these two days as of special importance. Sleep at night, which is tamasic, increases denial of utthapana, moral tamas, strength of apana & all asiddhi; sleep by day, which is strongly charged with samadhi, refreshes & is inclined to be brief. It is evident that the sleep which attacks has its stronghold in the karmadeha and not in the actual body. Saundaryabodha & Ananda in the outside world are now perfectly established, but relics of asamata remain and momentary tendencies of mental revolt touch the prana & chitta & sometimes . Kalibhava is strong, but has not taken the buddhi, 3(vA EvlFyt possession of the speech where the old sanskar is powerful. Krishna seems sometimes to remove himself and look out from behind a veil. This presence & absence in myself with its results reveals Christ’s state of mind when he complained of being forsaken by God. This is salokya, sayujya is when there is the same feeling of presence, but of God in contact with us or embracing the soul from outside, not of being in us & part of us, thought different & yet the same. Sadharmya is well established, but not perfect because of insufficient Ishwarabhava. The relation of Purushottama, Akshara Purusha and Kshara Purusha (Jivatma) is now constantly & vividly seen by me in others more than in myself, although just now it is manifesting in myself. In myself the Purushottama & Kshara Purusha are most vivid to me, in others the Jivatman & Akshara Purusha, while in the world at large (jagati), it is the Purushottama containing the other two in Himself & almost engulfing them they seem to be merely movements of the Purushottama, parts, layers, aspects of His personality, as indeed they really are. This is because in the jagati & indeed in inanimate beings there is not the ahankara in the buddhi to create a sense of difference. Being more strongly aware of my own remnants of ahankara than that of others, or, rather being more troubled by my awareness the Akshara Purusha is less manifest to me than in others, in whom I see the ahankara only as a play of Srikrishna and am not disturbed by it. The health of assimilation was strongly combated but in the end prevailed distention, air-filled ether, is still the weapon of

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offence; also a relic of skin-irritation, exceedingly superficial, but persistent has reappeared since day before yesterday. Sleep was reduced to four hours and a half at night, none in the day. Nirvisesha kamananda became insistent & long continuous in the evening & up till 11 pm, but its first intensity was not maintained. It has, however, always a tendency to thrill & chandata or tivrata which was absent to the inceptual manifestation. The general tendency is strong & persistent. The signs of development of saundaryam are becoming clearer and more decisive, but none is as yet victoriously emergent; though one or two are on the point of it. Scenes of the future in samadhi are manifesting & nearer to the antardarshi jagrat condition which has long been deprived of all but very dim images. There is a frequent replacement of perception of sthula by perception of prana values eg a strong, almost violent pranamaya oscillation (throbbing & swaying) physically felt in chair & table when the physical chair & table were only given a slight vibration by a gentle motion of one seated on the table. The chair although detached from the table & connected only through my body shared strongly in the pranamaya disturbance. The senses tend to confuse the two & feel the chair and table physically moving, but the viveka having taken possession of the manas prevent[s] the sensations from succumbing to the error of the physical sense. The most important & decisive results were in the second and sixth chatusthayas. The Mahakali bhava in Mahasaraswati continent, after being clouded for some time, finally revealed itself as perfectly established and is developing the permanent ugrata, ishwarabhava etc; the ishwarabhava is tending to become independent of the results of activity & to consist in the force & confidence of the activity itself and of the personality manifesting. But also in the trikaldrishti sruti is insisting on self-justification and increasing the self-existent faith which is independent of the misleading twists & turns of immediate result & event. The Mahalakshmi bhava, hitherto absent, is now tending to appear. At first it replaced momentarily the Mahakali which it is intended only to colour without altering its character, afterwards it tended to bring the MahalaxmiMahasaraswati combinations, but eventually it has subordinated itself to the proper Chandibhava. The Mahakali bhava tends to be

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weakened, but no longer blotted out by the old sanskaras in conversation & after sleep; but it is no longer replaced by MaheshwariMahasaraswati, but by an improperly combined quadruple bhava. The Maheshwari (Gauri) pratistha is still too prominent, because the habit of exciting mental tapas, against which the pratistha is an insurance, still lingers, though weakly, as a habit that always revives with the advent of Mahakali. The permanent realisation of the fourfold Brahman is final. The activity of shuddhi, mukti, bhukti is now final in all their parts, though not yet consummate; only the siddhi remains and this is being rapidly brought forward. It is still chiefly hampered in the karma proper to Mahakali & in the outward fulfilment of kama. July 23d.. Today is the day long fixed for the fullness of the third chatusthaya apart from the two later chatusthayas, in so far as its action can be complete without being entirely effective in kama, karma & the body. It is also the day when the movement towards that effectiveness begins. Siddhi of power today is working instantaneously & in detail & the action of all the powers is normal, regular, effective, invariably employed as the chief & proper instrument, but not yet entirely perfect in detail. Bhautasiddhi is working, but still overpowered by adhogati, nor likely to be free till general utthapana overcomes adhogati. Samadhi is still deficient in continuity of visible record. It is supposed that it will round itself off today. The vijnana is now working with force & applying itself both in knowledge & shakti to things of moment. The physical siddhi is engaged in fighting down the tamasic obstruction. Yesterday only a little literary karma was done, as previously announced, nor will anything be done today. The activity of lipi & rupa, almost suspended for a time, is now reviving. In trailokyagati the mind seems to be standing on the doorstep of the pranamaya. Nirvisesha kama Ananda throughout the day was active & the general tendency continuous. The strength of the samadhi was increased & continuous coherent record established in the dream form, of speech, & communication with others on the plane of the Imagination, in the kalpanamayi prakriti of which are the heavens & hells of subjective

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experience objectivised in sensation (to the sukshma indriyas) but not in annam. July 24th A day of reaction in the body, suspension of health in the stomach, activity of bhautic tejas, visrishti (all the results of excess in madya which the nabhichakra failed to bear), cessation of kamananda, failure of utthapana, return of tamasic sleep tendency. The rest of the siddhi proceeded slowly & indeterminately. Epic poetry resumed. July 25th Continuation & strong attack of asiddhi, bringing a repetition for an hour of the old tapasic anger, struggle & disturbance the old confused & misleading voices. Bhasha in Rigveda strengthened, vijnana working normally.

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Oct 12. 1912. Developed forms to show sufficient stability. Siddhis of power today. Samadhi from tomorrow. Fulfilled 1 Oct 13 The siddhis of power have to be made more powerful and give more rapid and accurate results; the rupadrishti in all its parts to conquer the obstruction finally. The defect of anima has to be minimised. Samadhi to develop rapidly. Ananda to begin to be stable. Fulfilled. Oct. 14. The physical akash is still rebellious to the lipi, rupa & other drishtis & to all the siddhis which at all depend on the annam. It only gives normally the minimum results and has to be subjected to pressure of the will in order to give all the results attained. Today, it must be made to give up this habit of inductility due to inertia. Today, Ananda stable, intense & constant; Samadhi increased in range & richness; defect of anima (stiffness, in lower limbs especially) disregarded & convinced of its own impotence; siddhis of power to increase in frequency of accurate success; rupa & other drishtis to gain upon the akasha. Fulfilled Tomorrow the direct government will be continuous. Tonight there will be the Ananda of the actual embrace of the daughters of delight. Fulfilled (last in sukshma) Oct 16th Ananda intensified. Utthapana increased. Adhogati beaten down. Health to emerge

1 Words italicised here and below were written in pencil after the original entry.

Ed.

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Oct. 18t.h. “Cn.. R.K” [Communication from Ramakrishna] Make complete sannyasa of Karma Make complete sannyasa of thought Make complete sannyasa of feeling This is my last utterance. Standing orders. From Me. B.A.2 To believe everything, but put it in its place To will everything, but only await the event & see where it has stumbled To see everything, but force no drishti. Oct.3 18t.h. The manomaya activity has to be cleared out before the final step is taken. Today the vijnana will recommence in the afternoon and all the siddhis with it. Positive Ananda in all things has to be made habitual. From today it will be made complete and extended to the body, but attacks will continue to be made on it. The same with the removal of the manomaya. From tonight no covering is to be used for the body. *From tomorrow walking in the sun will be steadily practised. This will finish the suddhi, mukti & bhukti. Hunger & thirst are now only survivals, not imperative; they can be removed by the use of the will instead of by eating. Fulfilled except the prediction marked * Then the siddhi. Today the shanti has been disturbed and the shakti, because Mahakali had to draw back. From today this will be prevented or, if it comes, resisted & expelled. From tomorrow the third chatusthaya will begin to be absolutely final even in the siddhis of power, but not perfect till the end of the month. From today 2 The significance of this abbreviation is not known. In the Record of 5 December 1912, these same “standing orders” are said to be from “the guiding source”. Ed. 3 Date repeated in MS. Ed.

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the physical siddhi will begin to be effective in all its parts. From today the fifth chatusthaya will begin to move towards general progressiveness even in karma & kama. Fulfilled Oct 26 Today the siddhi is being reconstituted with a surer basis for the shuddhi & mukti, founded this time in dasyam & shamanvita karma & not in dasyam & shama. Sortilege anAEt, km Pl\ kAy km kroEt y,. s syAsF c yogF c n EnrE`nn cAE4y,. There was still an oscillation between imperfect tejasic action and karmahin udasinata. This has now been expelled by associating the Mahakali bhava with the karma. The second chatusthay is imperfectly founded in sraddha; the third yet insecure, deficient in sani; the fourth not yet established; the fifth only incipient. The next movement of the siddhi will be to bring “sani” into the third chatusthaya; to establish the fourth; to develop the fifth. Oct. 27th. The tejas is the chief obstacle to the fulfilment in permanence and completeness of the vijnana-siddhi. The confused remnants of the tejas are being progressively expelled, & the trikaldrishti, jnana and prakamya vyapti are growing steadily & methodically, but without enthusiasm or any positive ananda, in precision, correctness & range. This misplacement of circumstance, due to the tejasic attempt in the manas tattwa to fix things instead of seeing them as they are, is diminishing in insistence & effect. In the body tamas, not tejas is the chief enemy, as the nature of the annamaya is tamasic, just as the nature of the manomaya is tejasic. Anandasiddhi has been reconstituted, the shuddhi & mukti & bhukti with the samata, but the perfection of the second chatusthaya is still to seek. The reason is that although there is sraddha now in the Yoga and in God, there is not sufficient sraddha in the Lilamaya Purusha, & therefore none in the increasing rapidity of the siddhi or in the inevitable and perfect fulfilment of the Adesha.

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Nov 10th The Script is now liberated from imperfection. The trikaldrishti is only imperfect from confusion of details & broken relics of the old tejasic overhaste accompanied by suggestions from phantasms of the dead devatas. The shakti-prayog suffers only by the prematureness of the Mahakali kshiprakarita. The samadhi is only obscured by the imperfect dharanashakti of the material mind. The defect of anima is prolonged by the tamas in the body. These imperfections have to be eliminated. The physical siddhi is yet subject to relapse & temporary dislocation. The subjective foundations of the Adeshasiddhi are now complete, but not yet perfect in solidity, power & range. Its instruments are still imperfectly organised & insufficiently effective in application. Samata siddhi, sraddha, virya, shakti, are perfect except for the defective spot in the Sraddha through which the asiddhi can still enter. Nov 12th A period of resistance & denial, ending in revolt, is over now (4.30 pm) & the dasyam emerges from it perfected. The dasyam being perfected, the internal ananda will become stable, subject only to depression by the imperfect sraddha, & the tejas permanently reestablish itself. Knowledge & Power will follow as the result of consistent tejas & saundaryam as the result of physical ananda. The whole will be summed up in Bhoga & Amritam. The demand that Krishna should gratify the Nature, has disappeared in the last crisis & it was the only demand left, the demand for satya & siddhi. The literary work is now being done, faultlessly in manner, faultlessly in substance, almost without fault in style.

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This perfection must be extended by the involved method to all other parts of the karma. Nov 13. The dasyam and internal ahaituka ananda being now permanently assured, the tejas has to be made equally firm and continuous. For this purpose the sraddha has to be perfectly restored and this must first be done in the trikaldrishti, aishwarya & ishita. These must be made infallible. At present the perception of possibilities interferes with the perception of actualities which would otherwise be perfect. The aishwaryaprayoga is now free of false tejas & the only obstacle is the sluggishness of the Akasha. From today both trikaldrishti & shakti will become infallible, although there will be returns & survivals for a time of error & failure. Nov 14 Yesterday the [infallibility]4 predicted commenced, but it works in a small field, with difficulty & subject to a certain groping uncertainty & confusion in handling its materials. It is contradicted from time to time, but reestablishes itself. The tejas has been added to ananda & dasyam, but when it seeks to act with speed & vigour, confusion is the result, except in the sahitya where only a slight tendency to defect is apparent as the result of rapid & unreflecting inspiration. Today the trikaldrishti & shakti will embrace definitely a larger field, as it has already begun to do, but not yet with a triumphant infallibility; the lipi, drishti & samadhi will resume a steady progress and the physical siddhi once more move forward. The sahitya proceeds perfectly, although not always compassing an entirely flawless expression at the first thought. Rodogune, in its final form is completed & only needs a slight revision correcting an inconsiderable number of expressions. Today the Isha Upanishad will be resumed & steadily pursued till it is completed in a perfect form. Farther rewriting will be unnecessary.

4 MS infallibly

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Nov 15 The fulfilment of yesterday’s predictions is not apparent. A contrary result & a return of udasinata, sattwatamasic, with strong asraddha, was the actual occurrence. There was a renewed activity of lipi, an emergence of the complete crude rupa in an instance or two & a first sign of bolder & more spontaneous lipi; the resumption of primary utthapana on a small scale & some tendency to physical siddhi; but the adverse results predominated, & both trikaldrishti & shakti were hopelessly inefficient Promise of equipment unfulfilled. Nov 16th There is an attack en masse of the Asiddhi in the Akasha on the whole totality of the siddhi. It has now been expelled from the immediate vicinity of the system, but fights from a distance and prevents the easy & pleasurable action of the siddhi. It is necessary to observe the following rules. 1. Pay no attention to outside voices, but only to the knowledge from above, the script, the vani, the prakamya-vyapti. 2. Keep firm hold on desirelessness & ananda; admit the tejas. 3. Yield on no point whatever; reject tamas whenever it comes 4. Accept the supreme Vani which will now once more become active. Nov 17t.h. None of these four directions have been fulfilled. There is an attempt to adhere to them, but it is combated always by the experience of asiddhi. The establishment of intellectual infallibility which seemed assured at one time by the fulfilment of the intellectual perceptions & the right placing, accompanied with definite proofs, of that which was misplaced has been followed by a strong disillusionment which challenges the whole foundation of the theory as a self-delusion. While the existence of a perfectly accurate trikaldrishti, perceiving truth past, present & future even to exact time, place & circumstance has been put beyond all dispute, the fact

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that what seems to be precisely the same movement brings error & failure, clouds the whole issue & is being dwelt on in order to break down sraddha. For where is the use of trikaldrishti & aishwarya when one can never be certain whether a perception is trikaldrishti or false intuition, the perception of an actuality or a possibility, the perception of that which will be or the perception of something that someone else thinks of doing or looks at as a possibility, or whether an expense of will will bring a favourable or perverse result? The doubt comes to be one of God’s guidance & the reality of the Adesha. The science of Yoga is justified, but the idea of the personal mission seems to be convicted of essential falsity. Meanwhile the particular siddhis established maintain themselves ordinarily, but do not progress. Only the sahitya proceeds smoothly & seems to develop in security. Nov 19th The sahitya still improves in sustained quality under the stress of rapidity, but the physical brain cannot yet respond to an unlimited call upon its vital energy. In all else there is still the adverse force. Swapna in samadhi is improving & last night there was a long & clear swapna marred only by the confusion of the recording mind which mixed itself up with what it saw & produced a few incongruities. The directions of the [16th]5 are more nearly observed, than before, but not yet perfectly. Dasyam is perfect, but not yet ananda because of the depression of asraddha. Shakti acts as a force which produces an effect & sometimes prevails, but cannot prevail at once, perfectly or even usually. Trikaldrishti is irregular, although there are signs of its improving. Directions. 1. Passivity has to be maintained; no attempt must be made to know, to judge, to act, to will or to move the body by self-action, nor has any attempt to be made to check or alter any knowledge, judgment & action, will or motion that comes of itself; so with all parts of the siddhi. 5 MS 15th (16 was written lightly over 15 in that entry.)

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2. It will be found that then the siddhi will advance towards perfection of its own unaided motion. 3. Whatever happens, that seems to be adverse, must be accepted as a means towards success & fruition. Nov 20t.h. The trikaldrishti, appearing at first false, is now on the way to be justified. It is only in the exact order of circumstances, time & place that there is real error. The rest is only a misplacement of prakamya & vyapti of intention & tendency in place of trikaldrishti. The Shakti is effective, but under the same limitations more heavily stressed. In both these respects the next three days will see a great change, but especially in the first & in lipi & rupa. Afterwards samadhi & shakti will develop into greatness. The roga will begin finally to disappear after another three days. The sign will be the final establishment of Ananda, followed by utthapana & the breaking down of the obstacle to the saundaryam.

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[The predictions that follow, which overlap in date with the preceding entries, were written on a page of the notebook separated from those entries by several blanks, and upside down in relation to them.]

Nov 19 A regular forward movement to begin from today. Fulfilled. The letter to be received today in spite of difficulties. Fulfilled. Breaks The rain to disperse early, though not today. st during the day A larger break next day Dispersal 21 , but continuance of showers. All foreseen correctly in detail. N & P to keep their places. Fulfilled during time contemplated, but N’s change gazetted. Money to come within this fortnight from R. Fulfilled, but only half the sum expected. not fulfilled. Fulfilled afterwards. Peace in the Balkans. A & I [Austria & Italy?] to insist successfully on their points signs of fulfilment Letter to be written today. Fulfilled Lipi. “Break”, fulfilled Nov 20 Lipi “Greeks & Servians together will dispose of the last efforts of Turkey in Macedonia” apparently fulfilled. (Several days ago) Money from S in a day or two. not fulfilled. Nov 21 Perceptions about Turkish defeat at Monastir, which were contrary to the telegrams, precisely fulfilled (see telegrams of 27th) Approximate time of return of D [dog] who had escaped, foreseen. (although improbable) Approximate time of N. [Nolini] S. [Saurin] B. [Bijoy] & M’s [Moni’s] return & the order of their coming, all erroneous, but this confusion had been predicted in the lipi. Pratijna becomes more & more satyapratijna.

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Nov 22. Rupa begins to organise itself with lipi as predicted Trikaldrishti hampered by tejas & tamas in the speculative intellectual perception Nov [26] Everywhere in Europe the subjective fulfilment of the Will is evident, in the action of the Triple Alliance, the restored morale of the Turks, the stronger resistance in Macedonia, at Adrianople, the offensive at Chataldja, the course of events in England. But the material results are not attained. In India there is, as yet, no substantial result. Against roga there is often immediate temporary success, but the disease returns after being apparently cleared out. In other cases there is no success or only a struggle.

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26 NOVEMBER – 31 DECEMBER 1912

The regular record of the sadhana begins today, because now the perceptions are clear enough to render it of some real value and not merely a record of mistakes and overstatements. What has been effected with some finality & thoroughness, is the submission or dasyam. Certain lower strata of the personality surrounding the body in the atmosphere of the karmadeha, still vibrate with the old desires and attempt to act. But in the rest there is karmasannyasa. Prakriti drives the body, mind, heart & will without any interference from the Jiva, which only identifies itself now with the asraddha; for the identification with the activity, even if for a moment it seems to be restored, cannot stand for more than the moment & is not even then complete. The identification with the asraddha remains to be removed. Negative samata is, in a way, complete. Active samata has yet to be perfectly established. There has been a reaction by which the bhukti has been clouded, though not entirely lost. It is still strongest in the indriyas, though sometimes breached. Sukham & hasyam are overclouded, but there is a negative shanti. The second chatusthaya suffers from want of tejah, pravritti and sraddha in the swashakti. The third is active, but limited. Trikaldrishti works, though inaccurate in exact time, place & circumstance, but there is nothing but the result to distinguish the true from the false, because the vivek is clouded. Power works in preparing the subjective state of others & the world steadily but slowly & against a dull & heavy resistance; in objective result it is as yet poor & uncertain except in isolated details. A number of prayogas are fulfilled with exactness, some partially, others not at all. Samadhi does not progress, nor the bhautasiddhi. The physical siddhi is under the dominion of a reaction. Lipi & rupa establish their activity slowly. The fifth chatusthaya depends on the Power & at present the

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success is faulty & limited, in many directions nil. The sixth is clouded. Nov. 26. Today a number of prayogas seem to be in course of being fulfilled eg. Chatalja; Turkish resistance in Macedonia; action of the Triple Alliance. Today also the trikaldrishti has been almost infallibly accurate. The cloud has disappeared, and the siddhi except in the body is once more active. In the karma evidence has been given of effectuality of prayoga where it seemed to have failed; of ishita rather than of aishwarya, and not sufficient, but nevertheless effective. (R.50 from D).. Kama is beginning to revive. Ananda has been restored though not perfectly. Rupa is once more, but imperfectly effective; the Akasha still resists clearness & spontaneity & stability, but stability without spontaneity and spontaneity without stability have returned. The profuse stable lipi is being manifested, but the Akasha resists either legibility or stability. The karma deha is clear of the resistance in the sukshmapranavad annam, but not of that in the sthulapranavad annam where the remnants of the impure sukshmaprana have taken refuge. A good many of the predictions in the lipi past, recent & immediate are being justified by the event. Tejas & lipsa are being reestabl[ish]ed in the buddhi, chitta and prana; but the force of the sraddha is still insufficient. The Vani is once again active. The bodily condition is very low and the remnants of roga active. Nov 27. Today the following have been fulfilled 1. Foreseen, when the last long spell of rain was in progress & its vicissitudes & dispersion accurately foreseen, that there would be another spell of cloud & rain Nov – Dec. Fulfilled today. 2. Break & sunshine foreseen in the afternoon (seen at 8.am, though signs contrary; fulfilled..[)] 3. Lipi “Break”. ie. “It will be a break & not a final dispersion[”] fulfilled. The clouds gathered again in the evening.

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4. Series. a. B. [Bijoy] will come between 7.20 & 7.25. B. came at 7.23. b. S [Saurin] (?) will come at 7.40 exactly. N [Nolini] came at 7.40 exactly. S tried to come about that time. c. S (?) will come at 7.55. R. [Ramaswamy] came at 7.55. d. S will come at 8.5. Unfulfilled. S about this time was again thinking of coming e. S will come at 8.25 corrected 8.35. S came at 8.33. f. M [Moni] will come after S, last of all, but before 9. pm. fixed at 8.55 exactly. M came at 8.54 or 8.55. just after I sat down to meals at 8.52. Besides, the ideas of what will happen or is the case in little details of the occurrences in the house are usually correct, but not always. The trend is to the satyam intellectual infallibility, for the direct vijnanamay action is still held back in order to allow the mind to contract the habit of correctness, ie of not disfiguring by misapplication the truth from the vijnana. The rupadrishti grows in strength and the bodily condition is turning towards improvement by lessening of the tamas of adhogati (sranti). The brain works at anything enjoined on it, but there is a disinclination in the karmadeha previous to the work or for a particular work. The fumes of tamas are strong in the brain, but do not prevent the luminosity working, although it is like the sun on a clouded day. Ananda is well restored to the regular point it had formerly reached except in kamananda and raudrananda. The tivrata is absent. But the general tendency of the siddhi is to take possession of this lower stratum also with its former circumstances. Roga however persists. Nov 28 Clouds continue, fulfilling the trikaldrishti. Satyapratijna is now more common. Instance of wrong circumstance. A crow comes to the verandah opposite the door and advances towards the door. Prediction. “He will turn sharp to the right & fly away.” First error, hasty idea of

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immediate fulfilment, at once put away by the viveka which saw that it would advance a little farther. Fulfilled. Second error. Idea, born of excess of energy, that it would fly away over the width of the verandah in the direction & line foreseen. It turned to the right & followed the exact line indicated, but hopping, not flying, reached the edge, stopped & then flew away. At night there was once more confusion of the Trikaldrishti. The first arrival fixed at 7.57 took place at 7.57, but the rest, though ultimately foreseen, were confused by false indications. D’s [dog’s] going out at night, foreseen, happened in spite of all precautions and in the way foreseen. Extension of power strongly opposed. The Secret of Veda is now fixed & exact confirmations occur frequently. Nov 29 The dispersion of the clouds foreseen yesterday morning as destined to happen today the first thing in the morning, took place suddenly at the time indicated, although the whole sky was dark & heavy till that moment. All yesterday the skies were heavily overcast but there was no rain. This also had been foreseen. The spell of entirely cloudy weather has lasted, allowing for one imperfect break, exactly the time predicted & foreseen some eight or ten days before, viz three days. There will be still flying clouds & temporary spells. For some days there have been continual proofs of vyapti prakamya. eg the presence of an Austrian warship at Durazzo, the rumour of the Austrian consul being killed, etc. Yesterday there came in the mind the positive idea that Turkey had asked to be included in the Balkan Confederacy; today the same is given (in yesterday’s evening paper reaching here this morning), as a strange piece of news from Constantinople and Sofia. This is striking as there was neither data nor probability & the knowledge, of the fact or rumour, came suddenly without previous thinking in that direction. Vyapti & prakamya of precise thought has begun to be frequent & often confirmed by the speech or action of the person or animal in whom it is perceived. Formerly only feeling & general

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thought used to come. Vyapti and prakamya are now abundant, continuous and almost perfect in arrangement, ie in assignment of its source & nature. Fresh rain in the evening foreseen & also the stages by which the break was overcome; but in the interval there was much uncertainty owing to a fresh stratum of the karmadeha (sthulapranavad annam). There is frequent unease & the equivalent of ashanti in the body & the anna-kosha & the chitta is clouded, but the mind is calm. (N.B The body is only the centralised part of the annakosha.) Power is still successfully resisted, but not so successfully as before. eg the motion of a kite through the sky followed by the trikaldrishti and each fresh movement seen; while steadily describing straight flight & minimum gyre (from right to left) in , willed that it should turn to the right succession, thus in the middle of the gyre & resume the straight line. This was done in the next gyre, the bird hesitating for a moment before it obeyed, thus . At night, the first arrival was correctly predicted at 8.10 (8.11 was the actual time) but not, firmly, the person. There was much confusion, many guesses by the intellect about the order of the persons & the order finally fixed on, was entirely wrong. Only it was correctly seen that none would come before eight or after nine. An arrival was fixed at 8.22, but another occurrence took place at 8.22. In other words, the correct times are suggested to the very minute, but the wrong circumstances are frequently attached by the intellect. It is in the intellect striving to do the work of the vijnana, & not in or from the vijnana direct that these perceptions come; but in the intellect only so much can be done as has been already established by the vijnana, & it has not as yet established correctness of circumstance. Therefore the vijnana this night has been made once more active and is carrying on the siddhi. The separate activity of the intellect occurs, as before, only as an element of imperfection or in interregnal periods. The ahaituka kamananda, with great difficulty, became again active at moments, but its continuance is strongly obstructed. The sahaituka physical anandas are once more tivra.

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There is an entire disappearance in the prana of the tejasic sraddha, ie hasty & excessive belief which turns into exaggerated expectation, & a great strength of samata even in the karmadeha, whence only a vague physical uneasiness comes into the subtle part of the body in place of the old disappointment and despondency in the manahkosha. The reaction of anger in the karmadeha is no longer violent, but only a subdued, though at times a strong irritation, which being no longer able to insist, soon disappears. The body, however, is disappointed & tamasic. There has been excessive sleep (7 hours or more) for the last three nights. It is predicted that from tomorrow Place as well as Time will begin to be accurate. Nov 30. Rapidity only in the Veda-jnana. The place is beginning to be accurate, but the arrangement is not yet perfect. eg. a bird flying is observed, all the turns of movement are accurately predicted, but not always in their proper order; one turn is omitted or another too soon expected etc. Occasionally a momentary impulse in the bird or in the force that is driving it, is taken for a destined movement, but this source of error, which used to be dominant, is now very weak in its incidence & occasional in its occurrence... B [Bijoy] is now responding rapidly to the suggestions of the Power in the siddhiprayoga, but still needs too much the aid of speech. His purity & mukti from dwandwa is perfect except in the karmadeha & the preparation of mukti from ahankara is being completed. Vijnana in the intellect, jnanam, in him is very strong, but not yet turned towards trikaldrishti. Prakamya & vyapti are well developed but not perfect. The other siddhis in him work fitfully. Samadhi is being prepared through dream. He gets sometimes the first stages of ahaituka & chidghana ananda... Strong perception that S. [Srinivasachari] Bh [Bharati] & A [Aiyar] would come in the evening, less strong about A than the others & only general; fulfilled. Other vyaptis fulfilled or proved, vyaptis of action, vyaptis of thought, vyaptis of feeling. Prakamya generally turns into a vyapti. Prakamya vyapti may now be said to be perfect, as perfect as it can be without perfection of the

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trikaldrishti. Clash of ahankaras over B; first sign of a fresh movement forward so far as he is concerned. December 1s.t. Teja, tapas & prakasha are now coalescing into a harmony; power is increasing in small matters towards perfection of detail, but the movement is only in its initial stage. This initial movement was foreseen & the time fixed three days ago. The perception of the various & subtly shaded significance in lipi & rupa-symbol is perfected; but the rupadrishti itself is manifesting slowly. Images in the akasha are frequently perfect, but when perfect never stable except in very crude forms & that only because of the past strong development in crude images on the lines of perfection by effort which belonged to the initial & mediary stages of the sadhan. Comparative helplessness in the therapeutic power in certain directions, & always only a slow and gradual process. This afternoon clear & vivid lipi finally emerged from the akasha and the rupa in the crude forms shows a tendency to established stability while the old forms of rupa, sthapatya, saurya, manasa are reemerging in their old perfection. Instantaneous developed rupa is becoming more frequent, but vanishes with the instant. Faith in the vani, lipi & rupa is established except for outside immediate events & the adesha siddhi, in which field faith in the trikaldrishti is not yet firm. Except in this field, tejasic will has separated itself from trikaldrishti & vyaptiprakamya of intention or tendency is no longer adopted as vyaptiprakamya of event or as trikaldrishti of the event. Therefore, if the unoccupied or rather ill-occupied field can be occupied, the perfection of trikaldrishti is within sight. Rapidity of progress promised in lipi & vani for some days past, is now beginning, not only in the Veda, but in the third chatusthaya also. Samata is perfect, tejas is establishing itself, jnana is full & active.

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December 3d.. Yesterday was a day of external suspension, almost of recoil. In the evening only the positive siddhi began to remanifest, but negatively the remnants of the impure tejasic elements in the karmadeha were [ ]1 farther eliminated & weakened. On the other hand, the new tejas has increased & grows on the buddhi which is admitting the subjective conditions of the adeshasiddhi, eg the Asura & Rakshasa bhavas of Mahakali, but not the probability of the siddhi itself in this life. Kamananda though it comes, has not overcome the opposition to its intensity & permanence. The higher material forms of lipi, in which vividness, simultaneity & amplitude are now gained, are beginning to manifest spontaneously. Only perfect spontaneity is lacking as yet to the perfected lipi. Rupadrishti is still held back at the point of development it had reached. Unstable developed images, stable images of a great crudity occur. Swapna Samadhi, night before last, gained a greater frequency of single & grouped image, but is still unable to develop long continuity of one series of events, which only occurs in purified swapna. Fresh proofs of trikaldrishti come daily, but the habitual invariability of correctness is not yet attained. A mixed action is the ordinary level, unvarying correctness only happens when the vijnana is in full vigour. The sky is once more clouded. This renewal of clouded weather in December had been foreseen, but not its date or even its approximate time. Sleep for two nights has been restricted, of its own motion, to six hours or a little over. The karmadeha is physically full of tamas and an effect is produced on the material body which is slow to work & does not easily respond to the demand for new siddhi; but the bhauta-siddhi is showing some signs of improvement and there is no actual collapse of the tapas, but only sluggishness in physical pravritti. Rupadrishti has emerged still farther. The Akasha today has been given the tendency to reject imperfect forms, & now in the sukshma layer of this annakasha fairly stable perfect forms of birds have begun to appear in all the crude forms & some of the ghana 1 MS were

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and developed; but not yet the pronounced developed forms.... Certain contacts once painful are losing their discomfort in the raudra vishayananda . . Kamananda appears in increasing force. There are now only a few categories of events which create a mixed ananda or recall the old reactions of depression & recoil. The vani is being justified in all its immediate predictions, & the script vani has disappeared. The morning’s news all go farther in the direction of fulfilment. Shaktiprayoga in detail is still strongly resisted, though it sometimes prevails partially or completely, but not when there is a question of exact time & place or circumstance. Trikaldrishti is hampered by the attempt in the environment at infallibility of the mere intellect. This external intellectual suggestion usually is the first thing that comes & is generally erroneous, although, formerly, being specially guided it was often correct. This applies almost entirely to the question of detail. In the broad idea there is a greater correctness. It is now in the personal environment and not in the karmadeha that the subjective asiddhi acts. The following programme has been given in script, but it is not yet certain that it is correct. Vijnana Chatusthaya 1. Rupadrishti farther developed today, the 3d.., and confirmed in stability tomorrow. 2 Spontaneity of Lipi tomorrow. A little tonight 3 Trikaldrishti will begin to work perfectly from tomorrow 4. The Power to overcome resistance in the next three days. 5. Samadhi to be regularised during December. Sharira Chatusthaya 6. Intensity of ananda to precede permanence. Intensity from d .. 3 to 10t.h., permanence from 10th to 31s.t.. 7 Health in the last half of the month. 8. First successes of the saundarya 3d to 10th 9. Utthapana in the latter half of the month. Adeshasiddhi. 10 “Equipment begins in the next week and is fulfilled in the two weeks succeeding.”

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So far as can be seen, 7 – 10 are not intended to be strongly or completely fulfilled. The spontaneity of the vivid & simultaneous lipi has begun today, as predicted, both in Chitra and Akash. The step forward in [Rupa]2 was only the appearance of chaya & tejas akashic crude forms on a background, strong in material and distinct but not sharp in outline. Kama Ananda increased in intensity & frequency. Dec 4t.h. 9.30 am. There is a farther movement of exhaustion of the environment, but the tejasic movement hampering the trikaldrishti refuses to be evicted & it is still only by waiting that the trikaldrishti can be got right. Ambiguous and misleading combinations in vani & lipi (immediate) still occur, though as an exception. Frequency of Kamananda continues and tends to increase, but is not prolonged as it was once yesterday. Death of S.A’s [Srinivasachari’s] child. It was brought to me on the 29t.h or 30th Nov. On the 1s.t. I had the trikaldrishti of its death; this was repeated three times in Lipi, “death[”], and confirmed in Vani Script “The child will die.” On the 2d I got the vyapti of an improvement, confirmed by R [Ramaswamy], but at the same time the trikaldrishti that the improvement would be immediately followed by death. This has now been confirmed by the event. There was one imperfection, a suggestion from outside and a hope within, growing almost into confidence, that the trikaldrishti, in spite of so many confirmations, might not be true. Nevertheless, there came a warning not to indulge the hope, but wait the event. Today there is to be final fulfilment of the spontaneity of the lipi. (Written on the 5th) This has been fulfilled, although at first the fulfilment was attended by a swift & violent obstruction first to the appearance of the lipi, next to its spontaneity[,] thirdly to its vividness, fourthly, to its completeness, fullness of sentence & separation of different lipis. The enemy tried to bring back or at least 2 MS Lipi

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prolong all the old defects of confusion, fragmentariness, mixture of sentences, faintness, inability to appear, necessity of mental support & suggestion, illegibility etc. Outwardly, it seemed to succeed, but the Lipi showed itself through perfectly established and asserted its legibility, spontaneity, fullness, sequence & with some difficulty its vividness. Moreover, it is now moving towards the elimination of imperfect lipi altogether. At the same time the tejas has become constant & indifferent to failure, even to continued and persistent failure. The opposition now comes not from the personal environment, but from the Dasyus in the outside world and they fight not close (anti), but dure, from a distance. Their effort is to preserve the obstruction, to prevent Ananda from establishing itself and to enforce Asraddha by defeating the Adeshasiddhi. As regards the Ananda they have now (the 4th night & 5th) definitely failed. There is ahaituka Ananda well-established, even in spite of asraddha. In other words, the depression caused by the withholding of the Adesha-siddhi is so reduced in effectiveness that it can only now limit the Ananda and not any longer prevent its manifestation. Rupadrishti was confirmed only to the extent of other crude forms appearing in the Akasha and on the background. Trikaldrishti acts once more, after its temporary clouding, but the confusion of the avaraka tamas is not yet removed and the tejasic intellectual action maintained from outside by the enemy is not extruded. It is possible that perfect trikaldrishti may be beginning to evolve its normal as opposed to its exceptional action, but this cannot yet be confidently asserted. Dec. 5t.h. Lipi. Today is the last day of the imperfect tejas. It has been predicted that the scholastic work will be done in future not by the intellect but by the Vijnanam. This has begun to be fulfilled, and the remaining difficulties in the Veda are beginning to vanish. It has also been asserted that no work will in future be allowed which is confused in its impulse & subject to tamasic interruption. It appears from this morning’s action with regard to

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the Veda, that this is about to be fulfilled, or its fulfilment is being prepared. Sraddha is increasing in the rapidity of the subjectiveobjective Yogasiddhi, but not yet, with stability, in that of the Adesh siddhi, except in literature. Today’s news show a perfect action of the Shakti in detail on events of magnitude at a distance eg. the terms given to Turkey, the separation of Greece from the allies, the signing of the armistice, the attitude of the Powers. The pronounced defect, now, is in immediate & near events concerned with the actual Adeshasiddhi itself, rather than with the development of the necessary powers. The moulding of men proceeds subjectively, but not with accuracy of detail, except in occasional & unregulated fulfilments, nor is there yet any freedom & mastery. The equipment has, hitherto, entirely [failed]3 except for small, fortuitous & temporary successes, just preventing entire collapse. The guidance from above seems now to be free from the necessity of any longer managing & giving rein to the forces of Anritam. Its final emergence from the action of the Mechanician, the Yantri, mending & testing His machine & self-revelation as that of the God of Truth & Love, began definitely to be worked out from 18t.h. October, when the third & last message from Sri Ramakrishna was received. The first message was in Baroda, the “Arabindo, mandir karo, mandir karo”, & the parable of the snake Pravritti devouring herself. The second was given in Shankar Chetti’s house soon after the arrival in Pondicherry, & the words are lost, but it was a direction to form the higher being in the lower self coupled with a promise to speak once more when the sadhan was nearing its close. This is the third message (18 Oct 1912) “Make complete sannyasa of Karma. Make complete sannyasa of thought. Make complete sannyasa of feeling. This is my last utterance.” Subsequently there have been several instructions from the guiding Source, which seemed at the time to be not at all or only momentarily fulfilled. 3 MS fulfilled

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Oct. 18. To believe everything, but put it in its place To will everything, but wait the event and see where the will has stumbled. To see everything but force no drishti. [In this trio the first is now being perfectly carried out and is resulting in a perfect trikaldrishti, perfect in the sense that every wrong suggestion is being corrected & put in its place either as a premature or misapplied truth or an ineffective or otherwise & otherwhere effective use of will. The second, beginning to be perfectly fulfilled, will lead to perfect effectiveness of the will. The third is being prepared for perfect fulfilment & will lead to perfect drishti].4 Nov 15th. 1. Pay no attention to outside voices, but only to the knowledge from above, the script, the vani, the prakamya vyapti. (Note. A subordinate rule for perfect trikaldrishti; but the script is now eliminated.) 2. Keep firm hold on desirelessness & ananda; admit the tejas. (Note. The tejas was suspected because of the disturbance it brought; the direction is how to admit it & be free from disturbance. This is now being fulfilled automatically.) 3. Yield no point whatever, reject tamas whenever it comes. (Note. For this action the crowning touch was given yesterday and the direction will operate perfectly from today) 4. Accept the supreme Vani which will now once more become active. (Note. This vani had three forms, speech attended with or formulated in script; speech substituted for thought; speech of supreme command. The first is eliminated; the second is passing into thought; the third alone will remain.) Nov. 19. 1. Passivity has to be maintained; no attempt must be made to know, to judge, to act, to will or to move the body by self-action, nor has any attempt to be made to check or alter any knowledge, 4 The square brackets are Sri Aurobindo’s.

Ed.

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judgment, action, will or motion that comes of itself. So with all parts of the siddhi. [Note. This is now fulfilled. Prakriti is in perfect charge of these things, the Jiva interferes only a little in judgment.]5 2. It will be found that then the siddhi will advance towards perfection of its own unaided motion. 3 Whatever happens that seems to be adverse, must be accepted as a means towards success & fruition. (Note. This last direction is as yet very imperfectly fulfilled; the acceptance is there, but the outer mental parts are uneasy & cannot entirely resist the old reaction of distrust.) The Avaranam from the trikaldrishti has been removed, & all its parts are again functioning as before & being continually proved. The Power is still obstructed. 4.45.pm. Last night there was once more a dream of the higher order. The dream divided itself into two parts, images seen, the record of an experience or vision in another world from which the spirit had returned & the intellectual effort of the mind to understand the record. The latter was, this time, absolutely perfect, a vision of a road along which I proceeded, met by men & women richly adorned & sumptuously clothed, a land where there was no ugliness or poverty, up to the meeting of this road by another at right angles to it from the left & between the two roads a great park with its gate near the crossways. The position of roads, gate & park was exactly that of the Baroda park, the Station or Racecourse Road & the Camp Road, but there was no other precise resemblance. There was even a vital difference, since I crossed a bridge before reaching the crossways, but the Baroda bridge over the Visvamitri is beyond the Park gates & not on this side. The mind, however, at once ran to the conclusion that this was Baroda. The speculation interrupted the vision. Afterwards the Park was again seen, but once more the reasonings of the mind interfered. Subsequently the mind became uncontrollably active & though Luxmi gave some clear records, it brought in so many cross ideas & images that at 5 The square brackets are Sri Aurobindo’s.

Ed.

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last entire confusion & the cessation of the siddhi resulted. Nevertheless continuity of record in deep sleep has at last been established after a long period of failure. The frequent & perfect combination of hearing, touch, taste & smell with sight in samadhi & dream is still wanting; for at present there is only occasional, though clear & intense, combined sight & hearing or sight & touch or hearing & touch, seldom all three together. Taste & smell are very rare. Afterwards there must be the actual experience of the spirit’s wanderings & not as now only subsequent records of them. This I had a long time ago in one or two instances, eg the Chhayamayi vision in Patala; but since then it has been discontinued. Finally, there must be the actual leaving of the body in trance, wholly or partially. There is a better & swifter subjective-objective response in others now to the vyapti & shakti prayoga; but it is still in its infant stages. Power is also telling on the bodies of others a little, eg. Bakhtyar’s sores heal almost at once; but this too is only in its commencement. Samata, shanti, sukha are perfect & only the nonfulfilment of Adesha-siddhi prevents freedom & fullness of the hasyam. The pressure of the eye on the akasha for developing imperfect rupas is being abandoned. All the directions now are being faithfully followed. Trikaldrishti is extending itself once more into the distant future, being assured of a relative accuracy in the immediate. As yet, however, it lacks its proper pratistha in sraddha. Sleep for the last two night[s] has again risen to 7 hours or over. There is a movement towards the expulsion of sensibility to cold, which, once forcibly expelled, has for some time past returned and held the body. The habit in the akasha of the rupa disappearing if subjected to tratak is being eliminated; the more developed forms now appear and remain with some stability in the trataka, but their consistency is always crude and not firm & full. The perfect images appear commonly enough in the various akashas either before the physical eye or, more usually, outside its range of vision, to the side, above the brows or elsewhere, but they do not persist, although they recur & occasionally try to remain. They come spontaneously without the

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aid of thought or tratak, but sometimes also, though undemanded, yet in response to a thought or mental image. The thought-voices of the Shaktis have emerged in the Vani & alternate with the Master’s. Dec 6t.h.. The obstruction continues, but cannot prevent the continued perfection & increasing range & sureness of the prakamya-vyapti. Only, it clouds the vijnana & then the trikaldrishti cannot act certainly; it obstructs the Shakti-prayoga and brings about variation of failure & success; & it tries to disturb the system & prevent the growth of the physical siddhi and the samadhi. Nevertheless, the perfect response of the mind to trikaldrishti is growing & the Power is recovering its tone in all immediate circumstances; neither of them act perfectly in detail. The ordinary bhautasiddhi is recovering its tone & defect of anima does not seem to have so strong a hold as before; arogyasiddhi is resisting the attacks upon it and the physical ananda persists in spite of obstruction. The body, however, is still sensitive to cold; the violent ejection of this sensitiveness has been predicted (yesterday in lipi), but the movement is not yet successful. Last night sleep once again fell to six hours or possibly less. Swapna-samadhi grows in frequency & the combination of the vishayas is frequent & vivid, except in taste & smell, whose normal action in sleep is only being prepared. But the images & scenes are still fleeting & dream is disturbed in its continuity. The dreamimages last night were of the old unreal kind & the air of unreality strong, but a connected series of events took place, coherent and reasonable, although unusual & only possible in a long past age with other manners. The events were correct, the images probably not all from the true record or free from present associations & figures, though there was no definite intrusion from the present. It was only the sense of self that belonged to the present. On the whole a considerable & steady progress. It is predicted that today will be a day of full progress; but the morning’s indications are rather those of a half-successful obstruction. These, however, may be & often are misleading. There is an evident movement towards the perfect arrangement

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of circumstances in the trikaldrishti. Eg. A passing glance vaguely takes in the ridge of a distant roof & is aware of something on the ridge; the first suggestion is that it is a bird, but it is felt that it is not a bird; then the suggestion is that it is the ridge alone & the impression of something on it is a misreading by the mind in the eye; but it is felt that there is something which will not stay there more than a moment. The mind remains confused between this false problem of bird or no bird. Then the eye is turned a second time on the object, with fixity this time, & the object is seen to be a squirrel motionless on the ridge, which immediately after leaps down from it. The whole confusion rises from the habit the mind has of seeing birds rather than any other object on the roofs & trees; otherwise everything would have been correct and in order. Immediately after, a butterfly is seen flying towards a tree. It is to pass on the other side of the tree, but there is prakamyavyapti of an intended motion actually begun but checked, to this side, & the false suggestion comes that this intended motion will be effected; the suggestion is immediately rejected but not without a vyapti of the intention carried out simultaneously with the perception of it, to return to & continue the first line of flight. There is trikaldrishti of the right event, but not free from the intrusion of falsity, & eventually not of so much value as it would have had if it were preliminary to & uninfluenced by the data of prakamya-vyapti. Lipi. Today, the trikaldrishti is to escape from this obstruction entirely. Fulfilled almost immediately in a succession of instances, but yet to be confirmed & universalised. The obstacle is the pseudo-Shaktiprayoga which tries to determine the event without belonging to the system. This is being replaced by an effective prayoga belonging to the system, but still the time & order of circumstances is disturbed by its appearance without selfknowledge. The liberating force is the activity of the viveka, no longer separate, judging the revelation or inspiration (drishti or sruti), & distinguishing it from false intuition, but contained in the drishti or sruti and either simultaneous with it or emerging from it. The prediction on the 3d.. that the Power will break through

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the resistance is being fulfilled today, but this conquest cannot be entirely complete today, for it has yet to apply itself to the fulfilment of the adeshasiddhi. But in things of practice & in themselves of no importance to me, the Siddhi with a little difficulty is succeeding now in the majority of its prayogas, only the circumstance is not always correct, eg a turn is taken [by a bird] in the right direction, but not at the time or in the order given or else the right turn is taken, but by a wheel to the right into the proper position, where a wheel to the left was indicated by the Will. Lipi. Page. (ie A particular page of the Veda will give a sortilege & there will be occasion for the page to be kept in memory.) The page was 286.6 IV.28.1 [and 2] & had to be twice shut & opened, first, owing to interruption &, secondly, to necessity of record.

(vA y;jA tv t(som sHy ido apo mnv  s,;t-k,. ahEhmErZA(s& Es\DnpAv$ZodEpEhtAEn KAEn. (vA y;jA En EKd(sy -y id 4\ shsA s+ ido. “By thee yoked to him, O Soma, in thy comradeship, Indra poured out that stream on the mind (or on the human being, the thinker); crushing the oppressor (Vritra) he set flowing the seven oceans7 and opened the doors that were shut. By thee yoked to him, O lord of delight, Indra by force straightway dug out the circle of the Sun.” ie. [“]the Mind Force now in contact with Ananda will pour out upon the mentality the stream of the upper knowledge & joy; that which obstructs will be crushed out of existence, the full stream of being will be poured down on the system and the siddhis denied will be enforced; the full circle of vijnana will be made to emerge from its obscuration.” The trikaldrishti is working still more effectively, not only without, but against data, eg. a bird on the opposite [roof] disinclined to stay, twice on the point of flying off & once making the starting motion, yet without any disturbance to the steady knowledge, always repeated at the critical moment, that it would remain. 6 Of the 1877 edition of Max Muller ¨ ¯ .ha). Ed. (Sanskrit text with padapat 7 This word was written above “streams”, which was not cancelled. Ed.

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Afternoon. 3.45. The Kamananda has been almost constant at a varying pitch of intensity since the morning except for one interval of an hour or so; constant not continuous entirely, for there are momentary breaks. The tendency, however, is to substitute temporary mitigation for the actual break... The physical struggle is obstinate, asiddhi bringing the imperfections of arogya, siddhi throwing them out. Adhogati returns constantly in the primary utthapana, but more in the shape of fatigue or the shadow of fatigue than denial of anima. Sleep is attempting to recover possession. There is as yet no decisive sign of the initial movement towards saundarya except in the overcoming of the first difficulty with regard to moulding the undercurve that took so long to develop. Elsewhere there is as yet nothing. Further fullness of progress is promised for the rest of the day in power, rupadrishti, ananda & samadhi. (Written 7th morning) The promise has been fulfilled. The tejasic suggestion from the environment which interfered with the trikaldrishti, is now turning into power of vyapti; a bird in its flight, an ant in its turnings, feels the thought strike it and either obeys or is temporarily influenced in its immediate or subsequent action. Power is also increasing rapidly; the will is sometimes fulfilled at the very moment, almost with the act of going out; at other times more slowly, but still with far greater force & frequency than has ever been the case in the past; sometimes, however, with great delay & difficulty & in some cases not at all. A curious example shows how difficult the resistance now finds it to be effective; a crow sitting on a branch received the suggestion of going to the end of the branch, but the force in it was unwilling; it went a little way thence came rapidly back, & for some minutes began dancing on the branch this way & that, towards the end when the force was applied, away from it when it was relaxed, until it reached the point as if driven suddenly by physical force, seeming several times about to fall off the tree, & then fluttered off to another bough. A long struggle for the rupadrishti, ended in a number of stable images attaining to the dense developed, far superior in consistency to last night’s forms, appearing straight before the vision, a great

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frequency of absolutely perfect images which either avoid the eye or only appear for a second before it, & a number of crude forms. Colour, jyotih & tejah are now common in all forms. The objective of the siddhi is to establish the habit of the perfect & stable image placed full before the vision; the object of the enemy is to preserve every possible imperfection & especially prevent stability. After some hours cessation, physical ananda of a much greater intensity was given for a short time, but not continued afterwards. Samadhi progresses slowly; but the dreams at night almost got rid of the element of dream-image & were only a series of mental images & ideas woven into a connected series of speech & incident. The elimination of dream image, is the first great desideratum, of incoherence in thought record the second. In addition to these siddhis universal prema with the established chidghana & prema anandas, rising into the suddha, are being again superimposed on the ahaituka. Tejas is now more powerful & continuous, the sraddha established in everything except the Adeshasiddhi. Nine hours & more of walking & standing during the day failed to bring fatigue, but brought this time some amount of defect of anima. Sleep 6 hours and a half. Dec 7th. 11.36 am. Nothing fresh has been added this morning; except that perfect forms of the crude variety are now more stable in the full line of the vision & more varied, eg varnamaya, agnimaya & jyotirmaya, but it is only the bird that so appears, usually as on a former occasion the redbreast. In the fleeting images some of which are of an absolute perfection, various kinds of birds, flags, ink & other bottles, books[,] matchboxes, cigarettes, cigarette packets etc, in a word, the objects most commonly observed are commonest. In this respect there is a strong contrast to the images seen in samadhi. The power is now being applied to movements in the mass where a number of agents are concerned. An effect is produced, especially at the beginning, but afterwards the resistance stiffens and is successful. Trikaldristi of exact time recommenced last night. There was the usual error; the return of S. M & N [Saurin, Moni & Nolini]

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was seen to be due after 9.30 (very unusual & even unprecedented for a long time past), later fixed at 9.38, but again unfixed & seen to be due nearer 10. At 9.38, exactly, R [Ramaswamy] came, not the others, who arrived at 9.53. Occasional physical Ananda is resumed, but not yet the intenser Ananda of last night. The combination of the subjective Anandas, sahaituka, is reestablished and almost perfect; but in one or two directions, eg ordure, massed sores & one or two kinds of events, jugupsa still comes in from the outside world & touches the external psychic nerves. There is also a persistence of hostile perception of ugliness which tries to take advantage of this or that object in order to deny the shuddhananda. Afternoon. The Power is now in small things fulfilling itself in exact circumstance of place & order of circumstance, in isolated cases, frequently, although always with a resistance, mechanical or willed, either entirely ineffective or effective only to delay, or effective in one or two circumstances or, sometimes, wholly effective either to vary the act, eg to take to one tree instead of to another, or to prevent any tangible result. Ananda, resisted, is infrequent, without intensity & uncontinuous. Rupadrishti does not fulfil itself. In all these respects the resistance is strong & concentrated & even the trikaldrishti cannot act perfectly. Although there has been now five hours physical activity, there has been a frequent burden of fatigue in the legs due to defect of anima. Health is resisted in particular symptoms, with obstinacy of recurrence, but not with force; the asiddhi succeeds in materialising at these points & insisting for a short time, but has to retire. It is most obstinate in the process of digestive assimilation; for though it can no longer freely bring excess of vayu or frequent purisha visrishti (the last two intervals have been 31–2 days and now 2 days) it insists successfully on the excess of jala, a vague hint of nausea without real nausea, & a recurrence of the sign of excess. During the rest of the day there was a strong force of the obstruction and no progress. The attempt at exact trikaldrishti of time failed entirely; the Power also failed signally to act several times and only succeeded at close quarters. There fell from outside reflections of the old anger of impatience & to a less extent of tamasic tyaga

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almost amounting to depression. There was, however, no settled ashanti & no duhkha. MyAn  DApy t  Eff;m k\ smFcF. Sortilege n oqAsA vZ mAm

+AvA"AmA z5o a\tEv BAEt  dvA aE`n\ DArydEvZodA\.

ie. Both manifestation & non-manifestation contain the supreme force and in unison nourish the one child (Agni, Tapas); it shines out in various activity between pure mind and body, ie, in the vitalised mind, antariksha; and the gods then hold Agni, the pure tapas, & gain force & substance. This was given before the Nakta or period of non-manifestation in the later afternoon & evening, or when the manifestation was beginning to be replaced by the non-manifestation. Dec. 8. 7.30 am. The same condition. [Vyapti]8 & prakamya perfect; trikaldrishti uncertain; powers ineffective & inclined to be inactive. Misplaced power active as false trikaldrishti. Ananda vague. Yesterday 8 hours & a half of physical activity with fatigue decreasing as it went on; this morning dull fatigue & defect of anima, neither pronounced, but both effective. Sortilege. h~-vn;X^jAnAEt tdA m;Qyt ev Et (3) p. 112 t>

s\b\D,. tt i(y-y &yAHyAnmnvboDAEdEt. prmA(mAvgmAy y7, kAy

i(y; m;ps\hrEt.

Since the entire Oneness can be realised here & it is only by that complete realisation of God in everything in this world that absolute Liberty is possible, for the idea of Him as something separate manifesting here is an error, therefore the final word is that an effort must be made to realise God the Spirit here absolutely, so that nothing else may be seen, felt, smelt, heard, tasted. Mar. 23. Sortilege. Idem. p 76. n sO#Mym;ppAdyEt -Tl (yAEdnA. 1. Es@ytFEt p$ET&yAEdq; tArtMy In the application of the three sortileges already found, the experience of error still continuing, a doubt occurred as to their completeness. The impulse to consult was given & the mind assured that the sortilege would meet the doubt. The above was the response, & proves entirely the reality of the Sortilege system & its veridicity & capacity of direct response. Interpretation. The vijnana is being perfect[ed] in the physical, vital & mental worlds according to their characteristic differences; at present the mental knowledge is being idealised to perfection by the idealising (rendering perfectly & spontaneously true & luminous) of the sense perceptions, the pranic impulses, the bodily movements & all connected therewith. Error is brought into play in order to be converted into its underlying truth. n by itself is also a sortilege & means that by as2. tArtMy signing each subjective perception of the body, nerves & mind to its right place, object & time vijnana will be progressively & finally perfected. N.B. It is a curious fact that the physical knowledge received by the body through the annamaya Atman & the pranakosha is often truer, if at all illumined, than the mental knowledge; on the other hand the responses of the prana to knowledge are more erratic than those of the mind.

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Other sortileges confirming the sense of those already given. Images connected with yesterday’s 3.7 (1) An open country with a hill in the distance, representing the unoccupied land taken by the civilised invaders from the barbarian; (2) a fortified city on a plateau with great terraces cut in the slope in the background, in front level spaces leading to a great river with a vast ghaut at one place in the bank; (3) the same river; a hut large & spacious with a great door open, afterwards, appear in the hut opposite the doorway a priest & a child; after a while the priest turns away lifting his hands as if shocked & despairing. All these in the chimney of the lamp. (4) not connected, a chitra on a rough envelope (inside torn open), very distinct in every detail (even more than the others,) two flights of step[s], with a rough, sculptured wall at the angle; a woman, young, beautiful, with a bonnet and a walking stick in her right hand held away from her body & supported on the stairs, very elegantly dressed; below her on the steps a crown, bracelet & cloth. These images are chitra; the akasha images are still vague & present seldom any clear details. Trikaldrishti still continues to generalise itself without being able to expel error. Samadhi is now being utilised, but does not yet improve in its material. All the materials of trikaldrishti are in fact being utilised for all three times without any of them yet being entirely perfect. Tapas varies in effectiveness. Mar 24. Tuesday Saguna Brahmadrishti has now practically taken the place of the Nirguna which is now perceived only as a foundation for the action of the Saguna. It is seen that the Sarvam Brahma is prominent when the Tapas of mental Chaitanya is fixed on Matter, all else being felt as undifferentiated consciousness & Matter alone as real to the mind, unreal to the drishti; Sarvam Anantam is felt when the Tapas is fixed on Matter & Life, all else being felt to be a sea of consciousness out of which Life & Matter proceed; Sarvam Anantam Jnanam when the Tapas is fixed on Life, Matter & Mind with 7 See “The Evolutionary Scale”, pages 1328 – 30, for a detailed description and interpretation of the images that follow. Ed.

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Vijnanam felt behind vaguely as the source of Mind; but when the Jnanam increases & is sun-illumined, then the Anandam also appears & the Saguna Brahman becomes the Lilamaya Para Purusha. The Anantam has also two bhavas one in which the Infinite Force acts as if it were a mechanical entity, knowledge standing back from it, the other in which Life Force & Knowledge act together & the Infinite Force is an intelligent or at least a conscious force. Hitherto the position of the Tapas has been that when strongly exerted, it has come to produce an effect against resistance, sometimes the full effect, sometimes a partial effect, sometimes a modified or temporary effect, sometimes a postponed effect, sometimes merely a struggle physical or mental towards the desired effect. In things physical & in things of the karma, the smaller effects are more common, full effect rare. When simply exerted, the force has often failed entirely, sometimes succeeded fully & at once, sometimes partly or with resistance, sometimes for a time only wholly or partially; sometimes only by producing a tendency or mental movement. Now the simply exerted will is becoming more effective, often perfectly effective, with no resistance or brief resistance or ineffective resistance. A month has been given in the trikaldrishti for the progress of this movement. In the trikaldrishti a qualified authority is now enjoyed by the lipi, the written script, the articulate thought, & from today by the Vani & the unwritten Script; the perceptive thought is struggling towards this authority, but still hampered by inert & by tapasic suggestions which overstress a perception or which overshoot their mark. Today a more powerful movement of the perceptive thought, more readily, widely & accurately perceptive of the complex truth of forces & their results. If this tendency prevails, the lipi “Tuesday” & its interpretation will be amply justified. In any case, the claim of the tapasic devatas to be rendered effective before the knowledge is effective as knowledge, is from today rejected. As yet knowledge & force cannot become identical. Another attempt is also being made to cast out the relics of self from the environmental will. It is now evident that the whole difficulty which refuses to be still evicted,

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is the persistent survival of [Bhuvarmaya]8 Tapas and its attempt to profit by the vijnana instead of allowing the Swarvati Shakti to illumine itself in a pure desirelessness from the Mahas. Lipsa has been the excuse for this persistence & its distinction from Kama. But the lipsa must be a samalipsa ready entirely to take defeat as well as success and not choosing its will but leaving that to a higher Shakti than the Bhuvarmayi or manomayi. The whole trikaldrishti is still regulated by the idea of success & failure & therefore cannot free itself from overstress. The reason is that man is at present the Asura Rakshasa & seeks from the buddhi the satisfaction of the heart & senses. Therefore this particular nodus is so hard to unloose; because it is always this Asura Rakshasa who has to be liberated & fulfilled & the difficulty cannot be solved by casting him out & rising entirely into a higher principle. The Devasura variety of the Asura Rakshasa has to be established, not the pure Deva or even the pure Devasura. The crux is here, in the right solution of this complexity. There is a pull which would carry too high, there is a pull which would keep too low. Both have to be avoided. }Fv, Estvp;m hA Sortilege (1) hq cErt\ (2) blAkAjAtFy,. dFG g AZ, vmn,. blAkAjAEtEr(y; -tdynAErk lj, (3) dfk;mAr cErt\. That is, the Ten Kumaras = the ten Purushas from Pashu to Siddhadeva. The present that is drawing to an end is the Rakshasa, whose type is that of hq not aAnd. It is the d$& bAlAEk species, long necked = eager, purified in body, mahat in the prana element, therefore with a mind that listens in the ananta dasha dishah for the sruti from the vijnana. The other that is coming is Anandamaya, born of the full enjoyment of the Prakriti, ie the Devasura. Balaka´ also means in the sortilege the young unfulfilled Prakriti. The Anandamaya Devasura has been prepared in the Rakshasa by the lj,, born not of Gandharva type of Rakshasa who is also nAErk Prakriti’s full act of enjoyment, but of her full mood of enjoyment (the Gandharvi bhava in Mahasaraswati). The thought-telepathy is now coming more freely; sometimes it is seen as a thought with impulse & proved by the immediately subsequent act; sometimes it is entertained by the mind not as a 8 MS Bhuvarmukti

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perception of thought in another’s mind, but as an impression registered as a thought in one’s own mind, yet vaguely but uncertainly associated, perhaps as a speculation of the other’s conduct, with another mind. Eg. B [Bijoy] brings tea. Mind thinks of B. looking for a cigarette, seeing none & possibly bringing one. There is no such look or action in B’s body, but only a vague idea of such a thought, possibly, in his mind. The next minute B brings a cigarette & looks to see whether or not there were any left, showing that this had actually been in his mind & he was now verifying by his senses an idea the mind had arrived at in thought only. At the same time it is possible that the thought went from my mind to his & produced the action or went to another’s who gave the cigarette to be placed there & then only B looked to see if there were no cigarettes already. In the latter case the thought was an effective vyapti from my mind to his or another’s; in the former a srauta vyapti from his to mine. Other cases were clear cases of prakamya; eg the perception of the thought & impulse in his mind & body to take the carbolic lotion, followed the next second by his action in taking it, etc. Lipi. 1. Healthy system effigies of the unhealthy system still resists the healthy 2. Healthy system established not in actuality but type of actuality. 3. “Sister” or “siskos” very frequent 4 Jollity . . festivity. fulfilled immediately, followed before fulfilment by pranic manomaya impression of Bj’s intention & its approaching execution. No data for the intellect. 5 13. This lipi comes daily & often. 13 = Kama, last th member of the 5 chatusthay 6 Sortilege. Indicating necessity of resort to sortilege. Directional lipi Sortilege. 1. Rv. [Rigveda] I. [178.]9 mA n, kAm\ mhy\tmA Dg^ Ev'A t  ayA\ pEr aAp aAyo, Destroy not or afflict not my desire as 9 MS 138.

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it acquires the Mahadbhav; may I taste all (fruits & enjoyments) throughout all the waters of being. This sortilege gives full sanction to the ideal of the liberated Asura Rakshasa. 2 mSy\ sADo !=yk, ie the value of the siddhi of knowledge is now the full faculty of jnana & half the fullness (8 a[nna]s) of trikaldrishti. This is an exact description of the ordinary action of the illumined vijnanabuddhi at the present stage of the siddhi. 11–2 has long been in the lipi the sign of perfect jnana & imperfect trikaldrishti, jnana being symbolised by 1, trikaldristi by 2, Rupa by 3, Tapas by 4, Samadhi by 5, Health by 6, Ananda by 7, Utthapana by 8, Saundarya by 9, Kali by 10, Krishna by 11, Karma by 12, Kama by 13; so in succession with the 4 members of the Brahmachatusthaya & the 4 of the Siddhi Chatusthaya making 21 in all. n. This refers to the 3 p$o EB\+Am-yA, s\fy\ yTAn;BvkTn persistent doubts of the sceptical intellect re the Karmasiddhi & points to increasing authority of the divine Vani, a-yA, being Kali the Prakriti & the speaker the Deva or Purusha, Krishna, Master of the Yoga. It appears, however, that the doubts as to dehasiddhi, rapidity, exact fulfilment of knowledge & power are also included. Images 1. A mirror (back view) with a woman behind looking at herself in it. Fact & symbol. 2. The same, front view. Both Akasha, crude. 3 Bird. crude (a sign that none of the old effects already produced are lost to the siddhi, the bird being the ordinary figure in the crude form) 4. Human figure mounting an incline; a fish; a net; bird varnamaya; all crude, clear, but mostly fleeting. Lipi 7. Insufficient stability.10 Lipi. 8. Flexibility of the intellectuality ie brought about now in a greater degree by the discouragement of the stress on the tapas 10 This is the seventh in the series of lipis beginning before the sortileges and images

above, and continuing below.

Ed.

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& inertia; with this change has come a greater perfection both of jnana & trikaldrishti. 9. The disgust of the asiddhi has to be got rid of entirely. 10. The political siddhi . . destroy ie the putting an end to the present anarchical activity is necessary for the return to political life & must be attempted henceforth. Inaction in this respect must cease. Only there need be no haste[,] no anxiety. At the present the means of action are not to hand. They must be found out or created or both. 11 Type of the trikaldrishti . . telepathy perfect in detail. Perfect telepathy & trikaldrishti. That is the type has now to be well formed & extended to the exclusion of speculation & overstressed perception. The difficulty formerly experienced in thought-telepathy was that there was a full or almost full perception, whenever there was even slight sanyama, of the chitta-mould of the living object and of his sensation mind in its status & acquired form accompanied with a clear perception of the contents of the temperament & character, also of the waves of feeling & sensation that arose in the manas & chitta & to a less degree of the thought sensations that arose in the manas, but not of the buddhi, except in its vague mould & acquired status, its outer shell only, not of either its general contents or of the particular ideas arising in it. These powers were gained long ago, early in the Pondicherry stay, & to some extent always existed in an inchoate form as they exist probably in all men; but they had to be discontinued for a long time; now with the growth of the jnanam Brahma this difficulty is being overcome by the perception of the contents of the buddhi & the waves of idea that rise in it. This evening the old powers arose in a much more powerful & vivid form than before. This revival was heralded by a note in the lipi referring to the former intensity of the powers for a short period as between Bj & myself; but the full intention of the lipi was not understood; it was not realised that the revival of that intensity this very day was intended. Therefore the lipi was not recorded. There is still much to be done, but the foundations of complete knowledge, trikaldrishti & prakamya-vyapti are now being very firmly and very bountifully laid.

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Proofs of the idea-perception are being multiplied; eg, a quarrel between two cats on the opposite terrace, a black tom & a white pet cat; almost all the movements could be followed & predicted; 1s.t. the intention of the black to leap on the parapet of the stairs where the white had taken refuge, then, partly from discretion, partly in obedience to aishwarya, its slow departure, but this was not actually foreseen, the emotions of its retreat, sullen anger, pride, fear of attack (this was proved by the frequent look back, yet not too frequent, from pride), the half idea of returning & pursuing the quarrel, always abandoned, the intention to come on to our kitchen roof, the turning aside for the direct descent, (here there was a doubt whether the reading of the intention was correct, probably caused by a hesitation in the cat himself whether he should not deviate to another side[)], the final descent before the doubt could be solved. Incidentally, the doubt as to exact fulfilment of knowledge is ben. ing removed as predicted in the [sortilege]11 EB\+A\ s\fymn;BvkTn There is still doubt as to the rapidity except of individual movements of progression where the rapidity is undoubted, owing to the past experience of invariable relapse & suspension of siddhis, although these relapses & suspensions are now, owing partly to the stronger foundation, either less prolonged or not thorough. There is doubt also as to the rapid effectivity of the tapas. Neither knowledge nor tapas are yet active with any force with regard either (1) to the actual past of individuals or their future, (2) to the karmasiddhi, (3) to things at a distance, (4) to details of the thought, such as names etc, [(5)]12 to exact time & place (ie the minute, the spot). Some siddhi in all these respects there is, but it is still fragmentary. The largeness of the field unoccupied is another ground for doubt of a generally effective rapidity. Images. Chitra in the lamp.13 1. A river with a masonry bridge built across, arched doors (one only seen) in the bridge for the river to pass through; on the bridge, first one man, then others passing across, the first hastening, 11 MS lipi (see the last sortilege above) 12 MS (4) 13 See “The Evolutionary Scale”, pages 1332 – 34.

Ed.

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the others slow; beyond the bridge on the river a girl & a man crossing the river in a sort of raft; [a]14 lamppostlike erection in the river, the nature & object of which are not clear yet. Beyond a hill with houses upon it. Connected with the Pashu-episodes. The type is no longer the Gandharva-Pashu, although a substratum of that type remains in the new race; the new type is distinctly coarser, one seen the other day after the Image, barbarously coarse; these seen today are of a higher kind, but all have a slightly Teutonic cast in the character-mould only half refined into an intelligent quiescence. 2. A low type of the Kali Pashu, 1st Manwantara, in appearance hatted, bearded & visaged like a common type west country American. 3. A part of a hill with a house upon it roofed like a modern Church. 4. A very wide road climbing up a steep incline. Trees on one side showing the great width of the road. 5. Animals of the first chaturyuga. A huge seal-like water animal. A land-animal also exceedingly huge with red & yellow bands, a long rough projecting snouted face lifted up to roar; ferocious in appearance, harmless in fact. Suggestion, that these belonged to the animal chaturyuga before man appeared. Akasha. Two leaves, crude, first transparent, then tejas-chhaya, clear & stable, but not vivid. N.B It had been indicated that a clear & stable form would appear; but it came with difficulty & all that followed were clear but incomplete & rapidly changing half figures of animals. Mar. 25. Perceptive thought still fails to attain authority, though it presses towards authority. Telepathy of thought is still rough & wanting in fineness & firmness; it is also crossed by the perception of ideas from the pranamaya, manomaya & bhurmaya beings which besiege our activities. There are movements in the bodily self 14 MS an

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& our vital self, blind, instinctive thoughts, impulses, memories, like those of the animal, eg the horse mechanically taking an accustomed turning; these are now vividly seen, more vividly often than those of the active mind & confuse the thought-perception. False perceptions, however, always turn out to be true perceptions, true in essence, false in incidence. Eg (1) a dog paused in the middle of the road, three tendencies were seen, one in the direction it was originally [taking]15 became a vain effort of the pranamaya to persist & was soon forgotten by the dog, but remained in its subconscious mind and might, with favourable fate, have been revived & fulfilled in subsequent action; another, to the left, was disbelieved in by the perceptive thought which indicated a turn to the right as its eventual action, & the dog did turn its head immediately afterwards in that direction, but it went to the left, not the right. The idea of a movement to the right was immediately dismissed by the intellect as a falsehood, but as a matter of fact, a few seconds afterwards, the dog returned & fulfilled the identical line to the right, to the very spot, that had been indicated. So a child about to turn the corner was seen as intending to turn into the house just round the corner; its course & thought after turning was away from the house, but a moment afterwards it went in at the door indicated. There were no less than four incidents of this kind with this door in the course of half an hour. When, however, there is no illumination, the source of the misdirected perception is not seen & the intellect labours under the idea of an absolute, originless & unjustifiable asatyam, which does not exist in this world. Satyam is established; it is the anritam which still gives trouble. Lipis. 1. Federation of love 2. Exiled dynasties . . tapas. In reference especially to France, but not exclusively 3. I indicating that the Deva, Krishna, Master of the Yoga, is taking more & more direct charge of the activities. Drishti of the panchabhuta is now common & of wind in the panchabhuta, but not of wind in the ordinary akasha. Images of 15 MS taken

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insects, birds are seen in the prana-akasha (bhuvar), but not usually the flying forms themselves; when seen, these are not clear to the eye. Lipis 4. Request. Yes. I don’t intend to satisfy it immediately, but to satisfy it after the necessary delays in its due time. ie the lipsa 5 Tuesday blaze. ie The ideality founded yesterday will by next Tuesday have burst into a blaze. The forms of the birds etc seen in the pranakasha are now beginning to be clear for a moment, but they disappear at once into the pranajagat. The explanation is that the pranakash ordinarily seen is the pranakasha envelope of bhu in which only the images of these creatures are seen & they themselves are in the akasha of the pranajagat, not the real Bhuvar but the Bhuvar of Bhu. It is these worlds that must first be seen & felt; the others can at present [ ]16 only be entered in Samadhi. The perception of the one Jnanam Brahma in all is today very strong; but its grades & positions are still unstably harmonised, eg the general Manomaya Purusha in the Manastattwa taking the ananda of the various egos who know not themselves to be He, the same in the Anandatattwa of the Manas, the individual Manomaya Purusha watching the egoistic manas as the observing mind of an actor might watch his active mind on the stage, the Manomaya Purushottama in the cosmos & the same in the individual, the ego unconscious of its true self, the wider Manomaya aham conscious of it, yet differentiated. The Anandam Brahma is now beginning to be seen in the individual more frequently & vividly. The restlessness & impatience & weariness of the environmental Prana with the contradictions, confusions & resistances that persist in the siddhi, still forces itself at times on the system, especially when the exiled intellectual devatas besiege & attack the city, no longer hoping to recover sway but to delay the perfect siddhi & revenge themselves for their expulsion. 16 MS can

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This siege & attack developed in the afternoon into a violent crisis, characterised by all the old movements except absolute obstruction & intended to break down the growing siddhi & destroy the authority of the lipi and other instruments of the vijnana. It is noticeable that in spite of confusion, anger, pain & unfaith, the activity of the vijnana & the principles of sraddha laid down in the pre-existent siddhi could not be entirely silenced, but applied themselves persistently to the confused thoughts, vanis, lipis, that came without being deterred by the chaos of errors & half truths that was raised. An immense but ill-coordinated activity of thought, lipi, telepathy etc accompanied the attack; the attack & the defense disputed possession of this outburst of activity & tried to make it the instrument of error & truth, confusion & a better coordination respectively. Nevertheless, the deficiencies of the previous vijnana siddhi have been accentuated by the disturbance and a manifest confusion now reigns, instead of the orderly advance which was being developed; nor does the mind know which suggestion it is to believe or which to reject as error & misplacement. Ananda of physical pain has once more commenced; it is noticeable that pain of burning, pain of blows, nervous or muscular pain of disease, even pain of pressure are associated up to a certain degree with ananda simultaneous or subsequent in manifestation, but pain of wounds, touches on the raw flesh etc is less amenable & except in the ant’s bite is as yet entirely divorced from ananda. Image (1) The same stairs as seen in a former image . . a doll on the lower steps; a little child coming down some way above. The sculptures on the walls are clearer, some grotesque, some accurate & graceful, but unimaginative reproductions of daily life. (2) Animal scene from the 2d Manwantara.17 (3) Three scenes from the first [Manwantara], regarding the personage described in the lipi as “Iarlaus”.18 Utthapana of neck & leg for 15 minutes, not maintained longer, because of the successful intrusion of muscular effort in 17 See “The Evolutionary Scale”, pages 1334 – 35. Ed. 18 See “The Evolutionary Scale”, page 1335. Ed.

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place of the natural mahima. Laghima was strong, mahima defective. Mar 26 Thursday. Sortilege. (1) EvzAn kDm vvAd^ d;Ev  y dA(mA kT\ tEh pEX t-yAEp s; y, -yAEd(yAf\@Ah E-TEtgtFEt. Kathak Upanishad. p [54.]19 Referring to the difficulty noted yesterday of the ill-harmonised perceptions of the various bhavas, Manomaya etc, & also to the difficulties of the many various movements in the vani, etc; the rule is given that all must be seen as Paramatman & Para Purushah, Krishna, in the two states of status & dynamis, rest & motion. (2) Are all mere representatives & agents of the Standard. Story of Trusts (Collins) p. 106 This is a very remarkable instance of the sortilege; for there is no connection between the Kathakopanishad & the Story of Trusts, yet a sortilege immediately taken from the latter after the interpretation of one from the former completes it & supplies precisely the thought needed for rounding off its unfinished suggestion. All the words are the exact words needed “All” “mere” “representatives” “agents” “Standard[”]. It is so, that all things in the world are now to be regarded in relation to the standard Being, the Sarva Ananta Jnana Ananda Krishna. Note that before taking the second sortilege, the book was pointed out & the indication given that the second sortilege would supply something still needed. All this shows an intelligent, omniscient & all-combining Mind at work which uses everything in the world as its instrument & is superior to the system of relations & connections already fixed in this world. It can use the most incoherent things harmoniously for one purpose. Nor is this an isolated instance & therefore classable as a mere coincidence, instances & proofs are now crowding on the mind. Lipi is now again developing kaushalya; instances of tejomaya, jyotirmaya, varnamaya have suddenly come & are or tend to be, unlike the former rare instances, at once clear & stable. 19 MS 74.

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Lipis. 1. Tardy results isolated results. 2. Joyfully exhaust the intellectuality. 3. Degeneration of telepathy. Trikaldrishti is now being developed on the principle of affirmation, ie everything is accepted as a fact, only the precise incidence & value of the fact has to be disengaged from the rude & inaccurate impression on the sensational mind. The importance of the unfulfilled tendency, intention or impulse physical, vital, mental or supramental, conscious, subconscious or super-conscious, is being emphasised its indispensable importance both in determining the eventual action or result, in fixing its efficient value and chances of permanence or finality & in influencing future eventuality. It is now proved beyond doubt that the mental perception of these unfulfilled energies is not an error, proved by the constant unexpected fulfilment of those that had been put aside as errors; the vulgar test of reality, viz bodily fulfilment, is no longer needed by the mind for sraddha. The perfect trikaldrishti of eventuality will, it is supposed, emerge out of this mahadbhava of the telepathic mind, by the freer play of the higher vijnana in its fourfold quality. At present it is the telepathic trikaldrishti that is active and this, though it has been proved capable of sustained, detailed & complex accuracy, is not firm, but easily descends from the correct appraisement of event & tendency, to a mere mahat perception of tendencies open to false stress & false selection of the event. Images (In the Clouds). 1. Yesterday & today of a Pramatha Rakshasa (5th or 6th Manwantara) war[,] men hastening to battle, men fighting, a war-chariot & fighter, a youth giving news to his sister on the way to battle, the same face, a modern Teutonic face reappearing always as one of the leaders, recognisable especially by the helmet, moustache & small aquiline face (middle-aged). Period Kaliyuga; a war of great historic importance. 2. A dancing girl of the same age, strong aquiline face, in loose transparent draperies. This seems to be a Roman period of the Kali. A handsome & imperial race, but already weakening in type. The bhava is that of men doomed to defeat.

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3. Images of the opposite nation, a man & a woman, ugly, strong, fierce, Pisacha-Pramatha in type; the face expresses a diabolical cruelty & hunger. It is intimated that in this war the young Romanic leader in the war-chariot is victorious, but the eventual victory is to a modified race mixed of these two races, which overthrows the Empire. 4 Fantastic images of animals, a lion with an impossibly slender body, a cock face on a fourfooted animal, belonging to the idea-world of the Manus where types are evolved & varied before they are fixed in the sthula. In the same way as in the trikaldrishti, so in the rest of the siddhi & the lipi affirmation is being enforced. Every feeling & movement, even those that are apparently wrong or futile, has to be accepted temporarily as a factor in the eventual intention, so also every event, however hostile. The habit of right stress will evolve hereafter & produce the right harmony. In the afternoon return of yesterday’s asiddhi, the ashanti less violent, though sufficiently acute, but the asiddhi more complete. The chaos lasted throughout the afternoon well into the evening. Contradiction in fact of the former lipis “Joyful exhaustion of the intellectuality etc.” Images In Lamp (1) Yesterday the girl of the first image grown up to womanhood & another (n)20 (2) Today Three of the same crossing a river by some rude kind of plank or tree bridge three (n) (3) Horses of that aeon clumsy in build, long-eared. One on the bank of a river listening with head turned & ears pricked to some noise on the opposite bank. Ananda of vishayas is growing in smell, sight & hearing. Beauty is manifesting in all faces & forms, but this janamaya drishti of the shuddhananda is still resisted & laboriously contradicted from time to time & lowered piecemeal to the chidghana or ahaituka perceptions. Today ananda of the painful touch on exposed flesh began, but did not go very far. 20 The meaning of this letter is not known.

Ed.

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Subjectively the Ananda of the pure mind, Swar, has been constantly manifest, & except in the attacks of asiddhi, dominant; the separate activities of the ananda of bhuvar are being expelled or discouraged. Today the anandamay Tapas of the Swar is being revealed; hitherto the Tapas of mind has always been of Bhuvar & not the anandamay Tapas of bhuvar, but the pranamaya rajasic, unquiet, full of desire or effort, nibhrishta-tavishi. This now afflicts from outside the system only. Vani has also once manifested from the Ananda of Jana. The ostensible object of the movement of disturbance is to get rid of the intellectual interference and destroy the obstruction to a permanent ascent beyond the vijnanabuddhi. The chief feature has been a total destruction of the reliability of the telepathic trikaldrishti; only the mere telepathic perceptions of present tendency remain accurate & valid. As yet, however, the mind can put no fixed confidence, in the midst of the confusion, in any indication given. It is evident, at any rate, that the disintegration of the present faculty & inefficient telepathic trikaldrishti is intended and is being hastened by the Power that directs the Yoga. Lipis. 1. Assist the degeneration of the telepathy twice repeated. 2. (Much later) Affirm the ideality against the intellectuality 4. Dictionary (Tuesday refers 3. Tuesday . . thyself also to this lipi). The last thing at night the higher ideality, not the highest, the intuitional not the revelational began to be affirmed in script & vani & fluent vangmaya thought, but could not be enforced in the perceptive thought. The manifestation of the Deva in the Adhara seems to have commenced. Mar 27. The mental powers of the higher Bhuvar expelled from control of the thought & perception & deprived of support from the higher Swar are now acting as a strong obstructional power and attempt to intercept and denaturalise every suggestion from the vijnana to the Swarvati buddhi. For this reason the jnana & trikaldrishti in the thought are not able to manifest themselves & even the

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telepathy is much hampered. The Vani & Script, however, seem now to be beyond attack or obscuration. The Lipi suffers by its right (vijnanamaya) interpretation being intercepted or seized & distorted; this disability is shared by the rupa. Pseudo-vani still occurs, but is easily detected & carries with it no authority. The truth of intuitional vijnana has now begun to be enforced & the task of discouraging & excluding the habit of mental interception or interpretation has been taken in hand. The mind is to be a passive recipient & channel, not an active rational & perceptional agent. Dasya Tertiary Dasyabhava has now taken a new form & is being reconstituted as obedience to the Master in the adhara, with Prakritic agencies as mere distributory functionaries of the Tapas of action & eventually of the Tapas of thought. Up till now the dasya was either obedience to a distant Master in the Cosmos or at least, when not distant external to the Adhara, & to Prakritic agencies who were often sahankara & opposed the direct command from the Master. Dasya was first primary, that is a free subjection of the Will on the basis of a potential independence, secondly, secondary, that is, a mechanical subjection of the adhara independent of the personal Will to the Prakriti, last, tertiary, a complete subjection, mechanical & volitional to the Ishwara with the Prakriti only as a channel or jada agent. The tertiary has also its three stages, one in which the volition was dominant in the consciousness not as free, but as accompanying & approving the movement which, though at first mechanically compulsory, might be suspended if the volition long opposed it, a second in which the Prakritic control was dominant though as a compelled & compulsory agent of a remote or veiled Ishwara and a third, now finally emerging, in which the assent of the Jiva is given compulsorily & independently of any freedom of choice in the Sakshi, the Prakriti is purely a jada channel & not an agent, & the compulsion from the Ishwara direct, omnipresent and immanent. The bhava of the dasya tends to its right relation of the bandini dasi with the characteristic madhur bhava of that relation, a relation already familiar & frequent to the Prakriti or Devi in the system, but not yet permanent in the consciousness.

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Vijnana The referential action of the vijnana by which a suggestion first manifests deflected or overstressed in the buddhi & is then referred to the vijnana for right interpretation, is being constantly shown & condemned. It stimulates the mahadbhava of the satyam, but is unable to arrive at the ritam. It might arrive at a sort of secondary ritam after a long struggle & development, but that is not now intended, although it must be done at a later stage of the human advance in this age. At present it must be confined only to those who are incapable of the primary vijnana action. Rupa Formerly all kinds of rupa used to be manifested spasmodically, even to the most perfectly developed. That siddhi has by an increasing pressure of asiddhi been disintegrated in the jagrat, & has now to be reconstituted on a surer and more natural foundation. Rupa is of two kinds. (1) Seen in the personal consciousness as image of a remote reality either in the mental akashas or the physical (prana & anna) akashas. (2) Seen as actual form of things in the jagat or as linga image of the actual form or body. The first is of two kinds according to perfection of manifestation (1) inchoate (2) complete of three according to fullness of material (1) crude consisting only of the crude material (saptarchi of Agni[)], ie. 1 prakasha. 2. fire. 3. vidyut or varna 5 tejas 6 dhuma. 7 chhaya. 4 jyoti (2) dense consisting of material developed into substance of consistency (3) developed when the substance has developed lifelike appearance of reality of two according to circumstance of manifestation (1) reflection of form seen in sthula, whether real or image (2) spontaneous, with no stimulation from any other form. and finally either (1) stable or (2) unstable. The perception of linga images & actual forms in the prana-

414

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jagat [has]21 now become entirely complete, definite & developed, but is as yet of a momentary stability & usually stimulated rather than spontaneous, ie of birds, insects etc seen in the sthula akasha. The flight of kites & crows is constantly watched for the telepathy & trikaldrishti; therefore, the image of kite & crow are frequent; actual forms however, are more often of other birds not usually seen or watched. In the rupa of image, all is being rebuilt again in the attempt to evolve a habitual combination of perfect complete clear & developed spontaneous form with a firm stability in the akash. For chitra rupas have now a confirmed perfection & stability, although all are not complete; the inchoate form still persists in cloud forms etc where the material is unstable, but even there the complete form is sufficiently frequent. Today rupas, individuals & groups, are occurring in the akasha which are complete but not clearcut, momentarily stable but not with a useful & durable stability. Moreover they are all crude with the extreme crudity. Other rupas in the akasha are fleeting &, though clearcut, seldom complete. Clearcut & complete crude rupas of a dense or developed crudity occur, but are also fleeting. Here there is as yet nothing that can be called an assured advance, as all this has happened before, been exceeded & then again destroyed. In samadhi there is retrogression & an old oft-repeated process of laborious rebuilding, the articulate thought in the jagrat prolongs itself into the swapna or sushupta of the mind & attempts to evolve a savijnana samadhi full of perceptive & vangmaya savijnana thought, sight etc in place of the present savikalpa samadhi. In the process a shadow of the old discontinued savichara & savitarka movements tends to recur, but is rejected & has no power or vitality. Images occur which have a kind of broken continuity & show part of the scene vividly, eg objects & action, but not the actor; this continuity is sometimes of action & mental rupa after loss of the bodily drishti. Tivra & kama occur in samadhi & continue after waking. None of these are new circumstances. There is therefore as yet no real advance. The confusions of the savikalpa continue. Antardrishta jagrat imitates at a distance the bahirdrishta. 21 MS have

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Animal forms are now coming freely & with some perfection in the chitra, but not so freely as the human or as landscape. They are more frequent than others in the antardarshi. Inanimate objects are still limited in their variety & freedom of occurrence. In the afternoon there was again an automatic recurrence of the confusion, ashanti & revolt of the last few days; it revived as a result of anritam in the savikalpa samadhi and persisted for some two hours or more while recurrent nirananda and sensitiveness to asiddhi & asatya and the absence of the assured & sunlit jnana have been left behind as a deposit of this thrice repeated disturbance. The anger & revolt of the Prakriti at any pronounced & successful disturbance of finality in the first chatusthaya are caused by a sense of the total externality and want of justification in this wanton movement. It is no longer asatyam or other asiddhi that is the true cause of the self-identification by the Jiva with this movement of revolt. Ananda is being reestablished in the general bhavas, but continually contradicted & opposed in the detail; the nirananda is supported by the Jiva & hence lingers. Morning Lipis. (Mostly Akasha)22 1. African . . rapidity (Really, two separate lipis) (From yesterday, often repeated 2. Jollity festivity. unexpectedly fulfilled this evening) 3 Intellectuality . . type of the intellectualities. (Current lipis) 4 Fortnightly . . twilight. Subsequently suggested that every fortnight shows a fresh growth of intensity in the ideality. 5. The benefit of the totality 6. Deathless intensity 8 Disengaging itself (In reference to the rupa) 7 Joyful exhaustion disintegration of the self-intellectuality. (This is often repeated in various forms & temporarily established in fact only to be broken again) 22 In the following list items 8 and 7, 19 and 18 were written in the manuscript in the

order listed.

Ed.

416

Record of Yoga 9. Ghose. (Reference to D..r K. D. Ghose) 10 Finality telepathy & trikaldrishti. ie firmly begun fulfilled (May 21st) 11 White . . whistle . . write . . yes . . India . . fish . . light. (Said to be all connected in sense. All occurred near each other in chitra. Fish refers to the rupa.)23 12. Catholiques . . brahmaniques (beginning to be fulfilled May 21s.t.) 13. Disengage the siddhi from the asiddhi first in the telepathy. (Direction to Shakti) 14 ÍìÉ (Guj [Gujarati] letters = When. Time to be fixed in the trikaldrishti) 15. The intensity of the lipi . . legibility. (ie growing towards perfection). 16. Small . . faith . . eager. (ie the eager faith belongs to the alpa not the mahat) 17 Already suggestions are of the ideality. 19. Tuesday is fixed for the perfection of the blaze. (Finality is not suggested) 18 It is against the systematic legistic temperament that the spirituality is directed. 20. The situation in England will develop with surprising rapidity. (fulfilled) 21 Beehive. 21.a. Faith filling 22 Transition period . . (To be read with 19) 23. Suffer (twice fulfilled in the afternoon) 24. St Joseph’s College (daily & frequent) refers to far future. 25. Les Meilleures dispositions 26. Joyfully exhaust struggle. (Direction to Shakti) 27. Suffer always, changed to Suffer always delight to all eternity 28. Suffering is always present (as delight) to all eternity. (The words in brackets were afterwards added) 29. Saturday to Tuesday. Said to be days of unbroken advance.

23 The first of the rupas listed below.

Ed.

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417

Trikaldrishtis. (1) Continuance for some time of the struggle between soil & purity in the teeth. (In the sense given not fulfilled, for the teeth which are at present the field of the shiftings changed to a pure white, in accordance with an opposite suggestion not then believed or recorded) (2) Image & form in pranajagat will now acquire a motional stability. (There were two or three initial movements of fulfilment) (3) Rupa is still to develop slowly, some stable clearness of form today. (Slight fulfilment noted in the body of the record). (4) Trikaldrishti will not firmly emerge today. (Amply fulfilled) (5) The trikaldrishti of exact time & place will now begin to generalise itself. Rupas. Symbolic. Eye fish. The eye is vision; the fish travel. Sophic K.B.J [Khaserao B. Jadhav] in Pisacha period (Samadhi) Mar. 28. Opening sortilege  id\ido v$qA Evf. (1) mE(s no v-y iy

3GAymAn ivEs f/;m\Et n Ev\dEs.

Indra = pure Mind. Indu = Ananda. Ishtaye = for sacrifice or for wish fulfilled or for impulse or force of action. Vrisha = as master or strongly or abundantly. 3GAymAn = going straight up or ahead. The sortilege indicates the control of buddhi by the Anandatattwa of mind in its full force & abundance for thought, emotion & action and the forward & upward movement of the Yoga free from internal enemies. This movement begins decidedly today & progressively frees itself from the relics of the old movement of battle & struggling advance. Hitherto the movement was only being prepared. Now it is ready. fyA Egro y ek q ZFnA\. an; -vDA ym;=yt  yv\ (2) tE-mA v

n ck$ q:$qA.

ie the Srutis of the Vijnana are to be established by Ananda in Vijnana Buddhi which governs all the lower actions; the self-fixity

418

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of the higher Nature in its law of works is to be sown as a seed in all the nature of the vijnana buddhi and perfected as corn is perfected by the rains & cleared [of]24 chaff on the threshing floor. This will take a longer time to fulfil than the first sortilege Trikaldrishti The ashatru movement is now possible in the knowledge because the intellect is now purified of any wish to dominate the system and use the ideality for its own purposes. The bauddha´ narah still from habit intercept or misrender or try to anticipate the vijnana suggestions, but it is done unintentionally and mechanically and the movement corrected as soon as its [illegitimacy]25 is perceived. Trikaldrishti is once more acting above the telepathic trikaldrishti, a little obscurely, but correctly; except when it leaves the telepathic overstress to figure as trikaldrishti, it is already able to indicate the immediate event in seen objects & occurrences & even a little beyond the immediate event. It is only, however, from internal enemies that the movement is free; the external are still there though they work from a more remote station, dure not anti. Here the Ananda is attempting to regard their opposition as from God, as a means of progress & by that constant impression on the intellect to prevent the return of suffering & permit the steadily joyful exhaustion of the struggle & of the active intellectuality itself. But for this the mind is not yet prepared owing to insufficient faith in divine protection and aid throughout, this defect permits the outer enemy to cloud the mind entirely from time to time so that the nirananda may have free play on the basis of unfaith. Nor does the Jiva at present wish to renounce the unfaith, owing to the persistent experience of selfdelusion in the past & the determination not to be a willing party to self-delusion in the future. To everything therefore that is not yet proved by experience, there is only a provisional faith given if any, ie a mixture of faith & scepticism, an “It may be” or at most “It may well be” or “It probably is so.” 24 MS off 25 MS legitimacy

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There is now a double movement; the first, to replace the undefended intuitional ideality by an intuitional ideality defended by viveka; for it is found that when viveka is combined with the intuition (Daksha with Sarama), then there is less chance of the intellect misinterpreting or interfering with the truth. The second movement is to develop behind the higher or intuitional ideality an assistant revelatory (highest) ideality on a larger scale than any that has yet been manifested. Both, however, are on the lower rather than on the higher levels of their respective planes. The difficulty now felt by the intellect with regard to the tapas, is why there should be insistence by the tapas on a movement not willed by God. So long as there is ignorance, the tapas may be exercised in the confidence that it is a means of God’s workings even when the event is to be the opposite of the result attempted; but in the present stage this rule no longer satisfies as a rule of action. It is evident that there is a movement towards the renunciation of preferential Tapas not in accordance with knowledge. It is not likely however that this movement will be seriously effective for some time to come. Still, from henceforth, intellectual tapas in action must be renounced, like intellectual tapas in knowledge. The vangmaya is now re-ascending to the inspirational form & it appears that it will act for some time indifferently in the higher & lower vijnanas & vijnana buddhi, but always with a tendency to finish rapidly its work in the vijnana buddhi & confine itself to the pure vijnana. A more general movement of the subjective thought-trikaldrishti is being attempted as opposed to the objective trikaldrishti which follows the movement of an extant object or present event. In the former the difficulty of the intellectual belief is that there is no means of physical verification or contradiction except when it is applied to history or the past of living men; in the second the telepathic difficulty (of misplacement & overstress) is yet unannulled & really unconquered in the normal perception, even if partially dominated when the siddhi is active. The symbolic rupa of the fish & the eye has been fulfilled or begun to be fulfilled this afternoon, in images & vijnana definitions of the images. There have also been new symbolic and other images.

420

Record of Yoga

1. In antardarshi The golden Kali four-armed & weaponed, destroying the Asuras; a young man rushes at & throws his arms around her in filial love not hatred; he is spared & lifted up & carried away in her arms no longer as a young man but as a boy. Symbolic of the process of conversion from the Asuro-Rakshasic mind to the divine balabhava by the embrace of Kali. The visitation of Kali seems to be intended to save him from his Asura environment now turned hostile to him as to Prahlada. Qy. [Query] Was it in this way that the legends of the Puranas were formed? Jyotirmay Images. 2. Image of the Pashu-raid. A woman more mature of body & face than the other, fleeing with her two children. In the second image she has abandoned her children, but is seized by the hair by the younger Barbarian & is falling backward into his grasp. The antardarshi, it is to be noted, no longer merely follows the Bahirdarshi, but is active in its own way & on its own lines. Akasha images continue to develop stability & clearness in the Bahirdrishta, but the progress made each day is infinitesimal. Later in the afternoon the rupa disengaged itself more clearly from the veil of the asiddhi; instances occurred, other than the jyotirmaya & varnamaya bird, of crude rupa clear & yet stable for a second or two with a slight interval or tendency to interval of momentary obscuration, eg a shadowy hand clear, though not complete in detail, with a coat-sleeve & white cuff, figures of women, men on horseback, some of them entirely complete & clear. Gandha & rasadrishti once more emerged, stronger & freer than before. Gandhas 1. Of wine (no wine anywhere near) 2 Of cooked food in the room near the nose or rather in the pranakasha 3. Of bread warm from the oven. 4 Immediately afterwards of stale bread 5. Of eggs, salt & butter Repeated later in the evening long continued 6. Of salad, of vinegar & fragrant J vegetables, of raw onion

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7. Vague & subtle, of flowers. 8. Of tobacco. Taste 1. Taste of butter, first vague & subtle in other akasha, then in sthula palate, very long continued. 2. Taste of toast, with similar stages. All these were without adhara sensible or visible; they can no longer be referred to a distant gandha keenly felt or any physical cause. 3 [no notation] There is an attempt of the trikaldrishti finally to reemerge after being veiled in the afternoon. In accordance with the Script, “There will be no such return of suffering tomorrow, although there may be attempts and touches,” there was no repetition of the last three days’ crisis, only in the morning some heavy but passing touches, & in the afternoon & evening one or two quite fleeting attempts. Lipis Referee. ie the referential process has still to be used for some time until the external intellectuality can be dissipated Orange Kingdom jyotirmaya lipi orange is the symbol of psychic knowledge & power The tapatya . . the glory Infinite telepathy Rupa. Symbolic Momentary incomplete tejas-surya followed by krishnasurya. Mar 29. Opening Sortilege. (1)a. anAn;do v$qBo jE`mrAhv\ En&A f/;\ p$tnAs; sAsEh,.

aEs s(y 3ZyA b}Z-pt ug}-y Ecd^ dEmtA vFX;hEq Z, ad v n mnsA yo ErqyEt fAsm;g}o mymAno EjGA\sEt. b$h-pt  mA p$Z -y no vDo En km my;\ d;rv-y fD t,. Applied both subjectively & objectively anAn;do without the tejasic egoism of aggression 3ZyA in forward action internal & external ErqyEt seeks divine knowledge & power. (1)b. (vyA vym;"m\ DFmh  vyo b$h-pt  pE ZA sE nA y;jA.

422

Record of Yoga

mA no d;,f\so aEBEd=s;rFft s;f\sA mEtEB-tAErqFmEh.

sasnina = preserving pE ZA = satisfying In the morning the vijnana was held back & the intellect in the external swabhava allowed a free play; it is still able to occupy the outer mind (fAsA\ mymAno EjGA\sEt) but not with intensity or with any great or exultant power of pervasion (ugra, viduharshin); still it seeks with unillumined mind to seize on knowledge & power v n mnsA ErqyEt) (ad Lipi 1. After telepathy, trikaldrishti. Telepathy is already infinite in its movement, but not yet sure. Trikaldrishti is hampered even in its mahattwa. Telepathy cannot be sure without trikaldrishti either telepathic or pure vijnanamaya. 2 Telepathic Trikaldrishti (Intensely vivid lipi, varnamaya) There are now three forms of trikaldrishti working, the telepathic which is extraordinarily accurate when not besieged by the telepathic overstress, the intuitional which acts but is rather blurred & indistinct & uncertain, the revelatory which is veiled and revealed only in the buddhi, therefore especially open to misinterpretation. At the same time with the diminution of the intellectual tapas, the daivya tapas manifests more & more & introduces often the most sudden & decisive movements in the object of the will, eg. Biren’s fever expelled in less than an hour, the frequent cessation of disorder in the long-disordered washtap immediately on or soon after aishwarya, the repeated alteration by birds of their slow opposite or wheeling flight into a sudden & long-continued rush in the direction imposed. Still the atmosphere & habit of resistance still remains. The afternoon & evening taken up by R’s [Richard’s] visit, Bh’s [Bharati’s] & translation of Rigveda II. 23 & 24. Bh. has fresh Yogic experiences, this time of the voice of God & miraculous cure. Aiswarya operated today consecutively & with small resistance in the flight of the bird. This has happened before, but then as an exceptional circumstance. The value of the present siddhi is that it is a part of a general and pervading advance. Rupa maintains itself but has not appreciably advanced. Vijnana is exceedingly powerful in Veda.

12 March – 14 April 1914

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Bj.[Bijoy] gets the vision of the colour-body with regard to R behind the physical body yellow in blue, then red, red in black, again red and once more yellow in blue. Today with the Veda, the literary work of the Dharma has definitely begun; proof is given of the general successful pressure of the spiritual power for the works of the Dharma in others; but it is not yet regularised. In Kriti & Samaja the power is not yet ripe for organised action. Veda II. 23, 24, 25, 26 completed today. This shows a great advance in sustained energy. Sortilege En Pr´eparation. Les Dieux. ie the Devas of the Ritam, Agni, Soma, Brihaspati, Varuna are being settled & manifested at last in the system (griha; sadanam). Mar. 30. Mahadbhava of the trikaldrishti is asserting itself, but being often still confused with the telepathy it is mixed with the trikaldrishti of possibilities & is therefore still impure (asuddha, sankara). Opening Sortilege.

aE`nqomAEvm\ s; m  f$Z;t\ v$qZA hv\. Et s AEn hy t\ Bvt\ dAf;q  my,.

ie Forces of Action & Delight are to be combined and constitute the Ananda of perfect self-expressions in the material life. Trikaldrishti of Time is beginning vaguely to arrange itself, eg Richard’s arrival on the 29th, not as had been arranged on the 28th, his visit on the same day, & less clearly in the afternoon. But the mind has as yet no confidence in this action of the trikaldrishti. Moreover exact time is now seldom right; the former siddhi is still dormant. The day again was mostly passed in Kriti. Veda [II.] 27. Mar 31. Tuesday. After a struggle the freer action of the higher vijnana has begun in preparation for its becoming the full action & absorbing all other activities into itself. A signal example of its minute action in tapas

424

Record of Yoga

has been given in the action of a wasp which was guided to a narrow hole in the glass & out contrary to all probability, as it had to abandon five or six other natural lines of action to go direct to this exit. The aishwarya began with resistance & crooked movement (hvara) & ended in the straight & spontaneous action (riju). This is a sign of the course that will be followed with the tapas. As yet, however, the action of the higher vijnana is in the vijnana buddhi instead of being in the vijnana & on the vijnana buddhi; unless it is in the vijnana there cannot be the blaze predicted in the lipi for Tuesday. Opening Sortilege  vr\ v$ZF(v Ev"\ EcrjFEvkA\ c. (1) ett^ t;Sy\ yEd mys

mhABmO nEck t-(vm ED kAmAnA\ (vA kAmBAj\ kroEm.

The suggestion of worldly life in this sortilege having raised spiritual doubts, the solution was promised in a second sortilege }o \ tdst^ , upA@yvEQCc {ty-y jFv-y (2) svA (mk\ b s\sAEr(vAE:zDmA 4A\tyor {@AyogAEd(yAf\@ EvzDm (v-yopAEDEn -

b\Dn(vA(-vBAv {@  n Ek\Ecdn;ppEm(yAh.

This justification leaving still some doubt as to the working justification, a complete & decisive justification was promised in the third sortilege n mnsA sdA. (3) y-t; EvAnvAn^ BvEt y;

t-y EdyAEZ vyAEn sd'A iv sArT ,.

Therefore it is a vijnanamaya muktabhoga arranged in the ritam that is suggested. Strong opposition in the kriti. Struggle between old discouragement & passivity & new tendency of even tapas. April 1. Opening Sortilege

tv t  a`n ac yo mEh v}AD\t vAEjn,. y  p(vEB, fPAnA\ v}jA B;r\t gonAEmq\ -tot$ 2. The Rajas. Div. ie the remnants of Rajas in the prakritic atoms of the intellect are being purified. Samadhi. Continued movement firmly seen in swapna samadhi is now well-established, but not frequent; nor is it long continued. Proof of the power of the Dharma (Yogasiddhi in others) is accumulating from various directions, and is evident in the immediate surroundings, but it is not yet sufficiently able to direct in details. The preparation for Dharma & Kriti shows itself in the general working of the forces of Nature, but it is as yet only abhasa Sept 24th St You are not near me & I know full well My heart has need of patience & control. Lipis 1. It is the late difficulties that are being gathered in [order]19 to be destroyed. Ak. 2. It is at once realised. I 3 If it is realised, it is the truth 19 MS ordered

628

Record of Yoga German success in the North Sea.

Sept 25 St. But the idea

ie the Vijnana still awaits finality

Siddhi Today the organised Ananda unified in all its parts, is once more manifested. As usual, it is more complete than before the obscuration. The completeness of the first two siddhis revives with it, as also of the affirmations. Kamananda is once more attempting to possess the body, but the obstruction is still too strong for it to be permanent. Sept 26th St. 1. Count No (obstacle) 2. The Anglo-French Text. The activity of the Vijnana is now reviving and has to be enforced without heed of the obstacles & unsuccesses. The second St. provides an example the will to make the Review the A-F. text of a new dispensation, in spite of the immediate obstacles. It is understood that the text in Sanskrit and other chosen languages will come subsequently. Roga still resists, clinging to the system; but with a less fixed force than formerly. Kamananda is frequently estopped & smarana is generally needed. The lassitude of the body is pronounced & persistent.

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Sept 27th 220 Volume III. extant. (third chatusthaya) 1. A choice collection of sensational trials (ie to the samata & shakti) Lipi 1. Enthusiastic faith in the ideality 2 Fearful effects of the aishwarya Utthapana. The same as before, an hour and eighteen minutes, interrupted. It was only at the end that the defect of anima became a little insistent, though never effective. Laghima strong; less need of mahima. It appears, therefore, that in this utthapana the principle of the safety of past gains is applying itself. Formerly, after the suspension for some days the vertical utthapana of the arms could not be restored without a painful struggle. Samadhi The shabda (sukshma sthula) of the human voice has now become a normal action, free in swapnasamadhi, but needing concentration in jagrat. Sept 28t.h. St. In the abundance of strength he carries the impeller beyond. Utthapana Of the left leg, horizontal position, recumbent on side, 15 minutes strong laghima to the end; defect of anima often strong, but ineffective. Voluntarily discontinued. Of the arms, one hour

20 The numbers are so arranged in the manuscript.

Ed.

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Record of Yoga

Sept 29t.h. Lipi 1. By intensity of the delight

(the other siddhis will be perfected)

Ananda Extreme intensity of the kamananda, but the body was unable to hold it.

631

29 – 30 SEPTEMBER 31 DECEMBER 1914

October 1914.

Sept 29 – 30 Preliminary

a-m  rAyo Edv  Edv  s\cr\t; p;z-p$h,. a-m  vAjAs IrtAm^. s Ev q ZFnA\ fvsA mAn;qAZAm^. aEt E" v Ev@yEt. “In us may felicities rich in aspiration come & combine together from day to day, in us may all abundances be set in energetic motion. He illumined by the light & force of the human activities shall pierce & rise beyond with somewhat of rapidity.” These two days are not to belong to the former series; they are not to be days of oppression and obstruction, but of an increasing rapidity in the advance, preliminary to an uninterrupted progression in October. Nati is now perfected, with titiksha and an udasinata only occasionally and superficially troubled. This habit of superficial touches has now to disappear. By that perfection the finality of positive samata is at last entirely possible. All Ananda, except the purely physical, is now preparing for perfection. The perfection is being manifested, the intensity organised. The second chatusthaya is only a little less advanced.

632

Record of Yoga

It has two bases, dasya and faith. Perfect tertiary dasya is now in normal action; only sometimes smarana of the Master is insufficient. Faith is being prepared for perfection; but faith in the double Kriti needs still the evidence of effective Aishwarya & Ishita. For want of sufficient Ishwarabhava it cannot find firm ground & the rest of the Chatusthaya, though well-prepared, cannot organise itself for action. The physical Shakti has been entirely overpowered in the external body for many days owing to the attack on the ´ Sharira siddhi. The month of October is set apart for its increasing perfection. The third chatusthaya awaits organisation and perfection. The fourth has yet to be given its victorious forward movement. The fifth awaits the organised activity of the third and fourth. The sixth is almost perfect in combination & organisation. Only the constant Krishnabodha has to be added. The Rik promises for October (1) the increasing richness & organisation of the Ananda; (2) full and active plenty of the faculties & siddhis.. (3) Vijnana fulfilling itself by action (4) an increasing rapidity. The rapidity will be real and positive, not apparent, but still not the extreme rapidity. Question Bodily Asiddhi?  jAtv ds  rTEmv s\mh m mnFqyA. Rik ah t

BdA Eh n, mEtr-y s\sEd y-m { (vmAyjs  s sADEt anvA " Et dDt  s;vFy . s ttAv n {nmWo(y\hEt,.

It is therefore by the Will that the body has to be perfected, but its effectivity depends on the bhadra pramati, the mentality being

29 – 30 September 31 December 1914

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sufficiently clarified to be the medium of the perfect vijnana.

tvAhm`n UEtEBEm /-y c fE-tEB,.  :qoy;to n d;ErtA t;yA m m(yA nAm^. The conversation yesterday has given light on the Yoga. Ananda confirmed & universalised is the path to the conversion of Prana into the universal Chit-Tapas and that the path to the conversion of Body into Sat It is this Chit Tapas which is the base of Aishwarya-IshitaVashita; so long as it is not entirely realised there can be only a partial efficacy of the individual Tapas. The way to it is selfassociation with all energies in the universe. The Dwayavins are those powers who divide these energies into acceptable and inacceptable, friendly & hostile, accept some, repel others. A choice is necessary in action, but it must be made not by the Dwayavins, but by the Ishwara. The elimination of the Dwayavins is the main work now in hand. A perfect passivity in the hands of the Ishwara is the first necessity. Subjective Ananda is completed; physical Ananda is being added. Sudden pain of burning has at last become Ananda Prolonged intensity of pain has also to become Ananda.. The fitness of the body has to be compelled. There is no time for slow and indulgent methods. Faith in the Ishwara & acceptance of all energies & experiences are therefore being given. The remnants of pranic choice between satya & asatya, siddhi & asiddhi, mangala and amangala are giving way. It is this element of pranic choice which is the chief enemy of unity. Faith in some karma has been given; the exact karma is not yet luminously revealed. Or rather the lines are known; the exact accomplishment or the measure of accomplishment in this life is still obscure to the intellect. The second chatusthaya will now be completed; its finalities will be given. For action sahasa & kaushala have to be combined. For support of action Devibhava & faith. The basis of

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action is the combination of dasya & ishwarabhava. The power of the physical failure has been almost broken. Sustained action is now becoming possible; but there must be no farther consent to interruptions. The body must be forced to do the work as the slave of the Ishwara. Lipis 1. Find by the isolation of the telepathy the just trikaldrishti. (Sadhara Akasha) 2. Judge (sthapatya) The fulfilment of the first lipi has begun, but is not as yet very strong or distinct in the general action of the mind, only in particular movements. The call to judge (viveka) is a part of this development. St. This does not mean that there shall be no official guidance or help. At the moment of thinking of the universal action in which the particular is to be merged & the method in which it can be harmonised with the particular action guided by the Ishwara, the eye fell on the above sentence in the newspaper “Mahratta” lying on the table. This sort of direct reply to a doubt or difficulty is now frequent. Trikaldrishti 1. There will be, today, intense Kamananda 2 Sleep must be lessened, what remains must be samadhised. 3 The final struggle over the physical siddhi is definitely begun. There is an intermittent fulfilment of the first; the fulfilment of the second has begun, only a small part of the afternoon sleep being at all darkened by tamasic nidra. The truth or error of the third cannot yet be judged.

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October 1.

yfso mD n^ . . sMyg^ &y FkroEt i(yT ,

Samadhi Sleep at night was for less than six hours, but not samadhised. There is a preparation of organised samadhi (formerly only realised in the crude type), but nothing definite is yet evolved. Obstruction continues. Script. Work is being combined, the scholastic and the philosophical at first, with dharma in a crude state of commencement. The rest of sahitya will be added gradually, as soon as the present work is sufficiently organised. 1. Philosophy

2. Veda.

3 4 5. 6. 7.

1. The Life Divine 2. The Synthesis of Yoga 3 The Secret of Veda 4 Isha Upanishad. Bk V. IV. translated & studied Notes for General Interpretation Bks I. II. III. finally read. The Upanishads restudied.

Vedanta. Correspondence Notes on the System of Yoga. Diary. Miscellaneous.

There is an opposition in the material world in all its strata; there is no opposition in the worlds beyond. Sharirananda The tivra is growing at different points of the body. From today, it will nowhere be dependent on the smarana, but will come sometimes with smarana, sometimes without. This is one finality. It is also intense & continuous in its recurrence at

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many points & will soon be intense & continuous in recurrence everywhere. Continuous intensity of the kamananda is now ´ ´ amarthya in the restored the question is of the degree of dharanas body. It is the battle that has now to be fought out, for there is no other real obstacle to the permanent & not recurrent continuity of the Kamananda. Raudra must now be developed to the same force as the tivra, & Vishaya & Vaidyuta brought out from their involution, ie to say the Ahaituka, for the Sahaituka is already well-established. Tivra is now intense in all parts of the body & much more spontaneous than before, usually almost and sometimes entirely brought without smarana. Raudra is once more active & without immediate smarana. Kamananda has been for some hours almost continuous, but only occasionally intense. Sukshmagandha, intense & varied, is again active, but infrequently Sparsha, as before, but slight & momentary in those contacts which suggest the human touch. There is occasionally sparsha & rasa in the mouth, but after smarana. Shabda comes only by mudra or by concentration. Drishti is not active. This is, on the whole, the old condition of occasional obstructed siddhi, subjected to many limitations. Here there must be freedom & finality. Lipi 1. A strong defeat, then destiny easily accomplished 2. Russian defeat at Berlin (neither 1 nor 2 are intelligible). 3. grief only occasional shadows left in the physical prana, as attempts at depression. 4 insult fulfilled (Ar. S. talk of being “espion”). 5. battle a struggle against the siddhi easily decided.

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Beyond the finalities already attained today, there is already a greater activity, though not yet entirely free, in the sukshmagandha. Other finalities of the same order will occur and be confirmed in the first days of October. In addition, the revelation of the Personality in the fourfold Brahman is again returning. Already the sukshma drishti begins again to be active & perceive certain elementary forms of the Pranic worlds. There is also the perception of the jnanamaya ego as the Ishwara, spontaneous & without immediate smarana. The various sukshmavishayas have now recommenced their manifestation, but it is not yet powerful. Nevertheless, there is a finality here which will be made entirely firm. The sense of the Lilamaya Krishna in all, is growing firmer & more intense, but is sometimes still suspended by the mere Brahmabhava. October 2. And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him; and he was nigh unto the sea The sortilege has no reference to another exodus, but embraces at once several movements; it is typical, more than particular. There is still the same obstruction to the vijnanasiddhi, but the first two become more & more perfect. Yesterday’s finalities have today to be confirmed. The obstruction to the K.A [Kama Ananda] in standing & walking must disappear, as also the demand for smarana, which is no longer necessary.

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K.A. is now active in all circumstances, but active without smarana only in the stationary postures. This difficulty is to be removed. All that will then remain will be the defective dharana in the body. The isolation of the telepathy is proceeding so that there may be a finality in the exclusion of false stress of perception. This cannot be done at once. During the month of October the organisation of the vijnana will proceed to the possibility of finality. There must be no return to inactivity. As for the work it will be done with force as soon as the bodily tamas is dispelled The obstruction has prevailed throughout the day except in the generalisation of the Kamananda. Now, in the evening, the vijnanamaya thought (vangmaya) is once more active as well as the ideal perception. The Aishwarya-Vashita are still in their old stage of retarded & uncertain fulfilment. October 3.

y;E t i(yT , ie the sense of the obstruction is that it is only in conscious Yoga with the Master of the Yoga (by the three affirmations) that the siddhi should proceed.

Samadhi The power of organisation is growing in Samadhi with the vijnanamaya vangmaya thought as its central agent. It is entering even into the deepest sushupta and attempting to organise there coherent lipi, perceptive thought & experience, with rupa to be added, making the Jiva jagrat in all stages. This is the beginning of final siddhi in the swapna-samadhi & in the antardrishta jagrat, which will necessarily bring with it siddhi in the bahirdarshi & in the sushupta. Samadhi in the afternoon pursued the same course, but was less successful owing to a heavier force of tamasic nidra.

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Images & actions were combined with the rest, but not well combined. In the jagrat, samadhi is, for the time being, obstructed & unsuccessful. Kriti continues to operate in the same fashion of partial success and partial failure without any great or decisive result. Lipi 1. The telepathy isolated. 2. jollity. 3 results. The “battle” against the Siddhi continues and has not been so easily decided as was imagined at the time of the lipi. There is still a tendency to choose those of the perceptions which are flattering to the hope. Only this is sure that the progress continues in spite of resistance. The finality of the Samata has once more been successfully denied, although the touches of revolt and grief are only physical & momentary; but the Jiva associates itself with them for the moment. There is the old process of persistent disintegration & crumbling down at points of the siddhi in its superficies which seems to be something more than superficial to the impatience of the Tapas. The moment of defeat has passed and for the rest of the afternoon, the siddhi will be pushed forward. Inactivity must on no ground be accepted. It is the pretension of the Asiddhi that it will only allow the siddhi on condition of passivity & retarded progress. The necessary passivity is already there in the mental parts; it has no longer to be extended to the whole system. There is to be no farther work of Sahitya, this afternoon; only the Yoga The revolt comes always from the tapasic insistence on result, the apparent sanction by the Ishwara and the subsequent discrediting of the sanction.

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It is a circumstance of the imperfect assimilation of the Mahakali Bhava, which in its stronger movements tends to be the pure Mahakali using Mahasaraswati & not Mahasaraswati informed by Mahakali. It is therefore an imperfection of the Daivi Prakriti. October 4

t-mA u rAD, k$Z;t f-t\ Atm " EDyAvs;j gMyAt^

In spite of all the Vijnana is getting into habitual action, not always successfully, but with a frequent effectuality & always with some power upon the object & the environment. Lipi 1. 2 3 4

twenty third August eighteen ninety thirteenth August nineteen fortyfive. Alexandrine . . objection. intensity of the delight

The tertiary dasyam has to be entirely enforced in its full intensity, in the body, with a view to the perfect vijnanamaya selection of the action in the mind with a view to the similar selection of the thought & the perception. At first, the result may be some confusion, eventually the positive & authoritative vijnana must emerge. So also with the speech. All this is finally determined today. Clear & perfect animal forms, crude, in akasha, suddenly & spontaneously; not stable. October 5 Power of active Consciousness. The modified Asiddhi continues; siddhi proceeds, but interrupted and obstructed, petty & scattered in its advance. Therefore, there is not yet the “uninterrupted progression in October”; except in so far as the work of forming Siddhi, as

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apart from constant success in advance, does not at all cease. In kriti as regards the war, the Will is only effective in the slight Russian successes, but in France & Belgium it is on the defensive. The Kamananda continues, but is not yet held by the body. The sukshmavishayas have again become rare & unimportant. Tamas once more holds the body, but not entirely. Sleep is diminished, but the samadhi does not progress. Aishwarya etc are effective in a great number of small points, isolated, but as yet there is no mass, decisiveness or combination Work is seriously obstructed. Utthapana is interrupted; saundarya entirely stationary. Lipi. 1. Totality of index. 2 Retiring (the attempt at asiddhi). 3 vital ecstasy (chitra) 4 world ecstasy do There is no work to be done today in Sahitya; it has to be resumed tomorrow Utthapana Of the arms, vertical, one hour. Defect of anima is no longer effective, but there is a lassitude in the prana which opposes a certain amount of physical unwillingness to the utthapana. Defect of anima acts more in reaction after the cessation of utthapana, very little during its activity. Vijnana. The tapasic stress of telepathy is being rigorously isolated. Script Unknown to the obstructors, veiled by external failure, the

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greater siddhi prepares. The organisation of the vijnana is the sole preliminary step that remains. This step once successfully taken, the vastness of the accomplishment, the rapidity of the future progress will be apparent & effective. The d´efaillances of the body are the instrument of the asiddhi, not its cause. In a sense, also, they are the result. The cause is in the physical Akash, in the unwillingness of the earthguiding Powers to undergo a novel Law. The organisation is ready in all but the Power & the physical trilokadrishti. It is now evident that the sukshmavishayas are firmly established, & so far as developed, even begin to be organised. The sthula touch has to be enforced, the sthula voice, the sthula taste. They have all reached the point when they can manifest the obstruction, strong & persistent, is yet artificial. Smell is already sthula; vision in certain forms, touch in certain contacts, taste in certain rasas. Aishwarya-Vashita is beginning to act again more swiftly against the resistance. The lipi “finality in the midst of obstruction” is now being fulfilled. Indeed, the obstruction is being made an instrument of finality, as in the normality of the tertiary dasya & the renunciation of the remnants of tapasic stress. It is definitely fixed that udasinata is to be replaced by sama-bhoga & sama Ananda. There need, therefore, be no attempt to reestablish udasinata. Essentially it is there behind. Oct 6.

sKAy aA EfqAmEh b} dAy vEJZ 

The course of the conversion & organisation in Vijnana has to be pursued today. The whole of the hridaya (brahman) has to be given to the illumination

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The attempt of the Asiddhi is, by disturbing the Samata, to compel tamasic udasinata and renunciation of tapas. The perfected Nati is attacked and the udasinata touched more than superficially. Owing to the constant siege of Asiddhi faith also is diminished. After a long time the doubt of the Ishwara has returned with doubt of the Yogasiddhi & a moment & an element of tamasic udasinata. This crisis, however, has not been able to stop the activity of the Tapas & the siddhi. Its more violent touch has been momentary. A general distrust of any decisive thought remains behind, & doubt of the relation of the Ishwara to the personality & the world, but especially to the personality. Recent Visions 1. My.. in the bare garden, watering it. (on the 4t.h.) 2 Mn.o. in a great bare hall with a large fire at the end, walking towards the latter and returning. Utthapana The same. Less physical unwillingness. Oct. 7. There is still the same siege of the Asiddhi. Tamasic udasinata is always forbidden; but faith & Nati are seriously breached. The Abhayam has also been successfully attacked in the physical prana, although it remains intact in the mentality (chitta). There is finality of the perception of the triloka, (thrice seven), in the forces & purushas that constitute it. There is finality in the perception of the brihat satyam, without finality in the ritam. Satyam means truth of being, in thought, force, tendency etc, not truth of fact in actual eventuality. The finality of illuminated thought & ritam is

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being prepared. When it is complete, there will be no farther asiddhi in the first two chatusthayas. Knowledge is the condition of perfection. The lower powers were aiming at perfection without knowledge, a passive & negative perfection. There is finality in the telepathic perceptions, satyam, of forces, tendencies, thoughts etc, but it is not yet brihat. Brihat is being prepared. There is finality in the ponderability of the Will. Wherever it is applied, it is a force to be reckoned with, although not yet a force that always prevails. Yesterday closed the period of prevalent Asiddhi. Today begins the period, for October, of siddhi prevalent in spite of Asiddhi. Even in the Asiddhi, there was an uninterrupted progression of the Siddhi. Utthapana 2 hours. At first physical unwillingness, intermittent; afterwards eliminated except in an occasional subcurrent. For the first 11–2 strain chiefly in loins, for a time, at first, in the back; only in the last half hour in the arms and shoulder-muscles. Lipi 1. Steadily. steadily 2 Still Tuesday. (the Asiddhi) 3 tapestry 4 passage of the faith. Samadhi continues to be resisted. Oct 8.

 dvyAn {,

The thought is now arranging itself in the sense of the ritam, only the trikaldrishti is seriously obstructed. The Energy is therefore transferring itself to the combined trikaldrishti and Aishwarya in order to make an effective combination.

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Utthapana 2 hours. No physical unwillingness except momentarily in the exterior prana. At first some defect of anima in the arms, but this disappeared, & during the last half hour there was no strain, such as yesterday’s, on the [shoulder-muscles & arms.]1 On the other hand the strain on the loins was more pronounced. The absence of faith is still accentuated and there is nothing in the experience to restore the lost sraddha. For small indications are no longer satisfying The action of the vijnana is trivial and unimportant, so far as concerns life, and the attempt to organise it for practical use has failed. The day has chiefly been occupied with work, & there is little progress. October 9t.h. 1. m$(y;vA BvEt 2 n t-y yoEgno rogo n jrA n m$(y;vA BvEt. k-y. A&-y

yogAE`nmy\ frFr\

Ananda Although Kamananda can now occur in all asanas and without smarana, yet the Asiddhi persists in demanding smarana and obstructing in the ambulatory asana. It puts its whole force on the strength of physical habit and the inability of the body to retain a continuous Ananda. In the subjective Ananda it invades sometimes and suspends or momentarily impairs the indriya rasa, but this rapidly rights itself. ´ The force of Asiddhi is in the mangalamangala & still more in siddhi-asiddhi. By leaning with its full force on these weak points it has restored depression and unfaith. Therefore the old method persists and no part of the Siddhi is free from it. The Dwayavins are, for the time, triumphant.

1 MS shoulder-arms & muscles.

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Record of Yoga

Sharira Arogya The Yogagnimaya Sharira was more developed in Calcutta than now. Since then there has been a reaction. Mrityur va prabhavati. The signs of old age, disease, death, not only persist, but sometimes prevail and the force of the Arogya has to bear them as an irremovable, though not definitely overpowering burden. The Saundarya no longer advances. Utthapana progresses with difficulty and in a limited movement. Sleep is once more dominant. Karma Kriti is again obstructed by a successful opposition. The month of October, proposed as a period of triumph, opens with a time of hampered movement. All the siddhis are obstructed and rendered inefficient except within their assured limits. Script The importance of the present movement lies in the systematic discouragement of the tapasic stress which mistook telepathy for eventual trikaldrishti. Kriti A result willed vehemently a year or more ago now occurs suddenly The faith accepts it as a result, the intellect questions Oct 10 St. Bismillah placed at the head of the Koran The movement of the Siddhi is once again overcoming the Asiddhi. The second & first chatusthayas are being restored in their completeness. The faith that disregards immediate outward circumstances, is developing, although still combated by the suggestions of the intellectual environment Outward circumstances of the moment have to be understood by the vijnana. But there must first be this general faith that they have all an intelligible purpose & an intelligible sense.

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It is true that they are worked out through the Pranic world by the Dwayavins using conflicting energies, but the Power that governs them in spite of their ignorance & mutual misunderstanding is One, who is neither a passive Being nor a blind Force. The only question that remains is whether the immediate guide of the Yoga is the Ishwara himself or a Spirit who errs, the Manomaya Purusha in oneself or a Manishi outside. The faith must be that it is the Ishwara, Anandamaya & Vijnanamaya who is the guide, although He still uses the impulsions & ideas of the Manishi & not yet the full Vijnanamaya harmony. It is the replacement of the mental perceptions & impulses that is the work of the Vijnanachatusthaya. It is because that work is not yet done, that the first two chatusthayas are open to shocks & disturbances through the disappointment of the faith. This is why it has always been said that the absolute finality of the first two chatusthayas depended on the fulfilment of the third. But the entire fulfilment of the third implies the fulfilment of the fourth and fifth and therefore necessarily of the sixth and seventh. Therefore it is an integral fulfilment that is being worked out & this aim prevents the separate perfection of each chatusthaya by itself without relation to the rest. Faith & Ananda Brahman are the two keys to the perfect internal state, with dasya as the joining point. Knowledge & Power are the two keys to the perfect external state, with Daivi Prakriti as the joining point. Utthapana Arms 1 hr 45 minutes, discontinued for want of time, not failure of power. More physical unwillingness & more defect of anima than day before yesterday.. Effectivity of tapas still acts against resistance and by lapse of time.

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Record of Yoga

Lipi 1. 28th 18th

truth. (changed to) tejas.

third. 2. La cuisine Fran¸caise. St. The End of the Beginning. Script The principle of the Siddhi has been given. The actualities of the future have to be given The first seven Affirmations have to be continually reasserted and maintained until all denial is eliminated. Afterwards the other two will naturally emerge. The satyam of the telepathy & trikaldrishti is the next finality intended. After it the satyam of the Power Then their ritam. Meanwhile the physical siddhi will work against its barriers and bring itself into line with the rest of the siddhi Oct 11t.h. St. Arya . . The Wherefore of the Worlds . . Isha Upanishad What will now be done is to idealise all the perceptions & impulses, normally and spontaneously and so convert the whole being, including the two lower mentalities and the prana, into the ideal being. The body will follow.

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This is already being done. The state of another’s mind is now physically concrete to the sense-mind. The contents are less visible, except in their generalities. Aishwarya-vyapti of the nature of Dharma is now very commonly effective on people in the immediate neighbourhood; but the effectiveness is not invariable, & least developed in details. At night, after a long time, the dreams were to a certain extent watched & remembered, but they have gone back to the worst confusion of incoherence & the intrusion of present personality and present associations. All were of the nature of pranic dream. Oct 12t.h.

ay\ vA\ yo ak$t fE-t\ vs;EDtF aEvtArA jnAnAm^

The

Aswins. There is a preliminary Siddhi completed in all but the fourth & fifth chatusthayas, in preparation even in those chatusthayas. In the first two there is a perfect organisation, the only defect of which is that it is not constantly immune from disturbance. The same organisation is being prepared in the third, & even in those parts of the fourth & fifth which are ready It is now well proved that the Kamananda & Tivrananda are firmly established. There is only the question of their continuity & in the second of its pervasion. Questions of intensity remain behind. It is necessary, for this purpose, that the Arogya should be strengthened; but the Power is not yet strong enough in its dealings with the body. The Utthapana has to be extended finally to legs, neck & back. The old siddhi has to be recovered & improved. In Kriti the rapid fall of Antwerp, anticipated by the Trikaldrishti, but combated by the Will, shows that the powers of the opposition are still too powerful.

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Record of Yoga

Nevertheless satyam of the power is being established, though not yet perfectly. Today physical Ananda, subjective Ananda of siddhyasiddhi, mangalamangala, organisation of Vijnana, pressure on Sharira. Telepathy 1. Perception that the Russians had had slight success in Prussia, but not yet elsewhere, justified by today’s news. 2. Rapid fall of Antwerp, anticipated but not seen. Utthapana 21–2 hours. Arms. Defect of anima greater than yesterday in the arms & shoulders. On the other hand the acute strain on the loins has disappeared; such strain as was felt, was intermittent & only at the end. Full laghima is almost accomplished; not yet full mahima or anima. Sortileges. 1 Application  mtyo y\t; Ev(Zv  2 vo mh Script In the points noted for today’s progress, there is a movement, but nothing is yet definitive. The Kamananda attempts to be more constant, Vishayananda is more & more settled, but the subjective Ananda of good & bad event is still fiercely contested by the powers that oppose the Siddhi. It is there always, but more often retrospective than valid at the moment. The satyam of Power & Knowledge is being more & more revealed; furiously attacked in the morning, it could not be seen by the mind for a time, but was persistently asserted by the intellect. Samadhi Dream at night was more coherent; possessed at first by present personality & suffering in the end from present associations, it

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was for a long time delivered from them. The incoherences were no longer nervous & bizarre as on the 11t.h., but mental & due to abrupt transition & wrong combination of separate strains of experience or vision. Oct. 13t.h.

aEc qA s;jAt  a'sn$t 

Usha. The mind & nervous impulses to be clear, well-formed & true, by the illumination Kamananda maintains against obstruction its persistent & often continuous recurrence Tivrananda is slowly developing and vishaya with vaidyuta shows signs of manifesting more firmly. Arogya is still subject to constant obstruction Saundarya is prevented from advancing. Utthapana of the legs & neck is being attempted but as yet without success. Lipi 1. Effectuality in the lipi. 2 distinguish the trikaldrishti altogether from the telepathy. 3. Soldiery . . talented stranger (civilisation) Utthapana Utthapana of the arms for one hour discontinued to give place to work for the Review. The laghima is now well-established; yesterday’s exercise could have easily been continued for another half hour. Mahima defective is only a secondary state, an effect of defective Anima; in itself Mahima is sufficient, weighed upon but not overpowered by defect of Anima. It is only in the defect of Anima, that the Asiddhi has a real point d’appui. In other parts of the body, mahima is deficient & overpowered by violent pressure of the Asiddhi on the defect of Anima.

652

Record of Yoga This defect of Mahima has to be forced out of the

whole body. Samadhi Rupa is now rarely manifested in the jagrat, except in form of Chitra. When manifested it has a tendency to the perfect and spontaneous, but has as yet no stability in the sthula except an initial & fugitive stability. Kriti Kriti continues to be resisted. In the immediate surroundings Power grows in strength and frequency of effectiveness, although it is no longer intense in action or rapid in effect, except in certain instances of ishita & vyapti. Faith Faith is being enforced in the terms of a knowledge that gives its proper place to actual circumstances & events, but is not subjected to or guided by them. It is still insufficient with regard to the personal love of the Ishwara and the fulfilment of this life, but admits the general Kalyana and the guidance. The love has now to be admitted. The idea, given by knowledge without love, is that of a great mechanism & a wise, perfectly intentioned mechanician careless of the means of his work so long as they are well-judged & effective. The Iswara is known to be allpowerful; he has now to be admitted as all-loving, but not a victim of His love, not compelled by personal affection to vary from his plan, which is always the best for the individual and the universe. Subsequently, it must be perceived how far that love implies for the Jiva fulfilment in this life of the desires & impulses implanted in him by the Iswara & of the ideas towards the realisation of which he is continually forced to strive. Utthapana Of the neck maintained for 15 minutes. The old acute pain in the muscles declared itself, but was suspended at times.

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Karma Sahitya is proceeding with great rapidity, but with varying excellence. The attempt to resume poetry has not yet been successful. Samadhi. Dream as before. Present associations & personality still interfere Attack on faith through amangala in Kriti. Oct 14t.h.

vh\Et mhd^  dvAnAms;r(vm k\

Samadhi Swapnasamadhi again active; the stability of rupas & scenes greatly increased. Utthapana. Legs; medial position, 15 minutes. Strong defect of anima, laghima sufficient; mahima distressed by defect of anima. Lipi 1. Destruction Antwerp Defeat Antwerp 18th. 2 Responsibility 3 this is the fitful siddhi 4 till eighteenth.. 5 respectful of the rights of the opposition. 6 passivity 7 the assembly of the English Parliament 8 Blague. (in reference to menaces of the opposition, Ar. etc) Note the 18t.h. & 23d.. October & 9t.h. November have been given as dates for the siddhi. The separation of the telepathy & trikaldrishti continues.

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Record of Yoga

Telepathy & Trikaldrishti 1 Of relief of Przemysl confirmed. 2 Of German successes at sea farther confirmed in loss of Russian cruiser. 3 Of check of Russian advance in Prussia The former constitutes, as well as the 3d a failure of the Will. Utthapana Of the arms, an hour and a half. The annakosha is somewhat exhausted, but there is a great force in the pranic body The utthapana of the neck was unsuccessful. Faith is increasing steadily & taking cognisance of the intention in things & events. Dream incoherently consecutive, full of present association & ego. Forgotten entirely, afterwards by passive & empty tapas on the mental consciousness, almost all the details returned. Swapna samadhi; but no advance. Oct 15t.h. Great weakness followed by chill & fever. Utthapana of arms for half an hour, interrupted owing to illness of body. Strong fever throughout the rest of the day. Samadhi Rapid advance in samadhi 1. The three states of jagrat, sushupta & swapna superimposed simultaneously and perfectly combined. The mind in sushupta perceives below it the activities of the swapna & perceives also what is happening in the jagrat. 2. Perfect & unmixed arrangement of vijnanamaya thought perceptions in the mind; the result of an absolute flexibility of the

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intellect gained during the last few weeks. Both in jagrat & in swapna & also in combined samadhi. 3. Greater activity of the rupa. 4. Activity of Will in the samadhi, attempting to become vijnanamaya. Strong confirmation of samata; extended to body; but failed, physically, at the strongest pitch of the discomfort of fever. The struggle to expel the fever was unsuccessful. Oct 16t.h. Another day of fever. Again progress in samadhi, but not so marked as yesterday. It is during the feverish state, the system being raised to a high pitch of force & intense living, that these phenomena take place. It has to be seen whether the full progress will be maintained in the normal condition of health. Kamananda active, but discouraged for fear of the body being unable to sustain it. Strong activity of tivra & raudra anandas. The attack of the fever & its force of entry was less powerful & prolonged. It is notable that the means on both sides was really mental, physical means being entirely inoperative either to check or increase the fever, except to a slight extent sweating. The latter was brought about by the will, not by remedies or external appliances. Lipi 1. nineteenth text.. (Indicating that the text of R.V. V. 81. which has still to be written out for the review, will be copied on that day. The fever will therefore be cured by that time as well as the weakness after fever).

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Oct. 17t.h. The fever expelled in the morning. No progress during the day Strong attack on prana sharira at night, but no fever in the physical body, only strong “surexcitation” & uneasiness & broken sleep. Progress in swapna samadhi. Oct 18t.h. As yesterday, but no farther attack. This time little reaction of weakness. Only unwillingness to work in part of the system. Progress in swapna samadhi confirmed & increased. Yesterday there was long continued action in firmly stable scene, but it was one action constantly continued for an indefinite period, the falling of rain in pools of water over a large surface Today a varied action & more than one vision. Oct 19t.h.

Bd\ t  a`n  shEsnFkm;pAk aA roct  sy -y

The Siddhi is now taking up the results of the 16t.h. & 17t.h.. The organisation of the vijnana in the normal condition is to be firmly based. First, in the combination of the thought-perceptions, vangmaya, script & vani; secondly, in the combination, with them, of the samadhi; thirdly, of the addition of the organised Power; the one element subordinated during the last few days. The gathering (ghana) of the Chit in the brain is no longer to be associated with morbid heat in the body. The attempt to absorb & hold it in the period of fever was the right & dominant movement.

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Most of the day devoted to other occupations. Dullness returns on the system and suspends progress. Oct 20t.h. There is still in the physical system the obstacle to activity and progress; but this will not endure. The faith has to make itself more implicit, & to be the same for the guidance in Karma as for the guidance in Yoga. It is not to be faith in every suggestion, but faith in the ensemble and in all that comes from the Master above. The definite organisation of trikaldrishti & power is proceeding; it will be henceforth like that of the knowledge automatic & well up spontaneously out of the Sat. So also with the Samadhi. The Tapas has to be used for the removal of the obstruction which is now general and mechanical. Oct 21s.t. Lorsque l’esprit alors assemble les donn´ees et assouplit assez sa langue pour les traduire synth´etiquement. Indicating the condition for the perfect trikaldrishti, as it has been for the thought. The whole active force of the Shakti must be concentrated on the body & on the Karma. The trikaldrishti is defining itself more & more clearly in the sense of the sortilege. It is more effective & positive with regard to things near in time & place. This distinction will be steadily diminished & finally removed. October 22d.. The day was chiefly marked by a great advance in the organisation of trikaldrishti both telepathic and pure. Normally, the impressions received are justified; but there is still a remnant of the tendency to overstress when there is the attempt at active judgment.

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Record of Yoga

For the most part, however, the impressions & perceptions were justified & begin to fall more & more into their right place & order. The organisation of Tapas is proceeding, but has not yet gone very far. Samadhi is still obstructed. The progress made during the fever has not been maintained in the normal condition. There is more & more stress on the bodily siddhi and on the Karma, but as yet without effect. The full Brahmadarshan full in type, not in contents, is becoming more & more entirely ordinary & normal. Oct 23d.. The Vijnana, with the exception of Samadhi, continues to organise itself. Remarkable effects are being produced in the immediate vicinity by the Tapas. But the element of resistance, sometimes successful, sometimes overcome immediately or with delay, entirely or in part, always persists. Utthapana resumed. Arms 30 minutes. Defect of anima impresses itself strongly on the body, but without overcoming laghima and mahima. Sraddha (swashaktyam bhagavati cha) is now well-founded, but not sufficient either in range or in enthusiasm and intensity. Nevertheless, the perfection of the first three chatusthayas is now decided & will accomplish itself inevitably. It is in the fourth chatusthaya of the body that a lengthy struggle seems still to be inevitable. In the fifth Krishna Kali is ready for completion, but Karma is only in embryo and Kama still less advanced. The sixth is now as much advanced as the first & second & more than the third.

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The seventh is established in all but the bodily siddhi & the karma, and approaching perfection of a kind in all but the mukti from pain, the shuddhi of arogya, the bhukti of the raudra, the siddhi of body & of work, or if not approaching, then already in practice capable of perfection. Attempt at recovering the progress in Samadhi as yet only partially successful, as the sushupti tends to take possession of the two other states and to admit a certain amount, though less than before, of the tamasic nidra. Oct 24t.h. Swapna samadhi effective; but the continuity is still obscure & interrupted, and more of a continuity of action than of vision. Touch, sound, sight & movement are well combined. In the War the Russian success is a first sign of renewed effectivity of Kriti. Roga now attacks chiefly the stomach (mucous looseness), the teeth and the kamic centre. At other points it is usually ineffective. There is a tendency to dull headache, but this materialises badly. In swapnasamadhi the organisation of the three states of consciousness effected in the fever, was restored; but with less force of the jagrat in the sushupti & swapna. Oct 25. There is as yet no new perceptible advance of any kind, rather an attempt of old confusions to reestablish themselves, the result, it is suggested, of an attempt yesterday of the Tapas to move forward rapidly & get rid of movements of relapse, at least in the subjectivity. The truth is that there is an alternation of states, the divine & the human, the illumined and the partially obscure, where there is pale tejas, not ritam jyotih. This alternation tends towards the

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elimination of the mortal and obscure and the normalisation of the divine and luminous. Today the lower state predominates Samadhi Action of perceptive thought, usually vijnanamaya, at a deeper level of samadhi. Dream makes no progress. Oct 26t.h. Power is now distributed with a limited effectivity over all its fields; but it cannot entirely prevail anywhere, is nowhere free from resistance and is subjected to signal defeats & successful obstructions. Utthapana of arms, an hour and a half. Pranic trouble the first half hour, muscular the last quarter of an hour. Good utthapana in between. Oct 27th Powerful attack on the kriti. The telepathy has been proved to be still very mixed, for things at a distance, & the falsifying overstress continues. In things near the decisive trikaldrishti works, but not with any largeness. Oct 28t.h. The period of depression continues. Faith is shaken and udasinata replaces ananda. Utthapana of the neck 15 minutes. Pressure of defect of anima, more pranic than material.

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Sahitya poetry has been active for some days. More trouble, though of a minor kind, in the kriti, but this did not disturb the samata. Lipi. 1. oubliez 2 tonight 3 inside a fortnight. Oct. 29t.h. The literary activity continues in spite of everything. The Yogic siddhi is attempting to revive from the serious blow that has been dealt to it; but the faith is wanting. Without the faith the siddhi will continue; for the failure of faith has been allowed or even brought about because it is necessary. There is an active Trikaldrishti, but it is of a mixed result & telepathic in its character. The progress of the third chatusthaya must be resumed & the fourth & fifth insisted on again in spite of all opposition. Only the conditions of the fifth must be changed Oct 30th In seven days. St. The Vijnana is now recovering its usual movement 1. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. 2. P.X. 3. O Lord, my strength and my fortress and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of

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the earth and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is the Lord. Lipi 1. Lipi That is to say, as the sortilege is now active & organised for the actuality, so the lipi will now be made active & organised for the actuality. Trikaldrishti, selective & decisive, is now acting in small matters with great frequency & correctness. The latter is not yet invariable. The rest of the vijnana is still dull, except occasionally the jnana. Oct 31s.t. St. 1 2 3 Lipi. 1. 2 3.

Chandi. Les D´ebats Litt´eraires. Jollity. outside. perfection. digest. passive. 13.

The normal activity of Vijnana is restored; the attempt to generalise accurate trikaldrishti and effective Tapas is being restored. The subjective vishayananda is finally normalised; a similar normalisation of ananda in the manas with regard to events will complete the subjective ananda. Meanwhile the physical must be perfected.

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The utility of the holding back of the perfect Brahmadarshan is now manifest. The defect was that the mind had not made a proper harmony between the Anandamaya Chaitanya & the ignorant Jivatman. The latter tended to be suppressed in the darshana; therefore it has been restressed & now enters normally into its place in the darshana. The pursuit of rapidity is renounced by the Jiva, which has once more become passive, and is digesting the greater measure of perfection rendered possible in the lower consciousness. Tertiary dasyam is getting a greater hold on the normal consciousness. The whole stress of the Siddhi is towards a steady & unobtrusive normalisation of what has been gained. New progress seems to be suspended.

664

November.

Nov. 1 The aims set forth for October are only now beginning to be accomplished, but the month of October was the turning-point for the action. Lipi. 1. Already fitted for the intellectuality; fitted for the ideality. (Ak [Akasha]) 2 Results of the rapidity. Yogasiddhi (Ch [Chitra]) 3 It is futile to expect results immediately. Darshana. The Ananda Brahman is now an entirely normal part of the Darshana. It contains implicitly the Anandamaya Purusha. Krishna has now to become explicit in the normal darshana as he has been in the abnormal, when the intensity was at its highest. Vijnana. The telepathic perception, sukshma drishti, is being steadily purified from overstress & false stress. Nov. 2 Lipi. 1 It is fundamentally easy to distinguish the telepathy. (Chitra. Sky) 2. Henceforth distinguish telepathy from trikaldrishti. 3. 13. 4. 15 ie identification with all energies in the world, in the terms of the truth so that those to be preserved may be chosen, those to be transformed [? ], & those to be eliminated recognised but rejected. 5. energetic faith egoistic faith.

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6. enthusiasm. Telepathic trikaldrishti can never give the inevitable result, although it may often give the right & actual result; for it contains only what is present in the subconscious mentality of the world, not the forces that may at any moment enter & change the event. Telepathy in the vijnana passes into trikaldrishti. Entire tertiary dasya is now being enforced, so as to overcome the mental suggestion of kartavya which seeks to preserve the prakritic or secondary dasya. The egoistic or personal dasya, with the illusion of choice, has long been eliminated in fact, but sometimes recurs in the external mentality. The dasya established, energetic faith will be possible without the returns of egoism. Enthusiasm can then return. St. rnal d. = internal dissensions Utthapana of arms, 45 minutes. Nov 3. St.

Nos amis.

Lipi. 1. Faith 2. Energy of yoga 3 generalise the faith. There is a tendency of revival of the energy in the yoga & of the energetic faith, but it is not yet very extended Tapas seems to be increasing in power Lipi is active & organised to serve the knowledge & the yogasiddhi, but not as yet the trikaldrishti

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Record of Yoga

Chitra also is organised for the intelligence of the world & its forms & tendencies. Script is being organised within the same limits A considerable organisation of the Vijnana proceeds, but height & energy & perfection are withheld. A beginning of progress in the Rupa & Samadhi is indicated as imminent. As yet, there is no material indication. Script The rupa will now be developed in the akasha. Utthapana of arms, one hour. Nov 4.

s; vAcn\ tv vFr vFy yd k n 4t;nA Ev\ds  vs;

Samadhi. In dream, there was once more absolute & long coherence, other dreams supplying omitted & collateral parts of the first, & entire absence of present ego & associations. But all was in the nature of a tale or fiction, rather than actual event. In swapna samadhi, there was long continued coherent conversation, not sufficiently sthula, & rather in the nature of a monologue. In Kriti there is some confusion owing to the sudden change both in circumstance & attitude. The removal of all habit of choice from the lower being is essential. The buddhi has entirely understood, the manas understands and no longer sanctions choice; it is now only the physical & pranic elements that have the habitual reactions which come from the mental choice. These have to be eliminated for perfection of Samata, for perfection of Shakti. The Ishwara will choose through the Vijnana & work out through mind, prana & body obeying the Vijnana.

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There must be the certain faith that all He does, is for the perfect Yogasiddhi. The perfect Yogasiddhi is for the perfect life. When these reactions are excluded, then only there will be the perfect positive Samata = the perfect subjective Ananda Meanwhile the physical Ananda is resuming its development. Rupa in the Akasha (crude) is remanifesting & it is evident that nothing is lost which was gained. Human figures, groups, landscapes, objects come freely; animal forms (fourfooted) are obstructed. In all a clear-cut & stable distinctness is the characteristic deficient & to which the opposition in the Akasha still presents its effective veto Forms not crude, but ghana & developed have a clear cut distinctness & completeness, but no stability or only the first initial stability, often with a deficient completeness. It is the former gain without any advance, except in the energy of manifestation slowly increasing behind. Vani is beginning to be organised. Rupa is beginning to reappear on the background (sadhara). Utthapana of arms. 3 hours. Muscular strain reappeared, more as the result of repeated utthapana than of extension of time. Twice an attempt was made to make it oppressive & victorious over the laghima & mahima, in the fourth quarter of an hour & once in the third half hour. A later attempt in the last half hour hardly materialised & the utthapana could have been continued, apparently indefinitely. Stress was then laid on the strain of reaction & this now remains as the one effective obstacle to this utthapana. Trikaldrishti is beginning to be common & even to organise itself with continual ritam of detail, though not yet of arrangement.

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Record of Yoga

There is a very brihat basis of telepathic trikaldrishti. Ritam of arrangement is being prepared. A strong opposition is still offered to the organisation of Samadhi. Nov. 5. St. An omnipresent reality. Lipi 1. First stage effectually accomplished (Ant [Antardrishta]). 2 Ending without delay. Definite trikaldrishti fulfilled, that the spell of continuous rain for a month would be broken up the first thing in November. Actually broken up from the second. Utthapana of arms one hour. Reaction of strain less than expected. Nov. 6. The pressure of advance has somewhat diminished, but the progress attained continues. Only in the samadhi, there is not yet a sufficient movement of organisation; & the Tapas fluctuates in its activity. Utthapana of the arms for about an hour, interrupted by visitor Persistent dull strain, but there is no longer as there would have been before a powerful reaction preventing successful utthapana. Chitra is now very clear, firm, rich & detailed. In swapna samadhi Chhaya still overhangs & stability is obstructed There is strong obstruction to the firm emergence of akasharupa, whether sadhara or niradhara

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An attempt partially successful to bring back old conditions of siddhi by diminishing the affirmations. Lipi. 1. Fortify the Aishwarya. 2. Tonight . . light on the situation (ie interior) (Both antardrishta & very vivid, firm & stable the second fulfilled). Nov. 7. Progress today stationary Utthapana, arms 10 minutes, interrupted. Nov. 8. Utthapana, arms, an hour & a half; some pressure from defect of Anima. Progress tends to recommence, but is still encircled. Partial effectivity of Tapas is more generalised, but effectiveness is withheld from its detail Nov. 9th Chiefly given up to Sahitya. The Sahitya & study are now becoming well-organised, guided entirely by the impersonal force of the Personal & not interfered with by egoistic action & choice. The latter still makes suggestions which are more & more rejected. A similar action must now be extended to the Dharma & to such external Karma as is immediately in the power of the Adhara as well as to subjective action for the Kriti.

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Record of Yoga

Nov 10t.h. The Darshana is now beginning finally to normalise the perception of the Parapurusha in the Anandam Jnanam Anantam Sarvam. It begins with the perception of the Manomaya Purusha in the individual as identically the Parapurusha even in its apparent separateness & half-negative representation of Sachchidananda. Tertiary dasya is now powerful & begins to be pervasive. The first chatusthaya is steadily working out its last remaining defect, the recurrence of physical reaction to external suggestions of duhkha & aprasada proceeding from others or from the world-environment & taking advantage of the deficient sraddha in the Karma. Persistent Asiddhi in Karma & Yoga is used for this purpose. It stamps nati on the most physical parts of the nervous being as it has already been stamped on the mental being. The second chatusthaya is, except in faith and in realised karmasamarthya, complete in the manomaya organisation of the self. It has now to be converted into a vijnanamaya organisation based on the faith, the tertiary dasya & the daivi prakriti (karmasamarthya & ishwarabhava). All animal forms are now coming freely in the Chitra. Objects are also more varied. Utthapana, arms, one hour; defect of anima stronger than for some time past. There is a promise of rapidity in the vijnana. Lipi. 1. 2 3. 4.

Brilliant. great (brihat) final submission of prana. spiegel.

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5 active. 6 eternal ethos 7 digest. Insistence is once more being put on activity, constant will to know & tapas. Nov 11t.h. Utthapana, one hour defect of anima less, but still stronger than it should be. Sahitya continues to be active. Recurrence of intense kamananda throughout the day It is a remarkable fact that most of the things willed during the last few years & months, not connected with the personal life, are now being fulfilled in a confused mass, but the attitude having changed present an obstacle to the immediate willings. Lipi 1. Saturday (for the vijnana).. 2 jadis 3 lordless energies of the asiddhi 4 first thought is infinitely better organised than the less spontaneous thought. The present combinations are all mental & have no real relation to what is destined, this is the indication given. More precise indications may be expected very shortly. The clearing up of the situation is inevitable. No attempts in a direction not intended will succeed. Swapna-samadhi continues in the same condition. Coherent sabda now occurs in jagrat, but only a sentence at a time.

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Record of Yoga

Nov 12. All are now personalised in the Brahma Darsh[ana] as the one Person who is the Tat. The normalisation of the perception of Many in One is beginning. Here the ego in the mind of others is the obstacle The Master of the Yoga remanifests as well as the Kalibhava Lipi 1. aspire 2. [no notation] Swapna-Samadhi. Struggle at night to develop entire & coherent lipi in deep samadhi. The scenes, rupas etc remain as before. There is an intermittent attempt to develop organised rupa etc in antardrishta jagrat Nov. 13. There remains a want of harmony between the separate form of mind & temperament and the personality of the One in the Many which possesses the form. The perception of identity & penetration is insufficient; the form seems to belong rather to the material of the impersonal Brahman. This view frequently gives way to entire possession, in which Prakriti & Purusha are again united. Utthapana 11–2 hours. No defect of anima in Prana, only for last half hour in muscles, not compelling. A repeated lipi “John”, pointed to the Epistles of St John for a reference. The passage turned up ran “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God;

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And every spirit that confesseth not . . is not of God.” As a doubt suggested itself: how there could be certainty of right decision; the next verse came “Ye are of God & have overcome them; because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.[”] The reference is to the method in which the Vijnanachatusthaya has to be effected. All suggestions that have not the consciousness of the Master & the instrument behind them, have to be distrusted or else judgment reserved. The Power felt to be governing the world is the power of the mentality & is not vijnanamaya. This Reference was supported throughout by Lipi, giving the exact answer to the thought in the mind & guiding the judgment. Note that yesterday, the mind being in doubt about external menaces, the reference ran, “I will lie down & sleep, for thou, O Lord, art only my safety.” The immediate occasion of today’s reference was an insistence on immediate organisation of sadharadrishti in jagrat. Forms of rupa, including fourfooted animals, did outline on the background, but without stability or hold upon the akasha. There is a preparation, but except in one or two points, mainly in the first, fifth & sixth, no rapid or final realisation. Kamananda seems to be overcoming some of the adverse conditions which formerly helped its negation. These conditions recur, but have no longer the same power of prolonged suspension. Asamata, when it recurs, is powerful[ly] discouraged & can no longer take hold on the system. In arogya the struggle proceeds.

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Record of Yoga

Lipi. 1. affirm. 2. fixities.

3. righteousness strength

4. egoistic faith justified. (now that it is ceasing to be egoistic). 5 softly . . fiery. Samadhi. Effort to organise lipi in samadhi continues. There is a tendency to redevelop exact time in the trikaldrishti & telepathy. Nov 14 There is no rapidity as yet in any of the three chatusthayas of effectuation, only in the three which are purely subjective. R. [Reference] And he shall sit as a purifier & refiner of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi & refine them as gold & silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Indicating the purification of thought & life into the terms of the Ritam. In this purification & refinement there are necessarily two processes corresponding to two necessities. First the mental & nervous reactions must all become satya, so that in the end there may be no anritam in Etat falsifying the vijnana; secondly, the mental & nervous action must be translated into the terms of vijnana, thus becoming ritam, & eventually being replaced by the total vijnanamaya action. At present the first process predominates, but the second also is definitely & finally proceeding. The fourth & fifth chatusthayas depend on the perfection of the third, as the third has been led up to & at the same time assisted the first & second.

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Utthapana. Arms. 2 hours. Strain after 13–4 hours, mostly due to combination of walking & utthapana in this form, the muscles of the loin & back becoming outwearied. Utthapana must be enforced also in these parts of the body. Faith. There is now a well-founded certainty of entire siddhi in all seven chatusthayas, on two conditions 1. That no circumstances intervene which prevent the continuation of the Yoga in this life eg premature death etc. All circumstances hitherto brought in with that intention have failed of their object. 2. That no such successful obstruction is interposed as to retard the siddhi to the last days of this life or beyond. The two questions, therefore, that still subsist are those of safety & rapidity sati & taras. (sAEt . . trs^). Ananda. There is again a successful obstruction of the Kama Ananda since yesterday afternoon, though it is in the nature of an artificial difficulty, rather than a natural suspension. Rupa. Images in akasha & sadhara, chiefly chhaya or tejas, sometimes varna; human figures the most distinct & stable, animal vague & unstable but various, objects of both kinds. Dasya Tertiary dasya is now strongly confirmed, complete & powerful in the body. In the mind it is still mixed with the secondary & Prakritic form. Shadows of the primary fall only when there is a touch of asamata. Kamananda begins to resume its activity.

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Record of Yoga

Samadhi Continuous incident by successive pictures of the same action in different stages, cinematographic in piecing rather than lifelike. The struggle to develop clear & stable rupa in jagrat continues. Nov. 15t.h.. A greater intensity of Tapas not disturbing the tranquillity of the Samata & the passivity of the Yantra in the hands of the Worker, has to be elaborated. In rupa vague blurs of unrealised material of form alternate with form nearly realised or quite realised. The tendency to form is frequently active with success, but not yet master of the physical Akasha. Rupa on the background begins in a blur, starts out into form & then immediately dissolves into a blur. Human forms, animals & objects occur equally; but there is at present a considerable tendency towards the frequency of the fourfooted animal which was formerly always obstructed. Utthapana Arms, 1 hour, 53 minutes. Physical defect of anima. It tried to make itself a pranic reaction for a while, but failed. Reaction strong in the body afterwards. Rupa At night very clear & perfect shadow forms on a background. Nov 16t.h. Darshana has now a large & sure form of the Jnanam Brahma. Personality is therefore firm in the vision. But the Ananda Brahman, although always present, is not yet sufficiently strong & vivid. Vijnana Certain trikaldrishti is now often entirely positive & compelling, but not sufficiently frequent.

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There is also a secondary certainty or rather insistence of trikaldrishti which is not so positive, rather questioned by the sceptical intellect, but fulfils itself equally with the other. There is a third which is a perception of force of possibility, afterwards self-justificatory in the event. It is this which is most difficult to distinguish from the mere perception of force of possibility unsanctioned by the destined Event. Sometimes the trikaldrishti is surprisingly fulfilled at the very moment when non-fulfilment seemed inevitable in the actual occurrence. In such cases it seems to partake of the nature of Ishita, Aishwarya or Vashita. Rupa has now a greater force & in Akasha is very clear & perfect with some stability, as well as on the background; but the stage of difficult & confused formation is not yet left behind. Utthapana. Arms. 2 hours; after an interval of 5 minutes, due to exterior causes, another 15 minutes. The physical defect & reaction were less, and the attempt to invade the prana was unsuccessful. Samadhi in its profundities remains disorganised but today thought emerged in it & commenced putting lipi & experience in order. Lipi in S. [Samadhi ] Persist alone . . thought . . judgment. Nov 17t.h. Strong reaction of unfaith in Karma & direct government & choice of Krishna. Lipi. 1. Yet enthusiastic faith

(that is will persistently return and establish itself). 2. Keltic faith (the faith of the heart & imagination, as distinguished from Teutonic, the faith of the nervous mentality, Latin, the faith of the intellect in the idea, Indian,

678

Record of Yoga the intuitive faith. Of these the Latin is there, firmly; the rest are deficient, recurring, but not settled). 3. Perfect beatitude; faith (the perfection of the subjective Ananda depends on the perfection of the faith).

Utthapana. Arms. 2 hrs. 30 minutes. No reaction in the loins & back except for a few intermediate moments, until after cessation of the utthapana. Reaction, chiefly in the muscles of the left shoulder for the last hour, strong only at the close. Ambulatory all the time. There is a tendency to the establishment of 3 hours utthapana of the arms as perfectly normal; only the reaction in the shoulder resists. Laghima & mahima are sufficient & could have easily supported the arms for the remaining half hour and beyond. Rupa The struggle now in rupa is to establish rapidly the combined clearness, stability & spontaneity in a various rupa. Utthapana Of arms; after bath & meals, an interval of 1 hour 10 minutes, for thirty minutes sitting. More pranic than physical reaction Of back & loins 11–2 minutes; laghima excellent, inefficient mahima. Of legs, 10 minutes; good laghima, entire absence of mahima; therefore the defect of anima prevailed throughout. Nov 18t.h.. Utthapana. Legs. 15 minutes. Mahima introduced & laghima stronger than yesterday. Defect of anima, after the first ten minutes, tried to overpower but failed. A great force of physical tapas is present in the body, but failed entirely for a time in the evening. Afterwards it recovered itself. Long sleep is at present the habit of the body which thinks

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it necessary to recuperate itself from the strain which the pranic parts of the body feel less & less but the physical still consciously or subconsciously undergoes. The Nine Affirmations have now again to be considered It is evident that IV – VII are being completed first. The tertiary dasya is perfect in the body and perfecting in the mind & prana and there is a firm though not always equable or well-distributed sense of the passive yantrabhava in the whole system. But the dasya is not yet the dasya of the Madhura except at times because the subjective Ananda of karma-siddhi asiddhi is not yet perfect in the chitta. Hence the acceptance of all bhoga as a slave & instrument of the Master is near completion, but not the acceptance as a slave and instrument of the Lover. The Personality of Krishna is still often & long concealed behind his workings, his Prakriti. If these can be perfected, the rest will be more easy. For there will be, & this is now preparing to be perfected, the universal sense of the Anandamaya Krishna as the continent & cause of all conscious activity & the base of Ananda with the instrument of free & joyous Tapas & Prakasha. The principle of Affirmation has been constantly growing, but has not yet entirely replaced the principle of rejection & denial. Ritam is developing on the lines of the brihat by the progressive rejection of the idea of the Dwayavins. Affirmations VIII & IX are only preparing. The basis of the five worlds has been laid down in the consciousness, but only the three are habitually active to its awareness & this without particular observation. But the Anandaloka is also frequently active in the manoloka. The main effort now is to subordinate Time so that it shall be instrument and not determinant. Strong movement of progress during utthapana. The Ishwara

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takes full possession of the script, vani & vangmaya thought, a possession compatible with the suggestions of other vanis always automatically distinguishable from the central Word. Farther progress in rupa. Tapas is assuming a progressive strength & the Asura & Rakshasa begin to take their places. The force of ritam begins to increase. Enthusiastic faith is increasing its ground. But the chief result has been the final rout of the Dwayavins & the unification of all multiplicity & dualities in the Ishwara. Utthapana. Arms, 3 hours. Strong attack of physical defect of anima chiefly in the muscles of the left shoulder which in the last half hour took the form of an acute pain. The attack failed to impose pranic defect or fatigue on the system. But the reaction is stronger than yesterday. After 11–2 [hours’] interval, one hour sitting. Pranic unwillingness & oppression, afterwards only oppression then all clear, then again unwillingness without the oppression. The after reaction increases in strength, but is almost entirely physical in its incidence, entirely in its direct incidence. Lipi. 1. first let it disengage itself the rupa 2 hopes. 3 hopes safeties 4. field of safeties is the field of the established, field of hopes is the field of the disestablished.

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Kamananda once more intense. The Record has now to include not only the details of what is accomplished & the lines of the accomplishment that is being attempted, but also the record of experiences and the indications of the future movement. This has often been attempted, but without success because of the insufficiency of Tapas and ritam. It will take a little time to establish the right working of this element. It must, first, be undertaken irregularly, so that it may gradually regularise itself. There is still a great deal of action in the mentality nervous & intellectual; it is allowed so that by its self-motion under pressure from above it may idealise itself. Utthapana Right leg, horizontal, lying on side; 15 minutes; mahima & laghima although increased in strength overpowered eventually by acute defect of anima. Back & loins, three minutes. In the evening, a fresh attack to disturb the faith & the unity. The knowledge in the mind, although pushed backward in order to allow of the attack, was not overpowered, except in the matter of the faith in the Kriti. Nov. 19 Utthapana Legs 17 minutes. Entire absence of mahima, replaced by force. The energy depressed last night & this morning is now recovering itself (9. am) and will maintain itself during the day. The affirmations have to be given a farther extension.

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The attempt of the attack is (1)2 to restore the empty, indifferent shanta Mahasaraswati bhava & negate the combination of Ananda + Tapas, centred in the Mahakali-Mahasaraswati Bhava; (2) to assert the passive Devi in place of the Asuro-Rakshasic (Chandi) Devi governed by the Deva in Krishna. It is now a settled gain that the Maheshwari bhava as pratistha is practically covered over; it is dominated, first, by Mahasaraswati as continent and, secondly, by Mahakali as inhabitant, seated on Maheshwari & embraced by the conditioning Mahasaraswati. When the combination Mahakali-Mahasaraswati is perfect, the pratistha will be entirely covered. It only emerges when it is necessary to correct the tendency of Mahakali to assert the supremacy of her own peculiar bhava to the detriment of the Mahasaraswati cont[in]ent. The type fixed is the Mahakali bhava of the Mahasaraswati Personality, not the Mahakali personality. The emergence of the full intensity of Mahakali-Mahasaraswati is the development now attempted. Yesterday the physical reaction of utthapana was excessive. Therefore today there must be some rest & relaxation, but not discontinuance. Rf. [Reference] Self-Knowledge. An introduction to the study of metaphysics. (This is the line the philosophical work has to take). Utthapana Arms 2 hrs. 25 minutes. Strong pressure of physical reaction & sometimes Pranic unwillingness; the former in loins & back, the latter generally or once or twice in the arms. The Ishwarabhava steadily imposes itself on the mind & prepares to take possession of the Will in the action.

2 In the manuscript, “(1)” was inserted after “negate”.

Ed.

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The full bhava in its personality has reappeared, that is the conscious self-knowledge as the Mahakali-Mahasaraswati Prakritiangsha & the corresponding ego-form in the sukshma body & mind. It includes the bhava of the Dasi. Perfect identification with the prana in all, the hopes, passions, discouragements of friends, enemies, distant nations in the war, the British in India, the estranged Swadeshis here etc. etc. There remains only the identification in physical prana and body. Utthapana Legs horizontal: left 17 minutes, deficient mahima & laghima: right, 7 minutes, laghima and mahima sufficient, but acuter defect of anima manifesting as pain of nerve & muscle compelled desistence. Swapna-samadhi. Frequent occurrence of continued action, but consisting only of two or three rapid movements. Thought & perception in samadhi are attempting to become vijnanamaya. Yesterday’s lipi, “utility” is being fulfilled, as such scenes & conversations are presented as may give knowledge of practical importance. Dream is again being analysed in the state of samadhi itself & the importations of present sanskara separated from the true substance of the dream. In this way one dream took its true aspect of a conversation in manoloka speculating as to whether certain presentations of event etc were not emanations from the minds of men falling in battle rather than realities. 1. A face & figure, gestures and the words “They went up there & then turned in the right direction & were peeping through....” All could not be heard. The face was familiar, but long forgotten, & it was only after a time that it was remembered to be the young man who was first proprietor of the B.M. [Bande

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Mataram] & his name almost immediately afterwards recalled, Kshetro. 2. A man, official or minister, sitting at a table with a map before him in which there was much red, on the West, & saying “Ainsi n’est-il pas assez rouge pour vous.” 3. Figures etc connected with the war. Antardrishta The development here is slower; all sorts of crude forms come but not complete & except in a few cases not stable. Groups also come, eg a girl rocking in a low chair and another sitting facing her & holding her hand. Lipi. 1. Godhead. 2 subtlety Rupa At night, farther progress, the old stable ghana forms & unstable perfect reappearing. But there is as yet no advance on the past gains thus recovered. Samadhi The movement is towards the rehabilitation of the former method of dream interpretation which had been somewhat discredited. The perfection of the second chatusthaya has been completed in all but sraddha & chandibhava by the growth still continued of the Mahakali-Mahasaraswati. Nov. 20 Utthapana Legs. 10 minutes only. Defect of mahima; laghima also insufficient.

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The elements of shakti & virya Viryamiti Kshatriya Abhayam, Sahasa, Atmaslagha, Yasholipsa. Limited by Kaushala, but all now perfected (barring exterior nervous touches) except Atmaslagha which depends on Sraddha swashaktyam. Vaishya Danam, Vyayah, Kaushalam, Bhogalipsa. All perfect & rightly combined. Shudra Prema, Kama, Dasyalipsatmasamarpanam. Perfect & rightly combined. Brahmana Jnanaprakasho, jnanalipsa, brahmavarchasyam, sthairyam. Well-combined & now almost perfect; but full prakasha does not yet extend to action, & therefore brahmavarchasya is not yet perfect in effectivity. Samanya Sarvesham etesham tejo balam pravrittir mahattvam. This is coming by Mahakali bhava. Shaktiriti Dehasya Mahattwabodho, Balaslagha, Laghutwam, Dharanasamarthyam. Well-established. Pranasya Purnata, Prasannata, Samata, Bhogasamarthyam. Established, but sometimes attacked & touched in physical parts. The entire fullness of Bhogasamarthya depends on Arogyasiddhi.

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Chittasya Snigdhata, Tejahslagha, Kalyanasraddha, Premasamarthyam. Well-established, but Kalyanasraddha is sometimes attacked by the intellectual doubt. It is complete in the normal state of the Chitta. Buddher Visuddhih, prakasho, vichitrabodho, jnanasamarthyam. Well-established, but not entirely complete in the active parts owing to lacunae in the vijnana. Samanya Sarveshveteshu kshiprata, sthairyam, adinata cheshwarabhava. Coming by Mahakalibhava. Chandibhava Mahakali Shauryam, ugrata, yuddhalipsattahasyam, daya cheshwarabhavah sarvakarmasamarthyam. These are now developing, but the [ ]3 Ishwarabhava is insufficiently established owing to defect of effectivity of Tapah-shakti & therefore of Karmasamarthya in manifestation. Sraddha Swashaktyam Bhagavati cha Insufficient owing to thwarted Tapah-shakti & doubt of Kriti. The lesser trikaldrishti is now very active & usually accurate, that which comes in passivity by a sort of vyapti. The trikaldrishti of great things, distant things (distant in time & space), & that corresponding to prakamya, is less active[,] correct or organised. Vijnana, not in the least depending on experience, is now becoming more active but does not yet command entire confidence from the intellect. 3 MS the

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There are three kinds of vijnana; the first corresponds to material mind intuitively reasoning & deals intuitively with things & ideas that might be known by experience, if the means of experience were sufficiently wide. It is prajnanamaya vijnana intuitional & discriminative. The second corresponds to intuitive mind (perception) & is independent of possible experience. This is now developing. It is inspirational. The third is pure vijnana & revelatory sakshaddarshana. Yesterday kamananda was almost inactive, today it is again recovering activity. It must be intense & frequent during the day. Utthapana shakti is a little depressed & will take a little time to recover. Arogya advances, but so slowly as to be almost imperceptible. There is no sign of progress in saundarya except in increasing clearness of hue, varnaprasada. In kriti there is still ineffectivity, except in details. Vishayadrishti now acts occasionally in gandha & sparsha, more intensely or more variously than before, but there is no real advance in generality & organisation. Aswada is also occasionally active, but not so spontaneously & usually in the bitter, sour or bibhatsa rasas, which lead the mind to doubt whether they are not prakamya of sukshma effusions from the stomach. Some, however, are obviously non-material, eg taste of medicines which are never taken physically, non-material or non-immediate. Sight & hearing are mostly in abeyance or sluggish. But they are all attempting to throw off the obstruction & must progressively succeed. Utthapana Arms. 15 minutes, & after twenty minutes interval, 2 hours.

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A violent attack of Asiddhi, first intended to prevent utthapana at all, then to bring it back to the one hour limit. Great strain on loin, back & shoulders. Swapna Samadhi More extensively varied combinations of Rupa (various foods) & Rasa; the latter not always vivid, but always, when present, well appreciable. Also other combinations. Image of large, bare room with one chair etc, & a young Brahmachari, slim & fine-featured of Bengali type, hastening full of respect & bhakti, to answer the call of his Guru. Image of self, wearing dress with peculiar border & long hair, some hanging over the breast on the border. Query future or idealised past? More coherent lipis in deep samadhi; also a tendency to evolve the true lipi in those that are incoherent. Rupa Perfect image etc came freely, but either before the eye without stability or with stability but avoiding the direct gaze or both indirect & unstable. The obstruction remains as yet obstinately unconquered. Siddhi-Asiddhi. There has been today a strong combination of circumstances in the nature of asiddhi in order to negate, as far as possible, the Mahakali bhava manifesting. All remains intact except the Ishwarabhava & its concomitants, but these are less affected than before. Vijnana At night a great activity for a time of Vangmaya transforming its habitual vak from effective speech into the illuminative & inspirational forms with an occasional rise into the pure inevitable. There was also a movement of complete Jnana. The lifting of

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perceptive thought from the intuitional reason to the inspirational revelation is being prepared. Swapna-samadhi Dream still pursued by present association, therefore sometimes difficult of reduction to right form. Kamananda failed to recover intensity and frequency, being overpowered by kshaya. It is noticeable that now relapse is no longer general & activity of progress is rapidly resumed after a movement of recoil. But it changes its location, leaving the parts affected to undergo a period of suffering & depression. Nevertheless even there there is no longer the tendency of entire quiescence, udasinata & temporary renunciation. Trikaldrishti pursues its organisation in the pranamaya response. Nov. 21 Aishwarya-Vashita Kriti is still effective only in details & movements, not effective in the mass & final effect, except when the final effect comes after a lapse of time. The old habit was to leave it & allow time for the general ensemble of things to assimilate as much as it could of the tendencies created by the Aishwarya. The effort now is to maintain the Tapas and attempt to govern the movement of the ensemble by the Aishwarya-Ishita-Vyapti. But these powers cannot yet, even in small & ordinary things effect an organised ritam, though they can often act in the mass & produce a general result against resistance. Nevertheless, the force of resistance in unimportant things is much attenuated, & in the majority of cases there is the result, sometimes with remarkable rapidity. But not where the opposite tendency is already strong & fixed.

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In one case that has just happened, the same object (a bird) has four times in succession executed with only a slight tendency of deviation (ineffective besides) the movements willed. Another (human being) has done it with a little delay in spite of the intervention of hostile circumstances dispersed rapidly by the Will. Another performed the requisite movement, immediately & in full; three others with difficulty & not in full. (Human beings). Another (a goat) performed in full, so far as allowed by physical intervention of a companion; but negated the complete fulfilment by a return to its original position. All this shows a marked advance of power; if generalised & applied it would be nearly omnipotence of Vashita over things animate. Ishita. The real defect of Tapas is imperfect Ishita preventing the full play of Aishwarya, Vashita, by giving a large hold to the Adverse, just as in utthapana the real obstacle is defect of Anima which prevents the full play of Laghima-Mahima by giving a large hold to the opposition of the established physical powers. There have been some movements of effective Ishita, but its general force is still submerged & tardy of effect, or, by result of tardiness, finally ineffective or [effective]4 at wrong time & in wrong circumstance. The Ishita must now be applied with a greater force & effectivity so that, by experience of success, yashas, the mental response may acquire confidence and affirm it. It is noticeable that when the opposite tendency or intention is fixed, insistence of Tapas gives it immediately an acceleration in the opposite sense. But this is often compensated by rapid exhaustion of tendency and a subsequent return in the sense of the Aishwarya or Vashita. At present all attempt to enforce the Ishita by itself meets with 4 MS ineffective

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an effective resistance, except in particular details, or leads to an inexact and deformed result. It is the same whether Ishita is used or Ishita-Vashita. When applied forcibly, however, it usually produces some effect; when passive, the effectiveness is occasional, except in nityakarma, where it is normal. Utthapana Arms 3 hours 15 minutes. No serious reaction, except the pure physical which was ineffective. There was an attempt at pranic unwillingness in the second hour, baffled & expelled; an [attempt] at physical pressure & unwillingness in the third hour, baffled & expelled; an attempt at acute physical pain in the left shoulder, at the end, baffled, dulled & expelled. After the completion, the body rejected fatigue & the desire of relief & rest. The contrast with yesterday is remarkable. Vijnana The conversion of intuitional into inspirational & inspirational-revelatory perception continues. Thought & script also continue their inspirational-illuminative movement. Trikaldrishti, inspirational, is preparing but not yet organised. Rupa Stable clear forms crude in the akash, but few, & insufficiently vivid. On background, free, but not sufficiently clear-cut. Eg a street & house, with succession of moving images; men & women walking, riding, driving in carriages. Especially at end a carriage (motor?) driving at immense speed, seen continuously for almost a minute. Tejomay & varnamaya. In the afternoon. All sorts of images in small, behind a thick but transparent mist of pranic akasha; all crude: women, men, men on horseback, animals, birds, houses, objects. Not numerous, but of all kinds. Spontaneous, stable, well-defined, but not complete. Eg

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a woman’s head & shoulders, the dress very clear in every detail; a man on horseback, the back & saddle of the horse clear & distinct, also the general figure & outline of the man. In swapnasamadhi, swift images only; one combination of rupa & intense sparsha. 1. A young Bengali, known type, saying in Bl.i. [Bengali] “Once we get free from Ashanti, what next”. Future? 2. Sn.. [Saurin] at end of a table with papers neatly ordered & placed upon it. An opera or field glass near him, at one side. Present or future? 3. Vividha Vani in jagrat. “Two hours at least”, ie before tea is given & the sahitya etc is begun, for the movement of Siddhi contemplated. Vijnana Inspirational trikaldrishti is moving towards brihat satyam in its application to surrounding things & events. It has to be applied similarly to the distant & important. Telepathy is proving correct in distant things. A general satyam of thought telepathy is preparing. Lipi 1. 2 (ie trikaldrishti) 2. Satis universitatis (ie the time has now come for the development in the multiple actuality). Vijnana. Trikaldrishti is proving true even when it reveals itself to the body, the physical sensations, the obscure mind etc. Eg. an object sought in the darkness, the hand instinctively seeks the right place, if not interfered with by the mind. A physical consciousness presents itself of a certain fact or event, the mind being without a clue is unable to specify, although the kind of fact or event is felt or known. The fact or event justifies or produces itself. There are, also, wrong impulsions & perceptions which translate tendencies, possibilities, intentions, past facts or future

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events into present fact or immediate eventuality. But these are being more & more sorted out from the rest & stripped of sanction. Asiddhi. The sense of Asiddhi became again strong, but not overpowering at night. There was a partial withdrawal of the Mahakali bhava realised into a form less dominated by MK and more of the nature of Mahasaraswati with the Maheswari-Mahalakshmi type prominent. This seems to be an operation for the increase of the Mahalakshmi colouring in the Chandibhava. There was no failing of samata, no indifference or denial of Shakti within, but only a sense of want of means & sanction. Samadhi. Dream & samadhi continue on the same lines. In dream the present association is dispersed & attenuated Nov. 22 The morning devoted chiefly to work for the Review. Utthapana Arms, one hour, five minutes, owing to lack of time. Yesterday’s ambulatory utthapana for 3 hours & more left a violent stiffness in the calves, but this morning nothing was left of this reaction except a subtone of physical sluggishness in the outer annakosha. This extended to the arms & loins as well. Rupa Freedom of variety, spontaneous, in the Akasharupa continues to develop. Stability is still of the confused or the incomplete clear rupa, not of the complete in clearness Clear & fixed animal forms are becoming more frequent. In antardrishta there is the same liberality; but there the veil of

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pranic mist is thicker; the figures come less forward, start less into distinctness. Most of the day given to work for the Review, without leisure for the rest of the Sadhana, except at night. The chief movement of the day, a recursus to states of apparent Asiddhi with the foundation of a perfect & catholic comprehension that overt Asiddhi is always veiled Siddhi It is this perception that is now being applied and enforced at every point. Nov 23. Sharira Kamananda resumed yesterday morning was again obstructed entirely. This obstruction is apparently intended to enforce the perfect spontaneity of the normal Ananda which is not to be inconsistent with its response to inward Ishita. That is to say, there are to be eventually three operations of Kamananda 1. Normal, continual, spontaneous the level of its pratistha. 2. Continual progressive heightening of the pratistha in response to a spontaneous ishita. 3. Temporary waves, swells, upheavals in response to exterior stimulus. At present the real positive obstacle to the siddhi is the defect of Arogya. Arogya still in the state of struggle. Nevertheless only in two circumstances is the obstruction still really important, 1. the digestive Assimilation; 2 the Kamic centre. Saundarya, except in one slight movement, shows no definite progress

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Yesterday, there was depression in the physical force and a certain sense of partial exhaustion. There has been for some time a persistent pressure to introduce cough of a serious description. Except a recurrence of capricious irritation in throat and chest, this movement has not succeeded. But the body’s sensitiveness to cold is persistent. The remnants of skin-irritation tendency remain in recurrence, but are reduced in force of persistence, volume & extent; even in effective acuteness. Kriti. Kriti in one direction shows a certain positive mass of effectuality, but it is not yet decisive and cannot yet be pronounced final even in what is gained. On another side it has been effective for attempt, but ineffective in result except for one or two details. On a third it remains undecided. Vijnana Vijnana continues its pursuit of the mental brihat with increasing success Aishwarya-Vashita when there is not recursus, continues to increase in effectiveness, but is still subject to the element of resistance in things immediate and unimportant. Affirmation The affirmations are preparing a larger completeness. The mind now accepts more integrally what the buddhi had already accepted, the truth of anritam, the kalyana of akalyana, the effectivity of ineffectivities. In this way positive samata is being rendered more secure in its basis, as well as the perfect passivity that is the basis of the perfect activity, the absolute nati that is the basis of the

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Dasya of Madhura and the absolute brihat of satyam which is the basis of complete ritam. The mind cannot always distinguish the particular truth, kalyana & effectivity, but it has the belief which begins to be an intuition. It sees the thing formlessly when it does not see it in form Kamananda again recurs with a perfect spontaneity. Aishwarya Vashita has to be replaced by Ishita & pure Aishwarya as a means of its progression. The element of self-choice in the Tapas by the shadow of personality in the intellect has now to be exiled. Neither external action nor internal action is in the least to be determined by personal or intellectual choice. The Kavi in the Manishi has to give place to the pure Kavi dependent on the Ishwara, Krishna (Chaitanya, Sachchidananda). Utthapana Arms. 21–2 hours; interrupted. Relics of yesterday’s depression caused certain recurrences of pranic lassitude and unwillingness; but the physical strain was nil in the arms & shoulders & less in the back and loins. Utthapana is now quite normal for the 3 hours. Vijnana Ritam is now seeking to take full possession of the thoughts & perceptions, and also to translate into its own terms the habitual remnants of imagination. Rupa For the last few days there has been an attempt to redevelop manasic rupa in the antardrishta. Today in the bahirdarshi, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, anandamaya, chaitanyamaya, sanmaya physical rupas of the butterfly (richly coloured) occurred successively, each very vivid, real & visible in its own akasha.

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Nov. 24 Kriti Remarkably successful in one point; but serious adverse signs in another. There is the same balance elsewhere. Only telepathy is active here; decisive trikaldrishti is unable to manifest. The telepathy points to the probability of an adverse result. There is strong obstruction to the rapidity of the development of Vijnana and to its constant action. Sharira is also unable to advance. Vijnana It is Vashita, not Aishwarya & Ishita, that brings in the element of resistance, because it is still pursued in the material action by the habit of desire; a desire not formal or accepted, but vague, representing an excess of weight or pressure of pranic tapas rather than what is usually called desire, but easily creative of the psychological phenomena usually associated with or environing desire. The temporary inactivity of vijnana is only in order to give time for the mentality to readjust certain inferior movements & prepare higher & more intense movements. The force of Aiswarya & Ishita really maintains itself, as is shown in the two applications just now made. In one the general movement was executed with a few hesitations, in the other first a general movement, then a precise. The resistance to Vashita is very great & strongly concentrated. It is when the pressure of Vashita is removed from the object, that the movement willed fulfils itself by the Aishwarya, less frequently by Ishita contained in the original Vashita. This is an indication that the Vashita is the real point, (to a less degree the Ishita), in which Siddhi must be enforced.

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Self-identification with all energies tends to lead to a certain paresse in enforcing the central energy when the mass of the others is against it. It is in order to emphasise the danger of this defect that, for a while, the self-identification has been drawn into the background & along with it the perfect samata that came with it. The mental being passive & receptive, the Vijnanamaya tapas active, this is the formula for the Dharma and the Kriti. But the tapas is not yet entirely Vijnanamaya. Hence the element of mental stress & the appearance of the reactions of desire. Rupa The general development is intermitted; but there are occasional signs which show a progress behind the veil (eg perfect image of head & neck of a horse, a knee with part of the leg above & below, the latter perfectly, the former initially stable). Utthapana Arms 3 hours. Depression in body; absence of pranic force & ananda. Defect of anima in the last half hour. Nevertheless the true reactions are dulled and reduced, though marked by a sullen obstinacy. St. 1. Knowledge to be the basis of perfected Tapas. 2. The True Christ. (vicarious exhaustion of the internal suffering). 3. Maya. Therefore. (ie the appearance of asiddhi & its reactions). Rupa Other rupas are less stable and represent the partial siddhi, from which the Yoga is advancing. Vijnana It is noticeable that Ishita works in some matters to combine things according to the immediate need. But this is not a predominant tendency.

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The telepathy of exact thought was again active, chiefly in the form of a perception of the idea in the other mind and, secondly, of the word about to proceed from the mind in speech. There was also a general movement at night of vijnana and Ananda; but not of any force of Tapas. Tapas is at present discouraged by its failure to produce decided results.. Samadhi has also ceased to progress. Samata persists in spite of a temporary & brief superficial disturbance. Nov. 25 Kriti doubtful. Utthapana. Arms; a little more than an hour. Interrupted by the arrival of visitors. Morning chiefly occupied with talk & with work for the Review. Afternoon also. The flow of the Sahitya is also a little hampered and imperfect in expression. Throughout the Siddhi there is the same deliberate depression of the effective Tapas Lipi 1. It is still the rapidity that is held in doubt 2. Defective Tapas. 3. It is still the figure of Asiddhi, not the reality. 4. Faith. That is to say, the call just now is for faith Swashaktyam bhagavati cha, especially the faith in the details of knowledge & Tapas & that a truth is carried in every suggestion, a fulfilment in every defect of strength & failure.

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This faith is confirming its hold, but is not as yet secure against obscuration even in its general form and is continually combated in its application by inability to see the exact truth or fulfilment as well as frequent doubt of the explanation suggested. Swapnasamadhi Occasional perception of incidents in the war, but obscured and shadowy.. Vijnana A wider perception is already coming; it will normalise itself. There is still much to be done tonight before sleeping, though very rapidly. 1. Restoration of vijnana activity. 2. The fixing of the personal relation 3. The reactivity of the Affirmations. The vijnana has already begun to be active in perception with a wider satyam & also a wider, but not complete ritam. This includes activity of the inspirational vijnana and even a secondary activity of the revelatory thought. The Vani also became active, Anandamaya, taking up the old mental relations and establishing the personal & human contact between the Master & the Jiva. Trikaldrishti also was active in a limited sphere. In Samadhi there was all, except the long-continued continuity. Even lipi was effective, in deep Samadhi, in a long-continued perusal. Nov. 26t.h. The final perfection of the relations with the Lilamaya Ishwara has firmly begun. They are based on the madhura-dasya, the eternal Bala-Kishora-bhava & the Kautuka-krida. The difficulty

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that remains is on the side of the Jiva in the grave importance it attaches still to satya, mangala & siddhi. This importance is real, as it is necessary to develop the Vyaya-lakshmi. But it will develop more rapidly when the samata of the Tapas is effected. At the same time even in the Adhara the Bala-Kishore-bhava is developing and has attained a certain mass in its force of realisation (pajas). Vangmaya thought has suddenly passed from the inspirationalilluminative to the pure inevitable forms of speech. The new form is yet deficient in Asu and Ananda, because the Prakasha it carries with it touches directly the obscurer parts of the mentality which give a less clear response and not the illuminated mind or sentiment which for the present is a little quiescent. This quiescence is necessary in order that the obscurer parts may also become capable of satyam and convinced of satyam. Sometimes, however, the Prakasha, Asu and Ananda are allowed to manifest in order to convince the Prana that it is the “true & happy Vak”. sunrita Kamananda still fluctuates owing to the imperfection of the chakra. The Pranic dynamis increases in the body, but is not yet in possession. The Arogya is also in the same uncertain condition. Its force increases and its pressure. But it is not in possession and is unable to expel the recurrent habitualities of Roga. The latter rely on tamasic dhriti of habit for their long persistence, though they are no longer sure of ultimate survival. The bhava of the Mechanist, Yantri, has now become humanised to the consciousness and is taking its place as the rule of the play; the Child-God managing his toy-engines. This is an idealisation & fulfilment in the brihat of the former relations, mental, sentimental, restricted, with the boy Krishna.

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The Bhaya Anandamaya once promised is now also manifesting and takes the form of the same relation, Bala-Kali at play with the Bala-Krishna. All this can now be reestablished in the cadre of the satyam ritam brihat. Therefore the Affirmations are taking their greater, deeper & fuller form. to begin with 5 – 7 5. The Personality of the Ishwara Krishna present (no longer merely to be present) in the consciousness, governing all the activities 6. Dasya of Madhura the personal relation of the Jiva with Krishna the dasya (to be) tertiary with the most intense consciousness of passive yantrabhava in the whole system. 7. Acceptance of all bhoga as a slave & instrument of the Lover to be the principle of the madhura. Among the first four affirmations, 3 & 4 are powerfully developing. 3. The principle of Affirmation replacing the principle of rejection and denial. 4. Ritam developing no longer in isolated or combined details, but in the undivided brihat of the satyam with truth of detail and combination as a play of the ritam satyam brihat. Undivided means in practice free from the brihat & leads to the second affirmation and that again to the first. 1. Ananda as the base, free & joyous Tapas & Prakasha as the special instrument. 2. The universal sense of the Anandamaya Lilamaya Krishna in the Brahmadrishti as the continent, cause, lord & Purusha of all the conscious activity That is to say, the relation now established personally has to be seen as the Truth in all others & in the universe in general. The eighth & ninth affirmations are still being prepared for their effectivity, but are not yet fully realised in consciousness or

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dominant in fact; but only realised in perception and increasing in tendency. 8. Siddhi must be on the basis of the largeness in the five worlds and not of a selecting and limited siddhi. 9. Time must be no longer a determinative, but only an instrumental factor in the siddhi. So with Space & Circumstance. Utthapana 1 hour 8 minutes interrupted for an hour by outside circumstance, then half hour. The depression of the physical force continues. Unwillingness and strong reaction in dorsal muscles. Distant telepathy justified . . kriti unsuccessful. The attack on the karma continues, but hovers around without actually touching; there is always however the menace of an Amangala constituting a serious blow to the Siddhi Rupa The human figures (small, crude) that now come, chiefly in groups, in the Akasha tend now to be often more clear, complete & stable. Lipi 1. Safety intensified (jyotirmaya stable) 2 Religiosity definitely denied. 3 settling the utility of the opposition (varna) The exact utility of the opposition is now being settled to the perception both generally & in each case. At the same time the sensational revolt against Asiddhi is losing its force and giving way to serenity in front with Ananda behind. The emotional Ananda has long been gained, but it was besieged by the sensational nirananda. This is now in course of amelioration, although it has not yet disappeared.

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Record of Yoga

Nov 27. The mass of the Shakti must now turn towards effective Tapas siddhi applied to 1. Samadhi. 2. Sharira. 3 Karma. The rest is so well assured that in them the faith cannot falter or be deficient. Thought telepathy is now definitely organising itself. Lipi 1. 31 2. 3 (ie the Rupa etc to be made effective for 1). Kama. 3. 13 Kamananda active as yesterday. When in activity there is a much greater force of continuity, but not of intensity + continuity, than formerly. There is, however, an influence, not natural but imposed of the Asana. Tapas The first necessity in the Tapas is persistence in the line of action or of will chosen. Utthapana Arms. 2 hours. Physical depression, though still existent, is diminished. Samadhi Activity in swapna-samadhi. Continued action a little more deliberate and prolonged than usual, but not very appreciably. Kamananda strives to enforce itself with occasional intensity. It is only entirely discontinued for a long time when the attention is absorbed in some engrossing activity. Brief kamananda once more occurred in samadhi. Akasharupa on background is active, but only human figures come out spontaneously clear, except in rare cases. Groups & landscapes are common.

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Lipi 1 Safety from the results of the intensity of delight (first, simply “safety from the intensity of delight[”]) 2. safety 3. perfection of the safety. 4. belittle . . soulless. (the opposition) 5 before it is effective some little delight to be confirmed. 6. tangent. 7 telepathy . . enjoy the delight of others. Kamananda still continues (10.30 pm) when there is smarana. The freedom from Asana & Smarana has not yet been reestablished. Samadhi Remarkable dreams of past and future; absolutely original & impossible under present circumstances; yet perfectly coherent, except for a slight admixture of present associations, trifling in quantity, yet almost sufficient to distort them & veil their sense & purport to the intellect. Nov 28 Kamananda “Safety from the results of delight”, that is the bodily reaction[,] is beginning; since yesterday in spite of its daylong continuance, there was only [an]5 ineffective attempt at physical exhaustion. There is this morning a struggle between the Siddhi which insists on the continuance of the Ananda & the prohibition of Siddhi which insists that after a day of manifestation should follow a day of reserve. The Ananda is there in the mentality of the body, held back from the outward shell, but affecting it and occasionally breaking out in distinctness at a point.

5 MS any

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Record of Yoga

Trikaldrishti 1. German defeat in Poland . . justified 2. Blowing up of Br. [British] battleship tapasic trik. from subconscient. 3. Completeness of German failure in the West All these were telepathic trikaldrishti, the decisive behind in 1. & 2, were not accepted because of tapasic doubt. All these results (1. 3. & more) are in accordance with previous Will exercised from the beginning of the war as an aid or instrument to active Asura powers against Rakshasa powers until a month ago. Utthapana Arms 2 hours with 3 interruptions, of 20 minutes, 2 minutes & 5 minutes, two of them for correcting proofs. Entire absence of pranic enthusiasm, void of mahima, absence of force in laghima; great defect of anima in the whole back. The physical being is depressed & discouraged in the matter of utthapana. Asiddhi The struggle in the Ananda resulted in an entire denial of Kamananda all the morning. There was also a violent, persistent and increasing attack of asiddhi, suspending all progress and bringing back in miniature the old movements of asamata. All three mental principles of the old sadhana were insisted upon. 1. The test of siddhi by destruction of siddhi long recognised as absurd 2. The test of siddhi by continual recurrence of asiddhi showing [each]6 time a diminution of the latter’s effective force. 3. The principle of exhaustion which is a stupidity, since all things are infinite & the things combated can be infinitely replenished. The only true means are knowledge, illumination of the whole being, and force to keep out the attacks of the Asiddhi. If 6 MS such a

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knowledge is clouded in any part of the being, force also must fail. The constant status and activity of the Vijnana is the only remedy. All the rest are merely evolutions intended to prepare the system for vijnana. Nov 29. A general quiescence since yesterday More preparation for Sahitya than Yogic progress. Only in certain points of progressive indication rather than realisation was the latter active. The impulse towards Karma continues, but does not take material form. It is only the subjective action that continues and this is in effective detail scattered & without dominant mass & in mass slowly preparatory without effective detail. Lipi 1. Major . . inert

(the passivity prepares for a greater effectivity.) 2 Efflorescence of the righteousness (ritam) in the ideality telepathy 3 Choose destruction of difficulties by effective telepathy. Utthapana 2 hours. Depression still continues. The reaction & defect of anima & mahima manifested in the second hour & were very strong. Asiddhi continues, although no longer pure asiddhi. Study of Veda in the afternoon (Hymns of Gotama Rahugana) In the morning Kamananda for a time overcame the obstruction, spontaneously. Obstruction returned by smarana. It is a mark of the Asiddhi that telepathy & suggestion are

708

Record of Yoga

extremely active, but there is no Light & no discernment (Jyotir Daksha), no power to distinguish the rightly interpreted & applied telepathy from the wrong or to give its right place & value to the suggestion . . When, however, a strong will or force, Tapas, is applied, there is a sort of unillumined rightness (ritam) which gives the right value & brings even the right trikaldrishti. This is because the knowledge descends from the vijnana & is able to pierce the cloud; but the substance of the truth comes and not the light of the truth. The vijnana began again to become active in the evening, but slowly & incompletely. Samadhi The same circumstance of dream constantly repeated. But the nature of dream & samadhi made no progress. The obscuration of vijnana contains a movement of siddhi which is divined and asserted by the tapasic suggestion, questioned and denied by the superficial experience. The acceptance of the internal light in the obscure tapas, even when it contradicts the immediate experience, becomes then a necessary development in order that the obscure tapas by justification may assume the habit of light. This assumption will be the siddhi of Vijnana. Nov 30. { rT EByA t 3EmE;r'pn { ,. aA vEq 1yA (1) aA Ev+;mE;m zt, -vk

n iqA vyo n p&tA s;mAyA,.

The passage indicates the nature of the change which the period of Asiddhi is intended to serve or prepare (2) im\ -tommh t  jAtv ds  rTEmv s\mh mA mnFqyA. This defines farther the vEq 1yA iqA (3) an;(vDmA vh mAdy-v -vAhAk$t\ v$qB vE" h&y\. ie. Bring the divine knowledge etc according to the self-fixity

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attained by the nature, that is to say, the basis provided in its formation for the revelation of what is itself infinite; let the delight be in accordance; then let the action proceed from that basis of formed knowledge & delight, but swahakrita, turned into a self energy which produces fresh results & arrives at fresh formations through those results. Vijnana Once more active in script, perception, thought, & subordinately in vani, with the inspirational nature containing intuition & discrimination and at once expressing & veiling in its direct action the revelatory faculty. The stress now is on the full value of the tapasic & the right value of the tamasic suggestions, ie on a full & complete ritam & rinam on the basis of a full & complete satyam This has to be realised in the trikaldrishti, in time, arrangement, place of action & event. Devabhava manifest as Vishnu with Agni prominent & in Agni Vayu, in Agni-Vayu Aryaman & Bhaga, Indra concealed in Agni Vayu, Mitra & Varuna behind Aryaman-Bhaga. Vishnu & Brihaspati are one. Surya is Vishnu working as Pushan & Yama. Rudra is a bhava of Vishnu. The Maruts are the host of Agni Rudra. Lipi 1. Fierce tapas 2 disability in the telepathy is not of thought, but of the delight of others (not of the universal Anandamaya; for that is known) Samadhi. A considerable movement of Siddhi in the Samadhi. 1. Jagrat Bahirdarshi restoration of the inferior, inchoate or formative movement of Rupa 2. Antardarshi a greater formative activity, crude, with all sorts of rupa. One instance of crude, dense & developed following each other in a single form, repeatedly & with some initial stability even of the developed.

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Record of Yoga

3. Continuous & organised vangmaya thought in swapnasamadhi, connected and continuous on supramental level even when mind is sushupta and retained by the mind when it awakes 4 Continual & sustained perceptive thought in sw. sm [swapna samadhi]; sometimes vijnanamaya, sometimes satya manomaya 5. Perfect coherence of lipi in swapnasamadhi, frequent 6. Coherence of vani, both of the Master & the Many in sw. sm. 7. Repeated Kamananda in swapnasamadhi. 8. Persistence of the same scene in sw. sm. rupa with changing figures in the scene, separated by intervals of non-sight. (eclipse of rupa) 9. Continuous organised action, firmly held in alternate swapna & waking; rupa first seen by chakshu, then only by manasa vision. 10. Persistence of the same scene recurrent with continuous action, more firmly held than before, but separated by intervals of non-sight. Kamananda again continuous for a time, & attempting against obstruction the complete continuity. Vijnana continues its development of satyam ritam Tapas & vijnana are being combined in Trikaldrishti-vashita, but without any perfection as yet of combination. Kamananda again succeeded in being continuously active in the evening, but afterwards failed for want of smarana. Utthapana Arms one hour. Some defect of anima at commencement. Study of the Veda. Mandala I Dream Once again obscure and dogged with present association.

711

December.

December The month of November has been marked principally by a sort of final and irrevocable confirmation of the organised fullness of the two first Chatusthayas. The one defect is in the Faith & Ishwarabhava, the faith not in the Yogasiddhi which is irrevocably confirmed, but in the Karma or rather in the Kriti, as opposed to the Sahitya and Dharma. The faith in the latter is subject to a proviso or doubt in the intellect whether something may not happen through failure of Kriti which will prevent either completion in this life of the full Yogasiddhi, ie the physical & active, or else the complete & successful exteriorisation of the Dharma & Sahitya. The deficient faith in Kriti reacts and prevents the confirmation of the Ishwarabhava and this again produces a certain fluctuation, instability and limitation of the Krishna-Kali relation and consciousness which is the basis of successful Kriti. The deficiency of the faith itself is due to experience of deficient effectivity of the Tapas unachieved organisation of the Vijnana. The second result of November has been the confirmation of the Sarvam Anantam Jnanam in the Brahmadarshana with the Ananda constantly, but not continuously manifested. The occasional veiling of the Ananda Brahman carries with it a veiling of the Lilamaya Personality in all things & persons; for the two go together The third result has been the confirmation of the satyam brihat in Jnana and with a less firmness and fullness in the trikaldrishti & telepathy and the beginnings of a full and organised ritam. The same movement has begun, but is not yet accomplished in Tapas. Samadhi is being organised in preparation for the same

712

Record of Yoga

movement, but is not yet sufficiently advanced for the final confirmation. Sharira and Kriti are being prepared; Sahitya is deployed, but not gathered together, Dharma has begun to deploy. In Sharira the Ananda is advanced, becoming more & more capable of organisation and continuity; Arogya is struggling with the tamasic dhriti of the opposition; Utthapana is alternately strong and oppressed for long periods; but inactive in certain directions & confined as yet to imperfect secondary utthapana; Saundarya struggles to manifest itself positively in certain details, in which it makes a slow advance, but is suppressed by an iron resistance in its generality. Shuddhi, Mukti, Bhukti are approaching completion; Siddhi has accomplished its basis in all but Sharira and Tapas of Kriti. In December the line of progress indicates, logically, a confirmation of the Ananda Brahman, the Lilamaya Personality, the Krishna Kali Bhava, the subjective & physical Ananda, and a development of the satyam ritam brihat in all parts of the Vijnanachatusthaya. In Sharira & Kriti, apart from Ananda, no definite progress is indicated by the past advance. Some progress is, however, inevitable in Arogya & Utthapana. Saundarya & Kriti are much more doubtful. December 1s.t. The Ritam continues to grow in an increasing firmness of the satyam, even in trikaldrishti & telepathy. This growth of the satyam ritam is communicating itself to the Tapas. The difficulty of the Tapas is to harmonise the universal, the central & the individual Will. The universal is realised in the present & past progression. The central having realised itself in the past & present determines & prepares the future. The individual submits to the central and accepts its part in the preparation & determination.

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The difficulty is to do it consciously knowing its part in relation to the whole. To know its line of action, but not the results & their relation to the whole plan & result, is not sufficient. Samadhi In jagrat antardarshi the variety is maintained but no appreciable progress made. In swapnasamadhi, perceptive thought & vangmaya became active spontaneously at a great depth of samadhi. Vani was spontaneous, along with shabda, thought & vangmaya, at a lesser depth. All these movements are now becoming normal and there is a tendency for activities of the jagrat to persist self-conscious & undistorted in the swapna. This, however, is in the daytime, not at night. At night nidra predominates. Also in swapnasamadhi, repeated kamananda[,] continuous action & conversation. The action continues with a faded chhayamaya rupa in jagrat antardarshi or light swapna. It does not yet last long in profound samadhi in which alone rupa is vivid, brilliant or varnamaya. Lipi 1 Essentiality of the twilight is the tapas 2 Internal light in the tapas.

Ananda There is now the physical Ananda of shitasparsha & atmospheric cold, but not yet entirely of the sense of chill. Certain strong touches of burning now produce Ananda. Kamananda throughout the day; subdued only while walking or working and usually then suppressed. Continued till the time of retiring.

714

Record of Yoga

Aishwarya very successful, especially with regard to the rain which stops or diminishes usually in response to the IshitaAishwarya & sometimes stops altogether. Trikaldrishti acts frequently now in the Kriti, but only in immediate things and details; it does [not] act largely or with combination. Kamananda, suppressed or dull, until sleep. In certain directions Arogya seems to be getting the upper hand. In others it is still stationary December 2d.. The Kamananda continues with a disposition to greater intensity. This is the third day of continuity. Arogya Arogya seems definitely to have the upper hand in the matter of irritation, although the dhriti of the roga is not yet expelled. In assimilation the old symptoms of roga still recur but without the same force of persistence or hold as before. Dregs of toothache, headache, cold & fever still hang about the system & seek to touch it when there is exposure or other provocation. But they do not seriously materialise. The only other roga is the weakness of the chakra which as yet shows no apparent signs of yielding. At present exposure to rain & cold (moderate) is being persistently resorted to in order to compel equality in the body. Ananda is assured, not yet Arogya. Tapas of Kriti is still effective only in defence; its positive force of effectiveness is scattered and limited. Utthapana Arms 11–2 hours. Reaction commenced, with the completion

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of the first hour and was fairly strong. The depression is not yet conquered. Ananda The difficulty of the asana has been conquered. Kamananda continued, sometimes subdued, sometimes half-suppressed, sometimes intense (even for some minutes together[)] during the whole period of the utthapana, which was throughout ambulant. Smarana & waking have now to be overpassed by the Ananda as means and conditions of its continuance. It is not dependent on smarana for its recurrence, but seeks its aid for its continuity & ceases its action when the attention is entirely absorbed elsewhere. R.V [Rig Veda]

ay\ jAyt mn;qo DrFmEn hotA yEj1 uEfjAmn;v}tmE`n, -vmn; v}t\. Ev';E, sKFyt  rEyErv v-yt . adNDo hotA EnqdEd[-pd  pErvFt i[-pd . This reference describes the movement which has occupied the morning; the growth of Agni as master of Tapas fulfilling the desires (anandamaya ishita) by self-effectivity of the Tapas; taking up all the inspirations based upon the Ananda and becoming no longer a mechanist of doubtful results but an entire friend. The last line suggests the result intended for the movement, the full establishment of complete manifested Tapas in the revelatory Vijnana (ilaspade). Samadhi In Antardrishta scenes with long continued action, eg two riders passing away from a great building at the meeting of two roads, two others galloping up, carriages driving, etc; occur freely. There is a vivid & precise sensation of the action & the movement as well as the vision, less often the sound. But in the vision only some details are quite clear & precise, although all is intelligible and more or less visible. Separate stable figures occur, but

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Record of Yoga

not with sufficient stability, clear, but not with sufficient body & vividness. At night on the borders of sleep & waking there were many perfect rupas, scenes, groups, troops, seen entirely by the manas-drishti, but also with a greater or less clearness by the chakshu. But none of these were stable or sufficiently prominent before the eye except for a moment. Some images are entirely [stable]7 but incomplete. All are crude, but sometimes dense or developed crude. Crude dense & crude developed also occur as well as their opposites This restores the antardrishta rupa, after a long period of asiddhi, to its former efficiency. It must go farther and recover the efficiency it had in the jail period of the sadhana & more, but with the vijnana to understand and interpret its figures. Perfect images, very fleeting, begin to occur in the jagrad antardrishta. In Swapnasamadhi there has been maintenance of gains with better combination of continuous shabda, sparsha, rupa. But the force of the samadhi was inferior to its force during the last two days. Kamananda almost suppressed but occasionally active in the afternoon, active in the evening. Dream coloured by present associations, but extremely detailed and coherent. December 3d.. Morning taken up with work for Review. Utthapana. Arms, one hour: defect of anima, depression of energy.

7 MS stables

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Kamananda at first not active except occasionally, with smarana; afterwards active Afternoon Kamananda active Rupa & Samadhi very active, but as yet no definite progress, except a more free & spontaneous activity of manusha shabda in jagrat as well as in swapna. The activity of Rupa is on the whole swifter & more energetic; the organisation of the elements of Samadhi oscillates Slackness of siddhi throughout the day In the evening Vijnana became more active; but there was a recrudescence of unfaith in Kriti owing to inefficiency of Tapas Dream continues in the same condition Force of Rupa is strong in Samadhi. Dec. 4th Vijnana once more active, but not with a full activity. Kamananda discontinued in the later afternoon & evening, resumed this morning. Strong denial of Tapas for a while seems again to be giving way; but there is no radical change in its force of effectivity. Utthapana 1 hour. Defect of Anima; but less depression of energy. The action of the Vijnana is still insufficient in light, force, ananda and in regularity. The faith in the Kriti is not yet really restored.

718

Record of Yoga The Affirmations also are clouded and defective

Asamata is now only manifest in occasional, separated & more or less subdued touches. Force becomes depressed, but no longer entirely inactive, although it lacks certitude and enthusiasm and regularity of action In Swapna Samadhi entire stability & entire perfection of rupa for the first time manifested. There was also a more prolonged continuity of action & shabda. Kamananda recurrent throughout the day, until sleep. Recurrent also on the morning of the fifth in Samadhi & waking, before rising. This is unprecedented. Dec 5t.h. Kamananda active. Samata and Shakti passive, but strong. The essence of the negative Samata has not really been shaken by any occurrence or contrariety; the positive is still a little feeble with regard to amangala and asatya and therefore easily overborne, but it is there at the bottom and always emerges as soon as the impact has passed. Faith is arriving at a poise when the intellect neither asserts nor denies, but simply awaits confirming or refuting result. Meanwhile, none but convincing confirmation or refutation is accepted as final, since appearances may always mislead, even when they are strong and firm in actual incidence. They may show only an immediate tendency, or at most the immediate and not the final destiny. What has now to be determined is the power of the TapasIt is now a question whether faith is necessary for its siddhi complete action. In an instance just given, the movements of a fly

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h´eb´et´e and its escape from two spiders on each side of it, faith at first made all the difference, but afterwards concentrated energy with an unresolved intellect was sufficient to produce the exact movements willed & their exact result. In other cases, it is evident that the lower Tapas is only one force among others, through which a higher direction works. The struggle now is to exchange the lower Tapas for the higher direction.. Kamananda recurrent and often continuous throughout the day. Swapna-Samadhi Lipi at first coherent in small phrases, afterwards great bulk with entire uncoherence, from which towards the end some attempt at emergence of order proceeded. Samata Positive Samata is steadily advancing, though mechanical touches of depression of a purely physical order still continue.. Preference in Tapas is still accompanied by vague reactions in the outward nervous consciousness of the physical body, but these are merely a survival of the old habit. There is a great mass of true samata behind in which titiksha, udasinata & nati are fused into a complete harmony of shanti. The perfect Ananda still depends on faith in details founded on vijnana & faith in kriti founded on habit of effective Tapassiddhi. Lipi. First entirety of lipi, then of telepathy. Swapna-Samadhi Continued growth of perfectly stable rupa, but this does not yet hold its field entirely. The rest is in a state of struggle to advance. Utthapana one hour defective anima..

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Record of Yoga

Dec 6t.h. Vijnana This morning it appeared that the combination of Tapas & trikaldrishti has made great progress; it is not yet perfect in all details or in decisive trikaldrishti but the telepathic parts are wellcombined. This achievement is as yet typical only, but the type is surer & more equable than it has been in the past. There is also a movement towards its generalisation. There is a forward movement towards entirety in lipi and in telepathic trikaldrishti. In the former the defect is insufficient vividness and a stability not yet perfectly assured. In the latter insufficiency of material and too haphazard a selection. The eagerness of tapas and the desire of rapidity are being entirely suppressed in order that they may not interfere with effectivity of tapas and effectuation of rapidity. Lipi 1. It is the intelligent aishwarya that is being established. 2. It is the entirety of the lipi (that is to say, the siddhi represented by the appearance of this entire phrase sufficiently stable in the akasha or sadhara). 3. It is the intensity of the entirety (that is, the long stability and the combination of many phrases not yet established). Utthapana Defective Anima almost stereotyped. At the beginning & end oppression of energy. Kamananda continues, but is constantly besieged & obstructed, especially when walking. The siddhi of it recently established is not yet permanent. It is once more partly subject to Asana & Smarana, & even so obstructed and often oppressed. Swapnasamadhi. Extremely successful. Activity of form, scene, word. Stable continuity of action in perfect stability of scene was fixed into the

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chittakasha and securely possessed by the eye which did not for a moment lose the rupa, and this not in one case, but two or three. The continuity was long & perfect. Kamananda recurrent, but much obstructed. In the afternoon it was continuous for a time with intensity. The organised vijnana interrupted for some days past showed signs of recovery. Truncated vijnana is always active. Lipi grows in spontaneous frequency of entirety. Jagrat rupa other than chitra is only occasionally active. Dec 7t.h. Vijnana Aishwarya Vashita acted successfully on seven movements of birds & insects in a minute or two with only slight resistance. The Aishwarya from above was effective; it is accompanied by a movement of effort contradicting the Ishwarabhava, but this tends to fall away. In other instances afterwards (children, fourfooted animals) the effect was incomplete, compelling only a partial movement in the sense suggested, or came only after a long denial. But in all cases there was either whole or half or three quarters success. In other cases the resistance showed itself only in partial divagations. Only in one case was the final movement contrary, & there the Will was not persisted in. In another the object came back after a short absence & executed the required movement. The Power is not yet perfect, but it shows a great advance on its past effectuality. It is at the degree 50º – 60º & is now almost habitual. But it does not yet apply with equal force to Sharira & Kriti. There it only produces effect in details, in movements, & after long pressure in broad & final results. But there is no mastery over the object, only a more or less successful pressure. Adverse result is still frequent. Lipi is recovering its former occasional intensity of action.

722

Record of Yoga

In Aishwarya it now happens frequently that even the set intention of the object is often changed, a new thought or impulse being suggested which fulfils the required movement. This siddhi is not yet complete. As a rule a set intention in the object especially if an adult man, is too strong for the Vashita. Ishita occasionally acts with great effectiveness. All the morning the general efficacy of Tapas has maintained itself, but against a greater resistance. It has fallen back from 60º to 50º. In only one instance the final result was repeatedly baulked, even though it was several times on the point of completion. In others partial effect. In most complete. Ishita is manifesting the same efficiency as Aishwarya-Vashita. Kamananda mostly obstructed in the morning & early afternoon, became again active, spontaneous and independent of smarana. It was afterwards again oppressed, but continued to be recurrent There was an attempt at a general attack on the health, but it did not materialise except slightly at one minor point, throwing back a siddhi that had almost been attained. The Ananda of atmospheric cold is more & more confirmed. An attack of events was made on the samata & shakti but failed to depress them. Calm & Tapas continued. Only faith was slightly & externally touched. The organisation of Vijnana has been resumed, in Script & Reference especially. There is some difficulty in establishing the pure inevitability of the Vangmaya. The basis of vijnanamaya progression is now definite.

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December 8t.h. Ez. [Ezekiel] 34. 17. . 31 Lipi. 1. Judge (in vijnana) 2. Startling effectivities. 3. Sleeping lioness (Durga-Kali). R. [Reference] 1 And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying “May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is. For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears; we would know therefore what these things mean.[”] 2 Ezra V. 1 – 2 Utthapana Arms. 21–2 hours. (Yesterday 11–4 hour) At first exactly as during the last few days, strong defect of anima with occasional oppression of energy. But as soon as the body refused to yield to the Asiddhi, the old Siddhi manifested itself. The utthapana could have been continued for the full three hours. It is evident therefore that the siddhi here also is safe, asiddhi factitious, except in so far as it is a defect of anima and of sraddha of the body in its own progress. Tapas was less effective than yesterday. Strong isolated effect of Kriti in the vicinity. It is now definitely established that samata and shakti cannot be overthrown. Even faith in Kriti suffers only from uncertainty, not from actual breach. It is still limited in its scope. The organisation of vijnana is proceeding almost of itself, but it occupies the gross of the attention. For attention is still necessary, not for its action of a kind, but for its perfect and organised & continuous action.

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Record of Yoga

As soon as this necessity ceases, the whole of the attention will be concentrated on Karma & Sharira. Already this is being prepared. There is a certain promise of greater rapidity in the siddhi. Physical Ananda makes progress. Kamananda (as indicated first by a reference) became strong & spontaneous in the evening & so continued with a slight break till sleep. Tivra inflicted on another subtle body was communicated to this physical body in the waking state. This usual[ly] happens only in Samadhi. Subjective Ananda is now ready to possess the physical prana. Dream coherent, but chiefly a combination of old familiar thoughts, once customary, now forgotten. Stable rupa & continuous action, shabda etc now common in swapna-samadhi; but not usually with a firm hold on the Akasha. December 9t.h. Vijnana Rapid effectivity of Aishwarya-Vashita increases in frequency. The full effectivity now depends on rapidity & on the removal of the resistance offered by previous intention, will, temperament or nervous & physical tendency. When this is accomplished, Aishwarya & Ishita will be completely siddha. Proof continually comes of ultimate effectiveness of tapas, even when at first it seems to have failed. Also of justice of telepathic perception, even when immediate outward circumstances seem to contradict it. Decisive trikaldrishti is acquiring brihat & even rightness of circumstance, but there is still an absence of well-combined ritam.

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725

Predictions for today were put down in yesterday’s script 1. a great advance in lipi 2 a great advance in telepathy 3 some advance in decisive trikaldrishti 4 some advance in effectuality of tapas. 5 some advance in rupasamadhi. 2. 3. 4. are already being fulfilled. Utthapana Arms. 2 hours 42 minutes (interrupted at end by having to bathe). Defect of anima slight, except in reaction of stiffness when bringing down the arms. Oppression slight, occasional & ineffective. Defect of anima in back diminished. Ananda. Movements of pain & discomfort formerly acute are now giving Ananda. Lipi Lipi is becoming more vividly legible & intelligible. Formerly its stability was limited to phrases of four or five words & usually existed only in separate words, now it is extending itself to short sentences. Rupa All rupa siddhi is shown to be safe. The perfect forms are trying to become stable before the direct regard. Developed & dense forms formerly only visible at night (in lamplight) now begin to appear by daylight. These, when a little loose and vague in material are fairly stable. In antardrishta developed & crude forms (objects), stable, have begun to be more frequent, but they are far from being perfect. Long, continued action of a perfectly stable figure (horse & man) is preserved. Utthapana Arms, vertical, sitting, 1 hr 18 minutes. This makes a total of 4 hours & restores suddenly the siddhi of the 23d & 24th November after a decline of exactly a fortnight.

726

Record of Yoga

Physical weariness is being replaced by pranic unwillingness. This was manifest in the last half hour. Kamananda Very intense at times and tending to be continuous in its intensity. Script All five predictions of yesterday’s script have now been fulfilled. In addition two others. 6. Utthapana and Arogya will continue to be pressed. 7. Kamananda will gain continually and not go back. Lipi 1. The perfection of the lipi. 2 The intensity of the delight. 3 The liberty of the body. These, it seems, are three of the siddhis that are now to be evolved. 4. The intellectuality resists the ideality for a space. 5. It is longing to be justified in the ideality. Vijnana In vangmaya the vak suddenly attained to the entirety of the pure inevitable form & recovered intensity of force, light & ananda. Lipi repeated its gains in antardrishta. Dream less troubled by personal association, but not perfectly organised. Vaidyuta Ananda has begun, but needs smarana and does not yet hold the body. Dec 10t.h. Samata The Samata (positive) is being frequently tried by the old movements that used to disturb it. Momentary physical disturbance still comes, but is held by the Chit-Tapas & immediately rectified.

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It is allowed to recur in order that the displeasure of the physical being may be turned into the pleasure of a contact forcibly endured. Brahman The Jnanam Brahma is now as strong as the Sarvam was previously & all beings are seen as personalities of that Brahman. Anandam & Anantam are held a little back in order that there may be a full sense of weakness (defect) and depression, grief etc as movements of Anantam & Anandam self-constraining movements. This cannot be felt when there is too strong a sense of the Purna & Vaisva, for then the minor & constrained movement is overpowered by the major & free movement. When the Ananda of this lesser movement is entirely grasped by the sensation, then the full Anandamaya Purusha in all things can be fixed finally in the darshana. Kamananda yesterday was at a very high level of intensity; there has been this morning an attempt to take advantage of the principle of recoil to interrupt it. But it continues with the same intensity. It is now equally capable of continuous intensity while walking, but not equally habituated to it. Utthapana 31–4 hours, walking. Great stiffness as result of yesterday; occasionally violent oppression, at other times heavy pressure of defect of anima. At end, last half hour, acute pain in the shoulder-muscles. It is now clear that laghima & mahima are sufficiently developed to maintain secondary utthapana of any part of the body, for any time, if allowed by the defect of anima. The latter is stronger in some parts of the body, weaker in others. Hence the variations of the power of utthapana. Mahima & laghima are not yet strong enough for tertiary utthapana, ie utth. of the whole body raised from the earth.

728

Record of Yoga

Ananda The acute continued pain in the muscles recurring & sometimes almost constantly for nearly half an hour came as ananda to the psychic prana and to the physical as pain in which it took & felt pleasure. To a part of the physical prana it was pure ananda. The liberty of the body in ananda is therefore assured, even already gained and has only to be applied uniformly. Unexpected pain usually used to surprise the body with the negation of ananda; now even unexpected pain comes as ananda, though to a less degree than watched or anticipated pain. Sharira. Liberty of the body is assured in ananda, waits only for the removal of defect of anima in utthapana, but is still to be won in arogya & saundarya. It is noticeable that defect of anima in the back & legs obeyed the prohibition of the Tapas and that the after reaction is being reduced. The sense of exhaustion after effort is being expelled from the physical consciousness. Vijnana During utthapana a great & large activity of vijnanamaya thought harmonising all oppositions, explaining all appearances, justifying all forces, illuminating the truth of all suggestions. This movement has farther fortified the positive samata against all sorts of attacks and is preparing the enthusiastic faith. Utthapana 21–4 hours after meals making all together 51–2 hours. The pranic unwillingness much reduced since yesterday; in the body only an effort, in the left arm[,] the usual offender, at pain quickly reduced to mere stiffness. The utthapana could have been continued indefinitely.. Defect of anima is rapidly ceasing to be an effective obstacle.

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Ananda Continued ahaituka tivrananda with smarana, but overriding & independent of physical will, continued even in samadhi. Samadhi Lipi in swapna-samadhi coherent in short sentences and in deep samadhi read coherently for three lines together. Frequent stable rupa with fixed scene & long-continued movement & action. Crude in light samadhi, but not in deep samadhi. Perceptive & vangmaya thought perfect & in possession in continued profound samadhi coherent, organised, long-continued, perfectly vijnanamaya, regardless of mental sushupti. Rupa in jagrat active in the crude Utthapana Another 35 minutes at night, making the 6 hours Prediction in Script for today was of advance throughout the Vijnana as well as in Ananda, Arogya & Utthapana. In utthapana amply fulfilled; in Ananda steady advance of Kamananda, rapid of Raudra, consolidated of Tivra. Strong Vaidyuta sahaituka but spontaneous, suddenly began; ahaituka is there, imperceptibly increasing, as also Ahaituka Vishaya. The advance in Arogya is more doubtful except that the Tapas is more able to work in the body & repel the attacks of Roga from outside. In the Vijnana there is a general advance especially in Brihat of telepathy, in Samadhi, in Lipi & in thought. On the other hand brihat Trikaldrishti resisted & Aishwarya has suspended part of its advance. Dec 11t.h. Attack of Asiddhi by means of obscuration. The Script predicts. 1. Recovery of full Tapassiddhi 2 Activity of Vijnana.

730

Record of Yoga 3 4 5 6

Progress to fulfilment of Trikaldrishti. Growth of Rupa & Samadhi Growth of Power of Arogya Growth of the consolidated Ananda objective & subjective 7. Growth of utthapana 8 Weak beginnings of Saundarya. Utthapana 2 hours 52 minutes interrupted. Defect of Anima felt. Some fatigue in the muscles. Greater reaction than yesterday. Afterwards 10 minutes more. Ananda. Movements connected with Asamata are now almost entirely turned into ananda of the tamoguna. Raudra was felt in pain of great acuteness and continuity, of the nature of agony, but not entirely overpowering. It remains to be seen whether actual agony can be so converted without farther relapses Kamananda more & more normal in walking. Today it is more frequently recurrent than continuous, but intense when it manifests. Lipi is now beginning to manifest double sentences in two lines, both in bahirdarshi & antardarshi. Jagrat rupa after being held back since its last movement is now manifesting dense & developed forms with a persistent but shifting stability. The attempt of perfect forms to stabilise themselves is not yet successful. In Samadhi more coherent lipi sometimes in two lines; stable rupa. Tapas siddhi is recovering itself, but is still hampered by a consolidated resistance.

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It is now restored to its full former activity. At the same time telepathy and decisive trikaldrishti have resumed their progress, but the excessive stress endures.. The subjective parts of the programme are therefore being fulfilled. Utthapana has grown only in the fact that after so immense a deployment of force, the reaction has not been sufficient to break the 3 hours minimum. Ananda is undoubtedly growing in tivra & raudra. In the rest, the growth is still doubtful. Power of Arogya grows generally, but is not yet manifest in the removal of remnants Nothing new is noticeable in Saundarya In Samadhi there is now fluent reading of successive lines of more or less coherent lipi. In Rupa, jagrat bahirdarshi stable dense rupa begins to fix itself. Powerful consolidation of the Kali-bhava. Dec 12t.h. Predictions of yesterday’s script. 1. Ananda of all kinds, Utthapana, Arogya will continue to progress. 2. The pressure on Saundarya to manifest will increase. 3. The general organisation of the Vijnana will proceed in a movement of unprecedented rapidity

732

Record of Yoga

Utthapana. Arms walking 3 hours. Defect [of] Anima, but ineffective against established siddhi. However, it persists in order to prevent improvement of siddhi. The three hours limit has triumphantly survived a doubling of the utthapana in time extension. This is the fourth day of the three hours exercise, the second after the six hours realisation. Extraordinary perfection of vijnanamaya thought, perfect satyam in knowledge of force; less effective attempt to extend entire satyam in knowledge to telepathy & trikaldrishti. Rupa develops a little more stability in the dense. The chief siddhi of the morning is the entire confirmation of the Kali bhava & entire possession of the world in subjective unity by the Jiva-Prakriti. Raudra Ananda, yesterday & today, is constantly developing and possessing more firmly all reactions of pain & discomfort. Subjectively, also, amangala is increasingly ananda. Premananda intense & active, applying itself to all things & persons. Lipi 1 Firmly 2 Daily effectuality 3 Tapas-siddhi. Samadhi-Rupa. Lipi in three lines in chitra. Swapna-Samadhi maintained in status, but no fresh progress, nor is long-continued action with firm hold on akasha repeated. Sahaituka Vaidyutananda is becoming frequent & in its train ahaituka vaidyuta.

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Ahaituka raudra is reappearing with a greater generality Ahaituka vishaya comes usually combined with the others. Combinations of raudra & tivra together or with vishaya and vaidyuta are frequent. Many of these movements are still obscure. In the general unity of the Bhava vaira & prema have suddenly become harmonised & united. Formerly when they were not opposed, they stood side by side without mixing. A certain degree of burning (when the finger is pressed on the lighted cigar) becomes too poignant for the nerves; but this is a degree of heat much higher than formerly. Continuous burning of this kind can now, below that point, be both borne & enjoyed. The degree is constantly & swiftly rising. Heat of the sun after a time becomes discomfort, not owing to the degree of outer heat, but to the oppression due to the reaction of heat in the body. This has not yet been overcome. The first touch of very cold water fluctuates between ananda & discomfort. Continued it is only ananda. The organisation of telepathy, trikaldrishti & Tapas siddhi in a block has now begun. Isolated trikaldrishti is often entirely perfect and independent of telepathy contrary that is to say to immediate force & intention & yet true in fulfilment. This siddhi is rapidly growing. The rapidity is indeed very great in all Vijnana except rupaSamadhi. It is already “unprecedented”. The Sharira continues to progress in all its parts, except Saundarya, but not so decisively in Arogya & Utthapana as in Ananda, nor so decisively in Kamananda as in others, nor so decisively in Ahaituka as in Sahaituka. Authority of script & lipi, thought & vangmaya is growing in force, greatly in the two first, immensely in the others.

734

Record of Yoga

Kamananda is now entirely independent of asana & essentially of smarana for its recurrence or continuance. It is attempting an entire & spontaneous continuity & a greater level of intensity. The organisation of telepathy, trikaldrishti & tapas siddhi in one block has now definitely begun. Utthapana of back & loins, 3 minutes. Shakti defective. Copious play of sthapatya & chitra rupa, with beginnings of the tendency to manifest forms everywhere. Akasha Rupa is attempting a general organisation of its movements, but does not yet progress victoriously Dec 13 Utthapana of legs, medial position, 20 minutes. Laghima improved, defect of mahima, strong defect of anima. Script yesterday predicted for the day beginnings of the unprecedented rapidity in rupa-samadhi and telepathy-trikaldrishtitapas siddhi; as well as farther developments of arogyashakti, utthapana & ananda. The beginning was felt in T3 [telepathy-trikaldrishti-tapas siddhi]; but not in rupa-samadhi, as there was only progress in details in samadhi & a tendency in rupa. Utthapana & Ananda began fresh developments. Arogyashakti was strong enough to negate the attempt at a fresh general attack on the body, to bear exposure at night to cold air from both windows without reaction of fever, cold etc, to expel partially symptoms of one remnant-disease and to compel some progress in assimilation which has yet to be confirmed. For today is predicted 1. Continuation of the same rapidity in vijnana, in subjective base of Karma (Krishna-Kali) & in Brahmadarshana. 2. Beginnings of a greater rapidity in Sharira.

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The advance in utthapana seems to indicate that the second prediction will be fulfilled. Lipi Chitra lipi in several lines is now established, only the words after they have been read, tend to change rapidly. Vani Truth of all sorts of Vani is established. Krishna. These vanis represent the mental voices of the Deva & principally the operation of fusion between the Indrabhava which is still independent and the Agni-Vayu-Aryaman bhava (Rudra-Vishnu) which is predominant. Karma Tapas In Kriti the forces of opposition still prevail and have some notable successes. In Tapas the forces of resistance that prevent full Aishwarya & the establishment of the 60 degrees power, maintaining constantly the survival of the 30º, 40º & 50º, with the 60º as an occasional movement, still hold the field, though with greater effort than before. Krishna Kali The Krishna Kali consciousness is beginning to realise itself. It is indeed realised in the Saguna Brahman, but not in the Ishwara (Lilamaya). The fusion of Indra into the Agni -Vayu -Aryaman (containing already Mitra -Varuna -Surya -Bhaga -Aswins -Brihaspati Twashtri -Maruts -Ribhus) seems to have been effected. The female energies have already been resumed in the Mahakali bhava. Only shadows now remain of the separate bhavas, shadows that are about to be absorbed.

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Record of Yoga

Utthapana 2 hrs 40 m. Obstinate defect of anima consolidated in stiffness of shoulder-muscles. In the rest of the body, dull though always repeated. Krishna Kali Krishna Kali consciousness of the Iswara mould is now manifesting. Tapas-siddhi Swift, sudden & complete organised tapas-siddhi in immediate kriti (event last night, justifying yesterday’s prediction of beginning of rapidity). If the same can be effected habitually in distant kriti, then the visvaiswarya will be accomplished. Rupa. The turning of Rupa, begun last night, to organise its various separated & conflicting tendencies of the past into one mass movement is today more pronounced. These tendencies are 1) to manifest form always out of an initial blur of material 2) to manifest forms of all kind of material 3) to manifest clear, crude form not stable. 4) to manifest stable crude, not clear 5) to manifest stable dense, not quite complete. 6) to manifest developed out of dense 7) to manifest unstable perfect forms 8) to stabilise perfect forms, not always complete. 9) to manifest variety of human forms, animals, landscapes, groups, scenes etc. Ananda. Subjective Kamananda is beginning to remanifest & generalise itself. Utthapana Arms (sitting), half an hour.

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Vijnana Frequent sukshma gandha during the day. Lipi 1. first Li`ege foresee Antwerp 2. M. Ephor Colossus 3 hW hWA. 4 thorough military charge (change?) 5 lose not the entire faith 6 satya 7 doubt is the refuge of the denial. 8. two (2d.. ch. or two days) 9. fix third. (chatusthaya) The two line lipi is being fixed in chitra, akasha & antardarshi. All parts of the Vijnana are now being prepared for practicality & combined to that end. This includes sukshma shabda (manushi vak) which is becoming more coherent. It is also being applied to the lokas. Krishna is fixed in the self, but varies between swapada & mentality. Dec 14 Predictions of Script (1) Great stride forward in T3; considerable strengthening of Rupa-samadhi. (2) Continuation of the greater rapidity in Sharira. In the morning fresh attack on Kriti, combined from all sides of the immediate action. Tapas siddhi in environment shows a growing force in spite of resistance.

738

Record of Yoga Lipi is acquiring fixity in chitra Kamananda has triumphantly overcome its ordeal.

Satyam of telepathy is complete; it must become ritam. Trikaldrishti must manifest brihat satyam, & also tapas Strong activity of luminous thought & telepathy combined with entire satyam. Lipi. 1. Light of telepathy Effectuality of trikaldrishti. There is a struggle between static perception of event & dynamic perception of event (passive & active Chit). The latter which alters the event predestined by the ensemble of forces by a personal intervention (ie of higher forces) is becoming rapidly stronger & brings with [it] increasing satyam of trikaldrishti & increasing satyam of tapas-siddhi. The active Chit is either effectual trikaldrishti or effective will on the supramental plane (lower vijnana); but in higher Vijnana, they are twin actions and in Sachchidananda are inseparable & indiscernible. They are now moving upwards towards the higher vijnana and therefore approaching each other more & more. Kamananda is now continuous for a long period. But its hold is not yet confirmed in the body It is not yet entirely naturalised. Tapas-siddhi grows in force. Utthapana Arms 1 hour 55 minutes. Interrupted. Some depression of energy in the body. Legs 30 minutes. Mahima increased, but still very deficient, laghima not sufficient to take its place, strong positive defect of anima from the beginning owing to reaction of stiffness in the leg

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muscles. Throughout a violent struggle; but the laghima increased to the end. Samadhi Manushi Vak coherent conversation . . short sentences regarding things of the moment in Europe . . of this world, not the other lokas. Rupa Rupa still attempts to stabilise perfect forms, but increases in general force without getting definite results. Ananda The continuity of Kamananda continues; there is also a sort of subdued or diffused intensity. This sometimes gives place to a great or even the beginnings of a massed intensity. The Ananda since meal-time has only been partially discontinued by force of interruption in sleep. Even if interrupted by sleep or other cause, it should resume automatically on waking and not have to be brought back by will or by lapse of time. It is to this siddhi that it is moving. But the continuity is still too dependent on Asana. Krishnabhava & Darshana Krishnabhava is often obscure in the mentality, although fixed. Ishwaradarshan (Anandamaya) is combated by the mental formation of the jnanam Brahma and the perception of the udvigna Anandabhava. This disappears only by the recovery of Chidghanananda Utthapana Back & loins, 8 minutes, maintained with immense difficulty owing to defect both of laghima & mahima; both were withheld except in infinitesimal quantity; just sufficient to prevent the effort from collapsing.

740

Record of Yoga

Ananda Kamananda is more constant today than it has been before. It has been maintained with only a few intermissions from 1 to 6.30 minus an hour of sleep & samadhi, when it was recurrent & ceased to be continuous. This is a true continuity, & no longer a continuous recurrence. Subjective Kamananda also continues to increase its hold and generality. The Ananda was continued till sleep 1.30 always recurrent & spontaneous, and even in a subdued form continuous. Discontinued for sleep or any other cause, it revived at once when the cause was removed. This happened also in the morning at 5 on waking, for the first time, as usually it takes some time in the morning for it to revive. Great abundance of rupa etc in swapna-samadhi everything but the firm hold of the experiences of Samadhi on the chittakasha. Tapas, telepathy, etc continue to grow. Dec 15. Utthapana Right leg, horizontal, crooked, lying on side, 1 hour. For the first 45 minutes defect of anima only occasional and quite ineffective; easy utthapana. During the last quarter of hour acute attack compelling momentary desistence. It was overcome in the end but not entirely. This is an unprecedented success, as this form was formerly the most difficult & could not be maintained for more than 20 minutes. The improvement is quite sudden, comes after a long discontinuance and shows, 1. That practice is only an excuse for habituating the body to the idea of a change which in itself could be otherwise effected 2. That siddhis prepare effectively behind the veil. 3. That laghima in the body is already sufficient, if defect of anima could be expelled,

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4. That defect of anima is artificially maintained & ought long ago to have disappeared Arogyashakti is standing stronger & stronger tests. The rapidity of the advance in Sharira cannot be questioned. It was predicted in the Script that this rapidity will be rapidly increased. The increase seems already to have begun. Rupa in last night’s samadhi did sometimes hold the akasha and complete its movement perfectly. Swapnasamadhi is now nearing the point when it can be perfectly organised. Jagrat is still subject to the general obstacle. Darshana Ishwaradarshana is established in inanimate things; with regard to persons it comes and is taken away and forcibly withheld Today, however, by the stronger perception of the Anandamaya as lord of all action & not only of all bhoga, it is becoming firmer with regard to persons. Vijnana T3 this morning has made a great advance and is approaching fullness of satyam, although as yet in type frequently realised, not in general fashion Script on the 12th fixed five days as the period of incubation for T3, after which it will be ready to undertake perfection. This is especially for the Tapas siddhi, telepathy & trikaldrishti preceding it. The same period is fixed for the removal of the obstacle in Rupa-Samadhi. Darshana It is the mentality in the object that, as usual, presents the chief obstacle to the Ishwaradarshana & divides the man from his real Self. This is now being corrected by the mind being seen

742

Record of Yoga

as an activity formulated & directed in himself by the universal Ishwara. To this is now being added the same relation of mind to the transcendent Ishwara in the individual. All that has now to be done is to confirm thoroughly the Krishnabhava & Ishwaradarshana against surprise & interruption, as is being done with the already established Kalibhava. Utthapana Arms. 21–2 hours. Strong defect of anima with usual oppression & occasional depression of the energy; twice there was deflection for relief to the horizontal position. Action of the limbs now begins to be left to the Pranashakti. This means, when effected, generalisation of primary utthapana and intensity in the body of tertiary dasya. Rupa Rupa in jagrat is now to be based on the realisation that all is there except a generalised clear stability. Nothing has to be entirely accepted except what is at once clear & stable. Such figures now occur more frequently; but the general obstacle still remains. Ananda Kamananda continues, really continuous, but in its entirely sensible manifestation constantly recurrent. It is yet of too insufficient a force, except in seated asana, to enforce smarana in spite of absorption of attention elsewhere. The Ananda has more mass than formerly & begins to take some hold of the body. Rupa Unstable figures tend to be more clear & vivid and are sometimes admirable in their own mode. Script There will be a new movement of the siddhi from today aiming

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at the preparation of perfection in Vijnana and Sharira. Vijnana Swapna-samadhi Various indications of the sati but isolated. 1. Sweet tea drunk with aswada 2 Tivra in samadhi. 3 Conversation, brief but coherent. 4 Three or four lines of lipi coherently read 5 Admirably vivid phrase lipi Antardrishta jagrat less active & fruitful, but though it does not advance, it has not really fallen back. Lipi Three line lipi, confirmed in Akasha and on background as well as in chitra, in swapna as well as in jagrat, has now to be given a firmer stability & then extended to page lipi and other extensions of the perfect writing Script There is now a certain amount of confidence in vijnanamaya vak when it expresses trikaldrishti. There must be entire confidence in vijnanamaya vak, thought-perception, lipi, rupa, samadhiexperience, vani, all instruments of the vijnana; but first there must be an accurate interpretation of everything that presents itself to the mind. For that accuracy mind itself must cease to judge even in the slightest degree. It is vijnana that must perceive, represent, interpret, judge the revelation, the inspiration, the intuition, the discrimination. Lipi Kaushalya of the lipi is beginning to organise itself (different colours, jyotirmaya lipi, vividness, stability). Script It is necessary to give oneself up passively to the Power that governs. All will shape itself rapidly & inevitably.

744

Record of Yoga

Lipi 1. It is today ideality begins its definite victory. 2. Tomorrow the intelligence quite submits (fulfilled 16th Dec.) 3 it is difficult in the neighbourhood of intelligence for subjectivity to be free from intelligence * 4 the intelligence is a very bad judge especially the logical intellect.* 5 first ideality in all parts of itself * Examples of the two lined & three lined lipi Script Overstress will now easily be got rid of. There is a check apparently in Arogya and Utthapana, not in the growth of the Shakti, but in its successful manifestation. Ananda is overcoming the check. The other two will also overcome it. Rupa Rupa begins to manifest a more effective force of formation, but it is still upon the old lines of gradual development. Ananda Raudra ahaituka manifests only occasionally, but with increasing intensity. Kamananda continues its development, but hampered by the old sanskara of asmarana. Utthapana Utthapana failed in the legs. There is a strong return of physical depression of energy, less powerful than before, but still effective. It prevents result; it does not prevent action. Utthapana of arms sitting, half an hour. Strong depression of energy and physical unwillingness.

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Siddhi In the vijnana also there was an apparent slackening of the siddhi, such as has always been noticeable in periods of transition.. As usual unfaith assailed the mind, but had not the same effect as formerly. Nevertheless, faith in kriti is still easily depressed; it does not disappear, but is rendered doubtful & overcrowed by its contradiction. Faith & Ishwarabhava are still the weak points in the two accomplished chatusthayas, and prevent the fulfilment of their full fruition. The accomplishment of the Ishwaradarshana will greatly facilitate the perfection of the Ishwarabhava. That again will facilitate the fulfilment of the three unaccomplished chatusthayas. Dream Dream still fluctuates between freedom from present association & an entire though thinly enforced subjection to it. Dec 16. Entire confirmation of the Krishnabhava and the personal relation (madhura-dasya). At the same time the Ishwaradarshana becomes more powerful in the world. Utthapana Legs. 14 minutes. Defect of anima still insistent, but laghima more mahat than before. Vijnana T3 Telepathy & perceptive (telepathic) trikaldrishti seem to be fairly ready for perfection (ritam) but effective trikaldrishti lingers for want of tapas-siddhi.

746

Record of Yoga

Effective trikaldrishti (telepathic) is now taking its place in this fulfilment along with the rest. Only tapas-siddhi lingers behind. The greater force of tapassiddhi is confirmed but at 50º. 60º and above manifest, but without hold on things. In spite of all resistance it is true that in T3 there is an ever increasing rapidity of growth. The Ishwara has taken up the satyam of the telepathytrikaldrishti-tapassiddhi. A sudden, puissant & compelling rapidity of effect is manifesting itself in the effective trikaldrishti which is supported by decisive trikaldrishti & the Will of the Master. At the same time the Rudra in the Ishwara is manifesting. The gigantic imaginations of Alipur are being confirmed by the Vani & Script, and the War in Europe is given as an imperfect type. But the mind, though overpowered is not yet entirely willing to believe. Utthapana 2 hours. The old system of laghima supported by a pranic mahima working partially through the muscles, with reaction, strain & defect of anima, still persists. It must be replaced by a laghima containing pure mahima in itself and producing no strain on the body which in its turn must get rid of the purely habitual reaction of defect of anima. Great activity of the jnana under the new conditions preparing a comprehensive Tapas & trikaldrishti on the basis of the Krishnabhava and Ishwarabhava. Rupa has developed clear stability, but with insufficient force and with no variety of forms.

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Siddhi A strong attack on faith & samata which for the moment reintroduced touches of partially effective ashanti. Script 1. In spite of all this disturbance faith in the entire rapidity will be rapidly established; for the Tapas-siddhi is on the point of manifesting. 2. Today, rapidity of Rupa-samadhi will be confirmed. 3 Ananda, Arogya, Utthapana will emerge again from the apparent denial of rapidity from today to tomorrow. Always Ananda first. 2. has been already partially fulfilled. 3 has been fulfilled by a sudden development of Tivra & raudra.. 4. The period for the physical siddhi begins from today and extends to the end of the month. 5. Karmachatusthaya in its subjective parts will be perfectly established in the same period. In its objective parts it will begin to emerge during the fortnight. Utthapana Left leg horizontal ten minutes. In the left leg as in the left arm defect of anima is much stronger than in the right. Ananda Great development of tivra; at double point, persistent, continuous in recurrence, ahaituka, entirely spontaneous, frequently recurrent. In the rest of the body it is beginning to assume that character, while it responds acutely to sukshma hetu. Raudra is less long continued, but still has acquired some continuity, entire spontaneity and great intensity. It grows rapidly in force of continuity

748

Record of Yoga

On the other hand, Ananda, interrupted, sank for a time to its lowest or subdued point of continuity. Intense ahaituka vaidyuta has also swiftly established itself. It is already capable of continuity. Kamananda is again intense & [continuous].8 The five Anandas are preparing to join hands. Ahaituka Vishaya is manifest but in conjunction with the others. Samadhi Swapnasamadhi is preparing generality of vijnana in all its movements and experiences. Clearness, stability, variety are beginning to manifest in rupa on a background.. The figures are necessarily crude. Ananda. The subjective Anandas are also preparing for a brihat universality and sajatyam, especially Prema, Kama, Chidghana in the final vision of the universal Anandamaya Ishwara, which has suddenly manifested & accomplished the Brahmachatusthaya. Faith Faith in the entire rapidity of the Vijnana & Ananda is restored & fixed. It is not yet extended to the whole Sharira Chatusthaya or to the objective parts of the Karma Chatusthaya Dream A number of dreams more clearly remembered, all of the same character, coherence not quite perfect, present association less egoistic, but not quite expunged. Kamananda strong & continuous or constantly recurrent during the evening. 8 MS continuity

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Dec 17 Vijnana The 60º Tapas-siddhi is becoming more & more frequent & can sometimes be applied with great continuity & to a succession of cases. Telepathy now definitely exceeds the possible limits of sense, inference etc; the trikaldrishti also deals fearlessly with results beyond the immediate assemblage of active forces; but as the management of the unseen & uninferrable is difficult for the mind, it throws in an element of wrong inference & suggestion which leaves the substantial truth of the results untouched, but distorts slightly the incidence of fact & the arrangement of details, the ritam. Much of the anritam comes by the attempt of mind to make a formation from the elements of the satyam that it receives instead of allowing the truth of ritam to manifest itself. That which forms is not mind, but vijnana. The attempt of the Sadhana now is to arrive at the ritam, being already sure of the satyam, but for this to be accomplished, mind must become entirely passive. T3 is now ready to undertake perfection, except for the greater deformation of satyam in Tapassiddhi & effective trikaldrishti which has to be corrected Utthapana Legs, medial position. No mahattwa in laghima, 15 minutes only, the last two with great difficulty. Ananda Ahaituka Vishaya distinct from the rest, strong & intense, massive (pajas) has manifested. This completes the ensemble of the five physical Anandas.

750

Record of Yoga

Script The important movements today are in 1. Ananda Strong 2. Rupasamadhi of all kinds ? 3 T3 4 Sharira generally Less strong > 5 Karma The movement henceforth will not be absent from any of the unaccomplished chatusthayas or unaccomplished parts of chatusthayas. Vijnana is now in a sense accomplished, but its organisation, intensity & effectuality are still imperfect. Ananda is accomplished, but has to be organised. KrishnaKali is accomplished, but has yet to be entirely fulfilled in the intended harmony & effectuality. Vijnana Tapas-siddhi Instances of 70º are now manifesting themselves, in brief continuity or succession. The T3 is beginning to be organised. 60º & 70º are becoming common. At the same time the invariable insistence on immediate result is being renounced by the tapasic forces which are trying to put themselves in harmony with the will of the Ishwara. At the same time there is no mere shama or inert passivity. A continuous succession of effectivities both in the same object & action & in different objects & actions is now common. 80º must now manifest Utthapana Arms one hour. The utthapana could have been continued,

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but the method is about to be altered. In a sense there will be a recoil to prepare a better siddhi. Vijnana Rupa The movement in Rupasamadhi continues, but not with sufficient rapidity. Nevertheless a constant variety of all forms is showing itself in the crude, though without right stability, yet with an increasing clearness & vividness. The various crude forms in the Akasha are now beginning to manifest either an initial or even a preparatory stability. Lipi Lipi is being organised for utility, applying itself at the right point or even physical spot to indicate what the mind could not know & the T2 [telepathy-trikaldrishti] was at fault in supplying. Vishaya Sukshma gandha seems to have established itself, as it recurs daily, though sometimes oftener, sometimes once or twice only, in various odours which are strong, distinct and sufficiently stable. Only a little obscurity in the sukshmendriya remains to be corrected. Sparsha & sravana come with difficulty or only in the few habitual touches. Rasa only sadhara and seldom. Darshana very little & in a few habitual forms. Samadhi Swapna-S. & Sushupta Enormous advance. Perfect vangmaya thought almost entirely continuous for the whole hour of samadhi, only ceasing at will, or very occasionally when the tamasic nidra became very heavy; but for the most part it triumphed over both sushupti and tamasic nidra. Perceptive thought was also active, but less victorious, because less intense in its vijnanamaya force and prakasha.

752

Record of Yoga

The Anandas received the freedom of the swapna-samadhi, kama especially being intense and constantly recurrent; tivra, raudra, vishaya, vaidyuta all occurred in their full intensity, the first two recurrently. Lipi was consecutive though not always coherent & in more than one line; but too fugitive to be retained, although even when instantaneous, the mind was swift enough to read. The printed page presented itself clearly, but was too fugitive to be legible. Trailokya drishti recommenced with Patala and with shadowy pomps of past or future events upon earth, crowds, kings, generals, tribunals. Jagrat Activity of rupa in jagrat. Fixed shadowy landscapes, a rock by the sea, figures by water at night etc. The separate images were crude & for the most part fugitive. Organisation of samadhi and rapidity of development have begun in earnest. The various activities are now combined. Organisation of lipi and of consecutive coherent experience & stable rupa are the sole elements of perfection wanting. These occur only rarely. Prophetic Rupa Prophetic Sadhara Rupa is manifesting eg A crow in the opposite terrace mistaken for a pigeon. It was explained as a sign that a pigeon would alight & move about there today; but as during all these months this has never been seen, not much credit was given to the indication. In the afternoon, however, two pigeons alighted in the terrace & for a long time sat & made love there. Tapas-siddhi 75º & 80º are manifesting together, establishing the type of a swifter consecutive Tapas-effectiveness They have now to be made frequent and normal in all fields. The prediction that 80º would now manifest, is fulfilled.

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In vijnana only the element of stable & clear jagrat rupa (Akasha) is still in a backward condition; Vishaya is manifesting. Sadhara rasa is becoming more frequent. Vishaya also is in a sense obstructed, but not seriously. It is only its range of variety & fullness that is not yet manifested. The distinction made between the two is not yet quite understood. Its reason will be made clearer soon. Karma Fresh proofs of effective Karma through subjectivity in surroundings; formerly C.S & R2 [Richard and Madame Richard], now difficulties in the house righted. Sharira In Sharira (except Ananda) the surface movement has been today contrary rather than helpful. There are one or two weak signs in Saundarya. Arogya is attacked ineffectively, Utthapana almost suspended. Rupa The obstacle in crude Akash rupa is disappearing; in the rest it is still valid against stability. Chitra is showing an extraordinary perfection, sthapatya preparing to follow suit. It has already acquired it in certain relief figures. In the evening tertiary initial stability of dense, developed & primary initial of perfect. None of these effects are yet strong. Samadhi Rich and frequent lipi, more & more legible & more frequently coherent, sometimes in masses or pages of which parts or phrases were legible. Brief conversation. Long stable continuous action complete or else complete with moments of eclipse. Scenes, groups, streams of figures. Mostly chhayamaya

754

Record of Yoga

Frequent stable rupa, but stable only during sushupti of mind or its most swapnamaya swapna; disappearance when mind became jagrat in samadhi. This is now the one positive defect in swapna-samadhi. Combinations of vishayas, taste, hearing, touch, sight. Taste became strong & intense. Scent alone is absent. It is noticeable that taste survived into jagrat with a physical effect on the palate and was frequently repeated & varied. In the rasa sparsha predominates. Sharira attacked, ananda in its continuity, utthapana in sati, Arogya in its shakti & details. Dec 18 Taste is emerging into frequency, but is still ordinarily obscure and ill-formed in jagrat. Sravana showed a slight sign of recovery. Sparsha is intense & more frequently active, but only in habitual touches. The attack on Sharira has failed, though at the end it slightly clouded the immediate strength & faith, owing to apparent nonfulfilment of Script satya. Cold & cough, in spite of a violent & persistent effort, failed to materialise; fever could not even touch the system. The fragments of roga are being more & more reduced to simulacra, although they can still put out points of momentary intensity. Non-assimilation is at once constantly active & constantly receding. Kamachakra is attempting to develop force but as yet without success. Utthapana is quiescent; saundarya except in the hair not definitely progressive. Utthapana Arms, one hour. Depression of energy at its height. Laghima,

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mahima, anima all inefficient hardly offering any opposition to the Asiddhi. During this hour all the other siddhis were equally oppressed, except at the beginning when Vishaya & Kama attempted a fresh progress. T3.. Tapas-siddhi has now a great force, although its ritam is not yet effected. 80º, 70º & 60º are becoming more and more frequent. Ishita is increasing in activity & effectivity. Telepathy & telepathic trikaldrishti are constantly increasing their hold on the brihat satyam. Effective trikaldrishti is also increasing in mass & frequency Rupa Great richness and perfection of sthapatya. It is inferior to Chitra only in perfection of details, eg features of the human face. But this defect it is beginning to remedy. Vishaya – sukshma. Taste is now developing greater body and distinctness. Kamananda is still oppressed in its continuity. Ahaituka Vishaya is acquiring continuity. The attack on the Siddhi continued. Kamananda though for a moment it made a considerable progress was overpowered for the rest of the day. The other Anandas advanced, but piecemeal. Raudra developed continuity and a greater intensity. Tivra grew only a little and locally. Vishaya acquired continuity and a greater distinctness in Ahaituka. Vaidyuta became freer & more spontaneous. Utthapana was entirely arrested.

756

Record of Yoga

Arogya-shakti persists against attack & seems to have made one considerable progress. T3 continued its rapid development and was the one siddhi that did not suffer from the attack Rupa in jagrat went on developing but with considerable difficulty. Clear stability appears now in crude forms of all kinds, but is not yet their normal state. Dense, developed & perfect forms are manifesting, but with no great realisation in stability. The obstacle is not yet removed, though it can no longer entirely prevent progress. Gandha, rasa, sparsha are now active though not yet entirely free from obstruction especially in the rasa. But they have not yet advanced beyond their old limits. Samata was attacked through the old inequality with regard to siddhi asiddhi. In this respect it broke down. In the evening the Ananda of battle & temporary failure were imposed, but have not entirely prevailed. Faith in the rapidity has been somewhat shaken. Sharira-siddhi is no longer seen as a near event. Samadhi Maintenance of activity in lipi. Stable rupa with an entire hold on the akash long seen & resummoned after eclipse part of a great city in the moonlit night, then only a particular house & its surroundings. Perfect vijnanamaya perceptive thought with the mind sushupta Dec. 19. Utthapana Legs. 15 minutes. Defect of anima, mahima insufficient.

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Darshana Anandam Jnanam Anantam Sarvam Brahma is now perfectly established everywhere. The object is no longer seen as other than That. The Anandam also carries with it the Nirguna Guni, the Impersonal Personality. But the sense of the Ishwara is still capable of drawing back into the super-conscious and being felt in the Brahman as its result rather than in itself. Definitely, it is now known & seen that the Ishwara is that from which the Brahman is born. Existence is the form of the Existent, Brahman is the mould of Parabrahman, & Parabrahman is Para Purusha. Purusha is the last word of the knowledge. Vijnana T3 T3 continues to develop. 80º, 70º, 60º are active, but also 50º & even less, because the subjectivity of things & beings still resists. This is typified in two instances, one because of a rajasic obstacle, hunger, the other because of a tamasic, the ananda of repose. The first gave way after a long time. The second still resists... It has given way after a long time, almost double the other & by extraneous circumstance.9 80º now sometimes act with great force & compelling instantaneity. Telepathy, trikaldrishti are still much more developed than tapas-siddhi. Decisive trikaldrishti has progressed greatly. Script It is to be noted that Utthapana & Arogyashakti are taking longer to emerge from the denial of rapidity than was predicted on Dec 16t.h. or than appeared to be predicted, for the sense of the words “from today to tomorrow” was even then felt to be uncertain. The 18t.h. given by trikaldrishti & script has been a day of beginnings of perfection for T3, as predicted; in other respects, as often happens, it was a day of attack & denial. A date fixed is 9 This sentence was added at a later time.

Ed.

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Record of Yoga

almost always the object of attack by the opposing forces, so as to prevent the conquest of Time. This conquest of Time is now one of the main objectives of the siddhi. Script predictions for yesterday were. (1) Removal of obstacle to clear stability in akasha rupa, not complete, but effective. Fulfilled in type for crude & to a less extent for dense-developed at night. (2) Rapid growth of T3. (fulfilled). (3) Rapid growth of Samadhi (fulfilled in swapna; begun in sukshmavishaya jagrat.) (4) Karma. (fulfilled) (5) Sharira (a) growth of Ananda in all its forms (doubtful with regard to Kama, true of all other physical Anandas & of subjective Ananda in general) (b) Restoration of utthapana (not yet fulfilled except in bhava underneath Asiddhi). (c) Growth of Arogyashakti (fulfilled) (d) Increasing pressure on Saundarya to manifest (fulfilled). On the whole, with the exception of 5b, there was fulfilment always just sufficient, if not always generous. This, on a day of attack, shows a considerable advance. Ananda Kamananda is recovering itself with the promise of a greater pervasion of the system. Subjective Ananda aided by jnana is attempting to throw out the reversion to rajasic stress & reaction of Asamata. It appears, however, that this cannot be entirely done till Rudra-Vishnu is ready. Krishna in his fullness is only seen in individuals where there is some kind of beauty, charm, youth, childhood etc. To remedy this defect it is necessary to perfect the chidghana and shuddha anandas.

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Rupa Promise of rupa perfection increases. Spontaneous images of perfect crude and perfect dense, developed & lifelike, the former with stability are beginning to break out from behind the tiraskarani. Utthapana Arms, one hour. There is no longer an attempt to maintain the utthapana by separate mahima. The two principles are now to enforce mahatlaghima and to eliminate defect of anima. The utthapana-shakti in the arms is restored, but not yet sufficient. It failed for a while at the end of the hour & faltered at other times. Vijnana Vijna[na]maya thought now embraces telepathy and a part of trikaldrishti, in the satyam not yet except initially in the ritam. Samadhi In jagrat a great advance in rupa; especially dense & developed for the first time appeared with a firm stability & hold on the akasha. But the crude also greatly improved in clearness, stability & body. In swapna samadhi the general stability of rupa constantly increases and lipi is constant. Utthapana Left leg horizontal. 20 minutes. defect of anima. strong mahima-laghima. The utthapana might have been maintained ten minutes longer. Script Predictions for the day. 1. Increasing rapidity in rupa-samadhi (fulfilled) (fulfilled) 2 T3 3 Ananda moves towards perfect spontaneity & force.

760

Record of Yoga 4. Arogya-shakti farther confirms itself. 5 Utthapana progresses on the new lines 6 Saundarya farther pressure.

Script Sahitya must be resumed and proceed normally, but not with great force until rapidity in Kriti has begun. Tapasic interest has almost been excluded from the system; it must be entirely eliminated and replaced by force divine. The Ishwarabhava has again to be manifested, this time without resuscitation of Tapasic force. The Ishwarabhava is again manifesting, but not yet with entire force. Ishwarabhava, Sharira, Kriti are now the three fields of the Shakti; for the rest is fulfilling itself. These three are closely connected. Their full manifestation forms the last stage of the sadhana. The rest is pure siddhi. Tertiary dasya in the mind is the condition of the last stage of sadhana. The sense of personal responsibility must be entirely renounced. Since Vijnana is now assured, the Shakti must concentrate more upon Sharira and Kriti, Sharira as a condition of Karma generally. Immediate Kriti is hardly dependent on Sharira, rather on Vijnana. It is Sahitya & Kama that depend upon Sharira. On Kriti, then, there must lie for some time the principal stress. Krishna-Kali Anandamaya Krishnadarshana is now extending itself to all objects & beings independent of form, guna etc. The bhava of Mahalakshmi has taken its place in the Devi Bhava. The Kali Bhava has toned down its force in order to assimilate Mahaluxmi.

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The Ishwara in the system is still preparing his bhava. Balarama-Aniruddha manifested; but Rudra-Vishnu is not yet entirely harmonised. Vani, long silent, is now again active. Lipi 1. Responsibility to be banished. 2 The brotherhood of the Ishwara (bhratra) 3 Friend (sakhya) 4 in reality soulless opposition to the kriti 5 it is already entirely ready equipment (mentally & nervously perhaps, materially it does not yet command faith). 6. Tapas . . telos . . tejas shuddhi (The tejas is purified of stress; if the tapas is purified, the shuddhi will be complete). 7. The effectivity of tapas in the kriti. Rupa Rupa at night showed an advance in the crude, clear figures (an arm holding a spear, jyotirmaya, a flag etc) appearing on the wall; others not so clear, but with more body (a human figure, two flags, a four-footed animal,) in the akash. The higher forms were mostly in abeyance except in the fugitive side view. Samadhi Dream copious; those that were vivid were exact representations of realities, but coherency was not sufficient. Present association, though not vivid nor compelling, held all the representation The interpretation of dream has recommenced. The movement in Samadhi towards the e´ veil and idealisation of the profounder states of swapnasamadhi continues. Arogya Arogya Shakti very slowly gets rid of fragments of Roga.

762

Record of Yoga

Dec 20 Utthapana Legs, medial position, 10 minutes, then after [? ] minutes interval 16. Mahima in laghima defective. Strong external oppression, which more & more takes the place of gravitation. Vijnana T3. An attempt to force back T3. The opposition long, but finally ineffective. Immediate movements contradicted. One example of 80º. Utthapana Arms. one hour. There is a struggle and alternation between mahat laghima and laghima void of mahima weighed down by defect of anima, needing to be supported by mahima. Rupa-Samadhi A great play for a while of richly various crude2 [crude crude] rupa, not stable; a little also of dense crude. The effort to generalise samadhi in the state of sleep continues. Stable rupa & stability of continuous action are entering into jagrat antardrishti. Ananda Kamananda continues but is comparative[ly] feeble in action, recurrent, but far from continuous. Of the other Anandas tivra alone is fairly active, but not with full spontaneity Script Predictions Sharira 1. Utthapana develops the true and pure laghima 2. Arogya Shakti constantly increases. 3. Ananda maintains and strengthens itself. 4 Saundarya prepares

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Vijnana 5 T3 extends itself to distant things and to distant time 6. Rupa continues to grow towards the point where it can manifest perfection. It is notable that in the Script prediction there was an error of understatement with regard to a particular thing to be done. These predictions, though usually fulfilled to a more or less extent, are still largely telepathic. Lipi Lipi, for some time sluggish, remanifested activity, but with an imperfect vividness and stability except in isolated words, one or two in number. Afterwards it began to manifest long lines of many words and the beginnings of the page, but vividness, stability & legibility were insufficient, or rather there was stability without legibility or else legibility without stability Lipi is now more free & self-acting in its development and formation Shakti Tertiary dasya in all parts of the system and in all actions is becoming entirely normal. With its development the stress of tapas and the sense of responsibility are being entirely removed. The remnants of agraha & asamata over siddhi, satyam, mangalam are also being dispersed At the same time action is proceeding with a perfect energy and regularity of the Prakritic mental type, but not coordinated & perpetualised in energy by the vijnana The energy of the mind is limited to the work in hand and intermittent with intervals of rest or change to other labour. The energy of the vijnana is permanent & equal, needs no rest and turns to other work in accordance not with interest of any kind or any necessity, but the free will of the Iswara.

764

Record of Yoga

At present there is the manomaya freedom of the paramahansa with the balabhava & jadatwa of the will that selects. The instrument does its work by the impulsion of Prakriti in obedience to the Ishwara. Vijnana Throughout the latter part of the day there was an extraordinary spontaneous accuracy in the thought telepathy & trikaldrishti, accurate even in the smallest details & shades of perception. There were still suggestions ill understood, intentions unfulfilled or refusals of intention contradicted in fact, but these were only a small part of the mental activity. The type of union of knowledge & tapas, manomaya more than vijnanamaya, was almost entirely achieved. Dream Fantastic; not of this world. Siddhi Vijnana is hastening towards completion so far as that is possible without full control of Sharira & Karma. Knowledge is preparing to complete itself both by perfecting itself in the limited field which it occupies and occupying the fields which it has invaded partially or else merely touches in a fragmentary fashion. As yet, it does not seriously attempt the higher movements which belong only to the Vijnana, but is directed towards completing its conquest of the fields of the Mind. Tapas follows the march of the Knowledge. It is becoming more & more Vijnanamaya Tapas, that which fulfils what the knowledge sees. The intellectual knowledge of the physical branches of information & utility is not yet attempted; for these are reserved for the action of the perfected Vijnana, not of the mentalised Vijnana. In Sharira Ananda is preparing its masses and combinations rather than insisting on detailed successes. Arogya-Shakti also prepares its mass & only presses by the mass upon details. Its two great

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defects still remain in the defective actuality. Utthapana similarly insists on the growth & complete affirmation of pure laghima & is negligent of external victories. Saundarya is yet in the sukshma & only throws its chhaya on the sthula. There are one or two definite, but not yet decided sthula movements. Karma also prepares its mass of force, & does not yet manifest fulfilment of its actualities except in the little. Dec 21 Vijnana Tapas is now attempting its vijnanamaya completeness. It has to regulate its relations in eventuality with its action of tendency and its process of time. Once this is done it will be perfect in mental condition & tapasic potentiality. Ishwarabhava The type of Balarama-Aniruddha in the combination RudraVishnu is now perfect in form, but not in force & contents. The great question now is the validation of the 9t.h. affirmation, the mastery of Time & process in Time. The three Krishna affirmations are now finally founded. Affirmations The affirmations can now be restated in other language. 1. Anandamaya Lilamaya Krishna, the source & sense of all being & activity. 2. The world rendered in the terms of Sachchidananda; therefore Satyam & Tapas in the form of Ananda the substance of all knowledge, feeling & action. 3. All being satyam, all must be affirmed, but in right terms, in the ritam. 4. Ritam, the just action of the Satyam Brihat. Vijnanamaya Sachchidananda the fulfilment of mind, life & body to replace asatyam, alpam, anritam.

766

Record of Yoga

5. The inner & the outer life of the person & the world the play of the consciously manifested balaka Krishna (Rudra Vishnu) 6. Madhuradasya the relation between the Prakriti-Jiva & the balaka Krishna. 7. The Jiva accepts all bhoga as the slave & instrument of the victorious & rudra Lover. 8 The field of play of Krishna the five worlds working themselves out in the fifth, Bhurloka 9. Time the instrument of the [Ishwara]10 & Ishwari, instrument & not determinant of the world-result. It is the realisation of these nine affirmations which constitutes the active Siddhi. The rest is the condition of the active Siddhi. Utthapana Arms. 50 minutes. Stronger laghima Rupa Increasing perfection of sthapatya images and renewal of sadhara akasha images (half sthapatya) Perfect human figures & groups, crude, are now common in akasha rupa & occur in antardarshi. Landscapes & fourfooted animals in bahirdarshi akasha are becoming clearer & more stable. Lipi 1. first telepathy trikaldrishti afterwards 2 entire faith entire rapidity entire faith in the rapidity 3. entire faith in the telepathy & tapas-siddhi Siddhi There is an attack on the Sraddha. There is sraddha in the satyam, not yet sraddha in the ritam, sraddha in the tapas-siddhi of the small, not yet in the tapas-siddhi of the karma, sraddha in 10 MS Ishwari

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the sharira-siddhi, not yet in the rapidity of the sharira-siddhi. The possibility of rapidity is admitted, the actuality is felt to be doubtful Script Deeper perceptions, more distant sight, a more rapid and allembracing march. The greater vijnana; the more luminous and puissant ideality Vijnana T3 is always active, but there is an increase in mass with some temporary loss in clearness and separate fullness (suvrikti) Siddhi The rapidity of the advance has been evidently intermitted, although the general rapidity now at the worst moments is greater than it was before the recent forward rush. The old principle of advance & relapse has been greatly modified, but is not yet eliminated in any limb of the siddhi. Certain gains are always there, intact in foundation and mass, but not in intensity, activity and detail. Sraddha is the key to perfection of sati in the first half of the siddhi, and sraddha is not perfect. Dec 22 Intensity of the Krishnadarshana in all beings, (Krishna & Kali, not yet KrishnaKali in human beings). Krishnakali-darshana intensity begins in things & animals. It has begun also in human beings. Also pervading the extension of the Brahman in Akasha, Vayu etc It is the full joy & plenitude of the conscious existence illuminating also the inert & the void. The difficulty that remains is to harmonise the perception of the ordinary egoistic consciousness with that of the KrishnaKali. The former is a subordinate mode of the latter and it must be seen as a lesser conscience in the Integrality. It is so seen, but the difficulty

768

Record of Yoga

is that the egoistic conscience presents itself first & translates itself into the Integral or the mass of the Integral comes first & the mental egoistic has then to be distinguished in it the two must be simultaneous, not exclusive. The attack of the last two days is passing away & the normal daivabhava is restored. Sharira In one of the features the gross outline of the future saundaryam is beginning to establish itself after a long struggle which is not yet finished On the whole the struggle of the saundarya with its physical prison can be felt; it is not yet effective as a whole. Vijnana Sukshma darshana is again manifesting and sravana attempting to manifest. The rest are for the time being obstructed, but not entirely inactive. Utthapana Arms 56 minutes. The struggle continues. Rupa Perfect animal forms are attempting to appear with stability in the Akasha. Hitherto only objects manifested. These forms are as yet only reproductions of sthula forms previously seen. the eyes of a cat (in the pranakasha); a richly coloured butterfly, first seen in mental akasha of Earth, then in its pranakasha. Landscapes in Akasha now appear distinctly, crude. women on a hill, scattered houses, trees. The fourfooted animal form tends still to be fugitive. Vijnana Vijnana is attempting its fuller movement of ritam.

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Script The lines of the past are fixed. It is only a question of accuracy in detail. The future is vaguer and there is less sraddha. But there also there are materials for the sraddha. Certain lines have been laid down precise enough though general. They have to be filled in in the detail. The main difficulty is about the karma. It is here that asraddha stands as an obstacle. The little ideality must be replaced by the large in order that the movements now being effected may fulfil themselves. Samadhi The siddhi (lipi, stable rupa etc)11 continues to take a firmer hold of the akasha in swapna-samadhi. But as yet the hold is not entirely firm. Sharira There is a general adverse movement in Sharira, all the physical anandas being depressed & only intermittent in action & the subjective also superficially troubled Arogya is attacked; the old affection of the eyes has revived, assimilation is put back, a copious rejection taking its place. Utthapana does not prevail & the Shakti is discouraged. In the little of Saundarya gained there are adverse signs. Vijnana Vijnana also is besieged by the old double asiddhi of tapasic & tamasic suggestions. Siddhi The general attack on the Siddhi is a denial of all the hopes of rapidity recently encouraged. It is again progress on the old lines of Anritam creating Ritam by advance & relapse, instead of the new lines of Ritam proceeding directly to greater ritam.

11 Closing parenthesis after “continues” in MS.

Ed.

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Record of Yoga

Samadhi Swapna samadhi slowly enforces stability in the chittakasha. Double page lipi read, but not with entire coherency. Dec 23. The movement of Asiddhi continues although the larger Siddhi prepares by means of the Asiddhi Vijnana T3 last night and this morning seemed to be disorganised and to lose hold of the objectivity; but afterwards there emerged a larger & more massive action, though less sure in details. Especially, there is opposition to the Tapas-siddhi and an attempt to throw it back from the rapidity & sureness it had acquired. Tapasic stress appeared; when it was absent, 80º acted frequently. In the action of the Tapasic stress, there were a number of contrary results, but a tendency was always created which acted in the mass, but with uncertainty of the detail. Rupa is hampered by the affection of the eye which gives a disinclination towards Trataka. Lipi continues to develop the page in the chitra, but it is not yet sufficiently legible. The double & triple line are frequent. In samadhi the slow taking possession of the chittakasha continues. The movement towards a larger trikaldrishti of the past & the future continues, but as yet it is neither fulfilled nor dominant. Darshana The Krishnakali darshana continues to increase its own normality.

29 – 30 September 31 December 1914

771

Sharira Arogya The affection of the eye continues; it is evidently connected with cold, which it materialises; the materialisation of actual cold (catarrh) is not effective, but it has reestablished with great difficulty certain remnants. Cough does not materialise in spite of exposure. Assimilation has been thrown backward for the last few days. In another direction the Arogyashakti has maintained its gains, but certain remnants are more insistent than they have been. On the whole the Asiddhi is for the present stronger in the objectivity than the Siddhi. Ananda Sahaituka Kama in its acute form reached a great extension of prolongation. Ahaituka continuity has reached its lowest ebb and is unable for the present to reassert itself. The other physical anandas are also less powerful in frequency of recurrence. Subjective Ananda has been subjected to a revival of Asamata with regard to Asiddhi & Amangala. Utthapana Discontinued during the day. Saundarya The advance of saundarya is also checked in appearance. Karma Karmasiddhi is also stagnant. There is a great immobility everywhere. Points of asiddhi present themselves & threaten to become fulfilled. Some of these points turn out to be illusions of actuality thrown out from a background of real though at present ineffective possibility; others are attempts to materialise possibilities.

772

Record of Yoga

Ananda Ananda (kama) revived in the evening, continuous in seated asan, initially continuous otherwise. This under the circumstances of the day is unprecedented and along with the other advance in the afternoon constitutes a marked progress, in spite of the failure to establish spontaneous continuity. Kamananda is also emerging from the vishaya & tivra in other parts of the body. Arogya The struggle over the eye affection continues. It is lessened, but not yet expelled. Arogya as yet makes no rapid advance. Vijnana General vijnana again took stronger possession of the intellectuality in the evening. Lipi 1. inflexible ideality, flexible intellectuality. (It is this which is the condition of the perfect ritam) Dec 24 Sharira Ananda Spontaneous continuity of Ananda is attempting to establish itself. The spontaneity is manifesting, but not yet any dominant continuity. Arogya The eye affection has regained strength. Assimilation, today, has improved. Remnants expelled try still to rematerialise There is acute sensation of catarrh, but only a point of material reality.

29 – 30 September 31 December 1914

773

Utthapana Arms. one hour. Laghima was easy but has not yet the required freedom from reaction. Vijnana T3.. There was a great largeness of T3, but the defect of Tapasic stress and its reaction were prominent. The final irresistibility of Tapas after long resistance was three times exemplified; but immediate siddhi occurred rarely. On the other hand jnanam was almost full & luminous in ritam. Lipi continues its work of self-preparation Rupa is for the time being arrested in its progress by the eyeaffection. Dec 29. The Record has been discontinued owing to the activity of the eye affection which is only now sufficiently cured to admit of freely reading or writing. The siddhi has during these days continued but without an organised or forcible activity except in T3... T3 from the 25t.h. has attained to the coordination of the Tapasic & tamasic oppositions in thought, perception and telepathy. These are now at peace, seeking always to understand each other and usually succeeding. Something of the old nature of mutual hostility tries sometimes to recur, but unsuccessfully. The movement is now establishing itself in Trikaldrishti and tapas-siddhi where it is as yet less final and successful. In Rupa certain forms have improved, eg the eye or eye and part of the face with a continual recurrence & obstinate stability

774

Record of Yoga

of perfection in all forms, both in antardarshi and bahirdarshi, but with most perfection in the former. This is the reflected image at its best. Samadhi has been sometimes active, sometimes depressed, but chiefly occupied with self-organisation in profound swapna. Today Samadhi reached a very high organisation of perceptive thought & vangmaya, even very profound samadhi admitting the jagrat & partly coherent observation of the mind. Ananda, sukshma shabda, sukshma gandha recur in samadhi. Organised continuity of mental vision in jagrat antardarshi continued in swapna. Vani once more active Sharira. Utthapana Arms one hour. During these four days there has only been utthapana of the arms varying from half to three quarters of an hour without great force. Today the force of utthapana was sufficient. Ananda Continuity is not achieved. The Kamananda has varied considerably; the others have been intermittent, only tivra somewhat more frequent. Today all are again active, but not with full activity. Arogya Resisted all attack except in assimilation which does not yet assimilate the new habit demanded of it. In Chakra there is no visible advance except in force of M.A. [Maithuna Ananda] In Saundarya Asiddhi is strong except at one or two points. Karma Mostly stationary except at one or two points. Nowhere any exceptional results..

29 – 30 September 31 December 1914

775

Vijnana Rupa Samadhi In the evening crude rupa distinct in forms. Samadhi at night & in the early morning was very successful & received its fulfilment afterwards. The obstacle to continuity has broken down entirely Frequent continuous action in stable rupa & connected series of action; frequent continuous conversation. Lipi often continuous & fairly coherent except at the end when incoherency broke in again. Continued rasa combined with appropriate action & experience. The material of swapna samadhi is now complete in form though not yet full in content nor yet sufficiently effective in utility. T3.. What is lacking now in T3 is sufficient force of decisive telepathy, decisive trikaldrishti, decisive tapas-siddhi. This defect supplied, perfectly organised ritam will be possible. But for the defect in jagrat rupa and vishayadrishti the vijnana is almost complete in itself; but its organisation for utility in life-action is as yet only in its commencement. Sharira & Karma remain incomplete. The struggle that began in the middle of the month has not yet ended victoriously. Dec 30t.h. The action of the Vijnana is now assured of its final development. The Shakti must concentrate even more than in the immediate past on Sharira and Karma. There the development is following the path of steady consolidation and patient overcoming of difficulties. The effect is a rapidity which is only disclosed by the subsequent results, but is not apparent in the course of the action except in certain points

776

Record of Yoga

of swift realisation which either prepare definite finality or are the result of an obscure previous preparation. The rapidity is therefore not definitive and not yet entire. Rupa in the afternoon developed certain clear stabilities of form on the background. Otherwise it only manifested the general variety without stable distinctness which it had already attained previously. T3 is preparing the emergence of decisive activities. Utthapana half an hour. Ananda is evolving the pure spontaneous action which must be its definite base In dream perfect continuous & coherent lipi.. Reading of a sort of Akashic record of 20 lines in the nervous world relative to the last Franco-German war. Dec 31s.t. Rupa in the afternoon developed a greater freedom of images on the background, including almost all varieties of form & combination in the crude. There was no definite advance in any part of the siddhi, only a sense of stronger preparation in the various members not yet sufficiently realised. Spontaneous equable continuity of the Kamananda is the chief force visibly preparing Decisive T3 is not at present visibly efficient in its organised action. There is once again the state of avyakta, a mass of indefinite potentiality, which gives a certain sense of Asiddhi, but the Prana is not allowed to revolt.

29 – 30 September 31 December 1914

777

Swapna samadhi maintains its gains. There is visible progress in some around, not as yet definite organisation of advance. In Kriti there are signs & promises of movement, not yet the movement itself.

Record entry of 7 October 1914

ii

779

1 JANUARY – 27 FEBRUARY 1915

January.

During December the advance has been chiefly in the third and sixth chatusthayas. In the first, Asiddhi has been reduced to an occasional physical depression of the sukham which does not affect the being generally but only the nervous & physical layers of the physical consciousness. As a rule the full samata operates. Positive Ananda is sometimes deficient. Asiddhi does not bring revolt, but only a temporary failing of positive Ananda and a depression of force and faith. Everything being now seen as the play of the Lilamaya Krishna, revolt is no longer possible. It is also seen that all forces, all experiences act & occur, succeed & fail in pursuance of his selffulfilment in the world. It is only in the relations of the Lilamaya with the Jiva that there is a defect, positive harmony proceeding by ignorance, uncertainty, some unfaith. This renders itself by a defect of the second chatusthaya. Faith in the Yogasiddhi does not really falter except in relation to the Saundaryam. An increasing rapidity & sureness & safety, (dhananam satih), is acknowledged. But the decisive knowledge & effectivity being insufficient, faith in the entire rapidity is insufficient, faith in the Kriti grows, but is troubled by doubts. Hence, the Ishwarabhava cannot fix itself & brings with it a The Record for 1 – 6 January 1915 was kept in the notebook in use since 29 – 30 September 1914. Between 2 and 23 January an “intermediate record” was kept in another notebook. There are entries for 2 – 6 January in both records; these contain some repetitions. Ed.

780

Record of Yoga

general laxity of the Virya and Devibhava. Nevertheless the faith & the Ishwarabhava grow steadily. In the third chatusthaya satyam brihat has extended itself to the trikaldrishti, telepathy & tapas-siddhi, but have not yet been converted into the full ritam. Ritam is being organised, but is selfconstructive rather than transcendently decisive. Therefore it lacks mastery & selfconfidence and fullness. The defect is in tapas-siddhi. There is the play of forces, the acceptance of all forces, the effectivity of tapas in the end. But the balance wavers continually; the tapas effects itself through a struggle of mutual adaptation on the level of this action, not by union with a mastering will that transcends the action. This defect is dependent on a defect in KrishnaKali relation & related to the defect of the faith & Ishwarabhava. Swapna Samadhi has conquered all its difficulties and has now only to organise itself finally for steady manifestation and definite ritam and utility. In jagrat there is manifestation of all sorts of forms, but not yet a victorious hold of stable clearness on the Akasha. Sharira is still in full struggle to manifest & organise itself. Ananda has arranged all its terms, but cannot yet deploy them in a sure & normal continuity. Recurrence is established varying in frequency & stability in the different terms, but continuity is still prevented. Arogya advances slowly. It has got rid of the permanence of certain affections & of all but the last remnants of their recurrence, but it is not yet sure of the non-return of rogas that have been expelled but not destroyed, as instanced by the eye-affection. Assimilation still repeats the old see-saw between excessive consolidation and jalya-tejomaya dissolution. The Will for right assimilation does not succeed. The chakra makes advances in certain details, but not any organised advance. Will is effective slowly or swiftly in temporary movements. Utthapana has abandoned the attempt at self-fulfilment by tapasya. But the exclusion of defect of anima by Will is not yet sufficiently advanced to replace tapasya. Saundarya is still held back. The body is prevented from

1 January – 27 February 1915

781

obeying the Will. There is only a predominant, but slow and uncertain advance in some details. . Kalikrishna is manifest & established in the completed Brahmadarshana; but there is need of smarana still. As soon as there is smarana, there is complete darshana, but emerging out of the incomplete darshana in which Ananda is involved, not dominant & Krishna concealed by the extended Brahman. In the person Kali is organised in the Maheshwari-MahaluxmiMahasaraswati combination, the second element as yet insufficient, but the dominant Mahakali is occasional only, the normal bhava being the contained and dominated Mahakali. This again is due to the gulf that still remains between the Purusha & the Shakti. The Purusha is the dominant Krishna, bala, Balarama-Aniruddha; but the Prakriti does not always feel the fullness of the tertiary dasya & the actual presence of the bhava of madhura-dasya. Hence the Ishwara is recognised, but the Devi is not yet Ishwari by expressing the dominant will of the Ishwara. Hence karma is not yet manageable. Sahitya is powerful & effective, but hampered by the sluggish response of the physical instrument. Dharma grows in strength, but is not yet easy & sure except in certain persons & movements & there not with sufficient force. Kriti is struggling slowly to emerge, but is still enveloped. Kama is growing continually in bhava, but awaits the Sharirasiddhi. Shuddhi-Mukti-Bhukti are imperfect only by the imperfect physical response. Siddhi moves forward steadily & surely, but is not yet victorious. For January the development of ritam, the entire union of KrishnaKali in the madhura dasya, the organisation for life & action of the three first chatusthayas & the fullness & force of the completed chatusthayas seem to be indicated. The struggle is now in Sharira and Karma. Ananda is assured, but its organisation has to be completed by continuity. Arogya has to conquer the obstacles to perfect sati & victorious fulfilment. Utthapana has to conquer defect of anima. Saundarya has to break

782

Record of Yoga

down the wall of physical inadaptability. It is not clear how much of this can be done in the month of January. The progress possible in Karma is still more obscure. . A great development in Sahitya & Dharma is possible. Kriti is enveloped in doubt. Kama waits on Sharira. Probably the resistance will finally break down, if not completely, in January February. Jan 1s.t. The day begins with a struggle as a result of which it is decided that no sadhana is necessary for the development of the ritam. The attempt at direct sadhana results in a return of old conditions and old defects. T3 [trikaldrishti, telepathy and tapas-siddhi] is now proceeding normally. The main movement is towards the substitution of Ishwarabhava in the tapas-siddhi for the attitude of effort and aim of the Devi. In Rupa also the old tendency to compel by tratak imperfect figures to become perfect, is from today abandoned. The imperfect figure is only an indication of the Drishti working upon the physical akasha to open it to the physical vision. . The Drishti will do its own work unaided by trataka. Ananda also must be left to perfect itself. Sadhan is still needed in the rest of Sharira, but sadhan only of the discerning Will. Lipi By the faith Trikaldrishti Vague intimation that S [Saurin] & others would return about 11.30 pm. They came at 11.22

1 January – 27 February 1915

783

Ananda Shuddha Ananda with Kama & Premananda inherent in it is beginning to dominate Chidghana-Ahaituka. Rupa Stable rupa partially distinct at night. Perfect rupa with initial stability occurs occasionally. KrishnaKali The Ishwara is beginning finally to dominate all the action. There is always tertiary dasya, but it is generally void of the madhura. The madhura is now about to establish itself as the normal bhava. This is evident in the darshana of external objects and there it comes automatically. It is less easy in the internal darshana. Kali is now everywhere revealed in the bhava of the madhura dasi dominated by Krishna & ministering to his bhoga. This bhava is becoming by a secondary motion more normal in the internal darshana T3.. The decisive trikaldrishti is becoming more frequent & better justified in its frequency Kriti Kriti is manifesting tongues of potentiality, but at present it is action without any certain result. Samadhi In swapna samadhi lipi is still subject to a certain incoherence, ordinarily. Coherence of phrases is common. St. [Sortilege] 1. The airship 2 Matches 3 safety.

784

Record of Yoga

Sharira Ananda was recurrent, not continuous. There was frequently a physical obstruction. Arogya also does not advance beyond the point already attained. There was no utthapana Samadhi Samadhi at night was unproductive. Dream was confused and entirely occupied with present associations. Siddhi The movement just now has reverted to the condition of obscured and disaggregated progress with preparation behind the veil. Doubt of the Kriti has taken a somewhat acute form, although there is a struggling faith which refuses to retire. Doubt of the Yoga-siddhi can no longer be reestablished. There is only uncertainty of the rapidity. The ritam is steadily advancing under all. Jan 2. T3 The ritam of telepathy is now becoming more & more marked and decisive. That of trikaldrishti is still hampered by hasty tapasic decisions. But these are converting themselves into excess of statement rather than misstatement. The element of misstatement especially survives in the combination of Trikaldrishti & Tapas-siddhi. The Tapas siddhi is now in a period of recoil. 80º acts seldom or not at all; long & obstinate resistances, contrary movements are the rule.

1 January – 27 February 1915

785

Utthapana Arms, one hour. Easy; but afterwards there was some heaviness in the shoulder-muscles. The Asiddhi is associated with an attempt of the Dwayavin consciousness to reassert itself and support an activity of the tamasic dhriti in the physical consciousness opposed to the constant manifestation of the Siddhi. The success has been to create a cleft between the divine consciousness & the physical by which the latter sees all things as the Brahman in the many, but not the Many as the One. There is an alternation between this division & the integral consciousness. Rupa Jagrat Rupa of all kinds, except the perfect, with an initial stability, just before the eyes, emerging from pranic akasha. Utthapana Right leg, horizontal, recumbent on side, 20 minutes. At the end strong defect of anima, always recurrent defect. Saundarya A certain gain has been effected in one of the features, but this is not accompanied by any general movement. St. 1 Forget me not (nityasmarana) 2 The New Way (ie of the entire dasyam; by this the nityasmarana will come) Trikaldrishti 1. The hold of the asiddhi passes away today 2. 4 days of progressive siddhi. Ananda The physical Anandas again became active.

786

Record of Yoga

Lipi 1. 2 3 4. 5 6 7.

light destiny belongs to the Ishwari entire stability of the lipi has to be reinstated (fulfilled) tapas siddhi faith in the entire rapidity is about to be justified fortnightly attack of the Asiddhi. This is the entirety of the faith in the Yogasiddhi.

Jan 3d.. The decisive Trikaldrishti is now regularising itself, putting away to each side of it the tapasic and tamasic insistences. This involves a certain putting aside of the Tapas siddhi of tapasic aishwarya vashita, which has to give place to the selfknowing divine Aishwarya-Ishita-Vashita. The Tapasic stress reveals itself more and more as a force working for a future effect in opposition to resistances (tamasic stress) and mistaken in its idea of time and circumstance because of absorption in the sureness of its own fulfilment. The tamasic stress is more in harmony with present time and circumstance, but mistakes present for future non-fulfilment. The day was chiefly given to work for the Review. Utthapana half hour. At first dullness, afterwards force of the laghima. Lipi active in sthapatya & manifesting page in single & double word, vivid & legible, but not entirely fixed. At night activity of the tejomaya rupa in Swapnasamadhi. Verification of distant telepathy.

1 January – 27 February 1915

787

Jan 4t.h. The morning devoted to work for the Review Vijnana T3 continues to progress. Many combinations which come automatically in the unillumined mentality, prove to be right in every detail. This is a definite beginning of the ritam. Tapasic stress justifies itself more & more as a promise of the future. But though the examples are many & striking, the fulfilment is either not invariable or does not always present itself to the observation. 80º does not now occur, but on the other hand there are instances of the almost immediate effectivity (70º) even where there is a previous opposite tendency & intention. Not yet, however, where the intention is strong and fixed, except rarely. Stable dense rupa & dense developed (less stable) came frequently in jagrat antardrishta. In swapnasamadhi there are now frequent instances of true scene, event & conversation of this world. Combinations are becoming more frequent & firm. But as yet there is not the use of samadhi for life-utilities. Anandamaya Ishwaradarshan in all is now normal, but not usually intense. Sharira In Arogya there is something of a setback. Physical Ananda can no longer be annulled. It can only be obstructed by a strong pressure. The hair continues to be thin in front and especially on the left side. It is in the lower layer that the Asiddhi is obstinate.

788

Record of Yoga

Suddhananda is now fixed behind the Chidghana & Ahaituka. Prema & subjective Kama Anandas are as a result normalising themselves. There is no indication as yet of any decisive movement in the Karma. Utthapana of the arms one hour, laghima effective but burdened by [subsequent]1 reaction of the defect of anima. Vijnana 80º acted twice in succession once for exact detail of aishwaryam, once after failure of aishwaryam for general effectivity of ishita Swapnasamadhi continues at the same level wavering between imperfect and more perfect organisation. Sharira Denial of Arogya was a little stronger & one of the gains was temporarily abrogated. Ananda sometimes obstructed, always impeded, yet maintains itself. Jan 5t.h. In the morning a strong obstruction to the Ishwaradarshana preventing the physical consciousness from enjoying the light of the Affirmations even though aware of their actuality behind the denial. This obstruction contains in itself a more entire, ready & solid participation in the siddhi by the whole conscious existence. The subconscious is being rapidly trained by the force of its obstructed aspiration towards the light. 1 MS subagent

1 January – 27 February 1915

789

The response to the Asiddhi proceeds from the subconscious; as the source of these responses, it is being purified from them and fortified for the response to the Siddhi In the waking mind the obstruction creates a conclusion of unfaith in the rapidity of the Siddhi &, consequently, in the importance of the karma. The element of error in the satyam is temporarily emphasised in order that the resultant truth may be more sure and self-assured. St. }tm-y mAyyA U@vA dDAn, f;Ecp fs\ EDy\. 1. eEt  hotA v Agni, the divine force, precedes the present movement of action by the concealed creative & formative Maya of the Master of the Yoga holding in himself a thought pure in form of vision & exalted to the Vijnana. This is the sense of the present obstruction & its eventualities. 2. Any person must be able to trace his past, present and future. Sharira Ananda oppressed at night & in the morning acted from time to time during the day. Utthapana 1. The utthapana of the arms failed because of the denial by physical heaviness. 2. Left leg, horizontal 27 minutes. Strong laghu mahima, strong defect of anima with kampana, finally prevailing. Intervals of pure anandamaya anima after the tremblings. 3. Back. One minute and a half. Mahat laghima, defect of anima. Samadhi Jagrat 1. A river with islands, chhayamaya but clear occasionally dense 2. The same with a house on a small island in the middle, at first lit by a lamp which was afterwards extinguished 3. Objects, stable; one dense (the reel of thread[)].

790

Record of Yoga

Swapna Scenes, objects, activities. Brief stability Lipi, legible only in detached sentences of an illegible page or tract. Trikaldrishti The four days of steady (obstructed, not rapid) progress are over. The Lilamaya Ishwara darshana is confirmed. Jan 6t.h. Today, the obstruction to the Lilamaya darshana is less powerful, though equally obstinate. It is put aside easily, but obscures the plenitude. Satyam is again recovering its elasticity & throwing off the obstruction. Ritam is still obstructed, but not entirely. Tapas siddhi meets constantly the obstruction & immediate denial, though there are instances to the contrary.

1 January – 27 February 1915

791

[Here begins the “intermediate record” of 2 – 23 January.]

Jan 2d.. The continued oppression of the Siddhi is met by an equally effective repression of the attempted Asamata. The attempt to reintroduce duhkha and Ashanti has definitely failed. For some time the force of the kshatriya viryam has been suspended. It will now be restored to its firm activity. In the saundarya the attempt to denude the head of the fresh growth of hair has failed. The thickness has not returned. There the two powers of youth and age are evenly balanced. With regard to the whitening, the new growth is black; it is only the old hair that keeps up the appearance of age. The remodelling of the nose has not proceeded far, but a certain definite advantage has been gained. With regard to other features the resistance of the Prithivi continues. St. (nityasmarana[)] 1. Forget me not 2. The New Way (ie of the entire dasyam, by this the nityasmarana will come.) Telepathic Tr. [Trikaldrishti] The hold of the Asiddhi passes away today. Ananda Ananda (kama) has been intense & continuous &, instead of being discouraged, assisted by manasa abhyasa. Tivra shows a sufficient strength of spontaneity for a beginning of the new method.

792

Record of Yoga None of the other Anandas is, separately, very active.

Script There is as yet not sufficient certainty in the guidance. Its details of time & arrangement seem sometimes to be contradicted by the event. This defect is about to be removed. Lipi 1 2. 3 4 5 6 7

This is the entirety of the faith in the Yogasiddhi. fortnightly attack of Asiddhi light. destiny belongs to the Ishwari. entire stability of the lipi has to be reinstated. tapas-siddhi. faith in the entire rapidity is about to be justified.

5 has been already fulfilled. Stable lipi of two lines has manifested with a greater sureness & vividness than before. Ananda of raudra & vaidyuta are again active, as also vishaya Samadhi The restoration of activity, but not as yet any new development. Vijnana Activity was restored after an interval of the play of unilluminated mental forces. But it is not as yet a well-organised activity. The illumination is opposed and insufficient except at times. Script. The main movement and utility of the last two days has been to deepen samata (nati and rasagrahanam) and to strengthen the general force of tertiary dasya. The elements of bhoga & udasina nati must be so combined as to unite into a secure and full sama Ananda.

1 January – 27 February 1915

793

Tertiary dasya is only complete when anandamaya nati is complete Anandamaya nati is the condition of madhura dasya and madhura dasya of the full vijnanasiddhi. But it must be the madhura dasya of Mahakali-Mahasaraswati, not of the merely passive Mahasaraswati. Trikaldrishti-Vani 4 days of progressive siddhi. Jan 3d The decisive Trikaldrishti2 is now regularising itself, putting away to each side of it the tapasic and tamasic insistences. This involves a certain putting aside of the Tapas-siddhi of tapasic aishwarya-vashita, which has to give place to self-knowing divine Aishwarya-Ishita-Vashita. The morning has been given to sahitya for the Review; as also part of the afternoon. The process with the first two Chatusthayas continues, as well as the progressive normalisation of the Krishna Kali consciousness in all vessels. The Anandam Brahma is already normalised.3 The Tapasic stress reveals itself more & more as a force working for a future effect in opposition to resistances (tamasic stress) and mistaken in its idea of time & circumstance because of absorption in the idea of its own fulfilment. The tamasic stress is more in harmony with present time and circumstance, but mistakes present for future nonfulfilment. Activity of the tejomaya rupa in swapnasamadhi. 2 NB. An error. This was telepathic and not real trikaldrishti, called decisive only because the prevision and the event happened to agree. [Sri Aurobindo’s note] 3 Errors. Both were imperfect and temporary. [Sri Aurobindo’s note]

794

Record of Yoga

Jan 4t.h. Morning devoted to Sahitya for the Review. T3 continues to progress, many combinations coming automatically in the unillumined mentality, proving to be right in every detail. The siddhi is now regulating itself in the new way. But the normal movement has not yet established itself in three members of the Sharira & in the Kriti. The two trikaldrishtis of the second [January] have justified themselves. Moreover the full movement of the Asiddhi only lasted for three days at the most. There has been some relic of it for these two days also But these will now pass away. In Vijnana only jagrat rupa is giving real trouble. The rest is all moving forward very steadily in spite of the obstruction deliberately & massively opposed to it. The Asiddhi of Samata is condemned to be now purely physical. Two quickly successive instances of 80º, one of aishwarya in detail, the other of ishita in general movement. The contradiction of the Sharira has now to be removed, first in the Arogya & Utthapana, then in the Saundarya. Jan 5t.h. This record is not to replace the other,4 but to supply another element.

4 I.e., the record written in the other notebook, which was temporarily abandoned after the sixth. Ed.

1 January – 27 February 1915

795

The obstruction now offered is to the conscious use of the Affirmations. They are all present in act, but the physical consciousness is prevented from enjoying their light. This obstruction serves eventually the end of a more entire & solid participation in the siddhi by the whole conscious existence; for the subconscious is being trained through the aspiration towards the light. It is from the subconscious that the responses to the Asiddhi proceed, & the source of these responses is being fortified and purified. But the waking mind derives from the sense of obstruction a conclusion of unfaith in the rapidity of the Siddhi and the importance of the Karma. The element of error of the satyam is therefore emphasised this morning. St

eEt  hotA v}tm-y mAyyA U@vA dDAn, f;Ecp fs\ EDy\. Agni, the force of activity, precedes the present action by the concealed creative & formative Wisdom of the Master of the Yoga holding in himself a thought pure in form of vision & exalted to the Vijnana. The denial of the Lilamaya Ishwaradarshan made strongly this morning, is again rectified. The withholding of the Madhura Dasya bhava has now to be rectified. The Ananda oppressed at night and in the morning, is again restored to its activity. Jagrat samadhi. Landscape 1. A river with islands, chhayamaya, but quite clear. 2. The same river with a house on a small island in the middle; the house at first lit by a lamp, but this went out. 3. Objects (stable); one dense (the reel of thread).

796

Record of Yoga

Note 1. became dense at times. Some sukshma-shabda (vak). Swapna-samadhi Scenes, objects; actions. Brief stability. Utthapana Left leg, horizontal, 27 minutes. Strong laghu mahima; strong defect of anima with tremblings only succeeded in prevailing after 25 minutes. Intervals of pure anandamaya anima after the tremblings. Back; 1 minute 30 seconds. Mahat laghima did not fail, but defect of anima prevailed. Script. The four days, as was perceived by the telepathic trikaldrishti, were of steady progress against obstruction as opposed to rapid progress. The progress has been especially in Ishwaradarshana & telepathy. It must now extend itself to tapas & trikaldrishti, though in the latter also there has been progress. The struggle in the Sharira must continue. In the Karma there will be some progress. St Any person must be able to trace his past, present and future. Script The failure of faith in the Kriti and the rapidity was inevitable at this stage, since the forces that oppose are allowed to justify their denial in appearance at most points. Yet it is evident that the great force of Aishwarya Ishita continues, only it works against a stubborn resistance which prevents rapid result and rapid progress. In reality the Ishwaradarshan has been rapidly effected; it is easy, it is normal; only it is still liable to forcible interruption &

1 January – 27 February 1915

797

obstruction. The difficulty is no longer in the Siddhi asserting itself, but for the Asiddhi to prevent the self-assertion even by massing all its force on the point. In the other movements the rapidity is veiled by the opposition The rapidity will manifest in spite of the obstruction. The Kriti will fulfil itself in spite of the denial. The Sharira will prevail in spite of the struggle. Jan 6. St. But lo he speaketh boldly & they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? The revival of the Satyam is a preliminary to the larger assertion of the ritam. In the thought the ritam is restored. It has to be restored in the trikaldrishti in an enlarged movement. Sudden & strong attack of the old kind of Asamata, leaving vibrations behind in the outer parts of the physical heart & mind. The day has been for the most part dull and inactive. This inactivity is a preparation for a greater passivity of the instrument and a more intense normality of the tertiary dasya & yantrabhava. Samadhi As yet obscured in its more effective parts, but active in all. Passivity is still being perfected; the straining of the consciousness for the result is being systematically discouraged. As the darshana of the Lilamaya Ishwara has become normal, so the madhura-dasya bhava in its full intensity must become normal.

798

Record of Yoga

Jan 7t.h. The passivity has now to be tested by action. The References point both to the idea of the continual progression in the Yoga, not stopping short with an imperfect result. Lipi 1. telos trikaldrishti tapassiddhi. The physical passivity is now complete; that of the mind & heart must follow. Samadhi Jagrat Antardrishta 1. Stable developed forms (books, reel) 2. Human group. Swapna Activity of organised drishti.. (not the most perfectly organised). In the afternoon there was a return of Asiddhi, but the Ishwara persists in the enforcement of the Madhura Dasya. This will now be harmonised with the Tapas, the latter being delivered from the shadow of the independent ego. The trikaldrishti is acting with the ritam on broad lines, in large questions akin to the jnana. The application in time & immediate circumstance does not yet take place. Dream very coherent; a whole story read in dream lipi. Jan 8t.h. The struggle between Siddhi & Asiddhi continues. At first sight obstructive Asiddhi seems to have replaced positive Asiddhi and to hold the field. It is now suggested that this will endure till the fortnight is

1 January – 27 February 1915

799

complete, 14th January, but there is also a suggestion that this formation will be contradicted. The necessary realisation which it is so difficult to establish as a normally working practical view applied to every little detail of thought, feeling, action & event is that of the undivided Ishwara, who is at once fulfiller & opponent, Deva & Vritra. It is the relics of the Dwayavin consciousness that are the strength of the remnants of subjective Asiddhi. Trikaldrishti is now active, both telepathic & decisive, but without ritam of time & exact arrangement of circumstance. Nevertheless this ritam also is becoming much more frequent. There is an attempt to make the telepathic or mental trikaldrishti one with the decisive or veiled vijnanamaya. The completeness of the satyam of telepathy & telepathic trikaldrishti is becoming more & more absolute. The ritam lingers because of continued misapplication in time, circumstance, eventuality. This is due chiefly to the tapasic suggestion at the right side of the head near the ear, false knowledge of false sruti, which is substantially true, but erroneous in circumstance. There are other elements, tamasic suggestion etc, but these are less important. Tapasic suggestion more & more frequently fulfils itself in the end, though baffled at the moment. Tamasic suggestion fulfils itself chiefly at the moment, though still often in the finality. Tapas is at present depressed and occurs as a rule only in the finality, but often ends in an adverse movement. Ananda also is depressed, Arogya does not advance, Utthapana makes no appreciable progress, Saundarya is immobilised. Karma likewise is for the most part obstructed. With the remanifestation of the intense Kamananda a progress is visible in Vaidyuta which now flows through the body with a great intensity, distinctness & spontaneity. Tivra is also manifesting greater intensity & vishaya is acquiring it.

800

Record of Yoga Utthapana Arms about one hour. Some heaviness Left leg 10 minutes.

Trikaldrishti progresses. Many instances of decisive trikaldrishti of the nature of Chit-Tapas. Some activity of Tapas-siddhi & Jagrat-rupa. Samadhi Jagrat Ant. Perfect forms, but on the borders of sleep Swapna Reading of successive lipi. Long continued action & rupa with intervals of eclipse. Jan 9t.h.

mh  no a boDyoqo rAy  EdEv(mtF yTA Ec o aboDy, s(yvEs vAy  s;jAt  asnt .

The Sortileges are always appropriate; they are not always immediately fulfilled in their entirety. The reference given describes the movement towards which the Siddhi is directed, as yesterday’s, a`n  t-yAEs "yo vAm-y Br, gave the preliminary movement begun yesterday, not finished. Lipi. 1. Yes, it is already finished in the verity of the ideality (on background) (but has to be realised in the physical consciousness) 2. sji . . na majhc jhr. (Chitralipi) jhr = pf; = the physical consciousness. Ideality is accomplished, but has to be imposed on the whole physical consciousness. The siddhi of the mental & nervous dominating the physical are already complete, but they are veiled by Krishna as Vritra in order that they may not interfere with the enlightenment of the isolated physical consciousness.

1 January – 27 February 1915

801

3. good Tuesday (chitra) ie this movement will be complete by Tuesday. 4. perfect effectivity in the sahitya siddhi (savalambana) In the sahitya siddhi ineffectivity lingers in the form of a physical obstruction which prevents the inspired action of the vak. It can always be overcome, but its interference must be eliminated. Utthapana Left leg. horiz. 30 minutes attacks of an-anima ineffective, discontinued by will, not from necessity. Samadhi The same action of the samadhi continues In ant [antardrishta] jagrat dense & developed rupa (book, shoe). Some activity in bahirdarshi of rupa on the background. Frequency of ritam in trikaldrishti is now normalised, but is not entirely complete and therefore not invariable. It appears as if stable rupa on background in bahirdarshi were now established, but it is still far from perfect. Stable clear rupa of all kinds, but imperfect in force of distinctness & lifelikeness is established in both antardrishta & bahirdarshi. Its development of perfection has to be awaited. Therefore the vijnana continues to develop in spite of all obstruction with a limited & indecisive rapidity. Ishwaradarshana is passing through the stage of Vritratwa after its final emergence. It is there but often concealed by the Vritra effort to restore the old bhavas of the darshana with a view to entire denial of all darshana. But this is now impossible.

802

Record of Yoga

Jagrad Rupa Bahirdarshi At night Akasha Inkstand, carriage & horses, house, & other objects; none of these, except the first, when it is dense or developed, is entirely distinct. Human figures, groups, landscapes, scenes. the same characteristic Very crude images of bird, butterfly & beast. Kamananda, long intermittent, has become again spontaneously continuous. It so remained in act or tendency throughout the evening and till midnight. Today Kavya was resumed. Arogya continues to be subject to the Asiddhi. The slight gain made in Saundarya is now being disputed by the Asiddhi. It is no longer apparent. Swapnasamadhi inactive at night. Dream confused. Exact instance of time trikaldrishti, S [Saurin] waking & rising at 3 pm instead of 4.30 pm. In other instances the time was only rough & approximate & hesitated between different alternatives (eg 8.15 & 8.30). Jan 10th

 pZ-t;EvjAt-y f-yt  mEh(vm-y tvso n t\dt  -to/m-y n t\dt . acAEm s;y hm\(yEt\ myoB;v\. Ev-y yo mn aAy;y;v  mKo  dv aAy;y;v  mK, That is, the growth of the Vijnana in many forms increases, its mahattwa is not destroyed by the opposition. It increases close about & within the adhara bringing with it the Ananda; it is becoming more & more illuminated in the physical consciousness which increases in peace & joy.

1 January – 27 February 1915

803

It is applying itself unperceived to the minds of all and overcoming the opposition of the littleness, besieging the mentality of the world with the Truth. All this is justified by the observed facts. There is entire satyam and almost entire ritam & brihat of the jnana & the telepathy in relation to outward event; decisive trikaldrishti is yet defective owing to defect of tapas siddhi and prakamya vyapti is not yet normally brihat, although it has all the necessary capacities. For the rest T3 is moving forward in the mass towards inevitable fulfilment. Lipi 1. Tapas-siddhi entirety of tapas-siddhi (Tapas has to become one with knowledge in order that there may be entire tapas-siddhi). Utthapana Arms. morning half an hour. heaviness & pranic fatigue eliminated Afternoon, half an hour, force & ananda, but reaction at moment of cessation. Kavya. Tapas-siddhi & lipi in work of formation, nothing final or definite. Arogya still refractory. Lipi 2 sahitya-siddhi. 3 rupa-siddhi in the light 4 delight. .

804

Record of Yoga

Kamananda has recovered its tendency of continuity. The other shariranandas manifest from time to time. The madhura dasya is attaining continuity, but the mere dasya is still too dominant over the madhura. This is a defect that from tonight will begin to disappear. The one real obstacle is insufficient sraddha in rapidity & in kriti. Sahityasiddhi is now assured in all its parts. The physical opposition, it will be found, is disintegrated. Only the remnants of it remain. Ritam of trikaldrishti is more & more emerging; only it is not yet applied to important things in a large & definitive fashion. Telepathy of thought & feeling is recovering distinctness, but is not yet sufficiently confident of its ritam. The Mahakali-Mahasaraswati consciousness with the Mahaluxmi colour is finally taking form, but has not yet sufficient force of Mahakali. For today in the Script, a progress in jagrad rupa antardrishta, in tapas-siddhi and in lipi was specially indicated. These indications often denote a movement of tendency rather than of definite or immediate fulfilment. Lipi is visibly arranging the page behind the veil and shadows out from time to time, in front of it the reflection of its concealed movement. This it did yesterday, the large page appearing, but unvivid and therefore illegible. In front, entire vividness & stability of the long single line was reasserted, less vividness & stability of the double line, still less of the triple. The lipi still keeps the tendency to dissolve when it has been read. This is the chief obstacle to progress. Only sthapatya lipi has conquered it. Chitra sometimes prevails. Akasha tries to prevail. In antardrishta there is the same movement of lipi less pronounced in its partial success.

1 January – 27 February 1915

805

Tapas-siddhi seems to be preparing its movement rather than to be actually advancing. The dasya of Mahakali-Mahasaraswati with the Mahalakshmi tinge is now affirmed. Whenever the Mahakali consciousness has been affirmed in Mahasaraswati, it has had too strong a tendency to overwhelm both Mahasaraswati and Maheshwari & assert the violent Asuric Kali bhava. For this reason the combination MahasaraswatiMaheshwari has been constantly strengthened against this assertion & each time it has thus been strengthened, it has absorbed more & more of the Kalibhava which it denied. Tonight the combination Mahalaxmi-Mahakali was effected & held steady against the Asuric Kali tendency which it then took into itself. By this action the perfect harmony was established; for Mahalaxmi has always asserted itself in the MaheshwariMahasaraswati formula, that is to say, with the right continent and the right pratistha. All that has now to be effected is the strengthening of the Kali tejas & virya till it reaches the right intensity without disturbing the other elements of the harmony. The intensification is already proceeding. The result is the divinised Asuro-Rakshasi Kali with the Pisachi, Pramatheswari & Pashavi contained in the Rakshasi element. Mahalaxmi-Mahasaraswati brings with it the Gandharvi element. The smooth development is now possible because the dasya is now complete and is taking the madhura into itself. The bhava is firmly founded on jnana & state of being & the Ishwara is being felt in all thought, feeling & action. The distinction between Ishwara and Prakriti is not yet merged in the unity + difference, but the Prakriti is subordinate & more conscious of being a form of the Ishwara. Mahalaxmi brings with her bhakti & prema, the stable permanence of which was so long denied.

806

Record of Yoga

Jan 11t.h. The growth of ritam in the trikaldrishti continues, but still works chiefly on the material of the telepathy. There is also a movement towards ritam of the impulsions which is not yet complete, but their satyam is now pronounced. Sraddha in the guidance is now becoming absolute, but is still only partly illumined by knowledge of the exact drift of the guidance. Nevertheless, the exact sense & utility of each movement, whether overtly favourable or apparently adverse is more & more understood. The sraddha is limited also by the doubt of the rapidity & of the kriti. In the vijnana & subjectivity generally the doubt of rapidity is giving way to comprehension of an increasing swiftness & sureness in the development; but in sharira & kriti the view is still blind. It is certain that something will be done, but the way & the extent is withheld from the knowledge. It only appears as a speculative formation. Samata is almost entirely free from reactions of positive depression. There is only a shadow of depression & impatience due to defect of tapas-siddhi. Sraddha in exact tapas-siddhi once accomplished there will be no farther defect of the first two chatusthayas. The completion of the third is therefore the practical assurance of the whole Yoga-siddhi. The rest is only a matter of Time. Jan 12t.h. The progress is now rather in thought & sahitya; in the rest there is more of preparation. The force of the Kamic chakra & the sahaituka kamananda is increasing, but the Arogya is not sufficient.

1 January – 27 February 1915

807

There is a constant application of tests to the samata; but except momentary touches of depression & impatience, there is no result. The sama Ananda increases constantly & the only shadow over it is that of the recurrent unfaith. On the other hand Shakti is affected by non-fulfilment and Asraddha. Tapatya continues, but fitfully where there is not the faith and without assured Ananda. The Siddhi seems to move towards the Ananda of a purely disinterested and instrumental Tapatya not depending on faith in the results. But this brings a certain indifference to the Tapas-siddhi which cannot be final. Jagrat rupa is at last manifesting really stable forms of all kinds that are at the same time clear, vivid & complete. 4 footed animal forms, long withheld by return of asiddhi, today manifest freely, but at first had no stability. They have already however begun to assume stability, though the movement is not yet successfully accomplished. All this is in crude & with trataka, just in front of the eyes in a thick pranic akasha. The figures at first ran swiftly away to the right, but they can now be kept floating before the eyes. Both these results, reappearance & initial stability of fourfooted animal forms and the cessation of the fugitive movement, are instances of almost instantaneous effectivity of tapas. Lipi continues to develop fixity of single line and legibility of the multiple line. The advance of rupa has come at a moment when a long obstruction made it appear impossible to push forward this siddhi. It was followed by an outburst of successful tapassiddhi after a long period of ineffectivity. In the course of two minutes there were

808

Record of Yoga

six or seven instances of aishwarya siddhi swiftly effective against which all resistance was helpless. Utthapana of arms one hour, not yet free from slight defect of anima. Of legs for eight minutes, medial position, strong & successful oppression of the laghima. Bahirdarshi rupa at night began to repeat the movement of the day. A certain movement of Kriti, but not of any great importance in itself. Dream & samadhi continue in the same condition, the first subject to confusion, the second somewhat inactive, but capable of stability. Jan 13t.h. First stable page lipi chitra Not legible at once, though very vivid. Legible line [ ]5 by line. But the preceding lines once read remained firm & could be re-read. Some seven or ten lines with fairly long phrases (about 7 words), a phrase to each line. Tapas-siddhi continues. The force of the Ananda of event increases, although the surface nirananda (negative rather than positive) still continues. The faith increases slowly. The rapidity now manifested is a relative rapidity, a rapidity of gradual progression, not a positive and masterful rapidity. The body, the physical consciousness, the physical akash, the physical world are being moulded to the siddhi, but present still a tamasic resistance which reproduces mechanically 5 MS &

1 January – 27 February 1915

809

the old forms of asiddhi. Hence the inability to advance with a positive rapidity. There are other signs of a revived effectivity of Tapas-siddhi, but as yet it is not decisively extended to Kriti or to Sharira. Utthapana Arms one hour. Defect of anima a little more heavy than the day before. Samadhi Long sleep. Struggle to conquer the tamasic nidra, only slightly successful. The physical consciousness attempts to escape from the continued action of the Vijnana, not from hostility, but from tamas, indolence & addiction to easy & accustomed methods. Telepathy of thought frequently occurs, but in a scattered form. It is not well-organised in the ritam. The whole action now is one of adjustment occurring automatically, like a machine that is gradually putting itself to rights. . The attempt to conquer tamasic nidra continued. At night it was largely successful. There was a sense of samadhi rather than of nidra in the sushupti. Swapna samadhi was rich in its activity & jagrat forms of considerable beauty (sea-scapes) appeared; but the more perfectly organised samadhi was not active. Dream developed a great accuracy & considerable coherence of successive scenes & incidents, but the names & human images belonged to present ego & its associations. In Arogya there is a struggle with revived form of old malady. Assimilation does not advance. Saundarya is also stationary.

810

Record of Yoga

There seems to be a promise of recovered rapid realisation; but as yet there is no realisation. Jan 14t.h. After a struggle with resistance the effective tapas-siddhi began to work as yesterday. There are exceptions to its action of which the trikaldrishti becomes aware at the moment of tapatya. But this awareness is sometimes contradicted by a tapasic movement. Utthapana. Arms, half hour. Defect of anima stronger, stiffness. Return of Asamata in the forms of impatience, disbelief & duhkha. This came as usual from the unfulfilled promise of the Tapas & a violent repression of the siddhi. It is a direct denial of the suggestion made yesterday that the Samata is at last about to accomplish a complete finality and that rapid advance was about to return. The period of asiddhi has now covered a whole fortnight, although for the most part (ie except in the body & in the rupa samadhi) it has taken the part more of an arrested siddhi than of any positive recoil. There have been movements of recoil, as in the samata today. Darshana has gone back sometimes for a moment to the perception of the mere man in the Sarvam Brahman; but its normal pitch is now the Anandam J. A S [Jnanam Anantam Sarvam] Brahman as represented by the individual limited mental consciousness. The Darshana of KrishnaKali is no longer normal. It is now, however, manifesting again holding in itself both the double Personality & the bhava of Purusha enjoying Prakriti. Stable scene & movements in scene in the jagrad antardrishta.

1 January – 27 February 1915

811

Serious & unforeseen blow to the Kriti, received without any reaction except incertitude & loss of faith in the Kriti or rather admission of the possibility of being entirely misled in the conception of the future. At night perfect swapnasamadhi. Intense, distinct & vivid vishayas, touch, hearing, taste, smell frequently repeated and well combined with rupa, with incident & with each other. Perfect stability of rupa continued into the jagrat antardarshi. Perfect coherent conversation Rich activity of forms, scenes & incidents. The only defects that remain are insufficient prolongation of the continuities, inapplicability to use in life and imperfect memory after the samadhi is over. Jagrad rupa & vishaya are now the only parts of the Vijnana which are not well advanced; though none are yet finally perfect in their ordinary action, except pure jnana. Sharira & Kriti continue to be backward, & this backwardness exercises its reactionary effect on the other chatusthayas. Nevertheless now that the first three chatusthayas & the sixth are taking form, the power can be more concentrated on these so that the final question may be more rapidly fought out Jan 15t.h. Clear & stable rupa on the background are now beginning to appear in bahirdarshi. The period of dominant asiddhi seems to be over, since the obstruction in vijnana has proved ineffective. But the obstruction in Sharira & Kriti remains.

812

Record of Yoga

By the removal of the artificial obstruction of Asiddhi the Krishna Kali consciousness of the Anandamaya Purusha has been immediately normalised in all things & beings. The sense of being in all things & all things being in oneself has returned. The Devi envisages herself as the Ishwari though in conflict with her present world-form in order to purify & uplift it. Lipi 1 The object is faith in the tapas-siddhi. 2 Myself testing the opposition. 3 Honestly hopeful siddhi 4 The enthusiastic faith is still obstructed by the unfaith in the tapas-siddhi of the Kriti. Utthapana Arms one hour, stiffness more pronounced, but defect of anima less effective. Kamananda which had been dulled becomes once more active. Animal forms appear on the background & attempt to be stable, also objects, but the latter especially are not fine or correct in their outlines. All kinds of forms & combinations are now so appearing as chhayas on the wall Stable clearness has heralded but as yet failed to establish itself. In jagrad antardarshi entirely stable forms attended sometimes by entirely & long continuous action are now well-established & begin to be various, but are surrounded by an atmosphere of dimness which makes them appear entirely crude though otherwise complete & even quite perfect & definite in form. It is noticeable that continuous action here has a far better hold of the akasha & is far more firmly held by the vision than in swapnasamadhi.

1 January – 27 February 1915

813

Perfect rupas begin to reappear in the bahirdarshi, but they are still momentary. Sukshma Vak is again attempting to manifest in the bahirdarshi A struggle over the Tapas-siddhi continues Perfect rupa in bahirdarshi at night also, but momentary Tamasic nidra took again some hold, but not a strong hold. Dream was confused. The higher parts of samadhi did not appear. On the whole a day of progress. Jan 16t.h. Tapas-siddhi is still active, but usually against strong resistance. 80º is long suspended. Dream & samadhi are still under the shadow of the tamasic nidra; there was only one new outbreak, the inscription in antardarshi, novae suae patriae percipere. The first two words were slightly deformed “nuovae suoae”. This inscription responded to nothing in the waking mind and was of the nature of Sruti. Darshana varies between the perception of the lower Purusha in the individual, Anandamaya Brahmamaya, occupying Prakriti, & of the Lilamaya embracing & occupying all individuals. The latter is the normal perception, but slides back into the inferior view. The darshana of Krishnakali is replaced by the darshana of Purusha-Prakriti. The Ishwaribhava has again given place to the Devibhava with the Kali force quiescent and almost absent.

814

Record of Yoga

There has therefore been no definite progress during the day, although certain signs for the Kriti are good. Utthapana Arms half hour. interrupted (diminished defect of anima) Neck 10 minutes (strong defect of anima) Samadhi Obstruction of tamasic nidra. Jan 17t.h. (1) tv\pdATO ttFy _@yAy  En!EptO y Ep tTA_Ep (v\pdATo

nA(yt\ En!Ept-tdTmy\ pmo_@yAy aAryoEtzps\p -v

!p ZAEBs\p t .

This is the means. (tto n rogAEdByEm(yAh) E#$AEn dfyEt lG;(vEm(yAEd (3) Tmyogv" (4) EfvA\ EgEr/ tA\ k;z mA Eh\sF, p;zq\ jgt^.

The vijnana is gradually reasserting the Affirmations, but against a strong opposition. This month has been a reassertion of the Dwayavin consciousness ending in the possession of a world unity in which two forces of the same Being are at strife, both directed by the Ishwara. The attitude of continual struggle with the adverse forces is 6 MS the

1 January – 27 February 1915

815

being established in the consciousness. Tapatya is constant against a heavy obstruction. St.

Ev-y {k\ pErv E'tArmFf\ t\ (A(vA_mtA Bv\Et.

That is, the surrounding consciousness has to be normally felt as the Lord and not only as the continent & material & determining substance. This consciousness of the Lord is resisted by the Asiddhi; all the rest is well established in the Darshana. 80º is again manifesting itself. Exact fulfilment is also manifesting itself. Both, however, are as yet exceptions to the general rule of strong & often successful resistance. Ananda is once more occupying the system. The different physical Anandas are again at work in entire spontaneity & with strong intensity. Utthapana of the arms, half an hour vertical, strong denial of Anima; afterwards, medial between horizontal & vertical, half an hour. In the latter laghima is exceedingly strong; but there is a subsequent reaction in the shoulders. Utthapana of legs; medial, 6 minutes only. Of left leg, horizontal, 15 minutes. Swapna-samadhi Two visions of actualities, living people, existing scenes. The recovering Arogya was again attacked and pushed back. With the exception of Ananda, Sharira generally fails to advance. Ananda itself is only recovered, not advanced Madhura dasya is restored. Vani is free & dominant.

816

Record of Yoga

Jan 18t.h. A new formation can be felt, marked for the moment by a great intensifying of Mahaluxmi and a mergence in her of Mahakali Lipi 1. Rapidly telepathy is growing definite 2. There is a little result in the immediate futurity; in the remote there is the period of great results. The satyam is restored, but still lacks the definitive & decisive ritam. It is a satyam of telepathy, not of the pure trikaldrishti. There is a similar satyam, without definitive ritam, of the Tapas. The satyam has a firmer ritam than before, but it is a ritam of telepathy & of manomaya forces, not vijnanamaya. Utthapana of the arms one hour & a half increased laghima besieged by defect of anima. Utthapana of legs, medial, 10 minutes. Left leg, horizontal, 18 minutes Neck, 5 minutes. Madhura dasya is well-established, but there is no action of Mahakali. There is however a movement towards the fusion of the Mahakali & Mahaluxmi bhavas in the Anandamaya Tapas & Premamaya Virodha. Jan 19t.h. There is no rapid or definite progress except in Darshana, where the Ishwaradarshana has become normal & the consciousness even when pulled back for a time to the simple Brahmadarshana, reverts naturally to the Siddhi. The vivid personality of Krishna Kali is not yet normal in

1 January – 27 February 1915

817

the darshana, but Purusha-Prakriti comes easily & is always there implied. It is noticeable that as in former times the morning brings a reversion to the asiddhi. Today the reversion is determined and powerful. Its main object now is to prevent the ritam in the knowledge & tapas by besieging the mind with the agitated struggle & errors of the nervous & physical mentality. Utthapana. Arms. 1 hour 45 minutes. Afterwards strong reaction in left shoulder Back ten minutes Neck half an hour. Karma of scholastic work has been begun with some initial steadiness (study of Rig Veda). The poise of the Siddhi was restored during the morning, but the force of it is absent. Utthapana increased. General Ananda has become settled. At the same time there is a lassitude with regard to the Kriti. The Tapas is more firm on Sharira. Jan 20th Utthapana. Legs 15 minutes defective still, though improved Arms 2 hours pranic defect in the first hour, strong reaction after cessation, strain manifested in muscles of the back & loins. Laghima effective, but not mahat. The consciousness of the cosmic Purusha-Prakriti confirms itself always; but belongs to an inferior plane, not to the Vijnana or the Ananda. There is no satisfaction to the Will or to the Mahakali element.

818

Record of Yoga The same state of the Siddhi continues. Work on the Veda continues.

Jan 21s.t. The samata continually deepens. Utthapana Arms 1 hour and a half. No definite progress, but the Ishwaradarshana deepens & fortifies itself. Jan 22d.. Samata is now very strong & has converted itself into a more or less dense Ananda. Ishwaradarshana is also very strong & spontaneous. A little smarana is now all that is needed. The same process of deepening & final basing is in process with regard to the Shakti. Along with this movement Mahakali is again emerging out of Maheshwari-Mahaluxmi-Mahasaraswati. Rupa in jagrad is resuming activity after a long dullness. There is no disposition in the nature towards personal tapas of the Will, but only towards tapas of the action in the body. St.

mh  no [a boDyoqo]7 rAy  EdEv(mtF

Lipi again active in the Swapnasamadhi, but only partially coherent.

7 MS

aoqo boDy

1 January – 27 February 1915

819

Utthapana. Arms 1 hour. Work for the Review. The activity of Vijnana is re-forming, but not yet in possession.

Jan 23d.. Utthapana. Arms 1 hour 25 minutes. Neck 35 minutes. In the struggle between Arogya & Roga the latter had reaffirmed itself in the blood with great vehemence. It seems now to be again subsiding under the pressure of the Aishwarya.

y(-y vo rLy\ Ev)pEt\ EvfA\ hotArm*orEtET\ EvBAvs\; . foc+C;kAs; hErZFq; jB;r,qA k t;yjto [ AmfAyt]8  The Mahakali element increases in the energy, but has yet no faith in the result of its thought or its action. It maintains udasinata & nati, but not an active attitude of tapatya. The swapnasamadhi again became active, but jagrat state of the mind in swapna is not very firm. Veda continues. The Vijnana acts sometimes, but it is still usually the unenlightened physical consciousness which is dominant.

8 MS

AmvAfyt^

820

Record of Yoga [Here resumes the notebook set aside on 6 January]

Jan 24t.h. The intermediate record has been kept in a separate book (2d.. to 23d..). Throughout the month there has been an encroachment by Asiddhi on Siddhi which became strongest between the 16th & 23d.. The result has been an entire confirmation of samata & sama Ananda, followed by a revival of Shakti on the basis of entire samata and, now commencing[,] a revival of Vijnana on the same basis. The defect of last year’s siddhi was the survival of a Tapas & Tapatya which responded too eagerly to sakama suggestions from outside. For this reason it was necessary to obscure the siddhi in order to assure entire titiksha, udasinata and nati of all favourable or adverse results, pleasant or unpleasant experiences. Especially, the Ananda of success & failure, truth & falsehood has been secured against the constant denial opposed to them by this recoil. On the other hand a temporary abandonment of Tapatya and Mahakali bhava and an all-prevailing incertitude amounting to ill-faith was brought back by the necessities of this movement. Arogya has been thrown back violently & Sharira generally retarded. The Ishwaradarshan is now securely normalised with the Krishna Kali Ananda, Guna & Jnana as its contents. This is the first chatusthaya (Brahma) entirely satisfactory in its finality. Only intensity of bhava and fullness of detail have to be added, but this depends partly on the progress in other chatusthayas. Samata is also final, but still vibrates sometimes momentarily to the touch of tamasic asamata.

1 January – 27 February 1915

821

Shakti is not final for want of faith, but force of madhura dasya has greatly increased. The Affirmations of the Anandamaya Ishwara, the madhura dasya & the submission to all bhoga are now ready for their perfection. Those of the Anandamaya as continent & Ananda as base follow upon these, but the free & joyous Tapas & Prakasha as base depend upon the fullness of the Ritam & Satya Brihat Affirmations. The two other Affirmations are still held back. For the results in Vijnana, Sharira & Kriti it is necessary to await the emergence of these siddhis. In Swapnasamadhi the full hold of stability & continuity on the Akasha; but not the full play of the jagrat in swapna. Jan 25t.h. Utthapana. Arms 3–4 hour; interrupted. The energy is now more fixed upon action than on Yogasiddhi. Work before which soon wearied out the body is now being pursued with tenacity and lines of effort that seemed formerly to be constantly broken & lead to nothing begin to prepare their fulfilment. The Veda is taken up in two parts Vamadeva’s hymns on which notes are being taken from Sayana & the Ninth Book which is being copied and annotated. The work of the Review must now be systematised as also the preparation of a statement of the Yoga

822

Record of Yoga

The rest of the siddhi does not advance, but the first & sixth chatusthayas are maintained. Sharira The advance in Arogya has again been checked. Ananda cannot normalise continuity because of the check to Arogya. There is no progress in Saundarya. Jan 28t.h. The last two days have been chiefly occupied with work & the Vijnana has been left inactive for the most part except in its dispersed action. A slight depression in the superficial Samata is observable this morning; but the Vijnana is reviving its activity. Ishwaradarshana remains firm. The difficulty now experienced is with regard to the Tapas. The mind is unwilling to accept the effort of imperfect Tapas & no other manifests. There is also an entire uncertainty with regard to the Kriti & all things concerning the life & the lifework. St.

im\ n; mAEyn\ h;v i\d-mFfAnmojsA. mz(v\t\ n [v.s ]9 . ayEm\d-o mz(sKA Ev v/-yAEBnEQCr,. v/ Z ftpvZA

By this it seems to be indicated that the mental activity of the Tapas has to be admitted and used to destroy the obstruction.

9 MS

aojs 

1 January – 27 February 1915

823

At present there are all sorts of brilliant formations of the nervous mentality which seem to have no sanction from the luminous mind The action of the Vijnana is being resumed where it left off. There is occasional 80º but ordinarily resistance and imperfect result or delayed result, sometimes no apparent result. What is now being attempted is the sustained and even obstinate action of the Tapas without regard to result and into this action the introduction of the united power & knowledge. Utthapana Arms. an hour and a half. Samadhi During the last few days samadhi & coherent dream have asserted themselves partially, with all their right circumstances & gains (except the jagrat); but there is still a dominant Ashasti, if not so strong an abhisastih. Sharira In Arogya at present the struggle seems to be turning again in favour of the siddhi. Physical energy is more consistent but directed chiefly towards the support of brain work. Vijnana Aishwarya works again in immediate surroundings, but is not more advanced in effectuality. There is this time no sudden & powerful revival of the Siddhi, but only a slow movement of recovered activity. The finality, however, is greater in everything connected with the subjectivity.

824

Record of Yoga

Jan 29t.h.

evA no a`n  amt q; p&y DFpFpAy bhE1v q; mAn;qA. d;hAnA D n;vjn q; kArv  (mnA fEtn\ p;z!pEmqEZ vym`n  avtA vA s;vFy b}2ZA vA Ecty mA jnAnEt. a-mAk\ ;mED p kE'q; u3A -vZ f;f;cFt d;'r\.

Script Although the opposition seems to be strong, the force of the siddhi is stronger. It has already asserted itself entirely in the first, mainly in the second, entirely in the sixth chatusthaya. Except for deficient faith in the life, which is really a deficient knowledge, it holds the subjectivity. It has now to conquer the subjectiveobjective and this it is steadily doing in spite of all reverses & retardations. The power on the immediate surroundings showed itself throughout the morning extremely effective in spite of all resistance sometimes compelling results subjectively, sometimes, where the subjective object resisted by the creation of circumstances which physically induced or compelled the necessary action. There was only one instance of failure. Utthapana Arms 1 hr. 15 minutes Legs 5 minutes only. Samadhi. Swapna Samadhi is trying to get rid of the Ashasti Jan 30th The Dyumna or luminous power (rajas, rochana) is established in the Bhuvar, it is now being established in the Divah. The energy is ready in the active nervous power and in the soul´ although manifest chiefly thought (suviryam arvata´ . . brahmana) in the work of knowledge, thought, writing etc, not in the things of Prithivi, the objective world. It is here that the mental thought

1 January – 27 February 1915

825

(DFmAn;qA) nourished by the ideal (bhE1v q;) is yielding its full results.

anAso y  pvyo_rTA i\d EqtA ayoEt, is increasing. Agni is massing strength (kZ;v pAj,) in order to create a wide & swift movement (pLvF\ EsEt\ & tvF\ EsEt\). But the principal action still needed is that of the Maruts r"so En yAt. Jan 21s.t. The lipi is still developing though hampered by the mental eagerness of the environment which seeks to anticipate and reproduce its own ideas in the lipi. The lipi is slower when not pressed, but more spontaneous, stable, vividly legible. Spontaneous, stable, legible jyotirmaya lipi: also tejomaya. Varnamaya comes but with less ease. Dhumramaya and agnimaya are least spontaneous. Script in the morning “Today third chatusthaya” “Lipi, script, thought, vani” “Samadhi Tapas-siddhi” In the first part, the programme commenced its own fulfilment at once. A great flood of ideality in all these members is pushing out the siege of the intellect. At every point the ideality shows its superior truth in giving the light, the right relation to fact of any part, fraction, aspect of the thought, which the intellect has bungled. The inspiration is fixing itself into all the instruments of the vijnana, even the perceptive thought.

924

Record of Yoga

Interpretation of the rupas (sadhara) has begun Script. “Believe luminously” that is by the ideality, in spite of the apparent resistance and nonfulfilment. This is now coming into force and the belief justifies itself by the eventual fulfilment; the light is also seeking to embrace more perfectly the details of the resistance and the fulfilment. In consequence tapassiddhi is becoming larger in its movement and more frequently & powerfully effective, often immediate or nearly immediate, sometimes exact in circumstance. In the afternoon samadhi made a general forward movement towards (1) activity of ideal thought, perceptive as well as vangmaya. Hitherto vangmaya alone was partly ideal (2) coherent & consecutive lipi, thought, narrative (3) continuous drishya combined with sravana and sparsha. (4) removal of mere shama in samadhi, replacement by shama + tapas + prakasha. The motion is large, but not as yet entirely victorious. Especially is there resistance in the drishya etc. On the whole the movement is that of the kZ;v pAj,, the pLvF tvF EsEt of Agni, the a\t>yoEt, added to a\t,s;K & a\trArAm. Intimation in the lipi several times repeated that this movement of the ideality will come to a head on Tuesday Jan 22d Monday For the first time today the Ishwara is the sakshi, and not the Jiva. At the same time the Ishwara jnata, bharta, anumanta, karta is being rapidly strengthened,2 (the karta from this moment after being added[)]. There is still a downward tendency of the mental powers trying to insist on the jiva in these capacities, but it is losing force. Ideality of style & substance is constantly increasing in the vijnana instruments, especially the perceptive thought, in spite of 2 The word “karta” was added between the lines, apparently when this point of the sentence had been reached. Sri Aurobindo explained the insertion in the next phrase. Ed.

9 January – 14 February 1917

925

the tamasic resistance of the old mentality in its general sanskara. Script Ideality in (telepathy), trikaldrishti, tapas Samadhi. (1) is being already fulfilled; first as indicated in the trikaldrishtitapas; that is to say will & knowledge are combining, preparatory to unification; afterwards in all three3 Lipi. “future telepathy turns to trikaldrishti” This is being gradually fulfilled. The tendency of the mind to carry on one thing at a time, insisting tamasically on the impossibility of doing all at a time in the siddhi of the ideality, is being constantly contradicted and corrected. Ideal intellectuality is receding out of the system under pressure of intellectual ideality and that is constantly turning itself into ideal ideality, predominantly of the srauta kind (inspiration). It is found more & more that every impulse, suggestion etc in the sadhan has its utility for its own purpose, but for that utility to be perceived and appreciated, the truth and limits and relation of each has to be ideally perceived. This is now being done more & more. All this action is principally in the “school”, not yet applied to life at large.

ˆ

Antarjyoti may now be considered as established. Brahmabhava is growing, but has to be made more vivid & steady. The pAj,, pLvF EsEt & tvF EsEt are founded. What is left is the destruction of the limiting Rakshasas and the royal march of  EsEvdAn,, that Rakshasa is being Agni. yo . . t;QC ^ yAkAmAn^ krt destroyed rapidly. The End, yo fmF\ ffmAn-y En\dAt^ has lost much of his field, but still holds the body & the karma and is not quite driven out of the ideality. 3 Apparently the script first came: “Ideality in trikaldrishti, tapas”, the word “telepathy” being added later. The parentheses around and the caret below “telepathy” in Sri Aurobindo’s transcription of the script appear to be his way of representing this sequence. Ed.

926

Record of Yoga

In Samadhi the activity of ideal thought perceptive and vangmaya is becoming quite normal, continuous, coherent in all the lighter layers & even in the middle depth. It is penetrating into deep samadhi. The real struggle continues to be in the jagrat Ideal activity has now become normal in all depths of the mental samadhi. There is as yet no jagrat in vijnana-samadhi. Rupa-drishya manifests coherently only in brief scenes of a few seconds’ occurrence; the deeper the samadhi, the richer the power of vision, although this [ ]4 is not invariably the rule. Lipi and reading ditto. They are coherent, easily, only in swapna & sushupta, but in sentences only. It is at night that they begin to be long and yet coherent. In jagrat antardarshi a little impression has been made, but it is nothing firm or definite. . It is here, in jagrat, that siddhi has been most deceptive in the past. The results have always been stolen by the Rakshasas. Script More progress. First in jagrat samadhi. Next in ideality of t3. Thirdly, in physical siddhi. Some progress in vishaya. Today. In jagrat rupas of all kinds begin to reappear with a greater general tendency to siddhi. T3 increases in ideality, broadly; nothing definitely new. In physical siddhi the tivra & vishaya are taken up again and carried forward with greater generality & spontaneous intensity. Jan 23d.. Tuesday. Script The t3 has to formulate itself in the ideality Jagrat develops farther. Vishaya improves Sraddha swashaktyam, aishwaryabhava and devibhava have to found themselves firmly.

4 MS this

9 January – 14 February 1917

927

T3 is faulty in detail. To mend that fault must be the next movement of the third chatusthaya. Brahmabhava is now vivid & steady. To Brahmabhava has been added & united = Brahmatmabhava. To this there is attempting to unite itself Ishwarabhava, but here there is a difficulty. . “Each body is the body of God” lipi realises itself with vividness, but not steadily. Each mentality the mind of God in spite of anishabhava less vividly, less steadily. The sense of the Spirit = Deva presiding over mind and body comes only occasionally. Ananda Brahma has been for many days in suspension in favour of Manas Brahman. It is now returning sometimes with, sometimes without vijnanananda. Sraddha swashaktyam (subject by dasya to sraddha bhagavati) is founded, so too Devi bhava of the Dasi-Ishwari (MahakaliMahasaraswati) and as a result a qualified daiva aishwaryabhava T3 is formulating itself; but there is confusion owing to misplacement of detail by intellectual tapas. This is removed in general thought, where ideal tapas has almost replaced intellectual, but not in the application of t3 to objects even in the “school-field”. Rupa in jagrat is now often clear and complete in crude, ghana crude & occasionally in perfect developed crude. It includes all the four main forms animal, man, object, scene or group. But it is perfect & stable only in the bird form which has been chosen for the type owing to the preoccupation with the flight & movement of birds in the vicinity during the exercise of t3. Vishaya last night began to remanifest, but without any distinct improvement except in sravana. There was, however, the perfect & vivid sense, sukshma-sthula, of the sparsha of object with object, eg the moth knocking itself or moving on the window-pane or resting on the wall. The pT; pAj, is now accomplished, but it is not as yet

928

Record of Yoga

sufficiently full of driving force to follow an entirely tvF EsEt. Still the rapidity in the third chatusthaya is great; it has to be perfect. Touch is developing itself more strongly in the sukshmabodha, and the result-sensation is often felt in the sthula; but the contactsensation is only occasionally & very imperfectly sthula, except in the two or three familiar touches, especially that of water. Taste is recovering its force, but has yet no [ ]5 stability except in the vaguer touches. Gandha is redeveloping. See towards end of book6 Jan 23d. 1917. Tuesday. (continued) The Devibhava has now been fully defined

k. I l s.

fOym;g}tA y;9El=sA  hhA-y\ dA-y\ b;E9cAt;y kmEl=sA FEt, Common to the four dyA IrBAv, svkmsAmLy

The last three bhavas, I l s [i.e., Maheshwari, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati], are now complete; the first is there except ay\.

This indicates the possession of the knowledge by the Ananda and the summing up of the work of the Maruts in the revelation of the Indra godhead, divine Mind of vijnana destroying the obstacles summed up in the one Vritra-force The pAj, of Agni is attempting to become universal and ideal. No definite advance in Samadhi, but wakefulness of the Purusha in mental samadhi is more EvB; and has more pAj, and dream q; jAgEt was also more attacked by the inner wakefulness, yo s;? Mental, moral, pranic certainties are being reduced to their proper position, deprived of their certainty and shown to be merely probabilities & expectant forces, so that the ground may be clear for the generalisation of ideal certainty. Tapas-siddhi is now at the 50º and there fairly sure of itself and general. The whole mental consciousness is now beginning to be pervaded by a sense of substantial light (jyotih) and the body with a sense of the flowing of a wine, an ecstatic subtle liquor of delight, Soma. The sense of will as a fire, Agni, is sometimes present. There is a strong movement in jagrat rupadrishya towards the development of the dense & developed on the former large scale, but with greater firmness and permanence. As yet however there are only scattered signs, the few developed and perfect or dense & perfect rupas that come being momentary or only having a second’s stability in the pranic akasha.

9 MS

aEh\ En, ffA

938

Record of Yoga

Great progress, sudden in its definition, though long prepared in tivra ananda. First intensity has much more than doubled its normal force and tends to be decupled. Secondly, the law of the deadening or diminution of tivra by repetition of touch whether slow or rapid, is giving way & may be said to have given way to the law of increase by repetition. The old rule struggles to survive but is suppressed. The tivra maintains itself, if oppressed recovers, usually increases. The law of increase is not yet very strong, but it is born as a law & not, as before, only as an occasional phenomenon and then an often oppressed tendency. Higher ideality has made its way into the perceptive thought in the midst of a general luminous play of inspirational intellectualised ideality (vA\Es mnFqA,). It is now seeking to confirm & generalise itself. Indra is destroying Vritra on the earth, in the physicality of the mind. It is attempting to extend itself to all trikaldrishti. Telepathic trikaldrishti of time 1. The three young men will come before nine; or at least two. vague in detail. N [Nolini] & M [Moni] came at 8.45 2. N will come before 9. Uncertain when he came, either just before 9 or just after; within 9.5 at latest. 3. Someone will come at 9.10. Sn. [Saurin] came at 9.10 4 9.20 named as time of meal changed to 9.10 by my watch, which is ten minutes slow. Meal at 9.20 (9.10) or a minute or two earlier usually at 9.30 or after, rarely so early as 9.20 5. 9.25 (by my watch = 9.35) named first associated with S’s coming, afterwards with finishing of meal. Meal finished at 9.25 exact

9 January – 14 February 1917

939

Feb. 4. Script. Today the higher reality will grow and be confirmed in its possession. The rupadrishya will make a great stride forward by the night. Lipi will advance. T2 will begin to confirm itself. Kamananda will increase steadily in force from today. The battle for the health will continue. More force will come to the saundarya. In the afternoon a strong attack of the old mentality, accepted yet rejected by the Purusha, which helped finally to put the intellectual movements in their right place. The higher ideality is now at the back of the perceptive thought and will as of all other instruments. Wherever it gives the sanction as a sort of Will-Knowledge, though with more force in it than light because of a certain veil between it in its source and its manifestation in the mind, the thought or will infallibly fulfils itself. The rest has to be regulated and put in its place; for now the truth behind each thought & will is perceived, but not at once in its right relation to the rest and result. For a while trikaldrishti was almost absolutely perfect, but without certainty. Thespesia. 1. Lipi. feast. At first misunderstood, afterwards understood rightly, but not with certainty In the afternoon, long after, the Mahomedan came to arrange for pullao in the evening. 2 Yesterday, prevision of karana this evening. No intention in any mind, yet fulfilled by afternoon event. 3 Today, prevision of the same tomorrow. Contrary to all custom and intention arranged for by event and impulse in every mind but one, although resisted in act by myself. These incidents are decisive of a trikaldrishti which is no longer telepathic or uncertain. Rupadrishya developed force of full dense & developed, but only in the type figure of the bird. In the rest a general tendency

940

Record of Yoga

to display of the unstable or else imperfect dense & developed. Samadhi is only labouring to confirm and generalise its past gains. Lipi is taking possession of the material trikaldrishti. Kamananda is continually growing in force, but not yet free from dependence on hetu. The will to saundarya is increasing, but as yet without any definite visible result. The habitual rogas still assert their force of persistence and recurrence though not with the old sovereign force. On the whole T2 is at last firmly founded. R. [Reference]

y,AEh5\ td`ny  bhdc EvBAvso

That is to say, the general light in the mentality has to be turned into a large illumination of ideal knowledge which will be a firm support for the ideal will. Prediction. Things objectivity. That is, the subjective-objective being now on the road to siddhi, the battle will be more henceforth for the control of things and objects, the bodily, prithivi. Feb 5. Script. “The ideality must be confirmed against such attacks as yesterday’s which must rapidly be made impossible “There must be definite and steady progress in the ShuddhaAnanda-sarva-sundara-darshana on the Ananda-vijnana basis.” In the morning sudden efflorescence of a perfect shuddha anandamaya-vijnanamaya vision of universal beauty. Every detail is seen in its perfect, divine sense and faery loveliness and in its place in the whole and the divine symmetry of the whole based on its

9 January – 14 February 1917

941

“brihat” Idea, even in what appears to the mind [un]symmetrical. This was realised in things yesterday, today in faces, figures, actions, etc. It is not yet stable, but strong and returns in spite of the force that depresses the vision and attempts to return to the diffuse mental view of things. In the mental view the general shuddha ananda is ahaituka, even when it is full of feature; in this it is self-existent, yet contains all hetu, guna, rasa = Ananda with vijnana in its embrace. Script T2 Ideality in all the instruments Samadhi Rupadrishya Ananda Ideality enlarged its hold on the perceptive thought & intensified its action in the other instruments. T2 also developed Trikaldrishti of time 1. 8.5 for first arrival. Incorrect by the watch. L arrived at 8.10. 2 Arrival at 8.25 N & M arrived at 8.25 3. 8.55. Mistaken for time of arrival of Ns. As it happened, we sat down exactly at 8.55. General forecast of lateness today justified. Samadhi strengthened itself considerably in continuity, stability, force of manifestation. Rich tejomay scenes appeared. Lipi became firmer. Written lipi & dream reading improved. In jagrat rupadrishya is getting rid gradually of the method of fluid and fluctuating creation of images out of a confused blur of material. In antardarshi trailokyadrishti is attempting to emerge. In Ananda raudra alone made some definite advance.

942

Record of Yoga

Feb. 6 Ideality is more and more overcoming the intellectuality which has lost all selfconfidence and only persists when it thinks itself the ideality or inspired by the ideality. This confirms recent lipi “servant of ideality” Samadhi confirmed its movement. It is trying to become complete. In jagrat there is still the obstacle and the same movement. Jagrat bahirdarshi is slowly developing force and precision Trikaldrishti still uncertain among the telepathies, sometimes almost entirely, rarely entirely accurate in all details, usually right in many points, overstressed & therefore wrong in others. eg 1. Crow running along ledge telepathic suggestion of its flying up to the parapet, though it ran the contrary way & then returned with constant impulse to fly downwards into the road. 2 Perception that it would not fly downward fulfilled in spite of repeated impulsions & repeated uncertainty. It flew onto parapet fulfilling (1). 3. Perception that it would fly away in frontal direction. Fulfilled after much uncertainty & hesitation of telepathic perception and with a first movement sideward, justifying the uncertainty Samadhi develops coherency [of] dream reading and dreamevent. Attempt to develop primary utthapana. Concentration on physical siddhi not yet effective. Feb 7. Wednesday. Ideality taking up all telepathies; but this brought confusion of telepathic stress, tejas & tapas into trikaldrishti tapassiddhi. Though rejected, they insisted. Samadhi is beginning to move towards fullness[,] firmness & sureness

9 January – 14 February 1917

943

Yesterday’s time tri. 1. N will come early, take dinner and go out. N came about 8.20 and went just after 9.35 the latter time seen, but not quite accurately placed; it was considered that he would finish his meal then; he finished at 9.33, went up at 9.35. 2. Ns would come second he came at about 9 (a little before) time wrongly placed by a few minutes. 3. S at 9.5 he came at 9.3 4. 9.25 & 9.30 named for S’s coming and finishing dinner. Both happened at 9.30. Hour begins to be seen by rupa of watch-hands, eg 11.45 for going to bed. Wednesday’s Much less accurate; nevertheless generally correct. Samadhi developed perfect coherence of dream. What has now to be got rid of is the presence of present personalities & namarupa in dream vision of past & future events. Absolute stability of chhayamaya rupa. Tejomaya perfect but unstable. Trailokyadrishti begins to develop. Feb 8. Continuance of telepathic insistence in the morning. Confidence of intellectuality as representative of ideality destroyed; desire to pose as ideality practically destroyed except as a mechanical past habit. In the afternoon ideality resumed its expansion, completing more largely what it had begun before the interruption [ ] the taking up of telepathy & putting it in its right place for T2. In jagrat bahirdarshi stable developed & dense are beginning to manifest spontaneously in type rupa; perfect rupa (life) manifested, also in the type rupa, with the power but not the fact of stability. Coherent lipi is founding itself in the samadhi, both ready written and consecutive. Reading remains.

944

Record of Yoga Tejomaya is beginning to develop. Perceptive ideal thought is taking firm hold of mental sushupti. Results perceived before commencing samadhi.

In vishaya and antardarshi the obstruction remains quite unbroken. The highest ideality is manifesting through the veil. The normal intensity of tivra is greatly increasing. Two new movements are beginning to define themselves, (1) a prolongation of tivra after cessation of touch, by repeated recurrence, not yet by continuity; (2) simultaneous tivra and raudra. Also there is a visible preparation of general tivra-sthiti. Time. No accuracy. (1) General perception that all but one would come early; between 8.30 & 9. Three & L came at 8.35. (2) Perception of early meal 9.5 or 9.10. Meal at 9.5 Samadhi Dream coherence; lipi; attempt at coherent dream reading Feb 9 Attack of old intellectuality and asamata throughout the day. Confused progress. Ananda intensifies in vaidyuta, kama, raudra. Intensity is becoming normal. Kama much resisted. Energetic tapas for removal of chronic ailments. It seems to be dominating in one direction; in the others doubtful. No progress as to chakra-shakti. Samadhi again overpowered by nidra, still attempts to generalise

9 January – 14 February 1917

945

chaitanya of the vijnanamaya in the mental sushupti and arrive at brihat. Jagrat relapses. The secret or one secret of incoherent lipi etc in swapna is now found to be false combination. The thought is now able sometimes to correct the combination; by correction perfect coherence emerges. There is still a fluctuation between the deadening of ananda by constant sparsha and the increasing by constant or repeated sparsha; the former intervenes, the latter begins, recurs and tends eventually to prevail. It is stronger in the tivra than in the other anandas. Time. (1) At 9 some will come between 9. & 9.15 by watch M came before 9.10. (2) At 9.10. N will come separately from S. and next N came at 9.13 (3) At 9.13. Ns. will come at 9.25. dinner 9.30 perhaps 9.35 (without regard to watch) Ns came at 9.26 by clock below; dinner at 9.36. (4) After 9.30 S will come close on 10. S. came at 9.55 or thereabouts. Clock vision. 10.19, direction, not prediction. . fulfilled. Samadhi resisted confirmed some of its gains, but with less force. However, combination of sparsha and drishti perfectly & repeatedly emphasised; also dream-reading and continuity of drishya in action. Feb 10 Result of yesterday’s attack telepathy & mental tapas deprived of all force of certainty. Telepathy correct when seen as force, intention, what is trying to fulfil itself. When sanctioned

946

Record of Yoga

from above, then fulfilled. The sanction is sometimes perceived; but there are also mental sanctions which only give an added force for fulfilment, but not certainty or else force for subsequent fulfilment. Even the higher sanction is not to be considered absolute, unless it is the luminously ideal sanction. Therefore mental certainty is abrogated and non-existent. Ideal certainty is temporarily suspended The instruments, except perceptive thought, are free now from the remnants of intellectuality. There are three planes of ideality. The third or lowest regards the intellect, corrects and fulfils it. The first is absolutely independent. The second is intermediate. Samadhi reaffirmed most of its gains against massed and violent obstruction; but with an inferior force of vividness and largeness. Obstruction successful against lipi and tejomaya drisya. Dream-reading of printed book began. Afterward lipi reaffirmed in jagrat antardarshi. Script. The difficulty of certainty arises from the refusal to affirm more than from the haste to affirm wrongly. Affirm and correct. This being done, knowledge with Tapas proved to be invariably right in main issue; telepathy (knowledge without tapas) of details sometimes certain and correct, sometimes uncertain. Violent tapas, long forbidden because rajasic or mental, is now being applied with success. The ideal Tapas-knowledge is being more widely applied but the incertainty of the untransformed telepathies creates a strong obstacle to its ideal use.

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947

Rupadrishya emphasises developed, dense and perfect, but only in the type. What is called riot of the lipi develops, this time without the old effort and confusion or with only a shadow of it. It is not yet perfect, being often stable, but illegible or legible but unstable Contacts now create kamananda response as well as the other anandas. . Kamananda is trying to generalise itself (ahaituka) in the body. The movement is as yet occasional only. Various complete rupas even to the most developed manifest at night with great spontaneity but with no stability. The stable are always imperfect and incomplete, usually crude, sometimes dense, never developed. There is a general growth of ideality taking up the telepathies[,] revealing their truth, their right relations and limits, correcting the errors of the mind’s valuations and interpretations. Samadhi, reaffirms continuity of action; stability of chhayamaya forms and scenes, variety; begins to develop more stable though less brilliant tejomaya; continues dream coherence but is still subject to the obstruct[ive] attempt at limitation and dislodgment from its gains. Antardarshi yesterday developed variety of forms, some of them perfect, stable, in status and motion, complete; though mostly crude. (reel, dense; bed, [?crude] in status, birds in motion magnified, in status, book, etc). Today violently obstructed and sterile. Feb 11. Sunday. Telepathy, brihat, confused in ritam, though greatly increased in ritam; entirely satyam in the sense of being true in essence, though misapplied in fact. Tapas has still an effect perturbing to the ritam by its mental overstress. .

948

Record of Yoga

Telepathy = trikaldrishti steadily increases, but tapasic overstress of will in the suggested thought prevents as yet entire amalgamation of tapas = trikaldrishti, which is meant by T2. The illumination of Tapas is, however, progressing, though with a more hampered movement. Tapas is now being used for primary utthapana & the nature & laws of primary utthapana are being developed in the thought and initially brought in the body, though constantly borne down by the normal physical nature. The nature of it is liberation from exhaustion, weariness, strain and all their results. The laws are (1) Standing, however long, shall be effectively as much a rest from motion as [sitting]10 or lying down. (2) Lying down as a rest shall cease to be indispensable. (3) The greater and more prolonged the motion, the greater the increase of force for continued motion. It is evident that if the last is accomplished, the first will be unnecessary and the second will be fulfilled. At present stiffness as an after result is reduced to a minimum, but muscular pain and sense of strain after persistent exercise of muscles in walking (especially in shoulders & neck) persist. Immediate exhaustion can be very rapidly cast out, but accumulative effect is still painful. The general pranic force increases by sadhana, but the body is affected and through the body the most physical part of the pranakosha. Lipi “Telepathy is the effective trikaldrishti.” That is what is seen by the foreseeing & willing knowledge becomes effective force, feeling, impulse, etc and is perceived by the Manas. That is telepathy. What is foreseen is also forewilled thus sight & will in the Knowledge coincide.

10 MS standing

9 January – 14 February 1917

949

What was seen by the manas, is now beginning to be seen by the ideal mind into which the manas is being withdrawn or changed. The tapas is moving towards its self-harmonising with the supreme Will in the matter of Time both as to final result and detail of stages in the evolution of the result. Accumulative fatigue is being massed and emphasised in order to be exhausted more rapidly and attacked more completely by the Tapas. The exhaustion felt was very great, so much that the body insisted on the need of recumbence to ease the back, but a few minutes afterwards after half an hour’s sitting all had gone, activity returned, wine of anandamaya tapas was felt in the body and the tables were rearranged, dusted and motion kept up for an hour and a quarter with return of pain in the shoulder and neck and with unease in the physical nerve matter, but without the sense of dominating fatigue, rather of dominating vigour. Nor is there now any inclination in the Prana to rest. All thought (not trikaldrishti), even what was formerly the discursory vagabondage of the mind, is becoming luminous, ideal and true in its limits. Raudra Ananda is developing. Sharp & long-running muscular pain three times repeated, which would formerly have been felt as torture, was entirely anandamaya; the sharp pain in the neckmuscles is also being transformed. The prolonged contact of heat (the burning terrace floor at noon) was yesterday borne and turned into ananda-pain. Time Seen that the three would come late, long after 11 and the dinner be late, after 12. Came at 11.40 dinner at 12.30. Sharp hunger conquered, but not abolished, nor actually turned into anandamaya bubhuksha; but this movement seems to be beginning.

950

Record of Yoga

Continued walking, half an hour; pain in neck-muscles suddenly abolished, though left in subtle form and power of revival. Afterwards it attempted to develop in the legs and partly succeeded; when tapas is withdrawn, fatigue declares itself. Rupasiddhi is successfully developing variety in the crude. Formerly only a few types came with difficulty or easily only by repetition the woman, the horse, the man on horseback or driving, sometimes groups of men [and] women, two horses and riders the bird (crow or sparrow), butterfly or moth, one or two objects, a hill with figures or a building on it. Now many kinds of fourfooted animals, birds, insects, moths of various forms and hues. Others seem to be coming, fish, variety of objects, not yet variety of scenes & human figures. After swapna samadhi this has increased; already, all sorts of fourfooted beasts the thing most resisted till now while variety of figures (boys, a man’s face and head with hat) has begun, variety of scenes is trying to manifest; old forms which were vague (horse with carriage) are now becoming clear and complete. These shapes have usually little stability, swift variation, a trend to momentary precision. Sometimes they are precise and have an initial stability, sometimes more stability with precision and perfect completeness, but this is rare. Now however an attempt to combine precision, completeness and stability with the variety has begun. Samadhi Antardarshi. A certain variety of forms, but not clear & perfect as day before yesterday, except one or two, and not stable. Riot of varied lipi, not organised, but trying to organise itself. Swapna. All perfect in swapna except richness of scenes & images. Coherent lipi, perceptive & vangmaya thought. Sushupti. Fluctuates between confusion and coherence. Dream-speech, narrative with lipi, lipi, etc. It is notable that in daytime nidra is usually entirely absent, except for an occasional fleeting touch which today did not come. Even at night sushupti is beginning to replace nidra. In place of the

9 January – 14 February 1917

951

sense of being asleep or the memory of it, there is the sense and memory of sushupti, full of shanti, ghana chaitanya and now of incipient ananda. Pages for reading are being presented with more firmness, not yet with much success. In jagrat bahirdarshi variety of scenes is beginning eg a house above a ghat, the ghat very clear, the house sufficiently & coloured; a bridge over a stream, a boy upon it not sufficiently clear and vivid; a temple and ghat and road the same & high bank of a river. Other scenes longer and more detailed, but vague. Variety of human figures increased, women, children, young men, boys (youth & beauty predominate) in various postures, groups, scenes, action. Variety of birds and insects and fish is developing. A great variety of buildings of all forms and structures, chiefly in colour, when not in prakasha. Thus the poverty of the crude rupa seems to be at an end. Raudra ananda is increasing greatly in frequency, intensity and even in prolonged intensity. Vaidyuta also tends to develop. Vishaya is strong and general, but in intensity tends to pass into the others. Prolonged intensity of pain (internal, ahaituka and sahaituka) no longer overpowers the ananda; it increases it, merges into it or turns into it. Also pain is now seldom separate from the ananda; it does not come and cause it whether at the moment of the touch or after the touch has seized it, but is amalgamated with it. It is either anandamaya pain or pain-ananda or pure raudra ananda. Even in strong pain from outside touches, eg burning, this tends to be the rule. The old separation is only an occasional survival. Discomfort is following the same rule, but has not gone so far towards absorption. Strong attack on the siddhi. Results (1) Violent reaction against primary utthapana, but the utthapana was forcefully depressed in the body, not abolished even in the physical prana; and revived and resumed work though with a wounded force.

952

Record of Yoga

(2) Reaction in arogya. One of the chronic rogas which was on the point of abolition, reasserted tendencies of recurrence, but with a minimum force producing very slight material results. Another which was being depressed, revived, but still with less force than in former reaffirmations. (3) Temporary return of phantasy and ideal intellectuality in perceptive thought, quickly removed. A quite momentary touch in one or two of the vijnana instruments, immediately gone. (4) A shadow upon the faith, ineffective in the faith of siddhi. Faith of karma is still immature and uncertain. (5) Obstruction of the lipi, samadhi, rupasiddhi, only partially effective. Variety of scenes, mountains, valleys, river banks, oceans, with human figures, ships etc, but all vague, pallid and indistinct, though the objects are recognisable. Initial movement to variety of objects. All this in the crude, mostly crude crude, sometimes dense crude. Samadhi. First combination of absolute stability of perfect scene with absolutely firm continuity of action in clearly seen perfect rupa. A street of picturesque houses, a woman in blue walking down the street to the end, joined at the end by a woman in green. Second complete scene; a richly furnished room; only momentarily stable. This marks a great advance in rupa power, for this combination has always been successfully resisted; either the scene was shifting and unstable and vague or if stable and clear, void of action and motion.

Feb 12. Continued effect of yesterday’s denial of utthapana. Strong sweat in the heat of the sun to get rid of toxic matter generated by fatigue. N.B. Usually, exposure to heat produces no such sweat or very little. The utthapana-shakti persists in spite of denial; it does

9 January – 14 February 1917

953

not, as it formerly used, collapse and acknowledge defeat, except apparently for an hour or less. The attack on growing arogya also continues. Sensitiveness to cold and discomfort returned. Ideality is taking hold of the interpretation of lipi; only the intellectual atmosphere still surrounds it. This, according to the lipi, is to be removed by tonight. Ideality is also taking firm hold of telepathy in connection with trikaldrishti. All telepathy of the kind is now correctly understood in substance; the sole disturbing factor is the remnants of the mental tendency to fix event by the mind choosing one of the possibilities or tendencies or intentions thus seen as the event. Often this is done correctly, the possibility being properly valued, but then the method breaks down. If this can be removed, there will be no farther positive obstacle to correct certainty in the trikaldrishti; though some negative obstacles will remain. All this is in the field of exercise, not yet applied to life and the world at large. Tapasic mind action, = will stress in the knowledge or effective mind action is being idealised and taught the truth within it and its limits as well as its possibilities. Intensity of self caused sahaituka tivra is greatly increasing. In the physical Ananda all the movements recorded are being more generalised and normalised, but most of them are not perfectly general and most fluctuate, sometimes manifest, sometimes are suspended. In Antardarshi lipi developed, but its abundance cannot yet organise itself without the help of the interpretation which is becoming ideal in the antardarshi as well as in the bahirdarshi, in samadhi as well as in waking. Rupa became more vivid in antardarshi with groups and a long though interrupted stability of scene, but instability of human

954

Record of Yoga

figures. It would be easy to develop a great variety of vague, imperfect, instable figures, but both in inner and outer jagrat vision this is being rejected and combined precision, stability and variety is being insistently demanded. Rupas of yesterday, of all kinds, but a few or one or two of each, in spite of the obsession of the akasha by the type rupa, which again appeared strongly in all forms, except the perfect or lifelike. The higher forms appear freely only after long watching of the living object. Stability + precision is not yet satisfactory (outside type rupa) except in one or two forms. Source of ideal certainty has appeared, tapas-light, and is beginning to group round it[s] certainty telepathies of the stages and their tendencies. The movement is as yet kachcha. It was interrupted by a violent, rather brief attack of mental tapas which left the telepathy much freer than before from false incidence. Brief physical touches of asamata, strong but without body. The attempt is now to abandon all tapas except the ideal will-knowledge. Physical asiddhi continues, but the siddhi also, though overweighted, persists. Free play of crude rupa on larger dimensions, at night, in artificial light, combining precision and stability, though in various degrees, with variety; all kinds of forms, but quadrupeds few and human figures only in the old form. Greater variety of objects, utensils chiefly. Scenes not yet developed in this kind. Some stable dense forms bear the gaze and remain complete; one of them turns to developed. Till now complete dense & developed forms were unstable. Samadhi failed both afternoon and night, except for play of ideal thought in swapna and jagrat (afternoon).

9 January – 14 February 1917

955

Feb 13. Temporary suspension of ideality, for a certain development of first two chatusthayas amounting to forceful samata and combination of ugrata and dasya. Caused by a circumstance throwing life siddhi into doubt. This endured till nearly noon when the ideality began again to play. It has firmly acquired certain elements of certainty of event, but for the most part it is composed of certainties of ideal telepathy. Thought telepathy is beginning to take shape and justify itself in a less scattered fashion, more habitually and organically. The habit of evolving rupas out of a confused blur of material, one changing into another before it was well formed, most not developing properly, many only hinting themselves, others confused together, is being again discouraged. Only figures which present precision first, then precision + stability are accepted. Variety is at the same time being demanded. As the result of yesterday’s crude progress, the delineation of entirely perfect stable crude figures is gaining strength, frequency and variety. Antardarshi is at last taking into itself the bahirdarshi gains; but stability & precision are not yet properly combined, neither being quite perfect in itself. Variety is great and scenes and colours are more vividly depicted. It is noticeable that the physical light still makes a difference; when the room is open, the atmosphere of the antardarshi is luminous and the forms & scenes tejomaya and vivid; when two of the windows are closed, it is chhayamaya and the scenes and forms vague and chhayamaya though vaster, more full of unseen details. At first samadhi was [?received] by the lower nature but the Will as Shakti (now manifest as the Ishwari in the Samadhi) insisted and prolonged samadhi with important results followed (1) Ideal thought is now at ease in all realms of the mental samadhi, fluent, coherent, dealing even in the sushupti largely, consecutively, powerfully, grasping and solving problems the waking mind had missed. This is done though there is nothing awake in the mind except the inactive Sat-Purusha who hardly

956

Record of Yoga

even watches, is merely bharta. All is done by the supreme Shakti from above. At first the ideal thought failed and broke off in sushupti owing to nidra, but the Shakti insisting, the thought resumed, without coming back to swapna, in the sushupti itself. Still in the deepest depth of all, there is still a little difficulty in eliminating nidra. (2) Recently, the samadhi has developed the power of being in sushupti and yet receiving clear sense knowledge of the waking world limited to one or two sounds etc without for that ceasing to be sushupta. Today this developed into a triple Samadhi, the Ishwari sushupta, full there of ideal thought and absorbed consciousness, yet aware of another swapna consciousness open to a second plane of action and another conscious without living in it of things in the outer world (3) Consciousness of the supramental Ishwari, the Shakti of which the mental Jiva is a mental personality The Akasha still resists the rupadrishti. It can no longer persist long in denying forms to the eye; but it still perseveres ordinarily in the blur method and is more ready to give precision than stability. It yields free variety of forms only when quick succession is allowed and complete precision is not demanded, and even then with a certain reluctance, a preference of forms that have been often repeated, a tendency to deny those, eg quadrupeds, which it has been in the habit of denying. Formerly, the principle was to form by mental-physical pressure images out of akashic material, the material being of seven kinds, chhaya, dhuma, tejas, jyoti, varna, agni, prakasha. The result was a blur of material shaping itself into forms. A second method was sudden manifestation of form partial or complete out of other akashas into the physical. The second is now preferred. Mental and physical pressure are abandoned except when they recur involuntarily as a habit. Ideal will only is used. Depression of the physical in the evening in the mental shama. Quiescence of all progress.

9 January – 14 February 1917

957

Feb 14t.h. Recoil of the siddhi, owing to perception of anrita in what professed to be the ritam; this comes by excessive and therefore wrong affirmation. Attempt henceforth neither to overstress affirmation nor to linger in negation. Right affirmation of the truth in or behind all thought and perception is the secret. But the difficulty must not be underrated, nor achievement too easily announced. There is greater spontaneity with a certain amount of variety, precision, stability in the rupa. But the stability is less than the precision, the variety comes still with difficulty. The terrestrial akasha is overborne, but not yet conquered and possessed. Antardarshi still lingers amid difficulties. Scenes and objects come, but without clarity of precision or clear stability or ease of variety. In Samadhi yesterday’s experience reaffirmed, but with a less powerful grasp on the sushupti. On the other hand, the triple Samadhi has developed. Not only are sushupti, swapna and jagrat simultaneous, but the sushupta purusha or shakti not only observes, but judges the jagrat experiences and, initially at least, the swapna perceptions. Telepathy grows in brihat & satyam in the field of exercise, but ritam is a little discouraged. Samadhi (sitting) of a lighter kind than in the afternoon, but the same type and a strengthening of the jagrat in conjunct[ion] with sushupti or swapna or both; swapna stronger, sushupti lighter. Attempt to regularise firmly lipi, etc. in sushupti. At night rich and brilliant (jyotirmaya) rupadrishya in swapna of sushupti.

958

15 FEBRUARY – 31 MARCH 1917

Record of Yoga Feb 1917 Feb 15 Programme laid down in script on 14t.h. (1) Today T2 combination of knowledge-tapas From 15th to 28t.h. perfectioning of knowledge-tapas (2) Today. Spontaneity of rupa-drishya with tendency to precision + variety + stability. From 15th to 28th perfectioning of spontaneous precisionvariety-stability. (3) Today breaking down of habit of relapse in samadhi Completion of elimination of relapse and normalising of the elements of the samadhi (4) Vishaya. Breaking down of the obstacle. Evolution of general, spontaneous and varied vishaya. These for the third chatusthaya For the fourth (1) Ananda. Today; commence regularising kamananda. From 15th to 28t.h. regularising of kamananda the others to arise out of it and it to arise out of others. They will also be generalised separately (2) Arogya. Elimination of blood-asuddhi confirmed. The stomach to be regulated. (3) Utthapana The battle of the primary utthapana to proceed towards victory.

15 February – 31 March 1917

959

(4) Saundarya The obstacle to youth and saundarya to be more vigorously and successfully attacked. T2. The shakti continues the elimination of mental stress in the telepathies. (1) That which is perceived by mental prakamya vyapti is tendency, impulsion, intention, force etc. The mental tapas tries to turn it into fact without knowing whether, how, when, to what extent it is destined. The telepathy must simply observe without willing; but it must observe the force for fulfilment as well as the fact of intention etc. (2) That which mental tapas wills, mental intelligence hopes, believes, is certain will happen when it does not unduly negate. Mental tapas, awaiting its elimination and transformation into ideal tapas, has to feel itself only as a force and await fulfilment or nonfulfilment. (3) However often or even invariably mental tapas or telepathy may be fulfilled, it must not be trusted; but simply observed. Only ideal knowledge-will must be trusted. . This is what is now being brought into actuality. Kamananda Regularity commenced yesterday in customary posture, but not perfect. This morning regularised without regard to posture, sitting, walking, standing, but of varying intensity, sometimes intense, sometimes almost nil, though always potentially present and manifest as potentiality Rupadrishya. Only a small number of images come with a little difficulty, others, eg, quadrupeds, with great difficulty and no completeness or no stability. The whole represents a small variety, though of all kinds, and all the other abundance of images brought out during a moment of siddhi do not emerge, except a few, rarely.

960

Record of Yoga

T2 T2 is now aiming at the development of ideal certainty, not only in the field of exercise, but in life, and with application to time and circumstance. It has already begun, but enveloped still with a confused mist of groping mentality. K.A. Kamananda continues striving against a suspensive obstruction which sometimes overpowers it and against the absence of smarana. Phantasy is being brought forward in order to be destroyed. Lipi. Lipi is much more organised and now often vividly legible and stable. Samadhi. Keeps its gains and is attempting as yet without success to remanifest the perfection of its other constituents and perfect those which were still deficient. Tapas. Ishita is growing visibly in force, but is still too mental. Aishwarya is nearer ideality. K.A Kamananda recovered force at night and remained steady. Samadhi. Strong, frequent, almost generalised stability and continuity, but chhayamaya, often vague, sometimes with great force of outline and detail, but always shadowy. Attempt to read perfectly stable printed page in very minute type; only one brief sentence suddenly magnified and legible. Tejomaya still unstable and infrequent. .

15 February – 31 March 1917

961

Feb. 16. Friday. Lipi continues with a tendency to fix itself, but is yet resisted by the physical akasha. The lipi is rapidly organising itself. First it has come sparingly making itself precise. Here there are two movements. In one suggestion, no longer intellectual, but ideal, helps the lipi to manifest, but it is then legible, yet not vivid, with a relative stability and only becomes vivid and stable by repetition; but it comes swiftly and writes itself out fluently. In the other movement it comes of itself, without assistance of suggestion, but slowly, sparingly; it is then usually very vivid, legible, spontaneous, stable not with a long stability, but sufficient to be clearly read and held. Subsequently there has come, with the assistance of suggestion, with all the characteristics of the first movement, [? ] but are imperfectly realised to vividness. Now it is emphasising this tendency and preparing to reject entirely the help of the suggestion. By suggestion is meant now the ideal mind’s perception of what the lipi is going to write or intends in its sense, but has not yet written. K.A. Kamananda is not so vivid as yesterday, but has a greater natural persistence in trying to manifest itself uninterruptedly. In this it does not yet succeed. Arogya The battle of the arogya still continues; the force of health increases and the tapas for health, but the undominated roga tendencies still hold the body against it. The one dominated attacks sometimes with energy, but its physical results are scattered and feeble. The main struggle now is over the digestion and assimilation where there has been a setback. Sharira The other physical siddhis are in the same state as before, except that there seems to be some return of primary utthapana and dissipation of the physical depression of fatigue.

962

Record of Yoga

Samadhi Samadhi in the afternoon has been rich and successful. (1) Antardarshi; a great freedom and variety of rupa, chiefly human groups and sometimes scenes, brilliant, tejomay, often coloured, but extremely unstable in a floating varnamaya atmosphere. Scenes of the heavens of mental ananda. (2) In swapna and sushupti all the elements, but not free in their manifestation, except continuity and stability of chhayamaya. Tejomaya has begun to be stable as chhayamaya tejomaya or tejomaya chhayamaya. At a higher level of tejas, it is sometimes stable, but only when the consciousness is not turned upon it; then it fades into the shadowy tejomaya. Lipi in all three stages, but not copious; three kinds (1) selfwriting, (2) written, (3) printed. T2 T2 continues to idealise the telepathies, but more to justify them even intellectually by reducing them to their right proportions. It is noticeable that mental tapas-telepathy is now much more frequently and often much more rapidly effectual. It seems even as if the time obstacle were beginning to come under control. Vijnana A great rush of ideality, jyotirmaya, higher, highest as well as lower taking up and transfiguring the intellect remnants into the light of truth. Mostly timeless idealities, in jnana, not yet except slightly in trikaldrishti and then without reference to time. Darshana The Anandamaya darshana has been steadily increasing and generalising itself, but more often contains vijnana of mentality than the vijnana-ananda proper. This however is also increasing in force and frequency and is general enough, though not yet universal in objects. It is still in human figures that the vision of the vijnanamaya sarva-saundarya finds still a difficulty in manifesting

15 February – 31 March 1917

963

or, if manifested, in ascending into the shuddha ananda without losing itself. Rupa. Rupa enforced variation in images seen in a relative darkness on the terrace. Feb 17. Obstruction in the third chatusthaya. Negative sadhana. Samadhi. At first strong and persistent nidra, but with elements of samadhi enforcing themselves in the midst of the nidra Afterwards samadhi. (1) Ideal perceptive thought attained to the same abundance, fluency, continuity, power even in deepest sushupti as the vangmaya had already attained. Neither now needs to descend from the higher to the deeper states; both can act freely and initially even in the deepest. (2) Power of physical action even in the deep sushupti. The particular action was writing with the hand what occurs in the thought. At first the consciousness dwelt on the thought and the action was mechanical; afterwards it dwelt on both the thought and the action united, continuous, unbroken (3) Coherence in deepest sushupti even of the reading, lipi, dream speech, dream narrative. Concordance of successive scenes. (4) Visions of chhayaloka, with light on incoherence of thought and action, visual hallucination etc. (eg. cat prolonged in leaping on table by persistence of sukshma image, pail of water about to be thrown on a table with books etc) Ananda Kamananda afflicted with frequent discontinuity. Raudra touch anandamaya even when intolerable (extreme heat of terrace floor to the feet).

964

Record of Yoga

Rupa. First, refusal of images, then persistence of blur unable to take shape, then inconstancy of images changing into each other, sometimes before complete formation. All these are being discouraged by failure. The tendency to variety of images, less or more various, partly or entirely precise, initially stable or unstable seems to be now fixed in the physical akasha. The type still persists in usurping the place of the others, but with less force. T2 T2 deals still with telepathies removing from even the most positive all decisive certainty. Arogya Asiddhi of the digestive process is still in possession. Rupa Greater freedom of dense rupas sometimes lifelike in the daylit atmosphere. Samadhi Great dream coherence. Only in dream reading is the incoherence still dominant. Feb 18. T2 T2 is now taking up telepathies on a larger scale and more rapidly. The siddhi attempted is to receive mental telepathies rapidly in great number without attaching to any one of them a decisive certainty or seeking for their fulfilment, secondly, to accept every telepathy and discover rapidly its ideal truth and exclude the mental error associated with it. Rupa Rupa is attempting to develop spontaneous and perfectly precise and complete images with variety. The tendency to frequency

15 February – 31 March 1917

965

of dense, even developed images, sometimes lifelike, but unstable except when sadhara, continues. Devibhava Mahakalibhava seems to be now normal and the reversion to Mahaluxmi-Mahasaraswati empty of it, is rare. But there is variation between raw Mahakali bhava too ugra and saumya Mahakali with Mahaluxmi colour. Maheshwari, normally, is quite covered and a pratistha only. Kamananda seems to be recovering force of continuity and even of intensity, though not the full force. Samadhi. (1) Antardarshi. Chhayamaya scenes, a railway line by a precipice, a train speeding up and back far out of sight, a path among mountains or moors or between two precipices with a cavalcade going, a two horsed carriage advancing, a horseman turning to fight, groups on foot, etc. Mountain scenes. A lake with a boat and a woman; the same with bird or a fish leaping. All vague and shadowy and yet every image clear enough to be recognizable; often a shoot of shadowy distinctness. (2) Coherency of dream reading insisted on and constantly enforced, though still with a certain effort and difficulty. Lipi very coherent and continuous in nidra; so too dream thought, as opposed to ideal thought, dream speech, all dream connections. Rupa. The blur habit seems now to be definitely going out; the tendency of image formation overpowers it and is dominant; but the habit of rapidly inconstant, incongruous, ill combined or only partially successful formations still persists. Also, the customary incapacities, eg of formation of quadrupeds, try to persist; though it is often overpowered, it makes itself felt. Still, the variety with sufficient precision for a recognition of the object is established. Even variety with perfect precision and completeness, natural and without effort, is frequent; stability

966

Record of Yoga

combined with these though comparatively rare, is still not absolutely infrequent. T2 Sudden development of tapas siddhi; exact place and manner of movement was manifested repeatedly, and even three rapidly successive times in the same object, without resistance, only a pause, very brief. This is 80º power of tapas. The fourth time there was resistance and wrong place (direction) but right manner and upshot. There is again an attempt to combine telepathy with ideal certainty, largely but not entirely successful. Samadhi. There is now a struggle to create the same general rule of coherence and continuity at night in the sleep, as in the daytime, in the involuntary as in the willed samadhi. Kamananda stronger today, but discouraged in the evening Feb 19 Monday. Ananda. Sparsha now as a rule creates a triple Ananda, tivra-vishayakama, one or other sometimes predominating and leading, or else all three equal and practically simultaneous. Sometimes one tends to overpower the others. Arogya. The struggle in the Arogya continues to be immediately adverse to the siddhi. Physically depression returns persistently, the old roga that had been abolished returns slightly, the asiddhi of digestion still continues. Samadhi Afflicted by nidra. Some development of tejomaya.

15 February – 31 March 1917

967

T2. T2 pursues its work of taking up the telepathies. Some development of distant telepathies, the object being far or unseen. K.A. Kamananda strong in recurrence, not yet continuous throughout the day; but it seems to have overcome the old habit of long suspension. It is now only depressed or suppressed for short periods, within the day itself. Feb 20th. Tuesday. A certain inactivity of the siddhi or lessened activity during the last two days partly owing to preoccupation with “Arya”. At the same time there is a great increase of certainty and accuracy in the idealised telepathies and a slow but steady growth of force of effectuality in tapas. Lipi is almost free from the aid of suggestions and manifests itself more or less vividly, usually in a stable legibility fluent or strong; but not with freedom in its perfection. Fluent, it tends still to be a little indistinct. Samadhi infructuous, afternoon and night, except for some development of tejomaya Rupa struggles to develop variety in the stable precise (crude) but is also strongly obstructed. Kamananda less strong; persistent with a dull largeness rather than intensity in asana. Physical depression has the upper hand of the primary utthapana. The struggle in arogya sadhana continues.

968

Record of Yoga

The whole physical siddhi is for the time being more or less held up as were the other chatusthayas at the same stage. Ananda darshana progresses slowly towards normalising of the global ananda, but as yet attains no finality of the movement. The fifth chatusthaya is also obstructed. In all obstruction, however, there is now some sense of progress prepared. Feb 21s.t. The movement towards generalisation of ideality continues. The movement is towards elimination of the critical intellect, the mind of doubt, and its replacing by the ideal judgment. Obstruction of third chatusthaya has been strong for the last three days. Nothing fresh achieved. A strong preparation of advance in Brahmachatusthaya. Kamananda continues, but less continuous. It is strong only in asana. There is some tendency to the renewal of advance in other anandas which are in no way thrown back, but a little quiescent. Arogya in the half-abolished affection seems to be getting the upper hand. It is still oppressed by the old habitual inequalities in the assimilation, though for the time less intensely. The other members of the physical siddhi are obstructed or depressed. Nothing in samadhi except in bahirdarshi jagrat greater tendency to freedom of unstable dense & developed, solitary intrusion of dense into antardarshi which otherwise is oppressed in lipi, no advance in swapna-sushupti, but less force of nidra. Purification of tapas is proceeding; the tendency is to get rid of the remnants of tapastya and tapatya.

15 February – 31 March 1917

969

Feb 22d Some activity of samadhi in the early morning. Coherence of reading and lipi is here the one siddhi most often distressed. Attack of the old breast pain; at first only in sukshma (pranic) parts, ineffectually touching from time to time the surface of the annakosha. This for a long time. Then a physical attack unprecedentedly rapid in its repetitions of intense pain. Ananda (raudra) maintained itself with difficulty, sometimes overborne but always repossessing the pain. The attack very soon cast out; formerly it would have lasted an hour. Remnants, dull, are still left in recurrence or more often the attempt to recur. Fear of disease and death is practically abolished; touches only come from outside. The physical shrinking from intense pain is still able to affirm itself in a subdued, but effective fashion. The prana is touched by it, but not the mind. Complete unification of all the anandas of darshana on their mental basis. Frequent affirmation of chidghana, intense or less intense. Its universalisation may now shortly be expected, since no images or objects, faces or figures can now be successfully free from it. Rupa is remanifesting with a greater tendency to dense crude and dense Prakasha of the seven kinds. Hitherto in the last movement of the siddhi Prakasha has almost monopolised the field of the crude rupa. Now real chhaya has begun again to manifest. Stable and precise rupa is increasing its force of manifestation. There are notable scenes of a vividness and ensemble superior to almost anything previously manifested in the jagrat without adhara. Others are less vivid & stable, but all have the tendency. Samadhi remanifests in almost all its features, but with some difficulty and still without sufficient force. Nidra is almost absent, but deep sushupti is refused.

970

Record of Yoga

Antardarshi has begun again to manifest with a greater unfulfilled promise of abundance but not yet freely, except in chhayamaya landscapes. One alone was tejomaya. T2 is still mostly quiescent. Roga is attacking in a curious fashion suddenly, without immediate cause, through the sukshma, usually between sleep and waking; it vanishes as abruptly, without evident reason, except the pressure of the will, but leaving behind it slight vestiges. This is the old attempt to reinforce a malady which still has force of recurrence and make it chronic. In the morning it was breast-pain, in the afternoon cough and cold. 23d – 24th T2 develops the perfect ideality of the telepathies into stuff of trikaldrishti. Otherwise things remain in status quo or obstructed, especially samadhi. Feb. 25t.h. The idealisation of the telepathies is finally confirmed. The intellectual are now only a mechanical survival and when they occur make no attempt to know, but passively record suggestions as suggestions. It is only when will is applied, that they recur to their old nature of seeking to anticipate fulfilment or non-fulfilment. Renewed activity of the samadhi. Preparation for conscious vijnana-samadhi. Continuity of action and stability of scene are now firmly established. A great lessening of the physical asiddhi in its generality, though in certain directions it is still felt heavily. Vishaya is still heavily obstructed and practically inactive except occasionally in gandha.

15 February – 31 March 1917

971

Feb. 26th Monday. Kamananda powerful and repeatedly intense and increased in force of continuity. No other noteworthy movement. There is the repression of activities in order that a new movement free from the old defects may emerge. Activity of samadhi at night rupa-drishya. Feb 27th Tuesday. The play of the higher ideality is renewed. The movement now imposed is the removal of the direct source of the action and its plane to the level of the higher idealities. The intellect-regarding vijnana must take a lower place as part of this higher movement. Absolute passivity of the lower being is demanded in order that all action and all siddhi may be conducted openly by the Ishwara from the higher nature. Kamananda tested, momentarily depressed, survives the test and continues its previous action. Feb 28. Continued purification from the independent action of the lower nature. Preparation of a new movement in which it will fall into its place as part of the ideal nature. Meanwhile, suspension of the illumined higher action, in order that the lower, deprived of the light, may learn to be passive & not seek to substitute itself, as if it could make up for the deficiency, but wait always for the higher to remanifest. This impulse of the lower to act when the higher withholds itself, is now the one strong positive obstacle in T2. Its removal marks the turning-point of the siddhi.

972

Record of Yoga

Mar 1 Thursday Large play of ideality in jnana. All thought or thoughtsuggestion taken up into the ideality and its ideal truth luminously revealed. As yet this is only the action of the higher ideality acting on the intellect through the lower vijnana, not yet on its own plane. The light does not yet become in the same way brihat in the T2. Samadhi of all kinds is more or less in abeyance or active only in crudities or reduced to the type. In the physical siddhi Kamananda goes on preparing its normality: there is flux and reflux, but no absolute suspension. The other anandas act occasionally. The nirananda ahaituka and sahaituka (asiddhi & asraddha) is being taken up by Ananda so as to ensure final finality of positive samata. Mar 2. Friday. The large ideality playing on mind and mental suggestion is taking up all telepathies and showing their ideal truth by discernment of their form & limits; so also, though less largely all tapas. The principle of faultless certainty of trikaldrishti (future and, to a less extent, present) is being sought for, but is not yet perfectly found. Telepathy of pranic & mental thought & feeling in animals is being founded in the brihat, not prakamya-vyapti of human thought & feeling & impulse, which is still only sought in the isolated and spasmodic fashion of the past. The suspension in the rest of the third chatusthaya continues. Samadhi active but quite incoherent, assailed by nidra. Mar. 3 The lipi is once more active, entirely independent of suggestion even when attacked by it; but still obstructed in its physical manifestation. Legible, but not always vivid or stable.

15 February – 31 March 1917

973

Increased general intensity of tivra and of visvasparsha in kama + tivra. Return of samadhi, but not yet in its full force of continuity or coherence. At night coherence of the Samadhi in dream-reading and dream-thought. Vishaya (gandha & rasa) begins to remanifest. Some remanifestation of rupa in antardarshi and bahirdarshi. Thought-telepathy (animals). Mahakali bhava now firmly founded and in possession. Harmony of the four bhavas not yet developed on the new basis of Mahakali Mahasaraswati. Mar 4. Stability and vivid legibility of the unsuggested lipi is developing against the obstruction. The Maheswari bhava concealed as pratistha in MahalakshmiMahasaraswati has again risen, though it can no longer possess; it has to be concealed again in the Mahakali-Mahasaraswati with the Mahalakshmi colour. Tapas is recovering its old effectualities which had fallen into disuse; but they are now only material for the larger effectuality, not, as once, an object in themselves. There is in the kshetra a sort of rough and imperfect tapassiddhi now fairly generalised. The main object is roughly attained, but not, except exceptionally, in the details and always with difficulty. The siddhi does not rise above the 50º or 60º limit in its

974

Record of Yoga

general power. In life there is only khanda-siddhi, the attainment of partial effects which do not assure the success of the main object, and even this though much more frequent & general than before, is yet far from being quite general. Always there is some effect, but not always effectuality. The development of the lipi continues and is almost in possession of the akasha. Tendencies of redevelopment in samadhi and rupasiddhi Mar 5. Monday. Lipi is becoming rapidly stronger in vividness, stability and a certain relative abundance. Almost entire recovery of swapna and sushupta samadhi. Example of perfect stability and continuity of action in tejomaya, shadowy but distinct and generally increased force of both in tejomaya. Movement towards idealisation of the samadhi Greatly increased general force of effectuality of tapas-siddhi even in exact result, but always within limits of the 50º or 60º power and still in the kshetra. As yet the final combination of T3 into T2 lingers and is mastered by the obstruction. Mar 6. Samadhi in the early morning. Perfect coherence of ideal thought (vangmaya) in deep sushupti. The lapse of memory persists, but was powerfully overcome and the lost memory restored in the samadhi itself. Telepathies & tapasbuddhi are being more largely taken up into the brihat satyam of the ideality preparing the brihad ritam. Unity of action in lipi, reference, T3 and other instruments of the vijnana is being established.

15 February – 31 March 1917

975

Tapas continues to increase in force, but is still far from being master of the akasha. Samadhi in afternoon. Lipi in sushupti incoherent except when the ideal consciousness was present and either saw coherent lipi or evolved coherence out of confusion by disengaging the words from each other and adding what was incomplete. But all else tended to be coherent even when the ideal consciousness was not present. At the end all sushupti and swapna became possessed by the ideal consciousness. Images related to life upon earth. Sukshma sparsha revived, but as yet it fails to pass into the sthula except in the accustomed touches. Lipi developed independent fluency with some diminution of legibility and much of stability. It occasionally follows the ideal suggestions, but is usually independent or else affirms its independence by substituting other words when the thought has divined too soon the word that was coming. The passage of T3 into T2 continues. Strong & intense kamananda recurrent throughout the day. Intensity of tivra and vishaya. Manifestation of the gods as agents of the ideal action, especially Surya in charge of the ideal vangmaya thought (recalling the last 15 August) less directly Indra behind the perception, Agni behind the will. Mental images of the four Shaktis on the lower & middle planes of the ideality. Traigunyasiddhi in type; shama full of prakasha and tapas, prakasha full of shama and tapas, tapas full of shama and prakasha.

976

Record of Yoga

Devibhava complete and strong, in type, not yet in action. Reemergence of one of the talents, chitra. Mar 7. An attack of the intellectualities begun yesterday, continues. Still the devibhava is confirmed. It tends to bring also the sraddha bhagavati swashaktyam cha and as a result the sraddha in the complete siddhi, also a great physical energy into the body. The attack of the intellectualities continues and there is no progress in the third chatusthaya. Samadhi confined to an attempt to convert dream into samadhi, not as yet successful except in a minor degree One prophetic image in yesterday’s samadhi was justified today by the physical fact. Samata severely tested has this time held good in spite of one or two adverse touches; the second chatusthaya (faith, devibhava) sometimes gives way, but reasserts itself swiftly. . The lower nature still resists the new devibhava and attempts to go back to the old sense of limitation and essential incapacity. The devibhava is taking into itself Surya, Soma, Agni, Indra and seeking to unify them. As a result, partly, of the unsuccessful attack sama ananda is greatly strengthened & is increasing rapidly in force. It is finally overcoming the dwaita of siddhi & asiddhi, as it did the dwaita of mangala and amangala. Premananda remanifesting with the sense of self as all things and the Ishwara as all beings for its basis. Mar 8. The Premananda is combining its elements (1) self = Ishwara; prakriti self all things and all beings. Therefore all the prakriti of

15 February – 31 March 1917

977

Ishwara one with myself (2) the beauty of the Ishwara shuddha governing chidghana with ahaituka involved in it (3) relations of brotherhood, love, motherhood & childhood, sakhya, madhura, vatsalya united into one composite bhava. It includes also gurushishya, sakhya-vaira etc. Others are preparing to enter into the composite bhava. The united action of the ideality, transforming virodha, is being prepared. The shuddha-vijnanananda is now generalising itself successfully and firmly. It lives sometimes in the mental, sometimes in the vijnana plane; in the first shuddha predominates with vijnana subordinate to ahaituka; in the latter sometimes shuddha sometimes vijnana predominates. The tendency is for vijnana to be a prominent term of shuddha with ahaituka involved as a subordinate term. Dasya vaira of Mahakali. The Energy serves all, but enforces on them with more or less violence the higher in place of the lower aims of their being; thus it is often in vaira or virodha with their lower desires which it yet accepts as part of its system and as material of its work. The sixth chatusthaya of Sarvam Anantam Jnanam Anandam Brahma is now complete in itself. Its completeness of contents depends on the perfection of the third, fourth and fifth chatusthayas. Subjective bhukti may be now considered complete as well as subjective mukti. Subjective shuddhi is only defective in as much as the intellectual mentality still resists complete elimination by transformation into the ideality; but the separation & distinction of the two in knowledge is now complete. The full transformation is rather siddhi than shuddhi. Therefore only siddhi remains of the four elements of the seventh chatusthaya. Physical shuddhi, mukti, bhukti though far advanced is not yet absolute, nor can be except by initial siddhi of the fourth chatusthaya.

978

Record of Yoga

The siddhi of the three chatusthayas still to be completed depends on the glory and power (sri) of the ideality perfecting itself and taking full possession not only of the mental being, but of the body and the life. The negative states are being replaced by the positive; quiescence by shama-tapas-prakasha, the human poise by the divine, the Brahmi by the Aishwari sthiti. No advance in samadhi The play of the old telepathies and tapas-telepathies continues with a view to their loss of all decisive force and reduction to their proper proportions. Meanwhile the action of higher ideality in T2 is suspended. It is in force only in the jnana. The direction is now for the ideality to act wherever it is free, jnana-perception, vangmaya, lipi, reference etc and not to wait suspended for the T2. This it is already beginning to do The alternations between the higher and the lower devibhava continue. The higher has at present too much of the Maheshwara in it, being dominated by Surya. There is an increasing attempt at control of the speech by the ideality. The power of the ideality is definitely emerging out of the state of subjection to the circle of the physical mentality. For some time it has acted in this field and upon it from above, dealing with the facts and the ideas open to the lower mind, the knowledge beyond its ken being presented to it as suggestions, not as light possessed by the mind. A higher action is now beginning to outline itself, not, as before, as something beyond the normal, but as the normal action of the new vijnana-buddhi. Mar 9. Three ideal planes one observing the facts of the manifest world, the second the facts and the forces, possibilities etc out of

15 February – 31 March 1917

979

which the facts emerge, the third & highest both these and the certainties, prefigured in the truth, which both possibilities and realised facts figure out in the succession of time. The lower knows the higher as the thing behind to which it refers back for the source of its activities; the higher looks down to the lower as its own fulfilment. Suddha vijnanananda is becoming more and more confirmed, brilliant and intense on the vijnana plane. It is becoming also full of the devibhava and is preparing to base the full Krishna Kali darshana. Devibhava grows in firmness and intensity and is preparing to expel the habit of reversion by the full illumination of the lower bhava and the removal of the division between para and apara. Kamananda severely tried for the last few days has persisted in spite of depression and may now be considered as firmly established against all dependence on condition and attempt at temporary expulsion. It is still however capable of temporary depression, never now amounting to entire suppression, and subject to rise and fall of intensity, to lesser or greater power of recurrence and continuity. It also varies with the asana, tending to be quiescent in the others except by smarana or uddipana. These are the defects that have yet to be conquered. The other anandas seem to be awaiting the complete victory of the kamananda. Only the sahaituka tivra advances steadily, though without any marked rapidities and subject to temporary quiescences. It is still not free from the fault of the cessation of the nervous response after constant stimulation. For a time the response maintains itself, may even become more intense, afterwards it becomes neutral or changes to vishaya, raudra or vaidyuta. The energy of the Shakti is more and more changing from saumya to raudra. The Mahakali bhava has therefore taken full possession of the centre of energy, though it still fluctuates and has not taken its final character.

980

Record of Yoga

Mar 10. At present the attack of the old against the new is the general feature of the sadhana. An attack in the first place on the siddhi of the third chatusthaya, obstruction and inefficiency, with the view of breaking down the recent gains of the first and second, and thus bring the system back to the poise of the old intellectual mentality of the limited human poise. While there is no definite breaking down, there is a certain success in restoring old touches of the asamata that had been expelled touches of the asukham (predicted by lipi, “grief”.) The traigunya-siddhi is especially denied. Shama alone seems perfect; tapas and prakasha fall back into mental rajas & sattwa when there is an attempt to particularise their actions. Devibhava also now tends to sink to the lower condition by separation from the higher and, when joined to it, the poise is still in the lower rather than in the higher nature. There is a denial of ishwarabhava and sraddha in which the knowledge of the buddhi is resisted and tends to be overcome by the sense of deficiency & nonfulfilment acting on the pranic temperament. Absolute finality, therefore, is still to seek in the first two chatusthayas. Samadhi of the three avasthas; freer play of ideal thought, vangmaya and perceptive, the latter first free, afterwards obstructed. For some time there have been sudden attacks on the health during samadhi which could not be successful during the waking. This is because a certain physical depression or even disintegration seems to take place in samadhi which is not possible when the tapas is concentrated on the physical world as the mental. Although this has been greatly reduced, it is still sufficient to leave the room open for attacks, eg yesterday of violent nausea, a thing easily dominated and dismissed if it comes in the waking state, today, of pain near the muladhara which refused to be turned into ananda although

15 February – 31 March 1917

981

it could [not] prevent some ananda from being associated with it, though much submerged or rather overweighed and oppressed. Almost all the recent gains of the siddhi have been temporarily denied by the results of the attack; but they have a stronger & swifter tendency to revive, even though they are not entirely reestablished The siddhi begins to recover from the attack. Mar. 11. The main necessity is the full illumination of the tapas which remains on the lower level and for this the return to the direct dasya, but dasya to the vijnanamaya anandamaya Ishwara. For some days the sense of the immediate presence of the Ishwara has been withheld and all has been done by the Prakriti. Now the presence is being restored and with it the intensity of dasya, but not the entirely immediate presence. The Prakriti still stands between. Kamananda oppressed yesterday, though always present in sensible tendency, is recovering itself, in action at first, not yet in intensity. The tapas-siddhi is losing its exclusive insistence on the particular result, accepting as its own the opposite energies and their results. Yet at the same time it is increasing its power of general and particular result. The Chitshakti is insisting on a more universally vivid sense of all beings and objects as the anandamaya Ishwara manifesting himself in various forms. This is resisted by the mentality which is accustomed to see Brahman in all and all in Brahman and, with a less facile readiness, Brahman as all, but not all as the Ishwara. Notably, it makes more resistance as to beings than as to objects; in the latter the shuddha-chidghana-ananda is more habitually seen than in beings.

982

Record of Yoga

The difficulty of the tapassiddhi is still to combine it with trikaldrishti. The aspect[s] of will and idea in the telepathic mind, tapas and jnana, are being now gradually harmonised; but the decisive trikaldrishti and the decisive tapas do not come together. Samadhi is recovering its force, but as yet no new progress has been made. A considerable advance has been made towards the firm normalisation of the chidghana ananda in objects. Samadhi continues to progress towards complete recovery of its force, but is not as yet in firm possession of itself. Mar 12. The universalising of the Ishwara-darshana is extended to beings as well as objects. When the ananda-darshana falls back into the mentality, it tends to be replaced by the Brahma-darshana; when it remains in the vijnana, it is firm. There is now a tendency to have the Ishwara vision in the mentality even, but only as a circumstance of the Brahma vision. In the vijnana the two become one, Brahma (Akshara and Kshara) being only aspects of the Ishwara. Samadhi is now in possession of itself. It moved forward in three directions (1) The enforcement of the ideal consciousness as basis of vijnana-samadhi. (2) The insistence against lapse of memory. (3) The insistence on coherency everywhere. In addition there was a manifestation of chhayamaya tejas & varna, scenes shadowy but full of beauty, subdued brilliance, rich colour and the faery atmosphere of the ananda. The insistence throughout the day has been on the fifth chatusthaya + Ishwara, ie on the Ananda Brahman merging into the Anandamaya Purusha (Krishna-Kali). For days the rupadrishya has been disorganised. The mental

15 February – 31 March 1917

983

stress and formation is being eliminated. Meanwhile the old round of breaking up and rebuilding the broken siddhi is feebly occupying the atmosphere. Samadhi at night confirms the day action. Kavya for the last two days. Chitra daily, crude but with the automatic movement and growing norm. March 13. Tuesday. The suddha chidghana is now the normal basis of the anandadarshana for objects, the attempt at reversion to mental shuddha still surviving, but feebly. The same holds good for animal forms, but with more strength in the reversion. It is only in the human figure (chiefly the face) that the reversion is still strong; but here too the sarvasaundarya of shuddha chidghana is gaining rapidly in strength and becoming normal. The strength of reversion here is due to the fact that there is a standard of divine beauty to which the actual form does not correspond. The movement now is to strengthen sraddha so that there may be no room for any lapse, even slight, in the first two chatusthayas. In the first there is still a deficiency in ananda of asiddhi and in the shuddha chidghana ananda of the vishayas, taste, sound etc especially taste. Rasagrahana is there, but not invariable bhoga owing to the pranic resistance and therefore not the full, vivid and satisfying ananda. Kamananda is recovering intensity. There is strong obstructive resistance to the physical siddhi, also to the karma-siddhi. The chief obstacle to the ananda of asiddhi is that when it comes entirely, it tends to bring acquiescence in asiddhi: but the true bhava is ananda in and acceptance of asiddhi as a step towards siddhi. The other therefore is not allowed to establish itself, while the true bhava is as yet obstructed; its basis is not yet properly laid.

984

Record of Yoga

The movement now is to the fixing of that basis. The progress in samadhi continued. Free chhayamaya of all kinds, though seldom at once the stability and the force of presentation. Lapse of memory minimised in sushupti in the perceptive thought (mainly ideal) as well as the vangmaya. Today the ananda has begun to overbear the resistance of prana in the taste. In hearing, smell and touch, there is always the bhoga of ananda, not merely the rasagrahana. The only defect is defect of the chidghana, for the shuddha is always there though often only mental shuddha. But in the taste there is frequently denial of ananda or neutrality. Lipi is rapidly normalising itself in the vivid legibility with an initial perfection of stability. The suggestion is again allowed to play a part in removing the obstruction, but it is always an interpretation of unmanifest lipi rather than a former of uncreated lipi. The lipi is largely spontaneous. The telepathy is beginning to indicate in itself its spontaneous ritam; similarly the ideality even when it manifests in a thick veil or a thick atmosphere of mentality. Some insistence on a spontaneously retentive memory, but the amnesia is still dominant; memory is more active, but retains its usual or capriciously selective character. The insistence on ananda in the taste continues. There is a covert struggle between sleep and the shakti that tries to overcome it. The physical reaction of diminished sleep, is still the stronger, even when the total amount of sleep is the same and the diminution is only of the night sleep. eg. tonight 5 hours (from 2 to 7) after 2 hours in the daytime, making the sufficient quantity of 7 hours. It is true that the day sleep was mostly samadhi and only a brief nidra. . As yet samadhi is not a substitute for nidra; the body is rather adversely than favourably affected by it. The

15 February – 31 March 1917

985

opposite tendency is present, in state of preparation, but not yet effective. Dream is no longer samadhi-like. It is again incoherent. Samadhi at night very slight, mostly rupa-drishya in sushupti Mar 14 Script. “Today T2 and lipi “Confirmation of the first two chatusthayas and the (fifth + sixth) Brahmamaya Ishwara. “Completion of the Ananda (subjective) “First the shuddha chidghana in the chidghana, on that basis the Brahmamaya Ishwara.” This was immediately fulfilled. The chidghana darshana is being founded firmly in the chidghana consciousness, with a firm delineation of vijnanamaya form in all things. The shuddha is shuddha of chidghana, and the premature tendency to insist on the shuddha of ananda is being postponed. The first result was to have shuddha-chidghana of forms, but shuddha ananda with strong envelope of mentality in the surrounding Brahman. Immediately, however, the vijnana Brahman manifested in the containing Purusha, taking possession of the Akasha in place of the Manas Brahman. The Brahmamaya Ishwara at once came in and associated itself firmly with this vijnanananda darshana. This is the basis for the next step of the siddhi and has to be made inviolable before the final step can be successfully taken. All vishaya is being subjected to this chidghana ananda sense of things. The manasic sense in the darshana still hangs about, but it no longer dominates.

986

Record of Yoga

In T2 the difficulty is still in the tendency of the telepathy to attempt the decision of the event. Left to itself in the mentality, it now speedily drops this tendency; but when the telepathy is idealised the resulting brilliance and positiveness gives it the false idea of decisiveness; it tries to supplement the ideal telepathy by the intellectual decision or determining choice. This is the secret of most of the intellectual error of brilliant minds. The ideal telepathy only gives the idea of intentions, forces, facts, possibilities surrounding the moment of time. Decisive certainty belongs only to the trikaldrishti. Therefore the final purification for T2 consists in the discharging of the false foreseeing certainty of the intellect which tries to attend the ideal suggestions. In the morning sudden attack of the external (exiled) mentality on the sraddha & sukham (samata). At first touching the buddhi, it failed to take possession of it. It only reproduced a mechanical repetition of some of its old movements on the prana and sensemind by a purely physical touch. Striving constantly to recur, it failed to endure. In Samadhi much interference of nidra, but at the same time the ideality is taking hold of it and undermining incoherence. The grasp of ideal perceptive thought in mental sushupti is increasing. Especially lipi in all the four states is gaining fluency, legibility, cohesion, stronger in swapna than in antardrishti, in both than in sushupti. Lipi has now accomplished fluency in perfect legible stability. The result has only to be thoroughly confirmed, deepened and released from minor defects, the survivals of the older imperfection. The stability is essential, it does not as yet remain long fixed in the akasha; but there is no tendency to vanish as soon as it is manifested or, as before, even in the act of manifestation. The tendency is to remain as long as is necessary. Chidghana in the human figure is being constantly pulled back into the mentality and constantly reasserted. This is now

15 February – 31 March 1917

987

the only serious defect, but the affirmation is stronger than the denial. Telepathies combined with tapas siddhi which begins to have the light of the trikaldrishti in the telepathies. The first two chatusthayas recover their norm in the evening. Brief manifestation of variety of crude rupa (in the darkness of the terrace). Only relative precision + stability. Mar 15. Manifestation of perfect stability of “readymade” sentences, rushing into the physical akasha from behind and holding it before the suggestion can interfere. This is now increasing. This stability is vivid and often vichitra in its lettering, that is in varna, jyoti etc as well as chhaya. The combination of telepathies and tapas-siddhi continues, but the element of trikaldrishti in the telepathies is not yet precise; uncertainty predominates. Besides the developing elements of the three first chatusthayas and the Ananda + Ishwara, the Script indicates Vishayas and Rupadrishya as part of the day’s progress. The Ananda Ishwara manifests itself with greater force and perfection of chidghana than yesterday. The human figure has come into the line with the rest. Only in the human face the tendency to reversion has some strength, but it is daily diminishing. Some drishyarupa. Most of the afternoon & evening taken up with kavya. Vishaya hardly noticeable gandha

988

Record of Yoga

Mar 16. Lipi is now confirmed in legible stability with a fair amount of fluency. The legibility is usually vivid. Trikaldrishti begins to increase in the telepathy + tapasbuddhi. Ananda now goes back to the manasa chidghana and not to the mere ahaituka or shuddha in manasa. There is a tendency to greater intensity of this subjective ananda. More rupadrishya, but imperfect. In Samadhi antardarshi is more frequent but slight. Vishaya of rasa. Kamananda discouraged for these two days begins to revive. Tivra is always intense with smarana, but tends otherwise to sleep. Strong adverse movement in karma. Mar 17. The Ishwaradarshana has made a rapid bound to the shuddha Ananda possessing the chidghana, with the sense of the absolute universal beauty with the variety of feature. The chidghana gives a centrality and perfect harmony to the variety and reveals the spiritual law of each form of beauty, the guna and the swabhava, the thing it expresses. The Ananda is sometimes intense, sometimes moderate, sometimes goes back to the manasa shuddha chidghana; but the trend to intensity prevails. Energy of tapas-siddhi is increasing, but there is still the division from trikaldrishti, the three elements of T3 acting separately and not taken up into the union in duality of T2 Sense (physical) and delight of touch in the contact of objects outside oneself, even at a distance, has long been developing, mostly behind the veil with manifestations in front and is now

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thinking of universalising itself. The sense is sometimes subtle physical, sometimes sthula. Lipi confirms fluency in legible stability, but its free manifestation is forcefully obstructed. Successful samadhi. Lipi in sushupti often coherent; otherwise resolved by ideal thought into some form of coherence; only occasionally left to incoherence. Increasing force of rupadrishya; present also, but more successfully resisted in antardarshi. The obstruction to samadhi is obstinate and strong. Mar 18. The rudra energy which has long been attempting to seize the system, has now laid hold. Lipi “Do not limit the rapidity possible to the Shakti.” “Do not admit defeat.” The last means obviously definite defeat; for actual adverse result has to be admitted. Script “There must be a constant insistence, but an illumined insistence” Script. “From today the third chatusthaya has to be pushed on, the denials of the first and second energetically refused. “Today the foundation of the rudra energy has been successfully laid and the Maheshwari in Mahakali once dominated (taken in as pratistha) will be perfected.” The Maheshwari already taken in as pratistha was Maheshwari in Mahasaraswati, the other sometimes manifest is Maheshwari in Mahalakshmi. Once in Ch. [Chandernagore] Maheshwari herself was manifest. This is the last stage of the pratistha preparation. It is connected with the union of aishwarya-ishita-vashita with trikaldrishti and prakamyavyapti.

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For the last few days a revolution in Russia with Michael brought to the throne as Czar has been telepathically suggested to the mind. This is half-fulfilled by today’s news. Reference. “The result will be that Prakriti will lose her power of reflecting herself in the Brahman” ie the lower Prakriti which interferes with the ideality. The higher is simply the consciousness and will of the Ishwara. Samadhi Force of distinct variety in rupa-drishya of Antardarshi. Great power of suppression of incoherence in the sushupta. The sarvasaundarya of the Ananda chidghana is growing more and more, although it is not as yet secure against relapse. Mar 20. The sarva-saundarya increases in its hold. It tends to lose the vividness of its prema-kama elements and of the Ishwaradarshana, but easily recovers them. The external asamata now is failing in its touch on the mind as well as on the buddhi; it touches only the physical sheath and affects the physical prana, but by evanescent touches, even when it is allowed to act without any attempt at expulsion. There is an attempt of the asiddhi to confuse the Devibhava and sraddha which that draws back a little to see how the asiddhi works when the system is left to itself. All these are the vestiges of the old mentality which come athwart the ideality without actually replacing it. Samadhi oppressed by nidra. There are constant returns of the physical asamata, never assuming the assent of the buddhi and the mind, but touching,

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sometimes settling for a while on the physical emotionalism. The main work today has been the persistent and rapid discouragement of all tapatya whether of will to determine event or of will [to] determine knowledge or of will to secure results or enjoyments. Tapatya is intellectual, mental, rajasic will. In order to do this almost all will and almost all favourable result or inner activity has to be stopped, except such as is purely passive. In the evening a movement outlined itself that has been for some time preparing, that of correct self-telepathies, telepathies perceiving at once their own substance of truth. This gives no surety of trikaldrishti, but only actualised fact of event, state, tendency, intention etc correctly conceived or rather felt & seen. The old time-trikaldrishti, long discontinued, revives with its old imperfections. 1. M’s [Moni’s] return at about 8.55. 2 N’s [Nolini’s] return approaching 3 S’s [Saurin’s] early return and meal at about 9.15 and 9.25 but only the times came right, the two events being wrongly placed, S’s return at 9.25, the meal at 9.15 or 9.25. Mar 21. Most of the day given to work for Arya. Negative condition in the siddhi. Asiddhi emphasised, as far as it will go, in all the chatusthayas. Some play of ideality in the evening. Mar 22 Out of the inhibition and asiddhi there is being created a new luminously mechanical ideal substratum of thought and action jnana tapas combined which replaces gradually the old halfintelligent action or thought, habitual, instinctive etc which rose out of the subconscient or was determined by the subconscient. This rises out of the realised sat in the mental, vital, physical prakriti (pradhana elementalised) and is therefore satyam. It is not yet ritam,

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but prepares to be. It will be brihat by the large assimilation of the circumconscient under the law of the ideality. Physical tamas has been for some days dominant. It is now being violently thrown off to be replaced by the dasya-tapas guided by an inherent, though largely involved shama-prakasha. The reactions of a sort of unreal, yet actualised physical weakness are fighting against this new type of action, new, because formerly, when it came, it contained an element of rajas. Ashanti is becoming more & more purely physical. It contains a sort of mechanical asamata and asukham. . The resistance to the light of the ideality still continues. There is a physical repression of the thought when it tries to rise into the jyotih. The diminishing of the asamata into the pure physical touch continues. Mar 25 The last two days given chiefly to Arya and poetry. No marked incident in the sadhana. Today samadhi is recovering its activity after a temporary cessation.

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Mar 30 – 31. Revival of the active sadhana. The chidghana shuddha is now perfectly founded, normalised & universalised. Only its status varies. The Ishwara-darshana is equally founded and universalised. But there are two experiences of it, one in which it is only present to the observation as the material of consciousness, but does not come home to the mind, the other in which it is vivid and the very nature of the soul’s view of things. The Ishwara is not as often before Krishna or Kali, Purusha and Prakriti, in the individual, but the Lilamaya impartially in all, Krishna with Kali in the purusha, Kali with Krishna in the stri. The prema-kama is normalising itself in the same way, in two ways separately, first as essential stuff of the ananda; secondly, as essential result of the chidghana shuddha and its revelation of universal saundarya. This is not yet quite firm and complete. For some time samata and dasyam were isolated from shakti, in order that the last power of attack of asamata might be removed. It now touches from outside without any hold on the buddhi or the manas and a very weak clutch at the prana, as a sort of mild physical depression in the prana dependent on defect of sraddha in the karma. The velleities of ashanti, revolt (absence of nati) etc which the external Nature would force on the individual, have no power left to form themselves, the aid of buddhi and manas being refused. The active side is now being revived. Absolutely perfect reference, telepathy perfect in satyam of substance, perfect too in ritam of arrangement when it does not attempt to develop trikaldrishti and tapas; occasionally perfect trikaldrishti. Tapas is still tainted with the habit of effort and struggle; trikaldrishti with the false tapasic stress in its telepathic parts.

994

15 AUGUST – 28 SEPTEMBER 1917

Aug 15t.h. 1917. Wednesday. The siddhi has reached a fresh turning-point. The first chatusthaya is firm, complete, universal except for occasional and quite momentary touches which have no power to fix themselves in the consciousness or outlast their moment or acquire intensity, except, again, rarely in the failure of samadhi. But this is quite exceptional. Even the earth of the system (called in lipi, gh, territoriality) is subjected to the law of the samata. Only the positive ananda is still weak in [siddhi].1 The second chatusthaya is complete, fixed, universal; but there ˆ are defects, principally in devibhava (ishwari bhava, sarvakarˆ ˆ and most in daihiki masamarthyam,) in sraddha swashaktyam shakti. All needs to take on a greater intensity, but all are founded, all firm except these three, but all have their points of weakness. Eg. dasyam is not yet normally tertiary of the third degree. Defects in the first two chatusthayas are really not self-existent, but the result of insufficiency in the third, the vijnana. Here all hitherto has been preparation. Gnana is well advanced, T2 only founded, samadhi is still subject to mentality and incoherence, the physical basis is undeveloped; but all have acquired their crude material. Lipi is specially forward. All the stages of the ideality are customary. The fourth chatusthaya is developed only in Ananda. Arogya is prepared but still subject to fragmentary denial, in all but the [ . . . ] roga which still persists. Utthapana is thrown backward, Saundarya only developed in psychic youth and a few preparatory movements of the physical change. Krishna Kali are both developed, but not perfect. Karma kama are psychically progressing, physically held back. 1 MS asiddhi.

15 August – 28 September 1917

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Brahmadarshana is complete as continent, incomplete in contents. Shuddhi, mukti, bhukti are well-advanced psychically, strong with fragmentary defects physically. Siddhi depends on the perfection of the still imperfect chatusthayas. Aug 15th to 20th Arogya. Attack of roga, attempt at cold and fever. Slight cold and eye-affection; the former unable to materialise entirely, the latter materialised successfully after three days’ struggle, but not with the same force as formerly. Strong on 17th and 18t.h., slight since. The disease was made an occasion for the exercise of the tapas-siddhi on the mental level, where the effect is never more than partial when used against strong resistance. T2. During these days the telepathic mentality has been entirely and firmly idealised on its own level in the perception of force, tendency, possibility, and entire satyam thus secured. Even when the ideality is removed, the satyam remains as an unillumined perception. The movement towards ritam (T2) is being resumed. The stress on forces = mental tapas. This tapas has begun to be idealised and is already of the nature of a half-illumined balance of force-action. The satyam of the mental tapas is not so sure or not so illumined ordinarily as the satyam of the mental perception. Samadhi. Strong play of rich and perfect chhayamaya. There is a lack of stability and continuity; but these are firm in the obscure chhayamaya, sufficient in the half tejomaya chhayamaya without richness and variety. This rich and perfect but unstable play of rupa occurs sometimes in the jagrat antardrishta, though more often various than rich and perfect. It is trying to emerge even in the bahirdrishta.

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Record of Yoga

Vishaya. Vishaya develops only in the sukshma, not in the sukshma sthula where it is still held up. Aug 20th Monday. Ananda. Ananda is stationary in kama and tivra, preparing for a fresh advance. Vaidyuta has attained to occasional fullness in body and in length of pervasion. The basis of raudra is being farther perfected. The rule of decrease by repetition is more and more giving way to the increasing power of the rule of greater intensification. Orgiastic tivra direct from the touch, after it has ceased, and subsequent sympathetic tivra orgiasm elsewhere have begun to show themselves. Sometimes repetition produces variations from intense tivra to intense vaidyuta and back Orgiastic kamananda stream in pervasive non-orgiastic kamananda. The orgiastic tends to suppress and replace the pervasive, but sometimes the latter persists circumferentially in the body or is even increased. Simultaneously increasing orgiasm of both has to be developed. Vaidyuta tends to grow constantly, to be pervasive and to be ahaituka as well as sahaituka. Tivra touch continued in the same place for five minutes; constantly disappearing into vishaya or lessened, but always recurring and increasing though with [necessity]2 of smarana or smarana + tapas. After slight discontinuity more intense than before. This begins or presages the final victory of the law of increasing intensity. After complete cessation orgiastic tivra, continued briefly and often repeated. Aug 21s.t. Tuesday Dasya Tertiary dasya in the third degree is now being more regularly 2 MS necessary

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enforced in the movements of the body, even the slightest. The remnants of the secondary degree are being swallowed up into the third The same control is now to be enforced and is being enforced ˆ and vangmaya. ˆ in the script, vani The dasya is now thoroughly ˆ introduced into the ıˆswarˆıbhava. Also into all bhoga. The firmness of this siddhi has to be firmly guarded. The introduction of the dasya into the perceptive thought seems more difficult, but it is being easily done in the jnana. The test will be in the trikaldrishti-tapas. All responsibility for action, physical, vital, mental must be left entirely to the Iswara, the Shakti is only an instrument and the Jiva their meeting-place. All traces of the asamata, now only the occasional recurrence of an old habit, must be finally removed. This can be done by bringing forward the delight in the asiddhi. Brahma Strong Ishwaradarshana sarvabhuteshu, followed by jyotih of the Anantam (Jnanam) Brahma in things. This was preceded half an hour ago by the lipi 15, several times repeated, the number of the Anantam in the enumeration of the siddhis which compose the last five chatusthayas. 1. jnanam, 2 trikaldrishti, 3 rupa-siddhi, 4 tapas 5 samadhi 6 arogya, 7 ananda, 8 utthapana, 9 saundarya 10 Krishna, 11 Kali, 12 karma, 13 kama 14 Sarvam Brahma, 15 Anantam, 16 Jnanam, 17 Anandam 18 suddhi, 19 mukti, 20 bhukti, 21 siddhi. This jyotih is not yet to be free from interruption and diminution, but it is founded and from henceforth bound to increase. It is jyoti not tejas, ideal light, not the mental. It is now trying to ally itself entirely with the Jnanam and Anandam Brahma. . These manifest usually each with a separate intensity in which the three others disappear from view; henceforth the quadruple intensity has set out to create its united effulgence.

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Record of Yoga

Aug 22d Wednesday. The siddhis established yesterday stand, except in vismriti, in which they are not so much denied as either unnoticed or in suspense. The tertiary dasya seems to be absolutely firm in the body, script, vani, and only suspended by vismriti in the perceptive jnana and in the vangmaya for the change which is being operated. This change is the transference of the thought from the control of the inferior devatas to that of the Jiva-Prakriti receiving it direct from the Ishwara. The perceptive thought is being similarly transferred. Thought is to occur henceforth in the vijnana of the Jiva; not as suggestion, but as thought in action and the thought of the Ishwara in origin. At present the perceptive thought is becoming impersonally vijnanamaya with a vague sense of the Ishwara behind. In telepathic trikaldrishti, when it is not vijnanamaya, its nature and descent as manasic suggestion from the mind-world through the rajas of the pranic is more and more often perceived in its fullness. This is the false trikaldrishti, which is in reality no more than telepathic suggestion of possibility. These suggestions come either from above or from around, from the mind and life-planes of the earth; in reality the latter derive rapidly from the former except when there is exchange on the earth plane itself; even then the derivation is eventually the same. Brahman. The jyotih of Jnanam Anantam is now taking into itself the Anandam. Lipi

September, the physical siddhi begins its perfection. tejorashi. (yesterday) fulfilled today in the flow of ideality into the perceptive thought. Vijnana The real trikaldrishti is slowly growing over the telepathic basis, but combated always by the mental doubt. Lipi “It is fashioning itself gradually in spite of the intellectuality; first, it has to take itself up into the ideality.” “Together the effective telepathy

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and the trikaldrishti.” “Telepathy tapassiddhi.” Rupasiddhi and samadhi are resisted, sometimes growing, sometimes falling back. Trikaldrishti is increasing as indicated in the lipi, in spite of a mass of intellectual suggestions of the old type; out of it emerge three elements, (1) the ineffectual suggestion which falls away, (2) effective telepathy, ie telepathy tapas sometimes dropping into pure tapas without foresight sometimes into foresight with an involved tapas, (3) trikaldrishti proper, but insufficient[ly] illumined and uncertain of itself. Only when there is illumination, is the trikaldrishti sure of itself and its fulfilment. The pranic suggestions which amount only to rajasic imagination are being finally discouraged. Some activity of vishaya in smell and taste. The latter is stronger in sukshma than in sukshma-sthula, but there is some sign in the latter of progress from the crude basic states to the dense and developed, which have hitherto appeared only in the madhura. Aug 23 Thursday. T2 Lipi, “perfect telepathies siddhi.” Perfection implies liberation from false stress and, positively, accurate limitation and accurate extent. This has begun to develop, but is yet imperfect. The necessary condition of perfection is that the mentality should cease all attempts to determine the trikaldrishti and leave that entirely to the ideality. The force of tapas increases but as this works as telepathy tapas and increases only the effective telepathy, it makes the distinction of telepathy, ie mental perception of present fact, force and tendency, from trikaldrishti, as perception of present and future (the past has so far been mostly left alone), more difficult; for a constantly effective telepathy tapas easily masks as trikaldrishti,

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until an occasional failure shows the mistake. All this would not occur if the highest ideality were at work for T2, but at present it is only the lower ideality working on the mental perceptions The satyam of the telepathy is now extremely perfect, the ritam more perfect than it has ever been before; sometimes the perfection is entire. But all this is as yet in the field of vision where truth and error can be tested by immediate result. The telebuddhi and telesiddhi on which the lipi has been for some time insisting, is as yet imperfect and very limited. Renewed action of samadhi with an increased general hold of the ideality in thought, vangmaya, lipi. Rupa, dialogue, reading etc have made no definite progress Aug 24 Friday. Entire perfection of stability and solidity in lipi with an almost perfect freedom in manifestation. There is only a slight obstruction still sensible in the akash, but this is sufficient to compel a return to the less perfect lipi. Until a siddhi has become entirely the nature of the system and environment, according as it is purely subjective or subjective-objective, it is not perfectly possessed and is liable either to temporary loss or diminution. A siddhi maintained by force or by habitual exercise is imperfectly possessed; it must be held entirely by nature, as easy as breathing or thinking. Rupasamadhi is again obstructed; the obstruction is now evidently artificial, maintained by a pressure upon the nature of the terrestrial sattwa which is ready to yield the coherent vijnanamaya samadhi in its full abundance. In all subjective movements and those subjective-objective in which the subjective element predominates and the personality alone is concerned, the obstruction of the gh is similarly artificial, not belonging to the earth nature itself, but to the Patala nature into which the old powers have been exiled but from the borders of which they still maintain their opposition.

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The ideality is therefore obstructed in its progress only by this opposition; the real obstruction is only in the fourth and fifth chatusthayas. Saturday 25t.h. August. Lipi more emphasised in its perfection, especially stability which is now practically universal; the solidity varies and the legibility is sometimes partial to the eye, and sometimes still at first the lipi is stable only, or solid also, but there has to be tapas to bring out the legibility. Sometimes it is incomplete, part of a sentence, or else words are omitted; sometimes it becomes coherent, instead of appearing formed, coherent and [complete]3 at one leap of emergence into the akasha. But the latter is now common, and all defects disappear at the first touch of tapas In tivra the law of increase grows yet stronger, interruption decreases, intensity tends to be maintained. But at present if left alone, the general impressionability to tivra sinks often into a sort of subdued half quiescence and the intensity reawakens only after the first touch or the first few touches. Samadhi varies, sometimes yielding to the obstruction, sometimes reemerging. Only the ideality of thought, vangmaya, lipi maintains itself and seems to be firmly established. Dream is commonest, comes very readily and is vivid, bordering on samadhi in its aping of coherence, vividness of rupa, dialogue etc, force of presentation. It is not however really coherent, as it was sometimes, but fanciful and extravagant in its details and connections. The nearness of a siddhi artificially withheld is however strongly felt. Rupa remains obstructed. Sunday August 26t.h. The siddhis already established are now being taken up and carried to their completion on a higher plane. Vangmaya is being taken up into the Ananda of the vijnana level, where it is no longer the thought of the Jivaprakriti with 3 MS complement

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the Ishwara as the origin of the thought, but the thought of the Ishwara in the Shakti who is the medium and the instrument of the thinking. This has been done perfectly in the type; it has yet to be universalised. A similar process is taking place with the perceptive thought and has been done less strongly and perfectly in the type, but its perfection and universalisation cannot proceed so far because the ideal perceptive thought still carries in itself an element of mentality and therefore more easily descends into mental thinking than it ascends into pure ideal thinking. In the script to the presence of the Ishwara is being added the personality of the Ishwara and his relation of madhuradasya containing all his other relations with the Jiva-Shakti. T2 is still unidealised, but is pressing towards idealisation. Lipi is rapidly universalising perfection of form and light in the thought-interpretation. The containing Brahmadarshana is preparing to fix itself in the Ananda with the Jnana Ananta as content and Sarva as base. Physical siddhi In the physical siddhi kamananda pervasive and orgiastic is becoming more easy and natural in all positions, but needs and indeed is almost entirely dependent on smarana and sometimes on smarana + tapas: but the need of tapas is being gradually rejected. It is no longer entirely dependent on excitation of the centre by sparsha. Ahaituka tivra has been for a long time less common, but it has a greater intensity and force for insistence when it comes and comes, besides, more easily everywhere. There is the same increase of intensity in vaidyuta and vishaya, and also in the former a greater ease and normality in arrival, development and extension. But it needs smarana or smarana and tapas, more commonly both, in the ahaituka and in the sahaituka current, smarana only and not always in the intense sahaituka touch. The other three members of the physical siddhi have made no definite advance and are except in certain directions subject to relapse.

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Karma (subjective), though often and increasingly effective, is subject to great opposition, obstruction and reaction. Kama at present is not being pressed. Samadhi The other parts of samadhi not yet idealised, began to be taken ˆ in the afternoon, except the reading and rupa; hold of by the vijnana all at the same time increased in coherence. At night the reading also was taken hold of, powerfully, both in its coherence and in its incoherence. Mentality now reigns only in swapna, although it still ˆ strives to persist also in swapna-samadhi; but swapna is increasing in coherence. Even when interrupted, it tends to be resumed at the same point or to return to the same subject; this even happens after a long diversion to another subject. It is still, however, a sort of fragmentary coherence. The ideality also works in a fragmentary fashion, except in vangmaya Tapas Lipi, “sixty seventy”. 60 degrees rising to 70 degrees of tapas effectiveness is being enforced in type and has set out to generalise itself. Hitherto tapas effect was all haphazard and incoherent, often strong, seldom perfect, frequently weak or nil, always partial except in details, never or hardly ever final except in certain broad effects after much difficulty Aug 27 Monday. 60º to 70º effectiveness is becoming more general; though 50º and less persist and 80º occasionally occurs, but rarely. The 60º is sometimes in swiftness of overcoming resistance, sometimes in amount of effect, which is often not perfect, but only partial, a 3–5 or 4 – effect, especially in tapas of exact circumstance; sometimes in 5 both respects there is only this partial success. ˆ ananda ˆ Extension of kam proceeds against obstruction. Much action of Samadhi in the direction of strengthening the ideality, but all is still fragmentary. The incoherent reading tends to be turned into coherence or replaced by coherent reading or

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Record of Yoga

else taken as it is and interpreted in its scattered parts. Increase of coherence is the rule. Tuesday Aug 28. The telepathy-tapassiddhi is becoming again idealised in the sense of being seen in its right limits of the satyam in the light of the vijnana; the tapas-siddhi is also acquiring more force with 60º – 70º as the average force, though it falls below and goes above, the latter more often than the former, because of the renewed strength of obstruction. T2 is in abeyance. A similar process of idealisation, more advanced and luminous, is being applied to the mental ˆ deformations of the jnana. Violent attack of the asiddhi chiefly on the first and third chatusthayas, but to a certain extent in all six. The old method of forcing undelight in asiddhi on the system from without through the pranic physicality aided by intellectual suggestions and throwing it out from within by the tapas and the buddhi. Pranic manas in its physicality is still compelled to respond, with a slight or evanescent response in its emotivity, but not in its buddhi which does not recognise the undelight as belonging to the system. The freedom of the buddhi from undelight is stronger for the attack; moreover the restoration of the ananda is becoming ahaituka or depends on the tapas and no longer on the buddhi. The habit of return of physical depression is also being eliminated, as well as the remnants of susceptibility to the suggestion of desire. Complete asiddhi is contemplated without revolt or depression. There is now commencing an attempt to establish a more lasting stability in the lipi so that several lines may be manifested simultaneously this has already been done often enough in type, but vanishingly, with a firm hold on the akasha. In the evening a preparation of farther progress towards the complete taking over of the whole action of the consciousness by the Ishwara.

15 August – 28 September 1917

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Wednesday Aug 29t.h. Continuation of yesterday’s last movement. No definite advance, except that even the telepathy, trikaldrishti and tapas are being taken up by the Ishwara. The taking over of the whole ideality by the Ishwara is now complete; only the recurrence of the old movements has to be eliminated. Samadhi. ˆ Strong original lipi of the highest ideality in the samadhi, (antardarshi and swapna-samadhi). Rupa is active and abundant, but not stable in antardarshi; obstructed, but sometimes luxuriant in ˆ amaya ˆ ˆ certain chhay forms in swapna samadhi. Brief dialogue in sthula sukshma word in swapna, coherent but not continuous or perfect. Reading, sukshma dialogue etc vary again from coherence to absolute incoherence. Thought of all kinds is much stronger in the ideality. At a very deep level of samadhi neighboring on the sushupti the old defects still remain, but dream has less hold. Telepathy and trikaldrishti are now beginning to shake off some of their imperfections, but the latter is still very hampered and limited. Lipi. “perfect telepathy trikaldrishti” (yesterday) today, “perfect telepathy, perfect trikaldrishti”. The perfection realised is necessarily only in type. It is now attempting to extend itself into the large and perfect satyam ritam. This attempt made formerly on ˆ level. the mental, is now being done on the vijnana Ambulant orgiastic kamananda Aug 30 Thursday. Ishwarabhava in the Brahmadarshana seems now to be fixed in its universality, sometimes subdued, sometimes intense; but it varies from the mental to the vijnanamaya and Ananda levels and is generally upon the mental. It is only by tapas and smarana that

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it returns to the higher planes. The subjective prema-kamananda is also now absent, except by smarana. Aug 31 Friday. Ananda Steady progress in the tivra. Orgiastic kamananda is becoming more frequent and progressing towards normality, although still dependent on smarana and liable to obstruction. Ambulatory ananda is developing very fast, stationary is beginning to make itself normal, the sedentary without regard to asana shows sign also of following suit. The necessity of tapas is disappearing, smarana alone is required, except when the obstruction tries to recover strength; the normal readiness of the physical system for the Ananda may be considered as established. Arogya is still obstructed, subject to relapse and unable to make any large advance. Saundarya is also obstructed. Only psychological yauvana has become almost normal, varying in force and age, but never now ˆ settling into vardhakya. The pervasive kamananda is now orgiastic in its nature, even when subdued in its force and insufficiently sthula in its hold. The ananda has now taken hold of all positions, recumbent and loose sedentary as well as ambulant, sistory and close sedentary. It is rapidly increasing in intensity, continuity and power of selfrepetition. It has even occurred once or twice without smarana. This is the beginning of the “vertiginous rapidity” predicted today in lipi of samadhi. In samadhi reading more firmly gripped by the lipi. Vishaya in samadhi, separated or combined, taste, sound, touch, sight, smell is rare and unready, occur often in great intensity, but intermittently. They are not yet a standing feature of vision in swapnasamadhi.

1007

September 1917 1s.t. Saturday. Telesiddhi (karma) Telesiddhi takes place frequently in fragments; large, decisive or final success is rare except in telesiddhi of some propinquity. In the main matters the obstruction and opposition are in the mass, though hampered, still successful. Ananda The kamananda seems now to be firmly established as a normal dharma of the body. Continuity and intensity have to be normalised. There is continuity with smarana; continuity without smarana has to be established. Intensity increases with the continuity. Ananda wave by strong sparsha on any part of the body is now being taken up; it is kama with admixture of tivra, vaidyuta, raudra. It is at first dependent on smarana and tapas; but in fact the latter is being eliminated; the ananda now as a general rule develops best and most readily when there is smarana without pressure of tapas; the latter, at least if too direct, is even something of an obstacle. Practically this ananda wave by touch has been established in its universality, but the siddhi has now to be entirely confirmed. All this development has taken place in the course of five minutes or so, with the vertiginous rapidity. Ananda of acute discomfort has for some time been developing and is now preparing to be confirmed and perfected. In samadhi stronger grip of observing ideality on narrative and dialogue. Tapas is now more frequently effective (60º – 80º) in the environment (not life) on general event; it has begun to work more frequently also in exact circumstantial effect but against great obstruction and with more frequent failure than success. This is on the mental level, by itself, or in conjunction with telepathies, without trikaldrishti. Obstruction is being offered to the new ananda siddhis; they

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lower the readiness, frequency, continuity and intensity, but do not succeed in altogether suspending; meanwhile independence of the ahaituka pervasion and normality of the short sahaituka wave are increasing. Strength of ideal lipi in the samadhi. Sept 2. Sunday. Obstruction in all the siddhis and attempt to enforce relapse yesterday and today. In the first it is unsuccessful except for fleeting and increasingly unsubstantial touches. In the second it lowers the force of tertiary dasya in the third degree and keeps in abeyance the ishwarabhava and the intenser sraddha. In the third it forces back the ideality and keeps up the dead play of the disjointed intellectual mentality, as well as the direct sense of the Ishwara control. In the fourth it tries to keep up the old stereotyped rule of denial of siddhi after a day of exceptional siddhi in the kamananda and enforce vismriti on the body; it is only partially successful[;] it diminishes and interrupts but cannot suspend. The process of changing separated telepathy and tapas into united T2 is being given a new turn. This is to give always the decisive event first as at once trikaldrishti and tapas, and attend afterwards to the movements which try to contradict the decreed and foreseen result and those which help with the aids and modifications of the opposing forces to bring it about. For the latter purpose it is being attempted to universalise the ideal light in the telepathies. The difficulty is always to distinguish the real finality from something that imitates it and to seize the right measure of the telepathies. The force of possession of the telepathies by the ideality is as yet insufficient, the interference of the mentality yet too frequent to allow of this invariable certainty. Sept 3 Monday The movement of T2 continues. To idealise the decisive T2 entirely and to enforce ritam on the satyam of the telepathies are

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the two requisite preliminaries for perfection. The latter is the more difficult of the two processes. Lipi is confirmed in the ideality; it is now attempting to raise itself into the highest ideality. Attempt at lipi-trikaldrishti, but as yet distant prediction without detail of circumstance or time. The lipi now varies from the lower idealities to the three forms of the highest vijnana. Movement of T2 continues to be prepared; but as yet with no decisive result. Only the satyam becomes more pronounced. Samadhi is stationary, persisting in its present gains, but also in the obstacles Sept 4 Tuesday In Samadhi the tejomaya is reappearing, chiefly in the chhayamaya environment, clear, perfect, but only with an instantaneous stability, although a tendency of increased stability is not altogether absent. The chhayamaya is now capable at all stages of a great stability which is not infrequent, but still even in the chhayamaya stability is not the rule; instability prevails. Lipi is now full of the highest vijnana light and usually or almost invariably belongs to that plane in its substance and status and increasingly in its style. Thought also has followed the same development, but it is not as yet so advanced in the universality of the highest and most luminous vijnana. T2 is attempting to follow. The illumined satyam of the telepathies is now the rule, the darker movement is the exception and is immediately replaced by the light of the vijnanamaya

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interpretation. But the tapas is not equally illuminated in its satyam. ˆ With the increase of satyam, ritam also increases. Still vijnanamaya 2 3 T is the exception, T is still the rule. Wednesday. Sept 5. Tapas effectivity in the environment tends towards greater normality of 70º, greater frequency of 80º, but this tendency is not yet well established. This effectivity however does not extend to exact detail of circumstance in which asiddhi both of will and eventual knowledge is the rule, siddhi the rare exception. Telepathy of contributory force, tendency, intention, impulse etc is sufficiently exact, though not always sufficiently complete. Contributory tapas is becoming illumined in the same way as telepathy, in its satyam and increasingly in its ritam. But decisive tapas like decisive vision and even more is still unillumined or insufficiently illumined. On the whole the vijnanamaya is now well-grounded and the rule of the being, but very far from perfection. Tivra seems to have gone slightly back, but this is only the emergence of tendencies which had been held down by the energy of the tapas, not quite eliminated, though diminished and depressed. The habit of fluctuation from greater to less and from less to greater response has to be got rid of. Moreover the intimacy of the response has to be secured, that is to say, the inherent excitability of the physical system responding immediately to the sparsha by an intimate and intense thrill. At present this excitability is lost by prolonged excitation and replaced by an unsteady communicated excitability. Moreover the necessity of tapas has to be eliminated and smarana made sufficient. In kamananda this necessity is already recognised, and the advance is therefore retarded in order to get it satisfied There is now increasing frequency of tapas-siddhi in exact circumstance, often sustained, varying from 70º, 75º, to 80º, but also sinking to 60º. Below 60º the normal, though not invariable rule is asiddhi. Delay of fulfilment brings often inexactitude in place as well as time or even incompleteness of the effect.

15 August – 28 September 1917

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Thursday Sept. 6. The lipi is now fixed normally in the highest ideality. Kamananda has resumed its action of continuity. It is noticeable that pressure of tapas is eliminated, although an original act of tapas-memory is still sometimes used to set it in action. Smarana is still necessary except sometimes in the most habituated asanas. There is some indication of the future substitution of a partial or side attention for smarana, but this is not yet anything more than an unrealised intention in the system. Rupa is active to some extent in the jagrat, but there is no ascertainable progress. Friday Sept 7. There is a more settled ritam in the telepathy and tapas working in the unillumined or partially illumined mentality. The increase in effectivity of tapas seems now to be settled and normal. The development of this movement continued throughout the day has been the one feature of its siddhi. Also the return of the Ishwara control Saturday Sept 8 The substitution of the necessity of half-attention for the necessity of smarana in orgiastic kamananda is taking place; it is already strongly established in the type. At first it was only sufficient for the sustaining of the ananda, not for its inception after cessation or its assertion against obstruction; but the sufficiency of the halfattention for initiating or renewing the ananda is now established. All this is in type; much has to be done before it can be universalised. In the end even this will not be necessary. The old habit of applying tapas survives in a fragmentary fashion, but is no longer accepted or efficient, except in smarana-tapas. The Ishwara control is now firmly universalised in vani, script and vangmaya, with whatever survival of gana participation; it is

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not yet universalised in perceptive thought, still less in T2. That is being prepared. The excentric waves and currents of kamananda are following rapidly the same development as the main or central surge; they have to come to depend first on smarana without tapas though at first with an implied tapas in it, then on a half-attention, while the removal of even this necessity is being already prepared. Here too maintenance without full smarana is easier and more frequent than inception or even renewal. These excentric currents are often ahaituka, that is, not created as before only by actual sparsha. There are signs that ahaituka tivra will also be soon prepared for normality. At present it is still dependent except in the three main locations where halfsmarana is already sufficient, on the full smarana and usually on smaranatapas. Vaidyuta is developing indistinctly along with the tivra and kama. Separate development of vaidyuta and raudra seems to have been postponed. Intense continuous ahaituka tivra is being prepared and established in type in all the nine locative centres; it is already done in type in the seven main and is begun in the two subordinate centres. The discursive tivra, which once emerged, is now being encouraged to reappear. Note that there are three other subordinate centres of the third class in which the same preparation is being indicated. The fault of incomplete pervasion in the ananda surge is being remedied in the type. Sunday Sep. 9. The force of greater ananda continuance seems definitely to have been established. Obstructive denial persists, but it is greatly weakened and half ineffective. It can only have a temporary strength as a result of discontinuance by vismriti.

15 August – 28 September 1917

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So far it is only in Ananda that the prediction of September as the first month of strong physical siddhi is being fulfilled. In the rest obstructive denial or successful resistance are paramount, denial in 8 and 9, resistance in the Arogya. The half smarana is now often reduced to a minimum of attention chiefly in the physical mind or even the mind of the body and the dependence of the Ananda on the attention begins to be replaced by the involuntary Ananda forcing the attention. But this is only occasionally. Usually greater or less smarana is required. If the mind is vacant, then the attention can sink to the minimum. If it is concentrated on any object or subject, the ananda either sinks and ceases or is kept in abeyance and resumed with full force on the cessation of the absorption. A new circumstance is the pervasion of the pranic body by the ananda as well as, with a less forcefulness of sensation, the manasic body. In the latter, at the highest, it is pure madhu of the Soma. All the anandas show signs of an increasing tendency to the orgiastic Monday Sept 10. A strong attempt by the artificial obstruction to renew its power of strongly suspending the Ananda; at times almost successful, it has decisively failed. The ananda in the pranic body has now the power of taking possession of the physical. Kamananda diminished in force of continuity and frequency, but not suspended. The obstruction is no longer able to suspend it strongly and imperatively as before. Its occasional control is becoming more and more artificial and its strength to obstruct more and more laboured. No longer intervals of suspension, but intervals of more difficult manifestation are the most it can impose. Tuesday Sept 11. Kamananda is gradually recovering its force and the greater pervasion is being insisted upon.

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T3 after a somewhat prolonged eclipse is once more idealising itself, but not with any great force. Even in the lesser force of the Ananda the power of the involuntary Ananda is increasing; it often re-initiates suddenly the forgotten or oppressed orgiasm. Wednesday Sept 12. The lipi now perfectly founded in the highest ideality, is aiming at perfect fluidity on that level. It is easier in the chitra than in the akasha lipi, though even there there is some difficulty of immediate physical manifestation. In this difficulty are comprised all the formal defects that still remain in the lipi. A certain lethargy of the vijnana action which has been dominant for some days, is now in process of being removed. It is noticeable that even the intellectual action is really a perfectly accurate action of the ideality except in T3, but its perfection is only realised when the ideal perception, ketu, stands above to observe it. Even in T3 the action would be perfect in its justice, if the remnant intellect judgment would not misinterpret and misemphasise it Kamananda is increasing in the type its force of involuntary initiation and involuntary retention or repetition. The force hovers, it is true, on the borders between pure involuntariness and a minimum, hardly noticeable or even unnoticeable act of smarana. Revival of samadhi activity. Very perfect ideality of thought, lipi, vangmaya. The lipi has suddenly taken on the full perfection of ideality already established in the jagrat as well as certain types of extreme formal perfection which used only to occur in the beginning, years ago, when the vital force of the sadhana was strong, but the ideal weak. The lipi predicts the return of that vital force into the new ideal principle. At present vital force is often at a minimum due to the excessive force of shama which was necessary to purification. But as shama is now absolutely strong, tapas-force in vitality can be increased without perturbance.

15 August – 28 September 1917

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The interregnum of non ideality was necessary to get rid of false certainty and the last insistences of the intellect trying to play the part of the ideality. These have now been immensely weakened, though not abolished. The intellectual action is now in T3 becoming more and more just, even when quite unillumined. It is far however from having then a perfection of ritam. Ahaituka tivra is taking on firmly the orgiastic character Intense pain, other than burning, now often not only takes on the character of ananda but keeps it when prolonged. It is noticeable however that pointed, lancing pain is easier to deal with than the long-edged and the long-edged easier than the massed. Also the nervous is easier to transform than the gross physical produced by a physical object. The Nirananda element in certain forms of discomfort obstinately returns, even when their ananda has been frequently strong and complete in the type. Thursday. Sept 13 In samadhi yesterday’s gains repeated; in addition a stronger force of conscious ideality took possession of narrative, dialogue etc which attained to a firm, long, consecutive coherence hardly exampled before. Fragmentariness however still remains and relics of the dream mentalising touched the action at its best. Reading and rupa still remain to be developed in the ideality. A movement in the samadhi, jagrat, swapna, etc to take possession of all activities by the highest idealities. But this is not yet a sustained movement T3 continues its development, and even in the unillumined action the growth of ritam is removing the distinction between telepathy and trikaldrishti. Tapas has still to take its proper place in the ritam which extends only to the two other members of T3. Friday. Sept 14. Chiefly, the continuance of the movement by which the direct Ishwara control in the highest ideality is taking possession of the whole vijnana. The T2 is still the least prepared for the change and

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its preparation is the main feature of the sadhana, apart from the movement of the Ananda. Steady progress in the Brahmadarshana. It is confirmed in the Ananda mentality and is being lifted into the Ananda ideality. There is no longer any strong tendency of relapse into the mental asundara and nirananda. Saturday. Sept 15 The poise of the Brahmadarshana in things has changed rapidly, suddenly from the vijnanamaya with Ananda in it to the Ananda full with vijnana. It is only in beings that the lower poises are still strong. It only needs the sense of the infinite Ananda in each thing to be added and the darshana will be completely founded. This is already being prepared and is partially active even in regard to persons. T3 has been rapidly prepared this morning for the ideal control. It is only when the physical brain relaxes into failure to respond or when there are too rapid suggestions from the external intellectuality that the ideal reception fails. Even the intellectual ideality is now losing all its credit, because of its failure to satisfy the needs of the siddhi, especially the ritam. Great incoherence in the reading. The other powers of samadhi maintain their ideality or at least their coherence, though sometimes with an initial difficulty. In rupa and reading the sadhana is up against the curious phenomenon which seems insuperable in jagrat rupa, vishaya, and the physical siddhi other than ananda, the stereotyped difficulty, the action of the Vedic Nidah, which consists in the eternal repetition of the past movements of success and failure forming a circle which refuses to be broken. In all the siddhi this phenomenon has been active, but most obstinately in certain members of the sadhana. In others siddhi has arrived in spite of it, has been more forceful than the tendency to turn each step into a final step, but in others it has seemed powerless. This however can be only an appearance. The change must come.

15 August – 28 September 1917

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Sunday Sept 16. Ananda darshana moves between suddha ananda proper and the same in the ananda vijnana or ananda manas. Sometimes it falls back into vijnana or mentality. This falling back is due to the recoil from the attempt to realise the infinite Ananda not only in but behind each finite, for which the mentality is not ready and therefore falls back into some fine or coarse mental representation of the thing desired by the will and sometimes, but insecurely seized in the knowledge. Brilliant jyotirmaya action of the vijnana working sometimes upon the stumblings of the intellectual T3. This is the real surya, still hampered by the limited receptivity of the mind, but already presaging in type its opulence of plenary light. Yesterday’s lipi was “Today is the last day of the intellectuality in the telepathy trikaldrishti aishwarya; it will be the first day of the ideality”; that is the last day of acceptance of the intellectual T3 as a means of knowledge-siddhi and will-siddhi. The remnants continue to force themselves on the mind, but do not receive acceptation from the Jiva-Prakriti. Monday Sept 17 Remoulding of the stuff of mind so that all thought and will and feeling may be vijnanamaya, has set in in earnest. The progress is rapid; though not yet of the highest rapidity, still of a decisive rapidity. Tuesday Sept 18. Wednesday 19. The same movement with a tendency to relapse. Thursday Sept [20]4 Renewal of intensity of kamananda. This time full pervasion in the intensity is established. But the power of the obstruction 4 MS 19

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Record of Yoga

to profit by the vismriti has to be removed. Activity of the other anandas was also in a sort of abeyance and is reviving. The passive samata is much stronger than before; positive ananda in the asiddhi is not yet quite firm, therefore a vague depression is still able to touch the system. Sraddha is capable of suspension with regard to rapidity, to complete physical siddhi and to karma; the ishwarabhava also and the sense of direct Ishwara control. Arogya does not visibly advance; the other physical siddhis are still subject almost entirely to the denial. Confirmation of the intense, all-pervasive Ananda in all positions. The strengthening of the separate current or wave so as to effectively universalise it, is beginning; but strong smarana with tapas in it is usually necessary. Friday Sept [21]5 Conversion of the passive samata, titiksha, udasinata, nati, into their positive forms of Ananda through Ishwaraprema and dasya. By this ananda in asiddhi will be perfected, since asiddhi will be the accomplishment of the will of the Ishwara, when decisive, of his temporary will and tortuous movement to siddhi when temporary. Dasyam completed by intensity and universality. The Ishwarabhava belongs to the Ishwara at present, the Shakti has only ˆ ıbhava. ˆ the Mahasaraswati dasˆ So also sraddha in the power of the Ishwara; not yet in swashakti as its expression. The sraddha is now in the accomplishment of the will of the Ishwara, whatever it may be, through this adhara; for the siddhi only in eventual accomplishment, except for a doubt of the sharira siddhi and of the extent of the karma. 5 MS 20

15 August – 28 September 1917

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With this the determining of the Kali-Krishna bhava in the personality; together, dasya of the Kali-prakriti as expressive of the Krishna-purusha both making the upper and lower sides of one personality. The Ishwara of the system, with the Ishwara of the worlds above, one in two dhamas. Idealising of the telepathies and perceptive thought practically complete; tapas is being also taken up by the Ishwara entirely and idealised; unideal tapas is being rejected. Decisive Trikaldrishti rare Saturday Sept. [22]6 In sahaituka tivra, the law of increase has received a setback. Attention is necessary to maintain it if there is a rapid and prolonged excitation, and finally attention even with tapas becomes unavailing in some local sthanas; the sensibility seems for a time entirely to fail, although it revives after cessation. On the other hand the attempt on the contrary to make even attention unnecessary is being made and has an initial success. This method of enforcing strong advance out of temporary regression and denial, is noticeable in other parts of the sadhana. To a certain extent the defect in the tivra is being remedied Premananda, long held in abeyance, is now again universalising itself, and this time firmly, as the subjective kama has universalised itself. It has two aspects, the prema within independent of the object, ahaituka, but ready to apply itself to all objects, and the prema awakened by the object, all objects, sahaituka. Lipi is pressing for the immediate manifestation in fluidity of the ideal lipi. The territoriality resists, but the resistance is much weakened. General flood of ideality, not yet perfectly clear and distinct in all its details or perfectly luminous in its hold. 6 MS 21

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Record of Yoga

Sunday. Sept [23].7 Fluidity of the immediate independent manifestation in the lipi is gaining great strength. It is now oftenest independent of the suggestion of words, but when delayed or incomplete in its manifestation, sometimes dependent on suggestion of substance. Independent manifestation is secured; it must be universally immediate. Sahaituka raudrananda has increased in force and hold. Ananda of discomfort is not yet universalised. Ananda of pain still subject to limitation by degree, but much less than before. Monday Sept [24].8 Lipi develops force of manifestation; but it does not yet get rid of the initial obstructiveness of the parthiva akasha There are times when the whole action of the mentality becomes vijnanamaya with a long continuity; afterwards there is a fall into a confused tamasic condition of the receiving brain, when the unredeemed physical mind tries to work; after a struggle the light of the vijnana reappears in whole or in part action. Friday Sept [28].9 No definite movement during the last few days except the preparation of absolute spontaneity in the immediate manifestation of the lipi and an uncertain movement towards restoration of right activity in the samadhi. For the rest, the sadhana has been in a state of torpor and slight relapse. In arogya strong and persistent attack. In vijnana remnants of intellectual ideality at work suspension for the most part of true ideality.

7 MS 22 8 MS 23 9 MS 27

1021

14 – 28 FEBRUARY 1918

Feb 14. After a long interval, mainly end of December and January, devoted to poetry, there has been during February a steady Yogic activity. Results. (1) Siddhi of first chatusthaya finally complete. Momentary touches of asamata in asiddhi alone remain, but are being rapidly replaced by ananda, which is now not only the passive, but the active Brahmabhava occupying the whole conscious being. (2) Second chatusthaya finally completed though still not quite perfect in devibhava (aishwaryabodha, attahasya). Dasya absolute except for some remnant of the habit of responsible effort in the will. (3) Ananda Brahman complete. Brahmachatusthaya only now needs filling in; the uttama and the akshara are complete. The view of things, creatures etc as well as the sense of the containing Akasha is the Ananda view; = suddha, chidghana (vijnana), prema, kama. Some more perfect confirmation is all that is needed. (4) Suddhi, mukti, bhukti complete except so far as they depend on the remainder of the unfinished siddhi. Subjectively they may be considered as complete; only the physical remains. (5) Krishna Kali firmly established, but it has to be more developed. (6) Vijnana is at last taking firm possession not only of Jnana, but of the telepathic mind. This movement is as complete today as it can be without the development of ideal T2. T3 has reached a certain relative completeness not satisfactory and is making towards the satisfactory completeness and perfection which will turn it finally into T2. Thought telepathy is still weak and all is obstinately obstructed. Rupasiddhi and Samadhi are successfully

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Record of Yoga

obstructed and get little play; what there is, is fragmentary and unsatisfactory. (7) Physical Ananda is developing (ahaituka) against obstruction. Ahaituka kama promises to fix itself. Sahaituka tivra is well advanced, and only imperfect by a remnant of the habit of interruption when rapid continuous excitation takes place, but this interruption no longer amounts to a suspension, much less a relapse. The rest is slowly pushing its advance, but not yet with any large effect. Arogya is still in the struggle. Saundarya and utthapana still obstructed from manifestation except in details. Feb 15 T3 is definitely turning itself into vijnana. The final step must be to turn the intelligent mind from the recipient and judge which it is now into a channel, so that the ideality will no longer send its messages into the lower mind, but work in itself for itself, with itself as its own observer and judge. This is now being undertaken. Hitherto it is the active activity of the intelligent mind which has had to be eliminated by a long progression of advances and relapses; now it is the passive activity which must also go. It is only in the tapas that the active activity still makes any noteworthy attempt to persist. Lipi is now entirely idealised. It is attempting to stabilise perfectly its spontaneous legibilities. This stability is becoming more and more frequent, pronounced and ample; but when the tapas is not applied, the old confusion, indistinctness and evanescence still tend to predominate. The truth of the lipi is now continually being justified by results. Trikaldrishti proper is developing (until now all has been really intelligent and telepathic); but all is being arranged first in the lower intuitional vijnana, not in the higher revelatory and inspirational ideality. In physical siddhi Kamananda is progressing rapidly. Today for the first time there was settled unmoving ahaituka kamananda pervading the whole body, somasya hradah. This was at first only in the sitting posture, owing to old habit it could not at first take hold while walking. But this also was confirmed in the afternoon;

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but here there was a greater tendency to movement. Movement of ahaituka k. [kamananda] was established in the evening. All this depends still on smarana; but it tends to be constant and even when interrupted returns immediately at the call of smarana. The effect of the opposition is slight and transient. Sahaituka occurs now most frequently as a wave in the ahaituka. Some action of rupasiddhi. The old forms are beginning to recur Feb 16. Full force of constant ahaituka kamananda, standing. The only defect now is the dependence on smarana. In the afternoon full ahaituka k. lying, in antardarshi, over the borders of samadhi, united with thought. Lipi increases in legibility and stability in antardarshi, where confusion was formerly the law. It is noticeable that as the samadhi gets deeper, vividness and stability increase. The interpretation of the lipi is now being done entirely by the vijnana; but definite trikaldrishti with time, circumstance etc is still to seek, except as regards the sadhana. In T3 there has been today a throw back to the intellectuality which is still attempting to judge what it receives and even indirectly to determine. More old rupas tend to revive. Some weak hints of vishaya returning Feb 17 The movement is now to get rid of the intellectual element altogether and allow only the intuitive vijnana to act. Intense ahaituka ananda not dependent on smarana. Script is now perfectly idealised, following in the footsteps of the vani. Asmarana k. is now established; it is interrupted by exclusive thought-concentration, but is found again at once still in possession or else recovered at once, usually of itself without need of smarana, when the exclusive concentration ceases. This has now to be confirmed in complete continuity. It remains (1) to get rid of the interruption noted above, (2) to increase the intensities.

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The lipi has reached a certain relative perfection of combined legibility[,] spontaneity and stability: but the old imperfect type still recurs where tapas is not applied. The sadhana has now to eliminate (1) confused or indistinct lipi; (2) incomplete expression. This done the rest is a matter of intensity of inspirational and revelatory speech, which is already beginning to become common. Vijnana thought is now inspirational and revelatory as well as intuitional, but chiefly in the intuitional form. The rule is established that there shall be first knowledge, then tapas in accordance with the will, reversing the former order in which tapas came first and then it was questioned whether it should be fulfilled. Feb 18. Confusion is being got rid of in the lipi; indistinctness remains. It is only in the imperfect lipis that these things exist, but even there confusion is rapidly disappearing. The habit of intuitional interpretation, especially of suggestive lipi where it is most difficult, is being confirmed. In express lipi it is becoming the rule. Rupasiddhi is manifesting the perfect as well as the developed forms; but for the former the old defects persist, (1) side manifestation, (2) want of stability, (3) want of variety for it is almost entirely in the type form, though with variety in that narrow limit. Continuity and intensity of ahaituka k. increase, but not yet sufficiently to conquer the interruption of exclusive forgetfulness. Tapas on the mental plane is being abandoned; trikaldrishti also must be abandoned. It is finally seen even by the intelligence that there can be here no absolute certainty of foresight or result, since it is the play of partial, conflicting and mutually self-adjusting tendencies, forces, ideas, impulses. The telepathy of these things and the understanding of them is becoming wider, subtler, more accurate, though far yet from being perfect and complete. Meanwhile T3 is suspended. T2 is postponed. The hostile powers are attempting, as they are no longer able to prevent directly the continuity of the a. k. [ahaituka kamananda], to

14 – 28 February 1918

1025

turn it into a neutral vishaya with extremities of acuteness turning to discomfort, so that this may be a cause for its discontinuance. But the effect has been only temporary. Variety is returning to the rupa, but only, as before, in the crude forms. Feb 19. Samadhi after a long time recovered its activity. The ideal lipi chatusthaya is founded; vangmaya thought is freely active on all four states of the mentality; ideal perceptive thought has initiated itself in the three inner states as well as the one outer. The rest is still mental only; but there was the seed today for reading, narrative, dialogue. Rupa was active only in the vague chhayamaya. All this was done in a rush, by the exclusion, almost though not quite complete, of sleep. Henceforth sushupti must mean the Yogic sleep of the mind with wakefulness of the vijnana. Lipi is advancing continuously and rapidly. It has become all intuitional lipi to the exclusion of the telepathic ideality though prediction of material events may be an exception. It is becoming distinct in an orderly completeness, and now fluid in a legible and spontaneous legibility. This has not yet been universalised, but it is becoming a general rule. Both sahaituka and ahaituka raudrananda are advancing. The burning touch is entirely anandamaya, except when it is so continued as to be intolerable, but even then in certain forms and up to a certain degree, a high degree, it remains anandamaya. There are signs of a similar progression, not yet so far advanced in the ˆ marana Five forms of raudra karshana, apakarshana, prakarshana, apikarshana, sankarshana Strong relapse in T2 still persists. Relapse means now stress, the attempt of the intelligence to attach certainty to the results of mental telepathy and tapas Lipi is now seated in the antardarshi and bahirdarshi; but in the former it has still to conquer a natural tendency to instability, in the latter the large though now less insistent recurrence of the old imperfections.

1026

Record of Yoga

Great strength of intuitional light in all the instruments of thought; imperfect only in T2 Feb 20. For the last two days ahaituka k. much subjected to violent suppression to its minimum point and easily interrupted, sahaituka obstructed. Smarana can always restore the former to action and generally but not always to intensity. It is mainly while walking that the adverse movement takes place. Nevertheless the intensity is increasing both in force and in general level and in power of sustained continuity. The habit of interruption is the one real difficulty in ahaituka k. In rupa perfectly developed and perfect forms now show, especially the former, a certain power of stability, but they arise from long tratak on the living object as their excuse or starting-point, though not their real cause, and they are confined to the type form, chiefly in the three varieties most commonly watched. A clear ideal (intuitional) trikaldrishti is now acting, but it has to be firmly distinguished from the less certain vision of the mental and pranic superplanes which sometimes come in its place and sometimes are mixed with it. Moreover it is isolated and gives only the general result without time, place or circumstance of intermediate event. Tapas siddhi is still manasic, but has greatly increased in force for general, and even though much less, for particular result. The power varies from 10º or 20º to 60º. A higher force is rare, except in moving objects, where it sometimes reaches 80º Unity of Trikaldrishti (telepathic and intuitional) and tapas has been roughly accomplished. The siddhi is now attempting to get rid of the confusion which periodically overtakes the T2 thought, owing to revival of intelligential turmoil and false stress. Ahaituka k. is again continuous, ordinarily with a certain intensity. . the periods of exclusive forgetfulness find it still in the body; therefore it must be considered to have been there all along in a suppressed state. In Samadhi the effects of yesterday were carried a little farther, in antardarshi and swapna of the lighter kind. Lipi especially made great progress to an easy, spontaneous and unsupported perfection

14 – 28 February 1918

1027

which it realised, but cannot always maintain against the old faults of confused manifestation, instability and vagueness and dimness. Some initial ideality and coherence was manifested in reading, dialogue and narrative, but none of them were well sustained. Tejomaya rupa in chhayamaya atmosphere, but evanescent. Some stability in some chhayamaya rupas, but not of long duration. In afternoon work. Feb 21. Spontaneous variety in crude rupa greater than ever before, but all in the crude crude. Perfect stability only in two or three type forms, but an initial stability is striving to fix itself in the others. The rupas are not yet always complete or perfect. Vangmaya, vani, script suddenly taken up in full by the Ishwara. Inspirational ideality begins in the lipi and is already as common as the intuitional. Lipi begins to justify its trikaldrishti eg with regard to the situation in Roumania, viz that the principle had already been settled, to yield after a little velleity of resistance. It is notable that the telepathic interpretation of the situation was correct. The perfect lipi with well developed stability is becoming more normal. The style of the thought vangmaya is becoming more and more illumined and inspirational. The intuitional lipi is oftenest perfect with difficulty, it has not except at its best an immediate stability, legibility, spontaneity; the inspirational has it normally; the slower manifestation is exceptional to it. It is even sometimes instantaneously perfect as if in the flash. It is now however taking up the intuitional lipi. Free manifestation of chhayamaya rupa in swapna-samadhi at night; stable forms, scenes, etc, continuous action. Even in one case the supreme stability of vivid scene, but with a certain chanchalya of motion in the scene and appearing and disappearing of figures. Strong stability of reading in one case. It is to be noted that the old habitual difficulty of quadruped forms seems to have been overcome in all fields; wherever this has happened, there has come as a sign, as previously predicted in the lipi, the form of the Antelope.

1028

Record of Yoga

For some time lipi kaushalya has been tending to develop: clear fiery and jyotirmaya lipi in antardarshi. In bahirdarshi tejomaya is common and dhumramaya occurs; varnamaya is rare and not varied in hue. Feb 22. The intelligence is being pushed aside as the judge and recipient; it still persists, but is being dominated. It is the intuitive mind that is taking its place, while in the thought etc it is mostly the ideality itself that is the judge and recipient. Lipi trikaldrishti is now being constantly fulfilled. After taking up telepathies into the intuitive mind and observing there all the relative uncertain certainties of the mental, vital and physical planes, so as to give them their right incidence and root out false stress, a rapid summing up of the movement of the last few days, the intuitional trikaldrishti has founded itself. The intellectual action with regard to T3 is now only a habit-survival which must progressively be discouraged and eliminated. In samadhi large masses of reading and a persistent attempt to decipher, but only brief clauses or phrases decipherable, separate or in the mass. These however, are becoming more common. Development is also proceeding in the other deficient parts. Feb. 23. The union of T2 is becoming closer, but there is strong resistance to the development of the intuitional ideality. It is, however, progressing. Full variety in crude rupa. The tendency to clear completeness and stability does not yet fix itself; and all is done against great obstruction. Inspirational ideality entirely takes the place of intuitional in the vangmaya and establishes itself in the perceptive thought; only the lower telepathic thought is intuitional. The trikaldrishti is also now inspirational and tends to increase, but is still imitated and hampered in its development by false inspirational certainties of the mental, pranic and physical planes. This in the midst of a violent attack of the old intelligence.

14 – 28 February 1918

1029

Samadhi advances greatly. Long coherent narrative and reading and to a less extent dialogue, but still infirm and floating; the dream element predominates. Lipi is becoming more and more perfect in the antardarshi. Some attempt to recover activity in the vishaya; still much obstructed as also rupa. Shadow of athumia still prevents perfect continuity of the first chatusthaya, though it is unable to persist successfully. Purely in reference to siddhi and asiddhi. Feb 24 Intuitional lipi of the inspirational type is giving way before the pure inspirational which is more perfect in substance and form. The inspired lipi has at its highest an element of direct revelatory sight T2 has been considerably extended, but there is still much that has to be taken up before it can be secure or complete in its extension. Sahaituka Kama Ananda has for some time been reduced almost to nil, and ahaituka depressed so as only to be active on condition of attentive smarana and intense by tapas smarana. Ahaituka is now recovering its vina-smarana activity suspended only by exclusive concentration, and its intensity. Vaidyuta has been showing occasionally signs of development. Perfect development of narrative and reading in Samadhi, coherent, long-continued and initially idealised. The old incoherence intervened only at the end and very slightly from time to time. Dialogue also, but on a lesser scale, yet with the same essential qualities. Long continuity is frequent in rupa of swapna samadhi but stability is rare, except sometimes a troubled and recurrent stability. Chhayamaya reigns. In antardarshi lipi alone is really active. Rupa is obstructed more even than in the jagrat. Rupa and vishaya fail to advance beyond their former bounds, except that the type touches are frequently stable and longcontinued and the general touch is coming out from sukshma just over the borders of sthula. The sthula effect of feeling is partly there, though the touch remains sukshma

1030

Record of Yoga

Great force of delight in raudrananda even when pain is strongly present. There are exceptions. Feb 25. Farther elimination of the attempt to decide things by intelligential telepathy. As a result the inspirational thought and T2 are growing stronger. Vishaya is resuming development, touch on the lines already indicated, taste and sight resuming their old gains, but hearing and smell are still obstructed, the first almost entirely, the latter partially. Kamananda varies between the sasmarana and vinasmarana; the first is still more usual. Sahaituka is slowly recovering. Brief attack (10 minutes) of the old form of asiddhi modified. The inspirational ideality has completely taken up the lipi, the perceptive thought, the vangmaya: even the intuitional thought or lipi is inspirational in its substance and manner. Only the T2 and the phantasy still admit the intellectual thought. In the former however both telepathy and tapas are becoming inspirational. Interpretation of lipi is following the same course. Great play of rupa in the evening of all kinds, but imperfect except in crude and in the rest only when seen indirectly or sadhara (sthapatya) etc or in type forms. Stability is yet unattained and variety in the perfect forms is only promising to develop. Sudden lipi perfect in form is becoming frequent. Feb 26. The inspirational ideality continues to enlarge, in spite of a turmoil of recurrent intellectuality assailing the system from outside. Idealising of samadhi continues. Long continuity of successive event increases in rupa, but stability is still only recurrent, except up to a certain point. There is much obstruction. In vishaya and rupa there are only small isolated gains; the obstruction prevents a secure basis being founded.

14 – 28 February 1918

1031

Shanti resisted all attacks today, sraddha faltered for a while. Dasya is deepening. Once hasya and sraddha are perfectly established, only the secure intensity of the chandibhava of devi will remain in the first two chatusthayas to be secured against all attack or temporary relapse. Dehashakti is however still subject to superficial failure; at bottom it remains. Feb 27. T2 is now successfully taking up all the old T3, this time with a certainty of rapid finality. The attempt to decide by other means than the inspirational vijnana, whether by knowledge or will, is not entirely eliminated, but is now far advanced, and prevails only in moments of forgetfulness. As yet it is only to the extent of the old T3 which was far from complete that this success obtains, but it is extending itself to the whole range of possible intelligent thought and will, to complete the brihat satyam ritam. Beyond that, however, there is the highest T2, absolute, which has yet to manifest. The defects in the strength of I and II [first and second chatusthayas] are being rapidly dealt with, except in dehashakti. Raudrananda is raised to a high degree, but not yet absolute. Above a certain point, the first impression is pain, though ananda immediately intervenes and takes possession. In subsequent effects pain mingles, but the tendency is for ananda to prevail. The general receptive attitude of the physical being is anandamaya and this is rapidly prevailing. The intelligence has not only lost, but renounced its right to judge; but it is still involuntarily the recipient in the lower mental system and even by habit in the thought, except when the latter acts as if by a sort of force in the inspirational ideality. The ideal action has not yet become natural to the whole being. The result was a temporary inability to act subjectively, a sunk quietude. No disturbance of samata, nor of dasya, but some of sraddha Rupasiddhi continues to prepare its advance. Intermittent recurrence of variety in the crude is the only siddhi as yet well established.

1032

Record of Yoga

Feb 28. The inspirational ideality has suddenly become natural to the system, especially in thought of all kinds. The defect lies still in vyapti which comes to the emotion, intelligence or vital feeling, and in decisive trikaldrishti which is sometimes ideal, sometimes mental. But this is being rapidly remedied. Physical siddhi has for some time been left to itself and does not advance. It maintains itself, but with difficulty and lapses. Vina smarana Ananda especially has lost its hold and comes only intermittently after sasmarana.

1033

3 – 27 MARCH 1918

March 1918 The month of February has been the month of the founding of the vijnana in the type; the month of March is marked out for its confirmation and primary completion in all parts of the third chatusthaya. April for the farther confirmation and a greater completeness. March 3. After two days of oppression by the environing Intelligence, the ideality is again busy defining its form in the lipi, ideative thought and vangmaya. First, there has been in the thought, including telepathic thought of trikaldrishti, the entire revelatory intuitional ideality in the bed of the intuitive mentality. It is now seeking to get rid of the intuitive mental response and become pure revelatory inspirational ideation, the highest point reached on Feb. 28 in type. The surrounding Intelligence tries still to preserve its habit of response; this is still the chief stumbling-block. Lipi more easily confirms itself in the revelatory inspirational vijnana; the lower forms occur, but are there easily discouraged. March 4 The decisive trikaldrishti has at last fixed itself in the revelatory intuitional type. Perfect lipi, sudden, spontaneous, vividly legible, completely stable of a high revelatory inspirational ideality is now beginning to make itself entirely normal. Letter in the samadhi perfect in form except for want of vivid distinctness, not stable enough to be slowly deciphered, but recurrent in variation Premananda is becoming normal in the sarvadarshana.

1034

Record of Yoga

March 5. Telepathies of thoughts, intentions, impulses, tendencies which do not fulfil themselves are to be known and are now to be addressed to the idealised heart consciousness, it is not yet idealised, all positive fact of trikaldrishti is to be known by the vijnana buddhi Mar 7. The lipi now fixed in the inspirational or middle ideality is being firmly founded in the eight qualities, spontaneity, legibility, stability, rapidity, fluidity, completeness, light, justice. The lipi kaushalya is being finally developed and all forms occur with some initial frequency of recurrence except the pure varna. Jyotir is commonest, tejas and agni occasional; prakasha seems to have been abandoned. Both forms of thought have replaced, when the ideality is active, the inferior by the middle or inspirational vijnana, which holds in itself revelation and has taken up intuition and viveka. Trikaldrishti is in course of transformation. The middle ideality has a surer certainty and lends itself less to the relapses of the intuitive intelligence. Prema kamananda in the darshana have firmly combined with the shuddha. The full ananda only fails when the sarvasaundarya darshana is deficient or withheld. Vishaya and rupa are again obstructed. Certain and decisive trikaldrishti is enlarging itself rapidly; tapas-siddhi is coalescing with the ideal knowledge and pure telepathic tapas is being rapidly abandoned. It is in fact no longer admitted. T3 has received its dismissal. It only continues to exist in chaotic fragments in the external suggestions which are no longer accepted. This is with regard to the buddhi, but in the sense-mind intuitively intelligential telepathy still exists. There are trikaldrishtic indications that March will be a month of the extension of the physical Ananda and that secure continuity in the Kamananda will be rapidly established. The movement has already begun.

3 – 27 March 1918

1035

Sudden intensification, with prolonged recurrence, of the sahaituka vaidyuta, current through the body (arms and legs). Mar 11 The revelatory has suddenly today substituted itself for the inspirational ideality, but it is at present the intuitional revelatory. It is taking up all the action of the ideality and enlightening and transforming the relics of the intelligential mentality. There has been a struggle in the Kamananda. Persistent continuous recurrence seems to have been well established, though the enemy still struggles to bring about a long entire suspension; but secure continuity is not yet established. Mar 15 The sadhana is going through what would formerly have been a relapse but is now a process of readjustment through the permission of the intellectual action trying to reestablish itself, but bringing about at each step a farther diminution of its power to return. The first two chatusthayas are being steadily confirmed in their completeness and the touches of denial are being eliminated. The first is practically complete in its armour of passive samata, almost complete in the active. The second is feebly besieged at times, but the completion of the dasya and the chandibhava is evident. The latter is only deficient in hasya. Continuity of ahaituka kamananda, when not suspended by exclusive vismarana, is confirmed. Sahaituka has been for long depressed and only occasional. The Ananda in darshana is complete and consolidated in its combined action, but sometimes falls momentarily back into the mental form with one or two habits of dissociation, mostly omission of kamaprema; but this ordinarily, is instantaneously corrected with regard to living beings. The whole has still to be raised to a firmer intensity. Kamananda continued through samadhi, light and double, only suspended by the deep and complete interiority. Other former

1036

Record of Yoga

incompatibilities initially conquered. A beginning has been made in overcoming the exclusive forgetfulness, but this is not yet confirmed. Mar [date not written] The first chatusthaya is now entirely confirmed. Even if old touches of impatience, discomfort etc arrive from outside by strong habit to touch the surface of the physical mentality, they are at once stopped and either disappear or are transformed. The second chatusthaya is now complete in all its circumstances with the one fault that the Kali element in the Devibhava, which is constant, is not steady; the ordinary condition is that of the Mahasaraswati with a strong Mahaluxmi colouring and submerged Maheshwari basis. This is full of shama ananda, but insufficient in tapas. It is the Mahakali element that carries the full tapas, ishwarabhava and attahasya of the lila; but when the Mahakali element is there, the Mahaluxmi colouring and ananda intensity diminishes; this defect is the cause of the unsteadiness. Tapas ananda has to take possession of shama ananda; Mahakali has to mould itself into the Mahasaraswati, and be the contained in that continent. After a long period of lower working the revelatory ideality is taking possession. The old physical lethargy of the mind can no longer act; but in its place is the akartri-shama; into this the prakasha of the revelatory vijnana (drishti) is beginning to pour itself. The ahaituka tivrananda is recurring after a long interval of rarity. It is now pervasive, more prolonged in persistence, occurs in all the members. Lipi is enforcing itself in the eightfold qualities against the old etheric obstruction.

3 – 27 March 1918

1037

Ishwaradarshana has taken possession of the Anandadarshana. It dwells more normally in the Ananda than in the lapse to the mentality. Although violently obstructed, vaidyuta ananda now occurs, more and more pervasive in its current. For several days the ahaituka kamananda has been violently obstructed and persistently expelled, but it retains its ground, though often reduced to a minimum. There is a continual alternation now between the Mahakali bhava and the Mahasaraswati for possession, the latter becoming more and more full of the former. Mar 25. The Mahakali element has fixed itself. Eight days are given by the lipi, up to April 2, for its taking full possession of the bhava. Mar 27. Only momentary and rare touches affect the first two chatusthayas. The one deficiency is an infirm faith in the full extent of the siddhi in the sharira and the life; the devi hasya is there, but not constant. The third chatusthaya is extending itself, but experiencing still at each step the lapse towards the mentality.

1038

20 APRIL – 20 MAY 1918

Notebook of the Sadhana. 20th April 1918. A manifest change has been the accomplishment of the Chandi personality in the Devibhava of the Prakriti. This bhava is in its nature Mahasaraswati, the Aniruddha-shakti. It has for its base Maheshwari; it is strongly coloured with Mahaluxmi. This combination was finally expressed in a strong and long-permanent personality, perfect in equality, intense in bliss, full of universal love and madhurya, but deficient in virya and shakti, ajumoc. The advent of the Chandi bhava, effected in accordance with lipi and other prediction on the 2d.., stabilised and completed in rudra force on the 15th, since then undergoing modifications and vicissitudes, has brought the completion of the Devibhava, not yet altogether perfect, but firm fundamentally. It is Mahasaraswati personality with the Mahakali bhava; the Mahaluxmi colour, a hidden Maheswari base (pratishtha). Defects still existent. (1) Occasionally the ajumia of the Mahasaraswati gets the better of the rudra tejas; this is mostly when things are getting on well or when the samata in shama gets the better of the samata in tapas. This however is rare. Ordinarily samata in tapas is the temperament. (2) The samata having lost its old base is disturbed from time to time. The excessive mental tapas and its reactions which used to come with the Kali bhava recur, though with less and less hold on the system; they come but they cannot remain. They rush upon the adhara from outside, but can only partially get their hands upon it and have to loose their hold. Nevertheless this is now the chief difficulty and the root of all the others. (3) The ishwarabhava has come with the Chandi virya. It is in its perfection the aishwarya of the Dasi empowered by the Lover

20 April – 20 May 1918

1039

and Master, the [real]1 aishwarya being his, the executive aishwarya hers. But the mind element often insists too much on the instrumental aishwarya acting through the mind in forgetfulness of its source. Then there is trouble and disturbance of samata. (4) The hasyam of the first chatusthaya is developing the attahasyam of Mahakali into which is to be taken the jnana-hasyam, sneha-hasyam and kautuka-hasyam of the three other powers. But with defect of perfect sraddha swashaktyam, of perfect samata in tapas and of perfect ishwarabhava, this cannot take possession of the temperament. (5) Sraddha has an occasional perfection when it is sraddha in the Bhagavan and in the shakti as his executive power; but in the absence or defect of ideal tapas-siddhi, this also wavers. General habit of sraddha prevails, but is crossed by the intellectual uncertainty as to the intention of the Ishwara. (6) & (7) Resultant defect of Mahaluxmi colour (bliss and love) and resurgence to the surface of the Maheshwari to correct the defect of excessive mental tapas and asamata. Lipi predictions. Finality of the ideality from 15th July. (20th April). The seagod in the ideality (Varuna). Liberty in the idealities soon (21st April) January to July the ideality, July to January the physical siddhi. (3d May). The seagod in the telepathies, trikaldrishti, tapassiddhi. th (May 4 ) The devihasyam which was formerly only in the buddhi and from thence affected the temperament, is now manifesting originally in the temperament. It is a compound of the four kinds of hasya or a combination of them. It has not yet occupied the place of the original colourless and featureless hasyam (ahaituka), but is preparing its occupation. Incidentally the ajumia of the Mahasaraswati is being taken up by the Mahakali, it is an 1 MS really

1040

Record of Yoga

anandamaya titiksha-udasinata-nati and will be converted into an element of the sama tapas (shamomaya tapas). Sraddha, ishwarabhava etc are also taking their proper shape and the other elements of the shakti-chatusthaya are preparing a more perfect combination and fusion. All this, however, is not yet well accomplished or perfectly sure in its action. 21st April. The akashic lipi is developing with an extraordinary swiftness. The lipis are manifesting in spite of a dull etheric resistance still left with a phenomenal rapidity and fluidity and an outflow of ideal justice and light in the substance and ordinarily, though not always, in the expression; also, with a great completeness. This is being done by the aid of the suggestions, but these are now not the intellectual, but the ideal suggestions. The resistance is to the rapidity in the completeness, but this is being overcome; and to the legibility; but the illegibility also is being overcome, though less perfectly; and to the spontaneity. Spontaneous lipi flows less readily, but this also is preparing to associate with itself the other qualities. Interpretation of the lipi is now really ideal with a spontaneous judgment (gnwrisic). There is still a habit of confusion when the mass of outflow is left to itself, but this is mainly in the chitra-lipi. This progress is in the bahirdarshi; lipi in the rest is still imperfectly developed. All this has been done in a few days. 22d April. The development of the lipi and a certain development of the ideality the sea-god in the ideality is making itself common to bahirdarshi, antardarshi and swapna, but as yet with less force and ripeness of large action in the two last. In the jagrat there is an action of tapas which is at last quite freed from the personal element and perceives all its willings as actions of knowledge and has even begun to distinguish with a commencement of automatic fidelity those which will realise themselves from those which will remain as yet unfulfilled tendencies, impulses or intentions. What was formerly called the trikaldrishti was simply a telepathic stress

20 April – 20 May 1918

1041

which happened to come right, but had no sure principle or light of judgment and might easily turn to false stress. What is now coming, is an automatic fidelity to truth, a fidelity not of the telepathic stress in the intuitive intelligence, but of the intuitively revelatory judgment in the ideality. This is as yet very imperfect in its action and still involved in the intellectual telepathies. 25th April After two or three days of a confused action, the intuitively revelatory judgment has disengaged itself and is extending its action. As yet it applies only to tapas and telepathies. As regards the latter it sometimes replaces them, that is, it takes them up idealised and accompanies them with the ideal judgment, so that they are entirely correct ideal and not doubtful mental telepathies, or it observes and judges them, or there is a mixed action. The latter has to be eliminated as an evident source or pratistha of error. With regard to the tapas, it is the impersonal perception of what has to happen, because that is what is being definitively willed in the ideal Vijnana; at present it is correct with the substance of the ideal Truth, but not often clearly luminous with the light of the ideal Truth. This is because it leans on what is being willed in the present, but does not go back to what stands as willed in the Eternal Idea. There is as yet much tendency to attendant intellectual hesitation and error of circumstance, where the fulfilment is not immediate, but this is being eliminated. The action of the ideal Truth as applied to present status of invisible objects is not yet developed beyond the telepathic action. What the ideal T2 is now working on, is the present tendency and future action of visible objects. 30th April. Completion of the Brahma-chatusthaya in the perception and sense of all things as the conscious body of the Purushottama. This was prepared by the sors,

rso_hm=s; kOt y BAE-m fEfsyyo, Zv, svv  dq; fNd, K  pOzq\ nq;

followed by the sense of the Ishwara as the delight, rasa, in the flood of the being, a=s;, the light of knowledge in the vijnana

1042

Record of Yoga

(sun) and mentality (moon), the word and the thought, the tapas. This led to the perception and sense of all substance of matter and consciousness, quality, force, thought, action etc as the Ishwara. Formerly these perceptions were of separate things (tattwas, elements) and temporary, though often of long duration, but now it is global, integral and steadfast. It rejects the remnants of the intellectual fragmentation and division which still come to deny its completeness. Ananda of samata has proved sufficiently firm throughout the month. It is now combined firmly with the tapas; desire has perished, though tapatya still remains, but only as a minor element. Therefore the touches of asamata can get no hold, are entirely external and are cast out of the adhar automatically as soon as they enter. External, moreover, not of any near, but of a distantly watching, rather than environing mentality. Tapas is now very strong; in the field of exercise the obstacle has no longer a genuine power of resistance, but only of persistence and this again persists only by a persistent recurrence which gives it after much difficulty the power for a time to reestablish itself rather than by a right of its own in the environment. This is even when the tapas is without knowledge of trikaldrishti. The movement has now begun which will turn Time from an obstacle with which the personal Tapas had to struggle into an instrument which the personal Tapas, become that of the transcendent will working upon the universal to modify it as well as through the universal, will use for the disposition of its results. This movement is as yet only initial; as it advances tapas and trikaldrishti will become entirely reconciled and identified. Trikaldrishti increases in frequency and has begun to carry with it the right perception of Time. This development enables the Chandi in the devibhava to affirm its characteristic singhi element more firmly. The ishwarabhava and attahasya are preparing to grow upon the system. The intellect is gradually fading out of the system, (lipi, euthanasia of the intellectuality) and the whole is becoming vijnana + intuitive mentality. Only a vague floating remnant of the real

20 April – 20 May 1918

1043

intellectuality is left; it acts most when faced with the obstacle in life. All is being idealised in the samadhi, but the dialogue, narrative etc are still usually mental, swapnamaya, though much more sustained and coherent. Reading is still normally incoherent. All are occasionally ideal. Lipi is always ideal, but is less perfected in its eightfold quality and less free and spontaneously active in the antardarshi than in the bahirdarshi. Rupa and vishaya in the bahirdarshi are still unable to take firm hold of the etheric system. On the whole the “liberty in the idealities” (lipi, 21st April) is working itself out, but does not cover the whole third chatusthaya and is nowhere quite absolute. May May 1st Lipi predicted today perfect ideality and the beginning of physical delight; but it is only the seed of the perfect ideality and the definite beginning of physical delight in the tivra that the interpretation relying on the mental pre-sentiment admitted. It is this which has actually evolved, but as a beginning in both cases of a steadier final development, of the perfect ideality including T2 and of the total physical delight in all five anandas. May 4th Saturday Yesterday the siddhi in the sahaituka tivra developed beyond all mistake an incipient finality of development. First, an universality of the tivra response to any touch however slight, and even a general mass response even to such habitual sparsha as the close pressure of the cloth at the loins usually unfelt and the loose pressure on the legs. This tivra contains the vishaya and develops the kama, as is now seen, today. This triple movement is preparing to become a law, but as yet sometimes the vishaya prevails over the tivra, sometimes the tivra alone remains, or else the vishaya is at once the kama without any intermediate tivra. The tendency however is for all vishaya to become tivra. At the same time an abundant ahaituka raudra is beginning to manifest even while the sahaituka is pressing to generalise itself. Vaidyuta comes with more

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Record of Yoga

difficulty owing to want of past habit in the body or insistence in the mental tapas, but when it is insisted on, is more assured and can have more mass than before. Kama has for a long time been most vehemently resisted and suppressed partly because it has been the most demanded by the mental tapas and has therefore attracted the mass of the physical opposition, partly because it is the most central and vital of all the Anandas. It is now pressing to remanifest more securely, but has not yet got rid of the suppression, though that is steadily becoming less effective. All this justifies the lipi “today total delight”, the truth of which was doubted by the intelligence because to the mental perception the physical opposition to the kamananda seemed too strong to be surmounted. The script set down yesterday. “The first week of May outlines the ritam in the satyam brihat. It prepares the totality of the physical delight. It prepares too the samadhi.” All three predictions are being fulfilled with what has been called the enthusiastic, that is a sudden, vehement and anandamaya rapidity. In the samadhi today continuous vangmaya and ideal ideation was established, the habit of fatigue in the physical mind which demanded cessation or intermission being denied its claim and dismissed. The habit of simultaneous action of the two which has hitherto been violently or obstinately resisted by the physical mind, was firmly founded and illustrated by a rich continuity of simultaneous action. Initially the habit of simultaneous manifestation of the lipi in the antardarshi and even in the swapna, where it has been the most difficult, was immediately afterwards founded, in the same stream of rapid progress. The lipi in the antardarshi is now assuming the same freedom and perfection of the eightfold quality as in the bahirdarshi, only it is still rather more resisted by the physical ether, its manifestation less free, prompt and fluid in completeness, its stability more initial and less definitive. Ideal ideation is driving out the dull habit of intellectual thought in the samadhi along with the physical fatigue; it has been busy with its electric needleplay modifying the physical mind, in its sukshma brain-stuff even when no definite ideation was at work.

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The same movement has begun in the outward waking mind; it is extending first to a confident play of the ideal telepathy, that is what was the intelligence’s perception of present intention, tendency, possibility etc. This is now firm in the satyam brihat, except for actual situation etc of objects where the tamasic darkness of the external intelligence opposes the action of a power which has already been established in the mental telepathy, but has yet to be established in the ideal. T2 today is developing the play of the universal ideal perception and tapas and for the first time manifested the transcendent Tapas and idea which predestines and decides. This is evidently the first beginning of that perfection which, it has been declared, will be made final in July. That this may be done so rapidly, the lethargy habit has to be abolished, as the lipi has predicted, that is, the demand of the physicality for cessation and intermission, its refusal to respond to the tapas and idea which was the real though hidden basis for the habit of long cessation and relapse which the sadhana has been struggling with and at last gradually eliminating, recently quite rapidly, during the last seven years. It is still strong in the physical sadhana; therefore there is there except in the Ananda, only a slow and laboured and intermittent progress, though in some directions still a steady progress, and in some respects only a defensive denial of farther active asiddhi relapse, in others a balance of relapse and reparation with a slight gain sometimes for the siddhi, sometimes for the asiddhi. It is in utthapana and saundarya that the asiddhi is strongest, in arogya the siddhi for the most part holds its own and even has had definite particular victories and advances; in Ananda it is hampered, but now on the verge of a general triumphant progress, even engaged in its actual inception. In the evening some initial fulfilment of the lipi, “the seagod in the telepathies, trikaldrishti, tapassiddhi.”, chiefly in the telepathies. Activity in the remainder of the samadhi, increasing with some difficulty and a tendency to constant intermissions, is not yet idealised or well-combined, but it tends in that direction.

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May 5. There is a considerable increase in frequency of the transcendent idea-tapas but the rest of T2 has been acting through the intelligence this morning therefore uncertainly and without clear light. The chief advance has been in effectivity of vashita for particular effect, but the movement, though not without strength is only initial. The main cause of the descent has been a general physical lassitude which has been indulged to a certain extent. Fatigue has begun now to be excluded from the mind, the psychic prana and the prana upholding the action of the body and confined to the body and the physical prana directly involved in the body. Action of the body can go on in spite of the fatigue in the muscles, but the general effect of the latter can still throw a general effect on the upholding prana, not precisely of fatigue, but of lassitude in the virya. The only imperative effect is the reaction of muscular strain Tivra has now established the rule of increase by excitation; but this modified by a continued habit of intermediate deadening or diminution of response. The rule in continuous excitation of response with interstices of deadening or diminution followed by renewed and in the end increased response is being supplanted by the habit of sustained response; but the substitution is not yet complete. Prolongation of response after cessation of touch and repetition after cessation, the latter sometimes an often repeated and almost continuous repetition, is rapidly coming in; so also the habit of sympathetic response, after cessation. Pervading vaidyuta has begun, but is not yet strong in its hold or intense. The intensity is however increasing. Sahaituka tivra still generally demands nistapas smarana, passive attention; continuity usually requires satapas smarana. Ahaituka is trying to develop frequency of its nihsmarana action. With smarana it occurs spontaneously anywhere. After strong obstruction in the daytime a great development in the night of swapna samadhi. The undeveloped movements develop

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fluidity and ease in coherency; especially reading firm, clear, legible, sufficiently stable, only once or twice incoherent, frequent, fluid. Only when presented in the mass and not in short sentences, was it still incoherent, illegible, quite unstable, but even here there was an attempt at improvement. Dream is now normally consecutive and coherent, though not invariably. It still has, however, the nature of phantasy. May 6th Tapatya is being exiled steadily from the action of T2. Tapatya is the straining to know and fulfil; it is not in itself desire, but the cause of desire in the prana and heart; desire being banished, tapatya has remained as an illegitimate prolongation and stress of what is received in the ideality, it is mental tapas, bringing false stress and falsification of values. Although not a cause of grief and disappointment like desire, it is a cause of false hope and false doubt and also of undue pravritti and undue nivritti of mental action and as a result of temperamental and physical action. It is being driven out by the establishment of the transcendent idea-will of which the universal tendencies and movements become the effective media and results. At first this tends to bring an excessive passivity of the instrumental Jiva, but this is a defect which is in the course of being remedied. Tapatya took up the communications of the idea will and personalised them into a mental effort, belief, hope in the instrumental Jiva. They have, where necessary, to be personalised but as part of the personality of the Ishwara creating in the Jiva ideal sraddha and pravritti. The day has been one chiefly of obstruction, only minor progress made. Fluency with incoherence in the newly progressing parts of the samadhi. Tejomaya rupa is frequent in swapna samadhi, but it is instable or imperfectly stable, without hold on the chidakasha. Perfect rupa has once or twice manifested in antardarshi, usually it is only crude; but it is only momentary. Ananda progresses distinctly only in the tivra; there is a general tendency to suppression.

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May 7. The defect that has to be got rid of throughout the ideality, is the descent of the vijnana into mind. This makes the intellect the receptive agency which creates a sort of receptive intellectual judgment, assent and denial, a cause of error and uncertainty. It prolongs the old defects, especially in T2, the defect of taking (1) inactual possibilities, (2) actual tendencies and possibilities as definite trikaldrishti. The first is not frequent and has no imperative power, the second is still the chief cause of positive error, although it is less powerfully insistent than it was formerly. The removal of this defect begins today. It is prolonged by the rhathumia, the leaving things to take care of themselves instead of insisting by the ideal tapas upon perfection. It gives an undue force to the etheric resistance in the physicality and prevents the full liberation of the ideality to act largely and perfectly. When it is absent, there is an anandamaya certainty. The script has laid down for May in the physical siddhi (May 5) (1) primary utthapana, to be pressed steadily and laid down in the base; (2) a distinct general advance in arogya; (3) a struggle with old age and asaundarya; (4) a complete fivefold physical ananda. All these necessarily to be only an initial movement. For today the script runs “The liberation of the ideality is to be completed today within certain limits. T2 will take a little more time; so will effectivity of tapas in rupasiddhi and vishaya.” Nothing is said here about the samadhi. The liberation of the ideality is being effected by two movements; (1) elimination of the intellectual response, involving a physical movement by which the thought ceases to descend into the area of the mental brain-stuff in the sukshma body environing the brain in the physical body and acts from the junction of the sukshma mind and the vijnana above the head, upon and above the sahasradala;

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(2) substitution of the inspirational for the intuitional stuff in the ideality. This has been done already in speech thought and ideation; it is still to be done in T2, though there too it is done within certain limits. Rupasiddhi has begun today with a more ideal tapas, but as yet no definitive progress has been made in the forms. Rupasiddhi also has eight qualities to be perfected, spontaneity, stability, vividness, rapidity, fluidity, completeness, variety, coherence, and a ninth, truth (ie, point, right relation, utility) corresponding to the “light” and “justice” in the lipi qualities. Vishaya shows no tendency to develop beyond its persistent limitations. There is no longer any difficulty about maintaining the ideal liberty in the speech thought, it is normal; there is still difficulty in the ideation, it is only becoming normal. Lipi is perfect in sadhara and niradhara, normally; it is still difficult to maintain perfection or even to enforce it in the chitra lipi and sthapatya lipi. The absolute perfection comes most easily in the niradhara; but in none is there entire freedom from the resistance of the physical ether to the perfect manifestation. Some force of tapas is always required; left to itself the ether yields always ideal lipi, but in an imperfect form. For the second week of May the script runs. “The second week of May is more important than the first. What was begun in the first, will be made effective in the second, that is, free ideality, abundance and accuracy of T2, evolution of physical ananda, idealisation of the samadhi. In addition rupasiddhi and vishaya will break the long obstruction which has prevented their evolution. Other results will outline themselves during the week.” Physical ananda is once more active; the kama is overcoming the obstruction and it is developing a new movement which shows that even in the physical movements there is such a thing as the ideal and the mental action. That is to say, the ananda hitherto manifested even if in its origin supramental, was supported by the

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intelligent mind or at the best by the intuitive mind, while what is now manifesting is ideal delight in the body. That was mixed in its character, modified by the lower physical reaction, this is pure and sovereign and has taken up the physical reaction into the ideality; it is self-existent even when sahaituka. The sparsha only awakens, it does not produce it. A similar distinction is prefigured in the arogya but is not as yet practically defined. May 8 The first week of May has fulfilled the outline of progress laid down for it, a preparation within certain limits. It has effected a great liberation in speech thought, ideation and lipi and not only outlined, but laid down here the clear and strong ideal ritam in the satyam brihat, fixing it for the present mainly in the inspirational form or at the lowest in an intuitional form truly ideal and not intellectualised. Sometimes the old intellectualised form still recurs, but this is an exception without power or sanction in the nature. In T2 it has done no more than prepare, but it has got [rid]2 of desire in the tapas and diminished the force of tapatya: it has put the telepathies in their right place and tried to make the field clear for the real trikaldrishti; it has also laid down the right relation between the transcendent and the universal in this action of the ideality. But as yet the nature has not perfectly accommodated itself to the ideal law. The physicality persists in besieging the system with the old imperfect action. Lipi is fixed in the ideality, but has only established the formal perfection in the type frequently occurring, it has not as yet successfully universalised it, though for a time it seemed on the point of an almost complete success. The totality of the physical delight has been prepared, but not accomplished, except to a certain extent in the tivra. The samadhi has made great progress in the lipi, ideation and speech thought, which are all idealised and the [ ]3 first two well established in all depths of the samadhi, except for occasional touches of nidra bringing interruption and breaking of the thread; lipi occurs in all [four states], but not freely 2 MS ride 3 MS two

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and firmly except in the antardarshi. Other elements now occur freely in swapna and have an initial ideality, but are not yet firm in it; rupa is less forward, but it has achieved frequency of tejomaya and an occasional initial stability in it. Formerly the stability and continuity was only in chhayamaya. Script. Today, physical delight, T2, ideality, vishaya, rupa. Physical delight, especially kamananda, progress, not final finality. T2 very perfect, but certainly not yet universal. Ideality perfect. Vishaya insistence, rupa d[itt]o. T2 today has almost got rid of tapatya, but still has tapata, an uninsistent intellectual stress. When the decisive sight comes, it is exact so far as it goes, but does not come freely, nor is it either luminous or forcible. Kamananda is redeveloping against a strong, but still weakened physical obstruction (from the environmental ether, not in the body), but it is still subject to the old difficulties, limitations and disabilities. It has not yet any force of pervasion or the massed intensity and enthusiasm of former accesses of kamananda. This has come subsequently, a pronounced and pervasive ananda. At first proceeding from the centre to pervade the lower parts of the body and occupying, from thence rising to pervade the upper parts to the brain. It was only by application of tapas that the contrary movement was induced; but it is a noteworthy instance of the tendency of the physicality to make laws of imperfections which are in their origin only temporary movements and stages in the complete evolution, that the normalising of this latter movement and the full occupation by it is still resisted and is not so complete as that of the former. This kamananda is long continuous, but not entirely continuous; it has however already the habit of constant return. It can be continued into samadhi, but there tends to drop away. In samadhi of all depths an abundant play of lipi is now established. It is ideal, almost but not entirely free, but not yet perfect in the eightfold quality. Reading is acquiring force, the other movements are less apt to come freely.

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Insistence on vishaya has only brought isolated internal sparsha in antardarshi and isolated combined drishti, sparsha and sravana in swapna samadhi. Insistence on rupa has only brought perfection of form in the type rupas. But the insistence has been only occasional. In samadhi great wealth of reading, but with the established tendency to coherence a great bringing forward of the old tendency to incoherence. Rupa in swapna develops, but still not beyond the line already attained. May 9. Some difficulty is found in preventing even vangmaya thought from descending into the [intellectuality].4 Still the pure inspirational is rapidly developing freedom and normality and the frequent descent tends to stop at intuitional ideality, without now the descent into the intellect and even this is now a secondary and no longer a chief movement. It is noticeable that even what might be called the subconscient telepathy, for that is what it was once, and it is still really that emerging to the surface of the sense mind, is beginning to become idealised. This is a great step in advance and a promise of the total idealisation of the mind-stuff. The inspirational ideality prevails more and more and has developed rapidly a higher revelatory substance, but the divergence has brought an unease and want of ananda into the mental system. This has been used as a discouragement to the intellectual thought when it comes because it creates a positive physical unease, but this use is contrary to the ideal method all whose means must be anandamaya. The ideality does not need the reactions of the old mental method to assist its progress; it can go on more rapidly and satisfactorily without them by its perception of truth and its own force to fulfil it. The inspirational vangmaya now descends more freely into the physical region of the intellect without descending psychologically, 4 MS ideality

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that is to say, it is not intellectualised or turned into intuitional thought, it remains the inspirational ideality. The ideation tries to follow the movements of the speech thought; but it is more backward and owing to its past habit of conversion into intellectual thought unable to effect the same progress as successfully. It is noticeable that the difficulty is greater in samadhi than in the outward jagrat, which is also a reversion to a former state of things. Samadhi is now divided into two parts, the lighter forms in which the purusha is wakeful and ideality reigns, the deeper in which nidra reigns and the action is intellectual with much of the old incoherence. But now in this nidra the purusha is wakeful though in a swapnamaya fashion and the intellectuality is nearer to ideality and is sometimes idealised. It is on the point of conversion to the ideality. In this nidra kavya has suddenly made itself frequent. Sparsha is increasing in swapna and even trying to enter into antardarshi The ideation and speech thought have now effected the requisite conversion and the force of the ideality in them can be trusted to complete it and remove or transform the unconverted elements or tendencies that still remain. T2 is now turning to make the same conversion and has begun it, but here the intellectual confusion and chaos of mental telepathies has been so great, though now partly cleared, that time is required to make the conversion equally effective. The true revelatory thought has begun to manifest in the lipi, but with an absorbing inspirational form of itself or with a strong and too heavy intuitional tendency. The highest and subtlest form of it is not yet manifest This revelatory thought has at once extended itself to the speech thought both in the jagrat and the antardarshi and swapna samadhis, and to a less extent to the ideation. Nowhere does it occupy the field, but it is already dominant everywhere. Lipi now well established in antardarshi and swapna, even the deepest, is now insisting against great opposition on (1) perfectly free manifestation with no obstruction from the lethargy of the

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ether, (2) perfect manifestation in possession of all its eight qualities. It has already some initial success. Reading in the swapna is becoming rapidly coherent, except when it presents itself in masses; it is then illegible and the attempt to read brings in incoherence. May 10. Script today fixes a large programme. (1) The decisive conversion of T2 fixed in all its parts (2) Vishaya and rupa farther insisted on. (3) Samadhi developing the undeveloped parts in a mass. (4) Kamananda settled (5) Ideality progressing in the revelatory thought. T2 at present has to deal with the following component situation. 1. The largest element to be dealt with is the old telepathic intellectual perceptions. These now are unable to insist on themselves and are no longer false trikaldrishtis, but perceptions of thought, tendency, intention, impulse, either belonging to the object or working on it from the environmental physical Virat or from the pranic and mental planes. Yesterday the inspirational thought was busy observing them and giving them their right place and scope. They have to be replaced by the intuitional telepathies. 2. The next largest element is the intuitional perceptions which are real[ly] telepathic, but which the intellect tried to represent by overstress as definite trikaldrishti of future action. These are now putting on their ritam and have begun to figure as accurate intuitions of present tendency etc and immediate or closely subsequent future action. This telepathic trikaldrishti of the future, however, can only be definitive if approved by the higher revelatory or inspirational ideality. Moreover they are vague about time and not quite full in circumstance. 3. Blind or unluminous inspirational thought of trikaldrishtitapas, ie indicatory inspirations without farther discernment of detail or aspect, limit or scope, and without light of the revelation. To be entirely replaced by luminous revelatory trikaldrishti; this is the main conversion.

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4 Luminous inspirational perception of trikaldrishti-tapas. These have been few and disputed by mental perceptions which imitate them, seem to give an ideal sanction, but are really only the ideality’s sanction to the telepathic tapas, that is to attempts, partial results, side results etc. This is the element that has to be converted into decisive revelation and to dominate. Sors

i\dEv\d-Ay bht  pv-v s;m@Fko anv o ErfAdA,. BrA c\d-AEZ gZt  vsEn i\d; is the Ananda, both ideal and physical i\d- bht^ the large ideality The kamananda is now, for the time being at least, so fixed that it is present whenever the attention or any part of it is turned to the body. There have been three recurring stages always of this Ananda, (1) prevalent obstruction refusing the Ananda even to the tapas, except occasionally, (2) the obstruction broken down by satapas smarana, Ananda recurring but intermittent though with periods of continuity, (3) constant Ananda dependent on nistapas smarana, but varying in intensity, sometimes full, sometimes only an impression, not definite Ananda. What has to be developed is ni[h]smarana Ananda, that is enforcing itself on the sense in the body even without smarana. This is now acting in the sahaituka The sahaituka creates a stronger deposit of ahaituka; but this tends to diminish and fade away. When this tendency ceases, the Ananda will be perfectly founded. The strong intense sahaituka still leaves a doubt whether the body is capable of bearing and therefore holding its indefinite prolongation and increase. This dharana-samarthya also must be determined in order to ensure permanence. When it is fixed, Ananda will help to enforce perfect arogya on the body. The transformation of all telepathy into intuitional ideality is proceeding rapidly. When it is completed, thought will be entirely idealised, an ideal mentality will replace the average imperfect mentality. But this intuition has now (1) an inspirational and a revelatory element within its limits, (2) a strong intellectual element

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and atmosphere. The latter has to be entirely eliminated, the former strengthened and made dominant. The vaguer parts of roga, not those that still have a strong and definite hold on the body, are being brought forward, evidently for the ideal tapas to begin to deal with them. If this is done, the arogya as well as the Ananda will be brought within the field of the new ideal activity. The elimination of the intellectual atmosphere of the telepathy has begun. It will take time, but the difficulty is not so great as at first appears or as past experience would lead one to think, for the mentality now pervading the body is intuitive and not intellectualvital; the intellectual element and atmosphere are brought in from outside, from the environmental mind. The concession given to the intellectuality, led to a renewed intellectual interruption, but this has been very rapidly remedied, and it has served its turn in establishing a real will in the intellectual devatas in the environmental mind to seek for their own idealisation instead of resisting the idealisation of the adhar. Both smarana of kamananda and ni[h]smarana ahaituka and sahaituka are becoming easy and frequent in samadhi. Even some initial continuity has shown itself. The Ananda has now only to overcome the tendencies of discontinuation to be fixed. In Samadhi there was a massed development, in strong and firm type, of ideality in kavya, dialogue, narrative, reading etc; a first movement turning these from ideal phantasy into truth of a definite aim and utility in the purpose of the divine Yoga, at least in one first instance of combined reading and lipi (Indian News . . nerv. [ . . . ]); also a first instance of strong, though partial legibility in persistent mass lipi, with however the defect that its persistence did not amount to legible stability. Kavya developed remarkably, eg “What swoon has brought The key of many immortalities?” But the farther progress was hampered by the after effects of the intellectual reaction, as the thought-action in the intellect hampered the revelatory thought from acting.

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The physical anandas no longer as a principle of action replace, prevent or interfere with each other, but all seem to help the kamananda. The kamananda suffers not only from the old defects of diminution and discontinuity, but from its other old defect of insufficiency in ambulando. There seems however to be on the whole a much greater force of continuity than on former occasions. The intensity of the morning’s sahaituka has not been repeated. There is strong reaction of negative vaidyuta on the sukshma body affecting the sthula. Recurrent Ananda is now fixed in the system. The inspirational ideality has now sunk to the secondary place, a degradation of the revelatory in the intellectual region. Thus another part of the script programme has already been fulfilled. In T2 the telepathy has become inspirational idealistic in the intuitive mind; there is also a secondary trikaldrishti which reposes upon it and is therefore telepathic in its nature; the intellectual element occurs rarely and is rejected and dismissed. Part only of the script programme has been fulfilled under this head and that too not completely; still it is a decisive conversion and therefore so far the fulfilment is, verbally, complete. In addition a pure inspirational trikaldrishti, not telepathic, has begun to operate again. But these inspirations are only just enough illumined for their restricted work. They have a narrow discrimination, no revelation. They give only the particular result sometimes with a time element, but no accessories or attendant circumstances except when another inspirational or intuitional indication is added to eke out the first main indication. There is satyam and ritam of a sparse and narrow character, no brihat. Tapatya is being destroyed along with the intellectual element; but there is tapata. All trikaldrishti now contains its own effective tapas, and separate tapas apart from trikaldrishti is rarely employed. It is being eliminated, except to some extent in the action of will on the body. Tapas comes in the trikaldrishti only as if a sort of subordinate accessory, although really in the ideality both are necessary to each other and essentially inherent in each other. But the subordination is kept up in order to get rid of tapata. Once that

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is removed, the way will be open for an equal unified idea-tapas in the T2. Revelation with a stronger discriminatory power is now entering into the pure trikaldrishti, but it acts oftenest by a descent into the intuitive mind. Time, place, circumstance, though now often correct, are still pursued by intellectual error and uncertainty. In the evening and night strong intellectual obstruction which for the most part prevented any definitive progress. Still there was a notable advance in the development of revelatory thought. Vishaya [ ]5 has only gained so far by insistence (1) a daily but isolated occurrence in swapna, (2) intensity of subtle sparsha in jagrat, antardarshi and bahirdarshi, (3) greater intensity of the type sparshas already in force Rupa is still limited to tendency in the jagrat, to occasional frequency of established movements in swapna. Great intensity of audition and mental vision of the personalities (devatas) that stand behind the action of the intuitive and intellectual mind and temperament in the sadhana. The truth of the developments thus seen is established by the subsequent result in the changes of the mentality. Script. “What will outline itself, will be 1. An advance in the arogya, a decisive advance 2. An advance in primary utthapana 3. An advance in saundarya. Also the T2 acting in life.” May 11. Script programme “Conversion of the thought-speech to the revelatory is already complete. Ideation is to be converted today; for that has only begun. T2 has to be converted from the inspirational-intuitive to the revelatory inspirational 5 MS by insistence

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“Kamananda to overcome several of its difficulties and to be sure of fixity. “Vishaya and rupa farther to insist and develop. “Samadhi to develop the idealities gained and to insist specially on rupa.” The thought speech is now revelatory in all its forms. Even when the inspirational and intuitive occur, they are revelatory in their substance. Lipi also is always revelatory in the same way. It is, it says, to develop T2 and be the diary (journalier) of the trikaldrishti, telepathies, tapassiddhi. Ideation is still afflicted ordinarily by the necessity of expressing itself, though ideal in substance, in the intuitive mind. Until this difficulty is overcome, its full conversion cannot take place. Kamananda was oppressed in the latter part of the day yesterday; it is now recurrent rather than continuous. Intense continuous kamananda; action of the nihsmarana sahaituka and in a less degree of the nihsmarana ahaituka. The Ananda has now only to strive with the forgetfulness in the body which tends to be quite effective only when supported by exclusive absorption in the mind. The Ananda in ambulando is maintained by nistapas smarana and in ahaituka partly by nihsmarana sahaituka, the latter sometimes of a fair intensity. Pervasiveness and an increase of force not yet amounting ordinarily to intensity were brought in successfully, even the fourfold wave movement. Kamananda has attained power of continuity and easy maintenance by smarana in lighter swapna. In Samadhi strong action of lipi even in the depths and frequent and strong sparsha. Play of rupa; instance of perfect rupa, but unstable. The barrier has not yet been broken down in jagrat rupa. One definite development is the progressive elimination, by force of rejection, of what was once most common, rupa formed painfully out of chaotic material in the akasha. Spontaneity is now the rule; vividness has also begun to predominate; but stability is only initial, except in certain crude forms and even there it is very little more.

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Only some incomplete forms have more stability. Completeness however is not yet perfectly established, though it is common; incomplete forms are frequent. Rapidity and fluidity increase, but are not perfect. Variety is growing strong in the type rupas, but other rupas for the most part come imperfectly and without any developed variety. Group coherence is very occasional. The two main things the will insists on, stability and variety in vivid completeness of the spontaneous developed or perfect figure only come, if at all the first, in the type forms. The main barrier remains erect. In the afternoon much trouble of intellectual suggestion and obstruction, so that no new development came in the subsequent samadhi, except intensity and extension of lipi, speech-thought and ideation. Some mass lipi and reading, but no advance in coherent legibility. The rest was obstructed and occurred, if at all, feebly, and not often in the ideality. The development of ideation was also much baffled and the two lines on which it proceeded rendered for a time doubtful and ineffective by intermixture or intervention of intellectuality. Now, however, the effect has become pronounced; 1s.t., conversion of intuition to the revelatory ideation, but with an intuitive burden and a tendency to drop towards mental intuition, 2dly revelatory inspiration, as demanded in the script programme for T2, with a leaning also, very often, to excess of intuition; 3d.l.y, though rare, revelatory ideation proper, a little broad and blurred in its light. By the development and liberation from defect of this process will come the complete conversion both of the ideation and of T2. Kamananda seems to be strong and fixed in a constant or frequent recurrence; it remains to be seen whether the old obstruction will again prevail to impose a long discontinuity or only the present tendency of brief discontinuity by vismriti will limit this siddhi. Chitra rupa and sthapatya rupa are very strong, stronger even than at any previous time, although they have been well founded for several years. Rupa shows a tendency to variety, especially in the crude; but this cannot be entirely relied on as there has again and again been the same tendency, never leading to permanent siddhi;

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it has always been undone, built itself up again, but each time with a diminution rather than a progress. The element of spontaneity however gives this time a greater chance of a final true initiation of progress. Kamananda, though as usual less in the decline of the day, preserved its power of recurrence until sleep. No definite progress in vishaya. There is some tendency of expansion of shabda in the sukshma voice. Primary utthapana fluctuates from return of a certain strong exhaustion in the upholding prana, not the vital, but the physical, and an expulsion of the fatigue tendency, which then clings only by the habit of muscular strain exhausting temporarily the body’s force for motion, but not the upholding prana. For some days the exhaustion has held sway, tonight the elimination was again resumed. May 12. Script gives, (1) T2, to be pushed forward, (2) conversion of ideation, to be enlarged and universalised, (3) kamananda, progress decisive, (4) rupa, progress decisive, (5) vishaya, insistence, (6) action of ideality on health and primary utthapana. Add rapid development in things established, lipi, vangmaya, etc. T2 is now proceeding automatically in the idealisation of the telepathies which are to be converted from the mental to the intuitive ideal. It is dealing with all telepathies and fixing them decisively in their proper place. Vangmaya is now to be noted in two movements, effulgent and refulgent; (1) effulgent, the pure vangmaya, vak leaping forth from the ideality with the ideation contained in it, (2) expressive of or responding to a previous ideation or else proceeding from a silent indefinite ideation to which it gives form and expression. The former tends to be always revelatory thought and to reject the inferior inspirational and intuitional forms; the latter is ordinar[il]y revelatory in the intuitional form or merely intuitional and can even

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sink to mental intuitive speech. Ideality is working upon this latter action to assimilate it to the effulgent revelatory speech. Ideation is now usually full of revelatory substance and sometimes of revelatory light, but is obstructed in its form of manifestation by the old tendency to expression in the mentality. This is being indulged in order that the resisting intellect may be forced to change entirely into ideal substance of thought. It is the unconverted T2 which is the main support of this obstruction. The physical obstruction, taking advantage of suspension during the night, has tried to get rid of the kamananda, to disprove fixity. But the powers of fixity and pervasion have prevailed. They are now natural to the body, can do without tapas and, even when suppressed by the suspension, need only smarana to set them in action. To get rid of suspension by vismriti is now the task that lies before the Ananda. It is now no longer dependent on position, but self-acting in all positions, even in ambulando, where indeed it has a great power of spontaneity and pervasion. Nihsmarana ananda has also become self-acting. Rupa develops variety in the quite crude forms, but the old defect of chaotic non-spontaneous formation with defect of rupa qualities is again strong in them, as in instability and want of variety in the spontaneous forms. These are the two rocks upon which the progress has always fatally stumbled, come to a halt and gone back. Accuracy of intuitive telepathic trikaldrishti is now very strong and embraces detail, though here it is not always quite perfect in its choice. Confusion of stupefied intellect in the physical brain atmosphere is the one successful obstruction now remaining. When this occurs, the ideality has to break its way through to manifest. In samadhi rupa shows a tendency to manifest in antardarshi, some of the forms with an initial, others with a greater stability, but all crude. Developed rupa in swapna once with a strong stability; chayamaya with a long continuance of chitras or action. The rest reading sometimes very vivid and initially stable ordinarily idealised, but their free action is not yet fixed in the samadhi.

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Conversion of ideation into the revelatory-inspirational thought is now enlarging itself very rapidly and being applied to T2. Decisive trikaldrishti is frequent, but it is usually telepathic or leans on the telepathic. The greater trikaldrishti awaits the development of the secondary ideality of which there are some precursor signs and instances. T2 applied to internal movements is advanced, T2 applied to objects in the field of exercise copious but weak, T2 applied to life hardly yet in action, except for scattered instances. Rupa developed some variety of fugitive perfect rupas in the evening; they do not emerge perfectly from the chidakasha. The conversion of ideation has been founded, enlarged and developed a strong tendency of universalisation; T2 has advanced, but is still obstructed. Kamananda has fixed recurrence and an initial power of nihsmarana. Rupa has a certain fixity of its will to progress. Vishaya made no progress. Ideality is acting on arogya and primary utthapana, but without any definite progress. May 13. T2 is to be rapidly developed today; ideality to continue to universalise its action in the thought and its conversion of thoughtspeech to the revelatory form and substance; kamananda to develop sasmarana continuity and nihsmarana force, rupa and samadhi to compel their obstacles. Physical siddhi has to generalise its initial progress in its other members. T2 is busy with the telepathies. It is distinguishing two fields of telepathic knowledge. By identification (sanyama) with the physical plane of being, it feels accurately the tendencies etc that materialise in the object and determine its action; it can even see provisionally the presently future action to a certain extent, provided it does not miss the possibilities that are not yet in action, but may or will be in action. It can see which will prevail, provided no higher idea or will intervenes. Secondly, there are the forces of the lower mental and pranic planes. These it sees before they at all touch the physical; that they are true, it can see by feeling their reality and also because they translate themselves subsequently into

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intention, tendency, action, impulse, impression etc in the object observed. It is here that the danger of perversion by false stress is strongest, though it occurs everywhere, because the pranic especially have a vehement urge towards selffulfilment, the mental a strong intention to fulfil and belief in their success, and they convey this to the observing mind. But only a few can really act upon the object effectively and fulfil their aim. Their action is irregular; they often produce a subsequent partial effect or modify the immediate or subsequent action without fulfilling themselves as they had wished, or they fulfil themselves at other times, in another place, under other circumstances, even in other objects. Often the object first influenced escapes, but another which has come into the field of the influence is entirely affected; it is as if the powers acting in him took up and carried out the suggestion which the powers acting in the first had rejected. The powers of the higher mental and pranic planes fulfil themselves much more frequently, powerfully and [ ]6 they have more of the truth in them. But in all this there is no absolute certainty of future trikaldrishti, though prevision after prevision may be fulfilled with unvarying accuracy for a long time; still it is only even then a prevailing certainty, a mental and moral, not an absolute and ideal certainty. Moreover in all this there is a will attending the idea and the will in the observer may help or retard, make possible or prevent the fulfilment; because the powers hostile to a result take note and resist more strongly and if they are stronger, prevail, the powers favourable to it take advantage, strengthen themselves and if the observer’s will is strong, they prevail. All this is now felt, seen, participated in by the intuitive-inspirational or less easily by the revelatoryinspirational perception in the being. The element of revelation however is now increasingly present in the first or else attends it in the accompanying ideation The perception of all these things is becoming steadily more intense and satisfying, it is increasing in the quality of the satyam brihat and in the ritam of the satyam brihat. The pressure from above is for what is subconscient to be mentally or ideally 6 MS frequently,

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seen and felt, and for the mental perception to be transformed into the ideal or to be accompanied or enlightened by the ideal thought. Kamananda is [increasing]7 rapidly in sasmarana continuity, but it still tends sometimes and the Ananda tends always to diminution of intensity by vismriti. The opposite tendency of increase by continuity is not yet strong enough to get permanently the upper hand. There is also the habit of discontinuity which though no longer proper to the physical body is imposed on it by the mind of the Akasha of the surrounding [physicality]8 and accepted through force of past habit. The old sanskara of the body that the Ananda must be discontinued to give it relief, exists also in that mind and has its effect in bringing about discontinuity. The latter can be more easily eliminated than the general habit of discontinuance, which cannot be finally expelled except by the growth of the nihsmarana action. In Samadhi rupa played freely in swapna, occurring automatically with spontaneous fluidity, rapidity, vividness, usually with completeness and with much variety every time, the moment the verge of swapna was crossed; but it is still unstable. This play carried itself also into the antardarshi, but there with a certain inability to impress itself on the chittakasha; the rupas however were in their nature of the developed kind. There is still a recurring obstruction to the free play of all the members of the samadhi; the etheric akasha holds them back, is forced, again withholds and has again to be forced. Nevertheless reading manifested and narrative by succession of images. Sasmarana continuity seems now to be sufficiently established, but nihsmarana is still too easily suppressed. The stress has now to be more upon the overcoming of vismriti and its effects. Script. “In kamananda the vismriti to be conquered in these three days, not indeed entirely, but fundamentally.... Rupa and 7 MS increasingly 8 MS physically

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samadhi will still take some time. The ideality to move strongly forward in thought and T2.” The vismriti seems already to have been conquered in its effects and it is being now initially conquered in itself, that is, its force is being diminished and at times the Ananda persists against it enforcing itself and drawing back the mind to it instead of waiting for the mind to return from its preoccupation and then either reforming or renewing itself. Even when it waits, it does not now need to reform or renew, but is there all along and is simply felt again by the sense, like the water in which a swimmer is moving. The movement in ideality and T2 is preparing to set aside its remaining deficiencies. May 14 Script. (1) Kamananda, initial conquest of vismriti. (2) T2, emergence of pure trikaldrishti, enlarging of the tapas element (3) Ideality; revelatory thought in the speech; farther conversion in the ideation. (4) Rupa and samadhi proceed with their development. (5) Vishaya to be strongly insisted on so as to break the barrier. The initial conquest of vismriti is growing rapidly and irresistibly in strength. The obstruction is now falling back on the fear of the kamananda in the external physicality, its sense that the body will not be able to bear continuous or at least continuously intense kamananda. The only present justification is that the body does not feel quite at home with the grosser, too physical-vital, unidealised form which the ananda still tends too largely to take. Rupa has now broken down two barriers, (1) the inability to proceed with its self-development which arose from a wrong attitude towards the processes actually employed and a haste to get done with imperfect movements; (2) denial of stability in perfection to all but very crude forms.

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The development is proceeding steadily against every difficulty; all the old difficulties, presenting themselves as strongly as they can, are being overborne. Secondary initial stability as well as primary has been established in perfect, developed, dense and crude forms alike, but only in the type. Primary initial stability is when the object stands long enough for the eye as well as the mind to get a strong view and impression of it; it is momentary, of one moment. Secondary is when the object stands longer than is needed for this, lingers a moment or two and vanishes; it is a stability of two or three moments. Tertiary is when it stands for several moments. Final stability comes when the object stays as long as the will holds it. The defect of the siddhi, the third barrier still unbroken is its lack of variety. Other forms come, but either they have not even the primary initial stability or, having it, yet they do not come so easily as the type, are not so complete or are in other ways deficient; and in the crude they tend always to be anticipated or replaced by the type. When this barrier breaks down, rupa in the jagrat will be able to develop rapidly its completeness, freedom and perfection. Revelatory thought on the right level and in the inevitable style pure or the inevitable forms of the inspired, illuminative, effective and adequate styles is now well fixed, natural and normal, practically universalised in the original vangmaya. In the derivative it is beginning to triumph finally over the mental gravitation. Vishaya is now reviving in gandha and taste. The position of vishaya is complex and unequal. In gandha it has already been well developed, but it is subject to exceedingly long periods of obstruction and cessation and has then to be redeveloped by tapas. If this habit is overcome and sthula and sukshma gandhas well distinguished, there will be perfect siddhi. Crude primary tastes are similarly established, but here tapas is more easily effective and the distinction is clear; specific tastes occur, but not freely nor in great abundance; of substantial taste there is only an imperfect first movement. Sparsha is violently limited to a few habitual touches which are however well-developed, intensely sthula in their effect, capable of stability; very sukshma effect is more though not quite free, for its variety is limited. Shabda is still more baffled, even

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where established rare and obstructed and most confused of all by the sthula sounds of the material world. Darshana is only of the pranic akasha and two or three of its objects, and that too imperfectly developed. Another attack from the external physical mind, but this was unable to take the old form of a lethargy of the tapas, relapse into inactive shama and prolonged cessation of the siddhi. It shaped into an upheaval of the lower ideal-intellectual confused-tapasic activity and an attempt to annul temporarily part of the gains of the ideality by a backsliding downwards of the active being. In kamananda it was unable to annul the conquest of the effects of vismriti, but succeeded in giving a fresh lease to the vismriti in itself, which was on the point of disappearing. The difficulties in the ideal conversion, which were disappearing, were also temporarily renewed. On the other hand the ideation gained and especially the perception of the causes, objects and utilities of the opposition movements were immediately seen; there was no disturbance of the samata, except for one or two flying touches. Samadhi limited by the attack. But sthula shabda conversation in the swapna reached a rapid frequency not before realised, ordinarily the dialogue is in sukshma shabda of the nature of thought overheard, though really it is speech. This was speech overheard, but in single sentences or single question and response, not connected dialogue. Ideation has now effected initially its final conversion in the primary ideality. First, the revelatory intuition has begun to fall away and is now only an occasional and attendant lower activity (tertiary) which is on the way to disappearance; then the intuitiveinspirational transformed rapidly into the revelatory-inspirational has given its pride of place to the true revelatory which is taking up all the other forms of ideation. At the same time trikaldrishti first become liberally positive and decisive in the general ideation is now acting with regard to the movements of the objects of vision, not as yet with a perfect arrangement of ritam, but still with a fairly sufficient decisiveness.

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In the development of these two movements lies all the future perfection of the primary ideality Rupa is attempting to develop variety and partially succeeding, but it is a variety of imperfect forms. Spontaneous manifestation out of the chidakash is beginning entirely to replace development by mental-physical pressure in the subtle physical ether. In this development lies the surety of a perfect siddhi. May 15 The programme for the second week of May has been fulfilled in all its parts; but in the vishaya it is only a beginning. Lipi is fixed in the ideality and always capable of perfect manifestation with the eightfold quality; but the resistance of the physical ether remains and force has to be used on it. As this has been little done recently, the resistance has increased, but it only exists initially and can be broken down very rapidly. Ideality has become free and normal in the ideation; the revelatory is the normal type, though the inspirational and intuitional with the revelatory substance are also still in action. The form of the revelatory ideation is not yet perfect. Speech thought is fixed in the revelatory ideality, but not always in its highest form. T2 has evolved ideal telepathy and is evolving ideal trikaldrishti and the beginnings of ideal tapas, all in the revelatory form, though the other forms recur. Rupa is attempting to establish variety in the initial stability; the obstacle to this variety is the last of the old barriers. Vishaya is now initially active in all its parts but is still kept within its old limits. Kamananda is fixed in recurrence, but its continuity is still broken in upon by vismriti aided by the demand for discontinuity as a relief to the physical system. The former difficulty is being attacked; the latter is being observed with a view to attack. Other anandas, prepared in various degrees, await the kamananda Today is to be the turning point for a new movement, (1) developing what is yet imperfectly developed, (2) preparing the physical

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siddhi in its three other members, (3) developing new powers of the being. Lipi is now laying stress on perfect spontaneity free from the ideal suggestions and a perfect rapid stability. It has founded both of them, the stability being no longer always of the initial order, but also very often a prolonged stability. To this new development only fluidity is lacking. Its complete siddhi will be the final overcoming of the etheric resistance. It is being extended also to the antardarshi Samadhi is developing rupa more freely and labouring at mass reading, not yet with success, but still with an increasing approach to success. The sasmarana Ananda is prosecuting successfully its initial struggle with the psycho-physical demand for discontinuity. Lipi 1. The psychophysical resistance to the delight will be got rid of thoroughly in two days, initially. 2. Lipi will be thoroughly perfected in July. 3. (A long lipi, declaring that the superior ideality will be now manifested in the present limitations of the inferior ideality and they will develop together.) Traigunyasiddhi. The intense Ananda of shama of the Mahasaraswati with the Maheswari basis and Mahaluxmi colour is now uniting itself with the strong tapas of the Mahakali bhava. A mediate equation has been arrived at, but the full Ananda of the ideal tapas is necessary before the final unification can be secure. It is notable that the Asamata now hardly even ventures to return except in touches of physical uneasiness, caused usually either by physical discomfort, eg, heat, lethargic pressure of tamas on the brain etc, or by psycho-physical discomfort of the attempt of intellect to mix still with the ideality or to accompany it. The latter is rapidly diminishing and is at best occasional. Sraddha in Bhagavan and in the higher shakti which he uses as one’s own universal shakti, is growing to completeness. The lower shakti not yet unified with the higher, is occasionally shaken

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by doubt or coloured by it; but this is more doubt of the rapid effectuality than of the final effectuality. Something of the latter still exists in the shape of uncertainty, with regard to physical siddhi and life, but it is no longer positive asraddha. In samadhi, even in antardarshi, rupa is becoming more free and spontaneous, but not with sufficient power to hold the akasha so that there is still only an initial stability Script, for the week “Ideation to be fixed in the revelatory thought, the rest being taken up into it. “T2 to develop trikaldrishti powerfully and begin to strengthen powerfully the ideal tapas. “Rupa to develop variety. “Vishaya to press down the barrier. “Kamananda to vindicate itself against vismriti and discontinuity “Samadhi to begin to regularise itself. “The struggle of the ideality with the roga to show its first decisive results of the novel order. “The same in the saundarya and primary utthapana to be prepared.” Kamananda’s conquest of vismriti seems to be proceeding by three movements. First, recurrence is being replaced by continuous sasmarana so that when the mind is not absorbed, the Ananda is immediately felt as a thing not recurring, but always present, though for the time being forgotten. This movement has gone very far, though it is not yet absolute. It is the overcoming of natural vismriti. There still remains the artificial vismriti brought about by absorbed concentration of the mind on its thoughts. This is being removed, first, by the mind not being absorbed, by the ideal faculty of a multiple attention, the thought being pursued, yet the Ananda remembered, secondly, by the Ananda becoming so strong as to force itself upon the mind and prevent the total absorption. Both these movements are only as yet initial and have not yet proceeded very far.

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The power of simultaneous attention is now rapidly developing; it is seen that the thought in the ideality can easily be conducted and even more successfully conducted, when the mind is not absorbed, and can ordinarily coexist with the sense of the Ananda, especially the ideation and speech thought (this most, because it is most assured,) but also the T2. The gathering together of the mind stuff and the closing of it to other ideas and objects which is the nature of absorption, is no longer necessary for the full force of the thought to reign. The habit still continues, but it is diminishing and has received its death blow. On the other hand when the thought is occupied not only with itself, but with the object of sense or in some action, as in reading, writing, conversing, this gathering and closing is more ready to intervene. Here also, however, there is a strong beginning and already a rapid growth of the elimination. Nihsmarana Ananda is also insisting on regularisation and normality, but chiefly in the sahaituka, because there it is more intense. A flood of action of the intuitive and inspirational lipi, unstable for the most part or with only a primary or secondary stability, pursued by the suggestions, serving only to show the complete ideality of the lipi even at its lowest. Amidst this much revelatory lipi now taking its place as an inferior movement, and beyond lipi manifestation of the superior ideality which takes no account of the intellect, forestalls its action and eliminates its substances. The inferior ideality [is]9 that which takes up the whole intellectual action and transforms it into vijnana; it is limited by what the intuitive intellect might have done; the superior takes up the inferior and is not limited by the possibilities of the intuitive mind. The inferior ideality does in its own right what the intuitive mind does by derivation from the inferior ideality, but the inferior ideality itself is only a selection from the greater range of the superior. The speech thought has idealised itself thoroughly in succession to the [lipi]10 and the ideation including T2 is beginning the 9 MS which 10 MS ideality

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same movement. In neither however is the superior ideality directly at work as in the lipi. In the lipi the revelatory ideality is again asserting its predominance. The superior ideality has manifested for a moment in the ideation. The complete idealisation of the thought is proceeding rapidly; but it has still to deal with the resistance with regard to exact and decisive T2. For where the ideality does not yet act or acts only partially, the intellect has a natural tendency to attempt to fill the place. Once again the ideal tapas has forced the fatigue out of the upholding prana. It now expresses itself in the physical body with a slight shadow thrown upon the prana. May 17. Script. “The extension of the ideality to T2 in lipi, ideation, telepathy, tapas.. Enlargement of decisive trikaldrishti. Farther conquest of vismriti in Ananda. Development of rupa. The ideality to take possession of the samadhi. Vishaya.” Kamananda subject to suppression more than for some time past. On the other hand it has withstood a severe test under which formerly it always failed. In addition it successfully maintained its strong and long continuity throughout samadhi, even in sushupti of the mind, the vijnana observing the physical being within the consciousness, not as a form without. Also in samadhi the double concentration was easily and successfully sustained. Ideality has begun to take possession of the samadhi with a sort of crudely regularised action. The idealisation of the mind action seemed to break down for a time by the withdrawal of the vijnana which left the mechanical remnants of the old intellectual action to work by a sort of unwilling pravritti. There is now nothing that demands this action; when it works, it is by a sort of mechanical continuance of a dead habit. The vijnana is now resuming its work.

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Kamananda recovers, though not quite firmly, its sasmarana continuity. Ideality extends in spite of the intellectual obstacle in T2 with a more frequent decisiveness in the details of the telepathy. The ideal tapas begins to disengage itself more decisively from the old enveloping case of the mind-stuff. Lipi trikaldrishti slightly strengthened. Vishaya now acts intermittently in all its parts, but still slightly and without enlarging its action. The action of the ideality continues in the primary utthapana holding at bay the attempt of fatigue to lay hold again of the upholding prana. The hold of reaction of pain and stiffness on the body continues, but is being diminished and prepared for dissolution. Action of ideality on the fragments of roga. They try to recur, but cannot decisively materialise; some are unable to materialise at all. May 18. The recurrence of the intellectual action can in future be no more than a mechanical interlude. What has now to be dissolved is the mixed action of ideality embedded in or hung round with the old mind stuff, half ideality, half intuitive mentality. This inferior action has its stronghold in the T2 and is dominant in tapas. The stronger action of the superior ideality on a perfect inferior ideality is now the mot d’ordre of the siddhi. The superior ideality is very visibly busy perfect[ing] the inferior ideality so as to purify it from all immixture of the mental accompaniment. Especially tapas is now getting rapidly idealised and the false mental stress is being at last really eliminated without the force of tapas being diminished. For the difficulty till now was that the force, the rudra shakti, of the tapas always brought with it excitement of mental wish, tapatya or tapata, and overstress, while the elimination of these brought with it also an elimination of the rudra shakti. It is now becoming possible to combine forceful will, even rudra tapas, with truth of ideality. Thought telepathy is beginning to develop. Formerly it was

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only telepathy of the sensations, emotions, desires, impulses etc. Now these are to be combined with telepathic perception and communication of the thoughts. A better distinction of primary and secondary utthapana has now to be made. Primary utthapana properly belongs to the vijnana, it is the full force of laghima, mahima, anima in the mind stuff and psychic prana so that the mind rejects all exhaustion, weariness, depression of force etc. When this extends to the prana upholding the body, that is primary utthapana in the physical being. Secondary utthapana is elimination of these reactions from the body so that the limbs and the whole body can take and maintain any position or begin and continue any movement for any length of time naturally and in its own right. Tertiary, is when gravitation is conquered. Hitherto the distinction made was between movement ambulando and positions of the limbs and the body. These are now being unified in the primary siddhi. Fatigue in the positions is still powerful, but it is physical with a reaction on the upholding prana, brought about by violent pressure on the muscular system. This reaction must be eliminated. The habit of reaction depends on the physical mind. This is shown by the fact that when the body is forgotten, the position is maintained with ease and on the attention coming back to the body it is found that perfect laghima reigns in it. But the attention then brings back the habit of reaction, the physical opposition seizing on the old long-established sanskara to renew its attack. In the vertical triangular position of the arms there is now the pressure relieved by intervals of successful laghima. The element of time abhyasa has to be eliminated. That is to say while formerly the idea was to maintain the position as long as possible and increase the length of time during which the siddhi maintained itself against fatigue, until by this abhyasa it became self-existent, the idea now must be to establish the already selfexistent power of the ideality in the body, so that the time makes no difference. This was done originally in the first movement of utthapana in Alipur jail and sometimes subsequently in the lower

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utthapana, but in the latter it could not be fixed, in the former it was fixed from the beginning, but towards the end a little impaired by contagion of asiddhi from the other positions. Power of double attention, to thought and to Ananda, is now well-established. What has now to be got rid of, is the interference of the mind-stuff in condensation; this is being already done initially by the interposition making no essential difference, since even then the Ananda reaches the side of conscious attention, subordinate as yet, which is deputed to receive it. But this siddhi is as yet imperfect and initial. The T2 is now attempting to extend itself out of the experimental field into the life, in which as yet it was only exercising the old scattered, half-mental action and had secured striking but isolated success and a mass of imperfect results, but no general control. All this movement must develop before the perfection required can be considered accomplished. Script “Samadhi is to carry on the regularisation by the ideality and to enforce freedom and stability in rupa and the other imperfect members. In jagrat rupa a stable variety. In vishaya a breaking down of the barriers. In T2 life. These are the backward members of the ideality.” In samadhi all its members had play; all are fixed in the ideality or at lowest sink to the intuitive mentality; all have an initial stability. But reading is still fragmentary and some others occur without any large completeness or without any enlightening context. In internal lipi occurrence of the superior ideality. Samadhi has now two movements, samadhi proper when sitting, swapna when lying. The shakti is preparing to convert the latter into samadhi and sometimes succeeds, but on the plane of the intuitive mentality.

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In the second and third items of the script, the physical obstruction has again massed itself powerful to reconstruct the barrier to the progress or fortify it where it was breaking down. In the latter attempt it has temporarily succeeded. Kamananda is much hampered and though still recurrent afflicted by diminution and discontinuity. This defect is no longer due to vismriti or at least no longer has that [as] its base, but only a mechanical habit forced to recur by the massing of the obstruction in the external physicality. The struggle continues in the primary utthapana and the arogya. The ideal shakti is more insistent at present in the former than in the latter where the roga successfully obstructs in its two chief strongholds, though in one there are slight signs of its approaching diminution. In a continuity of five hours or so of walking, coming upon the constant abhyasa, more broken, of the past many days, fatigue in the upholding prana was shown to be now merely a shadow, fatigue in the body could only hold if there was relaxation of the utthapana shakti. Even then it was less fatigue than a pressure of the pain of stiffness in the muscles. In relaxation a sort of manomaya laghima without mahima upholds the body, and this force allows the reaction, although it is noticeable that the force of the reaction is diminishing. When the utthapana shakti of mahima-laghima takes possession, and it now ordinarily holds the body, all fatigue and reaction disappear and there is only the pain of stiffness which sometimes decreases and is suppressed, sometimes increases, but does not affect the unrelaxed body. Utthapana of position is still too much afflicted by the pressure on the deficient anima, still too little supported by mahima in the laghima to be prolonged. In Samadhi a great and solid advance. Dream reading (narrative and monologue) became perfect, except that it has to be hastily read, the lines disappearing or receding from the direct view as soon as the sense is grasped; but otherwise they are perfectly complete, massed, consecutive, coherent, forming a complete and often a long story or discourse, though occasionally the opening

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or the close is not read. On the other hand if there is an attempt at stability and deliberate reading, the massed print becomes either instable or incoherent. Dialogue also was perfect, though not so long and complete. In swapna samadhi rupa was perfectly free in the chhayamaya and in the tejomaya with chhayamaya basis. Stability and prolonged continuity of action some continuity there sometimes is are wanting. Stability only occurs in faint and vague rupas. Vishaya is developing. May 19 Subsequent reaction of stiffness was felt in the morning as pain in the relaxation of the lying posture, but chiefly in the loins where it has not been felt while walking.. On rising everything disappeared or was reduced to a minimum leaving only a suppressed stiffness and fragmentary suggestions of pain. There is at present no trace of bodily fatigue, such as would formerly have been felt, or the vague weight of lassitude which would more recently have been the result. The defect of anima is evidently being conquered, although it still persists and resists ejection. Script. “Today T2 completing itself. The superior ideality in ideation and lipi and speech thought. Restoration of kamananda. Samadhi development. Ideality to take possession of the rupa in the jagrat. Vishaya.” The superior ideality is beginning to take forcible possession of the inferior, that is to say to act within the limits set by it and in the style of its action, but independent of all reference to the old intellectual action and to the questioning of the intellect. That questioning still continues, but its doubts and its suggestions are disregarded, solved without reference to its difficulties and uncertainties. The inferior ideality respected them and leaned upon them. It was to a great extent a referee of the intellect, a substitute and an enlightener giving it the knowledge it required and could not itself compass. As a referee it solved its

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uncertainties; as a substitute it took up its action but carried it on in the manner of the ideality by revelation, inspiration, intuition, discrimination; as an enlightener it gave it knowledge beyond its scope, but not far beyond its scope. When it went far beyond its scope, it was more often by ideal suggestion than with an absolute authority. The new movement is as yet only initial and still hampered by the continued outer action of the intuitive mind with its clinging ends of intellectual mind-stuff. Lipi. “Superior ideality in trikaldrishti and tapas siddhi”, already beginning to be initially fulfilled. The first and second chatusthayas are now unified by the development of the traigunyasiddhi. Ananda of shama is combined with ananda of tapas, but tends to be modified and diminished by deficiency of ananda of tapas. This is preparatory to their complete unification. The higher transcendent shakti and the personal shakti are now unified and sraddha swashaktyam is firmly based, but it is still deficient in force and extent. The second chatusthaya is now complete, but in parts it is deficient in force, awaiting farther development of the Kalibhava and this again dependent on farther development of the ideality, that is the unification of the first three chatusthayas. Shama now contains in itself no longer a relaxed, but a concentrated tapas and relaxed prakasha, tapas an involved prakasha and a basic shama. By the unification of the three chatusthayas there will be the perfect unification of the three gunas. This is in the temperament, but the play of jnana and T2 will bring it about also in the mentality. In the vijnana they are always united. There will then remain the body, but there too the siddhi is being made ready. Ideality II is now acting upon the mental telepathy intuitive and manasic which still survives bringing about a greater light of vision and more efficacy of tapas, but without absolute certainty which only comes when there is the play of the ideal T2; provisional

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certainty is however more frequent, but does not owing to the continued residuary action of the old intelligence always know its own proper limits. There are now in the lipi three forms of vijnana, (1) the superior ideality (II), (2) the superior ideality in the form of the inferior, (3) the inferior ideality (I) in its three forms, revelatory, inspirational and intuitional. The intuitional lipi is now revelatory in its substance even when intuitional in its form, but the inspirational is often inspirational in substance as well as in form. This defect is now being removed and has almost in a moment practically disappeared. Kamananda very much oppressed persists in a diminished and subtilised form, which at its lowest hardly seems kamananda. This is in ambulando, but even at other times there is an oppression which amounts sometimes to sheer and prolonged discontinuity. Advantage is however being taken of this depression to strengthen the element of ideal Ananda. In the evening some restoration of the intensity, but fragmentary, recurrent, not continuous. In the morning some depression of utthapana shakti, an overshadowing by strong effigies of fatigue, once imposing rest. Writing and visits prevented the abhyasa during the rest of the day, except for a short time at night when no trace of fatigue was left, but some muscular stiffness. Samadhi developed chiefly in the ordering of dream. The confused amalgamations of dream are being disentangled by the buddhi in the dream state itself. Occurrence of superior ideality in deep swapna samadhi. Some ideal rupa in jagrat. Vishaya occurs, but makes no definite progress. The attack of the external physicality and its mind has failed to disturb the first two [chatusthayas],11 except for a vague superficial 11 MS utthapanas

20 April – 20 May 1918

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stain on the [ ]12 traigunyasiddhi. Sraddha holds firm, but is defective as to karma on account of uncertainty. Sraddha in yogasiddhi is complete. May 20 The siddhi in the lipi is being extended to the speech-thought so that even when the intellectual attack is allowed to reign and the ideality suspended, still the vangmaya is in its form ideal and either revelatory or inspirational in its substance The attack is effectuated by the will of the Ishwara suspending the action of the higher ideality in the ideation. There has however been a constant action this morning of ideality in the intuitive mind commenting the confused action of the residuary mind-stuff and distinguishing its element of truth, which is that which sets its waves in motion, and the error which the mind-stuff throws up around the truth and attaches to it. This action is caused by (1) telepathies from outside, (2) telepathies from the mental and pranic planes, (3) obscurely received suggestions from the ideality. When the ideality does not act, the intellect tries to do what it can with all that it receives The obstruction to kamananda continues, though lessened; the ideal Ananda is increasing in its subtle insistence and sometimes takes effect tenuously in the sthula form. There is a movement to apply finally the law of the ideality to the ideation as in the speech thought and the lipi. This is not difficult in the ideation of jnana, but it is still difficult in the ideation of T2, especially of tapas. Stress of tapatya and tapata have always been the chief obstacles; whenever removed, they have returned in a modified form; they now return as suggestions from the external physicality breaking down the defences of the intuitive mind. The Shakti has once more put them in their right place and discharged the intuitive mind of tapatya and even of unduly extended tapata. Decisive trikaldrishti and effective tapas are steadily increasing even in the intuitive mind; but until all tapas becomes ideal tapas, the 12 MS on the

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perfection of the ideality cannot be thoroughly accomplished. This as yet has not been done. It can only be done by the satyam brihat ritam in the decisive trikaldrishti developing into its full amplitude. For that the rejection of the intellectual mind-stuff which clings to the ideation is a necessary preliminary. In Samadhi still the same movement. At night a revival of dream incoherence. Utthapana unsatisfactory.

1083

21 MAY – 1 JULY 1918

May 21s.t. The sadhan is now concentrated on the vijnana-chatusthaya with an initial stress on the physical siddhi which is still secondary except in the sharira ananda, mainly the kamananda. At present the ideality is passing through a stage of what would formerly have been called relapse, but is now recognised as a reversion to a lower movement in order to get rid of still existing defects or possibilities of defect and transform the remnants of the lower into the spirit and the form of the higher movement. Script. “Develop T2 and ideation, restore kamananda. Persist in rupa and vishaya and samadhi”. 1. Kamananda is restored; it has recovered its power of continuity and its means against vismriti, but is still strongly subject to diminution which manifests chiefly in ambulando. It is clear that the initial conquest of vismriti is firm and real, since it manifests at once after discontinuity and has not to be built up again. The siddhi is subject to diminution and relapse into mechanical discontinuity; it has to overcome these tendencies and to complete its conquest of vismriti, for so long as the latter is only initial and not complete, the relapse to discontinuity must always be possible. 2. T2 and ideation are working on the physical level of the intellect. They are getting rid of the inspirational and intuitional substance which most lend themselves to the attack of unideal tapas and intellectual error, because their enlightenment is essentially a partial illumination intervening in an initial ignorance. All is being turned to substance of revelatory thought, for it is this that illumines largely and is in its nature a self sight that does not address itself at all to the initial ignorance of the intellect. Even in T2 the conversion to revelatory thought is being rapidly led towards completeness. 3. Rupa has been baffled in its development of stable variety.

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Variety has been partially developed in power, but subject to all the old difficulties. In the crude the tyranny of the type form which obstructs and excludes the others, obstructs their spontaneous manifestation and allows only a difficult development pursued and overcome by the type form which, even when they emerge, returns upon them and usurps their place. In the developed and dense other forms occur, but are imperfect, unstable and confined to a few persistent forms or kinds of form. The principle of barring a free variety by insistence on already common rupas is still the chief and hitherto a successful weapon of the obstruction. 4. Vishaya is simply unable to overcome the barrier. In samadhi, antardarshi and swapna, in the vangmaya the inspirational and intuitional forms have been entirely taken up into the revelatory form, so that both form and substance are now of this highest element of the inferior ideality. Moreover this inferior ideality is full of the spirit and presence of the superior ritam. The same movement has to be effected in the waking thought-speech and in the ideation and it has in fact begun, but here owing to the greater diffusion of the mind it is more difficult. The revelatory thought has in a way taken up all the other forms, but their effects still remain as a limiting element which prevents and conditions the play of the knowledge. Especially it is now acting on the level of the intellect and its revelations are on that level pursued by the uncertainties of the intellect, by its tapas or ineffectual straining after certainty and effectivity, by its smallness of periphery in the conscious being and scope of knowledge and power. The object seems to be to meet these difficulties in their own field and even there to establish the fullness of revelatory light and substance and the free certainties of the superior ideality. Here the script programme has been initially fulfilled. But in the rupa it has not been justified. Rupa has only become capable of variety; it has not accomplished it. Vishaya has only effected an uncertain and scanty initial play, an action of subtle sparsha just verging on the sthula, a dim fragmentary beginning of c¸ ravana. In samadhi vishaya has begun to play more freely, but in jagrat it

21 May – 1 July 1918

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has not broken down the barrier. In samadhi taste and smell are still crude and faint. Samadhi has established everywhere an initial ideality and regularisation by the ideality, but the action in each member is hampered by intermissions of obstruction and in swapna incoherence though no longer the rule, still recurs persistently in the reading and the dialogue etc have not yet, except sometimes in dream, a large continuity. Primary utthapana after a brilliant beginning has relapsed into ineffectivity and subjection to physical fatigue. Arogya is limited to an incomplete and struggling inhibition of the fragments of roga, but these only occur by persistent exposure to the action of their habitual causes, and to a preparation for the conquest of the two or three fixed rogas; the actual conquest is still far from effectuation. In saundarya no advance except the stronger fixture of the sukshma bhava of youth and ananda and a certain light and prophecy of it in the eyes and face. Kamananda is still afflicted by diminution and discontinuity; the conquest of vismriti is still only initial. May 22. This is the fourth week of May, the month of decisive preparation of finality and perfection in the vijnana chatusthaya. It is proposed to effect the perfection of the primary ideality in ideation and speech thought and as far as possible in T2. Rupa, vishaya, samadhi, the three defective members, have to insist on their initial completeness in the ideality. The preparation of the sharira siddhi has to insist also against the powerful obstruction of the old imperfect physicality which defends its habits as the law of the being. The satyam brihat of the tapas, the physical telepathy and the telepathy of the mental and pranic planes is being established in the idealised intelligence under the guidance of the ideality; the object is to eliminate in its own field the false stress, the intellectual decision, so that the ideal ritam may be freed from the pursuit of the intellect. In samadhi ideality took more firmly hold of rupa. There was

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also the beginning of the specific religious ideality and the ideal sense of prayer and adoration as an element of love and oneness with the Divine. This is being extended and transformed into the finality of the personal relation of the Jiva with the Iswara In samadhi at night obstruction, with prevalent incoherence. It was only by force of tapas that the play of the siddhi was brought about, and the free play could not be secured. May 23. For some days there has been a strong revival of the obstruction to the whole siddhi, but specially the ideality. The object is to enforce the old rule of a recurring period of relapse, enduring usually for a fortnight more or less, or even longer, and the method is to enforce a sort of lethargy of unresponsiveness in the mind and physicality by which first, if possible, all action shall be obstructed, secondly, whatever action is enforced by tapas shall be imperfect and marred by the old asiddhi, thirdly, as a result things which seemed to have been eliminated shall be revived, thus discouraging the faith and the tapas. The first object has not been gained, because in spite of periods of cessation, the tapas has insisted and the action of the ideality has been enforced even in this adverse condition, but the other two objects have been partially and temporarily gained. The action of the ideality is no longer free, but dependent on tapas and a struggle with the lethargic obstruction, the revived action of the intellect has vitiated the perfection of the ideality and even touches of imperfection have come in the first two chatusthayas. Nevertheless the siddhi advances and no longer behind the veil, as formerly in periods of relapse, but openly, though with apparent concessions to asiddhi used for strengthening the siddhi. The principle of subconscient progress has been eliminated, but the principle of finesse still continues. The main progress this morning is the enforcement, 1, of the constant habitual action of the ideality, in spite of the physical brain’s lethargy, 2, of the constant combined action of ideation, speech thought and T2 to which is being added the lipi. These

21 May – 1 July 1918

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used to give place to each other and act alternately. There is also a movement to add the action of rupa and vishaya and kamananda but the power of multiple tapas is not yet strong enough to effect the perfect combination. This enforcement of the combined action of ideation, T2 and speech thought of the ideal kind is being more and more insisted on and is on the point of becoming spontaneous and normal. The main defect lies now in the downward gravitation which prevents the thought from being of the highest elevation possible, the stuff of intellect mixed in the ideation and vak by the persistence of a background of intellectual demand and pursuit of the thought by a vague intellectual observation and judgment, which though not often explicit hampers the ideality, and the continuance of external intellectual suggestion in T2. Nevertheless the change from ideal intervention to a massed ideal movement of all the activities of the consciousness, progresses with considerable rapidity. In Samadhi unprecedent[ed]ly large play of coherent reading of great length; but incoherence also persists side by side with it. The other members also had coherent play but less prominently. The insistence on Kamananda is less, the continuity is suspended, but recurrence remains. May 24. T2 advances steadily. Tapas (telepathic) is becoming normally effective and more clearsighted and therefore more accurate. Strong tapas which was hitherto discouraged, because it brought the tapatya, is now being encouraged and the remnants of tapatya are being transformed into forcible prolongation of right tapas. Accordingly the brihat satyam of T2 is becoming as complete as it can be without perfect ritam and without the play of the superior ideality. For that combination alone can give all the right data in their right place including tendencies which are latent or obscurely implied and eventualities of which there is no present sign. The intimations of the mental and rajasic planes like those of the physical are receiving their right measure of satyam and it is now seen that all have their truth, except certain speculations, as to present and

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Record of Yoga

past especially, which are the intuitions of what might have been and may possibly be as the result of past intentions and tendencies, but do not correspond to any actually accomplished event. Strong and successful secondary utthapana of position. It is remarkable that fatigue of the physical mind and will, or rather the mind and will of the body, was not at all in question; for from the first it was as if already eliminated, except for a few ineffective attempts at return. Only at the end it came in in support of the muscular reaction. Primary utthapana was therefore established except in so far as it failed, through failure of secondary utthapana. The secondary was tried in the morning in the arms, in two horizontal positions A Ia & b, frontal triangular and frontal straight. In Ia siddhi came easily; the attempt to enforce [an]anima, though recurrent, failed in persistence and in violence; self-existent utthapana, free from defect of anima, was established and remained. In Ib there was violent opposition, but it failed in the right arm, but succeeded in the left by persistence of pain of ananima aided afterwards by pressure of downward garima from above, not gravitation, but pressure of some other external force which comes in when gravitation weakens. Gravitation is attraction from below, this is a mass of pressure from above. In the right arm self existent utthapana was established. In the left it became strong enough to maintain the position in spite of pressure and pain and even to make the pain recurrent instead of persistent and to discourage and sometimes lighten the pressure, but not to get rid of it. The whole lasted 21–2 continuous hours. In the result force of selfexistent utthapana is established in the arms as was shown in the afternoon, but ananima still remains to limit and resist the siddhi, though with greatly diminished force. In the afternoon two positions of the legs, B.I & II, lying on the back, crooked position, lower parts horizontal, and lying on each side, alternately, horizontal II.a (straight) & II.b crooked. In B I. defect of anima was strong and prevented long abhyasa, but while recently and for a long time mahima has entirely failed to support the laghima, this time it came and held. In B II, (a) was

21 May – 1 July 1918

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found difficult owing to violent attack of ananima, but this was persistently recurrent, not persistent, and there was in the intervals complete utthapana; in (b) the recurrence was less persistent and less violent. On the whole on the left the utthapana was well maintained, either self-existent or satapas, for about 15 minutes; on the right there was after 7 or 8 minutes the overpowering by defect of anima. Therefore this utthapana of B positions can only be regarded as preparatory, as it was declared to be before it began. In arms AA, (ie lying on back), the old self-existent utthapana force recovered strength and maintained itself, after one or two downward tendencies of lapse, even in sleep. Throughout the increased power and effectivity of tapas was very marked. In Samadhi free action of rupa and frequent initial stability and continuity. Incoherence has invaded the lipi in the deeper swapna. May 25. The dealings of the ideality with the revived intellect element, show an increasing subtlety and fullness of the vijnana, giving a clear ideal interpretation of the obscure brain-suggestions, which if carried to the extreme will mean a full satyam brihat with a sufficient ritam. But the process means a continual indulgence of the obscuration by the intellect which involves a suspension of the direct and primary action of the ideality. Behind the obscuration the superior ideality is growing in power upon the whole thought action. The increase of the ritam in the satyam brihat of the telepathies on the lowest level has been proceeding rapidly, but complete ritam is not yet established. Lipi is being left entirely to itself to establish the eightfold quality in perfectly spontaneous lipi without aid of the tapas or the suggestions. The first result of the movement has been to bring back the full etheric resistance to the manifestation with the result of

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Record of Yoga

fragmentariness, called formerly the desultory lipi, and defect in all the eight qualities. It is now attempting to dispel the imperfections, as yet only with a very partial success. Recovery by the speech thought of its higher ideal pitch at which it now moves normally without any need of the least attention or tapas. In samadhi lipi recovered its coherency in deep swapna samadhi, but there is an intermediate stage between dream and samadhi, the one passing over into the other, in which incoherence is still common. Nevertheless the incoherence can be pieced together: sometimes it arises from fragments of a sentence or thought being put together without the connecting words or thoughts, and then they have to be filled in, sometimes from the coalition of thoughts which are not connected and then they have to be separated. Utthapana of position A I tried for about an hour. Self existent utthapana of laghima in the primary force, good for maintaining the position, if unafflicted, for two or three hours, if afflicted, for a shorter time, but not making the position entirely normal to the feeling of the body, only natural or much more natural than before. Anima not violently defective, but the defect slowly increases in force, compelling desistence in the end or at least interruption. Subsequently, on almost immediately resuming, it was found that the compulsion of the asiddhi was not imperative, as it had appeared, but, the abhyasa being interrupted, it could not be seen how far the ananima could be eliminated. In the evening the will of the body to utthapana failed. May 26 A II tried, but the self-existent u[tthapana]-shakti was found not to have even half the full primary force. The movement in T2 continues; tapas is steadily increasing. For the last two days kamananda has been recovering its force, but is still deficient in ambulando. Growth of rupa in Samadhi.

21 May – 1 July 1918

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May 27 – 31 Entire absorption in another activity; the ideality continued to play of itself and to grow in quality. Rupa became increasingly powerful in Samadhi and more frequent in antardarshi. June 1. The upshot of the last month is to have founded firmly the ideality in the inferior or primary form, it is true, but with a substance of superior, that is to say, secondary ideality, and to have applied it to the whole range of thought including T2. In the latter, however, it is still weak and has comparatively little scope. The lower intellectuality is on the point of abolition but the intuitive has still its role and must keep it till the superior ideality has got into its own characteristic form and occupied the place now held by the primary ideality. Samadhi has grown greatly in strength, especially in the last few days. Rupa in swapna is very strong, various and rich and stability up to the tertiary initial is common; but the prolonged stability is only in the shadowy forms. Reading has become free and current, but not always coherent, or even when coherent, not cohesive; the sentences are sufficient to themselves and have not, except exceptionally, a visible relation to each other. Rupa is pressing forward in antardarshi, but has not yet fixed its hold on the bahirdarshi. Vishaya is still unable to break down the barrier. As a result of the work done in the last few days which was accomplished in the complete control (dasya), the passivity of the intellect has been greatly intensified and a new action is coming into being from above which evidently belongs to the secondary ideality. This is the beginning of the tertiary dasya. June 3 Secondary utthapana II.a.b. left side for more than half an hour, variation for five minutes to IIb(a), slanting upwards. The opposition to mahima and laghima was all this time entirely ineffective and in fact rare, though occasionally it recurred only to give up the attempt almost immediately. The opposition to anima,

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Record of Yoga

though recurrent, could not persist, was not vehemently recurrent and was often in abeyance. Only after more than half an hour the disinclination of the body indicated a suppressed force of denial of the utthapana shakti Rupa continues to grow in the swapna with a reflex action in the antardarshi. Stability is greatly increased. Vishaya in swapna is preparing to normalise itself. Only the self existent progress of all the parts in unison without exclusiveness or interruption has to be established. Vishaya and rupa in jagrat held on. [Half a page left blank.] June 14. For the whole first fortnight of June the active sadhana has been suspended; there has been the absorbing preoccupation of another activity. At first the play of the ideality was associated with it, but it is now abated and is turning again to the sadhana. Still, this has left behind it the beginning of a movement to substitute the ideal for the ordinary mental action in all intellectual activities, eg, poetry, study etc. The first movement has been action of the secondary utthapana. This morning. B II, left, almost entirely b, for upward of an hour; simultaneously, A.A.b1, left arm raised half way for an hour, lying on the right side, and neck, C b, in the same position. In all mahima and laghima triumphant. In B II the sharp defect of anima has lost its power of persistence and also of persistent recurrence; it occurred once or [twice]1 for a moment in the first half hour, once or twice with a more prolonged but with no very intense recurrence in the second. In C b, it came only for a time. The place of the old oppressive defect of anima has been taken by the pressure of garima on the limb, a weighing down, a sort of dull combined defect of the three qualities with the result of a temporary disinclination and declaration of inability in the body; but this could 1 MS two

21 May – 1 July 1918

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not last. It was stronger in A.A.b than in B II and in C b than in either of the other asanas. But in none could it prevail. All three might have been continued. But the object now is not, as before, to prolong the period of the asana which means only to postpone the return of the nir-utthapana, but to abolish the denial. This is being done by the will bringing in the nature of the vijnana into the body and abhyasa is now rather [ ]2 a test than a means of the siddhi. In the later morning A III; vertical position of both arms, walking, for between half an hour and an hour. Here too mahima laghima is in possession, but the defect of utthapana shakti is greater, due to the survival of the defect of anima shown by a reaction in the muscles after cessation, which was absent from the asanas of the early morning. The asana could not have been continued longer without some strain and difficulty. No evident reaction from the walking in this position. The movement is now to replace finally in trikaldrishti the action through the intellect by the action through the intuitive mind. In trikaldrishti the survival of the inferior action is strong and will take some time to eliminate. It prevents decisive trikaldrishti and perpetuates error of stress and error of interpretation of the will-messages and knowledge-messages from the ideality. Kamananda has gone back for the time being. Smarana is no longer always sufficient to recall it. Arogya also is thrown back in chronic rogas 1 and 2; but in the latter only under great stress lasting for the whole fortnight and here the siddhi tendency is evident even in failure. Ready manifestation of the lipi is also a little dulled, as well as the strong play of the swapna samadhi and rupa. The lipi suffers chiefly in legibility. The tendency to stability is strong, but resisted and embarrassed. All is, however, ready to reemerge against the strong obstruction. Full siddhi will come when interruption can no longer impair the vivacity of the siddhi. 2 MS than

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July 1s.t. On one side the absorption of work continues, on the other the sadhan is determining its upward movement. The ideality is gradually gaining upon the strong remnant of the intellectual obstruction and its obstinate lingering on the mental method of reception. The obstructed kamananda is resuming its force of sasmarana action, but has not yet reaffirmed strongly the trend to continuity. The rest of the physical siddhi does not advance.

1095

24 JUNE – 14 JULY 1919

Tuesday 24th June 1919. Today the condition of a general low tone of the being with yet a continued progress in the Yoga still continues; no depression, but a ghost of languor in the body which obstructs the channel action of the mind. The vijnana acts, but irregularly, not with a rapid or normal flow. It has not yet recovered its brightness, but is a clouded sunlight. According to the lipi there should be today some blaze of the gnosis. Now it is suggested to the mind that trikaldrishti-tapas which yesterday founded itself in this halflight is to develop farther, telepathy be farther taken up, ideal samadhi increase its hold and the physical siddhi enlarge its foundation. Some progress may also be expected with the more constant darshana of the Ananda Ishwara. Last night c¸ ukshma c¸ ravana became for a few minutes frequent and insistent; it even insisted a little to the fully waking ear and without any closing of it; but it is still faint in comparison and fragmentary. Lipi. “Life in the entire ideality: between this and February it will develop in the first basis; it is already developing.” This last statement must be understood in the sense of an initial tenuous idealising of speech and action and of result of tapas in the immediate vicinity. The gnosis is now taking up all the thought through the pragmatic form of the intuitive mentality; universalising that in the half and half intellectual ideal type, but intellect not prevailing, fixed into the ideality; the mechanical intuivity is almost entirely dismissed except in the T3.

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Record of Yoga

In T3 also the pragmatic intuitivity is establishing itself, strongest in the telepathies, but there is still an unauthorised intellectual stress of immediate fulfilment which baffles trikaldrishtic certitude. Even the trikaldrishti is pragmatic, not the highest entirely certain seeing, but gives only a practical certainty. Tapas is assuming the same kind of intuitivity. All tendencies and forces are admitted which offer themselves to the sight and now are seen in juster proportions than at any previous time. But the light is the clouded sunlight, not the full blaze of golden or fiery day. There is the blaze of the highest logistic ideality in the lipi and the thought speech, but it has not yet gained the perceptive thought, much less the T3. But as soon as this was written, that transforming movement too began. As always, it is the subjective trikaldrishti that is the first to advance; the objective is hampered by the physical obstruction. The golden but not the fiery blaze is gaining the lesser movements, including the remnants of the mechanical intuivity. Kavya for a while worked in the revelation, but was soon clouded by the obscurity of the intellectual effort. Arogya is steadily gaining in force, but with a slow pressure. The fragmentary rogas encircle dully in the subtle pranic atmosphere and touch or menace, but only hold now and then in certain residuary recurrences. The intestinal complaint is constantly reaching the vanishing point and then resuming hold, but there is nothing like the past violent returns. The restitution in the centre is only just trying to get and maintain an initial foothold; nothing evidently decisive. Samadhi completed its idealisation in the afternoon; but at night it is subject to the relapse of sleep. In the afternoon there is only at most a shadow. In the morning there is a dull struggle of sleep to keep at bay the samadhi, and when the latter occurs there is a certain persistence of incoherence especially in the settled sthira lipi. This is being diminished, but it recovers its force repeatedly.

24 June – 14 July 1919

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Ananda and secondary utthapana are for the time in intermission of progress. Wednesday 25th June. 1919 The ideality of all speech thought has long been assured; the ideality of the perceptive thought is now becoming assured, wide, universal. Only the tapas and the trikaldrishtic thought and perception remains to be similarly illumined; this has begun, but its progress is interrupted and obstructed. There is a speech thought of the nature of vani expressing the trikaldrishti which is still of the intellectual ideality or intuitivity and subject to error, but that comes only in the inertia of the mechanical mentality. This mechanical passivity has to be got rid of, all has to become an ideal c¸ amamaya activity. Passivity of the mind has now served its purpose, the mind has become a silent channel; only the obstruction of the physical brain atmosphere preserves the dull habit of this passivity, a tamasic persistence in an inert misrepresentation of the old c¸ anti. The only progress in the physical siddhi is a commencement of the idealising of the Ananda. Today the insistence on K.A. [Kama Ananda] is renewed; but the forgetfulness of the body continues. The intuitivity is strong in the K.A, only initial in the other anandas. The Ananda Ishwara is now vivid and all the action and guna has been taken up into the Anandamaya; there was a discord between the darshan of the supreme universal Anandamaya and the perception of the universal mental unideal consciousness, but this is cured and only the bridge between the Anandamaya in universal and individual and the mentality is not yet brought into light. If this is done the darshana will be complete in essence. Kamananda is again being pushed forward; the difficulties still are mechanical discontinuity, forgetfulness, mechanical diminution, the need of tapas to restore it when smarana is not sufficient, absorption, sleep. The mechanical discontinuity only prevails (1) when the energy is at a low ebb, (2) after long forgetfulness. Forgetfulness is being attacked and when the Ananda is in flow, there is usually a second memory in the body which retains it in various degrees of intensity or at least so keeps it that it is felt

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when the mind returns to some partial attention. Absorption now for the same reason does not necessarily bring discontinuity. Two movements are being carried on, (1) removal of exclusive absorption, the simultaneity of a double memory or concentration, (2) the inability of absorption to bring about complete discontinuity. These siddhis formerly only hinted at or momentarily accomplished, are now beginning to establish themselves, however imperfectly. Old occupations which excluded memory of K A are now admitting it, eg reading, writing, bathing, eating. There are two absorptions, the luminous concentration and the tamasic “absence” of the part of the mind not occupied in the particular work; the latter is the only real difficulty; it is not really an absence, but an involution in tamas, a sort of cloud of inertia, which is physically sensible all about the brain or near it. Telepathic thought in its lowest mental form is being idealised on these levels. K.A maintained throughout the day, even during absorbed writing and in conversation when it is apt to cease, but not without interruptions of forgetfulness. The body is not yet in secure possession of it, owing to a constant pressure for exclusion from the opposing forces. Finesse was again used in the vijnana-siddhi in the evening; the whole mass of the old basic intellectuality was re-presented and the mind plunged into it, the ideality mostly held back, so that there might be a wider transformation, thought to be idealised even when occurring on the very lowest levels, even below the brain, even the thought of the chitta and the prana and the subconscious mind. Samadhi today was strongly attacked by sleep. Some beginnings of decisive ideal trikaldrishti and tapas, T2. Thursday 26th June 1919. K.A interrupted in the night by forgetfulness and listlessness, restored with a little difficulty of opposition in the morning. Continued throughout the day, but with more frequent lapses into forgetfulness. The defect of the siddhi is that as yet it does not dwell sufficiently in the body, but is rather imposed on it by the

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psychic tendency. Once begun it can continue for a time of its own motion, but for its initiation and long maintenance has to depend on smarana and needs often a will in the smarana, sometimes a forceful tapas against the obstacle. Spontaneous initiation, renewal and maintenance [have]1 been begun and at favourable times are not infrequent, but are not yet the law of the body. The struggle between sleep and continuity of the Ananda has begun, but the continuity still needs the aid of smarana and tapas and does not subsist in the deeper nidra. Samadhi has relapsed to a certain extent, is much assailed by sleep and incoherence. Its advance which was always laborious, has again become fragmentary. There is some progress in stability and vivid force of drishya, but it is again mostly chhayamaya. Extreme shadowy drishya has sometimes almost a complete stability; it then lasts long with some moments of eclipse. Combination of thought-speech, perceptive thought and lipi has begun, but with some difficulty. Ideality has been strongly attacked throughout the day, but progresses even in a general lowering, especially in telepathy and trikaldrishti. Ideality of thought is being generalised on all levels and intellectual thought is now becoming more and more the recurrence of an abnormality. The generalisation of telepathic ideality has begun on a large scale. Decisive trikaldrishti is being enforced and enlarged against great difficulty. The first two chatusthayas grow continually stronger and show this increasing strength in each fresh attack. They can only be attacked at all, and then very ineffectively, when the ideality is lowered or suspended. Arogya too is attacked; but the attack amounts to an obstruction and lowering of the tapas, not to a positive disintegration, or at most there is only a slight superficial crumbling. But progress is slow, the strong rapidity which was trying to set in, is still held 1 MS has

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back from possession. Utthapana is suspended. Bhava-saundarya is gaining in continuity and generality. Ananda Ishwara is now confirmed except in the perception of mentality which is not yet linked up with the ideal anandamaya. Friday 27t.h. June 1919 The dasya is now being perfected and made vivid; first, the dasya of the worker and instrument is made complete and perfect. To that is added the dasya of the power, dasi iswari; the difficulty was the insufficiency of the aishwarya and consequently of the sense of the Ishwari, but now the relative and progressive aishwarya is for the time being accepted. The dasya to the Guru is also added and is uniting with these forms. The dasya in the relations of friend (raised to brother, bandhu), vatsalya, father etc are being prepared for perfection and unity in the madhura. All has to be taken up into the madhura. This movement can only be perfect when the sense of the presence of the Ishwara is allowed to be nitya in its directness and vividness. At present the Ishwara still acts from behind the Shakti. Attack of roga on digestive functions suppressed by tapas after a struggle with a residue in bhava. This is only part of the general attack of vague recurrence and attempted restoration (fever, headache, cold etc); it materialises in the digestive functioning, because that is still immediately capable of brief sthula recurrence. The others are only potentially capable, except for fragmentary touches. This fragmentary recurrence has been attacked and is in process of slow diminution, but is not yet got rid of. The two constant rogas, as well as the imperfect process of evacuation still continue. Telepathy has been purified in regard to the tendencies and forces immediately affecting the adharas in action; that is to say, the insistence of a perceived tendency, force or intention on its fulfilment, the choice of one to be favoured and fulfilled without reference to the real ideality and the claim of telepathy or present trikaldrishti to figure as future drishti, of tendency, force, intention, possibility and probability to masquerade as certain result, is being eliminated from T3. The same movement is being rapidly applied to

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the forces of the vital rajasic and mental sattwic planes which stand behind the mechanism of forces of the physical plane. This will complete the present trikaldrishti, except for the right perception of the states of unseen objects which is still backward. This movement is setting free the future trikaldrishti; certitudes are already increasing, but are still for the most telepathic certitudes, that is based on present fact, and extending to primary immediate or near result, which is growing strong, to secondary farther off or intermediate results, which is growing, and final results, which is still only in initiation or else not linked in to the rest in a sufficient ideal unity. Beyond this trikaldrishtic telepathy lies the pure trikaldrishti independent of all perception of tendencies, forces, intentions. Time and detail have still to develop certitude. It is notable that there has not been in the past nor is there now any attempt, except for fragmentary illuminations, to develop trikaldrishti of the past. This is partly due to the nature of the adhara in which the mind has always been concentrated on the present and the future, and subjected to a deficient memory from which past events have quickly faded. In part it is due to the mentality of the age which has taken in the adhara an extreme form, except that this individual mind goes back readily to a far past in which the future was prefigured. Pain and discomfort are being strongly taken up by the Ananda. Today all pain and discomfort, the former even very acute and of some little persistence, the latter massive and oppressive, were permeated with Ananda. Only violent and very oppressive yantrana or discomfort has still to be taken up. Samadhi is recovering force and coherent ideality, though with difficulty, yet rapidly. Saturday June 28t.h. 1919 Today, a rapid progress in T2 is intended. Incertitude must be largely replaced by certitude, the activities taken up which are still left to the relics of the [intellectuality];2 all universalised in the blaze of the ideality. 2 MS ideal[it]y

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The foundation of continuity in K.A is now securely laid in spite of some appearances; but the continuity itself is interrupted by forgetfulness and cessation of interest or capacity in the body. But these three things and especially the last are not only mechanical, but abnormal, the results of a strong hostile pressure from outside which takes advantage of the mechanical memory of old habit in the body. Sleep and absorption are now the only real difficulties, both have begun to yield to the siddhi. The ideality is now busy with the trikaldrishti, taking up and fighting all the old confusions. When done on the higher level, this process proceeds harmoniously with little flaw or mistake; on the lower level it is a slower progress of order in the midst of a chaos. All telepathies are now justified but at the moment the old intellectual intervention of false stress continually returns in a less or a greater degree. This difficulty is chiefly felt with regard to rapidly changing action. Other defects of the ideality are also being taken up for correction Samadhi in the afternoon was overpowered by a persistent unnaturally deep sleep, but the samadhi power, though it could not persevere, broke to a certain extent into the nidra. There are now frequent lapses into the idealised mentality and from there into the tamas of the physical obstruction. The Ananda perseveres, but does not increase, forgetfulness still besieges. The other siddhis are obstructed and some of the physical subject to a certain limited relapse. The defect of the traigunya siddhi is that tapasic stress on the one hand, inertia of mental shama with tamas breaking across it and sometimes possessing cling to the mind by a sort of external affecting adhesion. This is being remedied first by an increasing externalisation of the inferior tapas, next by the increasing prakasha of the shamas. But until both tapas and shama are full of the vijnana jyotis, “the blaze of the ideality”, the siddhi will not be complete and faultless. Ideality recovered itself. In the Samadhi, symbolic figure of a dark (blue-black) moon with a shapeless reproduction of it below; above-round the small sphere a blaze of sunlight on one side. This

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meant the dark Soma (intuitive mind-orb, ananda consciousness, with the jyoti involved in it), emitting the jyoti, the other the intellectual reflection. The suryamandala is the symbol of the vijnana. The ideality was of this character. From the shama enveloping the mind activity came the initial blaze of the ideality in the trikaldrishti tapas. The rest, thought-speech, perceptive thought acted with the same anandamaya shama emitting jyoti. Torpor of the kamananda in the evening and night. Much alasya of the body thrown off partly by tapas. Aprakasha is disappearing; but physical inertia still keeps a certain hold of recurrence and a besieging potentiality. From the alasya comes pramada, a negligence and confusion in the action of thought and perception. Coherent symbolic dream in Samadhi Sunday 29th June 1919. In samadhi coherence gained ground in the lipi. There was a whole passage written successively with perfect coherence of thought and word, in spite of one or two attempts of the besieging incoherence. Incoherence remains especially when the lipi written or printed comes in large masses, but it is evidently a receding, though still persistent force. This is in a middlingly deep nidra; the deepest nidra is yet to be invaded and taken into possession by samadhi. The ideality is to open into blaze today, to get a certain initial perfection in such fullness and range as is at present possible. This movement is to be completed tomorrow. Samadhi, today and tomorrow, is to round into the ideality. Ananda to advance, pressure on the obstruction to the other physical siddhis. Ananda Ishwara. The Ananda Ishwara darshana is persistently bridging the gulf; the perception of the Anandamaya in objects is pouring into and taking up the personal mental consciousness. This movement has to be completed in perfection. There is as yet no sign of the fulfilment of the proposed advance; but a siege and a reduction of ideality to the intuitive mentality, chandramandala. There has even come a touch and strong persistence of the old asamata, physical but with a nervous

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and emotional excitement of the physicality containing all the old symptoms. It has a curious symbolic form as of a small circular touch on the middle of the breast like a rupee, trying to extend rays of asukha and asanti, but prevented for the most part by the tapas. This is followed by an attempt to throw in scattering currents of duhkha as through subtle nerve currents. The whole disturbance comes from an illegitimate attempt from outside to bring the action of the chandramandala to replace the surya action. The blaze of the surya action is now taking possession, forcing aside the minor soma action. The attack of the asamata falls away from the surya blaze; it subsists only by a reflex of the ineffective chandra action which is easily attackable by the old deficiencies. The blaze brings also the light of the trikaldrishti. A crisis has also been brought about in the Ananda, which failed in the interval, there has also been a strong attack of fatigue tamas. The Ananda disability is being pushed aside by the surya action, the fatigue combated by surya tapas. Samadhi in its lighter forms is acclimatising the blaze of the Surya. In the waking state the highest ideality is still combated by the mind’s persistence in the intuitive chandra mould and in the lower forms of the intellectualised surya ideality, but it is making the other movements its own. The difficulty is with the T3. In the K.A. the intuitive substance of Ananda is more intense and tries to subsist as against the slighter substance of the suryamaya; but the latter is persisting and taking possession. The Surya blaze has now taken preliminary possession of T3 as well as thought speech and thought perception; only the remnants of the chandra intuivity still resist the assumption. Ananda darshana is also assuming the Surya form and the Surya Ananda. K.A too is now more readily running in the Surya mould; the Chandra intensity is being rapidly extruded. There is now a descent of the Surya towards the sunlit intellectuality, for this has to be taken up as the mental base of the ideality and the whole mentality illumined into a silent channel and then a logistic form of the gnosis. Wherever the surya ideality

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or the illumined intuitive intellect does not act, there the chandra intuitivity with its infinite of possibility and incertitude is still active. Surya is taking possession also of the sun of the imagination. Monday 30th June 1919. The Surya action limited by the sunlit intellectual intuitivity and the remnants of the Chandra intuitivity continues its gradual process of assumption. The blaze of the ideality has spread itself and can now hold all the thought and thought-speech and the telepathies, but is still impeded in T2 by the incertitudes of the mentality. In the telepathies it is a modified and quiet light, but in the rest a fuller stronger blaze with flashes of Agni and Vidyut; the latter suggest the supreme vidyunmaya Ananda chandra. The Surya power is now also acting as tapas on the obstacles to the Arogya and the utthapana, but these are strong and persistent in their pressure. The Samadhi is still being taken up by the Surya power only in antardarshi jagrat and the lighter depths. Deep nidra is still only invaded on its borders and gives at best coherent dream with a touch of misplaced ideality. The ideality in the afternoon has been extending itself with a certain slow deliberateness. It is taking up telepathic trikaldrishti of time, place and circumstance, things neglected or else unsuccessfully attempted by the former sadhana; this is because the mental telepathic indications abound around every isolated certitude and bring in a besieging error and incertitude. These indications have yet to be reduced to their correct proportions before much headway can be made. This operation is now commenced on a slight scale. Time now is often correct and correctness of place and successive or surrounding circumstance is sometimes added. All the movements of the Ananda are being taken up by Surya. For some time the Chandra was being excluded whenever it came; and for that reason, the intensities fell away; for all the intensities were chandramaya; but now the intensities are also being reduced to the sun-ideality. Forgetfulness is still strong; but the partial conquest

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of it is being taken up, although the dependence on memory and attention predominates. Slight extension of ideality at night. Samadhi successful only in the early morning; rupa, stable in action as well as status, in deeper samadhi, also tejomaya; also sufficiently coherent lipi. Attack of fragmentary roga at night, much diminished by tapas. July. Tuesday July 1s.t. 1919 The month of June has been a period of the overcoming of difficulties in the central ideality, in the Ananda Ishwara Darshana and in the Kama Ananda, a combat with difficulties and slow varying progress in some elements of Carira ¸ siddhi. The first two chatusthayas have enormously increased in breadth, power and finality, though not yet absolutely secure against superficial fragmentary and momentary disturbance. Brahma chatusthaya has enlarged in base and scope and taken on the supreme Ishwara, Purusha form. It has only to be thoroughly confirmed and filled in with the jnana, etc by the gnosis. The difficulty is almost eliminated in all the central ideality except the T3. There it is being removed and has to be eliminated partially or wholly during the month of July. Perfection prepared by the last month’s work has to be initially founded in the highest logistic ideality. In Samadhi and rupa vishaya the obstacles have to be still overcome; in the former they have a diminished, in the latter a complete persistence. The difficulties of Ananda have to be obliterated and spontaneity, continuity and intensity fixed in the system. The difficulties of the arogya have to be attacked and brought to nothing; this is possible in July, but not yet certain. The utthapana and saundarya are likely to be longer hampered and are not likely to come to anything very considerable till the closing months of the year. Ananda Brahman has to be filled in with the guna and jnana. The attack of the rogas of cold, cough, eye-disease are now attempting to materialise in the night, taking advantage of the

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slightest exposure, because then owing to sleep the tapas is not active and the prana is more vulnerable. This night owing partly to previous tapas the attack was neither so successful nor so forcible. Eye disease is now operating in the sukshma showing there its symptoms and trying to impress them on the physical body by the sraddha in the disease; it is combated by tapas and by sraddha in arogya and is not so far successful except very superficial[ly], and this slight superficial result is now more easily removed by tapas as soon as the body rises. It is now quite evident that the source of disease is psychical, not physical; it is due to failure of tapas, idea of ill-health, weakness of the prana-shakti, faith in ill-health in the physical body. Faith with knowledge from the ideality is now powerful to combat it, though not yet entirely to eliminate; for the body is still subject to the mental suggestions from the outside forces. The rupa is commencing again; some crude rupas, some images of things immediately or habitually seen, some of things not habitually seen; but all are momentary and unstable except the crude rupas. There is a tendency also to resume the old abandoned rupas, ghana, etc. It is intimated that this time there will be a real recommencement and steady progress. In spite of strong dullness of physical tamas ideality advances; a flood of ideal telepathy is taking up even the subconscious indications. Trikaldrishti is slowly elevating itself beyond the telepathies. K.A dull but with occasional intensities In Samadhi in the afternoon strong invasion of the deep nidra by the ideality; especially strong in lipi, but also in thought, interpretation of rupa and lipi, trikaldrishti of siddhi, dialogue etc. Most of these are still fragmentary. The ideality was inspired vijnana besieged by intellectuality, but subsequently was partly taken up by the revelatory vijnana. In lighter samadhi increased organisation and power of the gnosis. Ideality is extending itself largely, tapas becoming idealised and powerful, but at present there is some confusion in the brihat, the ritam is not properly placed very often, owing to the interference of telepathic intellectuality. In the evening struggle with attack of roga; slight fragmentary

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materialisations, especially of occasional cough. Action of general ishita, general and particular aishwarya, vashita upon the symptoms. The affection at night very occasional. The mind no longer adversely affects the result, but the habitual mind of the body still persists in trying to repeat the regulations of the malady. On this the tapas is beginning to act with an initial success. Samadhi in the night and morning ineffective or difficult and slight in result; a tendency of fragmentariness and incoherence. There are certain first indications of future siddhi, not yet able to persist in formation, but amounting to decisive hints of a preparation behind in the over-idea. Wednesday July 2 1919. A certain lapse towards intellectuality, intended to show the extent of the persistence of intellect in the ideal action and by a clearer distinctness base a firmer action of the T3. The defect of the intellectual mixture lies mainly in an undue stress on active possibilities which brings in a continual error and incertitude. The possibilities have to be seen around the decisive certitude. The thought of the T2, other than that of the sadhana and inner action, is growing in ideality and certitude, but is yet lacking in perfection. A still more decided and well-justified certitude is beginning. Rupa is rapidly redeveloping various forms of ghana, developed and perfect as well as the different materials, notably colour, as also combined rupas and groups, but all this is only in the old initial form. The fugitiveness is modifying towards [a]3 yet illdecided initial or momentary stability. The method of development has yet to be changed to the ideality. In Samadhi, first an initial variety of complete and initially stable crude rupas in antardarshi (long-withheld and appearing to be condemned to infruition), in swapna brilliant momentary tejomaya figures and scenes in a first attempt at abundance, the movement cut short by nidra. In nidra a confused, partly coherent, partly incoherent generalisation of, first, intellectualised and then 3 MS an

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intuitive ideality. In lighter samadhi organisation of highest logistic ideality. Complete and distinct combined crude figures and scenes, but distinct in an indistinctness. Tapas is now trying to come up to trikaldrishti. At first strain of tapas ordinarily fulfilling itself against fluctuations, but afterwards the fluctuations or opposite forces often prevailed, definitely or for a time, but all tapas is now being put in its place, as has already been done with trikaldrishti. Tapas decisively indicative of ideal certitude has begun, but has to be normalised. The difference is that trikaldrishti comes as the seeing idea carrying [in it]4 fulfilling tapas, ideal tapas as the seeing force with the sight subordinate indicating its certitude of effectuation. No advance in the evening or night; roga (throat) attacked suddenly and held for a while but was lessened almost immediately and dismissed after a while though with slight after effects, much exaggerated in appearance, but with little material solidity. They were at once and easily dismissed in the morning. Thursday July 3. 1919 The T3 on the level of the old telepathies is now turning finally to T2, telepathy enlightened by the ideality taking the form of present trikaldrishti. This is imperfect still, because elements of old telepathy are still imported into it, but these are being steadily eliminated and exist mainly in stress of telepathic tapas which is lessening rapidly. When the light of the ideality is withdrawn, T3 returns, but that too is being immediately seized on and converted into an indirect gnosis. Tapas is resigning its strain of effort towards self-effectuation; it has for a long time been lessened, is now greatly diminished and is nearing the line of disappearance. Active trikaldrishti of future is still niggardly in spite of occasional freer movements, as distinguished from general sadhana prevision; it is this which still gives room to some persistence of modified tapasic stresses. Knowledge and will are becoming more and more an expression of being, rather than detached observer and actor on being. 4 MS it in

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The removal of the remaining stress of tapas is now the key; but this cannot be done without a normalised self-effective ideal tapas; at present it exists only in type, usually of a mixed and imperfect kind. Tapas used by itself still tends to bring back confusion. Samadhi at first ineffective owing to nidra. Afterwards strong organisation of the various action of gnosis in the lighter samadhi; also in deeper swapna with a gnostic waking control, jagrat in swapna, even in a considerable depth. Lax swapna without waking control is also being idealised, dream interpreted, analysed, turned into vision and thought of samadhi. This interpretation is done partly in antardarshi, partly in swapna. Only deep tamasic nidra still resists in some entirety, but that too has a pursuing touch of vijnana and is sometimes invaded by some gnosis. Tapas is putting aside more effectively strain of effort for selfeffectuation, though it is not entirely cleared away out of the whole action; but at times it is pure. Tapastya, tapatya, tapata continue, in their absence, the tapas is still inert and not directly effective, but they act without strain, only as degrees of impersonal insistence: they are all to be replaced by tapana, the fire of surya in the will-powers. This is done in telepathic tapas. Trikaldrishtic tapas occurs more frequently, but is still rare. There is already a tendency for trikaldrishti and tapas, knowledge and will, to combine more closely and become one. In the central roga there is some increase of the tendency of siddhi, more effective insistence of tightness mending the subsidiary looseness of the centre which is the immediate cause of all the roga. Looseness now comes less often without cause as a mechanical habit, more often with pressure of causes; but the causes of looseness are beginning to become causes of health and force. These changes are still not quite firm at the root and tend to fluctuate; there is a mixed action. In cold etc health in the daytime holds sway; attacks are lessened in force and persistence, but touch once or twice in sleep or recumbence by physical laxity. Utthapana is weak and afflicted. K. Ananda is reviving after a time of suppression subsequent to the change of character. It is still very intermittent. In the attendant script it was suggested yesterday that there will still be difficulty,

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but the ananda will fix itself this week, by the 7th, in the intensities first, then in the continuity. In July it will endure Friday, Saturday. 4th 5th July 1919 Preoccupation with writing; in the ideality a rather confused process of righting and arrangement of telepathy, tapas, relative trikaldrishti. Tapas is farther getting rid of the relics of stress, both understress and overstress, trikaldrishti striving towards a greater general and detailed certitude. Attack of roga, cough at night; K.A fitful and uncertain. In Samadhi growth of frequency of stability in shadowy rupas. Some progress of sahitya. Sunday 6th July 1919 In the early morning incoherent dream turned suddenly into dream symbol recurring and progressing even after intermediate wakings. Ideality of a loose kind in the nidra. Trikaldrishti, tapas, telepathy are now combining definitely into one movement which is beginning to rise above the constant uneven balancings of the two opposite perceptions, that of the powers and tendencies of the present and what they mean and presage, and that of the other powers and forces which attempt to create a future not bound by the probabilities of the present. In the intuitive mind the first corresponds to the current habitual understanding in the intellectual reason, the second to the pragmatic reason and will, a third range of perceptions to the truthseeking reason. In the gnosis the lowest or primary logistic gnosis, of the nature of the intuition of the immediate, is strongest in the light of the present and proceeds from that to the other truths, it is more fitted for present telepathy than for future trikaldrishti. The secondary logistic gnosis of the nature of inspiration, is a sort of creative or forecasting light and gives best the tapas of the future, the will at work now and hereafter for effectuation. The tertiary logistic gnosis of the nature of revelation lifts up both these powers, gives them its own light and fuses perfectly the two elements of perception. It is here that the real trikaldrishti becomes facile. It is to this revelatory light that the T3 is trying to rise so as to become entirely T2. But it would also seem that the full

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power of trikaldrishti belongs to a higher vijnana than the logistic gnosis. Tertiary dasya is now becoming very intense in its power; there is little questioning as to what should or should not be thought, done or spoken, but only the force compelling the thought, act or speech and its acceptance by the yantra. This is strongest in action, weakest in speech, because speech has always been for a long time past spoken mostly without reflection or thought from the speech centre and not the thought centre, the latter only cooperating sometimes or in a vague fashion, but only recently has there been some beginning of the idealised speech. In samadhi much and increasing activity of rupa. In antardarshi, in which as in jagrat rupa has long been violently obstructed and almost suppressed, there is now a stirring. But samadhi is now a little inactive. Monday July 7. 1919 Indications of fresh initiations of progress in the morning. The dasya is now rapidly growing in intensity; perfect tertiary dasya of thought is coming with the growth of the highest logistic ideality. Primary dasya has long since been taken up [ ]5 into the secondary, the Jiva into the Jiva-Prakriti (primary dasya is when the jiva acts consciously in obedience to the prakriti as the executrix of the Ishwara or to the Ishwara acting through the varying forces of the prakriti or those which she guides or drives as an imperative force). The secondary dasya in which the Prakriti uses the instrument and itself obeys the Ishwara, but guided as if from behind a veil and more immediately using her own forces for the satisfaction of his ganas, the devatas, is now coming to a close; it is being taken up into the tertiary dasya. This is now an action of the gnostic devatas in the Prakriti with the sense of the Ishwara immediately behind them; but the Ishwara also begins again to be directly manifest in the guidance and the Person. This is growing; meanwhile the Prakriti is unifying with the Purusha and the Ishwara directly or through the Deva-shaktis driving the instrument with an absolute 5 MS or

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and immediately and intensely felt decisiveness of control as if it were being pushed by him with his hand upon it and it vibrated with the ananda of the touch and the driving. This is in thought and still more vividly in action. Some shadow of the old dasyas persist in a subordinate sensation. The highest ideality is now acting in jnana frequently with a complete possession; only, when the thought tapas is relaxed or there is some other preoccupation, the older state of mixed intuitive mind and lower gnosis holds predominance. Very little remnant of intellectuality is left in existence; only some after effect of it is left in the lowest action of the intuitive perception. Little samadhi; activity of clear crude rupa in antardarshi Kama Ananda is now acting easily enough, but forgetfulness of other preoccupation is still strong in actuality; it has not been immediately abolished. In a sense however the Ananda may be said to be always there in an active or suppressed condition. The process of filling in the T2 with the light of the highest logistic ideality has now begun to move forward again with rapidity, the general thought being already totally enlightened. All this is still in the secondary ideality suffused with the light of the tertiary gnosis. Certitude in trikaldrishti is now being enforced; the telepathies that give the wrong stresses are being enlightened in those stresses, they are being turned into the truth of idea-forces of being, each with its own provisional certitude. This is one part of the process of transmutation. The other is to fix the right proportions, no longer in the intuitivity as was done before, but in the light of the true ideality and increasingly of the highest logistic gnosis, and to multiply the perceptions of the idea force which is destined to immediate or subsequent effectuation. A general idea of the time is growing. Place and circumstance as yet are only hinted or seen but with incertitude in the intuitive mind. This process already applied to prevision in the sadhana is now being applied to seen objects and their movements in the immediate vicinity. Distant sight is still in the imperfect telepathic condition, as also telepathy of thought (very fragmentary) and mental movements, the latter often vivid, abundant and accurate. Perception of the physical forces and sadhana is still subject to great incertitudes, as also that of distant eventuality.

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K.A is now in a way settled in the body, thus fulfilling the suggestion about the 7th; but the intensities vary and there is not perfect continuity when the mind is turned away entirely from the body. Nevertheless the opening of a double consciousness which has the full mental or gnostic activity and below it the sense of the body has definitely set in in spite of frequent intermittence. At night rupa in samadhi accompanied by shabda, sparsha and shabda speech. Shabda speech also in antardarshi. Until now night brought back the consciousness to a lower level, but this habit of the physical being is now being attacked; it is not yet overcome, but the force of the habit is diminished. Roga also recurred at night, but this time it was attacked with great force by the gnostic tapas and overcome; cough and sensation though not actuality of catarrh. These things however still besiege in the subtle molecular body. Tuesday July 8th 1919. The action of the trikaldrishti continues to expand in the ideality, on the same lines. K.A grows in insistence of continuity, though with the same essential fluctuations. There is some constant insistence now on the arogya siddhi, but chiefly in the subtle physicality; the old fragmentarised rogas touch, but can almost immediately be quelled by the tapas. In the afternoon a complete invasion of the deeper and deepest nidra by the samadhi; all was to a greater or lesser extent idealised. In the lighter depths complete ideality and an almost complete initial coherence of lipi etc. In the deeper nidra a more forcibly imposed and sometimes broken ideality. Coherence has set in; the incoherence is chiefly in incompleteness and fragmentation; the thing begun goes on well enough, but is suddenly broken off and another lipi etc starts in its place; but the chaotic entire incoherence was only occasional and immediately tended to change to coherence. Dream is being regularised and interpreted so far as it goes, though subject to fragmentation, or is replaced by vision. The highest logistic ideality is now entirely taking up the lipi, in the midst of an attack of the old environing intellectuality; but

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this cannot any longer organise itself for thought action; it can only obstruct without entirely preventing the ideal action. At night no action of the ideality, but only connected dream Wednesday, July 9th 1919 The tertiary logistis is developing itself, but on the third or lowest scale in its three forms, the intuitive, inspired and revelatory forms of the intuitive revelation. This is in spite of the lowering of the system and a dull inactive siege of the substance of intuitive mentality (on which the gnosis is acting to transform it) by the environing intellectual forces. These produce no intellectual thought, but only semi-intellectualised motions of the intuitive mental stuff, with certain dull memories of the asamata. The capacity of the system to respond when vehemently forced to touches of asamata suggestion is therefore not destroyed, nor can be till the physical mentality is idealised without any remnant of intellectual suggestion. Predicted in the script today, “This afternoon a great advance in samadhi.. Today, a great advance in K.A... The highest ideality to be in full possession, though in the lower form.” This at the time seemed improbable, but has been not only accurately but fully executed. This shows a great advance in the suggestive script, which used formerly to be only partially fulfilled, the opposition at once proceeding with success to frustrate it, or else only fulfilled later at another time and under other circumstances Samadhi, in deep nidra, was entirely of the ideality, where not drowned in tamas, though of a dream ideality, more than the gnosis of actuality. In lighter sleep there was no nidra or dream, but pure samadhi, dream being replaced by definite, coherent and intelligible vision of other worlds etc; all was besides of the highest ideality, which took entire possession of antardarshi and lighter swapna. These results may be considered as fixed; for however they may be attacked, they can no longer be thrown back towards asiddhi. The highest ideality also took possession of thought, thoughtspeech, lipi, telepathy, tapas and trikaldrishti, the latter still a little besieged by incertitude and not yet free and ample.

1116

Record of Yoga

K.A is now fixed in being, always felt when there is smarana, but often reduced to a very low intensity, just above the zero of definite cessation. It is now intense, persistent sometimes in sensation even against forgetfulness. The intensity is of a firm and growing force, though not secure against downward fluctuations In Samadhi sthula sukshma-shabda of speech in swapna and antardarshi, the latter mostly when it is on the borders of or verging towards swapna. Taste in samadhi comes, but rarely, as also touch; smell has not yet come back to the samadhi experience Roga rejected in the night, in spite of some slight rain exposure; only a strong but brief touch in both hands of phlegmatic roga, one only sukshma. Thursday July 10th Ideality a little suppressed; the intuitive mentality is externalised, it is now the environing power and not the intellectuality. The substance of consciousness is imperfectly idealised in the true ideality, but responds easily to intuitive mental touches and under pressure reverts superficially to its former type. Only when quite possessed by the ideal action is it an almost entirely gnostic consciousness. The final transformation is now to proceed to its completion today. Lipi “Tomorrow incomple[te] perfection of the transformation.” All the crude rasas have occurred with some force and frequency, pure or mixed, and some definitive rasas. Sukshma gandha has also recommenced; but there is still some massing of physical obstruction. K.A is now continuous, in varying intensities, except when [there is]6 absorption; this is the last refuge of the mind’s forgetfulness, except for sleep which brings about cessation. After the night’s sleep there is a touch of the old difficulty of recovery, but it is slight and more of a physical reminiscence than an essential reality. It is indicated that the K.A today is to attack and get rid of the obstacle of the absorption. This has now already begun; the thought and thought speech no longer interfere with the continuity of the 6 MS their

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ananda, or have only a slight tendency towards such interference. There remains the absorption with objects and work or action. This also is being removed, but the obstacle is stronger here; it brings momentary forgetfulness. These siddhis have long been insisted on and acquired in the type by the tapas, but they have been repeatedly lost and failed to achieve universality and finality. This time the siddhi is stronger; it remains to be seen whether it is final against absorption in pressure of work or strong concentration on objects. The fluctuation of intensity is here an obstacle, as the lesser intensity is unfavourable to the conquest of absorption. It is suggested that this also will be accomplished today, but will have to be confirmed in the following two or three days. The obstacle to the memory is the clouding of a certain substance of mentality which gets into the way of the rest of the consciousness: the ideality can concentrate completely on thought the power of thought and yet have plenty of power of attention for other simultaneous experience; this is the principle of multiple concentration in a general embracing infinite consciousness, the divine vijnana. Initially in a very restricted type this is beginning. As the remnants of the old mentality disappear as a result of their present constant progressive diminution, dilution and exclusion, the simultaneous mental and bodily consciousness will be without farther obstacle, except that of sleep, which is already conquered in the type, but has to be conquered in the universality Lipi “Traigunyasiddhi in the physical mentality to be established without farther delay” This is already beginning, but not yet in complete perfection. Highest ideality T2 is generalising itself, in the immediate consciousness; it is still defective or limited in certitude in the field of external observation. The sukshma gandha is stronger and has a more essential hold than before, but is not [ ]7 free yet to develop its new power, the physical obstruction is still heavy and effective. Rasa is as before, but more rapidly varied when it is allowed to come. Sparsha too has begun, but so far in the old touches. 7 MS yet

1118

Record of Yoga

Previsions in script. (1) Decisive trikaldrishti today begins to be generalised. (2) Fuller and greater progress in Samadhi. (3) K.A to conquer all the difficulties with an initial finality.. (4) Rupa and vishaya today in the jagrat firmly. Sahaituka kamananda, long discontinued, is beginning, but at first only in touches though these are increasing in frequency. They result from any touch on the body; there is frequently a mixture of it in the tivra. This rule is now suddenly established fully in the type, every strongly sensible touch is bringing the K.A with or without other anandas, tivra, vishaya, raudra, vaidyuta. The prediction of the Ananda is likely to be fulfilled in all the range of the five anandas. Raudra is now universalised; all touches of pain with rare exceptions bring in ananda, either at once or in the second instant after the touch. Vaidyuta is also beginning to resume and enlarge its operation. But it has still to be idealised as well as the three other Anandas. K.A itself is not yet idealised in perfection. In Samadhi all is either highest ideality or dream ideality; but images of actuality are now commencing and all is turning towards the real reality. The pressure of the highest ideality increases with a constant though still obstructed rapidity. The samadhi was today much besieged by nidra. At night nidra prevailed and there was no progress. K.A continued its insistence. Even in the prolonged writing it maintained itself in spite of pressure of obstruction, but there was a continual recurrence of forgetfulness due to excessive absorption. At night there was something of a collapse; tamas took hold of the system. Rupa in jagrat today threw out some new brilliant forms, but did not seem to fulfil the presage in the script; vishaya, after enforcing itself in gandha and rasa and a slight renewal of sparsha, failed to develop sravana or a decisive beginning in sparsha. Health is obstructed, relapses a little sometimes and makes no definitive progress, but only certain indications of the increasing arogya tapas. Highest logistis continues to extend itself in the T2 and the whole thought ideality

24 June – 14 July 1919

1119

Friday. July 11t.h. This morning there is the return of the besieging intellectualised intuitive mentality. K A is persistent, but uncertain in its incidence. These two siddhis are advancing under difficulties; the thought is besieged by uncertainty and the intellectual confusion. There is a movement towards trikaldrishti of circumstance, but though the circumstances seen are actual and true, they are not seen in their right order and incidence, owing to the intuivity which takes possession of them before their logistic revelation The interruptions of K.A are being reduced to momentary forgetfulness; the mind is almost immediately recalled to the Ananda. This is gaining in spite of massings of the tamasic stuff of mental oblivion. There is even often a simultaneous forgetfulness and oblivion, part of the mind absorbed, part of it conscious of the Ananda. It is intimated in the script that whatever forgetfulness or interruptions there may be the K A will in these three days fix its irrevocable continuity. Ananda usually pervades constantly the lower part of the body, less constantly the arms, intermittently the upper body, very rarely the head. There is now insistence on complete pervasion. Sahaituka is increasing its frequency and incidence. Ananda in the head is now constantly recurring and making for continuity, but there is a tendency for it to shift from one part to the other alternately; it has to be fixed in a complete pervasion. No definite progress in Samadhi, only continuance. The K.A fluctuates, owing to the lapse of the being towards the intuitive mentality. In that mentality there is the absorption of the mind in the thought because it has to listen and attend, the limited concentration, the forgetfulness of other things. The gnosis illumines easily without need of this strenuous concentration; it is capable of a multiple concentration. When the ideality is at work and the system full of the ideality, then the K.A proceeds without any but momentary lapses into oblivion. Chitra in some abundance, but unstable. Repetition of vishayas, gandha, rasa, touches of old sparsha, but on a small scale. In Samadhi great abundance of lipi of all kinds, in a successive flow of sentences, but with some incoherence, and without a link of intelligent succession in the flow. Only in the lighter swapna is

1120

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there full ideality. Some plenty of shadowy rupa, but insufficient stability. Easily dispelled touches of roga. Saturday July 12. Imperfect recovery of vijnana. There is a varying between intuitive mentality, intuitive and inspired ideality and the highest ideality with much of the old mixture. Attack of roga, violent in the subtle body. There is an intense struggle between roga and physical health, the latter supported by the tendency to arogya. The occasion is the exposure to damp cold air at night; the old bodily tendency wishes to reply at once with fever, cold, cough, etc, the health force wants to get back to the state after Alipur yoga when the body was impervious to illness and get rid of the subsequent morbid sensibility. The ideal arogya itself is a different thing which yet waits to take direct possession of the body. In Samadhi relapse to unidealised nidra with difficulty held up to occasional highest ideality The system is returning to the ideality. Highest inspired ideality and a little of highest revelatory gnosis with an intuitional basis is taking possession of the lipi. Inspired highest gnosis is also taking possession of the thought-speech and initially of the perceptions; in the latter it is the highest intuition packed with inspiration. In T2 the mixed movements are being rejected and pure highest ideality insisted on though with some difficulty; yet with a steady progression. K.A is also reviving its force which has been low owing to the depressed state of the physical shakti. Chitra and fragmentary vishaya but no definite progress. Roga has been strong in the subtle sharira (feverish symptoms), but little manifestation in the body except depression and a sensation of weakness combated by the pranic tapas. Arogya force is changing to the ideal tapas, but not yet visibly in the physical body. Roga conquered in the evening. Sunday July 13th 1919 In the morning highest inspired revelatory gnosis and revelatory with inspirational basis take possession of lipi, thought-speech

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and perception. T2 is still in the same condition but has begun to be taken up a little. To get rid of the remnants of mental effort and allow the vijnana to act with an entire freedom on the passive system is now the condition of rapid progress. K.A has recovered, but is still subject to forgetfulness of absorption. The pervasiveness is now in a way established from head to foot, but the intensity is still liable to frequent loss or depression or diminution and the insufficient intensity brings with it the other imperfections. The body is still liable to the sense of lassitude and weakness. Immediately afterwards K.A recovered all its intensity. When this is present forgetfulness can only be momentary, except in case of very strong absorption in which case the intensity still tends to fade. In Samadhi there is again the full force of the ideality in spite of some heavy nidra; but as yet no definite forward progress, only a preparation. The dream ideality is still strong, not replaced by the actuality. The kamananda invaded the deeper samadhi and even the nidra, but with a frequent recurrence, not in continuity. It is however attacked then by the degradatory change to a negative form; intense but of the impure anandamaya, (negative electrical reaction.) Intensity of the ideality seems to be established in spite of some tendency to relapse; the old thin ananda is being excluded from the system. The precise trikaldrishti is again being taken up; the decisive trik. now manifests in the intuitive form through an obstructing veil of mentality; it is correct when it is not modified by the mental stuff; modified it gives the general fact accurately but not the circumstance. The pure intuitive mental trik. is often accurately correct up to a certain point, but often errs in some details of the circumstance, but always in arrangement, not in fact of tendency or actual potentiality: the intellectualised intuitivity of the mind is always a confusion, but this now only occurs when there is mental tapas and insistence on the siddhi. K.A. less insistent during the latter part of the day. In Samadhi at night no progress

1122

Record of Yoga

Saturday July 14th 1919 In the morning progress only in trikaldrishti tapas. The system lowered to the intuitive mentality; in that mentality the habitual mind set to work and all its excesses and stresses set finally right, then this habitual mechanical intuivity rejected for the pragmatic intuitivity. This finality was effected by every suggestion being at once stripped of certainty; it fell then to its right proportion; the habit of insisting because many suggestions proved correct, was finally killed; whatever recurs will now be an involuntary habit of response with no vitality in it, a suggestion from outside unable to command credit. The pragmatic intuivity is being similarly dealt with and replaced by the real intuivity. As yet the highest intuivity has not been separately handled for finality. The next difficulty is the insistence of a mental intuivity responding to the gnosis or rather catching at it before it is formed on its own plane. This is possible because that was always the real nature of mental thought and the whole mentality is not yet possessed by the gnosis. This action is henceforth mainly that of the highest or truth reflecting intuivity which has taken into itself the abandoned mechanical and pragmatic action. The truth reflecting intuitivity is now put into its proper place. It has to be replaced entirely in T2 by the ideality: but in this operation there are still considerable difficulties. The chief is the persistence in the stuff of the intuitive mentality of the habit of catching at the gnostic light instead of allowing it to manifest in its own way, on its own level and illumine the mentality. The other difficulties are incidental and secondary, but considerable. They all arise from old habits and limitations. In samadhi at first pressure of nidra. Afterwards complete ideality. Kamananda in samadhi, more continuous, but not any complete continuity. Mostly thought; no lipi or drishya. T2, but in the intuitive mentality, corrected by modified or mentalised gnosis. Tapas still too insistent sometimes in the mentality. Modified gnosis gives only a relative certitude. Mental preparation of T2 of gnosis. K.A distressed and thin in the morning, not quite suppressed, sometimes vaguely intense, but not in possession of the sthula

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body and subject to oblivion. In the afternoon a growing force of intensity; full recovery now in the evening. Roga still in fragments more or less frequent of occurrence. The two chief rogas continue, there is here no progress visible except a slight almost imperceptible strengthening under pressure in the central difficulty. Sharp continuous and recurrent pain acutely localised in one spot on the left side of the stomach; yielding slowly but not quite to local pressure of tapas. Ananda, but an ananda dominated by the sense of pain, rather than dominating the raudrata. Chitra and vishaya slight, fragmentary and occasional; the sadhana Shakti is occupied with T2 Strength of combined titiksha, udasinata, nati long established and almost perfect in universality, is now growing very intense; only when the mental tapas is overstressed and baffled, does some denial of passive asamata force its way in for a moment. Nati in the pain of roga was only contradicted slightly in the mental buddhi, not in the prana; this was the reflection of a certain intolerance in the body. Positive ananda is general, but not yet absolutely perfect in all its quality or universality. The second chatusthaya is established, but not yet in its perfect force of vividness or harmony of all its parts, eg dasyam and aishwarya, or sarvakarmasamarthya, or the qualities of the fourfold Ishwara. Defect where it exists is chiefly due to insufficiency of gnosis Gnana is perfect in ideality in perception and speech, except when lowered to meet the deficiency of T2: even then it is normally not always ideal in substance except in specific thought of T2 on external things. It has attained in type the highest logistic ideality. T2 is still imperfect in ideality owing to persistence of intuitive mentality, but that is about to be removed or transformed in all its range of activity. Samadhi is very imperfect, though now advancing with an obstructed and interrupted rapidity. Lipi perfect except in physicality, for it is yet insufficiently stable except at times, though no longer bafflingly fugitive, and therefore insufficient in rapid legibility and fullness; but it is already possessed of all the qualities to a sufficient extent for all its ordinary practical working. Jagrat rupa is often abundant and perfect in chitra, but this it has been for years together; it is suppressed still in akasha, good only

1124

Record of Yoga

occasionally and unstable except in the very crude. Jagrat vishaya is in a still cruder condition. Sharira has developed a perfect foundation of K.A, continuous but for oblivion by absorption and sleep; the other Anandas are prepared, but not regularly working except raudra which is still capable of being overborne by a great degree and pressure of pain. The other siddhis are obstructed, except bhava saundarya. Some of them are advanced in certain directions. The fourfold Brahman full in continent and substance, not yet in content, but sometimes lowered by lapse to mentality. Krishna Kali prepared and established, but not yet in perfect working. Karma still rudimentary except in the habitual personal karma in which it is advancing towards perfection

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15 – 26 JULY 1919

Yoga Diary July 15 – July 26 1919

Diary of Yoga. July 1919. July 15th Tuesday. Today is supposed to begin the finality of initial perfect gnosis in the highest logistic ideality by the firm beginning of T2. This is due for fulfilment in the second half of July. The two first chatusthayas are at the same time to begin their higher and fuller perfection, they have already the fundamental perfection in samata, the fundamental completeness. K.A is to confirm its continuity and intensity and be a basis for the regular working of the other Anandas. Karma is to develop its already developing action, Krishna Kali to deepen and possess the system, Ananda Brahman to fill in with the Ishwara. The other siddhis are still uncertain of development, but the fight with the obstacles of arogya is to continue with a necessary result of advance in the tapas of Arogya. Practically all the siddhis are ready or almost ready for advance except the two most difficult parts of the Sharira and the outward Karma. After a little difficulty the transformation of T2 to the ideality has begun finally. The action of the intuitive mentality continues, but accompanying it there is an ideal action which gives sometimes a decisive, sometimes a limited and therefore relative certitude, sometimes in conjunction with the lower movement a mixed decisive and relative certainty or a mixed incertitude and certitude. This is especially in the T2 of circumstance.

1126

Record of Yoga

The trikaldrishti after perfecting itself in an universalised type in the intuitive mentality of a character of intuitive inspiration is now definitely transforming T2 to the intuitional gnosis of the character of intuitivised revelation. This is attended with some fresh disturbance of the intellectual stuff, but that as soon as it comes is changed or replaced by the higher forms of thought and perception. Tapas is now of the same nature as the trikaldrishti. The first chatusthaya is already being given its higher perfection. The positive ananda of equality is taking up all the adverse movements and reactions. Vishaya is again renewed with strong gandha and taste of perfume. These two vishayas may now be considered established, however small the present range of their action. Strong struggle with the roga difficulty. The pain in the side tried to prolong its continuity and represent itself as the sign of some organic ailment, but immediately disappeared every time ideal tapas was applied. Pain in response to pressure in this part of the body persisted, but has also disappeared suddenly. Throughout there is evidence of increasing force of arogya tapas, but it is not yet able to eliminate the roga with a decisive beginning of finality July 16th Wednesday Today is to be a hollow between two waves; there is a siege of the system by the external mind armed with all that has been cast out; but this comes now no longer in the shape of the old intellectual mind, but a semi-idealised intuivity translating into mental and physical terms all the rejected suggestions of the partial ideality which supports the lower order of things, drawing from a perversion of ideal intuitions their justification. For everything in the lower order has its justification in a truth of gnosis expressing something in the Infinite. Kamananda, which was allowed a little to lapse yesterday, is after some difficulty of mechanical lowering and attempted discontinuity attended by an emptiness of the gross body and retirement into the subtle physicality, renewing its selfconfirmation. The old habit of relapse is not yet excluded even in this first siddhi of the physical system. It is restored to a slightly

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obstructed continuity, but has not full possession of the physical system. There is a strong attempt to restore asamata attended by a great violence of suggestion of raga and dwesha; it is not supported by the Purusha or the personal Prakriti, but has been able to produce asamata in the outward physical mentality. These things are still possible because of the persistence of intuitive mentality in the stuff of the physical consciousness; that can only be secure against mental suggestions by a partial personal siddhi cut off from the external Nature or by complete idealisation. July 17th Thursday. The ideality has resumed its work; it is taking up into the mixed intuitional form of ideality, mixed by the presence of mindstuff with its limiting suggestions, the truth-reflecting intuitivity and itself is being taken up by the highest logistis. The inspirational intuivity suggested by the external mind remains as an obstacle, but is, when it comes, attacked and half transformed by the gnosis. Its power is in all those things that have not yet in the Abhyasa been assumed by the highest logistic gnosis The obstacle now is the sluggishness of the old mentality unlifted by the inspired intuitivity which mixes with and keeps down the gnosis. This is the old action of the mixed intuitional ideality then strong and luminous, now unconvincing and void of force. Only the highest gnosis can continue the sadhana. The depressed lowness of the system has given occasion for another and furious attack of the environing intellectual powers, with a forced physically mental asamata in outworks of the system, vibrations not belonging to the system, but imposed from outside, also asraddha not in the Ishwara, but in the siddhi of the ideality. This has been expelled by a resort to rudra tapas of rajasic anger in the Shakti. Both the relapse and this resort have been recently predicted in the trik. and the lipi, the latter almost daily in an insistent lipi. The result has been unexpectedly a momentarily complete conversion of the physical mentality into the ideal form[,] the very siddhi obstinately obstructed for the last several days. K.A. like every other siddhi has been depressed by the general

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Record of Yoga

obstruction. It is now reviving though with some incertitude. There is some tendency of recovery in the swapna Samadhi which has for some time relapsed almost entirely into nidra. All the rest of the day a recovered action of the ideality. July 18th Friday. The ideality is again taking up the whole thought and T2, this time with a greater force of universality, but it is in the intuitional ideality and not the highest gnosis. The system is now almost settled in the intuitional ideality, though occasionally the old intuitive being breaks in or surges out from suppression and takes temporary possession. This is whenever the gnosis has been for some time inactive. The siege of Roga continues, but chiefly in the subtle physicality: the effects on the dense body are occasional, sometimes strong, but thrown out by the tapas after a short struggle. Only in the two still chronic ailments is there as yet a permanently successful obstruction; but in the centrality the effective pressure of Arogya-tapas increases with a sort of slow, but always perceptible steadiness. Chitra is showing some tendency to greater stability, but as yet only in the indirect vision. The fugitive forms have more firmness in their incidence. There is no improvement in the character of the forms or the range of the rupa. After some dark nidra strong ideal action in the Samadhi. Finally the highest ideality took final possession of the perception, speech, lipi and to a certain extent of the T2. In deeper and deepest nidra also ideality was exceedingly strong, but with some persistence of the dream character and occasional incoherence. Nevertheless coherence in the lipi even here was stronger than before. Rupa etc are now taking on the character of actuality, though as yet only of the pranic (astral)1 reproduction of immediate things experienced in life. The presentation was accurate, entirely stable, steady in reproduction of continued action, though here with some interruptions and resumptions; combined 1 In the manuscript, the closing parenthesis follows “reproduction”.

Ed.

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scene not always complete, but with strong presentation of the central object and action, the accessories being left in a shadowy suggestion. The rupas however were no longer chhayamaya of the underworld, but tejomaya of the pranic world, with great but an unearthly vividness, beauty and force of life. Massed rupas of the same character appeared in light samadhi on the borders of antardarshi, but with a less heavy fullness and not actual, but rupas of possible things, and not stable, but also not entirely fugitive. Thought, judgment, interpretation maintained a coherent ideality even in the depths of nidra. A much greater character of normality in the whole samadhi. Vishaya (physical) in jagrat antardarshi attained in touch to a great plenty; all the subtle results, suggestions, sensations of sparsha, except the actual sthula incidence. This too occurred freely, but only in habitual rupas. It is noticeable however that nothing came which had not previously been gained in past years by sadhana, only they came with a greater force, frequency and intensity. In swapna there is now more frequent and forceful sparsha. Sravana is obstructed both in antardarshi and full jagrat; it is rare even in swapna. An attempt at a higher Thought confined to the centre of the thought above the head and a withdrawal of that which forms in the brain region of the subtle mind or is occupied with penetration to this region. This was the normal gravitation because here the thought assumed a satisfaction of present living actuality, while above it had a higher, but remoter less physically satisfying quality. The attempt to take up T2 there failed initially and there was a brief relapse to the mass of possibilities and incertitudes, but all this is now taken up by a fiery thought, ideal of the pragmatic nature. This T2 is telepathic, but correct except for certain confusions contributed by an understrain of intuitive suggestions which are for the most taken up and half-justified, half-corrected immediately or with a little difficulty. The centre thought now predominates and gathers round it at its own level all other thinking, but sometimes descends to give its own character to thought manifested in the lower levels or regions of the subtle body. At night renewed action of coherence and ideality in the dream state.

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Record of Yoga

July 19t.h. Saturday Rf. [Reference] “Which I must act, briefness and fortune, work”, of the approaching application to life of the ideal knowledge, power and guidance. In the morning some retardation; inaction of ideality broken by a slight partial and a recurrent larger action. No definite progress in any direction. Samadhi; at first full ideality, nidra conquered; coherence and strong gnosis in all the activity, but not all kinds in equal power. Afterwards some force of nidra, but not complete, the action always of the ideal kind. No prominent actuality. In the afternoon T2. All actual T2 of an ideal intuitional kind, well-established, normal, satisfying in its limits, but subject to narrow limitations. Then a double movement first to extend to all possible trikaldrishtic and tapasic suggestion, at the same time to lift up to a higher gnosis. This was interrupted by a taking up of the suggestions of the pranic and mental world sometimes without, sometimes with a reference to their origin in the logistic gnosis. This brought finally into the solid intuitional ideality all these possibilities given their proper place, so far as that could be done in this kind of perception, but the proper eye for them is the inspirational seeing, got the right actuality of the may bes, might-be, may have been, mighthave-beens, may-yet-bes, and even the relative certitudes of their will-bes, often but not always realised, with a certain initial decisive certitude of selection. The higher thought now coming for the T2 will be inspirational gnosis. It is already beginning in the intuitional form or taking up the intuition. These movements had been made before on a lower scale and were often taken for the full and final siddhi: but this is of a greater, fuller, final kind in the real ideality standing on an idealised substance of the whole conscious being. Subsequently the inspired thought began to take the place of the intuitional gnosis and take up into it the T2. Much more might have been done on the intuitional basis, but this would have been a lesser siddhi and was not the intention of the will of the Ishwara, which is already giving presages of the ascent beyond logistic to the second stair of gnosis, when once the supreme logistis shall have been formulated in its relative entirety.

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Health stronger again in resistance to cold exposure. The central arogya fluctuates, but is on the whole growing steadily but slowly in an initial preparatory force. There is no improvement in the digestive insufficiency, but rather a constant fluctuation and even a relapse in the symptoms of the one definite ailment. Continuity of K.A also fluctuates, though it is fixed in a recurrent continuity and the obstruction cannot resist the smarana. At night incoherent dream and nidra. July 20th Sunday. Script in accordance with intuitional ideality suggested day before yesterday the following possibilities for the rest of July. (1) T2 sure; initial perfection only. [T2 is already sure but the initial perfection depends on the final normality of the highest logistis.]2 (2) Samadhi sure; fixity, ideality; nidra initially overcome, but at night active. [Samadhi, made sure this morning, in ideality and fixity; nidra is very initially overcome, except at night when it reigns and repels all certain forward movement.] (3) Vishaya and jagrat rupa to get over their old difficulty [No sure sign of this siddhi; a slight improvement is all that is visible.] (4) Ananda, fixed in recurrence of continuity. Also initial conquest of oblivion except for sleep and samadhi (perhaps), the only difficulties. [There is already fixity of recurrent continuity and an unfixed recurrent intensity; oblivion has been overcome once or twice in initial type; but for some time there has been an indulged habit of oblivion in absence of will and smarana] (5) Health; battle, supremacy of tapas, but not the perfect arogya. [The battle continues. Tapas is already in a way supreme, except in the two rogas; in one of them it is frequently effective more as ishita than as aishwarya or vashita; in the other it is for the time sometimes effective, sometimes ineffective. There are also some fragments of former rogas which very occasionally recur and resist tapas.] 2 This and the five sets of square brackets that follow are Sri Aurobindo’s. The closing bracket in item 3 and opening bracket in item 5 have been supplied editorially. Ed.

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(6) Saundarya in bhava. [Youth in bhava is growing, but bhava of saundarya apart from the youth-light is still uncertain. Physical youth and saundarya make no progress.] (7) Utthapana still in difficulties. In Samadhi in the morning perfect reign of ideality. All the forms of experience are beginning to develop in the ideality. Lipi was except for one or two instances coherent and significant, or sometimes significant in a lilamaya incoherence, even in frequent sentences set in fugitive masses. Dialogue, enacted story, some narrative. Steady action and stable rupa in abundance. Only vishaya absent. But the final beginning of assured samadhi progress is founded. Only jagrat rupa and vishaya are still subject to the old unconquerably obstinate obstruction. In the sluggish states of the system, except at night, inertia, passivity, blankness whether of tamas or of shama is becoming the exception. An activity of [ ]3 the intellectual ideality, that is, the low pitched intuitional gnosis which supports the mental world of possibility, is then the rule. When the sadhana tapas is active, inspired ideality begins to resume its work of taking up the whole consciousness; sometimes an inspired intuitional, sometimes an inspirational logistis works on the thought and to a less degree on the tapas. It is only at a high pitch that tapas and trikaldrishti join in an assured ideal equality or oneness. The inspired ideality is giving a more frequent decisive certitude of trikaldrishti in T2 and the inspired intuition for the first time a quite perfect selection of succession of detailed circumstance in time; but these things have still to be universalised. The uninspired intuition is now being cast out of the action; since it is no longer necessary in the process of the taking up of the intuition by the inspired logistis. K.A is being restored to constant intensity, pervasion, slightly interrupted continuity by the sadhana tapas. The thick recurrent masses of tamas of oblivion in the physical being are being attacked and dissipated, spontaneous recurrence enforced, sahaituka 3 MS of

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Ananda brought into occasional activity. The mental tamas masses of oblivion, while writing etc are also being attacked, dissipated, set aside or illumined by light of ideality. The work, it is said, will be confirmed today (thought) and completed in three days (lipi). The difference of Ananda in the postures is still marked. Sitting it is capable of a great initial intensity and force of continuity; today greater and more exciting to the whole system than before. Reclining, it is capable of a great intensity, but often impure of the unidealised kind, especially when there is samadhi and nidra. Walking it is intense with difficulty, more liable to decided interruption or reduction to a minimum. Standing it is still less intense except at moments, especially if there is other occupation. These defects are now being attacked. Insistent intensity has been introduced into the standing attitude, recurrent when reading; it is being insisted on in the walking. In reclining the ananda is being purified and idealised: it is being enforced in Samadhi. Samadhi, late in the morning. Ideal lipi, scene etc. As the rupa becomes pranic instead of chhayamaya, visions of things never seen nor suggested by the seen arrive. Today, an eagle carrying a lamb to its nest and there beginning to devour it, half dead; nest, eagle, lamb very vivid, but pranamaya, as in a living picture of the Indian type, not quite the earthly bhava of the forms, nor the earthly lines, in spite of the bodily type and species being the same. This heralds the liberation of the rupa. Ananda in samadhi constant in lighter depths, spontaneously recurrent in deeper swapna, but interrupted by nidra in the deepest swapna. The ananda tends to draw the mind back to the body, but then there occurs often a phenomenon which is now growing, the double or triple samadhi, in which the outside world is experienced accurately in an outer consciousness of sleep, by the sukshma and not the sthula indriya. The inner consciousness remains in swapna, a deeper is in sushupti of some kind, for the most part swapnamaya sushupti. Sometimes the outer world is experienced by the subtle sense with a fringe of waking physical sense. At times there is a division of the consciousness between the outer physical and the inner dream mind, the latter withdrawn into swapna and sleep, the

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former still aware physically on the outskirts of outer sound, touch or experience. The replacement of the idealised, intuitional intellectuality by the inspired intuitional or intuitional inspired for the telepathy is proceeding very rapidly, but is not yet absolutely complete. Meanwhile the higher trikaldrishti acts only by intervention in the mass of rapid and crowding ideal telepathies. Now the process of including the inspired intuition has begun and is proceeding with a great initial rapidity. The higher level of the thought and T2 is now (in the afternoon) beginning suddenly to rise to the revelatory inspired and inspired revelatory logistis. This is necessary in order that the inspired and intuitional inspired may take entirely the place of the intuitional thinking as the lower level of the thought process. This lower level represents the substitute for the former intellectually intuitive thought and uncertain telepathic perception, the thought of the possibility. The higher level rises towards the certitudes and more and more, as it rises in the scale, commands them in its light and power Drishya of the panchabhuta, mass and karma, the pranic ether and some of its elementary incidents, wind, rain etc is now recommencing. This brings in three of the long suspended vishayas. The other vishayas are coming forward, but with no widening range. Sravana is the most difficult, because the physical ear is beset by physical sounds in the daytime and cannot easily distinguish the slighter subtle sonances. Sadhara rupa also is returning, fine crude, often perfect, but without stability. This has brought in an outburst of the finer prakashamaya niradhara rupas in a variety, groups, persons, objects, animals, scenes, some clear, others confused, none stable, except a solitary one or two: but there is already a hint of a tendency towards stability. Of the three gunas, variety, perfection, stability, the first long resisted may possibly now be on the point of bursting the barrier. It is to be noted that lipi in the morning declared that today would be the turning point in jagrat rupa and vishaya; this lipi has been repeated with a firmer asseveration. This may be the beginning in the rupa; but as yet there is no appearance of fulfilment in the vishaya. All the material crude forms have now manifested in

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this finer crude niradhara, prakasha, chhaya, tejas, jyotir, agni and varnamaya forms. Subsequently some union of stability and relative perfection began to be developed in a still greater but confused and irregular variety. The higher forms occurred hardly at all and then without stability. In Samadhi much pressure of Nidra, but the ideal samadhi persevered and kept itself in progress as an overtone. Rupas of the manasa loka, bright and tejomaya, but with a brief stability. Dream was immediately converted into symbol of ideality; incoherence of lipi into a crookedness of pointed significance. In the lapse of the tapas the intuitional ideal mind reappeared for a while, but always with the inspired gnosis hovering over it to take it up and transform it into its own character. As yet the morning’s hint of rapidity is not fulfilled, it was so understood at the time that there might be some delay. The inspiration holds the field. K.A also lost for a time its continuity and intensity. It is now recovering, but at this time between 12 and 3 it tends to some deidealisation and conversion into perverse negative electricity and has to be restored on the resumption of the normal activity. This has been done today with rapidity. The conversion has begun of T2 into the revelatory logistic ideality. At first this is attended with some intuitive revelatory action incased in the old intellectual doubt, but this is to be changed into the inspired logistic revelation. The certitude is already immensely increased, but it is not till all is changed to the terms of this drishti that there can be an initial perfection of accuracy in the T2. The drishti reveals the decisive truth of each movement, whether it be a possibility of self-effecting force or a relative, temporary or decisive finality of effectuation. This is the last movement within the ideal logistis. The revelatory even in the intuition gives the circumstances with a [constant]4 accuracy, but this is attended with much incertitude owing to the external intuitive intellectuality which darts in its suggestions and to a certain distrust and anxiety about the possible 4 MS constance

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error of the result in the old judging mind. The element of revelatory judgment does not with sufficient prominence accompany the revelatory seeing of tapas or intention of action. Nevertheless, when left to itself this intuitive revelation can judge and fix accurately enough possibility and finality, even though it is not so forcible and conclusive as the inspired or the full revelation. This is with regard to succession of circumstance. This logistis acts as yet only partly in judgment of time, very uncertainly in relation to space and direction; but sometimes it takes them up all three and combines them with sufficient or complete fullness of accuracy. All this is in the field of exercise. Teledrishti is not yet being exercised in this higher action. The lipi is still logistic, but a higher than the logistic ideality is entering into it attended by a diviner splendour of light and blaze of fiery effulgence. This may be called the hermetic gnosis. Its essence is c¸ ruti or divine inspiration, as the essence of logistis is smriti, divine mnemosyne. One remembers at a second remove the knowledge secret in the being but lost by the mind in the oblivion of the ignorance, the other divines at a first remove a greater power of that knowledge. One resembles the reason, is a divine reason, the other is [of] the nature of prophesis or inspired interpretation. Sparsha is now abundant in the three things formerly gained by the sadhana, touch of subtle water and fire, touch of light things, eg insects, thread, wind, both of these strong, vivid, materialised, effective on the physical body, and other touches not materialised, but having a certain physical result of sensation; subtle in intent, sthula in result, but not with the full density. Some of these sparshas are however on the verge of materialisation. All this action was formerly regarded as an inferior insufficiency by the intellectual impatience, but is now accepted as a stage towards the full sparsha. The old drishya of the pranic ether is also resuming its plenty. The c¸ ravana seems to be awaiting the silence of the night for its manifestation; but the sthula hearing is becoming exceedingly acute and comprehensive and there is a hint of sukshma sound behind its abundance. The lipi is to this extent justified, but there is as yet no sign of new extension, without which the barrier of obstruction cannot be said to have fallen.

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Sadhara and niradhara are developing with some rapidity: in the midst of much confused, shapeless or half-shaped rupa there are some of perfect or almost [perfect vividness,]5 completeness and distinctness; old types of rupa are coming back with a greater perfection and vividness, but they have the old fault of instantaneous instability. Nevertheless this is a definite advance. At night there is the old difficulty; there is then the greatest confusion, vagueness, crudity; but there is also a beginning of better things. Some isolated c¸ ravanas of the old type. The revelatory ideality is taking up the consciousness, even the revived suggestions of the external intuitive mentality, but this involves a momentary retardation in the decisive trikaldrishti-tapas. The yogic c¸ ravanas in the closed ear, strong while they lasted, but not persistent as in the former sadhana. Some c¸ ravana speech. But there is as yet no enlargement of the c¸ ravana Nidra at night, but also samadhi. The coherence is now firmly established and enforces itself with great power. Stability in the chhayamaya rupa. The samadhi is fixed in the ideality. All has now to be developed, the physical obstruction which denies samadhi overcome, nidra to be replaced by samadhi. July 21s.t. Monday Today, a full play of the ideality, but not all of the highest logistis. Highest logistis to attain to a partial universality. Increase of chitra and vishaya. Increase of Ananda. More attention to the physical siddhi. Ideality is now acting in masses, but of all kinds, from the idealised intuitivity to the highest logistic, but the last is pressing on all for transmutation. The fluctuation of Ananda and the struggle in the Arogya continue. K.A idealised in the highest logistis is beginning to act and to press upon the intuitional and mental forms of the ananda. Great intensity of gandha and gandha-rasa, combined and allied, but not yet the free variety. Great intensity of rasa, the crude turning to firm developed and to suggested perfect rasas. 5 MS perfectness

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The obstruction to freer frequency and variety has now alone to be broken for the perfection of this siddhi. Farther Sadhana in the morning discontinued through pressure of work. This is a defect which the consciousness has not yet overcome, owing to deficiency of the multiple concentration. Immense development of the samadhi. Only towards the end some lapse into nidra. Inexhaustible abundance of rupa, especially of the mental plane, but also of the pranic and chhayamaya, scenes of all kinds, figures, action, lipi, dialogue etc: for the most part a high ideal level. The chhayamaya scenes now attain to an absolute stability, frequent though not invariable; the others have only a first stability. There is also stability of successive action, but there were only one or two unsuccessful attempts at combination with stability of scene. Only once a fugitive touch of the incoherent dream consciousness attempting to bring in a terrestrial association of memory and confuse with it the accuracy of the recorded impressions. A little more development will securely found the whole base of swapna samadhi. K.A in samadhi, interrupted occasionally by an intervening cloud of nidra power between the physical and the higher mental consciousness, but afterwards more persistently by a deepening towards nidra; but after the brief sleep there was an immediate recovery of the Ananda. It is now noticeable that when the Ananda occupies the brain there is no oblivion; when it pervades the rest of the body, but not the head, oblivion becomes possible. Work in the afternoon. Rasa acts now with some frequency, though without an entire freedom. Definite rasas are coming with increasing ease and variety. Gandha is for the present obstructed. An old siddhi, sparsha at a distance, sukshma or sukshma-sthula in incidence, felt by the subtle body and conveyed by it in the same moment to the physical sense: there is however no division, it is felt as one touch by the united sukshma and sthula sense. Rupa has developed a few instances outside of the crude of a stability still within the primary stability, but in its highest degree. Variety of rupas at night is on the increase, crude of all the kinds, jyotir etc, and dense of the crude, dense and developed degrees, but few as yet are complete,

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except certain unstable forms and some stable crude rupas. There is a hint too of developed rupas; but not the actuality, except in some fugitive incomplete formations. Rare instances of c¸ ravana of a new kind. Attempts at jagrat sukshma speech, not yet articulate or fully audible. Thunder in the ears. The old persistent, unceasing loud cricket sound in the room, once rejected as a physical sound, is again heard, and is now clearly marked as sukshma. The thunder in the ears is followed by a great intensification of the physical hearing. K.A is now very often stable in the head. Then even a low intensity of ananda turns to constant sensibility. The idealised intuitivity is allowed sometimes to act, but is now the truth-reflecting intuitivity; there is no predominance of the pragmatic or mechanical mentality. These only recur in a dull fragmentary fashion. [July]6 22d Tuesday. The higher hermetic gnosis is now showing itself in the revelatory logistis not only in the lipi, but in thought-speech and perception; something of it is evident in trikaldrishti and Tapas, even when these act through the idealised intuivity; this action no longer disturbs to any great extent by a premature anticipation of the future actuality or possibility and falsification of the present actuality. That was formerly the result of a higher power suggesting its greater possibilities to the lower plane. The purification of the lower plane makes it a clearer channel and prevents this consequence. In the tapas there is some hint of a possible omnipotence of the gnosis which will remove the obstacles of the existing law of the body Yesterday there was a violent attack of roga trying to materialise itself in digestive disturbance leading to nausea. This was cast out by the tapas after some fifteen minutes or more; it left a slight transient residue, followed by a strong health state. This morning the attack was of the diarrhoeic tendency, with all its concomitants of jalamaya, agnimaya, vayumaya disturbance. The revelatory tapas was applied to correct the sanskaras of the bodily 6 MS June

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mind and very rapidly the attack was overcome without its ordinary reaction of constipation. Some slight recurrent residue of tendency remains, but not enough to trouble the system. There is a great increase of tapas supremacy in the dealing with roga. If it can be extended to the digestive perversion and the central weakness, the Arogya will have its first complete basis. In the morning physical tamas, some relapse into the old intuivity. This is now being corrected, but it is noticeable that the obstruction is being concentrated in the physical system. Opposition in the objective subjectivity is half-hearted; the opposition has lost faith and self-confidence. The remnants of the habit of intellectual judgment and recipiency are now being raised and extruded from the system; the ideality is to be its own recipient, its own critic, questioner, judge, authority. Samadhi in the later part of the morning. Perfect freedom of rupa, variety, perfection, vividness, but only in initial or primary stability in the pranic world. Chhaya only comes in usually as a shade on some of the pranic rupas; most are free from chhaya. Incoherence in the lipi is at once turned to coherence or proved to be a coherence. Antardarshi rupa is being prepared in the light swapna, on the borders of the two states and in some cases in antardarshi itself there are scenes and figures of a pranic kind, not crude, but ghana. Rasa is now frequent in masses, sometimes persistent; obstruction hardly exists for its action. Gandha gains in force, but is prevented by the obstruction from frequency. The incidence of the relapse into the intuitive intellectuality has been very obstinate and severe, a great confusion created, almost all the old incidents of relapse suggested, even something like the old hardly idealised intellectual intuivity revived in fragments and in the mental atmosphere. The orderly and powerful development of the gnosis has undergone momentarily a strong interruption. Nevertheless lipi after some fluctuations has greatly increased in force of revelatory light and the breadth of its flood and luminous force; thought speech has also grown in inspired revelatory power. The T2 has been most afflicted and with it the thought perception

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obstructed or brought to the lower level of intuition. At present all perception is of the intuitive ideal level with a touch or pressure of revelation tending to rise into the intuitive or inspired revelatory logistis, attended often by cloggings of intuitive matter or deviating into some kind of imperfect inspiration. The intuitive mentality itself has been so strongly idealised in its struggle with the gnosis that it is difficult sometimes to distinguish between this heavily idealised intuivity and the real intuitive or inspirational gnosis at its lower levels of force, light or certitude. Dream at night of an extraordinary coherence, free for the most part from present association, except in the later nidra, and almost on the point of conversion to ideal experience of past, future or otherwhere happenings. In samadhi some incoherence and a lower level of general force of the ideality, but no cessation of abundance. This incoherence tends to turn into a more prolonged and sustained perfection of dialogue, narrative, lipi etc. K.A afflicted, but not discontinued in its recurrence. Some attempt at enlargement of drishya and vishaya generally, as of rupa, but very uncertain and infirm though tending to largeness. Persistence of attack of roga and replying tapas. Generally an embarrassed but still successful progress, preparing a greater siddhi. July 23d Wednesday A day of partial recovery and advance. T2 is acting with a quieter, deliberately limited and restrained action. Correct in the intuivity of the gnosis, although embarrassed by a strong adhesion of stuff of uncertain mental intuivity, the inspirational form is still overpowered by the latter disability, gives only the tendencies, pressures of force, suggestions of coming possibility. Intuitive certitude is slowly but steadily enlarging its operation. K.A after some difficulty has recovered its basic continuity, but thinly without the opulent incidence and pervasion. Steady in act, variable in incidence, but afflicted by oblivion of absorption, only the thought not going out to objects, interferes less with it than the concentration on act or object, but this too now causes oblivion when attention is required to the thought-process. At the same time there is a progressive force of recovery.

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Premananda in the Vishwadarshana has for some days been insisting on its normality. Ahaituka mental darshana is the chief obstacle; it is shantimaya with suppressed prema or anandamaya with diminished prema. This mental sight is disappearing before the premamaya vision into the vijnana or chidghana saguna seeing. In proportion as the guna was not seen, there was deficiency of prema; in the prema itself the mentality would thrust a diminishing incompletive suggestion of sterile ahaituka. Vijnana darshana does not suppress, but can hold a non-insistent diminished prema. Prema increases the ananda in the vijnana; ananda increases prema. Brahma-vision seeing things as objects of the unifying cognizance tends to be without prema; Purusha Brahma or Ishwara brahma darshana brings the deeper unity, prema and ananda. K.A has recovered its force, but is still easily depressed by the interruption of the mind’s absorptions, because there is a pressure on it from the obstructing force which compels it to sink easily in a mechanical variation of intensity, fluctuation and occasional cessation of its overt presence. But now the memory always brings back the Ananda. In Samadhi continuous narrative, monologue, dialogue or their combination in the ideal form. This was done largely and for long in lighter swapna, on its borders or partly in concentrated antardarshi and partly in swapna. There is no long continuity of it in the deeper swapna which is still a thing of many, swift and brief experiences, thoughts and visions. K. Ananda maintained in lighter swapna, brought in with difficulty at a greater depth, non-existent in deep nidra. Exceedingly strong and violent varied gandha. Rasa is recurrent, but not with such persistent freedom as yesterday, but it is developing more distinct rasas. Throughout the day there has been a strong persistence of the relics of the intuitive mentality and the intuitive ideality has not been effective in getting rid of the obsession; because it is no longer the chosen instrumentation. Now the inspirational ideality is taking up the work, with the highest logistis at its back. This is more effective, all is at once changed to the inspirational form. But this too is not absolutely effective. The highest logistis alone can do the work.

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There is a beginning of the change of the physical consciousness to the inspirational ideality. Free gandha in the evening; the obstruction seems to be broken down, though not either in gandha or rasa entirely destroyed. It is intact in c¸ ravana and sparsha. Samadhi fluctuating between full ideality and a lower half ideality. Memory in waking is badly deficient; this is itself an obstacle to rapid progress. Great masses of printed lipi, largely incoherent, but much more fluently legible and stable than at any previous time. Stability of rupa and scene and of all other experience is beginning to move towards farther self-extension. Narrative attempted in deep swapna, but trailed off into incoherence. All this is in the adverse state of the mentality. Ideality still hampered and obstructed in the system. July 24t.h. Thursday A farther advance and complete recovery today. The siddhi is now moving towards a system of complete affirmation; all thought and perception, no matter what the source or medium, is admitted as having some kind of justification in force and being and the exact nature of the justification is being immediately assigned and made as precise as possible. In this process intuitive mental thought is allowed, but idealised in the mentality, since so only can it get its proper proportions. This has always been the theory of the sadhana; it has been preparing and repeatedly insisted on for a long time, but only now by this removal of the too trenchant intellectual distinction between satyam and asatyam is it becoming entirely possible. This completion is necessary for the manifestation of the hermetic gnosis; the logistic is a limiting gnosis, the hermetic an entirely comprehensive ideality. T2 cannot be perfect, but only relatively perfect in the logistic gnosis. Gandha and rasa are now acting with a considerable freedom and variety and the former with a fundamental perfection. Rasa is still subject to its initial crudeness of incomplete massed tastes, though there are now definite and perfect rasas. Rasa is now insisting on perfection.

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In Samadhi a great flood and mass of experiences of all kinds, but incoherent, yet all in the ideality. Subsequently an ordered movement. All the intuitive mind turned into ideality, what was before simple intellectuality, is now just before the ideal level and is changing to the intuivity. This movement represents a complete mutation of the whole being into the gnostic type. Even the physical being is beginning this mutation. Forecast in the samadhi, this change is also beginning in the jagrat condition. Sparsha has now a greater freedom and variety of the more subtle touches. Half-sthula sukshma sparsha also comes more often and with greater force, but not without some difficulty and obstruction. The K.A violently oppressed; but the mechanical discontinuity cannot maintain itself any longer when there is smarana, except for a while after long discontinuity by oblivion. There is only strong suppression of intensity reaching the verge of discontinuity. The intensity recurs whenever there is laxity of the oppression. The movement is now to the complete idealisation of the whole being. But the system is still low and the intuitive mentality recurs persistently and has to be idealised into the full logistis. This is especially due to the recurrent imperfection of T2 and to the continuance of old states in the physical being. Friday. July 25. Yesterday’s recovery was not complete except for a temporary movement. The new siddhi is still invaded by the external intuitivity, though there is no complete relapse. The ideality moves on the level of a thickly illumined revelatory intuition. This is extending greatly a relatively certain trikaldrishti and taking up firmly some, rejecting others of the telepathic suggestions which are again coming from the intuitive externality. The siddhi of T2 is only initial; much has to be done before it can acquire a settled universality. K.A at first distressed to the extreme point near discontinuity. Now it has revived, though not in full force and has again begun to push away the oblivion of absorption. Other siddhis have been in abeyance during the morning.

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Samadhi in relapse. Afternoon spent in work. K.A in fluctuation. In ideality T2 slowly enlarges itself in the ideal intuition. Some accommodation of this power in the thought with an incomplete inspirational ideality to form anew an intuitive inspiration. All these things are movements of recovery and enlargement of ideality on the lower levels, not permanent form or the regular action of the gnosis. Samadhi recovers some of its force, but there is a strong persistence of incoherence, especially in the lipi. The siege of the external intuitivity continues. As yet the system is not ready for the full renewed action and control by the highest revelatory gnosis. Some attempt at shabda (vakya). July 26 Saturday Highest ideality has now a greater force in the thought perception, but T2 continues on the lower intuitive level, is mainly telepathic and draws down the rest of the thought towards its own present type of action. Tapas is increasing its Kali force and largeness of action. There is now a struggle between two kinds of ideality, the old ideality which depends upon the existent actuality, illumines it, goes a little beyond it but from it, returns to it, acquiesces temporarily in its decisions, and a new greater pragmatic ideality which takes the present actuality as a passing [circumstance],7 claims to go altogether beyond it, to create with a certain large freedom according to the Will and looks even beyond to the omnipotence of the Self and its will, [to] determine as well as see the future. It is over the relapse to the mentalised intuitive ideality that the question is being fought out, for it is the mental intuitivity and the intuitive ideality which illumines it into a lower gnosis which either temporarily support or resignedly acquiesce in the relapse as a part of the still existent law of the rhythm of the sadhana. The greater ideality aims at eliminating the rhythm of rapid progression and sudden relapse. It proposes to do everything from above, by the ideality, in the ˆ ˆ anam ˆ ˆ ˆ ideality, the gnosis working out itself, atmani atm atman a. 7 MS circumstances

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The future of the sadhana lies with this greater pragmatic ideality and with something beyond it in the hermetic ideality. But it is still undetermined how soon it will be able to transcend the obstructing power of the intuitive mentality and act in its own right of rapid creation or revelation. The physical siddhi, the full force of Samadhi, rupa, vishaya, the greater T2 seem to be waiting for this consummation

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27 JULY – 13 AUGUST 1919

Yoga Diary July 27 to Aug 13 1919

July 27th Sunday. The complete fulfilment of the programme for July has been prevented by the sudden relapse towards the intuitive mentality. T2 has indeed developed an initial firmness, but this is very insufficient in universality owing to the mental interference. The two first chatusthayas have again been contradicted by the invasion of the external mentality, which brings in an element of asraddha, tamas, dissatisfaction, and some broken hints of the revolt of the mental will and its old duhkha at asatya and asiddhi, the only two things that can still produce a perturbation. These touches are combated and thrown out by the tapas of samata, but they create recurrent vibrations though they cannot occupy the mentality. K A has confirmed only a recurrent, not an unbroken continuity, a continuity in smarana broken by brief mechanical discontinuities, but not a conquest of absorption and sleep; the other Anandas have therefore also to await their greater development. Karma is developing, but on a limited scale. Kali has deepened and possesses the system, but Krishna is still veiled by the ganas and devatas. Ananda Brahman has filled in with the chidghana and prema, but not yet with the fullness of the Anandamaya Ishwara. Tapas in Arogya has increased, the fragmentary rogas have a less insistence, but the two chronic rogas have acquired a new lease of continuance; nevertheless the digestive functionings are more under conscious control of the will. There is for the moment a

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great incertitude as to the immediate future of the development of the sadhana. Lipi. Tapas siddhi to increase immediately to its full force in the pragmatic ideality. Health to continue the battle, but to give the increase of the tapas against the existing difficulties. The delight of the Ananda to fix itself against the oblivion of absorption, not yet against the sleep. Ananda Ishwara to determine itself in the darshana. Light of the hermetic ideality to suffuse the highest ideality. Samadhi to determine its ideality in the permanent fixity. Vishaya to develop as also the rupa siddhi. These things and others to begin in the remaining days of July. Siddhi began with the Ananda-Brahman. This is now beginning finally to impose itself on both the chidghana and the mental darshana. In the latter it either diffuses itself or contains the mental seeing, but in both cases is itself mentalised and loses its character of the pure perfect unmodified Ananda. The vijnana darshana either contains or is contained in the Ananda. In the former case the Ananda is either made of the chidghana kind or surrounds it in its mental or its chidghana modification. Prema is always present in the Ananda darshana, but is often seen as an element of the thing, rasa-grahana, without evoking bhoga of prema in the chitta and prana. It is seen by prakamya, not received by vyapti. The vijnana darshana is now being made by tapas to replace more firmly and fully the mental seeing. The more perfect Ananda darshana then supervenes more easily and with a greater completeness, density and amplitude. The struggle with the remnants of the relapse continued for a time. Strong pragmatic ideal tapas worked in and on the resistance, till the intuitive ideality in intuitive manasa and vijnana replaced the lax intuitive mentality. Then suddenly in Samadhi complete and powerful gnostic revelation took up the whole action in light and deeper swapna, brought in full coherence, excluded all mentality: but in the deepest nidra imperfection still continued though attacked and partially excluded by the revelatory gnosis. There was no actual dream, but insufficient inner jagrat[t]a. In the waking state also this gnosis took up the thought, but not so completely; T2 is still a gate for the intervention of manasa.

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Nevertheless the gnosis is working upon this manasa to transform it and exclude all unconverted movements. There is also some initial movement of turning the K A into the character of this gnosis. Samadhi in the afternoon overpowered by nidra, only towards the end returning to the gnostic drishti. In the ideality a strong and stable perception of the mental panchabhuta, brilliantly etheric in its basis, tejomaya in its substance, with all the perceptions and forces acting in its intellectual intuitive medium: within, but alien to it the pranic, vayumaya in its basis and substance, below the material inconscience, prithivimaya and jalamaya in its basis and substance. The mind sees in this medium its own contributions to thought and action, consciousness and force, but with some difficulty the pranic interception and intervention, with most difficulty the material resistance and response. This ether forms an obstacle to the vijnana contribution which governs, originates, decides the whole action of the triloka. Subsequently a descent from the highest ideality for the purpose of farther fixing the transformation of intuitive mentality into intuitive ideality. This has been effected so that even in relaxed states of the system, the thought is ideal and not of the mental substance. The mental form is becoming exceptional, peculiar to a most relaxed condition of the system. Samadhi still distressed by nidra. Dream of half-samadhi turning to vision, incoherence sometimes overpowering, sometimes corrected with ease or difficulty to some regular or capricious coherence. Rupa and vishaya in abeyance. K.A acting, but oblivious tamas attending absorption insistent, not strongly attacked by gnostic tapas. Physical siddhi otherwise in abeyance or small isolated action or limited to simple maintenance of the present status. The relapse has been chiefly effective in the physical siddhi. July 28th Monday. The ideality is working still at the transformation. T2 is now acting normally in the telepathic form in the intuitive ideality with a clinging adhesion of the stuff of mentality. Nevertheless, there is frequent correctness of circumstance, but with an insufficient force of certitude and some occasional intervening element of error

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and wrong selection. T2 of inspired telepathy has begun to be finally idealised, but there is yet a heavy incidence of mentality. The highest gnosis in T2 is in abeyance. Lipi. There will be the rush of the highest ideality today in the thought and the thought speech; a beginning also in the trikaldrishti tapassiddhi. The inspired telepathic ideality can give the fact to be, but does not command the time and the circumstance. The attempt to do it brought it back to the infinite incertitude of possibility and so to an intuitive mentality just shading off into a thin ideality. Afterwards was a rush of tapasic action of the being, mostly idealised in the intuivity, but pervious to unidealised mental suggestions. Samata, c¸ raddha etc are being made compatible with this tapasic state of the being which formerly brought always disturbance and reaction. The replacement of tamas or mere c¸ ama by a tapas based in c¸ ama is the intention. On the whole now laxity of the system can bring it down only to an intuitive ideal state bordering on and pervious to suggestions of the mentality, but not to unideal mentality. The attempt now is to replace this intuitive level by an inspired ideality which will be the state of relaxation and to make the highest ideality the proper action. The rush of the highest ideality has begun, but it is very pervious to the motions of the lower ideality. In its inspirational form it gives freely the fact to be, but not yet the circumstance which had begun to be given with much imperfection by the lower inspiration Vishaya and rupa revived, but began with their old faults, crudeness of rasa, obstruction of gandha and fugitive rupa etc. These are now gradually being set aside. Gandha can now always be commanded in subdued form or intensity by inhalation; spontaneous gandha is still limited to rarity by the obstruction. The tendency in rasa is to define. In rupa to a doubtful and quickly withdrawn primary stability. The full freedom is not yet established in any of these siddhis. When the relapse brings back to a former state, there are always three conflicting principles at work, the habit of rebuilding laboriously what was broken down, the method of remanifesting rapidly the past siddhis by a rapid repetition of some of the steps by

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which it had been formed, the immediate remanifestation with fresh progress. The second tends to prevail, but less in the undeveloped siddhis; the third is only in its infancy. A considerable force of samadhi later in the morning. Samadhi in the afternoon much half-idealised dreaming. Brief freedom of gandha and sparsha and a freer c¸ ravana. Work in the afternoon. Highest ideality, but some action of the lower gnosis and the idealised intuivity. Later laxity and apravritti. July 29 Tuesday. Today a more perfect T2 has been presaged in the lipi and the presage is repeated this morning. T2 is already growing towards a relative perfection. The ideality acting on all levels gives increasingly a prediction which has indeed only a relative certitude, but is generally right in fact of event, always has some justification in telepathic actuality, is able to fix time with a sort of coarse appreciation, but not yet always with an entirely prevailing relative certainty, has some rough initial idea of the arrangement of circumstance, though not yet the fine detail, but all is still disquieted to a certain extent by three of the old difficulties, (1) chiefly, the incertitude caused by a defect of the decisive seeing, (2) an attempt of the telepathy to fill in illegitimately this defect and the defect of range by a false certitude, (3) the intervention of mental will trying to masquerade as trikaldrishti. The incidence of these difficulties is steadily diminishing, but they are still in action. Chitra rupa has been for some days growing in abundance, vividness, life and variety. Sthapatya rupa has now reappeared, this time in full spontaneity, vividness, unlimited variety, perfection of form, truth of life, forms of all kinds of beings, objects, scenes etc. Chitra is developing towards the same perfection. The highest ideality is now attempting in thought perception and tapas to free itself from the lower action. That comes in as an alien intervention, a sign that it is rejected and when the highest gnosis works, it is only so that they can present themselves, piercing from outside through the regular working and finding some similar response in the physical system, but rejected by the gnostic and

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mental being. When this gnosis works in freedom, then it arouses no pragmatic eagerness in the mental system, tolerates no mechanical tamasic laxity During the rest of the day a variable action of the ideality. In Samadhi dream pages, consecutive reading. Violent mass touch of sparsha, blow-push, in Samadhi. Nidra still oppressive. A general wavering and incertitude. July 30 Wednesday. The highest logistic gnosis is now finally taking up the mentality. At first in intuitive revelatory, then in intuitive inspired revelatory and inspired revelatory, then in full revelatory in the three orders, it invaded all the thought-activities and holds them firmly; even the lapses are full of the revelatory sense and light. The next step is to turn this idealised mentality into the full and true highest logistic gnosis. This is being partly done, but mainly in thought speech and perception; not yet in T2. Kamananda is recovering its siddhis in the revelatory form. Great intensity, fullness and stability of all kinds of sparshas in bahirdarshi jagrat as well as antardarshi. Hasya in samata; beginnings of the devi-hasya. Samadhi in the afternoon: in the grasp of nidra. But all the dream in the nidra has turned to ideality and coherence. The old form of incoherent dream was unable to force its way back into the samadhi, except for certain associations of present personality. Much of the dream was in the form of the highest ideality mental or vijnanamaya. Work in the afternoon; subsequently a duller state of the action. K.A weakened in the afternoon and evening, accomplished at night a certain overcoming of its difficulties, but is still very much subject to intermittence of its siddhis. At night a splendid fullness of moving in dream vision; [absolute]1 perfection, colour, reality[,] intensity of scenes, objects, people, living creatures in an ordered succession as if seen by one moving through a new world, the pranic worlds or else the 1 MS absolutely

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bhuswargas. Afterwards again dream of the ordinary kind, though always with a certain kind of coherence. July 31 Thursday. The ideality is now seeking to get rid of the too strong effect of the physical laxity, to keep up a constant action of the thought of gnosis. There is also the movement towards the changing of the idealised revelatory mentality in the physical system to the true gnosis. T2 is still a difficulty. The main difficulty is the persistence of the recurring tendency to take strong actual possibility for final actuality. This defect is absent when there is no attempt to get the absolute decision; then all is actual possibility relieved by relative certainties. But the attempt at decisive trikaldrishti tapas brings in the hasty and wrong overstresses which mix with, interfere with, replace the true decisions. Decision is often of the inspired gnostic kind which is a strong tapas of perception often fulfilled, but liable to be overborne by a greater power. At the same time the absolute revelatory action often intervenes, but is mixed with intuitive seeing of relatively decisive gnostic intuitions and these forceful inspirations of a pragmatic almost absolute certitude. The absolute revelatory action is of the logistis, certain therefore of the moment, but with a background of still greater unperceived possibility which may reverse the natural effect of the decision. K.A is now stronger in force of spontaneous persistence; but the spontaneity is not perfect, nor proof against oblivion by strong absorption or by a wandering of the lax mind to other interests. But it is seeking to get rid of this obstacle by tapas. The action of the ideality bears now most on the T2 which is being reduced to the revelatory form. Only remnants of the old action are still untransformed and of the mentality. This movement at first turned the mental into the idealised revelatory mentality. Now a revelatory ideal Tapas and trikaldrishti is being insisted on, but mixed with the idealised mentality or chequered by its recurrence. Telepathy is being changed into perception of the thought stuff as well as the feeling stuff and impulse stuff of the being, while there is also the accompaniment of a telepathic thought-

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perception reducing these indirect identities into idea and thought speech. The mechanical and pragmatic tapas is being idealised and raised towards or into the truth tapas governed by trikaldrishtic perception. This again varies between the intuitive and inspired revelation, remnants intervening of non-revelatory intuition and inspiration, and is also directed towards the full truth revelation. The movement is final and decisive, but has [ ]2 still much work to do upon the old matter and manner, before it can be entirely free to work in the revelatory gnosis. K.A is enforcing continuity; the tendency to continuity insists and on the whole prevails in spite of the strong recurrence of its deficiencies. The other siddhis are moving forward, but with a fragmentary and intermittent movement, liable still to some action of the principle of relapse. Saundarya, except in one or two details, and utthapana are unable to move forward or break down their barriers. They await the gnostic tapas. The programme for the month has been in part accomplished, in part half accomplished, the other half begun but not completed, in part partially or entirely baffled by the obstruction. On the whole the forward movement prevails or is increasing in strength. The physical obstruction is the great obstacle. August. Balance of progress. First Chatusthaya. The first chatusthaya has been fortified by the stable founding and permanence of the full hasya. Asamata of asatya has now little or no force; its incidence is, if not quite deleted, yet ineffective. Asamata of asiddhi is passing, occasional, fragmentary and corrected without difficulty. Once the delight of failure is put in its right place, as an anandamaya perception of passing circumstance and step of the siddhi free from tamasic acquiescence, the last remnants of asamata can be abolished. Affection is the only thing that brings in a touch of the fear of amangala, but this is now a slight external suggestion. 2 MS to

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ˆ Second Chatusthaya. Complete except for the divine hasya, aishwarya and the full sraddhaˆ in the swa¸cakti; these defects are ˆ due to the insufficiency of force in the devi-bhava. Tejas, balam, mahattwam, pravritti of the elements are there, but not steady and equal in their action. Third Chatusthaya. Gnana is in itself perfect in revelatory gnosis, capable even of the hermetic gnosis, but is held back and deT2 is advancing to scends so as not to outstrip too much the T2. the revelatory power. It is already preparing its final freedom from mentality, normally gnostic and drishtimaya, but burdened with the persistent recurrence of the intervening old mental deficiencies or lower forms of the gnosis. Samadhi fluctuates, sometimes ideal, vigorous, abundant, then again for days together overpowered by nidra. In nidra dream is usually almost coherent, sometimes quite coherent, sometimes fantastic in coherence, sometimes orderly; when the ideality is active or presses on the system, dream-vision comes or dream is changed into vision. Vishaya has established itself in gandha and rasa, often perfect, intense, distinct and of a certain variety, but is often rendered rare by the obstruction. Sparsha is strong in the established sthula touches, often intense in sukshma or sthula-sukshma touch on the sukshma or sthula body, even in the half sthula or just sthula touches, but the full and free materialisation is still obstructed; this part of the old barrier, its last strong fencing has not yet fallen. Sravana comes with strength or persistence only in the old symbolic sounds, cricket, ticking, bells, thunder etc; the rest has failed to materialise. Drishya is limited to an occasional elementary vision of the pranic akasha and its simplest forms. There is no sign of progression. Rupa fluctuates; for some days it has failed in frequency and made no progress. Fourth Chatusthaya. Kamananda has established the prevailing tendency of continuity, can in response to smarana and tapas overcome all the obstacles of oblivion, except sleep and long absorption; but none of its deficiencies has undergone a final elimination. Tivra is strong, but intermittent, raudra firmly established in all touches up to an indefinite degree of the violence of the sparsha, but is sometimes momentarily overcome by sudden unexpected contacts. There is no insistence on vishaya which is

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generally established subject to certain remnants of discomfort or insipidity, nor on vaidyuta, which can however be brought by satapas smarana. Arogya is strong in tapas in all but the two central rogas, which are still insistent in obstruction and relapse; the rest the tapas, if allowed to act, can hold back or cast out the fragments with more or less appearance or reality of difficulty. Saundarya is established in bhava, but fluctuates in intensity and varies in character; physically there is no advance except in one circumstance. Utthapana is stationary or rather in a state of inhibition. Fifth Chatusthaya. Mental Kali finally and permanently established, Krishna darshana in the being intermittent in its manifestation. Karma is limited to personal action and some force of tapas in outward things. Kama is personal, but not yet moved towards exteriorisation. Sixth Chatusthaya. Fundamental Brahma darshana complete in the Ananda vijnana, sometimes descends towards the mentality to effect a better fusion of ahaituka, prema, kama, vijnana and shuddha ananda. Brahma sight is full of the Purusha, but only sometimes contains the Ishwara seeing. Seventh Chatusthaya. Suddhi is practically complete except for the body and the vijnana; essential mukti complete, but not the mukti of the Nature, as in the physical being and its most physical mentality, recurrence of tamas and something of rajas and sattwa are still visible. Bhukti is almost complete. These completenesses are fundamental, not a completeness of degree or of content. Siddhi is practically perfect in the first, moving towards final perfection in the second, striving towards completeness and a kind of perfection in the third, initial only in the fourth and for the most obstructed and subject to relapse, busy only with the personal foundation in the fifth, large in the sixth, but not full in its contents or complete in its combination. Programme I. Hasya to be fixed in the final perfection. II. Craddha ¸ to be completed, daivi prakriti brought to perfection.

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III Ideality to be firmly raised in T2 to the revelatory logistic power and to look upward to the hermetic gnosis in all its thought activities. Samadhi to overcome nidra. Vishaya to be completed in its element[s], jagrat rupa delivered from its barrier of obstruction. IV Kamananda to acquire continuity, overcome its obstacles and bring in the other anandas. Health to increase its tapas and, if possible, found the two central arogyas. The development of the two other physical siddhis is not likely to come as yet to perfection, but the final battle may begin with the physical obstruction. V. Kali to idealise and fix herself in the gnosis and Krishna to fix himself as the visible Ishwara in the Ananda. Karma to extend its force of perfection in the personal working and its power on outward eventuality. Kama to complete its personal basis in the subjectivity. VI. Ishwara darshana to take up the perfected Brahma vision. VII. Perfection in the first two, initial perfection in the third and sixth, preparation of completion in the other chatusthayas. August 1. 1919. Friday. Action of ideality in thought to perceive the right action. The full revelatory ideality, not the inspired or intuitive revelation, the truth seeing not the pragmatic or resistant mechanical seeing, not the alternation of these two opposite powers, nor even their simultaneous perception, but their unity and exceeding in the revelatory truth, must be the agent of the perfect siddhi. That therefore must be insisted on always, even in the midst of the persistence of the lower movements. This thing done means a sure rapidity. In the K.A. urgent pragmatic tapas must be replaced by spontaneity aided by an ideal truth tapas and smarana. An attack of the obstructive external physical mentality which sought to deny all farther speedy or immediate progress, was followed by an immediate and strong advance in the first two chatusthayas. The hasya is already achieving the requisite form and the acceptance of asiddhi as a circumstance and step of siddhi is complete. Into this acceptance has still to be brought the secure fullness of the equal ananda. A limited aishwarya-bodha and selfc¸ raddha, a full c¸ raddha in the kalyanabuddhi of the Ishwara is now

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being founded. These two siddhis have now to be given their last finality. Lipi. The ideality in the physical siddhis to be undertaken in spite of the difficulties. The rest of the day mostly a confirming of the first two chatusthayas against the attack of Asiddhi. It is now firmer; the moments of clouding prove ineffective; the siddhi perseveres in spite of absence of light or adverse suggestions in the mentality. The oppression of primary utthapana is a little lightened today. The attack on the health still continues in the digestive perversion. In the fragmentary rogas it is held in check, its material effects abrogated as soon as they are slightly manifested, but is not eliminated from the system. In Samadhi in the afternoon no recovery, except at the end; at night (early morning) ample rupa, but there is still incoherency in the lipi, unideality in the other features, inaction of the thoughtpowers. On the whole a day of obstruction, but of some initial advances. Aug 2. Saturday A day of the ideality. The lipi predicts the 5th and 11th (with the 7th as an intermediary stage) and the 15th as the important days for the gnosis. Today it has to manifest under difficulties and this will go on till the 5t.h. when the revelation, it is to be presumed, will be in some sort firmly founded; from the 5th to the 11th farther progress still in spite of difficulties, then some manifestation of the hermetic ideality. The 15th is to be the special day for the gnosis. Thought and thought-speech have fixed themselves in an easy normal and brilliant revelatory gnosis of the subordinate intuitive character in all its degrees. This is also being applied to the mental levels where it is still of the same character, but of a more derivative and less complete and immediate luminosity and certitude. Next, the same process was applied to T2. First, an inrush of the old mentality; next a lifting in which all first became incertitude and then was transformed into a gnosis of intuitive revelatory possibilities, the revelation taking up the possibilities

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and revealing their incidence and proportions, with an intervention of immediate revelatory certitudes. Behind this is now manifesting the full inspired revelatory dynamic possibilities and certitudes and the full revelatory illuminations. Tapas is of the same character, but with less completeness. This second movement however is as yet from above and has not become either full in itself or the normal thought action. Subsequently, an attempt to bring in the inspired revelation as the type of all the thought especially in T2. At first this brought about a descent from the revelatory to the inspired levels. Then there came above, with no hold on the lower being, a highest form of the full (not inspired) revelation, holding in itself the prominent element of inspiration. A difference has to be drawn between the inspired revelation and full most luminous revelation of an inspired character. T2 came to no definite siddhi, but thought became of an inspired revelatory nature. An attack of roga on the eye. Twice materialised and momentarily healed first by intuitive, then by inspirational Tapas of the revelatory kind, it managed to hold by a disposition to and some actual watering, but no effusion. The arogya tapas prevailed over the roga which for the most part lived only in suggestions in the subtle physicality which could not materialise in but only affected the sthula. There was some physical sense or initiation of all the symptoms, but not their physical actuality. Samadhi overpowered by nidra in the afternoon, free, but still attacked by defects in the early morning Aug 3 Sunday. The movement to inspired revelation continues and all the thought and T2 is of this character, revelation always present, inspiration predominating and sometimes swallowing it up, but on all levels, so that there is little certitude of a final character. Mostly the thought of T2 on the idealised mental level. Some recurrence of intuitive forms. Later emergence of thought of inspired revelation and revelation permeated with inspiration. Invasion from outside failed to bring in any relapse or any element of intellectuality. The roga made many fresh attacks, but was increasingly

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overpowered by Tapas; it is being reduced to the fragmentary character. No actual watering except early in the morning, very slightly, but still a disposition to watering and occasional attempts at heat. The causes of increased affection, strain of the eye, glare etc are being got to increase instead the force of the arogya. Arogya Tapas is changing to the ideal character. The thick obstacle of the most physical prana with its sanskara of roga is being pierced and broken up by the light of ideal tapas. The movement is [one]3 of strong prevalence, not yet of absolute finality. In the central rogas Tapas is resuming its operation, but not yet effective for sensible progress. In the morning drishya of pranic akasha, full of small life; insects, butterflies etc so stable and vivid as often to be not easily distinguishable except by their multitude from terrestrial forms. Birds also, but not so stable, vivid, easily distinguishable as pranic beings. In samadhi after some nidra and coherent dream, great abundance of samadhi experience. Tapas is resuming its force, revelatory ideality taking up more firmly the forms. One full dialogue narrative in this kind, many breaks of pure dialogue etc; abundant lipi. But the tendency to incoherence is still able to recur across the general coherence. K.A is resuming its hold after two days subsidence and pale recurrence, and is now of a more firmly ideal revelatory character, even in the stronger and narrower intensity of the sthula current. Aug 4 Monday. The vijnana began with the highest gnosis in the third intensity, but afterwards there was especially in T2 much play of the idealised mentality and the lower gnosis on the mental level.. T2 has still a difficulty in remaining on the gnostic heights of thought and will and perception. The attack in the roga tried to prolong itself, but only with a slight success. Ideal and idealised Arogya tapas prevailed over the roga. Roga since attacked in other forms, but in all after some brief and apparently strong materialisation the Tapas was able to dismiss it from actuality, eg, a spell of cough, catarrh, not in fact but sensation. Pain of the breast manifested repeatedly 3 MS once

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and was allowed for the sake of the raudra ananda. Pressures once intolerable are now filled with the Ananda; they then find it difficult to persevere, diminish and rapidly disappear. The same state in the central rogas. In Samadhi, seated, ideality, then in reclining nidra. Afterwards strong universal action of the highest gnosis in all depths, thought, speech, T2, thought dealing with rupa, or lipi. Lipi was ideal, for the most part of the highest gnosis. Rupa at first telepathic turned to the gnostic content. Rupa was pranic and chhayamaya, eg a shadowy hand taking a shadowy bag, shadowy mountains and lakes, a great curving raised line of ground in daylight of chhayamaya, all sufficiently stable. Jagrat rupa and vishaya are recovering their action. In rupa the stress is on stability which is now often secondary and tertiary in crude rupa, in the rest the tendency is to prolonged primary or arrested secondary; even when unstable, they are snatched away rather than in themselves fugitive. In drishya birds etc vivid in pranic akasha, some hardly distinguishable from terrestrial creatures; colours only white and black. Free and abundant rupa (not drishya) of human forms etc against the pranic akasha. In rasa and gandha the stress is on distinctness and particularity; the obstacle to frequency is not yet overcome. The obstruction remains in the sparsha, but there is [considerable]4 intensity in the established forms of sparsha, little spontaneity. Cravana ¸ is still subject to a return of complete obstruction. K.A. varies; the stress is no longer on continuity, but on ideality. T2 active in the highest ideality of the third degree. The turn here is to the rejection of the confusion of incertitude. There is also some filling of the third with the light of the higher degrees. Dream of connected sequences, but some fantasia. Beginning of a firmer gnosis in the dialogue. Aug 5 Tuesday. T2 is now settling down into the gnostic movement; mainly in the third intensity of the highest gnosis. The finality has begun and 4 MS considerably

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there remains only the complete transformation and the dominant certitudes. The Ishwara has now begun to prepare his final overt occupation of the Adhyakshatwa. Strong dasya of the Shakti manifested, and although there is fluctuation is taking possession. Tertiary ideal dasya in intensity has definitely replaced the remnants of the old mental tertiary mixed with the over prominence of Prakriti which maintained the remnants of the secondary dasya. But the dasya is sometimes to the ideal ganas, sometimes direct to the Ishwara In samadhi idealisation proceeds, complete narrative (part drishya and dialogue) is growing; dialogue, still fragmentary, is preparing for expansion. Strong hermetic gnosis occurred in the samadhi. Aug 6 Wednesday T2 is now assured in the gnosis, mainly of the third and second intensities. The third is still the largest, the second is now about to secure its own perfection, predominance and finality so as to open fully to the first intensity. All is transformed into gnosis that touches the mental system. The intuitional gnosis has completed itself in the revelation and recognised its limits. Certitudes of revelatory intuition exist, but they are only temporary, immediate or relative, as it may be said, contributory and not final certitudes. Tertiary ideal dasya is getting rid of all remnant of mental endeavour and overstress; on the other hand full force of tapas as yet comes only from above and is not normal to the system. Dasya ˆ of nati is established, but not a perfect dasya of samarthya Last night there was again roga attack on the eye, but fragmentary and external though capable of a certain persistence. It lasts so long as the highest revelatory tapas does not act with a full incidence. Hot watering during sleep subsists, though reduced to a certain extent; other symptoms of shita susceptibility are very brief in their recurrence. No visible progress to finality in the central rogas. Rupa moves forward very slowly. There is some combination of variety and increasing stability in crude rupa; ghana is trying to stand before the eye in the same way as the crude figures. But the

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old imperfections and limitations still hold their own against the tapas of vision. A strong movement towards spontaneity combined with vivid distinctness and some variety in rasa, gandha and sparsha. In the latter the sukshma touch is getting more and more sthula, though as yet the border line to full sthulatwa has not been crossed. Samadhi went back to nidra and began turning the touches of dream swapna immediately to ideal forms of gnostic swapna samadhi. At night there is real dream, but more and more a consequent and idealised dreaming. Attack on eye, more full, cured, but the tendency remains. Gnosis fixed itself in the second rising to the third intensity. Aug 7. Thursday Gnosis rose to the third intensity of the logistic revelation. As usual the whole mass of thinking with some considerable invasion from the exterior mentality was brought in for transformation to the new form. Some progress was made, but interrupted by the necessity of a long struggle with the eye roga which attacked persistently all the morning, was persistently put back, but renewed the attack when on the point of elimination. It is noticeable that all thought was of the ideal kind, though of all ideal kinds, idealised mentality as well as gnosis. The invaders could bring in no intellectual suggestion which was not given its luminous ideal translation whether into truth of mentality or gnosis. Even the suggestions of the subconscious physical mind are thus translated into light of gnosis. The lipi therefore which fixed the 5th & 7th as crucial dates for the gnostic siddhi, is amply justified in fact and in detail. The full conversion to the third intensity, especially of T2 still remains to be done. Success of the invasion was mostly in the physicality, roga. It amounts to the eye attack suspended during the early afternoon, and some brief repetition of cough and retardation of the central roga. In Samadhi the very deepest overpowering nidra in which formerly there was no trace of samadhi experience, but even this is now in the afternoon turning to its initial ideality.

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Friday. Saturday Aug 8 – 9. These two days have been marked by the immensely rapid progress of the gnosis. On the first thought and a certain part of T2 rose or rather soared up with force into a highest logistic gnosis full of the deputed power of the hermetic and seer ideality. For the most part there was an increase of the inspired pragmatic or dynamic gnosis at this level of intensity, with an undertone of intuitive present or actual gnosis, corresponding to the old mechanical intellectuality. This took full shape and power on Saturday. T2 got an immense development. The lower state of the system was at first transformed to the full ideality of all kinds, but chiefly highest ideality of the third intensity, then all to the highest gnosis either full of or penetrated or overshadowed by the influence of the hermetic and seer gnosis. This change was chiefly managed with the violent struggle between the Arogya and the eye attack for an occasion. The struggle resolved itself into a dynamic highest gnostic tapas which sought to override physical rule and limitation and the invading idealised intellectuality aided by the upwellings of the subconscious mind of the body which insisted on the old physical law and habit. When tapas was active it prevailed but on the point of cure ceased and allowed the other thought to act and prevail. Thus for two days there has been an oscillation between movements of rapid ideal cure and the fragmentary but still persistent running of the old course of the disease. The tapas insisted (1) on every thought of the subconscient or the invading mentality being idealised and falling on the side of the gnostic truth or knowledge, whether by force of violence or illumination, (2) on every cause of pejoration of the disease being turned by this means into a cause of amelioration and strengthening of the eye and its sight, (3) on every layer of the consciousness to the most obscure physical being brought up into the light and penetrated and possessed by the light of the ideality. During these two days it gained successively all but the most physical flesh layer. The disease was left with a strong tendency to disappearance, but a remnant of persistence in its one last symptom maintained by action of the Roga consciousness on this purely physical layer.

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T2 of external happenings is still imperfectly brought into the highest gnosis. Aug 10 Sunday. The highest gnosis on Saturday began reconciling the dynamic inspirational and the actualist intuitional revelation in the pure revelatory union. This is now the thing that is in process. Except part of T2 and fresh arriving invasional thought which supports the physical asiddhi, all is changed to some kind of this highest gnosis of the first intensity. T2 also is undergoing the transformation. In Samadhi the same process is in action at a lower stage[,] that of turning all into gnosis at least of the third intensity. The eye attack has succumbed to the gnostic Tapas. This struggle has founded the true basis of ideal Arogya and of the whole physical siddhi. The gnostic method is being applied initially to all the members of the sharira; but the whole bodily consciousness has to be converted before it can make rapid headway. K.A has been well founded in the ideal form and is taking over into that form all its previous siddhis. Its obstacles are still mechanical discontinuity (almost destroyed, except as a result of long discontinuity[)], laxity of the system, oblivion by absorption, sleep. The positive dark veil of oblivion has been destroyed by light of gnosis; only the mechanical oblivion survives its disappearance Vishaya and rupa are moving forward deliberately by steps, firmer than before, but there is no mastering rapidity. The quadruped form, so long resisted, has now reached a brilliant perfection in chitra and sthapatya which are extraordinarily active whenever they can find a background and attention. K.A is to be established today, according to the lipi, completely and perfectly established tomorrow, confirmed and filled out the day after. At present it has been established in the old way as an insistent presence supported by Tapas in continuity, brought immediately into natural recurrence by smarana, but hampered in both respects by an external obstruction to which the system is still sensible. Mechanical discontinuity is destroyed, but the other obstacles and interruptions have still their incidence.

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Aug 11 Monday. T2 is arranging itself for a final dismissal of the remnants of positive defect, practically the excesses and deficiencies of stress of tapas, a final conversion of all telepathic perception into the highest logistic ideality of the three times, a taking up of actualistic and dynamic T2 into the full revelatory gnosis. This is especially in outward things, as the inward is ready for the change to the hermetic ideality which can alone begin the reign of a quite positive certitude. At present all has been reduced to the lowest stress, on the borders between mind and gnosis so as to get the proper action at this lower pitch where deficiency of light gives the largest scope to inferior working and error. The highest logistic T2 has begun there, but with some weakness. Incertitude and yet justification of both the actualistic and dynamic perceptions is being insisted upon, a repetition of the old method of purification In Samadhi K.A overcame more and more the obstacle of absorption and nidra. It now occupies all the ranges of samadhi and is kept in continuity not only in the antardarshi and lighter swapna, but in the depths of swapna where nidra is not present as an element. But even with nidra it now increasingly comes as a strong recurrence or a difficult but still growing continuity. The defect is that this recurrence tends to break the samadhi, bring back swapna to antardarshi or lighten it to the point where some perception of the outer world clings to the skirts of the inner absorption. The perception in deep swapna is of the pranic basis of the physical body, but also often of the physical body made sensible to the sukshma mind and indriyas. There is also a direction towards the comprehensive many-planed samadhi. The whole major insistence throughout the day has been on the K. Ananda. First of all the normal continuity has been founded in the settling of a great mass of gnostic K. Ananda on a pedestal of rocklike pratistha. Later this has faded and grown, half disappeared and returned, given place to a less certain fluid Ananda in the laxity of the mind and body, but the net upshot is a continuity only interrupted by sleep and distraction. The difficulties are being rapidly put aside. Laxity of the system no longer of itself brings on discontinuity, but only when it is supported by pramada, mental

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distraction. Absorption of thought also no longer imposes oblivion, except when there is this loose distraction or pramada of the channel mind in the physicality. Absorption in the object is at best only momentarily discontinuative; absorption of reading or writing only when extreme by necessity of attention; but this necessity is no longer really existent, since the gnosis is capable of a wide and multiple dhyana. In the reading it is almost eliminated as a necessary factor, in the writing it is on the point of elimination. The one thing now really to be conquered is the loose mental distraction, a habit and not a necessity of the system. This gained in the evening, was brought out in full and prevented the complete actual continuity. It is assisted by the old desire of the physical mind for release from tapas, rest by inertia. Sleep also, not transformed towards samadhi, is a positive interruption. The highest logistic ideality in assured possession of the thought, preparing assured possession of the T2; physical siddhi commencing finality in the ideal Kama Ananda. This fulfils the indication for the 11t.h., though not to the extent of the entire completeness. Aug 12 Tuesday. The gnosis is proceeding with its preparation of T2. K.A is left to fix itself in the new siddhi, but all the obstacles, sleep excepted, have ceased to exercise a necessary interrupting action. They live only by dependence on the lax distraction of the channel mentality. Samadhi is still occupied with the transformation of nidra. On the whole a day of intermediate relaxation. Aug 13 Wednesday The gnosis is now definitely taking up the T2 from the border line towards the higher region. Hermetic ideality is beginning to show itself in an action from above on the logistic plane, while it more and more moulds the logistis itself into a predominantly hermetic logistis. This is in the thought, the T2 is being taken up by the inferior drashtri logistis, but this too is taking on a lower hermetic element, the fullness of dynamic certitude. Incertitude is giving way more and more to a relative certitude the

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exact temporary power, force, result is seen, thronged around by positive certitudes of immediately subsequent or slightly distant eventualities. Old difficulties are brought up by a lower seeing and immediately transformed to this positive vision. The process is only commencing its finality, but proceeds with a considerable rapidity. Nevertheless T2 full perfection cannot come in the logistis; but only a limited sufficiency and initial perfection.

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14 AUGUST – 24 SEPTEMBER 1919

Yoga Diary August 14 1919.

August 14th Thursday The ideality is advancing in the same steps. Thought is perfectly fixed in the gnosis and rises to the hermetic logistic and the seer logistic ideality. T2 is being transformed by the logistic drashta, not the seer logistis, but with a touch of the hermeneusis. The old mentalities recur in the idealised incertitudes, but only to be interpreted by the light of gnosis. There is no relapse to mentality, but only some lapse to this admissibility of idealised mental suggestions; they come from outside and the system is still capable of a subordinate mechanical response to them. The range of T2 is as yet small, restricted to the habitual field of action, except sometimes when a higher action develops its first luminous suggestions. This higher T2 is commonest in the lipi. Samadhi is as yet making no masterful progress. It is kept back by the siege of nidra supported by a strong tendency to physical and mental laxity which has reigned for the last two or three days. Rupa and drishya and vishaya have for the time being suspended their advance and are in a state of comparative suspension. The physical siddhi is advancing in the K.A, but under the difficulty of the laxity and distraction. The other physical siddhis are in a state of suspension. Kamananda is working upon the laxity in order to enforce its perfect continuity. The main movement is an attempt to fix the ˆ Ananda (madiramaya) in the head, but that still tends to bring a

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temporary lessening in the lower body. Ananda in the upper body is subject to the dominance of discontinuity; in the lower body the normal tendency is to continuity. At times there comes the perfect siddhi of continuity against which no absorption, even of writing, can prevail. It is this and the pervasion which have to be fixed in an absolute finality. Ananda Purusha darshana and prema are again insisting on their intensity and universality. They are combated by the remnants of the old ahaituka indifferent universality. This is now likely to be overcome with some rapidity. T2 is now increasingly correct within the logistic limits. But there is the old defect of descending, now not into the mind, but to the lower border intensities open to mental suggestions, for the transformation. All work of progress should be done from the highest attained siddhi, the high lifting up the low, not the low working towards the higher siddhi. This has indeed begun and is even established in the subjectivity but not with a pure and perfect action Aug 15 Friday Hermetic logistic ideality took preliminary possession of the T2. This action at once brought to bear effective gnostic tapas on the body. But the lower action still insists, has yet to undergo transformation. The survival of the tamoguna in the body is the chief obstacle; it brings not the absolute, but a relative aprakasha, apravritti, pramada, moha. The day was taken up with the development of this action which marks a decisive turning-point in the gnosis. From the afternoon came, as often before in such crises, a lapse (for adjustment) into idealised mentality, no longer tinged with any dark tamas, but rather a vivid haze of light, a confusion of luminous incertitude. So long as this conversion of the gnosis is not provided with its full base, the other siddhis attend their moment for renewed progression.

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Aug 16th 17th Continuation of the lapse of adjustment. In the evening 17t.h.1 a recovery of the higher action and a renewal of the physical Ananda. Daivi prakriti with powerful and complete matribhava is constantly increasing, as also the anandamaya samata and strong hasya. Aishwarya bodha of the Ishwari in the Prakriti subject to the growing aishwarya of the Ishwara in the Ananda acting through the vijnana and limited by the continued imperfection of this instrumental nature. Aug 18th Monday Full force of the seer ideality in the logistis. Thought-perception has now the same freedom and almost the same assured power as the speech. Thought of T2 is assuming the same freedom and potency; but, especially in the objective subjectivity it is limited by the large element of persistent telepathic incertitude. Nevertheless the certitudes are constantly progressing up the plane of increase. K.A in sleep in the morning almost succeeded in overcoming the depth of nidra, but stopped short on the verge of possession. The Ananda is now increasing again to lay its hold on the system and overcome the distraction. It is attempting to penetrate more and take hold of the fibres of the physical body. Tapas in T2 is visibly increasing in mass and swiftness of efficacy, but it still acts in a large atmosphere of the surrounding and limiting incertitude. Samadhi is recovering its progressive force. Long narrative reading, at first with skippings of large tracts, afterwards more continuous, but not quite ideal; dream reading. This was nidra in course of idealisation. Shabda has grown strong in samadhi; rupa, converse etc are increasing their strength and continuity. Aug 19th Tuesday Seer logistical ideality is taking up firmly the whole T2 and rejecting and transforming all the lesser movements. Only detailed circumstance is still rebellious to this treatment and insists on 1 “17 t.h.” written above “evening” in MS.

Ed.

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inspirational telepathic trikaldrishti. The difficulty is still the adjustment of actualistic and dynamic logistis. K.A has altered its base of continuity to the more physical Ananda, but as a consequence there is a decrease in the force of continuity which had depended on the ananda of the sukshma body affecting the sthula sharira. The main insistence is now on the increase of the physical occupation and not on the final removal of distraction which is to depend on the intense continuity of Ananda on this new base. In Samadhi in the afternoon a considerable extension of the dream siddhi, but at night a lapse to incoherent and fantastic continuity. Tapas is filling the physical mentality. Aug 20th Ideality of the seer gnosis in the logistis is now successfully occupying the whole range of the T2 siddhi; the element of recurrent lower ideality or idealised mentality is approaching the minimum. The extension of Tapas in the physical being proceeds with the working of getting rid of the apravritti of mere prakashamaya c¸ amas; the acquiescence in asiddhi mechanically recurs, but is no longer accepted by the Shakti Strong united spontaneity and stability is finally taking possession of the physical manifestation of the lipi, in which these two siddhis had still great difficulty in effecting a perfect coalescence. The action of the superior gnosis has again taken possession of the logistis. The base is a seer action modified to suit the lower key of the logistis, the force is a hermetic action informing the logistis with its higher luminosity and no longer dependent upon the actuality. This greater force is supreme in thought speech and thought-perception, even though still besieged there by a certain limitation of the surrounding mentality. In T2 it has begun to act and to evolve a true trikaldrishti acting upon the telepathic seeing and impose on it a certain kind of absolute certitude, as absolute as can be admitted in the logistis. The telepathic action itself is assuming the force of the seer logistis, though not yet perfect in

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this evolution. Tapas in its separate initiative (not preceded by or involved in knowledge) has risen in its major action to 65º and is even rising beyond it to 75º and 80º. This movement is proceeding towards its completion Samadhi has developed in all but the nidramaya depths to the heights of the seer logistis. Where there is nidra, it is assuming the character of the lower intensities of the logistis informed with revelatory gnosis, but the dream caprice often touches and spoils by its intervention. There are instances of a very perfect and sustained dream reading, also brief perfect converse. K.A has suddenly developed the highest seer logistic character in the mental body and when it so acts forms a sea of ananda around the body, but when the body itself is penetrated by the ananda this tends to cease. The Shakti is working to combine the Anandas of the mental and physical bodies. Ananda recurred with spontaneity in the Samadhi, but could not endure against the nidramaya absorption. At night in samadhi at first rational, then fantastic dream coherency. Aug 21. Thursday. Highest logistis in spite of general laxity firm in thoughtperception, active amid some telepathic confusion in T2. Vishaya Ananda changed into seer logistic quality through a conversion to K.A. This was done with phenomenal rapidity; intuitive vishaya at first adhered to first contact, but was almost immediately converted in this last refuge. The siddhi first in sparsha, then extended to the other vishayas, even to action and happening. What now takes place is vishaya-kama, ideal sense of vishaya acting in the dominant Kama Ananda. Rupa has for some time been working against temporary suppression, yesterday succeeded in turning it to strong obstruction, today it has recovered its force. Crude rupa is now for the most part possessed of the third stability; the others are still in the first in duration, but the rupas here too have the nature and consistency of the third, but are caught away by the old obstructive power in the akasha.

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Vishaya again active. Gandha has almost conquered the obstruction in inhalation, but spontaneous gandha though increased in force of recurrence is still subject to its power. Rasa is trying to occupy the organs of taste more fully. Sparsha is still obstructed, but occasionally active in response to tapas. Sravana is rare and has not gone beyond the typical shabdas now commenced in the jagrat bahirdarshi, and no longer confined to antardarshi or dependent on the closing of the ear to sthula sounds. Drishya is depressed in its evolution. Samadhi in the afternoon developed farther in the same direction. At night there was throughout in sleep the rationalised dream coherence also some samadhi the fantastic element even was reduced to the terms of rational coherence. The only exception was a brief, but for a time persistently repeated irrational feardream from the subconscient infant mentality associated with past sanskaras. The intrusion of personality and present life associations are now the only undispelled defects of this nidramaya swapna siddhi. The element of ideality in the coherence is rising, but not effective, because the purusha is only a passive witness and seer and not as in the samadhi proper a gnostic observer and judge of the things seen or experienced. Nidra must be dispelled to bring about this perfection. Aug 22, 23. 24 Friday, Saturday. Sunday On one side a strong development of hermetised logistis which is taking up the T2; on the other a laxity of the system, a lapse towards something like the old mentality brought about by an invasion of the besieging external mentality and some return of the mental principle of advance through struggle which seemed for a time to have given way finally to the ideal principle of advance through adjustment; even for brief moments in the end (24th) strong touches of external asamata. The higher gnosis works from above on this mass and frequently occupies it, but the physical system and mind are relaxed to the old half idealised mentality. T2 has advanced so far that all telepathy is taking on the form of the seer logistis, the hostile suggestions from outside excepted, and these too are now being attacked when they enter and either

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rejected or compelled to undergo transformation. Decisive seer trikaldrishti and tapas are rare, but the dynamic in that type is now common and is being better harmonised with the actualistic ideality raised to the same form. This seer logistis is of the higher form full of a varying measure of hermesis and even some reflection of a superior drishti. Vishaya is again obstructed and occasional; rupa is trying to advance under difficulty. K.A has been much oppressed but is now reviving though not yet in full occupation. On the other hand the new dynamic seer tapas aided by a lower logistic tapas is working strongly for the arogya especially in the two central rogas with some initial effectuality. It is trying also to take hold of the other two members of the physical siddhi, but with no tangible result in the corporeality. Samadhi is half advancing, half stopping under the same difficulty. Once there was the old vision of long continuous connected scene, but not this time in a rapid panorama, but steady as in actual life and changing only by the slow and regular movement of the witness through its environment. Towards the end, however, it was invaded by present suggestions and suffered from some fantastic incoherence and mutability, but more in the event and occupying figures than in the scenes. Last night there was a fall back to strong fantasia of present suggestion, though the physical circumstances and happenings were perfectly coherent and rational in their ensemble, connection and changes. In the afternoon for two days there was a difficult gnosis limited to thought and lipi and today a strong overmastering by disputed nidra, after some success of restoration. Occasionally in all these imperfect siddhis there are suggestions not immediately followed up of new development and progress. The obstacle interferes and drives back towards asiddhi. A movement in the lipi towards the universalising of a rapid stable legibility in all the forms, chhaya, tejas, jyoti, varna, of the lipi. All but the chhaya are more facile and stable at night than in the daytime

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Aug 25. Monday The tapas is becoming constantly stronger in the physical field; the ideal tapas produces results which were impossible to the mental or intuitive power. But there is an obstinate retarding resistance. Lipi 13 3 6 These are the siddhis which have to be brought forward and on which, in addition to the gnosis of jnana and T2 the Shakti is most tending to concentrate. There is an attempt also to redevelop or rather to remanifest and reestablish the once manifested stable basis of the K. Ananda. K.A is reestablished, but not with a full force or continuity. In the Samadhi there is some revival of the full force of dream coherence; also occurrence of an absolute firmness of dream vision T2 is developing settled seer telepathy and seer telepathic trikaldrishti in spite of the confusion of the invading mentality. Tapas is dominating, but much besieged by the obstruction of the invading ashakti. Aug 26 Tuesday. T2 continues to develop the seer certainties and right perception of telepathy, but the besieging confusion and physical tamas continues to limit its action. There is an increasing revival of the force of K.A. The two first chatusthayas depressed by tamas and laxity are recovering their completeness of the siddhi. This time the relapse tendency in the subjectivity has lasted seven days; the ordinary minimum formerly was a fortnight. T2 has emerged from the confusion and is now exiling all inferior suggestions. The telepathy of the seer logistis is still subject to a survival of mental incertitude and stress prematurely trying to set right the incertitude, but the tendency to automatic justness of appreciation is gaining ground in spite of lapses. Samadhi has recovered full force of logistic ideality in the seer logistis. For the last day or two there has been a movement towards abundance and coherence of other experience than the dream vision. Abundance and continuity were secured initially in monologue, converse, scene-narrative with speech, lipi in the lighter samadhi; there was also light and stable scene and continuity in happening; but the mass lipi in deeper samadhi was

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subject to great incoherence and though there was an immense abundance of experience in the logistic samadhi, most of it was of a fragmentary character. At night there was some relapse to present suggestion. K.A increases in the seer logistic ananda, but was discontinued late at night. The obstruction is yielding with much resistance and retardation. The two first siddhis are well reestablished in Devihasya. Aug 27 Wednesday T2 in spite of laxity is proceeding with accuracy of telepathic incidence. The Surya direction of the Ishwara is prominent and moving towards direct logistic control and guidance. A great increase of physical stability in sadhara, niradhara and chitra lipi, but especially in the niradhara. Also now in sthapatya lipi. In Samadhi in the afternoon at first an oppression of nidra, but strongly resisted by the Shakti which established in spite of it a free flow of the lipi, mostly of the lower logistic character. Subsequently, when the nidra tendency was conquered, there was established a free coherent movement of the seer logistic thought-speech, natural, normal, not as formerly maintained by tapas against obstruction, though a slight negligible obstruction is still present, a similar freedom, normality and coherent continuity of the seer logistic thought perception, then of the seer logistic lipi, with a beginning even in the profounder depths of samadhi (sushupta swapna), and a combination of these three powers, more obstructed, but still sufficient in action and normality. Other features of samadhic experience occurred in briefer snatches, but always significant and sufficient by the aid of the gnostic thought to yield their context and significance. The distinguishing character of the whole movement was the action of the observing thought actualising and understanding each experience and distinguishing in the scenes presented between the worlds and spheres of which they were a part. The mental worlds especially manifested in the more physical and [vital]2 rungs of their 2 MS vitals

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ascending order. Samadhi in the afternoon may now be considered to have well founded its stable basis There is a beginning of the full stability in the abundance of the lipi, as well as in isolated lipis. There is a variation between the three degrees, but each tends to its full duration. The perfect duration exists dissolved, but still present in the three degrees. At night the lipi niradhara and sadhara fixed itself in the third degree of stability; it is also developing positive trikaldrishti of sadhana in the highest seer logistis. Gnosis is leaning more upon the hermetic element in the highest seer logistis and seeking to make this the whole thought instrumentation, but the laxity still leans to a lesser force of seer logistis burdened with the siege of the old idealised uncertain mentality. The descents to lesser forms are decreasing in frequency and incidence. At night laxity and the lower form of dream; but in the morning some force of increasing lipi in the depths of samadhi. Aug 28th Thursday. T2 has now taken possession of the telepathy and is interpreting all the former movements in an increasing mass of logistic experience. There is an increase of the precise appreciation of tendency, including thought tendency and impulse tendency, in the effective force of dynamic seeing Tapas and in the relative or dominant telepathic certitude, the certitude resulting from selective idea force in the tendencies and circumstances subject to potential reversal by some greater force. All this is in an intermediate seer logistis containing the hermeneutic element, but not filled and possessed by it. The quite positive trikaldrishti in the seer logistis is quiescent awaiting the hermesis. The trikaldrishtic commenting and interpreting thought speech is now combined with the perception.. Full third degree stability in all kinds of lipi subject to a certain initial uncertainty and some impediment in the immediate rapid legibility In Samadhi an obstructed but still developing movement. The features not yet perfectly free presented themselves with more force of coherent continuity, but not in any abundance. Lipi in the depths was more coherent, but with effort and not in a free normality. Full

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freedom has been gained only for the thought, thought-speech and lighter lipi. There was some attempt of the vishaya to break down the obstruction that again prevents its more frequent recurrence and progress, but success was small. Rasa is most apt to come in abundance, but not with perfection. Gandha is perfect, but comes with only an occasional spontaneity, otherwise it is obstructed. Both come daily, and are therefore established, but not yet frequently and freely. However by today’s effort the tendency in rasa to recur has been greatly strengthened, as well as its mass; gandha in inhalation comes more easily; both have profited by the tapas. Sparsha increased in incidence, but was soon stopped by obstruction. Speech shabda came once only with no sequel. Drishya progress is obstructed. Effort to develop higher trikaldrishti, not yet come to fruition. Telepathy is becoming more concrete and intimate, sanjna added to prajnana and embridged vyapti, perception in being to perception in idea. Relapse is now chiefly powerful in the physical siddhi. There is a revived sensitiveness to cold and an attempt to restore its results in roga. The tapas however is powerful enough to prevent any strong materialisation. In the central rogas there is a relapse, in one due to persistent overstrain on the centre, in the other a mechanical repetition of recrudescence. Friday Aug 29t.h. T2 this morning has made a large stride forward. A full free and normal thought or jnana of tapas and trikaldrishti has now associated itself with the actual perceptions (vyapti prakamya) and this has enormously increased the rapidity of progress which is now returning to what used to be called the enthusiastic (ie the luminous or fiery or both) and anandamaya rapidity in lipi, jnana The Shakti has first and T2, while it is partly active in samadhi. converted into the seer logistis the constantly recurring remnants of the old actualistic telepathies of the intuitive mind, intuition, inspiration and inferior (semi-intellectual) revelation; then the dynamic telepathies and tapas thought on the basis of accurate possibility,

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sometimes but not always full and complete in its vision it is when some possibilities are ignored that error of stress becomes most tempting and facile; finally it is bringing out the telepathic decisions and relating them to and converting them into the nontelepathic or pure trikaldristic certitudes. The two first movements are now finally founded and the old errors can only recur by mechanical force of habit without any other justification, since there is no void of knowledge to justify their blinder seeking. The third is only just being founded with the final firmness, but the foundation is not yet complete. No Samadhi in the afternoon. The other members of the siddhi are held back by the obstruction; but in antardarshi the force of lipi stability is increasing. Aug 30th Saturday. T2 attained to a certain final basic action of certitude. The rest of the siddhi made no ascertainable progress. Aug 31s.t. Sunday. The obstruction is now without being removed rendered null for the ideality. Lipi in the jagrat is moving forward, increasing the normality of the third degree of stability and its force of duration, bringing the rapid legibility in the stability and rejecting all unstable lipi. The ideal thought is enforcing its free, normal, pervading action and bringing it to the level of the thought speech in this normality and freedom. Trikaldrishtic thought shares in this new perfection. T2 is increasing with a remarkable rapidity in frequency of logistic certitude. The normal character is now that of the logistic seer ideality either with a strong dynamic and hermetic force, successful tapas enforced by jnana, or of the same thing, but with full logistic revelation. The old inferior or middle seer logistis which was a correct adjustment of possibilities is giving way to this form it recurs but without sanction for endurance in which possibilities and certitudes are combined, but with the latter in domination. Tapas without knowledge is now being rejected and condemned to exclusion. The still existent defect arises chiefly from imperfection of vision of time, place and a certain and indisputable order and

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fullness of circumstance. These things can only be initially established in the seer logistis, since their sure fullness begins in the hermetic ideality. Darshana which fluctuates between Ananda and mentality, is now increasing its insistence on the force of the vijnanamaya darshana, as only by fixity in the gnostic seeing can it get rid of the lapse to the defects of Ananda. Samadhi is in a state of lapse; today in the afternoon after a day of interruption and one of unsuccess, it is trying to recover, but nidra has taken hold and prevents the freedom. At night incoherent or fanciful dream occupies the sleep. The other siddhis are preparing to recover, but cannot yet put aside the obstruction. September. Absolute finality is not yet gained in the first chatusthaya, for the fragments of external touches of asamata are able to touch the physical parts of the physical mentality, nor in the second for the Devi Bhava is pushed down to the old mental form and that survives in the sense of the body even when the rest is in the ideal Devibhava. The ideality is founded in the highest seer ideality though the lower forms still recur mainly in T2, because that is still imperfect in circumstance; but the vijnana is constantly increasing. Its action is still capable of suspension during the later part of the day owing to laxity. The ideal traigunya siddhi is increasing, physical tamas giving more and more place to c¸ amas, but the entire union of the three gunas is not absolute, because the physical mentality is still not wholly changed into the gnosis. These asiddhis are yet becoming more and more interruptions rather than permanent deficiencies. Samadhi has founded itself, but is free only in thought and lipi, and is capable of lapse. Rupa and vishaya are obstructed in their progress. The physical siddhi is in a state of relapse, though certain beginnings are established with some finality. Sept 1 Monday T2 has to be made entirely valid in circumstance and a first movement is being made towards this development, but it is at

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once assailed by the old causes of incertitude and wrong placement. These act more easily when there has to be a multiple and rapid seeing than when there can as in simple cases with few details and slower movements be a deliberate exercise of the vijnana Shakti. There there is not only an increasing correctness of gnostic appreciation or judgment in the direct seeing, but an extension of it to more remote eventuality. Gandha in inhalation has developed perception of neutral odours and with this new basis there is a great increase of frequency of positive gandhas. The spontaneous gandha is now rather more frequent. But the obstruction is still resisting eviction and retarding progress. Rasa is more active, but has not yet gained a firm basis. Rupa is once again active; it is striving for stability as the basis for its perfection. K.A active, but not in settled continuity. Sept 2 Tuesday. T2 today is again troubled by the external invasion; it is evidently preparing for a fresh extension, but this as usual has brought about a trouble of resistance and irruption. Drishya once again active; a few forms of greater stability in ghana rupa; tejomaya rupa in scenes etc of the first stability and continuity, but mere drishti, the thought in the drashta inhibited by nidra; in the early morning some mass of coherent reading. Sept. 3 to 24 This has been a period corresponding to the old long relapses, when as there was no continuous progress, nothing could be written. But the relapse has only been a fact in the physical siddhi, which has been entirely suspended, except for occasional movements soon falling off into inactivity. There has been even some relapse of positive roga; the fragmentary (catarrhic) rogas have tried to lay their hold persistently, but are always manageable by the tapas; the two central have prevailed without being severely aggravated. On the other hand Samata is constantly making itself more firm in the Ananda, more massive and imperturbable. It is not yet free from occasional pressure of the exterior physical pressure,

14 August – 24 September 1919

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but this is becoming rare and very vague. Shakti has also been fixing itself more and more, but varies from the vijnana ghanata to the physical-mental laxity; the first tends more and more to predominate. Vijnana has lapsed only for adjustment. All is intuitive mentality even in error, and all has been steadily transforming to the seer ideality. The defect is still in T2 which draws down the others, but normally thought is of the seer ideality, and always when there is not the physical relaxation. T2 has been increasing in the seer ideality and mere intuivity is being progressively eliminated. The extension is general, but not yet quite fixed in the higher ideal jyoti. Time place circumstance are the great difficulty. Tapas is increasing in force and applying initially to the immediately surrounding life-action, but against great opposition. Sept 24 Wednesday. Lipi for the first time has risen from the seer ideality of the logistis, to the hermetic vijnana. It is now the full logistis in the hermesis; beyond is the middle hermesis and beyond that the seer hermesis. Thought is rising into the fullness and pervasion of the complete seer logistis, all logistic levels are there, but all full of the seer logistis.

1184

1 – 29 FEBRUARY 1920

1st Feb. Thought to be set entirely free T2 to be thoroughly idealised and given certitude. Tapas siddhi to be made luminously effective. Physicality to be brought under control of Tapas. Rupasiddhi and samadhi. First get rid of the physical lapse. The c¸ raddha has to be firm and absolute First week of February Three chatusthayas. Perfection of 2d chatusthaya. Shakti. Idealised and intellectual perfection. The highest ideality in the highest log[ist]ical ideality. Lipi, thought-speech, jnana perfected on this level of vijnana T2 perfected a little later, but rapidly all the same. Rupa-siddhi and samadhi 4th The physical lapse in the subjectivity has been nearly got rid [of], but not quite eliminated. Its force however and effectuality have been much diminished and are being brought to the vanishing point. The c¸ raddha is now firm, but not yet absolute.

1 – 29 February 1920

1185

Shakti has got its intellectual perfection, so far as the word can be applied, and is getting its ideal perfection. This is due to an extraordinarily rapid development of the whole system into the highest logistic ideality, first elimination of mental intuivity, confirmation in intuitive revelatory vijnana, then rise to interpretative revelatory, then to revelatory full of founded power of inspiration. The lower forms of vijnana occur from outside. The prana and body are also being taken up by this ideality.. The process is not yet quite complete. There is a rapid development of combined action of all the parts of the siddhi, but this is as yet only being founded, not complete. Thought-speech, jnana [and]1 primary T2 are being founded on the highest logistis Rupa and samadhi are still obstructed and pressing on the obstruction. Some progress in rejecting obstruction in samadhi Attack of the intuitive mind from outside, only temporarily successful in a partial invasion The idealistic force is strong enough to reestablish its hold. Feb 6t.h. All February the struggle in the physical siddhi. Feb 7t.h. In spite of the intuitive mental [invasion]2 1 MS or 2 MS evasion

1186

Record of Yoga

(1) The interpretative or inspirational ideality has manifested itself with some power in lipi, thought[,] trikaldrishti etc. The logistic ideality remains but is surpassed. (2) Lipi has got rid of the insistence of small intuitive vijnana, though it is still capable of some lapse. (2)3 The rest of the ideality is labouring to follow in its steps and get rid of all lower forms. (3) In lipi revelatory logistis is now becoming the lower and not the higher form. The interpretative is the rule. (4) Ananda is progressing and transforming itself first to the discriminative revelatory logistic then the interpretative and getting rid of the intuitive mental form. It is now persistent when there is smarana. Feb 7t.h.4 The second week of February. (1) Lipi to be fixed in the second vijnana. (2) Thought, T2, to be raised to the second vijnana, the logistis only a lower form. (3) Ideal Shakti to possess the body. (4) Ananda to fix itself and be no longer dependent on smarana. (5) Insistence on ideal Tapas control in arogya, utthapana, saundarya. (6) Completeness of Brahmachatusthaya. (7) Rupa and samadhi. All these will not be complete, but all will advance. The rule of rapidity has to be brought in everywhere. Ananda overcomes in type the obstacle of vismriti and has almost established the continuity. It is established in type and in dominant tendency, but is still resisted, sometimes briefly suspended by strong absorption. Sleep brings a total discontinuation, but the recovery is swift. 3 This item and the two that follow were misnumbered. Ed. 4 This, the second entry dated 7 February, is written on a different sheet from the

previous entry.

Ed.

1 – 29 February 1920

1187

Feb 8th A certain lapse tendency. Ananda persists but with frequent momentary vismriti. The T2 moves for a while in the telepathies. The thought-system is arriving through a last struggle to the condition of the lipi divided between the interpretative as the right and normal, the logistic as the lower relaxed action to the exclusion of the intuitive mentality. Rupa-siddhi has been developing since yesterday fluidity, perfection of form (not always complete)[,] vividness, but not stability. Variety is poor as yet and stability only initial or primary. Ananda is now constant (afternoon) but often forgotten by absorption yet present; sometimes this forgetfulness brings momentary cessation. Sleep brings cessation; but the obstacle is now being attacked, though not yet overcome. T2 has descended to rectify and turn into interpretative telepathic ideality. Ananda Brahman is confirming itself in prema, kama and beauty. Obstacle to Samadhi persists, but is slowly yielding. At night a lapse to mentality. Feb 9t.h. The whole ideality after a violent depression is now passing into the revelatory form of the interpretative vijnana. This is also laying hold on the body, but here more powerfully besieged by the intuitivity of the intelligence The perfect shakti in the physical intelligence has been replaced in type by the perfect ideal shakti with the fourfold Devibhava. Ananda is being reestablished in continuity after interruption.

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Record of Yoga

Sahaituka has recommenced, but yet in a crude initial form. (since yesterday) The Ananda is being idealised, but as yet not successfully; because the intuitive intelligence still normally holds the body. Continuity of Ananda, forgotten sometimes but still existing has been established in type in Samadhi (morning). Idealisation (rapid) in the revelatory interpretative form of the elements of samadhi has begun in the lipi etc. Ananda absent in samadhi and sleep in the afternoon, but ideality at play, in dialogue etc. At times deep tamasic nidra hiding a core of sushupti, sometimes jagrat, sometimes ;A Ananda once more continuous in afternoon in spite of absorption in writing, finally with help of some smarana prevailed over absorption. Ideal Shakti fixed in the body. Feb 10t.h. Ideal Shakti is fixed in the body, lipi fixed in the vijnana, interpretative and revelatory of the two lower kinds. Thought-siddhi and T2 is partly formed in the same idealities, but revelatory logistis predominates for the time. There is however a mixture of intelligence. Sharira Ananda discontinued at night by sleep and recovered with some difficulty in the morning. Brahma chatusthaya complete in Sarvam Anandam Brahma, Anantam Jnanam in essence. The Brahma-vision has now to be filled in with the vijnana. Rupa and Samadhi are progressing; rupa is still in the first stability, occasionally on the border of the second, recurrent, not steady in appearance. Ideal Samadhi baffled at night by sleep and dream: present in daytime but assailed by nidra. Today thought-siddhi + T2 ought to rid itself of the admixture. The psychic suggestions, telepathy, vyapti, prakamya, possibility, doubt, denial etc are all being rapidly changed into the form of the revelatory logistis. There is a strong tendency to the interpretative form.

1 – 29 February 1920

1189

Ideal Shakti is being intensified into the Krishna Kali relation founded on madhura dasya. Feb 14th One day of lapse (12t.h.), another of trouble of recovery. Eye malady, bleeding of nose, constipation; the will prevails only with a struggle. The revelatory ideality is establishing itself, but with much fluctuation of adjustment, Shakti idealised in the body in the same way, sharira ananda similarly. The latter is being rapidly changed. As yet the siddhi has not recovered its full force of occupation. Development of T2 on the revelatory base but hampered by mentality and its invasion and siege. 15th 16th Founding, in spite of difficulties, of the [ ]5 exclusive ideal action in thought-siddhi and T2 as in script and lipi. In T2 this is not complete and this has some reaction on thought-siddhi which is now being closely fused with T2. 17th night. 18th Recovery of vijnana in the system and rapid development of the ideality. The vijnana (revelatory of all kinds based on intuitive revelatory) is fixed in the system; lapses are only to intuitive ideality and momentarily to highly idealised mental intuitive. 19t.h. Interpretative revelatory vijnana has been rapidly rushed to the lead and holds it, but the intuitive rev. occurs frequently as a suggestion, but more and more filled with interpretative rev. V. Other lower forms only occur as suggestions from outside and are rapidly and increasingly turned into the right kind before or immediately after they enter the system. During the lapse even the purely unmixed character of the mental intuitive, though it held the system, was made more and 5 MS the

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Record of Yoga

more clear. The ideality then continued in spite of this hold and was quite firm in lipi, script and often in thought-speech. Now even these suggestions cannot come in the mental form; only in laxity there is often a sort of mental cloud about the ideal form. Lipi, script, thought-speech are now firm in the ideality; thought-perception and T2 are also substantially ideal, but to some extent in laxity of the shakti affected by the mental shadow. They are however being rapidly subjected to thorough idealisation. When the shakti is not pramatta, the mental shadow does not touch, but the lower forms are more common as yet than the revelatory; the contrary is the rule in the other members. Vyapti is still chiefly of the mental kind The interpretative revelatory since last night is being fixed in the system the essentiality of it, its status in the tissue of the conscious being. But there is already the urge to the revelatory in its own highest kind. The lipi which has been ideal of all kinds is now shedding the intuitive vijnana and keeping only the revelatory and interpretative. Fixed in the interpretative form of all kinds it is now immediately (after five minutes, in the same uninterrupted movement) lifting up all to the revelatory vijnana in its three forms. This done in a minute or two it is drawing all into the highest form. This is the first instance of such a large miraculous rapidity Vyapti is now coming in the revelatory vijnana, but of the totality of the bhava in the object; the particular movements are seen in it, but are undergoing a thorough idealisation, even in the mental intuitivity. As a result also trikaldrishti tapas is beginning to be seen as a movement out of being and no longer only in their separate forms. The complete idealisation of the tivra ananda whether ahaituka or sahaituka is taking place. The insistence on the physical siddhi has been increasingly relaxed for the last few days. There is now scanty K.A. It is being transformed into the revelatory ideal K.A, but the transformation is much opposed by the survival of old idealised intuitive Ananda. The other Anandas are sharing the change.

1 – 29 February 1920

1191

The second half of the day possession by the intuitive mind from outside. Progress under difficulties. 20th Feb. Friday. Rapid progress in spite of mental siege. (1) Shakti in system fixing the essential being in representative revelatory vijnana; interpretative force present, but not insistent in manifestation. Occasional covering by inspirational intuitive idealised mind. (2) Lipi deepening into the revelatory largeness even in intuitive vijnana type. Rapid and powerful development of fixed stability in lipi sadhara and niradhara. (3) Strong development of ideal thought-siddhi in all forms; rapid and continuous ideal thought-perception, jnana (4) Developing certitude in trikaldrishti, but much enveloped in idealised mind-matter. (5) Increasing ideal-power in kavya. (6) Triumphing tendency to bring all mental action into the ideal form; but there are lapses. (7) Progress in idealisation and in [s]table jagrat of the three forms of swapna samadhi in the afternoon. Internal lipi in antardarshi fixed in representative revelatory vijnana; continuity in swapna of ideal thought siddhi in speech and perception sometimes accompanied by rupa and drishya. 21s.t. Feb. Saturday. (1) Idealisation of the intuitive (mental) thought-siddhi jnana and T2 knowledge, dominant but not absolutely complete. (2) Immediately (in the morning) the movement turned to the normalising of the interpretative revelatory vijnana in all the mind and supermind, and after certain fluctuations this came in the evening (3) In antardarshi interpretative revelatory vijnana in the lipi. The rest of the siddhi active in swapna, but limited and diminished by heavy attack of sleep.

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Record of Yoga

(4) The interpretative in the shakti of the physical system has now filled the representative revelatory vijnana; the content is interpretative, the shell representative (logistic revelation). (5) The Tapas is now acting vigorously on the physical asiddhi in the different remnant rogas and has begun on the most persistent central incapacity, in the latter as yet without dominant effect. The remnants still recur with a temporary show of force but cannot resist the dissipating action (6) In the morning a remarkable solitary instance of the complete and rapid effectivity of the Tapas on inanimate things. This is practically the first instance. (7) The T2 is now normalised in the ideality, though still besieged and sometimes penetrated by the intuitivity, but it is no longer cased in the intuitive mental matter. Today closes the third week of February and completes a definitive stage of the union of samata, shakti and vijnana. The asiddhi is not entirely exiled, but has lost its power to hold except for touches and a momentary (in the first two) or a brief (in the third) interval. Negative Asamata is only a touch and nothing more, but defect of sama ananda is still possible for a short while. The next week must complete the perfection of the luminous revelatory reason. It is also suggested that the rupa, vishaya and samadhi will develop finality of basic perfection. There is also some preparation for the overcoming of the obstruction in Ananda and Arogya. In saundarya and utthapana the definitive effectivity has not come, but primary utthapana is being prepared for its basis by the steady pressure on the habit of fatigue. There the old strenuous defect of anima has little hold; it comes only in fragments, little as pain, mainly as stiffness. Fatigue is the chief asiddhi. Tomorrow T2 in the interpretative drishti. Ananda. Renewed hold on physical siddhi. Rupa-vishaya. Samadhi.

1 – 29 February 1920

1193

(1) Resumption of continuous Ananda, but as yet with insufficient force of spontaneous action. (2) Shakti shown in resistance to an attack of many remnants of roga. Only three still survive at all in fact, the eye-watering, the stomach affections and the central weakness. All except the last are much reduced, and even the last is much modified in force. (3) Samadhi progressive at night and in the morning. All is ideal, drishya included, but all is now turning to the revelatory vijnana. Drishya is becoming more complete and stable. Lipi in deep swapna shows a tendency to return to coherence. Feb 22d Sunday In the samata the siege of the exiled intuitivity throws a shadow of defect on the hasya and therefore on the sukham and equal Ananda. This is only when there is the withholding of the full play of the Shakti. In the shakti the defect that emerges is a deficiency of height of force, aishwarya-bodha, hasya and c¸ raddha in the immediate action of the Shakti. None of these defects are real, but imposed on the system from outside by a shadow of the old habit of the physical mind. These defects have now to be finally excised. There is already a commencement of the conversion of the surrounding activity to the ideal terms. The first two chatusthayas cannot be quite absolute until the vijnana is universal and free from any suspension of the ideal action. The rupa and vishaya show signs of reinitiation and of a firmer ideal completeness, but as yet there is no freedom or dominance of stability. The difficulty of T2 is now the adjustment between the higher and lower perceptions; so long as this lasts the surrounding intuitive mind is led to invade with its inadequate suggestions. But this mind now promises to turn into the ideal form. Ananda is now again active, but subject to the recurrence of its

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Record of Yoga

old disabilities and still drawn down to the mental intuitive manner. Ideal Ananda comes in as an exception. Rupa shows great vividness and perfection (not always completeness) and vividness of all forms, perfect, developed, ghana, crude; but except in the last it is only in the initial and primary stabilities In the afternoon much sushupta swapna samadhi. An outburst of the highest revelatory lipi, vivid and powerful beyond anything yet seen in the jagrat bahirdarshi. Much lipi in the sushupta, ordinarily but not always coherent. Much revelatory vijnana; all ideal. But the hold was still insufficient and besieged not by the actuality, but by the vague consciousness of dream. Today from the morning lapse towards mentality for the transformation of the surrounding mind. This has brought back unideal telepathy trikaldrishti tapas to a certain extent, but the ordinary thought seems secure. All however is hampered by the invasion. T2 at the moment acts only in the representative vijnana with relative and occasional certitude, the truth of each suggestion stands, but not the decisive value the tapasic mind outside fastens on its indications. When the full ideality acts, each is reduced to its native proportions, but there is no future certitude, or only a relative morally certain indication of the future. There is the same phenomenon in the interpretative representative T2, on the lower scale. It remains to be seen what happens when both are lifted to and combined on the higher scale. Vishaya is again manifesting vividly, but without freedom; only the old customary drishya, rasa, gandha, sparsha, the few limited things. Shabda is obstructed as before. Ananda is now recovering a firmer, though still imperfect base. There is much struggle in the primary utthapana; the two rogas are also still successfully obstructive. The Shakti persists in the utthapana and does not allow a long collapse. Today pain (sharp in the shoulders) returned momentarily in the primary utthapana, but immediately subsided. Fatigue is strong, by cumulative effect; there is [no]where a successful reaction.

1 – 29 February 1920

1195

A strong interpretative revelatory vijnana of the Shakti in the physical system. At night great vividness and constancy of the basic rasas. T2 in the interpretative revelatory and highest revelation of the third scale. All now is the third scale, ie, the divine reason. Magnificent drishya in the deep and deepest swapna samadhi, scenes, happenings etc, great stability, perfection, sometimes chhayamaya of tejas, sometimes vivid with some jyoti in the tejas. A little force of chhaya however everywhere. Afterwards dream but with much coherence. Feb 23d Monday. Today T2 to develop highest certitude. Rupa, vishaya, samadhi. Ananda to idealise and to overcome obstacles. Pressure of Shakti on roga and obstacles to primary utthapana. Yesterday there was in T2 much confusion of the lower inadequate forms, insufficient half representative, half intuitive forms, mind-coated intuitivities and intuitivised mental suggestions from outside, inspirational forms without the discrimination etc; the highest certitudes finally emerging assailed with dubiety from the luminous chaos. Now the discriminating interpretative revelatory power is settling itself in the T2. The intuitivities of all kinds are being rejected where they resist transformation, replaced or transformed when they admit change. The highest certitude of the third scale is acting now and then; the occasional certitudes are frequent. There is still much to be done. Ananda is idealising itself with occasional lapses. Lipi is now finally getting rid of the strong relics of the intuitive and the weak relics of the inspirational ideal lipi. The representative and interpretative lipi of all degrees take the place. T2 is now getting rid of all forms of tejasic and tapasic stress; but the work is not yet finished. The highest certitudes await the growth and completion of this eliminative process. The battle is going on in the primary utthapana. The Shakti is trying to impose relief in standing and relief in walking and

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Record of Yoga

add them to the relief by sitting. But as yet it is only a temporary incomplete relief. The attack of fatigue is heavy and fierce. Afternoon. Samadhi, ideal thought and speech continued in deeper swapna, but sushupta much under the power of nidra. The force of ananda increases, but is much cased in inspirational and inspired intuitive mentality. The density tends to diminish in the idealised form. It is however becoming more intense in this form. The T2 acts now normally in the middle form. The higher action is exceptional except so far as it is translated into the middle form. Rupa and Vishaya have been less active today. Vishaya is trying to manifest particular tastes in their subtle general essence Feb 24t.h. Tuesday Last night T2 action of various kinds, none entirely satisfactory, though one uplifted above the lower movements which gave some of the highest certitudes. At night wakefulness with intervals of swapna samadhi good of its kind; only towards morning nidra. Today strong attack of besieging intuivity on all ideal members. In lipi this results in persistence of intuitive ideal lipi representing the intuitive mentality in the ideality, but not itself mental in kind. An insufficient speech and suggestion is its limitation; it is true in itself, but so expressed as to mislead the mind. It is rejected in favour of the intuitive revelatory or at lowest revelatory [intuitive],6 representative and interpretative lipi, but still recurs sometimes in spite of prohibition. In thought-siddhi the same process is taking place, but the recurrence of lower forms of ideal speech is strong and occasionally there is the half idealised mental suggestion from outside. 6 MS intuition

1 – 29 February 1920

1197

Nevertheless lower ideal forms are now banned by the law of the Shakti. In script as in lipi, but the lower forms are more rebellious to exclusion. T2 is most affected. Here too it is definitely settled that only the highest ideal reason is to give the certitudes and the recurrence of the lower forms however strong and obstructive to the proper action is not to be accepted, even if they give the truth. Ananda promised last night to prevail, but this morning has been discontinued except in smarana. T2 perfect, decisive and invariably effective in the representative highest vijnana, but only in distinct isolated final results; the rest of a lower type besieged by mentality and confusing the mind by trying to figure as this representative ideal action. In Samadhi much nidra. Feb 25t.h. Wednesday T2, the representative vijnana is taking up detail, but not all the detail. The confused action of the rest continues, but is becoming clearer by restriction. The Shakti now tends to allow provisionally all ideal T2, but to accept only the forms of the highest ideality with a total acceptance, partially accept the revelatory forms of the lower (inspirational and intuitional) stages, observe only in order to reject or transform the survivals of mental suggestion. The rest occurs, but is partially sanctioned only when there is some revelatory force or interpretative in it or at the back. Feb 26th Thursday. The interpretative-representative highest ideality has now definitely replaced all other action as the standard movement in the T2. The others still persist in laxity of the system. This ideality is now absorbing all the thought-siddhi and proving its truth and certitude. At night this ideality, at first only able to act above the head free from the physical levels, began to act spontaneously on the

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head level. It begins to replace the physical tendency to intuivity and is descending to take possession of the whole system. At the same time it is adapting itself and taking possession of all kinds of thought perception in the nature. This it has done, first in the interpretative, then in the lower idealities. All the vishayas, the others in little, gandha and rasa more in large. Abundant rupa in the samadhi. Friday 27t.h. February T2 is now fixing itself in the complete ideality, first in the lower forms with some help from the highest interpretative vijnana. All is now turned to its elements of truth, but the last difficulties of the old excessive stress still remain. The rest is a difficulty of limitation and incertitude. Afterwards something like a deliberate lowering or collapse, but even in this laxity the ideal tendency prevails, but not its order. Sharira Ananda long neglected and occasional only by smarana is resumed today and restored to an interrupted continuity, while the remnants of the mental form are being rapidly idealised by the highest vijnana. Rupa is obstructed, though it acts under call of tapas. It has gone back to the initial or very primary stability. Vishaya acts but under obstruction. Stable crude rupa (perfect in line) at night. Saturday 28t.h. February Lapse. The lipi has begun to reject all but the highest vijnana (chiefly interpretative) or else its light in other forms. The same process is beginning in antardarshi. In Samadhi tertiary and perfect stability of rupa, scene and coherent movement begins to occur. Also conversation, no longer mental only, but the physical word. The elements of samadhi have

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now [to be]7 developed and combined, the [.......] more steady in spite [...................] Thought speech has [...........] reject all [but the] forms of the highest vijnana or else its light and form on lower levels. Sunday 29th February. Today the whole vijnana has lifted to different levels of the revelatory vijnana. Even the highest drashta logos has manifested as well as the highest interpretative ideality. The basis of the luminous reason has been perfectly founded and what is now left is to perfect and make it universal in its embrace. The first necessity is to get rid of the lower stratum of intuitive mentality, then to exclude the circumvironing mentality. This has already begun to be done and for some time the shakti in the body is fixed in the basic third ideality, its contents varying from the intuitive to the revelatory, with interpretative and other floating. Even the intrusions from the surrounding ideality are now for the most solidly idealised though with a suspicion of strong intuitive mentality not easily distinguish[able] from a [ ]8 concentrated doubly illumined vijnana. Rupa has suddenly at night manifested several old forms (reel, ribbon wound reel, bat, brushes etc) in ghana & developed with strong ghana tendency in the second and third (mostly third) stability. Samadhi is still hampered by obstruction.

7 The page containing this paragraph and the next is damaged. Several words or groups of words are partly or wholly lost. The words printed between square brackets are conjectural. Ed. 8 MS a

1200

1 MARCH – 10 APRIL 1920

Yoga Diary. 1920 March. The Yoga has been brought up during the last month to effectivity of vijnana. This vijnana is that of the lowest total stage of the triple ideal supermind, the domain of the luminous reason. First, there was the disappearance of the old intellectual into the intuitive mind and buddhi, and not only the thought-being, but the whole being including the consciousness in the body, the physical Ananda was brought up finally into this form, to the total exclusion of the old buddhi, sense and bodily consciousness. Here sattwa of the mind was changed into semi-luminous prakasha and jyoti of the mental intuition, inspiration and revelation, rajas into stress of tapasic will and impulse, tamas into a passive or a heavy shama. Tamas alone preserves in the more physical part of the being something of its old inertia and darkness, not entirely changed into passivity with involved or quiescent prakasha and tapas. This tamas is the cause of the persistence of the physical and other asiddhi. And simultaneously the lower vijnana which represents the intellect in the forms of the ideal mind was developing its greater powers and finally turned into the ideal reason. At first this was done with a lower ideal intuition, discrimination, inspiration, revelation which have been developing for a long time, weighted, chequered, shot through, hampered by the defects of the intuitive mentality of the manasa buddhi. The lipi was the first to get clear of the manasa, in the bahirdarshi waking state, the internal antardarshi jagrat followed long after, next the script, next the thought-speech, finally, the thought-perception and only yesterday and not with an absolute perfection the trikaldrishtic thought-perception.

1 March – 10 April 1920

1201

The relics of asamata persisted in a fragmentary occasional fashion so long as the defect of mentality in the Shakti has persisted in the physical consciousness; it did not belong to the system, but was imposed on it, so long as the outer mind could shoot in its arrows of suggestion or break in for a time and possess the surface. There is still a persistence of vague relics which are being steadily idealised out of existence. This is due to persistence of tamas element in the physical being and is part of laxity or physical depression. It is disappearing in proportion as the ideal Shakti fixes itself in the true vijnana. The chief defect is in insufficient force of hasya and ananda, although the sukham is strong and the hasyam and ananda can always be brought to the surface, but often there is a cloud not of duhkha, but of apravritti of positive ananda, especially of hasyamaya ananda, occasionally an excess of udasinata. Shakti after fixing its base of intuitive mental power in the body, often replaced by ideal forms, is now fixed in a shell of revelatory or representative vijnana filled sometimes with intuition, sometimes with lower revelatory representative, representativeinterpretative or interpretative content. Occasionally the higher revelatory drashta Shakti takes momentary possession: there is always now a tendency to its manifestation in the other figures. Virya, shakti (except laghuta sometimes in the physical fatigue or heaviness) are full and sufficient, but depend for their tejas, pravritti etc. on the state of the Devibhava. Devibhava has been established in all its parts, but is not always in the full overt action, because of apravritti of hasya and ishwarabhava. This siddhi awaits the full sraddha and vijnana. Sraddha in the Master of the being is fixed and complete, but sraddha in the Swashakti has been often diminished or overpowered by laxity and failure of siddhi. There is now full faith in the eventual perfection of the three first chatusthayas and the sixth, but incertitude as to physical siddhi, extent of karma and kama, completeness of the mission. This is only occasionally touched by a shadow of positive asraddha and even that now takes the shape of a strong incertitude. Vijnana is based in the total ideality, but still besieged by the outer mind. All suggestions from the outer mind are now of the nature of intuitive mentality turned in entrance or almost turned

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Record of Yoga

into ideality, full at least of the vijnana stuff and manner, which seems like an incomplete vijnana. The play of the higher third vijnana is now occupying the system: revelatory intuition has taken the place of other intuitions and is already being turned into the representative, ie the highest intuitive revelatory reason; inspiration losing its over-stress and defect of discrimination is almost wholly turned into interpretative ideality, ie the highest inspired revelatory ideal reason, while the full drashta luminous reason has emerged in all its three forms, ie revelation with interpretation but the front representative, 2d the front interpretative with intuition involved in the drishti, 3d the whole drishti with the two other powers taken into the drishti. There are various combinations and permutations. This is completest in lipi, script and thought-speech; thought-perception is a little weighted down towards the intuitive, revelatory intuitive, or representative forms, but the others occur and take the field when there is full action of the vijnana Shakti. T2 is now able to act with certitude, but this is not yet complete; the old telepathic form still labours to predominate. Telepathy of thought is developing, but chiefly of thought impulse, feeling, intention, not of pure thought; the whole mind of animals can be seen, but only partially the mind of men. Here there is still a wall of obstruction through which there is a forcing of prakamya vyapti. Concentration is necessary for this siddhi Laxity occurs owing to physical tamas and prevents the full normality of the vijnana power, but can no longer[,] since yesterday[,] bring down the system to the mental level.1 Rupa is still struggling to establish the secondary and tertiary stability and all its other elements and its free play seem to be waiting for this siddhi, but it is now in frequent action. Samadhi has fixed the right ideal lipi in the antardarshi, developed many of its elements, but is obstructed by nidra in its further or at least in its rapid progress. The physical siddhi is still the subject of battle. Some ground has been gained especially in the Ananda, but it has had to sacrifice 1 In the manuscript, “since yesterday” is written above “bring down”; the caret marking the point of insertion comes after “bring” instead of “longer”. Ed.

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the continuity once gained in order to change from the mental to the ideal form. The change is almost, but not quite or firmly complete. There is still persistence of old fragments of roga and the two or three chronic maladies. Sometimes two of them seem on the point of disappearing, but are then able to reassert their action. Primary utthapana fluctuates, saundarya is not able to manifest except in bhava. Brahmadarshana made itself perfect in the Ananda on the mental vijnanamaya plane, it has had to sink back into vijnana and mentalised vijnana in order to redevelop on the ideal plane. Sarvam brahma is always there in bhava, always at disposal to the thought by smarana. The fullness of Anantam and Jnanam brahma awaits the fullness of the vijnana. March 1s.t. Monday. The shakti in the body has suddenly changed its base from the fixed revelatory intuitive to the representative vijnana. There is already a tendency to change that to the interpretative basis. A rapid alteration of the basic and immediately surrounding consciousness into the representative and interpretative forms of the vijnana has begun. The other idealities will still persist for a time; they must replace the imperfect idealities which till now have been coming in from the outside. The Ananda-darshana is also passing through the same phase, but has not yet altogether got rid of the recurrence of mental vijnana and Ananda on the mental plane. These are associated with certain forms, the latter Ananda being inspirational in its idiom, persist repeatedly in attaching themselves to them, and can as yet only be rejected by second thought or effort of Tapas. An attempt to accept and transform inspirational-interpretative overstress led to the outside mind breaking through and getting in some of its movements. It cannot hold, but brought the recurrent Asamata which is accustomed to attend failure of Satya and Tapas. There is some beginning of the same changes in the thought telepathy. T2 this morning is without the sure and decisive revelatory

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Record of Yoga

certitudes. Only late in the morning it is getting back into the true revelatory forms, but still much mixed with the others. Premananda is developing the ideal drashta ananda. Rupa is attempting to manifest variety of all kinds, but still obstructed by the physical refusal, although in an intermittent way it succeeds in its movement. Lipi. July 15th = ideality = entire ideality in the body. The Ananda-darshana has succeeded in filling the inspirational mental with the interpretative ideal Ananda; at most the former comes only for a second and is immediately occupied by the vijnana. In Samadhi lipi is becoming coherent in small lipis, but in larger masses it is coherent only in patches. The ideal consciousness is taking more possession of the swapna samadhi, but the deeper stages are still affected by nidra or half nidra or imperfect conscience. In the evening action of outward mind turning to ideality, the full vijnana held back, finally a hampered and narrowed action of the higher vijnana March 2d.. Tuesday. The action of outer mentality in a mass of all kinds turned into the lower and lesser ideal action. The object to get rid of the coating, penetration, mixture of the intuitive mental being in the thought-action, as has already been done in script and lipi. Also of the glamour of confused light in the uncentralised ideal action.. This seems to have been done, but not so as to absolutely exclude the potentiality of farther intrusion and necessity of farther suddhi. The success seems to be absolute in thought-speech; there is a mixture of stress and incertitude in trikaldrishti, jnana thoughtperception is held in doubt between the greater and lesser siddhi. Mind-cased confused perception and half-perception can still pursue the trikaldrishti. The higher vijnana acts with some difficulty and is not yet in free command of its highest forms, but it is growing in power to hold the adhara. In the evening the thought-perception acquired the same freedom in the ideality as has already been attained by the other

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members; that is to say, without any watching, attention[,] concentration or use of will it acts rapidly and constantly without falling from the vijnana or being invaded by unideal suggestions. How far it will be able to cover at once all the T2 remains to be tested. The higher ideality in the T2 is now taking a firm hold. The remnants of mental stuff floating about have become mostly ineffective except for limitation. The lower idealities act as an inferior accompaniment to the higher vijnana or take its place in lax moments. Ananda is recovering intensity and continuity, but still needs the smarana. It varies between the mental and the ideal forms, mental in laxity, ideal when supported by the tapas, but now contrary to what had been the rule hitherto the ideal are the more intense. In Samadhi lipi is almost entirely coherent, though not in any great mass, still in longer continuities than before. The other elements are also regularising themselves a little. Lipi is ideal in Samadhi, thought sometimes falls into the mentalised ideal at least in physical level and in intensity. The other members, eg rupa, do not seem yet to be vijnanamaya. Nidra is still a persistent obstacle, but swapna while it persists in nidra is ceasing to interfere constantly with samadhi. March 3d Wednesday. Ananda (sharira) has now a fluctuating continuity; the persistence of the mental forms forms the present chief obstacle. The falling of the intensity brings them into prominence. Nevertheless the ideal form is growing in power. Thought and writing no longer interfere necessarily with the body’s smarana, but only when there is a total absorption in the writing etc or when a cloud of mental stuff comes in to interpose an element of the old formless abstraction of mind which attended absorption in a single subject or occupation. This is no longer a necessity, but a survival of habitude. The continuity has begun to prevail in this matter. The pervasiveness of the Ananda is also being prepared on a firmer foundation. And now even the cloud of mental abstraction no longer necessarily interrupts the ananda. It is only the exclusive absorption that is the ordinary obstacle. There is also the mechanical letting down of the

1206

Record of Yoga

Shakti (eg at meal times and in the evening[)], that may interfere. Sleep and to a less extent samadhi remain a strong interruption. Fatigue is a power for diminution. Tapas is greatly increasing in force and in ideal substance. T2 is now passing through a stage in which the higher ideality is sometimes active, sometimes gives place to lower idealities. These are not proper any longer to the systems, but suggestions from outside. Ananda during period of samadhi. The continuity remained almost throughout during the morning while writing a letter, an unprecedented circumstance. The lighter samadhi was constant in the Ananda. The deeper swapna samadhi is now getting free of nidra, except a shadow which gives a remoteness and sunless consciousness unfavourable to actuality. At the worst it is still ˆ samadhi, though nidramaya; gadha-supta swapna. The Ananda in this deeper samadhi lost at first its continuity, and with it its mass, suffering diminution, recurred only in sharp and keen prolonged and frequent touches of great but narrow intensity which caused a spasm in the body and brought back the lighter state and then outer body consciousness. The samadhistha body consciousness is frequent, but of short duration. The more massed continuous Ananda occurred finally in all but the deepest supta swapna, but at a low power and remained half-involved, involved or lost in the nidramaya. The development has been extremely rapid and promises the complete conquest of swapna samadhi by the Ananda, as well as the complete expulsion of day nidra by samadhi. The next step will be the replacement of the profounder real nidra at night by swapna samadhi and sushupti. Sushupti here will not be sunya or alakshana, but vijnanamaya, anandamaya, chaitanyamaya, sanmaya. Position now makes only a difference of degree, not of continuity in Ananda. Lying, it tends to be extremely intense, intense but less or of varying force in seated position, uncertain in standing posture. Walking has an effect of diminution of intensity. The mental form is being expelled; the form is ideal in ideality or ideal on the level of the mentality, a narrowed vijnanamaya. The mental has in fact been for some time really recurrent with a show of

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persistence. It is now merely recurrent. This shows that the physical consciousness has gone far in a first idealisation. Pervasiveness is now becoming final, only the pervasion of the head offers some difficulty: there it is not, but tends to be quite continuous. In deeper samadhi Ananda sometimes shifts from head to body and body to head. This diminishes the constancy of the Ananda. But there are signs that this difficulty will not be long prevalent. Lipi in the deep samadhi gains constantly in power and coherence. Rupa suddenly manifested perfect stability in one perfect form (a watch) prolonged for several minutes, though occasionally clouded over, yet reappearing, sometimes with a slight change of details. This endured through both swapna and deep antardarshi or half jagrat half swapna. For the rest, the rupa etc was spasmodic and disordered today, except for snatches. T2 on the lower level is now becoming fuller and more ordered and certain, though still shot through with inaccurate suggestions, ie wrong stresses. The struggle is between ideal perception of possibility (actualities even being suggested as possibilities) attended often with false stress of certitude and ideal perception of actuality (possibilities being seen as actual forces unfulfilled or partially effected) with right stress of certitude. Both come from the outer consciousness and are not native to the adhara. Only the higher vijnana on the highest or middle level is native to the adhara. The T2 and with it other siddhis dropped towards the lowest levels even with some hint of the mentality. Ananda was lowered to an interrupted continuity and suffered much intrusion of the mental forms. Now the highest vijnana is again at work in the thought-siddhi and a recovery is in progress. Thought siddhi with some T2 recovered and founded itself more firmly than before in the interpretative vijnana. All other movements, when they occur, are not accepted or invested with credit, except in so far as they are touched by the drashtri vijnana. Ananda took some time in emerging from the interrupted continuity. The full intensity continued through a fairly long spell of reading, but was diminished and interrupted at the close. In type however all obstacles have been conquered, except sleep.

1208

Record of Yoga

Sleep prevailed at night, only in the morning imperfect swapna samadhi. Lipi at first a little confused, but reasserted coherence. The morning samadhi is now coming up to the level of the afternoon swapna. Sleep for about six hours. Dream, while retaining its inconsequence, is sometimes curiously idealised in some of its incidents or features Thursday Mar 4. The Ananda varies now between three conditions. At night interruption, but restorable by smarana. Restoration automatic after rising. At daytime (except for samadhi) a highest, middle or a diminished condition. The marks of the last are interrupted continuity, much intrusion and some persistence of mental forms, a low or varying intensity. The marks of the first and second are uninterrupted continuity, exclusion of mental forms, sustained or great intensities; but the second is prone to the inspirational, the first to the interpretative vijnana. Tapas is still necessary for the first, partially or initially necessary for the second condition. T2 varies also between three conditions. The lowest is a diluted revelatory vijnana with mixture of other, often now mentally encased suggestions, and is afflicted with confusion and incertitude. The middle is a higher representative form, but touched by lower suggestions, into which stress of tapas or hasty certitude brings an element of error, and which is only correct when limited to immediate balancing trikaldrishti. The highest is interpretative and gives correct finalities. The difficulty of taking up all detail into the highest form is not yet overcome. Other siddhis are not moving much, but there is a beginning of final idealisation of rupa and vishaya, especially gandha and rasa. T2 in the lowest scale of the interpretative vijnana has regularised itself in place of the revelatory ideal seeing, excluding the lower suggestions, which recur less frequently and are given no valid credit. They cannot be easily excised altogether, until their place has been taken by the highest vijnana. This can only give immediate certitudes. But the higher powers are sometimes acting in this lowest scale. This is a preparation for their own final emerge[nce], self-basing and replacement of the lowest interpretative vision.

1 March – 10 April 1920

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The middle interpretative vijnana is now being developed, but is not yet clear of foreign (mainly the lower revelatory and inspirational) elements; the lower interpretative has begun to be excluded; its work will be taken up by the higher movements.. Thought-telepathy is being idealised like the other elements, but as yet in a mind-cased revelatory vijnana touched with the interpretative atmosphere. The rest of the day taken up by a mixed action in which the middle interpretative has been taking in the lower action and generalising itself; but it is itself now being rejected from its insufficiency of decisiveness when not filled with the highest drishti. It is acting still, as also subordinately to it the occasional lower revelatory, and growing in accuracy and fullness, but it is filling slowly with the drishti. Ananda has sunk into the lowest stage of the third condition and is much interrupted, but is slowly getting rid of the persistent mental form recurrence and preparing a temporary rule of the second condition. Samadhi is obstructed but even in obstruction maintains with a little impairment its recent strongest gains. Mar. 5. Friday The drishti now promises to take the place of the interpretative form in T2 and thought-siddhi. This is at first being done or rather prepared by a slow and fluctuating movement. Ananda is wavering between the second condition and a compromise between the third and second, a basic uninterrupted continuity of the inspirational or representative kind, but also spells of interruption, interrupted continuity and a weight of recurrent mentality overlaying by invasion. In the afternoon samadhi oppressed by nidra. Shama darkened by some element of tamas in the system; a depression or relative inactivity of tapas. The drishti has emerged in the evening in T2 and thoughtsiddhi, but has not a complete hold or satisfying fullness. In Ananda the tendency is to a fluctuation between the second condition and an interpretative drishti in the form of the Ananda, a higher version

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Record of Yoga

of the third condition. But the hold is still wanting in strength and continuous insistence. Mar 6 Saturday The endeavour today has been to get rid entirely of the lower and mediary forms, but this attempt brought an invasion of these forms, a confusion and a stressing of the difficulty of adjustment to the old proportions of a struggle. The siddhi on its positive side progresses, as has been lately more and more the rule in such crises, in the midst of the confusion. Thought-siddhi frequently manifests the highest form of the drashtri reason, T2 occasionally gets at some incomplete form of it. But the main movement has been the persistent increasing rejection of the lowest forms in spite of their persistent recurrence; they cannot long hold the system and are beginning to lose power at all to put their grasp on the thoughtconsciousness. The mediary forms on the other hand penetrated or not by the drishti lay a strong temporary hold, persist for a long time, prevent the highest drishti, and when it manifests, rush into its place and try to do its functions and imitate its manner. This is the old method of progress. But the rule insisted on at present is that of the higher replacing and resuming the lower powers, not of the lower seizing on the higher and drawing them down to their level. This rule sometimes act[s] but cannot as yet assert its firm dominance. Ananda continues to vary between its different formations, but now on the whole the tendency is to bare continuity of the highest condition (not its full pervasion, intensity and possession) in smarana. There is now a movement towards possession or at least pervasion in smarana. The thought and with a less certainty the T2 has now entered with some firmness on the same state as the script and lipi in which the various forms all belong to the full ideality and belong to the drishti with rarer deviations to the lesser forms still penetrated and covertly possessed by the drishti. But here the process is not yet absolutely complete. Some play of gandha and rasa and of stable ghana or ghana developed rupa, mostly in the second stability; but the forms are old

1 March – 10 April 1920

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forms already seen in a previous far past state of the rupa sadhana. Strong dream coherence in nidra. Mar 7. Sunday. The T2 is proceeding with the development of the drishti. The movement goes much over old ground and confirms the stable hold of the drishti in the lesser ideal action. First, the lower form has been successfully converted; this gives near future and present potentialities valued in the terms and powers of the immediate actuality and frequently fulfilled according to the exact balance seen of the immediate present and future actuality, but barren of absolute future certitudes. Now the mediary form has been converted. This takes up the immediate potentialities, includes distant ones, and deals more largely with near and far potential, relative, temporary and isolated certitudes. But the near is more strongly and frequently dealt with than the farther, the farther more than the very distant; the last is still very rare. The chief difficulty is the survival of uncertain or self-regardingly positive stress, and this though less ignorant and vehement than in the mentality, less positive than in the lower idealities, is still sufficient to hamper the action of the highest drishti. The defect can only be cured by full and complete unification of knowledge and Tapas There is movement again in the rupa, in the tendency of drishti idealisation, but as yet this is still embarrassed by the persistence of inspired and intuitive mental forms. S. [Sharira] Ananda is depressed towards the inspirational mentality and intuition, but this form also is being taken up by the drishti. Sahaituka is rapidly undergoing the same change, but not yet with perfection. There is occasional basic or pervasive force of the higher drastri ananda. Rupa has successfully idealised itself in all its forms after some difficulty with those that were full of the inspirational mentality. The crude forms are not unoften perfect, but not usually so, except in the ghana and developed crude, but often nearly perfect. The old persistent habit of the crude stuff to be doubtful of form, and change rapidly often before creating a perfect form with an initial stability is still obstinate. This is an obstacle also to the stability.

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Record of Yoga

At the same time stability [and] perfection of form and material is increasing; and there is sometimes stability of the full second and even the third degree. This is also coming in a half crude, halfghana. Full crude and developed forms are perfect in both form and material or in either form or material and if the latter only then perfect in part-form, but they are unstable. Mar 8 Monday A very clear, strong, distinguishing and accurate drishti in the telepathies, vyapti and prakamya. Its action is in the already occupied province, but it is there removing all sources of confusion. Also in the telepathic trikaldrishti. One or two true ghanas have for the first time appeared with the primary stability out of the mass of crude material in daylight; this has the advantage of appearance and stability frankly fronting the physical eye. Other forms present themselves obliquely or dart into the direct field of vision and stay there for a moment or two or three moments or more. Some ghanas of that kind have direct under the eye a primary stability. There is now occasional possession by the drashtri Ananda in the sharira; but there is as yet no harmonious or complete combination of the pervasion, possession and basic Ananda. The Tapas is now working to establish it in the homogeneity of the drishti, but the kind of drishti is not yet securely the same, nor is the possession then complete and stable. A remarkable progress has been suddenly made in T2 by the taking up of the mediary form by the highest drishti. There is now a mass of certitudes of various degrees and qualities, but governed by an increasing force of absolute certitude. The element of over or under stress remains, but is now made subordinate. The element of struggle in the adjustment is being removed and a comparatively smooth and anandamaya development on the higher scale has been given a firm foundation. Mar 9 – 13 Tuesday – Saturday. A period of relaxation of the siddhi. The T2 has been steadily progressing, but by a complex occasional action, each time a step

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in the emergence of the more and more effective drishti in the two lower conditions. The other uncompleted members have been neglected, subject to obstruction and affected by recrudescence of asiddhi. There has been a great advance in firmness of passive samata and now in the ideal basis of the Shakti. Mar 13 Saturday. The highest drishti is finally imposing itself and completing its taking up of the lower movements in T2, thought-speech, script and thought-perception. It is the beginning of the final process in the luminous ideal reason. Sharira Ananda is again reviving, but as yet only in the basic Ananda. A strong invasion of Tamas in body and physical mind dispelled by the drashtri vijnana which it failed to suspend or lower in character. There is now an invasion of confused luminous lower ideality, and this fails to suspend, but tends to dilute and lower the character of the vijnana. The highest drashtri Tapas is now at work on the Yoga. The ideal Ananda is now being imposed on the vishayas; it is dominant and almost perfect in darshana, though still too much mixed with or sometimes lowered towards the inferior forms in the seeing of the human figure. It still sinks in the rest by any lowering of the shakti, but its universal finality has been established beyond serious retardation. The lipi has succeeded in establishing finally the full dominance of the drashtri vijnana. This is also accomplished in the script, though here there is a strong tendency still to an invasion by the inspirational intuitive thought-perception. The same siddhi seems also to be assured in the thought-speech in the vijnana; but there are still intrusions of the lower forms from the exterior atmosphere. The highest drishti may also be considered to be siddha in the jnana, but not yet in the T2 thought-perception. Mar 14 Sunday. The T2 thought-perception is being rapidly fixed in the ideality, but the incertitude still encourages the outside mind to send in the

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Record of Yoga

lower forms of the vijnana and even lesser mental movements. These as they come in are seized on and idealised, and all forms are now compelled to bear the drishti and there is a spontaneous discrimination of the limits and character of the truth on which they insist, so that when this process is complete, under and overstress may exist in them, but will not delude the witness and thinker. The process however is still incomplete. At the same time certitude of immediate result and movement is gaining greatly in force and amplitude. This must be the next movement to insist always on sight and certitude. When it is complete, there will be the completion of the ideal reason. All forms of the rupa are idealised, except the crude, and this after some relapse is again and more firmly becoming vijnanamaya. It is unideal only in the process and in some occasional results of uncertain formation. On the other hand swapna Samadhi has been violently invaded by dream and oppressed by mentality, fantasy and incoherence. Sraddha bhagavati swashaktyam is approaching completion, but there is still doubt as to the immediate power and the eventual fullness of yoga siddhi and karma siddhi. The crude lipi is idealised and even in the process of uncertain formation there is only a momentary survival of the mental matter which is now become a suggestion rather than a real element. The mental state is being at times brought back in the laxity in order to be overpowered by the drishti. The Shakti is acting in the physical siddhi, and rupa etc, but as yet is not able to get rid of the obstruction T2 is extending itself to distant trikaldrishti as far as that is possible in the ideal reason. Mar 15 Monday. The movement in the ghana is getting up a greater rapidity. The substance of the rupa now varies between the idealised mental and the ideal; there is an increasing tendency to stability of the ghana crude and developed crude and also the crude developed and the crude ghana. Other forms have often an initial primary stability before the eye.

1 March – 10 April 1920

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The process of idealisation is now completed, except that there is some immixture of the mental in uncertain or indistinct or incomplete crude formations and some initiality of it in unformed material, but the floating of crude matter without any immediate formation or beginning of formation of any kind is undergoing a rapid elimination. As a next step slow formation is disappearing, has almost disappeared and what prevails now is immediate imperfect or uncertain, sometimes very imperfect or uncertain formation; the perfect complete crude is rare, the perfect incomplete more common. The sadhara forms in which the unideality persisted, are also now being rectified; this has been done almost instantaneously, but not yet quite so completely as in the niradhara. The K. [Kama] Ananda has been oppressed by the unideal forms, but there is now a pressure of Tapas to get rid of this covering oppression. The crude rupa is now moving towards the elimination of inchoate or very imperfect and uncertain forms; the more definite rupas, complete or incomplete, perfect or partially perfect, wholly ideal or mental-ideal, are becoming more common. The chief difficulty is that the animal and human forms are resisted in this rupa and to evolve them the Akasha resorts to the old method of slow uncertain formation. Though no longer slow, it is still uncertain and produces the inchoate, imperfect and soon changing or uncertain figures. The possessional Ananda is now always ideal, the basic is now developing ideal finality, the pervasive commencing the same movement. This is being effected against a strong siege of obstruction. Since yesterday there has been a permitted invasion of the old intuitivity, and the drishti has been working in and upon it to take final possession of the channel mentality. The completion of this movement is predicted for tonight in the lipi. At present the confusions of the mentality are being corrected and decisive trikaldrishti with an element of accuracy of time and

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Record of Yoga

detail (mainly in the Yoga guidance) is establishing its predominance. The samadhi is now the only member of the vijnana in which the obstruction can still keep in action an important aspect of struggle. In the others there is only difficulty of adjustment or difficulty of development of free action. Thought-telepathy (apart from thought-intention) has begun, but with a very slight occasional action. Rupa at night assumed the same siddhi as in the daytime, but in its different kind of chhaya, tejah and jyoti. Trikaldrishti, but not in full abundance and perfection. The pervasive Ananda is striving for ideality, but is still much besieged by the inspirational mental form. Mar 16 Tuesday. A strong return of the relapse principle, recurrence of touches of asamata violently forced on the system, though of no duration, invasion, stoppage of siddhi. Crude rupa moves towards elimination of inchoate and very imperfect forms, but the obstruction prevents siddhi. Mar 17 Wednesday. The siddhi is recovering its basis. T2 is assuring again the just drishti, but stress of Tapas is forced on the system from outside, although rejected by the Shakti. The highest drishti occasionally emerges, but the outward insistence on the lower forms of immediate actuality and insufficiently assured possibility hampers progress. The pervasive Ananda is pursuing idealisation in spite of the recurrence of inspiration[al] mentality: there is no intense continuous action. T2 in the afternoon proceeded with its elimination of stress, but there are intervals when it ceases and the outside mentality sends in its forms which are then either set right in stress or the errors corrected by the discriminating power of the drishti. At other times there is just drishti of the first, second or third order. The first which gives final decisions is still the least frequent and not in its

1 March – 10 April 1920

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highest power and assurance. Tapas is returning to the fuller power of drishti. Rupa as yet does not advance rapidly. There is no successful insistence on stability; the imperfect forms recur obstinately, but without conviction K. Ananda developed in the morning for a moment highest drishti, and this showed itself again with intensity in the evening. But the lower forms though they tend to be modified by the drishti, still besiege the system. At night a sudden strong attack of most of the rogas to which the system is liable, including a touch of feverishness; some weakness in the morning. March 18 – 24 The siddhi has progressed in spite of a heavy obstruction of physical tamas. The main progress is that all the members of the vijnana have now definitely fixed themselves in the true ideality (it is only in laxity that there is some touch of idealised mentality) and now including T2 in the drishti. All except T2 are entirely vijnanamaya. T2 has developed accurate drishti in the third condition and decisive trikaldrishti in the first condition. The common action is in the third; but it is now being changed to the second condition, that is right perception of possibility including right perception of immediate actuality. The first is increasing in power and fixing its certitudes on the others. The process is as yet far from complete, but is progressing with sufficient rapidity of transmutation. Samadhi is developing vijnana action in spite of tamas and nidra. Rupa is still hampered by the obstruction and cannot yet get rid of imperfect crude forms. But perfect crude forms (crude, ghana crude, developed crude) and crude ghana and developed are becoming more common before the eye. The freedom of rupa is much denied and impeded. Vishaya is similarly hampered, but there is progress of idealisation in gandha and rasa.

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Record of Yoga

K. Ananda is now firmly idealised in spite of an occasional pursuing fringe of idealised mentality, and is increasing in power of incidence. But the continuity is impeded by the physical obstruction. Tapas is acting on roga and for utthapana, but as yet without any effect of finality. Mar 25 – 27 Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The development of the vijnana in the thought-siddhi is still the main movement. Thought-speech and thought-perception are now normally fixed in the drishti. There are occasional drops and deviations, especially in laxity, but the laxity is now only usual in the evening and night and as a result in the early morning. It is being slowly got rid of in spite of the great siege and pressure of the external mind and its tamas. Thought-speech and perception have been perfected in the two lower orders of the drishti; they are already perfect in the first order, but that has been held back; it is now manifesting and has to take possession of the others. The main difficulty is still in T2. T2 (trikaldrishti side of the double power) is now fixed normally in the drishti. The stress has been on the telepathic drishti which gives the fact and tendency [of] actual and potential forces in action. Now the self-existent drishti is being developed which gives the certitudes. Certitudes of actuality (the third condition) are now more or less perfect, except in their extension: these give the certitude of immediate actualities and also of immediate or almost immediate dominant possibilities. It deals with the telepathies, but in the telepathies the possibilities of linked present and future action etc predominate, in the other the certitudes. This third condition corresponds in the drishti to the intuition, but is not revelatory intuition, but a high intuitively revelatory vision. Certitudes of remoter potentiality are now fixing themselves in perfection, but are as yet more limited and less disengaged from the telepathies. This second condition occupies in the drishti the place of inspiration, but is not revelatory inspiration, but a high inspirationally or interpretatively revelatory vision. The first condition in trikaldrishti is still held back and inactive.

1 March – 10 April 1920

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In Samadhi intuition has been finally turned into drishti in the antardarshi. Swapna samadhi is still besieged by tamas and nidra. Dream has now a remarkable coherency due to the pressure of drishti. Lipi has practically got rid of mere intuition, but admits drishti intuition; all the other powers are active. Rupa and vishaya are still oppressed by the physical obstruction and are making no farther immediate progress. Speech has now been for some time vijnanamaya with drishti in the third and is now often ideal in the second condition; but there is as yet no speech of trikaldrishti. B. [Brahma] Darshana has long settled in the vijnana, but without the Ananda[,] the object being to get rid of the remnants of the mental form of vision. Now it is being raised to the vijnana Ananda, which it is already fixed in in vision of things, the other movement has been in the vision of living things, especially of human persons. The difficulty in the vijnana Ananda darshana is that it tends 2 [ ] often to be diluted with or flooded into the mental Ananda which is more intense, while the V.A is in the lesser intensities. This is now being, but is not entirely remedied by the equal intensity of the V. Ananda. The mental brings with it the prema Ananda, while the ideal has been for some time dissociated from Prema. The Prema ananda is becoming vijnanamaya, but the stronger prema still takes the mental character. After writing the great intensities have come into the V. Ananda darshana and the vijnanamaya Prema Ananda, and the mental Ananda darshana and the mental premananda convicted of a lesser intensity are beginning to undergo a final elimination. The third condition of T2 is being taken up into the highest certitude of drishti, and the first condition manifesting has begun to take up the two lower conditions. This is only the incipient final movement. The idealisation of the vishaya, suspended for some time, is now proceeding once more with a strong rapidity, but the mental sense obstinately resists entire eviction. 2 MS to

1220

Record of Yoga

The idealisation of the sahaituka vishayas has now become practically complete. In samadhi more force of vijnana, but sushupta swapna is still under the hold of dream and nidra. Vishwa darshana seems to be fixed in V.A in spite of occasional mental Ananda Mar 28, Sunday T2 is now acting with considerable accuracy but insufficient force of certitude in the drishti. The lower movements persist, but their inadequacy is so evident that their persistence is only due to physical laxity and habit. Mar 29 – 31. There has been some development of T2 and of vijnana generally, of which the main tendency is on one side the idealisation of the invading mentality, on the other the stronger emergence of the higher drishti. Other siddhis proceed slowly or are stationary or in abeyance. The situation in the sadhana is as follows. Samata is perfect except for an occasional physical touch of asamata of great weakness which does not affect the mind, but only the physical shell of the pranic consciousness. The sama ananda is however still in need of greater development; its deficiency is due to the general withholding of intensity of Ananda, for even in the vijnana there is asu, a modified prakasha, but not the full Ananda. There is full sukham and prasada, but not full hasya in the samata. Shakti is fixed in the vijnana and usually in one of the conditions of the logistic drishti; but subject to some dilution by the stuff of mental intelligence. Sraddha is complete, except for an element of besieging doubt about sharira and karma, amounting more to the perception of a possibility of limitation than to denial of the siddhi. There is however some element of doubt as to whether all may not be cut short by death of the body. Devibhava is there in basis, but incomplete by lack of full force, especially of ishwarabhava. The other siddhis of this chatusthaya

1 March – 10 April 1920

1221

are as developed as they can be without farther development of the vijnana. Thought is now fixed in the vijnana except for the effect produced by the continuous siege of the surrounding envelope of mental intelligence. This is now distant and not close to the consciousness, but is still allowed full right of penetration and invasion. The old policy of the Kavacha seems to have been wholly abandoned. This effect is first, that of an increasing of the vijnana thought in the mental matter where it is still vijnanamaya, but with a strong infusion of mental limitation and incertitude; secondly, when the thought is more strongly vijnanamaya, ideal in the vijnana, a dilution by or an accompaniment of mentality; at other times, the thought is clearly and solely vijnana, but still limited by the environment of mental intelligence. These effects are strongest in the T2; but affect the general thought-perception which does not now usually act as a separate power. The thought-speech is vijnanamaya except for a very small element of diluted vijnana, and when the thought-speech is active, except in great laxity or exercises of the idealised imagination, thought-perception also rises in vijnana intensity and fullness. Lipi and script are entirely ideal, but with a tendency towards the intuitivity saved by drishti, because of the siege of the mental intelligence. T2 is more and more developed in the highest drishti, but still normally varies between the two lower conditions and is much impeded by the effects of the intelligence. Samadhi is impeded by tamas and nidra. It tends to vijnana and is sometimes drishtimaya in thought etc in the antardarshi and all swapna except sushupta swapna, but this is only when there is application of tapas. Sahaituka Vishaya is at present idealised with some occasional element of manasa; the development, as also in rupa is temporarily suspended. Physical siddhi is subject to a violent and successful siege of obstruction. Ananda is now ideal or idealised manasa, but spontaneity is rare, continuity brief and dependent on smarana. Roga has resumed something of its hold, though always removable or in the standing elements diminuable by tapas. One roga only still resists the tapas. The other siddhis in this field make no progress.

1222

Record of Yoga

Darshana is now fixed in the vijnana and usually in a vijnana Ananda of secondary power. April April 1. This month is set apart for the overcoming of the final difficulties in the way of the vijnana. Today mostly given to kavya. At night a full idealisation on all levels of the thought-perception; the manasa is now only an accompaniment, limitation or infiltration. The sinking of the thought into the manasa is being cast off and persists strongly only in the T2, but there too it is no longer able to strive to be normal. April 2 – 5 The siege of the mentalised physical tamas is exceedingly violent in its obstructive obstinacy, the siddhi proceeds in a few outbreaks in the midst of this tamas, and it is only yesterday that the Tapas has turned with an equal determination to get rid of the physical disability. The atmosphere of the physical mind is no longer allowed to give for long a sanction to it; but it still holds strongly to the atmosphere of the physical and to some extent of the psychic prana, and this effects a siege and retardation of the siddhi. Each day there is some decisive progress. Thought-perception and T2 has definitely risen into the second condition sometimes powerfully uplifted or taken possession of by the siddhi, sometimes giving place to the inspirational drishti from outside. The latter insists on possibility in the old excessive fashion and while it extends the bounds of vision, is still damaging to certitude. When the drishti acts in its highest form and first condition, certitude of present actuality, of present and future possibility and of real eventuality fall into a harmonious whole. The perfection of this harmony can only come when the second condition is entirely surmounted and the free and normal highest action becomes possible. More distant possibility is now being seen through the drishti and the logistic form of the srauta is initially showing its outline on the logistic level. B. Darshana is fixing itself more firmly in the vijnana Ananda

1 March – 10 April 1920

1223

and insisting on its higher intensities which reveal the Purushottama in the Brahma. Samadhi still struggles with more and more success, but still a very difficult success against nidra and tamas. Tamas more than nidra is now the real obstacle. Rupa siddhi does not act freely and makes only progress in detail. It is now increasing[ly] stable in the crude form with an increasing force of vivid completeness, but the imperfect forms are still obstinate in recurrence. The formless material quickly takes form, but the form is sometimes though not usually inchoate, often imperfect, perfect only by overcoming of the siege of obstruction in the akasha. Thought now hardly at all descends into the mentality except for side suggestions mostly in the state of laxity, but is still subject to accompaniment and infiltration by the stuff of manas. The physical siddhi is now insisting on sustained tejas pravritti of the ideal Shakti in the body so as to get rid of tamas, but though there is a great improvement, the success is as yet far from complete. Sharira can make no definite progress against the obstruction. April 6 – 10 The vijnana is steadily getting the better of the still persistent tamas and the progress continues. After a slight lapse towards the mental recurrence the thought is more firmly fixed in the gnosis. It is however of three kinds, the drishti cased in a mental accompaniment, the drishti of the lower conditions leaning to the limitations of the mental reason, the same lifted by or to the highest drishti or full of its power, though not yet of its constant light and ananda. Now even the forms of thought which were held most by the mental form, eg imagination etc, are captured by the vijnana drishti. The mental siege still continues, but is less sustained and effective. The real question is now between different conditions of the drishti. The first predominates, but with a gravitation towards the second condition. T2 also is idealised in all its movements. There are still two kinds, telepathic and original. The telepathic is in error when weighted with the mental accompaniment, but much less than at any previous time; there is a great increase in accuracy and certitude.

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Record of Yoga

The original is in the three conditions (the telepathic is dominated by the second, the perception of the possible), and varies in power and accuracy and certitude according as it is free or beset by the mental intuitive reason. Other activities are in the drishti, but with a mixture of mentality, (lipi and script alone perfect in vijnana), eg vishaya. Rupa is not active. The gnosis in the body is most affected by mental invasion. Sharira Ananda after a long time is recovering power for continuity, but is less firmly vijnanamaya than when it acted with a careful and formative intermittence. Other members of the sharira have been adverse, but still affected by the Tapas.

1225

7 – 26 JUNE 1920

Yoga Record June. June 7. The discontinuation of the record for about two months marks a time when the Yoga was slowly proceeding against a strong obstruction in the physical consciousness. At no time did this obstruction amount to a gap in the process of the Yoga, a complete discontinuity (of more than hours) or a relapse in the old manner. It was not an arrest, but a retardation of the rate of the progress, and due principally to the necessity of an assimilation of steps rapidly taken, a dealing with intellectual remnants and an action on the last serious assault of the unrepentant and unconvinced environing opposition. There was a quickening at the end of May and the first six days of June has each been marked by a great particular step in advance; today there is a rapid but sure general advance, the result of the more or less covert or impeded work of April – May and its weakening of the obstacles. Position. Samata, complete, both positive and negative or rather active and passive. There only remains an inequality in the active ananda and an occasional proffer of doubt and depression which does not take any body in the chitta (effleure seulement pendant le quart d’un second). The doubt is only about the body and the karma and is falling away from the fixity of the c¸ raddha. Shakti. Complete, but awaiting for its fuller activities the perˆ fection of the vijnana and the sharira and Brahma-darshana. The most sensible progress has been in the two weak parts, the tertiary dasya and c¸ raddha. The Ishwara is now felt in all the activities of the Shakti, though not with an entire completeness because there

1226

Record of Yoga

is still an intrusive action of the ganas. The tertiary dasya has replaced the earlier stages, but it is of two kinds, dasya to the ganas moving the Prakriti, and dasya to the Ishwara controlling, moving and embodying himself in the Shakti. The c¸ raddha in the Bhagavan is complete and in the power of the Shakti to the extent of the will to accomplish of the Ishwara. The personal Shakti is felt to be insufficient, but it is becoming one with the sufficient universal Shakti. Faith in the sharira and karma is qualified only by the doubt as to the prolongation of the life and the extent of the karma. The first is only a strong external suggestion getting its strength from the abnormal persistence of the digestive roga; the second is a real restriction of the c¸ raddha, but it is rather questioning now than negative. The ishwaribhava is still qualified in intensity and fullness. Vijnana. The conversion of the thought, jnana, to the vijnana form is now complete. The base is still the revelatory intuition, but the representative logis[tis] has penetrated the major part of its action and the interpretative often intervenes and prepares the normality of the highest logistis. Telepathies are now idealised and of a great but not always perfect correctness. Telepathic tapas is now vijnanamaya. The decisive T2 at present emerges from the idealised telepathies (mental perceptions of event, force, tendency and possibility) and the idealised telepathic (old mental) tapas. At times there is the independent T2 of the supreme logistis. Telepathies are now a part of trikaldrishti and amount to a drishti of the present, and often imply or hold in their action the drishti of the immediate future. At the same time none of these things have an absolute perfection, and decisive tapas is not as yet very strong, organised or effective. Prakamya of feeling and sensation is strong, but incomplete and intermittent; prakamya of thought intermittent and feeble. Vyapti is more effective. Action and knowledge at a distance is still unorganised and imperfectly effective. Rupa is still obstructed in the physical akasha, but confirmed in a primary type stability; vishaya not yet restored to action; samadhi firmly idealised, but limited by fantasy, instability and nidra. There is still great incoherence in the sushupta swapna lipi. Sharira progresses in the Ananda which after some intermission varied by an unstable but more spontaneous recurrence is

7 – 26 June 1920

1227

recovering continuity dependent on smarana, but this continuity is now for the most part spontaneous and has not to be maintained, though sometimes assisted, by tapas. The fragmentary rogas persist and cannot yet be totally expelled from the system, but the action of the Tapas on them is growing stronger. Only the central rogas are obstinate in possession, the rest only in persistent recurrence. The digestive fluctuates between almost complete intermission and a virulent, but now much less vehemently effective recurrence. There is no visible action of utthapana or saundarya. Brahma. All is now fixed in the vijnana brahma darshana with an occasional emergence of the undertone of intuitive manasa which is [immediately]1 penetrated by and taken up into vijnana. In the V.B. [Vijnana Brahma] Ananda is organising itself, vijnana Ananda informed with the Ahaituka and manifesting in its own kind the Prema and Kama Ananda darshana. These two in the vision of the object are now vijnanamaya (fusion of intuitive + higher logistis or only the latter), in the subject, the chitta, twofold without sufficient fusion of the two simultaneous forms, but the higher logistis is growing on the chitta.. Samadhi. The pressure of afternoon nidra as shown in today’s samadhi and prepared by the last few days’ progress no longer alters the character of the swapna, nor does it amount to entire ˆ but only to a weight on the clarity of the obscuration of the drashta, visual consciousness. Sushupta swapna lipi is still the circumstance most affected and, as always, by incoherence due to suppression and to mixture of different lipis. At night nidra is still powerful to prevent samadhi Vijnana. The invading environmental suggestions are now being steadily appropriated to the vijnana. Trikaldrishti of actuality has been trained to the vijnanamaya correctness, the same movement is being applied to the trikaldrishti of the possibilities that press on the actuality to modify or alter the event in the making. At present there is much environmental suggestion full of error, not of fact of tendency, but of its event-making incidence. 1 MS immediated

1228

Record of Yoga

Rupa advances against a strong obstruction. Vishaya revives in gandha, but there is still the obstruction. Sharira Ananda. Continuity is growing, but still subject to the old causes of discontinuance. These however have much less reality of persistence than on the last occasion. Tivra shows a tendency to fix itself and is now vijnanamaya with an idealised intuitive mental undertone. Vishayananda is revelatory vijnanamaya. Raudra also is vijnanamaya, and vaidyuta. The physical ananda continues in antardarshi and in the lighter swapna, but is there subject to cessation or intermittence. June 8. After a long indulgence of the environmental invasion, the final conversion of the assured ideality to the interpretative logistical vijnana has commenced and immediately taken a considerable extension. All concentrated thought and thought-speech has begun to be fixedly of that character, as also the T2. This is being effected not by select movements and a gradual extension, but with an initially instantaneous generality and rapidity in a crowded activity of thought-suggestions. The Rupa is beginning to press down again the barrier of obstruction. The developed forms are still only of an initial stability, the ghana and ghana developed either that or of a primary or secondary, the crude of a primary, secondary or sometimes tertiary stability. The tendency in the latter is to long stability. The lipi is fixing itself in freely in the interpretative vijnana; all former movements of the kind were only initial and preparatory; this is the last and definite movement. Ananda powerful and persistent all the morning. More intense and often very intense with smarana; when mind occupied either suppressed with predisposition of the body to it, or half-suppressed or present with a lesser insistence. Often the mind occupied, but with a part of the physical consciousness fully aware of the intense Ananda. More firmness of continuous pervasion; for a long time the inner physical fibres penetrated and possessed by the Ananda. Result in the afternoon intenser A [Ananda] with the smarana; body

7 – 26 June 1920

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full of the predisposition even in forgetfulness. The automatic and the forced cessation are being eliminated from the system, only the oblivious and the sleep cessation remain as effective obstacles. The samadhi in the afternoon almost got rid of lipi incoherence. The interpretative vijnana took firm hold on thought speech and thought perception in the antardarshi. Nidra obscurity almost nonexistent, nidra weight of inclusion is still there. In the evening and at night a laxity of the Shakti and some interruption, not complete, of the results acquired in the daytime. June 9. The laxity continued during the morning. Samadhi in the afternoon directed to farther idealisation of the swapna, removal of fantasy, lipi incoherence, instability and fragmentariness of rupa, shabda etc. There is a detailed initial but not yet quite definite or organised progress. The thought in the afternoon normalised interpretative vijnana in the revelatory and representative consciousness-substance. This movement extended to tapas and trikaldrishti. Indefinite thought from the environment is not yet always of the perfect logistis. A highest logistis has for some time been present in the interpretative and other form or substance. It is now beginning to prepare to take full possession. This will be the end of the logistic movement, the completion of the vijnana reason. Ananda of the interpretative fashion acclimatised in the body. Physical Ananda is now of three moulds, interpretative, revelatory and as a survival the inspirational and (rarely, almost never) other lower kind[s] of vijnana. For the first time developed or rather perfect rupa of the secondary-tertiary stability. As yet the longer stabilities except in the crude rupa are still isolated or else a rather frequent exception. The initial predominates when there is rapidity and frequency of the crude and developed rupa. The thought since yesterday has begun to be attended with physical Ananda confined to the head region (where the K A has been till now exceptional, the ordinary pervasion being in the rest

1230

Record of Yoga

of the body) and the brain-stuff, but this now tends to become normal and to join itself to the Ananda in the rest of the body. The Ananda Darshana now tends to be the infinite shuddha Ananda taking up all the rest, but still on the vijnana level. The old mental shuddha ananta Ananda recurs in the first movement as a coating to the vijnana Ananda, but changes easily to the vijnana shuddha Ananta. The possibilities are now entirely normalised in the interpretative trikaldrishti, the authentic decisive is beginning to disengage itself more clearly, but has often a telepathic character from above which while fulfilling itself in the eventual actuality, remains without any certitude for the reason. An irruption still occasionally takes place of the lesser telepathic idealities which shows that the whole process of conversion is not yet completed. The thought and other prakamya vyapti is still of the lower inefficient and in the case of the thought initial and fragmentary character. Thought intention and thought substance are more easily accurate than pure thought perception. June 10 Thursday. Today the Yoga is more hampered than on any day since the beginning of the fresh stream of progress. The principal advance has been in the T2, where the telepathies of actuality have been raised to the highest power of the logistis and those of modifying possibility strongly confirmed in the interpretative vijnana. Occasionally the tertiary or decisive vijnana acts, but where it does not pressure on the possibility by Tapas brings a confusion of unreliable certitudes. Rupa in the ghana etc is hesitating between initial and primary stabilities. The samadhi was more obstructed by nidra, though not of an obscure nature. Ananda is obstructed and only constant in smarana, though the full intensity is not present. In the afternoon a change. The T2 manifested separately an action of the highest logistic vijnana not at all dependent on the idealised telepathic perception. Rupa began to stress the stabilities

7 – 26 June 1920

1231

and arrived at a normal primary varying from the first point beyond the initial to a point tending to the secondary stability; the crude stability became again secondary and tertiary rather than primary and secondary. Ananda recovered intensity and pervasion with a strong cerebral action. June 11 Friday. Progress on the same lines. Tapas and Trik. are now being organised so as not to be in conflict. Tapas is taking its right place as telepathies have done; the union of decisive Tapas and trik. certitude is not yet effected. June 12 Saturday. Trikaldrishti pursues its organisation, but while the actualities grow constantly in power and certainty, the unrealised possibilities and decisive certitudes are not yet in the complete higher vijnanamaya development. There are still excessive stresses on possibility. At the same time the higher certitudes are becoming more frequent and more positive to the reason Rupa is increasing tertiary stability in the ghana and developed crude, and attempting to bring in the secondary in the other rupas. Lipi now has frequent tertiary stability in the Akasha. There is also an incipient movement towards variety of Rupa Ananda already settled in the intenser sa-smarana, though always feeble and interrupted from the evening, is fixing automatical constancy, so that after oblivion there is no need of mental smarana, the body keeping the memory whether of continuous but unnoted or of suppressed but still implicitly present Ananda. The base of vijnanamaya organisation is being laid in the decisive T2, and prepared in the prakamya-vyapti of thought intention: it is already strong as regards sensational tendency and impulse. Rupa has now definitely begun secondary stability of ghana and developed rupas, but mostly still in the side-seen images, those that stand direct before the eye are less vivid and less stable. Primary stability is still the ordinary movement, but now it is less fugitive, less inclined to the initial and more to the secondary duration.

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Record of Yoga

There is now a constancy of the penetrative more physical Ananda contained in the sthula fibres; the ananda of the sukshma body affecting the sthula alternates or sometimes coexists with it. Samadhi at first of the same kind oppressed by a light unobscure nidra; afterwards strong organisation of thought speech and perception of the highest logistis in all stages of antardarshi and swapna, strong sharira Ananda continuous except in sushupta swapna, lipi perfect except in sushupta, but there no longer fantastically incoherent, other incidents not well organised except rupa (landscapes) clear, tejomaya, but insufficiently stable. June 13 Sunday There is a larger right vijnana of possibilities and telepathic relative certitudes and the decisive telepathic trikaldrishti of precise detail (only of the immediate future) is beginning to found itself, as yet imperfectly, on a larger basis. Tertiary stability is now very common in crude rupa; primary and secondary prevail in the rest under the direct gaze, but tertiary has begun to appear in side images and promises even in the direct images. There is more frequent cerebral and thought Ananda. The Ananda still fluctuates and the Ananda without smarana fails still to fix itself with a final possession. Each of the three siddhis which are being rapidly pushed forward has taken a farther step in advance. The decisive trikaldrishti certitudes are beginning to become near, actual and sure in telepathic trikaldrishtis of the immediate future, filling them as a first step to their replacement. The rupa is increasing tertiary stabilities; initial tertiaries have come repeatedly in the direct image and final tertiary has made its appearance in the side images. Both are now common in the crude. Ananda is deepening its insistent frequency and intensity in spite of interruption by oblivion. It is depressed in the late afternoon, evening and night, but for the last three days the shakti has

7 – 26 June 1920

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been working on this depression and yesterday there was strong Ananda after a prolonged depression in the late afternoon, some in the evening and some, but rejected by the will in the body at night. Today it promises to be throughout continuous by recurrence. June 14th – 15th Ananda deepens steadily, but the obstruction of forgetfulness at the periodic time still remains operative. Rupa has now established the first tertiary stabilities; the more prolonged are still occasional only. Trikaldrishti also is gradually confirming in the telepathic figure. Samadhi in the afternoon is now idealised in all its parts, but weak in the incidents, except in scene and event in scene which are attaining to a perfect stability. The organisation for utility is not yet ready to commence. June 16th Wednesday. The Tapas which was held back in favour of the trikaldrishti is now being definitely taken up for perfection. At first there was the increased but uncertain effectivity of tapas and a renewal of the difficulty of discord between the telepathic form of the two siddhis, then the same difficulty in tapas as in trikaldrishti between the telepathic and the definitive. Finally, an initial fusion has been effected between trikaldrishti and tapas. Rupa is trying to develop perfect stability; there is the potentiality, but not yet the actual presence. Ananda has hitherto fluctuated between periods of intensity and periods of depression. Formerly the latter used to last for long periods, now there is only comparative depression on alternate days and fluctuation in the day itself, greater strength in the morning, less with much interruption in the afternoon and evening, at night cessation or only occasional presence. The depression on alternate days is being eliminated. The continuity in the morning is every day greater and tends to conquer the oblivion; even when writing the body retains except in great absorption of the thought-mind the physical Ananda.

1234

Record of Yoga

The ananta Ananda of the darshana has now definitely entered and for the present fixed itself in the vijnana form corresponding to that attained in the rest of the chaitanya. June 17t.h. Thursday. The T2 for a time was confused by an irruption of incertitudes from outside attended by an extension of relative certitudes in the revelatory and interpretative telepathies. Subsequently the supreme logistis reappeared and began to organise certitude of detail, circumstance and succession. Rupa is now making prolonged tertiary and perfect stability the normal thing in crude of all kinds and beginning to develop it in crude developed and crude ghana. In side images they are becoming very frequent, though they do not yet predominate. The attempt to extend them to direct images of the full ghana and developed kinds is obstinately obstructed in the physical akasha. The long existing tendency to snatch away the rupa as soon as possible after appearance, even if it is [in its] nature perfectly stable, is the obstacle to be eliminated. Ananda has fixed itself with a more basic firmness in the cerebral possession and the physical ananda of thought-speech and thought-possession which was till now only a faint preshadowing, has become definite and universal. The recurrence of asiddha thought and of interruptions of possession is however still persistent, though less powerful than before. Most of the conditions of perfect Ananda (except, mainly, the downward current and the fusion of the five anandas, though the latter has made some progress) is now accomplished in the basis. Ananda persisted in the daily period of relaxation, in the afternoon, evening and at night. The automatic tendency to relaxation is therefore now ended; only that created by oblivion and the oblivion itself have to be conquered. June 18th Friday. Preoccupation with a work and a tendency in the siddhi of going slightly backward, eg in the rupa towards primary and secondary stability, in the Ananda of interruption by oblivion (but not

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of laxity as the result of interruption, only a certain potentiality of relaxation remains), in the T2 of revelatory rather than highest logistic action. June 19th Saturday. The continuous steady rapidity of the siddhi upset today by a revolutionary attempt to substitute at once the srauta for the logistic vijnana. This was attended and frustrated by an invasion of asiddhi such as had not occurred for some months past including even an attack on the samata. Insistent suggestion of asamata amounting to duhkha in the prana and impatience in the buddhi in the physical consciousness, not radical but strongly disturbing the outer physical fibres. This duhkha is now mingled with ananda when it enters the system and cannot preserve its pure character. Its recurrence however is a retardatory phenomenon foreign to the new settled course of the sadhana. Suggestion also, but less violent of asraddha, amounting in effect not to radical asraddha but to disbelief in the method, absence of the feeling of a possessing guidance by the Ishwara that is felt as before behind a veil or only at the summit, and a sense of the possibility of postponement of siddhi. At the same time it is felt that a greater siddhi is preparing. An Ananda of a much greater potentiality of continuity, pervasion, largeness and intensity felt on the vijnana summit and descending into the sukshma body, but this is unable to make itself except at intervals intimate to the system. Meanwhile the constant possession of the sthula body by the revelatory has been taken away and that body is empty except of a greater tendency of response. The sukshma body is visited by a more continuous Ananda less affected, except at first by want of smarana or attention, more pervasive from above, more naturally intense, affecting the sthula without being established in it or possessing it, but not yet organised nor having a firm close hold even of the subtle body. It is at once more continuous and less intimately continuous. All the old asiddhis are suggested, including the dependence on posture. The struggle has not yet been determined in the sense of the greater organised siddhi. The jnana etc are affected in a similar direction. The system

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Record of Yoga

is invaded by a vague and confused idealised mentality which is turned to an imperfect revelatory ideality when it enters the system and its surrounding atmosphere. The vijnana thought and T2 occur, but do not closely hold the system as for a long time they have been doing. There is nothing left but to await the issue of the struggle. Ananda during the time set apart for the samadhi insistent on possession of the sthula body, but a possession by penetration, not a reawakening of the hold on the sthula fibres. The period of laxity was to some extent restored today, not entirely, for there was a frequent recurrence of Ananda, but as a result of smarana. In the evening the Ananda of the sthula body was brought back to a certain extent, but without the firm hold and sure intensity that had seemed fixed in finality. The Ananda in the sukshma body was for a time made constant, the ananda of thought universalised and intensified; these took on the form of the representative, interpretative and highest logistis. All this had to be done by a certain force of Tapas and therefore cannot be considered as a final siddhi. The bodily consciousness became during the same time first revelatory representative and representative, then representative interpretative and interpretative, then the highest logistic vijnana. All this was done from above and cannot yet be considered final. Attack of asamata eliminated, but sraddha not yet normal. June 20th Sunday. The morning was a period of laxity. None of the siddhis are yet final. The representative mould of the bodily consciousness now predominates, but is not yet fixed in security. It is sometimes drawn back and the revelatory takes its place. There is not the sure pratistha Afternoon last night’s Ananda again in action. June 21st Monday The sadhana is settling down again to a movement analogous to the past movements but on a higher scale, that is to say,

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greater developments are being foreshadowed and initiated which have to be gradually attained against the [persistence]2 of old lesser sufficiencies and insufficiencies. Seven new movements are indicated of which four have begun to realise themselves in an initial action. Thought is manifesting a highest logistic movement which is ready to change into the srauta vijnana. The lower thought still persists in the form no longer of a revelatory but an inspirational intuitional thought-action. Its insufficiency is recognised and it is condemned but does not cease from persistence Trikaldrishti is effecting the same movement hampered by the inferior idealised telepathies The Shakti in the body has left the fixed revelatory form and has manifested for a while inspirational, interpretative and a highest logistis ready for the srauta. Actually, however, there is a pressure of inspirational intuitive which veils the actuality of this higher movement. There is the same phenomenon in the physical Ananda in the psychic body. There are fluctuations in all these movements, sometimes the siddhi holding the system, sometimes the asiddhi. The environmental siege affects the lower movements with avoidable error and gives force of persistence to the asiddhi. June 22d Tuesday The same conditions as yesterday, but there is a stronger force of the Siddhi. Tapas is effecting the same movement as trikaldrishti. The government of the Devatas is giving place to the direct government by the Ishwara, but there is not yet the constant presence June 26th Saturday. The intervening days have been subject to difficulties in the Sadhana, the persistence of old forms of the ideality, the siege of the environment and some invasion of stuff of the intuitive mentality. 2 MS persistent

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Record of Yoga

Today the new siddhis are reasserting themselves with a greater power and especially the free all-occupying action of the highest logistic ideality in its highest degree in thought, trikaldrishti-tapas, lipi, script etc. It is also attempting to occupy the physical system and replace the intuitive vijnana. As yet there is still a persistent intervention of the other forms, a laxity of the tapas intervening which tends to restore them and a great difficulty in the physical system.

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17 – 19 OCTOBER 1920

17t.h. October 1920

Oct. 17. 1920. Morning Freedom of the inferior ideality. It is subject still to intrusions of the mental intuitivity from the environment mind, but these are compelled to see or to transform themselves. The stuff of mind in the physical conscience still contains unilluminated movements of obscure matter, but the pressure of the light on them is constant. The lipi is the most perfect of the members of the vijnana, free in its action, free from the lower elements, established in the vijnana. T3 is now developing with a certain freedom in the lipi. Thought and T3 in the thought are moving constantly to the same perfection. The action is free in concentration, but there are still the intrusive or untransformed elements of the physical mind. Except for this defect it is established in the first vijnana. The representative vijnana with all its three elements (representative, interpretative, imperative) is seeking to fix itself in the bodily consciousness of the Shakti in place of the revelatory + intuitive representative vijnana. It takes possession of all but the head. The obstruction still reigns in the rupa siddhi, vishaya, sharira, and the Tapas as yet can only diminish, but not overcome the obstruction. In Samadhi the basis has been laid, but sleep and dream continue. Tapas is working for Arogya and physical Ananda, the latter well-prepared and only forcibly held away by the obstruction. The

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Record of Yoga

Asiddhi still holds in the utthapana and Saundarya. The object telepathies are rapidly uplifted into the representative (logos) vijnana. There has long been an effort from below insisted on and aided from above; this is the immediate action from above, a solution of the difficulty by the involved process. It does not exclude a temporary return towards the inferior process. Later. There has been a rapid progress in the idealisation of the physical Ananda. There was some beginning of continuity, but it was ill established and collapsed in the evening. The normal state of the physical consciousness is the revelatory; the descent to the intuitive occurs much more rarely than before and is not of long duration. Occasionally there is the representative vijnana. No decisive progress in the rest, but a pressure on the habitual passive obstruction in rupa[,] vishaya and samadhi (lone fleeting tejomaya scene) and on the active opposition in the sharira. Progress is made, but as yet by short steps only. 18t.h. October. Preparation of progress in the rupa siddhi. Sudden introduction of the highest representative ideality (logos vijnana), first into the physical system, then in the afternoon into the lipi, thought-speech, thought-perception, tapas, telepathy, trikaldrishti. This is the beginning of a definitive, decisive and rapid conversion that is still in process. The change brought at first a resuscitation of old imperfections belonging to the inspirational vijnana of the intuitive mind and the intellectualities that hung about it, an attempt at invasion and a

17 – 19 October 1920

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resuscitation of the principle of struggle. This however has been checked and is being ejected. Descent during later part of the day. 19th October Arrangement of imperative vijnana begun on the lower levels of the ideal thought-powers. Great extension and power of the logos vijnana in its highest action thought, T2, lipi. It is only beginning to convert largely the thought-speech into the mould of the logos. The other forms survive as insistent remnants. Three levels of the logos vijnana 1. Logistis intuitive ideality of all kinds. 2. Logos reason. The lower representative idea, turned (a) downwards to the logistis (b) upwards to the logos vijnana. N.B. The same downward and upward direction is possible for the logistis. 3. Logos vijnana. The latter has to deal with three movements. 1. Actualities representative 2 Potentialities (including and harmonising with the actualities, or separate.) 3 The imperatives of the infinite absolute, imperative, identific. The [?last] has to take possession of the other two and deliver them from contingent incertitudes. This has been commenced, but has to be completed, before the consciousness can be taken into the srauta vijnana.

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Part Three Record of Yoga 1926 – 1927

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DECEMBER 1926 – 6 JANUARY 1927

When the fullness of the supramental life-energy is in the body, then all difficulties will be reduced to nothingness. It is the life-energy in all the body, not only in the seven centres that is demanded. Once in all the seven centres it cannot fail to pour through all the body. It must take possession of all the cells, the flesh, muscles, bones, blood, nerves, skin, hair; then the body will be ready for transformation. The life-energy to be firmly founded today in the last centres. The rest to follow in the next three days.

These things are author[it]ative suggestions; it depends on the energy and the adhara subject to the divine sanction from above whether they are fulfilled in the time fixed or have to wait for a later period. If founded, all the remnants of the old illnesses and pains and bad habits of the body will disappear altogether and no new ones will be possible.

1246

Record of Yoga

There is nothing complete yet done in the material physical Nature, and yet till that is done, there will be nothing complete in finality anywhere. Many things are established, but even the most advanced need the last touches or even many last touches. There is still the problem of the physical material, the flesh and the organs. These have to become unassailable and invulnerable; that to be settled in its self-maintenance independently of food by one means or another. Today, one at least of these problems ought to be settled in effective physical principle. There can be no sense of security till that is done. Monday next. An ascending scale till then. The ascent today. No more for the present. The ascent began, but it has been interrupted as usual by an attack. No matter; it will overcome, almost immediately overcome. It is a matter of the nerves which can still be touched by pain and suffering. [In the margin beside the above paragraphs, Sri Aurobindo wrote the following note, then cancelled it:] Observe: the flow of the energy has begun, but is still subject to interruption. That interruption should disappear today. Youth and beauty manifest in the face, but are interrupted. That interruption must begin to disappear entirely today.

December 1926 – 6 January 1927

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Make way for the Supreme Force. It will take up your responsibilities. Today. The difficulty finishes today. The rest afterwards. Get rid of the representative. The higher power can do its work. Monday [3 January 1927 ] The supreme Force descends. The difficulty is finished. The representative imperative still obstructs, but it is ready to disappear. Today it disappears. Not altogether, but fundamentally and in principle it disappears. It is needed no more. The supreme Power is taking up all the movements. It will turn them into the Truth. No effort is needed, no aid from the mind or any of the instruments; even the individual consent is no longer needed. Tuesday The fulfilment has undeniably begun. Till the 7th January this present development; the last mental clearance, the first final opening. Wednesday All has been cleared of what was left of the pure representative; only a colouring, an attenuating edge remains in the interpretative imperative. This has to disappear and will disappear, as the true form develops. If something lingers for a time, it will be of no potency and of no importance. The full light in the interpretative, today The full power in the imperative tomorrow.

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Record of Yoga

Thursday. Jan 6. What has been promised has been achieved. There remains the perfection of the supreme supermind taking up the supreme supramental supermind, the development of the Trikalsiddhi Tapas and the manifestation of the Gnosis. This from today to the 12t.h.. The fullness achieved has come on the 6t.h. one day earlier than anticipated, but on the day promised. What was promised for the 7th was the completion of the first curve (or second, (1) 25 – 3d (2) 3d to 7t.h. (3) 7th to 12th). Tomorrow therefore the appearance of the gnosis in the action of the supreme supermind For her peace and surrender.

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7 JANUARY – 1 FEBRUARY 1927

Friday Jan 7t.h. The gnosis has taken hold of the lesser movements of knowledge; not yet of the supreme supermind or the greater movements. It will do that now in spite of all difficulties. The gnosis taking up the supermind means the TrikalsiddhiTapas. After the 12th these difficulties will disappear. It is the doubt that interferes. In spite of the doubt I will accomplish. Now. Saturday. Jan 8t.h I have prepared the ground for the gnosis. The fulfilment begins today in the face of every denial. Sunday Jan 9t.h. The taking up of T3 by gnosis has already begun. It will be initially completed today. All these menaces will utterly disappear in a few days. This is the beginning. The rest will develop automatically throughout the evening and night. Monday. Jan 10t.h. The movement yesterday took place, but was veiled and hampered. Today it is emerging in light. All the thought is being taken up by the derivative gnosis. T3 has begun in all the movements, this was what was meant by initial completion; today it is spreading. The old obstructions however still remain in thought Ty.. [Telepathy] and other movements.

1250

Record of Yoga

Today thought and T3 will continue to develop As the gnosis of thought progresses, gnosis of the heart, the will, the vital movements will begin to develop. Here also the first touch was given this morning. It is evident that the T3 is undergoing the process, but as yet it is rather a working on old obstacles than a positive process and a positive progress. Tuesday Jan 11t.h. The curve that was to have ascended till the 12th seems to have abruptly ended. A confused working in obstructive mental material seems to have taken its place. Yet it will be fulfilled. Today the T3 in the supreme supermind and gnosis. T2 begins on the same level. This is contrary to all appearances, but it will happen. In that case these are preparatory movements. What has happened is the progressive seizing of all the movements by the Ishwara and the increase of the tertiary dasya. Wednesday Jan 12th In spite of all opposition what has been promised is effected, only initially yesterday, it is true, but more completely today. The supreme supermind has taken up the supreme supramental supermind and all the other inferior movements and is itself being penetrated by the gnosis. Substantially done in all other thought action, this process is taking up T3 for its transformation. T2 has begun on this level, but that is not yet perfectly apparent. Today, complete T3 in supreme supermind gnosis, initial T2 in gnosis, increasing T2 in supreme supermind gnosis. These three things.

7 January – 1 February 1927

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T3 is already gaining amplitude, but is interfered with by movements of incertitude, because T2 [in]1 s.s.gn. [supreme supermind gnosis] is quite insufficient. It is however beginning to increase. The application to all things of T2 gnosis or T3 gnosis is a matter of time. It is the foundation of the thing that is the immediate work in hand. At the same time the application too need not be gradual, it may and will be rapid. A vertiginous rapidity is possible. Mark that the dependence on the critical verifying mind decreases. Verification is becoming automatic, criticism also automatic. Both will soon be entirely gnostic. The next curve is from the 12th to the 16t.h., another from the 16th to the 21s.t., another from the 21st to the 24th, yet another from the 24th 25th to the 28th. The last of this month is from the 28th to the 31s.t.. The final dealings with this body begin from today. The first stage of them finishes with the end of the month. And with her body it begins from tomorrow. At present it is the preparation of the forces. Thursday. Jan 13t.h. The T2 in supreme supermind gnosis acted, but not on a large scale. Something of the other two indications came into practice, but not sufficiently to satisfy the demand of the intelligence. The dealings with the body are not yet clearly final. In most matters there is a progress or a stability in the stage acquired, but there is a successful relapse in the eye and possibly in one or two other places. There is undoubtedly a large scale progress in the thoughtsiddhi and all its instruments. The form of the supreme supermind is about to be universal, only the substance of gnosis in it is still insufficient. 1 MS is

1252

Record of Yoga

The preparation for T3 and T2 is evident, but the obstruction is violent and partially successful. Nothing more till that obstruction is vanquished. The development of the gnosis above and in the supreme supermind can alone conquer the obstruction in its last lines. That will be done. Tonight the inception of this movement. Friday Jan 14th Telepathic T2 has already developed. The Tapasic is preparing to develop. All will be done in spite of all the obstruction and all the difficulties. Today the health and Ananda will develop. Tomorrow the evidence will be undeniable. The attack on her body yesterday flatly denies the “Thursday” prediction. In this body there is evidence of control, but not of any final progress. The obstruction to finality is still successful, still obstinate. For this body the evidence is tomorrow; for hers it is veiled and will only appear day after tomorrow. Today the gnosis in T2 (tapas). Also the gnosis above the supermind in T2 tapas. Saturday Jan 15t.h. The development of health and Ananda promised yesterday is not at all clear in result. There is evidence of power to control and minimise attacks on the health, but there is not yet power to prevent them. The small fragments of the old illnesses still recur a little. There is sahaituka Ananda in the body on a small scale and it

7 January – 1 February 1927

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tends to increase in intensity, spontaneity and recurrence, but it has no body or long continuance. The work seems rather to be turned towards increasing a relative Samata and Faith than in bringing the gnosis. In the latter movement there is only evident a strong clouding obstruction behind which no doubt some work is being done. The effects promised yesterday seem to be declaring themselves today. Ananda (sahaituka, touch etc) has suddenly progressed after a long obstruction and developed a remarkable spontaneous continuity and body. [Absolute]2 spontaneity, penetration and diffusion, continuity without the help of memory or attention have still to develop. It is evident also that a kind of gnosis is taking possession of T2; but there is still an immense amount of work to be done. There is too a kind of gnosis descending from above, but it is not yet free nor rich in circumstance nor absolute to the mind in its conveyance of certitude. There is also some gnosis of T3. All these things however although they begin to come more rapidly and freely, are still initial, hampered and poor in affluence. Surrender, dasya, consolidation of the inner movements and initially the outer movements in the hands of the directing Power and Persons (or its Personalities) is becoming or beginning to become absolute. Today, gnosis takes possession of all thought and T3. Gnosis 2 in T develops in the supermind and above it. The invincible Gnosis of the Divine will make its first appearance. The proofs of the Power dealing with the body are rather in the development of Ananda and the control of certain functionings than in any finality of health. The fragments of old illnesses remain 2 MS Absolutely

1254

Record of Yoga

obstinately potential or obstinately actual. The hold diminishes but there is still the recurrence. Sunday Jan 16t.h. The possession of all thought and T3 by the gnosis is increasing, but it is frequently interrupted. The invincible Gnosis seems to appear, but in too thick and mixed a mass of movement and itself too occasional to create a clear recognition or an assured confidence. Doubt is acute as regards the physical siddhi. The divine Gnosis in T2, that which is above the Telepathic and above the Tapasic trikalsiddhi and above the combination of these things, is beginning to manifest but only as a kind of occasional point or star above the mass movement. These will continue to develop. Nothing will be left soon of the physical opposition to health and Ananda. Monday Jan 17t.h. ˆ amya, ˆ Thought telepathy, prak vyapti are trying to manifest, but the obstruction is heavy. The general mental and vital condition can be perceived by sanyama, habitual movements also, but precise movements only with difficulty and some incertitude. Sahaituka ananda also continues to develop. There is a tendency to generalise its gains; but the physical non-response is still heavy. Spontaneous Sahaituka (without aid of memory [or]3 attention[)] occasionally manifests and is nearer to the surface. Gnosis continues to develop in the thought-siddhi and its instruments. Today the T2.

3 MS of

7 January – 1 February 1927

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It had been predicted that something would be done in six days for the healing in her body, that is by the 17t.h., and in fact a great relief and amelioration is evident; but not the decisive cure that had been taken to be the sense of the promise. The physical proof has been given that the thrill of Sahaituka Ananda can be eternised in the body, but the time is not yet. The nature of it is still subtle vital material with a strong beginning of density, not yet the dense entirely material Ananda. Tuesday Jan 18t.h. Yesterday the representative + inspirational imperative movement hitherto normal (the rest coming in concentrated movements) began to be definitely replaced in the universality by the interpretative + inspirational-interpretative imperative. This is a radical progress, but the new movement is not yet entirely gnostic Telepathy of general mind conditions and habitual mind movements and formations continues to develop. There has been an apparent relapse in the Arogya. Primary utthapana has begun a strong forward movement; the secondary is greatly hampered. Ad Development of Gnosis in thought-siddhi and its instruments. Continued growth of T2. Wednesday Jan 19th. Yesterday there was a strong attempt to dismiss [finally]4 the remnants of intellect, ideality, supramentality and after giving full play to the supramental and supreme supramental to pass beyond to the supreme supramental mind in the supreme supermind so as to prepare the strongest forms for the T2 and gnosis. 4 MS finality

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Record of Yoga

Afterwards a crisis of questioning and a renunciation of personal action (in the suggestive mental Devasura) and an entire passivity in which some kind of action professedly gnostic or semignostic is going on in a narrow and rigid form of inspirational imperative and a minor form of interpretative imperative thoughtforce The development of Gnosis in the thought-siddhi and its instruments shall continue, also the growth of T3 and T2. The crisis in her body continues in all its adverse acuteness. The causes seem to be not personal, but due to circumstance favouring blind surrounding physical and vital physical influences. Thursday Jan 20 The adverse crisis continues in great violence. In this body there seems to be a turn for the better, not yet final and decisive. A certain overmastering Ishwara influence already dominantly successful in certain directions, control of functionings etc, is extending its activity to the remaining fragmentary illnesses. Development of supreme supermind, gnosis and T2 continues. But the obstruction and partiality of result also continue. Friday Jan 21 At last the power seems to be acting on the body. As predicted, there are the first signs of amelioration in her body, though nothing yet is complete or in appearance finally decisive. Still the black obstruction has failed to persevere. This morning free gnosis in all the movements of the thoughtsiddhi and its instruments in a rapid and almost instantaneous development. This is the first free and large movement of the involved method. At present Tapas movements and telepathy-Tapas movements

7 January – 1 February 1927

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are being handled. A relative T2 in them with a great mixture of ineffective knowledge and will movements is taking place. T3 and T2 to be made perfect like the gnostic thought in a vertiginously rapid movement. This will take place at first in a limited field of operations, then with a certain universality, then with a basic absoluteness applicable everywhere. The physical siddhi advances, but is still too much obstructed. Ananda (sahaituka) increases in intensity, in prolongation (continuity), in spontaneous occurrence. This must be made perfect without farther retardation. The entire removal of the fragments of old illness will not be immediate, but will yet speedily happen. In the evening solution of difficulties and rapid progress in (1) Lipi, (2) Thought-siddhi, (3) T3 (4) Drishya (5) Samadhi (6) Sahaituka Ananda. Attacks on health, but the progress seems still to continue. Saturday Jan 22d Sarvam Anantam Anandam Brahma seems to be well established in its fundamental universality (except for some duhkhabhoga of result on the vital plane and some movements of physical semi-discomfort) and is growing in intensity. Gnanam Brahma consciousness grows, but needs development of T3 & T2 for full play. Increase in Ananda (Sahaituka, chiefly sparsha, but also the others), T3, T2, Samadhi etc. All grows rapidly, but all is still imperfect.

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Record of Yoga

Sunday Jan 23d.. Rapid increase and spread through the body of mental material & vital material Sahaituka Ananda. The physical material is acute as yet only in the hands except for the immediate Sparsha which is now intense everywhere. Prolongation and diffusion have begun and will soon be well-established. T3 grows rapidly in gnosis. T2 in T3 seems definitely to have begun, but not yet in unmixed gnosis. Attack on the Karma. Strong obstruction to equipment. The difficulties now experienced, difficulties mainly of obstruction, will disappear today and tomorrow. The body has still not shaken off entirely yesterday’s sudden attack of fatigue and pains of fatigue. The energy is unimpaired, the fatigue and pains can be dismissed, but they return as soon as the body rests after long walking. In spite of all appearances tomorrow will mark an immense stride in the Arogya-siddhi. Today the obstacles to Ananda and telepathic T3 disappear, not entirely but in dominant practice. There was some appearance of a beginning of the disappearance of difficulties, but an adverse wave arrived and this movement ended. Only the Arogya is slightly better, but whether this movement is permanent or not cannot yet be decided. Previous experience and present perception are against the idea of permanence. A gradual progress is the sole thing visible. In the night a violent reaction. All thrown in doubt preparing the revival of a chaotic half-intellectual movement full of the mixture of falsehood and incertitude.

7 January – 1 February 1927

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Monday Jan 24th The adverse movement continues. Especially T2 and T3 seem petty in their achievement and full of error and incertitude. It is doubted whether gnosis is at all manifested or anything but a mixed mind and supermind with at most a few true supramental movements. Universal perception of the Sarvam Anantam Anandam Brahma-Purusha. Ananda complete in all vishayas, especially sight, but not the intense completeness. The intensity came afterwards, but subsided. The completeness of the quiet Vishaya Ananda and universal Saundarya is still not always absolute. The difficulties did not altogether disappear. Some began to dwindle. Ananda of the body (sahaituka) made some progress. T3 also made progress. The telepathic, tapasic and veiled gnostic accuracies in the telepathic T2 were increased and exemplified from time to time. The mixture of error and imitative or encasing or accompanying and distorting mind action still continues. For some time there has been a powerful attack on the Karma. The prospect of equipment seems entirely clouded and threatened. Arogya in this body seemed to make some progress. If the progress made turns out to be permanent, it may be called a large stride in the siddhi. Tuesday. Jan 25t.h.. In the morning after a violent struggle continuing from the last few days, the conviction of falsehood began to lessen. Thought in the supramentalities and supramental began to arrange itself in the gnosis as had already been done with thought in the intuitive forms and processes. All these movements no longer exist in their initial and independent forms, but have been taken up into the supreme supramental and supreme supermind. The highest interpretative imperative acts as an intermediary force, lifting the former into the latter.

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Record of Yoga

Organised T3 and T2 in these forms is at last preparing. Hitherto it was all in the lesser powers. A great but chaotic profusion of jagrat bahirdarshi drishya began yesterday. Today organisation and some kind of stability is being introduced into this as yet imperfect freedom. Rapid progress in Ananda. Ahaituka sparshananda is spreading; great continuity with intensity both in this and sahaituka, especially in the hands. The habitual movements of inhibition are losing their iron hold. Today, tomorrow gnostic T2 in initial perfection. Ananda, Vishaya, Samadhi, Arogya.

Wednesday Jan 26th Again a strong attack and confusion in the morning. Attempt of the chaos of the mind movements to reestablish its reign under pretence of transforming finally the supramentality into gnosis. Exceedingly intense Sahaituka Sparshananda tried to generalise itself after a first successful manifestation; the conditions were too unfavourable. Some modification of the universal Darshana simultaneous vision of Parameswara-Parameswari in all. Some attempt at T2. Some progress in Samadhi although in sushupta Swapna the incoherence continues. The Arogya has once more been thrown back. Physical fatigue continues underlying and arising after an hour’s physical exertion or even less. Up till the morning there was progress. Drishya continues to develop but no distinct forward step.

7 January – 1 February 1927

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T2 is developing, but the medium and casing are so obscure and mental a material that even continued success brings no certitude. Thursday Jan 27t.h.. Today a great revival. A vertiginous rapidity of progress in many directions. The attack of obscurity, resistance of the universal inconscience, refusal of the universal inertia, obstruction and conservatism of the material negation are beginning to lessen and even where they persist and intervene, cannot resist the progress. The past effects may still continue for a time, the future is not theirs. The four Powers that resisted now appear more clearly, the Dragon of the nether foundations who preserves the old Law intact till the will of the Supreme is manifested, the Sphinx of the eternal questioning, the Night of the eternal negation, the Rock (stone Purusha, inert Shiva) of the eternal inertia. Still they are there, but a first victory has been assured against them. Thought gnostic in essence, free, automatic, voluminous, not yet perfectly organised or complete, has been finally established and, except at intervals, acts even in the obscurity and inert relaxation of the material consciousness. Surrender is complete; horizontal movements of desire cross but are [ ]5 easily rejected. Samata is complete except for certain external movements that touch the physical sensation. Shakti, Virya, Daivi Prakriti are returning and moving towards perfection. Sraddha is there again, though not yet assured in all that concerns the final effectuality of the Tapas. T3, T2 are developing much more clearly and consciously than before. T is beginning to manifest. Stable organisation and organised stability are rapidly preparing in the Drishya, but are not yet accomplished. 5 MS are

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Record of Yoga

A certain perfection and absoluteness established in seven powers, samata, surrender, virya, shakti, daivi prakriti, thought (not T3 or T2 thought), faith (in the Supreme and his workings, not in the immediate realisation[)]. Friday Jan 28th. A great progress in primary utthapana. The fatigue attack entirely disappears. Two hours exertion without any effect on the body except a pain in the loins at once dismissed. All other effects could be rejected at will. The left leg becomes almost as free as the right. The back and loins have still to be entirely liberated, but a relative freedom is effected. A rapid increase in the control of certain bodily functionings. Otherwise the day seems to be one of preparation rather than achievement. Development of gnostic thought-powers. Saturday. Jan. 29th The opposition of the Four Matter Powers is being wrought into assent; but the process has necessar[il]y slowed down the action which tends often to flicker down into quiescence. All the same T3 and T2 often combined together are becoming more common and more definite. All doubt with regard to them is over, although owing to imitative movements in the Ignorance, much confusion and incertitude continue. Gnostic T is emerging more clearly, but is so much cased in the obscurity of the Inconscience that seeks to be or have knowledge, it is impossible to distinguish it clearly from the counterfeit except by result and occasionally by an automatic and undoubting certitude.

7 January – 1 February 1927

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It is at the same time evident that when it acts it is of the nature of omniscience and omnipotence. Drishya settled in all but the spontaneous full stability which obtains only in the crude forms. Ananda spreads but is not as yet organised and generalised in the responses of the body. The action on health in both bodies is more evident but not yet entirely conclusive. Sunday Jan 30th Again a day of preparation and of apparent check rather than of progress. Such progress as has been made is in Darshana, Drishya, confirmation of T3 and T2. Thought etc are held up for the moment. Vani has long been silent. Today it is trying to emerge. Today, in the evening Thought-siddhi and gnostic T will overcome the obstacle. The final victory in Arogya is evidently preparing. In a few days it will be perfect. After Arogya Ananda. Meanwhile utthapana and saundarya will prepare. All the third chatusthaya will soon be liberated from its still remaining shackles. Thought-siddhi at its best resumed in the evening. Gnostic T manifested, but extension and organisation are not yet possible. Monday Jan 31st A day of relapse and resistance.

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Record of Yoga

Tuesday. Feb 1s.t. The siddhi began to recover. A step forward in Darshana (Aditi holding Pa-Pi [Parameshwara-Parameshwari] in all living things, less vividly in all objects). This is not yet entirely universalised but it is increasing. Primary utthapana oppressed during the last days once more progresses. Stiffness and muscular pains are still possible, though they can be ejected by the knowledge-will movement. They are most prominent when the exertion ceases, but do not endure. The latent memory however persists and brings them back at customary times or junctures. Drishya progresses. There is full stability of crude forms, conditional or initial or aided longer stability of others.. T2 (T2 T3) progresses, but cannot get rid of incertitude. Control of functions, violently interrupted for the last two days, is returning.

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7 – 22 APRIL 1927

April 7. 1927 Thursday There must be an entire submission to the transforming Power and the transforming process. However tedious it may [seem], each step, each recoil is inevitable; nothing is done unwisely or vainly in the economy of the supreme processes. There is a sure means of distinguishing the truth from the falsehood. Pause and refer to the Light of the gnosis. The truth that comes may not be all the truth, but it is that which is needed and effective at the moment. Entire passivity first, a passive surrender. Entire equanimity next, an absolute samata. An entire and harmonised strength of the divine nature An entire faith in the Supreme and his Divine Power, in the process and the result of the process. These are the four conditions of the rapid and decisive change. April 8th Friday The conditions are satisfied to a sufficient degree. The next steps are now possible which will make them perfect. First the decisive T2, the exact T3, the perfect thought in the gnosis or at least in the supramental gnosis ie the three degrees intuition, supermind, gnostic supermind, if not yet in the fourth or supreme degree of divine gnosis. Second, the consciousness gnostic in all the body and all the environmental atmosphere. Third, the gnostic Power in the body for the transformation of the body.

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Record of Yoga

April 9th Saturday. Passivity is now practically complete; surrender in the physical consciousness a little less, but still almost complete. Equanimity is moving towards automatic completeness but is still imperfect. Faith is limited and poor Strength is there, but neither harmonised nor complete

[Three pages with other writing (probably written earlier) intervene here.]

April 9t.h. The first gradation of the Gnosis, ie the intuitivity, is being now securely organised in a universal and automatic action. It is still mixed with mental stuff, imperfect therefore, limited in scope, insecure in decisive T2; but it is there. It has to be perfected. Meanwhile the others will be made ready. Exact T3 and perfect thought in the intuition. This is ready to be perfect. Perfect it. Decisive T2 is ready to be founded in the intuition. Found it. Press on the elimination of illness undeterred by the resistance till it disappears for ever. These three things are now possible. April 10th The equanimity is almost entire. Faith has greatly increased, but is not absolute. Strength is harmonised and in a way completed, but in a form that is still mediocre. The forms of the gnosis are in final preparation. The three things required yesterday are being done, but as yet there is nothing

7 – 22 April 1927

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definite. The truth thought is however becoming easy and automatic. Let the T3 grow swiftly. There is a commencement of the automatic external Ananda. Fix it. April 12t.h. A still more perfect equanimity. Faith more settled, more complete, but still not absolute, awaiting knowledge. Strength confirmed, but vague and formless. Passivity complete T3 has begun to be automatic; but is still imperfect. The three things demanded are still in a very initial stage. April 13th After a brief attack briefly successful, passivity, equanimity, faith, strength are established stronger and completer than before. Thought is almost perfected in the intuition and in the other forms so far as they can be supported on the narrow intuitive basis. T3 is growing swiftly and moving towards a large development, 2 T begins to develop a limited but automatic accuracy. Automatic external Ananda has begun to be fixed. Only memory is necessary. April 14t.h. Only mechanical movements contrary to passivity, equanimity and faith occur; usually they are thin and without substance. Strength is still not continuous except in the old lesser form.

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There is still a lack of the guiding Power; except at times all seems to be done by the mechanism of the forces with only an intervention of the smaller physical godheads and voices. The supramental development and organisation of jagrat and swapna samadhi is trying to begin in earnest. All the thought instruments have been taken up into the movement. Lipi and identity knowledge are most developed. Automatic external ananda in its first fixity is beginning a preliminary organisation. April 15t.h. Much obstruction today. Strength seems in the end to be more firmly founded Internal physical Ananda is beginning to be founded. There are signs that drishya (with open eyes) is about to develop stability in the forms which till now were fugitive. It is increasing in the others. Samadhi organisation proceeds, but is still initial and obscure. Vishaya started last night, but does not as yet progress. Tonight. Completeness of third chatusthaya to be initially founded Fourth chatusthaya (half) to be thoroughly founded. The rest to be prepared in essence. Note This last prediction or order does not seem to have been fulfilled even in part. The condition was clouded, ineffective and obscure. April 16t.h. Progress has been mostly in the external physical Ananda. There was a recovery of gnostic thought and T3 which had been almost suspended yesterday, but this came late in the afternoon.

7 – 22 April 1927

1269

Strength seems to be founded, but the attack on faith and samata has been all day heavy and fierce. April 17th Samadhi. First initial organisation of thought, trikaldrishti, lipi, event and drishya up to the sushupta swapna. Farther purification of thought, T3 and control including Vani. Harmonisation of shakti with surrender and samata. Preparation of a harmony of these things with gnostic knowledge. Vishaya. Persistent and stably visible vision of birds (small dark figures, jivanta, on the horizon[)]. For the first time liberty of this siddhi. April 18t.h. All the movements are being reduced to gnosis, first those that were intellectual. Remarkable movements of tapasic T3. Samadhi and Drishya continue to develop. The rest are maintained but not in progress. Passivity, surrender, faith, strength are constantly growing more perfect and harmonious with each other. The third chatusthaya must be and will be rapidly completed and perfected. The fourth must be finally undertaken before the end of the month. The fifth, sixth and seventh will progress with the progress of the third and fourth chatushtayas. April 19th to 21st. Three days strong obstruction. Perfect founding of sukham and hasyam along with calm and samata.

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Record of Yoga

Firm founding of the virya and shakti along with the daivi prakriti and sraddha. These foundations seem now to be integral siddhis. Both are being tested but resist attack. Only the deha-shakti is seriously overcome at times, but this is due to the defect of utthapana and belongs less to the second than the fourth [chatusthaya].1 April 22d.. First experience of entire gnostic intuition and supramental reason with supramental observation and a supramental recipient in the physical nature. Intuition and supramental reason (all the grades except supreme supermind) are being steadily founded in a first integral movement. Supreme supermind has also commenced its integral foundation. All this in the thought chiefly. T3 however has begun to be taken into the movement.

1 MS utthapana

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24 – 31 OCTOBER 1927

October 24t.h.. 1927 A day of great and rapid progress. The supreme supermind forms have begun to be normalised and taken up by the gnosis. T2 has made some, although still a hampered progress. T3 is now normal. Telepathies are becoming automatic but still need ˆ ıra) rapidly for their manifestation a slight sanyama. Ananda (sharˆ progresses. Samadhi has made some advance. Today the gnosticised supreme supermind even to its highest forms will become normal.(1) There will be the beginning of the promised progress in all the vishayas.(2) Samadhi will break its barriers.(3) Ahaituka Ananda within the body will be definitely founded.(4) (1) Fulfilled to a certain degree.1 But neither the gnosticity nor the normality are at all complete, rather they are in this field only initial. (2) A meagre fulfilment; just the beginning in each if it is maintained, but hitherto the development of the vishayas has always been dropped after a brief movement (3) Fulfilled but not completely. The obstruction is still there. (4) Uncertain; it seems to have begun, but it is not clear that it is definitely founded.

1 The fulfilment of the above predictions was written afterwards in a different ink. The numbers after the items of the programme were added when their fulfilment was recorded. Ed.

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Record of Yoga

October 25th 1927 Today, there is something of a recoil into the hampered semimental movement, although the progress still continues. However, the movements or rather the touches from outside of Asamata etc, the contradictions of the first two chatusthayas, were not only mechanical, but though they pierced could not hold the consciousness in the body or even the environmental conscious atmosphere; few, they were almost immediately or immediately flung outside. Intensity in the sahaituka physical Ananda is rapidly increasing in all the Anandas including the raudra. Rupa is at last moving forward towards prolonged stability of the perfect and initially real and not only the crude, dense or [developed]2 figures. There is an attempt to return to the evolution of primary utthapana, ie abolition of fatigue and its symptoms Prognosis is now no longer in the script and lipi only, but in the thought speech and vani. (Oct 27th) The semi-mental movement increased and the sadhana fell back from the rapidity it had gained to a movement of return on old elements still imperfectly transfigured. This relapse has lasted two days but was not so intense as before and has created no reaction. Moreover, it has been visibly the preparation of most important transitional movements that have come to a head today, the 27t.h. October. Oct 29. 1927 A day of relaxation, dismissal of out-of-date elements and preparation for the descent of gnosis into the overmind system. These four days are for the transition to gnosis. Afterwards the whole system will be perfected and applied before there is the ascent to the supermind plane.

2 MS delivered

24 – 31 October 1927

1273

Oct 30. 1927 Today the transition from T3 to T2 became decisive and with it there came the conception of the Ishwara in the bodily consciousness. The passive attitude of the T3 movement in which the nature is the plaything of the powers of the Overmind has been definitely abandoned and the passive-active attitude of T2 movement in which the Ishwara determines and the Powers may for a time resist and even modify temporarily what he has determined, but must now or in the end help to carry out his will, has begun to take its place. As yet the gnostic movement is imperfect and the Overmind powers are still powerful to determine results according to their choice, provided there is some supramental sanction behind it. All are powers of the Ishwara, but the play of disagreement and mutual opposition or emulation continues. T3 is entirely supramental or gnostic, T2 only has partially reached the same siddhi. Oct 31. 1927 Today T2 (anishwara) has acquired the supramental and gnostic character. Not that all movements have entirely eliminated the mental element, but all are supramental or supramentalised or else even (now to some extent) gnostic overmind. Infallible T2 is beginning more freely to emerge. Iswara consciousness is growing both below and above and Ishwara T2 is beginning. The supermind is increasing in the supramentalised movements and gnosis in the supramental movements. Ananda is taking possession and becomes automatic, needing only memory or a little attention to act at once. All vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch is now anandamaya; even all that is seen, heard, sensed is beginning to be felt as full of ananda and even as if made of Ananda. Sahaituka Ananda of all except event is now automatic. Ahaituka Ananda within the body shows signs of reaching the same state, but has not quite reached it. This is the only physical siddhi that promises to be soon initially complete; for arogya is still hampered by obstinate minute fragments of illness.

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Part Four Materials Written by Sri Aurobindo Related Directly to Record of Yoga c. 1910 – 1931

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1277

UNDATED RECORD AND RECORD-RELATED NOTES c. 1910 – 1914

[1] [ . . . ] in S position VM & flash of sattwa 1. Bidhu present 2 Susthir H 3 Bhadrakali future 4. Table in Baroda past 5 Namadrishti letter from M. [Motilal Roy?] 6. Stars in psychic sky paralokadrishti. 7. An urchin shaking flag ihalokadrishti. [2] Bhasha. 1. The intuition continues to work, not perfectly. 2. The inspiration developed on the connection of Tamil with O.S. [Old Sanskrit] pointing out lost significations, old roots, otherwise undiscoverable derivations. 3. The supreme inspiration yet inoperative. Thought. Quiet and no longer subject to obstruction, but not yet perfectly satisfying, liable to be displaced; working often with the perception only, defective in driving force, therefore imperfectly convincing. Sight. In Samadhi, the lingas of the bodies, all except jyotik and varnaghana. The jagrat mainly inoperative, except the momentary manifestation of a pranamaya purusha, angushthamatra, from the sukshma; fulfilling the prophecy for the day.

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Record of Yoga

Prophecy As above. The mind deals with the past by means of perception, not revelation. Necessarily no proof. Doubt Only in anna and with regard to particulars in their details. The Body Visrishti unusually copious in both kinds. Weakness in annam and rapid fatigue Asus Working absolutely in the body, with more force than formerly in the buddhi and prana. Sattwic krodh in the chitta manifests free from the rajasic taint of an unsatisfied prana. Prema. Bhogasamarthyam increasing, but insufficient. Aishwaryam etc. The Will began to act directly from the sahasradal with swift and invariable, though not instantaneous effect. The imperative vyaptis still resisted A general deficiency of force experienced. The old humanity very strong in the annam and through the annam obstructive but not dominant in the whole system

[3] [Sanskrit Formulas Second Chatushtaya]

vFy aBy\, sAhs\, yfoEl=sA(mHAGA "E/y-y, dAn\ &yyfFltA kOfl\ BogEl=sA v {)y-y, (AnkAfo (AnEl=sA b}2vc-y\ -T {y b}A2Z-y,  m kAmo dA-yEl=sA(msmpZ\ fd--y, sv qA\ t jo bl\ vE"mhvEmEt vFy. dh-y mhvboDo blHAGA lG;(v\ DArZsAmLy, AZ-y pZtA fE*,  s tA smtA BogsAmLy, Ec"-y E>`DtA t j,HAGA kSyAZ9A, msAmLy, b;9  Evf;9tA [kAfo] EvEc/boD, sv(AnkAysAmLy, sv qA\ t; E"tA -T {ymdFntA c rBAv iEt fE*,. c7XFBAv, fOym;g}tA y;9El=sA hBAvA(mk, mD;rBAvA(mk,

mD;rBAv, aDm, m@ym, u"m,

-/Fp;zqBAvA(mk, -v {rBAvA(mk, dAsBAvA(mk,

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Record of Yoga [6] [Sanskrit Formulas Third Chatushtaya]

E/kAldE', AkAMy\ &yAE?, sA"Ad^(An\  rZA shjdE'Evv k, fk;En dE'>yoEtqdE', sAm;Ed-kdE', s#mdE'Ev(AndE'Ed&ydE'E#/dE', -TA p(yd'F !pdE'ErEt E/kAldfn-y EvEvDA upAyA,. t  t; E,EvDEvqyA yTA prkAlEvqyA ihkAlEvqyA#. tE-m Ep E,EvDEvqy  fNddE', -pfdE'd hd'F rsdE'gDdE'ErEt BAgA,  dhE8yAEvqyA, EctAdE'# BAvdE', boDdE'#At,krZs\EH'A,. ayA aEp s(ykAEftA,. sv(An\ svEvqy  aEthto (AnkAf iEt sv(An\ tE-m\# sA"Ad^ (An\  rZA shjdE'Evv k# m;KA, boD, -mEt, EvcAro Evtk, sA"Ad^(An  boD, svEvD, aEtht,,  rZAyA\ vAk^ c -mEt# shjd]A\ Evtko_Ethto_B}At# Evv k  t; EvH q, (A c Et EvcAr, Es^'k\ (Atm v. sv/gEt,. &yA_yA\ vA EctAyA\ BAv  boD  svBtAnA\ sv/gEt, fArFErkF t; s?d  hq; -v`  s;q;_yA\ vA jAg}(yA\ vA. a my-(vAkAfg(yA En,s(y sv/ gQCEt jAg}(yA\, AZmy-t; y)CAyAmy, kSpnAmy, E/q; t,t^ t jomy, s#m# yO E,EvDO mnomyO Ev(Anmy# b;E9my# yO E,EvDO mhEt EtE'tO. [7] Wisdom. Greatness. Calm Strength. Speed. Wrath 12 types Love. Joy. Prodigality @ Intellect. Desire. Service. 7 anandas Kama Prema Ahaituka Chid. Suddha Nirguna Siddha. = 84 worlds. with 7 below, nine above = 100 7 below. Gandharva (beauty). Yaksha (pleasure). Kinnara (fantasy). Aghora (samata). Swadhina (freedom). Deva (love). Asura (might & glory) from lowest to highest 9 above. Vaikuntha, Goloka, Brahmaloka, Meruloka, Visvadevaloka (Karmadevatas), Ganaloka, Jnanaloka from top to bottom

Undated Record and Notes, c. 1910 – 1914

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[ . . . ] = Suryaloka. Swar Chandraloka & Swarga. Jana, Tapah & Satya above Swar Chandraloka Pitriloka; Kailas above, between 7 tiers of 14 worlds, according to types Pashu, Pisacha, Pramatha, Rakshasa, Asura, Deva, Siddha Swarga 7 Kama, Yuddha, Prema, Manas, Jnana, Nishkama & Bhagavata Naraka offences of or against Kama, Prema, Satya, Ishwara, 12 hells in each. [?Devata], Jnana, Atma [8] Idomeneus. Coriolanus. Antony. Richelieu. C. [Caius] Gracchus St Louis. Charles V. Deiphobus. Brasidas.. T. [Tiberius] Gracchus. Clarence. Louis XII Lafayette. Pompey. T. [Titus] Manlius. Marcellus. Agis. Philip IV. Pausanias. Lysander. B. [Benedict] Arnold [9] kwmoi Pericles, Agathon, Alcibiadas, Brasidas. . . . Agesilaus, Agis, Sophocles, Pharnabazus . . Lysander, Euripides, Pausanias

[10] 19t.h. 21s.t. 24t.h. 27

jagrat developed except divya. thought proved & free from error. sarvatragati perfect siddhis perfect. All proved.

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Record of Yoga [11] Vak

correct fine poor

illuminative effective tolerable

inevitable inspiring good

sattwic rajasic tamasic

[12] Anantaguna I Prema 1. kama, prema, bhakti, kalyanam, daya, karuna, rati 2. arasah, raudryam, avahela, vairyam, naishthuryam, krauryam, udasinata II. Jnana 1. jnanam, aikyam, yatharthabodha, hasyam, rasajnanam, lokadarshanam, astikyam 2. jnanoparati, anaikyam, ayatharthabodha, ahasyam, arasah, lokoparati, nastikyam III Shakti 1. slagha, viryam, shakti, sthairyam, amritam, saundaryam, vyapti 2. dainyam, slathyam, uparati, chapalyam, mritam, vaiparityam, bheda [13] Memory I. 1. Of things noticed 2. Of things unnoticed II. 1. Of events 2. Of objects and men 3. Of words and ideas

Undated Record and Notes, c. 1910 – 1914

1283

Events 1. The occurrence a. in mass b. in detail c. the sequence or arrangement of details 2. The time date, hour, minute 3. The place spot, surroundings, relation of different spots to the event 4. The nimitta, or surrounding circumstances Objects 1. Akar, including all the five vishayas & every detail with regard to them 2. Nama 3. The thing in itself a single b combined Words and Ideas 1. sound 2. symbol 3 meaning 4. bhava 5 relation Memory also of contrast, comparison, analogy ie memory of the things in relation to other things Means of memory 1. Reception 2. Attention 3 Repetition 4. Association 5. Will [14] Psychological Notes A butterfly comes flying over the garden, past a pepegach and two flowertrees which grow side by side. Ordinarily it will be attracted to one of these three objects of desire. It flies past without noticing them, reaches the wall in a straight flight, then contrary to all expectation turns suddenly back, turns aside while flying over the right-hand flowertree to dally for two seconds with another butterfly, then flies off through the pepegach. What dictated its return and departure? First; it did not notice the flowertree because its mind was fixed on some more distant object present to its instinctive memory, but

1284

Record of Yoga

by a law of the mind it received subconsciously the impression of the scent from the flowers. By the time it reached the wall this came up to the supraliminal mind as a vague but powerful sense of something missed and attractive on the way. Working through the vital instincts & cravings by vital impulse which dominantly determines the movements of the insect, this sense immediately enforced a backward flight. If the other butterfly had not intervened, it is possible that at the second contact with the scent of the flowers, the vague sense would have identified itself, consciously or subconsciously, with a definite supraliminal expression & the descent on the flowers would have been determined, but the diversion once made, the vagueness not only remained, but the impression was half obliterated and only the idea of return to something in the distance remained. This, however, was strong enough to divert the insect from its fellow, especially as the latter was concerned with the flowers and did not respond to the advances made. Hence the farther pursuit of the flight backward.

1285

SORTILEGES OF MAY AND JUNE 1912

Sortileges 20t.h. May. 1912. While thinking of present British policy in India. n smAnjAtFy n {vopkArdfnAt^. Brih. Up. 552. D[itt]o of present state of siddhi with regard to mental & ideal thought & action, error & truth & the replacement of manas by vijnanam or satyam. n (y vop"FZ, -mAt, (yy idEmEt cAy ev 1. aT t

vAtmAEnk, (yy, "Fyt  tt, sAd)y(yyAn;ppE"-t n d\ sdfEmEt. an kdEfn ek-yABAvAt^ (sdf to be taken for sortilege as with drishti). Brih. Up. 574.

Note. The chief difficulties now experienced are the habit of judging by past experience and association (-mAt,) and that of judging by present indications (vAtmAEnk,) and the insufficient power of judging by inner vision directly straight on the vishaya. This again is due to the insufficient realisation of the jnanam Brahma, anekadarshi ekam. tdst^. Brih. 2. ydAEd(yAEdEvl"Z\ >yoEtrAtr\ Es9Em(y Up. 552. All inner light effected, not of the vijnana, is asat & must be got rid of even if it seem to be intuition. While thinking of the enormous difficulties of the sadhana; happened to open the drawer & saw on a stray piece of paper (R’s [Ramaswamy’s] Latin translation) “a su surmonter toutes les difficult´es et s’assurer une vie durable.” Thesis R.F. I p. 147 5t.h. June 1912 1. De nombreux accidents eurent lieu. “Titanic”)

(Subsequent to

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Record of Yoga

2. Toute usurpation a un cruel retour et celui qui usurpe devrait y songer, du moins pour ses enfants qui presque toujours portent la peine. 3. (p. 290) On a d´eja` vu que les membres de cette noblesse e´ chapp´ee de France e´ taient divis´es en deux partis; les uns[,] vieux serviteurs, nourris de faveurs, et composant ce qu’on appelait la cour, ne voulaient pas, en s’appuyant sur la noblesse de province, entrer en partage d’influence avec elle et, pour cela, ils n’entendaient recourir qu’a` l’´etranger; les autres comptant davantage sur leur e´ p´ee, voulaient soulever les provinces du Midi en y r´eveillant le fanatisme.

1287

UNDATED NOTES, c. NOVEMBER 1912

Laws of the Future Yoga Suddhata 1. Anarambha No effort must be made, no struggle to overcome difficulties, but the act must be allowed to work & pass unquestioned, unhindered, unaided. (kmEZ akm) 2. Nirapeksha Nothing must be looked on as a belonging (apErg }h,) or as a thing to be gained or lost, but all as things sent and taken away for ananda. There must be no attempt to get anything or keep anything; nor must any object be held in view. The vijnana must understand why a particular thing is done or is being prepared, what it is, when & how it will develop, but not in any way allow its knowledge to influence the heart or the action. 3. Saucha. There must be no desire, no repining, no rejecting (yd QCAlABstoq,), no idea of dwandwa (pApp;7ymAnApmAnEyAEy Evvjnm^) 4. Sattwasthiti. There must be a clear instinctive intelligence of the truth about everything due to vishuddhi & prakash freedom from mental or moral tamas but no attempt to understand or throw off tamas by mental activity. Fundamental Knowledge Sraddha. 1. Nothing can happen but mangalam. 2 The yoga as laid down cannot fail to be fulfilled. 3 Every detail of the Yoga is arranged by Srikrishna. 4 All subjective experiences are true, only they must be rightly understood.

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5. All objective experiences are necessary for the lila. Jnanam Rules for Knowledge. 1. Everything thought is satyam anritam is only misplacement in time[,] place & circumstance. We have to find the nature of the confusion & its source. The habit of being detected discourages anritam until it ceases to act 2. All knowledge is possible; no power is impossible. It is a matter of abhyasa and prakash once there is shuddhi & sraddha. 3. Sraddha is omnipotent for jnanam, karma & ananda.

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DRAFT PROGRAMME OF 3 DECEMBER 1912

Programme.1 1. Rupadrishti farther developed today (3d) & confirmed in stability tomorrow 2. Spontaneity of Lipi tomorrow. A little tonight. 3 Trikaldrishti will begin to work perfectly from tomorrow 4. Powers to overcome resistance in the next three days 5. Samadhi to be regularised during December. 6. Intense ananda to come first before permanence. Intensity from 3d to 10t.h., permanence from 10th to 31s.t. 7 Health in the last half of the month. 8 First successes of saundaryam 3d to 10th 9. Utthapana in the latter half of the month 10. Equipment begins in this week & is fulfilled in the next two weeks succeeding.

1 This Programme was recopied, with some changes, in the Record of 3 December 1912. See page 125. Ed.

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UNDATED OR PARTLY DATED SCRIPT, 1912 – 1913

[1] Whatever may be the limitations of the ordinary script, there is another in which an old tendency must be fulfilled, the prophetic script, not Srikrishna’s, but commissioned by him. This is the only form of script which has any practical connection with the yoga, not with its fulfilment, but with the action. Wherever the action has to be coordinated, this script will arrange the coordination. There are four divisions of the Karma, literary, religious, practical, social. The first of these is ready for coordination. —— The literary Karma falls under three heads poetry, prose and scholarship. The poetry again, under three, epic, dramatic and the minor forms which again include narrative, lyric and reflective. Besides these there is humorous & satirical poetry and translation. All forms have to be attempted & all from the beginning The prose comprises philosophical writings, fiction and essay in its many forms (treatise, article, essay, pamphlet, notes, review etc.). The fiction includes romance, ordinary novel and short stories. The philosophy includes Veda, Vedanta & explanation of other forms of Hindu thought & scripture. Scholarship covers the new system of philology, explanation of Veda with scholastic justification, more translation & comment on Sanscrit writings. To begin with you have to complete The Commentary on the Kena Upanishad, The Introduction to the Study of the Upanishads and a book on Yoga (Philosophy); the two dramas and a third; the revision of your other poems; the completion of the Stone of Ishtar and a number of occasional verses (Poetry); the Idylls of the Occult, The Return of Moro Giafferi and The Siege of Mathura (Prose fiction); your study of the Vedas (first mandala) along with an explanation of the Vedic Gods (the Secret of the Veda).

Undated or Partly Dated Script, 1912 – 1913

1291

[2] There is no Script in this actually, it is only the record of thought vyakta or avyakta. Meanwhile the direct government has to begin; the slave to SriKrishna direct. Therefore the gods have stood back, but they are all present in the system. Tomorrow the direct government will be continuous. Tonight there will be the Ananda of the actual embrace of the daughters of delight. At present the conquest of the Akasha is the one necessity. Definitely, Ananda will take possession of the bodily system. The Arogyam will begin to take a definite trend towards finality. Utthapana will begin to recover force. No farther prophecies will be given about the third chatusthaya in the Script. [3] The physical resistance is successful because it is exhausting itself. The difficulty in the trikaldrishti is the principal obstacle to the perfection of the sruti, replacement of trikaldrishti by tejas & tapas. It is intended to give a greater rapidity to the siddhi, but the forces of resistance are hitherto successful. However, they will not be successful for much longer. In reality, sight is the proper method, aided by thought, & it is so being arranged, the old mental drishti will revive preparatory to the actual rupadrishti. The health is about to take a final decisive step forward, covering the only ground yet unoccupied. Ananda (physical, akarana) will now grow intense & possess the body. The daurbalyam will once more be expelled, entirely. Only the saundaryam will be still left effectively opposed though no longer contradicted. The opposition to the drishti in samadhi & jagrad goes trikaldrishti & siddhis establish themselves There is only difficulty of belief in the lila down here. That is about to be removed No writing this afternoon till teatime. Many are yet to be revealed.

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Record of Yoga

Life has begun feebly, in literature & thought. It will soon take a more powerful movement of knowledge & commence in action; necessarily, also in enjoyment. Today & not later the Ananda will begin. More force is needed. The normal writing must improve. Force cannot come, because the enemy makes use of it, not Indra, not Vritra, not even Pani, but the Rakshasa, Rakshaswi. Therefore only the calm stable or even regular force comes. But Rudrani needs a powerful and rushing force for her work, not merely a swift, even and unfailing force. It is this force which is in preparation. The physical weakness or brain arrest has nothing to do with it. The brain arrest comes because of the Rakshasic force and would be dispensed with if the stream of Rudrani’s activity were once liberated from this impediment and aggression. [4] Words, words, words, but no real brotherhood. They pass. Fake silver, mortofil, with bits of the real stuff & some psychic faculties such as all men can develop. Yes. For some time. We shall see. They are trying to keep down the system on the lower levels, but they cannot permanently succeed. Fresh siddhi today. Siddhi of trikaldrishti, aishwarya, ishita, vyapti, samadhi. There is excellent swapnasamadhi, but stability is insufficient. Yes, it is so intended to effect something by the script and immediately. Attend to the physical siddhi. The Arogya persists in spite of contradictions which are diminishing in force. Ananda has to be insisted on psychically till the body acquires it; it is not only willing, but eager to admit it, but the Vritras stand in the way. Saundarya will emerge in a few days. The personal relation has to be established. It has to be established by Vani, script, thought & action. The telepathy therefore can now be as much trusted as the nearer trikaldrishti. It is the evil of the speculative reason, but it was not accepted. The trikaldrishti has to get beyond this dependent state & it will do so definitely today. That also is being solved, the attachment of the shama

Undated or Partly Dated Script, 1912 – 1913

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There are three kinds, polithc, [ . . . ], douloc & in each kind there are three subdivisions. All these powers have to be resumed & perfected. But not with too much of a rush at first. The torrent will come afterwards. Meanwhile the day has to be filled in with a perfect activity of all kinds & the physical (general) utthapana confirmed. Yesterday’s success in the mukti from shitoshna has to be farther tested, but it depends on the removal of the mosquitoes. For the rest, the primary & secondary utthapanas have to revive simultaneously & the continuity of the kamananda has to be confirmed. This has to be done today. Agesilaus = Sn [Saurin]. Agathon, Alcibiades, Pericles, Brasidas Agis, Agesilaus, Sophocles, Pharnabazus. Lysander, Euripides, Pausanias. Two absolutely perfect, the rest mostly defective. That is already done. Now for the physical siddhi. Ananda first of all, Ananda first & foremost. If there were not strong resistance of a kind, there would be no need of the special pressure of the ishita. The others will come with Ananda & in its train. Many press in, none are allowed. The time for them has not yet arrived. Only when the viveka is sufficient to its task, can that movement be undertaken.

aAr snAn^ pEh nAy drA, k;z Ev'Epmr\. meqri toutou tou touc ok dunanto ote touc polemiouc munein ote touc filouc swzein. dei gar dunamic, dei ploutoc, dei plhjuc twn politwn. mikroc fauloc dunatoc qloc, gajoi lla dustuqeic o kratistoi. dokei ge tauta pasi toic jn,. aAyEt rAT, Something definite & forceful must again be attempted by the combined forces of knowledge. Trikaldrishti, aishwarya-ishitavyapti must receive a powerful impulse, carrying the first near to perfection, the second to invariable effectuality. And the kamananda must be intensified & restored to evident continuity. The continuity is being slowly established, the intensity made to recur. It is the method. The personality must manifest. You need not be afraid of my

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upsetting things always. Accept vani, script, lipi as mine unless the vivek tells you to the contrary. You are right, but it is the personality subject to increase of Balarama. Never mind the attendant manomaya illusions. Do not mind either that pressure. At the proper time your course will be justified by the event. When that time will come, is not yet clear, but it is not today or now. There is yet a delay before the bhagya can manifest. It is the crown & seal of the siddhi subject of course to farther development of both simultaneously. More of the trikaldrishti, aishwarya & ananda, also of the lipi. The exact trikaldrishti as yet fails to establish itself. That is what I insist on; the result you will see. You see. Tomorrow a great progress will be made as the result of today’s struggle. Even today, considerable progress is being made. The intensity is manifest, it is recurrent; the continuity is attempting to assert itself & will eventually & before long succeed. There remains the lipi. I add the rupa & samadhi. No more here for today. 21s.t. [January 1913] Keep the mind clear of judgement. Make no attempt to increase the vijnana siddhi, whatever happens only the physical siddhi needs still a little tapasya. The karma of course it is the field for tapas. You see that you still succeed subjectively not yet objectively except in some instances. You have only to go on applying the will with force, but not as a struggle. It will grow stronger & stronger. It is not tamasic. Today, then, the steady progress of vijnana & kamananda & the struggle in the health and the utthapana & saundarya. Leave that alone for the present; it is part of the karma. Still tejas has to increase & tapas & the force of the sraddha. It is the lack of the equipment that troubles & depresses the karma. Evidently the equipment is not yet due even that promise is not really fulfilled; only the absolute anxiety for the morrow is postponed. The cause of prospective anxiety must now be got rid of first. In that there need be no undue delay. For some time this movement must be followed. It is the restoration of kalyana-

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sraddha. Although they have concentrated strength successfully there, it is only because you sought to push on the trikaldrishti, instead of allowing it to proceed of itself. 22d. The last day of this attack. The body will now be liberated. Once more the relics of the judgment & consideration have to be expelled by the dasyam. In the morning the vijnana will begin its united & rapid sweep after some farther activity of the trikaldrishti & the kamananda again generalise itself. Intellectual infallibility, now acting in an irresistible stream, will increase enormously. First the vijnanamay progress & infallibility then the kamananda, then the physical tapas & siddhi. The tapas must now be directed purely to the physical siddhi & the karmasiddhi & first to the kamananda. Necessarily they will resist. Action must enter into it, but only temporarily as an end to inefficiency of the siddhi. The morning is not over yet. The other movement of the automatic script. Valmiki

s\jn tAy; Edl\ mmnA-k;Em tAy; prAEm jSvnm^ aB}m^ ad  kryA c EpAmEn  hX,. pAr dl\ sd pAEk py\ ttrAEyEm jAn. Ritadharma

a\g pd h yoEn\ rT-y pT\ df . rTo h tm, rTo atm, rT\ my . rT n jgt^ rT n prm\ rTF'm;. rTmw i\ rTmyo b}2Z-pEt, [... ...] ´ ´ kalaya kalan ´ Kalan kale Satran satre Redmi ranaya rana´ ´ Nuna ´ nala´ Para para patri payo Salavu´ salaka sala´ Gloria

s ymAgtAE-m mm Eh etdArMBZ\ yvyA kt\ p;rAZtm  klO yd v v*;m;pc8m  n m  B}mo BEvt;\ f=, n m  &yEt8m, tdAlpn\ t qA\ d;kEtnAm^ a-(y v m  Evf qBAvo Evf qg;ZsMpdEp m . etE-m v klO b}vFEm. Tm  lv-y y3Ert\ y n n'\ pArFE"t\ km. so Eh

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y;EDE5rk;loxv, "E/yo n rAjA. m/F c s bBv rA(o stDn-y n rAjA kdAEp. The script is established. Its accuracy has to be entirely proved, not only in what it says, but in what it suggests. The opposition need not trouble you. Attend to the physical siddhi, especially the virya & to the saundarya In the Greek there is a hesitation. The Script is not yet strong enough to overcome the sanskara. There is no utility just now in overburdening the record. On the other hand much has to be written here. Some of the perceptions of the future have been confirmed, but there must be a freer movement. It is not my object to repeat here what the thought perception has given you. Meanwhile I give you some results. By Saturday physical siddhi in full train, but saundarya especially not yet confirmed. By the 30th all confirmed, but the saundarya still weak. In February three first perfected; only perfect saundarya & tertiary utthapana will remain to be completed. Equipment not yet due, but provision due & arriving Bhishma . . Bengal Provincial Conference, The Presidential Address. Jessore Tragedy. Equipment & karmasiddhi in February. These predictions are to be observed in their fulfilment or nonfulfilment. It will be seen how far the script is correct. Now for nearer predictions. First, the general utthapana is restored tonight & confirmed tomorrow. Study will be resumed, but not more than slightly. It will include Tamil & Hebrew. The line of progress of the three utthapanas will then be indicated. The struggle over the saundaryam will be brought to a head tomorrow, decided Friday, confirmed Saturday. 23d See whether it emerges or not. Health is a thing not so much to be defended as developed. First here as usual. It is a question now of the life, the karmasiddhi. As for utthapana, it will fulfil itself from today in spite of the survivals. Beauty will emerge slowly after tomorrow. The life-struggle centres in three points 1st equipment 2d manifestation of Yogic power as in therapeusis 3d the control of

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events in public matters. The rest is well assured & will come easily when the difficulties have been overcome. 2 & 3 are somewhat developed, but the struggle in them continues. 1 is not at all developed. It is really the sole thing that remains (except the saundarya). The doubt is stronger about saundarya and equipment than on any other point, & every suggestion of speedy improvement in these two matters is distrusted & repelled. It is towards this defect that the Shakti is now turning, as towards all other defects, but these must be overcome before the full flood of siddhi is possible. They must both begin to be overcome within this month of January & fully overcome in February. Vijnana has been checked. Only to show trikaldrishti at work and to insist on the continuous action of the saundaryasiddhi. It is necessary to manifest the power of reading thoughts. It is already manifesting, but must be habitual in its action & complete. This imagination must be expelled. There is no farther need of it. The idea of impossibility must be expelled. No, the siddhi is of chief importance. Yes, but the tendency is towards firmness & clearness. There is, undoubtedly, a defect in the present action of the vijnana & therefore of the script the defect of clouded prakasha. The devatas of intellectual tejas are yet too active in their shadows. The dasya is somewhat abridged owing to the revival of judgment & dissatisfaction which is for the rest, justified by event. It is suggested either today or tomorrow. The successful opposition to the vijnana siddhi & the physical siddhi is chiefly responsible. The rest would not have touched but for that. More deliberateness is needed without losing the rapidity. It must be so. Oppose the current no longer; even under the cloud, be sure of the sun behind. There is still an elusive activity seeking to arrange the thoughts. The arrangement must emerge of itself. There is a spirit of judgment waiting on script & thought which hampers the flow of the vijnana. This spirit of judgment has to be expelled. It waits also on the action & hampers it. Treasure outpouring from the treasure reserve for the lila; actual treasury will also be found; but the first is immediate, the second in the yet distant future. . Follow the impulse given as you

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accept the thought presented. War is preparing & the Turkish chances seem small; nevertheless the gage has to be thrown down to the subjective enemies either Adrianople & the coast islands or war. There must be the will for the provision. The power has not been maintained, only manifested. It is now returning, but it is not sure of its uninterrupted hold as yet. It will soon be sure & extend itself to all things, persons & movements. It is already doing it. It is extending to the actions of persons. Leave it to develop in the full flood of the jnana-trikaldrishti-aishwarya. But the other powers, rupa lipi samadhi have to be brought into the full stream. 24th Already, there is a great improvement in the assimilation, in spite of occasional false steps. The diminution of jalavisrishti is a point of capital importance. The opposition to utthapana still persists. It has patiently to be extruded. The eruption is troublesome, but less vital than seems to be the case. It is dying out actually, even though artificially maintained. The Ananda is established, it is the continuity that is being resisted. As for the saundarya, it is still unestablished.

pAy mn, shs  vEc s\jn rAm arFhn^. nA ptt  kEr IlSyA aEn v-mEn mSy  s\ jEBtA sFtA -vEs,. ev\ vFyEt v-m Ananda intense today & more continuous. Rupa & lipi free & perfect. Arogya & utthapana to increase. Not yet. First Ananda. Today is the day of final preparation for the karmasiddhi.

a\Edf vFltn, mEh aB}j  aAEvld^ Uy, sAl;Ek, vFr an\ mrtA\ yd^ ayAy prFyn^ rAvZ, UdpyA, vlm^ aAsK, aAyrBAy . sy\ mthn\ Ev pyAEm.

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[5] Record No interference here, entire passivity. 1st rule. No interference anywhere, entire passivity 2d rule. Disregard of the probable consequences 3d rule. Persistence in will according to knowledge 4th rule. Application of jnana & trikaldrishti to all things, small or great, near or remote, knowable or apparently unknowable. 5th rule. Interpretation of error; utilisation of failure. 6th rule. Constant exercise of utthapana. 7th rule. Will in all things, and action a subordinate instrument In one week, the difference will be seen Today, the first movement 1. Knowledge to be finally set right, in all its instruments. 2. Power to apply itself to remove its own defects 3. Lipi, Chitra, Rupa 4. Ananda, Arogya [6] No danger of relapse. This occasion was wholly abnormal This is the script, it is about to assume the burden of trikaldrishti definitely. Let us see what they can do. “Dasya, tejas, faith, trikaldrishti, aishwarya, samadhi, all rising out of something into the great & splendid.” The first dart failed, the second will now be made. [“]Exaltation approved, defiance sanctioned. Tonight & tomorrow, the move forward.” No danger of relapse. Lipi is already moving forward to the mahat. . The rest will follow As well die this time, not hereafter. The trikaldrishti is in a state of confusion the mind cannot manage its materials. This confusion

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will be removed not at once but in the course of the day. The Aishwarya also is only clumsily effective & sometimes no[t] at all. But the movement has changed to brihat, not yet to ritam & satyam. Samadhi only remains. These things have now to be gathered up & confirmed in the satyam. Afterwards the ritam. You see, the script has the trikaldrishti. No self-restraint. It stands in the way vamamarga. Restraint by God only. Yes. Today, tomorrow & the day after. (1) Satyam, ritam, brihat in the knowledge, power & samadhi (2) Sharirananda confirmed & greatened (3) Arogya made triumphant (4) Removal of exaggerated adhogati, utthapana, firm beginnings of saundarya. The movement is now for the dasyam on the widest scale. In the trikaldrishti the doubt of the exactness is still active, based on past experience. This is to be removed by the growth & dominance of the ritam. Vijnana led by mahat [7] The assault is being given to the bhukti, tejas and faith. The samata has not been disturbed, only the hasyam has felt a cloud pass over it. The tejas & faith have been darkened for a moment; they subsist but have lost their ananda. Only the vijnana has been clouded and the positive bhukti suspended. That is over. We will now continue developing automatically the vijnana & the bhukti. You have to wait & see. There is as yet no advance, only a taking up of positions. Nothing has been done which is not old & familiar & the balance of success is still on the side of the attack. That will change in & from the next half hour. It is already changing. Enough. Two chatusthayas have been almost perfected & at any rate secured against real disturbance and above all against any continuous breach. The ishwarabhava, attahasya & faith in the rapidity & in the lila remain in the second chatusthaya. But these cannot be brought without actuality in the third & fourth. There are touches,

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not breaches. . The actuality in the third is being extended. But the Vritra has not yet been abolished. In the first two it is not the Vritra, but the vrika except in the attahasya, brihat faith & ishwarabhava. Today is for the third chatusthaya & especially for knowledge & power, knowledge most, power secondarily. Lipi accompanies them. Samadhi & rupa follow. The development today will be decisive. Only in the fourth & fifth, there is still delay. I do not mean it will be at once perfect. Obviously this is not the direct script. These are not gods, but spirits who seek to guide, inform, direct. Only it is not true that the script is governed by them & never expressed a higher power & knowledge. It is not now being used by a spirit, but merely besieged by a spirit. It is I who am using it & me you know. Not Indra or another but the Master of the Yoga. It is not the divine script because it is acting through mind, not direct from Vijnana. It will always act from Vijnana. I am about to establish with fixity the personal relation. The rest is there. All these minor bhavas have to be expelled. The end of the opposition is near in the third. It is really over in the trikaldrishti. It must be finished with in the lipi, rupa & samadhi. The one thing really that remains is rupa samadhi. There is a confusion, the incompetent devatas have to be expelled. It is true more was expected or demanded by one side of the mind than has been fulfilled, more accomplished than was expected by the inert, sceptical side. Perfection is not for today. The second chatusthaya is different. The faith, aishwarya, attahasya have been interrupted All the vijnana is definitely in action, though in unequal & imperfect action. The unequal & imperfect parts must now be filled in & out. Afterwards we can attend to the fourth chatusthaya more particularly. We have to move forward. Recognise the nature of existence. This is the knowledge; therefore dhairya is necessary. No dependence on the script. If it depends on the script, it will not be self-assured. The script is only for confirmation. It is perfectly true that the first chatusthay has been broken into after

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a promise that it should never again be broken. . Substantially it is intact. The violence done to the system is the proof that it cannot be destroyed. The continuance of the tejas will be the proof that the second chatusthay stands, even in the faith there is only a temporary disturbance. The harm done will be repaired. The promises have all been exaggerations of Will, therefore lies. The Vani has exaggerated, every source of knowledge has exaggerated. The inertia exaggerates on the opposite side. So much has been done. All that was a play of the game intended to bring about a fresh grouping. Henceforth all the movements of knowledge & power will work themselves out not interfered with by the will in the intellect & the intellectual judgment, although these in their passing rupam can still distort the truth. [8] Shrink not nor falter, O hero, though thy toil seems ever to return on thee in vain menacing to crush thee in its rebound. Thy labour of Sisyphus is the laboratory of the future & the fulfilment of eternity is in thy present insignificant toil, as the tree that was & is to be in the seed that seems so little to the eye & vain. [9] The recurring confusion created by the pranic intellect intruding its activity is forced on the system, but it is noticeable that only the shadow of asamata & ashakti comes with it as a part of the ajnana & disappear[s] automatically with the return of the jnana. The apparent difficulty will disappear like all the rest. The pressure on the tejas is intended to force the emergence of the rapidly fulfilling divine tapas. Trust first, if there is anything wrong, seek the explanation or better await it. Rapidity is necessary first in the third chatusthaya & in the fourth; there will be sufficient money to keep you till January. The ecstasy is to increase in force & frequency, while the subdued (not the obstructed) ananda becomes perpetual during

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waking hours & even in sleep the ananda gains ground. Then the subdued ecstasy will take its place while intense ecstasy becomes the occasional higher state. So it will proceed. As for the siddhi of the health, that proceeds in spite of all resistance. Neither of these will be perfect till December; but meanwhile the utthapana will come rapidly forward & the saundarya begin to break through its obstacles. The range must be widened & the defects removed The general obstruction must be met by a general denial of the obstruction & refusal to work out of it by the lower processes. That has been done sufficiently and has not to be repeated ad infinitum There is now no reason why the Samata etc should disappear. Only the tejas of Mahakali must finally be harmonised with the passivity and the dasya. This will be done today by eliminating the Maheshwari bhava from the superficial consciousness & its contents without bringing back the mental tejas. It is true. Nevertheless these things are done. The struggle is over the whole basis of the farther advance. The incident of yesterday was used as a turning point to turn you into the road hitherto avoided, now destined for your treading, the road of mighty, straightforward effective karma. Others have tried, stumbled and fallen. You will see that you are henceforth as effectively protected in action as in self-defensive passivity & in action by others as effectually & more. All these mishaps have had their object and their beneficial purposefulness. Not after this year. The knowledge & power have to be entirely harmonised first. That egoism is exhausting its remnants. The difficulty is great only because the pranic suggestions attempt to predominate & mislead; in itself it is not great. Today a great movement forward. It is not forbidden; it has to be accepted; it will clear itself of the ignorance, which is now the only obstacle. Today for the second & third if the second is cleared, the first automatically fulfils itself. There is a tremendous

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pressure in order to compel the buddhi to give up faith in the bodily siddhi & the new society. Let the power first be reestablished. The trikaldrishti, telepathy, power, lipi have now all to move towards absolute perfection dragging the samadhi & drishti with them. Till that is done, the fourth chatusthaya will only prepare its advance. The advance has begun; it will gather momentum during the day. The powers of knowledge & tapas are stronger, but they are all acting in the intellect without the action of the intellectual judgment, therefore there is no light. The mental realm is being purified of the pranas. The force of the tapas is yet insufficient. Life has to be brought into line with the siddhis acquired, or in other words the powers have to take hold of life and possess it. Life means the Akash of the prithivi, & through the Akash all it contains. It is true, the Akash is full of opposition & obstruction where formerly it seemed clear. The obstruction is only in order to bring out the samata, tapas etc & increase the eventual force of the powers themselves. The admission of the power & right of the objective world to resist is to be once more cancelled. So far we have advanced that the power & knowledge are showing the old force & invariable effectiveness, but the effectiveness is usually partial, often slight in actuality, seldom flawless. We have not then advanced beyond the old point in appearance, except that the power & the instruments are all accepted & faith in them is completely founded, though still uncertain about rapid results. The second chatusthaya is now completely founded except in the extent & certainty in detail of the faith & of the Kalibhava, therefore the attahasya too is little manifest. That must now appear, while at the same time the instruments of the later chatusthayas farther justify themselves. The conditions are now fixed and will clear & develop themselves The third chatusthaya is reforming itself on a much sounder basis. The power, lipi & knowledge will during the next three days overpower the resistance of the physical akasha. Rupa and samadhi will follow their lead. About the rupa & samadhi you are uncertain, but the doubts will be removed. Meanwhile the fourth chatusthaya must be pushed forward. Health is going through its ultimate

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denials & is already shaking itself free from some of them. Ananda is insisting. But the utthapana & saundarya are still in a crude state & strongly opposed in their attempt to progress. A beginning has been made in the utthapana. It must be steadily pursued. As for the destruction in the fifth, it is only the destruction of unsound members and of the defects which make them unsound. This time the movement has not been favourable. The old obstruction seems to be momentarily successful. The attempt will be persistent & successful. There is no ambiguity [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] directions. When it is said, there will be [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] power than has already [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ]1 From today regularisation of the Yoga & the life; but Yoga more first than the life. The activity of the second chatusthaya has to be restored perfectly; for the activity of the first is already restored & perfect but for the physical touch. This activity of the second chatusthaya must take place without disturbing the first, must bring universal ananda, not discouragement & disappointment. That once done, the third will progress itself towards its self-perfection as it is already doing in the lipi and the pure jnana. The practical jnana, the power & the samadhi will all perfect themselves on that basis. So, too by the perfection of the power the fourth will break down its obstacles & progress to perfection. Meanwhile the fifth will confirm and enlarge itself. The doubt is justified by the past, not by the future. Until it is removed by knowledge, it must persist. There is a perfect knowledge at work removing the ignorance; only the ignorance is allowed to return & conquer so often, for the sake of humanity, so that its burden may be lightened. I am about to establish the parts of knowledge again, so that the faith may have some ground to stand upon.

1 Manuscript damaged; three lines partially or wholly lost.

Ed.

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The thing is now once again grounded in samata & dasya The tejas will now begin to work, the faith develop & the vijnana act. The vijnana is preparing its own perfection and today there will be the necessary reconstruction. The body is still dominated by asiddhi. The struggle is with the general Vritra of the third, sixth & first, second especially in the powers of knowledge. The vyuha ´ is proceeding. Still the vyuha is proceeding. The Samuha is there, but in a disordered state. The negative stage is over; the positive affirmation must more & more fulfil itself. Arrangement means in time, place & circumstance. The vyuha is taking place; the rays do not yet go to their right p[lace] Faith withstands all the assaults & the knowledge of Brahman Sarva & Ananta is confirming itself, but it must also be Jnana & Ananda. That is why the third must now fulfil itself & then the fourth. All these are only the first obstacles to the final perfection. Self-fulfilment is now the rule except in the body. It must become the rule there also. But not at once. As for the rapidity it will be soon at work. Reconstitute. First, the vijnana Next, the power Self-development of all. It is only a temporary obstacle. There is a compulsion on the whole system[. I]t is an a[ttemp]t to dissolve & wreck that siddhi. Hence it is being resisted, [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ] I have allowed it for particu[lar] purposes. It has no [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ]2 The window will not fall. The struggle for the third chatusthaya proceeds & the attack is now constant, but so also is the pressure of the siddhi. The siddhi will proceed now in the mass & not in detail, except in the rupa All is of use. In the matter of the stomach, it is essential that the reversion to the old system of evacuation should cease & it will cease. The health & the ananda will now be specially dealt with while the utthapana is preparing. Meanwhile the third chatusthaya will perfect itself. No the first, not this. This is beautiful & useful for this life. No straining of the 2 Manuscript damaged; two lines partially lost.

Ed.

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Tapas is needed. There also no physical pressure is needed. This is how it will become regularised. . The only question is about time. Meanwhile the focus must be turned upon life. The articles must ´ an ´ atarah. be sent and yet not in submission to them. Pran The life has now to be entirely expressed in these higher values. The second chatusthaya has to begin its play in life. Many have still the ego, & therefore impressions of egoism survive. The harmonious arrangement of the first three chatusthayas is proceeding. Today the first two are being attacked by the old bhavas with which the material mind has long been familiarised, but they will overcome the attack & emerge permanently victorious. dhairyam suddhatanantyalipsa mahadbhavah pritih dakshyam danapratidanalipsa anandibhava bhoga hasyam karmalipsa samabhava The trikaldrishti will arrange itself today & the whole knowledge act connectedly from tomorrow. There is an attempt to revive the activity of the pranic intelligence in connection with the trikaldrishti & aishwarya. The difficulty is there to be overcome. The difficulty persists, but is now lightened by the persistent rejection of the pranic suggestions Ananda again in the afternoon & evening no longer subdued ´ or obstructed. Utthapana There is full perfection of the first chatusthaya; in the second there are still defects, but you can see the immense progress made in the human parts of the system. Only the divine part is still imperfect. Till then the full intensity cannot come. The perfection is coming. This is the full attack on the karma, no longer of men, but of nature. They have called up the elements to aid them. The battle with the elements is still a losing battle for the present. Nor is the ideality yet perfectly combined in detail. This is the proof of the ideality but it has yet to be perfected. The knowledge is once more working with a near approach to perfection, only some of the placements are still wrong. The power must be brought up to the same level in its ordinary movements, then in the body, then in the karma. The power will now begin

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to work in the ideality & in harmony with the knowledge, the telepathy & trikaldrishti. Although it is as yet incompletely done, still it is done. Now lipi, [ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ]3

3 Manuscript damaged; one line lost.

Ed.

1311

SORTILEGE OF 15 MARCH [1913]

March 15th St. ydA v { EvjAnA(yAEdvA=\ &yAk;v ;"rmAh. When the vijnana is active, he (the Master of the Yoga) developing the initial Word, (OM, Brahman) declares all that follows. First, activity of the vijnana, second, constant perception of the Brahman, third, knowledge of the world in the terms of the Brahman.

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ACCOUNTS OF 31 MAY – 15 JUNE 1913

Record of Yogic details

June 1913 Credit June 1st (May 31st) Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs

15-0-0 40-0-0 28-0-0 10-0-0 7-0-0 70-0-0 150-0-0 150-0-0

(Rent for May) in notes (Rent & servants for June) reserve in cash. out in loans in loan in Fr. notes

Rs 15

Rs 85 Rs 70

Rs 300 470 For June Rs 85 of which 40 in notes and cash 7 for current expenses. Also Rs 3-8-1 from last month. June 2d.. Rs 20 in notes " 8 in cash " 2-9-0 in purse 30-9-0May 0-8-1. (Rs 2 for monthly feast) ( " 1 for charity)

Accounts of 31 May – 15 June 1913

1313

June 12t.h. Rs 50 Rs 150 Rs 150 Rs 8-1

loans recovered in Fr notes in loan from last month

Paid Rs 15 Rent for May Rs 6 charity Rs 43-14- Bijoy. out of rent money (loans[)]

Actually in hand Rs 150 in Fr. notes Rs 150 in loan *Rs 20 in notes (rent money + Rs 4) *Rs 10 in notes (reserve + current) Rs 5 in cash Rs 23 (rent & servants for June) *Rs 0-9-10 in money (purse) For the current expenses Rs 15-9-10 out of * (9 + 6-9-10). June 15thIn hand Rs 30 in notes Rs 3-15-1 in cash Rs 150 in notes. Rs 10 in loan Rs 44 with Bijoy Rs 28 rent & servants

(Rs 16 rent money Rs 44 rent money Rs 14 + 3-15-1 month’s expenses Rs 1 for shoes. Rs 150 reserve.[)]

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Store Account & Standing Rice 11 - 0-0 Tea 0-13-0 Matches 0 - 0-9 Spices 1-10-6 Sugar 0 - 3-8 S’s Cigarettes 0 - 8-0 Firewood 3 - 0-0 Spices 0 - 0-1 Cigarettes(self) 0 - 1-3 Kerosine Oil 2 - 5-0 Spices 0 - 1-0 Sugar 0 - 4-0 Cigarettes(self) 0 - 1-3 " 0 - 1-3 " 0 - 0-6 " 0 - 0-6 20 - 2-9

May 31st " " " June 1st. " June 3d.. " " " June 4th June 8th June 8th June 10th June 12th June 14th

Miscellaneous Expenses Sweets 0-0-6 Coolie 0-1-6 Cigarettes 0-0-3 Cricket(special) 0-6-0 Oil 0-2-0 Milk 0-1-0 Stamps 0-0-6 Cigarettes(special)0-3-9 Lamp 0-2-0 (Feast, last month 2-0-0) Barber 0-4-0 Wine 0-6-0 Cigarettes 0-0-1 Saurin 0-0-3 Coolie 0-0-3 Stamps 0-0-6 Ink 0-1-0 Kalasi 0-0-9 Stamps 0-0-6 Money order 0-2-0 Parcel 0-4-6 Petruz 0-1-0 Soap 0-1-3 Brooms 0-1-0 Shoelaces 0-3-0 Salle de Lecture 0-8-0 Cricket 0-4-0 Envelopes & Paper 0-5-0 Nibs 0-5-0 Cigarettes 0-0-3 Washerman 1-0-0 Telegram 0-6-0

June 1s.t.. " " " " June 2d.. " " " " June 3d.. June 4th " " June 6t.h. " June 7th " " " " June 9th June 10th " " " June 11t.h. " "

Accounts of 31 May – 15 June 1913 Pushpush Claret Lemons Nalini Stamps Barber

Daily Meal Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Extra for feast Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Milk

0-6-0 0-6-0 0-0-3 0-0-6 0-1-0 0-2-6 6-8-1

1315 June 12th " " June 13t.h. June 14t.h. June 15t.h.

Extraordinary 0-2-6 0-8-6 0-2-3 0-4-0 0-4-7 0-1-4 0-7-0 0-2-0 0-6-9 0-2-0 0-7-0 0-2-0 0-8-3 0-2-0 0-8-0 0-2-0 0-7-6 0-2-0 0-8-0 0-2-0 0-7-0 0-2-0 0-7-0 0-0-6

Charity 6-0-0- June 2d.. June 1s.t. " (to be recovered from May & July) June 2d.. " Bijoy’s journey 43-14-0- June 11t.h. " June 3d " June 4th " June 5th " June 6th " June 7th " June 8th " June 9th " June 10th " June 11th " June 12th

1316 Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals Breakfast Meals

Record of Yoga 0-7-0 " 0-2-0 June 13th 0-6-6 " 0-2-0 June 14th 0-6-6 " 0-2-0 June 15th 0-6-9 " 11-3-0

Daily Balance

Rs 1 added from reserve

June 1s.t. June 2d.. " 3d " 4 " 5 " 6 " 7 " 8 " 9 " 10 " 11 " 12 " 13 " 14 " 15

Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs Rs

31 - 3-10 29-15 - 0 26 - 7 - 5 23 - 6 - 4 22-13 - 7 22 - 0 - 7 21-12 - 0 20-15 - 1 20 - 1 - 1 17-13 - 4 16 - 2-10 14-13-10 13 - 4-10 12-10-10 11

1317

RECORD NOTES, 13 AND 15 SEPTEMBER 1913

Record of Yoga. Theosophic.

Sept. 13 Sortilege

ihop yAt fvso npAt, sODvnA Bvo mAp Bt. aE-mEh v, svn  r{D y\ gmE(vd-mn; vo mdAs,

An exact application to the circumstances of the Yoga. The Ribhus are the gods of formation who proceed from the divine Tapas (fvso npAt,) and use it to form thought, action & condition. This formative process is now the course of the Yoga (aE-mEh v, svn ) and the delight of the ananda in the formative action is y\ id-\). At the moment, becoming habitual to the mind-force (r{D however, asiddhi had attacked, bringing defect of formation, defect of ananda[,] trouble & deficiency in the mind (defect of Dvn^). Hence the ih yAt mAp Bt. Lipi “17th September.” (akasha, varnamaya) Typical Trikaldrishti A frog hopping in one direction, with no sign of turning. A turn at a sharp right angle indicated & the exact line of subsequent passage indicated; fulfilled but not in the place perceived. Another frog comes from the opposite direction; indication that the bodies of the two frogs will meet one leaping on the other, although the lines of their motion were not such as to promise meeting. The smaller frog turned away & began hopping in the opposite direction, but the larger pursued & sprang upon it, thus fulfilling the trikaldrishti, but with a variation of circumstance which had not been foreseen.

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Record of Yoga

Sept. 15 Two crows descend into the road behind the wall fighting & are invisible. Indication that they will immediately rise above the wall fighting in the air & part. Fulfilled precisely, though the trikaldrishti itself was not jyotirmaya.

1319

VEDIC EXPERIENCE, 14 AND 15 DECEMBER 1913

I. [176]1

y-y EvAEn h-tyo, p\c E"tFnA\ vs;. -pAfy-v yo a-mD}g ; ^ Ed&y vAfEnjEh as;v\t\ sm\ jEh dZAf\ yo n t  my,. a-m Satya Bhoga Satya Bhoga > Satya Karma

Ananda Swabhava: Nivritti Nirgunam

Higher Karana (i.e. drishti, shruti) ? Lower Karana (i.e. siddha buddhi and viveka*) Lower Shruti Lower Viveka Perception of all kinds Feeling Prana Anna

Pravritti (1) Anantyam or Anantagunam (2) Trigunatitam (3) Traigunyamaya Swabhava (i) Sattwa prakasha (ii) Rajas pravritti (iii) Tamas shama

* Viveka is not conscience but true judgment between higher and lower, true and false, right and wrong. [The last six words were added by Sri Aurobindo in his own hand.]

Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914 Tapas: Tattwas: Purusha or Ishwara

(1) Prajna (2) Hiranyagarbha ? (3) Virat

1459

Prakriti or Shakti

t OM Satyam: Anirdeshyam Krishna (Mahamaya) (1) Mahavira (Maheshwari) (2) Balarama (Mahakali) (3) Pradyumna (Mahalakshmi) (4) Aniruddha (Mahasaraswati)

Brahmana Jnanam, Mahima Kshatriya Viryam, Raudryam Vaishya Prema, Danam Shudra

Kama, karma, vishaya buddhi

[3] Asat Sat H Purusha and Prakriti Tat is the unknowable Brahman of which you cannot say that it exists or does not exist because it cannot be defined as that which we know or understand by the idea of existence. Therefore it is not Sat. At the same time it is not Asat or non-existent because it contains existence in itself. By Asat or non-being we mean something beyond which is a contradiction of existence. It is generally considered as a sort of nothingness because it is nothing that we call existence. There is nothing in it that we can perceive or realise as something. Tat contains both Sat and Asat; but it is neither of them. By Sat we mean pure existence not limited by qualities, infinite

Tat

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and eternal and unchanging, which is at the same time the source and foundation of all the worlds and the whole universe. Sat Purusha and Prakriti Brahman representing itself in the universe as the stable, by immutable Existence (Sat), is Purusha, God, Spirit; representing [itself] as the motional by its power of active Consciousness (Chit) [it] is Nature, Force or World-Principle (Prakriti, Shakti, Maya). The play of these two principles is the life of the universe. Prakriti [is] executive Nature as opposed to Purusha, which is the Soul governing, taking cognizance of and enjoying the works of Prakriti; Shakti [is] the self-existent, self-cognitive Power of the Lord (Ishwara, Deva, Purusha), which expresses itself in the workings of Prakriti. [4] Divine Sat Chit-Tapas Ananda Vijnana Ishwara

Human Annam Prana Manas-Chitta Buddhi Aham Seven Planes Sat Chit-Tapas ? Ananda Vijnana Manas-Chitta Prana ? Annam

Sat Chit-Tapas Ananda

is essence of being, pure, infinite and undivided. is pure energy of consciousness, free in its rest or action, sovereign in its will. is Beatitude, the bliss of pure conscious existence and energy.

Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914 Vijnana

Buddhi Manaschitta

Prana

Annam

Sat Chit-Tapas Ananda Vijnana

Buddhi

ManasChitta

Prana Annam

1461

Supra-mental knowledge is the Causal Idea which, by supporting and secretly guiding the confused activities of Mind, Life and Body ensures and compels the right arrangement of the Universe. is the lower divided intelligence as opposed to Vijnana. is the life of sensations and emotions which are at the mercy of the outward touches of life and matter and their positive or negative reactions, joy and grief, pleasure and pain. is the hampered dynamic energies which, feeding upon physical substances, are dependent on and limited by their sustenance; also [it] is the lower or vital energy. is the divisible being which founds itself on the constant changeableness of physical substance.

Immortality, pure essence Free rest or free action Sovereignty of will Pure bliss Revelation Inspiration Intuition Discrimination Perception Imagination Reasoning Judgment Sattwic Science, philosophy, thought (intellectual) 1. Aesthetic sense of beauty art, poetry, sculpture 2. Religious and moral virtuous, holy, good Rajasic desire, emotion, passion Tamasic food, money, physical health, play

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Pravritti Nivritti

Nature’s tendency or impulse to action Withdrawing from that tendency or impulse to action

Buddhi Perception Imagination Reason Judgment

Vijnana Revelation = Pratyaksha or Drishti Inspiration = Sruti Intuition Smriti > Discrimination = Viveka [5] The Chakras

Above the head Between the eyes In the throat In the heart In the navel Above the linga

Sahasradala Ajnachakra Vishuddha Anahata Manipura Swadhishthana Muladhara

Jnanam Drishti Vak Feeling, sensation, etc. Instincts Kama (desire)

The movement of pranas in the body There are five pranas, viz: prana, apana, samana, vyana and udana. The movement of the prana is from the top of the body to the navel, apana from Muladhara to the navel. Prana and apana meet together near the navel and create samana. The movement of vyana is in the whole body. While samana creates bhuta from the foods, vyana distributes it into the body. The movement of udana is from the navel to the head. Its work is to carry the virya (tejas) to the head. The movement of udana is different to the Yogin. Then its movement is from the Muladhara (from where it carries the virya to the crown of the head and turn[s] it [into]1 ojas) to the crown of the head.

1 MS (scribal) out to

Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914

1463

The colours Violet Yellow Orange Black Grey Red

religion, ideality, spirituality intellect, perception, activity and flexibility of mind psychical power darkness, inertia, melancholy, pessimism, timidity, etc. despondency and dullness activity; or if a deep angry colour, anger; or if scarlet, lust; if rose, love. purity, strength, etc. White Green beneficency, unselfishness, readiness to serve without respect to one’s own desire or ambition. Dull green bad qualities of prana, jealousy etc. Spirituality more of the Bhakti type Blue Flaming golden yellow Vijnana [6] Objects of Yoga

To put it in a word, the object of Yoga is God or the Divine or the Supreme whatever our conception of these things may be. There are minor objects of Yoga which are merely parts or separate aspects of the general object. We are composed of being, consciousness, energy and delight represented to us as life, knowledge, force and power, emotion, sensation and desire. The object of Yoga is to turn all these things towards God. Therefore to become one with God, to be Divine and live a Divine Life is the first object of Yoga. The second is to know God in Himself and in ourselves and in everything. The third is to make ourselves one with the Divine Will and to do in our life a Divine Work by means of the Divine Power using us as an instrument. The fourth object is to enjoy God in all beings, in all things and in all that happens. Since the Life is to be Divine there must be siddhi or Perfection of the Being. The difference between the Divine Being and Divine Life and ours is that we are in the limited ego, confined to our own physical and mental experiences while that is beyond ego infinite eternal and all-

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Record of Yoga

embracing. Therefore we have to get rid of the Ego in order to be Divine. Ego persists because of three things; first because we think we are the body; secondly because of desire; and thirdly because of the mental idea that I am a separate being existing in my own mind and body independently of everything and everybody else. We have therefore to know ourselves, to realise that we are not the body, nor the Prana, nor the mind and to find out our real Self. That is called Atmajnana. Secondly we have to get rid of the idea of ourselves and others as separate being to realise everything as one Brahman or one Purusha or Ishwara manifesting himself in different names and forms. This Self and the Brahman or Ishwara are the same. We have to know what it is, how it manifests itself in the world and beings that we see. All this we have to realise in our experience and not merely know by the intellect. We have to realise It as Sachchidananda and to become that ourselves. Thirdly we have to get rid of desire and replace it by the Ananda of Sachchidananda. After that in order to live and act in the world we have to act as mere instruments so the Divine Force which we must realise as the sole Power which acts in the world and we must get rid of the idea that actions are ours or that the fruit of the action belongs to us personally. The only work we have to do in the world is to perfect ourselves, carry out whatever the Divine Power wills that we should do and so far as possible help others to perfect themselves and help the life of humanity to become Divine. [7] Methods of Yoga (Reproduction from memory)2 The first two things necessary for the practice of Yoga [are]3 Will and Abhyasa. In the course of Yoga these two things give helping hands to the perfection of the being unto the very end. Slowly and steadily, whether conscious or unconscious to the being itself, they are 2 Oral remarks by Sri Aurobindo recorded from memory by a disciple. Much of the wording clearly is not Sri Aurobindo’s. Ed. 3 MS (scribal) is

Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914

1465

performing their functions in the onward march of human evolution. Be we unconscious of them, it will take a pretty long time to attain to that perfection. But once we are conscious, then we become the Will itself. Consciously we can quicken the progress. This method gives rise to individual perfected beings. As before, they will not see glimpses of the Light of Truth. They will ever be seeing the Eternal Truth. They will turn the darkness around them and in them, into Light. Hitherto, we should have felt a certain amount of difficulty in putting into Abhyasa what we have willed. Now there will be no more putting into Abhyasa but simply we will be seeing the march of progress without the least idea of strain felt by us. So first let us will in order to be not weak and unconscious but strong and conscious. Then there will be no more difficulty. Until then we have to practise Yoga by two important means by means of Purusha and by means of Prakriti. Means of Purusha: An ordinary man thinks he desires, he feels and so on. But what we are to do is to separate ourselves from desire, feeling etc. Whenever desire comes, we must realise that we are not desiring but only realise it as the coming and going of Desire. So also with the feeling, thinking etc. For instance, when [a] certain anguish comes, an ordinary man thinks and feels that he is lost and so on. He weeps bitterly and reduces himself to a mere crawling worm. We have to think that that anguish is a kind of action or reaction, going on in the heart. Anguish cannot affect me. I am the unsullied Self; it cannot touch me. Means of Prakriti: Whenever the thinking part of man is active, we notice very clearly that the work is going on in a place somewhere above the forehead. The action is centred in the heart, when the feelings are awake in him. In both the cases, the self takes the heart and mind for its theatre of action. In the one case, we are those thoughts and in the other, we are those feelings. Putting this in plain words, our actions proceed either from the heart or from the mind, while the actions of the animals proceed from the senses. We see the vast difference between an animal and a man. So if man transfers his centre of heart and mind, to that of a higher one, think how grand the God-man would be! That centre according to the psychology of the Hindus is Vijnana. This is just above

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the crown of [the] head. This is known as Sahasradala or the place where the Shakti is situated. From this seat of activity, all actions emanate. Therefore the first Sadhana is not to feel ourselves either in the heart or in the mind but there just above the crown of [the] head. By these two means, we separate ourselves from body, life and mind. On account of this, misery cannot affect us and we will be above happiness and misery. Apart from all these, the main thing we effect thereby is, we will be in a position henceforward, to become one with the Brahman and to realise that everything is Brahman and everything is only one of the several forms, names and colours etc., of that one Vast Brahman. Whenever we see people walking along the road, we will no more see them as several different beings but as several forms of one vast undivided Brahman. As [a] rose is the manifestation of form, colour, odour so the Brahman is the manifestation of so many things we perceive by the senses and think by the mind etc. Along with these, we must put into practice one after the other what we are going to see hereafter as the Sapta Chatusthayas. They are namely Samata, Shakti, Vijnana, Sharira, Karma, Brahman and Siddhi Chatusthayas. Chatusthayas means four divisions. These seven Chatusthayas have been arranged in their natural and logical order. But it is not required of you to get them in practice in this given order. One may begin with a chatusthaya which [one] finds to be easier and in this way he is expected to practise. Why they are arranged in this way, how we are to effect them in us, when we will have success, all will be known to us when we finish writing and sincerely practise.

1467

SAPTA CHATUSTHAYA SCRIBAL VERSION

I. Samata Chatusthaya Samata, Shanti, Sukha, Hasya (Atmaprasada) Negative Samata Positive Samata Titiksha Sama Rasa mind and intellect Udasinata Sama Bhoga prana Nati Sama Ananda spirit Samata is accepting everything in the same way without any disturbance in any part of the being. Disturbance is caused [by]1 the want of harmony between the Chit-shakti in myself and the contacts of Chit-shakti outside. Pain, grief, dislike etc. are merely the system’s way of saying that it objects to a particular contact because of want of harmony. The system cannot bear an inharmonious contact or even a pleasant one if it is too intense or too prolonged. Disgust, fear, horror, shame are attempts of the system to repel the unpleasant contact and defend itself. Titiksha means the power of endurance. You bear the unpleasant contact yourself standing back from it with a watching mind and teaching the system to bear it. What follows is Udasinata. Udasina means standing high. Udasinata is indifference, the Purusha standing high above these contacts and not minding what they are. Nati is the subsequent one. It is the feeling of submission to God’s Will, all contacts being regarded as the touches of God Himself. Sama Rasa or equal Rasa from all things, happenings, experiences, objects etc. we have to take through our mind and intellect. Sama Bhoga is the equal enjoyment in the Prana of all things, happenings, experiences, objects etc.

1 MS (scribal) owing to

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Record of Yoga

Sama Ananda is the joy of Unity in everything and with everything. Sama Rasa and Sama Bhoga cannot be secured unless we have Sama Ananda, but it is difficult for Sama Ananda to come unless the mind and Prana have been taught Samata in Rasa and Bhoga. [The] result of complete Samata is complete Shanti; on the other hand if there is any touch of anxiety, grief, disappointment, depression etc., it is a sign that Samata is not complete. When we get complete Shanti, then we get complete Sukham. Shanti is negative; it is a state of freedom from trouble. Sukham is positive; it is not merely freedom from grief and pain, but a positive state of happiness in the whole system. Atmaprasada is a state of clearness, purity, contentment in the whole self, i.e. [the] essence of Sukham. When Sukham begins to become strong Ananda, then it is Hasya, a state of positive joy and cheerfulness which takes the whole of Life and the world as a pleasant and amusing play. II. Shakti Chatusthaya Viryam, Shakti, Daivi Prakriti, Sraddha Viryam: Chaturvarnya in guna Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra Brahmana: Dhairyam, Jnanalipsa, Jnanaprakasha, Brahmavarchasya. Shakti is the right guna and right state of activity or right elements of shakti-character in all parts of the system. The chaturvarnya in guna may be called Virya. It is the qualities of the four varnas in character. The perfect man has all the four in him, although one usually predominates and gives the character its general type. First, a man should have Brahmana qualities, [those of]2 the man of knowledge. He should have, first, the general temperament of the Brahmin, that is to say calmness, patience, steadiness and thoughtfulness, which may all be expressed by the word Dhairyam. Then he should have the 2 MS (scribal) or

Sapta Chatusthaya Scribal Version

1469

tendency towards knowledge, especially the Divine Knowledge, but also all kinds of knowledge on all kinds of subjects, with the necessary mental openness and curiosity. This is Jnanalipsa. The Brahmin has not only the thirst for knowledge but also a general clearness of mind and its tendency to be easily illuminated by ideas and to receive the truth. This is Jnanaprakasha. He has also a spiritual force which comes from knowledge and purity. This is Brahmavarchasya. Kshatriya: [Abhaya, Sahasa],3 Yasholipsa, Atma Shakti (Atma Slagha) There should also be the qualities of the Kshatriya, the qualities of the man of action or the fighter. The first of these is courage and it is of two kinds Abhaya or passive courage which is alarmed by no danger and shrinks from no peril that offers itself and from no misfortune or suffering. The second is Sahasa or active courage, that is to say, the daring to undertake any enterprise however difficult or apparently impossible and carry it through in spite of all dangers, suffering, failures, obstacles and oppositions. For this, two other things are necessary. [First,] a tendency of the nature to insist on the battle and victory and effort and triumph, i.e. Yasholipsa. Secondly, there must be a strong self-confidence and a high idea of the power that is in one’s self. This is Atma Shakti or Atma Slagha. Vaishya: Vyaya, Kaushala, Dana, Bhogalipsa The Vaishya qualities are also necessary for action and enjoyment. The first is the readiness to spend labour, resources, materials, means and life itself quite freely, taking great risks of loss in order to secure great gains. This may be called Vyaya. But with this there must be skill in the use of means and methods and their proper disposition in order to secure the end and also the knowledge of what is or is not possible to be gained by a particular means or method or a particular expense. There should be a sense of proportion, of order, and a skill [in]4 arrangement and management. All this may be called Kaushala. Also in the use of one’s possessions, there are two other qualities of [the] Vaishya which are necessary. [First there must be] the readiness 3 MS (scribal) Courage 4 MS (scribal) and

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to give no less than to receive and to share with the world what one gets from the world. This is [the]5 nature of love as it is ordinarily practised; [this]6 giving and receiving may be called Dana. And then there should be a tendency to enjoy, i.e. Bhogalipsa. Shudra: [Kama, Prema,] Dasyalipsa, Atmasamarpana. The qualities of the Shudra are no less important. The Vaishya has the spirit of order, opposition and interchange. The Shudra has the spirit of service. Service is governed by two motives: first desire or kama, secondly love or prema. In the perfect man, Kama should take the form of an interest in the bodily well-being of the world and a wish to see that physically it lacks nothing. Love in [the] Shudra is not like that of [the] Vaishya, for it seeks no return. It is governed by the third quality of the Shudra, the desire to serve and this in the perfect man becomes the desire to serve God-in-all. This is Dasyalipsa. The perfection of the Shudra nature is in self-surrender, the giving of one’s self without demanding a return. This is Atmasamarpana. The nature of the Brahmana is knowledge, of the Kshatriya force and courage, of the Vaishya skill in works, and of the Shudra selfgiving and service. The perfect character possesses all of these; for they are necessary for the perfect action. Shakti Shakti is a general force by which each of the four parts of the system (the body, the Prana, the Chitta and the Buddhi) is kept at its highest state of perfection. The perfect state of the body consists in four things, a sense of entire lightness (Laghuta), a sense of strength and energy (Balam), a sense of [a] certain mass and force (Mahattwa) and the power of containing without strain or reaction any working however intense and constant, of energy however great and [puissant].7 This is Dharana Samarthyam. The perfect state of Prana consists in a sense of fullness of vital force (Purnata), of general clearness and cheerfulness (Prasannata), of equality in all experiences, shocks and contacts (Samata), and in the 5 MS (scribal) a 6 MS (scribal) a 7 MS (scribal) possible

Sapta Chatusthaya Scribal Version

1471

capacity to take all enjoyment of the world without desire but also without exhaustion and satiety. This is Bhoga Samarthyam. The perfect state of Chitta consists in a sense of richness and gladness of feeling (Snigdhata), of abounding moral power and energy (Tejas), in a confidence [in the]8 divine grace and help and general sense of mangala (Kalyana Sraddha) and in the capacity for unbounded love for all beings and all objects. This is Prema Samarthyam. The perfect state of Buddhi consists in a general purity and clearness of [the] thinking faculty (Vishuddhata and Prakasha); in richness and great variety and minuteness of the perceptions ([Vichitra]9 Bodha); and in the power of the mind to receive and adapt itself to any kind of knowledge without feeling anywhere a limit or an incapacity. This is Jnana Samarthyam. Daivi Prakriti (Divine Nature) This means the possession of the four Shaktis Maheshwari, the Shakti of greatness and knowledge; Mahakali, the Shakti of force and violence; Mahalakshmi, the Shakti of beauty, love and delight; and Mahasaraswati, the Shakti of worldly reason (science) and work. The possession of these Shaktis carries with it a sense of the Divine Power, of general compassion [and] helpfulness to the world, and of faculty for any work that [the] nature may undertake. Sraddha or Faith 1. Faith in God Directing Power, Antaryami 2. Faith in Shakti Executive Power. III. Vijnana Chatusthaya Jnanam (Divine thought), Trikaladrishti, Ashta Siddhi, Samadhi Jnanam: The mental action consists of four parts: first of all, perception of the object and comparison and contrast with other objects. [Then]10 reasoning about the objects. Judgment whether the reasoning 8 MS (scribal) of 9 MS (scribal) Vichar 10 MS (scribal) The

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is right or not. And judgment is aided by memory and imagination. Judgment is a direct perception of the Truth, which may or may not be aided by reasoning and other helps. Imagination is the power of presenting to yourself things or truths not actually perceived or established by reason, [of]11 seeing possibilities other than actual experience. Memory is the power of retaining and reproducing mental or sensory impressions. Judgment has two parts discernment and direct perception. In the mind both of them are uncertain. In the Vijnana, there is a faculty of discernment called Viveka or Intuitive Discrimination, which sees at once what is wrong and what is right, the real difference between things and also their real resemblances and identities and also how far a truth is true and how far it has to be qualified. This Viveka is independent of reasoning. It knows the fact directly but not by a mere instinct; it knows it luminously with a clear perception which is certain and makes no mistake. There is also a faculty of Vijnana called Intuition which does the work of reasoning without the necessity of reasoning to arrive at a conclusion; that is to say it [comes to]12 the conclusion not as a conclusion from other facts but as a fact in itself. Afterwards, it can group around that fact all the other facts not as reasons but as related facts which help to retain it. Inspiration is called Sruti or Hearing because it is not the direct sight of the Truth but a sort of coming of the Truth into the mind in a sudden flash. Generally this Truth comes as a vibration which carries the Truth in it and sometimes it comes as the actual word which by revealing its meaning brings new truth to the mind. The fourth faculty is Drishti or direct sight. This is not, like intuition, looking into a person, an object or a group of circumstances and finding out the truth about them, but it is the vision of the Truth itself, coming as a luminous thought independent of all circumstances, objects etc. You must first of all get the Intuition and Discrimination to take up 11 MS (scribal) with 12 MS (scribal) does

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the ordinary work of mind, because they alone among the Vijnana faculties can give all the circumstances about the Truth. Otherwise Drishti and Sruti [will be distorted], because the reason will try to interpret them in the light of the circumstances as they are understood rightly or wrongly by the human mind. Even the Intuition and Discrimination will be at first distorted by the action of the reason, imagination, wrong judgment, wrong memory etc. Intuition and Discrimination have to go on working and getting stronger and surer until they are able to clear out from the mind the other activities and themselves take up the whole work. As they increase in Force and Light, the other two will begin to act of themselves. When these four faculties or any of them are applied to the things of thought, ideas and knowledge generally it may be called Jnanam or Divine Thought. When these four faculties are applied to the facts and events of the material world the result is Trikaladrishti, which means the direct knowledge of the past, the intuitive knowledge of the present and the prophetic knowledge of the future. To have it properly, it is necessary that there should be no desire or personal interest in the result or any trusting to reasoning, inferences, speculation etc. Ashta Siddhi There are two siddhis of knowledge, three of power and three of being. All siddhis exist already in Nature. They exist in you. Only owing to habitual limitations you make a use of them which is mechanical and limited. By breaking these limitations, one is able to get the conscious and voluntary use of them. The three siddhis of being are siddhis of the Sat or pure substance. In matter, Sat uses these siddhis according to fixed laws but in itself it is free to use them as it chooses. If one can get partly or entirely this freedom, one is said to have these three siddhis. They are Mahima including Garima, second Laghima and third Anima. Sat manifests as Chit, pure consciousness, and Chit has two sides consciousness and energy, that is to say knowledge and power. Consciousness in one material being communicates with the same consciousness in another material being by certain fixed methods such as speech, gesture, writing etc. and unconscious mental communication. But these limitations are mere habits [and other methods are

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possible,] as for instance ants communicate by touch and not by speech. Consciousness in itself is free to communicate between one mind and another without physical means consciously and voluntarily. The two siddhis by which this is done are called Vyapti and Prakamya. In the same way there is a power in the consciousness of acting upon other conscious beings or even upon things without physical means or persuasion or compulsion. Great men are said to make others do their will by a sort of magnetism, that is to say there is a force in their words, in their action, or even in their silent will or mere presence which influences and compels others. To have these siddhis of power is to have the conscious and voluntary use of this force of Chit. The three powers are Aishwarya, Ishita, Vashita. These powers can only be entirely acquired or safely used when we have got rid of Egoism and identified ourselves with the infinite Will and the infinite Consciousness. They are sometimes employed by mechanical means, e.g. with the aid of Mantras, Tantric Kriyas (special processes), etc. Vyapti is when the thoughts, feelings etc. of others or any kind of knowledge of things outside yourself are felt coming to the mind from those things or persons. This is the power of receptive Vyapti. There is also a power of communicative Vyapti, when you can send or put your own thought, feeling etc. into someone else.13 Prakamya is when you look mentally or physically at somebody or something and perceive what is in that person or thing, thoughts, feelings, facts about them etc. There is also another kind of Prakamya which is not of the mind but of the senses. It is the power of perceiving smells, sounds, contacts, tastes, lights, colours and other objects of sense which are either not at all perceptible to ordinary men or beyond the range of your ordinary senses.

13 The following passage is found in a scribal copy not used for the text printed here.

This copy calls the communicative side of vyapti “communication or broadcasting”, and goes on: What happens in the Amutra happens in the Iha. What the Chit-shakti reveals in the Spirit, the Maya-shakti crudely and materially attempts in the material and mental universes. So spiritual Communism of Vijnana has its shadow in the material and Bolshevik Communism; and the Siddhis of the Vijnana are attempted in wireless telegraphy, broadcasting, telephone, image transcription [transmission?].

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Vashita is when you concentrate your will on a person or object so as to control it. Aishwarya is when you merely use the will without any such concentration or control and things happen or people act according to that will. Ishita is when you do not will but merely have a want or need or a sense that something ought to be and that thing comes to you or happens. Mahima is unhampered force in the mental power or in the physical power. In the physical it shows itself by an abnormal strength which is not muscular and may even develop into the power of increasing the size and weight of the body etc. Laghima is a similar power of lightness, that is to say of freedom from all pressure or weighing down in the mental, pranic or physical being. By Laghima it is possible to get rid of weariness and exhaustion and to overcome gravitation. It is the basis of Utthapana. Anima is the power of freeing the atoms of subtle or gross matter (Sukshma or Sthula) from their ordinary limitations. By this power one can get free of physical strain or pain or even make the body as light as one chooses. It is by this power that Yogis were supposed to make themselves invisible [and] invulnerable or [to] free the body from decay and death. Samadhi Samadhi means properly the placing of the consciousness on any particular object or in any particular condition. It is generally used for a state of consciousness in which the mind is withdrawn from outward things by [one’s] placing the full energy of the consciousness on any particular object or general field. Thus by Samadhi one can become aware of things in this world outside our ordinary range or go into other worlds or other planes of existence. One can also enter into those parts of one’s own existence which are either above or below ordinary consciousness or as it is said “superconscient” or “subconscient”. Samadhi may be in three states Jagrat or waking, Swapna or dream, Sushupta or deep sleep. Jagrat Samadhi is when in the waking consciousness, we are able to concentrate and become aware of things beyond our consciousness.

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This Samadhi may either bring images and experiences seen outside one’s own self as if in the physical atmosphere or else inside one’s self, generally with the eyes closed. When the eyes are closed, another ether than the physical appears which is called Chittakasha or mental ether. It is in this that images are seen. There is also another ether behind called Chidakasha. Swapna Samadhi is when the mind has lost its outward consciousness of outward surroundings and goes inside itself. It then has the experience either in itself or of scenes and happenings of this world or other worlds, of the past, present or future. When these experiences are merely distorted memories or confused, falsified and fragmentary, then it is called ordinary dream. [This happens when]14 the mind proper is not acting at all in the physical consciousness and only [ ]15 parts of the nervous system are awake. But when part of the mind remains as it were awake even in [ ]16 sleep, then one may get [accurate]17 records of true and actual experiences. These are not dreams but internal visions. Part of the mind is ranging through time and space or in other worlds. Another part is on the watch to receive its experiences and report them to the physical consciousness. Sushupta Samadhi, the third stage, is when the whole physical consciousness, at least that part of it which belongs to the waking self, is asleep. When we are in deep sleep we think that nothing is going on in us; but that is a mistake. Consciousness is active all the time. But no report comes from it to the physical mind. In Sushupta Samadhi, one can get to the very limit of human consciousness, even [to]18 the superconscient. Everything which we cannot attain in the waking state is there in us in the dream-self and the sleep-self. Samadhi is a means of increasing the range of consciousness. We can extend the inner wakefulness in the swapna to planes of existence which are at present sushupta to us and bring them into experience of swapna and even eventually into the waking state.

14 15 16 17 18

MS (scribal) MS (scribal) MS (scribal) MS (scribal) MS (scribal)

That is because the the acute of

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There are several kinds of Samadhi according to the ordinary classification, such as Satarka in which the mind withdrawn into itself goes on thinking and reasoning and doubting; or Savichara in which the mind does not reason logically but judges and perceives; and so on up to Nirvikalpa Samadhi in which all the lower organs are stopped and there is only the superconscious experience of the Brahman. IV. Sharira Chatusthaya Arogya, Utthapana, Saundarya, Ananda Arogya is the state of being healthy. There are three stages: (1) When the system is normally healthy and only gets disturbed by exceptional causes or very strong strain, such as continual exposure to cold, overstrain of any kind. (2) When even exceptional causes or great overstrain cannot disturb the system; this shows that there is full Arogya Shakti. (3) Immortality in the body. Utthapana is the state of not being subject to the pressure of physical forces. There are also three stages here: (1) When there is a great force, lightness and strength in the body (full of vital energy); this shows that the body is full of Prana Shakti. (2) When there is no physical weariness, no exhaustion of the brain or nervous centres. (3) When one is not necessarily subject to the law of gravitation or other physical laws. Saundarya is the state of being beautiful. There are also three stages here: (1) When there is brightness in the body combined with sweetness of voice and charm of expression etc. (2) Continual youth. (3) When the features and figure can be changed to a form of perfect beauty. Ananda referred to here is Physical Ananda or Kamananda. This is of various kinds, sensuous, sensual etc.

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Krishna is the Ishwara taking delight in the world. Kali is the Shakti carrying out the Lila according to the pleasure of the Ishwara. Karma is the Divine Action. Kama is the Divine Enjoyment. VI. Brahma Chatusthaya Sarvam, Anantam, Jnanam, Anandam Brahma Sarvam Brahma Anantam Brahma Jnanam Brahma Anandam Brahma

when we realise one thing in the universe. when we realise Infinite Force and Quality at play in all forms. when we realise a consciousness in everything which is aware of all. when we realise in that consciousness a delight in all things.

VII. Siddhi Chatusthaya Shuddhi, Mukti, Bhukti, Siddhi Shuddhi (1) Of the Pranas Release from Vasana or desire, that is Asakti or attachment, action of emotion, e.g. I must have that, I cannot do without that; Kamana or longing, action of desire, i.e. I want that; Raga-dwesha or preference, action of mind, i.e. I prefer this. There are also [the opposites of these],19 non-attachment, non-longing or craving and non-preference. We have also to [be released]20 from these things. When you have effected these three things you will have perfect Samata. Then you will naturally have perfect Shanti, that is Divine Peace [and] perfect or Shuddha Bhoga, that is Divine Enjoyment. 19 MS (scribal) other sides 20 MS (scribal) release

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Shanti is the negative Ananda and those have it who rest in the Nirguna Brahman. Shuddha Bhoga is the positive Ananda and those have it who rest in the Trigunatita Ananta Brahman. Enjoy the world with Shuddha Bhoga based on the perfect Shanti. That which you get as the result of satisfied desire is troubled, unsafe, feverish or limited, but Shuddha Bhoga is calm, self-possessed, victorious, unlimited, without satiety and vairagya, immortally blissful. It is in a word, not Harsha, not Sukha, but Ananda. It is Amrita, it is Divinity and Immortality, it is [becoming of]21 one nature with God. [The soul]22 has then no Kama but pure Lipsa, an infinite readiness to take and enjoy whatever God gives.23 (2) Of the Chitta Release from all sanskaras of feeling. (a) Thought impulses start up from Chitta as instincts, inspirations, insights, intuitions etc. They come up coloured by emotions, distorted by associations and perverted by [the] imagination[s] which bring them up. Bhakti, genius, poetic inspiration all come from this source. (b) Impulses of feeling are of two kinds, natural or eternal, artificial or Vikaras. Love, courage, compassion are natural and are actions caused by Jnanam. Hatred, fear, disgust are Vikaras and are distortions or reactions caused by Ajnanam. (c) Impulses of action: Shuddha Pravritti, that is, action without desire independent of emotion. Ashuddha Pravritti, that is, action stirred by two forces, desire and emotion. Prohibit and inhibit by will all action or speech that starts blindly from the passions or emotions surging in the heart. (3) Of the Manas Release from habitual thoughts. Still the conceptual activity of the Manas and transfer to the Buddhi its perceptual activity (a part of Prakamya). (4) Of the Buddhi Release from reason, imagination, memory and logic and replace[ment of] them by the[ir] divine counterpart[s]. (5) Of the Body Release from all bodily impurities, disease etc., and attain[ment of] Immortality. 21 MS (scribal) of becoming 22 MS (scribal) It 23 This paragraph is an almost verbatim transcription of most of the fifth paragraph of

Chapter VII of Yogic Sadhan.

Ed.

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Mukti (1) From Dwandwas or dualities (a) Of the Prana Kshutpipasa, hunger and thirst; Shitoshna, heat and cold; pleasure and pain of the body. (b) Of the Chitta Priyapriyabodha, the sense or feeling of love and hatred; Mangalamangalabodha, the sense of good and evil, good and bad fortune; Manapamanabodha, the sense of honour and obloquy. (c) Of the Mind (that is, Manas and Buddhi) Satyasatya, the knowledge of truth and falsehood; Papapunya, the knowledge of virtue and vice. (2) From Ajnanam and the three gunas. (a) Sattwa wherever there is Sattwa, that is the clearness of being or Prakasha, it brings with it sukha or happiness; Sattwa is full of Prakasha. Sattwa in mind clearness of mind; we get knowledge. Sattwa in Chitta the pure love; we get love.24 Sattwa in body ease, health and so on. (b) Rajas is the principle of desire and activity; Rajas is full of Pravritti. The result of Rajas is any kind of pain, Duhkha or Ashanti, trouble, disturbance, anxiety. (c) Tamas is Aprakasha and Apravritti. The result is fear, idleness, too much of sleep, ignorance. Sattwa is to be replaced by pure Prakasha, Rajas by pure Pravritti, Tamas by pure Shama. There is no desire and no necessity of acting but there is the Divine Impulse which acts through us this is pure Pravritti. When there is no such Divine Impulse, it is pure Shama, Tapas or force of action being there but not acting. Just as Pravritti is a Divine Force coming and making you act, so the pure Prakasha is the Divine Light bringing knowledge into the consciousness. By being indifferent, we have to effect Shama; then acting as far as possible only under the Divine Impulse, we get pure Tapas. By keeping the mind always unattached to its own thoughts and activities and on

24 In all scribal copies, “we get” follows the noun in these two lines. Even when the

order of the words is changed the sense remains somewhat unclear.

Ed.

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the watch for Light from above and as far as possible quiet, we get Prakasha. (3) From Ahankara; from the ignorance that you are the actor etc. Whenever you say “I like this”, “I do not want this”, there you choose and [act].25 Whatever comes to you, you have to take and enjoy. Replace Ahankara or the idea of Aham by the idea that you are the Ishwara. Bhukti is the Delight of existence in itself, independent of every experience and extending itself to all experiences. [It has three forms:] (1) Rasagrahanam or taking the Rasa in the mind: (a) bodily sensations, (b) food, (c) events, (d) feelings, (e) thoughts. (2) Bhoga in the Prana, i.e. Bhoga without Kama or enjoyment without desire. (3) Ananda throughout the system. Kamananda Physical Ananda, [e.g.]26 Vishayananda, i.e. sensuous pleasure Premananda Getting delight by positive feeling of Love (Chitta) Ahaitukananda Delight without any cause (Manas) Chidghanananda Ananda of the Chit in the object full of the gunas (Vijnana) Shuddhananda Ananda of the Beauty of everything (Ananda) Ananda of pure consciousness without Chidananda the gunas (Chit-tapas) Sadananda Ananda of pure existence apart from all objects and experiences (Sat) Siddhi of the five Chatusthayas, Brahma, Karma, Sharira, Vijnana and Samata.

25 MS (scribal) do 26 MS (scribal) ie

4

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Note on the Texts ¯ RECORD OF YOGA is a diary of Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana or practice of yoga. He wrote entries with some regularity between 1912 and 1920, as well as scattered entries during the years 1909, 1911 and 1927. Some sections of entries have titles, such as “Journal of Yoga”, “Record of the Yoga”, “Record of Yoga”, “Notebook of the Sadhana”, “Yoga Diary” and “Yoga Record”. The title he used most often is “Record of Yoga” In the text itself he generally referred to the work as “the record” and used the verb “to record” for the act of writing in it. For these reasons the editors have chosen Record of Yoga as the general title of the work. In the entry of 1 July 1912, Sri Aurobindo noted that he had been doing yoga for almost seven years. He had begun in 1905 with ¯ . ay ¯ ama ¯ the practice of pran or breath control. This practice became irregular when he started his political career in 1906 and by the end of 1907 he suffered a “complete arrest” of yogic experience. In January 1908 a yogi named Vishnu Bhaskar Lele showed him how to silence the activity of his mind. This led to the experience of the static Brahman or Nirvana. A few months later, in Alipore Jail, he had the experience of the dynamic Brahman or cosmic consciousness. He later referred to these as the first two of the “four great realisations” of his yoga. The other two “that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind” began in jail, but developed more fully during the period of sadhana chronicled in the Record. In April 1910, Sri Aurobindo left politics and settled in Pondicherry. Sometime after his arrival, as he explained in 1926, he “was given” a “programme of what I would do” in yoga. This programme had seven sections, each made up of four elements. It thus was known as “sapta chatusthaya” or the seven tetrads. (The proper transliteration of the Sanskrit phrase is sapta catus.t.aya. Sri Aurobindo almost

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invariably spelled the second word “chatusthaya”.) Because of the importance of this system to the yoga of the Record, the editors have placed Sri Aurobindo’s written presentations of the seven chatusthayas before the dated Record entries. The system is explained in more detail in the “scribal version” of Sapta Chatusthaya, which is published in the Appendix, and in the introduction to the glossary, which is published in a separate booklet. All the terms of the system and all other non-English terms found in the Record are defined in the glossary. Sri Aurobindo used an assortment of notebooks and loose sheets for writing the Record. The notebooks are of the same kinds as those used for other writings of the period; indeed many of them also contain notes, prose articles, poems, etc. Most of them are cheap student exercise-books, others are simply perforated pads of note-paper. There are also a few bound pocket notebooks; only one of these is a printed diary. In all, twenty-eight notebooks were used exclusively or principally for the Record. Several others contain significant amounts of Record material. In addition, a number of diary entries, mostly undated, and an assortment of Record-related jottings have been found scattered in a dozen or more notebooks and on loose sheets and odd scraps of paper. Most diary entries, as opposed to records of “script” and “lipi” (these terms are explained below), seem to have been written down directly without notes. Entries were usually written on the dates given in the headings; sometimes there were two or more sittings in a day. Occasionally, however, the sadhana of the preceding night was noted down the next morning. Sometimes a single entry covers two or more days. Other entries seem to have been written a day or two in retrospect. Many Record entries are divided into sections by means of single and double lines in the manuscript. That the lines had a specific purpose is indicated by the fact that Sri Aurobindo sometimes cancelled them. So far as typography permits, such lines and other markings are reproduced as they occur in the notebooks. The editors have divided the Record proper, that is, the dated diary entries, into three parts: (1) entries written before the start of the “regular record” in November 1912; (2) the main series of entries, written between November 1912 and October 1920; (3) entries written in 1927 (and perhaps also at the end of 1926). The editors have further

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divided each of the parts into sections. These begin either where Sri Aurobindo resumed making entries after a significant break in the writing, or where he began work in a new notebook. Each section thus covers a specific chronological period, though sometimes there is a bit of overlap between sections. In one place the editors have put three partly concurrent groups of entries in a single section. Thus divided, the Record proper comprises forty-four sections. Some of these contain scores of entries covering more than a hundred pages, others only a handful of entries covering less than a dozen pages. Sri Aurobindo began some but not all sections with headings written above the first entry or on the cover of the notebook. These have been reproduced as written. The editors have placed a heading in bold type at the beginning of every section. These editorial headings are in the following form: 28 JANUARY – 17 FEBRUARY 1911. Over the course of the years, Sri Aurobindo structured sections of entries in different ways. Recurrent features were sometimes abandoned, only to be taken up again months later. Some entries consist only of the briefest notations, occasionally presented in tabular fashion. Other entries were written in discursive prose that sometimes has literary qualities. During certain periods, Sri Aurobindo divided longer entries by means of subheadings. Most of these make use of the terminology of the seven chatusthayas. Like all diaries consciously literary productions excepted the Record was written chiefly as an aid to the diarist. Sri Aurobindo’s conception of its purpose is contained in certain early entries. It was meant to be a “pure record of fact and experience” (13 January 1912). The “condition of the activity” of his sadhana was “to form the substance of the record” (2 January 1913). Stated otherwise, it was the “progress of the siddhi” that was “to be recorded” (31 December 1912). This and other uses of the verb “record” suggest that Sri Aurobindo’s writing down of an experience was a means by which he established it in his consciousness. Sri Aurobindo wanted to record “definite results”, not “every fluctuation of the siddhi” (15 August 1914). On a path like his, where “all life is yoga”, this involved not only noting down such purely yogic activities as “trikaldrishti, aishwarya, samadhi-experience”, but also mentioning ”work, literary & religious”, and making “brief note of the

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physical siddhi” (27 December 1912). All parts of the sadhana were given attention. We find one passage in which Sri Aurobindo speaks ¯ . s.t.i and tapas, then first of applied yogic knowledge and force, trikaladr the subtle physical power of levitation and then, in the next sentence, the condition of his teeth. This is followed, without a pause, by a ¯ note on the intensity of ananda (delight) then being felt in his body. The paragraph closes with a mention of the state of “the personal lilamaya relation with the Master of the Yoga”, the personal divinity who guided his sadhana (17 September 1913). Another purpose of the Record was to be a register of guidance from this and other sources. It was, he wrote on 18 November 1914, to “include not only the details of what is accomplished & the lines of the accomplishment that is being attempted, but also the record of experiences and the indications of the future movement”. Such indications were supplied by various means, notably “script”, “lipi”, “sortilege”, and “vani”. Full definitions of these terms are given in the glossary. Roughly, “script” is writing on paper, similar to but not the same as “automatic writing” (see below); “lipi” is writing seen by the subtle vision; “sortilege” is printed or handwritten texts sought or found by chance and interpreted; “vani” is the hearing of a voice. Sri Aurobindo transcribed many examples of each of these sorts of communication in the Record. Sometimes he seems to have jotted down scripts or lipis on handy pieces of paper and then copied them into the Record. A few rough notations of scripts that later were copied exist. The copied versions show some amplification. Sometimes only the rough notations have survived; these have been among the most difficult parts of Record of Yoga to transcribe. There are also numerous examples of script written separately from the Record proper and never incorporated into it. Some of these identify themselves explicitly as “script”, others do not. As a rule such scripts are published in Part Four, separately from the Record proper. The distinction between script and record is one made by Sri Aurobindo himself, but it was sometimes difficult for the editors to fix the boundary between the two. He occasionally used both words to refer to the same piece of writing. For example, in the regular record of 14 January 1912 he mentioned an “accompanying memorandum” containing the “rest of the record of January 14th & the record of

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January 15th”. This “memorandum” speaks of itself as “script”. Some regular Record entries read like others that identify themselves as script; some entries (for instance, many in June to August 1914) give under the heading “Script” the sort of information generally found in the regular Record. The principal difference between Record proper and script proper appears to be the way the writings took form in Sri Aurobindo’s consciousness. Record was Sri Aurobindo’s own “record of fact and experience”, written in much the same was as he wrote his other writings. In the Record the word “I”, if it occurs, refers to Sri Aurobindo himself. Script, on the other hand, was communicated to Sri Aurobindo by “the Master of the Yoga” or another source. This source sometimes addressed itself as “I” and Sri Aurobindo as “you” (see for example page 1303). In recording script, Sri Aurobindo often wrote down only the source’s replies, not the mental questions to which the replies were given. This makes some scripts seem discontinuous and incomplete; reading them is like overhearing one end of a telephone conversation. Script has some affinities with “automatic writing”, a means of written communication in which the pen is said to be directed by a disembodied spirit. Some examples of this are published in Part Five; the phenomenon is discussed below, in the note to that part. Sri Aurobindo considered many automatic writings to be transcriptions of “the thing that is present in the subconscious part of the medium”. He did not consider script to be of this nature. A comparison of the script published as parts of Record entries and in Part Four with the automatic writing published in Part Five reveals marked differences in subject matter, tone, elevation, and purpose. Script was a “means of spiritual communication” which was used “for all sorts of purposes”. Chief among these was the prediction of future events mostly events in Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana, but also outward happenings, ranging from great world events to trivial domestic matters. Scripts relating to sadhana were often called Prediction or Programme; they gave indications about inner movements a few days or a week in advance. Sri Aurobindo sometimes looked back on old scripts, predictive lipis and sortileges to check their accuracy. He occasionally jotted down whether they were fulfilled or not. Such notations are among the only evidence we have that Sri Aurobindo read back over

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the Record. He certainly never revised it in the way he did almost all his other writings. Additions to and corrections of the Record manuscripts were, with few exceptions, evidently made during the act of writing. INTRODUCTION. SAPTA CHATUSTHAYA As mentioned above, Sapta Chatusthaya or the seven tetrads was the “programme” of Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana that he received sometime after his arrival in Pondicherry in April 1910. It is not known exactly when the system came to him, but it must have been familiar to him by 16 January 1912, when he referred in the Record to “the first two chatusthayas”. (Note that the term “chatusthaya” does not occur in the Record of 28 January – 17 February 1911.) The system consists of twenty-eight elements arranged in seven groups of four. Throughout the Record the chatusthayas are referred to both by name and by number. These are listed in the chart below, along with the elements of each chatusthaya: First chatusthaya. Samata chatusthaya [earlier, Shanti chatusthaya] Samata, Shanti, Sukha, Hasya [later, (Atma)prasada] Second chatusthaya. Shakti chatusthaya Virya, Shakti, Chandibhava [later, Daivi Prakriti], Sraddha Third chatusthaya. Vijnana chatusthaya Jnana, Trikaldrishti, Ashtasiddhi, Samadhi Fourth chatusthaya. Sharira chatusthaya Arogya, Utthapana, Saundarya, Ananda [or Vividhananda] Fifth chatusthaya. Karma chatusthaya [or Lila chatusthaya] Krishna, Kali, Karma, Kama [last two sometimes reversed] Sixth chatusthaya. Brahma chatusthaya Sarvam Brahma, Anantam Brahma, Jnanam Brahma, Anandam Brahma Seventh chatusthaya. Yoga chatusthaya [or (San)siddhi chatusthaya] Shuddhi, Mukti, Bhukti, Siddhi This is what Sri Aurobindo called the “natural and logical order” of the chatusthayas and is the only one referred to in the Record proper. Other orders occur, however; for example, the one given in “Outline of the Seven Chatusthayas (Revised Order)” (see next page).

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In the Record, the elements, or “siddhis”, of each chatusthaya are sometimes referred to by the number of the element within the chatusthaya: for example, “the second element of the shakti-chatusthaya”. In addition the siddhis of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh chatusthayas are often referred to by the numbers 1 to 21 21 and not 20 because in this enumeration the third chatusthaya is considered to have five instead of four elements. The scheme is as follows: 1. Jnana 2. Trikaldrishti 3. Rupa(-siddhi) 4. Tapas 5. Samadhi 6. Arogya 7. Ananda 8. Utthapana 9. Saundarya 10. Krishna 11. Kali 12. Karma 13. Kama 14. Sarvam Brahma 15. Anantam Brahma 16. Jnanam Brahma 17. Anandam Brahma 18. Shuddhi 19. Mukti 20. Bhukti 21. Siddhi Sapta Chatusthaya. This text almost certainly was written on 20 November 1913. On that day Sri Aurobindo noted in the Record: “The day was chiefly occupied in writing the seven chatusthayas.” The handwriting and paper used for the manuscript of this piece are similar to those of other manuscripts of 1913. Outline of the Seven Chatusthayas (Revised Order). Sri Aurobindo wrote this outline during or not long after 1914 in an exercise-book used previously by one of his disciples for some of the notes published in the Appendix as “Material from Disciples’ Notebooks”. In it the chatusthayas are listed in a different order from the one generally used in the Record. The “three general chatushtayas” come first, the one that Sri Aurobindo called the “means, the sum and the completion of all the rest” heading the list. Then follow the “four chatusthayas of the Adhara-siddhi”, the perfection or siddhi of the individual “vehicle” ¯ ara). ¯ (adh Incomplete Notes on the First Chatusthaya. Sri Aurobindo wrote these notes in the exercise-book he used for the above “Outline of the Seven Chatusthayas”, at around the same time. The end of the last sentence, from the word “qualities”, is not found in the manuscript, but is in several scribal copies of the text written by disciples; it undoubtedly was added by Sri Aurobindo to a copy that has since been lost.

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The diary entries in the first two sections of this part differ in kind from those written afterwards. The first section dates from ten months before Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Pondicherry in April 1910, and contains little of the terminology of the Sapta Chatusthaya. The entries of 1911, unlike the rest of the Record, are arranged under subject headings. The three sections from 1912 contain entries that differ little from those published in Part Two, but they come before the beginning of what Sri Aurobindo called “the regular record of the sadhana”. 17 – 25 June 1909. Sri Aurobindo made these entries in a small pocket notebook during a visit to East Bengal (the present Bangladesh). A month and a half earlier, he had been released from jail after his acquittal in the Alipore Bomb Case. As the most prominent leader of the Bengal Nationalist party, he had been invited to Jhalakati, a town in Bakarganj District, to attend the 1909 session of the Bengal Provincial Conference of the Indian National Congress. The principal event of the tour was the speech he delivered in Jhalakati on 19 June 1909 (reproduced on pages 33 – 42 of Karmayogin, volume 8 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO). 28 January – 17 February 1911. During this period Sri Aurobindo wrote dated Record entries under the following six headings: “Physical,” “Communications”, “Vision of other worlds”, “Record of the Drishti”, “Siddhis”, and “Record of Ideal Cognitions”. He wrote them on scattered pages of a notebook he had used years earlier in Baroda as a book catalogue, and later in Pondicherry for various prose and poetic writings. 13 January – 8 February 1912. The Record of 12 December 1911 to 11 January 1912, referred to in the first sentence of the entry of 13 January, has not survived. Sri Aurobindo wrote Record entries for January and February 1912 in a notebook he had used in Baroda for literary essays and in Pondicherry for notes and articles on linguistics and other subjects. Above the first entry he wrote the heading “Record of the Yoga”. This is the first surviving heading for a section of Record entries. An “accompanying memorandum” containing dated script for 14 and 15 January, which he wrote on a separate sheet of paper, is

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published between the notebook entries for 14 and 16 January. Note that Sri Aurobindo left long horizontal blanks after some sentences in the notebook. These appear to serve the purpose of paragraph separators. 1 – 25 July 1912. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a large ledger used otherwise for notes on linguistics and for prose writings on many subjects. He headed it “Journal of Yoga”. 12 October – 26 November 1912. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a small notebook used for Vedic and linguistic notes, translations, Bengali and Latin poetry, etc. The entries of 18 October to 17 November were written in ink on consecutive pages (with one page left blank between the first and second entries of 18 October). The remainder of the entries were written in purple pencil on scattered pages, sometimes upside down in relation to the rest of the entries. In the same notebook he also wrote a brief record of sortileges of May and June 1912 and several other Record-related pieces that are published in Part Four. PART TWO. RECORD

OF

YOGA 1912 – 1920

The undated general note preceding the entry of 26 November 1912 begins: “The regular record of the sadhana begins today. . . .” The editors have followed this indication by making the entry of 26 November the first in the main series of Record entries. There are, all told, entries for a little more than half of the ninety-six months making up the “regular” period of November 1912 to October 1920. 26 November – 31 December 1912. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in an exercise-book used previously for notes on the Veda. The daily entries are preceded by an undated general note, written probably on 26 November. 1 – 31 January 1913. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in an eighty-page exercise-book used only for this purpose, making it the first notebook devoted exclusively to the Record. Inside its front cover he wrote “Record of the Yoga. / 1913. / January.” 1 – 14 February 1913. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in the first part of an exercise-book, most of which was later

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used for another purpose. Inside the front cover he wrote “Record of the Yoga / 1913 / February”. After the second week of February, he discontinued the Record until the beginning of April. 1 and 12 April, 19 and 21 May 1913. On 1 April 1913 Sri Aurobindo began keeping the Record in a new exercise-book, on the cover of which he wrote “Record of Yoga / April.” After making two entries during the first two weeks of April and two entries in May, he set the notebook aside until July. 4 – 30 June 1913. During the month of June 1913, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in three separate forms that sometimes overlap, with the result that there are sometimes two entries for a single date. (1) Between 4 June and 28 June, he wrote entries on three sheets of blank paper, each folded to form four narrow pages. He headed this bunch “Record”. These entries are similar to those making up the rest of the Record, although they are written in a more tabular and abbreviated form. (2) Between 16 and 24 June, he wrote a second set of entries on two sheets of blank paper folded like the ones described above. He headed this bunch “Script”. These entries include not only the kind of communications to which he usually gave that name, but also more general comments. (3) Between 25 and 30 June, he wrote several entries similar to the above script notations on a separate sheet of paper (of the same kind as the others and folded similarly) under the title “Record of Details & Guidance.” These three groups of entries are published separately in the above order. 1 – 11 July 1913. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in the notebook he had set aside in May. The entry of 1 July starts on the page that has the end of the entry of 21 May. No Record was written, or none survives, for the month of August 1913. 5 – 21 September 1913. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in the notebook he had set aside in July, leaving three blank pages between the entry for 11 July and the two entries for 5 September. The first of these entries was written in pencil and may be considered an incomplete draft of the second, which is written in pen. The first sentence of the first entry suggests that a now-lost Record was kept

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during the first days of September and perhaps also for part or all of August, perhaps on loose sheets, like the Record of June. 22 – 30 September 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote these entries on four pages of the notebook used previously for the “Record of Yogic details” of 31 May – 15 June and the “Record of Yoga. / Theosophic” of 13 and 15 September (both published in Part Four). They are more in the nature of script than ordinary record. No entries were written, or none have survived, for the month of October 1913. 11 – 23 November 1913. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record on four pieces of writing paper folded to form sixteen narrow pages (two of which were not used). 24 November – 2 December 1913. On 24 November Sri Aurobindo returned to the notebook last used on 21 September. He continued to make entries in this notebook through most of December. 1 – 12 December 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote most of the entries for this period on four loose sheets of paper. He also wrote entries for 1, 2 and 12 December in the notebook used for most of 1913 (see the notes immediately above and below). 12 – 21 December 1913. On 12 December Sri Aurobindo returned to the exercise-book last used on 2 December. He continued to make daily entries in this notebook until 21 December, when he reached its last page. 22 December 1913 – 15 January 1914. On 22 December Sri Aurobindo began a new exercise-book, on the front cover of which he wrote “Record of Yoga / Dec 22d 1913...”. On 1 January, in order to mark the new year, he wrote the heading “1914. January.” and part of a verse from the Rig Veda (1.13.6), on an otherwise blank page of the notebook. He continued to use it until 15 January 1914. No Record was written, or none survives, for the period between 15 January and 12 March 1914. 12 March – 14 April 1914. On 12 March Sri Aurobindo began a new exercise-book, which he used for the Record until 14 April. He later wrote on its cover: “Record of Yoga. March. April. / 1914.” 15 April – 1 June 1914. Sri Aurobindo kept the Record for this period in a single exercise-book, on the cover of which he wrote: “Record of Yoga / April 15th to / 1914”. After the entry for 1 June he wrote a heading for 2 – 3 June, but made no entry and then abandoned the

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notebook. When he resumed the Record on 10 June, he began work in a new notebook. 10 June – 29 September 1914. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a small, thick hard-cover notebook which he used for no other purpose. He wrote the heading “Record of Yoga. / June. 1914 ” on an otherwise blank page facing the first page used for entries. After writing the incomplete entry for 29 September, he went on to a new notebook, leaving the last five pages of this one blank. 29 – 30 September – 31 December 1914. After reaching the end of the notebook containing the Record of June to September 1914, Sri Aurobindo began work in a similar small, hard-cover notebook. Inside the front cover he wrote “October 1914.” Before writing the entry dated “October 1”, he wrote a long note headed “Preliminary” and dated “Sept 29 – 30”. 1 January – 27 February 1915. Sri Aurobindo kept the Record for this period partly in the notebook in use since October 1914 and partly in another. The first notebook contains, after an otherwise blank sheet headed “January”, an introductory note followed by entries for 1 – 6 and 24 – 30 January and 1 – 6, 25 and 27 February 1915. In the second notebook Sri Aurobindo kept an “intermediate record” for 2 – 23 January. There are thus two sets of entries for 2 – 6 January. The editors reproduce the intermediate record after the first set of entries for 1 – 6 January, and before the entries of 24 January – 27 February. Sri Aurobindo wrote two annotations to the entry of 3 January in the “intermediate record” sometime after the original entry. The pen and the ink used for the annotations are the same as those used for the Record of January – February 1917, which was kept in the same notebook. Apparently Sri Aurobindo wrote these comments when he took up this notebook again after a lapse of two years. 22 April – 26 August 1915. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a letter-pad of the sort he used for writing material for the Arya, his monthly philosophical review. The entries begin abruptly; no mention is made of the gap between 27 February and 22 April. Sri Aurobindo put a question-mark after the date “April 22d”. The year of these entries is nowhere written, but the dates and days of the week correspond to those of 1915. After the entry of 26 August

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Sri Aurobindo left a few pages blank, then began the entry dated “February 1916” with the words, “In the interval since August. . . .” 19 February – 20 March 1916. Sri Aurobindo wrote no Record entries between 26 August 1915 and mid-February 1916. On 19 February 1916 he resumed the Record, using the letter-pad he had set aside in August. The last paragraph of the entry for 19 February is found at the bottom of the preceding page in the manuscript, after the general introduction to February 1916. In the margin next to this paragraph, Sri Aurobindo wrote: “This should have been recorded on the next page.” He also put a long double line to separate the misplaced paragraph from the rest of the contents of the page, and inserted the date “Saturday Feb 19th” at the top of the paragraph. This date has been put editorially within square brackets at the head of the entry of the nineteenth, which itself is dated only “Feb”. After the entry of 5 March, the dates written in the manuscript do not agree with the days of the week according to the calendar for 1916. The discrepancy continues until the entry marked “Monday. 19th March” in the manuscript, where the Record for 1916 terminates. It may be noted that Sri Aurobindo left a page blank between the entry of “Sunday / March 5” and the one marked “Tuesday. Mar 6”. This suggests that he wrote no entry for Monday, 6 March, and this resulted in a confusion of dates. The editors have accordingly emended the dates rather than the days of the week. 9 January – 14 February 1917. No Record was written or survives for the period of March 1916 to January 1917. Sri Aurobindo kept the Record of 9 January – 14 February 1917 in a small bound notebook used previously for notes on the Veda, for the “intermediate record” of 2 – 23 January 1915, and again for notes and an essay on the Veda. The entries for January – February 1917 were written on pages or parts of pages that had been left blank when the Vedic work was done. At one point thirty pages of Vedic material intervene between pages used for the Record. After the entry of 14 February this notebook was set aside, though a few usable pages remained. 15 February – 31 March 1917. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a small hard-cover notebook similar to the one he had used from 9 January to 14 February. Like that notebook, the present one had previously been used for notes on the Veda. It was abandoned after the entry of 31 March, many of its pages being left unused. No

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record was kept or has survived for the period from 1 April to 14 August 1917. 15 August – 28 September 1917. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in an old exercise-book, a few pages of which had been used some years earlier for the poem Ilion. Sri Aurobindo left half a page blank between the entry for 28 September and the one for 14 February 1918. No Record was kept or none survives for the intervening period of more than four months. 14 – 28 February 1918. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in the notebook he had commenced on 15 August 1917. 3 – 27 March 1918. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record on a few pages of an old exercise-book used previously for Vedic notes and translations. 20 April – 20 May 1918. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a new “Aryan Store Exercise-Book”. (The manager of the Aryan Store was Saurin Bose, the “S” or “Sn” of the Record.) This was the first notebook to be used exclusively for the Record since June – September 1914. On its cover Sri Aurobindo wrote “Notebook of the Sadhana”. This is the first heading given to a section of Record entries since June 1914. 21 May – 1 July 1918. Sri Aurobindo continued the Record of 1918 in an “Aryan Store Exercise-Book” similar to the one used between 20 April and 20 May. Only three entries were made in June due to “the absorption of work”. He set the notebook aside after the entry of 1 July and did not take it up again until June 1919. No Record was kept or none survives for the intervening period of almost one year. 24 June – 14 July 1919. Sri Aurobindo kept the Record for this period in the notebook set aside on 1 July 1918. He left five pages blank between the entry for that date and the one for 24 June 1919. 15 – 26 July 1919. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a thin exercise-book used only for this purpose. On its cover he wrote the heading “Yoga Diary” and the opening and closing dates. 27 July – 13 August 1919. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a thin exercise-book similar to the previous one, and like it used only for Record entries. On its cover he wrote the heading “Yoga Diary” and the opening and closing dates. 14 August – 24 September 1919. During this period, Sri Aurobindo

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kept the Record in a thin exercise-book similar to the previous two, and like them used only for Record entries. On its cover he wrote the heading “Yoga Diary” and the opening date. It has almost daily entries until 2 September, then one dated “Sept. 3 to 24”, which explains the gap before the final entry of 24 September. He apparently did not resume the Record until February of the next year. 1 – 29 February 1920. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record on seven pieces of paper of different sizes and shapes folded in various ways. Entries which continue from one page to another sometimes have the date repeated at the top of the new page followed by “continued” or “(cont.)”. These headings have been omitted from the printed text. 1 March – 10 April 1920. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a thin exercise-book used only for the purpose. Above the long introduction preceding the entry dated 1 March he wrote the heading “Yoga Diary. / 1920 / March.” No entries have been found for the period between 10 April and 7 June 1920. 7 – 26 June 1920. During this period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record in a thin exercise-book similar to the previous one, and like it used only for this purpose. Above the first entry he wrote the heading “Yoga Record / June.” 17 – 19 October 1920. Sri Aurobindo wrote Record entries for these three days on a few pages of a letter-pad. He wrote the date “17t.h. October 1920” on the first sheet of the pad. PART THREE. RECORD

OF

YOGA 1926 – 1927

No Record entries were written, or none survive, for the six-year period between October 1920 and December 1926. Sri Aurobindo wrote very little during this period. There are no known articles or poems and only a few letters that have dates to show that they were written during the six years that followed the suspension of the Arya in January 1921. The abrupt beginning of the entries preceding those of December 1926 – January 1927 suggests that Sri Aurobindo may have made Record entries during parts of the period between 1920 and 1926, but chose not to preserve them, as he chose not to preserve those of October 1927 (see below).

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December 1926 – 6 January 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote these entries in a letter-pad used previously for writing Vedic notes and several pieces published in Part Four, including “The Seven Suns of the Supermind”. That piece comes immediately before the first entry here, which speaks of the “supramental life-energy” in the “seven centres”. The first two pages of this section of Record notes are undated. The third page begins with three short paragraphs which seem to have been written on a single day. This was probably Sunday, 2 January 1927, for the entry is followed on the same page by closely related entries marked “Monday”, “Tuesday” and “Wednesday”, then by one dated “Thursday. Jan 6.” Sri Aurobindo did not write the year 1927 until 7 April (see below), but the agreement between the dates and days of the week written in the notebook and those of the calendar for 1927 proves that this was the year for the entries of January and February. The two pages of undated entries preceding the partially dated ones were apparently written shortly before them. Most likely they belong to the first of three “curves” of progress in Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana (25 December – 3 January, 3 – 7 January and 7 – 12 January) which he mentioned in the entry for 6 January. This inference is supported by the text of a prediction written on the second undated page: “Monday next. An ascending scale till then.” It seems probable that Monday, 3 January, the end of the “curve” that began on 25 December, was also the culmination of the “ascending scale” mentioned in the prediction. 7 January – 1 February 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote these entries in the letter-pad used for the above section. The entry of 7 January is preceded by some diagrams and script jottings published in Part Four. 7 – 22 April 1927. Sri Aurobindo kept the Record for this period in the letter-pad used for the two preceding sections. Between the entry for 1 February and the one for 7 April come several blank pages, two drafts of an essay, some script, and a poem written in French. No Record was written, or none survives, for the period between April and October 1927. 24 – 31 October 1927. During this eight-day period, Sri Aurobindo kept the Record on two loose sheets of paper. Another sheet discovered with them contains a passage of script published in Part Four. It would appear that Sri Aurobindo tore these three sheets up and threw them

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away. They were saved from destruction by A. B. Purani, one of his early disciples. The explanatory note reproduced below was written by Purani during the 1950s or 1960s: These few pages of Sri Aurobindo’s diary of his Sadhana were intended to be burnt. The story of how they escaped that fate is as follows. To prepare hot water for the Mother’s bath very early in the morning was part of the work I had undertaken almost from 1926. I was staying in the ‘guest-house’ at that time & used to come to the main house between 2.30 – 3 in the night. In order not to disturb the inmates of the house I was given a key of one of the gates to enter it. The water had to be ready before 4 o’clock, often it was needed at 3.30. (This continued up to 1938 November 23r.d. when Sri Aurobindo got the accident.) The boiler room is well-known it is now the place from where incense is still fired and flowers distributed when it rains. The fuel used was ordinary wood with wooden shavings from the Carpentry department & waste papers. The wooden shavings often contained strips of teak-wood & many other useful tit-bits. I used to preserve them and make time-piece cases, photo-frames, corner brackets from them. When the matter was brought to Mother’s notice by someone she approved of such salvaging from waste & added that there were men in France in Paris the chiffonniers who became rich only by utilising the enormous waste of papers & rags in the big city. But the papers I invariably burnt. Perhaps the god of Fire must have become suddenly active, because one day I was struck by half a basketful of torn small bits & casually looked at them. To my surprise and horror I found Sri Aurobindo’s handwriting. I put them aside and looked at them in the daylight. I was able to make out with great labour extending for days like a jig-saw puzzle two or three readable pages. These pages are dated & they are evidently notes kept by Sri Aurobindo regarding his own Sadhana.

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It is not known whether other pages of the Record from this period, or other periods, were actually destroyed. PART FOUR. MATERIALS WRITTEN BY SRI AUROBINDO RELATED DIRECTLY TO RECORD OF YOGA, C. 1910 – 1931 This part consists of writings in Sri Aurobindo’s own hand that may be considered components of Record of Yoga, but which have not been included in Parts One to Three because they are undated or incompletely dated or, if dated, not concerned with Sri Aurobindo’s day-to-day sadhana. A number of different sorts of writings are represented: brief undated Record entries, scripts, sortileges, lipis, and notes on a wide variety of sadhana-related topics. They have been arranged in rough chronological order, groups of scripts being placed together in several chronological series. Undated Record and Record-related Notes, c. 1910 – 1914. Sri Aurobindo wrote these fourteen items in different notebooks during the early part of his stay in Pondicherry, that is between 1910 and 1914. Further details on individual pieces or groups of pieces follow. [1] Sri Aurobindo jotted down these undated notes around 1910 in a notebook containing translations and other pieces written years earlier in Baroda and Calcutta. [2] Sri Aurobindo wrote these notes in a notebook used in Baroda for miscellaneous literary writings and in Pondicherry for philological notes. They begin with a reference to Sri Aurobindo’s philological research under the heading “Bhasha” (“Language”). Sri Aurobindo’s did most of his philological research around 1911 – 12. The present notes may be assigned to the same period. They have, in addition, some similarity to the Record entries of January – February 1911. Both the notes and the entries are arranged by category, and have one heading in common: “Prophecy”. This term is used several times in January – February 1911 for what Sri Aurobindo normally called “trikaldrishti”. “Prophecy” occurs rarely in 1912 and all but disappears from the terminology of the Record after that. [3 – 13] Sri Aurobindo wrote all but one of these eleven pieces on scattered pages of a notebook used in Pondicherry (and perhaps also earlier in Bengal) for miscellaneous writings, notably the play Eric,

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as well as notes on philology and other subjects. They date from the earliest years in Pondicherry, that is, 1910 – 12. Some of them may even have been written slightly before that. [14] Sri Aurobindo wrote these “Psychological Notes” (his title) in an exercise-book of the kind he used to keep the Record of 1913 and early 1914. The exercisebook also contains a draft of the last version of the “Life Divine” commentary on the Isha Upanishad (see Isha Upanishad, volume 17 of the THE COMPLETE WORKS). This commentary may be dated to 1914. The psychological notes apparently date from the same year. Sortileges of May and June 1912. These two sortileges were written on a page of the notebook that later was used for the Record of 12 October to 26 November 1912 (see above). Undated Notes, c. November 1912. Written on the first two pages of the notebook used for the Record of 12 October to 26 November 1912. Draft Programme of 3 December 1912. Written on one of the last pages of the notebook used for the Record of 12 October to 26 November. The programme subsequently was copied, with a few changes, in the Record entry of 3 December, which was written in another notebook. Undated or Partly Dated Script, 1912 – 1913. These nine scripts were written on nine different sheets or sets of sheets during the years 1912 and 1913. Further details on individual pieces follow. [1] Written apparently around July 1912, the approximate date of the incomplete “Commentary on the Kena Upanishad” which is referred to in the script. Note also that in the Record of 4 July 1912, Sri Aurobindo wrote “Automatic script recommenced today”, and mentioned “prophetic script”, a term found nowhere else in the Record. [2] This “record of thought” or script was written at the bottom of a loose sheet containing linguistic notes. Two sentences from it appear verbatim in the Record of 14 October 1912. The script evidently was written on that day and part of it transcribed in the Record. [3] These three pieces of script were written on the inner pages of a large folded sheet of paper used otherwise for linguistic notes and fragmentary writings on other subjects. The linguistic notes are very similar to those found along with item [2]. It is therefore likely that the scripts date from roughly the same period. The predictions contained in the first script may be the same as the “programme suggested on the tenth” mentioned in

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the Record of 21 December 1912. There are a number of similarities between the elements of sadhana mentioned in the present script and those described in the Record of 10 – 11 December 1912. [4] This item, written on the last ten of a set of twenty-eight small pages formed by folding loose sheets of paper, may be assigned with some confidence to January 1913. It consists of a long undated passage, followed by four shorter entries with dates from the “21s.t.” to the “24th”. The month and year are not specified, but under the “23d” there is a reference to “this month of January”. The year 1913 may be established by comparison with the regular Record of January of that year. See for example the almost identical references to the Turkish city of Adrianople in the script of the “23d” and the Record of 24 January 1913. Since the partly dated portions of the script belong to 21 – 24 January 1913, the undated passage preceding them must have been written just before the 21st. Note also that the Record of 19 January states: “This morning script became profuse and intimate. . . .” The script contains some examples of writings in different languages known and unknown. Sri Aurobindo wrote or “received” a number of such writings around this time. The first eighteen of the set of pages on which the script is written are devoted to this project. Some examples of such “writings in different languages” are published in Vedic Studies with Writings on Philology, volume 14 of THE COMPLETE WORKS. [5] This script was written sometime around June 1913 on a sheet of letter paper found along with some Vedic and linguistic notes. The paper is of the type used also for item [6] as well as for letters written around June 1913. The third and fifth of the seven “rules” here correspond to some of the five “positive directions” given in the script of 22 June 1913, which is published as part of the Record proper. [6] These four paragraphs of script, written on two loose sheets similar in type to those used for item [5], contain no explicit dating clues, but the position they describe corresponds closely to the one referred to in the Record of 10 and 11 July 1913. The first paragraph says: “Lipi is already moving forward to the mahat. . . .” The Record of 10 July speaks of the “successful movement from manas to mahat predicted in the script”, and observes: “The only siddhi which advanced during the day was the lipi.” The second paragraph deals with a movement of the vijnana to brihat, to be followed by a further change to satyam and ritam. This is the situation

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described at the beginning of the second sentence of the Record of 11 July 1913: “At first the knowledge was merely brihat in manas. . . .” [7] This script, written on a single loose sheet, contains no explicit dating clues, but the situation it describes corresponds to the position of Sri Aurobindo’s sadhana between July and September 1913. The script may well have been written during the suspension of the regular Record between 11 July and 5 September 1913. [8] This short piece was written at the bottom of the sheet containing the first six paragraphs of the Record of 12 November 1913, but upside down in relation to them. It apparently was written before the commencement or at any rate the completion of the Record entry, which otherwise would have used the space occupied by the script. The style is similar to that of some of the “Thoughts and Aphorisms” and to the “Thought” noted down in the Record of 24 June 1914 beginning “Despise not, O thinker. . . .” [9] This long script was written on a large loose sheet folded to make four pages, the bottom edges of all of which have been damaged. The sheet was found together with the Record entries of 11 – 23 November 1913 and apparently belongs to the same period; note the phrase “till December” in the second paragraph. There are many similarities between the position of the sadhana as described in this script and in the Record of 12 – 18 November 1913. Compare, for example, the following passage in the script: “ Today a great movement forward. . . . The trikaldrishti, telepathy, power, lipi have now all to move towards absolute perfection dragging the samadhi & drishti with them. Till that is done, the fourth chatusthaya will only prepare its advance . . .” with this passage in the Record of 14 November: “Today is to be a day of rapid progress in the third chatusthaya and the preparation of rapid progress in the fourth.” Similarly the last page of the script has parallels with the Record of 17 and 18 November, while the last complete paragraph of the script has similarities to the Record of 18 November 1913. Sortilege of 15 March [1913]. Written on a page of a notebook used mostly for Ilion and other poems. The year is not given but it may be inferred from (1) the handwriting, (2) the period of the other pieces in the notebook, (3) the fact that no regular Record, in which a sortilege would normally have been entered, was kept in March 1913. Accounts of 31 May – 15 June 1913. Written on the first five pages

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of a notebook used later for Vedic translations and notes, the Record notes of 13 and 15 September (see below) and the Record of 22 – 30 September 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote “Record of Yogic details” on the cover of this notebook. It should be remembered that to him “All life is Yoga.” Record Notes, 13 and 15 September 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote these two entries under the heading “Record of Yoga. / Theosophic.” in the notebook used previously for the “Record of Yogic details” (see above) and subsequently for the Record of 22 – 30 September 1913. The year, not given explicitly, may be inferred from this position. Note that Sri Aurobindo also wrote a regular Record entry in another notebook on 13 September. Vedic Experience, 14 and 15 December 1913. Sri Aurobindo wrote regular Record entries for both these days, but chose to enter this experience in a notebook used otherwise for Vedic translations and notes. Undated Notes, c. 1914. Sri Aurobindo wrote these notes headed “Vijnanachatusthaya” on a loose sheet of paper that was found inserted in a notebook used, among other things, for the Record of July 1912. The sheet, however, does not appear to be connected with anything in the notebook, and may have been put there simply as a placemark. The handwriting is that of 1912 – 14. It is possible that these notes are the “separate detailed record of the results” of the “formulated & steady activity for the regulation of the third chatusthaya” that Sri Aurobindo wrote of having “commenced” in the Record of 1 June 1914. Notes on Images Seen in March 1914. Sri Aurobindo wrote this piece, which he entitled “The Evolutionary Scale”, in March 1914 in an exercise-book of the same sort as he was using then for the Record. In the Record entry of 22 March 1914, he spoke of certain “scenes of a pursuit in the early Manwantaras of a race of divinised Pashus by Barbarians” which were “recorded elsewhere”. The reference is evidently to the second section of “The Evolutionary Scale”, which begins: “A series of images and a number of intimations have been given yesterday in the chitra-drishti to illustrate the history of the first two Manwantaras. . . .” The word “yesterday”, which was added between the lines, would seem to indicate that the second, and probably the first and third sections as well, were written on 23 March. Further

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references in the Record make it clear that the images of the fourth section and the first paragraph of the fifth section were seen on 24 March, and that the images of the rest of the fifth section and probably those of the sixth were seen on 25 March. Undated Script, c. 1920. The first of these two scripts is the last piece of writing in a letter-pad whose other contents (Vedic translations, etc.) provide no explicit dating clues. The term “drashtri vijnana”, which occurs in the script, is found otherwise only in the Record of March 1920. The second piece, consisting of three short entries, was written on two loose sheets that cannot be precisely dated. The third entry employs the term “logos Vijnana”, which occurs in the Record only in October 1920. Undated Notes, c. December 1926. Sri Aurobindo wrote all but the last of these seven pieces in a letter-pad used previously for Vedic notes and subsequently for the Record of January – February and April 1927, as well as for certain undated Record entries, scripts, etc. “The Seven Suns of the Supermind” is followed closely by Record entries that are considered to have been written in December 1926. It seems likely that that piece and the five preceding it were written in the same month. Sri Aurobindo wrote the seventh piece, “The Seven Centres of the Life”, on a sheet from another letter-pad, apparently around the same time. Undated Notes, c. January 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote these notes, in which the names of some of his disciples are linked with those of historical, legendary and divine figures, in the letter-pad of 1926 – 27 referred to above. Before and after it are Record notes that have been dated to the last week of December 1926 and the first week of January 1927. Notes on Physical Transformation, c. January 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote these notes in the letter-pad of 1926 – 27. They come just before the Record notes dated “Thursday. Jan 6.” They appear to be more in the nature of script than ordinary writing. (The word “you” obviously refers to Sri Aurobindo, while “she” designates the Mother, as it does in several Record entries of January 1927.) Diagrams, c. January 1927. Written and drawn in the letter-pad of 1926 – 27 between entries dated 6 January and 7 January. Miscellaneous Notations, c. February – April 1927. [1 – 2] Written on two separate pages of the letter-pad of 1926 – 27, the first a few pages

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Record of Yoga

after the Record entry of 1 February, the second between the two parts of the entry of 9 April. (The script must have been written before this date, since the splitting of the entry of 9 April evidently was due to the fact that the intervening pages had already been used.) [3] This lipi, dated 2 April 1927, was written in the letter-pad of 1926 – 27 between the two parts of the entry of 9 April. [4] Sri Aurobindo wrote this mantra in the letter-pad of 1926 – 27, just after the lipi described above. Record of Drishti, 30 July 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote these dated notes in a tiny note-pad used otherwise to record electric-meter readings. Undated Script, c. 1927. Sri Aurobindo wrote these three sets of script notations in a notebook belonging to the year 1927. Pieces [1] and [2] come a little before writings that may be dated with some certainty to July – August 1927; but some similarities between the terminology of these entries and the Record of January 1927 suggest that the entries may have been written earlier in the year. The third piece occurs further on in the same notebook, and appears to date from somewhat later in 1927. Undated Script, c. 1927 – 1928. These four passages of script all come from manuscripts datable to late 1927 or 1928. All contain references to “overmind”, a term that first occurs in the Record in the entry of 29 October 1927. [1] The torn-up sheet on which this passage was written was found by A. B. Purani together with those containing the Record of 24 – 31 October 1927. Its opening is similar to number 14 of the “Undated Script Jottings” (see below), which was found in a notebook used in 1928. [2 – 3] These two passages occur in two different notebooks, both from the period 1927 – 28. Their terminology suggests that they may have been written after October 1927, although this would mean that they were jotted down after most of the contents of the subsequent pages of the notebooks were written. [4] These two fragments were found on a scrap of a sheet detached from a letter-pad. The first occupies what was originally the top of the front of the sheet. It begins in the middle of a sentence. The preceding page or pages have been lost. The second fragment occupies what was the bottom of the reverse of the sheet. (The pad was stitched at the top.) Between the two fragments came whatever was written on the bottom three-quarters of the front page and the top three-quarters of the reverse.

Note on the Texts

1509

Notes on Prophetic Vision, 1929. Sri Aurobindo wrote these dated notes in a small “Bloc-Memo” pad used otherwise for miscellaneous jottings and writings. Diagrams, c. 1931. Written and drawn on both sides of a piece of letter paper, at the top of which is the conclusion of a letter-draft whose beginning has been lost. The draft ends: However I give the schema below and you can see for yourself it is arranged according to an ascending scale of consciousness, grades superimposed on each other, but that does not mean that there is no interpenetration of one by another. The letter was rewritten on 15 April 1931 and sent without the diagrams. Undated Script Jottings. These fifteen passages of script were jotted down by Sri Aurobindo on the pages of various notebooks and loose pieces of paper between circa 1915 and the late 1920s. They are arranged in roughly chronological order, though their dates and sometimes even periods are difficult to determine. [1] Written on a sheet torn out of a letter-pad of the sort Sri Aurobindo used for the Record in 1915 – 16 and for other writings during approximately the same period. [2] Written on a page of a letter-pad containing writings that can be dated 1916 – 18. [3] Jotted on the last page of a notebook containing Vedic translations and English poetry written at different times. [4 – 5] Written on two pages of a notebook used around 1926. [6] Written on the back of a letter to Sri Aurobindo dated 16 August 1926. [7 – 8] Written on the front and back of a loose sheet inserted in the note-pad used for the Record of 1926 – 27; the loose sheet may once have been the first sheet of the pad, in which case the jottings may date to December 1926. [9 – 11] Written on three pages of the notebook that was used for the “Undated Script, c. 1927” (see above). [12] Written circa 1927 – 28 on a torn sheet used otherwise for a passage intended for the revised version of The Synthesis of Yoga. [13] Written on a torn letter, perhaps from slightly later than 1928. [14] Written and cancelled at the top of a page of a stenographic pad used around 1928. [15] Written in the margin of a page of a notebook used for the poem Savitri in the late 1920s.

1510

Record of Yoga PART FIVE. AUTOMATIC WRITING

Sri Aurobindo first tried automatic writing defined by him as writing not “dictated or guided by the writer’s conscious mind” towards the end of his stay in Baroda (that is, around 1904). He took it up “as an experiment as well as an amusement” after observing “some very extraordinary automatic writing” done by his brother Barin; “very much struck and interested” by the phenomenon, “he decided to find out by practising this kind of writing himself what there was behind it.” Barin seems at least sometimes to have used a planchette for his experiments, but Sri Aurobindo generally just “held the pen while a disembodied being wrote off what he wished, using my pen and hand”. He continued these experiments during his political career (1906 – 10) and afterwards. In this part are published one example from 1907, an entire book received as automatic writing in 1910, and a number of examples from two years during which he also kept the Record: 1914 and 1920. His “final conclusion” about automatic writing was that though there are sometimes phenomena which point to the intervention of beings of another plane, not always or often of a high order, the mass of such writings comes from a dramatising element in the subconscious mind; sometimes a brilliant vein in the subliminal is struck and then predictions of the future and statements of things known in the present and past come up, but otherwise these writings have not a great value. During the period of the Record, Sri Aurobindo made much use of a form of writing he called “script”. As explained above, this was similar to automatic writing in that it came as a communication from another source, but differed from automatic writing in coming from a source that he considered to be higher and more reliable. It should be noted, however, that the distinction of “script” from ordinary automatic writing was not always strictly maintained. Some writings from a lower source refer to themselves as script (see for example page 1410), and Sri Aurobindo used the word “script” for writings that were produced in s´eances with others (see for example the Record of 17 July 1914, where he writes: “Today excellent script with R [Richard]

Note on the Texts

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& Madame R.”) In these examples, “script” is used as a generic term to cover all forms of written communication from other sources. “The Scribblings”, c. 1907. Written in a notebook previously used by Sri Aurobindo in Baroda for miscellaneous writings. In May 1908 this notebook and several others were seized by the police when Sri Aurobindo was arrested in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case. These automatic writings were submitted by the prosecution as evidence against Sri Aurobindo, but were not accepted by the judge as being in Sri Aurobindo’s hand. They were, however, certainly written by him, though, being automatic, they are somewhat illegible; hence the name by which they were known during the trial: “The Scribblings”. They mention Barindra Kumar Ghose, Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother, who was the active head of a revolutionary group, as well as three other members. Yogic Sadhan. Sri Aurobindo received this book as automatic writing in 1910. According to his biographer A. B. Purani, During the first three months of the stay at Pondicherry [April – June 1910] there used to be s´eances in the evening in which automatic writing was done. The book Yogic Sadhan was written in this way. At the rate of one chapter per day, the book was finished in a week or eight days. . . . The Editor’s Epilogue added after the last chapter was written by Sri Aurobindo himself. The editor’s name is given as “the Uttar[a] Yogi”. A year later, the text that had been received was transcribed and published under the title Yogic Sadhan by Sri Vani Vilas Press, Srirangam. “The Uttara Yogi” (the Yogi from the North) is a name by which Sri Aurobindo was known to the person who published the book. A second edition of Yogic Sadhan, lightly revised, was brought out by the Modern Press, Pondicherry, in 1920. Two further editions were brought out by Arya Publishing House, Calcutta, in 1923 and 1933. The present text follows the second edition with a few emendations, mainly in chapters 7 – 9, for which a manuscript in Sri Aurobindo’s hand survives. Sri Aurobindo permitted the publication of Yogic Sadhan, but he did not consider it his own work. In a letter of 1934 he wrote:

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Record of Yoga

The Yogic Sadhan is not Sri Aurobindo’s own writing, but was published with a note by him, that is all. The statement made to the contrary by the publishers was an error which they have been asked to correct. There is no necessity of following the methods suggested in that book unless one finds them suggestive or helpful as a preliminary orientation of the consciousness e.g. in the up-building of an inner Will etc. The “note” referred to is the “Editor’s Epilogue”, which was included in all editions of Yogic Sadhan. Sri Aurobindo allowed the book to go out of print after the edition of 1933 was sold out. It has not been reprinted since then in the form of a book. Automatic writings, c. 1914 (First Set). These four pieces of automatic writing are found on four loose sheets of paper folded together. They are not dated but almost certainly were written in 1914. The sheet on which item [1] was written contains also a draft of something published in the journal Arya in August of that year. Item [2] contains a reference to “the Review”, that is, the Arya, which was conceived around 1 June 1914 and first published in August. Items [3] and [4] seem to have been written around the same time as the first two items. Automatic writings, c. 1914 (Second Set). These two pieces of automatic writing were written on four loose sheets of paper folded to make eight pages. The sheets were found along with those on which the previous set were written, and appear to belong to the same period. Automatic Writing, c. 1920. This short writing was found in a letterpad used principally for Vedic translations and notes. Below it, on the same page, are a few lines that have been classified as Record-related script and published in Part Four (the first piece of “Undated Script, c. 1920”). That piece has been dated by terminology to around March 1920. The present writing describes itself as “script”, that is, a “means of embodied communication with the other worlds”; but the “spirit of the higher realms” who speaks is evidently not the Master of the Yoga. The item is therefore classified as automatic writing rather than script. Automatic Writings, c. 1920. These nineteen writings were found together in a single batch of seventy-eight loose sheets. They are published here in the order in which they were found. It is likely that each

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1513

item is the product of a separate s´eance. References to known events in some of the writings lead one to date them to the summer of 1920. Lokamanya Tilak, who is referred to in item [9] as having departed from the body, apparently rather recently, died on 1 August 1920. The letter referred to in item [8] very likely is the one written by Tilak’s associate Dr. B. S. Munje to Sri Aurobindo, inviting him to preside over the 1920 session of the Indian National Congress. Sri Aurobindo’s reply turning down this offer is dated 30 August 1920. Mirra Richard (The Mother) and Paul Richard participated in some if not all the sessions. (See especially item [9].) They returned to Pondicherry from Japan on 24 April 1920. Richard left Pondicherry in December of the same year. APPENDIX. MATERIAL

FROM

DISCIPLES’ NOTEBOOKS

The pieces in this Appendix have been transcribed from versions handwritten by early disciples of Sri Aurobindo. They are copies of notes written by Sri Aurobindo or of written records of his oral remarks. With one partial exception, none of these items exist in the form of manuscripts in Sri Aurobindo’s handwriting. The exception is on the last page of item [1] of the “Miscellaneous Notes”, where there are three pieces that were written or revised by Sri Aurobindo in his own hand. Only these pieces may be considered to be as authentic as the handwritten Record. Nevertheless, Sri Aurobindo may be regarded as the origin of all the pieces in this appendix, as they are either transcriptions of his talks or copies of now-lost written texts. They represent aspects of his teaching in an early form as given to his earliest disciples. Miscellaneous Notes, c. 1914. These seven sets of notes are reproduced from handwritten copies made by disciples of Sri Aurobindo in various notebooks. Early copies of items [1], [2] and [5] were written in the exercise-book he used subsequently for the “Incomplete Notes on the First Chatusthaya” published in the Introduction. This notebook has “1914” printed on the cover. Another notebook containing the principal versions of items [3], [4], [6] and [7] has calendars for 1913 and 1914 printed inside the front cover. Many of the disciples’ notebooks contain a copy of a letter written by Sri Aurobindo on 21 September

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1914. It is reasonable to conclude that the pieces date roughly from the period around 1914. Sapta Chatusthaya Scribal Version. This presentation of Sapta Chatusthaya is the most complete one available. There is no manuscript of the piece in Sri Aurobindo’s hand, but he was undoubtedly its source. The text survives only in the form of transcripts written down by disciples. Several of these “scribal copies”, as the editors term them, have been collated and two of the oldest selected as the basis of the present text. One of the scribal copies may date from as early as 1914; two others are from the mid-1920s, and most or all of the rest from the 1930s. These copies were made either from a now-lost manuscript written by Sri Aurobindo or, more likely, from one or more written records of a series of talks given by him. The scribal copies may be considered on the whole to be reliable records of the substance of what Sri Aurobindo must have written or said; but all of them contain obvious distortions of his words. Because of this, a much freer hand has been used in the editing of this piece than would have been permissible if the text was based on a handwritten manuscript. The text is “eclectic”; that is to say, it follows for the most part the scribal version that seems to offer the best text as a whole, but it makes use of readings from the other principal scribal copy where these appear more likely to represent Sri Aurobindo’s actual words. Where the scribal copies agree but the reading seems defective, an editorial alternative has been printed between square brackets, as part of the text, and the scribal version given in a footnote. (Such footnote variants are preceded by “MS (scribal)”.) The editors have silently made minor corrections of the spelling, punctuation, etc. of these scribal texts. PUBLISHING HISTORY No part of Record of Yoga was published during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime. The notebooks and loose sheets containing the diary entries and related materials were found after his passing along with his other manuscripts. Most of Record of Yoga was published in the journal Sri Aurobindo: Archives and Research between 1986 and 1994. Some material mainly in Parts One, Four and the first section of the Appendix

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1515

was omitted when Record of Yoga was published in that journal and appears here for the first time. The publishing history of Yogic Sadhan has been given above in the note on Part Five. “The Seven Suns of the Supermind” and the diagrams in Part Four were included in The Hour of God (Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo Ashram) in 1959 and subsequently; there the diagrams were given the editorial title “The Divine Plan”. A few related pieces that were added to the reorganised 1982 edition of The Hour of God are also included in Part Four. In 1973, Sri Aurobindo’s manuscript version of “Sapta Chatusthaya” was published, with much editorial normalisation of the spelling of Sanskrit words and other details, in volume 27 (Supplement) of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. The text of this first edition of Record of Yoga has been reproduced verbatim, as far as possible, from the manuscripts of the diary entries and related materials.

12

Essays Divine and Human

VOLUME 12 THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1997 Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA

Essays Divine and Human Writings from Manuscripts 1910 – 1950

Publisher’s Note Essays Divine and Human consists of short prose pieces written by Sri Aurobindo after his arrival in Pondicherry in 1910 but not published before his passing in 1950. Short prose works written during the same period and published during his lifetime appear in Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, volume 13 of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO. There are indications in Sri Aurobindo’s Pondicherry notebooks that he intended to bring out a collection of essays on yoga and other subjects. The headings written above two pieces, “Essays Divine and Human” and “Essays — Human and Divine”, seem to have been intended as possible titles for this proposed book. The editors have chosen the first of these to be the title of the present volume. The material has been arranged in four parts: I. Essays Divine and Human — complete essays on yoga and related subjects, arranged in five chronological sections. II. From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga, arranged in three thematic sections. III. Notes and Fragments on Various Subjects, arranged in five thematic sections. IV. Thoughts and Aphorisms, as arranged by the author in three sections, with a section of additional aphorisms. All the writings in this book have been reproduced from Sri Aurobindo’s manuscripts. He did not prepare any of them for publication and left many in an unfinished state. Simple editorial problems arising from illegibility, incomplete revision, etc. are indicated by means of the system explained in the Guide to Editorial Notation on the next page. More complex problems are discussed in the reference volume.

Guide to Editorial Notation The contents of this volume were never prepared by Sri Aurobindo for publication. They have been transcribed from manuscripts that present a variety of textual difficulties. As far as possible the editors have indicated these problems by means of the notation shown below. Notation

Textual Problem

[?word]

Doubtful reading

[...]

Illegible word(s), one group of three spaced dots for each presumed word

[.......]

Word(s) lost by mutilation of the manuscript (at the beginning of a piece, indicates that a page or pages of the manuscript have been lost)

[word]

Word(s) omitted by the author or lost through damage to the manuscript that are required by grammar or sense, and that could be supplied by the editors

[?

]

Word(s) omitted by the author that could not be supplied by the editors

[

]

Blank left by the author to be filled in later but left unfilled, which the editors were not able to fill

[note]

Situations requiring textual explication; all such information is printed in italics

Some textual situations requiring editorial intervention could not be handled by the above system. Such cases are discussed or tabulated in the reference volume (volume 35).

CONTENTS Part One Essays Divine and Human Section One (circa 1911) Certitudes Moksha Man Philosophy The Siddhis The Psychology of Yoga

5 6 7 8 14 18

Section Two (1910 – 1913) Na Kinchidapi Chintayet The Sources of Poetry The Interpretation of Scripture On Original Thinking The Balance of Justice Social Reform Hinduism and the Mission of India The Psychology of Yoga The Claims of Theosophy Science & Religion in Theosophy Sat Sachchidananda The Silence behind Life

23 28 33 38 46 50 59 64 67 72 75 84 88

Section Three (circa 1913) The Psychology of Yoga Initial Definitions and Descriptions The Object of Our Yoga Purna Yoga I. The Entire Purpose of Yoga II. Parabrahman, Mukti & Human Thought-Systems III. Parabrahman and Parapurusha

93 96 98 103 107

CONTENTS

Natural and Supernatural Man The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga The Fullness of Yoga — In Condition Nature Maya

108 115 122 133

Section Four (1914 – 1919) The Beginning and the End The Hour of God Beyond Good and Evil The Divine Superman

141 146 148 150

Section Five (1927 and after) The Law of the Way Man and the Supermind The Involved and Evolving Godhead The Evolution of Consciousness The Path

155 157 161 165 169

Part Two From Man to Superman: Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga Section One. Philosophy: God, Nature and Man God: The One Reality Nature: The World-Manifestation Man and Superman

177 193 221

Section Two. Psychology: The Science of Consciousness The Problem of Consciousness 271 Consciousness and the Inconscient 290 The Science of Consciousness 302 Section Three. Yoga: Change of Consciousness and Transformation of Nature The Way of Yoga Partial Systems of Yoga Integral Yoga

327 344 356

CONTENTS

Part Three Notes and Fragments on Various Subjects Section One. The Human Being in Time The Marbles of Time A Theory of the Human Being A Cyclical Theory of Evolution

379 380 382

Section Two. The East and the West A Misunderstanding of Continents Towards Unification China, Japan and India

389 391 394

Section Three. India Renascent India Where We Stand in Literature

397 398

Section Four. Genius, Poetry, Beauty The Origin of Genius Poetic Genius The Voices of the Poets Pens´ees A Dream The Beauty of a Crow’s Wings

403 404 405 407 409 410

Section Five. Science, Religion, Reason, Justice Science Religion Reason and Society Justice

413 414 415 418

Part Four Thoughts and Aphorisms Jnana Karma Bhakti Additional Aphorisms

423 453 481 500

Part One Essays Divine and Human The essays in this part have been arranged chronologically in five sections. The contents of several of the sections or subsections seem to have been intended by Sri Aurobindo to be published as series or collections of essays.

Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry

A page of a draft of “Man and the Supermind”

Section One Circa 1911

Certitudes In the deep there is a greater deep, in the heights a greater height. Sooner shall man arrive at the borders of infinity than at the fulness of his own being. For that being is infinity, is God — I aspire to infinite force, infinite knowledge, infinite bliss. Can I attain it? Yes, but the nature of infinity is that it has no end. Say not therefore that I attain it. I become it. Only so can man attain God by becoming God. But before attaining he can enter into relations with him. To enter into relations with God is Yoga, the highest rapture & the noblest utility. There are relations within the compass of the humanity we have developed. These are called prayer, worship, adoration, sacrifice, thought, faith, science, philosophy. There are other relations beyond our developed capacity, but within the compass of the humanity we have yet to develop. Those are the relations that are attained by the various practices we usually call Yoga. We may not know him as God, we may know him as Nature, our Higher Self, Infinity, some ineffable goal. It was so that Buddha approached Him; so approaches him the rigid Adwaitin. He is accessible even to the Atheist. To the materialist He disguises Himself in matter. For the Nihilist he waits ambushed in the bosom of Annihilation.

y  yTA mA\ þpt  tA\-tT {v BjAMyhm^.

Moksha The pessimists have made moksha synonymous with annihilation or dissolution, but its true meaning is freedom. He who is free from bondage, is free, is mukta. But the last bondage is the passion for liberation itself which must be renounced before the soul can be perfectly free, and the last knowledge is the realisation that there is none bound, none desirous of freedom, but the soul is for ever and perfectly free, that bondage is an illusion and the liberation from bondage is an illusion. Not only are we bound but in play, the mimic knots are of such a nature that we ourselves can at our pleasure undo them. Nevertheless the bonds are many and intricate. The most difficult of all their knots is egoism, the delusion that we have an individual existence sufficient in itself, separate from the universal and only being, ekamevadwitiyam, who is one not only beyond Time, Space and Causality. Not only are we all Brahman in our nature and being, waves of one sea, but we are each of us Brahman in His entirety, for that which differentiates and limits us, nama and rupa, exists only in play and for the sake of the world-drama. Whence then comes this delusion of egoism, if there is no separate existence and only Brahman is? We answer that there is separate existence but only in manifestation not in reality. It is as if one actor could play different parts not in succession but at one and the same moment; each part is He Himself, one and indivisible, but each part is different from the other. Brahman extends Himself in Time, Space & Causality which do not condition Him but exist in Him and can at any time be changed or abolished, and in Time, Space & Causality He attaches Himself to many namarupas which are merely existences in His universal being. They are real in manifestation, unreal outside manifestation.

Man The Shastras use the same word for man and the one divine and universal Being — Purusha — as if to lay stress upon the oneness of humanity with God. Nara and Narayana are the eternal couple, who, though they are two, are one, eternally different, eternally the same. Narayana, say the scholiasts, is he who dwells in the waters, but I rather think it means he who is the essence and sum of all humanity. Wherever there is a man, there there is Narayana; for the two cannot be separated. I think sometimes that when Christ spoke of himself as the Son of Man, he really meant the son of the Purusha, and almost find myself imagining that anthropos is only the clumsy Greek equivalent, the literal and ignorant translation of some Syrian word which corresponded to our Purusha. Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that man is full of divine possibilities — he is not merely a term in physical evolution, but himself the field of a spiritual evolution which with him began and in him will end. It was only when man was made, that the gods were satisfied — they who had rejected v, “Man indeed is well and the animal forms, — and cried s,ktm wonderfully made; the higher evolution can now begin.” He is like God, the sum of all other types and creatures from the animal to the god, infinitely variable where they are fixed, dynamic where they, even the highest, are static, and, therefore, although in the present and in his attainment a little lower than the angels, yet in the eventuality and in his culmination considerably higher than the gods. The other or fixed types, animals, gods, giants, Titans, demigods, can rise to a higher development than their own, but they must use the human body and the terrestrial birth to effect the transition.

Philosophy The knowledge which the man of pure intellect prefers to a more active and mundane curiosity, has in its surroundings a certain loftiness and serene detachment that cannot fail in their charm. To withdraw from contact with emotion and life and weave a luminous colourless shadowless web of thought, alone and far away in the infinite azure empyrean of pure ideas, can be an enthralling pastime fit for Titans or even for Gods. The ideas so found have always their value and it is no objection to their truth that, when tested by the rude ordeal of life and experience, they go to pieces. All that inopportune disaster proves is that they are no fit guides to ordinary human conduct; for material life which is the field of conduct is only intellectual on its mountaintops; in the plains and valleys ideas must undergo limitation by unideal conditions and withstand the shock of crude sub-ideal forces. Nevertheless conduct is a great part of our existence and the mere metaphysical, logical or scientific knowledge that either does not help me to act or even limits my self-manifestation through action, cannot be my only concern. For God has not set me here merely to think, to philosophise, to weave metaphysical systems, to play with words and syllogisms, but to act, love and know. I must act divinely so that I may become divine in being and deed; I must learn to love God not only in Himself but in all beings, appearances, objects, enjoyments, events, whether men call them good or bad, real or mythical, fortunate or calamitous; and I must know Him with the same divine impartiality and completeness in order that I may come to be like Him, perfect, pure and unlimited — that which all sons of Man must one day be. This, I cannot help thinking, is the meaning and purpose of the Lila. It is not true that because I think, I am; but rather because I think, feel and act, and even while I am doing any or all of these things, can transcend the thought, feeling and

Philosophy

9

action, therefore I am. Because I manifest, I am, and because I transcend manifestation, I am. The formula is not so clear and catching as the Cartesian, but there is a fuller truth in its greater comprehensiveness. The man of unalloyed intellect has a very high and difficult function; it is his function to teach men to think clearly and purely. In order to effect that for mankind, to carry reason as far as that somewhat stumbling and hesitating Pegasus will go, he sacrifices all the bypaths of mental enjoyment, the shady alleys and the moonlit gardens of the soul, in order that he may walk in rare air and a cold sunlight, living highly and austerely on the peaks of his mind and seeking God severely through knowledge. He treads down his emotions, because emotion distorts reason and replaces it by passions, desires, preferences, prejudices, prejudgments. He avoids life, because life awakes all his sensational being and puts his reason at the mercy of egoism, of sensational reactions of anger, fear, hope, hunger, ambition, instead of allowing it to act justly and do disinterested work. It becomes merely the paid pleader of a party, a cause, a creed, a dogma, an intellectual faction. Passion and eagerness, even intellectual eagerness, so disfigure the greatest minds that even Shankara becomes a sophist and a word-twister, and even Buddha argues in a circle. The philosopher wishes above all to preserve his intellectual righteousness; he is or should be as careful of his mental rectitude as the saint of his moral stainlessness. Therefore he avoids, as far as the world will let him, the conditions which disturb. But in this way he cuts himself off from experience and only the gods can know without experience. Siey`es said that politics was a subject of which he had made a science. He had, but the pity was that though he knew the science of politics perfectly, he did not know politics itself in the least and when he did enter political life, he had formed too rigidly the logical habit to replace it in any degree by the practical. If he had reversed the order or at least coordinated experiment with his theories before they were formed, he might have succeeded better. His readymade Constitutions are monuments of logical perfection and practical ineffectiveness. They have the weakness

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of all logic; — granting your premises, your conclusion is alltriumphant; but then who is going to grant you your premises? There is nothing Fact and Destiny delight in so much as upsetting the logician’s major and minor. The logician thinks he has ensured himself against error when he has made a classification of particular fallacies; but he forgets the supreme and general fallacy, the fallacy of thinking that logic can, as a rule, prove anything but particular and partial propositions dealing with a fragmentary and one-sided truth. Logic? But Truth is not logical; it contains logic, but is not contained by it. A particular syllogism may be true, so far as it goes, covering a sharply limited set of facts, but even a set of syllogisms cannot exhaust truth on a general subject, for the simple reason that they necessarily ignore a number of equally valid premises, facts or possibilities which support a modified or contrary view. If one could arrive first at a conclusion, then at its exact opposite and, finally, harmonise the contradiction, one might arrive at some approach to the truth. But this is a process logic abhors. Its fundamental conception is that two contradictory statements cannot be true at the same time and place & in the same circumstances. Now, Fact and Nature and God laugh aloud when they hear the logician state his fundamental conception. For the universe is based on the simultaneous existence of contradictions covering the same time, place and circumstances. The elementary conception that God is at once One and Many, Finite & Infinite, Formed and Formless and that each attribute is the condition of the existence of its opposite, is a thing metaphysical logic has been boggling over ever since the reign of reason began. The metaphysician thinks that he has got over the difficulty about the validity of premises by getting to the tattwas, the ideal truths of universal existence. Afterwards, he thinks, there can be no fear of confusion or error and by understanding and fixing them we shall be able to proceed from a sound basis to the rest of our task. He fashions his critique of reason, his system of pramanas, and launches himself into the wide inane. Alas, the tattwas are the very foundation, support and initial reason of this

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worldwide contradiction and logically impossible conciliation of opposites in which God has shadowed out some few rays of His luminous & infinite reality, — impossible to bind with the narrow links of a logical chain precisely because it is infinite. As for the pramanas, their manipulation is the instrument of all difference of opinion and the accompaniment to an unending jangle of debate. Both the logician and the philosopher are apt to forget that they are dealing with words and words divorced from experience can be the most terrible misleaders in the world. Precisely because they are capable of giving us so much light, they are also capable of lighting us into impenetrable darkness. Tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayam ratah; “Deeper is the darkness into which they enter who are addicted to knowledge alone.” This sort of word worship and its resultant luminous darkness is very common in India and nowhere more than in the intellectualities of religion, so that when a man talks to me about the One and Maya and the Absolute, I am tempted to ask him, “My friend, how much have you experienced of these things in which you instruct me or how much are you telling me out of a vacuum or merely from intellectual appreciation? If you have merely ideas and no experience, you are no authority for me and your logic is to me but the clashing of cymbals good to deafen an opponent into silence, but of no use for knowledge. If you say you have experienced, then I have to ask you, ‘Are you sure you have measured all possible experience?’ If you have not, then how can you be sure that my contradictory experience is not equally true? If you say you have, then I know you to be deluded or a pretender, one who has experienced a fragment or nothing; for God in His entire being is unknowable, avijnatam vijanatam.” The scientist thinks he has corrected the mistakes of the metaphysician because he refuses to deal with anything but a narrow and limited circle of facts and condemns everything else as hallucination, imposture and imagination. His parti pris, his fierce and settled prejudgments, his determined begging of the question are too obvious and well known to need particular illustration. He forgets that all experiences are facts, that ideas are

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facts, that subjective knowledge is the one fact of which he can be decently sure and that he knows nothing even of the material world by his senses but only by the use his subjective knowledge makes of the senses. Many a materialist will tell you that only those facts can be accepted as a basis to knowledge which the senses supply, — a position which no man can substantiate and which his science daily denies in practice. These reasoners consent to trust to their sovereign subjective instrument when it settles for them the truths about this world visible to their lower instruments, but the same sovereign instrument is condemned as wholly fallacious and insane when it deals in precisely the same way with another field of perceptions and experiences. When my subjective experience tells him, “I am hungry”, he consents; “Of course, you must be since you say so.” But let it tell him, “I am full of bliss from an immaterial source”; or “By certain higher instruments repeatedly tested I know that I have wandered in regions illuminated by no material sun,” and he answers, “You are only fit for the gaol or the lunatic asylum.” No one has seen the earth whirling round the sun, indeed we see daily the opposite, yet he holds the first opinion obstinately, but if you say “Although God is not seen of men, yet He exists,” he turns from you angrily and stalks into his laboratory. The practical man avoids error by refusing to think at all. His method at least cannot be right. It is not right even for the practical uses he prefers exclusively to all others. You see him stumbling into some pit because he refuses to walk with a light and then accusing adverse circumstances or his evil fortune, or he shouts, elbows, jostles, tumbles and stumbles himself into a final success and departs at last, satisfied; leaving behind a name in history and a legacy of falsehood, evil and suffering to unborn generations. The method of the practical man is the shortest and most facile, but the least admirable of all. Truth is an infinitely complex reality and he has the best chance of arriving nearest to it who most recognises but is not daunted by its infinite complexity. We must look at the whole thought-tangle, fact, emotion, idea, truth beyond idea,

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conclusion, contradiction, modification, ideal, practice, possibility, impossibility (which must be yet attempted,) and keeping the soul calm and the eye clear in this mighty flux and gurge of the world, seek everywhere for some word of harmony, not forgetting immediate in ultimate truth, nor ultimate in immediate, but giving each its due place and portion in the Infinite Purpose. Some minds, like Plato, like Vivekananda, feel more than others this mighty complexity and give voice to it. They pour out thought in torrents or in rich and majestic streams. They are not logically careful of consistency, they cannot build up any coherent, yet comprehensive systems, but they quicken men’s minds and liberate them from religious, philosophic and scientific dogma and tradition. They leave the world not surer, but freer than when they entered it. Some men seek to find the truth by imaginative perception. It is a good instrument like logic, but like logic it breaks down before it reaches the goal. Neither ought to be allowed to do more than take us some way and then leave us. Others think that a fine judgment can arrive at the true balance. It does, for a time; but the next generation upsets that fine balancing, consenting to a coarser test or demanding a finer. The religious prefer inspiration, but inspiration is like the lightning, brilliantly illuminating only a given reach of country and leaving the rest in darkness intensified by the sharpness of that light. Vast is our error if we mistake that bit of country for the whole universe. Is there then no instrument of knowledge that can give us the heart of truth and provide us with the key word of existence? I think there is, but the evolution of mankind at large yet falls far short of it; their highest tread only on the border of that illumination. After all pure intellect carries us very high. But neither the scorner of pure intellectual ideation, nor its fanatic and devotee can attain to the knowledge in which not only the senses reflect or the mind thinks about things, but the ideal faculty directly knows them.

The Siddhis Some men sneer at the Siddhis because they do not believe in them, others because they think it is noble and spiritual to despise them. Both attitudes proceed from ignorance. It is true that to some natures the rule of omne ignotum pro magnifico holds and everything that is beyond their knowledge is readily accepted as true marvel and miracle, and of such a temper are the credulous made, it is also true that to others it is omne ignotum pro falso and they cannot forbear ridiculing as fraud or pitiable superstition everything that is outside the reach of their philosophy. This is the temper of the incredulous. But the true temper is to be neither credulous nor incredulous, but calmly and patiently to inquire. Let the inquiry be scrupulous, but also scrupulously fair on both sides. Some think it shows superior rationality, even when they inquire, to be severe, and by that they mean to seize every opportunity of disproving the phenomenon offered to their attention. Such an attitude is good rather for limiting knowledge than increasing it. If it saves us from some errors of assertion, it betrays us into many errors of negation and postpones developments of the utmost importance to our human advance. I do not wish to argue the question of the existence or nonexistence of Yogic siddhis; for it is not with me a question of debate, or of belief and disbelief, since I know by daily experience that they exist. I am concerned rather with their exact nature and utility. And here one is met by the now fashionable habit, among people presuming to be Vedantic and spiritual, of a denunciation and holy horror of the Yogic siddhis. They are, it seems, Tantric, dangerous, immoral, delusive as conjuring tricks, a stumbling block in the path of the soul’s liberation. Swami Vivekananda did much to encourage this attitude by his eagerness to avoid all mention of them at the outset of his mission in order not to

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startle the incredulity of the Europeans. “These things are true” he said, “but let them lie hidden.” And now many who have not the motives of Vivekananda, think that they can ape his spiritual greatness by imitating his limitations. There was no such weakness in the robust temperament of our forefathers. Our great Rishis of old did not cry out upon Siddhis, but recognised them as a part, though not the most important part of Yogic accomplishment, and used them with an abundant and unhesitating vigour. They are recognised in our sacred books, formally included in Yoga by so devotional a Purana as the Bhagawat, noted and some of their processes carefully tabled by Patanjali. Even in the midnight of the Kali great Siddhas and saints have used them more sparingly, but with power and effectiveness. It would be difficult for many of them to do otherwise than use the siddhis since by the very fact of their spiritual elevation, these powers have become not exceptional movements, but the ordinary processes of their thought and action. It is by the use of the siddhis that the Siddhas sitting on the mountains help the world out of the heart of their solitude and silence. Jesus Christ made the use of the siddhis a prominent feature of his pure, noble and spiritual life, nor did he hesitate to communicate them to his disciples — the laying of hands, the healing of the sick, the ashirvada, the abhishap, the speaking with many tongues were all given to them. The day of Pentecost is still kept holy by the Christian Church. Joan of Arc used her siddhis to liberate France. Socrates had his siddhis, some of them of a very material nature. Men of great genius are usually born with some of them and use them unconsciously. Even in natures far below the power and clarity of genius we see their occasional or irregular operation. The West, always avid of knowledge, is struggling, sadly hampered by misuse and imposture, to develop them and gropes roughly for the truth about them in the phenomena of hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, vouched for by men and women of great intellectuality and sincerity. Returning Eastwards, where only their right practice has been understood, the lives of our saints northern and southern are full of the record of Siddhis. Sri Ramakrishna, whose authority is quoted against

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them, not only made inward use of them but manifested them with no inconsiderable frequency in His lila. I see nothing in this long record immoral, dangerous or frivolous. But because Europe looks with scorn and incredulity on these “miracles” and this “magic”, we too must needs be ashamed of them, hustle them into the background and plead that only a few charlatans and followers of false paths profess their use. But as for us, we are men of intellect and spirituality, ascetics, devotees, self-deniers, Vedantins; for these things we are too high and we leave them to Theosophists, immoral Tantrics and deluded pseudo-Yogins. Let us have done with cant and pretension in all matters. There are no such things as miracles in this world of divine processes, for either there is no such thing as a miracle or, if we consider more closely, everything in this world is a miracle. A miracle is, literally, a marvel, a thing to be wondered at — so long as the process is [not] known. Wireless telegraphy is a great marvel, the speechless passage of a thought from brain to brain is a yet greater, yet it happens daily even in the most commonplace minds and existences. But when the process is known, nothing is left to be wondered at except the admirable greatness of wisdom, width & variety of conception & subtlety & minuteness in execution with which this universe is managed. And even that wonder ceases when we know God and realise that the most wonderful movements of the cosmos are but trifles and “conjuring-tricks” compared with His infinite Reality. And as it is with this siddhi of science which we call wireless telegraphy and with this other siddhi of nature which is exampled in the momentary or rapid spread of a single thought or emotion in a mob, a nation, an army, so it is with the Yogic siddhis. Explain & master their processes, put them in their proper relation to the rest of the economy of the universe and we shall find that they are neither miraculous nor marvellous nor supernatural. They are supernormal only in the way in which aviation is supernormal or motoring or the Chinese alphabet. Nor is there anything magical in them except in so far as magic, the science of the Persian Magi, means originally & properly the operations of superior power or superior knowledge. And in that sense the occultism of the

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present day is magic precisely in the same sense as the scientific experiments of Roger Bacon or Paracelsus. There is a good deal of fraud and error and self-deception mixed up with it, but so there was with the earliest efforts of the European scientists. The defects of Western practitioners or Eastern quacks do not get rid of our true & ancient Yoga.

The Psychology of Yoga Yoga is not a modern invention of the human mind, but our ancient and prehistoric possession. The Veda is our oldest extant human document and the Veda, from one point of view, is a great compilation of practical hints about Yoga. All religion is a flower of which Yoga is the root; all philosophy, poetry & the works of genius use it, consciously or unconsciously, as an instrument. We believe that God created the world by Yoga and by Yoga He will draw it into Himself again. Yogah prabhavapyayau, Yoga is the birth and passing away of things. When Srikrishna reveals to Arjuna the greatness of His creation and the manner in which He has built it out of His being by a reconciliation of logical opposites, he says “Pasya me yogam aishwaram”, Behold my divine Yoga. We usually attach a more limited sense to the word; when we use or hear it, we think of the details of Patanjali’s system, of rhythmic breathing, of peculiar ways of sitting, of concentration of mind, of the trance of the adept. But these are merely details of particular systems. The systems are not the thing itself, any more than the water of an irrigation canal is the river Ganges. Yoga may be done without the least thought for the breathing, in any posture or no posture, without any insistence on concentration, in the full waking condition, while walking, working, eating, drinking, talking with others, in any occupation, in sleep, in dream, in states of unconsciousness, semiconsciousness, double-consciousness. It is no nostrum or system or fixed practice, but an eternal fact of process based on the very nature of the Universe. Nevertheless in practice the name may be limited to certain applications of this general process for specific and definite ends. Yoga stands essentially on the fact that in this world we are everywhere one, yet divided; one yet divided in our being, one with yet divided from our fellow creatures of all kinds, one with

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yet divided from the infinite existence which we call God, Nature or Brahman. Yoga, generally, is the power which the soul in one body has of entering into effective relation with other souls, with parts of itself which are behind the waking consciousness, with forces of Nature and objects in Nature, with the Supreme Intelligence, Power & Bliss which governs the world either for the sake of that union in itself or for the purpose of increasing or modifying our manifest being, knowledge, faculty, force or delight. Any system which organises our inner being & our outer frame for these ends may be called a system of Yoga.

Section Two 1910 – 1913

Na Kinchidapi Chintayet The cessation of thought is the one thing which the believer in intellect as the highest term of our evolution cannot contemplate with equanimity. To master the fleeting randomness of thought by regulating the intellectual powers and thinking consecutively and clearly is an ideal he can understand. But to still this higher development of thought seems to him the negation of human activity, a reversion to the condition of the stone. Yet it is certain that it is only by the stilling of the lower that the higher gets full play. So long as the body and the vital desires are active the mind is necessarily distracted and it is only when the body is forgotten and the vital part consents to quietude that a man can concentrate himself in thought and follow undisturbed the consecutive development whether of a train of reasoning or a train of inspiration. Not only is this so, but the higher faculties of the mind can only work at their best when the lower are quieted. If the accumulations in the chitta, the recording part of the mind, are continually active, full as it is of preconceived ideas, prejudices, predilections, the great mass of previous sanskaras, the reflective mind which is ordinarily called the reason is obstructed in its work and comes to false conclusions. It is essential for the faculties of the reason to be freed as far as may be from this ever increasing accumulation of thought-sensations good and bad, false and true which we call mind — manas. It is this freedom which is called the scientific spirit. To form no conclusions which are not justified by observation and reasoning, to doubt everything until it is proved but to deny nothing until it is disproved, to be always ready to reconsider old conclusions in the light of new facts, to give a candid consideration to every new idea or old idea revived if it deserves a hearing, no matter how contradictory it may be of previously ascertained experience or previously formed conclusion, is the sceptical temper, the temper

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of the inquirer, the true scientist, the untrammelled thinker. The interference of prejudgment and predilection means bondage and until the higher mind has shaken off these fetters, it is not free; it works in chains, it sees in blinkers. This is as true of the materialist refusing to consider spiritualism and occultism as it is of the religionist refusing to consider Science. Freedom is the first requisite of full working power, the freedom of the higher from the lower. The mind must be free from the body if it is to be purified from the grossness which clogs its motions, the heart must be free from the obsessions of the body if love and high aspiration are to increase, the reason must be free from the heart and the lower mind if it is to reflect perfectly, — for the heart can inspire, it cannot think, it is a vehicle of direct knowledge coloured by emotion, not of ratiocination. By [a] similar process if there is anything higher than the reason it can only be set free to work by the stillness of the whole mind not excluding the reflective faculties. This is a conclusion from analogy, indeed, and not entirely binding until confirmed by experience and observation. But we have given reason in past articles for supposing that there is a higher force than the logical reason — and the experience and observation of Yoga confirm the inference from analogy that the stillness of the mind is the first requisite for discovering, distinguishing and perfecting the action of this higher element in the psychology of man. The stillness of the mind is prepared by the process of concentration. In the science of Rajayoga after the heart has been stilled and the mind prepared, the next step is to subjugate the body by means of asan or the fixed and motionless seat. The aim of this fixity is twofold, first the stillness of the body and secondly the forgetfulness of the body. When one can sit still and utterly forget the body for a long period of time, then the asan is said to have been mastered. In ordinary concentration when the body is only comparatively still it is not noticed, but there is an undercurrent of physical consciousness which may surge up at any moment into the upper current of thought and disturb it. The Yogin seeks to make the forgetfulness perfect. In the higher processes of concentration this forgetfulness reaches such a point

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that the bodily consciousness is annulled and in the acme of the samadhi a man can be cut or burned without being aware of the physical suffering. Even before the concentration is begun the forgetfulness acquired is sufficient to prevent any intrusion upon the mind except under a more than ordinarily powerful physical stimulus. After this point has been reached the Yoga proceeds to the processes of pranayam by which the whole system is cleared of impurities and the pranasakti, the great cosmic energy which lies behind all processes of Nature, fills the body and the brain and becomes sufficient for any work of which man is actually or potentially capable. This is followed by concentration. The first process is to withdraw the senses into the mind. This is partly done in the ordinary process of absorption of which every thinking man is capable. To concentrate upon the work in hand whether it be a manual process, a train of thought, a scientific experiment or a train of inspiration, is the first condition of complete capacity and it is the process by which mankind has been preparing itself for Yoga. To concentrate means to be absorbed; but absorption may be more or less complete. When it is so complete that for all practical purposes the knowledge of outward things ceases, then the first step has been taken towards Yogic absorption. We need not go into the stages of that absorption rising from pratyahar to samadhi and from the lower samadhi to the higher. The principle is to intensify absorption. It is intensified in quality by the entire cessation of outward knowledge, the senses are withdrawn into the mind, the mind into the buddhi or supermind, the supermind into Knowledge, Vijnana, Mahat, out of which all things proceed and in which all things exist. It is intensified in quantity or content; instead of absorption in a set of thoughts or a train of intuitions, the Yogin concentrates his absorption on a single thought, a single image, a single piece of knowledge, and it is his experience that whatever he thus concentrates on, he masters, — he becomes its lord and does with it what he wills. By knowledge he attains to mastery of the world. The final goal of Rajayoga is the annulment of separate consciousness and complete communion with that which alone is whether we call Him Parabrahman or Parameshwara,

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Existence in the Highest or Will in the Highest, the Ultimate or God. In the Gita we have a process which is not the process of Raja-Yoga. It seeks a short cut to the common aim and goes straight to the stillness of the mind. After putting away desire and fear the Yogin sits down and performs upon his thoughts a process of reining in by which they get accustomed to an inward motion. Instead of allowing the mind to flow outward, he compels it to rise and fall within, and if he sees, hears, feels or smells outward objects he pays no attention to them and draws the mind always inward. This process he pursues until the mind ceases to send up thoughts connected with outward things. The result is that fresh thoughts do not accumulate in the chitta at the time of meditation, but only the old ones rise. If the process be farther pursued by rejecting these thoughts as they rise in the mind, in other words by dissociating the thinker from the mind, the operator from the machine and refusing to sanction the continuance of the machine’s activity, the result is perfect stillness. This can be done if the thinker whose interest is necessary to the mind, refuses to be interested and becomes passive. The mind goes on for a while by its own impetus just as a locomotive does when the steam is shut off, but a time must come when it will slow down and stop altogether. This is the moment towards which the process moves. Na kinchid api chintayet: — the Yogin should not think of anything at all. Blank cessation of mental activity is aimed at leaving only the sakshi, the witness watching for results. If at this moment the Yogin entrusts himself to the guidance of the universal Teacher within himself, Yoga will fulfil itself without any farther effort on his part. The passivity will be confirmed, the higher faculties will awake and the cosmic Force passing down from the vijnana through the supermind will take charge of the whole machine and direct its workings as the Infinite Lord of All may choose. Whichever of the two methods be chosen, the result is the same. The mind is stilled, the higher faculties awakened. This stillness of the mind is not altogether a new idea or peculiar to India. The old Highland poets had the secret. When they wished

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to compose poetry, they first stilled the mind, became entirely passive and waited for the inspiration to flow into them. This habit of yogic passivity, a relic doubtless of the discipline of the Druids, was the source of those faculties of second sight and other psychic powers which are so much more common in this Celtic race than in the other peoples of Europe. The phenomena of inspiration are directly connected with these higher faculties of which we find rudiments or sporadic traces in the past history of human experience.

The Sources of Poetry The swiftness of the muse has been embodied in the image of Pegasus, the heavenly horse of Greek legend; it was from the rapid beat of his hoofs on the rock that Hippocrene flowed. The waters of Poetry flow in a current or a torrent; where there is a pause or a denial, it is a sign of obstruction in the stream or of imperfection in the mind which the waters have chosen for their bed and continent. In India we have the same idea; Saraswati is for us the goddess of poetry, and her name means the stream or “she who has flowing motion”. But even Saraswati is only an intermediary. Ganga is the real mother of inspiration, she who flows impetuously down from the head of Mahadev, God highseated, over the Himalay of the mind to the homes and cities of men. All poetry is an inspiration, a thing breathed into the thinking organ from above; it is recorded in the mind, but is born in the higher principle of direct knowledge or ideal vision which surpasses mind. It is in reality a revelation. The prophetic or revealing power sees the substance; the inspiration perceives the right expression. Neither is manufactured; nor is poetry really a poiesis or composition, nor even a creation, but rather the revelation of something that eternally exists. The ancients knew this truth and used the same word for poet and prophet, creator and seer, sophos, vates, kavi. But there are differences in the manifestation. The greatest motion of poetry comes when the mind is still and the ideal principle works above and outside the brain, above even the hundred petalled lotus of the ideal mind, in its proper empire; for then it is Veda that is revealed, the perfect substance and expression of eternal truth. This higher ideation transcends genius just as genius transcends ordinary intellect and perception. But that great faculty is still beyond the normal level of our evolution. Usually we see the action of the revelation and inspiration

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reproduced by a secondary, diluted and uncertain process in the mind. But even this secondary and inferior action is so great that it can give us Shakespeare, Homer and Valmekie. There is also a tertiary and yet more common action of the inspiration. For of our three mental instruments of knowledge, — the heart or emotionally realising mind, the observing and reasoning intellect with its aids, fancy and memory, and the intuitive intellect, — it is into the last and highest that the ideal principle transmits its inspirations when the greatest poetry writes itself out through the medium of the poet. But if the intuitive intellect is not strong enough to act habitually, it is better for the poetry to descend into the heart and return to the intellect suffused and coloured with passion and emotion than to be formed directly in the observing intellect. Poetry written from the reasoning intellect is apt to be full of ingenious conceits, logic, argumentation, rhetorical turns, ornamental fancies, echoes learned and imitative rather than uplifted and transformed. This is what is sometimes called classical poetry, the vigorous and excellent but unemotional and unuplifted poetry of Pope and Dryden. It has its inspiration, its truth and value; it is admirable in its way, but it is only great when it is lifted out of itself into intuitive writing or else invaded by the heart. For everything that needs fire rather than light, drivingforce rather than clearness, enthusiasm rather than correctness, the heart is obviously the more potent instrument. Now, poetry to be great must have either enthusiasm or ecstasy. Yet the poetry that rises up from the heart is usually a turbid stream; our own restless ideas and imaginations mix with the pure inrush from above a turbulent uprush from below, our excited emotions seek an exaggerated expression, our aesthetic habits and predilections busy themselves to demand a satisfaction greatly beyond their due. Such poetry may be inspired, but it is not always suitable or inevitable. There is often a double inspiration, the higher or ecstatic and the lower or emotional, and the lower disturbs and drags down the higher. This is the birth of romantic or excessively exuberant poetry, too rich in expression, too abundant and redundant in substance. The best

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poetry coming straight from the right centres may be bare and strong, unadorned and lofty, or it may be rich and splendid; it may be at will romantic or classical; but it will always be felt to be the right thing for its purpose; it is always nobly or rapturously inevitable. But even in the higher centres of the intuitive intellect there may be defects in the inspiration. There is a kind of false fluency which misses the true language of poetry from dulness of perception. Under the impression that it is true and inspired writing it flows with an imperturbable flatness, saying the thing that should be said but not in the way that it should be said, without force and felicity. This is the tamasic or clouded stimulus, active, but full of unenlightenment and self-ignorance. The thing seen is right and good; accompanied with the inspired expression it would make very noble poetry. Instead, it becomes prose rendered unnatural and difficult to tolerate by being cut up into lengths. Wordsworth is the most characteristic and interesting victim of tamasic stimulus. Other great poets fall a prey to it, but that superb and imperturbable self-satisfaction under the infliction is his alone. There is another species of tamasic stimulus which transmits an inspired and faultless expression, but the substance is neither interesting to man nor pleasing to the gods. A good deal of Milton comes under this category. In both cases what has happened is that either the inspiration or the revelation has been active, but its companion activity has refused to associate itself in the work. It is when the mind works at the form and substance of poetry without either the revelation or the inspiration from above that respectable or minor poetry is produced. Judgment, memory and imagination may work, command of language may be there, but without that secondary action of a higher than intellectual force, it is labour wasted, work that earns respect but not immortality. Doggerel and bastard poetry take their rise not even in the observing intellect but from the sensational mind or the passive memory guided only by the mere physical pleasure of sound and emotion. It is bold, blatant, external, imitative, vulgar; its range of intellectuality and imaginativeness

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cannot go beyond the vital impulse and the vital delight. But even in the sensational mind there is the possibility of a remote action from the ideal self; for even to the animals who think sensationally only, God has given revelations and inspirations which we call instincts. Under such circumstances even bastard poetry may have a kind of worth, a kind of inevitability. The poet in the sensational man may be entirely satisfied and delighted, and even in the more developed human being the sensational element may find a poetical satisfaction not of the highest. The best ballad poetry and Macaulay’s lays are instances in point. Scott is a sort of link between sensational and intellectual poetry. While there are men mainly sensational, secondarily intellectual and not at all ideal, he will always be admired. Another kind of false inspiration is the rajasic or fiery stimulus. It is not flat and unprofitable like the tamasic, but hasty, impatient and vain. It is eager to avoid labour by catching at the second best expression or the incomplete vision of the idea, insufficiently jealous to secure the best form, the most satisfying substance. Rajasic poets, even when they feel the defect in what they have written, hesitate to sacrifice it because they also feel and are attached either to what in it is valuable or to the memory of their delight when it was first written. If they get a better expression or a fuller sight, they often prefer to reiterate rather than strike out inferior stuff with which they are in love. Sometimes, drifting or struggling helplessly along that shallow and vehement current, they vary one idea or harp on the same imagination without any final success in expressing it inevitably. Examples of the rajasic stimulus are commonest in Shelley and Spenser, but few English poets are free from it. This is the rajasic fault in expression. But the fiery stimulus also perverts or hampers the substance. An absence of self-restraint, an unwillingness to restrict and limit the ideas and imaginations is a sure sign of a rajasic ideality. There is an attempt to exhaust all the possibilities of the subject, to expand and multiply thoughts and imaginative visions beyond the bounds of the right and permissible. Or else the true idea is rejected or fatally anticipated by another which is or seems to be more catching and boldly effective. Keats is

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the principle exemplar of the first tendency, the Elizabethans of the second. The earlier work of Shakespeare abounds with classical instances. As distinguished from the Greek, English is a pronouncedly rajasic literature and, though there is much in it that is more splendid than almost anything done by the Greeks, — more splendid, not better, — a great deal even of its admired portions are rather rich or meretricious than great and true. The perfect inspiration in the intuitive intellect is the sattwic or luminous inspiration, which is disinterested, self-contained, yet at will noble, rich or vigorous, having its eye only on the right thing to be said and the right way to say it. It does not allow its perfection to be interfered with by emotion or eagerness, but this does not shut it out from ecstasy and exaltation. On the contrary, its delight of self-enjoyment is a purer and more exquisite enthusiasm than that which attends any other inspiration. It commands and uses emotion without enslaving itself to it. There is indeed a sattwic stimulus which is attached to its own luminosity, limpidity and steadiness, and avoids richness, force or emotion of a poignant character even when these are needed and appropriate. The poetry of Matthew Arnold is often though not always of this character. But this is a limited inspiration. Sattwic as well as rajasic poetry may be written from the uninspired intellect, but the sensational mind never gives birth to sattwic poetry. One thing has to be added. A poet need not be a reflective critic; he need not have the reasoning and analysing intellect and dissect his own poetry. But two things he must have in some measure to be perfect, the intuitive judgment which shows him at a glance whether he has got the best or the second-best idea, the perfect or the imperfect expression and rhythm, and the intuitive reason which shows him without analysis why or wherein it is best or second-best, perfect or imperfect. These four faculties, revelation or prophecy, inspiration, intuitive judgment and intuitive reason, are the perfect equipment of genius doing the works of interpretative & creative knowledge.

The Interpretation of Scripture The spirit who lies concealed behind the material world, has given us, through the inspiration of great seers, the Scriptures as helpers and guides to unapparent truth, lamps of great power that send their rays into the darkness of the unknown beyond which He dwells, tamasah parastat. They are guides to knowledge, brief indications to enlighten us on our path, not substitutes for thought and experience. They are shabdam Brahma, the Word, the oral expression of God, not the thing to be known itself nor the knowledge of Him. Shabdam has three elements, the word, the meaning and the spirit. The word is a symbol, vak or nama; we have to find the artha, the meaning or form of thought which the symbol indicates. But the meaning itself is only the indication of something deeper which the thought seeks to convey to the intellectual conception. For not only words, but ideas also are eventually no more than symbols of a knowledge which is beyond ideas and words. Therefore it comes that no idea by itself is wholly true. There is indeed a rupa, some concrete or abstract form of knowledge, answering to every name, and it is that which the meaning must present to the intellect. We say a form of knowledge, because according to our philosophy, all things are forms of an essentially unknowable existence which reveals them as forms of knowledge to the essential awareness in its Self, its Atman or Spirit, the Chit in the Sat. But beyond nama and rupa is swarupa, the essential figure of Truth, which we cannot know with the intellect, but only with a higher faculty. And every swarupa is itself only a symbol of the one essential existence which can only be known by its symbols because in its ultimate reality it defies logic and exceeds perception, — God. Since the knowledge the Scripture conveys is so deep, difficult and subtle, — if it were easy what would be the need of the Scripture? — the interpreter cannot be too careful or too

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perfectly trained. He must not be one who will rest content in the thought-symbol or in the logical implications of the idea; he must hunger and thirst for what is beyond. The interpreter who stops short with the letter, is the slave of a symbol and convicted of error. The interpreter who cannot go beyond the external meaning, is the prisoner of his thought and rests in a partial and incomplete knowledge. One must transgress limits & penetrate to the knowledge behind, which must be experienced before it can be known; for the ear hears it, the intellect observes it, but the spirit alone can possess it. Realisation in the self of things is the only knowledge; all else is mere idea or opinion. The interpretation of the Veda is hampered by many human irrelevancies. Men set up an authority and put it between themselves and knowledge. The orthodox are indignant that a mere modern should presume to differ from Shankara in interpreting the Vedanta or from Sayana in interpreting the Veda. They forget that Shankara and Sayana are themselves moderns, separated from ourselves by some hundreds of years only, but the Vedas are many thousands of years old. The commentator ought to be studied, but instead we put him in place of the text. Good commentaries are always helpful even when they are wrong, but the best cannot be allowed to fetter inquiry. Sayana’s commentary on the Veda helps me by showing what a man of great erudition some hundreds of years ago thought to be the sense of the Scripture. But I cannot forget that even at the time of the Brahmanas the meaning of the Veda had become dark to the men of that prehistoric age. Shankara’s commentary on the Upanishads helps me by showing what a man of immense metaphysical genius and rare logical force after arriving at some fundamental realisations thought to be the sense of the Vedanta. But it is evident that he is often at a loss and always prepossessed by the necessity of justifying his philosophy. I find that Shankara had grasped much of Vedantic truth, but that much was dark to him. I am bound to admit what he realised; I am not bound to exclude what he failed to realise. Aptavakyam, authority, is one kind of proof; it is not the only kind: pratyaksha is more important.

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The heterodox on the other hand swear by Max Muller and the Europeans. It is enough for them that Max Muller should have found henotheism in the Vedas for the Vedas to be henotheistic. The Europeans have seen in our Veda only the rude chants of an antique and primitive pastoral race sung in honour of the forces of Nature, and for many their opinion is conclusive of the significance of the mantras. All other interpretation is to them superstitious. But to me the ingenious guesses of foreign grammarians are of no more authority than the ingenious guesses of Sayana. It is irrelevant to me what Max Muller thinks of the Veda or what Sayana thinks of the Veda. I should prefer to know what the Veda has to say for itself and, if there is any light there on the unknown or on the infinite, to follow the ray till I come face to face with that which it illumines. There are those who follow neither Sayana and Shankara nor the Europeans, but interpret Veda and Vedanta for themselves, yet permit themselves to be the slaves of another kind of irrelevancy. They come to the Veda with a preconceived and established opinion and seek in it a support for some trifling polemic; they degrade it to the position of a backer in an intellectual prizefight. Opinions are not knowledge, they are only sidelights on knowledge. Most often they are illegitimate extensions of an imperfect knowledge. A man has perhaps travelled to England and seen Cumberland and the lakes; he comes back and imagines England ever after as a country full of verdant mountains, faery woodlands, peaceful and enchanted waters. Another has been to the manufacturing centres; he imagines England as a great roaring workshop, crammed with furnaces and the hum of machinery and the smell of metal. Another has sojourned in the quiet country-side and to him England is all hedges and lanes and the daisy-sprinkled meadow and the well-tilled field. All have realised a little, but none have realised England. Then there is the man who has only read about the country or heard descriptions from others and thinks he knows it better than the men who have been there. They may all admit that what they have seen need not be the whole, but each has his little ineffaceable picture which, because it is all he has realised,

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persists in standing for the whole. There is no harm in that, no harm whatever in limitation if you understand and admit the limitation. But if all the four begin quarrelling, what an aimless confusion will arise! That is what has happened in India because of the excessive logicality and too robust opinionativeness of Southern metaphysicians. We should come back to a more flexible and rational spirit of inquiry. What then are the standards of truth in the interpretation of the Scripture? The standards are three, the knower, knowledge and the known. The known is the text itself that we seek to interpret. We must be sure we have the right word, not an emendation to suit the exigency of some individual or sectarian opinion; the right etymology and shade of meaning, not one that is traditional or forced to serve the ends of a commentator; the right spirit in the sense, not an imported or too narrow or too elastic spirit. The knower is the original drashta or seer of the mantra, with whom we ought to be in spiritual contact. If knowledge is indeed a perishable thing in a perishable instrument, such contact is impossible; but in that case the Scripture itself must be false and not worth considering. If there is any truth in what the Scripture says, knowledge is eternal and inherent in all of us and what another saw I can see, what another realised I can realise. The drashta was a soul in relation with the infinite Spirit, I am also a soul in relation with the infinite Spirit. We have a meeting-place, a possibility of communion. Knowledge is the eternal truth, part of which the drashta expresses to us. Through the part he shows us, we must travel to the whole, otherwise we shall be subject to the errors incidental to an imperfect knowledge. If even the part is to be rightly understood, it must be viewed in the terms of the whole, not the whole in the terms of the part. I am not limited by the Scriptures; on the contrary I must exceed them in order to be master of their knowledge. It is true that we are usually the slaves of our individual and limited outlook, but our capacity is unlimited, and, if we can get rid of ahankara, if we can put ourselves at the service of the Infinite without any reservation of predilection

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or opinion, there is no reason why our realisation should be limited. Tasmin vijnate sarvam vijnatam. He being known, all can be known. To understand Scripture, it is not enough to be a scholar, one must be a soul. To know what the drashta saw one must oneself have drishti, sight, and be a student if not a master of the knowledge. Atha para yaya tad aksharam adhigamyate. Grammar, etymology, prosody, astronomy, metaphysics, logic, all that is good; but afterwards there is still needed the higher knowledge by which the Immutable is known.

On Original Thinking The attitude of mankind towards originality of opinion is marked by a natural hesitation and inconsistency. Admired for its rarity, brilliancy and potency, yet in practice and for the same qualities it is more generally dreaded, ridiculed or feared. There is no doubt that it tends to disturb what is established. Therefore tamasic men and tamasic states of society take especial pains to discourage independence of opinion. Their watchword is authority. Few societies have been so tamasic, so full of inertia and contentment in increasing narrowness as Indian society in later times; few have been so eager to preserve themselves in inertia. Few therefore have attached so great an importance to authority. Every detail of our life has been fixed for us by Shastra and custom, every detail of our thought by Scripture and its commentators, — but much oftener by the commentators than by Scripture. Only in one field, that of individual spiritual experience, have we cherished the ancient freedom and originality out of which our past greatness sprang; it is from some new movement in this inexhaustible source that every fresh impulse and rejuvenated strength has arisen. Otherwise we should long ago have been in the grave where dead nations lie, with Greece and Rome of the Caesars, with Esarhaddon and the Chosroes. You will often hear it said that it was the forms of Hinduism which have given us so much national vitality. I think rather it was its spirit. I am inclined to give more credit for the secular miracle of our national survival to Shankara, Ramanuja, Nanak & Kabir, Guru Govind, Chaitanya, Ramdas & Tukaram than to Raghunandan and the Pandits of Nadiya & Bhatpara. The result of this well-meaning bondage has been an increasing impoverishment of the Indian intellect, once the most gigantic and original in the world. Hence a certain incapacity, atrophy, impotence have marked our later activities even

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at their best. The most striking instance is our continued helplessness in the face of the new conditions and new knowledge imposed on us by recent European contact. We have tried to assimilate, we have tried to reject, we have tried to select; but we have not been able to do any of these things successfully. Successful assimilation depends on mastery; but we have not mastered European conditions and knowledge, rather we have been seized, subjected and enslaved by them. Successful rejection is possible only if we have intelligent possession of that which we wish to keep. Our rejection too must be an intelligent rejection; we must reject because we have understood, not because we have failed to understand. But our Hinduism, our old culture are precisely the possessions we have cherished with the least intelligence; throughout the whole range of our life we do things without knowing why we do them, we believe things without knowing why we believe them, we assert things without knowing what right we have to assert them, — or, at most, it is because some book or some Brahmin enjoins it, because Shankara thinks it, or because someone has so interpreted something that he asserts to be a fundamental Scripture of our religion. Nothing is our own, nothing native to our intelligence, all is derived. As little have we understood the new knowledge; we have only understood what the Europeans want us to think about themselves and their modern civilisation. Our English culture — if culture it can be called — has increased tenfold the evil of our dependence instead of remedying it. More even than the other two processes successful selection requires the independent play of intellect. If we merely receive new ideas and institutions in the light in which they are presented to us, we shall, instead of selecting, imitate — blindly, foolishly and inappropriately. If we receive them in the light given by our previous knowledge, which was on so many points nil, we shall as blindly and foolishly reject. Selection demands that we should see things not as the foreigner sees them or as the orthodox Pandit sees them, but as they are in themselves. But we have selected at random, we have rejected at random, we

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have not known how to assimilate or choose. In the upshot we have merely suffered the European impact, overborne at points, crassly resisting at others, and, altogether, miserable, enslaved by our environments, able neither to perish nor to survive. We preserve indeed a certain ingenuity and subtlety; we can imitate with an appearance of brightness; we can play plausibly, even brilliantly with the minutiae of a subject; but we fail to think usefully, we fail to master the life and heart of things. Yet it is only by mastering the life and heart of things that we can hope, as a nation, to survive. How shall we recover our lost intellectual freedom and elasticity? By reversing, for a time at least, the process by which we lost it, by liberating our minds in all subjects from the thraldom to authority. That is not what reformers and the Anglicised require of us. They ask us, indeed, to abandon authority, to revolt against custom and superstition, to have free and enlightened minds. But they mean by these sounding recommendations that we should renounce the authority of Sayana for the authority of Max Muller, the Monism of Shankara for the Monism of Haeckel, the written Shastra for the unwritten law of European social opinion, the dogmatism of Brahmin Pandits for the dogmatism of European scientists, thinkers and scholars. Such a foolish exchange of servitude can receive the assent of no selfrespecting mind. Let us break our chains, venerable as they are, but let it be in order to be free, — in the name of truth, not in the name of Europe. It would be a poor bargain to exchange our old Indian illuminations, however dark they may have grown to us, for a derivative European enlightenment or replace the superstitions of popular Hinduism by the superstitions of materialistic Science. Our first necessity, if India is to survive and do her appointed work in the world, is that the youth of India should learn to think, — to think on all subjects, to think independently, fruitfully, going to the heart of things, not stopped by their surface, free of prejudgments, shearing sophism and prejudice asunder as with a sharp sword, smiting down obscurantism of all kinds as with the mace of Bhima. Let our brains no longer, like European

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infants, be swathed with swaddling clothes; let them recover the free and unbound motion of the gods; let them have not only the minuteness but the wide mastery and sovereignty natural to the intellect of Bharata and easily recoverable by it if it once accustoms itself to feel its own power and be convinced of its own worth. If it cannot entirely shake off past shackles, let it at least arise like the infant Krishna bound to the wain, and move forward dragging with it wain and all and shattering in its progress the twin trees, the twin obstacles to self-fulfilment, blind mediaeval prejudice and arrogant modern dogmatism. The old fixed foundations have been broken up, we are tossing in the waters of a great upheaval and change. It is no use clinging to the old ice-floes of the past, they will soon melt and leave their refugees struggling in perilous waters. It is no use landing ourselves in the infirm bog, neither sea nor good dry land, of a secondhand Europeanism. We shall only die there a miserable and unclean death. No, we must learn to swim and use that power to reach the good vessel of unchanging truth; we must land again on the eternal rock of ages. Let us not, either, select at random, make a nameless hotchpotch and then triumphantly call it the assimilation of East and West. We must begin by accepting nothing on trust from any source whatsoever, by questioning everything and forming our own conclusions. We need not fear that we shall by that process cease to be Indians or fall into the danger of abandoning Hinduism. India can never cease to be India or Hinduism to be Hinduism, if we really think for ourselves. It is only if we allow Europe to think for us that India is in danger of becoming an ill-executed and foolish copy of Europe. We must not begin by becoming partisans but know before we take our line. Our first business as original thinkers will be to accept nothing, to question everything. That means to get rid of all unexamined opinions old or new, all mere habitual sanskaras in the mind, to have no preconceived judgments. Anityah sarvasanskarah, said the Buddha. I do not know that I quite agree. There are certain sanskaras that seem to me as eternal as things can be. What is the Atman itself but an eternal and fundamental way of

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looking at things, the essentiality of all being in itself unknowable, neti, neti. Therefore the later Buddhists declared that the Atman itself did not exist and arrived at ultimate nothingness, a barren and foolish conclusion, since Nothingness itself is only a sanskara. Nevertheless it is certain that the great mass of our habitual conceptions are not only temporary, but imperfect and misleading. We must escape from these imperfections and take our stand on that which is true and lasting. But in order to find out what in our conceptions is true and lasting, we must question all alike rigorously and impartially. The necessity of such a process not for India, but for all humanity has been recognised by leading European thinkers. It was what Carlyle meant when he spoke of swallowing all formulas. It was the process by which Goethe helped to reinvigorate European thinking. But in Europe the stream is running dry before it has reached its sea. Europe has for some time ceased to produce original thinkers, though it still produces original mechanicians. Science preserves her freedom of inquiry in details, in the mint and anise and cummin of the world’s processes, but, bound hand & foot in the formulas of the past, she is growing helpless for great ideas and sound generalisations. She sits contented with her treasuries; she has combed all the pebbles on the seashore and examined the shoreward gulfs and bays; of the oceans beyond and their undiscovered continents she cries scornfully “They are a dream; there is nothing there but mists mistaken for land or a waste of the same waters that we have already here examined.” Europe is becoming stereotyped and unprogressive; she is fruitful only of new & ever multiplying luxuries and of feverish, fiery & ineffective changes in her political and social machinery. China, Japan and the Mussulman States are sliding into a blind European imitativeness. In India alone there is self-contained, dormant, the energy and the invincible spiritual individuality which can yet arise and break her own and the world’s fetters. It is true that original thinking makes for original acting, and therefore a caution is necessary. We must be careful that our thinking is not only original but thorough before we even initiate

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action. To run away with an isolated original idea, or charmed with its newness and vigour, to ride it into the field of action is to make of ourselves cranks and eccentrics. This world, this society, these nations and their civilisations are not simple existences, but complex & intricate, the result of a great organic growth in many centuries, sometimes in many millenniums. We should not deal with them after snatching at a few hurried generalisations or in the gust and fury of a stiff fanaticism. We must first be sure that our new thought is wide and strong-winged enough, our thoughts large enough, our natures mighty enough to deal with those vastnesses. We must be careful, too, to comprehend what we destroy. And destroy we must not unless we have a greater and more perfect thing to put in the place even of a crumbling and mouldering antiquity. To tear down Hindu society in the spirit of the social reformers or European society in the spirit of the philosophical or unphilosophical Anarchists would be to destroy order and substitute a licentious confusion. If we carefully remember these cautions, there is no harm in original thinking even of the boldest and most merciless novelty. I may, for example, attack unsparingly the prevailing system of justice and punishment as extraordinarily senseless and evil, even if I have no new system ready-made to put in as its successor; but I must have no wish to destroy it, senseless & evil though it be, until our new system is ready. For it fills a place the vacancy of which the Spirit that uplifts & supports our human welfare, would greatly abhor. I may expose, too, the weaknesses and narrownesses of an existing form of religion, even if I have no new & better form to preach of my own, but I must not so rage against those weaknesses as to destroy all religious faith and I should remember before the end of my criticism that even a bad religion is better than no religion, — that it is wiser to worship energy in my surroundings with the African savage than to be dead to all faith and all spirituality like the drunkards of a little knowledge — for even in that animal and unintelligent worship there is a spark of the divine fire which keeps humanity living, while the cultured imperial Roman or the luxurious modern wealthgatherer and body worshipper drags his kind into a straight

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& well built road which is so broad only to lead more easily to a mighty perdition — na ched ihavedin mahati vinashtih. Otherwise there is no harm in spreading dissatisfaction with fetish worship or refusing praise to an ancient and cruel folly. We need not be troubled if our thinking is condemned as too radical or even as reckless & revolutionary, — for the success of revolutionary thought always means that Nature has need of one of her cataclysms; even otherwise, she will make of it whatever modified use is best for our present humanity. In thought as in deeds, to the thinking we have a right, the result belongs to the wise & active Power of God that stands over us & in us originating, cherishing, indefatigably dissolving & remoulding man and spirit in the progressive harmonies of His universe. Let us only strive that our light should be clear, diffused & steady, not either darkness or a narrow glare and merely violent lustre. And if we cannot compass that ideal, still it is better to think than to cease from thinking. For even out of darkness the day is born and lightning has its uses!

[Draft opening of another version] We have had recently in India a great abundance of speculations on the real causes of that gradual decline and final arrest which Indian civilisation no less than European suffered during the Middle Ages. The arrest was neither so sudden as in Europe nor so complete; but its effect on our nation, like the undermining activity of a slow poison, was all the more profoundly destructive, pervasive, hard to remedy, difficult to expel. At a certain period we entered into a decline, splendid at first like a long and gorgeous sunset, afterwards more & more sombre, till the darkness closed in, and if our sky was strewn with stars of a great number & brilliance, it was only a vast decay, confusion and inertia that they lighted and emphasised with their rays. We have, most of us, our chosen explanation of this dolorous phenomenon. The patriot attributes our decline to the ravages

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of foreign invasion and the benumbing influences of foreign rule; the disciple of European materialism finds out the enemy, the evil, the fount and origin of all our ills, in our religion and its time-honoured social self-expression. Such explanations, like most human thoughts, have their bright side of truth as well as their obscure side of error; but they are not, in any case, the result of impartial thinking. Man may be, as he has been defined, a reasoning animal, but it is necessary to add that he is, for the most part, a very badly-reasoning animal. He does not ordinarily think for the sake of finding out the truth, but much more for the satisfaction of his mental preferences and emotional tendencies; his conclusions spring from his preferences, prejudices and passions; and his reasoning & logic paraded to justify them are only a specious process or a formal mask for his covert approach to an upshot previously necessitated by his heart or by his temperament. When we are awakened from our modern illusions, as we have been awakened from our mediaeval superstitions, we shall find that the intellectual conclusions of the rationalist for all their [ . . . ] pomp & profuse apparatus of scrupulous enquiry were as much dogmas as those former dicta of Pope & theologian, which confessed without shame their simple basis in the negation of reason. Much more do all those current opinions demand scrutiny & modification, which express our personal view of things and rest patently on a partial and partisan view or have been justified by preferential selection of the few data that suited our foregone & desired conclusion. It is always best, therefore, to scrutinise very narrowly those bare, trenchant explanations which so easily satisfy the pugnacious animal in our intellects; when we have admitted that small part of the truth on which they seize, we should always look for the large part which they have missed. Especially is it right, when there are subjective movements & causes of a considerable extent and complexity behind the phenomena we have to observe, to distrust facile, simple and rapid solutions.

The Balance of Justice The European Court of Justice is a curious and instructive institution. Europe, even while vaunting a monopoly of civilisation, cherishes and preens herself in some remarkable relics of barbarism. In mediaeval times, with the scientific thoroughness and efficiency which she shares with the Mongolian, she organised torture as the most reliable source of evidence and the ordeal of battle as the surest guide to judicial truth. Both ideas were characteristically European. A later age may seem to have got rid of these luminous methods, but it is not so in reality. In place of the rack the French have invented the investigating judge and the Americans some remarkable processes, which I think they call questioning (the old name for torture) in the first, second and up to the fifth degree if not to higher stages of excellence. The torture is sometimes of the mind not of the body; it is less intense, more lingering, but it leads to the same result in the end. When the tortured wretch, after protecting with lies for as long as may be his guilt or his innocence, escapes from his furious and pitiless persecutor by a true or false confession, preferring jail or the gallows to this prolongation of tense misery, the French call it delicately “entering into the way of avowals”. The Holy Office in Seville could not have invented a more Christian and gentlemanly euphemism. The American system, is in the fifth degree, I think, to keep the miserable accused fasting and sleepless and ply him with a ceaseless assault of torturing questions and suggestions until the brain reels, the body sinks, the heart is sick and hopeless and the man is ready to say anything his torturers believe or want to be the truth. It is a true Inquisition; the mediaeval name fits these modern refinements. The English people have often been accused as a brutal or a stupid nation; but they have a rugged humanity when their

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interests are not touched and enjoy glimpses of a rough common sense. They have besides an honourable love of publicity and do not like, for themselves at least, secret police methods. They have rejected the investigating judge and torture in the fifth degree. But their courts resemble the European. Under a civilised disguise these Courts are really the mediaeval ordeal by battle; only in place of the swords and lances of military combatants we have the tongues and technicalities of lawyers and the mutually tilting imaginations of witnesses. The victory is to the skilfullest liar and the most plausible workman in falsehoods and insincerities. It is largely an elaborate pitch and toss, an exhilarating gamble, a very Monte Carlo of surprising chances. But there is skill in it, too; it satisfies the intellect as well as the sensations. One should rather call it a game of human Bridge which admirably combines luck and skill, or consider it as an intellectual gladiatorial show. In big cases the stake is worthy of the play and the excitement, a man’s property or his life. But woe to the beaten! In a criminal case, the tortures of the jail or the terrifying drop from the gallows are in prospect, and it is rather the hardihood of guilt than the trembling consciousness of innocence that shall best help him. Woe to him if he is innocent! As he stands there, — for to add to the pleasurableness of his condition, the physical ache of hours of standing is considerately added to the cruel strain on his emotions, — he looks eagerly not to the truth or falsehood of the evidence for or against him, but to the skill with which this or that counsel handles the web of skilfully mixed truth and lies and the impression he is making on the judge or the jury. A true witness breaking down under a confusing cross-examination or a false witness mended by a judicious reexamination may be of much better service to him than the Truth, which, our Scriptures tell us, shall prevail and not falsehood, — eventually perhaps and in the things of the truth, but not in the things of falsehood, not in a court of Justice, not in the witness box. There the last thing the innocent man against whom circumstances have turned, dare tell is the truth; it would either damn him completely by fatally helping the prosecution or it is so simple and innocent as to convince the infallible human

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reason of its pitiful falsity. The truth! Has not the Law expressly built up a hedge of technicalities to keep out the truth? As one looks on, one begins to understand the passion of the Roman poet’s eulogy of the defence counsel, praesidium maestis reis, the bulwark of the sorrowful accused. For in this strange civilised gambling with human dice where it is so often impossible to be certain about guilt or innocence, one’s sympathies naturally go to the sufferer, the scapegoat of a callous society, who may be moving to a long period of torturing and unmerited slavery or an undeserved death on the gallows. But if one could eliminate this element of human pity, it would be a real intellectual pleasure to watch the queer barbarous battle, appraise the methods of the chief players, admire, in whatever climes, the elusiveness and fine casualness of Indian perjury or the robust manly cheery downrightness of Saxon cross-swearing. If the Courts convince us of our common humanity by making all men liars, they yet preserve a relishable unlikeness in likeness. And I think that even theology or metaphysics does not give such admirable chances for subtlety as the Law, nor even Asiatic Research or ethnology favour so much the growth of that admirable scientific faculty which deduces a whole animal out of some other animal’s bone. If the thing proved is generally wrong, it is always ingenious; and after all in all these five sciences, or are they not rather arts? — it is not the thing that is true but the thing that is desired which must be established. This is perhaps why the Europeans think the system civilised, but as a semicivilised Oriental, one would prefer less room for subtlety and more for truth. On the whole, if anyone were to complain that modern civilisation eliminates danger and excitement out of human life, we could well answer the morbid grumbler, “Come into our Courts and see!” Still, praise must be given where praise is due, and let the English system once more be lauded for not normally exposing the accused to the torture of savage pursuit by a prosecuting judge or the singular revival in modern dress of the ancient “question” by the American police. Where political or other passions are not roused and bribery does not enter, the

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poor muddled magistrate does his honest best, and where there is a system of trial by jury, the blunders, whims and passions of twelve men may decide your fate less insanely than the caprices of a Kazi, — though even that is hardly certain. At any rate, if the dice are apt to be loaded, it is, with the exceptions noted, not on one but on both sides of the gamble.

Social Reform Reform is not an excellent thing in itself as many Europeanised intellects imagine; neither is it always safe and good to stand unmoved in the ancient paths as the orthodox obstinately believe. Reform is sometimes the first step to the abyss, but immobility is the most perfect way to stagnate and to putrefy. Neither is moderation always the wisest counsel: the mean is not always golden. It is often an euphemism for purblindness, for a tepid indifference or for a cowardly inefficiency. Men call themselves moderates, conservatives or extremists and manage their conduct and opinions in accordance with a formula. We like to think by systems and parties and forget that truth is the only standard. Systems are merely convenient cases for keeping arranged knowledge, parties a useful machinery for combined action; but we make of them an excuse for avoiding the trouble of thought. One is astonished at the position of the orthodox. They labour to deify everything that exists. Hindu society has certain arrangements and habits which are merely customary. There is no proof that they existed in ancient times nor any reason why they should last into the future. It has other arrangements and habits for which textual authority can be quoted, but it is oftener the text of the modern Smritikaras than of Parasara and Manu. Our authority for them goes back to the last five hundred years. I do not understand the logic which argues that because a thing has lasted for five hundred years it must be perpetuated through the aeons. Neither antiquity nor modernity can be the test of truth or the test of usefulness. All the Rishis do not belong to the past; the Avatars still come; revelation still continues. Some claim that we must at any rate adhere to Manu and the Puranas, whether because they are sacred or because they are national. Well, but, if they are sacred, you must keep to the

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whole and not cherish isolated texts while disregarding the body of your authority. You cannot pick and choose; you cannot say “This is sacred and I will keep to it, that is less sacred and I will leave it alone.” When you so treat your sacred authority, you are proving that to you it has no sacredness. You are juggling with truth; for you are pretending to consult Manu when you are really consulting your own opinions, preferences or interests. To recreate Manu entire in modern society is to ask Ganges to flow back to the Himalayas. Manu is no doubt national, but so is the animal sacrifice and the burnt offering. Because a thing is national of the past, it need not follow that it must be national of the future. It is stupid not to recognise altered conditions. We have similar apologies for the unintelligent preservation of mere customs; but, various as are the lines of defence, I do not know any that is imperiously conclusive. Custom is shishtachar, decorum, that which all well-bred and respectable people observe. But so were the customs of the far past that have been discontinued and, if now revived, would be severely discountenanced and, in many cases, penalised; so too are the customs of the future that are now being resisted or discouraged, — even, I am prepared to believe, the future no less than the past prepares for us new modes of living which in the present would not escape the censure of the law. It is the achar that makes the shishta, not the shishta who makes the achar. The achar is made by the rebel, the innovator, the man who is regarded in his own time as eccentric, disreputable or immoral, as was Sri Krishna by Bhurisrava because he upset the old ways and the old standards. Custom may be better defended as ancestral and therefore cherishable. But if our ancestors had persistently held that view, our so cherished customs would never have come into being. Or, more rationally, custom must be preserved because its long utility in the past argues a sovereign virtue for the preservation of society. But to all things there is a date and a limit. All long-continued customs have been sovereignly useful in their time, even totemism and polyandry. We must not ignore the usefulness of the past, but we seek in preference a present and a future utility.

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Custom and Law may then be altered. For each age its shastra. But we cannot argue straight off that it must be altered, or even if alteration is necessary, that it must be altered in a given direction. One is repelled by the ignorant enthusiasm of social reformers. Their minds are usually a strange jumble of ill-digested European notions. Very few of them know anything about Europe, and even those who have visited it know it badly. But they will not allow things or ideas contrary to European notions to be anything but superstitious, barbarous, harmful and benighted, they will not suffer what is praised and practised in Europe to be anything but rational and enlightened. They are more appreciative than Occidentals themselves of the strength, knowledge and enjoyment of Europe; they are blinder than the blindest and most self-sufficient Anglo-Saxon to its weakness, ignorance and misery. They are charmed by the fair front Europe presents to herself and the world; they are unwilling to discern any disease in the entrails, any foulness in the rear. For the Europeans are as careful to conceal their social as their physical bodies and shrink with more horror from nakedness and indecorum than from the reality of evil. If they see the latter in themselves, they avert their eyes, crying, “It is nothing or it is little; we are healthy, we are perfect, we are immortal.” But the face and hands cannot always be covered, and we see blotches. The social reformer repeats certain stock arguments like shibboleths. For these antiquities he is a fanatic or a crusader. Usually he does not act up to his ideas, but in all sincerity he loves them and fights for them. He pursues his nostrums as panaceas; it would be infidelity to question or examine their efficacy. His European doctors have told him that early marriage injures the physique of a nation, and that to him is the gospel. It is not convenient to remember that physical deterioration is a modern phenomenon in India and that our grandparents were strong, vigorous and beautiful. He hastens to abolish the already disappearing nautchgirl, but it does not seem to concern him that the prostitute multiplies. Possibly some may think it a gain that the European form of the malady is replacing the Indian! He tends

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towards shattering our cooperative system of society and does not see that Europe is striding Titanically towards Socialism. Orthodox and reformer alike lose themselves in details; but it is principles that determine details. Almost every point that the social reformers raise could be settled one way or the other without effecting the permanent good of society. It is pitiful to see men labouring the point of marriage between subcastes and triumphing over an isolated instance. Whether the spirit as well as the body of caste should remain, is the modern question. Let Hindus remember that caste as it stands is merely jat, the trade guild sanctified but no longer working, it is not the eternal religion, it is not chaturvarnya. I do not care whether widows marry or remain single; but it is of infinite importance to consider how women shall be legally and socially related to man, as his inferior, equal or superior; for even the relation of superiority is no more impossible in the future than it was in the far-distant past. And the most important question of all is whether society shall be competitive or cooperative, individualistic or communistic. That we should talk so little about these things and be stormy over insignificant details, shows painfully the impoverishment of the average Indian intellect. If these greater things are decided, as they must be, the smaller will arrange themselves. There are standards that are universal and there are standards that are particular. At the present moment all societies are in need of reform, the Parsi, Mahomedan and Christian not a whit less than the Hindu which alone seems to feel the need of radical reformation. In the changes of the future the Hindu society must take the lead towards the establishment of a new universal standard. Yet being Hindus we must seek it through that which is particular to ourselves. We have one standard that is at once universal and particular, the eternal religion, which is the basis, permanent and always inherent in India, of the shifting, mutable and multiform thing we call Hinduism. Sticking fast where you are like a limpet is not the dharma, neither is leaping without looking the dharma. The eternal religion is to realise God in our inner life and our outer existence, in society not less than in the individual. Esha dharmah sanatanah. God is not

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antiquity nor novelty: He is not the Manava Dharmashastra, nor Vidyaranya, nor Raghunandan; neither is He an European. God who is essentially Sacchidananda, is in manifestation Satyam, Prema, Shakti, — Truth, Strength and Love. Whatever is consistent with the truth and principle of things, whatever increases love among men, whatever makes for the strength of the individual, the nation and the race, is divine, it is the law of Vaivaswata Manu, it is the sanatana dharma and the Hindu shastra. Only, God is the triple harmony, He is not one-sided. Our love must not make us weak, blind or unwise; our strength must not make us hard and furious; our principles must not make us fanatical or sentimental. Let us think calmly, patiently, impartially; let us love wholly and intensely but wisely; let us act with strength, nobility and force. If even then we make mistakes, yet God makes none. We decide and act; He determines the fruit, and whatever He determines is good. He is already determining it. Men have long been troubling themselves about social reform and blameless orthodoxy, and orthodoxy has crumbled without social reform being effected. But all the time God has been going about India getting His work done in spite of the talking. Unknown to men the social revolution prepares itself, and it is not in the direction they think, for it embraces the world, not India only. Whether we like it or not, He will sweep out the refuse of the Indian past and the European present. But the broom is not always sufficient; sometimes He uses the sword in preference. It seems probable that it will be used, for the world does not mend itself quickly, and therefore it will have violently to be mended. But this is a general principle; how shall we determine the principles that are particular to the nature of the community and the nature of the Age? There is such a thing as yugadharma, the right institutions & modes of action for the age in which we live. For action depends indeed on the force of knowledge or will that is to be used, but it depends, too, on the time, the place & the vessel. Institutions that are right in one age are not right in another. Replacing social system by social system, religion by religion, civilisation by civilisation God is perpetually leading

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man onwards to loftier & more embracing manifestations of our human perfectibility. When in His cosmic circling movement He establishes some stable worldwide harmony, that is man’s Satya Yuga. When harmony falters, is maintained with difficulty, not in the nature of men, but by an accepted force or political instrument, that is his Treta. When the faltering becomes stumbling and the harmony has to be maintained at every step by a careful & laborious regulation, that is his Dwapara. When there is disintegration, & all descends in collapse and ruin, nothing can stay farther the cataclysm that is his Kali. This is the natural law of progress of all human ideas & institutions. It applies always in the mass, continually though less perfectly in the detail. One may almost say that each human religion, society, civilisation has its four Ages. For this movement is not only the most natural, but the most salutary. It is not a justification of pessimism nor a gospel of dumb fate & sorrowful annihilation. It is not, as we too often think in our attachment to the form, a melancholy law of decline & the vanity of all human achievements. If each Satya has its Kali, equally does each Kali prepare its Satya. That destruction was necessary for this creation, and the new harmony, when it is perfected, will be better than the old. But there is the weakness, there is the half success turning to failure, there is the discouragement, there is the loss of energy & faith which clouds our periods of disintegration, the apparent war, violence, ragging, tumult & trample to and fro which attends our periods of gradual creation and half-perfection. Therefore men cry out dismally & lament that all is perishing. But if they trusted in God’s Love & Wisdom, not preferring to it their conservative & narrow notions, they would rather cry out that all is being reborn. So much depends on Time & God’s immediate purpose that it is more important to seek out His purpose than to attach ourselves to our own nostrums. The Kala Purusha, Zeitgeist & Death Spirit, has risen to his dreadful work — lokakshayakritpravriddhas — increasing to destroy a world, — and who shall stay the terror & mightiness & irresistibility of Him? But He is not only destroying the world that was, He is creating the world

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that shall be; it is therefore more profitable for us to discover & help what He is building than to lament & hug in our arms what He is destroying. But it is not easy to discover His drift, & we often admire too much temporary erections which are merely tents for the warriors in this Kurukshetra and take them for the permanent buildings of the future. The Pandits are therefore right when they make a difference between the practice of the Satya & the practice of the Kali. But in their application of this knowledge, they do not seem to me to be always wise or learned. They forget or do not know that Kali is the age for a destruction & rebirth, not for a desperate clinging to the old that can no longer be saved. They entrench themselves in the system of Kalivarjya, but forget that it is not the weaknesses but the strengths of the old harmony that are being subjected to varjanam, abandonment. That which is saved is merely a temporary platform which we have erected on the banks of the sea of change awaiting a more stable habitation; and it too must one day break down under the crash of the waves, must disappear into the engulfing waters. Has the time arrived for that destruction? We think that it has. Listen to the crash of those waters, — more formidable than the noise of assault, mark that slow, sullen, remorseless sapping, — watch pile after pile of our patched incoherent ramshackle structure corroding, creaking, shaking with the blows, breaking, sinking silently or with a splash, suddenly or little by little into the yeast of those billows. Has the time arrived for a new construction? We say it has. Mark the activity, eagerness and hurrying to and fro of mankind, the rapid prospecting, seeking, digging, founding — see the Avatars & great vibhutis coming, arising thickly, treading each close behind the other. Are not these the signs and do they not tell us that the great Avatar of all arrives to establish the first Satya Yuga of the Kali? For in the Kali too, say the secret & ancient traditions of the Yogins, there is a perpetual minor repetition of Satya-TretaDwapara-Kali subcycles, the subSatya a temporary & imperfect harmony which in the subTreta & subDwapara breaks down and disappears in the subKali. The process then begins over

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again [............................................] for each new temporary harmony is fairer and more perfect than its preceding harmony, each new temporary collapse more resounding & terrible than its anterior dissolution. Already ended are the first five thousand years of the Kali which were necessary to prepare for final destruction the relics of the ancient Satya. Weakness & violence, error and ignorance and oblivion rushing with an increasing speed & rhythm over the whole earth have done for us that work. The morning of the first Kali-Satya is ready to break, the first few streaks dimly visible. So runs the not incredible tradition. Yes. A new harmony, but not the scrannel pipes of European materialism, not an Occidental foundation upon half truths & whole falsehoods. When there is destruction it is the form that perishes, not the spirit — for the world and its ways are forms of one Truth which appears in this material world in ever new bodies and constantly varied apparel — the inward Eternal taking the joy of outward Mutability. The truth of the old Satya that is dead was not different from the Truth of the new Satya that is to be born, for it is Truth that restores itself always and persists. In India, the chosen land, it is preserved; in the soul of India it sleeps, expectant of that soul’s awakening, the soul of India leonine, luminous, locked in the closed petals of the ancient lotus of strength and wisdom, not in her weak, sordid, transient & miserable externals. India alone can build the future of mankind; in India alone can the effective Avatar appear to the nations. And until He appears, it is for India to gather herself up out of her dust & degradation, — symbol of the shattered Satyayuga — commune with her soul by Yoga and to know her past & her future. I have not here speculated on what we should build, what we should break, nor shall I now define my detailed opinions — but whatever it be, we must do it in the light and in the spirit of that triple principle of the divine nature; we must act in the reflection of God’s Love, Strength & Wisdom. We are Hindus seeking to re-Hinduise society, not to Europeanise it. But what is Hinduism? Or what is its social principle?

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One thing at least is certain about Hinduism religious or social, that its whole outlook is Godward, its whole search and business is the discovery of God and our fulfilment in God. But God is everywhere and universal. Where did Hinduism seek Him? Ancient or preBuddhistic Hinduism sought him both in the world and outside it; it took its stand on the strength & beauty & joy of the Veda, unlike modern or postBuddhistic Hinduism which is oppressed with Buddha’s sense of universal sorrow and Shankara’s sense of universal illusion, — Shankara who was the better able to destroy Buddhism because he was himself half a Buddhist. Ancient Hinduism aimed socially at our fulfilment in God in life, modern Hinduism at the escape from life to God. The more modern ideal is fruitful of a noble and ascetic spirituality, but has a chilling and hostile effect on social soundness and development, social life under its shadow stagnates for want of belief and delight, sraddha and ananda. If we are to make our society perfect and the nation is to live again, then we must revert to the earlier and fuller truth. We must not make life a waiting for renunciation, but renunciation a preparation for life; instead of running from God in the town to God in the forest, we must rather plunge into the mountain solitude in our own souls for knowledge & joy & spiritual energy to sustain any part that may be given to us by the master of the Lila. If we get that strength, any society we build up must be full of the instinct of immortal life and move inevitably towards perfection. As to the precise way in which society will be reconstructed, we have hardly yet knowledge enough to solve the problem. We ought to know before we act, but we are rather eager to act violently in the light of any dim ray of knowledge that may surprise our unreflecting intellects, and although God often uses our haste for great and beneficial purposes, yet that way of doing things is not the best either for a man or a nation. One thing seems to me clear that the future will deny that principle of individual selfishness and collective selfinterest on which European society has hitherto been based and our renovated systems will be based on the renunciation of individual selfishness and the organisation of brotherhood, — principles common to Christianity, Mahomedanism and Hinduism.

Hinduism and the Mission of India [.....] [That] which is permanent in the Hindu religion, must form the basis on which the world will increasingly take its stand in dealing with spiritual experience and religious truth. Hinduism, in my sense of the word, is not modern Brahmanism. Modern Brahmanism developed into existence at a definite period in history. It is now developing out of existence; its mission is done, its capacities exhausted, the Truth which, like other religions, it defended, honoured, preserved, cherished, misused and disfigured, is about to take to itself new forms and dispense with all other screens or defender than its own immortal beauty, grandeur, truth and effectiveness. It is this unchanging undying Truth which has to be discovered and placed in its native light before humanity. Tad etat satyam. There are many defenders and discoverers of truth now active among us. They are all busy defending, modifying, attacking, sapping or bolstering current Hinduism. I am not eager to disparage but neither do I find myself satisfied with any of them. If I were, there would be no need for any speculation of my own. There are the orthodox who are busy recovering and applying old texts or any interpretations, new or old, of these texts, which will support the existing order, — and ignoring all that go against it. Their learning is praiseworthy and useful; it brings to notice many great and helpful things which were in danger of being misprized, lost or flung away as worthless; but they do not seem to me to go to the heart of the matter. There are the heterodox who are busy giving new interpretations to old texts and institutions in order to get rid of all such features as the modern world finds it hard to assimilate. Their brainwork can hardly be too highly praised; it is bringing to light or to a half light many luminous realities and possibilities which, if they cannot all be accepted, yet invigorate and sharpen the habit of

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original thinking and help to remove that blind adherence to traditions which is truth’s greatest obstacle. Still they too do not seem to me to have the right grasp and discernment. Then there are the ascetics mystical or rationalistic who call men to disgust with the world and point to the temple, the monastery or the mountaintop as the best, if not the only place for finding God, and most of whom, in order to honour the Maker slight and denounce His works. Their position and temperament is so lofty and noble and their solvent force on the gross impurities of a materialised humanity has been so invaluable that it is with some reluctance one finds oneself obliged to put them on one side and pass onward. But it seems to me that we must pass onward if we would know and possess God in His entirety and not merely in a side or aspect. There is a story in the Jewish Scriptures which relates that when God wished to show himself to Moses, he could only, owing to the spiritual imperfections of the Jewish prophet, reveal safely to him His hinder parts. Moses would have died if he had seen the front of God; he had not the dharanam, the soul-power to support that tremendous vision. The story well illuminates the character of materialism generally and to its aggressive modern form, European thought & civilisation, it applies with a quite overwhelming appositeness. But it seems to me that the average Vedantist, too, has only seen, for his part, the crown of the Lord’s head and the average bhakta only the Kaustubh-stone over His heart or the Srivatsa mark upon it. On the other hand, there are those rationalists who are by no means ascetical in their views or temperament and their name is legion; they insist on our putting religion and God aside or keeping Him only for ornamental uses in spare moments, leave that, they say, & devote yourselves to practical work for mankind. That rationalism is necessary too if only to balance the error of the ascetics who would make of God’s world a mistake and of its Maker an Almighty blunderer or an inscrutable eccentric or an indefinable Something inhabiting a chaos or a mirage. Nevertheless, from materialism least of all, however philanthropic or patriotic, can our future salvation be expected. Finally, there are the mystics who are not ascetics, —

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the Theosophists. From one point of view I cannot find praise warm enough to do justice to the work of Theosophy; from another I cannot find condemnation strong enough to denounce it. It has forced on the notice of an unwilling world truths to which orthodoxy is blind and of which heterodoxy is afraid or incredulous. It has shown a colossal courage in facing ridicule, trampling on prejudice and slander, persisting in faith in spite of disillusionment, scandal and a continual shifting of knowledge. They have kept the flag of a past & future science flying against enormous difficulties. On the other hand by bringing to the investigation of that science — not its discovery, for to the Hindu Yogin it is known already — the traditional European methods, the methods of the market-place and the forum, it has brought on the truths themselves much doubt and discredit, and by importing into them the forms, jugglery and jargon of European mystics, their romanticism, their unbridled imagination, their galloping impatience, their haste, bragging and loudness, their susceptibility to dupery, trickery, obstinate error and greedy selfdeception, Theosophists have strengthened doubt and discredit and driven many an earnest seeker to bewilderment, to angry suspicion or to final renunciation of the search for truth. They have scattered the path of the conscientious investigators, the severe scientists of Yoga who must appear in the future, with the thorns and sharp flints of a well-justified incredulity and suspicion. I admit the truths that Theosophy seeks to unveil; but I do not think they can be reached if we fall into bondage even to the most inspiring table talk of Mahatmas or to the confused anathemas and vaticinations hurled from their platform tripods by modern Pythonesses of the type of Mr.s. Annie Besant, that great, capacious but bewildered and darkened intellect, now stumbling with a loud and confident blindness through those worlds of twilight and glamour, of distorted inspirations, perverted communications and misunderstood or half-understood perceptions which are so painfully familiar to the student and seeker. If these things do not satisfy me, what then do I seek? I seek a light that shall be new, yet old, the oldest indeed of all lights.

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I seek an authority that accepting, illuminating and reconciling all human truth, shall yet reject and get rid of by explaining it all mere human error. I seek a text and a Shastra that is not subject to interpolation, modification and replacement, that moth and white ant cannot destroy, that the earth cannot bury nor Time mutilate. I seek an asceticism that shall give me purity and deliverance from self and from ignorance without stultifying God and His universe. I seek a scepticism that shall question everything but shall have the patience to deny nothing that may possibly be true. I seek a rationalism not proceeding on the untenable supposition that all the centuries of man’s history except the nineteenth were centuries of folly and superstition, but bent on discovering truth instead of limiting inquiry by a new dogmatism, obscurantism and furious intolerance which it chooses to call common sense and enlightenment; I seek a materialism that shall recognise matter and use it without being its slave. I seek an occultism that shall bring out all its processes and proofs into the light of day, without mystery, without jugglery, without the old stupid call to humanity, “Be blind, O man, and see!” In short, I seek not science, not religion, not Theosophy, but Veda — the truth about Brahman, not only about His essentiality, but about His manifestation, not a lamp on the way to the forest, but a light and a guide to joy and action in the world, the truth which is beyond opinion, the knowledge which all thought strives after — yasmin vijnate sarvam vijnatam. I believe that Veda to be the foundation of the Sanatan Dharma; I believe it to be the concealed divinity within Hinduism, — but a veil has to be drawn aside, a curtain has to be lifted. I believe it to be knowable and discoverable. I believe the future of India and the world to depend on its discovery and on its application, not to the renunciation of life, but to life in the world and among men. In these articles I shall not try to announce truth, but merely to inquire what are those things in Hinduism by following which we may arrive at the truth. I shall try to indicate some of my reasons — as far as within these limits it can be done — for my faith in my guides and the manner in which I think they should be followed. I am impelled to this labour by the necessity of turning

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the mind of young India to our true riches, our real source of power, purification and hope for the future and of safeguarding it in the course of its search both from false lights and from the raucous challenges and confident discouragements cast at us by the frail modern spirit of denial. I write, not for the orthodox, nor for those who have discovered a new orthodoxy, Samaj or Panth, nor for the unbeliever; I write for those who acknowledge reason but do not identify reason with Western materialism; who are sceptics but not unbelievers; who, admitting the claims of modern thought, still believe in India, her mission and her gospel, her immortal life and her eternal rebirth.

The Psychology of Yoga As the Indian mind, emerging from its narrow mediaeval entrenchments, advances westward towards inevitable conquest, it must inevitably carry with it Yoga & Vedanta for its banners wherever it goes. Brahmajnana, Yoga & Dharma are the three essentialities of Hinduism; wherever it travels & find harbourage & resting place, these three must spread. All else may help or hinder. Shankara’s philosophy may compel the homage of the intellectual, Sankhya attract the admiration of the analytical mind, Buddha capture the rationalist in search of a less material synthesis than the modern scientist’s continual Annam Brahma Pranam Brahma, but these are only grandiose intellectualities. The world at large does not live by the pure intellect, concrete itself it stands by things concrete or practical, although, immaterial in its origin, it bases practicality upon abstractions. A goal of life, a practice of perfection and a rational, yet binding law of conduct, — these are man’s continual quest, and in none of these demands is modern Science able to satisfy humanity. In reply to all such wants Science can only cry, Society and again Society and always Society. But the nature of man knows that Society is not the whole of life. With the eye of the soul it sees that Society is only a means, not an end, a passing & changing outward phenomenon, not that fixed, clear & eternal inward standard & goal which we seek. Of Society as of all things Yajnavalkya’s universal dictum stands; a man loves & serves Society for the sake of the Self & not for the sake of Society. That is his nature & whatever Rationalism may teach, to his nature he must always return. What Science could not provide India offers, Brahman for the eternal goal, Yoga for the means of perfection, dharma (swabhavaniyatam karma) for the rational yet binding law of conduct. Therefore, because it has something by which humanity can be satisfied & on

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which it can found itself, the victory of the Indian mind is assured. But in order that the victory may not be slow & stumbling in its progress and imperfect in its fulfilment, it is necessary that whatever India has to offer should be stated to the West in language that the West can understand and through a principle of knowledge which it has made its own. Europe will accept nothing which is not scientific, nothing, that is to say which does not take up its stand on an assured, well-ordered and verifiable knowledge. Undoubtedly, for practical purposes the West is right; since only by establishing ourselves on such an assured foundation can we work with the utmost effectiveness and make the most of what we know. For shastra is the true basis of all perfect action & shastra means the full and careful teaching of the principles, relations and processes of every branch of knowledge, action or conduct with which the mind concerns itself. Indian knowledge possesses such a scientific basis, but, in these greater matters, unexpressed or expressed only in broad principles, compact aphorisms, implied logical connections not minutely treated in detail, fully, with a patient logical order & development in the way to which the occidental intellect is now accustomed and which it has become its second nature to demand. The aphoristic method has great advantages. It prevents the mind from getting encrusted in details and fossilising there; it leaves a wide room & great latitude for originality & the delicate play of individuality in the details. It allows a science to remain elastic and full of ever new potentialities for the discoverer. No doubt, it has disadvantages. It leaves much room for inaccuracy, for individual error, for the violences of the ill-trained & the freaks of the inefficient. For this, among other more important reasons, the Indian mind has thought it wise to give a firm & absolute authority to the guru & to insist that the disciple shall by precept & practice make his own all that the master has to teach him & so form & train his mind before it is allowed to play freely with his subject. In Europe the manual replaces the guru; the mind of the learner is not less rigidly bound & dominated but it is by the written rule

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& detail not by the more adaptable & flexible word of the guru. Still, the age has its own demands, and it is becoming imperatively necessary that Indian knowledge should reveal in the Western way its scientific foundations. For if we do not do it ourselves, the Europeans will do it for us and do it badly, discrediting the knowledge in the process. The phenomenon of the Theosophical Society is a warning to us of a pressing urgency. It will never do to allow the science of Indian knowledge to be represented to the West through this strange & distorting medium. For this society of European & European-led inquirers arose from an impulse on which the Time-Spirit itself insists; their object, vaguely grasped at by them, was at bottom the systematic coordination, explanation & practice of Oriental religion & Oriental mental & spiritual discipline. Unfortunately, as always happens to a great effort in unfit hands, it stumbled at the outset & went into strange bypaths. It fell into the mediaeval snare of Gnostic mysticism, Masonic secrecy & Rosicrucian jargon. The little science it attempted has been rightly stigmatised as pseudo-science. A vain attempt to thrust in modern physical science into the explanation of psychical movements, — to explain for instance pranayam in the terms of oxygen & hydrogen! — to accept uncritically every experience & every random idea about an experience as it occurred to the mind & set it up as a revealed truth & almost a semi-divine communication, to make a hopeless amalgam & jumble of science, religion & philosophy all expressed in the terms of the imagination — this has been the scientific method of Theosophy. The result is that it lays its hands on truth & muddles it so badly that it comes out to the world as an untruth. And there now abound other misstatements of Indian truth, less elaborate but almost as wild & wide as Theosophy’s. From this growing confusion we must deliver the future of humanity.

The Claims of Theosophy I wish to write in no narrow and intolerant spirit about Theosophy. There can be nothing more contemptibly ignorant than the vulgar prejudice which ridicules Theosophy because it concerns itself with marvels. From that point of view the whole world is a marvel; every operation of thought, speech or action is a miracle, a thing wonderful, obscure, occult and unknown. Even the sneer on the lips of the derider of occultism has to pass through a number of ill-understood processes before it can manifest itself on his face, yet the thing itself is the work of a second. That sneer is a much greater and more occult miracle than the precipitation of letters or the reading of the Akashic records. If Science is true, what more absurd, paradoxical and Rabelaisian miracle can there be than this, that a republic of small animalcules forming a mass of grey matter planned Austerlitz, wrote Hamlet or formulated the Vedanta philosophy? If I believed that strange dogma, I should no longer hold myself entitled to disbelieve anything. Materialism seems to me the most daring of occultisms, the most reckless and presumptuous exploiter of the principle, Credo quia impossibile, I believe it because it is impossible. If these minute cells can invent wireless telegraphy, why should it be impossible for them to precipitate letters or divine the past and the future? Until one can say of investigation “It is finished” and of knowledge “There is nothing beyond”, no one has a right to set down men as charlatans because they profess to be the pioneers of a new kind of Science. Neither, I hope, shall I be inclined to reject or criticise adversely because Theosophy has a foreign origin. There is no law of Nature by which spiritual knowledge is confined to the East or must bear the stamp of an Indian manufacture before it can receive the imprimatur of the All-Wise. He has made man in his own image everywhere, in the image of the Satyam Jnanam

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Anantam, the divine Truth-Knowledge-Infinity, and from wheresoever true knowledge comes, it must be welcomed. Nevertheless if men claim to be the pioneers of a new kind of Science, they must substantiate their claims. And if foreigners come to the people of India and demand to be accepted as instructors in our own special department of knowledge, they must prove that they have a prodigious superiority. Has the claim been substantiated? Has the superiority been proved? What Indians see is a body which is professedly and hospitably open to all enquiry at the base but entrenches itself in a Papal or mystic infallibility at the top. To be admitted into the society it is enough to believe in the freest investigation and the brotherhood of mankind, but everyone who is admitted must feel, if he is honest with himself, that he is joining a body which stands for certain well-known dogmas, a definite and very elaborate cosmogony and philosophy and a peculiar organisation, the spirit, if not the open practice in which seems to be theocratic rather than liberal. One feels that the liberality of the outer rings is only a wisely politic device for attracting a wider circle of sympathisers from whom numerous converts to the inner can be recruited. It is the dogmas, the cosmogony, the philosophy, the theocratic organisation which the world understands by Theosophy and which one strengthens by adhesion to the society; free inquiry and the brotherhood of man benefit to a very slight degree. One sees also a steady avoidance of the demand for substantiation, a withdrawal into mystic secrecy, a continual reference to the infallible knowledge of the male & female Popes of Theosophy or, when that seems to need bolstering, to the divine authority of invisible and inaccessible Mahatmas. We in India admit the Guru and accept the Avatar. But still the Guru is only a vessel of the infinite Knowledge, the Avatar is only a particular manifestation of the Divine Personality. It is shocking to our spiritual notions to find cosmic Demiurges of a vague semi-divine character put between us and the All-Powerful and All-Loving and Kutthumi and Maurya taking the place of God. One sees, finally, a new Theocracy claiming the place of the

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old, and that Theocracy is dominantly European. Indians figure numerously as prominent subordinates, just as in the British system of government Indians are indispensable and sometimes valued assistants. Or they obtain eminence on the side of pure spirituality and knowledge, just as Indians could rise to the highest places in the judicial service or in advisory posts, but not in the executive administration. But if the smaller hierophants are sometimes and rarely Indians, the theocrats and the bulk of the prophets are Russian, American or English. An Indian here and there may quicken the illumination of the Theosophist, but it is Madame Blavatsky or Mrs Besant, Sinnett or Leadbeater who lays down the commandments and the Law. It is strange to see the present political condition of India reproducing itself in a spiritual organisation; it illustrates perhaps the subtle interconnection and interdependence of all individual and communal activities in the human being. But the political subordination finds its justification in the physical fact of the British rule. It is argued plausibly, and perhaps correctly, that without this subordination British supremacy could have no sure foundation. But where is the justification for the foreign spiritual control? The argument of native incapacity may be alleged. But I do not find this hypothesis of superiority supported by the facts. I do not see that Mrs Besant has a more powerful and perfect intellectuality, eloquence, personality or religious force than had Swami Vivekananda or that a single Theosophist has yet showed him or herself to be as mighty and pure a spirit as the Paramhansa Ramakrishna. There are Indian Yogins who have a finer and more accurate psychical knowledge than the best that can be found in the books of the Theosophists. Some even of the less advanced have given me proofs of far better-developed occult powers than any Theosophist I have yet known. The only member of the Theosophical Society who could give me any spiritual help I could not better by my unaided faculties, was one excluded from the esoteric section because his rare and potent experiences were unintelligible to the Theosophic guides; nor were his knowledge and powers gained by Theosophic methods but by following the path of our Yoga and the impulse of an

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Indian guru, one who meddled not in organisations and election cabals but lived like a madman, unmattavat. These peculiarities of the Theosophical movement have begun to tell and the better mind of India revolts against Theosophy. The young who are the future, are not for the new doctrine. Yet only through India can Theosophy hope to survive. It may attract a certain number of European adherents, but cannot hope to control the thought and life of the West. Its secretive and Papal tendency is a fatal bar. Europe has done definitely with all knowledge that will not submit itself to scrutiny; it is finishing with the usurpations of theocracy in things spiritual as it has finished with them in things temporal. Even devout Catholics writhe uneasily under the shower of Papal encyclicals and feel what an embarrassment it is to have modern knowledge forbidden by a revenant from the Middle Ages or opinion fixed by a Council of priests no more spiritual, wise or illustrious than the minds they coerce with their irrational authority. Europe is certainly not going to exchange a Catholic for a Theosophical Pope, the Council of Cardinals for the Esoteric Section, or the Gospel and the Athanasian Creed for Ancient Wisdom and Isis Unveiled. Will India long keep the temper that submits to unexamined authority and blinds itself with a name? I believe not. We shall more and more return to the habit of going to the root of things, of seeking knowledge not from outside but from the Self who knows and reveals. We must more and more begin to feel that to believe a thing because somebody has heard from somebody else that Mrs Besant heard it from a Mahatma, is a little unsafe and indefinite. Even if the assurance is given direct, we shall learn to ask for the proofs. Even if Kutthumi himself comes and tells me, I shall certainly respect his statement, but also I shall judge it and seek its verification. The greatest Mahatma is only a servant of the Most High and I must see his chapras before I admit his plenary authority. The world is putting off its blinkers; it is feeling once more the divine impulse to see. It is not that Theosophy is false; it is that Theosophists are weak and human. I am glad to believe that there is much truth in Theosophy. There are also considerable errors. Many of

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the things they say which seem strange and incredible to those who decline the experiment, agree with the general experience of Yogins; there are other statements which our experience appears to contradict or to which it gives a different interpretation. Mahatmas exist, but they are not omnipotent or infallible. Rebirth is a fact and the memory of our past lives is possible; but the rigid rules of time and of Karmic reaction laid down dogmatically by the Theosophist hierophants are certainly erroneous. Especially is the hotchpotch of Hindu and Buddhist mythology and Theosophic prediction served up to us by Mrs Besant confusing and misleading. At any rate it does not agree with the insight of much greater Yogins than herself. Like most Theosophists she seems to ignore the numerous sources and possibilities of error which assail the Yogin before his intellect is perfectly purified and he has his perfection in the higher and superintellectual faculties of the mind. Until then the best have to remember that the mind even of the fairly advanced is not yet divine and that it is the nature of the old unchastened human element to leap at misunderstandings, follow the lure of predilections and take premature conclusions for established truths. We must accept the Theosophists as enquirers; as hierophants and theocrats I think we must reject them. If Theosophy is to survive, it must first change itself. It must learn that mental rectitude to which it is now a stranger and improve its moral basis. It must become clear, straightforward, rigidly self-searching, sceptical in the nobler sense of the word. It must keep the Mahatmas in the background and put God and Truth in the front. Its Popes must dethrone themselves and enthrone the intellectual conscience of mankind. If they wish to be mystic and secret like our Yogins, then they must like our Yogins assert only to the initiate and the trained; but if they come out into the world to proclaim their mystic truths aloud and seek power, credit and influence on the strength of their assertions, then they must prove. It need not and ought not to be suddenly or by miracles; but there must be a scientific development, we must be able to lay hold on the rationale and watch the process of the truths they proclaim.

Science & Religion in Theosophy I have said that I wish to write of Theosophy in no strain of unreasoning hostility or spirit of vulgar ridicule; yet these essays will be found to be much occupied with criticisms and often unsparing criticisms of the spirit and methods of Theosophists. There is, however, this difference between my criticisms and much that I have seen written in dispraise of the movement, that I censure not as an enemy but as an impartial critic, not as a hostile and incredulous outsider but as an earnest and careful inquirer and practical experimentalist in those fields which Theosophy seeks to make her own. Theosophy was not born with Madame Blavatsky, nor invented by the Mahatmas in the latter end of the nineteenth century. It is an ancient and venerable branch of knowledge, which unfortunately has never, in historical times, been brought out into the open and subjected to clear, firm and luminous tests. The imaginations of the cultured and the superstitions of the vulgar played havoc with its truths and vitiated its practice. It degenerated into the extravagances of the Gnostics & Rosicrucians and the charlatanism of magic and sorcery. The Theosophical Society was the first body of inquirers which started with the set & clear profession of bringing out this great mass of ancient truth into public notice and establishing it in public belief. The profession has not been sustained in practice. Instead of bringing them out into public notice they have withdrawn them into the shrouded secrecy of the Esoteric society; instead of establishing them to public belief, they have hampered the true development of Theosophy & injured its credit by allowing promise to dwarf performance and by a readiness to assert which was far beyond their power to verify. I do not deny that the Theosophical Society increases in its numbers, but it increases as a mystic sect and not in the strength of its true calling. I do not deny that it has done valuable service

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in appealing to the imaginations of men both in India & Europe; but it has appealed to their imaginations & has not convinced their reason. When there is so serious a failure in a strong and earnest endeavour, we must look for the cause in some defect which lies at the very roots of its action. And it is just there at the very roots of its active life that we find the vital defect of modern Theosophy. We find a speculative confusion which fatally ignores the true objects and the proper field of such a movement and a practical confusion which fatally ignores the right and necessary conditions of its success. They have failed to see what Theosophy rightly is and what it is not; they have failed to understand that error and the sources of error must be weeded out before the good corn of truth can grow. They have fallen into the snare of Gnostic jargon and Rosicrucian mummery and have been busy with a nebulous chase after Mahatmas, White Lodges and Lords of the Flame when they should have been experimenting earnestly and patiently, testing their results severely and arriving at sound and incontestable conclusions which they could present, rationally founded, first to all enquirers and then to the world at large. Mr.s. Besant would have us believe that Theosophy is Brahmavidya. The Greek Theosophia and the Sanscrit Brahmavidya, she tells us in all good faith, are identical words and identical things. Even with Mr.s. Besant’s authority, I cannot accept this extraordinary identification. It can only have arisen either from her ignorance of Sanscrit or from that pervading confusion of thought and inability to perceive clear and trenchant distinctions which is the bane of Theosophical inquiry & Theosophical pronouncements. Vidya may be represented, though not perfectly represented by sophia; but Brahman is not Theos and cannot be Theos, as even the veriest tyro in philosophy, one would think, ought to know. We all know what Brahmavidya is, — the knowledge of the One both in Itself and in its ultimate and fundamental relations to the world which appears in It whether as illusion or as manifestation, whether as Maya or as Lila. Does Theosophy answer to this description? Everyone knows that it does not and cannot. The modern Theosophist tells us

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much about Mahatmas, Kamaloka, Devachan, people on Mars, people on the Moon, astral bodies, precipitated letters, Akashic records and a deal of other matters, of high value if true and of great interest whether true or not. But what on earth, I should like to know, has all this to do with Brahmavidya? One might just as well describe botany, zoology & entomology or for that matter, music or painting or the binomial theory or quadratic equations as Brahmavidya. In a sense they are so since everything is Brahman, — sarvam khalvidam Brahma. But language has its distinctions on which clear thinking depends, & we must insist on their being observed. All this matter of Theosophy is not Brahmavidya, but Devavidya. Devavidya is the true equivalent, so far as there can be an equivalent, of Theosophy. I am aware that Theosophy speaks of the Logos or of several Logoi and the government of the world — not so much by any Logos as by the Mahatmas. Still, I say, that all this does not constitute Theosophy into Brahmavidya, but leaves it what it was, Devavidya. It is still not the knowledge of the One, not the knowledge that leads to salvation, but the knowledge of the Many, — of our bondage & not of our freedom, Avidya & not Vidya. I do not decry it for that reason, but it is necessary that it should be put in its right place and not blot out for us the diviner knowledge of our forefathers. Theosophy is or should be a wider & profounder Science, a knowledge that deals with other levels & movements of consciousness, planes if you like so to call them, phenomena depending on the activity of consciousness on those levels, worlds & beings formed by the activity of consciousness on those levels, — for what is a world but the synthesis in Space & Time of a particular level of consciousness, — forming a field of consciousness with which material Science, the Science of this immediately visible world, cannot yet deal, and for the most part, not believing in it as fact, refuses to deal. Theosophy is, therefore, properly speaking, a high scientific enquiry. It is not or ought not to be a system of metaphysics or a new religion.

Sat What is Truth? said Pilate confronted with a mighty messenger of the truth, not jesting surely, not in a spirit of shallow lightness, but turning away from the Christ with the impatience of the disillusioned soul for those who still use high words that have lost their meaning and believe in great ideals which the test of the event has proved to be fallacious. What is truth, — this phantom so long pursued, so impossible to grasp firmly, — that a man young, beautiful, gifted, eloquent and admired should consent to be crucified for its sake? Have not circumstance and event justified the half-pitying, half-sorrowful question of the Roman governor? The Messenger suffered on the cross, and what happened to the truth that was his message? As Christ himself foresaw, it has never been understood even by its professors. For five hundred years it was a glorious mirage for which thousands of men and women willingly underwent imprisonment, torture and death in order that Christ’s kingdom might come on earth & felicity possess the nations. But the kingdom that came was not Christ’s; it was Constantine’s, it was Hildebrand’s, it was Alexander Borgia’s. For another thirteen centuries the message was — what? Has it not been the chief support of fanaticism, falsehood, cruelty and hypocrisy, the purveyor of selfish power, the keystone of a society that was everything Christ had denounced? Jesus died on the cross, for the benefit, it would seem, of those who united to slay him, the Sadducee, atheist & high priest, the Pharisee, zealot, hypocrite & persecutor and the brutal, self-seeking, callous military Roman. Now in its last state, after such a lamentable career, Christ’s truth stands finally rejected by the world’s recent enlightenment as a hallucination or a superstition which sometimes helpfully, sometimes harmfully amused the infancy of the human intellect. This history is written in too pronounced characters to be the exact type of all messages

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that the world has received, but is it not in some sort a type of the fate of all truth? What idea has stood successfully the test of a prolonged & pitiless inquiry? what ideal has stood successfully the test of time? Has not mankind been busy for the last fifty years and more denying almost all that it had formerly affirmed? And now that under the name of rationalism or materialism the denial has shaped itself into some form of workably practical affirmation, mankind is again at its work of denying its denial and rearranging — but this time doubtingly — its old affirmations. The scepticism of Pilate would therefore seem to have some excuse in a recurrent human experience. Is there, indeed, such a thing as truth, — beyond of course that practical truth of persistent material appearances by which we govern our lives, the truth of death, birth, hunger, sexuality, pain, pleasure, commerce, money making, ease, discomfort, ambition, failure and success? Has not indeed the loftiest of our philosophical systems declared all things here to be Maya? And if Maya is illusion, a deceit of the thinking consciousness, then indeed there can be no truth anywhere in the world except that indefinable Existence which we cannot comprehend and which, after all, Buddhism, not without logic and plausibility, setting it down as another & more generalised sanskara, a false sensation of consciousness in the eternal Void, denies. And yet man is so constituted that he must follow after truth whether it is attained or not; something in him secret, masterful, essential to his existence, forbids him to be satisfied with a falsehood; the moment it is perceived or even believed to be a falsehood, he rejects it and the thing begins to crumble. If he persists in his rejection, it cannot last. Yesterday it was, today we see it tottering, tomorrow we shall look for it and find that it is no longer. It has passed back into Prakriti; it has dissolved into that of which it was made. For sraddha is the condition of all existence in consciousness and that to which sraddha is denied, ceases to have existence whether here or elsewhere, na caivamutra no iha. It is not, neither in this world nor in another. We may not unreasonably infer from this importance and this imperative necessity that Truth does really exist and everything is not illusion. If then Truth is always

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escaping our hold and leaving us to disillusionment and derision, it may be because we have neither formed any clear conception of what Truth itself is nor taken hold of the right means by which it can be grasped. Let us leave aside, for a while, Buddha’s world of sanskaras; let us put aside, packed away in an accessible corner of the brain, Shankara’s gospel of Maya, and start instead from the old Vedantic beginnings OM Tat Sat, That (Brahman) is the thing that Is, and Sarvam khalvidam Brahma, Verily, all this, everything of which we are aware, is Brahman. It is at least possible that we may return from this inquiry with a deeper idea both of sanskaras and of Maya and may find that we have answered Pilate’s question by discovering the nature and conditions of Truth. I am speaking of the fundamental truth, the truth of things and not merely the fact about particulars or of particulars only as their knowledge forms a basis or a help to the discovery of fundamental truth. The fact that a particular sort of contact makes me uncomfortable is nothing in itself except in so far as it throws light upon the general causes of pain; the nature, origin and purpose of pain is the fundamental truth that I seek about the sensational reaction to contact. This law of pain, moreover, is not so fundamental as the truth about the nature, origin and purpose of sensation and contact themselves, of which pain is a particularity, an example or a modification. This more fundamental truth becomes again itself particular when compared with the truth about the nature, origin and purpose of existence of which sensation and contact are only particular circumstances. In this we arrive at the one fundamental truth of all, and a little consideration will show that if we really & rightly know that, the rest ought and probably will reveal themselves at once and fall into their places. Tasmin vijnate sarvam vijnatam, That being known, all is known. Our ancestors perceived this truth of the fundamental unity of knowledge and sought to know Sat first, confident that Sat being known, the different tattwas, laws, details & particulars of Sat would more readily yield up their secret. The moderns follow another thought, which, also, has a truth of its own. They think

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that since being is one the knowledge of the particulars must lead to the knowledge of the fundamental unity and they begin therefore at the bottom and climb upwards — a slow but, one might imagine, a safe method of procession. “Little flower in the crannies” cries Tennyson addressing a pretty blossom in the wall in lines which make good thought, but execrable poetry, “if I could but know what you are, I should know what God and man is.” Undoubtedly; the question is whether, without knowing God, we can really know the flower, — know it, and not merely its name and form or all the details of its name and form. Rupa we can know & analyse by the aid of science, nama by the aid of philosophy; but swarupa? It would seem that some third instrument is needed for that consummation of knowledge. The senses & reason, even though aided by microscope and telescope, cannot show it to us. Na sandrishe tisthati rupam asya. The form of That stands not in the ken of sight. Mind and speech are not permitted to lead us to it, na vag gacchati na mano. Even the metaphysical logic of a Shankara stops short of that final victory. Naisha tarkena matir apaneya. This realisation in thought is not to be obtained by logic. All these various disabilities are due to one compelling cause; they are, because Sat, the truth of existence, Brahman, the reality of things which fills & supports their idea and form, is beyond the recognisable & analysable elements of idea and form. Anor aniyan atarkyam anupramanat. It is subtler even than elemental subtlety and therefore not to be deduced, induced, inferred or discovered by a reasoning which proceeds from a consideration of the elements of name and form and makes that its standard. This is a truth which even the greatest philosophers, Vedantic or unVedantic, are apt to forget; but the Sruti insists on it always. Nevertheless mankind has for some thousands of years been attempting obstinately & with passion to discover that Truth by the very means which the Sruti has forbidden. Such error is natural and inevitable to the human consciousness. For the Angel in man is one who has descended out of light & bliss into the darkness, twilight and half light here, the darkness

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of matter, the twilight of vital consciousness, the broken half lights of the mind, and the master impulse of his nature is to yearn passionately towards the light from which [he] has fallen. Unable to find it at once, too little dhira (calm & discerning) to perfect himself patiently, it is natural that he in his eagerness should grasp at other instruments meant for a limited utility and straining them beyond their capacity compel them to serve this his supreme object — which is always to recover the perfect light and by that recovery to recover also what dwells only in the perfect light, — the perfect & unfailing bliss. From this abuse of his parts of knowledge have resulted three illegitimate human activities, of which Philosophy, Religion & Science have severally made themselves guilty, the disputatious metaphysical philosophy of the schools, the theology of the Churches and the scientific philosophy of the laboratories. Philosophy, Religion & Science have each their appointed field and dominion; each can help man in his great preoccupation, the attempt to know all that he can about Sat, about Brahman. The business of Philosophy is to arrange logically the general modes of Sat, the business of Religion is to arrange practically & vitally the personal relations of Sat, the business of Science is to arrange observantly & analytically the particular forms & movements of Sat. They are really necessary to and ought to lean on each other; and, if all recognised proper limitations and boundary marks, could by their joint activity help man to his present attainable fullness; but by a sort of intellectual land hunger they are perpetual invaders of each other’s dominion, deny each other’s positions and therefore remain unprofitably at war through the human ages. Finally, all three after illegitimately occupying each other’s fields insist on snatching at a knowledge of which they are all equally incapable — the essential nature of the world, the secret reality of Sat, the uttamam rahasyam of the Brahman. This error, this confusion, this sankara or illegitimate mixing of different nature and function is the curse of the Kali and from it arises much, if not most, of the difficulty we experience as a race in escaping from this misery & darkness into bliss and light. It is part and a great part of Kali Kalila, the chaos of the Kali.

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India has always attempted, though not, since the confusion of Buddhism, with any success, if not to keep the three to their proper division of labour — which, with the general growth of ignorance became impossible — at least, always to maintain or reestablish, if disturbed, some harmony between them. Of this attempt the Gita is the standing monument and the most perfect example. To see the confusion working in its untrammelled force, — and it is only so, by isolating the disease from the modification of curative forces, that we can observe, diagnose and afterwards find its remedy — we must go to the intellectual history of the European continent. There have been, properly speaking, two critical periods in this history, the Graeco-Roman era of philosophic illumination previous to Christianity and the era of modern scientific illumination which is still unexhausted. In the first we see the revolt of Philosophy (with Science concealed in her protective embrace) against the usurpation of religion. We find it, after achieving liberation, in its turn denying religion and usurping her sacred prerogative. In the modern era we see Science this time emerged and adult, keeping Philosophy behind her, in revolt against religion, first liberate herself, then deny religion & usurp her prerogatives, then, or as part of this final process of conquest, turn, deny & strike down her lofty ally and usurp also her ancient territory. For if Science has scorned & denied religion, she has equally scorned & denied Metaphysics. If she has declared God to be a barbarous myth, a fiction of dreams and terrors and longings and denied us the right of communion with the infinite, equally has she declared metaphysics to be an aberration of the ideative faculty, a false extension of logic and denied our right to recognise any metaphysical existence or anything at all which cannot be judged by or inferred from the results of the test tube, the scalpel, the microscope & the telescope. Neither, however, has she herself hesitated to dogmatise about the essential nature of existence and the mutual relations of its general modes, matter, life, mind and spirit. But for our immediate purpose it is only necessary to note the result in either of these eras of these tremendous usurpations. The result of the usurpations of philosophy was

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that mankind flung itself with an infinite sincerity, with a passionate sense of relief into the religion of an obscure Jewish sect and consented for a length of time which amazes us to every theological absurdity, even the most monstrous, so that it might once more be permitted to believe in something greater than earth & to have relations with God. The old philosophical spirit was torn to pieces with Hypatia in the bloodstained streets of Alexandria. Theology usurped her place and discoursed blindly & foolishly on transubstantiation and consubstantiality and one knows not what other barren mysteries. So far as philosophy was allowed an independent existence, she was compelled to do not her own work but the work of science; so we find the schoolmen elaborately determining by logic and a priori word fencing questions which could only be properly determined by observation and analysis. For Theology, for Mediaeval Religion herself did not care for this field of knowledge; she had no need for scientific truths just as the Jacobin Republic had “no need of chemists”; in fact she guillotined Science wherever its presence attracted her attention. But all injustice — and that means at bottom all denial of truth, of the satyam and ritam — brings about its own punishment or, as Religion would put it, God’s visitation & vengeance. Science liberated, given in her strenuous emergence the strength of the Titans, avenges herself today on her old oppressors, on Religion, on Philosophy, breaks their temples, scorns their gods & prophets & seeks to deprive them even of the right to existence. That was the result of the Graeco-Roman illumination. And what will be the result of the scientific illumination, the modern enlightenment, the fiery triumph and ardent intellectual bigotry of the materialist? It is too early to foresee the final denouement, but unformed lines of it show themselves, obscure masses arise. Mysticism is growing obscurely in strength, as Science grew obscurely in strength in the Middle Ages. We see Titanic & mystic figures striding out of the East, building themselves fortresses & points of departure, spreading among the half-intellectual, capturing even the intellectual — vague figures of Theosophy, Spiritualism, Mental Science, Psychical Research, Neo-Hinduism, Neo-Buddhism,

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Neo-Mahomedanism, Neo-Christianity. The priests of Isis, the adepts & illuminati of Gnosticism, denied their triumph by the intervention of St Paul & the Pope, reborn into this latter age, claim now their satisfaction. Already some outworks of materialism are giving way, the attack grows more insistent, the defence more uncertain, less proudly self-confident, though not less angry, contemptuous, bitter & intolerant; the invaders increase their adherents, extend the number of their strongholds. If no wider & higher truth intervenes, it would almost seem as if the old confusion in a new form might replace the new. Perhaps an Esoteric Society or a Spiritualist Circle of High Mediums will in a few centuries be laying down for us what we shall think about this world & the next, what particular relations with Gods will be permitted us, what Influences or Initiates we shall worship. Who knows? The fires of Smithfield may yet reblaze to save heretics from the perdition which an illustrious voice has declared to us to be the destined doom of all who do not acknowledge Maurya & Kutthumi. These are not mere fantastic speculations. The history of humanity & the peculiar capacities of that apparently incalculable & erratic thing, human nature, ought to warn us of their possibility — or at least that they are not entirely impossible, in spite of the printing press, in spite of the clarities of Science. No doubt the old philosophers [thought] that with so many Stoas & Academies, such spread of education, never again would enlightenment be dimmed and the worship of gods & ghosts would in the end amuse none but the vulgar. We must accept these things as possible & examine why they are possible. This reaction is inevitable because Philosophy, though exceedingly high & luminous, tends to be exclusive & narrow and Science, though exceedingly patient, accurate & minute, tends to be limited, dry & purblind. They are both apt to be as dogmatic & intolerant in their own high way or in their own clear, dry way as Religion in her way which is not high, but intense, not clear but enthusiastic; and they live on a plane of mentality on which humanity at large does not yet find itself at perfect ease, cannot live without a struggle and a difficulty in breathing. They

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both demand from man that he shall sacrifice his heart & his imagination to his intellect, shall deny his full human nature and live coldly & dryly. You might just as well ask him to live without free breathing. The mental world in which we are asked to live, resembles what the life of humanity would be if the warmth of the sun had diminished, the earth were growing chill and its atmosphere were already too rarefied for our comfort. It is no use saying that he ought to live in such an atmosphere, that it will improve his mental health & vigour. Perhaps he ought, though I do not think so, but he cannot. Or rather the individual may, — everything is possible to individual man, — but the race cannot. The demand can never be allowed; for it is a denial of Nature, a violation of the great Mother, a displacement of her eternal facts by the aridities of logic; it is a refusal of the Truth of things, of the Satyam, Ritam, and if it is persisted in, it will bring its own revenges. Philosophy & Science, if they are to help mankind without hurting it and themselves, must recognise that mankind is a complex being and his nature demands that every part of that complexity shall have its field of activity & every essential aspiration in him must be satisfied. It is his nature & his destiny to be aptakama, satisfied in his desires, in the individual & in the race — though always in accordance with the satyam, the ritam, which is also the sukham & sundaram, not lawlessly & according to aberrations & caprices. It was the great virtue of the ancient Hinduism, before Buddhism upset its balance & other aberrations followed, that it recognised in principle at least this fundamental verity, did not deny what God insists upon but strove, it does not matter whether perfectly or imperfectly, to put everything in its place & create a natural harmony.

Sachchidananda The Vedanta, that solemn affirmation of the ultimate truths beyond which no human thinking has ever proceeded or can proceed, looking deep into the last recesses where existence takes refuge from the scrutiny of the Mind, affirms there as the beginning and the end of all possible description of the infinite Knowable-Unknowable three terms, Being, Comprehension and Delight. They are the initial & final trinity of existence. From them all phenomena proceed, to them all phenomena seek to return. This personality envisaged as myself, has come out of infinite being, lives in infinite being; emmeshed in the limitations of form & idea it seeks laboriously to recover itself as the infinite being. This Awareness in me which centralised in my personality suffers and examines all impressions that reach me out of the infinite existence, is a selection from an infinite Awareness contemplating itself in its whole & its parts; localised & limited, involved at first in this form it has created, it emerges out of its creation and seeks first to comprehend that and then to comprehend itself; master in some sort of its surroundings, it seeks to become master of itself; enlarging always from the factor to the sum, from the particular to the general, from the form to the essence it seeks to recover itself as the infinite selfcomprehension. This Will to be & know in myself is essentially the joy of being & the joy of comprehending — Ananda, Delight; and the particular delight in me is but a spark, a wave, a foam-crest of an infinite delight; fastened at first on partial, limited & transient pleasures, it seeks always to enlarge them, to combine, to intensify; it goes out seeking for new forms of happiness; it goes in turning from the vital joy to sense-delights, from sense-delights to pleasures of emotion, from pleasures of emotion to intellectual satisfaction, from intellectual satisfaction to the self-existent bliss of the spirit which depends on no object

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or circumstance; in all these motions it is seeking to recover itself as infinite Delight. In this way the final perceptions of Vedanta explain the whole process & labour of consciousness in the world. These three, Sat, Chit and Ananda are one Trinity, Sachchidananda. They are not three different factors making a single sum, neither are any two of them merely attributes, even inseparable & invariable attributes, of the third. No doubt, they are always coexistent. Where there is no delight, latent or developed, there can be no existence; where there is no awareness self-absorbed or manifest, there can be no existence. Follow existence into utter & blind inertia, consciousness sits secret in that night; follow consciousness into the abyss of desolation, joy sits self-stunned in the mask of that misery. But their coexistence is only an exterior sign of their essential unity. They do not exist separately, because they are not different from each other, — all three are one thing-in-itself seen diversely; seen sensationally, touching the fibres of conscious life in us it is delight; seen mentally, touching the fibres of living consciousness, it is comprehension; seen spiritually, touching the very core of this living & conscious I, it is being. But the thing-in-itself is one; it is Brahman. Go behind the Trinity and you can say nothing of it but this, Tat, anirdeshyam, the indefinable, That which transcends all words & thoughts; seek to know & define it, you come back to the universal & mysterious Trinity, Sachchidananda, being, comprehension & delight. This is all that you can know fundamentally about yourself; you are That which Is, which, being, comprehends Its own existence, which, comprehending, has in its silence of being or in its play of comprehension a self-existent delight. It is all we can know fundamentally & all we need to know, for, this once grasped & pursued in knowledge, the whole of life begins to unroll itself in its secret motion & purpose to our gaze. Against this sublime Trinity of the Vedanta, this penetrating analysis of the reality of things, this discovery of the real existence of God in the world, the appearances of that world seem to protest and militate. That which strikes us most saliently & leaps on us fiercely at every turn, is grief & pain, not delight; that

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which besieges our eyes always & everywhere is not conscious awareness, but the inertia or the brute movement of unconscious Matter. Existence we cannot deny; the voice of the mighty Life in us rejects always the systems of Nihilism & leaves them to the enjoyment of a few curious & subtle metaphysicians; nothing either in science or in experience supports the purely metaphysical idea of Nullity. But this undeniable existence stands before us rather as an inextricable confusion of pleasure & pain than as synonymous with delight; in its vast fields sown with worlds we find instead of an omnipresent consciousness rather an omnipresent non-consciousness in which tongues of consciousness flame like little points & tongues of fire on a huge inert pyre of various timber. Be not deceived, answers the Vedantin; appearances can never be trusted till the secrets behind them are fathomed. To the eye’s unvarying experience the sun is a globe of fire that voyages round its worshipped earth; generations so conceived it & would have mocked at the truth; these solid appearances are an assemblage of gases; the colour of a rose is a brilliant deceit of the vision. Interrogate consciousness to find what it is or holds & unconsciousness to discover its secrets. Interrogate not only the state of waking but the states of dream & sleep. You will find at the end of long, patient & searching experiments that the confused consciousness of dream was confused only in the receiving parts of the material waking mind and behind it was a state of awareness even more perfect & orderly than the awareness of our waking life. You will find that the consciousness in abeyance of dreamless sleep was in abeyance only in the overpowered & cessant parts of the same material waking mind and behind it was a most exalted & perfect state of awareness which stands near the threshold of the House of God in which we really dwell; for here we are only labourers or overseers in His outer farms. It is admitted that when we are in sound sleep we dream; we are conscious, when we are swooned or stunned only a part of our consciousness, the outward, the here active is withdrawn. When you have interrogated unconsciousness in yourself, interrogate it in the tree & the clod. You will find, for by that time you will have entered into the king-

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doms within & learned to command a self-exceeding experience of being, that in the tree & the rock there is the same being, the same consciousness, the same principle of Will to live, of delight, in a word, that is [in] yourself. The unconsciousness of the tree & the rock is the same unconsciousness as that which occupies your body when mind is withdrawn from the observation of its working. It is the sleep, the universal trance of Matter. And that means, eventually, the trance of consciousness forgetting itself in its own symbol or form. Consciousness in this its outer shell has become to the appearance something else which seems not to have any resemblance to conscious being, as gas becoming water is to appearance something else which has no remotest gaseous semblance. The truth sits veiled behind the appearance, self-absorbed; there is in all things, without exception, “That which is conscious in these conscious & unconscious existences, that which is awake in these who sleep.”

The Silence behind Life There is a silence behind life as well as within it and it is only in this more secret, sustaining silence that we can hear clearly the voice of God. In the noise of the world we hear only altered & disturbed echoes of it; for the Voice comes always — who else speaks to us on our journey? — but the gods of the heart, the gods of the mind, the gods of desire, the gods of sense take up the divine cry, intercept it and alter it for their purposes. Krishna calls to us, but the first note, even the opening power or sweetness, awakes a very brouhaha of these echoes. It is not the fault of these poor gods. The accent of power is so desirable, the note of sweetness is so captivating that they must seize it, they would be dull & soulless, there would be no hope of their redemption if they did not at once leap at it and make it their own. But in becoming their own, it ceases to be entirely his. How many who have the religious faith and the religious temperament, are following the impulses of their heart, the cravings of their desire, the urgency of their senses, the dictates of their opinion when they fully imagine that their God is leading them! And they do well, for God is leading them. It is the way He has chosen for them, & since He has chosen it, it is the best & wisest & most fruitful way for them. Still it is their God — not one they have made in their own image as the Atheist believes, but One who makes Himself in the image that they prefer, the image that best suits with their nature or their development. “In whatever way men come to me, in that way I love & cleave to them.” It is a saying of fathomless depth which contains the seed of the whole truth about God & religion. After all it is only in this way that the conditioned can meet the Absolute, that which has a nature or dharma of its own with that which is beyond all limit of nature or dharma. After the meeting of the soul with God, — well, that

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is a different matter. The secrets of His nuptial chamber cannot all be spoken. Nevertheless, there is a higher way of meeting him than that which leads us through subjection to the Gods. By perfect Love, by perfect Joy, by perfect Satisfaction, by perfected mind one can hear what the Voice truly says if not the Voice itself, — catch the kernel of the message with a sort of ecstatic perfection, even if afterwards the Gods dilate on it & by attempting to amplify & complete, load it with false corollaries or prevent some greater fullness of truth from arriving to us. Therefore this way also, though it is high, cannot be the highest.

Section Three Circa 1913

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF YOGA

Initial Definitions and Descriptions Yoga has four powers and objects, purity, liberty, beatitude and perfection. Whosoever has consummated these four mightinesses in the being of the transcendental, universal, lilamaya and individual God is the complete and absolute Yogin. All manifestations of God are manifestations of the absolute Parabrahman. The Absolute Parabrahman is unknowable to us, not because It is the nothingness of all that we are, for rather whatever we are in truth or in seeming is nothing but Parabrahman, but because It is pre-existent & supra-existent to even the highest & purest methods and the most potent & illimitable instruments of which soul in the body is capable. In Parabrahman knowledge ceases to be knowledge and becomes an inexpressible identity. Become Parabrahman, if thou wilt and if That will suffer thee, but strive not to know It; for thou shalt not succeed with these instruments and in this body. In reality thou art Parabrahman already and ever wast and ever will be. To become Parabrahman in any other sense, thou must depart utterly out of world manifestation and out even of world transcendence. Why shouldst thou hunger after departure from manifestation as if the world were an evil? Has not That manifested itself in thee & in the world and art thou wiser & purer & better than the Absolute, O mind-deceived soul in the mortal? When That withdraws thee, then thy going hence is inevitable; until Its force is laid on thee, thy going is impossible, cry thy mind never so fiercely & wailingly for departure. Therefore neither desire nor shun the world, but seek the bliss & purity & freedom & greatness of God in whatsoever state or experience or environment. So long as thou hast any desire, be it the desire of non-birth

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or the desire of liberation, thou canst not attain to Parabrahman. For That has no desires, neither of birth nor of non-birth, nor of world, nor of departure from world. The Absolute is unlimited by thy desire as It is inaccessible to thy knowledge. If thou wouldst know Paratpara brahman, then know It as It chooses to manifest Itself in world and transcending it — for transcendence also is a relation to world & not the sheer Absolute, — since otherwise It is unknowable. This is the simultaneous knowing & not knowing spoken of in the Vedanta. Of Parabrahman we should not say that “It” is worldtranscendent or world-immanent or related or non-related to the world; for all these ideas of world and not-world, of transcendence and immanence and relation are expressions of thought by which mind puts its own values on the self-manifestation of Parabrahman to Its own principle of knowledge and we cannot assert any, even the highest of them to be the real reality of that which is at once all and beyond all, nothing and beyond nothing. A profound and unthinking silence is the only attitude which the soul manifested in world should adopt towards the Absolute. We know of Parabrahman that It Is, in a way in which no object is and no state in the world, because whenever & in whatever direction we go to the farthest limits of soul-experience or thought-experience or body-experience or any essential experience whatsoever, we come to the brink of That and perceive It to be, unknowably, without any capacity of experiencing about it any farther truth whatsoever. When thy soul retiring within from depth to depth & widening without from vastness to vastness stands in the silence of its being before an unknown & unknowable from which & towards which world is seen to exist as a thing neither materially real nor mentally real and yet not to be described as a dream or a falsehood, then know that thou art standing in the Holy of Holies, before the Veil that shall not be rent. In this mortal body thou canst not rend it, nor in any other body; nor in the state of self in body nor in the state of pure self, nor in waking nor in sleep nor in trance, nor in any state or circumstances whatsoever

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for thou must be beyond state before thou canst enter into the Paratpara brahman. That is the unknown God to whom no altar can be raised and no worship offered; universe is His only altar, existence is His only worship. That we are, feel, think, act or are but do not feel, do not think, do not act is for That enough. To That, the saint is equal with the sinner, activity with inactivity, man with the mollusc, since all are equally Its manifestations. These things at least are true of the Parabrahman & Para Purusha, which is the Highest that we know & the nearest to the Absolute. But what That is behind the veil or how behind the veil It regards Itself and its manifestations is a thing no mind can assume to tell or know; and he is equally ignorant and presumptuous who raises & inscribes to It an altar or who pretends to declare the Unknown to those who know that they can know It not. Confuse not thought, bewilder not the soul of man in its forward march, but turn to the Universe & know That in this, Tad va etat, for so only & in these terms It has set itself out to be known to those who are in the universe. Be not deceived by Ignorance, be not deceived by knowledge; there is none bound & none free & none seeking freedom but only God playing at these things in the extended might of His self-conscious being, para maya, mahimanam asya, which we call the universe.

The Object of Our Yoga The object of our Yoga is self-perfection, not self-annulment. There are two paths set for the feet of the Yogin, withdrawal from the universe and perfection in the Universe; the first comes by asceticism, the second is effected by tapasya; the first receives us when we lose God in Existence, the second is attained when we fulfil existence in God. Let ours be the path of perfection, not of abandonment; let our aim be victory in the battle, not the escape from all conflict. Buddha and Shankara supposed the world to be radically false and miserable; therefore escape from the world was to them the only wisdom. But this world is Brahman, the world is God, the world is Satyam, the world is Ananda; it is our misreading of the world through mental egoism that is a falsehood and our wrong relation with God in the world that is a misery. There is no other falsity and no other cause of sorrow. God created the world in Himself through Maya; but the Vedic meaning of Maya is not illusion, it is wisdom, knowledge, capacity, wide extension in consciousness. Prajna prasrita purani. Omnipotent Wisdom created the world, it is not the organised blunder of some Infinite Dreamer; omniscient Power manifests or conceals it in Itself or Its own delight, it is not a bondage imposed by His own ignorance on the free and absolute Brahman. If the world were Brahman’s self-imposed nightmare, to awake from it would be the natural and only goal of our supreme endeavour; or if life in the world were irrevocably bound to misery, a means of escape from this bondage would be the sole secret worth discovering. But perfect truth in world-existence is possible, for God here sees all things with the eye of truth; and perfect bliss in the world is possible, for God enjoys all things with the sense of unalloyed freedom. We also can enjoy this

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truth and bliss, called by the Veda amritam, Immortality, if by casting away our egoistic existence into perfect unity with His being we consent to receive the divine perception and the divine freedom. The world is a movement of God in His own being; we are the centres and knots of divine consciousness which sum up and support the processes of His movement. The world is His play with His own self-conscious delight, He who alone exists, infinite, free and perfect; we are the self-multiplications of that conscious delight, thrown out into being to be His playmates. The world is a formula, a rhythm, a symbol-system expressing God to Himself in His own consciousness, — it has no material existence but exists only in His consciousness and self-expression; we, like God, are in our inward being That which is expressed, but in our outward being terms of that formula, notes of that rhythm, symbols of that system. Let us lead forward God’s movement, play out His play, work out His formula, execute His harmony, express Him through ourselves in His system. This is our joy and our self-fulfilment; to this end we who transcend & exceed the universe, have entered into universe-existence. Perfection has to be worked out, harmony has to be accomplished. Imperfection, limitation, death, grief, ignorance, matter, are only the first terms of the formula — unintelligible till we have worked out the wider terms and reinterpreted the formulary; they are the initial discords of the musician’s tuning. Out of imperfection we have to construct perfection, out of limitation to discover infinity, out of death to find immortality, out of grief to recover divine bliss, out of ignorance to rescue divine self-knowledge, out of matter to reveal Spirit. To work out this end for ourselves and for humanity is the object of our Yogic practice.

PURNA YOGA I

The Entire Purpose of Yoga By Yoga we can rise out of falsehood into truth, out of weakness into force, out of pain and grief into bliss, out of bondage into freedom, out of death into immortality, out of darkness into light, out of confusion into purity, out of imperfection into perfection, out of self-division into unity, out of Maya into God. All other utilisation of Yoga is for special and fragmentary advantages not always worth pursuing. Only that which aims at possessing the fullness of God is purna Yoga; the sadhaka of the Divine Perfection is the purna Yogin. Our aim must be to be perfect as God in His being and bliss is perfect, pure as He is pure, blissful as He is blissful, and, when we are ourselves siddha in the purna Yoga, to bring all mankind to the same divine perfection. It does not matter if for the present we fall short of our aim, so long as we give ourselves whole-heartedly to the attempt and by living constantly in it and for it move forward even two inches upon the road; even that will help to lead humanity out of the struggle and twilight in which it now dwells into the luminous joy which God intends for us. But whatever our immediate success, our unvarying aim must be to perform the whole journey and not lie down content in any wayside stage or imperfect resting place. All Yoga which takes you entirely away from the world, is a high but narrow specialisation of divine tapasya. God in His perfection embraces everything; you also must become allembracing. God in His ultimate existence beyond all manifestation and all knowledge, is the Absolute Parabrahman; in relation to the world He is that which transcends all universal existence while regarding it or in turning away from it; He is that which contains

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and upholds the universe, He is that which becomes the universe and He is the universe & everything which it contains. He is also Absolute and Supreme Personality playing in the universe and as the universe; in the universe He appears to be its Soul & Lord, as the universe He appears to be the motion or process of the Will of the Lord and to become all the subjective and objective results of the motion. All the states of the Brahman, the transcendent, the continent, the universal, the individual are informed & sustained by the divine Personality. He is both the Existent & the state of existence. We call the state of existence the Impersonal Brahman, the Existent the Personal Brahman. There is no difference between them except to the play of our consciousness; for every impersonal state depends upon a manifest or secret Personality and can reveal the Personality which it holds and veils and every Personality attaches to itself and can plunge itself into an impersonal existence. This they can do because Personality & Impersonality are merely different states of self-consciousness in one Absolute Being. Philosophies & religions dispute about the priority of different aspects of God & different Yogins, Rishis & Saints have preferred this or that philosophy or religion. Our business is not to dispute about any of them, but to realise & become all of them, not to follow after any aspect to the exclusion of the rest, but to embrace God in all His aspects and beyond aspect. God descending into world in various forms has consummated on this earth the mental and bodily form which we call humanity. He has manifested in the world through the play of allgoverning Soul with its own formative Will or Shakti a rhythm of existence of which Matter is the lowest term and pure being the highest. Mind & Life stand upon Matter (Manas & Prana on Annam) and make the lower half of world-existence (aparardha); pure consciousness and pure bliss proceed out of pure Being (Chit and Ananda out of Sat) and make the upper half of world-existence. Pure idea (vijnana) stands as the link between the two. These seven principles or terms of existence

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are the basis of the sevenfold world of the Puranas (Satyaloka, Tapas, Jana, Mahar, Swar, Bhuvar & Bhur). The lower hemisphere in this arrangement of consciousness consists of the three vyahritis of the Veda, “Bhur, Bhuvah, Swar”; they are states of consciousness in which the principles of the upper world are expressed or try to express themselves under different conditions. Pure in their own homes, they are in this foreign country subject to perverse, impure & disturbing combinations & workings. The ultimate object of life is to get rid of the perversity, impurity & disturbance & express them perfectly in these other conditions. Your life on this earth is a divine poem that you are translating into earthly language or a strain of music which you are rendering into words. Being in Sat is one in multiplicity, one that regards its multiplicity without being lost or confused in it and multiplicity that knows itself as one without losing the power of multiple play in the universe. Under the conditions of mind, life & body, ahankara is born, the subjective or objective form of consciousness is falsely taken for self-existent being, the body for an independent reality & the ego for an independent personality; the one loses itself in us in its multiplicity & when it recovers its unity, finds it difficult, owing to the nature of mind, to preserve its play of multiplicity. Therefore when we are absorbed in world, we miss God in Himself; when we seek God, we miss Him in the world. Our business is to break down & dissolve the mental ego & get back to our divine unity without losing our power of individual & multiple existence in the universe. Consciousness in Chit is luminous, free, illimitable & effective; that which it is aware of as Chit (Jnanashakti) it fulfils infallibly as Tapas (Kriyashakti); for Jnanashakti is only the stable & comprehensive, Kriyashakti only the motional and intensive form of one self-luminous Conscious Being. They are one power of conscious force of God (Chit-Shakti of Sat-Purusha). But in the lower hemisphere, under the conditions of mind, life & body, the luminousness becomes divided & broken up into uneven rays, the freedom trammelled by egoism and unequal forms, the effectiveness veiled by the uneven play of forces. We

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have, therefore, states of consciousness, non-consciousness & false consciousness, knowledge & ignorance & false knowledge, effective force & inertia and ineffective force. Our business is by renouncing our divided & unequal individual force of action & thought into the one, undivided universal Chitshakti of Kali to replace our egoistic activities by the play in our body of the universal Kali and thus exchange blindness & ignorance for knowledge and ineffective human strength for the divine effective Force. Delight in Ananda is pure, unmixed, one & yet multitudinous. Under the conditions of mind, life & body it becomes divided, limited, confused & misdirected and owing to shocks of unequal forces & uneven distribution of Ananda subject to the duality of positive & negative movements, grief & joy, pain & pleasure. Our business is to dissolve these dualities by breaking down their cause & plunge ourselves into the ocean of divine bliss, one, multitudinous, evenly distributed (sama), which takes delight from all things & recoils painfully from none. In brief, we have to replace dualities by unity, egoism by divine consciousness, ignorance by divine wisdom, thought by divine knowledge, weakness, struggle & effort by self-contented divine force, pain & false pleasure by divine bliss. This is called in the language of Christ bringing down the kingdom of heaven on earth, or in modern language, realising & effectuating God in the world. Humanity is, upon earth, the form of life chosen for this human aspiration & divine accomplishment; all other forms of life either do not need it or are ordinarily incapable of it unless they change into humanity. The divine fullness is therefore the sole real aim of humanity. It has to be effected in the individual in order that it may be effected in the race. Humanity is a mental existence in a living body; its basis is matter, its centre & instrument mind & its medium life. This is the condition of average or natural humanity. In every human being there is concealed (avyakta) the four higher principles. Mahas, pure ideality in vijnana, is not a vyahriti but the source of the vyahritis, the bank upon which

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mental, vital and bodily action draw & turn its large & infinite wealth into small coin of the lower existence. Vijnana being the link between the divine state & the human animal is the door of escape for man into the supernatural or divine humanity. Inferior mankind gravitates downward from mind towards life & body; average mankind dwells constant in mind limited by & looking towards life & body; superior mankind levitates upward either to idealised mentality or to pure idea, direct truth of knowledge & spontaneous truth of existence; supreme mankind rises to divine beatitude & from that level either goes upward to pure Sat & Parabrahman or remains to beatify its lower members & raise to divinity in itself & others this human existence. The man who dwells in the higher or divine & now hidden hemisphere of his consciousness, having rent the veil, is the true superman and the last product of that progressive selfmanifestation of God in world, Spirit out of matter, which is now called the principle of evolution. To rise into divine existence, force, light & bliss and recast in that mould all mundane existence is the supreme aspiration of religion & the complete practical aim of Yoga. The aim is to realise God in the universe, but it cannot be done without realising God transcendent of the Universe.

II

Parabrahman, Mukti & Human Thought-Systems Parabrahman is the Absolute, & because It is the Absolute, it cannot be reduced into terms of knowledge. You can know the Infinite in a way, but you cannot know the Absolute. All things in existence or non-existence are symbols of the Absolute created in self-consciousness (Chid-Atman); by Its symbols the Absolute can be known so far as the symbols reveal or hint at it, but even the knowledge of the whole sum of symbols does not amount to real knowledge of the Absolute. You can become Parabrahman; you cannot know Parabrahman. Becoming Parabrahman means going back through self-consciousness into Parabrahman, for you already are That, only you have projected yourself forward in self-consciousness into its terms or symbols, Purusha & Prakriti through which you uphold the universe. Therefore, to become Parabrahman void of terms or symbols you must cease out of the universe. By becoming Parabrahman void of Its self-symbols you do not become anything you are not already, nor does the universe cease to operate. It only means that God throws back out of the ocean of manifest consciousness one stream or movement of Himself into that from which all consciousness proceeded. All who go out of universe-consciousness, do not necessarily go into Parabrahman. Some go into undifferentiated Nature (Avyakrita Prakriti), some lose themselves in God, some pass into a dark state of non-recognition of universe, (Asat, Shunya), some into a luminous state of non-recognition of universe — Pure Undifferentiated Atman, Pure Sat or Existence-Basis of Universe, — some into a temporary state of deep sleep (sushupti) in the impersonal principles of Ananda, Chit or Sat. All these are forms of release & the ego gets from God by His Maya

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or Prakriti the impulse towards any one of them to which the supreme Purusha chooses to direct him. Those whom He wishes to liberate, yet keep in the world, He makes jivanmuktas or sends them out again as His vibhutis, they consenting to wear for the divine purposes a temporary veil of Avidya, which does not at all bind them and which they can rend or throw off very easily. Therefore to lust after becoming Parabrahman is a sort of luminous illusion or sattwic play of Maya; for in reality there is none bound & none free & none needing to be freed and all is only God’s Lila, Parabrahman’s play of manifestation. God uses this sattwic Maya in certain egos in order to draw them upwards in the line of His special purpose & for these egos it is the only right and possible path. But the aim of our Yoga is Jivanmukti in the universe; not because we need to be freed or for any other reason, but because that is God’s will in us, we have to live released in the world, not released out of the world. The Jivanmukta has, for perfect knowledge & self-fulfilment to stand on the threshold of Parabrahman, but not to cross the threshold. The statement he brings back from the threshold is that That is & we are That, but what That is or is not, words cannot describe, nor mind discriminate. Parabrahman being the Absolute is indescribable by any name or definite conception. It is not Being or Non-Being, but something of which Being & Non-Being are primary symbols; not Atman or unAtman or Maya; not Personality or Impersonality; not Quality or Non-Quality; not Consciousness or NonConsciousness; not Bliss or Non-Bliss; not Purusha or Prakriti; not god nor man nor animal; not release nor bondage; but something of which all these are primary or derivative, general or particular symbols. Still, when we say Parabrahman is not this or that, we mean that It cannot in its essentiality be limited to this or that symbol or any sum of symbols; in a sense Parabrahman is all this & all this is Parabrahman. There is nothing else which all this can be. Parabrahman being Absolute is not subject to logic, for logic

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applies only to the determinate. We talk confusion if we say that the Absolute cannot manifest the determinate & therefore the universe is false or non-existent. The very nature of the Absolute is that we do not know what it is or is not, what it can do or cannot do; we have no reason to suppose that there is anything it cannot do or that its Absoluteness is limited by any kind of impotency. We experience spiritually that when we go beyond everything else we come to something Absolute; we experience spiritually that the universe is in the nature of a manifestation proceeding, as it were, from the Absolute; but all these words & phrases are merely intellectual terms trying to express the inexpressible. We must state what we see as best we can, but need not dispute what others see or state; rather we must accept & in our own system locate & account for what they have seen & stated. Our only dispute is with those who deny credit to the vision or freedom & value to the statements of others; not with those who are content with stating their own vision. A philosophical or religious system is only a statement of that arrangement of existence in universe which God has revealed to us as our status of being. It is given in order that the mind may have something to stand upon while we act in Prakriti. But our vision need not be precisely the same in arrangement as the vision of others, nor is the form of thought that suits our mentality bound to suit a mentality differently constituted. Firmness, without dogmatism, in our own system, toleration, without weakness, of all other systems should therefore be our intellectual outlook. You will find disputants questioning your system on the ground that it is not consistent with this or that Shastra or this or that great authority, whether philosopher, saint or Avatar. Remember then that realisation & experience are alone of essential importance. What Shankara argued or Vivekananda conceived intellectually about existence or even what Ramakrishna stated from his multitudinous and varied realisation, is only of value to you so far as you [are] moved by God to accept and renew it in your own experience. The opinions of thinkers & saints

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& Avatars should be accepted as hints but not as fetters. What matters to you is what you have seen or what God in His universal personality or impersonally or again personally in some teacher, guru or pathfinder undertakes to show to you in the path of Yoga.

III

Parabrahman and Parapurusha God or Para Purusha is Parabrahman unmanifest & inexpressible turned towards a certain kind of manifestation or expression, of which the two eternal terms are Atman and Jagati, Self and Universe. Atman becomes in self-symbol all existences in the universe; so too, the universe when known, resolves all its symbols into Atman. God being Parabrahman is Himself Absolute, neither Atman nor Maya nor unAtman; neither Being nor Not-Being (Sat, Asat); neither Becoming nor non-Becoming (Sambhuti, Asambhuti); neither Quality nor non-Quality (Saguna, Nirguna); neither Consciousness nor non-consciousness, (Chaitanya, Jada); neither Soul nor Nature (Purusha, Prakriti); neither Bliss nor non-Bliss; neither man nor god nor animal; He is beyond all these things, He maintains & contains all these things; in Himself as world He is & becomes all these things. The only difference between Parabrahman & Parapurusha is that we think of the first as something beyond our universeexistence, expressed here indeed, but still inexpressible, and of the second as something approaching our universe-existence, inexpressible indeed, but still here expressed. It is as if, in reading a translation of the Ramayan or Homer’s Iliad, we were to look at the unapproachable something no translator can seize and say “This is not the Ramayan”, “This is not the Iliad” and yet, looking at the comparative adequacy of the expressions which do succeed in catching something of the original spirit and intention, were at the same time to say “This is Homer”, “This is Valmekie.” There is no other difference except this of standpoint. The Upanishads speak of the Absolute Parabrahman as Tat; they say Sa when they speak of the Absolute Parapurusha.

NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL MAN

The Evolutionary Aim in Yoga In the Katha Upanishad there occurs one of those powerful and pregnant phrases, containing a world of meaning in a point of verbal space, with which the Upanishads are thickly sown. Yogo hi prabhavapyayau. For Yoga is the beginning & ending of things. In the Puranas the meaning of the phrase is underlined & developed. By Yoga God made the world, by Yoga He will draw it into Himself in the end. But not only the original creation & final dissolution of the universe, all great changes of things, creations, evolutions, destructions are effected by the essential process of Yoga, tapasya. In this ancient view Yoga presents itself as the effective, perhaps the essential & real executive movement of Nature herself in all her processes. If this is so in the general workings of Nature, if that is to say, a divine Knowledge and a divine Will in things by putting itself into relation with objects is the true cause of all force & effectuality, the same rule should hold good in human activities. It should hold good especially of all conscious & willed processes of psychological discipline, — Yogic systems, as we call them; Yoga can really be nothing but a consummate & self-conscious natural process intended to effect rapidly objects which the ordinary natural movement works out slowly, in the tardy pace of a secular or even millennial evolution. There is an apparent difference. The aim put before us in Yoga is God; the aim of Nature is to effect supernature; but these two aims are of one piece & intention. God & supernature are only one the real & the other the formal aspect of the one unattainable fulfilment towards which our human march is in its ascent directed. Yoga for man is the upward working of Nature liberated from slow evolution and long relapses and self-conscious in divine or human knowledge. God is That which is the All and yet exceeds and transcends the All; there is nothing in existence which is not God, but

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God is neither the sum of existence nor anything in that sum, except symbolically, in image to His own consciousness. In other words, everything that exists, separately, is a particular symbol and the whole sum of existence is a general symbol which tries to translate the untranslatable existence, God, into the terms of world-consciousness. It is intended to try, it is not intended to succeed; for the moment it succeeds, it ceases to be itself and becomes that untranslatable something from which it started, God. No symbol is intended to express God perfectly, not even the highest; but it is the privilege of the highest symbols to lose in Him their separate definiteness, cease to be symbols and become in consciousness that which is symbolised. Humanity is such a symbol or eidolon of God; we are made, to use the Biblical phrase, in His image; and by that is meant not a formal image, but the image of His being and personality; we are of the essence of His divinity and of the quality of His divinity; we are formed in the mould and bear the stamp of a divine being and a divine knowledge. In everything that exists phenomenally, or, as I shall prefer to say, going deeper into the nature of things, symbolically, there are two parts of being, thing in itself and symbol, Self and Nature, res (thing that is) and factum (thing that is done or made), immutable being and mutable becoming, that which is supernatural to it and that which is natural. Every state of existence has some force in it which drives it to transcend itself. Matter moves towards becoming life, Life travails towards becoming Mind, Mind aspires towards becoming ideal Truth, Truth rises towards becoming divine and infinite Spirit. The reason is that every symbol, being a partial expression of God, reaches out to and seeks to become its own entire reality; it aspires to become its real self by transcending its apparent self. Thing that is made, is attracted towards thing that is, becoming towards being, the natural towards the supernatural, symbol towards thing-in-itself, Nature towards God. The upward movement is, then, the means towards selffulfilment in this world; but it is not imperative on all objects. For there are three conditions for all changeable existences, the

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upward ascension, the arrested status and the downward lapse. Nature in its lower states moves upward indeed in the mass, but seeks the final salvation for only a limited number of its individuals. It is not every form of matter that organises life although every form of matter teems with the spirit of life and is full of its urgent demand for release & self-manifestation. Not every form of life organises mind, although in all forms of life mind is there, insistent, seeking for its escape and self-expression. Nor is every mental being fitted to organise the life of ideal truth, although in every mental being, in dog & ape & worm no less than in man, the imprisoned spirit of truth & knowledge seeks for its escape and self-expression. Nature in each realised state of her building seeks first to assure the natural existence of her creatures in that state; only after this primary aim is accomplished does she seek through the best fitted of them to escape from her works, to break down what she has built and arrive at something beyond. It is not till she reaches man that she arrives at a type of being of which every individual is essentially capable of realising not only the natural but the supernatural within it; and even this is true with modifications, with qualifications. But of this it will be better to speak at greater length in another connection. Nevertheless, it remains true that the upward movement is the master movement of Nature; arrested status is a lower fulfilment, & if perfect, a transient perfection. It is a perfection in the realms of struggle and in the style of passing forms, a fulfilment in the kingdoms of Ashanaya Mrityu, Hunger who is death, Hunger that creates & feeds upon its creations; the upward movement is that which leads up through death to immortality & realises in this earth of the body the blissful and luminous kingdom of heaven; the downward lapse is destruction, Hell, a great perdition, mahati vinashtih. These are the three gatis or final states of becoming indicated in the Gita, uttama, madhyama & adhama, highest, middle and lowest, offered to the choice of humanity. It is for each individual of us to choose. For as we choose, God shall fulfil Himself in us, towards a transient human satisfaction, a divine perfection or a decomposition of our humanity into the fruitful waste-matter of Nature.

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Every nature, then, is a step towards some super-nature, — towards something natural to itself, but supernatural to that which is below. Life is supernatural to Matter, Mind supernatural to Life, Ideal Being supernatural to Mind, the Infinite Spirit supernatural to ideal being. We must, therefore, accept the supernatural as our goal; for the tendency of our nature to the super-nature just above it is a command of the World Power to be obeyed and not rebelled against & distrusted. It is here that Faith has its importance & Religion, when uncorrupted, its incalculable utility; for our natural mind seeks to dwell in its nature & is sceptical of supernature. Faith & religion were provisions of the All Wise Energy to accustom the natural & merely mental man to the promptings of the ideal soul in him which seeks even now to escape out of twilight into light, out of groping into truth, out of the senses & reasoning into vision & direct experience. The upward tendency is imposed on us & we cannot permanently resist it; at some time or another God will lay his hands on us and force us up that steep incline so difficult to our unregenerate treading. For as surely as the animal develops towards humanity & in its most flexible types attains a kind of humanity, as surely as the ape and the ant having once appeared, man was bound to follow, so surely man develops towards godhead & in his more capable types approaches nearer & nearer towards godhead, attains a kind of deity, & so surely the genius & the saint having appeared man is bound to develop in himself & out of himself the superman, the siddha purusha. For this conclusion no prophetic power or revelation is needed; it is the inevitable corollary from the previous demonstrations worked out for us in the vast laboratory of Nature. We have to transcend Nature, to become super-Nature, but it follows from what I have said that it is by taking advantage of something still imprisoned in Nature itself, by following some line which Nature is trying to open to us that we ought to proceed. By yielding to our ordinary nature we fall away both from Nature itself and from God; by transcending Nature we at once satisfy her strongest impulse, fulfil all her possibilities and rise towards God. The human first touches the divine and

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then becomes the divine. But there are those who seek to kill Nature in order to become the Self. Shall we follow them? No, however great & lofty be their path, however awful & dazzling their aspiration, because it is not God’s intention in humanity & therefore not our proper dharma. Let any say, if he will, that we have made the lower choice. We answer in the language of the Gita, Sreyan swadharmo viguno, Better is the law of our own being though inferior, too perilous the superior law of another’s being. To obey God’s will in us, is certainly more blissful, perhaps even more divine than to rise to the austere heights of the Adwaitin & the ineffable self-extinction in an indefinable Existence. For us the embrace of Krishna is enough and the glory of the all-puissant bosom of Kali. We have to transcend & possess Nature, not to kill her. In any case, whatever may be the choice for exceptional individuals, it is a general path of supreme attainment for humanity that we are seeking, — for I am not proposing to you in Yoga an individual path unconcerned with the rest of mankind, — and here there can be no doubt or hesitation. Neither the exaggerations of spirituality nor the exaggerations of materialism are our true path. Every general movement of our humanity which seeks to deny Nature, however religious, lofty or austere, of whatever dazzling purity or ethereality, has been & will always be doomed to failure, sick disappointment, disillusionment or perversion, because it is in its nature for the mass of humanity a transient impulse of exaggeration, because it contradicts God’s condition for us who set Nature there as an indispensable term for His self-fulfilment in the universe and ourselves as the supreme instruments & helpers on this earth of that divine self-fulfilment. Every movement of humanity which bids us be satisfied with our ordinary Nature, dwell upon the earth, cease to aspire to the empyrean within us and choose rather to live like the animals looking to our mortal future before us & downwards at the earth we till, not upwards to God & our ungrasped perfection, has been & will always be doomed to weariness, petrifaction & cessation or to a quick & violent supernaturalistic reaction, because this also is for the mass of men a transient impulse

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of exaggeration & because it contradicts God’s intention in us who has entered in and dwells secret in our Nature compelling us towards Him by an obscure, instinctive & overmastering attraction. Materialistic movements are more unnatural and abnormal than ascetic and negative religions & philosophies; for these lead us upward at least, though they go too furiously fast & far for our humanity, but the materialist under the pretence of bringing us back to Nature, takes us away from her entirely. He forgets or does not see that Nature is only phenomenally Nature, but in reality she is God. The divine element in her is that which she most purely & really is; the rest is only term and condition, process and stage in her whole progressively developed revelation of the secret divinity. He forgets too that Nature is evolving not evolved & what we are now can never be the term of what we shall be hereafter. The supernatural must be by the very logic of things the end & goal of her movement. Therefore, not to be ensnared, emmeshed and bound by Nature, and not, on the other hand, to be furious with her & destroy her, is the first thing we must learn if we are to be complete Yogins and proceed surely towards our divine perfection. All beings, even the sages, follow after their nature and what shall coercion and torture of it, avail them? Prakritim yanti bhutani, nigrahah kim karishyati? And it is all so useless! Do you feel yourself bound by her and pant for release? In her hand alone is the key which shall unlock your fetters. Does she stand between you & the Lord? She is Sita; pray to her, she will stand aside & show Him to you; but presume not to separate Sita & Rama, to cast her out into some distant Lanca under the guard of giant self-tortures so that you may have Rama to yourself in Ayodhya. Wrestle with Kali, if you will, she loves a good wrestler; but wrestle not with her unlovingly, or in mere disgust & hate; for her displeasure is terrible and though she loves the Asuras, she destroys them. Rather go through her & under her protection, go with a right understanding of her and with a true & unfaltering Will; she will lead you on with whatever circlings, yet surely & in the wisest way, to the All-Blissful Personality & the Ineffable Presence. Nature is the Power of God Himself,

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leading these multitudes of beings, through the night & the desert & the tracts of the foeman to their secret & promised heritage. Supernature, then, is in every way our aim in Yoga; being still natural to the world, to transcend Nature internally so that both internally and externally we may possess and enjoy her as free & lord, swarat and samrat; being still the symbol in a world of symbol-beings, to reach through it to that which is symbolised, to realise the symbol; being still a figure of humanity, a man among men, a living body among living bodies, manus, mental beings housed in that living matter among other embodied mental beings; being & remaining in our outward parts all this that we are apparently, yet to exceed it and become in the body what we are really in the secret self, — God, spirit, supreme & infinite being, pure Bliss of divine joy, pure Force of divine action, pure Light of divine knowledge. Our whole apparent life has only a symbolic value & is good & necessary as a becoming; but all becoming has being for its goal & fulfilment & God is the only being. To become divine in the nature of the world and in the symbol of humanity is the perfection for which we were created.

The Fullness of Yoga — In Condition We are to exceed our human stature and become divine; but if we are to do this, we must first get God; for the human ego is the lower imperfect term of our being, God is the higher perfect term. He is the possessor of our supernature and without His permission there can be no effectual rising. The finite cannot become infinite unless it perceives its own secret infinity and is drawn by it or towards it; nor can the symbol-being, unless it glimpses, loves and pursues the Real-being in itself, overcome by its own strength the limits of its apparent nature. It is a particular becoming & is fixed in the nature of the symbol that it has become; only the touch of that which is all becomings and exceeds all becomings, can liberate it from the bondage to its own limited Nature. God is That which is the All and which exceeds the All. It is therefore only the knowledge, love and possession of God that can make us free. He who is transcendent, can alone enable us to transcend ourselves; He who is universal can alone enlarge us from our limited particular existence. In this necessity is the justification of that great & imperishable force of Nature, which Rationalism has unjustly & irrationally despised, Religion. I speak of religion, — not of a creed, church or theology, for all these things are rather forms of religiosity than essence or even always action of religion, — but of that personal and intimate religion, a thing of temper and spirit and life, not of views & formal actions, which draws a man passionately and absorbingly to his own vision of the Supreme or his own idea of something higher than himself which he must follow or become. Without a fervent worship of the Supreme in the heart, a strong aspiration upwards to It in the will or a vehement thirst for it in the temperament, we cannot have the impulse to be other than ourselves or the force to do anything so difficult as the transcending of our own ingrained and possessing

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human nature. The prophets have spoken & the Avatars have descended always for the one purpose, to call us to God, to inspire us to this great call on our upward straining energies or else to prepare something in the world which will help to bring humanity nearer to the goal of its difficult ascending journey. It may seem at first sight that there is no need for these religious terms or this religious spirit. If the aim is to become something superior to man, to evolve a superman out of ourselves, as man has been evolved out of the ape, — if that statement of the progression be indeed the truth, — the ape out of inferior animal forms, they again out of mollusc & protoplasm, jellyfish or vegetable animals, & so to the end of the series, then what need is there of anything but the training, preferably the most intelligent & scientific training of our mental, moral and physical energies till they reach a point when they are transmuted by the psychical chemistry of Nature into the coming superior type? But the problem is not so simple, in reality. There are three errors hidden at the basis of this sceptical question. We mistake the nature of the operation to be effected, we mistake the nature of the power & process that works it out, we mistake the nature of the thing that uses the power & works out the process. Nature does not propose to man to work out a higher mental, moral and physical variation-type in the mould of the present human being, — the symbol we are; it proposes to break that general type altogether in order to advance to a new symbolbeing which shall be supernatural to present man as present man is to the animal below him. It is doubtful whether in the pure human mould Nature can go much farther than she has gone at present; that she can for instance produce a higher mental type than Newton, Shakespeare, Caesar or Napoleon, a higher moral type than Buddha, Christ or St Francis, a higher physical type than the Greek athlete or to give modern examples, a Sandow or a Ramamurti. She may seek to bring about a better combination of mental & moral, or of moral, mental & physical energies; but is she likely to produce anything much above the level of Confucius or Socrates? It is more probable & seems to be true that Nature seeks in this field to generalise a higher level and

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a better combination. Neither need we believe that, even here, her object is to bring all men to the same level; for that can only be done by levelling downwards. Nothing in Nature is free from inequalities except the forms that are the lowest and least developed. The higher the effort accomplished, the more richly endowed the organism of the species, the greater the chances of inequality. In so high and developed a natural movement as Man, equality of individual opportunity is conceivable, equality of natural powers and accomplishment is a chimera. Nor will the generalisation of powers or the increase of material make any difference to the level of natural attainment. All the accumulated discoveries & varied information of the modern scientist will not make him mentally the superior of Aristotle or Socrates; he is neither an acuter mind nor a greater mental force. All the varied activities of modern philanthropy will not produce a greater moral type than Buddha or St Francis. The invention of the motor car will not make up for the lost swiftness & endurance nor gymnastics restore the physical capacity of the Negro or the American Indian. We see therefore the limits of Nature’s possibilities in the human symbol, fixed by the character of the symbol itself and recognised by her in her strivings. It is still a question whether in these limits the chief preoccupation of Nature is the exhaustion of the possibilities of the human symbol. That is rather man’s preoccupation and therefore the direction she takes when human intellect interferes with her normal progression. Left to herself & even utilising human interferences, she seems bent rather on breaking the mould, than on perfecting it, — only indeed in her more advanced individuals & more daring movements and with due regard to the safety of the general human type, but this is always her method when she wishes to advance to a fresh symbol without destroying the anterior species. The more civilised man becomes, the more she plagues him with moral abnormalities, excesses of vice & virtue and confusions of the very type of vice & virtue; the more he intellectualises, the more he insists on rationality as his utmost bourne, the more she becomes dissatisfied and clamours to him to develop rather his instincts & his intuitions; the more he

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strives after health & hygiene, the more she multiplies diseases & insanities of mind and body. He has triumphed over supernaturalism, he has chained her down to the material, human & rational; immediately she breaks out fiercely into unthought-of revivals and gigantic supernaturalisms. Whatever work she is intent on, she will not be baulked in that work by the limited human reason. Through all her vast being she feels the pulsation of a supernatural power, the workings & strivings of a knowledge superior to material reason. She breaks out, therefore, she compels, she insists. Everywhere we see her striving to break the mental, moral & physical type she has created & to get beyond it to some new processes as yet not clearly discerned. She attacks deliberately the sound healthfulness & equilibrium of our normal type of intellectuality, morality & physical being. She is stricken also with a mania of colossalism; colossal structures, colossal combinations, colossal heights & speeds, colossal dreams & ambitions outline themselves everywhere more or less clearly, more or less dimly. Unable as yet to do her will in the individual, she works with masses; unable in the mind, with material forms & inventions; unable in actualities, with hopes & dreams; unable to reproduce or produce Napoleons & superNapoleons, she generalises a greater reach of human capacity from which they may hereafter emerge more easily, & meanwhile she creates instead Dreadnoughts & Super-dreadnoughts, Trusts & mammoth combines, teems with distance destroying inventions & seems eager & furious to trample to pieces the limitations of space & time she herself has created. As if to point her finger to the thing she intends, she has accumulated the signs of this process of breaking & rebuilding in the phenomena of genius. It is now common knowledge that genius hardly appears in the human species unattended, unprepared or unaccompanied by abnormalities in the individual body, vitality & mind which contains it, — degeneration, insanity or freak in the heredity which produces it and even disturbance & supranormality in the human environment in which it occurs. The haste of a brilliant generalisation establishes on this basis the paradox that genius itself is a morbid phenomenon of insanity or

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degeneration. The true explanation is sufficiently clear. In order to establish genius in the human system, Nature is compelled to disturb & partially break the normality of that system, because she is introducing into it an element that is alien as it is superior to the type which it enriches. Genius is not the perfect evolution of that new & divine element; it is only a beginning or at the highest an approximation in certain directions. It works fitfully & uncertainly in the midst of an enormous mass of somewhat disordered human mentality, vital nervosity, physical animality. The thing itself is divine, it is only the undivine mould in which it works that is to a lesser or greater extent broken & ploughed up by the unassimilated force that works in it. Sometimes there is an element in the divine intruder which lays its hand on the mould & sustains it, so that it does not break at all, nor is flawed; or if there is a disturbance, it is slight and negligible. Such an element there was in Caesar, in Shakespeare, in Goethe. Sometimes also a force appears to which we can no longer apply the description of genius without being hopelessly inadequate in our terminology. Then those who have eyes to see, bow down and confess the Avatar. For it is often the work of the Avatar to typify already, partly or on the whole, what Nature has not yet effected in the mass or even in the individual, so that his passing may stamp it on the material ether in which we live. But what is this type of which the great Mother is in labour? What birth will emerge from the cries & throes of this prolonged & mighty pregnancy? A greater type of humanity, it may be said. But in order to understand what we are saying, we must first see clearly what the humanity is which she seeks to surpass. This human symbol, this type we now are is a mental being with a mental ego, working in a vital case by mind always, but upon matter, in matter & through matter. It is limited in its higher workings by its lower instruments. Its basis of mind is egoistic, sensational & determined by experience & environment, its knowledge therefore pursues wider or narrower circles in a fixed and meagre range. Its moral temperament & action is similarly egoistic, sensational, experiential and determined by environment; for this reason it is bound equally to sin & virtue

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and all attempts radically to moralise the race within the limits of its egoistic nature have been & must necessarily, in spite of particular modifications, end in general failure. It is not only a mixed but a confused type, body & vitality interfering with mind & mind both hampered by & hampering body & vitality. Its search for knowledge, founded on sense contact, is a groping like that of a man finding his way in a forest at night; it makes acquaintance with its surroundings by touching, dashing on or stumbling over them; and, although it has an uncertain light of reason given it which partially corrects this disability, yet since reason has also to start from the senses which are consistent falsifiers of values, rational knowledge is not only restricted but pursued by vast dimnesses & uncertainties even in that which it seems to itself to have grasped. It secures a few flowers of truth by rummaging in a thorny hedge of doubts & errors. The actions of the type also are a breaking through thickets, a sanguine yet tormented stumbling forward through eager failures to partial and temporary successes. Immensely superior to all else that Nature had yet effected, this type is yet so burdened with disabilities, that, if it were impossible to break its mould and go forward, there would be much justification for those pessimistic philosophies which despair of Life & see in the Will not to Live humanity’s only door of escape admitting to it no other salvation. But Nature is the will of the all-Wise God and she is not working out a reduction of the world to absurdity. She knows her goal, she knows that man as he is at present is only a transitional type; and so far as she can consistently with the survival of the type, she presses forward to what she has seen in God’s eternal knowledge as standing beyond. From this ego, she moves towards a universal consciousness, from this limitation to a free movement in infinity, from this twilit & groping mind to the direct sunlit vision of things, from this conflict without issue between vice & virtue to a walking that keeps spontaneously to a God-appointed path, from this broken & grief-besieged action to a joyous & free activity, from this confused strife of our members to a purified, unentangled and harmonious combination, from this materialised mentality to an idealised

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& illuminated life, body & mind, from the symbol to reality, from man separated from God to man in God & God in man. In brief, as she has aspired successfully from matter to life, from life to mind & mental ego, so she aspires & with a fated success to an element beyond mind, the vijnana of the Hindus, the selfluminous idea or Truth-self now concealed & superconscious in man and the world, as life was always concealed in matter and mind in life. What this vijnana is, we have yet to see, but through it she knows she can lay firm hold on that highest term of all which is the reality of all symbols, in Spirit, in Sachchidananda. The aim of Nature is also the aim of Yoga. Yoga, like Nature at its summit, seeks to break this mould of ego, this mould of mentalised life body and materialised mind, in order to achieve ideal action, ideal truth and infinite freedom in our spiritual being. To effect so enormous an end great and dangerous processes have to be used. Those who have been eager on this road or have opened up new paths towards the goal, have had to affront as a possibility frequently realised loss of reason, loss of life & health or dissolution of the moral being. They are not to be pitied or scorned even when they succumb; rather are they martyrs for humanity’s progress, far more than the lost navigator or the scientist slain by the dangers of his investigation. They prepare consciently the highest possible achievement towards which the rest of humanity instinctively & unconsciously moves. We may even say that Yoga is the appointed means Nature holds in reserve for the accomplishment of her end, when she has finished her long labour of evolving at least a part of humanity temperamentally equal to the effort and intellectually, morally & physically prepared for success. Nature moves toward supernature, Yoga moves towards God; the world-impulse & the human aspiration are one movement and the same journey.

Nature If this is the nature of the operation to be effected, not a perfection of the present human mould but a breaking of it to proceed to a higher type, what then is the power & process that works it out? What is this Nature of which we speak so fluently? 1 We habitually talk of it as if it were something mighty & conscious that lives and plans; we credit it with an aim, with wisdom to pursue that aim and with power to effect what it pursues. Are we justified in our language by the actualities of the universe or is this merely our inveterate habit of applying human figures to non-human things and the workings of intelligence to nonintelligent processes which come right because they must and not because they will and produce this magnificent ordered universe by some dumb blind and brute necessity inconceivable in its origin & nature to intelligent beings? If so, this blind brute force has produced something higher than itself, something which did not exist preconceived in its bosom or in any way belong to it. We cannot understand what being & Nature are, not because we are as yet too small and limited, but because we are too much above being & Nature. Our intelligence is a luminous freak in a darkness from which it was impossibly produced, since nothing in that darkness justified itself as a cause of its creation. Unless mind was inherent in brute matter, — & in that case matter is only apparently brute, — it was impossible for matter to produce mind. But since this leads us to an impossibility, it cannot be the truth. We must suppose then, if matter is brute, that mind is also brute. Intelligence is an illusion; there is nothing but a shock of 1 The following sentence was written at the beginning of this essay during revision. It was not worked into the text, and so is given here as a footnote: Nature is Force of Consciousness in infinite Being. The opinion that sees a mechanical world in which consciousness is only an exceptional figure of things, is a hasty conclusion drawn from imperfect data.

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material impacts creating vibrations & reactions of matter which translate themselves into the phenomena of intelligence. Knowledge is only a relation of matter with matter, and is intrinsically neither different nor superior to the hurtling of atoms against each other or the physical collision of two bulls in a meadow. The material agents involved & phenomenon produced are different & therefore we do not call the recoil of one horned forehead from another an act of knowledge or intelligence, but the thing that has happened is intrinsically the same. Intelligence is itself inert & mechanical & merely the physiological result of a physiological movement & has nothing in it psychical or mental in the time-honoured sense of the words soul and mind. This is the view of modern scientific rationalism, — put indeed in other language than the scientist’s, put so as to bring out its logical consequences & implications, but still effectively the modern account of the universe. In that account the nature of a thing consists of its composition, the properties contained in that composition and the laws of working determined by those properties; as for [example] iron is composed of certain elementary substances, possesses as a consequence of its composition certain properties, such as hardness etc. and under given circumstances will act in a given manner as the result of its properties. Applying this analysis on a larger scale we see the universe as the composition of certain brute forces working in certain material substances, possessed in itself and in those substances of certain primary & secondary, general & particular properties and working as a result by certain invariable tendencies & fixed processes which we call by a human figure Nature’s Laws. This is Nature. When searchingly analysed she is found to be a play of two entities, Force & Matter; but these two, if the unitarian view of the universe is correct, will some day be proved to be only one entity, either only Matter or only Force. Even if we accept this modern view of the universe, which, it is not at all dangerous to prophesy, will have disappeared in the course of a century into a larger synthesis, there is still something to be said about the presence or absence of intelligence

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in Nature. In what after all does intelligence consist, what are its composition, properties, laws? What in its circumstances is human intelligence, the only kind of intelligence which we are in a position to study from within & therefore understand? It is marked by three qualities or processes, the power & process of adaptation towards an end, the power & process of discrimination between the impacts on its senses & the power & process of mentally conscious comprehension. Human intelligence is, to put it briefly, teleological, discriminative and mentally conscious. About other than human beings, about animals, trees, metals, forces, we can say nothing from inside, we can only infer the absence or presence of these elements of consciousness from the evidence collected by an external observation. We cannot positively say, having no internal evidence, that the tree is not a mind imprisoned in matter and unable to express itself in the media it has at its disposal; we cannot say that it does not suffer the reactions of pleasure and pain; but from the external evidence we infer to the contrary. Our negative conclusion is probable, it is not certain. It may be itself negatived in the future march of knowledge. But still, taking the evidence as it stands, what are the facts we actually arrive at in this comparison of intelligent & non-intelligent Nature? First, Nature possesses in a far higher degree than man the teleological faculty & process. To place an aim before one, to combine, adapt, modify, unify, vary means & processes in order to attain that end, to struggle against and overcome difficulties, to devise means to circumvent difficulties when they cannot be overcome, this is one of the noblest & divinest parts of human intelligence. But its action in man is only a speciality of its universal action in Nature. She works it out in man partly through the reason, in animals with very little & rudimentary reason, mainly through instinct, memory, impulse & sensation, in plants & other objects with very little & rudimentary reason, mainly through impulse & mechanical or, as we call it, involuntary action. But throughout there is the end & the adaptation to the end, & throughout the same basic means are used; for in man also it is only for a selection of his ends & processes that the reason

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is used; for the greater part she uses the animal means, memory, impulse, sensation, instinct, — instincts differently directed, less decisive & more general than the animal instincts but still in the end & for their purpose as sure; & for yet another part she uses the same merely mechanical impulse & involuntary action precisely as in her mistermed inanimate forms of existence. Let us not say that the prodigality of Nature, her squandering of materials, her frequent failure, her apparent freaks and gambollings are signs of purposelessness and absence of intelligence. Man with his reason is guilty of the same laches and wanderings. But neither Man nor Nature is therefore purposeless or unintelligent. It is Nature who compels Man himself to be other than too strenuously utilitarian, for she knows better than the economist & the utilitarian philosopher. She is an universal intelligence & she has to attend, not only in the sum, but in each detail, to the universal as well as to the particular effect; she has to work out each detail with her eye on the group and not only on the group but the whole kind & not only on the whole kind but the whole world of species. Man, a particular intelligence limited by his reason, is incapable of this largeness; he puts his particular ends in the forefront and neither sees where absorption in them hurts his general well being nor can divine where they clash with the universal purpose. Her failures have an utility — we shall see before long how great an utility; her freaks have a hidden seriousness. And yet above all she remembers that beyond all formal ends, her one great object is the working out of universal delight founded on arrangement as a means, but exceeding its means. Towards that she moves; she takes delight on the way, she takes delight in the work, she takes delight, too, beyond the work. But in all this we anticipate, we speak as if Nature were self-conscious; what we have arrived at is that Nature is teleological, more widely than man, more perfectly than man, & man himself is only teleological because of that in Nature & by the same elementary means & processes as the animal & the plant, though with additions of fresh means peculiar to mind. This, it may be said, does not constitute Intelligence, — for intelligence

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is not only teleological, but discriminative & mentally conscious. Mechanical discrimination, Nature certainly possesses in the highest degree; without it her teleological processes would be impossible. The tendril growing straight through the air comes into contact with a rope, a stick, the stalk of a plant; immediately it seizes it as with a finger, changes its straight growth for a curled & compressive movement, & winds itself round & round the support. What induces the change? what makes it discriminate the presence of a support & the possibility of this new movement? It is the instinct of the tendril and differs in no way, intrinsically, from the instinct of the newborn pup seizing at once on its mother’s teats or the instinct of a man in his more mechanical needs & actions. We see the moon-lotus open its petals to the moon, close them to the touch of the day. In what does this discriminative movement differ from the motion of the hand leaping back from the touch of a flame, or from the recoiling movement of disgust & displeasure in the nerves from an abhorrent sight or from the recoiling movement of denial & uncongeniality in the mind from a distasteful idea or opinion? Intrinsically, there seems to be no difference; but there is a difference in circumstance. One is not attended with mental self-consciousness, the others are attended with this supremely important element. We think falsely that there is no will in the action of the tendril and the lotus, and no discrimination. There is a will, but not mentalised will; there is discrimination but not mentalised discrimination. It is mechanical, we say, — but do we understand what we mean when we say it, — & we give other names, calling will force, discrimination a natural reaction or an organic tendency. These names are only various masks concealing an intrinsic identity. Even if we could go no farther, we should have gained an enormous step; for we have already the conception of the thing we call Nature as possessing, containing or identical with a great Force of Will placing before itself a vast end & a million complexly related incidental ends, working them out by contrivance, adaptation, arrangement, device, using an unfailing discrimination & vastly fulfilling its complex work. Of this great

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Force human intelligence would only be a limited and inferior movement, guided and used by it, serving its ends even when it seems to combat its ends. We may deny Intelligence to such a Power, because it does not give signs of mental consciousness & does not in every part of its works use a human or mental intelligence; but our objection is only a metaphysical distinction. Practically, looking out on life & not in upon abstract thought, we can, if we admit this conception, rely on it that the workings of this unintelligent discrimination will be the same as if they were the workings of a universal Intelligence & the aim & means of the mechanical will the aims & means which would be chosen by an Almighty Wisdom. But if we arrive at this certainty, does not Reason itself demand of us that we should admit in Nature or behind it a universal Intelligence and an Almighty Wisdom? If the results are such as these powers would create, must we not admit the presence of these powers as the cause? Which is the truer Rationalism, to admit that the works of Intelligence are produced by Intelligence or to assert that they are produced by a blind Machine unconsciously working out perfection? to admit that the emergence of overt intelligence in humanity is due to the specialised function of a secret intelligence in the universe or to assert that it is the product of a Force to which the very principle of Intelligence is absent? To justify the paradox by saying that things are worked out in a particular way because it is their nature to be worked out in that way, is to play the fool with reason; for it does not carry us an inch beyond the mere fact that they are so worked out, one knows not why. The true reason for the modern reluctance to admit that Nature has intelligence & wisdom or is intelligence & wisdom, is the constant association in the human mind of these things with mentally self-conscious personality. Intelligence, we think, presupposes someone who is intelligent, an ego who possesses & uses this intelligence. An examination of human consciousness shows that this association is an error. Intelligence possesses us, not we intelligence; intelligence uses us, not we intelligence. The mental ego in man is a creation & instrument of intelligence and intelligence itself is a force of Nature manifesting itself in a

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rudimentary or advanced state in all animal life. This objection, therefore, vanishes. Not only so, but Science herself by putting the ego in its right place as a product of mind has shown that Intelligence is not a human possession but a force of Nature & therefore an attribute of Nature, a manifestation of the universal Force. The question remains, is it a fundamental & omnipresent attribute or only a development manifested in a select minority of her works? Here again, the difficulty is that we associate intelligence with an organised mental consciousness. But let us look at & interrogate the facts which Science has brought into our ken. We will glance at only one of them, the fly catching plant of America. Here is a vegetable organism which has hunger, — shall we say, an unconscious hunger, which needs animal food, which sets a trap for it, as the spider sets it, which feels the moment the victim touches the trap, which immediately closes & seizes the prey, eats & digests it & lies in wait for more. These motions are exactly the motions of the spider’s mental intelligence altered & conditioned only by the comparative immobility of the plant & confined only, so far as we can observe, to the management of this supreme vital need & its satisfaction. Why should we attribute mental intelligence to the spider & none to the plant? Granted that it is rudimentary, organised only for special purposes, still it would seem to be the same natural Force at work in the spider & plant, intelligently devising means to an end & superintending the conduct of the device. If there is no mind in the plant, then, irresistibly, mental intelligence & mechanical intelligence are one & the same thing in essence, & the tendril embracing its prop, the plant catching its prey & the spider seizing its victim are all forms of one Force of action, which we may decline to call Intelligence if we will, but which is obviously the same thing as Intelligence. The difference is between Intelligence organised as mind, & Intelligence not organised but working with a broad elementary purity more unerring, in a way, than the action of mind. In the light of these facts the conception of Nature as infinite teleological & discriminative Force of Intelligence unorganised & impersonal because

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superior to organisation & personality becomes the supreme probability, the mechanical theory is only a possibility. In the absence of certainties Reason demands that we should accept the probable in preference to the possible and a harmonious & natural in preference to a violent and paradoxical explanation. But is it certain that in this Intelligence & its works Mind is a speciality and Personality — as distinguished from mental ego — is entirely absent except as an efflorescence & convenience of Mind? We think so, because we suppose that where there are no animal signs of consciousness, there consciousness cannot and does not exist. This also may be an assumption. We must remember that we know nothing of the tree & the stone except its exterior signs of life or quiescence; our internal knowledge is confined to the phenomena of human psychology. But even in this limited sphere there is much that should make us think very deeply and pause very long before we hasten to rash negative assertions. A man sleeps, dreamlessly, he thinks; but we know that all the time consciousness is at work within him, dreaming, always dreaming; of his body & its surroundings he knows nothing, yet that body is of itself conducting all the necessary operations of life. In the man stunned or in trance there is the same phenomenon of a divided being, consciousness mentally active within apart from the body which is mentally even as the tree & the stone, but vitally active & functioning like the tree. Catalepsy presents a still more curious phenomenon of a body dead & inert like the stone, not even vitally active like the tree, but a mind perfectly aware of itself, its medium & its surroundings, though no longer in active possession of the medium and therefore no longer able to act materially on its surroundings. In face of these examples how can we assert that there is no life in the stone, no mind in stone or tree? The premise of the syllogism by which science denies mind to the tree or life to the stone, viz that where there is no outward sign of life or conscious mentality, life & mentality do not exist, is proven to be false. The possibility, even a certain probability presents itself, — in view of the unity of Nature & the omnipresent intelligence in her works, that the tree & the stone

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are in their totality just such a divided being, a form not yet penetrated & possessed by conscious mind, a conscious intelligence within dreaming in itself or, like the cataleptic, aware of its surroundings, but because not yet possessed of its medium (the intelligence in the cataleptic is temporarily dispossessed) unable to show any sign of life or of mentality or to act aggressively on its surroundings. We do not need to stop at this imperfect probability, for the latest researches of psychology make it almost overwhelming in its insistence & next door to the actual proof. We now know that within men there is a dream self or sleep self other than the waking consciousness, active in the stunned, the drugged, the hypnotised, the sleeping, which knows what the waking mind does not know, understands what the waking mind does not understand, remembers accurately what the waking mind has not even taken the trouble to notice. Who is this apparent sleeper in the waking, this waker in the sleeping in comparison with whose comprehensive attentiveness & perfect observation, memory and intelligence our waking consciousness is only a fragmentary & hasty dream? Mark this capital point that this more perfect consciousness within us is not the product of evolution, — nowhere in the evolved & waking world is there such a being who remembers & repeats automatically the sounds of a foreign language which is unnoticed jabbering to the instructed mind, solves spontaneously problems from which the instructed mind has retired baffled & weary, notices everything, understands everything, recalls everything. Therefore this consciousness within is independent of evolution and, consequently, we may presume, anterior to evolution. Esha supteshu jagarti, says the Katha Upanishad, This is the Waker in all who sleep. This new psychological research is only in its infancy & cannot tell us what this secret consciousness is, but the knowledge gained by Yoga enables us to assert positively that this is the complete mental being within who guides life & body, manomayah pranashariraneta. He it is who conducts our evolution & awakes mind out of life & is more & more getting possession of this

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vitalised human body, his medium & instrument, so that it may become what it is not now, a perfect instrument of mentality. In the stone he also is and in the tree, in those sleepers also there is one who wakes; but he has not in those forms got possession yet of the instrument for the purposes of mind; he can only use them for the purposes of vitality in its growth or in its active functioning. We see, therefore, modern psychology, although it still gets away from the only rational & logical conclusion possible on its data, marching inevitably & under the sheer compulsion of facts to the very truths arrived at thousands of years ago by the ancient Rishis. How did they arrive at them? Not by speculation, as the scholars vainly imagine, but by Yoga. For the great stumbling block that has stood in the way of Science is its inability to get inside its object, the necessity under which it labours of building on inferences from external study, — & all its desperate & cruel attempts to make up the deficiency by vivisection or other ruthless experiments cannot remedy the defect. Yoga enables us to get inside the object by dissolving the artificial barriers of the bodily experience & the mental egosense in the observer. It takes us out of the little hold of personal experience and casts us into the great universal currents; takes us out of the personal mind sheath & makes [us] one with universal self and universal mind. Therefore were the ancient Rishis able to see what now we are beginning again to glimpse dimly that not only is Nature herself an infinite teleological and discriminative impersonal Force of Intelligence or Consciousness, prajna prasrita purani,2 but that God dwells within & over Nature as infinite universal Personality, universal in the universe, individualised as well as universal in the particular form, or selfconsciousness who perceives, enjoys & conducts to their end its vast & complex workings. Not only is there Prakriti; there is also Purusha. So far, then, we succeed in forming some idea of the great force which is to work out our emergence from our nature to our 2

Intelligent Consciousness that went forth in the beginning. Swetaswatara Upanishad.

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supernature. It is a force of Conscious Being manifesting itself in forms & movements & working out exactly as it is guided, from stage to stage, the predetermined progress of our becoming & the Will of God in the world.

Maya The world exists as symbol of Brahman; but the mind creates or accepts false values of things and takes symbol for essential reality. This is ignorance or cosmic illusion, the mistake of the mind & senses, from which the Magician Himself, Master of the Illusion, is calling on us to escape. This false valuation of the world is the Maya of the Gita and can be surmounted without abandoning either action or world-existence. But in addition, the whole of universal existence is in this sense an illusion of Maya that it is not an unchanging transcendent and final reality of things but only a symbolical reality; it is a valuation of the reality of Brahman in the terms of cosmic consciousness. All these objects we see or are mentally aware of as objectively existing, are only forms of consciousness. They are the thingin-itself turned first into terms & ideas born of a movement or rhythmic process of consciousness and then objectivised, in consciousness itself and not really external to it. They have therefore a fixed conventional reality, but not an eternally durable essential reality; they are symbols, not altogether the thing symbolised, means of knowledge, not altogether the thing known. To look at it from another point of view Existence or Brahman has two fundamental states of consciousness, cosmic consciousness and transcendental consciousness. To cosmic consciousness the world is real as a direct first term expressing the inexpressible; to transcendental consciousness the world is only a secondary & indirect term expressing the inexpressible. When I have the cosmic consciousness, I see the world as my Self manifested; in transcendental consciousness I see the world not as the manifestation of my Self but as a manifestation of something I choose to be to my Self-consciousness. It is a conventional term expressing me which does not bind me; I could dissolve it and express myself otherwise. It is a vocable of a particular language expressing

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something in speech or writing which could be equally well expressed by quite another vocable in another language. I say tiger in English; I might equally have spoken Sanscrit & used the word shardula; it would have made no difference to the tiger or to myself, but only to my play with the symbols of speech and thought. So it is with Brahman & the universe, the Thing in itself and its symbols with their fixed conventional values, some of which are relative to the general consciousness & some to the individual consciousness of the symbol-being. Matter, Mind, Life for instance are general symbols with a fixed general value to God in His cosmic consciousness; but they have a different individual value, make a different impression or represent themselves differently, as we say, to myself, to the ant or to the god and angel. This perception of the purely conventional value of form & name in the Universe is expressed in metaphysics by the formula that the world is a creation of Para Maya or supreme Cosmic Illusion. It does not follow that the world is unreal or has no existence worth the name. None of the ancient Scriptures of Hinduism affirms the unreality of the world, nor is it a logical consequence of the great but remote and difficult truth words are so inadequate to express. We must remember that all these terms, Maya, illusion, dream, unreality, relative reality, conventional value, are merely verbal figures and must not be pressed with a too literal scholastic or logical insistence. They are like the paint-brush hurled by the painter at his picture in desperation at not arriving at the effect he wanted; they are stones thrown at the truth, not the truth itself. We shall see this clearly enough when we come to look at the Cosmos from quite another standpoint, — the standpoint not of Maya, but Lila.1 But certain great metaphysical minds, not perceiving sufficiently that words like everything else have only conventional values and are symbols of a truth which is in itself inexpressible, have drawn from the 1 Illusion is itself an illusion. That which seems to the soul escaping from ignorance to be Maya, an illusion or dream, is seen by the soul already free to be Lila of God and the spirit’s play.

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ideas suggested by these words, the most rigorous and concrete conclusions. They have condemned the whole world as a miserable & lying dream, all the more hateful & profitless for a certain element of ineffugable reality which the more clearsighted part of their minds was compelled to realise & partially to admit. The truth in their premises has made their doctrines a mighty instrument for the liberation of great & austere souls, the error in their conclusion has afflicted humanity with the vain & barren gospel of the vanity not only of false mundane existence, but of all mundane existence. In the extreme forms of this view both nature & supernature, man & God are lies of consciousness, myths of a cosmic dream & not worth accepting. Amelioration is a chimera, divinity a lure and only absorption in a transmundane impersonal existence worth pursuing. The worshippers of God, the seekers after human perfection, those who would raise humanity from nature to supernature, find in their path two great stumbling blocks, on one side, the lower trend of Nature to persist in its past gains which represents itself in the besotted naturalism of the practical man & the worldling and on the other, this grand overshooting of the mark represented not only by the world-fleeing ascetic, who is after all, within his rights, but by the depressing pessimism of the ignorant who mean neither to flee the world, nor, if they did, could rise to the real grandeur of asceticism, but are still imbued intellectually & overshadowed in temperament by these high & fatal doctrines. A better day will dawn for India when the shadow is lifted and the Indian mental consciousness without renouncing the truth of Maya, perceives that it is only a partial explanation of existence. Mundane existence is not indispensable either to God’s being or to God’s bliss, but it is not therefore a vanity; nor is a liberated mundane existence — liberated in God — either a vain or a false existence. The ordinary doctrine of Maya is not a simple truth, but proceeds upon three distinct spiritual perceptions. The first & highest is this supreme perception that the world is a mass of consciousness-symbols, having a conventional value, beings exist only in Brahman’s self-consciousness & individual personality & ego-sense are only symbols & terms in the universal

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symbol-existence. We have said that & we shall see that we are not compelled by this perception to set down the world as a myth or a valueless convention. Nor would the Mayavadin himself have been brought to this extreme conclusion if he had not brought into the purity of this highest soul-experience his two other perceptions. The second of these, the lowest, is the perception of the lower or Apara Maya which I have indicated in the opening of this essay — the perception of the system of false values put by mind & sense on the symbol facts of the universe. At a certain stage of our mental culture it is easy to see that the senses are deceiving guides, all mental opinions & judgments uncertain, partial & haunted & pursued by doubt, the world not a reality in the sense in which the mind takes it for a reality, in the sense in which the senses only occupied by & only careful of the practical values of things, their vyavaharic artha, deal with it as a reality. Reaching this stage the mind arrives at this perception that all its values for the world being false, perhaps it is because there is no true value or only a true value not conceivable to the mind, and from this idea it is easy for our impatient human nature to stride to the conclusion that so it is & all existence or all world-existence at least is illusory, a sensation born of nothingness, a play of zeros. Hence Buddhism, the sensational Agnostic philosophies, Mayavada. Again, it is easy at a certain stage of moral culture to perceive that the moral values put by the emotions, passions and aspirations on actions & experiences are false values, that the objects of our sins are not worth sinning for & even that our principles & values do not stand in the shock of the world’s actualities, but are, they too, conventional values which we do not find to be binding on the great march of Nature. From this it is natural & right to come to vairagya or dissatisfaction with a life of false valuations and very easy to stride forward, again in the impatience of our imperfect human nature, to the consummation of an entire vairagya, not only dissatisfaction with a false moral life, but disgust with life of any sort & the conclusion of the vanity of world-existence. We have a mental vairagya, a moral vairagya and to these powerful motives is added in the greater types the most powerful of all, spiritual

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vairagya. For at a certain stage of spiritual culture we come to the perception of the world as a system of mere consciousness values in Parabrahman or to a middle term, the experience, which was probably the decisive factor in the minds of great spiritual seekers like Shankara, of the pure & bright impersonal Sachchidananda beyond, unaffected by & apparently remote from all cosmic existence. Observing intellectually through the mind this great experience, the conclusion is natural & almost inevitable that this Pure & Bright One regards the universe as a mirage, an unreality, a dream. But these are only the terms, the word-values & conventional idea-values into which mind then translates this fact of unaffected transcendence; & it so translates it because these are the terms it is itself accustomed to apply to anything which is beyond it, remote from it, not practically affecting it in tangible relations. The mind engrossed in matter at first accepts only an objective reality; everything not objectivised or apparently capable of some objective expression it calls a lie, a mirage, a dream, an unreality or, if it is favourably disposed an ideal. When, afterwards, it corrects its views, the first thing it does is to reverse its values; coming into a region & level where life in the material world seems remote, unspiritual or apparently not capable of spiritual realisation, it immediately applies here its old expressions dream, mirage, lie, unreality or mere false idea and transfers from object to spirit its exclusive & intolerant use of the word-symbol reality. Add to this mental translation into its own conventional word-values of the fact of unaffected transcendence the intellectual conclusions & temperamental repulsions of mental & moral vairagya, both together affecting & disfiguring the idea of the world as a system of consciousness values and we have Mayavada.

Section Four 1914 – 1919

The Beginning and the End Who knows the beginning of things or what mind has ever embraced their end? When we have said a beginning, do we not behold spreading out beyond it all the eternity of Time when that which has begun was not? So also when we imagine an end our vision becomes wise of endless Space stretching out beyond the terminus we have fixed. Do even forms begin and end? Or does eternal Form only disappear from one of its canvases? * * * The experiment of human life on an earth is not now for the first time enacted. It has been conducted a million times before and the long drama will again a million times be repeated. In all that we do now, our dreams, our discoveries, our swift or difficult attainments we profit subconsciously by the experience of innumerable precursors and our labour will be fecund in planets unknown to us and in worlds yet uncreated. The plan, the peripeties, the denouement differ continually, yet are always governed by the conventions of an eternal Art. God, Man, Nature are the three perpetual symbols. The idea of eternal recurrence affects with a shudder of alarm the mind entrenched in the minute, the hour, the years, the centuries, all the finite’s unreal defences. But the strong soul conscious of its own immortal stuff and the inexhaustible ocean of its ever-flowing energies is seized by it with the thrill of an inconceivable rapture. It hears behind the thought the childlike laughter and ecstasy of the Infinite. God, Man, Nature, what are these three? Whence flow their divergences? To what ineffable union advances the everincreasing sum of their contacts? Let us look beyond the hours

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and moments; let us tear down the hedge of the years and the concept-wall of centuries and millenniums and break out beyond the limits of our prison-house. For all things seek to concentrate our view on the temporal interests, conceptions and realisations of our humanity. We have to look beyond them to know that which they serve and represent. Nothing in the world can be understood by itself, but only by that which is beyond it. If we would know all, we must turn our gaze to that which is beyond all. That being known all else is comprehended. * * * A beginningless and endless eternity and infinity in which divisible Time and Space manage to subsist is the mould of existence. They succeed in subsisting because they are upheld by God’s view of Himself in things. God is all existence. Existence is a representation of ineffable Being. Being is neither eternal nor temporary, neither infinite nor limited, neither one nor many; it is nothing that any word of our speech can describe nor any thought of our mentality can conceive. The word existence unduly limits it; eternity & infinity are too petty conceptions; the term Being is an x representing not an unknown but an unknowable value. All values proceed from the Brahman, but it is itself beyond all values. This existence is an incalculable Fact in which all possible opposites meet; its opposites are in truth identities. It is neither one nor many and yet both one and many. Numberlessness increases in it and extends till it reaches unity; unity broken cannot stop short of numberlessness. It is neither personal nor impersonal and yet at once personal and impersonal. Personality is a fiction of the impersonal; impersonality the mask of a Person. That impersonal Brahman was all the time a world-transcendent Personality and universal Person, is the truth of things as it is represented by life and consciousness. “I am” is the eternal assertion. Analytic thought

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gets rid of the I, but the Am remains and brings it back. Materialism changes “I am” into “It is”, and when it has done so, has changed nothing. The Nihilist gets rid of both Am and Is only to find them waiting for him beyond on either side of his negation. When we examine the Infinite and the Finite, Form and the Formless, the Silence and the Activity, our oppositions are equally baffled. Try however hard we will, God will not allow us to exclude any of them from His fathomless universality. He carries all Himself with Him into every transcendence. * * * All this is Infinity grasped by the Finite and the Finite lived by the Infinite. The finite is a transience or a recurrence in the infinite, therefore Infinity alone is utterly real. But since that Real casts always this shadow of itself and since it is by the finite that its reality becomes conceivable, we must suppose that the phenomenon also is not a fiction. The Infinite defines itself in the finite, the finite conceives itself in the Infinite. Each is necessary to the other’s complete joy of being. The Infinite pauses always in the finite; the finite arrives always in the Infinite. This is the wheel that circles forever through Time and Eternity. If there were nothing to be transcended, the Transcendent would be incomplete in its own conception. What is the value of the Formless unless it has stooped to Form? And on the other hand what truth or value has any form except to represent as in a mask the Indefinable and Invisible? From what background have all these numberless forms started out, if not from the termless profundities of the Incommensurable? He who has not lost his knowledge in the Unknowable, knows nothing. Even the world he studies so sapiently, cheats and laughs at him.

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When we have entered into the Unknowable, then all this other knowledge becomes valid. When we have sacrificed all forms into the Formless, then all forms become at once negligible and infinitely precious. For the rest, that is true of all things. What we have not renounced, has no worth. Sacrifice is the great revealer of values. * * * As all words come out of the Silence, so all forms come out of the Infinite. When the word goes back into the silence is it extinct for ever or does it dwell in the eternal harmony? When a soul goes back to God is it blotted out from existence or does it know and enjoy that into which it enters? Does universe ever end? Does it not exist eternally in God’s total idea of His own being? Unless the Eternal is tired out by Time as by a load, unless God suffers loss of memory, how can universe cease from being? Neither for soul nor universe is extinction the goal, but for one it is infinite self-possessing and for the other the endless pursuit of its own immutably mutable rhythms. * * * Existence, not annihilation is the whole aim and pursuit of existence. If Nothing were the beginning Nothing also would be the end; but in that case Nothing also would be the middle. If indiscriminable unity were the beginning it would also be the end. But then what middle term could there be except indiscriminable unity? There is a logic in existence from which our Thought tries to escape by twisting and turning against its own ultimate necessity, as if a snake were to try to get away from itself by coiling round its own body. Let it cease coiling and go straight

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to the root of the whole matter, that there is no first nor last, no beginning nor ending, but only a representation of successions and dependences. Succession and dependence are laws of perspective; they cannot be made a true measure of that which they represent. Precisely because God is one, indefinable and beyond form, therefore He is capable of infinite definition and quality, realisation in numberless forms and the joy of endless selfmultiplication. These two things go together and they cannot really be divided. * * *

The Hour of God There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God’s bounty. Unhappy is the man or the nation which, when the divine moment arrives, is found sleeping or unprepared to use it, because the lamp has not been kept trimmed for the welcome and the ears are sealed to the call. But thrice woe to them who are strong and ready, yet waste the force or misuse the moment; for them is irreparable loss or a great destruction. In the hour of God cleanse thy soul of all self-deceit and hypocrisy and vain self-flattering that thou mayst look straight into thy spirit and hear that which summons it. All insincerity of nature, once thy defence against the eye of the Master and the light of the ideal, becomes now a gap in thy armour and invites the blow. Even if thou conquer for the moment, it is the worse for thee, for the blow shall come afterwards and cast thee down in the midst of thy triumph. But being pure cast aside all fear; for the hour is often terrible, a fire and a whirlwind and a tempest, a treading of the winepress of the wrath of God; but he who can stand up in it on the truth of his purpose is he who shall stand; even though he fall, he shall rise again, even though he seem to pass on the wings of the wind, he shall return. Nor let worldly prudence whisper too closely in thy ear; for it is the hour of the unexpected, the incalculable, the immeasurable. Mete not the

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power of the Breath by thy petty instruments, but trust and go forward. But most keep thy soul clear, even if for a while, of the clamour of the ego. Then shall a fire march before thee in the night and the storm be thy helper and thy flag shall wave on the highest height of the greatness that was to be conquered.

Beyond Good and Evil God is beyond good and evil; man moving Godwards must become of one nature with him. He must transcend good and evil. God is beyond good and evil, not below them, not existing and limited by them, not even above them, but in a more absolute sense excedent and transcendent of the ideas of good and evil. He exceeds them in his universality; they exist in him, but the values of good and evil which we give to things is not their divine or universal value, they are only their practical value created by us in our psychological and dynamic dealings with life. God recognises them and seems to deal with us on the basis of this valuation of life, but only to such an extent as may serve his purpose in Nature. In his universal action he is not limited by them. But into his transcendent being of which his highest universal is the image, they do not at all enter; there in the highest universal which is to us transcendent is only the absolute good of which both our good and evil have in them certain differentiated elements. Neither our good nor our evil are or can of themselves give the absolute good; both have to be transformed, evil into good, good into pure and self-existent good, before they can be taken up into it. This explains the nature of the universe which would otherwise be inexplicable, inconsistent with the being of God, a forcefully inconscient and violently active enigma. God must be beyond limitation by our ideas of good, otherwise the universe such as it is could not exist whether as the partly manifested being of a divine Existence or a thing created or permitted by a divine Will. He cannot, either, be evil, otherwise in man, his highest terrestrial creature or his highest terrestrial manifestation, there could not be this dominant idea of good and this stream of tendency towards righteousness. He cannot be a mixture

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of good and evil, whether a self-perplexed and struggling or a mysteriously ordered double principle, Ormuzd and Ahriman, or at least he cannot be limited by this duality, for there is much in the universe which is neither good nor evil. Perhaps the greatest part of the totality is either supramoral or inframoral or simply amoral. Good and evil come in with the development of mental consciousness; they exist in their rudimentary elements in the animal and primitive human mind, they develop with the human development. Good and evil are things which arrive in the process of the evolution; there is then the possibility that they will disappear in the process of the evolution. If indeed they are essential to its highest possible point of culmination, then they will remain; or if one of them be essential and the other non-essential, then that one will remain and its opposite will disappear.

The Divine Superman This is thy work and the aim of thy being and that for which thou art here, to become the divine superman and a perfect vessel of the Godhead. All else that thou hast to do, is only a making thyself ready or a joy by the way or a fall from thy purpose. But the goal is this and the purpose is this and not in power of the way and the joy by the way but in the joy of the goal is the greatness and the delight of thy being. The joy of the way is because that which is drawing thee is also with thee on thy path and the power to climb was given thee that thou mightest mount to thy own summits. If thou hast a duty, this is thy duty; if thou ask what shall be thy aim, let this be thy aim; if thou demand pleasure, there is no greater joy, for all other joy is broken or limited, the joy of a dream or the joy of a sleep or the joy of self-forgetting. But this is the joy of thy whole being. For if thou say what is my being, this is thy being, the Divine, and all else is only its broken or its perverse appearance. If thou seek the Truth, this is the Truth. Place it before thee and in all things be faithful to it. It has been well said by one who saw but through a veil and mistook the veil for the face, that thy aim is to become thyself; and he said well again that the nature of man is to transcend himself. This is indeed his nature and that is indeed the divine aim of his self-transcending. What then is the self that thou hast to transcend and what is the self that thou hast to become? For it is here that thou shouldst make no error; for this error, not to know thyself, is the fountain of all thy grief and the cause of all thy stumbling. That which thou hast to transcend is the self that thou appearest to be, and that is man as thou knowest him, the apparent Purusha. And what is this man? He is a mental being enslaved to life and matter; and where he is not enslaved to life and

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matter, he is the slave of his mind. But this is a great and heavy servitude; for to be the slave of mind is to be the slave of the false, the limited and the apparent. The self that thou hast to become, is the self that thou art within behind the veil of mind and life and matter. It is to be the spiritual, the divine, the superman, the real Purusha. For that which is above the mental being, is the superman. It is to be the master of thy mind, thy life and thy body; it is to be a king over Nature of whom thou art now the tool, lifted above her who now has thee under her feet. It is to be free and not a slave, to be one and not divided, to be immortal and not obscured by death, to be full of light and not darkened, to be full of bliss and not the sport of grief and suffering, to be uplifted into power and not cast down into weakness. It is to live in the Infinite and possess the finite. It is to live in God and be one with him in his being. To become thyself is to be this and all that flows from it. Be free in thyself, and therefore free in thy mind, free in thy life and thy body. For the Spirit is freedom. Be one with God and all beings; live in thyself and not in thy little ego. For the Spirit is unity. Be thyself, immortal, and put not thy faith in death; for death is not of thyself, but of thy body. For the Spirit is immortality. To be immortal is to be infinite in being and consciousness and bliss; for the Spirit is infinite and that which is finite lives only by his infinity. These things thou art, therefore thou canst become all this; but if thou wert not these things, then thou couldst never become them. What is within thee, that alone can be revealed in thy being. Thou appearest indeed to be other than this, but wherefore shouldst thou enslave thyself to appearances? Rather arise, transcend thyself, become thyself. Thou art man and the whole nature of man is to become more than himself. He was the man-animal, he has become more than the animal man. He is the thinker, the craftsman, the seeker after beauty. He shall be more than the thinker, he shall be the seer of knowledge; he shall be more than the craftsman, he shall be

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the creator and master of his creation; he shall be more than the seeker of beauty, for he shall enjoy all beauty and all delight. Physical, he seeks for his immortal substance; vital he seeks after immortal life and the infinite power of his being; mental and partial in knowledge, he seeks after the whole light and the utter vision. To possess these is to become the superman; for [it] is to rise out of mind into the supermind. Call it the divine mind or Knowledge or the supermind; it is the power and light of the divine will and the divine consciousness. By the supermind the Spirit saw and created himself in the worlds, by that he lives in them and governs them. By that he is Swarat Samrat, self-ruler and all-ruler. Supermind is superman; therefore to rise beyond mind is the condition. To be the superman is to live the divine life, to be a god; for the gods are the powers of God. Be a power of God in humanity. To live in the divine Being and let the consciousness and bliss, the will and knowledge of the Spirit possess thee and play with thee and through thee, this is the meaning. This is the transfiguration of thyself on the mountain. It is to discover God in thyself and reveal him to thyself in all things. Live in his being, shine with his light, act with his power, rejoice with his bliss. Be that Fire and that Sun and that Ocean. Be that joy and that greatness and that beauty. When thou hast done this even in part, thou hast attained to the first steps of supermanhood.

Section Five 1927 and after

The Law of the Way First be sure of the call and of thy soul’s answer. For if the call is not true, not the touch of God’s powers or the voice of his messengers, but the lure of thy ego, the end of thy endeavour will be a poor spiritual fiasco or else a deep disaster. And if not the soul’s fervour, but only the mind’s assent or interest replies to the divine summons or only the lower life’s desire clutches at some side attraction of the fruits of Yogapower or Yoga-pleasure or only a transient emotion leaps like an unsteady flame moved by the intensity of the Voice or its sweetness or grandeur, then too there can be little surety for thee in the difficult path of Yoga. The outer instruments of mortal man have no force to carry him through the severe ardours of this spiritual journey and Titanic inner battle or to meet its terrible or obstinate ordeals or nerve him to face and overcome its subtle and formidable dangers. Only his spirit’s august and steadfast will and the quenchless fire of his soul’s invincible ardour are sufficient for this difficult transformation and this high improbable endeavour. Imagine not the way is easy; the way is long, arduous, dangerous, difficult. At every step is an ambush, at every turn a pitfall. A thousand seen or unseen enemies will start up against thee, terrible in subtlety against thy ignorance, formidable in power against thy weakness. And when with pain thou hast destroyed them, other thousands will surge up to take their place. Hell will vomit its hordes to oppose thee and enring and wound and menace; Heaven will meet thee with its pitiless tests and its cold luminous denials. Thou shalt find thyself alone in thy anguish, the demons furious in thy path, the Gods unwilling above thee. Ancient and powerful, cruel, unvanquished and close and innumerable are the dark and dreadful Powers that profit by the reign of Night and Ignorance and would have no

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change and are hostile. Aloof, slow to arrive, far-off and few and brief in their visits are the Bright Ones who are willing or permitted to succour. Each step forward is a battle. There are precipitous descents, there are unending ascensions and ever higher peaks upon peaks to conquer. Each plateau climbed is but a stage on the way and reveals endless heights beyond it. Each victory thou thinkest the last triumphant struggle proves to be but the prelude to a hundred fierce and perilous battles... But thou sayest God’s hand will be with me and the Divine Mother near with her gracious smile of succour? And thou knowest not then that God’s grace is more difficult to have or to keep than the nectar of the Immortals or Kuvera’s priceless treasures? Ask of His chosen and they will tell thee how often the Eternal has covered his face from them, how often he has withdrawn from them behind his mysterious veil and they have found themselves alone in the grip of Hell, solitary in the horror of the darkness, naked and defenceless in the anguish of the battle. And if his presence is felt behind the veil, yet is it like the winter sun behind clouds and saves not from the rain and snow and the calamitous storm and the harsh wind and the bitter cold and the grey of a sorrowful atmosphere and the dun weary dullness. Doubtless the help is there even when it seems to be withdrawn, but still is there the appearance of total night with no sun to come and no star of hope to pierce the blackness. Beautiful is the face of the Divine Mother, but she too can be hard and terrible. Nay, then, is immortality a plaything to be given lightly to a child or the divine life a prize without effort or the crown for a weakling? Strive rightly and thou shalt have; trust and thy trust shall in the end be justified; but the dread Law of the Way is there and none can abrogate it.

Man and the Supermind Man is a transitional being, he is not final; for in him and high beyond him ascend the radiant degrees which climb to a divine supermanhood. The step from man towards superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth’s evolution. There lies our destiny and the liberating key to our aspiring, but troubled and limited human existence — inevitable because it is at once the intention of the inner Spirit and the logic of Nature’s process. The appearance of a human possibility in a material and animal world was the first glint of a coming divine Light, — the first far-off intimation of a godhead to be born out of Matter. The appearance of the superman in the human world will be the fulfilment of that distant shining promise. The difference between man and superman will be the difference between mind and a consciousness as far beyond it as thinking mind is beyond the consciousness of plant and animal; the differentiating essence of man is mind, the differentiating essence of superman will be supermind or a divine gnosis. Man is a mind imprisoned, obscured and circumscribed in a precarious and imperfect living but imperfectly conscious body. The superman will be a supramental spirit which will envelop and freely use a conscious body, plastic to spiritual forces. His physical frame will be a firm support and an adequate radiant instrument for the spirit’s divine play and work in Matter. Mind, even free and in its own unmixed and unhampered element, is not the highest possibility of consciousness; for mind is not in possession of Truth, but only a minor vessel or an instrument and here an ignorant seeker plucking eagerly at a mass of falsehoods and half-truths for the unsatisfying pabulum of its hunger. Beyond mind is a supramental or gnostic power of consciousness that is in eternal possession of Truth; all its motion

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and feeling and sense and outcome are instinct and luminous with the inmost reality of things and express nothing else. Supermind or gnosis is in its original nature at once and in the same movement an infinite wisdom and an infinite will. At its source it is the dynamic consciousness of the divine Knower and Creator. When in the process of unfolding of an always greater force of the one Existence, some delegation of this power shall descend into our limited human nature, then and then only can man exceed himself and know divinely and divinely act and create; he will have become at last a conscious portion of the Eternal. The superman will be born, not a magnified mental being, but a supramental power descended here into a new life of the transformed terrestrial body. A gnostic supermanhood is the next distinct and triumphant victory to be won by the spirit descended into earthly nature. The disk of a secret sun of Power and Joy and Knowledge is emerging out of the material consciousness in which our mind works as a chained slave or a baffled and impotent demiurge; supermind will be the formed body of that radiant effulgence. Superman is not man climbed to his own natural zenith, not a superior degree of human greatness, knowledge, power, intelligence, will, character, genius, dynamic force, saintliness, love, purity or perfection. Supermind is something beyond mental man and his limits, a greater consciousness than the highest consciousness proper to human nature. Man is a being from the mental worlds whose mentality works here involved, obscure and degraded in a physical brain, shut off from its own divinest powers and impotent to change life beyond certain narrow and precarious limits. Even in the highest of his kind it is baulked of its luminous possibilities of supreme force and freedom by this dependence. Most often and in most men it is only a servitor, a purveyor of amusements, a caterer of needs and interests to the life and the body. But the superman will be a gnostic king of Nature; supermind in him even in its evolutionary beginnings will appear as a ray of the eternal omniscience and omnipotence. Sovereign and irresistible

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it will lay hands on the mental and physical instruments, and, standing above and yet penetrating and possessing our lower already manifested parts, it will transform mind, life and body into its own divine and luminous nature. Man in himself is hardly better than an ambitious nothing. He is a narrowness that reaches towards ungrasped widenesses, a littleness straining towards grandeurs which are beyond him, a dwarf enamoured of the heights. His mind is a darkened ray in the splendours of the universal Mind. His life is a striving exulting and suffering wave, an eager passion-tossed and sorrow-stricken or a blindly and dully toiling petty moment of the universal Life. His body is a labouring perishable speck in the material universe. An immortal soul is somewhere hidden within him and gives out from time to time some sparks of its presence, and an eternal spirit is above and overshadows with its wings and upholds with its power this soul continuity in his nature. But that greater spirit is obstructed from descent by the hard lid of his constructed personality and this inner radiant soul is wrapped, stifled and oppressed in dense outer coatings. In all but a few it is seldom active, in many hardly perceptible. The soul and spirit in man seem rather to exist above and behind his formed nature than to be a part of its visible reality; subliminal in his inner being or superconscient above in some unreached status, they are in his outer consciousness possibilities rather than things realised and present. The spirit is in course of birth rather than born in Matter. This imperfect being with his hampered, confused, illordered and mostly ineffective consciousness cannot be the end and highest height of the mysterious upward surge of Nature. There is something more that has yet to be brought down from above and is now seen only by broken glimpses through sudden rifts in the giant wall of our limitations. Or else there is something yet to be evolved from below, sleeping under the veil of man’s mental consciousness or half visible by flashes, as life once slept in the stone and metal, mind in the plant and reason in the cave of animal memory underlying its imperfect apparatus of emotion and sense-device and instinct. Something

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there is in us yet unexpressed that has to be delivered by an enveloping illumination from above. A godhead is imprisoned in our depths, one in its being with a greater godhead ready to descend from superhuman summits. In that descent and awakened joining is the secret of our future. Man’s greatness is not in what he is but in what he makes possible. His glory is that he is the closed place and secret workshop of a living labour in which supermanhood is made ready by a divine Craftsman. But he is admitted to a yet greater greatness and it is this that, unlike the lower creation, he is allowed to be partly the conscious artisan of his divine change. His free assent, his consecrated will and participation are needed that into his body may descend the glory that will replace him. His aspiration is earth’s call to the supramental Creator. If earth calls and the Supreme answers, the hour can be even now for that immense and glorious transformation.

The Involved and Evolving Godhead The involution of a superconscient Spirit in inconscient Matter is the secret cause of this visible and apparent world. The keyword of the earth’s riddle is the gradual evolution of a hidden illimitable consciousness and power out of the seemingly inert yet furiously driven force of insensible Nature. Earth-life is one self-chosen habitation of a great Divinity and his aeonic will is to change it from a blind prison into his splendid mansion and high heaven-reaching temple. The nature of the Divinity in the world is an enigma to the mind, but to our enlarging consciousness it will appear as a presence simple and inevitable. Freed we shall enter into the immutable stability of an eternal existence that puts on this revealing multitude of significant mutable forms. Illumined we shall become aware of the indivisible light of an infinite consciousness that breaks out here into multiform grouping and detail of knowledge. Sublimated in might, we shall share the illimitable movement of an omnipotent force that works out its marvels in self-imposed limits. Fixed in griefless bliss we shall possess the calm and ecstasy of an immeasurable Delight that creates for ever the multitudinous waves and rhythms and the ever increasing outward-going and inward-drawing intensities of its own creative and communicative world-possessing and self-possessing bliss. This, since we are inwardly souls of that Spirit, will be the nature of our fourfold experience when the evolving Godhead will work here in its own unveiled movement. If that full manifestation had been from the beginning, there would be no terrestrial problem, no anguish of growth, no baffled seeking out of mind and will and life and body towards knowledge and force and joy and an immortal persistence. But this Godhead, whether within us or outside in things and forces and creatures, started from an involution in inconscience of

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Nature and began by the manifestation of its apparent opposites. Out of a vast cosmic inconscience and inertia and insensibility, an initial disguise that is almost non-existence, the Spirit in Matter has chosen to evolve and slowly shape, as if in a grudging and gradually yielding material, its might and light and infinity and beatitude. The significance of the terrestrial evolution lies in this slow and progressive liberation of some latent indwelling Spirit. The heart of its mystery is the difficult appearance, the tardy becoming of a divine Something or Someone already involved in physical Nature. The Spirit is there with all its potential forces in a first formal basis of its own supporting, yet resistant substance. Its greater subsequent and deliberately emerging movements, life and mind and intuition and soul and supermind and the light of the Godhead are already there, locked up and obscurely compressed into the initial power and first expressive values of Matter. Before there could be any evolution, there must needs be this involution of the Divine All that is to emerge. Otherwise there would have been not an ordered and significant evolution, but a successive creation of things unforeseeable, not contained in their antecedents, not their inevitable consequences or right followers in sequence. This world is not an apparent order fortuitously managed by an inexplicable Chance. Neither is it a marvellous mechanism miraculously contrived by a stumblingly fortunate unconscious Force or mechanical Necessity. It is not even a structure built according to his fancy or will by an external and therefore necessarily a limited Creator. Mentally conceivable, each of these solutions can explain one side or appearance of things; but it is a greater truth that can alone successfully join all the aspects and illumine all the facts of the enigma. If all were indeed a result of cosmic Chance, there would be no necessity of a new advance; nothing beyond mind need appear in the material world, — as indeed there was then no necessity for even mind to arise at all out of the meaningless blind material whirl. Consciousness itself would be only a

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fortuitous apparition, a strange hallucinating reflection or ghost of Matter. Or if all were the work of a mechanical Force, then too mind need not have appeared at all as part of the huge grinding engine; there was no indispensable call for this subtler and yet less competent groping mechanic contrivance. No frail thinking brain should have been there to labour over the quite sufficient cogs and springs and pistons of the first unerring machine. A supermind added on this brilliant and painful complication would be still more a superfluity and a luminous insolence; it could be nothing more than a false pretension of transitory consciousness to govern and possess the greater inconscient Force that is its creator. Or if an experimenting, external and therefore limited Creator were the inventor of the animal’s suffering life and man’s fumbling mind and this huge mainly unused and useless universe, there was no reason why he should not have stopped short with the construction of a mental intelligence in his creatures, content with the difficult ingenuity of his labour. Even if he were all-powerful and all-wise, he might well pause there, — for if he went farther, the creature would be in danger of rising too near to the level of his Maker. But if this is the truth of things that an infinite Spirit, an eternal Divine Presence and Consciousness and Force and Bliss is involved and hidden here and slowly emerges, then is it inevitable that its powers or the ascending degrees of its one power should emerge too one after the other till the whole glory is manifested, a mighty divine Fact embodied and dynamic and visible. All mental ideas of the nature of things, are inconclusive considerations of our insufficient logical reason when it attempts in its limited light and ignorant self-sufficiency to weigh the logical probabilities of a universal order which after all its speculation and discovery must remain obscure to it still and an enigma. The true witness and discoverer is our growing consciousness; for that consciousness is itself the sign and power of the evolving Divine, and its growth out of the apparent inconscience

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of the material universe is the fundamental, the one abiding, progressive index event of the long earth-story. Only when this evolving consciousness can grow into its own full divine power will we directly know ourselves and the world instead of catching at tags and tail ends of an insufficient figure of knowledge. This full power of the consciousness is supermind or gnosis, — supermind because to reach it we have to pass beyond and turn upon mind as the mind itself has passed and turned upon life and inconscient matter and gnosis because it is eternally self-possessed of Truth and in its very stuff and nature it is dynamic substance of knowledge. The true knowledge of things is denied to our reason, because that is not our spirit’s greatest essential power but only an expedient, a transitional instrument meant to deal with the appearance of things and their phenomenal process. True knowledge commences only when our consciousness can pass beyond its present normal limit in man: for then it becomes directly aware of its self and of the Power in the world and begins to have at least an initial knowledge by identity which is the sole true knowledge. Henceforward it knows and sees, no longer by the reason groping among external data, but by an ever increasing and always more luminous self-illumining and all illuminating experience. In the end it will become a conscious part of the Divine revealing itself in the world; its life will be a power for the conscious evolution of that which is still unmanifested in the material universe.

The Evolution of Consciousness All life here is a stage or a circumstance in an unfolding progressive evolution of a Spirit that has involved itself in Matter and is labouring to manifest itself in that reluctant substance. This is the whole secret of earthly existence. But the key of that secret is not to be found in life itself or in the body; its hieroglyph is not in embryo or organism, — for these are only a physical means or base: the one significant mystery of this universe is the appearance and growth of consciousness in the vast mute unintelligence of Matter. The escape of Consciousness out of an apparent initial Inconscience, — but it was there all the time masked and latent, for the inconscience of Matter is itself only a hooded consciousness — its struggle to find itself, its reaching out to its own inherent completeness, perfection, joy, light, strength, mastery, harmony, freedom, this is the prolonged miracle and yet the natural and all-explaining phenomenon of which we are at once the observers and a part, instrument and vehicle. A Consciousness, a Being, a Power, a Joy was here from the beginning darkly imprisoned in this apparent denial of itself, this original night, this obscurity and nescience of material Nature. That which is and was for ever, free, perfect, eternal and infinite, That which all is, That which we call God, Brahman, Spirit, has here shut itself up in its own self-created opposite. The Omniscient has plunged itself into Nescience, the All-Conscious into Inconscience, the All-Wise into perpetual Ignorance. The Omnipotent has formulated itself in a vast cosmic self-driven Inertia that by disintegration creates; the Infinite is self-expressed here in a boundless fragmentation; the All-Blissful has put on a huge insensibility out of which it struggles by pain and hunger and desire and sorrow. Elsewhere the Divine is; here in physical life, in this obscure material world, it would seem almost as if the Divine

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Divine is not but is only becoming, jeoc ouk stin alla gignetai. This gradual becoming of the Divine out of its own phenomenal opposites is the meaning and purpose of the terrestrial evolution. Evolution in its essence is not the development of a more and more organised body or a more and more efficient life — these are only its machinery and outward circumstance. Evolution is the strife of a Consciousness somnambulised in Matter to wake and be free and find and possess itself and all its possibilities to the very utmost and widest, to the very last and highest. Evolution is the emancipation of a self-revealing Soul secret in Form and Force, the slow becoming of a Godhead, the growth of a Spirit. In this evolution mental man is not the goal and end, the completing value, the highest last significance; he is too small and imperfect to be the crown of all this travail of Nature. Man is not final, but a middle term only, a transitional being, an instrumental intermediate creature. This character of evolution and this mediary position of man are not at first apparent; for to the outward eye it would seem as if evolution, the physical evolution at least were finished long ago leaving man behind as its poor best result and no new beings or superior creations were to be expected any longer. But this appears to us only so long as we look at forms and outsides only and not at the inner significances of the whole process. Matter, body, life even are the first terms necessary for the work that had to be done. New living forms may no longer be appearing freely, but this is because it is not, or at least it is not primarily, new living forms that the Force of evolution is now busied with evolving, but new powers of consciousness. When Nature, the Divine Power, had formed a body erect and empowered to think, to devise, to inquire into itself and things and work consciously both on things and self, she had what she wanted for her secret aim; relegating all else to the sphere of secondary movements, she turned toward that long-hidden aim her main highest forces. For all till then was a long strenuously slow preparation; but throughout it the development of consciousness in which the appearance of man was the crucial

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turning point had been kept wrapped within her as her ultimate business and true purpose. This slow preparation of Nature covered immense aeons of time and infinities of space in which they appeared to be her only business; the real business strikes on our view at least when we look with the outward eye of reason as if it came only as a fortuitous accident, in or near the end, for a span of time and in a speck and hardly noticeable corner of one of the smallest provinces of a possibly minor universe among these many boundless finites, these countless universes. If it were so, we could still reply that time and space matter not to the Infinite and Eternal; it is not a waste of labour for That — as it would be for our brief death-driven existences — to work for trillions of years in order to flower only for a moment. But that paradox too is only an appearance — for the history of this single earth is not all the story of evolution — other earths there are even now elsewhere, and even here many earth-cycles came before us, and many are those that will come hereafter. Nature laboured for innumerable millions of years to create a material universe of flaming suns and systems; for a lesser but still interminable series of millions she stooped to make this earth a habitable planet. For all that incalculable time she was or seemed busy only with the evolution of Matter; life and mind were kept secret in an apparent non-existence. But the time came when life could manifest, a vibration in the metal, a growing and seeking, a drawing in and a feeling outward in the plant, an instinctive force and sense, a nexus of joy and pain and hunger and emotion and fear and struggle in the animal, — a first organised consciousness, the beginning of the long-planned miracle. Thenceforward she was busy no more exclusively with matter for its own sake, but most with palpitant plasmic matter useful for the expression of life; the evolution of life was now her one intent purpose. And slowly too mind manifested in life, an intensely feeling, a crude thinking and planning vital mind in the animal, but in man the full organisation and apparatus, the developing if yet imperfect mental being, the Manu, the thinking, devising, aspiring, already self-conscient creature. And from

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that time onward the growth of mind rather than any radical change of life became her shining preoccupation, her wonderful wager. Body appeared to evolve no more; life itself evolved little or only so much in its cycles as would serve to express Mind heightening and widening itself in the living body; an unseen internal evolution was now Nature’s great passion and purpose. And if Mind were all that consciousness could achieve, if Mind were the secret Godhead, if there were nothing higher, larger, [no] more miraculous ranges, man could be left to fulfil mind and complete his own being and there would or need be nothing here beyond him, carrying consciousness to its summits, extending it to its unwalled vastnesses, plunging with it into depths unfathomable; he would by perfecting himself consummate Nature. Evolution would end in a Man-God, crown of the earthly cycles. But Mind is not all; for beyond mind is a greater consciousness; there is a supermind and spirit. As Nature laboured in the animal, the vital being, till she could manifest out of him man, the Manu, the thinker, so she is labouring in man, the mental being till she can manifest out of him a spiritual and supramental godhead, the truth conscious Seer, the knower by identity, the embodied Transcendental and Universal in the individual nature. From the clod and metal to the plant, from the plant to the animal, from the animal to man, so much has she completed of her journey; a huge stretch or a stupendous leap still remains before her. As from matter to life, from life to mind, so now she must pass from mind to supermind, from man to superman; this is the gulf that she has to bridge, the supreme miracle that she has to perform before she can rest from her struggle and discontent and stand in the radiance of that supreme consciousness, glorified, transmuted, satisfied with her labour. The subhuman was once here supreme in her, the human replacing it walks now in the front of Time, but still, aim and goal of the future there waits the supramental, the superman, an unborn glory yet unachieved before her.

The Path The supramental Yoga is at once an ascent towards God and a descent of Godhead into the embodied nature. The ascent can only be achieved by a one-centred allgathering upward aspiration of the soul and mind and life and body; the descent can only come by a call of the whole being towards the infinite and eternal Divine. If this call and this aspiration are there, or if by any means they can be born and grow constantly and seize all the nature, then and then only a supramental uplifting and transformation becomes possible. The call and the aspiration are only first conditions; there must be along with them and brought by their effective intensity an opening of all the being to the Divine and a total surrender. This opening is a throwing wide of all the nature on all its levels and in all its parts to receive into itself without limits the greater divine Consciousness which is there already above and behind and englobing this mortal half-conscious existence. In the receiving there must be no inability to contain, no breaking down of anything in the system, mind or life or nerve or body under the transmuting stress. There must be an endless receptivity, an always increasing capacity to bear an ever stronger and more and more insistent action of the divine Force. Otherwise nothing great and permanent can be done; the Yoga will end in a break-down or an inert stoppage or a stultifying or a disastrous arrest in a process which must be absolute and integral if it is not [to] be a failure. But since no human system has this endless receptivity and unfailing capacity, the supramental Yoga can succeed only if the Divine Force as it descends increases the personal power and equates the strength that receives with the Force that enters from above to work in the nature. This is only possible if there is on our part a progressive surrender of the being into the hands

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of the Divine; there must be a complete and never failing assent, a courageous willingness to let the Divine Power do with us whatever is needed for the work that has to be done. Man cannot by his own effort make himself more than man; the mental being cannot by his own unaided force change himself into a supramental spirit. A descent of the Divine Nature can alone divinise the human receptacle. For the powers of our mind, life and body are bound to their own limitations and, however high they may rise or however widely expand, they cannot rise above their natural ultimate limits or expand beyond them. But, still, mental man can open to what is beyond him and call down a supramental Light, Truth and Power to work in him and do what the mind cannot do. If mind cannot by effort become what is beyond mind, supermind can descend and transform mind into its own substance. If the supramental Power is allowed by man’s discerning assent and vigilant surrender to act according to its own profound and subtle insight and flexible potency, it will bring about slowly or swiftly a divine transformation of our present semiperfect nature. This descent, this working is not without its possibility of calamitous fall and danger. If the human mind or the vital desire seizes hold on the descending force and tries to use it according to its own limited and erring ideas or flawed and egoistic impulses, — and this is inevitable in some degree until this lower mortal has learned something of the way of that greater immortal nature, — stumblings and deviations, hard and seemingly insuperable obstacles and wounds and suffering cannot be escaped and even death or utter downfall are not impossible. Only when the conscious integral surrender to the Divine has been learned by mind and life and body, can the way of the Yoga become easy, straight, swift and safe. And it must be a surrender and an opening to the Divine alone and to no other. For it is possible for an obscure mind or an impure life force in us to surrender to undivine and hostile forces and even to mistake them for the Divine. There can be no more calamitous error. Therefore our surrender must be no

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blind and inert passivity to all influences or any influence, but sincere, conscious, vigilant, pointed to the One and the Highest alone. Self-surrender to the divine and infinite Mother, however difficult, remains our only effective means and our sole abiding refuge. Self-surrender to her means that our nature must be an instrument in her hands, the soul a child in the arms of the Mother.

Part Two From Man to Superman Notes and Fragments on Philosophy, Psychology and Yoga 1912 – 1947

The notes, drafts and fragments collected in this part were not written by Sri Aurobindo in the present sequence nor intended by him to form a single work. They have been arranged by the editors by topic in three sections — Philosophy: God, Nature and Man; Psychology: The Science of Consciousness; Yoga: Change of Consciousness and Transformation of Nature.

Section One Philosophy God, Nature and Man

God The One Reality

The Divine Eternal and Infinite 1 There are three Powers with whom we have to reckon, three and no others; for no others are in the universe or out of the universe: God, the Soul and Nature. And these three are, as it were, different fronts of One Being. 2 All existence, whatever its appearance or its process of being, is and draws its substance, origin, energy, truth from a Spirit which is the beginning, middle and end of all — itself being eternal, infinite, self-existent beyond end or beginning, beyond Space and Time, beyond Form and Quality and Circumstance as well as in Space and Time, in Form and Quality and Circumstance. This is the fundamental Reality which is hidden from our knowledge, the one Truth on which all other truths depend, those that affirm it as well as those that seem to contradict it. To be conscious of this Reality and its right relations with the other truths or appearances of existence, to live in it and govern by its Truth all our being, consciousness, nature, will, action would then be the law of a perfect life. If human life is imperfect, it is because its consciousness moves seeking, groping, experimenting in a fundamental ignorance of the real truth of its own being and is therefore unable to know or to effectuate the true law of its life. It is only if man can overcome this ignorance and inability that he can hope to perfect his life and nature. If there is no means of doing that, then he can never hope to escape from his

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imperfection — and the suffering which is its consequence. He can only either die in his ignorance escaping from an incurable imperfection and suffering by a physical extinction or escape out of it by a spiritual extinction gained through an awakening of the soul to the illusoriness of birth and world and Nature or [ . . . ] & hope to get [out] of it into some other supraterrestrial state of existence. Human life on earth can then never grow into anything fundamentally other, better or more perfect than it is now. The hope that by using our reason and observing or utilising the laws of Nature we can arrive at a perfect life here is futile, for our nature here being itself ignorant and imperfect cannot arrive at anything better than a mitigated imperfection and ignorance. But if there is a means by which we can arrive at a true knowledge of the reality behind things and enter into its Truth and Light and Power then there is no reason why our life here should not become divine and perfect. It is through Yoga that this means can be found and this emergence become possible. 3 A greater existence and consciousness than what we are now or are in our surface being, to which yet we can by certain means raise ourself and become or enter into that, — this is the postulate of all Yoga. What is this greater consciousness and existence? It is something or someone eternal and infinite, absolute or perfect, in which all is, from which all comes, to which all returns and which is the secret self of all things. All is by its existence, all is conscious by its consciousness, continues to be by its Ananda of being, thinks by its Mind, lives by its life, is a form of its Energy in the Cosmos. But still the existence we live, the consciousness we use, the highest joy of being which we experience, our mind, life, body, force are but a fragmentary phenomenon of or in It. That Eternal is the All, the whole, our greater Self, our completeness, our universe, yet is it more than any universe. If no universe were, it still would be. This Eternal and Infinite is not only an Eternal of endless Time and Space. For its eternity can be realised not only in

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the endless progression of the years and aeons but in a single moment of Time, its infinity not only in the boundless extension of space to which we can assign no end or border, but in the most infinitesimal atom of an atom. But beyond the moment and the endless aeons the eternity of the Eternal is timeless and beyond the spatial Infinite and Infinitesimal the infinity of the Infinite is spaceless. 4 All begins from the Divine, from the Eternal, from the Infinite, all abides in it alone and by it alone, all ends or culminates in the divine Eternal and Infinite. This is the first postulate indispensable for our spiritual seeking — for on no other base can we found the highest knowledge and the highest life. All time moves in the Eternal; all space is spread in the Infinite; all creatures and creations live by that in them which is Divine. This is patently true of an inner spiritual but also proves in the end to be true of this outer space and time. It is known to our inmost being that it lives because it is part of the Divine, but it is true also of the external and phenomenal creature compounded of ignorant Mind, blind life and subconscious Matter. A secret Self is the Alpha and Omega of this manifested existence; it is also the constant term, the omnipresent x into which all things resolve separately or together and which is their sum, their constituting material and their essence. All here is secretly the Divine, all is the Eternal, all is the Infinite. But this secret truth of things is contradicted by the world’s external appearances, it is denied by all the facts placed before us by our mind and senses, inconsistent with the sorrow and suffering of the world, incompatible with the imperfection of living beings and the unchangeable inconscience of things. What then pushes the mind to affirm it? what compels us to admit a seeing of things which is in conflict with our outer seeing and experience? For on the surface of our consciousness and all around us there is only the temporal and transient, only [the] confined and finite. What seems largest to us finds its limit, what we dreamed

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to be enduring comes to an end; even this vast universe with its masses of worlds upon worlds which seemed to stretch into infinity is convicted in the end of being only a boundless finite. Man claiming to be a divine soul and an all-discovering intellect is brought up short by Nature’s rude proof of his ignorance and incompetence and exhibits constantly in his thoughts the proneness to self-confident error and in his feelings and acts the petty faultiness, meanness, and darkness or suddenly the abysses of falsehood or foulness or cruelty of his nature. In the management of his world the much that is undivine prevails easily over the little that is divine or they are inextricably mixed together. The ideal fails in practice, religion degenerates quickly into a settled sectarian fanaticism or formality, the triumphant good turns into an organised evil. The Christian doctrine of the fall, the Indian idea of the wandering of the Soul in a cosmic illusion or the sceptic affirmation of an inconscient material Nature producing the freak of consciousness seems often to be the kernel of the whole matter. And yet if we go deep enough into ourselves, we strike against something valid that proves to be a veiled divine element which affirms its immortality, Soul. If we go beyond our embodied mind and senses we break suddenly into something permanent that feels itself to be eternal and infinite, that cannot see itself as anything else and we also cannot conceive of it as anything else, an infinite Self, an eternal Spirit. Moreover in our most secret essence we are convinced of perfection or of perfectibility — perfection in our deepest spiritual being, perfectibility in our nature; we have the instinct and intuition of the Divine. Even to Time and Space our mind cannot fix or conceive a beginning or an end; it cannot conceive a first bound or a last, a primary or ultimate moment without at once looking beyond it. If we see the imperfection of things, the very idea implies a potentiality of a perfection by comparison with which they are imperfect, and this potentiality points to a beyond Mind and beyond Sense which is the integrally and permanently perfect. Every relative supposes an absolute. For a long time we have been asked not to believe in these

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things, to put our trust only in the measuring rods of science and its calculations and crucibles, to accept only what is materially ascertainable and measurable. But these measurements are those of something that is limited — how can we ascertain by it whether there is or is not the Illimitable? The instruments by which we question Nature in order to find out what is ascertainable have been proved to give only the results which are already contained in the question or in the questioner. Science gives us the measures and process of things within the physical limit, but it has failed [to] tell us what things are, their final origin or their reason of existence. In all this questing by one end or the other we cannot get beyond ourselves and it is better then to look into the inner side of ourselves, — why should we limit ourselves only to our responses to an outer evidence? Let us explore ourselves and not only our sense or perception of what is around us. And in ourselves let us look not only at our surfaces but at the inner and the inmost of our being and nature. This self-knowledge pursued far enough shows us a deeper than the surface mind and a deeper than the physical sense, a profounder than the outward life. It shows us also a BeyondMind and Beyond-Sense, a Beyond-Life; the limited passes into [the] illimitable. If there were not this capacity of research, we would have to be content with an unsatisfied agnosticism; but the means is there by which we can know ourselves and this Alpha and X and Omega of things or if not absolutely It at any rate its status and its dynamis, the law of its being and the law of its nature quite as deeply and more deeply than Science can show us the law and process of the physical universe. For the moment let us affirm only this result that this spiritual search and knowledge leads us beyond the phenomenon which apparently contradicts it to that which beyond the phenomenon brings us to the Divine Eternal and Infinite. 5 The rooted and fundamental conception of Vedanta is that there exists somewhere, could we but find it, available to experience

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or self-revelation, if denied to intellectual research, a single truth comprehensive & universal in the light of which the whole of existence would stand revealed and explained both in its nature and its end. This universal existence, for all its multitude of objects and its diversity of faces, is one in substance and origin; and there is an unknown quantity, X or Brahman to which it can be reduced, for from that it started and in & by that it still exists. 6 Brahman is that which was before the beginning and will be after the end of things. In the beginning, says the Upanishad, Self was, Being was or Non-Being was; that saw world-creation in itself or from that Non-Being or eternal Being temporal existence was born. What prevents the timeless Eternal from conceiving Time in himself and ceasing from the conception? But the very idea supposes time[.] 7 One says “In the beginning was the Self, the Spirit, God, the Eternal.” But there was never a beginning, for the Eternal and its works are always and for ever. “In the beginning” is a phrase that has no meaning unless we speak of sections of existence, sections of it in Time, sections of it in Space, sections of it in substance; for these have a beginning and an end. Existence in itself has no end even as it never had a beginning. It is not of pure existence only that this [can be said], existence in its essence without any expressive motion or feature, but of existence with all it contains and reveals in its depths as on its surface. For pure existence is only a state of being and not being in its whole truth and integral significance. And even this state, although it appears to the quiescent mind featureless, motionless, concentrated in bare uniqueness, is still not empty or without feature, — it contains enveloped in itself all truth of feature, all power of motion, all that ever was, is or shall be manifested in this or any universe.

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But the supreme divine Being is beyond any distinction of pure existence and phenomenal existence, feature or no feature, form or no form, being or non-being, manifestation and the unmanifest — for these are distinctions, separate states, opposite ideas to the mind, separate experiences to the Soul on the mental level, manomaya purusha. But the Supreme is beyond Mind and has no need for these divisions and contradictions of its nature.

Ekamevadvitiyam: One Without a Second 8 All existence is existence of the one Eternal and Infinite. Ekamevadvitiyam, — there is one without a second and there can be nothing else at any time or anywhere. Even existence in Time is that, even the finite is that; for the finite is only a circumstance of the Infinite and Time is only a phase of Eternity. What we call undivine is that, for it is only a disguise of the omnipresent Divinity. 9 All existence is the existence of the one Divine Eternal and Infinite, there is and can be nothing else; not only the infinite is that but the finite, not only the timeless but Time and all that is in Time, not only the Impersonal but the Person, quality and number and that which [is] beyond quality and number; the Formless and form, the individual no less than the cosmic and supracosmic, matter and life and mind as well as the spirit, the relative and the absolute. All is that: ekam evadvitiyam. All that is is reality of the Real; there is no need to invent an eternal illusive principle of Maya to account for world existence. The idea that the Supreme Reality is incapable of selfmanifestation and that its only power is a power of self-delusion is a last desperate refuge of the human Mind and Reason trying to escape from a difficulty which is of its own creation, its own

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self-imposed illusion or Maya and does not exist for the true and perfect supramental consciousness of the luminous Spirit. There is no incompatibility between the Eternal and existence in Time. Time and the Timeless are the same Eternity in a self-contained status and a self-developing movement. The Timeless is eternal and knows itself in an everlasting present; Time too is eternal and is known in an indivisible movement of past, present and future. It is our consciousness poising itself in the mobile moment that gives us the impression of a divided Time, of consciousness moving from moment to moment, losing its past, gaining its future, connecting the three only by an act of memory which binds the is to the was and the to be. In the eternal Consciousness the past still exists and extends through the present into the future. To suppose that the Timeless is debarred by its timelessness from throwing itself out in a movement of Time and that Time therefore and all in time is an illusion or to suppose that Time alone exists and we are its temporal creations is to impose the ignorance and limitation of our little surface consciousness on the Divine Eternal. In reality we ourselves below our surface are the timeless developing in movement our existence in eternal Time. 10 One sole Reality constitutes all the infinite, the One, the Divine, the Eternal and Infinite — there is That alone and no other existence. Ekamevadvitiyam. Infinite, but the finite existence is also that one being, that infinite Being; it has no separate reality: Eternal, but the temporal is nothing more than a movement of that Eternity, Time has no independent self-sustenance: Divine, but all that seems undivine is a disguise of the Divinity, it is no creation out of some unaccountable Opposite. The Divine Reality is unconfined by form or quality; but form and quality also are his, infinite quality, innumerable figure, vessel of that earth, coin of that gold, colour inherent in that transcendent whiteness. All is the divine Eternal and Infinite. Impersonal and Personal are not contrary appearances or

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even dual aspects nor is the Person our convenient imagination of an ever impersonal Entity, but rather both are for ever the One. All is the Divine, even that which is undivine. There is no not self; all this is the eternal Self; all this universe and every other universe is the Time existence of the timeless Spirit. 11 There is one sole reality and there can be no other, the One, the Divine, the Eternal and Infinite. Ekam evadvitiyam brahma. The One is at the same time the All, for it exists in all, all exists by it, it is all. Whatever be [the] plane of being, whatever be the cosmos, whatever be the individual, the truth of its existence is the same; that it or he is the One; for there is and can be no other. The Transcendent is the Divine, the universal is the Divine, the individual is the Divine; all are the one Reality. Not only what we see as the Infinite, but the finite also is that One Existence; it has no separate and independent reality. Not only the Eternal [is] that, but the temporal also, for the temporal is only a circumstance of the Eternal apart from which Time has no self-existence. Not only what we see as Divine is that, but the undivine is no more than a disguise of the one Divinity, it is no creation out of an unaccountable Opposite. 12 All existence is one; it is existence of the One Being, divine, infinite, eternal, absolute. What we see as the Many, is the multiplicity of the One. All these apparently separate persons and objects are also the one existence; they are beings of the One Being. For That is their one self; in their spiritual essence they are That, even in the play and form of their being they are That; they are personalities of the one Person, they are manifestations of the one Existence, they are so many realities of the only Real. In no way are they separate and independent from It, but in every way live by It, are of It, can be nothing else. All forces are powers of the one Force,

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the sole Power of the One Being; there is no other force than his. All objects are formations of the one Existence; there is nothing that exists in itself and apart from That, nothing that is of an individual essence other than the one Essence of the universe. What we see as finite is not other than the Infinite. All is in the Infinite, all exists by the Infinite, all is of the stuff of the Infinite. No object or person could come into being or remain in being by its own finite and individual power; none exists by its own limited substance and essence other than the substance and essence of all others; all are at bottom indissolubly one. There is effective determination, definition, demarcation, diverse formation in the universe but no essential separation or division. A tree is separate as an object or phenomenon, but it is not a separate existence divided from all around it; there is a one-existence and a one-energy that has taken form of tree, constitutes every atom, molecule, fibre of it, pervades and is its whole structure of being and this existence, this energy not only abides in all of it and flows through all of it but extends everywhere around and is, constitutes, energises all other objects in the cosmos. Each finite is in fact the Infinite; all apparently separate or divided existence is only a front of the Indivisible. All that we see as temporal is not other than the Eternal. The form of that which is in Time is or appears to be evanescent, but the self, the substance, the being that takes shape in that form is eternal and is one self, one substance, one being with all that is, all that was, all that shall be. But even the form is in itself eternal and not temporal, but it exists for ever in possibility, in power, in consciousness in the Eternal. Form is manifested and withdrawn from manifestation; it may be manifested by immediate apparition or it may be manifested by construction and withdrawn from manifestation by destruction or disaggregation, but in either case it exists beforehand in the consciousness and being of the Eternal. If it did not so preexist in power and possibility, it could not be created in actuality. For the actual proceeds from the possible and the possible is always a possibility of the truth of the Eternal.

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13 All existence of whatever nature is existence of the One Divine, the Eternal and Infinite. For not only the Infinite is that existence, but the finite also; not only the existence of the One, but the existence of the Many, not only the existence of the Unmanifest, but the existence of the manifested universe and of all actual or possible universes, not only the Impersonal, but the Personal, not only the Pure Existence, Consciousness, Bliss of Sachchidananda but all forms of existence or consciousness blissful or unblissful, not only the existence of the Absolute but the existence of all that is relative. There is nothing that is not the existence of the One Divine, the Eternal and Infinite. Ekam evadvitiyam. 14 There is one Being, infinite, eternal and divine, the sole Reality. All is the [ ], there is nothing else in the universe or outside the universe. Ekam evadvitiyam. This eternity is not of Time; the eternity of Time is an extension in movement of the Timeless. This infinity is not of Space; the infinity of Space is an extension in self of this spaceless Infinite. 15 All existence is the existence of the Eternal, the Infinite, the Divine, the Ineffable — existence in Time no less than existence in Eternity, existence in the finite no less than existence in the Infinite, of the Many no less than of the One, of the Personal no less than of the Impersonal, of the individual and the cosmos no less than of the supercosmic, of the relative no less than of the Absolute. Ekam evadvitiyam Brahma. The Eternal is in his very truth of being Existence, Consciousness and Bliss of existence. These three are a trinity and inseparable — they are not three but one; it is only in a certain play of the Manifestation that they can be distinguished and

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separated from each other or turned phenomenally into their opposites. What appears to us as Nonexistence (Asat, Nihil or Sunya) is only an existence other than the existence of which we are aware. What appears to us as Inconscience is only a veiled or involved consciousness or else a consciousness to which our mind or sense has no access. What affects us as pain or suffering is only Ananda turned against itself, a distorted and tortured Bliss of existence. These contradictions are real in the Ignorance and because of the Ignorance, but to the true consciousness they are only phenomenal and superficial, not true truths of being.

Non-Being, Being and the Absolute 16 Nothing can arise from Nothing. Asat, nothingness, is a creation of our mind; where it cannot see or conceive, where its object is something beyond its grasp, too much beyond to give even the sense of a vague intangible, then it cries out “Here there is nothing.” Out of its own incapacity it has created the conception of a Zero. But what in truth is this zero? It is an incalculable Infinite. Our sense by its incapacity has invented darkness. In truth there is nothing but Light, only it is a power of light either above or below our poor human vision’s limited range. For do not imagine that light is created by the Suns. The Suns are only physical concentrations of Light, but the splendour they concentrate for us is self-born and everywhere. God is everywhere and wherever God is, there is Light. Jnanam chaitanyam jyotir Brahma. * Of all that we know we know only the outside; even when we imagine that we have intimately seized the innermost thing, we have touched only an inner external. It is still a sheath of the covering, only it is a second or third or even a seventh sheath, not the most outward and visible.

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It is the same when we think we know God or have possession of our highest inmost Self or have entered intimately into the inmost and supreme Spirit. What we know and possess is power or some powers of God, an aspect or appearance or formulation of the Self; what we have entered into is only one wideness or one depth of the Spirit. This is because we know and possess by the mind or even what is below the mind, and when we find ourselves most spiritual, it is the mind spiritualised that conceives of itself as spirit. Imagining that we have left mind behind us, we take it with us into its own spiritual realms and cover with it the Supramental Mystery. The result is something to us wonderful and intense; but compared with That Intensity and Wonder, it is something thin and inadequate. 17 All existence, — as the mind and sense know existence, — is manifestation of an Eternal and Infinite which is to the mind and sense unknowable but not unknowable to its own self-awareness. Whatever the manifestation spiritual or material or other may be, it has behind it something that is beyond itself, and even if we reached the highest possible heights of manifested existence there would be still beyond that even an Unmanifested from which it came. The Unmanifested Supreme is beyond all definition and description by mind or speech; no definition the mind can make, affirmative or negative, can be at all expressive of it or adequate. To the Mind this Unmanifest can present itself as a Self, a supreme Nihil (Tao or Sunya), a featureless Absolute, an Indeterminate, a blissful Nirvana of manifested existence, a Non-Being out of which Being came or a Being of Silence out of which a world-illusion came. But all these are mental formulas expressing the mind’s approach to it, not That itself; impressions which fall from That upon the receiving consciousness, not the true essence or nature (swarupa) of the Eternal and Infinite. Even the words Eternal and Infinite are only symbolic expressions

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through which the mind feels without grasping some vague impression of this Supreme. If we say of it neti neti, this can mean nothing except that nothing in the world or beyond it of which the mind can take cognisance is the Supreme in Its entirety or Its essence. If we say of it iti iti, this can mean at the most that what we see of it in the world or beyond is some indication of something that is there beyond and by travelling through all these indications to their absolutes we may get a step or two nearer to the Absolute of all absolutes, the Supreme. Both formulas have a truth in them, but neither touches the secret truth of the Supreme. 18 The Origin and eternal Supporter of all existence, as of all that seems to ignorant Mind to be non-existence, is a supreme infinite and absolute. This Infinite is an essential, not, except in manifestation, a mobile temporal or extended spatial infinite; this Absolute is an expressibly positive, not a merely negating absolute — not excluding, but containing all relatives; for in it they find their own eternal and stable truth behind their present temporary and fluctuating appearance. The Supreme is knowable to itself but unknowable to mind, inexpressible by words, because mind can grasp and words coined by the mind can express only limited, relative and divided things. Mind gets only misleading inadequate indefinite impressions or too definite reflective ideas of things too much beyond itself. Even here in its own field it grasps not things in themselves, but processes and phenomena, significant aspects, constructions and figures. But the Supreme is to its own absolute consciousness for ever self-known and self-aware, as also to supramental gnosis it is intimately known and knowable. This Infinite and Eternal is the supreme Self of all, the supreme Source, Spirit and Person of all, the supreme Lord of all; there is nothing beyond it, nothing outside it. A million universes for ever persist or for ever recur because they are substantial expressions and manifestations of the supreme Infinite and Eternal.

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19 All is existence. Non-existence is a fiction of the mind; for we describe as non-existent all that has never been within the range of our limited consciousness or is not in that range at the moment or was there once but has gone beyond it. 20 Being is not Parabrahman nor is Non-Being Parabrahman; these are only affirmative & negative terms in which Consciousness envisages its self-existence. Parabrahman is beyond Knowledge because Knowledge cannot comprehend that which comprehends it & is anterior to itself. The beginning of Wisdom is to renounce the attempt to know the Unknowable. Nevertheless vast shadows of the Unknowable are reflected in Knowledge & to these infinities we give names, the Absolute, the Relative, Being, Non-Being, Consciousness, Force, Bliss, God, Self, the Personal, the Impersonal, Krishna, Shiva, Brahman. Each thing in the universe is All in the Universe and also That which is beyond the universe, — what Knowledge sees of it is only the face that the All presents in some play of Its infinite consciousness. We are our own Knowledge & all that is unknown to our Knowledge. What matters in the universe is the play of the All in Itself & its ultimate self-fulfilment in Knowledge, Bliss & Being. There is an individual self-fulfilment, a collective, a cosmic & an extra-cosmic. We may move towards any of these ultimate affirmations, but he who accepts them all & harmonises them, is the highest human expression of Parabrahman. He is the Avatar or the divine Unit. 21 All being is the Eternal, the Infinite, the Divine; there is nothing beyond the Eternal and Infinite, neither is there anything else

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anywhere whether in existence or in non-existence. All being ranges between the Manifestation and the NonManifestation. These are the two poles of the Infinite. The Non-Manifestation is not a Non-Existence. NonExistence is a term created by the mind and has no absolute significance; there is no such thing as an absolute Nihil or Zero. It is agreed even by the philosophies of the Nihil, Tao or Zero (Sunya) that the Non-Existence of which they speak is a Nought in which all is and from which all comes. Tao, Nihil or Zero is not different from the Absolute or the Supreme Brahman of Vedanta; it is only another way of describing or naming it. The Supreme is an Existence beyond what we know of our existence and therefore only it can seem to our mind as a Zero, a Nihil, a Non-Existence. There is nothing there of what we know as existence, for though all is in Tao, yet all is there in a way of which our mind can have no conception or experience, therefore to the mind it has no reality and brings no concept of existence. The manifestation in the Ignorance, that in which we live, has also been described as Asat, a non-existence, because it is not real, eternal, infinite, divine; it must therefore be an illusion, since only That exists and nothing else. But even Illusionism agrees that the manifested world is not without reality, — it is practically real, but not eternal. Moreover manifestation even if illusory in this sense, has no end or beginning in itself, but only to the soul that withdraws from it. It goes on existing eternally to other souls, it goes on existing to the Eternal. It is in the eternal consciousness that it exists, though apart from that consciousness it has no existence. Moreover the stuff of which it is made is not nothingness or void, but the Eternal itself which manifests it from itself and out of its own substance cast into form and force. It is therefore not a real Nihil, but a limited and constantly renewed, recurrent or mutable existence. It is therefore permissible to say that all being ranges between Manifestation and Non-Manifestation, for both are degrees of existence, the one rising towards the Absolute, the other in appearance, but in appearance only, determined and relative.

Nature The World-Manifestation The Divine and the Manifestation 22 All existence is Brahman, Atman & Iswara, three names for one unnameable reality which alone exists. We shall give to this sole real existence the general name of God, because we find it ultimately to be not an abstract state of Existence not conscious of itself, but a supreme & self-aware One who exists — absolutely in Himself, infinitely in the world & with an appearance of the finite in His various manifestations in the world. God in Himself apart from all world manifestation or realisable relation to world manifestation is called the Paratpara Brahman, & is not knowable either to the knowledge that analyses or the knowledge that synthetically conceives. We can neither say of Him that He is personal or impersonal, existence or nonexistence, pure or impure, Atman or unAtman. We can only say to every attempt to define Him positively or negatively, neti neti, Not this, not this. We can pass into the Paratpara Brahman, but we cannot know the Paratpara Brahman. God in the world is Brahman-Iswara-Atman, Prakriti or Shakti and Jiva. These are the three terms of His worldmanifestation. 23 The One and the Many are both of them eternal aspects of the Absolute Parabrahman which is Itself neither one nor many in an exclusive sense. It is beyond unity and multiplicity in its essential truth as it is beyond all other oppositions, but neither unity nor

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multiplicity, neither the One nor the Many are illusions, they are both of them truths of the Absolute, otherwise they could have no existence nor could they come into existence. The world is a manifestation, and in it the absolute Parabrahman manifests as the Ishwara, the one Eternal, but also It manifests the multiplicity of the One in the Jiva. This creates in the manifestation the double aspect of Being and Becoming. But becoming does not mean that Being becomes what it never was before or that it ceases to be its eternal self; it manifests something that is already in its existence, a truth, a power, an aspect of itself; only the forms are temporal and can be deformed by the Ignorance. The Power of itself which thus manifests what is in its being is its Shakti, Maya or Prakriti, three names for the same thing. It is called Prakriti when it is seen in its executive aspect as working out the manifestation for the Purusha or Ishwara. Whether we regard the soul that manifests in a body as a portion of the Divine, eternal therefore like the Divine, as is held by the Gita, or the Divine himself in his aspect of multiplicity, or a separate being dependent on the Divine, as is held by the dualists, or an illusory self-perception of the soul subject to Maya, the reality being the Divine himself, indivisible and ever unmanifested — one thing is certain that what appears as the Jiva is something unborn and eternal. 24 The self which we have to perfect, is neither pure atman which is ever perfect nor the ego which is the cause of imperfection, but the divine self manifested in the shifting stream of Nature. Existence is composed of Prakriti & Purusha, the consciousness that sees and the consciousness that executes & formalises what we see. The one we call Soul, the other Nature. These are the first double term from which our Yoga has to start. When we come to look in at ourselves instead of out at the world and begin to analyse our subjective experience, we find that there are two parts of our being which can be,

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to all appearance, entirely separated from each other, one a consciousness which is still & passive and supports, and the other a consciousness which is busy, active & creative, and is supported. The passive & fundamental consciousness is the Soul, the Purusha, Witness or Sakshi; the active & superstructural consciousness is Nature, Prakriti, processive or creative energy of the Sakshi. But the two seem at first to stand apart & distinct, as if they had no share in each other. The Purusha, still & silent witness of whatever Prakriti chooses to create, not interfering with her works, but reflecting only whatever forms, names & movements she casts on the pure mirror of his eternal existence and the Prakriti restlessly creating, acting, forming & effecting things for the delight of the Purusha, compose the double system of the Sankhyas. But as we continue analysing their relations and accumulate more and more experience of our subjective life, we find that this seeing of the Purusha is in effect a command. Whatever Prakriti perceives it to be the pleasure of the Purusha to see, she tends to preserve in his subjective experience or to establish; whatever she perceives it to be his pleasure to cease to see, she tends to renounce & abolish. Whatever he consents to in her, she forces on him & is glad of her mastery & his submission, but whenever he insists, she is bound eventually to obey. Easily found to be true in our subjective experience, this ultimate principle of things is eventually discovered by the Yogin to determine even objective phenomena. The Purusha & Prakriti are therefore not only the Witness & the Activity witnessed, but the Lord & his executive energy. The Purusha is Ishwara, the Prakriti is His shakti. Their play with each other is both the motive & the executive force of all existence in the universe. 25 The Divine is the eternal Self and Spirit; but Nature too is everlasting power of the Self, eternal conscious-Force of the Spirit.

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Mind, life and Matter are powers of that Power, energies of that Force, substance of that Spirit, Spirit and Matter are not separate and contrary creations, but Matter itself is a self-creation of the Spirit. Being and Becoming are the single One. The One does not become the Many, but the One is for ever the Many even as the Many are for ever the One. This by a self-existent self-knowledge thou shalt know, through a supramental knowledge by identity — the problem, the opposition, the shifts of philosophy, the rifts of Science, the fragmentary upliftings of Religion are the devices of a still ignorant consciousness, a [ . . . ] seeking knowledge. 26 All existence is one in the Reality; manifold in its manifestation of the Reality. The Reality is the Absolute, the Spirit, the Self, the Being, the One-Existence, which is all and everywhere, but which is also more than all and nowhere. This One can be all because it is no one in particular, it can be all-pervading and eternal in its essence because it is not bound by Space or by Time. It is One but it is also multitudinous, its multitudes are the selfexpression, not the denial, the abundance, not the division or fragmentation of its oneness. Each being of its multitudes seems to be a portion of the One, a finite of the Infinite, a time-face and time-form of the Eternal; but in and behind this appearance is the Reality, and there each is itself the One displaying something of itself, each is the Infinite in a finite phenomenon of itself, each is the Eternal playing in Time. But Time too is eternal, Time is eternity in extension and movement, therefore each is in its reality an eternal being of the Eternal, an infinite of the Infinite, a spirit of the One spirit, a self of the One Self. For the Reality is beyond our oppositions of one and many; its oneness and its multitude are for ever inherent in each other; yet it is bound neither by its unity nor its multiplicity, though both are true, because it is that of which both are intimate aspects, — it is the Absolute.

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27 God is not a Being who creates & governs the universe, but the universe itself & all besides that is Timeless & Spaceless. God is also a Being who creates the universe in Himself & governs it; for the universe is only one term of His existence. If one could conceive a centre that contains its own circle, we might have a just definition of God in the universe. What is the Impersonality of God? It is the fact of the Is Not, the Is & the Becoming. And what is the personality of God? It is the fact that all this, the Is like the Becoming, the Is not like the Is, is aware of itself in Time & Space & beyond them. The Impersonality of Love is a self-existent Delight which embraces, possesses & makes one in being all that manifests in Brahman. The Personality of Love is One who is aware of self-Delight & extends His Love in all creatures. Personality & Impersonality are the same reality differently conceived by Knowledge. Ego is the consciousness of the One Infinite Personality reflected in a limiting form of consciousness & distorted by the limitation. The form itself is a face of the All which has forgotten in the succession of Time moments, in the coherence of Space-units all that is behind itself & involved in itself. Ego is a bridge by which it awakes to self-Ignorance & returns towards self-Knowledge. If we stand on the bridge facing the world of Forms we tend towards the Relative; if we face away from them we tend towards the Absolute. It is only when we have crossed the bridge that we can easily & perfectly embrace the Relative in the Absolute. Spirit & Matter, Pure Being & Being formally extended in Space are the two poles of the universe. In Spirit there is no ego; in substance of Matter there is no ego. In each pole ego loses itself, but in Spirit through synthesis, in Matter through dissolution. Substance of matter, life & mind are the material which Ego uses to develop its conscious existence; there are higher infinite affirmations in which it fulfils its conscious existence.

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There is a unity of essence & a unity of sum. The latter is only a synthetic formula & affirmation of multiplicity. The unity of essence is the true unity. Unity & multiplicity are necessary to each other & one reality. Multiplicity is unity extended in its possibility; unity is multiplicity self-gathered into its essence[.] 28 The infinite Being in rest aware of its own eternal oneness. There is the everlasting silence of the Absolute. The infinite Conscious Power in movement aware of its own eternal many-ness — the everlasting movement and creation of the Supreme. As in the immobile ether arises, first sign of the creative impulse of Nature, vibration, Shabda, and this vibration is a line of etheric movement, is ether contacting ether in its own field of mobile self-force and that primal stir is sufficient to initiate all forms and forces, even such is the original movement of the Infinite. But this vibration is not the stir of any material force or substance and this contact is not material contact. This is a vibration of consciousness in spiritual essence; this is the contact of consciousness with itself in spiritual substance. This original movement, not original or first in Time, for it was from ever and continues for ever, but original in that action of consciousness which is an eternal repetition of all things in an eternal present. Or, if you will, an eternal past-present-future, the three simultaneous times of that ever packed Time of the Infinite that translates [to] our blind finite conception as the void timelessness of the Absolute. 29 All existence and all force proceeds from the One Supreme and all works of whatever being or whatever force are movements of the Universal and take place in the Eternal and Infinite.

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The Supreme is not manifest to our minds encased in matter; numberless superphysical planes separate our terrestrial consciousness from all direct touch of our Source, and there can be no question of an unveiled immediate intimate presence and guidance of that Ineffable. And yet the Divine Consciousness and Force, the everlasting Chitshakti, the original Power, the transcendent and eternal Mother, because she holds the Supreme concealed in her, can put us into some kind of touch with that inexpressible Glory and communicate to us a highest Will and its consequence. This cannot be done through the mind; for the thinking mind can only form some inadequate and quite abstract conception of an Absolute or a supreme Person or an impersonal Principle or Presence. And even the higher mind that experiences returns only a pale reflection of Sachchidananda which it takes for that Ineffable or a vague sense of the Eternal or the Infinite. It cannot lay hold upon That and it cannot enter, for if it tries, either that vanishes from it or itself it disappears in a featureless trance, extinction, annihilation, void or dissolution, nirvikalpa samadhi, nirvana, vinasha, shunya, laya. But what the mind cannot do, the soul and a great secret Overmind [can.] To the earth-mind God does not exist or is only a mental idea, an emotional [ ] or the Life-mind’s projection and self-image[.] 30 Chitshakti not mind has created the world. Chitshakti is the thing which the Scientists call in its various aspects Force & Energy, but it is no material Force or Energy, it is the divine power of self-conscious Being forming itself not materially, not in substance of matter but in the substance of that self-consciousness into these images of form and force which make up the world. What we call world, is a harmony of things seen not by the individual mind or even by universal mind, but rather seen through universal mind, as through a reflecting medium, by the Eye of divine Being. The eye that sees is immaterial, the things seen are

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immaterial; for matter itself is only a form, image & appearance of eternal Spirit. 31 How, it is asked, do we make a permanent and changeless world out of a world of changing and transient objects? But this is to create a problem where there is none. We do nothing of the kind; what we do is to perceive by the senses a world of stability in constant motion, of sameness in spite of change. It is the world that is like that; we do not make it so; our senses receive, they do not create; if there is an error in their perceptions or images it is a passive imperfection of sensing that causes the wrong or altered image, it is not a willed and dynamic change like the liberties the artist takes with Nature. Men are always changing, but man has a permanent character which does not alter. Tigers differ from each other and from themselves in the process of time, but the tiger is always the same animal and always as such recognisable. It is the details that vary and change, the type, the fundamental pattern is constant. So far our senses and our mind standing upon their data do not betray or deceive us. If they see a world that is stable and the same in spite of constant mobility and mutation, it is because the world is like that and it is therefore that we have to see it so and cannot see it otherwise. If there is a problem it is not what we make of it, not a problem of our psychology but why it is so, what is behind the mobility of the world and its stability, what is the cause or the significance or reality of it. There is no doubt the problem of what are mind and sense and their nature, their reality, their relation to the world and its cause or significance; but that too is a problem of metaphysics. Are there then two worlds, the one changing and existing in time, the other changeless and eternal? Or are there rather two ways of knowing one and the same world? These questions, as they are put, are meaningless; for it is obvious that it is one world we are seeing and not two and that objects here belong to the same universe and not to two different universes at the

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same time. It cannot be the truth that man belongs to one world and men in their mutability to another or that in seeing the changes and variations of the species tiger we are seeing the world in one way and when we see the persistence of type of the species we are knowing it in a different way. These artificial problems are the result of looking at words and concepts instead of things; we concentrate on the words and concepts “sameness” and “change”, see that they represent as abstractions ideas that stand opposed to each other, imagine that they are as opposed in fact as in our minds, are incompatible and therefore cannot coexist in the same world or cannot be true at the same time or in the same world-perception. As a matter of fact there is no such incompatibility; something that is permanently the same may be in constant change of its details of existence without losing its constant fundamental sameness. There is no reason why something should not be transient (not therefore unreal) in many of its phenomena, yet permanent in itself, in its being, whether that permanence be only a duration in time or eternal. No doubt, two worlds may meet, world of mind or spirit enter into world of Matter, but then their elements combine into one world, a world let us say of mind-informed or spirit-governed Matter; it is not two separate worlds that we are seeing at the same time and confusing together by the erroneous action of our mind and senses. Our souls, our minds may belong by origination to the mind world or spirit world, but here they are in the same world as the changing life and body and in so seeing it, we make no error. 32 A philosophy of change?1 But what is change? In ordinary parlance change means passage from one condition to another and that would seem to imply passage from one status to another status. The shoot changes into a tree, passes from the status of 1 These notes were written apropos of Bergson’s “philosophy of change”; “you” below would refer to a proponent of this philosophy.

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shoot to the status of tree and there it stops; man passes from the status of young man to the status of old man and the only farther change possible to him is death or dissolution of his status. So it would seem that change is not something isolated which is the sole original and eternal reality, but it is something dependent on status, and if status were non-existent, change also could not exist. For we have to ask, when you speak of change as alone real, change of what, from what, to what? Without this “what” change could not be. Change is evidently the change of some form or state of existence from one condition to another condition. Otherwise, what is it? Is it itself fundamental and absolute, not explicable or definable by any other term than itself, perceivable and intelligible as the sole reality by a naked intuition which feels and cries out “Change = reality” and then falls dumb and can say no more? An object changes, a person changes, a condition of things changes. But can it be said that the object is no real object but only a continuity of change, or that a person is not a person but a continuity of change, a condition of things is not a condition and there are no things but there is only a continuity of change? This seems to be an illustration of the besetting sin of metaphysics — to exalt a word into a reality or an idea into a reality — without fathoming what is the reality which it tries to indicate. For to label with a word or name is not to fathom and to define, to erect a concept is not to fathom. Fathom for us then what is change before you ask us to accept it as the only reality. You may say I have fathomed it, I have seen it to be the one constant real, but do not ask me to define what it is; “listen rather in silence to the silence of Nature and you too will fathom”. But what if, so listening, I fathom other realities than change — let us say, immutable being as well as mutable force, status as well as change? To prevent that you plunge into speech and not silence, into dialectics of the intellect instead of the undebatable certitudes of intuition, and so abandon your own methodology. If intuition alone is to be used, then you must give a place to my intuition as well as yours and all, however

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contradictory in appearance must stand until a greater intuition comes in to put all in their place, reconcile, include in a consistent whole. In the world of our experience contradictories [are] often complements and necessary to each other’s existence. Change is possible only if there is a status from which to change; but status again exists only as a step that pauses, a step in the continuous passage of change or a step on which change pauses before it passes on to another step in its creative passage. And behind this relation is a duality of eternal status and eternal motion and behind this duality is something that is neither status nor change but contains both as its aspects — and That is likely to be the true Reality.

Existence, Consciousness-Force, Bliss 33 The nature of the Eternal is infinite Being, the nature of Being is Self-Awareness and all-Awareness or Consciousness, the nature of conscious Being is conscious Force aware of its self and its action, the nature of conscious self-awareness is infinite Bliss[.] 34 Identity is the first truth of existence; division is the second truth; all division is a division in oneness. There is one Existence which looks at itself from many self-divided unities observing other similar and dissimilar self-divided unities by the device of division. Being is one; division is a device or a secondary condition of consciousness; but the primary truth of consciousness also is a truth of oneness and identity. One consciousness organised in many self-divided unities of consciousness is the subjective nature of existence.

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The objective side of consciousness is force, because consciousness is a power of being. The eternal primary action of this force is to make for its own consciousness forms or figures of its being. All force is inherently conscious force. Inhabiting and supporting every individual or universal form of being there is and must be some conscious power of being. But conscious force has the faculty of absorbing itself in its works and forms; there is in consciousness the power of self-oblivion. This self-oblivion is the primary phenomenon of material existence. But as [in] the sleeping or unconscious or self-oblivious man there is a subliminal self which neither sleeps nor forgets itself nor is unconscious, so in what appears to [be] inconscient form worked by an inconscient force or power of being there is, discoverable by extending knowledge, such a conscious power and that must be part of the conscious force of being of the one existence. The nature of being aware of itself, in possession of all its consciousness and force is the inherent delight of its own existence. For experience shows that all complete possession of self is delight, only imperfection of possession creates imperfection or apparent absence of delight. But the one existence takes an equal delight in all the universal forms and figures of its own being, and this delight is the cause and support of universal and individual existence. For this reason all creation also and all action of force has secretly or overtly delight or a seeking for delight or [?some] attraction as its first motive cause, although the apparent object or aim of the action may seem to be of a different character. These truths do not appear entirely to us because we start from division but they become self-evident when we get to a larger consciousness open to the conscious unity underlying things or one with the one conscious existence. The One Existence whether we call it or him God, Brahman, Purusha or by some other name is in its or his nature infinite existence aware of itself and its own eternal bliss of existence. Or speaking less in terms of division and analysis it is one existence, consciousness, bliss in an inalienable unity.

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35 The object and condition of Life is Ananda; the means of Ananda is Tapas; the nature of Tapas is Chit; the continent and basis of Chit is Sat. It is therefore by a process of Sat developing its own Ananda through Tapas which is Chit that the Absolute appears as the extended, the eternal as the evolutionary, Brahman as the world. He who would live perfectly must know Life, he who would know Life, must know Sacchidananda. Pleasure is not Ananda; it is a half-successful attempt to grasp at Ananda by means which ensure a relapse into pain. Therefore it is that pleasure can never be an enduring possession. It is in its nature transient and fugitive. Pain itself is obviously not Ananda; neither is it in itself anything positive, real and necessary. It has only a negative reality. It is a recoil caused by the inability to command pleasure from certain contacts which becomes habitual in our consciousness and, long ingrained in it, deludes us with the appearance of a law. We can rise above transitory pleasure; we can get rid of the possibility of pain. Pleasure, therefore, cannot be the end & aim of life; for the true object and condition of Life is Ananda and Ananda is something in its nature one, unconditioned and infinite. If we make pleasure the object of life, then we also make pain the condition of life. The two go together and are inseparable companions. You cannot have one for your bed-fellow without making a lifecompanion of the other. They are husband and wife and, though perpetually quarrelling, will not hear of divorce. But neither is pain the necessary condition of life, as the Buddhists say, nor is extinction of sensation the condition of bliss. 36 The world lives in and by Ananda. From Ananda, says the Veda, we were born, by Ananda we live, to Ananda we return, and it adds that no man could even have the strength to draw in his breath and throw it out again if there were not this heaven

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of Bliss embracing our existence as ether embraces our bodies, nourishing us with its eternal substance and strength and supporting the life and the activity. A world which is essentially a world of bliss — this was the ancient Vedantic vision, the drishti of the Vedic drashta, which differentiates Hinduism in its early virility from the cosmic sorrow of Buddhism and the cosmic disillusionment of Mayavada. But it is possible to fall from this Bliss, not to realise it with the lower nature, in the Apara Prakriti, not to be able to grasp and possess it. Two things are necessary for the fullness of man’s bliss, — the fullness of his being and the fullness of his knowledge creating by their union the fullness of his strength in all its manifestations, viryam, balam, bhrajas, tejas, ojas. For Ananda, Sat & Chit make one reality, and Chit is in its outward working pure force to which our Rishis gave the name of Tapas. To attain even here upon earth this fullness of bliss dependent upon fullness of existence, illumination and force, must always be humanity’s drift, man’s collective endeavour. To attain it within himself here and beyond, iha ca amutra ca, must always be the drift of the human unit, the individual’s endeavour. Wherever the knowledge in him thinks it can grasp this bliss, it will fix its heaven. This is Swarga, Vaikuntha, Goloka; this is Nirvana. 37 The bliss of the Brahman can be described as the eternity of an uninterrupted supreme ecstasy. There is no opposition or incompatibility between these two states in the nature of the Brahman. Bliss there is the keen height and core of peace; peace there is the intimate core and essence of bliss. There is no turbidity or turbulence in the being of the Brahman; its ineffable poignancy is eternal in its self-poise. The essential mark of the descent of the consciousness from its highest grade in the supreme spirit is the constant diminution of the power of Sachchidananda, the intensity of its force, force of being, force of consciousness, force of bliss. The intensity of all these three in the supreme status is ineffable;

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in the Supermind the intensity of consciousness is ever luminous and undiminished; in overmind it is already diminished and diffuse; the highest intensity of mind is a poor thing in comparison with the splendour of overmind, and so it goes diminishing till it reaches an apparent zero which we call inconscience. The degree and amount of pain which mind, life and body can bear is by our human standards considerable; but their capacity for pleasure is very limited and pale in its intensity, low in its degree. What we call ecstasy would seem to a god to be ridiculously thin and vapid and edgeless. Its capacity of duration also is pitifully brief and measurable by the moments. 38 In experience even on the spiritual plane so long as we do not transcend the spirit in mind, there is a difference between peace and Ananda. Peace is the Divine static, Ananda the Divine dynamic. Peace is a negative-positive; it is positive of itself, of status, of eternity, of the essential, of the abstract-concrete, of force in rest. It is or tends to be negative of all that is less than itself, contradictory to itself or more than itself, of the dynamic, of action, of creation, of time and happening, of the substantial concrete, of force in motion. Or when it allows these things or even feels or supports them, it is with a certain disinterested separateness. It has essentially the character of the Witness Spirit or at the most of the disinterested Witness-Creator. Ananda is in its every fibre a positive of positives. It affirms and rejoices in all that is native to peace, but it affirms too and rejoices in all that peace negates or regards with a sovereign separateness. Ananda is an all embracing and creative force. There can be in the world’s tangle of conflicting forces an Ananda of pain and suffering and in the full manifestation pain and suffering no longer remain themselves but are transformed into Ananda. But these opposing differences prove in the end to be part of the separative mental creation, the disjunctive Maya in which we live. In supermind experience peace is always full

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of Ananda and by its Ananda can act and create; Ananda is for ever full of the divine peace and its most vehement ecstatic intensity contains no possibility of disturbance. At the height of the supramental Infinite peace and Ananda are one. For there status and dynamis are inseparable, rest and action affirm each other, essence and expression are one indivisible whole. 39 One that is Two that are Many, — this is the formula of the eternal and timeless manifestation in the worlds of Sachchidananda. One who is Two and becomes the Two who become Many, — this is the formula of the perpetual manifestation in time in the three worlds of Mind, Life and Matter. One who is in himself for ever the Two and for ever innumerably All and Eternal and Infinite, this is the indication of the Supreme who is beyond Time and Timelessness in the highest Absolute. * The One is Four for ever in his supramental quaternary of Being, Consciousness, Force and Ananda. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, these are the eternal Four, the quadruple Infinite. Brahma is the Eternal’s Personality of Existence; from him all is created, by his presence, by his power, by his impulse. Vishnu is the Eternal’s Personality of Consciousness; in him all is supported, in his wideness, in his stability, in his substance. Shiva is the Eternal’s Personality of Force; through him all is created, through his passion, through his rhythm, through his concentration. Krishna is the Eternal’s Personality of Ananda; because [of] him all creation is possible, because of his play, because of his delight, because of his sweetness.

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Brahma is Immortality, Vishnu is Eternity, Shiva is Infinity; Krishna is the Supreme’s eternal, infinite, immortal selfpossession, self-issuing, self-manifestation, self-finding.

Manifestation, Not Illusion 40 As earth when it becomes pot, floor or oven, never ceases to be earth, so the Being even though it becomes all things and persons, is ever and immutably the same. Becoming does not cancel Being; after millions of events in a million universes have passed in the Infinite, its infinity remains the same for ever. The Mayavadins fix their definition, their rigid iti to the Parabrahman, the Absolute, and say that since it is that, it can never be anything else and therefore the world must be an illusion. But the Absolute is beyond all definitions, descriptions, qualifications, he is [not] bound by them, neither by features nor featurelessness, by unity nor multiplicity[.] 41 It is said by certain Adwaitists with an unusual largeness of philosophic toleration that the views of all other philosophies are true on the way or at least useful and mark stages in the realisation of the Truth, but the highest realisation is the truth of Monistic Adwaita — there is only the One and nothing else. This concession comes to nothing; for it means that other spiritual experiences are only temporarily helpful delusions or helpful half truths and the only true truth is Adwaita. The dispute remains; for all the other schools also will claim theirs as the highest truth. The mind cannot arrive at a perfect toleration, because the mind needs a cut and defined truth opposed or superior to all others. In the supermind, the aspect of the One is true like all other aspects; all are equally true but none solely true.

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The position taken up by the Illusionists must first be firmly stated; for often there is a great nebulousness in the minds both of its supporters and antagonists which leaves room for much confused thinking and the real issue, the vital point gets obscured. We must first give this admission to the defence for whatever it is worth, that Illusionism does not affirm the absolute non-existence of the universe but only that it is an existence which is in its beginning and its end a non-existence and in its middle it is an existence which amounts to non-existence. It is real while it lasts to the mind that creates it; but it is not really real, — it is only phenomenally existent, like a dream, like a hallucination, like the imaginations of a person in delirium. Three questions arise from this proposition. Is this hallucinatory creation of the universe a truth or is the theory itself a hallucination of the logical mind or of the experiencing consciousness? Secondly, if true, how does the illusion come about and how is it possible? Thirdly, who is the victim of the hallucination? The whole theory arises from and turns on one original proposition of which it is the logical consequence. It is this that Brahman the one real, original and eternal existence is, firstly, self-existent, secondly, featureless and relationless, thirdly, unmodifiable, immutable, incapable therefore of developing feature and relation, fourthly, solely existent, for there is and can be nothing else but that in existence. None of these original positions about the Brahman imposes itself irrefutably upon the intellect; there are philosophies which deny them one and all and with quite as good a show of logic as any the logical apparatus of the Mayavada can furnish us. In fact, what we first see as the one experience of our consciousness is not this at all, but just the opposite. We see that every thing reduces itself not to an existence at all, but to a continuity of the action of Force, Karma as the Buddhists call it. We see that this action of Force exists only by an infinite flux of feature and relation, the stream of the Buddhist figure. Apart from that it is nothing, it is the Buddhist sunya or Nihil, and the reduction of the universe to

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its original starting point, the escape out of it is not a return to the self-existent, but a return to Nihil, a Nirvana or extinction. Far, then, from being immutable and incapable of modification, it is in its very nature a constant modification and mutation. Eliminate the stream of becoming and the result is not Being, but a zero. This is the difficulty which the Mayavada has to surmount, the logic which it has to refute. For it cannot be denied that the universe, the thing from which all our conscious experience starts, is such a constant stream of becoming, a round of mutations and modifications, a mass of features and relations. The question is how is it maintained? what is [it] that gives an appearance of permanence to the impermanent, of stability to the unstable, of a sum of eternal sameness in which all the elements of the sum are in constant instability and all capable of mutation? The Buddhist admits that it is done by an action of consciousness, by idea and association, vijnana, sanskara; but ideas and associations are themselves Karma, action of Force, themselves impermanent, only they create an appearance of permanence, by always acting in the same round, creating the same combination of forms and elements, as the flame and stream appear always the same, though that which constitutes them is always impermanent. The modern Materialist says that it is material Force or an eternal Energy which takes the form of Matter and follows always the same inherent law of action. The Mayavadin says on the contrary that it is Consciousness, but a consciousness which is in its reality immutable and unmodifiable self-existence, only it produces a phenomenon of constant modification and mutation. How is this possible? There lies the riddle, for it is a direct selfcontradiction. To escape from it, he alleges that the phenomenon has no reality at all, but is an illusion. To deal with this theory at all, we have first to admit that consciousness is the cause and continent of the universe and that it exists only in consciousness and not at all in itself. How does he [the Mayavadin] propose to prove it? It is by an appeal to reason and experience. Our reason tells us that we have no knowledge of the existence of the universe except by our

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conscious mentality, no possibility of knowing it; the universe can only be allowed to exist by a consciousness admitting its existence, supporting it by its assent. If by any chance, law or process our consciousness can cease finally to be aware of the universe, then so far as we are concerned, the universe no longer exists; it is annulled to us, it was an illusion from which we are released, as when a dream or hallucination ceases. Any such final upshot proves that originally also the universe was non-existent, for otherwise, if it had existed for us eternally without beginning, it would also continue for us eternally without end. But even if it ceases for us, it still continues in existence, is capable of being observed and lived in by others. How is that? We must suppose, that since it exists cosmically, its existence must be admitted and supported by the assent of a universal consciousness by which and for which it is or rather seems to be. Well, if by any chance, law or process this universal consciousness ceases finally to be aware of the universe, then the universe no longer exists for anybody or anything at all; it is proved to be an utter illusion, existent phenomenally only so long as the universal consciousness admitted it, but capable of coming to an end and therefore shown to be non-existent in its beginning and in its end nonexistent. Now our ultimate experience is that there is a last and highest state of consciousness in which the universe does thus cease for the individual to be. What is that state? It is samadhi, a trance of consciousness in which the sole experience is thus expressed, “I am in bliss” and the sole memory brought back is “I was in bliss.” In this state the universe has for the individual no existence; he is released from it. Therefore this highest state of experience is one of which only three things can be affirmed, existence, consciousness of existence, bliss of the consciousness of existence; but it is a pure existence without other feature or any relation. But how is this proved to be the ultimate state of our conscious being? Well, it is the knowledge of the sages who have entered into it that it is the ultimate state, it is the knowledge left behind them that they have finally passed away into it not to return to consciousness of the phenomenal world, and it is confirmed by the authority of the Veda. Reason tells

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us that such a condition must be the ultimate condition, since it is one infinitely beyond the phenomenal and to which the phenomenal arrives by self-elimination, and being the ultimate it must be also the original: the phenomenal which disappears from it, must originally have been imposed on it. There is no rational escaping from that conclusion. Well, the individual soul can escape from consciousness of the universe, but what of the universal consciousness? For so long as the universe goes on existing — and who shall say that it is not for all eternity? — this escape may only prove that the individual soul goes into a state of unconsciousness or absorbed self-consciousness, like a man going to sleep or falling into a trance, while the world goes on around him just as before essentially unaffected and not at all annulled by his unconsciousness of it. But in the first place this highest power of the individual consciousness cannot be peculiar to it, for it must be a power of the general and universal; the individual reflects the universal, for it is only the law of the universal that can be repeated with individual modifications in the law of the individual. Secondly, the universal soul is the same in all; for that is the experience of the highest knowledge and consciousness, that there [is] one self in all, featureless, immutable, unmodifiable, the same amidst all the changes of phenomena. As this self can draw back that which supports the individual into it, so it is and must be capable of drawing back that which supports the universal. In one case the stream of phenomena centred around its individual reflection ceases, in the other the stream of phenomena centred around its universal reflection. A theory only? But it is justified by reason acting on our total experience which sees the lower or phenomenal and the higher or eternal and sees how the phenomenal disappears, vanishes away from the face of the eternal. We have then as a fact a supreme state of existence which is self-existent, the original I am, which is featureless bliss and consciousness of being, immutable, eternal and this seems to be common to all beings, secret in all, the real self of all. But what then of the world? It is a mass of constant modifications of

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consciousness and being, itself in its nature modification of consciousness or of being or of both. It cannot be a modification of nothing, it must be a modification of something. If consciousness and being are the first fact, real, eternal, is it not a modification of conscious being, of this real, this eternal something, and itself therefore real? Is it not itself eternal, an eternal continuity of modification, uninterrupted continual or else interrupted and recurringly continual? Must we not then suppose two states of the Brahman, a primary state of eternal unmodified being, a secondary state of eternal continuity of modifications of being, becomings of the Brahman? Does not the Vedantic statement that all comes from the Brahman, exists by it, returns to it, imply that all is eternally contained in it and all are modifications of it? In that case, we cannot say that the Eternal Being is absolutely unmodifiable. No, says the Illusionist, the supreme eternal self is not only unmodified, but unmodifiable and nothing else but the eternal unmodifiable self exists really: all else is seeming. How then do all these modifications come about? What is the clue to this mystery, the cause of this magic of illusion? Maya, answers the Illusionist. And what is Maya? It is a power of the eternal consciousness of Brahman by which there comes about an apparent modification of consciousness of which all these modifications we call the universe are the outcome. The modification is apparent, not real, yet a fact, unreally, nonexistently existent. Maya exists, yet does not exist; and its results too are apparent, not real, yet while Maya lasts, they are a fact we have to deal with, unreally, non-existently existent. We have to escape from them, by escaping from Maya. We do not understand. How can the unmodifiable consciousness undergo at all even an apparent modification, to say nothing of such portentous results of the modification? To that there is no explanation, there can be no explanation. It takes place beyond the intellect, before the intellect can at all exist and cannot be understood by the intellect; it must be accepted as a fact; it is a fact that Maya is, it is a fact that Maya can be escaped from, and therefore not being eternal, is transient, is unreal, is not. To see this and escape is our only business. Only while it lasts,

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are we concerned with the modifications. But what is meant by saying while it lasts and who is it that is subject to it and escapes from it? Is it Brahman who is subject to Maya? No, Brahman the eternally unmodifiable consciousness aware only of the bliss of its self-existence cannot be subject to Maya, does not behold this phenomenal illusion. For if he did, we returning into that, should also behold it and could not by the returning escape from it. It is the individual soul only that is subject to Maya and escapes from it. But who is this individual soul? Is it the self in the individual, the Jivatman, and is the self in the individual different from the eternal Self? No, the individual self is the eternal Brahman, for there is only one self and not many. But then the Jivatman also cannot be subject to Maya or escape from it. There is then nobody subject to it, nobody who escapes. And really that is so, says the illusionist, but what seems to us now to be the individual self, is a reflection of the eternal Self in the mind, and it is that which is subject to Maya and suffers by it. But what then is Mind? It is a result of Maya, it is an illusory movement of consciousness, it is that for which and by which the universe exists. Get rid of its action, its movement, and the illusion will cease; you will be free. But then again who is this you? If I am really the eternal, then I, the individual do not exist; my real self, to use a desperately foolish language, — since that means an individual in possession of a self which cannot be, as my individuality is an illusion, — my real self is in eternal bliss and not being affected cannot care whether this false, nonexistently existent I is bound or escapes, suffers or is in bliss. To whom then does it matter? Only to Maya and mind. Well, then, it is an affair between Maya and mind, and they can settle it between themselves. Precisely, the Illusionist will reply; to you, the mental being, it does matter because you are in Maya, you suffer, however phenomenally, however unreally, and the only way to get rid of it is to abolish Maya by abolishing yourself, your mental individuality, her result by which alone she exists; then you will not exist, Maya and the world will exist for other mental beings; but you will undergo extinction in the Brahman, for you Brahman only will exist. How for me, since I

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can only be either in Maya or out of it, either individually aware of Maya and not of my real self or else non-existent individually? How can ‘I’ be aware of my real self only and of nothing else? It is possible; for as the mind falsely reflects Brahman by Maya as the individual, so free from Maya, it can truly reflect Brahman and it ceases to be individual mind, although in an individual body it still seems to be individually released. Really, it is Brahman expelling Maya from the consciousness, then the mind is taken up into Samadhi, extinguished in Samadhi, and this is the [?prefatory] sign. Fix your mind upon that, look at things practically, and do not ask inconsistent questions, as to how there can be individual salvation when there is no individual self to be saved. These questions do not arise once the release is made, they arise in Maya which is a practical fact and can receive only a practical solution. Well that is a kind of answer. But how am I to know that it is not an evasion of the difficulty? What if I say that really the unmodifiable Brahman is not the highest truth? that the Brahman is aware at once of his unmodified eternal self and of his eternally modified cosmic existence, Akshara and Kshara, but he is himself beyond both, and that my real way of escape is to be the same, to be aware of my eternal self and of all the universe as modifications of my self; that with this transcendence and universality comes perfect bliss, and that the fact that I, still existing in Maya, can be blissfully aware of one Self everywhere and of all things in the universe is a proof of my assertion? This seems to me at least as good a theory as your theory of Maya; and if you say, how is that possible, I can either allege reasons or answer like you, it is a supraintellectual fact and we have to take it as a fact and find the practical way of realising it. If you want me to reject it in favour of your theory, give me at least some help. Make me realise how the world can be nonexistently existent, how the unmodifiable can be apparently modified, how I can exist only beyond the world and yet exist in it so palpably that I must struggle to get out of it, how Brahman exists only beyond Maya and yet by me exists in Maya, how mind is the result of Maya, an instrument to see world and is

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yet capable of getting rid of Maya and seeing only the Brahman, how being by my individuality subject to Maya, and only able to escape by getting rid of my individuality, I am yet to become individually aware of Brahman and get an individual salvation, while all the rest of the world by which alone I am individual in my experience is still subject to it, how an unreal individual can realise Brahman. The Mayavadin answers that as it is the Maya power of the Self which creates the ignorance in each individual, so it is the Self in each individual which enables him to have the knowledge by removing from him the Maya power. How this can be, can only be explained by analogies. As a man mistakes a rope for a snake, and then discovers it is a rope and there is no snake, so the mind thinks there is a world where there is only Brahman and discovers in the end that there is only Brahman; — or as a man mistakes mother of pearl for real pearl and runs after it and is then disillusioned and leaves it to go after the reality. As a pot is only a name and form of earth and earth is the only reality, so the world and the individual are only a name and form; break the pot, it will go back to its original earth; break the name and form in the consciousness, get rid of the individual, and there will be only Brahman in the consciousness. There are many golden ornaments, but the reality of them all is the gold; it is that alone which has value. So Brahman only is worth having; the rest is name and form and mere vanity. Or if these analogies seem to be only physical images not valid for a supraphysical fact, observe how you dream. The dream has no reality, yet is real to your consciousness while it lasts. The you in the dream is an unreal you; you awake to your real self. So the world is a dream; falling asleep to the world, the dream ceases; awake to the Brahman, the dream is convinced of unreality. That is the only possible and a quite sufficient answer. Is it a sufficient answer? Does it prove the main point that the world consciousness is an apparent and unreal modification of the ever unmodifiable Brahman and therefore to be dispelled as quickly as possible, so that I may cease to exist, except insofar as I already eternally exist, not at all as I, but as the Brahman?

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Above all, does it show that my one practical business is to get rid of a world consciousness which is of no value and has no purpose except self-bewilderment, and become again what I ought never to have ceased to be in my unreal consciousness, as indeed I am still that in my real consciousness, the featureless and immutable Spirit? Is the world really a valueless dream, a purposeless delirium of ignorance? Have we no other true spiritual business here except to get out of it? These are the real questions that the soul of man asks of the illusionist thinker, and we have to judge his answer. 43 Existence is not a fluke, a random creation by nobody, a thing that unaccountably happened to be. It carries in itself the Word of God, it is full of a hidden Divine Presence. Existence is not a blind machine that somehow came and started a set ignoble motion without object or sense or purpose. Existence is a Truth of things unfolding by a gradual process of manifestation, an evolution of its own involved Reality. Existence is not an illusion, a Maya that had no reason, no business to exist, could not exist, does not exist but only seems to be. A mighty Reality manifests in itself this marvellous universe. 44 All that is is the manifestation of a Divine Infinite. The universe has no other reason for existence. There is an eternal manifestation and there is a temporal manifestation; both are without end or beginning even as That which manifests is without end or beginning. Time and its creations are for ever. The temporal manifestation is cast partly in a gradation of enduring types; partly it moves through a long unrolling series of vicissitudes of change and new formation and is evolutionary in its process.

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The typal worlds do not change. In his own world a god is always a god, the Asura always an Asura, the demon always a demon. To change they must either migrate into an evolutionary body or else die entirely to themselves that they may be new born into other Nature. 45 All that is is the manifestation, even as all that is not is the self-reservation, of a Supreme, an Infinite who veils himself in the play of impersonal forces, in the recesses of a mysterious Inconscience and will at last rediscover here his most intimate presence, his most integral power, light, beauty, Ananda and all vast and ineffable being through a growing illumination of the still ignorant consciousness now evolving in Matter, a consciousness of which Man is only one stage, at once the summit of an ascent that is finished and the starting point of a far greater ascension that is still only preparing its commencement. All manifestation that is not evolution is a play and selfformulation of the One Infinite in one term or another of his existence, consciousness-force, Ananda, his self-knowledge, selfpower, self-delight, for the glory, joy and beauty of the play and for no other reason. All evolution is the progressive self-revelation of the One to himself in the terms of the Many out of the Inconscience through the Ignorance towards self-conscient perfection. The evolution has a purpose, but it is a purpose in a circle. It is not a straight line or other figure of progression from the not to the is, from the less to the more. There is no beginning or end of the Universe in space or time; for the universe is the manifestation of the Eternal and Infinite. Manifestation is not an episode of the Eternal. It is his face and body of glory that is imperishable, it is the movement of his joy and power that needs not to sleep or rest as do finite things from their labour. In the beginning, it is said, was the Eternal, the Infinite, the

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One. In the middle, it is said, is the finite, the transient, the many. In the end, it is said, shall be the One, the Infinite, the Eternal. For when was the beginning? At no moment in Time, for the beginning is at every moment; the beginning always was, always is and always shall be. The divine beginning is before Time and in Time and beyond Time for ever. The Eternal Infinite and One is an endless beginning. And where is the middle? There is no middle; for the middle is only the junction of the perpetual end and the eternal beginning; it is the sign of a creation which is new at every moment. The creation was for ever, is for ever, shall be for ever. The eternal Infinite and One is the magical middle term of his own existence; it is he that is this beginningless and endless creation. And when is the end? There is no end. At no conceivable moment can there be a cessation. For all end of things is the beginning of new things which are still the same One in an ever developing and ever recurring figure. Nothing can be destroyed for all is He who is for ever. The Eternal Infinite and One is the unimaginable end that is the never closing gate upon new interminable vistas of his glory.

Man and Superman Man and the Evolutionary Process 46 Man is a transitional being, he is not final. He is a middle term of the evolution, not its end, crown or consummating masterpiece. 47 Man is not final, he is a transitional being. Beyond him awaits formation the diviner race, the superman. 48 God is the beginning, middle and end of all things; but in the beginning He is concealed, in the middle partly and progressively manifest, in the end revealed. The universe is such a manifestation of God under certain conditions and in the terms of a gradually unfolding harmony. These conditions and the movements which govern the rhythms of the harmony are the universal laws. In this manifestation the two terms are involution and evolution. The material universe starts from an involution of God in the movement of inconscient Force and the forms of inert Matter and it is impelled by the divine impulse within it to the evolution of God through the increasing manifestation of consciousness and conscious power which must culminate in a perfect and infinite self-knowledge, self-mastery and self-delight. By the involution we mean a self-concealing of the Divine in a

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descent of which the last rung is Matter, by the evolution a selfrevealing of the Divine in an ascent of which the last rung is Spirit. Since evolution or a gradual self-unfolding is the essential movement of the universe, the impulse of all life in the universe must be to self-fulfilment and the realisation of its utmost potentialities. Behind each form of life there is a divine idea which determines its form and its limits and the form circumscribes the potentialities of the life. Therefore the self-fulfilment of the life is contained within certain limits fixed by the nature of the life and the law of its being and action which that nature determines. The idea which thus determines is the cause and the form which thus limits the sign of the Finite in the universe. The universe is an infinity creating innumerable finite expressions of itself in idea and form within its own infinite being. The one and infinite is the soul and reality of each finite; the multiple finite is the rhythm, movement and harmony of the infinite. Therefore in and behind all finite life in the universe there is an infinite reality seeking to arrive at itself which must in its self-unfolding create finite forms of life which are yet able in their consciousness and movement to manifest and realise the infinite. Man is such a finite-infinite and the sole type of such a form of life that yet exists upon the earth. 49 All life and mind on earth is the story of a Being, a Consciousness, a Power, a Joy that is darkly imprisoned in the apparent inconscience of Matter and is struggling for liberation. Blinded, cabined, drugged, immured, it is yet ever striving to come out of the black cell of this obscurity into its own light, wideness, conscious sight and force, self-aware action, bliss, freedom, harmony, perfection. It starts with small beginnings, as a vibration in the metal, as a feeling out and drawing in and a groping and [?infusing] in the plant, as a crude or minute power of sensory life-urge rising to an instinctive reason and mind and purposeful force in the insect, as a more organised and

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conscious and emotional, even a roughly and narrowly thinking and planning vital being in the animal, and has persevered till it has broken into some half opening on itself in the thinking, reasoning, willing and aspiring nature of man, the Manu, the mental creature. Here at present it stands not by any means satisfied, but it would seem, feeling out for something more entirely itself, some supreme manhood or supermanhood, some beginning of godhead that would be at last its true self-finding and triumphant manifestation out of matter, even here in this limited and limiting earthly Nature. This striving and slow outburst of Something that was hidden all along in Matter, in the Inconscient, is the whole sense of Evolution — not the mere development of a more and more organised living body out of protoplasm, as the scientists with their eyes fixed only or mainly on physical things would have it, but the struggle of Consciousness somnambulised in Matter to wake and free, find and possess itself more and more completely, the emancipation and slow self-revealing of a Soul secret at first in Force and Form, the growth of a Spirit. This evolution, it is sometimes pretended, ends in man, man is the term and end; but this is because we miss the real values of the process. At first indeed we see this Spirit spending numberless millions of years to evolve a material system of worlds empty in the beginning of life, a lesser but vast enough series of millions to develop an earth on which life can inhabit, a lesser series of millions to make possible and train, raise life itself with but a feeble and restricted apparatus of mind; but once it has found a body, a brain, a living apparatus not perfect, but still sufficient it is no longer concerned mainly with evolving a body or [ . . . ] an embodied life but can at last grapple with its own proper business. Evolution henceforth means the evolution of the consciousness, of mind and, if any such thing there be, of what is beyond mind, — and in that case as its last stride has been the evolution of the mental being, man, out of the vital being, the animal, so its next stride will be to evolve out of mental man a greater spiritual and supramental creature.

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All mind and life on earth are the progressive manifestation of a Spirit or Being that has involved itself in Matter and is slowly evolving in Matter, against the inconscient resistance of a first rigid material self-formation and under its conditions, its own secret powers and nature. In the Inconscience in which it has involved itself, these powers, this nature seem not only to be hidden but contradicted; cast into their own opposites they emerge with difficulty and labour at first in flickers and faint glimpses, then growing into a better but still much diminished figure. But the evolution cannot be considered at an end until these diminished figures growing more and more free, developed, powerful arrive at their own complete fulfilment, revelation of their truth, native perfection, beauty and greatness. This is the aim of terrestrial existence — to reveal in Matter, in Time-Space, in figure and body what was once self-held only in an eternal unembodied self and spirit. In order that this evolution might be, an implacable plunge of supreme Consciousness and Being into an apparent void of insentience, inconscience, non-existence was inevitable; for without that plunge, immergence, seeming yet effective annihilation [in] its opposite the creation of that phenomenon of cosmic Energy which we call Matter would have been impossible. Yet however effective this appearance is only an appearance. In the void of that Non-Existence all the powers of being are held involved and latent; in the impenetrable darkness of that Inconscience all the possibilities of consciousness lie ready to be evolved; in that insentience is a drowned Delight of Existence which emerging in the contradictory figures of pleasure and pain can struggle upwards towards cosmic expression of its own truth of the Bliss that supports all things. To ask why this plunge was taken at all, why such an evolution slow, gratuitous, painful should ever have been undertaken is natural for man struggling painfully with his own transience, ignorance and suffering — inevitable consequences of that plunge or fall — but from the cosmic point of view

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irrelevant and otiose. A possibility was there in the Infinite and outlined itself for manifestation, the lines of an evolutionary world amidst the numberless possibility or numbered reality of various universes, and it was undertaken because the Spirit in things is afraid of no possibility of itself but is rather ready to sanction all by its will towards manifest existence. To the Cosmic Spirit which sees things as a whole, the working out of this universe or any universe is self-justified, the obscure labour of the emergence no less than the glory of its completion and final perfection in a yet unattained light, bliss and greatness. At any rate into this world of evolution something of the eternal spirit has thrown itself, with all in it that consented to the descent and to fulfil the world, not to escape from it, is the deepest meaning of the Spirit and Godhead within us and the universe. This then must be our will in terrestrial existence — being mind in matter to grow into the Spirit, being man-animal to emerge into the Godhead, to expand out of our limited sense of existence into freedom and infinite wideness, out of the half figure of consciousness we have realised to be illumined into true consciousness, out of weakness to realise divine Mastery, out of the dual experience of pain and pleasure to emerge into possession of the cosmic Bliss of existence, out of the dull chrysalis of our limited selves to flower into oneness with the Divine Self that we are. For this is not an egoistic will in us but the meaning of the Divine Inhabitant for which he has undertaken bodily life and terrestrial existence. 51 Before there could be any evolution, there must needs be an involution of the Divine All that is to emerge. Otherwise there would be not an evolution, but a successive creation of things new, not contained in their antecedents, not their inevitable consequences or followers in a sequence but arbitrarily willed or miraculously conceived by an inexplicable

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Chance, a stumblingly fortunate Force or an external Creator. The long process of terrestrial formation and creation, the ambiguous miracle of life, the struggle of mind to appear and grow in an apparent vast Ignorance and to reign there as interpreter and creator and master, the intimations of a greater something that passes beyond the finite marvel of mind to the infinite marvels of the Spirit, are not a meaningless and fortuitous passing result of some cosmic Chance with its huge combination of coincidences; they are not the lucky play of some blind material Force. These things are and can be only because of something eternal and divine that concealed itself in energy and form of Matter. The secret of the terrestrial evolution is the slow and progressive liberation of this latent indwelling spirit, the difficult appearance, the tardy becoming [of a] divine Something or Someone already involved with all its potential forces in a first formal basis of supporting substance, its greater slowly emerging movements locked up in one initial expressive power of Matter. Man the thinker and seeker would not be here if he were not an embodied portion of an all-conscious Infinite that is superconscient above him but lies also hidden in the inconscience of the material universe. The development of forms is not the most important or the most significant part of the evolutionary process; it is one sign of the thing that is being done, but it is not its essence. Material form is only a support and means for the progressive manifestation of the Spirit. If all were chance or play of inconscient or inconsequent Force, there would be no reason why man with all his imperfections should not be the last word of this feat of unconscious intelligence or this haphazard miracle. It is because the Divine Spirit is there and his manifestation the meaning of the movement that a new power must emerge in the series that started from Matter. The material universe would be a waste if wonderful desert

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if Life had not appeared as the first index to some marvellous utility and an ultimate profound and moving significance. But life too by itself would be a movement without sequence to its purposeful initiation or any light to its own mystery if in Life there were not concealed an interpretative or at least a seeking power of consciousness that could turn upon its powers and try to grasp and direct them towards their own realised issue. 52 Our life is neither an accident nor a mechanism; it is not a freak of some wide-spread self-organising Chance, nor is it the result of a blind unaccountable material Necessity. What we call Chance is a play of the possibilities of the Infinite; what we call Necessity is a truth of things working itself out in a Time-sequence of the Infinite. It [our life] seems indeed to be born from a cosmic Inconscience which, pushed somehow towards world-building, does what it can or does what it must but in either case knows nothing of itself or of its own action. Yet is there a meaning in these workings, a conscious intention; our life is led by the will of some secret Being, secret perhaps within its own phenomenon, towards the solution of this packed cosmic Mystery, the unrolling of a willed and mighty Enigma. What we see in and around us is a play of God, a “Lila”. It is a scene arranged, a drama played by the One Person with his own multitudinous personalities in his own impersonal existence, — a game, a plan worked out in the vast and plastic substance of his own world-being. He plays with the powers and forces of his Nature a game of emergence from the inconscient Self out of which all here began, through the mixed and imperfect consciousness which is all we have now reached, towards a supreme consciousness, a divine nature. This we cannot now know; our eyes are fixed on a partial outer manifestation which we see and call the universe — though even now we see and know very little of it or about it, know

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perhaps a few of its processes but nothing fundamental, nothing of its reality, — and an inner partial manifestation which we do not see but experience and feel and call ourselves. Our mind is shut up in a cleft between these two fragments and tends to regard it as the whole of things and the only tangible and real existence. It is so that the frog regards himself and his well. But we have to grow out of this frog consciousness and exceed the limits of this well. In the end we come to perceive that we have a truer and divine being of which our petty personality is only a surface and corrupted output, a truer and divine Consciousness in which we must become self-aware and world-aware discarding our present fragmentary and bounded mental vision of self and things.1 The term of our destiny is already known to us; we have to grow from what we are into a more luminous existence, from pleasure and pain into a purer and vaster and deeper bliss, from our struggling knowledge and ignorance into a spontaneous and boundless light of consciousness, from our fumbling strength and weakness into a sure and all-understanding Power, from division and ego into universality and unity. There is an evolution and we have to complete it: a human animality or an animal humanity is not enough. We must pass from the inadequate figure of humanity into a figure of the Godhead, from mind to supermind, from the consciousness of the finite to the consciousness of the Infinite, from Nature into Supernature. * This is no vaulting imagination, but the inevitable outcome of our still unfulfilled being and incomplete nature, a necessity of the evolutionary world-urge: because things are what they are, 1 The following sentence from an earlier draft was not incorporated in the final version of this piece: Our life is a journey towards the bliss of a vaster and happier existence, — not merely elsewhere in a far-off Paradise, but already here upon earth, ihaiva, in the terrestrial life and in an earthly [body.]

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this too must be. For things are what they are, but not what they were; they cannot remain for ever what they are, but must grow into what they can be and shall be. And what they shall be can be nothing less than the exceeding of their present imperfection, the fullness of what they have only half become; but it may and must be something more than that, they must grow into their own concealed reality, their nature must reveal what is now concealed, their real self. The perfection of species or of types is not what is aimed at; the type is often perfect [within its] limits, for it is the limits that make the type; the species too can be perfect in itself, perfect in its own variation of the genus and the genus perfect by the number and beauty or curiosity of its variations. But what we see in Nature is that it strives ever to exceed itself, to go beyond what it has yet done. For having achieved in the animal the whole of which animality was capable, it did not in achieving man endeavour to produce the perfect synthetic animal, it began at once working out something more than the animal. Man is to a certain extent a synthesis of several animals; he might even be said to synthetise all, from the worm and the skink, to the elephant and the lion; but as an animal he is terribly imperfect. His greatness lies in his being more than an animal and by this new nature he has exceeded the animal and made up for all his deficiencies even in the region of the struggle for life. Comparatively defenceless at first, he has become the master of the earth; he is not merely primus inter pares; he is a sovereign and the others are not any longer, even if they were ever his equals. 53 The world we live in is not a meaningless accident that has unaccountably taken place in the void of Space; it is the scene of an evolution in which an eternal Truth has been embodied, hidden in a form of things, and is secretly in process of unfoldment through the ages. There is a meaning in our existence, a purpose in our birth and death and travail, a

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consummation of all our labour. All are parts of a single plan; nothing has been idly made in the universe; nothing is vain in our life. The evolution is arranged or arranges itself according to this plan. It begins here with a system of worlds which seem to be dead, yet in perpetual motion; it proceeds towards birth and life and consciousness, justifying Matter; it finds the justification of birth in thinking man; [? ] to divinity. A slow [? ] of godhead in Matter, this is the sense of the material universe. Man is a transitional being, he is not final. He is too imperfect for that, too imperfect in capacity for knowledge, too imperfect in will and action, too imperfect in his turn towards joy and beauty, too imperfect in his will for freedom and his instinct for order. Even if he could perfect himself in his own type, his type is too low and small to satisfy the need of the universe. Something larger, higher, more capable of a rich all embracing universality is needed, a greater being, a greater consciousness summing up in itself all that the world set out to be. He has, as was pointed out by a half blind seer, to exceed himself; man must evolve out of himself the divine superman: he was born for transcendence. Humanity is not enough, it is only a strong stepping stone; the need of the world is a superhuman perfection of what the world can be, the goal of consciousness is divinity. The inmost need of man is not to perfect his humanity, but to be greater than himself, to be more than man, to be divine, even to be the Divine. To rest in humanity is to rest in imperfection; the perfect man would be a self-contented finality of incompleteness. His nature is transitional and there is therefore in it an innate tendency to strive towards something more. — Unless indeed he turned aside from his destiny, became a two-legged termite content with a perfectly arranged or sufficiently comfortable material order. He would [ . . . . . . ] exist, deteriorate or become stable like the ant or the dung-beetle or after attaining complete efficiency, disappear like the sloth, the mammoth, the pterodactyl or the dinosaur. His innate reason for existence would have ceased and with it his necessity for being.

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But this cannot be; there is something in him that forbids it. But this most — that humanity cannot realise itself except by passing into supermanhood. The saint, the sage, the seer, the inspired man of action, the creator, — these are his summits of being. Beyond him is the supramental being, the spiritual superman. 54 Our existence in the cosmic order is not an accident, the purposeless freak of a Chance which happened to organise itself into a world or the product of a blind Force which has somehow managed to exist in what we call a void Space and executes there [?soulless] inexplicable revolutions, as if compelled by its own causeless necessity; nor is man the result of a chemical combination of gases by an Energy which has somehow, being radically inconscient, succeeded without intending it to produce consciousness and started writing poems, painting pictures, producing civilisations, conceiving an inexistent God and invisible Creator. There is surely more in it than that; there was [an] Idea somewhere [and if it] has emerged it is because it was [ . . . ] and had to emerge. If there is an intelligence which has appeared in Matter and is constantly developing its height and its range, this can only be because there was already an intelligence there, asleep, involved, latent or in some way a possibility of Matter, which has come forth from latency when things and conditions were ready. Or else it [is] because behind or in the world immanent in it there is an Intelligence which has created or is manifesting this world and at the right time has sent this power of itself [ . . . . . . . . . ] The nature of evolution according to physical Science is a development of forms more and more suitable to an increasingly complex and subtle development of Life and incidentally only to a more and more complex and subtle consciousness serving the ends of Life. This consciousness is a temporary phenomenon beginning in each form with birth and ending with

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death of the body. Consciousness then is a circumstance of body and incapable of survival of the body. There is no such thing per se as consciousness. A consciousness not dependent on the body, expressing itself in it as its instrument, a soul or spirit, is therefore a myth, an imagination; if it existed, it would be an unwarrantable intrusion into the nature of things as seen in this material universe; or, since everything in this universe is dependent on Matter, arose from Matter, is a circumstance or result of Matter and returns to Matter, soul too would be a circumstance or result of Matter, would act by it and in it only, would return finally to Matter. Consciousness itself is a phenomenon of Matter, is nothing but Matter in action, a combination of phenomenal action of chemical or other physical entities and operations and can be nothing else. It is unproven and unprovable, — though it may be that it is also not disproved and not disprovable. Either it must be left in a barren light or no light of agnosticism or is at most a matter of faith and not of knowledge. But all this only means that Science has not any adequate means to deal precisely with the supraphysical nor can it collect and handle all the necessary data; it can deal only with the physical and with the physical side of the supraphysical; and that is not enough. Faith and knowledge are themselves supraphysical things with which Science cannot deal; for psychology at present is not a science; it is only a dispute between different bundles of inferences and guesses. * Man is not final, he is a transitional being. This imperfect thinker embarrassed by the limitations of his brain and senses, this ignorant mind seeking after the truth of himself and things and never arriving at a certain knowledge, this stumbling reasoner capable only of speculation and stiff logical conclusions but not of indubitable conclusions or of a complete or direct knowledge, this imperfect liver divided between his reasoning will and his half-governed impulsions and

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instinctive desires, this thing of bundles of ideas and sensations and lusts and longings, this hunter after forms and formulas, this suffering and sorrowing mixture of wisdom and imbecility we call man is not the final essay of Nature, her last word, the crown of her evolution, the summit of consciousness, her master creation. * The central fact, the essential and cardinal significance of the evolution is not development and perfection of the outer and instrumental form, but the development [and] increasing perfection of consciousness. If human consciousness had been something complete, consummate, a ne plus ultra, then we could confidently say that here was the summit, here the crown and end of things and beings, here the perfected creation and the supreme terrestrial creator. Or if his consciousness though imperfect showed signs that it could arrive [at] the very top of possibility, rule earth and discover heaven, then we might believe that man was the last instrument by which Nature was passing from the terrestrial to the highest stage developing out of her initial inconscience a supreme conscient being. But man seems to be by his very mould of nature a being with an animal living out of which he grew and a mental boundary beyond which he cannot pass. For mind is the man, mind cramped into a body and entangled in the intricate machinery of a laborious and precarious physical organism which helps it less than it hampers. Mind’s only data for knowledge are the motions of terrestrial life, the motions and processes of the physical world and its own processes and motions. Its notions about other things are merely speculations, guesses, imaginations; it thinks about them by means of abstractions, it cannot grasp anything concrete. It can observe life and know it by observation and inferences from observation or it can know by theory; it can find out its constituent parts and its processes. Its knowledge of itself is of the same

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variety; it traces out the processes of thinking, demarcates the observed constituents of personality; it evaluates men from what they say and do, not from what they are, for that it cannot see. It discovers by analysis or makes a synthesis by fitting together the fragments of things. Eventually it discovers the phenomenon, but misses the reality; it knows things as objects but knows nothing about things in themselves. Reality is beyond its grasp, it is only sure about the appearance. This is much for one who emerged out of nescient Matter and started as the ignorant animal, but it is not enough to make of man the crown of creation and the last apex of the evolution. If man’s knowledge and his way of knowledge are imperfect, still more imperfect are his living and his doing. [His] works sometimes attain perfection. Some men have done well in poetry and the arts and crafts, more have done badly, most are conventional copyists or botchers. In science and works with a scientific basis, men have certainly done well and their works were often efficient or masterly, for there all is method and rule and there the human mind seeks to master and execute what he has to do and that he can always do. Few have insight in works, fewer have any originality. Journeyman’s work he can do, for man is essentially a journeyman. He is skilful in putting things [up], buildings, a job, a swindle. In pulling down he is perfect, a destroyer ne plus ultra. The world is full of his constructions, but more pervasive is his destruction; but that leaves few traces. But still the great doers are few in number, the good doers are many, the poor doers are legion, the evil doers hardly less. All this shows that he is a transitional and evolving animal, the highly evolved are rare, the poorly evolved numerous, the ill-evolved a multitude. Living is more difficult than doing; though it is universal, and ought to have become easy by practice, it is commonly ill done, almost universally botched or half worked out. Human society is a ramshackle affair; it is top-heavy, over-elaborate and opulent at the top, below a multitudinous level. When he tries to reform his world, he sets out to level everything down towards

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or even to the worst. He can force all things down to the level of a universal proletariat, but he cannot make of the proletariat a universal aristocracy. 55 There are two states of being, two levels or limits between which all existence stands or moves, a highest limit of supreme consciousness, an omniscient Superconscience, a nethermost limit of supreme unconsciousness, an omnipotent Inconscience. The secret of consciousness reveals itself only when we perceive these two limits and the movement between them which we call the universe. There can be no consciousness without existence, for the consciousness of a Void or a Nihil is a vain imagination, a thing impossible. For Nothing cannot be conscious of anything — cannot be conscious of itself; if it were conscious of itself, it would at once be an existence aware of itself, it would cease to be a Nihil; it would at once be evident that it was all the time an Existence appearing to be Nihil, that it was Being or a Being unconscious, but now grown conscious of its own existence. A void conscious of itself is conceivable, but it would then be a void existence and not Nihil. There might be an eternal Non-Being, but that too could not be Nihil; eventually it could only be a supreme superconscient existence exceeding our notion of Being. A true Nihil would necessarily be as incapable of consciousness as of existence; out of it nothing could come as in it nothing could be, neither spirit nor soul nor mind nor Matter. We have then at one end of things a supreme superconscient existence and [at the other] a supreme inconscient existence and between them we have consciousness in the universe; but both are two states of one Being; what is between also is movement of that one Being between its two ends, its two highest and lowest levels of self-manifestation. Ekam evadvitiyam.

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All existence upon earth is an evolution of what has come down from a superconscious Eternity to be involved here in a subconscious Infinite.2 That Eternity and this Infinite are the same Essence in opposite powers, but the one appears as a dark shadow of the other. The Superconscient is hidden from us because it is wrapped in its own being of illimitable light; the Inconscient escapes our search because it is plunged in its own veil of impenetrable darkness. All that manifested from the Eternal has already been arranged in worlds or planes of its own nature, planes of subtle Matter, planes of Life, planes of Mind, planes of Supermind, planes of the triune luminous Infinite. But these worlds or planes are not evolutionary but typal. A typal world is one in which some ruling principle manifests itself in its free and full capacity and energy and form are plastic and subservient to its purpose. Its expressions are therefore automatic and satisfying and do not need to evolve; they stand so long as need be and do not need to be born, develop, decline and disintegrate. For evolution to be necessary there must be an opposing medium or recalcitrant instruments or an involution of the thing in its opposite. This is what has happened in the terrestrial world. Spirit has to evolve out of matter, consciousness out 2

Three drafts of this piece exist; the first paragraph of each of them is identical, or almost so. From the third paragraph, the second and third drafts were developed on different lines by Sri Aurobindo. These two drafts have been printed as pieces 56 and 57. The first draft, much shorter, contains a few phrases not taken up in either of the other drafts. It is printed in its entirety below: All existence upon earth is an evolution, in an ascending series of figures, of what came down from a superconscious Eternity to be involved here in a subconscient Infinite. What was involved evolves slowly; each manifested term of the evolution is a step in the series and presupposes another step beyond it. There can be no finality until a perfect potential is reached which can express all the possibilities of the involved Godhead. The evolution is from the Inconscient; therefore at first ignorant, feeling its way rather than consciously finding it. But its significant element is a growing consciousness which must at last emerge out of ignorance into Knowledge. When that happens the evolution will become conscious, aware of its way, no longer a stumbling search or precarious growth but a luminous outblossoming of the Divine.

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of the Inconscient, life out of inanimation, mind out of a life that is void of thought; out of mind and its fragmentation and difficult piecing together of things the automatic completeness of the supramental knowledge. There is a secret self-compulsion in the Inconscient to manifest what is involved — gaoled, suppressed and inactive within it, but also there is a stupendous Inertia, as of some fathomless cosmic sleep, that resists the will to manifest and retards the evolution. There is thus an upward levitation towards the luminous eternity of the Spirit strongly countered by a downward gravitation back towards the Inconscience. This Inertia was needed in order that the evolution might be gradual by aeonic process and not an explosion of the concealed elements either into a rapid self-ordered typal series or into their original superconscience. As a consequence of this retarding force what is involved evolves with difficulty and slowly. Evolution is a struggle between an insistent call to manifestation and an iron retardatory reluctant Inertia. Evolutionary existence is precarious because the downward gravitation back to its source contradicts powerfully both the stress from within towards permanence and the pull from above towards self-transcendence. Matter in our world can easily dissolve into its elements, life sink back into death, mind relapse into unconsciousness. A type evolved, animal or man, struggles slowly and with much difficulty into manifestation, it is less difficult for it to disappear, as disappeared the mastodon and the dinosaurus. Hence the law of a precarious impermanence laid on the forms of Matter which is corrected only for a time by the lavish will to reproduction in Nature. As the evolution is from the Inconscient, it is not only a precarious but also an ignorant movement feeling its way rather than consciously finding it. But still its most significant term is a growing consciousness which must at last emerge out of ignorance into knowledge. When that happens, the evolution will become a willed and conscious movement, aware of its process and its way, no longer a stumbling search or a precarious growth

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but a luminous outflowering of the Divine.3 The call to manifestation is composed of a double current of Force moving between two poles. There is a will or at least an urge in the Inconscient itself, slow, dumb, obscure but imperative and inevitable towards the revelation of its involved contents. But there is also a pressure from above from the already established Powers for their manifestation in Space-Time here and for their evolutionary possibilities in the world of Matter. A world of subtle Matter presses on the shapeless Inconscient for the manifestation of forms; a world of essential Life presses on form of Matter for the manifestation of an embodied life; a world of essential Mind presses on animate life for the manifestation of mind in the living body. This compulsion is so great as to contradict and counteract finally the refusing and retarding Inertia. Above on the summits of existence is all that is beyond Mind and all that is the complete splendour of the Spirit. These too wait for their hour of manifestation, their turn for revelation in Time and Space and the evolving series of the powers of the Eternal. 57 All existence upon earth is an evolution of what has come down from a superconscious Eternity to be involved here in a subconscious Infinite. The superconscious Eternity to which we tend and the subconscious Infinite from which we rise — for we are a part of both and we stand between them as their developing link — are opposite powers of the same Being, are indeed, in their essence, one and the same Being; but one appears to our experience as a dark and void shadow of the other. The Superconscient is hidden 3

The incomplete passage that follows apparently was intended for insertion here: A third consequence of the origin of the evolution is its character of struggle and suffering. For all is involved here in its opposite. Being descends into the phenomenon of Non-Being and has to emerge from it. Consciousness descends into the worldwide Inconscience and is involved in its night. Force descends into

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from us because it is wrapped in its own being of illimitable light; the Inconscient escapes our search because it is plunged in its own veil of impenetrable darkness. What comes down from the Superconscient is self, spirit, the wide and all-containing Essence of the eternal existence. It plunges, carrying its powers in it, into an infinite ocean of inconscience, apraketam salilam, and hides itself there. It hides itself and its powers from itself — it appears in us as its own opposite. The Self is an immortal and unseizable essence and substance of all things, it is a pure omnipresent omniscient omnipotent existence. It appears to our experience when we emerge from the subconscient as a mysterious Void or Nihil, indeterminable yet from it all things and forms are, inconscient yet flowering into consciousness, inert yet manifesting enormous energies, lifeless yet the parent of life, insensible yet a fountain of pain and pleasure. This impossibility, this universal contradiction is unreal and born of our ignorance; yet that ignorance is not ours, but a result of the inconscience which was imposed on itself as a veil by the involved Self and Spirit. For if that Inconscience were not there, the evolutionary emergence of the Self which is the law and object of this universe would not have been possible; all would have flowered into a manifestation too immediate, too irresistibly powerful in its process, too absolute. The Self, the Spirit is a pure existence, a spiritual substance that is self-aware and therefore all-aware. It is in its nature an absolute and omniscient consciousness, eternally comprehending all itself, all in itself and would naturally manifest as an absolute, unwalled, indivisible knowledge. It becomes an inconscience out of which consciousness struggles brokenly into light, seeking and groping for itself, groping after signs and intimations of its substance, but finding at first only fragmentary signs and separated forms and objects which seem not itself. The consciousness in the individualised form becomes aware of itself by the shock of things outside that are or seem to be not itself. It becomes aware of itself as a separated form and only when it grows more and more deeply self-conscious slowly becomes aware of all outside

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it as part of its own continuous indivisible existence. The nature of the Spirit’s consciousness is a self-existent Force which in action becomes a spontaneously self-manifesting or, as it seems to us, self-creating and self-determining energy. It is omnisciently omnipotent and creates out of itself what it wills under whatever conditions it wills — for its will is that of an infinite and infinitely variable self-aware oneness whose steps, no matter what they are, are by necessity the movement of a perfect Truth and Knowledge. But it is by an equal necessity the very opposite when the manifestation of the Substance of things becomes the working of a void Inconscience. For even if that Inconscience be only apparent because an all-knowledge and its force are hidden there, yet this error, this phenomenon of Inconscience is and was intended to be dynamic and operative. In other words, all had to look and appear as the gropings of an Inconscience whose results in their upshot were yet those of an ordered and imperative Intelligence. An inert Soul guiding with a strange and blind sureness the steps of a somnambulist Nature would be no inadequate image of the apparent Spirit of this material universe. This material world sprung from the subconscious Infinite appears to us as if [it] were the sole actual universe and even perhaps the only creation possible. But that is because we are limited by our senses which we now know to be restricted in their field and even there fallible. The material senses by their very nature can perceive only material things and from that our still infantile external reason infers that only material things exist and there is nothing else. All forms that are immaterial or of another substance than ours are and cannot but be illusions, hallucinations, unreal images. But a being otherwise constituted in consciousness or sense could well see this world in other figures than present themselves to ours. Another would see perhaps other worlds made of another, a subtler material or an essentially mental or vital or spiritual substance. A world is only an arrangement of things as experienced by consciousness of the Spirit and this consciousness can see all kinds of things in all kinds of ways according to whatever plane of itself, whatever medium and whatever instruments it has produced for its

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cosmic purpose. We shall understand nothing of existence if we confine our vision to the particular view of things our primary consciousness and its instruments which are physical impose upon us; for this consciousness is only a surface phenomenon of ourselves and our total being is far deeper, higher and vaster than that, our possibilities extend infinitely beyond their present limit, and the world also is far more complex than the first crude inexplicable mystery of Matter would lead us to imagine. The immense material world in which we live is not the sole reality but only one of innumerable potential and existent universes; all of them need not have either Matter as we know it or the Inconscient for their base. Indeed this world of matter is itself dependent on many planes of consciousness and existence which are not material; for these have not this gross substance as their foundation or as the medium of their instrumentation of energy and consciousness or their primary condition of existence. All the powers that are involved here in the inconscient Infinite and that we see rising out of it, — mind, life and what is beyond mind no less than matter itself — have their previous existence and are not merely evolutionary results of Nature in this universe. They have not only a preexistence but also their separate planes of manifestation in which each in turn is, as matter is here, the foundation, the medium of instrumentation, the primary condition of existence. 58 All terrestrial existence is the slow surge of a hidden Consciousness mounting up out of an apparent Inconscience towards its own perfect and luminous manifestation. This is the secret of evolution and its significance.4 There is a spirit secret even in things immobile, — there is an All-Consciousness disguised in the Inconscient. In Matter life 4 Sri Aurobindo left out the sentence that follows when he revised the first draft of this piece: All else is only veils and means and forms, conditions and stages, action and counteraction of this great half-veiled becoming which is the heart of the earth’s enigma.

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is embedded, in Life is an enveloped mind, in Mind is concealed a greater supramental and spiritual being not yet manifested. These are the significant and illumining terms of the riddle. Evolution is the labour of Nature, or let us say at once of the Energy of the secret Spirit, working in the semblance and under the limiting conditions of an inconscient Power to release these latencies each in its turn out of their involution in the original Inconscience. It is an All-consciousness that is working, the force of a selfaware cosmic Spirit, and the emergence of its secret powers is implied in the very nature of existence; therefore the result is inevitable. Science has discovered a physical evolution hidden in the past history of the earth of which the living record remains in the embryo; but the physical evolution is only an outward sign, means and material condition of a still more secret evolution. A spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness is the inner fact which alone illumines the problem of earth existence and opens to it its true solution; apart from it our life here has no intelligible significance. Ancient Indian thought discovered an evolution from birth to birth, from the life of tree and plant to the life of insect and animal, from the life of the animal to the life of man, attained with difficulty through the ages. This slowly attained human life it took to be the key of release from the baffling circle of the enigma. After some eighty and more lakhs of births, says the Tantra, a soul reaches the human form and consciousness and sooner or later finds the secret of escape from birth in time into the birthless and deathless Eternity from which it came. These two discoveries seem at first sight quite unconnected and disparate. In one it is a physical Life in the cosmos that evolves and the individual is only an ephemeral member of the species, the species a means of this cosmic evolution. Mind is indeed the term and the mental human being the crown of this inexplicable emergence; when human progress is over, when the race decays and perishes, the cosmic evolution will be at an

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end, for it has nothing more then it can do. In man it has shot its bolt; nothing more is possible. Consciousness emerging out of the Inconscient has achieved this shoddy and splendid, this winging and limping miracle of the ever-seeking creative Mind of Man and sinks back into the Inconscient; its emergence had no discoverable significance, its brief play and cessation make no difference to the meaningless rounds of an inconscient universe. In the Indian view it is the individual that evolves from birth to birth and the hierarchy of the vegetal, animal, human kinds [is] a fixed unchanging ladder for its ascent. A successive creation of higher and higher species is envisaged in the Upanishads as well as the Puranas and heredity affirmed as a means of conscious continuity of the human embodiment of the Spirit, but still the evolution is individual and not cosmic, spiritual not physical. Yet here too this persistent phenomenon of spiritual embodiment appearing from the bodiless Spirit and evolving back into the bodiless Spirit seems to be devoid of significance. If stripped of their limitations the two discoveries can be regarded as complementary rather than disparate. There is evidently an evolution; Matter first manifests out of the Formless — inanimate in appearance; in Matter life manifests unconscious in appearance; in life mind manifests in the animal but instinctive and irrational in appearance; in life-mind thinking mind appears rational but yet self-ignorant in appearance, — for it seeks to know but yet does not know the secret and significance of its own existence. It is not yet undisputed but it is affirmed that in thinking man spirit is moving towards manifestation, spirit aware of itself and of its own secret and significance. Thus far at least an evolution is indisputable and we may affirm without hesitation that there is a cosmic Existence here which first achieves a material manifestation of itself or a manifestation in itself, a material formula, then on that basis a life formulation, a vital formula, on that again a mental formulation, a mind formula. It is possible that on that again it is preparing a spiritual formulation of self-affirmation and self-knowledge which will complete the emergence. There is also very evidently an evolution of forms, generic

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and individual in the genus and species, which enables the formulation to be effective, each in its own kind, organised so as to express more and more definite and superior possibilities of matter, more and more definite and superior possibilities of life, more and more definite and superior possibilities of mind, — more than this cannot yet be positively asserted, but this much is asseverable. If we can add that in the mental formula, in the mentalised life and body of man, a spiritual emergence is in process which has not yet reached its full possibility and that possibility is the emergence of the spiritual man or supramental being, then the object of the physical evolution and its significance becomes clear. The evolution of bodies is only a means for the evolution of consciousness and the spiritual formulation will be that in which the cosmic Existence will find its own full affirmation, manifest through the original veil of Matter its selfawareness, self-knowledge, self-realisation. The Cosmic Spirit hidden in the Inconscience is then the Alpha, its manifestation in the consciousness of spiritualised man the Omega.

The Stages of Evolution Matter, Life, Mind, Supermind 59 The evolution of the earth nature is not finished because it has manifested only three powers out of the seven-fold scale of consciousness that is involved in manifested Nature. It has brought out from its apparent inconscience only the three powers of Mind and Life and Matter. 60 Matter, one might say from a certain viewpoint, is purely a matter of mathematics. That cannot be said of Mind or of Life. Then again, Matter is a matter of formulas. Everything purely material is created according to a formula.

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Again, Matter is a matter of magic. It is a thing of magical and irrational or suprarational formulas. Lastly, all Matter is matra, a thing of degrees, measures, quantities. * We find that water is produced by a combination in a fixed quantity of the two first elements, hydrogen and oxygen. We do not know or do not yet know why this should be so. All we can say is that [it] is a fixed law of Nature that when this formula is scrupulously followed without deviation something called water appears, — becomes a phenomenon of material Nature. There seems to be no reason in this miracle. We could partly understand if oxygen and hydrogen by their very nature tended to produce in any combination water or something like water, but only in the fixed amounts could bring out the perfect article. But this is not the case; only by the fixed relative combination can it be done. This formula then is of the nature of a magic formula. Only by pronouncing a fixed combination of words or syllables or sounds can the [ . . . ] magic result follow and not otherwise. Any variation voids the effect and leaves the incantation barren. Hydrogen itself is produced by a combination of a fixed number of electrons or electric particles of energy in a fixed relative position in their movement. Oxygen is produced by another such combination. The elements are alike in kind, it is a positional quantitative [remainder of piece missing] 61 Ether and material space are different names for the same thing. Space, in its origin at least if not in its universal character, is an extension of the substance of consciousness in which motion of energy can take place for the relations of being with being or force with force and for the building up of symbolic forms on which this interchange can be supported. Ether is

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space supporting the works of material energy and the symbolic forms it creates; it is, speaking paradoxically but to the point, immaterial or essential matter[.] 62 Matter is but a form of consciousness; nevertheless solve not the object entirely into its subjectivity. Reject not the body of God, O God lover, but keep it for thy joy; for His body too is delightful even as His spirit. Perishable and transitory delight is always the symbol of the eternal Ananda, revealed and rapidly concealed, which seeks by increasing recurrence to attach itself to some typal form of experience in material consciousness. When the particular form has been perfected to express God in the type, its delight will no longer be perishable but an eternally recurrent possession of mental beings in matter manifest in their periods & often in their moments of felicity. 63 Evolution is the one eternal dynamic law and hidden process of the earth-nature. An evolution of the instruments of the spirit in a medium of matter is the whole fundamental significance of the values of the earth-existence. All its other laws are its values of operation and process; the spiritual evolution is its one pervading secret sense. * The history of the earth is first an evolution of organised forms by the working of material forces. There follows on this initial stage an evolution of life in the form and an organisation of a hierarchy of living forms by the working of liberated life-forces. The next step is an evolution of mind in living bodies and an organisation of more and more conscious lives by the process of developing mind forces. But

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even this is not the end; for there are higher powers of consciousness beyond mind which await their turn and must have their act in the great play, their part of the creative Lila. * Matter, the medium of all this evolution, is seemingly inconscient and inanimate; but it so appears to us only because we are unable to sense consciousness outside a certain limited range, a fixed scale or gamut to which we have access. Below us there are lower ranges to which we are insensible and these we call subconscience or inconscience. Above us are higher ranges which are to our inferior nature an unseizable superconscience. The difficulty of Matter is not an absolute inconscience but an obscured consciousness limited by its own movement, vaguely, dumbly, blindly self-aware, only mechanically responsive to anything outside its own form and force. At its worst it can be called not so much inconscience as nescience. The awakening of a greater and yet greater consciousness in this Nescience is the miracle of the universe of Matter. This nescience of Matter is a veiled, an involved or a somnambulist consciousness which contains all the latent powers of the Spirit. In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the omniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite. The evolution of forms and powers by which Matter will become more and more conscious until passing beyond form and life and mind it becomes aware with the supernal awareness of the eternal and infinite Spirit in his own highest ranges, this is the meaning of earth existence. The slow self-manifesting birth of God in Matter is the purpose of the terrestrial Lila. * * Matter is at once a force and a substance. Matter is original being, Brahman made concrete in atomic division; Matter is original substance-force, Brahman-Shakti made active in an obscure

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involution of the spirit’s powers, in a self-forgetful nescience. Matter-force casts matter-substance, material Shakti casts Matter-Brahman into form expressive of its own most characteristic powers. When that has been done, the physical world is ready for the splendid intrusion of conscious Life into the force-driven inertia of material substance. Matter is not the only force, nor the only substance. For Life and Mind too and what is beyond Mind are also forces that are substances but of another kind and degree. Spirit is the original force-substance; all these others are kinds and derivations of force of spirit, degrees and modifications [of] substance of spirit. Matter too is nothing but a power and degree of the spirit; Matter too is substance of the Eternal. But the Matter that we see and sense is only an outermost sheath and coating; behind it are other subtler degrees of physical substance which are less dense with the atomic nescience and it is easier for Life and Mind to enter into them and operate. If finer invisible physical layers or couches did not exist supporting this gross visible physical world, that world could not abide; for then the fine operations of transmission between Spirit and Matter [could not] be executed at all and it is these that render the grosser visible operations possible. The evolution would be impossible; life and mind and beyond-mind would be unable to manifest in the material universe. There is not only this material plane of being that we see, there is a physical life plane proper to the vital physical operation of Nature. There is a physical mind plane proper to a mental physical operation of Nature. There is a physical supermind plane proper to the supramental physical operation of Nature. There is too a plane of physical spirit power or infinite physical Being-Consciousness-Force-Bliss proper to the spiritual physical operations of Nature. It is only when we have discovered and separated these planes of Nature and of our physical being and analysed the synthesis of their contributions to the whole play that we shall discover how the evolution of vital, mental and spiritual consciousness became possible in inconscient Matter.

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But there is more; for beyond these many couches of the physical existence are other supraphysical degrees, a many layered plane of Life, a many layered plane of Mind, planes of Supermind, of Bliss, of Consciousness Force and of infinite Being on which the physical existence depends for its origination and its continuance. It is higher planes that flood the constantly unfolding unseen energies which have raised its evolution from the obscurity in which it began to the splendour of a light of consciousness to which the highest human mind shall only be the feeble glimmer of a glowworm fire before the sun in its flaming glories. There is a stupendous hierarchy of grades of consciousness between darkest Matter and most luminous spirit. Consciousness in Matter has to go on climbing to the very top of the series and return with all it has to give us before the evolution can utterly fulfil its purpose. * * Matter, Life, Mind, Supermind or Gnosis, and beyond these the quadruple power of a supreme Being-Consciousness-ForceBliss — these are the grades of the evolutionary ascent from inconscience to the Superconscience. Life does not wholly come into the earth from outside it; its principle is there always in material things. But, imprisoned in the apparent inanimate inertia or blind force movement of Matter, it is bound by its movements and unable to manifest its own independent or dominant existence. Life is there in the earth, rock, metal, gas, atom, electron and the other more subtle yet undiscovered forces and particles that constitute material energy and form. It is in everything, but at first a hardly detectable presence organised only to support secretly material energies, processes, formations and transformations; it is there as an involved power for the building and expression of Form of Matter, not for the expression of Life. It is not in possession of itself, not self-conscious in the form, not pushed towards self-manifestation; a helpless tool and

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instrument, not a free agent, it is a servant of Matter and a slave of the Form, not the master of the house. But above the material world there is a plane of dominant Life that presses down upon this material universe and seeks to pour into it whatever it can of its own types, powers, forces, impulsions, manifesting creative godheads. When in the material world form is ready, the Gods and Life-Daemons of this higher plane are attracted to put their creative touch upon Matter. Then there comes a rapid and sudden efflorescence of Life; the plant, the animalcule, the insect, the animal appear. A Life-Soul and a Life-Force with its many and always more complex movements are manifested in what seemed once to be inert and inanimate substance. Life souls, life minds, animal existences are born and evolve; a new world appears that is born and contained in this world of Matter and yet surpasses it in its own dynamic nature. 64 At each capital step of Nature’s ascent there is a reversal of consciousness in the evolving spirit. As when a climber turns on a summit to which he has laboured and looks down with an exalted and wider power of vision on all that was once above or on a level with him but is now below his feet, the evolutionary being not only transcends his past self, his former now exceeded status, but commands from a higher grade of self-experience and vision, with a new apprehending feeling or a new comprehending sight and effectuating power, in a greater system of values, all that was once his own consciousness but is now below his tops and belongs to an inferior creation. This reversal is the sign of a decisive victory and the seal of a radical progress in Nature. The new consciousness attained in the spiritual evolution is always higher in grade and power, always larger, more comprehensive, wider in sight and feeling, richer and finer in faculties, more complex, organic, dominating than the consciousness that was once our own but is now left behind us. There are greater breadths and spaces, heights before impossible, unexpected depths and intimacies. There is a luminous expansion

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that is the very sign manual of the Supreme upon his work.5 Mark too that each of the great radical steps forward already taken by Nature has been infinitely greater in its change, incalculably vaster in its consequences than its puny predecessor. There is a miraculous opening to an always richer and wider expression, there is a new illuminating of the creation and a dynamic heightening of its significances. There is in this world we live in no equality of all on a flat level, but a hierarchy of ever-increasing precipitous superiorities pushing their mountainshoulders upwards towards the Supreme. Plant-life is a most significant progress upon the mineral, but the difference is as nothing compared with the gulf that divides the dumb vitality of the plant from the conscious experience of the animal. The hiatus between the animal and the human is so great in consciousness, however physically small, that the scientists’ alleged cousinship of monkey and man looks psychologically almost incredible. And yet the difference between vital animal and mental man is as nothing to that which will be between man’s mind and the superman’s vaster consciousness and richer powers. That past step will be to this new one as the snail’s slow march in the grass to a Titan’s sudden thousand league stride from continent to continent. Evolution on the terrestrial plane, even in the dullest brute matter is only in outward appearance a progression of physical function and form; in its essential fact, in its inner meaning, in its significant power, it is a progression of consciousness, a spiritual or psychological change. At each step the spirit heightens its stature, perfects its instruments, organises better its self-expression; a new consciousness comes in, takes up the old and gives it an extended movement and another significance, adds greater, richer, more 5 The following passage from the first draft of this piece was not incorporated by Sri Aurobindo in the present draft: Illuminating his creation here and pointing out to it its own significance it suggests the culmination of ever-ascending superiorities in the Supreme and the opening of released ever-increasing widenesses in the Infinite.

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complex movements of which the first formulation was incapable. In the sub-vegetal world all movements, all stimulus, all reaction are of a material and if dynamic, of a mechanically dynamic character. Even the life movements that exist there, as in the mineral, are of the most rigidly automatic, unindividualised and mechanical and external nature, birth, formation, fatigue, sleep, death. Mental or psychic powers and significances there are, as an occult knowledge discovers, but of these the form seems not aware; it is something behind the life of the mineral, a consciousness supporting rather than inhabiting it, using but not used by it, that is their possessor. In the plant world for the first time a true vital consciousness appears in earth Nature. 65 All the trend and purpose of Nature in terrestrial existence is to manifest the yet unmanifested. Her continual aim is to develop out of what has been evolved that which has not been evolved but is waiting to [be] liberated out of latency. This continual evolution is the whole meaning of terrestrial existence. What has already been evolved is form of matter with life and mind housed in it, what has yet to be evolved is supermind liberating from their narrow limits and transforming mind and life and matter. Here on earth and in the material universe matter has been the first term, the basis of things, the condition of all that must evolve here. Life can evolve here only so far as it can persuade or compel matter to give it a form and an instrumentation. Mind too has to accommodate itself to the means given it by an organised living body. There is no reason to suppose however that life in itself is limited in its possibilities to the small range realised by the living animal or human body; or the potentialities [of] mind limited to the field of powers accorded to it by the brain, nerves and physical senses, its ingenious but still very poor and unreliable instruments here.

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In a world where life and not matter was the first term, condition and basis, in a vital world life would be free to organise itself in its own way with a free energy in plastic and pliable forms and its ranges of possibilities would be immense and circumscribed by no rigid limits. 66 But what shall be the gain won for the earth-consciousness we embody by this unprecedented ascent out of mind to whatever may be beyond it and what the significance of the supramental change? To what end shall man leave his safe human limits for this godlike but hazardous adventure? First consider what was gained when earthly Nature passed from the brute inconscience and inertia of the first organised forms in what seems to us inanimate Matter to the vibrant sensibility of the plant range. Life was gained; the gain was the beginning of the mute groping and involved consciousness that reaches out to growth, to sense-vibration, to waking and sleep, to hunger and thirst, to physical pain and pleasure, to a preparation for vital yearnings and a living joy and beauty. That was begun which still is unfinished — the first step towards a conscious consciousness and what shall yet be the divine Ananda.6 In the plant earth-nature achieved a first figure of life, but the creature she made could not possess it, because this first organised life-consciousness had feeling and seeking, woke and slept, hungered and was satisfied, thirsted and drank and grew and flourished, had pleasure of some contacts and suffered from others, but was still externally blind, dumb, deaf, chained to the soil from which it was born, involved in its own nerve and tissue. It could not get out of this primitive formula, could not get behind its nerve-self as does the vital mind of the animal, still less could turn down from above it to know and realise its own motions as does the thinking and observing mind of man and to 6 Not joy or pleasure, but the bliss of existence and its movements from which the world arose.

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control them. This was a decisive but an imprisoned gain; for there was still a gross oppression of the original Inconscience which had covered up with the brute phenomenon of Matter and energy of Matter all signs of the Spirit. Nature could nowise stop here, because she held so much in her that was still occult, potential, unexpressed, unorganised, suppressed, latent; the evolution had perforce to go farther. The animal had to replace the plant at the head and top of Nature. And what then was gained when Nature passed from the obscurity of the plant kingdom to the awakened sense and desire and emotion and the free mobility of animal life? The gain was liberated sense and feeling and desire and courage and cunning and the contrivance of the objects of desire, passion and action and hunger and battle and conquest and the sex-call and play and pleasure, and all the joy and pain of the conscious living creature. Not only the life of the body which the animal has in common with the plant but a life-mind that appeared for the first time in the earth-story and grew and grew from form to more organised form till it reached in the best the limit of its own formula. The animal achieved a first form of mind, but could not possess it, because this first organised mind consciousness was enslaved in a narrow scope, tied to the first functionings of the physical body and brain and nerve, tied to serve the physical life and its desires and needs and passions, limited to the insistent uses of the vital urge, to natural longing and feeling and action, bound by its own inferior instrumentation, its spontaneous combinings of association and memory and instinct. It could not get away from them, could not get behind them as man’s intelligence gets behind them to observe them; still less could it turn down on them from above as do human reason and will to control, enlarge, reorder, exceed, sublimate. 67 Mind emerges out of life in matter; it is incapable of manifesting

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directly in the material form. It is there, but it acts mechanically in the somnambulism of an original force of inconscience and inertia. This and no more is what we mean by the inconscience of Matter; for although consciousness is there, it is involved, inorganic, mechanical in its action; it supports the works of Force by its inherent presence, but not by its light of active intelligence. This is why material Nature does the works of a supreme and miraculous intelligence and yet there seems to be no intervention of any indwelling Seer or Thinker. 68 Because man is a mental being, he naturally imagines that mind is the one great leader and actor and creator or the indispensable agent in the universe. But this is an error; even for knowledge mind is not the only or the greatest possible instrument, the one aspirant and discoverer. Mind is a clumsy interlude between Nature’s vast and precise subconscient action and the vaster infallible superconscient action of the Godhead. There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind’s immobility and thought-free stillness. When mind is still, then Truth gets her chance to be heard in the purity of the silence. Truth cannot be attained by the mind’s thought but only by identity and silent vision. Truth lives in the calm wordless Light of the eternal spaces; she does not intervene in the noise and cackle of logical debate. Thought in the mind can at most be Truth’s brilliant and transparent garment; it is not even her body. Look through the robe, not at it, and you may see some hint of her form. There can be a thought-body of Truth, but that is the spontaneous supramental Thought and Word that leap fully formed out of the Light, not any difficult mental counterfeit and patchwork. The supramental Thought is not a means of arriving at Truth, for Truth in the supermind is self-found or self-existent, but a way of expressing her. It is an arrow from the Light, not a bridge to reach it.

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Cease inwardly from thought and word, be motionless within you, look upward into the light and outward into the vast cosmic consciousness that is around you. Be more and more one with the brightness and the vastness. Then will Truth dawn on you from above and flow in on you from all around you. But only if the mind is no less intense in its purity than its silence. For in an impure mind the silence will soon fill with misleading lights and false voices, the echo or sublimation of its own vain conceits and opinions or the response to its secret pride, vanity, ambition, lust, greed or desire. The Titans and the Demons will speak to it more readily than the divine Voices. Silence is indispensable, but also there is needed wideness. If the mind is not silent, it cannot receive the lights and voices of the supernal Truth or receiving mixes with them its own flickering tongues and blind pretentious babble. Active, arrogant, noisy, it distorts and disfigures what it receives. If it is not wide, it cannot house the effective power and creative force of the Truth. Some light may play there but it becomes narrow, confined and sterile. Or the force that is descending is cabined and thwarted and withdraws again from this rebellious foreign plane to its vast native heights. Or even if something comes down and remains, it is a pearl in the mire; for no change takes place in the nature or else there is formed only a thin intensity that points narrowly upward to the summits but can hold little and diffuse less upon the world around it. 69 Reason is a clarified, ordered and organised Ignorance. It is a half-enlightened Ignorance seeking for truth, but a truth which it insists on founding upon the data and postulates of the Ignorance. Reason is not in possession of the Truth, it is a seeker. It is [unable to] discover the Truth or embody it; it leaves Truth covered but rendered into mental representations, a verbal and ideative scheme, an abstract algebra of concepts, a theory of the Ignorance. Sense-evidence is its starting point and it never really gets away from that insecure beginning. Its concepts start from

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sense-data and though like a kite it can fly high into an air of abstractions, it is held to the earth of sense by a string of great strength; if that string is broken it drifts lazily [in] the clouds and always it falls back by natural gravitation to its original earth basis — only so can it receive strength to go farther. Its field is the air and sky of the finite, it cannot ascend into the stratosphere of the spiritual vision, still less can it move at ease in the Infinite. 70 Mind can never be a perfect instrument of knowledge. For even if it could be free from all positive error, even if it could be all intuitive and infallibly intuitive, it could still present and organise only half truths or separated truths and these too not in their own body but in luminous representative figures put together to make an accumulated total or a massed structure[.] 71 The office of intellect is not to fathom reality, but to fabricate and preside over action; intellect cannot comprehend life and reality. Intellect (logic) goes round the object, intuition enters into the object; one stops at the [? ], the other enters into the absolute[.] 72 Intuition, — but what do we mean when we speak of intuition? What is its origin, nature, working, and how is it connected with intelligence and sense and instinct, our other ways of knowing, or what is the difference? Is intuition the one means of true and complete knowledge or does it need intelligence, sense, instinct to complete it? Is there a greater power of direct and absolute and complete knowledge of which intuition is only a special or part action, — some first and last potency, the Alpha and Omega

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of an all-knowledge, the all-knowledge that we attribute to God or to the Spirit of the universe? These are the queries it is proposed to answer here; but the answer can come only from intuition itself, from a direct seeing and experience, for if intuition exists, it and its way of working must obviously be something beyond the reasoning intelligence and therefore not entirely seizable by the reasoning intelligence. I know myself because I am myself, I know the movements of my mind, joy, anger, love, thought, will, because they are myself or parts of myself; I have a direct knowledge of myself, a knowledge by identity. Observation, reasoning there can be as a subsidiary process; but it is not by observation or reasoning that I know them; I feel and know my anger or love as part of myself and have no need to observe or to reason in order to know that I am angry or that I love. Intuition is a direct knowledge self-existent and independent of means and devices; it is naturally self-existent and founded upon a knowledge by identity; or when it is gained, it is either by identification or by a knowledge arising from some intimate contact made possible by an underlying or occult identity. 73 Nothing has the value of truth for the supramental if it is only thought or understood with the intelligence. That is a shadow or reflection and shadows can always distort, at best only adumbrate; reflections can always misform or mistranslate and at best have not the truth-substance. It is only when the object is entered into, seen with an inner and surrounding vision, possessed in experience, taken into our living universal & identifying individual consciousness, made one with us in the Truth that is, holds, comprehends, actuates all things, — only then is there the characteristic process of the supermind, the way of directness, the sincerity and power, the magnificence and general wholeness of the gnosis[.]

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74 But what is supermind and where is it in this world of half lights, in which consciousness is a constructor of ideas, images and sensations that at once inform and mislead, representations that are half truths, half misrepresentations, symbols of things, not things in themselves, relative impressions but nothing absolute. Our senses give us the forms of things as they seem to our senses, not as they are; for they would appear quite different to other senses than ours; our mind builds the great mass of its idea of the world and things on this insecure basis, or if it corrects the evidence of the senses, it is in the light of a reason whose conceptions of Time, Space and Substance are equally imperfect, equally relative, empirically valid up to a certain point, but fundamentally dubious and insecure. Is not this the only consciousness possible, or at least the highest of which we are capable and have we any evidence of a higher power of awareness and knowledge or any ground to suppose that there are beings greater than man who possess it? Is not this world and must it not be always a world of Ignorance, knowledge partial at the best, all knowledge here relative, pragmatic, indirect and no knowledge either here or anywhere that can be called supreme, direct or absolute? If absolute knowledge there is it must be the sheer consciousness of the Featureless Infinite, the One Self, the void or formless Spirit, and there can be no other. 75 I mean by the supermind a power, a level, an organisation of consciousness which is not only above the human mind, but above all that can be called mind, — another higher and wider essence and energy of consciousness altogether. Mind is that which seeks after truth of any kind or of all kinds within its range, labours to know it, attempts to direct and utilise it. But by supermind I mean a divine awareness which inherently possesses truth, knows it by its own intrinsic identity with it and puts it into action or effect spontaneously by its own sovereign power

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without any need of endeavour or labour. Mind even though it seeks after knowledge and can sometimes grasp its figure or touch its shadow, is a product of the cosmic Inconscient or of a Half-Conscience-Ignorance; supermind is an eternal Truthconsciousness, a divine Knowledge self-maintained for ever and luminous in its own right beyond all Ignorance.

The Emergence of the Superman 76 A god has veiled himself in the earth & mire and beauty and perfection lie unevolved in masses of ordure. This is the play of God with His substance in Matter. In the atom there is hidden all the will & intelligence & joy that created the universe. In Man they have emerged, but blinking & dazzled by the gleam of their own sunlight, bewildered at themselves & each other. They stumble up against each other, strive & wrestle blindly; for they cannot even [in] the highest man accomplish altogether their own unity & harmony. An ignorance in which is packed up all knowledge, a mighty inertia in which all cosmic force strives helplessly, an insensibility which conceals the pain and strain of all ecstasy present, but held back, this is the outer face of material Nature and our starting point. The Spirit awakening out of this veil gradually and with difficulty but inevitably is the secret sense of life. The power to accomplish the perfect awakening against accumulated difficulties, is God’s offer to man throughout his cycles. The perfection & the unity of the divine knowledge, will, delight in the mould of his universalised individuality is the destiny of man, his ascent to Godhead and the unfolding in him of Superman. Mind evolved is man; supermind unevolved conceals in him the superman.

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77 This is the meaning of our existence here, its futuristic value and inherent trend of power, to rise above ourselves, to grow into gods, to reveal God in a world of material forms and forces. Earth and conscious life upon earth are not a freak of cosmic Chance, a meaningless accident in the vacant history of nebula and electron and gas and plasm; they are the field of a game of the Gods with the destiny of our souls as the stake of their wager. To evolve Godhead out of the mud of matter, some divinest consciousness out of a primal inconscience and a struggling ignorance, immortality out of death, undying bliss out of pain and sorrow, the everlasting Truth out of the falsehoods and denials of this relative world is their great and daring gamble. All life upon earth is the evolution of a divine Spirit that is concealed as by a self-formed mask and robe in the appearance of Matter. Out of that involution it evolves, manifests by a series of ascendent steps its suppressed powers and, once this process has begun, will not cease till the Godhead is manifest in Matter. Man is a struggling transitional term, an intermediate being who has gathered up into himself the consciousness of the mineral and the vegetable, of the insect and the animal, and is fashioning and refining in the confused twilight and chaos of a half knowledge founded on Ignorance the materials of the god that is to be born. The instrument of man is mind and thinking and willing mind-force — just as the instrument of the animal is life instinct and feeling and remembering life force and the instrument of the plant and tree existence is the vital push and the dynamism of material energy turning into force of life. As these lower states developed up to a point at which Mind-intelligence could descend into the organised living body and take up the earth-past to mentalise and transform it, so Mind in man has to develop up to a point at which a consciousness greater than Mind can descend into the mind and living body and take up the human material to supramentalise and transform it into godhead. This is man’s rise to the Infinite.

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An air from a consciousness greater than mind has already been felt by many of those who have climbed to the human summits and to the glow that has come from above they have given many names, bodhi, intuition, gnosis. But these things are only the faint edge of that greater light thrust into the pallid twilight that we call mind. Only when the lid between mind and supermind has been utterly rent apart and the full power of the sun of a divine Gnosis can pour down — not trickling through mind as in diminished and deflected beams — and transform the whole mind and life and body of the human creature, can man’s labour finish. Then only shall begin the divine play and the free outpouring of the liberated self-creating Spirit. To rise into this greater consciousness above our mental level of humanity as man has risen above the level of the life-mind of the beast, to grow from mind into supermind, from twilight into light, from the mind’s half-consciousness into what is now to us superconscient, from a narrow imprisoned ego into the transcendent and universalised individual, from a struggling half effective into a throned and master power, from little transient joys and sorrows into an unalloyed divine delight, this is the goal of our journey, the secret of our struggle. This is our way of emergence from the now dark riddle of the earth and unsolved problem of human life. If there were not this secret sense in all we are and do, there would be no significance in the material world and no justification for our earth-existence. A gnostic superman is the future master of the earth and rescuer of the divine meaning out of the ambiguous terms of this great world-enigma. 78 All that baffles us in existence can find its solution, if we can read it in the light of intention that comes from its source. The original Light points us from our preoccupation with our roundabout and puzzling course to the revealing significance of its aim; for the world’s source and origin and its aim are one.

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The Cause and Fount of all things is the Divine and the end and aim of all things is the Divine. The finite in Time reveals its own deep and abiding sense when it opens to the Eternal and throws itself into the Infinite. The only true knowledge — for all the rest is either false or only true in a limited field, half-true and therefore, from the vision of the whole, false — is that which reads everything in the sense and light of the Divine. If man would open himself to the Divine Light, he would begin at last to know; but he prefers always to read everything in the light of man’s consciousness, man’s sense, man’s aims and hopes in his little half lit circle. But man was not the beginning of the manifested universe or even of the earth-cycle, so also he is not its end and fulfilment. There was much before he appeared; there will be much after he has gone — or fallen into a subordinate place. Human consciousness is a half term in earth nature’s climb from the electron and atom, gas and metal through the vegetable and animal and human formulas to the god and Titan and through the god to the Divine. It is not in the light of the realised alone that we should read the earth-riddle; it is in the light of the unrealised that we shall understand the realised and know why all was and to what all was moving in Nature. At present what we know best is man and mind and what mind and its several senses see or infer about the universe. But mind is not the highest possible instrument and mental man is not the last creation possible to the capacities of creative evolution in the material universe. There is indeed the real man as well as this that is apparent. The apparent is this imperfect and struggling humanity, the real is the Purusha, the conscious being within us. The Conscious Being within us, one with the Being in whom we live and move, is indeed the cause and beginning and the end and aim of existence. But our humanity is only a transitory phase of the Conscious Being within us. Man is not final.

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The transition from manhood to supermanhood is, in one sense, a self-exceeding, a ceasing to be what we now are in order to become something else or more. In another sense it is a selfbecoming, a flowering out of something concealed by our present state, a latent godhead that already is and always was our true being. Supermanhood is for us a self-exceeding because man, pragmatically and to his own surface awareness, is a small, confused, limited, still ignorant formation of evolutionary Nature, — if supermanhood is intended, then either he has himself to become superman or, if he cannot or will not achieve it, he must make way for some creature greater than he who will have both the will and the power. But again supermanhood is at bottom a self-becoming because what we now call ourselves is only the surface man, a thinking and living body; but this [is] only the top of a wave, not the whole sea that secretly we are. All that makes supermanhood is there at least in material in our secret depths and on our still more occult height; what in outward fact, in appearance, in present self-awareness man is not but must become, is already there within him; he has only to find himself in order to become that greater self and nature. 80 Man [is a] transitional being, not the final end of the evolution and the crown of terrestrial existence. This ignorant, imperfect and divided being, with his labouring uncertain thought and half-successful will, this toiling and fluctuating experiment, this field of the attempt at emergence of a thousand things that are striving to be, is no consummation of the struggle of cosmic Force; he is only a laboratory in which Nature seeks for its own concealed secret, makes tentative efforts at what she has been missioned to achieve.

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As man arose out of the animal, so out of man superman shall come. 81 Man is a transitional being; he is not final. As it did not begin with him, neither does it end with him. He is not its evident crown, not its highest issue, not the last clear sum of Nature. Nature has not brought out in man her highest possibilities; she has not reached in him the supreme heights of consciousness and being; as there was before him the infrahuman, the insect and animal, so there shall be after him the superhuman, the superman. Man may himself become the superman, he may become all that he is not now; but for that he must exceed himself. It is not by clinging to his present imperfect consciousness that he can take the next step in the evolution. He must discover and release the spiritual godhead within him, realise his divine possibilities, be himself the giant potential something, the divine someone who has been struggling into emergence out of the original plasm that imprisoned it since began the mystery of terrestrial Nature. 82 Man cannot be final, he is a transitional being. This is very clear from the incompleteness and imperfection of all his powers of consciousness; he can only arrive at some limited form of temporary and unstable perfection by much labour and struggle; and yet the search for perfection is ingrained in his nature. There is something that he is not yet which he has to be; he is reaching always towards the something yet unrealised; his whole life and nature is a preparation, an endeavour of Nature towards what is beyond him. The human consciousness is limited in every direction; it does not know itself, it does not know the world around it, it does not know the origin and meaning and use of its existence.

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But it strives always to know, to find the truth of its being, the right use of its life, the end towards which Nature in him is tending; this it does with a seeking and blundering movement; man’s consciousness is an ignorance struggling towards knowledge; it is a weakness training itself for power; it is a thing of pleasure and suffering that tries to lay hands on the true delight of existence. All that we see in us and around us in this material world is a mystery-play of the Eternal and Infinite; it is the large total and the curiously variable detail of steps and circumstances in a self-discovery or self-unfolding of a Divinity who has hidden his real from his manifested self in the vast black disguise of the inconscience of Nature. This is the constant miracle that is the key to the meaning of existence, — the miracle of the birth and growth of life and consciousness in the inanimation and inconscience of the material universe. The birth and growth of consciousness is the whole sense of evolution. For evolution is not in its inner and essential character a development of more and more organised forms of Matter. This development is only an outer instrumentation for the evolution of life and of consciousness in life. That again in its deepest inmost sense is a growth embodying the slow self-discovery and self-revelation of a soul or spirit in a form of living matter. The evolution has been an ascension starting from forms that seem to be inanimate and inconscient objects, for in them the spirit in things is asleep, through a leisurely waking in plant and animal till it reached with difficulty a beginning of selfawareness in man the mental being, the first and only speaking, thinking, reasoning creature. But there is no ground for the idea cherished by this imperfect human being that he is the summit and last word of the evolution. Humanity is one step in the destiny of the evolving spirit, the last before it assumes something of its own divinity delivered and apparent; his imperfect life and consciousness must develop itself into the type of the fully conscious being, after man or out of him must be born the superman.

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This consummation can only take place by an evolution of the consciousness of the individual and humanity beyond its present stage of development; it can take place only if man is ready to take the turn towards which Nature has been slowly leading him, to discover himself, to know himself as soul and spirit, to see and lay firm hold on the Reality behind world and life and things after which he has been seeking through the ages. Nature’s first evolution has been an evolution of Matter, of physical objects, of the stage, scenery, external conditions and instruments of the drama of an evolving conscious Life in Matter. In life itself she has been content at first to organise a physicality, an externality of life; the evolution of the body has been the sign, the instrument, the apparent cause of the evolution of consciousness. Even when she has arrived at the evolution of Mind, the mind of a humanity which is capable not only of knowing outwardly the external world but of going within itself, of knowing itself, of knowing the secret things, powers, forces which are behind itself and behind the works of a surface external Nature, still she has been most careful to organise a surface Mind dealing with surface and external things and an organisation of personality which is superficial and not the whole of ourselves, a wave only of the ocean of our hidden being, our secret reality. To build an ego which will deal with material life and nature as its user but also as its subject, a life that is bound by matter, a mind that is bound by both matter and life has been her main preoccupation. But still the evolution of consciousness is the real and central fact which gives a significance otherwise altogether lacking to the mechanical structure of the universe. Man is here not merely to utilise his world for the service of his individual and collective ego; he is here as a medium in which the Spirit within, the secret growing Consciousness can evolve farther its selfmanifestation, arrive from a partial to a complete consciousness and, since life itself is there only as a means of this evolution and an image of it, at a complete and perfect individual and social life. If the psychological truth of our being is the real and central truth, more central and important than the physical, this

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must be its true nature, a conscious being growing towards its own completeness of consciousness and growing too towards its expression and formation in a complete individual and social life.

Section Two Psychology The Science of Consciousness

The Problem of Consciousness The Triple Enigma 83 Existence, consciousness and the significance of our conscious being, — a triple enigma confronts us when we look at them to discover their origin, foundations, nature, their innermost secret. We begin with a riddle, we end with a mystery. Existence itself is the first riddle. What it is we do not know, we are ignorant how it came to be at all, we cannot say whether it is an eternal fact or a temporary phenomenon. It may be only an appearance or it may be real, not in itself but as a manifestation of some hidden Reality; but then of what is it the manifestation and how came it into being or why had it to be? Consciousness of existence is a second insoluble miracle. It seems not to have been and now is and it may be that some day it will not be; yet it is a premier fact and without it being would not know of its own existence. Things might exist, but only as a useless encumbrance of a meaningless space, — consciousness makes being self-aware, gives it a significance. But what then is consciousness? Is it something in the very grain of being or an unstable result or fortuitous accident? To whom does it belong? to the world as a whole? or is it peculiar to individual being? Or has it come from elsewhere into this inanimate and inconscient universe? To what end this entry? The significance of our conscious being in an inconscient material world is the last and worst enigma. What is the sense and justification of the individual, his consciousness, his feeling of self, his personality? Is our individuality real or apparent, temporary or permanent, a minor circumstance or a central

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secret of the whole? Has it a meaning in the universe or in something beyond the universe? or is it only a chance outburst of Nature with no sense in it or any but a mechanical purpose? * All these problems arise in our consciousness and in our consciousness alone can be found their solution — or to it or through it perhaps from a greater consciousness the solution must come. On the nature and validity of our consciousness depends the nature and validity of the discovery we shall make or the conclusions to which we can come. On the power of our consciousness depends the possibility or impossibility of putting into the terms of life the solutions our knowledge discovers. But most of all the appearance and development of consciousness in the inconscient world is the decisive factor, the one thing that gives its existence a light of meaning, a possibility of purpose, a hope of fulfilment and the soul’s self-finding. To know, then, the nature of consciousness, its process, its birth, growth and destiny is for us a study of supreme importance. 84 All the problem of existence turns around three things, the nature of being, the nature of consciousness and the secret of the dynamics, the energy of existence by which being and consciousness find each other and manifest what is within them. If we can discover these three things, all is known which we fundamentally need to know; the rest is application and process and consequence. The problem of consciousness is the central problem; for it links the other two together and creates their riddle. It is consciousness that raises the problem it has to solve; without it there would be no riddle and no solution. Being and its energy would then fulfil themselves in form and motion and in cessation of form and motion without any self-awareness and without any enjoyment or fruition of their form and motion.

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Existence would be a fact without significance, the universe an inanimate machine turning for ever — or for a time, — without any reason or issue in its turning. For it to have any significance there must be either a Mind or some other kind of Awareness that observes it, originates it perhaps, has joy in its turning, works out something by the turning of the machine for its own satisfaction or dissatisfaction; or there must be a consciousness that emerges by the turning and reveals being and energy to themselves and leads them to some kind of fulfilment. Even if it is only a temporary consciousness that emerges, yet that must be the one significant fact of being, the one thing that lights up its movements, makes it aware of itself, raises it to something that is more than a mere dead or blank self-existence, a One or a Many that is yet worth no more than a zero. Even if what fundamentally is in being, is not consciousness but a superconscience, yet that must be one supreme kind of selfawareness, if not also all-awareness; for otherwise there would be no difference between superconscience and inconscience; the two would be only top-side and bottom-side of the same blank, yet mysteriously but vainly fruitful reality. In the ancient tradition eternal and infinite Being and Consciousness carry in them as the result of their oneness or coexistence an eternal significance of Bliss, Ananda. If we suppose Being-Consciousness to carry in them an eternal and infinite energy that creates, as we say, expresses, as the Sanskrit term better puts it, the universe, then the bliss of eternal conscious being would contain in itself a bliss of eternal energy of consciousness and being finding itself in the joy of self-expression, self-manifestation, self-creation. That would be a sufficient explanation of the appearance of a phenomenal universe, there is in fact no other that is satisfactory. These then are there the three or the four terms underlying all the secret of existence, — Being, Consciousness-Energy, Bliss of being, Ananda. It would not materially affect the fundamental satisfactoriness of this explanation that the world we live in is not a world of bliss, not a world of consciousness, — though it is in its evident appearance, a world of being and of energy of being, that it is in

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its phenomenal basis inconscient and works itself out through process and labour and, when consciousness appears, through joy of being but also through pain of being. If the eternal creative Energy takes joy in that, has the Ananda of it (and without consciousness there can be no joy or Ananda), as a poet in the creation of his tragedy or comedy, then that would be a sufficient explanation of the existence of this universe, though we would still have to seek for its significance, the reason of this choice of pain and labour. Consciousness then is the centre of the riddle. If we know what is Consciousness, where its action begins and ends — if it has a beginning and an ending, what is its process and the significance of its temporal appearance and action, we shall then be able to look deeply into being and its energy and understand and solve all their enigma. * But here in our world of Matter the original and fundamental phenomenon we meet everywhere is a universal Inconscience, Consciousness appears to come in as only an incident, a development, a strange consequence of some ill-understood operations of Energy in inconscient Matter. It arises out of an original Inconscience, it dissolves or sinks back into the Inconscience. Once it has appeared it persists indeed but as a general phenomenon precariously manifested in individual living beings. It has the seeming either of an uncertain freak of inconscient Nature, — a disease some would conjecture, a phosphorescence playing upon the stagnant waters of inconscient being, active at certain points of animation, or a guest in a world in which it is alien, a foreign resident with difficulty able to maintain itself in a hardly amicable environment and atmosphere. According to the materialist hypothesis consciousness must be a result of energy in Matter; it is Matter’s reaction or reflex to itself in itself, a response of organised inconscient chemical substance to touches upon it, a record of which that inconscient substance through some sensitiveness of cell and nerve becomes

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inexplicably aware. But such an explanation may account, — if we admit this impossible magic of the conscious response of an inconscient to the inconscient, — for sense and reflex action [yet] becomes absurd if we try to explain by it thought and will, the imagination of the poet, the attention of the scientist, the reasoning of the philosopher. Call it mechanical cerebration, if you will, but no mere mechanism of grey stuff of brain can explain these things; a gland cannot write Hamlet or pulp of brain work out a system of metaphysics. There is no parity, kinship or visible equation between the alleged cause or agent on the one side and on the other the effect and its observable process. There is a gulf here that cannot be bridged by any stress of forcible affirmation or crossed by any stride of inference or violent leap of argumentative reason. Consciousness and an inconscient substance may be connected, may interpenetrate, may act on each other, but they are and remain things opposite, incommensurate with each other, fundamentally diverse. An observing and active consciousness emerging as a character of an eternal Inconscience is a self-contradictory affirmation, an unintelligible phenomenon, and the contradiction must be healed or explained before this affirmation can be accepted. But it cannot be healed unless either the Inconscient has a latent power for consciousness — and then its inconscience is phenomenal only, not fundamental, — or else is the veil of a Consciousness which emerges out of a state of involution which appears to us as an inconscience. There is no doubt a connection and interdependence between consciousness and the inconscient substance in which it resides and through which it seems to operate. Consciousness depends upon the body and its functionings, on the brain, nerves, gland-action, right physiological working, for its own firm state and action. It uses them as its instruments and, if they are injured or unable to act, the action of the consciousness may also be in part or whole impaired, impeded or suspended. But this does not prove that the action of consciousness is an action of the body and nothing else. There is an instrumentation and if the instrument is impaired, the user of the instrument can no longer manifest himself rightly through it; if it is destroyed, he

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cannot operate any longer unless or until he can get another instrument. This then has to be seen whether the phenomena of consciousness are such that they make it necessary to suppose such a use or instrumentation of the body. If so then either there must be a conscious being in us that is other than the body or else a conscious Energy that thinks, senses, observes, acts intelligently through the physical instrument. This is what we actually observe in our experience of ourselves that there is such a being or else such an energy at work in us and this self-experience is surely as valid, as binding as the accompanying experience of an inconscient substance or building of inconscient Matter which is its field and habitat. Both sides of the phenomenon must be given their value; to reject Matter as an illusion of Consciousness or Consciousness as a freak or disease of Matter are equally one-eyed views which miss the true problem and are not likely to lead to a satisfying solution. It is certainly possible, prima facie, that Consciousness may be a subordinate phenomenon dependent on Matter or, more accurately, on the Energy that formulates Matter. Our need then is to discover its exact nature, origin, function in a material world and the utmost limit of its possibilities for the human being; for to man matter is only a basis of his life, a material of his works, an opportunity; what is really important to him is consciousness, for it is his consciousness and use of consciousness that gives him his significance and importance to himself and the world; without it he would be nothing and mean nothing. At any rate this is the fact that faces us, that there is an apparent Energy that seems to have built up this world which first in the animal and then more amply in man has become and works as a conscious Energy and that this transformation is the crucial and capital fact of our universe. It may well be that in it lies the secret of the significance of that universe. It may turn out on deeper enquiry that a Conscious Energy has created as its field an inconscient substance and is veiled in its creation and emerges in it, a Power, a Godhead releasing itself slowly and with difficulty out of its self-made chrysalis of material Inconscience.

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It is not sufficient to examine the material, the physiological processes accompanying the functioning of consciousness and attempt to explain the functioning by its physical processes. This leaves consciousness itself unexplained; if it accounts to some extent, but imperfectly, for sense phenomena or mechanical thinking, it does not account in the least for the most important powers of our conscious energy; it does not account for reason, understanding, will, creative thought, conscious selection, the conscious intellectual and spiritual action and self-development of the human being. Yet these are of capital importance, for it is here that consciousness begins to unfold itself out of its chrysalis or matrix of inconscience and a half conscious first working and reveal its true nature. Here consciousness acts in its own right, in its own field and not as a product of the body. To see how the body uses consciousness may be within limits a fruitful science, but it is more important to see how consciousness uses the body and still more important to see how it evolves and uses its own powers. The physiological study of the phenomenon of consciousness is only a side-issue; the psychological study of it independent of all reference to the body except as an instrument is the fruitful line of inquiry. A body using consciousness is the first outward physical fact of our existence, the first step of our evolution; a consciousness using a body is its inner spiritual reality, it is what we have become by our evolution and more and more completely are[.]

What Is Consciousness? 85 Consciousness — but what is consciousness? A word only conveniently ticketing a class of natural phenomena or a fundamental reality of existence? Apparently a phenomenon which has only a small range intervening in an immense mass of things inconscient and without significance, consciousness alone gives a value to the universe. It

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seems to have taken no part in the creation of the universe; it was not there in the beginning or even during the greater part of the history of the earth; it may not be there at its end. In the middle it plays a great role in the life of animal and man, but its action is crude and ill-developed in the animal, imperfect in the human creature. Its evolution wears the character of an episode in the long history of an inconscient world, a chapter that began some time ago, but one knows not why it intervened at all or how it will end or whether its appearance has any meaning, whether its developing importance has an accidental and meaningless or a purposeful and revelatory character. It may be a freak of creative Chance or it may be or may carry in itself the whole meaning of the world-drama. In an inconscient universe, in a Nature or the working of an Energy which is fundamentally material, the emergence [of] Consciousness has at first the air of a surprising, a contradictory, an impossible event. For in such a world, in the working of such a Nature or Energy, how could it ever come into existence? Either there is no real consciousness, only an action of Matter or unconscious Energy which takes this inexplicable and deceptive form, or Nature or Energy is not fundamentally inconscient. Consciousness was always a possibility which at a certain stage chanced or was bound to take place, or it was a latent power that has become manifest. Or even it may be all Nature is really conscious and it is we who foist inconscience upon her because we are limited to a certain range and character of consciousness and cannot communicate with her other ranges or even detect their existence. It has been held by a certain opinion that consciousness in itself does not exist, there are only phenomena of reactions of Matter to Matter or of Energy in Matter to Energy in Matter to which by generalisation we give the name. There is no person who is conscious, thinks, speaks, perceives, wills, acts; it is an organised body in which certain chemical, molecular, cellular, glandular and nerve activities take place and certain material results and reactions of these activities take place in the brain which take the form of these phenomena. It is the

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body that thinks, perceives, wills, speaks, acts; it is Matter that goes through these operations and becomes aware of them; it may be said that brain-matter makes a record or notation of these actions and this notation is consciousness and this record is memory. There is nothing in the world except Matter and the operations of Matter. This theory arose when physical Science concentrated on the operations of Matter, saw only Matter and energy of Matter everywhere; it persists even after that seeing of things has been severely shaken. For now we are driven to see and say that there is no such thing as Matter in itself; what we call Matter is only a mass of phenomena of Energy, events of energy, which our senses regard as objects and our minds classify under the general name of Matter. But we can still hold that all phenomena are phenomena of Energy acting in the forms or sensible events which we call Matter and the phenomena of consciousness are of that character. There is nothing else to it, nothing but the mobile and executive Energy, Nature, Prakriti; there is no soul, no Purusha. Consciousness would still be a general name for a brain-record and notation of these events of material Energy and this will still be the true character of thought, perception, will, speech, act. All these events are separate phenomena which may act and react on each other or group themselves together, but they are not the result or manifestations of any one general force or power of being that we can call Consciousness. 86 Consciousness, — but what is consciousness? And first of all we have to face the possibility that there is no such thing. For many hold that the word is an unreal generalisation invented to cover a class of material phenomena having their origin in Matter and material in their nature and essence, an operation of Matter on Matter and in Matter. Thoughts are only vibrations of the grey matter of the brain; they are not something other [than] that or capable of existing beyond the material plane; they cannot exist independently of the brain; brain is not

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their instrument of expression or manifestation; they are [its] instrument made of its substance, dependent on [its] substance, inexistent without it. Mind is an action of Matter, not a separate power or force; there is nothing in it superior to the physicality of the body; it exists by the body and as a part of its activity, lasts along with it, dies with it. Mind is a product of gases, some operation of Nature’s chemistry, glandular influences, nervous stimuluses; it is matter and records the operations of Matter. But why then this appearance of mentality, of consciousness, of a conscious being? That too is only a trick of Matter. They are reflexes and reactions to the contacts of things outside, to other material objects, bodies, movements, forces. Sense and sensation are the reply of the nerves to stimulus of external and material things or to internal stimuli that are still material. To the experience of the body the result of these, recoils, reflexes, reactions, may seem mental, but that cannot alter the fact that they are material products of the workings of Matter. Well, be it so; but still this mentality creates an awareness of self and things and the movements of self and things, even if both be only a body and so many other bodies, and it is difficult to describe awareness as an inconscient movement or condition or as the inconscient seeming to be conscious. Evidently we are in face of a general sophism invented by specialists of a limited field of data, the data of inconscient Matter, who are determined to force everything into its characteristic formulas and refuse to admit everything else. We must at least recover the right to see this awareness and its movements as they are or as they present themselves to us and see how far it leads us and whether indeed, even if it occurs in matter and the body, it does not lead us to something other than the body and other than Matter. The materialist contention that consciousness is not a separate power or force or manifestation of energy like electricity or magnetism or steam, but only a name for a particular bundle of brain phenomena, cannot hide the startling fact that inconscient and insentient Matter has become sentient and conscient even if it be only at points, in jets, in small masses. This awareness has created at least the appearance of a

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sentient and conscient being who not only becomes relatively aware of self and things, but can study them, discover their nature and process, determine and develop the possibilities of his own consciousness and the possibilities of the world’s forces and processes, can will and can create, can ponder and philosophise, can write poetry and create works of art, can use [? ] to modify and alter the world around him and make for himself a different life-environment, can look beyond Matter, can tend towards the heights of consciousness not yet developed, can envisage the Superconscient. If the consciousness that can do all this is not a force, a power in itself, it at least looks strangely like it. And we have the right, at least hypothetically, to study it as such a power or force and find out how far that leads us. It may even lead us to the discovery of a Reality greater than the world of Matter or of Energy building up shapes of Matter and movements in Matter. It may take us beyond phenomena and appearances to the truth of things and to something that is the origin of all that seems to be[.] * At the other extreme of human mentality we meet a similar and more devastating denial. Consciousness has no real existence; or, so far as it exists at all, it is as a dynamic Power, a creator of illusions. There is nothing sound or real in what it builds; there is nothing true in what it sees; the world it shows us is [an] impossible chimera, a mass of figments and falsehoods. The sole consciousness that is true is the self-awareness of some absolute Silence, a spaceless immobile Infinite, a timeless featureless Eternity. Or, as the materialist sees only a bundle of phenomena material and dependent on Matter or a fortuitous result of material operations, so the Nihilistic Buddhist sees only a bundle of associations, sanskaras, which stuck together produce the false appearance of a continuity of concrete phenomena or a stream of momentary perceptions giving the impression of a false self and coherent world, a coherent personality, but if the bundle is dissolved, if the stream ceases to flow, all dissolves and

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collapses and shows the empty Nothingness which is the only eternal truth and the sole eternal reality. This superconscient Nothingness has no need of consciousness [for] the greatness of its emptiness or its everlasting peace of unconscious bliss. To return to Nothingness is the only use or meaning of existence. Here too we seem to be in front of [the] sophism of a specialist seizing the sole salient and striking side, the one prominent aspect of Truth in which he is versed putting aside all the rest as inconsistent or invalid. After all the world exists and is too persistent and effective and solid a phenomenon to be put aside or merely whistled off the field with an airy “It is not”; — a mirage is ineffectual and recedes or fades if it is touched, an illusion dissolves if revealed but this is stupendously effective, overwhelmingly persistent and we have to sound all its possibilities before dismissing it as something vain and trifling. World-consciousness may be only one aspect of our being, but it is a big and momentous aspect and it too should be given its full chance of justifying itself before it is ruled out of court. The eternal reality of a pure immobile existence and its selfawareness is also a truth of our being. But it is not impossible that these are two aspects of one Reality and not so incompatible as the metaphysical logician imagines. This is what we propose to do integrally and with a full and exhaustive inquiry before we decide either way. The chances are that so enormous a thing as this world is something more than an astonishing chimera. The chances are that when two such great aspects of existence confront each other, there is a connection somewhere, a reconciliation of their contraries. It is possible that both are aspects, static and dynamic, of some absolute Reality from which both have drawn their own reality and in which they have their true and inevitable place. * In any case consciousness is the one thing by which we can consider or decide the question at all. It is the one thing by which we know at all that world exists or can inquire into its

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truth and its meaning. If consciousness has no reality and no value, then there is nothing by which we can know the truth, — one explanation of things has then as little value as the other, neither can be claimed as the truth. The consciousness by which we affirm the featureless sole Reality can be as fallacious as that by which we affirm our individual self and the universe. If consciousness is the self-awareness of the eternal Existence, it can only be this self-awareness seeing its own power and the works of its power as a real world. If consciousness is a creation of the evolution, it is also the one thing by which it receives some value, the one thing by which its values can be reckoned, its [ . . . ], its one central and essential value. It is not by the development of forms that evolution reaches its height, but by the evolution of consciousness. The degree of consciousness is the degree of evolution; the extent to which consciousness has developed its powers, range, height, its fulness of vision and self-vision, is the measure of the evolution’s development of its work and aim, its progress towards its goal, if goal indeed it has and is not the incoherent working out of an accidental Chance. Indeed, if we look at the way in which the Inconscient has devised the world and the sequences by which it has arrived at intelligence, we have some reason [to think] that it is a secret Consciousness which has made this world and under the mask of inconscience has emerged as a slow process of an Ignorance developing Knowledge. If so, it may well be that it is the self-awareness of the [eternal Existence] that is working out in the formula of inconscient Matter and ignorant Life and half-awakened Mind its own self-manifestation in the material universe. 87 But what is consciousness and what its relation to existence? How and why did it come into being in an inconscient universe, a universe which even if it originated by an inexplicable chance, has assumed the proportions of a huge and complex inexorable mechanism repeating the same processes through the

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aeons without respite or cessation? By what spiritual or mechanical necessity? by what mechanical chance or accidental process of Energy? To what end or purpose, if any purpose there can be in an inconscient mechanism of brute Necessity or inexplicably organised Chance or any end in a movement which never had any reason for beginning? Does consciousness exist or is it a fortuitous illusion? Who or what is it that becomes conscious in the animal and in the body of the human being? Three possible solutions. Consciousness has not come into being but was and is always there, a fundamental power of existence, latent or involved or concealed from our mind and sense even in what we call inanimate and unconscious things. It has not come into existence but has emerged from existence; involved it has evolved in the general evolutionary process. Or consciousness is only a phenomenon, a surprising result of certain inconscient processes of Nature, unintentional but actual, unnecessary and accidental or else somehow inevitable as an output of chemical and other physical energies which could not help imposing itself at a certain point of their activity in the natural course of things. It did not exist before that point was reached; when another point has been reached it may go out of existence. Or again the world is a creation of an extracosmic or immanent conscious Being personal or impersonal who has either put his consciousness or a consciousness resembling his into his mechanical creation to be an element there or else has infused it from within into the mechanical selfexpression in which he has chosen to dwell as its upholder, inspirer, inhabitant. What is meant by consciousness? what is this phenomenon which seems to have so small a part in the vast inconscient mass of things and is yet the sole element here that can give any value to the universe? And to come to the heart of the difficulty — is it indeed only a phenomenon, an appearance that has emerged in the course of the workings of an Energy which was, is and will always remain inconscient? Or is it something fundamental, an inherent reality

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or a latent character or power of that Energy and bound to emerge at some time once it had begun its workings? 88 It is to a mass of ill-connected and ill-understood phenomena that we give this name of consciousness; when these are at work we say that a man or animal is conscious, when they are suspended we say that he or it is unconscious; where they are absent, as in a tree, we suppose the object, even if it has life, to be inconscient by its very nature, incapable of sensation no less than empty of thought and will. Where life is not, inconscience seems to us a still more self-evident character of the thing or being. Man alone is fully conscious, for he alone is aware of himself, reflective on things, in full possession of mental capacities and their aware and observant use. Mind and consciousness are almost synonymous to our ordinary notions; where consciousness is not mentalised, we find it difficult to recognise its presence, hardly possible to follow its movements; even in the animal we are apt to regard it as reflex movement not aware of itself, undeveloped, primitive. 89 All that exists or can exist in this or any other universe can be rendered into terms of consciousness; there is nothing that cannot be known. This knowing need not be always a mental knowledge. For the greater part of existence is either above or below mind, and mind can know only indirectly what is above or what is below it. But the one true and complete way of knowing is by direct knowledge. All can be rendered into terms of consciousness because all is either a creation of consciousness or else one of its forms. All exists in an infinite conscious existence and is a part or a form of it. In proportion as one can share directly or indirectly, completely or incompletely in the eternal awareness of this Infinite, or momentarily contact or enter into it, or formulate some

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superior or inferior power of its consciousness or knowledge, one can know what it knows, in part or whole, by a direct knowing or an indirect coming to knowledge. A conscious, half conscious or subconscious participation in the awareness of the Infinite is the basis of all knowledge. All things are inhabited by this consciousness, even the things that seem to us inconscient and the consciousness in one form can communicate with or contact the consciousness in another or else penetrate or contain or identify with it. This in one form or another is the true process of all knowledge; the rest is ignorant appearance. All things are one self; it is the one Knower who knows himself everywhere, from one centre or another in the multiplicity of his play. Otherwise no knowledge would be possible.

The Secret below the Surface 90 All life, all existence is an enigma to the human mind, because the mind is a light which sees only the surfaces of things or at most a little below the surface and is moreover limited by its own circumscribed area of vision. It cannot see what is beyond those limits and yet there are an infinity of things beyond its circle. It cannot see what is above, it cannot see what is within, it cannot see what is below. But what is on the surface is never the truth of things; the surface presents us only with facts not with truths, with phenomena not with realities, with imperfect indications, not with the realisation of things in themselves. The secret, the truth, the reality of things is above, within, below, it is not on their surface. 91 There is a meaning in the universe, an intention in cosmic existence; there is a significance of the individual, his life is a sign and has a purpose.

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The true truth of things is not apparent on the surface, it is something hidden. Truth is not obvious, it comes always as a discovery, Life is the working out of a secret, the process and progress of a mystery; we too are not what we seem to be, we have to find and become ourself. What we seem to be is a thinking human animal. What we are and have to become is God; the secret purpose of our existence here is to find the occult Reality of ourselves and the world, to become Divine. 92 Our existence in the world has a reality which is other than that which strikes our mind and senses on the surface. It contains a secret, a mystery which we have to discover, for through that discovery we must move both to the realisation of our self and spirit and the perfection and fulfilment of our life in Nature. Our life is not an illusion nor a delirium nor is Nature a Maya, a fabricator of dreams or a dealer in vanities as certain religions would have it nor is one the outcome of a blind Force or the trick [of] a blind self-regulating Chance, the other an unconscious Power as it must be if the materialists’ dogma were true. Our life is neither a freak of God nor a freak of Nature; it has a conscious plan although a secret plan, a significance although an occult and mystic significance. The plan, the significance are secret and mysterious to us because we live on the surface of ourselves and things and are not in touch with either their core or their height or depths. Science on one side, Religion and Philosophy on the other try to arrive at the hidden Truth, but each touches and only just touches one end of it and refuses to go farther and discover the other end or the link and reconciling relation between these two poles of existence. It is said in the Veda of Agni, the flame of the creative Will and Force, that he hides his two extremities; only his middle is patent and visible. The head of Agni is occult in some superconscient height, his feet are plunged in the abyss of the

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material Inconscience. Consciousness emerging in the universe of life and mind is the bridge and link between the two poles. But our human consciousness is a term in the chain which is aware only of itself and sees all the rest in its own terms; it cannot identify itself with the other links and misses their significance and their purpose. It stands on the middle of the bridge looking all around it, but the bridgeheads are to its sight invisible. It cannot see what is there, but only speculate, infer or conjecture. Science questing with its measuring rod of empirical experiment begins to have a dark glimpse of the Inconscient; it knows the universe as an organised freak that has emerged from the material Inconscience and will go back to its source. Religion and Philosophy rise on the wings of spiritual experience or in a balloon of metaphysical logic into some stratosphere of superconscient Reality, they seem to discover a God or Self or Spirit or Absolute and try to map it with the intellect or to turn it into a dynamic spiritual formula. But they are unable to reconcile these three terms of being; their physical experiments or their spiritual experiences are valid, but each has hold of only one end of the enigma. Science has discovered Evolution; Religion and Philosophy have discovered something of that which is involved and evolves in this cosmic Existence. But the two discoveries have refused to shed light upon each other; each has shut itself up in its own formulas. This is because each is a creation and activity of Mind, Science of the concretising experimental mind, Philosophy of the abstracting intellectual mind, Religion of the dynamic spiritual mind. But Mind is bound always by its partial formulations of the Truth; Mind grasps formulas or images but is itself grasped by its own creations, it cannot get free from them or go beyond them. But the mind’s concepts and formulas are only fragmentary representations of Truth or pointers or abstract schemas and images, not her very self and reality. Either a deeper inner soul-vision or a higher overmental or supramental consciousness is needed to discover Truth in her very face and body.

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Then only can both ends of the riddle be firmly seized and connected together, the whole of existence seen in one gaze and life compelled to unmask its fathomless significance[.] * A mysterious something involved in Matter, concealed by it, evolving from it but in a material house or figure, striving to reveal itself in life and mind, but concealed by its forms of life, concealed by its forms of mind, shooting out from them glimpses of itself, glimpses that hint but do not elucidate, — this is what we can see, and we see no more; the rest is speculation and conjecture. Is this something native to Matter, born in it and destined to die in it? Or is it an alien, a temporary visitor? Is Matter itself only a mask of it, a phenomenon of Energy, as it now more and more seems to be? Energy itself is a movement, a force of concealed Consciousness, Consciousness the sign of a hidden spiritual Being. But if so, what possible significance or purpose can there be in this involution, this material self-concealment and self-imprisonment, this slow tormented emergence of the Spirit? Two lines of enquiry seem to give, though imperfectly and in opposition, a positive base for a reply to the question and the riddle, — the experiments of the scientist and the experience of the mystic.

Consciousness and the Inconscient Inconscience 93 World and life can be looked at from one of two opposite visionbases — observed in the light of the knowledge that looks below and sees as the foundation of things the Inconscient from which our physical birth took its rise or experienced in the light of the knowledge that looks above and draws the radiations it throws upon all around it from the Superconscient which is our soul’s source. These two conflicting light-streams — which yet at their extreme points seem almost to meet or at least touch the same mystery — yet shed at first opposite values on the phenomenon of conscious life in matter and illumine in contrary senses the destiny of man and his place in world-existence; for in the light from above it assumes a supreme significance, in the light from below a supreme insignificance. For if we look from one side, consciousness appears as a circumstance, a thing secondary or even accidental, a little flickering temporary uncertain light in a vast darkness of inconscient world-systems; if we look from the other it is the slowly delivered but not yet perfectly released blaze of that which supported all along this seemingly inconscient creation, subtly concealed in its very cells, molecules, atoms, electrons or whatever still more infinitesimal whorls of motional force-substance have been made its base. Either then consciousness is a perishable jet of flame shooting up out of the slime of this obscure teeming morass we call Matter, a strange inexplicable temporary freak sprung from gas and plasm, chromosome and gene, gland and hormone — we know not well how even when we have found the process,

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and know not at all why and can never know and hardly need to know, since the whole thing is a meaningless and eventually purposeless miracle of incalculable Chance or blind Necessity, — or if it is not this, then it is the very Flame which, dynamic and hidden, has shaped all these things and now, overt and revealed, can work openly on them and on itself to use, to uplift, to subtilise, to refine, to liberate, to transfigure. If the first view is right, the view so long pressed on us by physical Science, then this very universe itself is but a queer paradoxical movement of mindless eyeless Force or of a brute substance emanating purposeless energy, which yet works as if it had a purpose; for it produces by some inconscient compulsion on itself a steady succession of evolutionary forms that carry themselves as if they had an aim and a meaning, although in the nature of things they can really have none. The whole is a mechanism which automatically turns out what it must with a certain inevitability but has no comprehending Intelligence, no intuitive Power behind it to determine its use. Universal Nature is a Chance that works as if it were a Necessity or else perhaps a Necessity that works like a self-regulating Chance. What seems to be consciousness has come out of this machine just like everything else in this singular freak-universe, constituted somehow, miraculously, impossibly, as the plant and the flower came out of the seed, somehow constituted, or as different chemical atoms are mysteriously constituted out of variant numbers of identical electrons, or as water leaps inexplicably into birth by a combination in exact measure of two gases. We have discovered that by just this process it came, — consciousness, the flower, the atom, water, — but how it could come into being by such a process is an unsolved riddle and how it took this form out of such a mother or could be the result of such ingredients and what each of these things in itself is remains unknowable. It is or has so become (or perhaps is not, but only so seems to our senses) — but that is all, for more than this science limited by its methods cannot tell and speculative philosophy itself with all its range and licence can hardly conjecture. And it does not much matter; for after all this consciousness which emerged obscurely in Time will in a later

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Time disappear with its living vessels and be as if it had never been leaving behind the Inconscient still busy with its perpetual and empty labour. And perhaps indeed this consciousness is not really consciousness at all but only a sort of strange vibrant typewriting of conventional signs by which the Inconscient records to itself its own mechanical values; for things are not what they seem, colour is not colour but only a fictitious sign, all things perhaps are mere signs of bundled vibrations and consciousness itself nothing else. However we look at it, it would seem very much as if this universal Energy which creates these strange, inexplicable, impossible things or semblances that yet in a way are, were only a sort of Maya, like that of the Illusionists, aghatanaghatana-patiyasi, very skilful to make happen things that cannot happen, a huge senseless well organised paradox, a sequently arranged mass of inevitable inconsequences, a defiance to reason of which reason is the last brilliant but bewildered outcome. And of all these phenomenal appearances, the uprising of consciousness is perhaps the most paradoxical, the least inevitable, — Nature’s most accidental, most startling inconsequence. And again in this reading of the universe, more baffling than any unbelievable belief — credo quia incredibile, — with which ever dogmatic theology or mystic philosophy has challenged us, man loses all his cosmic value. An infinitesimal little creature on a tiny speck of matter lost amidst a whirling multitude of stupendous universes most or all of them perhaps vacant of life and thought and made for no other end but simply to whirl, he is (justifying Scripture) even as the worm is — only an edition de luxe, with copious developments and commentaries, of the same laborious but useless text, the same minute, careful, well-arranged, painstaking but insignificant script that we see already in the ant and the termite. Individual man lasts for a few years which are in the aimless vastness of the universe of no more matter than the few days or weeks or months of the insect. The race indeed has endured for millions of years and may endure for some centuries, some thousands, myriads or millions of years longer; but what are these millions in the incalculable aeons of the cosmos? The termite perhaps was before man and may be there when he has

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disappeared, perhaps massacring his kind out of existence or destroyed by his own science; it has like man done against adverse conditions extraordinary miracles of intelligence (having yet, it seems, no intelligence with which to do them), built immense fortified cities, cultivated earth, organised remarkable societies, adapted means to end and overcome a stepmotherly Nature. Each has an equal value for itself which arrives after all only to the passion Nature has put in each species for survival, for exploitation of its life; for each other their only significance is to come annoyingly and destructively in each other’s way; for the universe — at least the universe as Science has described it — both have an equal non-value, for to it neither can matter, since they will disappear and the world go on interminably as it did without them. Vanity of vanities, Science teaches us even as did the world’s Scriptures; out of nothingness we came and into nothingness we shall sink hereafter. All that we are and think and create [and] do, however wonderful to our own eyes, or even if really wonderful in the mind’s values, is but a bubble, a vibration, a plasmic pullulation on the surface of Matter. This is one side of the picture; but there is another. 94 If there is a consciousness in Matter, however secret and involved, there must be a consciousness secret and involved in the Inconscient. But the question then arises whether such a thing can be any more than there can be a square circle [or] cold fire. “Not even a hundred declarations of the Veda,” says Shankara, “could prove the coldness of fire.” There are psychologists who deny that there is or can be any such thing as the subconscious, for it is a flat self-contradiction to speak of a consciousness which is below the level of consciousness. To be conscious is to be aware of self and things or at least of things, with whatever limitation, as a man’s or an animal’s waking mind is aware. To a certain thought it might seem that only the surface of things is knowable, the rest either does not or cannot exist or

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must be left in the shadow of an inevitable agnosticism. There are no depths [or they] are, as Bertrand Russell would have us believe, an uninhabited emptiness; there is no inner sky except the sky of thought or an abstract void crossed by the wandering wings of the Idea; if there is a sky behind the sky, it is such a Void, a void of unattainable superconscience. But this too is an imagination, a nonexistence. There can be no consciousness in the Inconscient, no Conscious in unconscious things, no superconscience. If that were so, it would be impossible to have any true or whole knowledge. For our mind is an Ignorance searching for knowledge and arriving at representations or figures of it, it can never be except by a miraculous transformation something that knows, still less knows truly and knows all. But knowledge exists somewhere, knowledge is possible and a seeking ignorance is not our first and last fate. Our boundaries are lost [ . . . ], the depths teem [or] are no longer vacant, the sky above mind is peopled with winged realities. The subconscient is disburdened of its strange contents, the superconscient becomes the top [of] consciousness, the peak of knowledge, there is a Conscient in unconscious things. Let us look then with the eye of the Ignorance first but also with the eye of this greater knowledge at the subconscient, at Inconscience, at the superconscient top of things. An immediate change will take place in our conception of self and our outlook on the universe. 95 The subconscious is a fact of our mentality. It is not the fact that our whole being, even our whole mentality, is on the surface. There are concealed heights, there are hidden gulfs, there are crowded spaces behind the front wall, below the threshold, in the unseen mental environment. There is a vast inconscient below us, an infinite superconscience above us. All these are part of a secret consciousness in the world, but also part of our own hidden being of which we are not aware or only intermittently and ignorantly or only, in our ultimate evolution, eventually aware.

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Even in our ordinary experience there are moments in which one or other of these things becomes apparent, acts in our daily actions or peers out above the surface and replaces our absent and inattentive mind. We start writing and finish the writing without knowing what we have written. We are walking with our mind aware and guiding our course, — the [?outer] mind, — but we continue to walk and find ourselves after a time farther on the intended way or beyond the intended goal or turn and have to retrace our steps. In an unconscious or half conscious moment words pour from our lips which we would never have spoken if we had used our fully awake mind and will. What is it that thus takes up the writing, the walk, the speech and completes our intention or betrays us? It must be either something of the mind behind or below its active surface movement or something of a driving life-force or action of the body. But in the first explanation there must be a part of the mind, not our conscious thought and will that is capable of continuing automatically a course once habitual or previously fixed or pursuing of itself the direction accustomed or repetitive. It is capable not only of execution but of a radical direction, even a misdirection. This means a consciousness at conscious work, however vague or latently automatic, and can only be described as a subconscient or at least partly subconscious or subjacent, an underlying something else akin to consciousness. This is the first sign of a subconscient mind or of a secret consciousness which may even underlie not only our own surface being, but the whole cosmic operation and its apparently inconscient functioning and driven interactions, its purposeless purpose. If it is a life-force that goes on with the works of the life when the mind is not attending to them, then only this must be a subconscious action and where it continues an action initiated by the conscious mind, then some sort of mechanical consciousness must be attributed to it. If it is the body that takes up the action, it must equally be credited with a subconscience that can do under certain circumstances the work of consciousness. I have written a letter and proceed to put the name and address on the envelope, but my mind gets absorbed in something

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else and I find that I have written another habitual name and address, not the one I intended. Memory evidently has done this uncalled for work, but not a conscious memory with the mind aware of what it was doing. A subconscious layer of memory must have come to the surface mistaking the call, or there must have been a double action of memory one deliberate, the other automatic, the temporary suspension of the first giving room to an inadvertent action of the subliminal working. On the other hand I may complete a sentence with a phrase I had not intended or thought of; where did it come from if not from the subconscious mind? It may even be a phrase having no connection with the conscious thought or in itself incoherent or have the form of words but be unintelligible. What is it that has dictated these things? 96 As consciousness descends from the supreme and the higher to the lower levels, it loses progressively its force and intensity till it reaches the nadir of inconscience. 97 The figure of Inconscience is the mask of an all-conscious Creator; the Inconscient creates with an unerring art, adaptation of means to end, ingenious originality, spontaneity and [ . . . ] of device. The conscious creator man cannot even come near the inconscient Creator, God. But [the] Inconscient is only a mask on a mobile face; its blank rigidity hides from us the expression of the face of the Omnipresent. The Inconscient Energy 98 At one end of existence, the nether material end, we observe the reign of a complete phenomenal Inconscience. No creative

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consciousness or will can be detected there; we start from something that is but is not aware that it is, things that are but are unconscious that they are or that anything is. Yet it is this vast impalpable Inconscient that seems to have created Matter and the whole material universe. There is, obvious and undeniable, an Energy that creates and there is a creation; these are the only two affirmations we can make which are beyond doubt. Even if we take the creation to be illusory, still the illusory creation is there and there is a Force or Energy or Power that has created it, whether it be mere unconscious Energy, Prakriti, or an energy of deceptive consciousness, Maya. What we actually experience here is an energy inconscient or seemingly inconscient which is in constant motion and in that motion takes on forms or produces forms and in these forms it enters into many kinds of activity and engenders a multitude of active relations. Energy and action and the results of action, Prakriti and Karma, this is the whole formula of the material universe. Objects innumerable there are, lives too and things living, a Mind or minds, a Consciousness or consciousnesses or else perhaps mere phenomena in the Inconscient to which we give these names; but all these appear to us as if they were temporary results, events ephemeral or long persistent of the movement of Energy and action, its Karma. What is this Energy? is it something uncreated and unborn, eternal, absolute though all it produces is created, temporal, relative? If it is born, then whence came it? in or on what does it work? what set it going and towards what? We do not know and seem to have no means of knowing; at least our intellect does not know and has not yet found out any sure way to know; it can only speculate, speculate endlessly in an inconclusive circle. It is not an unborn eternal Matter from which it is born or of which it is the eternal force or in and on which it works, as was once supposed and as some still suppose. For that is now only a construction of the speculative mind, an idea, a hypothesis, an arbitrary postulate for which there is no discoverable correspondent reality. Matter, as we now know it, is something that we

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can almost see coming into existence or at least can determine its process of creation; waves of energy materialising into particles and again becoming waves, but finally the waves coalesce and become atoms of what we must needs call Matter. This cannot be the inert inconscient Godhead, original and eternal, out of which all came, in and on which Energy works and produces by automatic necessity or a fortunately self-organising Chance the material world and all the lives, minds, souls — if souls there are — which in it live and move. It can be said that this is only a conclusion of Science and Science is unfinished and everchanging; it may refute tomorrow what it affirms today; it may discover that electricity and light, the electron and proton and the photon are not the last word or the first fact; there may be a subtler Matter which is not that but something else — a Matter not formed but motional, vibratory, aetheric. But, still, what can that be but a subtler motion of Energy, a vibration of Energy in Space? And of Space too we do not know what it is, — whether a mere conception of our mind and its sense or an extension of something that exceeds the grasp of our mind and sense, — perhaps an unseizable Infinite. The Sankhya philosopher affirmed an original indiscriminate Matter which evolves from Prakriti, from the eternal Energy, — is, we might say, its first state of manifestation. But as it is indiscriminate, it is not likely to be in any way determinable by our senses. And, after all, this too is only a creation of Energy, an evolution out of itself or a state which it assumes; we do not get away from the original formula, Energy and its actions and results, Prakriti and Karma. 99 An energy of some Inconscient Existence has created Matter and the material universe. All this material universe is indeed nothing but an inconscient Energy taking form or producing form and in and through its forms entering into all kinds of activity. Energy (Prakriti) and motion and action of Energy, Karma, and results of its action — this is the formula of our universe.

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But whence then comes consciousness? How can things in their very nature inconscient and unaware become conscious or develop some kind of awareness? There is here a contradiction which is inexplicable and the more we look at it, becomes more and more inexplicable. This is possible because inconscience is a phenomenon not a fundamental reality. A phenomenon is something that appears to us, but does not show to us the whole reality of existence or of its own existence; it is a front, a face, a circumstance of something more than itself that does not appear but is — the Reality. Inconscience is a phenomenal state; it is consciousness that is the Reality; consciousness is an inherent and eternal state of being, inconscience is its temporal, temporary and apparent condition when it forms itself by its own energy into Matter and material objects. Its consciousness involves itself in inanimate Matter and seems there an inconscience; its energy too acts as if it were an inconscient energy, doing things without knowing what it is doing, creating a universe but unaware of the universe it creates, contriving millions of devices, but without any intelligence. So it seems, but so it cannot be; there is something hidden from us which we have to discover. It is the consciousness behind the Energy, the conscious Being behind the action that we have to discover. Consciousness, being, force, energy (shakti), these are the three first terms of the fundamental truth of existence. What we have to know is how they work out together in ourselves and the universe. * Chance, some say, does all; the phenomena of consciousness — for there is no such thing as consciousness in itself, only reactive phenomena of sense and mind provoked by outward impacts — are, like everything else, the products of Chance. But what is Chance, after all? It is only a word, a notion formed by our consciousness to account for things of which we have no true knowledge — and it does not account for them.

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When we do not know how or why a thing came to pass, we escape by saying, it was chance. We do not truly know how or why the universe happened or things in the universe, so we say “Chance made it; Chance did it.” An intellectual escape, nothing more. If we said “A selection, mysterious to us, out of infinite possibility,” then there would be some truth and some profundity in our thinking. But the emergence of consciousness out of the Inconscient was more probably a necessity in the very being of being, in the innate movement of being, than merely a possibility. Necessity, then? an inevitable determination in Nature? or a self-determination in the conscious Spirit?

Consciousness and Immortality 100 Our existence is not a freak of some inconscient mechanical Force stumbling into consciousness nor an inexplicable activity on the surface of a blank Nothingness or an impassive inactive Infinite. There is a significance in our life, it moves towards a spiritual end, it fulfils the drive of an eternal reality. Immortality is the nature of our being, birth and death are a movement and incident of our immortality. Birth is an assumption of a body by the spirit, death is the casting off [of] the body; there is nothing original in this birth, nothing final in this death. Before birth we were; after death we shall be. Nor are our birth and death a single episode without continuous meaning or sequel; it is one episode out of many, scenes of our drama of existence with its denouement far away in time. 101 All depends upon consciousness. For all world-existence is a form created by consciousness, upheld by consciousness, determined by consciousness. All that is is a consciousness veiled

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or unveiled, manifesting or concealing its own substance. All is energy of consciousness masked by movement of mind and life and matter and taking forms which are merely motions of the energy stabilised to appearance, yet always in movement; for the consciousness that constitutes these forms is always in dynamic movement; the visible rhythm and self-result of this selfrepeating or self-continuing vibration and never resting motion and dynamis is what we call form. Disperse the energy that constitutes it and the form dissolves. Withdraw the consciousness that expresses itself in the energy and the energy can keep up no longer its sustaining rhythm; therefore it disperses, therefore the form dissolves. If we could so intensify the power of the consciousness put out in us that we could keep the energy always repeating, continuing, enlarging, progressing in its rhythm, then, the form might change but need not dissolve and even physically we should be immortal[.]

The Science of Consciousness Vedantic Psychology 102 Body, brain, nervous system are instruments of consciousness, they are not its causes. Consciousness is its own cause, a producer of objects and images and not their product. We are blinded to this truth because when we think of consciousness, it is of the individual we think. We look at the world in the way and speak of it in the terms of individual consciousness; but it is of the universal consciousness that the world is a creation. The individual participates subconsciently and superconsciently in the universal consciousness. But the embodied individual in his physical or waking mind does not so much participate as arrive at participation. He is not directly part of it, but reproduces it by a partial indirect action, and in reproducing selects and varies, combines, discombines, new combines and develops his selections. In the body his waking mind receives its impressions from the outside world and reacts upon them. Body and nerves are his instrument for the impressions and the reaction; therefore all their apparent instrumentation is nervous, physical, atomically combined, a physiological apparatus for a battery of nervous energy. Physical, nervous and sensory impressions are the means by which this individual is induced to put himself into waking relations with the physical universe. Physical, nervous and sensory reactions are his means for entering into that relation. *

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He, — but who is he? The mental being in his mentality. Who is it that feels himself to be separate from the world or things in the universe to be outside his being? Not the Spirit, for the Spirit contains the universe, creates and combines all relations. All personalities act in the one spirit, as our own multiple personalities act in one being. Spiritual being is their continent, they are not its constituents, but its outer results and the diverse representative selves of its consciousness and action. Not, either, the supramental being. For the supramental being is one with the spirit in its original or basic consciousness, in its idea-consciousness it is ideally comprehensive of cosmic things or, if we must speak in terms of space, commensurate with the universe. The supramental being with one action of his Idea-self can regard universal being as his object of will and knowledge. That attitude is the seed of mind. It can regard it as contained in itself and itself contained in it, and in that way know and govern it. But it can too, like Spirit in its real action know all things by identity and govern all things by identity. Externality of being does not enter into supramental experience. Supermind can see mind externalising objects; it can itself take a particular viewpoint fronting objects but it is in itself that it fronts them, as we front our subjective operations in mind. It does not regard them as something outside its own being, as we regard physically objects. Mind is a delegation from supermind, which primarily regards existence as an object fronting its vision. Mental being also need not regard the universe as quite separate from or outside its own being. Subliminal mentality is capable by extension of a comprehensive relation with cosmic things and of entering into unity with the universe. Mind’s starting-point is not a containing universal vision or a knowledge by identity, but an individualised viewpoint from which it sees the universe. Still mind can arrive at a sort of containing vision, a mentalised cosmic consciousness. What then compels embodied mind to see objects externally and by separation? It is compelled by the fact of physical embodiment. Body is a self-limitation of conscious being by

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which mind is rigidly bound down to its own tendency of separative individuation. Body, including all physical formations from the atom upwards, is a device of Nature for the extreme of conscious individuation. Empirically it is immaterial whether it is an image created by consciousness or a real substance of being. For practical purposes we may take it as a substantial formation. In fact body is a knot of conscious being built up by its own energy, instinct with nervous or subnervous life, — because the energy is in dynamic actuality a living energy — cognizing and cognized by subconscious or superficially conscious sense, because the energy is in a certain inherent reality a conscious energy. It is a knot indivisible in reality from universal Consciousness and Force and Substance but in a certain empirical utility of selective action separative rather than separate. Body, not really separate, is limited by subconscious instinct of separation and energetic tendency of separation, but not capable of effecting real separation. All its movements are a practical result of selective experience and selective action which is based on a phenomenon of separate physical being. Body is separated from other bodies by intervention of universal matter, but both of the separate bodies are one with the indivisible intervening matter, therefore not separate in reality, but indivisibly connected in energy, and one matter in fundamental reality. Put otherwise, two bodies are images or formations of one indivisible ethereal space, which is in reality one indivisible movement of material energy, life-energy, mind energy. This inseparable connection and fundamental unity of bodies become of immense importance when we examine the relation of the appearances of consciousness to its reality. Mind in body has to begin from the separation proper to body. Embodied mind is bound down in its root-action to a separative view of the universe. This is its waking view; subliminally, whether in subconscious mentality or where it approaches or touches the superconscient being, it is capable of bridging the artificial separation.

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Taking this separative basis of waking consciousness for itself and for a reality, the house of imprisoned awareness from which it looks at the world, it is bound to see objects as external to this awareness and this conscious vision. Embodied mind is as if a walled house were to have a thinking soul and spirit (air and ether) and look at things not in itself as things outside through windows (the senses), receive the touches of the outside air (nervous life-impacts) as if other than the air in itself; even its own ether as other than the rest of ether (my soul and other souls). This is the self and not-self of our mentality. Mind subliminal is able, though not normally habituated, to bridge the gulf between self and not-self; where it approaches the superconscient, this gulf lessens and conscience of oneness grows upon the being. Body is only the instrument and basis of this extreme separative individuation, not its first cause. Mind itself is a prior cause; but mentality in itself need not be rigidly separative: especially, subliminal mind has a large integrating power. Mind in itself is only the basis of a relatively separative plurality; mind in body increases this relation into a phenomenon of absolutely separative plurality. From this basis of externalising individuation and separative plurality waking mental consciousness in the physical universe commences its operations. 103 Psychology is the knowledge of consciousness and its operations. A complete psychology must be a complex of the science of mind, its operations and its relations to life and body with intuitive and experimental knowledge of the nature of mind and its relations to supermind and spirit. A complete psychology cannot be a pure natural science, but must be a compound of science and metaphysical knowledge. This necessity arises from the difference between natural or physical sciences and psychology. A physical science is a knowledge of physical processes

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which leads inevitably to action and use of physical processes. The scientist may only regard scientific truth and not utility; but he can find only truth of the process of things, not truth of the nature of things. His discoveries bring about inevitably an utility for action; for all truth of process is an utility for action. Even when not the aim of science, process and utility are the soul and body of physical science. Matter itself is only an utility of Spirit or Being or Nature for physical process and action. Material energy is an instrumental dynamis for that utility or else an original dynamis which has no other sense of its operations. We get beyond to a higher sense only when [we] get beyond material to mental, psychical and spiritual energy, to mind, soul and spirit. Debateable it is whether if we knew the real essence of Matter and the basic, not only the apparent, relations of mind, soul and spirit to matter and material operations, we could not arrive at an infinitely more potent use of physical process and operations. But in any case these things cannot be discovered by physical science; it has its limits and cannot exceed its limits. Psychology may begin as a natural science, but it deals already with superphysical and must end in a metaphysical enquiry. If one side of the process it studies and its method of enquiry is physical, the other and more important is non-physical; it is a direct observation of mental operations by mind without any regard to their physiological meaning, support, substratum or instrumentation. If this is in the first place a study of process and involves an utility for psychological action, yet what it leads to inevitably is not that action but an enquiry into the nature of mental consciousness. This necessity arises from the immediate perception by mind of something beyond and behind its operations, some energy of hidden consciousness greater than our apparent mentality. To know what that is, we have to resort to a metaphysical enquiry. Consciousness is itself found to be not essentially a process, — although in mind it appears as a process, but the very

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nature of self-existent being. Being or the Self of things can only be known by metaphysical — not necessarily intellectual — knowledge. This self-knowledge has two inseparable aspects, a psychological knowledge of the process of Being, a metaphysical knowledge of its principles and essentiality. We find that one of these principles of being is energy. Energy is an eternal and inherent power of conscious being. Since all energy is convertible to action, this knowledge also contains a side of psychological and spiritual utility, — eventually perhaps even, since life and body are results of the energy of being and supports of its action, of vital and physical utility. Two great utilities open before psychology. We may acquire the possibility of a greater being, consciousness and energy. We may open up the possibility and discover the psychical means or process [of] becoming consciously one with our original selfexistent Being, with God, the Absolute, the Transcendence. To lead up to these possibilities is the aim of Vedantic psychology. 104 All psychology must result in and every complete statement of psychological truth must have for its frame a double schema of existence into which the facts it deals with must fall, a descending scale and an ascending scale. The simplest elementary psychology deals with three notes of a limited scale, — the body and physical field and its impacts, the life and body and biological and physiological processes, the mental being and its conscious experience and action. This is a scale of ascension. * The nature of the physical field is the first fact; it determines everything else; it gives the impacts which awaken the consciousness, the impressions, images, subjects which are its matter, the starting-point and basis of all its conceptions, the body which is

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its support, instrument, fulcrum of action, the physical occasion of the sense of self. Everything appears to be in the body or by the body and either for the body or for the I-sense in the body. The body seems to be the principal if not the only cause or determinant of individual consciousness. What is not of the body is of the physical field outside the body. Whatever in consciousness seems not to be of the physical field, yet appears to be derived from it, to be a resultant, development or deformation from physical experience. * The life in the body is the necessary modification of the first fact of material being, without whose intervention consciousness is unable to manifest in any material form. The atom is a form of matter, the stone is a material body, but life in these things is either nil or not developed to the point where manifestation of consciousness becomes possible. Consciousness in the atom and the stone is either latent, non-manifest to us, suppressed, potential or nil. Life in any degree is not sufficient for the manifestation of mental consciousness. A certain high degree of it or else a certain indispensable kind of organisation is needed for this third tone of the scale. Plants are living, even in a degree intensely living, they have a nervous organisation, but consciousness is either nil or latent, non-manifest at least to us, suppressed or else of another kind than ours, a submental nervous consciousness and not mentality. Life supplies certain biological conditions and certain physiological processes which physically underlie the operations of conscious mental being. Life gives the intermediate dynamic link between mind and body. Life has two operations which serve the purpose of mentality, a necessary life power in a nervous apparatus and a capacity

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of instrumental development and modification. Without the power of life in the nervous apparatus consciousness in the body is impossible; without the power of developing modifications it might exist as in the lower animals, but it could not expand as in man. The nervous apparatus is the initial biological fact necessary to mentality. Life power consists not of the nervous system, which is a physical element, but of a new power or energy of which the system is the vehicle, — the power of nervous communication, nervous charge, nervous discharge. This power is not sufficient to create mentality, for the plant too possesses them, yet does not appear to be a mental being, but it is the first condition of embodied mentality. A power of biological and physiological development is the secondary, continuative factor necessary to farther evolution of mentality. Once the nervous vital power appears in material body, it shows a biological power of developing a more complex physical instrumentation for a more complex nervous activity. Once it has attained a certain complexity of physical instrumentation, life seems able indefinitely to refine in some subtle way its action of nervous power so as to support a more and more fine and complex action of mentality. How far this development of mentality can go and how far it is dependent on the physical apparatus and the nervous action is one of the capital questions of psychology. * Mental being, power and operation of mental consciousness is the third note of the scale of being. Mind cannot certainly be said to be constituted of life and body, nervous action and reaction in a physical body. Nervous action does not appear to constitute of itself consciousness, any more than physical impact and consequent atomic disturbance appears of itself to constitute nervous action. As a correspondent or resultant nervous communication, charge and discharge is necessary to manifest life, so a resultant or correspondent

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conscious action, — sensation, perception, thought, conscious motiving impulsion, desire, intention, will, — are necessary to manifest mind. Mind may or may not be an exact result, reflection or correspondence of life action in body, life thinking itself out in body, body living and thinking out its experience in mind, but it is not the same thing as life and body. Life is a new or second power emerging from or in material energy. Mind is a new or third power emerging from or in the life-energy. * But this is only the ascending scale. Mind is not only awakened by life-action in the body at a certain evolutionary pitch of its operations; mind reacts upon and in certain ways uses, for its own characteristic purpose, modifies by its will to act and increase the life action and the ways of the body. Mind is not limited in its thoughts by the life and body. There is an action in it which is more than a creative stress of life, an attempt to image supraphysical realities, which we may dismiss as an illusion or a result of abnormal physiological states, but may also follow as first clues to a greater truth and possibly a higher tone or tones of the scale of being. In that case, mind appears as a larger thing than life and material being. Though apparently an evolution from life and the body, it may have been in reality a prior power, life and body only its occasions and means for self-manifestation on the material plane of being. At any rate, psychology has to regard the scale not only from the upward point of view of body creating life, life creating mind, but from the downward point of view of mind creating new life in body. Evidently mind is a greater thing, higher than life and body. In that case, besides the ascending scale of the lower rising to a highest possibility, we must regard a possibility of the descending

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scale, the highest reality involving itself in the lower conditions of being. But the question arises whether mind itself is the highest possibility or the highest reality[.] * Vedantic psychology explores the idea and intuition of a higher reality than mind. The intuition can only be verified by psychological experience exceeding the normal action of mind. This experience may lead to constantly ascending intuitions verified by an ascent of experience to some summit of being. Beyond mind psychological experience finds another power of energy, another note in the scale of being. This we will call the supermind. This supermind lives and acts natively in a domain of experience of which the mind becomes aware by a reflective experience and calls vaguely spirit or spiritual being. Spirit is found to have three tones of its being. Triune, it makes each successively a power of its energy, a status of spiritual experience and form of its action. Triune, they are inseparable, but one or other can be so stressed as to appear a leading principle. But we have to note three essential facts about spirit: — Spirit is infinite consciousness, even when it dwells upon finite formulations of conscious being. Awareness of spirit is infinite self-awareness. All its three essential principles must have this character of infinity. Infinite self-conscious bliss is the first; infinite self-conscious conscious energy is the second; infinite self-conscious existence the third principle of spirit. Existence, consciousness, bliss are the three tones of infinity, the three basic colours of the Absolute. * The ascending scale of being presents then seven notes, matter,

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life, mind, supermind, bliss self, self of conscious energy, self of primary conscious existence. But the experience we get as we ascend in the scale leads us to the discovery that what in evolution appears subsequent is prior in reality. Life evolves in matter, but was preexistent to matter, latent, omnipresent, waiting for matter to be ready to be manifest — which it does when the movement of energy reaches a certain intensity. Mind evolves in embodied life, but was preexistent to matter and life, latent, omnipresent, involved, a hidden cause of action waiting for life and matter to be ready for its manifestation which comes when the movement of energy has reached a greater intensity. So supermind is prior to mind, latent, omnipresent, involved even in matter and life, a hidden cause of action and waits for mind to be ready for its manifestation, and since supermind acts only in spirit spirit too must be there latent, omnipresent, involved, a hidden cause of action. But spirit is not dependent on the evolution of supermind for its manifestation; it can appear to our mentality, to our life-consciousness, even to our physical mind. The true nature and rationale of this priority appear in the descending scale. There we see the true development of the universe. Spirit of self-being develops self of conscious energy which supports its self of cosmic bliss, which acts on the finite by supermind, which offers its differentiations to mind, relates them in life, fixes them phenomenally in body of material substance. This is the descending scale by which universe is created or made sensible to embodied soul. But in the material world, all is first involved in matter and has to find itself by a development from material being and with material being as its support and basis. The evolving process of this self-discovery of the universal existence produces the phenomenon of evolution of higher and greater from lower and lesser principles which we call the ascending scale of being. This phenomenon baffling now to the reason becomes a selfevident proposition when we observe the descending scale and

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find involution to have preceded evolution. The phenomenon arises inevitably from the nature of our being. * Schema of being has to be formulated from these two points of view, the results, though data of experience, being at first taken as a working hypothesis, subject to verification. We follow actually the ascending scale, but the descending scale has first to be shown, as otherwise the possible explanations of psychological phenomenon which result from this line of experience, would be unintelligible and would have either to be excluded or the whole enquiry restated in altered detail in the end. All questions of the reality or unreality of the world, its fundamental or ultimate purpose or want of purpose, the destiny of the soul, must be left over till the psychological data have been understood. To proceed otherwise would be to determine them by metaphysical reasoning; but the object before us is to arrive at them by the road of psychology. The whole psychology of Vedanta depends upon this double scale and without it could have no complete scientific verification. Because it exists experience of consciousness can give a clue to the nature of world existence. Metaphysical reasoning by itself could only give us philosophical opinions, psychological verification makes Vedantic truth a firm guide in life. It gives us a tangible ladder of ascension by which we rise to our highest truth of being[.] 105 The knowledge at which psychology arrives in its largest generalisations, is that there is one absolute and indefinable Reality which we call for psychological purposes the Self one, indivisible and common to all existence which manifests itself with an infinite variety in the universe and that every soul is an individual personality — we will use the word for want of a better — of that Self manifesting itself with a variety not precisely infinite,

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but indefinite, but in accordance with its individual nature which provides the principle of harmony, regulates the variety, casts it into a certain mould of unity. All existence is one, but with a constantly active principle of variation and individuation. There is a universal nature of things, but man while abiding within the principles of that nature, has also a nature of his own which distinguishes him from the animal and from lower forms of life. There is therefore this general individuality of Man which the totality of mankind represents in its full play of oneness and variety. Within that general individuality there are typal, racial, national, class individualities and each man has his own individual nature, one indeed in its general basis and materials with general human nature and with his type, race, class, nation, but yet possessed of its own principle of particular individuation. It is this which reigns in his mentality, vital being, physical being and stamps itself upon them, but in itself it is neither mental, vital nor physical, but proceeds from a secret principle superior to all these; mind, life and body are only means and values of his self-expression. So is it with every community, nation or other natural grouping of men.

Towards a True Scientific Psychology 106 When the ancient thinkers of India set themselves to study the soul of man in themselves and others, they, unlike any other nation or school of early thought, proceeded at once to a process which resembles exactly enough the process adopted by modern science in its study of physical phenomena. For their object was to study, arrange and utilise the forms, forces and working movements of consciousness, just as the modern physical Sciences study, arrange and utilise the forms, forces and working movements of objective Matter. The material with which they had to deal was more subtle, flexible and versatile than the most

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impalpable forces of which the physical Sciences have become aware; its motions were more elusive, its processes harder to fix; but once grasped and ascertained, the movements of consciousness were found by Vedic psychologists to be in their process and activity as regular, manageable and utilisable as the movements of physical forces. The powers of the soul can be as perfectly handled and as safely, methodically and puissantly directed to practical life-purposes of joy, power and light as the modern power of electricity can be used for human comfort, industrial and locomotive power and physical illumination; but the results to which they give room and effect are more wonderful and momentous than the results of motorpower and electric luminosity. For there is no difference of essential law in the physical and the psychical, but only a difference and undoubtedly a great difference of energy, instrumentation and exact process. The Supreme Existence which expresses itself equally in soul and matter, moves upon one fundamental principle on all its sevenfold levels, and even by one set of medial processes, but It varies their minute arrangement and organic functioning to suit the material which it is using and the objective which it has set before Itself in Its divine movement. Exact observation and untrammelled, yet scrupulous experiment are the method of every true Science. Not mere observation by itself — for without experiment, without analysis and new-combination observation leads to a limited and erroneous knowledge; often it generates an empirical classification which does not in the least deserve the name of science. The old European system of psychology was just such a pseudo-scientific system. Its observations were superficial, its terms and classification arbitrary, its aim and spirit abstract, empty and scholastic. In modern times a different system and method are being founded; but the vices of the old system persist. The observations made have been incoherent, partial or morbid and abnormal; the generalisations are far too wide for their meagre substratum of observed data; the abstract & scholastic use of psychological terms and the old metaphysical ideas of psychological processes still bandage the eyes of the infant knowledge, mar its truth and

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hamper its progress. These old errors are strangely entwined with a new fallacy which threatens to vitiate the whole enquiry, — the fallacy of the materialistic prepossession. 107 Psychology ought to be rather than is the science of consciousness and of the motions of consciousness as distinguished from the science of form and of the motions of form. We are dealing, therefore, in psychology with a more subtle, flexible and versatile material than in the physical sciences; its motions are more elusive, its processes harder to fix; but when once grasped and ascertained, its laws and activities are found to be quite as regular, manageable and utilisable as the processes of physical Nature. They give room to even more wonderful and momentous results. There is no difference of essential law in the physical & psychical, but a great difference of instrumentation and exact process. For the Supreme Existence moves on one fundamental principle or one set of principles in all its manifestations, but varies its organic arrangement and functioning of the principles to suit the material which It is using & the objective which It intends to reach. In both fields observation & experiment are the only sound foundation of knowledge. But observation without experiment leads only to a limited and erroneous science, often to an empirical system of surface rules which do not deserve the name of science at all. It is this defect which has so long kept European psychology in the status of a pseudo-science; and, even now when real observation has begun & experimentation of an elementary kind is being attempted, the vices of the perishing sciolism mar and hamper this infant knowledge. It has not rid itself of all its old scholastic swaddling clothes; therefore it still walks on all fours and cannot yet learn to stand up erect and walk. 108 Psychology is the science of consciousness and its status and operations in Nature and, if that can be glimpsed or experienced,

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its status and operations beyond what we know as Nature. It is not enough to observe and know the movements of our surface nature and the superficial nature of other living creatures just as it [is] not enough for Science to observe and know as electricity only the movements of lightning in the clouds or for the astronomer to observe and know only those movements and properties of the stars that are visible to the unaided eye. Here as there a whole world of occult phenomena have to be laid bare and brought under control before the psychologist can hope to be master of his province. Our observable consciousness, that which we call ourselves, is only the little visible part of our being. It is a small field below which are depths and farther depths and widths and ever wider widths which support and supply it but to which it has no visible access. All that is our self, our being, — what we see at the top is only our ego and its visible nature. Even the movements of this little surface nature cannot be understood nor its true law discovered until we know all that is below or behind and supplies it — and know too all that is around it and above. For below this conscient nature is the vast Inconscient out of which we come. The Inconscient is greater, deeper, more original, more potent to shape and govern what we are and do than our little derivative conscient nature. Inconscient to us, to our surface view, but not inconscient in itself or to itself it is a sovereign guide, worker, determinant, creator. Not to know it is not to know our nether origins and the origin of the most part of what we are and do. And the Inconscient is not all. For behind our little frontal ego and nature is a whole subliminal kingdom of inner consciousness with many planes and provinces. There are in that kingdom many powers, movements, personalities which are part of ourselves and help to form our little surface personality and its powers and movements. This inner self, these inner persons we do not know, but they know us and observe and dictate our speech, our thoughts, feelings, doings even more directly than the Inconscient below us.

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Around us too is a circumconscient Universal of which we are a portion. This Circumconscience is pouring its forces, suggestions, stimulus, compulsions into us at every moment of our existence. Around us is a universal Mind of which our mind is a formation and our thoughts, feelings, will, impulses are continually little more than a personally modified reception and transcription of its thought-waves, its force-currents, its foam of emotion and sensation, its billows of impulse. Around us is a permanent universal life of which our petty flow of life-formation that begins and ceases is only a small dynamic wave. 109 Psychology is the science of Consciousness; it is the knowledge of its nature, its processes and the aim or results of its processes, its law or laws of being, its habitat and instruments, its what, why, where, whence and whither. But what is consciousness and can there be a science of consciousness? We are not in presence of a body of concrete, visible or sensible facts, verifiable by all, which form an indisputable starting-point, are subject to experiment and proof, where theories can be tested at every point and discarded if they do not accord with the facts, with all the facts. The data here are subjective, fluid, elusive. They do not subject themselves to exact instruments, can lend themselves to varying theories, do not afford proofs easily verifiable by all. Their presentation is difficult and can hardly be more than scanty and often infantile in their insufficiency. Theories are numerous, but few or none have any solidity or permanence. To understand the psychology of others we depend upon our observation of them and our own interpretation of the movements we observe and our comparison with our own psychological actions and reactions. But our observation is limited by the fact that what we observe is not the psychological events we wish to study but signs of speech, action, facial or bodily

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expression which seem to us to indicate them; but it is still more limited by the possibility of error in our observation and still more in our interpretation. Errors of wrong attribution, exaggeration, diminution, false [?evidence], false valuation, crop up at every turn; indeed, the whole observation may be nothing but error, the interpretation purely personal and mistaken. Comparison with ourselves may be a fruitful fountain of mistakes; there is no doubt a general similarity in the mass of human reactions, but the differences and variations are also marked and striking; there is here no source of certitude. A direct experiential and experimental psychology seems to be demanded if psychology is to be a science and not merely a mass of elementary and superficial generalisations with all the rest guesswork or uncertain conclusion or inference. We must see, feel, know directly what we observe; our interpretations must be capable of being sure and indubitable; we must be able to work surely on a ground of sure knowledge. * Modern psychologists have aimed at certitude in their knowledge, have found it or thought they found it by mixing up psychology and physiology; our physiological processes are supposed to be not only the instrumentation or an instrumentation of our consciousness, but the base or constituents of our psychological processes. But by this method we can only arrive at an extended physiological, not at a true psychological knowledge. We learn that there is a physical instrumentation by which physical things and their contacts work upon our consciousness, reach it through the nerves and the brain and awake certain reactions in it which may however vary with the brain and the consciousness contacted; we learn that the consciousness uses certain physiological processes as well as physical means to act upon outward things and conditions; we learn too that physical conditions have an action upon our state of consciousness and its functionings. But all this was to be expected, since we are a consciousness embodied and not disincarnate, acting through a

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body and with a body as a habitation and instrument and not a pure consciousness acting in its own right[.]

Yogic Psychology 110 The problem of consciousness can only be solved if we go back to a radical state of our existence in which things get back to their reality. For there they are no longer a mass of phenomena which have to be cleared up, classified, organised by the perceptions, conceptions and relative logic of the human intellect. These perceptions, these concepts, this logic belong to an imperfect instrument and the arrangements they make can only be provisional and, at that, onesided and only half-true or a good deal less than half-true — and even that truth is of an inferior kind, a constructed representation and not truth itself in its own nature. In fact the intellect sees only the phenomenon, it cannot go back behind it; when it tries, it only arrives at other and more occult phenomena. The truth of things can only be perceived when one gets to what may be called summarily the spiritual vision of things and even there completely only when there is not only vision but direct experience in the very substance of one’s own being and all being. 111 Consciousness is not an unaccountable freak or a chance growth or a temporary accident in a material and inconscient universe. It may so appear on the surface and physical science, since by its very terms it is limited to the examination of appearances and must start from the surface phenomenon, may choose or may have no alternative but to treat it on that basis. But surface appearances are not the reality of things, they may be a part of the truth but they are not the whole reality. One must look

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beyond the external appearances of things before one can know things in themselves: especially first appearances are apt to be deceptive. It is not by regarding a flash of lightning as a chance ebullition of fiery temper in a cloud that one can know the truth of electricity. We must go far and dig deep before we can get at the truth about the Force that manifested the lightning. Consciousness may similarly appear as a phenomenon, an outbreak of sentience in the obscurity of an originally nescient being; but we must go far beyond that specious appearance if we would know the true nature and origin and discover the entire possibilities of this apparently strange and anomalous force. For anomalous it is, since it occurs in a fundamentally inconscient universe of Matter and strange and curious it is in its reactions, aberrations, workings, destiny. Physical science — and psychology in its present methods is only an extension of physical science — conducts its search into things from down upwards; it regards Matter as the foundation and the bottom of things and having searched into that foundation, got as it thinks to the very bottom, it believes, or once believed, it has by that very fact understood their depths, their centre, their height and top. But this is a naive error. The truth of things is in their depths or at their centre and even at their top. The truth of consciousness also is to be found at its top and in its depths or at its centre; but when we enter into the depths of consciousness or when we try to reach its centre, we go off into trance and likewise before we get to its top, we go off into trance. Our searches into Matter also are vitiated by the fact that in Matter consciousness is in a trance and gives no apparent response to our probings. In living Matter, not yet mental, still subconscious, it does give sometimes a reply, but not one that we can understand, and, as for mind in the animal, it is only consciousness half awakened out of the original trance of inconscient Matter: even in the human being it starts from an original nescience, its expressions, its data, all that we can ordinarily observe of it, are the movements of Ignorance fumbling for knowledge. We cannot understand from these alone what

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consciousness really is nor discover its source or its supreme possibilities or its limits, if indeed it has any limits and is not like being itself infinite and illimitable. Only if we can get away from this imperfection and ignorance to some top of its possibilities or to its latent depths or some hidden centre, can we discover its true nature and through it the very self and reality of our being. How do we know that there is a top to consciousness or an inner centre, since these are not apparent on the face of things? By its supernormal, not its normal manifestations and phenomena, for the top of things is always supernormal, it is only the bottom and what is near to the bottom that are normal, at any rate to our ordinary consciousness in the material universe. Especially we can know by the supernormal becoming normal to us — by Yoga. 112 I mean by Yogic psychology an examination of the nature and movements of consciousness as they are revealed to us by the processes and results of Yoga. This definition at once takes us out of the field of ordinary psychology and extends the range of our observation to an immense mass of facts and experiments which exceed the common surface and limited range very much as the vastly extended range of observation of Science exceeds that of the common man looking at natural external phenomena only with the help [of] his unaided mind and senses. The field of Yoga is practically unlimited and its processes and instrumentation have a plasticity and adaptability and power of expansion to which it is difficult to see or set any limit. It is true that modern psychology has probed the internal law of living matter and consciousness and arrived at results which are remarkable but limited and fundamentally inconclusive. We know from it that the movements of consciousness are affected and on a certain side determined by the functioning of the physical organs. But still the nature, origin and laws of consciousness remain unknown; all that has been proved is that the body

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provides for it an engine or instrumentation for its manifestation in living physical bodies and that certain lesions, alterations or deteriorations of the engine may lead to considerable or serious results in the functioning of the embodied consciousness. This was to be expected and can at once be conceded; but there is no proof that consciousness is a function of matter or that it was originated by the chemical or biological processes of the body or that it perishes with the dissolution of life in the body. The cessation of its functioning in the body at death proves nothing, for that was to be expected whatever the origin of consciousness or its fundamental nature. Its disappearance may be a departure, a disappearance from the body, but not a disappearance from existence. It is true also that modern inquiry probing into psychological (as opposed to physiological) phenomena has discovered certain truths that are equally discovered by Yogic process, the role of the subconscient, the subliminal, double or multiple personality; but its observations in these fields are of an extremely groping and initial character and one does not see easily how it can arrive at the same largeness of results here as in physiology, physics, chemistry or other departments of physical Science. It is only by Yoga process that one can arrive at an instrumentation which will drive large wide roads into the psychological Unknown and not only obscure and narrow tunnels. The field of psychology needs a direct inner psychological instrumentation by which we can arrive at sure data and sure results in ourselves verified [by] equally sure data [and] results in our observation of others and of the hidden psychological world and its play of unseen forces. The physical is the outwardly seen and sensed and needs physical instruments for its exploration; the psychological is the physically unseen and unsensed, to be discovered only by an organisation of the inward senses and other now undeveloped and occult means. It is through consciousness, by an instrumentation of consciousness only that the nature and laws and movements of consciousness can be discovered — and this is the method of Yoga.

Section Three Yoga Change of Consciousness and Transformation of Nature

The Way of Yoga Change of Consciousness: The Meaning of Yoga 113 Yoga is a means by which one arrives at union with the Truth behind things through an inner discipline which leads us from the consciousness of the outward and apparent to the consciousness of the inner and real. Yoga consciousness does not exclude the knowledge of the outer apparent world but it sees it with the eyes of an inner, not an outer seeing and experience, alters and sets right all its values in the light of an inner deeper greater truer consciousness and applies to it the Law of the reality, exchanging the law of the creature’s Ignorance for the rule of a divine Will and Knowledge. A change of consciousness is the whole meaning of the process of Yoga[.] 114 Yoga is the science, the process, the effort and action by which man attempts to pass out of the limits of his ordinary mental consciousness into a greater spiritual consciousness[.] 115 All yoga is in its essential [ . . . . . . . . . ] heightening or deepening of our consciousness so that it may become capable of something beyond our ordinary consciousness and our normal Nature. It is an entering into depths, an ascent towards heights, a widening beyond. Or it is contact with depths within, heights

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above, vastnesses beyond us, an opening to their greater influences, beings, movements or a reception of them into our surface consciousness and being so that the outer [is] altered, enveloped, governed by what is not our ordinary self. For the Reality which we are seeking does not lie on our surface or, if it is there, it is concealed and only a deeper, higher or wider consciousness than any to which we now have access can reach, touch or know and possess it. Even if we dive below our normal consciousness to find what is there it is some aspect of the Reality into which we enter. 116 By Yoga is meant — the word is not here used in the limited sense given to it in the disputations of Pandits — the use and [? ] of certain processes of self-discipline [and] self-exercise or spontaneous and automatic self-intensification and self-extension of the mind and whatever in us is limited and that by which we enter into a larger deeper consciousness than is ordinarily ours. This consciousness is aware of external things not only through the physical mind and senses but by other though often similar means of Mind, an inner sense or senses, an inner tact or feeling such as a projective or responsive awareness of things at a slight or great distance, a premonitory sense of things about to happen [or] preparing to happen, a feeling of things or persons not seen, an inner vision of physical objects and happenings not before the eye and hundreds of other phenomena not normal to the ordinary mind. These phenomena are ordinarily labelled occult or psychic or described as hallucinatory according to the point of view of the speaker, but such epithets explain nothing. This range of phenomena exists and for anyone who would know the nature and origin and possibilities of consciousness an examination of them is imperative. This range of phenomena is however only an outer fringe of Yoga. It is more important that it admits to an inner field of

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experiences of the utmost import, to a growth of psyche and spirit, to deepest realities and [?finally] to the deepest of all; [... ...] But what precisely do we mean by the word Yoga? It is used here in the most general sense possible as a convenient name including all processes or results of processes that lead to the unveiling of a greater and inner knowledge, consciousness, experience. Any psychic discipline by which we can pass partly or wholly into a spiritual state of the consciousness, any spontaneous or systematised approach to the inner Reality or the supreme Reality, any state of union or closeness to the Divine, any entry into a consciousness larger, deeper or higher than the normal consciousness common to humankind, fall automatically within the range of the word Yoga. Yoga takes us from the surface into the depths of our consciousness or it admits us into its very centre; it takes us up to the hidden topmost heights of our conscious being. It shows to us the secrets of the Self and the secret of the Divine. It gives us the knowledge, the vision, the presence of the Immanent and the Cosmic and the Transcendent Reality; that is its supreme purpose. On a lower grade it gives us the key to an inner and larger consciousness that is subliminal to us and brings out its experiences, its powers and possibilities and unless we know these things the secret of Consciousness and the knowledge of our whole being must escape us. It is through this door that we pass from a nescience of our true nature into a full light of self-knowledge. But there are methods, schools, disciplines of Yoga that are turned towards one restricted aim, follow each a different path, win control of a separate province and by following that exclusive path we shall know that province of our being only or reach a single summit. It is by the integrality of Yoga that one can attain the integrality of consciousness. Our aim must be to embrace in this new knowledge all the planes of consciousness and all its summits. Then in the light of the knowledge brought to us and its widening and heightening of our consciousness, it is in the light of the top of things

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that we have to see and know all. It is then only that our ignorance or a very partial and surface awareness of ourselves can be flooded by a light of self-revelation and turn into selfknowledge. 117 Yoga is in its essence a passage from the ordinary consciousness in which we are aware only of appearances into a higher wider deeper consciousness in which we become aware of realities and of the one Reality. Not only do we become aware of it, but we can live in it and act from it and according to it instead of living in and according to the appearance of things. Yoga is a passage from ignorance to self-knowledge, from our apparent to our true being, from an outer phenomenal mental vital material life-existence to an inner spiritual existence and a spiritualised nature. By Yoga we pass from the phenomenal to the real Man, from the consciousness of our own apparent outer nature to the consciousness of our real self, Atman, an inner and inmost man, Purusha, that which we truly and eternally are. This self or true being remains constant through all the changes of our phenomenal being, changes of the mind, life or body or changes of our apparent personality; it is permanent, perpetual and immortal, a portion or manifestation of the Eternal. By Yoga we pass also from our consciousness of the phenomenal appearance or appearances of the cosmos or world around us to a consciousness of its truth and reality. We become aware of the world as a manifestation of or in universal being who is the true truth of all that we see, hear, experience. We become aware of a cosmic Consciousness which is the secret of the cosmic Energy, a cosmic Self or Spirit, the cosmic Divine, the universal Godhead. But by Yoga we become aware also that our own Self or true being is one with the cosmic Self and Spirit, our nature a play of the cosmic Nature; the wall between ourselves and the

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universe begins to disappear and vanishes altogether. We realise the selfsame Pantheos in ourselves, in others and in all universal existence. But also by Yoga we become aware of something that is more than our individual being and more than the cosmic being, a transcendent Being or Existence which is not dependent on ours or the existence of the universe. Our existence is a manifestation of and in that Being, the cosmos also is a manifestation of and in that one Supreme Existence. This then is the Truth or Reality to which we arrive by Yoga, a one and supreme Being or Existence and Power of Being which manifests as a cosmic Self or Spirit and a cosmic Energy or Nature and in that again as our own self or spirit which becomes aware of itself as an individual being and nature.

Union: The Aim of Yoga 118 It is the aim of all Yoga to pass by a change of consciousness into the Reality that is behind things and live no longer in their appearance. To enter into some kind of union or communion or participation in that is the common object of all Yoga. But the Reality presents itself to the consciousness of man the mental being under many aspects. We seek after union or closeness to the Divine, whatever the Divine may be. We see the Divine as a personal Godhead or as an impersonal Existence. A God of Love or compassion attracts us or a God of might and power. It is a divine Friend who meets us or a Divine Master or a World Father or World Mother or an almighty Lord of all or a Divine Lover. We are in the presence of a Cosmic Spirit in whose universal consciousness we lose our separate ego or a Supracosmic Absolute in whom we lose altogether our cosmic as well as our individual existence. We find our own highest Self or the Self of all or we pass into a sublime

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Mystery without relation or feature where neither self nor all can exist any longer. Or it may be the inexpressible mystery of an original Nihil that abolishes for us all suffering along with all existence — or else that Nihil may be a mystic All that is far other than the false and illusory being created for us by mind and life experience. 119 Yoga is our union with some Being or some Reality, which is greater than ourselves or is our own greatest and real Self; it is That which by Yoga we join, enter into or become. 120 All Yoga strives towards union with the Highest, the Spirit, the Self, the Divine, or whatever other name or aspect we seize of the One Eternal and Infinite. And by union we mean, first, contact constant and increasing with the consciousness of the Divine or Infinite, then to assimilate it or assimilate ourselves to it, then to become not only like to it and full of it, but to enter into it and dwell in it, to become that divine consciousness and being, essence of its essence and so abolish all division that separates us from the Divinity from whom we came. 121 To be one with the Eternal is the object of Yoga; there is no other object, because all other aims are included in this one divine perfection. To be one with the Eternal is to be one with him in being, consciousness, power and delight. All that is is summed in these four terms of the infinite, for all else are but their workings. To be one with the Eternal is also to live in the Eternal and in his presence and from his infinite nature, — sayujya, salokya,

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samipya, sadrishya. These four together are one way of being and one perfection. To live in the Eternal is also to live with the Eternal within us. Whosoever consciously inhabits his being, his conscious presence inhabits. God lives and moves and acts in us when we live and move and act in him[.] 122 Yoga is the contact of the humanity in us with the deity in which it dwells, of the finite with the Infinite, of the as yet accomplished evolving & imperfect humanity with its yet unevolved attainable perfection, of the outwardly active waking consciousness which is controlled with the inwardly active controlling consciousness, of man with God, of the changing outward apparent ego with the secret real and immutable Self. By that contact the lower rises to the higher, the unevolved evolves, the unborn is created, humanity assumes some part of godhead, man moves upward to God. This upward and self-expanding movement is the utility of Yoga. 123 To be one in all ways of thy being with that which is the Highest, this is Yoga. To be one in all ways of thy being with that which is the All, this is Yoga. To be one in thy spirit and with thy understanding and thy heart and in all thy members with the God in humanity, this is Yoga. To be one with all Nature and all beings, this is Yoga. All this is to be one with God in his transcendence and his cosmos and all that he has created in his being. Because from him all is and all is in him and he is all and in all and because he is thy highest Self and thou art one with him in thy spirit and a portion of him in thy soul and at play with him in thy nature, and because this world is a scene in his being in which he is thy secret Master and lover and friend and the lord and sustainer and aim of all thou art, therefore is oneness with him the perfect way of thy being[.]

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The human being on earth is God playing at humanity in a world of matter under the conditions of a hampered density with the ulterior intention of imposing law of spirit on matter & nature of deity upon human nature. Evolution is nothing but the progressive unfolding of Spirit out of the density of material consciousness and the gradual self-revelation of God out of this apparent animal being. Yoga is the application, for this process of divine selfrevelation, of the supreme force of tapas by which God created the world, supports it & will destroy it. It substitutes always some direct action of an infinite divine force for the limited workings of our fettered animal humanity. It uses divine means in order to rise to divinity. All Yoga is tapasya and all siddhi of Yoga is accomplishment of godhead either by identity or by relation with the Divine Being in its principles or its personality or in both or simultaneously by identity and relation. Identity is the principle of Adwaita, relation of Dwaita, relation in a qualified identity of Visishtadwaita. But entire perfection comes by identity with God in essential experience & relation of difference with Him in experience of manifestation. 125 In the end a union, a closeness, a constant companionship in the soul with the Divine, and a yet more wonderful oneness and inliving[.]

Yoga Partial and Complete 126 Yoga means union and the whole object of Yoga is the union of the human soul with the supreme Being and of the present

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nature of humanity with the eternal, supreme or divine Nature. The greater the union, the greater the Yoga, the more complete the union, the more complete the Yoga. There are different conceptions of the supreme Being and to each conception corresponds a school of Yoga with its separate idea and discipline. But these are partial and not complete systems; or rather they are complete in themselves, but do not cover the whole human being and nature. Most of them lead away from life and are useful only to the few who are moved to turn away from human existence and seek the bliss of some other state of being. To humanity at large this kind of Yoga has no real message. The complete Yoga will be one which accepts God in the world and oneness with all beings and solidarity with the human kind, fills life and existence with the God-consciousness and not only raises man the individual but leads man the race towards a total perfection. 127 The aim put before itself by Yoga is God; its method is tapasya. God is the All and that which exceeds & transcends the All; there is nothing in existence which is not God but God is not anything in that existence, except symbolically, in image to His own consciousness. Humanity also is a symbol or eidolon of God, we are made in His image; and by that is meant, not a formal image, but in the image of His being and personality, the essence of divinity & its quality, the divine being & divine knowledge. There are in every thing existing phenomenally or, as we shall say, symbolically, two parts, the thing in itself & the symbol, Self & Nature, res (thing that is) & factum (thing that is made), immutable being & mutable becoming, that which is supernatural in it & that [which] is natural. Everything in existence has something in it which seeks to transcend itself; Matter moves towards becoming Life, Life moves towards becoming Mind, Mind moves towards becoming ideal Truth, ideal Truth rises to become divine & infinite Spirit.

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The reason is that every symbol, being a partial expression of God, reaches out to & seeks to become its own entire reality; it aspires to become its real self by transcending its apparent self. Thing that is made is attracted towards Thing that is, becoming towards being, the natural to the supernatural, symbol towards Thing in itself, Nature towards God. The upward movement is the means towards fulfilment of existence in the world; downward movement is destruction, Hell, perdition. Everything tends [to] move upward; once it is assured of its natural existence, it seeks the supernatural. Every nature is a step towards some supernature, something natural to itself but supernatural to what is below it. Life is supernatural to Matter, Mind supernatural to Life, ideal being supernatural to mental being, infinite being supernatural to ideal being. So too man is supernatural to the animal, God is supernatural to man. Man too as soon as he has assured his natural existence, must insist on his upward movement towards God. The upward movement is towards Heaven, the downward movement towards Hell. The animal soul fulfils itself when it transcends animality & becomes human. Humanity also fulfils itself when it transcends humanity & becomes God. By yielding to Nature, we fall away both from Nature & from God; by transcending Nature we at once fulfil all the possibilities of Nature & rise towards God. The human touches first the divine & then becomes divine. There are those who seek to kill Nature in order to become the Self; but that is not God’s intention in humanity. We have to transcend Nature, not to kill it. Every movement of humanity which seeks to destroy Nature, however religious, lofty or austere, of whatever dazzling purity of ethereality, is doomed to failure, sick disappointment, disillusionment or perversion. It is in its nature transient, because it contradicts God’s condition for us. He has set Nature there as a condition of His self-fulfilment in the world. Every movement of humanity which bids us be satisfied

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with Nature, dwell upon the earth & cease to look upwards, however rational, clearsighted, practical, effective, comfortable it may be is doomed to weariness, petrifaction & cessation. It is in its nature transient because it contradicts God’s intention in us. He dwells secret in Nature & compels us towards Him by His irresistible attraction. Materialistic movements are as unnatural & abnormal as ascetic & negatory religions & philosophies. Under the pretence of bringing us back to Nature, they take us away from her entirely; for they forget t