Mitra and Varuna are possessed of the law of Truth in the supreme ether

Re: 02: Hard is it to Persuade Earth-Nature's Change by RY Deshpande on Thu 18 Jan 2007 03:06 AM PST Profile Permanent Link

The Assault of Ether and of Fire Earth-nature fears the assault of ether and of fire; it trembles at the naked power of Truth; it cannot bear the might and sweetness of the absolute Voice. When the Divine Mother stood in front of Aswapati, to give him a boon, she spoke in a voice “absolute and wise”, addressing him as “the Son of Strength”.

Aswapati’s was no longer the frail earth-nature to give way to her Presence; he could stand there firmly and resolutely, even insisting on what he wanted from her. But for us it will be an assault of fire and of ether; under it we will easily crumble or get crushed. Too great her presence for mortality to bear,—“too immense my danger and my joy,” as she tells Aswapati. Man is too weak to bear the Infinite’s weight and truth born too soon might break the imperfect earth.

Such is the danger she herself indicates. But there is something wonderful about the phrase “the assault of Ether and of Fire”. Very often in Savitri the Unseen becomes mantrically visible and the Unspoken rapturously audible, in a mystically charged manner. The Word, dynamic in its power of expression, is seen and heard with the sight carrying the creative sound and the sound the large and luminous form presenting itself in its rhythmic movements. In the Rig Veda we have a Rik which says: “By the Truth they uphold the Truth that holds all, in the power of the Sacrifice, in the supreme ether, even they who by the godheads born in them travel to the godheads unborn, to the Powers who are seated for ever in the Law that upholds the heavens.” (The Secret of the Veda)

It speaks of the supreme ether, parama vyoma; in another place we have the supreme ocean of light and expanse of the highest superconscient ether; and then, Vishnu takes the supreme step in the highest ether, the Transcendent. There awaits us the Truth that is hidden here by the lesser truth. Mitra and Varuna are possessed of the law of Truth in the supreme ether and it is the bliss of Mitra and Varuna that has to increase in us. The Gods who are the Guardians of the Truth ascend to the supreme ether which is the infinity of the superconscient being.

Another Rik says: “With blows that slay cast from our path, O thou Flame, the powers that stammer in the speech and stumble in the thought, the devourers of our power and our knowledge who leap at us from near and shoot at us from afar. Make the path of the sacrifice a clear and happy journeying.” And: “Burn away from us the sin, flame out on us the bliss. Burn away from us the sin! apa naĥ śośucadaghamagne śuśugdhyā rayim, apa naĥ śośucadagham.”

Only when the Will in man becomes divine and possessed of the Truth, amŗto ŗtāvā, can the perfection towards which we move be realised in humanity. When this happens no more earthnature will shudder to the divine assault, the assault of the Majestic and the Imperious.

“Agni is, preeminently, the Immortal in mortals. He is the divine Will which in all things is always present, is always destroying and constructing, always building and perfecting, supporting always the complex progression of the universe. It is this which persists through all death and change. It is eternally and inalienably possessed of the Truth. In the last obscuration of Nature, in the lowest unintelligence of Matter, it is this Will that is a concealed knowledge and compels all these darkened movements to obey, as if mechanically, the divine Law and adhere to the truth of their Nature. It is this which makes the tree grow according to its seed and each action bear its appropriate fruit. In the obscurity of man's ignorance,—less than material Nature's, yet greater,—it is this divine Will that governs and guides, knows the sense of his blindness and the goal of his aberration and out of the crooked workings of the cosmic Falsehood in him evolves the progressive manifestation of the cosmic Truth.” (See The Secret of the Veda)

The Divine Dynamism, Kali’s Work in the Cosmos begins in the wake of the assault of the Ether and of the Fire. When she is thus active can in the creation rush the Divine Ananda, can the Flute-Player’s Joy prevail here. Far beyond Coleridge’s “happy valiancy”, the phrase “assault of Ether and of Fire” reaches the wonder that is the spirit of the sheer Overhead Poetry. We are seized entirely by it, as if nothing else should now count. RYD

by RY Deshpande on Fri 19 Jan 2007 01:10 AM PST Profile Permanent Link The cross their payment for the crown they gave: The image of cross appears in several places in Savitri. But Savitri’s cross is also the sign of her complete surrender to the Supreme, she going by the Will of the Lord whatever be the difficulty. Sri Aurobindo writes:

“All true Truth of love and of the works of love the psychic being accepts in their place: but its flame mounts always upward and it is eager to push the ascent from lesser to higher degrees of Truth, since it knows that only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed upon the throne; for the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns it into a stake of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence.” (The Synthesis of Yoga p. 157)

One may acquire a kind of divine equality in all circumstances of life, including even the extreme of deathful anguish; but there must yet come a degree of perfection surpassing everything. The key for this perfection could be in accepting in all gladness the circumstances as they are, as a god-given opportunity to remain untouched by them. But the truer way is the way of surrender, surrender to both the divine Will and the divine Wisdom. That is the perfect way to bear the weight of the cross, recognising in it the way of the divine Love. That is the way Savitri follows, the way of perfect surrender to the Supreme. She carries the cross of suffering and pain, not just submitting but surrendering herself to the Will and Wisdom of the Divine. RYD