Four Asuras who stand as eternal Antagonists

Re: 10: Across the Silence of the Ultimate Calm by RY Deshpande on Fri 04 May 2007 06:02 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link The Presence he yearned for

Aswapati has climbed this huge world-pile, “erect like a mountain-chariot of the Gods,” rising from Matter’s plinth and vanishing, beyond sight, into the viewless Supreme. He has seen the nether worlds, of darkness below direr darkness; he has also experienced the joys of the true and the beautiful. He has understood the cause of this world’s failure. When Life had entered into the material scene, at the call of the gods of the material objects, she was at once stunned by the ambiguous Presence that sprang up from the depths of the Inconscience; Life was overpowered by Death. Unless this stranglehold of Death is removed, Aswapati knows, Life cannot make proper and genuine progress in the possibilities of the Spirit. The problem is defined and it gives a distinct focus to his quest.

Presently, Aswapati is standing on the being's naked edge where even the seeking of his soul faces extinction. The issue is Cosmic-Transcendental, beyond the Individual. Nothing of this world he carries as a burden, all that belongs to this dumb and fallen Nature, all that has connection with the inconscience of this world obscures no more his perception. He knows at once that, here is one who can redeem the lot of this mortal creature, bring meaning and fulfilment to his authentic existence, make the phenomenal the real. The Presence he yearned for has suddenly drawn closer. From across the ultimate Calm, Aswapati saw someone coming, infinite and absolute. Yes, it was the being of wisdom, power and delight, jňāna-śakti-ānanda, the triple Mother, who takes to her breast everything, Nature and world and soul.

The Power, the Light, the Bliss no word can speak

Imaged itself in a surprising beam…

For one was there supreme behind the God…

He felt a rapturous and unstumbling Force.

The moment he saw her, met her, all got settled:

The Enigma ceased that rules our nature's night,

The covering Nescience was unmasked and slain;

Its mind of error was stripped off from things

And the dull moods of its perverting will.

But how does Aswapati know that she is indeed the one who can remove the enigma of this world, how does he make sure that here is the Power who can really change the Fate of this world, this dark and sorrowful and transient death-bound death-governed creation? Will she be able to vanquish the Foe, conquer this Mortal World, this mŗtyuloka? What kind of tests does he apply to secure that she will, notwithstanding the odds of the path, work out the miracle even in the face of the most formidable Adversary, the test Sugriva had given to Rama that he would be able to vanquish Vali?

Nothing can be left to comfortable thought only, to happy acquiescence, when the battle is a grim do-or-die battle, a rendezvous of the fiercest enemies. Is, therefore, the quality of that “unstumbling Force” convincing enough that it will not stumble while encountering Death, will not get darkened by the “dire universal Shadow? Aswapati’s search should not prove futile or unavailing or frustrating. This is particularly so, when on six occasions earlier the creation had to be dissolved. This is particularly so, when Death himself is one of the Four Powers who had separated themselves from the Supreme, the Four Asuras who stand as eternal Antagonists. Is she the one who will conquer this Asura of Death? RYD