Apropos of Two Vast Negations — 13
Death’s Sophistry
In an immutable order’s hierarchy
Where Nature changes not, man cannot change… ||144.4||
Hope not to call God down into his life:
How shalt thou bring the Everlasting here? ||144.10||
There is no house for him in hurrying Time. ||144.11||
Vainly thou seek’st in Matter’s world an aim;
No aim is there, only a will to be. ||144.12||
All walk by Nature bound for ever the same. ||144.13||
The world is a myth that happened to come true,
A legend told to itself by conscious Mind,
Imaged and played on a feigned Matter’s ground
On which it stands in an unsubstantial Vast. ||144.19||
If Mind is all, renounce the hope of bliss;
If Mind is all, renounce the hope of Truth. ||144.21||
For Mind can never touch the body of Truth
And Mind can never see the soul of God;
Only his shadow it grasps nor hears his laugh
As it turns from him to the vain seeming of things. ||144.22||
Each thought is a gold coin with bright alloy
And error and truth are its obverse and reverse:
This is the imperial mintage of the brain
And of this kind is all its currency. ||144.24||
Think not to plant on earth the living Truth
Or make of Matter’s world the home of God;
Truth comes not there but only the thought of Truth,
God is not there but only the name of God. ||144.25||
If Self there is, it is bodiless and unborn;
It is no one and it is possessed by none,
On what shalt thou then build thy happy world? ||144.26||
Cast off thy life and mind, then art thou Self,
An all-seeing Omnipresence stark, alone,
If God there is he cares not for the world;
All things he sees with calm indifferent gaze,
He has doomed all hearts to sorrow and desire,
He has bound all life with his implacable laws;
He answers not the ignorant voice of prayer. ||144.27||
His truth in human thinking cannot dwell:
If thou desirest truth then still thy mind
For ever, slain by the dumb unseen Light. ||144.29||
Immortal bliss lives not in human air:
How shall the mighty Mother her calm delight
Keep fragrant in this narrow fragile vase
Or lodge her sweet unbroken ecstasy
In hearts which earthly sorrow can assail
And bodies careless Death can slay at will? ||144.30||
Dream not to change the world that God has planned,
Strive not to alter his eternal law. ||144.31||
If heavens there are whose gates are shut to grief,
There seek the joy thou couldst not find on earth;
Or in the imperishable hemisphere
Where Light is native and Delight is king
And Spirit is the deathless ground of Things,
Choose thy high station, child of Eternity. ||144.32||
If thou art Spirit and Nature is thy robe,
Cast off thy garb and be thy naked self
Immutable in its undying truth,
Alone for ever in the mute Alone. ||144.33||
Turn then to God, for him leave all behind;
Forgetting Love, forgetting Satyavan,
Annul thyself in his immobile peace. ||144.34||
O soul, drown in his still beatitude. ||144.35||
For thou must die to thyself to reach God’s height:
I, Death, am the gate of immortality.” ||144.36||
Dream not to change the world that God has planned,
Strive not to alter his eternal law. ||144.31||
Savitri Book 10 Canto 4 – The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real
Once more arose the great destroying Voice…. ||144.1||
Behold the figures of this symbol realm,
Its solid outlines of creative dream
Inspiring the great concrete tasks of earth…. ||144.2||
Where Nature changes not, man cannot change… ||144.4||
Hope not to call God down into his life:
How shalt thou bring the Everlasting here? ||144.10||
There is no house for him in hurrying Time. ||144.11||
Once more| a+rose| the great| de+story|+ing Voice:|
“Be+hold| the fig|+ures of| this sym|+bol realm,|
Its sol|+id out|+lines of| cre+a|+tive dream|
In+spir|+ing the| great con|+crete tasks| of earth.| 144.2
Where Na|+ture chang|+es not,| man can|+not change:|
Hope not| to call| God down| in+to| his life:|
How shalt| thou bring| the Ev|+er+last|+ing here?| 144.10
There is| no house| for him| in hur+ry|+ing Time.| 144.11
Featured Image: Painting by Huta X:iv # 1

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