Opening remarks
This greater life-world is the origin of all our high and noble and beautiful impulses. It is a world of heroism where battle is the way to live and the breath of life is touched by grandeur.
Our greater movements
This wider world our greater movements gives,
Its strong formations build our growing selves;
Its creatures are our brighter replicas,
Complete the types we only initiate
And are securely what we strive to be.
It is the influence and pressure from this world of greater life that we develop as a hero and a conqueror, a martyr sacrificing his life to overthrow a tyrant. Some of the high qualities that call for nobility and courage are born of this world. Here they are maimed by the limitations and complexity of earth-nature but in that typal world we discover their complete and perfect archetype.
Thought-out eternal characters
As if thought-out eternal characters,
Entire, not pulled as we by contrary tides,
They follow the unseen leader in the heart,
Their lives obey the inner nature’s law.
The beings of this world (in fact of all the typal worlds in their corresponding planes) are true to their type. Here upon earth, things are necessarily mixed due to the influence and confluence of many different worlds. But in these worlds each character exists as if thought out perfectly who will remain faithful to his inner law regardless of the changing circumstances as it often happens upon earth.
None is indifferent and inert
There is kept grandeur’s store, the hero’s mould;
The soul is the watchful builder of its fate;
None is a spirit indifferent and inert;
They choose their side, they see the god they adore.
It is a dynamic vital world where each being keeps to his mould for which he has been built by the world-soul. Grandeur and heroism is the way of life in this greater world. Not satisfied with indifference and inertia of matter, the beings of this world are ever engaged in works and actively take sides when there is a conflict.
A battle and a pilgrimage
A battle is joined between the true and false,
A pilgrimage sets out to the divine Light.
Their life is a battle as this world houses the vital gods and the titans, the devas and the daityas of the puranas. They are ever engaged in battle and seek to reach out to the Ineffable Light.
Ignorance aspires to know
For even Ignorance there aspires to know
And shines with the lustre of a distant star;
There is a knowledge in the heart of sleep
And Nature comes to them as a conscious force.
Though the kingdom of greater Life is larger with beings of cosmic dimensions, yet it is a field of cosmic Ignorance and not of cosmic Truth. However unlike the lower vital world that are hostile to Truth and Light, the beings of this world seek for Knowledge. They can sense a greater Truth and Power beyond them which could enrich their life. It is ignorance of conscious of itself and with this awareness comes the seeking for what lies beyond.
Ideal as the law of action
An ideal is their leader and their king:
Aspiring to the monarchy of the sun
They call in Truth for their high government,
Hold her incarnate in their daily acts
And fill their thoughts with her inspired voice
And shape their lives into her breathing form,
Till in her sun-gold godhead they too share.
In the sphere of cosmic Ignorance the Ideal replaces Truth. It is a brilliant shadow cast by the Truth. Mistaken for the ultimate law of action, each ideal claims to be absolute that must govern the world. It proclaims its truth and living by it ascends to the high realm of Truth where it is discovered to be one of the aspects of the One Infinite. There, in the Supramental peaks the ideal is seen in its original power in harmony with other aspects of the One. But here it fights from its supremacy over other opposing or contradicting ideals. The beings of this world and those driven by its forces are inspired in their thoughts and actions by this reflected and partial light.
Warriors of Good or Evil’s soldiers
Or to the truth of Darkness they subscribe;
Whether for Heaven or Hell they must wage war:
Warriors of Good, they serve a shining cause
Or are Evil’s soldiers in the pay of Sin.
The devas and daityas of this world are ever engaged in battle of supremacy for ruling earth and humanity. By living in extremes, – extremes of good and extremes of evil they find their fulfilment.
Ignorance and Duality
For evil and good an equal tenure keep
Wherever Knowledge is Ignorance’s twin.
This Intermediate Zone is a mixed field where knowledge and ignorance walk close in arms. Cosmic ignorance is a field of duality and conflict between ‘opposites’. In the realm of Supramental Truth these opposites reconcile and harmonise. But in these typal worlds each appears as final and ultimate.
Closing Remarks
We see here a description of the Intermediate Zone through which the aspirants to the beyond must pass. It is a realm that can easily confuse the seeker who can mistake ‘extreme’ of things for Truth and believe himself to be waging a just and righteous war while all the time labouring in the law of ignorance. Yet this illusion may provide a foothold for further ascension if one follows the lead of the Ideal and keeps the aspiration for Truth intact as one passes through this tricky domain. But equally one may become an unwitting instrument of falsehood and evil and create much chaos in the world.
