Satyavan’s Past, pp. 406-408

Opening Remarks
Satyavan now discloses his journey so far that has led him to this point.

Like other men
Once were my days like days of other men:
To think and act was all, to enjoy and breathe;
This was the width and height of mortal hope:
Yet there came glimpses of a deeper self
That lives behind Life and makes her act its scene.

Satyavan shares that he too lived once like any other human being limited to a modicum of thought and actions satisfied with just living and feeling the joy of life. This was the maximum scope of mortal hopes. Yet there were occasional glimpses of a deeper self that dwells behind life and acts and arranges this outer scene.

A truth was felt
A truth was felt that screened its shape from mind,
A Greatness working towards a hidden end,
And vaguely through the forms of earth there looked
Something that life is not and yet must be.

A truth was felt screened by our mind, a Greatness working towards hidden ends. Vaguely he felt through the forms of earth an aspiration of what life should yet be though presently it is not.

Groped for the Mystery
I groped for the Mystery with the lantern, Thought.

He tried to grope for the Mystery by the little lamp of Thought.

Glimmerings lighted
Its glimmerings lighted with the abstract word
A half-visible ground and travelling yard by yard
It mapped a system of the Self and God.

What the mind could manage was a half-visible ground lighted with the abstract word. Covering the ground he mapped a system of Self and God.

Could not live
I could not live the truth it spoke and thought.

Yet this kind of abstract philosophical thought had no power over life. It could not change nor make one live what one thought.

Mental scheme
I turned to seize its form in visible things,
Hoping to fix its rule by mortal mind,
Imposed a narrow structure of world-law
Upon the freedom of the Infinite,
A hard firm skeleton of outward Truth,
A mental scheme of a mechanic Power.

The mind then turned to seize the body of truth through a study of outer things. It tried to fix rules by the mind imposing narrow structures of the world-law upon the freedom of the Infinite. It built a hard firm body for outward Truth, a mental scheme of a mechanic Power.

Original Secrecy
This light showed more the darknesses unsearched;
It made the original Secrecy more occult;
It could not analyse its cosmic Veil
Or glimpse the Wonder-worker’s hidden hand
And trace the pattern of his magic plans.

The light of the mind only showed all the darkness that was left unsearched. It made the secrecy more secret by showing that much more was probably hidden than we can ever know. The mind could not understand the workings of the veil that covers the Truth. It could not pierce the screen that hides the wonder-worker’s hidden hand or trace His magic plans.

The mystery was not solved
I plunged into an inner seeing Mind
And knew the secret laws and sorceries
That make of Matter mind’s bewildered slave:
The mystery was not solved but deepened more.

The inner Mind knew the secret laws of the universe and the sorceries of the Mind over Matter. Yet it could not solve the mystery. It only deepened it further.

Hints through Beauty and Art
I strove to find its hints through Beauty and Art,
But Form cannot unveil the indwelling Power;
Only it throws its symbols at our hearts.

Beauty and art threw hints but still the Form is limited and cannot unveil the hidden Power. It only throws hints and symbols at the heart.

Lived in the ray
It evoked a mood of self, invoked a sign
Of all the brooding glory hidden in sense:
I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun.

Even at its best the Mind could only ascend till the rays and not set its face upon the Sun of Truth and Power. It evoked a mood but not the direct vision of the Glory hidden in sense.

The gulf to be bridged
I looked upon the world and missed the Self,
And when I found the Self, I lost the world,
My other selves I lost and the body of God,
The link of the finite with the Infinite,
The bridge between the appearance and the Truth,
The mystic aim for which the world was made,
The human sense of Immortality.

The Mind cannot bridge the gulf between the world and God. It cannot give us the last secret of Unity nor find the link of the finite with the infinite, the bridge between the outer and inner, between Soul and the form, nor could it ascertain the mystic aim of creation and the secret sense of immortality that we carry within.

Closing Remarks
Thus we see how Satyavan has grown through the mind as a mental being, yet even at its highest the sense of incompleteness, imperfection and division stalks us.