Opening remarks
What follows next is hurried glimpse of the Higher Hemisphere. This will be described in details later.
Anthem to the Immortal’s bliss
A paean swelled from the lost musing deeps;
An anthem pealed to the triune ecstasies,
A cry of the moments to the Immortal’s bliss.
Even as the seer king Aswapati glimpses the secret supermind and the triune Sacchidananda in that deathless Light and original Glory, he is moved to his depths by a high mounting hymn to the All-blissful. All nature climbs towards this final consummation. All our fugitive joys seek this Bliss that dwells on high.
Crescendo of the Gods
As if the strophes of a cosmic ode,
A hierarchy of climbing harmonies
Peopled with voices and with visages
Aspired in a crescendo of the Gods
From Matter’s abysses to the Spirit’s peaks.
Aswapati experiences and embodies the aspiration of the Earth, the sublime hymn and prayer that rises from the depths of matter and climbs through each level of consciousness towards the Infinite. In a beautiful description Sri Aurobindo terms it as the cosmic ode turning creation into a poetry and music composed by the Gods for the joy of the Spirit.
Gates of the Alone
Above were the Immortal’s changeless seats,
White chambers of dalliance with eternity
And the stupendous gates of the Alone.
These are the Godheads that guard the gates of the Supramental Sun with whom Aswapati is now in contact.
Deathless countries of the One
Across the unfolding of the seas of self
Appeared the deathless countries of the One.
These are the worlds of Truth, of pure Consciousness, of Bliss, the Satloka, Tapaloka, Chidyahanloka, the Anandaloka where all beings and powers act in a state of Oneness and each being is conscious of the One.
A many-miracled Consciousness
A many-miracled Consciousness unrolled
Vast aim and process and unfettered norms,
A larger Nature’s great familiar roads.
This is the higher Supernature which acts in perfect freedom and in perfect harmony with the Law of Truth. Though One, it is also manifold and infinite at the same time and acted taking the entire field of Time and Space as a whole.
Sunbelts of knowledge, moonbelts of delight
Affranchised from the net of earthly sense
Calm continents of potency were glimpsed;
Homelands of beauty shut to human eyes,
Half-seen at first through wonder’s gleaming lids,
Surprised the vision with felicity;
Sunbelts of knowledge, moonbelts of delight
Stretched out in an ecstasy of widenesses
Beyond our indigent corporeal range.
These higher worlds that exist in the higher hemisphere are glimpsed when our mind awakes to a greater Light, freed from the clutch of senses. These higher worlds are full of beauty and delight and fill our vision and heart with wonder and felicity. They are at once luminous and delightful, wedding peace and power, wisdom and delight.
There he could enter
There he could enter, there awhile abide.
Released from the bonds of lower nature Aswapati could now enter and even dwell awhile in these higher worlds of felicity and calm.
Viewless danger of the Unknown
A voyager upon uncharted routes
Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown,
Adventuring across enormous realms,
He broke into another Space and Time.
Thus, reaching at the apex of creation, having a glimpse of the Unknown, Aswapati is now ready to launch on a still greater journey, a new adventure of the soul into hitherto unknown realms.
Closing remarks
Thus we see here Aswapati stands at the borders where the two hemispheres part. What he has now glimpsed from the translucent screen of the Overmind must be entered into and experienced directly.
END OF CANTO FIVE: END OF BOOK ONE
