Opening Remarks
Escape and withdrawal from creation leave the very question of creation and its secret purpose unanswered. This is what Aswapati is here to discover.
Half God’s cosmic work
Something thou cam’st to do from the Unknown,
But nothing is finished and the world goes on
Because only half God’s cosmic work is done.
An extinction through a plunge into Nirvana cannot be the sole purpose of creation. There is a purpose behind the cosmic labour of the stars. Our individual life is intertwined with the cosmic unfolding and it is this we must find out rather than hastily withdrawing into the Silence ineffable. The half cosmic work is the work of liberation from the bondage to ignorant nature. The other and even more important part of the work is to turn creation into a perfect manifestation of the Divine.
The Lover’s everlasting Yes
Only the everlasting No has neared
And stared into thy eyes and killed thy heart:
But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes,
And immortality in the secret heart,
The voice that chants to the creator Fire,
The symbolled OM, the great assenting Word,
The bridge between the rapture and the calm,
The passion and the beauty of the Bride,
The chamber where the glorious enemies kiss,
The smile that saves, the golden peak of things?
The experience of the Unknowable described in the previous Canto negates life and creation. But this is only one half of the story. There is a divine sanction to the game of creation. There is not only Knowledge of the One but also the Love that holds the many in a bond of oneness. There is the secret immortality amidst the dance of death. There is the voice of the creator Fire and the first stir of creation with that marvellous word OM. There is the calm and peace of the Infinite but also the rapture of the play. She is the bridge between the Creator and Creation, the Bride of Brahman whose beauty and passion that initiated creation must be discovered. It is She who holds the key to the paradox of Spirit manifesting in and through material existence. Hers is the smile that saves creation from collapse into Nothingness. The golden peak must be found where heaven and earth meet in a glorious embrace.
The mystic fount of Life
This too is Truth at the mystic fount of Life.
The origin of Life and creation is not some signless Nothingness but a mystic fount of delight. It is this Truth that must also be discovered.
The veil of darkness and light
A black veil has been lifted; we have seen
The mighty shadow of the omniscient Lord;
But who has lifted up the veil of light
And who has seen the body of the King?
The black veil is the veil of Ignorance. But lifting it is not enough. One must see the body of the Lord, the Supreme Divine hidden behind the veil of Light, that is to say the veil of Knowledge. It is not enough to lift the veil of ignorance and discover the One. One must also lift the veil of Light and see the very body of the Lord and King in His infinite aspects that seeks to manifest as multiplicity in creation. One must find the reconciling truth of the One and the Many. That can only be found in the Lord.
Mystery of God’s birth
The mystery of God’s birth and acts remains
Leaving unbroken the last chapter’s seal,
Unsolved the riddle of the unfinished Play;
The cosmic Player laughs within his mask,
And still the last inviolate secret hides
Behind the human glory of a Form,
Behind the gold eidolon of a Name.
What still remains unknown is the great secret of Divine Birth and works in the play of Time and Space what is known in India as the Avatar. The last chapter of Wisdom is yet sealed until this too is known. There we shall find the secret sense of the riddle of creation and the unfinished Play. There we shall discover the cosmic player hiding behind the mask of ignorance and knowledge. When this last inviolate secret is hidden, the secret that assumes a human Form and Name, we shall know the whole truth. The last truth is not the ascension of human soul towards the Divine but the descent of Divine into mind and life and matter thereby transforming it. It is this secret that the human form hides. Humanity is indeed the bridge for the transformation of earthly life into the Life Divine.
Closing Remarks
Thus we are being led from mystery to deeper mystery whose last secret is known only when the Creator and the Creation is reconciled in a harmonious oneness.
