The Soul’s Plunge into Ignorance, pp. 454-455

Opening Remarks
The secret reason for the soul’s plunge into a world where suffering would eventually come is now revealed to us.

This troubled world
“O mortal who complainst of death and fate,
Accuse none of the harms thyself hast called;
This troubled world thou hast chosen for thy home,
Thou art thyself the author of thy pain.

Narad reminds man that though he complaints of death and fate and accuses others for the harm he encounters, it is he himself who is responsible for his fate. It is the human soul that chose to enter this troubled world and made it its home thereby opening the doors of pain for itself.

The soul looked out
Once in the immortal boundlessness of Self,
In a vast of Truth and Consciousness and Light
The soul looked out from its felicity.

Once the soul looked out from its state of felicity in the boundlessness of Self in a vast of Truth and Consciousness and Light.

It lived in the Infinite
It felt the Spirit’s interminable bliss,
It knew itself deathless, timeless, spaceless, one,
It saw the Eternal, lived in the Infinite.

It lived there in the Spirit’s interminable bliss with the Eternal and the Infinite. It knew itself as deathless, timeless, spaceless, one.

Curious of a shadow
Then, curious of a shadow thrown by Truth,
It strained towards some otherness of self,
It was drawn to an unknown Face peering through night.

Our souls looked out from this state of felicity and saw the shadow of the Inconscient. It sought to enter into this seeming otherness and it hence was drawn to this vague unknown form the Night.

Negative infinity
It sensed a negative infinity,
A void supernal whose immense excess
Imitating God and everlasting Time
Offered a ground for Nature’s adverse birth
And Matter’s rigid hard unconsciousness
Harbouring the brilliance of a transient soul
That lights up birth and death and ignorant life.

Our souls sensed a negative infinite void imitating God and everlasting Time which became a fertile ground for the birth of this ancient Adversary. Matter’s rigid and hard unconsciousness state thereby became the cradle of brilliant souls lighting up birth and death and ignorant life.

Contrary of all that is
A Mind arose that stared at Nothingness
Till figures formed of what could never be;
It housed the contrary of all that is.

A Mind then emerged and stared at this Nothingness giving rise to forms and figures as a house for the Inconscient.

A Nought appeared
A Nought appeared as Being’s huge sealed cause,
Its dumb support in a blank infinite,
In whose abysm spirit must disappear:
A darkened Nature lived and held the seed
Of Spirit hidden and feigning not to be.

The Nought then seemed as Being’s original cause. The Inconscient abyss became a blank infinite in whose abysses the spirit seemed to disappear. A dark and fallen Nature still held the seed of the Spirit out of which creation would emerge even though it feigned as if there is nothing in it. Yet even in this stark Inconscient the Spirit is hidden and evolving through forms towards higher and higher scales of Its manifestation.

A stranger in the insentient universe
Eternal Consciousness became a freak
Of an unsouled almighty Inconscient
And, breathed no more as spirit’s native air,
Bliss was an incident of a mortal hour,
A stranger in the insentient universe.

In that emergence, the Eternal Consciousness seemed an unsouled almighty Inconscient running creation like a blind watchmaker. Consciousness turned into its opposite and breathed no more the Spirit’s native atmosphere found at the peaks of creation. Bliss became a momentary incidence as a stranger in an unconscious universe.

The soul leaned towards the Abyss
As one drawn by the grandeur of the Void
The soul attracted leaned to the Abyss:
It longed for the adventure of Ignorance
And the marvel and surprise of the Unknown
And the endless possibility that lurked
In the womb of Chaos and in Nothing’s gulf
Or looked from the unfathomed eyes of Chance.

The soul was drawn towards the grandeur of the Void as it leaned and felt attracted by the abyss. It longed for the adventure of Ignorance in Time and Space and the joy of surprise and the marvel of the Unknown and the endless possibility of creation in the womb of chaos and abyss of Nothingness. It looked at the unfathomed possibilities in the game of Chance.

Tired of unchanging happiness
It tired of its unchanging happiness,
It turned away from immortality:
It was drawn to hazard’s call and danger’s charm,
It yearned to the pathos of grief, the drama of pain,
Perdition’s peril, the wounded bare escape,
The music of ruin and its glamour and crash,
The savour of pity and the gamble of love
And passion and the ambiguous face of Fate.

The soul tired of unchanging happiness in the Eternal turned away from immortality drawn by the joy and charm of danger and hazard. It yearned to the pathos and drama of grief and pain. It sought for the challenge of perdition and peril, the bare escape in a wounded state. It longed for the music of ruin and its glamour and crash. It wanted the savour of pity and the gamble of love and passion and the ambiguity of Fate.

Closing remarks
We have not been pushed into this world by some dark force but out of our own choice. It was drawn by the shadow cast by the Inconscient for the adventure and joy of the abyss.