Opening Remarks
Behind these ever changing appearances, behind this incessant search without a final end, there is a subtle and secret truth that is being revealed to us now.
Impulse and passion of the Infinite
There life is the manifest Incalculable,
A movement of unquiet seas, a long
And venturous leap of spirit into Space,
A vexed disturbance in the eternal Calm,
An impulse and passion of the Infinite.
Life manifests and expresses the Incalculable element in creation. It is unrestrained by finite thought since it attempts o reach out to the Infinite out of which it has arisen. It has leaped out from the Infinite to buil d and experience infinity here among finite things. That is why it is never satisfied and ever changing.
Safety of the tried and the known
Assuming whatever shape her fancy wills,
Escaped from the restraint of settled forms
She has left the safety of the tried and known.
Therefore life is driven by fancies and dares to venture out of safe zones into the adventure of the Unknown. Though it inhabits a form, in itself it is neither restrained nor confined to the form alone but seeks to escape its confines.
Wrestles with danger and discovery
Unshepherded by the fear that walks through Time,
Undaunted by Fate that dogs and Chance that springs,
She accepts disaster as a common risk;
Careless of suffering, heedless of sin and fall,
She wrestles with danger and discovery
In the unexplored expanses of the soul.
The force of life accepts disaster and danger as part of the game. It takes its risks and ventures into the Unknown. Unlike the mind it is not caught up by reasoning of good and bad, virtue and sin but simply goes on experimenting and exploring hitherto unknown realms and fields of nature as soul-scapes. Its very nature is to explore even if it brings danger and difficulty.
Unsatisfied and unsure
To be seemed only a long experiment,
The hazard of a seeking ignorant Force
That tries all truths and, finding none supreme,
Moves on unsatisfied, unsure of its end.
Yet, fallen here in the sphere of Ignorance it knows not what it is seeking. Deep within it carries the urge to discover infinity and hence it is never satisfied as also never sure anything that eventually proves to be transient and limited to its experience. Momentarily it may rest with one or another side of truth, one or another aspect of creation but soon it turns away from it towards greater discoveries. Nothing short of the Ultimate, the certitude of the Absolute, the Permanent, the Everlasting can satisfy it.
Shaped by the inner mind
As saw some inner mind, so life was shaped:
From thought to thought she passed, from phase to phase,
Tortured by her own powers or proud and blest,
Now master of herself, now toy and slave.
What shapes the movements of life, the path it would take and the forms and patterns it would create? It is the inner mind that puts pressure on it. Whatever the thought sees and believes in, that our life tends to become. Its powers take that turn and accordingly it takes us to the heights or turns its steps towards the abyss.
A huge inconsequence
A huge inconsequence was her action’s law,
As if all possibility must be drained,
And anguish and bliss were pastimes of the heart.
Thus exploring as many possibilities from one extreme to another, life goes through a variety of experiences, some agonizing, some happier states as if it must taste and experience all. In the process it simply moves from one state to another without any distinct end or goal.
Closing Remarks
We see here the characteristic movement of life for which nothing is final until it reaches and experiences the Infinite. Until then it must explore like the adventurer who walks upon an unknown path whose far ends are hidden completely from his sight.
