Aswapati found that beyond the line of things achieved
by man there always was an ideal beckoning from afar, carrying in itself the
touch of the Unseen. It was a tireless thought in him that always wanted to
discover the Unknown, to achieve the unattained. Behind this search of tireless
thought, there is a longing for a Truth infinite and absolute; and each step of
the endeavour becomes a new rung in the ladder of human ascent. This flame of
aspiration in his heart seemed to be supported by the flame of Spirit which
maintained this immortal hope. He saw from afar on one side the blue heavens of
the ideal mind and on the other side
The lovely kingdoms of the deathless Rose.
Above the spirit cased in mortal sense
Are superconscious realms of heavenly peace,
Below, the Inconscient's sullen dim abyss,
Between, behind our life, the deathless Rose.
Behind the outer appearance of this ignorant and
suffering world, unseen by it, "blooms for ever at the feet of God"
and "here too its bud is born in human breast". When the
bud of Rose blooms in the human heart,
Then by a touch, a presence or a voice
The world is turned into a temple ground
And all discloses the unknown Beloved.
Then life becomes a rapture-offering full of bliss,
carrying in it the secret divine grace and revealing even in life the working
of immortal divine powers. Then the individual feels fulfilled in life. At its
summit this realm touches the regions of this Immortals. On those immortal
planes are all the elements of human perfection in their entirety. It is
"the House of Flame" where the divine thoughts and golden bliss, a
strange combination of fire and sweetness and all other joys even of mortal
life are present but transmuted by the touch of the Immortal. From the regions
of earth there is a movement to reach this House of Flame,
Tune's sun-flowers' gaze at gold Eternity:
A million lotuses swaying on one stem,
World after coloured and ecstatic world
Climbs towards some far unseen epiphany.
There was another side of this eternal staircase where...
Out of the sorrow and the darkness of the world...
Lonely mounts up to heaven the deathless Flame.
In the depth of darkness of humanity, this Flame burns
upwards and humanity itself is "its house of sacrifice". Slowly it
mounts to the invisible throne ascending plane after plane, going even beyond
the realms of the ideals to the "Heights of the grandeur of Truth's
ageless ray". But the effort to support this aspiration of a constant
higher ascent is too much for the human being to maintain constantly. Human
heart, mind and nerves cannot support this tremendous effort
Only the Eternal's strength in us can dare
To attempt the immense adventure of that climb
And the sacrifice of all we cherish here.
Through all his efforts man is trying to approximate
this inmost dream of his perfection. Man feels—
Happy the worlds that have not felt our fall,
Where Will is one with Truth and Good with Power.
It is this perfect divine spiritual nature which is
reflected in the transparent mirror of Self of the individual who then becomes
heir and co-sharer of divinity.
Aswapati moved beyond this kingdom of the ideals and
did not want to stay there permanently because "all there was an intense
but partial light". Each idea thought itself absolute there and wanted to
mould the whole world into its image. It wanted to make therefore "a world
where it could reign alone". This light can only be a guiding angel on the
way to the Infinite and the Divine for the traveller of spiritual path. He. was
not tempted by their per- suasion because he was dreaming of a state where all
the differences between the ideals would not only be forgotten but reconciled
and they would all "become a single multitudinous whole". The destiny
of the traveller is the immutable and inviolate Truth of the Eternal.
On the wide spirit height where all are one.