The Soul’s Release from Ignorance pp 44-45

Opening remarks
Having given us a rather detailed description of the experiences that one has along the road to Freedom from Ignorance, Sri Aurobindo now summarises it for us. The result of this Freedom is that Aswapati, the king, is now a changed person. He has undergone a large and luminous change in his consciousness.

First spiritual change
Thus came his soul’s release from Ignorance,
His mind and body’s first spiritual change.
 
This is the first necessity, freedom from Ignorance, and it is accompanied by a fundamental change of consciousness. This change is not only a subjective change but also translates itself into the mind and body. Much more will come, but this is the base that prepares for the others to come.

The True and One
A wide God-knowledge poured down from above,
A new world-knowledge broadened from within:
His daily thoughts looked up to the True and One,
His commonest doings welled from an inner Light.

There is a growth into Wideness and Knowledge and Light and Truth. This Knowledge includes in its scope not just the Self but also the World, not just God but also the Creation. There is a dwelling in the True and the One and all actions, however common they may seem, proceed on the basis of Truth and Oneness.

Lines that Nature hides
Awakened to the lines that Nature hides,
Attuned to her movements that exceed our ken,
He grew one with a covert universe.

With this growth comes a knowledge of the hidden forces that work behind the visible front of Nature. With this occult universe the Seer-King Aswapati grew one.

Unknown Guardians of the worlds
His grasp surprised her mightiest energies’ springs;
He spoke with the unknown Guardians of the worlds,
Forms he descried our mortal eyes see not.

Seer-king Aswapati is now King of Nature. He communes with the guardians of the world and the beings who stand behind the movements of Nature. His vision has opened up to subtle realities and beings who are masters and guardians of the world-powers.

Viewless entities and cosmic forces
His wide eyes bodied viewless entities,
He saw the cosmic forces at their work
And felt the occult impulse behind man’s will.

Though we believe that Nature is mechanical and unconscious, yet all her processes are moved by conscious or half-conscious beings and their energies that work from behind. Even the so-called human will is pushed from behind by these hidden forces and subtle beings. Aswapati now begins to become aware of all this.

Time’s secrets
Time’s secrets were to him an oft-read book;
The records of the future and the past
Outlined their excerpts on the etheric page.

A subtle sight develops with the power of Yoga and the past and future begin to appear as luminous letters written on the subtle substance that constitutes inner Space. This is how many of the Veda mantras were born. The workings of these subtle powers have now become common in Aswapati.

The interior flame
One and harmonious by the Maker’s skill,
The human in him paced with the divine;
His acts betrayed not the interior flame.

Thus the seer-king Aswapati grew towards divinity in harmony with the Divine wisdom and Will that has gone forth into creation. His actions, his life become a perfect rhythm impelled by the Eternal.

Forged the greatness
This forged the greatness of his front to earth.

Aswapati’s earth-nature too undergoes a change. His outer personality and surface movements also share something of the inner transformation that has taken place.

A genius heightened
A genius heightened in his body’s cells
That knew the meaning of his fate-hedged works
Akin to the march of unaccomplished Powers
Beyond life’s arc in spirit’s immensities.

Even the body cells began to change under the pressure and impact of the higher regions of consciousness. The powers that dwell on the peaks of Nature became for Aswapati’s liberated consciousness common in their workings.

A demigod
Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude,
A demigod shaping the lives of men:
One soul’s ambition lifted up the race;
A Power worked, but none knew whence it came.

The consciousness and deeds of Aswapati become one with the great cosmic Powers, the gods. The radiance and fragrance of his inner being began to spread far and wide, secretly influencing the earthly life and the human race. Yet none could be fully aware of the source from which it came. Born a human, he grows into a godly being.

Energies that transmute a face
The universal strengths were linked with his;
Filling earth’s smallness with their boundless breadths
He drew the energies that transmute an age.      (p. 45 begins)

The mere presence of such a being upon earth is a great help. Even if he outwardly does nothing, yet he uplifts earth-nature by becoming a bridge and thus bringing the earth and humanity in contact with the Higher Powers.

Immeasurable
Immeasurable by the common look,
He made great dreams a mould for coming things
And cast his deeds like bronze to front the years.

The glory and greatness manifested in such individuals become now a possibility for the earth. Whatever ideas and will he has implanted in the human mind and heart are bound to blossom in future Time. What he thought and felt, what he dreamed becomes a reality of the future. What he did becomes the mould for all that is yet to come.

Walk through Time
His walk through Time outstripped the human stride.

Thus Awsapati passed beyond humanity and grew into the stature of a god.

Splendid like the sun
Lonely his days and splendid like the sun’s.

As a sun that illumines and fosters all life upon earth yet shines alone in the sky, so too Aswapati has ascended to the high stature of a demi-god, a wonderful influence nourishing and nurturing earth’s heavenward climb. He has ascended high enough beyond humanity to have any peer or comrade in His tremendous effort.

Closing remarks
This last passage summarises the kind of freedom that the seer and yogi Aswapati has arrived at in the course of his inner journey. He has become aware of higher states of consciousness, he has become aware of higher dimensions and levels of consciousness, he has become aware of the occult worlds, their beings and energies and forces that move us from behind; most of all, he has become aware of the Divine Presence that is hidden behind all things, within and without, in every element of creation. This is a comprehensive and integral experience and realization that none has had so far, though there have been hints and glimpses, often one-sided, here and there but we have for the first time a summary of all these strands of spiritual experience in one individual and that is the seer-king Aswapati. He is alone in this achievement and cannot yet share it with anyone.