Opening Remarks for Canto 2

Aswapati, the seer and yogin has arrived at the doors of the Unknowable where all must be either dissolved and abolished or new-built and transformed. It is here, as he stands at the threshold, that he is blessed with the Presence of the Divine Mother. She has arrived from the deep fathomless heart of the Unknown knowing the aspiration in Aswapati’s boundless heart full of compassion for earth and humanity. He is blessed with Her vision, the mystery he has longed for, the touch of Grace that can transform all earthly life. It is in Her that Aswapati finds the long sought clue, the key to all things human and divine, the absolute Power that can transform all things by Her touch. She emerges out of the featureless, formless Vast, Ineffable and Infinite. Even as She comes nearer to him it seems that Infinity has put on a form and taken into Herself all forms and powers and forces and movements thereby reconciling Creation and the Creator, God and Nature, Spirit and Matter. She is the golden bridge between creation and the Creator and hence She alone can change its cycle and bring into its falsehood and obscurity and ignorance Truth and Light and the healing touch of Her Grace and Peace and Bliss. It is for this healing touch of Her infinite Grace for the earth and men that Aswapati yearns now.

We see in this Canto the revelation that The Supreme Lord and His Shakti are one. The difference is only in this that the Purusha represents the passive side and hence His touch is liberating. He liberates us from ignorance and all the limits and limitations of our lower nature. On the other hand the Divine Mother is the dynamic aspect of the same One Divine Reality. She is creative and not only liberates us from the ignorant lower nature but transforms it by Her Power into its higher divine equivalent or Divine Supernature. Thus Sri Aurobindo restores the unity of the Iswara and the Shakti, of Vedanta and Tantra. But since it is the story of New Creation it is the Divine Mother who alone can transform this fallen earth nature and ignorant life into divine nature and the Life Divine.

It is important to realise that this vision of the Divine Mother is unique and unparalleled. No doubt great Yogis have had the vision of the Divine Mother, though mostly in one or the other aspects such as Durga, Lakshmi, Kali, Saraswati. The Tantra even speaks of Her as the giver of Perfection, Siddhidhatri and the most beautiful One, Tripurasundari. Yet these visions and realisations seem to be confined to Her universal aspect as the World Mother. In Her highest She is considered as the Mahamaya who brings the worlds and the gods and goddesses and the powers and forces that govern its complex workings into existence. Yet Her highest purpose to the yogin seems to be to open the doors to the Highest Purusha in whose Peace and Silence we can find liberation. This would correspond to the vision of the World Mother that Aswapati has when he comes in contact with the Cosmic Being as described in Book Two Canto 14. But here we see him having the vision of the Supreme Mother who includes the world Mother within Herself even as She transcends her. She is one with the Supreme Lord, Sacchidananda. She is Anandamayee, Chaitanyamayee, Satyamayee Parame.