Canto III: The Glory and the Fall of Life

But what happens to the wonderful force of Life as it enters into and emerges out of the material frame? As if under a magic spell of some dark sorceress who has maimed her powers and turned her into the very opposite of what she actually is.

We see how life emerged in matter, not through a series of random accidents, but through a dumb call from below and an answer from above. It is a top-down view that reconciles evolution and intelligent design that we find here.

Though Sri Aurobindo describes here how life emerged from matter, He also gives us in a gist the secret of all evolution which is, a call from below and a corresponding answer from Above.

Aswapati has glimpsed this world of Bliss that is behind and beyond our sphere of sorrow. But no bridge exists between Earth and the Beyond. A rare individual souls can glimpse it in rare moments of Grace, but the doors of humanity as a whole are closed to this greater possibility.

Life indeed is a magician builder as Sri Aurobindo puts it later in this passage. There is no end to the varieties of forms and energies and powers it brings forth into creation.

All the high qualities towards which man aspires dwelt there harmoniously in that world immune from sorrow and error and grief.

We can see how Sri Aurobindo is taking us step by step towards higher divine worlds and describing the life there. The union of Knowledge and Power is the characteristic of Supramental life. Beyond it are the worlds of Ananda. It is the original Delight that has gone into creation.

In those high worlds, Aswapati witnesses the union of the two sides of One Existence, Idea and Force, Knowledge and Power, Vision and Will. It is a realm of divine Unity, a realm of where Wisdom and Will meet and become one.

Not only love and beauty and rapture but also power and grandeur are found in these Life-Heavens. Such was the glorious kingdom that Aswapati had entered, a space where love and joy bound all to all and made the ruler one with the ruled.

The Life-Heavens are essentially worlds of Joy and beauty and love as also of power and glory. In this world strife was replaced by a harmonious embrace of opposites.

The higher worlds of Life are peopled with deathless beings whom we know as gods. Sri Aurobindo gives us a glimpse of these worlds and what they represent in the grand scheme of things.

Our human life could be lifted far above its present pitch and bring in some fresh air from diviner heights if matter could open to the Spirit’s influx. Matter must be prepared for the Divine Life to be established upon earth. Until then these greater possibilities of life will remain mere dreams.

Aswapati takes a close look at the kingdoms of life. A mutual contradiction seems to be the way of life here due to the mingling of opposites. But in her highest worlds there is perfect harmony and freedom in her rhythms.

Life is a power of the Divine, born of His Consciousness-Force who is filled with the breath of His infinity. But here she labours in Ignorance forfeiting her divinity. This is her curse and her ordeal.

Life has descended from its high peaks so as to create and build here the Beauty and Truth and Power and Delight of the Spirit. This is her labour and also the cause of her suffering.

The vision of Life in its totality comes closer to Aswapati as he ascends through the hierarchy of the ladder of Consciousness. At first we have distant glimpses, few and far in-between. Later they are more frequent and the truth that is glimpsed from afar comes closer and nearer.

Describing the atmosphere of the life heavens, Sri Aurobindo now gives us a glimpse of the high heavens of Beatitude and Bliss that border on the Empire of the Sun.

What has been described so far is of course not the whole picture. Life, in its origin, is Divine and is born from the Bliss that built the worlds for housing God’s joy. We see here an overview from afar of these Life-Heavens.