Design of the gods, pp. 269-270

Opening Remarks
These high stationed gods with their luminous brilliance cast the Will of the Creator into moulds of creation.

Calculus of Destiny
A wisdom read their mind to themselves unknown,
Their anarchy rammed into a formula
And from their giant randomness of Force,
Following the habit of their million paths,
Distinguishing each faintest line and stroke
Of a concealed unalterable design,
Out of the chaos of the Invisible’s moods
Derived the calculus of Destiny.

Even these high gods know not the supreme Wisdom that built the worlds, yet they obey Her impulsion. Quite independent in their workings, this supreme Wisdom works out freely the patterns and paths through which creation descends and ascends towards the One. Each faintest line and touch is noted and held together in a supreme unity. Thus is Destiny worked out in ways that seem too random for our limited intelligence and yet each is a needed step in the whole. Each probability and chaos, each randomness and play of chance can be formulated and understood through the study of numbers and patterns.

Chequerboard of cosmic Fate
In its bright pride of universal lore
Mind’s knowledge overtopped the Omniscient’s power:
The Eternal’s winging eagle puissances
Surprised in their untracked empyrean
Stooped from their gyres to obey the beck of Thought:
Each mysteried God forced to revealing form,
Assigned his settled moves in Nature’s game,
Zigzagged at the gesture of a chess-player Will
Across the chequerboard of cosmic Fate.

Beings of this world and those who get in contact with them may well experience a state that is close to Omniscience. This is so because they know the workings of the cosmic powers and the operations of the gods. Through the gods these beings may even control many things in creation and get the sense of near omnipotence. The gods lean down from their heights to inspire the thoughts and minds of these aspirants who are open to these heights. Thus they begin to understand a little of the cosmic game of chess where Fate walks hand in hand with Freedom and an ordered Chance works through number and figures the Incalculable’s cosmic mystery.

Lost its divine aspect of miracle
In the wide sequence of Necessity’s steps
Predicted, every act and thought of God,
Its values weighed by the accountant Mind,
Checked in his mathematised omnipotence,
Lost its divine aspect of miracle
And was a figure in a cosmic sum.

What we call as destiny and miracle is simply a play of forces that we do not understand. But when we draw closer to these higher planes we can develop a foresight that helps us predict with a near accuracy the events of the future. Not only can we predict we can calculate its possibility and probability or even change its course in ways that may seem miraculous. Yet there is something that we do not fathom or understand. The Wonder of wonders and the Glory of glories still remains hidden and Her marvellous heart concealed and unknown to the gods of this plane.

Closing Remarks
Sri Aurobindo in his own characteristic way shows to us the greatness of these gods and the beings I contact with them and yet he also reveals their limitations. Each has its own place and station and working in this vast and complex creation. But the ultimate secret, the last secret is not found here.