The Burdened Great, p. 445

Opening Remarks
The law of pain is not just for those who dwell in Ignorance. It applies with an even greater force to the great and shining ones who are moved by the impulse to help and save humanity out of its ignorant state.

Man’s load of fate
The Great who came to save this suffering world
And rescue out of Time’s shadow and the Law,
Must pass beneath the yoke of grief and pain;
They are caught by the Wheel that they had hoped to break,
On their shoulders they must bear man’s load of fate.

The Great who came to save this suffering world and rescue humanity out of the dark Shadow and the law of pain must themselves pass beneath the yoke of grief and pain. They are themselves caught by the Wheel of Ignorance followed by pain. They bear upon their shoulders man’s load of fate.

Sufferings count the price
Heaven’s riches they bring, their sufferings count the price
Or they pay the gift of knowledge with their lives.

These great ones bring the heaven’s riches of Light and Love and Peace paying their suffering as the price. Or they pay with their lives the gift of knowledge that they bring for man.

Godhead’s debt.
The Son of God born as the Son of man
Has drunk the bitter cup, owned Godhead’s debt,
The debt the Eternal owes to the fallen kind
His will has bound to death and struggling life
That yearns in vain for rest and endless peace.

In an obvious reference to martyrs and hero warriors, to great and luminous beings such as Socrates and Christ, Sri Aurobindo reveals that these children and emanations of God drink the poison of earth to settle the debt that the Eternal owes to the suffering of transient things. This debt refers to the fact that the Creator owes to fallen beings who are part of His Creation. In return, the Creator binds himself to death and struggle of life that seeks in vain for peace and rest.

The original score
Now is the debt paid, wiped off the original score.

With the Divine sacrifice in Matter the debt is slowly paid since it leads to a redemption of man out of his fallen state.

The Eternal suffers
The Eternal suffers in a human form,
He has signed salvation’s testament with his blood:
He has opened the doors of his undying peace.

Though untouched by suffering and ignorance, the Eternal comes to earth in a human body as the Avatar opening the doors of salvation for man by signing the release with his blood. Thus He opens for all the doors of his undying peace.

Creature’s claim
The Deity compensates the creature’s claim,
The Creator bears the law of pain and death;
A retribution smites the incarnate God.

The Divine in man compensates the creature’s claim for peace by offering his own life as a sacrifice. The incarnate Divine bears the law of pain and death taking retribution upon his head for the evil deeds of man.

The dark account of mortal ignorance
His love has paved the mortal’s road to Heaven:
He has given his life and light to balance here
The dark account of mortal ignorance.

The dark balance of man’s misdeeds done in a state of mortal ignorance is settled by the incarnate Divine who offers his life to pave humanity’s road to Heaven (higher and higher states).

The dread mysterious sacrifice
It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice,
Offered by God’s martyred body for the world;
Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot,
He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed;
His escort is the curses of the crowd;
Insult and jeer are his right’s acknowledgment;
Two thieves slain with him mock his mighty death.

Referring to the story of Christ, Sri Aurobindo sees in it a symbol of how the Avatars sacrifice themselves for the good of the earth. He becomes a martyr offering his body for the good of the world while bearing the Cross of suffering and pain. The Cross is the symbol of man’s soul nailed to the law of suffering. He walks escorted by the curses of crowd with insult and jeer and the ignominy of dying with two thieves by his side. It is a symbol of Divine sacrifice to redeem earth and mankind undertaken by the Avatars of which Christ is surely one.

The Saviour’s way
He has trod with bleeding brow the Saviour’s way.

Thus do beings of God walk the way of the Saviour not in luxury and comforts but through the path of battle and sacrifice.

Closing Remarks
The law of pain is therefore not only for the ignorant but much more so for those who descend as incarnations of God to save the race from suffering and ignorance and the law of pain.