The Promise and the Boon, pp. 345-346

Opening Remarks
The tremendous moment has arrived when the Divine Mother will grant the boon asked for by Aswapati. In this passage we also have a most wonderful description of the Avatara and the process through which his or her body and mind are shaped.

Resisting Night
His prayer sank down in the resisting Night
Oppressed by the thousand forces that deny,
As if too weak to climb to the Supreme.

The boon that Aswapati has asked is the very highest that man can ever ask. He has asked this on behalf of man but man himself does not want it. Or rather something in him wants it but much within him also resists it. He denies the Grace and wants to continue with his life as before. Since Aswapati has gone as a representative of earth and humanity his prayer is resisted by the collective consciousness of the world.

Consenting Voice
But there arose a wide consenting Voice;
The spirit of beauty was revealed in sound:
Light floated round the marvellous Vision’s brow
And on her lips the Immortal’s joy took shape.

Yet despite all the denials of the world the Divine Mother.’s Voice of approval consenting to Aswapati’s prayer is heard. The spirit of beauty flowed in the shape of sound through Her Voice. Light floated round the marvellous Vision’s brow and the Immortal’s joy played around Her lips as She spoke. In a most beautiful way Sri Aurobindo reveals to us the consent of the Divine Mother to come down upon earth.

Strong forerunner
“O strong forerunner, I have heard thy cry.

Aswapati is the strong forerunner of the human race. He is the first among men who has come to the doors of the Divine Mother pleading on behalf of humanity. The Divine Mother assures him that She has heard his prayer full of anguish and aspiration and marvellous hope.

One shall descend
One shall descend and break the iron Law,
Change Nature’s doom by the lone spirit’s power.

She promises that One (that is an incarnation of Her) shall descend and by her lone power break the adamantine laws of nature that hold the spirit of man a captive to death and misery and doom. The iron law is the law of ignorance and death that resists the human march towards the Divine.

Moved by the passions of the gods
A limitless Mind that can contain the world,
A sweet and violent heart of ardent calms
Moved by the passions of the gods shall come.

She will come with a limitless Mind that can contain the world and her heart shall be filled with sweetness and a tremendous calm and a mighty force. Her acts shall be the natural expression of the Divine and His powers.

Immortal Love
All mights and greatnesses shall join in her;
Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth,
Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair,
And in her body as on his homing tree
Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings.

All the great and mighty powers of God shall join in her. Beauty shall take a divinely human form. Delight shall sleep in the net of her hairs and in her body as on a tree that is home to many creatures, immortal Love shall dwell as a bird in her natural home.

Harps of the Perfect
A music of griefless things shall weave her charm;
The harps of the Perfect shall attune her voice,
The streams of Heaven shall murmur in her laugh,
Her lips shall be the honeycombs of God,
Her limbs his golden jars of ecstasy,
Her breasts the rapture-flowers of Paradise.

Her charm shall be woven by griefless elements that know not decay and the harps of the Perfect Gods shall attune her voice. Her laughter shall be even as the streams of heaven and her lips the honeycombs of God. Her limbs shall be his golden jars of ecstasy and her breasts the rapture-flowers of Paradise.

Eternal’s bliss
She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom,
Strength shall be with her like a conqueror’s sword
And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.

She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom. She will bring with her the conquering Strength of God and from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze. She will incarnate the triumvirate of Wisdom, strength and Bliss.

Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will
A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour,
A branch of heaven transplant to human soil;
Nature shall overleap her mortal step;
Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will.”

The Divine Mother finally assures Aswapati that She will sow upon earth the seeds of a New Creation even as the dance of death is going on. A branch of life from the Higher Hemisphere, the Divine Worlds, will be transplanted here. As a result nature shall grow conscious of the Higher Truth. It will no more be subject to blindness and ignorance and unconsciousness to determine our mortality. The present Fate of earth determined by the law of death shall be changed by Her unchanging will.

Closing Remarks
Thus this wonderful passage comes to a close with the Divine Mother granting the asked for boon to Aswapati that She would surely descend upon earth and assuming a human form change the destiny of earth and mankind.