CHAPTER IV Reality Omnipresent If one knows Him as Brahman the Non-Being, he becomes merely the non-existent. If one knows that Brahman Is, then is he known as the real in existence. Taittiriya Upanishad.¹ Since, then, we admit both the claim of the pure Spirit to manifest in us its absolute freedom and the claim of universal Matter to be the mould and condition of our manifestation, we have to find a truth that can entirely reconcile these antagonists and can give to both their due portion in Life and their due justification in Thought, amercing neither of its rights, denying in neither the sovereign truth from which even its errors, even the

CHAPTER VIII The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge This secret Self in all beings is not apparent, but it is seen by means of the supreme reason, the subtle, by those who have the subtle vision. Katha Upanishad.¹ BUT what then is the working of this Sachchidananda in the world and by what process of things are the relations between itself and the ego which figures it first formed, then led to their consummation? For on those relations and on the process they follow depend the whole philosophy and practice of a divine life for man. We arrive at the conception and at the knowledge of a divine existence by exceeding the evidence of the sense

CHAPTER X Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge They see the Self in the Self by the Self. Gita. Where there is duality, there other sees other, other hears, touches, thinks of, knows other. But when one sees all as the Self, by what shall one know it? it is by the Self that one knows all this that is.... All betrays him who sees all elsewhere than in the Self; for all this that is is the Brahman, all beings and all this that is are this Self. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Self-Existent has pierced the doors of sense outward, therefore one sees things outwardly and sees not in one's inner being. Rare

CHAPTER V The Cosmic Illusion; Mind, Dream and Hallucination Thou who hast come to this transient and unhappy world, turn to Me. Gita.1 This Self is a self of Knowledge, an inner light in the heart; he is the conscious being common to all the states of being and moves in both worlds. He becomes a dream-self and passes beyond this world and its forms of death.... There are two planes of this con- scious being, this and the other worlds; a third state is their place of joining, the state of dream, and when he stands in this place of their joining, he sees both planes of his existence, this world and the other wo

Book Five The Book of Love Canto One The Destined Meeting-Place But now the destined spot and hour were close; Unknowing she had neared her nameless goal. For though a dress of blind and devious chance Is laid upon the work of all-wise Fate, Our acts interpret an omniscient Force That dwells in the compelling stuff of things, And nothing happens in the cosmic play But at its time and in its foreseen place. To a space she came of soft and delicate air That seemed a sanctuary of youth and joy, A h

Book Twelve Epilogue Epilogue The Return to Earth Out of abysmal trance her spirit woke. Lain on the earth-mother's calm inconscient breast She saw the green-clad branches lean above Guarding her sleep with their enchanted life, And overhead a blue-winged ecstasy Fluttered from bough to bough with high-pitched call. Into the magic secrecy of the woods Peering through an emerald lattice-window of leaves, In indolent skies reclined, the thinning day Turned to its slow fall into evening's peace. She pressed the living body of Satyavan: On her body's wordless joy to be and breathe She bore the blissful burden

Book EightThe Book of Death Canto Three* Death in the Forest Now it was here in this great golden dawn By her still sleeping husband lain she gazed Into her past as one about to die Looks back upon the sunlit fields of life Where he too ran and sported with the rest, Lifting his head above the huge dark stream Into whose depths he must for ever plunge. All she had been and done she lived again. The whole year in a swift and eddying race Of memories swept through her and fled away Into the irrecoverable past. Then silently she rose and, service done, Bowed down to the great goddess simply carved By Satyava

Book Ten The Book of the Double Twilight Canto One The Dream Twilight of the Ideal All still was darkness dread and desolate; There was no change nor any hope of change. In this black dream which was a house of Void, A walk to Nowhere in a land of Nought, Ever they drifted without aim or goal; Gloom led to worse gloom, death to an emptier death, In some positive Non-Being's purposeless Vast Through formless wastes dumb and unknowable. An ineffectual beam of suffering light Through the despairing darkness dogged their steps Like the remembrance of a glory lost; Even while it grew

Canto Two The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain A silence sealed the irrevocable decree, The word of Fate that fell from the heavenly lips Fixing a doom no power could ever reverse Unless heaven's will itself could change its course. Or so it seemed; yet from the silence rose One voice that questioned changeless destiny. A will that strove against the immutable Will, A mother's heart had heard the fateful speech That rang like a sanction to the call of death And came like a chill c

Canto Two The Parable of the Search for the Soul As in the vigilance of the sleepless night Through the slow heavy-footed silent hours, Repressing in her bosom its load of grief, She sat staring at the dumb tread of Time And the approach of ever-nearing Fate, A summons from her being's summit came, A sound, a call that broke the seals of Night. Above her brows where will and knowledge meet A m