Is laid on the mystic evolution's curve:
The tortuous line of her deceiving mind
The Gods see not and man is impotent;
Oppressing the God-spark within the soul
She forces back to the beast the human fall.
Yet in her formidable instinctive mind
She feels the One grow in the heart of Time
And sees the Immortal shine through the human mould.
Alarmed for her rule and full of fear and rage
She prowls around each light that gleams through the dark
Casting its ray from the spirit's lonely tent,
Hoping to enter with fierce stealthy tread
And in the cradle slay the divine Child.
Incalculable are her strength and ruse;
Her touch is a fascination and a death;
She kills her victim with his own delight;
Even Good she makes a hook to drag to Hell.
For her the world runs to its agony.
Often the pilgrim on the Eternal's road
Ill-lit from clouds by the pale moon of Mind,
Or in devious byways wandering alone,
Or lost in deserts where no path is seen,
Falls overpowered by her lion leap,
A conquered captive under her dreadful paws.
Intoxicated by a burning breath
And amorous grown of a destroying mouth,
Once a companion of the sacred Fire,
The mortal perishes to God and Light,
An Adversary governs heart and brain,
A Nature hostile to the Mother-Force.
The self of life yields up its instruments
To Titan and demoniac agencies
That aggrandise earth-nature and disframe:
A cowled fifth-columnist is now thought's guide;
His subtle defeatist murmur slays the faith
And, lodged in the breast or whispering from outside,
A lying inspiration fell and dark
A new order substitutes for the divine.
A silence falls upon the spirit's heights,
From the veiled sanctuary the God retires,
Empty and cold is the chamber of the Bride;
The golden Nimbus now is seen no more,
No longer burns the white spiritual ray
And hushed for ever is the secret Voice.
Then by the Angel of the Vigil Tower
A name is struck from the recording book;
A flame that sang in Heaven sinks quenched and mute;
In ruin ends the epic of a soul.
This is the tragedy of the inner death
When forfeited is the divine element
And only a mind and body live to die.
Explanation
Her hand's deflecting and retarding weight
Is laid on the mystic evolution's curve:
The tortuous line of her deceiving mind
The Gods see not and man is impotent;
Oppressing the God-spark within the soul
She forces back to the beast the human fall.
Here Sri Aurobindo is talking about the devious nature of the terrible ignorance in the making of man. He is personifying the ignorance and void in matter that opposes the climb of the soul towards light and knowledge. "She" here personifies the falsehood in matter that puts her "deflecting and retarding weight" of her hand and deviates the evolutionary Idea of the aspiring soul towards greater knowledge and light. Man is not aware of her dangers and he is open to her attacks. She is the opposite of the brilliant light of the Mother.
Yet in her formidable instinctive mind
She feels the One grow in the heart of Time
And sees the Immortal shine through the human mould.
Alarmed for her rule and full of fear and rage
She prowls around each light that gleams through the dark
Casting its ray from the spirit's lonely tent,
Hoping to enter with fierce stealthy tread
And in the cradle slay the divine Child.
What does she do to the human soul awakened to the divine reality, the divine Child, that wants to climb the heavens staircase?
She hates the awakened soul and would do anything to bring him back to her darkness. Like a wild animal full of fear and rage to inhibit the movements of its
captured pray, she stealthyly plans to destroy the aspiring soul for god knowledge and bliss.
Incalculable are her strength and ruse;
Her touch is a fascination and a death;
She kills her victim with his own delight;
Even Good she makes a hook to drag to Hell.
For her the world runs to its agony.
Often the pilgrim on the Eternal's road
Ill-lit from clouds by the pale moon of Mind,
Or in devious byways wandering alone,
Or lost in deserts where no path is seen,
Falls overpowered by her lion leap,
A conquered captive under her dreadful paws.
Intoxicated by a burning breath
And amorous grown of a destroying mouth,
Once a companion of the sacred Fire,
The mortal perishes to God and Light,
An Adversary governs heart and brain,
A Nature hostile to the Mother-Force.
This is a beautiful explanation of the fall of the aspiring soul. Here this evil, enjoys the death of the aspiring soul. She is cunning and spots the weakness of the aspiring soul. Hits him on the bleeding wounds and weak spots, so that he cannot recover and loses hope of his heavenly destiny.
Often the pilgrim on the Eternal's road
Ill-lit from clouds by the pale moon of Mind,
Or in devious byways wandering alone,
Or lost in deserts where no path is seen,
Falls overpowered by her lion leap,
A conquered captive under her dreadful paws.
Who is the pilgrim on the Eternal's road? The aspiring soul. When the aspiring soul
is not yet connected with higher consciousness completely and when he is on the precarious journey of ill lit knowledge, when his mind is clouded with insufficient faith in the mind or when he feels hopeless and lost, this evil nature mercilessly attacks him with her dreadful paws. Here Sri Aurobindo comparing her to a lion but the distinction is that the wild animal sometimes leaves the pray when not hungry but this evil is nature would never do that. Evil is her nature. She takes pleasure in her victory over the aspiring soul every time he falls to her ruse.
Intoxicated by a burning breath
And amorous grown of a destroying mouth,
Once a companion of the sacred Fire,
The mortal perishes to God and Light,
An Adversary governs heart and brain,
A Nature hostile to the Mother-Force.
Fallen is the aspiring soul from the true bliss and he has fallen to the ruse of falsehood and false pleasures. This line " and amorous grown of a destroying mouth" may mean the aspiring soul once a traveler to the heavenly bliss has fallen to amorous( could mean sexual) pleasures. Once it was a companion of the sacred fire(the yagna or sacrifice the aspiring soul performs), the light of god recedes.
The enemy now governs the actions of the aspiring soul. The soul has fallen to falsehood.
A Nature hostile to the Mother-Force.
Mother-force means the higher super conscious force of the Divine Mother, that helps and prods the aspiring to the divine bliss, light and conciousness. This evil nature which is hostile to the Mother-force, uses all its instruments in its ruse box to inhibit this divine movement.
The self of life yields up its instruments
To Titan and demoniac agencies
That aggrandise earth-nature and disframe:
A cowled fifth-columnist is now thought's guide;
His subtle defeatist murmur slays the faith
And, lodged in the breast or whispering from outside,
A lying inspiration fell and dark
A new order substitutes for the divine.
What else does the evil nature( titan an demoniac agencies) do to the yielding soul? Once the aspiring soul allows this demoniac agencies to influence him, they work as "cowled fifth columnist" in his mind. They either possess the mind from the inside or give suggestions from outside in the form of nature thoughts, that destroy his faith in the Divine. They give him wrong suggestions and show him the wrong path. Now, a new order substitutes the fallen soul, his actions lead to suffering ,pain and darkness.
A silence falls upon the spirit's heights,
From the veiled sanctuary the God retires,
Empty and cold is the chamber of the Bride;
The golden Nimbus now is seen no more,
No longer burns the white spiritual ray
And hushed for ever is the secret Voice.
Then by the Angel of the Vigil Tower
A name is struck from the recording book;
A flame that sang in Heaven sinks quenched and mute;
In ruin ends the epic of a soul.
This is the tragedy of the inner death
When forfeited is the divine element
And only a mind and body live to die.
The end result is that even God retires and the aspiring soul (also called a flame that sang in Heaven) sinks quenched and mute. Here Sri Aurobindo explain the fate and dark struggle that the aspiring soul goes through
in his journey to the Divine Mother. There is a danger in very groove, danger hides in every temptation and suggestion of the possess and ill lit mind.
"When forfeited is the divine element"
What is the Divine element. It is the soul that lives hidden in the body apart from the active mind. When that is soul has given up this struggle to face the adversary, the evolutionary journey and the agent of God has lost the purpose and battle of life.
A fifth columnist is someone who secretly supports and helps the enemies of the country or organization they are in.
cowl - a loose hood or hooded robe (as worn by a monk)
A nimbus is a large grey cloud that brings rain or snow.
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