The Ascent of Sight in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

5. "Originating Sight":

Its Greatness:

According to the Old Testament theology, at the beginning of creation God said, "Let there be Light" and "there was light." Thus the "original Sound", parā vāk, became the primal agency behind the process of cosmic manifestation. The Upanishadic Rishis looked at the issue from a somewhat different angle. In their vision, at the very beginning everything remained unmanifest and dormant in the bosom of the absolute immobility of the passive Brahman. When the Supreme opened his "closed eyes" (unmìlana) and "he saw" (sa aiksata), then only the creation or the manifestation began its stupendous journey.

And what about the evolutionary movement that is taking place upon our globe? That too has been initiated because of the pressure of the Supreme's Sight acting upon the deep sleep of the Inconscient base so that it might wake and "look around".

And this was not confined to the commencement alone. In fact, the whole course of this evolutionary manifestation is being sustained and guided in its long itinerary by the wisely controlling gaze of Sachchidananda.

The following verses from Savitri bring out this secret truth behind the processes of creation, manifestation and evolution.

(1)Before the manifestation:

"In God's supreme withdrawn and timeless hush

A seeing Self and potent Energy met'' (284)

(2)God's self-vision:

"The images of its ever-living Truth

Look out from a chamber of its self-wrapt soul:

As if to its own inner witness gaze" (111)

(3) Joint creation by the Ishwara and the Shakti:

"The Master and the Mother of all lives

Watching the worlds their twin regard had made"

(525)

Thus the manifestation arose "Imagined by some creative Eye" (547), by "the creative Eye of Eternity" (41). Now about the evolutionary movement at its different stages:

(1)"God's summits look back on the mute Abyss" (541)

(2)"Because eternal eyes turned on earth's gulfs

The lucent clarity of a pure regard" (101)

(3)' 'Attracted by the unfathomable regard

The unsolved slow cycles to their fount returned" (307)

(4)"A Seer within who knows the ordered plan...

Inspires our ascent to viewless heights" (101)

(5)' 'Compelled the forward stride, the upward look'' (539)

(6)"A mind began to see and look at forms" (101)

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