Claude de Warren
February 2025
Original text of Ilion: Ilion, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 2018
Book Three
The Book of the Assembly
“What then is the master man, the divine worker, the opened channel of the universal Will to do when he finds the World Spirit turned towards some immense catastrophe, figured before his eyes as Time the destroyer arisen and increased for the destruction of the nations, and himself put there in the forefront whether as a fighter with physical weapons or a leader and guide or an inspirer of men, as he cannot fail to be by the very force of his nature and the power within him, svabhāvajena svena karmaṇā? To abstain, to sit silent, to protest by non-intervention? But abstention will not help, will not prevent the fulfilment of the destroying Will, but rather by the lacuna it creates increase confusion. Even without thee, cries the Godhead, my will of destruction would still be accomplished, ṛte’pi tvām. If Arjuna were to abstain or even if the battle of Kurukshetra were not to be fought, that evasion would only prolong and make worse the inevitable confusion, disorder, ruin that are coming. For these things are no accident, but an inevitable seed that has been sown and a harvest that must be reaped. They who have sown the wind, must reap the whirlwind. Nor indeed will his own nature allow him any real abstention, prakṛtis tvāṃ niyokṣyati. This the Teacher tells Arjuna at the close, “That which in thy egoism thou thinkest saying, I will not fight, vain is this thy resolve: Nature shall yoke thee to thy work. Bound by thy own action which is born of the law of thy being, what from delusion thou desirest not to do, that thou shalt do even perforce.” Then to give another turn, to use some kind of soul force, spiritual method and power, not physical weapons? But that is only another form of the same action; the destruction will still take place, and the turn given too will be not what the individual ego, but what the World-Spirit wills. Even, the force of destruction may feed on this new power, may get a more formidable impetus and Kali arise filling the world with a more terrible sound of her laughters. No real peace can be till the heart of man deserves peace; the law of Vishnu cannot prevail till the debt to Rudra is paid. To turn aside then and preach to a still unevolved mankind the law of love and oneness? Teachers of the law of love and oneness there must be, for by that way must come the ultimate salvation. But not till the Time-Spirit in man is ready, can the inner and ultimate prevail over the outer and immediate reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the fierce forward labour of mankind tormented and oppressed by the Powers that are profiteers of egoistic force and their servants cries for the sword of the Hero of the struggle and the word of its prophet.
Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, The Vision of the World-Spirit. Time the Destroyer
In Book I, The Book of the Herald, Sri Aurobindo sets out the question he proposes to examine in Ilion, namely what can be preserved from the outer forms of the old yogas in the new yoga, which concerns the totality of being, integrating spirit and matter, from the spiritual heights down to the smallest cells of our body.
The “old yogas” are those based on the separation of spirit and matter and which seek, through renunciation and the liberation of the spirit, to dissolve into Non-Being, Nirvana, and for some, into incarnation, wisdom, and sanctity through the mastery of the outer being by the powers of the heights of the spirit. The new yoga aims at a more complete liberation and transformation of the whole being into a divinised being.
After a long period of inner conflict, the time to decide has come when the adventurer is under great pressure to purify the depths of his being in the deep vital and in the body, a pressure illustrated by Achilles’ ultimatum to the Trojan chiefs.
In Book II, The Book of the Statesman, this ultimatum conveyed by Deiphobus is explained in detail. The essential message is that nothing can stop the forward march of the forces that govern the world of forms and the evolutionary cycles they impose. The adventurer is invited to consider the possibility of uniting the forms of the old yogas that made possible the grandiose realisations of the past with this new yoga of the depths, in return for a few concessions, the main one being the temporary recognition that the new spiritual path no longer involves a refusal of life nor a mastery imposed from the heights of the spirit (Troy must return Helen).
This point of view is supported by the “fallen” statesman Antenor. He represents not only the spiritualised higher mind, “the highest intelligence endowed with the ability to convince,” for Antenor is the wisest of the Trojan orators, but also an achievement in deeds, for he is a great warrior. He symbolises the realisation that Sri Aurobindo describes as follows: “To arrive at the sattwic way of the inner individual Swadharma and of the works to which it moves us on the ways of life is a preliminary condition of perfection.”[1]
Furthermore, this intelligence knows that this position is in line with the truth of the spirit worlds (Antenor speaks the word that the gods have breathed in his spirit).[2]
But it announces that for this to happen, desire and the ego must be totally annihilated in perfect humility and complete surrender to the divine (For they look for a nation, one that can conquer itself having conquered the world, but they find none).[3]
It is only on this condition that one will be able to integrate the forces of the overmind without faltering, a sine qua non for getting access to the supramental world (None has been able to hold all the gods in his bosom unstaggered).[4]
This intelligence affirms that the yoga of the spirit cannot reject the yoga of the depths, because man is the product of matter and not a simple creation of the spirit. Like ants, we must work to purify our being down to the very depths of our bodily nature. Only absolute faith in the Divine, endurance, and total, unconditional consecration can enable us to progress beyond our present wretched human unconsciousness and illumine the different parts of our being.
Finally, it affirms that trials never last indefinitely. However unbearable they may be, they are always followed by resurrections. This is not the first “night” that the adventurer has faced. After enduring the previous “night of the soul,” he had won the “luminous silence.” If he knows how to be patient, he can be sure that the yoga of love associated with the union with the Divine in spirit in the separation of spirit and matter will once again become the essential movement of evolution, because he is banking on the self-destruction of the forces that oppose it, a destructive war between the Achaeans of the North and those of the South, between the part of the being that is still largely subject to the intellect and the part that is evolving in the higher planes. He therefore advises deceptive acceptance.
It is a part of the seeker that relies on an enlightened higher mind but does not have faith, that cannot yet conceive of a divinised matter, only liberation from this world of dualities.
Sri Aurobindo explains this when talking about the evolution of spirituality in India, but it can be applied to virtually all religions and regions of the world.
“The general conception of existence has been permeated with the Buddhistic theory of the chain of Karma and with the consequent antinomy of bondage and liberation, bondage by birth, liberation by cessation from birth.
Therefore, all voices are joined in one great consensus that not in this world of the dualities can there be our kingdom of heaven, but beyond, whether in the joys of the eternal Vrindavan or the high beatitude of Brahmaloka, beyond all manifestations in some ineffable Nirvana or where all separate experience is lost in the featureless unity of the indefinable Existence. And through many centuries a great army of shining witnesses, saints and teachers, names sacred to Indian memory and dominant in Indian imagination, have borne always the same witness and swelled always the same lofty and distant appeal, — renunciation the sole path of knowledge, acceptation of physical life the act of the ignorant, cessation from birth the right use of human birth, the call of the Spirit, the recoil from Matter.”[5]
Summary of Book III
In Book III, The Book of the Assembly, the problem of yoga’s reorientation is considered from several other points of view. In fact, Sri Aurobindo does not deal with each of them in detail but mainly with the two most advanced realisations to which the rest of consciousness rallies: intuition-vision, with the discourse of Laocoon, and equality acquired through renunciation of life and mastery imposed from above, with the discourse of Paris.
As with Antenor, the arguments developed by Laocoon and Paris are extremely convincing, and most of them are valid whatever the spiritual orientation is chosen. Each guiding principle of the yoga is developed to its possible conclusion. Sri Aurobindo told us that he used the same descriptive line as for Savitri, because this is the privileged mode of expression of the overmind.
This is what makes the choice of orientation so difficult for the adventurer of consciousness: all the options, however contradictory, seem valid. If this were not the case, there would be no doubt, no hesitation about the right evolutionary path.
The final decision will not be made by the adventurer himself but by the forces of the overmind: it is the gods who will decide – or indeed have already decided – the fate of Troy.
First and foremost, the speech by Laocoon, “Apollo’s seer,” evokes the point of view of superior intuition-vision, that of the seer-prophet. But the light he offers “blinds at once and illumines.”[6]
For while it can bring a certain clarity to a situation, it also prevents other points of view from being considered, because the adventurer puts too much trust in it, especially as cosmic forces can “darken” it. In this part of his being, the adventurer shows a lack of humility and recognition of the work of spiritual forces (fathomless spirit… Tool of the gods, but he deemed of his strength as a leader in Nature). Because of this lack of humility, Laocoon is also a symbol of the adventurer’s belief that the divine is not capable of dealing with earthly matters.
Even if it envisages the destruction of the forms of the old spirituality, the error, to which this “fate-darkened” vision leads, is to believe that what will manifest itself in the future, the future Troy, will be identical in its forms to the present Troy, i.e. identical spiritual structures, whereas only its essence will survive. Therein lies the “darkened” perception of Apollonian truths.
This capacity for vision encourages the adventurer to consider that the end of the possibility of extending consciousness to the heights of the spirit (the death of Hector), the disappearance of the supports of mental light that enabled the fight against illusions (the death of Sarpedon), and the disappearance of the aspiration born of the intelligent will (the death of Memnon), are compensated for by non-attachment, the ability to abstract oneself from suffering, and divine intoxication (the arrival of Penthesilea).
The seeker who has realised mental silence can no longer make use of the abilities previously linked to the use of this mind.
This ability for obscured vision, hoping for a better future, therefore encourages the pursuit of the old aims of yoga and the refusal of the compromise desired by the mind.
Instead of directing his yoga towards the details of everyday life that are right in front of his eyes, which implies great humility and which is what his prudence (discernment) and wisdom would like to lead him towards. This part of the adventurer is comforted by the great experiences and realisations of the old yogas and wants to direct his yoga once again towards that which provides illuminations of the spirit, splendid openings of the heart or powers. This part of his being has confidence in the light received from within and in the future reign of the city of love. It maintains that it is the equality acquired through the fire of union and through perfect detachment and divine intoxication (Penthesilea) that will give victory. However, victory will not be won without sacrifice and harsh trials, which must be endured because they are imposed by the divine.
The point of view of an ancient Trojan attitude embodied by Ucalegon, “he who cares not, who does not worry” is touched on briefly. Sri Aurobindo describes him as a senile old man unable to master his anger. He thus symbolises the ancient yoga that considers the matter to be an illusion[7] and has absolutely no interest in transforming his external nature, even with the help of a force imposed from above. This attitude of indifference is certainly not in keeping with the latest developments in the ancient yoga, which seeks ever-greater mastery through the power of the mind.
Then comes the point of view embodied in contrast by a young warrior, Halamus, “ardour” or “mental enthusiasm,” a son of Antenor, who symbolises what in the seeker is most advanced in sattvic realisation, a discerning and lucid wisdom, that is addressed.
He announces his acceptance of the decision that will be taken, whatever it may be. He represents the part of the seeker which relies solely on actions, is free from any concern for the result, indifferent to failure or success, and, above all, is certain that what happens is always for the best, both for individual and collective evolution. However, this certainty should not prevent us from making choices with discernment and lucidity. This part of our being knows that the reversal of yoga is inevitable, but draws the attention of the whole being to the fact that a bad choice – accepting Achilles’ offer – would lead to a certain amount of frustration in the future.
Then it is Paris’ turn to speak.
In mythology, Paris symbolises the quest for ever greater mastery with a view to equality. But he is also Alexander, “the man who rejects his outer nature or life,” a symbol of renunciation of life, of that which masters outer nature from above but does not transform it. In the Iliad, Homer describes him as clumsy in battle and a coward – the consequences of renouncing life, because the seeker is no longer involved in it.
He represents that realisation which, from a higher point of view, regards all things and activities as illusory, and therefore not worth bothering about: “Renunciation is the only path that leads to knowledge, acceptance of physical life is the choice of the ignorant.”[8]
In Paris’ speech, Sri Aurobindo emphasises the “mastery” and “power” aspects of this realisation. The closest we can come to the action of divine forces, which in no way follow human justice, is to exercise power both over our nature and over the outside world through a will imposed from above. And we must follow this line of conduct to expand our consciousness even further.
This point of view advocates the “here and now,” rejecting both the voice of the sattvic mind and that of the obscured vision that claims to hold the keys to the future. He affirms the human inability to know how the divine forces act to reach their goal and the path they will follow to get there. Neither intelligence nor visionary intuition can.
Paris exonerated himself of any past wrongdoing, claiming that the war would have taken place in any case even if Helen had remained in Sparta – the movement towards an evolution of the yoga was inescapable because it was willed by divine forces.
He chose to continue fighting to maintain the ancient yogas.
He asserted that only the path based on inner will and firm commitment, which rejects all external intervention in the exercise of human freedom, eradicates fears, and encourages one to live in the present, is valid.
Consequently, according to this point of view, the quest must continue in the spirit according to the old goals so that the seeker does not risk losing his soul in a yoga that attacks the depths of the being.
This point of view, therefore, encourages the pursuit of the old yoga without compromise, whatever the end result. It reminds us that the structures and practices on which this old yoga is based do not come from the intellect but from the forces of the overmind which, in the past, manifested themselves through that which worked for the establishment of the “Mind of Light” (Apollo) and the transformation of the subconscious (Poseidon), and gave access to the highest worlds of the spirit.
From this point of view, all the old practices should support this yoga, whose aim – the mastery of the lower nature, the quest for love and wisdom, and union in a paradise of the spirit – has not been disavowed.
He asserts that mastery alone gives joy, that mastery over the whole of nature is divine, and that the only sin is the claim to virtue. He condemns the hypocrisy of the person who wants to portray himself as a pure being, uttering highly spiritual words, although he has not yet totally transformed his desires and lusts, masking them under beautiful and deceptive appearances.
This point of view opposes virtue to the exercise of force and power, which is unconcerned with what the ordinary man considers to be right, which allows the extension of consciousness and plenitude, and grants equality with the gods. He maintains that the just attitude sought by the sattvic mind is a deceptive illusion because it is imbued with desire. Justice, seen from the human point of view, as something the sattvic, wise and virtuous man can bring to perfection, has, therefore, no reality or truth in evolution. The seeker must exercise his power without shame or guilt. We have been given a certain strength to dominate and master nature. The greater our capacity for mastery, the greater our joy.
That which is most advanced in one’s being must impose its law on the whole. The adventurer must not let his feelings give free rein to guilt by giving in to the belief that he has taken the wrong direction in yoga. Indeed, doubt and guilt can be formidable obstacles in one’s practice. Seekers have to follow the path they have set themselves, reject that which wants to change it, rediscover the abilities or powers that have disappeared, and stay on the course through this tough inner ordeal.
Indeed, few seekers persevere in the face of failure or inconclusive results. It takes endurance, courage, and unfailing determination to pursue one’s yoga in the way it was intended from the outset. And we know how clever the mind is at justifying surrender.
Next, the tendency to procrastinate is denounced. When the seeker gives in to difficulties, it makes further liberation very difficult.
To conclude, Sri Aurobindo tells us that Paris is the symbol of an organisation of thought that is perfect, as brilliant as it is unquestionable, and that develops rapidly. It encourages establishing an ideal equality that makes it possible to become greater than the gods.
The last to speak is Aeneas, the one with “senatorial authority,” who bears the seeds of future evolution. However, still subject to the general movement of separation, he decides to stress the certainty that the old yoga separating spirit from matter is in line with evolutionary truth.
Freed from all fear, the adventurer decides to continue the fight to the end to maintain the old yogas.
Detailed Analysis
Book III begins with the harangue of Laocoon, the seer-prophet of Apollo, the symbol of that which in the adventurer’s being “perceives higher truths.” But this ability for “vision” is “fate-darkened” because its development is based on the separation of spirit and matter and on the lack of purification that makes it impossible to see the whole.
But as the nation beset betwixt doom and a shameful surrender
Waited mute for a voice that could lead and a heart to encourage,
Up in the silence deep Laocoon rose up, far-heard, —
Heard by the gods in their calm and heard by men in their passion —
Cloud-haired, clad in mystic red, flamboyant, sombre,
Priam’s son Laocoon, fate-darkened seer of Apollo.
The adventurer of consciousness is always uncertain as to how to pursue his yoga, torn between two options. On the one hand, the loss of all past efforts to develop yoga practices enabling psychic transformation and liberation of the spirit, and, on the other hand, the incorporation of past practices into a yoga which seems to him reckless and doomed to failure. He awaits inner guidance not only to show him a path that the mind can understand but also one to which the psychic can adhere (But as the nation beset betwixt doom and a shameful surrender waited mute for a voice that could lead and a heart to encourage).
In deep mental silence, he allows a vision that fills his being to come to him: the part of him that has attained the overmind considers it without being disturbed, while the rest of the vital ego in the being receives it through its passions, that is, through a vital that has not been completely purified (Up in the silence deep Laocoon rose up, far-heard, — heard by the gods in their calm and heard by men in their passion).
The mystic red that adorns this vision probably refers to the highest ability to receive orders from heaven, the ability of the initiates (“mystics”), and perhaps also to the colour of sacrifice. But this ability for vision, recognised by the being as flamboyant, is nonetheless disturbed. In mythology, hair, the symbol of receptivity, is said to be “red” or “blond” when it refers to right intuition. Here, however, the hero is said to be cloud-haired, indicating an imprecision further reinforced by the qualifier “dark” given to Laocoon (Cloud-haired, clad in mystic red, flamboyant, sombre).
And this darkening of the ability to see is established in the following verse: Priam’s son Laocoon, fate-darkened seer of Apollo.
First of all, we need to remember what Apollo represents.
It is difficult to understand his exact nature and function. Many ancient authors who lived a few centuries after Homer and Hesiod, who had the same difficulty of understanding, associated it with the sun, Helios. Although Sri Aurobindo called him sun-god on several occasions, following the example of these ancient poets, he is not the symbol of supramental light, firstly because it is embodied by Helios and Apollo is neither a son of Helios nor of the Titan Hyperion, and secondly, because Apollo is a son of Zeus, and therefore a manifestation or development of the overmind. As Sri Aurobindo associates him with the worlds of the spirit, we understand that he symbolises a force opening the way for the development in the humanity of the “Mind of Light”, that is to say, no longer a mind of thought but a mind of vision, of direct perception, which is an expression of the supramental. We develop this point of view in the chapter devoted to the Olympian gods in our study Greek Mythology, Yoga of the West, revised edition. The abilities attributed to Apollo – prophecy, inspiration (music) – come under the four powers clearly manifested at the level of the intuitive mind: revelation, inspiration, intuitive discernment, and perception of the relationship between one truth and another.
However, it is quite likely that access to these higher planes of the spirit went hand in hand with psychic realisation. Some ancient authors have associated this god with the swan, the symbol of the soul, either because swans were present at his birth or because he was represented as riding a swan.
There are two reasons for the darkening of Laocoon’s vision. On the external level of the evolution of humanity as a whole, it is due to the cosmic cycles, particularly those of the mind, which, according to us, cover the periods of 2,160 and 26,000 years (Cf. the author’s study The Cycles of the Mind in the History of Humanity). Sri Aurobindo will explore this aspect in greater depth in The Book of the Gods, in particular in these lines spoken by Apollo[9]:
“Zeus, I know that I fade; already the night is around me.
Dusk she extends her reign and obscures my lightnings with error.
Therefore my prophets mislead men’s hearts to the ruin appointed.”
And in those spoken by Zeus to Athena[10]:
“What shall I say to the thought that is calm in thy breasts, O Athene?
Have I not given thee earth for thy portion, throned thee and armoured,
Darkened Cypris’ smile, dimmed Hera’s son and Latona’s?
Swift in thy silent ambition, proud of thy radiant sternness,
Girl, thou shalt rule with the Greek and the Saxon, the Frank and the Roman.”
Since the Trojan War is supposed to have taken place more than seven centuries BC, this could not have been a weakening of intuition beginning in a small cycle of 2,160 years, but rather the continuation of the phenomenon that had already begun a long time ago, at the dawn of the Renaissance of the Great 26,000-year cycle, some 6,500 years ago, a little more than 3,000 years before Homer.
The adventurer has no knowledge of this cycle, so his vision is “fate-darkened” by evolutionary necessity.
What happens at the level of humanity’s evolution is replayed at the individual level. Moreover, when the adventurer has reached the liberation of the spirit and when the reversal of yoga is about to take place, certain spiritual helpers that have accompanied him until then withdraw into the background.
However, Sri Aurobindo suggests that there is a second reason for this darkening of the flashes of truth sent by Apollo: they are imperfections due to a remnant of the ego. We shall look at them later.
As when the soul of the Ocean arises rapt in the dawning
And mid the rocks and the foam uplifting the voice of its musings
Opens the chant of its turbulent harmonies, so rose the far-borne
Voice of Laocoon soaring mid columns of Ilion’s glories, 10
Claiming the earth and the heavens for the field of its confident rumour.
“Trojans, deny your hearts to the easeful flutings of Hades!
Live, O nation!” he thundered forth and Troy’s streets and her pillars
Sent back their fierce response. Restored to her leonine spirits
Ilion rose in her agora filling the heavens with shoutings,
Bearing a name to the throne of Zeus in her mortal defiance.
The voice of the seer Laocoon is compared here to that of the musings of the Ocean, which manifest themselves amid the rocks and foam.
Sri Aurobindo had a very good knowledge of the major Greek authors such as Homer and Hesiod. He could not have been unaware that Oceanus is the Titan named by Hesiod as the father of the rivers and the Oceanids. This Titan has nothing to do with what we understand by “ocean,” but only with currents of consciousness-energy, because the ancient Greeks used other words to designate the sea, such as “Thalassa.” His descendants illustrate the process of purification-liberation, with the heroes such as Perseus and Heracles. The turbulent harmonies thus herald what is to come (its musings), being the play of forces that set in motion the evolutionary process of purification/liberation (As when the soul of the Ocean arises rapt in the dawning and mid the rocks and the foam uplifting the voice of its musings opens the chant of its turbulent harmonies).
The voice of the clairvoyant Laocoon is far-borne in the sense that it is influential in very many parts of the being and also in the sense that it concerns the distant future. The line soaring mid columns of Ilion’s glories gives an impression of solidity and reliability that has long been established. And its influence is intended to be exerted over the whole of one’s being, from the heights of the mind to the physical plane (Claiming the earth and the heavens). In other words, it claims to concern not only the realm of the spirit but also that of matter and the body. It imposes itself everywhere, although it is far from being a definite intuition-vision. Indeed, Sri Aurobindo uses two contradictory terms for it (confident rumour): rumour, which is news from an uncontrolled source in which the seeker has complete confidence (confident).
This visionary intuition, which foresees the Trojan victory, rejects the idea of renouncing the fight, i.e. renouncing the primacy of the old yogas (Live, O nation). It encourages the refusal of all mortifying complacency, the rejection of soothing music from the unconscious that calls for the cessation of the fight, and the end of the old yoga (deny your hearts to the easeful flutings of Hades!). This also echoes the Mother’s remark in the Agenda, about the disciples who lack the courage to undertake yoga: “They all want to die!”
The whole being, already committed to what it believes to be a vision of truth, can only rush down this path. All the practices or yogas, and their foundations, respond favourably to this darkened visionary intuition (Troy’s streets and her pillars sent back their fierce response).
The adventurer of consciousness regains his peace and his determination to carry on until the final victory, uncompromising in his fight against what he cannot yet grasp as the future yet to be born, placing absolute trust in his altered vision (Restored to her leonine spirits Ilion rose in her agora filling the heavens with shoutings, bearing a name to the throne of Zeus in her mortal defiance).
As when a sullen calm of the heavens discourages living,
Nature and man feel the pain of the lightnings repressed in their bosoms,
Dangerous and dull is the air, then suddenly strong from the anguish
Zeus of the thunders starts into glories releasing his storm-voice, 20
Earth exults in the kiss of the rain and the life-giving laughters,
So from the silence broke forth the thunder of Troya arising;
Fiercely she turned from prudence and wisdom and turned back to greatness
Casting her voice to the heavens from the depths of her fathomless spirit.
Here, Sri Aurobindo uses the image of the anguished tension and discomfort that are felt before the storm breaks, because the adventurer has to bear a very strong tension due to the uncertainty of the path.
He no longer receives guidance from the spirit worlds and this weighs heavily on him (As when a sullen calm of the heavens discourages living). Moreover, the flashes of knowledge he receives, both in his lower nature – body and vital – and in his mind, find no point of application, no appropriate receptacle, and he is obliged to keep them to himself (Nature and man feel the pain of the lightnings repressed in their bosoms).
He experiences this phase of yoga as dangerous and distressing (Dangerous and dull is the air). But it is only at the extreme limit of tension that the lightning manifestation of the highest overmind manifests its glorious power (Zeus of the thunders starts into glories releasing his storm-voice). There is then a response in the body itself, in the cells that exult (Earth exults in the kiss of the rain and the life-giving laughters).
The whole being of the seeker rises up, happy to follow the direction he has long trusted because he is relieved that the tension has ended (So from the silence broke forth the thunder of Troya arising).
Instead of directing his yoga towards the details of everyday life that are before his eyes, which implies great humility and which is what his prudence (discernment) and wisdom would like to lead him towards, the adventurer comforts himself with the great experiences and realisations of the old yogas and turns once again towards that which brings enlightenment of the spirit, union with the divine in the spirit, splendid openings of the heart or powers. These powers or “siddhis” are described in various texts: the ability to control the body, its needs and its organs, powers over the forces of nature and its laws such as gravity, omnipresence, knowledge of the three times, penetration into the minds of other beings, healing powers, development of the subtle senses allowing one to see and hear at a distance, etc. All this is the “greatness” of Troy, the greatness of the old yogas (Fiercely she turned from prudence and wisdom and turned back to greatness).
At this stage of yoga, the adventurer has universalized his mental consciousness to the heights of the spirit and has thus reached unlimited, unfathomable worlds (Casting her voice to the heavens from the depths of her fathomless spirit).
Raised by those clamours, triumphant once more on this scene of his
greatness,
Tool of the gods, but he deemed of his strength as a leader in Nature,
Took for his own a voice that was given and dreamed that he fashioned
Fate that fashions us all, Laocoon stood mid the shouting
Leaned on the calm of an ancient pillar. In eyes self-consuming
Kindled the flame of the prophet that blinds at once and illumines; 30
Quivering thought-besieged lips and shaken locks of the lion,
Lifted his gaze the storm-led enthusiast. Then as the shouting
Tired of itself at last disappeared in the bosom of silence,
Once more he started erect and his voice o’er the hearts of his hearers
Swept like Ocean’s impatient cry when it calls from its surges,
Ocean loud with a thought sublime in its measureless marching,
Each man felt his heart like foam in the rushing of waters.
Once again, divinatory and visionary abilities take precedence over other considerations, as on a theatre stage where the “greatness” of these realisations, to which great importance is attached, is displayed (Raised by those clamours, triumphant once more on this scene of his greatness).
We use the term “vision” here because the perceptions evoked belong more to the realm of vision than to the other senses. Note that the word “seer” is used in many traditions. We can group here the four types of intuition that Sri Aurobindo describes while discussing the intuitive mind: the ability to see the truth, the ability to hear the truth, the ability to touch the truth, and the ability to discern the relationship between one truth and another.[11] However, at this stage of yoga, this vision does not give accurate results because Laocoon is the fate-darkened seer of Apollo.
In addition to the cosmic cycles mentioned above, Sri Aurobindo gives another reason for this darkening, which this time is the responsibility of the adventurer. It echoes the two perjuries of Laomedon, the non-rewarding of the gods Apollo (the force that develops the Mind of Light) and Poseidon (the god who watches over the purification of the subconscious) for the construction of the citadel of Troy, and the refusal of the horses owed to Heracles for the rescue of Hesione. This reflects a lack of humility and a failure to recognise the work of spiritual forces (Tool of the gods, but he deemed of his strength as a leader in Nature). The “visions” do indeed depend on forces acting from the subliminal planes, but the adventurer places so much trust in them that he feels they are a reliable guide to progress in material life.
On the other hand, he refuses to leave the responsibility for yoga and the powers he has acquired in the hands of the Divine. He still thinks that he has something to do with the expression of his “visions,” or even that his intuition comes from the highest source, when in fact it comes from the overmind, where opposing forces are at play (Took for his own a voice that was given). He still believes that he has some power over the direction of his yoga, his life and its events, a power that is exclusively in the hands of the Divine (and dreamed that he fashioned Fate that fashions us all). He has not realised the second stage described in the Bhagavad Gita, where the seeker, after renouncing the fruits of the work and detaching himself from the work itself, must abandon the idea that he is the one who acts. He has not realised that “The Mother directs, the Mother organises, the Mother realizes.” For, at this stage, there is still an ego in the wise man and the saint, an ego that manifests itself in a desire for mastery.
The error, to which this darkened “vision” leads, is to believe that what will manifest itself in the future, the future Troy, will be identical in form to the present Troy, i.e. identical spiritual structures, whereas it is only its essence that will survive.
This ability for “vision” has been conquered by developing inner calm and relying on the structures of the old yogas (Laocoon stood mid the shouting leaned on the calm of an ancient pillar).
The adventurer of consciousness who has reached this stage of the illumined mind and ventures towards the intuitive mind is a prophet, meaning that he can, to a certain extent, know the future. In his inward gaze, absorbed in himself, burns the flame of the inner fire, Agni, developed by his aspiration, his consecration, his will to progress, and his efforts at purification (In eyes self-consuming kindled the flame of the prophet that blinds at once and illumines). But this flame acts in two opposite ways, at once “blinding,” preventing discernment and consideration of other points of view because of the adventurer’s over-confidence in his visions, and “illumining” through the flashes of truth it transmits.
Prophecies can therefore be distorted by the mind and the vital (Laocoon) or not taken seriously and neglected (Cassandra).
In spiritual literature, there is no shortage of examples of adventurers of consciousness or gurus who made prophecies that never came true.
The following two lines explain why the adventurer’s prophetic visions are mistaken: his mind is not completely silent (Quivering thought-besieged lips) and his dominant intuition is not stable (shaken locks of the lion). Moreover, his enthusiastic acceptance of these visions is largely the result of inner conflict (Lifted his gaze the storm-led enthusiast).
However, these prophetic visions, all too sure of themselves, resonate powerfully in our being, in the same way as a sublime thought comes to us from the “impatient” current of forces that drive evolution, which has no end (his voice o’er the hearts of his hearers swept like Ocean’s impatient cry when it calls from its surges Ocean loud with a thought sublime in its measureless marching).
Oceanus has sometimes been identified with the primordial Orphic divinity, the great serpent Ophion. For Hesiod, “he winds about the earth and the sea’s wide back” (Theogony, verse 790), which illustrates the currents of consciousness-energy that govern the body and the vital, and direct evolution according to Nature.
“Ilion is vanquished then! she abases her grandiose spirit
Mortal found in the end to the gods and the Greeks and Antenor,
And when a barbarous chieftain’s menace and insolent mercy 40
Bring here their pride to insult the columned spirit of Ilus,
Trojans have sat and feared! For a man has arisen and spoken,
One whom the gods in their anger have hired. Since the Argive prevailed not,
Armed with his strength and his numbers, in Troya they sought for her slayer,
Gathered their wiles in a voice and they chose a man famous and honoured,
Summoned Ate to aid and corrupted the heart of Antenor.
Flute of the breath of the Hell-witch, always he scatters among you
Doubt, affliction and weakness chilling the hearts of the fighters,
Always his voice with its cadenced and subtle possession for evil
Breaks the constant will and maims the impulse heroic. 50
This prophetic vision immediately attacks the attitude of defeat and renunciation that seeks to impose itself upon the heights of the spirit and diminish the value of past grandiose realisations. And these realisations that made it possible to reach the immortal spirit would also disappear if we returned to the levels of the dual and therefore “mortal” planes. This would be to lower the grandiose realisations of the past before the forces of the overmind, before less evolved parts of the being, and before the spiritualised higher mind (Ilion is vanquished then! she abases her grandiose spirit mortal found in the end to the gods and the Greeks and Antenor).
This ability for vision decrees that the yoga seeking to pursue the purification of the depths is underdeveloped, pretentious, negligible, and insulting to the attainments or the conquests in the spirit, imposing and solid as these columns that rise towards the sky (And when a barbarous chieftain’s menace and insolent mercy bring here their pride to insult the columned spirit of Ilus). With a touch of irony, it assures us that the movements working towards the conquest of the spirit and the full mastery attained by the imposition of the will have not bowed or trembled before this new movement in the being (Trojans have sat and feared!).
It states that the practices of this new yoga are no match for the old yogas (Since the Argive prevailed not, armed with his strength and his numbers) and that the forces of the overmind are using the old and illustrious realisations of the old yogas to give free rein to a passing opposition (For a man has arisen and spoken, one whom the gods in their anger have hired). These forces are trying to weaken the determination and strength of the old yogas from within by instilling doubt and discouragement into the spiritualised mind (in Troya they sought for her slayer, gathered their wiles in a voice and they chose a man famous and honoured, summoned Ate to aid and corrupted the heart of Antenor).
Remember that Ate, the eldest daughter of Zeus in Homer, is the force that takes us to the heights of the spirit. If this movement is right during a particular phase of yoga, it becomes a mistake to cling to it when the time has passed. So, this goddess became the symbol of error. The error that creates a separation between mind and body, leads to fear in the vital and doubt in the mental, as the Mother explains in her “Sutras”:
“All division in the being is an insincerity.
The greatest insincerity is to carve an abyss between one’s body and the truth of one’s being.
When an abyss separates the true being from the physical being, Nature immediately fills it with all hostile suggestions, of which the most deadly is fear and the most pernicious, doubt.”[12]
As fear has long since been overcome at this stage of yoga, at least in the mental and vital planes, it is mainly a question of doubt, the doubt that assails the seeker’s will throughout the process of yoga with the question: “What is the point?” The Mother, too, confirms it in the Agenda by saying that she is constantly subject to the irruption of these negative suggestions wielded by opposing forces. It manifests as haunting and fascinating music played by the black infernal force, the one that represents the fundamental opposition to evolution (Flute of the breath of the Hell-witch). The power of vision (a vision that is itself distorted) therefore associates this ancient mental realisation that wants to maintain its influence (Antenor) with this force of opposition. It accuses him of spreading doubt in the mind, of trying to introduce depression and to weaken the will, all things that diminish the inner fire and ardour of the adventurer (always he scatters among you doubt, affliction and weakness chilling the hearts of the fighters).
These are repetitive and subtle wicked suggestions like: What is the point? Nothing ever changes! This yoga leads nowhere! Why so much effort and suffering in vain? They break the will and dull the inner fire of the heroic warrior who is fighting “the great battle of the future that is to be born, against the past that seeks to endure”[13].
These suggestions are described in their extreme form in Savitri’s dialogue with Death in Books IX and X of Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri.
Therefore while yet her heroes fight and her arms are unconquered,
Troy in your hearts is defeated! The souls of your Fathers have heard you
Dallying, shamefast, with vileness, lured by the call of dishonour.
Such is the power Zeus gave to the winged words of a mortal! `
Foiled in his will, disowned by the years that stride on for ever,
Yet in the frenzy cold of his greed and his fallen ambition
Doom from heaven he calls down on his countrymen, Trojan abuses
Troy, his country, extolling her enemies, blessing her slayers.
Such are the gods Antenor has made in his heart’s own image
That if one evil man have not way for his greed and his longing 60
Cities are doomed and kings must be slain and a nation must perish!
On the one hand, the adventurer pursues the old practices of yoga which, at this stage, are not called into question. On the other hand, his “vision” sees that a part of his being that is very advanced in the mind, embodied by Antenor, is on the verge of internally accepting the reorientation of yoga (Therefore while yet her heroes fight and her arms are unconquered, Troy in your hearts is defeated!). The next line probably refers to a certain nostalgia for the old days of his yoga, for the part of himself that contemplates the current evolution with a disapproving eye, considering that the descent into the lower planes with a view to purification is a dalliance with baseness, felt as a shame and a lack of integrity, of righteousness (The souls of your Fathers have heard you dallying, shamefast, with vileness, lured by the call of dishonour).
This power to sow doubt in the being was granted by the highest of the overmind to a realisation of yogic wisdom based on the mind (Such is the power Zeus gave to the winged words of a mortal!). However, the will associated with this old wisdom no longer has power and, under the effect of the never-ending evolution, this wisdom no longer constitutes the goal of yoga (Foiled in his will, disowned by the years that stride on for ever). This was at one time the pinnacle of yoga, with an attachment to what this wisdom expressed in the world, perhaps also with a strong desire to acquire more “powers” (Yet in the frenzy cold of his greed and his fallen ambition). For the mind, whatever its accomplishment, is always seeking to accumulate knowledge, which is also a source of power.
But the troubled vision considers that this wisdom plays into the hands of the forces that want to impose a new yoga, which would lead to the end of the old practices and realisations (Doom from heaven he calls down on his countrymen, Trojan abuses Troy, his country, extolling her enemies, blessing her slayers). It accuses a single yoga movement – which, according to it, wants ever more knowledge and regrets the previous periods of yoga – of dragging all the other movements to their ruin, of annihilating splendid yoga structures and the highest of extreme spiritual practices that direct them, thus destroying the entire spiritual attainment (That if one evil man have not way for his greed and his longing cities are doomed and kings must be slain and a nation must perish!)
But from the mind of the free and the brave I will answer thy bodings,
Gold-hungry raven of Troy who croakst from thy nest at her princes.
Only one doom irreparable treads down the soul of a nation,
Only one downfall endures; ’tis the ruin of greatness and virtue,
Mourning when Freedom departs from the life and the heart of a people,
Into her room comes creeping the mind of the slave and it poisons
Manhood and joy and the voice to lying is trained and subjection
Easy feels to the neck of man who is next to the godheads.
Not of the fire am I terrified, not of the sword and its slaying; 70
Vileness of men appals me, baseness I fear and its voices.
What can man suffer direr or worse than enslaved from a victor
Boons to accept, to take safety and ease from the foe and the stranger,
Fallen from the virtue stern that heaven permits to a mortal?
Death is not keener than this nor the slaughter of friends and our dear ones.
As a symbol, the raven does not seem to have had a particularly negative connotation in primitive traditions. Rather, it was seen as a prophetic bird, mediating between the world of the gods and that of man, and also between the world of the living and that of the dead. However, in Laocoon’s harangue, it seems to be a bad omen, as in late and contemporary traditions.
We have already discussed the seeker’s attachment to his work and the mind’s insatiable desire to accumulate knowledge (Gold-hungry raven of Troy).
For that part of the being that expresses itself here from the plane of the illumined mind, only downfall to a lower state is a tragic destiny for the soul. The new yoga involves a gradual descent from the higher planes of the mind into the lower levels of the vital and then the body, where the work of purification must be done to bring light. It is no longer a question of “great realisations,” those that can be admired in so-called “realised” beings, nor of sanctity, but of very humble work, which is rejected here because it is very far removed from the superb realisations of the spirit and the virtue of the saint (Only one downfall endures; ’tis the ruin of greatness and virtue).
The higher the adventurer ascends in the planes of consciousness, the more he is able to push back the limits and the more freedom of spirit he gains. Returning to the lower planes means rediscovering the limitations associated with these planes, which become more and more suffocating as we descend, when we have been accustomed to the wide-open spaces of the planes of the illumined mind, the intuitive mind, and the overmind (Mourning when Freedom departs from the life and the heart of a people).
When the adventurer descends into these depths, he must gradually confront a mentality imprisoned within ever-narrower walls created by primeval fears, ignorance, minute desires, bodily habits, and so on. It is no longer the freedom of the lofty peaks of the spirit, nor their joy, and his humanity seems to be slipping away (Into her room comes creeping the mind of the slave and it poisons manhood and joy).
In these lower planes, fear generates lies (and the voice to lying is trained) and submission seems sweet to the man who bows his head, he who is made to be an equal of the gods in the overmind (and subjection easy feels to the neck of man who is next to the godheads).
Seen from the heights of the visionary mind, transformations belong to the movement of evolution, and there is no need to fear the great purifying forces, or that which severs whatever is no longer good for evolution (Not of the fire am I terrified, not of the sword and its slaying). But seen from these same heights, the state of consciousness that corresponds to the lower planes, that of ordinary men, is unbearable (Vileness of men appals me, baseness I fear and its voices). On many occasions, like Sri Aurobindo, the Mother speaks in the Agenda of her refusal to descend into the ordinary planes of consciousness of humanity, that are suffocating for her.
But if there is anything worse than this confinement within the walls of ignorance, doubt, and fear, it would be, according to this point of view, the lowering of the old yogas that, accepting the descent into these planes, could receive benefits from them to perpetuate and enjoy themselves, forgetting the unfailing determination for integrity and the rigorous and intractable virtue that the powers of the spirit have allowed (What can man suffer direr or worse than enslaved from a victor boons to accept, to take safety and ease from the foe and the stranger, fallen from the virtue stern that heaven permits to a mortal?).
It is better to sacrifice the entire yoga with all its realisations than to fall into this decay (Death is not keener than this nor the slaughter of friends and our dear ones).
Although, in our opinion, Sri Aurobindo did not write this poem to castigate the attitude of the Indian elites towards the British occupiers, he may have been inspired to write this last passage by what was before his eyes.
Out and alas! earth’s greatest are earth and they fail in the testing,
Conquered by sorrow and doubt, fate’s hammerers, fires of her furnace.
God in their souls they renounce and submit to their clay and its promptings.
Else could the heart of Troy have recoiled from the loom of the shadow
Cast by Achilles’ spear or shrunk at the sound of his car-wheels? 80
Now he has graven an oath austere in his spirit unpliant
Victor at last to constrain in his stride the walls of Apollo
Burning Troy ere he sleeps. ’Tis the vow of a high-crested nature;
Shall it break ramparted Troy? Yea, the soul of a man too is mighty
More than the stone and the mortar!
Sri Aurobindo warns the adventurers of consciousness. Even for the most advanced of them, a fall is always possible because they are still bound to the archaic energies of the vital and to the ignorant bodily habits. Not to mention the possible intervention of opposing forces all too happy to combat evolution. Spiritual literature is full of examples of gurus who have fallen, mainly in the fields of sexuality, power, and money, using their influence over their disciples to gratify their urges. Any part of the adventurer’s being that is unconscious or has not undergone sufficient purification can be his Achilles’ heel, the place where the fall can take place (Earth’s greatest are earth and they fail in the testing).
But while there is no longer any need to fear falling into the trap of the lower vital and the lure of power and money, for the more advanced seekers there are still two major obstacles standing in their way, one in the vital plane, the other in the mental.
The first is sadness, which stems from the feeling of powerlessness to change things, whether in one’s nature or outside, for humanity, one being the reflection of the other. This “powerlessness” is hammered home to us by suggestions from all sides, urging us to give up and trying to convince us of the futility of our efforts and our yoga.
The other obstacle, doubt, can also assail the adventurer’s mind.
A few pages earlier we mentioned one of the Mother’s Sutras on this subject:
“When an abyss separates the true being from the physical being, Nature fills it up immediately with all kinds of adverse suggestions, the most formidable of which is fear, and the most pernicious, doubt.”[14]
This means that when the lower planes down to the bodily consciousness are no longer aligned with the psychic being, with the soul, then fear and doubt creep into the being.
Doubt can take many forms: doubt about the aim of yoga itself, which is to accelerate the movement of nature; doubt about the adventurer’s ability to fulfill the task assigned to him by his soul and of which he has had a more or less precise revelation in the past (svadharma); doubt about the means he uses to achieve this task; doubt about the usefulness of his efforts (Conquered by sorrow and doubt, fate’s hammerers, fires of her furnace).
To help one cope with this ordeal, the Mother advises:
“So there is only one thing to do: to proceed on one’s way keeping one’s own faith and certitude, and to pay no heed to contradictions and denials. […] One must find one’s certitude within oneself, keep it in spite of everything and go one’s way whatever the cost, to the very end. The Victory is for the most enduring.”[15]
If the adventurer surrenders to this sadness and doubt, he cuts himself off from the Divine within and succumbs to the yoke of Nature, its laws, and influences (God in their souls they renounce and submit to their clay and its promptings).
In the adventurer, this blurred power of vision therefore fails to understand how an entire part of his most advanced being could have allowed the idea of the new yoga to gradually take hold, if only because of a feeling of powerlessness and doubt (Else could the heart of Troy have recoiled from the loom of the shadow cast by Achilles’ spear or shrunk at the sound of his car-wheels?)
On the other hand, this power of vision distorted by destiny recognises that its adversary is the fire-hardened will of a noble and haughty nature, of a power of soul resolved to conquer or perish with a determination more solid than a stone wall (Now he has graven an oath austere in his spirit unpliant […] Yea, the soul of a man too is mighty more than the stone and the mortar!)
Troy had a soul once, O Trojans,
Firm as her god-built ramparts. When by the spears overtaken,
Strong Sarpedon fell and Zeus averted his visage,
Xanthus red to the sea ran sobbing with bodies of Trojans,
When in the day of the silence of heaven the far-glancing helmet
Ceased from the ways of the fight, and panic slew with Achilles 90
Hosts who were left unshepherded pale at the fall of their greatest,
Godlike Troy lived on. Do we speak mid a city’s ruins?
Lo! she confronts her heavens as when Tros and Laomedon ruled her.
Laocoon continues his harangue by evoking Sarpedon, the Lycian king slain earlier in battle by Patroclus. To understand this passage properly, we need to look at the story of Sarpedon.
We will follow the genealogy given by Homer, who places this hero in the line of Sisyphus united with Merope, the symbol of “effort” to expand the mind, because nothing in ordinary life can be achieved without effort (See Diagram 11).
We will leave aside the later authors who made Sarpedon a son of Europa, as this does not make sense. Homer only names Minos and Rhadamanthus as children of Europa.
This “effort” bears fruit: this is demonstrated by Sisyphus’ son, Glaucus, “he who shines,” and above all by his grandson, Bellerophon, who vanquished the Chimera, representing illusion, i.e. the opposite of consciousness or light. Bellerophon thus symbolises the end of the pursuit of illusions in the mind through the effort applied to thought. He dedicates the end of his yoga to overcoming the illusions caused by the ego, which is trying to rise to the heights following the evolutionary process, according to the symbolism of the Chimera, half lion, half goat with a serpent’s tail.
But the death of the Chimera does not yet mark the end of the effort applied to the mind, since Bellerophon has children and grandchildren.
Sarpedon was the son of Zeus and Laodamia, herself the daughter of Bellerophon. His name, meaning “he who tames people,” symbolises perfect mastery of the outer being. As the son of Zeus, Sarpedon embodies a new impulse of the overmind towards mastery imposed from above.
For some time to come, there will still be an effort to reach the heights of the overmind, because Sarpedon is described as a “rival of the gods.” But on the path that seeks divinisation of the earth, it is no longer a question of being an even greater sage, or a greater saint. To be greater than the gods is a yoga that must be postponed.
This lineage illustrates the mental effort that leads to discernment and overcomes illusions, leading to the possibility of mastery of the outer being and powerful protective mental clarity, of which Sarpedon is the symbol. This is why Sri Aurobindo gives him a far-glancing helmet.
It is therefore understandable that he should be the king of Lycia, “the land of emerging light,” and that he should be renowned for his justice – his excellent discernment – his virtue or integrity, and his courage. Lycia is also famous for its “intrinsic” wealth, meaning that it generates realisations in the field of light or spiritual knowledge all by itself. It is one of the provinces of Asia Minor associated with “burning” Phrygia, the place of inner fire, which also includes Caria, Mysia, and Lydia. These represent the realisations of the old yogas and are therefore allies of Troy. Sarpedon is their representative. He commands a large contingent of Lycians with his first cousin Glaucus II, son of Hippolochus.
Sarpedon was killed by Patroclus. In a way, he was the last bastion of Troy as the ultimate accomplishment of the mind. His death occurred just before that of Patroclus. The latter’s death was in turn the cause of Achilles’ return to battle, and a decisive turning point in yoga. Once Sarpedon was dead, Zeus stopped supporting the Trojans. The myth tells us, however, that he tried to save Sarpedon from death, but Hera refused it, as his son was destined to die at the hands of Patroclus.[16] Hera suggested, however, that his body be transported to Lycia, which Zeus finally agreed to, not without unleashing a blood flood (When by the spears overtaken, strong Sarpedon fell and Zeus averted his visage, […] When in the day of the silence of heaven).
Apollo, the god who works towards the realisation of the Mind of Light, at the behest of Zeus, came himself to remove Sarpedon’s body from the battlefield and deposit it in Lycia. On the other hand, the hero’s weapons – the most advanced means of protection and spiritual combat in the mind – were seized by the Achaeans.
If we look at Sisyphus’ descendants, we shall see that Sarpedon’s death extinguished his line. Indeed, of the four children of Sisyphus, three are mentioned only by the historian Pausanias and therefore come from an unreliable source (Thersander, Halmus, and Ornytion).
The last branch to descend from Glaucus includes the children and grandchildren of Bellerophon. Glaucus II was killed by Ajax, Isander by Ares in the battle against the Solymians, and Laodamia by Artemis. The sole survivor of the line was Sarpedon. His death thus represents the end of personal mental effort in yoga and related practices – for Sisyphus is united with Merope, symbolising the plane of the intellect – as well as the end of the last mental illusion, that according to which the seeker believes himself to be the author of his action. Finally, he accepts that “The Mother directs, the Mother organises, the Mother realizes.”
It is therefore an important turning point in yoga, during which the effort of mental work against illusions ceases to make way for a higher order of light. It is no longer a question of personal asceticism directed towards the quest for Knowledge, but of complete submission to the Divine that Itself directs one’s yoga, and, in fact, does everything: “We find it very hard to understand that the Supreme constantly does everything.”[17]
The Mother gives an illustration of this change of perspective when she says that we are incapable of discerning between truth and falsehood because we live in a false consciousness. The effort of mental discernment, useful up to a certain point, must be overcome. We need to rise into a higher consciousness where truth and falsehood no longer exist because on that level we always say the right thing or do the right thing, whatever others may perceive it to be.[18]
This turning point in yoga would soon be confirmed by Achilles’ return to battle, that is, his descent into the depths of the vital to carry out a thorough purification (and panic slew with Achilles hosts who were left unshepherded pale at the fall of their greatest).
From this moment onwards, the current of consciousness which is a force for progress breaking down limits, and which had until then been identified with the yoga of the liberation of the spirit and renunciation, can only carry with it the destruction of the old forms of yoga (Xanthus red to the sea ran sobbing with bodies of Trojans).
Of course, in the seeker, the old yoga wants to preserve the form of this wisdom to honour it, even if it is no longer active (Sarpedon’s remains), whereas the new yoga only wants to recover its genius and its protective and offensive processes (his weapons). But Homer asserts that acquiring this wisdom is a necessary step, and the god of intermediary light ensures that its memory is preserved (Apollo takes Sarpedon’s body to Lycia, the land of light).
However, Laocoon’s speech shows that the visionary ability was unable to perceive this turning point in yoga, for the hero states that Godlike Troy lived on. This ability asserts that the forces of the spirit that oppose the continuation of the old yoga can, in fact, do nothing against it, against its forms that have been established for centuries (Troy). It maintains that the structures of this yoga are capable of resisting them, just as Laomedon opposed the gods by refusing to pay the agreed salary (Do we speak mid a city’s ruins? Lo! she confronts her heavens as when Tros and Laomedon ruled her).
All now is changed, these mutter and sigh to you, all now is ended;
Strength has renounced you, Fate has finished the thread of her spinning.
Hector is dead, he walks in the shadows; Troilus fights not;
Resting his curls on the asphodel he has forgotten his country:
Strong Sarpedon lies in Bellerophon’s city sleeping:
Memnon is slain and the blood of Rhesus has dried on the Troad:
All of the giant Asius sums in a handful of ashes. 100
This intuition-vision notes a certain defeatism in the struggle to maintain the old yoga because the force that animates the yoga has changed direction and the movement leading the yoga towards the heights of the spirit, which was initiated a long time ago, has come to an end.
The three Moirai are the goddesses who govern “destiny,” the thread of life, i.e. the unfolding of every evolutionary movement, whether personal or general. They are daughters of Nyx or of Zeus and Themis, “the divine law.” Clotho, “the spinner,” weaves the thread of life, Lachesis unwinds it, and Atropos, “the Inflexible,” cuts it. Thus, that which in one’s being wants to give way to the new considers that the previous movement has come to an end (All now is changed, these mutter and sigh to you, all now is ended; Strength has renounced you, Fate has finished the thread of her spinning).
When the Moirai are considered primordial divinities, daughters of Nyx, or of Gaia and Uranus, or even of Chaos, they belong to the world of Truth where there is no choice, because “everything is already there from all eternity.”[19] This is why even the gods cannot oppose them. On the other hand, as Sri Aurobindo tells us in Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Sri Aurobindo, by M.P.Pandit, in the overmind, it is an interplay of forces that determine possibilities, the forces on which the adventurer can act to guide towards new developments.
Sri Aurobindo then lists the “supports” of the old yogas that have disappeared. A certain number of them had already been cancelled when Heracles took revenge on Laomedon and killed many of his sons in the first attack on Troy, which preceded the Trojan War described by Homer (we think that these two Trojan Wars are, in fact, related to the same process of reorientation of yoga, the ancients not having wanted to integrate Heracles into the other myths to avoid too much confusion).
It was during this first Trojan War led by Heracles that Priam was redeemed by his sister Hesione. As for Tithonus, we need to remember that he had been forever reduced to a larva. Indeed, his lover Eos had forgotten to ask Zeus to give him, in addition to immortality, eternal youth, i.e., adaptation to the movement of becoming.
The first movement to cease is the right movement of opening consciousness to the spirit. It has dominated yoga until now, but is now in the background (Hector is dead, he walks in the shadows). Perhaps we should understand “in the shadows” not as the shadow, but as “the shadows” that inhabit the Hades, the realm of the unconscious where all the movements of waking consciousness come to an end.
The death of Priam’s children, especially that of Hector, marked the end of the mastery of the external being initiated by Laomedon and realised through the conquest of the higher planes of the mind.
In the same way, the movement towards liberation carried out by the right yoga towards the heights of the spirit, symbolised by Troilus, has ceased. His name may come from a combination of the names Tros and Ilus. He is a son of Hecuba and Priam, or for others of Hecuba and Apollo. We can therefore consider that his human father is Priam and his divine father Apollo, which makes him a movement inspired by the force that works for the realisation of the intermediate light in humanity, and therefore for what is most advanced at this stage, the access to the intuitive mind (the lineage of Taygetus).
Troilus lies in the meadow of Asphodel, which belongs to the kingdom of Hades. Homer refers to this meadow as the hunting ground of Orion, who pursued there the “wild beasts which he himself had slain on the lonely hills” [20] during his lifetime: the habit or behaviour that has been expelled from the conscious mind must then be expelled from the subconscious mind and then from the bodily unconscious. In other words, the process of liberation represented by Troilus, which must now continue in the body, is on hold for the time being (Troilus fights not; resting his curls on the asphodel he has forgotten his country).
Then we come to the death of Sarpedon. We saw earlier that Bellerophon’s children were all killed just before or during the Trojan War, in other words at the time of the great reversal of yoga.
The son of Hippolochus, “he who gives birth to strength,” also called Glaucus, “brilliant, sparkling” like his great-grandfather, the sign of the “brilliance” of intelligence, was killed by Ajax, the highest consciousness.
The name Isander can be understood as “the mental man.” His death would therefore symbolise the entry into mental silence. He was killed by Ares, the god who eliminates old forms that have become an obstacle on the path. This happened during the battle against the Solymians that preceded the Trojan War – the battle symbolic of the destruction of the last inappropriate mental forms.
By killing Laodamia, Artemis takes the seeker beyond the quest for greater mastery of the external being, the mastery that can be considered complete.
The last of these was the death of Sarpedon. This marks the end of the mental effort in yoga resulting from the acquisition of mental silence and the intervention of a higher light in the struggle against illusions (Strong Sarpedon lies in Bellerophon’s city sleeping).
But until this point in his progress, the seeker must develop his mental abilities for discernment to the maximum to rid himself of illusions. For it is indeed the integration of a higher vision with the development of intuition that enables us to get rid of illusions, at least those that come from the mind of thought and the vital due to ignorance and the mixing of functions.
Indeed, in his Essay on the Gita, Victory over Suffering, Sri Aurobindo tells us that the seat of equanimity is neither the heart nor the mind but the discriminating intelligence.
It is no longer a matter of personal asceticism directed towards the quest for Knowledge but of complete submission to the Divine, who Itself directs the yoga.
Since the adventurer of consciousness has entered mental silence, he can no longer use his mind to discern the right path. That which is most advanced on the path within him (Trojan chiefs) thus loses the third of its most important supports, after that which opens the spirit to spiritual heights (Hector) and the movement of liberation supported by psychic light (Troilus).
Then Sri Aurobindo mentions the death of Memnon, the son of Tithonus and Eos (Memnon is slain). He was king of the Ethiopians, a “fiery, pure, sparkling vision,” and therefore the symbol of the most perfect practice of yoga, for Homer says that Eurypylus “He verily was the comeliest man I saw, next to goodly Memnon” (Odyssey, Book XI, line 522). Memnon represents the aspiration towards the New (he was the son of Eos, the goddess of the dawn). He was killed by Achilles, but Zeus granted Eos immortality for her son: Memnon therefore symbolises a “powerful aspiration” that will continue from life to life.
Then Rhesus is mentioned (and the blood of Rhesus has dried on the Troad). In the Iliad (Book X, line 435), Odysseus is informed by Dolon that the Thracians recently arrived with their leader Rhesus, son of Eioneus. Rhesus had extremely powerful and beautiful steeds, whiter than snow and like the winds, as well as the armour covered in gold more worthy of the gods than mortals. During the expedition of Odysseus and Diomedes to the Trojan camp, he was killed by Diomedes, who surprised him in his sleep while Odysseus was stealing his horses.
“[…] so up and down amid the Thracian warriors went the son of Tydeus (Diomedes) until he had slain twelve. But whomsoever the son of Tydeus drew nigh and smote with the sword, him would Odysseus of the many wiles seize by the foot from behind and drag aside, with this thought in mind, that the fair-maned horses (of Rhesus) might easily pass through and not be affrighted at heart as they trod over dead men; for they were as yet unused thereto. But when the son of Tydeus came to the king, him the thirteenth he robbed of honey-sweet life, as he breathed hard…” (Iliad, Book X, lines 482-495)
Thrace, located in northern Greece, is the land of the most arduous spiritual practices. The name Rhesus – Rhesos in Greek – could mean “human energy that flows in the right way.” He is a son of Eioneus, “the evolution of consciousness.” His powerful and beautiful horses, whiter than snow and similar to the winds, indicate a totally purified vital force whose action is similar to that of the divine helpers, the winds.
The armour worthy of the gods indicates a great ability for protection: the adventurer of consciousness no longer allows low or potentially harmful vibrations from outside, such as anger vibrations, to penetrate his mind. In the Agenda, the Mother talks about this protection, which means that negative vibrations bounce back because they cannot penetrate her aura.
There is therefore no question of the adventurer depriving himself of this vital force or this ability for protection which is indispensable for continuing the yoga in the body. However, it must no longer be an ascetic principle that directs it, focused solely on mastering the external being in the yoga that separates spirit from matter, but the yoga that unites (Odysseus). It is a force that cares about union (Diomedes) that puts an end to the old extreme spiritual practices.
This vital force is not used to having the methods of yoga to which it was accustomed stopped, so the adventurer must at first be careful when handling it (that the fair-maned horses [of Rhesus] might easily pass through and not be affrighted at heart as they trod over dead men; for they were as yet unused thereto).
This powerful, purified life force is no longer guided by the will to master, but by the aspiration combined with the will to purify the depths (it is no longer directed by the Trojan camp but by the Achaean camp).
Finally, the death of the giant Asius is recalled. His name is constructed like that of the province of Asia, that of “the new,” which can probably be understood as “that which no longer belongs to human mental consciousness” (α-ΣΙ).
In the Iliad, this hero is mentioned several times as the son of Hyrtacus. He should therefore not be confused with the man who married Priam’s first wife, Arisbe, when Priam married Hecuba for the second time (see Apollodorus). However, the region of “divine Arisbe” near the Hellespont is mentioned as one of the regions from where the troops commanded by Asius came.
Asius would therefore be the symbol of a highly advanced yoga in the spirit that no longer belongs to ordinary human consciousness. The new yoga involves descending into the lower planes of vital, bodily, and cellular consciousness to transform it, which entails abandoning these very high realisations of the spirit (All of the giant Asius sums in a handful of ashes).
Grievous are these things; our hearts still keep all the pain of them treasured,
Hard though they grow by use and iron caskets of sorrow.
Hear me yet, O fainters in wisdom snared by your pathos,
Know this iron world we live in where Hell casts its shadow.
Blood and grief are the ransom of men for the joys of their transience,
For we are mortals bound in our strength and beset in our labour.
This is our human destiny; every moment of living
Toil and loss have gained in the constant siege of our bodies.
Men must sow earth with their hearts and their tears that their country may prosper;
Earth who bore and devours us that life may be born from our remnants. 110
Then shall the Sacrifice gather its fruits when the war-shout is silent,
Nor shall the blood be in vain that our mother has felt on her bosom
Nor shall the seed of the mighty fail where Death is the sower.
Those who believe that they “see” or “perceive” within themselves the right direction of yoga continue to support the old yogas, taking note, however, of the important changes that have taken place and for which certain parts of their being may be nostalgic, even though the seeker has long been accustomed in yoga to loss and pain (Grievous are these things; our hearts still keep all the pain of them treasured, hard though they grow by use and iron caskets of sorrow).
The abandonment of what is no longer necessary for evolution is indeed experienced by the ego as a loss. On the other hand, the further the seeker advances in yoga, the more suffering increases in direct proportion to the increase in sensitivity, counterbalanced, of course, by increasing joy. The Mother said that no man had suffered as much as Sri Aurobindo.
This visionary ability notes the tendency of certain yogas to weaken under the pretext of the quest for greater wisdom, but in fact as the result of a human tendency to love drama and suffering, pathos (Hear me yet, O fainters in wisdom snared by your pathos).
Perhaps this line can be compared to one of the stanzas in Sri Aurobindo’s poem, The Labour of God:
“For man’s mind is the dupe of his animal self;
Hoping its lusts to win,
He harbours within him a grisly Elf
Enamoured of sorrow and sin.”
A certain verse in the Bhagavad Gita can also be compared to Arjuna’s revolt against sacrificing his family. There is a form of attachment that, resulting from affection or pity, comes to justify weakness by passing off good for evil. The spiritual warrior must be able to master all fear as well as feelings of affection and pity.[21]
For this inner vision, as long as man belongs to the world of duality, he must continue to fight for what he aspires to, at the cost of blood and grief, for fleeting joys (Know this iron world we live in where Hell casts its shadow. Blood and grief are the ransom of men for the joys of their transience).
Yogas, practices, and experiences belong to a given era but are not eternal elements in evolution (for we are mortals…).
They are limited in their effects and subject to external forces that surpass them (bound in our strength and beset in our labour).
Moreover, the body is subject to incessant constraints from the vital and the mental, right down to the cells (Toil and loss have gained in the constant siege of our bodies). The vital, greedy for physical and mental pleasures, uses the body as an instrument of pleasure instead of allowing it to play its role as an instrument of action.
Nothing can be won without tears, and this is the law of sacrifice that applies to all realms (Earth who bore and devours us that life may be born from our remnants). Although sacrifice must not be made for its fruits, there will be some when the inner struggle ceases, provided that ardour is maintained in yoga (Then shall the Sacrifice gather its fruits when the war-shout is silent, […] Nor shall the seed of the mighty fail).
Still from the loins of the mother eternal are heroes engendered,
Still Deiphobus shouts in the war-front trampling the Argives,
Strong Aeneas’ far-borne voice is heard from our ramparts,
Paris’ hands are swift and his feet in the chases of Ares.
Lo, when deserted we fight by Asia’s soon-wearied peoples,
Men ingrate who enjoyed the protection and loathed the protector,
Heaven has sent us replacing a continent Penthesilea! 120
Low has the heart of Achaia sunk since it shook at her war-cry.
Ajax has bit at the dust; it is all he shall have of the Troad;
Tall Meriones lies and measures his portion of booty.
Who is the fighter in Ilion thrills not rejoicing to hearken
Even her name on unwarlike lips, much more in the mellay
Shout of the daughter of battles, armipotent Penthesilea?
If there were none but these only, if hosts came not surging behind them,
Young men burning-eyed to outdare all the deeds of their elders,
Each in his beauty a Troilus, each in his valour a Hector,
Yet were the measures poised in the equal balance of Ares. 130
Laocoon continues his harangue: there are still realisations of the old yogas that are being perfected and thus show that the old yoga would be the right path supported by the eternal mother, the divine Shakti (Still from the loins of the mother eternal are heroes engendered). And this intuition-vision quotes some of them.
First of all, Deiphobus, “he who destroys fear” (Still Deiphobus shouts in the war-front trampling the Argives).
This character has already been studied in part in Book II. He is the son of Priam and Hecuba, and Hector’s favourite brother. After Hector’s death, he was considered the leader of the Trojans. In Homer’s Odyssey (Book IV, line 265), he is said to be “godlike.” He carries a well-balanced white shield, the sign of powerful protection: he who is fearless is indeed very well protected. After the death of Paris, he competed with his brother Helenus for the hand of Helen and won: in the old yoga, after the quest for equality through renunciation and mastery (Paris), he is, therefore, the symbol of the realisation best able to guide the evolutionary path towards greater freedom in the spirit.
Then this visionary ability of the high mind mentions Aeneas, “evolving consciousness.” Aeneas is the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, who, according to Homer, is the symbol of love evolving in man. His descendants are to establish the future Troy, the future city of Love, in other words, the foundation of the Man who truly loves, the city that can only be built when Truth has been incarnated in humanity.
Of course, what he represents heralds the future, hence his “far-borne voice” (Strong Aeneas’ far-borne voice is heard from our ramparts).
Paris-Alexander, the symbol of renunciation in a yoga that separates spirit from matter, still represents an influential force in the orientation of the yoga, both in action and in the practice of the path (Paris’ hands are swift and his feet). It is specified that this happens in the chases of Ares, i.e. in the pursuit of the suppression of all that is no longer good for evolution.
The next two lines deal with the desertion of the peoples of Asia Minor, who had allied themselves with the Trojans under the banner of Sarpedon, king of the Lycians, the symbol of that which leads to discernment and defeats illusions (Lo, when deserted we fight by Asia’s soon-wearied peoples). These people essentially come from Lycia, “the land of emerging light,” Phrygia, “the land of inner fire,” Caria, “the land of intelligence and superior discernment,” Mysia, “the land of the highest initiations conferring power,” Lydia, “the land of unity in diversity,” and Paphlagonia, “the land of that which tends to manifest itself.”
These peoples represent the most advanced developments and realisations in the conquest of the spirit and the mastery of the external being. But Sarpedon is dead, which indicates, in all the above domains, the end of the support they gave to the yoga that separates spirit from matter.
These very advanced yogas and realisations, although they developed around the Trojan realisation, i.e. a very great mastery of the external being realised by the spirit which imposes itself from above, are nonetheless independent of this realisation and did not support it in its entirety (Men ingrate who enjoyed the protection and loathed the protector). With Sarpedon’s death, they ceased to support what was imposed from above and separated them.
This is why Laocoon, symbolising the desire for total commitment, accuses them of fickleness (soon-wearied peoples).
But the fact that Asia is so much deserted is more than compensated for by the arrival of Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons (Heaven has sent us replacing a continent Penthesilea! Low has the heart of Achaia sunk since it shook at her war-cry).
Her name means “she who is free from the suffering caused by mourning,” in other words, by separation. This is the psychological suffering that Buddhism addresses. The Amazons live at the mouth of the river Thermodon, the maximum “fire of union.” They are mentioned in the Iliad as Antianeirai, meaning “non-attachment.” They are, therefore, the symbol of the liberation of the spirit, as defined by Sri Aurobindo, and of the union with the divine in the spirit through perfect detachment and renunciation.
She is a realisation of the overmind because she is the daughter of Ares.[22] As the daughter of this god, she embodies a radical purification of what is no longer good for evolution, of everything that binds and limits, but within the framework of the yoga that imposes its law on external nature through a superior will in the mind. So it is not about transformation, and that is why Penthesilea must die at the hands of Achilles, who purifies and transforms the vital in depth.
It is probably not only a question of psychological suffering, but also of physical suffering, which can be avoided by certain practices, particularly by mastering trance.
In Mother’s Agenda, the death of Penthesilea appears several times when the Mother says that this ability to abstract herself from suffering has been taken away from her, as can be seen in this dialogue with Satprem:
- “Satprem: My difficulty is that I am very absorbed by this body. It absorbs me, it absorbs a lot of my consciousness. The physical mind, for instance, invades me completely.
- Yes, I know very well! But that’s always the difficulty, it’s everyone’s difficulty. That’s why in the past you were told: ‘Get away from it all! Let it puddle about peacefully – get away from it all’. But we don’t have the right to do that, it’s contrary to our work. And… you know, I had reached an almost absolute freedom with regard to my body, to such a point that I was able not to feel anything at all; but now I am not even allowed to exteriorize, can you imagine! Even when I am in some pain or when things are rather difficult, or even when I have some quiet (at night, that is) and I say to myself: ‘Oh! to go into my beatitudes…’, I am not allowed to. I am tied like this (Mother touches her body). It’s HERE, here, right here, that you must realize.”[23]
Penthesilea has already caused the death of two great Achaean heroes, the Greater Ajax and Merion.
Mythology knows of two Ajaxes, the Lesser Ajax and the Greater Ajax. Their names, formed with the letters ΑΙ, indicate the lower or outer mental consciousness and the higher mental consciousness.
Ajax the Lesser, the son of Oileus, comes from Locris.
In the oldest tradition dating back to Pherecydes who was active in the fifth century BC, the Greater Ajax is the son of Actaeus, “the opening of the consciousness towards the heights,” and Glauce, “brilliant.”
According to Apollodorus, he was the son of Telamon, king of Salamis – the island off the coast of Athens – and therefore the brother of Peleus. He was a friend of Achilles. Hence, he represents a very broad mental consciousness, no doubt even a universalisation of the mind, anxious to turn towards the purification of the depths (Diagram 25).
He is considered the greatest in strength and courage after Achilles, which means that this expanded consciousness in the heights is second only to the yoga of the depths as a power of realisation.
These verses from Ilion refer to the Greater Ajax, son of Telamon because the Lesser Ajax will only die after the fall of Troy (Ajax has bit at the dust; it is all he shall have of the Troad).
In the Iliad, Homer never mentions Ajax’s death. When he was chosen by fate to face Hector, the two combatants proved to be of equal strength: the highest and vastest mental consciousness (Ajax) that supports the need to purify the depths is as powerful as the consciousness that opens up to the heights of the mind in the mind/matter separation (Hector).
In the Odyssey, Ajax is one of those whom Odysseus sees in the underworld and who tells him about Achilles’ weapons. He was therefore dead at the time.
According to tradition, if we are to believe what has been said about Lesches’ Little Iliad, Ajax committed suicide when the weapons of Achilles were returned to Odysseus. The weapons of Achilles represent the practices developed by yoga to purify/liberate the vital, i.e. up to the moment when the vital finally agrees to collaborate with yoga. These practices must be continued by the yoga that aims at the unity of spirit and matter through the free circulation of energies rather than through further development of the conquest of the spirit, which is no longer necessary, at least during the evolutionary phase that is beginning.
Sri Aurobindo follows a different line, of which we have found no trace in mythology: it is the Amazon Penthesilea that kills Ajax. It is the liberation of the mind – and the union with the divine in the mind – acquired through perfect detachment and renunciation, which puts an end to the need for powerful mental consciousness in the new yoga.
The other Achaean hero killed by Penthesilea is Merion or Meriones (Tall Meriones lies and measures his portion of booty). Although little is known of him, his name is often mentioned in the Iliad. He had accompanied his uncle Idomeneus, “he who desires union,” to Troy as his valiant squire (“squire” is the translation of the word therapon, θεραπων, which refers to a man of noble birth who serves freely). He was an archer, a son of Molus, “war, battle” (Iliad, Book XIII, line 231), himself the illegitimate son of Deucalion, “he who calls for union,” the latter being the son of Minos, “the evolution of discerning intelligence” (Diagram 23). Molus was therefore a half-brother of Idomeneus.
The name Meriones can be traced back to the word “thigh” and would therefore be a symbol of growing strength, probably in the vital area if we take into account the fact that his mother was Euippe, “great (vital) force.”
It is the symbol of tension geared towards discernment. He is said to be one of the most valiant fighters in the Achaean camp, the part of the consciousness that best discerns the right evolutionary direction. Homer calls him a peer of the murderer Ares: this discerning part is, indeed, best able to eliminate what is no longer good for evolution.
Merion came from Lyktos, a town on Crete, the name made of the word Lykos meaning “the light that precedes dawn” and an inserted Tau (Τ), the symbol of a light emerging in the spirit and well-balanced.
His death could indicate that discernment alone is insufficient to counteract the experiences in the heights of the spirit that want to perpetuate themselves.
The ability to see expresses the fact that all the old yogas, whether or not they were part of the inner conflict, rejoice in evoking this powerful realisation, the end of psychological suffering through the union with the divine in the spirit, realised by perfect detachment (Who is the fighter in Ilion thrills not rejoicing to hearken even her name on unwarlike lips, much more in the mellay shout of the daughter of battles, armipotent[24] Penthesilea?).
Moreover, this visionary ability affirms that these great yogas – represented by Deiphobus, Paris, Aeneas, and Penthesilea – are supported by many other movements of the old yogas. These are turned with ardour towards ever greater mastery, whether they might be according to the truth like Troilus, “the movement of liberation by the right movement towards the heights of the spirit,” or like the divine Hector, to the greatest opening towards the heights of the spirit (If there were none but these only, if hosts came not surging behind them, young men burning-eyed to outdare all the deeds of their elders, each in his beauty a Troilus, each in his valour a Hector).
But even if they did not have this support, the major realisations of the old yogas that are still active would counterbalance the forces that aspire to overtake them (Yet were the measures poised in the equal balance of Ares). That which judges what is to be decided would not favour the new yoga more than the old.
Who then compels you, O people unconquered, to sink down abjuring
All that was Troy? For O, if she yield, let her use not ever
One of her titles! shame not the shades of Teucer and Ilus,
Soil not Tros! Are you awed by the strength of the swift-foot Achilles?
Is it a sweeter lure in the cadenced voice of Antenor?
Or are you weary of Time and the endless roar of the battle?
Wearier still are the Greeks! their eyes look out o’er the waters
Nor with the flight of their spears is the wing of their hopes towards Troya.
Dull are their hearts; they sink from the war-cry and turn from the
spear-stroke
Sullenly dragging backwards, desiring the paths of the Ocean, 140
Dreaming of hearths that are far and the children growing to manhood
Who are small infant faces still in the thoughts of their fathers.
This darkened vision continues its plea. It wonders what could force the old yogas to give in to the new aspiration, losing all that made them great in the process. If they are to disappear, it demands that no adventurer should ever again lay claim to these past realisations (Who then compels you, O people unconquered, to sink down abjuring all that was Troy? For O, if she yield, let her use not ever one of her titles!).
It urges us to honour the memory of these spiritual conquests (Shame not the shades of Teucer and Ilus, Soil not Tros!):
- Teucer, “the broadening of the spirit,” the ancient king of Phrygia, who had a burning desire to unite with the Divine in spirit and realised mental silence.
- Ilus, “the liberation of the spirit,” the founder of Ilion (Troy), the symbol of the realisation of the Self (or Ego) in which individuality is extinguished in the impersonal divine.
- Tros, “the just movement to conquer the spirit,” the father of three perfect sons, three spiritual conquests, Ilus, “the liberation” of the spirit, Assaracus, “equality,” and Ganymede, “he who dwells in joy.”
This vision, however, sees clearly that the mental being is impressed by the work of purification and transformation in the depths, which is done rapidly (“swift-foot” means “quick foot” and not “light foot”), without stopping (Are you awed by the strength of the swift-foot Achilles?). It also sees that a certain rhythm in the expression of the old wisdom that has realised mastery over the outer being but has not yet overcome the ego that remains in the sage and saint, still has a powerful appeal (Is it a sweeter lure in the cadenced voice of Antenor?). This rhythm is probably the ability to be in tune with the right movement at the right time, or the perception of the exact time an action should take place. This perception of rhythm begins to manifest itself in the higher mind.
This vision also sees that perhaps some parts of the being are tired of going on and on in this uncertainty of which path to follow, although patience and endurance are two indispensable qualities in yoga (Or are you weary of Time and the endless roar of the battle?). But this vision asserts that this weariness is shared as much by the old yogas that worked towards liberation of the spirit as by the parts of the being gathering around the aspiration to greater freedom, that which liberates man from the laws of Nature (Wearier still are the Greeks!).
To understand Laocoon’s statement and the lines that follow, we need to remember that the Achaean coalition led by Agamemnon has to fight in the Troad, on the other side of the Aegean Sea, and that this is therefore an inner conflict in the heights of the spirit.
But Agamemnon’s lineage, on the other hand, represents the beginning of a descent into the depths of the vital. His line’s ancestor, Tantalus, was close with the gods and originally lived in Lydia, on Mount Sipylus. He therefore represents the adventurer who reached the level of the overmind, the limit of the human mental spirit (Sipylus is the symbol of the gateway to human consciousness). This adventurer imagined that his yoga was over and that it was the forces of the overmind that had to deal with the shadow – the lower, unpurified planes – because at that time he believed that these lower planes could not be transformed. This is illustrated by the episode of Tantalus’ son Pelops being cut up and served to the gods at a banquet.
But the gods did not see it that way and took steps to resurrect Pelops. They put an ivory shoulder on him, the symbol of a half-realised union with the divine, the union in spirit. Pelops stayed in Lydia for a while but was driven out by Ilus and moved to the other side of the Aegean Sea to the region that would henceforth bear his name, the Peloponnese.
It was a return to the West, to the roots of life, to a yoga of purification of deep memories. It was there that he fought to obtain Hippodamia’s “vital mastery,” i.e. the adventurer begins to master his vital with a view to its future transformation. It would seem that this work is no longer done from the illumined mind but from the higher mind because Hippodamia’s mother is Sterope. So, evolution takes steps backwards to ensure that nothing is left unpurified.
The Achaean coalition, however numerous it may be, grouped behind the aspiration, is therefore not prepared to fight on equal terms with what operates in the heights of the spirit. This is why it is not until the intervention of Achilles and the Myrmidons, i.e. the beginning of yoga in the depths of the vital, that victory is won.
We should note that Sri Aurobindo uses the word “Greeks” to designate this Achaean coalition, although this word was first used by Aristotle (384-322 BC). Before that, it referred to the Aeolians, Dorians, Achaeans, or Ionians, as the case may be.
The adventurer experiences a certain weariness when he realises that his aspiration is not enough to convince the spirit-oriented yogas (Their eyes look out o’er the waters nor with the flight of their spears is the wing of their hopes towards Troya. Dull are their hearts).
This vision asserts that this yoga, which is more focused on everyday life, is tired of this sterile inner conflict and aspires to a return to the well-trodden paths of purification-liberation of the outer nature that have been left behind (They sink from the war-cry and turn from the spear-stroke sullenly dragging backwards, desiring the paths of the Ocean). Actually, the word Ocean/Oceanus refers to the Titan who opens this way and not to the sea, which has other names in ancient Greek, such as Thalassa.
During this inner conflict, the adventurer had to set aside a number of aspirations (inner flames) and new practices that were beginning to bear fruit and whose waking consciousness only retained a memory of their beginnings as they developed in the background (Dreaming of hearths that are far and the children growing to manhood who are small infant faces still in the thoughts of their fathers).
Therefore these call you to yield lest they wake and behold in the dawn-light
All Poseidon whitening lean to the west in his waters
Thick with the sails of the Greeks departing beaten to Hellas.
Who is it calls? Antenor the statesman, Antenor the patriot,
Thus who loves his country and worships the soil of his fathers!
Which of you loves like him Troya? which of the children of heroes
Yearns for the touch of a yoke on his neck and desires the aggressor?
If there be any so made by the gods in the nation of Ilus, 150
Leaving this city which freemen have founded, freemen have dwelt in,
Far on the beach let him make his couch in the tents of Achilles,
Not in this mighty Ilion, not with this lioness fighting,
Guarding the lair of her young and roaring back at her hunters.
The ability for darkened vision continues to express itself by saying that the parts of the adventurer that encourage him to give in, like Antenor, fear victory ([…] his waters thick with the sails of the Greeks departing beaten to Hellas).
This fear of Trojan victory stems from the spiritualised higher mind’s attachment to past realisations (Who is it calls? Antenor the statesman, Antenor the patriot, thus who loves his country and worships the soil of his fathers!). This distorted vision claims that no element of the hard-won freedom in spirit and its realisations can agree to submit to another yoga. This freedom in the spirit should defend itself against anything threatening its integrity and realisations ([…] this mighty Ilion, […] this lioness fighting, guarding the lair of her young and roaring back at her hunters).
We who are souls descended from Ilus and seeds of his making,
Other-hearted shall march from our gates to answer Achilles.
What! shall this ancient Ilion welcome the day of the conquered?
She who was head of the world, shall she live in the guard of the Hellene
Cherished as slavegirls are, who are taken in war, by their captors?
Europe shall walk in our streets with the pride and the gait of the victor? 160
Greeks shall enter our homes and prey on our mothers and daughters?
This Antenor desires and this Ucalegon favours.
Traitors! whether ’tis cowardice drives or the sceptic of virtue,
Cold-blooded age, or gold insatiably tempts from its coffers
Pleading for safety from foreign hands and the sack and the plunder.
Leave them, my brothers! spare the baffled hypocrites! Failure
Sharpest shall torture their hearts when they know that still you are Trojans.
In the first four lines of this passage, the first liberation, that in the spirit, symbolised by Ilus and his descendants, is related to the yoga that aspires to a greater liberation, embodied by the Hellenes (We who are souls descended from Ilus […], shall this ancient Ilion welcome the day of the conquered? She who was head of the world, shall she live in the guard of the Hellene).
If the adventurer accepts this new direction, the magnificent realisations of yoga in the mind would then be cherished as slavegirls are, who are taken in war, by their captors, i.e. regarded with a mixture of attraction for their novelty but serving the purposes of another yoga.
Will a “wider vision” (Europe) have to impose itself on the structures of the old yoga? (Europe shall walk in our streets with the pride and the gait of the victor?) And will the new yoga that rightly impels an opening of consciousness (the Greeks, ΓΡ+ΙΚ) appropriate the old realisations and even the more recent conquests of yoga in the mind? (Greeks shall enter our homes and prey on our mothers and daughters?) Is this not what the higher mind desires, what “that which cares not to master its nature” approves of? (This Antenor desires and this Ucalegon favours)
The fate-darkened intuition-vision is wondering if there is still some fear left in some remote corner of this old wisdom represented by Antenor (Traitors! whether ’tis cowardice drives), if this wisdom doubts that sanctity is not the ultimate realisation for a man (or the sceptic of virtue) if it has lost its sensitivity and ardour over time (Cold-blooded age), or if it fears that the powers (siddhis) to which it is extremely attached will be lost (or gold insatiably tempts from its coffers pleading for safety from foreign hands). It, therefore, advises to turn away from these fears (Leave them, my brothers!). It assures us that this part of the adventurer will repent when it realises its error (Failure sharpest shall torture their hearts when they know that still you are Trojans).
Silence, O reason of man! for a voice from the gods has been uttered!
Dardanans, hearken the sound divine that comes to you mounting
Out of the solemn ravines from the mystic seat on the tripod! 170
Phoebus, the master of Truth, has promised the earth to our peoples.
Children of Zeus, rejoice! for the Olympian brows have nodded
Regal over the world. In earth’s rhythm of shadow and sunlight
Storm is the dance of the locks of the God assenting to greatness,
Zeus who with secret compulsion orders the ways of our nature;
Veiled in events he lives and working disguised in the mortal
Builds our strength by pain, and an empire is born out of ruins.
Then if the tempest be loud and the thunderbolt leaping incessant
Shatters the roof, if the lintels flame at last and each cornice
Shrieks with the pain of the blast, if the very pillars totter, 180
Keep yet your faith in Zeus, hold fast to the word of Apollo.
This ability for vision, unaware that it is “darkened,” seeks to impose silence on reason, which is not a good tool for approaching the Truth, even though it can itself normally grasp truths from the overmind (Silence, O reason of man! for a voice from the gods has been uttered!). Sri Aurobindo spoke extensively of reason as a useful tool for organising knowledge and giving it a certain precision, but which, progressing by trial and error, can never grasp the Truth.
This aptitude then addresses the Trojans as if speaking to the founder of the lineage, Dardanos, “the evolution towards union and subsequent reversal of the movement,” (a word based on the pattern: X+RX). This name could indicate a just adaptation to the movement of becoming which evolves through alternating phases of approaching and distancing from the Divine (Δ+ΡΔ+Ν) (Dardanans, hearken the sound divine that comes to you mounting out of the solemn ravines from the mystic seat on the tripod!).
In ancient Greece, people could go to Delphi to consult Apollo’s oracle when they wanted the god’s help with a particular problem. As we saw in Volume I, the consulter put his question to an officiant, the “Pythia,” Apollo’s prophetess, who sat on a three-legged seat, the tripod. The ancients never explained the symbolism of this tripod. We suppose it indicated that the oracle came from a plane above the “triple world of ignorance: mental, vital and body.” Sri Aurobindo mentions this tripod several times in Savitri: [25]
The inspiring goddess entered a mortal’s breast,
Made there her study of divining thought
And sanctuary of prophetic speech
And sat upon the tripod seat of mind:
Sitting on this tripod could indicate access to the modalities for receiving higher truths that characterised Apollo’s oracle in its early days before it became obscured over the centuries. These modalities are mentioned by Sri Aurobindo in his Record of Yoga: Drishti: revelation, Sruti: inspiration, and Smriti, which includes intuition and Viveka, intuitive discernment.
These four powers, grouped here into three, are mentioned in The Life Divine as the fourfold power of the intuitive mind or Intuition, the plane that precedes the overmind.
“A power of revelatory truth-seeing, a power of inspiration or truth-hearing, a power of truth-touch or immediate seizing of significance, which is akin to the ordinary nature of its intervention in our mental intelligence, a power of true and automatic discrimination of the orderly and exact relation of truth to truth…”[26]
We have already mentioned that intuitive and prophetic abilities gradually disappeared under the effect of the cycles of the mind.[27]
Then this ability for vision recalls a promise from Apollo, a vision given to her by the god of intermediate light: the world will be dominated by the new yogas in spirit (Phoebus, the master of Truth, has promised the earth to our peoples). If we consider that this was a true intuition from the earlier period of yoga, not “darkened” like the one represented by Laocoon, we can take it as accurate insofar as we consider the future Troy, the city of Love that will be built by the descendants of Aeneas, once the Truth has been established in humanity and in the body. Phoebus, “the luminous one,” is another name for Apollo. Sri Aurobindo calls him “the master of Truth” insofar as the Apollonian light comes from the Mind of Light, the first expression of the supramental at the frontier with the world of duality.
Recalling that the Trojan line is descended from Zeus and Electra, the latter being the symbol of the illumined mind, this vision reminds us that the forces of the overmind manifested their agreement to this promise: the adventurer of consciousness clearly perceived at that moment that this was the promise that humanity would one day be governed by Truth, the Truth which the powers of the overmind recognise as being superior to them (Children of Zeus, rejoice! for the Olympian brows have nodded regal over the world).
However, it was never promised that the way to this goal would be easy and strewn with roses.
First of all, humanity has to accept the cycles that nature imposes on it (In earth’s rhythm of shadow and sunlight). These are not just the diurnal cycle, the cycle of the seasons, or the innumerable biological cycles, but also the cycles of the mind, which we have already mentioned.
Secondly, it is through suffering that the forces of the overmind act, assuming a position of superiority in relation to humanity (Storm is the dance of the locks of the God assenting to greatness, Zeus…). They obey a higher law to advance humanity because that is their mission, unsuspected by man ([…] Zeus who with secret compulsion orders the ways of our nature). The Divine, through its instruments – the gods – acts secretly from behind the veil (Veiled in events he lives and working disguised in the mortal). It works “disguised,” because there is no chance: everything contributes to evolution, vice as well as virtue, good as well as evil, accidents as well as illnesses.
Suffering was Nature’s way of making man emerge from the animal condition. If suffering did not exist, there would be no possibility of human evolution. But through it, our inner strength increases, and from the ruins of a devastated ego and its desires emerges the splendour of inner strength and a powerful mastery of outer nature (Builds our strength by pain, and an empire is born out of ruins).
Also, when the adventurer of consciousness feels battered by life, receiving blow after blow, when his spiritual certainties are destroyed (Then if the tempest be loud and the thunderbolt leaping incessant shatters the roof), when the elements that ensure the cohesion of the personality catch fire under the effect of a prolonged purification effort (if the lintels flame at last), when that which holds the openings to external life together is shaken (and each cornice shrieks with the pain of the blast), and even the essential supports of the personality falter (if the very pillars totter), the adventurer must keep faith in the Divine, and the promise made to him internally (Keep yet your faith in Zeus, hold fast to the word of Apollo).
Not by a little pain and not by a temperate labour
Trained is the nation chosen by Zeus for a dateless dominion.
Long must it labour rolled in the foam of the fathomless surges,
Often neighbour with death and ere Ares grow firm to its banners
Feel on the pride of its Capitol tread of the triumphing victor,
Hear the barbarian knock at its gates or the neighbouring foeman
Glad of the transient smile of his fortune suffer insulting; —
They, the nation eternal, brook their taunts who must perish!
Heaviest toils they must bear; they must wrestle with Fate and her Titans, 90
Sri Aurobindo is probably insisting here on the error of the yogas – or at least their inadequacy for the present evolutionary phase – which emphasise personal will instead of submission to the divine Mother, to the divine Shakti. The Mother’s words on this surrender have been compiled in the volume titled The Sunlit Path.
Be that as it may, it seems clear that the adventurers of consciousness who open up new paths for humanity must work tirelessly and endure multiple and profound sufferings because of their interdependence with the rest of humanity.
However, this ability for vision affirms that the form of spirituality constructed by the old yogas is the only valid one and must dominate all other forms from the moment that is not yet known (Not by a little pain and not by a temperate labour trained is the nation chosen by Zeus for a dateless dominion). This will prove true if we consider only the essence or goal of the Trojan path, Love, and not its outward forms.
In all cases, the adventurer must toil for a long time, rolled as if in a washing machine by what is expressed on the surface of the great deep movements of consciousness and energy whose meaning he cannot grasp (Long must it labour rolled in the foam of the fathomless surges).
He often has to face death, often as soon as he embarks on the path, to detach himself from all fear and acquire absolute trust in the Divine (Often neighbour with death).
To understand the next line, let us recall that at the start of the Trojan War, Ares seemed indifferent to its outcome. Then he made a promise to the goddesses Hera and Athena to support the Achaean side but soon broke it by siding with his lover Aphrodite.
Ares is both the force that “cuts” and the force that “holds” when the time is not yet ripe. This is why, even though he promises to support the right evolutionary movement – the Achaean camp – he begins by siding with the Trojans, that of his lover Aphrodite, and initially supports the side of those who separate spirit from matter. Wounded by Diomedes in the final days of the war, he had to withdraw from the battle, allowing the final reversal to take place.
Laocoon predicted that Ares would finally come under the Trojan banner at some indeterminate time (ere Ares grow firm to its banners).
However, the Mother announced that with the coming of the supramental, the destruction of forms would no longer be necessary for evolution, as they would have become flexible enough to adapt.
In anticipation of these future times, Laocoon announces that the old yoga must undergo many trials.
The symbol of ancient spirituality was thus replaced by another spiritual direction (Feel on the pride of its Capitol tread of the triumphing victor). The Capitoline Hill is one of Rome’s naturally fortified hills, on which a temple dedicated to Jupiter (Zeus) was built around the middle of the 6th century BC. This name was later given to the religious centre of every Roman city.
The old spiritual orientation – represented by Trojan realisation – sees the new as less elaborate, developing in the lower levels of the being, and therefore “barbaric” (Hear the barbarian knock at its gates).
For a time, it will be scorned by a spirituality that rejoices in a success, due to chance, that will be ephemeral (or the neighbouring foeman glad of the transient smile of his fortune suffer insulting; — they, the nation eternal, brook their taunts who must perish!).
However, this seems even truer of the new yoga that descends into the body. The Mother says the following on this subject:
“Because this is always there, too: the possibility of escaping by going elsewhere. Lots of people did that in fact: they went off elsewhere, into another, more or less subtle world. Of course, there are millions of ways to escape – there is only one way to stay, and that’s to truly have courage and endurance, to accept all the appearance of infirmity, the appearance of powerlessness, the appearance of incomprehension, the appearance, yes, of a negation of the Truth. But if one doesn’t accept all that, nothing will ever be changed! Those who want to remain great, luminous, strong, powerful and what have you, well, let them stay up there, they can do nothing for the earth.
And it’s a very small thing (a very small thing because the consciousness is sufficient not to be affected in the least), but the incomprehension is so general and total! In other words, you receive abuse, expressions of contempt and all the rest, precisely because of what you do, because according to them (all the ‘great intelligences’ of the earth), you have renounced your divinity.”[28]
This old spirituality will have to develop extreme spiritual practices, and fight against destiny and the titanic forces that direct it (Heaviest toils they must bear; they must wrestle with Fate and her Titans).
And when some leader returns from the battle sole of his thousands
Crushed by the hammers of God, yet never despair of their country.
Dread not the ruin, fear not the storm-blast, yield not, O Trojans.
Zeus shall rebuild. Death ends not our days, the fire shall not triumph.
Death? I have faced it. Fire? I have watched it climb in my vision
Over the timeless domes and over the rooftops of Priam;
But I have looked beyond and have seen the smile of Apollo.
After her glorious centuries, after her world-wide triumphs,
If near her ramparts outnumbered she fights, by the nations forsaken,
Lonely again on her hill, by her streams, and her meadows and beaches, 200
Once where she revelled, shake to the tramp of her countless invaders,
Testings are these from the god. For Fate severe like a mother
Teaches our wills by disaster and strikes down the props that would weaken,
Fate and the Thought on high that is wiser than yearnings of mortals.
Troy has arisen before, but from ashes, not shame, not surrender!
Through the mouth of Laocoon, Sri Aurobindo continues to warn us of the difficulties of yoga and to enumerate qualities such as courage, faith, and endurance, which must be developed by any seeker of truth and all the more so by the adventurer of consciousness, whatever the path he has chosen.
All the modalities of yoga may at some point prove useless for the adventurer’s evolution, and all his supports may be destroyed, but he must not forget his goal even for a single moment (And when some leader returns from the battle sole of his thousands crushed by the hammers of God, yet never despair of their country). And above all, he must never give up (Yield not, O Trojans).
Everything can be destroyed, everything can be forgotten because, in the end, Knowledge, experiences, and realisations acquired by humanity cannot be lost; they can only recede into the background. This is what is expressed by the promise: “Zeus shall rebuild.” At the individual level, the same is true from life to life. In a new incarnation, the psychic development acquired in past lives returns to the surface, even if the seeker has to relive a certain number of trials and experiences at an accelerated pace (Death ends not our days).
A radical purification of the “structures” or “moulds” of the old yogas may take place, including that of the structures tending towards the spirit (Fire? I have watched it climb in my vision over the timeless domes and over the rooftops of Priam), but this will not be the end of the spiritual movement in the quest for Love. For the adventurer “saw” behind their destruction an expression of the Mind of Light that somehow approved it (But I have looked beyond and have seen the smile of Apollo). It is quite likely that it is not the vision of Apollo’s smile that is “darkened” but what the adventurer infers from it. He does not imagine that it is something else that must be reborn and not the spirituality in the current forms of old yoga.
The adventurer must even confront the possibility of the disappearance of his ability for intuitive vision (Death? I have faced it).
If, after having contributed to so many realisations and for such a long time (After her glorious centuries, after her world-wide triumphs), the old spirituality is attacked in its ultimate foundations and defences, the very ones that the gods helped to build (If near her ramparts outnumbered she fights), reduced to its simplest expression (by the nations forsaken), and if what was once easy and joyful is now under attack from a different conception of evolution (By her streams, and her meadows and beaches, once where she revelled, shake to the tramp of her countless invaders), this must be endured because these are the trials imposed by the Divine (Testings are these from the god).
For the adventurer, in a certain part of himself, knows that spiritual forces, Nature, and hostile forces, all grouped under the names of Fate and divine Thought (Thought on high), are the artisans of spiritual progress, and never cease, for those who are truly committed to the path, to take away all their support. Lean on nothing but the Divine, that is the lesson to be learned (For Fate severe like a mother Teaches our wills by disaster and strikes down the props that would weaken, Fate and the Thought on high that is wiser than yearnings of mortals).
But while it envisages the destruction of the old forms of spirituality, this intuition-vision also believes in their re-establishment, and therein undoubtedly lies its “darkened” perception of Apollonian truths (Troy has arisen before, but from ashes, not shame, not surrender!). It is, therefore, a total intransigence and a refusal to consider any other point of view that is expressed by this part of the being, the part that believes it holds the absolute truth that comes from divine light.
If this speech by Laocoon seems to be an expression of truth, there is another way of looking at it. A great discernment is needed when considering the trials endured along the way. It is sometimes easy to think that they are there simply to strengthen us on the path we have chosen, without seeing that the evolutionary path requires us to question ourselves. This can be the case when we accept a state of continual suffering to avoid making the decisions that need to be made. It is a suffering that we can justify by telling ourselves that it is pleasing to the Divine or indispensable to the path towards wisdom or sanctity. This is the whole problem of suffering, which is necessary for evolution but in which man, and even more so the seeker, must never indulge.
And as Satprem says, “The ego is narrowness, a mask, suffering. Our glorious strength is veiled by a mask. And the greatest courage is to abandon our suffering narrowness.”[29]
No doubt, this attitude is the result of fear of change and attachment to lower pleasures and emotions. As Sri Aurobindo says in A God’s Labour:
“For man’s mind is the dupe of his animal self;
Hoping its lusts to win,
He harbours within him a grisly Elf
Enamoured of sorrow and sin.
The grey Elf shudders from heaven’s flame
And from all things glad and pure;
Only by pleasure and passion and pain
His drama can endure.”
Souls that are true to themselves are immortal; the soulless for ever
Lingers helpless in Hades a shade among shades disappointed.
Now is the god in my bosom mighty compelling me, Trojans,
Now I release what my spirit has kept and it saw in its vision;
Nor will be silent for gibe of the cynic or sneer of the traitor. 210
Troy shall triumph! Hear, O ye peoples, the word of Apollo.
Hear it and tremble, O Greece, in thy youth and the dawn of thy future;
Rather forget while thou canst, but the gods in their hour shall remind thee.
Tremble, O nations of Asia, false to the greatness within you.
Troy shall surge back on your realms with the sword and the yoke of the victor.
It is through faithfulness to the greatness of the goal that the seeker has set for himself – in this case, the quest for union with the Divine in the spirit and the mastery of the outer being through the power of the spirit – that he attains the experience of immortality. That which has no soul, no goal, is doomed to “linger” in the unconscious (lingers), to remain behind in the evolutionary process, powerless (Souls that are true to themselves are immortal; the soulless for ever lingers helpless in Hades). For the unconscious is the place where all experiences are recorded.
This visionary part of the seeker cannot help proclaiming its vision to the various movements of old yoga, the certainty that it will endure in its present forms beyond a passing crisis, the certainty that it believes it possesses from the force that watches over the development of the Mind of Light (Now is the god in my bosom mighty compelling me […] Troy shall triumph! Hear, O ye peoples, the word of Apollo). And nothing can prevent this vision from expressing itself powerfully in the adventurer (Nor will be silent for gibe of the cynic or sneer of the traitor).
This vision has nonetheless come into contact with a certain evolutionary truth and has “seen” that what is now trying to impose itself on the spiritual quest – embodied here by “Greece”, a just impulse to broaden consciousness – is destined to develop over many centuries. However, it warns this movement that it is not eternal and that, in the words of Apollo, the right movement towards the spirit will one day triumph (Hear it and tremble, O Greece, in thy youth and the dawn of thy future). The humanity to come is even encouraged to forget the promise made by the Mind of Light, namely that this new evolutionary orientation is only temporary and that it will come to an end when the forces of the spirit decide so (Rather forget while thou canst, but the gods in their hour shall remind thee).
This warning is intended not only for what this part of the being considers barbaric, i.e. that which has less mastery but a greater “need” for evolution and purity (Agamemnon at the head of the Argives) but also for the most advanced yogas in the mind (Asia). Until recently, these yogas had developed in the shadow of the old yogas and supported them. The parts of the being associated with these advanced yogas have gradually realised that change is inevitable and have disassociated themselves from the old forms. When the time comes, according to this intuition, the old yoga will take them back under its control (Tremble, O nations of Asia, false to the greatness within you. Troy shall surge back on your realms with the sword and the yoke of the victor).
These are the movements and structures we spoke of earlier, embodied in Lycia, “the land of emerging light,” Phrygia, “the land of inner fire,” Caria, “the land of intelligence and superior discernment,” Mysia, “the land of the highest initiations conferring power,” Lydia “the land of unity in diversity,” and Paphlagonia, “the land of that which tends to manifest itself”.
Troy shall triumph! Though nations conspire and gods lead her foemen,
Fate that is born of the spirit is greater than they and will shield her.
Foemen shall help her with war; her defeats shall be victory’s moulders.
Walls that restrain shall be rent; she shall rise out of sessions unsettled.
Oceans shall be her walls at the end and the desert her limit; 220
Indus shall send to her envoys; her eyes shall look northward from Thule.
She shall enring all the coasts with her strength like the kingly Poseidon,
She shall o’ervault all the lands with her rule like the limitless azure.”
To assert that “Troy will triumph” is to affirm, within the framework of evolution, the superiority of Spirit over Matter. The new orientation of yoga, on the other hand, is to ensure that it is through the discovery of the Divine in matter and its transformative action that evolution will continue, even if, within the framework of cycles, and if Greek mythology is to be believed, there may be a future Troy based on the evolution of love.
Sri Aurobindo tells us that Love can be incarnated in humanity only after the establishment of a world of Truth, by announcing a supramentalised humanity, which can be likened to the future Troy.[30]
There is, therefore, no reason to give credence to Virgil’s statement that Rome was the future Troy, in the sense of a humanity that has integrated the Truth, a Mind of Light: “Seed of the gods! who bringest to my shore thy Trojan city wrested from her foe, a stronghold everlasting…” (Aeneid, Book VIII, 36-37). On the other hand, Rome can be seen as a continuation of ancient Troy, insofar as Pergamon, the citadel of Troy, the symbol of “union above,” a union in the spirit, later became the capital of the Roman province of Asia.
Obstacles thrown up in the way of this “certainty,” whether they come from other spiritual structures or are supported by the forces of the overmind, cannot prevail, because the future born of the highest of the Spirit, beyond the world of the gods, will prevail (Though nations conspire and gods lead her foemen, Fate that is born of the spirit is greater than they and will shield her). And as is said in all the yogas, spiritual combat strengthens and defeats prepare one for greater victories (Foemen shall help her with war; her defeats shall be victory’s moulders).
The “fate-darkened” vision is even drawn into a grandiose vision of the future Troy. Limitations and rules that are too rigid will be destroyed to allow it to blossom (Walls that restrain shall be rent; she shall rise out of sessions unsettled). Finally, the unlimited will be its protection (Oceans shall be her walls at the end). Or, if we consider that Sri Aurobindo gave the word “oceans” the same meaning as we give to Oceanus, it will be the immensity of the currents of consciousness-energy that will be its protection. Finally, the non-existent will be the only limit of consciousness (and the desert her limit). This future spiritual structure will enable the adventurer to keep abreast of the greatest advances in the conquest of the Spirit and the evolution towards union with the Divine in the Spirit (Indus shall send to her envoys).
And when it comes to the most extreme spiritual practices for the mastery of the external being, already having reached unimagin-able heights, Troy will aim even higher, for an even greater mastery (her eyes shall look northward from Thule). Thule is, indeed, an island located at latitudes close to the Arctic Circle, mentioned by a Greek explorer at the end of the fourth century BC, corresponding to a real island according to some or an imaginary one according to others.
The future yoga (the future Troy) will establish powerful protection at the limits of its conscious structure in the same way that Poseidon surrounds the conscious – the lands – by the powerful subconscious – the seas (She shall enring all the coasts with her strength like the kingly Poseidon).
And just as heaven is the domain of Zeus – just as the highest supraconscious dominates the mind – Troy will likewise establish unfailing domination over all spiritual orientations and practices (She shall o’ervault all the lands with her rule like the limitless azure).
Ceasing from speech Laocoon, girt with the shouts of a nation,
Lapsed on his seat like one seized and abandoned and weakened; nor ended
Only in iron applause, but throughout with a stormy approval
Ares broke from the hearts of his people in ominous thunder.
Savage and dire was the sound like a wild beast’s tracked out and hunted,
Wounded, yet trusting to tear out the entrails live of its hunters,
Savage and cruel and threatening doom to the foe and opponent. 230
The “fate-darkened” intuition thus confirms its hold on the mind and heart, having developed its vision as far as it can of a victorious future Troy, the symbol of a powerful mastery exercised from above by the forces of the Spirit. But over time, this “darkened” intuition shows neither stability nor strength, rather an eruption of fleeting madness that ends in collapse (Ceasing from speech Laocoon, girt with the shouts of a nation, lapsed on his seat like one seized and abandoned and weakened).
However, it is sufficiently convincing to set the rest of the being ablaze so that it fights with all its might and without pity against that which aspires to dethrone the old yoga.
Yet when the shouting sank at last, Ucalegon rose up
Trembling with age and with wrath and in accents hurried and piping
Faltered a senile fierceness forth on the maddened assembly.
“Ah, it is even so far that you dare, O you children of Priam,
Favourites vile of a people sent mad by the gods, and thou risest,
Dark Laocoon, prating of heroes and spurning as cowards,
Smiting for traitors the aged and wise who were grey when they spawned thee!
Imp of destruction, mane of mischief! Ah, spur us with courage,
Thou who hast never prevailed against even the feeblest Achaian.
Rather twice hast thou raced in the rout to the ramparts for shelter, 240
Leading the panic, and shrieked as thou ranst to the foemen for mercy
Who were a mile behind thee, O matchless and wonderful racer.
Safely counsel to others the pride and the firmness of heroes.
Thou wilt not die in the battle! For even swiftest Achilles
Could not o’ertake thee, I ween, nor wind-footed Penthesilea.
Mask of a prophet, heart of a coward, tongue of a trickster,
Timeless Ilion thou alone ruinest, helped by the Furies.
I, Ucalegon, first will rend off the mask from thee, traitor.
For I believe thee suborned by the cynic wiles of Odysseus
And thou conspirest to sack this Troy with the greed of the Cretan.” 250
We have already seen that Ucalegon, one of the old senators, was in favour of accepting the Achaean proposal put forward by Achilles, for which reason he was considered, along with Antenor, a traitor.
His name means “one who does not care, who is indifferent.” Sri Aurobindo describes him as a senile old man, angry but courageous. His senility indicates that he is probably the symbol of one of the oldest yogas linked to the Trojan path. His unmastered anger indicates that this is a yoga that is not concerned with transforming outer nature, only with realisations in the heights of the Spirit (Trembling with age and with wrath and in accents hurried and piping faltered a senile fierceness forth on the maddened assembly).
This yoga does, however, require a certain amount of “courage,” which means the development of endurance and perseverance. And this old yoga accuses more recent yogas based on the abilities for intuitive vision of lacking this courage, even though they claim to be the best.
It therefore vilifies the arrogance of intuitive vision which seduces and drags in its wake many movements of the old yoga which are the plaything of the forces of the overmind (Favourites vile of a people sent mad by the gods). He therefore refuses to allow this new ability for vision to accuse the old wisdom of diverting spirituality from its right path through lack of courage (spurning as cowards, smiting for traitors the aged and wise who were grey when they spawned thee!).
He asserts that this vision-intuition cannot accurately perceive the validity of other yogas (Dark Laocoon, prating of heroes) and that it is far inferior in its results to those obtained by the least of the concentrations (Thou who hast never prevailed against even the feeblest Achaian). He also asserts that this vision, put to the test of facts, needed to refer to the old structures that were put in place to protect the old yoga at the time of its origins in the conquest of the spirit (Rather twice hast thou raced in the rout to the ramparts for shelter). In other words, this ability for vision is not independent, at this stage of development, of the old structures and practices.
Thus, this vision is uncertain and cannot be affirmed in the face of facts that contradict it (Leading the panic, and shrieked as thou ranst to the foemen for mercy who were a mile behind thee, O matchless and wonderful racer).
It would even manage to escape the confrontation with the yoga which works towards greater liberation and the yoga that has realised liberation from suffering through detachment (Thou wilt not die in the battle! For even swiftest Achilles could not o’ertake thee, I ween, nor wind-footed Penthesilea).
Finally, this wisdom affirms that this ability for vision is, in fact, nothing more than an illusion, a deceptive mask, based on nothing but lies (Mask of a prophet, heart of a coward, tongue of a trickster).
The Furies can be identified with the Erinyes of Greek mythology, the divine forces that put us back on the right path of evolution. This old wisdom also accuses the darkened vision associated with these forces of wiping out all the realisations of old spirituality (Timeless Ilion thou alone ruinest, helped by the Furies).
This extremely old yoga claims to be able to thwart the influence of this erroneous vision (I, Ucalegon, first will rend off the mask from thee, traitor). For it claims that this ability for vision is distorted by the work done to ensure the free flow of energy between spirit and matter (For I believe thee suborned by the cynic wiles of Odysseus). Let us remember that Odysseus descended through his mother from Autolycus, “who dwells in his own light,” and from Autolycus’ father, Hermes, the force that watches over human evolution directed towards the overmind. Hermes and Autolycus were gifted with the ability to change the appearance of things.
Finally, this indifference to the mastery of external nature accuses the darkened vision of wanting to destroy the foundations of old spirituality by associating itself with the impatience and imperious desire for results which manifested itself in the beginnings of yoga and which has not yet completely disappeared (And thou conspirest to sack this Troy with the greed of the Cretan).
Hasting unstayed he pursued like a brook that scolds amid pebbles,
Voicing angers shrill; for the people astonished were silent.
Long he pursued not; a shouting broke from that stupor of fury,
Men sprang pale to their feet and hurled out menaces lethal;
All that assembly swayed like a forest swept by the stormwind.
Obstinate, straining his age-dimmed eyes Ucalegon, trembling
Worse yet with anger, clamoured feebly back at the people,
Whelmed in their roar. Unheard was his voice like a swimmer in surges
Lost, yet he spoke. But the anger grew in the throats of the people
Lion-voiced, hurting the heart with sound and daunting the nature, 260
Till from some stalwart hand a javelin whistling and vibrant
Missing the silvered head of the senator rang disappointed
Out on the distant wall of a house by the side of the market.
Not even then would the old man hush or yield to the tempest.
Wagging his hoary beard and shifting his aged eyeballs,
Tossing his hands he stood; but Antenor seized him and Aetor,
Dragged him down on his seat though he strove, and chid him and silenced,
“Cease, O friend, for the gods have won. It were easier piping
High with thy aged treble to alter the rage of the Ocean
Than to o’erbear this people stirred by Laocoon. Leave now 270
Effort unhelpful, wrap thy days in a mantle of silence;
Give to the gods their will and dry-eyed wait for the ending.”
So now the old men ceased from their strife with the gods and with Troya;
Cowed by the storm of the people’s wrath they desisted from hoping.
First of all, there is a sense of astonishment in the being at such a manifestation of anger that the adventurer thought he had mastered. There are certain things that we think we have overcome which take refuge in the subconscient and then in the inconscient, and from there resurface when we expect it the least (Hasting unstayed he pursued like a brook that scolds amid pebbles, voicing angers shrill; for the people astonished were silent). Perhaps we can understand it in this way: as long as the spiritual transformation that follows the psychic transformation is not complete, equality can only be partial, and the movements of the deep vital being that have not been fully illuminated can resurface at any moment. But as soon as the being pulls itself together, the movements of mastery stemming from the mental will rise against this overflow (Long he pursued not; a shouting broke from that stupor of fury, men sprang pale to their feet and hurled out menaces lethal).
But this old yoga is in the grip of habit because it has been established for so long that it can no longer discern clearly. It is stubborn in its anger, in its vain opposition (Obstinate, straining his age-dimmed eyes Ucalegon, trembling worse yet with anger, clamoured feebly back at the people Whelmed in their roar).
The argument that one could have put forward, if one had really succeeded in establishing equality before all things, became inaudible (Unheard was his voice like a swimmer in surges lost, yet he spoke). But the other parts of consciousness linked to the old yoga, which had become aware of this lack of mastery, opposed its influence even more (But the anger grew in the throats of the people lion-voiced, hurting the heart with sound and daunting the nature).
The opposition even became violent as a result of its disappointment (disappointed), for it thought the mastery was more complete (Till from some stalwart hand a javelin whistling and vibrant missing the silvered head of the senator rang disappointed out on the distant wall of a house by the side of the market).
There are then two other movements linked to old spirituality that stop this expression in the being (but Antenor seized him and Aetor, dragged him down on his seat though he strove, and chid him and silenced). Firstly, the old sattvic wisdom that works to realise mastery of the outer being from the heights of the spirit, the spiritualised higher mind, represented by Antenor. The other movement is symbolised by Aetor, Antenor’s brother. This name does not exist in Greek mythology, and Sri Aurobindo gave no indication of how it should be spelled. Rather than formed from the adjective αητος, meaning impetuous, it is probably related to the eagle (αετος) and would then indicate the highest mind.
These two movements endorse the fact that it is futile to try to oppose the “vision” that has imposed itself on the mind. They agree to let the forces of the overmind decide evolution, without showing any regret (Cease, O friend, for the gods have won. […] give to the gods their will and dry-eyed wait for the ending).
This puts an end to the last-ditch attempt by the supporters of the old yogas to find a direction that would preserve the forms, practices, and realisations of the past, despite the opposition of the forces of the overmind (So now the old men ceased from their strife with the gods and with Troya; cowed by the storm of the people’s wrath they desisted from hoping).
But though the roar long swelled, like the sea when the winds have subsided,
One man yet rose up unafraid and beckoned for silence,
Not of the aged, but ripe in his look and ruddy of visage,
Stalwart and bluff and short-limbed, Halamus son of Antenor.
Forward he stood from the press and the people fell silent and listened,
For he was ever first in the mellay and loved by the fighters. 280
He with a smile began: “Come, friends, debate is soon ended
If there is right but of lungs and you argue with javelins. Wisdom
Rather pray for her aid in this dangerous hour of your fortunes.
Not to exalt Laocoon, too much praising his swiftness,
Trojans, I rise; for some are born brave with the spear in the war-car,
Others bold with the tongue, nor equal gifts unto all men
Zeus has decreed who guides his world in a round that is devious
Carried this way and that like a ship that is tossed on the waters.
Why should we rail then at one who is lame by the force of Cronion? 290
Not by his will is he lame; he would race, if he could, with the swiftest.
Yet is the halt man no runner, nor, friends, must you rise up and slay me,
If I should say of this priest, he is neither Sarpedon nor Hector.
What is then expressed in this panorama of inner struggles is a feature of old wisdom, embodied by Halamus, son of Antenor. This name does not exist in Greek mythology. Perhaps we can interpret it as “ardour, enthusiasm” if it derives from the verb αλλομαι (Aorist ηλαμεν), which means “to dash forth.” This would fit well with what Sri Aurobindo says about him: For he was ever first in the mellay. He would therefore be the symbol of ardour and maturity at the cutting edge of mental wisdom, expressed without any fear (One man yet rose up unafraid). Although it is not a yoga that has been established for a very long time, it is nevertheless a mental yoga that is well incarnated in contact with raw reality, demonstrating maturity, that is to say with good discernment and perfect lucidity about earthly things (Not of the aged, but ripe in his look and ruddy of visage stalwart and bluff and short-limbed). The son of Antenor, he undoubtedly represents the most perfect accomplishment of the Yoga of Knowledge associated with the Yoga of Works: “To arrive at the sattwic way of the inner individual Swadharma and of the works to which it moves us on the ways of life is a preliminary condition of perfection.”[31]
This expression refuses to give free rein to the arguments of vital or physical origin but advises you to rely solely on mental discernment (Come, friends, debate is soon ended if there is right but of lungs and you argue with javelins. Wisdom rather pray for her aid).
He begins by defending the fact that what is perceived by “vision” is difficult to justify. This is why he does not, ironically, want to praise Laocoon’s speed in battle (Not to exalt Laocoon, too much praising his swiftness, Trojans, I rise). Indeed, every tool in yoga has its qualities and faults. Some are good for advancing quickly and destroying obstacles, others for understanding and expressing ([…] for some are born brave with the spear in the war-car, others bold with the tongue).
Each part is guided by the divine forces according to its nature, with a view to the best possible evolution at each moment, and along a way full of detours that may seem illogical to the Cartesian mind. This guidance constantly destabilises our being, because nothing must be left behind. And each person’s gifts and abilities for advancing along the path of evolution are different. Creation is not organised with similarity in mind but based on diversity in unity ([…] nor equal gifts unto all men Zeus has decreed who guides his world in a round that is devious carried this way and that like a ship that is tossed on the waters).
In the same way, every tool used in yoga must fulfill its role, even if it does not meet all the conditions of perfection. If a tool gives imperfect results, the responsibility lies with the forces driving evolution and not with the tool itself.
There is no doubt an allusion here to the lame god, Hephaestus, who cannot yet create perfect forms in humanity with psychic fire, but only for the forces of the overmind and a few rare adventurers of consciousness. Lameness reflects the lack of balance between the action of two forces constituting supports. As with Laocoon, it relates to intuition expressing an imbalance between reason and intuition, a lack of discernment. If intuition is confused, the fault lies with the cosmic forces that obscure it (Why should we rail then at one who is lame by the force of Cronion? Not by his will is he lame). If this intuition could, it would assert itself against all other arguments (he would race, if he could, with the swiftest).
In the same way, as a particular expression of long-established wisdom, of “mature” but surely imperfect discernment, Halamus can claim that the “ability for vision” (Laocoon) is not as perfect and developed a feature of yoga as the powerful wisdom that fought illusions or the conquest of the heights of the mind (Yet is the halt man no runner, nor, friends, must you rise up and slay me, if I should say of this priest, he is neither Sarpedon nor Hector).
Then, if my father whom once you honoured, ancient Antenor,
Hugs to him Argive gold which I see not, his son in his mansion,
Me too accusest thou, prophet Laocoon? Friends, you have watched me
Sometimes fight. Did you see with my house’s allies how I gambolled,
Changed, when with sportive spear I was tickling the ribs of my Argives,
Nudges of friendly counsel inviting to entry in Troya?
Men, these are visions of lackbrains; men, these are myths of the market.
Let us have done with them, brothers and friends; hate only the Hellene. 300
This great sattvic discernment then proposes to put an end to two illusions still lingering in the adventurer’s consciousness (Men, these are visions of lackbrains; men, these are myths of the market).
First of all, the illusion that the results of development and purification in the mind have been preserved by this sattvic wisdom for its own benefit. In other words, the illusion that this purification of the mind would not have benefited the other activities of yoga in the spirit (Then, if my father whom once you honoured, ancient Antenor, hugs to him Argive gold which I see not, his son in his mansion).
Secondly, the illusion that this discernment is intimately related to that which aspires to overthrow the present forms of spirituality, in a way betraying the latter. For it is a mental discernment that stems from the highest conquests of the spirit, not an aspiration to greater freedom in the body, and not an aspiration to the divinisation of human nature, which presupposes a profound purification in the depths of the vital. Halamus still represents the discerning wisdom that does not believe the transformation of the lower layers of the being possible (Did you see with my house’s allies how I gambolled, changed, when with sportive spear I was tickling the ribs of my Argives, nudges of friendly counsel inviting to entry in Troya?).
This lucidity invites us to consider as enemies only those who seek greater freedom (Let us have done with them, brothers and friends; hate only the Hellene).
Prophet, I bow to the oracles. Wise are the gods in their silence,
Wise when they speak; but their speech is other than ours and their wisdom
Hard for a mortal mind to hold and not madden or wander;
But for myself I see only the truth as a soldier who battles
Judging the strength of his foes and the chances of iron encounter.
Few are our armies, many the Greeks, and we waste in the combat
Bound to our numbers, — they by the ocean hemmed from their kinsmen,
We by our fortunes, waves of the gods that are harder to master,
They like a rock that is chipped, but we like a mist that disperses.
Then if Achilles, bound by an oath, bring peace to us, healing, 310
Bring to us respite, help, though bought at a price, yet full-measured,
Strengths of the North at our side and safety assured from the Achaian,
For he is true though a Greek, will you shun this mighty advantage?
Peace at least we shall have, though gold we lose and much glory;
Peace we will use for our strength to breathe in, our wounds to recover,
Teaching Time to prepare for happier wars in the future.
This mental discernment does not deny that “visions” can provide elements of truth (Prophet, I bow to the oracles), but it is wary of how messages are interpreted and understood. The forces of the spirit can manifest themselves just as well without messages or signs as with them (Wise are the gods in their silence, wise when they speak), but what we understand of them is not necessarily what was expressed ([…] but their speech is other than ours). When seekers start to look at the symbolic meaning of events, they soon realise that signs can often be interpreted in two radically opposed ways. An obstacle on the path can either be seen as a direction in which one should not continue, or as a test that encourages one to continue in the same direction by overcoming the obstacle. Similarly, a pleasant event can be a trap set by hostile forces (On this subject, see what we said about the series of tests indicated in the Mother’s Agenda, Volume IV, 23 November 1963). It takes a great purification and surrender to receive exactly the indications given without falling into any trap of the ego, illusion, or desire. But what may then result in words or deeds can make you look crazy in the eyes of society. Or again, the force of what descends is too powerful for one’s vital and mental systems that are not yet ready, and the seeker risks more or less serious psychological or vital lapses (and their wisdom hard for a mortal mind to hold and not madden or wander).
This discerning practical intelligence evaluates the events and forces opposing each other in this inner conflict only in terms of their power in yoga and the present situation (But for myself I see only the truth as a soldier who battles judging the strength of his foes and the chances of iron encounter).
It notes that there are few practices that still adhere to the old yoga, unlike those that aspire to greater freedom (Few are our armies, many the Greeks). In this inner battle, these old yogas, practices, and qualities, because of their small numbers and the powers of the mind that wield or constrain them without their being able to oppose them, weigh less and less in the balance as far as evolutionary direction is concerned. Because of this lightness – which can also be associated with a lack of incarnation – and an illusion on the verge of disappearing, they are like a mist that disperses (and we waste in the combat bound to our numbers, […] we [hemmed] by our fortunes, waves of the gods that are harder to master).
The opposite movement, which fights for the liberation of the spirit, is very far removed from that which pursues the work of purification/liberation in everyday life. The same is true of the adventurers of consciousness who walk far ahead of humanity as a whole. As the ocean is the symbol of the currents of consciousness linked to the evolution of purification/liberation, it is far ahead in this evolution that the inner conflict takes place (they by the ocean hemmed from their kinsmen). So, even if the forces that push our being towards greater freedom incur some damage, they are nevertheless like a rock that nothing can destroy except a gradual crumbling over time (They like a rock that is chipped, but we like a mist that disperses).
This discerning wisdom is also trying to convince the old yogas to introduce elements that stem from aspirations towards greater freedom. It is convinced that this is possible, that the two movements are compatible, even if the old yogas have to give up some of their powers (gold) and the certainty that they hold the truth of evolution (Helen) (Then if Achilles, bound by an oath, bring peace to us, healing, bring to us respite, help, though bought at a price, yet full-measured). Thus, the greatest asceticism could still be part of yoga (Strengths of the North at our side). And the yoga of the depths with a view to greater freedom would guarantee that the old yoga would not be called into question by that which, in the being of the adventurer, aspires through the concentration of consciousness to greater freedom (and safety assured from the Achaian). Under the term “Achaeans,” we can group here the members of the coalition against Troy, i.e. everything that tends to unite spirit and matter with a view to greater freedom.
In this way, peace could be established in the being at the cost of relatively minor sacrifices such as certain powers and the recognition that this is the only path to evolution (Peace at least we shall have, though gold we lose and much glory).
Thus, the yoga of conquest in the spirit and mastery imposed from above could take advantage of a period of respite to prepare for victorious confrontations in the future: what the higher intelligence is proposing is not, therefore, a recognition that there must be a reversal in yoga, even if it recognises this as inescapable, but rather a temporisation in the face of the harassing ordeal that this inner conflict constitutes (Peace we will use for our strength to breathe in, our wounds to recover, teaching Time to prepare for happier wars in the future).
Pause ere you fling from you life; you are mortals, not gods in your glory.
Not for submission to new ally or to ancient foeman
Peace these desire; for who would exchange wide death for subjection?
Who would submit to a yoke? Or who shall rule Trojans in Troya? 320
Swords are there still at our sides, there are warriors’ hearts in our bosoms.
Peace your senators welcome, not servitude, breathing they ask for.
But if for war you pronounce, if a noble death you have chosen,
That I approve. What fitter end for this warlike nation,
Knowing that empires at last must sink and perish all cities,
Than to preserve to the end posterity’s praise and its greatness
Ceasing in clangour of arms and a city’s flames for our death-pyre?
This summit of intelligence encourages those who support the old yoga to take time to reflect before committing themselves to a struggle that will see its end, because the forms of yoga, the qualities necessary at a given moment of yoga, as well as the practices are not eternal (Pause ere you fling from you life; you are mortals, not gods in your glory). It affirms that it is not to give in to a better form or practice which would come to be superimposed on the old ones (Not for submission to new ally…), nor to descend to less evolved levels in the mind ([…] or to ancient foeman…), that the well-established old yogas wish the inner conflict to cease (Peace these desire). Indeed, no form of compromise with oneself can be accepted willingly and preferred to an honourable demise ([…] for who would exchange wide death for subjection?). Moreover, one may ask how could the old yogas be guided and supervised if the essential genius of this yoga disappeared (Or who shall rule Trojans in Troya?).
It is not because they recognise their inferiority to the aspirations for greater freedom, nor because they are tired of the struggle, that the “foundations” of this old wisdom are asking for a break. They do not recognise anything superior to them but aspire to find inner peace, even temporarily, in this struggle that has lasted for so long, almost ten symbolic years (Swords are there still at our sides, there are warriors’ hearts in our bosoms. Peace your senators welcome, not servitude, breathing they ask for).
However, this highest mental wisdom seems indifferent to the decision (But if for war you pronounce, if a noble death you have chosen, that I approve). Indeed, it views evolution from a height that knows that permanence does not exist in this creation, that all spiritual forms are destined to disappear, no matter how vast their influence in the being, just like cities, empires, and civilisations (Knowing that empires at last must sink and perish all cities). But this indifference is not total, because this high mind still has “preferences.” Indeed, knowing this impermanence, it suggests that it would probably be better for a spiritual warrior, invaded by the total uncertainty of evolutionary meaning, to fight to the end to preserve the memory of heroic asceticism and the grandeur of past realisations (What fitter end for this warlike nation […] Than to preserve to the end posterity’s praise and its greatness ceasing in clangour of arms and a city’s flames for our death-pyre?).
Choose then with open eyes what the dread gods offer to Troya.
Hope not now Hector is dead and Sarpedon, Asia inconstant,
We but a handful, Troy can prevail over Greece and Achilles. 330
Play not with dreams in this hour, but sternly, like men and not children,
Choose with a noble and serious greatness fates fit for Troya.
Stark we will fight till buried we fall under Ilion’s ruins,
Or, unappeased, we will curb our strength for the hope of the future.”
Not without praise of his friends and assent of the thoughtfuller Trojans,
Halamus spoke and ceased.
The highest intelligence would, therefore, want the whole being to choose the direction of evolution with the same discernment that it carries, without allowing itself to be deluded by inner voices with no serious foundation (Choose then with open eyes what the dread gods offer to Troya). Now that the movement that pulled the being towards spiritual heights has disappeared (Hector), and the effort towards the emerging light coming from the overmind to fight against illusions has also come to an end (Sarpedon is “rival of the gods,” son of Zeus and Laodamia, daughter of Bellerophon, himself a grandson of Sisyphus and king of the Lycians), and that the new forms of yoga are uncertain in their relation to the well-established forms, it would be futile to think that what remains of these old forms can be maintained in the face of the aspiration to greater freedom and the yoga of the depths (Hope not now Hector is dead and Sarpedon, Asia inconstant, we but a handful, Troy can prevail over Greece and Achilles).
It, therefore, calls on all that is most advanced in the being to follow the mental rigour of which it is the bearer, within the framework of the highest sattvic realisation, which is the summit of current human maturity, without endorsing intuitions that are, to say the least, uncertain (Play not with dreams in this hour, but sternly, like men and not children). The choice must be in keeping with the greatness of past realisations (Choose with a noble and serious greatness fates fit for Troya).
Halamus, unlike his father, is not the symbol of someone who seeks inner peace through compromise. He simply represents a call to lucidity, because he knows that the outcome of the battle is not in favour of the Trojans. This is a level of intelligence that no longer clings to its past realisations, because, more recently attained, it is more flexible and has a broader vision. It is not yet worn down by the struggles of yoga (doubts and uncertainties) and is able to put its vital will at its service, thus possessing an inflexible determination to fight and accepting that all old forms will disappear (Stark we will fight till buried we fall under Ilion’s ruins).
But if he represents the highest sattvic wisdom, which is discernment and lucidity, the kind that no longer relies on past glories, this one still has “preferences,” drawing attention to the lack of inner peace that would result from a bad choice (Or, unappeased, we will curb our strength for the hope of the future). For this intelligence, a compromise would in no way give peace to the whole being, whereas this is what the old forms of mental wisdom embodied by Antenor claim to attain.
Of course, all the forms associated with this discerning mind or dependent on it support this call for lucidity (Not without praise of his friends and assent of the thoughtfuller Trojans, Halamus spoke and ceased).
But now in the Ilian forum
Bright, of the sungod a ray, and even before he had spoken
Sending the joy of his brilliance into the hearts of his hearers,
Paris arose. Not applauded his rising, but each man towards him
Eagerly turned as if feeling that all before which was spoken 340
Were but a prelude and this was the note he has waited for always.
Sweet was his voice like a harp’s, when it chants of war, and its cadence
Softened with touches of music thoughts that were hard to be suffered,
Sweet like a string that is lightly struck, but it penetrates wholly.
After having studied the problem of spiritual evolution from the point of view of the highest intelligence under its two conservative and progressive aspects (Antenor and his son Halamus), as well as from the point of view of the intuitive and visionary powers coming from the Mind of Light (Laocoon) but obscured by laws that are incomprehensible to us and that we call destiny, Sri Aurobindo is now going to consider it from the point of view of the highest mastery, that which is possible from the overmind, i.e. the force of the spirit that can impose its law on the whole being from above.
Before entering into a detailed analysis, we need to recall what Paris represents.
We have assumed his name to be related to παρισος, “almost equal,” and thus the symbol of the adventurer who works towards equality as defined by Sri Aurobindo. There is, however, an interpretation based on the structuring letters that might correspond more to the way Sri Aurobindo has Paris express himself in Ilion. The combination Π+Ρ would indicate “the right movement of mastery, of domination,” which would be obtained by renouncing life (see the chapter on the symbolism of letters in Greek Mythology, Yoga of the West, or on the website greekmyths-interpretation.com). Sri Aurobindo makes this erroneous conception of the spiritual path explicit in The Life Divine, by denouncing the renunciation of the ascetic, who expresses himself as follows: “Renunciation is the only path that leads to knowledge, the acceptance of physical life is the choice of the ignorant, and the cessation of birth the best benefit that man can derive from birth; the call of the Spirit, the retreat from Matter.”[32]
Furthermore, this would be in keeping with the genealogy of Paris and the myths about him, the essential elements of which we are going to recall below.
From the shepherds who took him in, Paris received another name, Alexander, which can be interpreted differently but with more or less the same ultimate meaning. Either it is “he who repels man,” symbolising a refusal to admit the possibility of evolution outside the liberation of the spirit. Or it is “the man who repels” the disturbing elements of his external nature without seeking to master them (he repelled robbers…), concerned only with protecting his assets (and defended the flocks).[33] In the Iliad, Homer mentions Alexander 45 times and Paris 13 times, emphasising his refusal to transform his external nature.
Paris was the last of Priam’s children, the ultimate expression of the Trojan line, which identified itself with the Divine by annihilating its very being, by getting rid of desire and ego, and rejecting everything that relates to incarnation. This explains why, in his youth, “Paris excelled many in beauty and strength.”[34]
Given the progress in yoga up until now, this has been a movement in tune with the right divine rhythm. But if the disappearance of desire and the ego is to continue, the separation of spirit and matter must come to an end.
To reinforce the idea that the movement towards the heights is complete, Priam is said to have fifty sons, the number symbolising completion in the forms. However, only nineteen were born of his union with Hecuba, which would suggest that not all the participating movements of this yoga aim at an exit from incarnation, according to the meaning we give to Hecuba (εκαβη εκ+Β).
At this point, the adventurer would already have some intuition that this form of yoga is coming to an end, for Hecuba, then pregnant with Paris, had a vision whose symbolic elements indicated that the unborn child would destroy Ilion.
During the judgment of the three goddesses on Mount Ida, Paris decided in favour of Aphrodite, who offered him marriage to Helen, “an object of painful desire”: the adventurer of consciousness who has reached this stage of the liberation of the spirit maintains that the right evolutionary path is ultimately that of Love, and no yoga can dispute this. However, it would seem that Paris chose Aphrodite not because of what she represents, but because of the promise made to him that he would follow the right evolutionary path towards greater freedom represented by his marriage to Helen.
We must agree with Sri Aurobindo that true Love cannot be incarnated in the human being as long as there is a mental, vital, and perhaps even bodily ego, and that it is, therefore, Truth that must first be the major preoccupation of the adventurer and humanity in his wake. For, as the Mother tells us, in humanity’s present state of development, corporeal matter itself could not resist the descent of Love in its original power, and man would die immediately.[35]
By taking this position, supported by the forces of the spirit that watch over the progress of the Mind of Light and Love (Apollo and Aphrodite support the Trojans), the adventurer considers that the evolutionary path towards greater freedom (Helen) can only be that of the old yoga, whereas it was initially associated with the search for a transformation of the external being: Helen, wife of Menelaus, is taken by Paris-Alexander to Troy with her full consent. It is as if the adventurer, tired of fighting in the lower layers of his being, declared the transformation of these planes impossible and took refuge in the yoga of the heights of the spirit, which only admits of a “paradise” without the body.
Aphrodite’s promise to give Helen to Paris – or, according to the summary in the Cyprian Songs, when the goddess led Helen and Paris into the same bed – suggests that the goddess, representing love in evolution, is misleading the seeker by supporting the Trojan path. However, we must bear in mind that this promise is only intended to bring to completion the old path to wisdom and sanctity through the union with the Divine in the spirit.
The powers of the overmind had to wait for the movement to reach its full potential before inducing a reversal: Zeus had, indeed, decided on the loss of Troy long before the war began, but waited until the last moment before asking all the gods to withdraw from the battle.
Indeed, Paris, Priam’s youngest son, is the symbol of the most complete movement in the illumined mind, in search of the stabilisation of the intuitive mind. The adventurer has even made a foray into the overmind, because he is aware of the action of the corresponding forces within himself – when Paris, for example, notes the intervention of the gods in the battle.
For the purposes of the study below, therefore, we will bear in mind that Paris represents the equality acquired through the renunciation of life and the mastery imposed from above by the highest mental will.
To gain a better understanding of Paris’s speech and the imperative need for reversal, we need to refer to some passages from The Life Divine in the chapter “The Ascent towards Supermind,”[36] which deal with the higher mind and especially the illumined mind.
We have seen that Antenor represents the higher mind, the mind that must “overcome the barrage of a mass or system of formed ideas which belong to the Knowledge-Ignorance and the will to persistence and self-realisation of these ideas.”[37]
Sri Aurobindo also tells us that at this level the seeker must also fight on the lower planes of being, “in the heart and life and body, the same phenomenon recurs and on a more intense scale; for here it is not ideas that have to be met but emotions, desires, impulses, sensations, vital needs and habits of the lower Nature; these, since they are less conscious than ideas, are blinder in their response and are more obstinately self-assertive: all have the same or a greater power of resistance and recurrence, or take refuge in the circumconscient universal Nature or in our own lower levels or in a seed-state in the subconscient and from there have the power of new invasion or resurgence. This power of persistence, recurrence, resistance of established things in Nature is always the great obstacle which the evolutionary Force has to meet, which it has indeed itself created in order to prevent a too rapid transmutation even when that transmutation is its own eventual intention in things.
This obstacle will be there, — even though it may progressively diminish, — at each stage of this greater ascent. In order to allow at all to the higher Light an adequate entry and force of working, it is necessary to acquire a power for quietude of the nature, to compose, tranquillise, impress a controlled passivity or even an entire silence on mind and heart, life and body: but even so a continued opposition, overt and felt in the Force of the universal Ignorance or subliminal and obscure in the substance-energy of the individual’s make of mind, his form of life, his body of Matter, an occult resistance or a revolt or reaffirmation of the controlled or suppressed energies of the ignorant nature, is always possible and, if anything in the being consents to them, they can resume dominance. A previously established psychic control is very desirable as that creates a general responsiveness and inhibits the revolt of the lower parts against the Light or their consent to the claims of the Ignorance. A preliminary spiritual transformation will also reduce the hold of the Ignorance; but neither of these influences altogether eliminates its obstruction and limitation.”[38]
Sri Aurobindo also says that it is necessary to bring into play a higher force of consciousness and knowledge, “This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge. […] The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; […] the body itself of Truth is caught and exactly held in the sunlight of a deeper spiritual sight […]
The perceptual power of the inner sight is greater and more direct than the perceptual power of thought: […] it illumines the thought-mind with a direct inner vision and inspiration, brings a spiritual sight into the heart and a spiritual light and energy into its feeling and emotion, imparts to the life-force a spiritual urge, a truth inspiration that dynamises the action and exalts the life movements; it infuses into the sense a direct and total power of spiritual sensation so that our vital and physical being can contact and meet concretely, quite as intensely as the mind and emotion can conceive and perceive and feel, the Divine in all things;”[39]
Antenor represents the power of thought on the plane of the higher mind, the clarity of spiritual intelligence, and his son Halamus takes this to its highest level. Laocoon is the symbol of the ability for vision on the plane of the illumined mind because he is a son of Priam, but it is a veiled capacity. He represents a strong obstruction to the establishment of the illumined mind due to a lack of discernment. Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, is another aspect of this obstruction due to doubt.
In this context, Paris is the symbol of equality and strength acquired through the purification of desire and ego, but also through the renunciation of life.
Paris’ first wife was Oenone, “the evolution towards divine intoxication,” which can be associated with the “intoxicating ecstasy of knowledge” provided by the illumined mind.
The attribute bright, of the sungod a ray also refers us to the text above: “an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the spirit.” This illumination spreads throughout the being without the seeker even needing to do anything (and even before he had spoken sending the joy of his brilliance into the hearts of his hearers). All the elements of the yoga of the spirit are aware that what Paris symbolises is the highest realisation and that it alone holds the key to the decision to be made (each man towards him eagerly turned as if feeling that all before which was spoken were but a prelude and this was the note he has waited for always).
The expression of the illumined mind is as harmonious as the music that celebrates spiritual combat, and it soothes the being with lofty thoughts that the mind struggles to grasp or integrate (Sweet was his voice like a harp’s, when it chants of war, and its cadence softened with touches of music thoughts that were hard to be suffered).
I too would have you decide before Heaven in the strength of your spirits,
Not to the past and its memories moored like the thoughts of Antenor
Hating the vivid march of the present, nor towards the future
Panting through dreams like my brother Laocoon vexed by Apollo.
Dead is the past; the void has possessed it; its drama is ended, 350
Finished its music. The future is dim and remote from our knowledge;
Silent it lies on the knees of the gods in their luminous stillness.
But to our gaze God’s light is a darkness, His plan is a chaos.
Who shall foretell the event of a battle, the fall of a footstep?
Oracles, visions and prophecies voice but the dreams of the mortal,
And ’tis our spirit within is the Pythoness tortured in Delphi.
Heavenly voices to us are a silence, those colours a whiteness.
Neither the thought of the statesman prevails nor the dream of the prophet,
Whether one cry, ‘Thus devise and thy heart shall be given its wanting,’
Vainly the other, ‘The heavens have spoken; hear then their message.’ 360
Paris, “the equality acquired through renunciation of life and mastery imposed from above,” begins by recalling the greatness of the Trojan realisation in the illumined mind, from which all forms of yoga that work towards the liberation of the spirit descend. This realisation is accompanied by peace, “the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle” (Cf. Sri Aurobindo’s text above) (I too would have you decide before Heaven in the strength of your spirits).
All the qualities and practices that have contributed to this enlightened spirit must reject thoughts from the intellect and the higher mind that are not in tune with the ever-changing evolutionary movement (Not to the past and its memories moored like the thoughts of Antenor hating the vivid march of the present). The adventurer must not descend to lower planes, for Dead is the past; the void has possessed it; its drama is ended.
Nor must he allow himself to be influenced by an uncertain vision ‘darkened’ by the gods and the cycles, by an inaccurate intuition based on the hope that all will be well if he can patiently endure adversity, which is always only temporary (nor towards the future panting through dreams like my brother Laocoon vexed by Apollo). Here, it is no longer fate that clouds the vision, but the force that works towards the Mind of Light that will sustain the old movement to the end.
What Paris thus affirms seems contrary to the realisation represented by his father Priam, “the redeemed,” whom we saw in Ilion, Book II (lines 129-130), as an adventurer with knowledge of the three times (trikāla-dṛṣṭi), for his eyes of deep meditation, eyes that beheld now the end and accepted it like the beginning. With the evolution of yoga – from Priam to Paris – there would, therefore, be a darkening of vision that is only partly independent of the adventurer. For while the forces of the overmind are partly responsible for this, Paris is also Alexander, the man who rejects external nature, who masters it but does not transform it (The future is dim and remote from our knowledge; silent it lies on the knees of the gods in their luminous stillness).
This partly illumined mind knows how difficult it is to perceive the divine Truth in all the events of life and how they unfold. Everything can seem like chaos, where events are the fruit of chance or some cruel demiurge (But to our gaze God’s light is a darkness, His plan is a chaos). Moreover, Sri Aurobindo seems to be posing here the problem of human omniscience: to what extent can a yogi who has travelled the mental ladder to the overmind and acquired the vision of the three times know the future in a domain that does not belong to his earthly mission? Who can predict the outcome of a yoga combat? Who can tell all the consequences of a forward movement? (Who shall foretell the event of a battle, the fall of a footstep?). In the Agenda, the Mother mentions several times that certain future developments are hidden from her.
For this movement, which seeks perfection in the liberation of the spirit, in the mastery of the lower being and in the domination of the forces of nature, oracles, visions, and prophecies are merely expressions of our inner movements and aspirations (Oracles, visions and prophecies voice but the dreams of the mortal). It is our inner spirit that, under the compulsion of unfounded hopes and beliefs, is the transmitting agent of these illusions (And ’tis our spirit within is the Pythoness tortured in Delphi).
At the sanctuary of Delphi, the Pythia or Pythoness was the priestess of Apollo who received the word of the god in response to a question from the consulter. She sat on the sacred tripod and spoke under the effect of an “enthusiasm,” a divine inspiration. Her words, the meaning of which was generally obscure, were noted down by priests, usually in verse, and then passed on to diviners who interpreted them.
Some traditions suggest that Pythia went into a trance, a sacred delirium. These trances struck the imagination because, under the effect of the god’s possession, her body had unusual expressions similar to painful hysterical fits. Perhaps this is what Sri Aurobindo meant by the words the Pythoness tortured in Delphi.
The seeker of truth must, therefore, consider that the word of the Divine cannot be perceived as anything other than silence, and must not trust oracles, visions or prophecies that have no certain foundation (Heavenly voices to us are a silence, those colours a whiteness).
Neither the organising and logical thought of the sattvic intelligence nor the power of vision can, therefore, decide the right direction of yoga (Neither the thought of the statesman prevails nor the dream of the prophet).
For divine logic is not human logic, and this is even more true at the turning points of yoga. In the previous phase of yoga, it was possible to say that this or that practice could lead to this or that result (Whether one cry, ‘Thus devise and thy heart shall be given its wanting,’). We are obviously talking here about higher aspirations with a view to identification with the Divine, and not about the desires of the ego. But this is no more applicable since the path is no longer traceable (On this subject, see Mother’s Agenda, Volume II, entry for April 18, 1961, where the Mother explains that “everything is from all eternity” and that “it can be both absolutely free and absolutely determined”).
On the other hand, the different modalities of intuition and the understanding of external signs and dreams that have been developed by the seeker and have guided his action can no longer serve as a guide at this pivotal moment (Vainly the other, ‘The heavens have spoken; hear then their message’).
Who can point out the way of the gods and the path of their travel,
Who shall impose on them bounds and an orbit? The winds have their
treading, —
They can be followed and seized, not the gods when they move towards
their purpose.
They are not bound by our deeds and our thinkings. Sin exalted
Seizes secure on the thrones of the world for her glorious portion,
Down to the bottomless pit the good man is thrust in his virtue.
Leave to the gods their godhead and, mortal, turn to thy labour;
Take what thou canst from the hour that is thine and be fearless in spirit;
This is the greatness of man and the joy of his stay in the sunlight.
Paris goes on to talk about the inability of human beings to know how divine forces work to achieve their goal and the path they take to get there (Who can point out the way of the gods and the path of their travel?). No one can impose limits or a trajectory on them. While the human mind is capable, through study and reasoning, of understanding the forces of nature, the same cannot be said of the forces of the spirit (Who shall impose on them bounds and an orbit? The winds have their treading, — they can be followed and seized, not the gods when they move towards their purpose).
These forces are not dependent on human action and thought. For life events clash with our sense of right and wrong, according to which we believe the gods should act. We see that evil is rewarded at the highest levels of the human hierarchy and virtue is abused. Indeed, Sri Aurobindo wrote that good and evil play an equal role in the evolution of man out of his animality. Man is therefore incapable of judging correctly (They are not bound by our deeds and our thinkings. Sin exalted seizes secure on the thrones of the world for her glorious portion, down to the bottomless pit the good man is thrust in his virtue).
Hence men must act within the limits set for them, that is, in the present moment where they are, in the here and now, and overcome their fears. We are led to think that these are fears of the mind and partly of the vital part of the body (and be fearless in spirit) because, let us not forget, Paris is the symbol of a mastery imposed from above and not of a transformation. The fundamental primeval fears of the vital and the body are, therefore, rejected or ignored. Let us remember that Perseus, the slayer of the Gorgon who symbolises fear, is an ancestor of Heracles, the great purifier and liberator.
And it is in the humility of daily work that yoga abides (Leave to the gods their godhead and, mortal, turn to thy labour; take what thou canst from the hour that is thine and be fearless in spirit).
With this last line, we could perhaps draw a parallel with the Epicurean doctrine as formulated by its founder, the doctrine that presupposes a certain asceticism and not slothfulness as some later accused him of. According to it, wisdom consists in living in the present, not fearing death or the gods, enduring pain, and achieving happiness through an asceticism that allows the satisfaction of natural and necessary desires, and only these. For, as we shall see later, the wise and virtuous hide their unfulfilled desires behind hypocritical appearances.
This doctrine influenced the Roman poet Horace (65 BC-8 AD), whose famous expression “Carpe diem” appears in the following Ode (I, 11):
“Ask not, Leoconoē (we cannot know), what end the gods have set for me, for thee, nor make trial of the Babylonian tables! How much better to endure whatever comes, whether Jupiter allots us added winters or whether this is last, which now wears out the Tuscan Sea upon the barrier of the cliffs! Show wisdom. Strain clear the wine; and since life is brief cut short far-reaching hopes! Even while we speak, envious Time has sped. Reap the harvest of to-day, putting as little trust as may be in the morrow!”[40]
The exact translation of “Carpe diem” is “Seize the day” and not “Enjoy the present day,” which encourages us to find joy in the present that is given to us, without, however, rejecting any discipline in life, in the idea that the future is uncertain and that everything is destined to disappear.
It is in this asceticism that the greatness of man lies, and through it that the adventurer can attain joy in the light of supramental truth (This is the greatness of man and the joy of his stay in the sunlight).
Now whether over the waste of Poseidon the ships of the Argives 370
Empty and sad shall return or sacred Ilion perish,
Priam be slain and for ever cease this imperial nation,
These things the gods are strong to conceal from the hopings of mortals.
Neither Antenor knows nor Laocoon. Only of one thing
Man can be sure, the will in his heart and his strength in his purpose:
This too is Fate and this too the gods, nor the meanest in Heaven.
Paris keeps what he seized from Time and from Fate while unconquered
Life speeds warm through his veins and his heart is assured of the sunlight.
After ’tis cold, none heeds, none hinders. Not for the dead man
Earth and her wars and her cares, her joys and her gracious concessions, 380
Whether for ever he sleeps in the chambers of Nature unmindful
Or into wideness wakes like a dreamer called from his visions.
The adventurer, therefore, cannot know whether this long battle of ten symbolic years will let the forces of yoga that aspire to evolution retreat to their past positions, returning exhausted and saddened by the waste that flows back into the subconscious, the vast reservoir that receives all things (Now whether over the waste of Poseidon the ships of the Argives empty and sad shall return). Nor can he know whether this will be the end of the old forms of spirituality (or sacred Ilion perish, Priam be slain and for ever cease this imperial nation).
According to this view, it is impossible to know the future directed by divine forces. Neither intelligence nor visionary intuition can. And so, the adventurer must renounce all hopes concerning his yoga. It is no longer a question of just renouncing the fruits of the work, but also of breaking the attachment to the work itself and its forms (These things the gods are strong to conceal from the hopings of mortals. Neither Antenor knows nor Laocoon). Attachment to the old forms of spirituality is, indeed, one of the major obstacles in evolution.
The only thing the seeker can rely on is the will of the heart and its strong determination to achieve the goal. The will of the heart is not that of the vital and mental ego, nor that which originates in the higher mind, the buddhi or higher intelligence, but that which comes from the psychic, from the soul, from the aspiration to union and from svadharma, the task that the soul has set itself in the present incarnation. His strength of resolve or powerful determination (strength in his purpose) is the perseverance and endurance with which the adventurer pursues this task and for which he has made a resolution once and for all, whatever the obstacles encountered on the way (Only of one thing man can be sure, the will in his heart and his strength in his purpose).
This will and this determination also have an influence alongside determinations that are unknown to us and that we call Fate. They are also forces that have a great influence on the mind (This too is Fate and this too the gods, nor the meanest in Heaven).
Paris, Priam’s youngest son, represents the ultimate movement of the old yogas, the one who must bring this yoga to its ultimate form of expression and realisation. He cannot, therefore, be expected to bow to the emergence of a new form.
Helen, the “evolution of freedom,” united with Menelaus, presupposes a long process of purification of the outer personality. What Paris seized from Time would then be an intent to accelerate the evolutionary process towards Love from the heights of the spirit, so that the adventurer does not fall back into the lower planes of the mental and vital.
The right path towards greater freedom represented by Helen was, according to destiny, the domain of the Achaeans and more particularly of Sparta, “that which arises, the new,” of which Menelaus is king. To transfer this just path to old yoga is to contradict the movement that controls destiny and the role that has been assigned to each individual. What is being denounced here is the movement of old yoga – whose sole mission is to realise the liberation of the spirit and the attainment of wisdom and sanctity – which wants to impose itself as the only truth evolving towards greater freedom. Paris represents this movement, which clings to a goal that has not been assigned to it (Paris keeps what he seized from Time and from Fate).
One of the reasons for this misdirection probably lies in the fact that the adventurer feels supported by life and bathed in the light of Truth (While unconquered life speeds warm through his veins and his heart is assured of the sunlight).
When the movement is complete, the seeker will no longer care about the past (the fact that Paris kidnapped Helen) and what opposes or hinders now will disappear (After ’tis cold, none heeds, none hinders).
In the last lines of this passage, Sri Aurobindo draws a parallel between what happens after death and the end of a form of yoga, because in both cases it is the end of a form.
The parts of the being that have not united with the psychic being join the immense subconscious and unconscious reservoir, the chambers of Nature, while the experiences and realisations that have merged with the psychic being accompany the soul on its journey through the formless until the next incarnation (Whether for ever he sleeps in the chambers of Nature unmindful or into wideness wakes like a dreamer called from his visions). In both cases, these are no longer worlds of duality where conflict and problems reign, nor of transitory joys (Not for the dead man Earth and her wars and her cares, her joys and her gracious concessions).
The adventurer will no longer care about old forms of yoga, either because the forms that have disappeared have joined the memory of evolution and its many evolutionary attempts, or because they have instead completed their movement to perfection and the adventurer can integrate them from a broader vision. These last two lines can also refer either to the belief that there is nothing left after death, that the soul and the psychic being do not exist, or to the belief that our world is nothing but an illusion and that the dead person is finally awakening to Reality (Whether for ever he sleeps in the chambers of Nature unmindful or into wideness wakes like a dreamer called from his visions).
Ilion in flames I choose, not fallen from the heights of her spirit.
Great and free has she lived since they raised her twixt billow and mountain,
Great let her end; let her offer her freedom to fire, not the Hellene.
She was not founded by mortals; gods erected her ramparts,
Lifted her piles to the sky, a seat not for slaves but the mighty.
All men marvelled at Troy; by her deeds and her spirit they knew her
Even from afar, as the lion is known by his roar and his preying.
Sole she lived royal and fell, erect in her leonine nature. 390
So, O her children, still let her live unquelled in her purpose
Either to stand with your feet on the world oppressing the nations
Or in your ashes to lie and your name be forgotten for ever.
Justly your voices approve me, armipotent children of Ilus;
Straight from Zeus is our race and the Thunderer lives in our nature.
In the light of what we have seen, from the point of view of the search for liberation of the spirit, the adventurer cannot break his attachment to the old forms of yoga (Ilion in flames I choose, not fallen from the heights of her spirit).
According to the Iliad, the city of Troy, originally called Ilion, was built somewhere in Asia Minor. We have already said that for us it was a symbolic city, not a real one. In this context, it is situated by the sea, since the boats were pulled up on the shore, in the estuary of the river Scamander, also called Xanthus, and not far from the Mount Ida, from where the gods contemplate the battle and where infant Paris was left to die exposed.
But we can also understand that it was a “construction” situated between the billows of the mind and spiritual aspiration (Great and free has she lived since they raised her twixt billow and mountain).
This point of view, therefore, encourages this yoga to go all the way, whatever the result, and without compromise (Great let her end; let her offer her freedom to fire, not the Hellene). For the qualities, structures, and practices on which this yoga is based do not come from the intellect, but from the forces of the overmind, which manifested themselves through the forces working to establish the Mind of Light and purify the subconscious, and gave access to the highest worlds of the spirit (She was not founded by mortals; gods erected her ramparts). Indeed, Apollo and Poseidon built the ramparts of the citadel.
These are structured practices for powerful seekers because of the mastery they have acquired, which cannot be made available to yoga practices that deal with the lower parts of the being, the deep vital, and the body (a seat not for slaves but the mighty).
The realisations acquired through these practices were recognised as superior by all other forms of spirituality. These practices were known for the manifestations of the powers to which they gave access and for the conquest of the higher planes of the mind (All men marvelled at Troy; by her deeds and her spirit they knew her) and this without even having to be demonstrated (Even from afar, as the lion is known by his roar and his preying).
This yoga, royal and imposing, dominated, its nature being superior to all other yogas, just as the lion is superior to all other animals (Sole she lived royal and fell, erect in her leonine nature).
So, from this point of view, all the old qualities and practices should support this yoga whose goal – the liberation of the spirit, the mastery of the lower nature, the progress towards love and dissolution of one’s spirit in the Divine – has not been disavowed (So, O her children, still let her live unquelled in her purpose).
And this happens to be the case, whatever the outcome of this inner struggle, whether it leads to supremacy over all forms of spirituality, or to the destruction of the forms of this yoga and their oblivion (Either to stand with your feet on the world oppressing the nations or in your ashes to lie and your name be forgotten for ever).
This point of view knows that it has the support of all the practices linked to this yoga of the liberation of the spirit – the practices leading to powerful results. This yoga comes from the highest level of the overmind and the corresponding almighty forces permeate its forms (Justly your voices approve me, armipotent children of Ilus; straight from Zeus is our race and the Thunderer lives in our nature).
Long I have suffered this taunt that Paris was Ilion’s ruin
Born on a night of the gods and of Ate, clothed in a body.
Scornful I strode on my path secure of the light in my bosom,
Turned from the muttering voices of envy, their hates who are fallen,
Voices of hate that cling round the wheels of the triumphing victor; 400
Now if I speak, ’tis the strength in me answers, not to belittle,
That excusing which most I rejoice in and glory for ever,
Tyndaris’ rape whom I seized by the will of divine Aphrodite.
Mortal this error that Greece would have slumbered apart in her mountains,
Sunk, by the trumpets of Fate unaroused and the morning within her,
Only were Paris unborn and the world had not gazed upon Helen.
Fools, who say that a spark was the cause of this giant destruction!
War would have stridden on Troy though Helen were still in her Sparta
Tending an Argive loom, not the glorious prize of the Trojans,
Greece would have banded her nations though Paris had drunk not Eurotas. 410
Other movements of old yoga in the heights of the spirit have long considered that it was this movement of liberation of the spirit in the separation of spirit and matter, of the quest for greater equality acquired through renunciation, that led to the ruin of old yoga (Long I have suffered this taunt that Paris was Ilion’s ruin). This quest for greater detachment, which rejects human nature rather than seeking to transform it, is said to have arisen from the combined effect of two things: the adventurer lost contact with the spiritual powers or with the Divine, during the dark night of the soul, and there was simultaneously the intervention of the goddess of error, Ate (Born on a night of the gods and of Ate, clothed in a body). Let us not forget that Ate, the eldest daughter of Zeus in Homer, is the force that drives us towards the heights of the spirit. If this movement is right during a particular phase of yoga, it becomes a mistake to cling to it when the time has passed.
This self-confident quest for greater equality in separation continued to develop despite the faint voices of the inner movements that claimed to be in a better position to guide yoga (Scornful I strode on my path secure of the light in my bosom, turned from the muttering voices of envy, their hates who are fallen).
From this line of Paris’ speech, we deduce what underpins the quest for greater strength and the feeling of certainty that accompanies it. Some elements of the thought of Nietzsche and Alfred Adler can be found here, grouped under the term “will to power.” Man, liberated from god or gods, who are illusions, and therefore liberated from the notions of good and evil, must evolve towards superman by perfecting his nature based on his strength or “will to power,” which is “the innermost essence of being,” to realise vital fulfillment and create in order to enjoy life.
Nietzsche, like the Trojans, dreamt of an improved man and not, as Sri Aurobindo announced, of a radically transformed man. Sri Aurobindo was not at all in agreement with Nietzsche:
“But Nietzsche was an apostle who never entirely understood his own message. His prophetic style was like that of the Delphic oracles which spoke constantly the word of the Truth but turned it into untruth in the mind of the hearer.”[41]
Particularly with regard to the verses studied, Sri Aurobindo unreservedly condemned the fact of freeing oneself from the notions of good and evil in a humanity not subject exclusively to the divine will:
“To lose the link of Nature’s moral evolution is a capital fault in the apostle of supermanhood; for only out of the unavoidable line of the evolution can that emerge in the bosom of a humanity long tested, ripened and purified by the fire of egoistic and altruistic suffering.”[42]
In Ilion, Sri Aurobindo develops the different possible courses of action until their ultimate realisation: that of the thinker bound by the past and memory, that of the visionary whose predictions are uncertain because they arise from a mixture of functions and ignorance, and that of the force that rises above good and evil.
But if it is possible to read this passage about Paris using Nietzsche’s conception, it must above all be understood in terms of the functioning of the forces of the overmind. In this last plane, that of the gods, each force of which they are the representatives has the right to fulfill itself just as much as the others. The line embodied by Paris is, therefore, representative of a movement that is true in itself and tends towards its fulfillment.
We can, therefore, understand the lines that follow on different levels: from the point of view of an outsider, from the Nietzschean point of view, and from the point of view of the overmind.
It is the “will to power” that is being expressed here, the view that claims that the situation is the result of the will of the gods, in particular the force that watches over the development of love. Paris forgets to say that the choice was his because it was he who declared Aphrodite the most beautiful due to the promise she had made to him: according to this conception, evolutionary truth belongs to the quest that separates spirit from matter and, through mastery, confers powers over nature, provided that we recognise that the force that presides over the development of Love is the truth of present evolution (Now if I speak, ’tis the strength in me answers, not to belittle, that excusing which most I rejoice in and glory for ever, Tyndaris’ rape whom I seized by the will of divine Aphrodite).
According to this conception, there is no more serious error of discernment than to think that the old forms of yoga could have perpetuated themselves indefinitely, soaring into the heights of the spirit and its nirvanas (Mortal this error that Greece would have slumbered apart in her mountains). And all this even if the adventurer had not been in search of greater equality acquired by renouncing life and mastery imposed from above, and if he had not been attracted to greater freedom (Only were Paris unborn and the world had not gazed upon Helen). The forces of fate that sustain evolution, or a powerful inner call, would have led to the same situation, shaking off this tamasic slumber (Sunk, by the trumpets of Fate unaroused and the morning within her).
It was not this ultimate quest that was the cause of this inner conflict (Fools, who say that a spark was the cause of this giant destruction!). It would have taken place even if the quest for greater freedom had simply remained the goal of greater individuality and a purification of the lower vital nature carried out with humility in a form that allowed the new to emerge (War would have stridden on Troy though Helen were still in her Sparta tending an Argive loom, not the glorious prize of the Trojans).
It would have taken place even if the quest for greater equality through renunciation had not drawn on the current of consciousness-energy, which is a “vast broadening of consciousness to the highest level of the spirit” (Greece would have banded her nations though Paris had drunk not Eurotas). The River Eurotas has its source in Arcadia, flowing through the plain of Laconia and the city of Sparta, “that which is begotten, sown,” the kingdom of Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon and the husband of Helen. It was during his stay with Menelaus that Paris fell in love with Helen.
Coast against coast I set not, nor Ilion opposite Argos.
Phryx accuse who upreared Troy’s domes by the azure Aegean,
Curse Poseidon who fringed with Greece the blue of his waters:
Then was this war first decreed and then Agamemnon was fashioned;
Armed he strode forth in the secret Thought that is womb of the future.
Fate and Necessity guided those vessels, captained their armies.
When they stood mailed at her gates, when they cried in the might of their union,
‘Troy, renounce thy alliances, draw back humbly from Hellas,’
Should she have hearkened persuading her strength to a shameful
compliance,
Ilion queen of the world whose voice was the breath of the storm-gods? 420
Should she have drawn back her foot as it strode towards the hills of the Latins?
Thrace left bare to her foes, recoiled from Illyrian conquests?
If all this without battle were possible, people of Priam,
Blame then Paris, say then that Helen was cause of the struggle.
This point of view asserts that it was not the quest for equality through renunciation that was the cause of the inner conflict, between that which aspired to more universalisation of the spirit and that which wanted more purification (Coast against coast I set not, nor Ilion opposite Argos).
The element responsible for this conflict is the inner fire that established the most advanced forms of yoga in the spirit (Phryx accuse who upreared Troy’s domes by the azure Aegean).
It is the force which in the overmind manages the subconscious mind that itself delimits its hold, forcing the seeker of truth to enter into a process of purification (Curse Poseidon who fringed with Greece the blue of his waters).
Let us remember that the gods Poseidon and Apollo built the walls of the citadel of Troy. But later, Laomedon perjured himself by refusing to pay the gods the agreed wages. In other words, the seeker refused to acknowledge the action of spiritual forces in his spiritual evolution because he had too much ego. This refusal is considered in Greek mythology to be the primary cause of the Trojan War. This lack of gratitude and recognition of the action of the Divine is, therefore, the harbinger of the great reversal of yoga that is the Trojan War (Then was this war first decreed and then Agamemnon was fashioned;).
According to mythology, the second cause of the Trojan War was Paris’ judgment that Aphrodite was the most beautiful, to the detriment of Hera and Athena.
It was at this very moment – the perjury of Laomedon – that a great aspiration for renewal manifested itself, heir to a long tradition of aspiration and a feeling of “lack” in the overmind: Agamemnon is, indeed, a great-grandson of Tantalus. Well-prepared for the inner struggle, this aspiration progressed rapidly into the highest non-conscious thought, which is the matrix of the future, divine Evolutionary Thought (Armed he strode forth in the secret Thought that is womb of the future).
It is not the personal will of the adventurer leading the movement that opposes the old forms by asking them to renounce certain powers and realisations, but the powerful combined action of the evolving forces of Spirit and Nature (Fate and Necessity guided those vessels, captained their armies. When they stood mailed at her gates, when they cried in the might of their union, ‘Troy, renounce thy alliances, draw back humbly from Hellas,’).
But the point of view represented by Paris clings to his realisations and his powers acquired through yoga, entirely imbued with his superiority over all other forms, and certain that he is the expression of the impetuous forces of the overmind (Should she have hearkened persuading her strength to a shameful compliance, Ilion queen of the world whose voice was the breath of the storm-gods?). This closeness to the gods of the overmind is often mentioned in the Mother’s Agenda.
Sri Aurobindo then evokes the history of spiritual leadership in the Western world, which migrated from India to Egypt, then to Crete, and from there to Greece, before finally being transferred a few centuries after Homer to Italy, which was sung of at the beginning of our era by Ovid and Virgil (Should she have drawn back her foot as it strode towards the hills of the Latins?). The Greek spirituality embodied by Troy, which envisaged its union with the Divine only in the paradises of the spirit, was soon to be succeeded by Christianity, which also promised paradise only after death.
Similarly, this spiritual lineage could not admit of letting other spiritual forms take over its most advanced and successful extreme practices (Thrace left bare to her foes), nor of retreating by abandoning the conquests realised for greater liberation of the spirit, according to the meaning given to the word Illyria by its structuring letters ΛΛ+ΡΙ (recoiled from Illyrian conquests?). Illyria roughly corresponds to what is now Slovenia, southern Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, and Kosovo. The Greeks are said to have founded trading posts here around the time of Homer. It was bordered to the east by the Greek province of Macedonia.
If the other parts of the adventurer’s mind can conceive that the events listed above could have taken place without inner conflict – which this point of view refutes – then they can consider the appropriation of evolutionary truth by the old yoga that separates spirit from matter as the sole reason for the inner conflict (If all this without battle were possible, people of Priam, blame then Paris, say then that Helen was cause of the struggle).
But I have sullied the hearth, I have trampled the gift and the guest-rite,
Heaven I have armed with my sin and unsealed the gaze of the Furies,
So was Troy doomed who righteous had triumphed, locked with the Argive.
Fools or hypocrites! Meanest falsehood is this among mortals,
Veils of purity weaving, names misplacing ideal
When our desires we disguise and paint the lusts of our nature. 430
Men, ye are men in your pride and your strength, be not sophists and
tonguesters.
Lie not! prate not that nations live by righteousness, justice
Shields them, gods out of heaven look down wroth on the crimes of the mighty!
Known have men what thing has screened itself mouthing these
semblances. Crouching
Dire like a beast in the green of the thickets, selfishness silent
Crunches the bones of its prey while the priest and the statesman are glozing.
So are the nations soothed and deceived by the clerics of virtue,
Taught to reconcile fear of the gods with their lusts and their passions;
So with a lie on their lips they march to the rapine and slaughter.
Paris continues his harangue in an ironic tone: it would be the fact that he had betrayed the hospitality offered to him by Menelaus by kidnapping his wife and possessions that had awoken the Furies, and armed the forces of the spirit against Ilion (But I have sullied the hearth, […] Heaven I have armed with my sin and unsealed the gaze of the Furies).
The significance of the Furies or Erinyes – the Erinyes, the forces that set us back on the right path – was discussed in Volume I. Let us remember that they are the forces that come from the “essence” of the Spirit’s power, its life-giving and creative part, that put man back on the right path of evolution when he deviates from it. This deviation is either the result of “perjury,” which concerns those who do not follow the path their soul has set for itself in this life, or of “family crimes,” which either cut the seeker off from his source or halt new evolutionary processes. It was only as a result of the development of humanism, which lost the profound meaning of myths, that they came to be the guardians of the moral law, the laws of hospitality, and the sacred rights that govern families and those that protect the poor and the weak (I have trampled the gift and the guest-rite).
According to the line of thought developed here, moral customs and principles are not spiritual. Taking another man’s wife with his full consent is only an offense against the established order and common virtue, which will then be defined as hypocritical, and not against the right movement of the soul, which is true virtue. This transgression of false virtue – the fact of considering that the evolving truth towards greater freedom was rightly on the side of the old yoga – could not, therefore, under any circumstances lead to a return to the right path by the spiritual forces supporting other forms of yoga (Erinyes) and give these forms the advantage (So was Troy doomed who righteous had triumphed, locked with the Argive).
The condemnation of the hypocrisy of the person who wants to portray himself as a pure being, uttering highly spiritual words, when, in fact, he has not fully transformed his desires and lusts, masking them under beautiful and deceptive appearances, is without appeal.
Indeed, while it is true that a being totally liberated from desire and the ego behaves, because of his identification with the Divine, in ways that are sometimes contrary to what man considers just and virtuous, it is also true that a person who does not have this realisation must conform to the norms of the country where he lives. There is an alchemist’s maxim: “You shall wear the garb of the country” (Fools or hypocrites! Meanest falsehood is this among mortals, veils of purity weaving, names misplacing ideal when our desires we disguise and paint the lusts of our nature).
We have already indicated that the old yogas had given up transforming the lower vital nature, that it was only a mastery carried out from above, and that there always remained an ego in the saint and the sage.
In her commentary on an aphorism by Sri Aurobindo, the Mother insists on this point:
“Many times in what he has written, particularly in The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo warns us against the fantasies of those who believe they can do sādhanā (spiritual discipline) without having strict control over themselves, and who listen to all kinds of inspirations that lead them to a dangerous imbalance where all their repressed, hidden, secret desires come to light under the pretext of freeing themselves from ordinary conventions and ordinary reason. The only way to be free is to soar high, very high above human passions. We only have the right to be free when we have a higher, non-egotistical freedom, and when we have done away with all desires and impulses. But neither should people who are very reasonable, very moral according to ordinary social laws, believe themselves to be wise, because their wisdom is an illusion and has no deep truth in it. You have to be above the laws in order to break them, you have to be above conventions in order to disregard them, you have to be above all the rules in order to despise them, and the motive for this liberation must never be a selfish, personal motive, to satisfy an ambition or enlarge one’s personality, out of superiority, out of contempt for others, in order to be above the herd and be able to look down on it.”[43]
The adventurer, from the point of view of this will to power, invites the sage and the saint in him not to hide their imperfections and hidden vices behind speeches that create illusions or bear witness to a certain pretentiousness (Men, ye are men in your pride and your strength, be not sophists and tonguesters). A sophist is a person who seeks to convince by using specious reasoning to deceive or delude, a reasoning that is not aimed at the truth. In the same way, a tonguester’s discourse is devoid of meaning and, therefore, far from the truth.
This point of view invites that which is already wise and holy in the being not to lie by claiming that the accomplished forms of the old yoga imply rectitude and sincerity, that divine justice protects these forms, and that the forces of the overmind are thwarted by the excesses and crimes against the established order due to the use of power (Lie not! prate not that nations live by righteousness, justice shields them, gods out of heaven look down wroth on the crimes of the mighty!). Nothing in the being can ignore what lies behind the utterance of these pretences (Known have men what thing has screened itself mouthing these semblances).
The untransformed desires and passions of the ego, carefully concealed from the outside gaze, are satisfied by any means and without restraint, while the seeker adorns himself with wisdom, faith, and virtue, using language that is flattering to himself (Crouching dire like a beast in the green of the thickets, selfishness silent crunches the bones of its prey while the priest and the statesman are glozing).
This is how the seeker’s conscience is appeased and deceived by what interprets the right virtuous attitude in the being. It can thus reconcile the satisfaction of its desires, lusts, and passions with a spiritual path that claims to submit to the divine will (So are the nations soothed and deceived by the clerics of virtue, taught to reconcile fear of the gods with their lusts and their passions;). This is how the spiritual path is diverted and insidiously destroyed (So with a lie on their lips they march to the rapine and slaughter).
In the Agenda, the Mother mentions several times the disciples who profess to be totally submissive to her will, but do as they please according to their desires, their ego, or their habits.
Truly the vanquished were guilty! Else would their cities have perished, 440
Shrieked their ravished virgins, their peasants been hewn in the vineyards?
Truly the victors were tools of the gods and their glorious servants!
Else would the war-cars have ground triumphant their bones whom they hated?
Servants of God are they verily, even as the ape and the tiger.
Does not the wild-beast too triumph enjoying the flesh of his captives?
Tell us then what was the sin of the antelope, wherefore they doomed her,
Wroth at her many crimes? Come, justify God to his creatures!
Not to her sins was she offered, not to the Furies or Justice,
But to the strength of the lion the high gods offered a victim,
Force that is God in the lion’s breast with the forest for altar. 450
Sri Aurobindo pursues this point of view by denying all responsibility, and therefore guilt, to the one who uses his force, to that which in the being imposes its will on the whole. It is the problem of the apparent injustice reigning in the world that is raised here. Paris responds by transferring the guilt to the victim, to that which is defeated and crushed, although apparently free of any fault and unjustly bruised (Truly the vanquished were guilty!).
According to this logic, it is the destruction, however brutal and savage it may be, whether external or internal, that justifies the victor because he is only an instrument in the hands of the divine forces (Else would their cities have perished, shrieked their ravished virgins, their peasants been hewn in the vineyards?).
From the point of view of yoga, the destroyed cities are the structures and organisations of sādhanā practices. The virgins are yogic goals for which the most suitable practices and qualities have not yet been implemented. Foreign practices then pursue these goals by force (the virgins are ravished). When peasants are hewn in the vineyards, it means that the practices and qualities working for joy are ravaged.
We must then try to answer the question: What is the vanquished guilty of? In what way has a yoga that has every appearance of leading to the goal fallen short?
The answer is given by the Mother: by not having been able to adapt at every moment to the divine movement of becoming. For it is not a question of moral guilt but of evolutionary guilt.
To Satprem’s question, “Is it truly the best that happens under all circumstances?”, the Mother replied:
“It’s the best in the given the state of the world – it’s not an absolute best.
There are two things: in a total and absolute way, at every instant, it’s the best possible with regard to the divine Goal for the whole: and for someone who is consciously attuned to the divine Will, what happens is the most favourable to his own divine realization.
I think this is the correct explanation.
For the whole, it’s always, every instant, the most favourable to the divine evolution. And for the elements consciously attuned to the Divine, it’s the best for the perfection of their union.
But it shouldn’t be forgotten that it’s constantly changing, it isn’t a static best; it’s a best that, if retained, wouldn’t be the best of the next moment. And it’s because the human consciousness always tends to want to retain statically what it finds or considers to be good that it finds this best always eludes it. That effort to retain is what warps things […] But in the Manifestation, perfection is to have a movement of transformation or unfolding identical to the divine Movement, the essential Movement. Whereas all that belongs to the unconscious or tamasic creation tries to keep its existence unchanged, instead of lasting by constant transformation.”[44]
In this context, the use of force by the powerful or the reversal of yoga under the effect of a stronger evolutionary aspiration is only a movement of perfect divine action (Truly the victors were tools of the gods and their glorious servants!).
To illustrate this divine plan unknown to man we can evoke, for example, what Sri Aurobindo says about Napoleon Bonaparte:
“It has not been sufficiently perceived by his panegyrists and critics that Bonaparte was not a man at all, he was a force. Only the nature of the force has to be considered. There are some men who are self-evidently superhuman, great spirits who are only using the human body. Europe calls them supermen, we call them vibhutis. They are manifestations of Nature, of divine power presided over by a spirit commissioned for the purpose, and that spirit is an emanation from the Almighty, who accepts human strength and weakness but is not bound by them. They are above morality and ordinarily without a conscience, acting according to their own nature.”[45]
On the other hand, as long as man functions in duality, the destruction of outdated forms seems to be the rule (Else would the war-cars have ground triumphant their bones whom they hated?). But the Mother has told us that in supramental humanity, there can be transformation without destruction.
Everything and everyone serve the divine purpose and everything Is the Divine. While there may be an intervention of the forces of the spirit that we do not understand, it also appears that the law of the strongest is the law of nature as long as man has not risen above his animality (Servants of God are they verily, even as the ape and the tiger. Does not the wild-beast too triumph enjoying the flesh of his captives?).
In the lines that follow, Sri Aurobindo poses a fundamental human question: how can we justify the God who created this world of suffering and injustice? (Tell us then what was the sin of the antelope, wherefore they doomed her, wroth at her many crimes? Come, justify God to his creatures!)
He answers this question in many of his writings. The suffering we perceive as injustice is Nature’s way of getting out of Tamas, of sclerosing, immobilising inertia. At the level of the human mind, emotional and psychological suffering came with the sense of separation.
Justice must not be considered with limited human under-standing, for it is an absolute and perfect evolutionary justice whose mechanisms humanity is very far from knowing and understanding. These include the law of karma and the law of sacrifice, as expounded by Sri Aurobindo:
“The Vedic sacrifice is, psychologically, a symbol of cosmic and individual activity become self-conscious, enlightened and aware of its goal. The whole process of the universe is in its very nature a sacrifice, voluntary or involuntary. Self-fulfilment by self-immolation, to grow by giving is the universal law. That which refuses to give itself, is still the food of the cosmic Powers. “The eater eating is eaten” is the formula, pregnant and terrible, in which the Upanishad sums up this aspect of the universe, and in another passage men are described as the cattle of the gods. It is only when the law is recognised and voluntarily accepted that this kingdom of death can be overpassed and by the works of sacrifice Immortality made possible and attained. All the powers and potentialities of the human life are offered up, in the symbol of a sacrifice, to the divine Life in the Cosmos.”[46]
He also expresses this in The Synthesis of Yoga: “But the true essence of sacrifice is not self-immolation, it is self-giving; its object not self-effacement, but self-fulfillment; its method not self-mortification, but a greater life, not self-mutilation, but a transformation of our natural human parts into divine members, not self-torture, but a passage from a lesser satisfaction to a greater Ananda.”[47]
This law of sacrifice is, therefore, what is meant in the lines that follow: Not to her sins was she offered, not to the Furies or Justice, but to the strength of the lion the high gods offered a victim, force that is God in the lion’s breast with the forest for altar.
We have already seen the symbolism of the Furies or Erinyes. Justice is represented by the goddess Themis. From her union with Zeus, she gave birth to the Horae and the Moirai, who represent different aspects of divine justice (see Greek Mythology, Yoga of the West, Volume I, Chapter II, The Olympian Gods).
What, in the cities stormed and sacked by Achilles in Troas
Was there no just man slain? Was Brises then a transgressor?
Hearts that were pierced in his walls, were they sinners tracked by the Furies?
No, they were pious and just and their altars burned for Apollo,
Reverent flamed up to Pallas who slew them aiding the Argives.
Or if the crime of Paris they shared and his doom has embraced them,
Whom had the island cities offended, stormed by the Locrian,
Wave-kissed homes of peace but given to the sack and the spoiler?
Was then King Atreus just and the house accursed of Pelops, `
Tantalus’ race, whose deeds men shuddering hear and are silent? 460
Look! they endure, their pillars are firm, they are regnant and triumph.
Or are Thyestean banquets sweet to the gods in their savour?
On his way to Troy at the head of his Myrmidons, Achilles ravaged various cities in Asia. First of all, during the first expedition, he took part in the attack on the city of Teuthrania in Mysia, which had been mistaken for Troy, and where he wounded Telephus, “he who shines in the distance.”
In the Iliad, Achilles refers to the capture of eleven cities on the mainland and twelve on the islands on his way to Troy (What, in the cities stormed and sacked by Achilles in Troas was there no just man slain?). These sacked Trojan cities represent yogas similar to the one symbolised by Troy, but relatively independent. They are imbued with devotion and turned as well towards the Mind of Light as towards inner growth (No, they were pious and just and their altars burned for Apollo, reverent flamed up to Pallas who slew them aiding the Argives).
Brises, the man who works to acquire “power” (through mastery), is the father of Briseis. She was part of Achilles’ share of the spoils from the capture of Lyrnessos. Agamemnon appropriated her when he himself had to return his honoured share of the booty, the captive Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, the Trojan priest of Apollo, and the cause of Achilles’ notorious wrath (Was Brises then a transgressor?).
None of these forms and practices of yoga deviated from the right path, from the goal of yoga, which was then union with the impersonal Divine in the spirit.
And what about certain forms of yoga further removed from those practiced in Troy, and represented by the island city-states? Even if they supported the idea that the right evolutionary direction was on the side of the union with the Divine through renunciation and self-abolition, who could it offend? These practices were attacked by the consciousness of the personality, the Lesser Ajax (son of Oileus, the king of Locris, who raped Cassandra and disrespected Athena), the “small” consciousness, the one that works on individuality, impatient to foresee the results (Or if the crime of Paris they shared and his doom has embraced them, whom had the island cities offended, stormed by the Locrian).
In the last lines of this passage, the lineage of Tantalus is recalled along with the cursed descendants of Pelops, guilty of many crimes, but still reigning and laying siege to Troy (Was then King Atreus just and the house accursed of Pelops, Tantalus’ race, whose deeds men shuddering hear and are silent? Look! they endure, their pillars are firm, they are regnant and triumph).
The ancestor of the lineage, Tantalus, was a familiar of the gods and originally lived in Lydia on Mount Sipylus. He, therefore, represents the adventurer of consciousness who has reached the level of the overmind, the upper limit of the human mind, for Sipylus stands for “the gateway to human consciousness.” This adventurer imagined that his yoga was over and that it was the forces of the overmind that had to take care of his dark side, the lower, unpurified planes because he considered at the time that these planes could not be transformed. This is the symbolism of the myth of Pelops. In the earliest version, Pelops was born with a shoulder of ivory, but the gods cast him back into the short life of man as a mortal. In the best-known later version, he was killed by his father Tantalus, and served to the gods at a banquet. With the death of Pelops, the lineage would come to an end, as he had only one sister: the adventurer would then consider yoga to be over. But the gods did not see it that way and rejected the sacrifice and offering because the forces of the overmind cannot feed on dense, unpurified food coming from duality! They resurrected Pelops and endowed him with an ivory shoulder, the symbol of a half-realised union with the Divine. In fact, Demeter, distracted by the disappearance of her daughter kidnapped by Hades – the symbol of the beginning of a dialogue with the corporeal unconscious – had eaten this shoulder.
Pelops initially stayed in Lydia for a while (see the map in the present study of lines 420 ff.), but was driven out by Ilus and moved to the other side of the Aegean Sea to the region that would henceforth bear his name, the Peloponnese. There, he fought hard to win the hand of Hippodamia, “the tamed vital force,” a daughter of Oenomaus, “the quest for divine intoxication, for ecstasy”: the adventurer then starts working on the mastery of the vital through the quest for joy, the mastery hitherto exercised from the higher mind, for Hippodamia’s mother was Sterope. This is probably also the beginning of a transformation of the vital.
If Pelops, and not some hero of the Trojan lineage, joins forces with Hippodamia, it is because this latter lineage is the symbol of yogas that are not concerned with transforming the lower nature, but mainly preoccupied with realisations in the heights of the spirit.
Once dead, Tantalus becomes a symbol of the aspiration that has descended to the level of the corporeal unconscious. His pun-ishment in the Hades is justified by some because he had given nectar and ambrosia to mortals: those who are unaware of their immortality cannot feed on the ethereal food of the gods.
To celebrate his union with Hippodamia, Pelops founded the Olympic Games, the fourth and last of the great games, the culmina-tion of ancient yoga with the liberation of the spirit, the union with the impersonal Divine, the end of all desire, and the death of the ego. It is also the moment when the adventurer has reached the level of overmind that allows equal association with the gods, which is why these games were called “Olympic.”
With Atreus, son of Pelops, a reversal takes place: the desire to descend into the deep vital and the body to bring about a trans-formation and not just a mastery imposed from above, while another part of the adventurer, represented by his brother Thyestes, wants to remain in adoration. This is the struggle between that which wants to adore and that which wants to transform itself that the Mother speaks of on numerous occasions, because on the external level, adoration can be a sign of an evolutionary truth having been hijacked by religion (Was then King Atreus just and the house accursed of Pelops, Tantalus’ race, whose deeds men shuddering hear and are silent?).
The influence of these two movements alternates, with criminal episodes associated with them in the myths: the murder and dismem-berment of Thyestes’ sons by Atreus, Thyestes’ incest with his daughter, and Atreus’ murder by Aegisthus.
At the time of the Trojan War, it was Agamemnon who reigned and laid siege to Troy, while Aegisthus, who had stayed behind in Mycenae, took advantage of the situation to become the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra (Look! they endure, their pillars are firm, they are regnant and triumph. Or are Thyestean banquets sweet to the gods in their savour?)
Then there is a victory for adoration with the death of Agamem-non killed by Aegisthus who then reigns for several years, and finally a return to the right path of transformation with Orestes.
Only a woman’s heart is pursued in their wrath by the Furies!
No, when the wrestlers meet and embrace in the mighty arena,
Not at their sins and their virtues the high gods look in that trial;
Which is the strongest, which is the subtlest, this they consider.
Nay, there is none in the world to befriend save ourselves and our courage;
Prowess alone in the battle is virtue, skill in the fighting
Only helps, the gods aid only the strong and the valiant.
Put forth your lives in the blow, you shall beat back the banded aggressors. 470
Neither believe that for justice denied your subjects have left you
Nor that for justice trampled Pallas and Hera abandon.
Two are the angels of God whom men worship, strength and enjoyment.
Into this life which the sunlight bounds and the greenness has cradled,
Armed with strength we have come; as our strength is, so is our joyance.
What but for joyance is birth and what but for joyance is living?
In the first line of this passage, Paris begins by denying that the Furies or Erinyes – the forces that set us on the right path – are interested in matters of the heart, and later on he explains why (Only a woman’s heart is pursued in their wrath by the Furies!).
However, it is not so much a love story as an evolutionary misdirection.
From the point of view considered here, which looks with an impartial eye at the world as it appears to us from a limited human perspective, it seems obvious that it is not virtue that is rewarded but strength and cunning, the alliance of the masculine and feminine in what is most primitively vital (Not at their sins and their virtues the high gods look in that trial; which is the strongest, which is the subtlest, this they consider).
But the lines that follow also invite us to consider evolution from different points of view, as already mentioned: according to the laws of nature, according to the will to power, or according to the action of a particular force of the overmind embodied by Paris, which develops to its maximum.
Unlike Nietzsche, who rejected the existence of supra-human worlds, the gods are mentioned here, but they only intervene to sanction courage, skill, strength, and total involvement in the world.
The qualities mentioned can, therefore, be those expected of a yogi: courage, skill in deeds as understood in the Gita, the power derived from knowledge, and total involvement or offering of oneself (Nay, there is none in the world to befriend save ourselves and our courage; prowess alone in the battle is virtue, skill in the fighting only helps, the gods aid only the strong and the valiant. Put forth your lives in the blow, you shall beat back the banded aggressors).
Justice considered from the human point of view, such as the wise and virtuous sattvic man can bring to the pinnacle, has therefore neither reality nor truth, in the process of evolution. It is taken into consideration neither by the lower planes that are subservient to the vital nor by the higher planes that are subject to the laws of the spirit, i.e. neither by the subjects nor by the gods (Neither believe that for justice denied your subjects have left you nor that for justice trampled Pallas and Hera abandon).
In particular, the forces of the overmind that help mastery through the development of the inner being (Pallas Athena) and the force that presides over just divine movement (Hera) consider a far superior justice.
From the point of view of Nietzsche’s philosophy, we know of his attraction to Dionysus, who, for him, embodied not only enjoyment and ecstasy, but was also the symbol of a total acceptance of the opposite extremes of life, an acceptance that man had to pay homage to without giving in to renunciation, according to his formula-tions “amor fati,” the love of destiny, and “What does not kill me makes me stronger” (Twilight of the Idols, 1888). He contrasted the Apollonian light that leads into the worlds of the spirit with the mystical jubilation of Dionysus that plunges into the roots of being. For him, the pinnacle of man was the plenitude of life (Two are the angels of God whom men worship, strength and enjoyment). This also seems to be the desire of the human vital-mental nature, that of the ego.
It is also that by which and for which the forces of the overmind, the non-evolutionary forces according to the Mother and Sri Aurobin-do, work: they work by the force that has been attributed to them in evolution for the joy of realising the divine plan.
This could also be a definition of the aim of a certain form of Tantra: What is important is to accomplish superhuman and divine acts through the strength of one’s words of power (mantra).
In the following line, Sri Aurobindo situates present-day mental man between his vital “cradle,” the infancy of humanity several thousand or million years ago, and the only light we can perceive from the supramental world, the promise of a future world (Into this life which the sunlight bounds and the greenness has cradled).
We have been given a certain strength to dominate and master nature, and the greater our capacity for mastery, the greater our joy. But of course, we are talking about mastery over our own nature – our gestures, our actions, our emotions, and our thoughts – and not over the outside world (Armed with strength we have come; as our strength is, so is our joyance. What but for joyance is birth and what but for joyance is living?).
But on this earth that is narrow, this stage that is crowded, increasing
One on another we press. There is hunger for lands and for oxen,
Horses and armour and gold desired; possession allures us
Adding always as field to field some fortunate farmer. 480
Hearts too and minds are our prey; we seize on men’s souls and their bodies,
Slaves to our works and desires that our hearts may bask golden in leisure.
One on another we prey and one by another are mighty.
This is the world and we have not made it; if it is evil,
Blame first the gods; but for us, we must live by its laws or we perish.
After positing, along these lines, the quest for enjoyment through mastery as the foundation of life, Sri Aurobindo elaborates on the other two fundamental components of life, possession and power. If these three can manifest themselves at their lowest level in the vital, they can also reach the sublime heights expressed by the following words: to be, to know, and to possess the Divine.
To be the Divine is to be in the divine Ananda of manifestation. Direct and perfect Knowledge of the Divine confers practical omnipo-tence. Possession is that of Light, Truth, and complete divine Unity.
For the majority of present humanity, these three notions are manifested in their degraded forms as Sex, Power, and Money.
These engines of life are described here in a few lines that sum up several chapters of The Life Divine and, in particular, Chapter XXI, The Ascent of Life.
One might be surprised to hear such an argument coming from the mouth of the most evolved symbol of the spiritual quest, Paris. But what Sri Aurobindo wanted to express in this way is that as long as the transformation of the lower nature has not been realised, as long as it is simply a mastery exercised from above, then nothing has yet really been conquered for evolution towards a supramental humanity.
He begins with possession, which is a totally legitimate process in the early stages of evolution (see The Life Divine) but which must be gradually transmuted. First of all, the struggle to expand, extend, conquer, and possess (But on this earth that is narrow, this stage that is crowded, increasing one on another we press. There is hunger for lands and for oxen, horses and armour and gold desired; possession allures us adding always as field to field some fortunate farmer).
Then it is the extreme of this process in a mental humanity that lives in the consciousness of separation that is described. Not only does man seek to possess goods, but he also wants to seize the minds and souls of others in order to enjoy life. This alludes both to the leisure class and its corollary, pleasure, and to political regimes, both of which enslave man’s soul, overtly or insidiously (Hearts too and minds are our prey; we seize on men’s souls and their bodies, slaves to our works and desires that our hearts may bask golden in leisure).
Moreover, every human being grows through his vital and mental exchanges with others. But this is not usually a phenomenon of conscious predation, because it is a process of exchanging energies, vibrations, and knowledge, as intended by nature, through which individuals and groups evolve, in all kingdoms: plant, animal, and human (One on another we prey and one by another are mighty). This exchange takes place on every level, mental, vital, and material, right down to the cellular level, and once we become aware of it, it is impossible to think of ourselves as “isolated,” to imagine being able to abstract ourselves from the outside world.
If, from the human point of view, we consider that the world is bad, then it is possible to blame the Divine. But to do so is to have an extremely limited understanding, that of a person who thinks he could do better than the Divine (This is the world and we have not made it; if it is evil, blame first the gods; but for us, we must live by its laws or we perish).
Power is divine; divinest of all is power over mortals.
Power then the conqueror seeks and power the imperial nation,
Even as luminous, passionless, wonderful, high over all things
Sit in their calmness the gods and oppressing our grief-tortured nations
Stamp their wills on the world. Nor less in our death-besieged natures 490
Gods are and altitudes. Earth resists, but my soul in me widens
Helped by the toil behind and the agelong effort of Nature.
Even in the worm is a god and it writhes for a form and an outlet.
Workings immortal obscurely struggling, hints of a godhead
Labour to form in this clay a divinity. Hera widens,
Pallas aspires in me, Phoebus in flames goes battling and singing,
Ares and Artemis chase through the fields of my soul in their hunting.
Last in some hour of the Fates a Birth stands released and triumphant;
Poured by its deeds over earth it rejoices fulfilled in its splendour.
It is the third notion, power, that we are now talking about. After joy – ānanda – and possession, it is power that is affirmed as divine (Power is divine). Power is also legitimate because it responds to the aspiration to become master of one’s world. This is why it is sought in the animal kingdom as much as in the human kingdom, by the individual as much as by the group, both seeking to perfect their legitimate expansion and even to break the limits assigned by nature (Power then the conqueror seeks and power the imperial nation). For it seems legitimate to reach the Divine either by annihilating oneself or, conversely, by seeking power that breaks all limits until it reaches the infinite.
This is what we read in Mother’s Agenda:
“In a certain state of consciousness, it becomes absolutely impossi-ble to worry about what may happen; everything becomes visibly, obviously, the work of one and the same Force, one and the same Consciousness, one and the same Power. So that sense and will and ambition to be ‘more’ – more powerful, greater – is again the SAME Force which pushes you to expand to the Limitless. As soon as you cross the limit, it’s finished.
These are old ideas – the old ideas of powers opposing each other: the power of Good and the power of Evil, the battle between the two, which if the two will have the last word…. There was a time when children were entertained with such stories. They’re just children’s stories.
Some people (or if you like, some beings, or forces, or conscious-nesses) in order to progress need to give themselves, to merge, and in total self-annihilation they attain Realization; for others the path is diametrically opposite: it’s a growth, a domination, an expansion which assumes fantastic proportions … until separation disappears – it can no longer exist.
Some prefer this path, others prefer that one – but when we reach the end it will all meet.
Ultimately, the one thing necessary is to abolish limits … There are many ways to abolish limits.
And maybe they are equally difficult.”[48]
But this power must be exercised from the right of the Divine and not from that of the ego.
Sri Aurobindo also told us that “almighty powers are shut in Nature’s cells,”[49] the powers that man cannot obtain until he has abdicated his ego.
In the gradation of powers that are exercised from power over matter to power over energies, the power that is exercised over humans who are unaware of their immortality is also the closest to the Divine, because it is exercised by the forces of the overmind, the gods (divinest of all is power over mortals).
But man is not irremediably subject to the will of the gods. Certainly, on the one hand, the Upanishads have been able to say that men are cattle for the gods, the forces of the overmind acting without passion, in a certain light of truth stemming from the supramental (Even as luminous, passionless, wonderful, high over all things sit in their calmness the gods and oppressing our grief-tortured nations stamp their wills on the world).
But on the other hand, Sri Aurobindo reminds us that these forces are also manifest in man, waiting for him to become their equal and their master. For man must climb all the levels of the mind above the intellect once he has conquered this plane, i.e. the higher mind, the illumined mind, the intuitive mind, and the overmind where the gods reside (Nor less in our death-besieged natures Gods are and altitudes).
It is certain that the processes that Nature has put in place to stabilise forms, such as the force of inertia (tamas), resist the new, but it is also certain that the forces of the Spirit, as well as those of Nature as a whole, aspire to evolve (Earth resists, but my soul in me widens helped by the toil behind and the agelong effort of Nature). This translates into a gradual expansion of consciousness. For from the very beginning of creation and the first living forms, everything aspires to grow, to realise the perfect divine form of which it is initially only a potentiality. And to achieve this, each living form harbours one or more divine forces, because evolution takes place under the combined pressure of external and internal forces, forces of the spirit, and forces involuted in matter (Even in the worm is a god and it writhes for a form and an outlet. Workings immortal obscurely struggling, hints [touches] of a godhead labour to form in this clay a divinity).
There are many forces at work in man, belonging to different planes. The most important forces of the overmind, which are probably the most powerfully active in the present mental stage of humanity, are symbolised by the twelve Olympian gods.
The Zeus-Hera couple is the symbol of the pressure of the spirit to expand consciousness represented by Zeus and its counterpart, the movement of which Hera is the symbol, which opposes this pressure so that everything progresses at the same time according to divine law (Hera widens, in me).
Pallas/Athena is the force that supports the evolution of the inner being to master the outer being, the “need” to grow, and the aspiration to divine immortality (Pallas aspires).
Apollo/Phoebus is the force that works to establish the Mind of Light, which illuminates, destroys the shadow, and gives thanks (Phoebus in flames goes battling and singing).
Ares and Artemis are symbols of the forces that respectively destroy outdated forms of yoga or purify them, a purification that first puts everything in its rightful place and then brings it under the total influence of the Divine (Ares and Artemis chase through the fields of my soul in their hunting).
When the seeker has made sufficient progress in all these directions, a major realisation occurs at a time he cannot foresee: the union with the impersonal Divine, the second birth, or birth into the spirit. The spirit becomes free from its subjection to nature and its limitations (Last in some hour of the Fates a Birth stands released and triumphant). Liberated, it fills all levels of the being with its splendour (Poured by its deeds over earth it rejoices fulfilled in its splendour).
Conscious dimly of births unfinished hid in our being 500
Rest we cannot; a world cries in us for space and for fullness.
Fighting we strive by the spur of the gods who are in us and o’er us,
Stamping our image on men and events to be Zeus or be Ares.
Love and the need of mastery, joy and the longing for greatness
Rage like a fire unquenchable burning the world and creating,
Nor till humanity dies will they sink in the ashes of Nature.
All is injustice of love or all is injustice of battle.
Man over woman, woman o’er man, over lover and foeman
Wrestling we strive to expand in our souls, to be wide, to be happy.
The first line, while referring to the process of reincarnation, to a succession of past and future lives of which we are unconscious or barely aware, probably also evokes the latent potentialities of our being that demand to be expressed because we are a humanity in the making (Conscious dimly of births unfinished hid in our being). Powerful inner and outer forces in the worlds of the spirit are calling and urging us to evolve, to identify progressively with the infinite and eternal Divine, to break down all limits and fill our sense of income-pleteness (Rest we cannot; a world cries in us for space and for fullness. Fighting we strive by the spur of the gods who are in us and o’er us).
Under this pressure, in the arena of life, we project ourselves outwards onto others and into events, either by using our creative powers to build or by destroying (Fighting we strive stamping our image on men and events to be Zeus or be Ares). As our astrological charts show, each of us is a particular expression of the interplay of these forces within us.
Paris continues to develop the view that the interplay of the forces of nature cannot cease as long as the earth remains. No radical transformation of man that would take him out of this world of dualities is possible in the body.
This point of view denies the possibility of overcoming the interplay of the guṇas, which we discussed in Volume II, and exposes the antagonistic forces that clash in the world: unconditional love, which is perfect self-offering, versus the need of mastery; joy, which is presence in the moment, versus the longing for greatness, which leads us to live in dissatisfaction and need. This tension between opposites both destroys and creates the world. This point of view affirms that these antagonistic forces are closely linked to life and can only disappear with it (Love and the need of mastery, joy and the longing for greatness rage like a fire unquenchable burning the world and creating, nor till humanity dies will they sink in the ashes of Nature).
And in this interplay of forces, the seeker cannot bring himself to fight those he loves or to whom he is bound (All is injustice of love or all is injustice of battle). This line brings to mind Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. This great warrior, who has mastered all the weapons – in other words, all the yoga disciplines – strongly recoils when Krishna tells him that he has to fight his family members. This hurts his intelligence, his feelings, and his loyalty. He is overcome by doubts about the justice of war against his own friends and relatives.
While Paris represents the inner movement that has renounced the fruits of the work and is also ready to renounce all attachment to the work itself – the Trojan realisations – he is not yet capable of integrating spirit-matter totality in the same movement, of believing in the possibility of a divine Life in the body.
This interplay of opposites, complementary in essence, is trans-formed into a desire for domination on the lower planes. The masculine seeks to dominate the feminine and vice versa, both inside and outside us, through physical force or feminine speech, through the separating intellect or the unifying intuition (Man over woman, woman o’er man). In our quest to expand our souls, to be vast and happy, we seek to dominate those who love us or fight us, in accordance with the forces and dynamics governing the lower levels of nature (over lover and foeman wrestling we strive to expand in our souls, to be wide, to be happy).
If thou wouldst only be just, then wherefore at all shouldst thou conquer? 510
Not to be just, but to rule, though with kindness and high-seated mercy,
Taking the world for our own and our will from our slaves and our subjects,
Smiting the proud and sparing the suppliant, Trojans, is conquest.
Justice was base of thy government? Vainly, O statesman, thou liest.
If thou wert just, thou wouldst free thy slaves and be equal with all men.
Such were a dream of some sage at night when he muses in fancy,
Imaging freely a flawless world where none were afflicted,
No man inferior, all could sublimely equal and brothers
Live in a peace divine like the gods in their luminous regions.
This, O Antenor, were justice known but in words to us mortals. 520
But for the justice thou vauntest enslaving men to thy purpose,
Setting an iron yoke, nor regarding their need and their nature,
Then to say ‘I am just; I slay not, save by procedure,
Rob not save by law,’ is an outrage to Zeus and his creatures.
Terms are these feigned by the intellect making a pact with our yearnings,
Lures of the sophist within us draping our passions with virtue.
When thou art weak, thou art just, when thy subjects are strong and
remember.
From the point of view of divine justice, men always believe that things should be as they think and not as they are. Divine justice is incomprehensible to them.
From the human perspective, those who want to work for justice cannot wish to impose their own law or vision of what things should be, but judge according to the laws that have been deter-mined by the whole (If thou wouldst only be just, then wherefore at all shouldst thou conquer?). These laws are most often established by the dominant group, at worst according to personal interests, at best according to virtuous considerations. But even the best of intentions is tainted by selfishness and ignorance.
Also, this higher point of view considers the exercise of power, without particular regard for justice, as legitimate. However, this power must be used with benevolence and magnanimity (Not to be just, but to rule, though with kindness and high-seated mercy, […] Trojans, is conquest).
Man cannot judge divine justice and the place each person occupies in the world. It is not for the master to free the slave, but for the slave to cast off his chains, for man is in love with his chains.
So, the most advanced part of the being must impose its law on the whole, considering that it is its responsibility, putting down powerful ego and sparing that which shows humility (Taking the world for our own and our will from our slaves and our subjects, smiting the proud and sparing the suppliant).
Sri Aurobindo then denounces all ideas of human organisa-tion based on the principle of equality, such as Marxism, as vain chimeras and even as a lie in the present state of human nature. For man does not know how to renounce power nor is capable of doing it (Justice was base of thy government? Vainly, O statesman, thou liest. If thou wert just, thou wouldst free thy slaves and be equal with all men).
We know to what dictatorships and suffering have led us those who initially dreamt of equality and fraternity. With their limited minds, they imagined a world where everyone is sublimely equal and brotherly. If this equality-fraternity is true at the level of souls, if this unity in diversity is realised in the spirit at the level of the overmind, all souls being parcels of the Divine in unity, it is not so at the lower levels where beings are no longer similarly evolved in consciousness (Such were a dream of some sage at night when he muses in fancy, imaging freely a flawless world where none were afflicted, no man inferior, all could sublimely equal and brothers live in a peace divine like the gods in their luminous regions).
If this dream can one day be realised in a future humanity in the overmind or the supramental, it is beyond the reach of present-day mental humanity.
This speech by Paris is addressed in particular to the man who has reached the summit of mental intelligence, represented by Antenor, who must look reality in the face (This, O Antenor, were justice known but in words to us mortals).
Of course, we know that those who impose their dictatorship with a view to this equality and future happiness have all sorts of good and deceptive reasons for temporarily justifying the need for it. They then set up laws and procedures to serve their ends (But for the justice thou vauntest enslaving men to thy purpose, setting an iron yoke, nor regarding their need and their nature, then to say ‘I am just; I slay not, save by procedure, rob not save by law,’ is an outrage to Zeus and his creatures).
If we want to consider this passage from the point of view of yoga, it would be a path that, with a view to obtaining certain results or powers, would impose practices following mental considerations and unconfessed desires without considering the profound needs of one’s being (Terms are these feigned by the intellect making a pact with our yearnings).
Indeed, the mind in us can justify everything with nice reasoning whose sole aim is persuasive effectiveness, not truth. This attitude covers our desires, passions, and vices with a veil of virtue (Lures of the sophist within us draping our passions with virtue). We can quote Sri Aurobindo on this subject: “Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. The sense of virtue helps us to cherish our sins in secret.”[50]
True justice implies not a constraint but an attitude of humility that aims to eliminate punishment and allow growth of the being by remembering the consequences of wrong attitudes and actions in order to correct them, by trusting in the individual strength of each person to evolve in a just way (When thou art weak, thou art just, when thy subjects are strong and remember). Similarly, at the individual level, each part must be left free to develop to its fullest potential, and yoga must support this growth, not constrain it.
Therefore, O Trojans, be firm in your will and, though all men abandon,
Bow not your heads to reproach nor your hearts to the sin of repentance;
For you have done what the gods desired in your breasts and are blameless. 530
Proudly enjoy the earth that they gave you, enthroning their natures,
Fight with the Greeks and the world and trample down the rebellious,
What you have lost, recover, nor yield to the hurricane passing.
You cannot utterly die while the Power lives untired in your bosoms;
When ’tis withdrawn, not a moment of life can be added by virtue.
Faint not for helpers fled! Though your yoke had been mild as a father’s
They would have gone as swiftly. Strength men desire in their masters;
All men worship success and in failure and weakness abandon.
Not for his justice they clung to Teucer, but for their safety,
Seeing in Troy a head and by barbarous foemen afflicted. 540
Faint not, O Trojans, cease not from battle, persist in your labour!
Conquer the Greeks, your allies shall be yours and fresh nations your subjects.
One care only lodge in your hearts, how to fight, how to conquer.
Paris continues to harangue the Trojans encouraging them to fight.
The seeker must imperturbably follow the path he has set him-self, whatever the results of certain practices along that path, even if every other part of his being opposes the chosen path as being the right path (Therefore, O Trojans, be firm in your will and, though all men forsake you, do not bow your head under reprobation, nor your heart under the sin of repentance).
Reproach comes from judgment. The adventurer must not allow his mind to doubt the choice he made and undermine his determination. He must not let his feelings give free rein to guilt by giving in to the belief that he has taken the wrong direction in yoga. Indeed, doubt and guilt can be formidable hurdles in yoga.
In fact, the irrevocable decision to follow the goal he has set himself is the hallmark of the adventurer of consciousness. And if there is an error of judgment, it is to confuse the goal with the means.
The goal is a definitive decision. The means must be adapted to the movement of Becoming. But in this movement, there is also a law of nature which means that the unfolding of a movement is contained in its beginning and that it must go all the way to its comple-tion. This law of nature applies up to the level of the overmind in which Paris is involved, but it is no longer valid at the supramental level.
In his quest for the absolute, the adventurer has followed the course of the movement imposed by the overmind and must follow it to the end: in fact, he really has had no choice (For you have done what the gods desired in your breasts and are blameless).He must be proud of what he has realised, give credit to the forces of the overmind, and bow down before them (Proudly enjoy the earth that they gave you, enthroning their natures).
He must follow the course he has set himself, reject those who wish to change it, recover the abilities or powers that have disappeared, and stay the course in this difficult inner trial (Fight with the Greeks and the world and trample down the rebellious, what you have lost, recover, nor yield to the hurricane passing).
In the spiritual domain, power comes from spiritual knowl-edge and occult mastery. The highest spiritual knowledge is that of the overmind. As long as the forces of this plane support the orientation of yoga, the movement continues. Virtue, which has to do with mental and social considerations, cannot extend for a single second the movement initiated by the overmind and whose end has been predetermined (You cannot utterly die while the Power lives untired in your bosoms; when ’tis withdrawn, not a moment of life can be added by virtue).
Sri Aurobindo continues Paris’ discourse as if the latter were addressing ordinary men, always with a second level of understanding at the level of the most advanced yoga. That which supported the main direction of yoga towards the spirit that imposed itself on nature did so out of recognition that this was what gave the most power, and not because it seemed the most just, the most true from the point of view of evolution (Faint not for helpers fled! Though your yoke had been mild as a father’s they would have gone as swiftly. Strength men desire in their masters).
Few seekers persevere in the face of failure or inconclusive results. It takes unfailing endurance, courage, and determination to pursue yoga according to one’s initial intentions, especially when powerful movements contradict one’s hopes (All men worship success and in failure and weakness abandon. Not for his justice they clung to Teucer, but for their safety, seeing in Troy a head and by barbarous foemen afflicted).
The passage ends with an encouragement to continue along the chosen path against all odds. New experiences and realisations can then support this choice (Faint not, O Trojans, cease not from battle, persist in your labour! Conquer the Greeks, your allies shall be yours and fresh nations your subjects).
This part of the adventurer therefore encourages that which adheres to the yoga of liberation of the spirit to concentrate on just one thing: discovering the qualities and practices that will enable them to continue along their chosen path (One care only lodge in your hearts, how to fight, how to conquer).
Peace has smiled out of Phthia; a hand comes outstretched from the Hellene.
Who would not join with the godlike? who would not grasp at Achilles?
There is a price for his gifts; it is such as Achilles should ask for,
Never this nation concede. O Antenor’s golden phrases
Glorifying rest to the tired and confuting patience and courage,
Garbed with a subtlety lax and the hopes that palliate surrender!
Charmed men applaud the skilful purpose, the dexterous speaker; 550
This they forget that a Force decides, not the wiles of the statesman.
‘Now let us yield,’ do you say, ‘we will rise when our masters are weakened’?
Nay, then, our master’s master shall find us an easy possession!
Easily nations bow to a yoke when their virtue relaxes;
Hard is the breaking fetters once worn, for the virtue has perished.
Hope you when custom has shaped men into the mould of a vileness,
Hugging their chains when the weak feel easier trampled than rising
Or though they groan, yet have heart nor strength for the anguish of effort,
Then to cast down whom, armed and strong, you were mastered opposing?
Easy is lapse into uttermost hell, not easy salvation. 560
There is a great temptation for the adventurer to allow himself to be attracted by the new direction of yoga in the depths of the vital, because what encourages the adventurer to do so is what in him is most purified, and therefore closest to the gods: Achilles, son of the goddess Thetis, the symbol of that which undertakes the purification and liberation of the deep vital. This hero comes from Phthia, the province that represents the work of penetrating consciousness into matter, to the very depths of it (ΦΘ) (Peace has smiled out of Phthia; a hand comes outstretched from the Hellene. Who would not join with the godlike? who would not grasp at Achilles?).
But to embrace this yoga requires the abandonment of what this part of the being is most attached to, i.e. the renunciation of realisations and powers that it does not want to give up under any circumstances (There is a price for his gifts; it is such as Achilles should ask for, never this nation concede).
Paris continues his speech by saying that the mind (Antenor) is adept at justifying anything, supporting the need for rest and refuting endurance, patience, and courage in the present internal conflict (O Antenor’s golden phrases glorifying rest to the tired and confuting patience and courage).
These lines and those that follow, like the rest of the poem, can be read on at least two different levels.
On the external level, let us recall what Sri Aurobindo says about the poem Ilion: “Begun in prison in 1909, taken up again and completed in Pondicherry in April and May 1910.” However, we know that he worked on it throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and perhaps even later.
This passage certainly echoes his fight for the liberation of India from British colonial domination, during which he wanted to shake up the general apathy of his fellow citizens, their ignorance, and their kowtowing to the English. The Indian political institutions set up by the British justified this colonisation with a kind of admira-tion for efficiency and a culture that they considered, on many points, superior to their own.
This passage could just as easily be applied to the collabora-tionist discourse put in place by Pétain when France surrendered to Nazi Germany.
In these and many other cases, we know how clever the mind is at justifying surrender, most of the time on the pretext of avoiding greater suffering, without taking into account the occult forces at work behind the scenes, using certain human beings to achieve their ends (Garbed with a subtlety lax and the hopes that palliate surrender! Charmed men applaud the skilful purpose, the dexterous speaker; this they forget that a Force decides, not the wiles of the statesman).
As far as yoga is concerned, anyone who has practiced a little knows how easily the mind, the vital, as well as the body, give in to difficulties through a more or less subconscious cowardice that always encourages us to take the easy way out and avoid the fight. The Mother even complained about this attitude going right down to the cellular level: “It’s a combination of cowardice and spinelessness.”[51]
It is, then, the tendency to put things off that is denounced, whether in the external struggle or for taking a difficult decision in yoga. The difficulty will be much greater because the force of opposition will have increased. Each force is itself dependent on a greater force. Man is subject to the god, the god to the Titan.
If a man gives in to the former, he will have to face the latter. This is true in the outer world as well as in the inner yoga (Now let us yield,’ do you say, ‘we will rise when our masters are weakened’? Nay, then, our master’s master shall find us an easy possession!).
To illustrate this, we can also recall Sri Aurobindo’s serious warning to his disciples who sided with Nazi Germany out of hatred of the British colonisers. A victorious Germany would easily have subjugated India.
When the seeker no longer follows the indications of his inner self because of a lack of rectitude, integrity, and courage, or when he gives in to the sirens of illusion or the pressures of the vital, it is much more difficult to get out of the situations that bind. When the invader (whether real or made up of occult forces) has consolidated his hold, it becomes extremely difficult to free oneself (Easily nations bow to a yoke when their virtue relaxes; hard is the breaking fetters once worn, for the virtue has perished).
All movements that accept dependence, whatever it may be and on whatever level, make subsequent liberation very difficult. For then the methods of nature, such as repetition and inertia, which form the basis of habit, take a definitive hold on the situation (when custom has shaped men into the mould of a vileness). The primitive desire for security and the satisfaction of vital needs takes precedence over the desire for freedom.
There are two attitudes to this flight from combat: either a passive acceptance of the chains or a complaint with no effect. There is no fire in the heart and the will is no longer there to mobilise energy and defeat the oppressor because the idea of struggle becomes a source of anguish.
This applies just as much to the seeker who has to overcome great obstacles in yoga as it does to the ordinary man in love with his chains, his opinions, his dramas, and his habits, whether he accepts them with contented resignation or complains about them (Hugging their chains when the weak feel easier trampled than rising or though they groan, yet have heart nor strength for the anguish of effort).
Retreat or flight from combat inevitably leads downwards, to places where the opposition is increasingly strong and fierce (Hope you […] then to cast down whom, armed and strong, you were mastered opposing? Easy is lapse into uttermost hell, not easy salvation).
Or have you dreamed that Achilles, this son of the gods and the ocean,
Aught else can be with the strong and the bold save pursuer or master?
Know you so little the mood of the mighty? Think you the lion
Only will lick his prey, that his jaws will refrain from the banquet?
Rest from thy bodings, Antenor! Not all the valour of Troya
Perished with Hector, nor with Polydamas vision has left her;
Troy is not eager to slay her soul on a pyre of dishonour.
Still she has children left who remember the mood of their mother.
Helen none shall take from me living, gold not a drachma
Travels from coffers of Priam to Greece. 570
Achilles symbolises the most advanced level in the new evolutionary direction, the purification of the depths of the vital. Through his great-grandmother Aegina, he descends from the Titan Oceanus, who represents the process of purification-liberation, and his mother Thetis is the daughter of Nereus, “The Old Man of the Sea.” On the other hand, he symbolises a new impulse coming from the overmind, because his great-grandfather is Zeus. He can, therefore, be called the son of the gods and the ocean.
The part of the adventurer that pursues a very advanced yoga does not easily give up a goal that it is pursuing and that it wants to impose on the whole of his being (Or have you dreamed that Achilles, this son of the gods and the ocean, aught else can be with the strong and the bold save pursuer or master?).
It is not prepared to make the slightest compromise or even admit the possibility of a compromise when it comes to its goal, and it destroys all obstacles in its path without vain sentimentality (Know you so little the mood of the mighty? Think you the lion only will lick his prey, that his jaws will refrain from the banquet?).
Then it is the fears of the mind that are castigated.
In the Iliad, Polydamas, “he who masters much,” is the son of Panthous, “he who is quick at everything,” one of the elders of Troy and a priest of Apollo. He belongs to the category of soothsayers who interpret omens, as can be seen in Canto XII of the Iliad.
Paris, “equality,” or that part of the being which is most advanced in the liberation of the spirit and which supports the old yoga, assures us that this old yoga has lost neither its value nor its ability for vision. It asserts that this yoga is still powerful despite the disappearance of certain essential movements such as the will to pursue the quest towards the heights of the spirit or the ability to understand the signs that are given (Rest from thy bodings, Antenor! Not all the valour of Troya perished with Hector, nor with Polydamas vision has left her).
It also assures that, as long as it exists, it will maintain that its orientation is the truth of evolution. It asserts that there is an emergence of new forces and abilities that inherit the work already accomplished and will pursue the goal of this yoga, and that the powers acquired will be preserved (Still she has children left who remember the mood of their mother. Helen none shall take from me living, gold not a drachma travels from coffers of Priam to Greece).
Let another and older 570
Pay down his wealth if he will and his daughters serve Menelaus.
Rather from Ilion I will go forth with my brothers and kinsmen;
Troy I will leave and her shame and live with my heart and my honour
Refuged with lions on Ida or build in the highlands a city
Or in an isle of the seas or by dark-driven Pontic waters.
Dear are the halls of our childhood, dear are the fields of our fathers,
Yet to the soul that is free no spot on the earth is an exile.
Rather wherever sunlight is bright, flowers bloom and the rivers
Flow in their lucid streams to the Ocean, there is our country.
So will I live in my soul’s wide freedom, never in Troya 580
Shorn of my will and disgraced in my strength and the mock of my rivals.
Paris is one of Priam’s fifty sons, the last-born of the nineteen he had with Hecuba. Rather than give in to that which wants to purify the depths, this equality and perfect mastery, that opposes all com-promise, considers various other possibilities for pursuing what it believes to be the truth of evolution, regardless of what happens to the old structures (Let another and older pay down his wealth if he will and his daughters serve Menelaus. Rather from Ilion I will go forth with my brothers and kinsmen; Troy I will leave and her shame and live with my heart and my honour).
Either it will retreat to the heights of union with the Divine in the spirit where courage and strength reside (Refuged with lions on Ida), or to a new “structure” also established in the heights of the spirit (or build in the highlands a city), or, finally, isolated from any yoga structure or just on the edge of the yoga that aims to purify the depths of the vital, the Pontos Euxeinos or the Black Sea (Or in an isle of the seas or by dark-driven Pontic waters).
Although there is still a certain attachment to the structures of the old yogas and their methods, freedom of spirit and equality enable us to detach ourselves from everything and to be wherever the light can act, wherever life is in full bloom and energies flow freely (Dear are the halls of our childhood, dear are the fields of our fathers, yet to the soul that is free no spot on the earth is an exile. Rather wherever sunlight is bright, flowers bloom and the rivers flow in their lucid streams to the Ocean, there is our country).
This equality in no way wants to descend into the lower, untransformed planes where it would lose strength and mastery. The Mother explains that the yoga of the depths implies abandoning the will imposed from above on the outer being, which is not under-stood by some Tantrics, for example (So will I live in my soul’s wide freedom, never in Troya shorn of my will and disgraced in my strength and the mock of my rivals).
First had you yielded, shame at least had not stained your surrender.
Strength indulges the weak! But what Hector has fallen refusing,
Men! what through ten loud years we denied with the spear for our answer,
That what Trojan will ever renounce, though his city should perish?
Once having fought we will fight to the end nor that end shall be evil.
Clamour the Argive spears on our walls? Are the ladders erected?
Far on the plain is their flight, on the farther side of the Xanthus.
If the part of the being that defended the old yogas had rallied to the new movement from the outset, that would have been under-standable. But everything that has been mobilised in this inner struggle over these symbolic ten years cannot accept a belated surrender (What through ten loud years we denied with the spear for our answer, that what Trojan will ever renounce, though his city should perish?).
There is as yet no proof that the new yoga is the evolutionary path that the adventurer must follow, and so the determination to pursue the old path of yoga must be maintained to the end. The new yoga falls short of the renunciation movement on which the old yoga was based (Once having fought we will fight to the end nor that end shall be evil. Clamour the Argive spears on our walls? Are the ladders erected? Far on the plain is their flight, on the farther side of the Xanthus).
Where are the deities hostile? Vainly the eyes of the tremblers
See them stalking vast in the ranks of the Greeks and the shoutings 590
Dire of Poseidon they hear and are blind with the aegis of Pallas.
Who then sustained so long this Troy, if the gods are against her?
Even the hills could not stand save upheld by their concert immortal.
Now not with Tydeus’ son, not now with Odysseus and Ajax
Trample the gods in the sound of their chariot-wheels, victory leading:
Argos falls red in her heaps to their scythes; they shelter the Trojans;
Victory unleashed follows and fawns upon Penthesilea.
Some parts of the adventurer feel that the powers of the overmind support the new yoga, but the mastery movement assures us that this is not so, that they have always supported the old yoga and will continue to do so (Who then sustained so long this Troy, if the gods are against her?). This point of view claims that nothing in the being should tremble with fear when perceiving these forces: neither the perception of their imposing grandeur, nor the terrible manifestations in the subconscious, nor that which blinds so that the adventurer loses the sense of right direction (Where are the deities hostile? Vainly the eyes of the tremblers see them stalking vast in the ranks of the Greeks and the shoutings dire of Poseidon they hear and are blind with the aegis of Pallas).
If these forces, in their eternal unity, were not on the side of the old yoga, even the supports of aspiration towards the heights of the spirit would have disappeared (Even the hills could not stand save upheld by their concert immortal).
This part of the being goes on to assert that the forces of the overmind do not support the Achaeans led by Diomedes, “he who cares for the divine,” Odysseus, “he who works for the free flow of energies between spirit and matter, bringing these two planes together,” and Ajax, “the highest consciousness” (Now not with Tydeus’ son, not now with Odysseus and Ajax trample the gods in the sound of their chariot-wheels). It also asserts that these forces contribute to the destruction of everything that works to purify the lower being, and it is the realisation of the liberation of the spirit acquired through perfect detachment, renunciation, and mastery that advances victoriously (Argos falls red in her heaps to their scythes; they shelter the Trojans; victory unleashed follows and fawns upon Penthesilea).
Ponder no more, O Ilion, city of ancient Priam!
Rise, O beloved of the gods, and go forth in thy strength to the battle.
Not by the dreams of Laocoon strung to the faith that is febrile, 600
Nor with the tremblings vain and the haunted thoughts of Antenor,
But with a noble and serious strength and an obstinate valour
Suffer the shock of your foes, O nation chosen by Heaven;
Proudly determine on victory, live by disaster unshaken.
Either Fate receive like men, nay, like gods, nay, like Trojans.”
So like an army that streams and that marches, speeding and pausing,
Drawing in horn and wing or widened for scouting and forage,
Bridging the floods, avoiding the mountains, threading the valleys,
Fast with their flashing panoply clad in gold and in iron
Moved the array of his thoughts; and throughout delight and approval 610
Followed their march, in triumph led but like prisoners willing,
Glad and unbound to a land they desire. Triumphant he ended,
Lord of opinion, though by the aged frowned on and censured,
But to this voice of their thoughts the young men vibrated wholly.
Now is not the time to procrastinate. Commitment to the old yoga must be total, without being trapped by false intuitions supported by doubt and without the fears and obsessions of the higher mind (Ponder no more, O Ilion, city of ancient Priam! Rise, O beloved of the gods, and go forth in thy strength to the battle. Not by the dreams of Laocoon strung to the faith that is febrile, nor with the tremblings vain and the haunted thoughts of Antenor).
The adventurer must call on his inner strength and determi-nation since the forms of yoga that were introduced were the result of divine action (But with a noble and serious strength and an obstinate valour suffer the shock of your foes, O nation chosen by Heaven).
He must be capable of accepting success or failure, victory or defeat, with the same equality of soul. He calls on the whole being to rise to the highest level of its practices, or better still to the level of the overmind, or better still to the freedom of the Spirit (Proudly determine on victory, live by disaster unshaken. Either Fate receive like men, nay, like gods, nay, like Trojans”).
This point of view, developed here by Sri Aurobindo as the most advanced of the old yogas, seems perfect in its rhythmic expression of progress, broadening and temporisation in order to integrate experiences or regain strength, in its ability to cross the currents of energy or circumvent the difficulties of ascent with skill and prudence (So like an army that streams and that marches, speeding and pausing, drawing in horn and wing or widened for scouting and forage, bridging the floods, avoiding the mountains, threading the valleys).
It is a perfect organisation of thought, as brilliant as it is unquestionable, and it develops rapidly (Fast with their flashing panoply clad in gold and in iron moved the array of his thoughts;).
It subdues and captivates the other parts of the being linked to the old yoga, and restores their confidence in themselves and in the goal they are pursuing (and throughout delight and approval Followed their march, in triumph led but like prisoners willing, glad and unbound to a land they desire).
But this perfect organisation of thought is not completely ensured against the possibility of various influences, and that is why Sri Aurobindo calls it the lord of opinion. The parts of the being that through experience have acquired a certain discernment do not support this position, while the inexperienced parts are conquered by its charisma (Triumphant he ended, lord of opinion, though by the aged frowned on and censured, but to this voice of their thoughts the young men vibrated wholly).
Loud like a storm on the ocean mounted the roar of the people.
“Cease from debate,” men cried, “arise, O thou warlike Aeneas!
Speak for this nation, launch like a spear at the tents of the Hellene
Ilion’s voice of war!” Then up mid a limitless shouting
Stern and armed from his seat like a war-god helmed Aeneas `
Rose by King Priam approved in this last of Ilion’s sessions, 620
Holding the staff of the senate’s authority. “Silence, O commons,
Hear and assent or refuse as your right is, masters of Troya,
Ancient and sovereign people, act that your kings have determined
Sitting in council high, their reply to the strength of Achilles.
Then it is Aeneas, “the evolving consciousness,” who is called by what is attached to the old yoga not to state his point of view, but to transmit the decision of the old yoga to the whole being (“Arise, O thou warlike Aeneas! Speak for this nation, launch like a spear at the tents of the Hellene Ilion’s voice of war!”).
What works towards the future evolution of consciousness has the full support of old yoga (mid a limitless shouting). The inner conflict is nearing its denouement (in this last of Ilion’s sessions). All the modalities of the old yoga are called upon to pronounce themselves sovereignly on the decision to reject the new orientation of yoga, whatever the consequences (Hear and assent or refuse as your right is, masters of Troya, ancient and sovereign people, act that your kings have determined sitting in council high, their reply to the strength of Achilles).
Although quite opposite points of view have been expressed, it is, in fact, Paris’ view that the essential forms and practices of old yoga support and call on the rest of the being to support in the same way.
‘Son of the Aeacids, vain is thy offer; the pride of thy challenge
Rather we choose; it is nearer to Dardanus, King of the Hellenes.
Neither shall Helen be led back, the Tyndarid, weeping to Argos,
Nor down the paths of peace revisit her fathers’ Eurotas.
Death and the fire may prevail o’er us, never our wills shall surrender
Lowering Priam’s heights and darkening Ilion’s splendours. 630
Not of such sires were we born, but of kings and of gods, O Larissan.
Not with her gold Troy traffics for safety, but with her spear-points.
Stand with thy oath in the war-front, Achilles; call on thy helpers
Armed to descend from the calm of Olympian heights to thy succour
Hedging thy fame from defeat; for we all desire thee in battle,
Mighty to end thee or tame at last by the floods of the Xanthus.’”
What has the strongest influence in this part of consciousness is stating the outcome it proposes for this inner conflict. It maintains that the right evolutionary path cannot be that of purification of the lower levels of one’s being (Neither shall Helen be led back, the Tyndarid, weeping to Argos), nor can it be a return to the aspiration towards a greater liberation of Nature (Nor down the paths of peace revisit her fathers’ Eurotas). We need to remember that Eurotas is the river that flows through Sparta, ”that which arises,” the land of Menelaus.
It is the total disappearance of the old forms that it chooses rather than their assimilation into the new yoga. Determination will not waver, so that the brilliance of past realisations will never be dimmed or tarnished (Death and the fire may prevail o’er us, never our wills shall surrender lowering Priam’s heights and darkening Ilion’s splendours).
It asserts that this old yoga was not conceived by a humanity full of weaknesses, but by the highest human powers and by the forces of the overmind (Not of such sires were we born, but of kings and of gods, O Larissan).
It will not sell off its assets (Not with her gold Troy traffics for safety).
Finally, it challenges the yoga of the depths to call upon the powers of the overmind to support it, for this old yoga wishes to put an end to this new yoga which claims to be leading evolution (Armed to descend from the calm of Olympian heights to thy succour hedging thy fame from defeat; for we all desire thee in battle).
Because now, this old yoga has accumulated enough strength to dominate, supported by the energy of renunciation (Mighty to end thee or tame at last by the floods of the Xanthus).
So Aeneas resonant spoke, stern, fronted like Ares,
And with a voice that conquered the earth and invaded the heavens
Loud they approved their doom and fulfilled their impulse immortal.
Last Deiphobus rose in their meeting, head of their mellay: 640
“Proudly and well have you answered, O nation beloved of Apollo;
Fearless of death they must walk who would live and be mighty for ever.
Now, for the sun is hastening up the empyrean azure,
Hasten we also. Tasting of food round the call of your captains
Meet in your armed companies, chariots and hoplites and archers.
Strong be your hearts, let your courage be stern like the sun when it blazes;
Fierce will the shock be today ere he sink blood-red in the waters.”
They with a voice as of Oceans meeting rose from their session, —
Filling the streets with her tread Troy strode from her Ilian forum.
This position, expressed with a force that seems implacable by what is working on the evolutionary future in the heights of the mind, strongly influences the whole being, from the body to the heights of the spirit (So Aeneas resonant spoke, stern, fronted like Ares, and with a voice that conquered the earth and invaded the heavens).
All the components of this old yoga cannot but support this decision, even if it leads to its disappearance. For every movement must develop to its end: its end is included in the initial impulse, which in this case is the aspiration to unite with the Divine in spirit and to merge with It, the aspiration that can never cease (Loud they approved their doom and fulfilled their impulse immortal).
What, from the point of view of old yoga, has the last word in this inner conflict and sustains the decision is that which has worked for the cessation of all fear, Deiphobus, “who destroyed fear (by inner fire)” (Last Deiphobus rose in their meeting, head of their mellay). The union with the Divine within annihilates all fear of death, because the being then knows that it is eternal (Proudly and well have you answered, O nation beloved of Apollo; fearless of death they must walk who would live and be mighty for ever).
The next line probably refers to the action of the supramental light that spreads through the mind “ablaze” at this moment in yoga (Now, for the sun is hastening up the empyrean azure).
This is why the forces of old yoga must gather in haste for the final inner battle (Hasten we also).
The old yoga knows that the last moments of the inner conflict will be very difficult, requiring fiery and inflexible courage (Strong be your hearts, let your courage be stern like the sun when it blazes; fierce will the shock be today ere he sink blood-red in the waters).
Sri Aurobindo then compares the forms of the old yogas that are mobilised to the currents of consciousness/energy that have converged, these currents being like “Oceans”: They with a voice as of Oceans meeting rose from their session, — filling the streets with her tread Troy strode from her Ilian forum.
****
[1] Sri Aurobindo, CWSA Vol. 19. Essays on the Gita. Second Series. The Supreme Secret.
[2] Ilion, Book II, line 221
[3] Ilion, Book II, line 289
[4] Ilion, Book II, line 290
[5] Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations: The Refusal of the Ascetic.
[6] Ilion, Book III, line 30
[7] On this subject, see what the Mother says about Satprem’s guru in the Agenda, particularly in Volume II, entry for April 12, 1961.
[8] Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, The Two Negations: The Refusal of the Ascetic.
[9] Ilion, Book VIII: The Book of the Gods, lines 440ff.
[10] Ilion, Book VIII: The Book of the Gods, lines 552ff.
[11] The Life Divine, Chapter XXVI, The Ascent towards Supermind.
[12] Mother’s Agenda, Volume I, October 17, 1958
[13] Mother, On Education: Students’ Prayer, January 6, 1952, “Make of us the hero warriors we aspire to become. May we fight successfully the great battle of the future that is to be born, against the past that seeks to endure; so that the new things may manifest and we may be ready to receive them.”
[14] CWM, Words of the Mother–II, Sincerity, 7 July 1957
[15] The Mother. Questions and Answers, 1957-1958, 15 January 1958
[16] Homer, Iliad, Book XVI, lines 666-675.
[17] Mother’s Agenda, Volume VI, September 25, 1965
[18] See Mother’s Agenda, Volume V, September 26, 1964
[19] See Mother’s Agenda, Volume II, entry for April 18, 1961.
[20] The Odyssey, Book XI, Tr. By A.T.Murray, line 572
[21] Ref. Sri Aurobindo, Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, The Signs of Maya.
[22] According to Aethiopis and Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca, Epitome 4.7.
[23] Mother’s Agenda, Volume VI, January 12, 1965
[24] “Armipotent” means “powerful in battle.”
[25] In particular in Book I, Canto III, lines 696 ff
[26] Book II, Chapter XXVI, The Ascent towards Supermind, p 984
[27] Cf. Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
[28] Mother’s Agenda, Volume VI, September 25, 1965.
[29] Letter from Satprem to an Aurovillian, Frederick, March 27, 1976.
[30] See Mother’s Agenda, Volume 7, 16 April, 1966.
[31] Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Part II – The Supreme Secret, Commentary on Canto XVIII, Swabhava and Swadharma, p. 506.
[32] The Life Divine, Book I, Chapter III, The Two Negations: The Refusal of the Ascetic.
[33] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Book III.12.5, Translation By J.G.Frazer.
[34] Ibid.
[35] See Mother’s Agenda, Volume IV, entry for July 24, 1963.
[36] Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Book II, Chapter XXVI, The Ascent towards Supermind.
[37] Ibid, pp 976-977.
[38] Ibid, pp 977-978.
[39] Ibid, pp 978-981.
[40] Horace, The Odes and Epodes, with an English translation by C.E.Bennett, London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1912.
[41] Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, Shorter Works 1910-1950, The Superman.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Mother, Translation and Commentaries on Thoughts and Aphorisms of Sri Aurobindo, Jnana, Aphorism 6.
[44] Mother’s Agenda, Volume VI, May 19, 1965.
[45] Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings, Part VI, quoted in Jnana Aphorism 29: “One called Napoleon a tyrant and imperial cut-throat; but I saw God armed striding through Europe.”
[46] The Secret of the Veda (1.77.5)
[47] Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Part One: The Yoga of Divine Works, Chapter IV, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice
[48] Mother’s Agenda, Volume IV, 3 July 1963.
[49] Savitri, Book IV, Canto III.
[50] Thoughts and Aphorisms, Aphorism 69.
[51] Mother’s Agenda, Volume VI, May 8, 1965.