Canto 18Descent

Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947

Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947

Descent

All my cells thrill swept by a surge of splendour,

Soul and body stir with a mighty rapture,

5Light and still more light like an ocean billows

Over me, round me.

Rigid, stonelike, fixed like a hill or statue,

Vast my body feels and upbears the world’s weight;

Dire the large descent of the Godhead enters

10Limbs that are mortal.

Voiceless, thronged, Infinity crowds upon me;

Presses down a glory of power eternal;

Mind and heart grow one with the cosmic wideness;

Stilled are earth’s murmurs.

15Swiftly, swiftly crossing the golden spaces

Knowledge leaps, a torrent of rapid lightnings;

Thoughts that left the Ineffable’s flaming mansions,

Blaze in my spirit.

Slow the heart-beats’ rhythm like a giant hammer’s;

20Missioned voices drive to me from God’s doorway

Words that live not save upon Nature’s summits,

Ecstasy’s chariots.

All the world is changed to a single oneness;

Souls undying, infinite forces, meeting,

25Join in God-dance weaving a seamless Nature,

Rhythm of the Deathless.

Mind and heart and body, one harp of being,

Cry that anthem, finding the notes eternal, —

Light and might and bliss and immortal wisdom

30Clasping for ever.