<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; ">
<title>The Tragic Spirit in Nature</title>
</head>

<body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in'>

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
	<tr>
		<td>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB; font-weight:700'><font size="4">The
Tragic Spirit in Nature</font><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class=Section1>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>T</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>HE</span><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> wages of
sin, it is said, is death. Well, it can, with equal if not greater truth, be
said that the wages of virtue too is death! It seems as though on this mortal
earth nothing great or glorious can be achieved which is not marred somehow or
other, sometime or other. The blazon of virtue goes very rarely without a bar
sinister branded across. Some kind of degradation, ignominy or frustration
always attends or rounds. <span class=GramE>off</span> the spectacle of wonder.
In the moral world too there seems to exist an inexorable law that action and
reaction are equal in degree and opposite in kind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>The
glorious First Consul and Emperor did not end in a­blaze of glory: he had to
live and die as the commonest of prisoners. Even his great prototype, the
mighty Caesar, did not meet a different fate – he too fell – </span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>0, what a
fall was there, my countrymen!<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Then I,
and you, and all of us fell down, ¹<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>A Jeanne <span
class=SpellE>d'Arc</span>, another glorious creature, Deliverer of France, the
sweetest thing that ever put on a human body, was burnt as a witch. Socrates
had to drink the hemlock for having brought down heavenly knowledge upon earth.
The Christ, God's own son and beloved, perished on the Cross. <st1:place>Krishna</st1:place>, the
Avatara, was killed by a chance arrow; and Arjuna, the peerless hero of <span
class=SpellE>Kurukshetra</span>, <st1:place>Krishna</st1:place>'s
favourite, had to see days when he could not even lift his own bow with which
he once played havoc. And in our own days, a Rama­krishna, who could cure <span
class=GramE>souls</span> could not cure his own cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:1.8in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB'>¹ Shakespeare: <i>Julius Caesar, </i>Act III, Sc. II <span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span>
<span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
2.4pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;
border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>­Page-116<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>This is
the &quot;tears of things&quot; – spoken of by a great poet – the tragedy that
is lodged in the hearts of things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>There runs
a pessimistic vein in Nature's movement. Due to the original Inconscience out
of which she is built and also because of a habit formed through millenniums it
is not possible for her to expect or envisage anything else than decay, death
and frustration in the end or on the whole. To every rise there must be a fall,
a crest must end in a trough. Nature has <span class=GramE>not the courage nor</span>
the faculty to look for any kind of perfection upon earth. Not that within her
realm one cannot or should not try for the good; the noble, even the perfect,
but one must be ready to pay the price. Good there is and may be, but it is
suffered only on payment of its <span class=SpellE>Danegeld</span> to Evil.
That is the law of sacrifice that seems to be fundamental to Nature's
governance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>The Evil,
we have said, is nothing else than the basis of unconsciousness or Inconscience
in Nature. It is this which pulls the being – whatever structure of
consciousness can be reared upon it-down to decay and frustration. It is the
force of gravitation or inertia. Matter is unconsciousness; the body, formed
basically of matter, is unconsciousness too. The natural tendency of Matter is
towards disintegration and dissolution; the body, therefore, is <span
style='mso-bidi-font-style:italic'>mortal <i>– <span class=SpellE>bhasmantamidam</span>
<span class=SpellE>sariram</span>. </i>The scope and range of
mortality is measured by the scope and range of unconsciousness. Matter is the
most concrete and solid form of unconsciousness; but it casts its shadow upon
the higher levels too – life and mind always lie in the penumbra of this
original evil.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:14.6pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><span
style='mso-tab-count:1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>A great personality means a great rise in
consciousness, therefore it means also a strain upon the normal consciousness
and hence a snap or scission sometime and somewhere. As the poet describes the
tragic phenomenon –</span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>– poised
on the unreachable abrupt<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:37.65pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>snow-solitary</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> ascent<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Earth
aspiring lifts to the illimitable Light,<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:37.65pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span class=GramE><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>then</span><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> ceases broken and
spent, ¹…<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:37.65pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>The
tragedy can happen in either of two ways. The in-<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.25in;line-height:
150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>¹ Sri Aurobindo:
&quot;In <span class=SpellE>Horis</span> <span class=SpellE>Aeternum</span>&quot;,
<i>Collected Poems </i>&amp; <i>Plays</i></span><i><span lang=EN-GB
style='mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;line-height:150%;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none;border:medium none;
mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Page-117</span></p>

</div>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
class=SpellE><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
EN-GB'>individual's</span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> own unconsciousness can reach and overthrow and spoil
his higher poise, or the collective unconsciousness too can invade and
overwhelm the individual in his high status, who is declared, not unoften, the highbrow, an enemy of the people – although
atonement is sometimes attempted at a late period (as in the case of the Christ
or Jeanne d'Arc). A way, however, was discovered in <st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'> by which
one could avoid this life's inevitable tragic denouement. It was very simple, viz, to rise up from the inert ignorant unconsciousness,
rise sufficiently high and fly or shoot into the orbits of other suns from
where there is no more <span class=GramE>downfall</span>, being totally free
from all earthly downpull.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:27.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>But this
need not be the only solution. Matter (the basic unconsciousness) was the
master in this material world <span class=GramE>because,</span> it was not
properly faced and negotiated. One sought to avoid and bypass it. It was there
Sphinx-like and none stopped to answer its riddle. The mystery is this. Matter,
material Nature that is dubbed unconsciousness is not really so. That is only
an appearance. Matter is truly <i>inconscient, </i>that is to say, it has an
inner core of consciousness which is its true reality. This hidden flame of
consciousness should be brought out from its cave and made manifest, dynamic on
the surface. Then it will easily and naturally agree to submit to the higher
law of Immortality. This would mean a reconditioning, a trans­mutation of the
very basis of mind and life. The material foundation, the body conditions thus
changed will bring about that status of the wholeness of consciousness which
holds and stabilises the Divine in the human frame, which never suffers from
any scar or diminution even in its terrestrial embodiment.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<div style='border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;mso-border-bottom-alt:
solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in'>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-indent:27.0pt;
line-height:150%;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none;border:medium none;mso-border-bottom-alt:solid windowtext .75pt;padding:0in;
mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>Page-118<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

  <p class=MsoNormal align="right" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><a href="-000_Content"><img src="_Gif%20file/shome.gif" width="61" height="28" border="0"></a></p>

</div>

		</td>
	</tr>
</table>
</body>

</html>
