For him mind’s limiting firmament ceased above.
In the griffin forefront of the Night and Day
A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault;
The conscious ends of being went rolling back:
The landmarks of the little person fell,
The island ego joined its continent.
Overpassed was this world of rigid limiting forms:
Life’s barriers opened into the Unknown.
In earlier lines we read Aswapati being transformed into a Seer, by the Divine 'Presence' at work. In next lines here Sri Aurobindo is describing few qualities of Aswapati as a Seer. He says: Aswapati overcame the limiting states of a conventional mind. He was no longer stuck in those limited and fixed states from which a conventional man is unable to go beyond. 'Griffin' is a dual combination of lion and eagle who are symbolic of the powers on the land and sky. A griffin is at the forefront of duality of Night and Day, and with his powers dragging a conventional man through those powers of duality of a material word. However for Aswapati, an opening was made in the buried dual grave of mind that hides the truth and wisdom of synthesis beyond. His consciousness was transformed beyond conventional being and he had conquered the powerful pull of griffin. The landmarks or limited features of the little lower self were left behind. An indvidual ego is like an island separated from the huge and vaster continental shores of Truth and Wisdom of the higher self. The island of lower ego or self connected with its higher self or soul as if the surrounding waters dried up leading to Oneness. The rigid limiting forms of the personality in material world were bridged with higher self. Life's barriers were overcome by Aswapti opening into the Unknown.
The powerful pull of duality symbolized by a 'griffin' was conquered by Seer Aswapati.
On Duality in Theosophy
"It was also decided to make the line of demarcation between the two forces of matter and spirit clearly defined; the inherent duality of all manifestation was emphasised, with the aim in view of teaching men who want to liberate themselves from the limitations of the fourth, or human kingdom, and thus pass on into the fifth, or spiritual. The problem of good or evil, light or darkness, right or wrong, was enunciated solely for the benefit of humanity, and to enable men to cast off the fetters which imprisoned spirit, and thus achieve spiritual freedom. This problem exists not in the kingdoms below man, nor for those who transcend the human. Man has to learn through experience and pain the fact of the duality of all existence. Having thus learnt, he chooses that which concerns the fully conscious spirit aspect of divinity, and learns to centre himself in that aspect. Having thus achieved liberation he finds indeed that all is one, that spirit and matter are a unity, naught existing save that which is to be found within the consciousness of the Planetary Logos, and—in wider circles—within the consciousness of the Solar Logos.
The Hierarchy thus took advantage of the discriminative faculty of mind, which is the distinctive quality of humanity, to enable him, through the balancing of the pairs of opposites, to reach his goal, and to find his way back to the source from whence he came.
This decision led to that great struggle which distinguished the Atlantean civilization, and which culminated in the destruction called the flood, referred to in all the Scriptures of the world. The forces of light, and the forces of darkness, were arrayed against each other, and this for the helping of humanity. The struggle still persists, and the World War through which we have just passed was a recrudescence of it. On every side in that World War two groups were to be found, those who fought for an ideal as they saw it, for the highest that they knew, and those who fought for material and selfish advantage. In the struggle of these influential idealists or materialists many were swept in who fought blindly and ignorantly, being thus overwhelmed with racial karma and disaster."
- Initiation, Human, Solar.
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