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The Story of Dr. Faustus Retold DR. Faust, as you know, you must have seen him on our school stage, was a very learned man. His ambition was to acquire all knowledge, knowledge of all subjects, of all arts and sciences. But he wanted not only to be a doctor of theories but of practice also, not only a learned man but a man of power in addition – not only to know but to control. Universal nature was his field and he sought not only to measure and survey the outside but to probe into her deeper secret mysteries. In those days there was a line of inquiry pursued by savants that was called occultism. The occultist sought to discover the secret and subtle forces of nature through which one could influence and control outer and material things and happenings. In this field there were the alchemists whose attempt was to transform lead into gold, that is to say, manipulate forces and elements in nature in such a way that mere lead would be turned into pure gold. So, our Dr. Faust, in tune with these magicians as they were commonly known, ventured into this region to possess the power over the forces of nature. This control over nature could go to the extent of producing what we know as miracles, for example, you ask for a thing, anything whatsoever, and it is there before you; you want to go some place, you will the thing and you are there like a flash of lightning. You can even make people do what you want to be done. One
day when Dr. Faust was deeply engaged in this interesting occupation, suddenly
he saw standing in front of him a figure – a strange figure, black, robed in
black, huge in stature – he was taken by surprise. Half in curiosity, half in
fear he asked who he was. The figure answered: he was what Dr. Faust wanted,
that is to say, he could give Faust whatever he wanted, he was that Power. Dr.
Faust questioned him and he
Page – 397 was answered that the person was indeed what he was claiming to be. Faust was to ask only to have the thing he wanted. Faust could have more and more knowledge, more and more power. Not only that, but something infinitely greater and more precious. Dr. Faust wanted to know what that was. "Infinite pleasure, infinite delight. You will never be sad or sorrowful, never suffer, I will give you perfect enjoyment." This ambitious greedy man swallowed the bait. Faust asked whether it was all true – what he was professing. The person answered: "More than what I have promised, I will give you. But it is give and take, you can take only when you give." "Give! What can I give? What have I got?" Oh! it is nothing, it is just a trifle. You won't ever know that you are giving. Ready?" "Ready? Yes, quite. But just tell me what it is?" "Oh! it is indeed nothing – your soul!" "Soul?" Faust did not know what the soul was. He nodded assent, strange to say, somewhat hesitatingly – although so eager and ardent till now. Take it then, he said. In
the meanwhile, somewhere in the background of his mind, he felt a little queer,
just a twitch, felt the presence of something, even perhaps saw a figure deep
inside or far off on the horizon. The other one that was talking to him was a
dark black huge, even ominous shape. But this one, although some what vague,
was robed in white and luminous, even soft like a moonbeam. The Doctor, a
little stunned, gazed and gazed at the luminous spot, rubbed his eyes, heaved a
sigh, and said: "It is nothing, just an illusion", but it was his
soul visiting him to give him a warning. He however turned away and looked at
the tempter and with a snatch of bravado delcared: "I am ready. Take my
soul and give me all that you promise", and thus with his consent, through
his free choice, the Devil approached him, opened his breast and took out his
soul. As the operation was being done, he felt a great shadow, an infinite sadness
invading him but he pushed it away and told his master: "Now bring me all
that I want and all that you promised." Henceforth he virtually became
lord of all things, he was taken to all kinds of worlds, offered all kinds of
powers and all enjoyments, the asta-siddhi of our Indian yoga – levitation,
gravitation, telekinesis – anima, laghima etc. – were within
his grasp. Even then at times a great dissatisfaction rose within him as
Page – 398 from a secret fount and he found himself unconsciously uttering "Oh God! Oh God!" And he used to glimpse at a distance that white vague moonlight-figure. But the Devil used to reappear immediately and threaten him: "You are going to lose everything, drive away all those illusions, be your normal self, come with me, I will show you greater miracles." He was taken to the world of beauty and beauties, the source of poignant delight, even the most poignant of all, a human physical love. He saw there rising before his eyes her who was the most beautiful woman in the world. Bewitched, beside himself, he cried out: Is this the face that launched a thousand ships And
burnt the topless towers of
It was the Helen of Troy. At the extreme end of the journey Satan was slowly dragging him on towards the brink from where, once down, there is no return. In the very midst of all superhuman ecstasy he felt, he was being burnt up and yearningly looked for the soothing moonlight-beam that he had left. The yearning was so intense and sincere that all at once he felt a cloud burst and the dark shape of the Devil scattered into bits and he rose from a dream as it were, a happy new-born soul. I will tell you now the moral of it. Each one of us, each human being has, or rather is, a soul. In reality we have or are two beings – an external outside being with its outward body and heart and mind, with all their ordinary desire movements and within that as under a cover lies your true being, your soul, that is made not of desire but of Truth. The outer person of desire is made of ignorance and unconsciousness, the true person or soul is made of truth and consciousness. Always there is a struggle between the two, the inner being, your true divine being is always trying to express itself through the lower and outward limbs, impress itself upon them but normally with very little result. These outer limbs are more obedient to the world forces of ignorance and falsehood, their lord is the anti-Divine,
¹ These lines of Marlowe are
often quoted by Sri Aurobindo as an example to show the height of poetic beauty
which the English language is capable of expressing.
Page – 399 whose name is Satan. A legend says that at the beginning of creation there was a wager between God and Satan. Satan said: "I am here to win away your children from you and make of them my slaves." God said: "My sons can never be your bond-slaves. You may test and try them, you may believe for a time you have won but your trials and ordeals only make them stronger in their inner being and they all come back to me." The soul is never lost, there is no eternal hell. But
man, the human soul, has to go through hell, that is to say, through trials and
tribulations and ordeals in order to reach heaven. We know there are
innumerable legends to illustrate the point. You must have read, all of you,
stories of saints, how they were tempted and obstructed by hostile forces, the
armies of the undivine. The great Buddha before his illumination as he sat
under the Bo-tree firmly resolved on pursuing in his inner consciousness the
path of realisation till the very end, was surrounded – we should say today,
'gheraoed' – by all the varieties of dark forces, forces of ambition, of
passion, of attachment, of enjoyment: they pleaded, they threatened, tried to
draw him away by violence and trickery and temptation, but his was a great
heroic soul, he refused all invitations and threats, unmoved he held fast to
his resolution and in the end came out into the vast illumination. To the
Christ too, the same thing happened. Satan came to him, showed to him all the
luxury and grandeur and majesty that lay at his disposal if he would only
consent to follow him. Christ only told him "Get thee behind, Satan" (Apage
Satana) and he was free. In the Upanishads also, we know of the story of
the boy Nachiketas who wanted to possess the truth, the Immortality, and Yama
came to him or rather he came to Yam a and asked for these things. Yama, the
King of Immortality, said in effect, a young boy like him need not strive for
such abstract things that confuse the mind even of gods, "I will give you better
things – these beautiful chariots and horses, the resounding musical
instruments or these abounding riches and even these beautiful women – that
take and be happy." You all know Nachiketas', the boy's answer: "Dear
Sir, all these good things keep for your good self, let me have the one
Page – 400 thing that I need, the Divine Knowledge." I am sure many of our children here will be bold enough to say as Nachiketas did. In our Puranas too we see whenever and wherever the Rishis assemble and start doing tapasya, the hostiles – they are called rakshasas – rush in, try to break their tapasya, even kill them. The akshasas are the embodiments of the dark forces, agents and armies of the Devil himself. The Rishis had to seek refuge in the help of the gods, that is to say, take refuge in the strength and sincerity of their souls, that is the only way to safety and security, to the achievement of their goal. I may dwell here upon a characteristic feature in the matter of rakshasas, they are a special type of hostile force. Rakshasas are well known for their greed for human flesh, the flesh of animals is the usual food for animals that take flesh excepting perhaps the Royal Bengal Tiger, even then it is said they do so only when compelled, but for the rakshasas the human flesh – nara mansa – is a supreme delicacy; sweet, very sweet indeed it is to the tongue of the rakshasa. But is it really sweet? Is there a special reason for such a predilection in them for human flesh? Here is an explanation. It occurs to me that human flesh is really sweet; the human body has been sweetened because it contains something which the other animals do not have, it is precisely the thing that we were talking about just now, because the human body enshrines a soul, and the soul is the source of all sweetness. Thus, since the body holds the soul in it, the body itself becomes sweet by contact or infusion. The rakshasas have come to know of it, that is to say, not the soul but the sweetness that the soul induces in the material flesh. There must be some truth in the suggestion. Consequently a rishi's body must be all the more appetising to the rakshasa, for it must contain a larger store of swetneess, a rishi's body enshrining a larger and greater soul in view of his rishihood. Also we know there are some types or lines of sadhana in which the spiritual discipline, it is said, needs a human sacrifice, to complete the full course of such a discipline at the end one has to offer a human sacrifice – kill a human being – a young boy, because . .because he has a sweet soul. We
need not be shocked; after all, the phenomenon is symbolic. The rites
represent a psychological operation. A human being, a young boy sacrificed
means whatever is most developed
Page – 401 in you, whatever is aspiring, whatever is beautiful, is offered to the Divine. In fact, all rituals and ceremonies, all pujas are symbolic, that is to say, representations on the physical plane of inner movements – spiritual efforts. It is true some of them, to us moderns, appear revolting and reprehensible but we must remember these ceremonies if they were physically practised were done milleniums ago when humanity was quite young and had not emerged very much out of the animal existence. The life in that early stage of consciousness had to pursue for bare subsistence a mode of living that is un-understandable to the consciousness of today. The human aspiration however was still present there and made use of these normal modalities of life to express and embody itself. We leave it at that, but the point of the matter is this: the material, the physical life that is in your body is made interesting, even the body itself becomes not only living but beautiful because of the presence of the soul in it, embalming it, perfuming it. If you are able ever to meet it, contact it, touch it, you will find yourself wonderfully transmuted, you will carry yourself and spread abroad your own sweet scent like the scented deer. The body is called a temple, the habitation of the Divinity that is in you. Therefore it must be kept clean and pure – no dust from the intruding feet of Satan's brood nor any shadow from their presence should fall here. That other influence must always be shaken off. You must always love your soul, always remain in its embrace, then you will no longer be a mere human being but an angel, indeed a god. And
yet there is a still more mysterious mystery. Satan or his armies do not quite
belong to the outside world apart from you, they are within you, at least their
foothold is within you. In fact man is a twofold being, one half of him belongs
to the Divine, the other half to the un-Divine. His nature is a twofold string,
the two inextricably intertwined, there is a luminous ray and there is its
shadwow, the shadow makes the light unstable, flickering, at times even
completely obscures and eclipses it. The Hostile outside gains its strength and
its hold upon you because of the obscurity within you; the greater the
obscurity within the greater the dimension and power of the force outside. One
has to dwell upon the luminous ray inside – which is what we have termed the
soul – and slowly, or in
Page – 402 proper time
dissolve or dissipate the obscurity. In proportion as the obscurity within
recedes, the darkness outside also retires and vanishes. And one sees in the
end that it was only an illusion that seized us, and it was never there. We
were and we are always a glorious sunshine. Only the experience through the
Illusion has served to add a new dimension to the original Glory where we
return.
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