INTROVERSION IS ASCENSION

But to be sinless is not all. Travelling homeward by a series of ascending stages, corresponding to those of descent, the soul is seized with an intense desire for communion with the source of its being. This is the last stage of ascent in which one has to rise beyond reason and knowledge, and to escape all limitations of time and space. Achieving powers requisite for such an ascent, the spirit can break down all barriers in its way, “can crowd eternity into an hour, or stretch an hour to eternity.”

Then in a state of ecstasy the fallen soul once again reaches the fountain of life, the source of being, the origin of all good, the root of the soul. Bathed thus in the light of Eternity, it can enjoy the highest, indescribable bliss, and sing jubilantly with Attar:—

“Joy! Joy! I triumph: Now no more I know

Myself as simply me. I burn with love

Unto myself, and bury me in love.

The centre is within me, and its wonder

Lies as a circle everywhere about me.

Joy! Joy! no mortal thought can fathom me.

I am the merchant and the pearl at once.

Lo, Time and Space lie crouching at my feet!

Joy! Joy! when I would revel in a rapture,

I plunge into myself and all things know.”