‘A march of friezes marked the lowest steps;
Fantastically ornate and richly small,
They had room for the whole meaning of a world,
Symbols minute of its perfection’s joy,
Strange beasts that were Nature’s forces made alive
And, wakened to the wonder of his role,
Man grown an image undefaced of God
And objects the fine coin of Beauty’s reign;
But wide the terrains were those levels serve.’
This Canto describes the kingdoms of the greater Mind, ranges of the spiritual Mind that lie above the rational mind. They are arranged hierarchically from the higher Mind climbing towards the Overmind.
The passage describes the lowest of these planes of the spiritual Mind which is the higher Mind. This layer of Mind crystallises wide and plastic truths into fixed formulas and symbolic figures as we find in religions. In fact it is the birthplace of Religions wherein the experience and truths of the still higher spiritual planes is given a beautiful concrete form corresponding to our earthly realities. But these forms are beautiful and ornamental, symbolic of the reality they are meant to represent yet, because of the form and shape also limited in their scope, hence richly small. Friezes refers to sculptured images. It is like the fixed form we often give to the gods, very human like. But if we go further then we find the forms are very supple and wide. But here everything is fixed symbolically. So if you have to give a form to Shiva and convey some of his attributes and qualities you will accordingly dress him up, so on and so forth.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
