Sri Aurobindo's Savitri - An Approach And A Study

SUMMARY OF BOOK FOUR

CANTO ONE

THE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE FLAME

The frenzied earth followed the course of her movement "around a Light she must not dare to touch". In this swing of the inconscient earth Life was born and a finite world of thought and action also whirled "across the immobile trance of the Infinite". In the vast silence that ran with her "she communed with the mystic heart in space", "amid the ambiguous stillness of the stars". The earth "moved towards some undisclosed event." "Day after day sped by like coloured spokes" and "the seasons drew in linked significant dance". The alterations of the seasons were like the rhythmic pageant of dancers. Summer came with "his pomp of violent noons" and "stamped his tyranny of torrid light". It was followed by Rain-tide that tore the wings of heat and "startled with lightnings air's unquiet drowse", "Or from the gold eye of her paramour "covered with packed cloud-veils the earth's brown face". Thunder and lighting proclaimed the reign of the tempest. All over there was "A surge and hiss and onset of huge rain". Then came "Throngs of wind-faces, rustlings of wind-feet" followed by after-rain effects." "Day a half darkness wore as its dull dress." Light looked into dawn's tarnished glass and met "its own face there, twin to half-lit night's." "Earth was a quagmire, heaven a dismal block". The vagaries of the clouds brought a faint ray of hope of light but it soon failed and was brief-lived. Another heavy down pour of shower "And a subsiding mutter left all still".

Then the mood of the earth changed, and there was response and smile of sunlight. Then "a calmness neared as of the approach of God." Space found a dream loitering in its mind and from the inmost depth of being an aspiration for a "heavenlier height" and an adoration for "an unseen sun" went forth. The three seasons

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passed watching for a "flame that lurked in luminous depths". Autumn came with "the glory of her moons" and "winter and Dew-time laid their calm cool hands on Nature's bosom" which was "still in a half sleep".

Then spring came—"an ardent lover," he "leaped through leaves and caught the earth-bride in his eager clasp." His advent was a fire of irised hues". It is the spring whose arrival renews the secret touch of the Trancendent's sphere. In that touch which guards "unchanged by death and Time" "the answer of our hearts to Nature's charm and keeps for ever new, yet still the same, the throb that ever wakes to the old delight" "and beauty and rapture and the joy to live". The divine thrill that made the world thus keeps ever renewing itself. Spring made the body of the earth "beautiful with his kiss." All over the world delight ran in sounds, colours, forms, fragrances, the very breath of spring "was a warm summons to delight". A vast cadence "revealed in beauty" was abroad insistent on the "rapture-thrill in life".

"The life of the enchanted globe became

A storm of sweetness and of light and songs,

A revel of colour and of ecstasy,

hymn of rays, a litany of cries:

"A sacrifice of perfume filled the hours"

Even the ordinary phenomena became transformed

"The sunlight was a great god's golden smile.

All Nature was at beauty's festival."

Thus, when the earth was fall of yearning in spring an answer came to her from "a greatness from our other countries." Savitri was born, "A lamp was lit, a sacred image made." She was born as a "mediatrix" "bridging the gulf between man's mind and God's". She consciously descended into human birth from the celestial source "and wept not fallen to mortality". She looked on everything with "large tranquil eyes" and "took again her divine unfinished task". "For since upon this blind and whirling globe" Matter gave rise to

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Life and compelled the Inconscient to feel and see, ever since... "in Infinity's silence woke a word"

"A Mother wisdom works in Nature's breast

To pour delight on the heart of toil and want

"And make dumb Matter Conscious of its God"

Even through the course of slow evolution this Mother-wisdom

"...keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay"

Though her effort has not yet succeeded her will is undaunted, for

"Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue,

The ages have not made her passion less"

This power is the supreme Power of the Divine and therefore she is

"One who has all infinity to waste".

She tackles the seemingly impossible task of transformation of the material being into the Divine. In Savitri's case it was the inner spiritual being that formed her body, it was like "the glowing arc of a charmed unseen whole". Very soon the link between her soul and physical form grew sure. She appeared like one who came to found a greater race than the human. Though outwardly she lived among men her inner soul lived in communion with the diviner planes of being and apart. She was like a strange bird that lives content on its own tree of fruited bough secluded from all others or flies to its own divine heights alone. Her days in childhood passed like a procession of delight, singing their way. As the first outbreak of life tries to reach the skies in its rapture and has no outward communication with the world that surrounds it yet it has an occult and inborn unity with all (that surrounds it) and grows with all, so grew Savitri. All phenomena which strike us only as merely physical have in reality behind them occult presences and psychological reactions as well. There are Presences of spirits

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behind forests, rivers and trees, who feel and act from behind. In Savitri's inner being this kind of transmutation of all actions took place on a much higher level. Even when she stooped to ordinary acts "Her spirit kept the stature of the gods" and "was not lost in Matter's reign." She saw and sensed Subtle, Occult forms and Presences around to which ordinary human beings are blind and therefore her acts were profound and symbolic of another power. Her sight, her brain were flooded by another Light, and therefore her eyes saw the world with another vision. All objects were to her living and not inert or inconscient, and she heard occult messages conveyed by the touch of outward things. To Savitri "Nothing was alien or inanimate. Nothing without its meaning or its call".

She represented a further step in the journey of consciousness towards Light, She had outgrown the mental consciousness and hers was "A mind of light, a life of rhythmic force".

"A body instinct with hidden divinity": thus Savitri grew up "an image of the coming god." As she advanced towards adolescence her mind came forward more and more to acquire the knowledge of this human scene. From her mind and eyes a different Spirit looked at the field of human life which was its field of action. Her mind assumed a light and her will a power which were to work in and upon life. She had a noble power of wisdom which turned its light towards mortal life. She silently loved all and kept her inner world of bliss to herself without speaking or without giving any sign of it to others. Though "many high gods dwelt" in her nature she was perfectly harmonious and was "immense and various like a universe". Her body seemed to be made to transparent divine Light full of charm and happy peace, of murmurs of divine leaves responding to the tread of the Gods.

CANTO TWO

THE GROWTH OF THE FLAME

THE land of Madra where Savitri lived was full of mountains — and "plains and giant rivers". It had besides "spiritual bush" which swallowed the din of life, it had an atmosphere of high

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thoughts and was "Filled with the mightiest works of God and man". "And beauty, grace and grandeur had their home" there.

Subtle influences worked in that land. Savitri like a magnet attracted divine powers in that atmosphere. The knowledge of the thinker and the seer was there and "earth's brooding wisdom spoke" to Savitri's still breast. It led her from heights of thought "to dive into the cosmic vastnesses". The actions of mortal man were heightened into cultural expression in art and beauty. Ethics refined their senses to make them capable of reaching the invisible Beyond. Savitri absorbed all these cultural influences. She released her spirit by the wisdom so attained, she used thought in order to reach the sun of Truth. Her free spirit communicated with other men and she used her nature for the expression of the Ineffable or for the creation of forms which would bring Light to men.

She mastered all the arts—fine and plastic.

"Sculpture and painting concentrated sense

Upon an inner vision's motionless verge

Revealed a figure of the invisible,

Unveiled all Nature's meaning in a form,

Or caught into a body the Divine."

Music expressed "celestial yearnings", and song absorbed the heart "linking the human with the Cosmic cry". She mastered "the world-interpreting movements of the dance" which mould "idea and mood to a rhythmic sway and posture." "Poems in largeness cast like moving worlds" lifted "the human word near to the god's". Crafts and sciences of reading the future also she knew. All attempts by man to make this earth "a stepping-stone to conquer heaven", to know the unknowable, were mastered by her.

Savitri entered into human relationships with men around her, —though her circle was small, and selected. She was anxious to "make them one with God and world and her". But very few men responded to her call. Among those who could respond there were very few who felt the divinity that was in her. There were some who felt that she had some hidden splendour but they were prisoners of their own human nature, they found her too quick, too great,—and "their nature weary grew of things too great".

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She was pushing towards aims inconceivable to men and so men found it very' difficult to follow her. But they became her satellities and could not go away from her, Some felt towards her "turbid human love" and were partly disappointed but could not resist her attraction for, she was their support. Her contact opened them to the "new diviner air", to a "freer, happier world". There were some who opened their consciousness spontaneously to her like "flowers answering to the sun". They gave themselves to her and "asked no more". Infact, she became to them their Soul, their divine being. For such men she was the guide who held their hands and chose their path. Such self-surrender is not, as is sometimes falsely alleged, an act of servile dependence, but over and above fulfilling the being it gave to the devotee "faith" and "joy" to be hers". There were others who were torn between "wonder and revolt" in their relation with Savitri,—one part wondered and adored her while another wanted to revolt against her. They were "Possessed by her" and were "striving to possess" her. They embraced the bonds of which they complained and "murmured at a yoke they would have wept to lose". Hers was the "yoke of her beauty and her love". Some pursued her with blind desires only and could not bear the "Divinity so close"; they wanted to monopolise her "sweetness meant for all". Thus Savitri could be "a friend and yet too great wholly to know"; she was "close to their bosom, yet divine and far".

It was clear therefore that she had no "equal", no "mate", no one who could be "comrade of her soul, her other self". Of all the relations which she entered into with men "only her earthly surface bore their charge". But all along "her greater self lived sole, unclaimed, within". More than man she felt Nature nearer to her soul —the animals, the birds, the trees, the flowers gave simple response to her. But so far as men were concerned, "too great was her demand, too pure her force". Her world even then was small; only, after some time her name went abroad among men. But she was to them some one far away "like lightning playing with a fallen day", "Earth- nature bound in the sense-life's narrow make" drew back from her.

"Whoever is too great must lonely live,

Adored he walks in mighty solitude:

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Vain is his labour to create his kins,

His only comrade is the Strength within"

Savitri dwelt alone "until her hour of fate".

CANTO THREE

THE CALL TO THE QUEST

The dawn that came today was, to all outward appearance, like all other dawns and yet it seemed it was a new creation, it had not the ordinary but "a greater sunlight" and "happier skies". It was "burdened with beauty." On that day "an ancient longing struck again new roots". The air seemed to drink deep some desire unfulfilled, the very trees trembled in the winds,—the Coīl struck that age-old "love-note untired".

On such a day King Aswapathy listened through the morning ray to other subtle sounds that meet the inner ear. There, in the subtle, Nature's inmost movements could be known. He heard earth's wordless hymn to the Ineffable rising "from the ardent heart of the cosmic Void". He also could hear the voice of unborn, divine Powers. He heard the rising of yearning for "perfect life on earth for men", aspiration for assured knowledge and "shadowless bliss". Man aspires for "truth embodied" here on Earth and "godhead divinising mortal forms". Ashwapathy heard a voice addressed to the human being:

"How long will you tread the circling tracks of mind"

Around your little self and petty things"

You were not meant to be, "a changeless littleness", nor a "vain repetition".

"Out of the Immortal's substance you were made".

At present the divine potentialities in you are hidden,—

"Almighty powers are shut in Nature cells".

Even though at present his higher, diviner powers are not active, man will one day awaken to them, he will wake to his divinity, to

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eternity. To those who are the authors of this transformation is given the task of crossing "the dangerous spaces of the soul", "and touch the mighty Mother stark awake", "and meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh". Even on earth "Immortal Powers sweep flaming past your doors" and thought, trumpets call you to exceed yourself. But very few "dare aspire". In fact, Earth's "force and will exceed her form and fate". The earth looks up only to man for the fulfilment of her future. But very few rise to her expectation. In most men the fire burns dim and "invisible Grandeur sits unworshipped there".

Why is it like that? Because man is in love with his ignorance which is the father of "his pain". Man has lost contact with his inner soul, his inner voice. Intimations from the depth of his being come to him in vain. All uptil now—poets, seers, prophets— have failed. "Heaven's flaming lights descend and back return". "Eternity speaks, none understands its word".

The screen of the mind is a little lifted but the resistance of the Inconscient blocks the way and "The gods are still too few in mortal forms".

As Aswapathy listened to these words, Savitri came to him, a goddess in human form. She was "bright moved torch of incense and of flame". He saw her with the inner vision, through the depths of the being. She appeared to him as

"The strange significant icon of a Power

Renewing its inscrutable descent

Into a human figure of its works.

"A godhead sculptured on a wall of thought,

Mirrored in the flowing hours and dimly shrined

In Matter as in a cathedral cave".

"Immortal met immortal in their gaze".

Aswapathy

"...saw through the familiar cherished limbs

The great and unknown spirit born his child."

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Then he addressed Savitri as "traveller of eternity", and told her: "A mighty Presence still defends thy frame". You will find one among men who will discover thy "message of heavenly strength and bliss". He told her:

"Depart, where love and destiny call your charm".

"Venture through the deep world to find thy mate".

There 's no need of outer guidance for thee as the One who is in thee will guide thee aright and he who is thy "second self" will also approach thee. Then after your union you will be like harps in perfect unison "discovering new notes of the eternal theme". "One force" will move you, "One light" will guide you and then "Hand in strong hand confront Heaven's question, life". When you have thus brought down perfection in life, you will then ascend and "meet a greater God, thyself beyond Time". It was by Aswapathy's address to her that Savitri became outwardly conscious of her divine mission. Its action on her was like that of a Mantra that sinks into consciousness slowly and then comes back to die surface consciousness. The aspirant then "feels a Wideness and becomes a Power". From that day Savitri became free from "accustomed scenes" because to her they were now "an ended play". She felt that "the secrets of an unseen world were close".

Thus the day ended and "night lit the watch-fires of eternity". When the dawn came Savitri had already gone, and "The palace woke to its own emptiness".

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SHRI A. B. PURANI

26th May 1894 - 11th December 1965

CANTO IV

THE QUEST

Savitri set out on her quest and as she had to pass through many strange lands her attention was drawn to the outer aspects of the country. Thus a "deeper consciousness" came to the surface in her and she found that those lands were known .to her, that in the past she had lived in many countries and so each country to her was her own. This memory and feeling became intense "Till the whole destiny of mankind was hers".

As she passed through the countries, landscapes, rivers, plains came her way and they seemed to recur in her memory. On the way many men she met whom she recognised as comrades. "All was a part of old forgotten selves". Even the quest did not seem to be her first quest; for

"She seemed to her remembering witness soul

To trace again a journey often made."

Higher and diviner Powers also acted to bring about all the outer circumstances of her work. Man believes that many of his acts and thoughts are without significance. But "nothing we think or do is void or vain". "We reap the fruit of our forgotten deeds" because we get back the "energy loosed" from us and it "holds its course".

"The shadowy keepers of our deathless past

Have made our fate the child of our own acts"

Man generally does not realise this and therefore with his extroverted view he thinks that all that happens is a working of "a mechanic Force". But in fact all these are "instruments" of a Supreme Will and an "all-seeing Eye" is watching over them. Savitri was fully conscious of this higher working on the heights of her being; her higher self knew everything and arranged every detail. It was "a way prepared by an unerring Guide"

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In the beginning her path lay through populous cities, big marts, large dries with "pillared assembly halls". Big temples came in the way "hewn as if by exiled gods—To imitate their lost eternity." She rested in palaces of Kings on her way and then passed through "hamlet and village" "That,...keep their old repeated course". Then she came to free spaces "Not yet perturbed by human joys and fears". These wide spaces were not yet filled with cares. There were large uncultivated tracts and "wind-stirred grass-lands winking in the sun". Here time seemed to pass slowly, leisurely. In the solitude of these places one could not only feel calm but hear "The rhythm of...wordless Thought", and "inarticulate voice of earth." Here one could feel the "mute" love of mother earth, and perceive her soul,—find her living. Man's spirit could find release in these spaces. s Happily for man earth yet guards such austere regions, musing s depths, lonely reaches, rapture haunts, her woods, fields, plains, "alone with the cry of birds and hue of flowers". This wildness of Nature is lit by moons and by stars and visited by dark unfathomable Night.

Earth called very few men to share in her peace and solitude. " Kings after strenuous life retired into these places living happily "with birds and beasts and flowers". Others plunged deeper; they merged into "ever-living Bliss" in their inmost being. They heard some profound Voice and saw an "all-revealing Light". They arrived at the experience of the One in All through boundless love. They attained a wide witness status and could commune with the Supreme. Ascetics also lived in these solitary places having renounced every-thing, they lived "in tranquil heights of self" only waiting for the "Infinites' behest to end". Others there were who tried to attain harmony with the Universal Will. These men were surrounded by disciples. Seekers brought the thirst of the Spirit to these quiet holymen and found purity and peace which they needed. The sages lived for the sake of God and "Sowing in young minds immortal thoughts they lived," they were comrades of the cosmic Force. "Their speech, their silence was a help to earth". There were some who went into solitude to silence their thought and waited for the birth of Light. They attained intuitive knowledge. Some wanted to get rid of their personality, of their thoughts altogether. They

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ended by attaining "...a motionless ocean of impersonal Power" Others wished to become comrades of the everlasting Will and they surveyed the plan of Time in past and future. Some were like birds who soared from earth and disappeared into a bright and featureless Vast. A few attained the status of the Silent Witness towards the world while some helped the world by their world indifference.

Savitri passed through these hermitages and also in some of them

"She rested drawing round her like a cloak

Its spirit of patient muse and potent prayer".

At times, she found in the atmosphere some spiritual force and stopped her chariot and felt the impress of the souls left by ancient seers. She experienced the kinship of eternal calm.

"But morn broke in reminding her other quest

And from low rustic couch or mat she rose"

She again passed through great solitary tracks where

"...mountains in their anchorite solitude,

The forests with their multitudinous chant"

were crossed and she passed through "dreaming plains", "indolent expanses", "huddled hills" lifting their heads to hunt the sky, desolate summits, woods and deserts.

But she did not find the object of her quest.

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