On Savitri
THEME/S
The Use of Gold and Gemstones in Savitri
Introduction
In India, where a roadside stone can be turned into an idol and enshrined by the devout, it is little wonder that precious metals and stones are deemed invaluable. They are treasured for their commercial value and aesthetic worth. Gemstones are esteemed to be priceless, perhaps for a third reason: they are believed to be the repository of occult powers.
It is probably for this reason that stones are worshipped in temples and gems revered as talismans. This practice of seeking protection from gems and precious metals cannot be treated as a mere superstition if we consider the Mother's words. She states categorically that stones hav& the power of receptivity:
Perhaps they have even something resembling sensitivity. For instance, if you have a precious stone—precious stones of course have a much more perfect structure than ordinary ones, and with perfection consciousness increases—but if you take a precious stone, you can charge it with consciousness and force; you can put, accumulate force within it.1
These words acquire a special significance when in Savitri we come across an abundance of precious metals and stones adorning the lines of poetry. As we analyse such lines it becomes clear that Sri Aurobindo elevates these worldly commodities to a high level of symbolism. He confers on these sparklers and glittering stones a unique identity by juxtaposing them with some kindred and some unlikely objects. The poet tries to sensitise the reader to a new way of perceiving the familiar objectives around him. Apart from creating a special literary effect on the surface, he triggers off underneath it a mystic significance.
It may be said that in the past, specifically in English literature, precious metals and stones have enjoyed a place of pride. The English poets may not have treated these metals and stones seriously as portents of good or evil. However, they did feel a sense of awe before these gems.
1Questions and Answers, CWM, Vol. 6, p. 229.
Shakespeare depicts Antony's immese love for Cleopatra through the gift of a single orient pearl and the Roman promises that
at whose foot,
To mend the petty present, I will piece
Her opulent throne with kingdoms...2
Later on in Act II Scene 3 Shakespeare describes Cleopatra's gold barge and silver oars. To stress further the oriental opulence of the queen he demonstrates her supreme command over the elements—"the love sick air"—and the water amorous of the strokes of silver oars which keep pace with the music.
In the play Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the royal princess Marina is described thus:
As wand-like straight, as silver-voiced;
Her eyes as jewel-like and cased as richly;
In pace another Juno.3
Shakespeare focuses on the rareness, the preciousness and the peerless beauty of Cleopartra and Marina through the reference to gold and jewels. Had he heaped ornaments on their person this effect would not have been achieved.
Poverty and adverse conditions can school man better than all the institutes of formal learning. In As You Like It we have the following lines with these very sentiments:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.4
The jewel is the invaluable lesson taught by adversity and the senior Duke proves to be a keen learner indeed.
The "orient pearl" appears again in Paradise Lost:
Now mom her rosy steps in the eastern clime
Advancing, sowed the earth with orient pearl.5
2 Antony and Cleopatra, I. v. 11: 61-62.
3Pericles, Prince of Tyre, V.i. 11:111 -13.
4 As You Like lt, H.i.ll: 12-14. 5Paradise Lost, Book V, 11:1-2.
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Dawn "sows" or casts light on the soil, also drops of dew in the East. The double meaning in both orient and pearl adds to the beauty of the dawn. Pearls were then basically an imported commodity from the East and the early sunrise illumines the East with a pearl-like sheen.
Referring to the gold dug out by the fallen angels to build their infernal kingdom of pomp and splendour, Milton's puritan voice rings out in indictment:
And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane.6
This concept of gold as bane is highlighted in many other contexts in Paradise Lost. The heathens often worship brutes in the form of deities accompanied with gay rituals, fanfare and gold.7 Even the chosen race of Israel succumbed to this temptation of paying homage to the gold calf in Oreb till the Lord struck the idol-worshippers with his wrath.8 The flag of Lucifer, when unfurled, is compared to a meteor blazing with gems and golden lustre.9
Milton often contrasts natural Edenic perfection after the fall with corrupt imitations produced by art. Adam's dignity stems from within and is completely independent of external pomps. Similarly, Eve's naked form is clothed with heavenly grace; it is as though the "Mother of Mankind" had transcended all these conventions.
Another great poet of the seventeenth century, John Donne, uses gold in an innovative manner in his poem The Relique. He claims that his love is immortal and even in the grave he and his beloved will escape the cold clutches of death. He explains that when their grave will be dug up by chance there will be a startling discovery: "A bracelet of bright haire about the bone..."10 This image evokes, simultaneously, glitter of gold untarnished by death and time and the strength of love and its sterling purity that challenges posterity. This "bracelet of bright haire" will continue to be a testimony to the dual marvel of poetry and love.
6Ibid., Book 1,11:690-92.
7Ibid., 11:370-71.
8Ibid., 11:482-84.
9Ibid., 11:535-39.
10The Metaphysical Poets, Ed. Helen Gardner, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1957, p. 80.
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Andrew Marvell conjures up the treasures of the East when in the poem To His Coy Mistress he visualises his mistress on the banks of the river Ganga collecting priceless rubies.
John Keats seems to be more prolific in the use of gems and precious metals in his poetry. He uses sapphire to capture the beauty of the firmament. The line "Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-regioned star,11 in Ode to Psyche, and these lines from the poem The Eve of St. Agnes
like a throbbing star
Seen mid the sapphire heaven's deep repose12
reinforce the poet's basic quality of sensuousness. In the latter poem Keats describes the colourful stained glass of a high casement in Madeline's room. As the moonlight shines through the multi-coloured glass pane, Porphyro sees "soft amethyst" caressing his beloved's cheek.
In the same poem Madeline is referred to as "silver shrine" by her lover Porphyro indicating that she is an icon of worship for him.
A spontaneous response in the poem On first Looking into Chapman's Homer with "Much have I travelled in the realms of gold" captivates instantly the precious and permanent value of literature and how the poet finds his native region here.
Unlike Milton who regards gold as profane, D. G. Rossetti elevates this precious metal to the high heavens. In The Blessed Damozel the eponymous character yearns for the bliss on earth from her home in heaven. The phrase "leaned out" indicates that heaven cannot satisfy her restless heart:
The Blessed Damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of heaven.13
In Sri Aurobindo's Savitri there is a correspondingly similar phrase:
It has looked across the jewel bars of heaven,
It has entered the aspiring Secrecy.14
"It" here refers to the young godlike life of Satyavan that has travelled
11 John Keats: A Selection, Ed. S. Ramaswami, Macmillan Students Edition, Madras, 1975, p. 35.
12Ibid., p. 57.
13The Winged Word, Ed. David Green, Macmillan, Madras, 1974, p. 146.
14Savitri, p. 421.
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beyond earth, to the spaces above. If the Blessed Damozel, an inmate of heaven, longs for earth, then Satyavan, stationed on earth, experiences the secrecy of heaven.
The Golden Savitri
Let us see in some textual details the use of noble metals and gems in Savitri.
In the Book of Everlasting Day, Savitri refuses to make heaven her home and the guardian Spirit above "locks up" the gates of heaven; it is as though Savitri alone, among mortals, can have access to its immortal secrets. This is an interesting image of heaven safeguarding its mysteries from the comprehension of earth:
A wonderful face looked out with deathless eyes;
A hand was seen drawing the golden bars
That guard the imperishable secrecies.
A key turned in a mystic lock of Time.15
In poetry gems and precious metals almost acquire an animated look. It can be said that their very preciousness transmutes whatever they describe. They are used for the special attributes highlighted by them in the context of poetry. Probably the poets lend themselves to their occult value and attempt to focus on it.
We feel that Sri Aurobindo intends to carry on this poetic practice of utilising precious metals and gemstones and turn it into a full-fledged tradition. Among these precious metals and stones he selected gold, emerald and sapphire more frequently. About the significance of gold he explains to us that
Gold indicates at its most intense something from the supramental, otherwise overmind truth or intuitive truth deriving ultimately from the supramental Truth-Consciousness.16
When Sri Aurobindo encrusts the lines of Savitri with rare gems and metals he opens out their semiotic value. The following line illustrates
15 Ibid.,p.712.
16Letters on Yoga. SABCL, Vol, 23, p. 959.
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that stones have a spark of consciousness in them which can respond to an external force:
In cities cut like gems of conscious stone.17
We are reminded of a story from Greek mythology in which Apollo plays on his lyre and his divine music creates the city of Troy. It is, therefore, that architecture that is sometimes called "frozen music". If rhythm can create a city, however allegorical it might be, then we can say that there is an awareness concealed in the layers of stone.
As we look at some more scintiallating lines of Savitri we come across these:
Fixed with gold panel and opalescent hinge
A gate of dreams ajar on mystery's verge.18
Here an abstract image of the supraphysical planes of reality is concretised by the use of gold panel and opalescent hinge (a milky iridescence radiated from opals). These are also colours of dawn and generate in us a sense of wonderment and awe about the hidden realms.
Sometimes gold is upheld as a substance that reflects an inner greatness:
A vaster Nature's joy had once been hers,
But long could keep not its gold heavenly hue.19
Here "gold" implies also the sterling purity of Nature's joy: in the earth's atmosphere are only the stained baser hues. The simile in the following line
Years like gold raiment of the gods that pass20
creates a distinct impression of youthful time that glimmers for Savitri with its myriad opportunities. She is almost tantalised by the spiritual possibilities that beckon her from a distance. The sovereignty of the Inconscient succeeds in repulsing the gold of heaven:
17Savitri, p. 673. 18Ibid., p. 3.
19Ibid., p. 6. 20Ibid.,p. 16.
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Thus is the throne of the Inconscient safe
While the tardy coilings of the aeons pass...
And the gold Hawk can cross the skies no more.21
The slothfulness of the dark Inconscient is contrasted against the swift and brilliant hunting bird of heaven, the gold Hawk.
Human nature forever alternates between earthly pleasures and spiritual freedom:
In this gold dome on a black dragon base,
The conscious Force that acts in Nature's breast...
Hampered, enveloped by the hoops of Fate
Patient trustee of slow eternal Time,
Absolves from hour to hour her secret charge.22
One of the recurring themes in Savitri is the conscious Force that, despite the fierce aggressiveness of the Inconscient, chisels the human soul. Fate always conspires to retard this process and thwart the efforts of conscious Force. Here "gold dome" suggests the highest superstructure which is pristine and heaven-amorous, whereas the "dragon base" is not a safe foundation for the "gold dome". In spite of this tottering base the Force accepts the anomalous position to execute the command of eternal Time.
This image of architecture is recreated in another context which vividly recalls some details form the Moghul school of architecture that stressed on ventilation, the circulation of fresh and perfumed breeze, to trick the tropical sun.
This brilliant roof of our descending plane,
Intercepting the free boon of heaven's air,
Admits small inrushes of a mightily breath
Or fragrant circuits through gold lattices.23
Here Sri Aurobindo points out how the ordinary mortal life admits heaven's boon in small measures and cannot bear to be dazzled by its deathless suns. It hides inside the protection of cool and dark interiors. The ritual of Yajna is rendered through powerful metaphors:
21Ibid., p. 18.
22Ibid., p. 60.
23Ibid., p. 104.
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Then kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice24
the divine Agni helps us to discard our mortal state. The Truth-Consciousness symbolised by "gold" and the pure element "fire" as Tapas, spiritual will, promise to bring down celestial grace and to destroy the dross in man's subconscient nature.
The term "sun-gold" recurs prominently, probably because Sri Aurobindo wants to draw attention to the presence of the supramental light. It may be argued that Sri Aurobindo does not intend to draw a perfectly parallel correspondence between sun-gold and Truth-Consciousness whenever he uses the term "sun-gold" in the epic. However, a close perusal of the context in which "sun-gold" is placed will reveal the poet's interpretation. He comments meaningfully about sun and sunlight:
The Sunlight is the light of the Truth itself—whatever power of Truth it may be—while the other lights derive from the Truth.25
He further elaborates the point in another letter:
The Sunlight is the direct light of the Truth; when it gets fused into the vital, it takes the mixed colour—here gold and green—just as in the physical it becomes golden red or in the mental golden yellow.26
Sri Aurobindo categorises methodically the colours derived from the sunlight as it descends through the various planes of consciousness. The issue here is that sun-gold is the purest form of the light of truth itself— creative and unsullied by the interference of any lower plane of consciousness:
They call in Truth for their high government,
Hold her incarnate in their daily acts...
And shape their lives into her breathing form,
Till in her sun-gold godhead they too share.27
At the level of earth-consciousness gold fuses with other hues and shades and co-exists with them:
24Ibid., p. 171. 25Letters on Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 23, p. 962.
26Ibid. 27Savitri, p. 185.
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In her thickets of joy where danger clasps delight,
He glimpsed the hidden wings of her songster hopes,
A glimmer of gold and blue and scarlet fire.28
The image of the wilderness of life, where danger and delight are forever entertwined together, as a siren form is beautifully evolved here. Just as a brilliant-winged bird hops out of a bush and soars towards the sky, similarly Aswapati is enchanted by this vision of hopes that spread cadences of music on the bright ether. Hopes have an abstract air about them, but we also like to paint them with bright colours to convince ourselves that they are real. Blue is the colour of the higher mental planes and scarlet fire that of the vital physical. In our hopes we blend together the purest aspiration for truth, i.e, gold and scarlet, the desires of our mental and vital levels. In fact, it is only our hopes that can escape the rigid laws of the earth where danger hides behind delight.
In the Gandharva Kingdoms which Aswapati visits, we see that there "Love fulfilled her gold and roseate dreams,"29 indicating some kind of rich felicity of that realm. This assurance of Love reigning supreme and her fulfilment of dreams is in stark contrast to earth-nature that nips all positive things in the bud. The antithesis between expectations and fulfilment is annulled. The Gandharva Kingdoms appear to the sage-king thus:
Below him lay like gleaming jewelled thoughts
Rapt dreaming cities of Gandharva kings.30
The perfect harmony of the higher vital plane is vividly rendered by compounding jewel with rhythm in the lines describing the Paradise of the Life-Gods:
It lived in a jewel-rhythm of the laughter of God
And lay on the breast of universal love.31
The brilliance of the thoughts that have free sway in this kingdom is polished further with the participal adjective "jewelled".
All the three examples given here portray gold and jewels as semantemes of perfect harmony and exquisite beauty. In the Mahabharata too the Gandharva Kingdoms are depicted as equally resplendent.
28Ibid., p. 190, 29Ibid., p. 235. 30Ibid., p. 234. 31Ibid., p. 233.
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It is not only the Gandharva Kingdoms which are bejewelled and bedecked, but also the ancient land of the Vedic seers. The cow's gold horns enhance its beauty and also signify purity. For the Vedic Rishi the cow symbolised light because the word "go" in Sanskrit means both light and the animal cow.
Thus streamed down form the realm of early Light,
Ethereal thinkings into Matter's world;
Its gold-homed herds trooped into earth's cave-heart.
Its morning rays illume our twilight's eyes.32
The episode of the robbers stealing cows from the caves is analogous to the dark forces trying to rob the spiritual knowledge of the Rishis which they preserved in coded form in their Riks. This long chapter about the Vedas is condensed into a single line by Sri Aurobindo. However, the preceding and the following lines reveal that their knowledge is still indispensable today, because their wisdom is still unsurpassed.
The motif of the Vedic Rishis and their Soma-Rasa, the elixir that sustained them, is expressed is the following line:
And the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine.33
The moon is the symbol of spirituality and wine here is the nectar that, upon drinking, blessed them with great visions. Sri Aurobindo probably applies this symbolism to some contexts in Savitri. The line
Bright like the crescent horn of a gold moon34
is a homage to the incarnate Will that reveals only a small fraction of itself to the aspiring heart. The impact of the complete revelation would be so devastating on the human mind that only brief glimpses are rationed out. Another line also reinforces and extends this image:
A glory is the gold and glimmering moon.35
This motif of moon and gold is used to describe the beauty of Savitri which radiates her inborn spirituality, inherent felicity and sweetness. The compound moon-gold seems to have a streak of feminine grace and
32Ibid, p. 243. 33 Ibid., p. 279. 34Ibid., p. 354. 35Ibid., p. 624.
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delight and is therefore used to express the perfection of heaven's daughters. The poet does not encumber Savitri with ornaments and broacade robes since they are redundant appendages before her exquisite grace:
Of heaven's daughters dripping magic rain
Pearl-bright from moon-gold limbs and cloudy hair.36
Savitri's beauty is akin to heaven and Satyavan sees in her a celestial being who has strayed to earth. Even earlier in her childhood she had the indelible stamp of heaven on her:
The moon-gold sweetness of heaven's earth-bom child.37
It is as though heaven has loaned to earth a very rare light to dispel its darkness for a while. During their first chance meeting in the forest Satyavan appeals to Savitri:
Descend, O Happiness, with thy moon-gold feet.38
One may read this at two levels. At the metonymic level he is pleading with her to alight from her chariot. At the metaphoric level he is praying to her to descend into his life to complete her mission and transform earth's destiny. Further along his plea reflects the agony of a soul that alternates between the pure silence of the Spirit and the darkish grip of Matter. He finds it impossible to reconcile the two extremes of creation. He unburdens himself before Savitri:
I paced along the slumberous coasts of mom,
Or the gold desert of the sunlight crossed
Traversing great wastes of splendour and of fire.39
It has been so far that 'gold' is the quintessence of the supramental world and also symbolic of the sun in all the planes of consciousness. Therefore when Satyavan laments that he has crossed gold deserts and great wastes of splendour, does it imply that this splendour, fire or dazzling sunlight deluded him? Does it signify that Satyavan, the embodiment of pure Truth, could not bring this fire back with him
36Ibid., p. 423. 37Ibid., p. 466.
38Ibid., p. 408. 39Ibid., p. 401.
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into the twilight zone of mortal life? Was all this splendour a mirage continuing to haunt him? Our perplexity finds its answer when Satyavan recognises in Savitri the true Reality that had eluded him so long.
But now the gold link comes to me with thy feet
And His gold sun has shone on me from thy face.40
The two worlds of Spirit and Matter will be bridged, for every part of Savitri has the power to create that link. We can visualise her Might even better when we see that Truth-Consciousness is permanently lodged with her. Satyavan almost prostratres himself before Savitri with this certainty that his sadhana will gain completeness with her arrival. Savitri's father, king Aswapati, aware of her Divine origin, addresses her thus:
O rubies of silence, lips from which there stole
Low laughter, music of tranquillity.41
The poet strikes a fine balance between Savitri's identity as Sun-Word and her delightful maiden form. She combines in herself both divinity and feminine grace and the proud father looks at his ravishingly beautiful daughter. After discovering her life's partner a sea-change has come over his beloved daughter and he requests her to narrate about it:
Thou comest like a silver deer through groves
Of coral flowers and buds of glowing dreams,
Or fleest like a wind-goddess through leaves,
Or roamest, O ruby-eyed and snow-winged dove.42
She is like a restless deer prancing through the groves of rich red flowers, or like a sylvan goddess spreading her tresses carelessly in the mind. The images of dove, deer, wind-goddess generate an impression of innocence, natural spontaneity, and beauty not yet twisted by doom. The adjective ruby-eyed suggests the preciousness of her penetrative gaze. She has winged her way all over the country and surely her gaze has rested on someone as peerless as herself. Later on, Aswapati pleads with Narad to confirm that her life should consist of such images of pure honeyed bliss and freedom.
We are throughout rendered conscious of the fact that she is the Sun-Word, the ultimate perfection that poetry aspires to achieve—the
40Ibid., p. 408. 41Ibid., p. 374. 42Ibid., p. 420.
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magnificent Mantra that resuscitates us. Her eyes inspire poets and her limbs reflect the subtle nobility of her soul. The poet carefully eliminates any reference to flesh and blood while painting her portrait. She has descended to earth but she is moulded by heaven's marvels. Even when Savitri blushes in the Epilogue, her coyness is carefully plated with gold so that her mortal frame remains concealed:
A deepening redder gold upon her cheeks,
With lowered lids the noble lovely child.43
It is probably only once that Sri Aurobindo uses "gold" as ornament:
Bringing its stream of unknown faces, thronged
With gold-fringed head-dresses, gold-broidered robes.44
Sri Aurobindo may insinuate here that, once Dyumatsena's kingdom is restored, he regains not only his former splendour but is also blessed with spiritual riches.
Realm of Gemstones
We have seen so far that the poet has a marked preference for gold while describing heaven and its associated beings and objects. This preference is natural both from spiritual and literary points of view. No other term would so aptly captivate the essence of the celestial planes. Sri Aurobindo explains in Letters On Yoga that as gold of Truth descends to the mental, vital and physical levels, it merges with the corresponding colour of these levels. The vital, it turns into gold and green.45
The abundant use of emerald and sometimes gold-green in the forest scenes of Savitri indicates that, although the Divine presence is there among the sylvan scenery, yet it has been modified by the consciousness inherent in plants belonging to the vital level. The tree is the symbol of subconscient vital.46 The plants, according to the Mother, have a certain quality of aspiration that gropes for light and tries to generate happiness.47
By combining the precious stone emerald with plant life the poet weaves in a number of suggestions. The first point that strikes us is
43Ibid., p. 723. 44Ibid., p. 721
45 Letter on Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 23, p. 960.
46Ibid, p. 970.
47Questions and Answers, CWM, Vol, 5, p. 229.
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preciousness of forests as a refuge for hermits from the world outside and as a provider for their needs. They have also provided a spiritual ambience to hermits devoting their life to spirituality. Thus trees protected and preserved ancient Indian culture in an indirect manner.
Secondly, emeralds as gemstones are not monochrome and gem experts say that these stones sport a variety of shades and facets. Similarly the forest also has a rich tapestry of varying hues of green.
Gemstones are rare and durable and lie concealed in subterranean mines. Trees rise from the subterranean level towards the sun and have similar qualities of life's durability and preciousness. Trees are the jewellery with which the earth adorns herself. If not the forest itself then the aspiration of the forest is rare and precious.
The word "gem" derives from the Latin word "gemma" meaning a bud. Milton, in the following lines, uses this word in the sense of blossoms spreading their petals:
Rose as in dance the stately trees,
And spread their branches hung with copious fruit;
Or gemmed their blossoms.48
This particular usage, although somewhat Latinised, renders the gemstones into something more than inanimate commodities; they seem to contain an organic principle.
Sometimes in Savitri the forest is directly painted with a vivid green hue, sometimes green-gold is used to denote the light of truth involved in the richness of life's consciousness. Thus we have
Lost in the emerald glory of the woods,49
or
Below there crouched a dream of emerald woods,50
It saw the green gold of the slumbrous sward,51
Her gleaming feet upon the green gold sward.52
Sometimes despite the absence of gems, green-gold or emeralds the lines of poetry do convey the intensity generated by them through subtle
48Paradise Lost, Book VII, 11:324-26.
49Savitri., p. 355. 50Ibid, p. 389. 51Ibid., p. 394. 52 Ibid., p. 409.
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means. The rich imagery of such lines opens up a magic casement to the infinite treasures of Nature:
Screened by the tall ranks of these silent kings...
Bare, simple is the sylvan hermit-life;
Yet it is clad with the jewelry of earth.53
Satyavan's hermitage is a perfect reciprocation for Savitri's palace. Not only does it equal the grandeur of the royal palaces; it also resembles the Elysian groves. The royal stature of the king-like trees, the gem-studded jewelry of flora need not even vie with Savitri's royal splendour. The bareness and simplicity of the hermitage is yet a Paradise where Savitri will rejoice. Savitri projects before her parents the godlike stature of Satyavan and remains firm in her resolve in spite of the terrible pronouncement uttered by Narad:
In sunlight and a dream of emerald ways
I shall walk with him like gods in Paradise.54
The same motif of the magnificence of Satyavan's home is repeated later on when Savitri marries him:
And yellow rivers pacing, lion-maned,
Led to the Shalwa marches' emerald line...
Out of the stare of sky and soil they came
Into a mighty home of emerald dusk.55
Savitri's forest home is also the destined territory of her sadhana and of her encounter with Death. The forest, a symbol of vital life, is the domain where the Yogini must descend to begin the task of transformation.
When Savitri speaks of her new home she also uses the word "emerald", implying that her vision and the poet's have fused into one. This penetrative imagination is further accentuated when Savitri travels through the forest. The poet arranges terms like "luxurious" and "rich" about the forest to add sparkle to the multiple use of "emerald". The forest extends all its love and sympathy to the Ancient Mother and it tries to clothe her in its warmth and beauty in this hour of crisis:
53Ibid., p. 402. 54Ibid., p. 435. 55Ibid., pp. 465-66.
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And all the murmurous beauty of the leaves
Rippled around her like an emerald robe.56
What is exquisite about Sri Aurobindo's poetic imagination is this gentle yoking together of usually irreconciiable elements like sky and forest into one metaphor. This metaphor is probably intended to symbolise the divinisation of earthly life:
Immortal fragrance packed the quivering breeze...
The million children of the undying spring
Bloomed, pure unnumbered stars of hued delight
Nestling for shelter in their emerald sky:
Faery flower-masses looked with laughing eyes.57
The poet attributes to flowers and plants the quality of stars, of blithe children and, finally, immortality suggested by words like "immortal", "undying" and "stars". This image of sky embracing the forest had already been finely crafted in the following line:
And gardens hung in the sapphire of the skies.58
It becomes palpable to our sensibility that once plants and flowers open up to the descending Grace, then they also imbibe something of the celestial delight. If the forest is encrusted with emeralds then the sky expands into something remarkably invaluable. The Master-Craftsman selects meticulously "sapphire" for the sky overhead. The firmament is associated with the celestial gods, the high seat of the Muses, the destination of earth-souls, m the following lines the routine cycles of sunset and evening have been personified to heighten the total effect:
Cast from its sapphire pinnacle of trance
Day sank into the burning gold of eve.59
Once the day's quest is over it sinks down and loses itself in the vanishing blaze of the evening.
The forest, the sun and the sky kindle the poet's imagination and these jewels of Nature are burnished so as to reflect glowing lustre.
56Ibid., p. 577. 57Ibid., p. 674. 58Ibid., p. 379. 59Ibid., p. 375.
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The stealthy footfalls of her chasing things,
The shaggy emerald of her centaur mane,
The gold and sapphire of her warmth and blaze.60
The poet addresses the ferocious animals as "things" and Nature's plant kingdom dons on itself the identity of the mythical being, half man and half horse. He transfers the fabulous quality of centaurs of Nature retaining emerald for the colour of the mane. Gold and sapphire refer to the sun in the sky.
Just as gold is used to depict the marvellous appearance of Savitri, so sapphire is hewn from the blue firmament shaping the magnificent spirit of Satyavan:
A sapphire cutting from the sleep of heaven,
Delightful is the soul of Satyavan.61
The Vedic lore tells us that, when a part of infinity is subtracted, the sliced-off portion continues to be as vast as infinity. Sri Aurobindo suggests that Satyavan, in a similar vein, continues to possess the immensity of the heavens in his soul. Blue is a colour that creates an atmosphere of spiritual peace. It is the insignia of Sri Krishna.
In continuation with this image of the vast blue expanse of the sky, Sri Aurobindo depicts the heights on which Satyavan dwells:
As brilliant as a lonely moon in heaven...
A blue Immense he leans to the longing world...
A star of splendour or a rose of bliss...
A tranquil breadth of sky windless and still.62
Satyavan symbolises the Truth that has descended from above and accepted in greatness of his spirit the material reality. Yet he retains the magnificence of his Paradisaic origins and empathises with the sufferings of man.
We see that "sapphire" is not restricted to heaven alone, but is placed in different contexts of sea and air, a soothing vision that embalms hurt spirits. It is also the hue of the higher planes of spiritual consciousness that open before Savitri:
At first to her beneath the sapphire heavens63
60Ibid., p. 390. 61Ibid., p. 429. 62Ibid, p. 430. 63Ibid., p. 468.
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the sky is like a canopy of protection, because Savitri is heaven's guarded child. Note also
... the sapphire tumblings of the sea.64
Arguing about the basis on which the creation stands Savitri tells Death that
A secret air of pure felicity
Deep like a sapphire heaven our spirits breathe.65
This secret air sustains our spirits and it seems to have tangible dimensions and a visible hue like the sky's. If we consider that blue firmament is basically the matrix of existence and consists of player of ether, then the sky becomes synonymous with the air of felicity.
Savitri's inner vision can penetrate through many strata of the heavens and gain admission to secret realms as the divine gates swing open. When she comes back to earth with the soul of Satyavan, pursuing her
A face was over her which seemed a youth's...
Crowned as with peacock plumes of gorgeous hue
Framing a sapphire, whose heart-disturbing smile 66
attracted her to delight. Here in this context "sapphire", at the metonymic level, is a gem worn by the youthful god in his crown of peacock feathers. At the metaphoric level die youthful cowherd god encompasses the firmament, the sea and probably the rest of the universe in himself and the sapphire is the insignia of all these. "A face was over her" implies that he assures Savitri in her fulfilled mission progress in the Everlasting Day. The poet inspiredly exploits the qualities associated with sapphire and he does this through many contexts explored here.
As the sparkling diamonds embossed in the lines of Savitri draw our attention, we are reminded of what Sri Aurobindo says in this regard. He explains that diamond is the symbol of pure spiritual light which scares hostile forces. He highlights the adamantine quality associated with them.
Traditionally speaking, the diamond is seen as a precious stone invested with special powers of durability and strength. It is therefore supposed to be the symbol of perfection that is inviolate. The best diamond is
64Ibid., p. 628. 65Ibid., p. 629.
66Ibid.,p. 711.
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considered to be completely colourless. The term is derived from the Greek name "adamas' (invincible) for diamond.
In the Savitri epic we see that diamond is used almost exclusively to connote a spiritual significance. Sri Aurobindo does not use it generally for portraying the beauty of Nature or even the beauteous form of Savitri. The theme is
Tying with diamond threads the Spirit's extremes.67
Diamond threads signify the invincible strength and determination necessary to tie up the extreme experiences of spiritual 4ife. It has been earlier explored how Satyavan travels from Time to Eternity and then back gain, but cannot find the harmony between the two extremes of Spirit and Matter. Diamond has the capacity to resolve the impossible dichotomy. Take, for example, the following lines:
Turned are her tears to gems of diamond pain,
Her sorrow into a magic crown of song.68
Strength bom of an intense spiritual experience can save the soul from succumbing to his fate. Tears crystallise into a diamond just as the oyster forms a nacreous shell around the grain of sand. Pain is transformed into a gem and the crown signifies fulfilment. Aswapati bore and agony of utter darkness, but
He imposed upon dark atom and dumb mass
The diamond script of the Imperishable.69
When the harbinger of spiritual light descends into the inconscient, he has the impossible task of transforming the black inertia crouching there. This can be done if he impresses upon the dark atom the scenario of a new play to be enacted by the Divine. Diamond is the hardest known substance to man and the script is indestructible and also a repository of white spiritual light. The two following lines are remarkable in terms of the insight they provide:
A diamond purity of eternal sight,70
and
Inward, inscrutable, with diamond gaze.71
67Ibid., p. 89. 68Ibid., p. 194. 69Ibid., p. 232. 70Ibid., p. 297.
71Ibid., p. 307.
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Whether the vision stretches outward or the gaze turns inward, the pure limpid light of the diamond illuminates both the within and the without This concept of clairvoyance and circumspection can be conveyed only be diamond:
A silent warrior paced in her city of strength
Inviolate, guarding Truth's diamond throne.72
"Inviolate" signifies both pure and unassailable.
Diamond as a symbol of Savitri's inner being focuses on two things: the strength that gathers intensity in silence and the invincible characteristic of Truth she has come to establish on earth.
Similar is Satyavan's experience in the forest when he sits with the sages:
There poured awaking streams of diamond light73
It bring association of diamond with light, with will, with divine law, with vision which have their original source in the Divine. No hostile force can counter it, no ordinary man can challenge it. Satyavan is privileged enough to receive this all-penetrative light but when he wakes from this trance he has to grapple with a twilit reality around him.
During the various stages of her Yoga, Savitri reaches the "quiet country of fixed mind."74 The inhabitants there speak out in the tone of an oracle about the greatness of their domain:
Here bums the diamond of flawless bliss.75
This flawless bliss is occult and cabbalistic in nature. The beings of this world urge Savitri to end her quest and settle down with them. Later in Savitri Hiranyagarbha is aptly described as follows:
He builds the secret uncreated worlds.
Armed with the golden speech, the diamond eye,
His is the vision and the prophecy.76
Hiranyagarbha, the golden womb or the progenitor of the creation gives shape to the formless and translates the ineffable into action. The
72Ibid., p. 358. 73Ibid., p. 405. 74Ibid., p. 498. 75Ibid.,p. 499.
16Ibid., p. 681.
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diamond eye is unassailable and sees the worlds swaying in cosmic rhythm.
The acme of Savitri's Yoga is reached when the great battle for mankind's transformative redemption has been won in the Everlasting Day. She returns to earth with Satyavan:
The prophet moment covered limitless Space
And cast into the heart of hurrying Time
A diamond light of the Eternal's peace,
A crimson seed of God's felicity.77
The prophet moment that penetrates into the future can travel more swiftly than the measure of Time and overtake it. It sows into Matter' § inner fields God's peace and beatitude, so that diamond-like Savitri's victory remains a permanent feature.
Just as spiritual light is cast into the heart of Time so were jewels hidden in the caves of the Subconscient at the beginning of Time. In Indian folklore and myth a ferocious serpent guards the entrance of the cave which contains priceless treasures. With reference to this the Mother narrates her experience in the occult region where she had encountered an immense black Serpent. This Serpent prevented her from entering the cave of the vital world.78 The Puranas also contain references to the jewel-serpent or Nagamani. In Savitri we have an echo of these:
In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp;
Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave.79
This allegory of the cosmic serpent-force is further expanded. Despite all its primeval strength, it cannot crawl out of its slimy bed and raise its head towards the sun. It is lying in Matter's trance and cannot
Put on its jewelled hood the crown of soul.80
In another context recurs the following descriptin:
Serpentine in the gleam the darkness lolled,
Its black hoods jewelled with the mystic glow.81
77 Ibid., p. 712. 78Questions and Answer, CWM, Vol. 4, p. 189.
79Savitri, p. 41. 80Ibid., p. 138. 81Ibid, p. 585.
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In contrast to these dark vital associations, the terms "jewel" and "gem" are engraved in lines that scintillate invitingly. The radiance of the mighty stairs of heaven is an invitation and a challenge to the adventurer Soul. He has to climb
A great wide step trembling with jewelled fire.82
But the lyrical charm of these precious things can also come in a different way.
Spring season on earth can be as enchanting as the gardens of heaven and, jewel used as a verb, can endow a rare distinction on the scene:
Peacock and parrot jewelled soil and tree.83
Jewel also has a spiritual connotation; it is an antithesis of the dark shadow. In heaven the dawns are splendid and resemble "jewelled leaves of light."84
Savitri's words, hurled against the black resistance of Death, are like "dazzling jewels". Her jewels are compared to omnipotent weapons to attack the falsehood of Death.85 On another occasion Savitri is the "jewelled hilt" of the sword in God's hand.86 It permits a complete grip and Satyavan is the blade that shreds to pieces any resistance in the way.
From dazzling diamonds and jewels we can now admire iridescent pearls and crystals. About pearl Sri Aurobindo says the following
It may be a representation of the "bindu", which is a symbol of the infinite in the exceedingly small, the individual point which is yet the Universal.87
The Mother highlights in another way the inherent power of crystals:
Even in the mineral kingdom there are phenomena which reveal a hidden consciousness, like certain crystals, for instance. If you see with what precision, what exactitude and harmony they are formed, if you are in the least open, you are bound to feel that behind there's a consciousness at work, that this cannot be the result of unconscious chance.88
82Ibid., p. 277. 83Ibid., p. 390. 84Ibid, p. 423. 85Ibid, p. 639.
86Ibid., p. 687. 87Letters On Yoga, SABCL, Vol. 23, p. 982.
88Questions and Answers, CWM, Vol. 9, p. 323.
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Pearls, especially the natural ones, remind us of the oyster's pain and the effort to transmute that suffering into a treasure. Therefore when Sri Aurobindo sought a suitable metaphor for love's immortal moment, when Savitri was following the spirit of Satyavan, he decided in favour of a single pearl. Its perfection, its iridescence and organic growth convey this impression:
As if Love's deathless moment had been found,
A pearl within eternity's white shell.89
Although pearls appear delicate with an opalescent hue yet they are tough. Likewise tears, when unshed, they nourish our spirits with great resolution. The Poet-Jeweller shows that Savitri's tears also partake of her divinity. She tells Death:
My unwept tears have turned to pearls of strength.90
Another mighty image of the deathless soul is rendered vividly:
Around her some tremendous spirit lived,
Mysterious flame around a melting pearl.91
This mysterious flame is the symbol of a tremendous spirit surrounding Savitri who is represented by a melting pearl. Savitri is gradually merging with this unfathomable power when she meets the Lord of the Everlasting Day. This fusion is necessary so that Savitri can perform the Yoga of Earth to receive the marvellous Boon.
Sri Aurobindo generally uses "crystal" in two senses: as the abode of spiritual powers and as the pure elemental quality of air, light and fire. Its association with purity and transparency is possible only in the higher planes of consciousness. What is abstract about these planes is concretised through the use of "crystal"; witness, for instance,
The inner planes uncovered their crystal doors.92
Our doors are invariably opaque and of bard substance to scare the thieves away. In the inner planes the crystal doors invite the aspirant to gaze through them and see the treasures beyond.
89Savitri., p. 579. 90Ibid, p. 588. 91Ibid., p. 696. 92Ibid.,p.28.
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As if a beckoning finger of secrecy
Outstretched into a crystal mood of air.93
A sense of mystery condenses and then expands into an airiness that resembles a crystalline purity. We also have a sense of something happily aery-fairy, a translucence, hovering in the ether. In the following lines a divine Mystery reaches out to Savitri.
Eyes of an unborn gaze towards her leaned
Through a transparency of crystal fire.94
Here "unborn gaze" clearly indicates that an immortal being is keeping vigil over Savitri and seeks close proximity with her. There is a belief in ancient scriptures of India that if one gazes directly with naked eyes at an immortal soul then it can be quite disastrous. It could be for that reason that this deathless Flame in its care or caution erects between them a translucent wall. But that cannot be the case with Savitri.
Savitri possesses a "crystal soul"95 that radiates her inner qualities of purity and beauty. In the Everlasting Day the metaphor of tying up knots to strengthen relationships is used effectively here:
And make thee a vivid knot of all my bliss,
And build in thee my proud and crystal home.96
God shall manifest himself in her and her spirit radiate his magnificence in all the directions. All the facets of her personality will serve only this purpose.
Although amethyst has not enjoyed the same prominence as diamond or even sapphire, yet it seems to have a powerful identity of its own. In Greek mythology an amethyst is said to absorb all the good forces vibrating in the atmosphere. Also it is said that wine drunk out of an amethyst cup never makes the person intoxicated. In Milton's Paradise Lost we see a related description:
Tables are set, and on a sudden piled
With angels' food, and rubied nectar flows.
In pearl, in diamond and massy gold,
Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of heaven.97
93Ibid., p. 289. 94Ibid., p. 676. 95Ibid., p. 422.
96Ibid., pp. 698-99. 95Paradise Lost. Book V, 11:632-35.
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Rubied nectar means here nectar drunk from a ruby cup, also ruby-coloured wine. Such practices in the ritual of feasting were fit for angels. Although the banquet has overt materiality about it, yet it seems to have biblical sanction. Milton amasses precious metals and gemstones along with heaven's abundant fruits to prepare a feast fit for the angel. Probably ruby cup also has the same significance as the amethyst cup. The Mother speaks of the capacity of amethysts as follows:
One can accumulate in a stone (particularly in amethysts) a force for protection, and the force truly protects the one who wears the stone. It is very interesting, I have experienced it.98
Let us see its reference in Savitri:
In gleaming clarities of amethyst air
The chainless and omnipotent Spirit of Mind
Brooded on the blue lotus of the Idea.99
The Spirit of Mind, like the Holy Ghost brooding over the waters of consciousness, reflects on the blue lotus which is a semiotic representation of the divine consciousness in the mental plane. This brooding takes place in the clear glowing 'amethyst air'—because the air itself is charged with forces of protection. Whenever the spirit functions in this manner it wishes to be unhindered by any hostile force. Moreover, amethyst can create a perfect spiritual aura:
As the Voice touched, her body became a stark
And rigid golden statue of motionless trance,
A stone of God lit by an amethyst soul.100
Savitri's complete surrender to her guiding spirit takes place and she obeys the command. Her body's movements are totally suspended as she makes herself a perfect instrument for God's work. Here "amethyst soul" signifies a soul that has all the necessary protection, because amethyst can shield the individual from all evil. Secondly, it can absorb all hostile attacks and maintain a steadfastness.101
98Questions and Answers, CWM, Vol. 5, p. 231.
99Savitri, p. 264. '°°Ibid., p. 474.
101R.Y. Deshpande, Mother India, April 1987, p. 240.
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Sri Aurobindo empowers the gemstone topaz in a unique manner. After she completes her Yoga and reshapes human destiny, Savitri is asked the following question:
O human image of the deathless word,
How hast thou seen beyond the topaz walls
The gleaming sisters of the divine gate?102
Topaz is the symbol of supramental manifestation. Her vision beyond the topaz walls, in the supramental world, is the crowing glory.
Savitri is the Sun-Word and she alone can penetrate beyond the topaz walls. We can refer again to the line discussed earlier as we can see an interesting parallel:
The inner planes uncovered their crystal doors.103
When Savitri travelled across the superconscient planes, the translucent topaz walls must have been uncovered. The precious tone "topaz" has been used by the poet only once, as if to indicate the variety and wonder of the superconscient planes. Probably a parallel can be drawn between Savitri's vision of the topaz walls and the Mother's action on 29 February 1956. The underlying factor is her role as harbinger of the New Light:
This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine.
As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that "the time has come ", and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces.
Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.104
Overview
The effective use of jewels and gold with poetic and spiritual
102Savitri, p. 683. 103Ibid., p. 28.
104Words of the Mother, CWM, Vol. 15, p. 102.
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connotations provides insights into the depth of Savitri. Jewels become a medium for depicting the abstract and subtle shades of spiritual experience. This medium conveys the power of the word, its concretising mantric effect. Apparently disparate and unconnected objects are matched together and metamorphosed through strikingly new images. For instance, "topaz walls" or the "form of living gold" are not merely literary imaginations or decorations; rather they present the solidity of abstract images beyond our mental plane. Similarly, "sun-gold" or "moon-gold" are not intended for mere embellishment. They reveal the nuances of light, truth and beauty which some other word or term would have portrayed less intensely or failed to convey in their subtlety.
Jewels and gold create a felicity of expression, an aura of magnificence. We have seen examples of this in the poetry of some English poets who have understood the poetic potential inherent in gold and gems. Sri Aurobindo elevates this poetic technique to a high level of symbolism. It can be said that what is just a poetic method in English poetry is transmuted into an exquisite poetic tradition by Sri Aurobindo,—because he demonstrates how the material, the poetic and the spiritual can be fused together. The Poet-Jeweller thus becomes a true Alchemist.
RITA NATH KESHARI
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