On Savitri
THEME/S
Savitri begins with the primordial Darkness when the gods are still asleep. Out of it has to come a fuller divine manifestation upon earth. But obstructing its path there is the mind of ominous Night and nothing can happen as long it is present. Many were the attempts made earlier but the success was only partial. At times something had stirred on the borderline of dream and waking, but too feeble was the awareness. Again and again the dawn had come with her gifts and had to go back as there was no sufficient response. It is in this circumstance that Savitri, the Daughter of the Sun-God, takes human birth. She identifies herself with this death-bound earthly creation with all its suffering. Keeping her spirit open to the Spirit in all she takes up the issue. To make the anguished body a receptacle of heavenly joy has been her ancient mission. She recalls it and yogically prepares herself to confront the Adversary. This shall be on the day of Satyavan's death.
Satyavan awaits in the forest of life the arrival of Savitri. His waiting for her is, in the cosmic working, the waiting of the God of Love for her. For him she is perfection's home and could well live in her as in his own infinity. But behind him also follows covertly the God of Death. Savitri is yet unaware of it. But while she is reviewing the past a supernatural darkness surrounds her. In it her will rises to cancel that past itself. Hers is a struggle in which neither the Gods of the Sky nor the Powers of Nature can lend any help to her. But at the opportune hour the Goddess in her stands out revealed and at once takes charge of things and events. Savitri as a defeatless warrior falls upon Death and the bounds of Consciousness and Time break open. All this has already happened in the transcendental realm, but now it must be worked out on earth.
The divine Goddess takes mortal birth. She is in a way compelled to do so.
She comes as Savitri in answer to Aswapati's prayer. In the context of the creation's issue he carries with him the world's desire and invokes her to incarnate. For that he engages himself in the triple Yoga, the Individual, the Universal, and the Transcendental Yoga. This Yoga is done in earth-consciousness to prepare the needed base for her birth and action. Aswapati himself as the Supreme incarnate accepts the burden. First he releases himself from Nature's hold. He finds the source from which his spirit came, knows his larger self and becomes one with all. But there is the ingrained reluctance in the earthly stuff. He must discover its cause and remove it. He does it. Now his body's parts also open to higher things, to greater light. With the soul's release Aswapati has achieved everything as an individual. There must now come the spirit's freedom from all contingencies.
I: 4 The Secret Knowledge:
But perhaps there is a purpose in the Spirit submitting itself to Nature's law, Being to the law of Becoming, Purusha obeying Prakriti. It is through her mechanics that this stubborn inconscient stuff can slowly gain awareness. Though not herself divine presently, she is planned divinely. This truth has to be found and the intention yogically worked out. Aswapati is therefore engaged in the Yoga of Knowledge of the Time-Born Man. He now gets a new vision of himself and of the world. He may not be yet aware of the goal fixed for him, not know whether he is going to reach just the featureless unseen or discover a new mind and body in the city of God. But he is tied to the fate of this creation and there cannot be rest for him until the dusk from man's soul is lifted. He must attend to it.
I: 5 The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness
Aswapati first has the knowledge about the possibilities waiting for the time-born man. He has read the secret Vedic text and deciphered the significance of the great world rhythms. He sees a hidden sun even in the depth of darkness. His will now assumes superhuman dimensions and it can bring down a greater world. But he also discerns the gulf between what is and what is to be. He withdraws from everything and in silent mind hears the call. A Descent leaps down
and there is a new change. Nothing now remains sealed to his sight. Where could abide only for a while the heavenlier states, there is no more resistance of the lower members. Nature is mastered and the exploration of her vast provinces begins. His present Raj Yoga, the Yoga of the King, has to be raised to the Cosmic Yoga, Vishva Yoga, and finally to the Yoga of Surrender to the Divine Mother.
II: 1 The World-Stair
The Vishva Yoga begins. Here is a Universe well-planned and many-tiered. It has limits neither in Space nor in Time. Experience after experience displays the rainbow moods of the Power that brought it into existence. It is as if from one string issued out numberless harmonies, each with its own frozen perfection. They climb one above the other and disappear in the original Hush. It is up on these ascending slopes of Heaven that the aspiring soul of man moves. So too these worlds influence in several ways the working of this earth, her grief and her joy. Our souls were attracted by its mystery and accepted the travail. In the process slowly the meaning of the cosmic scheme itself becomes evident. The Seer is born within and whatever knowledge is necessary is received. In the exploration of this scheme no term has been fixed for Aswapati and his march is towards the indiscernible end. He sees Nature's climbing hierarchy and sets himself on the way.
II: 2 The Kingdom of Subtle Matter
The first port of entry is the world of Subtle Matter. Here are present the prototypal forms, the shining origins of things on earth. All here is beautiful, faultless, dream-hued, outlasting death and birth. Though so close to earth they suffer no deformation. Even as the soul is radiant, material substance in this region bears the signature of power and authority. From here occurs the fall into darker and denser reality that is ours. This makes us humble, but also can make us noble to be stars. Here is a possibility of our mortal body becoming glorious if it should hold sufficient truth in it. The divine substance is now present in this proximate world marking a new beginning towards that divinity on earth. But prior to that Aswapati has to discover what lies beyond this material Paradise.
II: 3 The Glory and Fall of Life
Not symmetric charm and carved dreams, but the spirit of adventure is what gives vibrancy to existence. Life bothers the least about the pros and cons and hazards to assert herself in every circumstance. Her high birth disdains not her entering into the squalid earth. Indeed, whatever can serve her questing delight she gambles on, unmindful of the peril. She risks even the extremes. Be they meadows of laughter or fields of toil, for her everything is for creative enjoyment. Because of her alone the dull material substance becomes sensitive to dynamic possibilities of the revealing Spirit. She builds the foundation for greater powers to step into this physical manifestation. However, in the process, Matter's stiffness or jadatva overpowers her and she is no more here her freer happier old self. Life meets Death and they together now drive the insecure cart of dubious immortality.
II: 4 The Kingdoms of the Little Life
The great power has succumbed and earth failed to keep the joy she had brought with her. Not only that. She herself has become an abject being crawling in the lowly mud. Yet in her arrival glimmers a faint hope urging the mortal's soul on the wakened path. Aswapati sees this pitiful state of fallen Life surviving on Death. Here perpetuity is her immortality. But then there are in this meaningful fall gains also. There is a climbing of life from below. The first creation is followed by the instinct of a thinking sense. An animal experiment then begins. In it all is done to satisfy the body's wants and survival of the fittest becomes the law. But with the physical mind opening to higher Light the possibility of transformation becomes distinct. Presently an instrument personality is born and all is dictated by habits. Everything looks species-based and repetitive; around the little glow of life there is the nescient haze.
II: 5 The Godheads of the Little Life
There is nothing that can be called angelic in this empire of little life. Chaos governs the infernal creatures inhabiting it. Life has force and she is driven by idea, but the Idea-Force is absent. Instinct is followed by thought and thought by will. Out of this queer stuff was shaped man and it could be proclaimed that he was well made. Still
man lives just for a brief while—only to enjoy and suffer and die. He has essentially remained the same, yet greatly prone to error. His mind is but a puppet manipulated by unseen forces and such cannot be the end of Life's very desirable adventure. She has to move forward to receive truer gifts from the hands of Fortune. Not Man nor Nature but the Avatar alone can help her receive these rewards. He pays the price for that. If the body's cells have to be filled with divine joy he has to eliminate the wrong afflicting them. Sacrificing his triple glory he accepts the mortal state, bears its anguish. Aswapati moves through it with his spirit's alert flame.
II: 6 The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life
Stepping into the wider Life, Aswapati notices her attempt to seize the boundless in birth. Thus she would claim back her heavenly state she had lost long ago. She made this creation of many hues but missed the True. Yet she moves on towards the far-off Light. Aswapati glimpses a ray of hope in her thousand expressions. He hears the heartbeats of a hidden reality. But he also hears the weeping of her soul within. She has become hostile and has consorted herself with hidden death. She is a riddle unto herself and yet slays the puzzled wayfarer. But Aswapati reads clearly the hieratic script and the Word of Life is not a mystery to him. He discerns the gap between what she came to do and what she now is. Pause she would not in her attempt to bring glory to the material inanity, though her knowledge be incomplete. He must probe in the night itself for the cause of this failure.
II: 7 The Descent into Night
The problem of Life's abysmal condition is a central issue and Aswapati cannot rest content without tackling it. What could have been in the service of good has become an instrument of vice. In this world of fallen Life fair is foul and foul fair. If there is creative Darkness engendering pain, wickedness, suffering, corrupting truth, then it could be here. Now Ignorance, Falsehood, Error, Ego walk in its thick shadow and the Satanic votaries proclaim: "Evil, be thou my God." Life in that gloom with her perilous charm and beauty lies cursed under the Gorgon spell. There Aswapati felt that his body was licked by the hostile Power and he suffered fear. But this had to
be borne. He endures and with his bare spirit masters her. The stepping of the Incarnate into the worlds of Night is a wonderful thing that can happen to her and in it is her opportunity to change.
II: 8 The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness
God created Hell in his mood of infinite love and justice, but this love has to first conquer the appalling Inane. The existential problem is the denial to all that is God's. Here are titans and maniac powers and cruel operators; here, allowed by the mighty Spirit, work determinedly terrible agencies. But Aswapati in the strength of his soul takes up the challenge. He probes penetratingly this kingdom of pain, this world of sorrow and hate, of wickedness and malignancy. Not only that. Shiva-like he drinks all the poison, till not a drop is left. The luminous truth in him yet remains intact. In the vastness of Existence he even feels the smallness of this queer material creation. Aswapati observes that the inconscient Being is asleep and knows not what it built. But he puts his finger upon the error and the pain and at once awakens there new knowledge. He has opened the Book of Bliss and Life's truth is revealed. The dichotomy between Matter and Spirit is resolved.
In the occult abyss was the rendezvous with the Night. Aswapati had gone there to woo her dark and dangerous heart. On the track leading to the meeting place his footprints have become the seals of divinity and thence shall gush radiant fountains. Around him all is felicitous and wonderful and the daylight of conscious suns is within him. After that wounding experience here is something healing and marvellous. The dread is over and an Elysian fragrance fills the air. He is in the company of Gods and Goddesses and is thrilled with beauty, peace, love, might, desire, pleasure, dream, sweetness. Forms are shaped here by the divine light and mind is made immortal by music. Aswapati's whole being is flooded with bliss and an undying power fills his strength. But he has also the sure perception that this cannot be the journey's end and that the Highest must be reached.
II: 10 The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind
Across the land of sensuous beauty are the realms of observation and understanding. Now in the play of Nature has been set into motion another faculty, that of the early mind. First appears the physical mind, marking the beginning of the thinking mind. It is tied to habits and it toils in ignorance. Soon arrives Reason. She has come and made great inventions, built philosophies and rational disciplines, drawn on the map of knowledge a few lines of reality. But there is no goal and the game is inconclusive. In the process she stumbles upon the fissioned atom and in it sees the omnipotent's force. Yet what is witnessed is the tyranny of Matter's logic imposed upon the Spirit's swiftness of thought. There has to be a greater Mind to see a greater truth. Only rarely does intuition bring to us superior knowledge, the higher gnosis. Sometimes Life-Thoughts come like shining Maruts, or else the pure Thought-Mind brings bodiless ideas in our midst.
II: 11 The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind
But these wonderful powers of Mind are not of great avail. There is a truth by which things can be seen in an unerring manner and that is altogether beyond their reach. Aswapati now meets in the Ideal's world the Thinker or Manishi. Across the first realms of Mind he is in the company of shining archangels and kings of thought. Theirs is an attempt to grasp Truth's absolute. The creative Word sets into motion these many worlds and the will-to-be is seized in things. The divine power of hearing comes as a natural gift. But Mind is incapable of understanding these works of Truth. Even sages and seers find her to be beyond their grasp. There is no way to know her and it is only by surrendering to the absolute will of hers that a ray of her radiant wonder can enter into our life's many dimnesses. Or else she would remain forever unknown to us.
II: 12 The Heavens of the Ideal
But the Ideal is always a bright spur for the explorer. At each step is seen a luminous world rising in honour of the high Truth. On one side are the kingdoms of love, beauty, joy, sweetness all bringing to earth their gracious marvels. What remained dormant until now opens to spiritual greatnesses. Here is felt the Immortal's touch. On the
other side of this climbing pathway burns the deathless flame of will, the force of utter divine consciousness. Even as it climbs the ascending slopes, there is a call to reach the summits of existence. Aswapati moves through these worlds with the household ease. But he finds that here while beauty and greatness, sweetness and might, the Rose and the Flame, come together yet they stand apart. They would not find themselves in the single soul of the world. The spiritual path and the occult-psychic path run parallel but do not yet become one. Aswapati must therefore advance towards the diviner spheres.
II: 13 In the Self of Mind
On his onward march Aswapati has now entered the passive world of the superior being of Mind who is simultaneously impersonal also. He stands on the summit and is a silent witness, sākshi, of things carried out by Nature, Prakriti. He watches indifferently the good and the bad of life; he is unconcerned about victory or defeat. Yet without his consent the movements of Prakriti would not take place. He is anumantā, giving approval for her actions. Aswapati lived in this still self, and its quiet vastness was in him. But there was no urge to stay in it. That self seemed but a shadow of a vaster and more forceful a reality. Peace is all right, but there has also to be the Truth's dynamism. It is this dynamic aspect which gives credibility to this world. Aswapati found love and sweetness of the Mother-force absent here. This would not satisfy him and he is prompted to go beyond the realization of this silent self.
II: 14 The World-Soul
In search of the active power who shapes the course of events, Aswapati is led by a mysterious sound and he comes to a wonderful realm. There consciousness, mind, life, body are all made of soul-stuff and spiritual sense is the instrument of knowledge. Those who have by the practices of virtue accumulated great merit in life on earth ascend to this splendid abode. Here wait the liberated souls for a new adventure in the world of opportunities. Beyond it are regions of happiness and peace, of light, hope, love. Aswapati grows aware of them. He sees Shiva and Shakti in a fulfilling union's poise. Behind them stands the omnipotent Goddess, Chidvilasini or Consciousness-Force by whose act this creation has come out from the Unknowable.
Aswapati's spirit has now become a vessel to hold her luminous might. In her he finds an answer to his long search and surrenders to her. Indeed, this is the offering of the World-Soul to the Higher Power who alone can assure the success of his work. His quest bears fruit in her.
II: 15 The Kingdoms of the Greater Knowledge
Aswapati, after such a wonderful experience on the border touching the Transcendent, returns to the things of cosmic Time. Now wherever he goes he carries along with him the consciousness of Passive Brahman, the quiescent Sachchidananda as a foundation for all of his activities in the world. He sees the powers that supervise the world and beyond them looks for that which can bring about a universal change. He makes a total yogic surrender to the Reality which sustains the Earth, the Mid-region, and Heaven,—Bhur, Bhuvar, Swar. In that sacrifice he is newborn and even his body partakes in its joy. Yet this supernal birth is his alone and cannot be of great avail for the collective on the earth. The individual's supernal birth has to become a larger supernal birth. Its key is with the Divine Mother and therefore Aswapati must approach her. With this Siddhi attained, and with the cosmic forces now under his control, he becomes the Lord of Life, justifies his name Aswapati. Henceforth his march is towards that transcendence where is her home.
III: 1 The Pursuit of the Unknowable
The one whom Aswapati met standing behind the World-Soul is still a mystery to him. So his quest continues and he ascends to the height where stands only the bare Reality. But on that summit of realization he has to make a final choice,—he must either abandon the world and merge into that Reality or else seek that which will transform it. Towards that choice no help was available and the cosmic spirit remained just an aspect of Non-being, the first Asat. But that Asat is ever inaccessible. Perhaps in it if all should vanish then the golden Sphinx might reveal something of her mystery. But it entails a danger, that of going out of the manifestation. That eventuality would mean the failure of the soul's mission itself. Though to free the self from the contingent Nature is a basic condition for any progress, there is also an obligation of fulfilling oneself here.
Aswapati is alert to it and hence he must remove the veil of light.
III: 2 The Adoration of the Divine Mother
In that self-discovery Aswapati comes to know about God's desire that works here even in this mortal world. Here he is rewarded. It is in response to the longing of his soul that a being of wisdom, power, delight,—jnāna, shakti, ānanda,—steps out of eternity. He surrenders to her and his heart is glad. Existence no more seems to be without aim. In her is found the hidden Word, the Mantra of Ascent and Transformation. She stands at the head of this creation and she is the one who helps us cross great distances that yawn between us and the marvels that shine over there. From her Sun we can set alight our suns, suns of knowledge, strength, beauty, sweetness, love, joy, harmony, perfection. It is she who can turn our pain of death into ecstasy of life. How wonderful to be caught in her intolerant flame! Her light and her bliss he asked for men on earth. Nothing else he yearned for and gave himself entirely to her alone.
III: 3 The House of the Spirit and the New Creation
Aswapati sits expectantly with a prayer in his silent heart, but nothing happens. He is puzzled and must discover if something in him was still resisting the great advent. He is aware that even the least element could spoil the work. He traces its roots and extracts them out completely. He is free and enters into the superconscient state. There Nature's afflictions disappear and in the deep hush is the anticipation of an answering voice. Aswapati's solitary concern is the good of the grieving creature. His long tapasya was for that purpose. Indeed, it is out of it that sprang up a new creation in the transcendent. But it ought to become a part of the evolutionary reality. For that to happen the Spirit's disdainfulness towards Matter should disappear. Behind the present world Aswapati sees a world to be and the question is to make it actual. He knows that it can be done only by the divine Power. He must call her.
III: 4 The Vision and the Boon
There is a sudden flow of energy and Aswapati feels its rush into all parts of his being down to the very physical. Spirit and body identify
with each other, even as the radiant Goddess stands in front of him. She counsels him not to force mortality's issue; he should instead leave all to the course of the evolving Time. He is told that Man is too weak to bear the burden of the Truth and he must graduate himself to receive her gifts. In the meanwhile, Aswapati should help this struggling creature on his heavenward march. She is ready to grant a boon to Aswapati, with the assurance that all things shall happen in God's transfiguring hour. But the Siddha Yogi makes himself bold and holds out an alternative. He knows that a new creation in the House of the Spirit is waiting to be born and the Goddess should incarnate herself to make it real here. Saying `Be it so' the Goddess withdraws and glad Aswapati returns to attend to his worldly duties.
IV: 1 The Birth and Childhood of the Flame
The six tropical seasons have speeded through the year and the Goddess of eternal Time has stepped into earthly cycles. Savitri's arrival, marking a signal moment of the gods, is a beauty's festival in the bright and colourful Spring, the chosen season who brings joy to our mortal life. In it shall happen happier and wondrous things, unblemished by death. Indeed, in her birth have taken the heavenly charm and wonder a human body. She has accepted our transient lot, and its travail, in order to accomplish the divine task here. Savitri grows, becomes a student and a scout and a brave warrior. She is dear to everyone in every respect. In every act and thought and feeling of hers is expressed more and more of nobility of the high spirit. An invisible sunlight flows in her veins and her movements display the large significances of life. Her worship and prayer and aspiration become a call which draws an answer from absolute Destiny moulding our mortality.
IV: 2 The Growth of the Flame
Savitri's life opens doors for the secret powers to enter into gracious fields of activity. She acquires the lore of the world, learns its many philosophies and sciences and arts and crafts. But by her native right she also sees something beyond them. She is aware of the universal Self and in her embrace stay all, that she might breathe living happiness into them. But scarcely is recognized her eminence
by the world. Only a few get a distant glimpse of her greatness but in it none responds to her. No Aryan prince comes forward to be the partner in her high task. It looks as though she is a matchless poet with herself as his lonely poem. She is a composer of the song of sunbright reality waiting for the flute-player to sing it. If she were a goddess in a shrine no priest would dare enter into it and wave the lamp of adoration around her. Her radiance makes her solitary and alone. None dares to claim her.
IV: 3 The Call to the Quest
This becomes a matter of concern for Savitri's father. Although there are songs of birds and flowers in the palace garden, and the winds are happy, the ancient longing remains yet unfulfilled. But Aswapati the Yogi hears other sounds in the depth of his silent heart. The inaudible promptings of Nature bring to him deeper messages. Not only that. He sees the secret divinity ready to emerge from the soul of Savitri. Behind her life is concealed the life that is to be. Perhaps man has not established contact with his inner being and possibly he understands not what eternity through her speaks to him. Yet that acquiescent attitude cannot be for his good and he must come out of it. There is a mighty Presence in her and she must awake to it. There must arrive to her the one who shall give voice to it. Savitri must discover him in the ways of the world. What her father tells to her reaches her with the power and authenticity of the supreme Mantra itself.
IV: 4 The Quest
But long is the quest and many-winding the path. She has to cross rivers and mountains in search of the joy she came to greet and affirm. Savitri has to take the lyric routes and has to climb the slopes of spiritual sublimity and wideness. She has to meet the urban gods and visit the secluded shrines in the forests. Driven from within, she has to follow her slow lingering road. Where she is going to be led of that she has no knowledge; but she has the certitude that an invisible magnet of love is drawing her to the destined place. It is in the Land of Tapasya that Man and Nature can awake to their eminent reality. Not the crowded cities of mind but god-listening silences of the woods can give to the spirit its wonder of deathlessness. Presently,
when the sun is bright in the summer sky, she comes to a grove from where she need not go anywhere else.
V: 1 The Destined Meeting-Place
Designed in the sky but built upon the earth is the place where Satyavan and Savitri are to meet. It is the quintessential cosmic space and time that shaped its bright emerald reality. The breeze is fragrant and the mountains serene and the streams carry the murmuring happiness of life in their crystal flow. If fate should walk through that windswept realm of wonder and joy, it would do so only to bring the longing souls of love together. There is already the soft rustling air of expectancy and Nature is awaiting the chosen to come together. The spell of Destiny shall cast its charm on lives of the exceptional two. Unspoiled by thought and pure in its zealous gladness there burns high the incense of aspiring hope. A small pretty shrine of Shiva is guarding it against inadvertent Time. Here driven by the unknown voice of the summer arrives Satyavan to meet Savitri.
V: 2 Satyavan
Noble and erect and youthful in his Aryanhood is Satyavan. He is a Veda-knower and he has grown in companionship of nature and there is the glow of a rishi on his face. No wonder, Savitri was seeing a dream when her first glance fell on him. A miracle is done and into her life marches this alchemic splendour. An equal change takes place in Satyavan. There was until now a distressing lacuna in his life and he was looking for that which would fill it. Now it has come to him from the fortunate unknown. The joyful doors of his heart see a hidden sweetness walking into it even without knowing it. Savitri in the depth of her soul recollects her long past and recognizes the two eyes which through the ages claimed her. The presiding deity of Time took a Manvantara, an aeon, to prepare the body of Love and so has now Satyavan come to meet Savitri. Thus they arrive to discover each other and the moment stands tranquil, watching the wonder.
V: 3 Satyavan and Savitri
It is Satyavan who has to make advances and court Savitri, the
sunlight who had driven itself unto him. Such things of joy and beauty he had seen but was amazed that here was she reaching him out from the heavens of happiness. He entreats her to step down from her speeding chariot and visit the creepered hermitage ready to receive her. There he read things of eternity with the eyes of the spirit. There he conversed with Nature. There he felt oneness in all that exists. But he also carried with him a sense of lamenting despondency, that body and soul have so far remained disunited. Yet he had the secret conviction that one day even the physical shall discover the true meaning of existence. It is that hope which is now getting kindled in him. Savitri shall bring about the miracle. In the union of Satyavan and Savitri shall be the union of Spirit and Matter. In the happy authenticity of such an intuition in their souls they pledge to join together. And the Gods of Nature and of the Sky shower marriage blessings on them.
VI: 1 The Word of Fate
But the incontingent love has to presently face the worldly odds, the odds of mortality. But complex is the web of Destiny and there is also the higher involvement. Narad has taken on himself an onerous task. Savitri has come to know Love, but she must also know Death. To timely impart that knowledge he hastens to Aswapati's palace and foretells about the impending doom. He comes down from his paradisal home, singing five songs that culminate in the glory and marvel about to be born on earth. He is warmly received. Savitri discloses her meeting with Satyavan; but alas it has also something ominous in it. Narad skirts it in the beginning but is persuaded to divulge the truth. In the sequel he as if tightens the grip of adverse fate by speaking about the death of Satyavan one year after the marriage. However, for Savitri's mother Malawi this is altogether unacceptable. She pleads to her, in the way of human pragmatism, to make another choice. But Savitri is firm in her resolve, maintaining that it was her soul's decision and it was not necessary for her to reverse it.
VI: 2 The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain
The emotion-charged mother questions the way the heavenly powers toy with the human lot. She wonders how at all grief and pain
should have found a place in God's creation. Or could it be that some disastrous power managed to mar his beautiful work? She seems to be miffed by destiny and is reacting sharply. But Narad reveals the sense of mystery that lies behind it. It is pain that shapes the fiery spirit, ultimately to triumph over all obstacles. In any case, it was man's soul that had longed for adventure and he should not complain about it. It saw the possibility of a new creation emerging out of ignorance and opted to participate in it. Narad asserts that Savitri's will is fully in accord with that original wisdom and she must be left to live in it. Satyavan's death is the spirit's exceptional prospect and the sage convincingly as well as prophetically tells that such an opportunity should not be squandered away. God-given is her might and she needs no other help to carry out her work. She as the incarnate Shakti must meet Death and transform him.
VII: 1 The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge of Death and the Heart's Grief
The royal party takes Savitri to the Shalwa forest and her heart's desire is fulfilled. However, in the foreknowledge of Satyavan's death the utter unknown is gaping into her future about which the dwellers of the hermitages know the least. In the meanwhile, for the newly wed each other's company is an unforgettable bliss. But that happiness makes Savitri's anguish more poignant. The approaching doom brings grief to her joy. No doubt she attends the day's household activities with care, as would a goddess with the worldly tenderness; yet deep in her self she remains sad. She is for a moment even thinking of going as sati with her dead husband. The year is fast coming to a close and she lives resigned to her inescapable fate. Her daily tears only become an offering to the unsatisfied god. Yet, gathered within, Savitri is calm. Soon would Satyavan die and she should be prepared to meet the eventuality.
VII: 2 The Parable of the Search for the Soul
Human Savitri remains helpless in a downcast mood. But she is attentive enough to receive the summons from her summit's being. Her dejection itself thus becomes a yogic state; it becomes Vishad Yoga. She is reminded of the mission she has come to accomplish. First she should find out her soul and make in it all her actions the actions of God.
She must possess the might that conquers Death. Savitri at once obeys the directive and with that begins her occult inward journey. She witnesses the play of the subconscient forces and also the possibilities that can bring the gods down. If out of Matter and Life emerged Mind, so can a being with diviner faculties arrive here. To mould humanity in God's shape or discover a new world or create a new world are present as three alternatives and Savitri becomes the centre for the action. In the last alternative the creation established by Aswapati in the House of the Spirit shall become manifest on earth. But for any of these to happen it is essential that first the heavenly soul should be found.
VII: 3 The Entry into the Inner Countries
Savitri should discover her soul,—not for herself but for humanity. She has to step into the inner countries and meet its dread before she can make progress. There all the elemental energies swarm around her and there are the vital godheads, and the agents of the physical mind with their tenacity in ignorance, and the leviathan creatures of the fallen life, and the shady questioning beings, and the thinkers fixed in their own rigid thoughts and notions and beliefs. Savitri cuts her way through the darkness of all these dubious hues. But she also meets the bright gods who bring to her messages of greatness. She mingles happily in their company, longing yet for their spiritual light. But she is also conscious of the fact that nothing can be achieved without finding her soul. She asks for the guidance and is told that she should take up the world's highway and go all the way to its source. There she will see the occult Fire burning on a stone and the deep cavern where resides her soul. She proceeds accordingly.
VII: 4 The Triple Soul-Forces
Savitri goes deeper within and meets the three Shaktis of her soul. First is the Mother of Compassion full of suffering and divine grief, Karunamayi Mata, nursing the little spirit of man. Her task is to change this world of pain by patient work. Challenging her there stands the small life-force with its sorrow. But because of this God's labourer there is hope. The next in the inner world of Mind is the triumvirate of wisdom-love-bliss, Jnana-Prem-Anandamayi Mata.
She battles against all that thwarts progress on the road. But the fallen gods in the earth-nature oppose whatever she is trying to bring to her. She has power, yet she is unable to function here. Savitri proceeds further. If the physical world is to bear the higher descent, there must work the Mother of light-joy-peace, Prakash-Harsha-Shantimayi Mata. However, this goddess meets the opposition of an arrogant will. Savitri has to bring the absolute Wisdom, that in it might be born the divine family.
VII: 5 The Finding of the Soul
This promise can bear fruit only in the soul of Savitri. While nearing the mystic cave she experiences a strange darkness that knows the Unknown. But silent she moves on and all is the spirit's vastness. Now she is standing in front of a rock-temple with the figures of gods and goddesses carved on its walls. She sees in stone images breathing presences, deathless and divine. They are the supreme aspects climbing to Sachchidananda. Savitri crosses the tunnel through the last rock and suddenly Soul and Oversoul rush into each other. They become one. The transcendental Mother's Power, the divine Mahakundalini, floods her entire being. Lotus after dynamic lotus opens and the lower Nature becomes an instrument of the higher Nature. There is a greatening of spiritual happiness everywhere. Across death and birth the first stage of perfection is reached in life.
VII: 6 Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute
But the Siddhis Savitri has attained are not sufficient. Her outer nature has yet not undergone any fundamental change and all her relationships are still human. A greater Night must therefore show her a truer Sun. She must recognize that to give a body to the Unknowable, or to burden with bliss the static Supreme, or to call down God in the human mould is premature. So she is advised to assent to emptiness, that all in her may reach the corresponding absolute. Presently she stands as a silent witness and observes the birth of thoughts; but in her spiritual immensity she does not allow these thoughts to approach her. The result is that Truth and Bliss and Love and Force are there now with her in their pristine glory. She has come to that highest Non-being which has the power to
strike out the Void, revealing the One who exists unmanifest behind it. She attains formless liberation with the realization of the divine beyond the impersonal and is least concerned if she is going to disappear altogether in it or new-become the All.
VII: 7 The Discovery of the Cosmic Spirit and the Cosmic Consciousness
Beyond the Creation, beyond Sachchidananda, beyond the manifest Reality Savitri has reached the ultimate Supreme, Paratpara, the Absolute or the utter Unmanifest, the Greater Darkness of the Ancients wherefrom no return is possible. Had she merged into it it would have been a total laya, dissolution, and her mission would have been altogether lost. This is a delicate situation, dangerous, but a necessary experience also in her yogic pursuit, that whatever is this Nature's must disappear. By dissolution she would have crossed the realms of death; but Savitri has to enjoy immortality in birth. Her connection with this world is age-old and the little hermitage and the forest and the human life have a meaning in her transcendental realization. The Spirit of the Earth would not allow her to depart in that way. She is all that which holds death and supports the cycles of existence. The creation is a part of that Reality and the functioning its well-meant movement. Savitri has become the full divine Shakti in Space and Time.
VIII: 3 Death in the Forest
The fated day of Satyavan's death has arrived and Savitri gets ready well before the sunrise. In that auspicious hour or Bhadramuhurta she worships Durga, the Protectress of the World. Then, taking the permission from her parents-in-law she accompanies her husband to the forest where he has to go for the daily work. Even as they enjoy each other's company in the happiness of nature, Savitri is at the same time haunted by the foretold doom which will befall on Satyavan when arrives the marked moment. While Satyavan is attending to his job, of cutting the branch of a tree, he suddenly feels exhausted and there is profuse sweating as well as intense pain. He comes down from the tree and puts his head in the lap of Savitri. The noon has become dark with the presence of Yama, the God of Death. Savitri knows that Satyavan is there no more now with her.
IX: 1 Towards the Black Void
Calm and ungrieving, Savitri holds dead Satyavan in the embrace of her soul. Presently an endless force descends in her and she is a different person. Whatever of humanity had yet lingered in her has now disappeared in the greatness of that death. Assuming full control of the situation the Yogini rises to face the dreadful God. The hour has come and she should at once take up the unfinished task of the past. But this has to be done in the face of the opposing Spirit of the Night. Savitri releases Satyavan from her clasp lest he should suffer in it. His luminous spirit moves out of the body and is compelled to proceed through the dimness of that land. Formidable Death is behind him and he is fully under his sway. The perilous silences of the realm shall hence keep him shut from the light of the day. But Savitri, discarding her mortal sheaths, follows them. She is sternly warned not to do so and is commanded to return to earth; but she refuses.
IX: 2 The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness
The Yogini has transgressed the law and must pay the price for that act of hers. She must bear infliction of the terror and accept the denial as an incontrovertible fact. Yet her soul persists to be. Savitri survives, but she cannot have her Satyavan back. Instead, her exceptional daring can claim gifts from the Lord of Darkness. Whatever Satyavan had wished while he was living, all those things could be easily hers. His blind father would get the eyesight and also the lost kingdom. But those gains do not mean much to Savitri. Offended Death speaks in forbidding words. She is told that her venturesome act should not cause the Furies to awake; instead she should go by the wisdom shown to her by him. But Savitri is the worshipper of Love and only by him shall she go. Indeed, in her birth all his suns were conscient and, replies she, Death should be fully cognizant of it. Death, however, carries in his imperial majesty the sword of ruthless will and Savitri, once more a Wanderer in the unending Night, travels through the unyielding vasts.
X: 1 The Dream Twilight of the Ideal
Savitri's affront cannot be taken lightly and she must be chastised
for that. In fact she has committed a double sin, of harbouring spiritual superiority and of the will-to-be even in the Nihil. In that heavy and bare darkness, that terrible darkness she must atone for it. She does it and moves through the dream-ideal. There is her Satyavan, wonderful and lovely and charming. In it all pain becomes bliss. But then it could very well be that this dream-ideal was nothing but Savitri's own yearning for Satyavan, an imagination. She wanted to make him the centre of her joy and it is that which has taken this form. However, in the existence of Death even this stands at once nullified. The occult fact is that this dream-ideal cannot be safe in this mortal world. Savitri should go to the root of the matter and remove the cause of the failure. It lies in Death and therefore he must go. Indeed, he becomes negatively a touchstone for the Divinity's flawless presence in Matter.
X: 2 The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal
Earth's failure to bear the dream-ideal is tied up with the inconscient circumstance presently prevailing here. Avatar has come and Avatar has gone but nothing worthwhile has really been achieved through the ages. Savitri should therefore abandon the emotional pursuit of Satyavan's return and live in life's worldly pragmatism. Perhaps in its acceptance human suffering would not become so distressing. But she asserts that her emotion, her love is heaven-born and what she prizes is not the dream-beauty of this world; rather it is God the Fire whom she cherishes. Death ridicules it as her delusion which she must dispossess. Not only that; he is a staunch materialist and asserts that, not on Self but on Matter is founded the creation. Therefore in his theory all human love automatically gets reduced to a chemical process going on in the human body. Hence Savitri should accept the little joys that are now available to her and eventually pass into everlasting sleep of the Night.
X: 3 The Debate of Love and Death
Death's path is to lead Life to a yet deeper void. But Savitri asserts the truth which builds the worlds, worlds of the Spirit. She maintains that there is a plan behind all this in which Death himself unwittingly turns out to be a significant participator. Indeed, it was an enterprise of delight that had initiated the whole programme in the freedom of
the will, even if it meant a risk or a disaster. Had this delight not been there whatever is would have collapsed. In this delight is founded true love. But for Death all this talk of glorious love is just the trickery of the Mind. Death offers several gifts to Savitri, — excepting Satyavan's life. In this deadlock finally she would be the loser and the Siddhi of her Shakti Yoga would not be achieved. Hence she must step back and in her house of meditation kindle a fire to perform the Primordial Sacrifice, Adi Yajna. She sees that there the Yajna is being performed by the Lord of the Creation and his golden Spouse and the oblations are being offered to the transcendental Reality. Savitri henceforth becomes the shaper of the events.
X: 4 The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real
To imagine that Truth can exist on earth, that this corporeal body can house God is, according to Death, a disorientation, a deep hallucination. But for Savitri this is an indisputable reality. She is certain that Spirit and Nature can and ought to come together. Above the climbing hierarchy are ever present Truth and Love and Bliss and Beauty and she tells so to Death. The descent of that Truth can make this earthly life divine. But Death is least impressed. He insists on Savitri revealing to him her conquering power. At once a mighty transformation comes upon her. The force of Mahakundalini rushes into her and Darkness sees God's living Reality. She commands Death to release the soul of Satyavan. Death resists but he is consumed by her fire. There, waiting on the inscrutable Will, stand together Satyavan and Savitri,—but separated by a translucent wall.
XI: 1 The Eternal Day: The Soul's Choice and the Supreme Consummation
The eternal day has dawned. However, a choice has yet to be made. Savitri has vanquished Death but earth has yet to receive the boons of that victory. There are endless realms of beauty and wonder and the young couple could well live in those realms. Savitri has now to reject this Empire of Light, escape from this bright snare also. It could easily become a wide gate for disappearance into the everlasting day. But she maintains that, after all, it was to bring God down to the world on earth that they had taken birth and it cannot remain unfulfilled. Hers is the perfect affirmation of the divine in the material.
Savitri makes a choice and asks for Peace, Oneness, Power, and Joy. Identifying herself with the Will of the Supreme she prays for those boons for the good soul of the earth. `Be it so, tathāstu' declares the Lord and Savitri's heart is glad. The seal of sanction is put on the incarnate Word and Superman shall wake in the mortal Man. This earthly life shall become the life divine. With the Boon held dear the two return to earth.
XII: Epilogue: The Return to Earth
The Epilogue in the Vyasa story of Savitri runs briefly as follows: Yama has departed and Savitri comes to the place where the dead body of Satyavan was lying. He regains his consciousness and makes enquiries about the terrifying figure who had dragged him with him to a strange world. Savitri mentions that it was the Ordainer of the Worlds himself who had come, but hastens to add that it was now all over. They prepare to hasten to the hermitage, as it was getting pretty dark in the night. In the meanwhile, the old parents of Satyavan get concerned for his having not yet returned to the cottage. The rishis in the forest try to dispel their apprehension with assuring words. Soon arrive Satyavan and Savitri. They are questioned as to why they were late in coming back. Satyavan tries to answer something, but he is unable to do so in proper detail. At the pleading of Gautama Savitri relates everything. She begins with the prophecy made by Narad and the purpose of her accompanying Satyavan that day to the forest. She narrates about her encounter with Yama and how she received several boons from him. The mighty God, she tells, was immensely pleased with her utterances of the Truth and, finally, among several boons granted a life of four hundred years to them. The rishis speak again and again about the extreme good fortune or mahābhāgyam of Savitri and depart to their cottages.
"To feel love and oneness is to live,"—that is the mantra of life in Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri. In it the primordial Night, dreaming in silver peace, guards the mystic light and a greater dawn is awaited.
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