A Spiritual Biography of Savitri

Hi RY,

So beautiful this passage from Savitri!

Some lines my romantic self particularly liked:

“O deathless sage who knowest all things here,
If I could read by the ray of my own wish
Through the carved shield of symbol images
Which thou hast thrown before thy heavenly mind
I might see the steps of a young godlike life
Happily beginning luminous-eyed on earth…

Behold this image cast by light and love,
A stanza of the ardour of the gods
Perfectly rhymed, a pillared ripple of gold!

Her body like a brimmed pitcher of delight
Shaped in a splendour of gold-coloured bronze
As if to seize earth's truth of hidden bliss.

Dream-made illumined mirrors are her eyes
Draped subtly in a slumberous fringe of jet,
Retaining heaven's reflections in their depths.

Even as her body, such is she within,
Heaven's lustrous mornings gloriously recur,
Like drops of fire upon a silver page,
In her young spirit yet untouched with tears.

All beautiful things eternal seem and new
To virgin wonder in her crystal soul.

The unchanging blue reveals its spacious thought;
Marvellous the moon floats on through wondering skies;
Earth's flowers spring up and laugh at time and death;
The charmed mutations of the enchanter life
Race like bright children past the smiling hours.

If but this joy of life could last, nor pain
Throw its bronze note into her rhythmed days!

Behold her, singer with the prescient gaze,
And let thy blessing chant that this fair child
Shall pour the nectar of a sorrowless life
Around her from her lucid heart of love,
Heal with her bliss the tired breast of earth
And cast like a happy snare felicity...

A flame of radiant happiness she was born,
And surely will that flame set earth alight: ...

Of sorrow's songs we have enough: bid once
Her glad and griefless days ring heaven here.

So lovely, so hopeful, so inspiring ...

Thanks RY!

Yes, Ronjon, it simply is lovely. There is something very extraordinary, something very magical about the Book of Fate. And just see how sustained that magic is throughout! Was the Book Sri Aurobindo’s favourite? It can well be argued so.

But take the example of the “But” at the opening of this passage: “But Aswapati answered…” This simple conjunctional “but” can be read at a number of levels, showing the nuances Sri Aurobindo as a Yogi, as a poet, as an artist, as a story teller, as an accomplished craftsman, as a consummate psychologist, one who can display, I mean, can creatively employ every trick of expression to bring shade after shade in his multi-dimensional work. I see at least three aspects of this “but”.

Narad has arrived at the place in Madra and the royal hosts receive him with due respect and honour. He sings to them for an hour about the toils of men and what the tireless gods strive for on earth, about the marvel and mystery of pain, about the lotus-heart of love. And, even as he sang, a mighty shuddering coil of ecstasy crept through the deep heart of the universe. Suddenly, at this point of time, Savitri returns to the palace after the discovery of her love in the distant Shalwa forest. She has discharged the proud mission of her heart and here she is back now to disclose it to her eager parents. And the wonder! They look at each other—the heavenly sage Narad and the bright and beautiful youthful Savitri, glowing in the halo of her newly discovered love. They look at each other and Narad asks: “Who is this that comes, the bride, the flame-born, and round her illumined head pouring their lights her hymeneal pomps move flashing about her?” He pleads to her to reveal from which distant place she is coming, what love and joy she has found. He doesn’t wait for the answer but continues, telling Savitri: “Thou hast not spoken with the kings of pain,” that not life’s perilous music but a Centaur’s song is what she still hears. She is living in a dreamy world and if only she could remain in the safety of such a dream, remain locked in the ideal’s gold! But alas this is not going to be so. So far she has not spoken with the kings of pain; soon she shall. She has made the discovery of love; she must also discover death. Narad is on a definite business trip and without much ado or fuss or formality he has started remitting his brief. Savitri must awaken to the reality of death in this mortal world, the mission for which she has taken this human birth. She is oblivious of it, oblivious of death’s reality, and she must be made aware of it. It is in that sense he is practically initiating Savitri to do Yoga, the Yoga of the Conquest of Death. It is in this background that we have to see the contents of the present “But”.

Firstly, it is Narad who is speaking to Savitri, but it is Aswapati who is replying. This is already gripping, absorbing as a part of the narrative technique. Some dénouement is already indicated.

And then Narad is making foreboding statements, statements which Savitri under the present spell of her love, though it is a luminous spell, cannot fully grasp or appreciate. Bright love could shut her away from the issue of death, death that hides behind love. He is telling her if “for all time doom could be left to sleep”. Which simply means that, it is not going to be that way, and Savitri better be alert. Love, yes, that’s ok, but Doom is going to raise his head and Savitri should get ready to face him. Aswapati himself is perhaps not yet suspicious of it.

Aswapati thought that a greater power had come with Savitri and in it she shall be able to meet any challenge here, challenge of love or of death, but here is Narad implying that it’s going to be a tough case for Savitri. It cannot be cakewalk and she might be standing on a dangerous brink when the destiny of creation will be decided.

And so on… but does all this make sense, Ronjon? Please opine or add—or subtract.

RYD

RY, you ask:

>but does all this make sense, Ronjon? ...

Yes, I had also read it much as you describe. I could feel the rather ominous danger that lurks behind the passage, which in my interpretation, Aswapati also senses at some level. Perhaps it's in an all too human reaction to that intuition that Aswapati spins his lovely, rather fanciful words, almost as a magical spell he hopes will invoke that prescience from Narad for the coming life of his innocent, still very young in experience, Savitri. As he says:

...If I could read by the ray of my own wish
Through the carved shield of symbol images
Which thou hast thrown before thy heavenly mind
I might see the steps of a young godlike life
Happily beginning luminous-eyed on earth…

Of sorrow's songs we have enough: bid once
Her glad and griefless days ring heaven here...

Yet, the sense of impending danger asserts itself again in Aswapati's closing words:

...But too often here the careless Mother leaves
Her chosen in the envious hands of Fate:
The harp of God falls mute, its call to bliss
Discouraged fails mid earth's unhappy sounds;
The strings of the siren Ecstasy cry not here
Or soon are silenced in the human heart...

..must fire always test the great of soul?...

Rereading the passage, it appears to me that this somewhat foreboding background provides a dramatic tension behind Aswapati's hopeful wishes for his beloved daughter's future. And that's why I introduced my reply about the lovliness of his words with the comment: "Some lines my romantic self particularly liked:"

~ ronjon