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S VITRI
SEI ORDBISDO
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S A V I T R I
Legend and a Symbol
[ B o o k I V C a n t o I I ]
S R I A U R O B I N D O
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P U B L I S H E R S :
S R I A U R O B I N D O A S H R A M
P O N D I C H E R R Y
ll Rights Reserved
First Published in 1950
S R I A U R O B I N D O A S HRA M P R E S S P O N D I C H E R R Y
P R I N T E D N I N D I A
521 7 50 500
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BOOK FOUR
ook of Birth and Q uest
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C A N T O TWO
T HE GROWTH OF TH E FLAME
LAND of mountains and wide sun-beat plains
A n d
giant rivers pacing to
vastseas,
A
field
of creation and spiritual hush,
Silence swallowing life s
acts
into the
deeps,
O f thought s transcendent climb and heavenward leap,
A brooding
wor ld
of reverie and trance,
Fi l led
w i t h
the mightiest works of God and man.
Where Natureseemeda dream of the Divine
A n d beauty and
grace
and grandeur had their home,
Harboured the childhood of the incarnate Flame.
Over her watched
mil lennial
influences
A n d
the
deep godheads
of a grandiose past
Looked on her and saw the future sgodheadscome
As i f this magnet drew their powers unseen.
Earth s brooding wisdomspoketo her s t i l l breast;
Mou nt ing f r om mind s last peaks to mate
w i th
gods.
M a k i n g
earth s bri l l iant thoughts a springing board
To dive into the cosmic vastnesses,
The knowledge of the thinker and the
seer
Saw the unseen and thought the unthinkable,
Opened the enormous doors of the unknown,
Rent Man s horizons into inf inity.
A
shoreless sweep was lent to the mortal sacts.
A n d art and beauty sprang
from
the human depths;
Nature and soul vied in nobil ity.
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S A V I T R I
Ethics the human keyed to imitate heaven;
The harmony of a
rich
culture s tones
Refined thesenseand magnified its reach
To
hear
the unheard and glimpse the invisible
A n d
taught the soul to soarbeyond things known
Insp i r ing life to greaten and break its bounds.
Aspir ing
to the Immortals imscen wor ld .
Leaving earth s
safety
daring wings of M i n d
Bore her
above
the trodden fields of
thought
Crossing the mystic
seas
of the Beyond
To live oneagleheights near to the Sun.
There wisdom sits on her eternal throne.
A l l
her
hfe s
turns led her to symbol doors
A d mit t ing
to
secret Powers
that were her
k in ;
Adept of
t ru th , initiate
of
bhss,
A
mystic acolyte trained in Nature s school,
Aware of the marvel of created things
She
laid
the
secrecies
of her heart s
deep
muse
U p o n
the altar of the Wonderful;
H er
hours were
ritual
in a timeless fane ;
H er acts became gestures
of sacrifice.
Invested w i th a r hy tn m of higher
spheres
The word was used as a hieratic
means
For the
release
of t h e imprisoned
spirit
Into
communion w i th its comrade gods.
Or
it helped to beat out new
expressive
forms
O f
that which labours in the heart of
l ife.
Some immemorial Soul in men and things,
Seekerof the Unknown and the Unborn
Carry ing
a
l ight
f rom the Ineffable
To rend the veil of the last mysteries.
Intense philosophies pointed earth to heaven
Or on foundations broad as cosmic
Space
Upraised the earth-mind to superhuman heights.
Overpassing lines that
please
the outward
eyes
But
hide the sight of
that
which lives
w i th in
Sculpture and pamting concentrated
sense
U p o n
an inner vision s motionless
verge.
Revealed
a figure of the invisible,
Unveiled
all Nature s meaning in a f orm,
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B O O K
IV
C A N T O I I
(O r
caught into a body the Divine .
Th e architecture o f the Infinite
Discovered here its inward-musing shapes
Captured into wide breadths of soaring stone:
Music brought down celestial yearnings, song
Held
the merged heart absorbed in rapturous depths,
L inkm g
the human
w i th
the cosmic cry ;
Th e
wor ld-interpreting
movements of the
dance
Moulded
idea and mood to a rhy th m ic
sway
A n d po sture; crafts m inut e in subtle lines
Eternised a swift m oment s mem ory
O r
show ed in a carving s
sweep,
a
cup s
design
The underlying patterns of the unseen:
Poems i n largeness castl ike m oving worlds
A n d
metres surging
w i th
th e
ocean s
voice
Translated by grandeurs locked i n Nature s heart
But thrown now into a crowded g lory o f
speech
Th e beauty and su blimity o f her formsj
The passion of her moments and her moods
Li f t ing
the human word
near
to the
god s.
M an s
eyes
could look
into
the inner realms;
His
scrutiny discovered num ber s law
An d organised the motions of the
stars.
Mapped out the visible fashioning of the wor ld .
Questioned the process of his thoughts or made
A
theorised diagram of
m i n d
an d life.
These things she took in as her nature s food.
Butthese alone could i l l not her wide Self:
A
human seeking l imited by its gains.
To her they
seemed
the great and early
steps
Hazardous of a young discovering
spir it
W h i c h
saw not yet by its own native
l ight ;
It tapped the universe w i th testing knocks
Or stretched to find T r u t h - m i n d s divining rod,;
A
growing out there was to numberless
sides.
But not the w idest
seeing
o f thr soul ,
Not
yet the
vast
d i rect imm ediate touc h .
Nor
yet the art and wisdom of the
Gods.
A
boundless knowledge greater than man sthough t ,
A happiness
too high for heart and
sense
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S A V I T R I
Locked in the w or ld and yearning forrelease
She felt in her;
wait ing
as yet for
form.
I tasked for objects aroundwh ich to grow
An d natures strong to
bearw i thout
recoil
The splendour of her native royalty,
Her
greatness and hersweetnessand her bliss,
Her m ight topossessand hervastpower to love:
Earth made a stepping-stone to conquer heaven.
The soul saw beyondheaven s l imit ing boundaries,
M eta great
l ight from
the Unknowable
An d dreamed of a transcendent action s sphere.
Aware of the universal Self in all
She
turned
to Uving hearts and human forms;
H er
soul s reflections, complements, counterparts,
Theclose out lying portions of her being
Divided
f rom
her by walls of body and m ind
Yet to her spir i t bound by ties divine.
Overcoming invisible hedge and masked defence
And the lonehness
that
separatessoul
from
soul,
She wished to make all one immense embrace
T h a t
she
m i g h t
house in it all
l iving
things
Raised
into
a splendidpoint of seeing
l ight
Outof division s
dense
inconscient cleft,
And
make them one w i t h God and wor ld and her.
Only a few responded to her call:
Still
fewer
felt
the screened
divinity
And strove to mate its godhead w i t h their own.
Approaching w i t h some kinship to her heights.
Uplifted
towards luminous
secrecies
Orconscious of some splendour hiddenabove
They leaped to find her in a moment s flash.
Glimps inga l i ght in a celestial vast.
But
could not keep the vision and the power
An d fell back to life s
dull
ordinary tone.
A
mind
daring heavenly experiment,
Growmg towards bome
largeness
they fek near.
Test ing
the unknown s bound
w i th eager
touch
They
s t i l l
were prisoned by their human grain:
They could not keep up w i th her tireless step;
Too small andeagerfor her large-paced wi l l ,
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B O O K I V C A N T O I I
To o n arrow to lookw i t h the unbo rn Infinite s gaze
Their nature weary grew of things too great.
For even th e close partners of her thoughts
W h o could havewalked th e nearest to her ray.
Worsh ippe d th e power and hgh t they fe lt in her
But could not m atch the measure of h er soul.
A f r iend and yet too great wh ol ly to know ,
She walked in their front towards a greater l ight .
T h e i r leader and queen over their hearts and souls.
One close to th eir bosoms, yet divine and far.
Admir in g an d amazed they saw her stride
Attempt ing w i t h a godlike rush and leap
Heights for their human stature too remote
Or w i t h a slow great many-sided toil
Pushing towards aims they hardly could conceive;
Yet forced to be the satellites of her sun
Th ey m oved unable to forego her l ight,
Desiring they clutched at her w i t h outstretc h ed hand: .
Or fol lowed stumbling in the paths she made.
Or longing w i t h their self of Ufe and flesh
They c l im g to her for heart s nourishment and s upp on :
The rest they could not see in visible l ight;
Vaguely they bore her inner mightiness.
Or bound by the sensesand th e longing heart.
Adoring w i t h a
turbid
human love,
They could not grasp the m ighty spirit she was
Orchange by closeness to be even as she.
Some
felt h er w i t h their souls an d
thri l led
w i th her ;
A
greamess
felt
near
yet beyond m ind s
grasp;
To see her was a summons to adore,
To be near her drew a high comm union s force.
So men worship a god too great to know,
To o h i g h , too
vast
to wear a l imit ing shape;
They feel a
Presence
and obey a m igh t.
Adore a love whose rapture invades their breasts;
To a divine ardour quickening the heart-beats,
A
law they follow greatening heart and
life.
Opened to a breath is the new diviner air.
Opened to man is a freer, happier wor ld:
He seesh i g h steps c l im bing to Self and Lig h t.
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S A V I T R I
Her
divine parts the soul s allegiance called:
I t
saw, it
felt ;
it knew the deity.
Her w i l l was puissant on their nature s acts.
Her heart s inexhaustiblesweetnesslured
the i r
hearts,
A being they loved whose boundsexceededtheirs;
H er
measure they could not reach but bore her
t ouch .
Answering w i t h the flower s answer to the sun
They gavethemselves to her and asked no more.
One greater
than
themselves, too wide for
the i r
ken,
T h e i r
minds could not understand nor
w h o l ly
know,
T h e i rlives rephed to hers, moved at her words:
They felt a godhead and obeyed a
cal l .
Answered to her lead and did her work in the
wor ld ;
T h e i r
lives,
the i r
natures moved compelled by hers
As if the t r u th of their own largerselves
Put on anaspectof divinity
To exalt them to a
p i tch
beyond
their
earth s.
They
felt
a larger future meet
their
walk;
She held the i r hands, shechosefor themtheir paths:
They were moved by her towards great unknown things,
Taith dicw them auu the joy to feel themselves hers; .
They lived in her, they saw the
wo r ld
w i t h her
eyes.
Some turned
to her against
their
nature s bent;
Divided between wonder and revolt.
D r a w n
by her charm and mastered by her wi l l .
Possessed
by her, her
str iving
topossess.
Impatient
subjects,
their tied
longing hearts
Hugging the bonds closeof
w h i c h
they most complained.
M u r m u r e d at a yoke they
would
havewept to lose.
The splendid yoke of her beauty and her love:
Others
pursued her
w i t h
life s b l ind
desires
And
claiming all of her as their lonely own,
Hastened toengrosshersweetnessmeant for all.
As earth claims
l i ght
for its loneseparateneed
Demanding
her for
their sole
jealous clasp,
They asked
from
her movements bounded hke their own
A n d
to
their
smallness craved a l ike response.
Or
they repined
that
she
surpassed
their gr ip .
A n d
hoped to
b ind
her
closew i th
longing s cords.
Or finding her touch desired too suong tobear
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B O O K
IV C A N T O
They blamed her for a tyrarmy they loved.
Shrank into themselves as
from
too b r ight a sun,
Yet hankered for the splendour they refused.
Angr i l y
enamoured of her
sweet passionate
ray
The
weakness
of their earth could hardly
bear,
They longed but cried out at the touch desired
Inapt to meet div inity so
close.
Intolerant of a
Force
they could not house.
Somedrawn unwiUingly by her divine sway
Endure it
l ike
asweetbut alien spell,
Unable to mount to
levels
too sublime
They yearn to draw her down to their own earth.
Or
forced to centre round her their
passionate
lives
They hoped to
b ind
to their heart s human needs
The glory andgrace that had enslaved their souls.
But
mid this
wo r ld these
hearts that answered her call
None could stand up her equal and her mate.
In vain she stooped to equal them w i th her heights,
Too pure that air was for small
souls
to breathe.
These comradeselvestoraise to her own wide breadths
Kcr heart desired and
i l l
w i th
her own power
T h a t a diviner
Force
might enter l ife,
breath of Godhead greaten human t ime.
Although she leaned down to their littleness
Covering their lives w i th her strong
passionate
hands
And
knew by sympathy their needs and wants
And
dived in the shallow wave-depths of their lives
And
met and shared their heart-beats of grief and joy
And
bent to heal their sorrow and their pride,
Lavishing the might that was hers on her lone peak
To
l i f t
to it their aspiration s cry
An d
though she drew their
souls
into her
vast
An d
surrounded
w i th
the silence of herdeeps
And
held as the great Mother holds her own.
Only her earthlysurface bore their
charge
And iuixed its fire wi t i i their i i io i ta i i ty :
Her
greater self hved sole, unclaimed,
w i th in .
Oftener in dumb Nature s stir andpeace
A nearnessshe could feel serenely one;
The
Force
in her drew earth s subhuman broods;
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S A V I T R I
A n d to her sp irit s large and free d elig h t
She joined the ardent-hued magnificent lives
O f animal and bird and flower and tree.
T h e y
answered
to her w i th the simple heart .
I n
m an a dim disturbing somewhat l ives ;
I t knows but turns away
from
d iv ine L ight
Preferring the dark ignorance of the fall.
A m o n g the many who came drawn to her
Nowhere she
foimd
her partner of high tasks.
The comrade of her soul, her other self
W h o was made w i th her, l ike God and Nature, one.
Some
near
approached, were touched, caught
fire,
then failed.
Too great was her demand, too puie her force.
Th us Ught ing earth around her l ike a sun ,
Yet in her inmost sky an orb aloof,
A distance severed her
from
those most close.
Puissant, apart her soul as the gods five.
As ye t w i t h the great world she had no l ink;
I n
a small circle of young eager hearts.
He r s pir i t s ear ly re ign and hum an scho ol ,
fHer apprenticeship she made to life and death.
Content in her l i tt le garden of the godt;
As blossoms a f low er in an unvisited place.
Earth nursed, unconscious s t i l l , the inhabit ing f lame,
Yet som ething deeply st irre d and d imly k n e w ;
There was a movement and a
passionate
call ,
A rainbow dream, a hope
o
golden change;
Some
secret wing of expectation beat,
A grow ing sense of something new and rare
A n d
beautiful stole
across
the heart o f T im e .
Th en a faint whisper o f her touched the so i l .
Breathed l ike a hidden need th e soul divines;
Th e eye o f the great w o rld discovered he r, }
A wonder
l i fted
up its bardic voice.
A key t o a L i g h t st i ll kept in being scare.
Th e sun-w ord of an ancient m ystery s sense.
Her name ran murmuring on the hps of men
Exalted and
sweet
like an insp ired
verse
Struck
from
the epic lyre o f rum our s winds
Or sung l ike a chanted thought by the poet Fame.
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B O O K
I V C A N T O I I
But like a
sacredsymbol s
was that cult.
A d m i r e d ,
unsought, intangible to the grasp
He r beauty and flam ing strength
were
seen
afar
Lik e hg htn ing play ing
w i th
the fallen day,
A glory unapproachably divine.
T h e r e
came
to
join
her heart no
heart s
approach,
No transient earthly love assailed her calm.
No hero
passion
had the strength to seize;
N o
eyes
demanded her replying
eyes.
A Power w i th in her
awed
the imperfect f lesh;
The self-protecting
genius
in our clay
Div ined th e
goddess
in the wom an s
shape
A n d
drew back from a touch beyond its
k ind.
The earth-nature bound in the sense-life s narrow make.
T h e
hearts
of men are amorous o f clay-kin
A n d
bearnot spiri ts lone and h igh who bring
Fire- int imations
f rom the
deathless planes
To o vast fo r
souls
not born to mate
w i t h heaven.
Whoever is too
great
must lonely live,
Adored he walks in m ighty so l itude;
Vain
is his labour to
create
h i s kins .
H is only comrade is the Strength w i th in .
Thus was it for a while w i t h Savitri ,
A l l
worshipped marvellingly, none dared to claim.
Her m i n d sat high pouring i ts golden
beams,
Her heart was a crowded temple of delight.
A single lamp li t in perfection s
house,
A bright pure
image
in a
priestless
shrine.
Alone am id surroimding crowds she d we lt .
Ap art i n herse lf imt i l her hour of fate.
E N D O F C A N T O T W O
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