A deathbound littleness is not all we are:
Immortal our forgotten vastnesses
Await discovery in our summit selves;
Unmeasured breadths and depths of being are ours.

The limited human being that we are now, this ‘deathbound littleness’, is not all we are: there is much more to us, which we have forgotten: our immortal vastnesses are waiting for us to discover them ‘in our summit selves’. The ‘summit’ is the top of a mountain. When we reach the top of our mountain, the many successive levels of our being, we shall find the ‘Unmeasured breadths and depths of being’ that belong to ‘our summit selves’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 1]

In moments when the inner lamps are lit
And the life’s cherished guests are left outside,
Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs.

These are special moments. If we can manage to get a moment like that and light the inner lamps, shut out all the distractions of life, then the ‘spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs’: it communicates with its own depths, its deeper parts.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 1]

Or through the earthly coverings something breaks,
A grace and beauty of spiritual light,
The murmuring tongue of a celestial fire.
Ourself and a high stranger whom we feel,
It is and acts unseen as if it were not;
It follows the line of sempiternal birth,
Yet seems to perish with its mortal frame.

‘Through the earthly coverings something breaks’: something from behind the veil breaks through the outer physical coverings and we experience an unearthly light, This refers to the ‘something’ which breaks through the earthly coverings:

That Something, that Presence ‘follows the line of sempiternal birth,  Yet seems to perish with its mortal frame’. The word ‘perish’ means to decay and spoil or eventually to die. There is something in us that seems to die when we die. We even say ‘It is because the soul has left the body – that is why we die’. But the soul does not die, it goes on, it is born again, it follows the line of many, many, many births; the eternal process of its birth is repeated over and over unendingly in time. We can say that this ‘something’ is what Sri Aurobindo calls our psychic being.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 1]

Even when we fail to look into our souls
Or lie embedded in earthly consciousness,
Still have we parts that grow towards the light,
Yet are there luminous tracts and heavens serene
And Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy
And temples to the godhead none can see.

Even when we forget completely, even when we do not take the trouble to look into our souls and remain ‘embedded in earthly consciousness’ like stones stuck in the mud, still we have parts that are always growing towards the higher light; those ‘luminous tracts’, those areas that are full of light, those serene heavens, calm, quiet, smiling, undisturbed, still exist whether we are conscious of them or not; there are ‘Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy / And temples to the godhead none can see’. ‘Eldorado’ is a Spanish word which means ‘The Golden One’; it was a name given by the Conquistadors, the Spanish colonisers who conquered South America, to a city they were looking for, a city built of pure gold; the word has passed into English, meaning a wonderful golden dream or goal that you are always looking for but never find. But here Sri Aurobindo says that those golden places really do exist, those ‘Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy’: not cities built of material gold, but realms and countries of pure golden light and Truth-Consciousness; they are there and one day we shall find them. Whether we are aware of them or not, there are ‘temples’ to the inner godhead whom nobody sees; even if we forget all about Him, still His temples are there, still He is being worshipped, His power is still ruling.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

A shapeless memory lingers in us still
And sometimes, when our sight is turned within,
Earth’s ignorant veil is lifted from our eyes;
There is a short miraculous escape.

Deep within us ‘lingers’, remains, a ‘shapeless memory’: it does not have a distinct form, but it remains lingering within us and does not go away. When we do look inside, ‘when our sight is turned within’, it may happen that suddenly the ‘ignorant veil’ of matter is removed and we experience a ‘short miraculous escape’ into freedom, into clear sight. I would say that this is the psychic memory, the memory that is aware of divinity. It is because we have that ‘shapeless memory’ within us that when Sri Aurobindo and the Mother tell us these things we believe them; because that memory is in us, we recognise the truths that they remind us of; not all of our parts share that memory, so there may not be a full immediate recognition, but some part of us knows, ‘Yes, it is like that.’ What happens when we experience ‘a short miraculous escape’?

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

In the unfolding process of the Self
Sometimes the inexpressible Mystery
Elects a human vessel of descent.

‘In the unfolding process of the Self’: as we evolve and develop, as the Self in us and in the universe unfolds and discovers itself, the ‘inexpressible Mystery’, the ‘ineffable Secrecy’, the ‘remote Unknown’, may choose to descend into a human being. To ‘elect’ means to choose. That human being then becomes a ‘vessel’ into which the inexpressible Mystery pours as much of itself as the vessel can hold. This is another kind of peak experience, the feeling that some very high, mysterious power is pouring into you. What happens then?

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

Or a revealing Force sweeps blazing in;
Out of some vast superior continent
Knowledge breaks through trailing its radiant seas,
And Nature trembles with the power, the flame.

This is also a descent, but of a different kind; instead of peace, ‘a revealing Force sweeps blazing in’: a force which gives knowledge pours into the human vessel with immense energy. ‘Out of some vast superior continent’ Knowledge breaks through the barrier of matter. A ‘continent’ is a huge, solid mass: an ocean is vast, unlimited, but fluid, liquid, flowing; a continent is solid, and usually below our feet; but this is a ‘superior continent’: although it is ‘superior’, above us, it is a vast solid mass of substance; from there ‘Knowledge breaks through trailing its radiant seas’: like a comet with its glowing tail, Knowledge pours down from above, with wide seas of radiating light following it as it comes. When that ‘revealing Force sweeps blazing’ into the human vessel ‘Nature trembles’, because the intensity of ‘the power, the flame’ is so difficult to bear

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

Then the small bodily ego thins and falls;
No more insisting on its separate self,
Losing the punctilio of its separate birth,
It leaves us one with Nature and with God.

If one of these wonderful peak experiences comes to us, our sense of our little limited ego, connected to our self- contained small body, becomes thin and may fall away completely; it loses its sense of limited individuality; it stops insisting on its separateness, it is ready to feel part of something much vaster; it loses ‘the punctilio of its separate birth’. The word ‘punctilio’ comes to us from Italian and Spanish and is used about people who are very particular about small details, especially details that have to do with their status, their dignity and honour: they want everyone to recognise that they are very important and must be treated properly; but the origin of the word is the Latin word ‘punctum’ which means ‘a point’. That is the way that our ego behaves: it is really nothing but a tiny point, but it thinks that it is very important; it wants the whole universe to take notice and behave properly towards it; but when one of those wonderful experiences comes the little ego loses its ‘punctilio’: it loses its sense of being a little point, and at the same time it loses its sense of being very important and needing to be respected. When that sense of separateness falls away, suddenly we can feel that we are ‘one with Nature and with God’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

A wider consciousness opens then its doors;
Invading from spiritual silences
A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile
To commune with our seized illumined clay
And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.

When we are quiet like that, when we speak to our ‘gulfs’, ‘A wider consciousness opens … its doors’ and from the spiritual silences ‘A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile’: like a great bird of light it swoops down to ‘commune’ or communicate with the body, with our ‘clay’, the substance of our physical body. The body is ‘seized’ and ‘illumined’, filled with the light of the ray that seizes it. That experience leaves a mark even after the ray has gone; that mark will remain as a ‘huge white stamp upon our lives’. The Mother tells us that if we have such an experience it is important to remember its ‘stamp’, because the memory of it will help us to come back into communication again and again with the Power that seized us then.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

The truth mind could not know unveils its face,
We hear what mortal ears have never heard,
We feel what earthly sense has never felt,
We love what common hearts repel and dread;

These are different ways in which ‘signals of eternity’ may appear: as a revelation of ‘The truth mind could not know’, as if it ‘unveils its face’; removing its veil, it shows itself and gives us some revelation or insight; or we may experience subtle hearing and ‘hear what mortal ears have never heard’: our physical ears, which belong to this body which must die, have a certain capacity of hearing; but there is also an inner hearing, a subtle hearing. Or we may feel something. We have physical senses, our ‘earthly sense’: one of them is our sense of touch by which we feel things, but it is a limited physical touch; in that special state we may ‘feel what earthly sense has never felt’; we might feel something touching us, or fragrances may be experienced, or a special taste. The effect of these inner experiences changes our values: ‘We love what common hearts repel and dread’; in the ordinary consciousness people do not like being alone, they want to be with other people, they want to have lively and entertaining exchanges; when we begin to prefer to be quiet and silent, alone, it is a sign of the awakening of our inner being. But this might also apply to other things: sometimes we see very painful, ugly, hateful things or happenings; but if we are awake inside we can look through the appearances and see them in a deeper way and feel a great understanding and love and compassion. Sometimes the Divine Love brings us experiences which our ordinary nature would like to push away; it is only when the inner being is awake that we can feel, ‘Oh yes, this is for my good’ and respond with acceptance and even gratitude. These are some of the experiences that can come when ‘Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

It is the origin and the master-clue,
A silence overhead, an inner voice,
A living image seated in the heart,
An unwalled wideness and a fathomless point,
The truth of all these cryptic shows in Space,
The Real towards which our strivings move,
The secret grandiose meaning of our lives.

These lines all refer to the divine Presence that is growing within us: ‘the origin’, the source of all the rest of our instrumentation, our life, mind, body and capacities which have all emerged from that original Divine consciousness, that seed of Divinity. It is ‘the master-clue’ which shows us the way, a sign or a light or a thread that we follow to find our way. If we are in a winding twisty labyrinth or maze, where we cannot find our way out, if someone or something gives us a clue, we have a thread that we can follow; the inner divine Presence is that ‘master-clue’, the master sign. If we can just get hold of the thread of that power, that Presence, that Divinity within, it will guide us through the most difficult circumstances. We may experience it as a silence in the higher levels of our consciousness. We may experience it as an inner voice, or as ‘A living image seated in the heart’. Another way of experiencing it is as ‘An unwalled wideness’ with no wall or limit, and as ‘a fathomless point’: a point so deep that the end of it can never be reached. In whatever way that ‘something’ reveals itself, it is ‘The truth of all these cryptic shows’. ‘Cryptic’ means puzzling, mysterious, difficult to understand. All the ‘shows’, the forms and shapes that we perceive in Space, are ‘cryptic’, their deeper meaning and significance is mysterious; within them all lies the truth of that Presence. All our efforts and strivings are moving towards the experience of the Real, the ultimate Reality, because that Truth and that Reality is ‘The secret grandiose meaning of our lives’. Why are we here? What are we up to? What does it all mean? Sri Aurobindo and the Mother tell us that there is a secret meaning to our lives and it is not something small and insignificant, but ‘grandiose’: it has a great and noble significance, which is revealed to us by the indwelling divine Presence.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]

Always we bear in us a magic key
Concealed in life’s hermetic envelope.

We are carrying within us ‘a magic key’ to the mysteries of existence; but it is ‘concealed’, hidden in ‘life’s hermetic envelope’. When something is ‘hermetically sealed’ nothing can get in at all: no air, no water, nothing. Sometimes this is important in manufacturing; a hermetic seal is needed that will be absolutely watertight and airtight, tight to everything; but the word ‘hermetic’ carries another suggestion too: it can mean ‘occult’, secret, in the sense that a special initiation is needed to penetrate it. There is a secret to ‘all these cryptic shows in space’: that is the Secret Knowledge which Sri Aurobindo will be sharing with us in this canto. Now he is introducing us to it gradually.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 1]