In thee the secret sight man’s blindness missed
Has opened its view past Time, my chariot-course,
And death, my tunnel which I drive through life
To reach my unseen distances of bliss

Again he is congratulating her, saying “You have done something that nobody else has been able to do. How have you done it?” He speaks to her in the intimate second-person singular saying, ‘In thee’, Savitri, ‘the secret sight man’s blindness missed / Has opened its view past Time …’: she has achieved ‘the secret sight’ of true knowledge which can see beyond the surface appearances of things in this world of space and time and transience, to their deeper truth, beyond the veil of Time. Time is one of the appearances we experience in this world. We are so used to it that we cannot imagine life without it. The godhead says that ‘Time’ is his ‘chariot-course’: the track on which he drives his ‘chariot’ through the universe; that is his ‘course’. He also says that Savitri has opened her view, her power of vision, beyond ‘death’. Usually human beings perceive ‘death’ as a final horizon: beyond which we cannot see. But he tells Savitri, “You have opened your view past ‘death, my tunnel which I drive through life’.” To build a new railway line or a new road through the mountains we have to ‘drive’ a ‘tunnel’ through. He says, “‘Death’ is like a ‘tunnel’ which I have cut ‘through life’ in order ‘To reach my unseen distances of bliss.’” If we want to reach his ‘unseen distances of bliss’ at present we can normally do so only by leaving our material bodies.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

The glorious godhead continues:

I am the inviolable Ecstasy;
They who have looked on me, shall grieve no more.
The eyes that live in night shall see my form.

He says, “‘I am the inviolable Ecstasy’”: the intense delight and bliss which is ‘inviolable’ – so perfectly pure that nothing impure can come anywhere near it. “Those blessed ones ‘who have ‘looked on me’, who have seen me,” he says, “will never ‘grieve’ anymore.” And he promises that ‘The eyes that live in night’, the blind ‘eyes’ of all of us who live in the material world, will one day become able to see his form.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

Then he describes to Savitri the symbolic image of a landscape which represents two contrasting states of existence: Heaven and Earth.

On the pale shores of foaming steely straits
That flow beneath a grey tormented sky,
Two powers from one original ecstasy born
Pace near but parted in the life of man;
One leans to earth, the other yearns to the skies:
Heaven in its rapture dreams of perfect earth,
Earth in its sorrow dreams of perfect heaven.

He describes a thin strip of sea flowing through ‘straits’: between two shores that are very close together. When that happens – there are several such places in the world – the water flows very fast and usually there are dangerous currents because the warmer water on the surface will be flowing in one direction and below the surface cold water will be flowing the opposite way. The narrow strip of sea he describes is flowing ‘beneath a grey tormented sky’, a ‘sky’ which is troubled and stormy. The ‘shores’ of the ‘straits’ are ‘pale’: there are no bright colours. The water that is rushing through the straits is ‘steely’, dark grey, and ‘foaming’. On the opposite shores are pacing, walking, ‘Two powers from one original ecstasy born’: They are like twins, born from ‘one original’ creative ‘ecstasy’. They are walking close to each other but are kept apart by the ‘straits’, the stretch of fast- flowing water between them. The godhead tells Savitri that although these two powers are always walking close to each other, they are ‘parted in the life of man’. One of those ‘powers’ is leaning towards the ‘earth’; ‘the other’ one is straining to reach ‘the skies’. Who or what are these ‘Two powers’? The godhead says that they are ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’: ‘Heaven’, the higher realm of consciousness and ‘Earth’, the lower material principle. These opposite and separated Powers have been born from ‘one original ecstasy’ and they long to be reunited: ‘Heaven in its rapture’, its bliss, ‘dreams of perfect earth’: it wants ‘earth’ to be ‘perfect’ and it wants to embrace the ‘perfect earth’, while ‘Earth in its sorrow dreams of perfect heaven.’ But despite their longing to unite they remain separated:

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

The two longing to join, yet walk apart,
Idly divided by their vain conceits;
They are kept from their oneness by enchanted fears;
Sundered mysteriously by miles of thought,
They gaze across the silent gulfs of sleep.

These two separated powers – ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’ – long ‘to join’, to embrace each other and unite, but they are separated; they have to ‘walk apart’. What keeps them apart? The poet says that they are ‘Idly divided by their vain conceits’, their own mistaken conceptions. ‘They are kept from their oneness by enchanted fears’: magical suggestions which make them afraid to come together. They are ‘Sundered mysteriously by miles of thought.’ ‘Sundered’ means ‘cut’, ‘divided’ or ‘separated’. They are separated by the ’straits’, the narrow strip of troubled water flowing between the opposite shores where they are walking. But these ‘straits’ represent their own ‘vain conceits’, mistaken ideas or conceptions, their own ‘enchanted fears’ and ‘miles of thought’. They seem unable to unite but ‘gaze’ longingly at each other ‘across the silent gulfs of sleep’. A ‘gulf’ is a deep part of the sea. Profound depths of unconsciousness keep them separated. This is an image for the vast differences which we imagine separating Heaven and Earth, Spirit and Matter.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

But when the phantom flame-edge fails undone,
Then never more can space or time divide
The lover from the loved; Space shall draw back
Her great translucent curtain, Time shall be
The quivering of the spirit’s endless bliss.
Attend that moment of celestial fate.

The godhead is explaining to Savitri that at present Heaven and Earth or Spirit and Matter seem to be permanently separated, but that is an illusion: when that illusion is ‘undone’ and shown to be untrue, when the ghostly, illusory image, ‘the phantom flame-edge’ of that separating sword ‘fails’, then neither ‘Time’ nor ‘Space’ will be able to ‘divide’ these lovers who are meant to be united and one. Then the ‘translucent curtain’ of ‘Space’, which now forms a barrier between them will be drawn back and all ‘Time’ will become the blissful ‘quivering of the spirit’s endless bliss’: these opposite or separated powers will be united. The glorious godhead tells Savitri that she must ‘Attend’ or wait for ‘that moment of celestial fate‘: that time of divine fulfilment and union.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

“O besetter of man’s soul with life and death
And the world’s pleasure and pain and Day and Night,
Tempting his heart with the far lure of heaven,
Testing his strength with the close touch of hell,
I climb not to thy everlasting Day,
Even as I have shunned thy eternal Night.

She calls him ‘O besetter of man’s soul’: one who is challenging all human souls. She says, “Lord, You are the one who is ‘Tempting’ us”. ‘Tempting’ can mean ‘attracting’ but it can also mean ‘testing’. “You are facing us with all the dualities of ‘life and death’, ‘pleasure and pain’, ‘Day and Night’. You are the one who is attracting our hearts with ‘the far lure of heaven’ and testing our strength ‘with the close touch of hell’.” She says, “I am not going to rise up to live in your ‘everlasting Day’. I am rejecting that, just as I rejected the ‘eternal Night’ with which you tested me earlier.”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

I too have revelled in the fields of light
Touched by the ethereal raiment of the winds,
Thy wonder-rounds of music I have trod,
Lived in the rhyme of bright unlabouring thoughts,
I have beat swift harmonies of rapture vast,
Danced in spontaneous measures of the soul
The great and easy dances of the gods.

She says, “‘I too have revelled’ in your heavenly ‘fields of light’ which are ‘Touched by the ethereal raiment of the winds’.” ‘Ethereal’ describes something extremely fine and subtle, less solid than air, like ether; and ‘raiment’ means ‘clothing’ or ‘garment’. Here on earth we might talk about being ‘Touched by the … raiment of the winds’: The ‘winds’ blow past us and we feel the touch of their garments as they pass. But she says ‘ethereal’ because in heaven the atmosphere is a much finer element than our earthly air. It is made up of ether, which is much more subtle. She has enjoyed those heavenly ‘fields of light’ ‘Touched by the ethereal raiment’ of the heavenly ‘winds’. And she says “I too have danced the ‘wonder-rounds of’ your ‘music’ and I have ‘Lived in the rhyme of bright unlabouring thoughts’”. A ‘rhyme’ is when two words have a similar sound at the end, for example the two words ‘rhyme’ and ‘time’. It is a device used in some kinds of poetry. Sri Aurobindo does not use rhyme in Savitri but in some of his shorter poems he uses it very beautifully. Songs often rhyme. In that way not only the rhythm but also the sound of the words is repeated. Savitri says that the ‘thoughts’ one experiences in heaven are ‘unlabouring’: they come very easily and spontaneously and there is a natural harmony in them. She says, “I too have lived in that state of ‘rhyme’ and harmony with all the thoughts that are around me. And I have ‘Danced’ ‘swift harmonies of rapture vast’, ‘in spontaneous measures of the soul / The great and easy dances of the gods.’” Traditional dances used to have set steps and figures. In old films we can see such dancing. In modern times young people have gone in for more ‘spontaneous’ ‘dances’ with no fixed steps. Savitri says that in heaven the ‘dances’ are like that – they are ‘spontaneous’, and they are governed by ‘spontaneous measures’, rhythms and speeds ‘of the soul’. That is what determines the steps, not just what the body or life force feels like doing. She tells the glorious godhead, “I have already experienced all these great delights that you are offering me. You are suggesting to me that I should leave the earth to live with Satyavan in heaven and enjoy all these delights, but I already know all about them, and I know that they are not what I am here for.”

Q: Why does she say “I have lived in the rhyme of bright unlabouring thoughts”?

Here on earth our ‘thoughts’ are often ‘laboured’: it takes time and effort for us to work things out; but on those higher levels if ‘thoughts’ come they are unlaboured and ‘unlabouring’: they come spontaneously. It does not mean that they are facile or superficial, only that they involve no hesitation or effort or tension.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

O life, the life beneath the wheeling stars!
For victory in the tournament with death,
For bending of the fierce and difficult bow,
For flashing of the splendid sword of God!

She is saying, “Give me ‘the life beneath the wheeling stars!’” On earth here we live beneath the stars. There may be perfect worlds above the ‘stars’, in the heavenly realms, but Savitri asks for the ‘life’ which happens here on earth, ‘beneath’ the stars, where the ‘stars’ appear to be ‘wheeling’, moving in circles. She says “I want that ‘life’ so that I can win a ‘victory in the tournament with death’.” A ‘tournament’ is a contest between champions, very often two champions. The final contest always is between two – two people or two teams. Savitri’s contest is ‘with death’. She is the champion of life, life in which there will be the possibility of using weapons. A ‘bow’ is the weapon that an archer uses to shoot his arrows and, of course, in traditional literature there are stories of bows that are extremely difficult to lift up and string and use. For example, in the epic Ramayana, when Rama attempted to string the great bow of Shiva, which no one else could even lift up, the bow broke in the middle. Savitri feels sure that she has the divine strength to bend ‘the fierce and difficult bow’ or to use ‘the splendid sword of God’ with its beautiful long blade which will flash in the sun when it is withdrawn from its sheath and flourished in the fight, and to be victorious in the great ‘tournament with death’ which is her mission. Savitri is eager to be a warrior of God. Her words are charged with energy and exultation.

[ Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]

O thou who soundst the trumpet in the lists,
Part not the handle from the untried steel,
Take not the warrior with his blow unstruck.
Are there not still a million fights to wage?

She says to the glorious godhead, “Lord, you are the master of the battle; you are the one who blows ‘the trumpet’ to signal that the battle can start.” Here the poet uses the word ‘lists’ again. It comes four times in Savitri. It means an area marked out for two champions to fight. There is a kind of referee who blows ‘the trumpet’ to signal “Now the fight can begin.” Savitri tells the godhead, “You are that one. You are in control of the battle. So why would you want to spoil the weapon you have made, by separating the handle from the blade? Please do not do it! That weapon has not yet been used even once: it is ‘untried steel’: its keenness and strength have not been tested yet. Why are you separating us? Why are you taking Satyavan away to heaven? Do not take ‘the warrior’ away before he has had his chance to fight. ‘Are there not still a million fights’ waiting to be fought? Why are you doing this?” ‘To wage’ is the verb usually used to indicate ‘to start and carry on’ with a battle or war or campaign.

[Shrddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 11]