So she fared on across her silent self.
To a road she came thronged with an ardent crowd
Who sped brilliant, fire-footed, sunlight-eyed,
Pressing to reach the world’s mysterious wall,
And pass through masked doorways into outer mind
Where the Light comes not nor the mystic voice,
Messengers from our subliminal greatnesses,
Guests from the cavern of the secret soul.

Leaving that world of limiting mind, Savitri ‘fared on’, travelling further into her inner being, ‘her silent self’. She finds a road which is ‘thronged’, crowded with ‘an ardent crowd’ of eager and enthusiastic beings who are ‘brilliant, fire-footed, sunlight-eyed’: shining, with eyes like sunlight and feet that move as fast as fire; ‘sped’ is the past tense of the verb ‘to speed’. They are hurrying to reach ‘the world’s mysterious wall’, which divides the subtle realms from our material world. There they will pass through some disguised doorways into ‘outer mind’. Our ‘outer mind’ does not receive the Light of Truth directly, and does not hear ‘the mystic voice’, but ‘Messengers’ like these can enter it. They are ‘Messengers from our subliminal greatnesses’. ‘Subliminal’ means ‘below the threshold’ and particularly ‘below the threshold of our normal waking awareness’. Sri Aurobindo is repeatedly telling us that below the threshold of our ordinary consciousness, we have a much vaster being with greater powers that we do not know anything about; but sometimes ‘Messengers’ from those greater parts of our being may come and influence us, passing through ‘masked doorways into outer mind’. They bring messages, suggestions, secret knowledge from our hidden parts. They come to us as visitors, as ‘Guests from the cavern of the secret soul’. Deep within our subliminal being is the cave  or ‘cavern’ full of hidden spiritual treasures, where ‘the secret soul’ dwells.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

These messengers may come to us when we are in some indrawn state of ‘dim spiritual somnolence’. ‘Somnolence’ is a sleepy state which is not alert to outer things, but deeply indrawn within. Or they may surprise even ‘our waking self’ by casting a light of ‘wide wonder’ around it. They take different forms: as ‘Ideas that haunt us with their radiant tread’; we do not know where these ideas come from but they remain with us and will not go away.  Ideas can stay with us and return again and again because they have made a special impression on us, as if they have left a shining footprint in our consciousness, a bright reminder of their ‘radiant tread’. Or the messengers may come to us in the form of ‘Dreams’: we might have a dream which is a hint, an indication, of some great ‘Reality’ that has not yet manifested, which is still ‘unborn’. Or they may come to us in the form of visions. We might see ‘Strange goddesses with deep-pooled magical eyes’: with eyes that are like deep pools. In the forest, you might see a deep dark pool that is extremely mysterious and attractive; like that, there is something ‘magical’ about the eyes of those unknown goddesses. Or we might see ‘Strong wind-haired gods’, their hair as if flying in the wind, who carry ‘the harps of hope’. A ‘harp’ is a musical instrument which poets once used, to accompany themselves as they chanted their verses. The musical message of those divine harps may bring us fresh and wonderful hopes. Sri Aurobindo mentions other visions: moon-coloured and ‘gliding’ like the moon ‘through gold air’; ‘gliding’ means ‘moving quietly and smoothly’. Or the messenger may come to us in the form of an Aspiration: If we envision a form for Aspiration, it might have a ‘sun- dream head and star-carved limbs’, as if the form of its head is like a dream of the divine light of the sun, and the ‘limbs’ of its body have been shaped by or out of stars, which embody truths. Or those messengers may come to us in the form of ‘Emotions’ which lift up our ordinary hearts to ‘sublime’ feelings. Love can do this; so can courage, nobility or generosity. These surges of deep emotion lift our hearts high above their ordinary feelings into something ‘sublime’. These are different ways in which messengers from our inner being and our soul can come into ‘outer mind’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

One answered pointing to a silence dim
On a remote extremity of sleep
In some far background of the inner world.

One of them responds to her and points deep into her consciousness, to a place of dim ‘silence’ that cannot be easily seen or found because it is not shining very brightly and is not making any sound; also it is in the far distance, ‘On a remote extremity of sleep’. ‘Remote’ means ‘far away’. An ‘extremity’ is the furthest end of something. That place lies deep in inner mind, where consciousness seems to be in an indrawn state of sleep, ‘In some far background of the inner world.’ Earlier in Book Two we were reading about a similar experience that King Aswapati had: in a far, dim background of mind- space, he saw a lovely rosy pink light and the entrance to a deep tunnel which seemed to invite him to go deeper in and further away from the mind to enter the world of soul. The point of dim ‘silence’ which the messenger points out to Savitri lies in a far, dim ‘background of the inner world’, the world of consciousness.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

“O Savitri, from thy hidden soul we come.
We are the messengers, the occult gods
Who help men’s drab and heavy ignorant lives
To wake to beauty and the wonder of things
Touching them with glory and divinity;
In evil we light the deathless flame of good
And hold the torch of knowledge on ignorant roads;
We are thy will and all men’s will towards Light.

The messenger tells Savitri: “Yes, we are coming from your own hidden soul. We are divine beings who secretly help the ‘drab and heavy ignorant lives’ of human beings – ‘drab’ means colourless, dull or boring – to wake up ‘to beauty and the wonder of things’. We touch them ‘with glory and divinity’.” Many people have to live very ‘drab’, ordinary lives, and these ‘messengers’ help people to wake up to the ‘beauty and the wonder of things’. I remember somebody who was here in Auroville in the early days. Before coming to Auroville, he was leading a hard and dull life in the catering industry, in a hotel. In his own words, “One day I woke up and heard the birds singing.” It changed his life completely. He left his job and travelled the world and landed up here with the Mother. As soon as he entered the Ashram he recognised her immediately in her photograph hanging in the Reception Room. It was as if some messenger had come into his drab and heavy life and woken him up to beauty and wonder and new possibilities in life. Another thing that these messengers do is to ‘light the deathless flame of good’, ‘In evil’: sometimes beings and circumstances seem so terrible and wicked that we wonder, “How can God allow such evil things to happen?” But even from such evil things something good may come out through the action of these ‘messengers’. They also hold up ‘the torch of knowledge’ on the ‘ignorant roads’ of life, bringing a light of understanding even into places and times where ignorance seems to prevail. The messenger tells Savitri, ‘We are thy will and all men’s will towards Light’: in each and everyone these messengers represent the will for greater and truer consciousness.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

There in the silence few have ever reached,
Thou shalt see the Fire burning on the bare stone
And the deep cavern of thy secret soul.”

“If you can ‘Follow the world’s winding highway to its source’ you will reach a silent place or state that ‘few have ever reached’. There you will see ‘the Fire burning on the bare stone’: the original flame that has never been lit and will never go out, which does not need any material fuel; it can just burn on the ‘bare stone’; and there you will find ‘the deep cavern of thy secret soul’: the secret cave deep in the heart which is the home of the soul.” This image of ‘the Fire burning on the bare’ rock is very suggestive. Not far away from here, at Tiruvannamalai, a fire is lit on bare rock on certain special full-moon nights, but of course people have to carry wood up there to build the fire, which must be a physical symbol for the inner fire whichvis the sign of the presence of the soul. Perhaps we could say that it is Agni in Matter.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

Then Savitri following the great winding road
Came where it dwindled into a narrow path
Trod only by rare wounded pilgrim feet.
A few bright forms emerged from unknown depths
And looked at her with calm immortal eyes.
There was no sound to break the brooding hush;
One felt the silent nearness of the soul.

As the messenger instructed her, Savitri follows ‘the great winding road’ as it becomes smaller and smaller until it is just ‘a narrow path’ which is trodden only ‘by rare wounded pilgrim feet’: only very few pilgrims walk along that stony narrow path and their feet are ‘wounded’, indicating that the path is very long and rough. As Savitri continues, she sees ‘A few bright forms’ appearing ‘from unknown depths’ who look ‘at her with calm immortal eyes’. Everything becomes very quiet: ‘There was no sound to break the brooding hush’, in which ‘the silent nearness of the soul’ can be felt. Savitri senses that she is coming very near to the home of her soul.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]