Onward she passed seeking the soul’s mystic cave.
At first she stepped into a night of God.
The light was quenched that helps the labouring world,
The power that struggles and stumbles in our life;
This inefficient mind gave up its thoughts,
The striving heart its unavailing hopes.

In this next phase of Savitri’s search, ‘At first she stepped into a night of God’, a kind of divine darkness. Many mystics have spoken about this state or experience which they refer to as ‘a night of God’, or a ‘cloud of unknowing’; it is described very beautifully in the next lines. ‘The light … that helps the labouring world’, the light of the mind and heart, ‘was quenched’ – put out. We quench the flame of a candle with a snuffer, or try to quench a fire with water or foam; if we are thirsty, we want to drink something to quench our thirst. The light of consciousness that helps ‘the labouring world’ – this world of ours where so much effort and toil go on – is quenched. Also the ‘power that struggles and stumbles in our life’ is no longer there; a ‘stumble’ is a mis-step that lets us bang our toes against a stone, making us trip or fall. That is an image of our life in the world where we are always making mistakes and tripping up as we struggle forward, because the human mind is ‘inefficient’. We aim to be efficient, and the mind especially likes to feel that it is very efficient, that it can get things done, can understand and organise things; but still it cannot prevent us from struggling and stumbling, often in vain. In the ‘night of God’ which Savitri is experiencing, her inefficient human mind ‘gave up its thoughts’, simply let go of them. The human heart is normally always running after something, wanting something, wanting to achieve something, but in this state it gives up its ‘unavailing hopes’. ‘Unavailing’ means ‘useless’, ‘fruitless’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

All knowledge failed and the Idea’s forms
And Wisdom screened in awe her lowly head
Feeling a Truth too great for thought or speech,
Formless, ineffable, for ever the same.

Whatever the mind thought that it knew ‘failed’; the higher level of mind where universal Ideas are formed also failed and gave up its efforts; even the divine power of Wisdom covered her head and bowed down ‘in awe’, in deep respect, feeling the nearness of a higher Truth, ‘a Truth too great for thought or speech’ which the mind cannot grasp by thought or words because it is ‘Formless, ineffable, for ever the same’: that Truth has no form which the mind could grasp; it cannot be expressed in words. The Supreme Truth expresses itself in many different ways but at the same time it is ‘for ever the same’, permanent and unchanging, and cannot be formulated by human mind. It is ‘ineffable’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

All was abolished save her naked self
And the prostrate yearning of her surrendered heart:
There was no strength in her, no pride of force;
The lofty burning of desire had sunk
Ashamed, a vanity of separate self,
The hope of spiritual greatness fled,
Salvation she asked not nor a heavenly crown:
Humility seemed now too proud a state.

Savitri feels that everything except ‘her naked self’ has been ‘abolished’, wiped out. She is aware of nothing but her own existence and ‘the prostrate yearning of her surrendered heart’. Her heart has surrendered completely to the divine will, and is prostrated in worship and adoration and longing. She feels no strength or pride of separate force. Aspiration can sometimes take the form of a burning desire for some high achievement, but that feeling has died away, ashamed of its self-centredness; she no longer hopes for ‘spiritual greatness’, for ‘Salvation’ – liberation – nor for ‘a heavenly crown’. Even ‘Humility’ seems too proud and egoistic an attitude towards the unknowable Truth and Light that she is sensing now.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

In endless Time her soul reached a wide end,
The spaceless Vast became her spirit’s place.
At last a change approached, the emptiness broke;
A wave rippled within, the world had stirred;
Once more her inner self became her space.

After moving in this empty absolute state through ‘endless Time’, eventually Savitri’s soul reaches ‘a wide end’ where the ‘spaceless Vast became her spirit’s place’: a state of infinite wideness, openness. Into that state ‘a change approached, the emptiness broke’, like a wave rippling across a deserted beach. Something in that dark and empty Night has changed: ‘the world had stirred’, and Savitri returns to a sense of her own inner self. She is no longer diffused in that dark empty vastness: ‘Once more her inner self became her space.’

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

As if an old remembered dream come true,
She recognised in her prophetic mind
The imperishable lustre of that sky,
The tremulous sweetness of that happy air
And, covered from mind’s view and life’s approach,
The mystic cavern in the sacred hill
And knew the dwelling of her secret soul.

Savitri experiences a wonderful feeling of recognition as if ‘an old remembered dream’ has come true. This is another experience recounted by people who have discovered their  souls: a feeling of recognition and remembering – “Oh yes, this is it! How could I have forgotten this!” ‘In her prophetic mind’ Savitri recognises the ‘imperishable lustre of that sky’ and the ‘tremulous sweetness of that happy air’, and she recognises the entrance to the ‘mystic cavern in the sacred hill’ which has been hidden ‘from mind’s view and life’s approach’. Perhaps this is the hill that is rising up from the earth towards the highest consciousness. Within the depths of that material substance lies ‘the dwelling of her secret soul’.

Q. Why does Sri Aurobindo say ‘prophetic mind’ here?

Perhaps to convey that it is not Savitri’s ordinary human mind that is operating here, but the deep inner mind which is in contact with the subtle worlds and can see past, present and future in a single gaze. The memory of the home of the soul is carried not in our physical minds but in that deep inner mind which may enable us also to sense future events approaching.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

As if in some Elysian occult depth
Truth’s last retreat from thought’s profaning touch,
As if in a rock-temple’s solitude hid,
God’s refuge from an ignorant worshipping world,
It lay withdrawn even from life’s inner sense,
Receding from the entangled heart’s desire.

Savitri recognises the ‘mystic cavern’ which is ‘the dwelling of her secret soul’. I think that ‘It’ at the beginning of the fifth line refers to Savitri’s soul, rather than its dwelling- place. Her soul lay deeply withdrawn, hidden even from ‘life’s inner sense’ as if hiding or shrinking away from the ‘entangled heart’s desire’: the desires of the heart are very complex, mingled with feelings from many levels, so the soul is ‘Receding’ from them. When we try to feel our soul deep in the heart centre we may try to do so using ‘life’s inner sense’; but it is so deeply withdrawn and hidden that the life-sense and the mind cannot reach it. The soul is hidden in a secret solitary place like ‘a rock-temple’ where thought cannot penetrate with its ‘profaning touch’. ‘Profane’ is the opposite of ‘sacred’, and ‘to profane’ something means ‘to treat it disrespectfully’; the touch of mind would spoil the sacredness of the soul, so it has retreated beyond the reach of thought into an ‘Elysian occult depth’: a deep and hidden area of the being, which is sacred and heavenly. ‘Elysian’ means ‘divine’ or ‘heavenly’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

A marvellous brooding twilight met the eyes
And a holy stillness held that voiceless space.
An awful dimness wrapped the great rock-doors
Carved in the massive stone of Matter’s trance.

Here is a wonderful symbolic expression of the entrance to that ‘mystic cavern’, like a ‘rock-temple’ which is the soul’s dwelling place in the heart of Matter. It is a silent ‘voiceless space’ surrounded by a mysterious atmosphere of ‘brooding twilight’ and ‘a holy stillness’. The entrance is protected by ‘great rock- doors’ which are surrounded by a mysterious ‘dimness’, a kind of misty twilight around them. To evoke the atmosphere of that place the poet uses the word ‘awful’. Unfortunately in our careless modern speech we use this beautiful word in a very careless and meaningless way; it really refers to the feeling of ‘awe’, of deep respect for something so much greater than ourselves that we do not know how to respond to it. That awe-inspiring atmosphere surrounds the great rock doors at the entrance to the dwelling-place of the soul. Those doors are carved in Matter: ‘in the massive stone of Matter’s trance’. Savitri has been instructed to discover her soul in the heart of Matter, and that is what she is doing now: going deep into the most material level of herself to find her soul there.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

On the walls covered with significant shapes
Looked at her the life-scene of man and beast
And the high meaning of the life of gods,
The power and necessity of these numberless worlds,
And faces of beings and stretches of world-space
Spoke the succinct and inexhaustible
Hieratic message of the climbing planes.

Sri Aurobindo has already told us that this cave is like a rock- temple. When we enter one of our South Indian Temples, we find courtyard after courtyard, pillar after pillar, and the walls are all carved, ‘covered with significant shapes’; if we are lucky we may find a pujari who is willing to explain to us the significant shapes carved there. This rock-temple is something like that. Or it is like pictures we see of ancient Egyptian temples where they have carvings and paintings on the walls, all of which are ‘significant’, full of deep meaning. Here Savitri sees looking down at her several different kinds of significant images. First, ‘the life-scene of man and beast’; then, ‘the high meaning of the life of gods’; then depictions of the subtle planes, indicating the ‘power and necessity of these numberless worlds’ that make up this manifestation; there are ‘faces of beings’ and landscapes, ‘stretches of world-space’, and all of them together are expressing a significance, a message that is both ‘succinct and inexhaustible’. ‘Succinct’ means ‘very brief and concise’: the message is being conveyed in a very compressed manner, but it is full of meaning, its meaning is ‘inexhaustible’, always revealing new aspects of itself. This message is also ‘Hieratic’ – it is conveying a secret meaning, an inner knowledge; and this knowledge concerns the significance of ‘the climbing planes’: the multitudinous planes of existence which make up the different levels of this creation.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

In their immensitude signing infinity
They were the extension of the self of God
And housed, impassively receiving all,
His figures and his small and mighty acts
And his passion and his birth and life and death
And his return to immortality.

So immense are the planes, the climbing planes of existence which are arranged in an ascending and descending order, that they indicate infinity; they speak of what is beyond manifestation, beyond time and space and definition; they are ‘the extension of the self of God’. God has extended himself, spread himself out in the form of all these planes of existence and the worlds in them and the beings and all the events and movements that happen in them. Those planes are providing a home, a habitation for all the uncountable figures of God and for all his acts, whether mighty or small. The planes are ‘impassively receiving all’: receiving all the potentialities of the divine and allowing them expression, even his passion, his suffering, his birth, his life, his death and this journey, this journey that is happening to all of us. We are all taking part in the return journey from material existence to immortality.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

All this she saw and inly felt and knew
Not by some thought of mind but by the self.
A light not born of sun or moon or fire,
A light that dwelt within and saw within
Shedding an intimate visibility
Made secrecy more revealing than the word:
Our sight and sense are a fallible gaze and touch
And only the spirit’s vision is wholly true.

Savitri sees all these things which have been described and she feels and knows them deeply, ‘inly’, inwardly; she is aware of them and understands them ‘Not by some thought of mind’ but directly ‘by the self’. This way of knowing is our way of knowing ourselves. We experience things around us and outside us through our senses, through our mind, but things that are within ourselves, we know directly, by identity with them, because they are part of ourselves. This self-knowing is a consciousness, a light that does not depend on the sun or the moon or a flame, but is a light of consciousness that is living within and seeing within. The poet says that this light sheds or casts ‘an intimate visibility’ which reveals even secret things much more clearly than any verbal description. Our normal ways of seeing and sensing things are ‘fallible’. They cannot be relied on. They mislead us. They can fail. Only the vision of the spirit ‘is wholly true’ and can reveal the deeper truth behind all surface appearances.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

As thus she passed in that mysterious place
Through room and room, through door and rock-hewn door,
She felt herself made one with all she saw.
A sealed identity within her woke;
She knew herself the Beloved of the Supreme:
These Gods and Goddesses were he and she:
The Mother was she of Beauty and Delight,
The Word in Brahma’s vast creating clasp,
The World-Puissance on almighty Shiva’s lap,—
The Master and the Mother of all lives
Watching the worlds their twin regard had made,
And Krishna and Radha for ever entwined in bliss,
The Adorer and Adored self-lost and one.

As Savitri moves into one room after another, through one doorway after another, she ‘felt herself made one with all she saw’: the soul-oneness which is usually sealed up, hidden deep within awakes, so that she feels her identity with everything that she sees there. She knows that she herself is ‘the Beloved of the Supreme’ and that all the Gods and Goddesses depicted there are expressions of herself and the lord. She experiences herself as ‘The Mother … of Beauty and Delight’ and as Gayatri, the creative Word in the embrace of Brahma, the Lord of Creation. That is actually what her name means: ‘Savitri’ is a name of the Shakti of Brahma. It is part of her role: to be the Word by which the manifestation is brought into existence. There are beautiful ancient bronzes of the Lord and the Mother embracing and here Sri Aurobindo gives us an indication of what these images mean: the Mother of ‘Beauty and Delight’ is the Word of Creation in the creative clasp of the Lord; she is the ‘World-Puissance on almighty Shiva’s lap’: the creative force which has manifested the whole universe sitting on the lap of Shiva who is the creator as well as the destroyer of the universe. They are ‘The Master and the Mother of all lives’, sitting in their blissful embrace and watching all the many worlds which ‘their twin regard had made’, and which exist only because the Master and the Mother are watching them. Another form which this Reality takes is that of Radha and Krishna, the Soul for ever held in the blissful embrace of the Lord: ‘The Adorer’, the worshipper, the soul, and ‘the Adored’, the Supreme, ‘for ever entwined’ in their mutual embrace, ‘self- lost and one’. Savitri sees all this and feels the reality of it all in herself.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

In the last chamber on a golden seat
One sat whose shape no vision could define;
Only one felt the world’s unattainable fount,
A Power of which she was a straying Force,
An invisible Beauty, goal of the world’s desire,
A Sun of which all knowledge is a beam,
A Greatness without whom no life could be.

She sees the Two-in-One in those various forms, and behind them she sees ‘One … whose shape no vision could define’: that ‘One’ does not show itself in a definable form, it can only be  elt as ‘the world’s unattainable fount’ – the Source and Origin of the whole world. But that ‘fount’ or source from which all the world flows cannot be reached: it is ‘unattainable’, ungraspable, unreachable. Savitri feels that she herself is a part of that Power, ‘a straying Force’ of it, a wandering projection of it, moving around in the world. That Power is also beautiful, but with a beauty which cannot be seen: it is ‘invisible’ because it is beyond the reach of the senses, but everything in the world is longing for that Beauty, which is the ‘goal of the world’s desire’. All our desires, all our longings, are really for that ultimate Beauty which alone can really satisfy us. That Power is also ‘A Sun’, a powerful source of warmth and energy and light, ‘of which all knowledge is a beam’: all possible knowledge is just a beam, a ray, of that great original sun of Consciousness. And that Power, that Sun, is ‘A Greatness without whom no life could be’. By using the word ‘whom’ here, Sri Aurobindo lets us know that this Greatness is a person, not an impersonal state, the Being whois the Source of all life.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]

Thence all departed into silent self,
And all became formless and pure and bare.
Then through a tunnel dug in the last rock
She came out where there shone a deathless sun.
A house was there all made of flame and light
And crossing a wall of doorless living fire
There suddenly she met her secret soul.

‘Thence’, from that point or place or state which Savitri is experiencing, ‘all departed into silent self’: there is no form anymore, ‘all became formless and pure and bare’: all that is left is a sense of ‘silent self’. But through the last rock wall of the cave a tunnel has been dug: Savitri has to pass through that tunnel. When she does so, she emerges into a space where a ‘deathless sun’ is shining, an eternal day. There she sees a house ‘all made of flame and light’: there is no door in those walls of flame and light; to enter it she has to pass through ‘a wall of doorless living fire’. Crossing through it, ‘There suddenly she met her secret soul’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 7]