All that is sacred in the world drew near,
To her divine passivity of mood.
A marvellous voice of silence breathed its thoughts.
All things in Time and Space she had taken for hers;
In her they moved, by her they lived and were,
The whole wide world clung to her for delight,
Created for her rapt embrace of love.

She is lying there feeling deeply relaxed, in a ‘divine passivity of mood’. As she lies there everything ‘that is sacred in the world’, everything that is holy and divine comes close to her. She feels ‘A marvellous voice of silence’ speaking to her, breathing its thoughts to her deep receptivity. Through the tremendous tapasya that she has undertaken and the great journey that she has been through, she has identified herself with ‘All things in Time and Space’: everything in the manifestation. Now she feels them moving within her. She feels that everything in the universe is living and existing ‘by her’ because she is holding them all within herself. ‘The whole wide world clung to her for delight’ as if it has all been ‘Created for’ her loving embrace: ‘her rapt embrace of love’.

[Shraddhavaan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Absorbed no longer by the moment’s beat
Her spirit the unending future felt
And lived with all the unbeginning past.
Her life was a dawn’s victorious opening,
The past and unborn days had joined their dreams,
Old vanished eves and far arriving noons
Hinted to her a vision of prescient hours.

This spreading out, this wideness, means that Savitri is no longer absorbed in ‘the moment’s beat’. That is our normal consciousness. We live from moment to moment. We may have hopes and memories but the spirit is focused on the moment. But now ‘Her spirit’ is feeling ‘the unending future’ and at the same time it is living ‘with all the unbeginning past’. For her now there is no beginning, there is no end. She is seeing the past, present and future, all as one vast unending flow. And her own life seems to her like a dawn, ‘a dawn’s victorious opening’. That is what she represents, the dawn, the coming of the new light. For her now the past days and the days that have not yet been born ‘had joined their dreams’. Each day perhaps brings its dreams. Now for Savitri the dreams of the past and the dreams of the future have come together. She is aware of the memory of ‘Old vanished eves’, evenings in the past, and at the same time she is aware of those distant ‘far arriving noons’, bright middays that are yet to come. All these things are hinting to her ‘a vision of prescient hours’ as she looks into the future. Sri Aurobindo tells us that we do not belong to the dawns of the past but the noons of the future. Savitri sees the beginning of that series of dawns that will become the noons of the future. ‘Prescient’ means ‘having the foresight of things that are going to happen’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Desire stirred not its wings; for all was made
An overarching of celestial rays
Like the absorbed control of sky on plain,
Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth,
A quiet rapture, a vast security.

Here the poet emphasises the purity of Savitri’s state. There is no stirring of desire because what she feels in that moment is that they are being covered, overarched by heavenly rays of light in the same way that the sky embraces the earth on all sides: ‘the absorbed control of sky on plain’ – a large plain where we can see the whole sky, the whole hemisphere of sky: ‘Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth’. This perception gives her ‘A quiet rapture, a vast security’. There is no fear now that Satyavan can be lost or will go away. It is a sense of absolute safety, security.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Then sighing to her touch the soft-winged sleep
Rose hovering from his flowerlike lids and flew
Murmurous away.

This is Satyavan’s experience as he wakes up. In poetry, sleep is often imaged as a small fairy with moth-like wings. As Savitri touches Satyavan’s eyelids the ‘soft-winged sleep’ that has been holding them closed flies away: It ‘Rose hovering from his flowerlike’ eyelids ‘and flew’ / Murmurous away.’ It makes a murmuring sound as it flies away.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

With his arms’ encircling hold around her locked,
A living knot to make possession close,
He murmured with hesitating lips her name,
And vaguely recollecting wonder cried,
“Whence hast thou brought me captive back, love-chained,
To thee and sunlight’s walls, O golden beam
And casket of all sweetness, Savitri,
Godhead and woman, moonlight of my soul?

He embraces her tightly as if he will never let her go again: His strong embrace is ‘A living knot to make possession close’, and hesitatingly he murmurs her name. As he awakens, he vaguely remembers something of what they have experienced in the subtle worlds. ‘Vaguely recollecting’ some of those wonders he cries, “‘Whence’, from where have you ‘brought me’ back as your ‘captive’, chained by your love? You have brought me back to you yourself and to these walls of sunlight, O Savitri, you ‘golden beam’ of light.” A ‘casket’ is a precious box to keep precious things He says, “You, Savitri, are a jewel box ‘containing all sweetness’. You are a ‘Godhead’, a divine being as well as a human ‘woman’, and you are the ‘moonlight of my soul’: the soothing blissful light of the full moon illumining my soul and my life.”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Or was all a dream
Or a vision seen in a spiritual sleep,
A symbol of the oppositions of Time
Or a mind-lit beacon of significance
In some stress of darkness lighting on the Way
Or guiding a swimmer through the straits of Death,
Or finding with the succour of its ray
In a gully mid the crowded streets of Chance
The soul that into the world-adventure came,
A scout and voyager from Eternity?”

He says, “What was all that, that I so vaguely remember?: ‘was all a dream / Or a vision’? Was I in some kind of ‘a spiritual sleep’? Was it a symbolic vision? ‘A symbol of the oppositions of Time’?”: the way Time seems sometimes to prevent us from progressing. “Or was it something else? Was it a product of the mind, ‘a mind-lit beacon’? ” A beacon is a signal light, maybe a lighthouse or a light on top of a spire or a hill. “Perhaps what I saw and what I experienced was a beacon, a product of the mind, giving some meaning and guidance, ‘lighting on the Way’ ‘In some stress of darkness’”, some pressure of darkness: that is what he experienced, a signpost in the darkness. “Or was that beacon maybe ‘guiding a swimmer’, somebody who has to swim ‘through the straits of Death’, the very narrow passage of sea that we have to pass when we leave the body? Was it something like that, some guidance on the way? Or was that light doing even more than that, not just guiding, but helping?” ‘Succour’ is help, assistance. “Is that light discovering something that has fallen down into ‘a gully’” – a gully is narrow like a canyon, a narrow crack in the earth, maybe because of erosion or something like that – “a gully that has opened up in the midst of ‘the crowded streets of Chance’?” It is as if in a city street something has opened up and somebody has got lost, fallen into the gully, and this ray of light has come and is helping him to find his way out, this soul that has come perhaps accidentally ‘into the world-adventure’. Perhaps he has come as a scout. A scout is somebody who goes ahead to find the way for people who are on a journey or for an army. Scouts are people we expect to show the way to others and they have to be very strong and brave-hearted people. Here the scout is a traveller ‘from Eternity’ and he has fallen into this gully, and the light has come to him. Satyavan is wondering, “Was it something like that, which has happened to me?”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Only our souls have left Death’s night behind,
Changed by a mighty dream’s reality,
Illumined by the light of symbol worlds,
And the stupendous summit self of things,
And stood at Godhead’s gates limitless, free.”

Their ‘souls have left’ behind the night and darkness of Death which was described in Books Ten and Eleven. Savitri tells Satyavan, “‘Our souls’ have been ‘Changed’ ‘by a mighty dream’s reality’”. Sometimes dreams are more real than earthly fact. The souls of Savitri and Satyavan have been changed by the mighty reality of those dream worlds; they have been ‘Illumined’, lit up ‘by the light of symbol worlds’ which they have passed through together. Savitri was even invited to go beyond all the symbol worlds to the transcendent world, so together they went to ‘the stupendous summit self of things’. They stood there together ‘at Godhead’s gates’, at the gates of divinity and immortality, and felt themselves ‘limitless, free’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

My adoration mastered, my desire
Bent down to make its subject, my daring clasped,
Claiming by body and soul my life’s estate,
Rapture’s possession, love’s sweet property,
A statue of silence in my templed spirit,
A yearning godhead and a golden bride.

He is recalling how he used to feel about her. Later he will tell her how that has changed. Now he says, “I always adored you and surrendered to you: ‘My adoration’ and ‘my desire / Bent down to make [you] its subject’, to claim you as my wife and to possess you. I was daring enough to embrace you. I claimed you in ‘body and soul’ as ‘my life’s estate’, as my ‘Rapture’s possession’, my ‘love’s sweet property.’ I experienced you as ‘A statue of silence’, always there in my spirit, which became a temple for you. I experienced you as a divine being who could feel ‘yearning’, longing, and you were my ‘golden bride’, infinitely precious and beloved.”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

But now thou seemst almost too high and great
For mortal worship; Time lies below thy feet
And the whole world seems only a part of thee,
Thy presence the hushed heaven I inhabit,
And thou lookst on me in the gaze of the stars,
Yet art the earthly keeper of my soul,
My life a whisper of thy dreaming thoughts,
My morns a gleaming of thy spirit’s wings,
And day and night are of thy beauty part.

“That is how I used to feel about you, ‘But now’ this high change has come about in you and you seem almost ‘too high and great’ for me, a human being, to worship. You have become so great. It is as if the whole of time is just lying beneath your feet. You are dominating the whole universe: ‘the whole world seems a part of thee’, and only a small part of you. Your presence has now become ‘the hushed’, silent ‘heaven’ that I live in, and you are looking at me ‘in the gaze of the stars’,” as if all the stars are her eyes looking at him from the distant space. “Yet at the same time you are ‘the earthly keeper of my soul’. You are my guardian here on earth, keeping my soul, looking after me. ‘My life’ has become just like ‘a whisper’ of your ‘dreaming thoughts’, as if I would not exist if you did not think of me. The mornings we share here on earth will be like the shining wings of your spirit. Now it seems to me as if ‘day and night’ are just part of your beauty”. Savitri now seems so much greater and vaster – universal – to him now.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

By thee I have greatened my mortal arc of life,
But now far heavens, unmapped infinitudes
Thou hast brought me, thy illimitable gift!

From the time when they first met, he says, “’my mortal arc of life’, the horizon of my life has become so much vaster through you”; but now it is even more than that: “Now you seem to have brought me, as a boundless, ‘illimitable gift’, all kinds of great vastnesses, ‘far heavens, unmapped infinitudes’. You have brought me much vaster horizons and possibilities. Just by meeting you ‘my mortal arc of life’ was greatened, but now you are bringing me so much more”.

Q: What are ‘unmapped infinitudes’?

‘Infinitudes’ is a word which Sri Aurobindo himself has coined, as an alternative to ‘infinities’. The vastnesses, the ‘infinitudes’ which Savitri has revealed to Satyavan have never been discovered or mapped by anyone before. They are beyond all that. He says that these unlimited vastnesses are an ‘illimitable gift’ which she has given to him.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Heaven’s touch fulfils but cancels not our earth:
Our bodies need each other in the same last;
Still in our breasts repeat heavenly secret rhythm
Our human heart-beats passionately close.
Still am I she who came to thee mid the murmur
Of sunlit leaves upon this forest verge;
I am the Madran, I am Savitri.

We can always remember this line: ‘Heaven’s touch fulfils but cancels not our earth’. This is a key sentence in Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, affirming the value of human experience and the earthly existence. Savitri says, “We will still love each other physically and feel the ‘heavenly secret rhythm’ of ‘Our human heart-beats passionately close’ to each other. I am still that same girl who came to you amid ‘the murmur / Of sunlit leaves’ when we first met on the edge of the forest. ‘I am the Madran’, the princess from Madra. ‘I am Savitri’. I have not changed.”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

All that I was before, I am to thee still,
Close comrade of thy thoughts and hopes and toils,
All happy contraries I would join for thee.
All sweet relations marry in our life;
I am thy kingdom even as thou art mine,
The sovereign and the slave of thy desire,
Thy prone possessor, sister of thy soul
And mother of thy wants; thou art my world,
The earth I need, the heaven my thoughts desire,
The world I inhabit and the god I adore.

These are the ‘happy contraries’, the apparent opposites, which Savitri wants to harmonise in the relationship between herself and Satyavan. She says, “‘All sweet relations marry in our life, / I am thy kingdom’; you are my king, you rule me. But in the same way you are my kingdom. I rule you. I am your ruler but also your ‘slave’, ‘Thy prone possessor’”. ‘Prone’ means ’prostrate’. Usually the possessor stands upright, showing his mastery, but Savitri surrenders totally to Satyavan, prostrating herself at his feet. And yet she knows that she is possessing him as he is possessing her. She says, “I am the ‘sister of thy soul’ and I am the ‘mother of thy wants’, your needs. Whatever you need, I will take care of. You are ‘The earth I need’ and you are my heaven, ‘the heaven’ my thoughts desire. You are ‘The world I inhabit’: I live in you, and you are ‘the god’ that I worship.”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Let us go through this new world that is the same,
For it is given back, but it is known,
A playing-ground and dwelling-house of God
Who hides himself in bird and beast and man
Sweetly to find himself again by love,
By oneness. His presence leads the rhythms of life
That seek for mutual joy in spite of pain.

They have returned to the place where they left their bodies. They have woken up on the earth and they are both alive. After all those experiences in the subtle worlds they have found each other again and have renewed their commitment to each other. Now it is becoming evening and Savitri says,“Now we have to move from this place. ‘Let us go through this new world’, which is as if new to us but it is still ‘the same’ world. This mother earth has been ‘given back’ to us, but now we know it in a different way. Now we know it as ‘A playing- ground and dwelling-house of God’. This is God’s playground and his habitation. He inhabits all this. He ‘hides himself’ in all these forms and appearances. He hides himself ‘in bird and beast and man’.” Perhaps it is easier for us to see him in the birds and the beasts and less easy for us to see him in human beings. But anyway he is there. And he hides himself so that he can experience the joy of finding himself again. He hides himself in one body so that he can re-find himself in another body: ‘Sweetly to find himself again by love, / By oneness’. His presence is leading all ‘the rhythms of life / That seek for mutual joy’, joy that is shared, ‘in spite of pain’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

Lo, all these beings in this wonderful world!
Let us give joy to all, for joy is ours.
For not for ourselves alone our spirits came
Out of the veil of the Unmanifest,
Out of the deep immense Unknowable
Upon the ignorant breast of dubious earth,
Into the ways of labouring, seeking men,
Two fires that burn towards that parent Sun,
Two rays that travel to the original Light.

“Look at all these beings in this wonderful world! We have been given the mission to spread joy to them all. Our spirits have come out of ‘the veil of the Unmanifest’, the transcendent realm, ‘the deep immense Unknowable’, onto ‘the ignorant breast of dubious earth’ and ‘Into the ways of labouring, seeking men’, not for our own sakes alone. We have come here with a mission: as ‘Two fires that burn towards that parent Sun’/ Two ‘rays that travel to the original Light’.”

Of course here Savitri is speaking about herself and Satyavan, but there is a sense in which these lines apply to each of us. None of us has come here just for ourselves alone. Each of us has come, our souls, our immortal part has come ‘Out of the veil of the Unmanifest’, that hidden world beyond manifestation, ‘Out of the deep immense Unknowable’. We have come into this manifestation, the material manifestation. We have come ‘Upon the ignorant breast of dubious earth’, this earth where everything is doubtful. We have come as human beings into the human life: ‘Into the ways of labouring, seeking men’, human beings like ourselves who have to toil, to work hard and to seek. In our souls, each of us is a fire that is burning towards our Origin, the source from which we came: ‘that parent Sun’, the original Divine Energy: “Tat savitur varam rupam, jyoti parasya”, which will illumine us with the Truth in every part of our being. We are here on earth as ‘rays’ that have undertaken the evolutionary journey back ‘to the original Light’ from which our souls have come.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

To lead man’s soul towards truth and God we are born,
To draw the chequered scheme of mortal life
Into some semblance of the Immortal’s plan,
To shape it closer to an image of God,
A little nearer to the Idea divine.”

That is the mission of Savitri and Satyavan, and it will become our mission too when we have found our souls: ‘To lead’ the souls of human beings, ‘towards truth and God’. The scheme of mortal life is ‘chequered’: it expresses duality, contradiction and opposition, darkness and light together. It has to be drawn together into a harmony that gives at least ‘some semblance’, some resemblance or appearance, ‘of the Immortal’s plan’ for the world. We are here to help ‘To shape’ this ‘chequered scheme of mortal life’ a little ‘closer to an image of God / A little nearer to the Idea divine’: the original divine conception for this manifestation. That is our true reason for being born, for existing.

This is a gradual process, which is going on through evolution, but each of us can participate in it through our lives.

Q: The mission of Savitri and Satyavan is to hasten the process?

Yes, Savitri and Satyavan have come for that. And that is what the Mother has said about Sri Aurobindo’s work. She wrote: “I came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo. I remained in India to live with Sri Aurobindo. When he left his body, I continued to live here in order to do his work which is, by serving the Truth and enlightening mankind, to hasten the rule of the Divine’s love upon earth.”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]

She closed her arms about his breast and head
As if to keep him on her bosom worn
For ever through the journeying of the years.
So for a while they stood entwined, their kiss
And passion-tranced embrace a meeting-point
In their commingling spirits one for ever,
Two-souled, two-bodied for the joys of Time.

Savitri embraces Satyavan’s ‘breast and head’ as if to keep him ‘worn’ forever on her bosom, so that he will always be there ‘For ever through the journeying of the years’, the journey of Time. So for a time ‘they stood’ there like that, ‘entwined’, embracing. Their physical kiss and their ‘passion-tranced embrace’, he says, is ‘a meeting-point / In their commingling spirits’. The contact of their bodies is a meeting point within their spirits which are mingling together to become one. They are two souls who have taken on two human bodies ‘for the joys of Time’: of relationship, of development and change, of progression through time and space in separate forms, but their spirits are ‘one for ever’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 12]