Even in changing worlds bereft of peace,
In an air racked with sorrow and with fear
And while his feet trod on a soil unsafe,
He saw the image of a happier state.

Aswapati has not entered the blissful world which is the true home of Life; he has only glimpsed it. He himself is still moving ‘in changing worlds bereft of peace’: where peace is lacking. A person feels ‘bereft’, when he has lost the thing he treasured the most. Aswapati is surrounded by an atmosphere that is ‘racked’ or tortured ‘with sorrow and with fear’, and he is moving on quaking and unsteady ground, but nevertheless he is able to see ‘the image of a happier state’. This is what he sees:

In an architecture of hieratic Space
Circling and mounting towards creation’s tops,
At a blue height which never was too high
For warm communion between body and soul,
As far as heaven, as near as thought and hope
Glimmered the kingdom of a griefless life.

He sees ‘the kingdom of a griefless life’, a life completely free from sorrow, glimmering, shining softly above him ‘In an architecture of hieratic Space’. ‘Hieratic’ means ‘priestly’; a priest is one whose function is to link us to higher sacred levels. That Space seems to be spiralling up towards the highest levels of creation, ‘creation’s tops’, but its ‘blue height’ still maintains a connection, a ‘warm communion between body and soul’. Although that kingdom of griefless life seems as far away as a distant ‘heaven’, at the same time it feels as intimate and near ‘as thought and hope’

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 2]

On the trouble and the toil they could not share,
On the unhappiness they could not aid,
Impervious to life’s suffering, struggle, grief,
Untarnished by its anger, gloom and hate,
Unmoved, untouched, looked down great visioned planes
Blissful for ever in their timeless right.

Just as the stars of the material universe seem to look down on us from the night sky, those lovely spheres and spirals and rings are looking down on the ‘changing worlds bereft of peace’ where Aswapati is standing. Those ‘great visioned planes’ which he is seeing are ‘Unmoved, untouched’, ‘Blissful for ever in their timeless right’, but still they look down on the lower levels of life, on ‘the trouble and the toil they could not share’ and ‘the unhappiness they could not aid’. Those higher planes are ‘Impervious to life’s suffering, struggle, grief’ and ‘Untarnished by its anger, gloom and hate’. ‘Impervious’ means ‘impenetrable’: they cannot be touched or influenced by the suffering, struggle and grief of the troubled life we know. ‘Untarnished’ means ‘unstained’: metals such as silver and copper may get ‘tarnished’ and need to be cleaned in order to recover their bright gleam; those planes remain perfectly pure and untouched by the anger, gloom and hate that disfigure the life we know.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 2]

As through a magic television’s glass
Outlined to some magnifying inner eye
They shone like images thrown from a far scene
Too high and glad for mortal lids to seize.

 We do not think that Sri Aurobindo actually ever saw a television, but obviously he knew about the principle of it; here he uses the word in its literal meaning of ‘far-seeing’, or ‘seeing from a distance’. Aswapati is seeing all these wonders as if through some magical glass which outlines them like images from very far away, making them visible ‘to some magnifying inner eye’. These scenes are not visible to our physical eyes, because they are ‘Too high and glad for mortal lids to seize’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 2]

In a swift eternal moment fixed there live
Or ever recalled come back to longing eyes
Calm heavens of imperishable Light,
Illumined continents of violet peace,
Oceans and rivers of the mirth of God
And griefless countries under purple suns.

Such an experience may be very brief, yet remain fixed in the memory as a ‘swift eternal moment’; or it may be remembered over and over again, ‘ever recalled’: the landscapes of the perfect kingdom; its skies, ‘Calm heavens of imperishable light’; the lands and continents full of light: ‘Illumined continents of violet peace’. Violet and purple are the characteristic colours of the life-planes. We may recall the oceans and rivers flowing with ‘the mirth of God’, God’s laughter, his merriment, and the ‘griefless countries under purple suns’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Book 2]