Alien now seemed that dim far universe,
Self and eternity alone were true.
Then memory climbed to him from the striving planes
Bringing a cry from once-loved cherished things,
And to the cry as to its own lost call
A ray replied from the occult Supreme.

When Aswapati senses the material universe it seems ‘Alien’ – strange – to him. He is experiencing the One Self and living in eternity – these alone seem true and real to him. But then a ‘memory’ comes, rising up from the ‘striving planes’ of this present universe which are full of effort and struggle; that ‘memory’ brings a ‘cry’, an appeal, an aspiration, from things that he has known and loved: ‘once-loved cherished things’. ‘To cherish’ means ‘to value, love and care for’. When that call comes, there is a response: ‘A ray replied from the occult Supreme.’ These lines remind me powerfully of the very beginning of the poem, which starts in complete darkness. Into that darkness comes a tiny movement that seems to make room for a shapeless memory to wake up; the Mother says that this movement is like the very beginning of aspiration. In response to that movement, into the darkness comes a ray of light, like ‘an eye of deity’, as if looking to see where that little movement and call has come from. Here Sri Aurobindo says that the ‘cry’, the appeal, reaches the heights ‘as its own lost call’: it is coming from a part of the ‘occult Supreme’ itself, a part which is lost in the darkness. That is similar to the beginning of the poem, where ‘an eye of deity’ comes looking for some part of itself that is too lost and too fallen even to remember what it is missing. When even a little true aspiration rises up, there will always be a response, because the response comes from our own highest self.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

Himself he knew and why his soul had gone
Into earth’s passionate obscurity
To share the labour of an errant Power
Which by division hopes to find the One.

He understands why he has taken birth in a human body ‘Into earth’s passionate obscurity’, and why he has undertaken his quest: he has done it to play his part in the evolutionary journey: ‘To share the labour of an errant Power / Which by division hopes to find the One’. ‘Errant’ literally means ‘wandering’. There are old stories about wandering knights, ‘knights errant’, heroic noble warriors who would move from place to place righting any wrongs or injustices they came across on the way and defeating evil-doers; but psychologically the word is connected with ‘error’, making mistakes. The ‘errant Power’ is the ignorant Nature, which is impelled by the soul within to keep trying to do things better, but which is limited in consciousness by being involved in Matter and so wanders around blindly on the way, apparently making many mistakes. The evolutionary power is always trying to find the way back to the one true self, but it has also been given the task of giving form and life and expression to all the possibilities of that infinite and eternal One, through the long laborious upward journey of evolution.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

Two beings he was, one wide and free above,
One struggling, bound, intense, its portion here.
A tie between them still could bridge two worlds;
There was a dim response, a distant breath;
All had not ceased in the unbounded hush.

Having understood all this, Aswapati experiences himself as ‘Two beings’. One is ‘wide and free above’ in the House of the Spirit, liberated from all the littleness below. Now he has understood why his soul-spark has incarnated on the earth. At first he felt his earthly being as something foreign and unreal, but now he again experiences it as another aspect of himself: ‘struggling, bound, intense’; it is the ‘portion here’, in the material universe, of his higher being above. He realises that a connection, ‘A tie’, between his wide free being above and his struggling being here on earth ‘still could bridge two worlds’: it could act as a bridge between those two contrasting worlds that he is experiencing: the New Creation there in the House of the Spirit, and the world we know here, which is founded, as we read earlier, on two negations. There is ‘a dim response’ from below, and ‘a distant breath’ from above. It means that his whole being has not been dissolved by reaching the highest level of the spirit; his higher being has become ‘wide and free’, he has experienced a total liberation from matter, life and mind; but his nature-being has not ceased to exist. He feels himself as two beings, but there can be a connection between them: the lower being can call to the higher one and the higher one can respond to the call of the lower one, creating a bridge between the world of Matter and the world of Spirit

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

In the luminous stillness of its mute appeal
It looked up to the heights it could not see;
It yearned from the longing depths it could not leave.

This ‘It’ is Aswapati’s heart: immobile, silent, and full of light, constantly adoring the Mother. Although it cannot see her, it is silently yearning for her ‘from the longing depths it could not leave’. It is bound here in the ‘the longing depths’ of the earth nature and cannot leave them, but from those ‘depths’ it is constantly aspiring and yearning for her ‘In the luminous stillness of its mute appeal.’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

In the passion of its solitary dream
It lay like a closed soundless oratory
Where sleeps a consecrated argent floor
Lit by a single and untrembling ray
And an invisible Presence kneels in prayer.

This is a beautiful image to evoke for us the state of Aswapati’s heart. It is indrawn into ‘the passion of its solitary dream’, and that intense concentration makes it like ‘a closed soundless oratory’. An ‘oratory’ is a space created for prayer. Aswapati’s heart is like a closed, silent room of prayer. The floor of that room is ‘argent’, silver, and it is very peaceful, as if sleeping; at the same time it is ‘consecrated’, dedicated to a sacred purpose. The room is ‘Lit by a single and untrembling ray’ – a single unwavering ray of light; and in it ‘an invisible Presence kneels in prayer’: some unseen Presence is praying there. When Aurovilians read these lines we cannot help being reminded of the chamber at the Matrimandir. Of course Sri Aurobindo wrote these words long before the Matrimandir was built, but these words and this image correspond to a deep inner experience. The description which the Mother gave of the chamber was based on her visions, and she wanted to create a concrete representation of that experience, to help people to achieve a state of concentrated consecration, and to receive the illumination of ‘a single and untrembling ray’ from above. The French name which she gave to the Matrimandir is ‘L’Oratoire de la Mère’: The Mother’s Shrine or ‘Oratory’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

All other parts were dumb in centred sleep
Consenting to the slow deliberate Power
Which tolerates the world’s error and its grief,
Consenting to the cosmic long delay,
Timelessly waiting through the patient years
Her coming they had asked for earth and men;
This was the fiery point that called her now.

All the other parts of his being were ‘dumb’, silent, in a trance- like state of ‘centred sleep’; they are ‘Consenting’, agreeing, accepting the ‘slow deliberate Power’ of Nature which is not in a hurry, which ‘tolerates the world’s error and its grief’. They are also ‘Consenting to the cosmic long delay’: all the immeasurable aeons and aeons that Nature seems to need to bring about the fulfilment. Coming into such a high state of peace and seeing that all the error and suffering and delay are necessary for the process of unfolding, they accept and say, “Yes, it is all right”. They are ready to wait ‘through the patient years’, for however long ‘Her coming’ takes. All Aswapati’s being was united in asking for the coming of the Mother, ‘for earth and men’; but now all the other parts are at peace, patient, silent. Only his heart is ‘the fiery point’ which is still intensely aspiring for her to come ‘now’, without any more delay.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

Armed with the intuition of a bliss
To which some moved tranquillity was the key,
It persevered through life’s huge emptiness
Amid the blank denials of the world.

His heart is ‘armed’: its strength comes from its ‘intuition of a bliss / To which some moved tranquillity was the key’ : it feels intuitively that there is a form of bliss, an ananda, that lies beyond mere ‘quietude’ and peace; a ‘moved tranquillity’, a deep calm that contains intense emotion is the ‘key’ which can lead to that supreme delight. ‘Tranquillity’ is a very quiet, calm and peaceful state. Aswapati’s heart senses that if it can remain very still and silent and at the same time maintain its deep and intense feelings, that state will be ‘the key’ to the ‘bliss’ it is longing for. So his heart is persevering in its aspiration, it is persisting in its intense concentration and yearning, despite ‘life’s huge emptiness’, and despite ‘the blank denials of the world’, the world of Nature which is ruled by unconsciousness, ignorance and falsehood. Everything in the world contradicts his aspiration, saying “No, it is impossible, forget it, it cannot be”. But Aswapati’s heart is sure of its intuition, so it perseveres, it persists: it goes on with itsprayer, its worship and its adoration in the midst of all ‘the blank denials of the world’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

It sent its voiceless prayer to the Unknown;
It listened for the footsteps of its hopes
Returning through the void immensities,
It waited for the fiat of the Word
That comes through the still self from the Supreme.

Aswapati’s heart is praying wordlessly: it keeps on sending ‘its voiceless prayer to the Unknown’ although it does not know to whom or what it is praying. And it is listening for a response. It is sending up its hopes and waiting for them to return, fulfilled, coming back through the ‘void immensities’, the vast empty spaces above. It is waiting for ‘the fiat’, the word of command that will say “Yes, let it be so: tathastu”. ‘Fiat’ is a Latin word meaning ‘let it be’, ‘let it be done’. That word of consent and sanction must come from the creative Power, the Word of creation. It must come ‘through the still self from the Supreme’. That is what Aswapati’s heart is waiting and intensely praying for.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]