But Aswapati’s heart replied to her,
A cry amid the silence of the Vasts:
“How shall I rest content with mortal days
And the dull measure of terrestrial things,
I who have seen behind the cosmic mask
The glory and the beauty of thy face?

We remember that at the end of Canto Three Aswapati’s consciousness had risen up into the House of the Spirit where he had seen the New Creation. We were told that all the other parts of his being were silent and dumb in centred sleep, consenting, agreeing to the slow movement of the unfolding, the slow process of evolution; only his heart was still intensely calling for the Mother’s transforming Presence. Now again it is his heart which protests, saying “How will it be possible for me to do what you have asked me to do? How can I remain content, satisfied, ‘with mortal days’, with human life and ‘the dull measure of terrestrial things’? Everything on earth will be so dull and ordinary now that I have seen your face. Behind ‘the cosmic mask’, this universe which is your disguise, I have seen ‘The glory and the beauty of thy face’ – so how can I possibly be satisfied with going back to earth and living like an ordinary human being and slowly going on with the work, as you ask me to do?”

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

A plan in the occult eternal Mind
Mapped out to backward and prophetic sight,
The aeons ever repeat their changeless round,
The cycles all rebuild and ever aspire.

Here Aswapati continues to speak about Time. ‘Aeons’ are immeasurably long periods of time; they correspond to what are called ‘yugas’ in the Indian tradition. He says that the aeons are just going round and round in a circle, ‘their changeless round’. They are following ‘A plan in the occult eternal Mind’ which is governing the universe. To those like Aswapati, who have subtle sight and can see the past and the present and the future, the cycles of the aeons are‘Mapped out to backward and prophetic sight’: whether we look backward into the past, or forward into the future, the cycles of Time are always following the same changeless round: they build up civilisations, which then decline and die. The ‘changeless round’ goes on and on, around and around and Around.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

A foiled immortal soul in perishing limbs,
Baffled and beaten back we labour still;
Annulled, frustrated, spent, we still survive.

Each human being has an ‘immortal soul’ inhabiting these ‘perishing limbs’, these physical bodies which are perishable and die; but our soul is ‘foiled’: it is prevented from doing what it wants to do. ‘To foil’ someone means to prevent them from fulfilling their plans or wishes. There are three words in this sentence which all have a similar meaning: ‘foiled’, ‘baffled’ and ‘frustrated’; they all mean ‘prevented from fulfilling an aim’. But still, because the soul has an aim, a mission, we go on labouring, we go on with the effort of life even though we are ‘Baffled and beaten back’ by adverse forces. Even when we are ‘Annulled’, which means ‘made nothing’, even though we die without being able to fulfil our aims, ‘spent’ – exhausted, worn out, our strength all gone – we still survive; the soul is immortal, it survives, it will have to return and resume the Effort.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

In anguish we labour that from us may rise
A larger-seeing man with nobler heart,
A golden vessel of the incarnate Truth,
The executor of the divine attempt
Equipped to wear the earthly body of God,
Communicant and prophet and lover and king.

We are labouring because we have to, however much ‘anguish’ – intense suffering – we experience. We are labouring so that from imperfect human beings such as we now are, ‘A larger- seeing man’ may emerge: a new type of human being with a wider consciousness and a ‘nobler heart’, fit to be ‘A golden vessel of the incarnate Truth’. Gold does not rust or stain or decay, it is incorruptible; it is an appropriate symbol of the Truth and the Truth-Consciousness: Supermind. That new man will be a fit vessel in which the Truth can incarnate, take a material body. That ‘larger-seeing man’ will become ‘The executor of the divine attempt’. He will be fit to fulfil the great attempt at a divine life in a material body because he will be ‘Equipped to wear the earthly body of God’. He will need to be a ‘communicant’, one who is in communion with the Supreme, and a ‘prophet’, who has the vision to see the future and the capacity to share his vision; at the same time he will have the qualities of a worldwide ‘lover’ and a ruler, a great powerful ‘king’. There have been avatars with these qualities, but in order to fulfil ‘the divine attempt’, a whole new race will be needed. When the poet says ‘a larger-seeing man’ he does not mean just one individual but a new species, a whole race of beings with these qualities.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

I know there shall inform the inconscient cells,
At one with Nature and at height with heaven,
A spirit vast as the containing sky
And swept with ecstasy from invisible founts,
A god come down and greater by the fall.

Here we have to look at the word ‘inform’. Sri Aurobindo uses this word in a special sense that is not familiar to us. We talk about informing people, keeping people informed, meaning that they have to be told, for example, about what has happened at a meeting or what has been decided. Here Sri Aurobindo uses the word in its root sense, of forming from inside, shaping from within. Aswapati says that the ‘inconscient cells’ of the human body will be formed from within, by ‘a spirit’ that is as ‘vast as the containing sky’ – as the universe. That spirit will be ‘At one with Nature’ – in harmony with ‘Nature’, with the manifestation; and at the same time it will be ‘at height with heaven’: as high as the highest levels of consciousness. It will be ‘swept with ecstasy from invisible founts’, moved by intense delight flowing from invisible sources of ananda. This spirit, which will ‘inform the inconscient cells’ of the material body, will be a god coming down into the manifestation. We think that if a god comes down to earth, that is a kind of ‘fall’. But here and in some other places in the poem Sri Aurobindo says that a divine being can become greater by accepting this ‘fall’, by coming down into this human world to share the human destiny.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

I saw the Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers
Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life
Come crowding down the amber stairs of birth;
Forerunners of a divine multitude,
Out of the paths of the morning star they came
Into the little room of mortal life.

Aswapati also saw, in the midst of all this confusion and destruction, the ‘pioneers’, the ‘Forerunners’. They were ‘aming’, full of light and energy; they have been sent by the Omnipotent, the All-powerful, and they are taking birth in the mortal world. He sees them coming from heaven, ‘Over the heavenly verge which turns towards life’. They are ‘crowding down the amber stairs of birth’. ‘Amber’ is a beautiful warm golden-red colour; perhaps here it symbolises the coming together of the gold of the supermind and the red of the physical. First there are a few, the pioneers, the ‘Forerunners of a divine multitude’: many more will follow them. Aswapati saw the pioneers, the few who will prepare the way for others to follow. He saw them coming ‘Out of the paths of the morning star’: the morning star appears in the eastern sky before sunrise, signalling the end of Night, the coming of Dawn, the approach of a new Light and a new Day. Aswapati saw these forerunners entering the darkness of the human world bringing the new light with them; out of the higher subtle worlds they came into this ‘little room of mortal life’, the human world that we know.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

Into the fallen human sphere they came,
Faces that wore the Immortal’s glory still,
Voices that communed still with the thoughts of God,
Bodies made beautiful by the spirit’s light,
Carrying the magic word, the mystic fire,
Carrying the Dionysian cup of joy,
Approaching eyes of a diviner man,
Lips chanting an unknown anthem of the soul,
Feet echoing in the corridors of Time.

Aswapati saw these pioneers coming down to the earth, ‘Into the fallen human sphere’, their faces still shining with the glory of the Immortal and their voices still in communion ‘with the thoughts of God’. Their bodies were ‘made beautiful by the spirit’s light’, glowing with heavenly light; and they were carrying with them powers from the higher worlds: ‘the magic word’, the word of creation that can perform miracles, and ‘the mystic fire’. Sri Aurobindo has written a book called Hymns to the Mystic Fire. It is his translation of the Hymns to Agni in the Rig Veda. Agni is the divine fire of aspiration, the flame of will which can connect the human sphere with the divine worlds. ‘The Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers’ carry that mystic fire with them. They are also carrying ‘the Dionysian cup of joy’, the intense delight that carries us out of our normal mortal state and brings us the intoxicating rapture of communion with the divine. Then Aswapati mentions the eyes of these ‘forerunners’ whom he saw coming down into the earth, ‘Approaching eyes of a diviner man’: they are the forerunners of a more divine humanity. As they came down ‘the amber stairs of birth’ into ‘the fallen human sphere’, they were singing: ‘chanting an unknown anthem of the soul’. The sacred song that they were singing as they came down was a new song, ‘an unknown anthem’, expressing a new power of the soul. As they came down, Aswapati heard their feet ‘echoing in the corridors of Time’, meaning that the effect and significance of this descent would have a long-lasting effect in time, reverberating on and on and on.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss,
Discoverers of beauty’s sunlit ways
And swimmers of Love’s laughing fiery floods
And dancers within rapture’s golden doors,
Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth
And justify the light on Nature’s face.

‘Priests’ link ordinary humanity to the divine; they have the knowledge and the connection to lift up human prayers and offerings towards the gods, and to receive and distribute divine blessings in return. The beings that Aswapati saw were ‘High priests’, bringing into the world ‘wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss’; they will be revealing to humanity ‘beauty’s sunlit ways’ – delightful ways of living without struggle, in the glow of beauty. There is something in us which responds joyfully to beauty, which makes it easier for us to change. They will know how to swim in ‘Love’s laughing fiery floods’, in the intensity and delight of abundant Love. They will be ‘dancers within rapture’s golden doors’: ‘rapture’ is another word for ecstasy, ananda. Our humanity does not have the capacity to sustain all these high divine qualities and experiences, but that ‘diviner man’ will be able to live in the diviner way which Aswapati saw the ‘flaming pioneers’ bringing with them. One day the coming of these pioneers will ‘change the suffering earth / And justify the light on Nature’s face’. When we look around us and see all the suffering and pain and confusion in our human world, we may turn to the natural world to find some solace and comfort, some relief, even some higher light. What is that light ‘on Nature’s face’? It is the promise of a truer and more harmonious state; the descent of those new beings will ‘justify’ that promise, by bringing about its fulfilment one day.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

Heavy unchanged weighs still the imperfect world;
The splendid youth of Time has passed and failed;
Heavy and long are the years our labour counts
And still the seals are firm upon man’s soul
And weary is the ancient Mother’s heart.

Aswapati has had a vision of the coming of the pioneers, and he tells the Supreme Divine Mother, “I know that your creation cannot fail, I am sure of it; but there does not seem to be any sign of it happening soon.” He looks around him and sees that ‘the imperfect world’ is still weighing heavily on the developing spirit. ‘The splendid youth of Time’, when everything was young and fresh and full of hope and new energy, has ‘passed and failed’. ‘Heavy and long are the years our labour counts’; he is repeating what he was saying before: “We aspire, we toil, we make efforts but we do not see the results coming.” ‘Still the seals are firm upon man’s soul’: the soul of humanity has not become free, it is still in the grip of ignorance and death. The seals are still there, so it is not able to open up and reveal its power and light, it is hidden behind the veil; ‘And weary is the ancient Mother’s heart’. The ‘ancient Mother’ is the earth, the divine emanation who has accepted to embody Matter and give birth to the process of evolution. Elsewhere in the poem Sri Aurobindo shows her toiling ‘across the sands of Time’, struggling through the desert wastes of the aeons; and he says that the earth is suffering: she is looking for greatness in her sons to carry her further on her long journey so that she too can be liberated. Now she is feeling ‘weary’, tired. So Aswapati appeals to the supreme divine Mother:

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

O radiant fountain of the world’s delight
World-free and unattainable above,
O Bliss who ever dwellst deep-hid within
While men seek thee outside and never find,
Mystery and Muse with hieratic tongue,
Incarnate the white passion of thy force,
Mission to earth some living form of thee.

He calls her the ‘radiant fountain’, the source of all the delight in the world, and says, “You are ‘World-free and unattainable above’: you are free of world, you are beyond world and we cannot reach you. In the form of ‘Bliss’ you are always dwelling hidden deep within everything, while human beings go on searching for you outside themselves and never find you there.” He calls her ‘Mystery and Muse with hieratic tongue’: A ‘Muse’ is one who gives inspiration from above; a ‘hieratic tongue’ can speak a secret language, a sacred language. He asks her to incarnate, to take a body on earth: ‘Incarnate the white passion of thy force’. White signifies purity as well as integrality; the conscious force of the supreme Mother is pure and integral, it is invincible, unconquerable. Aswapati asks her to incarnate her pure, integral Force in a living body and to send it to earth: ‘Mission to earth some living form of thee’ – as her representative, to help humanity.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

Immortal, treading the earth with mortal feet
All heaven’s beauty crowd in earthly limbs!
Omnipotence, girdle with the power of God
Movements and moments of a mortal will,
Pack with the eternal might one human hour
And with one gesture change all future time.
Let a great word be spoken from the heights
And one great act unlock the doors of Fate.”

He says, “You are immortal, but please come and walk on the earth ‘with mortal feet’; pack all the beauty of heaven into ‘earthly limbs’ – into an earthly body; you are all-powerful, so please give the power of God to the ‘Movements and moments of a mortal will’.” ‘To girdle’ means ‘to surround’: a girdle is a belt; warriors going into battle would ‘gird up their strength’, wrap their clothes around them and bind them fast with a belt which would be a symbol of their strength. He is asking the Mother to empower her representative, her emanation, with all her divine qualities, with her Wisdom, her Beauty, her Knowledge, her Love, her Strength. Then he asks her to ‘Pack with the eternal might one human hour’: to allow one hour of human time to be packed full of all the power and might of the Eternal, so that a single gesture from her representative will ‘change all future time’. He begs her to give the word of command: ‘Let a great word be spoken from the heights’, so that ‘one great act’ may ‘unlock the doors of Fate’: he wants her to allow those doors, that seem to be sealed shut, to be opened, to enable the true destiny of the earth be fulfilled. This great act cannot be done from below; it needs the intervention of the very highest power from above.

This is what Aswapati has been seeking ever since he began his quest all the way back in Book One, Canto Five. After receiving the Secret Knowledge, he conceived the great hope and will to bring the spiritual states which he had experienced in trance into the human world, to establish them here on earth so that they become normal here. He has undertaken his great journey in order to find the Power that can bring that about. He has reached the feet of the Supreme Divine Mother, and she has shown herself to him; but she has told him “No – do not ask for that, it is not yet the time for that fulfilment.” He has accepted what she says and acknowledged that human beings are not ready, but still he pleads with her, saying “I know that the fulfilment is destined, I am sure that your creation cannot fail. It is meant to come, but it is taking such a long time – so please send some power of yourself. Embody some power of yourself on earth to open the doors of Fate, to break the barriers, to allow that future to come’: ‘Mission to earth some living form of thee’.”

Aswapati is asking this on behalf of ‘earth and men’. That takes us right back to the beginning, to the first line of Book One, Canto Three where it says ‘A world’s desire compelled her mortal birth.’ That is the first line in Aswapati’s story. Savitri’s birth in human form is brought about by the desire of the world, embodied and represented by Aswapati. As a result of all his aspiration and effort and now his prayer to the Mother, Savitri will be born on earth. Aswapati is the representative of human aspiration, ‘the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes’

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]