But there arose a wide consenting Voice;
The spirit of beauty was revealed in sound:
Light floated round the marvellous Vision’s brow
And on her lips the Immortal’s joy took shape.

He heard the sound of the Mother’s voice, a ‘wide consenting Voice’. She is agreeing. ‘To consent’ means ‘to agree’. She is saying “Yes” to his prayer. ‘The spirit of beauty was revealed in sound’. There is something utterly beautiful about the sound of her voice. He sees light floating around her ‘brow’, her forehead, ‘And on her lips the Immortal’s joy took shape’: she smiled, a beautiful smile expressing the joy of the Immortal, which is beyond any possible human joy. What does she say?

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, VOlume 3]

“O strong forerunner, I have heard thy cry.
One shall descend and break the iron Law,
Change Nature’s doom by the lone spirit’s power.

She calls him a ‘forerunner’; it means a herald, one who goes on in front, announcing that something is coming, something will happen. She says “You have come ahead of everybodyelse. You are the ‘strong forerunner’ and ‘I have heard thy cry’,your appeal, your prayer.” She promises that ‘One shalldescend’. She is prophesying that the embodiment he has asked for will happen and that the one who descends to earth as her representative will ‘break the iron Law’, the law of fate, the law of death and ignorance, all the resistance of the Night. That one will ‘Change nature’s doom by the lone spirit’s power’. The doom of nature is that everything which is born into the material world is subject to death and suffering and ignorance; but the spirit has power over nature: nature is not more powerful than spirit; spirit is more powerful than nature. We do not experience that here, because we do not experience the full power of spirit in ourselves. But the One who is going to descend will use the power of spirit to change the doom, the fate of nature. The Mother is promising that ‘One shall descend’, in response to Aswapati’s prayer. In Book Four we shall read about how that One is born and is given the name of ‘Savitri’.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

A limitless Mind that can contain the world,
A sweet and violent heart of ardent calms
Moved by the passions of the gods shall come.

She will not have an ordinary human mind, but ‘A limitless mind’, one ‘that can contain the world’, be open to the whole world. She will have a heart that is full of sweetness but which is also ‘violent’, intense, full of power and ‘ardent calms’. These are apparently contradictory things to us: ‘ardent’ means ‘burning’, ‘intense’, and yet at the same time her heart will be calm. She will combine intensity and calm in her heart, which will also be ‘Moved by the passions of the gods’, by the things that the gods, the cosmic powers, are intensely concerned about.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

All mights and greatnesses shall join in her;
Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth,
Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair,
And in her body as on his homing tree
Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings.

This is the description of the nature of Savitri: all the different kinds of strength and greatness will be brought together in her. Most individual beings can represent one power, partially or more fully; but ‘All mights and greatnesses’ will be joined in her. One of them is Beauty: ‘Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth’: she shall walk on the earth, as beautiful as a heavenly being. Sri Aurobindo describes this beauty: ‘Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair’, her lovely cloudy dark hair will convey delight; and her body will be like the ‘homing tree’, the dwelling place, of ‘Immortal Love’, who will ‘beat his glorious wings’ there: those who come near her shall feel the influence of the Immortal Love which she is embodying.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom,
Strength shall be with her like a conqueror’s sword
And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.

Another power is that of Wisdom. The Mother has already mentioned beauty and charm, delight and love; now she refers to Wisdom, along with Strength and Bliss: ‘She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom’; Wisdom will be carried in her silent breast; along with it, she will have great Strength, like the sword of a conquering hero. In a letter Sri Aurobindo has said that these are two of the outstanding qualities of Savitri: silence and strength. He mentions these two qualities together in several places in the poem when he is describing her. ‘And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze’: she shall see and enjoy everything with the unwavering bliss of the Eternal and spread ananda around her. All these are obviously qualities of the divine Mother herself, and hereshe promises that they are going to be expressed in one very special human individual.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, Volume 3]

A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour,
A branch of heaven transplant to human soil;
Nature shall overleap her mortal step;
Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will.”

This is the second part of the prophecy: not only does the Mother promise that this One will descend to earth and spread her Grace, but also that she will bring about a great change for the earth. First, ‘A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour’. We know that ‘Satyavan must die’ and that his death is going to provide the occasion for the fulfilment of Savitri’s mission. Here the Mother says that in the significant hour when it seems as if Death is triumphant, ‘A seed shall be sown,’ planted for the future of humanity. She also says that by the coming of Savitri to earth ‘A branch of heaven’ is going to get transplanted here in human soil.

[Shraddhavan’s English of Savitri, volume 3]