If we wish to see auro-biographical account in the ancient
tale of Savitri as narrated by Sri Aurobindo in his epic, then there should not
be any difficulty in associating the Mother with Savitri and Sri Aurobindo with
Aswapati himself. This is true not only in the sense of its legendary bearings,
but also in terms of its symbolic contents. The one-to-one correspondence that appears
in the first is enlarged in its spiritual context by the other. It is the great
visionary power of the legend that luminously supports the possibilities of the
symbol in its revelatory vividness. In a certain sense they actually enrich
each other. This also means that the trifling comment in a recent book, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo published by
the Columbia University Press, should be dismissed as something coming from the
Perverse Human who has no entry into the occult-spiritual domains. It says that
Savitri the magnum opus is a
“fictional creation” and has nothing to do with the yogi-poet’s life-story; or
else it is not a dependable source-book for the strict purposes of writing a
biography. Not recognizing this PH-factor there is also the Ridiculous Human
that enthusiastically applauds such a shallow brainy product. It goes even to
the extent of examining and correcting the published text without recognizing
its spiritual style and form and content, its source of inspiration and the
knowledge it embodies. It is as if we have here a justification for the perverse
and ridiculous of the human that we can be. That is also its dark persona, and
the sooner we shed it off the better it is for us. But let us get back to Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri which indeed is the best means
to discard it.
This simply means that Savitri’s is not a story of
something which happened in the deep past. Indeed, we never ask a question as
to who Savitri was; instead we always
yearn to know as to who Savitri is.
Vyasa’s kanyā tejasvinī or Sri
Aurobindo’s Sun-Word is “the living goddess, the Word, and the Fire, that still
works in us when we read the Mantra… It is effective word, which re-enacts her
birth and tapasya in the hearer and the reader.” That mantric force and vigour
bring about an on-going rebirth in us. Such is precisely the purpose for which
the goddess takes the “mortal birth”, that thus alone she might take
ever-recurring birth in our consciousness. As is the identity of Savitri with
the Mother, so too is the oneness of Aswapati of the timeless past with the ageless
Sri Aurobindo. The two have all along been carrying the same soul of divinity
in them. The external circumstances of life bring in them the least difference.
This is particularly so when we also become aware of the fact that Aswapati
that is Sri Aurobindo is not a frozen figure of some past epoch. He is kālātīt, beyond the circumscribing
boundaries of time, growing in time to take time along with him.
The birth of Savitri means the birth of a new world. This
she brings about by meeting the luminous Presence that is there behind Death
and by obtaining the boon of divine life upon earth. She always works in us
towards that change, awaking us to the sense of our true innate spiritual
entitlement. Sometimes it is feared that, by laying too exclusive a stress on
the aspect of the legend alone, on the ancient narrative, we might somewhat
overshadow her futuristic assertion, or else lessen this mantric power of hers.
This will have the deleterious effect of distancing us away from what Sri
Aurobindo intended it to be. If such is the danger then we should at once
disassociate ourselves from the apprehensive outcome which the notion of a
legend might carry in it. Our conjoining with its trenchant historicity could
thus shut us off from the prospects it holds for us. But we should appreciate
the fact that the ancient tale of Savitri in its charged symbolic contents is also
the auroral fore-history of the new age that is dawning on us. It is timeless
in purpose and compelling in relevance.
The symbolic legend of Savitri describes a twofold
journey. If one is a journey that climbs greater and greater spiritual heights
into the Transcendent, the other journey is an inwardly deepening journey which
plunges into the occult depths of this material existence. One is the Journey
of the Lord of Life and the other conquering Journey of the executrix
Sun-Daughter. They have undertaken the journeys by assuming human forms in full
acceptance of all the thousand limitations of ours, by embracing all the
ordeals of our mortality, assuming not just in the sense of putting them on
like a piece of cloth but entering into their very menacing spirit, into the
soul of darkness. The purpose is to open out the ways of infinity for this creation
to move in its bourneless possibilities. Behind this purpose is the blazing
happy samkalpa of the Supreme
himself, his Will. But in order to accomplish it, contingencies of the
inconscient workings have to be also taken care of. Across the path of this
arduous journey there stands at present the incorrigible power, the colossal
shadow-figure of Death.
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s age-old concern is to
decisively deal with this Death. Their incarnation—a double incarnation—is the sine qua non for the success. This
aspect gets well focused in the traditional story. To win back the soul of
Satyavan from Yama, the stern and uncompromising Immortal, it is necessary that
from the fire-altar of Aswapati’s tapasya emerge Savitri as a radiant power.
The Vedic Rishis had this intuition when they presented to us the Myth of
Savitri in the context of the issue involved in this Mrityuloka, this mortal
world. That is the enduring truth behind it.
But the issue gets fully ripened only in our own time,
waiting as it were for the arrival of the twin Avatar; fate seems to have
conspired towards this. The splendid imperative is now to resolve it. Therefore
first the Avatar-Yogin of Savitri has
to step into the domain of darkness, Darkness the birthplace of the antagonist
Death. We see him entering into the ashen abysses of creation that thus alone
he can discover the deep-rooted cause of the world’s failure, why the higher
things of life are not manifesting here. This also means that at this stage his
yogic tapasya in terms of its consequences has reached a definite finality for things
now to happen. In terms of specific auro-biographical details related with Sri
Aurobindo we may well surmise that, this started happening around 1935, marking
a well-defined transition point. If we have an early suggestive glimpse of it
in his experiential A God’s Labour, [1]
its fuller account in the nature of the journey of the Traveller of the Worlds
is given in Cantos Seven and Eight of Savitri’s
Book Two. Here we could perhaps get an idea of the depth of the question of
Inconscience from which has emerged the present world of ours.
The poet of Savitri
is sufficiently expressive to reveal to us what had transpired when he entered
into this primordial darkness that prevails in the Non-being’s Void. Much more
might have happened than is indicated, but even that little only goes to show
the enormity of the “terrible Inane” denying the Spirit’s interminable Truth.
We have in The Descent into Night a
few action steps as follows: [pp. 202-19]
He turned
to find that wide world-failure’s cause.
He sent
his gaze into the formidable Infinity asleep.
He saw
the fount of the world’s lasting pain.
He saw
the body and visage of the dark Unseen.
He
followed the dim steps returning to the night.
He passed
the no-man’s-land without debate.
He came
into an armoured fierce domain.
He
witnessed the shadow depths of Life.
His
vision discovered Hell’s trade-mark.
He
wrestled with powers that snatched from mind its light.
He
entered a gaunt spiritual blank.
He strove
to shield his spirit from despair.
His
spirit became an empty listening gulf.
His being
from its own vision disappeared.
His body
was lapped by a tenebrous tongue.
He must
bear all this with hope of heaven estranged.
He
endured all, stilled the vain terror.
He
mastered the tides of Nature with a look.
He met
with his bare spirit naked Hell. [2]
From
the biographical angle it would be rewarding to know exactly the chronology as to how did the corresponding passages
through the various drafts of Savitri
develop. But as these are personal spiritual experiences in the nature of a
poetic record, it should be understood that we will have to observe some
caution also; their sequence cannot be taken strictly as that of an
event-by-event historical or chronological account. Yet an archival approach in
dating these can shed good deal of interesting light vis-à-vis the yogic progress
and accomplishments. It seems that the prime seeds of these consequential
developments had just started appearing during the late 1920s and the early 1930s.
We may briefly trace these in the following.
The
present version of The Descent into Night
consisting of 609 lines essentially belongs to the 1942 draft which was revised
and enlarged in the double column copy-text of 1944; this was done by the
author-poet himself. But of the total number of lines of Canto Seven and Canto
Eight put together there were hardly 60-70 lines present in the earlier draft
of 1935-36 [3] and of these scarcely a couple of lines existed prior to this. But,
then, around this time the symbolic as against the legendary character of the
epic had started emerging out more and more prominently. It became more
experiential and pinpointed towards the transformative objective during the 1940s.
Prior to this ‘first draft’ there was practically nothing in Savitri to indicate the grimness of the
Night’s sway over this mortal creation. This first draft—and A God’s Labour—therefore form the first
recorded statement of the Yogin’s stifling Assignation with the Night. In 1938
he had a rendezvous with her and, carrying God’s deathless light in his breast,
he had gone there to woo her dark and dangerous heart; but he had no definite
idea of how he would win over her. He, however, had the conviction that his
celestial Friend is there always with him to help him, and that his determined
engagement with the Night would pave the path towards Immortality. [4]
When
the Avatar puts his foot on the soil of the Night it indeed marks the beginning
of the Everlasting Day. In Sri Aurobindo’s yoga-tapasya it means, the first
decisive step towards integral transformation. In its sequel great things
happen,—including upsurge of the terrible forces of the Night and the Hell.
That this business with the jeopardous antagonism should have coincided with
the Second World War does not therefore come as a surprise; the Regiments of
Darkness had heavily precipitated upon earth and the Holocaust was only the
outer indication of what was happening in the murky Occult. The fate of the
evolutionary creation was hanging in the balance. But Yogi the Avatar came out
victorious. Savitri informs us about
that aspect of supernatural history. Here Savitri
the symbol has certainly gone far ahead of the traditional legend, turning
itself into a spiritual biography.
Yet
if we go into the deep past we have certain clues about the attempts which were
made earlier. In this respect we have a very perceptive comment from David
Frawley alias Vamadeva Shastri: “It
seems that the urge to transform the Earth consciousness was stronger in the
earlier ages of light. It fell away during the worst of Kali Yuga, when it was
enough for a few individuals to gain liberation and the collectivity was too
caught in tamas. As we move back towards the ages of light it is arising again.
The Rig Vedic Rishis were at the dawn of this cycle of civilisation and were
mainly concerned with setting forth the seeds of the upcoming culture,
particularly on a spiritual level, but also as the social order. It is hard to
say whether physical transformation as Sri Aurobindo envisioned it was part of
their yoga but we do have the tradition that many Rishis lived for long periods
of time (which could have been done by various methods occult, tantric, yogic,
ayurvedic). They seem to have included the idea of transforming physical matter
as part of their long-term aspiration for humanity, but they were also aware of
Asuric forces in the material world that are very difficult to overcome.”
Vamadeva further adds: “The Rishis’ pursuit of physical and spiritual rejuvenation
is reflected in the Vedic knowledge of Soma. There were many types of Somas
both external (prepared with herbs) and internal (produced through yogic
practices like pranayama) for rejuvenating body and mind and for gaining
immorality on various levels. The Bhrigus were particularly known for their
knowledge of rejuvenation. Even Brihaspati of the Angirasas sent his son Kacha
to gain this knowledge from Shukra of the Bhrigus. Yet it is hard to tell
whether the Rishis ever tried to, or were in a position to, create a naturally
divine body such as Sri Aurobindo envisioned. This would require the most
powerful form of Soma. It would be, as it were, a body naturally made of pure
Soma, matter with the capacity of perpetually rejuvenating itself. Yet there is
no reason to think that they were not aware of the possibility, given their
pursuit of Soma on all levels. We could also describe this as bringing the Soma
of Mahar Loka into the genetic matrix of physical matter. Of course the Asuras
would try to prevent this as much as possible as this would mean the end of
them.” [5]
But with the descent of the Mahar itself in the earth-consciousness this cannot
happen. Asuras are helpless against it, the presence of the Mahar. That was the
truth seen by Sri Aurobindo, and he worked towards it, and firmly established
it in the earth’s subtle-physical. Things will now happen in the dynamism of
the Truth-consciousness itself, in ŗtam,
its rhythm and movement in the wisdom and harmony of the Will of the Supreme.
In one of the Vedic Riks we have a description of Agastya digging into the
darkness of the Night, khaņaņ as it
says. But the Rishi found it difficult to deal with the physical nature. He
could not bring light to it. His body was afflicted with the triple poison and it
could not bear the sunlight. It was like an unbaked clay-pot, atapta tanu. Similarly, Vamadeva could
live here in a divine body, divya tanu, but only for sixteen years. [6] These
ancient Rishis certainly knew what is it that could bring about the physical
transformation, the Mahar or Supermind; but they did not know its full modus
operandi. The attainment of immortality in the luminous worlds, or divyaloka, is one thing and its
knowledge in mŗtyuloka is another.
The aspect of dynamic immortality in the physical is the work of the executive
Force, and unless her incarnation takes place it cannot be accomplished. Though
the intuition of her descent, her incarnation to bring about materially the transformation
was there,—and that is what the significant legend of Savitri narrates,—the
field, the necessary resplendent spiritual support, ādhāra, for its universal action was not ready then. The
eighteen-year arduous tapasya of Aswapati was exactly for preparing the ground
for her transformative action. In Savitri
this Aswapati is none other than Sri Aurobindo himself. In that respect we also
see the importance of the radical step that was taken by him. In fact what he
achieved, he achieved specifically because Savitri, that is, the Mother in her
full energetic splendour, also accompanied him. This was not the case on earlier
occasions. Cycles of evolution had to be silently worked out to arrive at this
point.
In
this context we may also recall the great Vedic revelation in which we see Yama
and our illustrious forefathers having together an ambrosial drink, they
drinking the Wine of Immortality, amŗta,
under Supalāşa Vŗkşa. [7] The mention of supalāşa
in the Rik is extraordinarily striking, particularly in association with Yama
whom we take as the God of Death. The reference to a cluster of palāşa trees by Vyasa in his
Savitri-narrative lifts up that narrative itself to another level of symbolism,
it embodying in its richness a whole world of bright possibilities. The
botanical name of this palāşa tree is
Butea Frondosa, which is popularly known as the Flame of the
That lends another meaning to the Savitri-legend itself.
Savitri’s winning back the soul of Satyavan from Yama, therefore, acquires
another sense that points towards this marvellous realisation. But, in order
that this should happen, the dark sombre veil which has been worn by Yama must
be removed. Radiant Savitri, the daughter of the Sun-God, alone can dissolve it.
In fact Yama has put on a double veil, the veil of the incorrigible Antagonist,
and the veil of the luminous Inveigler. Behind him is indeed present the loving
Supreme himself. The removal of this double veil, accomplishing this double
transformation is what was gloriously accomplished by Savitri. Behind the
darkness of this creation she meets her bright father to receive great boons of
divine life upon earth. The yoga-tapasya of Aswapati thus bears the fruits of
godly felicity.
References
[1] Collected Poems, Vol. 5, pp. 99-102
[2] Savitri, pp. 202-19
[3] This early version has been
published in Mother India, 1983
[4] Collected Poems, Vol. 5, p. 132
[5] Private communication
[6] For a detailed discussion of
some of these aspects, reference may be made to RY Deshpande, Sri Aurobindo and the New Millennium,
pp. 201-27.
[7]Rig Veda, X.135.1
I made an assignation with the
Night;
In the abyss was
fixed our rendezvous:
In my breast carrying God’s
deathless light,
I came her dark and
dangerous heart to woo.
I left the glory of the illumined
Mind
And the calm rapture
of the divinised soul
And travelled through a vastness
dim and blind,
To the grey shore
where her ignorant waters roll.
I walk by the chill wave through
the dull slime
And still that weary
journeying knows no end;
Lost is the lustrous godhead beyond
Time,
There comes no voice
of the celestial Friend,
And yet I know my footprints’ track
shall be
A pathway towards Immortality.
26-7-1938
18-8-1944
[Collected Poems, Vol. 5, p. 132]