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A synthesis of Savitri and Theosophy - Paintings No 2 & 3

 We continue with next few lines and theosophical meditations on Savitri. 


Most will doubt that Sri Aurobindo never hinted on any of the theosophical interpretation of his epic poem. However those whose synthetic faculty of intuition is waking up would relish the fact that occult visions of Vyasa and Sri Aurodindo are in harmony with those passages from "The Book of Dzyan" paraphrased by Blavatsky once again proving that "Truth is One". No doubt even though Sri Aurobindo denounced romanticism of the Masters by next generation of Theososphists in his time, his conversations recorded in the book "Talks with Sri Aurobindo Volume 1 by Nirodbaran" sheds light on his thoughts as noted below:


DR. MANILAL: What do you think of Madame Blavatsky?

SRI AUROBINDO: She was a remarkable woman.

DR. MANILAL: Were you ever a freemason?

SRI AUROBINDO: My eldest brother was. I gathered that there was nothing in it. But it certainly had something when it was first started. Have you heard of Cagliostro? He was a mystic freemason with a great prophetic power. He never charged anyone any money and yet he was affluent. It was said he could make gold. He prophesied about the French Revolution, the taking of the Bastille and the guillotining of the King and Queen. He used to prophesy about race-horses too. This got him into trouble. He was imprisoned and died in prison.

      


"Athwart the vain enormous trance of Space,

Its formless stupor without mind or life,

A shadow spinning through a soulless Void,

Thrown back once more into unthinking dreams,

Earth wheeled abandoned in the hollow gulfs

Forgetful of her spirit and her fate.

The impassive skies were neutral, empty, still."



The space appears to be in trance and daze without life. The Earth, (one of the seven globes of a chain as per theosophy) is revolving around her axis in wide and deep gulf and appears to be forgotten of her life activity which it did in an erlier round of evolution and will do so again in the next round. Being in a dormant condition (the activity having passed on to other globes of the chain), the skies on this globe (the physical globe earth) are neutral, cold and emotionless. Huta illustrates the eonic spin of abandoned dormant earth in hollow grey gulfs of space with cold skies. 


The theosophists have been taught that eventhough the seven globes of a chain all exist simultaneously, they are not all, at any given time, equally active in supporting active life. Usually, at any given time, one globe is completely active and fully functioning, the remaining six being in a dormant condition. See the figure for the earth chain (the directing lines showing sequence of this passing of life impulse from globe A to G in seven consecutive rounds. The theosophists have been told in the Mahatma letters that we are in the fourth round.)     

 


"Then something in the inscrutable darkness stirred;

A nameless movement, an unthought Idea

Insistent, dissatisfied, without an aim,

Something that wished but knew not how to be,

Teased the Inconscient to wake Ignorance.

A throe that came and left a quivering trace,

Gave room for an old tired want unfilled,

At peace in its subconscient moonless cave

To raise its head and look for absent light,

Straining closed eyes of vanished memory,

Like one who searches for a bygone self

And only meets the corpse of his desire.

It was as though even in this Nought’s profound,

Even in this ultimate dissolution’s core,

There lurked an unremembering entity,

Survivor of a slain and buried past

Condemned to resume the effort and the pang,

Reviving in another frustrate world."


The dormant condition desribed in the predecing lines has begun to change with a kind of movement stirring the engimatic darkness. Huta paints some kind of stirring in that darkness. This movement is in response to the wish of of a Logos with a ray one energy of an evolutionary purpose that is insitent (that reminds me of our planetary Logos being a rebel as per Djwal Khul). This wish leads to a violent painful struggle and leaves a trembling trace of the past disappeared memories and old unfulfilled want pertaining to earlier attempts of rounds or races. In the earlier round or race usually when the evolution has not met it goals (these depend on a particular round and race see diagrams), the kingdoms of nature must resume their efforts inspite of the painful memories of past failures (it is said that the moon chain was not a complete success) and revive the earlier frustrated goals. 


These lines could be generalized to the Earth (Globe D in the chain as seen in diagram) getting ready to awaken from its dormant condition, in order to support the main stream of life for an eon through seven root races. Thus the symbol Dawn could be taken as symbolic of dawn of a  globe period, however since Sri Aurodindo ends this canto with a line "This was the day when Satyavan must die." it certainly applies to a particular day when a new race (renewal of Soul of humanity which is ready) will be established by advent of Avatar Savitri. Yet the truism "as above so below" is an occult fact in nature as taught in theosophy meaning what applies to macrocosm is also broadly true for microcosm.


The following words of Djwal Khul and Alice Bailey will provide a hint to illustrate Sri Aurobindo's vision of frustrate goals and world:


"It is an interesting occult fact that our Earth should now be in her fifth round, and paralleling the Venusian scheme, but the moon chain of our scheme saw a period of temporary retardation of the evolutionary process of our Heavenly Man; it resulted in a temporary slowing down of His activities, and caused "lost time," if such an expression might reverently be permitted. The Lords of the Dark Face, or the inherent forces of matter for a time achieved success, and only the fifth round of our chain will see their ultimate defeat." Also see the diagram from Powell for a quick summary of the moon chain. 

 


Images: Meditations on Savitri and some of Arthur Edward Powell's, well-illustrated diagrams from his book "The Solar System", visualizing the evolutionary concepts in the Mahatma Letters and The Secret Doctrine. These diagrams illustrate the current earth chain and earlier moon chain.











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