Page 14, Savitri (A Legend, Symbol, the Mantric Epic of Sri Aurobindo):
A spot for the eternal’s tread on earth
Set in the cloistral yearning of the woods
And watched by the aspiration of the peaks
Appeared through an aureate opening in Time,
Where stillness listening felt the unspoken word
And the hours forgot to pass towards grief and change.
Here with the suddenness divine advents have,
Repeating the marvel of the first descent,
Changing to rapture the dull earthly round,
Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death.
Well might he find in her his perfect shrine.
In these lines, Sri Aurobindo describes the spot in the forest where the prologue of Savitri's drama (or her meeting with Satyavan) was lived out. It is a spot of withdrawn longing of woods where the eternal can put his feet on pristine earth. The surrounding hills are staring with an earnest aspiration as if Time has opened up and revealed this golden spot. Here motionless calm and peace could perceive that Word announcing something yet to manifest while the time stood still. It is at this spot where Savitri sees Satyavan unexpectedly with a repeated wonder of the first descent when the creation started. The ordinary dull human life is transformed into a joy. Like a divine advent, Love comes to Savitri at the sight of Satyavan yet there is a gloom of his Death which she would have to face all alone. It is quite appropriate that this Love finds a perfect home in the divinity of Savitri.
These lines of Savitri reminds me of the Love which came to HPB hiding the shadow, Death (the troubles) It found in her his perfect shrine. To quote from Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and “The Secret Doctrine”:
"Frequent mention has been made here of H.P.B.'s Master, and I think that it will be interesting to some of my readers to hear how she first became acquainted with her Teacher.
During her childhood she had often seen near her an Astral form, that always seemed to come in any moment of danger, and save her just at the critical point. H.P.B. had learnt to look upon this Astral form as a guardian angel, and felt that she was under His care and guidance. When she wras in London, in 1851, with her father, Colonel Hahn, she was one day out walking when, to her astonishment, she saw a tall Hindu in the street with some Indian princes. She immediately recognised him as the same person that she had seen in the Astral. Her first impulse was to rush forward to speak to him, but he made her a sign not to move, and she stood as if spellbound while he passed on. The next day she went into Hyde Park for a stroll, that she might be alone and free to think over her extraordinary adventure. Looking up, she saw the same form approaching her, and then her Master told her that he had come to London with the Indian princes on an important mission, and he was desirous of meeting her personally, as he required her co-operation in a work which he was about to undertake. He then told her how the Theosophical Society was to be formed, and that he wished her to be the founder. He gave her a slight sketch of all the troubles she would have to undergo, and also told her that she would have to spend three years in Tibet to prepare her for the important task."
In Wiirzburg a curious incident occurred. Madame Fadeef — H.P.B.'s aunt — wrote to her that she was sending a box to the Ludwigstrasse containing what seemed to her a lot of rubbish. The box arrived, and to me was deputed the task of unpacking it. As I took out one thing after another and passed them to Madame Blavatsky, I heard her give an exclamation of delight, and she said, " Come and look at this which I wrote in the year 1851, the day I saw my blessed Master; " and there in a scrap book in faded writing, I saw a few lines in which H.P.B. described the above interview. This scrap-book we still have in our possession. I copy the lines :
"Nuit memorable Certaine nuit par un clair de lune qui se
couchait a — Ramsgate,::: 12 Aout,i 1851 — lorsque je rencontrai le Maitre de mes reves."
Translated in English:
“Memorable night! On a certain night by the light of the moon that was setting at Ramsgate on August 12, 1851, when I met M. the Master of my dreams"
Image: The first page of the booklet, partly reproduced in facsimile, shows in the middle a pen drawing of a seaside view, most likely Ramsgate, England, and a pen-and-ink sketch of a coat of arms, not definitely identified but evidently belonging to one or another branch of the von Hahn Family, as it shows a cock as one of its symbols.
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