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Savitri Book 1: Canto Two, Solitude and Environment

 Page 13, Savitri (A Legend, Symbol, the Mantric Epic of Sri Aurobindo): 


Around her were the austere sky-pointing hills,

And the green murmurous broad deep-thoughted woods

Muttered incessantly their muffled spell.

A dense magnificent coloured self-wrapped life

Draped in the leaves’ vivid emerald monotone

And set with chequered sunbeams and blithe flowers

Immured her destiny’s secluded scene.


There had she grown to the stature of her spirit:

The genius of titanic silences

Steeping her soul in its wide loneliness

Had shown to her her self’s bare reality

And mated her with her environment.



Sri Aurobindo conjures up such beautiful image of forests surrounding the hermitage where Savitri dwelled in her solitude reminding us of those secluded meadows in the Himalayan foothills. He says: Surrounding her were huge rigid and rocky hills pointing skywards. In the valleys are these soft, green, extensive woods which seem to be in deep contemplative thoughts casting their soothing magical charm. A self-absorbed, unaware of the outer world and vividly coloured life of Savitri was decorated by a rare leaf-green monotone and set with contrasting bright and dark sunbeams and carefree sunny flowers. Such a marvellous scene surrounded her momentous destiny.


It was here in seclusion that Savitri grew to the full maturity and mighty heights of her spirit. The spiritual genius of enormous silence steeped her soul in its wide solitude. Savitri has soaked up that still vastness of austere hills. It has revealed to her that essential reality of her true self behind those superficial appearances. Becoming one with her environment She has grown to full stature of her spirit.    


Djwal Khul also points out same path of solitude (or isolated unity) for the disciples to grow in the stature of their Spirit:


"One of the primary conditions that a disciple has to cultivate, in order to sense the plan and be used by the Master, is solitude. In solitude the rose of the soul flourishes; in solitude the divine self can speak; in solitude the faculties and the graces of the higher self can take root and blossom in the personality. In solitude also the Master can approach and impress upon the quiescent soul the knowledge that He seeks to impart, the lesson that must be learnt, the method and plan for work that the disciple must grasp. In solitude the sound is heard." - A treatise on white magic.


"Themes For Meditation. One for each month, to be reviewed year by year -

1. The nature of solitude.

2. The difference between solitude, loneliness, separateness and isolation. I would refer you to

Patanjali (The Light of the Soul, who speaks of "isolated unity.")

3. Solitude and the daily life.

4. Solitude and the soul.

5. Solitude as a quality of the interior life of an Ashram.

6. The solitude of spiritual perception.

7. The solitude necessitated by the service of the Plan.

8. Solitude as the background of a radiant life.

9. Solitude and contact with the Master.

10. The rewards of solitude.

11. The voices heard in the silence of solitude.

12. The silence of the Spheres.


In this solitude there is no morbidness, there is no harsh withdrawing, and there is no aspect of separateness. There is only the 'place where the disciple stands, detached and unafraid, and in that place of utter quiet the Master comes and solitude is not.'"- Discipleship in New Age volume 2.


Image: A hermitage in the Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows in the Barun Valley of Nepal




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