Skip to main content

Savitri (A Legend, Symbol, the Mantric Epic of Sri Aurobindo), Lines 280 to 285

 Page 8, Savitri (A Legend, Symbol, the Mantric Epic of Sri Aurobindo), Lines 280 to 285:


Apart, living within, all lives she bore;

Aloof, she carried in herself the world:

Her dread was one with the great cosmic dread,

Her strength was founded on the cosmic mights;

The universal Mother’s love was hers.

Against the evil at life’s afflicted roots,

Her own calamity its private sign,

Of her pangs she made a mystic poignant sword.



Sri Aurobindo says: Although alone by herself, Savitri is experiencing the collective consciousness of all other lives. Even if withdrawn, she is enduring the fear and grief of an entire ignorant world. She shares the worry, concern and suffering of the Whole world. Yet she also has a universal power and immortal strength. Above all, she is carrying the energy of Divine Mother's universal love to assist her. 


Sri Aurobindo beautifully portrays creation as 'The great tree of life' which is being eaten away at its root by the worms of evil. The tree is slowly turning brown and drying. At the very roots of life in a material universe, the evil of materialism is bringing a slow death of of Satyavan (the soul descended into the grip of death and ignorance). It is the sign of Savitri's own personal crisis to overcome all by herself causing her sharp and shooting pain. It is like a sharp blade of sword piercing her emotionally. Savitri makes a weapon out of it which she will use to strike at the evil eating away those roots of the tree of life. Huta paints Savitri holding the poignant sword of her calamity.


Sri Aurobindo being a mystic (ray 2,4,6 line) indicates the ultimate goal of Savitri being a divine life for Satyavan. Whereas Blavatsky being an occultist writes that the Sword (of secret wisdom) when used to cut the tree of life itself (the trunk and upward) leads to final emancipation as follows:  


"Truly, then, one should study Occult philosophy before one begins to verify and seek the mysteries of nature on its surface alone, as he alone ʺwho knows the truth about the qualities of nature, who understands the creation of all entities . . . is emancipatedʺ from error. Says the ʺpreceptorʺ: ʺAccurately understanding the great tree of which the unperceived (Occult nature, the root of all) is the sprout from the seed (Parabrahman) which consists of the understanding (Mahat, or the universal intelligent Soul) as its trunk, the branches of which are the great egoism (Ahamkara, that Egoship or Ahamship which leads to every error), in the holes of which are the sprouts, namely, the senses, of which the great (Occult, or invisible) elements are the flower‐bunches,(The elements are the five tanmâtras of earth, water, fire, air and ether,the producers of the grosser elements.) the gross elements (the gross objective matter), the smaller boughs, which are always possessed of leaves, always possessed of flowers . . . . which is eternal and the seed of which is the Brahman (the deity); and cutting it with that excellent sword - knowledge (secret wisdom) - one attains immortality and casts off birth and death.ʺ This is the Tree of Life, the Asvattha tree, only after the cutting of which the slave of life and death, MAN, can be emancipated." - The Secret Doctrine Volume 1. 


A concrete mind with its fire of fragmentation will jump to conclude that Sri Aurobindo and Blavatsky gave different and confusing teachings. Yet for the one whose intuition (the faculty of synthesis, unity, harmony, fusion) is truly awakening a hint lies in the fact after higher initiations, seven distinct cosmic paths open for the initiate as taught by Djwal Khul. 

    


Image: A poignant sword symbolizing a sharp weapon of Savitri's pain. A Symbol Dawn at the Banyan tree, Matrimandir Auroville : the evil struck by Savitri at its root: a healthy growing tree of life free from the evil of soulless materialism.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Yoga of Synthesis Diary Leaves 4

 Album The Yoga of Synthesis  Dated 22 January 2025 The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali give us four stages of meditation and when applied on symbols we find: 1. First, as the form is pondered upon, the realisation begins to dawn that it is but a symbol of an inner reality. 2. Second, there is a recognition of the quality or nature of the form—its subjective energy, the quality of the force that seems to flow through it, the emotion that the symbol arouses. 3. Third, as we concentrate on considering the quality, we arrive next at the purpose, the motive, and the idea that the symbol has held concealed. 4. Fourth, in the final stage of identification, one becomes at one with the symbol; one shares its quality; one participates in its purpose, and through these stages one arrives at a unity with the creator of the form. When applied to the four symbols (of Helena Blavatsky, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Alice Bailey, and the category-theoretic model of Cause-Meaning/Quality-Effect), we...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Lam-Rim Retreat - Part III

Dated May/June 2025. 1. A Darshan As we meditated and learned some key concepts of Mahayana Buddhism, the air within the monastery was mildly perfumed with the delicate scent of Tibetan essence. Outside, the bees hummed among the native flowers, intoxicated by their fragrance. On the nearby trees, the monkeys leaped and swung, and the outside air was filled with the chirp of small birds and insects.       Deceived by material prosperity and addicted to comforts (I am not against either of these, but against the ever-increasing production of goods or the culture of consumerism to gratify men's insatiable desires; or to hide the unpleasant facts of life), the majority of "modernistic" men have deprived themselves of the opportunity and privileges of leading a truly satisfying life of spiritual freedom as their ancestors once did. As I took a Tibetan Buddhist retreat on the Himalayan heights, I could readily experience that it was immensely easier for the materially “ba...
Post a Comment
Read more

A synthesis of Savitri and Theosophy - Painting No 15

 Today we continue to contemplate on the remaining lines from Page 5 of the Symbol Dawn of Savitri.  "Here too the vision and prophetic gleam Lit into miracles common meaningless shapes; Then the divine afflatus, spent, withdrew, Unwanted, fading from the mortal’s range. A sacred yearning lingered in its trace, The worship of a Presence and a Power Too perfect to be held by death-bound hearts, The prescience of a marvellous birth to come." 'Here' stands for our ordinary human world where the vision and prophetic brief light of Goddess lit the ordinary shapes miraculously into divine meaning for few moments. But then the divine creative impulse or inspiration was spent and feeling unwanted withdrew and faded from the range of mortal men. Once gone it left behind a sacred yearning in the hearts of those later realized what had happened. The presence and Power of Divine Goddess was too perfect to be worshipped to be held steady by death-bound hearts of ordinary mortals. ...
Post a Comment
Read more