Savitri—the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision
The Mother

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Savitri: the Light of the Supreme
In Sri Aurobindo’s Gayatri Mantra we have a phrase “Savitŗ, the Light of the Supreme, or in Sanskrit jyotih parasya”. This we have taken for the name of our site which is specifically devoted to Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri. It will be our endeavour to present its various aspects in the course of time. Texts of Savitri, the compositional details, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s writings about it will form one major section for reference purposes. Work on it by others in several other sections will follow in the sequel. It is also hoped that there will be audio-visual presentations in the creative spirit for us to grow more and more in it. Indeed, to live in Savitri who shall give us the truth and the things of the truth shall be the driving motivation behind this effort.

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Aswapati saw that above this human mind of ours there is a region of bright Light from where two demons look down on .the whole scene, one a "huge high-winged Life-Thought" and the other a "pure Thought-Mind". These two in their combination can make it possible for man to break the limits of his humanity and arrive at a supernal Light.

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From the realm of dark gloom, Aswapati came out into a felicitous daylight. Here life was subject to divine command, assured of its own bliss, without fear or grief "and unalarmed by the breath of fleeting Time". It was at ease here and secure in its joy and universal love. There was ceaseless radiance all round and even the elements that touched the senses were full of delight.

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Hatred was like an all-pervading element in this region "burning the soul with its malignant rays". Even physical objects seemed to emanate these lower impulses. It was not that the beings on this plane were unconscious,—they were conscious but they were all perverse. Aswapati tried to understand and to know the heart of this Hell. He wanted to understand its root. He suffered all the sorrows of this hell and went through all the bitter experiences. He narrowly escaped the danger of losing his own Self, because "he treasured between his hands his flickering soul". While passing through this region, even though thought had ceased and sense had failed, "his soul still saw and knew". He sounded further the mystery of this dark and bottomless world and by an act of sheer identity with the very deepest spirit that was behind this Nescience he stood at the very entrance of the Subconscient and saw that the Being that was there though acting unconsciously, was in reality carrying out cosmic will. He saw that a secret divine Hand, an invisible hand of Light, was guiding it.

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Aswapati tried to find the cause of the failure of this higher vital world. He peered into the darkness that was below and tried to locate there the cause, if any. Suddenly, the veil was rent that covers Nature's depths, and there he saw the fount of the world's lasting pain and the mouth of the black pit of Ignorance. It was the region of the Nescience where everything present in life is turned into its opposite, turned with almost an equal imperativeness. For instance, there was a Power, there was a Presence and there was what might be called Doom which was the opposite of Destiny. There was a mind also which, instead of serving truth, corrupted it with her own formula and everything there was consequently overcast with error, grief and pain. Due to this universal presence of evil and falsehood everything bore black fruit of suffering, of death and bale. Seeds of evil and falsehood seemed to be scattered everywhere. Here even though he saw some brighter side of life, some truth, some love, some friendship and beauty, he also could not help seeing the anguish and fear and lust evil.

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From the region of the lower vital plane where Aswapati found the denial of the highest possibilities of man he came up to the kingdoms of the higher vital where he found at least "a dubious hope". There was in this plane of consciousness a possibility of self-finding, a sureness of form, adventure of the mind and choice of the human heart, and a touch of sure delight in unsure things. In this higher vital world there was always the zest: of achievement, of trial and dream but none of these things ever fulfilled itself. They were worlds of marvels, beauty, wonder, fancy which reflected dimly some great spiritual splendour above. But the life here was only an ineffectual search which never ended in a victory. Everything on this plane allured but nothing satisfied. From here he saw a wider horizon with a greater promise. He saw that there was a self-conscious Spirit trying to seek its own self, busy with little fragments of life. Here, for the first time, the secret Spirit could find some expression, though very inadequate for its delight, beauty, truth and absoluteness. It was possible now to have some beginning of knowledge, intuitive sight and some passion of the rapturous heart of Love.

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Aswapati saw innumerable creatures, spirits, imps, goblins, genii, all kinds of lower vital beings. It is these beings who act upon the inner beings of man and to turn them round and round in the inescapable circle of ignorance. Everything here on earth is enacted under their influence. The twilight of human nature is the place they lurk in and they speak to the human being "with the voices of the Night". It is thus that these forces utilise human beings for their purpose and build up structures or constructions which they force upon men leading in the end to blind ignorance. This happens because "reason is used by an irrational Force". Even though man is born on the earth and is of the earth, still, "this earth alone is not our teacher and nurse"—because, "the powers of all the" worlds have entrance here". Man is thus very powerfully influenced and moulded not only by the earth and its forces but by life and vital forces that are subtle and by mental forces and even by forces beyond mind. This fate lasts so long as man's soul does not attain its freedom. When man awakes to his free Self, then ends this dream of nether life.

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To walk on the path you must have a dauntless intrepidity

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A life arose as a result of the dolorous meeting of the higher Vital and the Inconscience which was so full of unappeased unrest that it could not allow contentment on this inert, solid, globe of the earth. This plane of the little life has given the law of craving to man. It is because of these formless yearning passions in his heart that man is unable to rest content with his life like the beast, or live happy like the flowers and trees. Man's life has added care, reflection and discontent to itself, and he has become an insatiate seeker. All the original fire and might of pure life is brought down here into the littleness of the material being; and life is feeling here a push, an urge towards unattained conditions.

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Having left the limits of the physical mind Aswapati entered the world of life, the plane of vital being. To this plane belong change, doubt, adventure, toil without repose. Life pursues a goal which seems to recede like a mirage as it is pursued. In fact, this plane of pure life-force was "the manifest incalculable". Here, life could take all shapes and need not remain confined to any fixed form. Life here is fearless and can court disasters and dangers and follow the wake of discovery almost as her law...

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Having crossed the boundaries of this gross material cosmos Aswapati came to a world of subtle material existence where "All shapes are beautiful and all things true". This world of subtle matter is really the origin of our gross earth. In fact it is the "brilliant roof of our descending plane" and it serves to protect the material world from the operation of subtle forces which might be too strong for it.

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Aswapati's vision was widened beyond the confines of human limits; he could see the whole cosmos as "A limitless movement" that "filled a limitless space". He saw it as a selfcreation of the Unknown without end or pause, revealing the grandeurs of the Infinite. He saw there "The world-shapes that are fancies of its Truth". The chequered fields of experience with their vast and multiple play of knowledge, ignorance, pleasure, pain, etc., he could see and feel that experience was a single plan, a thousandfold expression of the One.

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Aswapati's Yoga starts by the release of his soul from the bondage and limitations of the body, life and mind, the apparent being of man. He feels within him a spiritual being, and also experiences new faculties and states of consciousness beyond mind as a result of his upward effort. He ascends from his mere human status, expands out of his ego-personality, grows wider and awakens in him the working of new powers of nature. He leaves not only the ego-limit but the earth consciousness and journeys to other planes, below and above, sees them and their working and their effect on the earth consciousness. All along he remains the witness—the detached observer. He acquires the knowledge of the constitution of man and that of the universe.

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To know in advance what will be the circumstances of life one ought to have the strength of a God. It is a Supreme Grace for man that the future is not revealed to him; because most men would not have the courage to live their life, if they knew what it would be. The all-embracing Divine Consciousness is needed to have the knowledge and live in the present condition of the world and, at the same time, do what one is expected to do and act according to the Divine’s Will. When the consciousness of man becomes wide, strong and pure enough to know, or rather, to share the knowledge of the Divine, then this knowledge comes along with the consciousness.

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The Divine has sacrificed Himself in Matter to awaken consciousness in Matter, Matter had become inconscient. It is this giving of the Divine in Matter, His dispersion in Matter which justifies the sacrifice of Matter to the Divine. It is because the Divine has given Himself in Matter and scattered Himself everywhere in Matter to awaken it to the divine consciousness, that Matter is automatically under the obligation to give itself to the Divine. It is a mutual and reciprocal sacrifice. It is mutual debt that binds them together. By his sacrifice the Divine has compelled Matter to make sacrifice.

But, actually, Matter is too weak to make a demanding sacrifice, to offer itself to the Divine in its measure and proportion. Somebody has to do it for it. It is the Divine Mother as incarnate Savitri who does the Yoga of Surrender to the Supreme and it is she who identifies her will with the Will of the Supreme to kindle divine sacrifice in the heart and the soul of Matter. Only this incarnation of the divine Shakti as Savitri, and none other powers and personalities or embodiments of hers can do it. The surety, the guarantee of the success is also there in this Yoga of Savitri. She alone, and not other powers and personalities, or other embodiments, can attain the needed perfection. Savitri was “sent forth of old beneath the stars” of the dark Night for doing that Yoga.

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There are the great and splendid embodiments of the Divine Mother, her Powers and her dynamic Personalities carrying out the cosmic work. The Four Powers of the Mother are of such a type, already functioning in the vaster scheme of cosmic things. But they don’t pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, they don’t accept the “lamentable limitations”, they don’t climb up the Calvary of deep-rooted frustration, bear the ignominy of human births. Once the Mother told the Goddess Durga the magic of surrender to the Lord—and then only did Durga see, with utter astonishment, its marvel and its power.

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“One does not progress outside terrestrial life. The earthly, material life is essentially the life of progress, it is here that one makes progress,”—says the Mother. And the beauty is, those who want to escape it, even they will be “compelled to progress whether they want it or not. The psychic being itself progresses in them and they are not conscious of it. But they themselves are compelled to progress. That is to say, they follow a curve. They follow an ascent in life. It is the same progress as that of the growing child…” And then: “…even the Divine, when incarnate on earth, is subject to the same law of progress. His instrument of manifestation, the physical being he has assumed, should be in a constant state of progress, and the law of his personal self-expression is in a way linked to the general law of earthly progress. Thus, even the embodied god cannot be perfect on earth until men are ready to understand and accept perfection.” This is great. Significantly, the Mother stresses: “…even the Divine, when incarnate on earth...”

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If the divine Shakti has sacrificed her royalty of transcendental delight and existence and awareness and accepted smallness in this mortal creation then a question does arise. The question is: is this Sacrifice, this Holocaust of the creative Force the same as the Sacrifice or Holocaust of the divine Purusha of the Vedic Purusha Sukta in which the Purusha was sacrificed in the ancient day? There are similarities between the two. In the Purusha Sukta the Gods and the Rishis and the Sadhyas invoked the Primordial Being or Purusha and offered him in the sacrifice, he agreeing to become the oblation, sacrificial the offering, āhuti; in the other, the creative Force approached the Supreme and in his Will, at his great command precipitated her Consciousness and Love and Truth into the world that had come out of the Inconscience and Suffering and Falsehood. This is an involution that has happened, only because someone willed it, and also paid a price for it to happen. The Holocaust of the divine Shakti is a result of that willing. The story of separation of the four beings from their supreme Origin is a former event, describing the involution prior to the holocaustic involution. Such is the story connected with the objectivisation of the Supreme.

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If there has to be the divine manifestation, the supramental Mahashakti must descend and work in the cosmic-terrestrial process. The four powers described by Sri Aurobindo in The Mother belong to this Overmental creation, with the Purusha aspects present only in the background. Unless they work in fullness and harmony the higher cannot come and operate here. These four in us are: understanding, life-dynamism, the sense of love and joy and beauty, and the skill in work, our capacity to attend to minutiae and essentials, they all attaining perfection by which the will in the physical develops, each of the four characterising a certain trait in us, defining our swabhāva. That is how the soul in us grows. In fact it is the soul, the divine element residing in us, who becomes an alchemic agent to bring about the transformation of the complex of this nature. These are the qualities or energies, guņas, śaktis, by which the individual as well as collective evolution advances. Unless these are fully established in their harmony of working the higher powers waiting for manifestation cannot come down. In order to open a way for their coming there is the imperative of the mortal birth of Savitri, a birth founded on the yoga-tapasya of Aswapati.

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By his yoga-tapasya Aswapati compels the mortal birth of the divine Savitri. He carried the “world’s desire” to the supreme Goddess and argued with her that it can be fulfilled only if she comes down to solve the problem of mortality here. She must take the mortal birth and, by doing the Shakti Yoga in the soul of the earth, gather divine Power to vanquish Death who is standing as an obstacle across the path of the divine Event. He has prepared the needed occult-spiritual ground for her work and it is now opportune for her to step in. She condescends, agrees to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death. The divine Incarnation arrives. While this is the esoteric reality behind the wonderful that has happened to this creation, we may look at it from another angle, something that we might be able to grasp.

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