Book One of Savitri contains five Cantos. It opens with the Symbol-Night which turns into the Symbol-Dawn. It figures the very beginning of the Universe from the Night of Nescience to the awakening of the Dawn of the Spirit. In sublime and cosmic sweeps it covers the whole period of evolution and brings it up to the human stage. It focuses our attention on the fundamental problem of man in the situation of Sāvitrī, the main character of the poem, who is described here in short with her human-divine qualities. We yet know nothing about the life of Sāvitrī on earth. Suddenly we find this human-divine heroine brought face to face with the central problem of man concentrated into "Earth, Love and Doom". Earth represents the masked Infinite that appears as original Nescience. It contains within it the upward drive and the downward drag of the evolutionary movement that has created the cosmos. Love represents in its origin and purity the Divine grace that sacrifices its perfection in order that creation may be saved from the prison of Inconscience. Love therefore is the immortal element in mortals. It maintains some of its original divine glow even when it manifests itself in human life and under human forms. It is a sign from Heaven in man assuring him of his divine origin and destiny. When it comes from the Divine direct it is the Grace that saves. Doom is the present apparent determinism of Nature trying to perpetuate the rule of Ignorance in mankind. It denies and contradicts man's deepest aspirations and opposes any attempt at self-exceeding. Its chief fulcrum is ego in the human being and desire is its dynamic support. All these forces working in conjunction in the human being give rise to pain and suffering. Sāvitrī is faced with the apparently unchangeable determinism of cosmic nature. The only support she has was that of the Spirit within her...   more »