The Book of the Divine Mother in
Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri is
absolutely unique in the entire spiritual literature and revelation. Not only the luminous broadness of vision does it present; it has the unparalleled
action of a Siddha-Yogi who suffered and endured so much for us, who attempted
all and achieved all for the little soul of this earth. Aswapati is free of
humanity, free of the terrestrial smallness, of its bondage and manacles, free of ignorance and inconscience
in his individual nature, and as the pure selfless self is chasing the
Unknowable beyond manifestation to bring from it a new manifestation. He has
done it. As the first step, he establishes a new and marvellous creation in the
House of the transcendental Spirit, in Sachchidananda. A prototype has been
created. But it can have meaning and sense with respect to the evolutionary
earth only when it can start projecting into it, when it manifests upon earth.
His mighty bit is done. But he has yet to do a mightier bit even as he knows
that it is the task of the executive dynamic divine Shakti alone. She must step
into the process and accomplish it. He approaches her even as she responds to
his prayer. His plea is for her to take mortal birth and do the Yoga-Yajna upon
earth for the new creation’s materialization here. He in fact compels her to do
that. She obliges and promises him that she shall descend and break the iron
Law of the inconscient working, the Law of Death standing in the way of the Law
of Truth and Life and Joy. By her Spirit’s power shall be removed the doom of
this helpless and toiling Nature. All mights and greatnesses shall join in her.
Beauty shall walk celestial on the
earth,
Delight shall sleep in the
cloud-net of her hair
And in her body as on his homing
tree
Immortal Love shall beat his
glorious wings.
A music of griefless things shall
weave her charm;
The harps of the Perfect shall
attune her voice,
The streams of Heaven shall murmur
in her laugh,
Her lips shall be the honeycombs of
God,
Her limbs his golden jars of
ecstasy,
Her breasts the rapture-flowers of
She shall bear Wisdom in her
voiceless bosom,
Strength shall be with her like a
conqueror's sword
And from her eyes the Eternal's
bliss shall gaze.
A seed shall be sown in Death's
tremendous hour,
A branch of heaven transplant to
human soil;
Nature shall overleap her mortal step;
Fate shall be changed by an
unchanging will.
That is the fulfillment of the
triple yoga-tapasya of Aswapati, of the Yoga of the Supreme done in the
earth-consciousness, in the House of Matter, that the divine Matter be born
here, the divine body for the divine life marking the beginning of endless
progress in the growing possibilities of the Spirit.
III:1 The Pursuit of the Unknowable
The one whom Aswapati met standing
behind the World-Soul is still a mystery to him. So his quest continues and he
ascends to the height where stands only the bare Reality. But on that summit of
realization he has to make a final choice,—he must abandon the world and merge
into that Reality or else seek that which will transform it. Towards that
choice no help was available and the cosmic spirit remained just an aspect of
Non-being, the first Asat. But that Asat is ever inaccessible. Perhaps in it if
all should vanish then the golden Sphinx might reveal something of her mystery.
But it entails a danger, that of going out of the manifestation. That
eventuality would mean the failure of the soul’s mission itself. Though to free
the self from the contingent Nature is a basic condition for any progress,
there is also an obligation of fulfilling oneself here. Aswapati is alert to it
and hence he must remove the veil of light.
Into luminous emptiness he entered
And even the world’s yearning which
he carried
In his high-intended Odyssey
disappeared.
A potent universe without galaxies,
Without streams, mountains, beasts
or birds or men
Withheld in its formlessness the
epiphanic.
Behind sachchidānanda was the
quiescent
And what remained was nirvana of
the absolute,
The austere apocalyptic alone.
Yet must be known that power whose
enigma
Gives meaning and content to things
of the world.
His spirit’s will pursued the
unknowable.
III:2 The Adoration of the Divine Mother
In that self-discovery Aswapati
comes to know about God’s desire that works here even in this mortal world.
Here he is rewarded. It is in response to the longing of his soul that a being
of wisdom, power, delight,—jnāna, śakti, ānanda,—steps out of eternity. He surrenders to her and his heart
is glad. Existence no more seems to be without aim. In her is found the hidden
Word, the Mantra of Ascent and Transformation. She stands at the head of this
creation and she is the one who helps us cross great distances that yawn
between us and the marvels that shine over there. From her Sun we can set
alight our suns, suns of knowledge, strength, beauty, sweetness, love, joy,
harmony, perfection. It is she who can turn our pain of death into ecstasy of
life. How wonderful to be caught in her intolerant flame! Her light and her
bliss he asked for men on earth. Nothing else he yearned and gave himself
completely to her alone.
Then was abolished the eternal nay
And only the forceful positive
stood there,
The fire that gives fire to a
million fires.
Immortal death worked with the
heart of love
And ignorance was a bright page in
the book
Om Chidrūpiņī Paramā, her name.
Sons of divinity hymned her glories
And offered to her onyxes and
diamonds
And epic conquests of nobility
And real-ideas of distinction,
Found in her the secret of the
Veda.
The incarnate soul was fulfilled in
her.
III:3 The House of the Spirit and the New Creation
Aswapati sits expectantly with a
prayer in his silent heart, but nothing happens. He is puzzled and must find if
something in him was still resisting the great advent. He is aware that even
the least element could spoil the work. He traces its roots and extracts them
out completely. He is free and enters into the superconscient state. There
Nature’s afflictions disappear and in the deep hush is the anticipation of an
answering voice. Aswapati’s solitary concern is the good of the grieving
creature. His long tapasya was for that purpose. Indeed, it is out of it that
sprang up a new creation in the transcendent. But it ought to become a part of
the evolutionary reality. For that to happen the Spirit’s disdainfulness
towards Matter should disappear. Behind the present world Aswapati sees a world
to be and the question is to make it actual. He knows that it can be done only
by the divine Power. He must call her.
But the occult past weighing on the
soul of the earth
He must offer to the flames of
sacrifice,
Of nature and gods, kindled in the
new divine.
Here was the beginningless
beginning
And the endless end, here the
unmoved mover.
Here flamed his will in trance of
luminous sleep
And was formed the world
celebrating truth
Immortal even in things material.
Thus broke out the yoga’s paean
supreme.
The stork of paradise brought the
news of a birth
Waiting for voiceless omniscience
to speak.
Opened were freeways for haste of
the daughter.
III:4 The Vision and the Boon
There is a sudden flow of energy
and Aswapati feels its rush into all parts of his being down to the very
physical. Spirit and body identify with each other, even as the radiant Goddess
stands in front of him. She counsels him not to force mortality’s issue; he
should instead leave all to the course of the evolving Time. He is told that
Man is too weak to bear the burden of the Truth and he must graduate himself to
receive her gifts. In the meanwhile, Aswapati should help this struggling
creature on his heavenward march. She is ready to grant a boon to Aswapati,
with the assurance that all things shall happen in God’s transfiguring hour.
But the Siddha Yogi makes himself bold and holds out an alternative. He knows
that a new creation in the House of the Spirit is waiting to be born and the
Goddess should incarnate herself to make it real here. Saying ‘Be it so’ the
Goddess withdraws and glad Aswapati returns to attend to his worldly duties.
Even as Aswapati invoked Savitri
With many-leaping flames in the
radiant sky
Rained over his tapas resplendent
waters.
The dreams of earth excelled in
their rapid flow
And the auspicious hour validated
the world.
True, the gods enter not this den
of night
And the dark-hued sphinx slays the
soul of man
And time is haunted by the ghost of
death;
But if life is to discover love’s
immensity
And sunbright children are to be born
in these bounds,
She must herself take mortal birth
and alter fate.
The word was spoken and the new era
began.