The central idea here is of the divine sacrifice. The earliest mention of sacrifice in our tradition occurs in the Veda which speaks of the cosmic Person, the thousand-headed Purusha, sacrificing himself so that this creation might come into existence. The Bhagavad Gita also speaks of sacrifice: after creating the gods, creating the peoples, the Supreme God created Yajna as a means for their interchange. He charged the gos and people to promote each other by means of sacrifice, yajna. We do not need to say that this understanding has not been honoured from our side. The sacrifice continues from above, but from below we are not doing our part of the sacrifice; we appropriate everything to ourselves, what properly belongs to the Divine.

 

Sri Aurobindo speaks in a memorable passage in the book The Mother, of the supreme holocaust of the divine Mother: She sacrifices herself, comes down into this world of suffering and darkness in order that it may be uplifted. In several other passages of his writings, particularly in this epic, he refers to the sacrifice of God as an Avatar: all the hardship and struggle that is implied in the birth of an Avatar, and the reluctance of the world to receive the message that the Avatar brings.

 

With this background, we can now proceed to study what he says regarding Savitri who is the Divine Grace incarnate come to battle with Death and win immortality for humanity.

 

In vain now seemed the splendid sacrifice.

 

She has left her celestial home, left her glory, eternity and infinity, and chosen to don the human robe,—a great sacrifice. But now it seems to have been in vain.

 

A prodigal of her rich divinity,

Her self and all she was she had lent to men,

Hoping her greater being to implant

That heaven might native grow on mortal soil.

 

She is very generous, almost prodigal, spendthrift, in the giving of her divinity. She gives and gives largely. She gives herself and all she has, all her power, light, wisdom—everything that she carries with her. She has lent these to men, the world of men, in order to plant her greater Being here on earth. Her larger being comes down to the human level hoping that thereby heaven, the habitation of the immortals, may grow here naturally. In other words, she does this sacrifice in order to establish heaven on earth. Here Sri Aurobindo makes an observation. That is his style: as he narrates the story, he pauses at certain points and gives a higher insight. Here he states the reason why her sacrifice failed.

 

Hard is it to persuade earth-nature's change;

Mortality bears ill the eternal's touch.

 

To persuade earth-nature to change is very difficult, hard. Our normal state of existence, mortality, does not welcome, but reacts badly to the touch of the eternal, the immortal. Why does it do so?

 

It fears the pure divine intolerance

Of that assault of ether and of fire;

It murmurs at its sorrowless happiness,

Almost with hate repels the light it brings;

It trembles at its naked power of Truth

And the might and sweetness of its absolute Voice.

 

The divine purity insists on everything being equally pure, it does not tolerate any impurity. Earth-nature fears its rarefied air and the flame of intensity. This nature complains that the higher happiness is absolutely sorrowless and it is bored with it; if you are continuously happy, you forget that you are happy and at some stage you begin to get bored: there is no excitement of adventure, no prospect of change. The light that the Eternal brings from above is repelled, rejected, thrown back almost with hate, not just an indifference, but an active antipathy. The divine truth has a power which is irresistible in its unveiled form; and when it nears, the earth-nature trembles. Apart from the power of truth, the voice of truth too is feared: it is absolute, it does not admit any denial. And yet, it is sweet and warm. These negative reactions are not all: the earth-nature does not stop with trembling and fearing, it does something positive by way of repulsion.

 

Inflicting on the heights the abysm's law,

It sullies with its mire heaven's messengers.

 

The gulf, the pit below has its own law—the law of limitation, ignorance, death. This law is inflicted on the heights from where the truth tries to descend. The messengers of heaven come down, but the earth nature soils them with its mud.

 

Its thorns of fallen nature are the defence

It turns against the saviour hands of Grace;

It meets the sons of God with death and pain.

 

Against the hands of Grace that come to save, mortality turns its thorns of fallen nature in its own defence. This is how the messengers of Heaven, Sons of God, have been repelled with pain and death thrown in their face. All that remains of their mission is but little.

 

A glory of lightnings traversing the earth-scene,

Their sun-thoughts fading, darkened by ignorant minds,

Their work betrayed, their good to evil turned,

The cross their payment for the crown they gave,

Only they leave behind a splendid Name.

 

The earth-scene is traversed by a blaze of glory during the ministry of these saviours. Each thought of theirs is like a sun, bright, luminous; but these thoughts begin to fade, because they are darkened by ignorant minds. All the great work they have done is found to be betrayed. They good they have done is turned to evil by this ignorant humanity. The messengers bring the crown for man, but in return they are given the cross—an allusion to Christ and his crucifixion. Their great name is all that lasts. Men succeed in pulling down everything else. What then is the net result?

 

A fire has come and touched men's hearts and gone;

A few have caught flame and risen to greater life.

 

A greater fire has descended, touched the hearts of men and retired. A few have indeed benefited, they have caught that flame of aspiration for God, for the higher nature, for immortality. The texture of their life has changed—from their common lower life they have risen to a greater life, but such are few.

 

The narrative is resumed after this observation:

 

Too unlike the world she came to help and save,

Her greatness weighed upon its ignorant breast,

And from its deep chasms welled a dire return,

A portion of its sorrow, struggle, fall.

 

Savitri cam to help and save this world, but she is too unlike the world. Her weight has been too much upon the ignorant breast of earth. A cruel return shoots up from its deep chasms: part of its lot of sorrow, struggle, and fall.