Book IV—The Book of Birth and Quest
Canto 1
The Birth and Childhood of the Flame
Year is the body and Savitri was born.
Gods and goddesses gave her heavenly gifts,
The moon of delight, the sword of triumph,
The golden heart of love, the mind of light,
The physical plastic to the touch of truth,
The spirit making the moulds of time immortal.
Even as a child she would visit the stars
Or dream of a city waking to wide days.
Already the earth’s longings took bright wings,
Already the ancient promises became good,
Already the faultless charm drew closer the worlds.
Her presence attracted great divinities.
The six tropical seasons have speeded through the year
and the Goddess of eternal Time has stepped into earthly cycles. Savitri’s
arrival, marking a signal moment of the gods, is a beauty’s festival in the
bright and colourful Spring, the chosen season who brings joy to our mortal
life. In it shall happen happier and wondrous things, unblemished by death.
Indeed, in her birth the heavenly charm and wonder have taken a human body. She
has accepted our transient lot, and its travail, accepted in order to
accomplish the divine task here. Savitri grows, becomes a student, and a scout,
and a brave warrior. She is dear to everyone in every respect. In every act and
thought and feeling of hers is expressed more and more of nobility of the high
spirit. An invisible sunlight flows in her veins and her movements display the
large significances of life. Her worship, and prayer, and aspiration become a
call which draws an answer from absolute Destiny moulding our mortality.
Canto 2
The Growth of the Flame
The young princess grew phase by phase, the moon,
And the roundsome digit gladdened beauty’s sky.
In her dreamful slumber, and in her bright waking,
The wheels of time speeded on a jewelled path,
And life became a journey led by love.
She could hold in her happy embrace the whole world,
And pour the wine of rapture in human heart;
But the frail vessel shudders with its joy.
High the eagle of her flaming youth ever flew
Above wind and cloud, unmatched and alone.
No earth-soul could reach her splendour’s winging,
No Aryan prince claim her hand in marriage.
Savitri’s life opens doors for the secret powers to
enter into gracious fields of activity. She acquires the lore of the world,
learns its many philosophies and sciences and arts and crafts. But by her
native right she also sees something beyond them. She is aware of the universal
Self and in her embrace stay all, that she might breathe living happiness into
them. But scarcely is recognized her eminence by the world. Only a few get a
distant glimpse of her greatness, but in it none responds to her. No Aryan
prince comes forward to be the partner in her high task. It looks as though she
is a matchless poet with herself as his lonely poem. She is a composer of the
song of sun-bright reality waiting for the flute-player to sing it. If she were
a goddess in a shrine, no priest would dare enter into it and wave the lamp of
adoration around her. Her radiance makes her solitary and alone.
Canto 3
The Call to the Quest
In the royalty of hush sometimes descends
The word that can forever change destiny
And bring good even to death’s circumstance:
Eternity’s moment arrives on white wings
And a cry is stirred in quiet of the soul;
Something surges from the creation’s silence
And to flute-call awakes the beloved’s heart.
From the world of immortality she had come
Not to fly a lonely flight in heavens
Of joy, but into life’s rough countries to dare.
Far in the forest on an emerald bough
Awaits, doomed, the gold-bright orange-hued bird.
This becomes a matter of concern for Savitri’s father.
Although there are songs of birds and flowers in the palace garden, and the
winds are happy, the ancient longing remains yet unfulfilled. But Aswapati the
Yogi hears other sounds in the depth of his silent heart. The inaudible
promptings of Nature bring to him deeper messages. Not only that. He sees the
secret divinity ready to emerge from the soul of Savitri. Behind her life is
concealed the life that is to be. Maybe man has not established contact with
his inner being and maybe he understands not what eternity through her speaks
to him. Yet that acquiescent attitude cannot be for his good, and he must come
out of it. There is a mighty Presence in her and she must awake to it. There
must arrive to her the one who shall give voice to it. Savitri must discover
him in the ways of the world. What her father tells to her comes to her with
the power and authenticity of the supreme Mantra itself.
Canto 4
The Quest
Her future’s course ran through the karmic past
And the chariot-wheels recalled the dim tracks
Of memory as if to claim godheads
Who drive the speeds of nature across birth
And birth, when silent watches the alert eye.
No human escort led the events of time;
But love seated in the heart of Savitri
Spurred the toiling energies towards their goal.
She heard the sounds of the Veda chanted
In the ear, and sight opened the soul’s doors,
And infinity’s calm reposed in her bosom.
Golden solitude stood waiting for the hour.
But long is the quest and many-winding the path. She
has to cross rivers and mountains in search of the joy she came to greet and
affirm. Savitri has to take the lyric routes and has to climb the slopes of
spiritual universality and wideness. She has to meet the urban gods and visit
the secluded shrines in the forests. Driven from within, she has to follow her
slow lingering road. Where she is going to be led, of that she has no
knowledge; but she has the certitude that an invisible magnet of love is leading
her to the destined place. It is in the