Only they leave behind a splendid
Name.
A fire has come
and touched men's hearts and gone;
A
few have caught flame and risen to greater life.
(Savitri, p. 7)
This
is to what the accomplishments of the great souls who came to help the world
amounts to. The problem of creation continues to afflict the creation. No
doubt, there is a gain also, the human and the occult gain, but the
essentiality remains unaltered. Is this process going to be repeated once more—that
is the question in the context of incarnation of the supreme Creatrix as
Savitri. Great souls had come earlier and nothing radically hanged. Death
and Ignorance and Suffering and Sorrow continue to be there. One of the gains
is that their Name stays behind, becoming a dynamo of force and action. Yet the
fire that comes to kindle men’s hearts returns, failing to alter the harsh
working of the Inconscient nature. Is this going to be the fate of the work of
Savitri too? She is no doubt an exceptional being, too unlike the world she
came to save, standing apart in every respect from the common lot. Not only
that; she has been coming here again and again. What guarantee that this time
she will succeed in her difficult mission? No one can say anything about it.
But one thing is certain. If she identifies her will and her work with the Will
of the Supreme, then it is the Supreme who is going to decide the issue, decide
in his Wisdom.
In
the meanwhile, let us go back to the story of Savitri. Fated day in the life of Savitri has arrived and
the poet is describing the sequence of events in detail. It is a narration
portraying in pointed and minute details the psychological state of Savitri. Everything
connected with the fated day is described precisely, with all the psychological
shades coming into full play. But then in the course of narration the poet is
also making a departure, departure with a purpose making a profound reflective
observation. He has inserted these lines about the supernal fire’s coming and
returning, lines which do not really form a part of the running narrative; but
the occasion is most appropriate to offer a significant commentary on the state
of affairs in man’s progress towards his higher spiritual destiny. God’s
delegate soul comes here, but hardly there is anyone to receive the precious
boons he brings for us. This is a big commentary on what we are.
Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk who lived in
"God strolled in the Garden with Man," says the Hebrew Scripture.
Jacob saw heaven opened. God spoke to Joseph through dreams. Moses communed
with God on Sinai. David lost himself in dancing for the Lord. Such ecstatic
moments in the history but it continues to witness the cruelest kind of
holocaust.
Jesus declared "I and the Father are one." Thus he revealed in
himself the possibility of God and humankind becoming one. Was that a premature
declaration as far as the collective life is concerned? Man was not ready and,
alas, the opportunity was missed. But is Man ready now? Not really, though he
fervently reasons out for himself all the prospects of post-human destinies.
“A mystic heart is seen in the letters of the apostles: Paul reached the
divinised state of losing his ‘self’, saying: ‘I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me!’ James wrote that every good and perfect gift comes from the
Father of Lights, in whom there is no variation, nor shadow of turning. Peter
proclaimed that Christ even descended to hell to liberate imprisoned souls, and
John understood the most sublime truth of God's essence: God is Love!” So are
the experiences of the Sufis, and of the Bhaktas lost in the divine beatitude.
But then where does the rest of the mankind stand? Is Christ in Hades only a
powerful myth to console the poor in spirit?
Jesus was crucified but only after a long period of time man sort of awoke to
the message of love he had brought. He did awake, and a continent was
humanized; but does man live in that divine love? Perchance once in a while.
Has not the message ceased and the messenger waned? What has happened to the
reassuring Word that came on the wings of glory? In every religion gigantic
vital beings with tremendous ego arose and appropriated for themselves the
light and the power that had come with it. Humanity as a whole continues to
remain unregenerate. An empire was built, a Church was founded, the aspiring
soul of man wrote the praise of God in books and on walls of the cathedrals,
and in paintings, and in music, all celebrating the spirit of a new birth. And
yet were invented the racks and the wrenches and the pinions of maltreatment,
betraying how much man can get perverted. Hardly is there any historical difference
between the crucifixion Christ faced and the burning of Bruno or Jeanne d’Arc
at the stake. In her last letter dated 28 March 1430 Jeanne writes: “I beg and
request, very dear friends, that you defend the city for the king and that you
keep good watch. You will soon hear my good news in greater detail.” But where
was the good news? Soon her trial began and on 30 May 1431 she was executed at
Great souls had come, and a few had caught the flame; but what had happened to
the rest? In Savitri the God of Death
tells Savitri: (pp. 609-10)
The Avatars have lived and died in
vain,
Vain was the sage's thought, the
prophet's voice;
In vain is seen the shining upward
Way.
Earth lies unchanged beneath the
circling sun;
She loves her fall and no
omnipotence
Her mortal imperfections can erase,
Force on man's crooked ignorance
Heaven's straight line
Or colonise a world of death with
gods.
A few have caught the flame, cleansed their souls in the Hour of God. But even
they those who have caught the flame are not ready enough to live and move in
the wide Eternity of God, in its splendour and in its glory, live here upon
earth in its brightness, bright in the flame of immortality. When the moment
comes, it is the Grace that comes to lift us up; the moment comes, and it is
not we who cause that moment; what is expected of us is to be always ready to
receive it. But hardly there is anyone who perceives its coming and, if at all
he perceives, does he receive it. “I want twelve disciples to change the
world.” But where are they? And one will betray him before the cock crows in
the morning: "It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have
dipped it." The grace will come and the will is there, but only when grace
becomes will and will grace is there a possibility of redemption. Much beyond
redemption is the total change of nature, transformation even of the physical,
it opening to the grace and the will. That is Savitri’s task, and she has to do
it by doing yoga-tapasya so that our will-and-action is identified with the
highest possible will-and-grace.
See also the Descent of Vishnu.