Savitri was living in love’s union,
as would any young and newly married couple would live. But even as the summer
of this union was coming to a close, she heard the fast-approaching footsteps
of the advancing doom carrying with it life’s inconsolable woe and sorrow.
Poignant-gloomy is the plight of Savitri. (pp. 468-69)
…listening to the thunder's fatal
crash
And the fugitive pattering
footsteps of the showers
And the long unsatisfied panting of
the wind
And sorrow muttering in the
sound-vexed night,
The grief of all the world came
near to her:
Night's darkness seemed her
future's ominous face.
The shadow of her lover's doom
arose
And fear laid hands upon her mortal
heart.
The moments swift and ruthless
raced; alarmed
Her thoughts, her mind remembered
Narad's date.
A trembling moved accountant of her
riches,
She reckoned the insufficient days
between:
A dire expectancy knocked at her
breast;
Dreadful to her were the footsteps
of the hours:
Grief came, a passionate stranger
to her gate…
None was there to help her and, not knowing what could be the way out of this
dire predicament, silently, helplessly she awaited the swift-footed doom
carried by the rash and impetuous time. No help came to her from any quarter. No
help could come to her from any quarter. True, she did not disclose her
psychological plight to anyone, not even to the great accomplished rishis and
tapasvins of the forest; true, also that she did not speak of Narad’s prophecy
to anybody; but, then, she was absolutely sure that none would be able to
provide her the needed conquering strength. For her, with the kind of stuff she
was made of, there was no other alternative but to win the battle against the
inveterate, the hardened death, the irreparable habit born of Inconscience. Who
would wage a battle against him? and win it? Spiritual history of the earth
tells us that all, everybody, had accepted death as a fact of life here, and they
had found other ways to resolve the dilemma, to escape from it. Savitri would
not go by it.
And yet the haunting question continues to haunt, that is, why did Savitri keep
the prophecy only to herself, why did she not share it with others, with the
dearest ones, and the wise ones? They would have at least spoken to her soft
comforting words of sympathy, given her consolation, provided some kind of vital-moral
support, assuaged her deep and sad feelings of sorrow. Caving in of the vital does
cause depression and it can be pretty dangerous also, suicidal, and it is wise
to speak out heartrending and mournful things to others; that is one way of
emptying it out and has a place in the life of the weak and the feeble. But
Savitri was Savitri; and there was always, and everywhere, right from her early
childhood, something luminous about her, something firm and diamond-like that
had come from somewhere else with her. She knew perfectly well that her
strength would come from God only, and from none else, and that it is that
strength alone which would give her true help in her dire hour. She had that
inner conviction, that inherent inborn wisdom, and she knew that she could
fully depend upon it. Indeed, that dire hour itself brought, most wisely and
most convincingly, that strength out into action. We witness it in her resolve
to marry Satyavan even when doom about him was made known to her. In answer to
her mother’s pleading, to choose another youth as life’s partner, Savitri
tells: (p. 435)
My will is part of the eternal
Will,
My fate is what my spirit's strength
can make,
My fate is what my spirit's
strength can bear…
If for a year, that year is all my
life.
And yet I know this is not all my
fate
Only to live and love awhile and
die.
For I know now why my spirit came
on earth
And who I am and who he is I love.
She is not going to live and love awhile and die, die like a helpless moth
drawn by the death-causing flame of love. This awakening to her own spiritual
reality came to her with the newly awakened power of love. She has not yet done
any conscious yoga but the kindled soul at once saw what was actually hidden
behind the ominous prophecy; it should not therefore come as a surprise that
she should have firmly held on to her decision. With the disclosure of Narad, about
Satyavan’s death, Savitri at once awakes to the purpose of her birth itself. Her
missioned work must begin; Narad had cast the seed, and she received it rightly
and nourished it and tended it occult-yogically.
Equally significant, in the context, is Savitri’s capacity to hold only to herself
the mysterious and foreboding prophecy, keep that dire foreknowledge entirely
to herself, without divulging anything to anyone else around. It indeed needs
enormous strength of character, almost amounting to the superhuman. The mystery
is, Satyavan’s death had to take place in the lonely forest, in total
isolation, without any inkling of it to anybody; it had to take place not in
the hermitage, but there where none else was present. This aspect of the episode
is very significant indeed, even as luminously charged with the occult it is. That
is the greatness of the story also, of the Savitri-legend narrated by the
ancient seers. By holding the prophecy to herself only, Savitri kind of
strengthened her will and her soul-power to face the event; everything got
firmly and finely quintessenced into it, without the deleterious possibility of
any dispersion of the effort that should go into it. Like spiritual experiences
that take wings when made public, they evaporating or getting dissipated, this
would have lost its effectiveness had she divulged it to others. The death in
the forest where there was no human habitation is a remarkable insight of the
giver of the story of Savitri.
When Savitri discovered her soul
and when the Consciousness-Force descended from centre to centre of her being,
into her subtle body, she was told not to bare her kingdom to the foe, she was
told to hide that newly found royalty of her bliss (p. 536)
Lest Time and Fate find out its
avenues
And beat the thunderous knock upon
thy gates.
Hide whilst thou canst thy treasure
of separate self
Behind the luminous rampart of thy
depths
Till of a vaster empire it grows
part.
Savitri’s dhāraņā śakti, the power to
hold what was given, is absolutely marvellous, absolutely yogic in the
superlative, and it is that which became the foundational support for her
success. So also is the power to hold the secret prophecy in the deeps of her
soul where no adversary force can inflict any kind of assault. Because Savitri
has that dhāraņā sāmarthya, capacity
to hold it, that Narad could make his loaded eventful prophecy, and that is
what he did, fulfilling the purpose for which he had undertaken the travail of a
long journey all the way from his home in Paradise to Aswapati’s palace in
Madra, on the banks of the ancient Alacananda. Narad knew who Savitri was, and
he knew that human Savitri had to be set on the path of yoga; no wonder, in the
joy of his Vishnu whose glory he ever sings, he rushes to earth. His visit is
an epochal visit. In it are all the elements of the new unfolding destiny of
the evolutionary earth. Savitri’s keeping the word of fate handed to her by
Narad is an aspect of that momentous possibility.
Savitri has found her soul and she is told to keep its kingdom hidden from the
foe. Savitri has come to know the death of her husband after the marriage and
she understands well that she must keep its knowledge as a secret even from
him. Savitri is indeed a Yogini par excellence. One moment one feels cheerful
and the next moment the blackest depression can descend upon one.
The Mother explains that there is
nothing new in this human nature. Sometimes it remains in the light and
sometimes in the darkness. “But truly I want something new in the life of human
beings. Human nature is divided. So sometimes people believe in the adverse
forces and sometimes in the Divine Forces. When they are trapped by the hostile
forces they begin to think: ‘This thing is good and that one is bad, this
person is good and that person is bad.’ And so on. They live in likings and
dislikings with various types of mortal desires and ego in them. In fact, they
themselves create all lower and false things in their consciousness: no wonder
they become miserable. As a matter of fact, it is nothing but putting a dense
curtain between the Divine and their souls. So how can they realise anything
new in their lives? But, if there is no barrier between the Divine and themselves,
naturally the adverse forces do not like it, and constantly they try to drive
them far away from the Divine and His Grace.” One should pray intensely to the
Lord. The Mother continues: “O Lord, kindly work in my legs, in my hands—in my
whole consciousness; if I walk, walk in me, if I eat, eat in me—whatever I do,
be always with me.” Thus you are constantly protected by the Lord and His
Grace. This is what Savitri had achieved, that when she walked it is the Lord
who walked in her legs, when she ate it is the Lord who ate in her, whatever
she did it is the Lord who did it in her; he worked in her concsiousness. It is
the Lord in her who was facing Death in the