But it is precisely... it is part of the creation. What we call “Aditi” here, that is, the Creative Consciousness, well, the Creative Consciousness... I am going to tell you about this in an absolutely childish way: She formed at first four beings; when she received the mission to create she put out four emanations from her being; and these four emanations were made and given the charge to develop the universe. And then—I think I have already spoken to you about this once—it turned out badly, we could put it like that; and so when things went wrong, she made another creation of all the beings who became the gods; and parallel to the disorder created by the first four emanations, there was the development in order, that is, under the guidance of the Supreme, the creation in order of all the worlds descending further and further towards Matter. And it is to this line that the gods belong who were manifested later, a formation, a greater and greater materialisation in the domain which Sri Aurobindo has termed the Overmind. And from there they presided over the creation of the material universe and the earth. And one of the proceedings was the formation of the earth as a symbolic creation representative of the whole universe, in order to condense and concentrate the problem so that it might be solved more easily. And this earth, though it may be from the astronomical point of view something infinitesimal and as unimportant as can be, from the occult point of view of the universal creation it is a symbol which represents the universe so perfectly that by transforming the earth one can through contagion or analogy transform the universe, because the earth is the symbol of the universe. This was the procedure adopted by the gods. And the place that’s the seat of existence of these gods Sri Aurobindo has called the Overmind. Of course things are not like that. Don’t think that I have just told you the story as it really happened. Things are not like that, but it’s a way of speaking, a way of making them understandable to the brain. It appears to have occurred like that.

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The Mother: “Since the beginning of earth history, Sri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations, under one form or another, one name or another.”

And about herself:

"That which is speaking to you now, is a faithful servant of the Divine. From all time, since the beginning of the earth, as a faithful servant of the Divine, it has spoken in the name of its Master. And as long as earth and men exist, it will be there in a body to preach the divine word. So, wherever I am asked to speak, I do my best, as a servant of the Divine. But to speak in the name of a particular doctrine or of a man, however great he may be, that I cannot do! The Eternal Transcendent forbids me."

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The anguish of the entire world was locked in her breast, and she spoke of it to none—because none would understand her, none had power to help her in that dire moment when everything was locked in the fate of this vast creation. The poet has presented this plight of Savitri on the day of her reckoning right at the beginning of the epic. But what we have at the beginning is not a flashback of what is to come in the course of events. This is the plight of Savitri in her human state. What we have at the beginning is the account of things happening in the Transcendent, in the World of Truth; it is here things are poised for action in the terrestrial play.

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Once God sat under the Wish-fulfilling Tree and bemused himself to have worlds of love, beauty, joy, light, truth, plenty. And these worlds sprang up in the heavens of his happy moods. They blazed like gold-bright flames in the everlasting honour of his creation. Having thus pleased himself with these magnificences, he bemused again and, then and there, soared towering a bejewelled mountain-pile neither the base of it nor the dazzling crown could be seen. And he bemused again and wished to die, die to himself. In “a moment shorter than death and longer than time”, he became the Godly nothing. Yet he wished to be in many ways. He chose death to be so. It was God's own death and therefore from the creative pyre he wished to rise again like a phoenix of another splendour. The Wish-fulfilling Tree of God has now given him another happiness, of progress in God's manifoldness. But there was a strenuous occult-yogic effort to fulfill the difficult Wish. Even then, in it was always the delight of doing something marvellous. Where is it that that delight would cease to exist? Nowhere, indeed.

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You know the image sometimes given to the universe: a serpent biting its tail? And it is taken as the symbol of the infinite, of the universe. Well, it is a fact. In the creation there is a progressive, a greater and greater materialisation. But we could take another image (I am taking an approximate image): the universe is a circle or rather a sphere (but for the convenience of explanation, let us take a circle). There is a progressive descent from the most subtle to the most material. But the most material happens to touch the point of origin of the most subtle. Then, if you understand the image, instead of going all the way round to change matter, it is much more easy to do the thing directly, for the two extremities meet—the extremely subtle and the extremely material touch, since it is a sphere. Hence, instead of doing all that (Mother draws a circle), it is much better to do this (Mother touches the extreme material end of the circle). In fact, psychologically it is that. The rest will follow quite naturally. If that is done (Mother touches the same extreme material end), all the rest will get settled as a matter of course. And it is not even like this! It is precisely for the convenience of work that all has been concentrated or concretised at one point so that instead of having to spread oneself out in the infinite to change things, one can work just on the point that serves as the symbol of the whole universe. And from the occult standpoint, earth (which is nothing from the astronomical standpoint; in the immensity of the astronomical skies, earth is a thing absolutely without interest and without importance), but from the occult and spiritual point of view, earth is the concentrated symbol of the universe.

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The deepest and the most fundamental mystery of the human consciousness (and in fact of the earth consciousness) is not that there is an unregenerate aboriginal being there as its bed-rock, a being made of the very stuff of ignorance and inconscience and inertia that is Matter: it is this that the submerged being is not merely dead matter, but a concentrated, a solidified flame, as it were, a suppressed aspiration that burns inwardly, all the more violent because it is not articulate and in the open. The aboriginal is that which harbours in its womb the original being. That is the Inconscient Godhead, the Divinity in pain—Mater Dolorosa—the Divine Being who lost himself totally when transmuted to Matter and yet is harassed always by the oestrus of a secret flame driving it to know itself, to find itself, to be itself again. It is Rudra, the Energy coiled up in Matter and forging ahead towards a progressive evolution in light and consciousness.

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During the last phase of her work, of the physical transformation, the Mother speaks of the body having the experience of "dying without dying". This perhaps means that even in the event of death there is no dispersal of the physical. The body itself could appreciate the gain and hence could feel immortally happy. That is a tremendous progress indeed and it can be said that body's diffidence towards transformation is effectively removed. The Mother makes it explicit: "The physical is capable of receiving the higher Light, the Truth, the true Consciousness and of manifesting it."

We should particularly notice the emphasis she adds to the aspect of manifestation in this entire sequel. And this knowledge of hers makes such an advance that she has now left everything to the Will of her Lord who will do whatever is needed to be done.

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The spectacle of death is not new to us nor is the bewailing of poets down the ages. In their utterance at times even an unearthly dimension is witnessed in the poignancy of heaven itself. Sorrow and transience in the affairs of men and the world very often turn out to be an expression of anger or else of total helplessness in the face of the inexorable. But who is going to listen to the voice of wisdom? And after all is it not that that voice is coming from the Tower of Darkness? In our quick anxiety we are always concerned with the daily nonessentials and the nothings. In the process we miss the gains of both the worlds. We are neither here nor there. The frightening reality of today and the cherished possibility of tomorrow seem to be in conflict with each other as if they cannot find the mutuality of existence with the one leading to the other, or one drawing the other to itself. But then who is going to build the temple-tower of light in the heart of these terrestrial obscurity and gloomy lightlessness? In fact, does such a prospect present itself to us in any sense? Or else is all sheer disillusionment? As long as Death is present such things will continue to exist.

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Walt Whitman
Come, lovely and soothing Death,
Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate Death.

Prais’d be the fathomless universe,
For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious;
And for love, sweet love—But praise! praise! praise!
For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death.

Dark Mother, always gliding near, with soft feet,
Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?

Then I chant it for thee—I glorify thee above all;
I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

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The day has come when Satyavan is to die. Now is the moment when Savitri has to win all for the soul of man. So also in the dense Shalwa forests has arrived, as fated, the frightful being of Nothingness, he presenting himself in the figure of Death. Space and time and all the dimensions of causality have converged towards the destined event. The eloquent as well as awesome debate between the supreme Might and the formidable Antagonist is going to decide, in an occult way, the future of mortality.

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If Death has to be overpowered and eliminated one will have to go to that place where lies his dwelling, his origin. The dark roots must be discovered in the deep abyss of non-being and destroyed in the fire of the spirit. Stating the presence of Death or even bypassing his domains by escaping to the worlds where he can have no hold is one plausible way of escaping it. But then that does not account for the operation of life in the inconscience of this existence; also the possibility that has to emerge out of it remains unfulfilled. Surely there must have been an intention behind it, a sufficiently assertive truth-dynamism to make this mortality a means for a different kind of glorious manifestation. "Let me be many," as the Upanishad says, is certainly a wonderful thought and is meritorious enough to be pursued—through the mechanism of death to begin with. It is indeed the daring of consciousness in the delight of growth and expansion founded on the rhythms and laws of the essential truth which takes in its adventurous strides whatever comes in the process,—because there is a certain infallibility in the final reckoning. Which only means that, death is simply an issue that has arisen on the way. It has no fundamental basis and is avoidably just incidental.

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All the way up to the worlds of Brahma, ābrahmabhuvanālloka, as the Gita says, there is mortality; these worlds return to the Eternal when there is withdrawal of its breath from them. This happens at the time of pralay, the worldwide Deluge. This is a cosmic feature, very characteristic of the Overmental creation. It is in the context of this that there must arise another creation based on the transcendental principles, not in any derivative way but in the full unattenuated dynamism of its first urge. Otherwise, these would worlds seem to be the worlds built only for dissolution, in the service of a tiresome futility. Surely, the supreme creator would not have revelled in this kind of a meaningless amusement, without a purpose, with no relevance whatsoever.

To put it again in other words: to know God is to be God, brahmavida brahmaiva bhavati. Therefore the question to be asked is: Will the body know God? That is really the deep-seated issue to be attended to and, if there is a difficulty, a real solution has to be discovered for it. The entire pursuit finally rests in this great and worthwhile discovery.

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The possibility of a golden body in the post-Vedic spiritual pursuit had never been envisaged, although it is asserted that even this world is for the habitation of the spirit. The Rajayogic attainment is given in terms of Samadhi, which essentially amounts to the identification of the soul with the quiescent Self. Entering into Samadhi means entering into immortality. But then that may not be a very desirable immortality; that will simply be a static frozen immortality in which there is no further prospect. Such a white tranquility, of a stationary kind, is perhaps of no major consequence in the terrestrial working. The soul is liberated and it has chosen to retire from the creative possibilities in this existence for which all pain was borne. In the Lila or Play of Delight this earthly existence becomes only for the psychic realisation in oneness of the deity of adoration and to attain oneness with it in Vaikuntha or Goloka or the eternal Brindavan of Felicity. The Tantrik attempt was for the perfection of the body to hold the divine Shakti in it or else it was for Kayasiddhi, the purification of the body. Transformation transcending death in the physical is only the Aurobindonian possibility and it is that which the new age ushers in.

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In the Vedic characterisation of the universe we have an eloquent cosmogonic hymn describing the Horse Sacrifice, the ancient Ashwamedha. In it this entire creation is treated as the Primordial Horse born of the Upper Waters. Indeed, this Horse is a wonderful gift of Death himself. "You are Death, you are the Sun," apotheosises the Rishi. In the movement of this Horse are present all the movements of this world and therefore are contained in Death all the metres or chhandas, the universal rhythms of the dynamic Truth. The physical body belongs to him and he was actually the first to find us the way. But he finds the way for those who deserve it to be found. The individual's tapasya is equally necessary for that to happen. While it is given, it has to be won also, a great occult process.

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In Vyasa's narrative of the Savitri-legend the figure of Yama comes in a more intimate household manner. In it he is presented to us as an eminent or gracious-noble god, devam vibhum or King-father Lord, pitrarājastām bhagavān, or God sovereign, sureśa bhuyah. He is the Ordainer as well as the Giver of Happy Boons who does so in the understanding of the cosmic working, and therefore one need not quarrel with him. Indeed, he is one who is open to debate about matters of the Truth and shall accept its working in the world. That is great Dharma and in it is all fulfillment, in the righteous conduct, the Law of the Truth, Dharma. Those who are courageous and good in their hearts shall have no fear of him, and he shall be glad in their company.

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It is said that by the Ignorance the seeker of immortality crosses beyond Death, avidyāyā mŗtyum tirtvā. Is that the intention of this darkness knowing which we might step into the worlds of light, of falsehood into the vast domains of truth, of death into everlasting life? But then it is also said that the hymns of Rig Veda escort the seeker in the material world. The intimate connection of the great Word we call the inspired Samhita with this earthly existence has therefore a certain fulfilling role; the discovery of it by implication then also means that it is actually to know why death should be here at all. Knowledge and Ignorance are in the service of some great though concealed Intention.

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Who is Death? The Upanishad of the Great Forest—“at once the most obscure and the profoundest of the Upanishads”—sets to answer it in a most remarkable way.

The Rishi tells us that Hunger is Death, aśanāyā hi mŗtyu. In the figure of the Horse of the World he has arranged and developed this material world in a certain manner and he governs it so. In it man is subject to the mystery of dissipation and death, death that enjoys devouring and wasting, both the object and itself. Men who ride this Horse of the World as Ashwa are ever subject to it. The Rishi assigns to this Hunger that is death “the characteristic, indeed the very nature of the Force that has arranged and developed,—evolved, as the moderns would say,—the material world.”

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Vajasravasa in the Upanishadic times, desiring, performed a sacrifice and gave away cattle as gifts to people. But his young son Nachiketas, now possessed of faith, asked the father as to whom he would be giving him. Vajasravasa, desiring, replied: "to Death."

But then, in return, what did Death or Mrityu give to the young and spiritually very perceptive aspirant that Nachiketas was? Mrityu himself being the child of the Sun is also the Master of Truth from which is born the Law, the Dharma; therefore is he known as the Ordainer of the Worlds. He is indeed well-possessed of that lore by which the mortal creature can, through God-knowledge or Brahma Vidya, own and enjoy immortality. It is in this way Mrityu reveals in himself the divine Being or Purusha. Nachiketas could not have had a better preceptor than him.

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About Death the Mother says that he is one who tried to incarnate. But he could not get converted. He tried to incarnate, which is something very rare. But it was a partial, not a total incarnation. That is difficult for them, a total incarnation. Human bodies are quite small to accommodate them, human consciousnesses are too small. As for the other, Falsehood, he has emanations which are very active in certain human bodies and have played a big role in the recent history of the earth!

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The task of Satyavan and Savitri has been well defined by the Supreme himself and that task is to lift earth-beings to immortality, but immortality on earth and not elsewhere in heaven. Satyavan is the divine soul climbing the ladder of evolution. And Savitri is the Spirit’s power, the power of manifestation, the face of Truth upon the roads of Time pointing to the souls of men the routes of God. The unrevealed possibilities of the Truth, the Right, the Vast, satyam-ŗtam-bŗhat, are the things she will work out here on this earth. Indeed, the arrival of the superman, of making manifest the hidden demigod is what she is occupied with. Incarnate Savitri is fully aware of it, this great task, and her method is in the identification of her will with the Will of the Supreme. Through her work the formulas of Ignorance shall be erased, the decree of Death and Pain annulled, earth-nature ruled by Eternity’s Law.

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