In Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri did the divine executive Shakti get the consent from the Supreme before she granted the boon to Aswapati? This aspect is very clear in the Savitri-tale narrated by Vyasa in the Mahabharata, when she told him that she is giving him the boon of a radiant daughter in the authorization of the great Father-Creator Brahma himself, bhagavān pitāmaha. But it seems to be absent in the epic by Sri Aurobindo. If, as we have in his The Mother, “nothing can be here or elsewhere but what she decides and the Supreme sanctions,” then this difference between the two narratives assumes importance of a fundamental character; in a certain sense, it becomes crucial also, absolutely central. Vyasa’s Aswapati approaches Goddess Savitri with the intention of getting a son, that by the righteous conduct the order of the worlds be maintained in its functioning, that the dharma of the eternal truth which upholds the creation, which holds it together and which makes it move forward is maintained; that is the sense of the word dharma. It is in that context that the Goddess obtains the sanction from the Supreme, from the Father-Creator Brahma, bhagavān pitāmaha. Did in a similar way, or in some other manner the divine Shakti in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri receive such a sanction from the Supreme? Did she already have it with her before her meeting with the Son of Strength, one who had climbed the creation’s peaks? Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri does not speak of it in any specific way. Perhaps extremely significant occult-spiritual factors, aspects of the yogic will are present in the profound issue and they need to be looked into with attention. Perhaps bringing the theme of “sanction” into the presentation could be incongruous in more than one respect.

Possibly, as one immediate answer, it could be for the reason that Sri Aurobindo’s Aswapati meets someone who is “infinite and absolute”, who came from beyond the limitless Unknowable, came “breaking the vacancy and voiceless hush”, the most positive Void poised for dynamic Action, the Void supreme with his face turned towards creation-manifestation, one who came from the utter Non-Manifest, Parātpara. In that eventuality, to speak of her getting a “sanction” could be inapt or inappropriate. Perhaps we could explore this aspect in more detail when we should reach Book Three Canto Four describing the Vision and the Boon.

It is in this regard, however, we might briefly look into the adoration and surrender of Aswapati to the Divine Mother. He stood on the being’s naked edge and the Presence he longed for drew close. She had come enlarged out of eternity, a being of wisdom-power-delight, and that sweetness removed the smallness and vanity of this mortal creature. It had strength to bring the hid ecstasy into our life. But the most marvellous thing is, she is one there “supreme behind the God”. Indeed, (Savitri, pp. 313-15)

 

The hidden Word was found, the long-sought clue,

Revealed was the meaning of our spirit's birth,

Condemned to an imperfect body and mind,

In the inconscience of material things

And the indignity of mortal life.

A Heart was felt in the spaces wide and bare, 

A burning Love from white spiritual founts

Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths;

Suffering was lost in her immortal smile.

A Life from beyond grew conqueror here of Death;

To err no more was natural to mind;

Wrong could not come where all was light and love.

The Formless and the Formed were joined in her.

Immensity was exceeded by a look,

A Face revealed the crowded Infinite.

Incarnating inexpressibly in her limbs

The boundless joy the blind world-forces seek,

Her body of beauty mooned the seas of bliss.

At the head she stands of birth and toil and fate,

In their slow round the cycles turn to her call;

Alone her hands can change Time's dragon base.

Hers is the mystery the Night conceals;

The spirit's alchemist energy is hers;

She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.

The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,

A power of silence in the depths of God;

She is the Force, the inevitable Word,

The magnet of our difficult ascent,

The Sun from which we kindle all our suns,

The Light that leans from the unrealised Vasts,

The joy that beckons from the impossible,

The Might of all that never yet came down.

All Nature dumbly calls to her alone

To heal with her feet the aching throb of life

And break the seals on the dim soul of man

And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.

All here shall be one day her sweetness's home,

All contraries prepare her harmony;

Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes,

In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell,

Her clasp will turn to ecstasy our pain.

Our self shall be one self with all through her. 

In her confirmed because transformed in her,

Our life shall find in its fulfilled response

Above, the boundless hushed beatitudes,

Below, the wonder of the embrace divine.

This known as in a thunder-flash of God,

The rapture of things eternal filled his limbs;

Amazement fell upon his ravished sense;

His spirit was caught in her intolerant flame.

Once seen, his heart acknowledged only her.

Only a hunger of infinite bliss was left.

All aims in her were lost, then found in her;

His base was gathered into one pointing spire.

 

Certainly, here is “the expression of the central theme of the yoga of Sri Aurobindo.”

But the aspect of yogic surrender has many facets. When Barin, Sri Aurobindo’s younger brother asked him as to what he felt when the Mother met him for the first time on 29 March 1914 and bowed down in front of him, the reply in effect was: “I knew at once that it is possible to make complete surrender even to the last bit of the physical.” When Savitri’s Mantra of Surrender, in Book Eleven, becomes essentially “What Thou Willest, What Thou Willest,” it cannot be considered as the Mantra of Surrender of Aswapati also. Our own mantra of surrender will be yet of another kind, bearing another quality, perhaps differing from individual to individual.