About SAVITRI
Savitri is Sri Aurobindo’s major poetic work, an epic in blank-verse of about 24,000 lines in which a tale from the Mahabharata becomes a symbol of the human soul’s spiritual quest and destiny.
“The tale of Satyavan and Savitri”, Sri Aurobindo noted, “is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquering death”. Sri Aurobindo has widened the original legend and turned it into a symbol in which the soul of man, represented by Satyavan, is delivered from the grip of death and ignorance through the love and power of the Divine Mother, incarnated upon earth as Savitri.
Sri Aurobindo worked on this poem for more than thirty years. When a disciple asked why he kept rewriting it, he replied: “That is very simple. I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote it from that level. . . In fact Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one’s own yogic consciousnes and how that could be made creative.”
The Mother considered Savitri to be “the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision” and called it “that marvellous prophetic poem which ill be humanity’s guide towards its future realisation.”
2. The infant laugh that rang through time is hushed:…………………..But all the unknown was hers to feel and clasp. page133
3. Obeying the push of unborn things towards birth………………..The naked body of her poverty. page134-36
4. In this slow ascension he must follow her pace……………………..The naked body of her poverty. page135-36
5. Here first she crawled out from her cabin of mud………………….Links its mechanic throbs to light and love. page136-38
6. It summons the spirit’s sleeping memories………………..The soul’s desire leaps out towards passing things. page138-39
7. In walls of stone fenced round they worked and warred,………………..Or felt some touch divine surprise his heart. page144-45
8. Absorbed in the present act, the fleeting days,…………………….Around all floated still the nescient haze. page145-50
9. A third creation now revealed its face………………………On an inconscient flood of Force in Time. page146-47
10. A third creation now revealed its face………………………On an inconscient flood of Force in Time. page146-47
11. Then came the pressure of a seeing Power…………………And the soul’s tread through unknown infinities. page147-48
12. A reflex reason, Nature-habit’s glass…………………And the opportunities of cosmic Space. page148-49
2. A trepidant and motley multitude,………………………….Life’s cart finding no issue from ignorance. 152
3. This earth is not alone our teacher and nurse;…………………..Then only ends this dream of nether life. 153-54
4. At the outset of this enigmatic world………………………..Being was an inert substance driven by Force. 154-55
5. At first was only an etheric Space:…………………………………Awaited life and sense and waking Mind. 155-56
6. A little the Dreamer changed his pose of stone………………………..Betrayed the heavings of an imprisoned Will. 156-57
7. Waking and sleep lay locked in mutual arms;…………………….An inert spirit that could only be. 157
8. Then man was moulded from the original brute…………………….He raised his eyes; Heaven-light mirrored a Face. 158
9. Amazed at the works wrought in her mystic sleep,……………….And moulded a being out of a driven force. 158-59
10. To be what she was not inflamed her hope:………………………………Kindled the common earth with their brief flame. 159
11. A creature insignificant and small………………………………Or painfully built a fragmentary whole. 159-60
12. Impenetrable, a mystery recondite…………………….Our lives are inlets of an ocean’s force. 160-61
13. Our conscious movements have sealed origins……………………….In an inconsequent and devious game. 161-62
14. Against all higher truth their stuff rebels;……………………Surround the beautiful temple of the soul. 163
15. Artists minute of the hues of littleness,………………..Still even in man the plot is mean and poor. 163-64
16. A gross content prolongs his fallen state;……………………Draw his heart-plan on life’s diminutive map. 164
17. If something great awakes, too frail his pitch…………………..Rare are his visits of heavenly ecstasy. 164-65
18. The bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake,…………………….Fenced off the greatnesses of hidden God. 165-66
19. His being was formed to play a trivial part………………………….Counting the moments of a spectral Time. 166
20. In a false perspective of effect and cause,………………………….And wonders what itself and all things are. 166-67
21. And yet to some interned subjective sight………………………Death’s passport into immortality. 167
22. Yet was this only a provisional scheme,………………………….Life’s borders crumble and join infinity. 167-68
23. This broad, confused, yet rigid scheme becomes…………………….The unknown Self above who is the goal. 168
24. All is not here a blinded Nature’s task:…………………….An unseen nearness and a hidden joy. 168-69
25. There are muffled throbs of laughter’s undertones,……………….The makers of the image of deity live. 169-70
26. Pity is there and fire-winged sacrifice,………………………Our will lifts towards it slow and shaping hands. 170
27. Each part in us desires its absolute………………………….Its saviour light the inconscient universe. 170-71
28. And when that greater Self comes sea-like down……………….Quiver, awake, and shudder with ecstasy. 171
29. As if reversing a deformation’s spell,……………………………And cleave the darkness with the mystic Fire. 171-72
30. Adventuring once more in the natal mist………………………….His only sunlight was his spirit’s flame. 172
2. A hierophant of the bodiless Secrecy………………………………..That the Timeless may fulfil itself in things. 176
3. Incarnate in the mystery of the days,……………………………………Formations of a boundless Thought and Force. 176-77
4. Her timeless Power that lay once on the lap……………………………..And feels around her infinity’s embrace. 177
5. Her task no ending knows; she serves no aim……………………………….She has lured the Eternal into the arms of Time. 177-78
6. Even now herself she knows not what she has done…………………….A timeless mystery works out in Time. 178
7. The greatness she has dreamed her acts have missed,…………………..And thousand fashions of one Reality. 178
8 A world she made touched by truth’s fleeing hem,……………………….Beauty and good and truth its godheads are. 178-79
9. It is near to heavenlier heavens than earth’s eyes see,…………………Its greatness is to seek and to create. 179
10. On every plane, this Greatness must create………………………….In death, her bed, she waits the hour to rise. 179-80
11. Even with the Light denied that sent her forth………………………Reveals a world where nothing was before. 180
12. In realms confined to a prone circle of death,…………………………Torch-bearers of her pomps through Time and Space. 180-81
13. This world is her long journey through the night,……………………Time is her road of endless pilgrimage. 181
14. One mighty passion motives all her works………………………….That never they may part again in Time. 181-82
15. A sumptuous chamber of the spirit’s sleep…………………………Explained, they seem yet more inexplicable. 182
16. Even in our world a mystery has reigned…………………………..All is sought out, but missed the Infinite. 182-83
17. The universal widenesses give her room:…………………………This region borders on our mortal state. 183-84
18. The universal widenesses give her room:…………………………This region borders on our mortal state. 183-84
19. This wider world our greater movements gives,………………………..And Sin too there is a divinity. 184-85
20. This wider world our greater movements gives,………………………..And Sin too there is a divinity. 184-85
21. An ideal is their leader and their king:………………………….And Sin too there is a divinity. 185
22. Affirming the beauty and splendour of her law…………………….Or lie with the harlot Power that slays the soul. 185
23. A mastering virtue statuesques the pose,……………………………..Awakes the joy which sleeps in all things made. 185-86
24. A mighty victory or a mighty fall,…………………………….As names lived of a nameless Eternity. 186-87
25. The beginning and the end were there occult;……………….As symbols he saw all and sought their sense. 187-88
26. Across the leaping springs of death and birth…………………And subtle splendour of her draperies. 188-89
27. Across the leaping springs of death and birth…………………And subtle splendour of her draperies. 188-89
28. In sudden scintillations of the Unknown,…………………………On the tree-of-sacrifice of spiritual love. 190
29. In the sleepy splendour of her noons he saw,…………………..That so he might learn the secret of her soul. 190-91
30. A witness overmastered by his scene,……………………….A Sphinx whose eyes look up to a hidden Sun. 191
31. Ever he felt near a spirit in her forms:…………………………And her landmarks in the tangled paths of Time. 191-93
32. In her mazes of approach and of retreat………………………Listens to a thousand-voiced illusion’s ode. 193
33. A delicate weft of sorcery steals the heart…………………This to Life’s music gives its anthem swell. 193-94
34. To all she lends the glory of her voice;…………………………But in the cry the single Voice is lost. 194-96
35. For Nature’s vision climbs beyond her acts……………………………A greatness yet unreached by the halting world. 196-99
36. In a memory behind our mortal sense………………………………..Or indifferent the Eternal watches Time. 199-201
2. Life looked at him with changed and sombre eyes:………………………….For none could see the authors of their fall. 204-06
3. Aware of some dark wisdom still withheld…………………………All that was there was on this pattern made. 206-14
4. A race possessed inhabited those parts……………………………..He met with his bare spirit naked Hell. 214-19
2. Thought sat, a priestess of Perversity,……………………………….Covered eternity with nothingness. 221-23
3. A seeking Mind replaced…………………………………………….And hell as a short cut to heaven’s gates. 223-31
4. There in the slumber of the cosmic Will……………………Matter and spirit mingled and were one. 231-32
1. The Paradise of the Life-Gods…………………………….moonbeam air of Paradise. 233-34
2. A summit and core of all………………………………………………….Immortality captured Time and carried Life. 234-37
2. The ideas that drive the obscure embodied spirit………………………………………..Ever undoing the web that it has spun. 239-40
3. A twilight sage whose shadow seems to him self,……………………………………….…..Our mortal frailty an immortal force. 240
4. At the glow-worm top of these pale glimmer-realms……………………………And found a means for Nescience to know. 240-42
5. Offering its little squares and cubes of word………………………………………….All glorified the glittering substitute. 242
6. Then from the secret heights a wave swept down,………………………………….The Golden Child began to think and see. 242-43
7. In those bright realms are Mind’s first forward steps……………………………..Only a slow advance the earth can bear. 243-44
8. Yet was her strength unlike the unseeing earth’s…………………………..And searched for an ungrasped Omniscience. 244-45
9. A dwarf three-bodied trinity was her serf…………………………On Shiva’s breast is stayed the enormous dance. 245-47
10. A fiery spirit came, next of the three……………………………………..It licked at knowledge with a smoky tongue. 247-48
11. A whirlpool sucking in an empty air,…………………….And chose the precipice for its leap to heaven. 248
12. Adventure its system in the gamble of life,………………………………..She strove to reduce to rules the mystic world. 248-50
13. Nothing she knew but all things hoped to know.,……………………..And mechanic models of all things that are. 250
14. For the world seen she weaves a world conceived:…………………………She builds to clinch her summary of things. 250-51
15. On all sides runs as if in a cosmic mosque……………………………………In a mock tournament where none can win. 251-52
16. Assaying thought’s values with her rigid tests……………………………………To reach utility’s immense bazaar 252
17. Apprentice she has grown to her old drudge;………………………………………..The hard truth of things, simple, eternal, sole. 252-53
18. A suicidal rash expenditure……………………………………Our finite thoughts commune with the Infinite. 253-56
19. In the bright kingdoms of the rising Sun…………………………………And feel the body of his reality. 256-57
20. As yet a mask is there and not a brow,……………………………………Its aim to life, to Ignorance its close. 257-58
21. Above in a high breathless stratosphere……………………………Luminous in a remote and empty air. 258-59
2. Awake in a luminous sphere unbound by Thought,…………………………………………In regions of illumined certitude. 261
3. Far are those realms from our labour…………………………………………………Born of its amour with eternity. 261-62
4. Our spirits break free from their environment;……………………………………And the high city of its splendid birth. 262
5. A memory steals in from lost heavens of Truth,…………………………..Hide from our lives their greatness, beauty, power. 263
6. Our present feels sometimes their regal touch,………………………………………..And Nature speaks to the spirit’s absolute. 263-64
7. A triple realm of ordered thought came first,………………………………………………And filled the life with Thought’s immensities. 264-65
8. The prophet hierophants of the occult Law,………………………………………….But wide the terrains were those levels serve. 265-66
9. In front of the ascending epiphany………………………………………………..And search for the secret meaning of the whole. 266
10. To all that Spirit conceives they give a mould;……………………………………The mystery of the Formless cast into form. 266-67
11 Invincibly their craft devised for use……………………………………………………Huge Time-loop fugitive from eternity. 267
12 Inevitable their thoughts like links of Fate……………………………………………………The irised vision of the Ineffable. 267-68
13 A timeless Spirit was made the slave of the hours;……………………………………………And join the unknown to the apparent worlds. 268
14 Acolytes they wait upon the timeless Power,…………………………………………….Derived the calculus of Destiny. 268-70
15 In its bright pride of universal lore………………………………………………………….Bowed self-revealed in their confessional. 270
16 For the birth and death of the worlds they fixed a date,……………………………….And the Transcendent kept its secrecy. 270-71
17 In a sublimer and more daring soar……………………………………………………And from that seed the growths of Time arise. 271
18 On peaks beyond our ken the All-Wisdom sits……………………Forced to become what in themselves they hide. 271-72
19 For He who Is grows manifest in the years……………………And valued the incommensurable Supreme. 272-73
20 To park and hedge the ungrasped infinitudes………………………..His worshipped changeless Goddess through all time. 273-74
21 Or else, a faithful consort of his mind…………………………..She made earth her home, for whom heaven was too small. 274-75
22 In a human breast her occult presence lived;…………………But she remains herself and infinite. 275-76
2. Across the covert air the spirit breathes,……………………….The miracle for which our life was made. 278
3. A flame in a white voiceless cupola……………………………………………Climbs towards some far unseen epiphany. 278-79
4. On the other side of the eternal stairs……………………………………..Heirs and cosharers of divinity. 279-81
5. He through the Ideal’s kingdoms moved at will,…………………………………..On the wide spirit height where all are one. 281-82
1 At last there came a bare indifferent sky…………………………………Silence, the mystic birthplace of the soul. 283
2 In God’s supreme withdrawn and timeless hush…………………………………..Or assets valueless in Truth’s treasury. 284-85
3 An Ignorance on an uneasy throne…………………………………………Collapsed into the Nescience whence it rose. 285
4 Only a gleam was there of symbol facts……………………………………A stage for the comedy of Ignorance. 285-86
5 The world seemed a long aeonic failure’s scene:………..That laughs in the blaze of the boundless heart of Love. 286-87
2. An incense floated in the quivering air,……………………….A formless spirit became the soul of form. 290-91
3. All there was soul or made of sheer soul-stuff;………………………Close, blissful, concrete, wonderfully true. 291-92
4. All there was soul or made of sheer soul-stuff;………………………And needed not the splendour of a robe. 291-93
5. All objects were like bodies of the Gods,………………………….They waited for the adventure of new life. 293
6. A Person persistent through the lapse of worlds,…………………..Until their work in cosmic Time is done. 293-94
7. Here was the fashioning chamber of the worlds……………………He fell down at her feet unconscious, prone. 294-96
1. The Kingdoms of the Greater Knowledge………………………….The Love in which beloved and lover are one. 297-98
2. All stood in an original plenitude,…………………………………And the almighty source of cosmic change. 298
3. There Knowledge called him to her mystic peaks…………………….And thrilled with the presence of the Ineffable. 299-300
4. Above him he saw the flaming Hierarchies,……………………….His will took up the reins of cosmic Force. 300-302
2. The Pursuit of the Unknowable………………………………………..His spirit faced the adventure of the Inane. 305-07
3. Abandoned by the worlds of Form he strove……………..Nothing remained the cosmic Mind conceives. 307-08
4. Eternity prepared to fade and seemed…………………….Silent rejected from it world and soul. 308
5. Eternity prepared to fade and seemed………………………………Infinite, eternal, unthinkable, alone. 308-09
2. Only the everlasting No has neared……………………………………..Behind the gold eidolon of a Name. 310-11
3. A large white line has figured as a goal,……………………………..Here to fulfil himself was God’s desire. 311-12
4. Even while he stood on being’s naked edge…………………………Cancelled the vanity of the cosmic whirl. 312
5. A Nature throbbing with a Heart divine…………………………….Who, mediatrix, binds earth to the Supreme. 312-13
6. The Enigma ceased that rules our nature’s night,………………….……Wrong could not come where all was light and love. 313-14
7. The Formless and the Formed were joined in her………………..……And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things. 314
8. All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home,…………………………His base was gathered to one pointing spire. 314-15
9. This was a seed cast into endless Time…………………………………………His soul was freed and given to her alone. 315-16
2. This now he willed to discover and exile,……………………………………….An empire of the immanent Divine. 318
3. In this tremendous universality……………………………………………..Lost in the spirit’s wide identity. 318-19
4. His nature grew a movement of the All,………………………………..Infinity swallowed him into shoreless trance. 319-320
5. As one who sets his sail towards mysteried shores…………………………..…..And its omniscient and omnipotent peace. 320-21
6. Thought clashes not with thought and truth with truth,………………………The veiled Transcendent’s ultimate decree. 321-22
7. Then suddenly there came a downward look…………………………………………………..Recognised in himself the universe. 322-23
8. Then suddenly there came a downward look…………………………………………………..Recognised in himself the universe. 322-23
9. A splendid centre of infinity’s whirl……………………………………………….Of immense world-forces in their perfect play. 323-24
10 A splendid centre of infinity’s whirl…………………………A communality of the Absolute. 323-24
11 There was no sob of suffering anywhere;………………………………The bliss of a myriad myriads who are one. 324-25
12. In this vast outbreak of perfection’s law……………………………………….Living and real as the truths they house. 325-26
13. The Spirit’s white neutrality became………………………………….Wonder’s dream-notes that bring the Real close. 326-27
14. Its power that makes the unknowable near and true,………………………………………A seeking and a finding as of gods. 327-28
15. There Matter is the Spirit’s firm density,………………………………………Leave unfulfilled the world’s miraculous fate. 328-30
16. Against this glory of spiritual states,………………………………………….The Eternal’s wonders join the dance of Time. 329-30
17. But now all seemed a vainly teeming vast………………………………….One struggling, bound, intense, its portion here. 330-31
18. A tie between them still could bridge two worlds;………………….That comes through the still self from the Supreme. 331-33
2. “O Son of Strength who climbst creation’s peaks,………………………….He has forgotten why he has come and whence. 335-37
3 His spirit and his members are at war;……………………..He fabricates signs of the Real in Ignorance. 337
4 He has hitched his mortal error to Truth’s star……………………………………….And love to rule a realm of strife and hate. 337-38
5. A mind impotent to reconcile heaven and earth……………………………………..He communes sometimes with Eternity. 338-40
6. A strange and grandiose symbol was his birth……………………………….Too scant the joy with which she buys our pain. 340-42
7. In a brute world that knows not its own sense………………………………………..….Into the little room of mortal life. 342-43
8. I know there shall inform the inconscient cells,………………………………………..…Feet echoing in the corridors of Time. 343-44
9. High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss,……………………………..And one great act unlock the doors of Fate. 344-45
10. His prayer sank down in the resisting Night……………………………………In the scant field of the ambiguous globe. 345-48
2 His coming brought the magic and the spell ………………………………… A strange and starry head alone in Night. 352-358
2. There Wisdom sits on her eternal throne…………………………To rend the veil of the last mysteries. 360
3 Intense philosophies pointed earth to heaven……………..But could not match the measure of her soul. 360-363
4 For even the close partners of her thoughts…………………It saw, it felt, it knew the deity. 363-364
5 Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts,………………..Apart in herself until her hour of fate. 364-368
2 The earth you tread is a border screened from heaven;……………………The gods are still too few in mortal forms. 370-372
3 The Voice withdrew into its hidden skies…………………………A casual passing phrase can change our life. 372-373
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4 “O spirit, traveller of eternity,…………………………………………..Delight had fled to search the spacious world. 373-376
3 A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff,………………….Is the living mould of a supreme Descent. 397-98
2 A growing register of calamities…………………….Then turned to look upon the world it had made. 440-43
3 By pain and joy, the bright and tenebrous twins,………………..And feels a joy in every titan pang. 443-44
4 He who would save himself lives bare and calm;…………………..All agony in all the worlds his own. 444-46
5 He meets an ancient adversary Force,……………………….It hides from him the straight immortal path. 446-47
6 A power came in to veil the eternal Light,………………………………This is the inner war without escape. 447-48
8 He has seized life’s hands, he has mastered his own heart…………….Then shall the world-redeemer’s task be done. 449-51
9 He has seized life’s hands, he has mastered his own heart…………….Then shall the world-redeemer’s task be done. 449-51
10 He has seized life’s hands, he has mastered his own heart…………….Then shall the world-redeemer’s task be done. 449-51
11 Till then must life carry its seed of death……………………..………Power is his image of celestial self. 451-52
12 The Titan’s heart is a sea of fire and force;………………….Its bliss is there behind the world’s face of tears. 452-53
13 A power is in thee that thou knowest not;………………..…And joy laugh nude on the peaks of the Absolute. 453-54
14 O mortal who complainst of death and fate……………………..A vast disguise conceals the Eternal’s bliss. 454-56
15 Then Aswapati answered to the seer:……………………………He thinks a dead machine or unconscious Fate. 456-57
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2 A dream disclosed to her the cosmic past,…………………………….….It toils like a machine and cannot stop. 477-78
3 A concious soul in the Inconscient……………………………..….And only a moment spends in silent Self. 478-79
4 Adventuring into infinite mind-space………………………….…………As into a sublimely mirroring glass. 479
5 Man in the world’s life works out the dreams of God……….…And with nether riot and revel shake life’s floor. 479-81
6 Impotent to quell his terrible prisoners,……………….Calm eyes divine regard the human scene. 481-82
7 All the world’s possibilities in man………………………………His head of reason and his guardian will. 482-83
8 An old self lurks in the new self we are;………………………..Below us sleeps the Inconscient dark and mute. 483-84
9 But this is only Matter’s first self-view,……………………That are bright shadows of the thoughts of God. 484-85
10 In the prone obscure beginnings of the race…………………………….…..On a small globe dotting infinity. 485-86
11 At last climbing a long and narrow stair……………………….And must be pushed aside to find her soul. 486-87
2 This was the sense’s instinct void of soul……………………….And the longing all eternity cannot fill. 490-92
3 It called to the mountain secrecies of the soul……………………….And felt as celestial rapture’s golden sting. 492
4 It dreamed of that which never has been known………………….They gave ambrosia’s taste and poison’s sting. 492-93
5 There was an ardour in the gaze of Life………………Where Death walks wearing a robe of deathless Life. 493-94
6 Or they enter the valley of the wandering Gleam…………………….Fearing to lose its soul in the infinite. 494-96
7 Even the Idea’s ample sweep was cut………………………………………At the bidding of the trained centurion mind. 496
8 Or each stepped into its station like a star………..…………..Or its pure movement on the Eternal’s road. 496-97
9 Or else for the body of some high Idea……………………………..….A credo sealed up its spiritual sense. 497-98
10 Here was a quiet country of fixed mind……………………………A favourite of Heaven and Nature live. 498-99
11 But to the too satisfied and confident sage………………….Can still the path be found, opened the gate? 499-500
12 So she fared on across her silent self……………………………..One felt the silent nearness of the soul. 500-502
2 “O Savitri, I am thy secret soul…………………………………….And turning to her being of pity spoke: 503-07
3 On passed she in her spirit’s upward……………………………….……Aspired the harmony of her puissant voice: 508-09
4. Unsubstantial
5 O Savitri, I am thy secret soul……………………………………When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” 509-10
6 She spoke and from the lower human world…………………..The voice rose up and smote some inner sun. 510-11
7 “I am the heir of the forces of the earth,………………………..All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” 511-514
8 Ascending still her spirit’s upward route………………And works for God and looks up towards the heights. 514-15
9 I make even sin and error stepping-stones…………………………..And body bear the immense descent of God.” 515-17
10 She spoke and from the ignorant nether plane……………………….The soul’s revealing contacts are not his. 516-17
11 Yet is he visited by intuitive light………………..………………………A cosmic pathos trembled in its tone. 517-18
12 “I am the mind of God’s great ignorant world…………..There shall be light and peace in all the worlds. 518-21
2 As might a shadow walk in a shadowy scene,……………………….…And knew the dwelling of her secret soul. 523
3 As if in some Elysian occult depth,…………………………………..Hieratic message of the climbing planes. 523-24
4 In their immensitude signing infinity…………………………..There suddenly she met her secret soul. 524-26
5 A being stood immortal in transience,……………..…………They rushed into each other and grew one. 526-27
6 Once more she was human upon earthly soil……………………………Our lines of self-expression in its Vast. 527-28
7 An image sat of the original Power………………………………………………A romp of little gods with life in Time. 528-30