Aurobindo 42 Savitri Book 2 Poem by Indira Renganathan

An appreciation on Savitri
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Seven: The Descent into Night
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's

'A mind absolved from life, made calm to know,
The seal of tears, the bond of ignorance,
He turned to find that wide world-failure's cause.'
'Away he looked from Nature's visible face
And sent his gaze into the viewless Vast,
The formidable unknown Infinity, '
'That carries the universe in its timeless breadths
And the ripples of its being are our lives.'

'He saw the fount of the world's lasting pain
And the mouth of the black pit of Ignorance;
The evil guarded at the roots of life
Raised up its head and looked into his eyes.'
'A vague and lurking Presence everywhere, '
'A contrary Doom that threatens all things made,
'A Death figuring as the dark seed of life,
Seemed to engender and to slay the world.'

'Then from the sombre mystery of the gulfs
And from the hollow bosom of the Mask
Something crept forth that seemed a shapeless Thought.'
'A fatal Influence upon creatures stole
Whose lethal touch pursued the immortal spirit, '
'Even Light and Love by that cloaked danger's spell
Turned from the brilliant nature of the gods
Became themselves a danger and a charm, '


'Arrived the shadowy dreadful messengers,
Invaders from a dangerous world of power,
Ambassadors of evil's absolute.'
'Life looked at him with changed and sombre eyes:
Her beauty he saw and the yearning heart in things'
'Answering to a small ray of truth or love; '....

............My consciousness this moment,
O'Guru, I'm in awe....in invincible heights
Ineffable Thee embellishing poetic creation
My inquisitive apprehension, erring Thee may opine
May there so, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused there so be knowledge and fortune

===============================================

Note: Some more inspiring, descriptive and
informative lines from Book 2 Canto 7

Page 202

The worlds are built by its unconscious Breath
And Matter and Mind are its figures or its powers,
Our waking thoughts the output of its dreams.
The veil was rent that covers Nature's depths:

Page 203

Interceptor of the listening of the soul,
Afflicting knowledge with the hue of doubt
It captured the oracles of the occult gods,
Effaced the signposts of Life's pilgrimage,
Cancelled the firm rock-edicts graved by Time,
And on the foundations of the cosmic Law
Erected its bronze pylons of misrule.

The grey Mask whispered and, though no sound was heard,
Yet in the ignorant heart a seed was sown
That bore black fruit of suffering, death and bale.


Page 204

Life looked at him with changed and sombre eyes:

He saw her gold sunlight and her far blue sky,
Her green of leaves and hue and scent of flowers
And the charm of children and the love of friends
And the beauty of women and kindly hearts of men,
But saw too the dreadful Powers that drive her moods
And the anguish she has strewn upon her ways,
Fate waiting on the unseen steps of men
And her evil and sorrow and last gift of death.