Aurobindo 43 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 breath of disillusion and decadence
Corrupting watched for Life's maturity
And made to rot the full grain of the soul:
Progress became a purveyor of Death.'
'A darkness settled on the heavy air; '
'The lust that warps the spirit's natural good
Replaced by a manufactured virtue and vice'
The frank spontaneous impulse of the soul:

'In rejected heaps by a monotonous road
The old simple delights were left to lie
On the wasteland of life's descent to Night.'
'All knowledge was left a questioning Ignorance.'
'As from a womb obscure he saw emerge
The body and visage of a dark Unseen
Hidden behind the fair outsides of life.'
'Its dangerous commerce is our suffering's cause.'

'He followed the track of dim tremendous steps
Returning to the night from which they came.'
'It was a no man's land of evil air, '
'There unreality was Nature's lord: '
'Each rainbow brilliance was a splendid lie; '
'Announcing the advent of a perilous Form
An ominous tread softened its dire footfall
That none might understand or be on guard; '

'The Fiend was visible but cloaked in light; '
'His rigorous logic made the false seem true.'
'Attack sprang suddenly vehement and unseen; '
'There was no truce and no safe place to rest; '
'It was a world of battle and surprise.'
'All who were there lived for themselves alone; '

............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

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

Page 204

A world that clung to the law of a slain Light
Cherished the putrid corpses of dead truths,

A darkness settled on the heavy air;
It hunted the bright smile from Nature's lips
And slew the native confidence in her heart
And put fear's crooked look into her eyes.

Page205

Afflicting Nature with the dual's lie,
Their twin values whetted a forbidden zest,
Made evil a relief from spurious good,
The ego battened on righteousness and sin
And each became an instrument of Hell.

All beauty ended in an aging face;
All power was dubbed a tyranny cursed by God

A march of goddess figures dark and nude
Alarmed the air with grandiose unease;

Page 206

All was belied, yet thought itself the truth;
All were beset but knew not of the siege:
For none could see the authors of their fall.

An unsubstantial Nihil guaranteed
The falsehood of the forms this Nature took
And made them seem awhile to be and live.
A borrowed magic drew them from the Void;

Each rainbow brilliance was a splendid lie;
A beauty unreal graced a glamour face.

Page 207

Joy nurtured tears and good an evil proved,
But never out of evil one plucked good:

A Power that laughed at the mischiefs of the world,
An irony that joined the world's contraries
And flung them into each other's arms to strive,
Put a sardonic rictus on God's face.

He deceived with wisdom, with virtue slew the soul
And led to perdition by the heavenward path.

Amazing the elect with holy lore
He spoke as with the very voice of God.

Page 208

Each friend might turn an enemy or spy,
The hand one clasped ensleeved a dagger's stab
And an embrace could be Doom's iron cage.