Aurobindo 104 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Four: The Triple Soul-Forces
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
So that was a visit to the inner countries
'Here from a low and prone and listless ground
The passion of the first ascent began; '
'A rugged and ragged soil was her bare seat,
Beneath her feet a sharp and wounding stone.'
'She looked out far and saw from inner mind
This questionable world of outward things,
Of false appearances and plausible shapes, '
'Accepting the universe as her body of woe,
The Mother of the seven sorrows bore
The seven stabs that pierced her bleeding heart:
The beauty of sadness lingered on her face,
Her eyes were dim with the ancient stain of tears.
Her heart was riven with the world's agony
And burdened with the sorrow and struggle in Time,
An anguished music trailed in her rapt voice.'
'Absorbed in a deep compassion's ecstasy, '
'In soft sweet training words slowly she spoke: '
'O Savitri, I am thy secret soul.Line 26 to
I know that one day he shall come at last.'Line 90
How true, how true all above said on a woman's soul
I go by'Mine is the prayer that climbs in vain from earth, '
AndI am the hope that looks towards my God,
My God who never came to me till now; '....
She ceased, and like an echo from below
Answering her pathos of divine complaint
A voice of wrath took up the dire refrain,
A growl of thunder or roar of angry beast,
The beast that crouching growls within man's depths, -
Voice of a tortured Titan once a God......
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 99 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Three: The Entry into the Inner Countries
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
So a method of expedition spiritually medicated
Thus commencing here for us to follow..
'At first out of the busy hum of mind
As if from a loud thronged market into a cave
By an inward moment's magic she had come.
A stark hushed emptiness became her self:
'Her mind unvisited by the voice of thought
Stared at a void deep's dumb infinity.'
'Her heights receded, her depths behind her closed;
All fled away from her and left her blank.
But when she came back to her self of thought,
Once more she was a human thing on earth, '
'Amazed like one unknowing she sought her way'
'Then a Voice spoke that dwelt on secret heights: '
'For man thou seekst, not for thyself alone...
..Man, human, follows in God's human steps...
Accepting his darkness thou must bring to him light,
Accepting his sorrow thou must bring to him bliss.
In Matter's body find thy heaven-born soul.'
'Then Savitri surged out of her body's wall
And stood a little span outside herself
And looked into her subtle being's depths
And in its heart as in a lotus-bud
Divined her secret and mysterious soul.'
'At the dim portal of the inner life
That bars out from our depths the body's mind
And all that lives but by the body's breath,
She knocked and pressed against the ebony gate.
The living portal groaned with sullen hinge: '
Salvage o'Savitri down on Earh the mundane.....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 90 Savitri Book 6
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Six: The Book of Fate
Canto One: The Word of Fate
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Then cried the sage piercing the mother's heart,
Forcing to steel the will of Savitri,
His words set free the spring of cosmic Fate.'
''The truth thou hast claimed; I give to thee the truth.'Line 531 to
'This day returning Satyavan must die.'Line 588
Fate of Satyavan revealed...
But the queen cried: 'Vain then can be heaven's grace! Line 590 to
A choice less rare may call a happier fate.'Line 608
'But Savitri answered from her violent heart, -
'Once my heart chose and chooses not again...
....I am stronger than death and greater than my fate;
My love shall outlast the world, doom falls from me
Helpless against my immortality.
Fate's law may change, but not my spirit's will.'
How determined the words here like Savitri
How determined was Savitri that we still wonder at...
'But in the queen's mind listening her words
Rang like the voice of a self-chosen Doom
Denying every issue of escape.'
'O child, in the magnificence of thy soul..Line 638 to
It greatens slowly into timeless peace.'Line 717
A mother's exemplary advice in Thou colourful words
A mother's caring plea in Thou poetic deliverance...
'But Savitri replied with steadfast eyes: '
'My will is part of the eternal Will, Line 719 to
I have seen the Eternal in a human face.'Line 755
What else could a true love ever be than immortal
And not 'Only to live and love awhile and die.'
'Then none could answer to her words. Silent
They sat and looked into the eyes of Fate.'.........
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
End of Canto One
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 107 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Four: The Triple Soul-Forces
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Here, living centre of that vision of peace,
A Woman sat in clear and crystal light:
Heaven had unveiled its lustre in her eyes,
Her feet were moonbeams, her face was a bright sun,
Her smile could persuade a dead lacerated heart
To live again and feel the hands of calm.
A low music heard became her floating voice: '
'dead lacerated heart To live again'...meaningful
'O Savitri, I am thy secret soul.'Line 426 to
And body bear the immense descent of God.' 494
'I have come down to the wounded desolate earth
To heal her pangs and lull her heart to rest
And lay her head upon the Mother's lap
That she may dream of God and know his peace'
May these words work this moment for our peace...
All our needs, feels, actions, their results
All the powers in and sorrounding are of Him
'But human mind clings to its ignorance
And to its littleness the human heart
And to its right to grief the earthly life.
Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand,
Only when infinity weds the finite's thought,
Can man be free from himself and live with God.'
'She spoke and from the ignorant nether plane
A cry, a warped echo naked and shuddering came.
A voice of the sense-shackled human mind
Carried its proud complaint of godlike power
Hedged by the limits of a mortal's thoughts,
Bound in the chains of earthly ignorance.....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 106 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Four: The Triple Soul-Forces
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'A charm restoring hope in failing hearts
Aspired the harmony of her puissant voice: '
'O Savitri, I am thy secret soul. Line 213 to
When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.'Line 277
I admit and go by 'I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong,
And Lakshmi, queen of the fair and fortunate;
I wear the face of Kali when I kill,
I trample the corpses of the demon hordes.'
'The voice rose up and smote some inner sun.'
'I am the heir of the forces of the earth, Line 306 to
Omnipotence and omniscience shall be mine.'384
'Immortal spirit in the perishing clay,
I am God still unevolved in human form;
Even if he is not, he becomes in me.'...
Treasurable Truth told in treasurable words
Will He ever evolve like the said godliness herein...
'And Savitri heard the voice, the warped echo heard
And turning to her being of power she spoke: '
'Thou hast given men strength, wisdom thou couldst not give.
One day I will return, a bringer of light;
Then will I give to thee the mirror of God;
Thou shalt see self and world as by him they are seen
Reflected in the bright pool of thy soul.
Thy wisdom shall be vast as vast thy power.'
'Ascending still her spirit's upward route
She came into a high and happy space,
A wide tower of vision whence all could be seen
And all was centred in a single view
As when by distance separate scenes grow one
And a harmony is made of hues at war.'.........
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 108 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Four: The Triple Soul-Forces
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Man only sees the cosmic surfaces.
Then wondering what may lie hid from the sense
A little way he delves to depths below:
But soon he stops, he cannot reach life's core
Or commune with the throbbing heart of things.'
'He has the blind man's subtle unerring touch
Or the slow traveller's sight of distant scenes; '
'The soul's revealing contacts are not his.'
'But only reason and sense he feels as sure,
They only are his trusted witnesses.'
'His knowledge scans bright pebbles on the shore
Of the huge ocean of his ignorance.'
'Yet grandiose were the accents of that cry,
A cosmic pathos trembled in its tone.'
'I am the mind of God's great ignorant world Line 536 to
This wizard gods may dream, not thinking men.'Line 624..
His all capability of exploring and discovering
Man's self defining in Thou superb words..
'Only what end he serves I know not yet
Or if there is aim at all or any end
Or push of rich creative purposeful joy
In the wide works of the terrestrial power.'
His incapability of knowing the ends
Inbetween where he is..Thou words, Thee exemplify
'And Savitri heard the voice, the warped answer heard'
'Thou art a portion of my self put forth
To raise the spirit to its forgotten heights
And wake the soul by touches of the heavens.'
'One day I will return, His hand in mine, '
'There shall be light and peace in all the worlds.'
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
End of Canto Four
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 105 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Four: The Triple Soul-Forces
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'I am the Man of Sorrows, I am he Line 97 to
'I suffer and toil and weep; I moan and hate.'Line 158
All quality lines on depicting man
I go by 'I am the seeker who can never find,
I am the fighter who can never win,
I am the runner who never touched his goal: '
'And Savitri heard the voice, the echo heard
And turning to her being of pity spoke: '..
'Madonna of suffering, Mother of grief divine, '
'Because thou art, men yield not to their doom,
But ask for happiness and strive with fate; '
One day I will return, a bringer of strength,
And make thee drink from the Eternal's cup;
'His streams of force shall triumph in thy limbs
And Wisdom's calm control thy passionate heart.'
'There shall be peace and joy for ever more.'
' On passed she in her spirit's upward route.'
All beautiful grew, subtle and high and strange.
Here on a boulder carved like a huge throne
A Woman sat in gold and purple sheen,
Armed with the trident and the thunderbolt,
Her feet upon a couchant lion's back.
A formidable smile curved round her lips,
Heaven-fire laughed in the corners of her eyes; '
'August on her seat in the inner world of Mind,
The Mother of Might looked down on passing things,
Listened to the advancing tread of Time,
Saw the irresistible wheeling of the suns
And heard the thunder of the march of God.
A great driven by a great for a goal great....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 177 Savitri Book 11
'I have felt a secret spirit stir in things
Carrying the body of the growing God:
It looks through veiling forms at veilless truth;
It pushes back the curtain of the gods;
It climbs towards its own eternity.'
'But the god answered to the woman's heart:
'O living power of the incarnate Word, Line 802 to
Choose destiny's curve and stamp thy will on Time.'Line858
'In the impetuous drive of thy heart of flame,
In thy passion to deliver man and earth,
Indignant at the impediments of Time
And the slow evolution's sluggard steps,
Lead not the spirit in an ignorant world
To dare too soon the adventure of the Light,
Pushing the bound and slumbering god in man
Awakened mid the ineffable silences'
'But if thou wilt not wait for Time and God,
Do then thy work and force thy will on Fate.'
Savitri was patient enough to pass in her venture
'As I have taken from thee my load of night
And taken from thee my twilight's doubts and dreams,
So now I take my light of utter Day.'
'These are my symbol kingdoms but not here'
Savitri has to up further for her goal...
'Can the great choice be made that fixes fate
Or uttered the sanction of the Voice supreme.
Arise upon a ladder of greater worlds
To the infinity where no world can be.'
Can there be any His touch without world?
Hurry up high o'Savitri if you say yes....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
(An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Eleven: The Book of Everlasting Day
Canto One: The Eternal Day: The Soul's Choice
and the Supreme Consummation
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's)
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 84 Savitri Book 5
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Five: The Book of Love
Canto Three: Satyavan and Savitri
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Thus Satyavan spoke first to Savitri: Line 17
'O thou who com'st to me out of Time's silences,
Yet thy voice has wakened my heart to an unknown bliss,
Immortal or mortal only in thy frame,
For more than earth speaks to me from thy soul
And more than earth surrounds me in thy gaze, '
'out of Time's silences'..What an apt expression
Over a mysterious play of the heavens
....Burning in thousand-pillared homes of light.'Line56
Of Earth and fire and wind and woods and pools
Nymphs and apsaras, his mystic meeting Satyavan speaks...
'So now my mind could dream and my heart fear
That from some wonder-couch beyond our air
Risen in a wide morning of the gods
Thou drov'st thy horses from the Thunderer's worlds.'
A well read defining by Satyavan indeed...
'Although to heaven thy beauty seems allied, ..Line 61 to
'To make a resting chamber fit for thee.'..Line97
Her fate is strengthened by Satyavan's request
'Musing she answered, 'I am Savitri, 'Line 100 to
'And the blind murmur of primaeval calms? ' Line 111
Very sweet Savitri enquires with further conversation
'And Satyavan replied to Savitri: 'Line 112 to
'It shall escape from Death and Ignorance.'Line 221
An ongoing play in my vision along my reading
Making my heart, mind and soul speechless
Yet my mouth utters heartfelt mind-blowing, soul-srirring
Music to the musical ears, visual to the visioning eyes
A gastronomy of words to the taste of literature
A wakefulness to the Matter awake.................
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 60 Savitri Book 3
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book 3-The Book of the Divine Mother
Canto Two: The Adoration of the Divine Mother
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'The Formless and the Formed were joined in her: '
'At the head she stands of birth and toil and fate,
In their slow round the cycles turn to her call; '
'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' fierce and tranquil in every make
And 'The magnet of our difficult ascent, '..
'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.'
A sparkiling seed sown to first yell ma...in nature
'All here shall be one day her sweetness' home,
All contraries prepare her harmony; '
May that dream of hope come true....
'This known as in a thunder-flash of God,
The rapture of things eternal filled his limbs; '
'But now his being was too wide for self; '
'Her light, her bliss he asked for earth and men.'
'But vain are human power and human love'
A vast surrender was his only strength.'...
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
End of Canto Two
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 95 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Two: The Parable of the Search for the Soul
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'As in the vigilance of the sleepless night'
'She sat staring at the dumb tread of Time
And the approach of ever-nearing Fate,
A summons from her being's summit came,
A sound, a call that broke the seals of Night.'
Above her brows where will and knowledge meet
A mighty Voice invaded mortal space.
Her throbbing heart readying for the attack..
'It seemed to come from inaccessible heights'
'As the Voice touched, her body became a stark
And rigid golden statue of motionless trance,
A stone of God lit by an amethyst soul.'
'Her heart listened to its slow measured beats, '
''Why camest thou to this dumb deathbound earth,
This ignorant life beneath indifferent skies
Tied like a sacrifice on the altar of Time, '
A question to every individual too...
'Arise, O soul, and vanquish Time and Death.'
'But Savitri's heart replied in the dim night:
'My strength is taken from me and given to Death.
Why should I lift my hands to the shut heavens
Or struggle with mute inevitable Fate
'Is there a God whom any cry can move? '
She too was like a mortal any...
'The Voice replied: 'Is this enough, O spirit?
And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows
The work was left undone for which it came? '
'My head bowed with shame before the Eternal's seat, -
His power he kindled in thy body has failed,
His labourer returns, her task undone? '.........
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 96 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Two: The Parable of the Search for the Soul
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Then Savitri's heart fell mute, it spoke no word.'
'But holding back her troubled rebel heart,
Abrupt, erect and strong, calm like a hill, '
'A Power within her answered the still Voice: '
''I am thy portion here charged with thy work,
As thou myself seated for ever above,
Speak to my depths, O great and deathless Voice,
Command, for I am here to do thy will.'
The Voice replied: 'Remember why thou cam'st:
Find out thy soul, recover thy hid self,
In silence seek God's meaning in thy depths,
Then mortal nature change to the divine.
Open God's door, enter into his trance.
Cast Thought from thee, that nimble ape of Light: '
Here is the lesson starting I find for everyone
To open God's door seeking the soul first....
'In his tremendous hush stilling thy brain
His vast Truth wake within and know and see.
Cast from thee sense that veils thy spirit's sight:
In the enormous emptiness of thy mind
Thou shalt see the Eternal's body in the world,
Know him in every voice heard by thy soul,
In the world's contacts meet his single touch;
All things shall fold thee into his embrace.'
'Conquer thy heart's throbs, let thy heart beat in God:
Thy nature shall be the engine of his works,
Thy voice shall house the mightiness of his Word:
Then shalt thou harbour my force and conquer Death.'
O'mind and heart mine, read and think and oblige
Countless times the above until you conquer....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 116 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Six: Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Effacing heaven with its enormous stride
It willed to expunge the choked and anguished air
And end the fable of the joy of life.'
'It seemed to cry to her without thought or word
The message of its dark eternity
And the awful meaning of its silences: '
'In her own depths she heard the unuttered thought
That made unreal the world and all life meant.'
'Who art thou who claimst thy crown of separate birth, Line 102 to
At last know thyself, from vain existence cease.'Line 132
'I am Death and the dark terrible Mother of life,
I am Kali black and naked in the world,
I am Maya and the universe is my cheat.'
'For only the blank Eternal can be true.'
'O soul, inventor of man's thoughts and hopes, '
'At last know thyself, from vain existence cease.'132
All well said here and me spellbound in silence
Thine askesis has felt high such and I wonder..
'A shadow of the negating Absolute,
The intolerant Darkness travelled surging past
And ebbed in her the formidable Voice.
It left behind her inner world laid waste:
A barren silence weighed upon her heart,
Her kingdom of delight was there no more; '
'Only her soul remained, its emptied stage,
Awaiting the unknown eternal Will.
Then from the heights a greater Voice came down,
The voice of Light after the voice of Night:
The cry of the Abyss drew Heaven's reply,
A might of storm chased by the might of the Sun...
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 135 Savitri Book 9
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Nine: The Book of Eternal Night
Canto Two: The Journey in Eternal Night
and the Voice of the Darkness
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
A warning from his intense heart Death gave
'But Savitri answered the disdainful Shade: '
'World-spirit, I was thy equal spirit born.Line276 to
Wherever thou leadst his soul I shall pursue.'===296
'I tremble not before the immobile gaze'
'That look with the stone eyes of Law and Fate.
My soul can meet them with its living fire.'
'Wherever thou leadst his soul I shall pursue.'
Applaudable efforts Savitri's and her courage stupendous..
'But to her claim opposed, implacable, '
'As when the storm-haired Titan-striding sea
Throws on a swimmer its tremendous laugh
Remembering all the joy its waves have drowned,
So from the darkness of the sovereign night
Against the Woman's boundless heart arose
The almighty cry of universal Death.'
Need to write separately on thou descriptive style..
'Hast thou god-wings or feet that tread my stars, Line 310to
Depart in peace, if peace for man is just.'Line342
His obstructed job had all anger in his indignant cry..
'But Savitri answered meeting scorn with scorn, '
'Who is this God imagined by thy night, Line345 to
He shall remake thy universe, O Death.'Line 364
Wonderful answer Savitri's defining her God of Love
'What is thy hope? to what dost thou aspire? Line373 to
Then shalt thou rise into thy unmoved source.'Line438
Boasting of himself Death elucidates in extensive words
'I, Death, am He; there is no other God.
All from my depths are born, they live by death;
All to my depths return and are no more.'.....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 124 Savitri Book 8
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Eight: The Book of Death
Canto Three*: Death in the Forest
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
* The Book of Death was taken from Canto Three of an early version of
Savitri which had only six cantos and an epilogue. It was slightly revised
at a late stage and a number of new lines were added, but it was never fully
worked into the final version of the poem. Its original designation,
``Canto Three'', has been retained as a reminder of this.-(As given in the book)
'By her still sleeping husband lain she gazed
Into her past as one about to die'
'The whole year in a swift and eddying race
Of memories swept through her and fled away
Into the irrecoverable past.'
Then silently she rose and, service done,
Bowed down to the great goddess simply carved
By Satyavan upon a forest stone.'
'What prayer she breathed her soul and Durga knew.
Perhaps she felt in the dim forest huge
The infinite Mother watching over her child,
Perhaps the shrouded Voice spoke some still word.'
Out of stress always cries the heart Ma
At last she came to the pale mother queen.
She spoke but with guarded lips and tranquil face
'All else she pressed back into her anguished heart'
'One year that I have lived with Satyavan Line 28 to
Release me now and let my heart have rest.' Line 43
'I have not gone into the silences
Of this great woodland that enringed my thoughts
With mystery, nor in its green miracles'
'Now has a strong desire seized all my heart
To go with Satyavan holding his hand
Into the life that he has loved'
O'my heart do not grieve, for Savitri is sure to win..
Such Thou words are bouffant with pathos o'Guru
She answered: 'Do as thy wise mind desires, '
'I hold thee for a strong goddess who has come
Pitying our barren days; so dost thou serve'
'Like the strong sun that serves earth from above.'...
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 103 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Three: The Entry into the Inner Countries
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'But to the too satisfied and confident sage
Savitri replied casting into his world'
'Happy are they who in this chaos of things,
This coming and going of the feet of Time,
Can find the single Truth, the eternal Law:
Untouched they live by hope and doubt and fear.'
Happy are men anchored on fixed belief
In this uncertain and ambiguous world, '
Or who have planted in the heart's rich soil
One small grain of spiritual certitude.
Happiest who stand on faith as on a rock.'
'But I must pass leaving the ended search,
Truth's rounded outcome firm, immutable
And this harmonic building of world-fact,
This ordered knowledge of apparent things.
Here I can stay not, for I seek my soul.'
'None answered in that bright contented world, '
'But some murmured, passers-by from kindred spheres: '
But others, 'Nay, it is her spirit she seeks.
A splendid shadow of the name of God,
A formless lustre from the Ideal's realm,
The Spirit is the Holy Ghost of Mind;
But none has touched its limbs or seen its face.'
And that none can ever surpass her ism...
... 'she cried: 'O happy company of luminous gods,
Reveal, who know, the road that I must tread, -'
'O Savitri, from thy hidden soul we come.
We are the messengers, the occult gods...
Then Savitri following the great winding road
'....One felt the silent nearness of the soul.'.....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
End of Canto Three
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 123 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Seven: The Discovery of the Cosmic Spirit
and the Cosmic Consciousness
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'In its might of irresponsible sovereignty
It seized on speech to give those flamings shape,
Made beat the heart of wisdom in a word
And spoke immortal things through mortal lips.'
'A thought came through draped as an outer voice.'
'It came direct to the pure perception's seat,
An only centre now of consciousness,
If centre could be where all seemed only space; '
'In her the Unseen, the Unknown waited his hour.'
But now she sat by sleeping Satyavan,
Awake within, and the enormous Night
Surrounded her with the Unknowable's vast.
A voice began to speak from her own heart
That was not hers, yet mastered thought and sense.
As it spoke all changed within her and without;
All was, all lived; she felt all being one; '
'She passed beyond Time into eternity,
Slipped out of space and became the Infinite;
Her being rose into unreachable heights
And found no end of its journey in the Self.'
'Her mind became familiar with its mind,
Its body was her body's larger frame
In which she lived and knew herself in it
One, multitudinous in its multitudes.'
She challenged herself towards the divine goal
Captured it to live divine by supra mental practice
A journey detached victoriously from Matter-bond
Inwardly breaking all hindrance cosmic, universal
Atlast to the abode of the Absolute in oneness
Savitri is exemplary for human beings to follow....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
End of Canto Seven
End of Book Seven
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 100 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Three: The Entry into the Inner Countries
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'A formidable voice cried from within:
'Back, creature of earth, lest tortured and torn thou die.'
'The Serpent of the threshold hissing rose,
A fatal guardian hood with monstrous coils,
The hounds of darkness growled with jaws agape,
And trolls and gnomes and goblins scowled and stared
And wild beast roarings thrilled the blood with fear
And menace muttered in a dangerous tongue.'
'Unshaken her will pressed on the rigid bars: '
'Her being entered into the inner worlds.
In a narrow passage, the subconscient's gate,
She breathed with difficulty and pain and strove
To find the inner self concealed in sense.'
'She forced her way through body to the soul.'
'Across a perilous border line she passed'
'At first a difficult narrowness was there, '
At times an opening came, a door was forced;
She crossed through spaces of a secret self
And trod in passages of inner Time.
At last she broke into a form of things,
A start of finiteness, a world of sense:
But all was still confused, nothing self-found.'
In an ordinary folk's fake contemplation
Vision creates so many shapes and figures..
But he is from Earh on Earth to back Earth
Unlike Savitri straight from Sun...
'But how shall come the glory and the flame
If mind is cast away into the abyss?
For body without mind has not the light,
The rapture of spirit sense, the joy of life; '......
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 126 Savitri Book 8
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Eight: The Book of Death
Canto Three*: Death in the Forest
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Then Savitri sat under branches wide,
Cool, green against the sun, not the hurt tree
Which his keen axe had cloven, -that she shunned;
But leaned beneath a fortunate kingly trunk
She guarded him in her bosom and strove to soothe
His anguished brow and body with her hands.
All grief and fear were dead within her now
And a great calm had fallen.'
'Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.
But now his sweet familiar hue was changed'
He cried out in a clinging last despair, '
'Savitri, Savitri, O Savitri,
Lean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die.'
'His cheek pressed down her golden arm. She sought
His mouth still with her living mouth, as if
She could persuade his soul back with her kiss; '
'Then grew aware they were no more alone.'
'Something had come there conscious, vast and dire.
Near her she felt a silent shade immense'
'As if from a Silence without form or name'
The Shadow of a remote uncaring god
Doomed to his Nought the illusory universe, '
'She knew that visible Death was standing there
And Satyavan had passed from her embrace.'....
Reading these this moment a ball of breath
Blocking my life in my throat
Breathless even I grow; and screaming my heart
Prays, pleads, implores sunken in tears
'Save o'Savitri save, Thy true love thine alone
Saved this Earth then in mundane bliss....
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
End of Book Eight
End of Part Two
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo 76 Savitri Book 4
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Four: The Book of Birth and Quest
Canto Two: The Growth of the Flame
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'She held their hands, she chose for them their paths: '
'They lived in her, they saw the world with her eyes.'
'Some turned to her against their nature's bent; '
'Some drawn unwillingly by her divine sway
Endured it like a sweet but alien spell; '
'But mid this world, these hearts that answered her call,
None could stand up her equal and her mate.'
For she was the goddess unbeatable...
'Her greater self lived sole, unclaimed, within.'
'Among the many who came drawn to her
Nowhere she found her partner of high tasks,
The comrade of her soul, her other self
Who was made with her, like God and Nature, one.'
Sweet and wonderful expression here like Savitri
Herself 'like God and Nature, one.'
'Too great was her demand, too pure her force.'
'Earth nursed, unconscious still, the inhabiting flame,
Yet something deeply stirred and dimly knew; '
'Some secret wing of expectation beat,
A growing sense of something new and rare
And beautiful stole across the heart of Time.
Then a faint whisper of her touched the soil,
'The eye of the great world discovered her
And wonder lifted up its bardic voice.'
'The hearts of men are amorous of clay-kin'
'Whoever is too great must lonely live.
Adored he walks in mighty solitude;
Vain is his labour to create his kind,
His only comrade is the Strength within.
Thus was it for a while with Savitri.'........
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 111 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto Five: The Finding of the Soul
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'A house was there all made of flame and light
And crossing a wall of doorless living fire
There suddenly she met her secret soul.
A being stood immortal in transience,
Deathless dallying with momentary things,
In whose wide eyes of tranquil happiness
Which pity and sorrow could not abrogate
Infinity turned its gaze on finite shapes: '
'In the mystery of its selecting will,
In the Divine Comedy a participant,
The Spirit's conscious representative,
God's delegate in our humanity,
Comrade of the universe, the Transcendent's ray,
She had come into the mortal body's room
To play at ball with Time and Circumstance.'
'The passion of the game lighted her eyes: '
'A smile on her lips welcomed earth's bliss and grief, '
'All things she saw as a masquerade of Truth
Disguised in the costumes of Ignorance,
Crossing the years to immortality; '
I need to intervene here o'words...tell me
Who can surpass your beauty-build than this Guru himself
'As a mother feels and shares her children's lives,
She puts forth a small portion of herself, '
'A being no bigger than the thumb of man
Into a hidden region of the heart
To face the pang and to forget the bliss,
To share the suffering and endure earth's wounds
And labour mid the labour of the stars.'
'This in us''Exults in victory, struggles for the crown; '...
............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 thereso, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused thereso be knowledge and fortune
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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