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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Aurobindo 125 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 the doomed husband and the woman who knew
Went with linked hands into that solemn world'
Beside her Satyavan walked full of joy
Because she moved with him through his green haunts:
He showed her all the forest's riches, flowers
Innumerable of every odour and hue'
'But little dwelt her mind upon their sense;
Of death, not life she thought or life's lone end.'
'Love in her bosom hurt with the jagged edges
Of anguish moaned at every step with pain
Crying, 'Now, now perhaps his voice will cease
For ever.'Even by some vague touch oppressed
Sometimes her eyes looked round as if their orbs
Might see the dim and dreadful god's approach.
'But Satyavan had paused. He meant to finish
His labour here that happy, linked, uncaring'
'She like a pantheress leaped upon his words
And carried them into her cavern heart.
But as he worked, his doom upon him came.
The violent and hungry hounds of pain
Travelled through his body biting as they passed
Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged
Strove to rend life's strong heart-cords and be free.
'She came to him in silent anguish and clasped, '
'And he cried to her, 'Savitri, a pang
Cleaves through my head and breast as if the axe
Were piercing it and not the living branch.'
'Awhile let me lay my head upon thy lap
And guard me with thy hands from evil fate:
Perhaps because thou touchest, death may pass.'...
............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
Vote! | Copy!
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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 133 Savitri Book 9
'Night felt assailed her heavy sombre reign; '
'The splendour of some bright eternity
Threatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth
Her empire of the everlasting Nought.
Implacable in her intolerant strength
And confident that she alone was true,
She strove to stifle the frail dangerous ray; '
Queen of perseverance was Savitri..
'Aware of an all-negating immensity
She reared her giant head of Nothingness,
Her mouth of darkness swallowing all that is;
She saw in herself the tenebrous Absolute.
But still the light prevailed and still it grew,
And Savitri to her lost self awoke;
Her limbs refused the cold embrace of death, '
Her wakeful spirit of her soul was no more concealed..
'Before her in the stillness of the world
Once more she heard the treading of a god,
And out of the dumb darkness Satyavan,
Her husband, grew into a luminous shade.
Then a sound pealed through that dead monstrous realm:
Vast like the surge in a tired swimmer's ears,
Clamouring, a fatal iron-hearted roar,
Death missioned to the night his lethal call.'
''This is my silent dark immensity, Line 139 to
'Hopest thou still always to last and love? 'Line146
Claimed the Death its territory of Nothingness..
'The Woman answered not. Her spirit refused..'
'But still' 'Death, the dire god, inflicted on her eyes
The immortal calm of his tremendous gaze: ....
............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 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)
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 148 Savitri Book 10
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto Three - The Debate of Love and Death
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
Arduous her efforts along the dark road was heroic
Her venturous word-war against Death was valorous
'O Death, not for my heart's sweet poignancy
Nor for my happy body's bliss alone
I have claimed from thee the living Satyavan,
But for his work and mine, our sacred charge.
Our lives are God's messengers beneath the stars; '
What a clever talk from Savitri to Death..
'To dwell under death's shadow they have come
Tempting God's light to earth for the ignorant race,
His love to fill the hollow in men's hearts,
His bliss to heal the unhappiness of the world.
For I, the woman, am the force of God,
He the Eternal's delegate soul in man.
My will is greater than thy law, O Death;
My love is stronger than the bonds of Fate: '
'Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme.
I guard that seal against thy rending hands.
Love must not cease to live upon the earth;
For Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven,
Love is the far Transcendent's angel here;
Love is man's lien on the Absolute.'
Her determination was heaven-high
So were her words godly nectarous
'But to the woman Death the god replied,
With the ironic laughter of his voice
Discouraging the labour of the stars: '
Death is Inconscience and Inconscience is dark
Dark is Death and his shadowy job and to Savitri
His soundless voice even was dark.....
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
Vote! | Copy!
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
Vote! | Copy!
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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 152 Savitri Book 10
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto Three - The Debate of Love and Death
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Death bowed his sovereign head in cold assent:
'I give to thee, saved from death and poignant fate
Whatever once the living Satyavan
Desired in his heart for Savitri.
Bright noons I give thee and unwounded dawns,
Daughters of thy own shape in heart and mind,
Fair hero sons and sweetness undisturbed
Of union with thy husband dear and true.'
A ransom-whim to provoke her to return to earth
Wonderful cunning words by Death..
'The opposite sweetness in thy days shall meet
Of tender service to thy life's desired'
'Two poles of bliss made one, O Savitri.
Return, O child, to thy forsaken earth.'
'But Savitri replied, 'Thy gifts resist.
Earth cannot flower if lonely I return.'
'What knowst thou of earth's rich and changing life
Who thinkst that one man dead all joy must cease? '
O'Death fair your words to Savitri? much unfair
'Hope not to be unhappy till the end:
For grief dies soon in the tired human heart;
Soon other guests the empty chambers fill.
A transient painting on a holiday's floor
Traced for a moment's beauty love was made.'
'Give me back Satyavan, my only lord.
Thy thoughts are vacant to my soul that feels
The deep eternal truth in transient things.'
'Death answered her, 'Return and try thy soul!
Soon shalt thou find appeased that other men
On lavish earth have beauty, strength and truth, '...
............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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 85 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
'And Savitri, musing still, replied to him:
'Speak more to me, speak more, O Satyavan,
Speak of thyself and all thou art within;
I would know thee as if we had ever lived
Together in the chamber of our souls.
Speak till a light shall come into my heart
And my moved mortal mind shall understand
What all the deathless being in me feels.'
It knows that thou art he my spirit has sought
Amidst earth's thronging visages and forms
Across the golden spaces of my life.'
He answered in elaborate surrender....
'And Satyavan like a replying harp' Line 233 to
'And every bird remember in its cry.'Line 322
To me these verses actually symbolize a plea
A plea of the individual soul to the universal soul...
''O Satyavan, I have heard thee and I know;
I know that thou and only thou art he.'
'A sacrament of joy in treasuring palms
She brought, flower-symbol of her offered life,
Then with raised hands that trembled a little now
At the very closeness that her soul desired,
This bond of sweetness, their bright union's sign,
She laid on the bosom coveted by her love.'
'He led and showed to her her future world,
Love's refuge and corner of happy solitude.'
'Once more she mounted on the carven car'
'She sped swift-reined, swift-hearted but still saw'
'Pace towards a tranquil clearing Satyavan.'
'This now remained with her, her heart's constant scene.'...
............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
End of Book Five
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 184 Savitri Book 11
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
'The measure of that subtle music ceased.
Down with a hurried swimming floating lapse
Through unseen worlds and bottomless spaces forced
Sank like a star the soul of Savitri.'
'A choir of rushing winds to meet her came.'
'Pursuing her in her fall, implacably sweet,
A face was over her which seemed a youth's,
Symbol of all the beauty eyes see not, '
An ardent charm after-effected Savitri glorious
'She kept within her strong embosoming soul
Like a flower hidden in the heart of spring
The soul of Satyavan drawn down by her
Inextricably in that mighty lapse.'
'Invisible heavens in a thronging flight
Soared past her as she fell.'
And here, awaiting my heart to be blessed..
'.......................Then all the blind
And near attraction of the earth compelled
Fearful rapidities of downward bliss.'
'A hospitable softness drew her in
Into a wonder of miraculous depths,
Above her closed a darkness of great wings
And she was buried in a mother's breast.'
'All still was in a silence of the gods.'
'But where the silence of the gods had passed,
A greater harmony from the stillness born
Surprised with joy and sweetness yearning hearts,
An ecstasy and a laughter and a cry.
A power leaned down, a happiness found its home.
Over wide earth brooded the infinite 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 Canto One
End of Book Eleven
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 150 Savitri Book 10
Stubborn Death was mindless to mind Savitri's plea
''O priestess in Imagination's house,
Persuade first Nature's fixed immutable laws
And make the impossible thy daily work.
How canst thou force to wed two eternal foes? '
'How shall thy will make one the true and false?
Where Matter is all, there Spirit is a dream: '
'The Real with the unreal cannot mate.'
'He who would turn to God, must leave the world;
He who would live in the Spirit, must give up life;
He who has met the Self, renounces self.'
'Two only are the doors of man's escape,
Death of his body Matter's gate to peace,
Death of his soul his last felicity.
In me all take refuge, for I, Death, am God.'
Our questions in Thou mind are answered Guru..
'But Savitri replied to mighty Death:
'My heart is wiser than the Reason's thoughts,
My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death.'
Stubborn was Savitri even extra-bold
'It sees and feels the one Heart beat in all,
It feels the high Transcendent's sunlike hands,
It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work;
In the dim Night it lies alone with God.'
'My heart's strength can carry the grief of the universe
And never falter from its luminous track,
Its white tremendous orbit through God's peace.
It can drink up the sea of All-Delight
And never lose the white spiritual touch,
'The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.'.....
............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 Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto Three - The Debate of Love and Death
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's)
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 115 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
' A calm slow sun looked down from tranquil heavens.'
'And Savitri's life was glad, fulfilled like earth's;
She had found herself, she knew her being's aim.
Although her kingdom of marvellous change within
Remained unspoken in her secret breast,
All that lived round her felt its magic's charm: '
'This bright perfection of her inner state
Poured overflowing into her outward scene, '
'A light invaded all from her being's light; '
'Above the cherished head of Satyavan
She saw not now Fate's dark and lethal orb;
A golden circle round a mystic sun
Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight
The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life.'
'In brief shiftings of the future's heavy screen,
He lay not by a dolorous decree'
'Always he was with her, a living soul
'A living body near to her body's joy.'
'But now no longer in these great wild woods'
'They were tied in the single circling of their days
Together by love's unseen atmosphere,
Inseparable like the earth and sky.'
'Thus for a while she trod the Golden Path; '
'This was the sun before abysmal Night.'
'Once as she sat in deep felicitous muse,
'An abyss yawned suddenly beneath her heart.'
'A rolling surge of silent death, it came
Curving round the far edge of the quaking globe; '
The reader is now squeezed in his heart..
A dolorous moment alerts for 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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 130 Savitri Book 9
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Nine: The Book of Eternal Night
Canto One: Towards the Black Void
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
And that's how a blessed spirit shines..
'Such seemed he as if one departed came
Wearing the light of a celestial shape
Splendidly alien to the mortal air.'
'Only the spirit knew the spirit still, '
'Between two realms he stood, not wavering,
But fixed in quiet strong expectancy,
Like one who, sightless, listens for a command.'
'Silence battled with silence, vast with vast.
But now the impulse of the Path was felt'
'To touch the confines of the visible world.'
'Luminous he moved away; behind him Death
Went slowly with his noiseless tread, '
'And Savitri moved behind eternal Death,
Her mortal pace was equalled with the god's.'
A war of words to begin 'twixt life and death..
'At first in a blind stress of woods she moved
With strange inhuman paces on the soil,
Journeying as if upon an unseen road.'
'Earth stood aloof, yet near: round her it wove
Its sweetness and its greenness and delight, '
'The silent god grew mighty and remote
In other spaces, and the soul she loved
Lost its consenting nearness to her life.'
'Then flaming from her body's nest alarmed
Her violent spirit soared at Satyavan.'
'From her eyrie streams against the ascending death, '
'A fierce she-eagle threatened in her brood,
Borne on a rush of puissance and a cry,
Outwinging like a mass of golden fire.'.....
............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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 151 Savitri Book 10
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto Three - The Debate of Love and Death
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'He said, 'Art thou indeed so strong, O heart,
O soul, so free? And canst thou gather then
Bright pleasure from my wayside flowering boughs,
Yet falter not from thy hard journey's goal,
Meet the world's dangerous touch and never fall?
Show me thy strength and freedom from my laws.'
Oh, a debate upping towards the abysmal steeple
Oh Death, Savitri but to surely prove and win
But Savitri answered, 'Surely I shall find
Among the green and whispering woods of Life
Close-bosomed pleasures, only mine since his,
Or mine for him, because our joys are one.
And if I linger, Time is ours and God's,
And if I fall, is not his hand near mine?
All is a single plan; each wayside act
Deepens the soul's response, brings nearer the goal.'
'Death the contemptuous Nihil answered her:
'So prove thy absolute force to the wise gods, '
'Then will I give thee all thy soul desires,
All the brief joys earth keeps for mortal hearts.
Only the one dearest wish that outweighs all,
Hard laws forbid and thy ironic fate.'
'My will once wrought remains unchanged through Time,
And Satyavan can never again be thine.'
'But Savitri replied to the vague Power:
'If the eyes of Darkness can look straight at Truth,
Look in my heart and, knowing what I am,
Give what thou wilt or what thou must, O Death.
Nothing I claim but Satyavan alone.'
Behold! how vehement her plea was..
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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 182 Savitri Book 11
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
'Drawn to me on the bosom of thy friend,
Compelled to meet me in thy enemy's eyes,
My creatures shall demand me from thy heart
Thou shalt not shrink from any brother soul.
Thou shalt be attracted helplessly to all.'
So am I here in need of your help Savitri..
'All that thou hast, shall be for others' bliss,
All that thou art, shall to my hands belong.'
'Who hunts and seizes me, my captive grows: '
Gospel words these are..
'For ever love, O beautiful slave of God!
O lasso of my rapture's widening noose,
Become my cord of universal love.'
'O Mind, grow full of the eternal peace;
O Word, cry out the immortal litany:
Built is the golden tower, the flame-child born.'
'Descend to life with him thy heart desires.
O Satyavan, O luminous Savitri,
I sent you forth of old beneath the stars,
A dual power of God in an ignorant world,
In a hedged creation shut from limitless self,
Bringing down God to the insentient globe,
Lifting earth-beings to immortality.'
'You are my Force at work to uplift earth's fate, '
'You are my Force at work to uplift earth's fate, '
'He is the godhead growing in human lives
And in the body of earth-being's forms: '
'O Savitri, thou art my spirit's Power'
'The Spirit's mightiness shall cast off its mask;
'Its greatness shall be felt shaping the world's course: '.....
............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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 141 Savitri Book 10
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto Two: The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Thus is the ideal falsified in man's world;
Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes,
Life's harsh reality stares at the soul:
Heaven's hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time.
Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan:
He now is safe, delivered from himself;
He travels to silence and felicity.
Call him not back to the treacheries of earth'
But Savitri replied to the dark Power:
'A dangerous music now thou findst, O Death, Line 201 to
I cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream.'Line 280
'But I forbid thy voice to slay my soul.
My love is not a hunger of the heart,
My love is not a craving of the flesh;
It came to me from God, to God returns.'
An honest reply true to Savitri's godly love
'A breath is felt from the eternal spheres.
Allowed by Heaven and wonderful to man
A sweet fire-rhythm of passion chants to love.
There is a hope in its wild infinite cry; '
It rings with callings from forgotten heights,
And when its strains are hushed to high-winged souls
In their empyrean, its burning breath
Survives beyond, the rapturous core of suns'...
'One who came love and lover and beloved
Eternal, built himself a wondrous field
And wove the measures of a marvellous dance.'
'He named himself for me, grew Satyavan.'
'For we were man and woman from the first,
The twin souls born from one undying fire.....
............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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 129 Savitri Book 9
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Nine: The Book of Eternal Night
Canto One: Towards the Black Void
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
Ho, look, how bittered the God of Death..
''Thy passionate influence and relax, O slave
Of Nature, changing tool of changeless Law,
Who vainly writh'st rebellion to my yoke,
Thy elemental grasp; weep and forget.'
'weep and forget'...as a common folk does
Did it suit Savitri? no, she pursued..
'Entomb thy passion in its living grave.'
'Leave now the once-loved spirit's abandoned robe:
Pass lonely back to thy vain life on earth.'
How easily said He..but Savitri was exceptional
For she the god-child..and she in Thy words Guru, marvelous
'It ceased, she moved not, and it spoke again, '
'Wilt thou for ever keep thy passionate hold,
Thyself a creature doomed like him to pass,
Denying his soul death's calm and silent rest? '
'Relax thy grasp; this body is earth's and thine,
His spirit now belongs to a greater power.
Woman, thy husband suffers.' Savitri
Drew back her heart's force that clasped his body still'
'She rose and stood gathered in lonely strength, '
'The dim and awful godhead rose erect
From his brief stooping to his touch on earth, '
'brief stooping'..oh, very picturesque...
'And, like a dream that wakes out of a dream,
Forsaking the poor mould of that dead clay,
Another luminous Satyavan arose,
Starting upright from the recumbent earth
As if someone over viewless borders stepped
Emerging on the edge of unseen 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
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 97 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 by her doomed husband sat, '
'Impassive mid the movement and the cry,
Witness of the thoughts of mind, the moods of life,
She looked into herself and sought for her soul.'
A dream disclosed to her the cosmic past,
The shadowy beginnings of world-fate:
A lamp of symbol lighting hidden truth
Imaged to her the world's significance.'
'A consciousness looked at the inconscient Vast
And pleasure and pain stirred in the insensible Void.
All was the deed of a blind World-Energy:
Unconscious of her own exploits she worked,
Shaping a universe out of the Inane.
In fragmentary beings she grew aware: '
'In fragmentary beings' like Savitri
Wish even we grow aware...
'A conscious soul in the Inconscient's world,
'Hidden behind our thoughts and hopes and dreams,
An indifferent Master signing Nature's acts
Leaves the vicegerent mind a seeming king.'
This is the little surface of man's life.
He is this and he is all the universe; '
'But all is there, even God's opposites; '
'A thinking outline of a cryptic Force.'
'Inferno surges into the human air
And touches all with a perverting breath.'
'He is bound and forced, a victim of the play,
Or, allured, joys in the mad and mighty din.
'Once quelled or wearing specious names and vests
Infernal elements, demon powers are there.'.......
............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
Vote! | Copy!
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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 94 Savitri Book 7
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto One: The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge
of Death and the Heart's Grief and Pain
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'All-love was hers and its one heavenly cord
Bound all to all with her as golden tie.'
'After all was given she demanded still;
Even by his strong embrace unsatisfied,
She longed to cry, 'O tender Satyavan, ...
....For soon we part and who shall know how long
Before the great wheel in its monstrous round
Restore us to each other and our love? '
'But Satyavan sometimes half understood,
The unplumbed abyss of her deep passionate want.'
'All of his speeding days that he could spare
From labour in the forest hewing wood
And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades
And service to his father's sightless life'
How intense the seriousness of his fate..
Unaware Satyavan we must pity...
'She saw the desert of her coming days
Imaged in every solitary hour.'
'Thus in the silent chamber of her soul
Cloistering her love to live with secret grief
She dwelt like a dumb priest with hidden gods'
'He, less aware, thrilled with her from afar.
Always the stature of her passion grew;
Grief, fear became the food of mighty love.'
'It was all her life, became her whole earth and heaven.'
'Her spirit stretched measureless in strength divine,
An anvil for the blows of Fate and Time: '
'The year now paused upon the brink of change.'
'So her grief's heavy sky shut in her heart.
A still self hid behind but gave no light: '.......
............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
Vote! | Copy!
Aurobindo 158 Savitri Book 10
Answer o' Death to Savitri on the omnipresent One
And how'unknown powers emerge from Nature's sleep? '
'Even now the deathless Lover's touch we feel:
If the chamber's door is even a little ajar,
What then can hinder God from stealing in
Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul?
Already God is near, the Truth is close: '
Challenge o' Death can you Savitri and the Truth?
'Because the dark atheist body knows him not,
Must the sage deny the Light, the seer his soul? '
Yes, the right way of perceiving Him only helps
'I live in the glory of the Infinite,
I am near to the Nameless and Unknowable,
The Ineffable is now my household mate.
But standing on Eternity's luminous brink
I have discovered that the world was He; '
'I have met Spirit with spirit, Self with self,
But I have loved too the body of my God.
I have pursued him in his earthly form.
A lonely freedom cannot satisfy
A heart that has grown one with every heart:
I am a deputy of the aspiring world,
My spirit's liberty I ask for all.'
So she, Savitri is there to protect us all
'Then rang again a deeper cry of Death.'
'His form of dread was altered and admitted
Our transient effort at eternity,
Yet flung vast doubts of what might else have been
On grandiose hints of an impossible day.
The great voice surging cried to 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
Vote! | Copy!