Aurobindo 131 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
'Thought, time and death were absent from her grasp:
She knew not self, forgotten was Savitri.'
'Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.'
'Her sovereign prisoned in her being's core,
He beat there like a rhythmic heart, -herself'
'Around him nameless, infinite she surged,
Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time, '
'Onward the three still moved in her soul-scene.'
'In voiceless regions they were travellers
Alone in a new world where souls were not,
But only living moods: a strange hushed weird
Country was round them, strange far skies above,
A doubting space where dreaming objects lived
Within themselves their one unchanged idea.'
'Phantasmal between pillared conscious rocks
...Lost their huge sense beyond in giant night.'
'Then, to that chill sere heavy line arrived
Where his feet touched the shadowy marches' brink,
Turning arrested luminous Satyavan
Looked back with his wonderful eyes at Savitri.'
'But Death pealed forth his vast abysmal cry: '
'O mortal, turn back to thy transient kind; Line 336 to
Your transient loves bind not the eternal gods.'Line 361
No Yes, no No to death; But Yes to Thy beautiful words Guru..
'The Woman answered not. Her high nude soul,
Stripped of the girdle of mortality,
Against fixed destiny and the grooves of law
Stood up in its sheer will a primal force.'
'Against midnight's dumb abysses piled in front
A columned shaft of fire and light she rose.'.....
............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
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Related quotes
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 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
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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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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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
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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
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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
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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 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
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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
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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 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 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
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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
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Aurobindo 179 Savitri Book 11
'In an ineffable world she lived fulfilled.'
'A virgin unity, a luminous spouse,
Housing a multitudinous embrace
To marry all in God's immense delight,
Bearing the eternity of every spirit,
Bearing the burden of universal love,
A wonderful mother of unnumbered souls.
All things she knew, all things imagined or willed: '
'A thousand doors of oneness was her heart.
A crypt and sanctuary of brooding light
Appeared, the last recess of things beyond.
Then in its rounds the enormous fiat paused,
Silence gave back to the Unknowable
All it had given. Still was her listening thought.
'And in the phantom of abolished Space
There was a voice unheard by ears that cried: '
'Choose, spirit, thy supreme choice not given again; Line 898 to
O stream, wide breaking of thy channel banks.' Line 909
Pristine so, words are built of Savitri's heights
A chance up there, will modern women be like Savitri?
'A point that disappears in the infinite, -
Felicity of the extinguished flame, '
'End of the trouble of thy wandering thoughts,
Close of the journeying of thy pilgrim soul.'
'Accept, O music, weariness of thy notes, '
'And silently the woman's heart replied: '
'Thy peace, O Lord, a boon within to keep
Amid the roar and ruin of wild Time
For the magnificent soul of man on earth.
Thy calm, O Lord, that bears thy hands of joy.'....
............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 162 Savitri Book 10
'But what is Truth and who can find her form'
'where is Truth and when was her footfall heard'
'is Truth aught but a high starry name'
'All things hang here between God's yes and no,
Two Powers real but to each other untrue,
Two consort stars in the mooned night of mind
That towards two opposite horizons gaze,
The white head and black tail of the mystic drake, '
'Too dangerously thy high proud truth must live
Entangled in Matter's mortal littleness.
'Objects are seemings and none knows their truth,
Ideas are guesses of an ignorant god.
Truth has no home in earth's irrational breast:
Yet without reason life is a tangle of dreams,
But reason is poised above a dim abyss
And stands at last upon a plank of doubt.'
All truth bound in Thy splendid explication Guru! !
'Eternal truth lives not with mortal men.
Or if she dwells within thy mortal heart,
Show me the body of the living Truth'
'Then will I give thee back thy Satyavan.
But here are only facts and steel-bound Law.
This truth I know that Satyavan is dead'
But that's a human feeling o'Death not a god's
'No power of earth cancel the thing once done,
No joy of the heart can last surviving death,
No bliss persuade the past to live again.
But Life alone can solace the mute Void
And fill with thought the emptiness of Time.
Leave then thy dead, O Savitri, and live.'....
............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 Four: The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's)
poem by Indira Renganathan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 142 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
Well designed words on defining love
Well worded verses on Savitri's stern love
'If there is a yet happier greater god,
Let him first wear the face of Satyavan
And let his soul be one with him I love;
So let him seek me that I may desire.'
Factual practicality of this Bharat
The husband is the God of his woman...
'For only one heart beats within my breast
And one god sits there throned. Advance, O Death,
Beyond the phantom beauty of this world;
For of its citizens I am not one.
I cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream.'
But Death once more inflicted on her heart
'A bright hallucination are thy thoughts.Line 283 to
There into the hush from which thou cam'st retire.'Line 471
'Thou sendest eagle-poised to meet the sun'
'All thy high dreams were made by Matter's mind
To solace its dull work in Matter's jail,
Its only house where it alone seems true.'
'If Matter fails, all crumbling cracks and falls.
All upon Matter stands as on a rock.'
'All by Death's mercy breathe and live awhile, '
'Accept the brief light that falls upon thy days; '
Oh, what an accuracy of words conceptual
Perfect verses hued with heaven's brush
Dominating, demanding..Death or Savitri?
Savitri ofcourse..quoted again here her words
'For only one heart beats within my breast
And one god sits there throned'.. that's for women....
............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 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
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Aurobindo 166 Savitri Book 10
'She spoke; Death unconvinced resisted still,
Although he knew refusing still to know,
Although he saw refusing still to see.
Unshakable he stood claiming his right.
His spirit bowed; his will obeyed the law
Of its own nature binding even on Gods.
The Two opposed each other face to face.
His being like a huge fort of darkness towered; '
'Around it her light grew, an ocean's siege.
Awhile the Shade survived defying heaven:
Assailing in front, oppressing from above,
A concrete mass of conscious power, he bore
The tyranny of her divine desire.'
Miracles are by the Divine heavenly
So too with Savitri herself the divine daughter
Obey o'Death, stoop to the divine command..
'His darkness muttered perishing in her blaze.
Her mastering Word commanded every limb
And left no room for his enormous will'
'He called to Night but she fell shuddering back,
He called to Hell but sullenly it retired: '
He turned to the Inconscient for support, '
'It drew him back towards boundless vacancy'
'He called to his strength, but it refused his call.'
'At last he knew defeat inevitable'
'Afar he fled shunning her dreaded touch
And refuge took in the retreating Night.'
'And Satyavan and Savitri were alone.
But neither stirred: between those figures rose
A mute invisible and translucent wall.'....
............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
End of Book Ten
(An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto Four: The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's)
poem by Indira Renganathan
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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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 153 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
Oh Death, you sound satanic and not godly..
'For who, being mortal, can dwell glad alone?
Then Satyavan shall glide into the past,
A gentle memory pushed away from thee
By new love and thy children's tender hands,
Till thou shalt wonder if thou lov'dst at all.
Such is the life earth's travail has conceived,
A constant stream that never is the same.'
'But Savitri replied to mighty Death:
'O dark ironic critic of God's work,
'Mine is a heart that worshipped, though forsaken,
The image of the god its love adored; '
'Why dost thou vainly strive with me, O Death, '
'For now at last I know beyond all doubt,
The great stars burn with my unceasing fire'
'Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; '
'All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss
Casting their veils before the marriage fire
The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride.
The heavens accept our broken flights at last.
On our life's prow that breaks the waves of Time
No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain.'
'Thus with armed speech the great opponents strove.'
'Intent upon her silent will she walked'
'But now her spirit's flame of conscient force
Retiring from a sweetness without fruit
Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within
In a deep room in meditation's house.'
'Death walked in front of her and Satyavan,
In the dark front of Death, a failing star.'...
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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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