Aurobindo 44 Savitri Book 2
An appreciation on Savitri
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Seven: The Descent into Night
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'Then the scene changed, but kept its dreadful core:
Altering its form the life remained the same.'
'He saw a city of ancient Ignorance
Founded upon a soil that knew not Light.'
'Posed worst iniquities on equity's base,
Reasoned ill actions just, sanctioned the scale
Of the merchant ego's interest and desire.'
Yes, each an indifferent business for egoistic benefit..
'A lie was there the truth and truth a lie.
Here must the traveller of the upward Way-
For daring Hell's kingdoms winds the heavenly route-
Pause or pass slowly through that perilous space,
A prayer upon his lips and the great Name.'
Must be thankful the high-ambitioned for this useful guide..
'If probed not all discernment's keen spear-point,
He might stumble into falsity's endless net.'
'This No-man's-land he passed without debate;
Him the heights missioned, him the Abyss desired:
None stood across his way, no voice forbade.
For swift and easy is the downward path,
And now towards the Night was turned his face.'
'He crossed a boundary whose stealthy trace
Eye could not see but only the soul feel.'
Tricky fate snares words in feelings' trap hampered..
'The approach alarmed his mind for ever dumb
Of pain inhuman and intolerable.'
'A lifeless vacancy was now his breast'
'But he endured, stilled the vain terror'
'Then peace returned and the soul's sovereign gaze.'
'Mighty and mute the Godhead in him woke'.....
............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 51 Savitri Book 2
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Ten: The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'A sovereign worker through the centuries
Observing and remoulding all that is,
Confident she took up her stupendous charge.'
'A rigorous stare in her creative eyes
Coercing the plastic stuff of cosmic Mind, ..'
'For the world seen she weaves a world conceived: '
'This art, this artifice are her only stock.'
A mighty Goddess for our privilege to doubt alone..
'In her high works of pure intelligence, ..'
'There dawns no light of heavenly certitude.'
'A million faces wears her knowledge here
And every face is turbaned with a doubt.'
'An inconclusive play is Reason's toil.
Each strong idea can use her as its tool; '
'Absolute her judgments seem but none is sure; '
Our uncertainty is Her indefinite certitude I guess..
'An aided sense is her seeking's arbiter.
This now she uses as the assayer's stone.'
'As if she knew not facts are husks of truth,
The husks she keeps, the kernel throws aside.'
This pretext of hers is our illusion...
'Only she seeks mechanic Nature's keys.'
'A lifeless Energy irresistibly driven, '
'Then wonders why all was and whence it came.'
'The little Mind is tied to little things: '
'The Truth is known only when all is seen.'
'A fire shall come out of the infinitudes, ..'
'A timeless knowledge it shall bring to Mind,
Its aim to life, to Ignorance its close.'
'A power to uplift the laggard world, '....
............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 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 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
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aurobindo 55 Savitri Book 2
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Thirteen: In the Self of Mind
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'At last there came a bare indifferent sky
Where Silence listened to the cosmic Voice,
But answered nothing to a million calls;
The soul's endless question met with no response.'
'An abrupt conclusion ended eager hopes,
A deep cessation in a mighty calm, '
A silent answer ever to be explored in silence
'And a margin and a blank of wordless peace.'
'In secrecy wraps the seed the Eternal sows
Silence, the mystic birthplace of the soul.'
'In God's supreme withdrawn and timeless hush
A seeing Self and potent Energy met; '
The Silence knew itself and thought took form:
Self-made from the dual power creation rose.'
'In the still self he lived and it in him; '
One in one-dogma in concealed realisation..
'Then suddenly a luminous finger fell
On all things seen or touched or heard or felt
And showed his mind that nothing could be known;
'The world seemed a long aeonic failure's scene: '
'Existence' self was shadowed by a doubt; '
'A veil that hung between the soul and Light,
An idol, not the living body of God.'
A subdued smile admits this in my heart..
'A noise was heard, between, of thought and prayer,
A strife, a labour without end or pause;
A vain and ignorant seeking raised its voice.'
'Immortal by renewed mortality, '
'To be was a prison, extinction the escape.'
Ever green words escaping Time's level...
............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 42 Savitri Book 2
An appreciation on Savitri
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Seven: The Descent into Night
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
A mind absolved from life, made calm to know,
The seal of tears, the bond of ignorance,
He turned to find that wide world-failure's cause.
'Away he looked from Nature's visible face
And sent his gaze into the viewless Vast, '
'That carries the universe in its timeless breadths
And the ripples of its being are our lives.'
Looking into the beyond beyond the beyond, audacious conquest..
'He saw the fount of the world's lasting pain
And the mouth of the black pit of Ignorance;
The evil guarded at the roots of life
Raised up its head and looked into his eyes.'
'A Death figuring as the dark seed of life,
Seemed to engender and to slay the world.'
Emotionals go by nature, intellectuals out race nature..
Truth is embedded in the soul by destiny's choice turns..
'Then from the sombre mystery of the gulfs
And from the hollow bosom of the Mask
Something crept forth that seemed a shapeless Thought.'
'The soul's native will for truth and joy and light.'
'Even Light and Love by that cloaked danger's spell
Turned from the brilliant nature of the gods
Became themselves a danger and a charm,
A perverse sweetness, heaven-born malefice: '
'Arrived the shadowy dreadful messengers,
Invaders from a dangerous world of power,
Ambassadors of evil's absolute.'
'Life looked at him with changed and sombre eyes:
Her beauty he saw and the yearning heart in things'
'Answering to a small ray of truth or love; '....
............My consciousness this moment,
O'Guru, I'm in awe....in invincible heights
Ineffable Thee embellishing poetic creation
My inquisitive apprehension, erring Thee may opine
May 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 86 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
'In silent bounds bordering the mortal's plane
Crossing a wide expanse of brilliant peace
Narad the heavenly sage from Paradise
Came chanting through the large and lustrous air.'
'Across an intangible border of soul-space
He passed from Mind into material things'
'He felt a sap of life, a sap of death; '
Also a making of a new destiny by Savitri...
'He saw the eternal labour of the Gods,
And looked upon the life of beasts and men.'
'A change now fell upon the singer's mood,
A rapture and a pathos moved his voice; '
'He sang no more the deathless heart of Love,
His chant was a hymn of Ignorance and Fate.'
'He who has conquered the Immortals' seats,
Came down to men on earth the Man divine.'
'Looked out from luminous cloud and, strangely limned,
His face, a beautiful mask of antique joy,
Appearing in light descended where arose
King Aswapati's palace to the winds'
'There welcomed him the sage and thoughtful king, '
'Queen-browed, the human mother of Savitri.'
'He sang to them of the lotus-heart of love
With all its thousand luminous buds of truth, '
'Even as he sang and rapture stole through earth-time
And caught the heavens, came with a call of hooves,
As of her swift heart hastening, Savitri; '
'She stood before her mighty father's throne'
'He cried to her, 'Who is this that comes, the bride, '
Goes on in thou words still 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 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 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 48 Savitri Book 2
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Ten: The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'This too must now be overpassed and left,
As all must be until the Highest is gained
In whom the world and self grow true and one:
Till That is reached our journeying cannot cease.'
'This breath of hundred-hued felicity'
'Its endless time-made world outfacing Time,
A little output of God's vast delight.'
Oh, really wonder at the possibility on the Vast Delight...
'A musing spirit looked out on the worlds'
'Passing through clarity to an unseen Light
Large lucent realms of Mind from stillness shone.'
'But first he met a silver-grey expanse'..
'A coalition of uncertainties
There exercised uneasy government'..
'A rendezvous of Knowledge with Ignorance.'
What an important suitability of words..none can deny..
'A mind that hardly saw and slowly found; '
'..looks from soil to sky and sky to soil
But knows not the below nor the beyond, '
'Here are devised the forms of an ignorant life'
'The slow process of a material mind
Which serves the body it should rule and use
And needs to lean upon an erring sense,
Was born in that luminous obscurity.'
'It reasons from the half-known to the unknown, '
'Ever undoing the web that it has spun.'
'At the glow-worm top of these pale glimmer-realms'
'Escaping over a wide and shimmering bridge,
He came into a realm of early Light
'And the regency of a half-risen 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 35-Savitri-Book -2
An appreciation on Savitri
Book II The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto V The Godheads of the Little Life
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'As if reversing a deformation's spell,
Released from the black magic of the Night,
Renouncing servitude to the dim Abyss,
It shall learn at last who lived within unseen, '
Anticipating peace but intimidated ere the true learning
'And seized with marvel in the adoring heart
To the enthroned Child-Godhead kneel aware,
Trembling with beauty and delight and love.'
'But first the spirit's ascent we must achieve
Out of the chasm from which our nature rose.
The soul must soar sovereign above the form
And climb to summits beyond mind's half-sleep;
Our hearts we must inform with heavenly strength,
Surprise the animal with the occult god.'
And all it needs determination for a heart and soul
Tamed of spiritual food caged in perseverance..
'Then kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice,
Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere,
We shall shed the discredit of our mortal state,
Make the abysm a road for Heaven's descent,
Acquaint our depths with the supernal Ray
And cleave the darkness with the mystic Fire.'
All is well that should end well too
Only if all is possible to end well possible..
'The darkness glimmered like a dying torch.
Around him an extinguished phantom glow
Peopled with shadowy and misleading shapes
The vague Inconscient's dark and measureless cave.
His only sunlight was his spirit's flame.'
That light to lead the soul in the right path..
............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 102 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
'Then journeying forward through the self's wide hush
She came into a brilliant ordered Space.'
'There Life dwelt parked in an armed tranquillity;
A chain was on her strong insurgent heart.
Tamed to the modesty of a measured pace,
She kept no more her vehement stride and rush; '
'A chastened epithet in the prose of life,
She must fill with colour just her sanctioned space, '
'Into a firm and settled space she came
Where all was still and all things kept their place.
Each found what it had sought and knew its aim.
All had a final last stability.
There one stood forth who bore authority
On an important brow and held a rod;
Command was incarnate in his gesture and tone;
Tradition's petrified wisdom carved his speech, '
'His sentences savoured the oracle.'
'Traveller or pilgrim of the inner world,
Fortunate art thou to reach our brilliant air
Flaming with thought's supreme finality.
O aspirant to the perfect way of life,
Here find it; rest from search and live at peace.
Ours is the home of cosmic certainty.
Here is the truth, God's harmony is here.'
In her heights of mind carrying the soul
Her heart could pass on all hurdles
And reach a space of blissful stillness
While calm was her body all the while
Supporting a goal-way for a supreme change..
Wish possible for everyone else here...
............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-7-Savitri-Book -1
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book I The Book of Beginnings-canto-3-
The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Soul's Release
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
Yoga of Aswapati-
And wisdom 'sat uncompanioned in the eternal Calm,
All-seeing, motionless, sovereign and alone'
Thoughts wanting'only a little arc of God's vast sky.'
While there, one is one's own infinity'
His centre was no more in earthly mind; '
'His soul could sail beyond thought's luminous bar;
The voice that only by speech can move the mind
Became a silent knowledge in the soul; '
'All here must learn to obey a higher law,
Our body's cells must hold the Immortal's flame.
Else would the spirit reach alone its source
Leaving a half-saved world to its dubious fate.'
And that is the truth struggling today to find its esteem...
And'even on the struggling Nature left below
Strong periods of illumination came'
'A sudden messenger''traversed' his 'soundless mind'
And 'In a brief moment caught, a little space, '
'A portion of the inexpressible Truth
Revealed by silence to the silent soul.'
The high black wall hiding superconscience, '
'A traveller between summit and abyss, '
'She joined the distant ends, the viewless deeps, '
Became a'reporter and scribe of hidden wisdom talk''
There the spark of a winning game sparkled
'The inspiring goddess entered a mortal's breast,
'And sat upon the tripod seat of mind:
All was made wide above, all lit below.'
A 'soul's release' thus 'from ignorance''
And'mind and body's first spiritual change' occurred
And the king was'Immeasurable by the common look'...
............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 47 Savitri Book 2
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Nine: The Paradise of the Life-Gods
Around him shone a great felicitous Day.
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'A favourite and intimate of the Gods
Obeying the divine command to joy,
It was the sovereign of its own delight
And master of the kingdoms of its force.'
Passed through the suffering domain
Patient traveller passing through illumed arena..
'It lived in a jewel-rhythm of the laughter of God
And lay on the breast of universal love.'
'A silence of felicity wrapped the heavens,
A careless radiance smiled upon the heights;
A murmur of inarticulate ravishment
Trembled in the winds and touched the enchanted soil; '
'Advancing under an arch of glory and peace,
Traveller on plateau and on musing ridge, ...'
'He traversed scenes of an immortal joy'
In true words the real holy jaunt...
'Across the vibrant secrecies of Space
A dim and happy music sweetly stole, ..'
'A summit and core of all that marvellous world,
Apart stood high Elysian nameless hills, ..'
'Adoring blue heaven with their happy hymn, '
'The shining Edens of the vital gods
Received him in their deathless harmonies.'
Lucky traveller drowned in immortal bliss..
'All things were perfect there that flower in Time; '
'In that paradise of perfect heart and sense
No lower note could break the endless charm
Of her sweetness ardent and immaculate; '
'Immortal pleasure cleansed him in its waves..'
'Immortality captured Time and carried 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 186 Savitri Book 12
Like the sun concealed in night resumes light
Thrilled at the sight of the divine lotus
'He murmured with hesitating lips her name,
And vaguely recollecting wonder cried, '
'Whence hast thou brought me captive back, love-chained,
To thee and sunlight's walls, O golden beam
And casket of all sweetness, Savitri,
Godhead and woman, moonlight of my soul? '
'For surely I have travelled in strange worlds
By thee companioned, a pursuing spirit,
Together we have disdained the gates of night.'
'Where now has passed that formidable Shape
Which rose against us, the Spirit of the Void,
Claiming the world for Death and Nothingness,
Denying God and soul? Or was all a dream
Or a vision seen in a spiritual sleep, ...'
'But she replied, 'Our parting was the dream;
'Look round thee and behold, glad and unchanged
Our home, this forest with its thousand cries'
'Only our souls have left Death's night behind,
Changed by a mighty dream's reality,
Illumined by the light of symbol worlds
And the stupendous summit self of things,
And stood at Godhead's gates limitless, free.'
Then filled with the glory of their happiness
They rose and with safe clinging fingers locked
Hung on each other in a silent look.
But he with a new wonder in his heart
And a new flame of worship in his eyes:
'What high change is in thee, O 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
(An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Twelve: Epilogue
The Return to Earth
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's)
poem by Indira Renganathan
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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 43 Savitri Book 2
An appreciation on Savitri
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto Seven: The Descent into Night
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'A breath of disillusion and decadence
Corrupting watched for Life's maturity
And made to rot the full grain of the soul:
Progress became a purveyor of Death.'
'A darkness settled on the heavy air; '
'The lust that warps the spirit's natural good
Replaced by a manufactured virtue and vice'
All interested souls sob in acceptance..
'In rejected heaps by a monotonous road
The old simple delights were left to lie
On the wasteland of life's descent to Night.'
'All knowledge was left a questioning Ignorance.'
'As from a womb obscure he saw emerge
The body and visage of a dark Unseen'..
'Its dangerous commerce is our suffering's cause.'
Causer known, yet unfree the captives..
'He followed the track of dim tremendous steps
Returning to the night from which they came.'
'It was a no man's land of evil air, '
'There unreality was Nature's lord: '
'Each rainbow brilliance was a splendid lie; '
'Announcing the advent of a perilous Form
An ominous tread softened its dire footfall
That none might understand or be on guard; '
'The Fiend was visible but cloaked in light; '
'His rigorous logic made the false seem true.'
'Attack sprang suddenly vehement and unseen; '
'There was no truce and no safe place to rest; '
'It was a world of battle and surprise.'
Persisting still the same kind endangering peaky high..
............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 164 Savitri Book 10
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
'Who then art thou hiding in human guise?
Thy voice carries the sound of infinity,
Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words;
The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes.
'Hast thou God's force to build heaven's values here?
For truth and knowledge are an idle gleam
If Knowledge brings not power to change the world,
If Might comes not to give to Truth her right.'
'O human claimant to immortality,
Reveal thy power, lay bare thy spirit's force,
Then will I give back to thee Satyavan.
Or if the Mighty Mother is with thee,
Show me her face that I may worship her;
'Then can thy dead return to thee and live.'
The prostrate earth perhaps shall lift her gaze
And feel near her the secret body of God'
So Death had none but to surrender it seems..
'Almost it seemed as if in his symbol shape
The world's darkness had consented to Heaven-light'
'A mighty transformation came on her.
A halo of the indwelling Deity,
The Immortal's lustre that had lit her face
And tented its radiance in her body's house,
Overflowing made the air a luminous sea.'
'In a flaming moment of apocalypse
The Incarnation thrust aside its veil.
A little figure in infinity
Yet stood and seemed the Eternal's very house,
As if the world's centre was her very soul
And all wide space was but its outer robe.'.....
............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 147 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
'Beyond the earth, but meant for delivered earth,
Wisdom and joy prepare their perfect crown;
Truth superhuman calls to thinking man.
At last the soul turns to eternal things,
In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God.
Then is there played the crowning Mystery,
Then is achieved the longed-for miracle.'
Just only for the thinking man....
'A mystic slow transfiguration works.
All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky,
And Love that was once an animal's desire,
Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart,
An ardent comradeship in the happy mind,
Becomes a wide spiritual yearning's space.
A lonely soul passions for the Alone, '
Lovely, lovely..variegated colours of love
'All is itself, all is new-felt in God:
A Lover leaning from his cloister's door
Gathers the whole world into his single breast.
Then shall the business fail of Night and Death:
When unity is won, when strife is lost
And all is known and all is clasped by Love
Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?
Clever Truth to fail 'Night and Death'
'O Death, I have triumphed over thee within;
I quiver no more with the assault of grief;
A mighty calmness seated deep within
Has occupied my body and my sense:
It takes the world's grief and transmutes to strength,
It makes the world's joy one with the joy of 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 121 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
'As if continuing old habitual turns,
And pushed by an old unexhausted force
The engine did the work for which it was made:
Her consciousness looked on and took no part; '
A new conscious mind in the front
Pushing behind all routine of a mechanical mind...
'A hollow physical shell persisted still.
'All seemed a brilliant shadow of itself, '
'Wherever she turned, at whatsoever she looked,
It was perceived, yet hid from mind and sight.
The One only real shut itself from Space
And stood aloof from the idea of Time.
Its truth escaped from shape and line and hue.'
'It faced her as some vast Nought's immensity,
An endless No to all that seems to be,
An endless Yes to things ever unconceived'
'If all existence could renounce to be
And Being take refuge in Non-being's arms
And Non-being could strike out its ciphered round,
Some lustre of that Reality might appear.
A formless liberation came on her.'
'She was no more a Person in a world,
She had escaped into infinity.'
'There was no frame of things, no figure of soul.'
'She shared the Superconscient's high retreat
Beyond the self-born Word, the nude Idea,
The first bare solid ground of consciousness; '
'A lonely Absolute negated all:
It effaced the ignorant world from its solitude
And drowned the soul in its everlasting peace.'....
............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 Six
poem by Indira Renganathan
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Aurobindo-20-Savitri-Book -2
An appreciation on Savitri-
Book II The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto III The Glory and the Fall of Life
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's
'There life is the manifest Incalculable, '
'A vexed disturbance in the eternal Calm,
An impulse and passion of the Infinite.'
'Careless of suffering, heedless of sin and fall,
She wrestles with danger and discovery
In the unexplored expanses of the soul.'
Upping to only fall on the uncertain stairs
Falling to only up on the guessed heights..
'A huge inconsequence was her action's law,
As if all possibility must be drained,
And anguish and bliss were pastimes of the heart.'
'A scene was planned for all her numberless moods
Where each could be the law and way of life,
But none could offer a pure felicity; '
True, joy and sorrow is her wheeling destiny
In wholesome eccentric cycles aplenty
'Fate's dreadful swing she has taken for cradle and seat.
Yet pure and bright from the Timeless was her birth, '
'In an architecture of hieratic Space
Circling and mounting towards creation's tops,
At a blue height which never was too high
For warm communion between body and soul,
As far as heaven, as near as thought and hope,
Glimmered the kingdom of a griefless life.'
'Towered spirals, magic rings of vivid hue
And gleaming spheres of strange felicity
Floated through distance like a symbol world.'
'In dream and trance and muse before our eyes, '
'Dream's truth made false earth's vain realities.'
So blessed if the whole why would be there enigma any..
............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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