Loretta reads Savitri:Six.I "The Word of Fate" part 3

Transcript of:

Savitri: Book Six, Canto I (part 3 of 5)

by Loretta, 2018 (33:22)

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Loretta reads Savitri Book Six: The Book of Fate Canto I: The Word of Fate Part 3 of 5, pages 422-427

   

Savitri is ready to tell her parents that she has found Satyavan, and that she has chosen him to be her husband. Her father, King Aswapati, is asking Narad, the divine messenger of the gods, to chant his blessing that Savitri will have a sorrowless life. Aswapati has listened through Narad's song. Narad sang about Savitri's beauty, and how she's been filled with the light of her newly-discovered love. But Aswapati has heard through the words a veiled prediction of doom; other people have not heard it.

As we begin this part of the canto, Aswapati speaks of the Alacananda river, and the beauty of “heaven’s daughters” (p.423). The Alacananda is the largest of the tributaries that come down from the Himalayas, to form the Ganges river – India's most sacred river. And ‘heaven's daughters’ are the Apsaras, the goddesses of water. The beautiful goddesses that dance. And Sri Aurobindo has made them even more beautiful with his poetry.

It's a beautiful word-picture, for Aswapati to describe his own daughter's nature. Later on, when he feels that she may have to have problems in her life, he points out to Narad that on earth, there is no Kailash. And in Savitri it's spelled ‘Coilas’ – but, Kailash. Kailash is the abode of Lord Shiva. He says there is no Vaicountha – the abode of Vishnu, the home of the gods. He says that here on earth, we have difficult, dangerous mountains to climb, which few will dare to try. And he's talking about the ascent to higher consciousness. He's saying that these ascents are fraught with difficulties, and were dangerous – too dangerous for man's fragile race.

Aswapti is hoping that Savitri's beauty and her goodness, which are so near to the higher qualities of the creation – so near that he can describe them in terms of the gods – he is hoping that all of her beauty and goodness can continue to grow and bless the earth, without having to be hurt, or having the ordeal of the earthly life. Because earthly life so often brings us these ordeals.

As we begin this part of Canto I, Aswapati says to the divine seer:

Doom surely will see her pass and say no word! (p.423)

Then he asks if the great souls must always be tested by fire. And again he asks for a beautiful life for his daughter. He says:

Once let unwounded pass a mortal life. (p.423)

And then he speculates, he says:

Perhaps from the iron snare there is escape:

Our mind perhaps deceives us with its words

And gives the name of doom to our own choice;

Perhaps the blindness of our will is Fate. (p.425)

But Narad answered not; silent he sat,

Knowing that words are vain and Fate is lord. (p.423)

Unlike the rest of us, for whom so much is unseen, Narad “looked into the unseen with seeing eyes” (p.423) But her he pretends he does not know where Savitri went. And he asks: “What was her mission, where has she come from? And who has she met.” The king explains that Savitri went forth to seek her own lord. And he says to her:

Virgin who comest perfected by joy,

Reveal the name thy sudden heart-beats learned.

Whom hast thou chosen, kingliest among men? (p.424)

And Savitri answers, speaking calmly, speaking like one who “speaks beneath the eyes of Fate”. And she explains that she has met Satyavan, the son of Dyumatsena, the once-mighty king who has lost his kingdom and is now living in exile in the wilderness. She says, “My father, I have chosen. This is done.” (p.424)

Whatever her parents might have expected her to say, it certainly was not this. Everybody is astonished. Aswapati looks within, and he sees a heavy shadow floating over the name of Satyavan. But it is chased “by a sudden and stupendous light” (p.424).

Aswapati is a great yogi. He has seen and learned much about life that most men never know. And now that he has had this inner vision of the great light, he approves his daughter's choice. He says:

Our destiny is written in double terms:

Through Nature’s contraries we draw nearer God;

Out of the darkness we still grow to light. (p.424)

But he's still a loving parent, and when Narad starts to speak, he asks Narad not to impose the dire ordeal of foreknowledge – the knowledge of the fate that Narad can see for his daughter. And he says that Narad should speak only if he can loosen the grip of fate. “[A]nd Narad answered not the king.” (p.425) He remained silent.

At the beginning of Savitri, in Book One, Canto I, when Sri Aurobindo first introduces us all to Savitri, he says:

A dark foreknowledge separated her

From all of whom she was the star and stay (p.8)

So now we know that this is the foreknowledge. We know that Savitri has gone through the dire ordeal of foreknowledge, which her father didn't want for her.

Now we are in “The Book of Fate”. And we're coming closer to Sri Aurobindo's teachings about fate and doom in this canto. In these few pages of today, people mention ‘fate’ 8 times. And they mention ‘doom’ 3 times. One of the major themes that Sri Aurobindo returns to again and again in Savitri is fate. Fate, and how we are not ruled by our fate. He wrote a whole book on the subject: it's called The Problem of Rebirth.

Close to the beginning of the book, in the chapter on rebirth, we find this statement:

“And what of suffering and happiness, misfortune and prosperity? These are experiences of the soul in its training, helps, props, means, disciplines, tests, ordeals, — and prosperity often a worse ordeal than suffering. Indeed, adversity, suffering may often be regarded rather as a reward to virtue than as a punishment for sin, since it turns out to be the greatest help and purifier of the soul struggling to unfold itself.”

Also throughout Savitri, Sri Aurobindo introduces us to the forces that move us – the very great forces that shape destinies. And here, Aswapati has asked, “must fire always test the great of soul?” (p.423). The Divine Mother has taken birth as Savitri; she's taken on a human body. A human body for a divine work. She came here to bear the human condition, in order to change us.

And back in Book One, Canto II, Sri Aurobindo wrote about one of the great cosmic forces that shape us, and how it shaped Savitri. He says:

One dealt with her who meets the burdened great.

Assigner of the ordeal and the path

Who chooses in this holocaust of the soul

Death, fall and sorrow as the spirit’s goads,

The dubious godhead with his torch of pain

Lit up the chasm of the unfinished world

And called her to fill with her vast self the abyss.

August and pitiless in his calm outlook,

Heightening the Eternal’s dreadful strategy,

He measured the difficulty with the might

And dug more deep the gulf that all must cross.

Assailing her divinest elements,

He made her heart kin to the striving human heart

And forced her strength to its appointed road. (p.17)

Here is a clear answer. Yes: the great of soul have a great work to do, and they are tested with fire – often with great fire.

Mother taught that each one of us comes into this life with a particular difficulty to be overcome. It is part of why we take birth. It is our particular contribution to evolution. It is a destiny that we have chosen. Yet farther on, Narad will say, “Man can accept his fate, he can refuse.” (p.458) And then he goes on, and in that speech there are phrases which say the same thing that Sri Aurobindo says in The Problem of Rebirth. He says:

The spirit rises mightier by defeat;

Its splendid failures sum to victory. (p.458)

He also says:

O man, the events that meet thee on thy road,

Are not thy fate, — they touch thee awhile and pass;

Thy goal, the road thou choosest are thy fate. (p.458)

In Book One, Canto II, Sri Aurobindo has shown us Savitri's choice and goal. He uses magnificent words. He says:

But one stood up and lit the limitless flame. (p.18)

Her head she bowed not to the stark decree

In her own self she found her high recourse;

She matched with the iron law her sovereign right:

Her single will opposed the cosmic rule.

To stay the wheels of Doom this greatness rose. (p.19)

Across the awful march no eye can see,

Barring its dreadful route no will can change,

She faced the engines of the universe;

A heart stood in the way of the driving wheels:

Its giant workings paused in front of a mind,

Its stark conventions met the flame of a soul. (p.20)

This is what everyone does, what everyone has to do, on their path of progress. Those who are doing yoga are consciously trying to get beyond being ruled by the old, fixed ways of nature and the universe. But even people who aren't interested in yoga, who don't think about a faster evolution, are going through this process.

Here, we read it in the story about kings and queens, and gods and divine beings. But it all finally comes down to us – to every human being who takes birth to go through human life and progress here on earth.

Mother explained that Earth is a special planet. It has been created to be the first place for the transformation: the start of change. Once it is accomplished here, it will happen in the universe; and when it has happened in the universe, it will happen in the whole cosmos.

Sri Aurobindo tells us that he is really writing for us in subtle ways. Here in this part of the canto, even thought Savitri's father and mother are a king and queen, they speak like any loving and concerned parents would speak, if they were worried about something that might come to hurt their beloved child. The king has asked Narad to remain silent if he cannot help his daughter. But the queen, Savitri's mother, has understood that there may be some problems waiting for their child, if she marries this boy that she has met on the edge of a far forest. Like her husband, she also asks Narad to use his celestial voice to sing about joy, for this conjunction of the two young people. She asks for his blessing to put the immortal's seal on their happiness and life. She says:

Here drag not in the peril of our thoughts,

Let not our words create the doom they fear. (p.426)

And she speaks of the unseen blow from the hidden whip of fate, and the dark shadow that makes men's hearts fear to be too happy on earth. And she asks Narad to please tell her “If wings of Evil brood above that house” (p.426) of Satyavan's family, so they can avoid getting entangled in the doom of an alien fate.

We are in high drama, told in classic language in a beautiful way. And Narad answers with a sad truth said in a poetic way:

What help is in prevision to the driven?

Safe doors cry opening near, the doomed pass on. (p.426)

Then he speaks about fate, and how man knows not even what his lips will speak, because a mysterious power compels his steps, and life is stronger than his trembling soul. He says:

None can refuse what the stark Force demands:

Her eyes are fixed upon her mighty aim;

No cry or prayer can turn her from her path.

She has leaped an arrow from the bow of God. (p.427)

So, “The Book of Fate”, “The Word of Fate”. We are here in the throne room of the great palace; Aswapati is speaking to the divine seer. He says...

…
As grows the great and golden bounteous tree
Flowering by Alacananda’s murmuring waves,
Where with enamoured speed the waters run
Lisping and babbling to the splendour of morn	p.423
And cling with lyric laughter round the knees
Of heaven’s daughters dripping magic rain
Pearl-bright from moon-gold limbs and cloudy hair,
So are her dawns like jewelled leaves of light,
So casts she her felicity on men.
A flame of radiant happiness she was born
And surely will that flame set earth alight:
Doom surely will see her pass and say no word!
But too often here the careless Mother leaves
Her chosen in the envious hands of Fate:
The harp of God falls mute, its call to bliss
Discouraged fails mid earth’s unhappy sounds;
The strings of the siren Ecstasy cry not here
Or soon are silenced in the human heart.
Of sorrow’s songs we have enough: bid once
Her glad and griefless days bring heaven here.
Or must fire always test the great of soul?
Along the dreadful causeway of the Gods,
Armoured with love and faith and sacred joy,
A traveller to the Eternal’s house,
Once let unwounded pass a mortal life.”
But Narad answered not; silent he sat,
Knowing that words are vain and Fate is lord.
He looked into the unseen with seeing eyes,
Then, dallying with the mortal’s ignorance
Like one who knows not, questioning, he cried:
“On what high mission went her hastening wheels?
Whence came she with this glory in her heart
And Paradise made visible in her eyes?
What sudden God has met, what face supreme?”
To whom the king, “The red asoca watched
Her going forth which now sees her return.
Arisen into an air of flaming dawn
Like a bright bird tired of her lonely branch,
To find her own lord, since to her on earth
He came not yet, this sweetness wandered forth	p.424
Cleaving her way with the beat of her rapid wings.
Led by a distant call her vague swift flight
Threaded the summer morns and sunlit lands.
The happy rest her burdened lashes keep
And these charmed guardian lips hold treasured still.
Virgin who comest perfected by joy,
Reveal the name thy sudden heart-beats learned.
Whom hast thou chosen, kingliest among men?”
And Savitri answered with her still calm voice
As one who speaks beneath the eyes of Fate:
“Father and king, I have carried out thy will.
One whom I sought I found in distant lands;
I have obeyed my heart, I have heard its call.
On the borders of a dreaming wilderness
Mid Shalwa’s giant hills and brooding woods
In his thatched hermitage Dyumatsena dwells,
Blind, exiled, outcast, once a mighty king.
The son of Dyumatsena, Satyavan,
I have met on the wild forest’s lonely verge.
My father, I have chosen. This is done.”
Astonished, all sat silent for a space.
Then Aswapati looked within and saw
A heavy shadow float above the name
Chased by a sudden and stupendous light;
He looked into his daughter’s eyes and spoke:
“Well hast thou done and I approve thy choice.
If this is all, then all is surely well;
If there is more, then all can still be well.
Whether it seem good or evil to men’s eyes,
Only for good the secret Will can work.
Our destiny is written in double terms:
Through Nature’s contraries we draw nearer God;
Out of the darkness we still grow to light.
Death is our road to immortality.
‘Cry woe, cry woe,’ the world’s lost voices wail,
Yet conquers the eternal Good at last.”	p.425
Then might the sage have spoken, but the king
In haste broke out and stayed the dangerous word:
“O singer of the ultimate ecstasy,
Lend not a dangerous vision to the blind
Because by native right thou hast seen clear.
Impose not on the mortal’s tremulous breast
The dire ordeal that foreknowledge brings;
Demand not now the Godhead in our acts.
Here are not happy peaks the heaven-nymphs roam
Or Coilas or Vaicountha’s starry stair:
Abrupt, jagged hills only the mighty climb
Are here where few dare even think to rise;
Far voices call down from the dizzy rocks,
Chill, slippery, precipitous are the paths.
Too hard the gods are with man’s fragile race;
In their large heavens they dwell exempt from Fate
And they forget the wounded feet of man,
His limbs that faint beneath the whips of grief,
His heart that hears the tread of time and death.
The future’s road is hid from mortal sight:
He moves towards a veiled and secret face.
To light one step in front is all his hope
And only for a little strength he asks To meet the riddle of his shrouded fate.
Awaited by a vague and half-seen force,
Aware of danger to his uncertain hours
He guards his flickering yearnings from her breath;
He feels not when the dreadful fingers close
Around him with the grasp none can elude.
If thou canst loose her grip, then only speak.
Perhaps from the iron snare there is escape:
Our mind perhaps deceives us with its words
And gives the name of doom to our own choice;
Perhaps the blindness of our will is Fate.”
He said and Narad answered not the king.
But now the queen alarmed lifted her voice:	p.426
“O seer, thy bright arrival has been timed
To this high moment of a happy life;
Then let the speech benign of griefless spheres
Confirm this blithe conjunction of two stars
And sanction joy with thy celestial voice.
Here drag not in the peril of our thoughts,
Let not our words create the doom they fear.
Here is no cause for dread, no chance for grief
To raise her ominous head and stare at love.
A single spirit in a multitude,
Happy is Satyavan mid earthly men
Whom Savitri has chosen for her mate,
And fortunate the forest hermitage
Where leaving her palace and riches and a throne
My Savitri will dwell and bring in heaven.
Then let thy blessing put the immortals’ seal
On these bright lives’ unstained felicity
Pushing the ominous Shadow from their days.
Too heavy falls a Shadow on man’s heart;
It dares not be too happy upon earth.
It dreads the blow dogging too vivid joys,
A lash unseen in Fate’s extended hand,
The danger lurking in fortune’s proud extremes,
An irony in life’s indulgent smile,
And trembles at the laughter of the gods.
Or if crouches unseen a panther doom,
If wings of Evil brood above that house,
Then also speak, that we may turn aside
And rescue our lives from hazard of wayside doom
And chance entanglement of an alien fate.”
And Narad slowly answered to the queen:
“What help is in prevision to the driven?
Safe doors cry opening near, the doomed pass on.
A future knowledge is an added pain,
A torturing burden and a fruitless light
On the enormous scene that Fate has built.	p.427
The eternal poet, universal Mind,
Has paged each line of his imperial act;
Invisible the giant actors tread
And man lives like some secret player’s mask.
He knows not even what his lips shall speak.
For a mysterious Power compels his steps
And life is stronger than his trembling soul.
None can refuse what the stark Force demands:
Her eyes are fixed upon her mighty aim;
No cry or prayer can turn her from her path.
She has leaped an arrow from the bow of God.”

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