B1 C2 Movement 4 Passage-by-Passage Summary
Opening Remarks
It is against the background of the present human predicament that Sri Aurobindo reveals to us the divine personality of Savitri. She is the limitless aspiration in Nature that ever seeks to exceed herself. She is the embodiment of the Divine Will in man that works through the ages to bring down and establish here upon Earth Light and Peace and Bliss and Immortality. She embodies the aspiration of the Ages and has come armed with the Divine Power to realize it. She is the victorious power of the Supreme that has come to win the victory for man. She is the Supreme Love which alone can transform earthly nature; She is verily the embodiment of Divine Grace that works unseen in creation.
The flame of aspiration
But one stood up and lit the limitless flame.
It is aspiration that opens the door and prepares the human vessel to overpass our human destiny and free us from slavery to circumstances and liberate us from Ignorance. But to be fully effective this aspiration must be constant and all-embracing, ‘limitless’ so to say. Savitri lights up this flame in man, the flame of endless ascension.
Her head She bowed not
Arraigned by the dark Power that hates all bliss
In the dire court where life must pay for joy,
Sentenced by the mechanic justicer
To the afflicting penalty of man’s hopes, (page 19 begins)
Her head she bowed not to the stark decree
Baring her helpless heart to destiny’s stroke
But there is the Inconscient that drags creation back to the abyss and holds it captive to Darkness and Unconsciousness and Falsehood and Death. It does not allow man to escape from its dark net. It hates Light and Love and Peace and all that fosters and nurtures the growing divinity. It obstructs all upward effort by throwing doubt and despair, painting the image of a dismal world. It is this that must be tackled for the true and enduring victory of the Divine. Savitri has come down to establish this Victory upon Earth and in humanity. Therefore She must face the powers that deny the possibility of Divine Life for man.
The mind-born will in man
So bows and must the mind-born will in man
Obedient to the statutes fixed of old,
Admitting without appeal the nether gods.
The true will in man is a delegate of the Divine Will and hence is all-powerful, but it is clouded by the mind and distorted in its action by the desire-self. Therefore we become subject to the forces of Ignorance and Falsehood that wish to continue the old ways of life. We must learn to discern and not admit the forces of lower nature, if we wish to become instruments of the New Consciousness upon Earth that seeks to establish a diviner way of life here.
The Superhumanity of the future
In her the superhuman cast its seed.
Savitri has come to carry humanity one step forward, to the superhumanity of tomorrow, which shall be free from Ignorance, error, weakness and the limitations of today. She bears within her and nourishes the seeds of the future by the Light and Love that she has brought down to Earth.
Mighty wings of dream
Inapt to fold its mighty wings of dream
Her spirit refused to hug the common soil,
Or, finding all life’s golden meanings robbed,
Compound with earth, struck from the starry list,
Or quench with black despair the God-given light.
Though every human being carries within himself a divine portion which dreams of Truth and Beauty and Good, this divine seed, the soul, is not developed and strong enough to influence and mould nature. Stuck in the mud of an inferior nature, it either pactises with it, forgetting its divine origin, or else, seeing the ugliness and falsehood around humanity, is overpowered with despair, finding no issue out of this life. Savitri has come to reverse this balance and affirm the Spirit’s power over circumstances.
Patched not with failure
Accustomed to the eternal and the true,
Her being conscious of its divine founts
Asked not from mortal frailty pain’s relief,
Patched not with failure bargain or compromise
In search for various remedies to the problem of suffering and pain, mankind has discovered several temporary and partial methods. These help us momentarily but the problem comes up again since the roots are left intact. But Savitri, who knows the Truth and is conscious of her divinity, wants a total victory, a radical remedy and not a temporary personal solution.
A work she had to do
A work she had to do, a word to speak:
Writing the unfinished story of her soul
In thoughts and actions graved in Nature’s book,
She accepted not to close the luminous page,
Cancel her commerce with eternity,
Or set a signature of weak assent
To the brute balance of the world’s exchange
Savitri has come to fulfill the Divine Impulsion in man. She has come to successfully fight the great battle of the Future, which seeks to be born, against a past that endures. She has come to write the story of creation embedded in her soul. By her thoughts and deeds she has come to establish a new standard of life, a life based on Truth and Freedom and unity and Light, thereby liberating the world from its slavery to falsehood and Ignorance.
A force in her toiled since the earth
A force in her that toiled since earth was made,
Accomplishing in life the great world-plan,
Pursuing after death immortal aims,
Repugned to admit frustration’s barren role,
Forfeit the meaning of her birth in Time,
Obey the government of the casual fact
Or yield her high destiny up to passing Chance
It is not once but several times that the Divine Mother has taken birth upon earth since its very inception. Each time something has been done, one step forward has been taken. Admitting neither failure nor defeat as final, in the great battle against forces that oppose the world march, she has labored upon earth since its formation and toiled to bring down here all the Glories of a divine creation. Once again she resumes this work as the incarnate Divine.
Closing remarks
Thus we see a glimpse of the inner life of Savitri, an incarnation of the Divine Mother. Armed with the victorious power of Truth, she has come to win the victory for earth and humanity. Though She is human in appearance, Her deeds well from a superhuman source and leave footprints of the incarnate Divine along whose tracks the future will walk.
