Opening Remarks

B1 C1 Opening Remarks

Dawn, as the Master-poet suggests, is a symbol. Ordinarily, that is to say, materially, physically, it is the herald of a new day. However it is also a symbol of Hope, the advent of Light and Illumination, at once physical and psychological, as well as spiritual. It reveals to the downcast that however thick the night may be, the day is sure to arrive. However dense our Ignorance may be, the awakening is sure to come one day. The Vedic seers saw in dawn the twin symbol of luminous force and the felicity that such an inner illumination brings.

It may be useful to remember that Savitri is very much a Veda in its own right, not only in its use of Vedic imagery but also and more importantly, the poet here is also a Creator of living truths. He expresses what he has seen by his soul-vision and experienced as his soul-state. The words therefore become a mantra, they are not just expressions of intellectual abstractions but carry within them the state of consciousness of the Poet himself and can impart to those, who are open and ready, something of that high spiritual state that the Master-poet embodied and has poured out through a body of words. It can awaken in us the lost memory of previous spiritual efforts of mankind, and kindle in us the aspiration towards the future. Thus seen, it not only ranks as sublime poetry, but a spiritual, a mystic poetry, a revelatory poem to be received with a subtle intelligence and an inner ear tuned to mystic truths.

Sri Aurobindo seems to use this ancient symbol in an even more powerful way by linking the birth of Dawn to the waking up of Savitri on this fateful day, when she must confront the mystery and enigma of Death, take on the challenge of the night of human Ignorance and the harsh law that binds all life to doom. Savitri, the emanation of the Divine Mother, is the harbinger of the New Dawn that she must establish upon Earth.

Of course, this dawn being described here is also and at once the dawn proceeding the day, when Satyavan is destined to die, as well as the dawn of a New Hope and Light and Power upon Earth that Savitri is destined to bring about. However as we proceed through the magical lines, we also notice that there is not one but many successive dawns that have followed previously. Each time a civilisation is plunged into darkness, dawn comes to rescue it out of the state of fall and with it comes a rapid recovery of all that was lost, and a renewed attempt to fill this world with Light and Truth and the Bliss that hides behind the veils of Ignorance.