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CHAPTER - X

SRI AUROBINDO'S 'SAVITRP AS A MEANS OF

SADHANA IN HIS YOGA

Savitri is an extremely significant contribution of Sri Aurobindo

not only to English literature, but more so to the Indian spirituality

and yoga as well. It is very significant to note that Sri Aurobindo

wrote 'Savitri' after all his magnificent contribution of over 5000 pages

of pure philosophy in the 'Arya' Journal, which include all his major

works like the Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Secret of the

Veda, Psychology of Social Development, Essays on the Gita the Ideal

of Human Unity, etc. For all these over 5000 pages of valuable

philosophy to write he took less than 8 years from 1914 to 1921. But

it is surprising that he took more than half of his life time to write

Savitri. A similar comparable instance that can be quoted from the

Indian philosophical literature is only that of Sri Veda Vyasa, who it

is said wrote Bhagavata, after all the Vedas, (work of compiling and

classifying all the Vedas systematically), and all the 18 Puranas and a

great epic Mahabharata (including the Gita) to his credit. It is said

that he commenced writing on Savitri some where in the first decade

on 19'*̂ century when he was in Baroda, but after writing and

rewriting several times he could only complete it jus t few days or

months before he had to leave his physical body in 1950. That is to

say that it has passed through all the levels of his assension in his

yoga sadhEina. Therefore 'Savitri' is a record of his yoga of

transformation. As Sri Aurobindo himself has said "I used Savitri as a

means of assension. I began with it on a certain mental level; each

time 1 could reach a higher level I wrote from that level. In fact Savitri

has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished,

but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be

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written from ones own yogic consciousness and how that could be

made creative."'

In this Savitri he has converted a simple tale into a poem of

humanity uplifted by the Divine Grace from darkness to light, from

death to immortality.

The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata

as a story of conjugal love conquering death. But this legend is, as

shown by many features of the human tale, one of the many symbolic

myths of the vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine

truth of being within itself, but desended into the grip of death and

ignorance. Savitri is the Divine word, daughter of the sun, goddess of

Supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save. Aswapathi the

Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the

concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour, that helps u s to rise from

the mortal to the immortal planes. Dyumatsena, Lord of the Shining

Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Devine Mind here fallen blind, losing

its celestrial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom of

glory. Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not

personified qualities, but incarnations or emanations of living and

conscious forces with whom we can enter into concrete touch and

they take human bodies in order to help man and show him the way

from his mortal state to a divine consciousnesses and immortal life.

The Sheer immensity of the poem, its grandeur and creative

power surpass our highest imagination. Sri Aurobindo's own vast

experience in the occult and mystic domains is transcribed here in

authentic mantric language, which according to him, will be language

of the future poetry as it was that of the Vedas and the Upanishads.

To quote in the Mother's words. "He has crammed the whole universe

in a single book. It is a marvelous magnificent work and of an

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incomparable perfection.... It is a revelation, a meditation and seeking

of the infinite and the Eternal. Each verse of Savitri is like a mantra

which surpasses man's entire knowledge. Everything is there :

Mysticism, occultism, philosophy, history of evolution, history of

man, gods of the creation and of Nature.... Savitri is the spiritual path,

the Tapasya the Sadhana... It has an extraordinary power, it is the

Truth in all its plenitude that he has brought down here on earth.''2

Sri Aurobindo has encompassed all the three worlds. Heaven,

Earth and the Under worlds in his wide penetrating vision. Dr.

Raymond Frank piper a professor of philosophy in Syracuse university

says about 'Savitri' that "It has already inaugurated the New Age of

Illumination and is probably the greatest epic in English language.,

the most comprehensive, integrated, beautiful and perfect cosmic

poem ever composed. It ranges symbolically from primordial cosmic

void, through earth's darkness and struggles, to the highest realms of

supramental spiritual existence and illumines every important

concern of man, through verse of unparalleled massiveness,

magnificence and metaphorical brilliance. Savitri is perhaps the

most powerful artistic work in the world for expanding man's mind

towards the Absolute. We can say that it is the prophetic message of

the divinised earth and man's God-like possibility."^

The glory that is going to happen on the earth in the future has

been narrated by Sri Aurobindo. According to him this is not merely

an ideal, but a fact, that is going to be accomplished in the future. Sri

Aurobindo believes in a transpiring fact and not in an un

accomplished ideal. It is not an Utopia, and Sri Aurobindo confirms

this in a powerful manner in the following quotation from Savitri.

"For in the march of all - fulfilling Time

The hour must come of the Transcendent's will.

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The frontier of the Ignorance shall recede,

More and more souls shall enter into light,

Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner here

And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame

And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight

And human wills tune to the divine will..

A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell

And take the charge of breath and speech and act

And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns

And every feeling a celestial thrill...

Thus shall the earth open to divinity

And common natures feel the wide uplift.

Illumine common acts with the spirits' ray

And meet the deity in common things.

Nature shall live to manifest secret God,

The spirit shall take up the human play.

This earthly life become the life divine."''

Sri Aurobindo calls it a "legend and a symbol." Many are

familiar with the legend of Savitri which appears in the great epic

Mahabharata. In the Vanaparva of Mahabharat the legend appears

barely in around 700 lines, whereas Sri Aurobindo has expanded this

narration to cover nearly 24 thousand lines, which testifies Sri

Aurobindo's fantastic poetic ability.

He has not deviated from the basic legend, but in expanding

the lengendary story Sri Aurobindo has transformed the legend into a

symbol. Sri Aurobindo like a great mystic as he has been, has

transformed the legend into a symbol of the New Dawn. The entire

epic is indeed a poem of the New Dawn. The Dawn which the epic

depicts is the dawn of a New Consciousness, for man must rise above

the mind if he is to find solutions to the many baffling problems of

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life. The consciousness of man cribbed, and confined within the

narrow space of mind cannot solve the perplexing problems with

which he is faced today. The hope for humanity lies in the dawn of a

new consciousness. In the long and arduous Journey of Aswapathi,

the father of Savitri, we come across the gropings of the mind in

search of a new consciousness. In the birth of Savitri we see the

fulfillment of the promise, indicating the arrival of the New Dawn, the

descent of the New consciousness.

There is a detailed description of Aswapathi Travelling into

several occult worlds during the course of his formidable Tapasya for

over several years. The occult world is only an extension of the world

in which we live. Ashvapati's movement into the occult world is a

movement from the Kshara to the Akshara - from the Perishable to

the Imperishable. But these are only the opposites. There must be

something that transcends the opposites. Bhagavad Gita calls it the

Purushottama or the Purusa. Ashvapati must get the secret

knowledge that is in the keeping of the Gods.

"But the world of man and the world of the gods are the two

opposites of creation. The Seen and the Unseen worlds are like the two

poles. Stepping out of the meaninglessness of the Seen world, one

naturally feels like exploring the Unseen, for, perchance, one may find

there an answer to one's unceasing query. One must explore the two

opposites for without this exploration one cannot know what the

Transcendental Purusa is. While Man is restless, Gods are unmoved.

The unmoved gods many a time seem too cold and aloof. They seem

by their coldness to deny the world. Can the answer to life's query be

found by denying the world? Neither in indulgence nor in denial must

lie the answer. Ashvapati negated the indulgence of the world, he

must come to the negation of world-denial too. But for this he must

know the ways of the gods. And that is what he attempts to do as he

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moves into worlds hidden and invisible. But Sri Aurobindo indicates

as to what he may find. He says in the following lines,

Careless they seem of the grief that stings the world's heart;

Careless of the pain that rends its body and life;

Above joy and sorrow is that grandeur's walk;

They have no portion in the good that dies;

Mute, pure, they share not in the evil done;

Else might their strength be marred and could not save

Undriven by a brief life's will to act,

Unharassed by the spur of pity and fear.

He makes no haste to untie the cosmic knot

Or the world's torn jarring heart to reconcile."s

From the identification of man to the aloofness of the gods - this

seems to be the journey from the Seen to the Unseen realms. Having

known man's identification, Ashvapatiy must know the aloofness of

the gods too. As the poet says in the above lines the gods make no

haste to untie the cosmic knot nor to reconcile the world's torn

jarring hearts. They seek to remain aloof lest their strength be

marred. The gods would rather have the Law take its own course

than that they interfere in its working. If man is a slave to Fate, Gods

seem to be slaves to Law. There must be something greater than the

Law but this cannot be found in the realm of the Gods. Sri Aurobindo

says :

" a spiritual secret aid is there;

while a tardy Evolution's coils wind on,

and Nature hews her way through adamant.

A divine intervention thrones above."^

This throne above is indeed of the Purusa who transcends, the

Kashara and also the Akshara, he is beyond man and also beyond the

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gods. He is to be found not through occult knowledge but through

mystic communion. About the Purusa, Sri Aurobindo says:

"One who has shaped this world is ever its lord:

Our errors are his steps upon the way;

He works through the fierce vicissitudes of our lives,

He works through the hard breath of battle and toil;

He works through our sins and sorrows and our tears.

He is the Maker and the world he made,

He is the Vision and he is the seer;

He is himself the actor and the act;

He is himself the knower and the known.

He is himself the dreamer and the dream."^

The mystery of life is not with the gods but with Him who is both

Immanent and Transcendent. It is in the Lila or the Play of the Purusa

and the Prakriti that one can unravel the mystery of life as also of

death.

The secret of life as well as of death is to be found neither in the

indulgence of man nor in the aloofness of the gods. The introduction

of the word, 'gods' by Sri Aurobindo has its own significance. 'Gods'

are not necessarily certain entities living on invisible planes of the

universe; they are indicative of certain states of consciousness. Man

is lost in the indulgence of participation, and gods are committed to a

state of aloofness. In the first we see the factor of unrighteousness

while in the second we see the element of self-righteousness. Man is

eternally concerned with the problems of unrighteousness, of fighting

the evil. But the factor that operates in the lives of the gods is that of

self-righteousness. The creator of the universe is neither lost in the

indulgence of his own creation, nor is he aloof from his creation,

standing away as a neutral being, watching the movement of creation.

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He is not jus t a participant nor is he jus t a witness of his creation.

He is a participant and a witness at the same time. This is the

dynamic concept of the Creator that Sri Aurobindo places before u s in

his Savitri. The relationship between the Creator and his Creation is a

living relationship. The Creator is not one who is resting on his oars

after having brought creation into existence. He is not jus t watching

his creation from a distance. He is all the time present in his creation,

and yet he is away from it. He is both near and far; he is both

immanent and transcendent; He is nirguna and saguna at the same

time. Sri Aurobindo has portrayed this dynamic relationship of the

Creator with his Creation in his reference to the play of the Purusa

and Prakriti. He says;

"He knows her only, he has forgotten himself;

To her he abandons all to make her great

He hopes in her to find himself anew

Incarnate, wedding his infinity's peace

To her creative passion's ecstasy."*

Sri Surobindo has described the play of Purusa and Prakriti as

the play of the Lover and the Beloved. His conception of Godhead is in

terms of the Creator pervading the Creation. The Creator willingly

accepts the limitations of creation. This is known in Hindu

philosophy as the Eternal Sacrifice of God. The Bhagavad Gita says

that "the Eternal, the All-permeating, is ever present in sacrifice".

However, the word sacrifice does not convey the concept of Goodhead

which Sri Aurobindo has placed in his philosophy. In a relationship of

love one does not talk of sacrifice, and for Sri Aurobindo the

relationship of the Creator with his creations is that of love. What will

not the Lover do for his Beloved? As Sri Aurobindo says, "the Purusa

has forgotten himself, for, he abandons himself to make her great.

This dynamic relationship of Purusa and Prakriti is nowhere to be

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seen in Eastern or Western philosophy. Sri Aurobindo did not accept

the concept of Maya or Illusion. But even the traditional Lila-vada, the

doctrine of Play, does not completely explain what Sri Aurobindo

wishes to convey. The creation is not jus t the play of the Creator. In

play there is a certain amount of dualism. But Sri Aurobindo says :

"They are Two who are One". In Play one does not find those deeper

overtones of relationship which one associates with Love. And so

netiher the Mayavada of Sri Shankaracharya, nor the Lila-vada of Sri

Vallabhacharya can convey what Sri Aurobindo indicates in the

relationship of Two who are One. Love and Love alone can explain

this relationshiop between Purusa and Prakriti, between the Creator

and his Creation. It is the relationship of Krishna and Radha where

Krishna forgets himself in his love for Radha.^

Ashvapati was an intrepid traveler in sesirch of the secret of

Creative Living. The problem of Ashvapati, and, therefore, of the

entire humanity, has been expressed beautifully by the poet in just

one line. He says : "Our life is a paradox with God for key". Without

finding this key, our paradoxes cannot be resolved. And Ashvapati is

in search of this key. Having found the world of men as utterly

barren, he probes the plane of the gods, for, perchance the key to the

paradoxes may be found there. But even here it is not found, and so

he moves further to enquire from God Himself the meaning of his

Creation. The poet says :

"He has made this tenement of flesh his own;

His image in the human measure cast

That to his divine measure we might rise;

Then in a figure of divinity

The Maker shall recast u s and impose

A plan of godhead on the mortal's mould

Lifting our finite minds to his infinity

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Touching the moment with eternity;

This transfigurationis earth's due to heaven :

A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme;

His nature we must put on as he put ours."'"

Here the poet tells u s about Humanity transforming itself into

Divinity. But how will this be? Earth has a debt to discharge to

heaven, for, did not the Divine take the human form so that humanity

may reach perfection? How is the earth going to discharge this debt?

Man must ascend to the highest peaks of his perfection, for, thus

alone can he find the key that shall resolve the many paradoxes of his

life. For this man must discover the Creator in his vast Creation. Sri

Aurobindo says that Purusa forgot himself in Prakriti, but in the game

of hide and seek, Prakriti must re-discover Purusa, for, that is the

debt which Prakriti must discharge to Purusa. The poet tells us :

"He is the Player who became the play

He is the Thinker who became the thought;

He is the many who was the silent One."''

To re-discover the Player who became the play is the sublime

mission that animates Ashavapati in his long journey. He must

explore the greater world, and bring down to the suffering and

confused humanity a message of New Hope. And Ashvapati does

return to earth with a message from the Heaven. Mother Earth had

entrusted him with a mission. Did he know what that mission was.

And whither was he going for the fulfillment of that mission?

It is true that Ashvapati felt within himself a divine discontent.

Humanity seemed to him utterly barren and he cried out to earth for

humanity's redemption. And it is in answer to that cry that Mother

Earth sent him to a hazardous journey so that he may find the Elixir

of Life, but perhaps Ashvapati himself did not know what the nature

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of the journey would be and what would be his destination. Sri

Aurobindo says :

"Across the noise and multitudinous cry;

Across the rapt unknowlable silences,

Through a strange mid-world under supernal skies,

Beyond earth's longitudes and latitudes,

His goal is fixed outside all present maps

But none learns whither through the unknown he sails

Or what secret mission the great Mother gave.

In the hidden strength of her omnipotent Will,

Driven by her breath across life's tossing deep,

Through the thunder 's roar and through the windless hush,

Through fog and mist where nothing more is seen,

He carries her sealed orders in his breast.

Late will he know, opening the mystric script

Whether to a blank port in the Urseen

He goes or, armed with her fiat, to discover

A new mind and body in the city of God

And enshrine the Immortal in his glory's house

And make the finite one with Infinite."'^

Ashvapati undertakes the stupendous journey with the sealed

orders of the Mother Earth. He does not know what his mission is,

and whither is he going. But impelled by the inner discontent he goes

through the "thunder's roar and the windless hush, through fog and

mist where nothing more is seen". But there is the hidden strength of

the indomitable will of the Mother Earth, and it is this which is

impelling him to move on across life's tossing deep. Undaunted by

the strange and unknown forces, Ashapati carries on his journey.

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"To evoke a person in the impersonal Void

That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time.

For this he left his white infinity

And laid on the Spirit the burden of the flesh,

That Godhead's seed might flower in mindless Space."'^

The seed of Godhead can flower only in mindless Space. But for

this Ashvapati must come to the condition of absolute space, the

space not broken u p by mind. It is only then that he can understand

the Divine Purpose; only then can he resolve the Great Paradox of the

Immortal putting on mortality. This is not something which the mind

can understand. Along with many other things, Ashvapati must

negate mind itself, for, the mind can not go into the rarefied

atmosphere of the spirit. It is only by communing with the Divine

that the purpose of the Divine can be understood. But mind stands

as the greatest hurdle in the way of Communion. How does

Ashvapati negate the mind? Before the mind is negated, he must

know how the mind comes into being, the mind of man is the

product of Evolution, and so one must know the story of Evolution

before one can commune with the Mindless space where alone the

mystery of the eternal play of Purusa and Prakriti can be understood.

Through Ashvapati's journey, Sri Aurobindo has narrated the

fascinating story of Evolution, nor merely of forms but of life and

consciousness. And so we must travel with him, plane by plane, to

know the significance of Evolution. Evolution is a movement in Time.

We must know what this movement is, for, it is in this movement of

Time that one can feel the intangible presence of the Timeless. Then

shall we know why the Spirit took upon itself the burden of flesh, why

Divinity took its incarnation in humanity, why Freedom chose to

function in the campus of limitation.'''

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Sri Aurobindo emphasizes the importance of both science and

spirituality. However spiritual value should guide the scientific

achievement because mere science without spirituality is dangerous.

Savitri as a symbol, depicted by Sri Aurobindo has indeed great

relevance to the modern age. Ours is an age of the mind and its

unprecedented adventures. But strangely enough this civilization of

man is a witness to the triumph and tragedies of the mind at the same

time. Man has launched himself into outer space of universe, but he

remains an ut ter stranger to the inner spaces of consciousness. An

adventure into outer space without a mastery over inner space would

result in the utilization of scientific powers for the fulfillment of self

centered motives. To have scientific power without a spiritual insight

is a dangerous proposition. If science is not linked with spirituality,

then the future of humanity is dark and dismal. But such linking

cannot be done by the mind, for mind knows not what spiritual

insight is. It is only when the mind is inspired by a vision descending

from realms beyond mind that a spiritual insight can be vouchsafed

to man. There has to be a union of Heaven and Earth, so that in the

Earth consciousness comes the living touch of Heaven. This indeed is

the imperative need of today. The mind has created immense

problems. It is obvious that mind cannot solve them by its own efforts

and understanding. Into the mind of man must come the inspiring

presence of the supermind. The civilization of the mind is masculine

in its nature, not in the biological but in the psychological sense. It is

because of this that one sees in all its expressions and activities,

elements of aggressiveness, of argumentativeness, of arrogance, of

acquisitiveness of animal propensities. Into this masculine civilization

must come the touch of the feminine (not biological but psychological

feminity). In terms of consciousness man must be both masculine

and feminine simultaneously. The concept of Ardhanariswara is the

symbol of a perfectly integrated human being. Today in humanity we

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see only the masculine consciousness at work, whether in man or in

woman. This has caused wars and dissensions, conflicts and

divisions. It is due to this, that we see mind in the throes of a great

tragedy even in the hour of its most phenomenal triumph. If man

must save himself then the masculine consciousness must receive

inspiration and guidance of the feminine consciousness. It is in the

close association of masculine and feminine aspects of consciousness,

that there can arise the linking of science and spirituality.'s

In this regard it can be said that every man is both Shiva and

Shakti. Shiva bereft of Shakti and Shakti without Shiva can not be

possible according to Sri Aurobindo. One can be a Shiva or Shakti not

on the basis of presence or absence of static or dynamic aspect in

man, such a distinction is made on the predominance of these

aspects, and not on the presence or absence of them. One is Shiva

because the static aspect is predominant in him and the dynamic

aspects is subservient to static aspect. Similarly one is Shakti

because the dynamic aspect is predominant in him and the static

aspect is subservient to dynamic aspect. Sri Aurobindo differentiates

between biological and psychological distinction of male and female.

From the biological angle every creature is either male or female.

According to Sri Aurobindo no such radical distinction can be seen

among the creatures from the psychological perspective. Because

according to him every person - whatever be his biological status,

whether he is a male or female - is both masculine and feminine. The

distinction between male and female can be made not on the

biological level but on the basis of the predominance of the static or

dynamic aspect of the human being.

In this great epic Savitri, Sri Aurobindo speaks of the close

association of Savitri and Satyavan. They together can build heaven

on earth but not either of them singly. Satyavan alone is powerless.

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It is only when Savitri joins him that he is endowed with a sense of

immortality. Man must realize his immortality.

With the background of his profound spiritual experience. "The

legend of Savitri has become a symbol of great spiritual significance

under the poetic magic of Sri Aurobindo. In dealing with this subject

of symbol one has to understand very clearly its distinctiveness from

an image. A symbol and an image are not identical. An image is filled

with the projections of the mind and so when one looks at it, the

image returns what has been projected into it. But a symbol contains

nothing of the mind. It is like an open window, completely empty and

therefore capable of conveying the vision of transcendental reality.

Man seeks to transform symbols into images and then remains for

ever confined to the world of minds projections. But when he empties

images after images of his manifested world, then he begins to live in a

world of symbols. To transform the world of images into a world of

symbols, it demands a complete cessation of the interpreting and

projecting activities of the mind. The mind which is involved in its

own explanations can not know the significance of a symbol. The

symbol is a channel through which the refreshing waters from heaven

reach the earth irrigating the parched fields of logic and intellect. The

symbol opens the way to the descent of the Divine. Savitri as a

symbol is the communicating link between Heaven and Earth."'^

It is of interest to note that the writer Sri Mangesh Nadkarshi in

his brief introduction to Savitri relates 'Savitri' to other very

significant events of Indian philosophical and spiritual literatures like

Bhagavadgita and Bhagavata. "In an earlier Avatar the supreme Lord

revealed Bhagavadgita to Arjuna and for the likes of Arujuna. But

then he also played on his enchanting flute and produced a wonderful

melody which bewitched the souls of the simple gopis and enthralled

them and lifted them to the consciousness of oneness with Lord

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himself. The gopis did not have to make any effort save that of

abandoning themselves, surrendering themselves to the enchcinting

music of the Lords' flute. In his new Avatar what the supreme Lord

gave out in the Arya articles is the new Bhagavadgita, the new yoga of

the coming supramental age. And in his infinite compassion and

love for all of us , he felt something more was needed for the gopi souls

among us , the enchanting soul music of Savitri. Like the gopis of old

we need only abandon ourselves to the melody.the rhythm and the

mantric effect of Savitri, and we are sure to find ourselves transported

to higher and higher levels of consciouness. Savitri is Sri. Aurobindo's

grace abounding. It is the Mantra of the new yoga which Sri

Aurobindo and the Mother have brought down to earth".'^

Sri Krishnaprem a fine scholar and a great yogi recongnised the

profound significance of Savitri in these words " Savitri is

neither subjective fancy nor yet philosophical thought, but vision and

revelation of the actual inner structure of the cosmos, and of the

pilgrim of life within its sphere - Bhu, Bhuvar, Swar; the stairway of

the worlds reveals itself to our gaze - worlds of Light above, worlds of

Darkness below and we see also ever circling life. It is an omen of the

utmost significance and hope that in these years of darkness and

despire such a poem as Savitri should have appeared, let u s solute

the Dawn". 18

Lastly the Mother who is the supreme authority to speak about

Savitri has described time and again to the sadhaks of integral yoga

in detail as to how Savitri can be used as a means of Sadhana to

scale grater hights.

"Savitri is a revelation. It is a meditation, it is a quest of the

Infinite, the Eternal ... To read Savitri is indeed to practise Yoga,

spiritual concentration. One can find there all that is needed to

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realize the Divine. Each step of Yoga is found there, including the

serete of all other Yogas also. If one sincerely follows what is revealed

here in each verse, one will surely reach the transformation of the

Supramental Yoga. It is truly the infalliable guide, which never

abandons its support and is always there for him who wishes to follow

the path. Each verse of Savitri is like a revealed Mantra and 1 repeat

this. The words are expressed and arranged in such a way that the

sonority of the rhythm leads to the original sound which is OM.'''^

The Mother goes on to say : "'Savitri' is his whole Yoga of

Transformation, and this Yoga now comes for the first time to the

earth consciousness.... It is of immense spiritual value.... It is a

unique work and the more you come into contact with it the higher

will you be lifted. Ah! Truly it is something. It is the most beautiful

thing Sri Aurobindo has left for man, the highest possible.

'Savitri' alone is sufficient to make you cling to the highest rung

of the ladder. If you can truly meditate upon it, all the help one needs

will be found in it. For he who wishes to follow the path it is a

concrete help, as though the Lord Himself were taking you by the

hand and leading you to the destined goal. Every question, however

personal it be, has its answer here. For every difficulty there has been

traced the means of surmounting it. Indeed there is everything

necessary to perform the Yoga".20

He has crammed the whole universe into a single book. It is

marvelous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.

The Mother has also given u s guidance about how to read

Savitri. It is admittedly a difficult book. But the Mother encourages

u s to read it as part of our Sadhana in the following words.

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"It does not matter if you do not understand it, but read it

always. You will see that every time you read it there will be

something new revealed to you. Each time yoku will fmd something

new, each time a new experince But you must not read it as you

read other books or news papers. You must read it with an empty

head, a blank and vacant head, without there being any other

thought there. You must concentrate much, remain empty, calm and

open. Then the words, rhythms and vibrations will peretrate directly

through the printed page, will put their stamp upon the mind, will

explain themselves without your making any effort".21

"1 tell you", the Mother said, "who ever wishing to practise Yoga,

tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with

the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of the Yoga, will

be able to find the secret that Savitri represents and this without the

help of a guru. And he will be able to practise it anywhere.

Indeed Savitri is the supreme knowledge, above all philosophy,

all religions of man. It is a spiritual way. It is yoga, tapasya, sadhana

every thing in its single self. Savitri has extraordinary power; it gives

out vibrations to him who can receive them - the true vibrations of

each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is Truth in its

plenitude, the truth Sri Aurobindo brought down to earth."22