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7/24/2019 Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)
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SRI AUROBINDO
S A V I T R I
[ Book IV Canto IV ]
7/24/2019 Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)
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SRI AUROBINDO
S A V I T R I
Legend and a Symbol
I
Book
IV Canto IV ]
S RI A U R O B I N D O A S H R A M
P O N D I C H E R R Y
7/24/2019 Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)
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P U B L I S H E R S
:
S R I
A U R O B I N D O A S H R A M
P O N D I C
K E R R Y
Rights Reserved
F i r s t
Published in 95
58 2 51 500
SR I
A U R O B IN D O A SH R A M P R E S S P O N D I C H E R R Y
P R I N T E D I N
I N D I A .
7/24/2019 Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)
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OOK FOUR
Book
of irth and Quest
7/24/2019 Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)
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C A N T O
F O U R
T HE QUEST
npHE world-waysopened before Savitxi.
A t
first
astrangenessof new bril l iant scenes
Peopledher mind and kept her body sgaze.
But as she moved across the changing earth
A
deeper
consciousness welled up in her:
A citizen of many
scenes
and climes.
Each soil and country it has madeits home;
I t took all
clans
and
peoples
for her own.
T i l l the whole destiny of mankind washers.
Theseunfamiliar spaces on her way
Were known and neighbours to asensew i th in ;
Landscapes recurred Uke lost forgotten fields.
Cities and rivers and plains her vision claimed
Like slow-recurring memories in front,
The
stars
at night were her past s
bril l iant
friends.
The winds murmured to her of ancient things
A n d
she met
nameless comrades
loved by her once.
A l lwas a part of old forgotten selves.
Vaguely or
w i t h
a flash ofsudden hints
Heracts recalled a line of bygone power.
Even her motion spurposewas not new:
Traveller to a prefigured highevent.
She seemed to her remembering witness soul
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S A V I T R I
To trace again a journey often made.
A guidance turned the dumb
revolving
wheels
A n d in the
eager
body of theirspeed
The dim-masked hooded godheads rode who move
Assigned to man immutablyfrom his b i r th .
Receivers of the inner and outer law,
A t
once
the agents of his spirit s will
A n dwitnesses
and executors of his fate.
Inexorably faithful to their task,
They holdhisnature ssequencein their guard
Carrying the unbroken thread old Uves havespun.
Attendants on his destiny s measured walk
Leading
to joys he has won and pains he has called.
Even
in his casual steps they intervene.
Nothing
wethinkor do is
void
orvain;
Each is an energy loosed and holds its course.
The shadowykeepers of ourdeathless past
Havemadeour fate the cliild of our ownacts,
A n d from the furrows laboured by our will
Wereapthe
f rui t
of our forgottendeeds.
But sinceunseenthe treethat bore this f ruit
A nd we live in a presentbom from an imknownpast.
Theyseem but parts of
a
mechanic Force,
To
a mechanic mind tiedbyearth s laws;
Yetare they instruments of a
W i ll
supreme.
Watched by a still all-seeing Eye above.
A prescient architect ofFateandChance
Whobuilds our lives on a foreseen design
The meaning knows and consequenceof each step
A n d
watches the inferior stumbling powers.
Uponher silent heights she was aware
O fa calmPresence throned above her brows
Whosaw the goal andchose each fateful curve;
I t
used the body for its pedestal.
Theeyes that wandered were its searchlight fires,
Thehands that held the reins its l iving tools;
A llwas the
working
of an ancient plan,
A way prepared by an unerring Guide.
[P ge Two]
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B O O K IV C A N T O IV
Across wide noons andglowing afternoons.
She met w i t h Nature and w i t h human forms
A n dlistened to the voices of the world;
Driven
from
w i th i n she followed her
long
road.
Mute in the luminous cavern of her heart.
Like
a
bright cloud
through the resplendent day.
A t
first her path ran far through peopled tracts:
Admitted to the
lion
eye ofStates
A n d theatresof the loudact of man,
Her carven chariotw i th its fretted wheels
Threaded through clamorous marts and sentinel towers
Pastfiguredgates and high dream-sculptured fronts
A ndgardenshung in the sapphire of the skies.
Pillared
assembly halls
w i th
armoured guards.
Smallfaneswhere one calm Image watchedman s life
A nd temples hewn as i byexiledgods
To mitate their lost eternity.
Often from gilded
dusk to argent dawn
Where jewel-lamps flickeredon frescoed walls
A nd the stonelattice stared atmoonlit boughs.
Half-conscious of the tardy listening night
Dimly she glided between banks of sleep
A t
rest in the slumberingpalacesof kings.
Hamletandvillagesaw the fate-vanpass,
Homes of a life bent to the soilit ploughs
For
sustenance
of its short and passing days
That, transient, keep their old repeated course
Unchanging in the circle of a sky
Which alters not above our mortal
toil.
Away
from
thisthinking creature s burdened hours
To free and griefless spaces now she turned
Notyet perturbed by human joys and fears.
Here was the childhood ofprimevalearth.
Here timeless musings large and glad and still.
Menhad forborne as yet to i l l w i t h
cares.
Imperialacres of the eternal sower
A nd
wind-stirred
grass-lands
winking
in the sun:
Ormid green musing of woods and rough-browed
hills.
[Page Three}
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S A V I T R I
I n
the grove s murmurous bee-air humming
wild
Or pastthe longlapsing voice of
silver
floods
Likea swift hope journeyingamong its dreams
Hastened the chariot of the golden bride.
Out of the world s immense unhumanpast
Tract-memories and
ageless
remnants came,
Domains of hght enfeoffed to an antique calm
Listened to the unaccustomed sound of hooves
A n d large immune entangled silences
Absorbed
her into emerald secrecy
A n d slow hushed wizardnetsof faery bloom
Environed w i t h their coloured
snare
her wheels.
The strong importunate feet of
Time
fell soft
Alongtheselonelyways, histitanpace
Forgotten and his stark and ruinous rounds.
The inner ear that listens to solitude.
Leaningself-rapt unboundedlycould
hear
The rhythmof the intenser wordless Thought
That
gathersin the silence behind hfe.
A nd the low sweet inarticulate voice of earth
I n the great passion of her sun-kissed trance
Ascended
w i th
its yearning undertone.
Afar
from
the brute noise of clamorous
needs
The quieted aU-seekingmind could feel.
A t rest from itsb l ind outwardness of
wiU,
The unwearied clasp of her mute patient love
A n dknow for a soul the mother of our forms.
This spirit stumbling in the fields of
sense,
Thiscreature bruised in the mortar of the days
Could find in her broad spaces ofrelease.
Notyet was a world all occupied by care.
The bosom of our mother kept for us
still
Heraustereregions and her musing depths.
Her
impersonal
reaches lonely
and inspired
A nd the mightinesses of her rapture haunts.
Muse-Upped she nursed her symbol mysteries
A ndguarded for her pure-eyed
sacraments
The valley-clefts between her breastsof joy,
[Page our]
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B O O K I V C A N T O IV
Hermountain-altars for the fires of dawn
A nd
nuptial
beaches where the ocean couched
A n d the huge chanting of her prophet woods.
Fieldshad she of her solitary
mirthj
Plains hushed and happy in the embrace Of l ight ,
Alone w i t h the cry of birds and hue of flowers
A n d wildernesses of wonder Ut by her moons
A n d grey seer-evenings kindling
w i t h
thestars
A n d dim movement in the night s infinitude.
August,
exultingin her Maker s eye.
She felt hernearness to him inearth s
breast,
Conversed stiU w i th a
L i g h t
behind the veil,
StiU
communed
w i t h
Eternity beyond.
A few and fit inhabitants she called
To sharethe glad communion of her
peace;
The breadth, the summit were their natural home.
The strong king-sages
from
their labour done.
Freed from thewarriortension of their task.
Came to herserene sessions inthese
wilds;
The strife was over, the respite lay in front.
Happy
they lived w i t h birds and
beasts
and flowers
A nd
sunlight and the rustle of the leaves.
A n d heard the
wi ld
winds wandering in the night.
Mused
w i t h the
stars
in their mute constant ranks,
A n d lodged in the mornings as in azure tents.
A n d
w i t h
thegloryof the noons were one.
Some deeper plunged;from life sexternal clasp
Beckoned
into
afiery privacy
I n
the soul s unassailed star-white
recess
They
sojourned w i t h an ever-living Bliss;
A
Voice
profound in the
ecstasy
and the hush
They heard, beheld an aU-revealingL igh t .
A l l
time-made difference they overcame;
Thew or ld was fibred w i t h their own heart-strings;
Close-drawn to the heart that beats in everybreast,
They reached the one self in all through boundless love.
Attuned to Silence and to the world-rhyme,
Theyloosened the knot of the imprisoning
mind;
[Page
Five^
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S A V I T R I
Achieved was the wide untroubled witnessgaze,
Unsealed wasNature s great spiritual eye;
To
the height of heights
rose
now their dailyclimb:
Truth
leaned to them
from
her supernal realm;
Above them blazed eternity s mysticsuns.
Namelessthe austere
ascetics
without home
Abandoningspeech and motion and desire.
Aloof from creatures sat absorbed, alone,
Immaculate in tranquil heights of self
On concentration s luminous voiceless peaks.
World-naked hermits w i t h their matted hair
Immobile as thepassionless great
hills
Around them grouped like thoughts of
some
vastmood
Awaiting the Infinite sbehest to end.
The
seers
attuned to the universal W i l l ,
Content in Him who smiles behind earth s forms
Abode imgrieved by the insistent days.
About them like green
trees
girdhng a hill
Young grave disciples fashioned by their touch,
Trained to the simple act and
conscious
word,
Greatened wi th in and grew tomeet their heights.
Far-wandering
seekers
on the Eternal s path
Brought to
these
quiet founts their spirit s thirst
And spentthe treasureof a silent hour
Bathed in the purity of the mi ld gaze
That, uninsistent, ruled them
from
its
peace,
And by its influence found the ways of calm.
The Infants of the monarchy of the worlds,
The heroic
leaders
of a coming time,
King-childrennurtured in that spaciousair
Like
lions gamboUing in sky and sun
Received half-consciously their godlike stamp:
Formed in the type of the high thoughts theysang
They learned the wide magnificence of mood
That
makes
us comradesof the cosmic urge.
N o longer chained to their small separateselves.
Plastic and
firm
beneaththe eternal hand,
M et Nature w i t h a bold and friendlyclasp
[Pilge Six]
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B O O K IV
C A N T O
IV
A nd served in her the Power that shapes her works.
One-souled to all and free
from
narrowing bonds.
Large hke a continent of warm sunshine
I n
wide equality s
impartial
joy,
These
sages
breathed for God s delight in things.
Assistingthe slow entries of the gods,
Sowingin young mindsimmortal thoughts they hved.
Taught the great
Truth
to
whichman s
racemust rise
Or opened thegates of freedom to a few,
Imparting
to our struggling
wor ld
the
L igh t
They
breathed
like
spirits
from
Time s
du l l
yoke
released.
Comrades and
vessels
of the cosmic Force,
Using
a natural mastery
like
the
sun s:
Their
speech,their silence was a help to earth,
A magic
happiness flowed from
their touch;
Oneness
was sovereign in that sylvan
peace.
The wi ld
beast
joined in friendship w i t h its prey.
Persuading the hatred and the strife tocease
The love that
flows from
the one Mother s
breast
Healed
w i t h
theirhearts the herd and wounded
world.
Others escaped
from
the confines of thought.
To
where
M i nd
motionless
sleeps
waiting
Light s
b i r th .
A n d came
back quivering
w i t h
a
nameless
Force
Drunk w i t h
a wine of
lightning
in their cells;
Intuitive
knowledge leaping intospeech,
Hearing
the subtle voice that clothes theheavens.
Carrying
the splendour that has lit thesuns.
They sangIn f ini ty s
names and deathless powers
I n
metres
that reflect the moving worlds,
Sight s sound-waves breaking from the soul s great deeps.
Some lost to the person and his strip of thought
I n a motionless ocean of impersonal Power,
Sat mighty, visionedw i t h the Infinite s L igh t ,
Or,comrades
of the everlasting
W i l l ,
Surveyed the plan of
past
and future
Time.
Some wingedlike birds out of the cosmic sea
A nd vanished into a bright and featureless Vast:
Some silent watched the universal
dance,
[Page Seven]
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S A V I T R I
Or helped the world byworld-indifFerence.
Some watched no more merged in alonely Self,
Absorbedin the trance from whichno soul returns,
A ll the occult world-hnes for ever closed.
The chains ofb i r th and person castaway:
Some Toncompanioned reached the Ineffable.
As floats a sunbeam through a shady place.
The goldenvirgin in her carven car
Came ghding among meditation sseats.