Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)

7/24/2019 Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)

1/14

SRI AUROBINDO

S A V I T R I

[ Book IV Canto IV ]


2/14

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


3/14

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 .


4/14

OOK FOUR

Book

of irth and Quest


5/14

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


6/14

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]


7/14

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}


8/14

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]


9/14

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^


10/14

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]


11/14

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]


12/14

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.

Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)

Documents

Transcript of Savitri Fascicle: Book Four, Canto Four (1951)