The Ancient Tale of Savitri

Sri Aurobindo considered Savitri as his "main work" and during the last couple of years of his life allotted out of his precious time every day two and a half hours for its composition. But it did not mean that he took time off from his spiritual pre-possession simply for the purposes of a happy literary pursuit. Rather it was his constant companion in the task of realisation and establishment of the dynamic Truth in this creation. In a letter he writes: "Savitri is the record of a seeing." The birth and growth of Savitri as a "flame-child" is therefore a Yogi's spiritual autobiography. Its birth is in the Tapas-Shakti and in it is the discovery of the Word that can transform the lot of our mortality. To describe Savitri we may very well apply the epithets Vyasa used for characterising Aswapati's daughter Savitri. She is a radiant daughter, kany? tejasvin?, she is a damsel of heaven, dévakany?, she is heavenly and radiant in form, devar?p?ni; she is Goddess Fortune and one who brings the wealth of auspicious happiness, equipped to accomplish the purpose for which she has taken this mortal birth in the world of men. Such is Savitri the Epic too. In one of the talks with his disciples Sri Aurobindo mention that for "an epic one requires the power of architectural construction" and it is precisely that what we have in Savitri. To enter into Savitri is to live in the presence of its creator. Many are its splendours, countless indeed like the stars in the sky. We could use a most powerful telescope to look at them but in the process might suddenly become one with the sky. Astonishment would be gone, and also the nightly sky, and ultimately what would remain would only be the luminous wisdom ever in progress towards the interminable Unknown that is infinity-bound. That is what Savitri gives to us. Sri Aurobindo left his body in December 1950 but for ever he left behind his consciousness in Savitri. Through it we can get directly in touch with him. Rich in its spiritual contents and nuances the poem has every scope to winningly describe the prospects of a transformed life upon the earth. Let us briefly mention about its poetry that, it is not only image and symbol, but is also sound and silence; if there is sight's sound, there is also sound's sight. And when le Musicien de Silence becomes one with le Musicien de Son we have an unsurpassable marvel. Listen to Ezra Pound: "When we know more of overtones we shall see that the tempo of every masterpiece is absolute, and is exactly set by some further law of rhythmic accord. Whence it should be possible to show that any given rhythm implies about it a complete musical form, perfect, complete. Ergo, the rhythm set in a line of poetry connects its symphony, which, had we a little more skill, we could score for orchestra."If such is the majesty and glory of Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, it has to be there in its seed form in the original text that has lent itself to this greatness and grandeur. The ancient tale of Savitri narrated by Vyasa, as is present in the body of the Mahabharata, justifies itself to be worthy of it, to be precious enough to bear the charge of full spirituality in its Word. The Savitri-creation by Vyasa is one such thematic and poetic magnificence but more importantly it is the vision and work of an accomplished Rishi though yet he in the "morning of his genius". There are many aspects of the richly occult-spiritual kind, and these have remained eternally breathing even after more than five thousand years. The contents of this booklet had first appeared in a series of instalments during 1988-89 in Mother India, a monthly review of culture, published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. While the first edition appeared in 1995 the second followed it just within a year of this. It has been now out of print for some time and Savitri Foundation is glad to take up this significant monograph in the series of its publications related to Savitri.