Aurobindo 44 Savitri Book 2

An appreciation on Savitri Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds Canto Seven: The Descent into Night Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's 'Then the scene changed, but kept its dreadful core: Altering its form the life remained the same.' 'He saw a city of ancient Ignorance Founded upon a soil that knew not Light.' A pragmatist judge within passed false decrees, 'Posed worst iniquities on equity's base, Reasoned ill actions just, sanctioned the scale Of the merchant ego's interest and desire.' 'Thus was a balance kept, the world could live.' 'A lie was there the truth and truth a lie. Here must the traveller of the upward Way- For daring Hell's kingdoms winds the heavenly route- Pause or pass slowly through that perilous space, A prayer upon his lips and the great Name.' 'If probed not all discernment's keen spear-point, He might stumble into falsity's endless net.' 'This No-man's-land he passed without debate; Him the heights missioned, him the Abyss desired: None stood across his way, no voice forbade. For swift and easy is the downward path, And now towards the Night was turned his face.' 'He crossed a boundary whose stealthy trace Eye could not see but only the soul feel. Into an armoured fierce domain he came' 'The approach alarmed his mind for ever dumb Of pain inhuman and intolerable.' 'A lifeless vacancy was now his breast' 'But he endured, stilled the vain terror' 'Then peace returned and the soul's sovereign gaze.' 'Mighty and mute the Godhead in him woke'..... ............My consciousness this moment, O'Guru, I'm in awe....in invincible heights Ineffable Thee embellishing poetic creation My inquisitive apprehension, erring Thee may opine May there so, let Savitri in my self arise Aroused there so be knowledge and fortune =============================================== Note: Some more inspiring, descriptive and informative lines from Book 2 Canto 7 Page 208 There Ego was lord upon his peacock seat And Falsehood sat by him, his mate and queen: The world turned to them as Heaven to Truth and God. Page 209 In high professions wrapped self-will walked wide And licence stalked prating of order and right: There was no altar raised to Liberty; An eagle rapacity clawed its coveted good, Beaks pecked and talons tore all weaker prey. Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin. Page 210 Amid her clashing creeds and warring sects Religion sat upon a blood-stained throne. Over his shoulder often he must look back Like one who feels on his neck an enemy's breath; Page 211 Only were safe who kept God in their hearts: Courage their armour, faith their sword, they must walk, The hand ready to smite, the eye to scout, Casting a javelin regard in front, Heroes and soldiers of the army of Light. A greater darkness waited, a worse reign, If worse can be where all is evil's extreme; Yet to the cloaked the uncloaked is naked worst. Around him crowded grey and squalid huts Neighbouring proud palaces of perverted Power, Inhuman quarters and demoniac wards. A pride in evil hugged its wretchedness; Page 212 A strong and fallen goddess without hope, Obscured, deformed by some dire Gorgon spell, As might a harlot empress in a bouge, Nude, unashamed, exulting she upraised Her evil face of perilous beauty and charm And, drawing panic to a shuddering kiss Twixt the magnificence of her fatal breasts, Allured to their abyss the spirit's fall. Across his field of sight she multiplied As on a scenic film or moving plate The implacable splendour of her nightmare pomps. On the dark background of a soulless world She staged between a lurid light and shade Her dramas of the sorrow of the depths Written on the agonised nerves of living things: Abusing Nature's gift her pervert skill Immortalised the sown grain of living death, In a mud goblet poured the bacchic wine, To a satyr gave the thyrsus of a god. Impure, sadistic, with grimacing mouths, Grey foul inventions gruesome and macabre Came televisioned from the gulfs of Night. Page 212&213 A gape of nude exaggerated lines, Gave caricature a stark reality, And art-parades of weird distorted forms, And gargoyle masques obscene and terrible Trampled to tormented postures the torn sense. Page 213 Agony was made a red-spiced food for bliss, Hatred was trusted with the work of lust And torture took the form of an embrace; A ritual anguish consecrated death; Page 214 A mighty energy, a monster god, Hard to the strong, implacable to the weak, It stared at the harsh unpitying world it made With the stony eyelids of its fixed idea. Page 216 There wretchedness believed in its own joy And fear and weakness hugged their abject depths; A lone discoverer in these menacing realms Guarded like termite cities from the sun, Page 217 A travelling dot on downward roads of Dusk Mid barren fields and barns and straggling huts And a few crooked and phantasmal trees, He faced a sense of death and conscious void. Nothing was left, not even an evil face. He was alone with the grey python Night. Page 218 Haled by a serpent-force from its warm home And dragged to extinction in bleak vacancy Life clung to its seat with cords of gasping breath; Lapped was his body by a tenebrous tongue. As a sea nears a victim bound and still, The approach alarmed his mind for ever dumb Of an implacable eternity Of pain inhuman and intolerable. Page 219 He mastered the tides of Nature with a look: He met with his bare spirit naked Hell. End of Book 2-Canto 7