Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Readings in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Book IV, Canto I The Birth and Childhood of the Flame
Transcript
- 0:01A Maynard of the cycles of desire around a light she must
- 0:06not dare to touch. Hastening toward a far off
- 0:11unknown goal, Earth followed the endless journey of the sun, A
- 0:18mind but half awake in the swing of the void, on the bosom of
- 0:23inconscience dreamed out life. And bore this finite world of
- 0:28thought and deed across the immobile trance of the infinite.
- 0:36A vast, immutable silence with her ran prisoner of speed upon a
- 0:42jeweled wheel. She communed with the Mystic
- 0:46heart in space amid the ambiguous stillness of the
- 0:52stars. She moved towards some
- 0:55undisclosed event, and her rhythm measured the long whirl
- 1:00of time in ceaseless motion round the purple rim, day after
- 1:06day, sped by like coloured spokes and through a glamour of
- 1:11shifting hues of air. The seasons drew in link
- 1:16significant dance, the symbol pageant of the changing year.
- 1:23Across the burning languor of the soil paced Summer with his
- 1:27pomp of violent noons, and stamped his tyranny of torrid
- 1:32light and the blue seal of a great burnished sky.
- 1:38Next, through its fiery swoon or clotted knot, rain tide burst in
- 1:43upon torn wings of heat, startled with lightnings, airs,
- 1:48unquiet drows. Lashed with life, giving streams
- 1:53the torpid soil overcast with flare and sound and storm wing
- 1:58dark, the star defended doors of heaven's dim sleep or from the
- 2:05gold eye of her paramour Covered with packed cloud veils the
- 2:10earth's brown face. Armies of revolution crossed the
- 2:16time field. The clouds unending March
- 2:20besieged the world. Tempest Pronuncia Mentos claimed
- 2:24The sky and Thunder drums announced the embattled gods.
- 2:29The traveller from unquiet neighboring seas, the dense
- 2:34mained monsoon rode neighing through earth's hours thick.
- 2:39Now the emissary Javelins enormous lightning split the
- 2:44horizons rim and. Hurled from the quarters, as
- 2:49from contending camps married heavens, edges steep and bare
- 2:54and blind, a surge and hiss an onset of huge rain.
- 3:01The long straight sleep, drift, clamors of winged storm charge,
- 3:07throngs of wind, faces rushing of wind, feet hurrying, swept
- 3:13through the prone afflicted planes.
- 3:17Evans waters trailed and dribbled through the drowned
- 3:20land. Then all was a siff stride, a
- 3:24sibilant race, or all was tempests shout and waters fall.
- 3:31A dibness sagged on the Gray floor of day.
- 3:35It's dingy, sprawling length joined morn to Eve, wallowing in
- 3:40sludge and shower. It reached black, dark.
- 3:45Day 1/2 Darkness wore as its dull dress.
- 3:50Light looked into dawn's tarnished glass and met its own
- 3:54face. There, twin to 1/2, lit nights
- 3:59downpour and drip and seeping. Mist swayed all and turned dry,
- 4:05soil to bog and reeking mud. Earth was a quagmire, heaven a
- 4:12dismal block. None saw through dank drenched
- 4:16weeks the dungeon sun. Even when no turmoil vexed air,
- 4:21somber rest or a faint ray glimmered through weeping clouds
- 4:27as a sad smile gleams veiled by returning chair.
- 4:31Tears all promised brightness, failed at once denied or soon
- 4:39condemned, died like a brief lived hope.
- 4:43Than a last mass of deluge thrashed dead mire, and a
- 4:48subsiding mudder left all still. Or only the muddy creep of
- 4:54sinking floods, or only a whisper and green toss of trees.
- 5:03Earth's mood now changed. She lay in lulled repose.
- 5:08The hours went by with slow, contented tread.
- 5:14A wide and tranquil air remembered peace.
- 5:18Earth was the comrade of a happy sun.
- 5:22A calmness neared as of the approach of God.
- 5:27A light of musing, trance lit soil and sky, and an identity
- 5:32and ecstasy filled meditation. Solitary heart, a dream loitered
- 5:39in the dumb mind of space. Time opened, its chambers of
- 5:44Felicity and exaltation entered, and a hope and inmost self
- 5:51looked up to a heavenlier height, and inmost thought
- 5:56kindled a hidden flame, and the inner sight adored an unseen
- 6:02sun. 3 thoughtful seasons passed with shining tread.
- 6:10And scanning 1 by 1, the pregnant hours watched for a
- 6:15flame that lurked in luminous depths, the vigil of some mighty
- 6:20birth to come. Autumn led in the glory of her
- 6:24moons, and dreamed in the splendor of her Lotus pools and
- 6:29winter and due time laid their calm, cool hands on nature's
- 6:34bosom, still in 1/2 sleep. And deepened with hues of lacks
- 6:40and mellow ease the tranquil beauty of the weaning year then
- 6:47spring. An ardent lover leaped through
- 6:50leaves and caught the earth bride in his eager clasp.
- 6:55His advent was a fire of irised hues.
- 6:59His arms were a circle of the arrival of joy.
- 7:03His voice was a call to the transcendent sphere.
- 7:08Whose secret touch upon our mortal lives keeps ever new.
- 7:13The thrill that made the world remoulds an ancient sweetness to
- 7:18new shapes and guards intact, unchanged by death and time.
- 7:24The answer of our hearts to nature's charm, and keeps
- 7:28forever new, yet still the same, the throb that ever wakes to the
- 7:34old delight. And beauty and rapture, and the
- 7:39joy to live. His coming brought the magic and
- 7:43the spell at his touch. Life's tired heart grew.
- 7:47Glad and young he made joy a willing prisoner in her breast.
- 7:53His grasp was a young gods upon earth's limbs, changed by the
- 7:59passion of his divine outbreak. He made her body beautiful with
- 8:04his kiss. Impatient for Felicity, he came
- 8:09high, fluting with the coils happy voice, his Peacock turban
- 8:14trailing on the trees. His breath was a warm summons to
- 8:18delight. The dense, voluptuous Azure was
- 8:23his gaze. A soft celestial urge surprised
- 8:27the blood, rich with the instinct of God's censuous joys
- 8:33revealed in beauty. A cadence was abroad, insistent
- 8:38on the rapture thrill in life. Immortal movements touched the
- 8:43fleeting hours. A godlike, packed intensity of
- 8:47sense made it a passionate pleasure even to breathe.
- 8:52All sights and voices wove a single charm.
- 8:56The life of the enchanted globe became a storm of sweetness and
- 9:01of light and song. A revel of color and of ecstasy,
- 9:07A hymn of rays, a litany of cries, a strain of coral.
- 9:11Priestly music sang and swung on the saying censor of the trees.
- 9:18A sacrifice of perfume filled the hours.
- 9:22Ashoka's burned in Crimson spots of flame, pure like the breath
- 9:28of an unstained desire. White Jasmine's haunted the
- 9:32enamored air. Pale mango blossoms fed the
- 9:36liquid voice of the Love Madden coil and the brown bee muttered
- 9:41in fragrance mid the honey buds. The sunlight was a great God's
- 9:48golden smile. All nature was at Beauty's
- 9:53Festival.