Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Book VII The Book of Yoga, Canto 2 The Parable of the Search for the Soul, pp. 474-477

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Savitri: a Legend and a Symbol, Book VII The Book of Yoga, Canto 2 The Parable of the Search for the Soul, pp. 474-477 · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  As in the vigilance of the sleepless night, through the
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  slow, heavy footed, silent hours, repressing in her bosom
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  its load of grief, she sat staring at the dumb tread of
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  time and the approach of ever nearing fate.
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  A summons From her being Summit came a sound, a call that broke
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  the seals of night above her brows.
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  Where will and knowledge meet? A mighty voice invaded mortal
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  space. It seemed to come from
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  inaccessible heights, and yet was intimate with all the world
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  and knew the meaning of the steps of time, and saw eternal
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  destiny's changeless scene filling the far prospect of the
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  cosmic gaze. As the voice touched, her body
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  became a stark and rigid golden statue of motionless trance, a
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  stone of God lit by an amethyst soul.
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  Around her body's stillness all grew still.
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  Her heart listened to its slow, measured beats.
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  Her mind renouncing, thought, heard, and was mute.
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  Why camest thou to this dumb death bound earth, this ignorant
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  life beneath indifferent skies, tied like a sacrifice on the
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  altar of time? O spirit, O immortal energy, if
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  twas to nurse grief in a helpless heart, or with hard
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  tearless eyes await thy doom, Arise, O soul, and Vanquish time
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  and death. But Savitri's heart replied, in
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  the dim night my strength is taken from me and given to
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  death. Why should I lift my hands to
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  the shut heavens, or struggle with mute inevitable fate, or
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  hope in vain to uplift an ignorant race who hug their lot
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  and mock the Saviour Light and see in mind Wisdom's soul
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  Tabernacle in its harsh peak and its inconciant base, a rock of
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  safety and an anchor of sleep. Is there a God whom any cry can
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  move? He sits in peace and leaves the
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  mortal strength impotent against his calm omnipotent will, law
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  and in conscience in the almighty hands of death.
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  What need have I? What need has Satyavan to avoid
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  the black meshed net, the dismal door, or call a mightier light
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  into life's closed room, a greater law into man's little
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  world? Why should I strive with Earth's
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  unyielding laws or stave off death's inevitable hour?
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  This surely is best to pactice with my fate and follow close
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  behind my lover's steps, and pass through night from twilight
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  to the sun, across the tenebrous river that divides the adjoining
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  parishes of earth and heaven. Then could we lie in armed
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  breast upon breast, untroubled by thought, untroubled by our
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  hearts, forgetting man and life and time and its hours,
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  forgetting eternity's call, forgetting God, The voice
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  replied. Is this enough, O Spirit?
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  And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows the work was
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  left undone for which it came? Or is this all for thy being
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  born on earth, charged with a mandate from eternity, a
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  listener to the voices of the years, a follower of the
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  footprints of the gods, to pass and leave unchanged the old
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  dusty laws? Shall there be no new tables, no
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  new word, no greater light come down upon the earth, delivering
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  her from her unconsciousness, man's spirit from unalterable
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  fate? Canst, canst thou not down to
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  open the doors of fate, the iron doors that seemed forever
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  closed, and lead man to truths wide and golden Rd. that runs
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  through finite things to eternity?
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  Is this then the report that I must make?
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  My head bowed with shame before the eternal seat?
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  His power he kindled in thy body has failed.
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  His labourer returns her task undone.
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  Then Savitri's heart fell mute. It spoke no word, but holding
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  back her troubled rebel heart, abrupt, erect and strong calm,
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  like a hill surmounting the seas of mortal ignorance, its peak
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  immutable of above mine's air. A power within her, answered the
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  still voice. I am thy portion here, charged
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  with thy work as thou myself seated forever above.
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  Speak to my depths, O great and deathless voice command, for I
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  am here to do thy will, the voice replied.
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  Remember why thou camest. Find out thy soul.
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  Recover thy hid self in silence. Seek God's meaning in thy
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  depths. Then mortal nature change to the
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  Divine. Open God's door, Enter into his
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  trance. Cast thought from thee that
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  nimble ape of light, in his tremendous hush, stilling thy
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  brain, his vast truth. Wake within and know and see.
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  Cast from thee sense that veils thy spirit's sight in the
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  enormous emptiness of thy mind. Thou shalt see the Eternal's
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  body in the world. Know him in every voice heard by
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  thy soul in the world's context. Meet His single touch.
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  All things shall fold thee into his embrace.
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  Conquer thy heart's throbs. Let thy heart beat in God.
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  Thy nature shall be the engine of His works.
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  Thy voice shall house the mightiness of His word.
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  Then shalt thou harbour my force and conquer death.
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  Then Savitri by her doomed husband, SAT still, rigid in her
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  golden motionless pose, a statue of the fire, of the inner sun in
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  the black night. The wrath of storm swept by.
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  The Thunder crashed above her. The rain hissed, its million
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  footsteps pattered on the roof, impassive mid the movement and
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  the cry witness of the thoughts of mind, the moods of life, she
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  looked into herself and sought for her soul.