Book-4-Study-Canto-1

Canto One

The Birth and Childhood of the Flame 

Summary
From the beginning of its endless revolving journey in Space and Time, the Earth has been speeding towards a far-off unknown goal. From the original state of Inconscience, she passes to the state of half-consciousness, thence to that of life and then to the state of thought and act. In this cycle of the mind she has been steadily moving towards some undisclosed Event.

The seasons weave a picturesque dance, as it were, in the Earth’s ceaseless motion around the Sun. The Summer is followed by Rain; Autumn, Winter follow; Spring arrives. At a high moment of one such Spring when all Nature is at beauty’s festival, a celestial Spirit descends on earth answering her cry for bliss; Savitri is born. The ancient Mother returns to her unfinished task on earth.

Always there has been a Mother-Wisdom in Nature working to urge the growth of consciousness and joy in life, to make Matter conscious of its divinity. That Will now puts on an earthly form in Savitri.

At first the infant lies passive in the protective arms of a guarding Power. Slowly the link with her soul grows sure and remembrance of her origin takes shape within. She lives alone in her spirit amidst men. However, even in her childhood, her luminous origin and higher nature are unmistakable. Her days pass in swift joy and sweetness. She exudes happiness all around. But even when she mixes with others, she keeps her stature of the gods.

The Power within her shapes her sense in a deeper mould and fills her brain with higher light.Her thoughts are patterns of the truth of her soul, her look perceives all forms as shapes of living selves. Every contact evokes a Call. She is one with a greater Nature. Her mind, life and body are constantly in evident preparation for the emergence of the inner Godhead. Her aspiration is ever active calling down the high destiny, guarding the Throne of Truth within.

Her life is one stream of Joy, Beauty, Love, Light.

Earth Follows the Sun

A maenad of the cycles of desire
Around a Light she must not dare to touch,
Hastening towards a far-off unknown goal
Earth followed the endless journey of the Sun.

In a frenzy of desire the Earth follows the Sun in its endless journey. She turns round and round, in an intoxicated spell, as it were, around a Flame she dares not touch, the Flame of the Spirit that bums eternally. The restless movement speeds towards some distant goal which is yet unknown.

Swing of the Void

A mind but half-awake in the swing of the void
On the bosom of Inconscience dreamed out life
And bore this finite world of thought and deed
Across the immobile trance of the Infinite.

In this swinging movement in the Void on the bosom of Inconscience, a semi-awake consciousness develops life; slowly a finite world of action and mind comes into form against the background of the unchanging self-gathered poise of the Infinite.

Earth Moves in Rhythm

A vast immutable silence with her ran:
Prisoner of speed upon a jewelled wheel,
She communed with the mystic heart in Space.

Amid the ambiguous stillness of the stars
She moved towards some undisclosed event
And her rhythm measured the long whirl of Time.

A deep and vast silence follows the earth in her uncontrollably rapid course; she is in communion with the Soul born in Space. Under the unfathomed stillness of the stars, the earth moves towards some event not yet unveiled, her rhythm measuring the revolution of Time.

Dance of Seasons

In ceaseless motion round the purple rim
Day after day sped by like coloured spokes,
And through a glamour of shifting hues of air
The seasons drew in linked significant dance
The symbol pageant of the changing year.

In this unending motion, day after day, come the seasons close upon one another, forming a dance, as it were, of the pageantry of the changing year.

Calmness Nears

A calmness neared as of the approach of God,
A light of musing trance lit soil and sky.

And an identity and ecstasy
Filled meditation’s solitary heart.

As the advent of God, his revelation, draws near, a sudden calm comes over the seeker. His mind, his vital surges, his whole being begins to get still. Such a calmness comes near as when the earth lies in repose after the passing of the rains. Both the earth and the sky are aglow with the spell of meditation.

In meditation one first clears away all the multitude of thoughts and movements that normally crowd the being, empties oneself before turning the whole consciousness towards the Divine in aspiration. As the meditation proceeds, in the fullness of time, there develops an identity with the Divine and with it its inalienable bliss. Such an identity and ecstasy fill the musing heart of earth.

Exaltation and Hope

A dream loitered in the dumb mind of Space,
Time opened its chambers of felicity,
An exaltation entered and a hope:
An inmost self looked up to a heavenlier height,
An inmost thought kindled a hidden flame
And the inner sight adored an unseen sun.

The meditation figure continues.

In the inarticulate mind of earth’s Space some dream takes place and Time opens up its felicities; there is an exaltation and the rise of a hope. Her deepest self starts looking up to a newer height of heaven, her deepest thought sets active the hidden flame of aspiration, her inner vision regards in adoration a light, a sun, that is not patent to the physical eye.

Watch for Flame

Three thoughtful seasons passed with shining tread
And scanning one by one the pregnant hours
Watched for a flame that lurked in luminous depths,
The vigil of some mighty birth to come.

Three deliberating seasons pass, one after the other, watching carefully each hour for the revelation of a flame concealed in the profounds, heralding an awaited mighty birth.

Transcendent’s Action

… the Transcendent’s sphere
Whose secret touch upon our mortal lives
Keeps ever new the thrill that made the world,
Remoulds an ancient sweetness to new shapes
And guards intact unchanged by death and Time
The answer of our hearts to Nature’s charm
And keeps for ever new, yet still the same,
The throb that ever wakes to the old delight
And beauty and rapture and the joy to live.

The creative delight that brought this mortal world into being is ever fresh in spite of all the pain and suffering that characterises its life in Ignorance, because there is a continuous though unseen contact with the Transcendent Bliss above. The action of this Transcendent constantly shapes the ancient bliss into new moulds, preserves through time the responsiveness of the human heart to the attraction of Nature, keeps fresh and unchanged the thrill that ever springs at the touch of the old delight, keeps ever new beauty and rapture and the joy of life.

Mightier Influx Fills

In this high signal moment of the gods
Answering earth’s yearning and her cry for bliss
A greatness from our other countries came.

A silence in the noise of earthly things
Immutably revealed the secret Word,
A mightier influx filled the oblivious clay:
A lamp was lit, a sacred image made.

In this hour of spring, at a propitious moment, in response to the keen aspiration of the earth and her cry for bliss, some glory from higher spheres comes down. A silence makes itself felt amidst all the noise of Life on earth and reveals the secret potent Word. A mightier charge enters and pervades the unconscious matter.

Things are made ready for worship. The creative Word is uttered. Lifeless clay is turned into a sacred image by the mighty influx from above. A lamp is lit.

A Mediating Ray

A mediating ray had touched the earth
Bridging the gulf between man’s mind and God’s;
Translating heaven into a human shape
Its brightness linked our transience to the Unknown.

A ray has descended on earth bridging the yawning distance between man and God. It mediates between heaven and earth; it renders things of heaven into human form, its light connects the mortal in his transient state with the Unknown.

A Spirit Descends

A spirit of its celestial source aware
Descended into earth’s imperfect mould
And wept not fallen to mortality,
But looked on all with large and tranquil eyes.

A spirit conscious of its heavenly origin comes down into the imperfect mould of earth. It does not at all regret its plunge into the mortal state, but regards all with calm, wide-seeing eyes.

Savitri is Born

One had returned from the transcendent planes
And bore anew the load of mortal breath,
Who had striven of old with our darkness and our pain;
She took again her divine unfinished task:
Survivor of death and the aeonic years,
Once more with her fathomless heart she fronted Time.

The Divine Power that had struggled before with mortal darkness and pain is now once again back from her home in the Beyond and has reassumed the cosmic burden. She has again taken up the task left unfinished before. She who has survived death and the long passage of years is once more facing Time with her immeasurable heart.

The Divine Shakti manifests again and again in the course of the Earth’s evolution to strive with the opposing elements and assure a safe path for man.

Consanguinity of Earthand Heaven

Again there was renewed, again revealed
The ancient closeness by earth-vision veiled,
The secret contact broken off in Time,
A consanguinity of earth and heaven,
Between the human portion toiling here
And an as yet unborn and limitless Force.

The age-old close relation between earth and heaven, veiled by the obscuring vision of the earth and cut off in the long course of time, is once again renewed and revealed. It is one reality with two ends: the human portion toiling here on earth and the still unmanifest and unbounded Force there above.

Mother Wisdom Works (I)

Again the mystic deep attempt began,
The daring wager of the cosmic game.

For since upon this blind and whirling globe
Earth-plasm first quivered with the illumining mind
And life invaded the material sheath
Afflicting Inconscience with the need to feel,
Since in Infinity’s silence woke a word,
A Mother wisdom works in Nature’s breast

Once more the mystic attempt is resumed, the daring gamble of the cosmic game is taken up.

Ever since consciousness first awakened on Earth-matter and life entered into material form forcing the Inconscience to stir into feeling, ever since the expressive sound broke forth from the bosom of the pervading Silence, an Intelligence has been working in the heart of Nature mothering all.

Mother Wisdom Works (II)

To pour delight on the heart of toil and want
And press perfection on life’s stumbling powers,
Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss
And make dumb Matter conscious of its God.

This Mother wisdom is constantly at work imparting delight to all exertion and striving of the heart, urging the groping and stumbling powers of life to perfect themselves, imposing awareness on the obscurity of the depths of nescience, pressing mute Matter to grow conscious of its soul, the indwelling Spirit.

Will to Divinise Clay

Although our fallen minds forget to climb,
Although our human stuff resists or breaks,
She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay;
Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow;
Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue,
The ages have not made her passion less;
No victory she admits of Death or Fate.

Even though the human mind fails to aspire upwards and the human system resists the pressure or breaks under it, the Mother wisdom in Nature maintains her will towards divinising "matter. She is not depressed by failures nor affected by setbacks. She is not fatigued by the length of time taken in the process nor is she overcome by the gaping Void in Creation. The intensity of her force has not decreased with the passing of ages: she refuses to accept the verdict of Death or Fate.

Immortality Hidden in Death

Always she drives the souls to new attempt;
Always her magical infinitude
Forces to aspire the inert brute elements;
As one who has all infinity to waste,
She scatters the seed of the Eternal’s strength
On a half-animate and crumbling mould,
Plants heaven’s delight in the heart’s passionate mire,
Pours godhead’s seekings into a bare beast frame,
Hides immortality in a mask of death.

This consciousness in the heart of Nature forces the souls to attempt the climb again and again, compels, by her infinite sway, the unconscious and inert elements to aspire. With all infinity to spend, she throws the seed of the Eternal’s strength on a half-awake and failing mould of earth, plants heaven’s delight in the turbid soil of the heart’s passion, pours the seekings of the manifesting godhead into the undeveloped, unthinking physical form, conceals immortality behind the deceptive mask of death.

Death is not the end of things but only a process of immortality renewing itself in fresh forms.

Will Puts On Earthly Shape

Once more that Will put on an earthly shape.

A Mind empowered from Truth’s immutable seat
Was framed for vision and interpreting act
And instruments were sovereignly designed
To express divinity in terrestrial signs.

This occult Will takes on an earthly shape once again, as it has done before, for furthering the Divine manifestation. A Mind charged with the original consciousness of Truth is formed for vision and interpretation of the vision. Other instruments too are designed superbly for the expression of divinity in earthly terms.

Body Lovelier than any Known

Outlined by the pressure of this new descent
A lovelier body formed than earth had known.

As yet a prophecy only and a hint,
The glowing arc of a charmed unseen whole,
It came into the sky of mortal life
Bright like the crescent horn of a gold moon
Returning in a faint illumined eve.

Under the pressure of this new divine descent a body is formed more lovely than any the earth has known before. It is still a hint, a luminous promise of what is to come, a bright arc of a magical whole yet to appear in full, that has come into the horizon of mortal life like the shining crescent of a golden moon setting in a dim-lit eve.

An Infant Heart

At first glimmering like an unshaped idea
Passive she lay sheltered in wordless sleep,
Involved and drowned in Matter’s giant trance,
An infant heart of the deep-caved world-plan
In cradle of divine inconscience rocked
By the universal ecstasy of the suns.

At first she lies passive in cosy sleep, glimmering like an idea not yet formed; she is lost in the vast swoon of Matter; a child heart of the profound world-design of the Gods, she is rocked by the ecstatic Powers illuming and directing the Cosmos, in the cradle of the inconscience that has come into being in the Divine’s becoming.

Missioned Power Nurses

Some missioned Power in the half-wakened frame
Nursed a transcendent birth’s dumb glorious seed
For which this vivid tenement was made.

Her body is still only half-awake. There is at work in it a specially charged Power from above nourishing and preparing the advent of a glorious manifestation from the transcendent into this body specially made for the purpose. As yet things are only in seed-form.

Heavenly Bloom

But soon the link of soul with form grew sure;
Flooded was the dim cave with slow conscient light,
The seed grew into a delicate marvellous bud,
The bud disclosed a great and heavenly bloom.

The soul does not inhabit the body from the beginning of its birth. Especially if it is a developed soul, or a specially emanated one, it waits till the body grows enough to be able to bear and sustain its presence. Till then, some ray of it is present in the body or around it connecting it with the soul.

This link with the body of the child Savitri slowly grows stronger. The dim regions are slowly lit up with a self-aware light; what was a seed grows into a delicate and wonderful bud and this bud in turn opens into a unique bloom of unearthly beauty.

Alone in Her Diviner Kind

At once she seemed to found a mightier race.

Arrived upon the strange and dubious globe
The child remembering inly a far home
Lived guarded in her spirit’s luminous cell,
Alone mid men in her diviner kind.

The child has arrived on this globe which is new and strange to her; deep within she remembers the distant home from where she has come. She lives guarded and safe in the luminous chamber of her spirit. Though she dwells among humans, she belongs to a higher, diviner kind and hence in the midst of all she is apart and alone.

Nearness of Light

Even in her childish movements could be felt
The nearness of a light still kept from earth,
Feelings that only eternity could share,
Thoughts natural and native to the gods.

Even in her unformed movements as a child, one feels the proximity of a light that is not of this earth and which has not yet touched the earth, feelings that are natural to the eternity above but not to this world in time, thoughts that belong to the gods and not to human beings.

In Strong Separate Air

As needing nothing but its own rapt flight
Her nature dwelt in a strong separate air
Like a strange bird with large rich-coloured breast
That sojourns on a secret fruited bough
Lost in the emerald glory of the woods
Or flies above divine unreachable tops.

Her nature does not seek nourishment from others but is always at muse with itself. It lives apart in a strong air of its own like some strange picturesque bird that rests on a hidden branch laden with fruits lost in the green glory of the forest, or soars above divine unreachable heights.

Singing Days go by

Harmoniously she impressed the earth with heaven.

Aligned to a swift rhythm of sheer delight
And singing to themselves her days went by;
Each minute was a throb of beauty’s heart,
The hours were tuned to a sweet-toned content
Which asked for nothing, but took all life gave
Sovereignly as her nature’s inborn right.

She pours the felicities of heaven on earth and establishes a happy rhythm between them. Her days pass quickly in her natural delight; each minute is a beat of beauty; the hours are filled with her sweet contentment which demands nothing but royally takes as her right everything that life offers.

Near to Parent Sun

Near was her spirit to its parent Sun,
The Breath within to the eternal joy.

The spirit of the child Savitri retains its closeness to the radiant Light of God from which it has issued. Her soul maintains its connection with the Bliss of the Eternal of which it is an emanation.

First Life

The first fair life that breaks from Nature’s swoon,
Mounts in a line of rapture to the skies;
Absorbed in its own happy urge it lives,
Sufficient to itself, yet turned to all.

It has no seen communion with its world,
No open converse with surrounding things.

When life first breaks out of the immobility of material Nature, it shoots up in delight to the heights of the Spirit above. It lives absorbed in its own joyous impulsion, self-sufficient yet open to all currents around; outwardly, on the surface, it has no interchange with its surroundings but underneath there is a constant communion.

Oneness

There is a oneness native and occult
That needs no instruments and erects no form;
In unison it grows with all that is,
All contacts it assumes into its trance,
Laugh-tossed consents to the wind’s kiss and takes
Transmutingly the shocks of sun and breeze:
A blissful yearning riots in its leaves,
A magic passion trembles in its blooms,
Its boughs aspire in hushed felicity.

Throughout, there is an underlying oneness in life, not patent to external sight but existing nonetheless. Life requires no special instruments nor does it need to build new forms to express its oneness. It is one with all that exists and grows in that oneness. In its absorbed state it is in contact with all. In the merry waves of the sea it rises to meet the wind and the sun and thrives upon them; in the plant creation it joys and yearns, vibrates and aspires in mute felicity.

Occult Godhead

An occult godhead of this beauty is cause,
The spirit and intimate guest of all this charm,
This sweetness’s priestess and this reverie’s muse.

Invisibly protected from our sense
The Dryad lives drenched in a deeper ray
And feels another air of storms and calms
And quivers inwardly with mystic rain.

An unseen godhead is the cause, the spirit and the soul of all this beauty, charm, sweetness and absorption. This deity lives within in an air different from the outer, bathed in a deeper light, subject to a different stress, quivering in a downpour from the mystic skies of the Spirit.

Stoops but not Lost

This at a heavenlier height was shown in her.

Even when she bent to meet earth’s intimacies
Her spirit kept the stature of the gods;
It stooped but was not lost in Matter’s reign.

This all-pervading Presence is seen in Savitri also but on a higher level. Even when she bends down from her lofty heights to meet and mix with the common life of the earth, Savitri’s spirit retains its godly stature; it stoops but does not lose itself in the dominion of Matter.

Gleaming Mind

A world translated was her gleaming mind,
And marvel-mooned bright crowding fantasies
Fed with spiritual sustenance of dreams
The ideal goddess in her house of gold.

Her sparkling mind is a world by itself, occupied with wonderfully happy imaginations woven round nourishing spiritual truths glimpsed in dreams.

Wider Sight

Aware of forms to which our eyes are closed,
Conscious of nearnesses we cannot feel,
The Power within her shaped her moulding sense
In deeper figures than our surface types.

An invisible sunlight ran within her veins
And flooded her brain with heavenly brilliancies
That woke a wider sight than earth could know.

The Power within Savitri is aware of forms which the normal human eye does not see, conscious of presences which men cannot usually feel; it forms her senses-which mould the perceptions of contacts and objects-in greater depth than the usual surface senses of man.

An unseen light from above courses through her veins and floods her brain with celestial radiances that awaken in her a sight that is wider than any that the earth can have.

Thoughts Richly Turned

Outlined in the sincerity of that ray
Her springing childlike thoughts were richly turned
Into luminous patterns of her soul’s deep truth,
And from her eyes she cast another look
On all around her than man’s ignorant view.

Formed in the purity of that radiance, even her childlike thoughts turn into bright patterns of the deep truth of her soul. Her very look on those around her is different from the usual ignorant gaze of man; it proceeds from a higher light and a deeper truth.

One with Greater Nature

All objects were to her shapes of living selves
And she perceived a message from her kin
In each awakening touch of outward things.

Each was a symbol power, a vivid flash
In the circuit of infinities half-known;
Nothing was alien or inanimate,
Nothing without its meaning or its call.

For with a greater Nature she was one. In this look, all objects are seen by her as forms of living souls. In each outer touch she awakes to a message from the gods. Each god is a power symbolising a deeper truth, an unmistakable flash in the rapid movement of half-grasped infinities abroad. Nothing is foreign to her or lifeless, nothing is without its significance or its own call. And this is so because she is identified with a Nature higher and wider than the lower, ignorant Nature that rules man.

A new Epiphany

As from the soil sprang glory of branch and flower,
As from the animal’s life rose thinking man,
A new epiphany appeared in her.

A mind of light, a life of rhythmic force,
A body instinct with hidden divinity
Prepared an image of the coming god;

Even as life blossoms in leaf and flower from out of inanimate Matter, even as thinking man emerges from the animal life, so a new birth takes place in Savitri. A mind of light replaces the human mind of ignorance; a life of harmony and effectuating force forms in the place of the usual disorderly, handicapped life. Her very body is instinct with a latent divinity and it images more and more the god that is coming.

Self-Guarded

And when the slow rhyme of the expanding years
And the rich murmurous swarm-work of the days
Had honey-packed her sense and filled her limbs,
Accomplishing the moon-orb of her grace,
Self-guarded in the silence of her strength
Her solitary greatness was not less.

The fecund passage of time, gathering days and growing years, pass by filled with rich delight, her limbs grow in beauty and grace. Her beauty is celestial. She is self-protected in the quietude of her innate strength. She is solitary, but on that account her greatness is not any the less.

Godhead Presses Nearer

Nearer the godhead to the surface pressed,
A sun replacing childhood’s nebula
Sovereign in a blue and lonely sky.

Upward it rose to grasp the human scene:
The strong Inhabitant turned to watch her field,
A lovelier light assumed her spirit brow
And sweet and solemn grew her musing gaze;
Celestial-human deep warm slumbrous fires
Woke in the long fringed glory of her eyes
Like altar-burnings in a mysteried shrine.

The godhead deep within slowly presses forward; what was a hint in childhood begins to take firm shape. The hidden godhead rises to study the human scene. The strong Inhabitant in her form turns to watch her field around; on her brow shines a lovelier light; her meditative look grows still more serious and still more sweet. In the far ranging glory of her eyes wake up the dormant fires, deep and warming in their nature which is at once human and divine.

A Will and Wisdom

Out of those crystal windows gleamed a will
That brought a large significance to life.

Holding her forehead’s candid stainless space
Behind the student arch a noble power
Of wisdom looked from light on transient things.

Through her transparent eyes shines a will bringing a wide significance to life. From the pure and open expanse of her forehead radiates a lofty power of wisdom which regards in its light, the transient things of the earth.

Silent Warrior

A scout of victory in a vigil tower,
Her aspiration called high destiny down;
A silent warrior paced in her city of strength
Inviolate, guarding Truth’s diamond throne.

Her aspiration is active and vigilant, and calls down the high destiny awaiting above. This aspiration is a power both silent and dynamic; unassailable by foreign elements, it keeps guard on the regal Truth throned in the citadel of strength that is Savitri’s being.

Loves all

A nectarous haloed moon her passionate heart
Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign,
But kept her bosom’s rapturous secrecy
A blissful ardent moved and voiceless world.

Proud, swift and joyful ran the wave of life
Within her like a stream in Paradise.

Her heart of intense bliss is not demonstrative, yet it loves all. It does not throw itself out but keeps confined to its inner world of rapture. The wave of life that flows in her body is imperious, unobstructed and rapid, full of joy, like a running stream in Paradise.

Many High Gods Dwell

Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home;
Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole,
Harmonious like a chant with many tones,
Immense and various like a universe.

In her dwell many great Powers as in one beautiful home. In spite of so many different Powers living within, her nature is a harmonious, rounded whole, like a perfect song composed of several tones. Her nature is like the universe-vast and multiple.

Image of Heaven’s Light

The body that held this greatness seemed almost
An image made of heaven’s transparent light.

Its charm recalled things seen in vision’s hours,
A golden bridge spanning a faery flood,
A moon-touched palm tree single by a lake
Companion of the wide and glimmering peace,
A murmur as of leaves in Paradise
Moving when feet of the Immortals pass,
A fiery halo over sleeping hills,
A strange and starry head alone in Night.

Savitri’s body holding this celestial greatness seems to be very nearly an embodiment of the transparent light of heaven. It is lovely and its charm recalls many a thing seen in subtle vision: a golden bridge across an unearthly flood of waters; a lone palm tree standing on the bank of a lake, its top touched by the silvery moon, sharing its surrounding peace, wide and bright; a gentle murmur as of the rustle of leaves in Paradise when the Gods pass; a flame-bright horizon over the sleeping hills; a lone lifted head of stars in the Night.In fact all these images represent what she really is. She is a spanning bridge, a towering peace; her movements are of celestial origin; her flaming light looms over the darkness of earth.