This newsletter edition brings into our fold Satyavan, a significant character in the epic poem Savitri. If not for Satyavan, Savitri’s role would not have been fulfilled. Sri Aurobindo’s use of symbolism needs to be reckoned here too. In a recent edition, we examined a little the symbolism ascribed to each of the main characters of the epic poem. While Savitri is the daughter of the Sun, Light Supreme, Satyavan, her consort, is the soul carrying the divine truth of being but descended into death and ignorance. Divine in his origin, bearer of divinity, there is in Satyavan a Divine seed waiting to manifest itself in all its splendour in this human body upon this material earth. Savitri is the Light who subsequently confronts the darkness, shadow and ignorance in the guise of Death. She stands steadfast in saving the human soul from its clutches so that God may reveal Himself. And so is Satyavan saved and brought back from death to live a higher, illumined life upon earth with his soul-mate.
Satyavan makes a glorious entry into the epic poem and also into Savitri’s life and consciousness when he appears, leaving his usual path, onto a tract unintended, only to chance upon Savitri as she speeds by in her horse-drawn chariot. The descriptions surmising his appearance and nature instantly tell us of his eligibility for one such as Savitri. These lines are a beautiful rendition of the great soul Satyavan is:
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God
His figure led the splendour of the morn.
Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens
A tablet of young wisdom was his brow;
Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs,
The joy of life was on his open face.
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light,
His body was a lover’s and a king’s.
These lines glorify the simple and pure soul that Satyavan is. They show us a man in his state of nobility and near-perfection – in his physical, his mental and his vital too. He was surely a perfect match for Savitri. The enlightened Savitri’s heart opens the moment Satyavan appears before her and recognizes in him her soul-mate. A significant partnership (occult perhaps) begins which in the beginning was not obvious but as the story progresses, we realize the significance of Satyavan in this epic. Simple and pure he may be, he is still human acting out his humaneness here and falls into ignorance, into the grip of death, that signify these. In one way, the relationship between Savitri and Satyavan serve other purposes than meet the eye. It is a work Savitri takes up for the whole of humanity when she confronts death, wrestles with him and wins back the soul of Satyavan and continues her life with him for greater realisations.
March is a significant month. On the 29th of March 1914, The Mother comes to India for the first time and for the first time, comes face to face with Sri Aurobindo in Pondichery. This March, we oberve the 104th year of this momentous meeting between the two spiritual collaborators. The years to follow saw The Mother and Sri Aurobindo work together in bringing down the Supramental Light into the earth atmosphere, so that the life on earth may be illumined. Let us concentrate on this day and offer our gratitude towards all that has materialized for us here through their collaboration.
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