Savitri In-Between: A Perspective on Poetic Artistry

Savitri is well-known as the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo's spiritual vision. In it, lofty Himalayan grandeur and plunging Pacific depths are given in soul-stirring poetry. Quotations are taken from these heights and depths, treatises are devoted to them, and scholars as well as lay readers pause at these powerful passages. The poet's afflatus continues in-between. Like the meadows at the foothills of the Himalayas and the beaches at the edges of the Pacific, metaphors of Kalidasan beauty and connections of windowed insight complete the poetic landscape. "Savitri In-Between" is a collection of such lines. Do not read this collection to get the essence of Savitri or its story-line or its message or its most powerful expression. For that, read all of Savitri or one of the many summaries of it. What you will find here are simply all the lines that best show the meticulous poetic artistry in-between Savitri. To illustrate the method of selection, consider this powerful passage from one of the summits of Savitri. The Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone Has called out of the Silence his mute Force Where she lay in the featureless and formless hush Guarding from Time by her immobile sleep The ineffable puissance of his solitude. The Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone Has entered with his silence into space: He has fashioned these countless persons of one self; He lives in all, who lived in his Vast alone; Space is himself and Time is only he. The Absolute, the Perfect, the Immune, One who is in us as our secret self, Our mask of imperfection he has assumed, He has made this tenement of flesh his own, His image in the human measure cast That to his divine measure we might rise; Then in a figure of divinity The Maker shall recast us and impose A plan of godhead on the mortal's mould Lifting our finite minds to his infinite, Touching the moment with eternity. This transfiguration is earth's due to heaven: A mutual debt binds man to the Supreme: His nature we must put on as he put ours; We are sons of God and must be even as he: His human portion, we must grow divine. Our life is a paradox with God for key. This stunning passage obviously is not of an "in-between" nature and hence it is not included as a block in the lines compiled in this collection. Yet, in the middle of this passage is a revealing metaphor: He has made this tenement of flesh his own, which does belong to this collection, and is included. While reading Savitri, it is easy to overlook the in-between lines because one gets enraptured by the summits. Yet there is poetic beauty everywhere and this collection invites you to enter into Savitri through a mezzanine doorway. All quotations are from the First Edition of Savitri republished by Savitri Foundation on 29 March 2012. Unless absolutely required to preserve meaning, punctuation has been removed for simpler presentation.