Summary on Savitri by Dr. M.P Pandit

Book Seven Canto II: The Parable of the Search for the Soul

One night as Savitri is sitting musing upon the approaching Fate, a summons from the summits of her being comes in a mighty Voice. Her body becomes rigid and all grows still. She listens to the Voice:

“Was it to nurse this grief and helplessly await thy doom that thou camest to earth? Spirit, immortal energy, arise and conquer Time and Death.”

Savitri answers:

“My strength is taken away from me and given to Death. Why should I struggle with Fate, why should I strive to uplift this ignorant race that is satisfied with its lot and mocks at the saving Light? Is there a God who can be moved by any cry? He leaves man to the mercy of Law and Death. Why should I and Satyavan fight Death? Why not we pass through the night to the sun beyond?”

The Voice replies:

“Is that enough, spirit? What will thy soul say when it wakes and realises that the work for which it came remains undone? Was it for this that thou earnest on earth with a mandate from eternity? Art thou going to leave the old laws unchanged? Shall there be no new world, no deliverance for man from unchanging Fate? Hast thou not come down to open the doors of Fate and lead man to the wide and golden road of truth? Am to confess to the Eternal that His power kindled in thee has failed and his labourer returns with her tasks unfulfilled?”

Savitri’s heart falls mute; she does not speak. But a Power within her answers:

“I am thy portion here on earth. Command, I will do thy work.”

The Voice replies:

“Remember why thou camest. Find out thy soul, seek God’s meaning in thy depths. Change mortal nature into the divine. Open God’s door and enter into communion with Him. Cast away thought and sense; let His vast Truth awake and see. Then shalt thou behold the Eternal’s body in the world, meet Him everywhere; thy heart shall beat in God. Then shalt thou embody my Force and vanquish Death.”

Savitri continues to sit in her motionless pose. She looks into herself and seeks for her soul.

The Cosmic past is revealed to her in a series of dream images: the first steps of creation, the soul embodying itself in the body, Matter slowly learning to think, Space filled with seeds of life and the human creature being born in Time. At first a being appears out of an infinite Nought, a Consciousness looks out at the Inconscient vast around, pleasure and pain vibrate in an insensible Void.

All looks like the motion of a blind World-Energy working unconsciously shaping a universe out of a veritable Void. Slowly sensibilities gather round a pinpoint of ego; a sentient creature finds its poise. Gradually a formless Consciousness appears, thoughts, and feelings stir, repetition forms habit, habit gives the appearance of permanence and a conscious being is built.

Behind all our thoughts, hopes and dreams there is a conscious Soul assenting to Nature’s acts, leaving the mind to function as its vice-regent. This mind is ever active, tossed about on the sea of Time, buffeted by waves of Life. It knows no silence, thoughts move in it in an endless stream. The senses bring in reports from the outside every moment. Even in sleep there is a rush of activity, though of another kind. This is the little surface of man’s life. But within him is locked a mysterious world. Deep within lives a hidden King in the solitude of the spirit, a portion of God.

Man is truly a little front of Nature’s action. All the opposites in creation are there in him. In his subconscious and unconscious regions he harbours all the dangerous dark forces which at times rise up and besiege his conscious being. This evil Nature can even dislodge the soul that is the real owner of the house. Always, there is a contrary to God threatening God’s creation.

But there is a Grace that guards, Hands that save. Calm divine eyes regard this human scene. All the possibilities of the world wait in man as the tree in its seed. His past determines his future, his present acts shape his fate. Within him lie the gods and demons that create the moulds in which he grows. Our surface is aware of only a little of its course; a vast subliminal and a dim subconscient are there overpowering in their range and force. Our past is never wholly dead. Something clings and drags back our nature’s forward stride. We live in the mind’s dubious light and know not the the meaning and purpose of the world.

Above us is the superconscience, around us is the ignorance, below us is the inconscience.

But this is only the first appearance of the material world. This is not all that we are. On the summits of our being, beyond the thinking mind our greater self of knowledge awaits us. It is a surface light that shines in a truth-conscious Vast; when that Light descends, earth’s life will turn divine. That is our real godhead.

Behind our surface exterior, there are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts. They project their influences and urge us to move forward. Our soul in its secret chamber seeks for Good, Beauty and God. There is an inner mind that dwells in a larger light, an inner life-self that gives the dynamism to soar to our summits, an inner, subtle physical self which is instinct with a truth-sense of its own.

Man was the first creature to lift up his head, look upwards and behold the friendly stars. He saw his unrealised vastnesses and his secret aspiration found articulation. Slowly he grew in vision and power and approached the ranges of the Omniscient and the Omnipotent. He climbed the stairs of evolution and saw the light of the special sun. At long last man is able to ascend to his high source and reach his fount of immortality. From there he calls the Godhead into his mortal life.

All this has been done in Savitri by the spirit in her. A portion of the mighty Mother comes into her. She is made the Centre of a wide-drawn scheme to mould humanity into God’s own shape, to discover a new world or create one.

Earth must transform herself and become the equal of Heaven or Heaven must descend into earth. But for this transmutation to be possible, the Psyche—the inner Soul—must come out of her secrecy and step into the outer nature, assume rulership over its domain of mind, life and body.

Savitri sits obedient to the Command from above. Her sight has to break through the veils of inferior nature and ignorance which conceal her self and find her soul within.