Summary on Savitri by Dr. M.P Pandit

Book Two Canto XIII: In the Self of Mind

Aswapathy arrives at an abrupt Silence where the climbing stair of the worlds pauses. He stands alone with an immense Self of Mind which is omnipotent but aloof from the world that has sprung from it. It does not participate in all the movements in this world but bears them equally. Aswapathy reflects this vast quietism.

This witness Silence is the real base of the Thinker and the origin of the Word. Here meet the seeing Self and the potent Energy and creation ensues. Aswapathy watches the world from this height and seems to grasp the meaning of its thoughts and forces. He feels that this Silence, this Peace is the ultimate.

Suddenly a Ray of Light falls on the scene and shows to him that nothing is really known. The Truth, by knowing which all is known, is yet to be reached. It is above thought and sense. All Knowledge built by the mind appears unsound, unreal, all experience in life is converted into fixed mental forms that are more dead than alive. The entire mental edifice collapses.

Man’s mind is like a house haunted by the dead past and petrified ideas. It is a force for the misuse of soul and life and the waste of higher gifts. It is a stage for the comedy of Ignorance.

Struck by this Ray of Light, Reason loses confidence in its powers; its wisdom turns out to be a brilliant guess, its science fumbling on the surfaces of things. What has been done is little more than a plan, a figure of reality. The self of existence itself appears to be but a fragile leaf afloat on the ocean of Nothingness. The Mind is seen to hang as a veil between the soul and the Light. Even the witness Self looks to be a pale shadow of the Unknowable. Peace is there but not the potent, creative Power, the mighty Mother who gathers to her bosom the worlds of her making in the Bliss of God.

A greater Spirit than the Self of Mind must be found if Aswapathy’s seeking soul is to be satisfied. Aswapathy looks above, but all is blank and still; he looks down below, all is dark and mute. In between is the great stir of life in the realms of Ignorance. The soul wanders between these two firmaments of darkness and light, the Inconscient and the Superconscient.