Chapter 3March 13, 1963
Book 3. March
Good. Au revoir, mon petit.
(Mother opens "Savitri." She intended to translate "The Debate of Love and Death." The book opens "by chance" on the last lines of Death's defeat, which Mother reads aloud:)
And [Death] left crumbling the shape that he had worn, Abandoning hope to make man's soul his prey And force to be mortal the immortal spirit.
(X.IV.667)
No matter where you open, no matter where you read, it's wonderful! Immediately it's wonderful – strange, these three lines, aren't they....
Abandoning hope to make man's soul his prey And force to be mortal the immortal spirit.
Wonderful.
These people could very easily lure me: for a long time they have been asking me to read them the whole of Savitri – quite a work! But this [translation] work is irresistible.
So, in fact (the trouble is, my notebook won't be thick enough!), in fact I would like to translate all of the "Debate" [of Love and Death], it's so wonderful.
(Mother leafs through the book)
When she says... I don't remember the words, she says:
My God is love28 Oh, that's....
(Mother goes back to the Here:
The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real Look at this:
Or in bodies motionless like statues, fixed In tranced cessations of their sleepless thought Sat sleeping souls, and this too was a dream.
(X.IV.642)
They are the ones who want to attain Nirvana.... "And this too was a dream"!
(Mother looks further)
It begins here:
Once more arose
the
great
destroying
Voice: Across the fruitless
labour
of
the
worlds His huge denial's
all-defeating
might Pursued the ignorant march of dolorous Time.
(X.IV.643)
Here is where I should begin.
Book X is long: "The Book of the Double Twilight."... Of course, if I start reading...
You'll end up at the beginning!
I would do the whole book!
(Mother leafs back)
"The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal"
This is invaluable to answer all, all, all the arguments people use.
(Mother leafs further)
Ah, here we are! "The Debate of Love and Death."
That's where it begins.
It's Canto III.
There's a passage underlined here.
... Art thou indeed so strong, O heart, O Soul, so free?...
(X. III. 63 6)
It's wonderful!
So we would have to start at the beginning of the "Book of the Double Twilight," Book X. Let's see how it goes....
(Mother reads)
All still was darkness dread and desolate; There was no change nor any hope of change. In this black dream which was a house of Void, A walk to Nowhere in a land of Nought, Ever they drifted without aim or goal....
(X.I.599)
My God, how wonderful! It's wonderful.
(Mother turns the pages)
And Book XII ["The Return to the Earth"].... I don't know.
(Mother reads the concluding Night, splendid with
the
moon
dreaming
in
heaven In silver peace,
possessed
her
luminous
reign. She brooded through
her
stillness
on
a
thought Deep-guarded by
her
mystic
folds
of
light, And in her bosom nursed a greater dawn.
(XII.724)
It heralds the Supermind.
But I had a feeling he hadn't completed his revision. When I read this, I felt it wasn't the end, just as when I read the last chapter of the "Yoga of Self-Perfection,"29 I felt it was unfinished. He left it unfinished. And he said so. He said, "No, I will not go down to this mental level any more."
But in Savitri's case... (I didn't look after it, you know), he had around him Purani, that Chinmayi, understand it – and I realized that none of those people had understood ONE BIT of it. Both things at the same time.
(silence)
Let's see, open a page at random, I want to see if you find something interesting – concentrate a moment and open the book, I'll read it to you.
Just put your finger.... Do you want a blade? (Mother gives Satprem a letter opener)
(Satprem concentrates
and opens the book)
Oh!
In the passion
of
its
solitary
dream It lay [the heart of the King] like a closed soundless oratory Where sleeps
a
consecrated
argent
floor Lit by a
single
and
untrembling
ray And an invisible Presence kneels in prayer....
Pretty lovely!
Oh, it's good.... Let me go back a little:
In the luminous
stillness
of
its
mute
appeal It looked up to
the
heights
it
could
not
see; It yearned from the
longing
depths
it
could
not
leave. In the centre of
its
vast
and
fateful
trance Half way between
his
free
and
fallen
selves, Interceding twixt God's
day
and
the
mortal
night, Accepting worship
as
its
single
law, Accepting bliss as
the
sole
cause
of
things, Refusing the austere
joy
which
none
can
share, Refusing the calm
that
lives
for
calm
alone, To her it turned
for
whom
it
willed
to
be. In the passion
of
its
solitary
dream It lay like
a
closed
soundless
oratory Where sleeps
a
consecrated
argent
floor Lit by a
single
and
untrembling
ray And an invisible
Presence
kneels
in
prayer. On some deep
breast
of
liberating
peace All else was
satisfied
with
quietude; This only knew
there
was
a
truth
beyond. All other parts
were
dumb
in
centred
sleep Consenting to
the
slow
deliberate
Power Which tolerates the
world's
error
and
its
grief, Consenting to
the
cosmic
long
delay, This was the fiery
point
that
called
her
now. Extinction could not
quench
that
lonely
fire; Its seeing filled
the
blank
of
mind
and
will; Thought dead, its changeless force abode and grew....
I can't see clearly any more.... But I know what this is about: it's when the King30 makes his last surrender to the universal Mother – he annuls himself before the universal Mother, and She gives him the mission he must fulfill.
Its seeing filled the
blank
of
mind
and
will; Thought dead, its changeless
force
abode
and
grew. Armed with the
intuition
of
a
bliss To which some moved
tranquillity
was
the
key, It persevered through
life's
huge
emptiness Amid the blank
denials
of
the
world. It sent its voiceless
prayer
to
the
Unknown; It listened for the
footsteps
of
its
hopes Returning through
the
void
immensities, It waited for
the
fiat
of
the
Word That comes through the still self from the Supreme.
(III.III.332)
Well, this is certainly a beautiful choice!
That's it, there's no doubt.
When he wakes up from that state, he has a vision of the universal Mother, and receives his mission.
This is very good, a very good indication.
I believe it's his Message – all the rest is preparation, while Savitri is the Message. Unfortunately, there were two morons here who fancied correcting him – while he was alive! (A. especially, he's a poet.) Hence all those Letters on Poetry Sri Aurobindo wrote. I've always refused to read them – I find it outrageous. He was forced to explain a whole "poetic technique" – the very idea! It's just the contrary: it comes down from above, and AFTERWARDS you explain. Like a punch in sawdust: inspiration comes down, and afterwards you explain why it's all arranged as it is – but that just doesn't interest me!
(silence)
So you came (you see, it's the answer) to manifest (it's very good, I like this answer very much), to manifest the bliss above. You understand? He goes beyond all past attempts to unite with the Supreme, because none of them satisfies him – he aspires for something more. So when everything is annulled, 30In Savitri, the King represents the human aspiration to discover the Earth's secret beyond all already explored spiritual