object:Savitri (exegesis) object:SE
class:Savitri
class:Savitri study
B - Text with exegesis options below lines
--- WARNING
2022-02-16 at this stage all that I say of Savitri, in an attempted exegesis, is for my own learning purposes. I would consider it all false. Countless I have had fantastic realizations from Savitri, then to realize I had misunderstood it. Over and over again. Hopefully getting closer over time. Its more of an attempt at critical and fanciful exploration, and mostly likely misinterpretations by perhaps countless degrees of Ignorance. Cheers.
- A major goal of much of my working with Savitri, is to build love for It. That aim heavily directs its exploration.
- Page 1 -
--- 1.001 It was the hour before the Gods awake.
- this passage would seem most interesting if it was speaking of me or of people on the Quest for God by whatever name. As then I would want to know all of this hour before, as based on how it is measure, could be considered me now. This interpretation would be acting as a bridge between now and the goal. Perfection.
- seen from the view of God, also, is an interesting view of it. Difficult to see but it invokes a joy of a parent seeing their childs first signs of intelligence or soul or spirit.
- Noting that the first line of the first canto of the first book of the first part is a complete sentence also. I feel that Sri Aurobindo would try to wrap the entire thing into the first line. But that is an early guess I suppose.
- "Hour of God"?
- "The Symbol Dawn + Savitri"?
- as Shraddhavan and/or The Mother said when the Soul incarnate, even an Avatar incarnates, then they forget the knowledge of the world from which they came (soul-world or Overmind etc) and perhaps "must begin anew". And as Savitri is a Goddess, she can be a waking God, thus a sleeping God. Depending on the time, which "dawn" perhaps. All manifest existence could also be considered sleeping God aswell.
--- 2.002 Across the path of the divine Event
- This line would be most interesting if it was speaking of the divine Event as the time right before the scales were tipped and the majority of humanity realized God and were united when life was to be a conscious collective Yoga.
- If that were the case, then Savitri, Sri Aurobindo, The Mother could be earlier Gods from our time, along with all the others before them. The merit of this line could be that then now we are here. Across the path of this divine Event. And it is coming, this Event. This promise is here. The Gods will awake, the Dawn will come, the Night will flee, the Earth can become Heaven. There can be the eternal day. There is a justification to the suffering, struggle, darkness and Ignorance. Hold on, just wait, the Night will be defeated and the Splendor will be revealed. This magnitude I would expect from the open lines though it could and likely means other.
--- 2.003 The huge foreboding mind of Night, alone
- staying with the interpretation from the view of humanity before the coming of our fulfilment of Supermanhood, this could be seen as us now. In our Ignorance, still lost but prior to Gods coming.
- in context of the following lines: it gives a sense of the universe before the Big Bang. The Empty space when room is made for something to exist. It is the womb, as it is an empty page on a webpage that is a symbol of the page to come. Or the seeded tilled garden. etc. But it is Night.. the first or primary empty space.
--- 2.004 In her unlit temple of eternity,
- the line taken by itself, gives the impression that Night is Holy, as it is an eternal unlit temple, the temple being the house that God enters.
--- 2.005 Lay stretched immobile upon Silence' marge.
- the idea of Night being stretched upon Silence' margin or edge, gives the sense that Silence is larger than Night, and that Night is a thin cloth that can be partially seen through since it is stretched to fit this Night.
- the use of immobile seems fitting as since Night seems like the space for God to manifest, its immobility seems like a proper base. Or it implies that if one is stretched upon Silence, one becomes Silent, which is often referred to as a condition for manifestation of the Word and Light.
--- 3.006 Almost one felt, opaque, impenetrable,
--- 3.007 In the sombre symbol of her eyeless muse
--- 3.008 The abysm of the unbodied Infinite;
--- 3.009 A fathomless zero occupied the world.
- this zero, by being referred to as fathomless and as occupying, gives it a sense of Existence (fathomless requires real depths?) and Body (a thing generally takes up a space when they occupy somewhere. it seems)
- but it was prior the "abysm - unbodied Infinite." but I could presuppose any line in Savitri stands alone and is transformed by the lines after it as they are read. Otherwise he would seem in err to separate the lines if they could not stand alone. so the abysm's unbodied Infinite then occupies the world, still zero but it as if has wiped any numbers from memory to fill the space. the zero if unmanifest still would not need to do that. but this zero occupied.
- being fathomless also gives the sense of it being infinitely pregnant, with evolution birth after birth. As this zero is the unbodied Infinite, so "one" could be considered it bodied, which would be a worthy divine Event.
4.010 A power of fallen boundless self awake
4.011 Between the first and the last Nothingness,
4.012 Recalling the tenebrous womb from which it came,
4.013 Turned from the insoluble mystery of birth
4.014 And the tardy process of mortality
4.015 And longed to reach its end in vacant Nought.
016 As in a dark beginning of all things,
017 A mute featureless semblance of the Unknown
018 Repeating for ever the unconscious act,
019 Prolonging for ever the unseeing will,
020 Cradled the cosmic drowse of ignorant Force
021 Whose moved creative slumber kindles the suns
022 And carries our lives in its somnambulist whirl.
023 Athwart the vain enormous trance of Space,
024 Its formless stupor without mind or life,
025 A shadow spinning through a soulless Void,
026 Thrown back once more into unthinking dreams,
027 Earth wheeled abandoned in the hollow gulfs
028 Forgetful of her spirit and her fate.
029 The impassive skies were neutral, empty, still.
030 Then something in the inscrutable darkness stirred;
031 A nameless movement, an unthought Idea
- Page 2 -
032 Insistent, dissatisfied, without an aim,
033 Something that wished but knew not how to be,
034 Teased the Inconscient to wake Ignorance.
035 A throe that came and left a quivering trace,
036 Gave room for an old tired want unfilled,
037 At peace in its subconscient moonless cave
038 To raise its head and look for absent light,
039 Straining closed eyes of vanished memory,
040 Like one who searches for a bygone self
041 And only meets the corpse of his desire.
042 It was as though even in this Nought's profound,
043 Even in this ultimate dissolution's core,
044 There lurked an unremembering entity,
045 Survivor of a slain and buried past
046 Condemned to resume the effort and the pang,
047 Reviving in another frustrate world.
048 An unshaped consciousness desired light
049 And a blank prescience yearned towards distant change.
050 As if a childlike finger laid on a cheek
051 Reminded of the endless need in things
052 The heedless Mother of the universe,
053 An infant longing clutched the sombre Vast.
054 Insensibly somewhere a breach began:
055 A long lone line of hesitating hue
056 Like a vague smile tempting a desert heart
057 Troubled the far rim of life's obscure sleep.
058 Arrived from the other side of boundlessness
059 An eye of deity peered through the dumb deeps;
060 A scout in a reconnaissance from the sun,
061 It seemed amid a heavy cosmic rest,
062 The torpor of a sick and weary world,
063 To seek for a spirit sole and desolate
064 Too fallen to recollect forgotten bliss.
065 Intervening in a mindless universe,
066 Its message crept through the reluctant hush
067 Calling the adventure of consciousness and joy
Text with Lines Numbers, separated by sentences without exegesis.
- Page 1 -
001 It was the hour before the Gods awake.
002 Across the path of the divine Event
003 The huge foreboding mind of Night, alone
004 In her unlit temple of eternity,
005 Lay stretched immobile upon Silence' marge.
006 Almost one felt, opaque, impenetrable,
007 In the sombre symbol of her eyeless muse
008 The abysm of the unbodied Infinite;
009 A fathomless zero occupied the world.
010 A power of fallen boundless self awake
011 Between the first and the last Nothingness,
012 Recalling the tenebrous womb from which it came,
013 Turned from the insoluble mystery of birth
014 And the tardy process of mortality
015 And longed to reach its end in vacant Nought.
016 As in a dark beginning of all things,
017 A mute featureless semblance of the Unknown
018 Repeating for ever the unconscious act,
019 Prolonging for ever the unseeing will,
020 Cradled the cosmic drowse of ignorant Force
021 Whose moved creative slumber kindles the suns
022 And carries our lives in its somnambulist whirl.
023 Athwart the vain enormous trance of Space,
024 Its formless stupor without mind or life,
025 A shadow spinning through a soulless Void,
026 Thrown back once more into unthinking dreams,
027 Earth wheeled abandoned in the hollow gulfs
028 Forgetful of her spirit and her fate.
029 The impassive skies were neutral, empty, still.
030 Then something in the inscrutable darkness stirred;
031 A nameless movement, an unthought Idea
- Page 2 -
032 Insistent, dissatisfied, without an aim,
033 Something that wished but knew not how to be,
034 Teased the Inconscient to wake Ignorance.
035 A throe that came and left a quivering trace,
036 Gave room for an old tired want unfilled,
037 At peace in its subconscient moonless cave
038 To raise its head and look for absent light,
039 Straining closed eyes of vanished memory,
040 Like one who searches for a bygone self
041 And only meets the corpse of his desire.
042 It was as though even in this Nought's profound,
043 Even in this ultimate dissolution's core,
044 There lurked an unremembering entity,
045 Survivor of a slain and buried past
046 Condemned to resume the effort and the pang,
047 Reviving in another frustrate world.
048 An unshaped consciousness desired light
049 And a blank prescience yearned towards distant change.
050 As if a childlike finger laid on a cheek
051 Reminded of the endless need in things
052 The heedless Mother of the universe,
053 An infant longing clutched the sombre Vast.
054 Insensibly somewhere a breach began:
055 A long lone line of hesitating hue
056 Like a vague smile tempting a desert heart
057 Troubled the far rim of life's obscure sleep.
058 Arrived from the other side of boundlessness
059 An eye of deity peered through the dumb deeps;
060 A scout in a reconnaissance from the sun,
061 It seemed amid a heavy cosmic rest,
062 The torpor of a sick and weary world,
063 To seek for a spirit sole and desolate
064 Too fallen to recollect forgotten bliss.
065 Intervening in a mindless universe,
066 Its message crept through the reluctant hush
067 Calling the adventure of consciousness and joy
--- NOTES
for now it seems this is an attempted summary of sorts. It came from SROL so it has a bit of that touch such that it is often a record of my enjoyment rather than an exegesis. but as I go through the Book more and enjoy all then this section page will like transform under that new knowledge.
--- RECORDS BY CANTO 1-3 ::: this one got a dot. cant recall precisely why but it must have been at least that profound. 1-5 ::: this time (5th) it was easy enough, I recall it being harder last time I think. It had many profound and wonderful verses on something like a Divine Scribe, Word, Script, Code, Mnemonics and related high high mental elements. super cool. 2-1 ::: a decent canto, includes a most wonderful description of the world stair "hundred leveled temple-tower" and also explains the big bang or evolution or involution to some degree. 2-2 ::: an interesting section. reminds me of the idea of archetypes and Plato's worlds of forms, where all things that exist here are from there, there perfect and here a distorted imperfect image. Brings up questions about the different between imagination and subtle-matter. And reminds me of my image of the book of Savitri made of sandstone and covered in jewels. Is that there, or my imagination? and so in a mental world. Also the different between the higher heavens and subtle matter. 2-3 - The Glory and Fall of Life ::: this one is tricky too, but it has some good parts, talks about worlds of Life which seem like Life Heavens. Had too this amazing passage about a descending angel. Then also explained evolution of Life on earth. Also obviously its fall. 2-4 - The Kingdoms of the Little Life ::: I enjoyed this canto. It points to so much of the struggle of Life, how it came about in evolution, its properties. Its a bit dark. It has one section where it talks about this disgusting being that parades around nude with no upward look. Oof like the embodiment of vulgur life-self.
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