The next part of Savitri we shall discuss is as follows:

Even in this moment of her soul's despair,

In its grim rendezvous with death and fear,
No cry broke from her lips, no call for aid;
She told the secret of her woe to none:
Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.
Yet only her outward self suffered and strove;
Even her humanity was half divine:
Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all,
Her nature felt all Nature as its own.
Apart, living within, all lives she bore;
Aloof, she carried in herself the world:
Her dread was one with the great cosmic dread,
Her strength was founded on the cosmic mights;
The universal Mother's love was hers.
Against the evil at life's afflicted roots,
Her own calamity its private sign,
Of her pangs she made a mystic poignant sword.
A solitary mind, a world-wide heart,
To the lone Immortal's unshared work she rose.

MEANINGS OF SOME DIFFUCULT WORDS

Grim = Stern, Harshly ironic or sinister, Causing dejection.

Rendezvous = A meeting planned at a certain time and place, A place where people meet.

Woe = Misery resulting from affliction, Intense mournfulness.

Afflicted = Harassed, Suffering, in pain.

Grieved = Feel grief; eat one's heart out.

Somnolence = A very sleepy state.

Aloof = Remote in manner.

In our last discussion we discussed that Savitri has a foreknowledge of Her divine Task, as She
has descended for the same. But She separates everyone from it. The day passes and the noon,
the “Ordeal’s Hour” now approaches. In the coming lines also Sri Aurobindo continues to
explain the strength of Savitri I such a moment. In all these lines there is a message for us.

Even in this moment of her soul's despair,

In its grim rendezvous with death and fear,
No cry broke from her lips, no call for aid;
She told the secret of her woe to none:

This is the time, when Savitri is gathering herself and getting ready for Her battle with Death.
She is aware of it, as She has descended here for the same. Though She is the Universal Divine
Mother embodies, as She is in human form and has accepted the human limitations, “in this
moment”, Her soul is in despair, when it is going to have a “rendezvous with death and fear”.
But She though She is in human form, even in such moments of despair, She is still composed
and “No cry broke from her lips” and “no call for aid”. She never told the “secret of her woe”
to any one. She is determined to take up the task single handed and complete it.

Here, I was personally stuck up by the first lien. So far my conception was that soul is not
associated with any emotions as it is a Divine Spark. So my doubt was how Savitri’s soul can be
in despair?

Here I must pledge an acknowledgement to all the people who helped me to get this cloud
cleared, and they Larry sir from SACAR, Unknown M, Kabutar! (my best friends nick name)
and Aspriha.

The soul is indeed above and beyond all the emotions, but from Human emotions. We should not
generalize the human emotions and the one associated with the soul. Here in the firsr line, when
Sri Aurobindo says that Savitri’s soul is in despair, it means Her soul is desperate to battle with
the death and win the immortality for all the living beings. Despair literally means a state where
in one looses all the hopes. Here Savitri is not at all loosing any hopes, as She is still composed.
We have to understand this desperation as iÉQûmÉlÉÉ or vÀÄrvÀ in Kannada.

Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.

Yet, in spite of the dejection of the earth-nature, Her grief, Savitri is very calm. And She is quite,
because She is courageous. She has not spoken to any one regarding Her grief, the doom of death
She is facing. Only those who are courageous stay quite in any situation, in any test. Those who
are coward they always speak and complain and seek for help. In the last post we have seen the
example of Sri Hanuman also.

Yet only her outward self suffered and strove;

Even her humanity was half divine:

Though Savitri is in a state of despair, and facing a doom of death, all this suffering was only to
Her external self. Not for the internal self. Within, She is divine, The Divine Mother Herself!
Even Her human form is half divine. Though She is in a body confined to earthly limitations, a
part of Her divinity is reflected on it. When see The Mother’s photographs, it is cleared to us,
that how a Divine Being’s divinity is reflected by Their body. Especially when you look at the
photograph of The Mother’s eyes and Feet, you feel this. One always feel that The Mother’s
Eyes looks straight into heart and start purifying it. This is because a part of The mother’s
Divinity is captured in those photos.

Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all,

Her nature felt all Nature as its own.

The word spirit carries many meanings if we explore it. If we directly translate it in Hindi it is
cÉãiÉlÉÉ. Savitri’s Spirit is open “to the Spirit in all”. She does not separated Her Spirit from
everyone, like She separated Her Grief from everyone.

Sometimes, Spirit is also referred to as the Soul. Her soul is always open to our souls, or of those
who surrenders themselves integrally to her.
Spirit is also understood as the Strength, Ability or Power. The Divine Mother lends Her
Strength to every one.

All of these are true, because:

A spark of deity lost in Matter’s crypt (Page no. 5)

Also, Savitri’s Nature in in union with “all Nature”.

Sri M P Pandit explains in “The Book of Beginnings” that Savitri or The Mother is one with
everyone, both at the level of the self and nature. Here Spirit means self. Being one with every
one in the level of self is a bit easy, but in the level of nature it is very difficult. But the Divine
Mother is in unison with every one and all the nature in both the statuses.

Apart, living within, all lives she bore;

Aloof, she carried in herself the world:

These two lines are once again so wonderful. Savitri lives within, apart from all the earthly
limitations and emotions, though she has accepted them. But She is not self centered. She just
cant be self centered, because She is The Divine Mother. Though Savitri lives within, She bears
all the lives or anything and everything that lives, and carried the whole world in Her, though
She is separate from the world.

Here, if you take the purport of “living within” as Sadhana, these lines get an even higher place
in your heart. Savitri or The Mother not only do their Sadhana for themselves, but also “bears”
the load of Sadhana of all the lives and the whole world is being lead by Her through the next
evolution.

Her dread was one with the great cosmic dread,

Her strength was founded on the cosmic mights;
The universal Mother's love was hers.

These lines once again emphasize the static oneness of The Mother – Savitri – with the whole
world, the universe. In any relation or friendship, we strongly feel our companion’s happiness or
sorrows are ours too. Because we feel ourselves as one with them, and they are our strengths but
not the weakness. Similarly, Savitri here is in static oneness with the cosmos or universe.
Therefore, the dread of the universe, the dread of death, is also the dread of the universe. Not just
the dread, the Strength of Savitri finds its basis on the “cosmic mights”, that is Her Strength has
emerged from the universe.

Here there is another dimension for these lines. Savitri is in constant union with the universe.
Also her Strength is based on the cosmic mights. This means She is in constant union with The
Supreme and Her Strength or Power is nothing but the Power of The Supreme, because:

WûËUUãuÉ eÉaÉiÉç eÉaÉSãuÉ WûËU: |

=> He is the Maker and the world he made : Book 1, Canto 4, Page 61.

As the universe and The lord who created are one, Savitri is indeed in constant union with The
Supreme.
Therefore, her Love, is the Love of the Supreme Universal Mother, which is the Grace of The
Supreme.

Against the evil at life's afflicted roots,

Her own calamity its private sign,
Of her pangs she made a mystic poignant sword.

Though, Savitri is an avatar, from the land of the Supreme, though not bound by the death, She
faces the evil at the afflicted roots of life, that is death, to battle with it and win it. “Her own
calamity”, means her present situation where she is confronting the death, is marled as private
sign of the evil, or in other words, Sri Aurobindo says here that the death is marked as the next
target by the Divine. Therefore, Savitri turns her own crisis, pain, or grief into a “mystic
poignant sword” to battle with the death. “Poignant” is a French Adjective derived from
“pungere” which means to sting, to pierce or prick. Therefore, poignant means some thing sharp
and injurious to emotional and physical being. She turns her crisis into a weapon for Her ultimate
task.

Here Sri Aurobindo has given us a very high message. The Mother has endorsed it by giving the
following message:

Be grateful to all ordeals. They are the shortest way to the Divine.

Whenever we are in a crisis, or in a problem, we should never give up our hopes. We should
accept such situations with respect as a challenge, have an unshakeable faith in The Mother and
Sri Aurobindo, and advance. We should turn each and every of such ordeals as our steps on the
path, leading us to The Mother. Just such an attitude induces an immense confidence in one’s life
and the way he or she sees the life will be totally changed.

A solitary mind, a world-wide heart,

To the lone Immortal's unshared work she rose.

In the mind She is “solitary”, that is detached from everything but her Heart is wide and its
width matched with widths of the world or the universe. A detached mind and a universal heart
are the keys for those who seek The Supreme, as Sri M P Pandit says in “The Book of
Beginnings”. Only such people are unique and they take up the tasks of The Supreme, The
Immortal, alone and single handed. Such people are also unique and so are their tasks.