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

Thus trapped in the gin of earthly destinies,

Awaiting her ordeal's hour abode,
Outcast from her inborn felicity,
Accepting life's obscure terrestrial robe,
Hiding herself even from those she loved,
The godhead greater by a human fate.
A dark foreknowledge separated her
From all of whom she was the star and stay;
Too great to impart the peril and the pain,
In her torn depths she kept the grief to come.
As one who watching over men left blind
Takes up the load of an unwitting race,
Harbouring a foe whom with her heart she must feed,
Unknown her act, unknown the doom she faced,
Unhelped she must foresee and dread and dare.
The long-foreknown and fatal morn was here
Bringing a noon that seemed like every noon.
For Nature walks upon her mighty way
Unheeding when she breaks a soul, a life;
Leaving her slain behind she travels on:
Man only marks and God's all-seeing eyes.

MEANINGS OF SOME DIFFICULT WORDS

Gin = A trap or machine for catching birds or a machine with some special purpose.

Ordeal = A severe or trying experience.

Adobe = Past tense of Abide, Dwelling place, Sun-dried brick; used in hot dry climates, The clay
from which adobe bricks are made.

Felicity = Pleasing and appropriate manner or style (especially manner or style of expression).

Unwitting = Not aware or knowing, Lacking information or knowledge.

Doom = An unpleasant or disastrous destiny.

In our last post we have discussed how The Divine Mother, Savitri, was compelled to accept the
human limitations and also the reactions of the human nature to the descent of Grace. Instead of
opening ourselves to it, because of our ignorance, we fail to recognize the Grace and we oppose
it.

Now Sri Aurobindo continues to explains the state of Savitri when She accepts the human form,
to achieve Her Divine Task of winning Immortality for the mankind.

Thus trapped in the gin of earthly destinies,

Thus, as discussed so far, Savitri was “trapped in the gin of earthly destines”. Gin refers to a
trap specially designed to catch the birds. The situation is as if Savitri is trapped in such a
machine, which leads a human being to earthly destinies, that is death or a battle with death

Awaiting her ordeal's hour abode,

Outcast from her inborn felicity,
Accepting life's obscure terrestrial robe,
Hiding herself even from those she loved,
The godhead greater by a human fate.

Savitri, The Divine Mother, in such a situation was “Awaiting her ordeal’s hour”, that is She
was awaiting for the ultimate task of Her life, Her ordeal, to which she “adobe”. What sort of
situation? Sri Aurobindo once again emphasizes the Divine Nature of Savitri and Her Sacrifice.
Savitri is “Outcast from her inborn felicity” and while she does so he accepts the “Obscure
terrestrial robe” of life that is the common human life and its associated obscurities. She did not
reveal herself to Her love ones too. That is She did not reveal the Truth of Divine Nature to even
those who were very close to Her, because they too were not capable of accepting Her full
Divinity. Not like we human beings. We do not hide anything from out friends or loved ones or
relatives. There is also another message here, the mighty people, who really possess some
strength, will never speak about it. They will exhibit it when the time comes. Here I would like
to make a reference to Ramayana.

When the Vaanara Sainya, lead by Sri Hanuman, Agada, and Jambavanta, and many, went in
search of Seeta – before Lord Sri Ram launched his Digvijaya Yaatra to Lanka – they come to
the shores of Indian ocean between the Jambu Dwepa (the ancient name of India) and Lanka(
Today’s Sri Lanka). It is a huge gap. How to cross it? Then, Jambavanta proposes a solution that
instead of the whole army crossing the ocean, if only person crosses and finds out Seeta, it will
be better. Because for some particular complex tasks, instead of a force of thousands of people,
the Will of a single person is more appropriate. Then very one starts speaking of his abilities in
long jumping and high jumping. One said “I can jump for 200 Yojana”(Yojana is a unit of
distance used in ancient India). Another one said he can jump for 200! Off course it is any army
of monkeys. So one can expect such thoughts. But Jambavanta was aware that they cant do it and
the distance was more than what they claimed. But Sri Hanuman, was not at all speaking
anything. He was quiet and composed and was just staring at the direction of Lanka. Jambavant
realized this and prays Sri Hanuman, to launch himself on this mission. Then, Sri Hanuman
remembers Lord Sri Ram and grows enormously, and leaps towards Lanka. We know what
happened next. So in His silence, Sri Hanuman assured everyone that the mission will be
accomplished.

Similarly, Savitri too here is “The godhead greater by human fate”. We have already seen the
adoration of Savitri as Divine Mother by Sri Aurobindo, in previous lines. Sri M P Pandit quotes
in his book “The book of Beginnings” that Sri Aurobindo speaks about how a godhead who takes
up a human birth and human limitation and the course of Karmas, is greater than the other
godheads who stays in their paradise. He has all the consciousness of heaven and in addition he
has the experiences in mortal worlds that are experiences of growing to that consciousness. And
here one may ask why godheads have to come down and have those experiences? If you go
through the previous posts it would be clear. But here I have one more reference from Sri M
Pandit’s book. In page no 37 and 38 Sri M P Pandit explains the stature of Sri Aurobindo. All
such avatars, accepting the human limitation and the course of karmas, are the part of Sadhana
for the godheads also like to us. They do not have any concession or discount. That is even if
godheads want to grow to higher consciousness, they have to do Sadhana. And taking up a
human birth and spreading His message here is a part of their Sadhana.
A dark foreknowledge separated her
From all of whom she was the star and stay;
Too great to impart the peril and the pain,
In her torn depths she kept the grief to come.

Savitri naturally has a “foreknowledge” of the task, which She is about to take up. Please
remember that this canto begins on the day Satyavan is destined to die. This is the doom faced by
Savitri and She is aware of this. Savitri is the Divine Mother, and many are the people for whom
She is “the star and stay”. Star refers to hope and stay refers that She is the refuge, the support
to those who have surrendered themselves integrally to Her. But She even separated this
knowledge from such men. Because she is “Too great to impart the peril and the pain”. We, the
common people, always think about sharing our happiness and sorrows with our friends and
relatives. We say happiness increases and sorrows drain when we share them with our loved
ones. This is certainly true with us , but it does not applies to Great people. They do not impose
any pains on any one. They keep it with themselves. Similarly, Savitri “Kept the grief to come”
in her “torn depths”. Here torn depths indicated that suffers inside, due to the doom of death She
is facing. In spite of this She is composed and aloof.

As one who watching over men left blind

Takes up the load of an unwitting race,

Savitri, here takes up the “load an unwitting race”, that is mankind, like a person who takes care
if a group of blind men. Here Sri Aurobindo once shows mirror to the mankind, by calling us as
“unwitting race”. Unwitting means someone is not aware. We are not aware of what we are
actually. In Canto 4, “The Secret Knowledge”, Sri Aurobindo speaks about mankind as:

A deathbound littleness is not all we are:

Immortal our forgotten vastnesses
Await discovery in our summit selves;
Unmeasured breadths and depths of being are ours.

But we are blissfully not aware of this fact. Therefore we are like “men left blind”, who do not
know anything, where to go and how to go? But, The Mother takes up this “load” of ours and
relieves us and not just that She leads us and sustains us throughout our journey.

Harbouring a foe whom with her heart she must feed,

Harbouring means holding or sustaining. Foe means an enemy. Savitri, The Divine Mother has
to sustain or hold an enemy, whom She must feed with Her heart. This line is very subtle and
sublime. Very difficult to understand. Who would be an enemy to The Mother? When Her heart
is full of True Love, which is irresistible, who remains as an enemy to Her? We in our day t day
life come across some people who are like our enemies. But we can not conquer them. We have
to sustain them. Like an arrogant boss in our office, or a fiercely short tempered father or
teacher! We have to bear them and we have to win them by our heart, by winning their heart.
Similarly, Savitri too has such “enemies”. But who are they? I don’t know you would accept this
or not. This is my line of thinking. When a child goes against something good, its mother brings
him back by nourishing him and showering him with her unconditional love. So may be the
enemies are we Her children! She has given us a call to take up the adventure of the
consciousness and joy. And as just now we have learnt, we are “men left blind”! Humanly, we
always tend away from Her message. But She is our Universal Mother who will never abandon
us. She showers on us, Her True Love, and Love is its purest and true state is the Grace of the
Supreme. Therefore, I personally feel here that Sri Aurobindo uses this word “foe” and states this
line in a slightly humorous way. So we should not consider it literally. Therefore, once again the
pointer comes on our human nature. The Divine Mother Savitri is here to take up the Her Divine
task of battle with the death and winning immortality for all of us. but we are blissfully unaware
of it:

Unknown her act, unknown the doom she faced,

When no one knows about Her ultimate task, then it implies that:

Unhelped she must foresee and dread and dare.

Savitri has to take up this task single handed, without anyone’s help. But we to remember one
message of Sri Aurobindo:

The Great are strongest when they stand alone.

A God given might of being is their force.

Therefore, here one must not feel that Savitri is helpless. She is born to take up this task alone,
without anyone’s help or assistance. And one more thing is who would be capable of “helping”
the divine Mother? She Herself is the embodied Grace of Supreme!

And now, here the narration takes a turn:

The long-foreknown and fatal morn was here

Bringing a noon that seemed like every noon.

This “fatal morn” of the day, on which Satyavan is destined to die and the day when Savitri is
going to take up Her Divine Task, now advances to noon, like any other noon. It appears as
every other noon, because:

For Nature walks upon her mighty way

Unheeding when she breaks a soul, a life;
Leaving her slain behind she travels on:
Man only marks and God's all-seeing eyes.

This is again a wonderful comparison by Sri Aurobindo. The morning of the destined day brings
a noon that seems like any other common noon. Nothing appears special in it. Similar to when
Nature makes a mighty movement, that is natural calamities like earth quake, storms, or
Tsunamis, in “Unheeding” manner, many lives are taken in. But Nature continues to walk in her
usual way, because this physical nature is bound to time, leaving behind her “slain”. The man is
only capable of marking the movements of the nature and also the “all-seeing eyes” of the gods
are only the witnesses.

Therefore, let us conclude this discussion here. We have seen how Savitri is aware of Her Divine
Task and though She is facing the doom of death, She is still composed and aloof, because She is
a “godhead greater by a human fate”. No one knows about it too. Not even about the doom She
is facing. All are blissfully unaware of Her Divine Reality and Her Divine Task. But still, being
the Transcendent Divine Mother, She sustains and leads us “as one who watching over men left
blind”.