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"Savitri is the first poem I appreciated in my life," told the Mother to one of her disciples. And her appreciation of Savitri purely as a poetic work putting aside its vision of reality which is its heart of inspiration and revelation, is based on her colossal reading of literary works: "I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course in French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics, but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable to Savitri.
All these literary works seem to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart from a few rare exceptions, and these, too, represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal he has created."
She said this in January, 1960. But, it is interesting to note that long back, in October, 1906, perhaps at the same period when Sri Aurobindo was
penning his first draft of Savitri's Book I, Canto I, the Mother herself was writing a similar story - "A Sapphire Tale". It is the story in reverse of Savitri-Satyavan. In the Mahabharata (in the Vanaparva, Cantos 291-297) Rishi Markendeya narrated the story of Savitri's great sacrifice, sorrow and divine dedication, to Yudishtira in order to calm him, for, the king was greatly perturbed by Draupadi's sufferings.
The story of Savitri-Satyavan is simple but burdened with immense possibilities of symbolism. Aswapathy, King of Madra, is childless and after eighteen
years of tapasya and propritiation of Goddess Savitri, is blessed with a daughter. This daughter, when she grows up into a bright and beautiful lady, goes forth to look for her own life-partner. Savitri returns home after two years to declare that Satyavan, the son of Dyumatsena, who is in exile, and living in a forest, is her uncompromising choice. Narad, the divine Rishi, warns her that her chosen Satyavan is fated to die in twelve months hence. But nothing can deter iron-willed Savitri. On the appointed day, when her husband dies, Savitri pursues Yama, the God of death and with the force of her purity and the power of her knowledge, forces him to return Satyavan to her.
In a similar manner, the Mother too, perhaps, narrated the tale of Meotha and Liane to her classmates. Far away in the East, in a "country that
lived in order and harmony", there lived a very old king - more than two hundred years old was he! A little weary of the royal burden, he advises his son Meotha: "The whole nation, from the humblest
peasant to our great philosophers, has a complete and affective trust in you... It is therefore quite natural that their choice should fall on you... But as you know, according to age old custom, no one may ascend
the throne who is not biune..."
Although Meotha knew the most refined maidens in the kingdom, no one awakened in him the love which can be the only rightful bond. Hence, he left for a
year to see the world and, who knows, to return with his life's companion.
His meandering brought him to an island in the Western Ocean where lives Liane, an orphan, of beauty and rare intelligence. She had seen in her dreams
a man who won her heart, now she could love no other. She was waiting to meet one day her heart's dream.
And the day came, oh wonder of wonders! He was there, he in truth, whom she has seen in her dream... It was Meotha. With a look they have recognized
each other... for they have known each other in a distant past, now they are sure of it...
"I have sought you throughout the world, and now that I have found you, I take your hand without asking you for anything, for in your eyes I saw
that you expected me..." said Meotha and took Liane to the great ship that swayed gently near the shore.
The mother too, in her early teens, between eleven and twelve, had her dreams of a wondrous being, whom she was led to call Krishna and later, almost
twenty-five years later, in 1914, she met him: "As soon as I saw Sri Aurobindo I recognized in him the well-known being whom I used to call Krishna."
The Meotha-Liane tale is not only a reverse story of Savitri-Satyavan but almost a parable of the inner story of Sri Aurobindo-Mirra, for did the
Mother explain about Savitri: "It is, moreover, the picture of our joint adventure into the unknown or rather into the Supermind."
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