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The edition of Savitri that I am following in the class does not have the subtitle, 'A Legend and a Symbol'. I wondered why this edition brought out by
Sri Aurobindo International University Centre Collection, Vol. 11, in 1954, had excluded the subtitle and I approached Amal Kiran for clarification. He confirmed that it was a mistake of the editors and that Sri
Aurobindo in a letter had indicated that without the subtitle, it, Savitri, would be taken as a legend only. So, there is the necessity of the subtitle, which, in fact, was included in the very first publication of
Savitri that had come out in 1950.
For us, Indians, the very name Savitri brings us the association of the Vedic god, the Sun God - the Creator. Those steeped in the Vedas, especially
the Rigveda, may remember Rishi Shyawashwa's hymn to Savitri:
"The illumined yoke their mind and they yoke their thoughts to the illumined godhead, to the vast, to the luminous in consciousness; the one
knower of all manifestation of knowledge, he alone orders the things of sacrifice. Great is the praise of Savitri, the creating godhead."
(Rigveda, V-81)
The root of the word Savitri means 'an impulsion, 'a loosing forth or sending out ... and so a production'. But, it does not mean that Savitri, the Sun
- God creates or fabricates in a mechanical fashion. As the word indicates, it is loosening forth of what is latent in potentiality; what is already mere within. It is, in the language of the Gita, the conscious
will of the being of the Supreme throwing itself out as the many. In the language of the Veda, Savitri, by the Tapas or the pressure of consciousness on his own being, brings form the creation:
"The Creator, the supreme Good, manifests Heaven wholly and his light pervades all as he follows the march of the Dawn." (V. 81)
The Rigveda also speaks of Savitri as Surya - Savitri. It is true that the root of 'Surya' also means to loose, to release, to speed forth to Çcreate,
but mere is another meaning to it - it means 'me illumined or the luminous, as also the illumined thinker is called Suri. If we combine these two meanings, what we have is that Surya-Savitri is not only the Creator,
but also the 'revealing vision', the all-seer.
What Surya-Savitri creates is not only the words which are loosed out of the body of Surya' but "this Seer of truth manifested out of himself ...
the illimitable harmony of the divine worlds governed by the self-conscious supramental Truth and the living law of the manifested godhead." It is because of this 'illimitable harmony' that Surya bring to the
worlds as an illuminator, that the Vedic seers had chosen to evoke Surya - Savitri in the Gayatri mantra:
"We meditate upon that marvellous creative effulgence of the Lord Savitr. May he illumine and energise our thoughts."
'The creative effulgence' refers to Savitri and 'illumine' refers to the 'Surya' aspect.
Sri Aurobindo's Gayatri also emphasises on this aspect of Light, of Surya:
"Let us meditate on the most auspiciaus (best) form of Savitri, on the Light of the Supreme which shall illumine us with the Truth"
It is the Light which is the most auspicious for.. of Savitri, it is this Light of the Supreme Creator which shall illumine the path for us as well as
transform our nature into that of the supermind - of course, not without the grace of Aditi, the Mother.
The transformative aspect, or the divine work in us, is done slowly, gradually, by a luminous development because Savitri manifests himself in his
third aspect, that of Pushan, the increaser. The very name Pushan, means to increase, foster, nourish. Hence, Pushan is addressed as the "lord and master of plenitudes, lord of our growings, our comrade."
"It is this Increaser who stirs and impels the minds of the illumined and is the means of accomplishment and perfection of their thoughts; he
is the seer set in man the thinker, he comrade of his illumined mind who moves him upon the path".
Thus, as we go deeper into the spiritual symbolism of Savitri, we get closer to the Vedic concept of the world and man and their inter-relatedness. The
human individual is but a microscopic representation which reflects the macroscopic constitution of the universe. That is, man contains within himself all the worlds in which he lives externally.
'Man, subjectively, contains in himself all the worlds in which, objectively, he is contained.' In a more concrete manner, the Vedic Rishis speak of
the physical consciousness as Prithvi, Bhu, earth. The mental consciousness as Dyauor Swar or heaven. And between the physical and the mental is Bhuvar, the dynamic vital or nervous consciousness.
And Savitri is said to be the Creator, Fashioner - Twastri - of all these forms and worlds.
Then comes in the role of Surya, the Revealer. He illumines all the phenomenal objects and experiences in the three worlds. What does this illumination
mean to man? "It reveals the truth in them, their sense, their purpose, their justification and right use." This sense of inner and outer harmony increases man's unity with himself and the world around him
and above him, for, by 'the illumination' man can come out of his present ignorance and see the Light. This mental illumination is always necessary 'before the Truth itself, the supramental principle, can take
possession of the lower existence,' writes Sri Aurobindo.
Then, once Surya illumes the summits of the mind, the Rishi invokes to Pushan, 'me divine and luminous increaser of man's soul, 'to lead
him to the light that Surya-Savitricreates:
"Pushan knoweth all the regions and he shall
lead us by the way which is freest from periL
Let the giver of felicity, the blazing god who
has all the energies lead steadily in our front
by knowledge". (Vol. 10, P. 436)
It is important to go a little deep into the details of Savitri, the Creator, and the two different aspects - the Revealer and the increaser, Surya and Pushan.
Savitri is the daughter of the goddess of the supreme Truth who comes upon earth to save her from death and to bring into her immortality. And, Sri Aurobindo, in his epic, describes the incarnation of this goddess
Savitri, who, as ordained by the selfborn Brahma was born to King Ashwapathy as his effulgent daughter and was named Savitri.
If this be the connection between the supreme Creator, Savitri, of the Vedic Rishis and the title of Sri Aurobindo's book Savitri, then new
horizons of meaning come into our view. It is as though the great Vedic vision and aspiration is once again taken up, not just to foster it, but to fulfil it. Sri Aurobindo becomes the rainbow bridge between Surya-Savitri and the incarnation of goddess Savitri.
The Vedic seers consummate in the divine Apocalypse, that is Sri Aurobindo. The fulfilment of the Vedic epiphany, the victory of the vision of the Rishis—the rising of the lost sun 'to its own home of Thruth' is
nothing else but the 'second or divine creation'. For, it has been said that when Surya-Savitri beholds in man "with a comprehensive vision of all the worlds, all the births as herds of the divine Light, bodies of the infinite Aditi; and this new-seeing of all things, this new-moulding of thought. act, feeling, will, consciousness in the terms of the Truth, the Bliss, the Right, the infinity is a new creation." And, Sri Aurobindo's Savitri describes precisely "this new-seeing of all things, this new- moulding of thought..." as well as the beings of the New Race that are to come after man. Therefore, if the Vedas created the gods and man of the first creation, Sri Aurobindo has sown the seeds of Superman who shall exceed both the gods and man, for, it is the second cycle of the divine creation.
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