Analysis of The Issue in Canto Two of Book One in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

Savitri- Book One: Canto Two –The Issue. Prof.S.Jayaraman.
Sri Aurobindo, the great saint –poet and philosopher began writing ‘Savitri’ in the closing years of the 19th century and concluded it about the mid-point of the 20th century. It is a great epic comprising 3 parts, 12 books, 49 cantos and 24,000 lines. The conquest over Death is the thematic principle of Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Savitri’. The original story appears in the epic Mahabharata as well as in the Puranas. In short, it tells the story how Savitri retrieves her husband Satyavan from Yama, the God of Death.
Justify the title of the Canto Two of Book One
In Canto Two of Book One of ‘Savitri’ entitled ‘The Issue’, Sri Aurobindo describes the growth of Savitri. Canto One of Book One entitled ‘The Symbol Dawn’ ends with the line “This was the day when Satyavan must die.” So, The Second Canto ‘The Issue’ is the one in which Savitri faced the fundamental problem of human life, death. In a few hours, death would take away Satyavan. It placed Savitri very near to the mighty issue between Death ignominious and Life Eternal. The issue would be joined between Yama and Savitri. She could not withdraw and allow Fate to run its course. She had to go forward, struggle, and dare Destiny, whatever the outcome. Still, Savitri, the Universal Mother, should not fail. Full of compassion, she had to strengthen her inner spirituality and face the inevitable Death to defeat it. Hence the title. How did Savitri recapitulate her many -faceted past?
Savitri was the Universal Mother, full of compassion. She was lost in thinking about her secret, mysterious thoughts. Now in human form, her mind recapitulated her many - faceted past. The near past marched through her memory as a reverie. She glanced at her treasure – trove of memorable experiences where everything could be found as fresh as a morning flower. Her sweet childhood days and the romantic youth lay in “the sweet by paths” of her memory. Her life’s “broad highways” brought back to her the many- coloured joys of her twelve month long life of deep love with Satyavan. Now she had come to face the silent approaching death. To her, it was the time in which “heaven raced with death.”

Write an appreciation of Canto Two, Book One of Savitri
Include the first two paragraphs.
Savitri had to confront the advancing fate. Her remembrance of the past had ended. She was standing at the threshold of the future. The twelve months of passionate joy had ended. She had come to a stage where physical life had become meaningless. It was her will power that mattered. Only that could defeat Death and cancel the mortality of the body. Sri Aurobindo says that the present human life is the result of what it was yesterday. It is the Karma that influences one’s future. So, Savitri had to shatter the fixity of the cosmic consequences of birth and death. Her spiritual conflict was with the embodied Nothingness. She had to justify her right to exist and to love. For, “The great and dolorous moment now was close.”
Savitri knew that she was alone. Only “The Gods above and Nature sole below” were the spectators of her impending struggle. Now she had “grown to the stature of her spirit.” She had ample time to brood over the earth’s early developmental stages. She had lived the prologue of her radiant dramatic life. She had attained an inner stillness. In its presence, Time came to a halt and grief and change were suspended. It was a moment of spiritual realization. Her body had become the proper dwelling place for the hidden divinity. Even her worldly acts were an expression of a wider, all-embracing divine life. She could “Recover the lost habit of happiness.” As Aurobindo says,
“Love in her was wider than the Universe,
The whole world could take refuge in her single heart.”
The Love of Savitri was spiritual. She was “An Ocean of untrembling virgin fire.” Love found his own eternity in her.
Sri Aurobindo says that till that day, no sadness had come in the way of Savitri. She knew that all things in this world including beauty were death- claimed. But she ignored Death’s claim. She enjoyed the Divine freedom of the unborn Divinity. It was her playmate in the eternal realms. The “endless bliss” hovered over her as “The white - fire dragon - bird.” The tranquil shield of Divinity always guarded her. But, happiness never lasted till the end of human life. She was aware that she had to bear the snare of time. The impending Death of Satyavan would put Savitri, the missioned - child, face to face with Death. In fact, she was the Divine Light who had come down to fill the deep abyss of the imperfect world with her perfect Divinity. But, she had to fight the problem of death on the human plane, not on the superhuman one.
Destiny’s dice had placed before her soul the great issue. She had to win the game of Divinity and Immortality for the entire humanity. Human life is a ruthless game. Man is a castaway “on the Ocean of Desire.” He is not only a creature of Circumstance but also a slave and a doll in the hands of Time. But Savitri was “a self –born Force.” She had divine consciousness. The dualities of Nature and the norms of Karma impose limiting restrictions on the efforts of man’s godward evolution. Death stops the spiritual pursuit of life. But Savitri had no such limitations just as the other human beings had. Instead, she had to do “a great work” and speak “a great word” in order to defeat Death and save Truth (Satyavan).She was Love incarnate. Truth and Love should live in total harmony to usher in immortality to mankind. So, Savitri did not accept Nature’s course. She completely relied on her soul – force to assert her sovereign right and will power against the iron laws and mechanical compulsions of outer Nature.
The Divine is blissful in its being. But Ignorance and Ego stop their progress as they are against all happiness. The will of man is obedient to the long- established laws of Nature. It is born of mind, not of knowledge. So, the flaming soul and the luminous mind of Savitri had to meet the complicated mechanism of material Nature. She knew that a prayer, a grand action and a noble plan could connect man’s strength to “a transcendent Force.” At the approach of the silent, invisible Death, her inner power readied itself to meet effectively the stroke of Death.
Man is also a machine, like other machines. His mind is the product of a physical brain. His emotions flow from his beating heart. Moreover, Nature’s fixed laws, her vast empire of ignorance, abolish man’s assertion of any free will. But a time comes when “….wisdom comes, and vision grows within “man. It is the time in which man’s soul has the vision of the Light Divine. Realising that her time had come, the great World- Mother in Savitri rose. Savitri was determined to win a victory “for God in man.” She would establish the superiority of Spirit over Circumstance. She would exercise the force of her will and press back “the senseless dire revolving Wheel” of Fate and also halt the “mute march of Necessity.”She was a divine fighter. She would destroy the fences of human consciousness and Time. Using her great spiritual power, she would strike hard and force open the tightly - closed and strictly - denied door of Death. Thus, she would win back Truth, not only for her own sake but also for the sake of the entire humanity.
Sri Aurobindo’s conception of Savitri as Universal Mother and the very incarnation of Love transforms her to be the harbinger of a new world order where the mind – consciousness would go beyond its present limitations and reach a new level of supramental – consciousness.