Savitri – Eine Legende und ein Symbol. Sri Aurobindo

will.

      The formless Spirit drew in me its shape;

      In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.”

      Death from the incredulous Darkness sent its cry:

      “O priestess in Imagination’s house,

      Persuade first Nature’s fixed immutable laws

      And make the impossible thy daily work.

      How canst thou force to wed two eternal foes?

      Irreconcilable in their embrace

      They cancel the glory of their pure extremes:

      An unhappy wedlock maims their stunted force.

      How shall thy will make one the true and false?

      Where Matter is all, there Spirit is a dream:

      If all are the Spirit, Matter is a lie,

      And who was the liar who forged the universe?

      The Real with the unreal cannot mate.

      He who would turn to God, must leave the world;

      He who would live in the Spirit, must give up life;

      He who has met the Self, renounces self.

      The voyagers of the million routes of mind

      Who have travelled through Existence to its end,

      Sages exploring the world-ocean’s vasts,

      Have found extinction the sole harbour safe.

      Two only are the doors of man’s escape,

      Death of his body Matter’s gate to peace,

      Death of his soul his last felicity.

      In me all take refuge, for I, Death, am God.”

      But Savitri replied to mighty Death:

      “My heart is wiser than the Reason’s thoughts,

      My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death.

      It sees and feels the one Heart beat in all,

      It feels the high Transcendent’s sunlike hands,

      It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work;

      In the dim Night it lies alone with God.

      My heart’s strength can carry the grief of the universe

      And never falter from its luminous track,

      Its white tremendous orbit through God’s peace.

      It can drink up the sea of All-Delight

      And never lose the white spiritual touch,

      The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.”

      He said, “Art thou indeed so strong, O heart,

      O soul, so free? And canst thou gather then

      Bright pleasure from my wayside flowering boughs,

      Yet falter not from thy hard journey’s goal,

      Meet the world’s dangerous touch and never fall?

      Show me thy strength and freedom from my laws.”

      But Savitri answered, “Surely I shall find

      Among the green and whispering woods of Life

      Close-bosomed pleasures, only mine since his,

      Or mine for him, because our joys are one.

      And if I linger, Time is ours and God’s,

      And if I fall, is not his hand near mine?

      All is a single plan; each wayside act

      Deepens the soul’s response, brings nearer the goal.”

      Death the contemptuous Nihil answered her:

      “So prove thy absolute force to the wise gods,

      By choosing earthly joy! For self demand

      And yet from self and its gross masks live free.

      Then will I give thee all thy soul desires,

      All the brief joys earth keeps for mortal hearts.

      Only the one dearest wish that outweighs all,

      Hard laws forbid and thy ironic fate.

      My will once wrought remains unchanged through Time,

      And Satyavan can never again be thine.”

      But Savitri replied to the vague Power:

      “If the eyes of Darkness can look straight at Truth,

      Look in my heart and, knowing what I am,

      Give what thou wilt or what thou must, O Death.

      Nothing I claim but Satyavan alone.”

      There was a hush as if of doubtful fates.

      As one disdainful still who yields a point

      Death bowed his sovereign head in cold assent:

      “I give to thee, saved from death and poignant fate

      Whatever once the living Satyavan

      Desired in his heart for Savitri.

      Bright noons I give thee and unwounded dawns,

      Daughters of thy own shape in heart and mind,

      Fair hero sons and sweetness undisturbed

      Of union with thy husband dear and true.

      And thou shalt harvest in thy joyful house

      Felicity of thy surrounded eves.

      Love shall bind by thee many gathered hearts.

      The opposite sweetness in thy days shall meet

      Of tender service to thy life’s desired

      And loving empire over all thy loved,

      Two poles of bliss made one, O Savitri.

      Return, O child, to thy forsaken earth.”

      But Savitri replied, “Thy gifts resist.

      Earth cannot flower if lonely I return.”

      Then Death sent forth once more his angry cry,

      As chides a lion his escaping prey:

      “What knowst thou of earth’s rich and changing life

      Who thinkst that one man dead all joy must cease?

      Hope not to be unhappy till the end:

      For grief dies soon in the tired human heart;

      Soon other guests the empty chambers fill.

      A transient painting on a holiday’s floor

      Traced for a moment’s beauty love was made.

      Or if a voyager on the eternal trail,

      Its objects fluent change in its embrace

      Like waves to a swimmer upon infinite seas.”

      But Savitri replied to the vague god,

      “Give me back Satyavan, my only lord.

      Thy thoughts are vacant to my soul that feels

      The deep eternal truth in transient things.”

      Death answered her, “Return and try thy soul!

      Soon shalt thou find appeased that other men

      On lavish earth have beauty, strength and truth,

      And when thou hast half forgotten, one of these

      Shall