Download or read book Vyasa s Savitri written by Ry Deshpande and published by . This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Aurobindo speaks of the Legend of Savitri belonging to the Vedic cycle. It is quickly stated in just a couple of verses in the Rig Veda, for instance, Mandala X Sūkta 72 Richas 8-9, Metre Anushtubha; Rishi Loukya Brihaspati: अष्टौ पुत्रासो अदितेर्ये जातास्तन्वस्परि - देवाँ उप प्रैत्सप्तभिः परा मार्ताण्डमास्यत् --8--सप्तभिः पुत्रैरदितिरुप प्रैत्पूर्व्यं युगम् - प्रजायै मृत्यवे त्वत्पुनर्मार्ताण्डमाभरत् --9--From the body of Aditi sprang to life eight sons. With seven she went to meet the Gods and cast far away the eighth, Mārtānda. [8]Aditi in the earlier age went forth with her seven sons to meet the Gods. But as a mortal coming to life and dying to be brought to them she left Mārtānda here. [9]This is a very terse if not for us an obscure account but perhaps the race of the Age understood it immediately. But later the touch with its symbolism and intuition, with its esotericism weakened and it remained sealed in a mystical-symbolic language through the toiling millennia. Surprisingly, even during the long Upanishadic centuries its significance and the theme of the conquest of death, of immortality in the evolutionary terrestrial creation, did not find its mention in them, one does not hear in them its echoes in any rich and wonderful voice of the period, of that spirituality.However, something definite and pretty essential has been recovered and presented by Rishi-Poet Vyāsa in the Story of Savitri given to us by him. It appears to be one of his quite early poetic creations written in the "morning of his genius" which matured up in the course of time. Later the story got neatly incorporated in the mammoth of Mahābhārata. In it Rishi Mārkandeya narrates it, by way of an illustration, to the exiled Yudhishthira as how righteous conduct proves rewarding.In the Mahābhārata the narration comes as an Upākhyāna, a minor Episode. It runs into seven Cantos of the Book of the Forest, Vana Parva, Chapters 293-299, 300 shlokas or stanzas, with Pativratā Māhātmya as a sub-title in the Gorakhpur Gita Press publication. The present verse-by-verse rendering into English was first serialised about three decades ago in Mother India, a monthly review of culture published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry; it also included a critique of Vyāsa's work in the form of an essay titled "Some Perspectives of the Savitri Upākhyāna". The work came out as a book in 1996. We are glad that Savitri Foundation is to reissue it as a part of its series of publications dealing with various facets of Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri.In the poetry of this little tale by Vyāsa we already begin to see the quality of his style that is bare and austere and unornamented, robust, masculine, the verses lifted up by a forceful and unerring intellect and the substance carrying the quiet compact strength of his phrase and idiom and diction. Whatever is there is most often poetically functional, is aimed, holding to the dictum of manner shaped and formed by matter. Bearing its full charge the swift epic movement of the tale unerringly courses with unhampered speed and momentum, reluctant to linger in any purely lyrical description. It has even those early suggestive pointers of a masterpiece in the making. The original text of Savitri by Vyāsa has the dignity of substance, dignity of style, dignity of creative delight, dignity of rhythm, dignity of noble vision, dignity of righteousness as a dictum in the conduct of life, a remarkable literary creation. There is all where a general overhead poetic atmosphere. In it the idea-force and idea-seeds of the spiritual perception and truth-knowledge are golden and bright.
Download or read book The Ancient Tale of Savitri written by Ry Deshpande and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-17 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Aurobindo considered Savitri as his "main work" and during the last couple of years of his life allotted out of his precious time every day two and a half hours for its composition. But it did not mean that he took time off from his spiritual pre-possession simply for the purposes of a happy literary pursuit. Rather it was his constant companion in the task of realisation and establishment of the dynamic Truth in this creation. In a letter he writes: "Savitri is the record of a seeing." The birth and growth of Savitri as a "flame-child" is therefore a Yogi's spiritual autobiography. Its birth is in the Tapas-Shakti and in it is the discovery of the Word that can transform the lot of our mortality.To describe Savitri we may very well apply the epithets Vyasa used for characterising Aswapati's daughter Savitri. She is a radiant daughter, kanyā tejasvinī, she is a damsel of heaven, dévakanyā, she is heavenly and radiant in form, devarūpīni; she is Goddess Fortune and one who brings the wealth of auspicious happiness, equipped to accomplish the purpose for which she has taken this mortal birth in the world of men. Such is Savitri the Epic too. In one of the talks with his disciples Sri Aurobindo mention that for "an epic one requires the power of architectural construction" and it is precisely that what we have in Savitri. To enter into Savitri is to live in the presence of its creator.Many are its splendours, countless indeed like the stars in the sky. We could use a most powerful telescope to look at them but in the process might suddenly become one with the sky. Astonishment would be gone, and also the nightly sky, and ultimately what would remain would only be the luminous wisdom ever in progress towards the interminable Unknown that is infinity-bound. That is what Savitri gives to us.Sri Aurobindo left his body in December 1950 but for ever he left behind his consciousness in Savitri. Through it we can get directly in touch with him. Rich in its spiritual contents and nuances the poem has every scope to winningly describe the prospects of a transformed life upon the earth.Let us briefly mention about its poetry that, it is not only image and symbol, but is also sound and silence; if there is sight's sound, there is also sound's sight. And when le Musicien de Silence becomes one with le Musicien de Son we have an unsurpassable marvel. Listen to Ezra Pound: "When we know more of overtones we shall see that the tempo of every masterpiece is absolute, and is exactly set by some further law of rhythmic accord. Whence it should be possible to show that any given rhythm implies about it a complete musical form, perfect, complete. Ergo, the rhythm set in a line of poetry connects its symphony, which, had we a little more skill, we could score for orchestra."If such is the majesty and glory of Sri Aurobindo's Savitri, it has to be there in its seed form in the original text that has lent itself to this greatness and grandeur. The ancient tale of Savitri narrated by Vyasa, as is present in the body of the Mahabharata, justifies itself to be worthy of it, to be precious enough to bear the charge of full spirituality in its Word. The Savitri-creation by Vyasa is one such thematic and poetic magnificence but more importantly it is the vision and work of an accomplished Rishi though yet he in the "morning of his genius". There are many aspects of the richly occult-spiritual kind, and these have remained eternally breathing even after more than five thousand years.The contents of this booklet had first appeared in a series of instalments during 1988-89 in Mother India, a monthly review of culture, published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. While the first edition appeared in 1995 the second followed it just within a year of this. It has been now out of print for some time and Savitri Foundation is glad to take up this significant monograph in the series of its publications related to Savitri.
Download or read book A Few Aspects of Savitri written by R. Y. Deshpande and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-17 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles, East-West Cultural Center, 12329 Marshall St, Culver City, CA 90230, www.sriaurobindocenter-la.org, had organised extended weekend sessions to explore a few aspects of Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri. This was on Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning, 6-7-8 October 2017, in all four sessions, each two-hour duration, followed by discussions, and of course followed by wonderful lunch/dinner. The four parts presented here, Parts A-B-C-D, were taken up for study in that sequence. The talks were essentially based on the draft-material that was prepared for the purpose, with some on-the-spot departures depending upon the exigencies of the situation. These have now been finalised and are being published, a work which, it is hoped, will be of relevance to a wider readership of Savitri.---This will be a quick broad coverage of Sri Aurobindo's magnum opus Savitri, touching upon just a few aspects, of a poem running into about 24000 lines.First a general background in Part A is provided in the manner of a hurried introduction to it. It presents the story of Savitri by Vyasa included in his Mahabharata, and some of the early letters of Sri Aurobindo, how he started writing Savitri and how, though with long gaps in between, it developed in the course of more than three decades. The Mother calls Savitri as the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo, which he tells as his "main work".In Part B we pick up, at random, a few themes from Savitri and try to go rapidly into their depths. The opening Canto, The Symbol Dawn, is taken for a relatively more detailed discussion. In it we see Savitri waking up from the original somnolence, possibly at the time of the Avatarhood of Rama when the evolutionary transition from vital-submental to the mental proper was taking place. Man lifted up the burden of his fate and with him awoke Savitri. This Part finally touches upon the advent of Krishna and Kali on earth, as a divine Fruit of the yogic Savitri. Their entering into dynamics of this mortal world should mark another great transition, of the coming of a being superior to Man, more advanced than even the spiritual Man. With it Evolution, which is now in the domain of Ignorance, will enter into the domain of Knowledge, of Light and Love and Truth and Beauty and Joy and Perfection in wondrous possibilities of the manifesting Spirit. With Krishna and Kali in this mortal world will begin the timeless Age with interminable prospects of expression.Part C narrates in a swift manner the story of the composition of Savitri that had run in the longish course of time. One can say that this composition extended over a period of about 35 years, from 1916 to 1950, almost till the time of the physical withdrawal of the Yogi-Poet. There exist innumerable drafts, running into thousands of sheets of paper, and revisions upon revisions, at various stages, till including, at times, the reading of the press proofs. Understandably, this has led to quite a few complexities, some of them of a serious kind, calling a careful perceptive scrutiny of the available material. Preparing, therefore, at this stage, the text of Savitri based on these researches can become a blemished affair. Subjective elements in making choices from alternative drafts do enter into it and this can lead to a situation where the sense may not be what the author had meant. While this subjective trait can never be avoided, there could still be a way out by making the Savitri material available in some form to the serious students and researchers of the Poem.Coming to the poetic matters in the last Part, Part D, we see the aspects of inspiration and techniques as are in Savitri. Sri Aurobindo defines four sources from where inspiration can come; he names them as Overhead Planes, they termed as Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition, and Overmind.
Download or read book Vyasa Katha written by Nityananda Misra and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-30 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have all read Aesop's fables, Jataka tales, and the Panchatantra or Hitopadesha stories. But what about the fables from the Mahabharata? We know about the human characters, but do we know about the clever jackal, the hypocrite swan, the smart mouse, the evil cat, the lazy camel, the arrogant tree, the faithful parrot or the astonishing mongoose in Vyasa's great epic? Vyasa-Katha presents fifty-one fables from the Mahabharata. These fascinating and instructive fables are a treasure-trove of practical and political wisdom, moral values, universal truths and philosophy. Animals, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, trees, rivers, directions, life forces, death and time intriguingly teach ancient Indian wisdom. With vivid descriptions and colourful expressions, the fables exemplify the advanced art of storytelling in ancient India. Author Nityananda Misra contextualises the fables and presents a faithful and unabridged translation. Carrying insights from Nilakantha's commentary and numerous Indian texts, with a beautiful collection of twenty-four illustrations, this is a must-read for children and adults alike.
Download or read book Perspectives of Savitri written by Ry Deshpande and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-13 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Aurobindo considered Savitri as his "main work" and out of his precious time allotted every day two and a half hours for its composition. This was in the late forties when the tempo of work had speeded up considerably. In fact he was otherwise engaged with it almost for fifty years though with some long gaps in between. Today we have a poem written in pentametric blank verse form running almost to twenty-four thousand lines. Divided into twelve Books as is the tradition for an epic, it has forty-eight Cantos and an Epilogue. Part I consisting of the first twenty-four Cantos was published about twelve weeks before Sri Aurobindo's passing away, in September 1950; Part II and Part III as a single volume appeared in May 1951.It is significant to note that Sri Aurobindo regarded Savitri as his main work. It does not mean that he took time off from his spiritual pre-possession simply for the purposes of a happy literary pursuit. Rather it was his constant companion in the task of realisation and establishment of the dynamic Truth in this creation. He worked upon it again and again until the kind of yogic perfection he wanted was achieved in it, that it could also become a means to achieve that perfection even in a literary endeavour. We have an early letter of Sri Aurobindo to this effect: "I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level.... In fact Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one's own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative." In another letter he writes: "Savitri is the record of a seeing." The birth and growth of Savitri as a "flamechild" is therefore a Yogi's spiritual autobiography. Its birth is in the Tapas-Shakti of one who is committed to discover the Word that can transform the lot of our mortality and its growth is in the action that can bring felicitous prosperity to it. Therefore Savitri is also named the Sun-Word or the Daughter of Infinity.To describe Savitri we may very well apply the epithets Vyasa used for characterising Aswapati's daughter Savitri. She is a radiant daughter, kanya tejasvini, she is a damsel of heaven, devalcanya, she is heavenly and radiant in form, devarupini; she is Goddess Fortune and one who brings the wealth of auspicious happiness, is beautiful and charming, and is also an adept in the Yoga of Meditation, dhyanayogaparayana, thus equipped to accomplish the purpose for which she has taken this mortal birth in the world of men.In the Mother's words Savitri is the "supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo's vision."4 Its subject is universal and its revelation is prophetic. About this prophetic character she speaks elsewhere as follows: "That marvellous prophetic poem... shall be humanity's guide towards its future realisation." A divine fulfilment in this long and difficult evolutionary process is its theme and the assertion is that it can bring even to this existence what it confirmatively states. Therefore Savitri becomes a Yogic Word which always has the power to affirm in life the transcendental Truth it proclaims.The more we plunge into the tranquil-emerald of Savitri's ocean the more we discover its richnesses of truth, light, beauty, joy, sweetness, harmony, strength, perfection. Even when one reads Savitri on a mental level it can open out for us prospects of lustrous spiritual realisations; it can lead us to "understand deeper things". Though Savitri is a text-book of the Yoga of Physical Transformation and continually needs the author's "knowledge and experience for understanding it," its esotericism in some respect can yet be grasped if we read it with a silent mind.
Download or read book Perspectives of Savitri written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study of Savitri, poems by Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950; contributed articles.
Download or read book A Study of Savitri written by Prema Nandakumar and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Mahabharata of Khrisna Dwaipayana Vyasa XIII The Book of the Instructions written by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2024-01-24 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1883-1896.
Download or read book THE MAHABHARATA of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa written by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa and published by Darryl Morris. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 5718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mahabharata, "What is found here, may be found elsewhere. What is not found here, will not be found elsewhere." The ancient story of the Mahabharata casts the reader's mind across spiritual and terrestrial vistas and battlefields. Through the experiences of divine incarnations and manifest demons, a great royal dynasty is fractured along fraternal lines, resulting in the greatest war of good and evil ever fought in ancient lands. This most venerable of epics remains profoundly timeless in it teachings of truth, righteousness and liberation. This second edition ebook of the Mahabharata is Kisari Mohan Ganguli's 1896 translation and is complete with all 18 parvas in a single ebook. It features a comprehensive table of contents, book summaries and double linked footnotes.
Download or read book Vyasa s Mahabharatam written by and published by Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2008 with total page 916 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Perspectives of Savitri written by Ry Deshpande and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-19 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Aurobindo considered Savitri as his "main work" and out of his precious time allotted every day two and a half hours for its composition. This was in the late forties when the tempo of work had speeded up considerably. In fact he was otherwise engaged with it almost for fifty years though with some long gaps in between. Today we have a poem written in pentametric blank verse form running almost to twenty-four thousand lines. Divided into twelve Books as is the tradition for an epic, it has forty-eight Cantos and an Epilogue. Part I consisting of the first twenty-four Cantos was published about twelve weeks before Sri Aurobindo's passing away, in September 1950; Part II and Part III as a single volume appeared in May 1951.It is significant to note that Sri Aurobindo regarded Savitri as his main work. It does not mean that he took time off from his spiritual pre-possession simply for the purposes of a happy literary pursuit. Rather it was his constant companion in the task of realisation and establishment of the dynamic Truth in this creation. He worked upon it again and again until the kind of yogic perfection he wanted was achieved in it, that it could also become a means to achieve that perfection even in a literary endeavour. We have an early letter of Sri Aurobindo to this effect: "I used Savitri as a means of ascension. I began with it on a certain mental level, each time I could reach a higher level I rewrote from that level.... In fact Savitri has not been regarded by me as a poem to be written and finished, but as a field of experimentation to see how far poetry could be written from one's own yogic consciousness and how that could be made creative." In another letter he writes: "Savitri is the record of a seeing." The birth and growth of Savitri as a "flamechild" is therefore a Yogi's spiritual autobiography. Its birth is in the Tapas-Shakti of one who is committed to discover the Word that can transform the lot of our mortality and its growth is in the action that can bring felicitous prosperity to it. Therefore Savitri is also named the Sun-Word or the Daughter of Infinity.To describe Savitri we may very well apply the epithets Vyasa used for characterising Aswapati's daughter Savitri. She is a radiant daughter, kanya tejasvini, she is a damsel of heaven, devalcanya, she is heavenly and radiant in form, devarupini; she is Goddess Fortune and one who brings the wealth of auspicious happiness, is beautiful and charming, and is also an adept in the Yoga of Meditation, dhyanayogaparayana, thus equipped to accomplish the purpose for which she has taken this mortal birth in the world of men.In the Mother's words Savitri is the "supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo's vision."4 Its subject is universal and its revelation is prophetic. About this prophetic character she speaks elsewhere as follows: "That marvellous prophetic poem... shall be humanity's guide towards its future realisation." A divine fulfilment in this long and difficult evolutionary process is its theme and the assertion is that it can bring even to this existence what it confirmatively states. Therefore Savitri becomes a Yogic Word which always has the power to affirm in life the transcendental Truth it proclaims.The more we plunge into the tranquil-emerald of Savitri's ocean the more we discover its richnesses of truth, light, beauty, joy, sweetness, harmony, strength, perfection. Even when one reads Savitri on a mental level it can open out for us prospects of lustrous spiritual realisations; it can lead us to "understand deeper things". Though Savitri is a text-book of the Yoga of Physical Transformation and continually needs the author's "knowledge and experience for understanding it," its esotericism in some respect can yet be grasped if we read it with a silent mind.
Download or read book Sri Aurobindo s Savitri written by Prema Nandakumar and published by Wisdom Tree. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sri Aurobindo's multi-faceted genius is not easily fathomed. The world knows him primarily as a Mahayogi. He was also a superb poet in English and achieved the impossible by producing a great philosophical epic in Savitri. Almost 50 years a-growing, the epic poem takes up the secular legend of Savitri and Satyavan found in Vyasa's Mahabharata and retells the tale in terms of man's evolutionary advancement and the possibilities of his great future on earth. Savitri by itself, Savitri in relation to Sri Aurobindo's life and work, and Savitri in relation to the great epics of the world and even in relation to the currents of human thoughts and experience of all times: these are the three ascending terms in the argument in A Study of Savitri. At a time when there is a widening interest in Sri Aurobindo's poem, this trustworthy volume will be a great help to aspirants the world over.
Download or read book The Mahabharataof Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa Vol 4 Book 13 written by Kisari Mohan Gangu and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-07-01 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Mahabharata Vol. 4: Book 13" is an exceptional literary work translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli. This volume delves into the profound and epic tale of the Mahabharata, one of the most revered and enduring mythological texts of ancient India. Within the pages of this volume, readers will find themselves immersed in the captivating world of gods, heroes, and intricate human dramas. "Book 13" explores the climactic events leading up to the great Kurukshetra war, a colossal conflict between two royal families, the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Kisari Mohan Ganguli's translation of the Mahabharata beautifully captures the essence of the original Sanskrit epic, allowing readers to experience the intricate plotlines, ethical dilemmas, and timeless wisdom embedded within the narrative. "The Mahabharata Vol. 4: Book 13" presents a treasure trove of cultural and spiritual knowledge that continues to inspire and enlighten readers to this day. Whether one is well-versed in Hindu mythology or new to this ancient epic, this volume offers an immersive experience, providing a glimpse into a bygone era and a deep exploration of timeless human truths. Kisari Mohan Ganguli's translation of the Mahabharata invites readers to embark on a transformative journey, leaving an indelible impression on their hearts and minds.
Download or read book Selected Poems written by Paul Verlaine and published by Oxford Paperbacks. This book was released on 2009-02-26 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: `Verlaine, possessed by the madnesses of love, brimming over with desires and prayers, the rebel railing against the complacent platitudes of society, of love, of language'. Jean Rousselot Verlaine ranks alongside Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Rimbaud as one of the most outstanding poets of late nineteenth-century France whose work is associated with the early Symbolists, the Decadents, and the Parnassiens. Remarkable not only for his delicacy and exquisitely crafted verse, Verlaine is also the poet of strong emotions and appetites, with an unrivalled gift for the sheer music of poetry, and an inventive approach to its technique. This bilingual edition provides the most comprehensive selection of his poetry yet, offering some 170 poems in lively and fresh translations and providing a lucid introduction which illuminates Verlaine's poetic form within the context of French Impressionism and the poetry of sensation. Parallel text ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Download or read book The Mahabharata of Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated Into English Prose Anu asana parva 1893 written by and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Introducing Savitri written by Madhav Pundalik Pandit and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lectures delivered at South Gujarat University, on Savitri, an extended narrative philosophical poem based on Sāvitrī, Hindu deity, by Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian philosopher; includes author's 1977 address at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, on the same subject.
Download or read book Savitri Episode du Mahabharata written by Veda Vyasa and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jean-Pierre Guillaume is a French orientalist known as Pauthier. He is the author of important writings and studies on the East. Without discussing the greatness of the Mahabharata from where he has extracted this episode of Savitri, Pauthier humbly stresses that it "offers the most wonderful manners of a nation, a more complete picture, the largest, and a most wonderful time of the world." He does not hesitate to proclaim that compositions like the Iliad and the Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, " while admirable as they are, are fading before the great Indian epics like the Pindos and Seven Hills to the Himalayas". Sri Aurobindo, poet of Savitri A Legend and a Symbol, says the following about the tale of Savitri: "The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquering death. But this legend is, as shown by many features of the human tale, one of the many symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; Dyumatsena, Lord of the Shining Hosts, father of Satyavan, is the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision, and through that loss its kingdom of glory. Still this is not a mere allegory, the characters are not personified qualities, but incarnations or emanations of living and conscious Forces with whom we can enter into concrete touch and they take human bodies in order to help man and show him the way from his mortal state to a divine consciousness and immortal life."
