A Comment on Savitri

[I read the following in one of the blogs of Tusar N Mohapatra — Savitri Era Open Forum. I am sending this comment thereon.

Marko Says: May 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm Hi anon, I can appreciate what you are saying and agree with most of it. But I was coming from a different perspective, that of literature and poetry, while you seem to be coming from that of teaching, transformation and transmission.
The perspective of literature was actually started by Tusar by his remark “For his poem Savitri, he ranks along with Dante, Milton, and Goethe.” Those three did not write from the perspective of a teaching that they wanted to put into the world like Aurobindo, although obviously Dante and Goethe were spiritual developed. So when Tusar says Savriti ranks along with Dante, Milton and Goethe he is coming from the perspective of literature.
And I don’t think that you can maintain Savriti is on the same level as the Divine Comedy here. And this is not a subjective experience thing. Specialists in the field of literature and poetry are the ones would have the last say in this. Well, those specialists have written libraries full of praise for the Divine Comedy and they did not and will not do so for Savriti. And again this is not because I don’t like Aurobindo, because I do, but I also want to keep things in perspective and stay realistic. In my view, Tusar’s comment was not realistic. Open Integral ]

A Comment on Savitri :

I think my friend Tusar N. Mohapatra was too modest and not really unrealistic, when he said : “For his poem Savitri, he ranks along with Dante, Milton, and Goethe.” What one finds what the Future Poetry will be and when one reads through the poems and even the prose of Sri Aurobindo, I find them to be far above even the best normal poems on earth, including even The Divine Comedy. Savitri cannot be compared to any other poem, when we think of the New Vision that Sri Aurobindo has given us.

In the Future, of which Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had the dream, and for bringing upon which They worked so much, the present ‘realistic’ standards of valuation of literature will change. And the Future seems not to be too far. There will be difference between poems with some Inner Vision and poems with high imagination and even visions from layers NOT too high. From the highest literary appreciation of the present day literary critics, The Divine Comedy may be one of the best. But I have not heard or read anywhere that The Divine Comedy has been sought after as The Light by anyone, as millions today have accepted and are accepting Savitri. As a thing of Beauty, The Divine Comedy has been a Joy for ever, no doubt. But it has never really been the equal to Savitri in bringing us to Light and Truth and the eternal Beauty.

We are advancing on earth. And as we are marching ahead, our standards are also growing and changing. As we are on the Way to live more and more in and with an integral consciousness, our standards of evaluation will also change. Arts for arts sake will be there, pure literature will also be there, but the true evaluation will only be from the integral viewpoint.

One — who is sincerely trying to understand Sri Aurobindo, what Consciousness He represents — will never compare Him with Goethe, Milton or Dante, though they were very great. And His creations, which really belong to the Future and Truth, cannot be compared to any creation of imagination, even of the highest poetic value as per the present day or past valuation. Dante and Goethe were no doubt spiritually developed. But was Sri Aurobindo simply spiritually developed? HE is the Light and the Leader of the Next Evolution.

The Mother has said in 1972 :
What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a revelation ; it is a decisive action, direct from the Supreme.

The mother met Sri Aurobindo on 29th March 1914.
The next day, on 30th March, She wrote :
Gradually the horizon becomes distinct, the path grows clear, and we move towards a greater and greater certiude.
It matters little that there are thousands of beings plunged in the densest ignorance, He whom we saw yesterday is on earth ; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, and Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.
O Lord, Divine Builder of this marvel, my heart overwhelms with joy and gratitude when I think of it, and my hope has no bounds.
My adoration is beyond all words, and my reverence is silent.

In 1972, in the birth centenary of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother gave us the following Message:
Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world: the supramental.
Let us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness.

Again, She said:
Man is the creation of yesterday.
Sri Aurobindo came to announce the creation of tomorrow: the coming of the supramental being.

And yet another, written on 1 January 1972:
Sri Aurobindo does not belong to a country but to the whole earth. His teaching leads us towards a better future.

In the Words of Sri Aurobindo, Savitri is the Divine Word. And it is the most realistic Truth.

Barin Chaki
11-05-2007