The Evolutionary Ascent In Sri Aurobindo's 'Savitri': Dual Powers Of The Mother Of Might

(Read the first part of this series here: 'From compassion to transformation: Exploring Sri Aurobindo's 'Savitri' in light of Sri Lalita Sahasranama')

The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo is centred on the vision of a purposive spiritual evolution. This is not a mere biological process but a conscious, upward movement of the Consciousness, from the total nescience of the 'Inconscient to the Superconscient'.

The ultimate aim of this evolution is not an escape from earthly existence into a remote heaven, but the complete and radical transformation of life on earth itself. As Savitri declares, the goal is for 'This earthly life [to] become the life divine'.  

This evolutionary process is driven by the complementarity of the dual processes of involution and evolution.

The universal Consciousness, in an act of self-limitation, first involves itself, descending into its apparent opposite: the dense, unconscious state of Matter.

From this state of involution, the Spirit then begins its slow, laborious evolution back towards full self-awareness, emerging first as Life within Matter, then as Mind within Life, and constantly pushing towards its own complete self-revelation in a future supramental or 'gnostic' being.

The central Purana of the epic is framed within this cosmic process: 'Satyavan' represents the divine soul 'descended into the grip of death and ignorance', while Savitri is the 'Divine Word...who comes down and is born to save'.

Nevertheless, Savitri’s inner journey begins not with power or knowledge, but with empathy. The first soul-force she encounters is the 'Madonna of Sorrow', a figure of 'divine pity' who is a 'spirit touched by the grief of all that lives'. Seated on a 'rugged and ragged soil' with a 'sharp and wounding stone' beneath her feet, she is the embodiment of pure compassion, the 'Mother of the seven sorrows' who bears the world's agony in her own heart.

She declares to Savitri, 'To share the suffering of the world I came,/I draw my children’s pangs into my breast'. She is 'Karuna-Rasa-Sagara'.

Arising from the ground of universal compassion, Savitri ascends to a plane where power answers to pathos.

Here Savitri meets the second soul-force, the Madonna of Might, a figure of 'ardent grandeur' who represents the necessary activation of divine will. Seated on a throne-like boulder with her feet on a lion, 'Armed with the trident and the thunderbolt', She is the very image of sovereignty and formidable strength.

Here on a boulder carved like a huge throne

A Woman sat in gold and purple sheen,

Armed with the trident and the thunderbolt,

Her feet upon a couchant lion’s back.

Here She indeed is 'Srimat Simhasanesvari' - the third Name in Sri Lalita Sahasranama. [Here is an earlier commentary on the Name in Swarajya]

This Madonna is not a singular power but an integration of the two essential and seemingly contradictory forces required for cosmic transformation: destruction and creative sustenance, terror and nurture. She makes this explicit in Her proclamation to Savitri:

I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong,

And Lakshmi, queen of the fair and fortunate;

I trample the corpses of the demon hordes.

This self-revelation is the crux of Savitri's yogic development. The power needed for the evolutionary ascent is not merely one or the other, but a unified force that is simultaneously Durga and Lakshmi. These are not separate deities performing sequential tasks, but two faces of the one 'Madonna of Might', two indispensable modes of a single divine emanation.

Both the Names openly stated here are Names in Sri Lalita Sahasranama.

Durga is the 190^th Name. Durga as the supreme warrior Goddess, is also the unified power of all the Devas. She manifested specifically to combat demonic forces that orient themselves inimically to the cosmic order.

This world-protecting, evil-destroying martial power is a central and undeniable aspect of the integral Divine Mother. According to the Devi Purana, Indra and other Devas were delivered from mental and physical fear in difficulty and in battle, hence Devi is called Durga the Deliverer.

That the Great Goddess is the might of Durga and the fury of Kali is a truth that shakes the soul. But for Her to be Lakshmi, the serene bestower of fortune, is a truth that stills it. The battlefield's clamour seems a world away from the gentle sound of golden coins, the sword an antithesis to the lotus. This seeming paradox unveils the very nature of Her cosmic play (Lila). It leads to a dual perspective of understanding.

For what is the purpose of Her formidable might, if not to create a space for Her boundless grace to flow? The battlefield is consecrated only so the lotus of life may rise from it. She is both the unyielding force that protects existence and the gentle abundance that makes existence worth protecting.

While the mind readily embraces the Goddess of Might as the roaring Durga or the timeless Kali, it stands in awe before Her pronouncement: 'I am Lakshmi'.

This is the threshold of a deeper understanding.

As the Goddess of abundance, beauty, and prosperity, Lakshmi represents the positive fruition of existence. She is the power that brings the 'coveted joy' and justifies the 'great and wise'.

While Durga’s force makes the world safe for divinity, Lakshmi’s grace makes it a home for divinity.  However, to confine Lakshmi to a purely gentle and benevolent role is to misunderstand the full spectrum of her power. The same Devi Mahatmyam that glorifies Durga also depicts Lakshmi in a terrifying 'universal form' as the a mighty Maha Shakti.

In this manifestation, she appears with eighteen arms, wielding an arsenal of divine weapons to annihilate the Tamasic asura, Mahishasura. This reveals that the the power that creates, nourishes, and bestows bliss is inseparable from the power that destroys the obstacles to that bliss.

The eight forms of Lakshmi, the Ashta Lakshmi, further reinforce this integrated nature, including Dhairya Lakshmi (the wealth of courage) and Vijaya Lakshmi (the wealth of victory), linking her directly to strength, fortitude, and conquest.  

Bhaskararaya reveals in his commentary that Maha Lakshmi (210^th Name in Sri Lalita Sahasranama) is primarily an emanation of might. She killed an Asura named Mahala and hence the Mahalakshmi. She resides on the shore of Western sea at the foot of 'Sahya' mountain, says he.

The integration of Durga and Kali with Lakshmi within the 'Madonna of Might' creates the critical mass required for the next and crucial stage of integrated inner evolution which is unveiled in Savitri.

Then there is the revelation that She also takes on the even more terrible form - that of Kali. This is the 751^st Name in Sri Lalita Sahasranama: Maha Kali - who rules over the death.

Manifesting as 'Mother of Might', the soul-force has solved the problem of the 'Madonna of Sorrow': it has armed love with might. It can protect, save, and build. However, this power, in its turn, reveals its own limitation: 'Thou hast given men strength, wisdom thou couldst not give'.

That sets the stage for the next manifestation.