The Victorious Mother Returns: Savitri And Sahasranama

(This is the ninth article in Aravindan Neelakandan's series on Sri Aurobindo's 'Savitri' and the Sri Lalita Sahasranama. The earlier parts are here: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight).

Drawing upon an ancient legend from the Mahabharata, Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol stands as one of the most ambitious works of spiritual poetry ever written.

The poem is a vast exploration of cosmic history, the planes of consciousness, and the potential for a divine life on earth.

At its heart is the a journey to overcome the finality of death through the power of divine love.

The Epilogue of this epic poem titled The Return to Earth, serves as the ultimate fulfilment of this vision. It is not merely a narrative conclusion but the symbolic enactment of the central aim of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga: the transformation of earthly life through the descent of a higher, supramental consciousness.

The poem culminates in a spiritual journey that does not end in a transcendent individual liberation but in a victorious and compassionate return to the world of human struggle, ready to remake it Divine.

The Epilogue of Savitri opens with a re-awakening that is both a return and a transfiguration. As Savitri's spirit wakes from its 'abysmal trance', she finds herself once more upon the 'earth-mother’s calm inconscient breast'.

The text immediately establishes the central paradox of her new state:

Human she was once more, earth’s Savitri,

Yet felt in her illimitable change.

This juxtaposition is the key to understanding the nature of her spiritual transformation that is integral. It is not an abandonment of her humanity but its radical fulfilment and expansion.

The goal of her arduous Yoga was not to shed the mortal coil for a disembodied liberation, but to infuse the mortal form with a consciousness that transcends its limitations. The poem describes this integrated state as a reality that surpasses both the terrestrial and the traditionally conceived celestial planes:

A power dwelt in her soul too great for earth,

A bliss lived in her heart too large for heaven;

Her consciousness has become a new order of existence, one that can contain the vastness of the spirit within the finitude of a human vessel. She has become a 'form of infinity'.

This achievement resolves the age-old dualism between Spirit and Matter, the finite and the infinite.

Her physical form is no longer a prison for the soul but its expressive instrument, a living temple. This successful integration is the foundational principle of the Supramental transformation that Sri Aurobindo posited as the next stage of evolution—a divinisation of life, not a rejection of it.

The completion of Savitri's journey is thus defined not by the victory over Death alone, but by her ability to bring the fruits of that victory back into her embodied, human existence on earth.

The New Union: Love as a World-Force

The transformation of Savitri is mirrored in the transformation of her relationship with Satyavan. Their reunion is not simply a return to a prior state of bliss but the inauguration of a new mode of being, where love itself becomes a cosmic and creative force.

Upon waking, Satyavan is immediately aware of the profound change in her, perceiving her new, cosmic stature:

But now thou seemst almost too high and great

For mortal worship; Time lies below thy feet

And the whole world seems only a part of thee,...

He recognises that she is no longer just his beloved but a universal presence. Savitri’s response to his awe is a cornerstone of the epic's message. She reassures him that her divinity does not negate their humanity but perfects it:

All now is changed, yet all is still the same.

...

Heaven’s touch fulfils but cancels not our earth:

...

Still am I she who came to thee mid the murmur

Of sunlit leaves upon this forest verge;

I am the Madran, I am Savitri.

This principle of 'fulfils but cancels not' is the law of the new consciousness. Their love, once a personal bond, is now consciously recognised as a partnership in a divine work. It becomes the model and the engine for a greater union between the divine and the terrestrial.

Their 'wedded walk through life' is now a journey through a world they know to be a 'playing-ground and dwelling-house of God'.

In her dialogue with Death, Savitri had declared that 'Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven'. In the epilogue, their union becomes the living embodiment of that link, a force capable of initiating a 'greater age'.

The Rejection of Solitary Heaven and the Embrace of Compassion

Savitri's defining act, which gives ultimate meaning to her victory, is her compassionate choice to return to earth. This decision, made explicit in the preceding book, is actualised and articulated as a world-redeeming mission in the Epilogue.

In 'The Book of Everlasting Day', the Supreme Voice offers her an eternal, solitary bliss, a release from the pain and struggle of the world. Her refusal is unequivocal:

I sacrifice not earth to happier worlds.

Because there dwelt the Eternal’s vast Idea

...
If thou and I are true, the world is true;

Although thou hide thyself behind thy works,

To be is not a senseless paradox;

Since God has made earth, earth must make in her God;

What hides within her breast she must reveal.

I claim thee for the world that thou hast made.

This choice is reiterated in the epilogue as their shared purpose, a mandate that flows directly from their transformed love. She tells Satyavan:

For not for ourselves alone our spirits came

Out of the veil of the Unmanifest,

...

To lead man’s soul towards truth and God we are born

Her compassion is not a passive sentiment but a dynamic, creative force. It is not pity for the world's suffering from a safe distance, but a complete identification with it, undertaken for the purpose of its healing.

The first expression of this mission is the simple, powerful declaration: 'Let us give joy to all, for joy is ours'. With this, the epilogue reframes the traditional spiritual ideal.

The highest attainment is not presented as moksha, or liberation for the individual soul, often misunderstood as an escape from the cycle of birth and death, but as a liberation for the world.

Savitri embodies the Bodhisattva ideal on a cosmic scale, refusing a personal, static nirvana for the sake of a universal, dynamic salvation. Her compassion is the very motive force of her divine action, representing the ethical and spiritual climax of the poem.

The Mandate for a Greater Dawn: The First Fruits of Transformation

The Epilogue does not conclude with the lovers' personal bliss but extends to show the first tangible, world-altering effects of Savitri's divine presence.

The arrival of the royal party from Madra brings with it a 'rapid marvel': the restoration of King Dyumatsena's sight and his lost kingdom.

This event is of immense symbolic importance. In his 'Author's Note', Sri Aurobindo explains that Dyumatsena, the 'Lord of the Shining Hosts', represents 'the Divine Mind here fallen blind, losing its celestial kingdom of vision'. His healing is therefore not a mere plot device but a symbol for the restoration of divine vision to the world's consciousness, the first step in healing the ignorance that binds the earth.

The significance of this act is immediately recognized by a sage in the company, who asks Savitri:

O woman soul, what light, what power revealed,

Working the rapid marvels of this day,

Opens for us by thee a happier age?

Her power is acknowledged as the inaugurating force of a new era. The epic concludes not with a final resolution but with a profound and potent promise.

Savitri answers:

Awakened to the meaning of my heart

That to feel love and oneness is to live

And this the magic of our golden change,

Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage

The final lines describe Night, now luminous and peaceful, brooding over a secret thought:

And in her bosom nursed a greater dawn.

This powerful image positions the entire 24,000-line narrative as the prelude to a new phase of terrestrial evolution. Savitri's return has irrevocably set in motion a process of global transformation. The completion of her personal journey is the commencement of the world's journey towards its own divinity.

Resonance within the Thousand Names of the Divine Mother

Sri Lalita Sahasranama is a hymn that enumerates one thousand names of the Divine Mother, Sri Lalita Tripurasundari. Each name is considered a mantra, revealing a specific aspect of Her infinite being, power, or cosmic function. A contemplation of these Names provides a striking framework which allows the reader to understand the 'illimitable change' in Savitri, confirming that she has not just become a divine being, but has embodied the essential nature of the World-Mother Herself.

Savitri's central and most dramatic achievement is her victory over Death, who appears as the ‘Spirit of the Void, / Claiming the world for Death and Nothingness’. In the Puranic context leading to Sri Lalita Sahasranama, interestingly it is the resurrected ash of the burnt Kama that gave rise to Bhandasura - the Asura with whom the Goddess battles.

After Siva burnt the Asura, one of the Siva-Ganas, Chitrakama, gathered the ashes and made a doll which became Bhandasura.

While Satyavan whom Savitri brought to life heralded a new life and a species transformation, the resurrected ashes of Kama became an Asura - a destructive lower force.

The 84^th Name in the Sahasranama is Hara Netragni Sandagdha Kama Sanjivanausadhi - She who became the life-giving medicine for Kama who had been burned to ashes by the fire from Shiva’s eye.

Thus even in bringing back to life - there are mechanistic resurrections which devolve into Asuric nature. Then the Divine Feminine through Her Arul makes the conquering of death an evolutionary higher transformation.

Savitri speaks of the victory of Divine Feminine over Death. The Puranic context of Sahasranama speaks of the victory of Goddess over Divine-less devolved resurrection.

The 346^th Name is Vijaya - She who is always Victorious. She is one who is with special victories.

The 992^nd Name is Avyaja-karuna-murtih that is 'She who is a form of limitless true love and compassion'. Hers is a love that is not based on any logic and reason. It is pure uncontaminated love.

The term avyaja means 'without cause' or 'without pretext', signifying a grace that is not earned or merited but flows spontaneously from the Divine's own nature.

The term avyaja also means without expectations. Her compassion flows without any expectations and transforms. A living experience of this can be seen in Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, who even at the age of 72, spends at a stretch more than 15 hours each day for days together hugging and consoling those who come to her. She makes no difference between a believer and non-believer. That feat looks physically impossible. Here is a live direct proof of how Avyaja-karuna makes a physically impossible feat possible here on earth.

Bhaskararaya in his commentary combines victory with this quality of unconditional compassion and states: Jayati karuna Kaaruna : Victory to the ever and the most compassionate One - says the wise.

Savitri's return is the perfect embodiment of this principle. Having won everything for herself and Satyavan, she is under no compulsion to take on the burden of the world. Her decision to do so, articulated in her mission 'to save the world and man', is an act of pure, causeless compassion. This elevates her love from a human emotion to a divine principle, demonstrating that the highest spiritual state is not one of aloofness but of boundless, active, and self-giving Arul.