Opening Remarks
The soul in man is the hidden king of nature even though it seems to be enslaved to it. In the early phases of its development through birth and rebirth it remains subject to nature and takes in all its experiences into itself. When it develops fully it stands as the king of nature.
The immortal self
This in us laughs and weeps, suffers the stroke,
Exults in victory, struggles for the crown;
Identified with the mind and body and life,
It takes on itself their anguish and defeat,
Bleeds with Fate’s whips and hangs upon the cross,
Yet is the unwounded and immortal self
Supporting the actor in the human scene.
The soul in us is the immortal self. When it identifies with nature, it goes through the experiences of joy and sorrow, struggles and suffers, faces victory and struggles. Identified with mind and life and body it takes upon itself their anguish and defeat, bleeds with the whips of fate and bears the burden of cross upon its shoulders. Yet it remains unwounded supporting the human personality playing its role in the drama of life.
Through this she sends
Through this she sends us her glory and her powers,
Pushes to wisdom’s heights, through misery’s gulfs;
She gives us strength to do our daily task
And sympathy that partakes of others’ grief
And the little strength we have to help our race,
We who must fill the role of the universe
Acting itself out in a slight human shape
And on our shoulders carry the struggling world.
The soul in us is the mediating link between the Divine and the human personality. It is through the soul that the Divine Mother pours her glory and powers pushing us to heights of wisdom and well as giving us the strength to face and do what we must do in moments of misery. It is the soul that is the secret origin of our sympathy that takes in the grief of others and the strength to help the human race by playing our role and act out the Divine Will in a little human personality. Thus we carry our share of the struggle and the burden of the world.
Godhead small and marred
This is in us the godhead small and marred;
In this human portion of divinity
She seats the greatness of the Soul in Time
To uplift from light to light, from power to power,
Till on a heavenly peak it stands, a king.
The soul in us is a godhead in its own right meant to manifest the Divine Perfection. It is in the soul that the Divine Mother has placed all the greatness and glory as a tree hides in a seed. It is this that pushed by the impulsion of the divinity within it grows from light to greater light, from power to greater power until it reclaims its lordship and upon nature and stands on the heavenly peaks within as a king.
Held by an unseen hand
In body weak, in its heart an invincible might,
It climbs stumbling, held up by an unseen hand,
A toiling spirit in a mortal shape.
Though the flesh is weak yet the soul carries within it a might that never gives way. It climbs to peaks of nature and beyond held by the unseen hand of God as a toiling spirit wearing a human form.
The secret deity
Here in this chamber of flame and light they met;
They looked upon each other, knew themselves,
The secret deity and its human part,
The calm immortal and the struggling soul.
Thus entering the sanctum sanctorum of the mystic cave, in a chamber of flame and light Savitri becomes one with her psychic being, the struggling soul and fuses with the central being, the calm immortal part that has stood and watched over her soul through the process of time and number of births.
Grew one
Then with a magic transformation’s speed
They rushed into each other and grew one.
Then the godhead within her and the soul rushed and grew one undergoing a magical transformation.
Closing Remarks
Thus Savitri accomplishes the first great step of the yoga, — the discovery and union with the soul.
