Her body’s voiceless call

If Inconscience is God’s creation, and the body is irremediably subject to its law under the sway of Death and Falsehood, there must also be a power of the transcendent Supreme to take care of it. That confident secure omnipotence is the creative truth-consciousness in the world dynamics and it must become operative where is present the deep refusal, even the hostile opposition and antagonism.

Savitri comes and at once recognises the difficulty she must meet. She awakes to it with her “body’s voiceless call”:

At the summons of her body’s voiceless call

Her strong far-winging spirit travelled back,

Back to the yoke of ignorance and fate,

Back to the labour and stress of mortal days,

Lighting a pathway through strange symbol dreams

Across the ebbing of the seas of sleep. ||2.33||

The significant phrase is “body’s voiceless call”; it is not the call of Savitri’s mind, it is not the call of her life’s instincts; it is the very call of the body, body itself.

But now she stirred, her life shared the cosmic load. ||2.32||

It is her body’s voiceless call, and not that of the mind or of the vital but of the body, and it is that which has done the great occult-yogic marvel. Millennia had been insensitive to that ache of the body, to that silent urge, even as there is the difficult if not insurmountable need to attend to it. The physical is the touchstone for the strength and the merit of any spiritualty.

We may possibly look into some of the corresponding entries in the Mother’s Agenda. In the following these are randomly and freely abstracted from it:

I am nearly sure that death is something that belongs exclusively to earth life — death as we FEEL it, understand it. …

Oh, yes, my body remembered an earlier death: it happened at Tlemçen while I was working with Théon. I had gone out in a wholly material way, the body was in a cataleptic state, and something came, something occurred that cut the link.

So the link was cut. The experience was that … impossible to get back in there! But Théon was there, and there was the knowledge of the occult, knowledge as well as the will to re-enter the body, and also an inner faith, and a concentration.

I came back in as a result of the power and the will, simply because I still had something to do on earth.

[14 June 1967]

The cells were wondering, “But what is death?” They kept wondering like that. And just yesterday or the day before, because there came a certain state, the Knowledge that constantly comes from above seemed to be saying to them, “But why do you wonder? You had the experience, you know how it is.”

Then, to the small central consciousness (the mind of the cells, which is now gradually growing and taking shape), this Knowledge said, “Don’t you remember? You know how it was.”

Ah, then all the memory of the experience in all its details came back — they did know.

[24 June 1967]

I remember a time when the memory of past lives, the memory of night activities was so very concrete; the so-called invisible world was totally concrete — now everything is like a dream veiling a Reality … an unknown Reality, and yet appreciable.

Then curiously enough: at the same time not one in the other or one with the other, but one AND the other, it’s marvellous and dreadful. Life as it is, as we feel it in our ordinary consciousness seems something but so dreadful that one wonders how it can be lived even a single minute; and the other, AT THE SAME TIME: a marvel, a marvel of light, consciousness, power — wondrous.

And a power! And not the power of a particular person, it’s something which is everything.

[28 August 1971]

The body can bear far more, a great deal. Once the body has decided to bear pain, the acuteness, the acute sensation in the pain vanishes. And if you have inner calm, the pain turns into a pleasant sensation, an almost comfortable impression.

When the cells have faith in the divine Presence and the divine sovereign Will and trust that all is for the good, then ecstasy comes — the cells open up, become luminous and ecstatic.

[10 August 1963]

There was a rather serious attack, which found expression in a rather unpleasant pain; it came with unusual brutality. Then, immediately, the body remembered and said, “Peace, peace …” and it relaxed in Peace. And in an objectively perceptible way, the pain went away. The body is learning.

[30 October 1964]

I had the impression that I was all the pain of the world felt together. When it came, I was as if crushed by the thing; whereas from the moment I understood that way, I was able to be above pain. And I am much better.

I felt something like an extraordinary Protection.

It was a VERY concrete experience for several hours: the protection of a Consciousness … and a sort of power dominating the thing. But the body is very affected.

I had the consciousness of all that Sri Aurobindo suffered physically. And that was one of the things the hardest to bear, as if physically. It’s this suffocation, and it’s still there. There is one spot, such a dreadful anguish.

[9 September 1970]

I am experiencing physical pain, which becomes insurmountable and suddenly… the offering of oneself … the sense that the Divine alone exists. Well, the pain disappears. But it can return.

It’s not yet … .

My body is in the middle of living the process.

[15 January 1972]

There’s a new kind of malaise. I live in a constant contradiction with all sorts of suggestions: “This way, you could die; that way, you could die.” So I simply reply, “I don’t care!”

Then it calms down. My consolation was that once I had done it, it would be done.

To comfort me, there is an assurance from above, that if I reach my centenary, I will start going uphill again. But it’s still far off. I am aware of the divine forces going through the body.

The possibility, the capacity for suffering must disappear. Not that I don’t want to suffer, but … it isn’t a nice gift to be given!

All of a sudden, for two or three minutes, my body was seized by the horror of death. That was a horrible experience. But I was conscious. The body was conscious.

[10 January 1973]

I seem to be gathering all the world’s resistances. They come to me one after another, and if I weren’t calling the Divine the pain is unbearable! To such a point that I now hesitate to speak of “transformation”.

Yet it looks to me that there is something VERY simple to be done to make it all right.

I have a solution for the transformation of the body, but it’s never been done before, so it’s extremely hard to believe. The body has a wish to go to sleep and awake only after it is transformed … The task is a herculean task. The consciousness assents: “Yes, that’s it.”

[7 April 1973]

It’s as if the Force wanted to go, deeper and deeper into the subconscient. There are incredible things in the subconscient.

And the human subconscient cries out, “Oh, not yet!” Naturally, the resistance brings about catastrophes. You simply keep clinging to the Divine, and it surpasses everything. Then all is well. The subconscient contains the memory of all the previous pralayas, and this memory is what always gives us the impression that everything is going to dissolve, to collapse. But if you look at things in the true light, there can only be a more beautiful manifestation!

[12 April 1972]

Apropos of the Divine Body: Tome Two: Savitri the incarnate Word

Savitri Book 1 Canto 1 – The Symbol Dawn

At the summons of her body’s voiceless call

Her strong far-winged spirit travelled back,

Back to the yoke of ignorance and fate,

Back to the labour and stress of mortal days,

Lighting a pathway through strange symbol dreams

Across the ebbing of the seas of sleep. ||2.33||

The featured image is a painting by Huta.

Here is the sketch drawn by the Mother:

The Winds of Wonder

Her body’s voiceless call

Leave a comment Cancel reply