The Winds of Wonder

Red Wolf

There are 2 occurrences of “red Wolf” in Savitri:

In menacing tracts, in tortured solitudes

Companionless he roamed through desolate ways

Where the red Wolf waits by the fordless stream

And Death’s black eagles scream to the precipice,

And met the hounds of bale who hunt men’s hearts

Baying across the veldts of Destiny,

In footless battlefields of the Abyss

Fought shadowy combats in mute eyeless depths,

Assaults of Hell endured and Titan strokes

And bore the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal. ||64.26||

I guide man to the path of the Divine

And guard him from the red Wolf and the Snake. ||123.20||

In both the places this animal stands for a cruel unkind vital creature ready to pounce upon te aspirant soul. Ruthless red wolf, black eagle, snake are representatives of that cunning and cruel vital force ready to attack when one is on the path of the Divine.

Let us scan the first passage:

In men|+ac+ing tracts,| in tor|+tured sol|+i+tudes|

Com+pan|+ion+less| he roamed| through des|+o+late ways|

Where the| red Wolf| waits by| the ford|+less stream|

And Death’s| black ea|+gles scream| to the prec|+i+pice,|

And met| the hounds| of bale| who hunt| men’s hearts|

Bay+ing| a+cross| the veldts| of Des|+ti+ny,|

In foot|+less bat|+tle+fields| of the| A+byss|

Fought shad|+ow+y com|+bats in| mute eye|+less depths,|

As+saults| of Hell| en+dured| and Ti|+tan strokes|

And bore| the fierce| in+ner wounds| that are slow| to heal.| 64.26

Let us see the entire picture of this downside, the formidable Negative.

The sentence comes in the canto describing falsehood and evil and darkness, Book Two Canto Eight, all present in the hidden heart of Night. It is a spiritless blank, the terrible Inane. Life in this touched the insensible Abyss and lost her all glory and beauty, and occurred a monstrous birth. It may be said that the dark Adventurers had a part to play, unintended, in the vaster scheme of things; it by the very nature and force of Inconscience sprang up as an adversary element. Indeed, “terrible agencies the spirit allows”. In the fierce and dolorous realm evil and misery were seen to be present as if it was their right to be. Sorrow with hatred was now its joy, and hate as a black archangel wallowed in that doom. It is here that the determined seeker and explorer, even as shadowy combats strike him, sees red wolves and black eagles and hounds of bale that hunt men’s hearts. But there is the invisible hand laid upon this error and pain. There is light within him and knowledge that, after all, destruction is just a hasty pace for creation. Nature, Prakriti, operating in this Inconscience governs the creature. The growing soul has to progress through this evolutionary travail, it leading to a manifestation of the great and the sublime and the joyous, with truth and beauty and bliss.

A Painting by Huta

Savitri Book 2 Canto 7 – The Descent into Night

He mastered the tides of Nature with a look:

He met with his bare spirit naked Hell. ||60.20||