The Winds of Wonder

Satyavan : The Golden Tower and the Future of the Earth

A Session with Pravir Malik

Opening introductions

Host

Namaste, everyone. A very warm welcome to YES Talks. Today’s talk is titled Satyavan: The Golden Tower and the Future of the Earth. Our guest speaker is Dr. Pravir Malik. I’ll begin with a brief introduction.

Pravir Malik is a scientist, author, and emerging-technology leader exploring new foundations for quantum systems, computation, and intelligence. He is the founder and scientist at QIQuantum and the developer of the Quaternary Interpretation of Quantum Dynamics. Pravir has authored more than 30 books, is an IEEE Senior Member and TEDx speaker, and leads the Quantum Computing Group within Forbes Technology Council.

His recent work focuses on how deeper models of information and coherence may open new possibilities at the intersection of quantum technology, artificial intelligence, and complex natural systems.

Moderator

Thank you, Arunima. Let me add to your introduction. I have been a longtime admirer of Pravir as a management guru with a difference. I have known him primarily through his books on management, in which he has shown how management can be taken to a different level altogether by bringing in a spiritual approach.

Today, however, he has chosen to speak on a different subject: Satyavan, one of the principal characters in Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri.

Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri is more than a book; it is a scripture. Many people are not familiar with it, although many more are familiar with the story of Savitri in the Mahabharata.

In the Mahabharata, Savitri is a small episode. Essentially, Savitri marries Satyavan knowing fully well that he will die after a year. During the year available to her, she accumulates spiritual powers. When Satyavan dies, she is ready: she knows that he is going to die on that day. Instead of remaining on earth with his body, she accompanies the god of death and tries to follow him wherever he is taking Satyavan’s soul.

Finally, to cut a long story short, she convinces the god of death to return Satyavan’s soul. She comes back and has her husband once more. The story illustrates the great strength of spiritual capacity, particularly the strength that a faithful wife can accumulate to defeat even the god of death.

Using the same storyline, Sri Aurobindo has created an epic in which the story is similar, but the significance is entirely different.

Here, once again, Savitri knows that Satyavan is going to die after a year. But she wants him back not simply as a husband, as any ordinary wife might, but because her mission on earth is distinctly defined. She is, one might say, a representative of heaven on earth, and she has come specifically to transform human nature: to shift it from an ego-centred personality to a love-centred personality. That is possible only by raising the consciousness of the human race to a perceptibly and distinctly higher level.

When this change in the human personality—in typical human nature—is brought about, it will eventually wipe out the problems of human existence and give us a much better world. That is the mission with which Savitri has come.

For this, she needs suitable human material on which to work as a prototype, and Satyavan happens to be that human material. Once again, therefore, she accompanies the god of death and tries to convince him to return Satyavan, explaining why she needs him back.

The god of death, however, tries to convince her that there is a natural order that does not allow the soul to be returned. He also argues that her mission is unrealistic: earth is meant to be earth, earth cannot be transformed into heaven, and this is how it is destined to remain. She should not try to change the natural order.

Finally, once again, Savitri prevails. She brings Satyavan’s soul back and now has that human material available for working out the mission of her life.

With this brief introduction to Savitri, over to Pravir Malik.

Host

Welcome, Pravir sir. We are delighted and honoured to have you with us on the YES platform today.

Pravir Malik

Yes, thank you very much. It is an honour to be here.

Host

Thank you for joining us, sir. We look forward to an interesting session with you. Over to you.

Featured Image is a Painting by Huta — Satyavan the Soul of the Earth

Here is the complete Talk