Sri Aurobindo’s monumental epic poem, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, stands as a unique achievement in world literature, not merely for its vast scope and profound spiritual insights, but particularly for its pervasive and intricate use of symbolism. Far from being a mere decorative device or an allegorical representation, symbolism in Savitri is the very fabric of its existence, the essential language through which the ineffable truths of consciousness, creation, and spiritual evolution are articulated. The poem, a spiritual odyssey of the human soul and the Divine Mother’s intervention in the cosmos, necessitates a language capable of transcending ordinary linear thought and linguistic limitations, and it is in symbolism that Sri Aurobindo finds this ultimate expressive power.

This epic, composed over several decades and encompassing nearly 24,000 lines, is not merely a retelling of an ancient Indian legend from the Mahabharata; it is, as its subtitle declares, “A Legend and a Symbol.” The legend serves as a familiar narrative framework, but it is imbued with layers of symbolic meaning that transform it into a universal tale of humanity’s spiritual aspiration, its struggle with mortality, and its ultimate destiny towards divine transformation. Sri Aurobindo’s own yogic experiences, his profound understanding of consciousness, and his vision of an evolutionary future for humanity are directly woven into this symbolic tapestry, making Savitri a revelatory text that aims to elevate the reader’s consciousness by engaging them with truths beyond the purely intellectual grasp.

The Nature and Function of Symbolism in Savitri

In Savitri, symbolism is fundamentally different from allegory. Allegory typically involves a one-to-one correspondence between a character or object and a fixed abstract concept, often for didactic purposes. In contrast, Aurobindo’s symbolism is dynamic, multi-layered, and experiential. The symbols are not merely standing for something else; they are the realities themselves, apprehended in a deeper, more direct way. They are living forms of truth, simultaneously operating on physical, psychological, spiritual, and cosmic planes, embodying universal forces and states of consciousness. This integral symbolism allows the poem to convey the vastness and complexity of spiritual experience that defies ordinary language.

The primary function of symbolism in Savitri is revelation, not concealment. While traditional symbolism might sometimes obscure meaning to a superficial gaze, Aurobindo employs it to make the otherwise ineffable and supramental truths accessible to human consciousness. It serves as the language of the spirit, a means to bridge the gap between human perception and divine reality. By engaging with these symbols, the reader is invited to participate in a larger consciousness, to experience the truths that the symbols embody, rather than merely intellectually apprehend them. This transformative quality is central to Savitri’s purpose as a “mantra,” a word of power capable of evoking the realities it describes.

Key Categories of Symbolism

The pervasive nature of symbolism in Savitri can be understood by examining its application across various categories:

Personages as Symbols

The characters in Savitri are not just mythological figures or individuals; they are cosmic principles, universal forces, and archetypes of human and divine consciousness.

  • Savitri: She is the pre-eminent symbol of the poem. On one level, she is a human princess, the daughter of King Aswapathy. But primarily, Savitri embodies the Divine Mother, the creative and redemptive power of the Supreme Consciousness. She represents Truth-Consciousness (Rita-Chit), the saving Grace, the power of divine love and knowledge that descends into the material world to conquer Death and Ignorance. Her journey to reclaim Satyavan from Yama symbolizes the soul’s conquest over mortality, the victory of divine life over the forces of inconscience, and the ultimate transformation of earthly existence. She is the Avataric force, the Bringer of Light, the embodiment of the Supramental Truth.

  • Satyavan: Savitri’s destined husband, Satyavan, is the symbol of the human soul, the divine truth and light dwelling within humanity, but subject to the laws of mortality and the limitations of the physical world. His name itself, “Satyavan,” means “one who has truth.” His fated death after one year symbolizes the current state of human consciousness, which is bound by Ignorance, suffering, and the inevitability of physical decay. His revival by Savitri signifies the awakening of the divine consciousness within humanity, the potential for immortality, and the liberation of the soul from the clutches of death, leading to a transformed life on Earth. He represents the potential for the divine to manifest fully in the human.

  • Aswapathy: The father of Savitri, King Aswapathy, is another pivotal symbolic figure. His name means “Lord of the Horse,” where the horse (Ashwa) often symbolizes power, energy, and the life-force, or the dynamic ascent of consciousness. Aswapathy represents the aspiring human soul, the pioneering Yogi who undertakes an arduous spiritual journey (tapasya) through the cosmic planes of existence. His “Yoga” is not just for personal liberation but for the collective upliftment of humanity. He embodies the evolutionary aspiration of the earth-consciousness, striving to break its material bounds and reach the Divine. His journey through various worlds – the lower worlds of Matter, Life, and Mind, and then the higher spiritual realms culminating in the Overmind and a glimpse of the Supramental – is a symbolic mapping of the entire universe and the potential pathways of consciousness for humanity. He is the cosmic pilgrim, preparing the ground for the descent of the Divine Mother.

  • Yama/Death: The Lord of Death, Yama, is not merely a mythological deity but a profound symbol of the cosmic Ignorance and Inconscience that governs the material world. He represents the law of limitation, separation, and mortality that binds human life. He is the formidable gatekeeper of the current cosmic order, the embodiment of the forces that resist light, immortality, and radical transformation. Savitri’s debate and struggle with Yama in the “Book of Eternal Night” and “Book of the Double Twilight” are symbolic of the ultimate confrontation between the Divine Consciousness (Savitri) and the forces of darkness and finitude. Yama’s eventual concession symbolizes the possibility of transcending death not merely as an individual event but as a universal principle, ushering in an age of divine life and immortality on Earth.

  • Narad: The divine sage Narad, who appears in the “Book of the Descending Twin Souls,” is a symbol of cosmic intuition, prescience, and the divine messenger. He brings a challenging truth to Aswapathy’s court – the fated death of Satyavan – thereby setting the stage for Savitri’s heroic spiritual quest. He represents the divine Will at work, guiding destiny and bringing about the necessary trials for spiritual evolution.

Locations and Planes as Symbols

The landscapes, worlds, and settings in Savitri are not mere backdrops but symbolic representations of different states of consciousness and planes of existence.

  • The World-Stair: Aswapathy’s immense journey through different planes (detailed in the “Book of the Wanderings of Aswapathy”) is a central symbolic device. Each plane represents a distinct level of cosmic and psychological reality, from the inconscient depths of Matter to the superconscient heights of the Overmind.

    • The Inconscient and Subconscient: The dark, obscure realms from which creation emerges and where primal urges reside.
    • The World of Matter (Physical Plane): Our tangible world, where consciousness is largely veiled and bound by physical laws.
    • The World of Life (Vital Plane): The realm of desires, emotions, passions, and life-force, chaotic and powerful.
    • The World of Mind (Mental Plane): The domain of thought, reason, concepts, and ideas, seeking knowledge but often limited by its own constructs.
    • The Psychic World (Chit-tapas): The inner spiritual heart, the soul’s true dwelling place, a realm of purity, bliss, and direct perception, often described as the “soul-realm.”
    • The Spiritual Worlds (Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, Overmind): These are ascending planes of pure consciousness, gnosis, and spiritual light, where higher truths and universal knowledge become accessible. Aswapathy’s journey through them symbolises the ascent of human consciousness towards its divine source. The Overmind is particularly significant as the realm of the Cosmic Gods, the highest principle before the absolute Supramental.
    • The Supramental World (Truth-Consciousness): Though Aswapathy can only glimpse it, this is the ultimate goal, the plane of divine gnostic truth where unity, knowledge, and power are inherent and indivisible.

  • The Forests of Madra and Salwa: These earthly settings, where Savitri and Satyavan meet and live, symbolize the natural human life, its joys and challenges, the beauty of the physical world, and the arena where the spiritual battle for transformation is fought. They represent the current state of human existence, embedded in nature, yet striving for something higher.

  • The House of Death/Eternal Night: This formidable realm, where Savitri confronts Yama, is the symbolic representation of the ultimate frontier of human limitation – the domain of total inconscience, spiritual darkness, and the ultimate negation of life. It is the core of the problem of mortality that Savitri seeks to resolve, and its transformation is key to the poem’s vision.

Abstract Concepts as Symbols

Even abstract concepts and natural phenomena are imbued with profound symbolic meaning.

  • Dawn and Night: The poem opens with a detailed description of the dawn, which recurs as a central motif.

    • Dawn: Symbolizes the awakening of consciousness, the advent of new light, the promise of a new creation, and the recurrent hope for transformation. It is the moment when the “Sun-Word” of Truth is about to break through the darkness. The poem’s opening, “It was the hour before the Gods awake,” profoundly establishes the symbolic weight of dawn as the cusp of spiritual manifestation.
    • Night: Symbolizes the Inconscient, Ignorance, the sleep of the soul, the period of darkness before illumination, and the resistance to spiritual light. The “Eternal Night” that Savitri must traverse is the deepest realm of unconsciousness that needs to be illuminated and transformed.

  • The Sun/Light: The ultimate symbol of Supramental Consciousness, divine truth, integral knowledge, and the ultimate source of all creation. Savitri is often described in terms of solar brilliance, embodying this supreme light.

  • Fire: Represents spiritual energy (tapas), purification, transformation, and the ascending aspiration of consciousness.

  • The Journey/Quest: The entire narrative of Savitri is a symbolic representation of the soul’s arduous spiritual pilgrimage, its evolution, its tapasya (intense spiritual effort), and its ascent towards divine realization. Both Aswapathy’s cosmic journey and Savitri’s confrontation with Death embody this fundamental quest.

  • The Rose/Lotus: These floral symbols often signify spiritual unfolding, the blossoming of consciousness, divine beauty, purity, and love.

Colours and Elements

Aurobindo frequently uses specific colours and elemental forces (fire, water, air, earth, ether) to evoke particular spiritual energies, states of being, and qualities. Gold often represents divine truth or supramental light, blue signifies the spiritual or universal mind, white denotes purity and unmanifested truth, and crimson can indicate divine passion or the descent of power.

Purpose of Symbolism in Savitri

The overarching purpose of symbolism in Savitri is deeply integrated with Sri Aurobindo’s philosophical and yogic vision of Integral Yoga.

  1. To Convey the Ineffable: The most fundamental purpose is to make palpable and comprehensible those experiences, realities, and truths that lie beyond the grasp of ordinary human language and conceptual thought. The higher spiritual planes, the nature of the Divine Mother, the processes of cosmic evolution, and the subtle workings of consciousness cannot be adequately described in literal terms. Symbolism provides the necessary medium for their revelation.

  2. To Reflect Integral Yoga: Savitri is, in essence, a poetic exposition of the Integral Yoga. The symbolism directly embodies its core tenets: the ascent of consciousness from matter to spirit, the descent of the Divine into earthly life, the transformation of human nature (physical, vital, mental) by the supramental power, the conquest of death, and the manifestation of a divine life on Earth. Aswapathy’s yoga represents the ascending human aspiration, while Savitri’s action embodies the descending divine grace and power.

  3. To Elevate Consciousness: By immersing the reader in this symbolic landscape, the poem aims to facilitate an internal shift, to elevate their own consciousness. The symbols are not merely intellectual puzzles but gateways to direct experience. As the reader grapples with the multi-layered meanings, their own awareness is subtly expanded, allowing them to glimpse or even touch the higher realities that the symbols represent.

  4. To Unite the Cosmic and Human: The symbolism continually demonstrates the interconnectedness of the individual soul’s journey with the vast cosmic process. Savitri’s and Satyavan’s personal destinies are shown to be inextricably linked to the evolutionary destiny of the entire universe, reinforcing the idea that human life is not isolated but a crucial part of the divine manifestation.

  5. To Bridge the Visible and Invisible: Savitri acts as a profound bridge between the seen and the unseen, the material and the spiritual. Through its symbols, the invisible spiritual truths are made visible, allowing human consciousness to apprehend and assimilate them. It shows how the divine is present and active even in the seemingly mundane aspects of existence.

  6. To Create a “Mantra”: Sri Aurobindo aimed for Savitri to be a “mantra,” a word of power that could directly convey spiritual force and truth. The precise choice of words, their rhythm, their sonic quality, and above all, their profound symbolic resonance contribute to this mantric effect. The symbolism here is not just about meaning but about evoking a direct spiritual impact, enabling the reader to resonate with the higher vibrations embodied in the poem.

Conclusion

Symbolism in Savitri is far more than a literary device; it is the very soul and structure of the epic. It is the indispensable language through which Sri Aurobindo conveys his vast, revolutionary vision of integral transformation – the possibility of divinizing earthly life and conquering the limitations of death and ignorance. The characters are not mere individuals but archetypal forces; the settings are not just places but planes of consciousness; and the events are not just narrative occurrences but cosmic processes.

Through this pervasive and profound symbolism, Savitri transcends the boundaries of conventional poetry, becoming a revelatory scripture for a new age. It functions as a living testament to the highest spiritual truths, an intricate map of consciousness, and a potent invocation of the divine potential latent within humanity and the cosmos. The poem’s power lies in its ability to simultaneously narrate a legend and unveil a deeper, universal symbol, inviting the reader to embark on their own inner journey of discovery and transformation, guided by the luminous symbols that permeate every line of this unparalleled spiritual epic.