Readings in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol, Book IV, Canto I The Birth and Childhood of the Flame

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A Maynard of the cycles of
desire around a light she must

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not dare to touch.
Hastening toward a far off

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unknown goal, Earth followed the
endless journey of the sun, A

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mind but half awake in the swing
of the void, on the bosom of

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inconscience dreamed out life.
And bore this finite world of

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thought and deed across the
immobile trance of the infinite.

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A vast, immutable silence with
her ran prisoner of speed upon a

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jeweled wheel.
She communed with the Mystic

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heart in space amid the
ambiguous stillness of the

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stars.
She moved towards some

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undisclosed event, and her
rhythm measured the long whirl

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of time in ceaseless motion
round the purple rim, day after

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day, sped by like coloured
spokes and through a glamour of

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shifting hues of air.
The seasons drew in link

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significant dance, the symbol
pageant of the changing year.

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Across the burning languor of
the soil paced Summer with his

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pomp of violent noons, and
stamped his tyranny of torrid

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light and the blue seal of a
great burnished sky.

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Next, through its fiery swoon or
clotted knot, rain tide burst in

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upon torn wings of heat,
startled with lightnings, airs,

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unquiet drows.
Lashed with life, giving streams

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the torpid soil overcast with
flare and sound and storm wing

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dark, the star defended doors of
heaven's dim sleep or from the

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gold eye of her paramour Covered
with packed cloud veils the

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earth's brown face.
Armies of revolution crossed the

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time field.
The clouds unending March

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besieged the world.
Tempest Pronuncia Mentos claimed

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The sky and Thunder drums
announced the embattled gods.

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The traveller from unquiet
neighboring seas, the dense

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mained monsoon rode neighing
through earth's hours thick.

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Now the emissary Javelins
enormous lightning split the

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horizons rim and.
Hurled from the quarters, as

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from contending camps married
heavens, edges steep and bare

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and blind, a surge and hiss an
onset of huge rain.

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The long straight sleep, drift,
clamors of winged storm charge,

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throngs of wind, faces rushing
of wind, feet hurrying, swept

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through the prone afflicted
planes.

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Evans waters trailed and
dribbled through the drowned

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land.
Then all was a siff stride, a

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sibilant race, or all was
tempests shout and waters fall.

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A dibness sagged on the Gray
floor of day.

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It's dingy, sprawling length
joined morn to Eve, wallowing in

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sludge and shower.
It reached black, dark.

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Day 1/2 Darkness wore as its
dull dress.

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Light looked into dawn's
tarnished glass and met its own

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face.
There, twin to 1/2, lit nights

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downpour and drip and seeping.
Mist swayed all and turned dry,

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soil to bog and reeking mud.
Earth was a quagmire, heaven a

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dismal block.
None saw through dank drenched

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weeks the dungeon sun.
Even when no turmoil vexed air,

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somber rest or a faint ray
glimmered through weeping clouds

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as a sad smile gleams veiled by
returning chair.

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Tears all promised brightness,
failed at once denied or soon

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condemned, died like a brief
lived hope.

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Than a last mass of deluge
thrashed dead mire, and a

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subsiding mudder left all still.
Or only the muddy creep of

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sinking floods, or only a
whisper and green toss of trees.

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Earth's mood now changed.
She lay in lulled repose.

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The hours went by with slow,
contented tread.

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A wide and tranquil air
remembered peace.

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Earth was the comrade of a happy
sun.

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A calmness neared as of the
approach of God.

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A light of musing, trance lit
soil and sky, and an identity

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and ecstasy filled meditation.
Solitary heart, a dream loitered

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in the dumb mind of space.
Time opened, its chambers of

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Felicity and exaltation entered,
and a hope and inmost self

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looked up to a heavenlier
height, and inmost thought

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kindled a hidden flame, and the
inner sight adored an unseen

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sun. 3 thoughtful seasons passed
with shining tread.

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And scanning 1 by 1, the
pregnant hours watched for a

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flame that lurked in luminous
depths, the vigil of some mighty

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birth to come.
Autumn led in the glory of her

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moons, and dreamed in the
splendor of her Lotus pools and

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winter and due time laid their
calm, cool hands on nature's

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bosom, still in 1/2 sleep.
And deepened with hues of lacks

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and mellow ease the tranquil
beauty of the weaning year then

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spring.
An ardent lover leaped through

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leaves and caught the earth
bride in his eager clasp.

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His advent was a fire of irised
hues.

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His arms were a circle of the
arrival of joy.

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His voice was a call to the
transcendent sphere.

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Whose secret touch upon our
mortal lives keeps ever new.

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The thrill that made the world
remoulds an ancient sweetness to

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new shapes and guards intact,
unchanged by death and time.

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The answer of our hearts to
nature's charm, and keeps

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forever new, yet still the same,
the throb that ever wakes to the

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old delight.
And beauty and rapture, and the

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joy to live.
His coming brought the magic and

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the spell at his touch.
Life's tired heart grew.

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Glad and young he made joy a
willing prisoner in her breast.

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His grasp was a young gods upon
earth's limbs, changed by the

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passion of his divine outbreak.
He made her body beautiful with

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his kiss.
Impatient for Felicity, he came

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high, fluting with the coils
happy voice, his Peacock turban

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trailing on the trees.
His breath was a warm summons to

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delight.
The dense, voluptuous Azure was

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his gaze.
A soft celestial urge surprised

98
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the blood, rich with the
instinct of God's censuous joys

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revealed in beauty.
A cadence was abroad, insistent

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on the rapture thrill in life.
Immortal movements touched the

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fleeting hours.
A godlike, packed intensity of

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sense made it a passionate
pleasure even to breathe.

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All sights and voices wove a
single charm.

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The life of the enchanted globe
became a storm of sweetness and

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of light and song.
A revel of color and of ecstasy,

106
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A hymn of rays, a litany of
cries, a strain of coral.

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Priestly music sang and swung on
the saying censor of the trees.

108
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A sacrifice of perfume filled
the hours.

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Ashoka's burned in Crimson spots
of flame, pure like the breath

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of an unstained desire.
White Jasmine's haunted the

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enamored air.
Pale mango blossoms fed the

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liquid voice of the Love Madden
coil and the brown bee muttered

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in fragrance mid the honey buds.
The sunlight was a great God's

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golden smile.
All nature was at Beauty's

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Festival.