Canto One of Savitri is titled The Symbol Dawn. M.P. Pandit explains: “The Dawn that is spoken of is not only the dawn of that fateful day when Satyavan must die, but it is also the beginning of the present cycle of Creation…”
It was the hour before the Gods awake.
Across the path of the divine Event
The huge foreboding mind of Night, alone
In her unlit temple of eternity,
Lay stretched immobile upon Silence’ marge.
Almost one felt, opaque, impenetrable,
In the sombre symbol of her eyeless muse
The abysm of the unbodied Infinite;
A fathomless zero occupied the world.
M.P. Pandit explains the significance of plural in “Gods” as denoting the emanations put forth from “the Being of God” to “fulfil his intention in this creation.” The word “awake” connotes a rise from “trance” – the state of Gods before the onset of creation (or the divine Event). The nature of Darkness before Dawn is characterized as the “foreboding mind of Night” or “inconscient darkness” and as the “fathomless zero” or “a pregnant Shunya” (in the word of M.P. Pandit). Reflecting on the significance of this terse depiction of Night before Dawn, Prema Nandakumar writes, “This sublime picture of Dawn is verily infused with the symbolism of growth in consciousness: that is, Woman inconscient waking up from her stupor and becoming slowly transformed into the superconscient goddess.” In the words of R.Y. Deshpande, “If the divine Event has to move forward the mind of Night must be dislodged, displaced; it must be transformed into the mind of Light, the physical’s mind receiving the supramental Light and Force. In it will be taken the first major step, a crucial step for the new manifestation, the supramental Manifestation to begin.”1 As such, the hour’s depiction is like setting the stage, providing a vivid glimpse into the immobility, eternity, and silence prevailing before creation.