Savitri – Line 1

It was the hour before the Gods awake.

• The epic poem “Savitri” written by Sri Aurobindo starts with the dawn of the day when Satyavan is going to die.
• The night is the darkest just before dawn.
• It was the hour when the night was the darkest.
• Here we can make an analogy between Gods and Light. ‘It was the hour before the Gods awake’ can be understood as ‘It was the hour before the Light comes’. So this sentence describes the Inconsient darkness in which Ignorance is complete.
• Traditionally the hour before dawn is considered auspicious for meditation as the mind becomes still at these times. The hour described in the above line precedes this auspicious time.