“Man of Sorrow” is described in Savitri as well as Prayers and Meditations thus.
‘She ceased, and like an echo from below
Answering her pathos of divine complaint
A voice of wrath took up the dire refrain,
A growl of thunder or roar of angry beast,
The beast that crouching growls within man’s depths,—
Voice of a tortured Titan once a God.
“I am the Man of Sorrows, I am he
Who is nailed on the wide cross of the universe;
To enjoy my agony God built the earth,
My passion he has made his drama’s theme.
He has sent me naked into his bitter world
And beaten me with his rods of grief and pain
That I might cry and grovel at his feet
And offer him worship with my blood and tears.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/34/the-triple-soul-forces#p23)
In the Prayers and Meditations also the Mother describes him thus.
‘Often while I was rising up in this way, I used to see at my left an old man, silent and still, who looked at me with kindly affection and encouraged me by his presence. This old man, dressed in a long dark purple robe, was the personification—as I came to know later—of him who is called the Man of Sorrows.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwm/01/february-22-1914)
Man of Sorrows is one of the fallen angels, a Titan who was once a god, purvadevaha. One of the occult works of Sri Aurobindo was to restore these fallen beings to their original status. He seems to be the Shadow of The Madonna of Suffering, the Mother of grief Divine who helps us bear and endure the wounds and sufferings of the world. Man of Sorrows embodies this dark state of sorrow and suffering.
Affectionately,
Alok da
