Boundaries of Life, pp. 495-496

Opening Remarks
Savitri now moves beyond the realm of life into the domain of mind that puts a chain upon life.

Brilliant ordered space
Then journeying forward through the self’s wide hush
She came into a brilliant ordered Space.

Savitri moves forward past the realm of life towards a semi-luminous ordered space.

A chain was on her
There Life dwelt parked in an armed tranquillity;
A chain was on her strong insurgent heart.

There she sees Life parked in vigilant tranquility and a chain was put on her violent rebel heart.

Measured pace
Tamed to the modesty of a measured pace,
She kept no more her vehement stride and rush;
She had lost the careless majesty of her muse
And the ample grandeur of her regal force;
Curbed were her mighty pomps, her splendid waste,
Sobered the revels of her bacchant play,
Cut down were her squanderings in desire’s bazaar,
Coerced her despot will, her fancy’s dance,
A cold stolidity bound the riot of sense.

The motions of life were tamed to keep a measured pace. She lost her vehement rush and speed. She had lost her careless majesty and the grandeur of her regal force. Her mighty pomps and her splendid wastes and extravaganzas were curbed. Her revels and drunken orgies of enjoyments were sobered. Her squanderings in the bazaar of desires were cut and her despotic will, her dance of fancy was coerced and tamed. A cold emotionless state bound the riot of sense.

A royalty without freedom
A royalty without freedom was her lot;
The sovereign throned obeyed her ministers:
Her servants mind and sense governed her house:
Her spirit’s bounds they cast in rigid lines
And guarding with a phalanx of armoured rules
The reason’s balanced reign, kept order and peace.

Her royalty remained but her freedom was lost. Though still the sovereign, she obeyed the minister mind. The mind and senses though her servant governed her house. Her spirit was bound in rigid lines and guarded by an iron fist of armoured rules. The reason tried to keep a balance and order and peace.

Rule and line
Her will lived closed in adamant walls of law,
Coerced was her force by chains that feigned to adorn,
Imagination was prisoned in a fort,
Her wanton and licentious favourite;
Reality’s poise and reason’s symmetry
Were set in its place sentinelled by marshalled facts,
They gave to the soul for throne a bench of Law,
For kingdom a small world of rule and line:
The ages’ wisdom, shrivelled to scholiast lines,
Shrank patterned into a copy-book device.

Her will was confined to adamant laws and her force was coerced by chains that looked like ornaments. Imagination, her licentious favourite, was imprisoned in a fort and disallowed to fly beyond the limits set by the mind. Reason’s symmetry fixed Reality in a firm poise.

Closing Remarks
This is the realm of the mind exercising its control over the free flowing waters of life.