Death Continues His Denial, pp. 593-594

Opening Remarks
Death continues his gospel denying the Divine and all that can be a source of hope to mankind.

Man has no other hope
Man has no other help but only Death;
He comes to me at his end for rest and peace.

According to Death there is no other hope for man except to rest peacefully after he dies.

One refuge
I, Death, am the one refuge of thy soul.

He is the only refuge for all, says Death.

Gods cannot help
The Gods to whom man prays can help not man;
They are my imaginations and my moods
Reflected in him by illusion’s power.

According to Death the Gods to whom man prays are simply the imaginations and moods of Death reflected in man by the power of illusion. They are not real and have no power to save man.

Shadowy icon
That which thou seest as thy immortal self
Is a shadowy icon of my infinite,
Is Death in thee dreaming of eternity.

Even that which man sees as the immortal self is a shadow of the infinity of Death. It is Death who dreams in man of eternity. Harassed by the end of finite transient things Death gives respite to man by creating the illusion of the immortal self and eternity, says Death.

The original Void
I am the Immobile in which all things move,
I am the nude Inane in which they cease:
I have no body and no tongue to speak,
I commune not with human eye and ear;
Only thy thought gave a figure to my void.

Death now extends his claim to being the Immobile basis of all that moves, the bare Inane that our mind and senses cannot grasp and in which all ceases. He has no body and no tongue to speak, no means to commune with human senses and speech. It is man’s thoughts that have given a figure and form to his Void that alone is.

Assumed a face
Because, O aspirant to divinity,
Thou calledst me to wrestle with thy soul,
I have assumed a face, a form, a voice.

He has assumed a face, a form and a voice because Savitri with her claim to divinity has called him to wrestle with her soul.

If there were a Being at all
But if there were a Being witnessing all,
How should he help thy passionate desire?

Even if there were a witness Self or a Being watching this creation how can he help her passionate desire argues Death.

Aloof he watches
Aloof he watches sole and absolute,
Indifferent to thy cry in nameless calm.

Such a Witness can do nothing but watch this creation aloof and from afar. Sole and absolute he would be indifferent to her cry in a calm that bears no name.

Pure
His being is pure, unwounded, motionless, one.

Death defines purity of this hypothetical being as one who is motionless and unwounded and hence incapable of responding to her cry for help.

Endless watches
One endless watches the inconscient scene
Where all things perish, as the foam the stars.

This witness self endlessly watches the scene that is playing itself out mechanically supported by the Inconscience where all things perish and even the stars die down as foams.

The one lives forever
The One lives for ever. There no Satyavan
Changing was born and there no Savitri
Claims from brief life her bribe of joy. There love
Came never with his fretful eyes of tears,
Nor Time is there nor the vain vasts of Space.

Death uses high truths for justifying his dark gospel. He says that only the One lives for ever and there is no changing being called Satyavan and no Savitri who can claim her portion of joy from brief life. There, no love visits with its tearful eyes nor Time and vain stretches of Space are there.

No living face
It wears no living face, it has no name,
No gaze, no heart that throbs; it asks no second
To aid its being or to share its joys.

The ‘One’ who asks for no second that Death propounds is the shadow of the ‘One’ without a second that the Adwaitin discovers. Death speaks a similar language that the One is formless and nameless and has no eyes nor a heart that loves. He asks for none to aid or share his joy.

Immortally alone
It is delight immortally alone.

It is a mute delight that is there forever and alone.

If thou desirest immortality
If thou desirest immortality,
Be then alone sufficient to thy soul:
Live in thyself; forget the man thou lov’st.

Therefore, death concludes that if you desire immortality you too must then be alone and live in yourself forgetting the man you love.

Last grand death
My last grand death shall rescue thee from life;
Then shalt thou rise into thy unmoved source.”

Thus alone, he says, can Savitri find rest and respite until the grand dissolution, pralaya, rescues her from life and she merges into the unmoved Inconscient source of all things.

Closing remarks
As is evident Death inverts the great spiritual truths and experiences giving twisting them to keep the soul of man forever in his net of ignorance.