Opening Remarks
Savitri and Satyavan enter now a different ground while Savitri holds him with all her intensity of love.
Other spaces
But now, as if the body’s sensuous hold
Curbing the godhead of her infinite walk
Had freed those spirits to their grander road
Across some boundary’s intangible bar,
The silent god grew mighty and remote
In other spaces, and the soul she loved
Lost its consenting nearness to her life.
But slowly the hold of the senses on Savitri’s being was loosened and she was left free to move in her walk on the roads of grandeur towards infinite possibilities. The godhead of Death had grown mighty and remote as they crossed some intangible boundary barred for the tread of mortals. They had entered other spaces where Savitri seemed to have lost the mutual nearness of her life with the soul of Satyavan.
Unfamiliar air
Into a deep and unfamiliar air
Enormous, windless, without stir or sound
They seemed to enlarge away, drawn by some wide
Pale distance, from the warm control of earth
And her grown far: now, now they would escape.
It was a deep unfamiliar air, enormous, windless, without stir or sound. The god of Death and the soul of Satyavan seemed to enlarge and go away as if drawn by some wide and pale distance, away from the warmth and control of earth. Savitri felt that they had grown far and perhaps now they would escape her sight.
Her violent spirit
Then flaming from her body’s nest alarmed
Her violent spirit soared at Satyavan.
Then Savitri came out of her body completely, her spirit flaming and violently soaring towards Satyavan.
Terror and wrath divine
Out mid the plunge of heaven-surrounded rocks
So in a terror and a wrath divine
From her eyrie streams against the ascending death,
Indignant at its crouching point of steel,
A fierce she-eagle threatened in her brood,
Borne on a rush of puissance and a cry,
Outwinging like a mass of golden fire.
Amid rocks surrounded by heaven streams gush forth from a high cliff, so she surged with a divine terror and wrath against the ascending steps of Death, indignant at its crouching spear-point of steel. She rose as a fierce she-eagle threatened in her brood was climbing swiftly with a rush of puissance and a cry winging out of her nest like a mass of golden fire.
Spirit’s flaming outrush
So on a spirit’s flaming outrush borne
She crossed the borders of dividing sense;
Like pale discarded sheaths dropped dully down
Her mortal members fell back from her soul.
So did Savitri cross the limits of the world constructed by the dividing earthly senses on her spirit’s flaming course. Her mortal parts fell back from her soul like pale discarded robes dropped down.
Forgotten was Savitri
A moment of a secret body’s sleep,
Her trance knew not of sun or earth or world;
Thought, time and death were absent from her grasp:
She knew not self, forgotten was Savitri.
Her body had entered the trance-bound sleep that knew not death nor sun or earth or world. Thought, time and death were no more within the grasp of her senses. She had forgotten the outer personality and her name.
Violent ocean of a will
All was the violent ocean of a will
Where lived captive to an immense caress,
Possessed in a supreme identity,
Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.
She had become an ocean of violent will where her joy and all, Satyavan alone, lived captive to an immense caress, possessed by her in a supreme identity.
A treasure saved
Her sovereign prisoned in her being’s core,
He beat there like a rhythmic heart, — herself
But different still, one loved, enveloped, clasped,
A treasure saved from the collapse of space.
Satyavan was held firmly in her being’s core as her heart beat. She herself was one with him yet different still for the joy of love. He was as a loved, enveloped, clasped as a treasure saved from collapse.
Nameless infinite she surged
Around him nameless, infinite she surged,
Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time,
As if Love’s deathless moment had been found,
A pearl within eternity’s white shell.
Savitri surged nameless and infinite around Satyavan, her spirit fulfilled in his, rich with all time, as if the deathless moment of love had been found as a pure white shell within eternity.
Borders of the seen and unseen
Then out of the engulfing sea of trance
Her mind rose drenched to light streaming with hues
Of vision and, awake once more to Time,
Returned to shape the lineaments of things
And live in borders of the seen and known.
Then Savitri emerged out of the engulfing trance as her mind emerged again drenched to light streaming with hues of vision. Once more the mind awoke to Time, returned to Space and the form of things and lived on the borders of the seen and known.
Closing Remarks
Savitri surges out with all the intensity and passion of love to hold Satyavan within her being. Then she returns back to the borders of Time and Space and Form.
About Savitri | B1C3-11 Towards Unity with God (pp.31-33)