Opening Remarks
Narad continues his inquiry about where Savitri had been, from where has she returned just now. His speech is prescient though he seems to hold back some truth within.
The gold-hued expanses of earth
Earth has gold-hued expanses, shadowy hills
That cowl their dreaming phantom heads in night,
And, guarded in a cloistral joy of woods,
Screened banks sink down into felicity
Seized by the curved incessant yearning hands
And ripple-passion of the upgazing stream:
Amid cool-lipped murmurs of its pure embrace
They lose their souls on beds of trembling reeds.
Narad shares his own vision of earth. He has seen or known spaces with golden hues and shadowy hills that seem like dreaming phantoms in the night. There are river banks running through happy woods with a felicitous joy. These mountains are as if seized by the curved hands rippling with passion of these yearning streams. Amid the cool-lipped murmurs of its pure embrace, these mountains symbols of ascetic energy lose their soul on these river beds running through trembling reeds.
The bliss in creation
And all these are mysterious presences
In which some spirit’s immortal bliss is felt,
And they betray the earth-born heart to joy.
Each and every element of creation carries the Divine Presence within it which is the secret cause of the joy we feel.
Where hast thou paused
There hast thou paused, and marvelling borne eyes
Unknown, or heard a voice that forced thy life
To strain its rapture through thy listening soul?
Narad now inquires of Savitri as to where had she travelled whose vision fills her eye with marvel? Whose voice she had heard that had stained her life with the rapture of her listening soul.
Magic verge
Or, if my thought could trust this shimmering gaze,
It would say thou hast not drunk from an earthly cup,
But stepping through azure curtains of the noon
Thou wast surrounded on a magic verge
In brighter countries than man’s eyes can bear.
Perhaps she had drunk from an unearthly cup of heavens by stepping beyond the earthly limits. She must have travelled to some magic verge into brighter domains than earths. So observes Narad, the celestial sage reading her eyes through his intuitive thoughts.
Soul answered to a Word unknown
Assailed by trooping voices of delight
And seized mid a sunlit glamour of the boughs
In faery woods, led down the gleaming slopes
Of Gandhamadan where the Apsaras roam,
Thy limbs have shared the sports which none has seen,
And in god-haunts thy human footsteps strayed,
Thy mortal bosom quivered with god-speech
And thy soul answered to a Word unknown.
Narad feels that drawn by delightful voices and seized by some luminous scenes in faery woods led through gleaming slopes of Gandhmadan mountain, abode of the gods, she has probably shared the sports where apsaras roam unseen by human eyes. He felt that her footsteps had strayed into haunts of the gods and her heart has responded to some god’s speech.
Moon-peaks of bliss
What feet of gods, what ravishing flutes of heaven
Have thrilled high melodies round, from near and far
Approaching through the soft and revelling air,
Which still surprised thou hearest? They have fed
Thy silence on some red strange-ecstasied fruit
And thou hast trod the dim moon-peaks of bliss.
He asks her as to what god’s tread and flute has approached her through the soft airs which she still continues to hear. He feels that her silence has been filled with the ecstasy born of love and she has visited peaks of some spiritual bliss.
Reveal, O winged with light
Reveal, O winged with light, whence thou hast flown
Hastening bright-hued through the green tangled earth,
Thy body rhythmical with the spring-bird’s call.
Narad sees that Savitri is as if flying on some wings of light and asks her to reveal where had she been through the forest charm wherein her body has picked up the spring-bird’s rhythmic call.
Closing Remarks
Narad is slowly encouraging Savitri to open her heart and reveal her secret meeting with Satyavan.
