Opening Remarks
Crossing the cosmic seas, Narad, the heavenly sage arrives at the palace of Aswapati where he is duly received by them.
Demons wept with joy
And as he sang the demons wept with joy
Foreseeing the end of their long dreadful task
And the defeat for which they hoped in vain,
And glad release from their self-chosen doom
And return into the One from whom they came.
As Narad sang of the birth of the Divine Being upon earth, assuming a material body, the demons wept out of joy since they knew it is only God’s descent upon earth that can release them from their ordeal. They had taken upon them to bear the poison of the world and to wear the mask of terror and anger and revolt against the Law. This too was needed for the earth’s progress. They waited for the Divine coming who would annihilate and dissolve them by absorbing them into Himself.
Man divine
He who has conquered the Immortals’ seats,
Came down to men on earth the Man divine.
Narad is the Man divine because he was born a human and had won the status of a god through his bhakti and yoga. He came to earth as the messenger of God.
A beautiful mask of antique joy
As darts a lightning streak, a glory fell
Nearing until the rapt eyes of the sage
Looked out from luminous cloud and, strangely limned,
His face, a beautiful mask of antique joy,
Appearing in light descended where arose
King Aswapati’s palace to the winds
In Madra, flowering up in delicate stone.
He descended to Aswapati’s palace in Madra a beautiful palace carved in delicate stone as a flower springs upon earth. He descended as lightning, a glory falling upon earth. His face was a mask of an ageless ancient joy, his rapt eyes looking out from luminous clouds.
Aswapati welcomes the sage
There welcomed him the sage and thoughtful king,
At his side a creature beautiful, passionate, wise,
Aspiring like a sacrificial flame
Skyward from its earth-seat through luminous air,
Queen-browed, the human mother of Savitri.
In the palace the thoughtful yogi and seer Aswapati and his beautiful and his beautiful and passionate queen, mother of Savitri, both full of aspiration as a skyward turned sacrificial flame, welcomed Narad.
An hour untouched
There for an hour untouched by the earth’s siege
They ceased from common life and care and sat
Inclining to the high and rhythmic voice,
While in his measured chant the heavenly seer
Spoke of the toils of men and what the gods
Strive for on earth, and joy that throbs behind
The marvel and the mystery of pain.
There for a moment, they forgot the daily business of earth occupying human lives, ceasing from common cares they inclined towards his high rhythmic voice. The heavenly seer sang in measured chant speaking of the toils of men and the labour of the gods and the joy that throbs behind the marvel and mystery of pain.
Lotus-heart of play
He sang to them of the lotus-heart of love
With all its thousand luminous buds of truth,
Which quivering sleeps veiled by apparent things.
He sang of the lotus of love with its thousand luminous buds of truth that sleeps in the heart veiled by the surface things of life. It quivers with the touch Divine.
Trembles at each touch
It trembles at each touch, it strives to wake
And one day it shall hear a blissful voice
And in the garden of the Spouse shall bloom
When she is seized by her discovered lord.
This bud of love wakes up and slowly blooms at each touch. One day it shall hear the voice of God and bloom in the garden of Nature when she too has discovered her Lord and is possessed by Him.
Closing Remarks
Narad is welcomed by the King Aswapati and the Queen, human parents of Savitri. They take it a golden opportunity to sit for a while and bathe in the rhythms and message of the Divine that the sage invariably brings.
