Narad Replies, pp. 426-427

Opening Remarks
Narad responds to the queen in a rather cryptic way trying to dissuade her from asking about the future.

What help is in prevision
And Narad slowly answered to the queen:
“What help is in prevision to the driven?

Narad starts his answer by raising a question which is also an observation as to what help does one get by knowing the future.

Doomed pass on
Safe doors cry opening near, the doomed pass on.

In spite of our efforts towards safety, the doom yet arrives snatching away those that are picked up.

Added pain
A future knowledge is an added pain,
A torturing burden and a fruitless light
On the enormous scene that Fate has built.

Foreknowledge is often an added pain, a light that burdens us as we move through the enormous scene that Fate builds for us.

Secret player’s mask
The eternal poet, universal Mind,
Has paged each line of his imperial act;
Invisible the giant actors tread
And man lives like some secret player’s mask.

The Divine poet, the mind of God has penned down each line of His acts by His Will. Invisible the forces that move man who is but a mask of some secret player hidden within.

He knows not
He knows not even what his lips shall speak.

Man does not even know what his lips shall speak.

Mysterious Power
For a mysterious Power compels his steps
And life is stronger than his trembling soul.

The mysterious evolutionary Power is hidden in all things compelling our steps and life is stronger than his soul and accepts the challenges of growth offered to it.

Stark Force demands
None can refuse what the stark Force demands:
Her eyes are fixed upon her mighty aim;
No cry or prayer can turn her from her path.
She has leaped an arrow from the bow of God.”

The stark Force hidden in matter as the evolutionary impulsion demands acts from us that may seem impossible and yet it is through these that we grow. Savitri, aware of this truth hidden from mortal vision, has fixed her eyes on her mighty aim, the purpose of her birth. No cry or prayer can swerve her from the path that she chooses as she is an arrow leaping from the bow of God for a definite work to do.

His words
His words were theirs who live unforced to grieve
And help by calm the swaying wheels of life
And the long restlessness of transient things
And the trouble and passion of the unquiet world.

Narad spoke as one who cannot be forced to sorrow. It is the calm of such sages that helps the swaying wheels of long and the restlessness born out of the sense of transience. Their calm brings peace in the trouble and passion of an unquiet world.

Closing Remarks
Narad has spoken but his hesitation to give away the future gives the impression of something concealed that asks for strength from Savitri to face.