Opening Remarks
In this moment of crisis Savitri wakes up to her highest self and thus readies herself for the challenge of Death.
Like a vast fire
Now to the limitless gaze disclosed that sees
Things barred from human thinking’s earthly lids,
The Spirit who had hidden in Nature soared
Out of his luminous nest within the worlds:
Like a vast fire it climbed the skies of night.
Suddenly Savitri rose like a vast fire climbing to the skies of night. Her spirit hidden in nature so far soared out of its luminous net and saw with its limitless gaze things barred from human eyes.
Instrument of an unmoved Power
Thus were the cords of self-oblivion torn:
Like one who looks up to far heights she saw,
Ancient and strong as on a windless summit
Above her where she had worked in her lone mind
Labouring apart in a sole tower of self,
The source of all which she had seemed or wrought,
A power projected into cosmic space,
A slow embodiment of the aeonic will,
A starry fragment of the eternal Truth,
The passionate instrument of an unmoved Power.
Suddenly the cords of self-forgetfulness were torn. She looked up to far heights and saw herself above in her lone mind labouring apart in a sole tower of self as one ancient and strong on some windless summit. She saw herself in the Source as its power projected into cosmic Space. She saw herself as an embodiment of the Will that works in Time. She saw herself as a starry portion of the eternal Truth and the passionate instrument of an unmoved Power.
A Presence was there
A Presence was there that filled the listening world;
A central All assumed her boundless life.
A Presence was there that filled the world, a Centre that was the centre of All had become her boundless life.
A sovereignty
A sovereignty, a silence and a swiftness,
One brooded over abysses who was she.
She had become one with the sovereignty, the silence, the force, the intensity that brooded over the abysses from above.
Choric robe
As in a choric robe of unheard sounds
A Force descended trailing endless lights;
Linking Time’s seconds to infinity,
Illimitably it girt the earth and her:
It sank into her soul and she was changed.
She was robed in rhythmic sounds that cannot be heard by mortal ears. A Force had come down into her trailing endless lights. Linking each moment to eternity, the Force girdled around the earth and her sinking into her soul. All was now changed as Savitri was one with this Force descending from above.
Thousand-petalled home
Then like a thought fulfilled by some great word
That mightiness assumed a symbol form:
Her being’s spaces quivered with its touch,
It covered her as with immortal wings;
On its lips the curve of the unuttered Truth,
A halo of Wisdom’s lightnings for its crown,
It entered the mystic lotus in her head,
A thousand-petalled home of power and light.
This mighty Force took hold of her form as word takes form out of some great word. Her inner spaces quivered with its touch and covered her with immortal wings. Her lips were curved as if holding some unuttered Truth. She wore a halo of Wisdom’s lightnings for crown. This Force entered into the mystic lotus of her head and the thousand-petalled lotus, the centre above the head as its home of power and light.
Immortal leader
Immortal leader of her mortality,
Doer of her works and fountain of her words,
Invulnerable by Time, omnipotent,
It stood above her calm, immobile, mute.
This mighty Presence above her brows and head was the immortal leader of her human shape. It was the doer and fount of her words. Time could not defeat this omnipotent mightiness that stood above her calm, immobile, mute.
Closing Remarks
In this moment of crisis, besieged with adverse fate and confronted by Death, Savitri wakes up and identifies with her own highest Self.
