Opening remarks
After the gospel of Death, now Savitri starts the gospel of God. She starts with showing the mirror to Death and his deliberate attempt to mislead by covering up truth.
A sad destroying cadence
A sad destroying cadence the voice sank;
It seemed to lead the advancing march of Life
Into some still original Inane.
The voice of Death sank like a sad destroying cadence. It seemed to lead the advancing march of life towards some blank original insensible Inane.
Savitri replied
But Savitri answered to almighty Death:
“O dark-browed sophist of the universe
Who veilst the Real with its own Idea,
Hiding with brute objects Nature’s living face,
Masking eternity with thy dance of death,
Thou hast woven the ignorant mind into a screen
And made of Thought error’s purveyor and scribe,
And a false witness of mind’s servant sense.
Savitri now starts her reply to Death who holds power over mortal beings and the triple realms of mind, life and matter. She addresses Death as a dark-browed sophist of the universe who is veiling the Real with his own Idea. Death is covering and hiding Nature’s living face with brute objects. The dance of Death masks eternity. It weaves the ignorant mind into a screen making Thought the purveyor and scribe of error and turns it into a false witness of mind’s servant sense.
Harsh and sad philosophy
An aesthete of the sorrow of the world,
Champion of a harsh and sad philosophy
Thou hast used words to shutter out the Light
And called in Truth to vindicate a lie.
Savitri describes Death as someone who takes joy in the sorrow of the world and champion of a harsh and sad philosophy. Savitri points out that Death is using words to shutter out the Light and calls in Truth to vindicate a lie.
Falsehood’s crown
A lying reality is falsehood’s crown
And a perverted truth her richest gem.
The crown of falsehood is the use of reality to forge it into a lie by twisting and perverting truth and using it as a gem.
Truth that slays and the Truth that saves
O Death, thou speakest truth but truth that slays,
I answer to thee with the Truth that saves.
Savitri dubs Death as a falsehood that uses truth to slay hope and faith. Savitri chooses to answer him with the Truth that saves the soul.
Closing Remarks
Savitri after summarising the gospel of Death as a falsehood that imitates truth, she now prepares the ground for what she has to say.
