The Mother of Seven Sorrows, p. 503

Opening Remarks
Savitri now enters a low space lacking in energy from where her ascent to discover her secret soul began. She meets at first the Mother of sorrows who bears all shocks and sufferings that we receive in our journey through life. In Christian mythology the Mother of seven sorrows refers to Mother Mary and her seven sorrows that she bears with regard to Christ who, in mystic terms symbolises the soul in man.

Low and listless ground
Here from a low and prone and listless ground
The passion of the first ascent began;
A moon-bright face in a sombre cloud of hair,
A Woman sat in a pale lustrous robe.

The first ascent of Savitri began from a low and prone and listless ground. There Savitri beheld a moon-bright face in a sombre cloud of hair of a Woman who sat in pale lustrous robe.

Rugged and ragged soil
A rugged and ragged soil was her bare seat,
Beneath her feet a sharp and wounding stone.

She was seated on a bare ragged and rugged soil with her feet set upon a sharp and wounding stone.

Divine pity
A divine pity on the peaks of the world,
A spirit touched by the grief of all that lives,
She looked out far and saw from inner mind
This questionable world of outward things,
Of false appearances and plausible shapes,
This dubious cosmos stretched in the ignorant Void,
The pangs of earth, the toil and speed of the stars
And the difficult birth and dolorous end of life.

She was the very symbol of divine pity touched by the grief of all living creatures. With a far reaching gaze cast from her inner mind she looked upon this questionable outward world of transient things, a world of appearances rather than of truth, a doubtful cosmos stretching in the ignorant void. She looked with pity upon the pangs of earth, the journey and motion of the stars, the pangs of birth and the painful end of life.

Ancient stain of tears
Accepting the universe as her body of woe,
The Mother of the seven sorrows bore
The seven stabs that pierced her bleeding heart:
The beauty of sadness lingered on her face,
Her eyes were dim with the ancient stain of tears.

The Mother of seven sorrows accepted the pain and suffering of this world taking it upon her own body. The seven stabs of sin through which men hurt their soul pierced her heart and touched her beauty with the tinge of sadness. Her eyes were dim with the stain of tears of the ages.

Anguished music
Her heart was riven with the world’s agony
And burdened with the sorrow and struggle in Time,
An anguished music trailed in her rapt voice.

Her heart was torn by the agony of the world and was burdened with sorrow and struggle that man has to face in his journey through time. Her voice was full of an anguished music.

Closing Remarks
Savitri encounters that aspect of the Divine Mother which takes upon herself the burden of sorrow of the world.