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Book
One Canto II: The Issue |
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For
a while Savitri is withdrawn into thought; her whole life flashes
past in her mind, her childhood, youth, her fateful meeting with Satyavan,
the last twelve months of love lived in the shadow of death. In this hour of crisis
her exterior personality is displaced by her inner spirit which steps forth
and takes hold of the situation. For only so can the determinism of Nature be
erased. The destiny of the body can be changed only by the will of the soul.
With her it is not a question of her personal submission: the whole challenge
of Death to Life, of Doom to Love is involved and she is preparing for the
moment of trial in this context. She does not seek any external help, nor
does anyone know of the part in the cosmic struggle she is preparing for. The
solitudes of Nature in which she has passed the last twelve months have
helped in the deepening of her inner life. It was here in the
deeps of green Nature that Love had at last found in Savitri a home
which he had not secured anywhere so far in the human world. Her wideness and
height of consciousness, her purity and sublimity of being, her
unbreakable strength were a match to his, she was worthy of this godhead of
Love. Till this encounter
with Love (who has brought Death in his shadow) Savitri has known
of no earthly sorrow. She has carried undimmed memories of the felicities of
the higher worlds from which she has come. But this state of joy cannot
continue for long in this world of Ignorance. The problem of life is
presented to her in its acutest form and she is called upon to face it. Savitri is
no ordinary mortal to shirk the challenge and stay content with her lot. She
does not accept the clamps of the Inconscient and the bounds of
Ignorance on the embodied consciousness. She means to change the order that
has prevailed so far, assert the supremacy of Light over Darkness, of Life
and Love over Death. She summons all her inner resources, links herself with
the transcendent Will and Force and stands up ready for the momentous
encounter. The Divine Puissance
surges up in her being, she stops the wheels of Doom and breaks through the
finite into the Infinite. |