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Book Four Canto II: Growth of the Flame |
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Great
influences and ancient Godheads watch over the child Savitri as she grows up in
a land of beauty, grace and grandeur. Earth's wisdom communes with her still
heart: her mind leaps beyond thought and opens the horizons of the unknown
and the infinite for man. Her
environment is rich in the fields of philosophy, sculpture, architecture,
music, painting, dance, poetry, crafts, science. She assimilates their
essence but feels their inadequacy and seeks to realise the larger and higher
glories waiting to manifest. She extends herself to embrace all around and
lift them Godward. But
few respond to her call and fewer still feel her divinity. They cannot keep
pace with her and fall back to their little human measure. She is their
leader, close to their hearts yet far from their nature. They adore her,
cling to her, but they cannot rise to her heights. Some seek to draw upon her
for their own petty satisfactions, and rebel against her yoke of love which
they do not want to lose either. None,
however, is there who can stand up her equal and mate. She has to stoop to
all and hold their souls as a Mother. She has to live within alone. She often
feels one with the sub-human world in Nature that responds readily to her. In
a small circle she lives and learns, without any link with the wider world.
But there is a growing sense of expectation in the air, word gets round and
men begin to discover her and her name gets abroad. Still, she is admired and
adored from afar. None can stand up her equal. She has to remain alone till
her hour of fate arrives. |