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Book Nine Canto I: Towards the Black Void |
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Savitri
is alone in the huge forest with the dead body of her husband on her breast. She
does not grieve, but leans over his body in great stillness. Suddenly a
change comes over her like what sometimes overtakes men in moments of crisis.
The mind is no more, only the spirit sees. A calm Power seated above the
brows sees and moves Nature. The spirit grows and voices and thoughts come
from on high. A new birth takes place. It
takes place in Savitri. Her spirit soars high and joins its source on the
summits of her being. A new Force descends into her soul and she is totally
changed. Her
mortal elements are displaced by a young divine infusion. Pain, grief, all
are left behind. Her mind is still. She
lays down the dead body on the forest soil and turns to meet the dreadful God
of Death who is a veritable Denial of all. He fixes his forbidding look upon
her and asks her to unclasp her hold upon the soul of Satyavan and return
back to earth. Savitri
does not move. The Voice warns her that her husband suffers and she should
let him go. She then draws back her heart's force that has held him still and
rises gathered in her strength. Death leans to the earth and then rises;
Satyavan forsakes his body and a new luminous form of him rises up. Savitri
is unable to reach this lustrous form through her mind and senses, but her
spirit knows his spirit. He stands between Savitri on one side and the God of
Death on the other. There is a silent struggle to draw him from either side.
They now move on, Satyavan in front, Death behind him and Savitri behind
eternal Death. Their journey proceeds through eerie spaces, as if on the tops
of the forest trees. The earth's pull on Savitri increases. It looks, at one
stage, as if both Satyavan and Death are fast moving away from her reach. But
her passionate spirit soars towards Satyavan and she goes into deep trance.
Human Savitri is forgotten. Her will oceans out and holds Satyavan captive.
They proceed on their course through strange realms where souls are not, only
living moods exist. They
arrive at the brooding gates of pillared rocks opening into the giant Night.
They have reached a boundary. Death speaks to Savitri that she must now go
back and not aspire to accompany him to his home. She
cannot survive there. Man can live safe only within human limits and she must
be sensible. Otherwise she is sure to perish. But
Savitri does not answer. Her high nude soul stands up against fixed destiny
and the grooves of law and against the dark abysses piled up in front of her. She
rises up like a columned shaft of fire and light. |