{"id":3413,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3413"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:15","slug":"43-book-nine-canto-one-vol-03-savitri-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/03-savitri-1954\/43-book-nine-canto-one-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-43_Book_Nine_Canto_One.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

\nPART THREE<\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nBooks IX-XII<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nBOOK NINE<\/font><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Book of Eternal Night<\/font><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO ONE<\/b><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTOWARDS THE BLACK VOID<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

S<\/font>O<\/font><\/b> was she left alone in the huge wood,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Surrounded by a dim unthinking world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer husband’s corpse on her forsaken breast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe measured not her loss with helpless thoughts,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor rent with tears the marble seals of pain:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She rose not yet to face the dreadful god.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver the body she loved her soul leaned out<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a great stillness without stir or voice,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if her mind had died with Satyavan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut still the human heart in her beat on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAware still of his being near to hers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClosely she clasped to her the mute lifeless form<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs though to guard the oneness they had been<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd keep the spirit still within the frame.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen suddenly there came on her the change<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich in tremendous moments of our lives<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCan overtake sometimes the human soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd hold it up towards its luminous source.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe veil is torn, the thinker is no more:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Only the spirit sees and all is known.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen a calm Power seated above our brows<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIs seen, unshaken by our thoughts and deeds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts stillness bears the voices of the world:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 645<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Immobile, it moves Nature, looks on life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt shapes immutably its far-seen ends,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUntouched and tranquil amid error and tears<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd measureless above our striving wills,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts gaze controls the turbulent whirl of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo mate with the Glory it sees, the spirit grows:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The voice of life is tuned to infinite sounds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe moments on great wings of lightning come<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd godlike thoughts surprise the mind of earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the soul’s splendour and intensity<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA crescent of miraculous birth is tossed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhose horn of mystery floats in a bright void<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs into a heaven of strength and silence, thought<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIs ravished; all this living mortal clay<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIs seized and in a swift and fiery flood<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf touches shaped by a Harmonist unseen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA new sight comes, new voices in us form<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA body of the music of the gods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmortal yearnings without name leap down,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLarge quiverings of godhead seeking run<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd weave upon a puissant field of calm<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA high and lonely ecstasy of will.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis in a moment’s depths was born in her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow to the limitless gaze disclosed that sees<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThings barred from human thinking’s earthly lids,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Spirit who had hidden in nature soared<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of his luminous nest within the worlds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike a vast fire it climbed the skies of night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThus were the cords of self-oblivion torn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike one who looks up to far heights she saw,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAncient and strong as on a windless summit<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAbove her where she had worked in her lone mind<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 646<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Labouring apart in a sole tower of self,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The source of all which she had seemed or wrought,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A power projected into cosmic space,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A slow embodiment of the aeonic will,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A starry fragment of the eternal Truth,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The passionate instrument of an unmoved Power.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A Presence was there that filled the listening world,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A central All assumed her boundless life.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A sovereignty, a silence and a swiftness,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

One brooded over abysses who was she.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As in a choric robe of unheard sounds<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A force descended trailing endless lights;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Linking Time’s seconds to Infinity,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIllimitably it girt the earth and her:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It sank into her soul and she was changed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen like a thought fulfilled by some great word<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat mightiness assumed a symbol form;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her being’s spaces quivered with its touch,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt covered her as with immortal wings;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

On its lips the curve of the unuttered Truth,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A halo of Wisdom’s lightnings for its crown,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It entered the mystic lotus in her head,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A thousand-petalled home of power and light.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Immortal leader of her mortality,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Doer of her works and fountain of her words,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Invulnerable by Time, omnipotent,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

It stood above her calm, immobile, mute.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

All in her mated with that mighty hour,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if the last remnant had been slain by Death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf the humanity that once was hers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAssuming a spiritual wide control,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 647<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Making life’s sea a mirror of heaven’s sky,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe young divinity in her earthly limbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFilled with celestial strength her mortal part.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver was the haunted pain, the rending fear:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Her grief had passed away, her mind was still,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer heart beat quietly with a sovereign force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere came a freedom from the heart-strings’ clutch,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow all her acts sprang from a godhead’s calm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalmly she laid upon the forest soil<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe dead who still reposed upon her breast<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd bore to turn away from the dead form:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Sole now she rose to meet the dreadful god.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat mightier spirit turned its mastering gaze<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn life and things, inheritor of a work<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLeft to it unfinished from her halting past,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen yet the mind, a passionate learner, toiled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd ill-shaped instruments were crudely moved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTranscended now was the poor human rule;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A sovereign power was there, a godlike will.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA moment yet she lingered motionless<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd looked down on the dead man at her feet;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Then like a tree recovering from a wind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe raised her noble head, fronting her gaze<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSomething stood there, unearthly, sombre, grand,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA limitless denial of all being<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat wore the terror and wonder of a shape.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn its appalling eyes the tenebrous Form<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBore the deep pity of destroying gods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA sorrowful irony curved the dreadful lips<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat speak the word of doom. Eternal Night,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the dire beauty of an immortal face,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPitying arose, receiving all that lives<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 648<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

For ever into its fathomless heart, refuge<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Of creatures from their anguish and world-pain.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His shape was nothingness made real, his limbs<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Were monuments of transience and beneath<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Brows of unwearying calm large godlike lids<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Silent beheld the writhing serpent, life.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Unmoved their timeless wide unchanging gaze<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Had seen the unprofitable cycles pass,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Survived the passing of unnumbered stars<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And sheltered still the same immutable orbs.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The two opposed each other with their eyes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWoman and universal god: around her,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPiling their void unbearable loneliness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUpon her mighty uncompanioned soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMany inhuman solitudes came close.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVacant eternities forbidding hope<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLaid upon her their huge and lifeless look,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd to her ears silencing earthly sounds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA sad and formidable voice arose<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Which seemed the whole adverse world’s. "Unclasp", it cried,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n"Thy passionate influence and relax, 0 slave<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf Nature, changing tool of changeless Law,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho vainly writhst rebellion to my yoke,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThy elemental grasp; weep and forget.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEntomb thy passion in its living grave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLeave now the once-loved spirit’s abandoned robe:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Pass lonely back to thy vain life on earth."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt ceased, she moved not and it spoke again,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLowering its mighty key to human chords,\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYet a dread cry behind the uttered sounds,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEchoing all sadness and immortal scorn,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoaned like a hunger of far wandering waves.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 649<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

"Wilt thou for ever keep thy passionate hold,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThyself, a creature doomed like him to pass,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDenying his soul death’s calm and silent rest?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelax thy grasp; this body is earth’s and thine,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis spirit now belongs to a greater power.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWoman, thy husband suffers." Savitri<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrew back her heart’s force that clasped his body still<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere from her lap renounced on the smooth grass<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSoftly it lay, as often before in sleep<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen from their couch she rose in the white dawn<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalled by her daily tasks: now too as if called<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe rose and stood gathered in lonely strength,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike one who drops his mantle for a race<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd waits the signal, motionlessly swift.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe knew not to what course: her spirit above<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn the crypt-summit of her secret form<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike one left sentinel on a mountain crest,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA fiery-footed splendour puissant-winged<\/span><\/p>\n

\n Watched flaming-silent with her voiceless soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike a still sail upon a windless sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhite passionless it rode, an anchored might,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWaiting what far-ridged impulse should arise<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut of the eternal depths and cast its surge.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen Death, the king, leaned boundless down, as leans<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNight over tired lands when evening pales<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd fading gleams break down the horizon’s walls,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor yet the dusk grows mystic with the moon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe dim and awful godhead rose erect<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom his brief stooping to his touch on earth, :<\/i><\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

And like a dream that wakes out of a dream, I<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForsaking the poor mould of that dead clay, <\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnother luminous Satyavan arose,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 650<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Starting upright from the recumbent earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if someone over viewless borders stepped<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEmerging on the edge of unseen worlds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the earth’s day the silent marvel stood<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBetween the mortal woman and the god.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch seemed he as if one departed came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWearing the light of a celestial shape<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSplendidly alien to the mortal air.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe mind sought things long loved and fell back foiled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom unfamiliar hues, beheld yet longed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n, By the sweet radiant form unsatisfied,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIncredulous of its too bright hints of heaven;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Too strange the brilliant phantasm to life’s clasp<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDesiring the warm creations of the earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReared in the ardour of material suns,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe senses seized in vain a glorious shade:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Only the spirit knew the spirit still,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And the heart divined the old loved heart, though changed.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Between two realms he stood, not wavering,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But fixed in quiet strong expectancy,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Like one who, sightless, listens for a command.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

So were they immobile on that earthly field,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Powers not of earth, though one in human clay.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

On either side of one two spirits strove;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Silence battled with silence, vast with vast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut now the impulse of the Path was felt<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoving from the Silence that supports the stars<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo touch the confines of the visible world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLuminous he moved away; behind him Death<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWent slowly with his noiseless tread, as seen<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn dream-built fields a shadowy herdsman glides<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBehind some wanderer from his voiceless herds,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 651<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

And Savitri moved behind eternal Death,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer mortal pace was equalled with the god’s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWordless she travelled in her lover’s steps,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPlanting her human feet where his had trod,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the perilous silences beyond.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

At first in a blind stress of woods she moved<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith strange inhuman paces on the soil,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nJourneying as if upon an unseen road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround her on the green and imaged earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe nickering screen of forests ringed her steps.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts thick luxurious obstacle of boughs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBesieged her body pressing dimly through<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn a rich realm of .whispers palpable,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd all the murmurous beauty of the leaves<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRippled around her like an emerald robe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut more and more this grew an alien sound,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd her old intimate body seemed to her<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA burden which her being remotely bore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHerself lived far in some uplifted scene<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere to the trance-chained vision of pursuit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSole presences in a high spaceless dream,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe luminous spirit glided stilly on<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the great shadow travelled vague behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill with an amorous crowd of seeking hands<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSoftly entreated by their old desires<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer senses felt earth’s close and gentle air<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCling round them and in troubled branches knew<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUncertain Headings of a faint-foot wind:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

She bore dim fragrances, far callings touched;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The wild bird’s voice and its winged rustle came<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if a sigh from some forgotten world.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 652<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Earth stood aloof, yet near: round her it wove<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts sweetness and its greenness and delight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIts brilliance suave of well-loved vivid hues,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSunlight arriving to its golden noon,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd the blue heavens and the caressing soil.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe ancient Mother offered to her child<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer simple world of kind familiar things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut now as if the body’s sensuous hold<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCurbing the godhead of her infinite walk<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad freed those spirits to their grander road<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAcross some boundary’s intangible bar,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe silent god grew mighty and remote<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn other spaces and the soul she loved<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLost its consenting nearness to her life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto a deep and unfamiliar air<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEnormous, windless, without stir or sound<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThey seemed to enlarge away, drawn by some wide<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPale distance, from the warm control of earth<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd her grown far. Now, now they would escape.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen flaming from her body’s nest, alarmed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer violent spirit soared at Satyavan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOut mid the plunge of heaven-surrounded rocks<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo in a terror and a wrath divine<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFrom her eyrie streams against the ascending death,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIndignant at its crouching point of steel,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA fierce she-eagle threatened in her brood,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBorne on a rush of puissance and a cry,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOutwinging like a mass of golden fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo on a spirit’s flaming outrush borne<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe crossed the borders of dividing sense;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Like pale discarded sheaths dropped dully down<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer mortal members fell back from her soul.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 653<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

A moment of a secret body’s sleep,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer trance knew not of sun or earth or world;<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Thought, time and death were absent from her grasp:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She knew not self, forgotten was Savitri.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll was the violent ocean of a will<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere lived captive to an immense caress,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPossessed in a supreme identity,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer sovereign prisoned in her being’s core,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe beat there like a rhythmic heart,\u2014herself<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut different still, one loved, enveloped, clasped,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA treasure saved from the collapse of space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAround him nameless, infinite she surged,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if Love’s deathless moment had been found,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA pearl within eternity’s white shell.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen out of the engulfing sea of trance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHer mind rose drenched to light streaming with hues<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf vision and, awake once more to Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nReturned to shape the lineaments of things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd live in borders of the seen and known.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnward the three still moved in her soul-scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if pacing through fragments of a dream,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe seemed to travel on, a visioned shape,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImagining other musers like herself,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy them imagined in their lonely sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUngrasped, unreal, yet familiar, old,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike clefts of unsubstantial memory,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nScenes often traversed, never lived in, fled<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPast her unheeding to forgotten goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn voiceless regions they were travellers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlone in a new world where souls were not,<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 654<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

But only living moods. A strange, hushed, weird<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Country was round them, strange far skies above,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A doubting space where dreaming objects lived<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Within themselves their own unchanged idea.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Weird were the grasses, weird the treeless plains,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Weird ran the road which like fear hastening<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Towards that of which it has most terror, passed<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Phantasmal between pillared conscious rocks<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Sombre and high, gates brooding, whose stone thoughts<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Lost their huge sense beyond in giant night.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Enigma of the Inconscient’s sculptural sleep,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Symbols of the approach to darkness old<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And monuments of her titanic reign,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Opening to depths like dumb appalling jaws<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

That wait a traveller down a haunted path<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Attracted to a mystery that slays,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

They watched across her road, cruel and still,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Sentinels they stood of dumb Necessity,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Mute heads of vigilant and sullen gloom,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Carved muzzle of a dim enormous world.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Then to that chill sere heavy line arrived<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Where his feet touched the shadowy marches’ brink,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Turning arrested luminous Satyavan<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Looked back with his wonderful eyes at Savitri.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But Death pealed forth his vast abysmal cry:<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

"0 mortal, turn back to thy transient kind;<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Aspire not to accompany Death to his home,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

As if thy breath could live where Time must die.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Think not thy mind-born passion strength from heaven<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To uplift thy spirit from its earthly base<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And, breaking out from the material cage,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

To upbuoy thy feet of dream in groundless Nought<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 655<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

And bear thee through the pathless infinite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly in human limits man lives safe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTrust not in the unreal Lords of Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImmortal deeming this image of thyself<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich they have built on a dream’s floating ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLet not the dreadful goddess move thy soul<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo enlarge thy vehement trespass into worlds<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhere it shall perish like a helpless thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n, Know the cold term-stones of thy hopes in life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArmed vainly with the Idea’s borrowed might<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDare not to outstep man’s bound and measured force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIgnorant and stumbling, in brief boundaries pent,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe crowns himself the world’s mock sovereign<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTormenting Nature with the works of Mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO sleeper dreaming of divinity,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWake trembling mid the indifferent silences<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn which thy few weak chords of being die.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nImpermanent creatures, sorrowful foam of Time,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nYour transient loves bind not the eternal gods."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe dread voice ebbed in the consenting hush<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich seemed to close upon it, wide, intense,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA wordless sanction from the jaws of Night.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Woman answered not. Her high nude soul,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStripped of the girdle of mortality,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgainst fixed destiny and the grooves of law<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStood up in its sheer will a primal force.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill like a statue on its pedestal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLone in the silence and to vastness bared,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAgainst midnight’s dumb abysses piled in front-<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA columned shaft of fire and light she rose.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 656<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  PART THREE Books IX-XII BOOK NINE The Book of Eternal Night CANTO ONE   TOWARDS THE BLACK VOID   SO was she left alone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-savitri-1954","wpcat-78-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}