{"id":3418,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3418"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:18","slug":"42-book-eight-canto-three-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\/42-book-eight-canto-three-vol-03-savitri-1954","title":{"rendered":"-42_Book_Eight_Canto_Three.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n\n

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

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

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO THREE<\/font>* <\/font>
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\nDEATH IN THE FOREST<\/font>
\n<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n

N<\/font>OW<\/font><\/b> it was here in this great golden dawn<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

By her still sleeping husband lain she gazed<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Into her past as one about to die<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Looks back upon the sunlit fields of life<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Where he too ran and sported with the rest,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Lifting his head above the huge dark stream<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Into whose depths he must for ever plunge.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

All she had been and done she lived again.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The whole year in a swift and eddying race<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Of memories swept through her and fled away<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Into the irrecoverable past.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Then silently she rose and, service done,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Bowed down to the great goddess simply carved<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

By Satyavan upon a forest stone.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

What prayer she breathed her soul and Durga knew.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps she felt in the dim forest huge<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The infinite Mother watching over her child,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps the shrouded Voice spoke some still word.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

At last she came to the pale mother queen.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

*This Book was not completed. This Canto which the
\nauthor named Canto III was compiled by him from an
\nearlier version and rewritten at places.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/font>
\nPage \u2013 635<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

She spoke but with guarded lips and tranquil face<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs some stray word or some betraying look<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShould let pass into the mother’s unknowing breast,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSlaying all happiness and need to live,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA dire foreknowledge of the grief to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly the needed utterance passage found:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

All else she pressed back into her anguished heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd forced upon her speech an outward peace:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

"One year that I have lived with Satyavan<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHere on the emerald edge of the vast woods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn the iron ring of the enormous peaks<\/span><\/p>\n

\nUnder the blue rifts of the forest sky,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI have not gone into the silences<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf this great woodland that enringed my thoughts<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith mystery, nor in its green miracles<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWandered, but this small clearing was my world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow has a strong desire seized all my heart<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo go with Satyavan holding his hand<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInto the life that he has loved and touch<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHerbs he has trod and know the forest flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd all the mystic whispering of the woods.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelease me now and let my heart have rest."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe answered: "Do as thy wise mind desires,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nO calm child-sovereign with the eyes that rule.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI hold thee for a strong goddess who has come<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPitying our barren days; so dost thou serve<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven as a slave might, yet art thou beyond<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll that thou doest, all our minds conceive,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLike the strong sun that serves earth from above."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen the doomed husband and the woman who knew<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 636<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Went with linked hands into that solemn world<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Where beauty and grandeur and unspoken dream,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Where Nature’s mystic silence could be felt<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Communing with the secrecy of God.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Beside her Satyavan walked full of joy,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Because she moved with him through his green haunts:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

He showed her all the forest’s riches, flowers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInnumerable of every odour and hue<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd soft thick clinging creepers red and green<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd strange rich-plumaged birds, to every cry<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat haunted sweetly distant boughs, replied<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWith the shrill singer’s name more sweetly called.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe spoke of all the things he loved: they were<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis boyhood’s comrades and his playfellows,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCoevals and companions of his life<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHere in this world whose every mood he knew:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Their thoughts which to the common mind are blank<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

He shared, to every wild emotion felt<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

An answer. Deeply she listened, but to hear<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The voice that soon would cease from tender words<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And treasure its sweet cadences beloved<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

For lonely memory when none by her walked<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And the beloved voice could speak no more.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But little dwelt her mind upon their sense;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

Of death, not life she thought or life’s lone end.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLove in her bosom hurt with jagged edges<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOf anguish moaned at every step with pain<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCrying, "Now, now perhaps his voice will cease<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor ever." Even by some vague touch oppressed,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSometimes her eyes looked round as if their orbs<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlight see the dim and dreadful god’s approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut Satyavan had paused. He meant to finish<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 637<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

His labour here that happy, linked, uncaring<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

They two might wander free in the green deep<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Primeval mystery of the forest’s heart.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Wordless but near she watched, no turn to lose<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Of the bright face and body which she loved.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Her life was now in seconds, not in hours,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And every moment she economised<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Like a pale merchant leaned above his store,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The miser of his poor remaining gold.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

He sang high snatches of a sage’s chant<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nThat pealed of conquered death and demons slain,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nAnd sometimes paused to cry to her sweet speech<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Of love and mockery tenderer than love:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She like a pantheress leaped upon his words<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And carried them into her cavern heart.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But as he worked, his doom upon him came.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

The violent and hungry hounds of pain<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nTravelled through his body biting as they passed<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nStrove to rend life’s strong heart-cords and be free.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Then helped, as if a beast had left its prey,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

A moment in a wave of rich relief<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Reborn to strength and happy ease he stood<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Rejoicing and resumed his confident toil<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But with less seeing strokes. Now the great Woodsman<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Hewed at him and his labour ceased: lifting<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

His arm he flung away the poignant axe<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Far from him like an instrument of pain.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She came to him in silent anguish and clasped,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And he cried to her, "Savitri, a pang<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n
\nCleaves through my head and breast as if the axe<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 638<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Were piercing it and not the living branch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch agony rends me as the tree must feel<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen it is sundered and must lose its life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAwhile let me lay my head upon thy lap<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd guard me with thy hands from evil fate:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Perhaps because thou touches!, death may pass."<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen Savitri sat under branches wide,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCool, green against the sun, not the hurt tree<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhich his keen axe had cloven,\u2014that she shunned,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut leaned beneath a fortunate kingly trunk<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

She guarded him in her bosom and strove to soothe<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHis anguished brow and body with her hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll grief and fear were dead within her now<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

His suffering, the impulse that opposes pain<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Were the one mortal feeling left. It passed:<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But now his sweet familiar hue was changed<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Into a tarnished greyness and his eyes<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Dimmed over, forsaken of the clear light she loved.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Only the dull and physical mind was left,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Vacant of the bright spirit’s luminous gaze.<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

But once before it faded wholly back,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

He cried out in a clinging last despair,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

"Savitri, Savitri, 0 Savitri,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Lean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die."<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

And even as her pallid lips pressed his,<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

His failed, losing last sweetness of response;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

His cheek pressed down her golden arm. She sought<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

His mouth still with her living mouth, as if<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

She could persuade his soul back with her kiss;<\/font><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Then grew aware they were no more alone.<\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\nPage \u2013 639<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

Something had come there conscious, vast and
\ndire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNear her she felt a silent shade immense<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChilling the noon with darkness for its back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAn awful hush had fallen upon the place:<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

There was no cry of birds, no voice of beasts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nA terror and an anguish filled the world,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if annihilation’s mystery<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHad taken a sensible form. A cosmic mind<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLooked out on all from formidable eyes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nContemning all with his unbearable gaze<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd with immortal lips and a vast brow<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt saw in its immense destroying thought<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll things and beings as a pitiful dream,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRejecting with calm disdain Nature’s delight,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe wordless meaning of its deep regard<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVoicing the unreality of things<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd life that would be for ever but never was<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd its brief and vain recurrence without cease,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAs if from a Silence without form or name<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Shadow of a remote uncaring god<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDoomed to his Naught illusory universe,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCancelling its show of idea and act in Time<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd its imitation of eternity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe knew that visible Death was standing there<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd Satyavan had passed from her embrace.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 640<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n

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

  BOOK EIGHT The Book of Death CANTO THREE*   DEATH IN THE FOREST   NOW it was here in this great golden dawn By…<\/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-3418","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\/3418","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=3418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}