Savitri

  SECTION E

'EPILOGUE: THE RETURN TO EARTH'

Savitri now awakes from out of the "abysmal trance" of her spirit; she espies the "green-clad branches" above, and peering through an "emerald lattice-window of leaves" notes the thinning day and the evening's peace. Satyavan's living body is by her side, and all her being rejoices in enfolding his:

      Supine in musing bliss she lay awhile

      Given to the wonder of a waking trance.⁹⁴

But Satyavan is still asleep, "like an infant spirit unaware", reclining on her breast; presently awake, he finds her eyes waiting for his, he feels her hands, and embracing her and vaguely recollecting strange impossible happenings, he says incredulously;

      Whence hast thou brought me captive back, love-chained,...

      For surely I have travelled in strange worlds

      By thee companioned, a pursuing spirit,

      Together we have disdained the gates of night.

      I have turned away from the celestials' joy

      And heaven's insufficient without thee.⁹⁵

Besides, he asks her: Where is that formidable shape that rose against us? Was it all a dream? She answers with utter sufficiency:

      Our parting was the dream;

      We are together, we live, O Satyavan.⁹⁶

All is as before excepting that they have "left Death's night behind" and their souls have been "illumined by the light of symbol worlds". Satyavan marks a "high change" in Savitri. Always adorable, a golden bride, now she seems "too high and great/For mortal worship". Her answer, however, comes softly:

      All now is changed, yet all is still the same.

Page 234

       Lo, we have looked upon the face of God,

      Our life has opened with divinity.⁹⁷

Grief is now dead, and they are to seek out the bliss in the heart of all the days to come. Yet joy is vouchsafed to them, not for themselves alone, but to be shared with all:

      To lead man's soul towards truth and God we are born,

      To draw the chequered scheme of mortal life

      Into some semblance of the Immortal's plan,

      To shape it closer to an image of God,

      A little nearer to the Idea divine.⁹⁸

Now hand in hand they leave the forest spot and direct their steps to their "sylvan home"; late afternoon shades off to evening, and soon day and night lean "to each other's arms". They are met on the way by a press of people :

      .. .unknown faces, thronged

      With gold fringed headdress, gold-broidered robes,

      Glittering of ornaments, fluttering of hems,...⁹⁹

 headed by King Dyumatsena, "no more/Blind, faltering-limbed", and his queen. Dyumatsena gives the glad news of a kingdom's return and the restoration of eyesight, but he also gently chides Satyavan and Savitri for being so late. Satyavan merely answers, pointing at Savitri:

      Lay all on her; she is the cause of all...

      Behold, at noon leaving this house of clay

      I wandered in far-off eternities,

      Yet still, a captive in her golden hands,

      I tread your little hillock called green earth

      And in the moments of your transient sun

      Live glad among the busy works of men.¹⁰⁰

The company is amazed, the elders cast inquiring looks on Savitri, and feel that she is lit by a vast new revelation. But Savitri, veiling her transcendent light, merely replies:

Page 235

      Awakened to the meaning of my heart

      That to feel love and oneness is to live

      And this the magic of our golden change,

      Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage.¹⁰¹

Now, with linked hands, Savitri and Satyavan return triumphant hearing "a marriage march and nuptial hymn" to their new home. And with the moon palely filling the skies a silver peace reigns over the earth, and Night—

      She brooded through her stillness on a thought

      Deep-guarded by her mystic folds of light, .

      And in her bosom nursed a greater dawn.¹⁰²

Page 236