Book-5-Study-Canto-1

Canto One

The Destined Meeting-Place

Summary
The destined place and hour are now near. Unknown to her she has come close to her goal.

Nothing really appears by chance. That is only an appearance. Everything is guided by an Omniscience and things take place at the appointed place and time.

Savitri now arrives at a spot of fresh life and felicity. A great expectation is in the air. Mountains, woods, waters, birds—all are bathed in a dreamy happiness. It is as if the Earth is having a romance with her lover, Heaven.

Behind all is the majestic calm of Nature. Man has not yet come here to disturb the primeval peace of the region. At the borders of the tract are solemn hills that rise up in the skies like meditative ascetics.

This is the scene chosen by the indefinable Mother of all in the form of Savitri for her brief felicity. Here in solitude commences her part in the joy and strife of the world. Here Love meets Savitri.

The Goal Nears

But now the destined spot and hour were close;
Unknowing she had neared her nameless goal.

For though a dress of blind and devious chance
Is laid upon the work of all-wise Fate,
Our acts interpret an omniscient Force
That dwells in the compelling stuff of things,
And nothing happens in the cosmic play
But at its time and in its foreseen place.

Though unaware, Savitri is now nearing her goal; the place and the time for it are close.

In life it looks as if all is a play of Chance, but it is only an appearance which hides the working of an all-wise Fate. Chance is but one of the agents of the determining Will. Our acts are really the renderings of an all-seeing Force that dwells in all things and compels their action. In this game of the Cosmos nothing ever takes place except at its appointed time and previsioned place.

World of Free and Green Delight

To a space she came of soft and delicate air
That seemed a sanctuary of youth and joy,
A highland world of free and green delight
Where spring and summer lay together and strove
In indolent and amicable debate,
Inarmed, disputing with laughter who should rule.

Savitri arrives at a place full of soft and delicate air which looks like a home of youth and joy, a plateau of free and fresh delight where spring and summer are, as it were, engaged in friendly debate as to who should rule.

Coming Change

There expectation beat wide sudden wings,
As if a soul had looked out from earth’s face
And all that was in her felt a coming change
And forgetting obvious joys and common dreams,
Obedient to Time’s call and the spirit’s fate,
Were lifted to a beauty calm and pure
That lived under the eyes of Eternity.

A wide expectation is in the air. It looks as if a soul has looked out from the face of earth and all that is in earth has felt the imminence of a change, and putting behind the common joys and dreams of the day and responding to the call of Time and the decree of the Spirit, has allowed itself to be lifted to a rare beauty, calm and pure, in the sight of Eternity.

Mountainous Heads and Pale Waters

A crowd of mountainous heads assailed the sky
Pushing towards rival shoulders nearer heaven,
The armoured leaders of an iron line;
Earth prostrate lay beneath their feet of stone.

Below there crouched a dream of emerald woods
And gleaming borders solitary as sleep:
Pale waters ran like glimmering threads of pearl.

Mountain peaks pierce the sky like the leaders of an armed phalanx; below stretches the prostrate earth. There lie green dreaming forests with silent, gleaming borders and mild running waters glimmering like strings of pearls.

Enamoured Air

A sigh was straying among happy leaves;
Cool-perfumed with slow pleasure-burdened feet
Faint stumbling breezes faltered among flowers.

The white crane stood, a vivid motionless streak,
Peacock and parrot jewelled soil and tree,
The dove’s soft moan enriched the enamoured air
And fire-winged wild-drakes swam in silvery pools.

There is an air of happy contentment in the plants; slow breezes laden with fragrance waft among the flowers; the white crane stands motionless; the peacock and the parrot brightly adorn the soil and the tree; the soft cry of the dove adds to the charm of the place while flame-hued drakes sail in the silver-white pools.

Festival Riot

Earth couched alone with her great lover Heaven,
Uncovered to her consort’s purple eye.

In her luxurious ecstasy of joy
She squandered the love-music of her notes,
Wasted the passionate pattern of her blooms
And festival riot of her scents and hues.

It is as if Earth is romancing with her lover, Heaven. She lies bare and uncovered to his bright eye, the sun. She expresses her ecstasy of joy in the gay and passionate love-music of the birds, and in the exciting shapes, scents and hues of the flowers. It is a festive riot of colour, fragrance and design.

Blithe Life

A cry and leap and hurry were around,
The stealthy footfalls of her chasing things,
The shaggy emerald of her centaur mane,
The gold and sapphire of her warmth and blaze.

Magician of her rapt felicities,
Blithe, sensuous-hearted, careless and divine,
Life ran or hid in her delightful rooms;
Behind all brooded Nature’s grandiose calm.

The cry, the leap and the chase of the denizens of the forests are everywhere. All is warm in light and hue. The felicitous stream of life runs free, uninterrupted, it plays at hide and seek in sheer delight.

Behind all this movement of mirth and joy, there broods the majestic calm of Nature.

Primeval Peace

Primeval peace was there and in its bosom
Held undisturbed the strife of bird and beast.

Man, the deep-browed artificer, had not come
To lay his hand on happy inconscient things,
Thought was not there nor the measurer, strong-eyed toil,
Life had not learned its discord with its aim.

The ancient peace of Nature is here untroubled though it contains the strife of the animal kingdom. Man with his scheming intelligence has not come here to disturb the natural ease of this inconscient order; neither his disturbing thought nor reason nor self-will are here yet.

Life is still harmonious; it has not yet strayed from its aim.

Universal Joy

The mighty Mother lay outstretched at ease.

All was in line with her first satisfied plan;
Moved by a universal will of joy
The trees bloomed in their green felicity
And the wild children brooded not on pain.

Mother earth rests in ease. Everything is in accord with her first fulfilled plan. There is all around a universal will of joy, and instinct with it, the trees bloom in all their freshness and her wild offsprings brood not on pain.

Questioning Hills

At the end reclined a stern and giant tract
Of tangled depths and solemn questioning hills
And peaks like a bare austerity of the soul,
Armoured, remote and desolately grand
Like the thought-screened infinities that lie
Behind the rapt smile of the Almighty’s dance.

On the outskirts spreads out a huge tract of intricate depths and rising hills whose peaks look severe like austere souls, remote and grand like the infinities veiled by thought that lie behind the concentrated smile of Nataraja, the Cosmic Lord at dance.

Matted Forest-Head

A matted forest-head invaded heaven
As if a blue-throated ascetic peered
From the stone fastness of his mountain cell
Regarding the brief gladness of the days;
His vast extended spirit couched behind.

The sight of a thick forest summit reaching out to the sky looks like a veritable ascetic of a Nilakantha—Shiva whose throat is stained blue with the poison of the world—gazing out from his strong mountain cell on the fleeting joys of earthly life, with his vast outspread spirit looming behind.

Murmur of Retreat

A mighty murmur of immense retreat
Besieged the ear, a sad and limitless call
As of a soul retiring from the world.

Savitri’s car is invaded on all sides by the great murmur of a vast retreat, like the sad and unbounded call of a being withdrawing from the world-scene.

The Chosen Scene

This was the scene which the ambiguous Mother
Had chosen for her brief felicitous hour;
Here in this solitude far from the world
Her part she began in the world’s joy and strife.

This is the scene chosen by the indeterminable Mother of the universe, in the form of Savitri, for her brief felicity. Here away from the crowd and noise of the world, she commences to play her part in the joy and struggle of the world.

Disclosures

Here were disclosed to her the mystic courts,
The lurking doors of beauty and surprise,
The wings that murmur in the golden house,
The temple of sweetness and the fiery aisle.

Here open out to her experience areas of mystery, unexpected beauty and surprise, inaudible promptings, sweetness and fire.

Love

A stranger on the sorrowful roads of Time,
Immortal under the yoke of death and fate,
A sacrificant of the bliss and pain of the spheres,
Love in the wilderness met Savitri.

Here Love who is a new-comer to the sorrowful roads of Time who, though immortal, subjects himself to the yoke of death and fate on earth, who has to continuously sacrifice by bearing the stings of the bliss and pain of the worlds, that Love meets Savitri in this wilderness of Nature.