Opening Remarks
Death tries to give supremacy to Reason presumably because it can be used to justify and prove any point of view. Savitri instead holds Love as the supreme power, the door through which Knowledge and all else can come.
Savitri replies
But Savitri replied to the dread Voice:
“O Death, who reasonest, I reason not,
Reason that scans and breaks, but cannot build
Or builds in vain because she doubts her work.
Savitri replies to the elaborate logic of Death which he uses to justify his gospel. Savitri says that unlike Death who reasons, she does not use reason for knowing the Truth. This is because, says Savitri, Reason scans, analyses and breaks each unit into parts but it cannot build or builds by adding up the parts but misses the whole. Hence it cannot understand the true meaning and purpose of life. Whatever hypothesis it builds, it ends up doubting and rebuilding systems of philosophy and breaks them again. It keeps doing it and in the process misses the Unity of Truth.
I am, I love, I see, I act, I will
I am, I love, I see, I act, I will.”
Savitri closes with these powerful lines that she knows her existence, she loves all beings, she has the vision and the wisdom with which she acts and she wills and advances towards the future.
Death retorts
Death answered her, one deep surrounding cry:
“Know also. Knowing, thou shalt cease to love
And cease to will, delivered from thy heart.
Death retorts with a deep surrounding cry that she must know herself and draws an illogical conclusion that knowing herself she would be freed from her heart and cease to love and cease to will.
Rest for ever
So shalt thou rest for ever and be still,
Consenting to the impermanence of things.”
Once again Death brings in a truth to justify his lie by reminding Savitri about the impermanence of things. When she will have the Knowledge then she will accept this predicament of life and thence be at rest and peace and cease from action for ever.
When I have loved forever
But Savitri replied for man to Death:
“When I have loved for ever, I shall know.
Savitri replies with powerful words on behalf of man that it is only when she has loved for ever, only when man has universalised the love that dwells in all beings will one truly know.
The one truth behind appearances
Love in me knows the truth all changings mask.
It is Love that has revealed to her that there is but One Truth, Permanent and Eternal that wears different masks. The masks change and are impermanent but the Truth, the Love are ever the same behind all things.
Knowledge is a vast embrace
I know that knowledge is a vast embrace:
I know that every being is myself,
In every heart is hidden the myriad One.
Savitri reveals that Knowledge is a vast universal embrace of all creation. It is thus that Savitri knows that every being is herself and in every heart there dwells the Infinite Divine who has assumed all the myriad forms and names. It is this oneness to which the name Knowledge is given because it rediscovers the Unity behind creation in the consciousness of the One.
The veiled inhabitant
I know the calm Transcendent bears the world,
The veiled Inhabitant, the silent Lord:
I feel his secret act, his intimate fire;
I hear the murmur of the cosmic Voice.
Savitri further reveals that she has realised the calm Transcendent who bears the world. He is the veiled Inhabitant who dwells in all creatures. He is the silent Lord of Creation. Savitri feels that it is He who acts in her and the universe. She feels his Fires, the Divine Energy, the Divine Shakti or Consciousness-Will moving all things. She hears the murmur of the cosmic Voice that dwells as the Divine Compulsion in all things.
Wave of God
I know my coming was a wave from God.
Savitri says that she is fully aware of her origin which is as a wave from God.
One who loves in us
For all his suns were conscient in my birth,
And one who loves in us came veiled by death.
Savitri further reveals that all the Divine Powers were present in her birth and the One Divine whom loves in us has veiled himself by death.
Then was man born
Then was man born among the monstrous stars
Dowered with a mind and heart to conquer thee.”
It is thus that man was born covering Love with Death, Truth and Light with Ignorance. Man thereby has been given a mind and heart to conquer Death.
Closing Remarks
Savitri sets the note for the challenge of Death hinting at the power she has brought with her, the power of Love and Oneness.
