Satyavan Appears on the Forest Verge, pp. 393-394

Opening Remarks
Savitri has reached the place where she is destined to meet Satyavan. The moment has come near and Satyavan is shown emerging out of the forest background. Satyavan is being introduced to us now.

First meeting
Here first she met on the uncertain earth
The one for whom her heart had come so far.

Savitri has reached the spot where she is destined to meet the one for whom she has come thus far leaving the safety and comfort of the palace. She has not yet met him but it is for him that her heart has brought her here.

House of dream
As might a soul on Nature’s background limned
Stand out for a moment in a house of dream
Created by the ardent breath of life,
So he appeared against the forest verge
Inset twixt green relief and golden ray.

The setting is of a dream world. Satyavan appeared as a soul against the background of Nature and the bodily house built by breath. So he appeared inset twixt the green trees and the sunlit rays touching it.

Spear of God
As if a weapon of the living Light,
Erect and lofty like a spear of God
His figure led the splendour of the morn.

He appeared against the background of this vast and might setting. He seemed like a weapon of living light, erect and lofty like a spear of God his figure seemed to lead the morning sun.

Noble and clear
Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens
A tablet of young wisdom was his brow;
Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs,
The joy of life was on his open face.

His forehead was noble and clear as if a tablet of young wisdom. His limbs were carved with the imperious beauty that Freedom provides. His face was filled with the joy of life.

Wide outbreak of the gods
His look was a wide daybreak of the gods,
His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light,
His body was a lover’s and a king’s.

His look was as the rays of light pouring in as gods rushing towards creation. His head was as a youthful Rishi’s touched with light and his body was a lover’s and a king’s.

Moving statue of delight
In the magnificent dawning of his force
Built like a moving statue of delight
He illumined the border of the forest page.

His force dawned upon the forest as an illuminating light. Standing there he seemed like a moving statue of delight.

Wisdom of an adverse Fate
Out of the ignorant eager toil of the years
Abandoning man’s loud drama he had come
Led by the wisdom of an adverse Fate
To meet the ancient Mother in her groves.

He had been led to this forest verge driven by an adverse Fate. He had abandoned man’s loud drama and come here to meet the ancient Mother in her groves.

Wanderer communing with depth and marge
In her divine communion he had grown
A foster-child of beauty and solitude,
Heir to the centuries of the lonely wise,
A brother of the sunshine and the sky,
A wanderer communing with depth and marge.

He had grown in a divine communion with Nature as a foster child of beauty and solitude which were abundant there. Dwelling there he inherited the wisdom of those who had meditated here in seclusion while the earth and the sky were his kindred family. As a wanderer, he had come communing with the depths and limits of Nature.

Veda-knower of the unwritten book
A Veda-knower of the unwritten book
Perusing the mystic scripture of her forms,
He had caught her hierophant significances,
Her sphered immense imaginations learned,
Taught by sublimities of stream and wood
And voices of the sun and star and flame
And chant of the magic singers on the boughs
And the dumb teaching of four-footed things.

Sri Aurobindo hints here the profound truth that the eternal Vedas dwell within the heart of man and open its hidden pages as we read the sign language of earthly forms. Such a Veda knower is Satyavan who has divined the truths of the Vedas and the real significance of life while dwelling amidst streams and woods and feeling their sublimities. He has received the true knowledge through the sun, the stars and the flame. He has learnt about life from the birds and the beasts.

Her shaping hours
Helping with confident steps her slow great hands
He leaned to her influence like a flower to rain
And, like the flower and tree a natural growth,
Widened with the touches of her shaping hours.

Helping material nature in shaping of forms he leaned towards her as a flower to rain. Naturally he grew like a flower and tree and widened with her shaping touch received in special moments when nature gives us the needed experiences.

Free nature
The mastery free natures have was his
And their assent to joy and spacious calm;
One with the single Spirit inhabiting all,
He laid experience at the Godhead’s feet;
His mind was open to her infinite mind,
His acts were rhythmic with her primal force;
He had subdued his mortal thought to hers.

He had not been exposed to social compulsions and hence had grown as a free being who learns from everything. Ascending to joy and calm, he felt One with the universal Self. Laying all experience at the Divine Feet, his mind had spontaneously opened to Her infinite Mind, his acts chyme with her rhythms. He had subdued his ignorant thoughts to the wisdom of nature.

Closing Remarks
Thus is Satyavan introduced as a student who has learnt everything in the school of nature taught by her wisdom through real-life events and experiences received through the gates of sense and mind and heart and soul.