Opening Remarks
Daily human life continued as usual in the forest hermitage according to its old rhythms. None could fathom the depths and heights to which Savitri had risen because there was no change in her outward actions.
Daily human life went on
In the little hermitage in the forest’s heart,
In the sunlight and the moonlight and the dark
The daily human life went plodding on
Even as before with its small unchanging works
And its spare outward body of routine
And happy quiet of ascetic peace.
Daily life in the quiet forest hermitage went on as usual in its round of days and nights. Its routine of daily acts amidst the happy quiet ascetic peace continued.
Her old gracious self
The old beauty smiled of the terrestrial scene;
She too was her old gracious self to men.
The beauty of material nature smiled at her. She too was outwardly the same gracious person towards one and all even as before.
The Ancient Mother
The Ancient Mother clutched her child to her breast
Pressing her close in her environing arms,
As if earth ever the same could for ever keep
The living spirit and body in her clasp,
As if death were not there nor end nor change.
Mother Earth clutched her child close in her arms as if to keep Savitri forever in her clasp denying and defying any possibility of death.
None saw
Accustomed only to read outward signs
None saw aught new in her, none divined her state;
They saw a person where was only God’s vast,
A still being or a mighty nothingness.
Accustomed to see only the apparent surfaces and outward signs none saw anything new in her. They saw a person where there was only a vast emptiness of God, a still immobile being or a mighty nothingness.
Same perfect Savitri
To all she was the same perfect Savitri:
A greatness and a sweetness and a light
Poured out from her upon her little world.
To all she seemed the same Savitri perfect in all her human ways. She was the same greatness and sweetness and light who poured out from her upon the world generously giving freely to all.
Same familiar face
Life showed to all the same familiar face,
Her acts followed the old unaltered round,
She spoke the words that she was wont to speak
And did the things that she had always done.
Outwardly everyone saw the same familiar face doing the same works. She spoke what she had to and did what she had always done. There was no outward change in her demeanour and actions.
Earth’s unchanging face
Her eyes looked out on earth’s unchanging face,
Her eyes looked out on the old unchanging face of earth.
Closing Remarks
Savitri’s outer persona and activities seemed unchanged to the eyes that see only the surfaces.
