Opening Remarks
Savitri now looks at the past and the present state of man.
Inconscient world
A conscious soul in the Inconscient’s world,
Hidden behind our thoughts and hopes and dreams,
An indifferent Master signing Nature’s acts
Leaves the vicegerent mind a seeming king.
Man is a conscious soul dwelling in an Inconscient world and hence hidden behind our thoughts and hopes and dreams. The soul is like an indifferent Master who ascents to whatever Nature brings for its sanction. It delegates the mind on its behalf making it a seeming king.
Floating house
In his floating house upon the sea of Time
The regent sits at work and never rests:
He is a puppet of the dance of Time;
He is driven by the hours, the moment’s call
Compels him with the thronging of life’s need
And the babel of the voices of the world.
Mind sits in the house of life that is ever shifting upon the sea of Time. He sits as a deputy and works without rest dancing as a puppet to the tune of Time, driven by the moment’s call and life’s needs and the meaningless voices of the world.
Incessant circling
This mind no silence knows nor dreamless sleep,
In the incessant circling of its steps
Thoughts tread for ever through the listening brain;
It toils like a machine and cannot stop.
This mind does not know any silence. It knows no peace and quietude. Incessantly moving, its thoughts tread for ever through the listening brain working as a machine that cannot stop.
Endless crowd
Into the body’s many-storeyed rooms
Endless crowd down the dream-god’s messages.
Dream messages crowd up and down the stairs of its several layers.
Hundred-toned murmur
All is a hundred-toned murmur and babble and stir,
There is a tireless running to and fro,
A haste of movement and a ceaseless cry.
A many-toned murmur and babble and stir, a tireless running to and fro, a haste and a movement and a ceaseless cry is the state of mind in man.
The thousandfold commerce
The hurried servant senses answer apace
To every knock upon the outer doors,
Bring in time’s visitors, report each call,
Admit the thousand queries and the calls
And the messages of communicating minds
And the heavy business of unnumbered lives
And all the thousandfold commerce of the world.
The senses serve as servants that hurry to open the doors of the mind at every knock, admitting all sorts of visitors, reporting every call. The senses admit a thousand queries and messages of communicating minds and thereby heavily increasing its load of unnumbered lives. Thus it engages in all the thousandfold interchange of our self with the world.
Scant repose
Even in the tracts of sleep is scant repose;
He mocks life’s steps in strange subconscient dreams,
He strays in a subtle realm of symbol scenes,
His night with thin-air visions and dim forms
He packs or peoples with slight drifting shapes
And only a moment spends in silent Self.
Even in sleep the mind knows no repose. It continues the journey of life in strange subconscient dreams and strays into subtle symbol realms filling its night with dreams and visions packing its sleep with dim forms and drifting shapes while it dreams. Only a moment or so it spends in the silent Self during sleep to rejuvenate itself.
Closing Remarks
This is the present state of the Mind, always active and restless.
