The Reign of Darkness, p. 599

Opening Remarks
Savitri is still in the realm of darkest Night. Yet as with all Night, this night too ends. Yet the darkness is densest before the dawn.

All still was darkness
All still was darkness dread and desolate;
There was no change nor any hope of change.

The Night still reigned with its dread and desolate darkness. There was no change in the status as if it would prolong forever without any hope for change.

Black dream
In this black dream which was a house of Void,
A walk to Nowhere in a land of Nought,
Ever they drifted without aim or goal;
Gloom led to worse gloom, depth to an emptier depth,
In some positive Non-being’s purposeless Vast
Through formless wastes dumb and unknowable.

It seemed a void, an empty space with dark dreams that led to nowhere in a land of Nought. The three drifted aimlessly without a goal. Gloom led to worse gloom, emptiness to a deeper emptiness as if in some Non-being’s purposeless vast space through dumb and unknowable formless wastes.

Dead eternity
An ineffectual beam of suffering light
Through the despairing darkness dogged their steps
Like the remembrance of a glory lost;
Even while it grew, it seemed unreal there,
Yet haunted Nihil’s chill stupendous realm,
Unquenchable, perpetual, lonely, null,
A pallid ghost of some dead eternity.

It was a dark and dead eternity, an unending state of suffering uneffaced with light. It was a darkness full of despair dogging his steps like the remembrance of a lost glory It grew and seemed unreal yet haunting as if it were some formidable annihilation’s chilling realm. It seemed some pale ghost of some dead eternity, perpetual, lonely, null and alone, whose thirst could not be quenched or appeased.

Pay the debt
It was as if she must pay now her debt,
Her vain presumption to exist and think,
To some brilliant Maya that conceived her soul.

The darkness covered her soul so much as if it did not exist and all idealism and hope seemed vain and effort for progress a vanity. Existence seemed a vain imposition for which she must pay.

Closing Remarks
Darkness does not release us easily. It extracts its own tax of the Night. It is the spell of this darkness that fills us with the sense of vanity and makes existence seem vain and makes all effort seem a waste and meaningless.