Opening Remarks
Though her inmost self had discovered its freedom the bodily existence continued under the old impulsion of nature.
Body saw and moved
Yet still her body saw and moved and spoke;
It understood without the aid of thought,
It said whatever needed to be said,
It did whatever needed to be done.
Yet her body continued to do its work. It saw and moved and spoke. It understood without the aid of thought and said whatever needed to be said and did whatever needed to be done.
No person
There was no person there behind the act,
No mind that chose or passed the fitting word:
All wrought like an unerring apt machine.
Yet all this continued without the sense of the doer or the person behind the actions. Neither the mind chose anything looking for the befitting word. All worked and moved like an unerring machine.
Old habitual turns
As if continuing old habitual turns,
And pushed by an old unexhausted force
The engine did the work for which it was made:
Her consciousness looked on and took no part;
All it upheld, in nothing had a share.
Nirvana does not mean that Nature stops working. It continues in a habitual mechanical manner by the force of old habits to exhaust certain movements that have continued for long. The body did the work for which it was made. Her consciousness however stood behind and above looking upon all things as a witness, supporting them indifferently but taking no share in it.
No strong initiator will
There was no strong initiator will;
An incoherence crossing a firm void
Slipped into an order of related chance.
The will that initiates the action had fallen still leading to an apparent incoherence outside and a firm void within. Yet an order was felt working itself through the play of Chance.
Pure perception
A pure perception was the only power
That stood behind her action and her sight.
A pure perception was the only power that stood behind her vision and action.
If that retired
If that retired, all objects would be extinct,
Her private universe would cease to be,
The house she had built with bricks of thought and sense
In the beginning after the birth of Space.
If that perception withdrew then all would become vanish and her private universe would disappear. The inner being is built through the action of senses and their responses given by the mind and its thoughts and feelings. Within this house the soul dwells. It is this inner world, this sense of individuality built over lives that seemed to collapse.
Abysmal unreality
This seeing was identical with the seen;
It knew without knowledge all that could be known,
It saw impartially the world go by,
But in the same supine unmoving glance
Saw too its abysmal unreality.
This seeing identified itself with the seen. It knew without an effort to know. It saw the world pass by incessantly in the flow of Time and yet simultaneously saw its abysmal unreality.
Closing Remarks
Savitri has entered into the stillness and silence of Nirvana.
