Opening Remarks
Savitri and Satyavan enjoy a beautiful state filled with the sweetness of the soul and the fragrance of the higher worlds.
Above the cherished head
Above the cherished head of Satyavan
She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb;
A golden circle round a mystic sun
Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight
The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life.
Touched by the love suffused with the psychic glow, Savitri saw no more the dreaded steps of a dark and fatal destiny that was foretold for Satyavan. Surrounded by the aura of a mystic golden sun her new-born prophetic sight saw rather the fullness of a sovereign life lived through the cycles of Time.
Immortal’s bliss
In her visions and deep-etched veridical dreams,
In brief shiftings of the future’s heavy screen,
He lay not by a dolorous decree
A victim in the dismal antre of death
Or borne to blissful regions far from her
Forgetting the sweetness of earth’s warm delight,
Forgetting the passionate oneness of love’s clasp,
Absolved in the self-rapt immortal’s bliss.
In dream and vision Savitri saw the heavy screen of adverse fate shift. Thence she saw Satyavan no more afflicted by a dark destiny that would bring suffering. She saw him not as a hopeless and helpless victim in the dark cave of Death or borne away to heavenly realms away from her forgetting the sweetness of earth’s warm joys, forgetting the clasp of passionate oneness born of deep intense love or lost in the immortal’s bliss.
Always he was with her
Always he was with her, a living soul
That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes,
A living body near to her body’s joy.
She saw him always with her as a living soul that met her sight with close enamoured eyes, a living body near to her body’s joy.
Inseparable like the earth and sky
But now no longer in these great wild woods
In kinship with the days of bird and beast
And levelled to the bareness of earth’s brown breast,
But mid the thinking high-built lives of men
In tapestried chambers and on crystal floors,
In armoured town or gardened pleasure-walks,
Even in distance closer than her thoughts,
Body to body near, soul near to soul,
Moving as if by a common breath and will
They were tied in the single circling of their days
Together by love’s unseen atmosphere,
Inseparable like the earth and sky.
No more he seemed to dwell in the wild woods with the birds and beasts or lie down upon the bare earth and floor to sleep. Instead he seemed now to move in royal chambers tapestried by chambers and high built walls and crystal floors amidst the life of high thinking noble men. She saw him in armoured towns and beautiful gardens, always near him, nearer than her thoughts in body and soul moved by a common breath and will. They moved together in a single circle of life, together they were tied by love’s unseen atmosphere, inseparable like the earth and sky.
The Golden Path
Thus for a while she trod the Golden Path;
This was the sun before abysmal Night.
Thus for a while they trod together the Golden Path. This was like the sun before the fated abysmal Night.
Closing Remarks
Savitri and Satyavan were granted a few sunlit days of beauty and love together before the stark decree of Fate would close upon them.
