Opening remarks
Savitri answers to the dreadful god of Death challenging his assumption and assertion about God as he perceives it.
Savitri scorns Death
But Savitri answered meeting scorn with scorn,
The mortal woman to the dreadful Lord:
“Who is this God imagined by thy night,
Contemptuously creating worlds disdained,
Who made for vanity the brilliant stars?
Savitri answers Death responding to scorn with scorn. She spoke to the dreadful Lord asking him who is this God imagined by the night referring to the description of himself as the Creator. She asks him who is this god imagined by Death who contemptuously creating worlds that are disdained as unworthy? She scorns the god of Death who has made the brilliant shining stars for vanity?
Savitri’s God
Not he who has reared his temple in my thoughts
And made his sacred floor my human heart.
Savitri affirms that the God whom she has known and reared in the temple of her heart is not that which Death proclaims. Savitri reveals that she knows God and has made her heart the sacred floor for His Feet.
My God
My God is will and triumphs in his paths,
My God is love and sweetly suffers all.
Savitri reveals that her God is will that conquers in the paths the he undertakes. She reveals that her God is not only the will that triumphs but also the love that sweetly suffers all.
Offered hope for sacrifice
To him I have offered hope for sacrifice
And gave my longings as a sacrament.
Savitri says that she has offered her hope for sacrifice and her longings as sacrament to her God who dwells within her in the temple of her heart.
The wonderful, the charioteer, the swift
Who shall prohibit or hedge in his course,
The wonderful, the charioteer, the swift?
Savitri asserts that none can prohibit or obstruct the path that the God in her heart takes and leads. He is indeed the wonderful, the charioteer, the swift who will steer her through the paths that he has chosen for her.
He descends
A traveller of the million roads of life,
His steps familiar with the lights of heaven
Tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell;
There he descends to edge eternal joy.
Savitri reveals that her God knows all paths traveling on the million roads of life. His steps are familiar with the lights of heaven but he can also tread without pain the sword-paved courts of hell descending there to edge in eternal joy.
The feet of love
Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void:
The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night,
The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds.
Savitri’s God has Love’s golden wings to fan the void of Death bringing there the fresh breath of life. His eyes of love gaze like stars through the night of death. His feet of love tread naked the hardest worlds.
He labours
He labours in the depths, exults on the heights;
He shall remake thy universe, O Death.”
Her God labours in the depths, exults on the heights. He shall remake the world of Death, says Savitri.
Closing remarks
Thus Savitri introduces her God to Death through these powerful words.
