Aurobindo 126 Savitri Book 8 Poem by Indira Renganathan

An appreciation on Savitri-
Book Eight: The Book of Death
Canto Three*: Death in the Forest
Words within inverted commas are Aurobindo's

'Then Savitri sat under branches wide,
Cool, green against the sun, not the hurt tree
Which his keen axe had cloven, -that she shunned;
But leaned beneath a fortunate kingly trunk
She guarded him in her bosom and strove to soothe
His anguished brow and body with her hands.
All grief and fear were dead within her now
And a great calm had fallen.'

'Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.
But now his sweet familiar hue was changed'
He cried out in a clinging last despair, '
'Savitri, Savitri, O Savitri,
Lean down, my soul, and kiss me while I die.'
'His cheek pressed down her golden arm. She sought
His mouth still with her living mouth, as if
She could persuade his soul back with her kiss; '

'Then grew aware they were no more alone.'
'Something had come there conscious, vast and dire.
Near her she felt a silent shade immense'
'As if from a Silence without form or name'
The Shadow of a remote uncaring god
Doomed to his Nought the illusory universe, '
'She knew that visible Death was standing there
And Satyavan had passed from her embrace.'....

Reading these this moment a ball of breath
Blocking my life in my throat
Breathless even I grow; and screaming my heart
Prays, pleads, implores sunken in tears
'Save o'Savitri save, Thy true love thine alone
Saved this Earth then in mundane bliss....

............My consciousness this moment,
O'Guru, I'm in awe....in invincible heights
Ineffable Thee embellishing poetic creation
My inquisitive apprehension, erring Thee may opine
May there so, let Savitri in my self arise
Aroused there so be knowledge and fortune

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Note; Some more inspiring descriptive and
informative lines from Book8 Canto 3


Page 565

Only the dull and physical mind was left,
Vacant of the bright spirit's luminous gaze.

And even as her pallid lips pressed his,
His failed, losing last sweetness of response;

................A cosmic mind
Looked out on all from formidable eyes
Contemning all with its unbearable gaze
And with immortal lids and a vast brow
It saw in its immense destroying thought
All things and beings as a pitiful dream,
Rejecting with calm disdain Nature's delight,


End of Book 8
End of Part 2