At first Savitri's mind
is occupied with the strangeness of the scenes opening before her as she drives
her chariot. But soon a deeper consciousness grows up and she begins to feel
all as her own, as once known to her. Old memories well up and there is a sense
of continuity of purpose and action from the past.
Some guidance leads her
carriage; the godheads move who always act from behind the veil working out the
destiny which is but the Spirit's will. A calm Presence above her chooses each
turn on the way.
Her journey runs across
crowded cities, forts, gardens and temples. During nights she rests in the palaces
on the route. Then she comes into the countryside where Nature is fresh, not
yet peopled with human cares and joys. She feels the closeness of the Earth and
hears her inarticulate voice.
Her nature is in
communion with her Maker.
King-sages come to share
in her happy' peace after their life of strife and labour. Some retire into the
recesses of the soul and realise oneness with the world. Some break through the
walls of the mind and soar into the heights of the Spirit from where Truth leans
down on them. Ascetics sit in concentration waiting upon the Immutable and the
Ineffable.
Seers tune themselves to
the universal Will and lie content in God. The young disciples around them are
fashioned by their touch and greatened in their presence. In this air
king-children play and grow in heroic moulds.
Sages breathing freedom
and joy assist the entry of gods on earth, teach the young to think and live high.
Their presence, even their silence is of help to earth. In their environs
beasts forget their enmities and join in friendship. Some, who go beyond the confines
of thought, bring back to earth Force and Light from Beyond. Some watch as
witnesses from their Silence, some disappear into the Vast.
Savitri journeys through
all these retreats, halts in the hermitages during nights or rests in the open,
on the banks of rivers, in solitary tracts, in desert spaces.
But still the quest is
not accomplished, the destined faced is not yet found. In the meanwhile the spring
is gone and the burning summer is on.