Book XI—The Book of Everlasting Day



 


Canto 1

The Eternal Day: the Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation

 

Fled the embodied nihil,—only to appear

As the tempter divine behind the void,

The new gate through which Savitri forced the way

To claim Satyavan in the world of her choice,

The world of men and matter and joyous things.

Far behind were left the original creations

And in the tremendous hour of reality

She made her will one with the supreme’s will

And in the luminous hush of her heart

Rose the calm sachchidānandaic word.

Then hurried the hymn of sweetness, and triumph,

And the soul of earth awoke to the splendid sun.

 

 

The eternal day has dawned. However, a choice has yet to be made. Savitri has vanquished Death but earth has yet to receive the boon of that victory. There are endless realms of beauty and wonder and the young couple could as well live in those realms, in the transcendent. Savitri has now to reject that Empire of Light, escape from this bright snare also. It could easily become a wide gate for disappearance into the everlasting day, lost to earth. But she maintains that, after all, it was to bring God down to the world on earth that they had taken birth and it cannot remain unfulfilled. Hers is a wonderful affirmation of the divine in the material. Savitri makes a choice and asks for Peace, Oneness, Power, and Joy. Identifying herself with the Will of the Supreme she prays for those exceptional boons, but only for the good soul of the earth. “Be it so, tathāstu” declares the Lord and Savitri’s heart is glad. The seal of sanction is put on the Incarnate’s forceful plea-and-the-claim, that Superman shall wake in the mortal creature. This earthly life shall become the life divine. Even as Savitri holding in her deep bosom the soul of Satyavan returns to the earth, follow them Krishna and Kali. That is the most magnificent thing she has done, of bringing them down to this world of ours.