Savitri as a perfect shrine for the God of Love is an extremely powerful metaphor, but it should not be taken in a Johnsonian manner, lifeless and an algebraic equivalent, not even as a descriptive simulacrum frozen in space and time. It should be taken, if at all, as an architectural metaphor for the universe and the process of creation, as is done in the case of ancient temples of Egypt. One must see Savitri as a divine power, of love and light, divine grace incarnate in this creation. She is the one who accepts the mortal birth. Savitri is not Wordsworth’s phantom of delight, a moment's ornament, her eyes as stars of twilight. She is beyond the Romantist’s imagination. Savitri is not Eve, though fairest of Creation, last and best of all God's works, Milton’s Creature in whom excelled whatever can to sight or thought be formed, holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet—because she can get lost, defaced, deflowered, to death become devote! Savitri is not Sri or Lakshmi, goddess fair and beautiful, Vishnu’s consort. She is not that hiraņya-varņā, golden-hued, wearing silver and gold ornaments, resplendent, full of bliss, who is of pleasant smile on her face. She is not Lakshmi who shines like gold, is brilliant like the sun, who is powerfully fragrant, who wields the rod of suzerainty, who is the form of supreme rulership, who is radiant and is the goddess of wealth. Savitri is the Creator’s power of dynamism in the earthly world to bring immortality to it. She is not a typal Goddess, but one who accepts the mortal birth, who undertakes and endures the travail of the evolutionary soul. She is supreme Grace incarnate who comes here to establish divinity in the terrestrial phenomenon. She is one who brings that creative power to the mortal world, to this creation presently governed by death.

…   more »