Book Eight. The Book of Death
Book Eight: Canto 3 Death in the Forest
Summary Both Satyavan and Savitri go into the forest, hand in hand, he showing her all along the varied riches of the forest, speaking of the things he loved there. Savitri, aware of the impending doom, treasures every word that falls from his lips. Satyavan starts axing a tree for fuel and as he works, he sings snatches of a sage’s chant on the conquest of death and the slaying of evil. But as he proceeds, he is overcome by sudden shooting pains all over his body. He throws away the axe and seeks Savitri’s support. She clasps him and tries to soothe his pain. But slowly his colour changes and he utters his last cry asking for her kiss. She presses her lips upon his, but his fail to respond. She grows aware that they are no longer alone: Some chilling Shadow has appeared. There is a hush and terror all round. Death is standing there. Satyavan has passed.
Now it was here in
this great golden dawn When one is about to die, one lifts up his head above the huge dark stream of gathering death into which he is being swept — and into which he is soon to sink down — and casts a quick look back upon the bright life he has lived. In the same manner, on this significant day at bright dawn, Savitri, sitting by the side of Satyavan still asleep, casts back her gaze into her past.
All she had been and done she lived again.
The whole year in a
swift and eddying race
Then silently she
rose and, service done, What prayer she breathed her soul and Doorga knew.
Perhaps she felt in
the dim forest huge She relives all that has passed. Events of the whole past year that she has lived with Satyavan rush through her memory and fade into the past. Then she gets up silently, and, after due service, she bows down to the image of the great Goddess Durga, carved simply by Satyavan upon a stone of the forest. Only her soul and the Goddess Durga know what prayer she makes. Perhaps Savitri feels, in that huge, dim forest, the Infinite Divine Mother keeping watch over her — child that she is of the Divine Mother; perhaps the hidden voice of the Mother speaks some silent word which she alone can hear.
At last she came to the pale mother queen.
She spoke but with
guarded lips and tranquil face
Only the needed
utterance passage found: Savitri then comes to Satyavan’s mother. She speaks to her with caution and with a calm appearance so that no casual word or revealing look on her part may arouse any apprehensions of the coming grief in the mother’s unsuspecting heart and thus end for her all happiness and the need to live in a world without Satyavan. She speaks just what is needed, pressing back all else into her distressed heart, with an enforced quietude.
“One year that I
have lived with Satyavan "During this one year that I have lived with Satyavan here on the green edge of the vast forest, surrounded by the huge mountains, under the blue patches of the forest sky, I have not gone into the solitude of these woods whose mystery and beauty have always attracted me; I have not seen their wonder-spots. My world has been confined to this little hermitage.
Now has a strong
desire seized all my heart Release me now and let my heart have rest.” "Today I have a strong desire to go along with Satyavan into the forests that he loves so much, and see and feel the pulsating life of the plants, birds, animals and the trees there. Permit me to go, let my heart be happy in the fulfilment of its desire."
She answered: “Do
as thy wise mind desires,
I hold thee for a
strong goddess who has come The queen-mother answers:"O child-sovereign with imperious eyes who art always calm and wise, do as thou choosest. I regard thee as a powerful goddess who has come to us out of compassion for our barren existence here. Thou servest as hard as a slave does and yet thou art always above thy actions, above all our conceptions; thou art like the strong sun who serves the earth incessantly, but is always far above."
Then the doomed
husband and the woman who knew Then Satyavan, who does not know of the impending doom, and Savitri, who knows all, go together, hand in hand, into the forest, a world by itself with it own beauty, grandeur and silent aspirations, where Nature can be felt communing in a profound silence with the secrecy of God.
Beside her Satyavan
walked full of joy, Satyavan walks full of joy because today Savitri is with him in his visit to his favourite forest-haunts. He shows her all the riches of the forest, its innumerable, variegated flowers, its colourful creepers, and the strange, richly feathered birds sweetly calling each other in shrill notes from distant boughs.
He spoke of all the
things he loved: they were An answer. Satyavan speaks to Savitri of all the things in the woods that he specially loves, of the denizens of the forest who have been his boyhood friends, playfellows and companions of his life. He knows every mood of theirs, he understands their thoughts of which the common mind is hardly aware, he responds to every wild emotion in that forest world.
… Deeply she
listened, but to hear
But little dwelt her
mind upon their sense; Savitri listens attentively to Satyavan, not to the sense of his words but to his voice that will soon cease to speak, in order to preserve its sweet cadences in her memory to be drawn upon when she will be left alone. Her mind is thinking not of life but of death, of the lonely end of life.
Love in her bosom
hurt with jagged edges At each step her love is stabbed by anguish at the approaching tragedy and it cries: "Now, now perhaps his voice will cease." At times there is a sense of some vague touch and she looks round as if she might see the dreadful god of death approaching.
But Satyavan had
paused. He meant to finish
Wordless but near
she watched, no turn to lose Now Satyavan stops. He means first to complete his chore of cutting down a tree for its wood so that both of them could afterwards wander happily in the deeps of the forest. Waiting near him silently, Savitri watches every movement of the face and body which she loves so intensely.
Her life was now in
seconds, not in hours, But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe. Savitri is aware of the sands of time fast running out. She seeks to make the most of every moment like an anxious merchant watching over his store, a miser counting his remaining stock of gold. But Satyavan swings his axe merrily.
He sang high
snatches of a sage’s chant Satyavan sings aloud bits of a sage’s song celebrating victory over death and the destruction of demons; at times he interrupts his singing to utter sweet words of love, tender and teasing. Savitri grasps them avidly and treasures them in her heart.
But as he worked, his doom upon him came.
The violent and
hungry hounds of pain But as he works, his doom arrives. Violent and intense shooting pains start and spread all over his body; his suffocating breath struggles to break the bonds of life.
Then helped, as if a
beast had left its prey, There is a moment of recovery and relief; Satyavan feels fresh and strong again and resumes his toil with the axe. But his strokes are less sure.
… Now the great
Woodsman Suddenly death strikes at Satyavan and his labour ceases. He lifts up his arm and throws away the sharp axe far from himself as though it were an instrument of pain.
She came to him in
silent anguish and clasped,
Such agony rends me
as the tree must feel
Awhile let me lay my
head upon thy lap Savitri goes to him in anguish and clasps him. He cries out to her: "Savitri, it is as though the axe is piercing me and not the tree; there is a sharp pang in my head and breast. My agony is like that of the tree when it is cut down and about to die. Let me lay my head upon thy lap for a while. Guard me with thy hands from a possible evil fate. Death may pass because thou boldest me."
Then Savitri sat
under branches wide, Then Savitri sits in the shade of a kingly tree — avoiding the tree that Satyavan has cut into with his sharp axe — and holds him to her bosom; she tries to soothe with her hands his brow and body shaking with agony.
All grief and fear
were dead within her now Grief and fear are no more in her. Instead a great calm has come over her. The only mortal feeling still left in her is the wish to lessen his suffering, the natural reaction to pain. Even that passes. She is no more human. Griefless and strong, like the gods, she waits.
But now his sweet
familiar hue was changed
Only the dull and
physical mind was left, Soon, Satyavan’s usual sweet hue changes into a tarnished grey. His eyes dim; their clear light departs: only the dull, mechanical mind remains, bereft of the usual luminous look of the bright spirit within.
But once before it
faded wholly back, But before that bright gaze fades away completely, Satyavan utters a last cry of despair: "O Savitri, Savitri, Savitri, my soul, lean down and kiss me as I die."
And even as her
pallid lips pressed his, However, though Savitri’s pallid lips press upon Satyavan’s, there is no response. His cheek presses down upon her golden arm. She seeks his mouth again with her living mouth as though with her kisses she could persuade his soul to come back.
Then grew aware they were no more alone. Something had come there conscious, vast and dire.
Near her she felt a
silent shade immense Suddenly Savitri grows aware that they two are no longer alone; something vast, fearful and conscious has come there. She feels near her a huge silent shade of darkness making dark and chilly the bright and warm light of noon.
An awful hush had
fallen upon the place:
A terror and an
anguish filled the world, A hush of awe has fallen upon the place. The cry of birds is no more; the voice of beasts no more sounds; the entire world seems to be filled with a terror and an anguish, as if the mystery of destruction had taken a concrete form.
… A cosmic mind
Some universal mind looks out on all from imposing eyes, condemning all with its unbearable gaze; with lips immortal and a vast brow, it sees in its huge all-destroying thought all things and beings as a miserable dream.
Rejecting with calm
disdain Nature’s delight, It rejects with contempt Nature’s delight. Its deep regard visibly expresses the unreality of things and of life that seeks to be for ever but in fact has never been so, life in its brief, useless recurrences without respite. It is as if some Shadow of a far-off uncaring God, from a Silence that is formless and nameless,has condemned to Nothingness this illusory universe, cancelling its appearance of idea and action in Time and its vain imitation of eternity.
She knew that
visible Death was standing there Savitri realises that Death in a visible form is standing there and that Satyavan has passed away from her embrace |
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