Summary on Savitri by Dr. M.P Pandit

Book Two Canto VII: The Descent into Night

With a calm mind and detached heart, Aswapathy seeks to find the cause of the world-failure he has just experienced and penetrates the surface view of Nature. He sees in the depths below the fount of Pain and the black pit of Ignorance and Evil. He espies a dark Nescience looking up at this Creation, a hidden Power of Doom and Death beneath all life. He observes a fatal influence creeping forth and stamping itself upon all created existence, corrupting and perverting everything in it. A deformation comes over all being. A sorrow breathes over the world. Beings of Evil arrive and erect the frame of sin and adverse Fate. The whole appearance and character of Life undergoes a change. Beauty, Love, Light yield to ugliness, lust, darkness. Ego thrives, falsehood usurps the place of Truth, Knowledge is displaced by Ignorance.

Aswapathy sees emerging in a visible form a dark Power whose very breath is poison. A peril begins to haunt the air and menacing Energies gather. Tempting snares crowd around him. All there are misled by false appearances; only Aswapathy sees through by his inner discrimination. He is keen to discern the cause of this Evil and goes further along the dim track.

He enters a no-man’s land where traffic is heavy but dwellings none. All here is one vast deception. Joy hides pain and good yields evil; love leads to hate, truth disappears into falsehood and life presages death. The ruling hostile Power cloaks itself in the garb of Light, quotes the scripture and slays the soul with self-righteous virtue. The path of heaven here leads to hell. Ruse and treachery are common. Selfishness is at a premium, each wars against the other, but all continue to put down any who dare to seek some higher good. Truth is exiled lest she disturb this state of affairs.

The scene changes. There appears a city of ancient Ignorance, a centre without circumference, a place with none to rule over the warring groups. It is a city where Light is unknown, Ego and Falsehood are the arbiters. A deceptive code of ethics gives a look of nobility to the ruthless warrior. Power and utility are the Truth and Right. Religion oppresses, spirituality is exiled and truth is tabooed as a lie and lie is enthroned as the truth.

Aswapathy passes through this dangerous passage warily with the Name of God on his lips, constantly aware of treachery from behind. None questions him; the heights of the Spirit above beckon to him, the abysses below desire him. He chooses to fathom the abysses of the Night and turns downwards.

A greater darkness greets him. It looks as if God and Light have never been there or at any rate have no more any power there. His sight fails and he feels his way with the soul. Ugliness, perversion, lust, cruelty vie with one another in dominating the scene. Worship is offered to the Undivine. A new aesthesis valuing what the soul hates is cultivated. Beauty is banned, pure emotions are deadened. Evil is cherished, brute passions hold undeterred sway. Here is Hell in its naked glory.

The inhabitants of these regions are a race possessed by the demoniac force that lurks in the depths of men, suppressed by the law of the human heart and controlled by the thought of the refined mind. This force is a monster of greed, aggrandisement and exploitation. The beings of this world look like men but are in truth viler than the vilest of creatures. There is no touch of pity or love anywhere; all is force, tyranny, cynicism. Light is despised by these creatures of Darkness, loud in their slogan of loyalty to their Lords of Falsehood.

Aswapathy advances alone into these menacing realms, combats the powers that seek to deprive his mind of its light, smites away their clinging influences. Soon he emerges into vast blanks; all peopled tracts are left behind. It is a death-like oppressive Void. He becomes aware of an active hostility in Life opposing light and truth, spreading despair and doom, and he strives to resist its onslaught. The Abyss from below rises to claim his soul which is now alone with the confronting Night; he is being sucked in, pressed down from all sides. Hope disappears and a nameless fear arises in him. His mind is struck dumb. However, he endures, stills the terror and bears the agony.

Soon the peace returns and the gaze of his soul. The Godhead in him awakes and he faces the danger with Calm. He masters the waves of this formidable Nature with a look. He meets naked Hell with his bare spirit.