Summary on Savitri by Dr. M.P Pandit

Book Six Canto II: The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain

After an initial silence following the terrible message of Fate from Narad, the queen questions in anguish:

“O Seer, what is the truth of this mystery of grief and pain? Why is it necessary? Why did God have to make this cruel law? Or is it that some disastrous Power has interfered with his work and he is helpless? Our life itself is born in pain and cry. Lethal forces are found within ourselves. We are like a besieged fort. Some curse is laid on man. The dualities are imposed on him from the very start. Every step is a snare, and errors and miseries multiply.

“Man turns out to be his own worst foe. His science builds up his doom. He learns nothing from Time and history. What is the purpose of his existence here? What made the immortal spirit, his soul, comedown to this scene of sorrow and pain from its home of bliss? Is there no Being watching and helping this movement of life on earth? Or is it only some hard Necessity that enforces its rule on everything here? Is this all a giant illusion?”

Narad replies after a silence:

“Is the sun a dream because there is night? Hidden in the secret chamber of thy soul there dwells the Eternal. Thy thought hides him from thee. It is because earth’s joys shut thee from the Immortal’s bliss that the need of Pain and suffering arose. Without undergoing pain there cannot be joy in this world of Ignorance. Pain is the hammer of the gods to break the resistance in the mortal’s heart. Without this pressure his soul would remain content, at ease. Till man is freed, pain is inevitable. He who would save the world must share its pain. That is the law for the incarnate God. The Cross and the stake are his lot.

“A concealed dark hostility is lodged in the depths of earthly existence and that opposes the world’s march at every step. This is the Adversary that has to be fought in a hundred ways in as many places. He misleads, deforms and defeats. Man must overcome this hidden foe.

“The task of the world redeemer is hard; the world he comes to save, itself becomes his adversary. Man refuses to accept him; only a few are saved. Till the Evil is slain, the labour must go on. One who will accomplish this high task may yet come. He will invade the last posts of Ignorance and Inconscience with the undying Light of God and conquer Matter’s sleep. Then only shall his task be done.

“Till then man must bear the law of pain. He must lean for support on Heaven’s strength Man should not attempt to storm the gates of heaven by the violence of the titan. The titan’s way leads to destruction. Suffering is not the end; bliss is the crown. Bliss is the stuff underlying all that lives. It is the soul itself that has chosen this adventure of the Abyss and Ignorance. Out of its blissful felicity it has come to taste the marvel and the infinite possibility of the Unknown. This vast disguise conceals a Play of the Eternal’s Bliss.”

Then asks Aswapathy:

“Is fate all? Is the spirit ruled by the outward world? Has no Power come with Savitri which is as potent as Fate?”

Narad replies ambiguously:

“The ways of mortals may look like random movements, but their least stumblings are foreseen above. All the curves of life are pre-drawn. Heaven’s love oversees all the strife and struggle below. Man thinks in fragments and misses the whole Truth. He mistakes Possibility for Chance; misreads the results of an all-wise Force for the links in a chain of Necessity. The Will of God working in Time appears to him as Fate. Man can really know the truth and be free only if his will could be made one with God’s, if his thought could be in tune with the thoughts of God. Even now man’s mind can receive God’s light and his force be driven by God’s force. Only by so doing, can man rise to be Nature’s king.

“It is decreed that Satyavan must die; the hour is fixed and also the fatal stroke. What else is to happen is written in the soul of Savitri. Fate is Truth working itself out in Ignorance. Man can accept his fate or he can refuse. Ultimately Fate is what the spirit of man chooses.

“The fate of man is to battle and march Godward against the invisible host of the Adversary. He has got to advance relentlessly whatever the disasters on the way. At last he shall cross the last borders of Ignorance and arrive on the splendid peaks of God.

“Do not mourn that Satyavan must die. His death really commences a greater life for man. All conspires to fulfil God’s secret Plan. The world is not built with random bricks of Chance. Many are the masons obeying the Unseen that have built it. And of these master builders Savitri is one.

“O Queen, do not strive any longer to change the secret Will of God. Intervene not between the charged life that is Savitri’s and the mighty Fate that she is facing. She does not need thy help nor any god’s. A day may come when she has to stand alone and fight to save herself and save the world. Do not seek to deflect her from her single will. Leave her to her mighty self and Fate.”

Thus Narad speaks and leaves the earthly scene. His luminous body soars and disappears like a receding star in the light of the Unseen.

But still a cry is heard in the Infinite Vasts chanting the anthem of eternal love.