Summary on Savitri by Dr. M.P Pandit

Book Four Canto IV: The Quest

At first Savitri’s mind is occupied with the strangeness of the scenes opening before her as she drives her chariot. But soon a deeper consciousness grows up and she begins to feel all as her own, as once known to her. Old memories well up and there is a sense of continuity of purpose and action from the past.

Some guidance leads her carriage; the godheads move who always act from behind the veil working out the destiny which is but the Spirit’s will. A calm Presence above her chooses each turn on the way.

Her journey runs across crowded cities, forts, gardens and temples. During nights she rests in the palaces on the route. Then she comes into the countryside where Nature is fresh, not yet peopled with human cares and joys. She feels the closeness of the Earth and hears her inarticulate voice.

Her nature is in communion with her Maker. King-sages come to share in her happy’ peace after their life of strife and labour. Some retire into the recesses of the soul and realise oneness with the world. Some break through the walls of the mind and soar into the heights of the Spirit from where Truth leans down on them. Ascetics sit in concentration waiting upon the Immutable and the Ineffable.

Seers tune themselves to the universal Will and lie content in God. The young disciples around them are fashioned by their touch and greatened in their presence. In this air king-children play and grow in heroic moulds.

Sages breathing freedom and joy assist the entry of gods on earth, teach the young to think and live high. Their presence, even their silence is of help to earth. In their environs beasts forget their enmities and join in friendship. Some, who go beyond the confines of thought, bring back to earth Force and Light from Beyond. Some watch as witnesses from their Silence, some disappear into the Vast.

Savitri journeys through all these retreats, halts in the hermitages during nights or rests in the open, on the banks of rivers, in solitary tracts, in desert spaces.

But still the quest is not accomplished, the destined faced is not yet found. In the meanwhile the spring is gone and the burning summer is on.