The Winds of Wonder

Yama’s Sophistry and Savitri’s Answer

A question: In Savitri we have this line: “Or he finds his copy in the impartial All” [144.9] What about this “copy”, a copy of himself, a “double” of himself?  And could “Impartial” be understood as “impersonal”?

This is from Book Ten Canto Four, when the incorrigible God of Death puts forward an argument, telling Savitri there is no question of his returning the soul of Satyavan back to her, the deed having been done, the dead is dead and is with him.

Here is an attempt to explain it:

In vain his heart lifts up its yearning prayer,

Peopling with brilliant Gods the formless Void;

Then disappointed to the Void he turns

And in its happy nothingness asks release,

The calm Nirvana of his dream of self:

The Word in silence ends, in Nought the name. ||144.8||

Apart amid the mortal multitudes,

He calls the Godhead incommunicable

To be the lover of his lonely soul

Or casts his spirit into its void embrace,

Or he finds his copy in the impartial All;

He imparts to the Immobile his own will,

Attributes to the Eternal wrath and love

And to the Ineffable lends a thousand names. ||144.9||

Hope not to call God down into his life:

How shalt thou bring the Everlasting here? ||144.10||

This is the sophistry of Death, telling what man is, that he cannot change when Nature does not change. He prays but he does not get an answer; so he turns to Nihilism, and everything ends in it. There are then alternatives. (1) He calls the incommunicable Godhead, the lover; (2) his spirit embraces the void; (3) finally he sees himself in the All, with anthropomorphism, the impartial All, nonaligned, objective, detached, neutral, unconcerned with what he thinks.

This is man thinking with his mind, when mind cannot give him the whole truth. Savitri is going to answer:

But how shall I seek rest in endless peace

Who house the mighty Mother’s violent force,

Her vision turned to read the enigmaed world,

Her will tempered in the blaze of Wisdom’s sun

And the flaming silence of her heart of love? ||144.39||

The world is a spiritual paradox

Invented by a need in the Unseen,

A poor translation to the creature’s sense

Of that which for ever exceeds idea and speech,

A symbol of what can never be symbolised,

A language mispronounced, misspelt, yet true.144.40

“copy of himself” is anthropomorphism, bien sûr! The God of Death has no knowledge of the mighty Mother and her defeatless Force.

Let us scan this, as follows:

But how| shall I| seek rest| in end|+less peace|

Who house| the might|+y Moth|+er’s vi|+o+lent force,|

Her vi|+sion turned| to read| the e+nig|+maed world,|

Her will| tem+pered| in the blaze| of Wis|+dom’s sun|

And the flam|+ing si|+lence of| her heart} of love?| 144.39

The world| is a spir|+it+u|+al par|+a+dox|

In+vent|+ed by| a need| in the| Un+seen,|

A poor| trans+la|+tion to| the crea|+ture’s sense|

Of that| which for ev|+er ex+ceeds| i+de+a| and speech,|

A sym|+bol of| what can nev|+er be sym|+bolised,|

A lan|+guage mis|+pro+nounced,| mis+spelt,| yet true.| 144.40