Flaming from her body

Flaming from her body

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Flaming from her body

Love is a grand creator, par excellence,

Yet there is the gainful necessity of death;

In the unproven soil of mortality

From the dark seed has life to bear a rich fruit;

But it can be when is fought the tough battle,

To awaken the will supreme to a new wonder;

And therefore to claim her love does she come,

Flaming from her body, to win the victory.

30 November 2024

A columned shaft of fire and light

This is from Book Nine Canto One of Savitri. The dutiful God of Death has collected the soul of Satyavan and is taking it to his abode in the South. Into a deep and unfamiliar air enormous, windless, without stir or sound they seemed to enlarge away. Now, now they would escape, escape from the sight of Savitri who is following them, the spirit of Satyavan in the front and behind him the God, he as if functionally standing between the eternal lovers. But to win victory over him flames out the power of Love in her, she embodying it in the very physical.

Then flaming from her body’s nest, alarmed,

Her violent spirit soared at Satyavan. ||136.11||

A fierce she-eagle threatened in her brood,

Borne on a rush of puissance and a cry,

Outwinging like a mass of golden fire. ||136.12||…

Turning arrested luminous Satyavan

Looked back with his wonderful eyes at Savitri. ||136.25||

But Death pealed forth his vast abysmal cry:

“O mortal, turn back to thy transient kind;

Aspire not to accompany Death to his home,

As if thy breath could live where Time must die.” ||136.26||…

The Woman answered not. Her high nude soul,

Stripped of the girdle of mortality,

Against fixed destiny and the grooves of law

Stood up in its sheer will a primal force. ||136.37||…

Against midnight’s dumb abysses piled in front

A columned shaft of fire and light she rose. ||136.38||

A+gainst| mid+night’s dumb| a+byss|+es piled| in front|

A col|+umned shaft| of fire| and light| she rose.|

Her violent spirit soared at Satyavan

One response to “Flaming from her body”

  1. supriyafdce46d60a8ae Avatar
    supriyafdce46d60a8ae

    This world knows many immortal love stories but none so sublime like Savitri and Satyavaan. It is beautifully narrated in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri. And now we get to read it in another poetic, subliminal form. How nicely you present the fate of Love, it’s struggle against the force of separation, force of darkness, for its ultimate victory. World’s first example of fiery ordeal.

    Liked by 1 person

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