he sylvan asylums. Before this, moved by deep grief, my
father and mother had rebuked me many times and often, saying,--_Thou
comest having tarried long_! I am thinking of the pass they have today
come to on my account, for, surely, great grief will be theirs when they
miss me. One night before this, the old couple, who love me dearly, wept
from deep sorrow and said into me, 'Deprived of thee, O son, we cannot
live for even a moment. As long as thou livest, so long, surely, we also
will live. Thou art the crutch of these blind ones; on thee doth
perpetuity of our race depend. On thee also depend our funeral cake, our
fame and our descendants!' My mother is old, and my father also is so. I
am surely their crutch. If they see me not in the night, what, oh, will
be their plight! I hate that slumber of mine for the sake of which my
unoffending mother and my father have both been in trouble, and I myself
also, am placed in such rending distress! Without my father and mother,
I cannot bear to live. It is certain that by this time my blind father,
his mind disconsolate with grief, is asking everyone of the inhabitants
of the hermitage about me! I do not, O fair girl, grieve so much for
myself as I do for my sire, and for my weak mother ever obedient to her
lord! Surely, they will be afflicted with extreme anguish on account of
me. I hold my life so long as they live. And I know that they should be
maintained by me and that I should do only what is agreeable to them!"'

"Markandeya continued, 'Having said this, that virtuous youth who loved
and revered his parents, afflicted with grief held up his arms and began
to lament in accents of woe. And seeing her lord overwhelmed with sorrow
the virtuous Savitri wiped away the tears from his eyes and said, "If I
have observed austerities, and have given away in charity, and have
performed sacrifice, may this night be for the good of my father-in-law,
mother-in-law and husband! I do not remember having told a single
falsehood, even in jest. Let my father-in-law and mother-in-law hold
their lives by virtue of the truth!" Satyavan said, "I long for the
sight of my father and mother! Therefore, O Savitri, proceed without
delay. O beautiful damsel, I swear by my own self that if I find any
evil to have befallen my father and mother, I will not live. If thou
hast any regard for virtue, if thou wishest me to live, if it is thy
duty to do what is agreeable to me, proceed thou to the hermitage!"