Imagery and Structure in the First Canto of Savitri Introduction The first canto of Sri Aurobindo's Savitri is perhaps the most well-known and oft-quoted portion of this epic poem. Many readers have been touched by its splendid imagery, its subtle rhythms, and its majestic movement as the dawn slowly displays its divine splendour and buries "its seed of grandeur in the hours." Perhaps one aspect of the poem which has not been fully described or appreciated is the internal structure of this first canto and the integral relationship of its structure to the imagery. The reader of Savitri may well ask: "Why study the form of

Savitri, the Mother 1 THE cup has to be emptied again and again if it is to be filled with ever-new riches. The vessel of the human consciousness has to be kept free and ready for the advent of the felicities of the higher altitudes of being. For what prevents the inflow of the Higher Consciousness into the Lower is precisely the spirit of holding, grabbing and egoistic appropriation. Such a spirit not only insulates the gifts of Grace and therefore shuts the personality from the Source but goes on distorting and corrupting them and therefore degrading itself in the process. This may lead to the denial and betrayal of the Grace, which becomes the iron curtain sepa

Savitri: Its Inner Significance Savitri is, at its highest, a revelation and a flame: a revelation of the Supramental Truth and a flame of man's immemorial aspiration for immortality. This epic of inner voyage is in its essence symbolic of the answering Grace from above and the call from below embodied in the two protagonists—Satyavan-Savitri and Aswapati. While Savitri can be called an epic of the soul's "mystic voyage" upon "uncharted routes", represented by Aswapati, it is more "a significant myth" telling of the great "wrestle with the shadow" and the conquest over Ignorance and Death, represeented by Savitri. It reveals "from the highest pinnacle a

-006_Savitr^s House of Meditation.htm Savitri's House of Meditation Introduction In the course of Savitri's encounter with Death we have in Sri Aurobindo's epic the following passage1 which marks a significant stage in her attempt to win back the soul of deceased Satyavan. Intent upon her silent will she walked On the dim grass of vague unreal plains, A floating veil of visions in her front, A trailing robe of dreams behind her feet. But now her spirit's flame of conscient force Retiring from a sweetness without fruit Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within In a deep room in meditation's house. For only there could dwell the soul's firm truth:

Life and Time in Savitri A fire shall come out of the infinitudes, A greater Gnosis shall regard the world Crossing out of some far omniscience On lustrous seas from the still rapt Alone To illumine the deep heart of self and things. A timeless knowledge it shall bring to Mind, Its aim to life, to Ignorance its close.1 Introduction: Lifetime Verily, as the Mother expressed, Sri Aurobindo's Savitri is a vast ocean and one may, upon reflection, go in pursuit of the choicest of pearls. The common follower will find inspiration in day-to-day life. Those dedicated to serious spiritual pursuits will find ways to mysticis

PART V An Early Appreciation of Savitri A Few months ago waiting in the antechamber of the lecture hall of the Ramkrishna Institute of Culture, with Professor Spiegelberg of the Stanford University, as he was about to deliver his lecture, when he told me that after reading The Life Divine he had obtained the solution of many questions which had troubled him for the last ten years, I asked him what he thought of Sri Aurobindo's poetry. His only reply was: "Isn't it entirely Greek?" I was rather taken aback and asked him if he had read the two volumes of the Collected Poems, to which he replied that he had. I read a note of disappointment in his vo

-030_Perspectives of Savitri I (A Review).htm Perspectives of Savitri I A Review "All the rest, these are preparations, but Savitri, it is the message," the Mother is reported to have said about Savitri. She is also quoted as having said, "To read Savitri is indeed to practice Yoga, spiritual concentration; one can find there all that is needed to realise the Divine." Little wonder then that such a varied enterprise seems to be developing around this single work—a Center of study and display devoted to Savitri, a web-site not tardy in populating cyberspace with its growing exegetical and exhibitionary paraphernalia, several known and unknown aspirants to the identity of presenters o

PART I My Savitri Work with the Mother tat savitur varam rūpam jyotiḥ parasya dhìmahi, yannaḥ satyena dipayet Savitri is Sri Aurobindo's mantric epic. He says in one of his letters: Savitri is the record of a seeing, of an experience which is not of the common kind and it is often very far from what the general human mind sees and experiences. The work of illustrating the whole of Savitri through paintings was given to me by the Divine Mother on 6th October 1961. It was so great, so beyond the capacity of little instrument she had summoned, that only her Grace working in Sri Aurobindo's Lig

Perspectives of Savitri The New Millennium Series Sri Aurobindo and the New Millennium R Y Deshpande Perspectives of Savitri in Ed: R Y Deshpande All Life In Yoga A Brief Biography of Sri Aurobindo R Y Deshpande Further volumes planned on Savitri, Vedic Studies, Spiritual, Literary, Cultural reviews and prospects. Sponsoroed and published by Aurobharati Trust, Pondicherry. Perspectives of Savitri Volume Two Editor R Y Deshpande Aurobharati Trust Pondicherry R Y Deshpande Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondich

Savitri: Some Aspects of its Style 1 The end-stopped line beginning the story is a marked departure from the traditional invocation. The opening is also a little too long, much longer than the 26 line invocation of Paradise Lost, which gives a clear clue to Milton's theme. Sri Aurobindo takes time to state the gist of the theme, which may be gathered from the following lines: Her self and all she was she had lent to men, Hoping her greater being to implant That heaven might native grow on mortal soil.1 This is just a hint. The full significance of the story may only be known reaching the end of the poem. Milton