Very dear Narad and Mary Helen

Many thanks for your lovely letter of March 19. As usual, I am late in replying because of serious overload at this end. I really have to find a way of working that makes time and space for everything!

There are several points in your letter to respond to.

1. Someone to maintain the Savitri website : I have not made any progress at all on this one yet, but have made a special note in my diary to follow up with a couple of people here who might be promising. Did you think of asking Chandresh Patel?

2. Using "About Savitri" on the site. Huta showed me your letter. She was very happy to hear from you, and sends all her warmest love to you, and to Mary Helen, with prayers for her health. However she asked me to convey to you that she would not like either the text or the paintings of "About Savitri" to appear separately on the site. I don't really follow her reasoning about the text, as we are publishing it in the magazine (at least Cantos One and Two ... she does not want me to continue with Canto Three until that comes out in book-form, in the hopefully not-too-distant future). But for the paintings she is very clear that they should not be separated from each other or from the text. The same applies to the Meditations on Savitri. I suggested to her that perhaps she could allow you to use one of the four cover-pictures for the four volumes of the Meditations, but this too she did not like. So I think it is better to drop the matter for the time being. If I see an opportunity to plead for re-consideration I will definitely do so.

3. Posting all the issues of Invocation ... I have the feeling I already replied to this? (From a different computer, so I can't check just at the moment!)

4. You mention the engraving equipment ... which reminds me that I have not updated you at all on our concept for the garden! Everyone loved your idea of having lines from Savitri to identify the corresponding plants, and the related idea of being able to "walk through Savitri", as one walks through the park ... and even being able to sit down in one particular canto for reading and concentration (of course we thought of what the Mother told Huta and you about the Matrimandir gardens, with marble benches for sitting and meditating ...). When we looked into Savitri to identify the corresponding plants, we didn't find so many, and they were sporadically scattered. I remembered a hint you gave that "not all of them are mentioned by name". Somehow it made me think of matching the Mother's flower-significances with the central theme of each canto, and aiming at 49 different gardens, arranged in a double spiral (leading in and out), so that it would be possible to enter at Canto One, and pass right through to the epilogue. Each canto-garden should be distinctive, but need not be very big - perhaps only four or five different types of plant carrying and conveying the significance (one tree, a shrub, a creeper, some annuals ...; or a pool with lotuses ?for Canto Two?) Of course implementing this would need a master designer, who has an intimate knowledge of plants that can go together in a harmonious way and thrive here, as well as a love of Savitri and a sympathetic understanding of the Mother's significances ... Who better than yourself ?.. If it would be possible, what a Grace!!! Anyway, for the time being what we are doing, with the help of the new flower-book, is trying to list possible plant-significances for each canto, for the future designer to select from. This means first identifying the central theme of each canto ... it's an ongoing research, and we haven't got very far with it yet, but the idea enthuses everyone. I'm sure that by the time it is ready for implementation, the right engraving equipment will also have been located. Meanwhile one of our team is making a survey of the garden, identifying the plants already in the ground and their significance, for entering in a plan. This also forms part of our work with Auroville school children, with whom we want to be able to explore particular plants and their significances.

5. As for the "scenic film or moving plate", I feel you are quite right in thinking that the second term of the two, like the first, has a photographic connotation ... photographic plates were (?perhaps still are?) used to capture and fix images. The visual memory does something similar. Sri Aurobindo seems to have added the idea that the plate, and therefore the images might be moving, in a way resembling a film. Dear ones, I must stop here. It is April 12, and the matter for the next issue of INVOCATION is far from ready! My loving thoughts are very much with you both, and I look forward to hearing from you when you find the opportunity to reply

with smiling love from Shraddhavan