Perspectives of Savitri The New Millennium Series Sri Aurobindo and the New Millennium R Y DESHPANDE Perspectives of Savitri in 2 Volumes 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. Sponsored and published by Aurobharati Trust, Pondicherry. Perspectives of Savitri Volume One Editor R Y Deshpande Aurobharati Trust Pondicherry R Y Deshpande Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondic

The Message of Savitri There is an idea abroad that a Yogi or mystic is of a piece with the anchorite and as such has no message to deliver to humanity at large. What is contended in this view is something interesting because there is a modicum of truth, as Sri Aurobindo wrote to me once, in every intellectual conviction seriously cherished. What is true in this indictment against the mystic is that his contribution to human culture its not conterminous with that of the social man in his various, more or less, social moods, Art, poetry, music, the crafts, philosophy, — in fact every walk of life hitherto trod by men the world over — all fall more or less under

A Short Bibliographical Note Sri Aurobindo: On the occasion of the birth centenary in 1972 Sri Aurobindo's works were brought out in 30 volumes under the title Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL). Since then, however, a number of unpublished writings had been discovered amongst his papers. All these have now been thoroughly scrutinised and reorganised for publication in 35 volumes as Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Most of the references to his writings are with resped to the SABCL volumes. The three letters reproduced here (pages 1-43) are from SABCL, Vol. 26, pp. 237-65 and Vol. 29, pp.802-16. THE MOTHER: The birth centenary edit

The Eternal Bridegroom The Bhagavad-Gita says that not even for one moment can man remain without performing action; for, to live is to act. Life is relationship and to be related is to act. But if we examine the nature of our actions, we will find that they are not actions at all; they are only reactions. Such reactions may be in terms of physical movements or of words or of thoughts. There is a fundamental difference between an action and a reaction. A reaction emanates from a fixed centre in one's consciousness. It may be called a centre of habit or of memory. Action, however, arises from no centre at all, and that is why it is always spontaneous and natura

The Legend The story of Savitri is an ancient story. It is both myth and pre-history. Its characters and contents are occult-spiritual. Given as a human tale, it has several connotations and is loaded with supernatural significance. In fact its symbolic nature is suggestive of the issue involved in this mortal creation, this mrityuloka. The issue is of a divine manifestation in the evolutionary way, evolution that has its beginning in Inconscience. There is a long spiritual tradition which carries in its experience this esoteric sense of the story. The story appears early in the Mahabharata and is charged with the dynamism of the Dharma, the Path of Righteousness. The wor

Résumé of Savitri I: 1 The Symbol Dawn Savitri begins with the primordial Darkness when the gods are still asleep. Out of it has to come a fuller divine manifestation upon earth. But obstructing its path there is the mind of ominous Night and nothing can happen as long it is present. Many were the attempts made earlier but the success was only partial. At times something had stirred on the borderline of dream and waking, but too feeble was the awareness. Again and again the dawn had come with her gifts and had to go back as there was no sufficient response. It is in this circumstance that Savitri, the Daughter of the Sun-God, takes human birth. She identifies herself with

Foreword An Apologia Here is an attempt to present Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri in brief stanza-like cantos each with just twelve lines. Savitri is a poem written in pentametric blank verse form, mostly with end-stopped lines, running almost to twenty-four thousand in number. Divided into twelve books, as was the tradition for a classical epic, it has forty-eight cantos plus an epilogue. Part I consisting of the first twenty-four cantos was published in September 1950, just a couple of months before Sri Aurobindo's passing away in December of that year; Part II and Part III as a single tome comprising of the remaining twenty-four cantos and the epilogue appeare

Appendixes Contents of Savitri Book One The Book of Beginnings 01: Canto I The Symbol Dawn 02: Canto II The Issue 03: Canto III The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Soul's Release 04: Canto IV The Secret Knowledge 05: Canto V The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit's Freedom and Greatness Book Two The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds 06: Canto I The World-Stair 07: Canto II The Kingdom of Subtle Matter 08: Canto III The Glory and Fall of Life 09: Canto IV The Kingdoms of the Little Life Page – 89 10: Canto V T

The Tale* The tale of Satyavan and Savitri is recited in the Mahabharata as a story of conjugal love conquering death. But this legend is, as shown by many features of the human tale, one of the symbolic myths of the Vedic cycle. Satyavan is the soul carrying the divine truth of being within itself but descended into the grip of death and ignorance; Savitri is the Divine Word, daughter of the Sun, goddess of the supreme Truth who comes down and is born to save; Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; Dyumatsena, Lord of the Shining Ho

Invocation to Savitr tat savitur varam rūpam jyotih parasya dhīmahi | yannah satyena dīpayet || Let us meditate on the most auspicious (best) form of Savitri, the Light of the Supreme which shall illumine us with the Truth. The invocation in Sri Aurobindo's Gayatri Mantra in Sanskrit is to the Sun-God Savitr;̣ accordingly in its English rendering the word Savitri should be read in that context. We celebrate the Birth of Savitr ̣—the Sun-God in the present composition based on Sri Aurobindo's Sāvitr ̣ Page vii She is