Lectures On Savitri

These lectures were given under the auspices of the Sri Aurobindo-Mira Lecture Series of the South Gujerat University during 1980-1981, with an added lecture given in the USA in 1977. They provide a brief overview and introduction to the spiritual epic Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol

In these four talks Dr Nadkarni introduces Sri Aurobindo's epic poem Savitri. The first talk The Revelation emphasises the spiritual value of the poem. The Advent then outlines the first six Books of the epic, describing Aswapathy's yoga. The Rose of God examines those Cantos in which Savitri goes in quest of her soul, and The Victory , which covers the last five Books, portrays her confrontation with Death and its final conquest.

The Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles, East-West Cultural Center, 12329 Marshall St, Culver City, CA 90230, www.sriaurobindocenter-la.org, had organised extended weekend sessions to explore a few aspects of Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri. This was on Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning, 6-7-8 October 2017, in all four sessions, each two-hour duration, followed by discussions, and of course followed by wonderful lunch/dinner. The four parts presented here, Parts A-B-C-D, were taken up for study in that sequence. The talks were essentially based on the draft-material that was prepared for the purpose, with some on-the-spot departures depending upon the exigencies of the situation. These have now been finalised and are being published, a work which, it is hoped, will be of relevance to a wider readership of Savitri. --- This will be a quick broad coverage of Sri Aurobindo's magnum opus Savitri, touching upon just a few aspects, of a poem running into about 24000 lines. First a general background in Part A is provided in the manner of a hurried introduction to it. It presents the story of Savitri by Vyasa included in his Mahabharata, and some of the early letters of Sri Aurobindo, how he started writing Savitri and how, though with long gaps in between, it developed in the course of more than three decades. The Mother calls Savitri as the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo, which he tells as his "main work." In Part B we pick up, at random, a few themes from Savitri and try to go rapidly into their depths. The opening Canto, The Symbol Dawn, is taken for a relatively more detailed discussion. In it we see Savitri waking up from the original somnolence, possibly at the time of the Avatarhood of Rama when the evolutionary transition from vital-submental to the mental proper was taking place. Man lifted up the burden of his fate and with him awoke Savitri. This Part finally touches upon the advent of Krishna and Kali on earth, as a divine Fruit of the yogic Savitri. Their entering into dynamics of this mortal world should mark another great transition, of the coming of a being superior to Man, more advanced than even the spiritual Man. With it Evolution, which is now in the domain of Ignorance, will enter into the domain of Knowledge, of Light and Love and Truth and Beauty and Joy and Perfection in wondrous possibilities of the manifesting Spirit. With Krishna and Kali in this mortal world will begin the timeless Age with interminable prospects of expression. Part C narrates in a swift manner the story of the composition of Savitri that had run in the longish course of time. One can say that this composition extended over a period of about 35 years, from 1916 to 1950, almost till the time of the physical withdrawal of the Yogi-Poet. There exist innumerable drafts, running into thousands of sheets of paper, and revisions upon revisions, at various stages, till including, at times, the reading of the press proofs. Understandably, this has led to quite a few complexities, some of them of a serious kind, calling a careful perceptive scrutiny of the available material. Preparing, therefore, at this stage, the text of Savitri based on these researches can become a blemished affair. Subjective elements in making choices from alternative drafts do enter into it and this can lead to a situation where the sense may not be what the author had meant. While this subjective trait can never be avoided, there could still be a way out by making the Savitri material available in some form to the serious students and researchers of the Poem. Coming to the poetic matters in the last Part, Part D, we see the aspects of inspiration and techniques as are in Savitri. Sri Aurobindo defines four sources from where inspiration can come; he names them as Overhead Planes, they termed as Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuition, and Overmind.

Comprised of six of the author's essays in English on Sri Aurobindo's epic Savitri, this book introduces the reader to the thematic richness and complexity of the poem. It also gives an insight into Aswapathy's yoga and why Sri Aurobindo gives it such prominence, and points to the unique place Book III has in Sri Aurobindo's vision of the future of man. The book also includes a Preface by Dr M. V. Nadkarni, a noted lecturer on Savitri.

Almost all of the essays collected in this volume were written for and first published as monthly instalments in Next Future, the e-journal of the Sri Aurobindo Society Pondicherry. The 47 instalments ended with the passing of Dr. Nadkarni in September 2007, and cover Savitri Book by Book, Canto by Canto, from the beginning up to the climactic point in the middle of Book Eleven, where Savitri is offered four boons of merger with the Supreme, and asks instead for the Supreme Peace, Oneness, Energy and Bliss ‘for Earth and Men’. Dr. Nadkarni has written other essays on Savitri as well as giving many other talks, but this collection represents a masterly ‘Introduction’ (as he modestly called it) to the revelatory poem which he loved so much and understood so well. It has been compiled and published at the request of his family, and we feel sure that it will be welcomed by Savitri readers and students all over the world, and to a certain extent make up for the great loss that his many admirers experienced when he passed away in September 2007 at the age of 74.

Philosophical discourses, 1979-1985, on Savitri, a poem by Aurobindo Ghose (Sri Aurobindo), 1872-1950.