Savitri — A Legend and a Symbol
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“In intention a sort of symbolic epic of the aim of supramental Yoga”[1]
“If I had to write for the general reader I could not have written Savitri at all. It is in fact for myself that I have written it and for those who can lend themselves to the subject-matter, images, technique of mystic poetry.
This is the real stumbling-block of mystic poetry and specially mystic poetry of this kind. The mystic feels real and present, even ever-present to his experience, intimate to his being, truths which to the ordinary reader are intellectual abstractions or metaphysical speculations. He is writing of experiences that are foreign to the ordinary mentality. ... The mystical poet can only describe what he has felt, seen in himself or others or in the world just as he has felt or seen it or experienced through exact vision, close contact or identity and leave it to the general reader to understand or not understand or misunderstand according to his capacity.”[2]
(Mother:) “it is something immortal and eternal he has created. I tell you once again, there is nothing like it in the whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What he has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything.”[3]
“My child, yes, everything is there: mysticism, occultism, philosophy, the history of evolution, the history of man, of the gods, of creation, of Nature; how the universe was created, why, for what purpose, what destiny — all is there. You can find there all the answers to all your questions. Everything is explained, even the future of man and of the evolution, all that nobody yet knows. He has expressed them in beautiful and clear words so that spiritual adventurers who wish to solve the mysteries of the world may understand it more easily. But the mystery is well hidden behind the lines and one must rise to the required level of true consciousness to discover it.”[4]
“It is my experiences he has presented all along and they were also his experiences. It is, moreover, the picture of our adventure together into the unknown or rather into the Supermind.”[5]
PART ONE
Book One: The Book of Beginnings
Canto I The Symbol Dawn 1 
Canto II The Issue 11
Canto III The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Soul’s Release 22
Canto IV The Secret Knowledge 46
Canto V The Yoga of the King: The Yoga of the Spirit’s Freedom and Greatness 74
Book Two: The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds
Canto I The World-Stair 95
Canto II The Kingdom of Subtle Matter 103
Canto III The Glory and the Fall of Life 116
Canto IV The Kingdoms of the Little Life 132
Canto V The Godheads of the Little Life 151
Canto VI The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life 173
Canto VII The Descent into Night 202
Canto VIII The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness 220
Canto IX The Paradise of the Life-Gods 233
Canto X The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind 238
Canto XI The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind 260
Canto XII The Heavens of the Ideal 277
Canto XIII In the Self of Mind 283
Canto XIV The World-Soul 289
Canto XV The Kingdoms of the Greater Knowledge 297
Book Three: The Book of the Divine Mother
Canto I The Pursuit of the Unknowable 305
Canto II The Adoration of the Divine Mother 310
Canto III The House of the Spirit and the New Creation 317
Canto IV The Vision and the Boon 334
PART TWO
Book Four: The Book of Birth and Quest
Canto I The Birth and Childhood of the Flame 349
Canto II The Growth of the Flame 359
Canto III The Call to the Quest 369
Canto IV The Quest 377
Book Five: The Book of Love
Canto I The Destined Meeting-Place 389
Canto II Satyavan 392
Canto III Satyavan and Savitri 400
Book Six: The Book of Fate
Canto I The Word of Fate 415
Canto II The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain 437
Book Seven: The Book of Yoga
Canto I The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge of Death and the Heart’s Grief and Pain 465
Canto II The Parable of the Search for the Soul 474
Canto III The Entry into the Inner Countries 488
Canto IV The Triple Soul-Forces 503
Canto V The Finding of the Soul 522
Canto VI Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute 532
Canto VII The Discovery of the Cosmic Spirit and the Cosmic Consciousness 551
Book Eight: The Book of Death
“Canto III” Death in the Forest 561
PART THREE
Book Nine: The Book of Eternal Night
Canto I Towards the Black Void 571 Canto II The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness 582
Book Ten: The Book of the Double Twilight
Canto I The Dream Twilight of the Ideal 599 Canto II The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal 607 Canto III The Debate of Love and Death 621 Canto IV The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real 641
Book Eleven: The Book of Everlasting Day
Canto I The Eternal Day: The Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation 671
Book Twelve: Epilogue
The Return to Earth 715
- ↑ Letters on Poetry and Art, p.261
- ↑ Ibid., p.316
- ↑ Sweet Mother: Lumnious Notes - Conversations with the Mother recollected by Mona Sarkar
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
See also
External links
- Audio of the Mother: “It does not matter if you do not understand Savitri. But read it always.” (2:51)
- Visual studies in Savitri, Book One, by Emanuele
- Visual studies in Savitri, Book Five, by Emanuele