The Birth of Savitr

The Birth of Savitr

A Poetic Composition based on

Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

Author's Note

If we are looking for the Word that brings to us the dynamic Divine, our rush is towards Sri Aurobindo's Savitri. It gives us the Truth and the things of the Truth andin it is our soul's completest fulfilment. Therefore all that we achieve we truly owe to Savitri.

A year ago I would have least imagined that I would be writing short compositions based on each canto of Savitri. But on 22 March 2002 I received from William Netter a copy of his work entitled Savitrima. This is basically an endeavour to present the metaphysical core of Savitri. The book is an informal production and my copy is 11 of 49. With a canto on each right page, and the Mother's eyes looking into ours, we actually have here Savitri in 20 Minutes. I read it a number of times, back and forth, and had initially some mixed feelings about the whole attempt. Yet an inscrutable seed was cast and in less than a month's time it started sprouting and growing.

Soon the work was completed, on 5 June 2002, and I gave one printout to Amal Kiran, the grand old man of the Aurobindonian world of a poetry. His generous compliments were a heartening encouragement to me and I began to have confidence in my enterprise. In fact I must recall that my own poetic apprenticeship had begun under him about fifty years ago and I am very happy that his guidance has been available to me throughout.

A number of Savitri-lovers and experts here around have gone through the "cantos" and I am sincerely thankful to them all. I would particularly like to mention the names of Jugal Kishore Mukherji, Georges van Vrekhem, Shyam Sunder Jhunjhunwala, Asoka K. Ganguli, Ravi, and Richard Hartz. One of my friends suggested that for the benefit of a general reader, who has not always the right resources at his disposal, I must provide the relevant material. Although the addition of a few prose sections to take care of this aspect makes the book of poems somewhat odd, I thought it worthwhile in the context of Savitri.

As a very special note of appreciation I must say a few words about Debashish Banerji of the East-West Cultural Center at Los Angeles.

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When I sent the "cantos" to him as an e-mail attachment I had requested him to go through them carefully and offer his comments and corrections. And indeed he did, canto-by-canto and line-by-line, checking even the punctuation marks. His suggestions were especially valuable to me and I have taken note of them suitably while giving the second reading to the work. He was so much impressed by it that he even put it on the Center's website. When requested he agreed without any reservation to write the foreword in spite of his other packed occupations.

I consider it to be a great honour that the Los Angeles Center should have come forward to bring out The Birth of Savitṛ as an aspect of literary and cultural promotion. My special thanks are due to the members of the board.

My young friend Arun Mohanty worked enthusiastically and tirelessly in designing the cover for the book. To another young friend, Ashika Sharma, goes the credit of doing the title of the book in a calligraphic style based on Sri Aurobindo's handwriting. This has been used on page 1. My fond appreciation for all that they did with care and devotion.

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