AB Purani in his Savitri: An Approach and a Study explains some of the phrases / lines appearing in the first canto of Savitri, The Symbol Dawn…   more »

The first Canto is found to be a very difficult by many genuine lovers of poetry. It is so because Sāvitrī is not like ordinary poetry, an aesthetic creation either of the higher vital or refined intellectual being. It is psychic, mystic and spiritual poetry and in the first Canto the sublime dominates. The very concepts and symbols used by the seer are so unfamiliar to the ordinary present-day mentality that one has to acquire a capacity to appreciate this high poetry. It is a question of cultivating taste. It is advisable that the reader should not try to interpret this poetry in terms of its intellectual content. It would be better instead to allow the vision to grow in intensity and clarity in his consciousness. He might find that with the help of this faculty of vision he is able to enter into the spirit of the poem much better than through the doors of dry intellect. The Symbol Dawn here is related to the Vedic goddess Dawn—Usha. Some acquaintance with the Vedic Dawn might help the reader to form a correct conception of the Symbol-Dawn of Sāvitrī…   more »

Book One of Savitri contains five Cantos. It opens with the Symbol-Night which turns into the Symbol-Dawn. It figures the very beginning of the Universe from the Night of Nescience to the awakening of the Dawn of the Spirit. In sublime and cosmic sweeps it covers the whole period of evolution and brings it up to the human stage. It focuses our attention on the fundamental problem of man in the situation of Sāvitrī, the main character of the poem, who is described here in short with her human-divine qualities. We yet know nothing about the life of Sāvitrī on earth. Suddenly we find this human-divine heroine brought face to face with the central problem of man concentrated into "Earth, Love and Doom". Earth represents the masked Infinite that appears as original Nescience. It contains within it the upward drive and the downward drag of the evolutionary movement that has created the cosmos. Love represents in its origin and purity the Divine grace that sacrifices its perfection in order that creation may be saved from the prison of Inconscience. Love therefore is the immortal element in mortals. It maintains some of its original divine glow even when it manifests itself in human life and under human forms. It is a sign from Heaven in man assuring him of his divine origin and destiny. When it comes from the Divine direct it is the Grace that saves. Doom is the present apparent determinism of Nature trying to perpetuate the rule of Ignorance in mankind. It denies and contradicts man's deepest aspirations and opposes any attempt at self-exceeding. Its chief fulcrum is ego in the human being and desire is its dynamic support. All these forces working in conjunction in the human being give rise to pain and suffering. Sāvitrī is faced with the apparently unchangeable determinism of cosmic nature. The only support she has was that of the Spirit within her...   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 14   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 13   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 12   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 11   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 10   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 9   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 8   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 7   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 6   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music—Track 5   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music – Track 4   more »

This is the text of The Symbol Dawn, Canto I Book I of the Revised Edition of Savitri, pp. 1-10, 342 lines, published in 1993.   more »

This is the text of The Symbol Dawn, Canto I Book I of the Centenary Edition of Savitri, SABCL Vol. 28, pp. 1-10, 341 lines, published on the occasion of Sri Aurobindo’s birth centenary in 1972.   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music - Track 3   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music - Track 2   more »

The Mother’s Recitation and Sunil’s Music - Track 1   more »

The Symbol Dawn, Canto I Book I of Savitri was issued as a fascicle before the publication of the first part of the epic in September 1950. We reproduce this text for reference purposes.   more »