The English of Savitri Volume 5

Book reviewBy Carel

Keywords: New publications, Books, Savitri — A Legend and a Symbol and English language

Cover - The English of Savitri, Volume 5

Savitri Bhavan has published its fifth volume of The English of Savitri, which deals with the first four Cantos of Book Two, the Book of the Traveller of the Worlds, the longest chapter of Savitri. The book is based on transcripts of classes given by Shraddhavan in 2011, and contains detailed explanations about the vocabulary, sentence structure and imagery, to help a deeper understanding and appreciation of the poem which the Mother has characterised as “the Supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision.” As a supplement, the book contains brief summaries of Cantos Five to Fifteen of Book Two.

Interestingly, Shraddhavan takes up in her introduction the challenge to discover the identity of the Traveller of the Worlds. He is named Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, but is Sri Aurobindo here describing his own yogic development? The Mother, in a conversation with Huta, said “This is the description of one of those who are not purely human, but whose origin is far higher ... and who come upon earth to help the whole of humanity to rise towards the highest_ consciousness.”_ Shraddhavan, after a lengthy evaluation, finds that “when we read these magnificent lines, we cannot help applying them to Sri Aurobindo himself.” She includes a personal experience. “When I once wrote ‘Aswapati can be seen as Sri Aurobindo himself’, my beloved teacher Amal Kiran corrected me by adding the words ‘an aspect of’ before Sri Aurobindo’s name”. And she concludes that the poem is an expression of Sri Aurobindo’s and many of The Mother’s own experiences.

With the publication of this volume, one more step has been made towards the publication of Shraddhavan’s complete talks on the English of Savitri. Book One - The Book of Beginnings, Book Three - The Book of the Divine Mother, Book Seven - The Book of Yoga, and Book Ten - the Book of Double Twilight have been published. We hope that in the near future we may announce the publication of her explanations of the subsequent cantos of Book Two, and of the remaining Books of Savitri.


The English of Savitri Volume 5, 300 pages. Price in India Rs 550. 

Available from Savitri Bhavan, SABDA and Auroville bookshops