The Best Way to Read Savitri

…Yes, this is the best way to read Savitri. One sees as clear as the day….

One can read the words very easily…. Like this, one closes the eyes and one sees clearly, everything. It is this that I advise people who would like to do something as perfectly as possible, as carefully as possible; then, the thing to do is to close the eyes and see the things, and I am sure that you will do it much better than seeing like this, ordinarily, with your eyes. Generally, I tell those who have something very difficult to do, a very minute work where one needs a lot of concentration, then, “If you want to do as best as possible, do it with your eyes closed. You will see the details much better when you close your eyes, and also the corresponding things will follow one after the other much more easily and with exactitude. And you will do it much better and with more confidence. But you must see it in front of you.”

This is what I do when I have a very difficult work to do. I close my eyes, and I see the things more clearly, each thing in its place, and I do it very easily because the corresponding things come one after another, exactly in their place. I have no need to search or fumble. It comes automatically, and I do it much better and also much faster than if I had to do the same work, seeing like this. It is a much better way to do the work by closing the eyes.

As I have explained to you, with the eyes closed, one can do the things much better than by the ordinary way of seeing and concentrating. One develops a sort of vision which is much more precise than this one (with the ordinary eyes). And I tell you, this is the best way to read Savitri, because one comes in contact with something much superior to us, — that which governs this subtle world. And the things are infinitely clear up there. That is why one understands better, and it comes like a revelation….

Mother, talking of Savitri, I remember that you had spoken to me about Savitri, it was a long time back. I tried to note that down, what You had told me.

(In a teasing tone) I spoke about Savitri to you?

Yes, Mother, things that I have never heard before or I have never read. It is truly something new. I have given the text to Nolini-da. If You have some time, could You go through it, Mother?

But, I have spoken on Savitri?

Yes, Mother.

Ah! Yes, I remember, it was a long time ago that I spoke.

Yes, Mother.

It was downstairs, there, in that hall, near Sri Aurobindo’s room.

Exactly, Mother.

Yes, I remember. And then?

If You have some time, Nolini-da could read it to You, for Your corrections.

But, what is it that I had spoken to you on Savitri?

Wonderful things, Mother, things that I have never heard.

Is it? And then, what have I to do?

Correct it, Mother.

You have it here, now?

No, Mother. It is with Nolini-da.

Oh, it is not with you, now?

No, Mother, with Nolini-da, and if You have some time, You can go through it, Mother.

No, I have no time with Nolini. It is impossible. Oh! The letters. And I have other things to do. No, it is not possible…. Then?

Don’t know, Mother. But, it would have been good, if You had heard it, Mother.

But, how?

It is so beautiful that I have no words to express it. It is fantastic.

But, what is there that is so fantastic?

Things I have never read or never heard spoken about Savitri.

Tell me something that you call so marvellous.

Yes, Mother, it is truly marvellous.

What? Tell me.

Mother, in the morning, when You used to hear Sri Aurobindo read Savitri to You, what He had written during the night, You used to hear wonder-struck because they were the same experiences that You had the previous night. He had put in verse exactly the experiences that You had the previous night.

But what is there so fantastic in all this? Yes, it is true. But I do not find that it is fantastic. It is quite natural, there are other things also that He has done in Savitri, which will appear fantastic to you. I have also spoken so many things concerning the importance of Savitri and what it represents. But it is like this, I do not find anything fantastic in what you are recounting.

But Mother, it is something… something new.

(In a teasing tone) But what is there new in this? I do not find it.

But for us, Mother, it is. I have never heard all this. That is why it seems to me so fantastic.

(In a teasing tone) But what do you know? What do you understand? Nothing.

Yes, I admit, Mother. But all the same, You have told me many things on Savitri. It was extraordinary, Mother.

Yes, Savitri contains a lot of extraordinary things. I know well. (Again, in a teasing tone) But do you think that I tell ordinary things, commonplace and without any value?

No, Mother, I do not say that, but this, it was incomparable.

Know well that I always speak extraordinary things, things unfathomable, which come to me from above, like this (gesture) — the truth of tomorrow — *which is beyond human comprehension.* I have only to open myself like this (gesture) and it descends and flows through my lips. I do not formulate anything with this — the mind. It comes directly from above and I speak under this inspiration.

Next time, bring that to me, I shall see what is new in it.

29.10.67

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This is how that talk on Savitri came about….

When I went to see the Mother on my 26th birthday, She spoke to me first about kindling the psychic flame. Then She spoke about Savitri. She had spoken to me about Savitri earlier, but this time, it was in a special way, for it was a complete teaching that She revealed. I remained as quiet and as concentrated as I could, in order to assimilate Her words.

Back home, I wanted to note down what the Mother had explained to me about Savitri. But something within me kept saying that the task was too difficult, that I would not be capable of rendering it, that it was too beautiful and much too extraordinary and that I would spoil it all. So I put aside the idea of writing down what the Mother had explained.

Years passed, but some phrases kept echoing in my mind, words like: “I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the infinite.” The Mother had spoken to me these magical words of Sri Aurobindo. And likewise there were many others which came floating in occasionally. But even then, I did not like the idea of noting them down. Then, one day, I was advised by Nolini-da to put down what the Mother had told me, and I began my work.

However, seven years had passed. It was a work which I would not have ventured even in my dreams to undertake. I could only try to be as docile and receptive an instrument as possible. I then concentrated and what the Mother had told me, began to come back gradually: “Each verse of Savitri is like a Mantra which surpasses all that man possesses by way of knowledge and is arranged in such a way that the sonority of the rhythm leads you to the origin of sound which is OM…. It is the most beautiful thing He has left for man, the highest possible.” So, slowly, bit by bit, almost the whole of it was written down, in French.

Later on, I read to the Mother this report written from memory. She heard it and gave Her blessings. She intended to work anew on the text and make some changes. She started the work but perhaps the time to reveal everything had not come and the circumstances did not allow Her to finish.

The Mother found this report — ‘Compte-rendu noté de mémoire’ as She called it — ‘very useful’. She once wrote to a disciple: “…years ago I have spoken at length about it to Mona Sarkar and he has noted in French what I said. Some time back I have seen what he has written and found it correct on the whole.”

In the following pages, we give the English translation of the conversation on Savitri as well as a few others related to it, to give a completer picture.

[A report noted from memory]