Women can read this work and feel, for once, that they are not left out of a patriarchal spiritual path

A gnostic, inspiring, uplifting, life-transforming epic poem., June 20, 1999 By A Customer

This more-than-700-page poem in iambic pentameter expounds virtually every aspect of Sri Aurobindo's clarification and modernization of the ancient Vedic-Yogic spiritual path. It is both didactic and intimately inspiring, including tender scenes between Satyavan and Savitri, the hero and heroine of the poem. It is unique in spiritual literature of its era in that the pronouns "he" and "she" with their correlatives appear in approximately equal proportions. Women can read this work and feel, for once, that they are not left out of what has seemed too often a patriarchal spiritual path. Sri Aurobindo is not only the finest modern expositor of yoga, in a potent version which he called Purna Yoga, or Integral Yoga, but a brilliant intellectual with competence in classical and modern languages.

His semi-Shakespearean prose brings to life, in this book which is almost a scripture for his followers, the convincing architectonic philosophy he expounds lucidly in The Life Divine, his other major tome. The Mother, the French woman whose original name was Mira Alfassa Richard, his chaste yogic consort for about the last twenty-five years of his life, has said that to read Savitri is to be doing yoga. I feel while I am perusing it that Sri Aurobindo is in communication with me, and attempting, as only a Master of Yoga can, to help me over the hard places and even "operate on" me spiritually to correct my all-too-human imperfections. I can't praise Savitri too highly. Comment Permalink

beyond the best in english literature, November 23, 1998 By A Customer

This is the one book to treasure above all, it has the power to transport you to realms beyond human imagination. The mantric quality of the words resonates within leaving a impression that permeates all activities. Based on an ancient Hindu legend,Savitri represents the Divine Shakti(power) that manifests on earth as a result of her father's,King Ashwapati's yoga. In effect this is also the yoga of Sri Aurobindo, related in prose form of poetry. Encompasses all human experience within its 23,000+ lines. "A nectar of honey in the combs of god", in Sri Aurobindo's own words. Comment Permalink