English of Savitri, The – Volume II

“Readers who have appreciated the sentence-by-sentence explanations of Book One of Sri Aurobindo’s revelatory epic Savitri-a legend and a symbol, published in Volume 1 of this series, may be surprised to find that this second volume does not continue in sequence with Book Two, The Book of the Traveller of the Worlds, but instead leaps to Book Three, The Book of the Divine Mother. This is because the author found the immense journey through all the planes of existence followed by King Aswapati in the fifteen cantos of Book Two too daunting to be taken up immediately. The weekly study sessions at Savitri Bhavan covering Book Two stretched over almost two years. Recordings of these sessions were made, but so far only a very few have been transcribed, and on review it was found that the explanations given in the classes would require a great deal of editing and revision before they could be offered for publication. The sessions covering Book Three, however, had already been transcribed and edited and were ready for publication, so these texts are now being offered as Volume 2 of the series. A brief summary of Book Two has been added at the beginning to provide some continuity.”