Shri Goutam Ghosal till recently Professor of Viswa-Bharati, Santiniketan released a book "The Deliverance" authored by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya revised by Sri Aurobindo, and prefaced by Rabindranath Tagore, at Savitri Bhavan on 27th August 2023 as part of the ongoing Auroville LitFest. In the conversation that followed it titled "Savitri & The Future Poetry", Dr. Sarani Mondol Ghosal said for Sri Aurobindo, a true poet is a kavi which means one who sees. She described how Sri Aurobindo's interest in Future poetry started and developed. As a researcher, she found it very interesting that Sri Aurobindo synthesized the Rasa theory of ancient India by Bharata Muni and Aristotle's Poetics, the Oriental and Occidental poetic traditions, etc. She said according to Sri Aurobindo the Future Poetry would be subjective and inward.
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| Shri Ghosal Goutam Ghosal, Poet, critic, author, and current Member, Governing Board of Auroville releases the book "The Deliverance" by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya, revised by Sri Aurobindo and prefaced by Rabindra Nath Tagore |
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| Dr. Sarani Mondol Ghosal, Associate Professor of English, Department of Social Sciences at NIT, Goa, speaks. |
Dr. Ananda Reddy spoke on the differences between Savitri the legend of Mahabharata and Sri Aurobindo's epic poem of nearly 24,000 lines the 'Savitri' (1916-1950). Before that, he said, one should know why Sri Aurobindo chose the legend of Savitri for his epic work. Prior to Savitri, Sri Aurobindo wrote a poem 'Urvasie' (1898-1902) on Urvasie and Pururavas in which Pururavas finally left the earth to live with Urvasie in heaven. He also wrote a poem 'Love and Death' (1898-1902) about Ruru and Priyumvada in which the hero again leaves the earth to go to the nether world to live with his beautiful companion. Only in the legend of Savitri the woman brings back to the earth the soul of her husband taken away by Yama, the Lord of Death. The earth is not abandoned but considered as a field for the manifestation of a divine life. Only that could satisfy Sri Aurobindo as his life mission was to bring down the supramental to the earth and transform it.
The most basic difference that cannot escape anyone's attention is that the original legend of Savitri in Mahabharata had about 700 verses (1400 lines). There were only 10 lines on Ashwapati in Mahabharata's Savitri whereas Sri Aurobindo wrote about 10,000 lines on him. Yama is a god in Mahabharata's Savitri legend whereas for Sri Aurobindo it was Death to be transformed by the Supramental consciousness. Sri Aurobindo does not elevate Death to the status of a god but he says it was a mask of the Supreme. An interesting aspect that may be overlooked by followers of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga was pointed out by Dr. Reddy. He said according to the Mother's conversation in the Mother's Agenda, the supramental Force has to manifest first before the descent of supramental consciousness. If the consciousness comes before the Force it would be destroyed by the hostile forces. Perhaps he should have also informed why the Mother said the Force can not be brought down immediately. "You don’t understand the way of my working. You can as well say, “You have the supramental force, why don’t you use it and finish all this muddle?” But it is not like this that the work can be done. The world is not ready for the supramental force and if it is used without preparing the base, things will shatter completely. I have to prepare the base and then bring down the force" (Excerpt from 'Words of the Mother - I', Collected Works of the Mother, Vol 13, Pg 93).
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| Dr. Ananda Reddy, Founder-Director of Sri Aurobindo Centre of Advanced Research, Puducherry, speaks |
Shri Goutam Ghosal whose questions to the panelists elicited the above dissertation said every poet owes to the poetic traditions and Sri Aurobindo was not an exception. Dr. Sarani, answering a question from a member of the audience that mentioned Milton's Paradise Lost, said it was about loss of physical sight. Ghosal added that Savitri was Sri Aurobindo's Yoga.
The event was attended by residents of Auroville and among the audience were Dr. Jayanti Ravi, Secretary, Auroville Foundation, and Dr. Sanjeev Chopra, Festival Director, Valley of Words.
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| Shri Goutam Ghosal answers a question from a member of the audience |
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| A part of the audience |