September 23, 1961
I have the right to 150 pages! The publisher is giving me 150 pages in his collection…. Terrible…. But in this ‘Sri Aurobindo,’ you understand, I would like to make his whole poetic aspect stand out, that poetry which is like the Veda, like a revelation, so a bit of space is required: it can’t be squeezed into a few lines, or reduced to a skeleton.
This analogy between the ancient form of spiritual revelations and Savitri, this blossoming into poetry of his prophetic revelation is … what could be called the most exceptional part of his work. And what is remarkable (I saw him do it) is that he changed Savitri: he went along changing it as his experience changed.
It is clearly the continuing expression of his experience.
There were whole sections he redid completely, which were like descriptions of what I had told him of my own experiences. Nolini said this. When I recently reread Savitri, some phrases were very familiar and I said to Nolini, ‘How odd, these are almost my very words!’ And he replied, ‘But this has been changed, it was written differently; it has BECOME like this.’ As the thing became more and more concrete for him, he changed it. The breath of revelatory prophecy is extraordinary! It has an extraordinary POWER!
What struck me is that he never wanted to write anything else. To write those articles for the Bulletin [[Mother had asked Sri Aurobindo to write something for the Ashram 'Bulletin.' It was later published as The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth. ]] was really a heavy sacrifice
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for him. He had said he would complete certain parts of The Synthesis of Yoga, [[The third section, 'The Yoga of Self -Perfection,' which was never completed. ]] but when he was asked to do so, he replied, ‘No, I don’t want to go down to that mental level’! Savitri comes from somewhere else altogether. And I think that Savitri is the most important thing to speak about.
From time to time I use a line from ‘Savitri,’ placing it in the book like an open window. That’s all I can do.
*
(A little later, concerning Sri Aurobindo’s biography, Mother remarks.)
All those details have always horrified me.
If anyone ever wanted to write about me, the first thing I would say is: NOT ONE WORD about my personal life – not a word.
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