Sri Aurobindo - Karuna Yoga

Publisher’s Note
The writing of Savitri extended over much of the
later part of Sri Aurobindo’s life. The earliest known
manuscript is dated 1916. The original narrative poem
was recast several times in the first phase of composition.
By around 1930, Sri Aurobindo had begun to turn it
into an epic with a larger scope and deeper significance.
Transformed into “A Legend and a Symbol”, Savitri
became his major literary work which he continued to
expand and perfect until his last days. In the late 1940s,
when his eyesight was failing, he took the help of a scribe
and dictated the extensive final stages of revision.
Separate cantos started to appear in print in 1946.
Part One of the first edition was published in 1950. The
next year, after Sri Aurobindo’s passing, the rest of the
poem was brought out in a second volume.
In the second edition (1954), Sri Aurobindo’s letters
on Savitri were added. They are omitted from the present
edition and included in Letters on Poetry and Art.
The present text is that of the fourth (“revised”) edition
which came out in 1993. Each line has been checked
to eliminate any unintentional discrepancies between the
final manuscript or dictation and the printed form of the
poem.