Sri Aurobindo - Karuna Yoga

Note on the Text 733
The remainder of this notebook contains the scribe’s copy
of Books Six, Nine and Ten, reworked from the corresponding
books in the old poem, expanded, divided into cantos and renamed
“The Book of Fate”, “The Book of Eternal Night” and
“The Book of the Double Twilight”. Once Sri Aurobindo had
done enough with Books Four and Five for the time being, it
appears that he took up these three books one after the other.
After Book Six, he skipped to Book Nine, postponing extensive
work on Books Seven and Eight. However, he may have revised
slightly the versions of the original third book or canto, “Death”,
on which Book Seven, Canto One and the present Book of Death
are based.
Drafts of “Fate”, “Night” and “Twilight” had been written
on one side of loose sheets of paper, like other cantos or books
in several early versions of Savitri. This facilitated the complex
process of revision which was now set in motion. When the
space between lines and in the margins was filled up, the backs
of the pages were available. In extreme cases, whole cantos were
written on the reverse sides of the pages with little relation to
what was on the front.
Sri Aurobindo drafted many passages in small note-pads of
the type used for Part One. Lines for Books Five and Nine and
large portions of Books Six and Ten were written in this way.
Canto Two of Book Six was almost entirely new. The passages
drafted for it were transferred by the scribe to another note-pad,
with changes dictated by Sri Aurobindo at the time.
The metamorphosis which the Book of Fate underwent included
the introduction of the Queen: some of Aswapati’s later
speeches in the old version were now given to her, and her long
speech at the beginning of Canto Two was composed. Sri Aurobindo
worked on this book in 1946 and brought it close to
its final form. But he was to return to it at the end and add
significantly to the second canto.
An early manuscript of “Night” was substantially revised
and turned into the two cantos of Book Nine. But in this instance
Sri Aurobindo seems to have found the pre-1920 version more
adequate than usual. He left it intact to a greater extent than in