Sri Aurobindo - Karuna Yoga

Note on the Text 735
somewhat different form. The dictated version was extensively
revised before a typed copy was made.
The Book of Yoga had four cantos at first. But the second,
“The Parable of the Finding of the Soul”, grew to an inordinate
length. When the typescript was revised, it was broken up into
Cantos 2-5, from “The Parable of the Search for the Soul” to
“The Finding of the Soul”. Revision of the typed copy was so
elaborate in places (as elsewhere, especially in Book Six, Canto
Two and in Book Eleven) that sometimes there was not enough
room on the page. The scribe would then write on separate slips
of paper, attaching as many as ten of these to a single page of
the typescript.
Canto One of Book Seven has a different background. Early
in the evolution of Savitri, the third canto of the poem (later, the
third book) was called “Death”. It described the year leading
up to Satyavan’s death as well as the fatal day itself. The latest
version, with the heading “Book III”, is incomplete and stops
before the last day. Sri Aurobindo used this manuscript as far
as it goes when he put Book Seven, Canto One into its present
form.
The second half of an earlier “Canto III” had to be used as
the manuscript for Book Eight. It was revised slightly near the
beginning and a substantial passage was dictated at the end. Sri
Aurobindo apparently intended to return to the Book of Death,
but this was not to be.
On 20 July 1948 he was compelled to admit, “even Savitri
has very much slowed down and I am only making the last
revisions of the First Part already completed; the other two parts
are just now in cold storage.” When the later parts were taken
up again, the most important task remaining was evidently to
bring the almost untouched eleventh book up to the level of
what preceded it. The old “Book VII / Day” on which it would
be based was among the best-developed portions of the early
poem. But after thirty years, Sri Aurobindo had more to say at
the climax of Savitri.
There was also the Epilogue; but the contemplated revision
of this must have seemed less essential to the total design.