I have heard the flutings of the Infinite
On Saturday the 12th of August 2006, a Savitri reading took place in the Sri Aurobindo centre, as part of Sri Aurobindo’s birthday anniversary celebrations here in Singapore. There was an unbroken recital of Savitri from the first book, started at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, to the last, finished at approximately 4.30 p.m. that same afternoon.
Savitri reading, when taken as a yagna, is meant to be continuous in this way, and a major challenge faced was the timing, for a continuous reading would inevitably carry through into the night, and even if not, it was unlikely that the whole of this longest epic poem ever written in English could be covered in that one weekend. The solution found, then, was the practise of simultaneous reading.
People came and left throughout the day, and each of them, when they came, sat down with a copy of Savitri to make their contribution. At the busier times of the day the room was filled with voices, but amazingly, concentrating on their section of Savitri was not an issue for any of the readers.
Being part of that collective voice that chronicled Savitri’s journey from “an infant longing” that “clutched the sombre vast” to one “buried in a mother’s breast” who “saw the ages pass” was a truly beautiful experience. There was something special about giving life to Sri Aurobindo’s words in our little Sri Aurobindo centre in Singapore, voicing these profound truths within its walls, and, in the process, bringing a little of Sri Aurobindo’s wisdom into our lives with the intensity that made the poem real for us.
On Saturday the 12th of August 2006, for a few of us at least,
“Time opened its chambers of felicity,
An exaltation entered and a hope:
An inmost self looked up to a heavenlier height,
An inmost thought kindled a hidden flame
And the inner sight adored an unseen sun.”
For, as the Divine Mother writes, this Savitri reading served as “a consecration of all things to the All, a call from ignorance and egoism to Thy light and love.”
- Shrimoyee (Grand daughter of Mr K S Rajah)
On Saturday the 12th of August 2006, a Savitri reading took place in the Sri Aurobindo centre, as part of Sri Aurobindo’s birthday anniversary celebrations here in Singapore. There was an unbroken recital of Savitri from the first book, started at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, to the last, finished at approximately 4.30 p.m. that same afternoon.
Savitri reading, when taken as a yagna, is meant to be continuous in this way, and a major challenge faced was the timing, for a continuous reading would inevitably carry through into the night, and even if not, it was unlikely that the whole of this longest epic poem ever written in English could be covered in that one weekend. The solution found, then, was the practise of simultaneous reading.
People came and left throughout the day, and each of them, when they came, sat down with a copy of Savitri to make their contribution. At the busier times of the day the room was filled with voices, but amazingly, concentrating on their section of Savitri was not an issue for any of the readers.
Being part of that collective voice that chronicled Savitri’s journey from “an infant longing” that “clutched the sombre vast” to one “buried in a mother’s breast” who “saw the ages pass” was a truly beautiful experience. There was something special about giving life to Sri Aurobindo’s words in our little Sri Aurobindo centre in Singapore, voicing these profound truths within its walls, and, in the process, bringing a little of Sri Aurobindo’s wisdom into our lives with the intensity that made the poem real for us.
On Saturday the 12th of August 2006, for a few of us at least,
“Time opened its chambers of felicity,
An exaltation entered and a hope:
An inmost self looked up to a heavenlier height,
An inmost thought kindled a hidden flame
And the inner sight adored an unseen sun.”
For, as the Divine Mother writes, this Savitri reading served as “a consecration of all things to the All, a call from ignorance and egoism to Thy light and love.”
- Shrimoyee (Grand daughter of Mr K S Rajah)
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