Start Date: December 19, 2025
End Date: December 20, 2025
Venue: Online
Watch the recordings HERE and HERE.
BhāratShakti department of Sri Aurobindo Society commemorated 75 years of the publication of Savitri, Sri Aurobindo’s epic mantric poem by organising two webinars with special talks by Dr. Alok Pandey. The subjects selected for the talks were: Savitri, The Epic of the Dual Avatar and Savitri, The Ultimate Love Song.
The programme generated a lot of enthusiasm among Renaissance readers. On the first day, 100 participants joined the online session, and 87 joined on the second day.
Day 1: Savitri, The Epic of the Dual Avatar
On December 19, the programme began with a few opening remarks by Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, on the significance of Savitri. She also gave a brief introduction of Dr. Alok Pandey.
On the subject of “Savitri, The Epic of the Dual Avatar” Dr. Pandey in his opening remarks stated that Sri Aurobindo takes the source material of the epic by going as far back as in the Vedic age and connects it to the time that is yet to come. Contrary to the old approaches to spirituality where the final end of human life is Moksha – a kind of dropping out of the human condition, Savitri envisages a divine life on earth itself by turning this body and mind into an instrument of the Divine and for manifesting the Divine on earth itself.
Secondly, the epic of the human struggle is about breaking free from the spirit and forms of the past and growing and expanding in consciousness into the “Infinity of God” through a gradual process of preparation and unfoldment. Savitri, the epic of the soul, depicts the different stages of this inner growth.
Dr. Pandey reminded the audience that the beautiful part of Savitri is that it conveys to us that we are not alone in this journey. Because the Divine Mother herself has come down in the manifestation to help man in this seemingly impossible journey of the soul. But what is required is that we give ourselves unconditionally to the Divine.
In the course of human evolution there have been critical junctures where the consciousness of man has had to cross some critical barrier and to help this process, the Divine had manifested on earth as Avatars throughout history. In Savitri too, Aswapati and Savitri (actually Sri Aurobindo and the Mother) represent the dual Avatars who have manifested on earth for the next leap in human evolution.
The Inconscience has a strong hold over human nature; hence the battle plays out not only in the outside world – for example, battle against the Hitler phenomenon, but also against the forces that run riot within the human breast. Though the Inconscience has a grip over our entire being, the soul within us belongs to the Divine. And the essence of the spiritual quest is about releasing this soul from the bondage for offering it to the Divine.
If in Savitri, Aswapati and Savitri represent Sri Aurobindo and the Mother respectively, then we are represented in the epic by Satyavan, the human soul caught in the Avidya (Ignorance), but one who has surrendered to the Divine (Savitri) in love. In fact, Satyavan’s yoga is our yoga – aspiration and surrender to the Divine.
Matter is the stronghold of the Inconscience. That is why the victory over Death assumes so much importance in Savitri. Without that the Divine life cannot be fully established. Dr. Pandey explained that Sri Aurobindo represents the ascending element in humanity in the form of Aspiration and the Mother represents the descending element of the Divine in the form of Grace.
Death holds our soul under ransom and it has to be rescued from its clutches and that can be done only by the Divine Mother if we surrender to Her. And since this journey is long and difficult, Sri Aurobindo has placed in our hands the epic of Savitri as a guide on the path.
Savitri, The Ultimate Love Song
On 20th December, the second day of the webinar series, on the subject of “Savitri, The Ultimate Love Song” Dr. Pandey opened his talk by saying that it is the power of love which takes us out of the bondage of our ego and brings out the divine possibilities in man.
Beauty, Ananda, Truth – these are all the things that accompany love which is true. The master movement of love which Savitri embodies is expressed by the line – a wide self-giving was her native act. And this, Dr. Pandey said, was demonstrated by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother who only gave and gave with zero expectations from anybody.
Dr. Alok Pandey then made an important point that the nature of human life as well as love is evolutionary. Love always seeks newness and if we remain stuck at one level of love, then we don’t grow. We cannot expect to have the same kind of love in our mature years that we experienced in our youth. ‘A mystical slow transfiguration works, All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky’ – these lines of Savitri describe this process, Dr. Pandey explained. The line ‘the heart that loved man thrills to the love of God’ – this describes the journey from human love to Divine love.
When we have really realized the Divine then we would also embrace his creation and the creatures of this earth. That is what Savitri says towards the end of the epic when she is offered a life of salvation with Satyavan: My Spirit’s liberty I seek for all.
Dr. Pandey gave several examples of love as it has been depicted in several of our scriptures: Urvashi and Pururavas, Ruru and Priyamvada, Arjuna and Ulupi. But, he said, that the sublimity of the love of Savitri and Satyavan is above all of these. In case of an ordinary bhakta his highest goal would have been enjoyment of eternal bliss in Divine communion, but Savitri in her infinite compassion rejects heaven and chooses Earth. ‘Heaven’s touch fulfils but cancels not our Earth’.
On both the days, Dr. Alok Pandey interspersed his talk with reading relevant lines from different cantos of Savitri, thus giving the audience a taste of the sublime beauty of Sri Aurobindo’s magnificent epic. Each of the talks was followed by an interactive session during which Dr. Pandey answered questions from the participants on the themes discussed. On the second day, the session was extended by half an hour which allowed many questions to be addressed.
The webinar came to a close with Dr. Mehra thanking Dr. Alok Pandey for his time and for his wonderful explanations of the chosen subjects which greatly enlightened the participants.