Poetry has a unique transformative power, and the inspired Word once heard can "open a sky" within us, and change the course of our life entirely. In my own experience, there have been countless words and sentences that have rung so deep a chord within that they have stayed on since then in my conscious memory and have become stepping-stones in my own journey of self-discovery. Sri Aurobindo's poetry is a veritable ocean of these immense life-changing words and phrases, and the waters run deepest in his colossal epic Savitri.

It is from these waters that the author of this book draws his life-impulse, and it is what, in my humble opinion, makes this book special. Naradda lives and breathes poetry just as most of us tend to breathe ideas and opinions. It is a gift of the Divine, no doubt, and for more than fifty years he has immersed himself in the poetry of Sri Aurobindo, and Savitri in particular.

When I first saw the title of this book, I thought to myself - how apt that it is he who has compiled these verses, for who is Naradda, but Love, and Light and Joy? I would not be alone in expressing that he so utterly embodies Love that it is a palpable field of delight that he carries with him wherever he goes.

And this too is what makes this book special. Sri Aurobindo once remarked that the object of poetry "..is to make us live within ourselves what the poet has embodied in his verse, it is an inner sight which he opens in us..

This book is an aid to the inner adventure of self-discovery. May it open our inner sights to see, to see further and to become the inspired Word.

The series of books , Inspiration from Savitri, is a compilation of selected passages from Savitri, themes that I have chosen because they resonate most strongly within me. This method of approach enables one to read only a few lines at a time, meditate on them and allow their mantric force to enter into the cavern of the soul where they will illumine and transmit to the inner being and make eventually understandable to the mind something of the essence of Overhead poetry that Sri Aurobindo has brought down to earth. One could easily have chosen other themes as well, as the possibilities are endless in this epic of Divine Love conquering death and the establishment of a divine life on earth.

People often tell me that Savitri is 'too difficult' or 'closed' to them. To give a facile suggestion to 'Go Deeper' or to say that Savitri has been written from planes above the mind and is therefore impossible for the mind to understand, does nothing to encourage anyone to begin this marvellous 'adventure of consciousness and joy'.

The universal themes I have selected will hopefully capture the interest of all who would like to begin reading Savitri but fear it is too daunting. As an example, the book on Nature with quotations about animals, insects, flowers, etc. with all the passages in Savitri that contain these words, can inspire many to read further.

Passages are often duplicated because they contain more than one key word. For me this is an additional enrichment of the spirit leading to a deeper understanding within, a pouring into the soul of a vaster breath of beauty, power and plenitude descending from the Overhead planes, something rarely seen and unknown until now in its fullness, in all the world's poetry.

The book opens with the themes of Love and Light, and proceeds alphabetically thereafter. Sri Aurobindo, has expanded the English language as no one has done since Shakespeare, coined new words, employed words in unique and far wider senses, utilized and often anglicised foreign terms and widened the language by conveying visions and experiences that are beyond words.

There are words in Savitri that may be perceived as "common" yet are employed by Sri Aurobindo in unique ways. Often a number of definitions for a particular word are given, leaving it to the reader to decide the applicable meaning in the context of the line.

In the late 1990's my wife Mary Helen and I were inspired to compile a dictionary of words and terms in Savitri. This work has now been published by the Savitri Foundation asLexicon of An Infinite Mind, a Dictionary of Words and Terms in Savitri. I have includedthe applicable applicable words from this volume, taken from the Lexicon, as an appendix for interested readers.

It is my prayer that this simple approach may inspire many who formerly found Savitri too complex and forbidding to enter into it through these elevating and life-changing themes. In the passages quoted, as in all of Savitri, one will find a richness of language and the magnificence of Sri Aurobindo's poetic genius in lines that will live for all time in the soul of humanity, helping it to grow into the Light and the Life Divine.

**Contents and Sample Pages**