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724
The Unknown Pilgrims
Mahāsati Pannādevi, the heroine of this biography, is already known to us. Here we will make a brief study of the contents of this book, written by a learned Sadhvi and fervent disciple of Mahăsati Pannadevi.
The contents of the book: it is composed of 4 parts. - Part I extols the capacity of womankind for the spiritual life and sketches briefly the lives of remarkable women who were adherents of the Vedic, Jaina and Buddhist traditions.
- Part II narrates the life-stories of those Sådhvis who were the spiritual Mothers of Mahāsati Pannādevi, who is the subject of this detailed biography. The last chapter of this part gives brief biographical notes and an excellent photograph of each of the eleven present disciples of Mahāsati. Next comes a list of her căturmäsyas with a large double page entitled "A sweet-perfumed garden", the genealogical tree of the spiritual descendents of Mahāsati Sri Parvati, the pravartini of the heroine. Each Sadhvi - and they number many - is represented by a slower-petal. The whole drawing is a marvel of delicacy and precision.
- Part III speaks of the more important themes that Mahāsati Pannadevi has developed untiringly during her pravacanas (attended by the author).
- Part IV is a series of eulogies addressed to Mahāsati Pannādevi, written by numerous munis, some sãdhvis and some śrāvikās. The book ends with a list of donators, both men and women, who have contributed to the cost of its publication. This biography is, without doubt, the work of its author, but it is also that of the saṁgha, each member taking part in his own way.
The style is pleasing, lively and poetic; Mahāsati Saralā is gripped by her subject and treats it with a sure knowledge of her tradition and with a profound and filial devotion towards her guruņi, with many small added touches and with regard for harmony. She has conveyed very well the feel of the Sadhvi milieu in which she herself lives. Here and there, in the course of the chapters, one comes upon some repetitions, which might have been avoided if the book had been structured a little differently; moreover, the needed references are not
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