In memoriam - Mirajyoti Sobel

On June 3rd, Mirajyoti (Jyoti Sobel) left her body at her room at Arka at the age of 94. She had dual USA/French nationality.

Mirajyoti had a rather eventful life, about which she wrote some years ago:

“I was born on October 22, 1929, in Paris, France, from a French father and a Russian mother, and lived with my parents from 1931 to 1945 in Cambodia and Viet-Nam, while going back to the West to visit our families every two and a half years. 

In September 1939, we landed in South Vietnam with the last French boat to leave France, and were ‘stuck’ in Indochina during WWII, including during the Japanese occupation of the country from 1942 to 1945.

In 1945, we were repatriated to France and two years later my father decided to migrate to Montreal, Canada, where I studied one year in an English high school, then 4 years at the Mc Gill University, where I graduated from in 1952 with a B.A. in English and French literature.

In 1952, I returned to France and studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, towards a final English-teaching French degree, which I did not complete because my husband was posted in French-speaking Africa, at the University of Dakar, Senegal, and we had three children from 1957 to 1960. In 1962, I went back to France, and had a divorce in 1967.

In 1973, I came for the first time to Pondicherry and the Ashram just one month after Mother had left her body. I stayed only one month but returned in October 1974 and stayed in the Ashram till 1978 when I had to leave to make money in the USA. Two years later I came back, returning for good, first to the Ashram and then, after 12 years in the Ashram, Mother ‘called’ me to Auroville in 2001.

My main work has been editing the Ashram's compilations of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in French, or English, and also working on my own music compilation -- what They have said and written about music, which would be useful to music teachers of both the Ashram and Auroville. I also helped, when requested, with receiving German groups who wished to meet an Aurovilian during their stay and hear about ‘The Integral Yoga’, and ‘Living the Integral Yoga’.”

Mirajyoti’s remains were buried at the Auroville Burial and Cremation grounds on June 11th.