Issue Nº317

Death is not a popular topic of conversation. Yet philosophers through the ages have stated that an awareness of death and preparedness for it is essential to living one’s life to the full.

In a few weeks, the new farewell facility will officially open. Suzie, who is a long-term member of the Farewell Group, describes their work, the importance of the new facility, and her own evolving relationship to death.

“Death is the question Nature puts continually to Life and her reminder to it that it has not yet found itself.” (Sri Aurobindo in “The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth”)

At the end of June, the Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG) received a 1 Crore grant from Motherson Sumi Systems Limited through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, for a project that aims to increase access to education for poor girls.

All you need to be a poet in Sanjeev’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Land is a love of solving problems and abstractions.

“When I moved here there wasn’t any chocolate I could eat. All the bars were non-organic, full vegetable fats, sugar, and milk, and with only a minimum of cacao,” says Jane Mason, who joined Auroville four years ago.

On 20th November, The Hindu newspaper reported that an initiative had been launched to make Puducherry and Auroville the world’s first ‘Fair Trade Twin Towns’.

The Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) facilitates the decision-making process of the Residents’ Assembly (RA). The current team is the third since it was set up.

One of the strongest messages to emerge out of the Retreat discussions was the need to re-examine our present organizational structure, to make it more reflective of our core values and ideals and to strengthen the role of the Residents’ Assembly.

Glimpses of Wonder – Children in Auroville Creating Worlds on Sand, describes the experiences of Aurovilian Aikya, a Belgian psychologist, working with Auroville children from The Learning Community in the World Game, a term usually described as “Sandplay Therapy.”

The book contains 40 beautiful botanical drawings of weeds that are commonly found in Auroville. The book comes with a colour guide and tips and information on parts of the weed and how they can be eaten.

On The Mother’s Mahasamadhi day, November 17th, Zackaria Moursi released his new compilation Anthology from The Mother in Arabic “as a humble token of his infinite gratitude and perpetual adoration to The Mother.”