Issue Nº373 – In Memoriam

On July 10th, Jean Neal, wife of Bob Neal, peacefully left her body at the age of 86 in her UK home. She had been in constant pain for years and had got to the point where communication was not possible anymore.

Jean was and remained, until the end, in intimate relationship with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Long before she knew anything of yoga, she had been drawn to practice meditation but knew of no one who was able to assist her. Knowing little herself and knowing no one to ask, her questions were nonetheless answered by an elderly, small gentleman in the subtle physical who would gently guide her. She later came to know this gentleman was none other than Sri Aurobindo.

Jean was a lively, amazing woman who already in the early seventies was part of London’s ‘Bell Street’ group that regularly came together to study the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In 1998, Bob and Jean came to Auroville and settled in Sri Ma. Jean, who had from a young age onwards a second sight and hearing ability, would assist Aurovilians in different ways by giving ‘Beyond the 5th sense’ and other workshops and one-to-one treatment sessions. It was a great loss to Auroville that her health gradually started deteriorating, causing the couple to leave in April 2006. They both continued to work for Auroville through Auroville International UK.

Former Auroville resident Joan Tomb left her body on June 23rd at the age of 85 in her apartment in Tucson, Arizona, USA, with three of her four children by her side.

Joan had first heard of the Mother through Dietra (Claire Worden). In 1971 she decided to go to India to meet the Mother, together with June Maher. It was a momentous event, of which she later wrote “Extremely lucky to have met the Mother in this lifetime, without whom nothing would have been possible.”

In April 1972, June phoned her, reading a message from Mother, “We are here to prepare the way for the new creation. For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time. You are here at this moment, that is to say on earth, because you chose it at one time. You do not remember it anymore, but I know it. That is why you are here. Well, you must strive, you must conquer all weaknesses and limitations, above all you must tell your ego: ‘Your hour has gone.’ It is the Divine Consciousness which will allow the race to develop itself and the supramental being to take birth.” It was a sign for Joan to settle in Auroville. She later wrote, “We were both very moved … it affirmed that ‘YES’, we took birth so as to participate in this work, this process.”

Soon afterwards she left the USA by ship with three of her four children, and saw a spectacular pink/orange sun setting behind her over the San Francisco bridge. She later learned that that colour was the shade Mother designated as the Auroville hibiscus. It became Joan’s favorite colour to wear.

Initially Joan divided her time between Ashram and Forecomers in Auroville. She drove a small moped up and down, sometimes staying over at Forecomers. But soon she moved to Auroville as a resident. She was one of the first Aurovilians to build a tree house in the Certitude area, and later had a house built there which she called ‘Recueillement’. She became a friend, mentor, and guardian angel to many in Auroville.

In later years she decided to return to the USA, regularly returning to Auroville for short periods. In early 2011, Joan came back to Auroville for the last time. Shortly before her 80th birthday Joan wrote, “Although I miss the babies born in Auroville and the close expressions of spiritual family there, here is the best home for me now. My spiritual family in Auroville live forever here in my heart wherever I reside. I feel the Mother’s presence at work, arranging even details of my life, which was my experience in Auroville as well. So, while the outward has changed, my inner life is the same.”

Arya (Charles William) Maloney, USA, passed away on April 17th due to a long illness. He had just become 80 years old.

While at Columbia University (NYC) working toward his doctorate, he came across Sri Aurobindo’s work and this would entirely direct his further life. Already in the late 70’s-early 80’s he was facilitating groups to study the Integral Yoga in Woodstock (NY).

At the end of 1983 he came, along with his then partner Marlenka and 8-year old Ashaman (who both had lived here in the seventies), to Auroville and stayed with them in Vérité. A year later he returned to USA where he worked in the various fields of science, philosophy, psychology and spirituality as a teacher and psychologist. His book, Alchemy of the Soul which was based on his life, work and spiritual exploration is his contribution to the field of transpersonal psychology.

While he lived in Auroville only briefly, his teaching enabled Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s yoga and vision to find access to innumerable young and open minds.

Paolo Tommasi passed away in JIPMER on July 16th due to the COVID-19 virus. He had just turned 92 years.

Paolo was born in Ancona, Italy in 1928. The war and his father’s deportation and death in the Mauthausen concentration camp left an indelible mark on his reserved and reflective nature and influenced his future development. Moving to Rome, he received a degree in architecture and cultivated his passion for theatre and painting. In 1952 he joined the Compagnia dell’Opera dei Burrattini, founded by Maria Signorelli, with whom he went on various tours throughout Europe, receiving acclaim for his original stagings of the “game of life.” In 1957 he began working with Giulio Coltellacci, a set and costume designer already successful for his stagings of theatre and opera. In 1958 he had his first exhibition in Paris, consisting of dreamlike visions of cities and cathedrals that, the following year, he exhibited at Galleria L’Obelisco in Rome. Exhibitions followed in New York, Tokyo and other European capitals.

In 1963 he travelled through the Nazi concentration camps in Europe with Holocaust historian Miriam Novitch, resulting in a profound existential crisis that he was able to process only through his encounter with India and Jungian psychoanalysis. In 1966 he arrived in Pondicherry where, in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, he came into contact with The Mother and felt he had found what he had been seeking.

In 1968 he participated in the foundation ceremony of Auroville. He made the designs for the exhibition under the Banyan tree for Auroville’s Inauguration Ceremony on 28th February, which, after receiving The Mother’s blessings, were given to Nata (Alberto Grassi) who, with his team, executed the works.

On 29 December 1969, Satprem spoke to The Mother of Paulo’s idea to build a centre in Auroville. This conversation has been recorded in Mother’s Agenda. Satprem:

He [Paulo] says that for a few years, energies in Auroville have been scattered: they are egoistic, everyone wants to build his own little hut, his own little story, or, at best, hopes to build a supercity, which will only be an improvement on all the existing cities of the world. In this Auroville, an axis, a center is missing. What’s missing is … a unification of the consciousnesses around a center, an axis. So he said that in the past, they built pyramids, they built cathedrals, and around those symbolic constructions, consciousnesses could unify and rise and purify themselves. Well, what should be built in Auroville is an axis, a center, a symbolic temple of the new world we want to create, and all the consciousnesses should unite in the construction of this pyramid of the new world, or this temple of the new world – which will at the same time help to bring down what must express itself there.

Mother approved of the idea, saying “It’s very good, that was the first idea: there was the center, and the city was organized around it… As for me, I’ve known it for a long time. It’s there (gesture above) waiting [to come down].”

Paulo further elaborated this idea in a letter to The Mother, recorded in Mother’s Agenda of January 10, 1970:

Very sweet Mother,

I saw Roger Anger on Sunday, he came to my room and. we had lunch together. With love I arranged beautiful flowers for You and Roger. You were with us. We spoke a lot. I felt Roger like a brother.

I told him that Auroville cannot be born like any other city (urban, social, economic problems, all of them to be seen later). The starting point must be “something else.” That is why we must start with the Center. That Center must be our lever, our fixed point, the thing we can lean on to try and leap to the other side – because it’s only from the other side that we can begin to understand what Auroville should be. And that Center must be a form manifesting in Matter the content that You can transmit to us on every plane (occult included). As for us, we should only be the open and sincere means through which you can concretise that.

Then I told him how I felt the need for all of us to approach all this while living the experience inwardly and unitedly – people from the East and the West – in a vast movement of love, because it is the only “concrete” possible for building “something else”….

... And that Center can give us that love right now, because it’s the love of You!

I told him that, on the practical level, we could begin with a moment of silence, gathered together, try to make a complete blank, and in that blank, with everyone’s aspiration, bring down the signs for the beginning. But all of us united and together, especially the more spiritually advanced – the Indians. R. agreed entirely. He said we should really do that.

Paulo returned to Italy, visiting Pondicherry and Auroville regularly. He continued his work on set and costume design, working alongside numerous internationally renowned directors. With his exhibition at Galleria L’Obelisco in 1975, he inaugurated a series of paintings identified with what came to be seen as his symbol image, a sort of mandala that evokes silence and infinity. The monograph Architetture di Paolo Tommasi (1979) illustrates some of his most avant-garde projects for the conception of space, the environment and furnishings. His forms, simple and essential in the purity of their golden proportions, have received numerous accolades, including the “Design Source Spec Neocon Awards USA” (1983; 1984). Acclaim for the innovative theatricality of his installations also earned him the “Premio Armando Curcio per il Teatro” in 1985.

In 1987 Paulo made a proposal for the outer skin of the Matrimandir in line with his concern that it be of the utmost simplicity and purity. At that time, the space-frame (consisting of hundreds of pre-cast concrete beams joined in nodes cast in situ) was almost complete and a decision had to be made on how to cover it with a beautiful and weather-proof outer skin. In October 1987, in a marathon meeting, the Aurovilians present were asked to vote for either Roger Anger’s proposal with golden discs, or Paolo Tommasi’s proposal to cover the space-frame with large triangles of white marble. Roger’s proposal was accepted.

Over the next years, Paulo continued to advise Roger on aesthetic matters on Matrimandir issues, such as the relationship of the 70cm diameter crystal globe and its cube stand, which consists of four gilded symbols of Sri Aurobindo.

From 2000-2002, at the request of Roger, Paolo made detailed concept paintings for each of the twelve Matrimandir gardens. Roger however discarded this proposal as he felt his brief for the gardens had not been followed.

Since 2010 Paolo has been living in Pondicherry for periods of increasing duration. “In no other place do I feel my soul reawaken and do I achieve that inner work that gives meaning to my life: becoming more aware of myself and the mystery that surrounds us.” From time to time he would visit his friends in Auroville and Matrimandir. In his Pondicherry house, he would continue painting his often strikingly expressive images, and these were published in the book ‘Immagini sull’Invisibile’ – ‘Images on the Invisible’ and exhibited in Savitri Bhavan in 2016.

Paulo’s remains were cremated in JIPMER’s crematorium on July 17. Due to COVID-19 restrictions only four people were allowed, one of them was from Matrimandir, Auroville.

A 5-minute clip on Paolo, Piero and Gloria visiting the Matrimandir in 2009 can be found at https://youtu.be/h2ziJPIigNE.

A longer interview with him in his final years can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkeVKSNhpsg&feature=youtu.be. The publication ‘Paolo Tommasi. In Search of Harmony’ published in 2015, traces his artistic trajectory in constant evolution.