Issue Nº386 – In Memoriam

On August 8th, long-term Canadian Aurovilian Janet Fearn quietly and peacefully slipped away from her severely emaciated body after weeks of gently fading during which loving contact with family members and friends always remained. The transition took place in her own Arati home with L’aura and Raji by her side. Janet had suffered from cancer for several years; she would have been 80 in September.

In her own words:

“I discovered Auroville in 1968 following a year of traveling, and a few months in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. After spending a day in Auroville helping a friend build his house, I moved into a hut with 2 other people situated where the Matrimandir Gardens are now. A little later I asked the Mother if I could stay and when she said yes, I built my own hut where the MM Nursery is today. I lived there for 2 years, surviving, planting trees and learning about the villages.”

In 1970 Janet went to Canada to raise funds for a well, returned in ‘72, and moved into the Centre Field house that had come free at the time, enlarging it throughout the years to accommodate her various activities. While also working at Matrimandir, in 1973/74 she cycled every day to Alankuppam and Pettai to show village women how to crochet. Just before her son Sukrit was born in 1975, she built a workshop next to her house so the women would come there to work. Her Joy Handicraft workshop (named Joy after the name that Mother had given to her original house) eventually focused more on knitting and continued until 1992. It was then turned into a backpacker guesthouse which catered as ‘College guesthouse’ to students from Living Routes and other international student groups. Janet ran this guesthouse until 2008. Later daughter L’aura would live in the place.

Meanwhile “I became interested in Auroville’s organization in the 80’s and was on the “executive council”. This was before the Auroville Foundation Act was ratified in 1988, so there was no Working Committee. Later the Working Committee replaced the executive council, and many of us felt that something was needed to look after internal affairs that did not concern the Auroville Foundation directly, and the Auroville Council eventually came into being. I was very active in organizational work at that time, and many different things were tried.”

Since 2005 Janet was also a very active member of the Aikiyam School Support Group, enabling the school to considerably develop over the years and having great joy in seeing how school, teachers and children thrived in the happy environment. It was only when her health situation demanded it that she left the school.

Throughout the years Janet had become involved in arbitration and conflict transformation, and wrote in 2017: “Over the years my understanding of how we need to be organized has changed as I have observed the gap between Working Groups and the rest of the community. This gap does not seem to be related to who is in the groups. A certain mindset seems to take over when one feels entrusted with a lot of responsibility, which does not encourage the growth of collective intelligence or respect the potential of the community at large. I think we need a systemic change to a kind of organization where the distribution of power is more equal. . . . I believe that if Auroville wants to become more leading edge it must be organized with more shared power and have structures that encourage the growth of collective wisdom. I think Restorative Circles is one way of contributing to this change so it is where I intend to focus my energy for now.”

These last years, during her illness, Janet has been steadily working on her ‘Memories of Auroville’ 1968 - 1973’, now posted online and to be published in hardcopy soon. Her always upbeat and defiant approach toward obstacles in life, refined style and innate anchor redness in the Mother, combined with her close relationship with both L’aura and Sukrit, helped her come through these last years with stubborn courage and grace.

On August 26th, Ananda (Jean-François R.L. Bertaux) left his body at Marika House at the age of 68, after coping with Parkinson’s disease for many years. The moment of transition had come quite unexpectedly, as Ananda had been moved two days earlier from Fraternity to Marika House and was looking forward to getting in better shape and had plans for the future. His partner Michiko and caretaker Raji were with him at the time.

Born in Paris, Ananda discovered the yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in his early twenties. Before coming to Auroville, he stayed in Japan, where he learned Aikido, the Japanese language and teamed up with life partner Michiko, who helped him translate Satprem’s book ‘The Adventure of Consciousness’ into Japanese, and made a very first start of establishing an Auroville centre in Tokyo. In 1982 the pair joined Auroville where he picked up on the work of black belter André Pithon who had taught Aikido in Aspiration in the early 70’s. Now an authentic dojo emerged in Fraternity and under Ananda’s guidance, skill and teaching Aikido entered Auroville for good. He also took over the remaining part of the ‘Lotus Fraternity’ unit, producing hammocks, Japanese lampshades and floor mats, while at the same time running a Girls’ Boarding at the entrance of Fraternity (one of whose participants, Raji, was grateful to be by his side at the time of his passing). At the same time, Ananda started performing accounting services for various units, and since 2009 he functioned as internal auditor of Auroville commercial units and coordinator of the Auroville Board of Commerce.

Ananda was a linguist with an enormous feel for language; he would learn a language for the sheer fun of it. His and Michiko’s weekly language sessions at Solar Kitchen’s La Terrace, mostly in French but easily expanding into other tongues, were lively and fun and attracted quite a few participants. It was heartening to see this man, who had a friendly, gentle and unobtrusive way of being, growing into his full element, animatedly expressing himself in various modes of linguistic expression.