Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988
Mar 2023 (31 months ago) Download PDF (free download)
Event review — Reported by Alan
On 16th February, the Unity Pavilion was full. There was huge interest because it was the first time in the last seven years that residents had met in an open meeting with an International Advisory Council (IAC). This was also the first collective interaction with the current IAC since its appointment in October 2021, and little was known about their stance regarding the present crisis enfolding Auroville.
A conversation with Gabi Gillessen — Interview by Alan and Carel
Gabi Gillessen qualified as a yoga teacher in 1997, and is Chairperson and Senior Tutor of the Irish Yoga Association, running teacher training programmes. From 2014 – 20 she was President of the European Union of Yoga. For many years she has brought groups to Auroville for yoga intensives. Currently she is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Auroville Foundation.
A conversation with H P Rama — Interview by Alan
H.P. Rama is a successful hotelier based in the U.S. He is also a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and has founded a university – AURO University – in Surat based upon the former’s educational principles. Currently he is a member of the International Advisory Council (IAC) of the Auroville Foundation.
Event review — Reported by Peter
Krishna Das is a rock star of the sacred music world, singing the chants that he first heard in Himalayan temples over fifty years ago. On 12 February, his performance at the Matrimandir Amphitheatre opened the Science and Spirituality conference.
On art and form — Authored by Chandra
‘Sharing this series is my way of taking a pause and evaluating my own journey, allowing myself to touch upon the core of my experience. In this collection of my latest work, several forms have emerged that reflect the serene atmosphere that surrounds my studio. I draw from nature; its simplicity, its spontaneity, as well as all its complexities. By utilising a variety of techniques, adapting them, and engaging with constant experimentation when creating clay compositions, kilns, and firing methods, I strive to remain on a constant path of new discoveries and experiences. Seed pods hold an entire universe within - the entire process of life, diverse yet contained. The imprints of these pods play a large role in my work. The intricate struggles of every life form illustrated by nature in these simple pods inspire me ceaselessly. This collection also delves into the idea of nihility - containers that hold nothingness, the space within. My travel adventures over the past decade are chronicled through these large jars and platters. The painter in me, who has been hidden for a while, emerges having traversed the hinterlands of rural Indian life and adorns many of the forms in this series. In these lands, women create mesmerising paintings, sizeable hand-beaten vessels and platters with wonderful spontaneous flourishes. Repetition and pattern, explored via texture and technique, pay tribute to the way in which the work of these women transforms the Mundane into the Sacred, defiant against the perfect, disciplined forms moulded by their male potter counterparts.’ Rakhee on her inspiration and process, exhibition brochure
Leave India Notice The community was deeply shocked to learn that a young Aurovilian and member of the Residents Assembly Working Committee, had been served with a Leave India Notice on 15th February...
Appeals to the Prime Minister Two long-time Aurovilians have written letters to the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in response to the Leave India Notice, appealing to the P...
Organisation research Organisation research Responding to a call from the Auroville Council, a group gathered every week from mid November onwards to try to answer a “call for organisation”...
News and Notes letter For some weeks, the News and Notes editors have not been publishing reports from the main Residents Assembly working groups...
YouthLink work survey YouthLink has initiated a survey to understand Auroville youths’ relationship to work...
Tree marking As part of a survey of the Galaxy Master Plan, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Government of India, has been marking and numbering trees...
Tree puja The Secretary, together with Dena Merriam and some participants in the Science and Spirit conference, held a tree puja in Darkali to pray for the spirits of the many trees which may be cut to make the Crown Road...
New road study Work is now going on apace to finish the Crown road, using RCC slabs rather than the paver blocks which were first experimented with...
Home care expenses The FO BCC reports that the overall costs for home care, including the care of Aurovilians (above the age of 60 years) at care homes and their residences, as well as the transport costs for hospital treatments, have increased by 44% at the end of the year...
Gaia work The FO ATDC points out that most of the residences in the Gaia community are in the designated Mahalakshmi Park, even though one of these residences received building permission in the recent past...
Integrated Information System The FO FAMC is setting up an Integrated Information System as a digital memory for the collective...
Closing small scale activities At the beginning of November 2022, the AVFO’s ‘FAMC’ sent an email to several Activity managers whose annual turnover does not exceed 2 lakhs...
Considering multiple perspectives The RA TDC is moving forward with setting up a participatory planning process which is open for all to contribute to; the only rule of the game is for each to bring their goodwill, expertise and diversity into a shared approach and be ready to meet respectfully on middle ground...
White paper on the future The Wednesdays for Auroville meeting is planning to issue a ‘White Paper’ on Auroville’s way forward...
Legal update The Ami/Evergreen land dispute case was heard in Tindivanam on 15th February, but the lawyers for the Land Board and the Auroville Foundation did not appear...
WaterFest ‘23 Between 2nd February – 22nd March a festival focussed on stewardship for water and biodiversity is taking place as a call to action in the bioregion...
Endangered Craft Mela This is a yearly event organised by the Fertile community that aims to bring together local crafts people with the children of the Auroville bioregion and Tamil Nadu...
Overcoming Apartheid On 26th February, there was an informal community gathering with the South African activist and former minister, Jay Naidoo, in the Unity Pavilion...
Auroville’s birthday As usual, there was a collective meditation with dawn fire in the Amphitheatre on Auroville’s birthday...
A cultural bonanza Late February is the busiest time of the year in Auroville’s cultural calendar...
Remembering
On February 11th, Eva passed away in her apartment in Citadines after a brain haemorrhage. She had just celebrated her 77th birthday on February 8th with her fraternal family in Citadines community, full of joy and deeply happy. Eva came to Auroville in 1987. When she arrived she said she had come home. She first lived in Aspiration, then moved to Revelation, later to Djaima and finally to Citadines. Eva served in the Auroville Council and in the Entry Group, worked as a teacher in the pre-crèche and helped in the creation of Deepanam school. She will primarily be remembered for her artistic work: her paintings, sculpture and collages. She had several exhibitions in Pitanga and in Centre d'Art. She considered that each painting was the result of an inner experience that she was happy to share with anyone interested in her art. She never sold any of her paintings, but offered them to those who were touched by her work. The Mother's Agenda was her bedside table book, she read and re-read the 13 volumes over and over, rediscovering them each time; it was a deepening process. She would surrender everything to the Divine and to The Mother. Eva’s remains were cremated at the Auroville cremation grounds on February 18th.
Cristof Alward-Pitoëff, who met Mother in 1969, passed away in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram on 28 February. In the early years, Cristof stayed in Auroville for a short while after which he went to live in the Ashram for good and functioned as head of the French section of the Ashram Press, SAICE professor, translator and theatre director. Quite a few members of the elder Auroville generation remember him as their friend and teacher in the Ashram school. Cristof has been translating into French a good number of books by Mother and Sri Aurobindo, especially The Life Divine. In 2020 he published L’aurore d’une vie nouvelle, available from SABDA, in which he describes the adventure of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as seen through his eyes. In a 3.5-minute clip on Facebook, Cristof movingly speaks about his experience in Auroville in 1969. His remains were cremated at the Ashram’s crematorium near Muthialpet on Thursday March 2nd. A tree planting ceremony for Cristof took place on March 12th in Forecomers community.
On February 3rd, former Indian Independence fighter and Auroville’s oldest resident Mahalingam Sangukrishna left his body, at the age of 103. In the 1940s, Mahalingam had joined the Quit India Movement, staying at Nehru’s home in Allahabad for some weeks and also meeting Gandhiji. In 1945 he visited the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry for the darshan of Sri Aurobindo. Standing in the long queue and trying to catch a glimpse of Him, he suddenly felt His grace: Sri Aurobindo was looking at him and smiling. From then onwards, until Sri Aurobindo’s passing in December 1950, Mahalingam regularly visited the Ashram for the darshan of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In 1950 he permanently joined the Ashram. But Auroville attracted him. After The Mother’s passing in 1973, and for a period of almost 20 years, he visited Auroville regularly, teaching part-time Tamil in Udavi and Arulvazhi schools. In 1994 he joined Auroville, settling in Pitchandikulam Forest. He continued his Tamil teaching, now also at Transition school. Six years later he started translating into Tamil the Collected Works of the Mother, Sri Aurobindo’s Letters on Yoga and other works. The material was published in Vaigarai (Dawn), a well-read Tamil magazine published by the Ashram. In his later years, Mahalingam lived in Fraternity community from where he often walked over to the nearby New Creation’s Sports Resource Centre to see the trainings and matches. It was in that location that Aurovilians came to honour and congratulate him on his 100th anniversary. A video of the occasion can be seen at . An interview by Lourdes Epinal can be seen at Mahalingam’s uniquely humble presence and old-school devotion added a delicate, special quality to Auroville’s communal life. His remains were buried at the Auroville burial grounds on February 4th.
On March 1st, 2023, Ulf Meuller, passed away in Auroville. Ulf was a well wisher of Auroville ever since he first came in 2001 together with his wife Birgitta. During that first visit they organised a programme of organizational training for Auroville’s working groups, mainly the Working Committee and the Auroville Council, which was repeated and intensified in the next three years. During that time Ulf also arranged for the Chief Architect of his hometown, Halmstad, in Sweden to participate in the EU Conference held in Auroville. Many Aurovilians will remember him for his warm personality. Ulf had a positive outlook on life, always seeing possibility, love, and that The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are at the centre of what Auroville is. It was during this trip to India that Ulf has left his body. His body was cremated at the Auroville cremation grounds on March 3rd.
On February 19th Ellen left her body in her Arati apartment. She would have been 95 in April this year. After a career as a hatha yoga teacher in Germany, Ellen arrived in Auroville in 1996 and was accepted as an Aurovilian the year later. Starting out as a welcome presence in Ilaignarkal school, she subsequently joined the Auroville Library, where she worked for years. On the side, she would translate works of Sri Aurobindo into German for a publishing house connected to her husband. During the last ten years Ellen was confined to a wheelchair as she suffered from spondylolisthesis, a degenerative spinal disease leading to gradual paralysis of both legs. Helped by her no-nonsense and strong-willed character, she took it in her stride and managed to keep taking care of herself until the most recent years. Ellen’s remains were cremated at Auroville’s mandapam on the afternoon of February 22nd.
