Farewell team

On Sunday 12 October the Farewell team hosted an Open House to update everyone on their work and its role and function in the community. They explained that “This is an impersonal work which demands sensitivity, equality, good practical sense, readiness to serve, emotional stability, acceptance of any bodily condition, receptivity to the inner reality, attention and plasticity and goodwill towards all.

After many years of devotedly writing much appreciated obituaries of Aurovilians and associates, Mauna announced that she was handing over responsibility for death announcements, obituaries and other such notifications to the Farewell team.

Serena Aurora is an independent filmmaker based in Auroville and the creator of Aurora’s Eye Films. She has produced many community, spiritual and environmental documentaries conveying some of the explorations in Auroville and elsewhere to a wider audience.

The RA-WCom has advised all Aurovilians to plan ahead and make a living will in the event that one is unable to communicate one’s wishes when medical care is needed.

The Farewell Centre, Auroville’s funeral home, was inaugurated in March 2016. Since then it has received thirteen Aurovilians and Newcomers.

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”)