Fraternity community

Karuna Periyaswamy, who was born in Kuilaypalayam, was only 14 years old when he joined Auroville. As a child, he had once met The Mother at the Ashram, as part of a school visit, and offered flowers to her.

Anjalai is an Aurovilian who has worked in Auroville for the last 50 years. She grew up in Kuilaypalayam and has been living in Auroville since about 2000.

Patha (Padmanaban Erichappan) of Fraternity passed away at JIPMER in the morning of May 30th where he had been taken due to liver failure. He would have been 55 this year.

The fourth volume of Bhavishyate, the Journal of Bharat Nivas, the Pavilion of India, contains two chapters that are of direct interest to Auroville: ‘A model town − a Conscious Collectivity’ and ‘The Soul of a Collective Yoga.’

On February 3rd, former Indian Independence fighter and Auroville’s oldest resident Mahalingam Sangukrishna left his body, at the age of 103.

Bryan Walton, one of Auroville’s early pioneers, left his body on March 8 in Wisconsin, USA at the age of 80. Bryan left the USA in the mid-sixties for India in search for a better life, and eventually came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in June 1971.

J. Chellathai from Dharapuram left her body on November 3rd in Pondicherry’s General Hospital at the age of 73. Having suffered a stroke last year and being diabetic, she died from a gangrene infection.

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.

In the October issue of Auroville Today, we published a humorous little piece that pondered how the names of Auroville’s communities came about.

On December 23rd, Peggy Ann Pfaff passed away in her daughter Lila’s home in Fraternity at the age of 91. Both Lila and her sister Laura, who had come over from the USA, were with her in the moment of transition.

Subir (Olivier Caracostea) passed away on 30 April of this year in Orleans (France) due to cancer. He was 68 years old. Subir had a Romanian grandfather and came from a family linked to the Theosophical Society in Paris.

On Tuesday 13 December, Stephen Raj (Jesudass) from Isaiambalam, left his body in Pondicherry’s Mahatma Gandhi Hospital. Being a heart patient and feeling quite unwell these last weeks, he was being prepared for treatment of a liver infection when the cardiac arrest occurred.

I’ve been in Auroville since my marriage 26 years ago. I grew up in Chinnakottakuppam village on the backside of Forecomers, towards Pondicherry.