Indian culture

In a recent issue of News & Notes, a twelve-week course on kolams was announced. It would help people, it said, to “find their compass, reorientate and be able to prioritise direction, regulate boundaries and thresholds within themselves and the surrounding world”.

Heartweaving is quietly bringing together Aurovilians with different perspectives to manifest possible ways forward through sustained inner work.

Sri Aurobindo was born on 15 August, 1872. Auroville Today has often published something related to Sri Aurobindo in this, his birth month, and this year we feature an article on his epic poem, Savitri, by Richard Hartz.

As a child, growing up in a Hindu household in Odisha, I was always intrigued by the images of Lord Jagannath and his siblings. Like most Hindu households, an entire room was reserved for the gods, and the main icons from Hinduism’s rich pantheon of reportedly 330 million gods were prominently displayed and revered.

On January 4th, 2022, during a Dreamweaving session, there was a presentation on the concept of Vaastu Shilpa Shastra. Auroville architect Mona Doctor-Pingel introduced the concept by explaining that Vaastu Shilpa Shastra is commonly translated as the ‘Science of Building’, and is a component of the traditional, collective and evolutionary knowledge systems of India.

The couplets and songs of the fifteenth century Indian poet-saint, Kabir, have been woven into the cultural fabric of north India for centuries.

Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, leading scholar of Indian culture, art and art history, and Padma Vibhushan award, passed away on September 16, 2020 at her Delhi home, at the age of 91.

Dr. Prema Nandakumar has written and spoken to audiences the world over about Sri Aurobindo's writings and philosophy. She is the author of many articles and books on Sri Aurobindo and on Indian culture.

Last School, that hotbed of a bright new wave of young Aurovilians destined, come the year 2001, to take our citadel by storm, was the site, in this pleasant month of December, of two events worth noting: India Week, and the third annual Last School Fair.