ROAD MAP OF AUROVILLE A Proposal to the Students of Future School, Auroville’s ‘High School’ Years ago I visited the Forestry Institute in Dehra Dun.  I was delighted to see avenues of ‘Imagination’ (Cassia fistula) and ‘Realization’ (Delonix regia) and many others and thought how beautiful it would be if the roads in Auroville could be named after the flowers significances Mother gave for trees. Below you will find a list of different terms for streets (you may find others) and a list of the trees whose flowers Mother named.  Some of these are very small trees that could hardly make an avenue so you will have to be careful.  There are also trees th

On Auroville It matters not if a thousand voices speak to me of the hopelessness of Auroville's division, the rancour, hostility and absence of peace and harmony, for I have felt a Presence on her lands, and in her people a strength that resolves all doubt. I have looked into the faces of her children and glimpsed in them the future that shall be. In all whom I have met I found a dedication and an openness to the Light that is working amongst us. I have walked beneath great trees and admired the beauty of her flowers and witnessed the slow and steady transformation of her earthly body. Truly I have felt the Mother's love in so many Aurovilians, their perseverance in the face

Kailasbhai To Narad In His Room December 29, 2007 Nirod was having a sumptuous breakfast with Dilip Kumar Roy but each time when he returned to his room he felt a deep depression.  He asked Sri Aurobindo about it and He said, ‘He is not feeding you free of cost, he is feeding your depression as well.’ ‘There was a person with a large tumour in her stomach and Sri Aurobindo’s subtle hand was seen removing it and the person was cured.’ ‘Paul Richard told Dilip, ‘I made a mistake.  I could not understand Sri Aurobindo and Mother and now even to commit suicide I am not free.’ Kailas told me that he first heard my new name on November 17, 19

Felix and Lyudmila Mary Helen and I visited St. Petersburg, Russia and spent an evening with disciples of Mother and Sri Aurobindo, some of them who are in Auroville today. "One day, coming off the ship we had taken through the Baltic countries, we heard a man and his wife talking in Russian and English about what they wanted to see in St. Petersburg that day." I went up to them and asked if we could share a taxi together as we had not seen anything of St. Petersburg except for our visit to the dark and ill-lit concrete Khrushchev era flats where we met Mother's children. The couple readily agreed but said, "We do not take a taxi because they are very expensive." Th

On Bobby Kennedy's Death.htm On Bobby Kennedy’s Death June 5, 1968 At 3:30 a.m. the phone rings.  It is Sarah Hudson.  She tells me in a broken, tear-filled voice that Senator Robert Kenny has been shot.  He was at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire, quite near our apartment., making a victory speech to about 2000 people.  Sarah and her husband have been working for him. I calmed Sarah, Anne came and sat by me and we called Mother.  Sarah said she could feel better, asked how to call Mother, and said that Kennedy must not die. As we called the Mother’s Force I saw the room fill with sparkling lights.  This is an experience Anne has often had but it was the first time I had seen it

This Is My Mother By Chali Grinnell The shock of hearing my father crying for the first time in my life, was nothing compared to the shock of the words that came over the phone line with numbing clarity: "There was nothing the surgeon could do. With the operation, she has three more months of life; without it she would have had just three weeks. What am I going to do, Chal? "I was stunned." As I tried to offer some feeble reassurance and then hung up the phone, my own tears started to flow. They came in a seemingly unstoppable torrent. The thought of losing my mother made me finally understand what it means to feel heartbroken and helpless. "I'm not ready to

Mona's Kiss.htm Mona's Kiss I have told some friends about this extraordinary experience and thought I had written about it but now see that I had not. It was a day when I brought Dakshina to meet Mona upstairs at their home on Balcony Street. Mona was sitting at her small desk and greeted us both with a great smile of love. She then began by asking Dakshina to tell her (Mona) her Christian name. Dakshina replied, 'My name is Dakshina'. This began a repartee that I much enjoyed for neither would give in, both being unshakeable people, and finally Mona gave up trying because Dakshina would not budge from her position. We talked for some time in Mona's vibrant atmosphere and then we

The Passing of Alan Klass On Monday, Feb. 12, Alan Klass, a long-time Aurovilian who worked in the Matrimandir Gardens and was responsible for building the magnificent orchid collection, passed away at his home in Crestone, Colorado. Alan's love of orchids was unparalleled. He devoted many hours a day to their study and cultivation, learned the techniques of transplanting them from flasks, fertilization and cultivation and studied their individual requirements meticulously. The orchid displays in February, especially during the Flower Show on Mother's Birthday February 21, we spectacular. Alan was also an excellent guitarist and with no formal training learned

My Mother's First Serious Illness and Her Passing.htm My Mother's First Serious Illness and Her Passing I was very young, perhaps between five and six years of age when my mother fell seriously ill. "Her temperature increased and stayed at 105 degree Fahrenheit and despite everything the doctor tried she became weaker and weaker." Finally, the doctor, defeated in his efforts, said there was nothing more he could do for her and left.