My experience of Satprem

The announcement of the end of Auroville

I never had any other external contact with Satprem.

But on her side, Colette, my physical mother, was able to meet him during one of his visits to France, a meeting which she had eagerly wished for and which became deeply engraved within her. Occasionally I was given to read a letter he had written to this or that Aurovilian. Some of these letters were personal, but others were destined by Satprem to be shared “judiciously”. As Auroville’s population increased and grew, naturally the degree and the quality of the motivation were altered and the “mixture” more and more affected the orientations of the collective body of Auroville. L.V at the time still enjoyed the aura and the authority of the spokesman and emissary. Probably inspired by the verve, the passion and the sword in Satprem’s expression as he kept exhorting Auroville to a more radical commitment, he must have felt authorized to decree Auroville’s defeat and failure. There ensued a kind of rout, break up and scatter – a self-righteous disbanding of the troops… There occurred the slightly farcical episode of “the end of Auroville”.

And there was the exodus.

A few of my then close friends also decided to leave.

My impression, however, is that they seized on an honorable opportunity which would legitimize their own personal need to go back “into the world” for their own reasons (some of them have since returned to Auroville).

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