Issue Nº395-396 – In Memoriam

On May 25th, long-term pioneer Peter Holl passed away in a hospice in Hamburg after coping with cancer for more than a year. He was 74.

Having been part of a Sri Aurobindo study group in Berlin in the very early seventies, ‘Peti’ as he was called (pronounce Peetee), left his job in the banking world, had his father drive him to the autobahn and hitchhiked overland to India, arriving in the Ashram in 1972 where he received Mother’s darshan and lived for some time. At the end of the 70s, after a trek in the Himalayas which he made with Helmut whom he knew from the Berlin study group, the two came to Auroville and started the community of Grace in 1979 by building the first keet huts and digging a well.

Being passionately in love with homeopathy, Peti qualified himself thoroughly by following schools and courses in various countries and certainly India. Between his many activities – such as football and several long bike hikes with his Aurovilian mountain biker friends in the Himalayas, an occasional theatre stint, his lively partnership with Brazilian singer Eliane and walks with Sri M – he functioned as a much appreciated homeopathic therapist, whose calm and subtle healing power and advice touched many. He will be sorely missed.

Peti’s sporting life ended by a fall some some fifteen years ago, severely injuring a shoulder, but after recovery he continued his work as therapist with Auroville’s holistic Integral Health centre. When visiting his family in 2020, and discovering the onset of his illness, he was most distraught not to be able to return to Auroville because of the Covid pandemic. His love and commitment to the Auroville experiment, its yoga and high call was always up front and guided him through the challenge of these last years. As he wrote last month from Hamburg to a close Auroville friend: “My only recipe now is surrender, surrender, surrender…”

Auralee (Audrey McCormick) passed away on May 25, in Montreal, Canada. She was 77, and had been treated for cancer.

Auralee came to Auroville in 1986 with her two sons, Michale (Shwetaketu) and John. After her keet house in Fertile had burned down, she went back to Canada and returned in 1996 when she moved into Vikas. During her years in Auroville, she worked at Pour Tous, and later as secretary to the Entry Service. She and Shwetaketu left Auroville around 2010.

In the early morning of Wednesday 18 May, Bhaga (Christiane Odile Gabriau) peacefully left her body at the age of 77 in her Luminosity flat. She had been experiencing cancer during the last year, working on it with her cellular consciousness and insight gained through intense evolutive research throughout her life.

Bhaga, French-born in Algeria, came to Auroville in August 1972. Starting off as a second-language French teacher in various of Auroville’s budding schools of that time, and working at Matrimandir, she gradually veered towards a deep and thorough research into Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s teachings. This resulted in her initiating in 1984 the ‘Laboratory of Evolution – Centre for Human Unity’ (LOE-CHU), then located at Bharat Nivas, from where she also started her extensive compilation of Mother’s Words on Auroville. The Centre evolved throughout the years and still functions today. Many of us remember her from her abode at ‘Repos’ at the beach where she lived for 18 years until the sea took over.

With her animating, always smiling and outgoing nature, Bhaga will be remembered for her many workshops, talks, private consultancies and web communications and for her persistent work in the light of our Integral Yoga. Bhaga’s remains were buried on May 20th at the Auroville Burial Grounds.

On May 4th, Luigi Zanzi passed away in his apartment in Citadines. He had been struggling with his health for quite some time, and would have been 70 this year.

Luigi was one of Auroville’s more striking figures who played many a role in Auroville’s development. Hailing from Ravenna, Italy, where he undertook humanistic studies at the Bologna University, he came to Auroville when he was 22 and joined a few years later, becoming an ardent developer, fundraiser and networker. In 1980 he started the development of Transformation in the Cultural Zone; from 1987 till 1989 he took care of the Matrimandir Nursery. From 1990 onwards he coordinated Auroville’s Future, and was project manager of two Asia Urbs projects while participating as a speaker for Auroville at numerous national and international conferences and exhibitions both in and outside Auroville. In liaison with UNESCO and the Government of India, he has been instrumental in raising funds for several projects and events in Auroville. After serving in the Auroville Planning and Development group, he functioned in his later years as executive of Auroservice, continuing his network from there.

Luigi’s remains were cremated at the Auroville mandappam on May 6th.