Being and Becoming Shifu program provides opportunities for students to explore and integrate in Auroville. As part of it we visited Savitri Bhavan last Friday and Dhanalakshmi shared about Sri Aurobindo and Mother and also about Savitri Bhavan and the art gallery.
Following are our reflections after the visit.
Saranya
It was a wonderful visit and I really came to know about Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother.
I specifically came to know about Sri Aurobindo’s 3 madness.
First madness, it is my firm faith that all the virtue, talent, the higher education and knowledge and the wealth God has given me, belong to Him. I have the right to spend only so much as is necessary for the maintenance of the family and on what is absolutely needed…
The second madness has recently taken hold of me; it is this: by any means, I must have the direct experience of God.
The third madness is this: whereas others regard the country as an inert piece of matter and know it as the plains, the fields, the forests, the mountains and the rivers, I know my country as the Mother, I worship her and adore her accordingly.
Mano
We went to Savitri Bhavan and learned about Sri Aurobindo’s life journey and mother’s life journey and learned how mother’s participation in paintings and how she thaught it to others. By looking at the paintings I have recaptured the stories of “Savitri”. Then learned about Savitri Bhavan’s architectural importance and how much people are interested on architecture design.
Sandhiya
My name is Sandhiya I stand for progress as happiness and love for myself and others. Visit to Savithri Bhavan was new to me . I have heard of it but I learnt about the history of Savithri Bhavan, mother, Sri Aurobindo and the interconnections between them only after the visit. Some of the incidence in that story was hard to believe but was inspiring. I felt grateful to be a part in Auroville. I learnt that art of keeping mind calm is a step to reach my goal and meditation is important to calm myself. In addition I also learnt that everyone is having their own perspective of looking at things and I should respect them.
Kathir
I learned Sri Aurobindo life journey and how he and Mother joined together and build Auroville. I get inspired from sri Aurobindo transformation of his spiritual journey and the involvement, dedication he had on that, also the different aspects of life he has been through
I have read Sri Aurobindo’s quote in savitri bavan
“The first principle of true teaching is nothing can be taught” it inspired me.
Sundar
I was excited to the structure and construction of the Savitri Bhavan and learned about Savitri and Sri Aurobindo’s history. The major part of the visit is the painting of the Savitri. On watching the photos inside of my mind was creating a movie about the Savitri related to the order of pictures.
Sri Bhavani
My name is Sri Bhavani. I stand for love and equality for myself and others. From this visit, I have learned about the life journey of Sri Aurobindo and Mother. How much Savitri is important to Sri Aurobindo and Mother. The way Mother portrayed Savitri in the form of paintings made me think of art can communicate effectively.
What did I learn about myself is that I should always compete with the person who is highly skilled than me so that I can learn from them.
Poovizhi
I learnt that it is not always necessary to think a lot to complete a task or solve problem. Instead calm my mind and concentrate. Earlier I did not know that mother gave the sketches of the paintings and directed the person who painted Savitri. I found Savitri Bhavan as a place for creativity and inspiring.
