A Special Thank You from Savitri Bhavan
In honor of Shraddhavan, AVI USA recently held a fundraiser to support Savitri Bhavan, her legacy as a Savitri scholar. The Savitri Bhavan team wrote a few words in appreciation of the AVI USA community.
“To the AVI USA Community,
Nirodbaran, the scribe of Sri Aurobindo, when inaugurated Savitri Bhavan has said ‘Savitri Bhavan is twin of Matrimandir’. One of our mission statements is to breathe the atmosphere of Savitri and the team at Savitri Bhavan is tirelessly working on that as guided by our beloved Shraddhavan. It is absolutely evident that Shraddhavan was a guide and mentor of many members of the Aurobindonian family and cannot think Savitri Bhavan without Shraddhavan. And in this situation of the passing of Shraddhavan, who was the main pillar of Savitri Bhavan and was successful in fundraising in the past, the financial help from AVI USA was a timely gesture of help and support. The whole team of Savitri Bhavan expresses our gratitude to the donors for their timely support for the smooth functioning of Savitri Bhavan. The Savitri Bhavan team highly appreciates the generous contributions made by AVI USA and hope it will continue in the future”
Shraddhavan’s Legacy
In honor of Shraddhavan’s legacy as a scholar of Savitri, we invite you to make a contribution to Savitri Bhavan. Shraddhavan founded Savitri Bhavan alongside her partner Helmut and served as Project Coordinator from its inception. Savitri Bhavan welcomes Savitri lovers from every corner of the world and serves as a center of inspiration for Savitri studies.
Savitri, Sri Aurobindo‘s epic poem of 24,000 verses, serves as both a legend and a symbol. In poetic language, Sri Aurobindo describes his vision of existence and explores the reason for ignorance, darkness, suffering, and pain, the purpose of life on earth, and the prospect of a glorious future for humanity. Shraddhavan is one of Auroville’s leading scholars of Savitri and dedicated her later years to enriching Auroville’s understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s revelatory epic.
Savitri Bhavan welcomes support from everyone who feels that the vibration of Savitri will help to manifest a better tomorrow “for earth and men.
Savitri Bhavan’s Tribute to Shraddhavan
Shraddhavan is the Sanskrit name given by the Mother in June 1972 to a young Englishwoman who left her country to join the upcoming project of Auroville in 1970. Shraddhavan means ‘one who has faith in the higher being.’ She fully embraced her name.
She was born Anne Margret Robinson on June 4th, 1942. Her father was a protestant pastor and her mother, Winnie, known to many in Auroville, was a teacher. Before leaving England, she studied English Language and Literature as well as Library Science at Bristol University. Before coming to Auroville she traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, including India, and Australia.
When she arrived in Pondicherry in November 1970, she was sent by The Mother to Auroville to teach in the newly started school in Aspiration.
But the work for which she will always be remembered is her work as Project Coordinator of Savitri Bhavan, which along with her partner, Helmut, she built up from its inception.
Shraddhavan undertook an in-depth study of the works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. She was a teacher, a poet (she published a book of her poems ‘Stars in the Soup’), a translator, a researcher, an efficient administrator, and above all a great sadhak. Several of her poems, stories, essays, articles, and book reviews have been published in the Ashram journal Mother India, Heritage magazine, Collaboration, etc. She was the editor of the journal Invocation: Study notes on Savitri. She has been honored with the ‘Auro-Ratna Award’ by the Overman Foundation on 18 November 2012. Shraddhavan conducted classes on The Life Divine, Essays on the Gita and Savitri. Many AVI centres were happy to have hosted her for her classes in their countries and via Zoom link. They continue with regular classes guided by Shraddhavan’s books and videos.
The depth of her understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s mantric epic poem Savitri was reflected in her classes, the joy her students experienced during her Sunday Savitri Study Circle, which have been going on for the last 25 years, and her ‘English of Savitri’ classes.
Her sentence by sentence explanations of Sri Aurobindo’s great epic have been transcribed into 12 volumes, the last two volumes are in the stage of publication. They are an unparalleled guide for Savitri lovers around the globe. Shraddhavan declared that this was her life’s work.
Late last year, she gradually began to fade away and left her body on July 19th 2022 aged 80 years.
As the Mother wrote in Prayers and Meditations:
Some give their soul to the Divine, some their life, some offer their work, some their money, a few consecrate all of themselves and all they have – soul, life, work, wealth; these are the true children of God.
-Helmut, Judith and Dhanalakshmi on behalf of the Savitri Bhavan Team