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Greetings from Russia!

- Julian Lines reports..-

Wednesday was much like Tuesday in that the skies are grey and we had a long ride through traffic arriving at the Hall of Officers a bit late. But today the magnificent stairway was lit up with chase lights on the arches, a bit like a disco and added to our delight climbing the stairs up to the large hall filled with the Auroville panels.

Dimitry on Aditi

Dimitry led off the morning with an interesting talk on the history of Sri Aurobindo's teachings coming to Russia. A very good translation of the 'Adventure of Consciousness' sold nearly one million copies in the early nineties (which would be the largest number sold anywhere according to my estimates). However, with the introduction of poor translations of Sri Aurobindo's works and the change in the economy and fragmentation of the various groups in Russia, there has been a waning of interest.
The 'Aditi' publishing house in Russia hopes to publish new translations and compilations. Therefore, this historic meeting presently taking place in St. Petersburg should be a step in the right direction in renewing the study of Sri Aurobindo, Mother and Auroville.

Other Russian speakers

Dimitry was followed by a presentation by

• Michail Chiryatiev, whose connections to Roerich, Ramakrishna Society and Education all wove into a strong call for a reformation of the education system in Russia, based on these more eternal values rather than specialisation and commercialism.

• Margarita Kojevnikova, a Buddhist who is also creative director of an interfaith movement called 'The Common Care' spoke on the start of this movement in Russia. It seems it is still very early to find religious cooperation among those who are still trying to find their voice. As she is an acquaintance of Dr. Robert Thurman, she was pleased to know he had visited Auroville last fall.

• Dr. Oleg M. Mogilever, a devotee of Ramana Maharshi, put a photo of his teacher on the lecture and filled the room with a glorious OM. He spoke about the famous method of inquiry "Who am I?"

• Anna Shustova, the vice-chief editor of the journal, "Delphis" spoke about Russian philosophers and the spritual tradition of Russia and how it related to Sri Aurobindo's thought. In the Soviet time, only one person had written a doctoral thesis on Sri Aurobindo, but recently there have been a number of them. She was very informed and I felt we could have spent the whole day just listening to her and having a general discussion. Someone responded to her talk with a provocative statement about Roerich and spirituality and Sri Aurobindo, but there was no real opportunity to pursue it given the time constraints.

Q's & A's

We broke into two groups, so that the bhaktas could go hear Bhaga speak on 'Twelve Aspects of the Mother' and some who seemed to be planning to visit Auroville asked Don all about the economy and the 'Circles' experiment. Many interesting questions came, so it was fortunate that Jaya and Jill and Harini chimed in.

As we had had a marathon of talking by that time, and some had opera tickets, we called it a day and headed back to our Pension. Olga, who had come to Auroville as a nine-year-old and lived there for five years in Aspiration, joined us for dinner and was happy to see Ila and Bhaga among other friends she was missing.
(I now write in stead of Tine, who put a sign on her door limiting her office room visiting hours to midnight as she needs (and deserves) some rest!!!

Tomorrow is the Whitest Night, so we wish you all a Happy Summer Solstice and a celebration of Light in your life.

Greetings from all,
Julian

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