The end of 1998 was celebrated with an enchanting flute recital by Gordon Korstange accompanied by his wife, Jean on the Sruti Box. Gordon, who is an accomplished bamboo flute player in the South Indian Classical (Karnatic) style, sang and played on his flute English translations of a number of poems on Sri Krishna written by Meerabai, Chandidas, Vidyapati, SriAurobindo, and other great Vaishnava poets. He had set these poems to the most soulful Karnatic Ragas and began his recital with a poem that he himself had written and composed in the Raga Hamsadhwani (literally, 'song of the swan'), which invoked the spirit of the Flute. Jean's accompaniment on the Sruti box, maintaining the meditative ambient drone, added a special magical quality to the hypnotic evening. Anie Nunnally graciously hosted Jean and Gordon and helped organize this concert at the Center.

The first Saturday of January was heralded with the screening of a video talk by Shri M. P. Pandit, on the Mother's views on Health. Madhavji emphasized the ability to resist diseases if one has a strong nervous envelope - as per the Mother. Also, he alludes to the health-consciousness in Los Angeles, California as very remarkable, having an aspiration to perfect the body - much more so than in India. But then, he goes on to ask, "what next"? Whereas in the West, this goal is not well defined, India with her Spiritual tradition has an answer. - The body is meant to be a temple of the Divine and eventually express Divinity in the physical substance.

Ellen Davis is back home from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Ellen spent a year at the Ashram offering her services as a ballet teacher there. We are happy to have her at the Center. In this issue, we carry some of her letters from Pondicherry.

Debashish Banerji has started a series of ten lectures at the Philosophical Research Society in Hollywood on "The Integral Way of Sri Aurobindo".

Ameeta Mehra of the Gnostic Center, Delhi has been collaborating with Debashish on her Power of Attitude course, in which he is one of the examiners.

Pravir Malik, whom we have always felt as a part of our extended family, is also back from India and visited the Center. It was a pleasure to see him again. He and his wife Chitvan now have a son, whom they have named Chaitanya Aurobindo. In this issue, we carry an article on the Inward Way by Pravir.

On the third Sunday of every month is a Karma Yoga session, followed by an introductory group open to newcomers. On January 17, several of us worked together on various projects at the Center. Diana, Manjari di, Dr. De, Anie, Ellen, Dorian, Debashish and Amrita were the participants. Work was done in the areas of preliminary archival work, stamp-collection, newsletter layout on the computer, garden-work, and general clean-up. A couple of Philosophical Research Society attendees of Debashish's lectures, Cathy and Carl, visited the subsequent introductory group at the Center wanting to know more about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. They were very open and receptive and had deep questions. Their seven year old son, John, whom we met later, is a specially bright and gifted child.

The Center now has a new 'plumbo-vascular system'. A complete copper repiping job has been done. It has been very rewarding, though expensive for the Center. Contributions are welcome.

Jayantilal Parikh of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives passed away in Germany on the 25^th. of January, 1999 at the age of 85. He had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was taken to Germany for treatment. We remembered him collectively on the first Saturday of February. A video on Jayantilal as an artist, made by the Ashram, Pondicherry was viewed by us. This video represented his substantial output under various categories, namely, Landscapes, Ashram buildings, Lake Estate, Still-Lifes, Symbolic paintings and Portraits. Some of the prominent artists at the Ashram (Priti Ghosh, Kiran Mehra, Maheshbhai, Vasudevji, Dhanavanti, etc.) commented on Jayantilal's unique contributions as a 'sadhak' and an artist. Jayantilal himself also spoke, in his subdued style, about his training as an artist in Shantiniketan and his guidance from and relationship with the Mother. He mentioned that Sri Aurobindo, on viewing his paintings, had commented "Jayantilal has a style". He had learnt from his teacher, Nandalal Bose, that to be an artist, one must integrate three qualities: Nature, Tradition and Originality. At the Ashram, his art formed part of his 'sadhana' in the integral yoga. Viewing his paintings was like a meditation. One only wished that the background music had been a little more judiciously chosen. Though towards the end, Sunil-da's music came in to uplift, most of the video featured some jarring incongruous music in the background. Also, the details of paintings were often shown close-up without a prior full view, rendering them frustratingly incomprehensive. All in all, considering the limitations of ashram editing facilities, it was an enjoyable and meditative experience and made the presence of Jayantilal live, bringing him close to us. The video ended very appropriately for the occasion, with a still of a sweetly smiling Jayantilal, gradually fading into whiteness - a face that will remain etched in our memory.

On the first Saturday of February, we also had a mini-exhibition of Shri A. Perumal's paintings. Shri Perumal is another accomplished proponent of the Bengal School of Art and was a student of Nandalal Bose at Shantiniketan at the same time as Jayantilal. Perumal ji's art, featuring mostly birds and animals in their natural settings, shows his love for nature and his originality of style. His paintings were much appreciated by all here.

On the 6^th. of February, yet another event was collectively shared : a pot-luck dinner. It was the best yet! All had poured their hearts out. Mother's nurturing Love and Light were felt on this special day of the month of Her Birth. Some of the items were fresh salad, vegetable sushi, cauliflower-potato in coconut gravy, sauteed beans, Manchurian vegetable balls in tomato sauce, three different preparations of rice (plain, Italian and pineapple-creative), three types of bread (pita, loaf and spinach-cheese stuffed loaf), 'samosas', assorted cookies, cranberry apple juice, strawberries, etc.,etc.. Following the dinner, members formed themselves into groups discussing a variety of interesting subjects such as conscious parenting and education of children, spiritual communities in Japan, Amazon tribal life, keyboard effects, health and physical fitness and much more.

Online News from Pondicherry

This brings us to the end of our news section for now. Stay in touch and join us in aspiration for manifesting Mother's endless treasures.

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