Georges van vrekhem biography definition

I always felt that to truly understand Sri Aurobindo, who had so deeply assimilated into his being the best of the East and the West, one must be able at some level to integrate the two cultures. In that memorable last lunch date, I again reminded him of the above fact. With some sadness, which was uncharacteristic of him, he mentioned that he did not know why he had to waste so many years leading a bohemian life in the theater world of Belgium, which was so alien from his current reality and the deeper meaning that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had opened him to.

He had a sharp memory, and he peppered his recollections with certain experiences and dreams that had led him in to leave his career as the manager of a theater in Belgium and come to the Ashram, and then later, in , in the birth-centenary of the Mother, to come to Auroville. I loaded my books onto a bullock cart and not fully cognizant of why I was doing this, I cycled behind it and came to Aspiration.

Having been a playwright, Georges had a knack for dramatic flair that comes strongly through, both in his books and in his talks. He was a born storyteller—another gift, which make his books accessible to a far-ranging audience. To be honest, increasingly confronted with the frailties of my own human nature, I did not care much for such metaphysical distinctions.

In our conversations, I would steer the subject to more mundane matters. No topic was taboo. We discussed sexuality and the value of relationships in Integral Yoga. We discussed the need for war: I railed to him when Bush went to war with Iraq in the flimsiest of excuses. Georges patiently heard me out and explained that wars were seldom about the purported causes, but about a swifter and deeper integration of human kind.

To him, American imperialism and consumerism as well as Islamic fundamentalism both had to be destroyed in the movement toward a new world. We discussed esoteric ideas, such as the meaning of the Auroville symbol or as to why the Mother was always seated to the right of Sri Aurobindo. Georges, who had been a translator of Satprem, explained that the Mother was always reflecting the consciousness of the person in front of her, and one of the book projects that he wanted to work on was to provide a proper introduction to the Agenda.

We talked about the changing mores in India, and again he wanted to write a booklet addressed to Indian youth.

Georges van vrekhem biography definition

We chatted about fellow Aurovilians—while Georges occasionally complained that Aurovilians knew little about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, he held this experiment of Auroville in high esteem and commended Aurovilians for making that great leap toward the building of a new world. It sometimes came blazing through in his talks, and left his audience palpably touched.

Unassuming by nature, compassionate and patient with the struggles of others, quick to laugh at his own foibles, with a ready sense of humor and an undisguised love for good food and the occasional glass of beer. Somewhere, I remember, the Mother talks about two major movements in yoga: one renounces everything to focus only on the Divine; the other embraces everything in its search for the Divine—there is an unquestioned trust that the Mother is there behind everything, and that what really counts is Her Action in this world.

Georges and I both leaned toward the latter movement: that was the secret of our friendship— we loved life with a passion, viewing it, despite all contradictions, as a progressive manifestation of the Divine spirit. This led in the late s and 60s to the publication of three volumes of poetry and a number of poems in various magazines.

He also wrote nine original plays, translated and adapted a number of plays of other authors and wrote essays and articles. His literary talents were acknowledged when he was awarded the Prize for Literature by the City of Ghent. One of the authors was Satprem whose Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness ignited a spark. But it took some time for the spark to become a flame.

Then, in , after a brief stint as tour guide, this life ended when he moved to a small room in the Rue Suffren in Pondicherry and joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He started teaching at the Ashram school and, because of his proficient language skills, also became one of the secretaries of the Sri Aurobindo Society, in charge with international relations for their project Auroville.

Yoka and I met him in , during our first visit to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Could we find a publisher, he asked? Clayton, John J. Danaher, James P. Dean, Randy and Lorri G Demmin, Herbert S. Dudley, Glenn Dunlop, Charles E. Edwards, Lee Eisen, Jeffrey S. Feezell, Randolph Fetzer, James H. Fossum, Robert H. Foxvog, Donald R. Gandhi, Kishore Gardner, Edward F.

Garfield, Jay L. Garrett, William R. Greenspan, Henry Griffin, Keith L. February Learn how and when to remove this message. Works [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Authority control databases.