Narad worked personally with the Mother on the significances of flowers

Notes on Authors - S´raddha - April 2011

Dalal, Dr. A S   A Moslem by birth, Dr. Dalal was born in Tanzania, moved to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for seven years, then worked in the U.S. as a psychologist for over two decades before returning to the Ashram where he now lives. He has compiled about a dozen books based on the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and has written two books integrating Sri Aurobindo’s psychological thought with modern psychology. Various books of his, published in India and abroad, have been translated into French, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Korean and several Indian languages.

Deshpande, RY (born 17 Apr. 1931) obtained his M.Sc in Physics from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Thereafter he worked as a Research Physicist successively at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, 1955-57, BARC, Bombay, 1957-80, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA. Headed several Atomic Energy & Space Projects in Advanced technology. Prof. of Physics at SAICE, Pondicherry since 1981 where he also teaches Astrophysics,  Savitri,  The Future Poetry and Science & Society. Editor of Mother India, 1996-2004; Sr Editor of Science-Culture-Integral Yoga (SCIY) web magazine, founded in Los Angeles, 2007-8. A prolific writer, he has to his credit some 50 scientific research papers in professional journals, over 20 books of prose and poetry and nearly a dozen publications ready for publication or are under preparation.

Narad (Richard Eggenberger), is a longtime member of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Landscaper, plumerian, gardener, musician and poet, Narad was born on 29th July 1938 at New Jersey, U.S.A. He studied the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner including his bio-dynamic practices and studied Raja Yoga from a Pandit, at the same time prepared for an operatic career for the Metropolitan Opera on a scholarship from one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of the day, Regina Resnick and took voice lessons from her teacher, Rosalie Miller. He arrived in Pondicherry on November 23^rd 1961, when he had just turned 23. He began the OM Choirs in the Ashram,  Auroville and many places around the world. Narad  was asked by Mother in 1969 to design and build the Matrimandir Gardens. He was responsible for preparing the first slides of Huta’s Meditations on Savitri paintings, which the Mother arranged to be shown in the Ashram theatre, and later in Auroville, in 1972 as part of the celebrations of Sri Aurobindo’s  Birth Centenary. Narad worked personally with the Mother on the significances of flowers and on the Matrimandir Gardens in Auroville. He is past President of the Plumaria Society of America and author of numerous books and articles on tropical plants. He is the editor of the book “Flowers and their messages”, the first book published by the Ashram on spiritual significance of flowers.

Sethna, K D renamed Amal Kiran by Sri Aurobindo, was born in 1904. He joined the Ashram in 1927 and is one of the foremost disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother fortunately still amongst us today. He is a distinguished poet, a literary critic, an artist and a seer (kavi). Apart from his own poems, he is a great prose writer on a wide variety of subjects – poetry, literature, history, Christianity, philosophy and of course Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He was founder and editor of  Mother India: monthly review of culture for 50 years and is acknowledged to be one of the greatest authorities on Sri Aurobindo’s revelatory epic poem Savitri – a legend and a symbol.

Sunayana Panda grew up in the Ashram as a student of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education and is in the editorial team of its alumni journal,  The Golden Chain. She holds a M.A. in English Literature and has been in the field of education for over 25 years. Sunayana has brought to the stage several of Sri Aurobindo’s poetical works and contributes regularly to various Ashram-related journals.

Vladimir Iatsenko, after graduating from St. Petersburg University of Russia in Sanskrit Language and Literature, General and Theoretical Linguistics, studied in Poona University 1991-92 Sanskrit Grammar: Panini Ashtadhyayi. From 1992 he is a member of Auroville community, working in Savitri Bhavan as Sanskrit teacher and researcher in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita. He is also having courses in Indian Scriptures at ICIS in Delhi, SACAR and IPI in Pondicherry and University of Human Unity in Auroville.