Boris Verjoutski
Boris, long- time Aurovilian and passionate Nature lover, passed away on Tuesday, 22nd April, in the late evening, at Marika’s Home, where he stayed for the past few years. He was 87.
Boris was born in Krasnoyarsk, a city in Siberia, Russia, on 9th June 1937.
He arrived in Auroville in September 1991 at the age of 54. He came to live in the Aspiration community, and remained there for the next 30 years. About his past life before coming to Auroville, he wrote, humorously, "For more than twenty years I worked legally in the Soviet Science Academy and I practiced, illegally, Yoga for fifteen years." Through Yoga, he realized that "Science is nothing compared to Yoga. . .. Yoga gives joy, health, wisdom for all the people of the world. It is from God. Science, on the other hand can be, at times, from the asuras."
He described what he saw when he arrived. "I saw a child in every Aurovilian. And now my vision hasn’t changed. It is a city of very young people who created their own young world. This reality has a great perspective. The physical and spiritual atmosphere of the city creates the constant youth of Aurovilians."
Nature Lover, Observer, Humourous Writer
His observations of the natural world, and also of human behaviour, appeared very regularly, during many years, in short but often pithy pieces of writing in the weekly News and Notes. Boris’s writing has its very own inimitable style. As an entomologist (i.e. a scientist who studies insects) he got plenty of opportunities to observe insect life, not in the least in his own thatched-roof home in Aspiration. In one of his pieces, he makes fun of Auroville’s attempts at organisation and governance while talking about termites: ”The Working Committee of Aurovilian Termites has decided that all the termites which are residents of the city must work round the clock, all year long, every day including all holidays and festivals, without any salary. The results are obvious. Now the Housing Group of Termites successfully competes with the Human Housing group. In reality, the Auroville land belongs almost equally to man and to insect, although the insects are less serious and do not celebrate Deepavali.” (1998)
Lately, Boris seemed very concerned about how the accelerated city development is affecting the life of nature and humans in Auroville. “The planet is in a dangerous sickness. Our Kurukshetra battlefield for its healing is here…”, he wrote.
Boris always seemed a happy soul, cycling through Auroville and more recently, walking with support of two long sticks. As one Auronet user put it, “Thank you, Boris, for the sunlit path you embodied in your way, светлой тебе дороги!”
Boris’s remains were buried at the Auroville Burial Grounds on 26th April, 2025.
(Submitted by Annemarie)
