Huta

She had been there for about a month with her condition gradually deteriorating, after ailing for several months. When she joined the Ashram permanently on February 10, 1955 in her late teens, The Mother gave her the name ‘Huta’ meaning ‘The Offered One’. The Mother trained her in painting, and worked with her from 1961 to 1966 to create the series of oil paintings illustrating passages from the whole of Savitri called Meditations on Savitri. During this time Huta recorded the Mother’s readings of the passages corresponding to the paintings, which are familiar to many, accompanied by the compositions of Mother’s musician Sunil.

Huta had a very special connection with Auroville – a letter of hers to the Mother in 1965 inspired the creation of Matrimandir, the Mother’s Shrine; and it was to Huta that the Mother first explained, with sketches, her concept for the town-plan of Auroville. In 1966 Huta produced the painting which the Mother named ‘The Spirit of Auroville.’ All this is told in her books Matrimandir – the Mother’s Truth and Love and The Spirit of Auroville. In 2001 Huta entrusted the care of the Meditations on Savitri paintings and a lot of other related art works and materials to Savitri Bhavan.

She has also become well-known for her many books, beautifully designed by Huta herself, all inspired by her contacts with the Mother, such as White Roses (translated into Tamil, French and Russian by Aurovilians), The Story of a Soul, About Savitri, and most recently ‘You said So …’ a record of some of the Mother’s talks with her. In fact she was still working on her latest project, My Savitri Work with the Mother, when she became too weak to continue. She was extremely happy to learn, some six weeks before her passing, of the completion of a series of 18 DVDs made by Manohar of her Meditations on Savitri paintings, and even more recently of another one of her Paintings Inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s Poems. This film premiered at Savitri Bhavan on December 5th.

Huta had no fear of death. During the time when she was working with the Mother on the Savitri paintings the Mother had guided her through all the subtle worlds, even the darkest subconscient, and assured her that when the time came she would be immediately carried up by Sri Aurobindo to her true home. She chose a significant day on which to leave, indicative of her identification with the Mother.

She has been a true friend of Savitri Bhavan and we all remember her with deep gratitude and affection.

Shraddhavan