Seyril Schochen (1915-2006) founded the Sri Aurobindo Learning Center,
familiarly known as Savitri House, in Crestone in 1986 as an educational foundation. Her vision was that it be based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in association with Auroville, the City of Human Unity in South India. We seek to continue her work by offering a welcoming retreat facility to those interested in the study and realization of the spiritual vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and to promote exchanges with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville.
The Learning Center is at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains just outside Crestone, CO. In addition to main house, where we maintain a guest room for retreatants and where the library and bookstore is located, there is also Solar Meditation Dome and Solar Bridge.
We read Savitri, Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary epic poem every Tuesday and invite you to join us. Our library provides a place to obtain information and books on the writings of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, and Integral Yoga. We also offer meditations, talks, performances and workshops, all open to the public.
On August 15th, Sri Aurobindo's birthday, we celebrate his life, and this summer there will be a series of Savitri Immersion workshops in our solar dome which we cordially invite you to attend.
New Stewardship at Savitri House
The Sri Aurobindo Learning Center Board and community would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to Pavita Decorah, who is retiring from her years of selfless service to Savitri House and its founder, Seyril Schochen. Pavita has shepherded the Center since Seyril’s passing 4 years ago, and has been keen on building bridges with the larger community. Her grant-writing efforts allowed the Center to become a work study site for students from the Crestone Charter School to learn about renewable energy applications and efficiencies, while moving the Center toward a lower carbon footprint and earning the students money for their annual school trip. Pavita and her partner, Sandia Belgrade, have moved into their newly built, light and cozy casita on Lost Cave Way. We wish them peace and fulfillment in their new home and future endeavors.
And let us introduce the Center’s new steward, Swaha, fka Kathryn Van Note. Swaha has called Crestone home for 3½ years now, arriving here from Auroville in South India, where she resided and worked for the previous 12 years. In her tenure here Swaha has served on the boards of the San Luis Valley Citizens Alliance and the Baca Grande POA, and was an active member of the Annexation Task Force. As a consultant to Saguache County she researched, compiled and drafted oil and gas regulations, solar development guidelines, an emergency operations plan and the County’s comprehensive plan. She has most recently been involved in public information and the NEPA scoping process on the proposed Low Altitude Technical Navigations (i.e. airborne combat practice) being proposed for our skies by the Air Force.
Swaha brings a deep devotion to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, a passionate love of Savitri and a wide experience of working in the complex, international, human unity experiment called Auroville. She was first introduced to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo by Seyril, whom she met in 1981 while both were living in Boulder. Swaha has always felt a deep connection to and gratitude for Seyril, who represented for her a kind of lighthouse, guiding her to her spiritual home after a decade of searching and exploring various paths and teachings. She is honored to be the Center’s new steward and director.
She wants to further the Center as a living bridge – a resonant outpost if you will - of Auroville, as Seyril envisioned, as well as a venue for transformative learning. She hopes to discover ways to make the evolutionary teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother more accessible to the wider community of seekers.
We are a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Since Seyril's passing, the guest house, donations, and sale of books are our means to sustaining her vision. We appreciate donations and invite individuals and groups to use our facilities. Please contact us for more information. Thank you for your support.
To find the Sri Aurobindo Learning Center in Southern Colorado from its easiest to use this Goggle Map. At the end of the T Road make a right into Baca Grant Estates on Cam Baca Grande. Follow the road up and make the second left onto Baca Grant Way. Go past past Dragoon Overlook on the right and The Center will be the octagonal house on the right.
Sri Aurobindo Learning Center
83 Baca Grant Way / P.O. Box 88
Crestone, CO 81131
719-256-4917