Goupi

Long-term Aurovilian Goupi (Jean-Pierre Bunel) peacefully passed away at Marika’s Home in the evening of Monday, June 24th. He had just turned 82 years old.

Goupi originally studied Tibetan Buddhism in France and wanted to live in the Himalayas. When he came across some writings of Sri Aurobindo, he changed his mind and sailed in 1966 by boat to Pondicherry where he met with The Mother and was allowed to stay in the Ashram. Mother gave him the name Guru Prasad, which was later abbreviated to Goupi for short.

In those early years, Goupi taught at the Ashram school and had regular meetings with The Mother. Before coming to India, he had been a physics teacher at the university in France. When the well-known physicist and Nobel Prize winner Georges Charpak visited the Ashram, Goupi met him and Georges offered him a lifelong subscription to the CERN Courier magazine, which was greatly appreciated throughout the years.

Naturally, Goupi was present at Auroville’s inauguration ceremony on 28 February 1968.

In 1977 he decided to move to Auroville with a few others from the Ashram and started the community Djaima, in honour of his lifetime’s mantra “Jay MA”. At that time, he noticed a need for physical care for the first pioneer Aurovilians who worked long days in the sun. His good friend and mentor Biren-da, a renowned masseur in the Ashram, encouraged his interest in massage and taught him “to talk to the body”, a skill with which he has helped many Aurovilians and others throughout the years. During the massages, Goupi would empty himself and let Mother do the work, while chanting Aum or Jay Ma, leading to remarkable results.

His interest in massage went along with his great interest in studying different languages such as Tibetan, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil.

It is with gratitude that we will remember him, as many of us have passed through his healing hands. It was not only for physical healing but often also for his guidance and understanding of Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s yoga that people would approach him, like a road sign on the way.

For Goupi, the dream of The Mother has become true in the Auroville he lived in. He saw it as a privilege and realisation of how to live differently on this planet. For those who have met him, he truly represented a different way of living.

Goupi’s joy, simplicity and sincerity in his surrender to the Divine made him live with a constant presence of The Mother in his heart.

Goupi’s remains were cremated at Auroville’s cremation grounds on June 30th.

A brief video on Goupi can be

seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkBdoXrdM14.

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This page has been published in order to create a space of remembrance for all of those who lived, struggled and enjoyed in Auroville, making a conscious effort to manifest the Dream of Human Unity that is in the process of emerging.