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Auroville which means the ‘City of Dawn’
was founded by The Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram on February 28,
1968. The disciple and spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, she
had built up the Ashram into a multi-facted, spiritual community and
had established the Sri Aurobindo International Centre for Education
earlier. Auroville was her creation too.
“There should be
somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own,
where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration
could life freely as citizens of the world and obey one single
authority – that of the supreme truth”. It should be, “a
place of peace, concord and harmony where all fighting instincts of
man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings
and miseries, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph over
his limitations and incapacities. A place where the needs of the
spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the
satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasure and
material enjoyment.”
Auroville is meant to be
“a universal town where men and women of all countries are able
to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all
politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to
realize human unity” said the Mother in 1965. Three years later
at the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on Feb 28, 1968 young boys
and girls representing 121 nations and 23 Indian states placed a
handful of earth from their part of the world in a lotus-shaped urn,
symbolizing the creation of a city dedicated to peace, international
understanding and a hopeful future for humanity. That was the
beginning.
At the centre of
Auroville is the Matri Mandir described as ‘the soul of
Auroville’. The main building is a flattended sphere, 36 metres
in diameter, within which is located the ‘Inner Room’
visualized by the Mother. It is a place “for concentration and
….for trying to find one’s consciousness”. In the
hall with the crystal globe – the largest single crystal in the
world – everything is in white. There are no flowers, no
incense and no music and no music because The Mother did not wish it
to be a typically religious place – “there must be
absolutely no dogmas, nor rules nor rituals”. Here amidst total
silence, people are free to sit anywhere for quiet meditation. It is
open to visitors (who have to obtain a pass) between 4 p.m. and 5
p.m. every day.
The Matri Mandir is
surrounded by four zones – Cultural, International, Industrial
and Residential. The Cultural Zone has education, cultural and
sports activities as its main focus. It consists of schools, a
sports complex and the Youth Centre. A centralized structure (Sri
Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research) which is
involved in research on new teaching methods while recognizing
traditional educational levels, co-ordinates the whole system of
education in Auroville. The sports complex provides facilities for
tennis, football, handball and riding. Cultural activities include
drama, musical and dance programmes. The International Zone in meant
to be like an international campus, a place for events and a meeting
place for compatriots.
The Industrial Zone has
money-generating units for Auroville which aims to be a
self-supporting city. It has several industries such as food
processing units and concerns such jam and pickle making, bakeries,
manufacturing readymade garments, assembling electronic components
and so on. The Residential Zone includes structures which range from
huts to individual houses and apartments. But the houses are not
owned by the individuals. They belong to Auroville. A central
community kitchen caters for all Aurovilians though there are some
separate community kitchens as well. Auroville is now an expanding
community of nearly 2000 people from Indian and some 30 countries
around the world. The Auroville residents have created a basic
infrastructure of roads, water, electricity and telecommunications,
including an electronic communication network.
In tune with the environment
The site of Auroville was
once a backward and impoverished rural area, surrounded by 13
villages with a population of over 40,000 people. Bare and eroded,
it was mainly wasteland. A number of Aurovilians took up the task of
‘bringing this land back to life’ with the help of these
villagers. After twenty years of hard work they have succeeded in
regenerating the soil on a long term basis through biological farming
methods without using my artificial fertilizers or chemical products.
The two million trees planted by them on 2800 acres of once-arid
land has successfully created a lush green belt which is really
beautiful to behold.
At Auroville you find an
increasing utilization of natural energy. Out of a total of 400
houses over 85 are run entirely on electricity produced by
photovoltaic panels while others combine solar power with the state
grid. 30 windmills and 2 wind turbines pump water in addition to 100
solar photovoltaic pumps and a 36 kw photovoltaic power-plant which
provides electricity for the Matri Mandir. More than 70 solar
cookers, a dozen solar heaters are used by the community while 15
biogas tanks produce methane for domestic use. The recently opened
Auroville kitchen has been designed to use a 15 metre diameter solar
bowl – the biggest in India – for cooking.
Auroville has several
education centres for the Tamil villagers. New Creation is a primary
school for 180 village children 20 of whom are boarders. There are
training centres for young people in pottery, wood-work, painting,
weaving, metal work and stone-cutting. There are kindergartens and
night schools for adults which conduct regular training programmes in
organic agriculture, watershed management and environmental
education.
Outsiders often wonder
how the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville are related. Are they one
and the same? Or is there no love lost between the two? While both
the Ashram and Auroville were founded by the Mother according to the
ideals of Sri Aurobindo, the two are separate legal entities which
have been evolving independently. Broadly speaking, while the Ashram
focuses on the inner development and transformation of individuals,
Auroville’s main focus is the creation of a new society and city
which is global and universal, belonging to humanity as a whole.
The Auroville Charter, 28.2.1969
Auroville belongs to
nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But
to live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine
Consciousness.
Auroville will be
the place of an unending education, of constant progress and a youth
that never ages.
Auroville wants to
be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of
all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly
spring towards future realization.
Auroville will be a
site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of
an actual Human Unity.
Sri Aurobindo, His Philosophy
Sri Aurobindo was born in
Calcutta on August 15, 1872. He was sent to England for his
education and graduated from King’s College, Cambridge in
Classical Tripos. He also qualified for the Indian Civil Service.
Returning to Indian in 1893, he worked for the princely State of
Baroda for the next 13 years. He was also a professor in Baroda
College during the time. It is during this period that he got
involved in the Freedom Movement. He returned to Calcutta in 1905
and soon became one of the leaders in the movement. He was the first
to express openly the concept of total independence for the country
in his journal Bande Mataram. He was prosecuted twice for
sedition and once for conspiracy.
He had already started
the practice of Yoga while in Baroda. In 1910 he withdrew from
politics and went to Pondicherry in order to devote himself
exclusively to his spiritual life and work. During the next 40 years
he evolved a new method of spiritual practice which he called the
Integral Yoga which aims at a realization that not only liberates
man’s consciousness but with the possibility of acquiring a new
consciousness, the Truth-consciousness and capable of living a life
perfectly harmonious, good and beautiful, happy and fully conscious.”
He gave all his time to establish in himself this consciousness
which he called ‘supramental’ and helped those around him
to realize it. He founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926 with the help
of The Mother, his disciple and spiritual collaborator. A prolific
writer, Sri Aurobindo’s work include The Life Divine, The
Synthesis of Yoga and Savitri. He passed away on December 5, 1950.
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
The Ashram which
originally comprised a small group of two dozen disciples ahs now
grown into a large community with over 1200 members, around 400
students belonging to the Centre of Education and hundreds of
devotees who live nearby. Sri Aurobindo had said – “This
Ashram has been created…not for the renunciation of the world
but as a centre and a field of practice for another kind and form of
life which would, in the final end, be moved by a higher spiritual
consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit”. In
keeping with his words the Ashram is not a quiet place of retreat
secluded from the world but a vibrant centre of life in a busy, urban
setting. Work here is essentially karmayoga – an offering to
the Divine. There no obligatory practices, no rituals, no compulsory
mediations or systematic instructions in yoga. Each devotee is free
to determine the kind and pace of his/her sadhana and decide what
work he or she wants to do.
Everyone does some useful
service everyday in the various departments as part of their Sadhana
(devotion). There are many fields to choose from. Those interested
in teaching or academics work at the International Centre for
Education. Other departments include the library, various art
galleries, photo section, publication department, art houses, weaving
department, travel agencies, furniture and leatherwork, agarbattis,
ayurvedic section, batik works, cottage industries, restaurants,
perfumery, Hablik handweaving, hand-made paper factory, woodwork
unit, marbelling unit and the embroidery department, among others.
But the general principle is the same for all – it is work
offered to the Divine hence there should be a total surrender to God
in whatever they choose to do.
The Mother
Mirra Alfassa (later
known as The Mother) was born in Paris on February 21, 1878. A pupil
of the Academie Julian, she was a talented artist, pianist and
writer. But her primary interest was in spiritual life. She visited
Pondicherry for the first time in 1914 to meet Sri Aurobindo, her
spiritual mentor and guide, and returned finally in 1920. When the
Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded in 1926, Sri Aurobindo entrusted her
with its entire responsibility. Under her guidance covering a span of
nearly five decades the Ashram grew to be a large, many-faceted
spiritual community. She also established the Sri Aurobindo
International Centre of Education in 1952 and Auroville, an
international township, in 1968. The Mother passed on November 17,
1973.
Getting There
Auroville is 160 km south
of Chennai, 10 kilometres from Pondicherry. There are buses plying
regularly from Madras, Bangalore, Ooty, Madurai, Kanchipuram and
Mahabalipuram.
The best way to get
around is by bicycle which can be hired in Pondicherry. To get the
feel of the place it is recommended you spend several days here as
everything is so spread out.
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