Inauguration of Auroville – Concept and Purpose

Has he succeeded in doing this? Very largely, yes. He includes key extracts where Mother talks about her vision of Auroville and of its key purpose in humanity’s “resurrection to a higher and truer life”, and the book contains numerous recollections by participants of the inauguration day and the preparations for it.

The book includes fascinating new material or fleshes out what was already only vaguely understood. For example, Nata’s account of the sheer logistical challenge of constructing, within a few weeks, not only an amphitheater but also eight kilometres of road; or Mother telling a young Manas Das Gupta that the “real Auroville” will take another 200 years.

There are also more intimate accounts, like Paolo Tommasi refusing Mother’s request to carry the Italian banner at the inauguration because he wanted to remain close to her; or the two young Ashram students who seemed almost more interested in discovering each other than in the event unfolding around them.

The book does a good job in evoking the atmosphere of a day on which everybody there felt something extraordinary had happened. Where it is less successful is in its organization and presentation of material. There is a lot of repetition concerning the ceremony itself (Poppo’s story is even told twice), some of the photos are poor and lacking in interest, the chronological organization is sometimes unclear and there is occasional sloppiness in spellings and attributions.

No doubt, for the hard-core devotee none of this is a distraction. However, if this book is aimed also at someone who wishes to learn about Auroville and the Inauguration for the first time, the book represents something of a challenge. This is because this is more an archive of unedited, or lightly edited, documents relating to a particular event – something of an immersion experience for devotees – than a doorway through which a reader without much prior knowledge can pass.

This kind of reader would require something different: good overview articles of the preparations and the event itself plus short, well-edited memories from participants.

Of course, Franz’s intention may not be to seek a wider readership but, rather, through evoking a particular moment, to replant an aspiration deep in the hearts of those who live in Auroville now. “It (the Inauguration) is for all of us here a Zero point, a Zero time point from where we started. So we should take some time to study why some 5000 people came to this place in a deserted piece of land located in Tamil Nadu,” he writes.

Inauguration of Auroville. Concept and Purpose. Published by PRISMA. 

Available from Wild Seagull bookshop, SABDA and auroville.com. 

Price Rs. 650