Auroville as a Precious, Self-Renewing & Breathing “Plant”

I am Francesco Colturi, of Italian origin, and I arrived in Auroville when I was twenty years old after a pretty regular western education and at the end of an early career as a professional snowboarder. The shift of life and lifestyle was intense: it felt as if I had passed from one life to another in a blink of an eye. At that time, I didn’t know yet that my “new life” would be very much centered around the theme of education. Just a few months after arriving in Auroville, I came into contact with the work of Awareness Through the Body, with which I fell in love and which became the focal point of my work.

What brought me initially to Auroville was the call towards the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and the aspiration to live in the very place where people could put those teachings into practice throughout their daily lives. From the very beginning the atmosphere that I could “breathe in the air” has been very perceptible and tangible to me, a magical indescribable feeling that has always accompanied my staying in Auroville. I also perceive a very keen sense of being at home and a strong sense of belonging, at times so strong that it gives a perception of being like a cell that’s part of a larger organism.

During these years, I have been facing the various difficulties that living in a place like Auroville entails. I saw its limitations and shortcomings, its challenges and its contradictions. On the other hand, thanks to the possibility of travelling to several countries, I became more aware of the incredible positive uniqueness of Auroville. I could acknowledge the privilege and luck we have to live here.

Multiculturality, commonality, collective aspiration and intention, diversity, a strong shared spiritual base, intimate contact with nature, warmth in human contacts, space for self-expression, for experimentation, for continuous education, for inner growth, for self-discovery…

These and many others are very valuable ingredients that, blended together in a complex pattern, make Auroville what it is now.

Becoming aware of this privilege and luck also developed a sense of responsibility:

what is rare and unique must be preserved and helped to grow towards its fuller potential. The way I see it, it’s similar to a very rare plant, which needs proper care and attention. But, like any living plant, in order to grow it needs to renew itself. To be fresh and alive, it needs the flowing lymph of youth, the renovation of old leaves with new ones, the fresh water of new ideas and the indispensable transpiration-exchange with the “external” world. Auroville has stable roots that sustain it, which need to be honoured, but at the same time, if the space for a new revitalising sprout of growth is not allowed, it risks becoming stifled or clogged.

My wish for the future is exactly this: a blooming of new possibilities that is brought forward by the revitalizing contribution of the new generations, as well as an opening to the possibility that the “outside world” is offering. I feel that Auroville needs to be able to breathe, both in and out, sharing its discoveries and resources while being open to receiving external energies and inputs. We will then have more “air” in which that “magic” can be breathed, and more people will be able to benefit from it, both in Auroville and elsewhere.