Auroville is not better than anywhere else

To me, Auroville is supposed to be a place where you are accepted, and fully so, for whom you are, not for whom you “should” or “should not” be. A place where looks, beliefs, levels of income, and so on do not matter. A place where you can dress how you want, eat what you want, do what you want. A place where all this will not be scrutinized and held against you. A place where you can express yourself through a number of activities (be it horse-riding, painting/arts, meditation, etc.) and try to “find/discover yourself” (yes, it is so clichéd, but so true) and make yourself become a better person. I mean, where you evaluate your own life, your own decisions, your own ideals, and try to live according to those ideals, with yourself and for yourself.

When I left Auroville in 2005, my whole life was “cramped up” by the littleness of this community. Sure, it’s an international utopian city, with people looking for a better place or whatnot. But in the end, it’s just a small village where most people are obsessed with gossip and what everyone else is saying or doing, instead of concentrating on themselves and trying to make their own selves better.

Until now, I’ve never felt the need to come back, because I don’t feel like it’s a better place to be than anywhere else in the world. I’ve come back to Auroville for short periods of time almost every year since my departure, and the mentality and way of life do not correspond to what I strive towards. The problem is, many people around my age just judge you according to your appearances. They barely scratch the surface and then label you, without trying to look deeper at what’s inside.

This obviously does not apply to everyone in Auroville, far from it. I’ve also met people (my age, younger, older) that I’ve grown very fond of, that I appreciate enormously for their patience, curiosity, kindness, open-mindedness. I’ve realized over the years that the real beauty of people lies on the inside.

I used to proudly present Auroville to people here in Europe as a place where people were not interested by money, just by their own spiritual/psychological journey. That is not the case anymore.

I hear too many stories related to money, houses, land, what belongs to whom. I thought Auroville belonged to nobody in particular?

A place of constant progress: But where’s that progress? Youth that never ages: sure, I agree, but please become more mature, there is a limit to “staying young forever”!!!

A bridge between the past and the future: not stagnate in an ever-lasting not-evolving present! Human unity? Good try, but not quite. Seriously, more efforts can be done, don’t you think?

I’ve talked to other people that have left Auroville and don’t want to come back (yet), and I think we all agree on a few points.

Firstly, we have no energy, courage or strength to (try and) make a difference in Auroville, so instead of living a life here that isn’t close to our ideals, we prefer to leave and try and find our happiness elsewhere.

Secondly, the most probable reason behind no change in Auroville probably lies in the people here: they probably don’t want it to change. We can’t change a place if the people living in that place don’t want any change.

Anyway, I really believe that (all) youth should travel and live abroad, as much as possible, especially before deciding to settle down and starting a family. I think that young people born in Auroville should travel, explore the world, live abroad (ideally in different places too) to see if another society or style of life might suit them better. It should be a personal choice to settle down somewhere, not one driven by habits, laziness or fear.