Chronicling Auroville

Fertile Memories

I remember so well: it was 1st April 1973 when my little daughter Aurojina and I finally arrived in ‘Fertile’ – to stay. Having sent our belongings ahead by bullock cart, we made the journey from Pondicherry by cycle. It was a cool morning for April, and as I was fuelled by a sense of new beginnings, the journey was memorable. Jina traveled in a wicker seat on the front of the cycle, and we brought with us a little black kitten that rode calmly in its basket at the rear.

We were representing America, France and Australia, and I felt a loving appreciation of all these individuals who had mysteriously come together in this odd outpost on this desert plateau.

In those days there was the wide peripheral sweep of the horizon: the sun rose, shone down relentlessly and set, and the moon was obvious in all its phases.

The children at this time were stimulated by simple things and satisfied with their interaction with nature. We would spend an hour or so watching the major tragedies of a mynah bird couple, or an invading snake, the inquisitive monkey, the mongoose’s journey up the palmyra for an attempt on their eggs.

September 2009

The Water challenge

Giulio: We need to put all our energies into finding ways of providing enough water for people’s needs. At the same time, we have to start a campaign to change people’s attitudes to water in the larger bioregion. The combination of these gives you a water management system. If we do not go for both of these things the system will fail, that is for sure.

Tom: What is important now is helping people open their minds so that they understand the present situation. If we come with our models and try to impose them, this will not work. But it is also clear that we have a limited amount of water here and we cannot go on wasting it. This is why we must invest in the bioregion in terms of education, projects, and helping people use water in a conscious way.

Auroville Today: You are talking about changing mindsets.

Giulio: Exactly, this is the most important thing. They must not feel that you are talking down to them, but that we are all in this together; that it is not ‘us’ and ‘them’. And it shouldn’t be forgotten that Aurovilians also have a lot to learn in this respect.

June – July 2015

B.V.Doshi. What happened to AV’s spirit?

When I came here first in the early 1970s, I was completely bowled over by the kind of architectural experimentation that was happening. Here were houses with thatched roofs, houses built half into the ground and with arches made out of bricks and ferrocement. At that time Indian architects were asking themselves how to make do with the minimum of resources yet develop something else, like the long-term overall sustainability one sees in nature, bio-diverse yet harmonious. When I looked at Auroville then, I thought it was probably the most important architectural pioneering work happening in India.

Some years later I came again and met Roger. I saw some of his buildings. Those buildings told me about the adventure of the spirit. Later I went to Roger’s office and it was full of models and drawings, just like Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh office. It really felt like a new world was emerging.

Sept 2009

Building Community: the Vérité experience

Bhavana: I see the community happening on different levels. There is the material level, where it is ecological to live in a community because it’s a better use of resources. On the emotional level, it’s a social unit of a manageable size which provides the possibility for healthy social interaction. On the mental level it’s a tool of sadhana, for learning how to live in a close community can be very helpful in moving you out of the prison of your mind and ego into another consciousness.

Aurelio: I think the function of community is to bring us from the individual level to the next level of consciousness. Ultimately, the urge to live in community is a preparation for global consciousness. Community can be an amazing tool of spiritual progress because it brings up all the different realities and unknown parts of yourself and you have to deal with them.

December 2005

I love Auroville….

I love Auroville because it’s my home. I love Auroville because of the freedom I have, because of the beautiful nature I am surrounded with every day, because of all the cultures and variety of people I am constantly exposed to, because of the wonderful school I go to, and all my amazing friends I have met here. I love the fact that we are like a community, and usually I feel very safe moving around, and everywhere I go, every time I drive or cycle around, I always end up passing people I know. I love the fact that in Auroville we like weird things and try not to be caught up in the norms of society.

November 2014

Auroville’s spirituality

“I often compare the education system of Auroville with that of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram,” says Ashesh. “At the Ashram there is emphasis on the direct study of the works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and from childhood a psychic attitude is being cultivated towards the masters. But compared to Auroville, the richness, the wide embrace of life, is lacking. In future, the systems may incorporate parts of each other. I do hope that in Auroville their works will become part of the curriculum. For that brings a different dimension to individual and collective life. If people study more, they can contribute so much more to the future.”

August and September 2016

The Changing face of Upasana March 2009

“Money,” says Uma, “had been an issue in Upasana for a long time. One day, I complained to The Mother that it was not worthwhile to run a business for the sole purpose of making money to survive or to help Auroville grow. We were looking for something else.”

The answer came when the Upasana team started to contemplate what to do with all the Tsunamikas. Did they have a commercial value? Should they have a commercial value? “The decision to distribute Tsunamika free came at an inspired moment,” says Uma. “I had given the doll to a customer, telling her that her name was Tsunamika, and that it was made by the survivors of the tsunami. The lady held it to her heart, and I saw that she was crying, saying that it was so beautiful. I shared it with Manoj, my partner. He suggested that it should be given for free, but that we would suggest to the recipients that they could make a donation if they felt like it. It was a very intense moment. The gift economy was born.”

March 2009

The Love of Life through clay

“For me the day starts with an unknown – I have no idea what I want to create. When inspiration comes, I follow its thread. I try to pick up and flow with the energy. Sometimes I feel hollow and the wind is blowing through me. I may just create one piece based on that inspiration, and nothing more may come. But that is enough. I don’t judge what I make. On the contrary, I feel I am falling in love with each piece as I am making it. Each work opens for me a little ‘window into the universe’.

November 2014

A big mirror facing you all the time

There is something very deep that unites us. We are all a part of a big family that is spread all over the planet. Little by little, each one of us is coming back to being together and it is the soul in us that is bringing us here. But our surface personalities are so impossible. We find it very difficult to act collectively. Our highest ideal is human unity, and our biggest challenge is human disunity.

June–July 2012

Vikram’s Journey

I remember one day in AV I had no money for food and no belongings: all my things had been washed away in the cyclone that destroyed the house where I had been staying in Quiet. And I thought, “Man, what a relief. Mother has given me this perfect liberation.”

One day, my friend, Jyothi, who works in Nandanam kindergarten, asked me to come dressed as Santa Claus for the kids at Christmas. I thought, “Really, a black Santa Claus?” But I went and spent some time with the kids. Then she asked me to join them as a kindergarten teacher. I told her, she must be kidding. “I’m big, I’m heavily tattooed, the kids are going to be terrified of me!” But I dived into that thing and it changed my life forever. Mother gave me the exact work that I needed at that time. A tenderness came into me. My hands became looser, my soul became looser, my spirit gave up this big urge to search for things and it settled down into helping these new beings.

December 2016

The Prime Minister visits Auroville

“The world has received positive vibrations from Auroville, in many forms, over the years. Be it unending education, environment regeneration, renewable energy, organic agriculture, appropriate building technologies, water management, or waste management, Auroville has been a pioneer. May Auroville continue to come up with ideas to empower the ordinary citizens of this country. May people from far and wide bring with them new ideas. May Auroville become the centre where these ideas are synthesized. May Auroville serve as a beacon to the world. May it be the guardian which calls for breaking down narrow walls of the mind. May it continue to invite everyone to celebrate the possibilities of humanity’s oneness. May the spirit of Maharishi Aurobindo and the Divine Mother, continue to guide Auroville to the eventual fulfillment of its lofty founding vision.”

March 2018

    Chronicling Auroville, published by Auroville Today, 290 pages. Price in India Rs.1025, abroad US $ 27 or € 23. The price includes shipping. Available from [email protected], auroville.com, most Auroville International Centres, namaste.nl in The Netherlands and www.pondi.biz in the USA and at the Auroville bookshops.