Event

Auroville exists in more than one dimension – there is the occult as well as the material dimension – which makes it difficult to assess what really is most important or influential in terms of the community’s development.

Daniel Helman Lee grew up in Auroville, graduated from Future School in 2019 and studied in Maastricht, The Netherlands, before moving to Israel, where she is now enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts creative writing programme in Tel Aviv.

Lakshay Dharan shifted to Auroville in 2015 and became an Auroville resident in Feb 2018. Since then, he has been active in art, communication, strategy, and organisational work.

The Auroville women’s ultimate frisbee team, better known as Rhino Ultimate, has been around for almost a decade, and is the oldest women’s ultimate frisbee team in India.

Maël Vidal was born and grew up in Auroville before going to France to pursue higher studies, where he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social anthropology.

From clunky prototypes to a thriving EV ecosystem, Auroville’s journey mirrors India’s evolving electric vehicle landscape – driven by innovation, resilience, and a vision for sustainable transport.

Chali reflects on the fractures within Auroville and on the possibilities of restoration.

John Mandeen passed away just over a year ago. John was a photographer who worked for many years with the Ashram Press, but he also extensively documented life in Auroville from the early 1980s, including important stages in the construction of the Matrimandir.

On 14 August Dr. Karan Singh, who has been Chairman of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation for more than 20 years, briefly visited Auroville.

“I had been afraid of meeting her. It had taken me six long weeks to get to this point because I was afraid of her. In some of her photographs we see how formidable she can be.

Bob Zwicker has worked in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives for 52 years, with particular responsibility for the Mother’s works. Recently, three new books have been published containing new material not published in the Centenary edition of The Mother’s Collected Works.

Once upon a time a very long time ago, deep in the woods at the bottom of a mountain — Mother’s Mountain, mata-giri—a six-page newsletter called Collaboration came into being.

On 17 April, long-term Aurovilian Frederick Schulze Buxloh was informed that his application for visa extension had been denied. The decision sparked widespread concern, leading to a petition addressed to Indian authorities that garnered over 4000 signatures.

Manya Sekar, who came to Auroville in her teens, will soon start pursuing her higher education at Oberlin College in the USA. Here she talks about her experience in Auroville.

The January 2025 issue of Auroville Today focused on the aftermath of Cyclone Fengal, which breached the Lego block dam separating sections 1 and 2 of the Matrimandir Lake.

In 2016 a German forester, Peter Wohlleben, published a book which describes how trees exchange resources with each other through fungi on their roots.

Auroville Today: What was your childhood like, how did your own musical journey begin? Shalini: My journey with music began very young. Singing was always central to my life, but never through formal education.

On Saturday, 8 March, It Matters hosted a book launch event. B (Bill Sullivan) was launching his book Being which, he explained, is to prepare young children for modern life: “The new ones who are coming now really need to get the best start because the world is in crisis.

Founded in 2020, the BORN IN FIRE residency at Phoenix Potteries (Auromodѐle) has become an important space for ceramic artists to refine their skills in anagama (‘cave’ in Japanese, it is a single-chamber, wood-fired kiln, often built into a hillside, known for its unique firing process and the natural ash glazes it produces, creating unpredictable and beautiful results) and wood firing.

It Matters is a space for artists and the community to connect, collaborate, and create. Rooted in Auroville’s spirit of exchange, it fosters dialogue and new ideas beyond the local art scene.

A few weeks ago a new biography of The Mother was published. The Mother: A Life of Sri Aurobindo’s Spiritual Collaborator is written by Peter Heehs, a reputed historian who has been a researcher in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives for over 50 years, writing biographies of Sri Aurobindo and publishing papers on related topics.

Krishna Devanandan has a background as a dancer, cultural event organiser and teacher of Tai Chi. She helped organise the Auroville Film Festivals and managed the Auroville Art Service from its inception in 2012 until 2023, when the Auroville Foundation appointed new executives.

Friederike Mühlhans has a long experience of working for Auroville International (AVI). Since 1997 she has been a board member of AVI Germany and since 2003 she has been Secretary of the AVI Board, with a four-year break when she served as Chairperson.

The Auroville Visitors Centre is Auroville’s reception and information disseminating centre for the often thousands of tourists and visitors coming to Auroville daily.

“In this as in all great human aspirations and endeavours, an a priori declaration of impossibility is a sign of ignorance and weakness. For by the doing the difficulty will be solved.”

Born in Paris, Nathalie grew up surrounded by the evocative scents of her grandfather’s painting studio. At the age of seven, her life took a profound turn when her family moved to India, eventually settling in Auroville.

Last December, there was a photographic exhibition in the Tibetan Pavilion which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the second caravan in Auroville.

On November 25, meteorologists of the India Meteorological Department observed a deep depression forming in the Bay of Bengal. Their initial forecast was that the depression would weaken and that a cyclone would not form, as the depression was moving at the unusually slow speed of 3 kmph, far below the typical cyclone speed of 10-12 kmph.

Annapurna is Auroville’s largest farm. Comprising over 35 acres, it is a mixed farm with cattle, paddy and fruit trees, as well as a dairy and food processing unit.

Jivatma was born and raised in Auroville (in the 1980s) and after finding her path abroad, she recently decided to move back with her partner Daniel and young son Kailash.

Torkil Dantzer joined Auroville in 2010. In 2011 he created the woodworking unit Prakrit after Cyclone Thane to create value from the fallen trees.

In the magical city of Auroville, there lived a boy named Surya. He loved his home, with its lush forests, colourful buildings, and friendly people from all over the world.

From July 24th till August 18th, Savitri Bhavan hosted the exhibition ‘Darshan Messages’. It not only showcased the original cards from 1953 onwards, but also the evolution of the tradition of Darshan card gifting which has been stopped since January 2023.

For the past three years, we have seen the arrival of another type of Secretary, a new top-down style of governance, and an imposed vision of development of Auroville.

Rolf Lieser arrived in Auroville in 1981 and during his thirty years stay here, among other things, he practised and exhibited his paintings and sculptures, played music in various bands, did graphic design (including working with Kireet Joshi on certain projects), designed and constructed a number of houses, and started Kalabhumi community in the Cultural Zone.

One of the main services of Auroville’s Pavilion of Tibetan Culture is hosting the Tibetan doctor with his trainees and administrative staff for three to four days a month.

Michael Zelnick, originally from New York, joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1968 and later came to Auroville. Here he talks about his work as a homeopath.

The earliest mention of Auroville was in the monthly issue of the Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS) Information Letter of March 1965, where its General Secretary Navajata wrote: “You will be glad to know that the Mother has taken up the model township project.