Quality / concept

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.

In October, the Centre d’Art hosted an exhibition by artist in residence Nandita Sharma. Titled “The thinking hand”, she explained that her work moves between words and images.

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.

In a recent issue of News & Notes, a twelve-week course on kolams was announced. It would help people, it said, to “find their compass, reorientate and be able to prioritise direction, regulate boundaries and thresholds within themselves and the surrounding world”.

The following are excerpts from volunteers' final reports after 12 months in Auroville A transformative year that still resonates Much time has passed since my Weltwärts year in 2008-09.

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

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.

In October 2024 we interviewed Dan Capdeville who launched the “Seeking Our Inner Being” project in January of that year. Now, one and a half years later, he has decided to formally close it down.

In 2018, Amrit published ‘Children of Change’, a memoir recounting his early life and the difficult years in Auroville when he and others chose not to take sides in the bitter conflict between the Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS) and the then-dominant Auroville collective.

Heartweaving is quietly bringing together Aurovilians with different perspectives to manifest possible ways forward through sustained inner work.

“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.

Consciousness-Based Psychology: Sri Aurobindo’s Vision of Yoga, Health and Transpersonal Growth presents a pioneering framework for psychology and psychiatry rooted in the spiritual philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

How an Israeli top lawyer joins Auroville to become a sound healer.

Maatram is a mental-health support centre in Auroville staffed by professionally trained psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors who work collaboratively to offer compassionate, person-centred care.

Sri Aurobindo was born on 15 August, 1872. Auroville Today has often published something related to Sri Aurobindo in this, his birth month, and this year we feature an article on his epic poem, Savitri, by Richard Hartz.

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.

Jyoti Naoki Eri was born in Kyoto, Japan, to accomplished artist parents. He trained as a sculptor in Japan through a traditional apprenticeship process.

The seven volumes of The Mother’s Entretiens (Questions and Answers) are a treasure trove. They cover a wide range of topics in considerable depth, giving us a glimpse not only of Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s vision of life and the future of humanity, but also providing many answers to questions on how to live one’s life and follow the spiritual path.

For almost two decades, Rosa lived in Auroville, immersed in the transformative work of Awareness Through the Body (ATB). Now she is bringing ATB workshops and advanced training to South America and plans to work with educators and trauma therapists in underserved areas, providing training that facilitates trauma release and inner balance.

It all started in September 1998. Jean-François and I were at home when a group of teenagers, familiar faces from the Auroville schools, walked in with a quiet determination.

In the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of India, the learned judge, regarding the need for Auroville’s development vis-à-vis environmental protection, stated that “…while the right to a clean environment is a guaranteed fundamental right under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the right to development through industrialization equally claims priority under fundamental rights particularly under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

A year ago, architect David Nightingale talked about how Spiral Dynamics could provide one way of understanding the present situation in Auroville.

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.

It’s easy to overlook the bark of a tree – especially here in Auroville, where trees are everywhere and we pass them daily, often without stopping to truly see.

On Saturday, 1 March, the community was invited to come to Cinema Paradiso to hear community members telling short stories; transformative memories of the past or hopeful dreams about the future of Auroville.

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.

It’s not easy to describe the emotion felt when stepping into a clearing in the forest, a magical place, perfect for hosting the portraits of 111 Aurovilians who have passed away in recent years.

As I was looking through the minutes of the last Governing Board meeting regarding proposed changes to the Auroville Foundation Act, I recalled that when the Act was originally being prepared, there were already two different tendencies.

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.

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.