Issue Nº327

On September 8th, the Auroville community, in a public gathering at the Unity Pavilion, bade farewell to the members of the Governing Board whose term of office ends on October 28th.

When the members of the Land Board took office in January 2014 they met with a dire scenario. Funds to purchase lands were in short supply, the sale of outlying lands was blocked, land encroachment was rampant, land grabs and falsifications of land documents by outsiders were discovered, and legal assistance was insufficiently available.

Before Auroville was officially founded in 1968 and before the final location of Auroville was decided by the Mother, disparate plots of land had been bought in the surrounding region.

At 135 acres, Annapurna is Auroville’s largest farm and is furthest away from the city centre. Due to lack of (wo)manpower and capital for investment, only a quarter of Annapurna is under intense cultivation, while fodder and timber is grown in the rest of the land.

I’ve been in Auroville since my marriage 26 years ago. I grew up in Chinnakottakuppam village on the backside of Forecomers, towards Pondicherry.

Recently, the Auroville Campus Initiative team as part of their educational outreach programme ran an innovative course for Indian students and young professionals.

Continuing the series of talks with young Aurovilians about their life in and work in Auroville, Jonas Suchanek, a young Aurovilian who has returned to Auroville recently and joined Tree Care, shares his thoughts on his life and what it means to be a young working Aurovilian today.

Both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have written extensively about the Integral Yoga. Some of this has been for general guidance; some has been guidance for particular individuals in particular situations.