Issue Nº381

When Eco Femme founders Kathy and Jessamijn started the initiative ten years ago, they couldn’t imagine that their dreams would find such fertile ground.

A year ago, Auroville Today profiled the launch of the Aura network. Since then it has quickly grown, reflecting some of the core aspirations that drew many of us to Auroville.

On February, 28th, 1968 Mother gave the inspiring message, “Are invited to Auroville all those who thirst for progress and aspire to a higher and truer life.”

Transparency is an elusive concept. At the borderland between here and beyond, between substance and transcendence, it’s a particularly interesting concept for artists to explore.

There is an old British World War II saying of some people ‘having a good war’. Without denying the widespread human suffering involved in Covid19, I have been wondering if some Aurovilians are ‘having a good Lockdown’, which could emerge from people stopping, taking an in-breath and potentially reconsidering their life direction.

Miko Sloper is a man of many talents, a philosophy graduate, mathematician, language teacher, musician. As I sit down to have a brief talk about his latest interests in Auroville, I notice his beard and hair, which were previously white, have turned green, so I start the interview  by asking…why green?

Auroville-raised Lili spent eight years studying art history, theatre and fine arts abroad, and is now perhaps the busiest youth in Auroville.

Nikethana is a resident of Anitya community, the first community in the Joy of Impermanence (JOI) project, which aims at creating community spaces based on impermanence and self-sufficiency.

Awareness through the Body (ATB) is one of Auroville’s truly groundbreaking programmes. Beginning in 1993, Aloka, Joan and people who have since become facilitators in ATB have helped generations of students, as well as adults, to know and manage the complexity of their own being through simple tools rooted in sensory experience.

The small amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens was once again the site of a dramatic exploration of a spiritual search. A few years ago Aryamani staged excerpts from Sri Aurobindo’s Debate of Love and Death, from Book Ten of his epic Savitri.

The Akademik Genius Brothers brought us back to community theatre with a fun-packed evening to provide our annual dose of theatrical levity.