Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988

Issue Nº406

May 2023 (30 months ago)
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Towards a conscious collectivity

An interview with Deepti Tewari, By Carel

Celebration of Auroville’s birthday on February 28th, 2023

The fourth volume of Bhavishyate, the Journal of Bharat Nivas, the Pavilion of India, contains two chapters that are of direct interest to Auroville: ‘A model town − a Conscious Collectivity’ and ‘The Soul of a Collective Yoga.’

Notes on sanatana dharma

Reflection, By Alan

Recently, our Chairman is reported to have asked whether Auroville was not meant to take sanatana dharma to a higher level and create gnostic beings.

Vaastu Shastra, yantra and Auroville

Feature

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On January 4th, 2022, during a Dreamweaving session, there was a presentation on the concept of Vaastu Shilpa Shastra. Auroville architect Mona Doctor-Pingel introduced the concept by explaining that Vaastu Shilpa Shastra is commonly translated as the ‘Science of Building’, and is a component of the traditional, collective and evolutionary knowledge systems of India.

Biophobia – and the need to value nature

Reflection, By Peter

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Some years ago, when I lived in Hong Kong, I hosted my friend Alan Watson Featherstone when he gave a series of talks on “Restore the Earth’.

The Forest path

An interview with Forest, By Chandra

1 Forest

Forest was born and raised in the countryside outside of Toronto, Canada. He has recently chosen Auroville as his future home and is planning to start his Newcomer process shortly.

10 Years of Auroville Tango Festivals

An interview with Aurevan, By Chandra

This year, tango was celebrated in Auroville over five days, with 130 dancers from India and abroad.

On the Banyan tree at the centre of Auroville

An open letter

1 Meditation under the Banyan on New Year’s Eve, 2022

In our previous issue we devoted two pages to the Banyan tree, including a brief historical overview. Since then, a former Matrimandir executive has sent us something that he wrote in 2004, which provides additional details about the tree.

The safety and boundary awareness programme

Feature, By Peter

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Last October, YouthLink conducted a sexual harassment awareness campaign and recently followed up on that initiative by bringing together all the services within Auroville working on matters related to sexual harassment to create Safety & Boundaries Awareness (SBA).

47 books and counting

An interview with Dr Ananda Reddy, By Carel

Books by Ananda Reddy

On the occasion of Sri Aurobindo’s 150th anniversary, the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research (SACAR) in Pondicherry received a grant of Rs.12 lakhs (approx.

STEAM Fest 2023 @ Deepanam

Event review, By Vishwa

Engineering Drawing Escapades: Isometric drawing of 3D Shapes

In 2022, Vishwa Chudgar, her husband and daughter spent a month in Auroville, before moving back to the USA. A little over a year later, the family is now calling Auroville home and Vishwa has started the newcomer process.

Y20 summit in Auroville From the 4th-6th April, Auroville hosted a three day Y20 (youth) summit as part of India’s G20 presidency. The theme was ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ and participants were addressed by Dr.

Tamil New Year YouthLink invited everybody to celebrate Tamil New Year, also known as “Tamil Puthandu” together at the Youth Centre on 14 April, for an evening filled with cultural performances, delicious food, and a traditional pooja.

General meeting on town planning On Saturday 1st April, the RA TDC held a general meeting where they informed the community that an anonymous donor has offered to fund the next steps in town planning in collaboration with the Dream-weaving process and Vastushilpa.

Concerns about maintenances The FO FAMC and FO BCC reported that it has been a challenging time for both groups over the last six months as they have been confronted with a number of problems and issues.

Crown road works update An Aurovilian specialised in construction released another update report on the current status of the Crown Road work. Noting that a member of the FO ATDC had stated that the entire 2.1km stretch of road between PTDC and Youth Centre would be completed by 31st March 2023, he pointed out that “only 47.05 m of precast RCC slabs have been badly laid”.

New executives of Auroville Services Executives of a number of key Services, including SAIIER, Visitors Centre, Security, Eco Service, Auroville Arts Service, ACUR and the Guest House Trust, have been fully or partially replaced with no or minimal notice.

Removal from ROR The FO WC announced that they had received a communication from the Auroville Foundation that since Maёl had received a Leave India Notice, he would be removed from the Register of Residents (ROR).

Voice of Auroville A new journal, called Voice of Auroville has been released under the supervision of the RA Working Committee. It aims to provide well wishers and friends of Auroville across India and the globe with factual updates and crisp articles on what is unfolding in Auroville.

RA WC files court case against FO WC members The RA WC has filed a case at the Madras High Court against the 7 members of the FO WC for posing as the “Working Committee”. The case is called a Quo Warranto wherein these 7 persons have to prove in the Court that they are representing the RA and have valid grounds to call themselves the “Working Committee”.

Auroville International (AVI) Board clarification The Chairman of the AVI Board made a statement clarifying that the Board is not against the development of the City, nor even against the construction of the Crown Road.

Shortage of mentors The Entry Service has issued a call for Aurovilians to offer themselves as mentors of Newcomers. At present, an applicant needs two mentors to start his/her Newcomer process.

Land acquired The Land for Auroville Unified (LFAU) group reports that last year 14 new plots were added to Auroville’s Master Plan area, and 2023 kicked off with the purchase of two new plots.

Auroville youth work survey YouthLink has conducted a work survey youth between 18-30 in Auroville. They received 116 responses from Aurovilian youth, which accounts for 24% of all youth in this age group.

Jane Bonda Just two weeks prior to the planned performance, Bharat Nivas (BN) Trustees sent a letter to Miraculous Productions (MP) to inform them that they will not allow the play ‘Jane Bonda’ to go ahead at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium as previously agreed.

CRP3C The ‘CRP3C’ (Conflict Resolution Policy, section 3 Coordination) group reminded Aurovilians to report cases of conflict such as violence or threats of violence, substance abuse (alcohol or drugs), psychological health issues, etc.

Coffee Learning Community takes off On April 22nd, Earth Day, Marc’s Coffee Learning Community opened, established on the newly-built first floor of Marc’s Café on the Kuilaypalayam road.

News & Notes Community Edition As the editors of the Auroville News and Notes had received a message from the AVFO working group instructing them to stop publishing articles from the RA-selected working groups, threatening legal action against the editors if they did not comply, a News & Notes Community Edition has been launched.