Auroville Retreat 2015

On Sunday May 28th, the Residents’ Assembly Service announced that a proposed new method of town planning had been approved by 81% of the 243 registered residents who participated in the vote.

Recently, a group of Aurovilians concerned about the direction of our economy discussed alternatives. Anandi is part of the management team of Pour Tous Distribution Centre, Jocelyn is on the Santé team, Nicole is a member of the BCC and management of the Visitors Center, Isha coordinates the Auroville Board of Services, and Manohar is the webmaster of the Auroville website.

Aurevan, Suryamayi and Kavitha are part of an enthusiastic team working on developing apprenticeship and internship programmes for Auroville youth.

The preliminary planning team for the 50th anniversary will soon be completing its work. What was their task? Their vision? And how have they organized the work?

The Bioregion Action Group and YouthLink are both outcomes of the Auroville Retreat. Together with Auroville Village Action they are in the process of implementing a project called ‘Paalam’, meaning ‘Bridge’ in Tamil.

One of the strongest messages to emerge out of the Retreat discussions was the need to re-examine our present organizational structure, to make it more reflective of our core values and ideals and to strengthen the role of the Residents’ Assembly.

“Auroville is created to realize the ideal of Sri Aurobindo who taught us the Karma Yoga. Auroville is for those who want to do the Yoga of work.

One of the most interesting initiatives to emerge out of the Auroville Retreat was the Integral Entrepreneurship Lab (IEL). Here some of the core team talk about its objectives and what they have been working on so far.

YouthLink is a new youth group that aims to engage the youth in Auroville and the surrounding area and to work towards providing Auroville youth with, among other things, better opportunities in housing, higher education and employment.

A young boy stood at the table, his pencil hovering over his paper, his mind searching for what to write. He had spun a colourful wheel in the “Quality Game” at the Festival of Ideas held on Mother’s birthday, February 21, and had landed on the word, “Courage”.

The Auroville Retreat, which took place on 12th and 13th March, brought together members of the International Advisory Council (IAC), the Governing Board (GB) and around 160 Aurovilians to examine the present state of Auroville and to draft an action plan for the near future.

Sometimes it’s the small moments of synchronicity that seem to point quietly at something else that is at work, perhaps a grace. Such was the case for the recent Saarang exhibition, event at India Space in Bharat Nivas.