Videos

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.

The premiere of the 12-minute animation film Sri Aurobindo: A Call to New India, dedicated to sharing Sri Aurobindo’s transformative vision with young people across the world, took place at Cinema Paradiso on 15 August.

Basile Vignes passed away on 12 June in his house in France, in the presence of his partner Claudine, his son Simon, his stepdaughter Djénane and close friends.

The News Minute, a digital subscription-based news platform which reports and writes on issues in India, with a specific focus on the five southern states, has published its third edition of a series on ‘The Spirituality Industry: A Deep Reporting Project’.

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.

The GB-WCom invited Aurovilians and Newcomers to an Information Sharing and Joint Interaction meeting with the Governing Board-constituted Auroville Town Development Council, Funds and Assets Management Committee, Admissions and Terminations Scrutinizing Committee, Working Committee, and Auroville Foundation Legal.

In April this year, concerned residents of Auroville circulated a petition requesting a halt of the excavation of the Matrimandir Lake to evaluate an alternative design proposal and start an integrated development process.

Auroras Eye Films (an Auroville unit) recently produced a documentary celebrating 30 years of the Auroville Choir. The film can be seen at

Videos of the presentations made at the Auroville Literature Festival on 25th-27th August have now been released online. For more information visit aurovillelitfest.org or write to aurovillelitfest@auroville.org.in

“We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future.” At 09.30 am on Sri Aurobindo’s 151st birthday, Manoj Pavithran premiered ‘Sri Aurobindo: A new Dawn’ in Bharat Nivas.

David Nagel passed away in his Aurodam home on June 23rd. He had been struggling with health issues since a number of years, and had just this year become 80.

Initially created as a sub-group of Third-Age (under Mattram’s umbrella), the “Let’s Talk About Death” group aims to reach any age of Auroville’s population by providing time, space and content to talk freely about death.

The Auroville Youth Center’s (YC) annual gathering, themed this year as the ‘Find Yourself Festival’, took place on 16-18 December. The community was invited ‘to come together to celebrate in a safe, joyful, and playful space for the realization of human unity.’

Shraddhavan, the executive of Savitri Bhavan, left her body on July 19th, 2022, aged 80 years.

Bryan Walton, one of Auroville’s early pioneers, left his body on March 8 in Wisconsin, USA at the age of 80. Bryan left the USA in the mid-sixties for India in search for a better life, and eventually came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in June 1971.

On October this year, the Ministry of Education of the Government of India appointed Auroville’s new Governing Board and new International Advisory Council.

The Working Committee recently shared a brief video address to the community by Dr Jayanti Ravi, IAS, who took charge as the new Secretary, Auroville Foundation, on the 5th of July.

On July 4thy, Davide Montemurri, a longtime participant and friend of Auroville, peacefully left his body in his house at Nettuno (Rome). He was 91 years old.

One year ago, people searching YouTube for videos about Auroville would have noticed that many of the items that first showed up were produced by people who had visited Auroville for only a few days.

On November 23rd, the term of office of Dr Karan Singh and the other members of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation came to an end.

Auroville City Conversations is the online discussion forum of the exhibition The City The Earth Needs, which has been in the Unity Pavilion since February.

On July 1st, S. Mahalingam, an Indian Independence fighter, spiritual seeker, teacher, translator, Ashramite, and Aurovilian, celebrated his 100th birthday.

Paolo Tommasi passed away in JIPMER on July 16th due to the COVID-19 virus. He had just turned 92 years. Paolo was born in Ancona, Italy in 1928.

“Sri Aurobindo announced that mankind will enter the subjective age, that a new civilisation is going to come where the primary thrust will be inwards,” says Shraddhavan.

On February 2, Martin Sobieroj passed away in his room at Arka. He was 76 and had been suffering from pancreatic cancer. Martin was ready to go and had opted to stay away from heavy treatment and follow the natural course of the disease, a choice which he – admirably – adhered to apart from accepting some pain plasters at the very end.

Gérard Maréchal, one of Auroville’s early pioneers, left his body in his Sukhavati home on January 2nd due to a fall caused by a heart failure.

On December 23rd, Peggy Ann Pfaff passed away in her daughter Lila’s home in Fraternity at the age of 91. Both Lila and her sister Laura, who had come over from the USA, were with her in the moment of transition.

On the initiative of the Auroville units Restorative Auroville, Prisma, Auroville Village Action and Aikyam School, Auroville hosted a Walk of Hope for Peace and Human Unity to spread the message of oneness, inclusion and respect among Aurovilians and the village communities around Auroville on January 28th and 29th.

The three Evolution Fast-Forward videos are now all freely available for streaming in their entirety online. You find them on www.sopanam.org, along with some other treasures.

From 4th December - 7th January, an Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) course was held in Auroville for the first time. The Aurovilian organizers invited participants not only from Auroville but also from the bioregion, India and the world.

On February 7th, the ‘Landing Auroville Celebration’ held at the Unity Pavillion was an encouraging success. Organised by the joint land fundraising teams of Acres for Auroville, GreenAcres and LFAU, the event’s central message was the sacredness of the land, and the need for an intense collective effort to acquire land in Auroville’s Master Plan area now.

The second part of the interview with Piero Cicionesi has been released. Both parts have been posted online and can be seen at YouTube. The interviews record for future generations the true history of the construction of the Inner Chamber, from Udar’s first drawing under the direct instructions of the Mother, to the installation of the Crystal.

Auroville’s Land Board has released a new film Landing Auroville. Created by Rakhal and the Auro-Image team, in cooperation with Auroville’s land fundraisers, this 8-minute film is a stirring call for completing Auroville’s body – its land.

“All of the issues are interconnected,” says Krishna on a sultry summer afternoon, when asked about Solitude Farm’s Circle Garden Project. “The issue of water, the issue of land use, the question of why there is a stockpile of Auroville-grown rice sitting at Annapurna Farm, the question of our relationship to food and where it comes from.