Auroville – a down-to-earth Utopia

Auroville – A Down-to-Earth Utopia

City of Dawn

Auroville in Tamil Nadu, Southern India is an experimental township based on spiritual principles and ideals of wholeness. Approximately 3218 people from 59 nations live and work there. Plus – over the years – many thousands of short- & long-term guests and friends from all over the world.

Fueled by the spiritual impulse of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and envisioned in very specific words 1954 in “The Dream” by Mira Alfassa – known as The Mother – Aurobindo’s companion:

“There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme Truth … “.

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The Dream

There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme Truth;

A place of peace, concord and harmony where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount his weaknesses and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities;

A place where the needs of the spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasure and material enjoyment.

In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their souls; education would be given not for passing examinations or obtaining certificates and posts but to enrich existing faculties and bring forth new ones. In this place, titles and positions would be replaced by opportunities to serve and organise; the bodily needs of each one would be equally provided for, and intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority would be expressed in the general organisation not by an increase in the pleasures and powers of life but by increased duties and responsibilities.

Beauty in all its artistic forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be equally accessible to all; the ability to share in the joy it brings would be limited only by the capacities of each one and not by social or financial position.

For in this ideal place money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing. There, work would not be a way to earn one’s living but a way to express oneself and to develop one’s capacities and possibilities while being of service to the community as a whole, which, for its own part, would provide for each individual’s subsistence and sphere of action.

In short, it would be a place where human relationships, which are normally based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in doing well, of collaboration and real brotherhood.

The earth is certainly not ready to realize such an ideal, for mankind does not yet possess the necessary knowledge to understand and accept it nor the indispensable conscious force to execute it. That is why I call it a dream. Yet, this dream is on the way of becoming a reality. That is exactly what we are doing on a small scale, in proportion to our modest means. The achievement is indeed far from being perfect, it is progressive; little by little we advance towards our goal, which, we hope, one day we shall be able to hold before the world as a practical and effective means of coming out of the present chaos in order to be born into a more true, more harmonious new life.

Formulated for Auroville in 1954 by Mira Alfassa, known as “the Mother”, companion of Sri Aurobindo, the founder of Integral Yoga

Auroville was inaugurated in 1968 with the participation of the United Nations and the Indian Government. young people from 124 Nations brought a handful of earth from their homelands to symbolize the dream of Human Unity.

The Charter of Auroville, as formulated by the Mother, set forth the intention and goal of this experiment:

“Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But, to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.

Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.

Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.

Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.”

20 square miles of barren desert-like land near the ocean was given to start this utopian endeavor. A hard place to start, this dream attracted a special kind of pioneer souls from all over the world who did the backbreaking work of re-greening, replanting the land and building the dream of the town from scratch – literally mostly with their bare hands.

Fifty years later it is a green abundant jungle with hundred different settlements, individual communities, spread out over some 20 square kilometers, each of which has a different size, style and standard of living, plus level of interaction and agreement among its residents.

Unity in diversity, an Experiment in Human Unity.

This is the Dream, the Utopia, the work-in-progress, the Art of Auroville.

Twenty years ago i have been there the last time. Twenty years and it feels still like yesterday. Cause Auroville is in my heart, so to say. For me it is a place that i consider my “spiritual hometown”, but more than that it is also a state of mind.

This is my lovesong to Auroville:

i carry your heart with me
i carry it in my heart
i am never without it
anywhere i go you go, my dear
and whatever is done by only me
is your doing, my darling Auroville

Of course, thats the famous love poem by E.E. Cummings, i just changed it a little : )

But besides all the love, as everyone who has lived there for a while knows, Auroville is not an easy place to be, no place to hang around in the hammock all day.

A lot of projects, a lot of work, a lot of heat and sweat and monsoon rain, a lot of different points of view, a lot of strong individuals, a lot of different national characteristics, a lot of languages, a lot of strife for consensus……

It can be confusing for newcomers to find out: what is this all about, where is the town, whats going on?

So now, rather than me talking, i would rather let the Aurovillians tell about their reality and let the pictures tell more than a thousand words.

The Matrimandir, at the geographical center of Auroville is also the expression of the Spiritual Center, the Pure Consciousness radiating out.

It serves as the central Meditation Hall, a hall of Silence.

Auroville maintains a comprehensive website that aims to document many different aspects of the life and the people there.

Also, in case you have specific questions, i will be happy to answer them – to the best of my limited knowledge. Just contact me riedercris@gmail.com

The Journey

… into the Unknown and beyond

Auroville – a down-to-earth Utopia