Auroville city

A dozen miles north of Pondicherry, To live there you will need to give up some of the comforts you may have grown accustomed to. No drinking, no smoking, and very little in the way of personal property is allowed here. You can’t own your own house; business and money is communal. Even more than goods, you will have to leave behind ideas: No politics or religion are allowed in this town. Welcome to Auroville, the self-proclaimed “city of the future” and the “city of dawn.” Despite being in a rural region of India, this experimental community was started by a Westerner. The “spiritual companion” of famous Indian independence-fighter, philosopher, and yogi Sri Aurobindo, Mirra Alfassa was a Jewish occultist and spiritualist born to an Egyptian mother and a Turkish father in Alfassa established Auroville in 1968—a good year for experimental utopias—and on February 28th, 1968, roughly 5,000 people from 124 countries gathered to mix soil from their countries to mark the founding of a town that “belongs to humanity as a whole.” Wanting her community to be a “universal township” meant to exist outside of nations, creeds, politics, religion, and economics—though one could say Auroville has all these things, just of their own making – Alfassa hoped that this new city would help bring Earth to a new consciousness of the “supramental.” Intended to house 50,000, the city centers around a giant golden geodesic dome known as the “Matrimandir” or Mother Temple. Within the golden Mother T...

Auroville is a city which is located in Tamil Nadu and lies very close to Pondicherry. The city itself was born on the 28 th of February 1968 when its founder, the Mother created the Auroville Charter. The Charter comprises of four main ideas which later formed the vision of Auroville. Reading the Auroville charter is inspiring in itself. In fact, it was the core concept that drove me to badger Shawn to make a pit-stop on the way. The essence of the Auroville Charter is that the city belongs to no one in particular. On the contrary it belongs to everyone. Education here is unending and Auroville is to be the bridge between the past and the future. The city is also a site for material and spiritual research. From all that it says, and after visiting the place, it is obvious that Auroville opens its arms irrespective of who you are and where you come from. That is what made me want to visit the city so badly. As You Enter Auroville A miniature replica of Auroville. You will find that Auroville is buzzing with activity from the moment you set your foot in it. You can park you vehicle in the visitors parking lot and you have to pay a nominal parking fee. The parking lot was big and even though we arrived on a weekend, there was no issue with finding a parking spot. As you enter into Auroville, you will notice that the foyer is covered with different reading material. There are diagrams and models that serve to explain the layout of the city. A short film gives you another pers...

Imagine a city free of crime, government, poverty, money, and hardship. This is the vision that built Auroville, a township in India dubbed ‘The City of Dawn’. Founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa (also known as The Mother), Auroville is meant to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity. Alfassa was inspired by the vision of Sri Aurobindo, the city’s namesake, an Indian nationalist and revolutionary, and later a yoga guru. Intended for about 50 000 people, Auroville now hosts about 2 500 people permanently and is visited by 5 000 tourists annually. Designed by architect Roger Anger, the city resembles a spiral. In the center of it stands the Matrimandir, a golden metallic sphere intended for meditation. Matrimandir is equipped by a solar power plant and surrounded by gardens. Radiating from this center are four “zones” of the City Area: the “Residential Zone”, “Industrial Zone”, “Cultural (& Educational) Zone” and “International Zone”. Around the City or the urban area, lies a Green Belt which is an environment research and resource area and includes farms and forestries, a botanical garden, seed bank, medicinal and herbal plants, water catchment bunds, and some communities. The Auroville City Charter is what keeps the community running almost half a century later: • Auroville belongs to nobody in particular...

Auroville is an international township located in Tamil Nadu, South India, just a few kilometers north of Pondicherry. The township focuses on “Human Unity”, where citizens of the world can live together in progressive harmony above politics, religion, and nationality. Auroville strives to be a model city of the future, to be as sustainable as possible. I spent time in Auroville during all three times that I traveled to Auroville was created based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa, or ‘The Mother.’ The concept of Auroville was born from The Mother’s visions of creating an international township centered around human unity. Excerpts of The Mother’s published writing, ‘A Dream’, describes the communal living that she had in mind when she first started shaping Auroville: In 1968, Auroville was inaugurated as an official township and endorsed by UNESCO. Members of 124 nations and 23 Indian states came and placed soil from their respective countries and regions into a marble urn. This urn is located today in the amphitheater at the center of Auroville. Between its inauguration and now, Auroville has grown to a township of 3000+ Aurovillians. Alongside volunteers, they have restored hundreds of acres of non-arable land, built countless guesthouses, schools, farms, and community buildings. The Matrimandir, a meditation chamber, was completed with its surrounding twelve gardens to serve as the spiritual center of the township. The Town Hall was made to serve as t...