Auroville,a dreamers dream,a visionaries vision,or a cultists cult?I'm still 12 kms from Auroville being bicycle rickshawed to the Ashram I will be staying at in Pondicherry.My rickshaw driver gauranteed me that he knew where it was.To get me in his rickshaw he said it would only cost me three rupees.I think he was drunk,at least he smelled like cheap Indian rum. Pondicherry is a well thought out city,that's what the signs say,yes there were signs all over town that read "Pondicherry is a well thought out city"I left Kodaikanal very early in the morning,had to change buses three times,so I was very tired by the time I arrived in Pondicherry.To tired to argue with my rickshaw driver,so I decided to go along for the adventure.He had to ask directions at least a half dozen times,pulled a U-turn right in the middle of MG road...you don't pull a u-turn in a "well thought out city" in India.We came within a pinch of getting run over by a big orange bus that had the letters J-E-S-U-S splashed across it in pink neon lettering.I screamed "ha,see that?,we almost got nailed to the cement by Jesus,brilliant!"By the time we arrived at the ashram,I was no longer tired,only curious at how much this early morning adventure was going to cost.He wanted 100 rupees,"what happened to our three rupee arrangement?"Almost getting run over by Jesus had given me the strength to hold my ground against the hustler posing as a rickshaw driver.So I offer him the change I have in my pocket,which came to a total of eleven rupees.He freaks out and pushes me...no guff!Readers I kid you not,the hustler pushes me right in front of an ashram,a spiritual house!This is not a "what would Larry do" situation,so I push past him and head to my room.He yells something at me in a strange yet beautiful language.
It's irresistibly cheap to rent a bicycle in Pondicherry,twenty rupees for the day, which comes to about fifty cents.So I pick up my Hercules old school cruiser and hit the road.My fifty cent rental had a warped front wheel and a bum pedal,I found this out after I was well on my way out of town.Threading my way through the chaotic mid-day traffic,passing a rigmarole of tea stalls,waving children,wild dogs,auto-rickshaws,juice stalls,soup stalls,cool drink points, Internet points,and all points in between.
There are approximately 1800 permanent residents living in Auroville.To live in Auroville one must meet a certain criteria or at least cultivate a higher consciousness.
In the Mother’s words, Auroville was to be “a universal township where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.” According to the Mother, “the purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.”
1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. 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.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.
· Inspirational leader: The guiding force behind the conceptualization and actualization of Auroville was Mirra Alfassa (1878-1973), commonly known as the Mother. She was born in Paris and after a childhood filled with several inner experiences and visions she travelled to Pondicherry in 1914 to meet Sri Aurobindo. After the First World War, she settled in Pondicherry alongside Sri Aurobindo, who recognized her as the embodiment of the ‘Supreme Mother’. She was instrumental in marshalling the group of Sri Aurobindo’s followers and setting up both the Aurobindo ashram and Auroville. This parallels the model in most attempts at communist countries – a great motivator and doer implementing the ideas of a great thinker.
It may be noted that the purpose of Auroville is to enable the attainment of the ‘Divine Consciousness’. This attainment is supposed to be facilitated by living in a community with the characteristics described above.
I wish I could have spent more than one day in Auroville,I got the feeling that there were quite a few highly intelligent and skilled people living here.Even though the land was purchased at the end of the 60's,they only really started to build on and cultivate it 15 years ago. So is Auroville the city of the future?Only time will tell,people keep on coming and Auroville is growing,slowly,but it's still growing.
There is so much emphasis put on the poverty and the poor people of India by the west,that we fail to notice how well Indian people live together.There is a billion people here,and they know how to work together and to solve problems together.Not only that,they also know how to find joy in the simple things that life has to offer.
Pondicherry at one time was a French colony,there is still quite a bit of the flavour left over from when it was occupied by France,such as architecture,food and the police wear cute red hats.I wanted to have a glass of red wine and I made it a mission to find a restaurant that has a croque madam on there menu.The wine was ok and the croque madam was second best to Anna's at Bonjour Brioche in Toronto.
For all those interested in learning more about Auroville here is there website www.auroville.org
It's irresistibly cheap to rent a bicycle in Pondicherry,twenty rupees for the day, which comes to about fifty cents.So I pick up my Hercules old school cruiser and hit the road.My fifty cent rental had a warped front wheel and a bum pedal,I found this out after I was well on my way out of town.Threading my way through the chaotic mid-day traffic,passing a rigmarole of tea stalls,waving children,wild dogs,auto-rickshaws,juice stalls,soup stalls,cool drink points, Internet points,and all points in between.
There are approximately 1800 permanent residents living in Auroville.To live in Auroville one must meet a certain criteria or at least cultivate a higher consciousness.
In the Mother’s words, Auroville was to be “a universal township where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.” According to the Mother, “the purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.”
1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. 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.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.
· Inspirational leader: The guiding force behind the conceptualization and actualization of Auroville was Mirra Alfassa (1878-1973), commonly known as the Mother. She was born in Paris and after a childhood filled with several inner experiences and visions she travelled to Pondicherry in 1914 to meet Sri Aurobindo. After the First World War, she settled in Pondicherry alongside Sri Aurobindo, who recognized her as the embodiment of the ‘Supreme Mother’. She was instrumental in marshalling the group of Sri Aurobindo’s followers and setting up both the Aurobindo ashram and Auroville. This parallels the model in most attempts at communist countries – a great motivator and doer implementing the ideas of a great thinker.
It may be noted that the purpose of Auroville is to enable the attainment of the ‘Divine Consciousness’. This attainment is supposed to be facilitated by living in a community with the characteristics described above.
I wish I could have spent more than one day in Auroville,I got the feeling that there were quite a few highly intelligent and skilled people living here.Even though the land was purchased at the end of the 60's,they only really started to build on and cultivate it 15 years ago. So is Auroville the city of the future?Only time will tell,people keep on coming and Auroville is growing,slowly,but it's still growing.
There is so much emphasis put on the poverty and the poor people of India by the west,that we fail to notice how well Indian people live together.There is a billion people here,and they know how to work together and to solve problems together.Not only that,they also know how to find joy in the simple things that life has to offer.
Pondicherry at one time was a French colony,there is still quite a bit of the flavour left over from when it was occupied by France,such as architecture,food and the police wear cute red hats.I wanted to have a glass of red wine and I made it a mission to find a restaurant that has a croque madam on there menu.The wine was ok and the croque madam was second best to Anna's at Bonjour Brioche in Toronto.
For all those interested in learning more about Auroville here is there website www.auroville.org
I added some photo's,the first one is of two bratty monkey's sharing a banana that they stole from me,the second photo is a beautiful layout of an assortment of colourful beads,and the third is a picture of my croque madam for those that said I better get used to rice and lentils for the next four months and the last is a dog,an Aurovillian dog,a healthy dog.Auroville has a dog adoption program, which sounds pretty normal to some,though unheard of in India.
2 comments:
Sure, they know how to live together, that's why the Hindus and Moslems split into two separate nations with the slaughter of millions in the process.
Sure, they know how to live together, that's why the Hindus and Moslems split into two separate nations with the slaughter of millions in the process.
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