Auroville - 40 Years

When I met my friend Savitri after her return from India, she handed over a big role of paper to me saying, “This is what I have brought for you from India.” I enrolled the copy of a special issue of the second-large Indian newspaper in English language “The Hindu” dated 28th February 2008 titled “Auroville - 40 Foundation Day”. On 28th February 1968 the inauguration ceremony of Auroville, the international community on the territory of Tamil Nadu recognised by UNESCO took place.

The “International […Auroville…] experiment in Human unity” (Pratibha Patil, Devising Patil President, in her article in “The Hindu”) only existed on the drawing table according to the guidelines of The Mother, as the spiritual companion of Sri Aurobindo is called in India.

The Mother is the only personality originating from the west venerated as Guru in India. She had the vision that 50,000 people from all over the world once peacefully will live together in Auroville. Meanwhile the Auroville Foundation owns half of the territory needed to realise this.

In “The Hindu”s Special many personalities, including Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, were wishing all success to Auroville. All of them expressed their feelings of happiness that the spiritual, non-sectarian teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother worldwide are inspiring people to aim at establishing a world order based on peace, fellowship and commonality of diverse faiths.

During her 2008’s stay in Pondicherry my friend Savitri participated in the ceremonies and meditated in Matrimandir, which was declared open for this special occasion.

Savitri is named after the famous poem of Sri Aurobindo when she became disciple of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother many years ago. Every year she travels to Pondicherry for spiritual retreat. She then stays in a building named Golconde. The building was conceptualised by The Mother about 1937.

Nearly ten years she tightly cooperated with internationally renowned architects George Nakashima and Antonin Raymond. In 1945 Golconde was completed. Nowadays it is recognised as early beginning of modern architecture in India. In the building no electric or electronic objects are admitted, mobiles have to be cut off inside the building. For air-condition a meticulous system is using the fresh breezes from the coast. (http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/Gupta_color.pdf)

The Mother about Golconde:

“Golconde is not a guest house. It is a dormitory (dortoir) in which those who reside there can meditate and do their Sadhana in beautiful surroundings, in very fine rooms and with many of the little daily jobs done for them, to keep them more free for their Sadhana… In the old days, the Rishis used to live in the mountains and their disciples lived in the caves in these mountains. Golconde is the modern equivalent of the caves for the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo.” (http://sabda.sriaurobindoashram.org/pdf/news/nov2002.pdf)