Interesting Facts on Auroville

Auroville, the spiritual city, was the Mother’s greatest vision. This article takes a tour on the interesting facts on the spiritual city. It gives a bird’s eye view on the various stages that the city underwent during its culmination and construction.

The chief architect, Mr. Roger Anger (one of the foremost modern architects of France) put it, “we are building man, not just a city. Auroville wants to be new creation, expressing new consciousness in a new way and by new methods”. He said further, “we are already amid interesting experiments at the socio-economic level. Auroville is not to introduce the worn out labor-employer system. All are collaborators and all will be provided with facilities according to the peculiarity of needs. The residential houses are being financed by individuals, but they have agreed that the houses will belong to the community”.

The UNESCO has passed three resolutions supporting Auroville, unanimously, in 1966, 1968 and the latest being at it’s Paris session held during October-November 1970, wherein it requested the director general to take such steps as may be feasible within the budgetary provisions, to promote the development of Auroville as an important international cultural program.

Then by July 1974, there were about 300 voluntary workers on the Auroville site, representing India, France, USA, UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Africa, Mexico, Tunisia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

The Aurovillians live in communities in temporary houses according to their work and inclinations. One of the communities name “aspiration” is about to enlarge in to an advanced colony accommodating 200 inmates. Research is underway to improve the quality of the soil by using organic fertilizer and organic pesticides.

The school in the Auroville is a bold experiment of adventure of ideas. East and west meet here spontaneously; the local children read and play with those of the westerners, in complete ignorance of the so called racial differences. When the Auroville was started, there was no guarantee of the financial support. But the organizers had an undaunted faith in the goodwill of humanity and they knew that help would be forth coming sooner or later. Thus the Spiritual city was infrastructured to make the Mother’s dream true.

The Mother's Dream

Our city is well known for its spiritualism. The Auroville in our city is the epitome of Spiritualism and it’s beyond religion, caste and creed. This article throws light upon the Mother’s dream that marked the culmination of this splendid place.

“There should be some where upon the earth a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspiration, could live feely as citizens of the world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme truth, a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instinct of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities, a place where the needs of the spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction of desires and the passions, the seeking for material pleasures and enjoyment”.

The above words were the reflection of the Mother’s dream many years ago. It was when her experiment in developing a harmonious community in the Ashram was a success and when she felt that the world, deplorably imbalanced by a tremendous material achievement on the one hand and an utter lack of conscious ness on the other hand, badly needed a daring example of a sensible alternative, she gave the idea of finding a new city to the Aurobindo Society. In the world conference of the society, in 1964, the idea of Auroville crystallized. Preparations began almost immediately, on 28th February 1968 when a boy and a girl representing each country of the world put handfuls of earth of the country into a concrete urn, shaped like a lotus-bud, and that marked the foundation of Auroville. This solemn function was witnessed by an international gathering made up of consular representatives, world press and the youth who had come to participate in it, apart from several thousand people of the locality.

The Mother and Her Spiritual Guide Sri Aurobindo

Our union territory has got deep roots of spiritualism in its soil. The Aurobindo ashram marks the peak of the spiritualism in the city. The ashram was established by Sri Aurobindo and his most nearest spiritual disciple Mother. This article throws light upon the spiritual relationship between Mother and Sri Aurobindo along with few facts of Mother’s early life.

Mother’s name is Mira Alfassa and she was born in Paris on 21st February 1878. She was a child with a difference. She used to spontaneously meditate while she was very young and was conscious that she had a special mission on the earth. In her vision she used to see a spiritual guide. Herself being a profound genius, she had made a sketch of her spiritual guide. In 1914 when she saw Sri Aurobindo, she at once realized that it is whom she used to see in her vision. Mother spent few years in Algeria, exploring occult truths under the guidance of a couple: Theon, a polish adept and his French wife.

M. Paul Richard, Mother’s husband had visited Pondicherry soon after Sri Aurobindo’s arrival here and had been so deeply moved by him that he spoke to the audience in Japan soon thereafter. In 1914, the Mother, accompanied by her husband, came to Pondicherry and met Sri Aurobindo on 29th march. She at once realized that Sri Aurobindo was her spiritual collaborator. The Mother had to return to France due to exigencies of the First World War, in 1915, on 22 February. For the first time her birthday was celebrated in Pondicherry on the day before her departure i.e on 21 February.

Before she left her body, she launched Arya, a philosophical review. The first issue appeared on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday on 15th August 1914. It had French edition too, which was named as, Revue de la Grande Synthe’se. The French edition could not continue for long due to the First World War. The Arya serialized the major works of Sri Aurobindo and it continued till 1920. Thus, these are the most important facts that mark the start of the spiritual relationship between the Mother and the Aurobindo.