ISSUE 12 | DECEMBER 2019
peace and goodwill" and that it
is "a unique symbol of human
unity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
visited the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram and Auroville on 25th
February 2018. After a
meditation in the Matrimandir
and participation in some
functions he gave a speech in
the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium.
He referred to the Auroville
Charter and basic principles of
the life in the community. Then
he said, "Indian society is
fundamentally diverse. It has
fostered dialogue and a
philosophic tradition. Auroville
showcases this ancient Indian
tradition to the world by
bringing together global
diversity." At the end of his
speech he expressed his wish
that Auroville may continue
developing and supporting new
and creative ideas for India and
the whole world.
The brief story of
Auroville
The township near Pudducherry
that was envisaged as
'belonging to nobody in
particular and belonging to
humanity as a whole' is at the
half-century mark. For five
decades its residents have given
up personal wealth and
immersed themselves in service
to the community. It is as good
a time as any to evaluate the
successful and not-so-
successful results of this
experiment in 'spiritual
communism.'
BIKERS CLUB ® | MAGAZINE | PAGE 36
As we drove down a dirt track,
Balu Ramalingam pointed to a
tree stump that was nearly fully
hidden by the surrounding thick
foliage and said ruefully that, but
for a recent cyclone that ripped
off many trees like this one, the
forest would have been denser.
Denser? It was already so thickly
forested that barely any sunlight
filtered through the canopy and,
though the mud track was less
than a kilometer from the
highway, you couldn't hear the
toot of even a single motor horn
- not quite the scene you'd
expect to find barely 165 km
south of Chennai. We are inside
Auroville, located in Viluppuram
district of Tamil Nadu, with some
parts falling in the union territory
of Pudducherry. Incredulity
shoots up when you learn that
the forest is entirely man-made,
the result of years of meticulous
silviculture. Three million trees
occupy 1,250 acres of afforested
land, which is half the area of
Auroville.
Fifty years ago, this was a sun-
scorched, barren land on which
stood a solitary banyan tree. The
transformation began when
around 300 foreigners settled
here, answering a call from 'The
Mother' Blanche Racheal Mirra
Alfassa. Driven by a spiritual
quest, Alfassa left her home in
France for good in the 1920s and
arrived at the Aurobindo Ashram
near Pudducherry (earlier
Pondicherry). She soon came to
be recognised as the 'spiritual
collaborator' of the
ashram's founder, the
Cambridge educated Bengali
freedom fighter turned
spiritual reformer Sri Aurobindo.
After the seer passed away in
1950, Alfassa continued his work
in the ashram.
On February 28, 1968, she
embarked on what would prove
to be her lifelong quest - the
creation of Auroville, an
experimental city in which
people from all over the world
could come and live in
"progressive harmony", casting
aside divisions of class, creed
and politics.
It was a place for people who
were dissatisfied, as she had
been, with the world. One of her
epigrams goes like this: "For
those who are satisfied with the
world as it is, Auroville obviously
has no reason to exist."
Five decades later, Auroville is
still evolving as per it's Master
Plan, but has grown into a city -
well, a city of sorts, because it is
still missing several urban
features - there is no police
station, for instance, nor a
courtroom. Few roads are paved
and most others have been
deliberately left unpaved,
unnamed and unlit. There is no
pub (those who want to drink
either do it surreptitiously or go
to Pudducherry next door),
there is no bus terminus or
railroad, no public transport,
and no temples, churches or
mosques.