Near Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu is the Universal International City of Auroville. It is a human laboratory, its inhabitants are inhabitants of the world, they do not belong to a country.
It all starts with the Hindu mystic Sri Aurobindo and the French Mirra Alfassa, who would later be known as The Mother. They know each other and do a lot of spiritual work together. Aurobindo had visions about creating a special city, and I'm sure the two of them talked about it many times. The day came when Aurobindo died and the Mother created an Ashram with the name of this teacher.
Sometimes we have wishes, and we don't do enough to make our wishes come true. But if that wish is from our teacher, from that person whom we deeply venerate, we do everything possible for that dream to see the light. That is likely to have happened to The Mother, who made Aurobindo's dream come true.
And how did he do it?
It was not easy, he presented the project to the UN, UNESCO accepted it, the Indian government also accepted it, finally, after hard work, the city was inaugurated with representatives from more than 100 countries who gathered a little land from each country as a symbol of universal brotherhood.
And why do something like that?
La Madre creates this place so that people with different beliefs or religions can enjoy a community life in peace, in harmony, in a place that belongs to everyone, that there is no private property. A place where it can be shown that unity in diversity is possible. But there is something else, which is rarely mentioned when talking about Auroville.
Living here can be quite similar to living, for example, in Hamburg. You work, you relate to people that some of you will fall fatally, you go to the movies, meditate or do yoga you can do it in both places. In Hamburg there is pressure because you have to pay the rent, and in Auroville there is pressure because you have to contribute something to the community. It can even be said that there is consumerism in both places, perhaps at a different level, but there is. So why live here?
All this that we have said would be the external appearance of a person, and what Auroville brings you is a change inside you. In Auroville, new ways of relating to others, to the world, are sought. Perhaps using the teachings of Master Aurobindo, his integral yoga, new ways are sought to be able to take an evolutionary step, to reach a new dimension, to be able to realize that your soul aspires to something different, and this is something you feel when you approaches the Matrimandir.
In Auroville you have to live with your feet on the ground, which is sometimes not easy, but looking for that evolutionary step of humanity. Aurobindo's integral yoga is a reference in Auroville. In order for this yoga to reach the world consciousness, a kind of human laboratory is needed, like a small humanity, where the exterior and interior of the human being can be seen. And that is, or should be, Auroville. So here there is no specific religion, but there is a kind of philosophy of life, where you try to develop in the person his physical part, his emotional part, his intellectual part and his spiritual part. It is like a path towards perfection, towards evolution. That's the bottom of Auroville.
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Images used under CC license by Premasagar, Aravind Sivaraj, Jasper van Osnabrugge, Auroville video Productions, thierry ehrmann, Annette Philp, brainfever media productions, Barry Pousman, Ernesto Perez, Sudanshu Goyal, Vladimir Buynevich, Ashley Bristowe, and InOutPeaceProject
21 авг 2024
