Auroville wants to be the first realisation of
human unity based on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo, where men of all
countries would be at home.
Auroville
The city-in-the-making is located on the
Coromandel Coast in south India. It draws its inspiration from the
vision and work of the renowned Indian seer and spiritual visionary, Sri
Aurobindo. His spiritual collaborator, The Mother,
founded the township in 1968 and gave its Charter,
which you find scrolling on our homepage. The writings of these
visionaries, and the specific guidelines
for Auroville given by the Mother are crucial for in-depth understanding
of what is trying to be achieved in Auroville, a collective experiment
dedicated to human unity and international understanding.
Human Unity
"With the present morality of the human
race a sound and durable human unity is not yet possible; but there is
no reason why a temporary approximation to it should not be the reward
of strenuous aspiration and untiring effort. By constant approximations
and by partial realisations and temporary successes Nature advances",
writes Sri Aurobindo, and this reality stands central in Auroville and
acts as perpetual encouragement for the residents to persevere. During
all our meetings, deliberations and plannings, we are acutely aware of
how vast and how high our aim is, for "--- in it must be found
the means of a fundamental, an inner, a complete, a real human unity
which would be the one secure base of a unification of human life. A
spiritual oneness which would create a psychological oneness not
dependent upon any intellectual or outward uniformity."
Pondicherry
Auroville's location in south India is connected
with the fact that the Mother had been living in Pondicherry since 1920.
It was there, in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1964 that the idea of
Auroville was conceived. Both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother had expressed
in their earliest writings the necessity of starting, at some point, a
collective experiment under optimum conditions - ideally in the form of
a city - in order to create a bridgehead for a new consciousness which
was seeking to manifest in the world. The Ashram itself, formally
created in 1926, was a first attempt in that direction. It was only in
1964 that the Mother felt that the time had come for such a bold
experiment to be started on the bigger scale of a township.
The name 'Auroville' was given in homage to Sri Aurobindo, while also
meaning 'City of Dawn'. The idea was recognised and taken up by the
Government of India. A location near to Pondicherry was found. The time
was right, the wheel set in motion, and support started coming in. The inauguration
took place on February 28th, 1968.
Worldwide support
Since the very beginning, Auroville has received
the unanimous endorsement of the General Conference of UNESCO
in 1966, 1968, 1970 and 1983. Governmental and Non-Governmental
Organisations in India and abroad have funded various development
programmes, and donations have been received from foundations
in Europe and the USA, from Auroville
International Centres, and from private donors around the world. The
residents themselves have also made, and continue to make, a major
contribution of their resources and energy to the project.
Multifarious activities
Auroville is intended as a city for up to 50,000
inhabitants from around the world. Today its inhabitants number around
1,500 people, drawn from some thirty countries. They live in 100
settlements of varying size, separated by village and temple lands and
surrounded by Tamil villages with a total population of over 35,000
people. Their activities are multifarious, and include afforestation,
organic agriculture, educational research, health care, village
development, appropriate technology, and building construction,
information technology, small and medium scale businesses, town
planning, water table management, cultural activities and community
services.
Independent legal body
In 1988, the Government of India passed the Auroville
Foundation Act to safeguard the development of Auroville according
to its Charter. This Act established three constituent bodies: the
Governing Board, which would oversee the development of the township in
collaboration with its inhabitants, the Residents Assembly and the
International Advisory Council, which can provide international support
and advice, when required, to the Governing Board.
Faith in humanity's future
As the world is rapidly changing and groping for
new paradigms to re-model itself, so Auroville stands poised at the
start of a new millennium, ready to enter a new phase of its development
and growth, and aware of a new flowering of the faith in humanity's
future that it represents.
For a comprehensive overview of activities in the
township, go to The
City the Earth needs
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