Intentional communities can be hard for outsiders to understand and this is certainly true of Auroville, an experimental township in South India whose purpose is to realize human unity in diversity. Also known as the City of Dawn, Auroville was envisioned as a self-sustaining town of 50000 residents where all people could live in peace and harmony without politics, religion or money. Founded in 1968 just north of the town on Puducherry, the city was supposed to be completed in 10 years but is still in progress 52 years later. Progress may have been slow, but the dream of Auroville lives on and successes have been made in greening and reviving the previously barren environment. A remarkable aspect about Auroville is the fine line it manages to walk between a new age utopia and a respectable experiment in sustainable living.
Creating a town for all of humanity
Auroville was first conceptualized by Indian guru and philosopher Sri Aurobindo and later founded by his successor Mirra Alfassa, a French woman better known as The Mother who was worshiped as the female incarnation of the divine. 5000 people from 124 countries and all Indian states attended the inauguration ceremony on February 28th, 1968, when soil from all of their countries was mixed together in the lotus-shaped Urn of Human Unity that today is found in the center of the town.
The Mother’s vision is stated in the Auroville Charter that guides the life of the township. The Charter states that Auroville belongs to no one in particular and rather to humanity as a whole, and that Auroville will be a place of unending education and progress, the bridge between the past and future, and a site of material and spiritual research for human unity. As Auroville belongs to all of humanity, anyone can become a resident of Auroville. However, potential residents are required to have a trial of at least one year and be willing to leave behind attachments to material possessions, religion and politics. Moreover, the Charter states that “to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.”
Auroville is envisioned as a place where individuals are worth more than money or material wealth, and the goal is to develop a new socio-economic model where every one contributes according to his or her abilities. All Aurovillians are required to volunteer five hours per day, and there should be no monetary transactions between Aurovillians. Work should not be a way to earn a living but rather to express oneself in a way that develops one’s capacities and serves the community.
Auroville was founded on a batch of barren desert and so the everything had to be built from scratch. The master plan of the city is centered around the Peace Area that includes Auroville’s most famous landmark: the Matrimandir, a giant golden domed temple where silence is absolute. Radiating from this center are the four zones of the city area: the Residential, Cultural, Industrial and International Zones. These zones provide space not only for living, but also space for research, artistic expression, and demonstration of human unity. The city zones are surrounded by a wide Green Belt that contains organic farms, forests, a botanical garden, a seed bank and water catchments.
Auroville as an experiment in sustainable living
A lot of talk about spiritual aspects and divine consciousness can make Auroville sound like a new age cult, but on the ground lack of materialism is resulting in some interesting research in how people can live together in a more sustainable way. Over the years Auroville has attracted a variety of people, projects and NGOs that are conducting research and projects in topics such as renewable energy, sustainable building, permaculture, land restoration and community outreach. These projects support Auroville’s goal towards self-sufficiency.
Reforestation in particular has been an important aspect of Auroville since the beginning. The area used to be covered in tropical dry evergreen forests, but colonial policies caused massive deforestation in the 19th and 20th centuries as wood was needed for construction and exporting. When the pioneers of Auroville came to the site, they found only barren and eroded land and they saw there was a dire need for reforestation. More than two million trees have been planted in Auroville since 1968, completely transforming the landscape, and the forest is now ecologically vibrant and naturally regenerating.
Auroville is however far from self-sustaining and moneyless, with most residents live on savings or money they have earned somewhere else. Auroville is home to some 3000 residents from 60 countries today, but this is a far cry from the envisioned 50000 residents. The center of town feels very quiet, with many small shops and cafes instead surrounding the township on the outskirts. But even though progress has been slow, the dream of Auroville as a self-sustaining universal town remains. Utopia has simply made way for reality, while simultaneously becoming more current in the 21st century when humanity needs to find ways to live together in a more sustainable way.
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