Auroville
Dear friends, now that we are going to have the International Meeting ¨ Holistic education is possible ”, in Auroville, India, we are going to publish a series of newsletters about this incredible experience that Auroville represents, both in the field of education and in the growth of the human being in general, of society and of the planet. The following texts are excerpted from the book “AUROVILLE UN DREAM COME TRUE.
Many thanks to the entire Auroville team that makes the end of the year meeting possible. And to those who can't go, we stay together mentally and "heartily." We will share all the possible information and all the good energies so that the dreams of those who preceded us, ours and those of today's children and young people are gradually embodied in our beloved Planet Earth. The matter is worldwide there is no doubt, and our actions, local, there is no doubt either. It is a daily work, without stopping, wherever we are, with steps of ants but with a very big vision. Together we will do it, there is no doubt.
A dream that comes true
The Auroville project, located approximately 12 km north of Puducherry in southern India, was officially inaugurated on February 28, 1968 in order to become a universal city dedicated to the realization of the ideal of Human Unity
The founder of Auroville, a French woman Mira Alfassa, born in Paris who would later be known as The Mother after taking over the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo in Puducherry, followed her development closely until his transit in 1973.
Auroville letter
1. Auroville does not belong to anyone in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.
2. But to live in Auroville, you have to be a voluntary servant of Divine Consciousness.
3. Auroville will be the place of lifelong education, constant progress and a youth that never gets old.
4. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all external and internal discoveries, Auroville will boldly launch into future realizations.
5. Auroville will be a laboratory of material and spiritual experimentation to give a living body to a specific human unit.
In 1954 Mother wrote the following text, which was originally intended for the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo where she saw a practical ground to carry out this vision. In 1965 Mother decided to start the Auroville project to continue manifesting El Sue o on a broader platform.
A dream
A dream There should be somewhere on earth a place that no nation could say: it is mine; where all human beings of good will having a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world, obeying only one authority: that of the supreme truth; a place of peace, harmony and harmony, where all the warrior instincts of the human being would be used exclusively to overcome the causes of their sufferings and miseries, to overcome their weaknesses and their ignorance, to overcome their limitations and disabilities ; a place where the needs of the spirit and the achievement of progress will prevail over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasures and material enjoyment.
In that place, children could grow and develop integrally without losing touch with their soul
The training would be given, not with a view to passing exams or obtaining certificates and positions, but to enrich existing faculties and develop new ones. In that place, the titles and categories would be considered as possibilities of serving and organizing. The basic needs of the body would be equally provided to all, and intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority would be translated into the general organization, not by an increase in the pleasures and powers of the life, but for an increase in duties and responsibilities. Beauty in all its artistic forms: painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be accessible to all equally, the possibility of participating in the joys that it provides would be limited only by the incapacity of each one and not by the social or financial position.
Because in that ideal place, money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual merit would be of much greater importance than material wealth and social class. There work would not be a means of making a living, but a means to express and develop one's own abilities and possibilities, while offering a service to the group, which in turn would provide the necessary things for existence and the field of action of each.
In short, it would be a place where human relationships, which are usually based almost exclusively on competition and struggle, would be replaced by relationships of mutual encouragement to do better, collaborative and real fraternity. ” (The Mother, 1954).
Why Auroville
A few years later, in 1969, Mother became aware of a manuscript by Satprem, a close disciple, addressed to students from all over the world who at that time expressed their rebellion. She would give him the title: Answer to Why Auroville?
It is the time of the GREAT SENSE.
This is what the Great Sense tells us: [...]. The Great Sense, the True Sense tells us that the human being is not the final goal. What we want is not the triumph of the human species, nor the improvement of the intelligent gnome - it is another being on earth, another species among us.
Sri Aurobindo said it: the human being is a BEING OF TRANSITION. We are in full transition, whose visible signs are visible everywhere: in Biafra, Bosnia, Israel, or in the 'Gulf'.
The Great Sense, the True Sense tells us that the only thing worth doing is to start working to find the secret of the transition, the "great passage" to the new being - as one day we could find the passage of the ape to man - and to collaborate in our own evolution instead of going round and round and trapping false powers to reign over a false life.
But where is the spring, the lever of the Transmutation?
- It's inside us.
There is a Consciousness within, there is a Power within, the same that propelled the dinosaur, the crab, the ape, and the human being - that still drives, that wants to go beyond, that dresses itself in an increasingly perfected way as Your instrument grows, it creates its own shape. He is the lever of Transmutation. Instead of letting evolution evolve through millions of unsuccessful attempts, painful useless deaths and manipulated revolutions that revolutionize nothing, we can shorten time, we can make concentrated evolution - be the conscious creators of the new Being. ”
Having the courage to descend to our hearts ... and everything is possible.
This newsletter is partially taken from the book
AUROVILLE A DREAM COME TRUE
Texts in quotes: La Madre and Sri Aurobindo
Author: Alain G.
Publication: PRISMA
Translation: Victoria and Sharanam
With the kind authorization of its authors.
Recommended bibliography in English
The Auroville Hand Book, covers in detail almost everything that exists or is happening in the city.
Auroville in a Nutshell (Auroville Resume)
Auroville Architecture (Architecture in Auroville).
