By Prof Sehdev Kumar
AUROVILLE (India): For a millennia, in every corner of the earth, in one manner or another, we humans have dreamt of ‘the City on the Hill’ – a place where the earth could touch the heavens, however fleetingly. And where we could live with others in harmony, in true brotherhood, with generosity and with a sense of celebration.
Such “Intentional Communities” are sometimes inspired by a certain religious vision or by a charismatic teacher; by a commitment to a political ideology or by an indignant rejection of the seemingly mundane and the meaningless.
During the turbulent decade of the 1960s, when the ‘East’ – India specifically – began to stir the spirit and the imagination of many young people in the West, one such community began to rise on the south-east coast of India, near the former French colony of Pondicherry.
Inspired by the vision of Integral Yoga of the great poet-philosopher-sage, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), this community, known as Auroville, is certainly very unique and extraordinary.
With some 3200 men, women and children, from over 60 countries and from every continent, for the past 52 years, Auroville has been, and continues to be, a most inspiring experiment in human unity, beyond all distinctions of nations, religions, races, classes and ideologies.
What was once, in the 1960s, an arid and denuded piece of land, without any hint of greenery anywhere, over the years and decades, through the effort and commitment of thousands of ‘spiritual seekers’ from all around the world, Auroville has now become one of the most sumptuously cultivated forest in the world.
It is also evolved into a place of true welcome to all those who seek a different relationship with each other, with the earth, and with their own beings, in all its vastness.
The idea and vision of Auroville was conceived by a French artist-mystic, Mirra Alfassa (1878-1973), hailed as ‘The Mother’.
She had traveled to India more than fifty years earlier, at the beginning of the First World War, in 1914, and had become, over the years, a spiritual associate of Sri Aurobindo, and a true instrument of his vision.
On February 28, 1968, at the founding of Auroville, as 5,000 people gathered around a banyan tree, representatives from 124 nations, and from all states of India, placed soil from their homelands in a lotus-shaped urn, signifying human unity in a universal township.
On this occasion, The Auroville Charter, written and enunciated by The Mother, was read in 16 languages. It stated, in part:
Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.
But to live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual research for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.
Indeed, as one cineaste and photographer of Italian origin puts it: “I can feel my humanity blossoming here every day. Here I feel less and less Italian and more and more human, without borders, at all times.”
On a visit from Canada, I first discovered Auroville, quite by chance, six years ago. Since then it has become increasingly a true home for my wandering spirit and feet.
Dotted with numerous pieces of innovative architecture, with places to create and share music and dance, pottery and sculpture, poetry and drama, and to learn about all aspects of the mysteries of our lives, inner and outer, Auroville as a place and a community is endlessly intriguing and enchanting. In its 145-seat Cinema Paradiso, for instance, there are over 380 films from 100 countries that are shown every year, without any entry fee.
As someone who has taught International Films at the University of Toronto for years, this cinema itself is reason enough to be drawn to Auroville.
It is thus Auroville and its unique experiment in human unity is supported by UNESCO, and by the Indian government and by the others.
Because of Covid-19, most unexpectedly I have now been in Auroville staying in a guesthouse, for a year. But I feel truly blessed to be ‘stranded’ in such a splendid place – a primordial forest, with a truly international family, caring and loving in every conceivable way, and celebrating life in all its abundance.
(Prof Sehdev Kumar has lectured on `International Cinema and Human Condition’ at the University of Toronto)
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