Abstract
Started in 1968 on a circular patch of barren land of 1.6 mile radius in Tamil Nadu, India, Auroville was conceived as a city-state that belonged to humanity as a whole. Inhabitants of Auroville were united in a vision of human self-transcendence and integrality based in the teachings of the Indian yogi-philosopher Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual partner, Mirra Alfassa, aka the Mother. The praxis of this community lay in a collective yoga in which individual, culture, and environment were envisioned as components of a related growing consciousness in each subjective experience. As an international effort of alternative living, this experiment today comprises a population of about 2500 people embracing both indigenous and modern technological knowledge to actualize its subjective and objective ideals, producing an ethos and extended repercussions. This chapter will consider the work on land, water, and energy that has been a part of this praxis and the psychological, social and political implications of this work.
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Notes
- 1.
Sri Aurobindo was not alone among modern thinkers in positing such differences in kind of consciousness based on evolutionary emergentism. Henri Bergson and several thinkers following in his wake have made similar distinctions.
- 2.
“The Auroville Charter: A New Vision of Power and Promise for People Choosing Another Way of Life,” Auroville: The City of Dawn, accessed January 17, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/1.
- 3.
“Parc-a-charbon, Banyan tree, Ganesh Temple,” Karmayogi.net, accessed January 5, 2018, http://www.karmayogi.net/?q=life%26teachingsbook25.
- 4.
“Matrimandir - Soul of the City,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 17, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/678.
- 5.
Reminiscent of the term “diaphaneity” used by Jean Gebser (1986).
- 6.
Infinite related parallel paths converging in an aperspectival vanishing point, paradoxical, one and plural at the same time, hence indescribable and unknowable as object. This needs to be distinguished from an absolute perennialism, where a transcendental core of identifiable Sameness is sought for as the essence of all religions.
- 7.
Education – “Introduction,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/397.
- 8.
“Frequently Asked Questions on Education,” Aurovilla: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/3382.
- 9.
“There won’t be any exchange of money in Auroville. It is only with the outside world that Auroville will have money relations. Money will be no more the Sovereign Lord; individual value will have a greater importance than the value due to material wealth and social position.” (The Mother as quoted in Varuna, “Moneyless Society in Auroville,” accessed January 18, 2018, http://varuna.org.in/money-less-economy/moneyless-society-in-auroville. See also “For in this ideal place money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing. There, work would not be a way to earn one’s living but a way to express oneself and to develop one’s capacities and possibilities while being of service to the community as a whole, which, for its own part, would provide for each individual’s subsistence and sphere of action” in The Mother, “A Dream,” accessed January 18, 2018, quoted in https://www.auroville.org/contents/197.
- 10.
“The Mother envisioned social enterprises to be an integral part of life in Auroville and a means of financially sustaining the economy of the Auroville community. She designated one of Auroville’s four zones as the ‘Industrial Zone’, and gave it the name ‘Auroshilpam’. As this Sanskrit name connotes, industries in Auroville are mainly small-scale and pollution-free. Many of them deal with handicrafts. Auroville has around 170 enterprises proving employment to around 5000 people from the neighborhood” (statement on the Industrial Zone as carried in Auroville’s official website. “Social Enterprises in Auroville Context,” accessed January 18, 2018. https://www.auroville.org/contents/510.
- 11.
“The Cultural Zone,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/720.
- 12.
“Once, however, the connection [between the supermind and the material world] is made, it must have its effect in the outward world in the form of a new creation, beginning with a model town and ending with a perfect world.” (The Mother 2003b: pp. 178–179).
- 13.
“Environmental Work,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/516.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
“Pebble Garden,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/2901.
- 17.
“Forest Group,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/2896.
- 18.
“Farming in Auroville,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/2876.
- 19.
“Annapurna, The Largest Certified Organic Farm in Auroville,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/2871.
- 20.
“Farming in Auroville,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/2876.
- 21.
“Auroville Farm Group (AVFG),” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/2878.
- 22.
“Auroville Centre for Scientific Research (CSR),” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/356.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
“The Solar Kitchen,” Auroville: City of Dawn, Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/513.
- 25.
“Auroville Centre for Scientific Research (CSR),” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/contents/356.
- 26.
“Architecture,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018.https://www.auroville.org/contents/3344.
- 27.
“Anupama Kundoo Architect,” accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.anupamakundoo.com/.
- 28.
“Anupama Jundoo Architect: Instalations,” accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.anupamakundoo.com/building-knowledge-an-inventory-of-strategies-15th-international-architecture-exhibition-la-biennale-di-venezia/.
- 29.
“Building with a View,” Anusha Parthasarathy, The Hindu, accessed January 18, 2018, http://www.thehindu.com/features/homes-and-gardens/design/building-with-a-view/article4537733.ece.
- 30.
“Architects,” Auroville: City of Dawn, accessed January 18, 2018, https://www.auroville.org/categories/53.
- 31.
“Auroville Village in Action,” Homepage, accessed January 18, 2018, http://www.villageaction.in/.
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Banerji, D. (2022). Auroville: Land, Technology and the Micropolitics of Integral Living in an Intentional Community. In: Sherma, R.D., Bilimoria, P. (eds) Religion and Sustainability: Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79301-2_29
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