...The Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) has already received expression of interest from 12 players, which include Supernova, Unitron Energy, Auroville and Vistar Electronics.

The capacity of these aero-generators is 2 Kwh to 10 Kwh and is in the ratio of 60:40, i.e., if the total capacity is 10 Kwh, 6 kwh will be generated by wind while 4 kwh by solar energy. -- These aero generators can be installed on rooftops and they work on solar energy during daytime and on wind at night. ...   more »

Princess of Thailand Maha Chakri Sirindhorn will arrive here on March 21 on a one-day visit to the town.

The Princess would visit the Village Resource Centre (VRC) of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) at Pillayarkuppam, one of the bio-villages of the foundation, and acquaint herself with the works and activities of the centre, official sources said on Thursday.

She would wrap up her prgrammes with a visit to the Auroville, a universal township, near here. ...   more »

Travelling through a challenging and progressive path in the last 40 years, Auroville is moving towards forming a new society, a new way of living. The world is closely looking at Auroville for its efforts to find a new society, a panel of Aurovillians said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference here, member of the Outreach Media team of Auroville, Mauna van der Vlugt, said mankind is looking for a new unifying approach to tackle issues such as climatic changes and population explosion. Human unity is the first step towards a better world.

With around 2,000 residents from more than 40 countries, the Auroville community has a double role, secretary of Auroville International, Friederike Muhlhans, said. “We have to bring Auroville in contact with the outside world and bring the world in contact with Auroville,” she added. ...   more »

Forty years after Auroville was inaugurated by Sri Aurobindo's leading disciple, Mirra Alfassa, popularly known as Mother, the new-age metropolis designed for 50,000 people today houses just about 3,000 people from 40 countries, with a floating population of temporary residents and transnational wanderers adding up to not more than 10,000. So is this the dusk of the 'City of Dawn'? Is Auroville a 1960s' idea whose time is past?

Member of the governing board Mallika Sarabhai, associated with Auroville for four years, disagrees. "I think it's a wonderful idea, even if a bit idealistic. True, Aurovillians have long way to go, and the world is changing fast. But it's in this fast changing world that the idealism of Auroville remains very much relevant."

Says another resident Claude Arpi, journalist and author, living here for the last 30 years, "I would say the biggest achievement of Auroville is that the project hasn't collapsed. The vision behind it is alive." ...   more »

The Maroma brand of incense, candles, joss sticks, perfumed sachets and air fresheners is well known worldwide. And it is manufactured right here in India, at Auroville in Puducherry.

The man behind Maroma is Paul Pinthon, a French pharmacist living in Auroville. Recalling his move to this spiritual commune from France, where he was working as an assistant chemist, he says he had felt "the call of Mother." Auroville's spiritual head.    more »

Roger Anger, chief architect of the international township of Auroville and member of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation, passed away on January 15 in France. He was 84 and is survived by his wife, daughter and grandchildren. Mr. Anger had been ailing for some time.

As the person who gave form to the Mother’s vision, Mr. Anger conceptualised the master plan of Auroville. Giving up commercial architecture, he dissolved his partnership in France to take up the Auroville project as a full-time work. A sculptor, artist, architect and planner, he designed the Matrimandir, the soul of Auroville. He was here in October last and was scheduled to come again towards the end of this month.

...The Auroville project, which began in 1964, was conceived by Sri Aurobindo’s French-born disciple, Mirra Alfassa — “The Mother.” She spoke of a place on earth that could not be claimed or owned by any nation, but where people from all over could live freely and in peace. ...    more »

Consisting of more than 100 settlements spread over 20 square kilometers, around 1900 residents from some 40 nations live together as one community in Auroville. Auroville was founded by the ‘Mother’, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo, in February 1968 as an international cultural township on the outskirts of Puducherry where a community of people of different nationalities, from different ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, could live and work together in a spirit of mutual respect and collaboration.

The true purpose of Auroville is a place for the realization of international understanding, peace and human unity in diversity based upon an inner discovery and transformation of consciousness, the way as shown by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. ...   more »

The project was based on a 'dream' of The Mother, spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, an Indian freedom fighter and philosopher who continues to inspire millions the world over. A few years earlier, she had written: "There should be somewhere on earth a place...where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world; a place of peace, concord..." Forty years later, one may ask: what has happened to her dream?

The first pioneers had their job cut out, to prevent further erosion. They did not have an easy life but their enthusiasm matched the tremendous difficulties. Their 'environmentally-friendly' actions (they planted millions of trees) were not moved by an ideology, nobody talked about 'ecology' in the 60s, but simply to get shade and prevent the sand storms.

Eventually they acquired some expertise; the world over, Auroville - The Mother called it the City of Dawn - is today synonymous with sustainable development, alternative energies and architecture. Ditto for those who began the first cottage industries, most of them had no prior skills in the field of handicrafts, they just needed to generate some income to build this "city the earth needs". It was much later that 'Auroville crafts' became a brand name. ...   more »

Auroville's development is inextricably intertwined with the surrounding villages, which are classified as part of a "most backward area in need of development" by the Tamil Nadu Government. There are 13 villages in the immediate area of Auroville, comprising about 40,000 people, and altogether 40 villages in the bioregional area. Some 350 people from the surrounding villages have joined or been born in Auroville.

Almost 5,000 local people are employed by Auroville, from sweepers to engineers; most of them have been trained in Auroville to improve their qualifications and skills. Most important is that Auroville provides for the young of this rural area a real and viable alternative to the migration to the cities and urban centers, which is so often the only option for those seeking self improvement and employment. ...   more »

Chairman of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation Karan Singh said on Sunday that the Pavilion of India had an active role to play in cultural and integration activities of Auroville.

Speaking after performing the ‘bhoomi pooja’ for a housing complex and Swagatham, a VIP guest house, Dr. Karan Singh said there were many groups working towards their goals and they could work on various topics.

He said there was a very high concentration of creativity in Auroville and added that the residents were pursuing a collective yoga. “People of different religions, castes, creeds and communities are living together. There will be some inter-personal conflicts in such a situation but they have to live and work together to create a sense of community.” ...   more »

The Minority institutions [in India] that were typically envisaged to enjoy the state’s protection were those which would actually serve to preserve minority languages, customs and traditions but the question is, are they fulfilling their mandate? ...

Let me end with an example from my own life. I studied in a school run by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The Ashram management in no sense of the term attempted to” convert” any one to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy but in every turn and gesture, they indicated in word and deed, that they cherished Sri Aurobindo and his successor, The Mother and their teaching wasn’t just lip service for them. Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is not easy to understand, but in the school assembly where his teachings were unabashedly taught, the school principal and other speakers made every effort to present them with passion and reverence and the atmosphere was live and electric and Sri Aurobindo’s thinking and influence was every where and it wasn’t phony.

My Ashram school of course wasn’t a minority institution, but to me it represents all that a minority institution should be. Its mandate was to promote the teachings and ideas of Sri Aurobindo and it did so earnestly and with compassion and grace. In the same way, the definition of what is a minority institution is not to be determined by who owns a piece of property or who sits in the board room but by the larger question ---- is the institution fulfilling its mandate? ...   more »

The Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) is a unique institution, possibly one of its kind in the world... It started functioning [in]1981, thanks to the foresight and initiative of Smt. Indira Gandhi... The main argument in favor of the ICPR is that among various pursuits and disciplines of knowledge that came to be developed during the course of the long history of India, philosophy stands out as the single most outstanding endeavor. The classical Indian contributions in philosophy rival the very best any where in the world. If there is one single area of Indian excellence which would command respect and attraction from the contemporary world, it would be none other than the profound wisdom that is contained in Indian thought. So, it was felt that philosophy deserved to have a special agency in the country to help move it forward to new heights of excellence... Conceived as a crucible for molding thoughtful minds generating ideas needed for India’s development consistent with its national ethos, funded generously by the Government of India and led effectively by a series of outstanding scholars, today, the ICPR stands out as a beacon of light illuminating the intellectual landscape of the nation...

Dr. Kireet Joshi was the Chairman of ICPR from 2000-06. He was also its Member - Secretary for (1981-1990) 10 years. He was Chairman of Auroville Foundation and vice-Chairman of Maharshi Sandipani Rashtria Veda Vidya Pratisthan. He was formerly Educational Adviser to the Government of India and Special Secretary in the Ministry of HRD during 1976 to 1988. He has authored and edited a number of books in the areas of Value-Oriented Education, Indian Culture, Yoga, Sri Aurobindo and Mother. ...   more »

...Urban utopias took a new avatar in Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti where architecture and environmentalism hit a new [level of] collaboration. Auroville near Puducherry is one such utopian vision conceived partly as an ashram retreat and partly like a rationally organised urban precinct. This book is a documentation of the urban development and architecture witnessed within Auroville since 1964.

Mirra Alfassa, popularly known as the Mother visualised Auroville as an urban experiment to "undertake the work of evolution of consciousness." She commissioned the French architect Roger Anger to give form to her vision. Anger came with a spiral plan that resembled a galaxy with the Matri-mandir at its centre. The entire city was divided into industrial, cultural, residential and international zones with a green belt encircling it. The town was designed for a population of 50,000. The book discusses the features of urban planning and architectural accomplishments in three sections. The first section briefly documents the important stages of Auroville's urban development. It reproduces some of the archival images, sketches and notes that illuminate the ideas leading to its conception. In the second part, the details of the plan, the various zones and important buildings within them are listed and described. The last section profiles the various architects who are part of Auroville and gives brief description of their important works and views. ...    more »

A toxic purple haze of diesel exhaust hangs over the rice and jute fields here in northeastern India, and bird songs are frequently drowned out by the chug-a-chug-a-chug of diesel generators. — Across the developing world, cheap diesel generators from China have become a favorite way to provide electricity. — They power everything from irrigation pumps to television sets, allowing growing numbers of rural villages in many poor countries to grow more crops and connect to the wider world. — But as the demand increases for the electricity that makes those advances possible, it is often being met through the dirtiest, most inefficient means, creating pollution in many remote areas that used to have pristine air and negligible emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases...

Another popular approach being tried in India and elsewhere -- using solar energy to recharge lanterns by day -- has run into difficulty even as diesel prices would seem to make it more competitive. — The problem is that prices for photovoltaic panels for solar energy have surged as governments in industrialized countries, especially Germany, have encouraged greater use of renewable energy, said Hemant Lamba, the coordinator of Aurore, a renewable energy service company in Auroville, India. — "It's harder to do any solar energy projects in India," he said. ...   more »

Click on the 'more >' link to see these beautiful new photos of the Matrimandir at Auroville, courtesy of Bhavana & friends:

Matrimandir is emerging from the soil of Auroville,

Inspiring the sky to also aspire

For That which is beyond the sky, beyond the soil,
beyond Auroville. ...   more »