This is literally the last thing I expected on the front page!
My family are all based in Pondicherry and have very strong historical links with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Mother. And are also involved in the Auroville administration and management. I've been there a lot, I've stayed there, met many people who live there and work there.
And it's an unusual place. Some of the folks in Pondy call it "Horrorvile" because of the reputation of seediness that some residents are alleged to have (sex abuse of local children, if you want to know). There is also a unusual "un-Indian" feeling about the place because of the nationality of its residents (global).
However, I have met only nice people there, doing wonderful projects (solar bike sheds, environmentally-suitable architecture) and it is well worth a few visits.
On the other hand, there is quite a difference between the mission statement and the practice of its values. Money isn't really supposed to change hands for work and housing. This is bullshit; many people have commercial sidelines and housing does get bought and sold. Rules are there to be bent and of course, they are.
Some of the security staff can be real jobsworths and exceedingly officious, which can irritate people. And it feels a bit lawless in some regards, hovering uneasily between spirituality, cultishness and the Indian democracy.
It's a peculiar place. But you probably got that already.
J. Krishnamurti said it the best: "Belief has no place where truth is concerned."
I always view these types of movements with a lot of suspicion. Mainly because of the falsehoods they present. Self-realization is not something that can be taught by following someone else. You can spend your entire life looking for it in other people. But you have to experience it, to truly understand. You shouldn't even listen to what I'm writing here, as this entire comment could be a similar falsehood that detracts you in your search.
>"Auroville was born on 28 February 1968. Its founder, the Mother, created the Auroville Charter consisting of four main ideas which underpinned her vision for Auroville. When Auroville came into being, All India Radio (AIR) broadcast the Charter, live, in 16 languages. Aurovilians apply the ideas of the Auroville Charter in their daily life, in policy-development, and decisions, big and small. The Charter thus forms an omnipresent referent that silently guides the people who choose to live and work for Auroville.
The Auroville Charter
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 the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity."
Auroville is the product of a fringe spiritual movement, but not an outright cult. Back in the 1960s, Auroville was able to attract so much approval from representatives of various governments and the NGO world because the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were seen as relatively reasonable people, in spite of their utopian visions. As far as fringe spiritual movements go, Auroville is comparable to Rudolf Steiner, Gurdjieff, the spiritual side of the Esperanto movement, etc. which definitely have their share of critics but are large, institutionalized phenomena where people can enter or leave the movement as they please, and lives aren’t completely controlled and subjected to the whims of a single living leader or a committee thereof.
Also, when you actually visit Auroville, you find that it has splintered into disparate communities that sometimes outright dislike one another. Again, this seems very different from cults, which tend to insist on forced unity and orthodoxy among its membership.
I remember there being some slightly strange rules you had to agree to in order to stay there (e.g. no sex) but the "staff" (don't know if they were employees or devotees?) were welcoming and the accommodations were great. The compound is right on the Bay of Bengal and sleeping in that room with the windows open and the waves crashing was an experience I'll never forget.
When I was there, I learnt that Auroville share a lot with Sri Aurobindo and the Holy Mother, but the ashram/compounds in Pondicherry doesn't have as much to do with Auroville itself these days as it did back in the 60s-70s.
You'd think there was some seedy truth to the place but an ex of mine had family involved in the administration of the place and I've been there (both before I knew her and after). Quite a charming place in reality.
Though I'm told everything almost fell apart after a founder or big leader died and the government had to step in. It's the Indian government so usually that's a disaster but this one seems to have turned out okay.
Anyway, it's unlikely the website can handle an average company let alone HN so mirrors:
I've been there twice. I'd say it is very hippy, and there's a lot of bunk floating around - I saw a water cooler that dispensed "smart water enhanced with classical music" - but that's a given for any place that has to do with spiritual enlightenment. I wouldn't say it was racist, though, but from personal experience most of the foreigners I saw were white and seemed well off. IMO it's neither as bad as /r/india makes it out to be nor as good as some of the commenters here are saying it is.
I would take anything said by r/india with a pinch of salt. In fact, I would reccomend staying away from most main stream Indian subreddits. Each one is peddling some kind of disgusting agenda.
It's kind of sad what happened to r/india. I've been visiting the sub for almost a decade, it has turned from a rather relaxed community where people could talk to a hyper political fighting arena where you can only be a right/left wing shill.
The ban-hammer heavy moderation doesn't really help. I would post this criticism on the subreddit itself, but it would be removed as any criticism of the sub/mods is against the rules and is automatically caught by the AutoMod.
The sub seems to really be in favor of progressive skeptical thinking but the manner in which the mods operate the subreddit is exactly the opposite.
I have met many people from Auroville (or maybe Aurovillians as some would say).
I have a mixed feeling about Auroville too like some other comments here. I have visited couple times. But never actually got what they are trying to do. This is another part.
But I want to mention, TBH: It is like ANY OTHER ASHRAMS or communal living, I would say. Even to the one I visit often. People are different, sometimes they are nice and sometimes they behave downright silly and rude.
That said, it could be a practice if you take it that way :)
They are much more precious for you in the long run if you are into spiritual practice.
It's like Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo puts it
"Instead of seeing other people as an obstacle to our path, we recognize that they are the path. That learning on how to deal skillfully especially with unskilfuled people is how we learn, how we grow and how to begin to mature."
I grew up in Pondicherry, went to Pondicherry Engineering College (class of 99). I used to bike up from college to Matrimandir a lot of weekends for meditation. There are several communities within Auroville and they each operate kind of independently. Some of them welcome guests to stay with them, and I have stayed with a number of communities. So, what accusation may be true for one community may not be true for other communities.
In the middle of all of that, I found Sadhana forest to be a wonderful community in Auroville that is far away from the madness of Matrimandir both physically and spiritually. Aviram and his family, along with volunteers, are doing a fantastic job of reforesting the area west of the Tindivanam highway. If you are going, once we are past this global Covid19 pandemic that is, I would highly recommend a volunteering stay at Sadhana forest.
I went there, it’s pretty weird if I’m honest. I felt as if I was living in an Indian Hitchcock film. It felt as though there were people who were tourists and people who lived there and they were very separate. I have this feeling the whole place is a riddle, I’d like to go back and try to understand it again...
> I’d like to go back and try to understand it again
There's a book called "Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness" by a guy named Satprem, which pretty much gives you the founding story of the place.
Caveat - Satprem was a disciple, so this is not a view from the outside.
Readit News
My family are all based in Pondicherry and have very strong historical links with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Mother. And are also involved in the Auroville administration and management. I've been there a lot, I've stayed there, met many people who live there and work there.
And it's an unusual place. Some of the folks in Pondy call it "Horrorvile" because of the reputation of seediness that some residents are alleged to have (sex abuse of local children, if you want to know). There is also a unusual "un-Indian" feeling about the place because of the nationality of its residents (global).
However, I have met only nice people there, doing wonderful projects (solar bike sheds, environmentally-suitable architecture) and it is well worth a few visits.
On the other hand, there is quite a difference between the mission statement and the practice of its values. Money isn't really supposed to change hands for work and housing. This is bullshit; many people have commercial sidelines and housing does get bought and sold. Rules are there to be bent and of course, they are.
Some of the security staff can be real jobsworths and exceedingly officious, which can irritate people. And it feels a bit lawless in some regards, hovering uneasily between spirituality, cultishness and the Indian democracy.
It's a peculiar place. But you probably got that already.
sounds about right for a commune
I always view these types of movements with a lot of suspicion. Mainly because of the falsehoods they present. Self-realization is not something that can be taught by following someone else. You can spend your entire life looking for it in other people. But you have to experience it, to truly understand. You shouldn't even listen to what I'm writing here, as this entire comment could be a similar falsehood that detracts you in your search.
If you believe that, why are you writing it then?
I think, because you do believe, that text can help others understand something. Not always, though.
The Auroville Charter 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 the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity."
Well that sounds completely normal /s
I've seen Midsommar, no thanks
Also, when you actually visit Auroville, you find that it has splintered into disparate communities that sometimes outright dislike one another. Again, this seems very different from cults, which tend to insist on forced unity and orthodoxy among its membership.
I remember there being some slightly strange rules you had to agree to in order to stay there (e.g. no sex) but the "staff" (don't know if they were employees or devotees?) were welcoming and the accommodations were great. The compound is right on the Bay of Bengal and sleeping in that room with the windows open and the waves crashing was an experience I'll never forget.
That's not uncommon for a spiritual retreat type of place.
Though I'm told everything almost fell apart after a founder or big leader died and the government had to step in. It's the Indian government so usually that's a disaster but this one seems to have turned out okay.
Anyway, it's unlikely the website can handle an average company let alone HN so mirrors:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200427170816/https://www.aurov...
http://archive.is/BjdIk
Please don't say it unless you visited all of them. I've been to places where this is not true.
The ban-hammer heavy moderation doesn't really help. I would post this criticism on the subreddit itself, but it would be removed as any criticism of the sub/mods is against the rules and is automatically caught by the AutoMod.
The sub seems to really be in favor of progressive skeptical thinking but the manner in which the mods operate the subreddit is exactly the opposite.
Deleted Comment
I have a mixed feeling about Auroville too like some other comments here. I have visited couple times. But never actually got what they are trying to do. This is another part.
But I want to mention, TBH: It is like ANY OTHER ASHRAMS or communal living, I would say. Even to the one I visit often. People are different, sometimes they are nice and sometimes they behave downright silly and rude.
That said, it could be a practice if you take it that way :)
They are much more precious for you in the long run if you are into spiritual practice.
It's like Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo puts it "Instead of seeing other people as an obstacle to our path, we recognize that they are the path. That learning on how to deal skillfully especially with unskilfuled people is how we learn, how we grow and how to begin to mature."
In the middle of all of that, I found Sadhana forest to be a wonderful community in Auroville that is far away from the madness of Matrimandir both physically and spiritually. Aviram and his family, along with volunteers, are doing a fantastic job of reforesting the area west of the Tindivanam highway. If you are going, once we are past this global Covid19 pandemic that is, I would highly recommend a volunteering stay at Sadhana forest.
There's a book called "Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness" by a guy named Satprem, which pretty much gives you the founding story of the place.
Caveat - Satprem was a disciple, so this is not a view from the outside.