'The boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled' my inner child was chanting lines from Casabianca, under her breath.
Standing on the top of a huge shipping container, heated by the blazing noon sun, in the middle of a barren field, the only movement that I could discern were the tall trees near the horizon.
For a moment, I felt like the boy in the poem. I was on the outskirts of Auroville, a small township near Puducherry in Southern India, trying to imagine what our host, Sumeet, would see every morning from the roof of his new home. There was a housing scarcity in Auroville, he said, and this container would be converted into multi-storied residence, by carving out windows and doors and elevating it on the top of concrete blocks ( rigid rules governed the construction of structures here and the container being a moveable structure could temporarily occupy this space) -
Let me rewind a bit.
HOW DID I END UP ON THIS CONTAINER??
We were a couple of doctors from Mumbai, curious to see the results of a 45-year-old experiment in spiritual and communal living. Our guide was Sumeet, whom we had known in Mumbai, in his earlier Avatar as a surgeon, was now a full time resident of Auroville. Holidaying in Puducherry, ten kms. away, we had come over to rendezvous with our intrepid guide.
WHAT IS AUROVILLE??
Founded on land sanctioned by India, in 1968, by "The Mother" (Mirra Alfassa) as a project of the Sri Aurobindo Society, Auroville (city of Dawn) was a revolutionary concept. In The Mother's words, "Auroville is meant to be a universal town, where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities"
We could not have asked for a better guide; Sumeet's conviction about Auroville and its guiding principles matched his enthusiasm for showing us the little known nooks, normally not seen by visitors. Although the weather was swelteringly hot, here in Auroville, the verdant cover made possible by the hundreds of thousands of trees planted by Aurovilians, made the temperatures tolerable. The barely tarred roads inhabited by mostly cyclists and some motor-bikes, the squat tastefully designed buildings which blended into the surroundings and the friendliness of the inhabitants, harked back to another day and age.
THE MEDITATION CENTER
Our first stop was the Matri-Mandir ( temple of the mother ), with its' shining (due to the gold sheets embedded in glass covering it) dome, which is seen from miles around. Based on the Mother's vision and built for meditation, it looked like a gigantic shiny golf-ball on the top of a mountain, waiting to be teed off. Inside, we ascended a spiral ramp, after donning white socks provided, to preserve the pristineness of the sanctum. We reached the inner chamber, at the centre of which was a crystal ball. A single ray of light is always directed at the ball, with the help of mirrors, from the top of the structure. The hall was dark and the silence absolute for about twenty minutes, the only illumination being the light falling on the crystal globe. In the presence of tranquillity, peace settles gently like a feather drifting to the earth and lying still for a few moments.
We were now ready to see Auroville.
WHAT MAKES AUROVILLE TICK?
I was approaching the Auroville experiment with an open mind. Having done no research on Auroville, I had no pre-conceived notions clouding my mind or offered opinions to colour my judgement.
Auroville follows the principle that no money is exchanged and that every Aurovilian has to work. The fruits of labour are to be shared by all. A Utopian concept? Not quite.
NO PAPER MONEY
A monthly stipend of INR6000 (100$) is paid into the bank for the work done and instead of paper and coin currency, Aurovilians are given account numbers to connect to their central account. So in lieu of payment, shoppers in the market, cafés and dining hall, merely sign a register; an admirable system, depending largely on the honesty of Aurovilians.
The population of Auroville is a little over 2000 (roughly over 800 are Indians, the other 1200 being from over 40 countries, mainly Continental Europe). Roughly fifty villages of the bioregion, contribute to a labour-force of nearly 5000, needed for the township.
ECOFRIENDLY AUROVILLE
Auroville attracts some of the finest minds in the field of architecture, who have over the years produced eclectic, yet eco-friendly and traditional designs, made from local materials like rammed earth, stabilised bricks, sundried mud bricks or wattle and daub walls. Sumeet showed us a two-storeyed structure made mainly of bamboo ladders and Tetrapack material for roofing, mounted on a recycled sugarcane cart, which had apparently withstood the fury of the cyclone winds, scant months ago.
The combination of old techniques with new technology, has resulted in this town being planned on lines that environmentalists can only dream of. Zones for specific purposes such as residence, farming, administration and industry, are allotted with very rigid rules set down for constructing any new buildings. (Sumeet container-home thus bypassed this rule)
The school, an unconventional cluster of colourful round buildings (each for one grade of students up to Middle-school), has a large open-air mess which was empty, it being a Sunday.
"Waste not, want not'- the guiding principle.
Auroville infrastructure has organic farming, water management, rainwater harvesting, waste treatment and renewable energy. We also saw a 'Free Store' where residents deposit the clothes and personal items they do not need, to be taken by other Aurovilians. One man's junk is another man's treasure!
Handicrafts such as making of clothes, candles, bags, incense sticks, etc. are run by Aurovilians with labour provided by the locals Tamils.
We bid farewell to Sumeet in the late afternoon and returned to Puducherry, impressed yet introspective.
QUESTIONS ABOUT AUROVILLE
1.)Why are the numbers in Auroville,whose target population is 50,000, static at only 2000, even after 45 years? Aurovilians, who return for only a few weeks every year, keep their residence locked up for the rest of the year. A township with rigid rules governing new structures can never grow, if the existing ones lie unused.
2.)How does Auroville tackle its share of sloths and slackers?
3.) Six thousand INR is a very small amount to subsist on. Practically this means that to be a all-year-round Aurovilian, one needs an independent means of income.
4.)The locals who work here, do so for a minimum wage. There is no doubt that they have economically and socially benefited from Auroville, but are they being exploited by some Aurovilians, who need cheap labour, especially for their businesses.
5.)The clothes, bags, etc. being sold here are of a very good quality and quite expensive. In order to 'share the fruits of Labour', are all the profits being ploughed back into the township?
When queried, Sumeet admitted that he had no answers to these questions.
Back home, my research for this piece pulled up a BBC film made in 2008, that alleged that local children studying here were subjected to Paedophilia, a charge later investigated and found to be baseless. But the charge of lax rules for admitting people into its fold, is a valid one.It is not difficult in this day and age to verify the antecedents of any person. Instead of always hoping for people to be good, Auroville with its zero-police system could, at least, ensure the safety of its citizens by tightening its admittance laws.
I also came across a blog of a one-time resident of Auroville, who described a hilarious "silent jamming" session, which she endured and also the mumbo-jumbo, which she had to put up with, during her stay. So, is Auroville a collection of seekers and philosophers or is it group of people with a hippie hangover? Is it a haven for people looking for lax laws or mavericks trying to set their own?
Admittedly, one day is a woefully short time to gauge something.
I feel that Auroville is perhaps all of these and none of them; the elephant in the old Buddhist tale of the six blind men and the elephant. One feels the tail and imagines a rope, another touches the leg and swears that it is broad like a pillar and so on. The reality is the sum total of all their experiences. But, individually true as well.
Each Aurovilian finds solace in some aspect of life there, be it the spirituality, the teachings of the mother, the communal life or the eco-friendly environs.
The achievement of a vision so revolutionary can never be smooth or quick. Given the vagaries of human nature, it is indeed commendable that Auroville exists and is thriving. For Auroville to achieve the pinnacle of the Mother's vision, it will perhaps take infinite patience and more time.
A doctor by profession, I am a freelance writer because I love to sum up my thoughts, observations, opinions and objections. I write for parenting websites, and general interest articles as well. My website is ujwalasblog.wordpress.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ujwala_Shenoy_Karmarkar
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