Auroville, The City of Dawn
Founded for Peace and Human Unity

With the approaching millennium, there is also a growth in global awareness in the masses regarding a myriad breadth of social and political issues. There is rise in the regional conflicts after the end of the cold war. There is strife and anguish amongst the peoples of the world. The threat of arms race and global war are still very much present in the air. Pockets of conflict remain simmering all across the globe today. There are different steps that various Non-Government Organizations and International agencies and other social and spiritual organizations are taking to work towards solutions to peace and human unity. Auroville is one such project, international in scope and based on spiritual foundation that is working towards peace and progress for the global human community.

AUROVILLE was founded by the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, near the city of Pondicherry in south India, as an international township based on the spiritual philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. The project has been endorsed by several unanimous resolutions of UNESCO, particularly with respect to the ideal of human unity which is a cornerstone of The Charter of Auroville. Read aloud by the Mother to the thousands who assembled for the inauguration on February 28, 1968, the Charter declares:
      1) 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. 
      2) Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.   
     3) 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 realizations. 
     4) Auroville will be the site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.    
 	
The Mother reinforced this central conception and purpose of Auroville in 1972 when she said: "Auroville wants to be the first realization of human unity based on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo, where men of all countries would be at home.”    
 	
The only way in which a true human unity can be realized, according to Sri Aurobindo, is through a transformation of consciousness. The process for effecting such a transformation was named by him "Integral Yoga" and entails the deliberate replacement of our ordinary lower nature and motives by a divine Consciousness and Force.
 
As stated by the Mother in an article called. To Be A True Aurovilian: "The first thing needed is the inner discovery, to find out what one truly is behind social, moral, cultural, racial and hereditary appearances. At the center there is a being, free and vast and knowing, who awaits our discovery and who should become the active center of our being and our life in Auroville.”

	The Mother also had vision on the necessity of founding Auroville based on the error of dependence on armament and deterrence  that super powers and military organizations around the globe increasing rely upon.  She said that  they (the nations) do not know that things have utilization, and that even if they do not want to use them, there would be a force, stronger than them, which would push them to utilize (those means of destruction). Response to the Mother’s strong urge of aspiration was the vision that  'It is for that that you have created Auroville', and then, the clear vision that Auroville was a center of force and creation with… a seed of truth; and, if it could bloom and develop, the movement itself of its growth would be a reaction against the catastrophic consequences of that error of armament. If all the nations and all the peoples work for peace and human unity on forming Auroville, the city representing human aspiration and unity, then the movement would work towards neutralizing the error or armament.

	One of the dreams that Sri Aurobindo had was that "a spirit of Oneness will take hold of the human race." From the words of Sri Aurobindo: " The third dream was a world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind. That unification of the human world is under way; there is an imperfect initiation organized but struggling against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there and it must inevitably increase and conquer… For unification is a necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement… But an outward basis is not enough; there must grow up an international spirit and outlook, international forms and institutions must appear."

The Mother said that, "India has become the symbolic representation of all the difficulties of the modern mankind. India will be the land of the resurrection - the resurrection to a higher and truer life." And thus the seedling for human unity was planted in South India.

In 1972, the Mother gave the following message: "A new world based on Truth and refusing the old slavery to falsehood, wants to take birth. In all countries there are people who know it, at least feel it. To them we call: Will you collaborate?"

After the Mother's passing (Mahasamadhi - Nov. 17, 1973) the project underwent several years of struggle, uncertainty about its future, and delays in funding and development, until the Government of India passed the Auroville Foundation Act in 1988, ensuring that the project would continue in accordance with its Charter. The Act provides for an International Advisory Council, a Governing Board, and a Resident's Assembly in the governance structure. The current chairman of the Governing Board is Dr. Kireet Joshi who served the Mother for many years as Registrar of the Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education in Pondicherry, and was later Secretary in the Ministry of Education.

The Advisory Council has included many eminent scholars, scientists, and professionals, including the Nobel Economist Dr. Amartya Sen who is a current member, Dr. Irvin Laszlo, Dr. Norman Myers, Mr. J.R.D. Tata, and Mr. Maurice Strong.

The Resident's Assembly is made up of all the permanent residents of Auroville, and through its working committees is responsible for the day to day planning, administration, and development of the township. Today there is a current population of just under fifteen hundred residents representing thirty different nationalities. Though still far from the optimal fifty thousand residents foreseen by the Mother, the township is clearly in a growth mode, and the future ideal city much easier to envision on the horizon today, than when it was only an impoverished and barren desert.

The story of Auroville's remarkable achievements in environmental restoration and rural development is now well known, with more than two million trees reaching into the skies above the once deserted landscape. And the local village population - formerly limited to subsistence agriculture finds itself actively engaged alongside an international community in all the many varieties of agriculture, cottage industries, infrastructure development, construction, community services, education and cultural creation necessary for the conduct of life in a budding, multicultural township. There are now approximately 80 settlements spread across the 20 square mile area, and as many small industries engaged in manufacture and marketing of such diverse products as incense, hand crafted clothing, computers, windmills and biogas generators.
When Auroville was nominated to receive the Blue Planet Prize in 1997, the renowned environmentalist David R. Brower said: "Auroville stands as one of the most courageous and hope-giving models of what is possible when the human will and spirit unite in a common action. I encourage you to assist this unique global community venture in its determination to reverse the tide of environmental destruction, demonstrating how to restore hope and compassion on the only Earth.
 In 1968, Dr. M.S. Adiseshiah, Deputy Director General of UNESCO, said of the hope that Auroville represents: "We have tried in UNESCO we have tried in every way, and we have failed. And so now we turn to Auroville... On behalf of UNESCO, I hail Auroville, its conception and realization, as a hope for all of us and particularly our children, for our youth who are disillusioned with the world that we have built for them and who will find in Auroville a living symbol, inspiring them to live the life to which they are called.
 
More recently, during a visit to Auroville earlier this year, Maurice Strong, Under Secretary General of the United Nations, and formerly Chairman of the Earth Summit, said: "I do not think humanity can survive much longer if there is not a civilizational change, a major social shift, which makes our higher motivations - our ethical, moral and spiritual motivations - and not our economic preoccupations the center of our lives, the prime driving force behind our economic and political systems. This is what you are doing in Auroville.
For human unity and respect for the environment will never realized on a global scale until it is realized first on the scale of individuals and communities. This is why I commend your efforts and why I am so happy to be here."

At the center of the township stands the Matrimandir, of which the Mother said, "The Matrimandir wants to be the symbol of the Divine's answer to man's aspiration for perfection. Union with the Divine manifesting in a progressive human unity." Ten years ago we spoke of what the Matrimandir "will be" according to both the architectural vision and the spiritual purpose articulated by the Mother to those entrusted with its execution. Today the structure is virtually complete, and the inner chamber with its vastness of white marble, its glowing crystal sphere in the center, its extraordinary silence and power, is visited daily by Aurovilians for meditation, and by increasing numbers of people on pilgrimage from all over India and the world.

But there are still many challenges to be faced and obstacles to be overcome in order to realize the full potential of Auroville, and the dream of the Mother. One of the most pressing concerns the land on which Auroville is situated. Because of the relative slowness of the project's development something that the Mother had wanted to go forward in a decade, but which is far from completion after three decades - much of the land still has not been purchased for Auroville. This leaves the project vulnerable to rising prices, land speculation, and encroachment of other interests.

This will be the theme of a series of in depth presentations to be made at various locations in the country this summer by Guy Rykaert, a development specialist who has worked in Auroville since 1988. And it will be a central focus of the All USA Meeting of individuals and institutions dedicated to Auroville's development, which will be held in Crestone, Colorado from August 7th to 1lth this year.

A comprehensive Auroville CD ROM is also now available which includes articles on all aspects of Auroville's development, as well as the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, with 1400 images and 24 slide shows.

For more information on Auroville, on the coming presentations on "Securing the Body of Auroville," in your area, or on organizations which support Auroville, please contact any of the following:

Chandresh Patel, <cpatel@caesium.com>, phone: (408) 998 3249
Bhavi Saklecha, <bhavis@ix.netcom.com>, phone: (510) 770 1111
Rod Hemsell, <rodhemsell@yahoo.com>,   phone: (719) 256 4822
Auroville International-USA, RO. Box 877, Santa Cruz, CA, 95061 <info@aviusa.org>, phone: (831) 425 5620
Auroville Information Office, P.O. Box 676, Woodstock, NY, 12498 <AVlnfo@aol.com>, (914) 679 5358