Introduction

The Ashram, which began as a small group of two dozen disciples and has grown into a large, diversified community with about 2000 members, includes a variety of departments: from small-scale industries to art and craft workshops. Most of these departments came up spontaneously: sometimes it was because a need arose for some particular product that wasn't otherwise available, at other times it began with the Mother encouraging a sadhak to pursue his art. Soon under the personal guidance and care of the Mother, these departments grew. 

Today most of them are well-established. And while externally they help sustain the Ashram, their real purpose is as a field for sadhana, spiritual discipline. Work is to be done unselfishly, in the spirit of service, as a means of offering oneself to the Divine:

SRI AUROBINDO WOOD WORKING UNIT  

Sri Aurobindo Wood Working Unit  was opened in 1938, to cater to the various requirements of the construction of Golconde. Golconde is an Ashram building designed by The Mother, where devotees from all over the world come and stay. Today it is renowned for its quality furniture made out of Burma teak and Rose-wood. It also produces beautiful carved furniture with melanine finish. Apart from meeting the Ashram requirements, the Wood-Working Unit sells its products to individual consumers from its showroom where it also has on display high-quality steel utensils.

AUROFORM AND AUROFURN

Beauty is the Divine language in forms. It is with this inspiration that Auroform began in 1975 as a unit which designs buildings, interiors, and produces high-quality furniture.

Today, with clients all over India, Auroform has acquired a national reputation for the design and quality of its work.

Aurofurn which began in 1982 designs and manufactures very high quality leather articles such as bags, footwear and also upholstered funiture such as chairs and sofas. Its products are available in select boutiques in major Indian cities.

COTTAGE INDUSTRIES

Cottage Industries manufactures incense sticks and incense cones. This unit began in 1949 to fulfil the needs of the Ashram and its devotees. A few years later as the demand grew, the unit began to supply to a wider clientele.

Today Cottage Industries is known for the quality of its products and its emphasis on the use of herbal and natural ingredients in the manufacturing process. Its incense sticks and cones are sold in Sri Aurobindo Centres all over India and in about a dozen countries abroad.

MARBLING GROUP

The marbling of paper is an ancient art first practised in Japan in the ninth century. Completely realised by hand, it consists in producing certain patterns and effects by means of colours on water. A piece of paper or silk is laid on the water, so that the flowing patterns get imprinted on it.

The marbling unit in the Ashram started as a hobby in 1965. Some sadhaks experimented with this art form and offered marbled handmade paper to the Mother. Later they extended the marbling process to silk. As it was widely appreciated, the Mother permitted the sale of these products. From 1970 onwards the unit took up work on a big scale with the production of sarees, scarves, stoles, ties, kerchiefs, dress material and dupattas on pure silk and pure silk chiffon, for sale locally and abroad.

Today marbling has developed into a fine art form to which the Marbling Group has undoubtedly the credit of having added certain refinements, apart from having been among the first to adopt the process successfully to silk fabrics.

HAND MADE PAPER FACTORY

The Hand Made Paper Factory, which was started in 1959, is internationally known for the strong and beautifully coloured paper it produces by hand. It specialises in white drawing paper and bond stationery paper in a range of forty colours. The grades of paper vary from thin bond (67gsm) to very thick drawing paper (660gsm).

The most successful items are the special papers. They are made by mixing such materials as bagasse, bamboo, ricehusk, gunny, straw, algae and tea leaves in paper pulp so that an abstract design is created on the paper when it finally emerges. Another successful item is marbled stationery. Marbling is a Japanese art of abstract painting done on water. Every sheet of paper is an individual work of art and varies both in shade and design.

Most  of the products made in the Hand Made Paper Factory are exported to the USA and to other countries in Europe and Asia.

HABLIK HANDWEAVING

Originally "Handweberei Hablik-Lindemann"  started as a firm in Germany. When the daughter of the late owner of this firm came to Pondicherry, she brought along some of their products and a complete set of German handlooms and equipment. The products were shown to the Mother. Appreciative as She was of all artistic endeavour, She encouraged her and told her to continue the work here under the original German name and logo.

Handweberei Hablik-Lindemann, which started in 1966 comprises two units: handweaving and handicrafts. In the handweaving unit, cloth, bedspreads, placemats and napkins are made. The handicrafts unit specialises in wall hangings, crochet items and stuffed toys.
The products are sold outside Pondicherry to "The Contemporary Arts and Crafts"  Bombay, and "The Shop" Delhi, as well as abroad. Foreign visitors may place orders and receive them by post.

AUROSHIKHA AGARBATHIES

Auroshikha Agarbathies was started in 1973 in a community called Udavi situated in a village near Auroville with two objectives: providing employment to the villagers, thereby raising their standards of living, and producing high quality incense sticks for export.
Since 1973 Auroshikha has become increasingly popular and apart from supplying to a well developed domestic market, exports agarbathies to more than 24 countries. It has received several Export Awards in recognition of this fact. The products are acknowledged as being of the finest quality. All products of Auroshikha including a wide range of agarbathies in attractive packaging, perfumed oils, incense holders and perfume sachets are on display and sale at the Auroshikha showroom.

AYURVEDIC SECTION

Sometime in 1956, the Mother expressed her wish to start an Ayurvedic dispensary. She sent a message to a devotee in Gujarat, who was an Ayurvedic doctor, "Tell him I shall be very happy if he comes here and takes up this work. I like this system more than allopathy." In response to this call he came to settle permanently in the Ashram and on 22.2.57 started the Ayurvedic Section. On that occasion the Mother gave the following message:

"In this new activity, the knowledge of the past must be illumined by the revelation of today."

Today the Ayurvedic Section is noted for its organised and systematic methods of preparing medicines and treating diseases. Its patent preparations such as jeevan-kesari, sudarshan churna, drakshadi vati and dantamanjan are highly appreciated and are sold in various Sri Aurobindo Centres of India and abroad. Out-patients requiring special treatment can visit the Ayurvedic Section for consultation.

COTTAGE RESTAURANT

Mother didn't like Ashramites going to the outside restaurants to eat, so she made The Cottage Restaurant where the food is made with the best ingredients. Guests and others too may eat there. There are two sections: the restaurant and the annexe. In the restaurant one can get South Indian dishes, snacks, milk sweets. In the Annexe, one can get snacks, milk sweets and cool drinks. 

SABDA

SABDA, which started on the 2nd of January 1952, is the distributor of Ashram publications: the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, as well as works written on their lives and teachings by eminent authors. These works have gained a readership not only amongst devotees, but amongst philosophers, educationists and social scientists. At present the printing list of SABDA includes more than 1,300 titles in all the major Indian languages and a number of foreign languages. SABDA has distribution centres in the major cities of India as well as in Europe and America.

PHOTO SECTION

This department began in 1950 in the Ashram main building a few days after Sri Aurobindo left his body. Before leaving Pondicherry many devotees started asking for photographs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and soon they were kept on sale here. The photographs which were once available only on Darshan days are now permanently available in the Photograph Section. A variety of photographs is sold here in a variety of sizes and in colour as well as in black and white.

SRI AUROBINDO LIBRARY

The Sri Aurobindo Library began in 1954 and the Mother 
then gave it the message:

"A library must be an intellectual sanctuary. There one should look for light and progress.''

Set in a large, old French-style building with its big halls, its quiet corners, and its own little garden in front, and with 55,000 books in 25 different languages and hundreds of periodicals, the library is very much an intellectual sanctuary.

The library also has a large collection of Indian and Western classical records and tapes. Indian classical music is played at the Library every Wednesday from 8:30 p.m. to 9:10 pm and Western classical music every Tuesday at the same time. 

FLEURS EN FLACON

During her days in France, the Mother often used a lotion called Friction de Foucaud. After She came to stay permanently in Pondicherry, a sadhak began to import this skin freshener for Her. A few years later the import of Friction de Foucaud was banned, so the basic essences were imported and added to alcohol to make the lotion here.

For this work a laboratory was started in 1968 in a sadhak's house called Laboratoire Senteurs. Again, problems arose when the import of the essences from France was also banned. So an alternative was created to the essence of Friction de Foucaud which proved a success.

This lotion is now known as Friction, a skin freshener.  Through its showroom Fleurs en Flacon, Laboratoire Senteurs prepares and sells a number of products such as: perfumes, deodorants, shampoos, hair-lotions and rose water.  Fleurs en Flacon also sells a wide variety of gift items such as embroidered and painted garments, designer stationery, handicrafts and Ayurvedic products. It also undertakes gift wrapping, packaging and tailoring work.

MOTHER'S EMBROIDERY DEPARTMENT

Till 1960 all the needle-work done in the Ashram was for the Mother's personal use. With the increase of workers, the variety and quantity of production increased and began to be sold. But, as in the beginning, the effort has always been towards beauty and perfection and the spirit still remains one of offering and dedication.
The products sold here include all kinds of embroidered and fabric painted items such as children's clothes, sarees, dress materials, kerchiefs, bags and table-mats.

BATIK SECTION

Once a sadhika made a few batik pieces at home and gave them to the Mother. Appreciating them very much, the Mother told her to continue the batik work. So, like most departments in the Ashram, this one too was born, spontaneously, of a wish expressed by the Mother.
Begun on 9th August 1969, the Batik Section does traditional batik and tie and dye work on items such as kerchiefs, scarves, table-mats and dress material. Batik is a method of printing coloured designs on cloth by waxing the parts that are not to be dyed. Tie and dye is a method of producing dye patterns on fabric by tying the parts of the fabric that need to be protected from the dye.

ART HOUSE

In the early 1940's the Mother started directing plays,
in the Ashram theatre. As costumes were needed for the actors, she asked a sadhika to start a department where these could be made. Thus in 1943 this department started unofficially, one of the first departments to be run directly under the guidance of the Mother.

It began officially on the 1st of June 1964. It now does beautiful batik work, fabric painting, and hand embroidery on dress material. It also does crocheting, tatting, knitting, lace-work and patch-work.

Glossary

Ashramite - an inmate of an Ashram

Sadhak (male) , Sadhika (female) - one who is doing sadhana, following the spiritual discipline