Auroville

History

Regenerative culture requires a philosophical context. Regenerative culture as practiced at Auroville incorporates an evolutionary philosophy/spirituality, one that recognizes that nature and humanity must be cooperatively integrated with both having purpose and direction towards ever-greater expression of “universal Spirit”. The work of Sri Aurobindo translated the concept of spiritual evolution into a spiritual practice. Leading his community in the practice of “integral yoga,” Aurobindo was the first to synthesize the modern understanding of evolution with the timeless revelation of enlightenment, and pioneered the idea that human beings are capable of aligning their lives with the trajectory and purpose of the universe itself.

Auroville was founded by Mirra Alfassa, a native of France ​and spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, one of India’s most famous modern philosophers ​ and renowned freedom fighters​.  Sri Aurobindo recognized her as his co-equal and she came to be called “The Mother” (a title of veneration) of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. She carried on their mission after his passing in 1950, taking charge of the community which gathered around them at Pondicherry, a French enclave in Tamil Nadu, South India. Mirra Alfassa’s vision for creating a more ideal society with new forms of collective and individual life had been her longstanding aspiration even before 1954, the year she wrote “A Dream”, which holds the bases for what would become Auroville: “There should be somewhere on earth a place no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world….”.

In the 1960’s, Mirra Alfassa began work to establish Auroville, which she named after Sri Aurobindo, with the additional French meanings of “aurore” (dawn) and “ville” (city). In 1964, the Sri ​ Aurobindo Society”, with Mirra Alfassa, as its Executive President, proposed a governmental resolution for the establishment of a city dedicated to Sri Aurobindo’s vision of a higher and larger consciousness. The resolution was unanimously passed by the Indian Parliament. A site, much of it barren wasteland, a result of deforestation by colonial powers, was chosen for the city; approximately 12.42 square miles (20 sq. km), 6.2 miles (10 km) north of Pondicherry, and 3.1 miles (5 km) from the coast.

As the idea of Auroville transformed into a reality, it became a calling that resonated with the internationalist ideas of a newly independent India and echoed around the world igniting the aspirations of a generation of young seekers and visionaries. Many are still actively engaged having committed their lives in service to humanity and the planet.

Auroville was inaugurated on February 28, 1968 in a ceremony where young people from 124 different nations and 23 Indian states deposited a handful of their native soil into a marble urn. In it was also placed a copy of the Auroville Charter, stating the four main ideas of Mirra Alfassa’s vision for Auroville – a universal township; unending progress; a bridge between past and future; and human unity in practice. India’s official radio station broadcast the ceremony live, with the Auroville Charter read first in French by Mirra Alfassa, and then by representatives reading in 16 languages.

Mirra Alfassa died 1973 five years following the founding of Auroville. In 1980, at the request of a group of Auroville residents, the Government of India passed “The Auroville Emergency Provisions Act” separating the Auroville project from the legal control of the Sri Aurobindo Society. The Act consolidated Auroville as a “social experiment dedicated to the promotion of international understanding and the realization of an actual human unity”. India’s Supreme Court declared that the Auroville project, held in trust by India for humanity, is secular, and that Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga is science, with its experimentally-based foundations, not religion.