Auroville - A youth that never ages.

I write this morning from a brand new, clean, smooth and comfortable high-speed train, hurtling at around 240km/hr between Shanghai and Wuhan, China. Quite the change from the public transport of India!!! In fact, my time in China has been a DRASTIC change from my time in India and Nepal, with clean, livestock free roads and footpaths, an extensive and fast public transport network, functioning waste disposal system, closed sewers, and a noticeable lack of rickshaw drivers and taxi drivers trying to rip me off on every street corner. To top things off… my hostel even had hot water… and a REAL PILLOW!!! But, more on China in a later post, there’s still plenty more of my adventure in India we are yet to cover...

Being a budget conscious traveller (and just cheap and nasty), I was thrilled when Anna and Rasmus told me they were heading to Auroville on my last day with them, and I was welcome to join them for the drive. Auroville (which I had never heard of, nor planned to travel to until they mentioned it!) is a township located about 25km out of Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry), near the east coast of India. According to the Auroville guide…

"Auroville wants 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. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."

A round-about... with  a car!

Sounded interesting, if nothing else. Driving into Auroville, my first impression (after I had managed to get over the shock there was no litter on the streets!) was I had just found my way into some weird hippy cult. I found myself in a town located amongst a recently cyclone ravaged strip of vegetation, almost cut off from the outside world, where western ‘hippies’ and ‘tree-people’ rode motorbikes in thongs (that’s the shoe-form of thong, thank goodness!), wore felt and cheesecloth clothing (after the favoured hessian of course!), and children ran barefoot through the paddocks, flying kites and hunting for bugs to pass the time. Even more startling to me was the centre of the town, where a large, flattened gold golf ball was apparently the town temple, attracting stares, camera lenses and hoards of tourists, while the nearby tourist information centre sold hand-made writing paper, India’s version of gum-nut earrings, and organic ice-creams in flavours like butter-scotch jaggery and honey guava. Where on Earth was I?

The Matrimandir

Set up in 1968 by a French woman and an Indian man (who had completed his studies in Europe), the initial settlement of Auroville consisted of people from 124 different nations, with the significance of this ‘global community’ celebrated with a handful of soil from each of these nations being placed in a large urn, which is now the central focal point of the amphitheatre I was later luckily enough to get to experience. With the creation of this new community, came the creation of a community charter, which outlines the vision and direction of Auroville, as a community for all human people.

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 realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.

At the centre of the township is the round ‘peace area’, which includes the large amphitheatre, a massive, beautiful banyan tree, a range of yet-to-be-completed gardens, and a huge, gold-golf-ball looking structure, called the Matrimandir. In Sanskrit, this translates to Temple of The Mother, however the temple itself has no religious connection, but is rather a place of personal spiritual significance. The building is undoubtedly unique – taking 37 years to complete – is covered by over 1415 gold disks, and is surrounded by 12 ‘petals’, or meditation rooms, each dedicated to one of the ideas the people of Auroville strive toward – existence, consciousness, bliss, light, life, power, wealth, utility, progress, youth, harmony and perfection. As the development of the peace area continues, these petals will then continue outward, into gardens, with one flower dedicated to each of these 12 ideas, and eventually a body of water, which will surround the whole area. Beneath the huge suspended ‘golf-ball’, a lotus flower shaped fountain gently flows toward a central beam of sunlight, seen throughout the inside of the structure.

Although it has a tourist information centre, Auroville is not really set up as a tourist destination, and the Matrimandir is not open to the general public. However, it turns out I am rather lucky, and because Anna and Rasmus knew a couple of people in Auroville who were with us, I was with ‘locals’, and therefore I was allowed inside! Some people wait for weeks, and travel great distances for an invite inside, yet there I was, having only heard of Auroville the day before, walking straight past the hoards of unhappy tourists enjoying their view from a distance outside, straight into this amazing, one-of-a-kind structure. On entering, we were asked to leave our shoes outside, were each given a pair of ‘risky-business’ socks, and walked in silence, with no idea of what might lay ahead.

Inside the structure is like something completely from another planet! Staircases lead from the noise of the outside world, up through the base of the structure to a series of small, white marble rooms with windows overlooking the fountain below. These rooms lead to another set of stairs, cork-screwing up inside the inner chamber of the Matrimandir, into a huge, simplistic and modern round chamber, with pristine white carpeted floors, white marble stonework, opaque, orange glass walls, and small gold channels of water cascading down slanting pillars at intervals around the chamber. A beam of sunlight shines directly down through the centre of the building, as two sweeping, marble and glass ramps curve upward, passing through large marble columns, following the shape of the glowing interior walls, as they make their way higher within the structure. On reaching the top half of the structure, the ramps meet large white doors, leading into the upper chamber of the building. Inside this upper chamber is a 1100kg solid crystal globe, imported from Germany, and the focal point of the beam of light which shines throughout the layers of the building, and the centrepiece of the upper chamber. The interior of the upper chamber is a stark contrast to the orange glow of the chamber below. Everything is white. The walls, carpets, ceiling, columns, doors and floor cushions are all completely white, illuminated only by the glow of the crystal, and the beam of light which shines like a pillar through the centre of the chamber. Evenly spaced around the walls are 72 cushions – individual space in which we sat in silent reflection for half an hour, interrupted only by the occasional cough, reverberated around the circular walls.

From the Matrimandir, Nicole and Saatchi kept us busy for the day, seeing the sights of Auroville (3 of us on each motorbike of course!), answering our endless questions about the Matrimandir, life in India, and the seemingly thrilling everyday lives of the people of this small community. Our afternoon was one I will certainly never forget, as we made a spontaneous visit to ‘Fertile’, an organic farm/community/whatever in the green-belt area surrounding the city – and the owner of this strange place, an ex-pat Aussie called Johnny.

Johnny and his BBQ

If you were to judge a book by it’s cover, Johnny is a well-worn, yellow-paged, creased and crumpled paperback, left out in the elements to weather, deprived of a librarians TLC, and no doubt destined to end up collecting dust on the rickety shelf of the local second hand book store. Once you get Johnny talking however, you discover a craftily written international bestseller, a historical masterpiece, and a modern day drama all wound into one. With captivating history, intertwining plotlines, gripping stories, and one of those irritating endings where you are desperate to find out what happens – Johnny is certainly one of a kind. A self-confessed hippy, Johnny grew up in Sydney, and travelled extensively throughout Australia in the late 1960’s. In 1971, he ‘ran away’ from Australia, found himself in India, set up his amazing green-belt property, and never moved back.

The ‘green-belt’, according to the Auroville plan.

"The city area with a radius of 1.25 km. will be surrounded by a Green Belt of 1.25 km width. As a zone for organic farms, dairies, orchards, forests, and wildlife areas, this belt will act as a barrier against urban encroachment, provide a variety of habitats for wildlife, and serve as a source for food, timber, medicines etc. and as a place for recreation."

‘Fertile’, home to Johnny and anyone else who cares to set up camp at the time, is what Auroville is all about. It’s about working toward creating a better world. As a basic summary, it is an environmentally friendly, organic farm, built through many years of hard work, backbreaking labour, and a desire to create something special from previously abandoned and poorly maintained agricultural land. However, over 40 years after Fertile was created, it is now so much more. Through a focus on returning the land to it’s original condition, the introduction of permaculture and sustainable agriculture, over the last 40 years, the property has been transformed from a barren wasteland, into a developed, dense, ecological wonderland, with organic crops of cashews and millet, an outdoor ‘classroom’ for students of the local school, and an abundance of wildlife living in the now developed and towering trees (including humans!).

The property is accessed by motorbike, along narrow, winding, dirt tracks (rather uncomfortable with 3 of us to a bike!), and is an eclectic mix of buildings, shelters, structures and artwork, all surrounded by the hanging roots of overhead banyan trees, rope swings, tree house ladders and the towering vegetation. There is now a ‘traditional’ house on the property, which we were lucky enough to walk through, and definitely decided Auroville’s idea of traditional is far from that of ours in Australia! The front door of the house is a large, round, wrought iron swinging artwork, through which you find the kitchen – a series of archways, joined together with benches and appliances. The rest of the house continues to amaze, taking open-plan to new levels (there are rooms with whole walls missing!), and a bookcase along the passageway, with shelves that double as the staircase to the level above. Upstairs, all four walls are glass, providing a 360° view of the surrounding green-belt. Amazing! The other ‘buildings’ vary from a quaint, steep-roofed cottage, lined from floor to ceiling with overflowing bookshelves, basic huts built from mud and sticks, tree houses complete with mosquito nets and sharp palm fronds to keep the bats out at night, and the open communal kitchen, a large thatched roofed structure, obviously also a favourite spot for the chickens to hang out during the day.

The Front Door

We spent our afternoon wandering through the property with Johnny, stopping to learn about local plant species, the cashew trees, millet, the importance of an ‘unending education’, and the role all Aurovillians play in making this a reality. Coming from a country where a ‘good education’ is studying from books or Encarta in primary school, wearing a blazer and attending Ignatius in high school, and following it up with a stock-standard degree from a useless University, it was incredibly interesting to compare my own view with that of the people I met in Auroville. One day a week is spent learning on the land, or in the community, and EVERYONE is a teacher. Every single resident I spoke to, among other jobs they may have in the community, explained their job as being a teacher in one way or another – imagine that in Australia, if parents actually held themselves somewhat responsible for their kids education, and the future of the community. Woah! Let’s not get ridiculous here.

My HERO!

My second day in Auroville, I decided to hire a motorbike. I would guess 98% of transport in Auroville is done on bike, and I thought I should probably join the crowd. Asking a kid at the local corner store where I might hire a motorbike on a Sunday, I was rather amused when he opened a window, shouted something upstairs to his dad in Tamil, waited for a reply, then turned to me and said, “You can use one of ours if you like”. Unwilling to use their bike without some sort of payment, and knowing that the usual price in India is around 350 rupee/day (exl fuel), I thought I would be generous and offered them 100 rupee ($2). Deal – and he filled it up with fuel for me!!! Now, this was not just any motorbike – it was a Honda Hero. My Hero. With the man’s whole family now standing outside the house wishing me well, and me having not ridden a motorbike since I was probably about 12 years old, the pressure was on me not to stuff up too badly! Climbing on, trying desperately to remember what does what, and when it does it, I managed to find neutral, kick start the engine… and my hero roared into life! Struggling to actually fit my hiking boots on the foot-rests, let alone change gears, I finally found first gear… and slowly began to rev the engine. Gracefully releasing the clutch… the bike took off perfectly, and I bumped around the corner (no fault of my own – that’s just the roads in India!) to waves and well-wishes from his family, no doubt disappointed not to see a massive white guy stack it on the bitumen. That bike – what a HERO!

I spent the day at Johnny’s place, enjoying a community lunch with people from all walks of life, sitting around an old oil drum he had converted into an ‘Indian BBQ’, before exploring the green belt and beyond with My Hero. Riding along small, narrow paths, weaving through trees and soft sand, and surrounded by some of the thickest vegetation I have seen, it was hard to imagine just 40 years ago the whole space was a barren, agricultural wasteland. It’s amazing what humans can do if we try! As the afternoon continued, I was lucky enough to get yet another dinner invite, this time to a different property in the green-belt, where every Sunday night, a group of locals come together for a community dinner, and a movie. Arriving at the community, I was greeted with the most beautiful, grand building amongst the trees… and this is just the community kitchen!!! Dinner was a joint effort of the 25 or so people there (I supplied a pineapple… what a guy!), and was shared on mismatched crockery, with mismatched cutlery, amongst the mismatched people who had decided to call the community home for the evening. Sitting around the communal dining table, sharing stories of Australia, India, and everything in-between, Johnny mentioned that he had been to Adelaide in 1968, but had experienced a rather different side to the city than he thought I would have seen. Intrigued, I pressed for details, going on to learn the funniest story of his time in the Adelaide Gaol, after he was caught stealing a wedding cake for a friends wedding… he insists the cake-shop window was already broken! After a 10 day stint in remand, he was free to go, having missed the wedding completely, and promptly left the city – without seeing anything else! No wonder the eastern states have such bad opinions of SA, if all they see is the prison!

The food that night was sensational, the conversation was brilliant, and the sense of community was something I wish I could somehow capture and show to plenty of people in my life back home! With dinner and dessert out of the way, a wooden panel beneath the raised building was pulled aside, and in the absolute peace and serenity of the green belt, kilometres from the nearest road, and a whole world away from the hustle and bustle of life at home… was a big flat screen plasma TV! The bean bags were pulled out, the lights were switched off, and somehow, in the middle of India, surrounded by a visiting German family who didn’t speak a word of English, a Korean family who had lived in India for 4 years, an ex-pat criminal Australian, a Parisian journalism student also backpacking through India, and the most welcoming, friendly and caring locals I think I will ever come across, I found myself sprawled out on a bean bag under the stars, watching Red Dog! What a day!

Solar Kitchen Lunch

I spent the next few days as Nicole’s shadow, following her to breakfast, to the shops, to lunch, to work in the afternoon, and then to dinner each night. I became a bit of a stalker, but I just couldn’t help it – everything was so interesting!!! The local ‘grocery store’ is a co-op, with shelves lined with Auroville products, fresh baked German bread (mmmm!) and fresh, organic cheeses, milk, eggs, fruit and veg. Tourists aren’t supposed to go inside (shh!), as you can’t pay for things with cash, you can only charge them to an account you have if you live there. There are tables with pre-ordered boxes and bags overflowing with fresh fruit and veg, which are ordered in kilo lots – and are filled not with specific products, but by whatever was the best selection of products on the local farms that week. If carrots are good, you eat carrots this week, if not, you go without. Next door is the locals ‘op-shop’, which is more of an ‘op-swap’, where rather than paying for the products inside, you just take stuff when you need it, and give stuff when you don’t. Community! To maintain my stalking energy levels, we went to the Solar Kitchen for lunch, which uses a large solar bowl on the roof of the building to capture and concentrate energy from the sun, using it to create steam, and cook the day’s lunch. Each day of the week has a different lunch, and the food was AMAZING – ridiculously expensive at $2 for a HUGE main, bread, dessert and a drink, but somehow I managed! My last dinner in Auroville was spent in yet another community, with me trying my hand at Korean cooking (average effort, however I did exceedingly well at the eating part!), before a 4am wake up to watch the sunrise over a bonfire in the main amphitheatre to celebrate Auroville’s 44^th Birthday.

A random Tiger Bike...
in a tree!

As I am sure you can already tell (if you have made it this far through my rambling!), I was completely blown away by my experience in Auroville, and consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunities I did have, and to meet the people I did meet along the way. I admire the people of this community for their passion, drive, and approach to their lives, community, and the future of humanity as a whole. While the community and people of Auroville are a unimaginable contrast to myself and the community to which I belong, I was made welcome with open arms, open minds, and a side of humankind I will unfortunately say, I have rarely seen before. I was quick to judge Auroville as a golf-ball worshipping cult, however through the people of this universal town, I walked away with a much greater understanding of human kind, the importance of an unending education, and the value of community in a world where it is so often hard to find. To all the people who welcomed me into their homes, their communities, and the mundane aspects of their everyday lives – THANK YOU! Thank you for your time and your efforts, thank you for not glossing over the issues in your lives and your town, and thank you for making a naïve, non-Korean cooking Australian backpacker feel so welcome… right when he least expected it!

http://www.auroville.org/