Arrival in Auroville

I’m riding the bus back from town, Pondicherry. The driver deftly navigates the heavy traffic on the East Coast Road, a major highway. 

A merry dance of all kinds of transport happens noisily outside: pedestrians, handcarts, cycle rickshaws, autos, mopeds, motorcycles, taxis, private cars, trucks, buses and coaches. Cows, dogs and chickens take their chances too.

Inside, I feel snug and happy and safe. I turn to the open window and catch the breeze on my face, the air flows fast and cool. Closing my eyes I take in the familiar smells of India: vehicle fumes, jasmine flowers, street snacks frying in hot oil, cow dung, incense. 

It’s not a regular bus.  AUROVILLE proclaims the permanent lettering on the windscreen. Aurovillians and guests, such as myself can be conveniently shuttled into Pondy and back, a daily service with drop off points across the township. I boarded at the Solar Kitchen, which looked to be the most popular stop. 

I took the bus today out of curiosity, to spend a couple of hours in Pondicherry would be useful, sure, but mostly for the feeling of being on the Auroville bus. Last Saturday I was enjoying an early coconut at the busy crossroads by the State Bank of India ATM. The bus whooshed past with a loud parp!  I caught a glimpse of the travellers, cool and relaxed in colourful cotton separates, shopping baskets on knees, smiling and chattering. It looked enticing; I wanted to be on that bus!

The Matrimandir- iconic symbol of Auroville

It’s a typical Auroville experience: decades and now generations of ex-pat Europeans and Indians working together to provide a living experience that is clean, safe, comfortable and communal. 

Here in Auroville you can buy chic clothing from fair trade boutiques. Select your favourite blend of organic coffee beans and have them ground to order. Choose golden, buttery croissants as well as chappatis. 

Most days I get asked Are you working?  Auroville is a serious place, peopled by serious individuals with a serious collective agenda:

The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity. Auroville wants to be a universal township where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony.

To which end innumerable communities, projects, collaborations and businesses have been conceived and realised, spanning all realms of human endeavour: food and farming, transport, architecture, education, health, the arts, spiritual development. The scale and breadth of the vision is impressive and I like what I see. The sense of a structured, dynamic, international enterprise that takes its relationship with the local communities very seriously too.

It’s my second visit to Auroville, I spent a month here in 2007. A hot and humid March, a two hour daily session of ashtanga vinyasa yoga, supervised by Monica Marinoni and Chad Herst (who has since left to establish the Mission Ashtanga studio in San Francisco).  We practiced outside on a rooftop at Quiet, Auroville’s beach side natural therapy centre. Afterwards I would snooze in a hammock until lunchtime, enjoying the sound and movement of ocean air through coconut palms.

Guest capsules - Aspiration Community

Then I had little time or energy for anything outside the practice, Auroville was the final stage of my South Indian ashtanga yoga odyssey that had carried me from Mysore to Kerala to Goa. 

I couldn’t handle the climbing temperatures and spent most afternoons sprawled in a star shape under the whirling fan in my room at Gaia’s Garden guest house (extremely comfortable with a great communal kitchen). 

I had barely touched the surface of Auroville and knew that there was so much more to explore and hoped I would one day return. Through grace, this has been possible.

Two months into my current trip, I had settled in Gokarna but was feeling dissatisfied. One morning as I practised yoga on my verandah, overlooking a small farming plot I understood what was missing. I watched the villagers breaking the soil with heavy hand made tools, sweating under the sun. It was back breaking work, but they were engaged in something purposeful, which was what I needed. And I wanted to be in an environment where people had come together expressly to live and work together, a shared intention – a community.

Being early December, this was the start of the guest season at Auroville. It was likely that most guest houses would be fully booked. Nonetheless I logged onto my email with the intention of fielding some enquiries. I gasped, there blinking on the screen was a message from Aspiration Community, whom I had tentatively contacted back in September before leaving the UK.

Capsule interior

Incredibly, they were holding a place for me for and wanted to know if I was coming. Was I coming? Such a powerful synchroncity could not be ignored, I was coming! I made my way via the overnight train from Mangalore.

Since then I am exploring with delight some of the many activities on offer. I have membership of La Piscine and am enjoying daily dips. I have joined the Om Choir which I am finding profound and transformative. 

I have sung Earth songs by firelight under the full moon, discussed the metaphysical philosophies of Sri Aurobindo in French, cycled to the Solar Kitchen during a monsoon downpour and begun to read the works of the Mother, the spiritual creatrix who birthed Auroville as a model of social evolution.

My excitement and enthusiasm for Auroville sits alongside a growing sense of homesickness which is difficult to ignore, I am missing Glastonbury, my friends, my cat, my home and my community.

So as the days and weeks unfold I look forward to an active participation, journeying deeper into the Auroville experience, whilst holding loved ones in the UK in my heart, knowing that I will be with them again soon.

Blessings of light from the City of the Dawn

Jennifer

www.auroville.org