Auroville Reflected

On 28 February 1968, on an impoverished plateau on the Coromandel Coast of south India, about 4,000 people from around the world gathered for a most unusual inauguration. Handfuls of soil from the countries of the world were mixed together as a symbol of human unity. Why did Indira Gandhi, the erstwhile Prime Minister of India, support this development for “a city the earth needs?” Why did UNESCO endorse this project? Why does the Dalai Lama continue to be involved in the project? What led anthropologist Margaret Mead to insist that records must be kept of its progress? Why did both historian William Irwin Thompson and United Nations representative Robert Muller note that this social experiment may be a breakthrough for humanity even as critics commented, “it is an impossible dream”?

“Auroville” is the name of this universal town started in 1968. Today, more than two thousand eight hundred people are residents and many thousands more visit it. This book is a succinct presentation of the Integral Yoga—the spiritual vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that underlies Auroville—and reflects on Auroville's development since its foundation.