31: The Least Indian Place in India
It’s a curious thing to try and describe my experience at Auroville. To do that, you have to understand three things.
The first and yet most obvious statement is that this trip is all about experiencing new things. And while it’s not my explicit intention to experience “the weirder, the better”, I’m clearly not opposed to it either.
The second, you have to understand the state of mind I was in approaching my stay in Auroville. I’ve written about this before but I had past my prime in India and it was time for me to leave but a dear friend was a mere 2 hours away from Auroville and I figured I could survive another few weeks in India in order to see him. I was, to put it delicately, on my last straw with India. I would have bailed if I wasn’t eagerly awaiting a reunion with Terence.
The man, the myth, the legend. My little Irish tater tot. We met at Esalen 3 years ago and what a reunion in India!
Terence, I love you but you should not be driving a scooter with people on the back, namely this precious cargo.
And third, Auroville says it’s “an experimental community”. What does this actually mean? Perhaps it’s the inherent skeptic in me, perhaps it’s the adventure seeker (and more likely it’s the pessimist) but like my experience with OSHO, I needed to see it to believe it.
As I’ve re-read this post since originally writing it, there’s a 4th reason that I mentioned but didn’t give it its due worth. I tethered myself to some other worldly need or standard or unrealistic expectation that I “had to last” 3 months in India. I made it 3 days shy of 3 months and I’m oddly impressed with that. It was a miraculous feat. And while I do want to go back, it will not be for 3 months again.
These things are intimately intertwined. I don’t want to recount my Auroville experience without understanding the complicated situation in which I found myself in.
In a totally interesting twist of fate, I spent a glorious 8 days exploring Auroville. Doing both “touristy” things and also getting the privilege to see and understand it from an insider.
It’s cliche to say but India definitely saved the best for last.
Statue of Sri Aurobindo.
The side roads around Auroville are primarily dirt.
I loved this local graffiti. This was in the nearby town.
Auroville Background
For the sake of this blog post, I think it’s important to understand a little background on Auroville. I’ll do my best to synthesize what I’ve stolen from multiple internet sources. (Because why write something someone else wrote better?)
What is the purpose and goal of Auroville?
The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity. Men and women of all countries able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. In 1966 the concept was taken to UNESCO and passed as a project of importance to the future of humanity. Since 1966, it’s focus has been on sustained living, transformation of consciousness and progressive cultural, environmental and social living experiments.
Who is behind Auroville?
Sri Aurobindo
Born in Calcutta in 1872 Sri Aurobindo had a thorough Western education in England. At the age of 20 he came back to India and soon became the first Indian leader to publicly call for India’s independence from the British Empire. In 1908 he was jailed on sedition charges and narrowly escaped the gallows. During his one year long imprisonment, Sri Aurobindo had major spiritual realizations. He withdrew from active politics and for 40 years he devoted his energies to developing what came to be know as the “integral yoga”; a yoga that aims at embodying the next principle of consciousness beyond mental man: the supra mental. Sri Aurobindo left his body in 1950.
The Mother
The Mother, Sri Aurobindo’s companion was born in Paris in 1878 in a very materialistic family. As a child, she had spontaneous experiences of the past and the future. In 1914, she visited Pondicherry for the first time, met Sri Aurobindo who had sought refuge there, and recognized in him the figure in her childhood visions. She returned permanently to India in 1920 and soon took charge of the ashram that was growing up around Sri Aurobindo. Eight years after his passing in 1950, she withdrew to her room to concentrate on the work he had given her: transforming the cells of the body by opening them to the Divine Force. In 1968 she founded Auroville and gave it its Charter. She left her body in 1973.
Is Auroville religious? Does it follow a Guru?
Auroville is a spiritual community, whose ethos is based on the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and his compatriot, The Mother, or Mirra Alfassa, who founded the place in the sixties. Auroville was not meant to be a place for a new religion, or where religion is practiced. Spirituality, for them, meant something vast and ultimately indefinable, something personal that varied from one individual to the next, something that must always be renewed and expanded and reexamined, as opposed to religion, which often becomes calcified, stagnant and dogmatic.
Auroville has drawn various people to it. There are the spiritual seekers or devotees of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo; there are those who seek to find a different and new way of living, who are disillusioned with the normal course of society; there are those with a green vision who are interested in organic farming, alternative energy and a sustainable lifestyle.
How does it work?
Auroville was supposed to be a moneyless society, with everybody’s needs provided for, but that didn’t work out fully. There are some socialist elements such as some degree of affordable, universal healthcare, as well as a common dining area where members of the community may choose to have subsidized meals. Auroville was also meant to be a rather equal society, but, as with any other place, there are those who are well-off and those who struggle; there are mansions and there are shacks. (Reminder, I did not write this.)
Auroville depends to a large extent on volunteers who come and spend some time there performing various activities such as planting trees, helping to serve food, uplift local populations, farming, etc.
What’s the gold thing?
In the middle of the town is the Matrimandir which was conceived by The Mother as "a symbol of the Divine's answer to man's aspiration for perfection". Silence is maintained inside the Matrimandir to ensure the tranquility of the space and entire area surrounding the Matrimandir is called Peace area. Inside the Matrimandir, a spiraling ramp leads upwards to an air-conditioned chamber of polished white marble referred to as "a place to find one's consciousness". (Side story - this was one of the most profoundly silent and still places I’ve experienced. Inside the Matrimandir is like a Hollywood set spaceship. It’s totally out of this world ;) You then walk up these ramps and enter this massive all white room with a single ray of sunshine entering from the roof into the world’s largest marble, aka giant round crystal. It was so wild and so awesome.)
There are very strict rules that you cannot bring in any cell phones into the Matrimandir so this photo is from some distance. But these gold disks are INCREDIBLE. This thing is insanely gorgeous. Each are tiny glass squares with gold leaf sandwiched between them. WOW.
Learning how to read maps again! This was a necessity. Nothing is clearly labeled or marked and you can’t really use Google to get there. You better leave at least 15 minutes early wherever you’re going. And don’t be surprised if you get lost, a lot. Also note, this place is massive.
Life in Auroville
Modern life in Auroville is hard to explain. I really wanted to understand if these ideals were realities here and there were two major experiences that shaped my perception. Without those experiences my only real experience of Auroville is that of a tourist. And while Auroville sort of claims it’s not not be set up for tourism, it’s pretty darn touristy. There is a bustling Tourist Center where 1,000,000 people per year arrive for day trips to walk to a Matrimandir viewing point. Only a small subset of tourists are able to go into the Matrimandir daily and if you just show up one day, it won’t happen. I had to book a tour 3 days in advance and it was free for me because I was staying at a guesthouse.
Before I arrived at Auroville I did some cursory research but in all honesty, their website kind of sucks and it left me way more confused than when I started. So like most things on this journey, with blind faith I trusted that it will all make sense once I arrive. (And honestly, like most things in India there’s little clarity before you arrive anyway.) Auroville is no exception. I booked an 8 night stay in a guest house called Joy. The draw for me was that it had reasonably priced dorm rooms, it was close to the Matrimandir and it had an array of daily yoga and movement classes so if I was bored, I could at least have something to do.
The dorms at Joy were in this building. It was hands down, the worst mattress I’ve slept on during this trip. Rock solid.
I met this little cutie here. Another solo traveler. I think she’s 17 or 18. Major props to this woman, she reminded me of my niece a little.
The social hub of Joy Community. The shared kitchen, tables and common area.
German and American pals. Such sweet humans.
I worked some serious Megan-magic on the airplane and was able to hitch a ride with a local Aurovillian in his taxi. That was an incredible score because I’m sure I would have had to grovel for a shared ride with someone else. The taxi dropped me off at Joy Community and we wound our way through forests I realized that 60,000 acre compound is massive. It is entirely possible to never leave a tiny corner of the community and equally impossible to figure out where to go if you didn’t have any transportation. It wasn’t my original intention but I realized quickly without a scooter, you were never going to be able to see this place or experience any of the activities or offerings it has. With some trepidation and a little nervous excitement I rented a scooter. It turned out, this was not only incredibly necessary but was unbelievably fun.
Just a girl and her scooter! I may need to get one of these when I go home. It was so, so, so much fun.
I had 6 days of problem-free scooting until I didn’t. I filled up gas in town and then little red died. Luckily I was in town and this man came out of his house in his towel to help me. Definitely the weirdest thing that happened in Auroville but he was actually pretty nice. He claimed the storekeepers sell “bad” petrol and that is what caused my scoot to die.
45 minutes later the real scooter mechanic showed up and he was NOT pleased. I think this was on a Sunday so it was his day off. He didn’t speak any English but eventually got her up and running. Something about the carburetor. No idea what happened!
After that, I started my typical emersion process on integrating into a new place. This process includes a deluge of classes, events, morning coffee runs, and meeting other Auroville tourists.
My first experience was taking an all day course on the background and (for lack of a better word) theology of Auroville proxy Sir Aurobindo. I wish I could say it was the most interesting class I’d ever taken but honestly, it was way over my head. It was a philosophy class crammed into a 6 hour lecture. This would have been heavy material even when I was in college, let alone being able to digest and enjoy it while I’m foot loose and fancy free in India! The most interesting part of the course was our conversation over lunch.
Our instructor was a late 50-something German woman who has been in Auroville for the better part of 30 years. She was incredibly generous with her time and also her honesty. One of the other students in the class asked her some very direct questions and we received very direct answers. This is where the dream of Auroville and the reality start to appear in conflict with each other.
Lunch goals! Biggest dosa of my life. I think this was around $2 or $2.20. Another added benefit, Auroville was one the cheapest places to buy food in India.
Very, very happy about this giant dosa.
She told us that she made around 16,000 Rps per month. That’s about $228. Each person in her office made the exact same amount. However, the cost of living in India has dramatically increased in recent years. She said that she lives paycheck to paycheck and that at the end of the month if she’s lucky she has enough to fill up her scooter with gas. Because of this, she has to fly to Germany during summers and do lecture series to make supplemental income so she can survive. From what I understand, you’re not really supposed to have another job. Living at Auroville is supposed to be it. So the first reality I came across was a bit daunting. How do you survive if you can’t survive?
I was able to later meet up with a man that was my age in the group. A few days later we were randomly in the same Matrimandir tour group together and we got to talking about this conversation and those details. Both of us found it to be a hard pill to swallow. There were some realities that we agreed upon. First, living in Auroville she will forever live paycheck to paycheck and she will forever be forced to have additional supplemental income. The second, what are the benefits of being Aurovillian that outweigh a major disadvantage and a true challenge like this?
Luckily, the second experience that shaped my Auroville perspective helped start to answer these questions. I was so fortunate to be able to spend time with an American Indian family. And a Portlander at that!
The sweetest and most lovely new friends.
My college friend (and Sandy Newton’s husband), Scott Parker, sent me a random email one day that if I was going to be in Auroville, he had a friend from high school that lived there. As fate would have it, I was planning on going to Auroville in just a few short weeks! Scott made some email introductions and then I started chatting with Ing-Marie about my upcoming trip.
Ing-Marie has lived in Auroville for 13+ years. When I learned this I asked her everything. What brought you here? What do you do for work? How does it all work? How do you get groceries? How does housing work? You have a 2 year maternity leave?! OMG, how is that possible? And the list goes on.
She was beyond lovely, patient and extremely knowledgeable about all of the goings on of Auroville. And what was striking to me, due mostly to my extreme naivety, is that her life is just as “normal” as everyone else. In my naivety I believed she was going to sit me down and unravel some sort of ancient papyrus scroll and tell me the secrets to Auroville. Like I was going to be shared the holy grail of how it all works. But clearly, that’s not what happened.
As we went on walks together and had lunch and dinner the simple truth of it all is how normal and simple it all is. There’s no big reveal. Of course it’s not entirely normal. I mean, America can’t even figure out how to give any maternity leave let alone 2 years!
Beyond maternity leave there were two things that felt like the most obvious differences. The first are the “rules” of Auroville. You sort of start to see it through it’s socialist lens when you get to know locals more. Ing-Marie and her family live in an apartment that is actually owned by another family but they’re able to stay there while the owners aren’t using it. The whole housing system feels very socialist in an intriguing way. It’s free and you can even build your own home but once you die you either pass it on to children who live there or it goes back into the community and other people move in. Unfortunately like all housing systems, there is a massive shortage. Housing seemed the most obvious but there were other areas too like a community grocery store where you pick up free produce weekly.
The second was the community aspect. With less than 4,000 residents Auroville is not very big. There is a totally different feeling of community here. The only example I can draw a comparison on is from my childhood. I grew up in a very social and very lively neighborhood. There were 5-6 families that did everything together and all of us kids were friends. This is obviously a community but it doesn’t feel the same. At Auroville you’re all there with an additional spiritual (or community) component that is hard for me to properly articulate. Clearly there is an Auroville charter and rules and even guidelines to live by. It feels like residents have given up (or don’t focus on) the hyper materialistic things (e.g. houses, cars, boats, etc) that we’re competing for in the US. It felt easier and even welcome to show up just as you are. And again, maybe being there 8 days doesn’t give me enough time to see other sides of this story but I found this so uniquely lovely and appealing.
Very nice boutique with beautiful clothes. One of the many Auroville businesses.
I don’t know what it is but I like it.
Who remembers these? There’s terrible cell coverage in Auroville so you use their mobiles to call around to places. I found this so entertaining!
This was a group singing session, we tried to sing Ohm in harmonies.
In Summary
I was only at Auroville for 8 days and trust you me, I asked a LOT of question to a LOT of people. I wanted to understand more about Auroville, but mostly the how. How really does this place work?
Honestly, I have no conclusive thoughts on this. Does Auroville work like the ideal society it was meant to be? Sort of. I mean, it still exists, there is a population of full time residents and revenue coming in through tourism and other businesses. There are wonderful ideals here that are working. And if nothing else, being in the Matrimandir was a whole wild, amazing and beautiful experience. Are there areas of improvement? Like all things, of course. Do I want to move there anytime soon? No, not really but I would love to visit again.
But the realization I had after leaving Auroville was greater than any realization about what Auroville is trying to do as a utopian community. I loved these 8 days. It was so much freaking fun. I can’t tell you how rejuvenating and fulfilling my time was scooting around the grounds and finding fun things to do with super amazing humans. I felt at home, safe and happy there. Other than sleeping on the most uncomfortable bed ever for 8 nights, it was pure bliss.
And that made my realization an even a harder pill to swallow. This was the best place in India because it’s the least like India. And it feels terrible to say, “My favorite thing about a really difficult country was the city that didn’t feel at all like that country.” Yikes.
But that’s the reality. It was a little slice of other-worldly in India. And because it didn’t have the difficulties and headaches of India it was glorious. And with that realization comes some guilt and a little shame that I don’t know how to untangle. Maybe it’s ok? Afterall, it’s mission was to live by ideals that no other city has defined itself as. So maybe Auroville is like the demilitarized zone of India. The part of India that’s neutral and not-India and it’s there for exceptional interactions. Whatever the reason, it’s high on my list to go back to Auroville and experience and understand even more.
-M
