I said many blog entries back that I was going to tell you about our time in Puducherry. Well a funny and wonderful thing happened when we were driving from Fisherman’s cove to Puducherry (Pondicherry)… we saw white people. I mean we had seen a few white people here and there at the temples, but these white folks were different, they were riding motorcycles, and walking around, they were residents. What we discovered was a place called Auroville, a utopian community that we had never heard of before and these white folks were part of that community.
Mike and I were astonished by it and it is the place where I believe Michael will say he “woke up.” Aurobindo Ghose (a Bengali poet and philosopher who came to Puducherry to escape the British who didn’t like his views about India freeing itself from the British rule) and Mirra Alfassa (called “Mother”) a French mystic, painter and musician are responsible for creating this community. Mother as a younger woman was so inspired by Aurobindo that she came to live in Puducherry and together they studied yoga, started and ashram and created this world, the “City of Dawn.” They set out to create a futuristic society for people from all nations, religions, genders, etc to coexist in peace and harmony together. There are thousands of people who live there; they farm, make great clothes, crafts and textiles and work on science and engineering projects. The founders had the grounds(62 acres) planned with gardens and homes.
The wildest thing about it is that there is this huge gold spherical ball that they designed. You can only go in and meditate in if you are really serious about concentrating and reaching a higher consciousness.
We walked around, ate in the center where there is a restaurants and stores.
When we went to Puducherry, we saw the ashram that Aurobindo founded in 1926 (he became very interested in yoga after he arrived there). There is a beautiful memorial (both bodies are buried there Mother on top of Aurobindo) under this beautiful frangipani tree. People gather there and meditate. It is so beautiful and peaceful as was the grounds of Auroville.
The community has also created a school, and other services that support the larger city. The school teaches all sorts of languages and skills so that kids can be well rounded- really poor kids can attend for free and the kids do really well there.
Again our guide was amazing and she told us so many interesting facts. Tres was spellbound by all of it. He bought books at the bookstore of the Ashram, and he read one most of the trip that prompted many fruitful discussions. Both he and I were like, “Wow, so in this crazy, cynical world you can decide that something as lofty as “peace and harmony” is worth trying to create on a large scale and put your imagination, work and energy into creating it, not just talking about it?” I imagine some people think of it as a cult, but there is no God or leader per se, there is no real book of rules, you come and you go as you want, you just have to be dedicated to creating a community of harmony and working to make it a reality. Alright then.
Tres commented at the end of the day that he was feeling like maybe it's okay to bring a kid into this world and that he had been worried about that. And I was like, "Wow, honey that's great; but wait, no time soon, right?" Ha!Ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment