Aiming for a true state of unity in diversity, speakers at the 40th anniversary celebrations of Auroville have stressed the need to come together and stay united, while overcoming differences and working towards building the township.

As part of the landmark celebrations here on Thursday, a symposium on “Auroville… and the Ideal of Human Unity” was held. In his message, chairman of the Auroville Foundation Karan Singh called upon Aurovilians to re-dedicate themselves to the future and focus on the next task of building the township. -- “The shape of Auroville has to develop and we should see it fulfilled within the next decade or so. We should overcome our differences and should not allow the progress of Auroville to be slowed down,” he added.

The completion of Matrimandir marked the conversion of the Mother’s vision into a reality, he said. He highlighted the need to look at providing more facilities such as houses, roads, sewers and public lights at Auroville.

With human unity being the focal point of the celebrations, member of the International Advisory Council of Auroville Sir Mark Tully referred to two forms of balance — between individual and society, and between change and tradition... “Indian society pays too much attention on the individual. Why we are getting it wrong at the moment is because we live in a world where individuality is over-valued,” he added. ...   more »

Consisting of more than 100 settlements spread over 20 square kilometers, around 1900 residents from some 40 nations live together as one community in Auroville. Auroville was founded by the ‘Mother’, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo, in February 1968 as an international cultural township on the outskirts of Puducherry where a community of people of different nationalities, from different ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, could live and work together in a spirit of mutual respect and collaboration.

The true purpose of Auroville is a place for the realization of international understanding, peace and human unity in diversity based upon an inner discovery and transformation of consciousness, the way as shown by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. ...   more »

Click on the 'more >' link to see these beautiful new photos of the Matrimandir at Auroville, courtesy of Bhavana & friends:

Matrimandir is emerging from the soil of Auroville,

Inspiring the sky to also aspire

For That which is beyond the sky, beyond the soil,
beyond Auroville. ...   more »