An amazing banyan tree.
The Matrimandir.
The philosophy.
Our rooftop pool.
Scenes in the French quarter.
Every face tells a story.
A holy man blesses a new motorbike (and they need that to drive here!)
A hindu temple to the elephant god Ganesh.
Inside the temple.
The memorial to Ghandi.
Some of our group at dinner. Thoufeeq is front left.
We were off at 9:30 this morning for a 40-minute drive to an experimental community called Auroville. According to Wikipedia: Auroville (City of Dawn) is an experimental township in Viluppuram district mostly in the state of Tamil Nadu, India with some parts in the Union Territory of Fu Pondicherry in South India. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa (known as "the Mother") who was a French collaborator of Indian Guru Sri Aurobindo Ghose and a great believer in his teachings. As stated in Alfassa's first public message in 1965, ‘Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity’.
When we first arrived we went to the welcome centre where we watched a half hour video giving us some information about the town, but it was all very theoretical and left us with more questions than answers. Apparently there are about 2800 people living here, we didn’t see where and have no ideas what they do or how people get selected to live there. After that we had to walk along two 1km paths to the viewpoint where we saw the The Matrimandir, a golden metallic sphere in the center of town in which residents retreat to practise meditation and yoga. This looked like something right out of Star Trek. The whole thing left me with a feeling of a hippie commune cult, no necessarily in a negative way, just it felt all too mysterious and secretive. It would have felt better perhaps if there were residents who spoke to us or answered our questions. However, when we finished at the viewpoint we walked back to the welcome centre and there were numerous shops where we could buy things or restaurants and cafes where they were happy to accept our money. Anyone who is interested in the community, please Google it, there is a wealth of information on the internet.
My favourite part of the visit was to see the old banyan tree where the originators decided to start the community. This banyan tree has a large trunk and very long branches that have grown aerial roots that grow down to the ground and help support the weight of the limbs. I have never seen anything like it.
We took the bus back to the hotel where we had a couple of hours to relax and hide from the heat and the sun. John and I spent most of that time at the beautiful rooftop pool.
We reconvened again in the lobby at 4:15 and Thoufeeq had hired us a local guide who took us on a walking tour of the French quarter of this city. The colonial French were here for about 300 years and left in 1954. There are still about 1000 French citizens living here in the old part of the city. We walked around this much quieter area admiring the French architecture, visiting a temple with a live elephant outside, an old French cathedral, a beautiful city park and a statue of Ghandi.
Then Thoufeeq met up with us again and took us to a really nice touristy restaurant called, Rendezvous’ in the French quarter. We enjoyed another excellent meal and a drink while talking about the day. Then back to the hotel for the night.
you can't help but get great people pictures...
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