The aura of Auroville: LTV’s Cultural Event at Pondicherry – October 2019
On 17th October 2019, FSL-India, Pondicherry’s coordinator organised a Cultural Event (CE) for our regular LTV volunteers. Every month, we organise a cultural event for our regular volunteers and we take them to any cultural and historical places which are located in and around Pondicherry. This month, the Cultural Event was focused on Nature/Religion.
Auroville (City of Dawn) is an experimental township in Villupuram district, mostly in the state of Tamil Nadu, India with some parts in the Union Territory of Puducherry in South India. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa (known as “the Mother”) and designed by architect Roger Anger. As stated in Alfassa’s first public message in 1965, Auroville would like 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 realise human unity. In the middle of the town is the Matrimandir, which was conceived by Alfassa 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 the entire area surrounding the Matrimandir is called the 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”.
In the morning, FSL-India’s coordinator and the volunteers started their travel from the meeting point to the place of the cultural event. In the beginning, the coordinator explained about the activities. Then, she took the 3 volunteers to Auroville. FSL-India’s coordinator explained the history of each place to the volunteers. After the visit, our FSL coordinator and volunteers had lunch and discussed about their experience in their host families and projects.
Some feedback on the Cultural Event:
- Cultural event was very interesting, we had nature and cultural in Auroville
- Really nice day
- We learn about the Mother and Aurobindo’s story
- The main attraction of Pondicherry. It’s a lifetime experience.