The Experimental Township
By Sunanda Satwah
Photo courtesy: Sameena Yusuf; Sunanda Satwah
Each
one of us had been singularly looking forward to this study-trip, since we joined the
Masters programme in Environmental Architecture. The week-long workshop at Auroville: that
promised to open up a wide new world to us. A brave world of possibilities; of experimentation;
of witnessing sustainable concepts in practice (we had hitherto encountered only in text books).
Glad as we were to be introduced to this new land, we entered with wide eyed caution – soaking
in the natural beauty of the place, taking mental notes, while vaguely aware that too high an
expectation is often quick to result in disappointment.
My impressions of Auroville are a strange mix of acceptance and ambiguity. There is much that I
learnt from the town & it’s people, a lot that I found impressive and laudable, and yet, when
asked whether ‘Auroville is a model town for sustainability’, (a question we often discussed
amongst ourselves), the answer is not easy.
Auroville is a paradox; albeit an interesting one.
Our bus reached Auroville hours after sunset, & the lack of street lights in the pitch darkness; the
absence of vehicular traffic & ensuing noise; the kaccha road surrounded by dense trees on
either side; and the lone cycle rider guided by his feeble lamp, were not lost upon us. The
surrounding quiet had the effect of calming our otherwise boisterous group. Something within us
seemed to be responding to this changed atmosphere. It was therefore, a hushed group that was
received at the Centre Guest House, and we were guided to our respective rooms.
Next morning, the skies opened up, and we were treated to a scrubbed-up spectacle of green
haven; while the magnanimous banyan outside the canteen greeted us with its numerous
branches and roots spread in wide welcome.
The next five days passed in a blur of activities, and like wet sponges, we soaked in as much
information as we could. We were suitably impressed by this knowledge-based-society, and its
techniques of harnessing renewable energy that were unanimously employed; the earth-friendly
building techniques; the courage of conviction displayed by everyone we met; their meaningful
existence in this lap of nature - where school children indulge in sports for 3 hours daily, and
working hours do not eat into family life.
I shall forever savour the sights and memories acquired here: the spread of PV panels on roof tops,
gently rotating windmills, Regina’s self sufficient zero-waste house, the jugalbandi of rammed earth
construction with filler slabs, the ferrocement innovations, the aesthetic beauty of a vortex
DEWATS system, the reed beds of ‘Luminosity’, compost toilets of ‘Sacred Groves’, Aurobins at
‘Creativity’, eating at the Solar kitchen, the chewy yeast-free wholesome bread of Center Guest
House. Clearly, Auroville has succeeded in becoming the bridge between the past and the future, as
originally intended¹.
Auroville - the town - was our tutor, and it spoke to each one of us in a language we knew best. It
inspired art in some; in others, intrigue. While some students dived into its natural pleasures with
the indefatigable spirit of children, some held themselves back to understand and appreciate the
living, breathing body, that is Auroville. . . a youth that never ages².
Even as the town claims to throb with a life and soul of its own, it also appears to be asleep. There
was a controlled wilderness to the place. What I found curious was, the town’s almost deliberate
attempt to keep itself off the grid; to create an exclusive, almost elitist group of just a few
thousand men & women from across 45 countries world-over; to close itself to the masses & form
a prohibitive gated community catering to less than 500 people per sq. km, as compared to let’s
say Mumbai’s 21,000 (42 times!).
Auroville leaves the discerning mind with the impression of having entered a huge laboratory;
where some models have been developed to perfection, while others are still
work-under-progress. The town teems with contradictions galore.
For instance, why should the phenomenal, spiritual experience, of the Matrimandir be open to
only a select few?³ I find it difficult to reconcile the image of the Supreme Divine with an “Enter by
Permit only” placard! As Kahlil Gibran says in ‘The Prophet’, “Surely he who is worthy to receive
his days & his nights is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the
ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream”.
To first create a temple for the Divine in answer to Man’s aspiration⁴, to then purge it off the
rudimentary garments of religion- only to deny every Man entry, seems like a mockery of sorts.
The Mother (Mirra Alfassa - founder of Auroville)
asks Aurovilians to renounce all religion⁵. Within
the township, Matrimandir is the only place for
‘communing with the Divine’. No other house of
God (temple, mosque, church or synagogue) is
built; and yet the idol of Ganesha decorated with
wild flowers seems a common enough sight.
If religion was indeed meant to be renounced,
then how is it that the four entrances to the
Matrimandir, are dedicated to goddess
Maheshwari on the South, Mahakali (North),
Mahalakshmi (East) & Mahasaraswati (West)?
The Mother wanted Matrimandir to be a symbol
of the Universal Mother. Every religion,
community & country identifies and addresses
the Universal Mother by a different name.
‘Mother Nature’ as a representation would have
sufficed. Why then the association with Hindu
goddesses, if the intent is renunciation indeed?
The four-point Charter begins with “Auroville
belongs to nobody.”
It gets me thinking, ‘What distinguishes Man
from animal, is Man’s ‘need’ to build an egg nest,
and then possess it’. Animals in the natural world
make abodes as per their needs, and then move
on, without regret, when the time comes. Man
on the other hand would like to build something
permanent and then leave it to his successors.
As an architect, I found this bit of information
interesting that, Aurovilians who build homes in
Auroville, do not own them. They can live there,
as can their successors, but when they chose to
leave they cannot sell or transfer the rights of the
property; which means that their investments
become the property of the ‘community’. This
point, clubbed with another that mentions that
there are certain eligibility criteria (physical,
financial, medical, etc.), for becoming an
Aurovilian, (after a probationary period of two
years!) makes one wonder exactly how deep
one’s pockets should be? Is Auroville perhaps, a
town-sized ‘club of the elites’?
National banks provide loans against property- that one gains
ownership of, after a period of 20 years or so (which isn’t the
case here). And since, most youth in their 20 to 30s would
not usually have the kind of up-front cash to invest in a house
in Auroville; it brings to mind the question: How many
youngsters today will truly be able to embrace the dream of a
land, which promises a ‘never-aging youth?’ The issues of
funding future projects/ developments, and addressing the
increase in housing demands, is already a moot point within
Auroville⁶.
So, is Auroville a place of abandon? Or a refuge?
A place to hide? Or find your inner peace?
A place of renunciation? Or one that is often visited in
memories?
Is this almost utopian land - of trial and error; where
residents make brave and honest admissions about the
limitation of their experiments; and yet ceaselessly strive
towards a better, more sustainable and energy conscious
future; the answer to our urban dilemma? Does this town,
with its intelligent & natural building methodologies, and its
people - who have consciously chosen to slow down the pace
of their lives, hold in their palm, the secret of a sustainable &
harmonious existence?
Even though Auroville did not quench all my queries, it did
open for me many windows of possibilities, for which I am
grateful.
Cities are a complex matrix of its people, culture, climate &
resources (among other things). Auroville is a result of the
hard work of a handful of visionaries who took up the
challenge, four decades ago, to transform an arid land into
the resplendent greens it is today.
However, whereas Auroville had the luxury of a fresh
beginning and the option to exercise a tight control over the
number of its occupants; palpitating cities that are constantly
alive and thriving, offer us the only option of:
Working with what we have... and making the best out of it!
References
[1] Auroville’s 4-point
[2] “Auroville will
charter, laid down by the Mother as her vision for an Integral living.
be the place of an unending education, of constant progress and a youth that never ages”.
The Mother (Auroville Charter)
[3] Not
everybody will be allowed to come; there will be a time in the week or a time in the day- I don’t know-
when visitors will be allowed to come, but anyways, without mixture.
Publication Matrimandir; also http://www.auroville.org/thecity/matrimandir/mm_main.htm
[4] “The
Matrimandir wants to be the symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration to perfection. Union
with the Divine manifesting in a progressive human unity.” The Mother (1970)
[5] Auroville is
for those who want to live a life essentially divine, but who renounce all religions whether they
be ancient, modern, new or future.” The Mother (1970)
[6]
’Problems of Housing’ Auroville Today. October 2004. By Carel