[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_single_image image=”3235″ border_color=”grey” img_link_large=”” img_link_target=”_self”][vc_column_text]On February 7th , the ‘Landing Auroville Celebration’ held at the Unity Pavilion provided a rich program and was an encouraging success! Organised by the joint land fundraising teams of Acres for Auroville, GreenAcres and LFAU the event’s central message was the sacredness of the land, and the need for an intense collective effort to acquire land in Auroville’s Master Plan area now.
The tone was set by a Bharat Natyam dance in gratitude and devotion to Mother Earth and Nature, beautifully performed by the young dancer Soundarya, followed by a prayer from the Upanishad for the well-being and harmony of all beings, and an affirmation expressing our deeper relationship with the land:
“For Auroville and all of us, Land is not an economic commodity. It is the living body of Mother earth. It is sacred, as it has always been in the Indian tradition. It is sacred for building the Mother’s vision of an international township based on spiritual principles
It is sacred, so that the Auroville Dream will continue and grow for future generations.”
Three new documentaries, all dedicated to Auroville’s land, were premiered at the event. ‘Landing Auroville’ is an inspiring 8-minute film, produced by Rakhal and the Auro-Image team, to support land fundraising events. It had first been shown at last August’s joint AVI-AUM Conference in the USA, while its French version, ‘Un Corps de Terre pour Auroville’ had been presented in Paris by AVI-France.
‘Early Days Land Pioneers’ interweaves extracts from interviews with early Aurovilians Frederick, Narad, and Joss on Auroville’s land development under the Mother’s guidance, and moving reminiscences by Dayanand of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, whom the Mother had put in charge of acquiring the land at Auroville’s start. His immense work remains a pivotal element in Auroville’s manifestation – making village-by-village contacts, laying the first AV stones – he negotiated the purchase of over a thousand plots, more than half of the Auroville’s present land.
The third short film, ‘Irumbai – A Bridge between the Past and the Present’, presents the vital farmland around Irumbai lake, the large, traditional irrigation tank in the Greenbelt. The rich “rice bowl” of Auroville, it is crucial for food production and for preserving and teaching sustainable agriculture for the region. The film stresses the importance of acquiring critical plots of land in this key area, which are now of a high-stakes value for Auroville.
In line with ‘Honoring the Land’ was the sharing of facts and figures of Auroville’s green work, a fascinating list highlighting just some of the impressive achievements in healing the land, and transforming it from an eroded semi-desert into the green haven it is today. A sampling:
- 3 million trees planted, including hundreds of indigenous medicinal plants
- 15,000 plant species collected in the Auro Herbarium;
- 101 bird species in AV now, as compared to 25 in 1972;
- over 107,000 kgs of fruit and vegetables, 28,000 kg of cereal and 127,000 liters of milk produced by AV farmers last year.
Other figures paid homage to the water conservation work – the multitude of kilometers of bunds and swales, the many acres of catchment ponds for monsoon rains with their impressive water-holding capacity (15 million litres just at Discipline). All this immense effort has resulted in making the elsewhere catastrophic monsoon rains of last year a gift of life for Auroville – on average, an 11.5 meter rise in the water level recorded!
Julian Lines (IAC member) represented Auroville International, the initiator of the ‘Acres for Auroville’ land campaign. He spoke of the dynamic action of the AVI centers in bringing a strong wave of fresh energy for the land and presented the campaign’s new promotional powerpoint on behalf of A4A co-organizer Mandakini (AVI-France). After the acquisition of a key plot near the Matrimandir in A4A’s first 10 months of its campaigning, A4A has expanded the fundraising target to the entire City Area, and its success continues.
Its sister campaign ‘GreenAcres’, initiated by Sigrid, is dedicated to the acquisition of 20 key lands in Auroville’s Greenbelt, as prioritised by the Land Board. Her concise but informative powerpoint presents the Greenbelt as a unique ecozone hosting a wide range of sustainable practices, research and educational activities in farming, afforestation, natural resource management, water conservation, biodiversity, and renewable energy. Today, only a third of vital Greenbelt-designated land is owned by Auroville.
Divya made a review of the Land Board team’s intensive work and concrete accomplishments since January 2015 in land acquisition, surveying, database updating, legal work, and land protection. Aryadeep, longtime pillar of ‘Lands for Auroville Unified’ and its fundraising actions, spoke of the relevance of land as the basis for Auroville’s manifestation as an ‘oasis’ and inspiring universal community.
Jaya gave a stirring call to the community to rally together our collective force in support of land purchase, if possible by signing up for a regular monthly contribution, whatever the amount – ‘it is tiny drops of water that gather into rivers and finally make the ocean’!
The afternoon packed with information was beautifully complemented by ‘Moksha’, an Odissi dance rendered by young Yaroslava, and by Meenakshi’s poem ‘Banyan Tree’ read in Tamil by Chitra and in its English translation by Aravinda.
Yet another way of celebrating the land was ‘Food from the Land, for the Land’, a banquet of almost exclusively Auroville-grown, organic refreshments generously contributed by Kofpu, Naturellement, Visitors Centre, AV Bakery, Siddharta and other Auroville farms.
The new ‘Art for Auroville Land’ initiative was inaugurated, with walls and tables in the Unity Pavillion displaying over 70 art works donated by Auroville artists and of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, for an on-line auction in benefit of Auroville’s land. The enthusiastic response by Auroville’s artist community came as a moving surprise to the organisers. Already during the first evening, initial offers and some counter-offers were made for several works totalling over 1 lakh rupees. The goal is to invite abundance while honouring the sacred nature of art as well as land; to dynamically raise funds for Auroville’s physical base without resorting to a commercial attitude that can characterise auctions. We thank all the artists for their very generous solidarity for Auroville’s land.
Warmest thanks go to the event’s many contributors and supporters – Unity Pavillion, Auro-Image, Auroville Arts, & AV Radio. The complete’Landing Auroville’ event is available on Auroville Radio Online under the title “The Time is …Now!” . It joins the growing series of interviews on land that the Radio will continue to focus on.
As we honor the land, we recognize with gratitude the decades of vision, effort, and collaboration for the City of Dawn’s land – the pioneers who gave their all, the landowner families inspired by the Mother’s Dream, the foresters and farmers who have rendered the land green and fertile, architects and all who have built upon the land to create a unique township of beauty – a magnet of inspirational diversity, all those who have devotedly raised money for growing Auroville’s land base, and everyone who has supported these efforts. The time has come for going forward and further – for fully ‘landing’ Auroville at last – and the time for that is NOW!
Contributed by the ‘Landing Auroville Celebration’ & Land Fundraising teams
Aravinda, Aryadeep, Jasmin, Jeremy, Jothi, Mandakini, Rakhal, Sigrid[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
