Green Acres

On this auspicious occasion of 24th November, which represents a special place in the evolutionary yoga of Sri Aurobindo & the Mother, we are happy to present to you yet another issue of our quarterly newsletter. It represents our hope for and commitment to the building and protecting of an integral, unified physical base for Auroville. In the 12 years of the ‘Acres for Auroville’ campaign, together with you, we have made significant progress towards this goal, and your goodwill and collaboration are at the root of this ongoing growth. Our newsletter is one of the means through which we respond to your encouraging support!

Anandi Zhang was born in China. A traveler at heart, she first discovered Auroville in 2014 and chose to belong to it even before setting foot here. Her love of Nature, encounters with human nature, and her aspiration to align with the Divine find expression through her poetry, stories, design, healing work, education, theatre, and more. Reconciling the dichotomies that shape human life, her process of integral growth is moulding an inner home within her. Auroville, she feels, is a home for wandering souls. This article shares the depth and creative expressions of Anandi’s path.

In Lalit’s over 25 years in Auroville, the township became both his teacher and mirror – a lifelong living curriculum through experience, churning, silence, service, and collective aspiration. Through his work in planning, youth engagement, bioregional collaboration, and institutional evolution, he now sees work as yoga, planning as consciousness, and community life as ongoing inner education. In this second and concluding article, Lalit shares his vision for personal and collective growth, and inner and outer sustainability for the next phase of Auroville’s manifestation,

The photo of John on the in-construction Matrimandir, ‘captures’ part of John’s life – using a word he privileged, for he viewed photography as ‘capturing life’. Recently, a part of his immense work was honored at the exhibition ‘Capturing Life’ organised by Auroville’s Prisma Unit and held at Citadines’s Centre d’Art this past August. We are happy to share some glimpses of this photo commemoration for those who could not attend, along with the videos made of his work by Arnab Chowdhury of ‘Know Your Rhythm’. John Mandeen left for his onward journey on 7th July 2024.

The Mother stated that Unity is a fact of the new consciousness and it is there whether we feel it or not. So how do we build, manifest and live this underlying unity? To help us, Auroville has a unique tool – the energy of the Matrimandir, and its symbols. The Twelve Meditation Petals are based on the Twelve Powers of The Mother as incarnated in The Mother’s Symbol. In 1927, Sri Aurobindo assigned colors with their corresponding energies to each quality in her symbol – qualities which should be understood as powers, which can help us in this vital inner and outer work.

The Mother made the connection between the inner flame, love, unity, and our purpose in the world. Here is a selection from the inspiring quotes which she communicated in messages to disciples and seekers, starting in 1912 with “The Supreme Discovery”, written in her own personal writings in “Prayers & Meditations” and recorded in “Words of The Mother” and in the Agenda. They are followed by the profoundly moving section on unity, deep inner identification and universal oneness from Sri Aurobindo’s “Savitri” Book XI: ‘Built is the golden tower, the Flame-Child born.’

In this newsletter, we are happy to present details of the Master Plan land added to Auroville since the start of A4A – all thanks to your donations! In addition, we share articles that attest to the ongoing creativity and commitment of Aurovilians and friends: our A4A flier and LFAU letter share the vision that motivates our work; two articles featuring the contributions and life paths of longtime Aurovilians Uma Prajapati and Lalit Kishor Bhati; and the announcement of the new Art For Land exhibition at the Unity Pavilion – creativity in several media on a theme based on Sri Aurobindo’s works: ‘The Inner Awakening & The Outer Expression’. We finish with a text from Sri Aurobindo on the need for and difficulties of personal and collective transformation. Despite the many challenges of our times, A4A continues its commitment to consolidating and protecting Auroville’s land to ensure its viable future and provide the space for the manifestation of the City of Dawn!

The Acres for Auroville land campaign was launched on August 15, 2014 for raising funds to secure, consolidate, and protect the unified land base that The Mother envisaged for the City of Dawn. This collaborative unity action has inspired thousands of donations to address this most essential need – land for manifesting the Auroville dream! As we start Year 12, we are gratified to announce our positive results: thanks to you, 187.14 new consolidating acres have been added to Auroville to date in 21 strategic City areas, and 20 Greenbelt farms, forest zones, and nature preserves. In A4A Year 12, we continue our commitment to raising funds for the land needed to ensure the township’s viability and unified future, and to manifest Auroville’s futuristic and evolutionary goals. Each day, your donations bring us closer to success – click to see photos of some of the new land that your solidarity has enabled!

Uma arrived in Auroville in 1996 for a two-week project at Auromode. Those two weeks never ended and have become three decadesr! She came with the degree and technical skills of a trained fashion designer, but had no idea that fashion would become her yoga. After her work at Auromode, Uma founded Upasana design studio, which led her to the discoveries of business as yoga, ownership without ownership, bringing consciousness into fashion, and social projects such as the renowned Tsunamika. Seeing work as “worship”, Uma is now involved in collective tasks at Town Hall – anti-encroachment work at the Land Service and youth housing and Campus Management at the Housing Service. She says: “I am a joyful workaholic at the feet of the Divine Mother. I only ask, how can I serve?”

“Only a greater wholeness of being, knowledge, and power can unite life into something true and whole.” For Lalit, these words by Sri Aurobindo lit an inner fire, for a life of “wholeness” is his goal. A trained architect with a post-graduate degree in Urban Planning, Lalit did his internship with the legendary architect B.V. Doshi. Then, as part of the team preparing the urban master plan for 50,000 residents at ISKCON’s World Headquarters in West Bengal, he came to Auroville in 1997 as part of a professional study. In 1998, he was invited to join Aurofuture as a planning consultant and then L’Avenir as the urban planning coordinator. With his wife Shailaja and two children, he has built his life in Auroville. Part 1 of a two-part article shares his past 27 years of work in diverse aspects of Auroville’s collective life and development, which have shaped the path of his Integral Yoga quest. In his words, “Auroville is a Living Curriculum”.