Green Acres

One of the ways some friends and well-wishers of the A4A campaign show their goodwill and solidarity is by gifting their literary, artistic, or scholarly publications. In recent months, we have received three such works: “My Narrative 2025” an aesthetically and spiritually appealing diary by Lalit Bhati and Shaileja—an architect and town planner couple residing in Auroville for 25 years; “The Nectar within the Nectar – Poems, thought and a life inspired by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother” plus “50 More Poems from Auroville” by Vikas, a former Auroville pioneer who had met The Mother; and “Reflections upon the Psycho-Spiritual Obstacles on the Journey to the Divine – An Insider’s view” by longtime Aurovilian, Dr. Joseph Vrinte. If you wish to receive any of these books, please contact us at lfau@auroville.org.in With our sincere thanks to their creators for their solidarity for the land!

Sending our New Year’s card is an opportunity to present something of the spirit of Auroville and the futuristic vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother among Auroville’s worldwide friends. Before we start distribution, we hold a small Card Inauguration Ceremony in our Lands for Auroville Unified (LFAU) office and invite an Aurovilian to release the card. This year, we had the pleasure to invite Zech, an Auroville poet and philosopher from the Philippines! Our card is available at Auroville’s Town Hall Reception Area, and you can also receive the card by writing to lfau@auroville.org.in

‘Modern society has discovered a new principle of survival, progress, but the aim of that progress it has never discovered, — unless the aim is always more knowledge, more equipment, convenience and comfort, more enjoyment, a greater and still greater complexity of the social economy, a more and more cumbrously opulent life… That so far has been the nature of modern progress. Only in its new turn inwards, towards a greater subjectivity now only beginning, is there a better hope; for by that turning it may discover that the real truth of man is to be found in his soul…. ‘

The year 2025 is upon us! We, at the land fundraising team, take this occasion to create a New Year’s card with the idea and hope to bring out something of Auroville’s inspiration and its profound goal of human unity and spiritual evolution. This year, we present images of the Matrimandir – the heart and soul of Auroville, and the manifestation of decades of dedicated commitment by Aurovilians and friends in support of that goal. The beautiful photos have been offered by Auroville photographer and architect Lalit Kishore Bhati. If you have not received our New Year’s mail and would like to receive a hard copy of our card, please write us at lfau@auroville.org.in

We are happy to share our quarterly newsletter on the auspicious day of 24 November 24, for it was on this day in 1926 that Sri Aurobindo announced a decisive, historic progress in his Integral Yoga. Our newsletter shares the human stories behind Auroville’s development – stories of ideals, devotion and commitment and the ongoing creativity coming from Auroville, the world’s first material site dedicated to developing the new society and consciousness that Sri Aurobindo foresaw. The newsletter summary appears in French and Tamil: Version française en pdf … பிடிஎஃப்பில் தமிழ்ப் பதிப்பு

Aryamani was born in a cacao plantation in the forests of Brazil. At Bahia University, she met the dance teacher Rolf Gelewsky who introduced her to Sri Aurobindo’s teachings, a life-changing event. After years of dance, study and contribution to expand the Integral Yoga in Brazil, she left for India and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In 1979, she moved to Auroville with her partner Luigi, where they founded the Transformation community. Aryamani has been an Auroville teacher, and as a director, has creatively staged Sri Aurobindo’s plays, passages from Savitri and Indian sacred scriptures, and most recently an original work “To Her”, on The Mother. She is the translator into Portuguese of “The Life Divine” The Synthesis of Yoga and “Essays on the Gita”.

Did you know that every December, AVI USA doubles your donations to Acres for Auroville ? When you donate to A4A via AVI USA in December, your donation will be matched, and A4A will get double the money ! This great possibility applies to all donors and all donations, coming from any country and in any currency. As there’s a limit of $2500 total that can be matched, it’s best to give quickly in order to have your donation doubled !! If you would like to have your donation to Acres for Auroville doubled, donate in December at this link: https://give.aviusa.org/page/a4a

For this year’s August Art for Land Exhibition at the Unity Pavilion – “Unity, Kindness, Friendship” – the title came as a strong call ! This still-ongoing August AFL exhibition showcases Auroville artists together with Ashram-associated artists as well as friends of Auroville and the Ashram. The exhibiting artists in their generosity, aspiration, and inspiration took up the theme and its depth emerged, clearly speaking of the Unity within which is there and has to be made conscious in all of us. All the works can be viewed and purchased at the Unity Pavilion, and also online at the artforland website https://artforland.in/
The proceeds go for Auroville’s Master Plan consolidation and land protection.

This newsletter’s selection is an extremely rich and thought-provoking text, suited for the questions of our times : ” …once the conditions of the cosmos were laid down and the involution into nescience accepted as the basis of a progressive manifestation of the Divine out of all that seemed its very opposite, there took place a sort of division between the Higher and the Lower. The history of the world became a battle between the True and the False, in which the details are not all direct representations of the Divine’s progressive action but rather distortions of it owing to the mass of resistance offered by the inferior Nature … “