The Mission and Auroville
The days in the mission flew by with some great new experience. We really built an improvised children’s park with woods we found around the place and some cotton ropes from Trichy. The children also loved the short movie of 6 minutes showing their all days life of waking up in the morning at 5’o clock, doing some exercise and drinking a lot of water before leaving to different schools. When they come back at 4 in the afternoon they would also have some free hours to play or to help with necessary works. At the time we were there they collected the cropped paddy and separated the rice from the rest. It was beautiful to be part of this community and luckily children will remember us as we left something behind they will use a lot.
Calling this person for visiting the tribe he finally didn’t seem really involved into their life and we decided to skip it. We also had some time issues to think about because Angelos is leaving early and Pondicherry and close by Auroville are worth it to stay a couple of days. Pondicherry is a city, which is very much Europeanized; French colony left their marks behind. Everything is written in Tamil and French, there are French cafes, restaurants and bars that finally gave me a little bit the feeling of some aspects I missed here in India; I even had a real strong coffee with apple pie. We were the only white guys that were not French. We stayed in this small city for two days before leaving to Auroville.
Some really interesting people can be found there and the first concept supposed to be utopian, but as a matter of fact the ideas and places that are developed here are just very alternative, especially for a region like South India. A lot of creative energy can be felt and the non religious golden temple in the centre is suitable for meditation like no other place I have been so far in my life. You sit inside this room inside the globe with a huge crystal in the middle enlightened with one sunbeam from above and as soon as you close your eyes you can feel the extraordinary strong vibes of this place and will reach awaited stadiums very quickly and you don’t want to leave again, maybe never. I will start hopefully a few projects but my time is very limited as I am awaited in Thailand. For people in the villages around Auroville it is an additional employment possibility and for other people who are interested in alternative energies, organic farming or making innovative products they can come here to learn these skills for free or very little money. People living here are from all over the world and in some communities there is still flair from the 68 generation left, from the year this city was found. This Friday at 5′o clock in the morning was a big bonfire enlightened in the middle of the amphitheater right next to the temple with some mass meditation and speeches from the mother who had exactly this vision 40 years ago. The program goes on with Sufi musicians singing about Kabir, one of the 99 words referring to Allah whereas trying not to be religious, not belonging to Muslim nor Hindu religion but finding the truth just inside one’s heart.
The temple was built right next to a huge living-forever Banyan tree, basically a strangler fig, which was so impressing with the roots spread all over, covering immense space being used as one more place for perfect meditation.
Sad for Angelos that he is not here any more to watch this things happen. Time together was beautiful, we certainly did not fit perfectly but I think we worked it out in the best way and I can say now we got to know each other. Thank you my friend!
