Auroville and Puducherry

Today we drove to Puducherry, aka Pondicherry, a small coastal city that was formerly a French colonial outpost until about 1951. En route we stopped at Auroville for a couple hours to look around. Auroville is a very interesting village where many people from all over the world have been working the past 30 years to form a utopian society. The concept came from a man called Sri Aurobindo who was once a political activist of great renown. He vanished for a spell, then returned to public life as a spiritual teacher. A French woman known simply as Mother came to India and met up with Aurobindo. Together they conceived of a concept of a spiritual community of people of the world intended to be self sufficient in every way, and a model of how people could and work together for a noble, greater goal. They also said the community was to be religion free. The idea being, in my poor description, that religions are not important, but what is important is the divine in everyone and everything. You can read more about Auroville here: http://www.auroville.org/. In the middle of the community is an immense golden golf ball temple like structure. We could not go inside but did see pictures. It looks like a space craft with a huge crystal sphere engine thing in the dead center. The crystal is illuminated with a sunbeam and is said to be quite a beautiful sight. I really recommend looking over the web site http://www.auroville.org/ because it is a truly amazing place. Of course we were not shown by the residents the darker side of Auroville. The property is immense and encompasses several very old villages populated by Indians. I don't know how they acquired these ownerships, but it is quite controversial. The villages continue to have lives of their own, and they actually look quite prosperous, so the value added by Auroville does seem to be considerable.

 

We left our brief stop at Auroville to stop for the day and night in Puducherry. This is a very clean city by Indian standards. There are mostly clear and clean sidewalks and streets that are far safer to walk than anywhere else we have been. The Indian love of chaos was set aside here. Puducherry is also the site of Aurobindo's grave inside a temple. He is revered in eastern Indian, much as Che Guevara is in Latin America, as a first a fierce freedom fighter, then as a modern spiritual teacher. All the factors create an place where tourists and pilgrims travel to from the world over. The result is an interesting and pleasant blend of European and Indian cultures and architectural ideas. Puducherry and Goa, on the west coast of India, are the two main areas where expats from the world come to live cheaply and pleasantly. So far it is the only place in India I have seen where I think I could live, but that is not in the plans!

 

The monsoon rain clouds have come over the city this afternoon. It was sunny and very hot, in the 90's, now it is about 80 and sprinkling a bit. I hope it does not pour, I do not have an umbrella, but if it does it will be a warm rain.

 

Yesterday, in Mammalpuram, we saw the most amazing sight. A young goat's curiosity got the best of him and he wandered out onto the sheer stone face of one of the ancient temple carvings. This was a seriously steep and smooth rock climber's dream/nightmare. The goat skittered all over, sticking to seamless, smooth surfaces as though he had glue on his feet. I finally realized I should be recording a video halfway through this performance and did get a good video. I will be sharing this on youtube as soon as I get home. It is just too much to do from here, now.

 

It is now 6 pm and the sun has set. It is time to begin to wander about looking for a light dinner snack and bottled water for the night.

 

Namaste!

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Michael & Susan Kuhn
Trip email: indiaadventure2007@gmail.com
Trip blog: www.indiaadventure2007.blogspot.com