A place with no discrimination
By: Tharun Kumar
Tags: Tolerance, Equality, Racism, Discrimination, Acceptance

What if I tell you about a place where religion, racism, and discrimination based on wages are nonexistent and it has 0% crime rate? Sounds unbelievable, right?

I would love to be a part of this fabulous community! I am sure you would, too, if you find out more about this place.

Auroville, an international township, is located between rural villages in the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, along with the scenic Coromandel Coast of southern India, some 150 km south of Chennai (Madras) and about 10 km north of Pondicherry town, capital of Puducherry Union Territory.

Founded by Mirra Alfassa (“the Mother”) and designed by architect Roger Anger in the year 1968, the name literally means “The City of Dawn” and is an experimental township in India. Auroville has its origins in the French language, “Aurore” meaning dawn and “Ville” meaning city. Additionally, it is named after Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950).

Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity.

— Mirra Alfassa

At its Annual Conference in 1964 and with Mirra Alfassa as its Executive President, the Sri Aurobindo Society in Pondicherry passed a resolution for the establishment of a city dedicated to the vision of Sri Aurobindo. Alfassa was a spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who believed that “man is a transitional being”. Alfassa expected that this experimental “universal township” would contribute significantly to the “progress of humanity towards its splendid future by bringing together people of goodwill and aspiration for a better world.” Alfassa also believed that such a universal township will contribute decisively to the Indian renaissance.

In the middle of the town is the Matrimandir, which was conceived by Alfassa as “a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection”. Silence is maintained inside the Matrimandir to ensure the tranquility of the space and the entire area surrounding the Matrimandir is called the Peace area. Inside the Matrimandir, a spiraling ramp leads upwards to an air-conditioned chamber of polished white marble referred to as “a place to find one’s consciousness”.

Matrimandir is equipped with a solar power plant and is surrounded by manicured gardens. When there is no sun or after the sunset, the sunrays on the globe is replaced by a beam from a solar-powered light. Here, you do nothing apart from meditation.

The City Area has 4 zones from this center namely the “Residential Zone”, “Industrial Zone”, “Cultural (& Educational) Zone” and “International Zone”.

There are an environment research area and resource area which has farms, forests, a botanical garden, seed bank, medicinal and herbal plants around the City. Communities live here.

Here, everyone earns the same amount of money regardless of their profession. Do you know how they pay? Go to a store or a hotel, buy whatever you want and write down the account number you were given when you first registered yourself as a member of that community. 33% of your earnings anyway get paid to the foundation so your expenditures get deducted from there too. Completely cashless!

Auroville is an international, intentional community. The folks here voluntarily come and live there. There are people there from all over the world, with the majority being from India.

This is worth a visit. Wouldn’t it be great if the world was like this? Let me know in the comments section below. Do like and follow me for more.