From Madurai we headed on to Pondicherry, an odd piece of leftover French colonialism which retains a very French feel in its architecture, particularly on the east side of the city. Oh, and it was the first Indian town or city we noticed had litter bins on the streets...
In Pondicherry we stayed in an ashram overlooking the sea and promenade. The ashram was set up to honour the principles and goals of Sri Aurobindo and his pupil, known as the Mother, namely "the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit", and is where mainly 'spiritual seekers' stay when they're in this part of the country (www.sriaurobindosociety.org.in/subnav/ashram.htm). Intrigued by all this, we stayed a few nights at the ashram and duly obeyed the no-alcohol rules and 10PM curfew... (Sounds more like punishment than enlightenment, eh). We also took a trip to Auroville
a township designed by the Mother and aimed at creating "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 ". Confused? So were we...
The aim was to have 50,000 'Aurovillians' living in peace here, but only around 2,600 live there today and it was difficult to see who was now in charge of progressing this "project for humanity" and giving direction to the place following the death of the Mother in 1973. Anyways, it was an interesting trip and did leave us wanting to learn more about this place... Posted by Marty & Susie at 12:06
No comments:
Post a Comment