Pondicherry - Auroville (Tamil Nadu) - Jan. 30th, 2007

Today I took a tour and visited Auroville. I read a lot about this international vision place, so I was really looking forward to see what is all about, and thought the easiest way was to join the tour. After this visit, my views of this international community changed drastically.
It's about 15 kms. north of Pondicherry, and it was founded by "the Mother" and Sri Aurobindo as the project in human unity. It has now approx. 1,700 residents (2/3 are foreigners from 35 different nationalities). They inaugurated it on 1968, and assisted representatives from 124 countries who poured soil of their lands into an urn to symbolise universal oneness.
The Matrimandir is considered the soul of Auroville and it's like a giant golf ball, with out-of-space appearance. It was designed to meditate inside and that room is white marble containing a solid crystal (70 cm. diameter). I was surprised to find that in 40 years this experiment in international living where people could live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, politics and nationalities, has only a total of 1,700 residents.
Most people who live there eat at the solar kitchen, who serves more than 400 meals daily.