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1.2.1 In
1954 the Mother had envisioned that "There should be somewhere upon earth
a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where
all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspiration, could live
freely as citizens of the world, obeying one single authority, that of
the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting
instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his
suffering and misery, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph
over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the
spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction
of desires and passions, the seeking for pleasures and material enjoyments.
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1.2.2 In
this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without
losing contact with their soul. Education would be given, not with a view
to passing examinations and getting certificates and posts, but for enriching
the existing faculties and bringing forth new ones. In this place, titles
and positions would be supplanted by opportunities to serve and organize.
The needs of the body will be provided for equally in the case of each
and everyone. In general, intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority
will find expression not in the enhancement of the pleasures and powers
of life but in the increase of duties and responsibilities.
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1.2.3 Artistic
beauty in all forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, will be available
equally to all, the opportunity to share in the joys they bring being
limited solely by each one's capacities and not by social or financial
position. In this ideal place money would be no more the sovereign lord.
Individual merit will have a greater importance than the value of material
wealth and social position. Work would not be there as the means of gaining
one's livelihood, it would be the means whereby to express oneself, develop
one's capacities and possibilities, while doing at the same time service
to the whole group, which on its side would provide for each one's subsistence
and for the field of his work. In brief, it would be a place where the
relations among human beings, usually based almost exclusively upon competition
and strife, would be replaced by relations of emulation for doing better,
for collaboration, relations of real brotherhood".
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1.2.4 It
was in the mid 1960s, however, that the City was concretised when the
Mother said, "India is the representation of all human difficulties on
earth and it is in India that there will be cure, and it is for that I
had to create Auroville" because "from the spiritual point of view, India
is the foremost country in the world. Her mission is to set the example
of spirituality. Sri Aurobindo came on earth to teach this to the world".
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1.2.5 Based
on the work and inspiration of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Auroville
is intended as a site for the manifestation of human unity in diversity.
As such, it offers itself as a testing ground and laboratory for the next
step in human evolution. Auroville took root when the Mother identified
the Banyan tree to be the physical centre of the City. The site is bounded
by the sea to the east, the Kaluveli tank to the north, the Tindivanam
Road to the west and Pondicherry to the south.
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1.2.6 The
Universal Township of Auroville was inaugurated on 28th February 1968
in the presence of 5000 people. Representatives of 124 countries and all
the Indian states placed a handful of earth from their homelands in a
marble-clad urn near the site of the Matrimandir at the centre of Auroville.
This symbolised the creation of the city dedicated to human unity and
international understanding. The Mother announced the Auroville Charter.
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1.2.7 AUROVILLE
CHARTER
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Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to
humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing
servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
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Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant
progress, and a youth that never ages.
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Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future.
Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within,
Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
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Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches
for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.
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1.2.8 The
Mother envisaged to develop Auroville as a township for 50,000 inhabitants
with a circular form, covering an area of about 20 sq. km. Auroville received
the unanimous endorsement of the General Conference of UNESCO in 1966,
1968, 1970 and 1983. It is now administered under the Auroville Foundation
Act (Government of India Act no. 54, dated 29 Sept. 1988) which provides
for the preparation of a Master Plan.
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1.2.9 The
Act also provides for the acquisition and transfer of the undertakings
of Auroville and to vest such undertakings in a foundation established
for the purpose with a view to making long-term arrangements for better
management and further development of Auroville in accordance with its
original Charter and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
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1.2.10 The
relevance of Auroville to the country as a whole is to use all the researches
carried out here diligently and with commitment, individually and collectively,
in order to raise the overall quality of life. While conceiving the town,
the Mother also evolved a form for the township; subdivided into four
principal zones namely the Residential Zone, International Zone, Industrial
Zone and Cultural Zone. The original sketch drawn by the Mother in her
own hand is the basis for further development of the Auroville township.
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