The bus stops at a toll gate, on
the outskirts of Pondicherry. I am in Auroville. It is a small town inspired by
the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. It was
founded by Mirra Alfassa (also known as "The Mother"). She spoke
about the vision for this township with her first public message as such,
"Auroville is meant 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." It is a collection of properties located some 12 km north of
Pondicherry. These properties mostly
comprise of alternate communities that have their own philosophies and
approaches to living. Vegan Communities, Musical Instrument Shops, Environment
Protection Communities, Organic Food Shops, Yoga Centers are some of the
objectives of these alternate communities. I was here to spend a week in one
such alternate community, called the Sadhana Forest.
The mission of this community is
reforestation and water conservation. Yorit and Aviram Rozin founded this
community in December 2010 to firstly ensure water stays on the land, for
nature to do its work. They understood that desertification was not just a
physical problem, but also a social problem. They build bands and canals to
ensure water flows through the land. Over a 1000 volunteers come to Sadhana
Forest every year. Working with these volunteers, they also aim to reforest 70
acres of severely eroded, arid land on the outskirts of Auroville. The
community welcomes volunteers on any day between Monday to Friday before 2 p.m.
They do not charge for accommodation. They charge for three meals a day which
comes up to INR 400 (less than 7 Dollars a day).
The volunteers stay in
communes together and each volunteer is given a cot and a locker to keep his or
her valuables. Volunteers spend 25-30 hours a week volunteering. You get to
choose from a mix of volunteer activities, like composting, recycling, forest
duty, watering plants, cleaning the pool, cooking and more. When I visited
Sadhana, we had to work two shifts in the morning. The first shift started from
6 am to 8 30 am and the second shift started from 9 30 am to 12 15 am. The
community came together for breakfast in the time in between. Lunch and dinner
were the other two important times the community came together. The volunteers
were free to spend the rest of the day as they wished. A library space,
swimming pool, community center, wifi area, children's land were some of the
facilities that the volunteers could use in this time. Every Friday, guests
from Pondicherry and nearby cities would come to Sadhana, for an Eco Film Club
event. Films that relates to Sadhana Forest were screened. A tour of the project is also organized for
the visitors before that. A Community Sharing event is held every Tuesday, the
whole community will come together and form a sharing circle. Every member is
encouraged, to share whatever is on their mind. It is beautiful to observe
people that have met each other for the first time, to open up and be so
vulnerable in these gatherings. The Open Stage Night or Non Talent night is
held every Wednesday, where anyone can perform whether they have a talent or
not. This was all the information I got from their website. But I knew being
there, would be a whole different experience. So there I was, at a highway toll
gate, waiting for a member of Sadhana Forest to come pick me up and take me to
the community. I was excited for the week ahead...
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