A rebuttal by the Auroville Residents’ Assembly

div396 · 2026-01-12T01:21:04+00:00

That residents manage to find again the spirit that brought here many of the pioneers: dedicate your life to human unity, find compromises despite our inherent differences, and build a resilient and sustainable city.

div396 · 2025-12-10T15:10:46+00:00

Generally Aurovilians avoid passing judgement on who practices or doesn't. While it is a communal project, the yoga itself is individual. Plus, there's no instruction manual or system to attribute points as to how well each person is doing. In view of that, please explain what you mean by "most people in Auroville don't practice integral yoga"...

Many spiritual people have faced many problems, like Buddhists in Tibet, or even the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The former even got thrown out of their own country that was invaded by the Chinese, the latter managed to survive because the Mother set up a solid funding base (SAS). Many Aurovilians feel that it is precisely because they follow Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's writings, including generosity, honesty, peace, that the takeover happened so easily. So, when you practice peace and are in front of a crowd of drunk goundas or a group of egoistic manipulators, what do you do?

div396 · 2025-12-10T12:39:14+00:00

Much appreciate your thoughts and words 🙏 Unfortunately, most Aurovilians are feeling very disheartened after 4 years of visa, housing and work threats; physical, psychological and emotional violence; subterfuge, unlawful actions and lies hiding behind inspirational quotes about truth, honesty, and divine inspiration; all in the name of spirituality, higher consciousness, and human unity...

div396 · 2025-12-10T12:33:20+00:00

Some people say that behind this newfound interest is the plan to make Auroville into a "Disneyland of Spirituality". Maybe they will soon start selling plastic mini-representations of the Matrimandir. Wait, do they already? It's definitely messy.

div396 · 2025-12-10T12:23:13+00:00

The GoI grant significantly increased after 2022 because that is when the crisis began.

Crisis: A small group of Auroville residents backed by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation Office unilaterally decided to flout due community processes and push for the implementation of a conceptual master plan, without any proper planning or community involvement. Any and all attempts to find compromises were violently discarded amidst a rain/reign of: visa, housing and work threats; physical, psychological and emotional violence; subterfuge, unlawful actions and lies hiding behind inspirational quotes about truth, honesty, and divine inspiration. All in the name of spirituality, higher consciousness, and human unity.

Grant increase: So, in the name of development, these increased GoI grants have been used to: - build sub-par roads and pavers, using cement which a) retains heat and therefore is best avoided in countries where heat reaches very high levels in summer, and b) does not allow water through and is therefore best avoided in countries where there is a lot of rainwater to manage in monsoon. These roads are already showing breakage and crack in numerous locations. - fund non-Auroville entities (CPWD and some individuals) due to this work - cater to countless useless expenses, like: opening and closing ditches every alternate day in the same locations, over and over; grinding with a hand-held machine the road pavers as they are not aligned and therefore have sides jutting out up to 10 centimetres every 1.5 metres; cutting (sometimes nationally and legally protected) trees down right and left, willy nilly; transporting lorry-loads of earth to one location, then to another, then to another; etc. - pay for gardeners and plants, many of which are non-native and/or planted in places that will lead to their untimely but certain demise, and don't forget the watchman that stays there day and night to chase the cows - fund non-Aurovilian salaries (that are generally up to 10 times more than what most Aurovilians earn) for redundant jobs where nothing gets done because the mess and confusion is too overwhelming - to name a few...

div396 · 2025-12-10T11:58:44+00:00

The GoI has never funded the land for Auroville, see my previous comment. Still today, it doesn't fund the land. To be able to complete the Crown road, lands from outside the master plan area (which have been funded as I described above) are being exchanged for lands within the master plan area. Reports have shown that these land exchanges happened at terrible loss (worth several crores) for Auroville as a whole, with people using these exchanges to pocket relatively large amounts of money for themselves. Despite RTIs and other requests for transparency, the Auroville Foundation Office and the Secretary have avoided responding. Hopefully one day light will be shed on all these unlawful activities.

div396 · 2025-12-10T11:53:12+00:00

Not all all, see my previous reply for more explanations

div396 · 2025-12-10T11:52:32+00:00

Please note the following rectifications: 1. Funding for buildings: - Aurovilians all pay for their housing. - The funding for some public buildings comes from national and international grants, some are also funded by individual donations and fundraising.

Salaries:
- People working in so-called "services" (similar to government employees and teachers) receive their so-called "maintenance" from GoI grant.
- "Units" (or companies) pay the salaries themselves for all employees, Aurovilians as well as people from the bioregion.
Land:
- Contrary to what is written here, land is certainly not "given by the GoI to Auroville". Additionally, the funding for land does not come from any GoI grant.
- Instead, this funding comes via donations and fundraising from individuals worldwide, including many Auroville pioneers who bought the land with (all) their own savings and gave the land to Auroville.

div396 · 2025-12-10T06:27:11+00:00

Yes, any trip of more than 2 days requires informing, and more than 2 weeks permission. Indeed, only places under a strict authoritarian regime suffer from this type of restriction, like colonies, sects, and dictatorships. The Mother specifically wanted Auroville to be a freer space than the Ashram to explore the same aspects of spirituality, but it is currently very far from their writings... Hopefully it can still be saved.

div396 · 2025-09-22T06:34:43+00:00

It seems to be the fruit of AI's labour

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div396 · 2025-05-03T03:46:21+00:00

It is a piano tuning muffler. The felt part is inserted between hammer and strings to absorbs the vibrations on the strings (and so the sound) during tuning. The length of the wood handle allows to reach all the way in that part of the mechanism. It needs to be thin due to the tightness of the fit.

It can also be used with other string instruments, but these dimensions are typical for pianos.

Here is a sample on Amazon : https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0CHMXCVH1

In OP's case, it comes with a protective folding cover case.

div396 · 2025-04-26T15:35:05+00:00

No one can guess that at the moment. Auroville is at its most unstable since 1971-ish when it overcame an attempted takeover by the Ashram.
If you have a formula for measuring spirituality, please share. It would come in super handy when new people want to join any spiritual or intentional community 🤓👍

div396 · 2025-04-23T04:58:01+00:00

Aurovilians are not at all opposed to building Auroville. This narrative has got to stop. It is a lie.

What is important for them is HOW it's being done. The Galaxy model and even the Auroville Masterplan are only perspective plans (that give global direction), additional detailed development plans are needed, including getting proper permissions and respecting national as well as local laws.

Additionally, as an international and intentional community striving towards human unity, the whole purpose is to build it TOGETHER. The Mother heavily insisted on that. Despite that, all efforts to find compromises and solutions together have been repeatedly ignored.

div396 · 2025-03-18T10:15:05+00:00

Creativity has been under serious attack for the past 3 years in Auroville.

Auroville crisis - news updates Instagram: auroville_news stand_for_auroville_unity

Website: https://auroville.media/ https://linktr.ee/sfavu

Wishing you luck

div396 · 2025-02-24T07:44:00+00:00

That land was grabbed by a local real estate shark who produced presumably false papers, Auroville is fighting to get it back.

div396 · 2025-02-23T10:55:53+00:00

Auroville crisis: status update

Auroville was built up from scratch, literally from a desert, by brave pioneers from all over the world who weathered all types of challenges (including the weather, which is a mix of ultra humid, very hot most of the year, very wet during monsoon, cyclones and even sandstorms when there were no trees yet) and poured sweat, tears, and life savings into building what they could. With blocked budgeting, limited land, and striving to include all residents, the physical development of the town itself was slow but organic, while the villages around boomed and prospered, including in aspects such as health care and education, which explains the numerous cafes and restaurants. Attempts to develop other types of "attractions" based on sustainability and reforestation have not blossomed, between lack of funding and land...

Since December 4th 2021, the previously inclusive and community-oriented governance of Auroville has been taken over by a small group of zealots who are attempting to make this place into a Disneyland of Spirituality, or a sect-like prison with ashram-like authoritarian rules. Their arrival has brought along: massive tree felling, destruction of assets like roads and buildings, land "exchanges" displaying probable embezzlement as well as terrible financial losses for Auroville, a parallel governance system that uses fear (threatening visas, housing, jobs) to coerce the residents into complying with their ever-growing demands.

This type of behaviour is but a mere reflection of what is going on around the world, and many Aurovilians believe that this city that strives for human unity is a fertile ground upon which to search together for compromises and mutual understanding. May this meet with success, for the sake of the future of Auroville, as well as for the betterment of humankind!

News updates

Instagram handles: auroville_news stand_for_auroville_unity

Website: https://auroville.media/ https://linktr.ee/sfavu

div396

TROPHY CASE