AUROVILLE
Auroville, founded in 1968 as an international township in south India, is home to almost 3,000 residents from 58 different nationalities. Inspired by Sri Aurobindo's teachings and guidance of the Mother, Auroville is an experimental community to practise human unity...
Inspired by Sri Aurobindo’s teachings and guidance of the Mother, it is not an ashram but an experimental community, replete with the many challenges common to all, that endeavors to bring an enlightened future to our doorstep. Its diversity is evident in the cultures of people, languages, multi-ethnic cuisines, film festivals, world music, theatre, fine arts and handicrafts.
Concern for ecology is paramount and practised through organic farming, reforestation, rainwater harvest, sustainable working units, e-vehicles, and garbology. Auroville may be small but functions organically as an integrated community. And of course, no pollution here!
Since the beginning, people in Auroville and its bioregions have been living and working together with one another. There are schools for Auroville children and village children. Health service, women’s education, technical school for adults, and working space are available for people in nearby villages.
For over five decades, the people of Auroville have been relentlessly harvesting rainwater and planting trees in a once barren terrain, making the now lush green township of Auroville known worldwide for its ecological achievements. The Matrimandir is the Soul of Auroville. Futuristic meditation chambers are housed in a world-famous architecture icon. Its exquisite gardens are landscaped in the form of a galaxy with an ancient banyan tree as its point of origin. To learn more about the story of Auroville, its entire timeline is presented in multi-media narration at the Visitor Centre.
The city of Pondicherry is 7 km away. The Bay of Bengal is only 1.1 km or 20 minutes’ walk from Gaia’s Garden. Embrace the glorious rising sun!
There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord and harmony where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount his weaknesses and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasure and material enjoyment.
In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their souls; education would be given not for passing examinations or obtaining certificates and posts but to enrich existing faculties and bring forth new ones. In this place, titles and positions would be replaced by opportunities to serve and organise; the bodily needs of each one would be equally provided for, and intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority would be expressed in the general organisation not by an increase in the pleasures and powers of life but by increased duties and responsibilities.
Beauty in all its artistic forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be equally accessible to all; the ability to share in the joy it brings would be limited only by the capacities of each one and not by social or financial position...
~ The Mother
Gaia's Garden is a small and exquisite community of Auroville,
9.5km away from Matrimandir at the heart of the international township.
Coming to Gaia's Garden
Maps and Directions
Quick ones on how to reach us and get around by.
01
From Pondicherry
Take a bus towards the direction of Chennai via ECR road. From Auroville junction on the ECR road, take an Auto or from the village Bommayapalayam (one stop further) and walk inland (west) for about 1 km. You can also contact us in advance to arrange for a pickup.
02
From Chennai
Get off at Guindy Metro Station and take a bus for Pondicherry from across the road. Ask the driver to drop you at the Village Bommayapalayam (one stop before Auroville junction) and walk inland for about 1km, or at the Auroville junction on the ECR Road take an Auto. You can also contact us in advance to arrange for a pickup.
03
When in Auroville
Find out about sustainable mobility from Auroville main website: Transportation - Moving Around Auroville.
CONTACT US
Old Auroville Road, Auroville, TN605101, India
gaiasgarden@auroville.org.in | +91 93858 30282 +91 (0)413 2910282 | +919385830282