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The History of Auroville, Part 2 - Mother's known words in their context
Books 4 to 6
February 2016 version
Edited by Gilles Guigan
Auroville Archives
Book 4
The attached 4th Book covers the period from March 1966 to February 1967 included.
During this period, Roger presented to Mother the first two proposals of his Paris office for the concept/model of the future city.
One of the most interesting conversations during this period is that Mother had with Satprem on 21st September 1966, in which She told him that She had the "revelation" that Auroville is the "Last Hope" of preventing a new world conflict. It is very interesting to note that, one month later in Paris, the delegates of all member-states of UNESCO voted unanimously in favour of a resolution of support to Auroville.
This "revelation" of Mother seemed to be the (main?) reason why Auroville had to be built so fast (10-20 years). Yet, in Book 5 (on 3.2.68), Mother will tell Satprem: “For some time I used to think that it [Auroville] was the only real possibility – at present – of preventing a war, but that seemed to me a slightly superficial explanation."
Book 5
The attached 5th Book covers the period from March 1967 to February 1968 included.
During this period, Roger presented to Mother his 3rd proposal (worked out by his Paris office) for the concept and model of the future city - that of the "Macro-structure". It is also during this period that the geographical centre of the future town was fixed - at the Banyan Tree - and the diameter of the city reduced from 3km to 2.5km.
Mother issued in June 1967 Her "first conditions for living in Auroville", which were psychological and said that the "material conditions" will be issued later. One can see that She has not yet received any clear indications of what this experiment should be able to deliver.
At the very end of December 1967 (2 months prior to the Inauguration Ceremony), Mother spoke of the principles upon which Auroville's economy would be based. Interestingly She gave a "Pvt. Ltd." company (Aurofood) as an example of an Auroville business unit and seems to be also open to the possibility of private farms...
This period ends with the Inauguration Ceremony, Auroville's official launching. It is very interesting to note that - at this point in time - Mother had not stated any constraining conditions for living in Auroville.
Book 6
The attached 6th Book covers the period from March 1968 to February 1969 included - that is Auroville's first year after its Inauguration Ceremony.
This period saw some Aurovilians starting to settle in other places than Promesse and Auro-Orchard. It also saw the beginning of an organisation and of some collective services.
It is also during this period that the Hindocha brothers (and their father, Laljibhai) started to make an attempt to obtain some substantial funding from the Ford Foundation to (at first) fund the planning of Auroville's construction using the most modern methods.
