It was morning of Tuesday 24th December 2019 when we started from Puducheri to Auroville. We have been given special entry to Auroville Inside thanks to our old friend Mr Minhaj who is a resident from last 20 years
The trip was wonderful with lot of learning about connection with nature and a non intrusive life with nature.
Auroville was built on barren land and after decades of hard work its been converted to a lush green cover.
Within auroville they don’t use currency and every thing is used on minimalistic consumption pattern and expenses are totally cashless, that too settled at the end of month.
I had a terrible experience reaching this place using Google Maps in December 2018 since the location was all wrong an the access road was closed as well. The GPS was leading me to the wrong parking.
But once inside the main gates, it was bliss.
I enjoyed walking from the main central cafe area all the way to the meditation center which is a golden dome shape. Did you also visit the same?
Yes it was wonderful visiting the place and happy to learn that a real cashless place exists… if you are a resident you just have to sign the register and it will be settled at the end of the month.
And Yes I do recommend this place if you are a nature lover and like to experience the coexistence of all living beings.
Yes you are correct the maps for this location is quite jumbled up for occasional visitors, however it’s. Correct for residents as it shows all the access roads leading inside. But those roads are only for residents or official visitors.
For all other tourists or visitors you have to reach to reception first as you have reached inside.
And yes I did visited the meditation center as well as solar kitchen, their supermarket, and other places.
The place is best explored by staying in the various guesthouse inside the campus.
They do have a mechanism of recording the consumption at various counters and it’s calculated at the end of the month.
One approach of minimalist approach is seen at the supermarket where residents takes away all the things required by them but they do not know the price tag on it and hence do not know how much they have spent on single spree. The idea is take suitable quantity as needed and be happy.
I have seen consumption of my friend over there who lives with his family of 3 has a monthly consumption of .5k.
Also it is to be noted that you get all kind of local as well as imported fruits and product, so you don’t have to suppress your desires but avoid hoarding of items.