On Auroville 2022 to 2025

attempts, yet has achieved a certain level of cohesion integrating a diversity that is unique and unparalleled in today‟s world – unless one refers to small scientific communities settled momentarily in remote and often inhospitable areas in order to conduct specific researches of a general import. Its government is neither hierarchical nor typically democratic and its necessities are partly dictated by its relationship with the Central Government of India, which instituted, in 1988, through an Act of Parliament, a Foundation which would be tasked to watch over the realization of The ideal of Auroville, as enunciated in its Charter (written by Sweet Mother in 1968), while warranting and ensuring the soundness of the functioning and activities of its members and participants and providing all of its assets with a legal status. thousands today, corresponding to the actual sum of the inhabitants of the Auroville area) as for a certain pride in retaining a relative independence; and the Republic of Santo-Marino, peopled today with about 35 thousand inhabitants, which has been in existence since the third century of this era and was initially founded by a small Christian community that had formed around a stone-cutter, Marinus, who had wanted its autonomy both from the king and the pope; its central edifice, a site of prayer, is perched atop a small cliff-like mount, the mount Titano, in the central region of Italy; its organization has remained independent of Europe. Often over the years one may have alluded, in relation to Aurovil le‟s supposed wishes for complete autonomy, to the status of the Vatican, but it is in fact a poor comparison, since the Vatican territory is hostage to the established religion and the financial power it wields, while the members of Santo Marino depend on their own actions. On the flag of Santo Marino is inscribed the term “Libertas”; its two colours are white for peace and light blue for freedom; in its middle is a crown, for sovereignty, covering the three guard-towers of the three neighbouring mounts and flanked by braided foliage. Its governance structure is rather healthy and favours its every citizen‟s active participation. Since around 1920, and formally since 1926, Sweet Mother and Sri Aurobindo have welcomed and adopted in Pondicherry – an earlier French colony located South of Madras (Chennai) – a growing number of disciples who wanted to give themselves to their Yoga of the Earth – the Integral Yoga, as Sri Aurobindo has defined and explained it – and the preparation of the individual to a transition of the entire being to the next evolutionary stage which will be governed by the “supramental” principle. Until 1946, after the end of the Second World War, the disciples were consecrated to a rigorous discipline in the daily existence. However, around that time, while the Of the five smallest nation/states in the world, two share some common points with Auroville: Monaco, for its physical size and the index of its population (about 40

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