Travelling to a utopia: Auroville, India

Do you believe that a society can exist with perfect human unity? Well, I’ve just returned from a community founded on this intention. My month in India was one of the most challenging of my life and one of the most transformative.

The Matrimandir (translated as Mother Temple) is the golden temple in the heart of the community, which I admired several times a day while cycling through town. In the heart of the dark dome is a meditation room with a silence so profound I could hear my pulse and feel my thoughts! It isn’t very often in the western world that we find a space that can facilitate that kind of experience.

But the greenery surrounding the Matrimandir was even more profound than being within the globe itself – or so I found. Our lecturer, Bem Le Hunt, led us on a walking meditation through gardens with names such as wealth, life and birth. I remember climbing the tree house in the garden of youthfulness, wondering how the arrangement of plants could inspire such deep feelings of lightness and playfulness within me.

One of my favourite memories was visiting the vegan community living in Sadhana Forest – an offshoot of Auroville. I joined them at 5 am for stretches and their morning “hug circle”, before cleaning cow pens for two hours, followed by breakfast. They’re well known for some of their more eccentric practices, like living in huts, opting only for composting toilets (aka drop toilets), using human manure – not cow manure, showering under buckets and cooking without much oil or salt. “Character building” is the phrase that comes to mind. As an environmentalist, I was inspired by their water persevering techniques, including the three bucket dish wash system and the thin stream hand wash. I honestly see myself incorporating some of these design elements into my future home.

During my time in Auroville, there were moments of lull, particularly between activities or when the connection dropped out. I remember how stagnating and painful the feeling of unproductiveness was. But then I started to notice the spacious cushion of boredom become more comfortable. I rested my head on the fact such sensations aren’t ones I have or will often get to experience, and they come with their own creative benefits and insights.

As a journalist and creator, I loved growing my understanding of utopian thinking and resilience building in complex systems so that I can tell stories that create harmony, not division, in a time of global challenge. This experience has allowed me to challenge ingrained western assumptions making me question how I view work, collaboration and success. I know this experience will add richness to how I capture stories, removing some Eurocentrism and allowing me to be a more thoughtful and empathic storyteller for the rest of my career and life.

Cogan, Eve

Global Short Program Student (Faculty-Led)

New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant Recipient