=1 "The city of the future"

The city of the future

The true Topic::Auroville is not simply a city beautifully planned or skilfully built. It is above all a consciousness which is becoming visible as a town. It is this consciousness which is its raison d'être, its life and its soul.

In contrast to the cities of the past, which were the expression of a will to separate, to exclude, to protect, to wall-in, this town will be a standing invitation to join – a town which is open.

Auroville will be an open town not only in its layout, in its architecture, in its hotels and homes, but also in its life and functioning. It will be open to all men now and open also towards its own future, open-minded and open-hearted.

No single opinion, no philosophy or political system will be allowed to interfere with this openness. That is why it bears the name AUROVILLE, the city of unending dawn, of eternal beginning.

If other towns stumble into the future, walking backwards as they face the monuments of the past, Auroville will be a monument to the future, a humanized space for growth. There is no glorification of the past here if it diminishes the future. All is hope – a monument of unlimited aspiration like the bird that both wakes and sleeps in the air and never alights.

If other towns have beautiful buildings or statues, works of art, the whole of Auroville will be a work of art and of love – not that love of our neighbour which is pity and compassion for his limitations, but a love of our neighbour, our playmate in time, of his possibilities, of what he can be – a love for the man of tomorrow, for the future man involved in our next-door neighbour. If other towns are the cities of our ancestors, Auroville is the city of our children.

Auroville is not yet built, but it is under way. Its building, we hope, will be perpetual, and each of us is invited to set in place a few bricks, some bricks of love.