Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Founded in 1926, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram has grown, under the Mother's guidance, from a small group of two dozen disciples into a large and diverse community of almost 1600 members. Counting the 400 students of the Centre of Education and the hundreds of devotees who live nearby, the larger ashram community consists of more than 2000 people. The Ashram is located in the eastern part of Pondicherry. Inmates live and work in a number of buildings spread throughout the area. The focus of community life is the Ashram main building, usually called simply "the Ashram", which consists of an interconnected block of houses, including those in which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother lived for most of their lives. At its centre, in a tree-shaded courtyard, lies the Samadhi, a white marble shrine where their bodies are laid to rest.
Situated in a bustling city of nearly one million people, the Ashram is not a quiet place of retreat secluded from the world, but a vibrant centre of life. The dynamic urban setting of the community reflects the life-affirming aim of Sri Aurobindo's Yoga. Work is an important part of the Yoga, and Ashram members who are fit do some useful work every day in one of the departments.
In the sadhana or spiritual discipline of this Yoga, there is no set mental teaching or fixed method of practice. For this reason, the Ashram has no systematic instructions in Yoga and no compulsory rituals, meditations or gatherings. Each sadhak is left free to determine the line of his spiritual path in accordance 'with his nature. 'But the general principles of the Yoga are the same for all: there must be an aspirationfor the divine life, a rejection of the movements of the lower nature, a self-opening to the Divine Force, and a surrender of one's being to the Divine.
Location
The Ashram is located in the eastern part of Pondicherry, along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It is 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state and a major city of southern India.
Accommodation
There are a few guest houses run by the Ashram where visitors can stay for a short while. As the Ashram attracts many visitors throughout the year, you should make reservations in advance and especially during the Special Days in the Ashram. Should you arrive at the Ashram without a confirmed booking, you can go to the Bureau Central, which allots rooms according to requirements, provided accommodation is available. There are some Ashram-related guest houses as well as many hotels and lodges in Pondicherry, but there too one should try to reserve accommodation in advance. Travel sites on the internet list descriptions and contact information.
Entry in Ashram
Visitors must go to the Bureau Central to acquire a pass needed to attend Ashram activities.
Visit to the Samadhi
You can go to the Samadhi for pranam and meditation from 8.00 to 11.30 a.m. and from 2.00 to 6.00 p.m. After 6.00 p.m. a visitor’s pass is required to enter. Passes can be issued if you are staying in an Ashram Guest House or by Bureau Central.
Collective Meditations
On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday there is a collective meditation around the samadhi from 7.25 to 7.50 p.m. All those with a visitor pass are welcome to join. On Thursday and Sunday, a collective meditation is held in the Ashram Playground between 7.45 and 8.15 p.m. This is open only to members of the Ashram and those visitors staying in the Ashram guest houses who have been given Playground passes. These must be shown at the gate.
Ashram Related Latest Information
Kindly visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram Official Site to gather latest and detailed information about Ashram
For your personal reading and study , PDF versions of Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s works are available from Sri Aurobindo Ashram Official Site
Since the mid 1920s to 1950, no photographs of Sri Aurobindo were taken. In April 1950 the famous French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram and asked the Mother to permit him to take Sri Aurobindo’s photographs. When the Mother gave him permission, Henri Cartier-Bresson took a number of photographs of the various activities of the Ashram and also some photographs of the Mother. On Monday - Darshan Day 24 April 1950 , he took some photographs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother giving Darshan to the Sadhaks and devotees. This is Colour Version of The Photograph
Sri Aurobindo has come on earth not to bring a teaching or a creed in competition with previous creeds or teachings, but to show the way to overpass the past and to open concretely the route towards an imminent and inevitable future.
- The Mother
This Ashram has been created with another object than that ordinarily common to such institutions, not for the renunciation of the world but as a centre and a field of practice for the evolution of another kind and form of life which would in the final end be moved by a higher spiritual consciousness and embody a greater life of the spirit.
Sri Aurobindo
Parikrama Around Ashram
All our endeavour is to make this consciousness and this will govern our lives and action and organise all our activities. It is the way in which the Ashram has been created. Since 1926 when Sri Aurobindo retired and gave me full charge of it (at that time there were only two rented houses and a handful of disciples) all has grown up and developed like the growth of a forest, and each service was created not by any artificial planning but by a living and dynamic need.This is the secret of constant growth and endless progress. The present difficulties come chiefly from psychological resistances in the disciples who have not been able to follow the rather rapid pace of the "sadhana" and the yielding to the intrusion of mental methods which have corrupted the initial working.
A growth and purification of the consciousness is the only remedy.
THE MOTHER
Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Samadhi
The Ashram is meant for those who want to consecrate their lives to the Divine.
THE MOTHER