Recently I was just reminiscing on my time in India, Particularly Auroville a 'hippie' community in Tamil Nadu, 3 hours south of Chennai. It was not a place I intentionally was going to visit. I ended up there to do an earth dome course, to learn how to build cost effective natural earth quake proof building. I think its a technique you get very passionate about after surviving a devastating earthquake, which i experienced the year before, still in PTSD I wanted to find an learn solutions as I was deeply unhappy with concrete buildings.
So I rocked up to India not really knowing where I was going. all I knew was the course was being held in Auroville but I didnt know that this place was famous for the community that was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa (a french woman known as "the Mother") and designed by architect Roger Anger. The mother must of been an interesting character, she studied occultism with Max Theon in the early 1900s she went to Pondicherry (where Auroville is located) on 29 March 1914, she met Sri Aurobindo, a philospher, yogi and guru who considered her as a spiritual equal. After 24 November 1926, when Sri Aurobindo retired into seclusion, he left The Mother a plan: to build and run a ashram . This is how the community began and expanded over the coming years, particularly with the new age enlightenment of the 60s, the ashram became Auroville an experimental township dedicated to human unity and evolution.
There was a heavily European influence, not only from the mother but from flocking disciples, so i guess it was only natural a bakery would be developed actually 2 existed but they were not very good because the bread was being made from wheat rations from the government. The modern Auroville bakery that serves this delicious, well formed, fluffy and nutritious bread did not exist as it is today! It was transformed over many years with the catalyst starting from a man named Otto from Austria who arrived in Auroville in 1981
Otto was a banker and ran a disco in Vienna, but he decided to start an entirely new life in Auroville, India, he started working at the existing bakery working from the ground up with no experience of baking. In the beginning, he described the work as tough, everyone got their hands stuck in and no one was the boss. Whilst he was there they started to use local grains instead, which grew naturally and abundantly and have much much better nutritional value such as Ragi and varagu.
I tried the Ragi bread when I was there and it was ultimately my favorite, nothing beats local foods!
In 1994 Otto started the Ganesh bakery which still exists in Kottakara and the Auroville bakery began to expand. It was a continual learning process, of how to deal with the elements, termites, rodents and refining the recipes. As well as employing outside labor. Many members of the community also poured a lot of energy into the running, managing and transformation of the bakery.
As a visitor I was very lucky to try these refined recipes, crafted over time. I'm so grateful for the work of the Aurovillian members, the time they put into creating such delicious bread, cakes and cookies, loved not only by European community members but by the local residents as well.
Its really a testimony to the philosophy of the community. I think people have a perception of hippies as lazy! but that is not the case, many people in the ashram, were starting a new life away from the traps of a consumerist society, they resonated with the teachings of Sri Aurobindo who pioneered a spiritual practice he called Integral Yoga.
I visited the Auroville library and information center to get a better understanding of what Integral Yoga is. What was explained to me was essentially: the yoga of doing, since the work and energy you put into something is a meditation. It doesn't have to be about sitting still but it can be the physical actions you take to follow through a set of tasks. i can definitely relate to this as I find focusing on tasks deeply meditative.
Of course refining and making the perfect bread is not all they achieved, they reforested the whole site around the community, which is now a place of biodiversity instead of being a dusty wasteland, and they created an amazing community, with lots of infrastructure. You've got to see to believe it!
What do you think? Is this bread looking delicious to you? would you like to visit Auroville, have you been there before? Let me know in the comments section!