DEPARTMENTS OF THE ASHRAM
The Ashram consists of over 80 departments which include farms, gardens, healthcare, guesthouses and engineering units among many others. Most of these departments have emerged spontaneously, sometimes because of a need for a product or service that wasn't available, often because the Mother encouraged a sadhak to pursue his art. Under Her personal guidance and care, these small units soon grew up into well-established departments.While externally they help sustain the Ashram, the real purpose of these units is to serve as a field for sadhana, the spiritual discipline. Work in the Ashram is to be done unselfishly, in the spirit of service and as a means of offering oneself to the Divine.
The Ashram's art gallery was started in 1963 and the Mother named it "The Studio" and gave it the message: "On the physical plane, it is in Beauty that the Divine expresses himself."The Mother who herself was a painter of great sensitivity always evinced a keen interest in Art and Beauty. She trained and helped the young and old to pursue Art as a part of their spiritual growth.The art gallery undertakes the preservation and the exhibition of "the Mother's collection" of paintings and photographs. This collection consists of more than 2500 paintings done by Ashram artists and others. It is a selection from this collection that is usually on exhibit at the gallery.
Sri Aurobindo Ashram is located in Pondicherry, a small coastal town 160 km south of Chennai, in South India. Visitors wanting to travel to Pondicherry will most likely have to pass through Chennai, whether they arrive there by air, train or road, and thereafter cover the remaining distance to Pondicherry by road, a journey which generally takes about 3 hours.Several private and government-owned buses leave Chennai for Pondicherry every half-hour. However, visitors arriving at the Chennai Airport, or even those with a lot of luggage, might find it more convenient to hire a taxi for this leg of their journey.A limited number of rooms are available in Ashram guest houses for visitors coming for a short visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Since accommodation is limited and is often fully booked, it is advisable to make reservations in advance.
A list of guest houses that accept advance bookings is provided here, along with a brief description of the facilities they provide. In case visitors come to the Ashram without a confirmed booking, they may approach the Bureau Central, which allots rooms according to requirements, provided accommodation is available.
While it is possible to enter the main Ashram building freely during visiting hours, some sections of the Ashram require that you obtain a pass before you can be allowed to enter. If you get accommodation in any of the Ashram Guest Houses, you will be given the appropriate passes. However, for those not staying at an Ashram guest house, the Bureau Central can help by providing information and the pass you might need.
The Bureau Central office, designed as an exhibition hall, also provides an introduction to the vision of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and their method of spiritual practice, through permanent exhibits of photographs, captions, text, videos and books.
The Sense Of Beauty in Flowers
I have noticed a first elementary psychic vibration in plant life, and truly the blossoming ofa flower is the first sign of the psychic presence. The psychic individualises itself only in man, but it existed before him; only it is not the same kind of individualisation, it is morefluid and manifests as force or as consciousness rather than as individuality. Take the rose, for example, its great perfection of form, colour and smell expresses an aspiration and isa psychic gift. Look at a rose opening in the morning with the first contact of the sun-it is a magnificent self-giving aspiration. -The Mother
The Vegetal kingdom
Have you ever watched a forest with all its countless trees and plants struggling to catch the light-twisting and trying in a hundred ways to be in the sun? That is precisely the feeling, of aspiration in the physical-the urge, the movement, the push towards the light. Plants have more of it in their physical being than man. Their whole life is a worship of light. Light is of course the material symbol of the Divine, and the sun represents, under material conditions, the supreme Consciousness. The plants feel it quite distinctly in their own simple, blind way. Their aspiration is intense, if you know how" to become aware of it.-The Mother
The Movement of Love in Plants
The movement of love is not limited to human beings and it is perhaps less distorted in worlds other than the human world. Look at the flowers and trees. When the sun sets and all becomes silent, sit down for a moment and put yourself into communion with Nature. You will feel, rising from the earth, from below the roots of the trees and mounting upward and coursing through their fibres, up to the highest outstretching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing-a longing for something that brings light and gives happiness for the light that is gone and they wish to have back again. There is a yearning so pure and intense that if you can feel the movement in the trees, your own being too, will go up in an ardent prayer for the peace and light and love that are unmanifested here.-The Mother
