philosophical and technical roots of Niveau élevé
In South India, near the city of Pondicherry, a remarkable ceremony took place on 28 February 1968: the founding of an international city: Auroville.
the unesco, the indian government and a french-algerian philosopher, whose civil name is mira alfassa, known as “the mother”, invited people to the founding ceremony.
delegations from 124 nations and 23 indian states travelled to seal earth from their homeland, along with auroville’s charter, in an urn at auroville’s future centre.
the foundation was attended by the delegations of the following nations:
afghanistan, albania, algeria, argentina, austria, belgium, bhutan, bolivia, brazil, bulgaria, burma, burundi, china (nationalist), china (communist), cambodia, cameroon, canada, central african rep, ceylon, chad , chaos, colombia, congo, congo (kinshasa), costa rica, cuba, cyprus, czechoslovakia, dahomey, denmark, dominican rep, equador, el salvador, ethiopia, fiji, finland, france, gabon, germany, ghana, guatemala, guinea, haiti, honduras, hungary, iceland, indonesia, iran, iraq, ireland, india (23 states), israel, italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Yugoslavia, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Morocco, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Rhodesia, Romania, Rwanda, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sikkim, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, south yemen, spain, sudan, sweden, switzerland, syria, tanzania, thailand, togo, tunisia, turkey, tibet, uganda, u.s.r., u.s., upper volta, uruguay, venezuela, united arab republic, vietnam.
In order for the auroville charter to be accepted by all participating states, the term “divine” was replaced by “supreme” in a special version at the last moment, otherwise atheist russia would have stayed away from the ceremony.
The auroville charter
- auroville belongs to nobody in particular. auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. but, to live in auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness.
- auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
- auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
- auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.
unesco repeatedly calls on all its member states to support auroville in its resolutions, including resolution 14c/dr 6 (oct. – nov. 1966), resolution 4.131 (oct. – nov. 1968) and resolution 3.32.1 (oct. – nov. 1970):
… invites member states and international non-governmental organizations, to participate in the development of auroville as an international cultural township designed to bring together the values of different cultures and civilisations in a harmonious environment with integrated living standards which correspond to man’s physical and spiritual needs.“ resolution 4.131:
the former prime minister of india, indira gandhi, described the auroville project as : „an exciting project for bringing about harmony among different cultures and for understanding the environmental needs of man‘s spiritual growth.”
auroville’s basic concept goes back to the philosophy of sri aurobindo, the great indian philosopher and freedom fighter, who had reformulated ancient indian philosophy into modern terminology and thus created a bridge between contemporary society and ancient indian mysticism. One of his main political concerns was the “human unitiy”, the “unity of all people”.
The “mother” (left) in Pondicherry with Jawahlal Nehru (centre).
The “Mother” (right) in Pondicherry with Indira Gandhi (left)
sri aurobindo’s companion, “the mother”, was the real founder of auroville, formulating the outlines of the futurist micro-society and launching the project. highly respected in the political circles of the time, the philosopher was sought out in pondicherry by jawalal nehru, indira gandhi and many other top politicians for advice.
The first and most important building project in Auroville was the “matrimandir”, the mother’s house. the main features of the building were designed by the mother herself and the french architect roger anger. after more than 40 years of construction, it was completed only a few years ago.
The matrimandir, auroville’s central building, is probably the most interesting building in modern architecture today. In its symbolism, the matrimandir represents an emblem of evolution. it symbolises the breaking up of the earth, of matter and the appearance of the “supramental consciousness”, i.e. a possible future evolutionary leap, or the further development of humanity.
according to the colour symbolism of the ancient indian teachings and the interpretation of sri aurobindo, the colour of the “supramental”, i.e. the next stage in the evolution of life, is the colour of gold. and so the specification for the building was a complete gilding with real gold.
And this is where the story of the Niveau èlevè watch brand begins …