Planning the Unplannable: Auroville and the Mother’s Vision of Transformation Speaker: Patric...

Planning the Unplannable: Auroville and the Mother’s Vision of Transformation Speaker: Patrick Beldio 7:30 - 8:30 PM (IST) Join us to understand Auroville as an aesthetic project based on the Mother’s spiritual vision. We must first ask: What is that vision? Patrick Beldio’s research reveals two distinct periods in the Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s work. The Ascendant Spirituality Period (1890-1921) focused on transforming mental consciousness through what became Sri Aurobindo’s major philosophical texts. But the Descendant Spirituality Period (1920-1973)—the Mother’s mature vision—discovered that mental consciousness must be bypassed for cellular transformation to occur. This descendant path operates through involuntary “divine contagion,” not human effort. I contrast this with four world-affirming strategies addressing planetary crises through voluntary planning: humanist, scientific-technological, philosophical, and religious approaches. These might serve as “preparatory aids” but operate by fundamentally different principles than the Mother’s vision. This framework reveals a productive tension: Auroville appears to involve planning, intentional design, and voluntary participation. Yet the Mother’s mature vision describes transformation as involuntary—and found that aesthetic form-making emerges from cellular consciousness itself, not mental planning. How might we understand Auroville’s aesthetic project in relation to the Mother’s vision of material transformation? I pose questions for dialogue about what kind of project Auroville represents. BIO: Patrick Beldio is a professor of theology at the University of Scranton, specializing in Hindu-Christian studies and comparative religion. A professional sacred sculptor and author, his work explores the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother through scholarship and monumental interfaith art. Join us live at - https://www.youtube.com/live/-4IvU5bQhTU?si=Aq7Q14h1BY9lavtp Auroville Convivial: Live Talks is a week-long international gathering during Auroville Week (21–28 February 2026). It is conceived as an invitation to step into a shared, live space to speak about and around Auroville. Together, we seek to reopen dialogue on how this ongoing experiment engages with the wounds of the world, as well as its own lived successes,