The Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a spiritual community and institution located in Pondicherry (Puducherry), India. It was founded on November 24, 1926, by the Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator, Mirra Alfassa, known as "The Mother". The Ashram's purpose was not for world renunciation but to serve as a center for the practice of Integral Yoga, aiming for the evolution of a new life form embodying a higher spiritual consciousness.
The institution is legally structured as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, a public charitable trust formed by the Mother in 1955, and is administered by a five-member board of trustees. The mechanism of spiritual practice (sadhana) is individual, with no obligatory outer practices, rituals, or compulsory meditations. Instead, members lead an active life where work in the Ashram's various departments is considered an offering to the Divine. The Ashram provides its members with all basic requirements, including food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.
The Ashram is connected to the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, which is an integral part of the Trust. Its foundational principles also connect to the economic and organizational structure of its offshoot, Auroville. The Ashram's central focus is the Samadhi, a white-marble shrine where the bodies of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are laid to rest. The core administrative structure, based on the 1955 Trust, has remained the same since the Mother's passing in 1973, with the trustees assuming day-to-day administration.