Mahatma Gandhi, The Dalai Lama, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vladimir Putin, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Sagan, Margaret Mead and Hillary Clinton have been among the many remarkable people he met. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote the introduction to his book, Prophet of Indian Nationalism, a study of Sri Aurobindo’s political life.
Who is Karan Singh, now 95? A recent authorized biography has been published: A Statesman and a Seeker: The Life and Legacy of Dr. Karan Singh by Harbans Singh (Speaking Tiger Books, 2026) should give the complete answer.
A royal beginning, a radiant path
The book chronicles the remarkable life of this Prince, son of the last Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. He grew up in luxury. Married a Princess from Nepal, Yasho Lakshmi, and at 18 became Regent of Jammu and Kashmir. At 36 years old, he became the youngest Indian Cabinet Minister under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
I first met Karan Singh at the Cathedral St John the Divine in New York when Dean James Parks Morton invited him to speak. They were acquainted through their interfaith work at the Temple of Understanding.
I had been interested in Sri Aurobindo since 1972 when I first learned about his philosophy, his co-equal known as The Mother and the community she founded, inspired by their vision: Auroville, the City of Dawn. Founded in a UNESCO sponsored ceremony in 1968, Auroville in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has grown into an international source of inspired ecological and architectural innovation dealing with problems facing India and the world from an integral perspective.
I remember during a discussion after his sermon he gave out his card saying “Visit me in Delhi, everybody knows me…”
Manifesting the Mother’s vision
In 1988, twenty years after Auroville was inaugurated, the Government of India created the Auroville Foundation to support the residents with a unique legal protection, and Karan Singh was chosen as its first Chairman. And sure enough when I did visit him in Delhi and got into a rickshaw and started giving the address, the immediate answer from the driver was “Maharaja Karan Singh… Yes… I know..”
While the eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan and educationist Kireet Joshi also served later on as Chairmen of the Auroville Foundation, it was Karan Singh who led first with a persistent purpose and wide latitude. He often gave an address or led a panel during his term and would recite the 44 lines of Sri Aurobindo’s poem Who from memory. Most importantly, he showed a deep understanding of Auroville and always held open meetings with residents to address their concerns.
While he had profound respect for Sri Aurobindo and Mother, and met many saints and sages, Lord Nataraj, the Dancing Shiva, was his ishtadevata. He had been drawn to the spiritual life from an early age and had considered it the ‘road not taken” (he could recite Frost as well). He was always pleased to inaugurate a building and recite some Sanskrit shlokas of blessing. He was especially dedicated to completing the Matrimandir, the “Soul of Auroville” whose outline was revealed in a vision of the Mother:
- A white room
- Twelve columns
- A crystal lit by the sun
Geometry of the sacred
It would be a collaboration between an Indian aeronautical engineer, a French architect, an Italian architect and another Italian engineer to manifest this vision of a new consciousness emerging from the earth at the center of Auroville.
Udar Pinto, a secretary of the Mother, received the initial dimensions from her. Italian architect, Paulo Tomasi, envisioned the shape of a flattened Tantric egg, a uniquely feminine archetype, as the outward design. French architect Roger Anger, created the spiral ramps and detailed drawings of the four supporting columns representing the four aspects of the Divine Mahashakti. Italian engineer Piero Cicionesi created a variation of a geodesic space frame, sourced Italian marble and manufactured the twelve columns for the inner chamber.
Lack of funds, debate over golden discs, manufacturing or mining the crystal were all subjects of research and controversy. Finally Zeiss in Germany was commissioned to make the Crystal Sphere which was installed in April of 1991.
Karan Singh brought encouragement and motivation to the whole project and the final result is something extraordinary, a spiritual wonder of the modern world.
Karan Singh had created his own temple to Shiva Nataraj in a beautiful brick pyramid near the sea just North of Auroville. He collaborated with Satprem Maini, founder of the Auroville Earth Institute, to build the Sri Karneshwar Nataraja Temple. It is striking and austere, invoking sacred Egyptian geometry and the symbolism of the living sacred Hindu iconography.
And this is emblematic of the man, he loves the night sky and its constellations and planets, the wildness of the earth and dedicated himself to protecting India’s tigers. He has gone on pilgrimage to sacred places and traveled to the glaciers of Alaska to witness their crashing into the Pacific Ocean. And there is always the love of music, from his own singing in Dogri to Shivkumar Sharma to Madonna. Karan Singh rocks!
He served a too brief term (1989-1990) as the Indian Ambassador to the U.S. and left a beautiful Shiva Nataraj statue in Yogaville in Virginia upon his departure.
The Chairman’s persistent purpose
Towards the end of his tenure as Chairman of the Auroville Foundation, Karan Singh invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Auroville to celebrate the community’s 50th Birthday. The PM meditated in the Matrimandir and gave an excellent speech (which I attended) based on Sri Aurobindo’s Five Dreams (see video).
This Golden Jubilee was the culmination of decades of service to the ideals of Human Unity and spiritual evolution as envisioned by Sri Aurobindo and Mother, transcending political divisions and looking towards a bright future of new models of sustainable eco-cities so needed by India and the world.
With backing from the Government of India, Auroville could move forward to consolidate the land and create basic infrastructure and implement the most successful experiments in conscious living.
The Ministries overseeing Auroville appointed Smt. Jayanti Ravi as the new Secretary of the Auroville Foundation. Ravi is a Chennai and Harvard educated IAS officer from Gujarat who cited her respect and mentorship from Kireet Joshi, resident of Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and educator who had previously chaired the Governing Board. And she sang Sri Aurobindo’s Gayatri. She seemed to be the embodiment of the kind of Secretary the community needed.
The new Chairman was R.N. Ravi, who was simultaneously serving as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, with previous stints as an intelligence officer in the CBI and IB. He has since been shifted to Governor of West Bengal.
Unfortunately none of the appointees showed an understanding of the Mother’s writings and the mission and vision of Auroville. The shift in culture from government officials who came to serve to those who came to rule has been devastating. International residents have been subject to withheld or limited visas. Some have been forced out of the community altogether. This tragic turn of events has been documented extensively by the Aurovilians themselves while the followers of Jayanti Ravi have painted another picture in the media and numerous court cases undermining Auroville’s self-governance.
A plea for human unity
At one point Karan Singh wrote to the Secretary:
“I would like to make an observation. The uniqueness of Auroville lay in the fact that men and women from over fifty countries came there and lived in harmony with each other. It is tragic that the harmony has been disrupted and there is now a widespread sense of alienation among the community. To add to their feeling of insecurity is the fact that apparently certain visas are being curtailed. I have no intention of interfering in the administration of Auroville. As Chairman for twenty years I did whatever I could, not only to develop Auroville with the construction of numerous new buildings and institutions, but also to keep intact the overall harmony of this unique experiment set up by the Mother half a century ago. Building the city is important, but technically this can be done anywhere in India by the local P.W.D. Trying to build Auroville without the cooperation of the Aurovillians is prima facie a contradiction and will go against the whole raison d’etre of this unique experiment.”
Karan Singh later tried to intervene with letters to the Prime Minister. Aurovillians met with Home Minister Amit Shah to plead their case. In October 2025 the term of this latest Governing Board came to an end. The residents and well-wishers of Auroville like myself are holding their collective breath to see if a new Secretary and Governing Board can be more aligned with the high ideals and spiritual vision of the community and maintain its experimental adventurous nature. Or will it simply decay into another Government run tourist destination?
Last September, Karan Singh visited Auroville and gave an interview with Auroville Today and provides a cogent retrospective of his 20years as Chairman. I refer you to his summation which encapsulates his service better than I possibly could. But suffice it to say that the loss of a great man’s presence is significant and palpable and so far irreplaceable.
References:
- Dr Karan Singh to the Aurovilians: trust and go forward
- Auroville’s 50th Anniversary with Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
The ongoing battle: https://aurovilleglobalfellowship.org/report-2/
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