Science and technology would be used as though, like the Sabbath, they had been made for man. Religion would be the conscious and intelligent pursuit of man's Final End, the unitive knowledge of immanent Tao or Logos, the transcendent Godhead or Brahman. And the prevailing philosophy of life would be a kind of Higher Utilitarianism, in which the Greatest Happiness principle would be secondary to the Final End principle – the first question to be asked and answered in every contingency of life being.

Not far from Pondicherry is the experimental city of Auroville. It was founded in 1968 on the initiative of the Frenchwoman Mirra Alfassa. Like her, the first inhabitants broke with the moral and social conventions of their time: they were looking for a place of peaceful coexistence and personal development - regardless of political or religious beliefs.