CHAPTER 3 AUROVIIIE THE CITY OF DAWN

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 3 AUROVIIIE THE CITY OF DAWN

2 CHAPTER3 AUROVILLE: THE CITY OF DAWN In this chapter we will the umverse of our study, Auroville, in order to understand the institutions of Auroville and their relevance to peace it is necessary that we first understand the influences that went into creating this place and how this community has evolved over a period of time. The first thing that strikes one, as one enters Auroville is a sense of serenity, a peace that seems to envelope the place in its loving arms. This comes as welcome contrast to the usual harshness and rudeness one is used to in cities like Delhi. The violence that seems to lurk just under the surface in our lives seems to totally absent in this place. The question to be asked is whether this is just an impression of an overactive imagination or the reality, that is result of the sacrifices of lives spent in pursuit of noble goals. This question continuously remained with the researcher during the fieldwork. Auroville is located in south India, 150 kms south of Chennai (Madras). Auroville is in Villipuram district of Tamil Nadu, about 10 kms north of Pondicherry town. It is included in the subhumid tropics and is situated on a plateau region with its maximum elevation of 32 mtr above sea level located in the Matrimandir area. \ INDIA \ 103

3 Auroville is the result of the spiritual vision of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator the Mother. Their vision of Earth, the evolution of the human species and other similar issues all have to be understood in light of the spiritual experiences they underwent. Auroville is considered to be the outer manifestation of the spiritual progress achieved in the Aurobindo Ashram. Auroville can be said to be the result of the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo as interpreted by his spiritual collaborator the Mother. "Humanity is not the last rung of the terrestrial creation. Evolution continues and man will be surpassed. It is for each individual to know whether he wants to participate in the advent of this new species.for those who are satisfied with the world as it is, Auroville obviously has no reason to exist" (The Mother, 1966). Both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother worked all their lives for the manifestation of a mode of consciousness beyond mind, which Sri Aurobindo named "Supermind" or "The Supramental". The full expression of this consciousness on earth would result not only in a new species, as far beyond Man as huma,1jty is beyond the animals, but also in a modification of the whole terrestr\al creation, even more complete than the change brought about by the entrance on the world scene of the human race. Between humanity and the fully Supramental species there would have to be one or several transitional steps, represented by transitional beings, born in the human way, but able to contact and express the higher consciousness. These transitional beings would prepare the way for the advent of the Supramental Race by establishing suitable conditions.after Sri Aurobindo's passing, the Mother continued his work of psychological and physical transformation. 104

4 t \ \ INDIA THE VISION AND THE SOUL "Earth needs a place where men can live away from all national rivalries, social conventions, self-contradictory moralities and contending religions; a place where human beings, freed from all slavery to the past, can devote themselves wholly to the discovery and practice of the Divine Consciousness that is seeking to manifest Auroville wants to be this place and offers itself to all who aspire to live the Truth of tomorrow."(the MOTHER, ). SRI AUROBINDO Aravind Ghose (Calcutta Pondicherry ), along with his two brothers, was given an entirely Western education by their Anglophile father. After infant schooling at a convent in Darjeeling, they were taken to England to live with a clergyman's family in Manchester. From there they joined St. Paul's public school in West London, and later went on to Cambridge University. There, Sri 105

5 Aurobindo was a brilliant scholar, winning record marks in the Classical Tripos examination. But he had already been touched by a will for the Independence of India, and did not wish to become an official of the colonial administration - the position his father and his education had marked him out for. He managed to disqualify himself by failing to take the mandatory riding test, and instead returned to India in 1893 in the service of the Indian princely State of Baroda, where he remained up to In that year he returned to his birthplace, Calcutta, as the first Principal of the new Bengal National College. He resigned from that post because of his increasingly active involvement in the Nationalist Movement. Sri Aurobindo was the first of the Nationalist leaders to insist on full independence for India as the goal of the movement, and for several years he lent all his considerable abilities and energies to this struggle. This led to his arrest on a charge of treason and he was kept in solitary confinement for almost a year as an 'under trial' prisoner in Ali pore jail. During this time he had a number of fundamental spiritual experiences, which convinced him of the truth of the "Sanatana Dharma" - the ancient spiritual knowledge and practice of India. After he was acquitted and released, this spiritual. awareness led him to take refuge from continuing pursuit by the British authorities in Pondicherry, then part of French India, where he devoted himself intensively to the exploration of the new possibilities it opened up to him. Supported by his spiritual collaborator, the Mother and using his newfound spiritual capacities, he continued to work tirelessly for the upliftment of India and the world. When India gained its Independence, on August 15 1 h 1947, he responded 106

6 to the request for a message to his countrymen by speaking of five dreams that he had worked for, and which he now saw on the way to fulfilment. These five Dreams were: (1 )"... a revolutionary movement, which would create a free and united India. 11 (2) the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilization. 11 (3) a world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind. 11 ( 4) the spiritual gift of India to the world. 11 (5) a step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream of individual perfectiol'l and a perfect society. 11 (Sri Aurobindo: 1936) The great originality of Sri Aurobindo is to have fused the modern scientific concept of evolution with the perennial gnostic experience of an all-pervading divine consciousness, supporting all phenomenal existence. His synthesis was not a philosophic construct, but a realisation stemming from direct spiritual experience. The unfolding of more and more complex forms and higher levels of consciousness out of an original total material inconscience is seen as the gradual return to self-awareness and the diverse self-expression of involved Spirit. This process is evidently not complete, and the evolution of higher levels of consciousness and less unconscious forms of expression are to be expected. But with the development of Mind, individual human beings can, if they choose, use their will and intelligence to begin to participate 107

7 consciously in this process of self-discovery and self-exploration. This knowledge founds an optimistic and dynamic world-view, which gives each individual a meaningful place in a progressive cosmic unfolding, and casts our understanding of human endeavour, whether individual or collective, in a new and purposeful perspective. SRI AUROBINDO'S PHILOSOPHY The teaching of Sri Aurobindo starts from that of the ancient sages of India, that behind the appearances of the universe there is the Reality of a Being and Consciousness, a Self of all things, one and eternal. All beings are united in that One Self and Spirit, but divided by a certain separativity of consciousness, an ignorance of their true Self and Reality in the mind, life and body. It is possible by a certain psychological discipline to remove this veil of separative consciousness and become aware of the true Self, the Divinity within us all. Sri Aurobindo's teaching states that this One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things 108

8 release itself entirely and it becomes possible for life to manifest perfection. But while the former steps in evolution were taken by Nature without a conscious will in the plant and animal life, in man Nature becomes able to evolve by a conscious will in the instrument. It is not, however, by the mental will in man that this can be wholly done, for the mind goes only to a certain point and after that can only move in a circle. A conversion has to be made, a turning of the consciousness by which mind has to change into the higher principle. This method is to be found through the ancient psychological discipline and practice of Yoga. In the past, it has been attempted by a drawing away from the world and a disappearance into the height of the Self or Spirit. Sri Aurobindo teaches that a descent of the higher principle is possible which will not merely release the spiritual Self out of the world, but release it in the world, replace the mind's ignorance or its very limited knowledge by a supramental Truth-Consciousness which will be a sufficient instrument of the inner Self and make it possible for the human being to find himself dynamically as well as inwardly and grow out of his still animal humanity into a diviner race. The psychological discipline of Yoga can be used to that end by opening all the parts of the being to a conversion or transformation through the descent and working of the higher still concealed supramental principle. This, however, cannot be done at once or in a short time or by any rapid or miraculous transformation. Many steps have to be taken by the seeker before the supramental descent is possible. Man lives mostly in his 109

9 surface mind, life and body, but there is an inner being within him with greater possibilities to which he has to awake - for it is only a very restricted influence from it that he receives now and that pushes him to a constant pursuit of a greater beauty, harmony, power and knowledge. The first process of Yoga is, therefore, to open the ranges of this inner being and to live from there outward, governing his outward life by an inner light and force. In doing so he discovers in himself his true soul, which is not this outer mixture of mental, vital and physical elements but something of the Reality behind them, a spark from the one Divine Fire. He has to learn to live in his soul and purify and orientate by its drive towards the Truth the rest of the nature. There can follow afterwards an opening upward and descent of a higher principle of the Being. But even then it is not at once the full supramental Light and Force. For there are several ranges of consciousness between the ordinary human mind and the supramental Truth-Consciousness. These intervening ranges have to be opened up and their power brought down into the mind, life and body. Only afterwards can the full power of the Truth-Consciousness work in the nature. The process of this selfdiscipline or Sadhana is therefore long and difficult, but even a little of it is so much gained because it makes the ultimate release and perfection more possible. There are many things belonging to older systems that are necessary on the way - an opening of the mind to a greater wideness and to the sense of the Self and the Infinite, an emergence into what has been called the cosmic consciousness, mastery over the desires and passions. An outward asceticism is not essential, but the conquest of desire and 110

10 attachment, a control over the body and its needs and greed, and instincts are indispensable. There is a combination of the principles of the old systems, the way of knowledge through the mind's discernment between Reality and the appearance, the heart's way of devotion, love and surrender and the way of works turning the will away from motives of self-interest to the Truth and the service of a greater Reality than the ego. For the whole being has to be trained so that it can respond and be transformed when it is possible for that greater Light and Force to work in the nature. In this discipline, the inspiration of the Master, and in the difficult stages his control and his presence are indispensable - for it would be impossible otherwise to go through it without much stumbling and error, which would prevent all chance of success. The Master is one who has risen to a higher consciousness and being and he is often regarded as its manifestation or representative. He not only helps by his teaching and still more by his influence and example but by a power to communicate his own experience to others. This is Sri Aurobindo's teaching and method of practice. It is not his object to found and develop a new religion or to amalgamate the older religions, for any of these things would lead away from his central purpose. The one aim of his Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinise human nature (Sri Aurobindo Vol. 26: 95-97). Ill

11 Integral Yoga Many Aurovilleans, certainly those who have specifically come for Auroville's spiritual vision and call, are practicing the 'Integral Yoga' as described by Sri Aurobindo, and naturally refer to it in their communications in daily life. We give here a brief introduction to this method of yoga. This yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality. Its object is to enter into a higher Truth Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ananda (Bliss). But for that, the surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to the Higher Consciousness is indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a Supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the call to such a change should enter into this yoga. The Sadhana [practice] of the Integral Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by a self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come. The method is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His, so that in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes 112

12 the sadhaka of the sadhana as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity. It is not merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter. This yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human ego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. It cannot be done in a spirit of levity or laxity.the work is too high and difficult, the adverse powers in the lower Nature too ready to take advantage of the least sanction or the smallest opening, the aspiration and tapasya (concentration of the will) needed too constant and intense. To concentrate, preferably in the heart and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. One can concentrate also in the head or between the eye-brows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. 113

13 When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is the beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest, one must not depend on one's own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and receptivity to the Mother's Power and Presence. It is the psychic movement that brings the constant and pure devotion and the removal of the ego that makes it possible to surrender. Meditation in the head by which there comes the opening above, the quietude or silence of the mind and the descent of peace etc. of the higher consciousness generally till it envelops the being and fills the body and begins to take up all the movements. Separation of the Purusha from the Prakriti, the inner silent being from the outer active one, so that one has two consciousness or a double consciousness, one behind watching and observing and finally controlling and changing the other which is active in front. The other way of beginning the yoga of works is by doing them for the Divine, for the Mother, and not for oneself, consecrating and dedicating them till one concretely feels the Divine Force taking up the activities and doing them for one. The object of the Integral Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine's sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine. The whole principle of Integral Yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the 114

14 I-- Divine Mother all the transcendent light, power, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ananda of the Supramental Divine. The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness are the end result of this yoga (Sri Aurobindo, Vol. 20.). THE MOTHER Mirra Alfassa ( (Paris ) (Pondicherry )) was born as the second child of an Egyptian Mother and a Turkish father, a few months after her parents had settled in France. An extraordinarily gifted child, who became an accomplished painter and musician, she had many inner experiences from early childhood on. In her twenties, she studied occultism in Algeria with Max Theon and his English wife Alma, who was a highly developed medium. After her return to Paris, the Mother worked with several different groups of spiritual seekers. She first heard of Sri Aurobindo from her friend Alexandra David-Neel, who had visited him in Pondicherry in 1912 and in 1914, along with her second husband Paul Richard. She was able to travel to Pondicherry and meet him in person. There, she immediately recognised him as a mentor she had encountered in earlier visions, and knew that her future work 115

15 was at his side. Although she had to leave India after the outbreak of the First World War, first returning to France, and then accompanying Richard to an official post in Japan, in April 1920 she returned to join Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry and never left again. Sri Aurobindo recognised in her an embodiment of the dynamic expressive aspect of evolutionary, creative Force. In India, she has been traditionally known and approached as the 'Supreme Mother'. It was the Mother, as Sri Aurobindo's 'Shakti', who organised the growing group of followers around him into the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from November 1926 onwards. After his passing in 1950 she created, in 1952, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education to fulfil his wish to provide a new kind of education for Indian youth. In 1968, she founded the international township project of Auroville as yet wider field for practical attempts to implement Sri Aurobindo's vision of new forms of individual and collective life, preparing the way towards a brighter future for the whole earth. C 0 N C E P T I 0 N AN D BIRTH OF AUROVILLE Auroville was visualized as a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspiration, could live freely as citizens of the world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his suffering and misery, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the 116

16 spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the seeking for pleasures and material enjoyments. Auroville is the result of the dream that the Mother the spiritual collaborator of Aurobindo had. This is a place meant to be the outer manifestation of the perfection that would be attained at the Ashram. As we shall see later the relationship between the Ashram and Auroville ended up in a bitter power struggle, which reached its climax with the passing of a parliamentary act by the Government on India. However, let us first see how this place came into existence. Let us see it as described by the Mother herself. A Dream "There should be somewhere upon earth a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of good will, sincere in their aspiration, could live freely as citizens of the world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his suffering and misery, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the seeking for pleasures and material enjoyments. In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their soul. Education would be given, not with a view to passing examinations and getting certificates and posts, but for enriching the existing faculties and bringing forth new ones. In this place titles and positions would be supplanted by opportunities to serve and organise. The needs of the body will be provided for equally in the case of each and everyone. In the general organisation intellectual, moral and spiritual superiority will find expression not 117

17 in the enhancement of the pleasures and powers of life but in the increase of duties and responsibilities. Artistic beauty in all forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, will be available ~qually to all, the opportunity to share in the joys they bring being limited solely by each one's capacities and not by social or financial position. For in this ideal place money would be no more the sovereign lord. Individual merit will have a greater importance than the value due to material wealth and social position. Work would not be there as the means of gaining one's livelihood, it would be the means whereby to express oneself, develop one's capacities and possibilities, while doing at the same time service to the whole group, which on its side would provide for each one's subsistence and for the field of his work. In brief, it would be a place where the relations among human beings, usually based almost exclusively upon competition and strife, would be replaced by relations of emulation for doing better, for collaboration, relations of real brotherhood. The earth is certainly not ready to realise such an ideal, for mankind does not yet possess the necessary knowledge to understand and accept it or the indispensable conscious force to execute it. That is why I call it a dream. Yet, this dream is on the way to becoming a reality. That is exactly what we are seeking to do at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram on a small scale, in proportion to our modest means. The achievement is indeed far from being perfect but it is progressive: little by little we advance towards our goal which, we hope, one day we shall be able to hold up before the world as a practical and effective means of coming out of the present chaos in order to be born into a more true, more harmonious new life" (THE MOTHER, Aug. 1954). As we can see, the project that these individuals set out to achieve is heaven itself. This can be seen from the work of Sri Aurobindo who did not believe in 118

18 the mere liberation of individuals, but wanted to bring down heaven onto earth. And tit is with this goal in mind that this town was planned. The present conditions on earth were found to be insufficient to bring down the supramental onto the earth plane hence the need for an ideal town. "Is it possible to find a spot where the embryo or seed of the future supramental world could be created? The plan had come in all its details; but it is a plan which, in its spirit and consciousness, does not conform at all to what is possible on earth at the moment; and yet, in its most material manifestation, it was based on earthly conditions. This is the concept of an ideal town which would be the nucleus of an ideal country, and whose only contacts with the outside world would be purely superficial and extremely limited in their effects. Therefore already-but this, however, is possible-one would have to conceive of a power grea( enough to be a protection against both aggression or bad will-that would not be the most difficult protection to obtain-and against infiltration, mixture. But if need be, one can conceive of that. From the social point of view, from the point of view of organisation, from the point of view of inner life, these are not problems; the problem is the relation with what is not supramentalised, to prevent infiltration, mixture, that is, to prevent this nucleus from falling back into an inferior creation-it is a period of transition.all those who have thought about this problem have always imagined something unknown to the rest of humanity, like a gorge in the Himalayas, for example, a place unknown to the rest of the world. But that is not a solution; it is not a solution at all. No, the only solution is an occult power, but this implies that a certain number of individuals must have already achieved a great perfection of realisation before anything at all can be done. But one can conceive that if that can be done, one could have, isolated in the midst of the outside world-without any contacts, you see-an area where everything would be exactly in its place, as an 119

19 example. Each thing, each person, each movement, is exactly in its place-and in its place in an ascending, progressive movement, with no relapse-that is~ the very opposite of what happens in ordinary life. Of course, this supposes a - kind of perfection, a kind of unity, this supposes that the various aspects of the Supreme can be manifested; and necessarily, an exceptional beauty, a total harmony, and a power great enough to command obedience from the forces of Nature; for example, even if this place were surrounded b forces of destruction, they would have no power to act; the protection would be sufficient. All this demands the utmost perfection in the individuals organising such a thing"(the MOTHER, 1961). The above passage from the Mother poses quite a few problems for any social scientist trained in the scientific methods for understanding social reality. But we have to understand the essence of their thinking to understand the way of life, even if this thinking goes against the commonly held opinion of scientific community. Further, we have to appreciate the fact that the notions of science are rapidly changing and views once held to be sacrosanct are now being constantly challenged. These challenges are coming from not merely the spiritualists like the Transcendental meditation but primarily from the physicists. As new frontiers of knowledge are being explored, views once dismissed are beginning to question the legitimacy of such opinions. A detailed discussion into such matters has already been provided in the first chapter where several studies have also been provided. 120

20 Synthesis of Cultures Various cultures exist not only in different societies, but even in a single society. How these cultures could be synthesized in a single comprehensive culture is a basic question. The mother provides a strategy to this end. According to her in Auroville, "... the unity of the human race can be achieved neither through uniformity nor through domination and subjection. A synthetic organisation of all nations, each one occupying its own place in accordance with its own genius and the role it has to play in the whole, can alone effect a comprehensive and progressive unification, which may have some chance of enduring. And if the synthesis is to be a living thing, the grouping should be done around a central idea as high and wide as possible, and in which all tendencies, even the most contradictory, would find their respective places. That idea is to give man the conditions of life necessary for preparing him to manifest the new force that will create the race of tomorrow."... "the cultures of the different regions of the earth will be represented here in such a way as to be accessible to all, not merely intellectually, in ideas, theories, principles and languages, but also vitally, in habits and customs, in art under all formspainting, sculpture, music, architecture, decoration-and physically too through natural scenery, dress, games, sports, industries and food. A kind of worldexhibition has to be organised in which all the countries will be represented in a concrete and living manner; the ideal would be that every nation with a very definite culture would have a pavilion representing that culture, built on a model that most displays the habits of the country; it will exhibit the nation's most representative products, natural as well as manufactured, products also that best express its intellectual and artistic genius and its spiritual tendencies. Each nation would thus find a practical and concrete interest in the cultural 121

21 synthesis and collaborate in the work by taking over the charge of the pavilion that represents it. A lodging house also could be attached, large or small according to the need, where students of the same nationality would be accommodated"(the MOTHER, 1952). She further says that,"for in this ideal place money would be no more the sovereign lord. Individual merit will have a greater importance than the value due to material wealth and social position. Work would not be there as the means of gaining one's livelihood, it would be the means whereby to express oneself, develop one's capacities and possibilities, while doing at the same time service to the whole group, which on its side would provide for each one's subsistence and for the field of his work". In brief, it would be a place where the relations among human beings, usually based almost exclusively upon competition and strife, would be replaced by relations of emulation for doing better, for collaboration, relations of real brotherhood. The Auroville Charter The following is the Auroville charter, which forms the basis of this society, and sets out its guiding principles. 1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness. 2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages. 122

22 3. 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. 4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity. TO BE A TRUE AUROVILLEAN The following ideals have been set out by the mother which form the basic ideals of the community; 1. The first necessity is the inner discovery by which one learns who one really is behind the social, moral, cultural, racial and hereditary appearances. At our inmost centre there is a free being, wide and knowing, who awaits our discovery and who ought to become the acting centre of our being and our life in Auroville. 2. One lives in Auroville in order to be free of moral and social conventions; but this liberty must not be a new slavery to the ego, its desires and its ambitions. The fulfilment of desires bars the route to the inner discovery which can only be attained in peace and the transparency of a perfect disinterestedness. 3. The Aurovilian must lose the proprietary sense of possession. For our passage in the material world, that which is indispensable to our life and to our action is put at our disposal according to the place we should occupy there. The more conscious our contact is with our inner being, the more exact are the means given. 123

23 4. Work, even manual work, is an indispensable thing for the inner discovery. If one does not work, if one does not inject his consciousness into matter, the latter will never develop. To let one's consciousness organise a bit of matter by way of one's body is very good. To establish order around oneself helps to bring order within oneself. One should organise life not according to outer, artificial rules, but according to an organised, inner consciousness, because if one allows life to drift without imposing the control of a higher consciousness, life becomes inexpressive and irresolute. It is to waste one's time in the sense that matter persists without a conscious utilisation. 5. The whole earth must prepare itself for the advent of the new species, and Auroville wants to consciously work towards hastening that advent. 6. Little by little it will be revealed to us what this new species should be, and meanwhile the best measure to take is to consecrate oneself entirely to the Divine. The only true liberty is that obtained by union with the Divine. One can unite with the Divine only when the ego is mastered. Thus, in Auroville one finds a constant reference to occult forces and this is a theme that is a constant even in the writings of Sri Auribindo. And a society formed on his ideas is bound to have this theme as constant in its social reality. Auroville is wonderful mix ofthe east and the west ;it is as if the whole of humanity has decided to represent itself here. This can be called a virtual meeting of the nations of world. And unlike the experience of other cultures, the cultures here do not try to impose on each other but 124

24 try to evolve into something better. There is no effort at cresting hegemony of any particular culture but the effort is towards evolving a newer culture. This is a theme that constantly repeats itself in all the different institutions of Auroville; the theme is of constant experimentation, an endless effort toward creating something better. EVOLUTION OF AUROVILLE The Mother had been "dreaming" of a project like Auroville for quite a long time, as stated earlier. It was only in 1965 that she began to work actively on it. A French architect, Roger Anger, was given the responsibility of preparing the lay-out and he worked on it with his colleagues in Paris. At that time, those interested in the project were staying mainly in Pondicherry. The official inauguration took place on 28th February 1968, with a formal ceremony around an Urn, into which was placed the Auroville Charter and earth from all over India and the world as a symbol of national and human unity. As the pioneers arrived, they established themselves on the outskirts of the future township of Auroville, in settlements named Promesse, Hope, Fore comers and Aspiration. The first plot of land for Auroville was bought on 8th October Between the years 1964 and 1973, about 2,000 acres (807 hectares), spread over an area of 24 sq. km interspersed between privately owned land and government land, was bought. It was on these lands that the early pioneers in the seventies developed a number of settlements. They put in a great deal of work and investment to reclaim those severely eroded plots and establish numerous projects, which today are having an 125

25 increasingly beneficial impact, not only on Auroville but on the neighbouring villages as well. The second phase - the years between 1974 and can certainly be described as a period of scarce activity. According to a leaflet published by the Auroville Land Service in 1992, only 200 acres (81 hectares) were purchased during those 18 years,.mainly for expansion of already existing settlements to establish specific projects. From 1993 to date, is the third phase, during which a momentum to secure the remaining land within the planned Auroville Township area has been built up. It started with the purchase of the lands needed for the Matrimandir Gardens out of a large sum bequeathed by an American lady named Blanche Sherwood. Thanks to an increasing inflow of donations, 674 acres (272 hectares) were secured. Auroville also sold acres (20 hectares) outside the Auroville Township area for a total of Rs lakhs which were used solely for the purchase of lands within the city area. In addition, Auroville exchanged 64 acres (26 hectares) of outlying and unutilised lands for 20 acres (8 hectares) in the city area and 34 acres (14 hectares) in the green belt. For several years no permanent construction was authorized on the site of the future town, except for the Matrimandir and the Bharat Nivas (the Pavilion of India), the construction of which started in The development of the project was first concentrated in the settlement of Aspiration, then in Auromodele, an area earmarked for experimentation, 126

26 near the Tamil village of Kuilapalayam, in order to make a concrete attempt at learning how to live in Auroville and in the Green Belt, an area of forest and farms which is to surround the future town. In 1974 there were already 322 Aurovilleans. With an average yearly growth of 4 % in the seventies, of 5 % in the eighties and of 8% in the nineties, the number of Aurovilleans reached 1808 by the end of August With the present trend of growth, Auroville may reach its full dimension, of inhabitants within 30 years. Out of roughly 90 settlements, only 7 of them include row-houses or appartments (in the City area: Creativity, Grace, Vikas, Arati, Surrender, Invocation, Prarthna and one in Auromodele area). The rest comprises individual houses which range from the hut-type residence to decent villas. 30% of Aurovilleans live in the area of Aspiration/Auromodele, 40% live within the town area, and the rest are scattered in the Green Belt, in farms or in beach communities. Schools for Aurovilleans are found in three places, Centre Field (near Matrimandir Gardens), Transition and Aspiration (Last School). Three national pavilions are found in the International Zone: the Indian pavilion called Bharat Nivas, the Pavilion for Tibetan Culture and the Unity Pavilion; More than I 00 commercial units, mainly doing handicrafts, are widely scattered over the area, with a higher concentration in the Industrial Zone. 127

27 1 2 Map of the Auroville Area A B c D E F G H : ;---- I Public Buildings: r UtanunPavlllu DJ : BUulWk<uAuliiiDI'ium D l ~ BJklfy H 5 < tuartbc8111tl H 5 ~ Gannh Sakny 0 Z!> MalrimanlliT l nltunat~n E J : Multlmdlt Cenlrt Cfe~wn H:llll E 3!- IC~Creltlo n Ce~rner (i5 ~ Plllnga Hd {SamuU) F 4 ~w IauL...H.5_ '' RIIM'II01t beah5 ; S..wttrt lllavu 0 3, SolarKltcllanEt., St:ale8utoflldlaH S : TlbellnPar!lion 04, IGwn Hill E l J ; Tran4 Shop H 5 : UntfyPa'flllon M3... M.~~'.k' ' V1SI10ra Cantn 03 f o:..><'fr.,,.nlr;.r 3 ~ -- Guest Houses:.llunahbuiiSIHouu{lottatarai)D/E2 AUitJJ Gril'la {Bbarl1111nt) D 3 Ctt1lte liuuthouu(ctntrt:flt:ld)e 3'4 CotlqoGunlllouse(Ccnlrofleld)E4 NewCrt:aUonliuai! HocaaG 4 RtposGuntHoun{B.ac llll5.& GutC1Houns ''J PonOfflte lnletnet I' Plllllng e hnple Taliii VIIIager =Malnlloads -- Alpnlll floadt -- EarthRual» Mollfallla l racl.., l A.ctes.sRoads Cyde/FootpaiM 41 water llodlu ~ canyowwastelan 1 --~-- lin SCA.S 1: 2:.xo: O.:.TC. rt:."\11:)' 2~Vl

28 AUROVILLE AND THE AUROBINDO ASHRAM As Mother made clear, the Ashram and Auroville issued from the same high source of inspiration. However, she was often asked to clarify the relationship between the two. As early as her first detailed conversation about Auroville, in June 1965, she stated that neither she nor the Ashram would actually move to Auroville (although she might visit). Auroville, she explained, is "the contact with the outside world". A few months after the inauguration of Auroville she further clarified, "The Ashram will keep its true role of pioneer, inspirer and guide. Auroville is the attempt towards collective realization" (Auroville Adventure,November 2005). Thus Mother stressed, from the very beginning,on two of the characteristics which distinguish Auroville from the Ashram -the fact that it is more 'outward', more involved with the texture and challenges of the 'real' world, and the emphasis upon collective action as opposed to the more individualistic yoga of the Ashram. The first settlers in Auroville were predominantly Western, and many were strongly influenced by the anti-authoritarian attitudes of the 1960s. In appearance, attitude and behaviour they represented a totally different world from that of the highly-regulated, overwhelmingly Indianpopulated Ashram in Pondicherry. Some Ashramites must have wondered who these strange people were, and why Mother was welcoming them without imposing on them the same admission conditions and discipline as prevailed in the Ashram. Was there a fundamental difference between the ideal of the Ashram and Auroville? 129

29 Mother replied, "There is no fundamental difference in the attitude towards the future and towards the service of the Divine. But the people of the Ashram are considered to have consecrated their lives to yoga (except, of course, the students... ). Whereas in Auroville, the simple goodwill to make a collective experiment for the progress of humanity is sufficient to gain admittance" (Ibid). In 1969, she wrote her fullest explication of the Ashram-Auroville relationship for a UNESCO committee which is as follows "The task of giving a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo's vision was entrusted to The Mother. The creation of a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness is the work she has undertaken. By the very nature of things, it is a collective ideal that calls for a collective effort so that it may be realized in terms of an integral human perfection". The Ashram founded and built by The Mother was the first step towards the accomplishment of this goal. The project of Auroville is the next step, more exterior, which seeks to widen the base of this attempt to establish harmony between soul and body, spirit and nature, heaven and earth, in the collective life of mankind" (Ibid). And the next year she added, "The Ashram is the central consciousness, Auroville is one of the outward expressions. In both places equally the work is done for the Divine" (Ibid). The latter sentence seemed particularly aimed at those who felt that the early Aurovilleans were not at all the right material for hastening the advent of a new world. And this was not just the perception of certain Indian Ashramites. In a famous conversation of 130

30 1Oth January, 1970, Satprem(, a disciple of the Mother, was a French freedom fighter against the Nazis during the Second World War)reports an Italian disciple suggesting that the Ashramites should join Aurovilleans in building the Matrimandir, "because without the inner force of the people of the Ashram mingling with the Aurovilleans, the people from Auroville will remain what they are." (Ibid) The Aurovilleans, he explained, are not "receptive enough to do the work", they are "full of arrogance, of incomprehension, they only see the outside of things" (Ibid). He concluded that the "breach" between Auroville and the Ashram could only be healed if the Ashramites and Aurovilleans worked together. However, to Satprem's obvious astonishment, Mother replies, "As for myself, I don't find it (the breach) wide enough...it isn't at all the same plane" (Ibid). And she goes on to explain that she didn't want Ashramites to be infected by the bad habits of some Aurovilleans. As if to reinforce this concern, her next message regarding the Ashram-Auroville relationship was precipitated by an Aurovilian misbehaving in the Ashram playground, resulting in a call to ban entry to all Aurovilleans "Being an Aurovilian is not at all the same thing as being a member of the Ashram and living the Ashram life" (Ibid), she wrote, and went on to say that only those Aurovilleans who had been in the Ashram before the birth of Auroville had the right to attend playground activities. There followed what seemed to be a blizzard of messages from Mother to the Aurovilleans on topics like the need to tell the truth, to avoid violence and to go beyond egotistical limitations. When, in March 1972, a fire completely destroyed the Toujours Mieux workshop in 131

31 Aspirations, Satprem asked her if this was due to "a wrong attitude over there?" "Yes. Oh, they're all quarrelling among themselves! And some even disobey deliberately, they refuse to recognize any authority" (Ibid). Interestingly, however, Mother stated that, "I do not want to make rules for Auroville as I did for the Ashram" (Ibid). And even if she was forced to make one exception (regarding drugs), she continued to be, from the point of view of some Ashramites, extremely lenient in her attitude to some Aurovilleans, allowing some of them chance after chance to reform their behaviour. She wanted, it seems, the Aurovilleans to progress not through obedience to imposed rules, as in the Ashram, but through the practical discovery that the old habits, "like smoking, drinking and, of course, drugs... all that, it is as if you were cutting pieces off your being." In any case, she said, there would be a natural weeding-out. "The power of the realization - of the sincerity of the realization - is such that it's unbearable to those who are insincere" (Ibid). In spite of Mother's strictures and the increasing scepticism of a few Ashramites concerning the viability of the Auroville experiment, I throughout these years many Ashramites and students from the Ashram School continued to come to Auroville. Some worked on the Matrimandir, others taught in Aspiration School or helped with physical education. After Mother's passing, however, there was a progressive worsening of the relationship with the main office-holders of the Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS) whom, it was felt, wanted to run Auroville as their 132

32 personal project. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that, in 1980, the Government of India passed the Auroville (Emergency Provisions) Act, temporarily taking the management of the project out of the hands ofthe Sri Aurobindo Society. The conflict was clearly with the Sri Aurobindo Society rather than with the Ashram, and throughout this difficult period many Aurovilleans and Ashramites continued to visit each other just as before and maintained deep friendships. However, there were incidents which, for some individuals, weakened their links with the other community. For example, the Ashram teachers working at Aspiration School were very distressed when, in the mid 1970s, they were put before an ultimatum which required them to either join Auroville or stop teaching there. Even though the reason had more to do with radical educational theories than opposition to Ashramites, the decision of the Ashram teachers to stop coming reflected their feeling that they were no longer welcome. On the other hand, when the Ashram trustees refused to support the Aurovilleans, choosing to remain aloof from the conflict, some Aurovilleans felt betrayed. Similarly, those Aurovilleans close to Satprem were dismayed by the way they believed the Ashram authorities had mistreated him in pursuit of the Agenda tapes. The publication of Mother's Agenda, which contained strong comments on certain Ashramites and certain aspects of the Ashram, coupled with Satprem's pronouncement that the Ashram was dead, further reinforced a feeling in some Aurovilleans that Auroville need have nothing to do with that institution. 133

33 In recent years, however, there has been much more interchange between the two communities. This is due to a number of factors. The passing of the Auroville Foundation Act in 1988, which finally took away the right of the Sri Aurobindo Society to manage Auroville and gave Auroville its own legal status, gave Aurovilleans a renewed confidence in their independence and allowed many of the psychological battlements to be dismantled. Then the opening of the Chamber, in August, 1991, resulted in a significant increase in the number of Ashramites visiting Matrimandir. A few years later, another bridge was put in place when Savitri Bhavan began inviting Ashramites to give talks to Aurovilleans on different aspects of the yoga: these rove proved very popular. Alongside this there has been an increasing cultural interchange, of which the recent joint art exhibition is only the latest manifestation. And, of course, new people have joined Auroville who have little knowledge of or interest in the old stories, while former antagonists have gained greater understanding of each other's perspectives over the years. Obviously, Mother created a very different ethos, or 'work environment', for the Ashram and Auroville, and sometimes the differences have been misunderstood or over-amplified. Ashramites, for example, have been stereotyped as over-devotional, hidebound by tradition and unwilling to experiment, while Aurovilleans have been seen as 'vital', indisciplined and more interested in outer manifestation than inner development. Partly, this reflects different cultural centres of gravity in the two communities, as well as the failure to offload 'baggage' some of us have been carrying for many years, if not many 134

34 lives. It's worth remembering, however, that when Mother talked of the need to be receptive to the new consciousness and to prepare the world for a new creation, she made absolutely no distinction between Auroville and the Ashram. For her, they are clearly one. After the death of the Mother on 17th of November 1973,a number of problems of varying nature affecting the smooth running of the project cropped up. The Government of India on receiving complaints about mismanagement of the project and misuse of funds by Sri Aurobindo Society set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Governor of Pondicherry with representatives of the Government of Tamil Nadu and of the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Central Government to look into the matter. The committee made a detailed scrutiny of the acc.ounts of the Sri Aurobindo Society relating to Auroville and found instances of serious irregularities in the management of the Society, misutilisation of its funds and their diversion to other purposes. Further, various other serious difficulties had arisen plaguing the management of Auroville and rendering thereby any further growth of the township almost impossible in the circumstances of taking over of the management of, Auroville became imperative to ensure growth of the township in tune with its objectives. Keeping in v1ew the international character of the project and considering the government's involvement in actively sponsoring the project through UNESCO, the growth and management of the project had become the primary responsibility of the Government of India. The ideals of the project formed India's highest aspirations, which could not 135

35 be allowed to be defeated or frustrated. Sri Aurobindo Society had lost complete control over the situation and the members of the Auroville approached the Government of India to give protection against oppression and victimisation at the hands of the said Society. There were internal quarrels between the various factions of the Sri Aurobindo Society. There were also a few instances oflaw and order problems. Auroville Emergency Provisions Act 1980 In 1980, responding to requests from the residents, the Government of India passed the Auroville Emergency Provisions Act, whereby the management of all assets and undertakings relatable to Auroville were, for a limited period of time, vested in the Government of India. The Sri Aurobindo Society subsequently challenged the constitutional validity of the Act, on the main ground that Auroville was a religious denomination and that the Government had violated the Indian Constitution by passing the Act. In November 1982 the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India judged that Auroville did not constitute a religious denomination, and that the teachings of Sri Aurobindo only represent his philosophy and not a religion. The validity of the Act was upheld. Consequently, The Auroville Emergency Provisions Act initiated a period of renewed stability and growth. An Administrator, appointed by the Government of India, was the official manager of all assets. An International Advisory Council was set up under the Act to advise the Government of India on Auroville matters. It met for the first time in Delhi in February '

36 EARLY ASPIRATION COMMUNITY- AUROVILLE

37 AUROVILLE BUILDINGS

38 Last School Auroville (Present Day)

39

40 Residence In Auroville (Note the swimming pool in the fore ground)

41 ROGER ANGER'S HOUSE

42 THE FUTURE ClTY