Bringing the temperature down

I believe, we as Aurovilians should, on all sides, refrain from using broad brushstrokes of blanket statements.
I know many ‘foresters’ who are concerned right now, but they’re not exactly against the galaxy. (Atleast the ones who are not in the city circle) their appreciations are related to their life, living and livelihoods. They’re affected by the misinformation related to bulldozing of their houses (red marked), stewardship rotation, VISA, etc. Given the lack of full and correct information, the insecurities are growing and gulf widening. And, I understand that.
Unfortunately, thus far, the attempts at coming together and discussing openly, heart to heart, has been hijacked by egotistic personalities and political organisers. We enter the realms of physical and vital play, not allowing the mind to the fore, on all sides. The escalated atmosphere does not allow for an healthy debate. The moderate Voices are marginalised, shunned and ridiculed. This doesn’t help our collective cause and impedes our way forward.

Recently, we’ve found comfort in remaining as camps and addressing the echo chambers. Recent meetings at UP and RAM 2 are a glaring sample of that thought process. Each side think that the majority is by theirs and do not bother listening to the opposing and difficult views.

I stand and strive for the city to be built in the city area (not the green belt) and I love that Auroville is full of green corridors and I cycle, walk, run on it. I believe that eventually the city will have more than 50% green areas. And I find the plan incredible for us and for the world to learn from.

Now, because I stand for the city, the people on the other side 🤔, think I’m against the trees. This kind of reductionist approach is also detrimental. I know many on this side who’s far more dedicated and diligent towards the trees and other life in general.

I often hear the expression (which made me write this long piece) inflexible and dogmatic. I find one being very dogmatic in not being dogmatic also. I find this accusation utterly insulting and infuriating.

First, about being inflexible. In the last one year of my working in ATDC, I’ve reached out to many, begging for collaboration and participation. Mostly, I’ve found shut doors, as there was no ‘crisis’. Suddenly now that we’re in a crisis situation, the same people asking for collaboration, and that too after the work has begun, seems a form of armtwisting than anything else. All the cry for collaboration shall be considered, by many, as pressure tactic or time buying maneuver till things come back to good old grudging, grinding times. Please, genuinely address this.

The masterplan is an evolving one. Even the crown has gone through various deliberations. The radius of the Crown evolved from 700m to 690m. The width of the row from 22m to 16.7m. i do not think it’s inflexible but amendments to it cannot be brought forth by making the children sit on the JCB in protest.
We’ve to be part of the system to change the system which has been created as an internal system.
By creating parallel systems like dreamweaving process and citizens assembly, we’re adding to the chaos, and possible heading towards further conflict.

The ATDC has a provision for 15 members. Only 5 are there. Why not select 10 more members and send them to ATDC to effectuate real change? Oh, where’s the drama in it.

Second, about being Dogmatic. I for one, am not. I seldom use ‘Mother said’ argument to make my point. In my public addressing, I’ve always given practical and grounded reasons for the works that need to be done. And there’re enough of it.
Having said that, i also know that the City was setup by the Mother with certain vision. Ive voluntarily made Auroville my home and thus abide by her words, as much as possible. If, whenever, i do not concur, I’ll move out myself. I did not come to Auroville for political freedom, I’m not afraid to exercise it outside.

In my view, the Mother envisaged the city as an instrument for substantial number of individuals (50k) to practice the principles. The correlation ends there. The making of Matrimandir did not automatically uplift us, evidently. Thus the city may not automatically bring about Human Unity. However, the physical city need to be built for the remaining seekers to make Auroville their home. And add more to our chaos. Perhaps, a necessary factor in our evolutionary process.

We need to come together and go beyond accusations and name calling. We need to address the core insecurities and understand the method behind the (what we consider as) madness. We need to look at micro difficulties on one side vs macro challenges on the other.
I straddle all sides, i find goodness, goodwill and good intention everywhere. Someone recently shared a phrase, we’re individually clear and collectively confused. It’s so apt and it is so changeable.
If not us, then who? If not in Auroville, then where? If not now, then when?

Governing Board of Auroville foundation to meet on the 18th

Dear Residents,

It has recently been confirmed that there will be a meeting of the Governing Board here in Auroville on Tuesday, 18 January.

The International Advisory Council (IAC) will meet with them online.

Details of the programme are not available at this time.

Sincerely,

The Working Committee
(Anu, Arun, Chali, Hemant, Partha, Sauro, Srimoyi)

A step towards Auroville as a place of unending education …

We are happy to share that Auroville Institute of Applied Technology (AIAT) and C3STREAM Land Designs have taken the initiative to open up possibility of collaboration with the University of Pondicherry (PU). A MOU that allows for collaboration with PU in higher education and R & D was signed in the presence of Prof. Gurmeet Singh, Vice Chancellor of the PU and Dr. Jayanti Ravi, IAS and Secretary of Auroville Foundation. This MOU is signed by Mr. Srinivasmurty, Under Secretary of Auroville Foundation, Mr. Lavkamad Chandra, Principal and Executive of AIAT and Dr. Sanjeev Ranganathan, Executive C3STREAM Land Designs. The coordinators of the MOU are Prof. Nakkeeran at PU and Mr. Lavkamad Chandra at Auroville.
This MOU allows AIAT to offer post-schooling undergraduate programs under the vocational stream of higher education leading to a three year B.Voc (Bachelor of Vocation).
In addition, it allows for graduate programs of M.Voc or PhD when we choose to offer them.
B.Voc is part of the vocational streams of higher education that have been developed by the Ministry of Education to address the gaps in the theoretical undergraduate programs that exist in India currently. Under this progressive stream we hope at Auroville to have the freedom of designing our own curriculum in line with integral development of the youth and have PU as a partner to certify it.
The initial design of curriculum is planned for streams such as environmental technology (Renewable energy), Software programming, Computer center system Management & Data security, Electronics (Chip Design) and Mechanical Engineering (Manufacturing) and we invite those in Auroville who have the skill to support such programs to join us in design and delivery of high-quality programs.
The curriculum we design with the support of PU staff needs approval under the general guidelines of University Grant Commission for skill oriented higher education by the academic council of PU. When we receive such an approval for our designed programs it will alow us to offer the programs needed by our youth, while certification will be handled by PU.
This allows youth at Auroville and the bio-region access to meaningful post-schooling education and certification in India including being able to concentrate 40% of their time to develop competence and inner-capacity including yoga, sports, meditation, leadership, communication, computer literacy, 3rd language development, Introduction to Integral Yoga and Indian culture. 60% of their time will be devoted to practical skill development in their chosen area. Students joining a B.Voc programs will additionally undergo internship in the field either at Auroville units or with industrial partners in Pondy and elsewhere.
AIAT aspires to become a centre of integral education with a focus on Environment technology.
Students who have passed +2 or equivalent (A level) will bei eligible to join the program. The Institute campuses are to be in Aurobrindavan and Irumbai near Auroville.

For more information pl. contact: lavkamad@auroville.org.in

Aurovillage, Ep.3

It’s really interesting how most people in Auroville seem to define “human unity” as “unity with those that agree with me”.For decades, the people who want to live in Mother’s City have accepted that their wish was blocked, time after time after time. They understood that it needed to be like that, because, well, that’s yoga: accepting that outer circumstances are beyond our control, and that we simply do whatever work we are given as a means for inner growth.For decades, the people who blocked and got it their way 100% of the time were allowed to play their games, thereby giving these same people the impression that all was so utterly peaceful and nice and “together”and “united” in the immensely divided Aurovillage.

Now that, very predictably and logically (given our actions in the past), the outer circumstances, outside of our control, suddenly put a blockage in front of the people who have made a life out of blocking stuff, what is the reaction?: all hell is released upon the people who wish to live in Mother’s City.

Suddenly they are Asuras, worshippers of the Darkness, the devil personified, evil beings and everything nasty this universe has ever produced…

A tiny little interest in how cults function and cult members behave would teach us so much…”

The first casualty of war is the truth”. Yes. And since this war was started decades ago, the truth was killed here at that time already.

The very LAST casualty of this war will be the cult delusion narrative, that tiny bubble that is the life force of so many here, created during the killing of the truth.

Many will keep feeding it until their last breath, in spite of all the facts and realities.

I always could and still can hug everyone here in Auroville if they want to. Totally regardless of whatever insane beliefs they hold.

Because under all that superficial insanity is a human being, with whom I am united.

Aurovillage, Ep.2

Over many decades, a false cult narrative has been created in Auroville, by people who materially benefited from Auroville, to justify the fact that what has been happening here since 45 years is almost the opposite of what the intention was.

Many people who also want a piece of that cake bought into the narrative, and it has been the main reason to come and live here for many. Over the decades it became the official doctrine that needs to be adhered to if one wants a comfortable life in Auroville.

The people who have denounced this narrative and pierced it with facts have always been vilified, for obvious reasons. It is now a religious “war”, a fight to keep the cult and its illusion propaganda alive and accepted as reality, even more by the people OUTSIDE of Auroville, as the cult leaders get most of their power from the image of Auroville they are able to project and sell in the West.

Aurovillage, Ep.1

The only thing that is happening in the City at the Service of Truth, is the piercing of the 45-year old cult illusion bubble.


For most of us, 45 years is the better part of our lives. For those born here, it’s their whole life. For those who came to live here recently, it’s the most important belief system they bought into so far, as it is needed to buy into this cult narrative if one wants to live here comfortably.


Whether it will be replaced by another doctrine needs to be seen, but obviously, members being forced out of their cult will always fiercely resist, no matter how many facts they get presented.


At the moment, in the whole world, we witness the total erosion of meaning and definitions of words.


“Facts” are no longer verifiable, provable, objective events that can be brought or adjusted by anyone who presents proof, no, they are now simple claims, “proven” only by the fact that many people or a majority “believes” them, or by the fact that they are told to us by “experts”. These mere claims are very aggressively and emotionally defended by the believers, labelling and slandering anyone who does not blindly follow suit.

That same thing is happening here: no logic, no rationality, no factuality, ONLY emotional reactions, claims, vilification, outcry, outrage, screaming and kicking.

You can see it in every post on this topic.

If you are still able to see, that is, because any cult indoctrination will always target and erode the capacity to see independently, to think critically, to be an individual observer of actual events. We are trained to be blind regurgitators of the narratives fed to us. And if all around us do it, we think we’re doing the right thing by going along…

What is Happening in Auroville? A Surgery, Not a Destruction.

by Auroville Resident

Some of you must have seen videos and photos from Auroville with shocking remarks and
claims about forest being destroyed, Auroville being destroyed, police coming in. It must have
been very shocking, hurtful and moving.

There is chaos everywhere.

But beneath the chaos, there is a quiet silence.

When we see things on the surface, it is disturbing & shocking. But, like yogic knowledge tells us, if we are disturbed, we are necessarily seeing outside of the Truth. So it is important to tune into the underlying silence to be able to see and understand – what is going on?

To understand this, it is important to understand a bit of context. At the Crux of this experiment of human unity is the ability to be a willing servitor of the Divine
Consciousness. If that’s not there, then very quickly in the absence of normal social conventions and rules that are meant to keep a certain order in the society, the society will very easily fall into a false freedom of drugs, booze, false pleasure and an animalistic fulfilments of desires in the name of freedom. Auroville is meant to rise above the normal society, not fall below it. Though, somewhere in Auroville’s development, since we could not accept “willing servitor of
the Divine Consciousness” as the most important tenet, exactly what has happened is a falling into the lower, rather than raising into the higher.

Auroville when it was born, it was born on four solid pillars

(1) The Auroville Charter, which is the larger vision of Auroville,

(2) The Auroville Dream, which elucidates the shifts from conventional society to the new society with a “new consciousness”

(3) To be a True Aurovilian, a treatise on how the citizen of Auroville is meant to be,

(4) The Galaxy Plan, a concrete material plan for the manifestation of a city of 50,000.


As one moves from number 1 to 4, things become more and more concrete and real, and there is no difference between the abstract & concrete, spiritual & material. Somehow, over the course of Auroville’s history, order of the four documents also relates to the order of importance given to each of these. Charter & Dream have been owned up the most, for they are high level agreements amongst the residents, and each one can have different “interpretations” and so there is not much pressure of an actual unity. 3rd, that is to be a true Aurovilian & 4th, that is the manifestation of a city are difficult, for 3rd requires Sadhana, change of human nature – & as yet not all of us in Auroville have accepted that to be a fundamental indispensible necessity & the first & most important priority. Whilst softer forms of self-love, self-development, feel good spirituality are valued in the name of sadhana, there is an absence of serious Sadhana, that works with the vital and not indulges in it, that sees one’s own flaws than constantly blaming the systems, that serves the Divine Consciousness, cutting through one’s challenges, limitations, preferences and volatilities.

Since relationship to the Divine has not been taken seriously, the relationship with each other, creating bonds of attachments is seen as the highest spiritual manifestations of compassion and Love; whereas true human unity is based on Divine Love, not on human attachments, and in fact, it breaks through human attachments.

It is, for this reason, there is a lot of attachment to “my land”, “my home”, “my community”, “my family” in Auroville, for some of us are seeking human unity, without necessarily seeking the Divine with utmost, burning priority. If it does not go “via” the Divine, the creation of these attachments are but natural.

Next, 4th i.e. manifestation of the city is the most difficult because it makes things as concrete as they get. It is easy to agree in ideals and just as difficult to agree in action, matters of manifestation.

4th has also been particularly difficult for Auroville began with the reforestation of barren land, and over the years, people have grown very attached to their work, land, the trees they planted, the huts they have made, even though from the very beginning it was meant to be a temporary work of safeguarding and rejuvenating the land until the work for the city begins.

The original idea and intention of Auroville were to create an international lab for the evolution of consciousness, in which research happens in all aspects of city life, with 50,000 constantly-evolving residents from across the world & a complex architecture, that is at once eco-friendly, with 75% forest, as well as high-tech modern buildings. What we have created is beautiful and grandeur, but not the Galaxy, and that’s not just because we didn’t have the means we also didn’t have the intention, we didn’t have faith in it’s Founder, we didn’t feel it is important. Making the Galaxy meant us to let go of our single stories huts and homes on tracts of lands – not very easy.

Now that we had not taken Sadhana seriously, natural human attachments have taken over. Auroville then is no longer an experiment for the world, by the world, and of the world, but rather my little community, my land, my friends, my house to which I am very attached.
Emotional being is mistaken for the psychic being, when human relationships are built on attachment. Now, this is a big blocker, for a constantly evolving city like Auroville. In a place where nothing belongs to anybody in particular, tribal mentality, marking territory, not allowing the world to come & learn from Auroville, but using people to make money, is a serious misdirection that has taken over.

Auroville is not a tribal community where we have to love each other like family, hiding each other’s flaws and supporting each other irrationally, but rather widen our Hearts to love universally.

With the coming of Sri Aurobindo’s 150th birth anniversary, a force is at work, and this is beginning to change. Auroville is undergoing a process of intense purification. The need of sadhana and of manifestating our ideals through serious work as a living breathing city of dawn & open it to the world to learn & engage is beginning to gain momentum.

But this radical shift will not be easy. As usual every great shift, this too is preceded by a battle. A battle of future and the past. The future that is determined and violently trying to shake the past. The past that is stuck and aggressive and refuses to move.

Today we are into this battle where the future is violently trying to leap and the past is aggressively trying to hold back in Auroville.
This is not a new problem, it has existed for over 25+ years, so if we see the dramatised narratives from yesterday in isolation, it will be biased. 25 years ago, Auroville fought a war against the spiritual hardliners, and in that process, a part of the Auroville mentality developed an aversion towards Divine, the Mother, Sri Aurobindo & themselves became environmental
hardliners.

The environment hardliners, using one or the other logic kept on blocking the manifestation of the city, losing often the sense of proportion – calling a few trees as a forest, instigating the youth to deliberately plant trees in areas meant for city’s manifestation, using the community process to hijack with loud voices and vital dominations to get their way through…

In all of this, the world has experienced a great loss; for Auroville has largely remain closed to receive the energy of the world, for Auroville is far from becoming the “city” the Earth needs.

Not just the world, in all of this, Auroville has really suffered with it’s collective processes becoming stagnant and redundant, sluggish and poor, youth often falling into drugs and pornography in the name of freedom in this spiritual place, and economy white and black, hardly thriving.

Auroville is undergoing surgery of a cancer that has been building up over the years. It is painful, but it is not the destruction of Auroville. It is the repair of Auroville. Nothing can and will destroy Auroville. Auroville’s development until now has happened with the hand of the Divine Mother, she brought the hippies here, they have regenerated the land. She is also behind all that is coming to Auroville, money, infrastructure and a space for sadhaks to come. The past was her doing, the present and the future too. The surface destruction is a part of the Leela. We play our part, and see Her birth the new world. It is not ideal that a war births
peace, and perhaps, it will not be required as we evolve. Where we are, that’s what seems to be unfolding, and we see the Divine Will behind it and play perfectly the little role given to us in Her play, which is beyond us.

Madam Secretary Dr. Jayanti Ravi will address the community

Dear Sisters and brothers of Auroville,
Greetings to each one of you as we get ready to usher in the new dawn full of light and promise.
Over these last six months, I have had an earnest desire to meet each and every one of you individually and know every one of you personally. While we would certainly want that to happen, for the present, I thought I should interact with all of you and address all of you and answer some of your questions as well.
I have felt strongly that my pleasure and enjoyment of meeting has been limited to some and not to all Aurovillians. So a meeting with you all has been scheduled for 3 to 5 pm today, 31st December, at the Unity Pavilion. I sincerely invite each one of you and hope to see you all today.
We are all here for collectively manifesting Human Unity and the City of Dawn. Manifesting Mother’s vision is our motto.

Regards
Dr Jayanti Ravi

Venue: Unity Pavilion

Time: 3 to 5pm

“Always you will see that within you the shadow and the light are equal: you have an ability, you also have the negation of this ability. But, if you discover a very black hole, a thick shadow, be sure that somewhere in you there is a great light. It is up to you to know how to use the one to realize the other.”

― The Mother