Varadharajan: Building Bridges Between Auroville and Local Villages


Varadharajan was a devoted follower of The Mother and played a crucial role in liaising with the local villagers during the early days of Auroville. His background as a Tamilian helped him connect with the villagers and understand their concerns about Auroville’s intentions. When Varadharajan realized that none of the Auroville Administrative Committee members could speak Tamil, he volunteered to live in Kuilapalayam, a nearby village, to build a bridge between Auroville and the villagers.

The villagers had concerns about Auroville’s intentions, as they were afraid that the government would issue a notification order to acquire their land for the Auroville project. They were not a big village and felt threatened by the people with whom they felt no connection and whose motives they did not understand. They were also concerned that they would be relocated somewhere else, as had happened in the case of big government projects like Neyveli township.

To address their concerns, Varadharajan wrote a note in Tamil, assuring them that Auroville wanted to show a new way of life, which would provide them with better employment opportunities, improve their standard of living, and provide new health and educational facilities. He also assured them that Auroville would not evict anybody from their homes because the Tamil people living on the soil of Auroville are “the first citizens of Auroville”.

Varadharajan’s note calmed the villagers’ fears to a certain extent, but there was still some uncertainty about Auroville’s intentions. Mother wrote to somebody that he should be “very careful not to offend the people from the Tamil village. It has been very difficult for us to win their confidence, and nothing should be done that should make them lose this new-born confidence which is of capital importance…. They are your brothers in spirit. This should never be forgotten.”

Varadharajan also worked to improve the lives of the villagers by providing clean drinking water, setting up a health center, and employing local people in the first Auroville workshops. He also started a mother and child care center, another school, and an integrated families experiment, which allowed families to join Auroville if they had goodwill and were willing to work for human unity.

Varadharajan’s work with the villagers was critical to building a strong relationship between Auroville and the local communities. His note in Tamil helped alleviate the villagers’ fears, and his work to improve their lives showed that Auroville was committed to being a good neighbor. His devotion to The Mother and his dedication to Auroville’s mission made him a key figure in the early days of Auroville.

The True Spirit of Auroville: Understanding the Need to Uncroach the Dream

Auroville was founded on a dream to create a place where people from all over the world can live together in harmony, in a community based on spirituality, peace, and love. However, over the years, this dream has been compromised as some individuals have taken advantage of the resources and opportunities available in Auroville. As a result, it has become necessary to uncroach the dream and restore its original essence.

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Taking Responsibility in Auroville: Uncroaching Positions and Rights

Auroville is a unique community that emphasizes collective decision-making, shared resources, and mutual respect for each other’s rights. However, the community has faced challenges in recent years as some individuals have encroached upon Auroville’s assets, including positions and rights that were intended to be shared. This has led to a sense of inequality and resentment among some members of the community.

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The Importance of Uncroaching Auroville’s Assets: A Call to Action

Auroville, the experimental township in southern India, was envisioned as a place where people from all over the world could live together in harmony, devoid of social, political and economic distinctions. The township was also meant to be an example of sustainable living, where people live a simple life, share resources and work for the betterment of the community. However, over the years, the concept of Auroville has been compromised by some unscrupulous residents who have encroached upon Auroville’s assets, such as common spaces, parks, workspaces, and even houses.

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10-point game results 3 – Development of Community Life

3 Development of Community Life

3.1 NEED FOR BETTER COMMUNITY

3.1.1            To create again a community where we all feel home and part of a big family, beyond cultural, social, financial, racial differences. A community where our youth want to live when they grow adults, not because they don’t know where to go or what else to do, not because life is easier than in the villages, not because they don’t have the financial means or the educational background to live somewhere else in the world, but because the community has developed an atmosphere of growth, of adventure, of brotherhood that gives a special sense to their life

3.1.2            We as a community as a whole need to find our CENTRE.  Why is it only, that when there are extreme cases like Sydo’s murder, that we all come together for a short while…that we feel bonded to one another, for a short while,  and then everyone continues to live in his own way…what is lacking? what will bring us all together and keep us together, not just for a short while, but for years to come???? What, what??

3.2 COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS

3.2.1              Smile more… J

3.2.2              Respect for all, for Aurovillians old ones and new ones, Newcomer and Guests and their individuality

3.2.3              Invest more time in knowing and improving relations with our neighbours

3.2.4              Replace criticism  by support + loving feed back

3.2.5              Increase communication within Auroville.

3.2.6              Be friendly with each other: No more grumpy faces!

3.2.7              Get people to loosen up –take themselves less seriously

3.2.8              I wish Aurovillians to inform themselves about each other without gossip, care about each other so that also the share of financials is easier

3.2.9              Build trust- through regular sharing of information

3.2.10           Better relation among Aurovillians (more unity)

3.2.11           Better communication between the Aurovillians.

3.2.12           Community wise consciousness – Family is unity

3.2.13           Personal contact with people.

3.2.14           Inter community interactions

3.2.15           We don’t know each other anymore.  A systematic, periodic way of introducing new people to the existing community should be created.  I would like to be able to hear people, both new and old, speak about what brought them here – their commitments, circumstances, vision.  I’ve been here almost 9 years now and have always had the sense of not knowing what we had to work with, human resource-wise.  Entry Group announcements of Newcomers in the N&N should include a photo and be much more substantial in terms of introducing people

3.2.16           More smiles and smiling.

3.2.17           Enhance inter Aurovilian communication.

3.3 LANGUAGE

3.3.1            Spoken English and Tamil

3.3.2            Get everyone really learning Tamil!

3.3.3            A compulsory fulltime crash course in Tamil language and culture for any person that is going to live in Auroville.  A three month course 30 up to 40 hours a week could be considered.  The situation of people living for ten years or more in Auroville without being able to put up with a single conversation in Tamil is really too much.

3.3.4            Give classes   in Tamil to Tamil Aurovilians  about life in a community, human unity and how to achieve it

3.3.5            More courses for languages – eg Tamil and English

3.4 METHODS OF  COMMUNICATION

3.4.1              Radio Station (with 2 KM radius)

3.4.2              See to it that everything in “News and Notes” is translated into Tamil. Encourage Annemarie to free herself from self-censorship.

3.4.3              Invest in communication infrastructure – for rapid communication / feedback/ decision making.

3.4.4              Communication (telecom, internet, radio, TV, print …..etc)

3.4.5              A magazine called Vision Auroville

3.5 PLACE TO GET TOGETHER

3.5.1              Would be great if Auroville had a place where one could ‘hang out’ in the evening, chat with friends, have a good juice and a sandwich. Just a place for clean fun – we are so uptight due to all the work pressures.

3.5.2              There should be a place where all can meet casually for games, talk, videos, listening to music. Kosmos Kafe was a step in the right direction.

3.5.3              Places to meet, others than meetings or restaurants, to enjoy being together after the movie for ex., a convivial place, like the Kosmos coffee, that is not closing at 8.30PM… To share, to communicate, to drink a lemon juice, to dance on  life music, etc… Even if it is just a place opened just once a week or a month, will be great.

3.5.4              Create  place like cosmos café

3.5.5              Create a space for Kosmos – like activities.

3.5.6              Have public spaces for the youth (open beyond 9pm!)

3.5.7              Go on with more gathering “cosmos café type”)

3.5.8              Have a permanent meeting place in interaction and exchanges

3.5.9              Entertainment (restaurants, cafes, movies, theater, sports …. Etc )

3.5.10           A community centre to meet – like the Kosmic café.

3.6 WAYS OF COMING TOGETHER

3.6.1              More celebration, coming together with whole of AV

3.6.2              Collective festivals, Deepavali, Pongal, Christmas, New Year ,AV, Ma’s Sri Aurobindo’s B’day

3.6.3              Take steps to improve the quality of our communal life-community Eating, community games, festivals etc.

3.6.4              Music live once a week.

3.6.5              Develop outing from AV to other places in India.

3.6.6              More full moon walks, cycling trips and just walks around AV in day and night times.  

3.6.7              Let’s build ring road together! 

3.6.8              Community picnics, tours, outings, get-togethers with lunch, dinner, amongst Aurovilians, with friends of Auroville, with long term associates, etc.

3.7 TAKING CARE OF EACH OTHER

3.7.1              A way to take care of people, particularly youth who become psycologically unbalanced.

3.7.2              To bring about a greater caring for each other by creating a safe, homely, medically oriented and realistic approach and place for those of us who may be, temporarily, disoriented or otherwise in need of psychological care (this certainly in regard to our youth).  

3.7.3              Parties with alcohol and drugs do incalculable harm to AV on many levels and a way must be found to stop them once and for all, whatever it takes, even if it involves not renewing the visa to the incoscients who organize them.

3.7.4              Encourage rather than discriminate against each other.

3.8 INVOLVE THE YOUTH

3.8.1            Mobilize and Auroville youth to take an active part in the management and realization of the city. That means how to motivate them to learn something useful for Auroville and to do it? 

3.8.2            Youth gatherings.

3.8.3            See what more we must provide for the adolescent youth in Auroville and do it.

3.8.4            Kids go into dope.  Can we arrange for them a group with a few adults who know how to use “the profit of smoking”?  It could let kids not use “grass” as the way of wiping from the reality. Mauna has some Information.

3.8.5            Give youth responsibilities and bring them to the main stream.

3.8.6            To train  the youth  and children to become true Aurovillians for which adults should be role models

3.8.7            Read and explain Mother + Sri Aurobindo To the kids – explain to them the goal of AV; What it mean  to change one’s consciousness,  How to change one’s consciousness.

3.8.8            Channel the youth force

3.8.9            Support the youth rather than building retirement homes.

3.8.10         A light point for the game: The peacock’s population is exploding and destroying gardens and silence. Unfortunately the peacock is in India is a protected bird. May be as part of a new game, children can be rewarded if they can find and collect their eggs!!?

3.8.11         Craft training for AV youth.

3.9 SECURITY

3.9.1            Security (especially in the evening/nights and holidays) also more security for women (example.  Eve-teasing by locals and etc..

3.9.2            Finally an idea could be picked up form Holland as regards the crime situation.  There in the 250, 000 Citizens city of Almere, the safety situation had been deteriorating over the years. Finally a mediation group did an offer to the Town Council.  They promised to bring down the crime rate with 25% meditating each week on bringing down crime.  They got a place somewhere in the centre of the city and in fact they brought down crime by meditating on it and nothing else.  The experiment worked and has been going on ever since.

3.9.3            Security (No police!! internal or alternative presence)

3.9.4            Better security (though I feel this is now being implemented )

3.9.5            Auroville guards – training, replace MM guards, etc

3.10 OTHER

3.10.1         Provide opportunities for meditation at MM and silence………..

3.10.2         Summer exodus.

3.10.3         We have become too Tamil in composition, which limits possibilities for all of us (including the Tamil Aurovilians).

3.10.4         Reduce the flourishing materialism in AV.

3.10.5         No more junk food!

Violence in its many forms

Dear friends

I consider myself as pacifist, and are trying to avoid any violence in thoughts and actions.

I have been working in many high tension areas and war zones, and I think I know violence in all its many forms, from the silent, to the verbal to the physical. Everybody tend to focus only on the last, but all forms are violence, and the physical only comes after the first ones. Some people feel fine being very verbally violent as long as they refrain for letting it become physical – but it is the same.

One small early life experience made a huge impact on me. As a young student, I was very outspoken and had a good sharp tongue, and often made fun of people and situations. One evening after having made fun of many people, I was passed up by a big strong guy. He gripped my collar, and said that if I continued making fun of him, he would beat me up. He said I was good with words, and he was not, but I used the words as weapons. HIs only weapon was his physical strength, and he would use it if I continued. His logic hit me very deep, and still do. There is no real difference between verbal violence and physical violence.

I love Auroville and Auroville is my home. But I never seen Auroville as a very peaceful place, despite our spiritual aspirations. Many other cultures and communities I have experienced, are far more peaceful! The way we interact and communicate is pretty harsh. I normally stay out of Auronet as I find it a very violent space. 

I really hope we can step back from entering into physical violence here in Auroville, but would like to remind people that we should also try to lower our non-physical violence. The way we communicate, the way we block each other, the way we refer to each other. To me it is often very violent and uncomfortable. I hope that we can learn from this conflict, and reflect on our way of collaborating and communicating

A larger perspective

Dear Friends

We are all focused on the events taking place right now.

But they are all part of a much larger perspective. It seems to be a conflict  between two different groups in Auroville, but this has been a conflict going on for many years, and nobody has taken any new action. The action comes from the new Governing Board and the Secretary,

I would really want all fellow aurovilians to read very carefully two documents:

The Foundation Act (ready available on Auronet under References)

Last Minutes of The new Governing Board first meeting (posted on Auronet by Working Committee)

The Foundation act is a very precise document stating the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders. Everything in Auroville belongs to the Foundation and all structures and decisions are under the acceptance of Foundation?governing Board and Secretary. Our Residence Assembly as well as Working Committe basically only have an advisory function. The final say and control is with Governing Board and Secretary.

I think a lot of Aurovilians are under an illusion that Auroville is a kind of Independent “state” within India with full autonomy. It i for sure not the reality. Our self-governance is given to us from Governing Board and Government of India, on a purely trust basis, and can anytime be revoked.

As a foreigner living in Auroville, I am very grateful for India to allow this International Township to exist. I dont think any other nation would allow it, for sure not my own country, Denmark. And I also fully understand that the condition is not autonomy, but a self-governance given in kind and trust.

So before any aurovilian think about fightning the decisions of Governing Board and Secretary, they should first read the Foundation Act, and plaease also read the minutes of last Governing Board Meeting.

The governing Board meeting is a very clear, surgical analysis, of all problems in Auroville, divided into sectors. And with clear proposals and decision what the Governing Board intends to do. The Crown road is a very small part of this – I repeat a very small part of this!

I will ask you to think back few years. The previous Governing Board, trying to solve the growning problems of Aurovilles dysfunctionality and stagnation. We had our large Retreat, which was a beautiful process ( And I would again like to thank Aroma Revi for his large effort) which brough us all closer, but after the process all was blocked and energy disappeared. 

Meanwhile we had all our bad press with allegations of corruption and misuse of power in Auroville, whis ended up as a serious case in Ministry of Human Ressources, where Auroville is under. So when same ministry had to appoint a full new Governing Board as well as secreatary, I am sure that they were asked to look very carefully into Auroville and its affairs.

So is any of us was appointed to these jobs, we would first, really carefully, read the Foundation acts as well as all the files, including all the Governing Board Meeting notes, which clearly describes the growing dysfunctionality of Auroville. The Foundation act clearly outlines the responsibility of The Governing Board, its members, as well as the Secretary. Besides to keep everything in order and legally correct ( which is another challenge), it is to implement the Master Plan. The new Governing Board members as well as new Secretary of course take their job seriously, so the minutes from forst board meeting, can notb really be a surprise to anyone. And action will of course come accordingly. And Crown road is still just a very small part of this.

Our previous Chairman, Karan Singh, had given us a very long line, adding to the “belief” that we had kind of autonomy. But I ask all to read his message to Auroville, just published, saying that all aurovilians should consider carefully the actions in the last decade, and be aware of the Hammer of God!

So to all my fellow aurovilians, please be fully aware of our situation and options. Fighting agains Governing Board or Secretary will be a futile action, Trying to recall members of working groups or damaging our internal structures, will be just pure self damage. Collaboration is the only way forward – the only way!

In the end we have to come to an acceptance that The Governing Board as well as The Secretary is also OUR Governing Board and OUR Secretary. I know it sound difficult in times of conflict, but it is the only way forward. Each of us can not move much, but together we can!

TheHinduBusinessline: Fifty shades of Auroville

The township near Puducherry that was envisaged as ‘belonging to nobody in particular and belonging to humanity as a whole’ is at the half-century mark. For five decades its residents have given up personal wealth and immersed themselves in service to the community. It is as good a time as any to evaluate the successful and not-so-successful results of this experiment in ‘spiritual communism’

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