How is Auroville doing?

Who hasn’t been cornered by this impossible question and forced to stutter some superficial reply? For there are so many dimensions to this complex experiment that it is impossible to grasp all of them. But it raises the question, how do we evaluate success or failure in Auroville?

My impression is that we tend to use very conventional indicators. For example, we pronounce a productive unit successful if it generates plenty of income for the common pot, whereas an ambitious initiative that folds after a short period is deemed a failure, along, sometimes, with the ‘dreamer’ who launched it. 

But do such crude indicators tell the full story? Isn’t it conceivable that a profitable unit may not be expressing some of Auroville’s key values? Or that a ‘failed’ initiative may generate valuable learning that can be put to good use in the future? And  isn’t it sometimes necessary that an attempt at a highly idealistic project is made, even though it fails, so that that vision is kept alive (something Mother implied was the case in earlier attempts at creating Auroville)?

And how do you evaluate, quantify, the development of individual skills, consciousness, and ability to work well in a group, which may be the consequence of an individual participating in a ‘failed’ experiment?

Business managers and psychologists the world over now realise that crude indicators are insufficient to assess either an individual’s ability or a company’s performance. Consequently, the intellectual intelligence (IQ) test is now frequently supplemented by other forms of assessment, like emotional intelligence (EQ), adaptability quotient (AQ), curiosity quotient (CQ), personality quotient (PQ), and even spiritual intelligence (SQ). At the same time, many commercial projects now take into account not only the generation of profits but also their impact upon society and the environment (the ‘triple bottom line’) in assessing their overall performance. But in Auroville there’s yet another dimension to consider. 

Two of Mother’s early messages give the clue: 

You know, people get restless because ‘things are not moving fast’; then I had that vision of the divine formation taking place underneath, all-powerful, irresistible, regardless of that whole external hubbub. 

Auroville is going very well and is becoming more and more real, but its realization does not proceed in the usual human way and it is more visible to the inner consciousness than to the outer eye. 

In other words, to understand what is really going on here, we have to ignore the surface manifestations and turbulence, and try to connect with the deeper unfolding which does “not proceed in the usual human way”. 

But how to do this? Clearly, something that is “more visible to the inner consciousness” cannot be accessed using our usual mental toolbox. For what Mother may be referring to is not a scale model of an alternative township, with all its buildings and activities already in place, simply waiting to drop down, but a particular mode of being or consciousness, the spirit of the ‘true Auroville’. And, perhaps, it is only when we can identify ourselves with that, that the true outer manifestation will follow. 

Mother described this process as follows: 

In modern civilization, men work on the surface. The mind is the surface of existence; they work on the surface and then try to find the Truth that is behind by studying more and more deeply. Whereas the true method is to enter into direct contact with the inner Truth, and impelled by that, guided by that, to make an outer construction which is not a seeking for the Truth, but a creation of the Truth…

Sri Aurobindo described a similar process regarding how the Ashram developed. 

There has never been, at any time, a mental plan, a fixed programme or an organisation decided beforehand. The whole thing has taken birth, grown and developed as a living being by a movement of consciousness… 

This, of course, is the very opposite of the process which is usually followed in the world, which is to draw up plans or strategies for shaping behaviour, towns, the economy etc.  Actually, Auroville is no different from anywhere else in this respect – after all, this is the approach we are most familiar with. And it’s easier, much easier, when confronted with a problem to come up with an instant material ‘fix’, like a new guideline, or group or selection process.

And, of course, we can’t just sit on our hands, doing nothing, until we have managed to identify ourselves with that ‘Truth’ consciousness. We have a town to build, so we must do the best we can with our present capabilities. But the building can also be a learning process if we approach it as a form of karma yoga, and a means to contact and develop that other consciousness. Otherwise, even inspiring projects like the Galaxy may become no more than a mechanical placing of brick upon brick.   

In fact, Mother has left us many indications of how we can contact the ‘spirit of Auroville’. It’s all there in The Charter, To be a true Aurovilian, A Dream, and in so many other messages. The problem is that we tend to translate these simply into material guidelines (‘no cash in the city’ etc.) rather than receiving them as expressions of a particular consciousness, and allowing that consciousness to infuse our being as a preliminary to any important discussion or material creation in Auroville.  

Above all, we have the Matrimandir, the ‘soul’ of Auroville.  This unique fusion of matter and spirit, concrete and consciousness, is the first expression in matter of the true Auroville and a prime gateway to that deeper dimension.  Born of vision, materialised through many hands and hearts, it is the supreme accomplishment of a process that develops from within to without.