A personal ‘Hexiad’ experience

When I arrived in Findhorn I panicked because of the culture shock. I was used to Westerners in Auroville but in Findhorn it was only Westerners: there was nobody from India and I felt so alone.

In one of my courses, somebody wanted to talk to trees. I thought, ‘I’m not doing this. If anybody back home hears about this, they will really laugh at me.’ But then the focaliser told me something that really changed me. He said if I didn’t try it, I would never know what it is like.

So then I decided to take everything as a learning opportunity and I really learned a lot. I did many different things – the courses, permaculture, house care. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Before I went there, I couldn’t even make a cup of tea, but I learned many recipes and before I left I even helped focalise the most important meal of the week.

The two most important things I learned in Findhorn were, firstly, that I should not be afraid of doing any job because even the focalizers were scrubbing bathrooms. Secondly, I learned to trust my own thoughts. Before, I always listened to my parents and did what they wanted me to do. In Findhorn, I learned to think for myself and to have confidence in myself.

Before I left Findhorn, I found a book in the library about Findhorn, Auroville and Arcosanti. It was the first time I read about Arcosanti and I thought I would like to go there one day.

I got the chance one year later due to Bhavana, who I helped in preparing a fund-raising project for the U.S.

In Arcosanti, I spent the first five weeks in a workshop that introduced me to the community and its work. After that, I had to choose a particular area in which to work long term. I had some experience in graphic design – I had been doing this in Auroville’s Future – but I had little experience of the architectural design programmes used in Arcosanti.

Nevertheless, I spoke to the director, Tomiaki Tamura, of the Arcosanti graphics studio. He gave me a draft of the annual workshop brochure and asked if I could design and lay it out in two days. I said yes, but then I discovered that they were using Macs and I had never used a Mac: all my training was on PCs.

That night I went to the library where there was a Mac and studied it. It was very different from a PC, but I managed to master it and submit the project in two days. The director was so pleased he made me his graphic project designer. By the time I left, I was taking care of the graphics section and all the Arcosanti websites.

My first visit lasted six months, then I returned for two and a half years. They wanted me to remain longer as I knew the whole computer was set up and was also running the guest café, but I had to return to Auroville because my father, V.Rajamani, fell ill and subsequently passed away. Since then, I have not been back to Arcosanti.

In Arcosanti I learned many new skills in my field of graphic design from Tamura but also how to motivate myself and others: I learned how to do the necessary research to make things happen.

I also brought something of my Auroville experience to these communities. In Findhorn, I started teaching sports to the kids, while in Arcosanti I was one of the members of the community Council and I could share with them how we make community decisions in Auroville.

I think the different communities can learn from each other. While Arcosanti’s design is unique, we can learn a lot from Soleri’s work in architecture and ecological urban design. From Findhorn we can learn about how to run educational workshops where they have a lot of experience.

It’s not that we don’t have these things in Auroville but these other communities are much smaller, less diverse, so it is easier for them to make progress and to see what they have achieved. In Auroville, it can take longer to get results because we have such a mix of nationalities and backgrounds.

But the communities also have a lot in common. We have common challenges, like the fact that the older people don’t want to give space to the young, but also common ideals. We are all working for a better planet’ this is the core I see in all these communities.

For me, they are like one body of which Auroville is the heart.

In the past, I tried to strengthen the links through exchange schemes for their people who wanted to come here, but I didn’t get any support from the Auroville community, even though these other communities have always been very generous in hosting Aurovilians.

Perhaps now is a good opportunity to revive the connection between us. Findhorn’s initiative in funding a guesthouse that can be used by its members in Pitchandikulam is hopefully an important step in this direction.

Finally, I would like to thank my father, my uncle (V. Radhakrishnan) and Auroville, all of whom made it possible for me to travel abroad and experience these different communities.