Search for the Divine

That many Aurovilians have hidden talents is well-known. But I hadn’t expected Satprem Maïni to be a poet in disguise.

Acknowledged as Auroville’s earth construction guru, with world-wide experience in promoting earth architecture and winner of over a dozen awards, I knew him only as an architect, a trainer in earth technology and supervisor of construction sites, invariably with half a dozen pen markers in his shirt pocket and a roll up ruler belted to his side.

This man of action yet has another side: he is also a man of contemplation, of searching, of trying – and sometimes desperately – to find harmony and the meaning of life, as is witnessed in his booklet Search for the Divine, a collection of 88 poems and thoughts written between 1995 and 2002. Take, for example, the poem:

Suffering.

Once more I find myself again upon the roads.

This story has been repeated for so long

Mercenary sent on the world’s battlefield.

Whether priest or ascetic, pursuing an elusive God.

Whether warrior, fighting for the Truth.

Whether architect, manifesting the premises of a new creation.

Always I am uprooted.

Always I am projected in the unknown.

Always I am living a suffering whose facets seem infinite.

When the Joy of Being?

When the infinite Peace of God?

When the Transformation, Ultimate?

Some poems also reflect happier states, such as Offering.

This human Nature is a gift from the Supreme Lord.

Good or bad, its attributes are all Divine.

Beauty, Light, Grandeur of the Being

Are jewels for the Soul!

Obscurity, narrowness, imperfection,

Are opportunities for the Being.

Being grateful for all these marvels,

Acknowledging these limits in order to grow.

Offering the whole to be raised, transformed.

Giving back with gratitude what belongs to Him.

That He may dispose of all in the best way for His Work.

That the author is an architect transpires from many of the poems. In Harmonic Architecture he describes the holistic architecture he aspires to manifest, in which beauty is expressed with simplicity because inspired by an inner harmony, and matter’s inner beauty is shown without cosmetic disguise; an architecture of subtle music, of natural matter, of radiant light, for an ocean of peace: where the world could grow towards a progressive harmony for a New Creation.

The booklet is not publicly available. But copies can be obtained from the author by emailing him at earthinstitute@auroville.org.in.