Serving Auroville

Chelyabinsk is an industrial Russian city east of the Ural Mountains, on the border of Europe and Asia. On February 15, 2013, it gained notoriety because an asteroid the size of a six-story building exploded over the city. The blast of the Chelyabinsk meteor, many times stronger than the blast from the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, triggered a shock wave that injured more than a thousand people and damaged over 7,000 buildings. It is from here that Tatiana Sineeva and her husband Aleksandr came to Auroville.

“I was teaching a class of linguistics at the Chelyabinsk university when the blast happened,” remembers Tatiana. “We saw a blinding white light and heard a deafening sound, which was followed by a shockwave that shattered the double glass windows of the auditorium. We all ran outside and saw an incredible blue sky crossed by a long trail of billowing white smoke. The city was in chaos with extensive damage all around. But nobody knew what had happened. It was only much later that we were informed that a meteor had exploded over our city.

“I was working as an associate professor in linguistics at the Chelyabinsk State University. I have a Ph. D. in linguistics and Romance languages, with specialization in French and in Public Relations. I had an interest in French from an early age, possibly because my grandmother inspired me to learn it, as French was the Russian court language at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. But my mother was not really happy with my choice. She wanted me to study English, a language I only seriously took up when I arrived in Auroville. And perhaps my choice has also to do with the fact that I never had a strong inner connection to Russia. From a very young age I had the feeling that I did not belong there, which was confirmed by my friends who told me that I am ‘not really Russian’.

Hatha yoga

“But the reason I came to Auroville has nothing to do with my profession. When I was 28, I 

developed some health conditions. My doctor advised me to do some physical activity. I started swimming, but got bored. Then I found myself in a yoga class at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) temple in Chelyabinsk. It was as if a part of me suddenly woke up. I started practicing and to everyone’s surprise progressed very fast. In a short while I was able to do the most complicated asanas without a problem. 

“My progress was noted and very soon my yoga teacher asked me to take over her class as she wanted to leave Russia for some years. But I wasn’t planning to become a Hatha Yoga teacher. In fact, the idea scared me. I excused myself as I had 

commitments at the university. But she insisted, and before long I found myself in front of a class of more than 50 people. Over the years, that number increased to more than a hundred. My husband too was there,  progressing steadily in his own hatha yoga journey, while being fully supportive of my development. 

“My teacher left Russia with the satisfaction that she had secured a good successor. “You are settled here,” she said to me. “You are married, you have a good job at the university, and you will not leave.” But there she was wrong. I stayed only for five years more.

Discovering India

“For I soon realized that I was lacking skills to teach hatha yoga. We decided to visit India, the home of hatha yoga, and go on an adventure trip. We didn’t plan, we just travelled around and so arrived at Rishikesh, where we discovered a yoga meditation course of the International Vishwaguru Yoga and Meditation Institute. 

“That experience asked for more. We returned every subsequent year to explore different parts of India. Upon arrival in New Delhi, we would randomly decide where to go, without any particular planning. In that way we went to Bangalore in 2012, and then decided to come to Pondicherry. My husband had heard something about this place from a friend of a friend, but I knew nothing about it, and neither about Auroville. But when we arrived, we felt something which I still can’t describe. It was like ‘Oooh! This is paradise! This is mind blowing!’ We moved from Pondicherry to Auroville, got a room in Centre Guest House and then roamed around. And we booked a concentration in the Matrimandir on the last day of our visit. That gave me an indescribable experience. Something was trying to come out, and I was crying, crying and crying under the Banyan tree, so long that I was gently asked to leave the place. I was totally lost in my emotions.

“Back in Russia, I met again my yoga group, but I was still in the wave of that experience at the Matrimandir. For one hour I talked about the beauty of Auroville, that heaven on earth, and while talking I noticed that one person was strongly staring at me. After the class I asked her what was up? She said, “How come you went to Auroville without informing us?” I answered that it had been a random choice. Then she explained that a friend of hers is living in Auroville, that she herself had visited Auroville, and that, had she known about our visit, she would have given us gifts to carry. I was flabbergasted. Chelyabinsk is not a small city, but you would not expect anyone living there to have heard about Auroville, leave alone having a friend there.

“That friend turned out to be Saraswati, the ceramic artist. So the next year, in 2013, we arrived back in Auroville, packed with gifts for Saraswati. We met amazing people and had many conversations about their experience with Auroville. And shortly after we returned to Russia, we took the decision to go and live in Auroville. I came in September 2014; for financial reasons my husband joined one and a half years later.

Teaching in Auroville

“My first works were teaching ceramics at Deepanam school and assisting the 5th grade class teacher at Udavi school. I learned the principles of integral education, which were new to me even though there are quite a few commonalities with the education system I was used to. Since 2015 I have been working as a teacher of French, painting and yoga at Deepanam, an experience I really enjoy. I’m thrilled to be a part of this lovely family and it is pure bliss to have an opportunity to explore 

concepts of ‘the youth that never ages’ and ‘free progress’, which supports children’s natural 

development, and imparts the joy of learning with independence and responsibility in a team of passionate teachers. 

“And, of course, I started teaching Hatha Yoga as well. A class for adults spontaneously formed at Deepanam school, which is still very active. It was a bit difficult in the beginning as I had to teach all the proper sequences in English, but that has almost been mastered. 

“I am often asked if my Hatha Yoga is different from the traditional Indian schools of yoga, such as Iyengar or Ashtanga. I respond that I don’t like labels and that there is no major difference in content, only in approach. My ‘style’, if you want to call it so, is a very relaxed kind of fusion of different styles. Whatever comes, I try to integrate. I do not have levels, I accept everyone. If people complain that they are not able to do a particular posture, I tell them not to take it too seriously, not to try to be flawless, to take it easy and to enjoy the process. 

The Residents’ Assembly Service

“Slava was my neighbour in Auroville. He learned that I had been teaching Public Relations and Communication in an international and multicultural context and asked me if I would join the Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) as a volunteer. There was some survey going on and he thought it would be interesting if I could get involved. That led me to becoming a member of the RAS in January 2016.

“I remember, I was so surprised when I came to know that the quorum for decision making is only 10% of the adult population of Auroville. At the time, 10% was only about 180 people. I felt it was strange that such a small group could take binding decisions for all. But over the years, I have seen the reason for this low percentage: community participation in decision making is very low, except for emergencies. 

“The Residents’ Assembly Service had been set up to assist the Residents’ Assembly – all the Aurovilians aged 18 and above – to take decisions and be responsible for the voting process if consensus cannot be reached. But this mandate soon became too narrow and we felt the need for it to be widened.

“One of our biggest jobs was organizing the selection of the members of four major working groups, which happened in January this year. Our team did what was almost impossible: arranging the event with more than 400 residents involved and connecting three venues virtually, as large gatherings were banned because of Covid-19. As the RAS consisted of only three members working half-time, a small group of dedicated resource persons and facilitators came to help. There was also support from volunteers, the Covid Task Force members and the Auroville Council. But notwithstanding all our care, an incident happened: some ballot boxes were tampered with. We had to redo that particular selection. Nevertheless, many people felt we had done a stellar job; but some still criticized us.

“That experience left a bad taste; it strengthened our feeling that we couldn’t continue as before and we made the resolution to suspend decision-making processes till a new policy had been agreed upon.

“This, in effect, motivated the Auroville Council to take up the issue, create a sub-group to review the Residents’ Assembly Decision-making Policy and call for inputs from the wider community. We thought it wouldn’t take long to come to a revised interim document, but then Covid-19 intensified and more lockdowns happened, which brought things to a standstill. During the lockdown, I have been working as a driver of a C-19 ambulance van.

“The sub-group is now completing the integration of the feedback it has received, and we expect that an interim policy will soon been announced. We hope that the final policy will manifest in the near future, as we need to develop new ways to arrive at decisions; for we all understand that voting doesn’t correspond to Auroville’s ideals. The matter is urgent: decisions of the Residents’ Assembly need a strong foundation, in particular at the present time when there is so much polarization in the community.

“Working in the RAS showed me how important it is that members of working groups work as a team. We did a series of “RAS-envisioning” team-building workshops, where we learned how to respect each other and find common solutions, even if the views held in the beginning were widely apart. I believe it would be great if this kind of workshop could become mandatory for the working groups, not only to learn about each other and how to work together, but also to know what work the previous team has done, as the existing system of staggering memberships of working groups easily leads to a loss of a group’s institutional memory. 

It would be equally important to set up a system of civic education for all, to gain a basic understanding of Indian culture, of the laws of India, of the ideals of Auroville, of the structure of the Auroville Foundation and of the organizational framework of Auroville. It is only in this way that we can hope to truly serve Auroville.”