The first caravan

The first caravan of fourteen people left Paris on 15th August, 1969 and reached Auroville in early October. Auroville Today spoke to the three members of that caravan who are still living here: Gérard Maréchal, Janaka and François Gautier.

Auroville Today: What was the origin of the first caravan?

Gérard: Vincenzo had the blessing of Mother to organize the caravan. He told Mother he had to go back to France for an operation, and Mother told him to bring back people, materials and tools.

How did each of you find out about the caravan?

Gérard: I had a friend living next to me and one day he showed me a leaflet where Mother spoke about Auroville. I learned that in Auroville there would be no police, no money, no army, and I thought, that’s it. It was 1968 and it corresponded very much to what was going on. Also, I wanted to become a professional photographer and travel somewhere to make my press book. I went to the Auroville Association office and they told me a caravan was going to go to Auroville.

Janaka: I had been connected to Mother since 1965. At first I wanted to come to live in the Ashram, but then Pavitra sent me some literature about Auroville and I became more interested in that. I visited the Auroville Association in Paris and I also went to see Roger. It was there I met Vincenzo who told me about the caravan. Immediately I said ‘yes’.

François: I heard by accident. My best friend’s father was the Governor of Pondicherry. My friend had come back from Pondicherry in 1968 and he told me about the planned caravan. I didn’t know anything about Auroville or about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, but I thought it would be a good way to start my round the world tour. I was not interested in Auroville.

So there was a mixture of people in this caravan, some people knew about Auroville and some didn’t?

François: Alain Monnier, Sebastien and Vincenzo had already come. They had met The Mother and Alain and Vincenzo were the leaders. The rest of us had not been to Auroville and did not know each other.

Was there a selection process? Did you have to send your photos to Mother?

Janaka: Yes. We had meetings with Roger and he wanted to know who was going to leave for India with the caravan. He wanted to make the selection but we had already sent our photos to Mother.

You set off from Paris on the night of 15th August.

Janaka: Yes, but before that we had worked for six months on repairing the vehicles – two vans and the cars. They were all second-hand and not in good condition. And they had to take us 12,000 kilometres, through Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan to India.

Did the vehicles hold up?

François: No. The main problem was the oil sumps of the vans kept breaking because they were so low they collided with the ground.

Janaka: We would repair the sump with Araldite and matting, using camping gas to dry the glue. It would take hours. Then we would put it back and, after one kilometer, bang! it would happen again. This also happened in the desert, where we had no water and no food. Later, the gearboxes of the two vans broke, and the two small cars had to pull them for over 8,000 kilometres because all the equipment was in the vans. And the towing ropes would keep breaking…

François: We also had an accident in Turkey, when Danielle was driving. She skidded on a curve and the van went over. We had to do a major repair, to cut the top off and make a new frame. We were stuck there for 10 days, living in tents. It was a tough time because there were army guys around who were not so nice and the girls had to be protected. At night we had to guard everything.

Did these challenges help you bond as a group?

Janaka: No. For me, there was no unity.

François: It wasn’t at all a carefree journey. There was no sightseeing because Vincenzo wanted to get to Auroville as quickly as possible and he knew that the vans were not in good condition. Gerard, Krishna and myself were happy together, but the leaders, Alain and Vincenzo, were often in conflict. There was a van that we used as a kitchen, and Alain used to put Mother’s photo there, and Vincenzo would remove it. That was the main source of tension: it was already the ‘mental’ world versus the ‘vital’ world! Then, in Turkey, Vincenzo wanted to kick me out. I was smoking and he felt I was just not fitting. But Krishna intervened and said he could not do that.

Janaka: We drove like crazy, often at night, and this increased the tensions between people. It took us only five weeks to reach Delhi, and another week to reach Auroville, where we arrived in early October.

François: Delhi was very important for me. We had driven overnight from Lahore and reached Delhi in the early morning. We drove to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. It was the first time we had been in an atmosphere like that and I was very much attracted by it. It was a beautiful place and that evening, at sunset, I climbed on top of one of the vans and started reading Sri Aurobindo. And when I read a few lines, everything clicked in me somehow. I didn’t know anything about India and about Auroville but suddenly, in an intuitive flash, I understood so many things. I understood that I had come home; that India was my place and I was going to be with the Mother. Suddenly I knew I would be in India for the rest of my life. It was a very strong experience.

Roger and Navajata even flew up to Delhi to greet us and they gave us a talk about Auroville. I think they were a bit disappointed in what they found. Maybe they were expecting older people with skills and we were young and without any great capacity. Roger disguised his feelings at the time, but later, in Auroville, he made it very clear that he didn’t think we were up it.

But Mother had seen your photos…

Gérard: With Mother it was different. In The Agenda you can read how someone complained about us guys in Aspiration, how we were wild and smoking and not working: we represented all the sins of the world! And this person asked if Ashram people could not go and live in Auroville as they would obviously be much more suitable. And Mother said, ‘No, no’. She was very strong about this. She said, I will take care of these young people. She wanted to do something with us…

Can you remember the moment you arrived?

Janaka: We arrived in Promesse and we were very tired because we had been driving through the night. Somebody gave a talk and Barun Tagore took a photo of us a group.

François: We expected a city and there was nothing!

Did you feel for a moment that you made a mistake? That you had come all this way for nothing?

All: No.

Gérard: It was more strange than disappointing. For me the change happened when some people came, they were blond and beautiful, and said ‘Let’s go to Aspiration’.

François: We entered Auroville for the first time from the JIPMER road. There was nothing! Only a few palm trees, the blue sky and the red earth. It was very striking. Then we had to cross through Kuilapalayam village because there was no other access to Aspiration, and I remember the villagers looked at us in a very hostile way. Finally, we came to Aspiration, which had actually been built for us. We had had a very uncomfortable journey, often sleeping outside, and here were these were nice houses with clean bathrooms.

Do you have any striking memories of the caravan journey? Were there any ‘legends’ of the caravan?

François: I remember that Sebastien used to like watching stars. He would climb up on the roof of the van and watch them for hours. He also managed to get himself locked up in the Taj Mahal at night. It was full moon and he spent the night wandering the gardens. I think it was a very important experience for him.

Janaka: I remember Afghanistan was very dangerous. One night we were driving in Afghanistan and suddenly we came to a barrier across the road with these armed guys. We stopped and got out. We talked, they inspected the vehicles and let us go. Probably we had to pay something.

François: Of course, it helped that Krishna was a Muslim. He knew what to say in situations like this.

When you arrived in Auroville, did Roger have a programme of work for you?

Janaka: There were lots of meetings. Roger and Gilbert came from Pondicherry and spoke to us about the consciousness of true Aurovilians. While we respected people like them, we were the ones who were daily confronting the difficulties of life in Auroville. So when they came in their cars and nice clothes from Pondicherry to tell us how to live the ideal of Auroville, it was difficult for us to accept.

Gérard: We were kind of lost. We didn’t have skills. I think our first activity was to start planting trees in Aspiration.

Janaka: Apart from gardening and planting, the only activity in those early days was cooking and working in Toujours Mieux, the mechanical workshop.

François: We suffered a lot during the first monsoon. We had never experienced the monsoon, which started about a week after we arrived. I remember after these huge rains everything started rotting, mushrooms were sprouting everywhere, and you couldn’t go anywhere: there was no road. After the monsoon, there was the heat and the dust.

In spite of this, almost all the caravanners stayed in Auroville for some time.

François : Most of these people stayed for at least three years. I think Mother’s passing was a kind of watershed. After that, people began to drift away. But we three are still here, and Sebastien is living in the Ashram.

Gérard: I tried leaving once in 1970. I planned to go to Canada via Kathmandu. But when I reached Kathmandu I realised the only thing that mattered was Mother, was Auroville, and I came back. Then I knew I had to stay.

Janaka: I left after one year. I had problems with the collectivity, and my wife, who had come with the caravan, had returned to France and I was missing her. I went to Mother and told her I had decided to return. She looked at me, laughing, and said, ‘It would be better if you stayed here, petit’. I told her again I wanted to return. She looked at me and then I knew I could return. Mother paid my plane ticket, I had no money. I often came back in the winter months to work on Matrimandir and I returned for good in 1988.

François: I liked the Ashram, I used to go a lot to the samadhi and I also met Satprem; it was very easy to meet him in those days. Then I moved to Golconde for three months, and when my money ran out, Satprem asked the Mother if I could become an Ashramite. She agreed and she put me in a garden where they grow the flowers that come to the samadhi. I stayed there for seven years and was very happy. But when Mother died, everything began to change. I came back to Auroville in 1977. It was not an easy re-entry because that was the time of all these troubles with the Society.

What was the importance of the caravan?

François: There were already a few people living here, but I think Auroville really started when we came. Aspiration played such an important role in the early history of Auroville, and this caravan, whatever the faults of the people and their shortcomings, gave an impetus to Auroville. Everything started from this.

Gérard: You could feel that Mother had a plan for the people who had come. I had a lot of problems in the early days, I didn’t know what to do, but I knew she was preparing us for something. When Matrimandir started in 1970, I knew that was it, and I didn’t do anything else for 20 years. She was preparing us.

Janaka: Mother saw the Aspiration group quite regularly; that helped. The first time I went, she answered a few questions and then she looked at each of us, one by one. It was very impressive. After this, nobody spoke. When the concentration finished, she said it has been a very noisy silence!

François: I think she was fond of the French group, even though we did not conform at all to what the Ashram expected.

Janaka: Mother liked sincerity. If you were sincere, it was okay.

François : In spite of all the physical difficulties, it was a good time. The best time.

Gérard: It was different then. The mind was not there, it was more of an intuitive thing because of Mother. Then things changed. We have gone from a very simple way of life to very elaborate organizational structures. I don’t think anything is lost: we are on the way to something else. It was like magic then, but the magic of Auroville is still here. That’s why I stayed. The magic is still here, Mother and Sri Aurobindo are working on and leading the way.