Auroville's monthly news magazine since 1988

Other ways to relate to Auroville

 

For many years, Martin Littlewood was one of the mainstays of Auroville International (AVI). A few years ago, he and his wife, Dany, decided to live here and recently they completed their Newcomer process. Why did he decide to move here? Did it change his perspective on Auroville? What does he think are the main challenges facing Newcomers and the community? And does he feel that AVI has a particular role in preparing potential Newcomers for Auroville? Here are some of his thoughts.

“In the 1960s, my mother did a study course on comparative religions with Edith Schnapper in Cambridge. My mother had been studying the Gita at the time and came across Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita on Edith’s bookshelf. She found it very profound. Edith became a family friend, and my mother became part of a small circle in the UK that met together to study Sri Aurobindo.

“I don’t remember when I first heard about Auroville. I started to see the leaflets that were coming out of the Ashram and then Auroville, and they were quite inspiring. What I do remember very clearly is when my mother told me of The Mother’s passing. That was a shock and I remember wondering what was going to happen to Auroville. I met Dick Batstone [a founder member of AVI UK, eds.] at an exhibition in London and asked him the same question, and he reassured me that Auroville was well established.

“But my life was very busy with other things at that time. It wasn’t until I started visiting Boytons [the home of Joy Calvert and Edith Schnapper, which became a centre for Auroville International U.K., eds.] in the early 1980s that I felt the time was right to get more involved. My mother was very happy because she felt it was a step she could not take herself.

“I first visited Auroville in 1985. My prior contact with Auroville was an inner one and this helped me connect to what was happening here when I arrived for a month’s stay. That connection was strengthened through my work on Matrimandir. I spent most of the time high up on the structure, moving scaffolding about with the rest of the team. What impressed me was not just the work but also the people. Even though I could tell they were normal human beings with all their weaknesses – I attended Matrimandir meetings and was quite shocked by some of the things that went on there – their dedication to the work was very touching.

“That visit made me realise that Auroville was a very important part of my life, and that I would return. In fact, I began coming back for a month every two years, and in 1990 my whole family accompanied me.

“Meanwhile, I became more and more involved with the organisation of Auroville International UK and, later, with the larger organisation of Auroville International, attending the international meetings every year.

“The next phase began when I changed my job and got the opportunity to work for Auroville part-time. I worked with Greta Jensen on obtaining European Commission funding for certain Auroville projects. While Aurovilians were overseeing the work on the ground, I was the overall manager for all the projects funded.

“I always had at the back of my mind, even from my first visit, the thought that I would come and live here. My wife, Dany, and I even talked about it when we brought the children in 1990, but we decided it wasn’t the right time then because it would disrupt our children’s education.

“But now we could come every year, and our annual visits were made easier because there was a house in Samriddhi where we could stay. That was an important step for us because it allowed us to put down roots and feel part of the community.

“Our eldest son, Matthew, joined Auroville in 1999. About two years ago, we made the decision to try living in Auroville for a longer period to see if it was the right thing for both of us. We came for about five months, at the end of which we had decided that we did want to live here.

“For me, the most important part of being here longer was I could be much more focussed on what I really wanted to do. I also began to understand how your perspective changes when you are a resident rather than someone observing Auroville from outside. You get a more holistic view of things, and you feel more responsible for what is happening because you are part of it.

“Quite often, living here involves taking up some of the challenges yourself, which is quite different from sitting back and saying ‘this ought to be done’ and ‘that ought to be done’. However, if you’re willing and you have something to offer, it is quite easy to get sucked into many things here. At a certain point, it was so physically challenging I fell sick.

“I found I was being challenged on many levels, both inner and outer, but I had always accepted, right from the beginning, that Auroville would not be easy as there is a pressure here pushing us forward, both individually as well as collectively. I think Newcomers are often not prepared for that. Even I, who knew about it, was not sufficiently prepared.

“Some Newcomers also have difficulties with the way people deal with each other here. However, my relationship with people has been one of my most rewarding experiences. Now I know many Aurovilians better, I understand their problems but also their genuine sincerity and their aspirations for Auroville, and this continues to touch me deeply.

“I feel passionately that Auroville’s future depends on its work for human unity, and the way that people work together in groups is an important step towards the larger work of human unity. When you work closely with people, it is important to get beyond their surface problems, issues that often reflect one’s own, to find out what is behind. And when I do this, I nearly always find we share a deeper connection with the vision.

“Since coming here, I have been very keen to bring a bit of my experience of working with groups and organizations in the U.K. to help Auroville groups work not only more harmoniously but also more efficiently. I also realised quite early that the success of a group depends not just on people working together, but also on the diversity of the people in it. This brings its own challenges. But you have to have these different viewpoints because Auroville’s work is to synthesise them, and then somehow rise above them.

“I am also learning every day. For example, when a group of us were asked to be trustees of NESS School, which was on the point of collapse, it turned out to be a big task because, in some respects, we were starting almost from scratch. But working with the other trustees has been a very interesting experience. The dynamic, the energy, in that group determines a lot about what happens in the wider work. Funds will flow into something that has a certain energy and this is already happening with NESS.

“I am also very interested in the larger Auroville organisation. I am trying to understand through my work with the Governance Action Group and the Active Residents Assembly how Auroville works and how it can evolve.

“I was also part of the focus group on growth in the Retreat and I see the lack of significant growth in our population as primarily a blockage of energy: there are certain constriction points where energy is blocked. One of these is clearly on the financial level, but another has also a lot to do with how we deal with Newcomers. There is still this idea that, rather than welcoming them, we have to police their entry to prevent the wrong people coming in. During the Retreat, we were trying to envisage the ideal situation, and we all agreed that this is a constant flow of the right people into Auroville.

“So I would like to see the entry process becoming more welcoming because I think the people in the present group have trapped themselves in a certain perspective that needs to be changed.

“Housing is another blockage point. Many people think the problem is financial, but I think financial issues are symptoms of a blockage of energy rather than the cause of something. Here again, I think we need to change our vision. My vision of housing is that housing should be provided according to need, rather than according to the financial status of the individual. We know we’re not ready for this yet, but if we could see this as our goal, then the flow of people into Auroville could begin to be unblocked.

“I think the most important thing for a Newcomer is that they are somehow touched by Auroville: if they don’t have that inner connection, I don’t think they will make it here. While there is no replacement for that, I think you can help enable that contact to happen. Here the people in the Auroville International centres have an important role to play in the way they give information about the community.

“Of course, they should not paint too rosy a picture for people who are thinking of coming here: these people need to know about the challenges. At the same time, the AVI people need to show that Auroville has a specific purpose, to communicate what that vision is because, without that, Auroville is nothing. If you can inspire somebody with that vision, that person is already beginning to have a deeper connection.

“This is why, when I was writing the AVI UK Newsletter, I always felt that I had to be very careful in what I wrote or said because sometimes the wrong word may put somebody off, somebody who otherwise might have had a great experience in Auroville or been of help to the project.”