Three months in Auroville, or why I think Auroville is prefect

When I first arrived three months ago, I imagined I was going to learn about new governance and economic structures, a new way of making decisions and managing money. What I discovered was different. I realized that the gap between the dream and the reality was not due to the impossibility of materializing the dream but to something else. Possibilities in Auroville are almost endless (especially compared to other countries in the world with all their regulations) and that is what makes it a laboratory. Aurovilians have the space to innovate, discover, try and fail to finally arrive at the most suitable system. So what is preventing Auroville from becoming the dream? What follows is what I discovered as I tried to understand Auroville from the inside and how my experience of Auroville changed my vision of myself and the world.

During my three months stay, I had one goal: to try to understand the economic and governance systems of Auroville as much as possible. I first started to volunteer for the Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) and at the same time for Auroville Today and Eco Femme. I chose to volunteer in several places in order to have an encompassing vision of how different aspects of Auroville worked independently and together. I rapidly understood that everything is connected in Auroville: if I try to have a vision about one topic, I have to explore all the directly or indirectly connected topics. As my focus was on governance and economy, I also participated to the Active Residents’ Assembly (ARA) meetings and started volunteering with the ARA preparation sub-group.

At first I was lost in all the Aurovilian current issues, the different working groups, the acronyms, the debates. Volunteering for the RAS was, for me, a great way to learn about Auroville because I focused on a specific topic, food and commodity distribution, and also because the RAS is the main communication platform between the working groups and the Residents’ Assembly. As my volunteering experience proceeded, I discovered little by little the different challenges that might slow the realization of the dream.

The first challenge I encountered with the food and commodity distribution project was to determine which information we were looking for and how and where to gather this information. I realized that each Aurovilian has a different vision of Auroville and thus has a different opinion on what is important to discuss. The second challenge was even more demanding as we then had to gather the information. I realized how hard it is to get the information needed in Auroville, either because of the necessity of choosing one’s words carefully in order to avoid conflicts or because of the lack of transparency. This lack of transparency became one of the main topics I discussed with Aurovilians as it seems to be a recurrent problem linked to either a fear of being criticized, or of creating a conflict, or of not getting the support of Auroville in terms of administration and bureaucracy (such as permissions, financial help etc.)

Many individuals seem to have an agenda, some interests, to defend and they try to do so by choosing which information to publish. I did not see a wish to create a harmonious and connected community. I saw fear based on past experiences, in which some people had been judged and criticized, leading to unwanted consequences. Therefore, getting the right information at the first attempt was almost always impossible.

The third challenge was linked to the second one: how to present the information gathered in a neutral manner, respecting the vocabulary considered as “appropriate” in Auroville. Certain words are not to be used because the community aspires for something higher, but it seems that even if the vocabulary has changed, a new system based on higher ideals has not been set up yet and the habits and mindset remain the same. I noticed this paradox when I saw the reactions of Aurovilians when I used the word “shopping”. It seems that it is a “taboo” word because Aurovilians are not supposed to shop any more but only “get necessary items according to their needs”. However, in reality, Aurovilians still pay for products and many still choose these products according to their prices. Therefore, in my opinion, they still ‘shop’.

I have encountered other interesting issues when volunteering for the Active Residents’ Assembly (ARA). I clearly perceived a desire from the residents, at least the ones coming to the meetings, to change the basis of the system in place in Auroville, and not only the vocabulary used to describe it. I understood a willingness to change the way meetings were organized and the way people thought about and reacted to issues, opinions and disagreements.

When I attended the first meeting of the ARA, I had not been to any General Meeting (GM) before. I thought that all GMs started with silence and quotes in four languages and that each time someone requested silence he/she could have it. I understood at the end of the meeting that it was not the case because someone said that, for once, he felt safe to express himself. For me it reflects something crucial I have learnt during my months in Auroville: the need for good facilitation not only to reach consensus but also to create a space in which Aurovilians feel safe to express themselves.

The second step the ARA took was to start working on specific topics in order to apply this new way of meeting to practical and complex issues. One of the first topics this assembly started working on was the decision-making process.

Even if I sensed a desire to go forward, instead of trying to think about what a completely new system could look like the group wanted to use already existing systems: consensus and voting. What I understood from this is that as Aurovilians aspire to a system based on higher values, they do not want to use already existing systems. But at the same time, they have difficulty in inventing completely new systems.

I understood that in order to get to this eagerly sought-after consensus, key things have to be taken into account. Firstly, how to inform Aurovilians when they have to make a decision? How to communicate in a community in which not everyone has access to a computer or internet and not everyone goes to the same places? Then, among those residents who could be reached, how to motivate them to participate in order to include as many points of view as possible? And how to help a group of motivated residents with ideas to come to conclusions and, finally, make decisions? This is what Auroville is about for me: how to be heard, how to listen, how to collaborate and how to realize the power of the collective when it interacts harmoniously to realize the dream of Auroville.

The experience of living in Auroville for three months allowed me to discover who I was and what I was capable of: my potential and my limits. Indeed, Auroville allowed me to apply what I knew and what I had learnt in university and throughout my life. Aurovilians not only gave me the space to express myself and participate in discussion but also took into account my opinions and ideas. Even if I did not have the diplomas needed to give my opinion on both communication (in the RAS) and decision-making (in the ARA), I was welcomed and listened to. The possibilities and diversity of interactions with people from around the world offered by Auroville also broadened my perspective of the world and reminded me of the freedom I have, as a human, to fully be myself if I acknowledge it. I think Auroville gave me the confidence I needed to take initiatives and participate in the work of an organization anywhere in the world.

What I will also remember from Auroville is its flexibility. Even if rules, policies and mandates are written, Auroville is constantly moving. This means that by writing down my vision of Auroville right now it already becomes obsolete.

For me, even if all sorts of obstacles prevent the dream from fully becoming reality, the dream is there. This dream brings together people from all over the world and makes them work together for it. I think this is the most important lesson I learnt in Auroville: even if the dream is not yet materialized, most Aurovilians are linked by this desire for a new world based on the dream. This is why I think Auroville is perfect: it is the unity of humanity in each Aurovilian meeting the diversity of human beings Aurovilians are.