We can’t achieve human unity with segregation

It is a common feeling, and I would dare say almost a fact now that when you decide to open up to Auroville and embrace the challenge of living here, you become very busy. Not only with outer work, but also with active inner work. This is not only the case for Aurovilians and Newcomers, but everyone who decides to be part of this unique experiment, including official and unofficial volunteers. 

I’ve taken a few volunteer jobs in my life in different countries.  A couple of years ago I volunteered for a month in a small spiritual community in Portugal. I wasn’t paid for my work, but housing and food was provided along with free access to all the activities of the project, the main purpose of which was to wake up from the illusion of the ego. In that sense it was similar to Auroville’s aspiration of human unity, but on a much smaller and simple scale: we were no more than 20 people, all volunteers in a project founded and host by a couple.

We would have meditations together every day, we would gather to talk very often about our inner and outer process, and we would observe the ego movements in all our interactions while working at our different tasks. The work was exhausting not only on the physical but also on the emotional level, as we discussed every feeling, situation or event that seemed to be coming from ego movements.  It required a lot of discipline and patience, but at the same time it was so amazing and beautiful to feel the deep intimacy that was shared between all of us, a bunch of strangers from different nationalities and ages living together trying to feel this no-separation. For that entire month we became like a family. The very point of being there was to internalize this truth: we are all part of the same family.

The experienced passed, but the sweet feeling remained. Since I came here, I’ve been wondering if it is possible to create that safe space and deep connection on a much bigger and more complex scale in Auroville.  

I find the situation here much more complex than volunteering anywhere else. The unconventional organisation of Auroville makes it difficult to understand and, hence, to adapt to. This reality is combined with the normal human adaptation process that you face when you are new in a place (regarding culture, weather, language, food, etc.) and the difficulties that you may have to deal with regarding housing and an unguaranteed financial future. But, as I experienced, that may not even be the main issue for many volunteers. The main issue is the non-material difficulty of dealing with yourself from inside, of going inwards and navigating the deep waters of your consciousness (or unconsciousness). Much emotional intelligence has to be learned. The entire process asks you to become your own individual pillar, which is actually a highly spiritual aim in itself. 

Obviously, the individual responsibility comes first, and somehow this is what the energy of Auroville is forcing us to do: to become self-sustainable adults on every level.  The volunteers – as everyone else – need to live whatever plan Auroville and The Divine has for them, and each individual is responsible to surrender to that. But that doesn’t mean Auroville can’t, as a collective and through conscious organisational decisions, improve the conditions and prepare a gentler ground for people of goodwill to come and work here.

For example, some volunteers feel they are treated and looked upon as free labour and not really integrated into the rest of the community as peers.  They are in a kind of a middle ground: one foot in, one foot out, not tourists but not considered part of Auroville. This is reflected in the regulations for them: they have discounts on some things, they pay visitors prices on many others. They can access workshops and treatments in some places with a 50% discount, but cannot attend other events or classes because they are considered as visitors. 

I think this kind of treatment is not just unwelcoming but also impractical for a place that needs more youth and has the ambitious goal to grow up to 50,000 residents. 

There are many different statuses in Auroville – Volunteer, pre-Newcomer, Newcomer, Friend of Auroville, Aurovilian, Children of Aurovilians, workers. On the one hand, it is necessary to label, to organise, and each status was born from a need, but at the same time we can get trapped, attached to the label and we can use it to separate what is not in nature separated.  In the end we cannot achieve human unity under a human segregation system, can we? 

The sense of commitment, adventure and service of the volunteer who comes to Auroville is at least strong enough that he/she decided to give up many other possibilities and a much more materialistic life outside to contribute to this experiment.

So does someone who comes here to join the work that Auroville is doing for humanity really belong to the outside world? Isn’t that how all the pioneers ended up here in the first place?