The larger learning?

#1.

Without discussing the rights and wrongs of what happened, it is clear that many Aurovilians have been deeply shocked, even traumatized, by the events of the past few days. The sight of local villagers assisting JCBs to uproot trees and demolish buildings in Auroville communities felt like an assault upon something very precious, which is our common humanity. But that assault began before the JCBs moved in. It began when we started stereotyping each other, dividing individuals into groups which were ‘pro-city’ and ‘anti-city’; when there were accusations of broken promises, and the good faith and the intentions of certain Aurovilians and groups were being questioned; when the ATDC and the Working Committee failed to communicate effectively with the community; and when Auronet as well as other media were extensively used to propagate and justify particular views and agendas and to denigrate, often in extreme terms, those with whom people disagreed.

The inevitable casualty has been trust. A chasm has opened up in the community between individuals and certain groups or members of groups, and between individuals and individuals who are perceived to be in different ‘camps’.

What is urgently needed now is some kind of truth and reconciliation process in which we not only clarify the veracity of certain events, but take responsibility and apologise, when necessary, for any hurt we have caused. We need to learn to see each other again as individuals, with all our faults, shortcomings and aspirations, rather than simply as labels. For when we label others, we depersonalize them, and this allows us to act towards them in ways we would never consider if they remained for us simply human beings with different views. In other words, we are being called to make a supreme effort; to refuse anger, hatred, and all thoughts of violence towards those we disagree with, and to strive to replace it with genuine love and compassion, based upon the understanding that we are all flawed individuals with a very limited understanding of the larger forces surrounding us here. For if we return anger for anger, distrust for distrust, we may end up being consumed by the negative energies which are being generated. We have seen this happen before. We must not let it happen again.

#2.

The JCBs did not come from nowhere, not can the blame for the present crisis be laid at the feet of a new Secretary and Governing Board who wish the city to be constructed speedily, although this may have been a precipitating factor. Almost from the beginning of Auroville, there has been a tension between those who wanted to construct the city as soon as possible and those who favoured a more gradualist, environmentally sensitive approach. There have been occasions when the different perspectives have worked together, for example, 1980s, but such collaborations have been short-lived.

The failure of our Residents Assembly process to reconcile and integrate these two perspectives, as well as a dysfunctional bureaucracy, town planning and decision-making process which blocked or delayed any form of development, created huge frustration in those who felt that it was taking far too long for the city to be manifested. It led, among other things, to people with city development agendas getting themselves elected to working groups which were intended to represent the wider interests of the community as a whole, and to crucial steps in the planning process outlined in the Perspective Plan being ignored. The incursion of the JCBs became only the latest, and crudest, attempt by some frustrated individuals to cut this Gordian knot. But the failure was not only collective. Almost all of us are responsible to some degree for the present locked-in situation in which some Aurovilians feel that other Aurovilians don’t want the city, and have committed ‘violence’ by deliberately building or planting trees on the alignment of the Crown, while other Aurovilians feel that a dogmatic group is intent on forcing through its limited perception of how the city should develop.

For even if we have not taken strong positions on one side or the other, we have often provided tacit support for one position or the other, and, even if we claim impartiality, we have allowed the conflict to continue and not contributed to finding a genuinely integral solution.

#3.

Mother pointed out that an experiment of the scale and significance of Auroville would inevitably attract powerful occult forces which would seek to disrupt or destroy it. One of the most powerful ways they do this is to sow disunity among Aurovilians. Their recent success in doing this is obvious: regrettably, there has even been something of a nationalist divide in the way in which different cultures have aligned them- selves on this issue. Sowing discord is made easier for the anti- evolutionary forces when people seek power and influence, but it also happens because sometimes, even often, we find it very hard to distinguish between those forces which support the true development of Auroville and those which oppose it.

The recent destructiveness, both physical and psychological, has been interpreted by some as the ‘Hammer of God’, or the transformative action of Kali, while others have claimed that their actions are motivated by a divine ‘adesh’ or direct guidance from The Mother. God, indeed, works in a mysterious way, and is not bound by our notions of morality or ‘correctness’. But Mother warned of the danger of false prophets, and extremist, divisive tendencies often masquerade as instruments of the Divine.

In this context, it cannot be accidental that the first requirement she specified for being a ‘true Aurovilian’ was to discover that “being free, vast and knowing...who ought to become the active centre of our being and our life in Auroville”. For without making this discovery, or without identifying ourselves directly with The Mother’s consciousness, it is difficult to discriminate between true and the false lights and to know what the divine intention is at any moment.

In the interim, however, she proffered some useful advice to a sadhaka who wanted to know how to tell truth from falsehood:

However, to help at the beginning, one can take as a guiding rule that all that brings with it or creates peace, faith, joy, harmony, wideness, unity and ascending growth comes from the Truth, while all that carries with it restlessness, doubt, skepticism, sorrow, discord, discouragement and despair comes straight from the falsehood

#5.

Both Hegel and Nietzsche felt that conflict was an essential ingredient of progress. Without subscribing to this philosophy, conflict can be transformational as well as confrontational, for it can evoke new or previously latent qualities. The youth, for example, who are in some ways the prime victims of the current imbroglio, have displayed great maturity and resilience in the way they have responded to the destruction of the Youth Centre buildings, welcoming the community once more to their gatherings and activities. This, among other reasons, has evoked many offers to help them rebuild it in a place acceptable to everyone.

The recent dramatic threats to our unity have also helped bring many of us back to centre, to remind us of why we are here, and given a renewed impetus to efforts at collaboration and finding new ways of solving our differences. For, as Mother pointed out, apparent differences can be resolved by rising to a higher consciousness where there are no contradictions. Now that we have experienced such disunity, there seems a strong willingness in some sections of the community to find ways of repairing our social fabric and moving forward together. As one of them emphasized, “No one is against the city, but we need to find ways to build it which bring us together, not drive us apart”. For the ‘city the earth needs’ cannot be built upon a fractured community.

One such promising initiative is ‘Dreamweaving’, where Auroville architects of all ‘denominations’ will try to attain a shared vision on ways of developing the Crown. Another is the peace gatherings and meditations which seek to restore harmony and call for a higher guidance.

This conflict has also laid bare the failings in our collective process, so hopefully this will give a huge push to ongoing efforts at stimulating more effective communication between the Residents Assembly and major working groups, and new forms of decision-making and implementation which are more inclusive, and more closely aligned with our ideals.

It is still far too early to assess the fallout of recent events. And further dislocation may be on the horizon. But if there is one thing we can offer Mother, as an alchemical transformation of the darkness, it is a renewed determination to build her city in the right way, a city which is not merely material but, above all, a city which is the manifestation of true community based on the transformation of human nature. No 25 year development plan exists for such a city. For it is built or destroyed at every moment of our lives through our every action, thought, or moment of true aspiration.

Perhaps, after all, this is the most important lesson we are being asked to learn at this critical moment in Auroville’s history.