The power of work and possibility

I first heard about Sri Aurobindo in Formentera, Spain in 1970. It was the day after I’d had the incredible experience of my mind opening into a vast realm of pale blue light to which I immediately said “I have no idea what this is, but it is what I want!” Only much later I learned it was the color associated with Sri Aurobindo’s consciousness. Seven years after, I came across a notice about an August 15th celebration in honor of Sri Aurobindo’s birthday at the East-West Cultural Center, now the Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles. The founder, Dr. Judith Tyberg, had received the name Jyotipriya, meaning “The Lover of Light”, from Sri Aurobindo. I arrived just at the moment when she raised her arms in a great gesture of aspiration and said with incredible spiritual force “Friends, we are at the dawn of a New Age for humanity!” This was THE decisive moment in my life and Jyotipriya became a great influence for me, as for so many others who became involved with Auroville.

Often during her satsangs, Jyotipriya would stop reading to comment with enormous enthusiasm, “That’s what I love about The Mother! She’s so practical!” “Practical?” – for a long time I couldn’t relate to this because the Yoga, while it attracted me, seemed so far from me. But more and more I found my head bending with the pressure of the spiritual force in the meditations Jyotipriya led, and in three years, she inscribed in me the goals and process of the Integral Yoga, and the spiritual power and influence of The Mother.

The blessing of finding Jyoti’s center added to the lucky influences on my early life as it concerned work from my parents for whom work was the key to progress. They were both children of immigrants who had fled poverty and pogroms, and both started work at age 14. My mom even went to work during New York City blizzards when transportation from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back was uncertain – but off to work she went despite! Work, creativity and reliability in work were of the highest value, and the source of personal satisfaction.

My good luck also came from coming-of-age in 1960’s America when my generation had the privilege of so many wide-ranging possibilities. As a New Yorker, I fully imbibed the city’s “Why not try?” dynamism. More good fortune came when I was present for all four days of the Woodstock Festival that joyously proved that positivity had great practical power.

So I put positive possibility into action in my work life. I created a health care program for underprivileged kids for the Mayor of New York, and afterwards co-produced about 100 educational films in Los Angeles. What is “strange” is that I gained these precious work opportunities without having had any prior relevant experience. I applied the “Why not try?” attitude and offered my “services”, got accepted, and then made good on these opportunities to contribute.

When Jyotipriya shared what The Mother said about work, it added a completely new dimension to my view of work and action – that of serving the Divine. And The Mother’s words have guided my life ever since: “Let us offer our work to the Divine; this is the sure means of progressing”; “Let us work as we pray, for indeed work is the body’s best prayer to the Divine” and “Let us constantly aspire to be a perfect instrument for the Divine’s work”.

In 1980, I went to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram where I stayed for three years and received my spiritual name – Mandakini – from Nolini Kanta Gupta, Sri Aurobindo’s oldest disciple. And I worked: in the Dining Room, as a teacher in the school, and in the Archives where I launched the concept for “The Spiritual Significance of Flowers” (finished by Ashramite Lilo). Jyotipriya was one of the first public supporters of Auroville and so I cycled out to contribute happy hours at Centre Field School. When Jyoti passed away, Arabinda Basu, the sadhak who had introduced her to Sri Aurobindo in 1947, asked me to write her biography for “Mother India”. Later, Anie Nunnally of the Los Angeles center requested me to write an updated piece for Wikipedia.

Nights in my room at Golconde were the occasion for many beautiful mystical experiences. But I also had an astonishingly odd dream where I physically and realistically felt I had swallowed a frog! I wondered about this for quite some time until I found a reference in Sri Aurobindo’s letters about frogs meaning “modest usefulness “. So I took this as a sign that I could be modestly useful for The Mother’s work and I have tried to stay true to this perspective for the past 42 years.

When I was a child I had several premonitions about my future. One was the intuition that I would spend my mature life in France. And in fact, I met my husband Maurice in the Ashram dining room and have been in France now since 1984. It also turned out that wherever we lived in Paris, the place was somehow associated with The Mother’s life. Our first apartment was located in a small street where her art school, l’Academie Julian, had one of its premises; our second one was just two doors from where a close friend of hers had lived (and she visited weekly) and was one street in a direct beeline from her flat on Rue Lemercier. The peace of her presence is still palpable in the garden there.

In Paris, I got hired for a job that once again I had no preparation for: teaching English to French corporate executives in accounting, finance, film, television, and real estate. For 30 years, I worked 55 hours a week, with The Mother’s words, and my parents’ example keeping me on track and strong. Vacations were for re-connecting to the Ashram and participating in Auroville (Matrimandir concretings, work in the Gardens, Nursery, and at the Archives).

I retired in 2011, and was finally able to fully turn my energy to Auroville. I became the Auroville fundraising organizer for Auroville International (AVI) France, and as such, made the first fundraising calls in the News & Notes for the Farewell Facilities, and in France for the new ambulance. Then, with Julian and Chetana of AVI-USA and B, we launched the “Build It Now” campaign to bring in the last funds for finishing the Santé building.

“Acres for Auroville” came to me as an inner inspiration in a dream one night, including the name. After discussions with the AVI France Board, I got the green light to contact Aryadeep of LFAU. He had been fundraising for the land for 20 years and enthusiastically accepted developing together an LFAU-AVI collaboration to raise funds to purchase Auroville’s missing land. With Jothi, LFAU’s talented secretary, we set up systems for accounting transparency, and rapid and creative donor responses; and with Sigrid , Sathish and Sam we built the website (later enriched by the work of Joel and Chloé). We launched the campaign on 15th August 2014. Since the start, we have closely collaborated at a distance since I work from France.

In year two, Rakhal and I started our series of campaign films, most notably “Landing Auroville” and “The Mother, an Artist”. In our second year, too, Art for Land was created by Jasmin, Aravinda and myself as a support action for A4A, with the generous solidarity of Auroville artists and friend artists. For the past six years, it has been carried by the love and energy of Jaya, Claudine and the AFL team. Other vital collaboration for A4A has come from Joel and Chloé with their IT skills.

We will soon be starting A4A’s 9th year of action which has created awareness, trust, and concrete results. Thanks to donor solidarity and the non-stop collaboration of the AVIs, A4A has funded the majority of the 85 plots purchased since 2014. With me in France, we have all closely collaborated at a distance. Our team has put into practice The Mother’s words: “It is only in harmonious collaboration that effective work can be done.”

Looking back, it is funny to see that the A4A campaign is the only work in my life that I was prepared for in advance! I came to it knowing the concrete power of possibility and all my previous endeavors came together in it with great meaning. I am deeply grateful for this enriching opportunity to serve The Mother’s vision, and along with so many friends, contribute to the building of Auroville.