Youth’s musing on spirituality in action

What is spirituality?

Spirituality is about inner development and progress, it does not relate to standard societal criteria such as financial, professional or material growth.

It is finding the truth about yourself, about your inner self.

It is to become closer to what we truly are and live in line with that.

Spirituality is the awareness that there are no boundaries between things, we are all one.

How does one recognise someone leading a spiritual life?

Indicators of spirituality generally cannot be seen by the naked eye. A spiritual person may seem detached or retired from society, and have unconventional behaviour and habits, but that is not a reliable and assured criterion.

The attributes are more of a psychological nature: peaceful, calm, gentle, the space is non-threatening; accepting, open-minded, non-judging, the ideology is open; observing, curious, kind, differences are accepted.

How does one develop one’s spirituality?

To strive for progress and growth is a very individual thing, each one does that by themselves, for themselves.

Slow down, be in the present moment, try to listen to and understand others (oneness).

Be aware of subconscious, think (of everything) first, do not (re)act to situations and events based from places such as fears or ego, understand where frustrations and anxiety come from.

Be truly interested in everyone, try to accept everyone (with)in, not only the people whose opinion is important to us.

Don’t push yourself to the forefront or in the spotlight.

Lead through example, do not impose your ideas.

Be open to constant growth, there is no “end goal”.

Can spirituality be studied?

Learning about different philosophies can help understand other ones better.

Writings can help get a deeper understanding, like studying or reading up on a topic that is of interest. They can be seen as a guideline or guiding line, with an introduction (or more details) to the concepts and ideas.

Spiritually “advanced” people cannot explain their understanding or progress because the “less advanced” would not comprehend what they are describing; not everyone can comprehend the writings or even the message.

A place or person cannot be defined as spiritual simply because the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have been studied. However, the key message could be discussed more openly, without making it a convention, requirement or necessity.

The most important is to not make it into a religion, but find connections between the writings and one’s own personal growth, use them as a basis for exploration, not only for semantics.

Is spirituality in action like karma yoga?

Not necessarily all workers practice yoga, unless the intention behind the work is that everything you do is for the Divine, and make it a constant practice.

It happens every second of every day, and comes from oneself, from within.

Awareness Through the Body classes help with inner growth, especially on the physical plane, for example exploring one’s different bodies, yoga nidra, etc.

“Exercises” can be done to practice and raise one’s awareness, such as doing things with consciousness, intent and purpose. Another example is forgiveness: learn to let things go instead of keeping them within, nurture compassion instead of animosity.

Actually, anything can be interpreted as spirituality. Vagueness is needed to be able to apply intention to all situations.

Is Auroville special?

For us, it does not feel like a human experiment: it is our normal day-to-day life. The beauty of this place is hard to recognise before going out and experiencing the “rest of the world”.

For some age ranges, Auroville is conducive to development, but after a certain point it feels constrictive due to the prevalent “small village mentality”, there is no privacy.

Nowadays, globalisation, social media and Internet do paint a clearer picture of what is “out there”. Fortunately, Auroville has developed with regard to technology and other activities such as food venues.

Auroville has a different culture that is not focused on material wealth. Materialism and capitalism are the models and base of society elsewhere; people over there don’t really have a choice but to follow that path.

The awareness of how special Auroville is, is starkest when talking to Volunteers and Newcomers who are initially thrilled about the magic of this place. At some point though, this enthusiasm plateaus, patterns set in…

The ideology behind AV is different than the rest of the world; it is spiritual, progressive. People here (some at least) are working in that direction, so Auroville demarcates itself from the “outside world” even just in that dimension.

The people are what make Auroville, they nurture the space for individual and spiritual growth. The atmosphere around a spiritual place can be felt, like for example when getting closer to the Ashram in Pondicherry or when driving into Auroville after a while out.

Very few other places have the openness of Auroville. A spiritual community needs to be nurtured through mentality and atmosphere, to nurture an environment that is welcoming, kind and accepting.

Spirituality: the magic hat of consciousness and the Auroville magnet

Spirituality is a very perilous word because its meaning can be adapted to whatever you feel like at any given moment. It is the magic hat of consciousness. You can use it to say everything and its opposite, it will remain Spirituality.

To enjoy a satisfactory inner life is much easier when following the paved roads of conventional religious spirituality. It provides crystal clear rules: Follow the user guide and you will touch the divine within you. Don’t respect it and you will suffer dire consequences. It’s like driving in western cities, with traffic lights, one-way signs, and speed limits everywhere. A codified path for the soul. Ideal for some people, too restrictive for others.

Spirituality becomes a more complicated journey if we choose to discover the divine in us without external help. It requires us to travel on uncharted paths, with just a few poetry books in our bag, and decide constantly in which direction we want to take the next step without really knowing where it will lead us. It’s more like driving at rush hour in Pondy or finding our way in the Himalayas with only the picture of a compass. Too risky for some people, ideal for others.

“The Mother Said” syndrome

The main obstacle on this adventure towards a rich spiritual life is that human beings are very uncomfortable with uncertainty. So even while discovering ourselves “freely”, we prefer to follow the enlightened ones. A part of us craves traffic lights and lines on the road. In Auroville, I call it “The Mother Said” syndrome: The need to justify everything by constantly using the wise words of other people.

Unfortunately, books and quotes are not wisdom. They are merely the seeds of potential future skills. Reading them a million times won’t change the reality. It’s their integration, their resonance with our higher self that slowly teaches us how to dance a divine life and bring this energy back into the physical world.

Let’s replace spirituality with bread for a minute

Did you ever try to bake bread? You can read all the books in the world about baking. Watch videos. Talk to people. Quote the Master Chefs. Ask experts to write a study about the optimal way to create the perfect loaf. But all this research will never provide food on the table. It’s only when you start collecting the ingredients, that you find a bowl, wheat, yeast, and salt, that the knowledge starts to transform into reality. It’s only when you start baking your first bread that the recipe you choose is important. If you never reach the point where you start applying what you think you know, you will end up trying to convince the baker that you know everything about bread, and he will just smile at you and hand over your daily order. He is the master of his craft, you are just talking.

It is the same for our spiritual life. We need to collect glimpses of wisdom, take the time to nurture our inner life, and transmute a part of the created energy back into the physical reality. We need to learn day after day to bake better bread and share it with others. We have to become masters of our craft.

The Auroville magnet

Living a rich spiritual life is easier in some environments than in others, which is why people love to spend time, even lifetimes, in Ashrams. They are then kept safe from the outside world and can focus on their inner life without being disrupted. A rich inner life in a big city is a lot more challenging, because the building blocks of life in these places are often far from the values spiritual seekers hunger for.

That is why we are so lucky in Auroville! And that is also why hundreds of thousands of people have been attracted to this place since its creation. Auroville is a magnet for anyone in a quest for meaning, an oasis that tries to change things for the better, and a perfect example of spirituality in action. The more the world situation becomes unbearable, the more intensively people are looking for a place like this to escape the old dying model and help create a more conscious one. In other words, Auroville offers many “building blocks” that can help to manifest a future that makes sense.

The building blocks of a conscious tomorrow

The more we work on ourselves, the more we get rid of old patterns, the more we listen to the witness hidden in our hearts, the more receptive we become to beauty in all its forms. The fog of our old personalities slowly vanishes and we can start to enjoy a clearer vision of life. And in Auroville, this beauty and this energy are everywhere, constantly. We wake up to the sound of hundreds of birds singing. We smell the scents of thousands of trees, plants and flowers around us. Our eyes are lulled by beauty. We live in the calm womb of mother nature. And there is no better way to nurture the divine in us than to enjoy, respect, and protect the divine outside. Relationship with the sacredness of nature is the main building block.

But that is not all. Being immersed in this divine city in the making sets a very special pace to everyone’s daily life. Everything is slower here. It sometimes seems that Auroville respects the law of the farm in every aspect of its organisation (sometimes a bit too much, tamas is hidden in the details). Even buildings take years to be finished, no pun intended. They seem to grow like trees: They take their time. This is sometimes a good thing, as most societies are burning out because they want to go faster and faster, without even knowing why. Here people learn to “shanti up”, to give a different value to every passing day. They take the time to rejuvenate. And if they choose not to stay, they bring a glimpse of this new rhythm to the outside world. The value of time is another building block.

But… that is not all. Auroville residents are like a unique living body. No, really! Everyone is a part of an active spiritual life that remains mostly invisible. Do you know any other place where you know the potter who made the coffee cup you use every morning? And the person who roasted the coffee beans? And the baker? A place where a good part of the food is produced locally, and you know all the farmers? A place that takes care of its organisation, education, research, health, and art? This is not the place to describe all the things created every day in Auroville, but if you think about it, you will realise that Auroville is a mini world where everyone participates in creating a life that makes more and more sense. A life that is conscious of the challenges of our times. A life where we do not want to repeat old mistakes, but instead explore alternative ways. Of course, it is sometimes hard to see that because we are all busy with our little lives, but if you stop for a moment and look around, you will certainly feel a sense of connection with hundreds of people. That is a community in action, spirituality in action. And a real community is yet another building block.

Flip the coin: From integral yoga to integral bullshit

If Auroville is a blessed land at many levels, one must not forget the ultimate danger that can easily transform this beautiful attempt of applied integral yoga into integral bullshit.

When you talk with guests, volunteers and newcomers, you often end up having the same discussions, over and over again. A lot of people come here in their quest for meaning and have an infinite appetite for knowledge. They want to eat it all. They participate in workshops every day, they meet very different people at La Terrasse, practice pranayama at dawn, and want to share with everyone their discoveries about the “true meaning of life”, the divine connection between people, etc. They want to discover Their Spirituality, they need to reconnect with their soul, and they want to put their newly discovered selves into action. Here and Now. They have been on a forced diet of meaning for so long that they eat everything they can from the Auroville buffet.

But then… Novelty erodes. Daily routines take over, and the law of entropy reminds us all that reality is what happens when we stop believing. They become residents and discover that living in Auroville is not a sinecure. Most people live under the poverty level and quickly end up getting back on the hamster wheel of labour to make ends meet. They get away from the Newcomers to avoid the same endless discussions over and over again. They try to create a life as comfortable as possible. They quickly stop getting involved in community life and decisions because it is so boring compared to Netflix. They become part of the decor and not willing participants of the dream. They feed the tamas instead of human unity. The tamas take over. Spirituality dissolves in the master list. And Spirituality in Action becomes just another subgroup of a self-elected temporary task force (SATF) to find a solution that will be quickly buried in the archives.

Life is a balancing act

The recent events in Auroville showed us quite abruptly what happens when we do not stay awake and alert, when we bury our heads in the sand to feel more secure, when we do not measure every one of our thoughts and actions in the light of consciousness. Will this next step I take bring light, or will it bring darkness? And this thought. And this desire. Why don’t I change the things I don’t like? What part of me can benefit the greater good, unity? How can I transform that into action in the physical realm? How can I use this pressure I feel to reveal the diamond in me? Every time we are too bored or tired of asking ourselves these questions, we attract more stillness. When done collectively, this attitude leads to the ultimate stillness of a community: death.

Now dance, spiritual being, dance

If a single candle can ward off the darkness, we have to remember that every one of us can be the wax, the wick, the match, the darkness or… the flame. That we all are the guardians of our own achievements, as individuals, and of Auroville’s future, as a collective. When only a few of us choose to light our flame, we just look nice, like fireflies in a lonely night. When all of us make the same choice, we become a bonfire welcoming a new dawn.

The more we can express this fantastic inner life and make it stronger, the more we accept it, dance with it, celebrate it, the more we will participate in bringing Auroville to the next stage of its evolution. And by doing so, we grow up. The diamond in us can shine. It is a divine dance. We are not just dancing. We become the dance. And the dancers dancing are danced. And spirituality meets action again.