Dreams in times of conflict

None of the following dreams are interpreted or edited. Whilst each is personal to the individual there are also collective motifs and symbols that may apply beyond the specific receiver of the dream to the collective.

A few people seem to have had prophetic dreams. 

From September 2021:

I am in a vast open field, under the sky. There are no trees, no buildings but this vast field is full of people whom I recognise as Aurovilians. Everyone is busy around himself, active, doing their own stuff.

All of a sudden, a lot of water floods this plain. The water rises fast, like a flood. I see people jerking up, getting in panic, becoming hectic. I hear screaming all around me. The water is not yet that high but I see that everyone jumps into the water to swim. I also see some of them struggling in the water. I am surprised. To me, the scene looks a little strange. As the water is not yet that high and I ask myself “But why are they all jumping into the water?” The loud noise of voices and the agitation in the water continues. I am even a bit amused by it… Then I say to myself “No, I am not going to jump into the water like that”.

I am standing in the water while it continues to rise. I look ahead and see the upper part of a kind of parapet wall sticking out of the waters. I am telling myself: “Perfect”, and step on that wall. It is quite narrow but I walk ahead with light and easy steps. The wall turns out to be a meandering path in the landscape. I am very happy walking there, making a few jumps, like kids would do when they play. I do not seem to be affected by what is happening to the others.

The scene changes. I am in a large hall with many other people. Again, I recognise that these are Aurovilians. Again, everyone is busy with something. I am standing still. Close to my left leg a big, white, dog with a lot of fur is seated. The dog looks up to me. Near me there is also a woman. I feel a very strong heart connection to her but I cannot see who she is. Then I hear a noise, something like a rolling sound, very deep. Everyone hears it and stops their activity.

Everyone in the room including me turns to the left. There is a huge window. I see an enormous wave rolling towards us, incredibly tall. The wave has the most luminous colours of light green, light blue mixed with transparent white, sparkling with white foam on top. It was immense, majestic, something so beautiful… The roaring increases…

Within seconds, people in the room start screaming and running around hectically. The room is filled with fear and terror.

I am still looking at this gigantic wave and say with a low, quiet voice: “Oh my god”. I then turn my body around, back to the position I was before. I am not moving my legs to do this. My body turns smoothly like a pivot, by an inner will, and when back to the same position than before I immediately start to curl my body inside, very slowly: The head and spine bend forward with the forehead touching the navel and while curling I repeat the Mother’s name several times very quietly. There was no hurry, no fear but a deep quietude.

After a while, which could have been an eternity, my body opens slowly like a flower would open its petals and all is quiet around. There is light. There is no one around…

From a dream on 26 December 2021, after the Youth Centre and Darkali forest cuttings.

I was with a group of Aurovilian friends. We were going down a path and came to a section that was muddy and it required us to navigate it like a mudslide by going on to the ground and sliding downhill. Some of us got naked and others kept their clothes on but what was clear was that there was no way through except by going through the mud.

For some, the intensity of the conflict is reflected in their dreams: From August 3:

A whole bunch of us are all in a gathering outside of Auroville, in one of the outer communities. Suddenly the landscape gets dotted by half a dozen earth to sky cloud funnels. One gigantic one with grey pink clouds is fast approaching us where we are. Someone instructs us to go to the basement immediately. We all troop in, in an orderly manner – all 50-60 of us into a spacious high ceilinged unfinished basement.

As soon as we get in, almost immediately, a tornado rolls in above us. The sound is deafening – like a train running over our heads. The floorboards over our head are loosening and coming off. We can see the brightness of the sky through the slats. The noise is unending; going on and on for what feels like 5-7 minutes. Then we see the wall of the house caving over all of us, burying us. I feel myself not wanting us to die or be trapped. The tornado is still going on above. Then one by one the bricks and rubble that have fallen over us, get sucked up and soon we are free again. Then suddenly, it is all silence; the tornado has departed. We emerge out of the basement one by one, somewhat dazed. There are no more any buildings around us. The tornados have gouged out red tracks in the landscape. But it is bright green in between the tracks. As we walk out back to our homes, there are people offering us food and delicacies to eat.... And there is community kitchen full of people and music.

For another person:

I flew all night from one place, one situation to another. There was no centre, no orientation, as if I was being hunted.

On August 12, the day on which the High Court judgement would take place, a few Aurovilians dreamt of our prospects.

This early morning (maybe around 9 am in Auroville), half waking up in the process, I had a vivid dream: The Mother was meeting Sri Aurobindo for the first time! Their souls, their spirit, immediately merged into one, united in the Divine Consciousness. All in deep silence, the interior of the room disappeared and was filled instead with eternal Peace and Light ... very powerful ...

Silently observing, I was myself emerged in this Light, joy, and deep inner peace ...

I never had this kind of dream ... but then I knew that everything is going to be all right !!

Another resident dreamt that:

I was fighting and in the midst of the scuffle a knife fell to ground. For the longest time we both looked at the knife, then I reached out for it (and promptly awoke). I felt then more reassured about the court outcome.

The 150th birthday celebrations of Sri Aurobindo were celebrated in the midst of the conflict and He made dream appearances during this week.

On August 13:

This morning I also had a nice dream.

I was in a sort of open-plan layout, not fully outdoors and not fully indoors. Each area was functional but no people were present. In different areas there were statues of Sri Aurobindo. Some were bigger and some were smaller; each had its own individuality. In the dream I knew it was the morning of Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. And the statues started to wake up. They started to move. They started to walk, calmly, flowing out along one corridor, which led out somewhere where something important was going to happen. Each one had a sword in the left hand and a stick or staff in the right hand. I did not feel like following them but knew that something ‘serious’ and also very good was happening.

I went to ‘my favorite place’ in the open-plan layout, which was a small garden with grass and plants. There was a biggish Sri Aurobindo statue there. This one was stylized like a samurai, with clean lines, almost animé style. I was comfortable there for a moment with this statue and then it too woke up and walked in the same direction of the others.

I followed this statue but sort of hung back because I didn’t want to disturb what was happening. I also had a small sword. Then the progress became slower and I found myself closer to this statue. He looked at me, and I offered him my sword. He ‘smiled’ although I didn’t see his face at this moment: but the whole air was full of a smile.

He handed me back my sword and it wasn’t a sword any more, it was a beautiful, silvery bugle. (Like a trumpet which can play only one or two notes.) A word was engraved on it. I don’t remember the word. But my understanding from the bugle and its word was: this is for communication, for marshalling ideas (which are also concrete powers) and weaving them together and this is your ‘sword’.

I tried to make a sound with the bugle. First I had to hold it correctly, and it was awkward. Then I had to blow on it correctly, and I couldn’t manage this. I felt a bit silly. A sound would not come out. Then I thought, maybe it’s not really for blowing, maybe it’s only symbolic, maybe what really needs to happen is something else, activated by this symbol.

Some dreams reference some of the players in our drama. An Auroville Youth:

I was with other young Aurovilians on a high tower, without railings, so somewhat risky. But we had a lot of fun and joy and were being a bit loud. Underneath us the Secretary suddenly appeared and ordered us to come down which we did. We were scared of her, she was angry with our behaviour and loudness, called the police and we were taken to prison.

And by the same dreamer:

I was driving with someone else, and am even at the steering wheel. Did it rain? We are driving through terrible mud, get stuck and try to get through. Even Madame Secretary comes in her car. She is able to get through the dirt and mud. She gets out by her door at home, turns around and laughs at us, that familiar smile. We fight on but somehow seem stuck.

Amongst the storm and mud dreams were also toilet dreams

“I was about to clean a completely ‘shitty’ toilet bowl”. Dreamer associated this with the current situation in Auroville.

There were also numinous dreams pointing us towards inner directions in this febrile atmosphere.

Three dreams. I met the Mother for the first time in my dream. I came to her, for a personal darshan as used to be customary. Before me was a young Asian woman. Then I entered from the left side. Due to the present situation here and my role in it I felt insecurity, pain and self-criticism. She looked at me with a friendly and reassuring way and said (similarly as she used to with Satprem), “But you are doing quite well. Everything is as it has to be. Just go on”. Then I exited the room on the right, peacefully and confidently.

The second dream was short and bad. Two cars collided head on. What happened there I don’t know. But upon awaking I knew that I must focus more on myself and identify less with the actual conflict. 

The third dream: I should, like we used to before, write down in a book was has to happen and what was planned. A type of Agenda. A young man (Tamil) gave me the book. I opened it, the first page was blank. I turned it around and opened it from another side, likewise blank. I notice that it is a brand new book. I knew immediately: there is no past any more. Only the future counts, which I and we must and are allowed to shape in a new and creative way. I felt so freed and lucky.