The Chairman addresses the residents

• The Governing Board has requested this meeting. This is essentially - you all know it at some level, but I would like to express on behalf of the Governing Board, Governing body - that we have some serious concerns about the affairs at Auroville, and we are here to share our concerns with you and then leave you with these thoughts. And I’d certainly like to have the benefit of your suggestions, your views, because being Aurovilian, you are the one who’s supposed to be or should be the one who may be the most interested, or maybe the primary stakeholder, in the development and management of Auroville.

• When this new Governing Body was constituted, we got on the job earnestly to carry out the responsibilities entrusted to us. And our responsibilities, one was, of course, to promote the ideals of Auroville. We have to help the people, Aurovilians and others, on how to promote it.

• But one tangible part of the responsibility was to implement the Master Plan as duly framed by the Governing Body in consultation with the Residents’ Assembly and duly notified by the government in 2010 through Gazette notification. This process, in fact, when it started, unfortunately, there were developments which were unpleasant in nature. There was boisterous opposition to it.

• In fact, the way the whole thing erupted, it gave us a shock. And especially to me as an individual, because I have been a student of Sri Aurobindo right from my college days. I have grown in my personal life following the two great icons, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo.

• So, I was shocked, what could be there. Then we started going into the background - why. Now, we also started meeting Aurovilians. And in the last one year, several hundred Aurovilians have met me at least, individually and in groups of two, four, fourteen. They have shared their concerns - some saying that ‘this is not the way to do it, this should not be done like this’, some saying that, ‘no, we must not delay it, we must do it’. So both kinds of views and opinions have been coming.

• Auroville has two parts: a spiritual evolution and physical manifestation, so for physical manifestation of Auroville, the Master Plan was created. The Master Plan was drafted by the Governing Board in consultation with the Residents’ Assembly, which finally the Government of India approved and issued through Gazette Notification. Now, when they started implementation, the problem again came. Questions were raised that it should be revisited. That is one part of it as far as the physical manifestation of Auroville is concerned, how the Master Plan should come has become a matter of debate.

• There are differences, but when we started, I for one started looking into trying to understand, because as I told you, being a student of Sri Aurobindo, there was a deep anguish within me and I wanted to understand why, what is that? Where are we, how are things going on? We tried to understand and study Auroville, how it is functioning, how the individuals are functioning, how the institutions are functioning, how this collective is evolving.

• In the process, I myself have gone to several areas, I have travelled to farms, I have travelled to the institutions where they are doing good things, manufacturing things. I have travelled to centres where they are producing things for the sake of Auroville.

• A question that is lingering and very, very, very crucial. As far as the physical manifestation of Auroville is concerned, this is an area of concern in which there is a difference of opinion, but the core thing is the ideals of Auroville. We are not talking about the ideals of Auroville. We know that and we are all here as students of Sri Aurobindo. We have all been reading him and trying to understand and trying to evolve. The first thing that Mother’s Charter makes very clear, that to be in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the divine consciousness. And in plain and simple language, it means one has to be a bhakti, with total surrender to the Divine Consciousness, one must be a bhakta, a devotee, that is a sadhak, who comes over here with a desire for further evolution to the higher level of consciousness. And that it’s a place of constant education and progress.

• Now, it pains me, when I moved around, the sadhana element of it, we find it is GROSSLY deficient, grossly deficient. You may find my statement very provocative, but I want to provoke because after all, we are here not for the brand Auroville but for the soul of Auroville. If the soul is not there, brand has no matter. People often say, we have built the Matrimandir - wonderful. But Matrimandir, which is the soul of Auroville, should be the place where Aurovilians should be regularly going and meditating. It has become a place of tourist attraction, tourists come and visit and go. Sadhaks I have met individually, there are very good people who actually, when I met them, some of them the tears started flowing, they just didn’t utter a word. I could feel a sense of pain and anguish among them - where are we? Where are we going? They were not even able to speak. Someone very elderly said - Mr. Chairman, ‘We have lost the way’. Now, the question is, when I see here, I find a lot of commercial activities going on. Somebody is doing good business. Is it a place of commerce? No, certainly not. Because karma is nishkama karma, where it is not self desire. I am doing the work but the work is not for my profit for my benefit, it is for the benefit of the community, it is nishkama karma.

• Auroville is not like any other place where we are free to do whatever we wish; here the freedom is the freedom of a sadhak. The basic essential condition is that I am a sadhak. So, I have a right to be here, and I have the freedom to pursue it following the broad compass, the directions which are illustrated by Sri Aurobindo through triple transformation and sapta chatushtaya, how to do the sadhana.

• There may be a lot of problems, a lot of issues, we can keep discussing whether the road should be built here or not built there, we may be concerned about whether the crown is built or which building is built where, these are one aspect of it. But the ideal of Auroville has to be preserved, it has to live here, it has to live in the most vibrant manner.

• On behalf of the Governing Board, I would request all my dear friends, Aurovilians, to think of how to restore the ideal of Auroville. And I can tell you for sure, so far in this last one year meeting, visiting, I have seen activities which are just the opposite of the ideal.

• Now the question comes: who has got the power? Now these are immaterial matters whether the power is with the Governing Board power or with the Residents’ Assembly power or with the International Advisory Council. These are immaterial. As far as we are concerned, there are only two powers - one is the Constitution of India and the laws of India, and second is the Charter given by the Mother.

• There is no other power. We don’t recognize any other power, Sri Aurobindo’s teachings and Mother’s Charter: that is one, sacrosanct. And the Constitution and the laws of India. It is not important whether the Residents’ Assembly has the power or the Governing Board has the power. We have come down to the level where we are doing it for the power struggle. I think we have moved far away from being a sadhak.

• Now, we believe, and sincerely believe, that any way forward should be, as far as possible, in consultation and taking everyone along, aboard. We don’t like to create any sense of discrimination, or any impression that force is being used - NO. Auroville is not the place where force and coercion should be the choice; that should not be the choice. But we also have an obligation, since the Act tells us to see that the ideals of Auroville are to be promoted.

• Now when we see that the ideals of Auroville are being compromised, and compromised in a big manner, I have no hesitation to say, because I have not come here to play music to your ears, I have come to tell you what I feel it is a pain, it is the anguish of a person who has been a devotee of Rishi Aurobindo. The issue has to be confronted frontally; it cannot be just wished away by nice talking.

• If my words hurt you, you are free to hurl at me, I will not mind it; but the issue has to be confronted. And I would suggest now that Auroville has to have a set of guidelines, agreed norms how to conduct its affairs, in terms of who should be allowed to come, who should be in Auroville, what are some common minimum activities which are consistent or necessary for being a sadhak in this process of our forward journey. Those norms should be there and not only should be, MUST be there.

• Because it is now not acceptable, and I am telling it plainly, to let the status quo continue. The status quo is not acceptable because India cannot afford Auroville to decline, Auroville to move away from the ideal. Auroville has to be spiritually strengthened, and of course materially reinforced as well, for which we need to have some set of norms, which ideally and I have always maintained that Auroville should be managed by Aurovilians; there should not be any external interference - this is the ideal situation. But when we see that the Auroville community, which is a small community, is not able to reach to a consensus and this is not the first time...

• Now, we don’t like the government to step in again. We would like Auroville to grow with the cooperation the goodwill of all the Aurovilians to make it what is its destiny.

• As far as the physical manifestation of the Master Plan is concerned, the question is, when the Master Plan was prepared, in consultation with the Residents’ Assembly, and it was in process for more than a decade and then it is notified, the question is, do we revisit it? There are people in Auroville who tell me don’t go ahead. There are people who say this is not the way, we have to change it. The question is, do we keep revisiting a decision arrived through due process? I think if we continue doing that, there will not be any end to it. I would appeal to you all, if you have some suggestions, in the next one week please send us a mail. What do you wish? How should it be according to you, and what should be the agreed norms for the sadhaks, for the Aurovilians to follow.

• You know, what is non-negotiable is the ideal. The ideal is non-negotiable. And as for a decision taken through the due process, it should also be non-negotiable, but if there is a constructive suggestion, something that is in the interest of promoting the ideals, it is welcome. It is not that we are pushing it. But at the same time, I am telling you in very, very plain language, which may again hurt you: Auroville needs a shock, an external shock to bring it to its sense, bring it to its trail.

• A status quo business as usual will not work. In the best possible manner, each one of us has to now jolt ourselves and think.

The speech elicited differing responses from residents and ex-residents. Publicly, at least, there were fewer appreciative responses than critical ones, and the following selection reflects this:

"He was borderline ruthless in his choice of words while pointing out our mistakes and delivered it in a no BS straight-to-face manner. He didn’t recite poetry, didn’t sing a song, and certainly did not give a ‘standup’ performance. I think he spoke his mind in a blunt way."

"What a moving speech! Thank you for this deep understanding of the Ideals of Auroville. A strong, powerful speech that does not admit rejoinders, we just have to roll up our sleeves and work hard for the Community."

"Resetting Auroville to its original aims."

"I attended so many meetings in Auroville and outside world but I didn’t attend one like that. I am talking about the (GB meeting 07.11.2022) which happened today. It is so vibrant, each and every word from the Chairman is like pearls running on a stone floor. So meaningful it awakened the Psychic Being, he put portion by portion what one has to do and not do in Auroville.
I am really grateful to him to awaken the Aurovilians to the real meaning of “Sadhak” which many Aurovilians totally forget for a long time. He specially put a weightage on the word “FREEDOM” which many people interpret wrongly in Auroville and do illegal things. At least those people know now what is meant by Freedom in Auroville.
The top class sentence out of his speech which I like is “We don’t need the Auroville brand, we need the Auroville soul”,  so everything is underpinned by that. Our souls have done a good thing in our past life, that’s why we have a chairman like this one in Auroville.
“Om namo Sri Aravindaya namaha”.