“I’m very optimistic”

Auroville Today: Dena, how did you come to be connected to Auroville?

Dena: In the 1930s and 40s my guru, Paramahansa Yogananda, spoke of the need to develop spiritual communities. He tried to set one up in California but came to the conclusion that the world wasn’t ready. However, that idea stayed with me because I wanted to live in such a place. In the 1990s, my dear friend Hannah Strong, who at that time was on the International Advisory Council (IAC), started talking to me about Auroville. She was very excited about what was being developed in Auroville and encouraged me to visit.

I didn’t have an opportunity to come right away because I was organizing peace dialogues, But some years later another friend, Doudou Diène, who was also on your International Advisory Council and equally enthusiastic about Auroville, brought me here for the first time in 2008. He took me into the Matrimandir and we had a long, powerful meditation there. When I first entered the Sanctuary I was swept back into the ancient past as well as into the far future. It was as if past and future converged.

I felt something of Atlantis, where there was worship of light and crystals, but also of a vision of what was to come, where people were united beyond sectarian differences around a beautiful effulgence of light.

After that I began coming regularly. About five years ago, I was writing a book that had its beginnings in the Vedic age and I was reading Sri Aurobindo’s The Secret of the Vedas. He opened the door to the Vedas for me and became my teacher of the Vedas. Very few of the modern masters speak of the Vedic deities and for the first time Sri Aurobindo brought me into a relationship with them. It was then that my relationship with him took a new turn.

When I was invited to become a member of the Auroville International Advisory Council, I had already stepped back from my work at the Global Peace Initiative and had begun spending most of my time writing. But suddenly I was thrust into a situation where I had to be present, where I had to engage. So here I am!

You’ve been thrust into an exceptional situation in Auroville. How have you responded?

I’ve been involved with a lot of spiritual communities where there have been similar difficulties. Even my own spiritual organisation faced a real challenge when one of the prominent Swamis was asked to leave. It happened many years ago, but it created division and hurt. I didn’t take a position then and this is the key point that I’ve tried to make here in Auroville as well: I can’t be helpful if I take a position because then I will only be adding to the fuel. However, this is hard for some people to grasp because there is a lot of lobbying going on.

Since spending time here, I have come to learn that this polarisation in Auroville is not new. It has a history and that history is repeating itself, perhaps because the initial issue has never been cleared up. The anger and fear here is palpable, but I don’t believe it is about the Crown road or what happened to the Youth Centre, or even the trees. The root cause is much deeper. But I notice people focus only on these externals, and you can’t solve things that way. The problem will just keep recurring.

What do you think the root cause is?

That will take a longer and deeper discussion.

Some believe that the root cause of the present difficulties is that Auroville is facing a government takeover in which Aurovilians will no longer have the right to decide their own future.

For the city to grow and reach its potential, one chapter must close and another open. You can’t govern a city of tens of thousands in the same way that a small community is governed, where everyone knows one another. What Auroville has achieved so far is quite phenomenal, and on so many levels I applaud that and all the people who have brought Auroville to this point. But now something new is needed, a certain leap has to be taken, and this will depend on the level of consciousness of the individuals. Many spiritual organisations fall into a state of paralysis when the central figure departs because there’s nobody who can hold that consciousness. It must be the collective that has to hold that consciousness, but the followers are still on the path and haven’t arrived at a place where they can manifest it. Auroville has physically achieved so much, but can it rise to the next level?

Who can judge that?

It’s not a judgment but a question we can all pose to ourselves, and one can only answer for oneself. On this visit I met with various groups and they all said they were not angry. But there was so much anger coming from them, and everybody was feeling they were victims. This anger has an intense vibration, and much of it is being directed towards the Secretary, like thought bombs. Have you considered what it is like to be the subject of such intense negative thoughts? It is a form of violence. This energy doesn’t just dissipate; it has a harmful impact on the spirit, so everybody is suffering at present because of all the anger that is being unleashed.

Clearly, it had to emerge because it was there. Personally I have learned to continually check my own state of consciousness, to see when anger is emerging, and to go deeper into the cause beyond the externals. I want to get to the place where there is no anger, no matter what happens externally. I don’t want to be angry at the rascals in the world, the Ravanas, and there are plenty around today, because while I know the harm that they’re causing and know there will be karmic consequences, if I carry around anger towards them I’m harming myself.

Recently I heard a Buddhist teacher say that when you want to assess how you’re doing in your spiritual practice, observe how you respond to difficult challenges. As long as you blame anything external, you know you have more work to do. It’s a good guideline to follow.

What role do you think the IAC can play in the present situation?

The Governing Board has asked each of the IAC members to make recommendations, and we have done this. My recommendation was to bring in an outsider to create a space for dialogue. The Aurovilians who live here have to do the work, and it’s unfair of us who come in to say you have to do it this way or that way. We have to create a respectful environment where people can truly listen to each other, which means hearing and respecting the other’s point of view. And not to be so attached to one’s positions.

For that process to happen there has to be a certain climate of security and trust. All the non-Indians are dependent upon visa recommendations to stay here, and at present the length of these recommendations seems dependent upon whether or not someone is aligned with the present policies of the Foundation office. If that doesn’t change, if this Damocles Sword is not removed, it is difficult to see how the environment for healing and dialogue can be created.

You can start dialogue even in the present situation. I started dialogue with the Palestinians and Israelis at the height of the Intifada. It was my first peace dialogue, and the first three days were torture. I felt I was not cut out for this work. But I had a group of spiritual teachers who were sitting there, silently holding the space, and after four days there was a real breakthrough and, by the end, the Palestinians and Israelis were dancing together. But you have to go through that difficult period, to get out all the pain and feelings of victimhood before you can come together.

But there can’t be any preconditions. If the Israelis and the Palestinians had said we won’t talk until the border issues are solved, they would still be waiting for the dialogue to begin. This process may not have created peace on the ground, but movement was made in the minds of people. Enemies became friends, and I consider that alone to be an achievement. Movement takes place first in the ethers, in the subtle realm, before it manifests in the physical.

So dialogue can get you where you want to be faster. You want the visa situation to be solved? Dialogue. You want the Residents Assembly to be recognized by the Governing Board? Dialogue. I don’t believe the thinking should be no dialogue until, but rather dialogue so that.

What is the first step in that dialogue?

I recommended an outsider [Raghu, eds.], someone who has done a lot of dialogue, who is very much aligned with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, who has a lot of compassion and understands both points of view. As I do. I understand everybody’s pain here, that’s why I say I can’t take a side. I can’t say that I have the answers, but I think the only way to get through this is to develop a respectful relationship with the Secretary, otherwise how can you have an impact?

This assumes that there is cooperation from that side.

I have been talking to the Secretary often about visas and I believe it will be resolved. I can’t affect the Master Plan or the Crown Road but I can help with the visa issue. Now, nobody will get less than one year and that is only a beginning place. Let’s start with that and build from there.

But people who have lived here for 30 or 40 years and put all their resources into this place, who have no home to return to, are now being told they have to get their visas renewed every year, seemingly as punishment for not agreeing with the Foundation office. If the IAC could make a statement to the Governing Board and the Secretary saying don’t use visas like this, it could have an effect.

We are five people on the IAC with different opinions and different areas of expertise, and also different ideas of what role we should play. I have been told that past IACs have also dealt with such differences.

But isn’t your role defined in the Foundation Act?

It’s all interpretations. We are an advisory group and we have been advising. We have agreed that each of us is free to make their own recommendations to the Governing Board and my recommendation was to bring in an outside facilitator to help create a safe space for dialogue and a process. And the Governing Board agreed to that.

But what if somebody or some group in a power position disagrees with the outcome of the dialogue? For example, the Governing Board didn’t accept the outcome of the Dreamweaver’s process. So wasn’t that a waste of time?

I have seen that there’s been a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding. I sat with the Dreamweavers on this visit and saw them interact with the Secretary. I heard her say how supportive and grateful she is of their work. Things have a way of being twisted, especially today in our age of misinformation. But I encouraged the Secretary to clear up this misunderstanding.

In his presentation, Raghu said that an essential element of dialogue is that people are willing to say ‘I don’t know’ and not stick to fixed positions. He also said that at some point the Governing Board and the IAC also need to be involved in dialogue with the community. Do you feel that the Governing Board and the other members of the IAC are ready to start a dialogue at this point, to come to the table and admit that they don’t know what the answers are?

There have to be some parameters. If people say, ‘We don’t want the city, we want to keep everything the way it is’, that won’t be well received. For there is a consensus that Auroville will grow into a city, and that intention has to fulfil itself. But if everybody is seeking to fulfil those intentions but have different points of view of how to do it – which seems to be the present reality – it’s going to require some give-and-take everywhere.

But it is clear that it is the Aurovilians who are going to build the city. The government will only give a kickstart - and I would love to see the government help make this a truly sustainable place because there’s no place else in the world like that – but you are the ones who are going to create whatever is to be manifested.

You say you have differences within the IAC. How do you deal with these?

So far we have never met in person. We have had zoom calls and, as I mentioned, we’ve agreed that each of us can act in the way he or she feels best. We each have a different way of contributing and I think we agree this is the way we want to move forward at the moment. So people have written individually to the Governing Board advocating for certain things. But there is a respectful atmosphere when we come together on Zoom. We will meet in person for the first time in February next year, here in Auroville.

But we see polarisation everywhere in the world today. It’s a very difficult time globally.

How do you deal personally with that?

I meditate. I try not to have judgements, try not to be angry at people who are way off in some crazy mind space. It’s very hard now in the U.S. and there’s a lot of inner work we have to do not to get affected by it.

How optimistic are you that something positive will come out of the present turmoil in Auroville?

I’m very optimistic because the energy of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo is behind this place. I think we are working through, both individually and collectively, the things we have to work through. What is emerging in the world right now is anger and fear, so there’s a lot of instability. Why should this place be different: you’re part of the world community. But there is one important difference which is that the energy of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother is behind this place and the Aurovilians are doing their spiritual work. So while it may take ten or twenty years for the world to come to a better place, maybe here you can do it in one year.

Do you think that if we succeed here, it will have repercussions on the wider world?

I believe India has an important role to play in the future, and Auroville can be a large part of that. If Auroville can work through this difficult period, it could certainly have a ripple effect and demonstrate that human unity can be achieved.