The Forest path

I grew up in the countryside, which is why I love living in the Greenbelt. Only later did I eventually move to Toronto, where I lived until I was 28. I grew up without religion or spirituality, because neither my parents nor family believed in that. But I always remember questioning things. As a child I used to talk to whatever was there, listening for the response. I used to ask for things. When my mother was ill, I remember asking the universe to help her and keep her safe. She was my primary caregiver, all I had, and I did not want to lose that. I remember having conversations with the unknown, thinking about death, wondering what happened when I was lying in a dark room with my eyes closed and everything was silent. I wondered, is this death, this nothingness around?

My mind has always been like that, asking questions and wondering about the unknown.

Up until the age of 28 I lived an unhealthy lifestyle of parties, always pursuing the next excitement. I then felt that there must be more to life. I shifted suddenly and profoundly because I felt that if I didn’t stop that lifestyle at that point, it might never happen. That is when I changed my lifestyle, I got into hatha yoga and travel.

My travels eventually led me to Nicaragua, to a community in which I participated in an eco-village design course. Some friends and I had the idea of creating a community somewhere, and thought that by doing this course and living in a community, we would get to see what is required. The course focused on the ecological, economical, and social aspects of a community, as well as worldviews. In that course, we learned about Auroville, because it is one of the oldest existing intentional communities in the world.

I decided to come to India to study yoga in 2015, and that is when I first visited Auroville. I’ve been living in India since 2015, never in one place for longer than three months, focusing on learning and teaching hatha yoga, travelling, exploring, experiencing culture and art.

What eventually led me back to Auroville sparked in me in Canada during the lockdown. During my morning meditations I kept having this feeling that I wanted to come back to Auroville. And it then inspired me to contact Auroville. So I reached out, and found a way to come here.

I’m very community oriented, and felt there’s something to do here. Everybody here, is here for a reason, right? It was like removing myself out of the normal matrix. I thought I would come to Auroville and have something to focus on every day through work. And I would be back in India, the motherland, which I love so much.

I’ve been here ever since, volunteering with the Village Action Group, running their social media accounts, documenting the work they do through photos and videos, doing some designing, and whatever else they might need help with. It’s also great to work with the Tamil community; it opens a whole other perspective and world. For example, I get to go to the villages and see the festivals and celebrations and the songs and dance, and it’s incredibly special.

Did you come to Auroville with the intention to stay?

I first came with the intention of becoming an Aurovilian. I thought I could open a unit, but I did not know about the processes and rules and that I could only start the whole procedure of becoming an Aurovilian after six months of living here. I have never heard ‘no’, as many times as I have here, followed by so many restrictions. And then there seems to be a system of hierarchy, of ‘oh, you’re only a volunteer’. But I’m actually here supporting myself, contributing to the economy, and working for free. I did sign up for that, but sometimes a little more encouragement would be pleasant. I mean, after all, we’re all volunteers here, and that is how Auroville was built! It’s like a caste system within Auroville, with Aurovilians at the top, many other ‘statuses’ in the middle, and then the volunteers.

Also, when I arrived this time the conflict in the community was very intense at that time, I thought I might not want to stay, especially because initially I was leaning more to the environmentalist side. I saw the violence, the destruction of the trees and of the Youth Centre. But after some time living here, one understands that things haven’t been able to move forward, and that change is inevitable. So the current situation can be seen as a chance for collective growth.

Later I heard stories from different sides and perspectives, so my stance has evolved over time.

Can you say more about this?

I grew up in the forest, so I have a strong connection to nature. Nature is the Earth and creation, it’s divine in itself. God is in everything, not just in human beings, as can be seen here, for example, through The Mother’s connection to flowers. So when the events happened at the Youth Centre, I could not help but see the devastation. And my sympathies were also influenced by what I read on social media and simply being closer in age to the younger generation who has taken on a more environmentalist stance. For this is the youth of Auroville, and their centre was taken down, so I could see it through their point of view.

And then I spoke to other friends, and heard there are other sides to the story. How there was a stagnation period during which there wasn’t really much happening, and people got a bit too comfortable. And I heard other stories, that people that have houses on the proposed Crown Road always knew that their house was going to be torn down, and they still chose to built it there, being okay with the fact that one day that would happen.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise now. But it’s also not good to be very rigid, fluidity is part of life. So perhaps the crown need not be a perfect circle, but it can still be a ring road. And if it can save a watershed that took years of environmental protection, why can the road not be diverted a little bit?

I believe in the path of least resistance. Any decision is unlikely to please everybody. We must take into account that we can’t appease everyone, and everybody has their own point of view and their own truth and their own way of seeing things. But we need to find a way to move forward which affects the least amount of people negatively. Otherwise, no progress will ever be made. Or perhaps things will move forward, but more people will be affected in a negative way or be angry and resentful, which in the end won’t benefit the community as a whole.

We are here for human unity. So how do we unite, knowing that we are never going to be on the same page with everyone. There needs to be some compromise, the ability to look at things through other people’s perspective, even though we might not agree with it. This brings me back to the fluidity and flexibility I’ve learnt about through hatha yoga. Flexibility of the body and of the mind, because hatha yoga is really there to prepare your mind to be able to do the inner work.

So many different walks of life converge here, we need to be able to work together. This is the essence of Auroville. There are various interpretations, and although The Mother often revised what she had stated earlier, she did specify that it should be a city. And although it cannot become a city of 50,000 overnight, I believe expansion to be the key, because if there’s going to be a shift in human consciousness, there needs to be more than 3000 minds and consciousnesses for Auroville’s effect to spread out into the world.

Have you finally decided to live here, then?

It wasn’t until the end of last year that it became clear that I really wanted to live here. The turning point for me was attending the Yucca programme. It was an eye opening experience. During six days we had the opportunity to go in depth into different aspects of Auroville. We got to meet many pioneers and hear about their experiences with The Mother. Seeing that internal goodwill, that spark that’s still alive after all these years, made me feel that this is indeed the place for me.

So the future seems bright to you?

Some people might perceive the current climate as very scary. But I think it depends on which lens you choose to look at it through. I choose not to focus on the grim side. I choose to see the opportunity here. I’m not part of the club yet, I’m neither a Newcomer nor an Aurovilian. But I have hope. I’m practical and I can get things done. I was told that we need more practical people here because we have a lot of dreamers, and we need more people like the original pioneers perhaps, who actually worked with the land, planted trees and built structures. While I have been hearing a general ‘no’, many times in response to many initiatives, if you connect with the right people, anything can be done.

I met many bright lights. They actually called us the Bright Lights in the Yucca programme, or the future lights of Auroville. The Yucca programmes are full these days, and some were surprised to see that so many people might want to join Auroville during these times. It’s a community, there’s power in numbers. We need to find people that have that zest to create something.

I think there’s a lot of opportunity, a lot of energy here. It’s about channelling it into the right direction. There are some internal changes that could be implemented, such as changing outdated experimental processes that don’t really work effectively anymore (why are we still using blue sheets when everything can be more effective and traceable digitally?). I feel that things need to be more transparent. I’ve heard lots of stories about units where lakhs of rupees just go missing. There needs to be accountability, and new experiments need to be tried. For example, could the maintenance system one day meet more than people’s basic needs, and help create abundance in different areas of life, individually, and as a community?

My perception is that a lot of people live very individualistic lives within Auroville. We need to come back to the essence of what is community. Even within our smaller communities, there should be places to meet regularly, where everybody living there has to attend just to check in with each other and clear the air. Perhaps if the social aspect of a community is stronger, making decisions collectively and resolving conflicts would be more approachable?

Although we all have our baggage, it is the people who have been here for a longer time, living in a village with a small number of people, who may find it more challenging to really forgive or get over past traumas and egos. We all have egos, undeniably, so how do we humble ourselves? How do we bring ourselves back to our first intention of coming to Auroville?

This was one of the big questions that struck me during the Yucca programme, asking myself every day, what is my purpose here? I think everybody should ask themselves that every day.

I believe it also helps to have some kind of daily practice that grounds us in our spirituality, whether it’s yoga, meditation, breath, anything that works. Something to keep reminding ourselves, since it seems to be so easy to veer off the path and lose sight of things.

It’s a powerful time. Things are moving. So let’s take control of the situation. We all can come together and make it happen in a way that can be most beneficial for most people and for the environment, and for the creation of the city beyond 3500 people.