“We’ve set out to do Mother’s work”

AVToday: Judith, what brought you to Auroville?

Judith: It was something from within, which flavoured everything then and still does now. In 1968, I’d left university and trained as a school teacher – not out of vocation but because it seemed the obvious career for me, as it was in the family. I went to London for my first job but hated it the minute I stepped into the classroom. I didn’t last more than two months. 

My sister Shraddhavan had agreed to house me. Her place was something of a hippy commune. There were 17 of us living in a basement flat intended for three people. One day, my sister met a man called Jobst. Jobst had been in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and couldn’t stop talking about The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and Auroville. He didn’t really fit into our young hippy scene, but what he said was really inspiring – for me it was a revelation, even a realization “that now everything makes sense”. I was rather at a loss at that time, but this pushed me to take up a serious job and earn the money to come to Auroville. That took me from 1968 to 1971. Then I booked the cheapest bus from London to New Delhi (40 pounds), ignoring the push from my fellow hippies to hitchhike all the way – they rated the bus as ‘very cowardly’. I arrived in Pondicherry on August 15. The rickshaw driver brought me to the Ashram office, where people told me, “Leave your bags here and quickly go for Mother’s balcony, Darshan!” And off I dashed. 

What did it do to you when for the first time you saw that frail figure of The Mother on the balcony?

I had already met Her through Her photographs and I had got into a very strong contact with Her. Her energy and Her vibrations had been guiding my footsteps ever since I first learned about Her. When I came to Pondy on the bus, this energy was just getting stronger and stronger and stronger. By the time I arrived, I was already permeated by this amazing vibration which is The Mother. That Darshan saturated me even more. Two weeks later, on September 1st, I joined Auroville.

Did you have Mother’s permission to come to Auroville?

Oh yes. But I was first grilled by the very worst Entry Group you’ve ever heard of. It consisted of André – The Mother’s son –, Navajata, Roger Anger and Shyam Sunder, with Wil van Vliet, their secretary, the only other woman in the room. I was 24 at the time, but actually more like 17 in life experience. Roger was really having a go at me. He asked if I was just following my sister – Shraddhavan had gone to India sometime earlier and was teaching in Aspiration – and deeply questioned my spiritual aspiration. After that ordeal, someone suggested I send my photograph to Maggi, one of Mother’s secretaries, who showed it to Mother. And Mother gave Her permission. Less than a month later, I saw Her in Her room on my birthday; that’s when my fate was sealed once and for all.

Shraddhavan suggested I start working at the Matrimandir and get a place in the workers’ camp. I started working with Narad in the Matrimandir Nursery. But in the early mornings I would fetch a mumpty and help dig the hole for the Matrimandir. That digging lasted till November that year; then it was given to the villagers because if it had continued at our pace we would still be digging that hole today. They did a much speedier job and finished it by the following February.

Did you have more contact with The Mother?

Only for my birthday in 1972, though we lived with the sense of Her presence constantly with us. When the Mother passed in 1973, I was in England. My father had died a month earlier, and Shraddhavan and I had gone to the UK to be with my mother and for the funeral. We were on our way back to Auroville, staying overnight in the apartment of Margaret Fletcher in London, together with Edith and Joy, when we heard the news that Mother had passed. But there was no sadness in the room. I personally had the wonderful experience of all Her Grace coming down. I couldn’t relate to any shock or grief or pain.

We came back the next day to Auroville. Everybody was rushing to the Ashram to see Mother lying in state; but I had no impetus whatsoever to go to the Ashram and see Her. I came straight back to Kottakarai, where I was living at the time. As I walked across the fields from Matrimandir, I stopped to watch a calf being born. I found that deeply symbolic.

You see, we were living in Her energy, in Her force field as it were. We may have been doing all kinds of nonsense and stupid things, but still we were totally enveloped in that force field. And that remained, even after Her passing.

Shortly after Mother’s passing, the problems with the Sri Aurobindo Society started. Were you involved?

Not very actively, more on the side-lines but we were all involved one way or another. For quite a few years we were plodding along, trying to survive. I largely managed to stay out of trouble because that was the time I was having my three children. I was very absorbed in being a poverty-stricken mother. That was the period from 1974 to 1984.

Was it a shock for you that the Government of India passed the Auroville Emergency Provisions Act in 1980?

No, not really. Everything for me has always been, in one way or another, Mother’s Grace. I think that if that would not have happened, Auroville would have been closed down. Those were the two alternatives. We were too much trouble and there was actually no possibility that we could go on like we did. 

The person behind this Act and the next one, the Auroville Foundation Act 1988, was Kireet Joshi who had personal contacts with many Aurovilians. Were you close with him as well?

No, none of the so-called ‘great figures’ of the time appealed to me. My inner commitment has always been totally given to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and I have never felt impressed by, nor felt the need for, any other teacher. 

But Auroville owes a great debt of gratitude to him. For many years Kireet remained a very influential figure in Auroville. Many proposals would be discussed with him, and he would make many suggestions to reach what he believed Mother would have wanted. 

I would sometimes disagree. For example, when he opposed our attempt to reach the “no exchange of money” economy which we wanted to do through an alternative currency experiment, to disconnect our thinking from the rupee economy. He felt it was not radical enough. We believed that, in terms of the evolution of the economy, we would need to make many small steps to reach the big one; but his position blocked all steps, and we finally got nowhere. We still haven’t arrived at a “no exchange of money” economy all these years later.

So you are disappointed with the state of Auroville’s economy?

I am not too pessimistic of where we are now, though it is still far short of where I think we should be. There has definitely been an evolution, there has been progress. Almost all of us have an amazing prosperity and abundance, which is, quite frankly, something of a miracle. Speaking for myself, I started out being completely broke in the early years, living in a keet hut. That has completely changed. I now have a decent home, food on the table, clothes on the back and all my basic needs are being taken care of. I understand The Mother to have said that the basic needs of all should be provided for and then each one should be left to organize the rest according to their consciousness. I think that’s now almost a fact. But we still have a long way to go to reach an economy where there is no exchange of money and we can honestly say that money is no longer the Sovereign Lord. 

You were involved in many Auroville working groups. You were a member of the early Economy Group, then chaired the Funds and Assets Management Committee for many years, and participated in a number of Working Committees. Do you feel that Auroville has made any progress in the running of Auroville?

I think that we are in a bit of a mess. But, as Mother says, your worst difficulties are your greatest opportunities, so I have faith that this is only a transitory phase. 

A main issue, of course, is harmonizing our so-called ‘internal functioning’ with the structure imposed by the Auroville Foundation Act, which brought in a Secretary and a Governing Board, appointed by the Government of India. The problems started when the first Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, Mr. L.K. Tripathy, began issuing Office Orders, amongst which was the infamous Office Order #5, by which he appointed specific people to take charge of specific units of the Auroville Foundation.

I was very outspoken against Office Order #5 and that drew the wrath of the Secretary on the heads of me and my partner. Of course I realize now that we were our own worst enemies. We should have behaved very differently. At the time we were living in anarchy and we were not ready for Office Orders or anything official like that. When Frederick came back to Auroville informing us that there would be an Auroville Foundation Act, we were given the impression that we had won our battle and gained our freedom. What actually happened was something very different. Our anarchy was challenged and order was brought in. Where Justice Nigam and Officer on Special Duty Mr. Ojha had given us a rather free hand under the Auroville Emergency Provisions Act 1980, things became much stricter when the Auroville Foundation Act came into force. I think that the first Secretary was as shocked by us as we were by him. 

The opposition to the system of Office Orders caused quite some commotion at the time and was a factor in the 1996 decision of the Government of India to expel, on the advice of Mr. Tripathy, your partner from India, who had been living here for more than 20 years. How did you both deal with that pain and how did you manage?

I know of nobody who hasn’t in their life had to face grief and things that hurt, and to face things that are very challenging. Yes, it was traumatically painful but it was never in question that I would remain in Auroville. For many years we hoped that it would not be a permanent banishment (we still continue to hope that one day the ban will be lifted) and I worked to keep our home in Sri Ma intact. But the tsunami of 2004 made it very clear that I no longer had to do that. Above all, my relationship with Mother and Sri Aurobindo predates my relationship with my partner, even with my children, and always comes first for me. And so I was not tempted to leave Auroville. 

I think we should be aware of the influence of the forces that don’t want Auroville to happen... I am not pointing fingers at any one; those forces are using all, whenever there is even the slightest opening.

What do you see as our main challenges today?

Auroville is at a moment of destiny where the work of physically manifesting the City according to the Master Plan has to be undertaken. It is, in my view, a now or never situation. Time is running out. We still do not own all the lands for the City area, leave alone for the Greenbelt; and there is quite a solid resistance from some Aurovilians to manifesting the Master Plan or parts of it. Humanity as whole seems to be much more open to realizing the Master Plan than many of the Auroville residents. Our inability as a community to agree and Auroville not being strong enough to resolve our deep divides are major obstacles to progress.

The present Secretary has confronted this situation head on. Her agenda when she arrived was to get the building of the infrastructure of Auroville off the ground and she decided to start by building the Crown Road, which resulted in a confrontation in which everybody behaved very badly. If we would all have been ‘willing servitors,’ and we had all bent our backs to the task, we would have done the job ourselves and created a lovely Crown Road, much better and far more beautiful than what we have now. The situation has only worsened since. The Secretary no longer automatically gives visa recommendations as expected, there are many pending court cases, some members of the Residents Assembly are ostracizing or persecuting or writing awful things about others who don’t follow their line, and there are even Auroville working groups sending legal notices to other working groups. It’s painful, to say the very least.

I think we should be aware of the influence of the forces that don’t want Auroville to happen. So far, they have found the best possible way of preventing it, by bamboozling us with all kinds of idée fixes, of how things should be done. I am not pointing fingers at any one; those forces are using all, whenever there is even the slightest opening. When we do follow Her energy, it is a miracle. If we don’t, everything gets blocked and everybody becomes unhappy and miserable. That’s the state of affairs today. Look at all the long faces you see on the road. 

Do you see the present heavy involvement of the Governing Board and its Secretary, or of the Government of India, as permanent?

No, I don’t think it is. The Government has thousands of things to do, and if we do a good job, they won’t bother. But if we don’t, they of course will do the job for us.

Keep in mind that almost all the lands Auroville presently owns have been bought with donated money from private donors for the advertised purpose of building the Galaxy, a city of 50,000 people. If we would go off-track on that, that would be a public fraud. The city is not ours. As long as we stick to the programme, I don’t think they will want to waste their time and energy on it. If I remember rightly, the initial idea of appointing a Governing Board was to ensure that if the Aurovilians would forget what they are here for, they could intervene and correct. That is their public duty and responsibility. 

Can you tell about your involvement in trying to manifest the Line of Goodwill, one of the Lines of Force envisaged by Roger Anger in the Galaxy concept of the Auroville Master Plan? 

It all began in 2017 with the Matrimandir Access Group looking for a way to get visitors from the Visitor’s Center to Matrimandir that corresponded to the Master Plan. While poring over the maps, we realized that Roger had provided an access along the longest Line of Force in the Galaxy, the one we now call the Line of Goodwill. It is the Line of Force that starts 18 story high near the Visitors’ Centre and tapers down to 2 stories at the Matrimandir Reception Pavilion on the west shore of the Matrimandir Lake. One day, while concentrating in the Chamber, I had a powerful and detailed vision of what this Line of Force would look like. And I wrote it down. This description of mine started to circulate and other projects, such as the Integral Economy project and the Habitat project, became very interesting and we all teamed up to get this project off the ground. [see AVToday #338, September 2017, eds.]

I am aware that some people have difficulty with these Lines of Force, but for me it is quite straightforward; The Mother gave the job of designing the City to Roger and inspired him to come up with the Galaxy plan. I do not feel I have the need or the right to second-guess this powerful and inspired design. For me, to be ‘a willing servitor’ means to just get on with the job of manifesting this design.

But what happened with that project over the subsequent years really shocked me. That’s when I suddenly and very tangibly discovered that although many people outside Auroville are ready to help build Auroville, there is a huge and almost implacable resistance coming from within Auroville. 

We, the people behind this project, had managed to secure sufficient interest from individuals and institutions in India to start this immense project. We did not contact the Government of India for support – at the time the yearly grant for Auroville was very small – but we were strongly in contact with ‘humanity as a whole’, friends and well-wishers of Auroville. They were interested in the concept, in the design, and were willing to help in raising the necessary funds to fully materialize the various buildings. Much of it would have been up by now if it hadn’t been for the Auroville Town Development Group which, like many of its predecessors, was actually an anti-development group. 

There is a kind of systemic fault in the way we conduct our affairs. There is always someone who puts up an objection, who only looks at the downside, and then manages to scuttle the project. I went through a very depressing experience of seeing that the Development Group talked the project dead by simply asking for more and more information, but refusing to tell us what exactly they needed in order to take a decision. We brought them piles of materials, we even had the personal help of a prominent Mumbai high-rise developer, who brought in his expertise and who even came and spoke to the Development Group about their permission requirements. But he was totally bamboozled by our process and his visit was to no avail. It was at that point that the project went dormant. 

Wasn’t it premature to propose building a Line of Force when the Detailed Development Plans as prescribed in our Master Plan had not been made? 

We followed the Galaxy Plan where Roger had given the locations for the Lines of Force. The location of the Line of Goodwill had already been marked on the ground for decades. Anupama, using the parameters Roger had given, came up with a detailed urban design, which was presented to the community in several meetings. But nothing further ever manifested. 

Your group expected the building to be funded by well-wishers. But the structure of the Auroville Foundation Act is such that such funding can only be done in the form of non-refundable donations to the Auroville Foundation. Wouldn’t that have been a big impediment to raising money for building the Line of Goodwill?

We need to trust Mother’s Grace. I assure you that funding for the Line of Goodwill wouldn’t have been a problem. There were people outside Auroville who were supporting the Line of Goodwill and who would have had no issue coming up with the necessary money, even as non-refundable donations, because people believe in Auroville and Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s work.

My take is that we have set out on a journey to do The Mother’s work. And I have experienced that if the money has to come, it always comes – even if only at the last minute. There is an infinite abundance and in the right state of consciousness we can plug in to this and things will develop. We can trust in Her Grace. 

I work at the Matrimandir and that amazing project is the living proof. To illustrate this, some days ago we were talking about building the new service area for the Matrimandir so that we can move the workshops and continue with the Lake. One of us was very downhearted and he said “I will only carry on if you get me 2 crores”. That very afternoon a lady walked into the office and quietly left us a cheque for 2 crores on the table. That’s how everything I know of in Auroville has been built. 

As our consciousness evolves, so the gardens will evolve to more and more manifest their designated significance.

Can you elaborate more on your work at the Matrimandir?

In December 2021, the selection committee appointed us and asked for a four year plan of action. We came up with a six year plan, that by The Mother’s 150th birth anniversary, on February 21, 2028, the Matrimandir, including the Gardens and the Lake, would be finished. That’s our mandate. We created timelines and then there was the question of the budget. Where would the money come from? Our answer is always “from the Divine.” It always has and still does.

What work is still pending on the building?

A few things. We are busy putting the four sliding entrance doors in place, and we need to replace the heliostat on top of the Matrimandir. The present one’s remaining lifetime is less than five years. We have contacted IIT Chennai for designing a next generation heliostat, as the technology is fast developing. We are still debating what to do with the crane on top of the Matrimandir. Some people want to renovate it, others want to dismantle it. But this is not a priority. 

In this context, I would like to mention that the Matrimandir is not a building like a south Indian temple or a gothic cathedral which lasts for hundreds of years without the need for major maintenance. Matrimandir will need endless renovations. If we succeed in manifesting our plans by 2028, there will be plenty of work left for our successors. They may have to look at the condition of the ferro-cement triangles on the outer skin, or their Kemperol covering – but none of these is at present a cause of concern.

What about the gardens?

When we became executives we were in a bit of a quandary about the gardens. There had been a set of designs which had been approved with plenty of positive feedback, and which subsequently, in the typical Auroville process, got stopped. Three different design and approval processes were then put in place but nobody was completely satisfied with either the process or the result. Our take is that we want everything to be finished by 2028, and that we don’t have the luxury to start another design selection so we are going with the existing designs. The exception is the Garden of Bliss which is re-envisaged by Auroson, who was appointed to this job by the previous Matrimandir management group. This doesn’t mean that the finished gardens will be fixed for all eternity. As our consciousness evolves, the gardens will evolve to more and more manifest their designated significance.  

Today there is the lake extension dispute. People object to the cutting of trees for phase two and question the need for a 10 metres deep lake. What’s your take?

The Matrimandir has always been mired in objections, even from the early days when we were told that we had been digging the hole at the wrong place. I don’t know of anything at the Matrimandir which has not been the subject of controversy. Mother said that Auroville would be built despite the Aurovilians and that’s why one can laugh. If I look at the Matrimandir I see that She was more than correct. 

We are following the lake design of Harald Kraft as approved by Roger. It was hanging on the board in the Office when we moved in. According to this concept, the lake will be on average 90 metres wide and have a central depth of 10 metres. For the lake’s second phase this has meant we have had to prune and transplant every tree and bush that could be transplanted. Unfortunately, neem trees have proved impossible to successfully transplant, so they have had to be felled. The wood is being carefully stored to make into furniture and fittings for the Reception Pavilion and the Service Area buildings and some of the wood has gone to Svaram to be turned into musical instruments.  

The area of the former Matrimandir workers camp has some gorgeous trees. Are you thinking of removing them as well?

Hopefully not. The Reception Pavilion and the main West Bridge are planned in that area. In fact we are discussing creating three peninsulas, as indicated by Roger Anger in his design. In Lake Section 2 there are some rare trees, some of which were planted on the occasion of the International Youth Year decades ago. Roger also indicated an orchid garden and that would correspond to the present office area where there are also some rare trees. But all of this has yet to be detailed. If there is any way those trees can be preserved, they will be preserved. Most will be in the third phase of the lake, which will start after the 2024 winter monsoon, at the beginning of 2025. 

Auroville has become a tourist spot with the Matrimandir as its focal point. How are you dealing with the increasing number of tourists and visitors? 

The new Matrimandir viewing point, which was inaugurated on August 15th, is a big help. It is much larger than the old one and offers a much better view. The tourists appear to appreciate it very much. Regarding the people who wish to visit the Chamber, we are at about the same numbers as before COVID. Right now we are in the process of introducing improved software for online bookings. This will allow us to better manage the visitors’ requests.

How do you see Auroville’s future? 

As always, I am very positive. When, in 1968, I decided to drop everything and come here, it was because of three things: there was to be a City for 50,000, there was the Galaxy designed by Roger, and there was the Auroville Charter. They completely inspired me, that inspiration has never left me and I have never given up on them. I still live in that vibration which I experienced when seeing The Mother for the first time. For me, Her guidance is very concrete, which makes Auroville so different from any other place on earth. I have done a lot of travelling and I have been in many of the world’s most beautiful places, but every time I come here I feel I am where I belong. Being here I feel totally blessed. I have no doubt that Auroville will be built according to the Divine Will.