The unspoken divide

Most obviously, they involve disagreements over how the town should be developed, as well as over the role and powers of the Governing Board/Foundation Secretariat vis-a-vis the Residents Assembly. But there may be even deeper divisions than these, which are the more powerful because they have profound roots, have been around much longer and, generally, are not openly expressed. 

One of the most important of these unspoken beliefs is that certain people should not be in Auroville. Who the people to be excluded are varies according to the person holding the opinion, just as does the rationale for wanting to exclude/eject certain people. Sometimes it is a reaction to somebody acting in a way which is obviously against the ideals and wellbeing of others or the larger community (a feeling which may have many takers at the moment). Sometimes it is based on a more generalised unease, like the sense that someone doesn’t ‘belong’ because they display a ‘colonial’ mentality, or have racial prejudices.

Another reason given for wanting to exclude or, at the very least, downgrade some Aurovilians is the allegation that these people have little or no idea of what this place is really about. At one time, this accusation was most commonly directed at some local people who, it was believed, joined Auroville only to improve their financial or social status, and who thereafter made no obvious attempt to understand the ideal or to integrate. Some people have expanded this category to include those whom, they allege, have simply come to Auroville to retire and/or enjoy an ‘easy’ life, or to focus only on tree planting or running a business. Casting the net even wider, some Indians seem to believe – although, once again, this is never or rarely expressed – that Westerners and other non-Indian Aurovilians cannot understand or do this yoga. Incidentally, Sri Aurobindo demolished this belief many years ago: 

Our aim is not, either, to found a religion or a school of philosophy or a school of yoga, but to create a ground of spiritual growth and experience and a way which will bring down a greater Truth beyond the mind but not inaccessible to the human soul and consciousness. All can pass who are drawn to that Truth, whether they are from India or elsewhere, from the East or from the West. 

Here we approach the nub of the issue: the belief seemingly held by some that they are ‘true’ Aurovilians because they understand and are guided in their lives by Mother, while others are not. The consequence is the tendency of these people to believe that those who disagree with them do so out of ignorance, and consequently do not need to be listened to.

This, I would suggest, is the root cause of why some of our disputes are so intractable, and why they are not amenable to being solved by reason alone. 

We need to trust that everybody who is in Auroville is meant to be here at this moment, that something far beyond our understanding is arranging things

Many of those perceived by others as claiming spiritual ‘elitehood’ would reject such a label. These people would simply say that they are endeavouring to live and carry out what Mother wished for Auroville. This is to be respected.

Yet some of these people seem to believe, or, at least, imply that as they possess a somewhat higher consciousness than others, they see more clearly what needs to be done, so they should be the ones to direct the affairs of the community. 

This seems logical. After all, Mother herself had stated that the community should be organised by those with the highest consciousness. So what is the problem?

Well, for one thing, given our present emphasis upon collective decision-making any group claiming to organise Auroville on the basis of their superior consciousness would require wider community endorsement. But would we all agree on who the people with the superior consciousness are? I doubt it because I think we lack agreement upon how to identify them.    

One response would be that these are the ones who are well versed in the writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. But this is over-simplistic. Mental comprehension alone without a deeper understanding is insufficient, and can even be dangerous when wrongly applied, for example, by zealots and sectarians. At present, those who claim to be attempting to redirect Auroville along the right path based upon Mother’s words explain the present turmoil as resistance from those who oppose Mother’s Auroville. This is one view. But it is also possible that those who quote Mother’s words in support of their present attempts to improve Auroville, whatever their best intentions, do not have sufficient wisdom and spiritual understanding (as well as, in certain cases, the practical competence) to apply them in an internal, harmonious way and this has resulted in considerable collateral damage.  

In fact, Mother often emphasized that a drop of spiritual experience means more than thousands of words, and many of those early Aurovilians whom she personally chose were clearly not ‘spiritual’ in any conventional sense, suggesting that she chose them more for their openness to her Force than for their ‘spirituality’. Perhaps even today some of our less obviously ‘spiritual’ brothers and sisters are more in contact with that Force than those who so eloquently quote and write about our spiritual guides. 

In the same way that I think many of us – myself included – lack sufficient inner understanding to be able to select our spiritual leaders, I believe we lack the deep understanding of this complex, multilayered spiritual experiment that would allow us to judge who should or should not be in Auroville. For in judging we tend to focus upon the superficialities of an individual’s behaviour or our interpretations of why that person is in Auroville, but this may have little or nothing to do with why a superior power has drawn us together for a specific work in this place, at this time (although sometimes Mother gave hints, like her observation that everybody here represents a problem that needs to be transformed not only for the individual but also for the world at large). 

This doesn’t mean that everybody who is here now has ‘tenure’ and will be here forever, or that the present residents represent an ‘elite’ portion of humanity. Merely, that, at this moment, we are the ideal mix for a certain evolutionary work to take place, the complexity and depth of which exceeds our human understanding.    

A further, more mundane, argument against giving people the power to exclude Aurovilians from the community is the danger of this power being abused by those who simply dislike others or have something to gain by excluding them.  

So while we should continue to act vigorously against abuses using community-approved processes, as well as to stand for what we believe Mother is asking of us at this moment, I don’t think Aurovilians should be excluded from the community (unless, of course, they have broken the law: in which case, the Indian Government or Indian courts will have the final say), however much we may fail to understand or disagree with them. Rather, we need to trust that everybody who is in Auroville is meant to be here at this moment, that something far beyond our understanding is arranging things, and be deeply humble, grateful, that we ourselves are allowed to be part of it. Because who among us can say they really understand why they are here, or feel they ‘deserve’ to be a participant in this extraordinary experiment?

We are far, very far, from realizing the genuine fraternity that Sri Aurobindo spoke of. But, who knows? If we could all exercise a little more humility in the face of the great Unknown, as well as deep gratitude for being called to be here, perhaps, just perhaps, it could open a crack in the door to a new spirit of collaboration.