Arriving Home - my first days in Auroville

The first time I’d read something about Auroville in South India was in a book about the Findhorn community. This was after a series of life changing experiences during a four week holiday in Sri Lanka and my decision to return to India before the year was over.

Then, only after dissolving my material existence in Köln, Germany, such as a very successful career, apartment and belongings, and after I had the ticket to India in my pocket, I discovered ‘by chance’ a brochure on Auroville in a bookshop on my last day’s way to work. Reading more about Auroville, and especially some quotes from Mother and Sri Aurobindo, made it clear for me that Auroville would be my first destination after arriving in India.

But first I went again to the same place in Sri Lanka to prepare myself for this adventure: shake off the stress and hectic pace of Köln and practise continuous meditation to achieve inner peace and equanimity.

When I arrived in hot and dusty Auroville on 30th December, 1981, I came walking with my three kg luggage (one kg of which was Die Synthese des Yoga by Sri Aurobindo) from the bus stop in Periyamudaliarchavady up to Aspiration, where I met Deepti in the Auroville Boutique. As there was no free guestroom nearby, she sent me on to the Centre. There, Rod had pity on my dusty feet and lent me a cycle to go to Fertile Windmill to check if Vijay or Dee had a place for me to stay. And yes, near Fertile Windmill watchman Perumal’s house, opposite to what is now Transition School, there was a small village-style house with mud walls and palm leaf roof where I could stay. The door to the house was an open welded iron-frame with a 15 cm gap to the floor, and inside there was nothing apart from a village-style bed frame with mattress.

Between the two houses there was a hand-pump for water, but, of course, no electricity.

Equipped with my torch and a kerosene lamp, I went to sleep on my first night in Auroville. While lying in bed in the dark, covered only by a thin blanket, I woke up because something was crawling on me. I could not see anything, but judging by the weight and movements, it felt like it was an approximately three foot long snake! So I told myself, “No panic, don’t move, stay calm inside, don’t fear, but surrender to the Divine Will”... And after some time, the snake went on its way.

First thing the next morning, I decided to get myself a mosquito net and a bicycle. As in those days there was no such thing in the nearby villages, I had to walk from Fertile Windmill to Bommayapalayam to catch a bus to Pondy.

These first impressions of Auroville made me aware that this was not an ordinary place like other tourist destinations. I thought that an ‘aspirant’ for a longer stay had to pass tests, such as dangerous nightly visits and endless walks under a hot sun in the dusty middle of nowhere, to see if he or she had the right attitude and was worthy to stay in Auroville.

Returning in the evening from Pondy with my new cycle, I was tired but happy to be back ‘home’ after an adventurous but successful day in town.

Only a few days later, when returning to my ‘guesthouse’, I discovered my friend the snake lying curled-up under the doorframe. So, instead of waking up and upsetting the snake to risk being attacked, I silently unlocked the padlock, carefully opened the door, and calmly stepped over the sleeping snake.

I felt that it was another test for me, and that I had to be very calm and centered, tuned into an all-embracing consciousness and deep inner peace, to handle such situations in the ‘right spirit’: not based on fear, doubt and mistrust, but confident, in harmony with nature, and trusting in the Divine Will.

And I was happy to have a new friend, who protected my place.

On my second day in Auroville, I went to the New Year bonfire and met many extraordinary people. Afterwards I went with Sigi to his place, seeing the concrete pillars of Matrimandir behind all the small saplings which had been planted around it.

This was all very nice and interesting for the tourist I was then, looking from the ‘outside’ at this wondrous place called Auroville.

Somehow I knew inside that I had arrived ‘home’ from the start, but the moment I actually decided to stay for good, everything changed. There was suddenly this kind of ‘Truth Presence’, no longer only an outside view or mental understanding and interpretation of the input from the senses, but a very special energy and a much deeper and more integral ‘feeling’ or ‘being’.

Gone were the days of lofty meditations and mental silence, to be replaced by a rough awakening of the physical and virtual realities, a forceful pulling down of the feet back onto the ground, an unavoidable look in the mirror, no place to hide, and no more option of ignoring anything. This was the beginning of serious work on oneself while integrating all parts of the being – of becoming ‘whole’.

I understood that there was much more to ‘understanding Auroville’ than what appears to the superficial mind, much more depth than what appears on the surface when seen from the ‘outside’. but this cannot simply be defined by words. I had had many experiences on my spiritual path before, but this was entirely different.

In short: Auroville cannot be understood by the mind or what the ordinary senses perceive. Unless one decides to “stay in Auroville for good”, in surrender and dedication to “serve the Divine Consciousness”, it is next to impossible for an outsider to understand Auroville.

And it’s not so much a question of ‘understanding’ – Auroville has to be lived and experienced, and a true understanding can only come by ‘being’.

And Auroville today, over forty years later (written in December, 2022).

Considering the above, Mother’s directive comes to mind, making all the more sense now:

“Only those who have decided to stay in Auroville for good have the right to interfere in its organisation!”

Therefore, the collective processes of decision making and internal organisation by the Assembly of its Residents is the only possible manner of doing due justice to the complexity of diversity which is Auroville. Human Unity can only work by integrating everybody.

Any authoritarian form of governance and proclaimed ‘Human Unity’ by a few, issuing orders justified ‘In the Name of The Mother’, will be a superficial and artificial construct without substance or Truth.

If we talk about building the city while destroying roads and houses in order to build roads and houses, if we can speak of galactic citizens against foresters and anti-city miscreants, if we fall back to old patterns such as ‘Indians versus foreigners’ – all these are the outward signs of the big confusion and division prevailing at present. But one thing it cannot destroy: the deeper Truth of the Spirit of Auroville! This is always present – despite us.

When thinking back on the thirty years I spent in Auroville, there is one thing which is permeating everything: the deep Love and Oneness within our big family! This ‘connectedness’ is felt almost physically in Auroville and is the source of true joy and bliss. Whether it is during the bonfires, celebrations and cultural events, or also at meetings or over a plate of idlis and a cup of coffee at Le Morgan, lunch in Solar Kitchen or where and whenever – this is the ever present ‘Spirit of Auroville’.

Some need a leader to tell them what to do, others know by intuition what is right and what is wrong.

All these divisions of us versus them, of pro-city versus anti-city, are just superficial impressions, outer appearances and misunderstandings, hiding the deeper Truth of Love and Oneness from view.

And even if we don’t see it or don’t want to see it – it’s there for sure.