Auroville’s global community continues to offer support

Auroville Today: How did you first come into contact with Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and with Auroville?

Friederike: It was in 1981. I had two small children and it was a time when I was searching intensely for the deeper meaning of life, and also to find out what I could truly offer to these beautiful new beings. I found a book called The Mother on a friend’s bedside table and it intrigued me a lot. The friend gave me Satprem’s The Adventure of Consciousness in a German translation. There was a picture of Sri Aurobindo on the cover and it was one of these moments when something hits you: I had the feeling deep inside that I had known him for a very long time. In the following years, I read a lot by Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, including the Agenda. I remember waiting eagerly for the next volume to be published.

I had already heard about Auroville but it was the time of problems with the Sri Aurobindo Society and because of my young children it was difficult to travel. But I always wanted to come here because I had learned that it is Mother’s project and I knew it would play an important role in my life.

In 1991 I came for the first time with an artists’ group which was travelling to different places in India. We spent only an afternoon in Auroville, but we had the opportunity to climb to the top of the Matrimandir over scaffolding, and this was an amazing experience. The next time my husband and I came was in 1993. We came for a week and during that time we got into contact with Gillian because we had a friend who, like her, created artisan pieces with glass beads, and who wanted to give some work for the ladies from the villages who were working for Gillian. 

Soon after this, Wolfgang from Auroville International (AVI) Germany heard about us and invited us to their annual meetings. We went, hesitantly at first, because we thought a German association must be something very stiff and boring, but then it was actually like being with family. When one of the AVI Germany board members stepped back in 1997, I was invited to take his place. Then, at one of my first meetings of all the AVI centres in the world, Mauna, who was the Auroville representative for AVI at that time, asked me to join a session of the International Board. I was elected to the Board shortly after in 2001. Making my modest contribution to the cohesion of this international body and to help secure the international range and scope of Auroville, as laid out by The Mother, has become a matter close to my heart.

Today there are five of us on the board of AVI Germany and my role is to keep a strong contact with Auroville and the international AVI association, and to publish, together with a small team, a regular newsletter to keep our 180 members and other subscribers informed about what is happening there.

What was the kind of work you were doing in the early days of AVI Germany?

It was mainly giving information to people about Auroville as there was not yet an Auroville website. We organised three-day long annual meetings, which we still do today. These attracted up to 100 people and a lot of information was given, especially to those people who were going to Auroville for the first time. But we were also keen on the personal exchange, so we always tried to invite Aurovilians, give talks on Integral Yoga, offer yoga sessions and organise cultural evening programmes with concerts, readings and joint activities like dance, improvised theater and singing together.

The main questions we were asked were, ‘How can I organise a visit to Auroville?’ and ‘How can I become a Newcomer?’ Those who had already visited also wanted to know how they could stay in touch after their return to Germany.

Have there been major changes in the work of AVI Germany over the years?

There is much more information about Auroville on the Internet now and this has taken a lot of this work off our shoulders. Another major part of our work has been raising and channeling donations to projects in Auroville, and this has remained constant over the years.

A new and major organisational responsibility for us began in 2001 when we started arranging for young German men who wanted an alternative to military service and do their ‘civil service’ by volunteering for one year in Auroville. The original programme was not paid by the government and the young people themselves had to contribute. But after a while we felt we wanted to also offer a similar opportunity to young women. At that time, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development had established the ‘Weltwärts’ (worldwide) programme which allows young men and women to work and learn in development projects abroad. Under this programme, the flights, insurance and accommodation for the volunteers are paid, and the hosting unit also gets a small subsidy.

We applied with the Ministry to become a sending organisation and were accepted. This began in 2008, and every year before Covid, up to 18 young men and women were sent to Auroville under this scheme. From the beginning, a small team, including Thomas and Birgit from AVI Germany, took the responsibility for interviewing applicants before they came, making a selection, and interacting with them during their stay in Auroville, while Muna has been running the seminars to prepare them before they leave, as well as for reflection and review after their return.

During and after their experience, the volunteers had to write reports, and it was always touching to read what they got out of their volunteering time in Auroville. For many of them it changed their lives.

However, now we have decided to discontinue this programme. The reason is twofold. In Auroville the administrative hurdles have become so enormous that it is almost unmanageable for our very dedicated Auroville team. At the same time, fewer and fewer young people are applying for the programme. In the beginning we had up to 70-80 applications and we could select those we thought would get the most out of the experience and would cope best with the conditions in Auroville. Now we sometimes have only 15 or 16 applicants, and the minimum to keep the programme running is 15.

Why is this?

It is not a problem just for us but for all organisations sending volunteers abroad. My impression is that after Covid, young people don’t dare to be so adventurous because they feel they have already ‘lost’ some years and now they feel they have to catch up and quickly concentrate on their further education. Also, perhaps – I’m just guessing, there are no surveys as far as I know – there are more fulfilling alternatives now in Germany and elsewhere for people who do not want a conventional career. One thing that attracted people to Auroville in the past was that this is a wonderful example of a place where you feel you can change the world, where you can heal the wounds of the past inflicted on the earth and on men and women. Perhaps now young people find fulfilling ways of doing this, of experiencing this, in their own society.

Concerning the present situation in Auroville, when people contact AVI Germany today asking for advice about visiting Auroville, what do you tell them?

Of course, we have to tell them that it is a difficult situation, we cannot paint a rosy picture, but when people want to visit, we still encourage them to come and make their own experience. However, now we cannot advise them to apply for Newcomer status because of the present unclear situation regarding visas etc. We have to be honest, we cannot encourage people like we used to do before.

What kinds of people still want to come here?

Sometimes it’s people who are very disturbed by the situation in Germany, or in other parts of the West, and so have sometimes a rather naïve, escapist reason for wanting to come here. In these cases, we tell them that they need to fully inform themselves about Auroville’s raison d’être and pay a longer visit before they consider settling in Auroville.

Has the present situation affected donations?

No, our members and friends still respond very generously to our calls. But we are also very concerned about the situation of Aurovilians who are forced to leave or feel that they have to leave, if only for some time, because the pressure is affecting them physically or psychologically. AVI is considering to develop a support network for them in our respective countries. There is also a suggestion that we start making contacts with intentional communities in our countries which might be willing to host Aurovilians or welcome them as members.

Do you feel that the present situation in Auroville is mirrored by, or representative of, a larger ferment in the world?

Absolutely. What strikes me more and more is that the situation in Auroville is not unique; it is obviously part of an evolutionary movement. Mother said that in Auroville we find the representation of all the difficulties of the world. In the past, it seems to me, we were imagining the evolutionary process as a slow and tedious but nevertheless continuous upward movement. Now my impression is that evolution has to be imagined rather like the ocean tides. Sometimes there is a big surge upwards and we ride joyfully on the waves, but in our enthusiasm we neglect or forget about certain things. Then a backward pull sets in and exposes all the forgotten and never confronted rubble, all that has now to be looked at. I think this is happening right now, both in Auroville and in the larger world, on an individual as well as on a universal level, and it seems to be a necessary process. The darker aspects and forces which have not yet been dealt with have to be exposed to sunlight. Even though it’s a painful process, it seems to be a necessary one, as a preparation for the next upward surge.

In this context, I’m very happy to learn that Aurovilians are prepared to look into what has been neglected and not tackled in the past 50 years or so and what may have invited outside intervention. I think the only way to get through these difficult times is to firmly hold on to our deeper values, while heeding The Mother’s advice to live from that inner aspect of our being which always remains untouched by all the outer turmoil.

Are you optimistic regarding the future, both in Auroville and the larger world?

Absolutely. While there is a lot of distress, and many young people around the world have this feeling of impending catastrophe, it also helps them turn to action. They feel that they have to do something about it, like participating in sustainable projects or in the Fridays for Future movement, because their parents’ and grandparents’ generation have left them with this mess. And they are right.

As I said before, this may be one of the reasons why there is not a stream of young people wanting to settle in Auroville right now, because there is a strong feeling that they have to become active where they are. I’m lucky to follow it fairly closely since my daughter is a biology teacher who was inspired by Auroville’s ecological regeneration efforts since her schooldays and is now very engaged in bringing this pioneering spirit to her students. There are many wonderful young people, very conscious, very creative and very willing to turn the tide – pushing for the next upward surge. So I’m full of hope.

What about the future of Auroville International?

Of course, it sometimes worries me that only a few younger members are joining us grey-haired elders in the association, but our spirit is unbroken, our faith in the Mother’s Dream and that it will become a reality one day is unshaken. And we are confident that we can continue to make an important contribution to Auroville’s further development and to the wellbeing of its admirably brave citizens.