Fraternal Auroville

Auroville Today brought together some Aurovilians to discuss an aspect of Auroville which, although very powerful and alive, is often neglected in our media and presentations to the outside world – fraternal Auroville. Anandi is part of the team which manages Pour Tous Distribution Centre; Suzie has been involved in education for many years; Joseba works with the Housing Service; and Ashatit at present manages the Auroville Library.

Ashatit: My experience of Auroville is that its very basis is solidarity, sharing, and fraternity. From there we have developed all the services, and even the first commercial units developed out of this spirit. I remember when I worked in Housing Service we decided to ask people who were constructing houses to donate 10% of the cost so that others less fortunate could also have housing. 95% of the people immediately said ‘yes’. All this flowed naturally out of this spirit to serve The Mother and to serve each other.

Suzie: Many years ago, Bhaga, Ganga and myself formed a team called the Caring Service. We had no physical base or budget, but we invited Aurovilians to submit any request for help and we would try to satisfy it. Requests included things like a food safe or help with conflict resolution. One young Aurovilian asked for a leather jacket and a girlfriend! We managed to satisfy quite a few of the requests. The Caring Service, which ran for 10 years, was an early research into how to meet those needs which fall outside the official frame. A lot of young people appreciated it because it was idealistic. Towards the end, Olivier joined our team and he was inspired to start the Mahasaraswati Free Store, which still serves Aurovilians today.

Anandi: Similar initiatives today include Ange’s Anonymous Goodwill Conspiracy [see box] and the Golden Fund which helps long-term Aurovilians in need. These are efforts to link people to people outside our official organization.

Ashatit: This is a particular feature of Auroville; our civil society is extremely active. Here we are in a quite different situation from ordinary societies where the state looks after many things, and this is why we have so many initiatives which help us support each other when we are in need. For example, a friend of mine had a problem with his old motorcycle, he put a note in the News and Notes, and within two days he had money for a new one. Then again, in the Auroville Library we needed new shelves. We had no resources, but we put out a call and suddenly the resources were there. If you live in this world, you have the feeling of living a constant miracle. If you need something, you just have to be open and patient and it will come to you. Fraternity, for me, is a flow.

Joseba: Sri Aurobindo, when referring to the revolutionary triad of liberty, equality and fraternity, said that we cannot expect conventional societies to develop the latter concept because fraternity depends on the development of the psychic centre, not the mind. In contrast, in Auroville we should actively promote the full development of fraternity because this will give our society its most distinctive and specific character.

Today we know there are many initiatives by individual Aurovilians to help others outside the established administrative framework, but in the Housing Service we believe that this fraternal aspect should also be organized at the normative, policy and institutional levels of Auroville.

In housing, we have two tendencies coexisting in Auroville at present. One approach is that an architect who designs a house or apartments will take 6% or 7% of the total cost as his fee, the usual fee recommended by the Indian Council of Architects. But there is another group of architects who don’t want to do this, who just want to receive maintenance for their work. This is what I call the fraternal approach to housing.

One example is the Sacred Groves project, where the architect works for maintenance and the workers are volunteers. Apart from anything else, this makes the cost of housing much cheaper. So, in the Housing Service we want to prepare policies that express and materially support this kind of fraternity. In fact, we are already doing a lot along this line. We help individuals and families with insufficient funds to get housing or build extensions through our Fraternity Fund or through channeling funds for public constructions like Inspiration. Our Repair Fund, which takes care of people working in Auroville Services, covers 50% of the repairs of a house, and we also facilitate interest-free housing loans up to Rs 50,000.

Anandi: These are welcome developments but, at the same time, there is another trend in our society which is more consumer-oriented and individualistic. I think the present maintenance system strengthens this sense of individualism because you receive a certain amount of money which you can use in whatever way you wish. In this way, instead of strengthening our service sector and providing more and more services to people without cash exchange, we are going in the opposite direction and away from that sense of a collective based upon fraternity.

I think the idea of offering your work to Auroville and of the community taking care of your needs remains our dream and we should try to reach that. Perhaps right now is not the moment because the consciousness is not ready for this. But, in the meantime, I think it is important to create spaces where those ideals can manifest in some way or another, protected spaces where some of us can experiment in trying to make it happen.

Joseba: One experiment that is special for me is Sadhana Forest. This is an experiment in living exclusively in fraternity. Volunteers come here from all over the world, they offer their work, food and accommodation are provided, you don’t even have to pay, but the experiment is running perfectly well.

In fact, one of the most interesting things happening over recent years is the number of volunteers who are coming to Auroville. Sadhana Forest has more than 100 volunteers every month and there are more than 30 volunteers working in Sacred Groves at present.

Anandi: The children of the 60s had this call to travel, to be free. But this new youth feels called to serve, to experiment with a different world. It is a new wave which is happening all over the world.

Joseba: These people come to Auroville because they want to experiment with community, with the sense of fraternity, which they can’t find in their own countries.

They come attracted by the ideal. For me, this is the essential element we need to fully realize for the future of Auroville. If we can create the ideal society about which Mother spoke, a society based in all its aspects upon fraternity, this will generate a huge amount of enthusiasm and collaboration from people like these volunteers.

Ashatit: If you don’t focus your mind on the problems in Auroville, you realize that this spirit is already here and growing stronger. I believe something new, more harmonious and more caring, is spreading among us day by day.