Conflicts

Mother once described Auroville as a “centre of accelerated evolution”. (“Auroville is the place where this new way of living is being worked out; it is a centre of accelerated evolution where man must begin to change his world through the power of the inner spirit.”)

Some would argue that healing is not possible without a change in the policies of the present administration which, they feel, is demolishing, brick by brick, what has been created over many years, and everything which they believe Auroville stands for.

In 2018, Amrit published ‘Children of Change’, a memoir recounting his early life and the difficult years in Auroville when he and others chose not to take sides in the bitter conflict between the Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS) and the then-dominant Auroville collective.

Chali reflects on the fractures within Auroville and on the possibilities of restoration.

Four years into this crisis, I find myself searching for clarity on how we move forward. Yesterday, I came across a series of writings by Shannon Willis on Soft Rebellion that articulated what many of us have been intuitively practicing all along.

The Working Committee selected by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) has vacated its temporary office in Kailash, an educational youth residency under SAIIER, after the Funds and Assets Management Committee constituted by the Governing Board (GB-FAMC) instructed the Kailash caretakers and residents to hand over the building to the Housing Service by the end of May. [see article on page ….]

Michael Sandel, the Harvard professor, believes that many of us now live in a ‘market society’ where market values have supplanted other forms of human value like fairness and justice.

For the past three years, we have seen the arrival of another type of Secretary, a new top-down style of governance, and an imposed vision of development of Auroville.

After nearly three decades of engaging with Auroville (along with over 100 other ‘sustainable communities’ around the world), a twice-aborted Newcomer process (first due to Covid and then to pursue my ‘dream job’ as Director of Education at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland), and having just spent of 2.5 months there, I would like to share a few radical questions about the future of Auroville for your consideration.

I’m not the most observant of mortals, but even I have noticed, over the past couple of years, that two different worlds have been forming in Auroville.

In the General Meeting of 1st April, the Dreamweaving Core Team (David, Mona and Omar) committed themselves to making further proposals to the community.

As the security and accessibility of the @auroville.org.in email system has been compromised for a year, the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) has invited all Aurovilians, Newcomers and Friends of Auroville to join a new workspace and email system @auroville.community.

Manoj Pavithran is an integral yoga practitioner, educator and filmmaker. He was drawn to Sri Aurobindo in 1989 and eventually joined Auroville in 1995.

Ms. Dena Merriam, who has been elected the Chairperson of the Auroville International Advisory Council, is the founder and coordinator of the Global Peace Initiative for Women (GPIW), an international network of spiritual and community leaders that builds interfaith understanding and develops leadership in young community leaders concerning climate change.

Auroville’s Residents’ Assembly Service is tasked with organizing decisions of the Residents’ Assembly of the Auroville Foundation. Lately their job has become very challenging.

As a therapist I know that one of the first steps to healing is to acknowledge trauma, whether individual or collective. This is an unusual article in that I invite the reader to hold and witness with compassion our inner and outer diversity as a community.

At my father’s funeral, my mother disclosed to me that I was their love child. What this means is that there was a moment in time when two people united and created a chemistry, such as that of the cauldron that Obelix fell into.

Recent disagreements in the community about the status and form of the Galaxy plan made me wonder about our belief systems in general. What do we believe in, and why?

Recently, discrimination has been a hot topic in Auroville. It was brought to the forefront by two Tamil members of the Working Committee who felt they had been ‘discriminated’ against by not being allowed to meet the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on his recent visit.

Amrit joined Auroville in 1969. Recently he wrote about his life and spiritual development before and during his residence in Auroville. As a member of the so-called ‘Neutral’ group, his account offers a very different perspective upon Auroville’s troubled history in the late 1970s and 1980s.

While it is one of the youngest Auroville communities, Courage is one of the largest. It has 104 residents drawn from 16 different nationalities: 30 of the residents are under the age of 18.

In 1969, I was attending the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, studying engineering physics. It was through a librarian there that I was put in touch with Sri Aurobindo’s writings.

Restorative Circles, a system of conflict resolution which is based on the principles of Nonviolent Communication, is proposed to become part of Auroville’s Conflict Resolution Policy.