Originally posted on sciy.org by Ron Anastasia on Wed 07 Dec 2005 01:45 PM PST
The November issue of Auroville Today deals with a topic we have never
before reported on: the relationship between the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
and Auroville. “There is no fundamental difference,†concludes Alan in his introduction to this topic.
“There is no fundamental difference†|
||
- Alan | ||
An introduction to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Auroville relationship
In 1969, she wrote her fullest explication of the Ashram-Auroville relationship for a UNESCO committee. “The task of giving a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo's vision was entrusted to The Mother. The creation of a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness is the work she has undertaken. By the very nature of things, it is a collective ideal that calls for a collective effort so that it may be realized in terms of an integral human perfection.
And the next year she added, “The Ashram is the central consciousness, Auroville is one of the outward expressions. In both places equally the work is done for the Divine.†The
latter sentence seemed particularly aimed at those who felt that the
early Aurovilians were not at all the right material for hastening the
advent of a new world. And this was not just the perception of certain
Indian Ashramites. In a famous conversation of 10th January, 1970 ,
Satprem reports an Italian disciple suggesting that the Ashramites
should join Aurovilians in building the Matrimandir, “because without
the inner force of the people of the Ashram mingling with the
Aurovilians, the people from Auroville will remain what they are.†The
Aurovilians, he explained, are not “receptive enough to do the workâ€,
they are “full of arrogance, of incomprehension, they only see the
outside of thingsâ€. He concluded that the “breach†between Auroville
and the Ashram could only be healed if the Ashramites and Aurovilians
worked together. However, to Satprem's obvious astonishment, Mother
replies, “As for myself, I don't find it (the breach) wide enough...It
isn't at all the same plane.†And she goes on to explain that she
didn't want Ashramites to be infected by the bad habits of some
Aurovilians. As if to reinforce this concern, her next message
regarding the Ashram-Auroville relationship was precipitated by an
Aurovilian misbehaving in the Ashram playground, resulting in a call to
ban entry to all Aurovilians. “Being an Aurovilian is not at all the same thing as being a member of the Ashram and living the Ashram life,†she wrote, and went on to say that only those Aurovilians who had been in the Ashram before the birth of Auroville had the right to attend playground activities. There
followed what seemed to be a blizzard of messages from Mother to the
Aurovilians on topics like the need to tell the truth, to avoid
violence and to go beyond egotistical limitations. When, in March 1972,
a fire completely destroyed the Toujours Mieux workshop in Aspirations,
Satprem asked her if this was due to “a wrong attitude over there?â€
“Yes. Oh, they're all quarrelling among themselves! And some even
disobey deliberately, they refuse to recognize any authority.†Interestingly, however, Mother stated that “I do not want to make rules for Auroville as I did for the Ashram.†And even if she was forced to make one exception (regarding drugs), she continued to be, from the point of view of some Ashramites, extremely lenient in her attitude to some Aurovilians, allowing some of them chance after chance to reform their behaviour. She wanted, it seems, the Aurovilians to progress not through obedience to imposed rules, as in the Ashram, but through the practical discovery that the old habits, “like smoking, drinking and, of course, drugs...all that, it is as if you were cutting pieces off your being.†In any case, she said, there would be a natural weeding-out. “The power of the realization – of the sincerity of the realization – is such that it's unbearable to those who are insincere.†In spite of Mother's
strictures and the increasing scepticism of a few Ashramites concerning
the viability of the Auroville experiment, throughout these years many
Ashramites and students from the Ashram School continued to come to
Auroville. Some worked on the Matrimandir, others taught in Aspiration
School or helped with physical education. The conflict was clearly with the SAS rather than with the Ashram, and throughout this difficult period many Aurovilians and Ashramites continued to visit each other just as before and maintained deep friendships. However, there were incidents which, for some individuals, weakened their links with the other community. For example, the Ashram teachers working at Aspiration School were very distressed when, in the mid 1970s, they were put before an ultimatum which required them to either join Auroville or stop teaching there. Even though the reason had more to do with radical educational theories than opposition to Ashramites, the decision of the Ashram teachers to stop coming reflected their feeling that they were no longer welcome. On the other hand, when the Ashram trustees refused to support the Aurovilians, choosing to remain aloof from the conflict, some Aurovilians felt betrayed. Similarly, those Aurovilians close to Satprem were dismayed by the way they believed the Ashram authorities had mistreated him in pursuit of the Agenda tapes. The publication of Mother's Agenda, which contained strong comments on certain Ashramites and certain aspects of the Ashram, coupled with Satprem's pronouncement that the Ashram was dead, further reinforced a feeling in some Aurovilians that Auroville need have nothing to do with that institution. In
recent years, however, there has been much more interchange between the
two communities. This is due to a number of factors. The passing of the
Auroville Foundation Act in 1988, which finally took away the right of
the SAS to manage Auroville and gave Auroville its own legal status,
gave Aurovilians a renewed confidence in their independence and allowed
many of the psychological battlements to be dismantled. Then the
opening of the Chamber in August, 1991, resulted in a significant
increase in the number of Ashramites visiting Matrimandir. A few years
later, another bridge was put in place when Savitri Bhavan began
inviting Ashramites to give talks to Aurovilians on different aspects
of the yoga: these have proved very popular. Alongside this there has
been an increasing cultural interchange, of which the recent joint art
exhibition is only the latest manifestation.
|
Attachment: