Originally posted on sciy.org by Rich Carlson on Thu 22 May 2008 10:28 AM PDT
Homage :
A Ray of the Indian Renaissance Comes to Auroville:
Remembering Dr. L.M. Singhvi
Dr. L. M. Singhvi, an eminent Indian citizen and jurist who served India's cultural, literary, legislative and public life in numerous ways, including as Indian High Commissioner to U.K.; as Chairman of Jnana Pith Pravara Parishad, as Chairman of High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora passed away on 6th October 2007 at the age 76. Here, an Aurovilian remembers his association with Auroville and his service to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
“I was a student of Sri Aurobindo's writings when I was an undergraduate, when I begun to practice and when I lived abroad for many years. No one can understand the future of humankind unless one is able to delve deeply into Sri Aurobindo's thought because he was one of the greatest futurists that the world has seen, because he saw beyond the time in which he lived.â€
“More than anything else, Auroville is an expression of the sense of universality, which is central to Sri Aurobindo's theme, and the sense of common human destiny and human unity which is central to Sri Aurobindo's teachings. Sri Aurobindo, the prophet, the yogi, the philosopher was not looking at Indians as an ethnic group. He looked at the Indian heritage as a precious part of the world's heritage. He was for a new kind of human togetherness, a new kind of higher consciousness, which would be shared by those who aspire for it, who strive for it. As teacher of mankind, his legacy and vision is cherished, preserved and advanced in material terms, on this earth, in Auroville.â€
“I've known Auroville ever since it was started. I was an independent Member of Parliament in 1962 and in the late 60s, Auroville, as an idea, was very much on the intellectual and spiritual canvas of India.â€
These words of Dr. Laxmimal Manu Singhvi, in an interview with Auroville Today in 1999, at once testify to his broad and luminous understanding of Sri Aurobindo, and equally broad and luminous outlook on Auroville.
“I am not a resident of Auroville, I am only one of the trustees of the Foundation constituted for the purpose but I wish to tell you that I am emotionally a resident of Auroville, as indeed everyone who aspires to be a world citizen has to be emotionally a resident of Auroville, for Auroville is the first stage in the experiment in human unity."
With these words, Dr. L.M. Singhvi appealed to the director-General of UNESCO to hold a festival of Auroville in the headquarters of UNESCO to mark her 35th anniversary. And UNESCO did celebrate Auroville's 35th Anniversary at its headquarters in April 2003.
“When he was Indian High Commission in U.K, Dr. Singhvi was instrumental in installing Sri Aurobindo's statues or busts at a number of places in that country including at the King's College, Cambridge where Sri Aurobindo studied.†Prof. Kireet Joshi, the former Chairman of the Auroville Foundation, once informed us.
If by Indian renaissance we mean all that facilitate the discovery of India’s immortal soul and spirit in the manifold life of the country and humanity, than Dr. Singhvi could certainly be regarded as one of the rays of the Indian renaissance. By his service to the nation in the light of Sri Aurobindo, he facilitated that discovery. And it is quite apt that such rays of the Indian renaissance come in touch with Auroville. For, in the Mother's vision of things, one of the prime purposes of Auroville is to offer a decisive help in the Indian renaissance. Incidentally, this is one of the good things that the formation of the Auroville Foundation by the Government of India has done to Auroville: it brought many rays of the Indian renaissance in touch with Auroville. Besides Dr. L.M. Singhvi; Dr. Karan Singh, Dr. D.P. Chattopadhyaya, Prof. Kireet Joshi, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, Kapilya Vatsyayan, Mallika Sarabhai - all were invited by the Government to be part of the Auroville Foundation, which they graciously accepted.
Our simple one page Auroville Land Fund Newsletter was started in April 1999. Incidentally, that happened to be time when Dr. Singhvi and other illustrious individuals were invited to be on the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation for the period 1999 to 2003. The first issue of the Newsletter opened with a quote from J.R.D Tata - “Auroville is not an idea. It is the future, the future of the world. I believe in it more today then ever before.†Then, we explained the raison d'etre of the newsletter and gave a report of the situation. In hindsight, that was the right moment to communicate our concerns. The new members of the Governing Board and the Chairman Prof. Kireet Joshi held a special meeting in New Delhi prior to their first ever Auroville visit. The major part of the meeting was devoted to discussing the land safeguarding issue. Needless to say, a few months later, in August 1999, when they all came to Auroville, they came with this thought and concerns uppermost in their minds. But it was left to Dr. L.M. Singhvi to give voice to their concerns. With the clarity and reasoning of a gifted jurist, he spoke continuously for 10 -15 minutes on the task, beginning with a sentence that touches the very crux of the issue: “There has to be comprehensive and multi-pronged actions to safeguard the lands for Aurovilleâ€. The small audience could hardly contain its joy: it clapped a number of times as he spoke and when he finished. Bhavana, who was sitting next to me, whispered in my ear “Now we have qualified people.†His colleagues on the Governing Board, too, complimented him.
Those were the days when the momentum – the passion to protect the lands – was palpable on a daily basis. Dr. L.M. Singhvi added a significant fuel to that fire.
Let me quote some of his words - compiled mostly from an interview he gave to Auroville Today - which at once provide rational base to the work, and spin music to the ears of those who dream an integral and united development of Auroville.
Dr. L.M. Singhvi: “Speaking as a lawyer, the identity and the integrality of Auroville must first of all be preserved in the identity and integrality of the site. The identity and integrality of Auroville is not confined to the site but the site is an important foothold of the vision. Auroville's very name suggests that here is a city, a town, and the community of Auroville is obviously based in a defined territory (…) The only way to safeguard the vision of Auroville, the only way to uphold the legislative Act passed by Parliament, is to safeguard the territorial integrality and identity of Auroville. The Auroville Foundation Act, 1988 is a unique instrument. It is a legislative homage of the Parliament of India to Sri Aurobindo. However, I think that the one thing the Act missed out on was to define Auroville territorially. When the Act speaks of Auroville, it speaks of a vision and it speaks of the fulfillment of that vision in a community and that community belongs to a territory. It is implicit in the concept of a town that there is a territory.
Auroville is a universal township, a universal township of tomorrow. It is a vision that cannot accept, cannot countenance intrusions, or pockets of intrusion into it.
Auroville's influence will radiate even wider, to the entire globe. But the territory of the twenty square kilometers is basic to the concept and territorial undertaking of Auroville. I think that this must be safeguarded first and foremost. There has to be a very comprehensive and multi-pronged action. (…) The Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation has a very strong responsibility in this respect. The various Auroville working groups have all done a great deal; an enormous amount of work (…) The partnership has to be between the residents of Auroville and a whole host of instrumentalities.
Auroville is the City of God. Auroville is Civitas Dei, and in terms of a vision, Auroville is destined to become the City of God. The point is that ultimately the Aurovilians have to keep the core of their consciousness and its integrity intact, developing and evolving.â€
Referring to his visit to Matrimandir, Dr. Singhvi said: “Yesterday, I visited Matrimandir, which is indescribably beautiful; sublime is the word. Sitting in the Inner Chamber closing one's eyes, even if there is light before you, you saw the light within. When I saw the light with my physical eyes, I felt as if I did not see the whole of it. When I closed my eyes, I saw much more of it. I felt suffused by that light. It is a great centre, a very powerful centre. It is in a sense Mother's vision of perfection.â€
During a meeting with the residents of Auroville, when the members of Governing Board were addressed as “distinguishedâ€, Dr. Singhvi remarked “You Aurovilians are the distinguished people.†That speaks of his humility, respect and trust in Auroville and Aurovilians.
During his subsequent visits to Auroville, too, Dr. Singhvi lent his insightful support and even wrote to an authority along with Auroville Master Plan requesting to promulgate the Master Plan and the State Government's protection to the area envisioned for Auroville. The request was duly replied by the authority with a promise to look into it. However, due to a number of reasons, not much progress was made on this line. However, Dr. Singhvi felt himself responsible and sorry for the lack of progress. In 2002, when I enclosed with an issue of the Land Fund newsletter, a small booklet on German philosopher and sociologist Herbert Marcuse by an Aurovilian late Jehuda (“Reading Marcuse upon arrival in Aurovilleâ€), Dr. Singhvi promptly acknowledged saying that he had gone through the booklet and added “You have been generous and kind to me.â€
In January 2004, as Chairman of High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora, Dr. Singhvi and his colleagues planned Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at New Delhi which brought together a large number of people of Indian origin living all over the world. Anne Gilbert from Auroville who attended the gathering reported later that in his speech to the audience, Dr. Singhvi spoke glowingly of the vision and work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, while Dr. Karan Singh that of the vision and work of Auroville.
In August 2006, Dr. Singhvi was again instrumental in installing Sri Aurobindo's larger than life size statue in the Parliament of India and at Sri Aurobindo's birthplace in Kolkata. All the leading Indian newspapers reported the unveiling event in the Parliament which was attended by the Prime Minister and other prominent figures.
Then, in November 2006, we at the Land Fund received from him a greeting card for the 3 events coming at close quarters, namely, the Festival of Light (Diwali), Christmas and the New Year 2007. While acknowledging his card, I complimented him for Sri Aurobindo's statue in the Parliament, remembered his insightful support to Auroville during his tenure as GB member and enclosed an article by Medhananda “The Age of Sri Aurobindoâ€. Soon he replied via email. “What I did and said was inspired by Sri Aurobindo & Mother. Yes, I was fortunate and privileged to install a statue of Sri Aurobindo in his birthplace in Kolkata and in the Parliament of India. Those were fulfilling moments for me. The Statue commands a beautiful view.†He also requested 4 copies of my paper 'Saving the Rose-flower of the Earth'.
In February 2007, some Aurovilians had organized at New Delhi an exhibition and a programme on the life and work of Jean Monet, the man who dreamed and pioneered the concept of European unity. The programme was under the auspices of the Pavilion de France to be founded in the International Zone of Auroville. Dr. Singhvi delivered the keynote address. Let me quote a passage from his address:
“I wish to pay a tribute to Christine Devin who has written this beautiful book, 'Uniting Men Jean Monet, Heroism of another kind'. Indeed that is the only heroism which I am prepared to encourage. Heroism of ideas is the only heroism that we are free to encourage, not the heroism of Alexander mistakenly called the Great, not the heroism of other people who could conquer the world, but the heroism of ideas, heroism that the passion of Jean Monet represented.
There is a very beautiful passage here in this book which takes us to what Victor Hugo said, which is a very, very significant contribution to the understanding and the awareness of the power of ideas. Said Victor Hugo, and it seems as if he is speaking at a very recent point of time but he didn't live at a very recent point of time.
Victor Hugo says….: 'All of us here may say to France, to England, to Prussia, to Austria, to Spain, to Italy, to Russia, we say to them, a day will come when your weapons will fall from your hands, a day when wars will seem absurd and near impossible between Paris and London, St. Petersburg and Berlin, Vienna and Turin as today it would seem impossible between Rouen and Amiens, Boston and Philadelphia.'
How beautifully written and how clearly and lucidly put! A day will come, says Victor Hugo long before Jean Monet thought of the idea a day will come when there will be no battlefields... A day will come when bullets and bombs are replaced by votes, by universal suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great supreme Senate which will be to Europe what Parliament is to England, the Diet to Germany and the Legislative Assembly is to France. A day will come when a canon will be a museum piece as instruments of torture are today. And we will be amazed to think that these things existed.
Now that is the power of an idea as unfolded long before this idea seemed to be even a remote possibility. Now it is from this point of view that Jean Monet's thought and life are significant. It is from this point of view that Sri Aurobindo's prophetic remarks are meaningful in the context today. Europe has been achieved, a united Europe has been achieved but a united world still seems a long way to achieve.â€
Little did we know when we sent to press the latest issue of the Land Fund newsletter (July- Sept 2007) that Dr. Singhvi would not be reading it, that his soul had chosen to depart the body. The reply that we received from his son Dr. Abhishek Singhvi to our message does perfect justice to his person.
“Dr. L.M. Singhvi had a fruitful life and departed – as he desired – in harness. While mourning his loss, which is, of course, irreparable, we also celebrate his multi-faceted personality and truly astonishing achievements in diverse fields of human endeavor.
An accomplished parliamentarian, having served in both Houses of Parliament, he also served as India's longest serving High Commissioner to UK. An author of many books, his command over English and Hindi alike straddled prose, poetry and oratory.
An outstanding advocate, he was elected President of the Bar of the apex court for four terms. He pursued each subject he touched with a passion which was deep and abiding. Like a true Renaissance man, he was not circumscribed by the narrow walls of specialization but exhibited a mastery over a breathtakingly diverse array of subjects.
It is a privilege to be his family. His achievements have inspired us all and his memory will continue to be our guiding polestar. But above all, he was a good human being with love, care, concern and compassion for family and outsiders alike. His wealth in friendships is his true legacy.â€
May Dr. Singhvi continue to grow in the splendors of his soul!
Aryadeep
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