Itinerary

the Aurovilians, a precedent took root, which embodied the ambiguity of this relationship with the ordinary power – an instrument of effectuation which could as well serve the future as curse and corrupt our aspirations, for this was not the expression of human help and contribution with the will to collaborate and answer the call, but the workings of a formidable apparatus which could eventually turn back on any urge for autonomy. And while this very ambiguity was settling, the second temptation grew and fed on the countless recriminations, disillusions, plaints and requests which one usually addresses to “those who govern and have the power ” ; the desire, or the opportunity, to refer to a well-seated and legitimate authority in the orbit of the larger society, did its little gnawing work and as a result a subtle habit of betrayal could find lodgings amongst us. Instead of treating all problems and all questions as given occasions to progress together towards more awareness and discernment, more capacity to assimilate, integrate and convert the parts of our humanness, this other bad fold did its shadowy habitual job and it thus became almost acceptable to turn to the Government – to its representatives – for any manner of redressal or justice or even for moral support, and that much energy was diverted. The third deviation almost logically occurs out of the second one, or of the influence this second one exerted on our approach to collective organization. Instead of persevering in the progressive discipline of transforming our attitude towards power and learning to consider every work and every task as a service to the Truth-

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