My experience of Satprem

Many have resented Satprem for having in some ways legitimized this state of affairs. In imposing a particular understanding of the choices and the directions, a particular interpretation of the situations, a particular behavior in the face of obstacles as towards divergences, the influence of this group has been harmful, as it has provoked reactions and led to formations that have retarded direct access for all individuals, through their own nature, to the truth of Auroville – and caused deep misunderstandings. Nevertheless an important part, perhaps central to the cultural heritage of France, is the profound and indefectible sense of certain unmovable values which must be served in each one’s life and existence. It is through this inbred sense that the Frenchies could apprehend with ease the very notion of Dharma. For these values constituted as it were a code of conduct, the code of the knight – for instance, “word once given must be honored”, never to lie, solidarity in commitment, rejection of all calculation… For others, such as the Anglo-Saxons, a more mental and moral approach was favored and best shared, which consisted in identifying the different points of view and preserving a “broad-mindedness”, which had more often than not as consequence an incapacity to take any position at all, a kind of impuissance, a powerlessness to act: an attitude or posturing which most Frenchies detested.

Although there was a sort of integrity on either side and in both approaches, it was yet among these “others”, Americans, Italians or Germans for example, that I observed and noted, for the first times in Auroville, the use of subterfuges, play-

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