My experience of Satprem

his years in the Ashram – Tanmaya was French-born and they were nearly of the same age and Mother had formed and trained each of them. But I had taken advantage of this new letter to broach another topic, that of Satprem’s own communication with the Aurovilians, which remained still very selective; many were of the view that this sort of elitism could not last much longer and that he would have to address himself to all equally. So I wrote to him about it, because I too felt the need of an opening. Satprem replied to me: “16 th of Feb. 81. Divakar, the ‘problem of communication’ is really so that you find the inner communication! Auroville must learn to find its own solutions. And it is in this regard that I will say nothing concerning Tanmaya – up to you all to feel what is straight and what isn’t. I do not know what happened with my letter ‘read in the Cooperative’, but evidently I do not think of writing to the whole of Auroville; there are still too many enemies and bad wills that would pounce upon my letters for their twisted ends. The consciousnesses must clear, then all will be clear. (Your letter wasn’t that clear!). I am with you, always and very affectionately. Satprem. PS: All said and done, has T.’s entry into Auroville been simple? It is a good criterion.” During the same period of time, we received in the work team, through A.B, a longer letter from Satprem regarding the acceptance or rejection of newcomers to Auroville. Indeed we only had at our disposal subjective criteria and no organization seemed liable to ever replace or even simply serve Mother’s direct action. Yet if we wanted to be credible and respected, we simply had to set into motion some sort of acceptable mechanism which the Government could recognize, if it was not to impose on us its own parameters. Satprem wrote: “Regarding the eviction of the ‘undesirable persons’ from Auroville. Firstly, the Cooperative must be officially empowered with the right to determine who may reside in Auroville, not only in terms of visas and guarantees, but in a general way. Therefore one must wait for the Supreme Court’ verdict. This right must be absolutely recognized. 1- The Aurovilians, represented by the Cooperative, must be able to decide as regards the quality of the members of their community. 2- Once this is secured, and by virtue of this right, they will be in

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