On Auroville 2022 to 2025

Mother had always taken great care to accept only unconditional donations, or else loans that were sufficiently flexible and comprehensive; likewise, She had categorically excluded any attempt of interference on the part of any outside organization in the affairs of the Ashram or of Auroville, whatever may be the i nitial „good‟ intentions. This we did not heed or mind enough. And thus, with the assurance of a relative economic security and the possibility of creating new structures without eating away from the funds generated by the productive and commercial activities of the Aurovilians, a precedent set in which embodied the ambiguousness of this relationship with the ordinary power – an instrument of effectuation which could as well serve the future as it could curse and cripple our aspiration, for it was no longer some part of humanity which felt the call and the will to collaborate, but a formidable machinery which could eventually turn against any attempt at autonomy. And while this ambiguity was settling, the second temptation thrived on an ever growing number of diverse recriminations, complaints and requests which one would ordinarily address to “those who govern and have power” ; the desire or the opportunity to look up to a well-seated and legitimate authority in the orbit of society did its gnawing business and a sort of subtle habit of treason could lodge itself midst us all. Instead of addressing all problems and all questions as so many occasions given us to progress together towards more awareness and discernment, more ability to assimilate, integrate and convert the parts of our humanity, this other bad fold did its usual business and it became almost acceptable to turn to the Government – to its representatives – for all manners of redressal or justice, or even of moral support, and all that much energy was thus dissipated or misdirected. The third deviation almost logically rises from the second one, or from the influence it exerted on our collective approach to organization. Instead of persevering in the progressive discipline of changing our attitude to power, of learning to consider every work and every task as a service to the Truth Consciousness, be they administrative, creative, productive or domestic, we opted for centralization of all the conventional „powers‟ and assembled their material functioning in a single location, in which we even invited the governmental bureaucracy to settle jointly, and all this right on the edge of and overseeing the area most essential to the adventure, that of the inner Sanctorum.

And thus we have, to all practical ends and for the time being, partly renounced to develop the spirit of service in each and all of our activities.

This is closely related, in physical as in psychological terms, to this other, fourth deviation – but this numbering may be inaccurate as one may well consider this slide or slippage or yielding as rather central and determining of the rest: this is to do with the orientation – physical, public and cultural – which has been forced or imposed upon the existence of Matrimandir.

Rather than a space of concentration entirely dedicated to the Force of Truth, to which one would accede from an area entirely and silently reserved to the beauty

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