journal d'une transition

1282

- Misuse of status and function. The “chief architect” has somehow – I do not know how exactly – been an active member of the Governing Board for several years, been in fact the only individual to have sat on at least 3 successive Governing Boards, under 3 successive Chairmen. From this august position he has had no qualms in pressing for the implementation of his own agenda and his personal vendetta. Under a previous Chairman he had tried to have Arjun removed. Under this Chairman he has tried to have me removed. He has also thus been able to hijack a collective process of defining a much needed Land Use Master Plan for the entire area, in order to have a full fledged City Master Plan legalised. - Calumny. My personal itinerary has provided me with first-hand experience. I suppose I am partly to blame, being rather asocial and therefore little inclined to belabour at projecting a popular image of my little self. But here is a fine example: some months ago, when the “chief architect” saw that I was not being lynched or excommunicated as fast as planned, he declared, in order to further prove the darkness of my nature, that my name had not actually been given to me by the Mother, but taken by me alone. This, I felt, was the height of calumny, for it implied that my entire relationship with the Mother was based on a falsehood. A few people whom I respect, another member of the Governing Board among them, asked me whether I could prove that indeed the Mother has given me the name “Divakar”; I could and I did; and the relevant documents now rest in the Auroville Archives, under Krishna’s care (which is fitting). - Building up one’s foe. It is often said by the “chief architect” and his entourage that I have the ambition to compete with him and to replace his designs with mine. One instance is often cited, of the entranceways to the central stairwell of the Matrimandir, for which I am supposed to be pushing for my own design. But I do not have designs. The facts are quite different: the “chief architect” himself had earlier, aware of practical objections raised by many to his latest design, invited for mock-ups of alternatives to be presented to him. Following this, Walter and myself made a mock-up of the “Chief Architect”’s own earliest design, which allowed for a wider opening and was free of jutting corners and angles, while basically expressing the same movement and spirit. This was done to remind him of his own original idea, which we found more practical than the present one. In today’ Auroville, where expertise, diplomas, “professional” stamps, and any kind of certificate are again the rage, where a horde of architects compete for a few acres of land on which to leave their signature, if one has been thoughtless enough to come to the Mother without such diplomas to flag about, and to endeavour to learn directly from Her and from Her Matrimandir, one is either considered worthless or an engine of bad will. But I have been under the growing impression that, provided one remained focussed in matter while simultaneously aspiring for the growth of the true consciousness, in receptivity to her, one would eventually be enabled to face any task at hand with a creative inspiration, within a team of living souls, each