journal d'une transition

1378

*Open Letter to the Governing Board, by Jean Yves, August 15, 2003:

“Dear Members of the Governing Board,

Arjun’s letter of June 21 st raised important points which have not yet been taken into consideration, the style of the letter having distracted the readers from its contents. But we can always go to the quieter enquiries of reason and dig up more deeply and precisely the issues that are at stake; since Auroville is a place for research, it is as a researcher that I would like to invite you, by this open letter, to some fundamental questioning. Auroville being a society in the making and not only a legal body, the central question of its polity lies in the process of legitimation: how do you make decisions legitimate? Throughout history, two ways have been tried out and combined: the transcendent authority of the word of God (or of Science) and the general will of the people. The key to unite the people lies in the transcendent, this stock of living values they agree to believe in, to implement in their collective life or, better, to become in their inner and outer nature. The sensitive point has always been to determine who possesses this transcendent word, or how it has to be interpreted. Auroville has a unique feature, which makes of it a real beginning for a new way of making a society: the Truth the Mother refers to as its foundation is to be discovered experimentally and not imposed from above by the mind. And this Truth is not exclusive but all-inclusive, synthetic and capable therefore to harmonise what seems to be divergent or antagonist. Therefore our capacity to harmonise and synthesise our antagonisms will give us the exact measure of our realisation of Auroville’s ideals. It is this feature which makes Auroville a unique experiment in Human Unity, for if all the conflicting values cannot be reconciled in a comprehensive view, if one has to win over and suppress the others, then human unity is impossible, at least in a progressive and harmonious way. The process of harmonisation by mutual inclusion is therefore one of our most central guidelines, I would say a strategic value in our development policies. In the Matrimandir issue, the Governing Board has decided to invalidate it. Even the very precise and relevant statement of the Mother about Matrimandir work, saying that Paolo and Roger should work together and why (Mother’s Agenda, 31-12-69) has been ignored. Incapable therefore of including the Matrimandir Workers Team’ views and to combine them with Roger’s approach, or to invite Aurovilians to do so in fidelity to their law of development, it had to go for legal means in order to impose a unilateral exclusive view, far more simple to deal with. But all the legal means of the world cannot abrogate the Mother’s guidelines that are available to every Aurovilian and which make Auroville so unique, and the Governing Board’s decisions will appear more and more as based on an illegitimate ground, therefore undermine at the outset, which is not a healthy situation. Moreover, we will have the issue of the Matrimandir Gardens for years on our table, because no true solution has been found. If you doubt it, just imagine the situation once it has been settled that a huge lake will be there: its realisation will be stuck in its financial dimensions and technical incertitude, and will only leave an empty space around Matrimandir, as also time for endless discussions without prospect of practical solutions, and without any method of reconciliation, since the only one that was given to us by the Mother had been rejected.