journal d'une transition

748

*6-9-1987, Auroville: Devaraj came, along with Mani, N’s brother-in-law, a gentle fellow; they had contacted one Ar, who has some influence over the man M, one of the Alankuppam village chiefs, who had given N’s name to the Police and produced two of the witnesses against him; and this Ar had promised that he could make M pull out, so that the Case would be somewhat invalidated… As a first step they needed to find out whether they could put some of their own land as surety instead of money, so that N could be bailed out… *7-9-1987, Auroville: There was a big storm last night, with gigantic lightnings and formidable thunder stroking, lashing and cracking and tearing right above the house; hardly any wind, and the rain drove deep into the ground… … N cried a lot when I visited him today, and he asked about his kids; I promised to bring them along the next time… … All the roads in Auroville are damaged, and many bunds in “Ravena” had to be repaired; Yaap sent his own men to help… *8-9-1987, Auroville: The more I learn about this story, the more overwhelming is the sense of the falsity that dominates and pervades this world of village politics, customs, and balance of power; it is as if truth couldn’t exist there at all, couldn’t be found anywhere… It now appears that N was framed after some village chief convened a meeting and collected enough money to build a case against him; the actual event of the beating of the victim had involved nearly a dozen people and had taken place right next to where N had been sitting, at the arrack shop; at first the family of the victim had been willing to accept compensation, but that same man, M, had intervened and given the names of N and Logan to the Police; everyone then had become accomplice to these manoeuvres, and the sub-Inspector himself must have been part of it, so that there is no way for me to straighten it out… As for superior echelons, it falls into the larger political play in Pondy, between the supporters and representatives of the Indira Congress Party and their opposition, as both the sides are competing to draw votes from our villages; and besides I would only be trying to fight an entire way of life from which nearly everyone draws contentedly some benefit or security… There is no room in this world…! Unless one wields the power of money, there is no way one may even try to exist away from these practices… I do not understand what the Lord expects from us, whether here in the local web of circumstances, or in the world at large… Auroville as it is lived at present makes no sense; India as it is lived now makes no sense; the Western world as it is lived now makes no sense… Is one bound to merely wait, till it all rots? But isn’t all substance one? How is one to preserve one’s creative awareness of the Real, of That which cannot rot, but progresses, transforms itself, grows and becomes? It is really money that governs this world; it is its power that reigns over the physical consciousness…