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An Offering

For a new beginning

திய த ொட

க

தி

கன

ஒ

காண

கை

Une offrande

Pour un nouveau commencement

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2024-2025

Greetings.

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Here is a first document conceived for a

collaborative work of scrutiny and research so as to

reach, now itself, in 2024, a new threshold of

common commitment at the service of Auroville.

The document which will result of this shared

research can then serve as a basis for a unified

collective action.

Notes for a new beginning.

Introduction:

There has been a break, a fracture, a disruption in

our collective experience and in the temporal history

of Auroville: in 2021, the central Government of

India took over the control of all assets, lands and

services of Auroville and massively invested public

funds, through its Ministry of Education, so as to

hasten what it deems to be a priority in the outer

development of the “project”.

This orientation has been made possible by the

conviction a number of Aurovilians held of the

imperative necessity to win back all the time lost in

the meanders of a collective experiment too

nebulous and vitiated by egoism.

According to them, the general plan of the

city-to-be as prepared by the team of Roger Anger

in the 70s, constituted an indefectible program of

action decreed by the Mother and neglected,

ignored or contested for far too long. This particular

approach has provided a laudable argument for the

Government to actually engage in its own principal

objective of reclaiming this whole enterprise of

international repute as its own on the world-scene,

determining its actions on the ground through its

chosen representatives.

This intervention has had many consequences,

materially as well as psychologically.

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Everything has been questioned.

Our various comprehensions of the “Spirit of

Auroville” have certainly suffered.

However, if one refers oneself to the Mother, this

episode too must serve the progress of our

consciousness, for Auroville cannot fail, since its

conception and its birth, as its goal and action, do

not ultimately depend on our humanity alone, but

on the Consciousness-Force at work upon earth.

This document is offered as a tool of work and

reflection, so as to assist us in elaborating the terms

of a renewed commitment, individual and collective.

We have at our disposal to sustain this task more

than 50 years of experience and, if one may well be

proud of the quality of the realizations and

achievements, it is time for us to look at, with the

acquired discernment and with sobriety, all of the

weaknesses, betrayals, all the small failures and

imitations and poor approximations that have

weighed on and slowed our progress; for, had we

acted and developed according to the true

Consciousness alone, we would be stronger and

would not have been thus divided, impuissant and

exposed.

Therefore, this document is presented as a tool of

perception and collaborative search.

Whether in small groups or individually, one can

contribute to it, alter, complete, simplify and clarify

it and thus we shall eventually find in it a ground of

agreement and common action.

How to, all together, find again the sense of the

Auroville Way, now, today, in 2024?

How to re-learn together, learn anew to serve the

spirit of Auroville, so that it incarnates progressively

upon earth in a collective body?

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What can we, must we retain of the past experience

since the foundation of Auroville in 1968?

Here are some notes and propositions to be shared,

contemplated, developed so as to commit, each and

all, to a more conscious and more humble process

of evolution, offered to the task before us all, at the

service of Truth.

Resolutions:

1. Never to lie.

Never to lie to oneself but maintain a constant

vigilance, lucidity, honesty, sincerity, integrity in

every movement of our being (mental, emotional,

vital, physical, material).

Never to lie to anyone under any pretext: one may

abstain and keep silent, if one perceives a possible

danger resulting from saying what one knows to be

true, but in no circumstance must one ever allow

oneself to knowingly and voluntarily distort the

actual truth.

Truth is the only durable and solid foundation for

the evolution of Auroville.

Any lie, as inconsequent at it may appear, acts like

an invisible corrosion which eventually will corrupt

the entire collective edifice.

2. Creation of a Forum.

Approach every difficulty and every contradiction as

an occasion to develop a better understanding and

as an indication of the needed progress.

Open and maintain an organ of reflection and

offering – a Forum – constantly accessible, both

physically and virtually, wherein each and everyone

may present an observation, a question, so as to

place it in relation to the spirit of Auroville.

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Every subject, every issue, can be presented there,

for there is nothing that cannot or must not be

offered to the Force of change, to the force of Truth,

beyond all judgment, opinion, prejudice, in an

aspiration towards an ever more inclusive,

comprehensive, integral harmony.

And in practicing this approach, we may thus be

more able to evolve in our organization as in our

relation to the world.

3. Individual receptivity.

Aspire, in every domain of existence, to receive the

right inspiration and to become capable of

responding to it without distorting it; develop,

through every circumstance, a capacity of calm,

impersonal intuition so as to serve a collective

evolution more and more conscious of what is “the

True, the Right and the Vast” – “Satyam, Ritam,

Brihat”.

4. Harmony through the living truth.

Learn together, through everything, to integrate the

complementary aspects of the Truth, beyond all

dogma, doctrine and reductionist morals, so as to

become able to practice and to live a real freedom,

which respects and includes all of the present

diversity, at every moment.

Just as no aspect of the divine Consciousness

(Light, Knowledge, Truth, Joy, Love, Harmony,

Existence...) excludes the others, no expression of

the Truth excludes its other expressions; but, in

order to really comprehend this, one must grasp

each aspect within the breast of Unity/Oneness,

where there is no division, nor any contradiction,

but a living and creative complementarity.

5. Develop discernment.

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Learn together, each individual contributing one’s

experience, to discern the source and origin of

every movement and expression, so as to establish

progressively an environment ever more conscious

of the true harmony.

6. A universal culture.

Discover together a living culture that will be

universal enough to integrate the profound

realizations of our inherited respective cultures, no

longer insisting on past forms and traditions, but

opening to new forms of creative mutuality.

7. Human relationships within the new

consciousness.

Discover together the inter-relational practices that

express and manifest the aspiration to a truer life

upon earth: how to approach procreation, how to

accompany the gestation and birth of the child, how

to approach any relationship of proximity and

contribute to its progress.

Each one must have found one’s true inner being,

independent of the circumstances of this present

birth, and be free to choose and to celebrate every

relationship, without ever trying to impose upon it

any past custom, habit or tradition, nor to

reproduce in Auroville past conventions and

practices that still obtain in contemporary societies.

Each and every moment of physical existence is the

occasion of a discovery and a progress and we must

therefore become more and more free of any

identification with any role and any status or

position and learn to continuously evolve.

8. Respect of all that is.

Learn ceaselessly to better respect all that lives, all

that is, every material object as every expression of

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Nature, as manifestations of the same One Presence

and Consciousness.

9. Every activity is service.

It is the spirit of service that makes it possible for

every activity to find its right place within the

collective existence, the life of the group and its

harmonious development; whatever may be the

individual capacities, the spirit of service makes it

possible for them to be integrated in a common

movement of evolution which is sustained by a

more and more concrete perception of Unity and

better and better honors its manifestation in the

physical world.

10. Stewards in the Divine’s name.

As willing servitors of the Truth-Consciousness that

is at once the origin and the guide of Auroville, we

are the stewards of the land and assets of Auroville,

not their owners; no individual, nor any institution

can claim any right of ownership on Auroville.

Thus, Auroville is a first outline of a terrestrial

realization, when all is the habitation of the

Supreme.

In the measure that Auroville requires more land for

its wholesome development, we must rely upon the

Grace that has guided and protected Auroville ever

since its conception and, meanwhile, we must be

actively aware of each smallest parcel of land that

has been offered for its work upon earth and tend it

to the best of our capacities.

Likewise, every building, all equipment and every

structure must be tended and maintained with

respect and care, remaining free of any financial

consideration, in the sense that all that is offered to

the Divine becomes priceless, beyond any valuing

appreciation, and must be utilized with utmost care

at the service of Truth.

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11. Collaborative creation.

All that we earn or acquire through our work helps

us to establish the environment of harmonious

prosperity which must reign in Auroville; the right

management of our resources demands a

perception that is wide and impersonal enough of all

needs and priorities, as well as a meticulous

attention, avoiding and preventing any waste,

squandering or neglect.

However, if one occupies a strategic position in the

circulation of energies, one must be not only

accessible to others’ contributions and observations,

but to actually invite them, for no one can be aware

of all details at the same time.

The responsibility for the maintenance and harmony

of the whole lies with everyone equally, at every

moment.

Money has value only in our relation with the world

as it still is, so as to convert it into those goods and

elements which the collectivity is not yet able to

produce or generate.

12. Our privilege and our task.

Aurovilians, inhabitants or residents of Auroville, we

know a privilege that is unique upon earth and it is

only insofar as we really are servitors of the divine

consciousness, of the force of Truth, that we are

worthy of this privilege and may practice a right

relationship with the world at large.

Whatever be our activity in the service of Auroville,

it is through our self-giving and consecration that

we can let flow and directly communicate something

of the true consciousness and of the raison d’être of

Auroville, which “belongs to humanity as a whole”.

Of this humanity, we are the representatives placed

inside the cauldron and crucible at the service of a

change of condition for all.

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What we learn on the ground, in our

consciousnesses, and become capable of

embodying, transmits itself without artefact or

explanation.

Let us aspire to ever more truth in all of our actions

and movements: this aspiration is itself our

message and our sharing.

***

Necessary questioning of our practices

A major objection to the character of such a

document and of such a research or quest is that it

seems too distant from the practical “reality”, the

reality that we experience daily, the “normal”

reality, the reality which is still, in fact, sovereign.

Why then do we not approach those questions that

rise every single day for most of us in Auroville?

Let us then look at two most glaring questions.

. The first one, the most nagging question, which

preoccupies the most, is this:

How to illumine, simplify, “equalize” the economic

situation of every Aurovilian?

How to guard from the tendency to re-form and

re-create classes and castes?

. The second one demands a broadened and

extended reflexion: it is the question of tourism in

Auroville and, particularly, the considerable touristic

attraction that the Matrimandir exerts, such as its

gilded sphere and its decorative surroundings have

been conceived and realized so far.

For it is very necessary that we ask ourselves in full

clarity: what is the message which is actually

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expressed and transmitted to the public by the

present Matrimandir?

Millions of people have already come to it as visitors

or tourists: what have they kept of it in their

consciousness, what is their understanding or its

role, its utility, its function – and of the experience

the Aurovilians may have of it?

Does the present image of the Matrimandir convey

the terrestrial sense of the Mother and Sri

Aurobindo’s Yoga, of the attempt at a change of

consciousness that Auroville represents?

Mother had wanted the construction of the

Matrimandir at the very centre so as to establish

there a site of silent concentration dedicated to the

Consciousness-Force, a haven of calm surrounded

by the living beauty of Nature, at the very heart of

the multiplicity of Auroville: does the organization

that has developed around the Matrimandir over the

decades manifest the living and conscious

relationship of those individuals constituting the

community of Auroville with the source of their

inspiration, the force of their evolving towards the

new species?

Auroville must find a more fecund and conscious

rapport with the world at large – and the role of the

Matrimandir needs to be clarified.

Its building, which has taken many years, and the

elaboration of its “gardens” and its “lake”, just as its

constant and daily maintenance and upkeep, have

always been and continue to be funded by

donations exclusively and required and continue to

require the physical input of hundreds of hired

workers.

These two issues, or fields of questioning, bring us

back to the initial aspiration: to learn to live

together beyond all the divisions, chasms of

differences and identifications which render the

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human societies unable to constantly evolve and

compel the individuals who begin to awaken to free

themselves first of their weight.

Why indeed, after more than fifty years, have we

not yet found the way for each and all of us to

participate in actual solidarity to whatever is to be

done, to each and every “work” – by which we

would gain an entirely new perspective on all

activity and all development?

Happy search!!!

***

(Send your suggestions and proposals to this

address: offeringinprogress@proton.me

and we shall proceed further in the formulation of a

clear document of renewal and commitment)