Chapter 21Auroville
Book 4. Part Four:
Part Four Aims and Principles
[facsimiles on this entire page]
women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.
The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.
8 September 1965
*
1. Who has taken the initiative for the construction of Auroville?
The Supreme Lord.
2. Who participates in the financing of Auroville?
The Supreme Lord.
3. If one wants to live in Auroville, what does it imply for oneself?
To try to attain the Supreme Perfection.
4. Must one be a student of yoga in order to live in Auroville?
All life is yoga. Therefore one cannot live without practising the supreme yoga.
5. What will be the Ashram’s role in Auroville?
Whatever the Supreme Lord wants it to be.
6. Will there be camping-grounds in Auroville?
All things are as they should be, when they should be.
7. Will family life continue in Auroville?
If one has not gone beyond that.
8. Can one retain one’s religion in Auroville?
If one has not gone beyond that.
9. Can one be an atheist in Auroville?
If one has not gone beyond that.
10. Will there be a social life in Auroville?
If one has not gone beyond that.
11. Will there be compulsory community activities in Auroville?
Nothing is compulsory.
12. Will money be used in Auroville?
No, Auroville will have money relations only with the outside world.
13. How will work be organised and distributed in Auroville?
“Money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing. There, work would not be a way to earn one’s living but a way to express oneself and to develop one’s capacities and possibilities while being of service to the community as a whole, which, for its own part, would provide for each individual’s subsistence and sphere of action.”1
14. What will be the relations between the inhabitants of Auroville and the outside world?
Each person is allowed full freedom. The external relations of residents in Auroville will be established for each one according to his personal aspiration and his activities within Auroville.
15. Who will own the land and buildings of Auroville?
The Supreme Lord.
16. What languages will be used for teaching?
All the spoken languages of the earth.
17. What will be the means of transport in Auroville?
We do not know.§
19652
* its realisation does not proceed in the usual human way and it is more visible to the inner consciousness than to the outer eye.§
January 1966
* 1 Extract from “A Dream”, an essay by the Mother. 2 Mother answered these questions orally in 1965. When she read the notation on 8 October 1969, she changed answers 12 and 17 to read as printed here.
You say that Auroville is a dream. Yes, it is a “dream” of the Lord and generally these “dreams” turn out to be true — much more true than the human so-called realities!
20 May 1966
* Humanity is not the last rung of the terrestrial creation. Evolution continues and man will be surpassed. It is for each individual to know whether he wants to participate in the advent of this new species.
For those who are satisfied with the world as it is, Auroville obviously has no reason to exist.
August 1966
* We would like to make Auroville the cradle of the Superman.
* political and religious convictions.
20 September 1966
* nity, unity.§
20 September 1966
* As long as you are for some and against others, you are necessarily outside the Truth.
You should constantly keep good will and love in your heart and let them pour out on all with tranquillity and equality.
16 December 1966
* Auroville: At last a place where one will be able to think only of the future.
January 1967
*
(Message to be carved in stone and placed in or beside a lotus pond at Promesse.)
towards a future of Knowledge, Peace and Unity.
16 March 1967
*
Conditions for living in Auroville From the psychological point of view, the required conditions are:
(1) To be convinced of the essential unity of mankind and to have the will to collaborate for the material realisation of that unity;
(2) To have the will to collaborate in all that furthers future realisations.
The material conditions will be worked out as the realisation proceeds.
19 June 1967
*
The aims of Auroville
An effective human unity
Peace upon earth
*
at the service of Truth
28 February 1968
*
(Message for the Inauguration of Auroville)
[facsimile]
Greetings from Auroville to all men of good will.
Are invited to Auroville all those who thirst for progress and aspire to a higher and truer life.
28 February 1968
*
1) Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville be-longs to humanity as a whole.
But to live in Auroville one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2) Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3) Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future.
Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4) Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.
28 February 1968
[facsimile on rest of this and part of next page ]
[facsimile continues]
* At last a place where one will be able to think only of progressing and transcending oneself.
At last a place where one will be able to live in peace, without conflicts and without rivalries of nations, religions and ambitions.
At last a place where nothing will have the right to impose itself as the exclusive truth.
February 1968
*
What is the difference between the Ashram and Auro ville?
The Ashram will retain its true role of pioneer, inspirer and guide.
June 1968
* It is true that to live in Auroville a great progress of consciousness has to be made.
But the moment has come when this progress is possible. With all my love.
June 1968
*
(Message for the recipients of the essential material items distributed by Auroville Prosperity)
growth of the true consciousness.
16 June 1968
* Any sincere attempt to bring peace and unity among men is welcome in Auroville.
20 July 1968
* The push towards the future is to be ready to give up all gains, moral and material, in order to acquire what the future can give us.
Very few are like that, there are many who would like to have what the Future is bringing, but they are not ready to give up what they have in order to acquire the new wealth.
5 August 1968
* It is not for comfort and satisfaction of desires that one comes to Auroville; it is for the growth of consciousness and consecration to the Truth that has to be realised.
Unselfishness is the first need to participate in the creation of Auroville.
5 November 1968
*
Divine Mother,
How dependent is the building of Auroville upon
man’s acceptance of spirituality?
The opposition between spirituality and material life, the division between the two has no sense for me as, in truth, life and the spirit are one and it is in and by the physical work that the highest Spirit must be manifested.
19 April 1968
*
Divine Mother,
Is there any reason why in Auroville we should
have to compromise with the truth out of a feeling of expediency or material gain?
The very fact of living and acting is a compromise because the world is not yet living under the law of Truth.
7 June 1968
*
No big creation is possible without discipline — individual discipline, group discipline, discipline towards the Divine.
16 September 1968
*
(About the organisation of work)
The important thing is the execution which is to be carried out without ever losing sight of the ideal we want to realise.
December 1968
*
Sweet Mother,
There will be a general meeting tomorrow to try and
see whether it is possible for all of us to agree on a course of action.
Nobody speaks the same language; all the individ-
uals are very different and do not submit to a common discipline of action. I would like to receive some clear written answers from you so as to know what to say — something which would be the Truth and could help to dispel the confusion.
Does the construction of Auroville require a work-
ing-method, organisation and coordination?
Discipline is necessary for life. To live, the body itself is subject in all its functions to a rigorous discipline. Any relaxation of this discipline causes illness.
What should be the nature of this organisation, in the present and in the future?
Organisation is a discipline of action, but for Auroville we aspire to go beyond arbitrary and artificial organisation.
We want an organisation which is the expression of a higher consciousness working to manifest the truth of the future.
Until this group consciousness appears, and until we can work collectively in the true and right way, what should we do?
A hierarchical organisation grouped around the most enlightened centre and submitting to a collective discipline.
Must we use organisational methods which have proved effective but which are based on human logic and the use of machines?
This is a makeshift which we should submit to only very provisionally.
Must one allow individual initiative to manifest freely and inspiration and intuition to be the moving force behind personal action, and should one reject all ideas not felt as good by the interested party?
In order to be workable, this requires all workers of Auroville to be yogis conscious of the Divine Truth.
Has the time come to wish for, to set up, to try for a general organisation, or should one wait for the right attitude and men?
An organisation is needed for the work to be done — but the organisation itself must be flexible and progressive.
If to wait is the solution, is it nevertheless necessary to define organisational priniciples and to avoid uncontrollable disorder?
All those who wish to live and work at Auroville must have an integral goodwill, a constant aspiration to know the Truth and to submit to it, enough plasticity to confront the exigencies of work and an endless will to progress so as to move forward towards the ultimate Truth.
And, finally, a word of advice: be more concerned with your own faults than with those of others. If each one worked seriously at his own self-perfection, the perfection of the whole would follow automatically.§
6 February 1969
*
The city the earth
needs.
22 February 1969
*
(Message for the first anniversary of Auroville)
Let Light, peace and joy be with all those who live in Auroville and work for its realisation.
Blessings.
28 February 1969
*
(Message for the first anniversary of Auroville)
Freedom is possible only in union with the Divine.
To unite with the Divine one must have conquered in oneself the very possibility of desire.
28 February 1969
* The freedom we want to realise in Auroville is not licence — each one doing what he pleases without concern for the well-being of the organisation of the whole.
*
Is it the Divine Will that Auroville should be born, or else does the Divine look upon the attempt to build Auroville as an experiment?
The conception of Auroville is purely divine and has preceded its execution by many years.
Naturally, in the details of the execution the human consciousness intervenes.
17 April 1969
*
How can people having different values live and work together in harmony?
The solution is to go deep within oneself and find the place where all the differences combine to constitute the essential and eternal Unity.
4 May 1969
*
To Aurovilians To establish in Auroville the harmonious atmosphere which, by definition, ought to reign there, the first step is for each one to look within himself for the cause of friction and misunderstanding.
For these causes are always on both sides and before demanding anything from others, each one should first strive to eliminate them from himself.
4 July 1969
* Every good Aurovilian should strive to free himself from all desires, all preferences and all repulsions.
Equality in the face of all circumstances is the chief aim to be attained in order to live in Auroville.
* Quarrels are altogether contrary to the spirit of Auroville.
* Earth needs
a place where men can live away from all national rivalries, social conventions, self-contradictory moralities and contending religions;
a place where human beings, freed from all slavery to the past, can devote themselves wholly to the discovery and practice of the Divine Consciousness that is seeking to manifest. aspire to live the Truth of tomorrow.
20 September 1969
* and liberation of no longer having any personal possessions.
18 September 1969
* Peace through human unity: Unity through uniformity is an absurdity. Unity must be realised through the union of the many. Each one is part of the unity; each one is indispensable to the whole.
October 1969
*
Will a day come when there will be no more poor people and no more suffering in the world?
That is absolutely certain for all those who understand Sri Aurobindo’s teaching and have faith in him.
It is with the intention of creating a place where this could come about that we want to establish Auroville.
But for this realisation to be possible, each one of us must make an effort to transform himself; for most of the sufferings of men are the result of their own mistakes, both physical and moral.
8 November 1969
*
How can you believe that in Auroville there will be no more suffering so long as the people who come to live there are men from the same world, born with the same weaknesses and faults?
I have never thought that there would no more be suffering in Auroville, because men, as they are, love suffering and call it to them even while they curse it.
But we shall try to teach them to truly love peace and to try to practise equality.
What I meant was involuntary poverty and begging. Life in Auroville will be organised in such a way that this does not exist — and if beggars come from outside, either they will have to go away or they will be given shelter and taught the joy of work.
9 November 1969
*
What is the fundamental difference between the ideal of the Ashram and the ideal of Auroville?
There is no fundamental difference in the attitude towards the future and the service of the Divine.
But the people in the Ashram are considered to have consecrated their lives to Yoga (except, of course, the students who are here only for their studies and who are not expected to have made their choice in life).
Whereas in Auroville simply the good will to make a collective experiment for the progress of humanity is sufficient to gain admittance.
10 November 1969
*
(Written for a UNESCO committee)
The task of giving a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo’s vision was entrusted to the Mother. The creation of a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness is the work she has undertaken. By the very nature of things, it is a collective ideal that calls for a collective effort so that it may be realised in the terms of an integral human perfection.
The Ashram founded and built by the Mother was the first step towards the accomplishment of this goal. The project of the base of this attempt to establish harmony between soul and body, spirit and nature, heaven and earth, in the collective life of mankind.3
*
I have always considered the Ashram and Auroville to be parts of an integral whole. I cannot see them as different entities. How then was a difference made by you, Mother? Or is it that I am wrong somewhere? To me 3 When Mother reread this text in 1972, she added the words “more exterior” in the last sentence.
it seems that there is a great need for a move towards integration in our outlook.
The Ashram is the central consciousness, Auroville is one of the outward expressions. In both places equally the work is done for the Divine.
The people who live in the Ashram have their own work and most of them are too busy to give time to Auroville.
Each one must be busy with his own work; this is essential for a proper organisation.
* * To all those who want to live for the future:
A physical work is as indispensable to the balance of the body as food.
To eat without working causes a serious imbalance.
February 1970
* You must all agree.
That is the only way to do good work.
2 April 1970
* For everyone to agree each one must rise to the summit of his consciousness; it is on the heights that harmony is created.
April 1970
* We want the Truth.
For most men, it is what they want that they label truth. The Aurovilians must want the Truth whatever it may be. divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.
It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.
No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.
Get experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it.
The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness.
Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville — not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realisation.
PROGRAMME
Research through experience of the
Supreme Truth
A life divine
but
NO RELIGIONS
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.
2 May 1970
*
The notion of religion is most often linked to the search for God. Should religion be understood in this context only? As a matter of fact, are there not nowadays other forms of religion?
We give the name of religion to any concept of the world or the universe which is presented as the exclusive Truth in which one must have an absolute faith, generally because this Truth is declared to be the result of a revelation.
Most religions affirm the existence of a God and the rules to be followed to obey Him, but there are some Godless religions, such as socio-political organisations which, in the name of an Ideal or the State, claim the same right to be obeyed.
To seek Truth freely and to approach it freely along his own lines is a man’s right. But each one should know that his discovery is good for him alone and it is not to be imposed on others.
13 May 1970
* At Auroville nothing belongs to anyone in particular. All is collective property. To be utilised with my blessings for the welfare of all.
14 May 1970
*
To Be a True Aurovilian 1. The first necessity is the inner discovery in order to know what one truly is behind social, moral, cultural, racial and hereditary appearances.
At the centre there is a being free, vast and knowing, who awaits our discovery and who ought to become the active centre of our being and our life in Auroville.
2. One lives in Auroville in order to be free from moral and social conventions; but this freedom must not be a new slavery to the ego, to its desires and ambitions.
The fulfilment of one’s desires bars the way to the inner discovery which can only be achieved in the peace and transparency of perfect disinterestedness.
3. The Aurovilian should lose the sense of personal possession. For our passage in the material world, what is indispensable to our life and to our action is put at our disposal according to the place we must occupy.
The more we are consciously in contact with our inner being, the more are the exact means given to us.
4. Work, even manual work, is something indispensable for the inner discovery. If one does not work, if one does not put his consciousness into matter, the latter will never develop. To let the consciousness organise a bit of matter by means of one’s body is very good. To establish order around oneself helps to bring order within oneself.
One should organise one’s life not according to outer and artificial rules, but according to an organised inner consciousness, for if one lets life go on without subjecting it to the control of the higher consciousness, it becomes fickle and inexpressive. It is to waste one’s time in the sense that matter remains without any conscious utilisation.
5. The whole earth must prepare itself for the advent of the new species, and Auroville wants to work consciously to hasten this advent.
6. Little by little it will be revealed to us what this new species must be, and meanwhile the best course is to consecrate oneself entirely to the Divine.
13 June 1970
*
In Auroville “all is collective property.” Does this mean that everything can be used by everyone? Or should things be given only to those who treat them well?
I have also noticed that delicate pieces of equipment
become attached to one person and do not work well if they are lent to others.
All this implies a consciousness which is not very widespread on earth.
This does not mean that things should be given to people who do not know how to use them.
What is needed to administer Auroville is a consciousness free from all conventions and conscious of the supramental Truth. I am still waiting for someone like that. Each one must do his best to achieve that.
15 July 1970
*
(Some temporary visitors claimed the right to intervene in the organisation of Auroville. In this regard Mother wrote:)
To the inhabitants of Auroville Only those who have resolved to stay in Auroville for good have the right to intervene in its organisation.
22 January 1971
* All that I have to say for Auroville henceforth shall be put in writing and signed by me.
15 February 1971
*
“Should Auroville have any more new committees?” The Mother does not agree to any new committees for Au-roville. She says: “More committees, more useless talk.”
Blessings.
17 February 1971
*
Several among us have passed or are passing through a period of mental disequilibrium and incoherence. What attitude should we take towards those who are in this state? What should we do and not do to avoid passing through these crises?
Calm, peace, tranquillity always, and always to speak as little as possible and to act only when it is necessary. To avoid unconsciousness as much as possible.
17 February 1971
* True spirituality lies in the service of the divine work.
To refuse to work for all is only a demonstration of selfishness, and has no spiritual value.
The first thing to do to be able to live in Auroville is to consent to free oneself from one’s ego.
24 February 1971
*
(Message for the third anniversary of Auroville)
To all Aurovilians My blessings for the progress and the growth of the collective and individual consciousness.
28 February 1971
* To be an Aurovilian one must at least belong to the enlightened portion of humanity and aspire for the higher consciousness which will govern the species of tomorrow.
Always higher and always better, — beyond egoistic limita-tions.
February 1971
* equivalent to a day’s work.
February 1971
* One does not live in Auroville to be comfortable but to grow in consciousness and to serve the Divine.
1 March 1971
* Is it to satisfy little personal needs that you have come to Au-roville?
That was really not necessary. The ordinary world is there for that.
One comes to Auroville to realise a divine life which wants to manifest on earth.
Each one should make an effort in this direction and not remain hypnotised by the so-called “needs” which are nothing but personal fancies.
Look upward and forward, strive to surmount the animal human nature. Make the resolution and you will see that you are helped on the way.
3 March 1971
* To work for Auroville is to hasten the advent of a more harmonious Future.
27 March 1971
* In our smallest action we can serve the Divine if we have the right attitude.
15 April 1971
* It is in work done as an offering to the Divine that the consciousness develops best.
Indolence and inaction result in tamas which is a fall into inconscience and the very opposite of progress and light.
To surmount one’s ego and to live only in the service of the Divine, that is the ideal and the shortest way to acquire the true Consciousness.
27 April 1971
* I disapprove totally of violence. Each act of violence is a step back on the path leading to the goal to which we aspire.
The Divine is everywhere and always supremely conscious. Nothing must ever be done that cannot be done before the Divine.
6 May 1971
*
SYMBOL OF AUROVILLE
[facsimile (reproduction of Auroville’s symbol)]
The dot at the centre represents Unity, the Supreme; the inner circle represents the creation, the conception of the City; the petals represent the power of expression, realisation.§
16 August 1971
* Each thing in its place and there will be a place for everything.
26 August 1971
* To say “it is impossible to include this thing”, simply means that its true place has not been found.
26 August 1971
* All fancies are vital movements and most undesirable.
Liberty does not mean to follow one’s desires but, on the contrary, to be free from them.
27 August 1971
* For each problem there is a solution that can give satisfaction to everybody; but for finding this ideal solution each one must want it instead of meeting the others with the will to enforce one’s own preference.
Enlarge your consciousness and aspire for the satisfaction of all.
28 August 1971
* must make the resolution never to tell a lie.
28 August 1971
* You see only your side of the question, but if you want to widen your consciousness it would be better to look from all sides impartially. Later you will discover that this attitude has great advantages.
17 September 1971
* Widen your consciousness to the dimension of the earth and you will have a place for everything.
20 September 1971
* The ideal of the Aurovilians must be to become egoless — not at all to satisfy their ego.
If they follow the old human way of selfish claim, how can they hope the world to change?
23 October 1971
*
For those in Auroville who want to be true servitors, is Sunday a holiday?
In the beginning the organisation of the week was conceived in this way: six days of work for the collectivity to which the individual belonged; the seventh day of the week was reserved for the inner quest for the Divine and the offering of one’s being to the divine will. This is the only meaning and the only true reason for the so-called Sunday rest.
Needless to say, sincerity is the essential condition for reali-sation; all insincerity is a degradation.
25 October 1971
* Each one has good reasons to support his own opinion, and I am no expert to judge between them.
But from the spiritual point of view I know that with true goodwill all opinions can be harmonised in a more comprehensive and truer solution. This is what I expect from the workers of Auroville. Not that some give way to others, but that on the contrary all should combine their efforts to achieve a more comprehensive and perfect result.
The ideal of Auroville demands this progress — don’t you want to make it?
Blessings.
14 November 1971
* The only true freedom is the one obtained by union with the Divine.
One can unite with the Divine only by mastering one’s ego.
* on the teaching of Sri Aurobindo, where men of all countries would be at home.
January 1972
*
MESSAGE FOR UNESCO Reality upon earth.
The help of all those who find the world is not as it ought to be is welcome.
Each one must know if he wants to associate with an old world ready for death, or to work for a new and better world preparing to be born.
1 February 1972
*
Many in Auroville say that an organised working is not desirable in Auroville; they are for spontaneous working.
Spontaneous work can be done only by a man of genius.
Is there anyone claiming to be a genius?... Blessings.
3 July 1972
* To follow all the impulses of the lower nature is surely not the supramental way and has no place here.
What we want is to hasten the advent of the supramental, not at all to fall into the ugly condition of a humanity full of desires and low impulses.
10 July 1972
* So long as we go on telling lies, we go on pushing the happy Future far from us.
13 July 1972
* who are dissatisfied ought to return to the world where they can do what they want and where there is place for everybody.
2 October 1972
* For those who have been taken into Auroville on a wrong statement of theirs, there is only one solution: it is to cure in themselves all falsehood, that is to say, all that contradicts in their consciousness the Presence of the Divine.
22 October 1972
* The true spirit of Auroville is collaboration and must be more and more so.
True collaboration paves the way to divinity.
22 October 1972
*
(Three possible forms of greeting for those Aurovilians who wish to use them)
Au service de la V´erit´e At the service of Truth
Truth
30 October 1972
*
Harmony Good will Discipline
Truth I can work with you only if you do not say a lie and are at the service of Truth.
31 October 1972
* Before dying, falsehood rises in full swing.
Still people understand only the lesson of catastrophe. Will it have to come before they open their eyes to the Truth?
I ask an effort from all so that it has not to be. It is only the Truth that can save us, truth in words, truth in action, truth in will, truth in feelings. It is a choice between serving the Truth or being destroyed.
26 November 1972
* for an infra-humanity governed by its instincts and dominated by its desires. Those who belong to the infra-humanity, the animal humanity, have no place here. make an effort to reach there.
1 December 1972
*
(About a cyclone on the night of 5 December 1972)
It is a warning that nature is giving, that those who do not have the true spirit of Auroville will have to change or to go if they do not want to change.
7 December 1972
* Everybody has to progress and become more sincere. egos and their greeds, but for the creation of a new world, the supramental, expressing the divine perfection.
12 December 1972
* want to surmount their ego and renounce all desire, to prepare themselves for receiving the supermind. They alone are true Aurovilians.
Those who want to obey their ego and satisfy all their desires belong to a subhumanity and have no place here. They must return to the world which is their true place.
18 December 1972
*
To all those who are telling lies By the simple fact that you are telling lies you prove that you do not wish to be true Aurovilians.
If you wish to remain in Auroville you must stop lying.
19 December 1972
* To be a true Aurovilian one must never lie.
28 December 1972
*
Is Auroville the only solution to the misery of mankind and the disorders of society?
Not the only solution. It is a centre of transformation, a small nucleus of men who are transforming themselves and setting an example to the world. This is what Auroville hopes to be. As long as egoism and bad will exist in the world, a general transformation is impossible.
28 December 1972
*
What political organisation do you want for Auroville?
An amusing definition occurs to me: a divine anarchy. But the world will not understand. Men must become conscious of their psychic being and organise themselves spontaneously, without fixed rules and laws — that is the ideal.
For this, one must be in contact with one’s psychic being, one must be guided by it and the ego’s authority and influence must disappear.§
28 December 1972
* own progress.
This is written for each one; each one is concerned with himself first.
28 December 1972
* As long as they have desires, they are not true Aurovilians.
Let them not play with words: there is a world of difference between desires and aspiration. Every sincere person knows this. And above all let them not mistake their ego and their desires for the Divine. It is because they deceive themselves that they make this confusion.
They must be conscious of the divine presence in themselves, and for that, the ego must be silenced and desires must disappear.§
28 December 1972
* Jesus is one of the many forms which the Divine has assumed to enter into relationship with the earth. But there are and there will be many others; and the children of Auroville should replace the exclusiveness of one religion by the wide faith of knowledge.
* There is only one solution for falsehood: it is to cure in ourselves all that contradicts in our consciousness the presence of the Divine.
31 December 1972
* It is not what you do but the spirit in which you do it that makes Karmayoga.§
5 February 1973
*
15 February 1973
*
Only if and when the people living there will stop lying.
18 March 1973
*
[facsimile on this entire page]
When you say “I want to serve the Divine”, do you believe the All-Knowing does not know that it is a lie?
18 March 1973
* taught us the Karma Yoga. Auroville is for those who want to do the Yoga of work.
To live in Auroville means to do the Yoga of work. So all Aurovilians must take up a work and do it as Yoga.
27 March 1973 Matrimandir The Matrimandir wants to be the symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection.
Union with the Divine manifesting in a progressive human unity.
14 August 1970
* The Matrimandir wants to be the symbol of the Universal Mother according to Sri Aurobindo’s teaching.
* The Matrimandir will be the soul of Auroville.
The sooner the soul is there, the better it will be for everybody and especially for the Aurovilians.
15 November 1970
*
For the construction of the Matrimandir, will only Au-rovilians do the work or will there also be hired workers and other people of goodwill?
It is preferable that the work be organised without paid labour so that it is sure to continue in all circumstances.
16 February 1971
*
(Message for the laying of the Matrimandir foundation-stone)
Let the Matrimandir be the living symbol of Auroville’s aspiration for the Divine.
21 February 1971
[facsimile]
*
(Message for the beginning of work upon the Matri-mandir)
The fraternity of collaboration.
The aspiration towards Unity in joy and Light. Blessings.
14 March 1971
* As we are in a period of construction, it is imperative that the Aurovilians who live at the Centre work on the construction of the Matrimandir.
Those who do not want to work on the Matrimandir should not live at the Centre.
10 April 1971
* The Matrimandir is directly under the influence of the Divine and certainly He arranges things better than we could do ourselves.
October 1971
* There is only one Matrimandir, the Matrimandir of Auroville.
The others must have another name.
5 October 1971
* The safety and strength of the construction should come before personal questions.
I count upon you to see that everything is done harmoniously.
20 October 1971
*
Can you give some general ideas about the way in which you want the Matrimandir to be built, so that we shall have no more doubts and may build with light and confident hearts?
Strength, safety, durability, harmonious balance.
The foundations are especially important and should be done by experts.
There is room for everyone of goodwill, and for those who in all sincerity and simplicity want to offer their work, there is enough to keep them usefully occupied.
3 November 1971
*
(Message for the beginning of construction of the four foundation pillars which support the Matrimandir sphere)
Let Auroville be the symbol of a progressive Unity.
And the best way to realise this is a unity of aspiration towards the Divine Perfection in work and in feeling, in a consecration of the entire life.
21 February 1972
*
(Significance of the four pillars)
North
Mahakali
East
Mahalakshmi South
Maheshwari
West
Mahasaraswati
*
(Significance of the twelve underground rooms which will radiate from the Matrimandir foundation)
Sincerity, Humility, Gratitude, Perseverance, Aspiration, Receptivity, Progress, Courage, Goodness, Generosity, Equality, Peace.
July 1972
*
(Significance of the twelve gardens surrounding the Mat-rimandir)
Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Light, Life, Power, Wealth, Utility, Progress, Youth, Harmony, Perfection.
*
(Message for the concreting of the Matrimandir foundation floor)
Let us all work with a growing sincerity for the manifestation of the Divine Truth.
3 May 1972
*
(Message for the Matrimandir workers on the first day of Sri Aurobindo’s birth centenary)
Goodwill and peace to all.
15 August 1972 Community Affairs
GENERAL Auromod`ele is an attempt and an experiment. As it develops the organisation will be modified according to the need.
Every organisation should remain supple and flexible so as to progress constantly and modify itself when the need arises.
12 February 1963
*
Mother,
May I write in answer to X’s letter that any copy for
a brochure or pamphlet written either in America or at the Ashram regarding the American Pavilion [to be built in Auroville] must first be approved by you?
Nothing on any Auroville project can be published without my approval.
Blessings.
22 March 1966
*
Dear Mother,
Our vegetable crop has been attacked by insects.
While we are studying non-poisonous means of control, and until we have enough information to handle this problem, we thought of carefully using some insecticides. May we have permission to do this and your protection in handling them?
A mild and harmless protector is often more effective than a poisonous one.
1 April 1966
*
It seems to me that the very land of Auroville aspires. Is it true, Sweet Mother?
Yes, the land itself has a consciousness, even though this consciousness is not intellectualised and cannot express itself.
21 March 1968
*
(Message for the Auroville Liaison Office, established to raise funds and screen persons interested in visiting or living in Auroville)
To be at the head of the Liaison Office one must feel absolutely equal towards all and every nation.
A complete sincerity is required in this attitude.
April 1968
*
Divine Mother,
Do you want me to personally interview the people
who come here to work for Auroville before we send their pictures to you?
Yes.
20 June 1968
*
Divine Mother,
Last Sunday several of the Ashram younger chil-
dren unexpectedly went out on the Auroville lorry and spent the whole morning in Auroville. There were several adults along, including X, Y, Z and myself, to look after them.
Should we encourage the children to go out to Au-
roville on Sundays if we properly supervise them, or not?
Yes, they can go if it is well organised.
Blessings.
28 June 1968
*
Divine Mother,
1. Do we need a Personnel Department in Auroville?
No.
2. Should it be a part of the Liaison Office?
Do not multiply departments, titles and names. It complicates life uselessly.
28 June 1968
*
(Message for the laying of the foundation-stone of Auro-food Private Limited)
We shall work for a better tomorrow.
14 August 1968
*
(About Peace — the Matrimandir Workers Camp and its surrounding area)
I should like this whole place to be called “Peace”, and that peace, actual peace should reign there, not only between the occupants but with the whole of Auroville, present and future.
29 December 1968
*
It seems that there is more opposition to the Divine’s work at Peace than other places in Auroville. Is this true? Is there an occult reason for this?
Be confident and peaceful yourself.
That is contagious. My blessings are with you.
*
(Message for the inauguration of the Auroville blockmaking unit)
To do always our best in all sincerity.
To be always our best in all sincerity.
23 June 1969
*
(Message for Auroson’s House, Certitude community)
A New House for a New Consciousness.
Blessings.
25 June 1969
* Auromod`ele is being built to make a concrete experiment and to learn how to live in Auroville.
18 August 1969
*
Divine Mother,
I want to help build Auroville. I feel that the most
practical way for me to help would be to go back to America and work for Auroville. Is this your will?
My will is that you do some useful, practical and effective work in America or here according to your feeling.
With love and blessings.
31 December 1969
*
What is the purpose of life in Auroville in general and Auromod`ele in particular? Is it to serve the community or to be a true servitor of the Divine Consciousness?
The purpose of life in Auromod`ele is to learn to live in Auroville, to make all the experiments necessary for learning to live in Auroville.
We want to find a way for the community to live for the Divine.
Each individual has his own way but the group community should find a way to suit everyone.
22 May 1970
*
(About interviewing the residents of an Auroville community on various subjects)
It would perhaps be better to ask people who, by a serious practice of yoga, have had at least a glimpse of the Higher Wisdom.
*
Divine Mother,
What caused me to get sick this last time in Au-
roville? Will I be able to live in Auroville again?
Don’t think too much of yourself.
Love and blessings.
29 November 1970
*
(Message for the inauguration of Aspiration School)
A sincere will to know and to progress.
15 December 1970
*
(Languages to be studied at Aspiration School)
(1) Tamil (2) French (3) Simplified Sanskrit to replace Hindi as the language of
India (4) English as the international language.
15 December 1970
*
(Message for the Auroville office in Pondicherry)
A Sweet Year
2 January 1971
*
(Message for the Gazette Aurovilienne)
We would wish that this Gazette be the messenger of the future and of the progress to be realised for humanity.
January 1971
*
(Someone received a bill for food and transport between Pondicherry and Aspiration School in Auroville. She wrote to Mother, who replied:)
The education is free. But naturally the transport and food must be paid for.§
6 February 1971
*
(Someone asked whether chemical fertilisers and pesti-cides should be used in Auroville.)
NO, NO, NO. to a past that is trying to revive.
March 1971
* Cultivation without chemical fertilisers and dangerous insecti-cides is advisable.
*
(Messages for the inauguration of Last School, near Aspiration)
The future belongs to those who want to progress.
Blessings to those whose motto is: “Always better.”
In the physical the Divine manifests as Beauty.
6 October 1971
*
(Message for the flower-nursery “Beauty”)
Flowers are the prayers of the vegetal world.
The plants offer their beauty to the Supreme.
5 November 1971
*
(Significance of the garden surrounding the banyan tree at the geographical centre of Auroville)
Unity.
*
Divine Mother,
About Mahalakshmi, Sri Aurobindo has said: “If she
finds herself in men’s hearts surrounded with selfishness and hatred and jealousy and malignance and envy and strife, if treachery and greed and ingratitude are mixed in the sacred chalice, if grossness of passion and unrefined desire degrade devotion, in such hearts the gracious and beautiful Goddess will not linger. A divine disgust seizes upon her and she withdraws, for she is not one who insists or strives....”
In fear that you may do this, and with sorrow that
we have caused you pain, we, at Aspiration, ask your forgiveness. Many of us, many times, have promised to change; many of us again do so promise now. We pray for the grace. With our love.
My love and blessings are always with you for progress and transformation.1
12 April 1972
*
Beloved Mother,
In the practical contact with the “outside” world
I am often confronted with the decision how far I can comply with their forms and conditions and how strictly I should insist on the total newness of our attempts in Auroville.
A word from you would bring more light into my
engagement with the world outside of Auroville.
At the service of the Divine in full receptivity and sincerity.
Blessings.
2 January 1973
* 1 When writing her reply, Mother said that this letter should be framed and kept in the place of meditation.
SOCIAL REGULATIONS
(Someone asked about proper arrangements for the birth of an Auroville child. Mother advised that only the doctor and the father should be present, and added:)
The most important thing is to be quiet, in a peaceful atmosphere so that the Force can work without disturbance.§
* ... Of course the whole idea of marriage is amusing because I consider the thing childish.
You know in Auroville there will be no marriages. If a man and a woman love each other and want to live together they may do so without any ceremony. If they want to separate they can also do so freely. Why should people be compelled to stay together when they have ceased to love each other?
A lot of crimes would be prevented if people were free in this respect. They would not have to hide things from one another or even commit crimes to be separated. Of course, if they truly love each other they will continue to live together always naturally, without being forced to do so by any law. That is why this ceremony and ritual of marriage is so childish.
Children born in Auroville will have no family name. They will have just the first name.§
15 June 1968
(Mother suggested that the following letter of hers about marriage be published with the statement above.)
To unite your physical lives, your material interests, to become partners in order to face together the difficulties and successes, the defeats and victories of life — that is the very foundation of marriage, but you already know that it is not enough.
To be united in your sensations, to have the same aesthetic tastes and enjoyments, to be moved in common by the same things, one through the other and one for the other — that is good, that is necessary, but it is not enough.
To be one in your deeper feelings, to keep a mutual affection and tenderness that never vary in spite of all the blows of life and can withstand every weariness and irritation and disappointment, to be always and on every occasion happy, extremely happy, to be together, to find in every circumstance tranquillity, peace and joy in each other — that is good, that is very good, that is indispensable, but it is not enough.
To unite your minds, to harmonise your thoughts and make them complementary, to share your intellectual preoccupations and discoveries; in short, to make your sphere of mental activity identical through a widening and enrichment acquired by both at once — that is good, that is absolutely necessary, but it is not enough.
Beyond all that, in the depths, at the centre, at the summit of the being, there is a Supreme Truth of being, an Eternal Light, independent of all the circumstances of birth, country, environment, education; That is the origin, cause and master of our spiritual development; it is That which gives a permanent direction to our lives; it is That which determines our destinies; it is in the consciousness of That that you must unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to move forward at the same pace on the same spiritual path, that is the secret of a lasting union.
March 1933
*
At Aspiration (Auroville)
They want to have a meditation at the same time and with the same programme as the Ashram. The necessary information should be given to X.
*
Don’t you think that the two collective “meditations” that we are trying to have in Aspiration — on Thursday and Sunday at the same hours as the Ashram — are the minimum of inner discipline that our Aspiration should give to itself?
These rare moments of silence and the effort to con-
centrate together — if not to meditate — are they not an opportunity to receive your force and to open ourselves a little more to you and to Sri Aurobindo, helping to form our collective soul?
Without any wish to impose anything on anybody
from outside, is not this elementary discipline, however, necessary in the beginning?
Concentrating together is indeed a very good thing and helps you to become conscious. But it cannot be imposed. I advise you and them to organise this moment of silence daily for all those who want to participate, but without imposing anything on the others. It is not compulsory but it is good.
13 November 1970
* Smoking must not become a public menace.
Those who cannot do without smoking may do it in a room expressly set aside for the purpose.
* Children below fifteen years will see only educational films.§
Care should be taken in selecting films to be shown in Auroville.§
All that encourages the lower movements and actions must be avoided.
25 February 1972
*
The residents of Auroville can lodge their friends if they contribute towards their expenses. The stay should be temporary, for a few days.
Not more than a week.
27 February 1971
* Drugs are prohibited in Auroville.
If there are any who take them, they do it deceitfully. The ideal Aurovilian, eager to become conscious of the Divine Consciousness, takes neither tobacco, nor alcohol, nor drugs.
February 1971
*
Three years ago, you said:
“I have been asked what the rules are for life in
Auroville.
“Thank God, as yet there are none. “As long as there are none, there is hope.” In July, again you were telling the young people of
Aspiration, “I do not want to make rules for Auroville as I did for the Ashram.” But recently you wrote, “Drugs are prohibited in Auroville.” Has there been a change in your vision of Auroville?
Perhaps Aurovilians have not attained the level of consciousness that is expected of them.
4 March 1971
*
Is it true, Mother, that though you do not want drugs to be taken at Aspiration, you tolerate them on the other hand at the Centre or in other parts of Auroville?
This is a lie.
I have said, no drugs in Auroville, and I do not go back on my word.
Is it true that essentially you are not against the experience?
This so-called experience warps the development and damages the consciousness; on the pathway to the Divine it is a fall into the rut.
This is clear, I think.
15 April 1971
*
Matrimandir Workers Camp Kitchen
and Dining Room
These are meant primarily for Matrimandir workers and should be kept clean and used cleanly. One should not smoke here and should learn to eat in quietude.
In this country cleanliness is indispensable to avoid typhoid.
1 June 1971
*
(Message for the Matrimandir Workers Kitchen)
An absolute cleanliness is indispensable in this country and climate to avoid illness. Great precautions must be taken.
* Sexual activities bind man to the animal and they will be completely transformed in the future.
Those who want to work for the future and prepare themselves to live it, would do well not to be hypnotised by this subject which animalises the consciousness. Above all, do not associate it with love in your thought, for they really have nothing to do with each other.
23 November 1971
* We are always too attracted by animals, and it is more interesting to look to the future than towards the past.
As far as I am concerned, a zoo does not interest me. We already tend to be too attached to animality rather than supermentality.§
31 August 1972
* To take pleasure in dirt and disorder is a sure sign of a nature which rejects its psychic being and wants nothing to do with it.
21 October 1972
* Cleanliness is the first indispensable step towards the supramental manifestation.
21 January 1973
*
RELATIONS WITH LOCAL VILLAGERS
Mother Divine,
A few points on which Thy divine guidance is re-
quired.
There is resistance from the villagers in selling their
lands. This may be because we have done nothing to integrate them with Auroville. They feel it is a foreign imposition on them which will do them no good but will drive them from their hearths and homes.
Should we not demonstrate to them our real inten-
tions by providing them with facilities such as a dispensary, a school, clean drinking water, etc.? This would be money well spent if it is done with love and humility and not as charity.
This is indispensable.
April 1969
*
(Someone working at the Community Workers Kitchen near Aspiration wrote:)
Some would like to continue giving food to the
workers, others feel that even if funds were available they could be utilised better elsewhere. Please give us your guidance.
Once you have started giving food to the workmen, you cannot stop doing so, otherwise you would lose their confidence. This is imperative — show it to the others.
Blessings to all.
4 April 1969
*
(After the departure of the supervisor of the Community Workers Kitchen, someone wrote:)
The feeding of the Auroville workers has never been
interrupted and I personally will manage it, till a new arrangement can be found.
Very good.
It would give all of us strength and the awareness of unity if this programme of giving a free midday meal to all Auroville workers received a message from you.
Goodwill for all and goodwill from all is the basis of peace and harmony.
Blessings.
13 August 1969
* Those who are in contact with the villagers should not forget that these people are worth as much as they are, that they know as much, that they think and feel as well as they do. They should therefore never have an attitude of ridiculous superiority.
They are at home and you are the visitors.§
September or October 1969
* To the inhabitants of Aspiration:
A relationship that is not only cordial but friendly with the inhabitants of the neighbouring village is absolutely indispensable. For the realisation of Auroville the first step is to establish a true human fraternity — any shortcoming in this regard is a grave mistake which can compromise the whole work.
My blessings are with all sincere effort towards harmony.
23 November 1969
*
In connection with the integration programme of the families from the village, which started on 7 August 1970, we pray for your guidance in the following:
(1) Whether they are to be treated as Aurovilians in
all matters.
Yes.
(2) Whether regular Prosperity should be issued to them.
Yes.
(3) Whether all Prosperity items can be taken from Au-roville Prosperity.
All that they choose to take.
(4) Whether any guiding principles should be laid down for them on joining Auroville. If yes, the Mother may kindly enlighten us.
Certainly it would be good if somebody was intelligent enough to do it and do it well.
(5) Whether any particular amount for food should be fixed per person per day; if yes, whether Rs. 2.50 per adult and Rs. 2.00 per child will be all right.
There must be a period of at least one month during which they are given what they ask. Afterwards we shall see what may be done reasonably.
10 September 1970
*
As we intend to serve a better type of food than the villagers usually take, is it advisable to allow those who are willing to take food from the Community Kitchen on payment at a reasonable rate?
Yes — at cost price.
Blessings.
November 1970
* From the spiritual point of view, India is the foremost country in the world. Her mission is to set the example of spirituality. Sri Aurobindo came on earth to teach this to the world.
This fact is so obvious that a simple and ignorant peasant here is, in his heart, closer to the Divine than the intellectuals of Europe.
All those who want to become Aurovilians must know this and behave accordingly; otherwise they are unworthy of being Aurovilians.
8 February 1972
*
(Someone offered to help to clean Last School)
It is all right. But while putting things in order, be very careful not to offend the people from the Tamil village. It has been very difficult for us to win their confidence and nothing should be done which could make them lose this new-born confidence which is of capital importance.
Take with you someone who knows and speaks Tamil fluently so that you can talk with them and explain things to them.
They are your brothers in spirit — this should never be forgotten.
July 1972 Finance
To find the necessary funds for Auroville one could proceed in the following manner: Find in every country a very wealthy person who would be the centre for collecting funds for Auroville.
Advantages: Such a person would carry weight,
would be an example for the others and would never give the impression of begging.
In principle this way is all right. But in practice, and to avoid all possibility of failure (because failure would have a deplorable effect), we must wait for an indication from circumstances of which I will be immediately informed. And then I will give the signal to go ahead.
November 1965
*
Mother,
Will X play a part in helping to organise the Amer-
ican Pavilion, and if so may she start fundraising in America immediately for this?
I never gave her this work officially.
But if she brings money so much the better.
22 March 1966
*
Divine Mother,
Do you wish us to try and raise large amounts of
money for both the Ashram and the Auroville Project, in America?
If it is at all possible for you it would be extremely helpful and in conformity with the Truth of things.
30 May 1966
*
(About certain individuals and groups willing to aid Auroville’s development)
They may not practise themselves, but if they do not know about yoga, how can they understand the purpose of Auroville?
19 June 1967
*
(A donor to Auroville specified:)
I want my money to be used exclusively for con-
quering the causes of our sufferings and miseries.
It is for this that we all work here, but not in the artificial manner of philanthropists who work on the exterior effects only.
We want to eliminate for good the cause of suffering by divinising matter through the integral transformation.
28 December 1967
*
Firstly, is there something specific being done which is impeding the flow of money to Auroville?
It is the lack of push towards the future that impedes the flow of money.
Secondly, is there something specific which should be done to increase the flow of money to Auroville?
A confident certitude in the inevitable future can break this resistance.
17 May 1968
*
Divine Mother,
Given the present state of Auroville’s finances,
should we approach either of the following people for donations: [names given].
It is not this kind of people who can give to Auroville what it needs.
17 May 1968
*
Divine Mother,
Firstly, what is the role of the United States with
regard to the building of the new world?
The work of U.S.A. is to provide the financial help needed to prepare the earth for the new creation.
Secondly, what must the people of the United States do in order to begin to be able to fulfil this role?
Become aware of those, individual or organisation, capable of bringing about this transformation and give them the necessary money.
9 June 1968
*
Has the time come to attempt approaching the big finance around the world?
If so, then we have to create a compact and cohesive
management structure, which will be able to handle such finance and be answerable for its proper utilisation. Only after this is done can we approach international organ-isations and expect favourable response. Has this Thy approval?
All right. Blessings.
April 1969
*
(Someone trying to raise funds for Auroville requested detailed information about plans for development.When his letter was shown to Mother, she wrote:)
All these questions prove that you expect Auroville to be a continuation of all that has been done up to now. consciousness in a new way and according to new methods.
18 August 1969
*
To raise funds for Auromod`ele, what shall we do?
The more you chase funds the less you get. What you should do is to inform people about Auroville. That is important.§
November 1969
* It is only when people feel that it is their good fortune to help
December 1969
* The lands for Auroville are to be bought and can be bought — the money is needed.
Will you help?
May 1970
* You know our need. Will you not be the man who helps?
*
(Message for raising funds for Matrimandir)
Give your money to the Divine work and you will be richer than you would be by keeping it.
Early Talks June 1965 Have you heard of Auroville?
For a long time, I had a plan of the “ideal town”, but that was during Sri Aurobindo’s lifetime, with Sri Aurobindo living at the centre. Afterwards, I was no longer interested. Then the idea of Auroville — I gave the name Auroville — was taken up again, but from the other end: instead of the formation having to find the place, it was the place — near the lake — which gave birth to the formation, and until now I took only a very minor interest in it, for I had received nothing directly. Then our little A took it into her head to have a house there, by the lake, and to have a house for me next to hers, and to offer it to me. And she wrote me all her dreams: one or two sentences suddenly stirred an old, old memory of something which had tried to manifest — a creation — when I was very young and which had again started trying to manifest at the very beginning of the century, when I was with Th´eon. Then all that was forgotten. It came back with this letter; all at once, I had my plan for Auroville. Now I have my overall plan, I am waiting for B to draw the detailed plans, for I had said from the beginning: “B will be the architect”, and I wrote to B. When he came here last year, he went to see Chandigarh, the town built by Le Corbusier, up there in the Punjab, and he was not very happy. It seems quite ordinary to me — I know nothing about it, I haven’t seen it, I only saw some photographs which were horrible. And while he was speaking to me, I could see that he felt, “Oh, if only I had a town to build!...” So I wrote to him: “If you want, I have a town to build.” He is happy. He is coming. When he comes, I shall show him my plan and he will build the town. My plan is very simple.
The place is up there, on the Madras road, on top of the hill. (Mother takes a paper and begins to draw.) We have here — naturally, it is not like that in Nature, we shall have to adapt ourselves; it is like that up there on the ideal plane — here, a central point. This central point is a park which I saw when I was very young — perhaps the most beautiful thing in the world from the point of view of physical, material Nature — a park with water and trees, like all parks, and flowers, but not many; flowers in the form of creepers, palms and ferns, all varieties of palms; water, if possible running water, and possibly a small cascade. From the practical point of view, it would be very good: at the far end, outside the park, we could build reservoirs which would be used to supply water to the residents.
So in this park, I saw the “Pavilion of Love”. But I dislike this word, for man has turned it into something grotesque; I am speaking of the principle of Divine Love. But that has changed: it will be “The Pavilion of the Mother” — but not this (Mother points to herself) — the Mother, the true Mother, the principle of the Mother. I say “Mother” because Sri Aurobindo used that word, otherwise I would have put something else, I would have put “creative principle” or “principle of realisation” or — I do not know.... It will be a small building, not a big one, with only a meditation room downstairs, but with columns and probably a circular shape. I say probably, because I am leaving that for B to decide. Upstairs, the first floor will be a room and the roof will be a covered terrace. You know the ancient Indo-Moghul miniatures, with palaces where there are terraces with small roofs supported by columns? You know those old miniatures? Hundreds of them have come into my hands.... But this pavilion is very, very beautiful, a small pavilion like this, with a roof on a terrace, and low walls with couches against them to sit on, to meditate in the open air in the evening, at night. And below, downstairs, at ground-level, a meditation room, simply — something quite bare. There would probably be at the far end something which would be a living light, perhaps the symbol in living light, a constant light. Otherwise, a very peaceful, very silent place.
Nearby, there would be a small dwelling, a small dwelling which would nevertheless have three floors, but not large-sized, and that would be the house of A, who would serve as a guardian. She would be the guardian of the pavilion. She wrote me a very nice letter but she did not understand all that, of course.
That is the centre. All around, there is a circular road which separates the park from the rest of the town. There would probably be a gateway — in fact there must be one — in the park. A gateway with the guardian of the gate. The guardian of the gate is a new girl who has come from Africa, who wrote me a letter telling me that she wanted to be the guardian of Auroville in order to let only the “servants of Truth” enter (Mother laughs). It is a very nice plan. So I shall probably put her there as guardian of the park, with a small house on the road at the entrance.
But the interesting thing is that around this central point, there are four big sections, like four big petals (Mother draws), but the corners of the petals are rounded and there are small intermediate zones — four big sections and four zones.... Naturally that is only in the air; on the ground, it will be an approximation.
We have four big sections: the cultural section, to the North, that is to say, towards Madras; to the East, the industrial section; to the South, the international section; and to the West, that is to say, towards the lake, the residential section.
To make myself clear: the residential section, where there will be the houses of the people who have already subscribed and of all the others who are coming in large numbers to have a plot in Auroville. That will be next to the lake.
The international section: we have already approached a certain number of ambassadors and countries for each one to have its pavilion — a pavilion from every country. It was an old idea. Some have already accepted, so it is on the way.
Each pavilion has its own garden with, as far as possible, a representation of the plants and products of the country which it represents. If they have enough money and enough space, they can also have a sort of small museum or permanent exhibition of the country’s achievements. The buildings should be constructed according to the architecture of each country — it should be like a document of information. Then, depending on the money they wish to spend, they could also have accommodation for students, conference-rooms, etc., a cuisine of the country, a restaurant of the country — they could have all kinds of developments.
Then the industrial section. Already many people, includ-ing the Government of Madras — the Madras Government is loaning money — want to start industries, which will be on a special basis. This industrial section is to the East and it is very big, there is plenty of space; it will go down towards the sea. In fact, to the North of Pondicherry there is quite a large area which is totally uninhabited and uncultivated; it is by the sea, going up the coast towards the North. So this industrial section would go down towards the sea, and if possible there would be a kind of wharf — not exactly a port but a place where boats could come alongside; and all these industries, with the inland transportation they need, would have a possibility to export directly. And there, there would be a big hotel — B has already made a plan for it; we wanted to build the hotel here, on the site of the “Messageries Maritimes”, but after having said yes, the owner said no; it is very good, it will be better over there — a big hotel to receive visitors from outside. Already quite a number of industries have registered for this section; I do not know if there will be enough room, but we shall manage.
Then, to the North — that is where there is the most space, of course — towards Madras, the cultural section. There, an auditorium — the auditorium which I have dreamt of building for a long time; plans had already been made — an auditorium with a concert-hall and a grand organ, the best of its kind today. It seems they are making wonderful things. I want a grand organ. There will also be a stage with wings — a rotating stage, etc., the best of its kind. So, a magnificent auditorium, there. There will be a library, there will be a museum with all sorts of exhibitions — not inside the auditorium: in addition to it there will be a film-studio, a film-school; there will be a gliding club. Already we almost have authorisation from the Government, and the promise, so it is already well on the way. Then towards Madras, where there is plenty of space, a stadium. We want this stadium to be the most modern and the most perfect possible, with the idea — it is an idea I have had for a long time — that twelve years — the Olympic Games take place every four years — twelve years from 1968 — in ’68 the Olympiads are taking place in Mexico — twelve years later we would hold the Olympic Games in India, there. So we need space.
Between these sections, there are intermediate zones, four intermediate zones: one for public services, post office, etc.; one zone for transport, railway station and possibly an aerodrome; one zone for food — that one would be near the lake and would include dairies, poultry farms, orchards, cultivated lands, etc.; it would spread and include the Lake Estate: what they wanted to do separately would be within the framework of Auroville. Then a fourth zone. I have said: public services, transport, food, and the fourth zone: shops. We do not need many shops, but a few are necessary in order to obtain what we do not produce. They are like districts, you see.
And you will be there at the centre?
A hopes so (Mother laughs). I did not say no, I did not say yes; I told her, “The Lord will decide.” It depends on my state of health. A removal, no — I am here because of the Samadhi, I shall stay here, that is quite sure. But I can go there on a visit; it is not so far, it takes five minutes by car. But A wants to be quiet, silent, aloof, and that is quite possible in her park, surrounded by a road, with someone to stop people from coming in; one can stay very quiet — but if I am there, that is the end of it! There would be collective meditations, etc. That is to say that if I get a sign, first the physical sign, then the inner command to go out, I shall drive there and spend an hour, in the afternoon — I can do that now and then. We still have time because, before everything is ready, it will take years.
That is to say that the disciples will stay here?
Ah! The Ashram stays here — the Ashram stays here, I stay here, that is understood. Auroville is...
A satellite.
Yes, it is the contact with the outside world. The centre on my drawing is a symbolic centre.
But that is what A expects: she wants a house where she would be all alone next to a house where I would be all alone. The second part is a dream, because myself all alone.... You only have to see what is happening! It is true, isn’t it? So it does not go with the “all alone”. Solitude must be found within, it is the only way. But as far as living is concerned, I shall certainly not go and live there, because the Samadhi is here; but I could go there to visit. For example, I could go there for an inauguration or for certain ceremonies. We shall see. It will be years from now.
In short, Auroville is more for outside?
Oh yes! It is a town! Consequently, it is the whole contact with outside. An attempt to realise on earth a more ideal life.
In the old formation which I had made, there had to be a hill and a river. There had to be a hill, because Sri Aurobindo’s house was on top of the hill. But Sri Aurobindo was there at the centre. It was arranged according to the plan of my symbol, that is to say, a point in the middle, with Sri Aurobindo and all that concerned Sri Aurobindo’s life, and four big petals — which were not the same as on this drawing, it was something else — and twelve all around, the town itself; and around that, there were the residences of the disciples; you know my symbol: instead of lines, there are bands; well, the last circular band formed the area for the disciples’ residences, and each one had his own house and garden — a small house and a garden for each one. There was some means of transport, I wasn’t sure if it was individual transport or collective transport — like those small open tramcars in the mountains, you know — going in all directions to take the disciples back towards the centre of the town. And around all that, there was a wall, with a gateway and guardians at the gate, and one could not enter without authori-sation. There was no money — within the walls, no money; at the various entrances, there were banks or counters of some sort, where people could deposit their money and receive tickets in exchange, with which they could obtain lodging, food, this, that. But no money — the tickets were only for visitors, who could not enter without a permit. It was a tremendous organisation.... No money, I did not want any money.
Look! In my plan I forgot one thing. I wanted to build a housing estate for workers, but the housing estate was to be part of the industrial section, perhaps an extension along the edge of the industrial section.
Outside the walls, in my first formation, on one side there was an industrial town, and on the other, fields, farms, etc., to supply the town. But that represented a real country — not a big country, but a country. Now it is much reduced. It is no longer my symbol; there are only four zones and there are no walls. And there will be money. You see, the other formation was truly an ideal endeavour.... But I counted on many years before trying to start. At that time I thought twenty-four years. But now it is much more modest, it is a transitional attempt, and it is much more realisable. The other plan was... I almost had the land; it was in the time of Sir Akbar, you remember, from Hyderabad. They sent me some photographs of the State of Hyderabad and there, in those photographs, I found my ideal spot: an isolated hill, quite a big hill, and below it, a large, flowing river. I told him, “I want this place”, and he arranged the matter. Everything was arranged. They sent me the plans, the papers and everything, saying that they were giving it to the Ashram. But they laid down one condition — it was virgin forest, uncultivated land — the place was given on condition, naturally, that we would cultivate it — but the products must be utilised on the spot; for example, the crops, the wood, must be utilised on the spot, not transported; nothing could leave the State of Hyderabad. There was even C, who was a navigator, who said that he would obtain a sailing boat from England to go up the river to fetch the products and bring them to us here. Everything was very well planned! Then they set this condition. I asked if it was not possible to have it removed; then Sir Akbar died and that was the end of it, the matter was dropped. Afterwards, I was glad that it was not done because, now that Sri Aurobindo has departed, I cannot leave Pondicherry. I could only leave Pondicherry with him provided that he accepted to live in his ideal town. At that time, I had spoken of this project to D, the person who built Golconde; and he was enthusiastic, he told me, “As soon as you start to build, call me, I shall come.” I had shown him my plan; it was based on an enlargement of my symbol; he was most enthusiastic, he thought it was magnificent.
It was dropped. But the other one, which is just a small intermediate attempt, we can try.
I have no illusions that it will keep its original purity, but we shall try something.
Much depends on the financial organisation of the project?
For the time being, E is taking care of that, because he receives the money through the Sri Aurobindo Society and he bought the land. A fair amount of land has already been bought. It is going well. Naturally, the difficulty is to find enough money. But, for example, the pavilions — each country will bear the expenses for its own pavilion; the industries — each industry will provide the money for its own business; the residents — each one will give the money necessary for his land. The Government — Madras has already given us the promise — will give between sixty and eighty per cent: one part grant, that is to say, gift; one part loan, free of interest and repayable over ten years, twenty years, forty years — a long-term repayment. E knows all about it, he has already had quite a few results. But according to whether the money comes in quickly or comes in little by little, it will go more or less quickly. From the construction point of view, it will depend on B’s plasticity; the details are all the same to me — only I would like this pavilion to be very beautiful. I can see it. For I have seen it, I have had the vision of it; so I shall try to make him understand what I have seen. And the park too, I have seen it — these are old visions which I had repeatedly. But that is not difficult.
The greatest difficulty is the water, because there is no river nearby, up there. But they are already trying to channel the rivers; there was even a project to channel water from the Himalayas across the whole of India: F had made a plan and had spoken about it in Delhi; they objected that it would be rather expensive, obviously! But, anyway, even without such grandiose things, something must be done to supply the water. That will be the greatest difficulty; that will take the most time. All the rest, light, power, will be done on the spot in the industrial section — but water cannot be made! The Americans have seriously thought of finding a way to use sea-water, because the earth no longer has enough drinking water for man — the water which they call “fresh”: it is ironical; the amount of water is not enough for the needs of man, so they have already started chemical experiments on a large scale to transform sea-water and make it utilisable — obviously, that would be the solution to the problem.
But that already exists.
It exists, but not on a sufficiently large scale.
It does in Israel.
Do they do that in Israel? Do they use sea-water? Obviously, that would be the solution — the sea is there.
We shall see. It would have to be brought up.
A yachting club would be rather nice?
Ah! Certainly, with the industrial section.
Near your port, there.
It will not be a “port” but, well... Yes, the visitors’ hotel with a yachting club nearby, that is an idea. I shall add that. (Mother writes it down.)
It will surely be a success.
Now look! A shower of letters, my child! From everywhere, from all over the world, people are writing to me: “At last! This is the project I was waiting for”, etc. A shower.
There is also a gliding club. We have already been promised an instructor and a glider. It is a promise. It will be in the industrial section, on top of the hill. Of course, the yacht club will be on the sea, not on the lake; but I had thought — because there is much talk of deepening the lake, it is almost filled up — I was thinking of a hydroplane station, there.
We can also have boating on the lake?
Not if there are hydroplanes. It is not big enough for boating. But it would be very good for a hydroplane station. But that depends: if we have an airport, it is unnecessary; if we do not have an airport.... But already, in the Lake Estate project, there was an airport. G, who has become a squadron leader, has sent me a plan for an airport too, but for small planes, whereas we want an airport which can handle a regular service to Madras, a passenger airport. There has already been much talk about it. There were discussions between Air India and another company; then they could not come to an agreement — all sorts of petty, foolish difficulties. But all that, with the growth of Auroville, will fall away quite naturally — people will be only too glad to have an airport.
No, there are two difficulties. Small sums of money we have — to be precise: what the Government can loan, what people give to have a plot — it is coming. But it takes massive sums, you know, it takes billions to build a town!
* September 1966 Begging is not permitted in Auroville. Persons found begging on the road will be distributed as follows: children to school, the old to a home, the sick to the hospital, the healthy to work.
A school, a home, a hospital and special work areas will be arranged for this. They will not be mixed with the others, because some people may come from outside and begin to beg in the street.
There are no police. We have... we haven’t found the word... a band of guards, a battalion of guards, something like the firemen in Japan, who are gymnasts and who do everything when there are accidents — anything, earthquakes — they do everything. They climb up into houses. Instead of police, there will be a kind of battalion of guards, who will go out regularly into the various parts of the town to see if they are needed. And if they come across people begging, they will be distributed as I said. There will be a school for the children, a home for the old, a hospital for the sick and disabled, and a place where work will be provided for all those who... There will be every possible kind of work, from sweeping to... anything, and work that is needed, they will do it, according to their abilities. This has to be organised.
A special school for the children to teach them to work, to teach them the things that are indispensable for them to be able to work.
No prison, no police.§
* 30 December 1967
Mother reads a disciple’s notation of comments she made about her conception of Auroville.
“Auroville will be a self-supporting township.
“All who live there will participate in its life and
development.
“This participation may be passive or active. “There will be no taxes as such but each will con-
tribute to the collective welfare in work, kind or money.
“Sections like industries which participate actively
will contribute part of their income towards the development of the township.
“Or if they produce something (like foodstuffs) use-
ful for the citizens, they will contribute in kind to the township, which is responsible for feeding its citizens.
“No rules or laws are being framed. Things will
get formulated as the underlying truth of the township emerges and takes shape progressively. We do not anticipate.”
I thought I had said more than that because I said a good deal about it, inwardly — on the organisation, the food, etc. We are going to make experiments.
Some things are really interesting; first of all, for example, I would like each country to have its pavilion, and in the pavilion there will be the cooking of that country — that is, the Japanese will be able to eat Japanese food if they want to, etc. But in the town itself there will be food for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, and there will also be some attempt to find the food of tomorrow.
The whole process of assimilation which makes you so heavy — it takes so much of a person’s time and energy — that should be done beforehand, you should be given something which is immediately assimilable, like the things they are making now; for example they have vitamin pills and proteins which can be assimilated directly, nutritious elements which are found in one thing or another and which don’t have much volume — a huge quantity is needed to assimilate very little. Now that they are skilful enough in chemistry, it could be simplified.
People do not like this simply because they take an intense pleasure in eating; but when you no longer take pleasure in eating, you still need nourishment without wasting your time on it. An enormous amount of time is wasted — time in eating, in digesting, and all the rest. And there, I would like an experimental kitchen, a kind of culinary laboratory for experimenting. People would go to one place or another according to their tastes and inclinations.
And they don’t pay for their food, but they should offer their work or their produce: those who have fields, for example, should give the produce from their fields; those who have factories should give their products; or one gives one’s labour in exchange for food.
That in itself eliminates much of the internal exchange of money. And for everything we would find things like this. Basically, it should be a city for study, for study and research into a way of life which is both simplified and in which the higher qualities will have more time to develop.
It is only a small beginning.
Mother goes through the text sentence by sentence.
“Auroville will be a self-supporting township.”
I want to insist on the fact that it will be an experiment, it is for making experiments — experiments, research, study. Auroville will be a city that will try to be, or will tend to become, or attempt to be “self-supporting”, that is to say...
Autonomous?
“Autonomous” is understood to mean some kind of independence which breaks off relations with others, and that is not what I mean.
For example, those who produce food, like Aurofood — of course, when we are 50,000 it will be difficult to provide for all the needs, but for the moment we are only a few thousand at most — well, a factory always produces far too much, so it will sell outside and receive money. Aurofood for example wants to have a special relationship with the workers — not at all the old system, something which would be an improvement on the communist system, a more balanced organisation than sovietism, that is, something which does not err too much on one side at the expense of the other.
There is one thing I wanted to say: the participation in the well-being and life of the town as a whole is not something calculated on an individual basis; that is, this individual should give so much, it is not like that. It is calculated according to the means, the activity, the capacity for production; it is not the democratic idea which cuts everything up into equal pieces, which is an absurd machinery. It is calculated according to one’s means: one who has much gives much, one who has little gives little; one who is strong works hard, one who is not strong does something else. You see, it is something truer, deeper. That is why I make no attempt to explain now, because people will start to make all kinds of complaints. All this must come about automatically, so to speak, with the growth of the city, in the true spirit. That is why this note is extremely concise.
For example, this sentence:
“All who live there will participate in its life and development.”
All who live there will participate in its life and development according to their capacities and means, not mechanically — so much per unit. That’s it, it must be something living and true, not a mechanical thing; and according to each one’s capacities: that is, one who has material means, such as those provided by a factory, should give in proportion to its production, not so much per individual, per head.
“The participation may be passive or active.”
I do not understand what “passive” means; I said it in French and it has been put into English. What could that mean, “passive”?... It would be something more like planes or different levels of consciousness.
You meant that those who are wise, who work within, do not need to...
Yes, that’s it. Those who have a higher knowledge do not need to work with their hands, that is what I meant.
“There will be no taxes as such, but each one will contribute to the collective welfare in work, kind or money.”
So that is clear: there will be no taxes, but each one will have to contribute to the collective welfare by his work, in kind or in money. Those who have nothing but money will give money. But to tell the truth, “work” can be inner work — but one cannot say that, because people are not honest enough. The work can be an occult, completely inner work; but for that, it must be absolutely sincere and true, and with the capacity for it: no pretension. But not necessarily a physical work.
“Sections like industries which participate actively will contribute part of their income towards the development of the township; or if they produce something (like food-stuffs) that is useful to the citizens, they will contribute in kind to the township, which is responsible for feeding its citizens.”
This is what we were just saying. The industries will participate actively, they will contribute. If these industries produce articles which are not constantly needed and therefore in amounts or quantities that are too great to be used within the city but which will sell outside, they, of course, should participate with money. And I give food as an example; those who produce food will give what they produce to the town — in proportion to what they produce, of course — and the town is responsible for feeding everyone. That means that people will not need to buy food with money; but it must be earned.
It is a sort of adaptation of the communist system, but not in a spirit of levelling; according to the capacity, the position — not the psychological or intellectual, but the inner position of each one.
What is true is that materially every human being has the right — but it is not a “right”.... The organisation should be such, should be so arranged, that the material needs of everyone are assured, not according to ideas of rights and equality, but on the basis of the minimum needs. And once that is established, each one should be free to organise his life according to — not according to his financial means, but his inner capacities.
“No rules or laws are being framed. Things will get for-mulated as the underlying truth of the township emerges and takes shape progressively. We do not anticipate.”
What I mean is that usually — always so far, and now more and more — men lay down mental rules according to their concep-tions and ideals, and then they apply them (Mother brings down her fist to show the world in the grip of mind), and that is absolutely false, it is arbitrary, unreal — and the result is that things revolt or wither and disappear.... It is the experience of life itself that should slowly elaborate rules which are as flexible and wide as possible, to be always progressive. Nothing should be fixed.
That is the great error of governments; they make a framework and say, “There you are, we have set this up and now we must live by it”, and so of course they crush life and prevent it from progressing. Life itself must develop more and more in a progression towards Light, Knowledge, Power, little by little establishing rules that are as general as possible, so that they can be extremely flexible and change with the need — and change as quickly as the needs and habits do.
(Silence)
The problem finally comes down to this: to replace the mental government of the intelligence by the government of a spiritu-alised consciousness.
* February 1968 One must have an absolutely transparent sincerity. Lack of sincerity is the cause of the difficulties we meet at present. Insincerity is in all men. There are perhaps a hundred men on earth who are totally sincere. Man’s very nature makes him insincere — it is very complicated, for he is constantly deceiving himself, hiding the truth from himself, making excuses for himself. Yoga is the way to become sincere in all parts of the being.
It is difficult to be sincere, but at least one can be mentally sincere; this is what can be demanded of Aurovilians. The force is there, present as never before; man’s insincerity prevents it from descending, from being felt. The world lives in falsehood, all relations between men have until now been based on falsehood and deceit. Diplomatic relations between nations are based on falsehood. They claim to want peace, and meanwhile they are arming themselves. Only a transparent sincerity in man and among nations can usher in a transformed world. will be born; if men are willing to make an effort for transformation, to seek for sincerity, it is possible. From animal to man, thousands of years were needed; today, with his mind, man can will and hasten a transformation towards a man who shall be God.
This transformation by the help of the mind — by self-analysis — is a first step; afterwards, it is necessary to transform the vital impulses: that is much more difficult, and especially to transform the physical. Every cell in our bodies must become conscious. This is the work I am doing here; it will enable the conquest of death. That is another story; that will be the humanity of the future, perhaps after hundreds of years, perhaps sooner. It will depend on men, on nations.
* March 1968
About Section One of the Auroville Charter: “But to live in Auroville one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.”
This is the big dispute at the moment about Auroville. In the Charter, I put “Divine Consciousness”, so they say, “It reminds us of God.” I said (Mother laughs), “It doesn’t remind me of God!”
So some translate it as “the highest consciousness”, others put something else. I agreed with the Russians to put “perfect Consciousness”, but it is an approximation.... And That — which cannot be named and cannot be defined — is the supreme Power. It is the Power that one finds. And the supreme Power is only an aspect: the aspect that concerns creation.§
* 10 April 1968
Apropos Auroville: on money and government.
The conflict about money is what might be called a “conflict of ownership”, but the truth is that money belongs to no one. This idea of possessing money has warped everything. Money should not be a “possession”: like power it is a means of action which is given to you, but you must use it according to... what we can call the “will of the Giver”, that is, in an impersonal and enlightened way. If you are a good instrument for diffusing and utilising money, then it comes to you, and it comes to you in proportion to your capacity to use it as it is meant to be used. That is the true mechanism.
The true attitude is this: money is a force intended for the work on earth, the work required to prepare the earth to receive and manifest the divine forces, and it — that is, the power of utilising it — must come into the hands of those who have the clearest, most comprehensive and truest vision.
To start with, the first thing (but this is elementary) is not to have the sense of possession — what does it mean, “it is mine”?... Now, I don’t quite understand. Why do people want it to belong to them? — so that they can use it as they like and do what they want with it and handle it according to their own conceptions? That’s how it is. On the other hand, yes, there are people who like to store it up somewhere... but that is a disease. To be sure of always having some, they hoard it.
But if people understood that one should be like a receiving and transmitting station and that the wider the range (just the opposite of personal), the more impersonal, comprehensive and wide it is, the most force it can hold (“force” that is translated materially: notes and coins). This power to hold is proportional to the capacity to use the money in the best way — “best” in terms of the general progress: the widest vision, the greatest understanding and the most enlightened, exact and true usage, not according to the warped needs of the ego but according to the general need of the earth for its evolution and development. That is to say, the widest vision will have the largest capacity.
Behind all wrong movements, there is a true movement; there is a joy in being able to direct, utilise, organise in such a way that there is a minimum of waste and the maximum of result. It is a very interesting vision to have. And this must be the true side in people who want to accumulate money: it is the capacity to use it on a very large scale. Then, there are those who very much like to have it and spend it; that is something else — they are generous natures, neither regulated nor organised. But the joy of being able to satisfy all true needs, all necessities, is good. It is like the joy of changing a sickness into health, a falsehood into truth, a suffering into joy; it is the same thing: to change an artificial and foolish need — which does not correspond to anything natural — into a possibility which becomes something quite natural. So much money is needed to do this or that or the other, so much is needed to arrange this, to repair that, to build this, to organise that — that is good. And I understand that people like to be the channels through which the money goes exactly where it is needed. That must be the true movement in people who like to... translated into foolish egoism, who need to appropriate.
When the need to accumulate and the need to spend (which are both blind and ignorant) are combined, they can lead to a clear vision and a most efficient utilisation. That is good.
Then there comes, slowly and slowly, the possibility of putting it into practice.
But, naturally, the need is for very clear heads and for in-termediaries of high integrity (!) to be able to be everywhere at the same time and do all at the same time. Then this famous question of money would be solved.
Money does not belong to anybody. Money is a collective possession which should be used only by those who have an integral, comprehensive and universal vision. I would add something to that: not only integral and comprehensive, but essentially true as well; a vision which can tell the difference between a use which is in accord with the universal progress, and a use which could be termed fanciful. But these are details, for even the mistakes, even, from a certain standpoint, the waste, help the general progress: these are lessons learned the hard way.
(Silence)
I always remember what X used to say (X was completely opposed to philanthropy); he used to say: Philanthropy perpetu-ates human misery because without human misery philanthropy would have no more reason to exist!... And you know the great philanthropist, what was his name? — during Mazarin’s time; he founded the Little Sisters of Charity....
Vincent de Paul?
That’s it. Mazarin once told him: There have never been so many poor people as since you started taking care of them! (Mother laughs.)
Later.
I have been rethinking what I said about money. That is how life in Auroville should be organised, but I doubt whether people are ready.
That is to say that it is possible so long as they accept the guidance of a sage?
Yes. The first thing that should be accepted and recognised by everyone is that the invisible and higher power — that is, the power which belongs to a plane of consciousness that is mostly veiled, but which is within each; a consciousness which can be called anything, by any name, it does not matter, but which is integral and pure in the sense that it is not false, it is in the Truth — that this power is capable of ordering material things in a way that is truer, happier and better for everyone than any material power. That is the first point. Once people agree on that...
It is not something one can pretend to have; an individual cannot pretend to have it, either he has it or he hasn’t, because (Mother laughs) in any circumstance of life, if it is a pretension, it will show clearly! On top of that, it does not give you any material power. There again, X once said — he was speaking of the true hierarchy, the hierarchy based on each one’s power of consciousness — the individual or individuals who are at the very summit necessarily have the least needs; their material needs become less as their capacity of material vision grows. And that is very true. It is automatic and spontaneous, not the result of an effort: the wider the consciousness, the more it embraces things and realities — the less its material needs, automatically, because they lose all their importance and value. The need for material necessities is reduced to a minimum, which will itself change with the progressive development of Matter.
And that is easily recognisable, isn’t it? It is difficult to act the part.
And the second thing is the power of conviction; that is, the highest consciousness, when it is brought into contact with Matter, spontaneously has a greater power of conviction than all the intermediary planes. By mere contact, its power of conviction, that is, its power of transformation, is greater than that of all the intermediary planes. That is a fact. These two facts together make it impossible for any pretension to last long. I am looking at it from the standpoint of a collective organisation.
As soon as you come down from this supreme Height, there is all the play of the various influences (gesture of mixture and conflict) and that in itself is a sure sign: even a slight descent — even into the domain of higher mind, higher intelligence — and the whole conflict of influences begins. Only what is right at the very summit and is perfectly pure, has this power of spontaneous conviction. Therefore, whatever one may do instead of that is an approximation and it is not much better than democracy — that is, the system which wants to rule by the greatest number and the lowest level — I mean social democracy, the latest trend.
If there is no representative of the supreme Consciousness — that can happen, can’t it? — if there isn’t any, there could be instead, it could be tried, government by a few — a small number set between four and eight, something like that, four, seven, eight — who have an intuitive intelligence: “intuitive” is more important than intelligence — with an intuition that is manifested intellectually.
This would have its drawbacks from the practical point of view, but it would perhaps be closer to the truth than the lowest level — socialism or communism. Everything in between has proved to be incompetent: theocracy, aristocracy, democracy and plutocracy, all those have been a complete failure. The other one, the socialist or communist government is proving itself a failure as well.
Basically socialism and communism correspond to a kind of absence of government, because they do not have the power to govern others; they are obliged to transfer their power to someone who exercises it, like a Lenin for example, because he was a brain. All this has been tried and proved to be incompetent. The only thing that could be competent is the Truth-Consciousness, which would choose instruments and express itself through a certain number of instruments in the absence of one — “one” is not enough either, “one” would necessarily have to choose a group.
Those who have this consciousness may belong to any social class: it is not a privilege of birth, but the outcome of personal effort and development. In fact, that is an outward sign, the obvious sign of a change from the political point of view — it is no longer a matter of classes and categories nor of birth — all that is obsolete. It is the individuals who have attained a certain higher consciousness who have the right to govern — not others, regardless of their social class.
This would be the true vision. All those who participate in the experiment should be absolutely convinced that the highest consciousness is the best judge of the most material things. What has ruined India is this idea that the higher consciousness deals with higher things and that lower things do not interest it at all, and that it un-derstands nothing about them! That has been the ruin of India. Well, this error must be completely eradicated. It is the highest consciousness which sees most clearly — most clearly and most truly — what the needs of the most material things must be.
With that, a new type of government could be tried.
* 31 May 1969 The night before last, I spent more than three hours with Sri Aurobindo and I was showing him all that was about to come down for Auroville. It was quite interesting. There were games, there was art, there was even cooking! But all that was very symbolic. And I was explaining to him as though on a table, in front of a vast landscape. I was explaining to him the principle on which physical exercises and games were going to be organised. It was very clear, very precise, I was giving as though a demonstration, and it was as though I was showing on a smaller scale a miniature representation of what was going to be done. I was moving people and things (gesture, as though on a chess-board). But it was very interesting, and he was very interested: he was laying down the broad laws of organisation (I do not know how to explain). There was art and it was beautiful, it was good. And how to make the houses pleasant and pretty, upon what principle of construction. And then even the kitchen; it was so amusing, each one brought forward his invention.... This went on for three hours — three hours of the night, it is a lot! Very interesting.
Yet conditions upon earth seem to be very far from all that...
(After some hesitation) No... it was right there, it did not seem to be foreign to earth. It was a harmony: a conscious harmony behind things; a conscious harmony behind the physical exercises and the games; a conscious harmony behind the decoration, the art; a conscious harmony behind the food...
I mean that all this seems to be at the opposite pole of what is now upon earth.
Not...
No?
I saw X today and I was telling him that the whole organisation of the arts and sports, even of food and all the rest, was ready in the subtle physical — ready to come down and embody itself — and I told him, “What is needed is just a handful of earth (gesture of cupping the hands), a handful of earth where one could grow the plant.... One must find a handful of earth to let it grow.”
Matrimandir Talks 31 December 1969 That was the first idea: there was the Centre and the town was organised around it. Now they are doing the very opposite! They want to build the town and put the Centre in afterwards.
And the “thing” is ready to come! I have known it for a long time, it is there (gesture upward), it is waiting.
(Silence)
A’s idea is an island at the centre, with water around it, running water, which will provide the whole water supply for the city; and when it has passed through the city, it will be sent to a pump-house, and from there it will go out to irrigate all the surrounding cultivated lands. So this Centre is like a small island and on it is what we called at first the “Matrimandir” — which I always see as a very big room, absolutely bare, receiving a light that comes from above, arranged in such a way that the light from above would be concentrated on one place where there would be... whatever we want to put as the centre of the city. At first, we had thought of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol, but we can put whatever we want. Like that, with a ray of light striking it all the time, which turns, turns, turns... with the sun, you understand. If that is properly done, it will be very good. And then underneath, so that people can sit and meditate, or simply rest, nothing, nothing, except something comfortable underneath so that they can sit without getting tired, probably with some pillars, which would serve as back-rests at the same time. Something like that. And that is what I always see. And the room should be high, so that the sun can enter as a ray, according to the time of day, and strike the centre which will be there. If that is done, it will be very good.
And then for the rest it is all the same to me, they can do what they want. At first they thought of making a place for me to stay, but I will never go there, so it is not worth the trouble, it is completely useless. And to look after this island it was agreed that there would be a little house for B who would like to be there simply as the guardian. And then A had arranged a whole system of bridges to link it with the other bank. And the other bank would consist entirely of gardens all around. These gardens... we thought of twelve gardens — to divide the distance into twelve, of making twelve gardens, each one centred on something, a state of consciousness, and the flowers which represent it. And then, the twelfth garden would be in the water, around — not around, but beside — the “Mandir”, with the tree, the banyan which is there. That is the centre of the city. And there, the twelve gardens around the outside would be repeated with the flowers arranged in the same way.
(Silence)
For the outside of this kind of temple, A had thought of making a big lotus. But then, this interior, this play of light, I don’t know if it would be possible with a lotus shape?
If A and C could both collaborate... if they could both come together, and if one of them could always be here, one of them, now one, now the other, if one of them could always be here, with a single plan they would draw up together — it would go much faster, a hundred times faster.
This idea of the ray of sun... when I look, at once that is what I see. And a ray of sun which could come at all times — it would be arranged in such a way that it comes all the time (gesture following the movement of the sun). And then, something would be there, a symbol, which would be both upright so that it can be seen all around, and flat to receive the light fully. What?... And let it not become a religion, for heaven’s sake!
(Silence)
Who could find the way to realise that? Because there is no lack of sun here.... Of course there are days when there isn’t any, but after all, there are many days when there is — so that from every side, from any angle, the ray falls. It should be arranged like that. It’s a question of geometry. You can speak about it to C, because if he had an idea...
That is what is needed, something, a symbol — we’ll find what is needed, we’ll see — of course, like an altar, but... What? Which receives the light both directly from above and from all sides.
And then, no other windows, you understand? All the rest in a sort of half-light. And that, like a light... that would be good, it could be very good. I would like someone who can feel that.
And if it were well realised, that would already be very interesting for people. It would be a concrete realisation of something.... They will begin to say that it is a religion of the sun! (Mother laughs) Oh, you know, I am used to every, every stupidity.
(Silence)
Of course, logically, or rather psychologically, it is a mistake to build all around and the Centre afterwards.
The idea of A, of his group, is to have industries which can bring in money for Auroville, then... That is to say that instead of being able to get it done quickly, it will take centuries.
I will speak to A about it tomorrow. I mean I will tell him to see C who has some excellent ideas — well, that he should come to an understanding with him. You see, it’s very simple: we’ll try to make A understand and to set up a collaboration.
For me now, things are no longer exclusive, not at all. I see very well the possibility of using the most opposite tendencies at the same time.... It is not exclusive. I do not say: “Ah! No, not that!” No, no, no. All, all together. That is what I want: to be able to create a place where all the opposites can unite.
Unless that can be done... (gesture of turning round and round) it goes on and on and on.
* 3 January 1970
Sweet Mother, I have told C to come, he is waiting outside.
Yes. There is an interesting thing. For a long time I had been feeling something, then we spoke about it the other day and I saw it. I spoke of it to A, I told him to see C and I also told him that I had seen what should be done. Of course he did not say No, he said Yes to everything, but I felt that he did not really intend... But, this is what happened. I saw clearly — very, very distinctly.... That is to say it was like that and it is still like that, it is there (gesture indicating an eternal plane)... the interior of this place....
It will be a kind of hall like the inside of a column. No windows. The ventilation will be artificial, with those machines (gesture indicating an air-conditioner) and only a roof. And the sun striking the centre. Or when there is no sun — at night and on cloudy days — an electric spotlight.
And the idea is to build right now a sort of example or model to hold about a hundred people. When the town is built and we have had the experience, we will make it into something big. But then it will be very big, to hold a thousand to two thousand people. And the second one will be built around the first: that means, the first one will not go until the second one is finished. That is the idea.
Only, so as to talk about it to C (and if possible, if I see that it is possible, to talk about it to A), I wanted to have a plan. I will have it made, not myself, because I can’t any more; I would have been able to do it at one time, but now I don’t see well enough. I will have it done this afternoon, in front of me, a plan, and with this plan I will be able to explain really well. But to you I simply wanted to say what I have seen.
It will be a tower with twelve facets, each facet represents a month of the year; and up above, the roof of the tower will be like this (gesture indicating a roof which slopes upwards from the sides to the centre).
And then, inside, there will be twelve columns. The walls and then twelve columns. And right at the centre, on the floor, there is my symbol, and above it four of Sri Aurobindo’s sym-bols, joined to form a square, and above that... a globe. If possible, a globe made of transparent material, and with or without light inside, but the sun should strike the globe; then according to the month, the time, it will be from here, from there, from there (gesture indicating the movement of the sun). You understand? There will always be an opening with a ray. Not a diffused light: a ray which strikes, which should strike. It will require some technical knowledge to be able to carry it out, and that is why I want to make a design with an engineer.
And then, there will be no windows or lights inside. It will always be in a kind of clear half-light, day and night — by day with the sun, by night with artificial light. And on the floor, nothing, just a floor like this one (in Mother’s room). That is to say, first wood (wood or something else), then a sort of rubber foam, thick, very soft, and then a carpet. A carpet everywhere, everywhere except at the centre. And people will be able to sit everywhere. And the twelve columns are for people who need support for their backs!
And then, people will not come for a regular meditation or anything of that kind (but the inner organisation will be made afterwards): it will be a place for concentration. Not everyone will be able to come; there will be a time in the week or a time in the day (I don’t know) when visitors will be allowed to come, but anyway, no mixture. A fixed time or a fixed day for showing people around, and the rest of time only for those who are... serious — serious, sincere, who want to learn to concentrate.
So I think that is good. It was there (gesture upward). I still see it when I speak of it — I see. As I see it, it is very beautiful, it is really very beautiful... a sort of half-light: one can see, but it is very tranquil. And then, very clear and very bright rays of light (the spotlight, the artificial light, must be rather golden, it must not be cold — that will depend on the spotlight) onto the symbol. A globe made of a plastic material or... I don’t know.
Crystal?
If it is possible, yes. For the small temple the globe will not need to be very big: if it were as big as this (about thirty centimetres) it would be good. But for the big temple it will have to be big.
But how will the big temple be built? On top of the small one?
No, no, the small one will go. But the big one will be built later, and on a vast scale... the small one will go only after the big one is built. But of course, for the town to be finished, it will take about twenty years (for everything to be really in order, in its place). It is like the gardens: all the gardens which are being made are for now, but in twenty years all that will have to be on another scale; then, it must be something really... really beautiful.
And I wonder what material should be used to make this globe, the big one?... The small one, in crystal perhaps: a globe like that (thirty centimetres). I think that will be enough. One must be able to see the globe from every corner of the room.
It shouldn’t be raised too high above the floor either?
No, Sri Aurobindo’s symbol does not need to be big. It should be so big (gesture)...
Twenty-five, thirty centimetres?
At the most, at the very most.
That means that it will be at about eye-level?
Eye-level, yes, that’s it.
And a very tranquil atmosphere. And nothing, you see — great columns... It remains to be seen whether the style of the columns should be... whether they will be round, or if they will also have twelve facets.... And twelve columns.
And a roof in two sections?
Yes, a roof in two sections so as to have the sun. It must be arranged in such a way that the rain cannot come in. We cannot think of having to open and close something when it rains, it is not possible. It must be arranged in such a way that the rain cannot get in. But the sun must enter as rays, not diffused. So the opening must be small. It needs an engineer who really knows his job.
And when would they start?
I would like to begin at once, as soon as we have the plans. Only, there are two questions: first the plans (we can get the workers) and then the money.... I think that it is possible with this idea of making a sort of small model (of course “small” is a manner of speaking, because to be able to hold a hundred people easily it still needs to be quite big), a small model to begin with, and then while making the small model they will learn, and the big one will be made only when the town is finished — not right now.
I spoke about it to A, who told me the next day: “Yes, but it will take time to prepare.” I didn’t say anything about all that I’ve just told you, I only spoke of doing something. And afterwards I had the vision of this room — so I no longer need anyone to see what it should be: I know. And it requires an engineer rather than an architect, because an architect... it must be as simple as possible.
I told C what you had seen, this great empty room; it moved him very much. This great empty room was just what he saw. He understands quite well. Well, empty — that means simply a form.
But a form... Like a tower, but... (that’s why I wanted to have a sketch, to show it) twelve regular facets, and then there should be a wall, not an upright wall but something like this (slightly inclined gesture). I don’t know if it is possible. And inside, twelve columns. And then an arrangement must be found to catch the sun. Twelve facets in such a way that at any time of the year it can come. It needs someone who knows the job well.
The outside... I did not see the outside, I did not see it at all. I saw only the inside.
I wanted to explain to C when I had the papers. It would be easier, but since you have called him...
D goes and brings C to the room. Mother tells him:
After we decided to build this temple, I saw it, I saw it from the inside. I have just tried to describe it to E. But in a few days I will have some plans and drawings, so I will be able to explain more clearly. Because I don’t know at all how it is outside, but inside I know.
C: The outside grows from the inside.
It is a kind of tower with twelve regular facets, which represent the twelve months of the year, and it is absolutely empty.... And it must be able to hold from a hundred to two hundred people. And then, to support the roof there will be twelve columns inside (not outside), and right at the centre, well, the object of concentration.... And with the collaboration of the sun, all the year round the sun should enter as rays: no diffusion, an arrangement must be made so that it can enter as rays. Then according to the time of day and the month of the year, the ray will turn (there will be an arrangement up above) and the ray will be directed onto the centre. At the centre there will be the symbol of Sri Aurobindo, supporting a globe. A globe which we shall try to make from something transparent like crystal or... A big globe. And then, people will be allowed in to concentrate — (Mother laughs) to learn to concentrate! No fixed meditations, none of all that, but they must stay there in silence, in silence and concentration.
C: It is very beautiful.
But the place is absolutely... as simple as possible. And the floor in such a way that people are comfortable, so that they don’t have to think that it hurts them here or it hurts them there!
C: It is very beautiful.
And in the middle, on the floor, my symbol. At the centre of my symbol we will put, in four parts, like a square, four symbols of Sri Aurobindo, upright, supporting a transparent globe. That has been seen.
So I am going to have some small plans prepared by an engineer, simple ones, to show, and then I will show you when it is ready. So. And then we will see. The walls will probably have to be of concrete.
C: The whole structure can be in reinforced concrete.
The roof should probably be sloping, and then at the centre there will have to be a special arrangement for the sun.
You said that the walls would be slightly sloping.
Either the walls or the roof should be sloping — whichever is the easiest to do. The walls could be made straight and the roof sloping. And the upper part of the roof resting on the twelve columns, and up above, the arrangement for the sun.
And inside, nothing; nothing but the columns. The columns, I don’t know, we will have to see whether they should be made with facets (like the roof, with twelve facets) or else simply round.
C: Round.
Or simply square — it remains to be seen.
And then, on the floor, we will put something thick and soft. Here — you are comfortable as you are sitting? Yes? First there is wood, and then this kind of rubber, and on top of it a woollen carpet.
With your symbol?
Not the carpet. For the symbol, I had thought it would be better to make it out of something durable.
C: It should be in stone.
The symbol... everything will be around it, of course. The symbol will not cover it all, it will be only in the middle of the space — (Mother laughs) they mustn’t sit on the symbol! — that, in the middle. The proportion of the symbol to the whole will have to be considered very carefully in relation to the height.
C: And the room quite large?
Oh yes, it has to be... it should be like a sort of half-light with these rays of sunlight, so that the ray can be seen. A ray of sunlight. Then according to the time of day, the sun will turn (with the time of day and the month of the year). And then at night, as soon as the sun disappears, spotlights are lit which will have the same effect and the same colour. And day and night the light remains there. But no windows or lamps or anything like that — nothing. Ventilation with air-conditioners (they are built into the walls, it is very easy). And silence. Inside no one speaks! (Mother laughs) That will be good. So, as soon as my papers are ready, I will call you and show them to you.
C: Very good.
C leaves. Mother then continues speaking with E.
I did not ask C if he had seen A because... A is completely in the “practical” atmosphere of today. It is good — it must get started!
You see, this is what I have learned: the failure of the reli-gions. It is because they were divided. They wanted people to be religious to the exclusion of the other religions; and every branch of knowledge has been a failure because they were exclusive; and man has been a failure because he was exclusive. And what the new consciousness wants (it is on this that it insists) is: no more divisions. To be able to understand the spiritual extreme, the material extreme, and to find... to find the meeting-point, the point where... that becomes a real force.
From the practical point of view I will try to make A understand; but I have seen, it seemed to me that what is needed... A, when he is here, looks after Auromod`ele, the practical side, all that. It is very necessary, it is very good; and for the building of the Centre, I would like C to do it, and so I would like C to stay when A is away; C should be here when A is gone, and we shall do it with C. Only I don’t want either of them to feel that it is one of them against the other. They must understand that it is to complement one another. I think C will understand.
But A might take that as an encroachment on his respon-sibilities?
Perhaps not. I will try, I will try.
No, when I told him that it was necessary to build the Centre, that I had seen it and that it should be done, he did not object. He only told me, “But it will take time.” I told him, “No, it must be done at once.” And that is why I am having these sketches made by an engineer to show to him, because it is not an architect’s job, it is an engineer’s job, with very precise calculations for the light of the sun, very precise. It needs someone who really knows. The architect has to see that the columns are beautiful, that the walls are beautiful, that the proportions are correct — all that is very good — and then the symbol at the centre. The aspect of beauty, of course the architect should see to that, but the whole calculation aspect... And the important thing is this, the play of the sun onto the centre. Because that becomes the symbol — the symbol of the future realisation.
* 10 January 1970
I have a letter from C...
I am going to see him this afternoon.
I told you that I had seen the central building of Auroville... I have a plan, would you be interested to see it? There are some rolls there.
(Mother unrolls the plan as she explains) There will be twelve facets. And, at an equal distance from the centre, twelve columns. At the centre, on the ground, is my symbol, and at the centre of my symbol there are four of Sri Aurobindo’s symbols, upright, forming a square, and on the square a translucent globe (we don’t know yet in what material). And then, from the top of the roof, when the sun is shining, the sunlight will fall onto it as a ray (nowhere else, only there). When there is no sun, there will be electric spotlights which will send a ray (also a ray, not a diffused light) exactly onto it, onto this globe.
And then, there are no doors, but... going deep down, one comes up again into the temple. One goes under the wall and comes up again inside. Again it is a symbol. Everything is symbolic.
And then there is no furniture, but on the floor, like here, there is first wood, probably, then over the wood a thick “dunlop” and over it a carpet, like here. The colour is yet to be chosen. The whole place will be white. I am not sure if the symbols of Sri Aurobindo will be white... I don’t think so. I did not see them white, I saw them in an indefinable colour between gold and orange, a kind of colour like that. They will be upright. They will be carved in stone. And a globe which is not transparent but translucent. And then, right at the bottom (below the globe), there will be a light which will be directed upwards, shining diffusely into the globe. And then, from outside, there will be rays of light falling onto the centre. And no other lights, no windows, electric ventilation. And not a single piece of furniture, nothing. A place... for trying to find one’s consciousness.
Outside, it will be something like that (Mother unrolls another plan). We don’t know if the roof will be completely pointed or... very simple, very simple. It will be able to hold about two hundred people.
So, C’s letter?
“Very Sweet Mother,
“I saw A on Sunday. He came to my room, we had
lunch together. With love, I arranged for You and for A some very beautiful flowers. You were with us. We talked a lot. I felt A as a brother.
“I told him that Auroville cannot start like any other
town — city-planning problems, social, economic prob-lems, all that later. The beginning ought to be ‘something else’. That is why we should begin with the Centre. This Centre must be our lever, our fixed point, the thing on which we can support ourselves to try to leap to the other side — because it is only from the other side that we can begin to understand what Auroville ought to be. And this Centre should be the form which manifests in Matter the content which You can transmit to us on all the planes (occult also). As for us, we should be only the open and sincere medium through which you can materialise that.
“And I told him that I have felt the need to approach
all that by living the experience within — and all united, people of the East and West, in a wide movement of love. Because that is the only possible concrete for building ‘something else’.”
What he says is good.
“And the Centre can give us this love at once because it is love for You! I told him that practically we could begin with a moment of silence, all together, and try to make a total blank, and with everyone’s aspiration bring down the indications for the beginning into that blank. But all united and all together, especially those who are spiritually most advanced (the Indians).
“A agreed perfectly. He said really this should be
done.”
(Mother nods approvingly.)
I will see C this afternoon to give him this plan. Because that is what I saw, you know. We will make it in white marble. F has said that he will fetch the marble, he knows the place.
The whole structure in white marble?
Yes, yes.
But C told me something which I feel is quite right. He said: We are going to build this Centre, we are going to put all our heart and aspiration into it, into this Centre...
Yes, yes.
And with the years it will become more and more “charged”....
Yes.
So this Centre must be the real thing. This temple should not be removed to build another, bigger one later.
I said that to reassure the people who think that something huge is needed. I said, “We will begin with this, and then we will see.” You understand? I said, “This Centre should be there until the town is completely built, and afterwards we will see.” Afterwards no one will want to remove it!
But he says that from the architectural point of view it is quite possible to extend the thing from the outside, without touching what has already been built.
Yes, oh, it is quite possible! You see, A told me, “And then what will we do afterwards?” I said, “Well, we will think about that later!” That’s it! They don’t know... they don’t know that one must not think! I didn’t think about it at all, at all, at all. One day, I saw it like that, as I see you. And even now, it is so living that I only have to look and I see it. And what I saw was the Centre and the light which falls on it and then, quite naturally, while looking at it I noticed, I said, “There, it is like that.” But it was not thought, I did not think “twelve columns and then twelve facets and then...”; I did not think all that. I saw.
It is like these symbols of Sri Aurobindo.... When I am speaking of the Centre I still see these four symbols of Sri Aurobindo, which support each other at the corners, like that, and this colour... a strange colour... I don’t know where we could find that. It is an orange-gold, very warm. And it is the only colour in the place; all the rest is white, and the translucent globe.
C said that he would go at once to enquire in Italy, at Murano, the place where they make the big crystals, to find out if it is possible to make a globe of thirty centimetres, for example, in crystal.
The exact measurement is on the plan, it must be marked.
There is a big glass-works there.
Oh! They make marvellous things there.... Isn’t it marked, the size of the globe?
Seventy centimetres.
It can be hollow. It need not be solid, so that it is not too heavy.
(Silence)
This underground entrance... one will enter a dozen metres or so away from the wall, at the foot of the urn. The urn will mark the descent. I must choose from which side exactly.... And then, it is possible that later the urn, instead of being outside, will be within the enclosure. So perhaps we could simply put a great wall all around, and then the gardens. Between the enclosure wall and the building we are going to make now, we could have the gardens and the urn. And that wall will have one entrance... one or several, ordinary doors. People will be able to walk in the garden. And then one should fulfil certain conditions to have the right to go down into the underground passage and come out into the temple.... That must be something like an initiation, not just “like that”, no matter how...
(Silence)
I said to A, “We will see in twenty years” — so that calmed him down. But the first idea was to surround it with water, to make an island so that one would have to cross the water to be able to reach the temple. It is quite possible to make an island....
* 17 January 1970 What did you want to tell me?
I had a visit from C and G. There are two things. But first there is the plan of the Centre — more precisely, of the outside of the Centre.
The outside — I have seen nothing. There is a sketch, it is a sketch by F.... I did not see anything at all and I am open to all suggestions. And then?
C explained something to me which I found very beautiful, which I would like to submit to you.... When you spoke about this Centre, as a matter of fact, for the outside you said, “I don’t know if the walls will be sloping or if it is the roof which will slope.” You seemed to have some hesitation. So C says that he received a kind of inspiration, and that he has seen something very simple, like a great shell, one part of which would come out of the surface and another part would be buried in the ground. And he has drawn a sort of diagram which I would like to show you.
Have they seen A too? Because A had two ideas; he came to see me with two ideas, and I told him which of the two I preferred, but nothing is decided yet. And A is to make a sketch of his ideas. So I will see what C says and then I will tell you A’s ideas.
(E unrolls the plan) So you see, here is the outside, which would be simply like a shell. The inside is exactly as you have seen it: this great bare carpet, and then the ball at the centre. And what led C to his inspiration was that you had said one should go underground and come up again. So he had the idea of going deep down, to make a spiral staircase here, which would come up again, and here there would be a kind of series of stairs branching out in all directions (in the lower part of the shell) which would lead into the temple itself. So, all the lower part would be in black marble and all the upper part in plain white marble. And the whole thing is like a great bud, you see, as if it were growing out of the earth.
Are you sure that he hasn’t seen A? Because A told me, “I want to make a great circle; the interior is an exact semi-circle and the other semi-circle would be underground.” He used almost the same words.
Because C told him his idea.
Ah! C had told him! Ah, that’s it.
It is like a bud coming out of the earth.
Yes, yes, that was the first idea A told me, almost identically the same words. And then, his second idea was a pyramid. To leave the temple as we had said, and then make a pyramid. But I had also thought of a pyramid, and I told him, “I thought of a pyramid.” But he said that he would make both plans and that then we would see. But if that agrees with C’s idea it is very good.
But A’s idea is C’s idea, in fact.
Yes, that’s it.
So, when one arrives at the top of the “stalk”, there is a whole series of stairs in all directions, so that one can come up into the temple from any side.... And then the centre is absolutely bare, and all around there is a kind of gallery onto which one comes up from the bottom; that is where all these stairways will be. And everything will be bare. There will simply be this huge carpet held from corner to corner by these galleries. It will look as if it is suspended. All white, all plain.
And there was the question of the twelve columns....
C said that he felt that the columns were still an ancient symbol which would not go well with the shell, and he said, “instead of the twelve columns, symbolically one could put twelve supports, twelve bases of columns, which would serve as back-rests.”
Oh! But the columns have a use, because at the top of the columns we will put the spotlights which will direct the light onto the centre. There will be light night and day; for the day, openings will be arranged, but as soon as the sun is gone the spotlights will be lit and the spotlights are fixed on top of the twelve columns and converge onto the centre.
But, Sweet Mother, if the columns are only useful for the spotlights, the spotlights could also be fixed to the walls?
The columns are not near to the wall. The columns are here, exactly half-way between the centre and the wall.
Because C saw this space at the centre all bare, with just the symbol in the middle and this big carpet all level, not broken up by columns. But instead to put something like big blocks, twelve big blocks which would indicate the positions of the columns and would serve at the same time as supports.
That has no meaning.
A symbolic meaning? Because you spoke much of the pillars also as a support for the people who would like to sit down.
Oh, for their backs.
So he said that these twelve blocks could be, for example, each one in a different material, like a symbol: twelve different materials.
I saw columns, myself.
On the outer walls the general ventilation will be arranged, which will be electric (no windows), and then on the columns there was the light... I saw columns, I clearly saw the columns.
Oh well, I will tell him that.
As for the gallery all around, I don’t know if I like that much... I did not see it, I saw the walls completely bare, without windows, and then the columns, and then the centre. That I am sure of, because I saw it, and I saw it for a long time.
How do you like the shell shape?
That means that it makes a perfect circle: half above, half below.... It will do. Only an arrangement must be made for the sun.
Yes, G knows about the problem of lighting with prisms very well — because if one wants to catch a ray of the sun, one must use prisms. He says he will solve the problem very easily, he is taking care of it. They simply put prisms at a certain number of places to capture just one ray of the sun.
It must be one ray. In what I have seen, one saw the ray.
That’s it. With a prism one sees the ray. So there will be a certain number of geometrical openings according to the movement of the sun.... But inside, on the inner walls, the twelve facets will be reproduced.
Yes, yes.
And this, in theory (E points to the circular gallery) these were the entrances by which one came out from the underground passage.
I don’t know if it is good to make many entrances like that.... There will be a practical problem to solve; if there is only one entrance and a very strict watch at that entrance, it is all right, but if there are several entrances and if there is not enough light, there will be disasters.
No, no, Sweet Mother, there will only be one entrance from the outside, but when one comes out at the base of the shell there would be these many entrances. No, outside, there is only one descent, which comes down to here, at the foot of this spiral staircase.
(Silence)
C had thought of this gallery all around because he said that would make this central carpet stand out more, all white; it would look as if it were floating, detached, instead of being stuck against the wall.
I did not think of it as “stuck against the wall” — there was always a passage around the wall.
So it is this passage, with a certain number of galleries. And it was also this idea of bareness which made him take away the columns.
What I don’t like is the idea of these galleries, because the walls were quite straight, from top to bottom, in white marble.
Ah! But the galleries are not high. They are about thirty centimetres above the floor.
Yes, that is all right.
And besides, he said that on this gallery, or rather on this border which restricts the passage all around, the carpet could come right up to the angle, cover the angle.
That’s all right.
(Silence)
Good, that’s all right. So they must come to an understanding. But that must be half done already since A spoke to me about the idea. If I had known that it was C’s idea, I would have said Yes right away. But it will work out. It’s all right.
So then I will tell him to work on this basis.... The only question to be decided is the outside: should a space be left around the shell so that the lower curve of the shell can be clearly seen? Otherwise if everything is filled up, it will simply look like a hemisphere resting on the ground. So that one understands clearly that this shell goes down underground, he thought of making an opening all around.
I don’t know. I tell you, I have seen nothing for the outside, so I don’t know. But it would be dangerous, one could fall.
Or perhaps one could make a sort of moat with water all around, clear water which would show the lower curve of the shell, for example?
Yes, yes, that might be good.
There is also a question of measurements. According to the plan, you have given twenty-four metres — twelve metres on each side of the globe. But can we keep a little extra space on each side for the passage? The plan shows twenty-four metres in diameter and fifteen metres twenty centimetres in height.
Ah?
C is asking if the proportions can change? To keep twenty-four metres for the base of the carpet, but with the possibility, for example, of keeping two or three metres on each side for clearance.
Then where would the wall come?
It would be there (E points to the outside of the circular gallery).
It is the wall which must be twenty-four metres away.
C says that if these passages are to be there, twenty-four metres would be a little short.
(Silence)
And the height is also in question.
The question exactly was that it should make a perfect circle.
If it makes a perfect circle, then the height will be the radius of the distance between the two walls.
Yes.
(Silence)
The thing that would really please me would be if they could both come to an agreement and present me with a project from both of them at once. Like that, it would be easy to carry it out.... Hasn’t A adopted C’s idea? Why don’t the two of them see together how to carry it out?
Yes, that would simplify things.
Oh, very much.
(Silence)
What will happen under there? (Mother points to the underground part of the shell). All that is mental, but when you are going to have a big basement, all dark, what is going to happen in there? What is going to happen? Lots of unmentionable things. Humanity is not transformed, one should not forget it. And all kinds of people will come.... Even if there is a control at the entrance you can’t prevent people from going to see, so then what is going to happen under there? That was my first objection when A told me, “We could make wonderful underground passages!” I told him, “That’s all very well, but who will control what happens under there?”
I had thought it was your idea, the descent?
My idea was quite a short descent, which came out there (Mother points to the single opening of the original plan). Quite a short descent, not a great tunnel like that. But it is possible, it is a question of control, that’s all. Only there is a big difference between a passage with room for two lines of people (one going up and one going down) and coming out there, and an enormous tunnel like this one — there is a big difference! And now, in addition, it will be all dark!
In black marble, yes.
Yes, then? That means that one will not see very clearly in there. Then what is going to happen in there?
These underground areas are not in the form of tunnels; it is a central spiral stairway, and when you arrive at the top of the stairway it branches into a series of open stairways, suspended like bridges. It is not enclosed, it is all floating.
There won’t be any accidents? Ah! There are people with their heads in the clouds who are all ready to break their heads on the floor. You see, it’s a bit too mental for my taste — I mean that from the mental point of view it is very attractive, but in vision...
The main idea was to build the lower part collectively, like a symbol.
(Long silence)
We’ll see! (Mother laughs.)
(Silence)
In any case they must get together. And then I will see. I would like to be able to have them both together with their paper. Then that would be very good.
(Mother enters into a long concentration.)
We will let it settle.
And for the top, shall we drop this idea of the shell, or should we study it further?
A shell... the idea was a sphere. Why a shell?
A shell... well, a round form, a spherical form.
An egg-shell is elongated, it is not spherical. A real egg is rather like a spinning-top — so the upper part would be wider and the base narrower with only the stairs.... That is quite possible.
Give me a piece of paper. (Mother draws an egg as she explains) And then, there, down below, there would only be the stairs, like that, yes.
His idea was to reproduce the egg of Brahman, you know, the original egg. That the temple should represent the original egg.
But then, what is it like, the egg of Brahman?
I don’t know.... Like an egg, I think!
The bottom of an egg is always narrower than the top. So if we take an egg like that (Mother draws), and at the base this is the staircase, and the spiral staircase comes up to the temple. For example, seven stairway openings.
Seven instead of twelve.
And here (Mother draws the central part of the egg), it is twenty-four metres and only fifteen and a half metres in height. Then like that it is correct.
Twenty-four metres for the total width or for the carpet?
No, it must have straight walls, the walls cannot be curved, I saw them straight.
Straight, and then curving up.
According to what I had seen, the columns were higher than the walls, and that is why the roof sloped. And the electric light was on the columns. And the widest point of the egg would be here (Mother draws a line at the level of the carpet).
At floor level.
Yes.
And you said seven openings?
Seven stairways. And then an underground passage which leads to the base of the egg where the seven stairways start from. That is possible.
So in fact the inner walls of the temple ought to be straight.
That is to say that one can, for the outside, for the appearance, make them rounded. But inside, the wall must be straight.
The wall straight, and a dome over the straight wall.
Yes, a dome over the straight wall. But the dome can be the dome of the egg, and I had thought that the place where the dome comes to join the walls would be on the columns. Twelve columns. And here, for the outside, they can round off their wall like that (Mother draws).
It would even be possible to have a space between the outermost wall and the inner wall. To make a space. That is to be seen.
That means in addition to the twenty-four metres?
Yes, that’s understood. The twenty-four metres end at the walls.
And the openings for the seven stairways?
I would prefer to have them outside the wall.
Yes, that would be better, because it would give more space in the centre.
Oh! Yes, and the interior would be much clearer. I didn’t like the sight of all these stairways. I did not like to see even one stairway, but to see seven... But outside, it is all right.
So a passage outside...
The passage outside.
Yes, as in India when one goes around the temple.
Yes. That is all right.
And the seven stairways start directly from the base of the shell without this “stalk” coming up from the bottom?
That is how they want it. For below I don’t mind. If they want it to be a stairway like that or a stairway... so long as it is not too steep.
(Silence)
What else have you?
There is the second part of the problem.
Ah? What is it?
G and C have realised that if Auroville, or the building of this Centre, is left to the people of Auroville, as distinct from the Ashram, it will never work. There will never be the true force; the people who are there are not receptive enough to do the work. If there is this division between the Ashram and Auroville, it will never work, they will make yet another “fabrication” but not something true. According to them, the only hope is that really this Cen-tre should be built not by the Aurovilians, but by all the people of the Ashram, with no distinction between Aurovilians and non-Aurovilians: that the whole force should unite in constructing this Centre — not to abandon the Aurovilians to an external separation.... Just as all the disciples built Golconde1, in the same way all the disciples should build the Centre of Auroville, without any outside labour.
At Golconde, there was outside labour.
Anyway, limiting the outside element as much as possible, so that it is a work of consecration. Otherwise, G says, the people of Auroville are all full of arrogance, of incomprehension, they see the outside of things. The force of the people from here must mingle with that. And if the people of the Ashram do not come to infuse the force, nothing will be achieved.... At the present moment, C told me, externally, Auroville looks like a necropolis (Mother laughs). It is the living fruit of egoism. The only thing which can save it is for the people of the Ashram to go in there and do the work and for the others to be assimilated into that — otherwise...
(Long silence)
But at the Ashram, we have three centres which do construction. There is H, who looks after the maintenance of the houses, I and F.
1 An Ashram guest house in Pondicherry.
But that was not what G meant. He was not speaking at all of a problem of construction. He was speaking of the question that the disciples should work with the Aurovil-ians. G, as an engineer, and with the money collected, will do the construction, but all the labour should be provided by the people of the Ashram as a whole, who should mix with the Aurovilians. That is the idea.
It is not possible. All the people of the Ashram who are of working age are all working, they have all got their work.
G saw a kind of rota, each one giving, for example, an hour a day, or one day a week. Because otherwise...
They would simply love that! For them it would be extraordinary fun. I have more trouble to prevent them from dispersing themselves than I would ever have to get them to do something. It would be an amusement for them.
Because he says that without the inner force of the people of the Ashram mingling with the Aurovilians, the people from Auroville will remain what they are.... He says otherwise there is no hope.
Oh no! He does not know. It is all in the mind, it is all mental. They do not know. Who knows? It is only when one sees. Not one of them sees. All thoughts, thoughts, thoughts.... Thoughts do not build.
The elements in Auroville can do the work?
I am working, working (kneading gesture) to bring together the energies that can do it. And there must be a sifting out there.
(Silence)
But, you understand, they are talking about physical work, and for physical work there are only the young people who are at the school — all the Ashramites have grown old, my child, they are all old. There are only the young people at the school. And the young ones who are at the school are not here to be Ashramites, they are here to be educated — it is up to them to choose. Many, many of them want to go to Auroville. So it would be the educational side of the Ashram which would go to Auroville.... There are many of them. But give me the names — who can go and work with his hands?
But, Sweet Mother, the only possibility is that you should speak, and then I, tomorrow I will go and spend two hours in Auroville and collect “baskets”.
(Mother laughs) My child, you are one of the youngest.... Do you see me telling J: “Go and work”?
Ah, but that would attract all the others.
(Mother laughs) Poor J!
(Long silence)
If you knew how many letters I receive from so-called Aurovil-ians who say, “Oh, I want to be quiet at last, I want to come to the Ashram, I do not want to be an Aurovilian any more.” There, it is just the opposite, “I want to be quiet.” There.
(Silence)
You know, I do not believe in external decisions. I simply believe in one thing only: the force of the Consciousness which is making a pressure like that (crushing gesture). And the pressure goes on increasing... which means that it will sift out the people. I believe only in that — the pressure of the Consciousness. All the rest are things that men do. They do them more or less well, and then it lives, and then it dies, and then it changes, and then it gets distorted, and then... everything they have done. It is not worth the trouble. The power of execution must come from above, like that, imperative (gesture of descent)! And for that, this (Mother points to her forehead), this must keep quiet. Not to say, “Oh, that must not be, oh! this must be, oh! we ought to do...” Peace, peace, peace. He knows better than you do what is needed. There.
So since there are not many people who can understand, I say nothing. I watch and I wait.
(Silence)
If they can come to an agreement, the work will go faster. There. Objections about details have no importance, because one sets out with one idea and one arrives with another... one makes a lot of progress in between. So that does not need to be discussed, it is only... Only try to unite your energies to get started more quickly, that’s all.
(Mother laughs.)
Aspiration Talks 10 March 1970
A: We would like to speak to you about work in Aspiration. What we would like to know, what we are looking for, is the right attitude...
What is the trouble?
A: The trouble is...
Each one pulls in his own direction.
A: Each one pulls in his own direction. No one is really in contact with what is true.
We have to bear in mind that we are starting from the present state of humanity. So you must face all the difficulties; you must find the solution.
(Pointing to the tape-recorder) What is that?
B: I am recording for the people of Auromod`ele, Sweet Mother.
(Mother laughs) You shouldn’t have told me!
A: But, Sweet Mother, you know, several solutions are open to us. For instance, on one hand...
1 Between March and August of 1970, Mother met weekly in her room a small number of Aurovilians, many from Aspiration community — hence the name “Aspiration Talks”. After an offering of flowers and the introduction of new persons, there was usually a period of conversation, though sometimes only what Mother called a “bath of silence”. The following talks were edited from tape-recordings of these twenty-two meetings.
Each man has his solution, and that is the great difficulty. To be in the Truth, each one has his solution. And yet we must find a way for all these solutions to work together.
(Silence)
So the framework must be vast, very flexible, and there must be a great goodwill from everyone: that is the first condition — the first individual condition — goodwill. To be flexible enough to do the best thing to be done at each moment.
A: But for example, we are told that we must have fac-tories, that we must produce, and some of us have no feeling for that sort of work. We would prefer a seeking which is more...
More inward?
A: More inward, rather than to launch into factories, work, production for the sake of money, etc. That is not what we feel, that is not what we want to do in Aspiration at the moment. We would like to know what you think about it.
(Mother concentrates and there is a long silence.)
To be practical, you must first have a very clear vision of your goal, of where you are going. From this point of view, take money for example. An ideal which may be several hundred years ahead of its time, we don’t know: money should be a power which belongs to nobody and which should be controlled by the most universal wisdom present. Put on the earth someone who has a vision vast enough to be able to know the needs of the earth and precise enough to be able to tell where the money should go — you understand, we are very far from that, aren’t we? For the moment, the gentleman still says, “This is mine”, and when he is generous, he says, “I give it to you.” That’s not it.
But there is a long way to go between what we are and what must be. And for that we must be very flexible, never losing sight of the goal, but knowing that we cannot reach it at one bound and that we must find the way. Well, that is much more difficult, even more difficult than to make the inner discovery. Truly speaking, that should have been made before coming here.
For there is a starting-point: when you have found within yourself the light that never wavers, the presence which can guide you with certitude, then you become aware that constantly, in everything that happens, there is something to be learnt, and that in the present state of matter there is always a progress to be made. That is how one should come, eager to find out at every minute the progress to be made. To have a life that wants to grow and perfect itself, that is what the collective ideal of Auroville should be: “A life that wants to grow and perfect itself”, and above all, not in the same way for everyone — each one in his own way.
Well, now there are thirty of you, it is difficult, isn’t it? When there are thirty thousand of you, it will be easier, because, naturally, there will be many more possibilities. You are the pioneers, you have the most difficult task, but I feel it is the most interesting one. Because you must establish in a concrete, durable and growing way the attitude that is needed to truly be an Aurovilian. To learn every day the lesson that is needed to truly be an Aurovilian. To learn every day the lesson of the day.... Each sunrise is an opportunity to make a discovery. So, with that state of mind, you find out. Everyone does.
And the body needs activity: if you keep it inactive, it will begin to revolt by becoming sick and so on. It needs an activity, it really needs an activity like planting flowers, building a house, something really material. You must feel it. Some people do exercises, some ride bicycles, there are countless activities, but in your little group you must all come to an agreement so that each one can find the activity which suits his temperament, his nature and his need. But not with ideas. Ideas are not much good, ideas give you preconceptions, for example, “That is a good work, that work is not worthy of me,” and all that sort of nonsense. There is no bad work — there are only bad workers. All work is good when you know how to do it in the right way. Everything. And it is a kind of communion. If you are fortunate enough to be conscious of an inner light, you will see that in your manual work, it is as if you called the Divine down into things; then the communion becomes very concrete, there is a whole world to be discovered, it is marvellous.
You are young, you have plenty of time before you. And to be young, to be really young, we must always, always keep on growing, developing, progressing. Growth is the sign of youthfulness and there is no limit to the growth of consciousness. I know old people of twenty and young people of fifty, sixty, seventy. And if one does manual work, one keeps in good health.
So now you must find the solution.
A: All right.
Everything you can do... there are all sorts of things, all sorts. And you should see among yourselves how it can be arranged. You will come and tell me, all right?
B: Yes, all right.
Then, good-bye. Come again in a week.
* 24 March 1970 Come in. (Mother laughs.)
(Those who enter offer flowers to the Mother. Pointing to the flowers named “Service”, she says, laughing:)
Service to Auroville.
(Mother arranges the flowers and distributes them. While giving “Service” and “Transformation” flowers, she remarks:)
It is service which leads to transformation. I mean it seriously.
A: Sweet Mother, may we ask you a question?
Yes.
A: It is on behalf of Aspiration in general.
Oh!
A: In Aspiration some people would like to know whether it would be possible for it to be not always the same people who come to see you on Tuesdays.
You see, I am quite willing, but it is up to you. (Mother laughs) No! I am willing to see four of you.
(Turning to C) I have called him for the first time today, but in his place other people could take turns in coming. In any case I will be seeing him. But with you three, a fourth person can come, taking turns, a different one each time.
A: Very well.
All I ask is that they should be sincere, that they do not come out of mere curiosity. If they are sincere, if they truly want to progress, they may come one at a time, I am quite willing. I do not even need to know their names. You see, that has no importance to me. It is only the quality of the receptivity that counts. If they are open and feel that it does them good, then fine, it is very good....
(To C) So you will come once a week to keep me informed about the garden.... You, you people come from Auroville; him, he works here.... Is that all right?
A: Quite all right, Sweet Mother.
(Long silence)
How many of you are there out there?
A: About forty.
(Mother laughs) I’m going to ask you an indiscreet question. How many are sincere? You can’t know that just by looking at them. There won’t be forty coming here! How many asked you if they could come?
B: Five, six.
That’s reasonable. Who?
B: There were D, E, F — and many people there feel much love for you, you know.
(Silence)
I am going to set two conditions. To want to progress — that is really a moderate condition. To want to progress, to know that everything is yet to be done, everything is yet to be conquered. The second condition: to do something every day, some activity, some work, anything, something which is not for oneself, and above all something which is an expression of goodwill for all — you are a group, aren’t you? — simply to show that you do not live solely for yourselves as if you were at the centre of the universe and the whole universe had to revolve around you. That is how it is for the vast majority of people, and they don’t even know it. Each one should become aware that, spontaneously, one puts oneself at the centre of the universe and wants everything to come to oneself, just like that, in one way or another. But one should make an effort to recognise the existence of the whole, that’s all. It is to widen one’s consciousness, just to become a little less tiny.
So those who adhere to my programme will come once a week, in turn. Is that all right?
(To C) As for you, I shall give you a rose for your mother because she likes them very much. So you will give her this. And you will come... you should not come on the same day, because it takes too much time. What day?
G: Monday is all right, Friday too.
(To C) Which day is more convenient for you?
C: Monday, Sweet Mother.
So on Monday you will bring me news of your gardening.
Very good. We must have a beautiful garden. Well, then, is it all right? I shall see you next Tuesday, with someone, anyone, it’s all the same to me, you can just tell me when he comes.... Those who want to progress and who think that the world is vaster than themselves, than their own consciousness.
(Silence)
G: They have arranged a Judo mat over there, Sweet Mother. B is teaching Judo. He is a brown belt and he can teach.
Oh! You have met Mr. H?
B: Yes, I have practised Judo with him.
(To G) What does he think of him?
B: We have not been taught in the same way; it is difficult for me to tell you what I think of him because we don’t have the same technique.
G: They don’t have the same technique, Sweet Mother; they have not been taught in the same way. He worked with him while he was here in the Ashram, for three months, and then he went to Auroville.
They don’t have the same technique?
G: Yes, they don’t work in the same way.
(To B ) Where did you learn?
B: In France. H learned in Algeria, I think.
And then there are those who have learned in Japan and they really know. (General laughter)
B: There are about ten of us, Sweet Mother, practising Judo.
There are as many Judos as there are people practising it. Ten is all right. The first thing is to learn how to fall. (General laughter) All right. So I shall see you next Tuesday. Good-bye.
* 31 March 1970 Any news?
A: Yes.
What news?
A: We have two questions to ask you, if you don’t mind. The first one is about a young boy from the Tamil village next to Aspiration. For some time now he has been coming to work in the garden at Aspiration; and we feed him, and little by little he has started to participate, to live a little bit with the camp. And I,J and K have decided to take responsibility for this child, along with the whole group, of course, but the three of them especially; and to look after him and little by little to integrate him into the life of the camp. Do you think it is all right?
It is all right, on condition that the parents agree. You should have someone talk with the parents and tell them, if they agree, ask them, explain to them. You cannot take a child, just like that, without the agreement of the parents, his father and mother.
A: L is looking after village relations. He is going to try and see the family and get in touch with the father and mother, to see whether it is possible.
And he will go there?
A: Yes, yes.
This is what I am saying. That is the condition. He must go there, talk to the father and mother, explain things to them, ask them whether they agree. If they do, it is very good, quite all right.
A: Because there is no question of cutting him off from his village...
No, no.
A: But to try little by little...
On the contrary...
A: We must not...
On the contrary, he must maintain the contact. Then it is fine.
Now, the second question?
A: The second question is about visitors, the people who come to Aspiration. There are two categories: those who stay for the day and have their meals there, and those who want to spend the night and who want to stay. We do not know what attitude we should take towards them in general.
Spending the night is not possible, is it? You have no room?
A: No, we have no room.
But where do they come from? Are they sent by the [Sri Auro-bindo] Society or do they come just like that?
A: Some of them are sent by the Society, but not all. We don’t always know where they come from.
There ought to be some supervision.
A: Because sometimes it creates misunderstandings, which are not...
You should have an office, that is to say, there ought to be someone there all the time, someone who could receive people coming from outside, interview them, find out who has sent them, where they come from, why they have come. He should be an Indian. That is absolutely indispensable, someone who speaks...
A: Some Indians come, but many Europeans as well — Germans, for instance, and Englishmen, Americans and Frenchmen too; they just happen to be passing by and...
There should be one Indian and one European who can speak at least French and English. If he could speak German too it would be still better. But nowadays, with English...
Spending the night — I don’t agree, because we know nothing about what they are like or what they want or why they have come. Those who come with a recommendation, someone knows them, they have been sent to us, that is different; but those who come just like that — there must be someone to tell them what it’s all about, and that it is not an object of curiosity.
A: But, Sweet Mother, for instance, let us take an example: if someone has already come to Aspiration and has left to go and work somewhere else, and he would like to come back from time to time, what attitude should we... in that case, could he spend the night there?
Is he a nice person?
A: Yes, he is a nice person.
Then it is all right. That is quite different, it is different. I am talking about strangers, people whom we do not know and who come just like that. Who could receive them?
A: Well, in fact I don’t really know. We ought to discuss it among ourselves. I don’t know.
Yes, perhaps it would not be much fun.
A: Not always.
But it would be rather useful, it would be very useful. It would be enough to have a table and a chair — you invite them in and interview them. If necessary, there could be a stool for them!
A: We could also give them something to drink...
(Mother laughs) Oh! That’s too much. “What do you expect from us, who told you about us”, etc.... And then it ought to be someone with a little psychological insight. If he sees that the people are sincere and interesting, then it is all right; but to spend the night — better not.
A: On the other hand, we have decided to ask for money from people who have a meal there.
Yes, ask them to pay.
A: Ask them to pay — is it all right?
Yes, yes, it is all right. You have only to set a fixed price. Who is doing the cooking?
A: We have had a cook for a month, a Tamil man who learned to cook during the fifteen years he spent in France; and there are people helping him in the kitchen. But he is always there.
(Jokingly) You could open a little restaurant!
Do you know M?
A: Yes.
He has some sort of shop for selling things.
A: Yes, a store.
Yes, that’s it. But there is no one to look after it at night and so there are thefts. And it seems that you have too many people and not enough accommodation. So what I suggested was that each month someone could go there to sleep at night and come back in the morning, if it’s not too far.
A: It’s three kilometres away.
G: Three or four kilometres, Sweet Mother.
Oh, well that’s nothing.
A: By cycle it is nothing.
By cycle — do you have bicycles?
A: Yes, though actually we don’t have enough. We must get some more. We don’t have enough cycles but we can find some more.
And all you have to do is go there in the evening, at night, and come back in the morning. At night the bicycles won’t be needed [at Aspiration]. But if you know M, he could take one of you along and show him and explain it to him.
A: All right.
I think it will be all right.... I don’t know what it’s like, I couldn’t say, but I hope that it will be comfortable.
A: And what do you think about making a big hut to house twenty or twenty-five people? It was one of N’s ideas.
I think that until there is enough accommodation for everyone it is quite indispensable. I’m not saying that it will be super-comfortable, but it is most indispensable.
The young boy, the young Tamil boy who is coming — what are you teaching him, English or French?
A: Oh, for the moment we’re not really teaching him anything.
Poor little fellow, you simply put him to work...
A: Oh no, not only that.
G: They feed him as well, Sweet Mother.
A: Gradually, as he comes more often, we will organise something and teach him French.
You must involve him in the life there, and then it would be interesting. When children hear you speak, they want to know what is being said and they learn the language. Indians are wonderful at learning languages. They can learn four or five languages without mixing them up. This young boy would learn very well — it would be a good thing.
(Long silence)
Good, it is all right. Then... Good-bye.
* 7 April 1970 Nothing to report?
(Long silence)
Have you changed something in the organisation? Someone told me that you had.
A: It is going to change.
Oh! It has not changed.
A: Not yet. It is going to change.
(Long silence)
If anyone wants a “bath of silence” they can come, it doesn’t matter. If anyone wants a “bath of silence” more often than once in a while, they can come, it doesn’t matter. They can sit there at the back.
I’ll leave the arrangements to you.
(Silence)
Good-bye.
* 14 April 1970
G: (Referring to O) He is German, Sweet Mother. He is the one who draws the comics, like Claude de Ribaud- Pierre. He is the one who does that, Mother.
(Referring to P) He has just arrived, Mother. He is a
mason.
Ah!
G: He is from France and he is a mason. He is going to leave for some time to fetch his wife and then come back.
There is work here.
(Long silence)
I am going to give each of you a packet to keep the contact. You are familiar with these packets. You must keep the packet.
Do they all understand French?
G: Not O.
(In English) I can speak in English if you like.
G: O does not understand, Mother. He is German. He understands English.
(In English) There are some petals, flower petals inside, but they are charged with force, and if you keep them upon you, the contact with me is kept. So, if you refer inside, when you withdraw... if you refer inside, you can re-establish the contact and even have an answer to a question.
Take it. Here.
(Silence)
Nobody has a question? (In English) No question?
(Silence)
* 21 April 1970
G: (Referring to L, who wrote to Mother asking how Aurovilians should relate to the local villagers) This is L. He is the one who asked the questions.
Ah! For your questions, the best way, you see, it is education. To educate them not by words and speeches but by example. If you can make them mix with your life and your work, and they get the influence of your way of being, your way of understanding, then, little by little, they will change. And when they become curious and ask questions, then it will be time to answer and to tell them what you know.
G: Here are some offerings from the villagers.
Oh!
G: L brought them, Mother — from the villagers.
Oh!
L: Two persons.
They know of my existence?
L: Yes, Mother! (Laughter)
Two?
L: Two.
Then you will give them that. (Mother gives two Blessings Pack-ets.) You’ll tell them: the Mother is sending that for you. And you tell them: keep that upon you, it will help you.
Is there someone else?
G: Yes, Q, a German girl. She is also working in the Dispensary, Mother.
You speak English? It is with Dr. R that you are working?
G: With Dr. R, yes, Mother.
(To A) You understand English?
A: Yes.
Then I say it in English. Because I have been told that in Aspiration there is a big number of cats and dogs. It is true? You know, I have nothing against cats and dogs. I have kept some also at one time. But the climate is not good; it is almost impossible to avoid... to avoid rabies. And then, you understand, it becomes dangerous and you will have to kill them, which is not a pleasant business. It would be better to diminish the number as much as possible. I have been obliged to ask not to keep dogs; some keep them all the same. But you can’t have a pleasant contact with them. They carry the illness. There are some diseases, rather serious, and dogs, cats, carry them. I don’t want to give nasty descriptions, but... It is not safe and it cannot be peaceful. Do you know the illness they carry? There are two: one is plague, the other is leprosy.
Are they personal animals or belonging to the community?
A: Some belong to the community, but some are personally owned.
They live in their huts?
A: Some of them. (Murmurs of disagreement; A corrects himself) No, they don’t live in the huts any more.
They are not allowed to come in?
A: No, not in the huts, but even so they are in the camp. They are often in the cafeteria where we have our meals.
And then, well, they breed. (Laughter) There is no end to it. And breeding — what can we do? Drown them all? It is not pleasant. Naturally, you could easily tell me: if we chase them away from here they will go somewhere else. But, anyway, what I would like is that this should not be encouraged. You know, you will have more cats and dogs than human beings. That’s how it is. Then — there is one interesting thing you could do. Far, far away, in some deserted area where no one lives, you could put them all together, in a protected area, so that they could not get out. Then they will find something to eat. Say, a spot of virgin forest — they still exist in India. With cats it is very easy. When a cat has kittens, if you carry the babies off somewhere and put them there, the mother never comes back, she stays with the little ones. Something should be found, a remote spot. They still exist in India. But not on Auroville land.
In fact, all I am asking you to do is not to allow the number to increase, in any case. One day you will come to me all in tears, saying: life has become unbearable! (Laughter) So, I am warning you.
In the village, do they have cats and dogs?
L: Yes, dogs — many, but not many cats.
Do you want a short moment of silence?
(Long silence)
So, good-bye.
All: Good-bye.
* 28 April 1970 Who are the new ones?
G: The new ones: D, you have already seen her once for her birthday. S, you know her, you have seen her several times already. T has often written to you; he wrote several letters and he also came for his birthday. U, you don’t know U; he is a mechanic, he works with V on the cars. W’s father, N. B, who comes every week. And A (Mother laughs).
So we are going to stay quiet. I shall talk to you some other day.
There will be... Do you know the small Ashram brooches? Well, there is going to be one for Auroville. Because there are people who come and settle down on Auroville land and they refuse to go and see the Committee, saying, “Auroville is free!” And they settle down there. But all the same, we need to be able to distinguish between those who are recognised Aurovilians and those who are more fanciful. So something is being prepared — of course, it is not ready yet. I only wanted to show you. (Mother takes a sheet of paper from her table.)
It will be a small brooch about this size. It is like this. The circle will be made of silver; and here are the four aspects, and Sri Aurobindo’s square with the lotus. And “Auroville” will be written all around it. So you will wear that in your button-hole — the recognised Aurovilians! (Mother smiles.)
(Silence)
There. So, have a good week.
* 26 May 1970 Are there any questions?
A: Yes. There have been some reactions about the little booklet that you gave us on religions, about the sentence which says: “Our search will not be a search by mystic means.”2 They don’t know what mystic means are?
A: Maybe they don’t know, but perhaps what we do not know either is this: why not by mystic means? I have been asked the question.
By mystic means I mean the way of those who withdraw from life, like the monks, the people who withdraw into convents, or like the sannyasins here, those who abandon life to find spiritual life, who make a division between the two and say, “It is either one or the other.” We say, “That is not true.” It is in life and by living life entirely that one can live the spiritual life, that one must live the spiritual life. The supreme consciousness has to be brought here. From the purely material and physical point of 2 “Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.”
view, man is not the last race. As man came after the animal, so another being must come after man. And as there is only one Consciousness, it is the same Consciousness which having had the experience of man will have the experience of a superhuman being. And so if we go away, if we leave life, if we reject life, then we will never be ready to do that.
But if you had read Sri Aurobindo, you would have understood, you would not have asked this question. It is because there is a lack of preparation from the intellectual point of view. You want to know everything without having studied.
(To A) Now, what else do you have to say?
A: That is all. Yes, there is something else, if you don’t mind. It is a letter from T. A letter from T who is here and who asked me to read it to you.
All right.
A: (Reading) “Concerning what you have written about religions, a prayer rises up towards you. We ask for the Divine’s Truth, fulfilled in the Truth of our being; we ask that our actions may manifest His Truth, that our minds and hearts may be exclusively moved by His Truth. We implore the full Light of His Truth on all that is still unconscious. With His Truth we want to know, through His Truth we want to act, and in His Truth we want to be. This is the prayer of Auroville to the Supreme. Be the triumphant Mother of our consciousnesses.”
It could be put up on the notice board. It is very good, very good.
(R indicates that he has a question to ask.) What do you have to say?
R: I have a question, Mother, a practical question.
Practical?
R: It seems very difficult to be able to want to achieve any specific aim and at the same time to love everyone. When we begin to want something and try to act with a particular result in mind, immediately we cut ourselves off from everyone who does not agree with that. In practice, how can we do both at the same time?
You cut yourself off from people who do not think as you do?
R: Really... all the time....
But not a single person thinks as you do!
R: Of course.
So how can you love anyone?
R: As long as I don’t want anything, it is all right.
Oh!
R: Yes!
(Mother concentrates for two or three minutes)
It is because when you want something, it is the ego that wants. So, the ego... must be ignored. The first thing to do is not to act for yourself but to act in obedience to the Divine, to express the divine Will. For your part, you have no orders to give. As long as it is a personal will, a personal desire, it is not the true thing, and you cannot... Not only is it not the true thing, but you cannot know the true thing!
That must be (gesture of rejecting something forcefully)... that must be expelled!
That is why alone, we are nothing at all. This is life. We do not act for ourselves. We do not act from our personal will and for a personal result. We act only by the divine Will and for the divine Will. So much so, that effortlessly, spontaneously, we can feel the greatest tenderness for our physical enemy. When you have felt that, you will understand. That is the whole limitation, the whole limitation.
When conflicts arise, and they arise all the time, for all of us — immediately it is as if one were drawing back into one’s own skin. For that is what happens: each one draws back inside himself. But the difficulty is that even when one has relatively little personal will, if the person next to you expresses a personal will, it is exactly... First of all it creates a reaction and then too, if you are more or less in agreement with it, you take this will, you see, and you begin to reflect it all around. So you can see what happens. And that is going on all the time. First one person has a will, and then another, and so on, endlessly. That is happening everywhere; the strongest will prevails. It is worthless, worthless.
When we say, “We are at the service of the Divine”, it is not just words. It is He who should act through us, not we ourselves. The greatest objection is: How can we know the divine Will? But as a matter of fact, I tell you: if you sincerely renounce your personal will, you will know.
R: Yes, that is clear.
Yes, that’s it.
(Mother remains silent, concentrating on each person present, for about fifteen minutes. Then to A:) So, you will explain that to them.
We want to change life — we do not want to run away from it.... Until now all those who have tried to know what they called God, to enter into relation with God, they have abandoned life. They have said, “Life is an obstacle. We shall abandon life for that.” So, in India you had the sannyasins who renounced everything; in Europe you had the monks and the ascetics. Well, they can escape, even though when they are reborn they will have to begin all over again. But life remains as it is.
* 2 June 1970 I have been asked to formulate the aspiration of Auroville. Because there is a lot of goodwill, but it is... it does not seem to be organised. So, I said: the best thing to do is to formulate what it is a great task.
Each time, we could formulate one of the aspirations, or else you could bring me a question each time. And there will be many of them, so, one question and then either I will answer right away or I will give you the answer the next time. Or else, we can try to express together the aspiration of Auroville.
A: Do you already have some vision of what this aspiration is?
Of course! Of course! I know what I want, I know what I want in a few years’ time, many years from now.
A: But you think that we shall achieve this future Au-roville?
This is how we will proceed: each time you come, I will give you one of Auroville’s aspirations and then we’ll put them one after the other, and the next time you can ask me a question on what I have said the time before. There is one drawback; it is not always the same people who come. There are three of you who always come. You must keep up the continuity.
What must one be to be a true Aurovilian? You put the question like that. What must one be to be a true Aurovilian? (To A) Do you have any ideas?
A: For me, the first thing, to really be an Aurovilian, is the will to consecrate oneself wholly to the Divine.
That is good, it is good; but there are not many like that. (To G) Here, give me a piece of paper. I’m going to write that down as number one.
(Mother writes) “To Be a True Aurovilian.” I have written it with only one “l” on purpose.
So, we shall see about number two. From the point of view of behaviour, of more-down-to-earth things, for example: We want to be free from all moral and social conventions. But that is where we have to be very careful! One must not liberate oneself from these things by sinking below them into licence and the blind satisfaction of desires; one must liberate oneself from these conventions by rising above them and by eliminating desires, and replace moral rules by obedience to the Divine.
(G offers Mother a notebook in which to write what she has just said.)
It is not in a form which can be written down.
G: Yes, Sweet Mother.
Now we will be silent.
G: There is a question, Sweet Mother.
Eh?
G: There is a question.
A question? What question? Who has a question?
G: It is B here, who teaches Judo at Aspiration. He says, “Sweet Mother, why is it so difficult to carry on a physical activity, sports or any other, in Auroville in general and particularly in Aspiration?”
Difficult? Why is it difficult?
B: It is difficult, Sweet Mother, to be steady, to go on with an activity, sports or any other, which we have started. So I am asking you why.
Don’t you have any students?
B: We have started Judo classes. There were eight of us two months ago, but now we are two or three. And for many activities it is like that.
What reason do they give? Is it laziness, indolence, or because they feel superior?
B: I don’t know, Sweet Mother.
If it is laziness, you must begin slowly and gradually build up as the body becomes used to it. If it is because of a sense of superiority, that is a serious disease! (Mother laughs) It must be cured!
We have been given a body not to reject it but to make it into something better. And that is precisely one of the goals of Auroville. The human body must be improved, perfected, and it must become a superhuman body capable of expressing a being higher than man. And this certainly cannot happen if we neglect it. It is by an enlightened physical culture and by using physical activities — the activities of the body — not for little personal needs and satisfactions, but to make the body more capable of expressing a higher beauty and consciousness. And for that, physical education has an important place, which should be given to it.
The question “Why are they like that?” — everyone says to me, “They are like this. They are like that. Why are they like that?” And in every domain. And that is precisely why I thought of doing what I spoke of before: formulating the true aspiration of Auroville.
And this cultivation of the body must be done with an enlightened sense, not to do eccentric or marvellous things, but to give the body the possibility of being strong and supple enough to express a higher consciousness.
That will be part of the long list. They need to be told a little.... Each has come with an aspiration, the idea that he would find something new, but it is not very clear. And so they must be given a clear picture, comprehensive enough for all the aspirations to be able to find their place and their expression. We will do that. We see each other once a week. We will do it little by little.
(To B) You will have to tell them, but I have just said it. They can be told, you can tell them: physical culture has an important place in preparing the body for its new functions. There! (Mother laughs.)
(There follows a quarter of an hour’s meditation. Then Mother takes back the notebook in which she has written “To Be a True Aurovilian” and point number one of the “long list” and says:)
There! I have written number two: “The Aurovilian does not want to be a slave to his desires.” It is a major resolution.
* 9 June 1970 (To A) I have some work for you. (Mother asks A to read the text of “To Be a True Aurovilian”.)
Well then, what would you prefer: silence first and that afterwards, or that first and silence after? It is in writing: what an Aurovilian must be. Not easy.
A: Silence afterwards.
(Handing the text to A) Look at it. Is there enough light?
A: Yes. (A reads the text of “To Be a True Aurovilian”.)
It will be continued. If you want to, make a copy, as many copies as you like, but on the condition that the copies are accurate, that there are no alterations.
A: Regarding copies, P told me that you had read the first conversation which we had together and that you didn’t want it to be published in its present form.
Such things have to be written. As it stands, it is merely talk. When one is speaking like that, it is not in a form which can be preserved. You see, there is the way you speak, the tone of your voice, the force you put into it, and then the expression which completes what is not explicit. Then, when it is printed, all that is missing, and it becomes just talk. It lacks the essential thing: the consciousness one puts into what one says. The words are not enough.
If I had the time I would correct it for you and then you could publish it; but as it stands now, it is not possible. When you read, you are with the words alone, and very few people are capable of drawing on the force while they are reading. The words must be as precise as possible. That is why I have written down this text. When it is finished, I will put it in English, then those who don’t know French will be able to understand.
* 23 June 1970
C: There is much illness at Aspiration just now.
Ah!
C: There are stomach troubles like diarrhoea, dysentery, gastroenteritis.
Oh! Is it because of the food?
C: The doctor says that it is the water. But we have disinfected the water-tank.
Is it surface water?
C: It’s water which comes from a fairly deep well.
It would be better to have it analysed. You don’t have a filter?
C: No.
There should be one. Only for drinking. Or else it should be boiled and cooled. Otherwise, it is troublesome. It is best to boil it first and then filter it.
G: He can speak of it because he was sick last week, Mother.
C: I am still sick.
G: He is still sick. He doesn’t say that it’s himself, but he is sick.
Enteritis?
C: Yes, gastroenteritis.
G: He’s had it for a long time now, some fifteen days.
If the water is bad, it keeps coming back. You should get it analysed. (Mother advises analysis of the water by E.) Give him some water and ask him to have a look at it. Then we will do what is needed. The best thing, the safest thing is to boil it and then filter it. And then you must be careful about the vessels; make sure they are clean. If you are careless... Boiling it, that’s easy. Filtering it — someone could make a filter. Can you take care of it?
C: Perhaps we could buy one in Madras?
G: In Harpagon, Mother, there is someone who knows how to make filters. If he goes there, they could explain it to him. Only the candles have to be bought in Madras.
And then, don’t drink just anywhere! That is the only thing, the only precaution you have to take in this country: the water. You get all kinds of diseases from the water. I thought that this had already been explained to you. You can build a filter; make it a big one!
* 7 July 1970
A: This is a letter from X. He would like me to read it to you. May I do that?
Yes.
A: (Reading) “Divine Mother, there is great confusion about Auroville’s organisation, inner as well as outer. How can we work together towards the realisation of a higher consciousness? It seems that Auroville should become a more homogeneous community with a greater sense of unity. In order to realise this, would it be possible for all the inhabitants of Promesse, Hope, Aspiration, Peace, etc. to meet in order to work together one day a week on a communal garden, perhaps the garden of Truth? Or each person could devote one day a week to a communal farm, to produce food for Auroville. That would help us to get to know each other better and make us more capable of organising ourselves in the right spirit. And perhaps the people engaged in individual projects for Auroville could also work together more closely, so as to form a sort of guiding team in Auroville, so that each one’s work could progress more effectively. Would such a concerted effort in Auroville just now help us to do your work?
“With a prayer for perfection.”
The aspiration is good, but... I don’t know whether the time has come.
A: He is not the only one. There are several people working in different places in Auroville who feel this need to unite and to do the same work together.
Yes, the idea is good, but this is how I see it. We want to build the Matrimandir; and then, that was the idea: when we begin to build the Matrimandir, everyone who wants to work there will be able to do so. And that would really be working on the central idea.
And it should be soon. It should have been already. So there, there will be work for everyone. We have been thinking of beginning the Matrimandir for a long time. In fact, everyone should come and work there, except, of course, those who work elsewhere. There will be work for everybody. It is better than... It is the centre of the town.
You could tell him this: in principle the idea is good. But as for the application, for a long time, more than a year, we wanted to begin the Matrimandir so that everyone could work there. A person would have to say, “No, I do not want to” and have his reasons.
It is like the Force, the central Force of Auroville, the cohesive Force of Auroville.
There will be gardens. There will be everything, all the pos-sibilities: engineers, architects, all kinds of manual work. So you can tell him from me that he has picked up the idea which was in the air, but that we want its application to be truly symbolic. And when we begin to build the Matrimandir, we will put everyone to work on it. Not every day and all the time, but it will be organised.
Is that all you wanted to say?
(Silence)
What has been done with what I wrote?
A: It has been put up on the notice-board. It has been read...
It doesn’t seem to have had much effect.
A: It has surely had some effect, but no one has spoken to me about it.
Good. So now, do you want a meditation? Not a meditation:
silence. If possible, mental silence. In order to have true knowledge one must achieve mental silence. You are still... who among you can be silent mentally?
Does everybody understand French?
A: No, not everybody.
(In English) I was asking, who knows how to be perfectly silent mentally? No? Nobody? (Laughter) That’s what we are trying here.
(To A) Shall we try?
A: Yes! (Laughter)
Who has succeeded? Not yet. Then, silence.
(Long silence)
A noisy silence!
* 28 July 1970 No questions? Yes? What do you have to say?
A: The first thing is that Y is going to buy cows for Aspiration. He is going to Madras tomorrow and he would like to have your blessings. He would like to have three of them, one for each cow and one for himself.
(Mother laughs) What will they do with the blessings?
Where is he going to buy them?
A: In Madras.
Madras is a city. Cows are not born in cities.
A: But he is going with an expert.
Oh! I’m quite willing to give a blessings packet for him, but not for the cows!
Is that all?
A: There was something else. We would like to know the underlying reason why we of Aspiration may no longer go to the Playground. Last Wednesday there was a talk by Z about Sri Aurobindo’s Action and we were not allowed to enter.
It is my fault for not anticipating that. Otherwise I would have told them to let you in for that. I had not anticipated it. I could perhaps ask Z if he would like to give you a talk.
A: He has already done so.
Ah, well then...
A: No, it worked out very well. But we wanted to know the reason.
The reason is something quite different. It had nothing to do with that. The reason is quite simply that it is rather difficult to make a rule that applies for one person and not for another — very complicated. And unfortunately, among the people living in Auroville there are some who drink. And there are other things too... But anyway, one was found almost dead drunk in the Playground. So, naturally, with us here at the Ashram it is forbidden to drink, to drink alcohol. It caused a terrible uproar. That is the reason. It is not an inner reason, it is a very practical reason. It is impossible to say, “This one may go; that one cannot.” What can they do at the door? And it almost caused a revolution. If they ask my advice, I would say, I advise you not to drink because it diminishes the consciousness and ruins your health. But some people do not ask my advice. And I do not want to make rules for Auroville as I did for the Ashram. It is not the same thing.
The people who live in Auroville and insist on following all the old habits — the old ones and the new ones too — which harm the consciousness, which lower the consciousness, things like smoking, drinking and, of course, drugs... all that, it is as if you were cutting pieces off your being. In the Ashram, naturally, I said No. We want to grow in consciousness; we do not want to descend into the pit of desires. To those who refuse to understand I say: the aim of Auroville is to discover a new, deeper, more complete, more perfect life and to show the world that tomorrow will be better than today.
Some people believe that smoking, drinking, etc. will form part of the life of tomorrow. That is their business. If they want to go through this experience, let them do it. They will realise that they are imprisoning themselves in their own de-sires. But anyway, I am not a moralist, not at all, at all, at all. It is their own business. It is their own business. If they want to go through this experience, let them do it. But the Ashram is not the place for it. Thank God, at the Ashram we have learnt that life is something else. True life is not the satisfaction of desires. I can affirm from experience that all the experiences brought by drugs, all that contact with the invisible world, can be had in a much better, more conscious and con-trolled way without drugs. Only, one must control oneself. It is more difficult than swallowing poison. But I am not going to preach.
When and if Auroville becomes the example of a higher life, having conquered all desires and opened itself to higher forces, then we will be able to go everywhere. When the Aurovil-ians become lights moving in the world, they will be welcome. There!
But I believe I have written something like that. No? What I gave you? They were not just words; these things are very concrete.
Is that all? Or do you have anything else?
A: No.
(Silence)