Finding Auroville

There are many (maybe infinite?) supra-interesting sociological and psychological themes that can be analyzed by studying the petri dish that is Auroville. Among these are the multifarious interplays between spirituality, religion and the socio-political ideologies of liberalism/progressivism and conservatism. In the next few posts I will take a look at some of these interplays. Even though this would seem to give a political tinge (in terms of left and right ideologies) to the spiritual focus of Auroville, I believe that understanding and framing these relationships between spirituality, religion, progressivism and conservatism is central to the understanding of what spirituality and Integral Yoga are, for the understanding of the long-term universalism of Integral Yoga, and the path forward for Auroville.

The two central facets of Integral Yoga are detachment from the material world, and then action in and the bringing about of change in the material world from that place of detachment. Real positive change in the material world can only be brought about by action without attachment. Till then, humanity will continue to fall again and again into the trap of self-serving action, even while pretending to be altruistic. And because Integral Yoga combines spiritual detachment with material action that both need to be understood and studied, as do the interactions between the two. And as part of this we need to understand how society frames and understands both spirituality as well as the material world. This is where socio-political analysis comes in, since it is so central to understanding how humanity interprets the material world, and so central to understanding the passionate, vital, and emotional ties that people have to collective human groupings such as political ideologies and religions. Ultimately, all of this analysis comes under the framework of jnana yoga, or the yoga of knowledge.

Before being able to discuss the relationships between all these terms, we need to define their meanings as will be used in the current context. In this post we will define these terms, and from the next post will begin to map out their relationships.

Spirituality/Yoga/Integral Yoga: One of the dictionary definitions of the term “spiritual” is: “of or relating to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature”. A key jump of faith that one needs to go through on the path of Yoga and Integral Yoga is the belief in a power beyond the observable material world, beyond nature/prakriti. This power can be understood as the Divine, as paramatma, as a universal consciousness, cosmic consciousness, universal conscious energy etc, depending on how one wants to understand and interpret it. And part of that universal consciousness resides in our individual beings, which has been called the atma. So of course Integral Yoga is in the realm of spirituality, since it requires the acceptance of an energy (or entity) that is part of, constitutes, pervades, but also goes beyond material nature as we understand it today. For me, spirituality has in fact come to mean nothing other than the core movement of Yoga itself, which is the process of detaching from associating the self with the material being, and instead associating oneself with that universal energy that resides in us and pervades the cosmos. So in a way the term spirituality has become synonymous with Yoga for me. In these next few posts (and also in general) I will use the term spirituality to mean that process of detachment from the material and unification with the immaterial.

Progressivism: The meaning of the term progressivism seems to have changed somewhat over the years and decades. These days, and the way I’m using it, progressivism has come to be synonymous with what is known as leftist thought, which advocates for equality, harmony, peace and the betterment of all, and pursuing free-thinking for progress and change in these directions. My interest in using the term is not to allude to any specific leftist political party or movement, or leftist politics at all, but rather to the intentions and motivations behind progressivism. Progressive thinking attempts to be as broad thinking as possible, encompassing as many people and groups as possible in its solution finding. It also attempts to think in a long-term time-span, shunning immediate results for long-term, long-lasting, broad-ranging benefits. As we will see in a subsequent post, it is precisely because of this broad-ranging and long-term thinking that progressive solutions are difficult to implement and make successful.

Liberalism: Progressivism and liberalism are often considered synonymous, but I will use liberalism in some of the subsequent posts and so wanted to mention it here. Sometimes liberalism is defined as a somewhat watered-down version of progressivism, for example when socially-progressive attitudes function within the paradigm of the capitalist economic system. For this reason I prefer to use the term progressive, and while in a future post I will be discussing the term “pseudo-liberal”, I will still be using that term to refer to progressive thinking in general.

Conservatism: At the other end of the political spectrum from progressivism is conservatism, which advocates in general for “traditional” values. Conservatism is synonymous with right-wing thinking to progressivism’s left-wing thinking. While progressivism looks forward into the future and is not weary of change for the betterment of society, conservatism looks to the past for values and guidance. Conservative thinking is parochial and tribalistic, focusing on smaller groupings such as family, clan, region, religion and nation to form common identities that can bind the group together. Its scope of thinking is narrower, and its time-scale of thinking is shorter-term. It does not attempt the broad-range, long-term, inclusive thinking of progressivism. Once again, my interest is not in pointing out specific conservative and right-wing political parties and movements, but rather in the motivations and intentions behind conservative thinking.

With these definitions now described (in very brief terms), the next post will begin to answer the question in the title of this post: is spirituality/integral yoga progressive or conservative? Readers who have a good understanding of Integral Yoga will already have an idea of which direction I’m leaning towards!