Finding Auroville

In the previous post we took a look at the vastness of scale and scope that Integral Yoga deals with. As we detach from the limitations of identifying with our material selves, we begin to identify with the entirety of humanity, the world and the universe, and begin to see everything as parts of a Divine whole. We reach the realization that it is this attachment to the material world that causes all the problems and suffering in the world, and that the betterment of humanity lies in the movement away from this attachment and identification with the Divine.

Therefore conceptually, Integral Yoga operates at the level of humanity as a whole, seeing all of humanity as one beyond all caste, creed, religion, region and nationality, and realizing that ultimately it is only through the transformation of consciousness of the entirety of humanity that harmony, equality and unity can truly be secured. And further still, we are currently restricting this conceptualization of Integral Yoga to the level of the entirety of humanity only because humanity is what we are dealing with and talking about at the moment. Further scales of conceptualization could exist beyond this, but we will restrict ourselves to humanity as a whole for now.

This is the conceptual scale at which Integral Yoga operates. At the level of the everyday material human world, Integral Yoga requires action by individuals for the attainment of its audacious goals. But regular everyday human action does not operate at the level of directly affecting the entirety of humanity, and it is very difficult to connect everyday action with such a vast scale. Human actions on a day-to-day level work at a much much smaller, seemingly mundane level, affecting at the most a small localized group of people, or on rare occasions, a small subset of humanity. So how do one’s actions in everyday life lead to the transformation of consciousness of humanity? Or for that matter, how do one’s actions in everyday life lead to the transformation of consciousness of us as singular individuals? Which action is it that works towards true human harmony, and which takes us away from it? How do we discern if one’s actions are moving us towards the transformation or not?

If we go back to the three gunas, it is clear that the tamasic and rajasic qualities of action come completely from the human ego, fed by physical and vital urges, fears, desires and attachments. It is only the sattwic attributes that have the beginnings of a true aspiration for action that benefits a larger section of society, and ultimately an aspiration for the betterment of humanity. However a purely sattwic motivation is not possible while our sense of self is embedded in the material world, because the tamasic and rajasic qualities invariably mix with the sattwic and lead to self-centered action and the nullification of the aspiration for the greater good, even when the intention is seemingly altruistic. It is only by going beyond the three gunas or qualities of Nature, to the state that is called trigunateet, that we can begin to partake in truly selfless action. And it is this selfless action that leads to the transformation of consciousness of the individual and eventually of humanity. It is only this truly selfless, egoless action that qualifies as Karma Yoga. While describing the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Aurobindo writes:

Act for the best good of all, act for the maintenance of the march of the world, for the support or the leading of its peoples. The action asked of you is the action of the liberated Yogin; it is the spontaneous output of a free and God-held energy, it is an equal-minded movement, it is a selfless and desireless labour.

The first step on this free, this equal, this divine way of action is to put from you attachment to fruit and recompense and to labour only for the sake of the work itself that has to be done. For you must deeply feel that the fruits belong not to you but to the Master of the world. Consecrate your labour and leave its returns to the Spirit who manifests and fulfils himself in the universal movement. The outcome of your action is determined by his will alone and whatever it be, good or evil fortune, success or failure, it is turned by him to the accomplishment of his world
purpose. An entirely desireless and disinterested working of the personal will and the whole instrumental nature is the first rule of Karmayoga. Demand no fruit, accept whatever result is given to you; accept it with equality and a calm gladness: successful or foiled, prosperous or afflicted, continue unafraid, untroubled and unwavering on the steep path of the divine action.

This is no more than the first step on the path. For you must be not only unattached to results, but unattached also to your labour. Cease to regard your works as your own; as you have abandoned the fruits of your work, so you must surrender the work also to the Lord of action and sacrifice.

…

Bring in no longer any self-will to confuse the steps of your mind in following the Godward way. Accept the action proper to your nature. Make of all you do from the greatest and most unusual effort to the smallest daily act, make of each act of your mind, each act of your heart, each act of your body, of every inner and outer turn, of every thought and will and feeling, of every step and pause and movement, a sacrifice
to the Master of all sacrifice and Tapasya.

…

This cannot be really done or done perfectly so long as there is any ego sense in you or any mental claim or vital clamour. Action done in the least degree for the sake of the ego or tinged with the desire and will of the ego is not a perfect sacrifice. Nor can this great thing be well and truly done so long as there is inequality anywhere or any stamp of ignorant shrinking and preference. But when there is a perfect equality to all works, results, things and persons, a surrender to the Highest and not to desire or ego, then the divine Will determines without stumbling or deflection and the divine Power executes freely without any nether interference or perverting reaction all works in the purity and safety of your transmuted nature.

The Message of the Gita, Essays on the Gita

It is this selfless, egoless action that leads to the fulfillment of the aspiration for the betterment of the world and for the harmony, equality and unity of humanity. Therefore, in our everyday actions, we do not need to be constantly thinking of or mentally engaged with the audacious goal of the moving of humanity towards the transformation of consciousness. What we need to focus on is the true selflessness of our actions, the true consecration of our actions to the Divine. And to be able to do this, we need to be engaged with pursuing, understanding and realizing what selfless action actually means, and how to reach a state where we can truly act selflessly, by the dissolution of the ego.

Our task in Auroville, as an experiment in Integral Yoga, is precisely the pursuit of this selfless action. Everything else will, in a sense, follow from the attainment of this pursuit. We do not need to bother ourselves, beyond a point, with how things are functioning, if things are going well or not, what the correct material direction is or isn’t. Our task is to attain a true selflessness in our all our actions, which includes our thoughts and emotions. This of course is in itself not an easy task, it is a huge one. To reach a point where one’s actions are truly selfless means that one has to have gone a long way towards the dissolution of the ego, a long way towards the transformation of consciousness. But on an everyday level, this movement towards truly selfless action is what we need to focus on. This is the work that we as individuals can do and should do on an everyday level on the path to the transformation of consciousness of the individual, collective and finally of humanity.

This is in many ways a replication of the “think globally, act locally” maxim, but with an Integral Yoga twist, or what we can call a trigunateet twist. We have to conceptually think at the level of the transformation of consciousness of humanity, and the everyday work we can do towards that goal is focus on our actions becoming truly selfless. As we have seen in previous posts, no amount of administrative interventions or strategies, no amount of mental intellectualization, no amount of material and mechanical solutions are going to solve the problems that humanity faces. It is only by going beyond the material, by being able to act with complete selflessness, that humanity will be able to move towards harmony, equality, peace and unity.

And so to reiterate, truly selfless action is what we should be focusing on in Auroville. This is part of what The Mother meant when she mentioned near the beginning of the Auroville Charter: “But to live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness”.

However, what has been happening in Auroville for the past fifty plus years is very different from this ideal. What Aurovilians have created here is the opposite of what should have been created. They have constructed an isolated bubble that functions in a very parochial and tribalistic way, which is controlled and run by a small group of Aurovilians. This isolated bubble functions to protect the small number of people who are part of this bubble, and much energy has gone into making sure, as much as possible, that only people who conform to the system created within the bubble are allowed into it and are able to become Aurovilians. What Aurovilians have created over the past five decades is a place that is very much governed by vital energies, hidden behind a liberal facade, where a pretense is made to pursue a constant merry-go-round of mental solutions to solve the issues that supposedly continually confront Auroville, while the actual aim is to keep the bubble of Auroville intact and free from outside influences. It goes without saying that this is a complete perversion of the purpose for which Auroville was created. Instead of thinking big, Aurovilians (at least those whom we call Aurovillagers) have constantly thought small, and instead of acting selflessly, they have been completely mired in self-centeredness, ego and collective ego. And the currently ongoing confrontation is for them an existential battle to keep Auroville at that small scale of thought and action.

Another (very charitable) way to look at all this is that Auroville is currently stuck in the progressive/liberal fiction that sattwic qualities can lead to the betterment of the world, but the sattwic is always mired with tamasic inertia and self-centered rajasic energies, which thwart any real progress towards a better world.

Yet another way to look at it is that the actions of humanity are indeed slowly moving it towards a better future and in fact ultimately towards the transformation of consciousness of humanity, but this path will be a very long and arduous one, with steps taken forward interspersed with and impeded by steps taken backwards. Integral Yoga gets to the heart of the problems that humanity faces, and aspires to hasten this transformation. Auroville was imagined as and built to be a part of this hastened movement towards transformation.

There is a dire need to recalibrate and redirect Auroville in the direction that it is supposed to be moving in. This task of moving Auroville in the correct direction is a mammoth one, an audacious one. At least for the foreseeable future, there will constantly be problems and circumstances that will attempt to derail the project and take it in directions other than its intended one(s). Through all this, the work of the sadhak of Integral Yoga who has chosen to come to Auroville will always be to pursue truly selfless action, for that alone is the pole star that can guide us and Auroville in the right direction. I will once again quote what The Mother said in April of 1972: “we are not here to do easy things; the whole world is there for those who like an easy life. I would like people to feel that coming to Auroville does not mean coming to an easy life – it means coming to a gigantic effort for progress.”