Finding Auroville

There are a lot of theories making the rounds in Auroville regarding the reasons behind the Indian government’s “take over” of the administration of Auroville. While the government is definitely exerting more influence over the functioning of Auroville, it is doing so because the situation in Auroville had become unacceptable, and the general idea is still very much for Aurovilians to be central to the decision-making processes and the steering of the Auroville project. Unfortunately the Aurovillagers demand nothing less than complete control of Auroville, thus the ongoing showdown and impasse, and this itself is forcing the government to increase their intervention in Auroville.

One of the speculated reasons for the government exerting more authority in Auroville is the idea that they want to make Auroville more of a “Hindutva” space, and apply that religious influence over the project. In the previous post I had discussed how ritualistic religion is basically antithetical to the practice of Integral Yoga, and that Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were opposed to ritualistic religiosity being part of the spiritual philosophy they propounded. There exists the possibility and the hope that while the motive for governmental intervention in Auroville includes a certain amount of religious and cultural pride, there is space for an understanding that Integral Yoga is a universal spiritual philosophy that goes comprehensively beyond ritualistic religion, that the changes in Auroville will happen with this in mind, with this universality as a central tenet. However what I want to discuss in this post is a related aspect of the current situation that is being left out of all the discussions, miscommunications and speculation, which is the idea that India is (hopefully) slowly waking up to Yoga.

The current changes in Auroville are not occurring in a vacuum. The world is an ever-changing place, and India is definitely changing in multiple ways at a very fast pace. Neither the wider world nor India are what they were in the 1960s and 70s when Auroville was being established and the tone was being set for the atmosphere in Auroville for the next few decades. That the tone of the 1960s and 70s has, in many ways, lasted in the atmosphere of Auroville for so long is thanks to the immense and constant efforts put in over the years by the denizens of Aurovillage to maintain Auroville as a separate and isolated bubble from the rest of India and the world. However, it should have been clear to anyone with a level head and the ability to think clearly that this disparity between the atmosphere in Auroville and that of the rest of India around it was not sustainable, and that the bubble was going to pop at some point of time or another.

Potentially, one of the changes that has been taking place in India over the past few decades, at least in Hindu India if not other religious milieus, has been a growing interest in the spiritual philosophy of Yoga. Once could say that this interest in spiritually was always present along with ritualistic Hinduism, but there is possibly a growing awareness of the potential and importance of Yoga as a spiritual philosophy, as a part of India’s cultural heritage, and as a teaching that could bring fundamental positive change at the level of the individual, the nation, the world and the evolutionary direction of humanity.

There are a growing number of yoga centers, ashrams and institutes in India, and there is a growing following of the proponents and teachings of these centers. These teachings vary quite a bit even though they are all based on Hindu and Yogic philosophies. Since the philosophy of Yoga is difficult to understand and practice, there is a long long way to go before this growing interest begins to have any tangible impacts on the populace of India, but the first few steps are being taken in understanding the importance of this legacy of Indian philosophic heritage.

If all this is true, and I am hopeful in thinking that it is, then the increased influence that the Indian government is exerting over the functioning of Auroville needs to be seen in light of this wider change in India. And we also need to take cognizance of the growing interest in “yoga” throughout the world, in varying ways. Auroville is a site for the propagation of the philosophy of Integral Yoga. For those who believe in this philosophy with sincerity, Auroville is therefore potentially an important site in the affairs of the world. There is, in a general sense, more of an understanding in India of this potential of Auroville as a positive force for humanity than there used to be in previous decades, and not just as site for liberal consumption and vague “mindfulness” practices. Even if we assume that the Indian government is looking at Auroville as a site for exercising “soft power” in the world through Yoga, that situation still has the potential to align with the intended purpose of Auroville. It should be kept in mind that the reason why the Indian government agreed to host and support the project of Auroville in the first place was for the potential of Auroville as a site for the promotion of the philosophy of Integral Yoga. If the existing Aurovilians had tried to move Auroville in its intended direction instead of derailing it for their own self-centered purposes, the current intervention of the Indian government would not have been necessary. And as the understanding and appreciation of Yoga increases in India, the ability of the Aurovillagers to continue their con will become less and less likely.

I am not in any delusion that Auroville is going to magically and automatically start moving in the right direction due to the changes being implemented. There will always exist forces that will attempt, and succeed to varying degrees, to derail or block the project. These forces have been applying their influence on Auroville since its inception, and a new or altered set of forces will apply their influence now as Auroville changes. For me, these forces are nothing other than the potent and complex play of individual and collective egos in society and in any collective, the dissolution of which is the aim of Integral Yoga. The task of the Aurovilians then is to keep working to help move Auroville in the right direction, despite the odds and no matter what the circumstances. And in an atmosphere where there is a growing interest in Yoga in the culture of the nation that is hosting and holding the project of Auroville, there is a growing chance that Auroville will be entering waters that are more conducive to it heading in the right direction.

When Sri Aurobindo wrote about India’s role in the spiritualization of the world, he usually did not present it as a given that India would automatically progress to don this role. He always wrote about it as a potential, as knowledge that lies deep in the heart of India, but knowledge that India has to rise up to acknowledge, embrace and present to the world.

India has the key to the knowledge and conscious application of the ideal [of the highest aspiration of spirituality]; what was dark to her before in its application, she can now, with a new light, illumine; what was wrong and wry in her old methods she can now rectify; the fences which she created to protect the outer growth of the spiritual ideal and which afterwards became barriers to its expansion and farther application, she can now break down and give her spirit a freer field and an ampler flight: she can, if she will, give a new and decisive turn to the problems over which all mankind is labouring and stumbling, for the clue to their solutions is there in her ancient knowledge. Whether she will rise or not to the height of her opportunity in the renaissance which is coming upon her, is the question of her destiny.

The Renaissance in India – 4, The Renaissance in India

If India is indeed waking up to Yoga, it is hopefully a sign that both India and the world at large have slowly begun to progress towards a phase when Integral Yoga will be able to shine its light of Truth on humanity.