Finding Auroville

I had a series of conversations a short while back with someone with a conservative bent of mind, and the term “pseudo-liberal” kept cropping up. This got me thinking about why this term is much more in use in everyday discussions and debates than any conservative counterpart. There are various iterations of the phrase “conservative in name only” in use around the world, but a catch phrase like pseudo-liberal does not have the countervailing pseudo-conservative in use to mirror it.

This links up with the discussions comparing conservative thought, progressive thought and spirituality that have played out over the past few posts of this blog. Conservative thinking is by definition parochial and limited in scope, identifying with a limited group of people, and usually in opposition to other groups. The solutions that conservative thought arrives at are thus also limited in scope with regard to both reach and duration, since it only seeks solutions for that group. Other groups are seen as the Other, and therefore outside the need and purview of solution-finding. Most of the conflicts in the world arise when two such conservative thought-processes clash with each other in support of their group’s supposed best interest.

Progressive thought on the other hand tries to expand its vision as much as possible, embracing and accommodating as many groups as it can, negotiating and compromising between them to find wider and longer-lasting solutions. This is inherently a more difficult task, and is prone to failure. And it is this inherent difficulty in pursuing progressive solutions that leads to the term pseudo-liberal, because liberalism/progressivism constantly fails at the tasks that it sets out to accomplish. The wider, deeper and more complex the task at hand, the more the likelihood of failure, especially when it comes to activities that have to do with human sociology. This in turn allows for the people pursuing these tasks to be labeled as incapable or fraudulent, and therefore “pseudo”.

And as we have seen from previous posts, progressive thought and action will keep failing till it makes the turn towards spirituality, till it turns from the intellectual religion of humanity to the spiritual religion of humanity. Till then, the sattwic aspirations of progressivism will continue to be obscured by self-centered rajasic energies and tamasic inertia.

One way to frame this play between satwa, rajas and tamas is to say that in any progressive individual, group or organization, progressivism in never complete, and is indeed always incomplete. The aspiration for progressive goals is always only a part of a person or group’s aims and ambitions. There are always other aims, mostly self-centered rajasic aims, that form part of the array of motivations for the action of that individual or group.

For example, a person who is strongly aligned with progressive thought and action will always invariably also have personal ambitions, personal desires and personal insecurities, both apparent and concealed. The need and desire to seek personal validation, in various forms, from the society and milieu we live in exists in all of humanity in one way or another. These ambitions, desires and insecurities, all arising from the human ego, force us to circumscribe our lives for self-gain in one way or another, and in the process the true and sincere pursuit of progressive action gets curtailed and blocked. The path that Yoga offers of a true transformation of consciousness diminishes and dissolves these self-centered ambitions, desires and insecurities, and leaves in their place only the aspiration for service to the Divine consciousness, and service for the betterment of humanity. The circumscription that we then undertake of our lives is aimed at this service to the Divine and to humanity in a completely selfless way, without any material attachments or expectations of recompense. Unlike the circumscription that we undertake under the control of our ego, which invariably leads to unhappiness, whether acknowledged or not, the selfless circumscription of our lives that is done without attachment to material nature is one that is done happily and willingly, since the goal of the circumscription is pure and true, and the circumscription allows for a full flow of our energies towards this fundamentally positive aim.

This is why, without the transformation of consciousness, the aspiration for progressive solutions will always be incomplete and fragmentary in any individual, group or organization. The individual or collective ego will always act as a barrier to sincerely working towards and attaining these goals. And in this way and to this extent, the “liberalism” will always be “pseudo”, even if there is a high level of sincerity towards the liberalism, because the sincerity will ultimately never be complete and pure as long as the ego is in play. True sincerity only comes with the dissolution of the ego and the movement away from all attachments to material nature. So we can say that the difference between the intellectual religion of humanity and the spiritual religion of humanity lies ultimately in the level of dedication and sincerity to the cause. In one case the dedication and sincerity is partial because the self-centered ego comes in the way, and in the other it is complete because there is no attachment to material nature, nor any desire to obtain any kind of return for the work done towards the cause. The transformation of consciousness is a fundamental transformation of the being to complete sincerity, a fundamental transformation of the motivations and aims of the being, and a fundamental transformation of thought and action.

What has been described above is an exploration of “pseudo-liberalism” in the scenario when there is a genuine level of sincerity towards progressive thought and action, but it is hampered by the ego. However if we study what has been going on in Auroville over the past five decades, another aspect of pseudo-liberalism comes into focus, one where there is very little sincerity, but a lot of energy is expended into maintaining the pretense of liberalism.

We have seen in previous posts how a facade of liberalism mixed with spiritual rhetoric has been erected in Auroville to hide a much more negative, parochial and tribalistic reality behind it. The gulf between this facade and the reality on the ground has been maintained by a very duplicitous atmosphere here in Auroville, which is evident to anyone with some level of sincerity who stays here for a substantial duration of time. This duplicitous atmosphere has existed right from the beginning of the project, as it had emerged from the disparity between the reasons why people came to and settled in the nascent Auroville and the intended purpose of the project. The world expects Auroville to be a sattwic space, a liberal space with a spiritual bent, and so a sattwic facade was created for the consumption of the outside world.

The people inhabiting this space, the permanent residents who continually perpetuate this duplicitous atmosphere, have been called Aurovillagers and the space they inhabit is called Aurovillage. These people have created, adapted, renewed and maintained this duplicitous facade for the past five decades. They have done this by pretending to be liberal and progressive, interested in progressive pursuits such as ecology, afforestation, alternative education methodologies, alternative wellness techniques, alternative farming techniques etc etc. And many of these people have spent many years and decades pursuing these activities to one extent or another. Some have been pretending to pursue these activities, while others have been actively engaged in them. Accompanying this has been the rhetorical effort of framing these activities within spiritual frameworks, and the pretense of the pursuit of spirituality under the guidelines of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s teachings. The problem is that the motivation for all these actions has not been any genuine interest in making Auroville an open space where people interested in Integral Yoga can come and contribute their talent and labour for an true movement towards human harmony and unity. Instead, the motivation has been in the maintaining of the closed, insular bubble of Aurovillage behind the liberal-spiritual facade, and the maintenance of this bubble as a parochial and tribalistic space where people who conform to Aurovillage’s agenda of self-preservation can lead cheap, easygoing and severely scaled-down lives far from the “difficulties” of the real world outside.

The maintenance of this liberal facade has become one of the central activities of Aurovillage, one that engages a large portion of the time and effort of its denizens. One of the things that Aurovillage has become most proficient in is the constant propaganda to sell itself as something that it actually isn’t.

So what we have seen in this post is two modes of “pseudo-liberalism”. The first is a much more sincere one, in which genuine aspiration for liberal and progressive solutions gets thwarted by individual and collective egos. The second is the pseudo-liberalism of Aurovillage, one that is much more insincere, dishonest, deceptive and manipulative. This second pseudo-liberalism is only pretending to be liberal, while its aims and objective are much more selfish and self-centered. This is an opportunistic liberalism, pretending to be liberal only because circumstances force it to be so. Aurovillage is compelled to erect a liberal-spiritual facade, and that is the only reason why it engages in, or pretends to engage in, liberal activities.

The way I see it, this extremely insincere form of pseudo-liberalism is not restricted to Aurovillage, but exists instead throughout the world. People pretend to be liberal because it is convenient to them to do so, and/or because circumstances compel them to do so. These people might have a skill-set that favours liberal-leaning activities, or they may find themselves in a liberal milieu where they can function effectively. They have to pretend to be interested in and working for liberal/progressive causes and activities, when their real motivations and aims are much more self-centered and self-serving.

Ultimately, once again, the difference between the two pseudo-liberalisms described above is one of levels of sincerity. And as we had already seen above, the difference between an “intellectual religion of humanity” and a “spiritual religion of humanity” lie also in the levels of sincerity and commitment. So we have here a gradation of sincerity towards liberalism/progressivism: from complete insincerity, dishonesty and manipulation, to a much higher level of sincerity that is ultimately thwarted by the ego, to a level of complete sincerity and commitment that can only be obtained by the transformation of consciousness, by the dissolution of the ego. What is left once the ego is dissolved, once all attachments to material nature are removed, is a complete dedication to the Divine consciousness, to the betterment of humanity, and to the movement of humanity towards the Divine. This complete sincerity and dedication arises from the unending gratitude that one feels towards the Divine consciousness for showing us a glimpse of the ananda of liberation that one begins to get on the path of transformation.

The more our being is under the control of our vital ego, the more insincere and manipulative we will be, because we need to hide our true intentions from the world at large. The more our being is under the control of our vital ego, the smaller are our scale of action, thought and creative social conceptualization. We are either working for our own selfish and self-centered purposes without consideration for others, or we are pretending to be considerate of others while actually working for our own self-interests. In either case, our scale of thought and action is severely curtailed and centered around ourselves.

Once we allow ourselves to begin to be free of the control of our vital ego, we can truly be considerate and compassionate towards others. Our emotional scope of understanding, thought and action expand, as our intentions start moving away from being self-centered. We move from insincerity to sincerity because we do not need to hide our intentions anymore, since our intentions are truly wide, compassionate and altruistic, moving towards encompassing all of humanity. Ultimately, it is only with the transformation of consciousness that we can be truly and completely sincere, without the vital ego coming in the way of our altruistic intentions and actions.

The gross insincerity that is starkly evident in Auroville to anyone who spends an extended amount of time here and attempts to understand the situation, is of course the opposite of what should have been happening here. The spiritual work of detachment from material nature that the Aurovilians should have been undertaking should have taken them to greater and greater levels of sincerity towards the Divine and towards the betterment of humanity. What has played out here over the past five decades instead is an extremely insincere level of pseudo-liberalism. What we need is for us to move towards sincerity. We need a drastic reduction in the pseudo and a drastic increase in the sincere. The focus of Aurovillage is and has always been to make sure that this does not happen. The fact that Auroville has existed as an isolated, insulated bubble, and that Aurovillage has till now successfully shielded itself from outside scrutiny to enough of an extent, is what has allowed this insincerity to thrive. The changes being brought about in Auroville currently will rectify this isolationism, but will lead to other challenges. What Aurovilians need to focus on is their spiritual growth, the transformation of consciousness, the movement towards ever greater sincerity, and the removal of the “pseudo” from the “liberal”.