The air is motionless, hot, humid, burning the earth with scorching pre-monsoon heat. The Australian tress sway their flexible tops with the slightest trickle of a breeze, a vague reminder of the coolness and freshness of the nearby coast on the Bay of Bengal. The only relief comes while I board my one-gear moped and cruise along the well paved roads of Auroville and Pondicherry and enjoy the wind cooling off my sweating body, or after a night dip in the pool before going to sleep, to avoid sweating all night.
It's the beginning of May in eastern Tamil Nadu, when the nights are as humid as the days, clothes get drenched with sweat after 10 footsteps in the sun and frequent cold-bucket showers and dips in the mud pool are crucial for survival and well being. The local Tamils drink fresh coconut water and manage to keep their mud and kit homes cool. Temperatures average at 39-40 during the day and its gradually getting hotter.
Here in Auroville, the utopian international community envisioned by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and founded exactly 40 years ago, most Europeans escape the heat and either spend these months in the nearby hill-stations, built by the British for the exact purpose back in colonial days, or in Europe, where they can enjoy a mildly warm summer and indulge in some of the treats they may been missing since they left their homeland and settled in India.
But here in Sadhana Forest, life goes on. Nobody is going anywhere and reforestation and water conservation work is carried out every day in the early hours of the morning, before the heat creeps up on us.
I remember when I first arrived here in the end of March, 2004, for the first time. I was picked up by Aviram and his 3-year-old daughter, Osher on a dilapidated moped and taken on a long dirt road passing through a very simple village (Morattandi) and leading to a gate in the middle of nowhere. The place was not attractive: a couple of bamboo huts, an improvised kitchen which consisted of 2 tables and a net over them for shade, and a half built compost toilet. 10 sweating volunteers greeted me with big smiles on their faces and their sense of deep satisfaction was still a mystery to me. There was no other reason than curiosity that led me to spend 4 weeks here. 4 weeks that managed to change my outlook on life and brought me back here now, 4 years later, accompanied by Gali and a lot of enthusiasm.
The place has evolved: Trees were planted in the compound, gardens have been made, more huts have been built to house up to 70 volunteers during the peak months of December and January and a kitchen with stone floor and rocket-firewood stoves, solar panels, an electrical water pump, a swimming pool and high-speed Internet. All this may seem simple in conventional terms, however, seeing how this place started out, I feel awe and respect to its founders and to the work that is being done here by dedicated volunteers throughout the year.
Yorit, Aviram and Osher (7) came to this arid piece of land 4.5 years ago with a dream and their life savings to fulfill it. They wanted to create a reforestation project on this land, which used to be a flourishing tropical dry evergreen forest until it was deforested by the British during colonial times; this caused massive land erosion and put the entire Eco-system out of balance. This project could have easily been done with a lot of money and paid local workers to carry out the task, but an integral part of this dream was to have this work physically executed by volunteers, coming from all over the world and creating a sustainable community, interacting with each other and with the locals around it. The compound itself is not connected to the local power grid. Every light bulb and outlet works solely on solar power; the food is cooked on firewood dishes washed with the ashes, floors washed with lemons, bodies bathed with biodegradable soap and shit is collected and composted in a dry-compost toilet, later to be used for the nourishment of the trees, planted during the rain season, together with the food compost from the kitchen.
The community is totally Vegan. That means no meat, no fish, no eggs, no dairy products and no honey, as well as no processed food. This is where I personally see this place as a haven and sanctuary of healthy eating, as well as an opportunity to enhance my cooking skills and contribute to the rest of the community with providing good food to nourish the cells, so far with great success and appreciation from my fellow volunteers.
They set out to create a warm and safe environment for children as well. They practice "unschooling", meaning not sending their daughter to school, but rather doing nothing and allowing her natural inborn curiosity teach her about life; providing answers when questions are asked and not imposing any structured knowledge or beliefs (even veganism) at any stage. Osher is constantly in contact with nature, the cycles of the season, interacting with people from all over the world from all cuts of society on a daily basis (so learning English and other foreign tongues is not a problem). She is sensitive to sounds, smells, tastes not dulled by television and junk food, is in great health and has a brightness and intuitive intellect that is rarely seen in 7-year-old children today and surprises all the people that come through this place. Most kids today don't get chance to develop this self confidence and natural interest in the world. They are placed in schools where they are expected to conform and be at the exact same level of understanding as all the other kids, prescribed by an international or national standard from K to 12. The long hours, the often abusive attitude of the teachers and the lack of natural stimulation cause these kids to come home at the end of a school day exhausted, blanking out their minds in front of the television which brainwashes them into liking the same stars, music and products, which cost a lot of money and make their parents go out and work long hours so they can buy them these products. Seemingly they would be happier since the parents can provide these material items for them, but then the parent has no time to spend with them and they suffer from depression and a list of psychological disorders, at an increasingly young age. Breast-feeding till naturally weened, natural environment and stimulation, while spending more time with Children and providing them with wholesome, natural food at the earlier stages of life is what is practiced here in Sadhana forest and seeing Osher, and Shalev, her 3 month old baby sister, I feel inspired and have learned a lot about how I would like to raise my children in the future.
Sadhana forest is also a fertile ground for learning how to live with the earth and with natural processes, rather than living off the earth, exploiting it and interfering with these processes by speeding up and pushing ourselves and our children into gaining more and more material assets. At the end these products consume us, time-wise and physically as they destroy the earth. Living here for even 1 day reduces the impact of another person on the earth's fragile state. Not using fossil fuels, gas, too much water, eating fruit and veggies full of pesticides, shopping excessively and all the other things we do unknowingly to our planet, has a great effect on the world, even if it's a small group of people. More than 1000 people have gone through this place and learned a thing or two about being environmentally conscious. So I see this place as a model, planting seeds in a new generation of people who might be able to save earth before it's too late.
All this is allowed to take place under the guardianship of the larger web of communities that is Auroville. Although Sadhana forest is a strange bird in Auroville, in a way more adehering to the actual vision of the place than the other communites here. There is a true intention to make the least impact on the planet, while cooperating with the local Tamil community and building strong, long lasting connections with them.
Many of the communities here have gone quite far from the original dream and vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and 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." This was part of the Mother's (Mira Alfassa) vision. Much adoration and devotion is seen here in auroville to these ideas and to Mother herself, but when one spends some time here and sees the undercurrents, he can sense and touch neo-colonialism here. Many of the westerners living in Auroville live a very comfortable life, and often have local Tamil maids and servants or have them doing the lowliest work for them for minimal wages. They make use of the ridiculously cheap labour in India to live like kings. Not that this is wrong, this is probably the lifestyle they are used to. however, when you talk about "human unity" in light of what is happening in the world today, where the western so-called developed world is consuming most of the world's resources at the expense of the "third world" countries, there must be some kind of change in the way the white man perceived the darker skinned human being, escpecailly if Auroville is to be an example to the rest of the world. It seems to me there will always be that gap, and that idea which puts the white man's interests in a higher and more important place when it comes to making decisions on a global level that effect all of us, and also down to the simplest interactions between people.
Sri Aurobindo, one of India's greatest sages in the early 20th century and the person whom Auroville is named after, had a unique and profound philosophy and message to our age. He beilieved the human race is at a crucial evolutional stage right now, where human beings have the capacity to bring earth and mankind into a higher, if not the highest state of conciousness. As matter evolved into life in nature, and life evolved into intelligence; this intelligence will naturally evolve to its next stage - spirit. This will create a new human being which is naturally harmonious with its surroundings, with nature and with the universe and the forces and energies working in it. It is known that the human mind-body is a microcosm of the universe. Everyting which exists in the universe can be found within us. Thus we are inseperable and part of eachother. In the past 150 years, mankind has been in a darkness; the industrial revolution started a desctructive exploitation of earth's resources and a degradation of the human mind and free spirit. Certain movement and religions thruoghout history have always reminded us that we are going down hill, destroying ourselves and the earth, but as long as they were put into form and religious dogma, where ego reigns, no one would take it seriously (and by seriously I do not mean going to war over religious ideals!!). Thus, a transformation has to come from within. And this is where spiritual practice, whatever it may be, has the power to change the world and the future of our society and the earth. Since the Earth and human being share the same conciousness in the cells, when we transform into a higher state of being, our cells mutate and physically embody this change just as they did when fish grew feet and started walking on the earth, and when reptiles evolved into mammals. Our cellular harmony with the earth will naturally effect our relation to it. We will immediately realize we cannot harm the earth, or our fellow inhabitans of it because they are part of us. Actaully we really do not have to wait until this happens. It's self evident that everthing we do, speak or act upon effects us as will determine our well being. This is karma. We just have to open our eyes and start seeing clearly that we are part of something greater; some immense force which moved everytning into creation, preservation and destruction, while constantly balancing itself out. That someting great may be called god, or the universe, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we are it and we cannot keep on living as if we are some exclusive creature that has to take care of himself alone.
Om
Some intersting websites:
About sadhana forest: http://www.auroville.org/society/housing_s.htm
About Auroville: http://www.auroville.org/
About Sri Aurobindo & Mother: http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/
