Isis, or an Evolving Africa

TRANSLATION OF THE PREVIOUS POST , WITH MY THANKS FOR THE GOOGLE TRANSLATION KINDLY PROVIDED BY NINA TRYGGVASSON AS A ‘COMMENT’ TO MY FRENCH TEXT…

Another important thing that happened in February this year: the visit to Auroville of Isis.

Isis Noor Yalagi became a dear friend, and not just because she is the
only person also from Martinique who has spent several weeks in
Auroville, the last ten days of which at my place. Among our “Guests”
over the years in Repos itself, there are many people, French or
not, who know and appreciate Martinique for having stayed there at some
point, and to talk about it with them was always nice for me,
who actually know so little about that small island my family is from,
but where I have myself lived only for three months when I was eight
years old.
There was in this February 2013 a meeting of AIF (Auroville
International France) and I had been invited; listening in silence to a
participant from La Réunion island, who kept telling about the growing
impact that she found there for everything having to do with Auroville or Sri
Aurobindo and Mother, I was a little sad in contrast because of the total absence of
interest for any of that in Martinique, and in the French West Indies in general. I
expressed this sadness for the first time after the person finished
speaking.

A few days later a friend of Auroville hitherto unknown to me
was quite happy to spend a few hours on my terrace facing
the sea before she would return to France. I mentioned my sadness about
Martinique; she said she would contact for me an extraordinary person,
and moreover, precisely one from Martinique, who
happened to be visiting Auroville.

The following Sunday afternoon, sitting as I do now
often directly at one of the tables where we serve the various
preparations ordered by Aurovilians or Guests, I saw coming to me
a tall and beautiful lady, with dark skin, the sight of whom
immediately brought back to my memory the lines by Baudelaire evoking
his Martinique friend  Jeanne Duval: “a beautiful ship that takes off on the
vast sea … at a pace gentle and lazy and slow … ” (quote approximate, I do not have the text with me).

An exciting interview of several hours ensued between her and
I, sitting together there as if we were alone in the world,
discovering each other with a growing mutual fascination. Even from
afar, the strong personality of Isis made a great
impression on those of my colleagues who saw us together.

Martiniquaise (and so, French) by her mother, Isis is Togolese (and so,
African) by her father. I felt also close to her African side, which was
awakening in me all the memories of “my Africa”, the Africa
still French in those days, where I spent most of my childhood, where I
grew up …

In other lives I was also a Berber, and an Egyptian, two other
connections with Africa; her own inner connection with
Egypt is revealed through the name she has chosen for herself:
Isis. And it is thanks to her that I had this year for once a
birthday anniversary dinner on 23 February … and the old Berber in me
could enjoy a great couscous, prepared by her especially for me and a
few other privileged guests!

For Isis is a good and daring cook: a few weeks before she had organized
and conducted hands down, almost alone with the help of just a few volunteers, a large African Dinner,
memorable for the more than 300 people who came.
After meeting me, she decided that my presence was
essential for the future meetings of the Africa Pavilion and so I had
the pleasure to be invited to the next one, taxi paid …
but in this group too large my bad hearing prevented me from following
effectively what was said, so I did not renew this
experience. One intervention in a clear and loud voice that I have at
least had the joy to hear perfectly, was that of Isis herself,
highlighting with a remarkable clarity of mind and a great
power of expression that it was the evolutive message of Sri Aurobindo
and Mother that had to be carried to Africa, because that alone would
have
the power to offer Africa a future truly worthy of her,
revealing her deep soul, away from the mere copying of the Western
materialistic world that for the time being seemed the only option. When
she
said that, it suddenly became so obvious that no discussion
was necessary, this was instantly adopted unanimously.
Mr Tekeste was there also, the former Ethiopian diplomat who had been
the official link between the Emperor Haile Selassie and Mother, and
who after that chose to live in Auroville, since then tirelessly
pursuing his dream of establishing the African Pavilion, and conversely
of introducing Auroville to Africa; he was among those who approved with
the strongest nod of the head Isis’ proposal. It was equally clear that
for the friendly young Africans also present (all boys), students at
the University of Chidambaram near here, Isis had become a valuable
source of inspiration for her contagious enthusiasm and extensive
experience of public action.

My little guestroom being free shortly after, Isis
moved in, with the firm intention – while continuing to help her
young fellow Africans for the Pavilion – to start learning from me
everything she could about the Integral Yoga, including its cellular
dimension.

But our common life began on a note far less serious: I
was not going to miss the rare boon of this other authentic
Martiniquaise without taking that opportunity to elucidate some memories
I still had of my brief stay in Martinique,
precisely at this crazy time when, like in Brazil, the famous
Carnival  is on. I told her the words and hummed the tune and the chorus
of the song chosen
that year for the whole Carnival, apparently it had become a
classic for she recognized it immediately, and there we were, the two of
us, singing loudly in my living room in Creole: “VAVAL, VAVAL, WOU  PAS
QUITTER NOUS! …” (Vaval, don’t leave us!) while outdoing each other
dancing on the irresistible rhythmic cadence of the resurrected song,
punctuated by our laughter! After a few moments of enthusiastic and
delectable Martinique fun, this joyous past re-emerged in our beings
calmed down, bringing us even more exciting prospects of our
evolutionary future …!

About the future evolution of Africa, I’ll let Isis herself say
how she would like to participate in that, when she will be
re-established there, after a short stay in Paris starting from here.
Having read this article about herself, she will write the following
part of it with rested head, from Africa itself, as soon as it will
become possible. Africa does not yet know what onslaught is getting
ready to fall upon her, but myself, who have lived for even this short
period with Isis, and who can still hear her contagious laughter, I have
some idea of ​​what’s ‘preparing to break quietly upon Africa in the
coming years, and I look forward to it!

Isis ou l’Afrique en Evolution

Encore une chose importante qui s’est passée en février cette année: la visite à Auroville d’Isis.

Isis Noor Yalagi est devenue une amie chère, et pas seulement parce que c’est l’unique personne originaire elle aussi de Martinique qui ait passé plusieurs semaines à Auroville, dont les derniers dix jours chez
moi. Parmi nos “Guests” à Repos même, nombreux sont ceux, Français ou
non, qui connaissent et apprécient la Martinique pour y avoir séjourné
quelque temps, et il m’a toujours été agréable d’en parler avec eux, moi
qui connais en fait si peu l’île d’où ma famille est originaire, mais où je n’ai moi-même vécu que trois mois quand j’avais huit
ans.

Il y avait eu en ce mois de Février dernier une réunion d’AIF (Auroville
International France), et j’y avais été invitée; à écouter en silence une
participante venue de La Réunion parler de l’impact grandissant qu’elle
constate là-bas, de tout ce qui concerne Auroville ou Sri Aurobindo et
la Mère, j’étais un peu triste par contraste de l’absence totale
d’intérêt en Martinique, et aux Antilles Françaises en général. J’ai
exprimé cette tristesse pour la première fois après que cette personne
ait fini de parler.

Quelques jours plus tard une amie d’Auroville jusque là inconnue de moi
a été tout heureuse de passer quelques heures sur ma terrasse face à
la mer avant de s’en retourner en France; j’ai mentionné cette tristesse quant à la Martinique; elle me dit qu’elle allait contacter pour moi une personne extraordinaire, et justement Martiniquaise, qui se
trouvait être en visite à Auroville.

Le dimanche après-midi suivant, assise comme je le fais maintenant
souvent, directement à une des tables où nous servons les diverses
préparations commandées par Auroviliens ou Guests, je vois venir à moi
une personne grande et belle, à la peau foncée, dont la vue m’a
immédiatement remis en mémoire les vers de Baudelaire évoquant son amie
Martiniquaise Jeanne Duval: “un beau vaisseau qui prend le large… au
rythme doux et paresseux et lent…” (citation approximative, je n’ai pas le texte sous les yeux).

Une entrevue passionnante de plusieurs heures s’ensuivit entre elle et
moi, assises là toutes deux comme si nous étions seules au monde, à nous
découvrir réciproquement avec une fascination réciproque croissante. Même de loin, la forte personnalité d’Isis produisit une grande
impression sur ceux de mes collaborateurs qui nous virent ensemble.

Martiniquaise (et donc Française) par sa mère, Isis est Togolaise (et
donc Africaine) par son père. Son côté Africain lui aussi m’était
proche, réveillant en moi tous les souvenirs de “mon Afrique”, l’Afrique
autrefois Française où j’ai passé presque toute mon enfance, où j’ai grandi…

En d’autres vies j’ai aussi été Berbère, et Egyptienne, deux autres
connexions avec l’Afrique; elle, sa propre connexion intérieure avec
l’Egypte, c’est à travers le nom qu’elle s’est choisi qu’elle la révèle:
Isis. Et c’est grâce à elle que cette année j’ai eu pour une fois un
dîner d’anniversaire, le 23 février… et que l’ancienne Berbère en moi a pu y savourer un excellent couscous, préparé par ses soins exprès pour moi et les quelques autres invités!

Car Isis est bonne et audacieuse cuisinière: quelques semaines auparavant elle avait organisé et réalisé haut la main, pratiquement
toute seule avec l’aide d’à peine quelques volontaires, un grand Dîner Africain, mémorable pour les plus de 300 personnes qui y vinrent.
Après notre première entrevue, elle décida que ma présence était
indispensable aux réunions concernant le futur Pavillon de l’Afrique et
ainsi j’eus le plaisir d’être invitée à la suivante, transport payé…
mais dans ce groupe trop large ma mauvaise ouïe m’empécha de suivre
efficacement ce qui se disait, si bien que je ne renouvellerai pas
l’expérience. Une intervention à haute et intelligible voix que j’ai en
tous cas eu la joie d’entendre parfaitement, a été celle d’Isis
elle-même, soulignant avec une remarquable clarté d’esprit et une grande
force d’expression le fait que c’était le message évolutif de Sri Aurobindo et Mère qu’il fallait porter en Afrique, car lui seul aurait
le pouvoir d’offrir à l’Afrique un avenir véritablement digne d’elle,
révélateur de son âme profonde, loin de la copie du monde matérialiste à
l’Occidentale qui paraît pour le moment être la seule option. Quand elle
l’a dit, c’est devenu d’une telle évidence que pas la moindre discussion
ne fut nécessaire, ce point fut adopté instantanément et à l’unanimité.
Mr Tékesté était là également, l’ancien diplomate Ethiopien qui a été autrefois le lien officiel entre l’empereur Hailé Sélassié et Mère, et
qui a choisi ensuite de vivre à Auroville, poursuivant depuis inlassablement son rêve d’y établir le Pavillon Africain, et inversement de faire connaitre Auroville à l’Afrique; il fut de ceux qui approuvèrent le plus vigoureusement de la tête la proposition d’Isis. Il était clair aussi que pour les sympathiques jeunes Africains également présents (tous des garçons), étudiants à l’Université de Chidambaram pas loin d’ici, Isis était devenue une inspiratrice précieuse par son dynamisme contagieux et sa longue expérience de l’action publique.

Ma petite chambre d’hôtes s’étant trouvée libre peu après, Isis y
emménagea, avec la ferme intention – tout en continuant à aider ses
jeunes compatriotes africains pour le Pavillon – de commencer à
apprendre de moi tout ce qu’elle pourrait concernant le Yoga Intégral, y
compris dans sa dimension cellulaire.

Mais notre vie commune commença sur une note bien moins sérieuse: je
n’allais pas laisser passer l’aubaine rarissime de cette authentique autre Martiniquaise sans en profiter pour élucider les quelques souvenirs qui me restaient de mon bref sejour en Martinique
précisément à cette période folle, comme au Brésil, où l’on célèbre le
Carnaval. Je lui ai fredonné l’air et le refrain de la chanson choisie
cette année-là pour tout le Carnaval, apparemment c’etait devenu un
classique, car elle l’a reconnue tout de suite, et nous voilà toutes les
deux chantant à tue-tête en créole dans mon salon: ”VAVAL, VAVAL, WOU PAS QUITTER NOUS!…”, tout en dansant à qui mieux mieux sur le rythme endiablé de la chanson ressuscitée, ponctuée par nos éclats de rire!!! Après ces quelques moments d’amusement martiniquais enthousiastes et délectables, ce joyeux passé redevenu présent en nous s’est calmé, nous ramenant aux perspectives encore plus excitantes de notre futur évolutif…!

Quant au futur évolutif de l’Afrique, je vais laisser Isis elle-même dire
de quelle manière elle aimerait y participer, quand elle sera à nouveau établie là-bas, après un court séjour à Paris en partant d’ici. Ayant lu cet article à son propre sujet, elle en écrira la suite à tête reposée depuis l’Afrique-même, dés que cela lui sera devenu possible. L’Afrique ne sait pas encore ce qui l’attend… mais moi, ayant vécu ne serait-ce que cette courte période avec Isis, et ayant encore dans l’oreille son grand rire communicatif, j’ai quelque idée de ce qui s’apprête à déferler discrètement sur l’Afrique dans les années qui viennent, et je m’en réjouis d’avance!!!

Why the Body-Cells’ Participation Is Indispensable Too

Chief_cells (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To have grasped and then also experienced directly the validity and
efficiency of the approach to Healing elaborated in Russia by
Grigori Grabovoi and his two main collaborators, and to have
celebrated that approach in my previous post, doesn’t mean that
everything that needs to be done for our body can be done that way.
There is a reason, and a very important one – an essential one even
- why Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, instead of doing it that way
too, went rather through the trouble of slowly awakening the
consciousness of their body-cells: if that is not done, nothing is
done from the point of view of physical evolution as such.

It is absolutely necessary for our cells themselves to learn the new
way of functioning, based on the New Energy, that the cells of
Mother’s body had the extremely hard task to discover on their own
and start living with. Nothing but learning this new way of
functioning will enable the very consciousness of our cells too to
awaken to the need of the Divine Presence as well as of the
development of their own divine potential.

This higher degree of consciousness that the cells constituting
Mother’s body acquired has become ‘ipso facto’ available to some degree for other
receptive cells in whatever other human body. This is how the new
way of functioning can be said to be contagious, wherever there is,
for whatever reason, the needed receptivity in another body’ cells.
Thus this new way of functioning is quietly spreading, whether the
individuals whose body starts to change are aware of it or not.

While I was in the ‘Russian Healing’ workshop, from the first day I
noticed my cells had gone very silent within me. They had withdrawn
from the nearly constant communication they normally keep up with
me. I understood immediately why: they didn’t feel concerned, as the
specific process going on didn’t call at all for their
participation. It was only my individual consciousness, in its
Higher Self identity, which was taking all the decisions and doing
all the work, the cells being only passively affected by it all.
What a contrast with our usual daily life together, in which they
had gotten used to being constantly consulted and always invited to
consciously participate! They didn’t resent the different kind of
approach that Grabovoi advocated for healing the body, but it led
them to a passive attitude themselves… just like when kids are
with their parents and the parents take the active role and make all
the decisions and treat the kids as if they were unable to
participate.

Children treated that way will never learn to listen to their own
feelings and take their own responsibilities, that means they will
never grow up into well developed and responsible adults, which is
the real purpose of the educative process.

Similarly, the overall purpose of the terrestrial evolutive process
is not just that our individual consciousnesses awaken to their
true, divine nature, but that the consciousnesses of all the cells
constituting our bodies get to do the same too, for they too are,
without knowing it, other forms of the Divine, and must awaken to
their own secret divine nature as well, with all the tremendous
potential this implies.

I know all this may seem extremely far-fetched to people exposed for
the first time to such new concepts, but this is the true Reality we
all actually live in, so we better get used to these seemingly
unimaginable things, for they are part of what will inevitably
manifest in the
new step of terrestrial evolution presently happening. How many
centuries will still be needed for such results to be fully manifested,
no one cans ay, but the process is already started in some people’s
bodies… the ultimate self-healing process, done this time by the cells
themselves!…

Overhauling the spaceship ‘Bhaga’ for ‘StarTrek: The New Evolutive Step’

Friday 22nd March 2013

 I am for the third and last day participating in that workshop in
another part of Auroville about the new method found out in Russia for
regenerating cells and full organs or bones etc (see my previous post).

Here are my preliminary, mostly happy conclusions:

1/ The main and crucially important interest I see in that method, is
that those who invented it are spiritual people first of all:
everything they recommend to do is to be done in what I would call the
right consciousness – the consciousness of our true self – and in the
right attitude towards the Divine we and everything else are part of:

‘I am in spirit, I see and act as the Creator does.

I am in the Light Stream of the Creator’

In that Higher Self consciousness, we are spontaneously attuned with All
That Is, as we are all One, part of The One. So whatever improvement we
want for ourselves we intend also to be for the improvement of the
Whole, as our next words say:

‘Rescue and harmonious development of the whole world.’

2/ The second most important element in my eyes is that those three
Russian men are also clairvoyant, which enabled them to come up with
some visual representation of how, in a precise way, our thoughts get
translated into Matter, become physical reality. The process is spoken
out step by step by the person as s/he does it:

- first as a Decision/Intent by her/his Divine Self in its capacity of
Creator, to gain control over a certain problem in her/his body;

- then the deletion of the past and present bad condition altogether out
of Time itself, as if the wrong condition had simply never existed: we
go back in time to one hour before the origin of the condition began,
and we stop henceforth participating at all in the subsequent events,
whatever they were, that initiated the problem in our body;   

- then the decision and the resulting deletion are fixed, recorded in a way, outside of Time and Space. 

The scientists provide us also with the inner images of a number of
symbolic objects that we can use then as tools for representing to
ourselves visually the various inner processes through which a specific
part of our body or the whole of it can be restored to its true way of
functioning, as it was originally and eternally still is, according to
the Norm given to it by our Creator. The result of our intervention is again fixed outside of Time and Space, so as not to be subjected to our possible mood fluctuations when back in the ordinary consciousness.

This whole process I have tried to delineate above in a very clear way
for the visitors of my blog, but it was not all that clear to me at the
beginning of the workshop, far from it.

As the hours and the days passed, though, it became clearer and clearer;
my understanding of the possible range of uses for each inner tool
presented and then tried out during an exercise did increase as well, to
the point that I started spontaneously formulating in my own way the
inner commands that needed sometimes to be used too; yesterday
afternoon, instead of the for me too long ‘Shield of Life: Active!’, I
found myself shouting inwardly the well-known brief and immediate
command used aboard the spaceship ‘Enterprise’ in the episodes of ‘Star
Trek: TNG’, that is, “Shields up!”

And this morning, as I was dressing up for that last day, I suddenly
noticed I was humming cheerfully the celebrissime tune which in each
episode of ‘Star Trek: TNG’ accompanies the celebrissime words said by
Captain Jean-Luc Picard about the mission of the ‘Enterprise’:

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Well, that was the kind of mood I was indeed in, going to that last day
of the ‘Russian Healing’ workshop!!! It says it all about my definitely
growing enthusiasm and sense of empowerment!…

And there was good reason for that: my hearing was already improving,
with the two tiny ‘crystals of my soul’ that I had visualised settling
cozily into my ears, to gently cleanse them and restore them to perfect
functioning thanks to the vibratory frequency of my soul constantly
vibrating in there through those two tiny crystals I could now almost
feel physically whenever I thought of my ears. And there was also my
heart, usually too vulnerable to unpleasant surprises and emotional
shocks; when we the various participants had together created in front
of our chests, each one for our own individual use, a small ‘Sphere of
Living Matter’, again for re-patterning to the Norm of our Creator
whatever organ or anything else in our body that needed it, the Sphere I
had just created had immediately, on its own, jumped inside my heart
and started pacifying and healing it, I could feel its very nice effect
on my heart…  

There is an exhilaration now in me for facing the Adventure of Life, which is akin to a sense of great Fun… Definitely a good sign as one more result of this workshop! Whatever the next command may need to be, as dear Jean-Luc would say: “ENGAGE!”

A derivative collage from two other files – captain Jean-Luc Picard in his quarter on the USS Enterprise-D (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The New Normality

Every year I have some friends from different countries who are more generally friends of Auroville too and come here for a few weeks during the cool season, which ends around this time.
A dear lady friend of mine who always visits me while she is here spent again some time with me one morning in February. We are both deeply into our process of Conscious Evolution, so it is the main topic we mostly talk about every time.
As usual we were sitting together on my sofa downstairs, in the living-room. At some point this time she said to me, like a kind of confidence, ‘I feel sometimes that I would like to be ‘normal’…’

I was stunned, and remained speechless for a few moments. 
Then I found myself asking her with great intensity:
‘But which kind of ‘Normality’ are you talking about???
Don’t you see that the Old Normality is fading away into the Past, and that a New Normality, coming from the Future, is emerging, which is shared by more and more people in the world? It is up to you which Normality you choose to be part of.’

It was her turn to be stunned and speechless. She stared at me for a while, then asked hesitantly if I myself felt really like that; I said a strong ‘Yes’, and we went on talking about this, so intensely something in her was deeply touched and moved, she started experiencing some new feelings, a new way of looking at herself and at life, telling me aloud what was happening in her as it kept happening in answer to what I was saying: a new faith, a new enthusiasm for the ‘New Normality’ was flooding her consciousness and even her physical being, particularly her eyes, in which she sensed what she described as a kind of happy sparkle; she was smiling, with an almost mischievous glee in her smile, as she spoke of a celebration in her inner being, as if with some (inner) champagne!

Independence Day Celebration (Photo credit: US Embassy New Zealand) The Past Normality

The change in her was indeed fascinating to watch as our strange conversation went on outwardly, with its inner repercussions being announced outwardly as well moment by moment. It was mirth and glee, I could see that in her face, in the way her whole body was now  comfortably resting on that sofa.

This went on and on, until we were interrupted by someone else’s arrival, I had to attend to that other person’s need, and it took some time; when I came back inside my house, my friend was no more there; but I had felt a sense of completion before I had gone out, so my friend’s departure only confirmed that.

She and her husband were about to go back soon to their country, so we had no chance to meet again after that particularly meaningful morning. I hope some of its remarkable effect has lingered on and has revealed itself to be a long-term result in her. Another lady who happened to meet her still in Auroville just before she left, told me later on she had said I had helped her. May the Divine Grace, and not ‘me’, be thanked for that.
.
As for myself, I am grateful as well: since then I have felt a reinforced inner strength that is most welcome too.
May that inner strength become part of my own ‘New Normality’ for ever henceforth… 

More about February and what has also happened

Yesterday was real rain, I mean, just heavy rain like during the monsoon… except that the monsoon was supposed to be in October and November, and it is not supposed to rain at all in March!!!
Well, well, I guess we have to get used to these climate change obvious signs, here too…

But I still have more to say about February, some important events of another kind, which I didn’t mention yet.

Two messages that I got published in our internal weekly newsletter will give, the first one, the gist of what happened, and the second one, written at the very end of February, what my deeper response has been, that had kept growing in me for quite a while already before, and then found its outer expression in the form of a proposal.

Here are the two texts:

Latest news from Repos – both good, and rather discouraging…

Repos is reviving steadily, the Aurovilians and Guests who come are very happy – and they say it – with the full day service we are now offering again daily (except Mondays), and with what we offer. But to regain the capacity to cover monthly the expenses of running the place, our only means of income being our humble Guest-House, we need absolutely to have again enough Guest-Huts to respond to the (big) demand. In order to rebuild at least some of the huts destroyed by cyclone or erosion, we need a loan from Auroville.

In the N&N of 22 December 2012, the FAMC report blamed it on us that nothing was happening; they didn’t mention that they had never even replied to our email asking for an urgent meeting of all the Groups concerned. That report was the first official news we ever got from them (indirectly), and nothing from the other Groups. Only the Auroville Council, bless them, did answer, and received us, and gave us their approval after hearing our plans. But the financial means were not in their power to decide upon, we would have to wait for the FAMC for that. With some members of the Repos Support Group (so, their names are actually known already…) I approached someone from the FAMC, but still he wouldn’t simply reiterate our unanswered request to the FAMC as a whole, he said we had to do it. We found that insistence surprising and unfair, so we haven’t yet complied with it.

In the meantime, though, the Financial Authorities of Auroville haven’t remained inactive: knowing fully well that without my phone and internet connection I cannot communicate with the potential Guests who email me, nor use the Aurocard device, nor enter the monies received from Guests or anyone who pays for the food through their accounts, nor monitor the various accounts that are under my responsibility, nor keep a normal contact with all the people involved one way or the other with the work here, the Financial Authorities have simply ordered my phone and internet line to be cut. I just discovered that yesterday, when contacting the Telephone Service. No warning, no prior communication with me, nothing – and I had actually paid my bill; I always manage to keep the minus on that account stable, not increasing (I do pay the bill, if late) and I have always covered the minus after a while, just a matter of a few months. Some of the other temporary minuses on other accounts are already being covered as well, which shows clearly enough that things are going positively, and as we are in full Guest Season, the income is likely to be all right in the end … if only we are not in the meantime slowly and discretely strangled to death in that incredible way by the very authorities that should be expected to help us be in full health again.

Bhaga

(In the second text, down below, the quote "a concrete human unity" is from
the last paragraph of the Auroville Charter written by the Mother)

28.2.2013: TOWARDS 'A CONCRETE HUMAN UNITY'

In this dawn of our 45th Birthday, a prayer rises in me: that in this 
year till our next Birthday, we as a collective body find ways to 
eradicate poverty in Auroville. We must reform our internal system to 
make sure everybody among us who needs help gets the help they need. It 
is not acceptable that more and more huge mansions and personal palaces 
are built on Auroville land by those who have the money to do so, while 
others, just as worthy Aurovilians, working since years for Auroville, 
are unable to repair their roofs or finish the humble house they are 
trying to build for themselves and their family: they are simply told 
that they must 'manage' - that is, they are officially abandoned.
Our administrative organization is getting more and more complex, an 
intricate maze. Some people feel at home and at ease in the Town Hall, 
but to many others it is a dreadful, impenetrable fortress full of 
confusing offices with wildly varying timings that force you to come 
again and again. In the light particularly of the warnings kindly given 
to us by the Mother - for example about not multiplying endlessly the 
departments and offices, as "it complicates life"-, here is a PROPOSAL 
FOR A 'POAVA' ('People-Oriented Auroville Administration'):

I feel we should create a new kind of job, some Auroville-maintained 
'Administrative Helpers': Aurovilians well versed in all the 
administrative rules and regulations and ways of doing things, whom any 
other Aurovilian could call upon for help whenever needed, at home or 
when obliged to go to some office in Auroville; there are now so many of 
them, and not all centrally located, nor with the same timings, the 
'Helpers' would explain where to go, whom to see, if needed would come 
along with you and even speak for you if you prefer. You would never 
feel alone facing administrative authorities who may not know you 
personally, or may not treat you in the right way.
I hoped for a while that the Group renamed a few years ago 'Human 
Resources' would be playing that special role I am thinking of for the 
'Helpers'; but with the incredible limitations in responsibilities, 
funding and decision-making that this Group presently has, its members, 
even when they would like to help, are condemned to be practically 
unable to do anything at all. So (unless this Group can soon be much 
enlarged in its scope and possibilities), it would have to be those 
'Administrative Helpers' who would make sure you are all right, each of 
them looking after a certain number of Aurovilians who would have chosen 
him or her as Helper: s/he would come to your own home to meet you and 
learn about your real-life situation as a whole (not piecemeal like in 
each office), including any difficulties you might currently be facing. 
S/he would then proceed to help you solve those difficulties, if 
necessary solving them for you altogether without your needing to do 
anything for it yourself: if you are sick, or already too busy doing 
your real work for Auroville, how can you be expected to do on top of it 
all the administrative stuff supposed to be done??? Not everyone in 
Auroville has a secretary, or the computer equipment and expertise for 
the emails, PDFs and what not that are now, mind you, the only form of 
communication accepted in some of our own offices; even when the problem 
is simple and one finally reaches the right desk at the right time, 
normal communication may be refused, ordinary letters written on real 
paper being shunned and discarded, and oral explanations as well, 
whatever the urgency of the matter: only through an email will the 
problem be at all recorded and the needed follow-up started.
Every Aurovilian, including those on just a basic maintenance, seems to 
be expected not only to have a phone line and internet, always 
functioning well, but to be themselves perpetually in good health and 
driving a vehicle perpetually in good condition too. The special 'free 
transportation' supposed to be there for the senior Aurovilians has such 
a meagre budget and is available only at such unrealistic conditions as 
to make it practically a mirage, giving you only the illusory hope of a 
free transportation it cannot actually cover. As for the health fund, it 
expects you, however sick, to be able to collect all your medical bills 
and present them to their office within the short validity time-period, 
or they will not be reimbursed; taxi or auto bills are not accepted: 
apparently you are supposed to be driving your own vehicle also while 
being sick, or in great, incapacitating pain. An ambulance must be out 
of the question too, I suppose, even if your condition requires it; in 
case on that point at least I am wrong, how happy I will be to learn 
that ambulances costs are in fact reimbursed!...
This brings me to a terrible inner dilemma: should we really spend 17 
lakhs on building a place that would be used merely to refrigerate for a 
few days the dead bodies of those Aurovilians who have recently left 
those physical bodies? Can't we in Auroville give more importance, in 
our thoughts and feelings, to the departing spirit of those who have 
passed on, rather than to their decaying bodies? Wouldn't the same 
amount of money be more usefully spent for providing instead the 
physical bodies of some aging or sick Aurovilians with the added comfort 
of air-conditioning, for example, at least in one room of their own 
home... while they are still alive??? It is very nice to celebrate in 
the AV News old-timers and other special participants in the great 
adventure of Auroville; but why wait after they are dead? Whereas while 
they were still physically with us, no official recognition or 
assistance has been extended to them at all, but too often the contrary? 
How many may have had a longer and happier life here if only some real 
help from Auroville would have warded off in time the cancer or 
heart-attack they finally succumbed to?
Wouldn't it be great, when  sometimes you need it, to be well taken care 
of in that way, by 'Helpers' who will have chosen to do that work 
because they will love doing it, love helping you that way? Is that too 
much to ask for in a place like Auroville?... A 'concrete human unity'.  
I know already at least two truly helpful Aurovilians I would myself 
immediately choose (they happen to be two ladies), who would qualify 
perfectly for that job, and there are surely others... Please contact me 
(9443362328) if you like the idea. Let's start soon!!!

Update on February 2013 in Repos, Auroville

The month of February has been as usual very full – even fuller than usual, as we added this year a new celebration, one that in previous years was not observed in Auroville; here is the text through which we sent around our invitation:

“CELEBRATING ‘VALENTINE DAY’ THE AUROVILLE WAY, AT REPOS…

We invite you and your beloved to a Special Dinner Celebration on 
Valentine's Day, this Thursday night 14th February 2013 (and possibly 
also on the following nights of Friday, Saturday and Sunday) from 6 to 
9 pm:

Even though in Auroville, as Mother advised, couples generally don't 
'marry', it is simply because true love between the two beings is the 
only really important thing, the one thing that truly ensures an 
enduring relationship - and that's what we want to celebrate in our own 
Aurovilian way for Valentine's Day!

It will be a candle-lit and star-lit dinner, with probably some moon 
light too already. We'll have a special menu composed by our AVI France 
master cook Francois. The cost will be 450 Rs for couples, 250 Rs for 
singles. It might be a nice additional touch if some Auroville or 
visiting musicians play also some soft, classical or romantic music - 
let's see...

Please let us know before 3pm on Thursday if you want to come so we can 
plan accordingly.
See you soon in front of the ocean...
Repos Team"

 

Just the right number of people showed up for the cooking and serving capacity of our small team, everything went very smoothly. Early in the night a storm gathered its dark clouds over our heads, threatening to flood our outdoor event; but with some inner concentration on the part of my special Guest Isis, and of myself, the clouds went away and we did have the candle-lit, starlit and moonlit dinner promised!!! The food too was very nice, so everyone left quite happy.

The next Thursday, the 21st,  was Mother’s Birthday, with of course celebrations all around that kept everyone  gone here and there in other parts of Auroville or at the Ashram in Pondy for the ‘Darshan’.

Two days later, on Saturday 23, some of our Guests here were aware that it was my birthday, so besides my normal close friends, that day saw also quite a few other persons coming to my house with flowers or small presents…  In the morning, the main  employee we have in Repos, our genius of a maintenance-man, managed to fix for good the electrical supply to my house. As it was a Saturday, in the afternoon my best friend came as always for watching some episodes of ‘STAR TREK TNG’; and for the first time in the forty years I have lived in Auroville, a special dinner was prepared in my honour, in supposed secrecy, with as the main dish my dear ‘couscous’!!! It was delicious, and so were also the other items on the menu… the five of us will long remember that birthday dinner full of sweetness and fun that we had together. I had had a quick look at my email and Facebook messages, a lot  was there waiting for me, which I answered the next day, a nice way to make that day too a part still of the same happy celebration…

Then, so fast, it was already the 28th, that is, Auroville’s own Birthday!
I woke up before dawn and had a meditation right there and then, still in bed, at the same time as many people were also having the usual collective meditation around a great, beautiful bonfire, all the way up in the amphitheater next to

Matrimandir, at the centre of Auroville.

It was a very intense and luminous half-hour for me,  that much I can say, and the whole day went on in the same very special way all along. When dressing up for the day, I put on for the first time the gorgeous pale orange (the Auroville colour)  ‘churidhar’ I had many months ago found at my beloved ‘Free Store’… I had never tried it on before, but the tunic and pants set was fitting perfectly, raising cries of admiration later on among the other people present for our daily ‘Early Breakfast’. My mood too remained remarkably perfect the whole day, which was another good thing!… When the night came, no exhaustion either in spite of those many hours spent making sure that everything was going fine… Back at long last in bed, I was even able to have a short moment of inner concentration again before sleep took finally over. Wow. I don’t remember having ever had a full day in my life feeling so incredibly harmonious – like a ship gloriously going, all sails open, on the vast ocean, by a beautiful weather…

Searching Head… and Finding Hands

Several times in the last few days a new and very satisfying phenomenon has started to happen:
Every time, it begins with my looking for something I need but can’t remember where I have put. I look and look everywhere, my focus on my search growing so intense I feel I am becoming a kind of ‘searching head’!… But still I don’t find what I am looking for.
And then comes a point when all this will-powered effort to find, stops, suddenly feeling its own inadequacy and inefficiency, and something else then starts happening just spontaneously: without my understanding why, my body goes in a certain direction, following directly the lead of my hands, who apparently somehow know where to look for what I want; when my body arrives at the right spot, my hands on their own reach out to some specific place there and, lo and behold, retrieve from under other things that were hiding it the thing I was looking for!!!
Amazing.
What was the first instance, I didn’t note down, so now I don’t know any more; but the two next ones I did note down, to make sure I would remember, and I do.
Visitors to this blog have to realize I am fully back in my house by now, yes, all my things are back inside those walls, but not all are yet sorted out and put back in their proper place; as I have so many other things to do too (including this blog to write) a lot of books, clothes and other stuff is still packed by broad categories in big bags piled up here and there, waiting for me to have the time and the energy to deal with them. Having had to move everything out two months ago within the few hours left before that second cyclone, ‘Nilam’, was supposed to strike in full force, my humble but many possessions got all pretty much mixed up that first time I moved; then during the month and a half that I stayed in another house, I patiently re-ordered all that I could already, at least enough to be functional again for the main activities that had absolutely to go on.
But finally it became possible to go back into my real house, so a second time I had to move, everything had to be brought back there, at a more leisurely pace, but a fast one nevertheless, as the other house had to be entirely vacated before the first Guests who had booked it would arrive… which was in a few days only. So again a great mix-up happened, in spite of all the precautions and care I did put in properly packing things; and you always have those last minute trips back and forth between one house and the other, when you cannot be in both at the same time to supervise the people who are helping you, and they end up putting together the last items in rather unexpected ways, so later on you have a hard time figuring out where this or that might be, when you need it. And sometimes you yourself forget where precisely you have put some precious little thing you especially cared for and placed safely somewhere…. but where?!
That’s what happened with my dear translucent salmon-pink ear-rings:
I have them since years, one of the only little things I was able to buy for myself last time I was in France, that is, in 2006. They are nothing really great in themselves, not an expensive piece of jewelry, simple ‘pure plastic’ (!) ear-rings, but once I wear them, for some reason they fit me specially well, color and shape; so well that they are my all-time favorites, always noticed by other people, yet not showy like some other pairs I have with brighter colors. Those ones, delicate and discrete, I wore whenever I was more in ‘soul mood’, so I particularly wouldn’t have wanted to lose them.
Soon after settling down temporarily in the other house I realized I was missing them. And also the nicely hexagonal transparent glass ‘crystal’ that with its short chain I always loved to use as a pendulum to select the particular cream that my hair or my skin wanted at any particular time; it looked beautiful, it was a pleasure every time to use it, so I was sad to be missing that too. I vaguely remembered putting it away in a small well-protected bag… together with the ear-rings, in fact… but where?…

Even after moving back home, I had not yet found them.
Yesterday morning I was dressing up especially for the exceptional evening out I would have to have that night, to attend a meeting of the French Aurovilians with the French Consul, a very friendly person who comes often to meet us informally in that way around some simple dinner, the event being arranged by the few French Aurovilians most involved in the activities and development of the French Pavilion, the space used being generally the Tibetan Pavilion that is already existing in the same area of Auroville. The way I felt like dressing for that evening should have included those pale-pink ear-rings, so with renewed determination I set again to find them, but to no avail. Suddenly, in my growing despair, my personal will abdicated; instead, a prayer rose in my heart that I may at last recover my dear ear-rings. The result was instantaneous and astonishing: my body leaned towards a small bag of toiletries I had already searched several times in vain, so I was quite surprised that still something seemed to be there; but already my hands, of their own volition, were aiming straight at a thin, almost invisible pocket on the outside of it that I didn’t remember was there … once inside that small pocket my fingers immediately felt the ear-rings indeed, and right at the bottom they found also the crystal pendulum!… A flow of pure joy and gratitude filled my heart. I wore my ear-rings yesterday evening, with delight – and that pendulum is back in its daily use too.
And this morning again it happened:  a nice young woman staying with me as a Guest was asking me for some short texts by Sri Aurobindo; I  remembered having tucked away my favorite booklets as a separate pile somewhere in my small Research office, right when I moved back into my house, to make sure I would find them again easily… but where did I put that pile?… For a good hour I looked and looked, and couldn’t locate anywhere that specific pile. Then the personal will in me finally gave up and asked inwardly for help. That worked liked magic: instantly my body turned around towards the extreme right corner next to the low chair; there indeed was a pile I had somehow forgotten about and overlooked; already my hands were searching knowingly inside that pile, and coming back up triumphantly with just the booklets I was looking for!!!
This time I was almost afraid, it was so unbelievable, it seemed eerie; and then my fear spontaneously turned to utter joy that such things were becoming not only possible but increasingly frequent, a new way of functioning that apparently is more and more just natural for my body in its more and more awakened consciousness …

Oh my… What a fantastic new way of functioning! I love it…

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• The Consciousness in Things (labofevolution.wordpress.com)

The Inner Meaning I See in What Happened Here Recently

Of course as always what has happened here over the last few weeks is not to be seen superficially, but in the context of the evolutive purpose of the very existence of Auroville as a whole, and, within that whole, of my own individual existence as well.
I am certainly not a daredevil trying to prove myself to the world or to my own eyes. I am not the adventurous type, rather the opposite. But whether scared or not, if I see and feel clearly that I must take a certain stand/do a certain action, I can’t help but doing it!… It has been the same already when I came to Auroville: I was terribly scared, actually I thought I was completely mad to go live in a place where everything would be so difficult, but at the same time I knew that this was the only choice for me, the only decision worth taking, the one that would really make the most out of this present lifetime I had finally decided to go on living. So although all the rest of my being was scared, my soul still won, and dragged all the rest, kicking and screaming, all the way to India, because that’s where Auroville was, and my soul wanted to participate in Auroville.
So I am not really brave at all, as some people believe: I wish they were right!… In fact my soul only is brave, the other parts of my being just have to follow, that’s all, however miserable they may feel doing so. Same thing about my so called strong will-power: it’s not strong at all, it’s just that I find myself sometimes saying or doing things with great force from some inner strength, while I am astonished at saying or doing those things without having had any conscious intention of doing or saying them…! Yet, there is a kind of inner certainty that this is the correct thing for me to say or do at that moment, and it is that inner certitude that gives me this unexpected strength against even the opinion of the bewildered others, or physical circumstances.
As for those others, they too are playing their role, whether knowingly or not, in this overall script that will have the best possible result for the inner growth of each of us and for the whole process of our collective evolution as well. Auroville is but one sub-play inside the overall  terrestrial Play at this point of its linear time, illusory but agreed upon by all participants as indispensable to the acting out of the Play.
I’ll explain what I feel I myself and Auroville have progressed upon through these recent events:
I was not quite sure I was really detached enough to let go of that house without much emotional distress if ever it became necessary; well, it did become necessary, and so I was able to see how well I took this loss, which at some point seemed bound to happen quite inevitably. I  can say now that I really was not terribly affected; on the other hand even after moving out to this other house because the worst of the cyclone was still to come according to the meteo, still something in me kept having more faith in the Divine than in the meteorological predictions, and I slept soundly that night… only to discover the next morning that no cyclone had happened and that my house, o complete delight, was still in the vertical position.
Yet the slight threat to the front foundations was still the same, and that is what motivated at last one capable person to intervene without waiting any further.
The funny thing is that at first, like all the others who had come before to urge me to move out, etc, he too came back from looking at those front foundations, saying something like ‘oh my god, what a terrible weather and a dangerous situation’, etc etc; but I suddenly couldn’t take it anymore, I just exploded, and blasted the poor guy right in front of the other persons who were there that morning at the Kitchen:
 ’Stop this!!! Stop this nonsense!!! Of course it will go on like this if all of you keep imagining only that it will, instead of imagining deliberately another outcome, another possible future for this house, for this whole place!!! All those negative thoughts do nothing but attract the catastrophes they predict and anticipate, so please, if you really want to help, first stop this !…’
He was so stunned by my words, which he at once realized were right, it turned him around completely, and he decided there and then that he would not only change his thinking, but also add some immediate action to insure a more positive future: he would take up the protection of my house.
And so he did the very next day.
The email he at the same time sent around to all our major administrative Groups in Auroville had a contagious effect, and they too joined in that effort, each one in its own independant way; the interesting thing is that all of it became a concerted effort and a collaboration that no one had envisaged before, but which nevertheless happened, for the good of Auroville as a whole, I believe, breaking at last through the inertia and apathy that had been until then the only collective response to our plight on the beach.
Then the ocean itself in the following days became so calm I was able to go again in the water, and even to float and swim blissfully on my back, something I had not been doing since many months because the ocean was too rough!…
Next came the change in direction of the current, and the waves starting to deposit sand instead of taking it away!!! Day after day the high cliff dug out all along the shore became less high, it was being filled, and by now there is almost no difference in level anymore.
What a complete change.
Even the expected cyclone’s disappearance may have had to do with a change in way of thinking on the part of all the friends of mine who had come just before, nearly mourning me already, and insistently proposing to me other refuges more inland, in their own places for example; to all I had as patiently as I could explained how their own worrying thoughts were actually likely to make the very result they dreaded become true, and I had urged them to start countering any dire meteorological prediction by deliberate thoughts of a more positive script. Perhaps they all did start to do just that afterwards regarding this anticipated cyclone, and that sent it away indeed!!!
In any case, that time, not having my laptop, I didn’t have any possibility of calling upon you all, visitors to this blog who in other occasions had helped inwardly with such magnificent results; so that time it must have been just my own faith plus the changed thought of those other Aurovilians that were enough to push the danger away… With as always the help of the Divine Grace of course.
Well, all this experimentation with our collective thoughts has been for me a most fascinating thing to watch over this year, every time with a significant outcome… Thanks to all for their participation in this  spontaneously extended research work somehow sparked by this humble blog for the Laboratory of Evolution not only in Auroville itself, but all over the planet!… So, congratulations, and please keep at it, especially when you are not hearing anymore from me, which is generally a sign of trouble, as you may have noticed…!

 

English: Beautiful view of Pondicherry Auroville Beach (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

What happened here these last weeks

After this especially long interruption, here is an update… starting with the text I wrote a few weeks ago, when I was still in my normal house:

‘To avoid any misunderstanding, I want to make it clear publicly that if in spite of the threatening coastal erosion I am still staying in my house on the beach at Repos, it is not because I have nowhere else to go.
The Housing Service has since long nicely offered to relocate me, individuals from some other Auroville beaches have kindly told me I would be welcome there, and in Repos itself there are spaces more inland where I could move temporarily if ever needed.
Although extremely touched by this concern from others, and thanking them all warmly for it, well, still it is rather in my present home that I prefer to go on living.
I am not giving up on this house so easily, my faithful companion of nearly twenty years, built thanks to a gift from Auroville and especially dear to me for that, and for being of my own quite satisfactory design.
So it is entirely by choice that I am still staying there and I will not abandon it but under the most extreme necessity. If ever something were to happen to me at some point because of that choice I am making, no one is to be made responsible for it but myself.
But I don’t believe anything bad will happen. On the contrary…
Anyway, whatever the fate of this house, it will be the Divine Will deciding about it, so no problem with me; but I want to have at least done really all that could possibly be done to save that house – and Repos, if it comes to that.’
(Continued on Wednesday 28th November 2012)
‘For it is really what it all boils down to for me, and my deep motivation for staying in Repos: it is for Repos.
The draft above was written a few weeks back, while I was still staying in my house.
In the meantime there has been the beginning of cyclone ‘Nilam’, the first two days of which brought up the violent waves that finished off completely the big yellow house and the Cafe; my house too was threatened: my old shower place, kept for the guests, had already fallen, and with it the small old terrace only loosely attached to my house; two more days of full force cyclone Nilam were announced, that could very well make my house too start to fall; so I did move out in haste to another house, a simple keet roofed one… but still in Repos.
I am writing now from there, but the cyclone Nilam, thanks to the Divine Grace, actually weakened and went away, and my house stayed up.
Thanks then to the quick intervention on the human level of S. and his team (kindly financed by the Housing Service), plus, the next day, the big machine sent officially by Auroville with the Cyclone Relief Cleaning Team, the front foundations of my house have been reinforced and protected; now the waves are bringing back sand instead of taking it, so the level of the sand is higher and higher all over the beach, also under my house; I may be able to return to that real home of mine soon, freeing my temporary keet house for the very much needed guests, just in time in this starting ‘season’.
Why taking all this trouble? Because Repos (and Quiet) cannot be left to fall into the ocean. Places of Auroville named by Mother herself and given their true purpose by Her are simply not sellable, nor transferable. They are among the most precious assets of Auroville, bringing with them specific inner gifts in their very atmosphere, that are invaluable, whether those places are also financially profitable or not – and they will be indeed, if they are helped to develop to the full potential of the expression of their respective truth. They may fall out of fashion for a while in the consciousnesses of some of the present Aurovilians, but none of us has the right to deprive the next generations of Aurovilians of what had been an integral part of Mother’s vision for Auroville. Already a number of the young Tamil Aurovilians, the young adults, visiting Repos, express to me their sorrow and anger at Auroville’s inaction to save this place they have been so happy to grow up with; they are worried that their children may never have a beach to go to any more; they are appalled at the shortsightedness of today’s decision-makers, when Auroville should on the contrary be the voice of a truer future not only for itself, but for India and the world at large.
It is for this Future of the world’s beaches that our beaches must now be protected and helped to re-grow. Out of love for them – and for ourselves. That’s why I keep stubbornly staying here.’