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!!!

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…

Related articles

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

Expérience Spirituelle Vécue par un Enfant de Sept Ans

Ayant relu d’un trait, hier soir, un remarquable petit livre relatant les indications prémonitoires données par une enfant de six ans à propos de sa mort prochaine, et de son retour rapide quelques années plus tard chez les mêmes parents, je me suis rappelé le récit lui aussi très remarquable, par David Spangler (le futur auteur spirituel célèbre relié pour un temps à Findhorn), de l’extraordinaire expérience qu’il a eue au Maroc un jour de son enfance. Je n’ai jamais eu qu’en Français le livre tardif où David fait ce récit, alors c’est en Français que je vous l’offre, en espérant que ce même texte existe en Anglais quelque part sur Internet pour mes visiteurs de langue anglaise… ce que je ne pourrai vérifier que lorsque la connexion internet revenue me permettra tout d’abord de poster sur mon blog le texte français que voici:

“Nous sommes en 1952, j’ai 7 ans, et ce jour là je suis en voiture avec mes parents, allant de la base aérienne de Nouasseur à Casablanca, pour faire des courses. C’est un trajet que nous avons effectué bien des fois, et je suis assis à l’arrière, en train de regarder défiler le paysage.
Tout d’un coup je me sens envahi d’une énergie qui coule à flots à travers tout mon corps, et j’ai l’impression de me gonfler comme un ballon. Avant que je puisse me rendre compte de ce qui se passe, je me trouve comme hors de mon corps, que j’entoure cependant. Regardant vers le bas et en même temps vers l’intérieur, d’une certaine façon, j’aperçois ma forme physique, ainsi que mes parents et notre voiture, qui deviennent de plus en plus petits, jusqu’à disparaître complètement. Et alors je me retrouve seul, dans un champ continu de lumière blanche…
Ainsi commença l’une des expériences les plus puissantes et les plus importantes de ma vie. Cela s’est passé sans avertissement, et m’a semblé durer des heures (en réalité quelques secondes), me conférant une vision de la réalité différente de celle que j’avais eue auparavant.
Je suis passé par quatre étapes bien définies. Tout d’abord, une sensation d’éveil, comme si je sortais du sommeil, pour percevoir le sens de ma propre identité, qui n’était pas celle de David Spangler, un habitant de la terre, avec des limites précises, mais une entité pure, qui ne faisait qu’un avec la lumière qui m’entourait et avec la création. En même temps, je ressentais une joie profonde, une impression de libération et de jubilation, tandis que disparaissaient les limites.
Ensuite la lumière s’est encore éclaircie en quelque sorte et je suis entré dans la dernière phase, je pouvais me “voir” (mais il ne s’agissait pas tout à fait d’une perception visuelle). Cependant le “moi” que je percevais n’était pas un corps, mais une configuration, au centre de laquelle je me trouvais comme observateur. Dans ce schéma il y avait d’autres personnalités, dont certtaines me paraissaient être des formes physiques, mais dont la plupart semblaient être des ensembles de qualités. A cet instant je compris que celles-ci représentaient d’autres aspects de moi-même, d’autres vies, d’autres expériences que j’avais vécues ou que je vivrais, ce que j’appelais dans mon vocabulaire terrestre le futur. En même temps j’entrevis des naissances et des morts que j’avais vécues et bien que je n’aie reconnu aucun personnage historique, ce qui se manifestait était une manifestation claire de l’éternité de l’âme et de la continuité de soi au-delà de la dimension physique.
Jusque là c’était exactement comme si je m’étais réveillé dans une pièce étrange mais connue, et je regardais autour de moi pour m’orienter. J’avais l’impression de me souvenir, de me rappeler dans le sens le plus pur du terme. Mais dès que j’ai pu m’orienter, la situation a changé et je suis entré dans la troisième étape. Les configurations des vies, et même la lumière dans laquelle je baignais, tout a disparu. A la place, je me suis trouvé dans un état que je suis incapable de décrire visuellement, sauf pour dire que je me trouvais dans l’étreinte d’une grande présence. Dans cette présence, tout semblait exister avec une unité profonde, rempli d’un amour et d’une sérénité indescriptibles, et d’une puissance irrésistible.
Comme si un rideau s’était levé, j’eus la perception visuelle de l’univers, une grande roue faite d’étoiles et de galaxies, toute baignée par la lumière dorée de milliards de soleils, le tout flottant dans un océan d’esprit. C’était comme si je voyais par les yeux de cette présence et si, pour un seul instant, nous ne faisions qu’un. A cet instant-là j’étais uni à tout ce qui existait, chaque atome, chaque pierre, chaque monde, chaque étoile, en train de voir la création non pas à une grande distance, mais de l’intérieur, comme si elle était mon propre corps, mon propre être. Plus puissante encore que cette perception était la conscience que j’avais du flux de créativité qui parcourait tout ce que je voyais, de l’étreinte joyeuse de la vie et de son épanouissement; le rythme rappelait celui d’un bal, avec sa musique et ses danseurs, les configurations intriquées qu’ils dessinent, changeant et se déployant sans cesse.
Et puis je suis entré dans la dernière étape. Emporté par la danse cosmique, j’ai vu d’en haut la terre ainsi que moi-même, David. A cet instant je sentais en moi l’intention d’être David, la volonté de naître qui avait précédé mon identité actuelle, ma vie physique, et qui lui avait donné vie. Je sentais le lien entre cette intention et toutes les autres configurations qui se déployaient dans la création, avec ce que je peux appeler la “justesse de naître”. En même temps m’est venue la sensation d’un grand amour, pas seulement envers David mais envers toutes les manifestations de la vie humaine, envers tout le drame et les finalités de l’existence humaine, envers le choix que fait chaque âme, de s’incarner, de faire partie de la danse propre à cette planète. Alors, soulevé par la puissance de cette situation, de cet amour, j’eus l’impression d’aller vers l’avant, quand je me retrouvai dans mon corps, encore en train de regarder par la vitre.
J’ai gardé de cette expérience deux impressions durables qui ont depuis influencé ma vie. La première est la conscience de l’esprit de vie et de créativité qui traverse tout ce qui existe et de ma relation avec cet esprit. Il s’agit d’une perception de la présence de Dieu dans la création et de l’unité que confère cette présence. La seconde est la conscience d’une autre partie de moi-même, qui est bien plus vaste que ma personnalité; c’est un moi plus profond, qui est présent dans l’éternité, tout comme mon moi quotidien est présent dans le temps.”

(David Spangler, ‘Emergence: La Renaissance du Sacré” /’Emergence: The Rebirth of the Sacred’)

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)

 

Usefulness of Living With the Divine

When one is just beginning to experience the Divine Presence, one would wish that it may happen all the time, so blissful  and fulfilling that inner contact is. But when it starts happening more and more often, to the point of becoming a continuous experience, then going on with all the normal activities of outer life becomes more and more problematic – or one has to be careful not to let oneself be totally immersed into the experience, for then its intensity would irresistibly engulf the consciousness in the Inner Reality, leaving no part of the attention or of the energy available for attending to anything in the outer world.
There comes a time when instead of having difficulties in interiorizing one’s consciousness, on the contrary one finds one’s consciousness more or less constantly pulled inward. Even the body and its cells, when they too have learned to feel the Divine Presence, may also have trouble resisting the inner pull and remaining tuned towards the outer reality. As I was writing these lines, several times I have had to stop for my consciousness needed to go within, and so did the consciousness of my body too. Only after a while every time was I able to ‘surface’ again in the physical world around me, my laptop, my desk, my tiny Research Office, my house, Repos, Auroville, India, the whole world, the Universe… and then the loop would close upon itself: from the Divine as the Infinite Beyond, my consciousness would sink back again into the Divine as the Intimate Presence of Love and Bliss within, and there I would remain absorbed again for another while…
This was yesterday night.
This morning the same state of divine intoxication is still overwhelmingly there, as soon as I allow myself to sink however slightly into that inner ocean of bliss… Luckily there are no guests just now, so I can indulge in that welcome inner vacation without having to keep myself available for whoever may need me. The employees are there, but they are more used to from time to time finding me in this kind of condition, my eyes having closed by themselves, my body immobile and unresponsive to outer calls. They probably suppose I am able to sleep really deep, even in daytime and in sitting position!… Anyway they know I am a bit weird, and being not only Indians but simple villagers, they are more apt to perceive something of my real condition, and respect it; but for most of the Westerners or more educated Indians who stay here as Guests, such a behaviour would be simply weird and unacceptable: the Guest-House Manager is supposed to be at their service, almost like a slave I would say; of course I’m not playing the part even if I see some of them expecting it; being in Auroville they shouldn’t have such expectations at all, and it’s good that with me at least those expectations are not fulfilled!… But I owe them some disponibility and normal care while I am their host. And I must seem ‘normal’ and be able to socialize a bit, otherwise most of them will feel uneasy and flee away from this strange place with these strange people!…
Blogging is one of the best activities when in that inner state. I am alone with myself, my body is at rest, with just the eyes and the fingers busy – in a relaxed way… I can stop for a while whenever need be, it disturbs no one. I have usually no stringent timetable for my writing for it would interfere with the inspiration I need to write anything.
Interruption for three hours: going to another Auroville beach settlement with Repos Support Group to meet the coordinator of the Auroville  Beach Erosion Control group that tried for the last few years, in vain until now, to get something done to protect this coast. Very cordial and fruitful exchange, a big file of documents to ingest and digest during the week-end by our Repos Support coordinator, who luckily knows already a lot in this field… The next steps after the week-end were also delineated, then everybody went back to their respective corners of Auroville. After a light lunch, I am back here at my Research desk.
It will be so great if we in Auroville manage to be instrumental in finding the right way to avoid further beach erosion in this whole area! That would indeed be an example to show-case, as in India not enough is done yet to protect the coasts…
What can be in all this the use of people like me, who are not good at technicalities ?…
Well, the one thing I can do, and have been indeed doing until now, is to keep loving this place and not abandoning it, be it during the cyclone last December, the tsunami alert a few weeks later, or during the hard, eroding waves of June, trying again to come strongly in the last ten days…
For quite a few people, it is what they see as my courage in staying here through all those hard situations that has decided them to help this place in whatever way they can.
It is true that to stay here can be scary at times. Still, I just can’t run away and abandon this poor place which has given me so much for so many years, and which I love.
Also, there is the faith I still have, in spite of all the disappointments, that the real solution will be found, and it will not be too expensive, nor too difficult to realize.
Since the situation has really become a bit dangerous here, two quotes from Sri Aurobindo keep coming to my mind and heart.
This one:
“So long as a cause has on its side one soul that is intangible in faith, it cannot perish.”
And this other one:
“All is not settled when a cause is humanly lost and hopeless; all is settled, only when the soul renounces its effort.”
(Thoughts & Aphorisms, # 254 & 270)
All right then, if in my lack of effectiveness on the material level this is the only role I can have to save this place, then I’ll have it.
If through the mere strength of my simple resolute presence here the Divine can attract and gather all the other persons, from near or far, who will be instrumental in saving Repos and this whole stretch of the beach, then let it be my role.
I only pray to be given the courage and endurance and patience to keep up the torch of the faith for as long as it will be necessary before the happy result comes.
This is an example of what living with the Divine can be useful for on this material plane. 

The divine essence (Photo credit: Guðskraftur)

Another Major Good Surprise for Repos

I know, I’m not writing much on this blog these days… Not that I don’t want to.
When so much is going on, both within and without, that one must absolutely attend to, one tends to shut up, kind of automatically, in order to somehow keep one’s focus on that, which is the present somewhat life and death priority.

Within, what is happening is easy to guess: the inner turmoil still there in my being underneath the peace of mind. At some levels the still lurking subconscious anxiety, or impatience, or anger, sometimes surfaces, taking its toll on the peace of mind…!
Without, a lot is happening too, which I finally feel able to tell you about, now that I’m reassured it’s not a daydreamed imagination I’m going to wake up from at any moment.
For it is like a dream come true: how many times I have felt terribly alone here at the human level, with no team around me for doing all the many tasks that must be done all the time in order to keep a place like Repos in good running condition. As incredible as it is, lo and behold, a full team of other Aurovilians, each one with his or her specific skills, is suddenly at the disposal of Repos whenever needed!!!
“How is that possible?!?”, I hear all of you wondering in your minds…
Well, a few weeks back I had put a little announcement in our internal newsletter saying that the ‘Early Breakfasts’ were being resumed at Repos Kitchen. Two persons came one morning from another Auroville community which has been started and developed quite beautifully over the last few years. Before leaving, they invited me for lunch in that new place the following Monday, adding that we needed to speak together.
Not being well, I had to skip the following Monday and was able to go only on the next one.
I love going to that place whenever I have an excuse to do so, for everything is so neatly organized, so pleasantly clean and nicely taken care of, I sigh with envy, wishing things would be like this in Repos too.
On that Monday I was in for a shock: I was taken at once to the office, and shown the new model of a hut in bamboo, simple and functional, yet very elegant, a few of which, I was told, could soon be built in Repos as additional guest-huts people would love to use, ensuring the needed higher income for our place.
And I was told also that, as now the new place I was visiting didn’t need so often the help of the team constituted for its quick development, the various members of that team could dedicate some time and energy to Repos as well, as and when required.
This was the office of their coordinator, who had been very moved by his visit to Repos and had felt they should help. Together with the other person who had come – the main person in charge of the new place – and all those others who were part of that team, they had decided to help in that way, and do their best to repeat in favor of Repos the same miracle they had accomplished together when developing that new place.
The coordinator, though, fully aware of the special difficulties to be faced in the case of Repos, jokingly presented to everyone this new  challenge, by giving it the nickname “Repos: Mission Impossible”… !!!
I nearly fainted while listening to all these fantastic good news; but the excessive emotion was soon brought down to a safe level by the very nice lunch I was taken to in the welcoming dining-room where everyone was gathering by then.
Since that blessed Monday, the collaboration has started on all the many fronts that must be tackled all separately, but at the same time.
Phone calls, emails and reciprocal visits have been happening a lot already, and some of the preliminary administrative hurdles have been successfully passed, sometimes amazingly so.
The most important of those daily small or big miracles is the fact that… I’m still writing from the same house, still standing on its fragile little sand cliff with the same only few meters distance from the reach of the waves. The ocean is acting up a bit these days, no doubt, but until now not in too violent ways. So this morning it was in my house that we could have our meeting with one of the main Aurovilian journalists for the next issue of our monthly magazine, ‘Auroville Today’. I had with me for the interview not only my new ally the coordinator, but also my faithful ally of those last six years of struggle in Repos against the all-out commercialisation started by some new Aurovilians convinced that this was the right direction for Repos, and for Auroville at large. This long-time ally is a simple but good-hearted man from the local fishermen colonies, who as a boy joined the Auroville schools and as a young adult was accepted as Aurovilian. His preferred speciality is in the medical field (X-rays & EEG machines operator), but at present there is no such work for him so he helps me by organizing and supervizing the many tasks requiring teams of extra workers, whether to rebuild our fence or some of our huts. He and his lovely wife have two adorable small kids, whose presence is such a pure blessing that in and by itself it gives me faith in the future of this place.
Conversely, this Tamil Aurovilian has somehow faith in me, or rather in the sincerity he sees that I try to put in all that I do. And we share our faith in the Divine who is the real Doer behind and inside all of us down here…
So yes, if you too have been doing your part by sending your positive thoughts or prayers for the survival and recovery of this place, yes, your efforts have had good results, please continue, and receive all our deep gratitude for your so precious and powerful inner support…

Let’s Do It Again!… Please Help Protect Repos Against Further Sea Erosion!

A Guest-Hut and the Cafe in the central area

Hello, all of you reading this…
Perhaps you are among those who participated already in the collective effort in inner help for protecting Repos, the little place on the beach where I live in Auroville, from the assaults of the waves that were eroding that area of the coast with unprecedented violence in June this year.

On July 5th, after a few huts had gone down to the sea, when our biggest house here became the first really serious casualty I sent a call out for inner help from all to pacify the ocean and stop this rather dangerously increasing erosion.
From the very next morning, and until a few days ago, that is, for about a month and a half, the ocean has behaved very nicely, retreating away from the shore and leaving some beach space clear for people to walk and lie on.
But since two or three days the water has been coming closer again, again touching sometimes the base of our most endangered buildings, although not violently.
It so happens that I was myself not well during these last days, feeling exhausted and somewhat sick from overwork, so certainly my own inner attitude towards this erosion danger has been less peaceful and less strong than it had been previously.
Whether as a result or not, I couldn’t say, but this morning, for the first time since July 6th, the sand a few meters only from my own house was wet, on the small cliff of sand left by the violent waves of June. I asked inwardly if I should call again for help, and the answer was ‘yes’.

So here I am, renewing my call to you all: wherever you are, in whichever inner way comes most naturally to you, please help protect this place and the whole area around it from further erosion damage!

Let’s renew together this exercise in faith and affirmation of the usually untapped thought-power we human beings all have at our disposal, individually but also collectively, and must learn to use more and more as we keep evolving towards our true, divine nature…

The entire Earth is now a vast ‘Laboratory of Evolution’, we are all part of that huge process, let’s use our blogs also for training ourselves in this kind of collective Inner Action, that’s also what Internet can be for!

‘Happy Birthday’, in your memory, dear Ian Charleson

Ian Charleson (foreground) and Ben Cross (left) running in the “Chariots of Fire” music scene which bookends the film. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ian Charleson, who studied the Bible intensively for his role, wrote Eric Liddell’s inspirational speech to the post-race workingmen’s crowd. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A providential comment by a new visitor just alerted me to the fact that today, August 11, was the birthdate of Ian Charleson, the beloved actor who brought charismatic Scottish runner Eric Liddell to life for all of us in ‘Chariots of Fire’.

I invite all those who visit this blog today,

- to have a look at the posts I have put up last year in his honor, and

- to join me and the other fans of his who have contributed comments now and then here, for celebrating his memory especially on this occasion of his birthday anniversary…

Cheers! A toast to Ian!…

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• Chariots of Fire, review (telegraph.co.uk)