Life-aspects
(To find the necessary funds for Auroville one could proceed in the following manner: Find in every country a very wealthy person who would be the centre for collecting funds for Auroville.
Advantages: Such a person would carry weight, would be an example for the others and would never give the impression of begging.)
In principle this way is all right. But in practice, and to avoid all possibility of failure (because failure would have a deplorable effect), we must wait for an indication from circumstances of which I will be immediately informed. And then I will give the signal to go ahead.
Nov. 1965
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Begging is not permitted in Auroville. Persons found begging on the road will be distributed as follows: children to school, the old to a home, the sick to the hospital, the healthy to work.
A school, a home, a hospital and special work areas will be arranged for this. They will not be mixed with the others, because some people may come from outside and begin to beg in the street.
There are no police. We have… we haven't found the word… a band of guards, a battalion of guards, something like the firemen in Japan, who are gymnasts and who do everything when there are accidents—anything, earthquakes—they do everything. They climb up into houses. Instead of police, there will be a kind
of battalion of guards, who will go out regularly into the various parts of the town to see if they are needed. And if they come across people begging, they will be distributed as I said. There will be a school for the children, a home for the old, a hospital for the sick and disabled, and a place where work will be provided for all those who… there will be every possible kind of work, from sweeping to… anything, and work that is needed, they will do it, according to their abilities.
This has to be organised.
A special school for the children to teach them to work, to teach them the things that are indispensable for them to be able to work.
No prison, no police.
+Sep. 1966
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(In response to a question on individuals and groups willing to aid Auroville's development, the Mother replied:)
They may not practise themselves, but if they do not know about yoga, how can they understand the purpose of Auroville?
19.6.1967
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… Of course the whole idea of marriage is amusing because I consider the thing childish.
You know in Auroville there will be no marriages. If a man and woman love each other and want to live together they may do so without any ceremony. If they want to separate they can also do so freely. Why should people be compelled to stay together when they have ceased to love each other?
A lot of crimes would be prevented if people were free in this respect. They would not have to hide things from one another or even commit crimes to be separated. Of course, if they truly love each other they will continue to live together always naturally, without being forced to do so by any law. That is why this ceremony and ritual of marriage is so childish.
Children born in Auroville will have no family name. They will have just the first name.
+15.6.1968*
(Mother remarked that this statement should be read along with the following letter to X for her marriage.)
To unite your physical existences and your material interests, to become partners so as to face together the difficulties and successes, the defeats and victories of life: this is the very basis of marriage, but you already know that it is not sufficient.
To be united in feelings, to have the same tastes and the same aesthetic pleasures, to vibrate in a common response to the same things, one by the other and one for the other: it is good, it is necessary, but it is not enough.
To be one in profound sentiments, your affection, your feelings of tenderness for each other unvarying in the midst of all the shocks of existence and withstanding weariness, nervous irritations and disappointments, to be always and in all conditions happy, most happy to be together; to find, under all circumstances, one in the presence of the other, rest, peace and joy: it is good, it is very good, it is indispensable, but it is not enough.
To unite your minds so that your thoughts harmonise and become complementary to each other and your intellectual preoccupations and discoveries are shared between you; in a word, to make your spheres of mental activity identical through a broadening and an enrichment acquired by both at the same time: it is good, it is absolutely necessary, but it is not enough.
Beyond all that, in the depths, at the centre, at the summit of the being, there is a Supreme Truth of the being, an Eternal Light, independent of all circumstances of birth, country, environment, education. That, the origin, cause and master of our spiritual development, gives a definite orientation to our existence; That determines our destiny; in the consciousness of That you should unite. To be one in aspiration and ascension, to advance with the same steps on the spiritual path: this is the secret of a durable union.
March, 1933
(Someone asked the Mother about interviewing people of Aspiration to find out their views on things, including sex and drugs.)
It would perhaps be better to ask people who, by a serious practice of yoga, have had at least a glimpse of the Higher Wisdom.
1970
(Mother wrote down the languages to be taught at the School:)
(1)Tamil
(2)French
Simplified Sanskrit, to replace Hindi as the language of India
English, as the international language.
15.12.1970
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Q: I have always considered the Ashram and Auroville to be parts of an integral whole. I cannot see them as different entities. How then was a difference made by you, Mother?
The Ashram is the central consciousness, Auroville is one of the outward expression. In both places equally the work is done for the Divine.
The people who live in the Ashram have their own work and most of them are too busy to give time to Auroville.
Each one must be busy with his own work; this is essential for a proper organisation.
Auroville is not a work of charity. A night spent in Aspiration is equivalent to a day's work.
Feb.1971
(The Mother was asked about the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in Auroville. She replied:)
Auroville should not fall back into old errors which belong to a past that is trying to revive.
NO NO NO
March, 1971
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“Therefore if the spiritual change of which we have been speaking is to be effected, it must unite two conditions which have to be simultaneously satisfied but are most difficult to bring together. There must be the individual and the individuals who are able to see, to develop, to re-create themselves in the image of the Spirit and to communicate both their idea and its power to the mass. And there must be at the same time a mass, a society, a communal mind or at least the constituents of a group-body, the possibility of a group-soul which is capable of receiving and effectively assimilating, ready to follow and effectively arrive, not compelled by its own inherent deficiencies, its defect of preparation to stop on the way or fall back before the decisive change is made. Such a simultaneity has never yet happened, although the appearance of it has sometimes been created by the ardour of a moment. That the combination must happen someday is a certainty…”
This quotation was read to The Mother by a disciple who asked her whether the time has come for the conditions laid down by Sri Aurobindo to be fulfilled. The disciple said that the first condition concerning “the individual and the individuals” had been fulfilled by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. But what about the second condition of “a mass, a society, a communal mind, or a group-body” capable of receiving and assimilating?
This is exactly what Auroville is for. But Auroville is still far from fulfilling the necessary conditions. 22.12.1971* *
(On 30.10.72 The Mother gave three alternative forms of greeting for those Aurovilians who wish to use them.)
Au Service de la Vérité
At the service of Truth
Truth
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(About the cyclone of 5-6.12.72)
It is a warning that nature is giving, that those who do not have the true spirit of Auroville will have to change or to go if they do not want to change.
7.12.1972*
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(Regarding the attitude to be taken when dealing with outside organisations.)
At the service of the Divine in complete receptivity and sincerity.
2.1.1973*
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