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There is no shame in being momentarily arrested in one’s progress, in being
temporarily defeated by the resistance in one’s nature, no shame in taking falls and
getting one’s nose ground into one’s own refusals.
There is no shame for the community of Auroville on any day to crash headlong into
unexpected difficulties and opportunities on the way of its honest attempt.
But there is a great wrong, as far as we are concerned, in institutionalising defeat
and providing to our own deficiency a social cover and countenance.
It seems to me sometimes that in principle it would be more honest for each of us
to leave Auroville awhile, when one is unable to nourish the flame of aspiration.
3- Why is it necessary not to have drugs in Auroville?
There is a key to this question given by the Mother in one of Her conversations: the
usage of drugs damages the consciousness.
This may be of little import or value to most people today, for whom the
significance of the term ‘consciousness’ is vague and confused with that of the
mental condition. For them perhaps the risk of ‘damage to the consciousness’ is
understood as damage to the mind or to the brain, and thus if one is bent on using
drugs, this is just one of the risks, and one has nothing more to loose.
But for us here, consciousness is the reality.
In and through and beyond all experience, in and through and beyond life and
death, there is only consciousness: consciousness is the way; consciousness is the
means; consciousness is the goal.
Therefore these words of the Mother are no mere warning on grounds of morals or
ethics: it is the statement of a fact.
And we very well know, vividly, how we need all the consciousness we can summon
in ourselves at every moment and for every choice of our lives in Auroville.
We very well know how inadequate is our mental knowledge or our vital energy in
trying to answer in truth the many questions that come our way in the adventure of
Auroville.
We know how large, how deep and how urgent the need for the manifestation of
the true consciousness is!
Without it, Auroville may yet grow rich and successful for a time, but in our hearts
we know the taste of ashes: without it there will be no door opening onto the Real.
And so it is clear that whatever prevents us from becoming receptive to the flow of
consciousness must be rejected.
Certain drugs do induce exposure to levels of reality that are usually veiled or
unperceived by the ordinary physical consciousness.
But the Mother’s Force and action can make us conscious there as well and bridge
those gaps directly and safely, without any exterior artificial aid.
And on the actual growth of consciousness will the future depend, not only the
future of Auroville, but the future of humanity.
One can individually disregard it and postpone one’s own progress: that is one’s
own affair. But why should one drag Auroville along? One ought to carry one that
choice elsewhere, it seems to me!
Auroville is an action, which leaves no one, no agency and no force indifferent;
when we fail Auroville individually, we expose Auroville to an invasion of denial.
Children grown in Auroville have experienced the gaps and discrepancies between
our posturing of the professed ideals and our actual movements and expressions.
It is not a matter of external results: it is a matter of the spirit in which one acts.
A child, or an uneducated adult here, cannot be cheated by mere posturing: the
energy that ought to flow and manifest is not there!