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1282
- Misuse of status and function.
The “chief architect” has somehow – I do not know how exactly – been an active
member of the Governing Board for several years, been in fact the only individual
to have sat on at least 3 successive Governing Boards, under 3 successive
Chairmen.
From this august position he has had no qualms in pressing for the implementation
of his own agenda and his personal vendetta. Under a previous Chairman he had
tried to have Arjun removed. Under this Chairman he has tried to have me
removed.
He has also thus been able to hijack a collective process of defining a much needed
Land Use Master Plan for the entire area, in order to have a full fledged City Master
Plan legalised.
- Calumny.
My personal itinerary has provided me with first-hand experience. I suppose I am
partly to blame, being rather asocial and therefore little inclined to belabour at
projecting a popular image of my little self. But here is a fine example: some
months ago, when the “chief architect” saw that I was not being lynched or
excommunicated as fast as planned, he declared, in order to further prove the
darkness of my nature, that my name had not actually been given to me by the
Mother, but taken by me alone. This, I felt, was the height of calumny, for it
implied that my entire relationship with the Mother was based on a falsehood. A few
people whom I respect, another member of the Governing Board among them,
asked me whether I could prove that indeed the Mother has given me the name
“Divakar”; I could and I did; and the relevant documents now rest in the Auroville
Archives, under Krishna’s care (which is fitting).
- Building up one’s foe.
It is often said by the “chief architect” and his entourage that I have the ambition
to compete with him and to replace his designs with mine. One instance is often
cited, of the entranceways to the central stairwell of the Matrimandir, for which I
am supposed to be pushing for my own design.
But I do not have designs.
The facts are quite different: the “chief architect” himself had earlier, aware of
practical objections raised by many to his latest design, invited for mock-ups of
alternatives to be presented to him. Following this, Walter and myself made a
mock-up of the “Chief Architect”’s own earliest design, which allowed for a wider
opening and was free of jutting corners and angles, while basically expressing the
same movement and spirit. This was done to remind him of his own original idea,
which we found more practical than the present one.
In today’ Auroville, where expertise, diplomas, “professional” stamps, and any kind
of certificate are again the rage, where a horde of architects compete for a few
acres of land on which to leave their signature, if one has been thoughtless enough
to come to the Mother without such diplomas to flag about, and to endeavour to
learn directly from Her and from Her Matrimandir, one is either considered
worthless or an engine of bad will.
But I have been under the growing impression that, provided one remained
focussed in matter while simultaneously aspiring for the growth of the true
consciousness, in receptivity to her, one would eventually be enabled to face any
task at hand with a creative inspiration, within a team of living souls, each