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1379
But this is not all: the Governing Board has expressed an official interpretation
about the Mother’s words, an orthodox one, so to say, as a Church would do. And
Aurovilians are officially invited to follow and implement the Governing Board’s line
with ‘Harmony, Goodwill, Discipline and a quest for Truth’. To follow… From
Mother’s indication to find the truth in ourselves and discover it experimentally
together, we are now invited to follow those who have found it and explained it for
us. The loss of meaning is immense and the poorness of the proposal obvious
according to any serious philosophical criteria. Is this what remains of Her
adventure in the Unknown of Tomorrow? Is this the final outcome of Sri Aurobindo’s
vast synthetic and reconciling thought? Who will believe this?
But this is not all: since Aurovilians of ‘goodwill’ are invited to follow, what about
those who will not feel like following this line? If they are not of goodwill, what are
they? What is their place in Auroville’s development? Have they still a place? Aren’t
they virtually out? How can the question not arise? In this context, what are we
supposed to understand of our Chairman’s insistence in having an Exit Group
constituted? How does it relate to the situation of the foreign Aurovilians, once free
men and women from free countries, who may now be exposed to arbitrary
administrative measures without any protection, as if they were citizens of
nowhere? Was it necessary to point so nominatively at those who do not show the
correct sort of goodwill?
Thus, in the name of Harmony, the process of harmonisation has been denied, and
in the name of goodwill, bad will suggests itself. And this is not due to the
malignancy of any of the Governing Board Members, of course, who only try to be
as helpful as they can to Auroville in the little time they can give to it; it is more
serious than that, it belongs to the type of approach and mode of action that have
been chosen to deal with Auroville’s issues: the pretence of one truth to win over
the others with its inevitable consequences, which all the goodwill of the members
of the Governing Board together will not be able to counterbalance.
But this is not all: in its haste to find ‘expeditious’ solutions – and let’s recognise
the discomfort of your situation of having to solve an Aurovilian problem the
Aurovilians do not seem keen to solve by themselves – the Governing Board has
founded some of its decisions on a very precarious basis, on pure allegations. When
Roger states that 60 lakhs have been wasted in the gardens, one could expect the
Finance Committee to enquire and take advantage of the sophisticated cost
accounting system of Matrimandir to know what the truth is; but by some
inexplicable phenomenon, this didn’t happen. Result: a false statement is now
officially recorded in the Finance Committee’s minutes, echoed in the Governing
Board’s ones, both of which having been abundantly distributed by the Chairman to
a Residents Assembly under his moral authority. The false has become recognised
truth… How fragile a basis for decision making! Its legality may be perfect, its
legitimacy and credibility are quite hazardous, and I would not bet on them in the
long term.
But there is more: some members of the Governing Board thought that some
Aurovilians might have envisaged to put a stay order to counteract the Governing
Board’s decisions. The fact is that for these Aurovilians, as for many others who
have been protesting against the use of legal means to manage Auroville, the use
of courts and lawyers is out of question. But does it matter any more? What people
really think and believe in, what they stand for, their faithful commitment to