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inched closer to me, tall, much taller than me, almost wanting me to oblige him, to
give him that chance… Even Jacq had to tell him to please calm down…
Right then Walter walked in – I asked him openly whether he was ready to stand
with me; he wasn’t; rather, he turned to me and said he had called Arjun, and we
should just keep quiet – he was perhaps imagining that Arjun could give some
magic phone call to the Lord of all actions…
I didn’t want to watch it happening; I turned and left.
This was a very bad time indeed.
The next day, Walter posted and circulated another Open Letter:
*The outcry of the Banyan tree – A witness’s report, by Walter – 17,
February 2004:
“The physical reality at the Banyan tree at the Centre of Auroville since yesterday
morning: under the orders of Narad, Roger and the four executives two handfuls of
people – non-Aurovilians and Aurovilians – are happily hacking away at the Banyan
tree in front of Matrimandir. I didn’t want to believe that this would happen. There
is fun, jokes, laughter, an insane eagerness to chop off the next aerial root, to hack
the saw blade into the next minor or major branch or to use the power chain saw;
everybody gets his/her chance to cripple and mutilate the Banyan a little more. It’s
a butcher’s feast. Done in Mother’s name as part of the celebration of Her birthday
and the “Golden Day”.
By now six substantial aerial roots and two major branches have been cut off. Two
of these aerial roots were especially encouraged to grow near the main hollow
trunk, to give it support. Narad has done irreparable damage to the future of the
tree in only 1 1/2 days. He tries to shape a designer Banyan tree according to his
and the architect’s ideas of the 1970s.
But he does not feel the pain and the shock which he is causing the tree. If he did,
he could not continue to hurt and damage the Banyan. But those of us who feel the
pain of the tree and express protest are laughed at, told not to disturb the
harmony, and the group tried to remove us from the Banyan through violence. Also
Ashram people and guests of Auroville have expressed the horror and pain they felt
seeing the Banyan tree now.
The Mother calls the Banyan tree ‘the Inner Life’ and ‘Unity’ and it is the
geographical centre of Auroville. She said that She is in living contact with the tree
and that the tree should not be disturbed in any way. She even objected to drawing
pins put into its bark at the inauguration on 28 February 1968. The chopping and
cutting is very symbolic. Who can give the permission to butcher the centre of
Auroville like that?
What should I think of a man, appointed by the Mother, who is supposed to be a
gardener and tree expert, who, after being absent for 23 years from Auroville,
complains in his write-up about the Banyan having grown in diameter? What is the
tree supposed to do but grow? How can a gardener even have the idea that a
Banyan tree, whose very nature is to spread and grow in all directions, has to be
kept at the same proportion throughout time as the static concrete Matrimandir
structure and the static Amphitheatre?