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experts of banyan trees, has said: ‘After inspecting some of the better known
specimen of ficus bengalensis, I feel that only if we stop interfering in their lives
can many of these flag bearers of our country’s ancient and deep rooted culture
and philosophy be revived and made to carry on forever.’ (The Hindu, Sunday, May
13, 2001)
What they seem to know, and care, is only something which has to do with the
architect’s aesthetic views, as it is the architect who gave the permission for
chopping many roots which took more than eight years to reach the ground (some
of them even more than twenty), the roots which the future life of a banyan tree
depends on.
That day, after having been kicked away from under the Banyan tree, I then
decided to sit down on one of the benches around its edge and start fasting. I
wanted to share the feeling of helplessness of the tree, so cruelly harmed and
abused. I also became helpless, so helpless that after one day and one night there,
when the electric blades started their job again the next day, I could not bear the
scene any longer, and got up and turned my back to the tree, knowing that its
living spirit had been wounded, and a terrible sin had been committed.
I am kindly requesting you that no further destruction should be allowed and this
inconsiderate cutting of the Banyan tree stopped. Now, please.
‘The movement of love is not limited to human beings and is perhaps less distorted
in other worlds than in the human. Look at the flowers and trees. When the sun
sets and all becomes silent, sit down for a moment and put yourself into
communion with Nature: you will feel rising from the earth, from below the roots of
the trees and mounting upward and coursing through their fibres up to the highest
outreaching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing – a longing for
something that brings light and gives happiness, for the light that is gone and they
wish to have back again. There is a yearning so pure and intense that if you can
feel the movement in the trees your own being too will go up in an ardent prayer
for the peace and light and love that are unmanifested here.’
The Mother.
At Her feet,
Jithendu Kumar”
Note: In a matter of weeks, the Chairman convinced the Auroville Council and other
Aurovilians involved in “communication” that the “Auroville News” should cease
from printing any statements, letters or notes that carried any controversial
contents or made any personal accusations or disparaging comments about any
one, or included any pronouncement that could offend the public sentiments. This
decision was somewhat justified by the fact that the “Auroville News” were printed
in many hundreds of copies every week and inevitably some of them would find
their way to some Government offices, to the Press and to possibly ill intentioned
members of the public who could use the “knowledge” against Auroville. One of the
first speeches Kireet Joshi had delivered to the community upon his being
nominated as Chairman was devoted to the negative image that was abroad,
particularly in official circles in Delhi, and how hard it was for him to persuade
people there that Auroville was worth supporting.
But in effect this decision to “sanitise” the News only served the new establishment
in neutralising any dissent, any questioning, any hint of there being other views