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It would seem, considering the growing chasm between whatever true
understanding we may have, individually, in a part of our being, and the quality of
our collective life and experience here, that somewhere along the way we must
have begun to disregard the silent call from inner necessities.
The past few years would seem to prove that we, either human beings in general or
those who have been representing humanity by their participation to Auroville, are
quite unable to govern ourselves, that is, to achieve the minimum self-discipline
required so that all the difficulties and conflicts and apparent impossibilities remain
contained and offered to the light and action of what She has termed as the true
consciousness.
But perhaps our chance today would lie in the humble acknowledgment – humility
not before anyone in particular, but before That in ourselves as in everyone – that
we have, up until now, failed to realise that instead of working form the surface and
using symbols, we must work from within and strive to bring out to life and matter
the truths of the inner being.
For instance, our approach to such aspects of a true state of being as unity,
fraternity, or solidarity, has been mental and emotional and therefore has been
thwarted to a dramatic extent. We do know that these qualities are intrinsic to the
true reality, but we have behaved towards them in an attitude of superstition,
believing that the context itself and all the mental knowledge we have received
would be sufficient to conjure them up.
Apparently they have failed to answer – or else, possibly, this was just the wrong
attitude.
For in order for these qualities to manifest, to become alive and active in our midst,
opening the way to real discovery, it is asked of us to first build the ground on
which they can rest.
And this can only be done by endeavouring to actually practice the dynamics of the
inner laws, about which, both from Sri Aurobindo and Mother, we have more than a
few practical indications.
For example, She has stated that, in our passage in material life, one’s needs are
answered exactly in proportion with the contact one has developed with one’s inner
being.
This is one law of the true consciousness. Yet it appears that we have disbelieved it,
and gone out of our way to remedy to the mentally twisted problem of equality, and
have in the process become entangled in a swirl of conflicting notions about
democracy, self reliance, guilt and so forth.
Another such indication, unmistakable, is that circumstances around one always
correspond to one’s real needs in terms of progress. Always.
Yet it appears that we have all of us been caught up into various justifications of
the activity that consists in blaming, criticising, accusing, faulting and condemning.
As this is a process that tends to spread and gain evidence as it grows, it is quite
impossible to put a brake to it, particularly in such a limited context as this we live
in, acting as it does as an echo chamber walled in by mirrors.
While the practical truth of this is that one necessarily must learn to assume one’s
responsibility for whatever happens to one.
And here one can measure the power of the instrument that Auroville is.