an impression of india (not the greatest or the first or the last, but one of them): so many dogs with testicles
i've been in auroville since january 28. it was (and remains) intended to be a city of 50,000 aspiring towards the ideal of human unity, but after 40 years, remains a loosely-knit aggregation of 1800 people (in peak, winter season) in several, small strung-out communities. one needs transportation. i chose a low-tech push-bike (there are no hi-tech push-bikes to rent).
yes. i've been a cyclist for almost 2 weeks and will forever appreciate what those who choose to cycle in the western world must go through, though the traffic here is less dense than it is manic and unpredictable, there being no real rules of the road beyond the murky basis of the honking system. i inhale lots of dust, fumes and bugs. i brake for cows, goats and children, sometimes all at once. i pull over and stop for buses. i do not have a butt of steel, but as
la mophead reminded me today, my butt is perfect, so what am i talking about?
the scene: "rush hour" in the village of kuillapalayam as i return
a la bicyclette to my little flat in the aurovillian community of douceur. i am irritated. momentarily. really fleeting. but it's enough. i am irritated because i am having to move extremely slowly. i am stuck behind another, very slow-moving cyclist because oncoming traffic is too thick and dangerous. why is the cyclist moving slowly during rush hour? well, she's a village woman wearing a dark blue sari. and she has a load of firewood 4 feet wide and 2 feet in diameter strapped to the back of her bicycle. and after having got up early in the morning to cook, feed, wash clothes, sweep and maybe even work (which may involve carrying dirt or cement in a basket on her head) she is probably going home to use the firewood to cook supper for her family. then she will get up in the morning and do it all over again.
wash. rinse. repeat.
the highlight of my time here has been the gift of learning from a remarkable, originally north american woman now named
bhavana, to whom i was introduced during the 5-day orientation last week. she joined auroville in 1971 when she was 27 after her psychedelic experiences opened up her consciousness. at that time, auroville was little more than an arid plain, still at serious risk of desertification after the british cut down all of the forest 300-400 years before. although she had no previous bovine experience, she was invited to milk and care for some cows. she accepted and was lodged in the cow barn with a bed and a mosquito net in a stall next to the ruminating creatures. (NB:
amma also was initially lodged in a cowshed, which remains on her ashram as the kilara temple in which puja is performed every morning at 5am).
bhavana chose simplicity. she lives in a small, domed, single room. it contains a bed, some bookshelves and 2 chairs. the north wall is a huge bug screen with a door. bhavana leads vipassana and metta meditations. she also leads work in "
village action", involving herself in developing relationships with the many villages that are either nearby, or in some cases surrounded by auroville. i have been meditating regularly with her, getting up at 4:30am to cycle for 3o minutes from douceur to verite (gentleness to truth...no less) for the daily morning meditation at 6am. then i join the
savitri reading group (
savitri is sri aurobindo's epic poem--the longest in the english language--and has been called the clearest expression of his vision) from 7-8am. then i scrounge for breakfast and get on with my day.
last tuesday, i had the opportunity to experience bhavana's class, "
auroville, villages & human unity". we visited the village of sanjeevinagar and the
mohanam culture centre, which is a 90-year-old tamil house that, through the joyful effort of 11 local boys (they are now young men, some of them just married), was reclaimed and restored. it now serves as a kind of living museum and a creche for local children.
(sidenote: we were told that
mohini, from which the centre's name derives, is the name of the female incarnation of vishnu, who took that form in order to become the consort of shiva and bear shiva's child)
although some villagers are now living in sturdy, stuccoed homes, many also continue in their ancient, traditional mud and palm-thatch huts, which is all that sanjeevinagar was when bhavana arrived 35 years ago. many of these people are existing at essentially pre-rational survival level, in very tightly nit, complex, blood-based kinship units and are very quick to anger when novelty arises. aurovillians are here to move from the rational, ego-bound mental level, to the transmental (or "supramental" in aurobindo's language).
but i've lost the plot (low blood sugar).....it happens. but i'm sure you've all figured it out anyway.
let's just say that watching my irritation while riding a bicycle behind a hard-working village woman was a moment of absolute clarity.
and it occurred the day i was returning from the village....on my way to spend two nights in the uber-swank
dune village beach resort, right in the small village of pudhukuppam 10 km north of auroville, where the universe opened up an opportunity in late january into which i flung myself. i had to pay, in advance. non-refundable.
so i did my best to soak up the leisure of the "
beach house", the unit closest to the beach and as far away from anyone as i could get. what luck! my w.c. was at the end of a concrete bridge opposite the louvered-shutter bedroom. the al-fresco shower was in a separate, open but thatched structure surrounded by a spiral bamboo wall. the
food was truly spectacular, much of it organic, hypotoxic. i walked on the beach, consenting to be licked by the soup-warm bay of bengal and collected seashells, which i haven't done since i was a child.
now i'm back in auroville, trying to stay present, though i will be flying back to north america in 2 days.
yes, y'all read that correctly. after 6 1/2 months, it's time to touch base with the western world, but being far too cold, no time to return to calgary just yet.
i fly from chennai on february 11 and arrive mid-day in vancouver on february 12. i'll spend 4 days there adjusting my wardrobe, shedding some luggage, hugging dallas and then move to orlando on february 16. how long i'll remain there, i don't know. i'm floating in intense gratitude for the invitation from tricia for the invitation to stay with her indefinitely. (circumstances required a practical shift from our desire to meet in southeast asia).
so the next time you here from me, i'll be in a timezone closer to you.
stay tuned for details.
