Auroville Spiral

Auroville Spiral
The Bird's Eye View

Thursday, January 6, 2011

What is the Balance of Inner and Outer Connection?


Wow. Things here on the Auroville program have been BUSY! The past few days, we have biked around the entire area of Auroville and some surrounding Tamil Nadu villages, experiencing a little of what is going on in some organizations. They are all fascinating! We did some work on the “Buddha Garden” farm, we played with village children in their banyan trees and sand boxes, we strolled through the sprawling botanical gardens, we heard about what goes on at the Healing Center for village women, we learned about natural herbal remedies, and we got caught in a late-season monsoon!
Tonight, we finally went to the Mohanam Cultural Center! I feel like I already had a connection with it, since my friend Allexa volunteered there last year, and my friend Mario threw a, amazing benefit concert for it recently in Seattle.
The place was warm and magical- upon arriving, three beautiful little girls greeted us with fresh flowers and donned us with red bindis, which is both a spiritual practice and a celebration of friendship. Then they gave us a performance of incredible Indian dance and theatre. It was such a sweet place- yellow and bright in color, which mirrored the inspirational energy wafting through it. We were fortunate enough to speak with Baloo, the owner of Mohanam, who has an infectuously bright spirit, and is a local who has grown up in the very same village. His vision with the center is to keep the culture of Tamil Nadu alive and thriving through traditional dance, music, crafts, healing, and other ancient practices. He spoke about how the world- including the villages – is growing exponentially toward modernism. Some people want to keep forging forward at lightspeed, but it is so important to remember the roots of where we have come from, and hold our own culture as something to be celebrated. Mohanam aims to keep this culture alive through giving village children the freedom to explore different aspects of their own culture through learning from their elders, as well as giving them the freedom to express themselves in their own creative ways.
Being in the center, I felt alighted with a sense of expansion, culture, purpose, mystery, and “real-India”. This has been something the group has been grappling with since we’ve been here:  Auroville is very much an oasis within surrounding areas of poverty. It is unbelievable sometimes to see the inequality of wealth living so closely together. It is a very complex undertaking for many of the organizations that we’ve visited to work on weaving together the village culture and the western culture in mutually positive ways. One example is the Matrimandir: the towering golden lotus center of Auroville. It is huge, plated in real gold, and solely a place for Aurovillians to meditate and find their inner selves. If you scan about 40 yards away, you will find malnourished people living in rags and piled trash. They live in extremely close quarters, calling home to small straw and mud huts. Everywhere in the villages you will find many stray dogs, even more cows, and disease-ridden, stagnant water. There is a big question that the group is facing: are things like the matrimandir inappropriate and selfish if there is such obvious poverty existing right in its shadow? It is easy to turn away from these realities when you are surrounded by the comforts of home and western living, but it is not such an easy thing to deny when it is right in front of you. Can one fulfill their truest spiritual purpose better by “going within” to realize their inner self, or by giving of their self to help others who are in need?

  Like I said, these are big questions that we will continue to talk about this quarter. I personally have been staying unattached to any emotional conviction about the issue so far, because honestly, I don’t know the answer. I feel that if you put these questions in different lights, it becomes a lifelong question of balance between cultivating self-connection, and acting with empathy and care for others.
            So as of now, I feel really drawn to working in the Mohanam Center. I ask myself: When else will I have the opportunity to interact with village children in an open creative environment and go out to learn about the local village culture in hopes of helping it to persevere? I do love raw food and have great passion for it, but I feel that I can foster my passion for it at home just as easily as I can here. Mohanam seems to call to my sense of community building, desire to expand my horizons and deepen my understanding of the world, and challenge my comfort zone by exploring a very different reality.
So… wish me luck! J I hope you all are enjoying the first part of 2011! My love is with you all! 

4 comments:

  1. I don't know if this will post, so I am just experimenting. I love you Heather and will write more if this posts. Love, Momma

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow, sounds incredible. so perfect for a soul such as yours. when jessie went to africa she too struggled with the poor children ... i remember her feeling "guilty" for wearing shoes when all the children had sores on their weary feet. i have always struggled with this question "why do bad things happen to good people" my own sweet father having survived the holocaust. it wasn't until i began to take meditation seriously, and began asking questions. i became a student of Yogi Bhajan, and read and listened to what he had to offer. whenever i am feeling overwhelmed by the sufferings and inequalities of life, i remember what he said "people come here to serve their karma, and each individual have their own karma's to serve" i don't know why, or exactly how, but it makes my life easier knowing this. being conscious is not always easy. knowing who you are and respecting all life is a beautiful way to live. take heart beautiful shakti- it's people like you who give me great hope for our future.
    love,
    meherbani

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Love,

    I just watched a couple of videos of New Year's in Auroville 1-1-11, made by manofar. One was of the sunrise and a beautiful orange and white flowered spiral aligned with candles. The other was chanting to Oneness: Ekataa. I wondered where you were at those times. I am so happy that you are having this experience. let us know how we can help the people in the surrounding villages. We love you and are with you in spirit. Love, Mom

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for your comforts and inspiration!

    ReplyDelete