Spirit is in process of unfolding through matter, by its involved complexity. This process has been active since the beginning, if there were any such conceivable thing. Ours may not even necessarily be the ‘only’ manifest of Divine joy, for it is believed that there have been many cycles of creation, and will be many more. Moreover, should our linear conceptions of temporal and spatial evolution be cast aside, we may notice that, every possible reality could be occurring simultaneously, for history itself would be but a flicker, when measured up against an Infinite and Eternal canvas of creativity.
Paradoxically we occupy a realm where, to the best of our analytical capacities, it is found that regardless of how finely we divide space or take matter apart, there seems to be no end in sight. The deeper we go; the further any ‘fundamental’ unit seems to get, as complexity and depth within every quantum of space, is apparently infinite. Similarly we appear in a universe infinitely large, now seen to be composed of building blocks, that are in turn, infinitely small… and humanity stands on the knife edge, as some scalar median. The same goes for time ironically, as we can dissect micro, milli, nano seconds and so on, but there is no quantifiable or identifiable zero time, which also effectively implies, that every moment is thus actually eternal. All these moments thread together through history, so incredibly short, yet composed of a stream of eternal moments, and thus an eternity in itself. We are infinite and eternal, yet also fleeting and minuscule. Ours is truly the perfect trap, a riddle unimaginable.
So if we step back and look at what we are dealing with, it can be seen that, human conceptions of Divine Reality, are starting to resemble the nature - of our own reality; which leads to the conclusion that this plane could evidently be, a Divine field of action. Every point of time and space, now shown through entanglement to be fundamentally connected; separate only to deluded, defined, restrained and narrow perception. Every aspect of the Action being perfect; a fact denied only by Ego, which strays through fantasy, of being the Driver… separate from the whole. Ego of human nature, though systemically ingrained throughout the structure of our experience, starts off perhaps, as a harmless misunderstanding on inception, but when compounded upon itself over centuries and millennia of the conflict, that this element breeds, a net result could be precarious; even though this place, is comfortably part of Divine script, as there is no ‘alternative’ to the Plan.
This Zeitgeist can best be compared to a birthing process. Chaos, pain, tearing, bleeding, crying and a distinct sense of emergency, though all endured in the light of bringing forth, an entirely new force. We are caught in this situation metaphorically, at a planetary or galactic scale, perhaps something even more profound. All this momentum revealed vividly to those tuned in, through awakened awareness, where understandings are enlarged to the extent of being able to zoom out effortlessly, and perceive Transformation. Unfortunately the vast majority of our brothers and sisters remain trapped, by institutions and systems, which emerge from the wake, of an ever enlarging Ego-centric religious and scientific agenda, that sculpts the landscape of contemporary global culture.
Both religious and scientific institutions originate from the same source, a sense of duality and separate domain; the original sin, our first disconnect with humanity and turn from unity. Characterized by defined ideologies and exclusive aesthetic identities, these forces are fundamentally intertwined, intricate and powerful. This is that area of enterprise, which has somehow managed to cloud Truth and Reason over the ages, to the extent of becoming hostile agents at play. Within the last century or so, we witness an ultimate merger of their agendas; a military, media, corporate, legal and political network, of dubious allegiances to divergent interests, all at constant siege with each other.
Such agencies pose many serious dangers to collective welfare, for they are not human and therefore rarely display any semblance of humanity, though often protected legally as virtual beings, by common cultural sanction or political mandate; their interests worked into the system, to allow for ambiguous abstract entities and conglomerates, to take control of most activity that defines the collective human endeavor. Propaganda permeates every realm of ‘development’, making our way of life consumption driven, deceptive, reckless, destructive and remorseless. This model upon which our global culture has been conformed to, cannot be considered healthy from any reasonable and responsible perspective. It seems the primary mantra, of the varied authoritarian regulatory mechanisms, that channel human potential, is to ‘take what we can, while we can… and leave’. Almost as if the collective consciousness of popular culture had been hijacked by some locust over-mind, which drives us to willfully annihilate of our habitat, while simultaneously through varied gestures, urging us persistently to look to the stars, and locate the next habitable target to colonize and eventually consume entirely.
On the other side of the fence, huddle those awkward awakened few, who refuse to be participants in this nightmarish planetary scale psychopathic genocide, and chant the exact opposite; ‘give everything and yourself unconditionally… to stay’. This is the spiritually inspired development paradigm, which is nothing more complex, than an answer to the Call that we all hear. There is almost no ambiguity, as to what the highest expectations from us are. Should any doubts remain, this sense of connection, love, obligation and responsibility for context, can be explained… as a natural extension, of the same intuitive care for one’s own mind, body and being. To be aligned with the unfolding of Spirit, differs in essence, from humanity’s mutant step siblings (the scientific religious establishments and their countless demon offspring)… but is never ‘apart’. The Spiritual realm is all encompassing, inclusive and regards not, the blunders of other manifestations as errors, but as reason or inspiration, to strive and aspire to greater heights of creative harmony. Spirituality is an understanding and eventual becoming, of who we really are and what is really going on.
Tracing back the origins of organizations, agendas and cultures, we are enabled by and are enabling, on a daily basis, at multiply synchronized levels, through ‘business as usual’; it may be revealed that we are in some way or another, often integrally part of this vicious machinery, in some cases even, active perpetrators of Ego sponsored crimes, against ourselves. We are discovered as unconscious agents towards a homogenized, standardized, global operating protocol. Even academia, the identified institutions whose primary program should have ideally been boundary dissolution, often peddles the same product and is funded, therefore at some level controlled by Ego agenda. Their molded, educated, certified registered specialized and qualified drones; filter into the hierarchical stratified corporate labyrinth, and serve as tools to render landscapes indistinguishable, by ironing out individuality, cultural plurality, and aesthetic or operational variety.
Even the best intentioned explorations into alternative approaches, are riddled with logistical, technological and feasibility issues, which are presented to the public as hurdles that cannot be overcome; but more often than one would be willing to believe, failures are the result of designed ‘built-in’ obsolescence and redundancy cycles. Compounded by a Pandora’s box of embodied energy cycles, in the form of mining, processing, manufacture, transportation, specialized locations, centralized processes, toxic waste, bio-degradation term, costing, distribution, accessibility… all another medium for corporate profit making, reinforcement of inequality and suppression of those less privileged. If a genuine radical recalibration of culture occurred, innovations would be inconspicuous, refined, optimized and harmoniously integrated accessories, to our myriad processes.
Tools to achieve convergence are already at our disposal, for we are literally ‘growing’ the macro-biological tissue of the greater resultant organism, that our species is weaving itself into. Without necessarily being conscious of implications involved by their subtle nature, proliferation of information technologies and resultant instant network connectivity is plausibly bio-mimetic; planet girdling live feedback mechanisms to gauge collective, appropriate response coordination and interventions, behaving effectively like an integrated sentient being. The operating system might be to model reality, serving as platforms for collective consciousness to address evolving models, with a transcendence of language and progression; from communicating, to showing, to understanding, to becoming what we ‘Mean’ to ourselves. This is the signature of Spirit’s efflorescence by matter in fractal ways, parts coming together to form a whole, that is approximately reminiscent of the part, and vice versa.
Looking closer… it may be possible to develop the ability to discern where, when and how to deliver the slightest, most delicate intervention, surgical in precision to generate ripples, trans-formative unto eventual game changing proportion. This will depend on species scale Understanding, where both macro and micro sensitivities; intuitively, simultaneously and spontaneously have to be harmonized, effortlessly to generate that all encompassing Gesture. It is true that Divinity has but just begun to introduce, the delights of being co-creators and stewards of this gifted context, though our fullest potential, in terms of eventual contribution towards Union of Spirit and Matter is still imperceptible. This is why there are so few examples of sensitive explorations, towards a truly symbiotic relationship with our terrestrial plane.
Though if viewed abstractly, any and every manifestation (conscious or otherwise), has been generated by Sprit as ultimate origin and destination. Therefore in effect, everything that has been and is in becoming, is already a result of Spirituality as the fundamental development protocol; though with varied degrees of revelation, that generates those distinctions, which we discern and compartmentalize into styles and typologies, with rigorous boundary defining scientific approaches. Aspiration and bestowed Grace are not necessarily proportional, so such variety in Revelation cannot depend solely upon levels of tangible or quantifiable advancement. As conduits of Divine expression, there are unpredictably scattered examples, of highly evolved complex creations, like traditional vernacular Ba-ila settlement patterns in southern Zambia. Developed over generations with no imposed organizational framework, yet organically evolving with self articulated fractal order, these places intuitively display how Content and Meaning can be significantly crystallized unto Form and Space.
From mathematics, to cosmology, to physics, to geology, to chemistry, to biology, to technology, to information and eventually distilled unto Knowledge; Spirit is making a steady march, leaping seamlessly through a multitude of media, material, energies and tendencies, simultaneously with Reason unfathomable. Every jump from one level of play, to another occurs with accelerated urgency, therein requiring shorter time spans between creative displays, of more and more complex novelty. If projected exponentially, inevitably this evolutionary momentum attains to terminal velocity (abstractly), with an eventual free flow, of unimaginable unbridled potential, and we then tread upon a whole new set of parameters to define that new found ‘state’, if analysis and the intellectual process, still have any meaning beyond an inescapable dissolution of duality.
As a prerequisite, the stage must be set for this metamorphosis of global culture, by exposing that neither is the universe a chaotic mess of random occurrences which accidentally, mysteriously forms this magnificent realm; nor is this some murky world between heaven and hell that was set up, to expose blasphemy in infidels and serve as a field for the persecution of heresy. These caricatures of Reality are unfortunately currently the major pillars of standardized popular human belief systems, and such mass psychosis must be cured urgently. Both views give license to apathy towards the felt presence of direct experience. The world and its workings should not be confronted as some awful test or trap, which we ‘endure’ to be ultimately relieved or pardoned from. The end goals of both scientific and religious rhetoric, are always cul-de-sacs, either a negation of purpose with anticipated probable chaotic Armageddon, or an induced aspiration to dissolution through promise of empty salvation, separate from this reality, as an only ‘solution’ to our situation; both negative and Self defeating.
Human settlement patterns are a direct reflection of these progressive states of being, from pre-pagan arrangements of stone by shamanic inspiration millennia past, to envisioned ominous ‘new world orders’ looming on the horizon. Though urban history has been a short chapter (as urbanity in itself is a relatively new phenomenon), now more human beings operate with urban parameters, than those tending to the rest of Earth, an accelerating trend that shows no signs of waning. By implication, the role of planning and development strategy becomes critical, especially when practitioners in these fields are increasingly active at the core of the latest debate in town… global climate change. The compounding symptoms of which are very real and increasingly perceivable, but when concern mutates, into another hysterical agenda enabling ‘slogan’, to justify a whole new range of bizarre Ego charged semantics, indexes, quotients, values, shares, stocks, credits, exchanges, trades, markets, curbs, caps, cuts… we see again, that the Business, is no longer about actually being sensitive to context, but more another domain to revel in mind games, politics, hierarchy, ideology, protocol and similar babble. The effort to heal becomes rendered impotent, as ‘reasons’ become flawed, driven by virtual interests. To continue, we must first achieve the power of being Good to our home and host, simply because it is good to be Good, and not as some clumsy urgent reaction to scientific conjecture and religious guilt.
Contextual, environmental and ecological sensitivity is a sort of default setting, or precondition to composed and consistent spiritually guided Praxis. Attaining to the stage where Work becomes Meditation cannot stem from some new theory, manifesto, referable best practice, guideline or movement. To appraise, inspect, quantify, qualify, discuss, judge and criticize potentialities, would necessarily require implementation of scientific duality, to create the Ego-distinction between, observer and observed. Spiritual content can have no adequate quotient in ‘rational’ terms. Only by personal, individual sustained awakening and profound Self actualization, can we aspire for the opportunity to continually serve, with perseverance, surrender, acceptance of limitations… and faith. With critical mass and momentum in this direction, what must be done will be collectively understood, and our Vocation revealed.
Pointed attempts to simulate this envisioned ideal condition, have already been underway over time, in manifold forms, at multiple locations, at diverse scales. Auroville in south India is one such example, which has the distinction of being internationally recognized, as an evolving experiment, aimed at achieving human unity. The ‘universal township’ is inspired by the visionary work of Sri Aurobindo, and was set in motion by his collaborator The Mother in 1968. This place is to belong to humanity as a whole and no one in particular. In order to live here the only condition, is to be a willing servitor of Divine Consciousness. Aurovillians being pilgrims of sorts, as they traveled far and long, to bring the Dream forth, inevitably (like all immigrant societies) brought with them, all the artificial, mental, vital, Ego fueled institutional perspectives, afforded by their former contexts, and those features of community process turn out to be the only genuine blockages, to potentials for actual unity. Culture has an awful way of entrenching itself persistently in personality, and serves more often as a dividing, defining, isolating and excluding force, than anything else. Rare is the occasion for joyful exchange of differences, for the novelty of that excitement wares off soon enough, and then the daily grind starts to reveal inevitable mundane frictions between identities, ideologies, personalities and perspectives.
Getting something done is easy enough when the object of an exercise is product, versus process. Achieving an ideal design, layout, plan, strategy or operating system is tough, even when all energies are converged upon the task at hand. But suddenly in a situation where collaboration, participation, emotion, intuition, Yoga, and integration are the Real parameters of the Game, boiling down to something tangible, that all parties agree upon, in the absence of governance or law, (that is also appropriate and sensitive) becomes a daunting task. For not only do fact and figures, reason and logic apply; the community must function simultaneously with a whole other set of defining concerns, that are usually intangible, subjective, personal and often bizarre to the bystander. This visionary place is vividly involved in a development program, whose object is solely to reconcile paradox at epic proportion. So when set to achieve the almost unachievable, these people will naturally be in a consistent state of ‘failure’. Because simply put, if Auroville does ‘succeed’; humanity is instantaneously and irrevocably transformed. So when being critical of this specific example, much caution is advised in the best interests of one’s own humility.
The true genius of this community was how they managed to radically transform the given landscape. When the pioneers first arrived at the designated location some distance from Pondicherry, they were confronted by a barren, scarred, scorched, cracked desolate red burnt soil wilderness, with no significant foliage to speak of. Contextually speaking, the initial conditions of the experiment were considerably hostile and fragile. These young enchanted souls, coming together from all corners of the planet, leaving everything behind to become a part creating something, they believed to be the Future. With near nothing at their disposal, dismal funding, primitive technologies, Spartan living conditions, harsh climate and scarce resource, they endured. Self organization into groups and collaborations took place, each simultaneously engaged with a different aspect of manifesting the ‘City of Dawn’, an urban master plan designed by R. Anger; a French architect and son in law to The Mother at the time. Judging from results nearly half a century later, it is self evident that though perspectives on history may differ, Auroville has actually managed to display a Herculean feat of unified action. The bio-region has flourished with life and activity; complimented by indigenous rural socio-economic development; rich and diverse recently introduced forests, gardens, farms and wildlife abound; industries cropping up for tourists, guests, volunteers, practitioners and students. There is a lot going on there visibly, and layered quite discreetly, sometimes even invisible (forces) or secluded in greenery.
In fact the physical and material transformation of the region has been so triumphant, from a reluctantly analytical perspective, that senior members of the community now live to watch; a whole swarm of self serving opportunist agendas get drawn in and try to take things apart for all they are worth. Politicians, lobbyists, realtors, land sharks, mafia gangs, administrators, bureaucrats, academics and businessmen actively seek influence, leverage and control, over the now inflated resources involved with this project. The fundamental problem Auroville faces, is a gap between it’s Vision, and actually achieving a True spiritual-urban situation; caused by reliance on methodologies, which resemble scientific and religious institutional prototypes, too closely for comfort. By employing the cliché stereotypical model, of building a shrine as first priority, to establish sacred territory and serve as a physical symbol of faith, the first contradictions surface. Semantic tricks often found posing as radical new forms, but in reality most found patterns, often no different from those that were to be abandoned.
Currently many contradictions abound the Auroville experience, and therefore this case, cannot be considered, a definitive model or template for a ‘realized’ Spiritual Urbanity. Auroville is simply what it presents itself to be… a magnificent and inspired work in progress; expressed aspiration for Divinity. However just the same as it works for everything else, Transformation is hinged on Grace, and over that we have no appropriate response, but complete surrender and total receptivity.
Paradoxically we occupy a realm where, to the best of our analytical capacities, it is found that regardless of how finely we divide space or take matter apart, there seems to be no end in sight. The deeper we go; the further any ‘fundamental’ unit seems to get, as complexity and depth within every quantum of space, is apparently infinite. Similarly we appear in a universe infinitely large, now seen to be composed of building blocks, that are in turn, infinitely small… and humanity stands on the knife edge, as some scalar median. The same goes for time ironically, as we can dissect micro, milli, nano seconds and so on, but there is no quantifiable or identifiable zero time, which also effectively implies, that every moment is thus actually eternal. All these moments thread together through history, so incredibly short, yet composed of a stream of eternal moments, and thus an eternity in itself. We are infinite and eternal, yet also fleeting and minuscule. Ours is truly the perfect trap, a riddle unimaginable.
So if we step back and look at what we are dealing with, it can be seen that, human conceptions of Divine Reality, are starting to resemble the nature - of our own reality; which leads to the conclusion that this plane could evidently be, a Divine field of action. Every point of time and space, now shown through entanglement to be fundamentally connected; separate only to deluded, defined, restrained and narrow perception. Every aspect of the Action being perfect; a fact denied only by Ego, which strays through fantasy, of being the Driver… separate from the whole. Ego of human nature, though systemically ingrained throughout the structure of our experience, starts off perhaps, as a harmless misunderstanding on inception, but when compounded upon itself over centuries and millennia of the conflict, that this element breeds, a net result could be precarious; even though this place, is comfortably part of Divine script, as there is no ‘alternative’ to the Plan.
This Zeitgeist can best be compared to a birthing process. Chaos, pain, tearing, bleeding, crying and a distinct sense of emergency, though all endured in the light of bringing forth, an entirely new force. We are caught in this situation metaphorically, at a planetary or galactic scale, perhaps something even more profound. All this momentum revealed vividly to those tuned in, through awakened awareness, where understandings are enlarged to the extent of being able to zoom out effortlessly, and perceive Transformation. Unfortunately the vast majority of our brothers and sisters remain trapped, by institutions and systems, which emerge from the wake, of an ever enlarging Ego-centric religious and scientific agenda, that sculpts the landscape of contemporary global culture.
Both religious and scientific institutions originate from the same source, a sense of duality and separate domain; the original sin, our first disconnect with humanity and turn from unity. Characterized by defined ideologies and exclusive aesthetic identities, these forces are fundamentally intertwined, intricate and powerful. This is that area of enterprise, which has somehow managed to cloud Truth and Reason over the ages, to the extent of becoming hostile agents at play. Within the last century or so, we witness an ultimate merger of their agendas; a military, media, corporate, legal and political network, of dubious allegiances to divergent interests, all at constant siege with each other.
Such agencies pose many serious dangers to collective welfare, for they are not human and therefore rarely display any semblance of humanity, though often protected legally as virtual beings, by common cultural sanction or political mandate; their interests worked into the system, to allow for ambiguous abstract entities and conglomerates, to take control of most activity that defines the collective human endeavor. Propaganda permeates every realm of ‘development’, making our way of life consumption driven, deceptive, reckless, destructive and remorseless. This model upon which our global culture has been conformed to, cannot be considered healthy from any reasonable and responsible perspective. It seems the primary mantra, of the varied authoritarian regulatory mechanisms, that channel human potential, is to ‘take what we can, while we can… and leave’. Almost as if the collective consciousness of popular culture had been hijacked by some locust over-mind, which drives us to willfully annihilate of our habitat, while simultaneously through varied gestures, urging us persistently to look to the stars, and locate the next habitable target to colonize and eventually consume entirely.
On the other side of the fence, huddle those awkward awakened few, who refuse to be participants in this nightmarish planetary scale psychopathic genocide, and chant the exact opposite; ‘give everything and yourself unconditionally… to stay’. This is the spiritually inspired development paradigm, which is nothing more complex, than an answer to the Call that we all hear. There is almost no ambiguity, as to what the highest expectations from us are. Should any doubts remain, this sense of connection, love, obligation and responsibility for context, can be explained… as a natural extension, of the same intuitive care for one’s own mind, body and being. To be aligned with the unfolding of Spirit, differs in essence, from humanity’s mutant step siblings (the scientific religious establishments and their countless demon offspring)… but is never ‘apart’. The Spiritual realm is all encompassing, inclusive and regards not, the blunders of other manifestations as errors, but as reason or inspiration, to strive and aspire to greater heights of creative harmony. Spirituality is an understanding and eventual becoming, of who we really are and what is really going on.
Tracing back the origins of organizations, agendas and cultures, we are enabled by and are enabling, on a daily basis, at multiply synchronized levels, through ‘business as usual’; it may be revealed that we are in some way or another, often integrally part of this vicious machinery, in some cases even, active perpetrators of Ego sponsored crimes, against ourselves. We are discovered as unconscious agents towards a homogenized, standardized, global operating protocol. Even academia, the identified institutions whose primary program should have ideally been boundary dissolution, often peddles the same product and is funded, therefore at some level controlled by Ego agenda. Their molded, educated, certified registered specialized and qualified drones; filter into the hierarchical stratified corporate labyrinth, and serve as tools to render landscapes indistinguishable, by ironing out individuality, cultural plurality, and aesthetic or operational variety.
Even the best intentioned explorations into alternative approaches, are riddled with logistical, technological and feasibility issues, which are presented to the public as hurdles that cannot be overcome; but more often than one would be willing to believe, failures are the result of designed ‘built-in’ obsolescence and redundancy cycles. Compounded by a Pandora’s box of embodied energy cycles, in the form of mining, processing, manufacture, transportation, specialized locations, centralized processes, toxic waste, bio-degradation term, costing, distribution, accessibility… all another medium for corporate profit making, reinforcement of inequality and suppression of those less privileged. If a genuine radical recalibration of culture occurred, innovations would be inconspicuous, refined, optimized and harmoniously integrated accessories, to our myriad processes.
Tools to achieve convergence are already at our disposal, for we are literally ‘growing’ the macro-biological tissue of the greater resultant organism, that our species is weaving itself into. Without necessarily being conscious of implications involved by their subtle nature, proliferation of information technologies and resultant instant network connectivity is plausibly bio-mimetic; planet girdling live feedback mechanisms to gauge collective, appropriate response coordination and interventions, behaving effectively like an integrated sentient being. The operating system might be to model reality, serving as platforms for collective consciousness to address evolving models, with a transcendence of language and progression; from communicating, to showing, to understanding, to becoming what we ‘Mean’ to ourselves. This is the signature of Spirit’s efflorescence by matter in fractal ways, parts coming together to form a whole, that is approximately reminiscent of the part, and vice versa.
Looking closer… it may be possible to develop the ability to discern where, when and how to deliver the slightest, most delicate intervention, surgical in precision to generate ripples, trans-formative unto eventual game changing proportion. This will depend on species scale Understanding, where both macro and micro sensitivities; intuitively, simultaneously and spontaneously have to be harmonized, effortlessly to generate that all encompassing Gesture. It is true that Divinity has but just begun to introduce, the delights of being co-creators and stewards of this gifted context, though our fullest potential, in terms of eventual contribution towards Union of Spirit and Matter is still imperceptible. This is why there are so few examples of sensitive explorations, towards a truly symbiotic relationship with our terrestrial plane.
Though if viewed abstractly, any and every manifestation (conscious or otherwise), has been generated by Sprit as ultimate origin and destination. Therefore in effect, everything that has been and is in becoming, is already a result of Spirituality as the fundamental development protocol; though with varied degrees of revelation, that generates those distinctions, which we discern and compartmentalize into styles and typologies, with rigorous boundary defining scientific approaches. Aspiration and bestowed Grace are not necessarily proportional, so such variety in Revelation cannot depend solely upon levels of tangible or quantifiable advancement. As conduits of Divine expression, there are unpredictably scattered examples, of highly evolved complex creations, like traditional vernacular Ba-ila settlement patterns in southern Zambia. Developed over generations with no imposed organizational framework, yet organically evolving with self articulated fractal order, these places intuitively display how Content and Meaning can be significantly crystallized unto Form and Space.
From mathematics, to cosmology, to physics, to geology, to chemistry, to biology, to technology, to information and eventually distilled unto Knowledge; Spirit is making a steady march, leaping seamlessly through a multitude of media, material, energies and tendencies, simultaneously with Reason unfathomable. Every jump from one level of play, to another occurs with accelerated urgency, therein requiring shorter time spans between creative displays, of more and more complex novelty. If projected exponentially, inevitably this evolutionary momentum attains to terminal velocity (abstractly), with an eventual free flow, of unimaginable unbridled potential, and we then tread upon a whole new set of parameters to define that new found ‘state’, if analysis and the intellectual process, still have any meaning beyond an inescapable dissolution of duality.
As a prerequisite, the stage must be set for this metamorphosis of global culture, by exposing that neither is the universe a chaotic mess of random occurrences which accidentally, mysteriously forms this magnificent realm; nor is this some murky world between heaven and hell that was set up, to expose blasphemy in infidels and serve as a field for the persecution of heresy. These caricatures of Reality are unfortunately currently the major pillars of standardized popular human belief systems, and such mass psychosis must be cured urgently. Both views give license to apathy towards the felt presence of direct experience. The world and its workings should not be confronted as some awful test or trap, which we ‘endure’ to be ultimately relieved or pardoned from. The end goals of both scientific and religious rhetoric, are always cul-de-sacs, either a negation of purpose with anticipated probable chaotic Armageddon, or an induced aspiration to dissolution through promise of empty salvation, separate from this reality, as an only ‘solution’ to our situation; both negative and Self defeating.
Human settlement patterns are a direct reflection of these progressive states of being, from pre-pagan arrangements of stone by shamanic inspiration millennia past, to envisioned ominous ‘new world orders’ looming on the horizon. Though urban history has been a short chapter (as urbanity in itself is a relatively new phenomenon), now more human beings operate with urban parameters, than those tending to the rest of Earth, an accelerating trend that shows no signs of waning. By implication, the role of planning and development strategy becomes critical, especially when practitioners in these fields are increasingly active at the core of the latest debate in town… global climate change. The compounding symptoms of which are very real and increasingly perceivable, but when concern mutates, into another hysterical agenda enabling ‘slogan’, to justify a whole new range of bizarre Ego charged semantics, indexes, quotients, values, shares, stocks, credits, exchanges, trades, markets, curbs, caps, cuts… we see again, that the Business, is no longer about actually being sensitive to context, but more another domain to revel in mind games, politics, hierarchy, ideology, protocol and similar babble. The effort to heal becomes rendered impotent, as ‘reasons’ become flawed, driven by virtual interests. To continue, we must first achieve the power of being Good to our home and host, simply because it is good to be Good, and not as some clumsy urgent reaction to scientific conjecture and religious guilt.
Contextual, environmental and ecological sensitivity is a sort of default setting, or precondition to composed and consistent spiritually guided Praxis. Attaining to the stage where Work becomes Meditation cannot stem from some new theory, manifesto, referable best practice, guideline or movement. To appraise, inspect, quantify, qualify, discuss, judge and criticize potentialities, would necessarily require implementation of scientific duality, to create the Ego-distinction between, observer and observed. Spiritual content can have no adequate quotient in ‘rational’ terms. Only by personal, individual sustained awakening and profound Self actualization, can we aspire for the opportunity to continually serve, with perseverance, surrender, acceptance of limitations… and faith. With critical mass and momentum in this direction, what must be done will be collectively understood, and our Vocation revealed.
Pointed attempts to simulate this envisioned ideal condition, have already been underway over time, in manifold forms, at multiple locations, at diverse scales. Auroville in south India is one such example, which has the distinction of being internationally recognized, as an evolving experiment, aimed at achieving human unity. The ‘universal township’ is inspired by the visionary work of Sri Aurobindo, and was set in motion by his collaborator The Mother in 1968. This place is to belong to humanity as a whole and no one in particular. In order to live here the only condition, is to be a willing servitor of Divine Consciousness. Aurovillians being pilgrims of sorts, as they traveled far and long, to bring the Dream forth, inevitably (like all immigrant societies) brought with them, all the artificial, mental, vital, Ego fueled institutional perspectives, afforded by their former contexts, and those features of community process turn out to be the only genuine blockages, to potentials for actual unity. Culture has an awful way of entrenching itself persistently in personality, and serves more often as a dividing, defining, isolating and excluding force, than anything else. Rare is the occasion for joyful exchange of differences, for the novelty of that excitement wares off soon enough, and then the daily grind starts to reveal inevitable mundane frictions between identities, ideologies, personalities and perspectives.
Getting something done is easy enough when the object of an exercise is product, versus process. Achieving an ideal design, layout, plan, strategy or operating system is tough, even when all energies are converged upon the task at hand. But suddenly in a situation where collaboration, participation, emotion, intuition, Yoga, and integration are the Real parameters of the Game, boiling down to something tangible, that all parties agree upon, in the absence of governance or law, (that is also appropriate and sensitive) becomes a daunting task. For not only do fact and figures, reason and logic apply; the community must function simultaneously with a whole other set of defining concerns, that are usually intangible, subjective, personal and often bizarre to the bystander. This visionary place is vividly involved in a development program, whose object is solely to reconcile paradox at epic proportion. So when set to achieve the almost unachievable, these people will naturally be in a consistent state of ‘failure’. Because simply put, if Auroville does ‘succeed’; humanity is instantaneously and irrevocably transformed. So when being critical of this specific example, much caution is advised in the best interests of one’s own humility.
The true genius of this community was how they managed to radically transform the given landscape. When the pioneers first arrived at the designated location some distance from Pondicherry, they were confronted by a barren, scarred, scorched, cracked desolate red burnt soil wilderness, with no significant foliage to speak of. Contextually speaking, the initial conditions of the experiment were considerably hostile and fragile. These young enchanted souls, coming together from all corners of the planet, leaving everything behind to become a part creating something, they believed to be the Future. With near nothing at their disposal, dismal funding, primitive technologies, Spartan living conditions, harsh climate and scarce resource, they endured. Self organization into groups and collaborations took place, each simultaneously engaged with a different aspect of manifesting the ‘City of Dawn’, an urban master plan designed by R. Anger; a French architect and son in law to The Mother at the time. Judging from results nearly half a century later, it is self evident that though perspectives on history may differ, Auroville has actually managed to display a Herculean feat of unified action. The bio-region has flourished with life and activity; complimented by indigenous rural socio-economic development; rich and diverse recently introduced forests, gardens, farms and wildlife abound; industries cropping up for tourists, guests, volunteers, practitioners and students. There is a lot going on there visibly, and layered quite discreetly, sometimes even invisible (forces) or secluded in greenery.
In fact the physical and material transformation of the region has been so triumphant, from a reluctantly analytical perspective, that senior members of the community now live to watch; a whole swarm of self serving opportunist agendas get drawn in and try to take things apart for all they are worth. Politicians, lobbyists, realtors, land sharks, mafia gangs, administrators, bureaucrats, academics and businessmen actively seek influence, leverage and control, over the now inflated resources involved with this project. The fundamental problem Auroville faces, is a gap between it’s Vision, and actually achieving a True spiritual-urban situation; caused by reliance on methodologies, which resemble scientific and religious institutional prototypes, too closely for comfort. By employing the cliché stereotypical model, of building a shrine as first priority, to establish sacred territory and serve as a physical symbol of faith, the first contradictions surface. Semantic tricks often found posing as radical new forms, but in reality most found patterns, often no different from those that were to be abandoned.
Currently many contradictions abound the Auroville experience, and therefore this case, cannot be considered, a definitive model or template for a ‘realized’ Spiritual Urbanity. Auroville is simply what it presents itself to be… a magnificent and inspired work in progress; expressed aspiration for Divinity. However just the same as it works for everything else, Transformation is hinged on Grace, and over that we have no appropriate response, but complete surrender and total receptivity.