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3. Auroville                                                 
4. Health, Cure of Diseases                        
5. Wealth  

 

3. Auroville

 It was Mother’s dream to create a place where MAN could seek the Divine without having to dredge for food and shelter. It was in fulfilment of this dream that she founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram for those who dedicated themselves to Yoga. With the same underlying principle and the same actuating aspiration Mother founded AUROVILLE—town of Sri Aurobindo—for those who have not taken to yoga as their main ideal in life. Auroville is an international city meant for those whose ideal is to live according to truth. The ideal caught the attention of the Soviet leader Khrushchev, but before he could take concrete interest in the project his political career took a different turn.

 Mother was no believer in religion. She was fond of saying that the time for religions was over and the future belonged to spirituality.

 The city has, in the conception of the initial architects, several zones with roads on which automobiles are prohibited. The soul of Auroville is Matrimandir or ‘Mother’s temple’. Matrimandir is constructed as a sphere that houses in its centre a meditation hall. The construction is uniquely arranged so that  sunlight enters the building during all hours of the day through a small hole in the roof. At the time of the foundation in 1968 an urn of lotus bud shape was constructed, into which earth from all nations of the world was deposited by youth from each nation.

 Mother’s conception of the city and life there includes several features. Money has no role to play in Auroville. Cars are banned. No administration with authority over the lives of the members is created. No one is appointed as the head or leader whom all should obey. Each member is to be guided by his inner light only. Any structure of authority that is created is to be functional and not to have legal or administrative power vested in it.

 One main reason Mother had in mind in founding Auroville was that the city must be a symbol of human unity and thus prevent the next world war by its very presence on earth. She even declared that as long as Auroville existed, no war would break out. Human tendencies of pugnacity, competition, spite, jealousy, rivalry are bound to surface in a cosmopolitan place where hundreds of men and women gather and live. Their daily lives offer thousands of occasions for human interactions. Mother wanted those innumerable occasions to become the anvil on which human nature would consent to be beaten into a divine shape. If in Auroville Man shapes himself anew in the image of the Divine and endeavours to transform his own human nature into Divine nature, life on earth would gently turn to the Divine. This was Mother’s intention. She even said that Auroville was a field of experimentation, not an exhibition of already accomplished perfection.

 It was Mother’s way to name the different communities in Auroville as peace, harmony, aspiration, etc.

 The spiritual atmosphere in the city is very powerful and unmistakable. No one can miss it. It is easy to imagine what amount of uncertainties would loom large in the life of a city where there is no central authority, no fixed provision of income, no one enjoys property rights, no one has any say over anyone else. Every day must dawn in Divine Grace and be lived in faith and grace. Still, people who visit the place are powerfully attracted to live there. To a visitor’s query, an Aurovillian doing duty at the Indian pavilion, Bharat Nivas, answered, “Nothing is certain here, but everything works.” More than the comment of the man, the visitor was struck by the Aurovillian’s sparkling face expressing the inner light.

 Auroville was founded in 1968. A regular visitor to the Ashram in 1960 was crossing a road junction and suddenly noticed the figures of Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the distance. The splendour of the vision was great and so real that he lost himself totally. A few days later when the devotee was crossing the same spot the vision recurred. Only then he took notice of the spot on the road where he had had the same vision miles away in the sky. He could make nothing of it, even though it made him grateful to Mother for the Darshan in the subtle plane. Several years later when Auroville was founded, he understood that the spot of his vision was the future site of the city.

 Mother desired some exotic plants that would grow only in the Arctic region to be planted in Auroville. Seeing the question on the faces of the disciples, she explained that in future the climate would change and snow would fall in Auroville.

 Having founded Auroville to prevent future wars, Mother was following the news of the stockpiling of armaments. She was sad and commented that the very accumulation would compel its masters to find a use for the weapons.

4. Health, Cure Of Diseases

Sri Aurobindo says that the body cures itself. He even says that doctors create disease and then cure it. The doctor is able to cure the patient more by the patient’s faith in him than by his treatment. The body needs medicine for its cure because over the ages the body has become used to taking medicine and has come to believe in the medicine.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have cured hundreds of people who have prayed to them. Cancer, TB, and diabetes are no exception. Several people who had lost their sight regained it by the Grace of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Mother says when Sri Aurobindo’s Grace acts, a hand of blue light goes to the diseased part and wipes out the disease. Mother’s complaint is that the patient’s faith in the disease (that it is an incurable one) impedes the effectiveness of the force.

Mother advises us to imagine a cocoon of white peace around us before we sleep. The cocoon ensures restful, good sleep. When we sleep like this, our sleep is replaced by a luminous peace. On waking up we feel as if we are coming out of dhyana (meditation).

Of the millions that suffer from various diseases, Mother says, one in a thousand is a real disease. Mother has a novel cure for any disease. The method involves speaking to the cells and removing the disease. She explains that cells are very conscious of what they are. Their being self-conscious is a way of life with them. They go their way as long as we do not pay any attention to them. The moment you examine an aching part, she says, the cells receive the attention and respond fully. Their way of response is to increase the disease which brought them the first attention. If we show the ailing part to another person the cells enjoy the attention very much and increase the disease greatly. So, Mother’s way of curing any disease is to speak to the cells directly, “You idiots, keep quiet, shut up.” When repeated, the cells obey the order and give up the disease. I personally know several cases where disease was cured in this way.

Our tradition says that a disease can be cured by three methods: medicine, mantra or a gem. Each has its own process and differs in effectiveness. Cure by supramental force has the hallmark that the disease is unable to recur. Supramental Force not merely cures the disease, but dissolves the basis of the disease in consciousness. Whether it is karma or swabhava or a desire or whatever, the supramental force eliminates the basis and the disease has no further possibility of recurring.

5. Wealth

Sri Aurobindo said that three things were essential for Truth to reign on earth. They were governmental power, wealth and health. Regarding health, he said everything is known about it. Regarding the government, unless ‘we’ are the government, it is not possible to influence a government for our purpose. He said he did not understand how wealth could be secured for that. Mother took up the idea and meditated on it. She reached another world where the treasure of the earth was stored. Mother headed toward the central place where the treasure was kept, but at the entrance she found a black python on guard. She tried to walk past the guard, but it stopped her. Ordinarily, beings of any world obeyed Mother, but this was different from the usual. The python told Mother that he would be killed if she were allowed inside. Mother asked who could pass that entrance and what condition they should fulfil. The python answered that when the sex vibration had disappeared from the earth, the treasure would be given to earth.

In reply to an Aurovillian, Mother said to succeed in life one needs cleverness and to succeed in yoga one needs sincerity.

Money must be moving, must constantly be put to productive use, should never stagnate according to Mother. The more swiftly money moves, the greater is its inflow. About misers, Mother says they live near their wealth after their death.

Contrary to spiritual tradition, Sri Aurobindo says that money should not be neglected. At its origin money belongs to the Divine. If spiritual people shun money, the hostile forces would acquire it. Presently money is in the hands of the asuras. It must be won back for the Divine.

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