SEEKING INTERVENTION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA FOR A CHANGE OF GUARD IN THE SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM
Thea (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet)
Aeon Centre of Cosmology
13 November 2010
[This article in which Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet discusses the history of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville and the reasons why "both ‘fields’ have lost their relevancy for the Integral and Supramental Yogas", was first published November 13th, 2010 on Savitri Era Open Forum as a response to a recent slew of SEOF posts regarding the ongoing controversy in the Ashram, including: 'This rotting vegetation that calls itself the Sri Aurobindo Ashram' ('Is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram-Soul dead?' by Prof. Kamal Das with comments by Paulette Hadnagy, Kamal Das, R.Y. Deshpande); and 'I happen to know a lot about what’s going on here behind the scenes' (Sri Aurobindo on the ‘Evil Persona’ by Paulette Hadnagy). The most recent call for government intervention (mentioned in the article title) is a law suit filed against the Sri Aurobindo Trust and its five trustees by five Sri Aurobindo Ashram inmates as discussed on SEOF and in the October 2010 issue of Auroville Today (see PDF or www.sciy.org).]
The intervention of the Government was sought in the 1970s. Satprem and his group sought to wrest control of the Ashram. At that time there were people of stature on the Board, several if not all of whom were appointed by the Mother herself. These were not supramentally-realised souls; but they were loyal to the Mother in every fibre of their beings. Thus, the storm was weathered even though the Emergency was on and Sir CPN Singh was in a position to bring the Trustees to their knees. Those of us in the Ashram at the time remember the periodic IT raids as part of the strategy.
Dyumanbhai, one of the finest trustees, used to visit me from time to time. On one occasion I said to him, ‘Surely they will not find anything.’ His wise reply was, ‘If they want to find something, they will.’ I later understood how this could be ‘arranged’. But it did not work for Sir CPN because Indira Gandhi was fully involved and would not take such a step without being convinced that it was the Mother’s will. And she was not. Then she lost the elections in 1977 and as far as the Ashram matter was concerned, the attempt was put in deep freeze. One of the Trustees at the time of her loss was jubilant. I sent a letter to the Board warning them that it was foolish to exult: she would return.
Meanwhile, having failed in the first attempt – and bear in mind that the Ashram was considered the Prize, not Auroville which was thought to be a basket case – the sights of this group were turned to Auroville in a sense forced by the prevailing circumstances. The residents, then and now, had no experience in these matters and were very easily manipulated. I was in close contact with Sir CPN, not because of the politics of the situation at all, but because he and Indira were sympathetic to my attempts to have the Mother’s original plan of the Matrimandir’s inner chamber adopted – nothing had been built yet. But then Sir CPN ‘turned’. He joined the Satprem camp. The dispute was over ownership of the Mother’s tapes, her recorded conversations with Satprem over the years. One Trustee in particular played a damaging role at the time and his arrogant dislike of Indira took its toll; I witnessed Sir CPN’s ire over the actions of this Trustee. It was unfortunate and totally avoidable.
At the time I wrote to Sir CPN: Do not allow yourself to be pulled into ego clashes; remember why you were put in the position your have (vis-à-vis the Ashram – that is to have the Mother’s plan adopted). But politicians will be politicians to their last breath. In the same letter I wrote that he would soon be put in a position to dictate terms in Auroville. Indeed, this did come to pass. Within a few months a petition was sent to the Government of India, signed by all its residents, seeking to have Sir CPN appointed the sole interlocutor in charge of Auroville affairs.
Surely you will recall the genesis of this development. A group in Auroville wanted to oust the Sri Aurobindo Society. They set up their own administration, registered it, went to court, and finally handed Auroville over to the Government of India on a platter – a move everyone knew was totally against the Mother’s explicitly stated wish.
I was in touch with Indira Gandhi at the time. She knew the Mother’s exact ‘plan’ for the Work (also mathematically enshrined in her original plan of the Inner Chamber in design and number). And so the take-over – at the perverse insistence of Aurovilleans – was temporary, a sort of custodianship for five years, to be extended for another two if required. Her idea was that the Mother’s ‘plan’ could not possibly fail. She gave a specific precautionary time period to allow for this to happen. Unfortunately, SAS was effectively removed from de facto stewardship.
On her return to power the camp that still lusted after control of the Ashram swung into action. She wrote to me wondering what to do. My reply was simple: Keep out. If the Ashram must die it must do so on its own. Do not allow the Government of India to bear this responsibility. Indira heeded my advice in full. Since her letter asked specific questions, I know that my reply to those specifics irked certain quarters. They have never forgiven me!
This story forms a part of my new book, Volume Two of The Tenth Day of Victory. It is an eye-opener in the present context because everyone is seeing only the surface of things, never the true struggles and the goals. Indeed, finally the architect-in-charge of the Inner Chamber construction, Piero Cicionesi, had his way, defiantly, knowing the full implications, having the fullest documentation of the original plan and the Mother’s recorded talks on the issue of her original to understand without a shadow of a doubt what she wanted done (see Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, www.matacom.com). Nonetheless, mystifyingly he held sway: the Inner Chamber stands as a perfect shadow of the Mother’s original; in other words, an architectural representation of the Ego and not the Soul. This is not just rhetoric; it is provable by the science of Number and Geometry.
Today, Auroville has been handed over to the Government and therefore has no relevance in the Yoga that it was to house, the ‘field’ or the ‘laboratory’ for the Supramental Yoga, just as the Ashram was the laboratory for the Integral. All had been carefully planned, arranged, documented. Now its only relevance is to demonstrate what the ego produces when the Soul is absent. The Mother had devised a means to establish the Soul at the centre of the township for when she would no longer be embodied. But this was ignorantly rejected by all. The consolation is that she also arranged a ‘contingency plan’ the moment in January of 1970 when she understood the nature of the camp that simply would not have it her way under any circumstances. That Contingency Plan has been more than successful. Yet all of you flock to the Matrimandir like sheep to worship this Shadow! We must ask, how can it be otherwise?
Now the same attempt is being made to hand the Ashram over to the Government. This loss would not be the same now as then it was because both ‘fields’ have lost their relevancy for the Integral and Supramental Yogas. The latter is undeniable when it is present. Only the Ignorance is capable of denying the obvious; and unfortunately the world is still governed by the Ignorance whose stamp is left everywhere, most lamentably in the corridors of the Mother’s work. But Gnosis bears no such stamp: it is integral, self-evident, and irrefutable. Above all, it is its own authority. It needs not outside imprimatur. The Contingency Plan has covered all bases and the work is done… ‘While the wisemen talk and sleep’…
In January of 1979, exactly 9 years after the Mother ‘threw in the towel’ as it were and handed the construction over to the Divine Consciousness to ‘sort out the people who could build’, the Ashram destroyed the only book in existence, The New Way, Volumes 1 & 2, in which as part of the Contingency Plan the cosmic credentials of the 9th Avatar of Vishnu are detailed, those whom I call Evolutionary Avatars. In the same volumes the Mother’s original plan was minutely explained as the verification by her of these credentials. As irrefutable as this Book of Gnosis was, the Press, and only the Press – not the Ashram Trustees – arranged matters so that they could destroy the Book. You tell me what that says about a centre that is supposed to worship Mahasaraswati, the Goddess of our Age? Again, could it be otherwise?
Fast forward to 2010. We have a dispute over another book of absolutely puny significance in the history of Sri Aurobindo’s mission; and yet people are ready to tear the world apart over this nothingness.
No, I stand corrected. There is one point that should have driven all of you to distraction – and yet there was not a proper and sensible whimper from anyone. This refers to Peter Heehs’s statement about the question of Sri Aurobindo’s avatarhood. His statements are not only incorrect in their conclusions but they reveal that even after decades of residence in India this individual never imbibed the spirit of his adopted home and the importance of the Epic Heros in its history and culture. The Dasavataras are the backbone of the Eternal Dharma; and without Sri Aurobindo, the 9th/10th in the Line, that spinal column must crumble – i.e., the end of the Dharma.
I firmly declare, with ample published works to support what I state, that the very most important aspect of Sri Aurobindo’s life was his avatarhood – as an emanation of Vishnu and not just any of the dozens of ‘avatars’ that float around today. His cosmic credentials substantiate that he is in direct line from Sri Ram (7th), Sri Krishna (8th) and then Sri Aurobindo (the 9th). This is written in his own symbol, the Mother’s symbol, and the Rig Veda – a trifold combination that only the Supermind could have arranged. Forget the Buddha who finds no place in the Line except as a ‘ruse of the Supreme’. If you do not understand this and all its implications for India and the world, you have understood nothing. Like the Inner Chamber was for the Mother which proved that she was the incarnate Divine Maya, Sri Aurobindo’s cosmic proof of his avatarhood is the only thing that makes sense of his mission as Avatar of the Supermind. Heehs claims he never stated he was an Avatar. Well, he clearly stated the functions of the 7th (Mind), the 8th (Overmind) – and the next in sequence to be the 9th of the Supermind. Who, pray tell, can lay claim to that Knowledge other than Sri Aurobindo? He may not have stated openly ‘I am that One’ because he never needed to state the obvious. Nonetheless, just in case, he wrote his own Epic, realising he could not rely on his followers to grasp the obvious.
Let me be clear. You do not deal with what you consider heresy or blasphemy by book burning (as Paulette of Auroville has indulged in with great fanfare and pride). You raise the level by an infusion of more Knowledge. To prove the point, my response to Peter Heehs’s book was to counter with proof of Sri Aurobindo’s lineage. I wrote Secrets of the Earth (Aeon Books, 2009) and even sent a copy to the Ashram Board of Trustees on 7 June 2009, accompanied by the following letter:
Of course there was never any reply, not even the courtesy of an acknowledgement receipt by a secretary! Such is the fear that grips those of faint heart and no realisation! Should they step down? Voluntarily or by compulsion? But who to replace them with? Another tribe of similar ilk? For who is there who KNOWS – even enough just to know who or what should replace the old?
Meanwhile, having failed in the first attempt – and bear in mind that the Ashram was considered the Prize, not Auroville which was thought to be a basket case – the sights of this group were turned to Auroville in a sense forced by the prevailing circumstances. The residents, then and now, had no experience in these matters and were very easily manipulated. I was in close contact with Sir CPN, not because of the politics of the situation at all, but because he and Indira were sympathetic to my attempts to have the Mother’s original plan of the Matrimandir’s inner chamber adopted – nothing had been built yet. But then Sir CPN ‘turned’. He joined the Satprem camp. The dispute was over ownership of the Mother’s tapes, her recorded conversations with Satprem over the years. One Trustee in particular played a damaging role at the time and his arrogant dislike of Indira took its toll; I witnessed Sir CPN’s ire over the actions of this Trustee. It was unfortunate and totally avoidable.
At the time I wrote to Sir CPN: Do not allow yourself to be pulled into ego clashes; remember why you were put in the position your have (vis-à-vis the Ashram – that is to have the Mother’s plan adopted). But politicians will be politicians to their last breath. In the same letter I wrote that he would soon be put in a position to dictate terms in Auroville. Indeed, this did come to pass. Within a few months a petition was sent to the Government of India, signed by all its residents, seeking to have Sir CPN appointed the sole interlocutor in charge of Auroville affairs.
Surely you will recall the genesis of this development. A group in Auroville wanted to oust the Sri Aurobindo Society. They set up their own administration, registered it, went to court, and finally handed Auroville over to the Government of India on a platter – a move everyone knew was totally against the Mother’s explicitly stated wish.
I was in touch with Indira Gandhi at the time. She knew the Mother’s exact ‘plan’ for the Work (also mathematically enshrined in her original plan of the Inner Chamber in design and number). And so the take-over – at the perverse insistence of Aurovilleans – was temporary, a sort of custodianship for five years, to be extended for another two if required. Her idea was that the Mother’s ‘plan’ could not possibly fail. She gave a specific precautionary time period to allow for this to happen. Unfortunately, SAS was effectively removed from de facto stewardship.
On her return to power the camp that still lusted after control of the Ashram swung into action. She wrote to me wondering what to do. My reply was simple: Keep out. If the Ashram must die it must do so on its own. Do not allow the Government of India to bear this responsibility. Indira heeded my advice in full. Since her letter asked specific questions, I know that my reply to those specifics irked certain quarters. They have never forgiven me!
This story forms a part of my new book, Volume Two of The Tenth Day of Victory. It is an eye-opener in the present context because everyone is seeing only the surface of things, never the true struggles and the goals. Indeed, finally the architect-in-charge of the Inner Chamber construction, Piero Cicionesi, had his way, defiantly, knowing the full implications, having the fullest documentation of the original plan and the Mother’s recorded talks on the issue of her original to understand without a shadow of a doubt what she wanted done (see Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, www.matacom.com). Nonetheless, mystifyingly he held sway: the Inner Chamber stands as a perfect shadow of the Mother’s original; in other words, an architectural representation of the Ego and not the Soul. This is not just rhetoric; it is provable by the science of Number and Geometry.
Today, Auroville has been handed over to the Government and therefore has no relevance in the Yoga that it was to house, the ‘field’ or the ‘laboratory’ for the Supramental Yoga, just as the Ashram was the laboratory for the Integral. All had been carefully planned, arranged, documented. Now its only relevance is to demonstrate what the ego produces when the Soul is absent. The Mother had devised a means to establish the Soul at the centre of the township for when she would no longer be embodied. But this was ignorantly rejected by all. The consolation is that she also arranged a ‘contingency plan’ the moment in January of 1970 when she understood the nature of the camp that simply would not have it her way under any circumstances. That Contingency Plan has been more than successful. Yet all of you flock to the Matrimandir like sheep to worship this Shadow! We must ask, how can it be otherwise?
Now the same attempt is being made to hand the Ashram over to the Government. This loss would not be the same now as then it was because both ‘fields’ have lost their relevancy for the Integral and Supramental Yogas. The latter is undeniable when it is present. Only the Ignorance is capable of denying the obvious; and unfortunately the world is still governed by the Ignorance whose stamp is left everywhere, most lamentably in the corridors of the Mother’s work. But Gnosis bears no such stamp: it is integral, self-evident, and irrefutable. Above all, it is its own authority. It needs not outside imprimatur. The Contingency Plan has covered all bases and the work is done… ‘While the wisemen talk and sleep’…
In January of 1979, exactly 9 years after the Mother ‘threw in the towel’ as it were and handed the construction over to the Divine Consciousness to ‘sort out the people who could build’, the Ashram destroyed the only book in existence, The New Way, Volumes 1 & 2, in which as part of the Contingency Plan the cosmic credentials of the 9th Avatar of Vishnu are detailed, those whom I call Evolutionary Avatars. In the same volumes the Mother’s original plan was minutely explained as the verification by her of these credentials. As irrefutable as this Book of Gnosis was, the Press, and only the Press – not the Ashram Trustees – arranged matters so that they could destroy the Book. You tell me what that says about a centre that is supposed to worship Mahasaraswati, the Goddess of our Age? Again, could it be otherwise?
Fast forward to 2010. We have a dispute over another book of absolutely puny significance in the history of Sri Aurobindo’s mission; and yet people are ready to tear the world apart over this nothingness.
No, I stand corrected. There is one point that should have driven all of you to distraction – and yet there was not a proper and sensible whimper from anyone. This refers to Peter Heehs’s statement about the question of Sri Aurobindo’s avatarhood. His statements are not only incorrect in their conclusions but they reveal that even after decades of residence in India this individual never imbibed the spirit of his adopted home and the importance of the Epic Heros in its history and culture. The Dasavataras are the backbone of the Eternal Dharma; and without Sri Aurobindo, the 9th/10th in the Line, that spinal column must crumble – i.e., the end of the Dharma.
I firmly declare, with ample published works to support what I state, that the very most important aspect of Sri Aurobindo’s life was his avatarhood – as an emanation of Vishnu and not just any of the dozens of ‘avatars’ that float around today. His cosmic credentials substantiate that he is in direct line from Sri Ram (7th), Sri Krishna (8th) and then Sri Aurobindo (the 9th). This is written in his own symbol, the Mother’s symbol, and the Rig Veda – a trifold combination that only the Supermind could have arranged. Forget the Buddha who finds no place in the Line except as a ‘ruse of the Supreme’. If you do not understand this and all its implications for India and the world, you have understood nothing. Like the Inner Chamber was for the Mother which proved that she was the incarnate Divine Maya, Sri Aurobindo’s cosmic proof of his avatarhood is the only thing that makes sense of his mission as Avatar of the Supermind. Heehs claims he never stated he was an Avatar. Well, he clearly stated the functions of the 7th (Mind), the 8th (Overmind) – and the next in sequence to be the 9th of the Supermind. Who, pray tell, can lay claim to that Knowledge other than Sri Aurobindo? He may not have stated openly ‘I am that One’ because he never needed to state the obvious. Nonetheless, just in case, he wrote his own Epic, realising he could not rely on his followers to grasp the obvious.
Let me be clear. You do not deal with what you consider heresy or blasphemy by book burning (as Paulette of Auroville has indulged in with great fanfare and pride). You raise the level by an infusion of more Knowledge. To prove the point, my response to Peter Heehs’s book was to counter with proof of Sri Aurobindo’s lineage. I wrote Secrets of the Earth (Aeon Books, 2009) and even sent a copy to the Ashram Board of Trustees on 7 June 2009, accompanied by the following letter:
Respected Gentlemen:
I am sending you herewith a copy of my latest book which I recently had printed because of the damage being done to Sri Aurobindo’s work through the widespread denial of his avatarhood by his own followers. When you read this book, it will be made clear that continuing in this ‘denial mode’, further damage will be done to delay the purpose for which he took birth, in which his avatarhood plays a fundamental role.
I am also attaching a page out of the book so that you will be apprised of certain portions where specific mention is made of these obstructive tactics. It may be that this is done in ignorance; nonetheless, the damage is a fact we cannot deny.
Anyone who takes the time to read this small book can never again deny Sri Aurobindo his birthright. And to repair the damage already done, I suggest you distribute this book through Ashram circuits for the benefit of all his followers who have been influenced by these denials. They should be allowed to judge for themselves on the basis of the objective knowledge the book contains. For information in this regard, please contact the above address and phone number.
Of course there was never any reply, not even the courtesy of an acknowledgement receipt by a secretary! Such is the fear that grips those of faint heart and no realisation! Should they step down? Voluntarily or by compulsion? But who to replace them with? Another tribe of similar ilk? For who is there who KNOWS – even enough just to know who or what should replace the old?
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director
Aeon Centre of Cosmology
Lori's Notes: Paulette Hadnagy's response to the above was an outburst of ridicule: 'Hail To Patrizia Norelli[-Bachelet]: the One After the Mother'. The ignorance that stands as the heart of Auroville (crystallized in the form of the Auroville Temple) can not be forever hidden or concealed from the public via ridicule and defamation of the one who has exposed the ignorance. The Mother's Temple was never built according to the Mother's Gnosis and Sacred Design. Those searching for yogic Knowledge that will survive the crumbling of the religious and/or egoic fossilization that has occurred in Auroville and in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram should read Chronicles of the Inner Chamber at www.matacom.com as well as Ms. Norelli-Bachelet's books on how the Supramental Yoga has progressed since the 1970's despite widespread ignorance in the Ashram and in Auroville.
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