April 28, 1971
(On the occasion of the laying of the first stone of the
Matrimandir on February 21, Satprem had written a letter to
the architect of Auroville.)
I saw your letter (I saw it in English), the letter you wrote to R. for the “Matrimandir”…. It’s interesting, it’s good…. They have a bulletin, a “Gazette,” it will be published there.[[Satprem's letter was misunderstood and published abridged to suit the comprehension of the editors. ]]
I get a lot of requests from all sorts of people, either to say
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something or do something or comment on something or…. I
feel it’s not so good.
What do they ask you?
One thing or another, a commentary, an explanation, "what do
I think of…."
But does it come from Auroville?
Most of it, yes.
Listen, there’s quite a lazy group in Auroville!
Oh, that, yes!
People who don’t want to work. Now they say that according to your book, to get the true consciousness, one doesn’t have to work!
Yes, that’s it. I heard that also. They say, "Work belongs to the
old world"…!
Yes, that’s how they understand it. So, what can you do?… What did you reply to them?
I spoke to R. I told him what I thought. I said that work is the
foundation.
Yes.
It’s by being and working in matter that one can bring a little
consciousness into oneself.
Yes, that’s it.
And if there isn’t any work, there isn’t any transformation.
Yes, that’s exactly what I wrote to them. [[Here is Mother’s text: “Consciousness develops best through work done as offering to the Divine. Indolence and inaction lead to tamas: That is a fall into unconsciousness, it is contrary to all progress and light. To overcome one’s ego, to live only in the service of the Divine — that is the ideal and the shortest way towards acquiring the true consciousness.” ]] He told me, “They couldn’t care less.”
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Oh, yes, that’s true!
Maybe they would listen to you if you told them that.
If you like, I can write.
Yes, you can write. Maybe they would listen to you, because they’re saying that in the name of your book, you see!
Oh, you know, in the name of my book they also say that Sri
Aurobindo and Mother are now obsolete, and that in a way my
book supersedes all that!
Yes, oh, exactly! (general laughter)
I’ve heard just about everything.
Yes, that’s it! (laughter)
So, what can I say in the face of such things!?
(Mother laughs)
One even wrote me, “So, Sri Aurobindo didn’t have the key to
the superman."
Oh, really?
Yes, I’m the one who’s given it, you see.
Good heavens!
It’s bewildering!
(Mother laughs) I think there are no limits to human stupidity.
Oh, yes!
(silence)
One doesn’t know what to do or say because it’s….
No, they have to be told: you’re talking nonsense.
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Oh, I told them, you know, but still…. I told them they
had a lot of nerve. And I asked them, "But where do you think
I learned what I’ve written!?"
Exactly! (Mother laughs)
They’re terribly angry with me because I told them discipline is indispensable.
But of course!
That’s old hat, you see.
But, Mother, I told R. that the basic mistake is that when those
people came here, everything was handed to them: he gave
them ready-made houses, they were given all they needed to
eat — they got everything on a silver platter. While these people
should have been made to build their own houses and to plant
their own potatoes if they wanted to eat; they should have
done everything by themselves.
Yes, exactly.
with coolies? One does not make a new world with hired
labor!"
I think a whole group of those people should go.
Yes, that’s my feeling.
(silence)
To one of them I said, "If I went over there, I’d go with a
whip!"
(Mother laughs) There’s really a subhuman group over there.
Yes, certainly…. But how can you eliminate that?
(silence)
Another example: they even have a hired cook to do their
cooking, those people!
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Oh!…
There’s a fundamental flaw in all that, you know.
But how can that be?
That’s the way it is, you see. They have a hired cook.
Heavens!
(long silence)
What do you propose then?
Nothing, I don’t know, Mother.
(silence)
I feel R. should organize things in such a way that people are
compelled to work.
Yes…. Yes, we’ll have to do something.
That way, the sorting out would be done right away.
Yes…. But I need to know the number of people in the group, both those who work and those who do nothing. And then….
(silence)
Of course, we could take very “drastic” steps.
Yes.
For instance, so many hours of work per day are required in order to be fed, or else you eat only if you pay for it.
Yes, Mother, it should be done. Because, you see, they are so
crafty that they all say they work: they putter around here and
there, they go to work on the Matrimandir for half an hour or
so…. So, to them, they’ve "worked." You see, they just putter
around.
(after a silence)
I suddenly felt I had lost my influence over those people. I tell them things — they couldn’t care less.
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You could speak to R. and see.
Yes, Mother…. But R. says, "Mother doesn’t want to interfere
. Mother doesn’t want to make any decisions." But I think
perhaps it’s up to him to make a decision.
But no one will listen to him. You see, I can’t make decisions anymore because they don’t listen to me. As long as they listened to me, it was easy — it was easy, there was an influence. Now, something has happened, I don’t have any authority at all anymore, so what can we do?[[Nor do we know what kind of report Mother was getting from the trio of intriguers who were already quarreling over the direction and funds of Auroville. Certainly there was a lazy group in Auroville, but that group quickly disappeared on its own. Is it a "lack of authority" over the Aurovillians or over the trio, whose rivalries were beginning to arouse the mistrust of the Aurovillians? ]]
Well, if you tell R., he will see that it’s done.
(Mother goes within for a long time)
We’ll have to find some way….
Mother, it seems to me you could call together those who are
responsible and take some decisions.
Yes, good idea.
(silence)
The trouble is that when several of them are here together, they talk among themselves, I don’t hear. So….
If it would help, I can be there.
I think it would.
(long silence
Mother goes within)
I really feel it is necessary to start again on a new basis and the
entire place must be swept clean of all those people. We have to
start afresh in a new location and make them work.
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Yes, but how about the accommodations?
In the meantime they could live in huts, which they would
build themselves.
But they’re in huts.
I mean with thatched roofs.
(silence)
I’ll see.
I’ll try to arrange something. I’ll tell you Saturday.
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