And here’s to another court case lost! This time it’s Abha Tewari’s turn. She tried hard to play the card of authority and credibility, presenting herself as the daughter of an army general instead of the wife of a Frenchman (once women are married, they go by “wife of” instead of “daughter of”, but Abha assumed that being the daughter of a general would carry more weight with the Indian judge than being the wife of a Frenchman), and claiming from an asserted place of competence and rightful grievance that the Office Order of April 12th was unacceptable and would do a lot of harm to Auroville. In spite of her strong claims and loud statements, what has been obvious to everybody with some brain power and comprehensive reading skills left from the very start, was confirmed in the judgement: the Auroville Foundation Act 1988 gives the power to govern and organise Auroville to the Governing Board, and not to the Residents’ Assembly.
The verdict is very simple in fact: it quotes the two sections of the Auroville Foundation Act which list the powers and functions of the Governing Board and the functions of the Residents’ Assembly (quoted and discussed in episodes 17,48 and 49, but also found online here if you haven’t read the Auroville Foundation Act for yourself yet), and then simply concludes:
However, constitution of various committees for efficient discharge of duties and functions of Act is left exclusively to the Governing Board. Therefore, the contention of the petitioner that the Governing Board ought to have consulted the Residents' Assembly before reconstituting the various committees is untenable.
That’s short, simple and clear. The Governing Board governs Auroville, and in order to do so, has the right to constitute committees. The Residents’ Assembly has nothing to do with all that. Just as we have been saying all along, because that is exactly what the Auroville Foundation Act is saying since 1988. It’s not rocket science.
The importance of such court orders is that the whole absurd spin the Aurovillagers have given to the Auroville Foundation Act, and the claims they make about it, are now legally shown to be corruptions that don’t hold any ground.
The endless claims with which uninformed people are confused and pushed into sympathising with these “poor victims” are shown to be rubbish: there is no “RA FAMC”, no “RA TDC”, no “RA BCC”, no “RA Housing Service” or whatever other groups they claim to have. Obviously, their claim that these groups have any legal validity was always absurd: the Aurovillagers have no history of ever having created these groups. Only the Governing Board can show when and how it constituted these working groups. The “RA” gang has nothing at all: its virtual reality groups suddenly sprung into existence over the past year or two, because the Aurovillagers did not accept that the Governing Board had the right to change the members of its own committees, and simply kept “their” members suddenly as a shadow group, with no legal constitution or creation whatsoever.
This judgement confirms this, and also the fact that the Residents’ Assembly does not have the legal right to constitute committees that interfere or take part in the Governing Board’s governance of Auroville.
The absurdity of the claims and the messy situation that the Aurovillagers have created is now fully on display, for all to see. And this gradual exposure of their delusion will go on, until they have completely collapsed and are no longer part of Auroville.
There was even better news from the Madras High Court.
Together with Abha’s attempt to invalidate the Office Order, an almost greater debacle happened with Deepa McKenzie’s desperate attempt to block the construction of the Ring Road. This case was not even accepted, but dismissed without being heard, as it was too obviously making claims that are in flagrant contradiction with the most basic and central fact of Auroville: it does not belong to us.
Yes, we’re at the extremely low point where an Indian Aurovilian (married to an Englishman this time) disgraces and discredits herself by making the one claim nobody in Auroville could ever make: “but it’s mine!”
Deepa – pushed by others or completely brainwashed into believing this was all “for the greater good” – actually made a case out of the fact that she had invested in “her” house and that, by living there for a few decades, has “an emotional bond” with her house.
Yes, you read that right. An Aurovilian in Auroville now made the legal case that it was HER house and that the Ring Road had to go somewhere else because she is emotionally attached to HER house. It should strike everybody how unbelievably this action clashes with Auroville’s Charter, Auroville’s ideals, Auroville’s propaganda, Auroville’s meaning, Auroville’s definition, Auroville’s very existence and the reason why the Mother created Auroville in the first place. Everything Auroville was meant for, is the opposite of what Deepa McKenzie had the guts to claim in an Indian court of law.
Without even going into this more theoretical part of the argumentation, the case was dismissed off-hand because of the very plain, simple, basic and glaring fact that the land Deepa lives on belongs to the Auroville Foundation. This is not even a case of the Government acquiring private land for infrastructure development: it’s a case of the Auroville Foundation executing the Auroville Master Plan on its own land. The desperation of the Aurovillagers is now reaching rock bottom: trying to make a legal case out of a completely absurd claim that Deepa is suffering because she invested some money in a house that was built on Auroville land instead of her private land and now is emotionally attached to it, is almost pitiable.
The continuous flow of court cases not only shows their desperation, but also their financial backing: who has the money to pay for so many cases that are near-certain losses? Who funds all of this? Who is being pressured to provide the funds for this delusional enterprise?
I don’t know who it is, but one thing is obvious: whoever is funding this is pouring money into a bottomless pit, and the lawyers of the Aurovillagers must be loving every second of it.
Another sign of the Aurovillage cult’s total desperation is the fact that they refused to show the audience in the live-streaming of the follow-up virtual reality show of the “RAM” discussed in episode 55. The whole “RAD” is finished by now, and the numbers of participants is dropping so steeply that these people actually decided to not show the abysmally low support they have by now.
The live streaming is by now nothing more but an excuse for their so glorified “unique community processes”: the whole stream was a rushed exercise in getting the formalities over and done with, after which the cameras are turned off, and the real meeting starts: the cult talks to its members about how to remain loyal to the “cause”. This was already the case last time, but the mask is dropping here also: there’s no longer any energy to pretend that they are not conspiring against the Governing Board and the Secretary and her “servants”. As good conspirators, they know such delicate issues have to be discussed off-camera, and since the cult-gathering is the real reason for the meeting, the live stream is now a formality that needs to be hastily dealt with, to leave enough time for lavish amounts of copium about how the next court case is going to be the golden ticket that will materialise their mythical superhero Saviour Judge and his DreamStreamWeaving powers, which will tie up their delusion to July 2021, and magically undo all that happened over the pasts two years.
Look at the court cases they launch and tell me this is an exaggeration of their mindset and belief system.
The situation they are in is a total fix: damned if you do, damned if you don't. They have to show that they are honest, but how do liars show that? It's impossible. So with every action, they show more and more that their beautiful words and emotional outcries are not sincere: the interested public starts to notice how forced and unnatural their behaviour becomes, and over time, the cracks widen, the nasty reality seeps out more and more, and the mask slips off more often and becomes harder to keep in place. Certainly with older people in the lead roles, this is a very sad and embarrassing spectacle.
If they would be sincere and dignified, they would have nothing to hide. They would be able to simply go about their usual dealings, and would precisely be wanting to show the world what is really happening here. Honest victims who are falsely accused will invite the public to check them out, to follow them through their day, to prove their innocence.
The opposite is happening in Aurovillage: there is more and more secrecy, publications take more and more time to prepare, and the streaming of their last meeting was a short, rushed, mechanic “going through the motions”, and cut off when the real, serious, factual discussion was going to start. How revealing is that? The other meeting also cut off when information was being shared with a meeting of the former “forest group” with the FAMC and Madam Secretary. They had even filmed that “forest group” meeting, and claimed afterwards, when FAMC asked for the recording, that they had deleted it and that not a single copy remained.
How silly is all this? How immature? How insincere? And how revealing of their true intentions?
It’s very sad to watch in fact. Here are old hippies, having surfed on a wave of self-created propaganda for several decades, suddenly being confronted with the total collapse of their so successful narrative of being so very special: they now stand naked in the field, still self-glorifying, with nothing but a very nasty reality to show for: there’s nothing but lies, greed, self-aggrandisement and claims to possession. The creature Gollum comes to mind: the reality of people consumed by their own delusion is not a pleasant sight. To cope with this collapse of their kingdom, the Aurovillage cult leadership has been trying to convince their followers that all is still totally going well, by sending them several communications over the past weeks. They try to keep their membership from seeing the water flow into the sinking boat, and pretend that all is still going well and they’re not going to just drown.
The following is their message after the last losses in court. Notice immediately how they do not even mention the disgrace of Deepa’s WP being rejected from the start. It’s clear this message is not about informing their followers, but about keeping the narrative and the belief afloat.
Dear community,
Yesterday, 23rd August 2023, the recent judgement regarding the case filed by a resident to quash the office order of April 12th, replacing executives to various units, trusts and services, was posted online (attached).
As this judgement is not in our favour, we are consulting with our lawyers to explore all options and decide on the next course of action.
"Not in our favour"? They clearly couldn’t get themselves to write the simple truth that “we completely lost this”.
Once more, the loss seems to have no impact on their belief in their misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the Auroville Foundation Act, even though it is shown to them that it is legally untenable. They keep feeding their faithful cult members the idea that somehow, one day, miraculously, superhero Saviour Judge will come and prove to the ignorant world that what the Auroville Foundation Act actually says is not what it is meant to have said.
It’s really painful to watch how these cult leaders obstinately force their followers to believe that reality isn’t real.
I challenge them to appeal this verdict. It will be all but impossible, as it is very simple and clear and based on the real text of the Auroville Foundation Act. They are totally losing their credibility with every case they launch, and an appeal to this verdict, if they even try it, will almost certainly be rejected off-hand: what argument is left here to make? “But we don’t like it like this!”?
We are still hopeful that we can address this situation through legal means. We would also like to remind everyone that the legal route is made of ups and downs, and we assure you all that we fully trust the work of our lawyers as we go forward.
The lawyers will be the last persons to object to this bonanza! But what argumentation will they be able to create in exchange for their hefty fees? What is going to be the result? What can they still actually DO in court, other than lose face and get told each time more clearly: “you are wrong”?
What else is this all but just some copium to make sure their Aurovillage members keep up believing against all reason in the advertisement line: “One Day Saviour Judge Will Come From The Sky And Kick Some Ass”. It’s desperate beyond belief.
We take this opportunity to remind you that another very important court case, the Secretary's appeal on the 12th August 2022 judgement (Working Committee case), is scheduled to come up for hearing today, 24th August.
Yes, and that hearing was again adjourned, as it probably will be for a few times more. This circus of Aurovillage delusion isn’t very high on India’s priority list, to be honest. Scandalous, I know, but what to do ah…
We invite everyone to remain hopeful and to keep aspiring fully, with an unshakable faith that She is leading the way through something new and unprecedented, and that this churning may be instrumental in the continued manifestation of Auroville to its fullest and highest potential.
Well, there’s not much to disagree with here! It sure is an unprecedented phase in Auroville’s history, and Aurovillage and its arrogant colonials will not play a role in it other than the bad guys being unmasked! And for sure, this is all a transition towards the real Auroville, Mother’s Auroville, so that it will be able to manifest as soon as possible.
I wonder if they will keep up this faith through the coming decades, when they will finally have lost the last case and will have to ultimately accept the fact that their rule over Auroville is really never ever going to come back.
We will keep you updated as the situation continues to unfold.
We sure will, me too!
With love, hope and prayers,
“and tons of desperation,”
Your RA Working Committee
Aravinda, Bharathy, Chali, Hemant, Mael (TOS), Sauro, Valli
Certainly not “my” Working Committee, and in fact no real Aurovilian’s: they are a virtual group of random people, with even a person who has been kicked out of India – they claim Maël is “TOS” (Temporarily Out of Station) while in reality, he is “POS” (Permanently Out of Station).
On July 18th, 2023, this same clique sent a longer message around, trying hard to keep people from running away and giving up on Aurovillage altogether. Most of the “huge” following they had at the start of the rebellion (remember the jubilant cries of “historical voter turn-out” which meant that some 35% of their “official” Auroville population count was supporting their calls for violent opposition to the urgently needed changes and development – see episode 18) has by now dropped out of the active cult membership, and with almost nobody interested in actively taking part in their self-destruction, desperate attempts to keep their self-appointed leadership worshipped by the Auroville population are undertaken.
Open letter from the RA WCom: Upholding the Auroville we love
That’s off to a good start… “The Auroville we love” is obviously Aurovillage, the anti-Auroville that has corrupted everything the Mother ever said and wished for, in order to create their personal kingdoms and cult. According to these people, THAT needs to endure and go on.
Dear residents,
It’s been over a year since you selected us to be your representatives.
They immediately again appropriate all of the residents as their cult members. In reality, only a few dozen of Auroville’s residents were involved in this “selection”. So they either sent this email accidentally to endlessly more people than they intended, or they suffer of megalomania and have in their delusion conflated these few Aurovillagers with all the residents of Auroville. In any case: me and almost all other Aurovilians had nothing to do with this “selection”, and the opening statement of the email is therefore already a blatant lie.
Much has happened since then: the courts have been approached, the takeovers have continued, and the situation has reached unprecedented intensities.
“The courts have been approached” sounds very passive and vague: was that not a deliberate, conscious choice and act of the very same people who sent us this email? Was it something that just happened, like rain or a thunderstorm: nobody is responsible for those, they just happen? Obviously, THEY themselves approached the courts, wilfully, and in total contradiction of everything they have always put up as the main rule of Aurovillage: “conflicts will be dealt with internally!” Going to the police was a cardinal sin in Aurovillage: their power was based on the propaganda narrative they always maintained so meticulously, and going to the police or something like that would bring very much unwanted negative publicity to their cult dealings, which was to be avoided at all costs.
Now that they lost their thrones, suddenly going to court seems to be a noble thing, something to encourage and boast about.
The fact that “the situation has reached unprecedented intensities” is purely of their own doing: nobody asked them to start a rebellion against the Government of India, being Westerners on a visa. Every simpleton could have predicted that such arrogance would not end well, and that stuff would get tough if they not only refused cooperation, but decided to actively fight the legal powers and try to get their colonisation legalised in the 21st century.
Whatever misery they are in, is of their own making and choosing. It’s not possible to have pity with people who, against all rationality, advice and logic, insist on digging their own graves.
We are exhausted and pained by the state of affairs Auroville is going through; but we continue to stand on a daily basis for a greater purpose, that of Auroville’s realisation as envisioned by the Mother.
Welcome to the club. It’s hard to describe how emotionally exhausting it was to live in Aurovillage. That is why most people simply ran away over the years. Thousands of them, apparently.
However, if these Aurovillagers really stood for Mother’s Auroville, they would now feel elated and encouraged, because it’s clear that what is happening is a push to get back to the roots of Auroville, to its raison d’être; it’s a resourcing, a fresh impetus to put the requirements of the Mother for Aurovilians at the centre of Auroville’s daily life. That is not something to lament or cry over, unless, of course, it is not what you want.
Objectively, everyone can see that what is being changed is the personal, individual claims to ownership of plots of Auroville land, and the claim to the power to decide about Auroville that a handful of people had grabbed for themselves. That is however not a “greater purpose” by any stretch of the imagination, but the total opposite. It’s exactly what Auroville was meant to remedy, instead of foster.
We are proud and grateful to be representing the Auroville community – and its unique set of diversities, its land of experimentation and innovation, its fertile playground for the advent of a new consciousness.
One can only burst out laughing when reading such idiocies. It is obviously factual that these people do NOT represent “the Auroville community”: they would not have to write such desperate lamentations if they actually did, and there would be nothing to lament over in the first place: there would only be reasons to rejoice and celebrate the fact that the renewed interest of the Government of India is giving a great boost to finally build the city the Mother wanted to have at the very earliest, in a few years in fact, when she founded Auroville, no less than 55 years ago.
These people only represent a small cult that is not able to cope with the fact that its life has come to an end, with the fact that the cult has been exposed for what it is, and that it therefore can no longer exist. Well, it isn’t the first cult that collapses, and it won’t be the last. They can find comfort with victims of former cults that one day ceased to exist because the members woke up from their delusional and glorifying narrative (“its unique set of diversities, its land of experimentation and innovation, its fertile playground for the advent of the new consciousness”: how self-inflated do you need to be to describe your corrupt Aurovillage in such terms?) and had to accept the nasty reality they had pushed away for so long. It’s not a big deal, really, unless you want it to be.
We are well aware that there is fear circulating among many, sometimes even despair, and that much hope is projected on the outcome of our court cases.
Look, a spark of insight that reality is not what they claim it is! The highly spiritual and enlightened beings are filled with fear and despair, who’d have thought? I suppose we all can learn a lot from this very exemplary spiritual community made up of experts and real yogis. Their claims, not mine!
And yes, here’s the admission: superhero Saviour Judge is the only grace that will come and save them, not the Mother of course. HE is the one delusional and immature hope they have left to ever get their power and kingdoms back and keep the cult narrative afloat.
We share this hope and pray that we can announce good news soon, keeping in mind that the legal route is often long and made of ups and downs.
Well, we’re one-and-a-half month later, and they’ve already received a double whammy, so the good news will remain in the future and not be any day “soon”. The legal route for them was, due to the newness of the circumstances, first two ups and then an avalanche of downs, taking the ups with them. Let’s hope they have a plan B ready to explain that to their cult members.
However, we must emphasize that the courts cannot build the Auroville of tomorrow.
Oops. Another uncomfortable admission.
The most logical question then is: why then did you run to the courts in the first place? To preserve the Aurovillage of yesterday perhaps?
This incredible Dream that we are all here to serve must be safeguarded and further manifested with our joint efforts, and our collective holding.
Read it, and read it again. The thought that is expressed here is that these people, these very individuals, they and apparently they alone, are the guardians of the Mother’s Dream.
How arrogant is such a statement? Who on earth can claim to be essential to and the guardian of an endeavour that belongs to humanity as a whole? Why would the Dream need these people in the first place? Obviously, Auroville needs people. But which individual persons these people are has to be irrelevant somehow, as it is an impersonal endeavour, a project that vastly surpasses all individual attempts and achievements.
It is exactly THAT for which Auroville was founded: to create a place, a location where a collective project can take place, can be anchored, so that it can exist in spite of individual capacities and realisations. Auroville is meant to be exactly the place where small selfish notions, but also personal aspirations and spiritual successes, are offered into the collective melting pot, the collective aspiration, the collective ascension. The greater, vaster entity of the collective consciousness, the collective being has to be the body that matters here, the only focus of everyone’s attention. Auroville is par excellence the place where individual acclaim should be meaningless and not exist: it is meant to create a collective that is not a grey, anonymous blob, but certainly not the sum of some well-defined individuals: it has to become a new entity made up of whoever wants and can be part of this collective, which has to get its form from the strength of the combined individual offerings merged together. The ideal is that this collective being grows so strong, that it uplifts and influences its members, and that the people who are not ready to offer themselves to it, cannot remain a part of it (and by doing so would bring it down again). A collective entity that has its own, vast personality, and which has grown to a higher consciousness so that it can radiate its benefits and inspiration to the whole world.
Obviously, the attraction of cults is exactly the same: feeling one, losing one’s individuality in a group that claims to be special and bathes in a narrative of exceptionalism and great achievements, is a very huge emotional drug. The darkness of a cult is that it is not this warm spiritual family where everybody is welcomed and appreciated as they are, but in reality is a very dark place where people get trapped and locked up by some self-obsessed elite, or spit out and abused if they do not adhere to the cult narratives of how special the cult leaders are and how lucky the members are to be part of this exclusive club. And which sends out messages to its members like this one.
We know that much responsibility lies on the shoulders of the Working Committee, and we are committed to play the role that is ours in this greater Play of the Divine. However we cannot carry all of this alone. We hope this situation that Auroville is now facing can foster the emergence of a collective leadership, and of new initiatives that will help manifest the next positive step in Auroville’s evolution.
And here we are. The admission of the cult leaders that without a cult following, there is no cult! Oy veh oy veh!
Instead of having faith that whatever happens on the ground, the Mother is the only Leader of this project, and that She is doing whatever She feels needed for the development of Her project, they are now scrambling to keep their cult membership together in the belief that whatever the cult leaders say and do is the way forward for Auroville.
“We need you and your submission to us!” is the clear admission of a very low consciousness and a very earthly aspiration. Because let’s be clear: they are calling for endorsement and a following, NOT for other people to move Auroville forward. THAT is namely exactly what happened and what they went to court against: Auroville was given a new leadership and a fresh energy to move forward, and they didn’t like it one bit, in spite of all their claims to having “Auroville’s interest” at heart.
The mobilisation of all is essential if we wish to constructively move forward. Many today do not dare express their perspectives for fear of consequences. Some could believe that the Secretary’s intimidation approach has been horrendously effective; but on the other hand, even today while being targeted with legal consequences, cutting of funds or expulsion threats, many of us remain committed to standing for Auroville’s purpose and mission of Unity in Diversity. Alone we are only raindrops, but together we can form a river of souls, united by the same quest and the same thirst for a new reality.
See, with every line they write, with every action they take and have to take, they reveal their hypocrisy.
With these lines, it has become obvious that this “comforting” email is in fact nothing but a very ordinary recruitment campaign: “we need you to keep fighting our battle so we can stay in power! Do not desert us! Keep the cult together, keep believing that we will save you, because if you don’t give us power, we have none!!!”
All the beautiful words are only excuses to make sure the old situation remains or comes back. It’s impossible to not see how the future is what they hate and fear, and that the past is the only thing they care for: read their court cases: they are overflowing with claims that change is emotionally unbearable, that the past 30-40-50 years are holy and special, and need to remain untouched. The past situation CANNOT be changed, it’s sacrilege, it’s blasphemy, it’s a legal crime that needs to be acknowledge and punished by the National Green Tribunal or the Madras High Court.
So here is our request to all: let us remain faithful, despite the waves of despair and anguish that come our way. Let us remain active and courageous, for what is really asked from us in these times of uncertainty is to fully embody the ideals for which we have dedicated our lives, the values and ideals of Auroville, so that they may continue to be manifested upon Earth.
You see? “SO THAT THEY MAY CONTINUE”.
Read it over and over again. What they claim is that THEY are Auroville and its values, they alone, and that without them, the Earth, no less, will lose these values!
Seriously, how can one read this and not be flabbergasted by their self-aggrandisement, their astronomical self-importance, the fact that they claim that Auroville does not exist, cannot exist without them?
For crying out loud, what cultish idiots. Will Auroville collapse if I, Lieve, am no longer in Auroville? Could I be so delusional as to think something as stupid as that? I have lived in Auroville always in the knowledge that my visum could be revoked at any moment, that if one day I don’t get a “maintenance” (Auroville’s form of monthly allowance to pay for one’s sustenance), I would have to leave and go live and work somewhere else, and frankly, in the faith that it was the Mother who called me to Auroville, and that She could expel me at any moment She found I wasn’t useful for Her project anymore. The idea that I personally am somehow important, let alone essential, for Auroville is counter to my very understanding of Auroville as the Mother’s project.
Every action matters: documenting the wrongdoings of the Secretary’s office and appointees and keeping the RA working groups informed, standing as quiet witness to ongoing destruction, sharing one’s perspectives in the RA News&Notes, initiating and signing petitions and statements, supporting working groups with their many tasks and responsibilities, coordinating emergency responses to the continued takeovers, taking part in conversations about building tomorrow’s Auroville, supporting financially those who have been targeted with a maintenance or budget cut, encouraging those who stand on the front line, finding creative new ways to explore Auroville’s resilience and future… So much can be done if we are together!
And just when you thought it couldn’t sink any lower, here we go! They will always prove us wrong in thinking we’ve reached the bottom of the pit.
“Go DO something for us! Go spy on your neighbours! Go take pictures (with a newspaper heading to show the date) of whatever anybody does in Auroville, and make a big stink out of it by loudly claiming it is all wrong and detrimental and corrupt!! Go infect newcomers’ brains with the Aurovillage narrative, convince them that we are the Special Chosen Ones and the Secretary is the Devil Incarnate!! Go from door to door like Jehovah's Witnesses to spread the Gospel of Aurovillage and its Holy Pioneers!! And above all: BRING MONEY!! Beg money out of everybody you know!! Give us all you have!! We need more money!! You think these court cases are cheap?? Go be useful instead of just hanging around here and having a cosy life in the paradise that WE planted and that belongs to US!! So much can be done for us when you just do what we say!!!”
Let us keep praying, let us keep acting.
This is also our Karma yoga.
Oops. Karma yoga in Aurovillage: do stuff for your cult leadership. “Stop doubting. Stop asking questions. Be the willing servitor of your leaders’ consciousness!”
Faithfully,
“You see? WE have faith in ourselves! Why do YOU not have faith in us??”
Your RA Working Committee
Aravinda, Bharathy, Chali, Hemant, Maël (TOS), Sauro, Valli
“Your cult leaders. The sorry, desperate lot that won’t have any power unless you give it to us. Which you should. Because we are Aurovillage.”
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