To participate in the evolution of consciousness

Why does someone give themselves to a spiritual goal and purpose? What does it look like internally as well as externally?

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Written May 2023

I share here with you, very briefly, the story of my coming to Auroville. Thank you for reading it.

In October 1971 I arrived at Bombay searching for a Guide who would help me to live a more conscious life. With two friends we began visiting different Ashrams and, in January 1972, we arrived at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.

We had the grace to be received by The Mother and that put an end to my travels and my search. I had found my Guru and decided to remain in the Ashram near The Mother. I lived there for 16 years practicing, as best as I could, the yoga of Sri Aurobindo while working in the Ashram schools and doing translations from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.

Then, in 1988 we left the Ashram and went to live in Catalonia for the next three years, and in October 1991 Mother’s dream: “There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of good will who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme truth: a place of peace… ” called us back to Auroville. Since then we (myself and my family) have been living here.

I chose to come to Auroville to participate in the adventure of the evolution of consciousness. I wanted to be part of the transition towards the New Being of which Auroville, Mother tells us, is the cradle. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have brought down on Earth a Higher Force which will bring the human species to a step higher. I wanted (and want) to become a tool of their Force.

I work with the body. Exploring it and becoming aware of all the possibilities the body has, and has always been, my way to contact the deepest in me, the way to align all the different parts of my being around the Essence, the Presence inside myself.

Since I came to Auroville I have been working with my body and, through my body, to gain awareness, to expand the consciousness. With a friend of mine we created and developed Awareness Through the Body, a programme to offer tools to the children who attend the schools of Auroville, to help them discover who they really are, and thus be able to manage themselves more effectively and consciously. Since 1992 Awareness Through the Body has been part of the curriculum of the Auroville schools. Later on we started to offer this programme to adults too, here in Auroville and elsewhere in the world.

I am in Auroville to continue my path in The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo. Here the Force for this endeavour is much more accessible than anywhere else in the world, and even in moments of difficulty, like the one we are transitioning now, the Force is always there and helping us to grow. I am extremely grateful to the Life that has brought me to The Mother and Sri Aurobindo,

I am extremely grateful for the existence of Auroville, and I thank India for having made space for Auroville to be.

By Aloka, Sangha, Auroville