A friend asked me to share something in writing about the various groups I am in touch with that work on harmony in one form or another.
Synthesis
Synthesis was a forum of like-minded people troubled by the rapidly hardening polarization, who met in Matrimandir Gardens once a week. Very early, as the polarization developed, we invited four professional facilitators to meet with us. At that time we also had the naive idea of inviting people from the two perspectives to spend a long, facilitated weekend together to work out our difficulties. One of the facilitators was brave enough to state: “It won’t work.” At that point none of us had correctly gauged the intensity of the feelings of frustration, anger, resentment, or vindictiveness that had been generated among the community.
After some discussion as to what could be a workable process, we decided to invite people to meet over coffee in groups of four. Two would hold a safe and harmonious space, and the other two were to represent different points of view in spontaneous conversation. The discussions among different combinations of participants were more or less harmonious, but didn’t go deep enough to really get at essential issues. After a few attempts it was difficult to see if this approach was leading anywhere. However, it’s certain that people came together and identified other sympathetic Aurovilians with whom they could work later. This group rarely meets any more.
Way Forward
Way Forward is currently quite active dialoging about Prasad/Michael Bonke and their initiatives. Michael Bonke is a long-time friend of Auroville who has been instrumental in initiating and funding major projects in the community. Here’s a recent posting on the group: “I’ll be leading a small team of workers to help create a traffic-free and cow-free zone in front of Solar Kitchen. We’re hoping to turn this stretch into a lively little park space with furniture, artwork, sculptures, a water feature or fountain, and a children’s play area.”
People were invited to help, share ideas, be part of the creative flow, or simply be present.
We have no idea how this project will unfold, but at least there is some dialogue about it and meaningful inputs are coming from different people.
Attendance in meetings has been sparse, especially in the summer. From time to time there is a genuine exchange of views and there has been at least one coordinated action to come out of it. A small group was formed to ask YouthLink for their proposal related to a Vocational Training Center to serve the bioregion. The group of youth put together a PowerPoint presentation and were given a chance to verbally share it with several members of the Foundation Office team.
Nothing obvious came out of that, but several months later YouthLink was given charge of the Kailash project. [Ed: see The Kailash Story part 1 and part 2; and Kailash no more.] I have not been actively participating but I occasionally offer inputs. The original idea of the group was to keep adding people every week, which unfortunately didn’t prove workable.
Heartweaving
Heartweaving has been active for nearly three years. Recently Auroville Today wrote a long article about it (The Heartweaving experiment), and an introduction in 2023 (Heartweaving expansion). Raghu Ananthanarayanan, who coined the term and applies yogic principles in organisational and social development, described it as a place “where people with different perspectives would come together and, through sustained inner work, drop their resistances so that they could work together and manifest things harmoniously.”
In the meetings there is a steady and growing participation in creating a field where healing, reconciliation and eventually unity would be possible. It’s hard to evaluate, but most of the time I feel inspired when I leave the meetings and workshops. We have a safe space where there is a feeling of aspiration, willingness to learn and to explore together, and basic human trust.
We have experimented with all kinds of “dharmic action” (a favorite Heartweaving expression) including deep listening, role play, conscious dialogue, personal introspection, sharing, and being together in a harmonious way.
We’ve also had several workshops using movies such as “12 Angry Men” and “Groundhog Day” where we explore basic archetypes (like victim, judge, guardian and friend) as they are expressed in the films. Sometimes just being together with fellow Aurovilians is enough; other times there is a need to learn, to develop skills that will help us hold the conversations that sooner or later must take place. It’s a preparation, but each session stands itself as a conscious statement of our commitment to Auroville.
Potential of kindness
Kindness was a year-long project on kindness that had offerings nearly every month. The purpose was “to dive deeper into how acts of kindness impact the vibrant tapestry of our own Auroville community. We sought to understand what kindness means to our diverse members, what encourages them to offer or receive it, and what sometimes stands in the way. We were also curious to explore if factors like age, gender, or nationality added nuances to these experiences.”
I found our “small act of kindness” especially helpful. Each day for a week we did at least one small act of kindness for different categories of residents: someone already close, a neighbor, a stranger, someone with whom you have a difficulty, etc.
Taking time to actually bring a concrete act of kindness into the field of Auroville felt doable and gave a good feeling to both giver and receiver. In December 2025 a 52-page booklet was published, Portraits of Kindness. This free booklet contains nineteen inspiring and heartfelt stories and reflections about kindness from many perspectives.
Partho’s group
This group was an offshoot of a three-day silent retreat held at Verité led by Partho. At the end of the retreat some twenty people asked him if we could stay a bit longer and speak about what action could be taken. As a result, three years ago three or four of us started to meditate every Sunday at the Stone Circle in Matrimandir.
Partho proposed the following as a meditation.
“Sit and create vibrations of good will, peace, and harmony. That has power. Create the vibrations…call down peace. This will already have a healing effect. Do this together, consciously. Spread the virus of Light, vibrations of the Heart…These carry the sense of well-being, connection with the Mother.
The Matrimandir is a place for personal recharging of Psychic energies.
Infect the subtle atmosphere of Auroville. Create the vibrations.
This is spiritual warfare.
This is good will in face of bad will.
Bring peace in to face all of the disturbances.
Sit quietly for 15 minutes and concentrate as consciously as possible: bring vibrations of peace, love.
The 20 of you; this is the best way.
We have been following this guidance. It is a small effort to call down the atmosphere that will allow peace to manifest in our collective life.
Yoga Nidra
For years Aloka has led sessions of “Awareness Through the Body,” (ATB), a practice to develop concentration, relaxation, self-knowledge, and self-regulation in children and adults. ATB started in Auroville in 1992 to improve children’s posture, then quickly expanded into this larger process. It has continued to be practiced as a way to “study oneself.” Over time it has also included adults.
Recently Aloka began to call for us to use a collective sankalpa (Sanskrit for intention and focus). Recently she called for “clarity in the midst of confusion”. This is an extension of the approach to “cultivate the witness attitude: A positioning of our attention that watches and witnesses all the movements in our being, without judging, analyzing or getting caught by any of them.” It was timely as many of us are getting lost and confused as we navigate all the physical changes to the roads we use on a daily basis.
Prosocial
A number of Aurovilians took the Prosocial course and were inspired by it. For the past several months there has been a series of Prosocial workshops in Verité (which means they are also open to visitors and guests). I attended the first three which were about personal development (deep listening, having a difficult conversation, noticing when you are triggered), but last week’s was about governance. Several Heartweavers joined and we all found that indeed Prosocial has some tools which are helpful for Auroville.
Prosocial is a method that has been developed to help groups connect within themselves and with other groups in conscious and highly collaborative ways, ultimately creating caring, thriving and respectful communities. This method is being successfully used in places as diverse as governments, advocacies, corporations, gardening teams and intentional communities around the world. It is based on Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel prize-winning strategy of using the 8 core design principles that have been shown to be the backbone of successful communities over millennia. These principles have been adapted to meet the needs of any group working together, which is really the genius of this method.
From the time I first took up integral yoga, two of Sri Aurobindo’s aphorisms stood out for me and I kept them as guiding lights.
“If thy aim be great and thy means small, still act; for by action alone these can increase to thee.
Turn all things to honey; this is the law of divine living.”
In the last few years the way of action was at first unclear. I was stunned by outer circumstances and felt unable to act. Slowly, step by step small possibilities for action were revealed to me and I was brought in contact with others who were searching for a truer action that would bring healing and harmony to our community. It is an ongoing, shared research, which though personally and collectively challenging, has brought a lot of joy. This phase of our collective life is one of the richest and deepest I have yet experienced in Auroville. Although I am not able to understand much of what is unfolding, I am able to rest in that space of unknowing and can trust that all is an unfolding of a consciousness that is beyond my grasp.
By Suzie Odell