May 1, 2009
Compats, AVI Centers, IY Centers, individuals associated with Auroville and the practice of Integral Yoga,
I offer a Proposal for your respectful consideration.
Proposal Background
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Auroville residents suffered under the tyrannies, harassments, court cases and visa expulsions of the Sri Aurobindo Society (SAS). Rather than just remain passively "above" the fray, the AVI Centers, under the courageous leadership of Edith Schnapper, Joy Calvert and others chose to take appropriate action. This action took the form of letters and petitions sent by the various AVI Centers to Government of India Officials & Ministries. These AVI letters and petitions expressed both their support for AV's resident Community and their request for the Government to protect the Resident Community from SAS aggressions including court cases and expulsions.
Unfortunately, we find ourselves today repeating our history, this time in another form. For once again, certain members within the Ashram have chosen to resort to force to achieve their ends. For in the matter of Peter Heehs' book, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, these individuals have chosen to:
1.) Employ the tactics of an internet smear campaign, sent throughout India and abroad, explicitly designed to influence, bias and incite devotees against Peter and his book; and
2.) Unilaterally initiated civil and criminal court cases via proxies in Orissa against Peter and his book, charging among other things that the book defames Sri Aurobindo and portrays a romantic/sexual relationship with the Mother.
By choosing to immediately descend to these tactics, the individuals who instigated them re-enacted the same reactive patterns of the SAS, by-passing any attempt to first explore more conscious forms of communication as a means to resolve conflict and arrive at a more mutually-respectful synthesis. It is also important to note that these preemptive actions were neither condoned or supported by the Ashram Trustees. On the contrary, the Trustees refused to go along with such actions and behaviors that contradict the Ashram's own Code of Conduct. This Code of Conduct explicitly disapproves of resorting to Court Cases against fellow residents, providing arbitration as the appropriate avenue to resolve such disputes. Auroville also has a similar understanding that residents do not take other resident to Court. And would Auroville tolerate an internet smear campaign sent throughout India and abroad by one or more AV residents against another AV resident?
In view of this background and the precedents already set 30 years ago by Edith, Joy and the AVI Centers condemning earlier SAS aggressions which included Court Cases and slander against AV residents as means to achieve their ends, I propose the following:
Proposal
1.) Until Sraddhalu, Alok Pandey, Anand Reddy and others withdraw their Court Cases and slander campaign
against Peter, such individuals should not be invited, hosted or given visa support by AVI Centers or other Centers associated with our extended Integral Yoga Community.
2.) The moment that the Civil and Criminal Court Cases and smear campaigns are withdrawn, replacing this negative approach with a more enlightened level of communication, invitations, hosting and visa support can be re-extended to the individuals in question.
3.) Though this Proposal is formulated in response to the aggressive tactics employed against Peter in this specific case, it is not limited to or exclusively directed at the individuals mentioned in this case. The Principle of this Proposal would apply to all of us -- regardless of age, gender, culture or nationality -- who violate basic civil rights and codes of conduct among ourselves.
For how can we in good conscience invite any of us to lecture on Auroville or the Integral Yoga when those we invite are by their actions contradicting the harmony, unity, tolerance and integrality we aspire to model to the world? After all, don't we need to hold ourselves up to a higher standard of conduct and integrity, recognizing that our actions speak louder than our words? -- recognizing also that such actions will severely damage our credibility in the eyes of the Free World, perpetuating the impression that we are an ideological and religious cult despite our denials. For what will it say to others when they discover that our leading "teachers", speakers and representatives are filing court cases and conducting slander campaigns against fellow seekers as a means to impose their own ideas or suppress ideas with which they disagree? And what does it say about us -- about the fact that we are still rewarding these "teachers" by inviting and hosting them as if none of this is going on behind the scenes? Where is the "integral" in Integral Yoga?
I sincerely hope that all of you will give serious thought and consideration to this Proposal. For by escalating to court cases and destructive internet campaigns as the means to achieve our ends, I believe we have crossed an unacceptable borderline. In this light, this Proposal is intended to express in actions our unwillingness to accept and reward such practices; as well as to encourage those who have initiated such unacceptable actions to abandon them in favor of dialogue and more conscious forms of conflict resolution as the means to to heal and resolve such disputes. For the world has had enough of "do as I say but not as I do" teachers and preachers.
In conclusion, for those who have serious issues or concerns with the book in question, I respect and support your right to address and resolve those concerns. But are court cases based on exaggerated and distorted allegations the right remedy? After millions of years of human evolution, is this how a "new species" solves its problems?
Thank you for your time and attention in this matter. I look forward to the courtesy of some public reply from AVI Centers, forum members and others concerned with this serious issue.
~Savitra