Auroville Arrival

Beginning.

I arrived in Pondicherry at 4am. from Bangalore and decided to stay awake at the bust station until it was light out. The touts, like sharks, waited for me to give in. I didn't. I arrived at Sadahana Forest at about 7am. The place was empty. Strange. As it turns out, I came to Auroville on the day of "The Mother"'s birthday. The Mother is Auroville's foundational pillar of philosophy. Her writings, teachings, and lectures are all recorded and many of the people here consider them to be scripture. More on that later. I was greeted by about six people cooking breakfast in one of the huts. As a side note - Sadhana Forest is vegan. We are also not allowed to bring in any non-vegan food - so it's a good thing I stocked up on "Skippy "Natural" Crunchy Peanut Butter" because the hydrogonated stuff wouldnt be allowed here. So anyway - I joined them for a delicious breakfast which was comprised of a huge amount of freshly cut papayas, bananas, pomegranates, and pineapple. This was in addition to the main course of a porridge like substance called "Ragi" (which is actually just a local variety of millet) combined with Jaggery (natural sugar), roasted peanuts, coconut, and bananas. As I later discovered - this is the breakfast everymorning - switching off between Ragi and Rice Porridge and Acid fruits and sweet fruits. Absolutely Delicious. I jumped right into cutting fruit and was immediately welcomed by the group. There is something quite special about this place that I noticed from those first minutes. Everyone smiles - a lot - and if you see an unfamiliar face - one is quick to introduce themselves with a welcoming handshake, hug, and or head waggle.

Intro.
The whole community is green. There are about 10 huts in total. All the electricity is run on solar power. We pee and poo in separate receptacles in order to keep the poo dry so it is easy to compost. Water coolers are located around the forest for hand-washing with biodegradable soap - but they are placed right next to trees or small garden plots so no water is lost in the process of washing. I sleep in a hut of about 8 people, the main dorm holds about 20-30. Every person signs up for jobs throughout the week so that everyone is very involved in the community. Upon arrival - you pay 100 rupees per day for food. The goal of the community is to become totally self-sustainable so they can grow their own food and not have to charge volunteers.

The Basics.
So heres the usual schedule during the week (weekends are free).
5:45am wake up - this week has been Tom on guitar singing an original tune about "lovely people come meet the day, it's the best day of your life"
6:30 - first work starts - this involves going out to the forest to dig holes/build bunds, cleaning, or as I have been doing this week since I'm on fire duty - breakfast time
8:30 - breakfast
9:30 - second work - garden work/lunch duty/ toilet clean
11:30 - second work is over - at this point I go jump in the mud pit, cover myself in mud and lie in the sun till lunch
12:30pm - lunch
1:00-5:30 - free time or duty work - including filling water containers around the premise
5:30 - dinner
6:00 - do whatever you want till sleep - time

People.
There are currently about 50 people living at Sadhana Forest. The nationalities include a lot of Americans, a lot of Israelis, French, Canadian, Australian, British, Italian, and German. The two who started this place are Aviram and Yorit, two Israelis. They started it four years ago and they have two children, one born this February. They are quite incredible and Aviram's knowledge of the land and wish to create a strong community is unrivaled.

Extracurriculars.
There is so much to do in the community here - which is probably one of the most attractive reasons for coming. Workshops in everything you could possibly imagine happen all the time. So far, on my second night I went to a concert of just a djembe and guitar player - there were about 50 people there in this beautiful round room with high ceilings and amazing acoustics - and everyone was dancing. In the same spirit of Jazz Night back at Vassar - people danced on their own flowing beautiful dynamism - or - did contact improvisation! I felt right at home there. The concert ended by everyone holding hands and spiraling into the center, kind of imagine hava nagila/barmitzvah where a kid is hoisted on a chair kind of thing - without the chair but plenty of circling. Everyone then got real close and started chanting OM over and over and over again. I could feel the vibrations surging through the room as there were deep voices, high voices, and all of it concentrated on the middle of the circle. This went on for about ten minutes. When it all quieted down - no one said a word. everyone remained silent and the two people in the very middle were crying. it felt like we had all participated in some sort of healing for those people. People hugged. We remained silent exiting the building.

I have since then attended two other contact improv dances - one with about twenty people - one with only eight. Within this experience, I am realizing I still have a lot to learn. But this sort of physical exploration is quite exciting.

I also participated in a very powerful, actually the most powerful meditation I have ever done. Now I know some of you will laugh at this, but I swear it was incredible. The deal was called "Rebirthing". Now the title is a bit misleading. We do not get hosed down with KY jelly and put through a large matress-lined PVC tube and fall into a kiddie pool below. But rather it is just a deep breathing exercise used to clear energy blocks in the body that have been built up over time. We were led through this meditation through two people who have led sessions for over three years. At its basics - you through the mouth - first filling the stomach, then the chest with air and then blowing it out through the same motions. The speed is steadily increased and increased until you have a very rapid, but deep breathing going. It was conducted in the middle of the forest, away from the base camp and others. We did a few activities to get warmed up - such as introducing ourselves as the person next to us, free movement, blindfolded led hand exploration, and a silent meditation. We were then laid down next to each other in two rows with our heads towards the middle and commenced the breathing. I won't go too much into my experience - but people cried, screamed, yelped, laughed hysterically, felt like their body was very tight, and hands folded into themselves and unable to get them undone - to name a few - but many people forgot what happened. We did the actual breathing for an hour and forty minutes - it felt like only 20. They had separated their minds from their bodies and went somewhere else - but were brought back down through the guiding touches of the two who guided us through the experience. I don't know if I am doing a good job of articulating this experience - but I think it's one of those things in life that has to be experienced for oneself to grasp it's genuine meaning.

So this is a very long post. Whoa. I probably left out a lot of details because things built up and built up. If there are gaps. Let me know and I'll fill in on the next post.

Also, for pictures from the Haiku Festival - http://web.mac.com/vjyoti/ananda-haiku/Ananda_at_Bangalore.html
You can see me and my beard in picture titled "audience "