Articles

On Development and Service (28-07-2007)

Perhaps, when we promote ‘development’, we ought to be cautious and define with some care the nature and orientation of its movement.

There might be a real need to clarify how the future development of Auroville differs from the ‘development’ we see taking place all over the earth: this monstrous insanity that spreads like a plague and aims at coercing everyone into gaping, drooling submission, raving at the coveted things, seething with the bite of envy at those who ‘have it all’, vying and competing for a chunk, a morsel of bounty.

The development we have come here to promote together is that of Consciousness in Matter, nurturing its progressive expressions with care and respect, in the spirit of service and dedication.

There is no one to blame for the malevolent, rampant development that is presently ransacking the earth; the oil prince who can no longer count his money and blindly, compulsively invests it in the costliest properties and equipment is also a victim of it.
What is to blame is the choice one makes of the values one will honor in one’s physical existence.

We in Auroville know that we must learn to harness the power of money so that we can apply it to its rightful use: the creation of services and facilities of a material existence filled with respect, adoration and gratitude for the Presence, progressively free of all bondages.

For example, recently, a few Aurovilians offered themselves to start a Service for the Residents Assembly – a refreshing proposition on all counts; why can’t an Auroville earning unit fund directly that effort, thus applying the principle of transforming money-power into quality of life for all?...

Divakar