The Solitude Farm in Auroville, is a 'food forest'. This is one of the few English terms that is difficult to express in German with a compound noun (Esswald?). We don't have anything like that, and it's hard to think about. A fruit meadow that we would let run wild with other edible annuals and short-lived plants until we have a dense jungle of nothing but edible plants ... I'm looking for a word for that. It's the opposite of a 'food dessert', we don't have a compound word for that in German either, it means a part of town where there are no stores selling fresh food. The only things that exist in urban 'food desserts' are gas stations and kiosks that sell chip bags and candy, stale toast and chemical cheese.

Tamil

Krishna gave a short talk. His enthusiasm for the project, which he has been pursuing for over 20 years, was unmistakable, passionately palpable. Krishna is from England, speaks fluent Tamil and often had to find English words for Tamil words. The Tamil culture has not only grown close to his heart, but he seems to be deeply rooted in it. And that is exactly what his core message is. We have thousands of years of knowledge about what grows in the environment in which we live, what we can eat, how we can prepare it, the nutritional and energetic value of plants and the healing effects they can have.

Grandmother's knowledge

Our grandmothers had this knowledge, we still have it somewhere inside us, but we have forgotten it. Nature has more to offer us than our chemical inventions, if we let it do its work and only guide it a little here and there. His core message: activate the old knowledge, let nature do its thing, handle the fruits responsibly, collectively and ecologically....

Krishna draws inspiration from Masanobu Fukuokaa pioneer of permaculture. He met him many years ago in Japan and saw his "do-nothing agriculture" with his own eyes; he carries on his spirit. You can only enter his edible forest barefoot - any child would have known that in the past. As he talks - wandering through the small forest of 1 to 2 hectares - he picks leaves, eats them and calls them by Tamil names. His voice is overflowing with enthusiasm about the richness of the small forest. Most of the plants came by themselves. He doesn't know the word weed. A friend in Auroville brought a piece of land that had been so degraded in the 20th century that it was nothing more than a stony desert into the state of an edible forest within five years. It was a lot of work, but rewarding and sustainable.

The food box principle enables farmers to live much better, and the community and nature are also better off.

Learning

A group of students from Pondicherry were there that day with their lecturer. They wanted textbook knowledge. 'Use your campus to grow vegetables for the canteen, encourage your students not to eat at the fast food chains just outside the campus, ask your grandmothers. The knowledge is there, you just have to use it,' was his answer. Otherwise, he would of course be happy to give various workshops on practical procedures.

The old woman, who was born here in the country and sat on the floor in the background, didn't understand English. She knows what to do.

I am still at a loss for words. The last few days have been characterized by thoughts about the Vedic scriptures. A companion from another life took me to visit Nishtha Muller, an Aurovillian who has dedicated his life to the Vedic scriptures. In his very modest accommodation in the forest that he planted himself, he spent almost two hours telling us about Sanskrit, its roots, grammar, pronunciation, the deep spiritual power of the mantras, the cultural history and historical dimension. His remarks on the power of the word have stuck with me the most. In the beginning was the word... which is of course sound. In the Vedic tradition, thousands of years of oral tradition preceded the written word. The mantras are written in rhythmic verses and are arranged in a logical or narrative sequence to make them easier to remember. The method of recitation has been handed down very precisely over many millennia. These mantras therefore bear witness to the beginning of the Word. In the beginning was the word... words, sound, sound production, memory, common recitation, worship of the gods. Perhaps this is the origin of consciousness. OM.

Yoga

These texts are yoga, the yoga of the body and Ayurvedic philosophy are part of this primordial ground. That companion from another life strongly advises me to learn Sanskrit and yoga. And from the masters here, not the new age bloggers. With these thoughts in my heart, I accompanied her and a group from the guest house to Tiruvannamalai.

Tiruvannamalai

The Ramana Maharshi Ashram is located in Tiruvannamalai. Ramana Maharshi lived in a cave and meditated for many years. There is only a small text about him: Who am I. Otherwise, recordings of other people's conversations. His statement that reading is not really necessary because all essential texts ultimately say the same thing disturbs me. I partly understand why he thinks that, but I'm not sure if you should say that. It sounds very arrogant.

Quite different Arunachaleswara Temple. I am still speechless here. Photos and video recordings are not allowed, but audio is, so here is a short clip from inside the temple complex:

Tiruvannamalai

Many films feature good hotels that are centrally located and where the political, intellectual and economic elite meet. I always perceived this as something very elitist, colonial and power-hungry. What escaped me in the films, and was probably rarely a topic there, is the networking that takes place in such places. Now, the Center Guesthouse in Auroville can hardly be compared to a luxury hotel in a metropolis, even though it is a very nice place that is welcoming, friendly and makes life easy.

Rather, the Center Guest House is a place of encounter. Every day I meet new people here who have a strong relationship with Auroville - this relationship can be spiritual, supportive or friendly. It is quite amazing what it means to be in a place like this. Every day I learn new things about Auroville and the impact it has on the world. There is a lot of German, English, French, Hindu and Tamil spoken.

Two worlds intertwine here: the world of the Tamils and the world of the mostly Indian and European visitors. These worlds are ultimately connected spiritually. I rented my scooter from a Tamil, he gave me a 'student price' because we are all students of the mother here. It is remarkable that the two worlds here are moving towards each other, united in the will to build something new.

The Devine Life

I read on and on in Sri Aurobindo's book, a lot is explained here: the basics of consciousness, spirituality, the self, being. Aurobindo explores the big questions and does so with maximum openness, accompanied by reason, but not reduced to it. He places reason and intuition in a symbiotic relationship and points out that we can learn a lot from the Upanishads.

The exciting thing is that Aurobindo's philosophy can also be felt in the Central guest house. The people, the architecture, the forest, the birds and other animals, the conversations and offerings, the cooking and the silence, the solidarity of the people, the respect, a common goal, the trust in a sense of purpose, the satisfaction and devotion, and the richness in modesty are the keyboard for Aurobindo's philosophy.

Auroville CGH

My perception changes when I arrive in India. The smell, the sounds, the slowness, the intuition, the acceptance, the hope are wonderful things that I see. Others may see stench, noise, inefficiency, irrationality and doom and despair. I think it is this different view that allows me to feel comfortable in India.

So I have had some wonderful experiences. I learned that different people have different perspectives on the same things. I learned by going from A to B and back to A and back to B ..... It's day three in my adventure to become part of Auroville. I get up at 6:30 in the morning and the birds sing loud and funny. I watch the young woman who picks flower buds from the garden every morning for Shiva to decorate the statue. Ganesha is also given a stick of incense and an oiling. Breakfast is wonderful, always freshly cooked and mildly spiced. I read and think about Aurobindo.

I now have a SIM card and a scooter too, so I drove around Auroville a bit. First to the library, then to the forest, lunch at the Solarkitchen.

So far I've found vegetarian food, you can't buy alcohol here. But sometimes you see a bottle of whisky by the roadside, there is certainly no supervision. However, I notice that there are police booths at the entrances to Auroville, but they can also be found all over India in the middle of a highway, for example. It feels very colonial.

There's not much going on at the moment, the event list is manageable https://events.auroville.org.in/ and what else you can do here can be found here https://www.auroville.com/blog/category/auroville. I am looking forward to the exhibition on Aurobindo and the SVARAM sound experiments.

Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfasse. The architect Roger Anger developed the city plan for it. It is based on a cosmic spiral nebula. The land that was made available to Auroville was a dry plateau. A forest has been planted since the early years. There is a nice, slow documentary about it (Ever Slow Green (2020) - S.O.S. from Auroville (now), 2021.)

Now I have slept in this forest for the first night. The Auroville Center Guest House is a magical place. There are no glass windows, just mosquito nets. You feel as if you are sleeping outside, surrounded by countless birdsong. This forest seems to have achieved a huge biodiversity.

The whole thing feels a bit like paradise. I can imagine peace, concentration and meditation here very well. I'm very excited about the many projects that are underway here and that I heard people talking about yesterday in the common room.

Today, after many years, I may have arrived at the market here for the first time. There are so many economies here. Shopping - of course - routines too... Efficiency - the best for the best price. Meeting people, looking out for acquaintances. What I've never seen is the social aspect. People know each other and play music for each other. Sharing coffee and quiche, stories and singing together. How do you perceive a market, how do you participate in it? A person who sees himself as spiritual and energetic sat down next to me. He lives in the side street. He asked me if he could give me a message from the universe. Why not? We had a nice little chat about positivity, self-love, freedom and tolerance... 

Playing for the birds

I had sat down next to a guitar player, he was playing Latin American sad music, beautiful. He often just plays in the forest for the birds, probably used to play concerts. He doesn't take any money. A businessman wanted to leave money, there was no basket. He puts a euro on a box. That was an insult, alms that seem to make the giver feel good. But how petty is the perceived happiness when it is worth one euro? What is a person who plays for the birds supposed to do with one euro? He was not even noticed, an economic parallel universe.

What had happened? I became part of the market for a moment. I communicated in many different ways with the people who either have a stall there, or are neighbors who come for a little chat, and with children who are playing. The tourists suddenly became invisible. As if by magic, they were suddenly mere shadows. A liveliness of the here and now opened up for me, I was allowed to participate in it. When I left, I was bid farewell like one of them. We were there together for a moment. We shared it, enjoyed it, free as the birds.

The forest is a wonderful habitat. I recently heard a little story about a man who whistled a tune whenever he entered the forest. The animals recognized him after a while and accepted his presence. They no longer ran away and sometimes even greeted him. We usually don't see the forest as it is because we often disturb it. Today I was in the forest. Instead of going for a walk as usual, I meditated a little and then took a short nap on the forest floor. It's dry here, so dry that there are hardly any ants, the ground is soft, the air is clear after the brief rain yesterday. It is cool in the shade, the streaks of light pleasant. The trees do not wander, they are rooted in their being. They are not restless. They grow differently in a collective than when they stand alone. As a collective, they take each other into consideration, give each other space, which can be seen in the canopy, the branches and the spacing and in the root kingdom. There is a kind of altruism in the root kingdom. Large trees help small ones to grow, as the small ones do not yet share the light in the crowns. A tree as part of a forest is in communication. Trees seem to communicate with each other through scent messengers. I become calm in the company of trees. Life is possible without running around.

There is something incredibly calming, timeless and connected about sleeping in the forest. In the forest we find rhizomes: similar plants that connect, but also different plants that connect. Gilles Deleuze did not use the rhizome merely as a metaphor for thinking, but thought as part of a rhizome. As a philosopher of immanence, trained by Spinoza, he is an elusive, materialistic, non-reductionist creative mind that I would like to read in India. My suspicion is that his philosophy resonates with the spirituality of India, the Hindu complexity and philosophizing in the forest of the Upanishads.