Auroville Foundation (Framework For Selection Of Working Committee) Regulations, 2024

[12th January 2024]

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 32 of the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988 (54 of 1988), the Governing Board, with the approval of the Central Government, hereby makes the following regulations, namely:-

Regulation - 1. Short title and commencement

(1)     These regulations may be called the Auroville Foundation (Framework for Selection of Working Committee) Regulations, 2024.

(2)     They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

Regulation - 2. Definitions

(1)     In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a)      Act" means the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988 (54 of 1988);

(b)      "register of residents" means the register of residents maintained under sub-section (1) of section 18 of the Act;

(c)      "resident" means an individual whose name has been entered in the register of residents;

(d)      "rules" means the Auroville Foundation Rules, 1997;

(e)      "Selection Process Committee" means an independent and permanent committee constituted under subsection (1) of "

(f)       section 16 of the Act;

(2)     Words and expressions used herein and not defined, but defined in the Act or the rules, shall have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the said Act or the rules.

Regulation - 3. Constitution of a Selection Process Committee

(1)     The Governing Board, after a call for nominations from the Residents Assembly and from the nominations thus received, shall appoint a panel of five persons from amongst the residents, having expertise in the field of administration, as the "Selection Process Committee" to ensure free and fair selection of Members to the Working Committee.

(2)     The Selection Process Committee may, by unanimous decision, regulate the procedure for transaction of its business.

(3)     The Auroville Foundation Secretariat shall provide secretarial assistance to the Selection Process Committee.

(4)     The Governing Board, after a call for nominations from the Residents Assembly, shall select members to replace those who either resign from their position or for any other reason cease to be members of the Selection Process Committee.

(5)     The Governing Board shall have the authority to review the continuation of a person in the Selection Process Committee in case of any complaint received against any member of such Committee.

(6)     The extant Working Committee shall be dissolved after the selection process for Working Committee is completed.

Regulation - 4. Functions of Selection Process Committee

(1)     The functions of the Selection Process Committee is to-

(a)      review the extant selection process or consider new amendment suggested by the Residents Assembly and propose for modifications, if required, and place it before the Residents Assembly for feedback;

(b)      ensure that the Mothers guidelines for organisers in Auroville which is the basis for the conduct expected of those who wish to serve in this administrative position as specified in Appendix 1;

(c)      conduct the selection process in a free and fair manner.

(2)     The Selection Process Committee shall take into consideration the following points while reviewing the proposal of the selection process, namely:-

(a)      that the proposed selection process ensures fairness, transparency, non-discrimination, inclusiveness, competence of members and adheres to the ideals of Auroville;

(b)      that the proposed selection process ensures to foster a climate in Auroville that strictly adheres to the principles and guidance of Aurovilles organisation given by the Mother as specified in Appendix 1;

(c)      ensure a good representation of age, gender and different nationalities into the proposal;

(d)      ensure that there is an inbuilt mechanism of regular training to the members of the Working Committee.

Regulation - 5. Membership criteria to serve in Working Committee

The candidate who wishes to serve in the Working Committee shall fulfill the following criteria, namely:-

(a)      he shall be a resident and have been entered in the Register of Residents for a minimum period of five consecutive years;

(b)      he shall comply with the laws of the land, the Act, rules, regulations, standing orders, statutes and orders as may be issued by the Competent Authority from time to time;

(c)      he shall be available full-time as a member;

(d)      he shall serve in the Working Committee for one term and he may re-apply after a lapse of next one term.

Regulation - 6. Finalisation of selection process document

(a)      The reviewed selection process prepared by the Selection Process Committee, shall be uploaded on the Auroville Foundation website for feedback from the Residents Assembly;

(b)      The uploaded document shall include the proposed amendments of the selection process by the Selection Process Committee;

(c)      The residents shall be allowed fourteen days from the date of uploading of document to submit their feedback;

(d)      The Selection Process Committee shall consider the comments received from the residents and upload the same on the Auroville Foundation website, along with its response on the comments, not later than fourteen days after the final date of feedback from the Residents Assembly;

(e)      The Selection Process Committee shall finalise the selection process method and submit to the Residents Assembly and the Governing Board;

(f)       The duly approved document by the Governing Board shall be uploaded on the website of Auroville Foundation within a period of seven days after it is approved and it shall be immediately effective, unless a different date is specified therein.

Appendix 1

Quotes from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother supporting Auroville Foundation (Framework for the selection of Working Committee) Regulations, 2023

(I)      GENERAL QUOTES

(1)     The Five Dreams by Sri Aurobindo

August 15th, 1947 is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But we can also make it by our life and acts as a free nation an important date in a new age opening for the whole world, for the political, social, cultural, and spiritual future of humanity.

August 15th is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance.

I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as the sanction and seal of the Divine Force that guides my steps on the work with which I began life, the beginning of its full fruition. Indeed, on this day I can watch almost all the world- movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime, though then they looked like impracticable dreams, arriving at fruition or on their way to achievement. In all these movements free India may well play a large part and take a leading position.

The first of these dreams was a revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India. India today is free but she has not achieved unity. At one moment it almost seemed as if in the very act of liberation, she would fall back into the chaos of separate States which preceded the British conquest. But fortunately, it now seems probable that this danger will be averted and a large and powerful, though not yet a complete union will be established. Also, the wisely drastic policy of the Constituent Assembly has made it probable that the problem of the depressed classes will be solved without schism or fissure. But the old communal division into Hindus and Muslims seems now to have hardened into a permanent political division of the country. It is to be hoped that this settled fact will not be accepted as settled for ever or as anything more than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. Indias internal development and prosperity may be impeded, her position among the nations weakened, her destiny impaired or even frustrated.

This must not be; the partition must go. Let us hope that that may come about naturally, by an increasing recognition of the necessity not only of peace and concord but of common action, by the practice of common action and the creation of means for that purpose. In this way unity may finally come about under whatever form - the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a fundamental importance. But by whatever means, in whatever way, the division must go; unity must and will be achieved, for it is necessary for the greatness of Indias future.

Another dream was for the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilisation. Asia has arisen; large parts are now quite free or are at this moment being liberated: its other still subject or partly subject parts are moving through whatever struggles towards freedom. Only a little has to be done and that will be done today or tomorrow. There India has her part to play and has begun to play it with an energy and ability which already indicate the measure of her possibilities and the place she can take in the council of the nations.

The third dream was a world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter, and nobler life for all mankind. That unification of the human world is under way; there is an imperfect initiation organised but struggling against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there and it must inevitably increase and conquer. Here too India has begun to play a prominent part and, if she can develop that larger statesmanship which is not limited by the present facts and immediate possibilities but looks into the future and brings it nearer, her presence may make all the difference between a slow and timid and a bold and swift development. A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being done, but even then the final result is sure. For unification is a necessity of Nature, an inevitable movement. Its necessity for the nations is also clear, for without it the freedom of the small nations may be at any moment in peril and the life even of the large and powerful nations insecure. The unification is therefore to the interests of all, and only human imbecility and stupid selfishness can prevent it; but these cannot stand for ever against the necessity of Nature and the Divine Will. But an outward basis is not enough; there must grow up an international spirit and outlook, international forms and institutions must appear, perhaps such developments as dual or multilateral citizenship, willed interchange or voluntary fusion of cultures. Nationalism will have fulfilled itself and lost its militancy and would no longer find these things incompatible with self-preservation and the integrality of its outlook.

A new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human race.

Another dream, the spiritual gift of India to the world has already begun. Indias spirituality is entering Europe and America in an ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her psychic and spiritual practice.

The final dream was a step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society. This is still a personal hope and an idea, an ideal which has begun to take hold both in India and in the West on forward-looking minds. The difficulties in the way are more formidable than in any other field of endeavour, but difficulties were made to be overcome and if the Supreme Will is there, they will be overcome.

Here too, if this evolution is to take place, since it must proceed through a growth of the spirit and the inner consciousness, the initiative can come from India and, although the scope must be universal, the central movement may be hers.

Such is the content which I put into this date of Indias liberation; whether or how far this hope will be justified depends upon the new and free India.

Sri Aurobindo, Autobiographical Notes

(2)     A DREAM BY THE MOTHER

There should be somewhere on earth a place which no nation could claim as its own, where all human beings of goodwill who have a sincere aspiration could live freely as citizens of the world and obey one single authority, that of the supreme truth; a place of peace, concord and harmony where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his sufferings and miseries, to surmount his weaknesses and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the concern for progress would take precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the search for pleasure and material enjoyment. In this place, children would be able to grow and develop integrally without losing contact with their souls; education would be given not for passing examinations or obtaining certificates and posts but to enrich existing faculties and bring forth new ones. In this place, titles and positions would be replaced by opportunities to serve and organise; the bodily needs of each one would be equally provided for, and intellectual, moral, and spiritual superiority would be expressed in the general organisation not by an increase in the pleasures and powers of life but by increased duties and responsibilities.

Beauty in all its artistic forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be equally accessible to all; the ability to share in the joy it brings would be limited only by the capacities of each one and not by social or financial position.

For in this ideal place money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing. There, work would not be a way to earn ones living but a way to express oneself and to develop ones capacities and possibilities while being of service to the community as a whole, which, for its own part, would provide for each individuals subsistence and sphere of action. In short, it would be a place where human relationships, which are normally based almost exclusively on competition and strife, would be replaced by relationships of emulation in doing well, of collaboration and real brotherhood.

The earth is certainly not ready to realise such an ideal, for mankind does not yet possess sufficient knowledge to understand and adopt it nor the conscious force that is indispensable in order to execute it; that is why I call it a dream.

And yet this dream is in the course of becoming a reality; that is what we are striving for in Sri Aurobindos Ashram, on a very small scale, in proportion to our limited means. The realisation is certainly far from perfect, but it is progressive; little by little we are advancing towards our goal which we hope we may one day be able to present to the world as a practical and effective way to emerge from the present chaos, to be born into a new life that is more harmonious and true.

The Mother, Bulletin, August, 1954 CWMCE, On Education, Volume-12, A-Dream

(3)     AUROVILLE CHARTER

(1)     Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.

(2)     Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.

(3)     Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.

(4)     Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.

The Mother, February 28,1968

CWMCE, Words of The Mother, Volume-13, Aims and Principles

(4)     TO BE A TRUE AUROVILIAN

Conditions to live in Auroville

(1)     The first necessity is the inner discovery in order to know what one truly is behind social, moral, cultural, racial and hereditary appearances. At the centre there is a being free, vast and knowing, who awaits our discovery and who ought to become the active centre of our being and our life in Auroville.

(2)     One lives in Auroville in order to be free from moral and social conventions; but this freedom must not be a new slavery to the ego, to its desires and ambitions.

The fulfilment of ones desires bars the way to the inner discovery which can only be achieved in the peace and transparency of perfect disinterestedness.

(3)     The Aurovilian should lose the sense of personal possession. For our passage in the material world, what is indispensable to our life and to our action is put at our disposal according to the place we must occupy.

The more we are consciously in contact with our inner being, the more are the exact means given to us.

(4)     Work, even manual work, is something indispensable for the inner discovery. If one does not work, if one does not put his consciousness into matter, the latter will never develop. To let the consciousness organise a bit of matter by means of ones body is very good. To establish order around oneself helps to bring order within oneself.

One should organise ones life not according to outer and artificial rules, but according to an organised inner consciousness, for if one lets life go on without subjecting it to the control of the higher consciousness, it becomes fickle and inexpressive. It is to waste ones time in the sense that matter remains without any conscious utilisation.

(5)     The whole earth must prepare itself for the advent of the new species, and Auroville wants to work consciously to hasten this advent.

(6)     Little by little it will be revealed to us what this new species must be, and meanwhile the best course is to consecrate oneself entirely to the Divine.

The Mother, June 13, 1970

CWMCE, Words of The Mother, Volume-13, Aims and Principles

(5)     Auroville is an attempt towards world peace, friendship, fraternity, unity.

The Mother on Auroville, 20.9.1969

(II)     ON ORGANIZATION

(1)     I wrote a small article in Prabartak called "About Society" in which I spoke about the Sangha or community. I do not want a community based on division. I want a community based upon the Spirit and giving form to the unity of the Spirit. (...)

You will perhaps ask, "What is the need of a sangha? Let me be free and fill every vessel. Let all become One, let all take place within that vast unity." All this is true, but it is only one side of the truth. Our business is not with the formless Spirit only; we have to direct life as well. Without shape and form, life has no effective movement. It is the Termless that has taken form, and that assumption of name and form is not a caprice of Maya. The positive necessity of form has brought about the assumption of form. We do not want to exclude any of the worlds activities. Politics, trade, social organisation, poetry, art, literature-all will remain. But all will be given a new life, a new form.

Sri Aurobindo, Writings In Bengali, A Letter of Sri Aurobindo to His Brother, p. 364

(2)     In contrast to this, Sri Aurobindo tells us that a true community-what he terms a gnostic or supramental community-can be based only upon the INNER REALIZATION of each one of its members, each realizing his real, concrete oneness and identity with all the other members of the community; that is, each one should not feel himself a member connected to all the others in an arbitrary way, but that all are one within himself. For each one, the others should be as much himself as his own body - not in a mental and artificial way, but through a fact of consciousness, by an inner realization.

This means that before hoping to realize such a gnostic collectivity, each one must first of all become (or at least start to become) a gnostic being.

The Mother, July 3, 1957

(3)     A spiritualised society can alone bring about a reign of individual harmony and communal happiness; or, in words which, though liable to abuse by the reason and the passions, are still the most expressive we can find, a new kind of theocracy, the kingdom of God upon earth, a theocracy which shall be the government of mankind by the Divine in the hearts and minds of men.

Sri Aurobindo, The Human cycle

(4)     A supramental or gnostic race of beings would not be a race made according to a single type, moulded in a single fixed pattern; for the law of the supermind is unity fulfilled in diversity, and therefore there would be an infinite diversity in the manifestation of the gnostic consciousness although that consciousness would still be one in its basis, in its constitution, in its all revealing and all-uniting order.

Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, The Life Divine, The Gnostic Being

(5)     The gain of democracy is the security of the individuals life, liberty and goods from the caprices of the tyrant one or the selfish few; its evil is the decline of greatness in humanity.

Sri Aurobindo

(6)     I think democracy... Already at the age of ten, I found democracy to be idiotic (there, in France), but anyway... Its idiotic there, in France (but that doesnt matter), but at any rate I dont think democracy is AT ALL, at all an organization in accord with Indias spirit - not in the least. And the proof is that its not at all the collectivity of people that controls things, its a few scoundrels who push themselves forward, saying, "I represent this, I represent that ..."

The Mother, Agenda, Vol.10, August 16, 1969

(7)     Q: What political organisation do you want for Auroville?

An amusing definition occurs to me: a divine anarchy. But the world will not understand. Men must become conscious of their psychic being and organise themselves spontaneously without fixed rules and laws - that is the ideal. For this, one must be in contact with ones psychic being, one must be guided by it and the egos authority and influence must disappear.

The Mother, Mothers Agenda, December 28, 1972

(8)     Auroville is not a place for politics; no politics must be done in Auroville and in the offices of Auroville.

The Mother, The Mother on Auroville, February 15, 1973

(9)     Auroville should be at the service of Truth, beyond all social, political, and religious convictions.

Auroville is the effort towards peace, in sincerity and Truth.

The Mother, The Mother on Auroville, September 20,1966

(10)   The attempt to govern life by an increasing light of thought rather than allow the rough and imperfect actualities of life to govern and to limit the mind is a distinct sign of advance in human progress. But the true turning-point will come with the farther step which initiates the attempt to govern life by that of which thought itself is only a sign and an instrument, the soul, the inner being, and to make our ways of living a freer opportunity for the growing height and breadth of its need of self-fulfilment. That is the real, the profounder sense which we shall have to learn to attach to the idea of self-determination as the effective principle of liberty.

Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, p. 626

(11)   You know that scores of people have come for Auroville.... Instead of working, they spend their time talking and chatting! And they send me letters. Their whole mental ego is bubbling with excitement, all of them. Have you seen them?

Satprem: No. I am afraid they may "summon" me!

Theyve already begun discussing what the citys political situation will be - even before the first stone has been laid! And one of them, the one with a Communist creed (he is the one who has the greatest energy and power of realization), is scandalized: he wrote to me yesterday, saying he couldnt take part in something that wasnt "purely democratic"! ... So, I answered him this (Mother hands Satprem her note):

"Auroville must be at the service of the Truth, beyond all social, political and religious convictions."

I told him many things (Mother makes a gesture of mental communication), but above all, I insisted a lot on the fact that it would be better to build the city first! And that we would see afterwards. Because he told me it was important for him that we should remain in the democratic system "until something better has been found." I felt like answering him, "How do you know that something better hasnt been found?" But I didnt say anything.

The Mother, The Mothers Agenda, August 13, 1966

(12)   Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.

The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.

The Mother, September 8, 1965

(13)   Answer to Roger Anger who had asked: "What will the political organisation of Auroville be like?"

(Entry in Rogers notes) There will be no politics.

The town will be directed by a Municipal Council, a committee of technicians, headed (in order to avoid any arbitrariness) by two people in authority who are no longer imprisoned by the mind, who possess true knowledge.

Any regulations will be as liberal as possible and very flexible. Rules should arise according to the requirements.

Plasticity and swiftness are needed in order to keep up with world- movements, so as not to fall behind the universal progress.

Truth is a totality, not an exclusion. Future man will not be an intellectual.

The rules of life within the city should comply with those of the country.

The Mother, Ashram Archives (Oscars file); Gaz. Vol. 8/2, p. 15.

French. English translation by Pushan

(14)   If there is no representative of the supreme Consciousness (which can happen, of course), if there isnt any, we could perhaps (this would be worth trying) replace him with the government by a small number - we would have to choose between four and eight, something like that: four, seven or eight - a small number having an intuitive intelligence. "Intuitive" is more important than "intelligence": they should have an intuition that manifests intellectually. (From a practical standpoint it would have some drawbacks, but it might be nearer the truth than the lowest rung: socialism or communism.) All the intermediaries have proved incompetent: theocracy, aristocracy, democracy, plutocracy - all that is a complete failure. The other one too is now giving proof of its failure, the government of ...what can we call it? Democracy? (But democracy always implies the idea of educated, rich people.)

That has given proof of its complete incompetence.

The Mother, Mothers Agenda, April 10, 1968

(15)   The conditions to organize - to be an organizer (its not "to govern," its to organize) - the conditions to be an organizer should be these: no more desires, no more preferences, no more attractions, no more repulsions - a perfect equality for all things. Sincerity, of course, but that goes without saying: wherever insincerity enters, poison enters at the same time.

And then, only those who are themselves in that condition can discern whether another is in it or not.

At present, all human organizations are based on: the visible fact (which is a falsehood), public opinion (another falsehood), and moral sense, which is a third falsehood! (Mother laughs) So...

The Mother, Mothers Agenda, March 25, 1970

(16)   The problem is always the same: those given the responsibility should be people with a...universal consciousness, of course, otherwise… Wherever there is a personal consciousness, it means someone incapable of governing - we can see how governments are, its frightful! (later...)

In their ordinary consciousness, human beings cannot tolerate any authority, however legitimate, if it is exercised over them by somebody whom they believe to be on the same level as themselves.

On the other hand, for human authority to be legitimately exercised over others, it must be enlightened, impartial and unegoistic to the extent that nobody can reasonably challenge its value.

He only who has a perfect sense of true justice can claim the right to be obeyed.

When I say that the "wise" should govern the world, I am not taking a political point of view but a spiritual one. The various forms of government can stay as they are; that is only of secondary importance. But whatever the social status of the men in power, they should receive their inspiration from those who have realised the Truth and have no other will than that of the Supreme.

The Mother, Mothers Agenda, September 17, 1959