Who Represents the Ashram? – The Hornet’s Sting

The other day, while having lunch in the Dining Room, someone asked me if I have done right in going against the Ashram. I was completely taken aback at such an absurd question. I answered back as to how one could ever think of going against our most revered Guru’s Ashraya [refuge] which He and the Mother have founded with so much pain and struggle against all possible odds. I always think of our Ashram to be the nucleus of a greater world. If anyone thinks that going against the present Trustees is equivalent to going against the Ashram, then he or she is mistaken one hundred percent. All of us know very well that the Mother never gave power over others but gave only responsibility to the sadhaks. The Trustees’ responsibility is to manage the Ashram whereas the responsibility of the Ashramites is to execute the duties assigned to them in their respective departments. Therefore the Trustees cannot or must not claim that they are superior to others and that they only can represent Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Each one of us as an Ashramite represents the Ashram. Our goodwill, sincerity of purpose, intensity of sadhana, heightening of our consciousness, egolessness, growth of our higher nature, psychic realisation and spiritual progress we have made (or not made) can only demonstrate how far we represent the Ashram.

According to my questioner, Government officials intervening in the Ashram administration will not be able to help the Ashram as they are outsiders and have no knowledge about Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and Ashram life. In that case how is it that the Trustees, instead of solving the problems of the Ashram in-house, go to the courts and seek advice from outside lawyers and waste crores of Mother’s money to save their own skins under the pretext of representing the Ashram?

The present Trustees have utterly failed in their responsibilities and totally lost the peoples’ trust by their reprehensible activities. They have harboured the most dangerous enemies within the Ashram for spreading their own malicious intent and devious ways. A few American rogues have sought safe haven in our Ashram and engaged in anti-national activities, destroying our country’s culture, religion and spirituality. Taking shelter in the Gurugriha, they have denigrated our Gurus through sly lectures and writing slanderous biographies and history books full of distortions. They have been given work in the most important departments such as the Ashram Archives where they have deliberately distorted the writings of our Gurus and stolen the most valuable intellectual property of the Ashram.

The failure of the present Ashram management is clearly visible in various Ashram departments. There is now hardly any work ethic or culture: no discipline, no obedience, extremely rude behaviour, no quality work and, above all, Ashramites are burdened with the monopoly of departmental heads who mostly engage themselves in private businesses. The common Ashramites always face inconveniences due to the lack of prompt service by the maintenance departments who have a partial and discriminatory attitude because of the practice of VIP culture. The poor Ashramites have to go time and again to them for minor repair work, which is very stressful and time consuming. 

For all the above mentioned reasons, there is an urgent need, an imperative necessity for government intervention in the Ashram administration. When we have a responsible and fair administration, the stress in our day to day life due to the present mismanagement will be definitely much less and we will able to focus better on our inner work. The general apprehension regarding disturbance in sadhana due to the government taking over the Ashram administration is totally baseless.