Condensed from Talks by Pujya Guruji Shree Rishi Prabhakarji from RishiVani.
Advantages of a Community Living like Auroville:
* Pollution free environment.
* Common kitchen for the community, relieves so many women from the burden of cooking daily.
* Free time now available can be utilized creatively to increase the wealth of self and community.
* The woman now has greater self- esteem and is happy.
* There is security and company for women while men are busy at work. * Children play with other children of their age under the benevolent eyes of elders in the community.
* Elderly parents are easily taken care of.
* School can be in the premises and taken care of by the mothers them-selves. There is no need to send children to a distant school.
* Cost of construction is only for a small home. Most people are spending all their income on houses. That house will be empty after the children go away.
* Common facilities such as swimming pool, large gardens, several big TV’s and auditorium, common gyms etc.. like a big club house are available to all those willing to eat together and serve together.
* Families can go for holidays leaving their house to be cared by the commune. There is no individual attention to be paid to newspaper sellers, milkmen, electricians, plumbers and housemaids etc..
How Community building is made practical in today’s World?
There are many big complexes coming up with such shared facilities at very high costs, leaving the couple in the same predicament.
A benevolent leader can muster the trust of so many families living together like in Auroville. In India, many Gurus are there who have this capacity.
This thought or idea has not struck yet of they being the catalysts for this progression. India is poised for such community living more than any country in the world.
Sri Shiva Shankar Baba in Chennai has already done this with about 300 lower middle class families. His Ashram or commune now serves over 150 villages around Chennai.
Sri Swami Nityananda of Dhyana-peetam in Bidadi near Bangalore has many families living as a commune. In Swamiji’s Ashram, new entrants contribute about 3 lakhs for their home and share a small expense of Rs 3000 per family of four. Some working fathers go to Bangalore by a common transport.
Many productive activities are done with their collective strength to financially strengthen the community. When a family wants to re-locate, their deposits are returned. They are experimenting with having no paid workers. Every activity is taken care of by the Ashramites. In Auroville, all Auro-villians are paid the same fixed salary.
Ancient Gurukuls where production and schooling happened simultaneously is the next step of evolution. They will also be high quality Research centers as well, like in Auroville. Industries will be converted to universities. This was how one-lakh twenty five thousand universities existed in the State of Madras alone in the year 1800, according to a British Survey.
In short a new possibility, a new horizon for the new man to be born has become a necessity. Create a commune or join one to be a happy family.
At R.S.V.K., Rishi Samskruti Vidya Kendra we invite fellow meditators to join in forming many communes around cities and towns as our little contribution to the vast need for such places of – ‘Joy and Togetherness.’
