{"id":800,"date":"2020-06-26T04:39:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T04:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vserver3.auroville.com\/?p=800"},"modified":"2021-04-01T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T06:48:12","slug":"people-of-auroville-anne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventure.auroville.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/26\/people-of-auroville-anne\/","title":{"rendered":"Back Home: Anne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2026<\/strong>even the small steps make a difference in the bigger picture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I was born and raised in India, in Salem and then later Pondicherry. My parents were missionaries here so I studied at the Lyc\u00e9e Fran\u00e7ais and spent my childhood here. When I was 17, my parents left India, and I ran away because I didn\u2019t want to leave. At that moment, I didn\u2019t realize why it was so strong. Everyone just said \u2018Oh, she is a rebel kid,\u2019 and I started to believe that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had never heard of Auroville, despite being close to it when I was growing up, and I only got to know it when I visited a friend who was Aurovilian, 20 years back. When I arrived here, it was clear: I was back home, I had to be here. It was such a strong feeling. With this realization came the biggest challenge of my life, which was my decision to stay \u2013 to follow this calling. You see, at the time, I was pregnant with my third child and I wanted to give her the gift of being born in India, like her mother. My other two children were back home. In the end, I have not been in touch with the child I gave birth to when I returned. The father took her. It was my decision for India.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first ten years I worked hard in the forests, digging and planting trees. I read the book \u2018The New Species\u2019, and many other books of Satprem. These contained the answers to my questions: What are we here for? What is the point of all of this? The New Species\u00a0is about this new being, which will be born. Before reading this book, I was already aware of this somehow. I always felt that I had to prepare the path for something else, something that will come. In daily life, that is shown in small things, so like with technology for example, the question for me is how I can use it efficiently without being taken over. Another example: I always grew my own vegetables, I am conscious about my consumption. I did this already in France and here I do this even more. All of this is the Yoga in the matter, the Yoga of daily life. It might be small but even the small steps make a difference in the bigger picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would not say that there is anything different here, from living in the outside world; I lived there what I am living here now. However, in the outside world I always felt that people looked at me weirdly, questioning me: Why do I look like that? Why do I raise my kids differently? And so on. In Auroville, there are a lot of weird people living an unconventional life, so there is less judgment. Here, you can really go deep into anything without the social constraints, experience the difficulties and the love. There are monsters, amazing people, and a lot of magic. Everything is represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n