The tower of Babylon in reverse

In the last 10 000 years humanity has made an enormous development from
the state of caveman towards a being that is able to conquer space and
understand consciously the behind of divine creation.
An evolution towards superman and super-mind, the next higher being that
is not yet walking on planet earth, but since Sri Aurobindo elaborated the
concept of integral Yoga there is a possibility and a way for all human
beings to go towards their better tomorrow.
Our task is noting less, than build the tower of Babylon in rivers, the city of
harmony and human unity. Auroville sees itself as this model city for
mankind. A laboratory space, a campus of permanent learning ,a place to
integrate all races, genders, religions and ideologies ,financial concepts and
traditions by a holistic and integral lifestyle and scientific approach that
unifies all living beings. The real global village, a unified humanity in
unlimited diversity.
But how to get there? As we still live in the ancient tower of Babylon, the
disharmony and confusion. In the dark Kaliyuga where intolerant limiting
religions and ideologies, wars, hunger, crisis, diseases, environment
destruction, pollution and unequal distribution of wealth make daily life a
nightmare . One world is full of struggle to survive the next day or even the
next moment.
I will try to show, how integral yoga can bring us towards a better life in a
better city and at the end to a better life in a better integral world.
Let’s start with Jean Gebsers concept of human society, to better understand
why we are now in deep disasters then I will try to outline the way out of
this situation for humanity.
The archaic age

At the beginning the human being was in a very innocent but also very
unconscious state of mind. The evolutionary development of the living, from
the virus over mono-cellular organism up to the complex human body has
taken several billions of years and is in his details still not totally unveiled
by science. But today, we also can say that our state is certainly not the final
and there are better things to come.
In the period between 100 000 and 10000 years the homo sapiens sapiens
has developed the shape and quality we still see our days.
What made the archaic men different from us and what of the archaic men is
still in us and needs to be integrated?
The archaic man had no dimension, no perspective he was before time,
before space (because he had no conscious notions of them).
His being, his character and his possibilities were in an innocent
unconscious wholeness but not consciously accessible for his archaic
mindset. We can compare this situation with deep sleep, where I am fully
alive but unable to act consciously. The Australian aborigines call this
period dreamtime and many tribal people still identify themselves with this
circumstance. This state of mind is cosmos oriented and knows only what
the forefather have orally transmitted, there is no written history but there
must have been a naturally grown sagginess that humanity as a whole should
not loose. Because this sagginess is a direct, not reflected, innocent
relatedness to nature as a whole, it relates us to our origin.
If we loose this relatedness, we become rootless and father development is
not possible.
So tribal people in there archaic mindset are not just primitive and to be
converted into modern men, but by respected as valuable part of our
collective memory and resource of unconventional long forgotten perfect
solutions for numberless problems, a long forgotten ways to human
perfection and happiness.

The magic age

The magic age sees the human being growing out of his unconscious
innocence towards a magic understanding of nature. The point of departure,
the first dimension is born. There is not yet a perspective or a space or time,
there is still unity with nature, but the outside and the inside are no longer
one ,I feel my inner force and can take influence on the outer world, with
spells I can control my mystic environment, I can hunt with a weapon can
defend myself against lions and tigers ,I can plant and keep animals for eggs,
milk and dung around me, they are my companions in life I will care for
them and not eat them, I will care for the plants and look that they have the
best life conditions. Agriculture and a more secure way of surviving then the
collecting and hunting of the archaic age is born.
The knowledge of the magic age can be seen as the humus where the human
been can put its root and drain its nourishment. Our green mind has to keep
trace of this period of development in India known as Bharath. So also the
magic age has to come back to our consciousness if we want to be integral
human beings. The magic age is also home of our emotions towards our own
body and towards our environment. Our consciousness is still asleep but our
vital instincts, impulsions and feelings start to manifest in social
circumstances, families, clans, tribes and villages and maybe the first cities.
Our way of acting is still not rational but magic we work with spells to ban
the forces of nature .But some of us became so good in it that humanity still
remembers them as big magicians like Merlin for example.
So the magic age needs to be honored in such a way that all its quality
becomes accessible to the future development again.

Mythic Age
With the mythic age, around 5000 BC, starts what we call high cultures or
civilization. This development happens mainly in cities with rich agricultural
environment around big rivers like the Nile (Egypt), Euferat and Tigrus
(Mesapotania), the Indus and the Yung Tze (in china). The characteristic for
this world is the use of written language, knowledge of mathematics, the
ability to keep accounts and complex philosophies and religions.
Developed cultures start to build up empires of larger geographic extension
using sophisticated arms technology to conquer and oppress less developed
populations. The general, the king, the emperor but also the simple soldiers
acting as a hero are the living symbols of this period of humanity. Parallel
to the military power, a spiritual power based on a complex religious
philosophy and represented by priests creates a dualistic base of society.
The less developed population and mostly also the peasants in the country
side become slaves exploited by an educated ruling class of priests, officers,
noblemen and politic administrators. The environment like plants, animals,
and landscape are object of exploitation and over exploitation and the
biggest part of humanity has to live under an unacceptable circumstance of
repression in human life conditions.
The environment suffers in such a way that many of these early civilizations
vanish by starvation, resulting from over exploiting the soil, and the people.
Many wrong developments of the mythic age have still not been solved and
are a big burden for the modern and post modern society.
The mythic age lifted the human race towards the second dimension,
symbolized by the line of the circle still space less and without perspective,
ambivalent and equi-related to nature. In this period, man discovered his
soul, imagination, his feeling and his dreams and creative thought. All the
mix of gods, hero’s, kings and emperor still populate our ferry tales. The
highest development of this age was the Roman, The Greek, the Chinese, the
Indian and the Celtic classical period, that are at the origin of all the
important, books in the heritage of mankind.
“Vedas, Baghavad Geetha, the Bible, the Koran, Tora, Illias and Odyssey,
Tao Teking, Upanishads, the writings of Buddha, Zoraster and many others
tried to give the human race spiritual orientation that still reaches us as an
influence into our post- modern times. We could see the mystic age as a
semi-conscious dream where we are able to act but not yet able to really
handle reality. We imagine, we feel, we see, we formulate but our influence
on reality is not fully conscious, we are limited by polarity and hierarchy and
artificial social laws.

The Modern or Mental age

The modern or Mental age starts in the 15 th Century BC with the renaissance
movement, new science and technology try to overcome the religious
hierarchy, artificial constructs of philosophy and ancient laws. Man moves
to the third dimension is able to draw perspective pictures, his consciousness
is wakening, he starts catching the 0uter and inner reality through will,
reflection, abstraction. He discovers time and space, the laws of duality. His
eyes and his brain get related, he is able to see and measure to distinguish,
cause and effects to predict the close future, to handle the world through
machines, computers. Lately he starts to conquer the movement towards the
stars with Aeroplanes and spaceships. His word become individualistic and
ego oriented. Somehow a social detachment from nature takes place,
isolated and finally depressed in the middle of infinity of possibilities that he
cannot handle. He losses the control over himself and his environment, his
orientation and he is not able with his rational mind to consciously bring
order in the chaos he himself has created. At this point, he starts to put into
question, he results of the modern age and tries to go a step higher towards
the supra-mental to become super man.
Integral holistic or green age
The holistic age is the age to come that maybe has just started at the end of
the 20th century. Its a step to the fourth dimension, its a perspective freed
from time and space, symbolized by a unlimited transparent sphere. It sees
things from all sides in an integral way without a cause, without a reason,
world become transparent, multivalent, present, free, the immaterialistic man
goes beyond ideology, religion, hierarchy into an unlimited freedom
symbolized by the three aims of the French revolution ( Liberty, Equality
and Fraternity). Total integration means to be one with god and nature, no
more country, no more nation, no more religion, no more rules and
regulation but full responsibility in absolute consciousness for the inner and
outer world. The Indigo child is the first generation with this life
perspective. So it is up to us now to build the cradle for these indigo
children to become integral, holistic superman.

Auroville - The tower of Babylon in rivers

As we have seen, nature has gone through a long way of evolution, the four
ages ( Archaic, Magic, Mystic & Modern) have brought us to a new point of
departure may be starting on the barricades of the revolution from 1968.
Man goes beyond all that has guided his life until now, he becomes a fully
awake and conscious being, taking responsibility for himself, his society and
his environment. To go this way, we have to take three important steps.
1. To Honor the Past, 2. Manage the Present, and 3. Consciously create the
future.
1. Honor the Past
To honor the past means, take into consideration the heritage of
mankind through the ages, give importance to the efforts of our forefathers,
keep the advantage of their achievements but also see and overcome their
mistakes while pardoning them because they could not do any better during
their lifetime by lack of means or lack of consciousness, or limited historical
circumstances. Research on the question, what we want to integrate of the
past into our present and future is the first question of new world history
science. We have to document what ever has been there, what are the
consequences of old ideologies and philosophies and if there is any reason
for these thoughts to still be there in the future. This integral holistic and
systematic filtration of events, ideologies, build heritage, social structures
and regulations will lead us to the precondition for new form of education
called “free progressing”. Here the child learns how to handle his present in
a conscious and responsible way.

2. Manage the Present

If now the present we want to rebuild the tower of Babylon rivers, we first
have to eliminate the six main forms of human dependence.
a. The mind control by religion
Traditional religions by their concepts of sin have the tendency to create
inner fear, guilt feelings and psychological obsessions resulting in
imbalanced sexuality, complex of inferiority and confused mindset.
b. Control by mass media
Modern mass media like TV, Newspapers and Radio give a wrong
impression to the public about the reality of the societies. Intended or
unconscious misinformation creates confusion, wrong reality concepts,
immature minds and unbalanced acting of people.
c. Ideological control by the schooling system
Authoritarian and hierarchic forms of education, overcharged with rules
and regulation, teaching plans and pre-casted pictures of the world
destroyed the free mind and intuition of the children and stand in the
way of their ability to become self conscious and world conscious, free
acting members of the society. Traditional learning methods have to be
replaced by free progressing and open research. Every child has to
become self responsible for his learning process.
d. Control by the financial system
The present financial system , the banks and private industries has failed
to create the circumstances for a world of beauty, good and truth so it has
to be completely abolished and replaced by a free exchange of credits
amongst conscious responsible individual citizens.
e. The control by laws, Courts and punishments
Since the mythic age, the human race has tried to find justice by laws,
courts and punishments. But this attempt has totally failed. Crime,
corruption and asocial behavior are prevalent in the modern society and
new means have to be found for the green age to organize social life and
society on a different basis of virtual trusts, compassion, deep
comprehension and equal rights for all members of the society.
f. Control over energy and resources.
Energy and resources are common goods of humanity and cannot belong
to particular persons, power groups or nations. A system of sharing on
equal basis of all resources on earth like lands, minerals, houses, food
and environment must be created as the new fundament of the tower of
Babylon rivers.
Only if all these six precondition are fulfilled, we can start in the present to
build the tower of Babylon rivers as an expression of human unity in all its
diversities. Equality, liberty and fraternity are the brick stones of the new
building and have to be laid by free minded conscious and well educated
independent people. Not one stone of the old tower will remain in its place if
this shift of paradigm takes place.

3. Consciously create the future

So if we want to consciously create the future of mankind, we have to
overcome the limitations of the archaic, magic, mythic and modern ages.
The green age of integral thinking, holistic acting and unlimited possibilities
cannot be handled by the physical body, the mental concept, the psychic and
emotional ways of solving problems of the past. The future society needs a
spiritual being based on intuitive mind, over mind, super-mind. The future
super-mind would be beyond ego, beyond lower vital and lower physical
body, a psychic being, an unlimited soul consciously able to handle and
control life with inner and outer discipline. Manage body, mind and soul and
align them to the divine consciousness. The inner and the outer part will be
inequality, harmony and balance and able to act in a conscious and
responsible way guided and synchronization with the divine plan. This new
creature of after or superman will be able to develop integrated visions for a
society without rules and regulations or belonging. Financial systems,
educational systems, people will live in a world of unity, free from religious
or political ideology, confirm with John Lenon’s song “Imagine”
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
The Green city
The real green city needs a new vision, a new concept and a new generation
of indigo children who have grown up under different circumstances. In the
last 40 years, Auroville has tried to create these preconditions for a new
mankind. So at the end, we have to look where we have reached at this
point.
New mobility concepts of a cycle and pedestrian city are foreseen in
Auroville’s master plan. The new city will generate 80% of its surface for
water bodies, parks, forests, agricultural land and other green garden
activities. The buildings, roads, shops and built public spaces will cover
only 20 % of the surface and will have the form of a galaxy.
Auroville will consists of several intentional communities bearing the
beautiful names like Sincerity, Adventure, Hope, Creativity, Certitude,
Grace, Courage, New Creation, Fraternity, Transformation, Aspiration,
Acceptance, Celebration, Discipline, Existence, Fertile, Felicity,
Forecomers, Gaya, Horizon, Inner Peace, Dream, Revelation, Simplicity,
Solitude, Utility and so on. All these names point into new direction of
human development. No possession of land, houses or factories by private
individuals are foreseen. All physical assets are common belonging. Work
is done by a inner commitment and the conscious inside of necessity to
contribute to the well being of the community as a whole. In exchange, the
community provides food, cloth, cultural activity, transport and all other
daily needs to all its members in a helpful way. Everybody gives his work,
his ideas and his physical engagements as a free credit to the community
being sure that he himself as an individual gets everything from the
community to lead a decent life in modesty, sincerity and beauty. Beauty
itself plays an important role in all concepts of buildings, public spaces,
gardens and environment.
Water consciousness and holistic waste management should guarantee a
clean surrounding. As car and motorbikes will only be allowed in very
restricted spaces, the full city will belong to the cyclist and pedestrians, so
also the air pollution will be minimized. Energy consumption will be
satisfied by renewable energy sources like wind, solar and free cosmic
energy.
Water supply will be guaranteed by desalination of sea water and rain water
harvesting. As the full environment is mainly green, fruit trees, vegetable
plantation and free walking animals will guarantee a healthy food supply.
Free relationship amongst all members on the basis of love, compassion,
friendship and fraternity will overcome all limits of forced institutions,
independent full responsible individuals will know how to behave without
creating social conflicts power structures or inequalities. Mutual interests,
sharing, compassion and active mutual help are the laws of the new city.
Green is the predominant colour of the surrounding and this green
surrounding will generate green consciousness, green visions, green
teaching, green living and green ideology not only for the inhabitants but
also for the visitors and interested students, workshop participants and
holiday makers. So the idea of a green world can spread all over the planet,
every visitor becomes an ambassador for green living and green lifestyle.