Actually it is not like that. I don’t think one should be so harsh on poor Ashramite wanting a little change on an odd day from the same daily food for years. It will be difficult even for the most austere person who doesn’t notice these small desires because one can have a little variety, travel easily, listen to a favourite podcast, wear a cloth with a decent colour etc.
Everything is not provided for. A typical old style rough cotton kameez once in 6 months or an year, some soap and hairoil, rooms with shared bathroom cannot be conceived while living outside especially when you cannot avoid the people you meet, put up with their nature with no choice but to continue, many more things besides. Most people would not be able to continue, unless thoroughly grounded in equanimity or a very high degree of commitment to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. They work day and night through the year, without a break, even in roughest weather.
Interestingly the Ashram has been organised in a way as to take into account the different needs of different people. While the Dining Room remains the main Dining facility, there is the Corner house and few other kitchens that provide taste and variety to which quite a few inmates have access. Some have space and provision to cook in the room.
As to money, those who may be earning are very few. Yes people do not give all they have because they see it misused (according to their understanding) and also because they do not equate giving to the Trust as equivalent to giving to the Mother. Yet most who earn do contribute by way of some offering. Interestingly something of this arrangement has always been there. There are letters of Sri Aurobindo describing the two arrangements for the material aspect. Those disciples who live in pondicherry but earn for themselves and the family and are engaged in the Yoga. On the other hand others who depend completely on the Ashram for maintainence. These latter were expected (never forced) to give the financial assets if any to help maintain the basic material aspects of the Ashram life. It is not so much about yoga as it is a common sense rule of collective living.
The rules were made later to maintain order against elements that use any weak spot to revolt. Otherwise Sri Aurobindo and the Mother never believed so much on outer enforced rules as on autgentic inner change.
But isn’t true equanimity to be equal minded in the face of plenty or poverty? Inside or outside? To forcibly repress things may be needed at a stage when nature is crude, but to make it an ideal way or make living with minimum (deliberately) as a badge of Yoga is quite misleading. Two of those closest to the Mother, Champaklal ji and Pranab da can be taken as an example. Champaklal ji travelled all over the world after 1976, living in plenty or poverty with the same adorable simplicity. Dada would relish a tasty meal yet his commitment to the yoga is exemplary.
I suppose these things are not be taken so seriously as if they are the cornerstone of yogic life, which is so much more about inner Peace, equanimity, faith, aspiration, surrender, opening and receptivity to Her, sincerity that hides nothing from the Divine and makes every effort to align to the Divine Will (which has little to do with outer rules). The outer rules are for the smooth functioning of any collective life and the austerity that we see is mainly because of lack of means. The Mother once remarked that She would want Her children to eat in plates of gold. If we give importance to these outer details we may well turn it into a Gandhian Ashram.
Now, most Ashram inmates have do have a few facilities consistent with the changing life today such as mobiles, dress up well, not because they went to show off but because they have been provided through different ways and means without asking anyone. Girls drive scooter for example and most do cook an additional vegetable (provided from the Ashram garden!). If you ask them, they will say it is the Mother’s Grace and are just grateful to Her. It doesn’t reduce their faith, devotion, service, if anything it has increased it.
So you see we should not judge by appearances and these outer actions. The inner state is most important. And the outer change must be a natural dropping off and not a forced outer crushing while it lurks in the subconscient and often makes the sadhak proud of the renunciation. Yoga is a subtle craft and the main distinction between the worldly man and the spiritual is in his inner attitude, goals, inner efforts, whether his thoughts and feelings are turned towards the world or the Divine. Of course seeking pleasure of the palate and craving to get nice dresses is one thing but receiving them if they come one’s way and yet remaining inwardly untouched is quite another. Most Ashramiites I know and who do go out and eat or if opportunity comes, go to some beautiful place, belong to the latter category.
Most importantly the outer conditions now are not the same as before 1973. One cannot associate the Ashram or the Trust as equal to the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The outer shell of the Ashram has been taken away and with a purpose so that the genuine claimants can be marked out as compared to those outwardly trying to pass off as Yogis by shunning things because they do not have the opportunity or because it is the easier thing to do.
That is how I look at it.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
