Past success
In 1992 an Indian Dada and many Taiwanese margii set up the model community in Yuching to demonstrate PROUT in embryonic form. For example, in terms of "material resources," they raised fruit and vegetables without using any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. They used crop rotation to keep the land fertile, and natural rock to stabilize river banks, so as to protect and efficiently use the soil and water resources.
In terms of "psychological development," they built up friendly relations with neighboring communities by opening the "New Sun" kindergarten. In fresh, open surroundings, teachers taught students to love others and the environment. On summer nights they would go exploring in the fields and woods and observe insects; when the lotus seeds ripened adults and children would pick them together; and they followed the various crops' changes through the seasons. "Children are very intuitive about people and nature," says Wang Shu-mei, who lived in the community for seven years.
Unlike many spiritual communities, Ananda Marga's model communities are not places for practitioners to escape from the world. Anywhere well-intentioned margii live, they can set good examples in such things as farming and education. Unfortunately, although the experiment at Yuching can be considered highly significant for Taiwan, where the environment has been badly scarred, things did not go well. "We learned many lessons the hard way," says Chiu Yie-ru, a lecturer at Jing Wen University of Science and Technology, who teaches PROUT. They were unable to put into practice many of their early ideals-like using biogas to generate electricity-because the community was too small. Also, the kindergarten was forced to close after competitors reported it to the authorities for operating on land not zoned for the purpose. The community thus lost its main source of revenue and it became impossible to carry on. Followers drifted away, and the community fell into disrepair.
Two years ago Chung Yu-jung and her husband Shen Feng-tsai moved back to Yuching and set the community off in a new direction. The fasting and meditation camps, which have gotten good reviews in recent years, will carry on. Adjustments have also been made to the environmental ideals that could not be realized the first time around, such as using the natural shape and materials of the land to create a water catchment and filtering system, the ultimate goal being not to use any piped-in water. And houses will be renovated to improve air circulation and let in sunshine.
"But this is only a small part, and that's just in the material domain," says Shen. The model community aims for progress on the three levels of the material, psychological, and spiritual. How will they move in the future toward self-sufficiency and from there to influence society as a whole? They are still figuring things out as they go along, and they need even more local people who share their ideals to join in.
"Baba's ideas transcend our era," says veteran margii Chiu Yi-chia, an assistant professor at National Chung Hsing University. In economic terms, PROUT's consideration of the distribution of benefits from a humanitarian perspective, plus its unique concepts about education and the environment, are admired and respected by everyone involved in the project. So no one expects to give up on the objective of making their model community a reality.
Participants at the Progressive Utilization Theory conference stayed in tents, but the steady drizzle over the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday did not dampen the enthusiasm for rebuilding a "model community" in Taiwan.