What is disability really? And who are the so called 'able' or 'normal' ? I wondered when I reached the campus of "The Friends Of Camphill India". This is a residential community which houses twenty four adults with mental disabilities. When I reached there with my friends, they came up to us, in joyous welcome. A woman came up to me, looked into my eyes, hugged me and pinched my cheek. And when startled, moved and somewhat overwhelmed, I asked her name, she gave me a look, a trifle sad and disappointed and walked off. Disabled? Who? I, with my thousand barriers to love, with my conditioned need for labels like names and so on or she who could hug and love a stranger without qualms?
This question rose again and again in my mind. I saw A sitting there, severely autistic, his body moving, his hands dancing to the beat of a music, only he could hear. Abnormal ? Disabled ? Or is it that he lives a different reality, his experience of the world is different from mine ? Regardless of their chronological age, they were all children. They all had the unguarded eyes and pure smiles of children. No walls, no pretensions, their anger real, their hurt real, their love real. And we, the supposedly normal, find that hard to comprehend and so we label them abnormal. But the truth is that each of us sees the world differently and has his/her own unique relationship with the world.
Francis Aradhya, a woman of Dutch origin, who has been running the place for the last fifteen years, along with her Indian husband, Ananta and three children, has interesting views. She calls her wards 'special friends'. And she does not believe in a 'mainstream' life, where all those who are apparently different, those who do not fit in with the norms, are sidelined. She describes them as those who have come with a special destiny, a difficult destiny. And with their presence they help others around them to see, experience and know themselves. She spoke of life as a circle rather than a linear flow, which is inclusive of every human being as all behavior is legitimate human behavior. Its a part of vast spectrum of humanity. There is nothing 'abnormal' really.
It makes complete sense to me. This is the truest form of egalitarianism. I saw it in practice yesterday and felt moved and privileged.
The community has volunteers, co-workers living along with the special friends. They grow fruits and vegetables in their organic farm, work in workshops , do the household chores together. They have a bio dynamic plant and solar power.
I saw how a spiritual approach to life can blend and operate wonderfully with the material one.
I saw how a spiritual approach to life can blend and operate wonderfully with the material one.
Do visit them sometime. It will make your world bigger and better. I can vouch for that.
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