Auroville Today Bhavan – a building and a corpus fund
(Note: Like all other initiatives envisioned by Aryadeep Vision Foundation, the initiative for Auroville Today Bhavan and a corpus fund is a personal idea and a dream of Aryadeep S. Acharya. If Auroville Today team so wishes, it will be handed over to them and removed from the list of initiatives. It is presented here only to bring out the vision in its vividness.)
Purpose
To provide the best infrastructure and funding and allied support to ensure the perpetual publication of Auroville’s monthly magazine Auroville Today (beyond life span or the service span of the present editors)
Explanation
Auroville Today, monthly magazine from Auroville, has rendered a tremendous service to the cause of Auroville over the three and half decades. If Auroville is a collective journey to the Mount Everest – a new world –, Auroville Today magazine has served not only to keep the moral spirit high but also to maintain the journal of the journey within very humble means at their disposal. The magazine deserves all support for its continuation in the spirit of the following message of the Mother.
A happy beginning
A good continuation
And no end
An endless progression
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Soon after the parliament of India passed Auroville Foundation Act 1988, a few Aurovilians who had innate writing talent on the lines of quality journalism felt that they had a responsibility on their shoulders to communicate the life, events and the growth process of Auroville to the broader world, especially to the friends, associates and all interested individuals. Thus, began the journey of Auroville Today – a monthly magazine. Two British friends of Auroville – Joy and Edith – provided initial funding. The journey has continued uninterrupted for the last 36 years. Some members of the initial team left only to be replaced by new ones. Some left their bodies. Some contributed only occasionally, others more or less frequently. However, two members of the initial team remained constant: Carel and Alan. It is thanks to these two that the magazine has survived. Both are in their late seventies. Fortunately, they still carry on the publication. However, to ensure the magazine’s long-term future beyond the life span of present writers/editors, Aryadeep Vision Foundation envisions a dedicated premises and a corpus fund to ensure the magazine’s continuity. The premises will be used for staff quarters, for visiting trainees in journalism, as a resources library and, if needed, as short-term or long-term residential facilities for the editors. The corpus funds may support, when necessary, the financial needs of the magazine, including volunteer maintenance.
Here, in this context, some more clarifications are worth mentioning:
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The Mother, the inspirational source behind Auroville, had a tremendous and extraordinary value of the written words. She was also highly fond of lively and outstanding writings. Once, in her seventies, around 1957, she read a book written by one of her disciples. She realised that the disciple was a born writer. The result? She cultivated a close association with him for the rest of her life and encouraged him a great deal to put this talent at the service of Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the future. Auroville Today is doing just that in its own ways. Among all the periodicals related to the vision and work of Sri Aurobindo, Auroville Today is a class apart. No periodical has attempted to present at par with good journalism, the coverage of multiple events, diverse views, variety of projects, many-sided efforts and attempts, numerous achievements, successes, failures, struggles and growth challenges; free and frank interviews with Aurovilians, newcomers, friends, visitors, guests and associates of Auroville or Auroville Foundation as presented in this magazine. It has become a treasure-trove for researchers, historians and a tremendous silent moral support to the community, to the image and identity of Auroville.
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The Auroville Today has never received any financial support from within Auroville community budget.
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The story of Auroville Today’s current office is interesting. In 1999, a new community called Surrender was built in the Residential Zone of Auroville. They also built a tall water tank to provide water to all the households of Surrender. Tall pillars supported the water tank. Naturally, this created an empty space between the pillars. The builders of the community joined the pillars with bricks, which formed two / three tiny rooms on top of each other. This space was then offered to Auroville Today to serve as its office. It has now been twenty-five years, and it is to the credit of the editors that they have been happily put up there without ever complaining or expecting anything from the community.
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Aryadeep is witness to the fact that how Auroville has changed the direction of the life some people, brought a new life to them, answered the deep aspiration of certain individuals.
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Aryadeep is witness of the fact that how Auroville Today has silently contributed to Auroville’s development. It was with the help of Auroville Today, an American friend of Auroville introduced Auroville to an elderly American friend Blanche Sherwood who then bequeathed her legacy to Auroville. It was that legacy which provided funding for lands required for much of the Matrimandir gardens which the Mother regarded “as important at the building itself”.
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Harold Lasky (British political thinker): “Service to thought is the noblest of human vocation.” Auroville Today, in its own way, serves the thought, the image and the psychological being of Auroville – the evolution of the group-soul. Besides it reaches out to the world and provide latest updates and news to friends of Auroville and subscriber to the magazine.
The moot point is that Auroville Today strongly deserves to be supported and encouraged.
Present status
Just an idea and hope of Aryadeep