Maggie’s Gift
Maggie is a longtime AVI USA board member and supporter. She has dedicated her life to embodying the principles of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, keeping her connection with Auroville alive through the years.
Maggie’s generosity and desire to serve includes her legacy wish to continue supporting Auroville and AVI USA long after her work with us is over.
In 1972, at the urging of family members, my husband at the time and I sold everything we owned and set out for India. We were young, this was the early 70s (think hippie days), and we were heading into the unknown with faith all would be good. Little did either of us know how life-changing the experience would be.
When the wheels of the plane touched down in New Delhi, the tears poured out of my eyes. I was shocked and embarrassed! I didn’t understand. And then, a sense of deep calm came over me and I felt as if I had at last come home. We traveled overland on trains and buses and eventually landed in Pondicherry, staying for a month in an Ashram guest house. But our goal was Auroville where my husband’s sister and brother-in-law were already living. After about a month, a room at the Matrimandir workers’ camp opened and out we went. This was my beginning of a life-long love of Auroville and Integral Yoga.
Over the past 52 years, so many experiences have contributed to my desire to support Auroville into the future: having multiple darshans with Mother; sitting and meditating in Sri Aurobindo’s room, feeling the power homed there; living through the early days of Auroville when it was red clay, open fields, few trees, but with very dedicated individuals as residents; and when I was no longer living there, feeling the sense of Auroville deep inside me as I lived my life, returning as often as possible to visit for extended periods of time. These experiences and so many more guide me to desperately want Auroville to succeed, to be the place of unending education, a beacon to the world of what can be done to bring harmony among peoples and a better life on earth.
I’m well aware that for any massive undertaking such as Auroville, massive funds are required. Simply put, Auroville needs funds and funds that are available into the future. So, while I contribute now in small ways, I have also set up for a portion of my estate to be given to Auroville once I am no longer in this body. To make sure this happens, I have included Auroville in my legally binding documents, will and trust. I have also clearly expressed this wish to my heirs so there is no mistake when the time comes.
It is my fervent hope that whatever small contribution I’m able to make will be used to further the goals of Auroville’s charter
The Auroville Charter
1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But, to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2.Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3.Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4.Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.