A Lifelong Connection to Auroville and AVI USA
Theresa Boschaert and Dian Kiser
A few years ago, Auroville born Binah, AVI USA’s director of development, was introduced to Dian and Theresa by Jack and Mary Alexander, members of the AVI USA board.
After a delightful first meeting, sharing connections, recollections of years past, and updates on the current work of AVI USA, Dian and Theresa gladly returned to our present AVI USA circle.
Their experience with nonprofit work and fundraising, particularly in grant-writing and donor relations, has supported the AVI USA mission and vision since those early days. With their warm friendship, thoughtful presence, and practical advice, they have been generous partners in this work for decades. We are delighted to share their story as long-time Auroville supporters and friends of AVI USA.
Theresa and Dian’s Story
By Theresa Boschaert and Dian Kiser
We first came to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother in the mid-1970s through bookstores and college classes. Based upon a label inside a copy of Synthesis of Yoga, we wrote to Sam Spanier to inquire if there were any Integral Yoga folks in our vicinity of northern California. Sam suggested we subscribe to an inspiring periodical called “Collaboration”. The first issue that we received contained a group photo of American Aurovillians who had convened over the summer. It stated the names and cities of each person in the picture, including Jack and Mary Alexander and their two children, Satyavan and Jyoti, in Sacramento California. We got their address via the telephone book and set off to meet them in person. When we drove to their house and saw a “For Sale” sign in the front yard, we thought we had missed our opportunity. But just on the off chance, we knocked on the front door. It was answered by five-year-old, Jyoti. We showed her the picture in Collaboration and asked if the Alexanders might still live there. She wisely kept us on the porch as she called for her parents.
Jack and Mary welcomed us with warm Aurovillian energy, included us in AVI USA gatherings, and introduced us to none other than June Maher. June shared happenings from her most recent trips to Auroville and Pondicherry. Then, she staggered us by saying with matter-of-fact certainty that we needed to go there.
Nine trips to Auroville and Pondy ensued over the years. During our visits, we conducted grant-writing classes and took part in ordinary physical “lift and carry” tasks at the Matrimandir. Throughout our travels, we always admired the sincerity and harmony of Aurovillians and Ashramites as we delivered medical supplies, machinery parts, household goods Those were the days when idealistic inexperience preceded wise organizational protocols that would take shape later.
We don’t hand carry supplies and resources to Auroville anymore. Instead, we do something we find to be even more effective and soul-sustaining. We offer our financial support to AVI USA. They fund and diligently observe a diverse variety of amazing human beings doing the Mother’s Yoga through imaginative, compassionate, and effective community projects. As servants of The Mother, AVI USA Staff and Board Members fuse historical knowledge with the inner confidence that “All Life Is Yoga”. This caliber of conscious organizational service has flowered from decades of sincere growth experienced by AVI USA as it attempted much with relatively little.
In early days, Auroville handicrafts were carried and later shipped from individuals and village workshops to individuals and small businesses around the world. The handicraft workshops served as skill-building and entrepreneurial laboratories for villagers and Aurovillians alike. Today, AVI USA embodies practical grace with the same sincerity found in forerunners who answered The Mother’s call in 1968 to join her in establishing “the city the earth needs”. Current projects funded by AVI USA have matured into excitingly diverse, innovative, AND accountable expressions of Integral Yoga in action. The range of projects is truly inspiring. From Isai Ragam School and the Auroville Institute for Applied Technology to Sadhana and Pitchandiikulam Forests, from Center Field Kindergarten and EcoFemme to the Deepam Therapy Center, and from Youthlink Skill-Building for the Future to Prisma Audio Books, these and dozens of other projects (don’t forget the Auroville Dog Shelter) bring village residents and Aurovillians into partnerships that are brimming with mutual respect and neighborly trust. Material donor resources that are securely managed and safely conveyed by AVI USA transform the impossible into the possible on a daily basis in Auroville and surrounding villages.
The living purpose of AVI USA is to provide concrete support and savvy guidance to the day-to-day practitioners of human unity throughout India. As donors to AVI USA, we rest assured that this organization is a reliable, responsive, and respectful channel for us and countless devotees to participate in the divine experiment that is Auroville. Today as with our very first trip to India, we fully appreciate that we always receive more than we bring by supporting AVI USA.