Editorial

And “Auroville Today” does focus us on the here and now, which is always the most difficult place to be. Difficult, yes, but also challenging. Perhaps never more so than at the moment when, with the passing of the Auroville Foundation Bill, we enter a new era. Therefore it is appropriate that in our first issue we focus upon the implication of this crucial Bill.

Yet what is Auroville today? It’s not easy to answer. Ask around and you’ll get many different replies. But always, it seems, something slips away, like water through the fingers. Auroville mercifully eludes categorization.

So, our attempt in this new magazine is not to try to define but to provide a forum, a meeting-place for different perspectives and views, and to open a window upon the diverse activities and dreams that are Auroville today. We’d like to discover the larger Auroville, not just the Auroville of meetings, of well-known personalities and publicised projects, but the ‘hidden’ Auroville of quiet work, of determination and unrecognised talent which help power this crazy and challenging experiment.

To succeed in this, to start filling in the blank spaces, we need your help, your participation. Wherever you live, within or outside Auroville (whatever “outside” means!), send us your information, your views, your visions. Help us to question and to celebrate the contradictions and richness of what we are today.

One final word. We would like to produce a stimulating and satisfying magazine, but without resorting to cheapness or personal attack. Quality, in this environment, is under continual attack. If Auroville Today can manifest a little of that quality, then perhaps we’ve taken another small step towards “Auroville tomorrow”.