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- Unfinished draft of an Introduction to Matrimandir, for the public.
“Introduction to the Matrimandir of Auroville.
You are going to the Matrimandir, the Abode of the Divine Mother, Her Shrine.
This is not a temple in the traditional or religious sense of the word, but a privileged
space built for Her conscious Force to act and help us human beings to find our true
consciousness, one with the divine, and let it transform our nature.
Founded by the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as one more step in the
realisation of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings and action, it stands, in the words of the
Mother, as:
‘The symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection. Union with
the Divine manifesting through a progressive human unity.’
At the centre of Auroville – the ‘city the earth needs’ -, the Matrimandir heralds the
age of equilibrium, when all opposites join in a creative harmony, surrendered to
the reality of the true Consciousness and centred in its power of manifestation.
Symbol form of plenitude, a simple sphere lightly flattened at its poles like our
earth - our earth that opens up in a twelve petals bloom to receive it or let it rise -,
it rests on four pillars, the four aspects of the Divine Mother:
Mahakali at the North, Mahalakshmi at the East, Maheshwari at the South and
Mahasaraswati at the West.
Clad in shimmering golden discs, the twelve petals around it overlaid with soft red
sand stone, it is first surrounded by twelve inner Gardens, each expressing a state
of being – Progress, Utility, Wealth, Power, Life, Light, Bliss, Consciousness,
Existence, Perfection, Harmony and Youth.
Together these twelve Gardens spread over an area that is ten times that of the
sphere in section, thus forming a large oval island which is in turn bordered by a
wide and deep channel of water within a large contoured park land.
Around this park gathering many hundreds of species of tall and noble trees from
all over the world, the city of Auroville will grow.
At present, in the year of 1994, the Matrimandir is still under construction.
The work began in 1971 and has never stopped, although over the years it has
proceeded at various paces, according to the hardships, difficulties and progresses
Auroville has experienced in its growth.
At the service of no religion and no movement, it is dedicated to Her only.
Its progress has met with numerous resistances, contradictions and oppositions.
Built exclusively with the donations of those individuals throughout the world who
kept alive their trust in the Mother’s vision and action, it carries Her seal and
energies as a unique centre for the forging of a truer future upon earth.
The Matrimandir is not isolated.
The nucleus of a galaxy, it is the core of a laboratory in humanity, where
consciousness is experimenting in accelerated evolution.