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Therefore the point of whether 200 or 800 visitors can be allowed during that one
hour is basically a moot point.
What is essential is the quality of the approach, as the nature of the experience,
which ought not to be compromised, as it has immense consequences.
The third approach was gradually perceived and attempted during the first period,
from 1992 to 1995, within a general confusion of conflicting ideas and opinions,
notions and claims, with no previous experience or precedent to draw from.
Yet the sense of direction was deep and clear, and the results, at the level of
experience and contact, were significant.
As regards the involvement of the tourism industry, it had been reduced to one
single quota for the Government Tourism Organisation and another quota for the
guests of the Ashram.
The next step, which was just beginning to take shape, was to set up a richer, more
varied and more effective organisation at the Visitors Centre.
There were problems however: one difficulty was the lack of understanding and
support in our midst; another was the lack of proper administrative facilities; and
another yet, perhaps the deciding factor in the shift to the second approach, was
the virulence and intensity of the complaints and grievances on the part of those
persons who considered themselves more important and deserving than the rest.
- Part V. Proposal.
If a new shift would be found acceptable to the third approach, on a new basis and
with the support and participation of all concerned, the following steps are
proposed:
. In order to establish practically this new basis, a period of concentrated
preparation would definitely be required. This period would allow for a concerted
effort at informing the public in advance of the guidelines for all visits to Auroville,
in general, and to the Matrimandir, in particular.
This period could be provided simply by using the opportunity that ongoing work at
Levels I and II of the structure is giving us and announcing a break of up to 3
months time in all visits to the Inner Chamber.
. A system of guided visits in the Matrimandir area could be elaborated as both an
alternative and a means of preparing the ground for a qualitatively different access
in future.
. During this period one could conduct an intensive search into the modalities of
access to the entire area – the Park and Gardens - of the Matrimandir in future, so
that the permanent Reception Pavilion, the permanent entry-points to the Inner
Gardens, the permanent facilities for all individual visitors, Aurovilians and others,
preparing to go in to the Inner Chamber, can be designed and the ground laid for
their material realisation.
. It is not an untenable requirement for us to have the time to concentrate more
consciously on the elaboration of an organisation which will have such lasting
consequences, without the daily pressure of many hundreds of visitors. We have a
chance now, which we may not find again in such an organic and natural way.