1213 / 1424
1213
“
Roger’s idea is to have an island in the centre surrounded by water, running water,
which will be used for the city’s whole water supply, and when it has gone through
the city, it will be routed to a mill and will be used to irrigate all the environing
agriculture.
So this centre is like an islet, and in this centre there is what we had called the
Matrimandir
…”
The Mother simply states Roger A’s idea. She does not qualify it. She goes on to
describe what She Herself SEES as the inside of this Mandir.
Then She continues:
“
And to look after this islet, it was understood that there would be a small house for
Huta, who would like to be there simply as the guardian… So Roger had arranged a
whole system of bridges to link it to the other bank. And the other bank would be
composed entirely of gardens all around
…”
So here again we still have the same configuration: the Mandir, the guardian house,
and the banyan tree, are either one single islet, or three linked islets, in the middle
of the lake, on the shore of which, all around, are situated the 12 gardens.
The Mother continues:
“
These gardens… we had thought of 12 gardens, of dividing the distance by 12, of
making 12 gardens, each concentrated on one thing, a particular state of
consciousness and the flowers that represent it.
And then the 12
th
garden would be in the water, around – not around but besides –
the Mandir, and with the banyan tree that is there. That is what is at the centre of
the city. And there, there would be a repetition of the 12 gardens that surround it
with the flowers similarly arranged
…”
This description is intricate and may lend itself to at least two different
representations:
- One would be of actually a 13
th
garden which would be situated near the banyan
tree and adjacent to the Shrine as well, in which a repetition of the 12 gardens
would be expressed through its flowers.
- The other representation would show the 12
th
garden itself extending into the
water to reach and enclose the banyan tree, linked by bridges to the Shrine and to
the guardian house. And in this extension would be the repetition, with flowers, of
the 12 gardens situated on the other bank.
The first interpretation seems to have been generally elected, as it was understood,
at the site, that this 13
th
garden would be called the garden of Unity and ought to
be the first to be built.
However, an alternate adaptation of it could also be that the “inner garden”, as the
Mother called it since 1972, which is now situated on the Oval area itself,
surrounded by a water-way, could be a repetition, through flowers, of the “outer
gardens” on the other bank of the water-way, which should then also number 12.
The Mother goes on to say:
“
There are two Americans here now, a husband and wife, and the man has studied
over there in America, for more than a year, I think, to learn how to make gardens
and he has come with this knowledge. And I told him to begin right away to make
the plans for the inner garden; they are working on it
.”
A little later in the conversation, the Mother refers a second time – the first time
was in 1965 – to desalination plants: