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purpose, they have constituted an impenetrable bulwark against all movements,
proposals or suggestions for a change of approach.
Unfortunately, the Matrimandir, both as a symbol and as embodied in the persons
of those who have worked there, has represented a sort of ‘impossibility’ to this
large ‘melting pot’ of groups. The Matrimandir group has not been allowed to be
part of this dispensation. For years the Matrimandir team was kept away from
collective representation even though they were responsible for the largest work
force and the largest financial system in any single project in Auroville. All this is
verifiable and is the reason for the sometimes startling positions/actions that
‘public’ figures have taken on the Matrimandir issue. This is also at least one reason
for the popular success of the disinformation campaign against the Matrimandir
team!
5. The Matrimandir situation.
Let us look at some objective facts.
The Auroville financial managers have never considered it necessary to contribute
money to the soul of Auroville, not even from the large sums of interest that they
have power to administer without any transparent collective process. It is only quite
recently that some contribution towards the maintenance of Matrimandir
Aurovilians has been started! This is so fundamentally shocking because it
materially demonstrates the financial managers’ total lack of understanding and
concern for the soul of Auroville.
The stark reality is that these people see Matrimandir as a project, whose large
money donations they absolutely want to control; they have never understood or
accepted the spiritual dimension of this Centre. And even as late as last year they
unanimously ‘killed’ an attempt to create a service unit (the gold tile unit) which
would generate some funds within Auroville for Matrimandir. And it is such persons
who can justify the present moves under the guise of creating a team to ‘complete
the Matrimandir as soon as possible’?
It is also such persons who have recently played the worst kind of politics with the
unity of Matrimandir. Private accounts have been unilaterally opened as the first
step in parcelling out the integrity of the Matrimandir whole into little politicised and
warring groups. The protests of the Matrimandir team have been totally ignored;
they have not even been granted the courtesy of an open discussion. This ethically
questionable action has implications for the autonomy and right of decentralised
functioning of working groups.
We have heard slogans such as ‘Mother’s bank’ and ‘Auroville’s channel’ to describe
these offices and these accounts. Since when has Mother’s bank been modelled
upon the Swiss banking system (numbered accounts and no accountability)? This
obscurantism has such popular support that few remember the repeated scandals
that have occurred over the years because of the lack of rigour in money
management. One needs to contrast with this how Mother and Sri Aurobindo (in his
early years in Pondichéry) maintained detailed accounts of disbursements.