journal d'une transition

1061

Auroville, meant by the Mother to shelter up to 50,000 volunteers who choose to try and serve, in life and matter, the advent of a new species, is the anvil where a willing representation of our humanity is to be put to the test of change. Its Charter, issued by the Mother, contains its guiding principles and determines its orientations. Distributed over some 4,000 acres of land, its settlements and activities relate to all of the human reality, attempting to unite with all aspects of the divine nature: wisdom and knowledge in the mind, love and ananda in the heart, unified power of manifestation in the vital, and beauty and perfection in the physical. To reach the Matrimandir you will turn off the main highway and follow first a winding asphalted road through green fields and simple villages, then pass on to a rammed earth road to the formal entrance to Auroville, a large building of pressed mud bricks and wide terraces, all ochre and white: the Visitors Centre. Under its shaded arches and cooling arcades you will find a large range of information on Auroville, and exhibitions and sales of many of the Auroville products, crafts and art work; a cafeteria will also welcome you. From that entry point, you will then be given directions to travel into Auroville, past the Bharat Nivas – the Pavilion of India, which is the first pavilion of the International Zone of Auroville. You will follow on an avenue of trees until you reach a large Banyan tree sheltering a group of stone benches: nearby the small Reception Kiosk of Matrimandir awaits you. If you have made no prior arrangements, or if you have come on an impulse and if, besides, you have arrived after the viewing hours – 8.30 am to 3.45 pm -, you may find only one option left to you: to make reservations for the following day. Indeed, access to the Inner Chamber of Matrimandir is necessarily restricted. While the construction work is still in progress, there can only be one hour – 4 pm to 5 pm - reserved for the interested visitors and during that hour only 100 to 200 visitors can be allowed to sit in silent concentration. On Sundays, more visitors are allowed to file in and out, without sitting. However if you have taken the step of booking in advance, you simply have to confirm your name, read the recommendations and receive your Pass. You will then walk through the gate and down a path across the Park area, until it meets the West Pathway pointing like an arrow to the sphere of Matrimandir. On this wider path you will continue past the amphitheatre on your right, at the centre of which a small elevated white Urn contains the soil of all the nations which had sent a young representative to the Foundation Ceremony of Auroville on February 28, 1968. On your left, you will meet the King Banyan, the first resident of Auroville and its exact geographical centre, a friend to all and the living symbol of inner life and unity. The conditions today: