Auroville's role in the task undertaken by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother:

Understanding something of this task is a prerequisite to understand Auroville and Matrimandir.

The task of giving a concrete form to Sri Aurobindo's vision was entrusted to the Mother. The creation of a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness is the work she has undertaken. By the very nature of things, it is a collective ideal that calls for a collective effort so that it may be realised in the terms of an integral human perfection. The Mother

The Ashram founded and built by the Mother was the first step in the accomplishment of this goal. The project of Auroville is the next step, more exterior, which seeks to widen the base of this attempt to establish harmony between soul and body, spirit and nature, heaven and earth, in the collective life of mankind.

For thousands of years we have been developing outer means, outer instruments, outer techniques for living – and in the end those means and techniques are crushing us. The sign of the new humanity is a reversal of outlook and the understanding that inner means, inner knowledge and inner techniques can change the world and master it without crushing it.

Auroville is the place where this new way of living is being worked out, it is a centre of accelerated evolution where man must begin to change his world by means of the power of the inner spirit. The Mother

Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.

Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.

Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity. Article 2, 3 &4 of Auroville's Charter , The Mother

Matrimandir's role in the realisation of Auroville's ideals:

Matrimandir is the essential tool that makes the realisation of this collective ideal and collective effort not only possible, but certain, for it is a powerful receptacle of the Mother's Force and it is this Force alone that has the power to change consciousnesses and thus realise Auroville's ideals.

Build Matrimandir; put in place my symbol and Sri Aurobindo's and the crystal globe. I take it upon myself to make it into a very powerful centre. Only those who are capable will perceive it. The Mother

The Mother's power and not any human endeavour and tapasya can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life Divine and the immortal's Ananda . Sri Aurobindo

Matrimandir is also the ‘ living symbol of Auroville's aspiration for the Divine' , ‘ the soul of Auroville' and ‘ the cohesive and central force' of a township which aims at being ‘ a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity' . This cohesive force is obviously indispensable for Unity to be.

It also stands as a reminder of the need for man to change his world by means of the power of the inner spirit:

Sri Aurobindo has shown/taught that it is in matter that the Divine must be manifested; he has insisted on the understanding of the concept of the Mother as Creator. Matrimandir is here to teach people that it is not by escaping from the world while ignoring it, that they will realise the Divine in life. Matrimandir must be the symbol of this Truth. Roger's note of the Mother's words.

Matrimandir is a transformer of consciousness,
a place where to become.

It is neither a temple in the conventional sense of the word nor the shrine of any religion: It is not a place of worship.

Sri Aurobindo wrote this, at the third person, about his teaching:

It is not [Sri Aurobindo's] object to develop anyone religion or to amalgamate the older religions or to found any new religion – for any of these things would lead away from his central purpose. The one aim of his Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinise human nature.

In April 1969, the Mother wrote “ Why do men want to worship? It is much better to become than to worship! ” She repeated vigorously and emphasised: “ Better to become! Why do men want to worship the Divine? Better to become!” later She added: “ It is out of laziness to change that people worship. ”

In 1970, the Mother wrote this statement on Auroville and Religions :

We want the Truth.

For most men, it is what they want that they label truth.

The Aurovilians must want the Truth whatever it may be.

Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but who renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future.

It is only in experience that there can be knowledge of the Truth.

No one ought to speak of the Divine unless he has had experience of the Divine.

Get experience of the Divine, then alone will you have the right to speak of it.

The objective study of religions will be a part of the historical study of the development of human consciousness.

Religions make up part of the history of mankind and it is in this guise that they will be studied at Auroville – not as beliefs to which one ought or ought not to adhere, but as part of a process in the development of human consciousness which should lead man towards his superior realisation.

PROGRAMME

Research through experience of the Supreme Truth

A life divine but

NO RELIGIONS

Our research will not be a search affected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can really be transformed.

In June 1971 Roger Anger, the architect of Matrimandir, wrote down what the Mother had just told him about Matrimandir:

I don't want it to be made into a religion; with all my force I refuse.

We don't want dogmas, principles, rituals, absolutely not, absolutely not .

Publicity and propaganda are detrimental to the realisation of Auroville's ideals as well as to Matrimandir's sanctity and atmosphere.

Ultimately, it must be a town for studies – studies and research on how to live both in a simplified way and in a way such that the higher qualities have more time to develop . The Mother

Auroville is the place where a new way of life is being worked out; it is a centre of accelerated evolution where Man has to start changing his world by the power of the inner spirit. The Mother

Nowhere in the world are masses of tourists allowed to flock at the very centre of any serious research and educational institutions for this would be very detrimental to their work.

It was never the Mother's intention to use the media to try and attract masses of tourists and pilgrims to Auroville and its Matrimandir; on the contrary, in 1971, the Mother sent to Auroville a copy of the following letter of Sri Aurobindo:

...I don't believe in advertisement except for books, etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom – and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhere – or it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other dammed nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the ‘religions' and it is the reason of their failure.

And she commented:

That passage should be typed and put up in Auroville. It is indispensable . They all have a false idea about propaganda and publicity. It should be typed in big letters; at the top, "Sri Aurobindo said”, then put the quotation and send it to Auroville. Say I am the one who's sending it.

Some days later she explained the difference she made between information and advertisement:

It is a question of mental attitude rather than of physical action. Publicity does not discriminate between the persons to whom one speaks. Publicity means addressing a public which cannot understand.

What we try to do is carry the Light where it can be understood and received. It is a question of choice. It is a question of selection: not to spread the thing without discernment. It is to choose which milieu, which people, which conditions can understand and to act there only.

In publicity, to make the ideas comprehensible, one lowers them while we keep our teachings at the height where they are to be understood. We do not diminish the value of the thing so that it may be understood by all. We keep it at its height so that those who can understand may do so. The teaching should be kept at its maximum height. The selection then takes place of itself. It is the comprehension which makes the selection.

Known words of the Mother on access to Matrimandir and its surrounding gardens

In September 1965, the Mother wrote this note while reading Roger's first report on the future town:

The Park of Unity must be surrounded by some kind of isolating zone so that it is solitary and silent. One has access to it only with permission .

By Park of Unity one should now understand the future oval-shaped Matrimandir Island. The Lake which will eventually surround this Oval will serve as isolating zone .

She gave names to the 12 gardens surrounding the Matrimandir: They represent the 12 powers of the supreme Mother that are necessary for the complete manifestation.

She also stated that: “ The gardens are as important as Matrimandir itself.”

On 3 rd January 1970, two days after having the vision of the Inner Chamber, the Mother said:

But then, people will not come for “regular meditations” or anything of the kind (the internal organisation will be taken care of later): it will be a place for concentration. Not everyone will be allowed in; there will be a time of the week or the day (I don't know) when visitors will be allowed to come, but anyway without mixture. There will be a fixed time or a fixed day to show the visitors, and the rest of the time only for those who are... serious – serious, sincere, who truly want to learn to concentrate.

Then, people will be let in in order to concentrate – [laughing] to learn to concentrate! No fixed meditations, nothing of the sort, but they will have to stay there in silence – silence and concentration. [Speaking about the Chamber:] And SILENCE. No talking inside!

One week later, on 10 th January, She again stressed the same point:

Then there will be certain conditions to be met before one is allowed to descend into the underground passage and emerge into the temple… It will have to be a bit initiatory: not quite “like that”, not just anyhow.

In August 1972, when Matrimandir's design was already finalised, Roger Anger wrote down what the Mother had just told him about access to Matrimandir:

Not for visitors in principle. Reserved for Aurovilians but not everyone will be admitted. The 1 st condition for those who want to go there is to ask. Those who will have contributed to the construction will be admitted in the first place. If there are doubtful cases, they will be referred to me. All those who have a doubtful presence won't go. If there is the slightest doubt, the case will be presented to me. People must be known for their qualifications.

Conclusion:

The Matrimandir should be considered complete only when all the12 gardens will be completed.

According to the Mother's direction, access and usage of the Matrimandir is very restrictive, only for those who are “serious and sincere”.

The only possibility for visitors that the Mother mentioned was a designated “time of the day” or “a day in the week” when they would be allowed to visit the Inner Chamber.

At present, more and more visitors from all over the world come not only to see Auroville and the Matrimandir but also to have the privilege of doing a concentration in the Inner Chamber of the Matrimandir.

How to conciliate the Mother's directions and this increasing demand from guests and visitors to open the Matrimandir more and more for their use?

The Matrimandir Access Group considers that it does have a duty and responsibility to follow the directions given by the Mother not only because She is the founder and leader of the project of Auroville but it is Her Vision Insight and Force which will guide Auroville towards its future and the realization of Her Dream.

The Access Policy is therefore based on the respect of the Mother's wishes in regard to the access and usage of the Matrimandir, while keeping open a possibility for “serious and sincere” seekers amongst the visitors, with a sincere aspiration, to experience the Matrimandir. It also aims to keep protected the atmosphere and sanctity of the place.

For information call :

Matrimandir Information room (0413) 262-3449

E-mail: mmaccess@auroville.org.in