The Mother

Auroville

In the 1960s, it was The Mother’s dream to create a place where humanity could seek the Divine without having to dredge for food and shelter. It was in fulfillment of this dream that she was instrumental in the development of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for those who dedicated themselves to yoga, of personal and spiritual transformation. She named this place Auroville or — city of dawn —. The Mother had conceived several years previously an original grand scheme for Auroville. In the mid 60s she received a letter from a disciple who had a vision which rekindled The Mother's interest in the project. She then embarked on a more modest version of her original plan.

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The city has, in the conception of the initial architects, several zones with roads on which automobiles are prohibited. The soul of Auroville is the Matrimandir (literally, "Mother temple"); constructed as a futuristic-looking sphere that houses in its center a meditation hall built to exact proportions. The construction is uniquely arranged so that sunlight enters the building during all hours of the day through a small hole in the roof (Karmayogi no date) (it was only much later, in 1995, that the lens at the top was added to focus the sun onto a crystal globe 70cm/28ins in diameter in the central chamber (see Matrimandir Construction phases). In 1968, the Mother formally inaugurated the new city, and the soil of 124 nations (all the independent countries in the world at that time) was mixed and placed in a huge lotus-shape urn on the site (Rawlinson 1997).

Related Topics:
1995 - 1968

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