MATRIMANDIR - FROM A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN SCAFFOLDING TO A

Overview of the destinationOverview of the structure, history and its significance. Excerpts as taken from the booklet on auroville available at auroville information centre: "When one hears the word Matrimandir, one may think of it as a place of worship for the mother. But, the Matrimandir, located in Auroville, about 12 Kms north of Pondicherry, is the soul of Auroville, dedicated to the Universal Mother, but not a temple for the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, as some people think. The project of Auroville, with the soul aim of realizing the ideal of human unity, was formally started in Feb 1968, at the hands of a French lady named Mira Alfassa, who later became to be known as The Mother, after being given charge of the Shri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Auroville is designed to be a universal township where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, politics and nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity. The project is guided by this ideal. The overall concept of the town provides for a material focus, the Matrimandir, surrounded by four zones--the Cultural, International, Industrial and Residential. At the centre is the Matrimandir, a place to develop a union with the divine manifesting in a progressive human unity. A French architect, Roger Anger, was given the responsibility of preparing the town's initial lay-out with The Mother began to work actively on her dream by mid 1965 and the official inauguration of the project took place on 28th Feb 1968 with a formal ceremony around a lotus-bud shaped Urn, into which the Auroville Charter and earth from all over India and the world was placed as a gesture of national and global unity. With 320 aurovilians in 1971, the number reahed to nearly 2,200 by 2009, out of which 40 percent were Indians, 15 percent French, 13 percent German, 5 percent Italians, and 4 percent Dutch, amongst others. The Matrimandir, the soul of Auroville The Mother selected the outer design of The Matrimandir from various models presented to her in March 1970. The main structure is a flattened sphere, 36 m in diameter by 29.5 m high, within which is located the Inner Chamber, as visualized by The Mother. Around the Matrimandir sphere, twelve meditation rooms are located inside twelve petals which extend out to the edge of twelve surrounding gardens radiating out from the Matrimandir. A thirteenth garden, called the Garden of Unity, is dominated by a large Banyan tree, the geographical centre of Auroville. Close by is an open amphitheatre, with the urn, which featured in Auroville?s inauguration ceremony in 1968 as its focal point. While excavation for the Matrimandir foundation began in March 1971, the main sphere of the Matrimandir was completed in 2009. My personal experience on the visit to Matrimandir We, a wonderful family of four, consisting of me, my wife, my two amazing sons, Teja and kanthi, visited Matrimandir on 20th of this month, from Chennai, where we are presently staying. For visiting the inner chamber of the Matrimandir, the visitors are needed to first see the outer view of the Matrimandir, from a scenic panoramic point created for the purpose, earlier and understand the spirit of the magnificent structure, the purpose for which it was constructed, the vision of The Mother in spending her life time in envisioning the future of the place. Visit to see the outer view of the Matrimandir is facilitated with the help of free passes provided by the Information Centre staff. As we happened to see the outer view of the Matrimandir sometime back, we could thus fulfill the condition stipulated for viewing the inner chamber and booking of the slot for accommodating us in one of the batches for visit to the inner chamber thus could be done without any hassles. The booking was done over phone and I needed to answer a couple of simple questions raised by the Matrimandir staff on when and why we wanted to visit the inner chamber and whether we saw the outer view of the Matrimandir before. After getting satisfactory answers to her queries, we were accommodated in Group B on 19th of the month to see the inner chamber with instructions to be present at the Information Centre by 9 AM on the scheduled date. Further, it was amply made clear to me that I should be prepared for a disappointment of not being able to visit the inner chamber in spite of the booking, in case it rains on the scheduled date of booking, due to any unforeseen reasons, since visit to the inner chamber is invariably cancelled on rainy days. Only after the staff was informed that I am prepared for any disappointment like this, our booking was confirmed. A dream, an inner urge to see and feel The Mother?s place is coming true.. A day prior to the scheduled date of booking, we reached Pondicherry by road and put up in one of the Ashram guest houses, The Good Guest House, where The Mother herself lived for quite a time, thus giving the added pleasure of seeing and spending a couple of nights at the same place where The Mother herself had stayed. The day next, on the 19th, we were at the Information Centre by 9 AM sharp and one gentleman was already waiting there to guide us through the entire procedure. But a little apprehension was there in our minds, as the climate was a little cloudy and there was a drizzle happening in view of a severe depression in the Bay of Bengal for the previous two days. A little while from then, more and more people, who also booked for the same date, were also found reaching the Centre. By about 9.05 AM, one lady came to the meeting place with the list containing the names of that day?s visitors, and after verifying the names once again reminded all of us that since the weather was a little bad and it was drizzling, we should be prepared for any disappointment, since visit to the inner chamber may get cancelled if the bad weather with rain persists for long. However, she has informed us all that we could first go to one hall located on the upstairs of the building to view a video on the history of The Matrimandir and the purpose behind the coming up of such an extraordinary edifice in a small place like Auroville. After the video show was over, which took about 20 minutes, we all assembled back at the gate, with a lot of excitement, to see and feel the ultimate. However, our expectations turned upside down, as it started to drizzle and the whole program was cancelled! For the first time, we people from Chennai were cursing the rain. With the urge to see the inner chamber becoming stronger by the minute, and with the resolve not to return back to Chennai without visiting the inner chamber staying tough in the mind, we decided to stay back in Pondy for that day and requested the staff to rebook our slots for the next day, ie., the 20th , and we were obliged.. But a few others, not so determined like us, assuming that the same weather may prevail the next day also, left the place in disgust and disappointment. Now came the big day, 20th May 2010 at 9 AM we were back at the Auroville Information Centre with an added enthusiasm and excitement. The rain gods were favourable, the winds were favourbale, the timing was perfect.. After a brief information about the inner chamber intricacies, we were ushered to the Place by experienced guides in electric shuttles, aptly named Bijlee. Once at the gate of The Matrimandir, we were again ushered in to a small cubicle, where one Matrimandir staff was waiting with enormous gentleness. We were handed over blue coloured tokens to be handed over at the Matrimandir main entry point to facilitate entry to the Inner Chamber and then one more token where we deposited our video cams, mobile phones and other carry bags, etc. Before finally taking us into the Inner Chamber, one French gentleman took us all around the area, assembled us under a huge tree and gave us fascinating running information for about 10 to 15 minutes on The Matrimandir, how the original idea was conceptualized, how the people from different nationalities came together to give shape to this gigantic and marvelous structure. After a few minutes, we were carefully taken inside the Inner Chamber. At the main entry point, we were asked to remove our footwear, walked inside a little bear feet, when one lady staff very gently asked us to put on white socks and move inside to take a view of the Inner Chamber. What a breath-taking and magnificent structure. White, white and white. Everything inside was impeccably white, white marble, white carpets, white crystal ball, imported from Germany in the middle of the Inner Chamber that reflects 99.9 percent of the sun light that illuminates the inner chamber. Special arrangements were made to ensure that sun light falls on the crystal ball through a small opening made at the top of the sphere, irrespective of the position of the sun with the help of special reflectors at any point of the day. The entire inner chamber gets its illumination from the Sun. We were inside the inner chamber for about 15 minutes, at the end of which, we were politely led outside. Those 15 minutes we spent inside the Inner Chamber, were unforgettable, extraordinary and etched in our minds like writings on wet concrete. Inside the Inner Chamber, it was silence, silence, silence and more silence! In order to help the visitors to understand that the time was up for concentration, an orange light glows for a few seconds at an interval of about 5 seconds. The door leading to the Inner Chamber is opened and the visitors are escorted outside by the polite, gentle and caring Matrimandir staff. After the visit to the Inner Chamber is over, we were led outside to see and enjoy the gigantic banyan tree, the geographical centre of Auroville. It was reported that the Banyan tree was more than 300 years old. When construction of The Matrimandir first started, the banyan tree was having only one trunk; Now, it is spread in an area of more than an acre with more than 15 such trunks! Next to the banyan tree is the amphitheatre, with the urn standing in the middle. Visit to The Matrimandir was definitely once in a life-time experience, which can fortunately be had anytime and every time if one wishes to. A great place to see and feel the consciousness with which it was built by many and envisioned by The Mother."

Food, sight-seeing and shopping Food is great with availability of all cuisines in the information centre complex. Further, a few restaurants are also available within the vicinity of Auroville township which offer good food, which will definitely rev up one's taste buds. As far as shopping in and around Auroville is concerned, one can get exquisite handicrafts, various decorative items, incence sticks, festive candles, hand made paper, different paper articles, clothes, jewellery made ofvarious crystals and other gem stones, etc. all made by the Aurovellians. Though the products appear expensive, they are worth the price, considering the extraordinary craftmanship.

Activities & things to do The main activity the visitors are supposed to do at Auroville and Matrimandir is to observe perfect silence, preserve the nature and practice concentration, which is the main ideal with which The Matrimandir was built.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc. One can easily reach Auroville and Matrimandir from Chennai by road and rail after visiting Pondicherry. Pondy is well connected by road, about 160 kms from Chennai by the scenic ECR (East Coast Road) and Auroville is about 12 kms from Pondicherry. While one can reach Auroville directly from Chennai, Auroville comes before Pondicherry, one can visit Auroville and Matrimandir after halting in Pondicherry also. Of course, there are many guest houses, in Pondicherry both Ashram maintained as well as private and in Auroville township managed by the Auroville administration and accommodation is not a problem even for the first timers. Nothing specific about travel warnings, except for the weather forecast one is required to follow, since the visit to The Matrimandir is weather dependant..