Known and related words of the Mother regarding access to Matrimandir
7th Sept 1965
Report with Mother’s hand-written comments on it
Original language: French
Sources: facsimile at AV Archives; translated by Gilles
Guiding principles:
2) The best geographical location for Auroville would be along a new road connecting the two main Madras-Pondicherry roads, in order to avoid them while at the same time benefiting from them. Why? Because in the near future the traffic on these roads will become heavy and Auroville’s development will unavoidably accelerate this process.
It is therefore almost impossible to envisage that a highway passes through the heart of a new town, because of the noise, of the dangers, of the problems of crossing of this highway by secondary roads, of the presence of undesirable visitors, of the considerable number of cars, which will be difficult to control and will require huge parking spaces at the centre of the town, which create important expenditures and constant problems. Moreover, in the particular case of Auroville the centre should be located as far away as possible from the main highways because of the presence of the Pavilion of the Mother in the Park of Unity.[1]
[Mother appreciates fully Roger’s point and writes on a notepad the following note[2]:]
The park of Unity
must be surrounded
by a kind of
isolating zone
so that it is
solitary and silent.
One has access to it
only with permission.
3 January 1970
Taped conversation
Original language: French
Sources: Mother’s Agenda, pp. 15-24; CWM, XIII, p. 286; AMW, p. 249
[Excerpt from a conversation with Satprem:]
But then, people will not come for “regular meditations” or anything of the kind (the internal organization 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 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[3].
[…]
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.
[…]
And SILENCE. No talking inside!
So I think that is good.
10 January 1970
Taped conversation
Original language: French
Sources: Mother’s Agenda, pp. 34-37; CWM, XIII, p. 295; AMW, p. 257
[Excerpt from a conversation with Satprem:]
… Everything is symbolic.
[…]
It will have to be a bit initiatory: not quite ‘like that’, not just anyhow.
[…]
And then, no furniture, but as with a wooden floor here, probably (like here), then over the wooden floor, a thick foam rubber, and over it, a carpet, like here. We have to choose the colour. The whole thing will be white. I am not sure if the symbols of Sri Aurobindo will be white… I don’t think so. I didn’t see them white; I saw them with an indefinable colour, between gold and orange. A colour of that sort. They will stand upright, carved in stone. And a globe not transparent but translucent. Then, at the bottom (of the globe), a light will be projected upward and will enter the globe diffusely. And from outside, rays of light will fall onto the centre. No other lights: no windows, an electric ventilation. And no furniture, nothing. A place… to try and find one’s consciousness.
In May 1970
During the course of several ‘Aspiration Talks’, Mother formulated a statement on Auroville and religions. Part of it reads:
Auroville is for those who want to live a life essentially divine but renounce all religions whether they be ancient, modern, new or future. […]
Our research will not be a search effected by mystic means. It is in life itself that we wish to find the Divine. And it is through this discovery that life can be transformed.
13th May 1970
In answer to a question of Roger on this statement, Mother explained:
We give the name religion to any concept of the world or the universe which is presented as the exclusive Truth in which one must have an absolute faith, generally because this truth is declared to be the result of a revelation.
Most religions affirm the existence of a God and the rules to be followed to obey Him, but there are some godless religions, such as socio political organizations which, in the name of an Ideal or the State, claim the same right to be obeyed.
To seek Truth freely and to approach it freely along his own lines is a man’s right. But each one must know that his discovery is good for him alone and it is not to be imposed on others.
30th January 1971
While reading to Mother a chapter from his book ‘On the way to Supermanhood’, Satprem quoted the following passage from one of Sri Aurobindo’s letters:
“… 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 or 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 damned 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.”
02.10.1934
On himself, p:375
Mother 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.
[In connection with the above quote we refer back to Her reply when She was asked: where does information end? Where does publicity begin?]
28th February 1970
It is a question of mental attitude rather than a 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.
June 1971
Notes written after a conversation
Original language: French
Sources: AV Archives; AMW, p. 390
[After meeting Mother, Roger notes down:]
About Matrimandir
In India the creation, that means basically the work of the Mother-Creator, has for centuries been considered as anti-divine.
Sri Aurobindo has shown/taught that it is in Matter that the Divine must be manifested; he has insisted on the understanding of this 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.
I don’t want it to be made into a religion; with all my force I refuse. We don’t want dogmas, principles, ritual, absolutely not, absolutely not.
Roger: Why do we build Matrimandir?
For the great majority of Indians there is no need for an explanation; they know from their background; it is for the Westerners and the Americans of whom one in a million is able to feel that it is necessary.
Roger: Will the Force more specially be concentrated in Matrimandir?
The new Force works everywhere, especially in this room. You feel it, don’t you? There is here a density capable of performing miracles, but few are able to feel it, to perceive it.
Sri Aurobindo and I have concentrated this Force on the whole town; it is palpable, perceptible as a very concrete perfume which penetrates, but one must be able to feel it, to receive it.
But no miracles as people would like to see; for them to believe, they need material proofs without which they deny.
Build Matrimandir; put in place my symbol and Sri Aurobindo’s and the suspended ball.
I take it upon myself to make it into a very strong centre.
Only those who are capable will perceive it.
17th July 1972
Mother wrote:
One must not confuse religious teaching with a spiritual teaching. Religious teaching belongs to the past and halts progress. Spiritual teaching is the teaching of the future; it enlightens the consciousness and prepares it for future realisation.
Spiritual teaching is above religions and strives for a total Truth. It teaches us to enter into direct contact with the Divine.
August 1972
Notes written after a conversation
Original language: French
Sources: Roger’s notes; facsimile at AV Archives; AMW, p. 441
[After a meeting with Mother, Roger noted down what she had said:[4]]
On the subject of Matrimandir
Quality of silence:
I would like people to remain silent. It must be written there that one keeps silent, in French, English and Tamil.
No music.
About flowers:
No flowers inside. There should be a room to put them in, in a corridor.
About admissions to Matrimandir:
Not for the visitors in principle.
Reserved for Aurovilians but not everyone will be admitted.
The first condition for those who want to go there is to ask.
Those who have contributed to the construction will be admitted in the first place. If there are doubtful cases, they should 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.
Matrimandir door:
One cannot leave it open.
Then voluntary guardians would be needed, day and night.
I think it’s simpler with doors.
5th October 1972
Madhave Pandit wrote to Shyamsundar recounting a conversation he had with the Mother:
Regarding ‘Durga Puja’ at the centre: Mother does not at all approve of any kind of religious ceremonies in connection with this or any other doing.
Mother is definite that religion in whatever form has no place in Auroville.
(This statement was later approved by Mother for publication in a modified form)
The Mother does not approve of any kind of religious ceremony in connection with any religious festival.
19th March 1973
Mother said or wrote:
Here we do not have religion. We replace religion by the spiritual life, which is truer, deeper and higher at the same time, that is to say, closer to the Divine. For the Divine is everything, but we are not conscious of it. This is the immense progress that man must make.
* * *
[1] This proves that Roger had already been told about the Park of Unity and the Pavilion of the Mother.
[2] We will see that Mother will soon get the centre shifted away from the main road to its present location.
[3] Tout le monde ne pourra pas venir; il y aura un moment de la semaine ou un moment de la journée (je ne sais pas) où on laissera venir les visiteurs, mais enfin pas de mélange. C’est une heure fixe ou un jour fixe pour montrer [aux visiteurs], et le reste du temps, seulement pour ceux qui sont… sérieux – sérieux sincères – qui veulent vraiment apprendre a se concentrer.