Matrimandir the blossoming of the heaven sent Lotus

Fifty years ago the Mother described her visions of the Inner Chamber of the Matrimandir. A seed was planted, a Divine impetus was sent forth… The Lotus that is the Matrimandir would soon begin its slow emergence from the deep red earth of Auroville. 

The emergence was inexorable. In spite of all difficulties, both material and human, the blossoming of the Lotus continued over five decades with unabated strength.

If it had been for us alone, the human instruments of its construction, the Matrimandir may not have emerged, or surely not so readily, from its deep crater in the soil of the land. It was the invisible Divine sunlight shining down from above that assured its steady blossoming.

Those who worked on the construction all attested to the energy supporting the work, to the Sunshine that they mostly could not see, but that they could feel.   It supported them through all the obstacles, gave strength, gave solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems, and always brought that inner smile that sustains all progress.

The first phase of the blossoming was the emergence of the four great pillars that curved upwards to ultimately join in the ring of union at the top, cast on May 29th, 1976.

Some 30 meters high, this stark concrete structure rose in complete contrast to the flat red land of the Auroville plain on which it stood.   Only the first young growth of newly planted trees accompanied it on the wide open plateau. It was a bold Divine statement that could be seen from miles around, proclaiming the advent of the full Lotus which was to come.

Later in the same year the 24 metre wide floor of the future Inner Chamber was cast giving at once a clear impression of the dimension of the space that was to come. The 12 Chamber walls were built next and then came the casting of the sections of the sloping roof of the Chamber. Finally, in early 1978, the concrete shell of the Chamber was done. More and more the Inner Chamber began to materialize itself.

Human times were difficult, but that Divine Sunshine sustained the growth of this lotus, which the Mother had referred to as the soul of Auroville.

Twin spiral ramps were built and lifted, section by section into place, joining the lower levels of the Matrimandir structure to the entrance doors of the Chamber – pathways which future generations would ascend, climbing from the concrete base to reach the silence of the Inner Chamber.

The next phase of the blossoming of the Lotus took almost a decade… this was the time when the sphere of the building was created, giving Matrimandir its global shape; the body of the Lotus became more apparent in its outlines.

In these long quiet years, the 1100 precast beams of the structure were prepared in the Matrimandir workshop, cured in a pool nearby, and then lifted, one by one, to be fixed precisely in place to create, layer by horizontal layer, the flattened sphere of Matrimandir.

All this time the Inner Chamber stood silent and apparently empty. As if, after it had materialized in 1978, the Chamber space needed time to integrate itself within our human world-frame. Or, perhaps it was the reverse – that we needed this time to get ready to carry on the work within its walls to finalize this very special space.

Finally the time came, with the assembly of the outer sphere completed and the top cap concreted on 8th August 1988, to begin work on the materialization of the details of the Inner Chamber.

The ceiling was given a coat of plaster of paris, and then the walls were clad with the pristine slabs of white marble that had been brought carefully from Italy almost a decade earlier. The twelve columns were lifted up from the workshops below, one by one. Each was fixed in place with a pre-stressed cable running down its centre to give stability.

From time to time one would pause, awed by the beauty, by the enormity of the space that was being created here, high above the wide Auroville plain.

A marble floor was laid, and then the circular marble slab was carefully placed in the center of the room and etched with the Mother’s symbol. Soon would come the four Sri Aurobindo’s symbols and then, crowing all, the 70 centimeter optical glass globe, focal point of the room.

All the while, the device to direct the sun ray was being tested and perfected, to reflect that clear single ray of sun down from the centre of the roof to strike the globe, and then softly illumine the space of the Inner Chamber.

By 1994 the Inner Chamber was complete, virtually as we see it today, with its wide white carpet and silent air-conditioned space.

The completion of the Inner Chamber released a burst of activity to complete the sphere as a whole. The defining shape of the twelve petals surrounding the central bud of the Lotus appeared during the 1990’s. The solid outer skin was filled in to cover the bare spherical space frame of concrete beams. The final covering of shining golden discs was created and fixed, to give the Golden Lotus its happy visible response to the hidden Sunshine that had nurtured its growth for so many years. 

In the most recent decade of its growth, the Matrimandir is being held, more and more, within a green and varied garden space. Pink and white lotuses bloom in its quiet pools, to accompany the Golden Lotus at the center.

There is still much to be done. The garden spaces continue to grow, to be developed.  The water body, a lake, which the Mother envisioned as surrounding the whole oval of the Matrimandir gardens, has begun to manifest.

As the Lotus of the Matrimandir continues to grow and blossom it becomes more and more the symbol that the Mother had described the living symbol of Auroville’s aspiration for the Divine and the symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection.

The thousands of people who have contributed to its growth, in  myriad  ways, can only be grateful – grateful to the Sunshine that has sustained its growth over these 50 years, and grateful to have participated, in whichever way, in the growth of this very special gift from the Mother.