Visions of Champaklal at the Matrimandir

Champaklal first met Sri Aurobindo in April, 1921. Two years later he joined the Ashram and became the faithful personal attendant of, firstly, Sri Aurobindo and, later, The Mother.

Both held him in very high regard. In a letter of 1920, Sri Aurobindo wrote, “I do not want thousands or lakhs of disciples. It would be enough if I get a hundred men free from their petty egoism and ready to work as the instruments of the Divine.” The Mother was later to identify Champaklal as one of that hundred.

Champaklal began seeing visions in 1929. This book presents six of those visions, including three extraordinary ones at the Matrimandir, which he visited a number of times while it was under construction. In one, he sees someone cutting off the heads of those meditating in the chamber, and from the severed heads a shining white liquid spread all over Auroville, while each head became a glorious golden light.

In another, he describes a ‘heavenly darshan’ at Matrimandir which reveals to him a transfigured world.

Around Matrimandir, up to a certain distance, there were different kinds of trees of beautiful bright and fascinating flower plants of varied hues, never seen before….Beyond them, very far away, there was a vast open space in the midst of which shone an exquisite, radiant and magnificent throne of superb workmanship and golden glow…My eyes turned again to the throne and I saw that golden light was continuously emanating from it. It seemed that The Mother was seated there in Her golden translucent body.

These visions truly breathe a different, liberating air.

This handsomely produced book also includes extracts from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother’s writings on the symbolism of visions, an account by Nirodbaran, another of Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s closest attendants, of the significance of the Matrimandir, as well as paintings by and photographs of Champaklal.

Visions of Champaklal at the Matrimandir. Compiled and edited by Roshan and Apurva. Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 2017. 

Price Rs 150. Available from SABDA .