The Matrimandir is an edifice of spiritual significance for practitioners of integral yoga in the centre of Auroville established by

Mirra Alfassa Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother or ''La Mère'', was a French-Indian spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of ...

of the

Sri Aurobindo Ashram The Sri Aurobindo Ashram (French: ''Ashram de Sri Aurobindo'') is a spiritual community (ashram) located in Pondicherry (city), Pondicherry, in the Indian territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It was founded by Sri Aurob ...

. It is called ''Soul of the City'' ( French: ''L'âme de la ville'') and situated in a large open space called ''Peace''.

Structure and surroundings

The Matrimandir took 37 years to build, from laying the foundation stone at sunrise on 21 February 1971—Alfassa's 93rd birthday—to its completion in May 2008. It is in the form of a huge sphere surrounded by twelve petals. Golden discs cover the

geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...

and reflect sunlight, which gives the structure its characteristic radiance. Inside the central dome is a meditation hall known as the ''inner chamber''—this contains the largest optically-perfect glass globe in the world. The Matrimandir and its surrounding gardens in the central "Peace area" are open to the public by appointment. The four main pillars that support the structure of Matrimandir and carry the inner chamber have been set at the four main directions of the compass. These four pillars are symbolic of the four aspects of the mother as described by

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian Modern yoga gurus, yogi, maharishi, and Indian nationalist. He also edited the newspaper Bande Mataram (publication), ''Bande Mataram''. Aurobindo st ...

and are named after these four aspects.

Gallery

File:Matrimandir1.JPG, Matrimandir and the banyan tree, the centre of Auroville File:Matrimandir.JPG, The Matrimandir in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India File:Matrimandir Auroville Dome.jpg, The golden discs that build up the Matrimandir dome File:Human-sized golden disc of Matrimandir.jpg, An Auroville volunteer posing next to one of the golden discs used in Matrimandir's dome. File:Golden_Mosaic.jpg, Closeup of one of the golden discs.

References

External links

Visiting the MatrimandirChronicles of the Inner Chamber
- by the 'Matrimandir Action Committee' * Sri Aurobindo Meditation Tourism in Tamil Nadu Visionary environments 1971 establishments in Tamil Nadu Auroville Geodesic domes {{India-struct-stub