A personal history with the Matrimandir, reminding us of Auroville’s aims, Mother’s intentions, and the collective consciousness it embodies.
Extracts from an episode of of the documentary series Matrimandir and I, May 2, 2026
It [the Matrimandir] is a physical reflection of what can be done when there’s a deep aspiration, a vision and a level of consciousness in matter that you don’t see in a lot of life or the world. Not just individual aspiration and consciousness but a collective one. I think that that’s quite rare.
My first contact with the Matrimandir was as a baby because my parents came for the inauguration of Auroville. I think I was nine months old.
We lived in the Matrimandir camp and I remember being a little kid, just there (pointing), a part of everything while the excavation was being done for the foundation.
For those eleven years of my childhood that we lived in Auroville, the Matrimandir was very much part of my life. As it was emerging we lived in the camp for about a year or so. We moved to the Matrimandir nursery because my stepfather Narad had been put in charge by the Mother of the nursery and the gardens.
I left when I was almost fourteen, I was gone for twelve years in the States. I came back in ‘94 and at that time it had a very central place in my heart and my consciousness. It’s always been a place that I go to when I really feel the need or when I have a specific question that’s weighing on me. I don’t think of it as a refuge or as a place to escape to. I don’t want it to become routine, or something I take for granted.
Mother founded Auroville. Auroville is based on her dream and vision for a place with Auroville’s ideals and aims and intentions. But she’s not here physically. Somehow I think the Matrimandir is an extension and a tangible reminder of that of her and her vision and her intentions, aims, aspirations.
There’s a sense of awe — we did that in spite of all of the disagreements and the challenges and the debates and the confusion. The human limitations. It’s a place where so many people put their energy, put themselves into doing things that they didn’t know how to do, but they learned. They learned because it needed to be done.
It epitomizes part of what Auroville is supposed to be. That you come here with an aspiration, with an intention and hopefully surrender. You do what needs to be done, and you learn along the way.
I hope that people remember what it represents, this sense of unity and collective aspiration and manifestation.
By Chali Grinnell
Episode of Matrimandir and I from Aurora’s Eye Films
Premiered on YouTube on May 2, 2026