The Spirit of Auroville

Around this time Carlo Schuller, a devotee from Switzerland who was very active in raising funds for the Matrimandir, wrote numerous letters to me, to the Trustees of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, to Amal Kiran (K.D. Sethna) the Editor of Mother India and to certain other people concerned, regarding Auroville and my house near the Matrimandir. Few of them answered him—one was Amal.

In June 1977 Amal sent me a copy of Carlo's letter dated 18.6.77:

My dear Amal,

Thank you for your long letter. The Mother has expressed Herself about the essentialities of Auroville in such an unequivocal way that everything would be very smooth if there were not this constant intercession of the egos of Her disciples, including many of the old ones who ought to know better, trying to qualify or explain away Her dispositions in such a way as to twist them to make them conform to their own desires. One of those dispositions is Huta's house at the Matrimandir, which is required to enable her to carry out properly her work of guardianship. To me personally it would seem that the keys to the Matrimandir and those to her own lotus-house could be handed over to Huta at the same time. In that case absolutely nothing has been lost by the delay no matter what may have been its cause, because the Matrimandir work is not sufficiently advanced to warrant starting the work on Huta's house at this early stage. It happened by coincidence that your last letter arrived on the same day on which Piero, the Matrimandir architect, came here to finalize the acquisition of Italian white marble for lining the inner chamber of the Matrimandir.

(See enclosed picture of the quarries; this also is not very far from 5 lakhs when considered from the budgetary angle.)

I showed interest and expressed readiness to do it, but he also spoke of the many undecided factors in the overall planning of the area around Huta's house. For example, there is the question of the surrounding high mounds symbolizing petals, an extravagant idea of Roger which would require more concrete than has been used for the entire Matrimandir, and all the leveling work in connection with it. This by itself is already a sufficient reason not to start with Huta's house, especially as there appears to be some idea of a private passage between the two buildings. Where will the house be, were the passage, at what level, how will it look in the final overall landscape etc. Considering all this one might even argue in favour of a temporary structure for Huta, if necessary, until the final decisions have fallen. But in any case the present stage seems too early to concern oneself with this specific problem. As for Shyamsunder's position it will take a little time as usual before I can give an accurate report. Meanwhile, please extend my cordial greetings to Huta and show her Udar's letter to Nolini-da as well as the latter's reply in the margin.

Affectionately,

Carlo