The Spirit of Auroville

The year 1977 began.

In the beginning of January Bhakti Shah of Bombay was in Pondicherry. She was inspired to do drawings and paintings of the Matrimandir gardens. Time and again she came to seek information from me in this regard, because the Mother had disclosed to me her wish to create the most beautiful gardens in the world around and beyond the Matrimandir. Bhakti Shah asked me whether she could write "The Garden of Love" in the centre of the Mother's symbol in her drawing. I said that the Mother did not like the name "love" in that particular place. She had explained:

People are likely to distort this word.

The Mother wanted simply.

Matrimandir Gardens.

So Bhakti Shah put that in her book accordingly.

After a deep study, I came to the conclusion that the drawings and paintings in her book: The Mother's Birth Centenary 1878-1978 do not tally with the Mother's original sketches given to me by her in 1965.

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful book. Regarding the Mother's symbol, she wrote to me on 2.12.55:

My dear little Child,

Here is the correct design of the symbol.

The central circle represents the Supreme Mother, the Mahashakti.

The four central petals are the four aspects of the Mother and the twelve petals, Her twelve attributes.