Matrimandir Gardens

On the Matrimandir Peace area - 2003

Page 54

I

Narad had his first darshan of the Mother in 1961 and he had returned to the US in 1962 till 1968. He narrates: "When I arrived in 1968 I attended and photographed the inauguration ceremony of Auroville and visited for the first time the sacred spot where I would finally come to devote my life and work: the site of the Matrimandir. At my meeting with the Mother before my return to the US in March 1968, She spoke words that determined the course of my life:" " You don't want to come to Auroville in a few years? I feel you can do something there." "I could only reply: 'yes Mother!' - for the force and vastness behind Her words were overwhelming. Since the age of thirteen I had worked with my father in his landscape and gardening business. I learnt from him the techniques of Horticulture, the care and planting of trees and shrubs, landscape design, maintenance, pruning and other essentials. He introduced me to the unending beauty in Nature, and the inner happiness in work done consciously and to the best of one's ability. When i returned to the US in 1968, I found employment with a Garden Shop and became familiar with sub- tropical plants for the first time. This was followed by work in a large Nursery, where I became acquainted with many of the most beautiful flowering and ornamental trees of California.