Matrimandir Gardens

On the Matrimandir Peace area - 2003

Page 55

It was in 1969 that the Mother informed me through one of Her secretaries that She wanted me to prepare to come and develop the gardens of the Matrimandir. I wrote to ask Her how to prepare that great work. She replied that a combination of studies and practical work was best. And suddenly, everything opened before me! Teachers came, constructive opportunities. The energy She gave me enabled me to work all day and to attend college in the evenings, for special courses in Plant Combination Theory, Plant identification and cultural techniques. I saw how my life had been guided through the early years of gardening in temperate climates, now to the sub-tropical regions, and finally to arrive after a few years in Auroville and the tropics. But these anticipated 'few years' did not elapse. In the Autumn of 1969 I received the most wonderful surprise from the Mother, in Her own hand: "A bientot!" "I arrived on December 10, 1969, laden with seeds, to begin the life She had chosen for me. At my first meeting with Her She spoke of the Gardens, words that will ever respond in my innermost being: "It must be a thing of great beauty - of such beauty that when men enter the gardens, they will say 'Ah! this is it!', and experience physically, concretely, the significance of each garden. In the garden of Youth, they will know youth, in the garden of Felicity, they will know felicity, in the garden of Perfection, they will know perfection, and so on. One must know how to move from consciousness to consciousness." And as She said these last words, She moved Her hand upwards in a spiral motion without end."