On Auroville 2022 to 2025

whole new study would have to be conducted on the theme of an alternances between concave and convex discs of at least three different sizes animating the entire sphere. The agitation took on such amplitude that it seemed necessary to formally choose one model and go with it. But how to choose it all together? Was this even possible? Time was running out, we had to decide and move forward. Two models were displayed to the whole community; too fast, too loudly, with too many short-cuts and too much rhetoric, plucking unabashedly in the most prized symbols: one model with white marble and another with golden discs, recalibrated et rearranged to adapt to the existing structure. The moon and the sun; the spiritual light and the supramental radiance; the past an d the future… The obstinacy of the binary mind held us prisoners still. From an inner point of view, neither one of the models could elicit a wholehearted adhesion; one, with its discreet elegance, remained open to a diverse and nuanced evolution, but it lacked a conquering force; the other, with its flaming splendor, its alluring language, invited a sort of domineering enthusiasm and lacked the calm probity natural to the soul. Gross arguments, strident speeches and pressures, it was all a noisy mobilization devoid of dignity. The „sun‟ evidently won the contest. And so the team of workers of Matrimandir did receive their mandate. A first solution soon became obvious for the execution of the elected model: we would fabricate on site triangular panels of ferrocement, each pierced with an opening the size of a porthole in its middle, which would be placed one by one on the geodesic structure. Another huge labor also began, experimenting and testing the methods and materials not only for the hundreds of discs, but for the internal translucent panels that would together unify and diffuse the needed light within the sphere while giving it the orange- roseate hue of the Auroville hibiscus („beauty of supramental love‟) chosen by Mother. Moreover we had to guarantee a durable waterproofing of the entire sphere. The issue of materials was also taking on another value: while the alarm was spreading everywhere in the world regarding the various polluting effects emitted or caused by the excessive usage of artificial substances, the wish and care to use only durable and wholesome materials could no longer be denied or ignored. It was at this point in time that the issue was forcefully brought up in the collective awareness: and there we were, in this meeting-hall, vibrant with discord, affirmations and recriminations. For some of our experiments and trials – such as the tentative manufacture of tinted translucent plastic panels, just as that of polyester discs - had had to be abandoned, and this had not inspired confidence. A few of our team members were seated at one end of the hall and at the other end was seated Paolo, midst many others; there had long been between Paolo and I a friendship that effortlessly communicated and he knew well my sentiments and

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