Category: Chapter 5

We were at Shri Mataji’s house in Oxted, Sussex, England in about 1974. We had been there quite some time and She had gone off on the Thursday or Friday to either Norway or Sweden. The day after She had gone, when we were sleeping, there was this most phenomenal thunderstorm and lightning. We knew…

I used to live near Tolmers Square, Euston, in North London. About half a dozen of us had a little community club there and one day in 1974 a man came to teach us yoga. He had tried all sorts of different yogas and meditations and then one day he went to see Shri Mataji…

Sometimes, when I used to get too familiar, in that I somehow would analyse Shri Mataji, She would suddenly lead me on a merry trip where She would tell me something was green where I would see blue etc, until I would jump into thoughtless awareness for safety, then She would talk to me in a…

It was my good fortune to meet Shri Mataji in 1974, at 17, New Oxford Street, in central London. A reception was organised by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to welcome the newly elected United Nations diplomat, Mr (Sir) CP Srivastava and his wife Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. The reception was well attended, with about two hundred…

After the reception given for Sir CP and Shri Mataji, She returned on the following Monday and held a follow up session at 17, New Oxford Street. About twenty people came, mostly Indian ladies. A few people from Shri Mataji’s husband’s office participated. Later an Indian gentleman named Mukund Shah brought the first group of…

When they first came to England in 1974 Shri Mataji and Her husband lived at 1, Icehouse Wood, Oxted. Sir CP and Shri Mataji, as his wife, would attend functions with diplomats and royalty etc, because Sir CP was the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation, part of the United Nations. They had a…

In those days everything was with Mother. We could not imagine doing anything, even the public programme, without Her. The way we do pujas and havans now has almost nothing to do with the Hindu way. Previously we used to have very elaborate havans – a thousand names – even the pujas were like that.…

In the beginning, about 1974 to 1978, we used to go to the seashore, to Marve near Malad. There was an auspicious day called Akshatritiya. We used to go to a bungalow which had been hired by a Sahaja Yogi, and Shri Mataji would come and we would often have a puja, and in the…

Pujas were not the thing so much in the early days, that is in the seventies. Every time we used to have a programme, meditation at different places, such as Dadar and Andheri, (Mumbai). There were pujas, but the main stress was not on them. Mother’s speeches and giving realisation were the things. ‘One person…

In 1974 Shri Mataji used to stay in Kalpana Didi’s flat and sometimes we would go there and eat with Her, eleven or eleven thirty at night. Once or twice we had to go before Mother left because there were no taxis so late, but if we waited until Shri Mataji left it all somehow…