Category: Chapter 9

Once, Shri Mataji came to the house in Gower Street when we used to have meetings there on Sunday afternoons. ‘You are all so caught up,’ She said when She came. We had been playing a Chinese game called mahjong. ‘What is this?’ She said. ‘How did you get so badly caught up?’ We got…

The very first ashram in London was in Acton Lane, Acton, West London, where the first UK Sahaja Yogis lived for a short time. Then they found a flat in Finchley Central, North London – above a shop which was then called Halaria’s Builders Merchants, in Regents Park Road, in a row of shops next…

Sometimes if you want to remember what has happened during a particular period of time, you remember anecdotes. This anecdote happened when we were in the first ashram at Acton Lane. Shri Mataji was coming to the ashram, and as we were driving to the place She said She was amazed at how strong the…

The first London ashram was in Acton in West London, in 1977. The ashram was a rented place, a little house at the bottom of a hill right next to a railway line, so at the back you had trains thundering by and at the front you had lorries making that huge hissing noise on…

While we were there Shri Mataji asked us if we could do some painting and decorating. We were hopelessly inept, and the end result resembled a film set for an earthquake disaster movie. Shri Mataji seemed greatly to enjoy everything we did, and even joined in to help us sand down wood and paint at…

Shri Mataji told us this once. If you worry too much about something that is wrong within you, bad vibrations or something like that, you start to panic. ‘Do all the things that relax you,’ She said, at least thirty years ago, and She said if you do that it will make you feel better.…

Early on in Sahaja Yoga, in the 1970’s, before Shri Mataji started public programmes at Caxton Hall in London, our Mother looked after us with great love, patience and kindness. We would go to Her house near Oxted in Surrey and She would spend hours explaining about Sahaja Yoga, asking us about our problems and…

During my first summer as a realised soul, in about July 1977, Shri Mataji was staying in Hurst Green, a charming hilltop village in the heart of Surrey. It was the official residence of Sir CP as Secretary General of IMO (The International Maritime Organisation). In addition to being our divine Mother and our Guru,…

That was the first Guru Puja, in a flat in North London. There is a picture of Mother holding some roses. I remember giving Her those flowers. ‘Mother, be careful, there are thorns in them,’ I said. ‘I have to take the thorns, too,’ She said, and took the flowers. ‘Can you tape record this,…

Sahaja Yoga was so informal. At first, we didn’t have any programmes which were with a lot of people. We used to go and meet at someone’s place on a Sunday afternoon. Shri Mataji used to come by train to Victoria Station, London from Oxted, where She lived and then She would come by taxi.…