Category: 1981-1983

  • Two days before the Diwali Puja, November 1983

    Two days before the Diwali Puja, November 1983

    On the 5th November 1983, there was a great celebration at Surbiton ashram. In the presence of Shri Mataji an enormous bonfire was lit* – it was not exactly a havan – which purifies, but was symbolic of this festival. Deepa – awali means a river of lights. Fire is the element that when it…

  • The correct auspicious beat

    The correct auspicious beat

    In March 1983, I went to India for the purpose of videoing Shri Mataji’s Birthday Puja and felicitations and at the end of the puja we were singing the aarti. The clapping was random, and Shri Mataji stopped the aarti, and demonstrated the auspicious way to clap. It is – clap, clap, clap, then pause,…

  • They are all My children

    They are all My children

    In Portugal people liked shaking hands with Mother before going home, and though She was not in the habit of this, She allowed them to do so when saying goodbye. I also shook hands with Shri Mataji the first time that I met Her, but my uncle went a step further. He had been suffering…

  • Stories of the deities

    Stories of the deities

    It was the Ekadesha Rudra Puja in 1983 in New York. I was assigned to make the crown. I cut it out of cardboard, covered it with blue velvet and decorated it with five gold stars. In the puja Shri Mataji explained that the distinctive powers of the Ekadesha would now be used constructively and…

  • The last to be worked on

    The last to be worked on

    Shri Mataji worked on everyone who had come to see Her and told me to go to the end of the queue. My turn came up a few times. ‘Sir, please go to the end of the queue,’ Shri Mataji said each time, so I was the last person She worked on and our family…

  • First programmes in Hong Kong

    First programmes in Hong Kong

    My friend Emily arranged for Mother to stay in a suite at the Hilton Hotel, Hong Kong, to have Her first official press conference with English and Chinese newspapers and two public programmes, one at a very prestigious venue and one in a large Hindu temple. Through her connections in TV and radio she arranged…

  • I wanted to say ‘Mother’

    I wanted to say ‘Mother’

    I met Shri Mataji in Rome in the autumn of 1981 when I was thirty years old. Gregoire and Catherine de Kalbermatten had given me realisation in early August. Catherine was busy with her baby so Gregoire and I organized programmes for Shri Mataji, who came in November. She had accepted to give four public…

  • She just puts you right

    She just puts you right

    The first time I ever spoke to Shri Mataji was in Bristol. I was living in the ashram in Bristol and Mother had come to Bristol to do a public programme. All the other people had been in Sahaja Yoga much longer than me and had already had contact with Shri Mataji. So I was…

  • Shri Gruha Lakshmi

    Shri Gruha Lakshmi

    On one occasion Shri Mataji decided to go shopping. I was not invited, maybe there was not enough room in the car, but I felt a bit despondent. Then I realised that maybe it was because I was mostly interested when Shri Mataji was talking about chakras and vibrations and I might have disapproved, seeing…

  • The perfect housewife

    The perfect housewife

    Shri Mataji had gone to the States to do some public programmes in New York and elsewhere. However, Sir CP had some extremely important guests – Arab heads of state – and he asked Mother to come home from New York to arrange a dinner. She immediately cancelled the New York programmes and flew home…