The first time I met Shri Mataji was at my first public programme, at Dr Johnson House in Birmingham, in December 1978. I don’t remember anything about the talk, but afterwards someone worked on me and I was amazed that I was completely without thoughts, because I was quite a live wire type of person who was always thinking and running about all over the place. I come from a totally unreligious background, but nevertheless, when the person who had worked on me told me to go up to Shri Mataji and bow to Her, I just went to the front of the hall, and knelt at Her Feet, put my head lightly on Her Feet, and She tapped me on the back.
‘May God bless you,’ She said. I was in a state of complete happiness and bliss. Shri Mataji talked to Bala Kanayson about the area: Birmingham, Tamworth and Coventry. At that time I lived in Birmingham, and had only visited Coventry once. ‘We definitely need a centre in Coventry,’ Shri Mataji said. Ten years later, I spontaneously moved quite close to Coventry and then we did start meetings and a centre there.
At the meeting at Dr Johnson House, there must have been about a hundred people. Mother invited all of us to a follow up meeting, and it was held in Bala Kanayson’s house in Tamworth, the next day, which was a Sunday. My wife and I went and there were about fifteen people in the room. We all sat round the edges of the room with our backs to the wall.
‘You must forgive your father,’ Shri Mataji said to one girl. She burst into tears.
I was amazed, and thought, ‘How did Shri Mataji know that this girl had a problem with her father?’
‘You may not like your parents but you must respect them,’ Mother said to the girl.
Then there was a boy by the door. He said something to Shri Mataji and She asked him the name of his guru. He gave a name.
‘Yes, he is an enlightened soul,’ She said and I was amazed again, that She could know from the guru’s name that he was enlightened, so I realised She knew things on a different level. Then She asked the boy what his guru had him do and he said he had to go into meditation and say, ‘Who am I?’ Shri Mataji said that was ok, but he needed something else. She asked him to come over to Her and She painted a red swastika onto the palm of his hand and put a bindi on his forehead, both in red kumkum.
I was sitting against the wall and Mother was sitting in a chair opposite me. I had recently bought a watch, and while Mother was talking I was unconsciously fiddling with my watch. Mother wasn’t giving a talk as such, She was just chatting about things in general. She stopped talking and told me to give Her my watch, so I took it off and gave it to Her.
She put a few bandhans on the watch and gave it back. ‘There,’ She said, and somehow you knew it was fine.
John Firth
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