Part I
“Sahaja Yoga is a very subtler happening within us. It’s a very subtler happening and this subtler happening gives you sensitivity to Divine joy.”
–Shri Mata ji Nirmala Devi
Next to the Kotwali police station in the town of Chhindwara of Madhya Pradesh stands a quaint but elegant building carrying colonial features. Washed in white and neatly kept and maintained, the building though not very grand, exudes a calm dignity and grace. It was here, that exactly a century ago, on 23rd March, on the day pf spring equinox, a baby girl was born to a Hindu father and a Christian mother.
The House where Nirmala Devi was born
And though she spent only a few years of early childhood in this house, the house acquired an uncommon importance and legacy. Because the baby born here became one of the most eminent spiritual women of our times. And this abode became a place of pilgrimage for the followers of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
Arguably the geographical centre of India, Chhindwara is not known to the outside world for many spectacular features. It is a beautiful place richly and generously gifted with natural beauty and a salubrious climate ( there used to be a sanatorium here many years ago). Its people who originally were all tribals now constitute a melange of those coming from many states but demonstrate a rare harmony and brotherhood. And to their credit, they still seem inexplicably simpler and less corrupted by the lusts of modern cravings. That it falls on the same latitude as the Mecca, the holiest place for Islam, adds an interesting dimension to this place.
Yet, the birth of Nirmala devi who touched the lives of hundreds of thousands has given this place an international resonance.
That her life and teachings influenced, even transformed, across nationalities, hundreds and thousands of lives, and made them happier and contented; that her legacy continues not in the least by way of hundreds of centres of Sahaj Yoga across the world, is a vibrant testimony to the richness and intensity of legacy she had left behind. Endorsing her nomination for 1997 Nobel peace prize, Claes Nobel, the grandnephew of Alfred Nobel called her, “a source of hope for humanity” and “a reference point for determining right from wrong”. “Her life”, he added,” is dedicated for the well-being and benevolence of humanity; completely; entirely.”
An Extra-ordinary Life
Nirmala was born Nirmala Salve, to a lawyer father Prasad and a Christian mother Cornelia. Both her parents were far ahead of their times, the mother reportedly the first woman Hons. graduate in Mathematics and father, a scholar and a polymath who is credited to have translated the Qu’raan into Hindi. Both were actively involved in independence movement and had the privilege of being associated with Mahatma Gandhi in various ways. That made the young Nirmala come in contact with Mahatma. Reportedly, he called her a spiritual prodigy.
She stayed in Nagpur after her early years in Chhindwara and later studied medicine at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana and at the Balakram Medical College in Lahore. As a young woman she also took part in the struggle for independence and led her peers at college in the Quit India Movement. She was jailed in 1942 for her participation in the movement.
1947, the year India got independence was also a watershed year in her life, when she married a young ICS officer, Chandrika Prasad Shrivastava. He rose to become the longest serving Secretary General of International Maritime Organization based in London and before that, served with distinction as Joint Secretary to Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Prime Minister of India till his untimely death in Tashkent during the peace talks with Pakistan. It was during the 16 year of stay in London that gave Nirmala Devi the opportunity to manifest the divine inspiration that she was born with and which destiny led her to unfold and propagate in the world.
The divinity she was born with deepened with the passing time. She came to understand that self- realization is the purpose of her life, that implied the activation of the inbuilt subtle energy, called Kundalini. The awakening of this energy was something she was soon to experience herself, before dedicating her life to sharing it with others.
As her spiritual journey progressed, it was also complemented by her empathetic forays into lives of individuals and communities she encountered during this journey. In fact, this streak of social service became an abiding feature of all her endeavours in life, spiritual or otherwise. She stood against prejudice, offered protection to those in need, engaged in charitable work, encouraged culture through music and film, farmed the land and ran a busy household. She was a loving wife, mother and sister, and eventually a doting grandmother.
Embarking on a New Journey
Her spiritual work outside her own self though began when she was 47. In 1970 she discovered a way and a method of giving en-masse self-realization. Behind this thought was a burning desire to offer a genuine experience that people could use to transform and heal themselves. She wanted to empower the seekers themselves with this knowledge.
A God sent opportunity came her way during her husband’s prolonged stay in London when he became Secretary General of the UN Maritime Organization. She began her spiritual work on 5th May 1970 with a small group of people. But it was during the next 15 years, that she toured the United Kingdom giving lectures as well as sharing her experiences of self-realization. She never charged money for these programs, insisting that the awakening of this spiritual energy lying dormant within all human beings was their birth right and thus, could not be paid for. As those around her came to recognize her exceptional spiritual and motherly qualities, she soon received the honorific title “Shri Mataji” meaning “Respected Mother”.
She called this method of meditation through self-realization, Sahaja Yoga.
(To Be Continued…)
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