It began in India

You are fortunate you saw Me
Shri Mataji used to stay at Jeevan Jyot in 1970 and was known as Nirmala Srivastava. I asked some girls where Nirmala Srivastava stayed and went up. Shri Mataji opened the door and said, “Are you looking for Me?” She held me by hand and took me inside very politely and asked me to sit down. “Where are you coming from?” “I am coming from Dhulia and I have heard your name and came looking for you.” “I am about to start this work and right now I am waiting for my daughter, Kalpana, to have her baby. Once I am through with that, I will call you. Please leave your name and address before you leave and within a month I shall call you.” We all went from Bombay to Bordi in a train with Shri Mataji. We were all together. Mother would talk to all of us. We would follow Her wherever She went. I would never leave Mother, as I wanted to see what Mother did. I would follow Her and do as She directed, without any question.

We all were in some school for the night and after dinner we all went to our rooms and She graciously said, “Look at Raolbai from Dhulia. She always has her attention on what I am doing.” She used to call me “Rajkunwar.” After dinner She would start giving Realization to people. She asked me to keep my hands under Her Lotus Feet. She said I was realized now. She worked on my back like this, raising of the kundalini. Then Mother looked very lovingly and sang a beautiful song, Par Brahma Parmeshwar. She sang so beautifully. That face was so joyous, so loving, happy and, like this, She gave Realization to four or five people till midnight. Next day, She sat alone and called each one individually to give Self Realization. While returning in the train, She asked us whether we had thoughts or not. I said politely that I didn’t know what was happening. Then Mother asked us to put our hands in front of Her and asked whether we felt cool vibrations. Again, I replied innocently that I did not feel anything.

“Raolbai, you are from Dhulia and I want you to come to my house tomorrow. All of you who felt vibrations must meditate every morning and evening, so as to go deep and feel the vibrations.” I used to stay with my daughter in a one room apartment and at around 4 am I was awakened naturally and I was shocked to see Mataji in front of me in the same position as when She gave Self Realization in Bordi.
When next day I met Shri Mataji, She asked me, “Do you get thoughts by putting attention on Me?” I said, “No.” Mataji told me that I had attained my thoughtless state. “What did you see in the morning?” “Mother, I saw you in a meditating pose.” “For all people whom I gave Self Realization yesterday, I was meditating in the morning for them. As you all are new and do not understand, you are fortunate that you saw Me.”
Raolbai

Slowly it Settled
Shri Mataji opened the Sahasrara at Nargol in 1970. I am not one of the initial eleven disciples, out of which hardly one or two are living now. I was one of the second batch, so to say, in 1973. In those days we had programs every day. We used to meet every day at Bharata Vidya Bhavan in the evening and then slowly it spread.

We went to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, where Mataji was giving Realization to a very few people, about ten or fifteen. We both of us sat there and, this being a very early stage of Sahaja, Mataji was Herself working hard to give Realization and raising our kundalinis. To my great surprise, when She touched my fontanelle, on my head, there was a flash and I saw — not knowing it was the Agnya chakra — a Christ crucified. It was for five or six seconds, just a flash. I myself wondered why I — myself being a Hindu and a great hater of Christianity — should get a vision of a crucified Christ. But I didn’t say anything at that time. I started enjoying it. I just closed my eyes and Mother said, “You got Realization at the very first sitting.”

In those days we had programs every day. We used to meet every day at Bharata Vidya Bhavan in the evening and then slowly it spread.
And then we used to have a program in Pune, at Mr. Rajwade’s place. Shri Mataji gave Realization to many people there. Mr. Rajwade was a staunch brahmin and to begin with was against all these things and refused to come, but he allowed a discourse at his residence. He would be sitting in his room. But then one day after half an hour or so he came trembling in front of Mother and said, “I never realized you are the Devi.” And then he got his Realization, in 1973. And later on he was a strong supporter and he spread Sahaja Yoga in Pune. Pune, being full of brahmins, intellectual people, they opposed this tooth and nail initially. But slowly it settled.
Niranjan M.

She taught us how to do so many things
There used to be a special training program and during the Navaratri days we used to go up to the terrace of Mother’s building. Mother would come there and give us a lecture and further training. Sometimes we used to leave there at four o’clock in the morning, sometimes even 6:30 in the morning. Around twenty-four, twenty-five people would be gathering at seven and we would come down to Her flat on the first floor, take some breakfast, tea and disperse. At that time, nobody was allowed to tape record any of Her discourses.
“No, you must grasp it aurally. No use of tape recorder,” She said.

Shri Mataji used to let us give Realization in those days. We used to put our leg at the Mooladhara and start giving Realization, so that the kundalini would rise, ascending. And we used to give Realization to many people. At that time the methods were not so much developed and Mataji Herself was doing great research. And now that it is at the stroke of a second and we can say it is at internet speed that Sahaja Yoga is spreading. But initially, it took a long time to get Realization. She had to Herself go out and give Realization. She taught us how to do so many things, like balancing of the both sides and raising the kundalini.

Putting a bandhan came a little later. At that time, there was no bandhan. Then She realized that it would be a good idea to put a bandhan. So it was sort of an evolutionary development and now it is a full-fledged system and people don’t have to do much. Just sitting before the photograph also, one gets it.

Initially, we did not raise the kundalini like now and that too came later. She said that too much stress should not be given to the bandhan.
Footsoaking and other treatments came later. Actually, we used to go to the sea with Mataji, footsoaking in the sea. And that is how Ganapatipule came in because you know there is the sea and it is a very clean sea. Before that we used to go to Bordi. We went many times to Bordi. Nargol is very near from there. When we were at Bordi, the sea was there. But, of course, not everybody lives near the sea, so the alternative was footbath soaking.
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This is Nirmal Vidya
Shri Mataji would explain how we have to remain in the collectivity and behave as Sahaja Yogis. She always gave and is giving importance to meditation. She made all of us meditate and one by one put attention on all the chakras. This Mooladhara and then you go upwards and so on.

“This is nirmal vidya and nobody has taught Me all this, nor have I read any book,” She would say. “I have meditated on each chakra and discovered the secrets of each one, like Mooladhara, what it looks like, what are the qualities and so on. Every night I would meditate for eight hours. I have worked hard for all of you and now you have to work hard and meditate in the morning. I work eight hours on every chakra. I would request you people to work for one hour on every chakra for eight days and then move on. Like every morning, meditate for one hour on Mooladhara for eight days and then move on to Swadisthana and so on. Then you all will learn the secrets and the shakti of all the chakras.”
Raolbai

Bring her along!
The first time I saw Shri Mataji was in Her house at Jeevan Jyot, Mumbai, in about 1971 or ’72. I was a schoolgirl of about eleven at the time. Shri Mataji used to invite people to the house. My mother went to see Shri Mataji quite a few times before I was taken. I used to wonder where she was going. One day she took a photo of me to Shri Mataji, and Shri Mataji said ‘bring her along!’ I didn’t know where I was going but I was told by my mother that I was going to see somebody, and I had to be quiet when She spoke because my mum had something important to discuss, and if I was quiet I could be taken again. As soon as we, that is my mother, sister and I got there, we were greeted by little dogs at the door. Apparently they recognised yogis and their bark was completely different then. If a seeker knocked they knew. We were led into a little room at the side and Shri Mataji came in the evening. Immediately She saw us kids She called the cook and asked the cook to go and get something to eat for the children. We were admiring a little carved coffee table, painted white, that was there, and it had been designed by Shri Mataji. The cook brought in chips and occupied us throughout so we didn’t disturb the talk, and obviously Shri Mataji was working on us through our nabhis. We always wanted to go back after that! Shri Mataji was forcing us to eat the chips – we would just eat one or two, but She would encourage us to eat them all and said that these were for us.

If people arrived and Shri Mataji was in deep meditation, on occasions even Sir CP would welcome them and make them comfortable until such time as SM could see them, and even right from the start Shri Mataji and the Sahaja Yogi’s had so much support from Her family.
Anonymous

Only a Mother’s job
This is a story from 1973-4. My mother was just recently introduced to Sahaja Yoga and to Shri Mataji. She was at the early stages of experiencing vibrations, experiencing within herself. At that time my parents were living in Ambanath, which is a suburb of Mumbai, and one day someone rang the doorbell and my mum opened the door, and there was a sadhu or sanyasi wearing saffron robes. He presented himself and said that his guru had sent him because he had heard that my mother was a disciple of Shri Adi Shakti. My mother was dumbfounded because she didn’t expect anyone to come and ring the doorbell and say that. So my mum gave him self realisation, took his contact details and reported this to Shri Mataji.
In fact after a few months Shri Mataji came to our home in Ambanath and wanted to meet this person. And here he was, with his guru, and Shri Mataji has told this story in many of Her speeches. This guru was one of the Naonath, that is one of the nine great masters who stay in the Himalayas. He was a disciple of this great master, and then Shri Mataji went to his ashram. We noticed that this man was very silent, very humble, and very respectful towards Shri Mataji, and this was because he had a total recognition of who Shri Mataji was. We had a whole night of bhajans and all the night he was just silent, watching Shri Mataji’s Lotus Feet very very respectfully, as if he was doing some kind of a puja within his heart.
At the end he opened up a little bit and said ‘only You can do this job of giving Self Realisation.’ He said he had no hope for human beings and Shri Mataji asked why that was. He said that there were two of his disciples, who after many years of his training, of his meditation, were still smoking and still had a very bad agnya chakra. He didn't know how to open it and could not forgive them. He said it was only a mother’s job to help them. So of course Shri Mataji promptly opened their agnya chakra and gave them Self Realisation.

These two disciples came running to Shri Mataji’s Feet and thanked Her, and said that their guru was very strict with them. In fact one of the disciples was hung upside down over a well because he was caught smoking. So this was a big memory which is very close to my heart, our first exposure of who Shri Mataji really was.
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