Early India tours
The second India tour was 1979-80 and that began with flying from the UK to Delhi with Shri Mataji. We stayed at Shri Mataji’s daughter’s house. It was a tour, but it wasn’t like the ones that followed because we used to just travel around in either the car with Mother or we used to go in the train between places. We were there two and a half months.
My remembrance of Delhi was that it was a circle of about half a dozen Sahaja Yogis and we had a Shivaratri Puja, which was on the roof of Sadhana didi’s house. There couldn’t have been more than fifty, a hundred people at the very most because the roof wasn’t that big. Mother said Delhi was a bit westernised and that’s why they’re all thinking too much, and there was a lot of corruption. At that time, She was never very positive about Delhi, but since then they’ve become so good.
Then we went down to Mumbai for perhaps a couple of weeks and during that time there were public programmes. The programmes were large by English standards, but there weren’t fields and fields of people. They were in their hundreds, rather than in their thousands. After that we set off into the interior of Maharashtra. We went to Pune, Rahuri, Aurangabad and all these places.
That led to the next year, which was 1980-81, which was the first proper tour, in a way, because that’s when they hired the first coach, just the one coach and that fitted in whoever came. The majority of the thirty-five or more people were Australian. That constituted the first tour and it went to the same places as the previous year.
Shri Mataji took us to villages and we had processions. There was one particular village that we used to go to for maybe two or three years, where Mother would be on a bullock cart with the banana leaves in big arcs and then the Sahaja Yogis and the band would be in front dancing. You lost that shyness of dancing in front and you even lost your shyness of dancing in front of Shri Mataji. We really enjoyed it.
We had a lot of close contact with Shri Mataji on that tour because quite often after the pujas we would go to Mother’s room and Mother would always tell us to take the vibrations that weren’t absorbed by the Sahaja Yogis. Quite often when you did take the vibrations like that, you’d literally shake with the vibrations.
Malcolm M.
This isn’t the first time we’ve met
The first time we saw Mother was in Mumbai in 1980. There were thirty Australians on that tour, five English, two French and one American. My first impression of meeting Mother was when She walked through the door with Sir C.P. I had a garland for Sir C.P. and Mother smiled at us all. We were all waiting in anticipation because most of us had never ever met Her, but we had all been in Sahaja Yoga for at least a year.
‘This isn’t the first time we’ve met or been together,’ were Her first words.
Bogunia B.
I am here for you
In December 1984 I was taking part in the annual tour of India with Shri Mataji and about two hundred Sahaja Yogis. I had been very struck by the enormous respect and adoration in which the Indian Sahaja Yogis held Shri Mataji. In Vaitarna, a village some distance from Mumbai, the Indians had one day organized a procession in which Shri Mataji would be carried around the village on an ox-cart, decorated with garlands. The Sahaja Yogis, western and Indian, danced around the cart as it advanced through the village streets accompanied by local musicians.
I started to dance and gradually approached Shri Mataji’s ox-cart. Shri Mataji saw me and greeted me with the gesture of namaste. I approached the ox-cart and started to walk alongside. From the ox-cart, Shri Mataji extended Her hand and I approached closer to kiss it. At this moment the cart wheel, wooden with an iron rim, ran over my foot. ‘It’s nothing, it’s nothing,’ I said to all those around who were looking at me, horror-stricken. Some people carried me under a tree where one Sahaja Yogini, a nurse, tried to stop the bleeding and an English doctor stitched my foot up. Mr. Pradhan, the leader of the Vaitarna Sahaja Yogis, came over to see me.
‘Shri Mataji is very sorry for what happened,’ he said. ‘She sends Her vibrations and tonight She will work on your foot.’
Mr. Pradhan returned to tell me that Shri Mataji was too tired. She would work on me the next day. I was taken in a jeep back to the bungalow where we were staying. Unknown to me, Shri Mataji was staying in the same bungalow. Next morning, I was sitting in my sleeping bag in the little corridor where we slept, suddenly everyone stood up. Shri Mataji was there. I also tried to stand up. Shri Mataji came towards me.
‘I am here for you,’ She said. ‘Come to my room.’ I followed Her, hopping on my good foot. The other had swollen up and I could not put my weight on it. Shri Mataji, conversing with me all the while, began to give vibrations to my foot. Having first assured Her that I could move all my toes, She put Her foot on top of mine, at first horizontally, pressing on the toes, and then pressing first on one side of my foot and then on the other, vertically. Her foot was completely pressed against mine and I not only felt the vibrations on my foot, but I had the impression that my foot had become a band of vibrations after some time.
‘Go now and don’t think any more about it,’ She said. Having entered Mother’s room hopping, I left it walking normally, without feeling any pain.
Sandra C.
The most beautiful moment of my life
This is a beautiful memory from the 1985 India Tour, at Brahmapuri. We were camping beside the river and it was the most beautiful idyllic camping site. In the morning we all went down to the river and a rumour went around that Shri Mataji was arriving. So we made a path of coloured saris and shawls all along the embankment for Shri Mataji to walk on. We waited, and just as we had decided that Shri Mataji was not coming after all, She arrived. The path of coloured cloth was thrown down again and everyone reassembled. Shri Mataji sat with Her Feet in the water and one by one we went to Her Feet. She then told us to get into the river downstream of Her Feet. The river was pouring over Her Feet and then over us. We immersed ourselves completely and the blue sky was full of vibrations and the river sparkled as it flowed over Her Feet. It was the most beautiful moment of my life.
Sarah F.
I lost any awareness of time and place
I was very young in Sahaja Yoga and I was on the India tour with Shri Mataji for about five weeks. It was round about 1984/5. We were in Brahmapuri, staying in a big tent. The Krishna river is there. Every day we had a bath in the river and washed our saris and dried them on the stones. On the other side of the river we could see an old castle and we heard that Shri Mataji was staying there. One day we were on the river and I had bathed, foot soaked, meditated, and I had only one dry sari left. I put it on and we heard that Shri Mataji was coming to the river.
We were all very excited. She came, sat down on a stone and put Her Feet into the river. Then whoever wanted, could come and do namaste to Her Feet. To begin with I was worried that my sari would get wet and I would have nothing to wear, so I lifted my sari up. I was in the water up to my knees and was concerned about getting wet. We were queuing and the nearer I came to Shri Mataji the more I became thoughtless sand didn’t worry. I put my whole head and body under the water and touched Shri Mataji’s Feet. The river went over me and I lost any awareness of time and place and I don’t know how long I was there under the water, without breathing. After what seemed like a long time someone took my arm and said I could go to the side. I stepped aside and it was the next person’s turn. I was standing on the side of Shri Mataji, completely wet and completely thoughtless. It was a very deep experience for me.
Sabine H.
Love flowed along that road
I had been given Realization in South Africa, where Shri Mataji had not visited. I had the good fortune of being in our Holy Mother’s presence for the first time on the India tour in 1990 – ’91. I was looking forward to the tour immensely. We were met in Mumbai by some yogis and then after a day or two, while we waited for everyone to arrive, we were taken by bus up beyond Pune, far up in the hills where Shri Mataji had bought some land for Sahaja Yoga. We were to camp there on a high hill overlooking a valley and it was really lovely. We caught all the breezes and had this wonderful view. On arriving at the camp, we settled into the pendals provided.
Later that day, we were to meet Shri Mataji. It had been arranged for Her to arrive in a jeep, all decorated in flowers and banana leaves by the local villagers. We all lined ourselves along the sides of the country road below the hill, waiting for the jeep to arrive. Anticipation was in the air. We could hear the drums being beaten and the school children danced around the jeep as it slowly wound its way along the road toward us. Love flowed along that road and I was holding out my hands towards Shri Mataji, hoping to feel the cool breeze flowing.
As the jeep drew nearer, I was surprised to feel the cool breeze, not only on my hands, but on my feet as well. Shri Mataji looked so cool and loving, smiling so beautifully for Her children. The jeep passed us and continued on the road, turning onto a smaller track to wind its way slowly up the hill. As the jeep drove up this hill, the track zig-zagged and we started to follow behind it, but we did not have to follow the track, instead we could make a straight line up the hill and therefore see Shri Mataji at every bend in the road. It was just like that, with all the yogis and yoginis in their saris and kurtas walking up this hill in small groups, here and there, with the local villagers mixing with us and following our Holy Mother as well.
Margaret F.
Miracle in Ganapatipule
Just before the programmes at Ganapathiphule started, Mr. Chavhan and seven yogis went with Shri Mataji to do a public programme in Ratnagiri. After the programme was finished, they were to catch a ferry back to Mumbai. On being told that this ferry would be very late, Shri Mataji said that they should still leave now for the ferry. The ferry was to be taken from a place called Jaigad. I knew that it was way too early and also that there was nothing to do there for timepass.
‘Mother,’ I told Shri Mataji, ‘there is a Ganesha temple on the sea, which we could go and see. It is only about a half an hour away, so we will easily be back in time.’
Shri Mataji said it was okay. We all packed into cars and went to see this Ganesha temple. It is at sea level and sometimes the sea enters into the temple at high tide. Shri Mataji went inside the temple, where the swayambhu was at sea level, to check the vibrations. Then Shri Mataji came out and told us that this swayambhu is very awakened and very powerful. In fact, it is much more powerful than the astavinayakas in Maharashtra. These are the eight Ganesha swayambhus in and around Maharashtra — swayambhus from Mother Earth.
‘Why didn’t you notice this before?’ Shri Mataji asked Chavhan, and he said that he only came here now for the first time after Sahaja Yoga. Shri Mataji then said that this place would be used for our international seminars. Shri Mataji spoke about the swayambhu. It has got the powerful vibration of Shri Ganesha and also the very powerful vibration of sea, void, power of Adi Guru Dattatreya. So by coming here, at least two chakras can get cleared out, Mooladhara and Void. Chavhan then started thinking about how to arrange all of this and thinking, ‘I don’t know anyone here to do this’ — and getting in a state.
‘So you are now worried about how to do this,’ Shri Mataji said. ‘Don’t worry. I will do everything and will tell you what to do in good time and automatically everything will work out.’ After this, we all decided to go and watch the sunset and have a foot soak.
‘Now I am going to show you a miracle. Look out over the ocean and tell me what you see,’ Shri Mataji said.
‘Mother, we see the waves all coming in our direction from all the sides. The waves are coming towards us.’
‘Now watch. I will change the direction of the waves,’ Shri Mataji said.
Shri Mataji then walked towards the south and the waves all went in that direction. Then Shri Mataji walked in the other direction and the waved all went the other way. Then, when Shri Mataji stood still, all of the waves also stood still. They seemed to be standing, waiting for the next instruction.
‘You may be doubting, and thinking that possibly the wind is doing this, so I will show you again,’ Shri Mataji said. She then did everything all over again. Shri Mataji said this is the second time that She had done this miracle. The first time was in America. After they had finished at the Ganesha temple, they then went back to Jaigad to wait for the ferry. By this time, the sun had set and they were all waiting at the port.
‘Now I will show you all another miracle. The Ganesha temple is in that direction.’ Shri Mataji said, and pointed, ‘Now look. Do you see anything over there?’
‘No, Mother, we can’t see anything,’ they all said.
Shri Mataji again pointed in the same direction and told them to look again. As they looked, they could see, slowly appearing a huge stream of light. It was like a huge cylindrical circle of light, as if thousands of volts were coming out of Mother Earth and going straight into the heavens.
‘There is no other light around here, not even moonlight, so that light is coming from the Ganesha temple,’ said Shri Mataji. ‘This light will not stop until I tell it to. This light is coming from the swayambhu of Shri Ganesha and I am taking it out.’ Shri Mataji then asked us if we all had seen this light and should She stop it. All the Sahaja Yogis present said that they had all seen it and that Shri Mataji could now stop it from coming out of the Ganesha temple. The light was there for about ten minutes. We all are very lucky to see such a thing and I have not seen anything like that since.
P.D. Ch.
Alibagh - The work I am going to do is for my Divine Mother
In 1981 Mr Koli decided that he must share the beautiful thing he had been given with all his relatives in the village of Sakhar. His wife Lakshmi, four more yogis and he went on a Sunday to give realisation. It was raining very heavily the whole day long, and stormy, and to get to the village they had to cross the sea. Because of the heavy rain, which made it dangerous, the boatman would not go for the whole day. Suddenly Mr Koli looked up at the sky.
‘Oh rain of God,’ he asked, ‘I pray to you and ask for forgiveness if I am interfering with the laws of nature, but the work I am going to do is for my Divine Mother, Shri Mataji Nimala Devi. I would request you to stop the rains while I go and give realisation, until I return. Otherwise it is not possible to cross the sea.’
The other yogis laughed and wondered what Mr Koli was doing, but suddenly there was a clap of thunder and the rain stopped. Everyone, including the boatman was surprised to see what had happened. He went to the village, gave realisation then returned home. When he got home it suddenly started to rain again and that was the time when he realised what Sahaja Yoga was, and how much power Mother has given us.
Lena K.
The first mobile phone
In 1986 there was the first New Year Puja at Alibagh. A miracle took place in the house. Shri Mataji reached there around 7.00p.m. from Ganapathiphule, and many other Western yogis too. When Mother stepped out of the car She was so surprised.
‘This place is so beautiful. I always wanted to come here,’ She said. Mother went into the bedroom and said to the other yogis, ‘I must tell Sir CP about this place and he must come and visit it.’ She asked one of the yogis if somebody could get Her a phone as She wanted to call Mumbai. Since it was not a developed village there were no phones. Then She asked Mr Koli for a coconut. He asked Shri Mataji if She wanted to eat one and She said She did not, but She wanted a fresh one from the tree. A village boy climbed up and got Mother one in ten minutes and gave it to Shri Mataji. She went into Her room and closed the door.
Many country leaders were sitting in the hall outside, and after an hour one of the leaders came and said that Shri Mataji was using the coconut as a phone and they had heard She was speaking to Sir CP for nearly an hour. Later the yogis found out that this was the year that mobile phones first came out.
Lena K.
She is always with us when our attention is on Her
We were having a simple puja to celebrate the fifth birthday of International Sahaja Yoga Research and Health Centre near Vashi, India and we were all sitting in the meditation room saying the 108 names of Shri Mataji. The phone rang and the gateman came in and spoke to Dr. Rai. It turned out that Shri Mataji had told someone to ring up from Pratisthaan and give this message.
‘I felt such good vibrations coming from Vashi. Were you all doing My puja?’ She said.
Anna Ch.
Enlargement of Shri Mataji on Her throne – at this time Her human body was on a plane coming from Lucknow.
Sitting on Her throne
Mother came to Lucknow in 1989. On the same evening as She was flying to Delhi from Lucknow, She had a public programme in Noida, near Delhi. We all went to the airport in Lucknow to see Her off, but the flight was delayed. There was a sofa there and Mother was relaxing on it. She closed Her eyes and someone took a photo of Her while She was relaxing. We all saw Mother on the sofa in the airport, so we thought She was sleeping. This was 7 pm in Lucknow.
At the same time, somebody took a photograph of the stage in Noida, at the public programme where Mother was supposed to be, but because the plane was delayed, She had not arrived. The miracle was that when the photo came out it showed that Mother was sitting on Her throne in Noida, at the public programme, watching everybody there. Mother definitely was in Lucknow at the time, sleeping on the sofa in the airport.
Akshay S.
A very ordinary camera
Mother had gone to Lucknow to attend a marriage, in 1989. When Shri Mataji came back to Delhi, the flight was delayed and we had arranged a public programme for Shri Mataji in Noida. By nine o’clock Shri Mataji had still not arrived, because of the delayed flight. At nine thirty, Shri Mataji came and addressed the audience, and said She was happy that they had waited so long for Her, and apologised for the unavoidable delay. But Mother is never away from Her children. She is always there.
This point was proved after a few days. A few photographs were taken by Raja Ch.’s father with a very ordinary camera. When the pictures came out and were printed, Shri Mataji was present at that place, Noida, at about eight o’clock. At that time Shri Mataji was in the air, in the plane. In the pictures Mother was on the stage at Noida, and those pictures were taken much earlier. In one of the photos you and see the people preparing the garlands and the aarti tray on the stage, and if Mother had been visible to those people, this would not have been going on.
G.K. D.
No ego
It was about 1991/2, in Delhi. I was travelling with Shri Mataji, and asked Her a question which had been in my mind.
‘What is the thin line dividing self respect and ego?’
‘A person who has self respect has no ego,’ Mother replied.
Mr G.K. D.
This was the colour of Shri Mahalaxshmi
It was 1989 when I was on the India tour, when we were at Brahamapuri, which was the Krishna River, and I had the opportunity to walk close to Shri Mataji. She did some footage for a video, and I put my shawl on a rock where She was going to sit down. She vibrated it, and when I put it on afterwards it felt like being wrapped up in the whole universe – there were so many vibrations.
We followed Her back, and She was barefoot. She stopped and looked at the sky. She told us to look at the sky, and the sky changed through about eight different colours in about thirty seconds. At the end it turned this very dark pink colour.
‘That is Me. When you see that colour, know that I am there,’ She said, and this was the colour of Shri Mahalaxshmi.
Mohan G.
Shri Mataji translated the movie
It was the beginning of 1981 and we went to see a movie with Shri Mataji in Pune. There were about thirty of us from Australia on that first tour where there were buses. Shri Mataji told us all to go to this movie theatre one evening. She was supposed to come too, but the movie started and She had not yet arrived, so we all sat down. About ten minutes into the movie Shri Mataji arrived and She came and sat between my husband, then fiancé, Paul and myself. All through the movie She translated, because it was a Hindi movie. She told him the plot, who the villain was and what was happening. She laughed and laughed and it was absolutely wonderful. When She sat down, She put Her glasses on, and it struck me that this was such a human thing to do. It was a very enjoyable evening.
Caroline H.
Sahaja Yoga has to be our main priority
I was leading the meditation at the Vaitarna Music Academy on the day before New Year’s Eve 2005. At one point I prayed to Shri Ganesha that He may fill us with pure divine music, and lead us to the Feet of Shri Adi Shakti. Within an hour Dr Arun Apte arrived back from Pune. As he stepped out of his car he received a phone call asking him to come back to Pratisthan and sing for Shri Mataji for the New Year Celebrations the next day.
Rather than sing by himself he decided to take six singers from the academy – three women and three men. We travelled by jeep to the Pune ashram, rehearsed, freshened up and arrived at Pratisthan around 8.30 pm on New Year’s Eve. I had never been there before and was amazed at its stylish grandeur and feeling of deep peace. We passed through some decorated marble corridors with fine carpets, meditated and prepared some songs for Shri Mataji.
After about an hour we were led into a reception room and waited for Shri Mataji to arrive. When She came She looked extremely powerful, yet quiet and contained, intently looking at all the fifty or so yogis gathered before Her. A local man performed a raga on shennai, and two yuva shaktis sang a beautiful Kabir song. When the Vaitarna group began with ‘Mahamaya, Mahakali,’ the whole room seemed to reverberate with everyone clapping and joining in. The vibrations completely opened the heart and Shri Mataji put a lot of attention on the singers. Shri Mataji enjoyed the performance very much and asked us to sing more, so we offered two more bhajans.
Tim and Ronald, from Germany, offered a garland at Shri Adi Shakti’s Feet, and after we had bowed down, Sir CP asked us to perform again. He addressed the meeting and conveyed Shri Mataji’s message that Sahaja Yoga has to be our main priority now, our main job, to spread it all over and go all out, so that in the coming year we would double the number of Sahaja Yogis in the world. Sir CP added that we should do it through our music, in that music is very important in spreading Sahaja Yoga.
As we file out we were completely in another state of bliss, smiling unstoppably, with huge grins on our faces – such was the feeling of joy bubbling up from inside. However, about fifteen minutes before midnight we were hurriedly directed to Shri Mataji’s room, where She sat with Sir CP. We sang to Her again, this time ‘We wish You a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.’ No one had thought to bring a songbook, so we sang some more bhajans from memory, finally Shri Ganesha’s names. Just as we finished singing the names, Sir CP wished everyone a Happy New year on behalf of Shri Mataji, and added that She had promised to stay with us all (on this earth) until every human being had become a Sahaja Yogi. Shri Mataji nodded Her head in agreement wit this, then cut a very large cake.
The atmosphere was extremely joyful and vibrated, and again, as I did namaskar I felt a great sense of surrender and devotion – nearly forgetting to get up again! As we left the sky lit up with fireworks announcing the New Year 2006 – a year in which music would seem to play an important role.
Tim B.