Meeting Mother

I realized this lady was something very high
My first reaction to Mother, in 1978, was that I felt that I had met this lady before. I thought I had seen Her in Oxford Street in London, in a shop somewhere. She just touched my hand.

‘You will be all right,’ She said. ‘You are not all right now, but you will be all right.’
So I went home and had a shower. I was alone at that moment, in the house I was sharing with some people. All of a sudden, I went completely thoughtless. I wanted to think, but I couldn’t. I knew I had to lie down, so I lay on the bed and closed my eyes. I was aware of this energy rising up through my stomach and then all the way to my chest and then on to the top of my head like a sort of crown, and my body felt very light and I felt totally in the bliss. So I realized that this lady was something very high and I never experienced that before. So that was my first experience of Sahaja Yoga.
Miodrag R.

To have met someone very special
In the summer of 1978, my aunt and uncle introduced me to Sahaja Yoga.
‘Would you like to try this?’ my uncle said one evening. Without much explanation, they sat me down facing the photograph and brought a bowl of water for me to put my feet into.
The next day, they asked me if I’d like to accompany them to meet Shri Mataji. Of course, I agreed. On the train journey from Euston Station to Oxted, where Shri Mataji lived, I noticed how excited my uncle and aunt were feeling about meeting Her and the child-like excitement in their faces was striking.
We reached Shri Mataji’s house and it was full of Indian artwork, including large statues of gods in the hall. The house was also filled with the delicious smell of Indian cooking. When we met Shri Mataji in a sunny room overlooking the garden, She greeted us in a very open and friendly way, like a mother talking to her children. It was very peaceful there.
When Shri Mataji talked to me, it reminded me of how my grandmother talked to me. She was interested in what I was doing and what my interests were. She rubbed my head and said something about being careful about eating cheese because some cheeses are not good. She said I had been born with the Realization. I did not have any strong unusual experiences, such as feeling the cool breeze, but I did feel lucky to have met someone very special.
Alan R.

And that started my seeking
About two months before I got Realization, in 1983, I had to do a gilding job. That is my work. I had to gild some chairs and a sofa. I had to deliver these things and it was to 54 or 56 Brompton Square, just up the road from Shri Mataji’s house. One afternoon I was driving round Brompton Square very slowly, looking for this house, where the chairs had to go. I didn’t know where it was. Once I got to the other side, I saw a beautiful lady. She was wearing a wonderful sari and She was so beautiful.
I now know it was Shri Mataji and She must have just got back from a function with Sir C.P. Srivastava. I was surprised to see this beautiful Indian lady living here. I had never seen an Indian lady dressed so beautifully as that. The way She was dressed was fantastic and that stuck in my mind. As I got to the house where I had to go, near Mother’s house, I am sure that Mother looked at me and then She went back inside Her house. That started my seeking.
Antonio S.


Fishing
I remember Mother sitting on a rock or a stone or something [at Loch Rannoch] and both Her and Sir C.P. had a fishing rod. Mother was very amused by this activity. Someone else caught a fish. Mother didn’t catch a fish, but what did happen though, while all this was going on, was that about a hundred fish suddenly came to the surface, sort of bobbing up, as if they wanted to be caught. Mother didn’t catch any of them, but they just appeared out of nowhere. These fish just started appearing spontaneously everywhere and when She left, they all vanished again.
Kevin A.

This will clear England out
There were just a few of us still there and She took us up to the Seven Springs, the source of the River Thames, above Cheltenham. Shri Mataji took Her shoes off and She went down to where there is some water on the stones there.

It wasn’t flowing much and there were flies around the place. We all put our feet into the water of the springs, but it was very cold. Then when Shri Mataji put Her Feet in, the water started to flow and all the flies went away and it became a much nicer place. The actual water level rose up once Shri Mataji’s Feet were there. It was very nice then. She put Her Feet in it. ‘The Thames is the Kundalini of England,’ She said, and explained that Thames is for tamasa, which, of course, is the left side and London, through which the Thames runs, is the city of the moon — Luna. She said, ‘Now, this will clear England out.’ And the Thames has been very vibrated. It was a very polluted river then, but since then it has cleared out.
John W.


To My daughter
I remember when The Advent was inaugurated, in 1980. It was a big event. We had heard about its coming for a while, that Gregoire would show it to Shri Mataji and She would edit it and make changes to it. We all knew that She had suggested he move the rather heavy, intellectual chapters to the end.

It was the first time we had held a programmeme in such a really upmarket place and there was a lot of preparation. We arrived in the main entrance of the Indian Consulate, in one of the many grand old historical buildings, which exist in London. Off to the right was this small room holding a beautiful exhibition about Sahaja Yoga. It had stands about each chakra, with Shri Mataji as the main focus. I can still see the entrance. It was as if the room was filled with a special kind of soft, bright light. I felt as if I was walking into vibrations. It was heavenly. Then we went into the main auditorium and the presentation began. There were many speeches in honour of Shri Mataji and the work She was doing — notably from Sir C.P. and, as always, heart-warming and humble words from Gregoire.

The day Shri Mataji signed The Advent She was sitting in Dollis Hill ashram with Her back to the window in a big comfy armchair with the books beside Her. She was always so motherly and someone was asking the yogis to come up in front of Her one by one, then they would say the name of that yogi and Shri Mataji would take a new book and write inside. She explained that She was writing in Devanagri.
I thought She was just writing Her name in it like Western authors do, but, when I went up, instead She explained what She had written.
Later, I discovered the translation of what She had written in my book said, ‘To my daughter Felicity, with loving blessing, your Mother, Nirmala.’
Can you imagine what it feels like to have a book like that so beautifully written, the first one all about truth, the real truth of our lives, about the Kundalini and Shri Mataji Herself and Her powers and then to have it written in by Shri Mataji Herself with so much love? It feels really special.
She said we should wrap this book in cloth with four corners folded and keep it in a special place like a Bible and only look at it with clean, washed hands.
Felicity P.


Playing the game
I always remember when I first came into Sahaja Yoga, Shri Mataji said to us all in Chelsham Road something very deep.
‘You see,’ She said, ‘Sahaja Yoga is a game and you have to know how to play the game. The problem is I want to play the game with you, but you don’t know how to play the game. And if you don’t know the rules of the game, it is very difficult to play the game with you.’
I think that is a very important thing to remember, that She is playing a game that we really don’t know how to play. The trick is to learn how the game is played. Really there are no rules, the way Shri Mataji plays the game. Or rather, She makes up the rules as it goes along. She will, to an ignorant human, appear to contradict Herself, but in fact it is because different things apply at different times and, in reality, She is entirely consistent.
To give an example, She will get someone to design the house or to design a new floor in the house or to design a room. Basically, She will change all the rules, like She will make the dimensions completely different and the architect will be trying to draw something on a rational level and not understanding that Mother is on a completely different level. She makes space where space doesn’t exist, at least on our level. Very often it is just that She is trying to put us thoughtless and is playing with us.
Jeremy L.

Closeness and intimacy
I remember in Oxted, at that house that Shri Mataji had there, the sort of closeness and intimacy, and Her relationship with the early Sahaja Yogis. It is something that the earlier Sahaja Yogis still talk about quite a lot. For example, we would have ajwan and She would get under the sheet with everybody and all the Sahaja Yogis would be coughing and spluttering.
‘What’s wrong?’ Shri Mataji would say. She would be completely unaffected.
Kevin A.

Her handshake
When we came down to Glasgow in a mini bus, Shri Mataji and others who were going south were getting on a train. As I was the only person to stay in Glasgow, I took the opportunity to shake Shri Mataji’s hand, as She was leaving, and this was quite an incredible experience, as over that last couple of days, I have to say, I had developed quite a considerable awe of Her power, which was quite immense.
But at the time when we shook hands, the handshake was the gentlest handshake I have ever experienced and it transformed my impressions of what a handshake could be. It was one of the most lasting ones I have ever had, it was as the strength of an elephant has and yet it had been compressed in an egg without cracking it. It had that authority and power and with this great sensitivity in it.
Mark C.


A Cambridge University Professor named Juan Mascaro
I was a seeker for as long as I can remember. When travelling in India, seeking a guru, I found books written by a Cambridge University Professor named Juan Mascaro. These books not only made the most sense to me, but also gave me such joy that I could not put them down. They were the Dhammapada, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, translations by the man who was at that time the western world’s authority in Sanskrit and Pali. About a year after getting Self-Realization from Shri Mataji in Caxton Hall in London, in October 1979, my wife and I were living in Cambridge and attended a lecture given by Juan Mascaro. As soon as he walked into the room and began reciting passages from the Gita and Upanishads in Sanskrit, the whole room lit up around him – a fact also confirmed by my wife and other Sahaja Yogis who were present at the time.

When Shri Mataji came to Cambridge some time later for a programmeme, it was only natural that I would want Mr. Mascaro to meet Her, so I arranged a meeting that would occur the day after the programmeme at his house. As it turned out an interview had been arranged in the morning with a lady from a local BBC studio and it went on much longer than we had anticipated. Afterwards we got caught in a traffic jam, all of which resulted in Shri Mataji’s desiring to have a nap before departing for Norwich, a city some 60 miles northeast of Cambridge, where we had arranged another public programmeme that evening. Shri Mataji seemed to sleep quite soundly and we knew it was inauspicious to wake Her, but it was getting late and obvious that we would not be able to visit Mr. Mascaro after all.

‘I slept so soundly, it must be quite late,’ Shri Mataji said when She awoke. I replied that it was, and that we would not have time to go see Mr. Mascaro. ‘Better go and phone him,’ She said. I could feel his sadness and disappointment over the phone but we agreed to make it some other time. When I reported back to Shri Mataji, She said ‘Well, you know he is an older man, better phone him again and tell him I will come’. By this time my emotions had gone through the entire spectrum and I reported back to Mr. Mascaro. I couldn’t tell whose relief and joy was the greater – his or mine!

When we all arrived at his very humble thatched cottage in a small village about ten miles from Cambridge, he was standing in the doorway with a single, beautiful white rose that he had picked from his garden. To our amazement and delight he began to sing the ancient sloka that we all Sahaja Yogis were very familiar with, as we used to sing it to Shri Mataji following the Aarti at pujas! (twameva Mata, cha Pita twameva). There were no dry eyes that observed that scene I can assure you. After presenting Shri Mataji with the rose, he invited Her, then us inside and what was to follow was even more amazing! The vibrations in the room were so strong that I envisioned the walls of the house collapsing from the power of it. It was as if a long lost son finally had found his Mother.

At this point any hope of getting to Norwich anywhere near the scheduled meeting time was so far out of the question, that at one point I almost thought about calling the hall to tell the caretaker to put out a sign saying that the meeting was cancelled. I was resigned to fact that we were going to be very, very late and that if anyone did show up they would have left hours ago. The drive to Norwich was very beautiful but normally it would take between an hour and a half and two hours, depending on the traffic, as it was primarily a single-lane carriageway. Hari J. was driving Shri Mataji’s cream-coloured Mercedes and my wife and I were both in the back. In the car on the way to the meeting Shri Mataji made this statement.

‘It’s very rare, you know, that a great scholar should also be a great realized soul’. I do not know how long it actually took us to get to Norwich that day, but I do know two things: that the meeting was scheduled to begin at 7 p..m. and as I opened the door to let Shri Mataji out of the car at the front entrance to the hall, the clock on the church tower across the street began to chime seven times!!
‘How many times do I have to tell you people that we are not bound by time’, joked Shri Mataji!
Jim T.