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Nirmala Srivastava

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Free public event in New York

Nirmala Srivastava (more widely known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi) is the founder of Sahaja Yoga.

Biography

Nirmala Srivastava was born on March 21, 1923 in Chindawara, India to Christian parents, Prasad and Cornelia Salve. She says that she is descended from the royal Shalivahana/Satavahana dynasty.[1] The Salve surname is one of a number included in the Satavahana Maratha clan. Her parents named her Nirmala, which means "immaculate." [2] She says that she was born self-realised.[1]

Shri Mataji passed Her childhood years in the family house in Nagpur.[3] In her youth Nirmala Srivastava stayed in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi[4]. Like her parents, she was involved in the Indian independence movement;[4] as a young woman she was a youth leader, and participated in the Quit India Movement.[5] [6] She also studies at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana and the Balakram Medical College in Lahore.[3]

Shortly before India achieved independence in 1947, Nirmala married Chandrika Prasad Srivastava.[5] They have two daughters, Kalpana Srivastava[7] and Sadhana Varma[8]. In 1961, Nirmala Srivastava launched the ‘Youth Society for Films’ to infuse national, social and moral values in youth. She was also a member of the Film Censor Board.[3]

Srivasta visited a meditation camp in Nargol that was presided over by Acharya Rajneesh (later known as Osho)[9][10]. The camp ran from the 2nd to the 5th May 1970, and led the dynamic meditation, discoursed on Kundalini and other matters, and answered a question about 'Sahaja Yoga'.[11] According to a later statement, she "was shocked to see him loot people under the guise of spirituality".[12] Judith Coney writes that in a video of the Rajneesh meditation camp, Nirmala Srivastava can be seen 'smiling beatifically'.[13] Sudhir Kakar wrote that Nirmala Srivastava was "closely associated" with Rajneesh in her "apprenticeship years".[14] Nirmala Srivastava herself said that Rajneesh was 'very much after' her, and said that she had also visited Muktananda.[15]

She says that while in Nargol, on May 5 1970, she witnessed the rising of the Primiordial Kundalini. Later Nirmala Srivastava described the experience as follows: "I saw my kundalini rising very fast like a telescope opening out and it was a beautiful color that you see when the iron is heated up, a red rose color, but extremely cooling and soothing." [16] She has stated that the potential for all humanity to gain spiritual self awareness was realized at this time, which she characterizes as a "historical process of en-masse self-realization and inner transformation". Soon after she founded Sahaja Yoga in Bombay. She has proclaimed that she is the complete[17]incarnation of the Adi Shakti, and is worshiped as such.[18]

In 1972 Nirmala Srivastava sailed to the U.S. and warned against false gurus.[3] In 1974 Chandrika Prasad Srivastava was elected to serve as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency based in London, serving a record 4 successive 4-year terms as Secretary-General from 1974 to 1989. Nirmala Srivastava worked on seven London hippies who became the first Western Sahaja Yogis.[3] By 1979 Nirmala Srivastava was declaring herself before Western Sahaja Yogis to be the complete incarnation of the Adi (Primordial) Shakti or Holy Spirit.[19] In 1980 Nirmala Srivastava first toured Europe spreading Sahaja Yoga and in 1981 she toured Malaysia, Australia and North America - many other countries were to follow.[3] In 1989, after the lifting of the Iron Curtain, Nirmala Srivastava began visiting Eastern Europe where Sahaja Yoga spread quickly. [3]

From 1970 to 2004, during her travels, Nirmala Srivastava gave numerous public lectures, pujas, and interviews to newspapers, television and radio. In 2004 the official website of Sahaja Yoga announced that Nirmala Srivastava had completed her work. [20] As of 2007, she continues to be worshipped at pujas.[21]

2007 Indian flag apology

In 2007, two images showing the Indian national flag at the feet of Niramala Srivastava were circulated on the social network Orkut.

Later, Rajendra Kumar, a trustee of Sahaja Yoga Trust issued an apology on behalf of Nirmala Devi stating that the Sahaja Yogis have the "highest and deepest respect" for the National Flag. The apology further stated[22]:

Possibly, at an Independence Day function held abroad, some foreigner Sahaja Yogi brought our Flag and without meaning any disrespect, kept it on the ground. The Flag was respectfully removed immediately on being noticed. Shri Mataji NirmalaDevi asks us all to respect National Flags of all countries. This unintended but serious mistake is greatly regretted. Not even the slightest disrespect to our National Flag will ever be tolerated. To all those whose feelings have been hurt by this wholly unintended and unfortunate error, we express the assurance that we fully share their anguish and we extend our deeply felt and sincerest regrets and unqualified apologies.

References

  1. ^ a b Who is Shri Mataji?
  2. ^ H.P.Salve, My memoirs (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 1
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Biography at shrimataji.net
  4. ^ a b H.P.Salve, My memoirs (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 1 Cite error: The named reference "Salve2" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b H.P.Salve, My memoirs (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 4 Cite error: The named reference "Salve3" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ A message for one and all, The Hindu, April 7, 2003 [1]
  7. ^ Portraits of former IMO Secretaries-General unveiled
  8. ^ Ascent to the Divine: Himalaya Kailasa-Manasarovar in Scripture, Art and Thought
  9. ^ About Shri Mataji Canadian website. "She eventually consented to visit a seminar of a professor of philosophy called Rajneesh, in Nargol on May 4th, 1970."
  10. ^ Insert footnote text here
  11. ^ Osho, In Search of the Miraculous Vol 1 "Sahaja yoga is the most difficult of the yogas, because there is nothing more difficult than to be sahaja -- effortless, natural and spontaneous. What is the meaning of sahaja? Sahaja means: let whatever happens happen, don't resist it. Of course, it is the best, but it is also very difficult. Because nothing is more difficult for man than to be natural..." [ch 8, 5 May pm]
  12. ^ About Shri Mataji Canadian website.
  13. ^ Coney, Judith (1999) Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement, (London: Curzon Press) ISBN 0-7007-1061-2 p 220
  14. ^ Kakar, Sudhir (1984) Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions, ISBN 0-226-42279-8 p 202 "A demonic guru such as Rajneesh (with whom Mataji in her apprenticeship years was once closely associated) can turn the chakra toward the left side"
  15. ^ Mathur, Rakesh (1990) "The Russians' Love for Yoga" Hinduism Today Vol 12(10) p7 "I went to see Swami Muktananda and all of them. I went to see this Rajneesh, who was very much after me."
  16. ^ Gregoire de Kalbermatten, The Advent (daisyamerica: 2003)
  17. ^ http://www.tnsahaj.org/AdiSakthiByThirumoolar.htm
  18. ^ Invitation to Shri Adi Shakti Puja 2005
  19. ^ Guru Puja. 2 December 1979. Dollis Hill Ashram, London, UK "But today it is the day I declare I am the One who have to save the humanity. I declare I am the One who is Adi Shakti [Holy Spirit] - who is the Mother of all Mothers, who is the Primordial Mother, the Shakti [power] of the Desire of God - who has incarnated on this Earth to give meaning to itself, to this creation, to human beings, and I am sure that through My Love and Patience and My Powers I am going to achieve it. I was the One who was born again and again. But now I have come in My complete Form and with complete Powers."
  20. ^ We Want The World To Know... "Shri Mataji has completed Her work"
  21. ^ Puja Dates for 2007
  22. ^ Mata Nirmala Devi's Sahaj Yoga Trust apologizes over disrespect to tricolour

Bibliography

  • Mataji Shri Nirmala Devi, Meta Modern Era (New Delhi: Ritana Books, 1997) ISBN 81-852-500-19
  • Pullar, Philippa (1984) The Shortest Journey, ISBN 0-04-291018-8
  • Kakar, Sudhir (1984) Shamans, Mystics and Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and Its Healing Traditions, ISBN 0-226-42279-8
  • Coney, Judith (1999) Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement, (London: Curzon Press) ISBN 0-7007-1061-2
  • H.P.Salve [Nirmala Srivastava's brother], My memoirs (New Delhi: LET Books, 2000)
  • Gregoire de Kalbermatten, The Advent (Bombay, 1979: reprint: New York: daisyamerica, 2002) ISBN 1-932496-00-X
  • Gregoire de Kalbermatten, The Third Advent (New York: daisyamerica, 2003; Melbourne: Penguin Australia, 2004; Delhi: Penguin India, 2004) ISBN 1-932406-07-7
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