On Wednesday, February 23, Ms. Nirmala Srivastava, known worldwide under the name of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga, died at his home in Genoa, Italy.
Nirmala Salve was born March 21, 1923 at Chindwara, Maharashtra in India, Prasad and Cornelia Salve, a couple of Christian Indians, descendants of the royal dynasty Shalivahana, highly respected in India. Nirmala's mother was the first Indian woman to receive a degree in mathematics, his father was a famous lawyer, linguist, speaking 14 languages who translated the Koran in Marathi. The family was closely related to Mahatma Gandhi and has lived in his ashram for several years. Nirmala, a young woman, also played an active role in the freedom struggle launched by Mahatma Gandhi. The whole family joined the Quit India Movement in 1942, which led to several arrests of his parents and of itself. His father was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, the only Christian member, and helped write the first constitution of India.
Nirmala studied medicine and psychology at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana Balakram Medical College and Lahore but interrupted his studies in emergency at the time of partition in 1947. Shortly before the Independence of India, she married Chandrika Prasad (CP) Srivastava, a senior civil servant. The couple had two daughters, Kalpana and Sadhana. Ms. Srivastava has spent the following years as a housewife, raising children and supporting her husband in his new role as secretary to the Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
His family has always had a sponsorship role vis-à-vis art and music in particular. In 1961, Dr. Srivastava has launched the Youth Society for Films, to instill national values, social and moral youth through the medium of cinema. She was also a member of the Indian Film Censor Board.
Throughout her life she continued to support music and arts, concerts, inviting the biggest names in Indian classical music, building an academy of arts and music on behalf of his father.
On 5 May 1970, a new chapter in the life of Ms. Srivastava has begun. After seeing how unscrupulous men arose as gurus and exploit young tourists who were visiting India in search of spiritual enlightenment, she joined in a state of deep meditation on a beach in Gujarat, Nargol. During this meditation, she has witnessed the rise of the Adi Kundalini, the primordial energy that sustains the universe. In this state, she realized it was his duty to share this awareness with spiritual humanity and offer free-realization, ie the Enlightenment, to anyone who wishes, through a process awakening mass of eternal energy, the kundalini. Shortly after this experience, she has started in Mumbai (Bombay) the practice of this new simple meditation technique, she called Sahaja Yoga, which means spontaneous union, and became known under the name of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
In 1972, Shri Mataji, traveling the United States, has publicly warned against the proliferation of gurus from India whose main interest was in fact the money and who did not the ability to give enlightenment. In 1974, her husband, who at the time was the managing director of the Shipping Corporation of India, was elected Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN agency based in London. He was re- four times in this position, which is a Reccord, and in 1990 he was awarded the honorary title of Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his services in the Maritime Organisation.
His stay in London marked the beginning of his work to raise awareness of Sahaja Yoga. It began with "seven hippies," as she calls them. From these beginnings, through open meetings held in small venues around London, the technique has begun to make themselves known, and Shri Mataji began traveling at his own expense throughout the UK, and to hold conferences to give experience self-realization.
In the 80s, Sahaja Yoga has grown exponentially and Shri Mataji has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Australia and America. She has also toured throughout India, where she was revered and worshiped as a living goddess, of the smaller villages to large cities. In the early 90s, she and her husband bought a house in Cabella Ligure, in the Italian countryside. She continued to travel the world tirelessly, from Russia to China to spread his message of peace, consciousness and enlightenment, aided the increasing number of yogis practicing his technique of Kundalini awakening, which she describes as "a candle lighting another."
She filled places as varied as the Royal Albert Hall in London or sports centers in Russia and India. In 2004, after 30 years of public lectures, she has decided to restrict his tours and conferences. She retired from public life to spend more time with his family and to leave the movement she had initiated, to develop naturally, while being available to offer advice.
During these forty years, his vision of a world uniting for peace people of all countries, has grown from a handful of followers in a movement of international renown who has led her to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. It has built hospitals, schools, academies of music and art, shelters for battered women and their children around the practice of Sahaja Yoga, as well as international centers for meditation.
His wisdom, his laughter, his sense of humor, and his unfathomable knowledge expert on almost every subject, make it immortal in the eyes of those who met her. She was eloquent, pragmatic and compassionate. His real concern has been to help all those seeking the truth. His generosity, both spiritual and material, showed no limits, because, above all, she was a mother to everyone she met and loved in a way that equal those called his children.
Shri Mataji leaves behind her husband, her two daughters, four grandchildren and great grandchildren. She returned Sunday, February 27 in his beloved India and was buried on Monday 28 February in New Delhi, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of people who share the same fervor.
Posted by Sufis and Sahaja Yoga
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