Shortly before India achieved its independence in 1947, Nirmala married Chandrika Prasad Srivastava, a high-ranking civil servant, who later served as a Joint Secretary to India's Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. They had two daughters and, after both had grown up and been married, Mrs Srivastava started to spend time lecturing about spiritual matters and giving practical instruction. She travelled extensively and came to be loved by thousands of spiritual seekers around the world. Shri Mataji was twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

She was regarded by many as a completely divine personality but was frequently opposed by more conventional religious figures, by moneymaking gurus and by the media. In the 1970s she found a receptive international audience and in the 1980s the audience became global. In September 1981 Shri Mataji declared her own divine status in public. She passed away in 2011.

This Website

The main content on this site is a variety of quotations and some full texts from speeches by Shri Mataji. Thirty pages, most having several quotations, are presented here. There are also 12 public speeches, substantially complete. Some are transcripts of speeches given in English and some are translations into English.

Sahaja Yoga

Sahaja Yoga is an evolutionary process. In a concrete way, it unites a human being with the world, the cosmos and everything that is outside of the person. A connection is rapidly established and is then gradually strengthened.

Awareness of one's own condition and an understanding of life improves with time. Most people will experience a reduction in some of life's difficulties and develop a feeling of greater wellbeing and satisfaction in their lives. These are things to be experienced and not just believed as being potential, or only to be expected in the long term. A form of gentle experimentation and observation is involved. However, nothing complicated or strenuous or mystifying is required.

Quite quickly one may achieve a more relaxed or meditative state. There should be conscious alertness, combined with reduced mental activity. The body generally feels more comfortable. Often the thinking process will stop for a while and this is therapeutic. Meditation is a state without thoughts or with very few, which is to be achieved. Meditation is not an activity to be performed but you may have understood the opposite!

Many so-called experts teach and sell 'techniques' of meditation but they are artificial. They do not live up to the marketing which goes with them. As Shri Mataji has explained, you are either inside a house or outside of it. You are either in a state of meditation or you are not and you cannot 'do' meditation.

"The easiest of easiest is Sahaja Yoga. The essence of Sahaja Yoga is that it’s the easiest thing to do. And that is why we should take full advantage of that easiest method, made easy, absolutely for you."

Quotation from Shri Mataji, 24th July, 1983.

A broader introduction was given in a book by Shri Mataji, which is sometimes known as Sahaja Yoga Book One. This link is to text found at the beginning of the first chapter:

Sahaja Yoga Book One, Chapter 1