Amy was a year 7 student at a small country high school. I had taught her in year 4 and her mother baby-sat for me. One day as I arrived to collect my daughter from Amy’s mother’s place, Amy asked me a surprising question. She had an English assignment that required her to do an oral presentation on a religion. She asked if I would mind if she did hers on Sahaja Yoga, as she had learnt a little bit about it back in Year 4 when she asked me about Shri Mataji’s photograph on my desk at school. I agreed to her request on two conditions. The first was that she did not present it as a religion but as the truth of all the great religions, and the second was that she allowed me to read it before she presented it. She agreed to both these requests and I loaned her some books on Sahaja Yoga.

She gave me her work and I was impressed, but I was even more so when she said that she wished she had her self-realisation so that she could speak from experience. I told her that this was possible right then and there if her mother, Cheryl, allowed it. She did, and Amy and I moved into her room with a photograph of Shri Mataji and a candle. Amy got her realisation and strongly felt the cool breeze above the top of her head. We meditated together and the candle flame popped and grew in size as it cleared the negativity. Amy had kept her eyes open staring at Shri Mataji’s photograph through the flame. When we had finished meditating she asked my why the flame had behaved the way it did. I explained that we use the elements to clear our chakras, and that the flame was burning off negativity to clear the chakras.

As we went back into the living room, Amy asked another startling question.

“CanI give the class their realisation when I do my presentation?”

Naturally, I agreed. The next day, I brought a poster-sized photograph of Shri Mataji for Amy to use with her class.

When I arrived to collect my daughter on the day of the presentation, Cheryl suggested that I stay until Amy returned to see how it had all gone.  Amy came home beaming and said that it was “amazing.” Everything had gone well. She was glad that I had explained the candle flame’s unusual behaviour as her English teacher had kept her eyes open during the realisation process to watch the class and had seen the candle flame grow and heard it pop. At the end of Amy’s presentation, she asked Amy why this had happened and Amy was able to give an explanation.

I could hardly believe what I was hearing, but more was to come. Amy told me that a girl who was always very nervous had to give her presentation after Amy. This girl had been dreading the presentation, but later told Amy how glad she was that Amy had gone first because getting her realisation had made her the calmest that she had ever felt in her life, and she stayed that way while she gave the presentation that she had dreaded!

At lunchtime people came to ask how Amy knew about Sahaja Yoga. She told them that Tanaya’s mother had taught her. Tanaya is my eldest daughter, who was also in year 7 at the same school. Other pupils came to ask for their realisation as word had spread as to how “cool” it was.

That night Tanaya told me that her friends had heard of Amy’s presentation and had been a little upset, saying, “You knew of this all along and you didn’t tell us about it!”

That weekend one of Tanaya’s friends came to visit and the two of them headed for the bedroom. This was nothing unusual but the silence that came from the room was; so, too, were the strong vibrations that I felt as I passed the door. I opened the door a little, being very careful not to disturb them. The most beautiful sight greeted my eyes. Tanaya and her friend were sitting in front of Shri Mataji’s photograph with a lit candle. Tanaya was giving her friend her self-realisation. This occurred a couple of more times with other friends over the following days. All of these young people have had that precious connection to the Divine established,  and it will stay with them for life.

LB