Shri Mataji
Many thanks to Greta and Melike for their report on the joyful day at Woodstock Community Centre in Burwood, Sydney, where Sahaja Yoga participated in Burwood Council’s 2008 International Women’s Day celebrations.
“Everything in Sahaja Yoga is always sahaja, i.e. spontaneous, and this day wasn’t any different. Room 2, upstairs, was allotted to us. Just as we had set up the room the way we wanted, the organiser came to tell us that we had to move to Room 1, downstairs, because the television set was too big to be brought up. Dismantling quickly, we set up again in the new room, only to realise that it was much better and perfect for our needs! We were located just off the main auditorium with a lot of traffic. We had planned to screen a lecture given by Shri Mataji which was on DVD but when we got to Room 1, we found only a video machine. So once again, a change of tack was required, and the three meditation sessions scheduled before the screening of the film turned into one long session while the right equipment was obtained.
The organisers were very helpful and supportive of our efforts, steering people towards us throughout the day. About 40 to 50 people got their Self-realisation. There were many interesting activities which vied for visitors’ time, thus preventing many from participating in the meditation sessions. However, handbills for the film, Freedom and Liberation, flyers showing the nearest Sahaja Yoga public programs, and Sahaja Yoga information pamphlets were distributed, with everyone expressing a sincere desire for follow-up.
The meditation session helped to clear the atmosphere in the room, lightening it as the heart chakra opened. Just as we finished the meditation, people flowed into the room for the screening of the film, only to find the fuse had blown! This created another glitch, with most of the people streaming out again to get refreshments. By the time the electricity problem had been solved an almost new group of people had settled into the seats. These people watched the screening of the film, The Vision, and enjoyed the experience of the guided Self-realisation meditation. Everyone felt the peace and quiet of the Cool Breeze of the Spirit. Many of the women live locally and expressed their desire to attend the free Sahaja Yoga programs at the Belmore Community Centre in Burwood.
Somewhere in the morning I found a few minutes to get a cup of tea. One of the ladies who had come in during the meditation session came up to me and said, “I don’t know if I’m imagining it or not, but I am moving much more freely”, indicating that she felt much freer in the joints. I looked at her smiling, calm face and told her that it wasn’t her imagination but that this is what happens when people do Sahaja Yoga, and that there is often an instantaneous relief of whatever problem they may have had previously. It was very satisfying to know that we had made a difference.
No-one left without feeling the Cool Breeze, and right up to the last minute people were coming to take their Self-realisation. A few women’s organisations asked for introductory meditation sessions to be held at their own venues. We also left flyers and brochures on the community centre’s information table for any future visitors to the centre.
A special thank you to Aunty Joy whose initial research had made it possible for Sahaja Yoga to contribute towards the celebrations for International Women’s Day 2008, “Women’s Business: Celebrating 100 Years of Paid and Unpaid Work” sponsored by Burwood Council. We would also like to thank the staff of Burwood Council for making our participation an enjoyable event. ”
Greta and Melike
On Thursday 6 March 2008, a festival will be held at the Woodstock Community Centre in Burwood, Sydney to celebrate International Women’s Day. There will be yoga and relaxation sessions, craft workshops, information stalls, guest speakers, and performances and entertainment. Lunch will be provided.
A candid film lecture by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi wil be screened from 11.15am to 12.50pm. Shri Mataji is an extraordinary woman, a saint of modern times who has brought the truth of spirituality to humanity and developed a unique method for achieving Self-realisation.
The film will be screened upstairs in Group Room 2. Short meditation sessions will be held before the film screening, at 9.30, 10.00 and 10.30am.
Contact: Greta More 0410 550 551
Freedom and Liberation is the title of an inspiring new film about the life of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Having premiered in Germany in 2007, the film will shortly be shown in many countries of the world to celebrate the 85th Birthday of Shri Mataji, on 21 March 2008.
Freedom and Liberation traces the life of Shri Mataji from her very early years growing up in India as Nirmala Salve, the daughter of Prasadrao and Cornelia Salve. While the family was wealthy, having descended from the Indian Shalivahan dynasty, all that was to change with the coming of Mahatma Gandhi’s Independence movement, working to free India from many centuries of British rule. Shri Mataji had already met Gandhi and stayed at his ashram on many occasions. Gandhi was very fond of Nirmala, and recognised that there was something very special about her.
As Shri Mataji’s parents were very active in the Independence movement, helping to organise protests against British rule, they went to gaol many times. As a small child, she was often left to look after the family. From living in large, expensive homes, the family came to live in huts. However, the children knew how important their parents’ fight was.
With the coming of freedom in India, Shri Mataji was able to turn her attention to her vision, the liberation of human beings from the chains of ego, greed, hatred and conditionings. She knew that she had a special task to undertake, but it was many years before she started her spiritual work. In the meantime, she married, became a mother and then a grandmother. As her husband, Sir CP Srivastava, was a distinguished diplomat and later Secretary-General of the United Nations Shipping Corporation, she moved in very high-level circles.
One day, however, Shri Mataji realised that she had to do something to save humanity from the fraudulent “gurus” who were robbing, misguiding and ruining people in the name of spirituality. She meditated deeply for a long time, and on the night of 5 May 1970 she opened the Sahasrara of the world, an event that symbolised the next great step in the evolution of humankind.
From this time, her real work began. Starting with small groups in India, she developed a unique method for giving realisation to people. Then she developed a method for giving realisation en masse, to many thousands of people at a time. She called this method Sahaja Yoga.
After moving to London because of her husband’s work, Shri Mataji gave realisation to groups of people in England. From this time, she began to travel tirelessly , first to Europe and then further afield, talking to people and giving realisation. Her message spread throughout the world, and today Sahaja Yoga is practised in over 100 countries.
The film is unique in that it shows recent interviews, not previously seen, of Shri Mataji and her family. It provides insights into the tremendous love, compassion and humility of Shri Mataji that drove her to undertake this enormous work.
The film was made in Germany, directed by Carolin Dassel and produced by devifilm GbR (Carolin Dassel and Joseph Reidinger). If you want to find out more about the film, follow the link: www.freemeditation.com/freedom
During March 2008, the film is being shown all over the world. If you want to have details of screening sessions in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Romania, follow the link: www.freemeditation.com/freedom
Film session times for Australia are shown below:
Australian Capital Territory
Belconnen
Friday 14 March, 7.00pm
Belconnen Theatre, Belconnen Community Centre, Chandler Street, Belconnen
New South Wales
Sydney: Contact (02) 9037 5837
Strathfield
Saturday 15 March, 7.30pm to 10.00pm
Strathfield Town Hall, Cnr Homebush Rd and Redmyre Rd, Strathfield
Cremorne
Monday 17 March, 6.30pm to 9.00pm
Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, 380 Military Rd, Cremorne
Paddington
Tuesday 18 March, 6.30pm to 9.00pm
Chauvel Cinema, Paddington Town Hall, Cnr Oxford St & Oatley Rd, Paddington (entrance on Oatley Rd)
Katoomba
Sunday 16 March, 3 pm
Edge Cinema, Katoomba
Avoca
Saturday 15 March, 2.00pm
Avoca Beach Picture Theatre, Avoca Drive, Avoca
Queensland
Cairns
Friday 28 March, 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
Meeting Room, Cairns City Council Library, Abbott St, Cairns
South Australia
University of Adelaide
Saturday 15 March, 4.30pm to 7.00pm
Napier Lecture Theatre, University of Adelaide
Goodwood
Saturday 15 March, 4.30pm to 7.00pm
Goodwood Community Centre, 32-34 Rosa Street, Goodwood
Tasmania
Contact: (03) 6245 1476 or 0416 435 278
Hobart
Tuesday 18 March, 7pm
Community Centre, Cooper St, Glenorchy
Burnie
Wednesday 19 March, 7.00pm
Health Centre, Jones St, Burnie
Devonport
Thursday 20 March, 12.00 noon
Library, 21 Oldaker Street, Devonport
Launceston
Thursday 20 March, 7.00pm
Community Centre McHugh St, Kings Meadows
Victoria
Contact: 1300 742 242
Melbourne
Friday 14 March, 7.30pm to 9.30pm
Saturday 15 March, 7.30pm to 9.30pm
Treasury Theatre, Treasury Place, Melbourne
Many of us, looking at the current situation with Australia’s Indigenous population, could form the view that their condition is a reflection of much deeper problems facing modern society – dispossession, displacement, disadvantage.
I found myself at Martin Place on a grey and rainy Sydney Wednesday morning, with a surprisingly large number of my fellow citizens, listening to the Prime Minister’s apology to the Stolen Generations of Aborigines. There was a real sense of the unity and wellspring of community goodwill, which has swept our nation over the preceding few days, which could not be manufactured. It has been invigorating to witness this spirit unfold as a spontaneous, collective community expression of the highest principles and ideals. The unity of all people, the importance of reconciliation – it was a time when people across our country, separated by race, have become united in something beyond the mundane, commonplace, and routine, by the need to apologise and to heal.
At times it has felt similar to the spirit which pervades a large gathering at a Sahaja Yoga event, being felt and experienced right across our country. People everywhere were experiencing collective awareness, and were sharing the joy of an open-hearted expression of real forgiveness.
As Shri Mataji has indicated, a conflict between the forces of evolution and those of devolution are ever at play. The day of apology was an occasion when the heart triumphed over the head, a time for love to triumph and to purge hatred and division from the body of our country, and to move away from racism, discrimination, segregation.
The day of apology was a time for the expression of a much more enlightened view of a type rarely seen in public. The opinions of our national leaders were focussed more towards introspection and self-evaluation, on the question of the moral integrity and spiritual wellbeing of our nation.
Popular wisdom was that as soon as John Howard had retired, the new Prime Minister – of either political persuasion – would induce Parliament to apologise to Aborigines for past wrongs, and so it turned out to be the case.
Will its contribution mean an end to Australia’s particular form of apartheid, in which Aborigines are reduced to invisibility in everyday life? Except as issues, not many of us know a single Aboriginal face. They are truly the invisible men and women of Australia, usually only seen or read about in the news.
It is hoped that the official, heartfelt National Apology is one of those “great-leap-forward” concepts our nation can pursue, in its efforts to enable Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to see one another more clearly.
Many events pull our citizens onto the streets – days celebrating sporting success, or commemorating a great historical event. These are days of joyful celebration. But this day, when so many were united in our community, celebrating something much more important and unique, was a mighty day, more important perhaps than many others before it.
J.K. Galbraith once remarked that the tribulations at the margins of society would eventually upset the contentment at its centre. It seems as if the time has come when the Australian Government realised that the human spirit has to be nurtured through forgiveness, together with a renewed commitment for the future.
As one walked through the city on this day, people in business suits and those in shorts and T-shirts, all seemed to be equally affected by the gravity of the occasion, the magnitude and depth of this moment in our history. By all measures it was a stunning day, and hopefully its great purpose will succeed if it provides a new beginning, and insights into the dignity of Indigenous culture. With our positive desire it will also play a larger role in reconciling a range of issues relevant to all Australians.
This was a coming together of people of varied backgrounds, and a collective expression of an apology freely offered and graciously accepted. It gives us a glimpse of what a wider, enlightened society may one day be like, one where the values of selflessness and social improvement, enlightenment and inclusion for our Indigenous population as the great body of the first Australians, can be renewed.
It seemed that this one day in our history, filled with noble words and deeds and with that most healing of words, “sorry”, was somehow pitted against years of mean observances, of broken lives, and of families rent asunder. And by some miracle of the human spirit, many of those who had suffered most terribly, found it to be most worthy.
Chris Kyriacou
(Photograph: metro.co.uk)