This special issue contains a forty year history of Sahaja Yoga, primarily told through the words of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. From the opening of the Sahasrara in 1970, each year is a stepping stone in our collective story. Each of us is a thread in the fabric that is Sahaja Yoga, all those years in the making. Of Sahaja Yoga, Shri Mataji is the author. Of our ascent, She is the artist.
I have written this book for the benevolence of the people, with whatever English I can use, with whatever literature I can use, with whatever style I could adopt. Mataji Nirmala Devi
Shri Mataji writes that “India is a very ancient country and it has been blessed by many seers and saints who wrote treatises about reality and guidelines on how to achieve it.” This is just such a book. This book is both an introduction to Sahaja Yoga, describing the nature of the subtle reality within each of us, and a step-by-step handbook on how to be a good Sahaja Yogi, the nature of Sahaj culture, how to be a leader and how to raise children. “The knowledge of Sahaja Yoga cannot be described in a few sentences or one small book, but one should understand that all this great work of creation and evolution is done by some great subtle organization, which is in the great divine form.”
"Sahaja Yoga is not so simple as you think," Shri Mataji told us in 1998. "It is full of temptations." Over twelve pages, in a collection of short quotes, Shri Mataji clearly tells us what Sahaja Yoga is not. The magazine also includes several other articles created from her words. She speaks of collectivity, beauty, fear and incarnations. She speaks at a 1982 Shri Durga Puja, calling it "the Day of the Goddess" and she assures us that there is no problem because there is a special grace.
This collection of sixty-four stories, all told to us by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, includes The Creation of Shri Ganesha, The Sanyasi and the Rain and Padmini and the Palanquin. They are tales of inspiration, guidance and humour, "The stories are there," she said, "but behind these stories, you have to see the subtle things."
"You may find me walking with you." Shri Mataji is speaking of the second era of Sahaja Yoga when we no longer require her physical presence, but she will be at our side. This magazine also features the 1980 Sahasrara Puja talk, Shri Mataji's words to seekers, an explanation of the ether and how the word "sahaj" means spontaneous.
On 5th May 1970 Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi introduced a unique method of inner transformation called Sahaja Yoga. Within the following years Sahaja Yoga grew dramatically and transformed the lives of thousands all over the world. the Ascent is a sequel that records the process of that transforming force and how each individual can ascend to his own ultimate collective being.
The first full-length examination of Sahaja Yoga, a new religious movement led by Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi, which claims up to one hundred thousand members from around the world.This is the first full-length examination of Sahaja Yoga, a new religious movement led by Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi, which claims up to one hundred thousand members from around the world. The author examines how newcomers adopt new practices and allegiances on becoming full-time members, and how most develop a radically new awareness of 'spiritual vibrations' as a result of the regular meditation suggested by Sri Mataji. To do so, she reflects upon current theories of socialisation, in particular building up understandings about new social worlds than has so far been appreciated. This accessible and informative account is of particular value to scholars working in the study of religions and new religious movements, and of interest to those working on theories of socialisation. However, the book is required reading for anyone who wants to know more about the contemporary religious landscape.
A chronicle of lived experience, this astonishing book is a biographical exposé, its ultimate theme the great battle of the last days, the final war between God and the Devil. Drawing on her journals, Valerie tells how, at the height of a successful career as writer and actress, she suddenly disappeared. An innocent seeker of God, unaware of the pitfalls, or the unrelenting opposition of the devil, Valerie had strayed into an Indian sect where its female guru, learning of her vocation to ‘write a book for God’, feared her as a potential whistleblower. Vowing to 'stop Valerie writing', she attacks her with magic and occult powers. Now, the writing of the book itself becomes the battlefield. Converted to Catholicism and escaped to France, Valerie is helped by an exorcist. And God, giving her the added vocation to pray for souls lost in sects, comes to her in the Eucharist, fighting alongside, granting moments lifted into bliss and finally breaking the bondage. Thirty years on, the past erased, experience with Valerie the inside story.
