Nirmala Srivastava Explained

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Birth Date:	1923 3, df=yes
Birth Place:	Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India
Death Place:	Genoa, Italy
Known For:	Sahaja Yoga
Website:	http://www.sahajayoga.org/

Nirmala Srivastava (née Nirmala Salve; 21 March 192323 February 2011), also known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, was the founder and guru^[1] of Sahaja Yoga, a new religious movement.^{[2] [3]} She claimed to have been born fully realised and spent her life working for peace by developing and promoting a simple technique through which people can achieve their self-realization.^{[4] [5]}

Early life

Born in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India to a Hindu father and a Christian mother Prasad and Cornelia Salve, her parents named her Nirmala, which means "immaculate".^{[6] [7]} She said that she was born self-realised. Her father, a scholar of fourteen languages, translated the Quran into Marathi, and her mother was the first woman in India to receive an honours degree in mathematics.^[5] Shri Mataji descended from the royal Shalivahana/Satavahana dynasty.^[8] The former union minister N.K.P. Salve was her brother and the lawyer Harish Salve is her nephew. The Salve surname is one of several in the Satavahana Maratha clan.

She passed her childhood years in the family house in Nagpur.^[9] In her youth she stayed in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi.^{[6] [10]} Like her parents, she was involved with the struggle for Indian independence and, as a youth leader when a young woman, was jailed for participating in the Quit India Movement in 1942.^{[6] [11] [12]} Taking responsibility for her younger siblings and living a spartan lifestyle during this period infused the feeling of self-sacrifice for the wider good.^[13] She studied at the Christian Medical College in Ludhiana and the Balakram Medical College in Lahore.

Shortly before India achieved independence in 1947, Shri Mataji married Chandrika Prasad Srivastava,^[11] a high-ranking Indian civil servant who later served Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri as Joint Secretary, and was bestowed an honorary KCMG by Elizabeth II.^[14] They had two daughters, Kalpana Srivastava^[15] and Sadhana Varma.^[16] In 1961, Nirmala Srivastava launched the "Youth Society for Films" to infuse national, social and moral values in young people. She was also a member of the Central Board of Film Certification.

Sahaja Yoga

See main article: Sahaja Yoga.

Nirmala Srivastava founded Sahaja Yoga in 1970.^[17]

Later work

In 2003 a charity house for the rehabilitation of destitute women was set up in Delhi (the Vishwa Nirmala Prem Ashram).^[18] She set up the Shri P.K. Salve Kala Pratishthan in Nagpur as an international music school in the same year, to promote classical music and fine art.^{[5] [19]}

Until 2004, during her travels, she gave numerous public lectures, pujas, and interviews to newspapers, television and radio. In 2004 her official website announced that she had completed her work and Sahaja Yoga centers exist in almost every country of the world.^[20] She continued to give talks to her devotees^[21] and allowed them to offer her puja.^[22]

She spoke on several occasions about the harms of drinking alcohol^[23] and that many people were cured from addiction when they got their self realization through Sahaja Yoga.^[24]

Honors and recognition

• Italy, 1986. Declared "Personality of the Year" by the Italian Government.^[25]
• New York, 1990–1994. Invited by the United Nations for four consecutive years to speak about means to achieve world peace.^[26]
• St. Peterburg, Russia, 1993. Appointed as honorary member of the Petrovskaya Academy of Art and Science.^[27]
• Romania, 1995. Awarded honorary doctorate in cognitive science by the Ecological University Bucharest.^[28]
• China, 1995. Official guest of the Chinese Government to speak at the United Nations International Women's Conference.^[29]
• Pune, India, 1996. On the occasion of the 700th Anniversary of Saint Gyaneshwara, she addressed the "World Philosophers Meet '96 - A Parliament of Science, Religion and Philosophy" at Maharashtra Institute of Technology.^[30]
• London, 1997. Claes Nobel, grandnephew of Alfred Nobel, chairman of United Earth, honoured her life and work in a public speech at the Royal Albert Hall.^[31]
• A road in Navi Mumbai, near the Sahaja Yoga Health and Research Center, was named in her honor.^[32]
• Cabella Ligure, Italy, 2006. She was awarded honorary Italian citizenship.^[33]
• Cabella Ligure, Italy, 2009. Bhajan Sopori and his son Abhay Sopori composed the raag Nirmalkauns in her honour.^[34]

See also

• List of messiah claimants

Bibliography

• Mataji Shri Nirmala Devi, Meta modern era (New Delhi: Ritana Books, 1997)
• Pullar, Philippa (1984) The shortest journey,
• Kakar, Sudhir (1984) Shamans, mystics and doctors: a psychological inquiry into India and its healing traditions,
• Coney, Judith (1999) Sahaja yoga: socializing processes in a South Asian new religious movement, (London: Curzon Press)
• H.P. Salve [her brother], My memoirs (New Delhi: LET Books, 2000)
• Gregoire de Kalbermatten, The advent (Bombay, 1979: reprint: New York: daisyamerica, 2002)
• Gregoire de Kalbermatten, The third advent (New York: daisyamerica, 2003; Melbourne: Penguin Australia, 2004; Delhi: Penguin India, 2004)

Notes and References

1. Book: Lewis . James R. . Tollefsen . Inga B. . The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements: Volume II . 2016 . Oxford University Press . 9780190466190 . 293 . A few female gurus have gained international recognition... Sahaja Yoga's guru, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi..
2. Web site: Advies van het Informatie- en Adviescentrum inzake de Schadelijke Sektarische Organisaties (IACSSO) over Sahaja Yoga . . nl . 7 March 2005 .
3. Book: Abgrall, Jean-Marie . Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of Cults . Algora Publishing . 2000 . Jean-Marie Abgrall . 978-1-892941-04-6 . 139–144.
4. Wayne Dyer, "The power of intention" "She is the primordial mother", p56-57, Hay House, 2004
5. News: . Sahaja Yoga founder Nirmala Devi is dead . Express News Service . 25 February 2011 . 24 February 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110227021237/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sahaja-yoga-founder-nirmala-devi-is-dead/754645 . 27 February 2011 . live . dmy-all .
6. H.P. Salve, My memoirs (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 1
7. Web site: Origin and meaning of the name Nirmala. 1 March 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110715044230/http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Nirmala.html. 15 July 2011. dead. dmy-all.
8. Web site: Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi's Family and Heritage . 13 January 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131206211710/http://shrimataji.org/site/life/shri-mataji-family.html . 6 December 2013 . live . dmy-all .
9. http://www.shrimataji.net/albums/biography/ShriMatajiNirmalaDevi-SelectedBiography_files/frame.htm Biography at shrimataji.net
10. Web site: Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - Childhood . 4 March 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140114001031/http://shrimataji.org/site/life/biography-from-nirmala-srivastava-to-shri-mataji/childhood.html . 14 January 2014 . live . dmy-all .
11. H.P. Salve, My memoirs (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 4
12. Web site: A message for one and all, The Hindu, 7 April 2003 . 6 April 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121108134808/http://hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/04/07/stories/2003040700860400.htm . 8 November 2012 . dead . . dmy-all .
13. Web site: Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - College Years . 4 March 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140114000418/http://shrimataji.org/site/life/biography-from-nirmala-srivastava-to-shri-mataji/shri-mataji-college-years.html . 14 January 2014 . live . dmy-all .
14. Web site: Burke's Peerage . Burkespeerage.com . 8 July 1920 . 26 November 2011.
15. Web site: Portraits of former IMO Secretaries-General unveiled . https://web.archive.org/web/20070222005627/http://www.imo.org/Newsroom/mainframe.asp?topic_id=1018&doc_id=4971 . dead . 22 February 2007 . Imo.org . 21 June 2005 . 26 November 2011 .
16. Rommel Varma; Sadhana Varma. Ascent to the Divine: Himalaya Kailasa-Manasarovar in Scripture, Art and Thought
17. Book: Encyclopedia of Religion . Macmillan Reference USA [Imprint] . 2005 . 978-0-02-865997-8 . Jones . Lindsey . 2nd . Detroit .
18. Web site: A New Childhood . Arshiya Khanna . 16 November 2006 . 4 November 2007 . Editorial . https://web.archive.org/web/20121018233831/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2006-11-16/edit-page/27827906_1_girls-drunken-man-mother . 18 October 2012 . dead . . dmy-all .
19. Web site: Shri P.K. Salve Kala Pratishthan. PKS Academy. 25 February 2011. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110715091513/http://www.pksacademy.com/about.htm. 15 July 2011. dmy-all.
20. http://www.sahajayoga.org/swan/view/swan_247_2004.asp We want the world to know...
21. Web site: Sunday 23rd March. You have to forgive – Easter puja talk . Shrimataji.org . 26 November 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20111002161134/http://www.shrimataji.org/india2007/story/226#more . 2 October 2011 . dmy-all .
22. http://www.shrimataji.org/italy2008/story/241#more Shri Mataji allowed to offer her puja on the occasion of Buddha Purnima
23. Web site: Saturday 17th May. Will power and the menace called alcohol . Shrimataji.org . 26 November 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20111002161225/http://www.shrimataji.org/italy2008/story/242 . 2 October 2011 . dmy-all .
24. Web site: Stop Drinking with Yoga.
25. Web site: Rome. Marcus. Yogi shared teachings at no cost. The Sydney Morning Herald . 21 May 2011 . 19 Nov 2019 . The Sydney Morning Herald . https://web.archive.org/web/20170202065059/http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/yogi-shared-teachings-at-no-cost-20110520-1ewo1.html. 2 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
26. Web site: A Selection of Awards and Recognitions. 2 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170330195304/http://shrimataji.org/site/life/awards-and-recognition.html. 30 March 2017. live. dmy-all.
27. Web site: International Scientific Conference, St. Peterburg. 14 September 1994 . 2 March 2017. 00:15:46. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207031239/https://www.amruta.org/1994/09/14/medical-conference-in-st-petersburg-1994/. 7 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
28. Web site: Medical Conference, Ecological University of Bucharest. 2 August 1995 . 2 March 2017. 55:17. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207112955/https://www.amruta.org/1995/08/02/medical-conference-at-ecological-university-of-bucharest-1995/. 7 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
29. Web site: Fourth World Conference On Women, Beijing, China. 13 September 1995 . 2 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207031349/https://www.amruta.org/1995/09/13/conference-on-women-in-beijing-1995/. 7 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
30. Web site: Public Program at Maharashtra Institute of Technology. 25 November 1996 . 2 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207031412/https://www.amruta.org/1996/11/25/pp-on-the-700th-birthday-of-shri-gyaneshwara-1996/. 7 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
31. Web site: Tribute To Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi By Claes Nobel. 3 July 1997 . 2 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170110035516/http://www.amruta.org/1997/07/03/public-program-tribute-to-shri-mataji-nirmala-devi-by-claes-nobel-royal-albert-hall-london/. 10 January 2017. live. dmy-all.
32. Web site: Awards and Achievements. 2 March 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170201132827/http://sahajayogahealthcentre.org/awards-and-achievments.html. 1 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
33. Web site: Cittadinanza onoraria, Il Secolo XIX. 25 February 2011. Il Secolo XIX. 2 March 2017. it. https://web.archive.org/web/20170207032009/http://www.ilsecoloxix.it/p/basso_piemonte/2011/02/25/AOJ2KW-cabella_addio_santona.shtml. 7 February 2017. live. dmy-all.
34. Web site: Nirmalkauns (Pandit Bhajan Abhay Sopori) in honor of Shri Mataji. YouTube. 3 March 2017. 0:14-3:03. https://web.archive.org/web/20170208024013/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lCWb-ZSSp0. 8 February 2017. live. dmy-all.