It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that yesterday afternoon Shri Mataji left Her physical body.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi was born on March 21, 1923 to a Christian family in Chindawara, India. Her parents were Prasad and Cornelia Salve, direct descendants of the royal Shalivahana dynasty. Seeing the beauty of this child who was born with a spotless brilliance, they called her Nirmala, which means ‘Immaculate’.

Shri Mataji was born with a complete understanding of the human nervous system and its energetic counterparts. In order to become acquainted with the scientific vocabulary attached to these subjects, she studied medicine and psychology at the Christian Medical College in Lahore.

Shortly before India achieved independence she married Sir. C.P. Srivastava, one of India’s most dedicated civil servant officers, who was knighted by the Queen of England. In India it is believed that the wife brings luck to her husband – this is most certainly the case for Sir. C.P. Srivastava.

He rose in government ranks very quickly though he was an absolutely honest person. He held the post of the Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister’s office of the late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri in the years 1964-66. Shastri himself was an ideal model for a Prime Minister in India’s political history. Afterwards he was elected for 16 consecutive years to be the Secretary General of the United Nations International Maritime Organization.

As Sir C.P. Srivastava moved in fame from the Indian history to the worldly scene, Shri Mataji, after fulfilling her familial duty of bringing up her two daughters, embarked on her spiritual mission.

Although she knew about her own spiritual consciousness she did not know how to present it to the people of modern times. She was also aware of the problems encountered by the earlier spiritual personalities who came on this earth like Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and others when they prophesized the truth directly to the people.

As she was pondering on the many faceted problems confronting human beings, on the 5th of May, 1970, on a lonely beach of Nargol (about 150 km from Mumbai) a divine spiritual experience filled her whole being and suddenly she found an answer to her question. She discovered a historical process of en-masse Self Realisation through which thousands of people could get this connection to their Spirit and thereby their inner transformation.

Sahaja (=Spontaneous) Yoga (=Union with the Self) was born.

Source:http://www.sahajayoga.org