Shri Mataji Talks about Her Early Life. Vienna (Austria), 9 July 1986.
I belong to a family of very enlightened people. My father was a linguist and he was master of fourteen languages. He knew about twenty-six languages and he translated even Koran-e-Sharif into Hindi language. My Mother was in those days, was a Honors in Mathematics. So both were very well educated and enlightened people.
At the time of My birth, My mother dreamt something which she could not explain, but after that she had a great desire to go and see a tiger in the open field. My father was a great hunter, because tigers were a menace in the area where we were living. It was a hill station called Chhindwara. So there was a king who was very much interested in My father. Somehow or the other a letter came that there’s a tiger, a very big tiger that has appeared and they are frightened of him that he might be a man-eater. So My father took My Mother and Me to that place. And they were sitting what we call as a machhan, where they built something, for people to sit on top of a tree, from where they can shoot nicely. And then My mother tells Me that a big huge tiger of a very big size, very beautifully appeared on the field. And she felt tremendous love for the tiger. It was a full moon day and she felt extremely compassionate towards the tiger. And when My father raised his gun to shoot, she stopped him and she wouldn’t allow him. And the tiger went away and he never came to that forest again. But that made My father think – because he himself was a realized soul – that must be somebody, what we call a Goddess Durga who is fond of a tiger must be born to My mother, because the symptoms were rather funny that a lady should like to see a tiger and all. So he told My mother, “Now are you satisfied?” because they were struggling with the gun. He said, “Is there a Durga sitting in your womb that you are trying to protect the tiger?” She said, “Yes, yes, so stop it now. I won’t allow you.”
Like that there were many incidents in My life because I am of a Christian family – protestants – and when I was born My mother didn’t feel any labour pains or anything and just I was born; she didn’t know how. And I had no blood on My body, nothing, I was clean washed. That’s why they called My name as Nirmala. But My grandmother said that She should be called as Nishkalanka, that means the one which has no spots on it. But that’s the name of man. So they said, “All right, we’ll call Her Nirmala, meaning the same, Immaculata.” Now all these incidents, and then My Father being a realized soul, he felt tremendous vibrations from Me, and he felt that this life is great and She will do something great in this life. I do not know why, but I don’t know if he dreamt or he understood it, but all the time if I remember when he talked to Me, he used to say that, “You have to find out a way of givingen masse Realization, all the time”.
She was born at the geographical center of India, in a hill station known as Chhindwara exactly at noon on the 21st of March, 1923, the day of the spring equinox when day and night are equal. On the 5th of May 1970, in fact, Shri Mataji introduced the method of Sahaja Yoga, by which realization is achieved effortlessly and without any penances or fasting, let alone living death from the part of the seeker.
