“You must be knowing that I was born in Chhindwara, and Mecca and Chhindwara are on the same Cancer Line (Tropic of Cancer) – How is it?……” -H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (Cabella Ligure, Italy, 25.05.1997)
“My father built this house about eighty years back. He was very imaginative and fond of guests, so he also put up guest bedrooms and guest bathrooms such, and it was a hill station. Now of course, because of crowdedness – very cold and a hill station – so people used to come, his friends used to come from Nagpur, so he had made arrangements for them; there were no hotels or anything – so they used to have them. And the people of this place are extremely hospitable, very hospitable. So it was his idea that he should have a house here where his guests would be. His brother had a big house but it was joint and he couldn’t receive his guests, so he thought it’s better to build a house here, and behind was a huge big compound bigger than this, which I have seen. I was only four years of age when we went away from here, but I remember each and everything about this house, and everything about Chhindwara.” -H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk at Chhindwara, 18/12/93
Shri Mataji was born as Nirmala Salve on March 21, 1923 to Shri Prasad Rao and Mrs Cornelia Salve in Chhindwara city of Madhya Pradesh. Chhindwara, located on the South-West region of ‘Satpura Range of Mountains’ lies between latitude 21″23′ and 22″49′ North and longitude 78″10′ and 79″24′ East. Mostly, dense forest covers most of the area of the district. It is bound by the plains of Nagpur District (in Maharashtra State) on the South, Hoshangabad and Narsinghpur Districts on the North, Betul District on the West and Seoni Districts on the East.
It is believed that once upon a time Chhindwara District was full of “”Chhind”” (Date-Palm) trees, and the place was named “Chhind”-“Wada” (wada means place). There is also another story that because of the population of Lions (in Hindi it is called “”Sinh””), it was considered that making entry into this district is akin to passing through the entrance of Lions’ den. Hence it was called “”Sinh Dwara”” (means entrance of the lion). In due course of time it became “”Chhindwara””.
From the Geographical point of view Chhindwara district can be divided into three main regions – 1) The plains near Nagpur region comprising of Tehsils Sausar and Pandhurna, 2) the central region comprising of Chhindwara, Southern part of Amarwara region and and Northern part of Sausar region. This region is also known as the Satpura mountain region and 3) The third region is mostly the Northern region comprising of hilly terrain.
There are five major rivers which flow through the district namely Kanhan, Pench, Jam, Kulbehra, Shakkar and Doodh. Kanhan river flows in the Southern direction through the western parts of Chhindwara Tehsil and mixes with the Wenganga river. Jam river flows mostly through the Sausar region and joins with the Kanhan river. Pench river flows in the border areas of Chhindwara and Seoni Districts and mixes with the Kanhan river in Nagpur District. Kulbehra river starts at Umreth and flows through Chhindwara and Mohkhed and joins with Pench river.
Shrine Project
Meditation hall
“…you have come here (Chhindwara) to see this birthplace of Mine. It was such, such vibrations that My Sahasrara became completely jammed with vibrations: so cool inside, and outside was so hot that I didn’t know what was happening. So I’m happy all of you could come and see this place, and a very humble house it was, but in those days it was the most, I mean, well-planned house as such, and was very much appreciated by people.“
H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India,18.12.1993.
They went to Chhindwara, somebody, and he said “I will find out Mother’s place – what is there, after all it is not difficult, through vibrations I will find out. So he said “as soon as I touched the platform I started jumping, I said, “now what to do, from here only there are vibrations, how will I reach Mother’s place?”. So then he sat down and started wondering, “now how will I find out where did Mother take Her birth?”. He was sitting down and then he saw the star, which is the Venus, he followed the Venus star and then he went and asked and that’s how he found the place.
Adi Shakti Puja. Cabella Ligure (Italy), 9 June 1996.
वे किसी तरह छिंदवाड़ा गए, और उन्होंने कहा “मैं श्री माताजी के स्थान का पता लगाऊंगा – वहां क्या है, आखिरकार यह मुश्किल नही है, परमचैतन्य के माध्यम से मुझे पता चलेगा।”
तो उन्होंने कहा “जैसे ही मैं प्लेटफॉर्म पर पहुँचा
मुझमें परमचैतन्य तेजी से बहने लगा, मैंने कहा “अब क्या करे, यहाँ से केवल परम चैतन्य महसूस हो रहे हैं, मैं माँ के स्थान पर कैसे पहुँचूँगा? ” तो फिर वह वहाँ बैठ गया और सोचने लगा कि, “अब मुझे कैसे पता चलेगा कि माँ ने अपना जन्म कहाँ लिया ?” वह नीचे बैठा था और फिर उसने एक तारे को देखा, जो कि शुक्र है, उसने शुक्र तारे का पीछा किया और वहाँ पहुँच गया, और इस तरह उसे जगह मिली।
परम पूज्य श्री माताजी, आदि शक्ति पूजा कबैला (इटली), 9 जून 1996