Posts filed under 'Inspirational stories'
| March 14, 2008 |
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| March 15, 2008 |
| 7:30 pm | to | 10:00 pm |
| March 16, 2008 |
| 3:00 pm | to | 5:00 pm |
| March 17, 2008 |
| 6:30 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| March 18, 2008 |
| 6:30 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| March 19, 2008 |
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
| March 20, 2008 |
| 12:00 pm | to | 2:00 pm |
| March 28, 2008 |
| 7:30 pm | to | 9:30 pm |
Freedom and Liberation is the title of an inspiring new film about the life of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Having premiered in Germany in 2007, the film will shortly be shown in many countries of the world to celebrate the 85th Birthday of Shri Mataji, on 21 March 2008.
Freedom and Liberation traces the life of Shri Mataji from her very early years growing up in India as Nirmala Salve, the daughter of Prasadrao and Cornelia Salve. While the family was wealthy, having descended from the Indian Shalivahan dynasty, all that was to change with the coming of Mahatma Gandhi’s Independence movement, working to free India from many centuries of British rule. Shri Mataji had already met Gandhi and stayed at his ashram on many occasions. Gandhi was very fond of Nirmala, and recognised that there was something very special about her.
As Shri Mataji’s parents were very active in the Independence movement, helping to organise protests against British rule, they went to gaol many times. As a small child, she was often left to look after the family. From living in large, expensive homes, the family came to live in huts. However, the children knew how important their parents’ fight was.
With the coming of freedom in India, Shri Mataji was able to turn her attention to her vision, the liberation of human beings from the chains of ego, greed, hatred and conditionings. She knew that she had a special task to undertake, but it was many years before she started her spiritual work. In the meantime, she married, became a mother and then a grandmother. As her husband, Sir CP Srivastava, was a distinguished diplomat and later Secretary-General of the United Nations Shipping Corporation, she moved in very high-level circles.
One day, however, Shri Mataji realised that she had to do something to save humanity from the fraudulent “gurus” who were robbing, misguiding and ruining people in the name of spirituality. She meditated deeply for a long time, and on the night of 5 May 1970 she opened the Sahasrara of the world, an event that symbolised the next great step in the evolution of humankind.
From this time, her real work began. Starting with small groups in India, she developed a unique method for giving realisation to people. Then she developed a method for giving realisation en masse, to many thousands of people at a time. She called this method Sahaja Yoga.
After moving to London because of her husband’s work, Shri Mataji gave realisation to groups of people in England. From this time, she began to travel tirelessly , first to Europe and then further afield, talking to people and giving realisation. Her message spread throughout the world, and today Sahaja Yoga is practised in over 100 countries.
The film is unique in that it shows recent interviews, not previously seen, of Shri Mataji and her family. It provides insights into the tremendous love, compassion and humility of Shri Mataji that drove her to undertake this enormous work.
The film was made in Germany, directed by Carolin Dassel and produced by devifilm GbR (Carolin Dassel and Joseph Reidinger). If you want to find out more about the film, follow the link: www.freemeditation.com/freedom
During March 2008, the film is being shown all over the world. If you want to have details of screening sessions in Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and Romania, follow the link: www.freemeditation.com/freedom
Film session times for Australia are shown below:
Australian Capital Territory
Belconnen
Friday 14 March, 7.00pm
Belconnen Theatre, Belconnen Community Centre, Chandler Street, Belconnen
New South Wales
Sydney: Contact 0425 237 062
Strathfield
Saturday 15 March, 7.30pm to 10.00pm
Strathfield Town Hall, Cnr Homebush Rd and Redmyre Rd, Strathfield
Cremorne
Monday 17 March, 6.30pm to 9.00pm
Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, 380 Military Rd, Cremorne
Paddington
Tuesday 18 March, 6.30pm to 9.00pm
Chauvel Cinema, Paddington Town Hall, Cnr Oxford St & Oatley Rd, Paddington (entrance on Oatley Rd)
Katoomba
Sunday 16 March, 3 pm
Edge Cinema, Katoomba
Avoca
Saturday 15 March, 2.00pm
Avoca Beach Picture Theatre, Avoca Drive, Avoca
Queensland
Cairns
Friday 28 March, 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
Meeting Room, Cairns City Council Library, Abbott St, Cairns
South Australia
University of Adelaide
Saturday 15 March, 4.30pm to 7.00pm
Napier Lecture Theatre, University of Adelaide
Goodwood
Saturday 15 March, 4.30pm to 7.00pm
Goodwood Community Centre, 32-34 Rosa Street, Goodwood
Tasmania
Contact: (03) 6245 1476 or 0416 435 278
Hobart
Tuesday 18 March, 7pm
Community Centre, Cooper St, Glenorchy
Burnie
Wednesday 19 March, 7.00pm
Health Centre, Jones St, Burnie
Devonport
Thursday 20 March, 12.00 noon
Library, 21 Oldaker Street, Devonport
Launceston
Thursday 20 March, 7.00pm
Community Centre McHugh St, Kings Meadows
Victoria
Contact: 1300 742 242
Melbourne
Friday 14 March, 7.30pm to 9.30pm
Saturday 15 March, 7.30pm to 9.30pm
Treasury Theatre, Treasury Place, Melbourne
Tags:
Carolin Dassel,
compassion,
en masse,
evolution,
film,
freedom,
guru,
humility,
independence,
liberation,
love,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Meditation,
realisation,
Sahaja Yoga,
Sahasrara,
Shalivahan,
Shri Mataji,
spirit
Related posts:
February 29th, 2008
Many of us, looking at the current situation with Australia’s Indigenous population, could form the view that their condition is a reflection of much deeper problems facing modern society – dispossession, displacement, disadvantage.
I found myself at Martin Place on a grey and rainy Sydney Wednesday morning, with a surprisingly large number of my fellow citizens, listening to the Prime Minister’s apology to the Stolen Generations of Aborigines. There was a real sense of the unity and wellspring of community goodwill, which has swept our nation over the preceding few days, which could not be manufactured. It has been invigorating to witness this spirit unfold as a spontaneous, collective community expression of the highest principles and ideals. The unity of all people, the importance of reconciliation – it was a time when people across our country, separated by race, have become united in something beyond the mundane, commonplace, and routine, by the need to apologise and to heal.
At times it has felt similar to the spirit which pervades a large gathering at a Sahaja Yoga event, being felt and experienced right across our country. People everywhere were experiencing collective awareness, and were sharing the joy of an open-hearted expression of real forgiveness.
As Shri Mataji has indicated, a conflict between the forces of evolution and those of devolution are ever at play. The day of apology was an occasion when the heart triumphed over the head, a time for love to triumph and to purge hatred and division from the body of our country, and to move away from racism, discrimination, segregation.
The day of apology was a time for the expression of a much more enlightened view of a type rarely seen in public. The opinions of our national leaders were focussed more towards introspection and self-evaluation, on the question of the moral integrity and spiritual wellbeing of our nation.
Popular wisdom was that as soon as John Howard had retired, the new Prime Minister – of either political persuasion – would induce Parliament to apologise to Aborigines for past wrongs, and so it turned out to be the case.
Will its contribution mean an end to Australia’s particular form of apartheid, in which Aborigines are reduced to invisibility in everyday life? Except as issues, not many of us know a single Aboriginal face. They are truly the invisible men and women of Australia, usually only seen or read about in the news.
It is hoped that the official, heartfelt National Apology is one of those “great-leap-forward” concepts our nation can pursue, in its efforts to enable Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to see one another more clearly.
Many events pull our citizens onto the streets - days celebrating sporting success, or commemorating a great historical event. These are days of joyful celebration. But this day, when so many were united in our community, celebrating something much more important and unique, was a mighty day, more important perhaps than many others before it.
J.K. Galbraith once remarked that the tribulations at the margins of society would eventually upset the contentment at its centre. It seems as if the time has come when the Australian Government realised that the human spirit has to be nurtured through forgiveness, together with a renewed commitment for the future.
As one walked through the city on this day, people in business suits and those in shorts and T-shirts, all seemed to be equally affected by the gravity of the occasion, the magnitude and depth of this moment in our history. By all measures it was a stunning day, and hopefully its great purpose will succeed if it provides a new beginning, and insights into the dignity of Indigenous culture. With our positive desire it will also play a larger role in reconciling a range of issues relevant to all Australians.
This was a coming together of people of varied backgrounds, and a collective expression of an apology freely offered and graciously accepted. It gives us a glimpse of what a wider, enlightened society may one day be like, one where the values of selflessness and social improvement, enlightenment and inclusion for our Indigenous population as the great body of the first Australians, can be renewed.
It seemed that this one day in our history, filled with noble words and deeds and with that most healing of words, “sorry”, was somehow pitted against years of mean observances, of broken lives, and of families rent asunder. And by some miracle of the human spirit, many of those who had suffered most terribly, found it to be most worthy.
Chris Kyriacou
(Photograph: metro.co.uk)
Tags:
apology,
celebration,
disadvantage,
discrimination,
enlightenment,
forgiveness,
healing,
Indigenous,
integrity,
race,
reconciliation,
Sahaja Yoga,
Shri Mataji,
sorry,
spirit,
spiritual wellbeing,
Stolen Generation,
unity
Related posts:
February 26th, 2008
The following is a beautiful talk by Baba Mama, Shri Mataji’s beloved brother who brought the creative arts, especially music, to the forefront in Sahaja Yoga. He encouraged and inspired Sahaja Yogis to greater and greater creative heights.
You believe that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and all-pervading. In fact, you believe that He is in every atom. As natural corollary of this belief, you must also know that God knows what you want or what your need is. If the first proposition is true, then second proposition has to be true. It would follow, therefore, that those who know that God is omnipotent and all-pervading are bound to accept that God is all-knowledgeable and therefore is aware of all your problems.
In spite of this fact, we always go to God with certain expectations. Expectations can be of various types, but are basically self-centred or are pertaining to people or relations you are attached to, and then you pray to God that He should grant you a particular relief, or a job promotion, or some benefit to you or your near ones, etc. When you go with this frame of mind, then most of the time you are disappointed. Hypothetically speaking, if your expectations are symbolised in A and what you get is, let us say, B; then A minus B is your disappointment. And then you have to attribute this disappointment to someone. The pessimists will attribute it to their bad luck and will always curse themselves for not being worthy of God’s favour.
The optimists will straight away blame God Himself, and they say that this God is not good and that we should shift to some other God. In this way you keep on shifting from God to God, but disappointment is always there. This may even make you anti-God and an atheist, ultimately. Now take a case where you do not go to God with any expectations. Therefore, the expectations are zero, and let us say that you get B as the reward. Therefore, B minus zero is B which is always surplus.
You should also distinguish between your expectations and desires, and pure desires. Pure desire is always for the benefit of the other, and therefore you are entitled to carry pure desires to the Divinity. I once remember, I was travelling with Shri Mataji from Sydney to Canberra, and it was very hot and the air-conditioning of the car was thoroughly inadequate. Shri Mataji was sweating and I was fanning Her with a newspaper, but I somehow felt that the heat was oppressive and that the weather should give some respite to Her. Reading my mind, She asked me a question as to what I was thinking, to which I told Her frankly that I was unable to see Her suffer because of heat. So She told me that I should make a pure desire and the weather would change. So I closed my eyes and made a pure desire that the weather should change.
Within five minutes, dark clouds gathered from nowhere and it started raining, and the intensity of heat was thus reduced and Shri Mataji said, “See, if you make a pure desire then it will always be fulfilled.”
Coming back to expectations, I may mention here that once you are connected to your Divinity through your Self Realisation, you should feel assured that you have been admitted into the Kingdom of God, that you are His subject and therefore He is duty-bound to look after you, irrespective of what you expect of Him. So please do not expect… Only pray to Shri Mataji that She should make you what She wants you to be.
Baba Mama, 1999
Tags:
Baba Mama,
creativity,
Music,
pure desire,
Sahaja Yoga,
Shri Mataji
Related posts:
November 26th, 2007
About six years ago we had the desire to know more about the traditional culture of Australia. The real Australia! We went to an Aboriginal philosophical farm two years in a row. Aboriginals and Maoris were sharing some of their knowledge with any interested foreigner to this sacred land. We had the opportunity to give Self-realisation to some of the people attending this event. At that time we knew we were not really ready yet to share our knowledge about Sahaja Yoga, as we were not aware of their important protocol such as acknowledging the traditional owners of the land, their ways of teaching/sharing so different from our Western ways.
In 2002 I met an Aboriginal Elder at Sydney Town Hall in front of the Queen Victoria Building. Spontaneously I asked, “Is it true that each and every human being has the Rainbow Serpent within himself?” Surprised, she replied, “Yes!” I continued, “Is it true that we can feel this Rainbow Serpent as a cool breeze in our hands, on the top of our head and in our body?”
Even more surprised, she agreed and said, “The Rainbow Serpent is the Beauty, the Emerald City each and every human being is looking for. Go to Northern Territory. Go to Uluru, but do not climb the Rock.”
I absolutely agreed as we all know that Uluru is sacred. I told her that in Sahaja Yoga we teach about the Rainbow Serpent known also as Kundalini, Holy Ghost, Tao, Ruh, for free, to anyone interested, to help people to reconnect themselves with the Land and their roots. She was happy, and while she was shaking my hand on leaving, my body became suddenly completely cool and remained cool for a few hours.
Two years later we went to pay respect to Uluru and It was beyond our imagination. Incredible vibrations, depth, gravity, innocence, silence, joy and a deeper respect for the guardians of this Land are some of the unforgettable feelings you get in front of His majestic presence.
As in the outstanding movie “Ten Canoes”, it is another never-ending story! But everything comes when the time is right. A week before the Western Tour in November 2006, Kelly organised a meeting with one of the Elders of the Wiradjuri People. Her name is Aunty Jill. She runs the Kelso community centre where we were going to hold the Bathurst program. I told her my encounter with the Elder from Sydney, and she confirmed that the Rainbow Serpent is the Kundalini, that the Rainbow Serpent has nothing to do with Aboriginality but with our Spirituality. The Rainbow Serpent is our Connection.
I asked her what was the protocol for the welcoming ceremony. She told me a few sentences to say. Then she offered to come herself if another Elder, Uncle Bill, was not able to come. We were so thrilled!
Back home we contacted Uncle Bill who accepted our invitation. We met Uncle Bill a few years ago. He showed us some of the Bathurst sacred sites. One of them is Mount Panorama! When we all were together on this sacred hill, so many vibrations were coming from Mother Earth that I had to remove my shoes. He told us that now there are only two tribes meeting on Mount Panorama. Can you guess? They are Ford and Holden!
On the actual day of the program we waited for Uncle Bill to perform the welcoming ceremony, along with Merenia, a Maori lady. Some Aboriginal children would not come in until Uncle Bill was there. In the meantime we started to give Realisation to some of the children. They could feel the cool and their eyes were glowing. After the welcoming ceremony we found Uncle Bill carrying the sorrow of his people and at the same time astonished by the powerful Maori welcome by Merenia. The children went to sit around him and on him. They were waiting for the music and the stick dance, especially a little girl, 7 to 8 years of age. Dancing with her was such a joyful experience as one could see and feel the inner strength of the Aboriginal community in her big, happy eyes.
Uncle Bill was very content and mentioned that he would be interested in coming back as his people need a lot of healing.
For anyone in the Bathurst area who is interested in finding out more about Sahaja Yoga, programs are held at the Kelso Community Centre, 24 Bonner Street, Kelso every Saturday at 10.00 am.
Madhavi Rome
(Photograph courtesy of the Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage)
No tag for this post.
Related posts:
June 2nd, 2007
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