Shri Mataji
On Thursday 6 March 2008, a festival will be held at the Woodstock Community Centre in Burwood, Sydney to celebrate International Women’s Day. There will be yoga and relaxation sessions, craft workshops, information stalls, guest speakers, and performances and entertainment. Lunch will be provided.
A candid film lecture by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi wil be screened from 11.15am to 12.50pm. Shri Mataji is an extraordinary woman, a saint of modern times who has brought the truth of spirituality to humanity and developed a unique method for achieving Self-realisation.
The film will be screened upstairs in Group Room 2. Short meditation sessions will be held before the film screening, at 9.30, 10.00 and 10.30am.
Contact: Greta More 0410 550 551
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 (02) 9037 5837
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
I realised today that one of the films nominated for an Oscar is exactly the type of film that Shri Mataji is describing when She asks, “Why don’t they make movies about love after marriage?”.
In the case of this film, it is love after forty years of marriage. The film is Away from Her. It is a Canadian film. It is directed by Sarah Polley, based on a short story by Alice Munro and starring Julie Christie and perhaps this country’s greatest actor, Gordon Pincent. (Julie Christie is nominated for best actress and Sarah Polley for best adapted screenplay – a tough category.)
The film is about a married couple slowly distanced by Alzheimer’s disease. It is a
story of love in its deepest expression, not a story about infatuation or attraction.
“I never wanted to be away from her,” the husband remembers, now finding that he is, as her memory fades.
Anyone who feels that Canadian films are weak, anyone who feels that filmmaking is a superficial medium, anyone who has seen too many fighting pirates and so-called “romantic comedies,” should have a look at this. This is the real thing. Young or old, you will cherish the people around you.
Away from Her (released in 1997) is available on DVD.
Richard Payment
(Photograph: yorku.ca)
The power of the Goddess that you have got within yourself has now to be deliberately projected….
The power of the Goddess is of love. Whatever She does with the whole world is through her compassion and love. The whole body, the whole being of the Goddess is made of compassion and love and nothing else. This power gives full understanding of the reality and also this enlightenment inside and outside.
For example, if you love somebody, you know everything about that person. It has nothing to do with money. It’s the highest, most valuable, very important power that you have. Even when you think about something noble, something benevolent, this power is filled into that thought and then this thought fills in, into the universe, into your country, into individuals.
The aim of this compassion and love is only one: to see everyone joyous – that’s all, joyous in the real sense of the word. This power cares for the collective as well as for the individual. It cares for the whole world as well as a particular nation. All the time this power works – especially in modern times – to better the lives of the people of the whole world …. So it’s like an ocean of love and compassion that wants to touch every shore. It wants to touch every heart but some are just like stones….
Thus, this love is the power of the Goddess. It is very subtle, silent, but it manifests…. It is this Goddess who is ruling this universe, who is in your centre heart, who looks after you and looks after the whole universe. It is nothing but the pure desire of love. It knows how to express. It knows how to act. You don’t have to do anything. It is spontaneous. What goes against it is your mental activity because the mental activity will say, “Oh my, how can you love somebody like this? It’s no use.” It’s a mental activity which gives you funny ideas. The mental activity is limited and linear. Everybody has different fixed ideas. That’s why they are fighting. That’s why they are having wars. But this power, which is of love, gives you the absolute truth. Then how can you fight? So what we need is this power because our power is very limited.
Shri Mataji, 1995