Jai Shri Mataji!
Dear Family,
We would like to share a video and reflections from some Yogis who were in Cabella and Nirmala Dham (Delhi) during the time Shri Mataji took Her Mahasamadhi in February 2011.
The Final Journey
HH Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Maha Samadhi 23rd Feb 2011 Cabella to Nirmal Dham – The Final Journey
Yogi reflections from the Mahasamadhi
Service at Cabella
At this moment in time, we the children of Our Supreme Holy and ever Loving Mother are in a unique position in the whole history of humanity, we have met God and now we have been entrusted with the honour of being the channels whereby Our Holy Mother’s vision can be realised.
On Friday and Saturday in Cabella, we experienced something so unexpected so unlooked for, I went there with all the mixed emotions of a bereft child unable to fully comprehend this new chapter that we were suddenly having to face. All the wonderful quotes that Sahaja Yogis were finding and posting on the net where Shri Mataji Herself comforted us with Her beautiful descriptions of what death really is soothed and echoed in my heart and I knew it all had to be.
She Mataji filled our hearts She was everywhere, the Sahaja Yogis that poured into Cabella from all over the world representing so many families, so many that could not physically get there stood shoulder to shoulder outside the castle in a patient vigil awaiting the moment when they could pay their final respects to the physical form we loved so much. The air was icy and every now and then a breeze would pass over us, the cold was intense but immaterial, we waited and watched everyone’s attention fixed on the queue stretching across the bridge up to the great door. Just as our Holy Mother was at last released from Her earthly bounds we were released from all concerns of normal earthly things, time did not exist we were priviledged to be a part of something beyond our comprehension beyond our tiny individual minds. We had been here before, we had faced such feelings at the time of Christ, but this time we had been given the ultimate gift of Self Realisation and the power to transform the whole world.
When the moment came and the queue started to slowly inch forward the mind questioned how can I face what I was about to see? Automatically the answer came just like a little child : please Mother help me; to do what? To be brave enough to step forward and gaze on your beautiful face again knowing it would be for the last time. But then the answer would come again and again, Her physical form has been our great gift in this lifetime but it is not the limit of our Mother. She gave us that gift as a Mother will pick up Her new baby and cosset it and keep it safe throughout its early years but now She has decided that the time has come for us to spread our wings and fly, to assume the positions She has prepared us for and not to look back to the time when She had to physically do the job for us.
As I entered that hallowed room it felt again just as I did when I walked the streets of London to go and meet Shri Mataji for the first time, my unwilling body was moving forward despite a fear of what I was to experience and then, oh joy! She was there more beautiful than I could have imagined. She looked just as She had that first time I met Her. I could not help smiling through the tears as I beheld that majestic profile, such majesty, such beauty, She was a vision of strength, the colours were so strong each feature of Her beloved face was noted. Her wondrous eyes were shut but you felt that She had just that minute closed them and She was resting, it almost seemed as if Her heart melting smile was hovering around those beloved lips.
It was not grief I felt but such love, heart bursting love, we moved around the room like a gentle stream washing around our Dearest Mother bandhaning Her with our love and offering ourselves to be Her instruments.
Throughout the evening and all night Sahaja Yogis were arriving, flocking to this special place, made sacred by Her Holy Feet. On Saturday morning the multitude outside the castle grew and grew, those near the steep sides held on to each other as the space because less and less, and as even more arrived they climbed the hill looking down on the piazza to take their place for the last vigil.
Again the cold was so intense you felt you had really come to the Himalayas or in truth the Himalayas had come to pay homage to the Goddess of those holy heights. Bhajans were sung, babies cried, children moved through the impossible gaps cocooned in their innocence of just what was happening. Over the loud speaker deep heartfelt promises were voiced on our behalf, promises to carry out our Holy Mother’s work and take up the job that we have been lovingly trained to do.
Once again time became immaterial, you watched, you kept your vigil, the sky was blue but the air more and more like ice. Although we had waited there expecting every minute to see some movement when it came and the pallbearers appeared through the doorway it was like an electric shock through the system. Then there was a bang and a huge speaker was dislodged from its place on the right of the door and crashed all the way down to the bottom of the castle far below. No body took any notice all eyes were on the slow cortege carefully carrying Her Holy form over the bridge and down those marble steps for the last time.
Many yogis had lovingly prepared flowers for inside the car and even on the emblem at the front of the car, such care such love for every detail. Rose petals were showering from all sides as they passed through the crowd and offered up the casket into the car. Shri Mataji’s great mantras arose as the car slowly started to move off on the final journey.
Over and over again it came to me how gently Shri Mataji has spent the last seven or so years gradually moving back from the position She took up in 1970. I realised that if She had left us while She was still holding our hands, advising us on all issues, laughing, sparkling and still our vibrant Mother then we could not have borne it, it would have broken our hearts and we would not have been able to take it. Instead with the greatest love possible She withdrew and allowed us to shakily take the stage, falter to the edge of the nest, even nearly fall as we wobbled in our new found positions.
We are none of us worthy to take these positions but we are not doing anything, as soon as we feel it is us it will turn to dust in our hands and we will feel weighted down and alone. Our strength is collectivity and our sustenance is the love that flows between us, let us all take this new beginning to heart, it is the only way to sooth our aching hearts.
Shri Mataji is laid to rest at Nirmala Dham – Delhi
“After midday on Monday with the arrival of the family, and other dignitaries, the ceremony to mark the consecration of HH Shri Mataji earthly form began. The final ceremony was to be a private function everyone who was there were now to be participants in the ceremony. The family of Our Guru arrived, Sir CP with Kalpana and Sadhana Didi and their families. Shri Mataji’s brother N.K.P.Salve and Her sister Mrs Mesram. and extended family was all seated before Shri Mataji as the ceremony began. On the one hand we felt as a pilgrim who extends the effort to be here at this unique time and place. Yet there is a deep sense of the mystical journey, that it is Shri Mataji who had carved out the path. That we were following footsteps already marked out, taking us to a place and time that we were meant to be.
There were many speeches from Senior Sahaja Yogis from India , the Trustee, and two speeches from two Western Yogis including Djamel Metouri. Mr. Salve and the family spoke in their own ways of what Shri Mataji’s life had meant to them, and Her Vision for One world, united under One God. Sir CP spoke at the end speaking of the transforming mission of his wife and lifelong partner, he spoke of the new world Shri Mataji had created the countries She had visited and the lives She had transformed. It was clear he was overcome with grief and the passing of the love of his life and yet there was a great man present who had supported the great work of Sahaja Yoga from its first days. Without his support it is hard to see Sahaja Yoga ever being able to start at it did and grow into what it is today.
Following the speeches the Sahaja Puja ceremony began with both Indian and Western Sahaja Yogis together offering Puja, bhajans played, moments of the deepest feelings filled our heart. How can one express what it meant to share time on the Earth with Shri Mataji, there were tears and grieving, the profound sense that the end of the age had come. The atmosphere filled with deep reverence and consequence. The experience of the MahaSamdhi takes place at an individual and collective level. Somehow little by little each of was able to perceive in a different way and to follow a path that leads beyond the ordinary perception of the world. There was something immense and profound sensed and felt at the edge of our awareness. Experience is in many respects uniquely personal and incommunicable.
There was grief, but the occasion was one of deep reverence, devotion, worship, and the heartfelt expression of love of the devotees for our beloved Guru, The solemnity of the occasion with the end of era of the living God in person incarnate upon the earth, with the Heavens opened and the procession of Deities had come to accompany Our Mother home. A Puja was then offered before the final steps of the journey commenced which conveyed HH Shri Mataji to Her prepared resting place. Her family fulfilled the last rites as Shri Mataji was laid to rest within the loving embrace of Mother Earth. While our despair was palpable, once could in some deep and inner means sense at the edge of one’s awareness the joy of Heaven in receiving the Goddess. The immense sacredness of life seemed to filled the entire space, something which was not there before, something colossal and beyond comprehension encompassed us all Itfelt as if we were in the presence of Almighty God, who had moved closer to the Earth to this place, with all the deities, who had come to receive the Goddess, rolling out a carpet of gold for Her Blessed Feet to touch for Her ascension.
Our faces were lowered to the ground, glory filling us within, melting away all else, the Creator of all that is, and will ever be, was with us. Through everything else we felt Our Mother’s love, with an awareness like never before, the force of the Almighty shining bright separating Divinity from all elsewhere Her earthly remains will find everlasting and eternal peace. Yogis rushed forward to become the bearers of Shri Mataji for the procession to Her final resting place. Shri Mataji’s grandson, Anand asked Yogis as representatives of the Countries of Sahaja Yoga to bear the casket carrying Shri Mataji. Yogis of all races, religion, class and creed came as representatives of the Yogis throughout the world who were not physically present but were there in spirit.
There were Yogis from all nations, hands raised from all directions reaching up to touch the casket, to help lift in up and bear it for the last few steps. Then Shri Mataji reached the place where Her physical body would be laid to rest. Her family gathered all around the final resting place and offered the last rites and offerings to bear witness as the Goddess was laid to rest.”
Late Feb 2011 (French Canadians)
“Dear Yogis, Some words to share all together:
As I received the news as you all did, I felt an immense desire to sing “Glory to Her!”, to give a million thanks for everything that She is and has done, to thank Her for Her confidence that now we are ready to move forward with Her Lotus Feet in our heart, and to be proud, immensely proud of Her passage on this Earth. As Shri Mataji once said, we are allowed one reason to feel pride: that is to be proud of Her. I never fully felt the meaning of that until today. Of course tears are and will be flowing. But imagine the chorus of the deities of all the Heavens! I wanted to convey all of this to you somehow and to maybe help in creating the atmosphere that is going to show Her that we KNOW Who She IS, that She is more Eternal than the Eternity itself, and that our bond cannot be broken, because we have transcended (enough) the human limitations of our ego and conditionings!
May Her Love be our guide and our essence, now and always!”
“She resides in our hearts now for ever. When their is one big mirror it gives one reflection of objects. When it breaks it gives as many reflections as the number of pieces. She is in the heart of so many sahaj yogis now She is unlimited!
Take Her comfort now. Be in Her Arms around us all, strength unlimited. Banish all guilt and recrimination once and for all. We are Her legacy. She is closer than ever. Take all mankind now into our hearts and Don’t Think.
Jai Shri Mataji!”
Eternal from Shri Mataji
“I am with you. You know that, but I need not be in this body because I don’t know if I exist in this body or not. You will see tremendous miracles happening.
You may find Me anywhere. You are walking on the street, suddenly you might find “Mataji” walking with you. If you see Me sitting on your bed and putting My hand on your head. That has to happen, so you should be prepared.”
HH Shri Mataji – Sahasrara Puja, The Start of a New Era 1984
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi ~ Mahasamadhi Burwood Ashram 23rd February 2021