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Shri Mataji Nirmala Shrivastava or Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (born March 21, 1923 in Chindawara, India) is the founder of Sahaja Yoga.
Background
Shrivastava was born to Christian parents, Prasad and Cornelia Salve, and claims descent from the royal Shalivahana dynasty. Her parents named her Nirmala, which means "immaculate." She claims that, as a child, she lived with her parents in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi; she claims that Gandhi affectionately called her "Nepali" due to her Nepali features and frequently sought her advice on spiritual matters.
Shrivastava claims to have been involved in the Indian independence movement as a youth leader, and also that she was arrested and jailed in 1942 for her work in the Quit India Movement.
Shrivastava claims to have discovered Sahaja Yoga on May 5, 1970, which she characterizes as a historical process of en-masse self-realization and inner transformation. She is the founder and sole director of Sahaja Yoga International or "Vishwa Nirmala Dharma", a non-profit organization for teaching Sahaja Yoga.
Activities Shrivastava has delivered many lectures around the world, given television and radio interviews, and been the subject of newspaper articles. She has given lectures in the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations, which she claims enabled tens or hundreds of thousands of people to experience self realization. She also has spoken at the Royal Albert Hall in London during conferences on Sahaja Yoga.
Local honors She was declared "Personality of the Year" in 1986 by the Italian government. In 1994, the mayor of Brazil's capital city, who sponsored her programs, welcomed her at the airport and presented her with the key to the city. In 1995, the Indian government allowed her a one-hour primetime television series to be broadcast nationally. That year she was also an official guest of the Chinese government, was invited to speak at the International Women's Conference in Beijing, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in Cognitive and Parapsychological Sciences by the Romanian Ecological University. She was given a proclamation by the U.S. Congress in 1997.
She has been recognized and greeted by mayors or city officials in North America, including Cincinnati, Ohio in 1992, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1993, Los Angeles, California in 1993 and 1994, British Columbia in 1994, Yonkers, New York in 1994 and 1996, Berkeley, California in 1997 and Salt Lake City, Utah in 2003
Criticism Critics claim that Shrivastava's organization is a brainwashing cult dedicated to her worship. They assert she claims to be the Supreme Goddess (aka Adi Shakti, or the Holy Ghost) and her followers worship her as such. It is alleged that her followers routinely wash her feet, decorate them with swastikas, and then drink the footwash water, believing it to contain "divine vibrations." They note that during one of her appearances at the Royal Albert Hall an ex-member of her group was threatened with violence for handing out material critical of her to potential recruits and felt it necessary to obtain police protection.
Some former members suspect that one of Shrivastava's main purposes for the Sahaja Yoga organization is to dupe followers out of large sums of money. They claim that much of the money going to the organization is funneled into her personal bank accounts or into her hands in the form of cash. Supporters argue that much of the money collected is used for helping the poort and other charitable causes.
Critics also take issue with some of Shrivastava's historical claims. They note that no references to Gandhi ever seeking her spiritual advice have been found in Gandhi's voluminous collected works. They further assail her claim of discovering Sahaja Yoga in May 1970, alleging that records show she was at a Rajneesh meditation camp at the beginning of that month and did not offer "en-masse self-realization" until 1972.
Other criticisms focus on Shrivastava's and Sahaja Yoga's claims that Sahaja Yoga is a "unique method of meditation" for which there is never a charge. Ex-members present evidence of routinely being charged for an assortment of incidentals that include payment to worship Shrivastava at ceremonies called pujas, money for expensive "gifts" presented to Shrivastava at pujas, such as a crystal swan, silver and gold artifacts, and payments made to Shrivastava in the form of gold bullion. Supporters argue that all these were truly gifts, made voluntarily.
Ex-members also report that Shrivastava has advised husbands to beat their wives, parents from western countries to send their children overseas to the Sahaja Yoga school in India and to agree that they may not visit their children for up to six months, couples who are too much in love to divorce, and homosexual Sahaja Yogis to marry members of the opposite sex.
Some children who have attended the Sahaja Yoga school endorsed by Shrivastava have reported malnurishment, unhealthy living conditions, sexual abuse and a substandard educational experience. Others report a satisfactory and positive experience.[1] (http://www.sahajayoga.org/swan/view/swan_106_2003.asp)
See also - Wikiquote - Quotes by Shri Mataji Nirmala Shrivastava (http://wikiquote.org/wiki/Shri_Mataji_Nirmala_Shrivastava)
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