Nirmala Srivastava (née Nirmala Salve; 21 March 192323 February 2011), also known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, was the founder and
guru
Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...
of
Sahaja Yoga
Sahaja Yoga (सहज योग) is a new religious movement founded in 1970 by Nirmala Srivastava (1923–2011). Nirmala Srivastava is known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (trans: ''Revered Immaculate Mother'') or simply as "Mother" by her follo ...
, a
new religious movement
A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part ...
.
She claimed to have been born fully realised and spent her life working for peace by developing and promoting a simple technique through which people can achieve their self-realization.
[Wayne Dyer, "The power of intention" "She is the primordial mother", p56-57, Hay House, 2004]
Early life
Born in
Chhindwara
Chhindwara is a major city in India and a Municipal Corporation in the Chhindwara district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The city is the administrative headquarters of Chhindwara District. Chhindwara is reachable by rail or road fro ...
, Madhya Pradesh,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
to a
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
father and a Christian mother Prasad and Cornelia Salve, her parents named her Nirmala, which means "immaculate".
[H.P. Salve, ''My memoirs'' (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 1] She said that she was born
self-realised.
Her father, a scholar of fourteen languages, translated the
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
into
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
**Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
, and her mother was the first woman in India to receive an honours degree in mathematics.
Shri Mataji descended from the royal
Shalivahana/Satavahana dynasty.
The former union minister N.K.P. Salve was her brother and the lawyer Harish Salve is her nephew. The Salve surname is one of several in the
Satavahana Maratha clan.
She passed her childhood years in the family house in Nagpur.
[Biography at shrimataji.net](_blank)
In her youth she stayed in the
ashram
An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism.
Etymology
The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...
.
Like her parents, she was involved with the
struggle for Indian independence and, as a youth leader when a young woman, was jailed for participating in the
Quit India Movement in 1942.
[H.P. Salve, ''My memoirs'' (New Delhi: LET, 2000), chapter 4] Taking responsibility for her younger siblings and living a spartan lifestyle during this period infused the feeling of self-sacrifice for the wider good. She studied at the
Christian Medical College in
Ludhiana
Ludhiana () is the most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab.164.100.161.224
http://164.100.161.224 › filesPDF
Ludhiana State: Punjab Business & Industrial Centre, Tier 2 1 ... The city has an estima ...
and the Balakram Medical College in
Lahore
Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
.
Shortly before India achieved independence in 1947, Shri Mataji married
Chandrika Prasad Srivastava
Chandrika Prasad Srivastava IAS (Retd.) (8 July 1920 – 22 July 2013) was an Indian civil servant, international administrator, and diplomat.
Biography
C.P. Srivastava was born on 8 July 1920 in a religious Chitraguptvanshi Kayastha family a ...
,
a high-ranking
Indian civil servant who later served Prime Minister
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri (; born Lal Bahadur Srivastava; 2 October 190411 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as Minister ...
as Joint Secretary, in 1974 elected as the Secretary-General of the
International Maritime Organization
The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a ...
(IMO), a United Nations agency based in London, serving successive four-year terms as Secretary-General from 1974 to 1989. He was bestowed an
honorary KCMG by
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
. They had two daughters, Kalpana Srivastava and Sadhana Varma. In 1961, Nirmala Srivastava launched the "Youth Society for Films" to infuse national, social and moral values in young people. She was also a member of the
Central Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory Motion picture content rating system, film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of ...
.
Sahaja Yoga

Nirmala Srivastava founded Sahaja Yoga in 1970.
Later work

In 2003 a charity house for the rehabilitation of destitute women was set up in Delhi (the ''Vishwa Nirmala Prem Ashram''). She set up the ''Shri P.K. Salve Kala Pratishthan'' in Nagpur as an international music school in the same year, to promote classical music and fine art.
Until 2004, during her travels, she gave numerous public lectures,
pujas
() is a worship ritual performed by Hindus to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honour a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event. It may honour or celebrate the presence of special guests, or their mem ...
, and interviews to newspapers, television and radio. In 2004 her official website announced that she had completed her work and Sahaja Yoga centers exist in almost every country of the world.
[We want the world to know...](_blank)
"Shri Mataji has completed her work" She continued to give talks to her devotees and allowed them to offer her
puja.
She spoke on several occasions about the harms of drinking alcohol and that many people were cured from addiction when they got their self realization through Sahaja Yoga.
Honors and recognition
* Italy, 1986. Declared "Personality of the Year" by the Italian Government.
* New York, 1990–1994. Invited by the United Nations for four consecutive years to speak about means to achieve world peace.
* St. Peterburg, Russia, 1993. Appointed as honorary member of the Petrovskaya Academy of Art and Science.
* Romania, 1995. Awarded honorary doctorate in cognitive science by the Ecological University Bucharest.
* China, 1995. Official guest of the Chinese Government to speak at the United Nations International Women's Conference.
* Pune, India, 1996. On the occasion of the 700th Anniversary of Saint Gyaneshwara, she addressed the "World Philosophers Meet '96 - A Parliament of Science, Religion and Philosophy" at Maharashtra Institute of Technology.
* London, 1997. Claes Nobel, grandnephew of
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( ; ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer, and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite, as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes. He also m ...
, chairman of United Earth, honoured her life and work in a public speech at the Royal Albert Hall.
* A road in Navi Mumbai, near the Sahaja Yoga Health and Research Center, was named in her honor.
* Cabella Ligure, Italy, 2006. She was awarded honorary Italian citizenship.
* Cabella Ligure, Italy, 2009.
Bhajan Sopori
Pandit Bhajan Sopori (22 June 1948 – 2 June 2022) was an Indian instrumentalist. He was a player of the santoor, an ancient stringed musical instrument.
Early life and family
Sopori was born in Srinagar into a Kashmiri Pandit family to Sha ...
and his son
Abhay Sopori
Abhay Rustum Sopori (born 7 June 1979) is an Indian Santoor player, music composer and conductor. He is the son of Santoor player Pandit Bhajan Sopori, known for his versatility, innovations and experimentation. Sopori has received awards in r ...
composed the
raag Raag may refer to:
* Raga, a melodic framework in Indian classical music
* ''Raag'' (film), a 2014 Assamese-language drama film
* Raag (surname)
* Radio Amateur Association of Greece
* Right-angled Artin group
In Euclidean geometry, an angle ...
''Nirmalkauns'' in her honour.
See also
*
List of messiah claimants
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, bu ...
References
Bibliography
* Mataji Shri Nirmala Devi, ''Meta modern era'' (New Delhi: Ritana Books, 1997)
* Pullar, Philippa (1984) ''The shortest journey'',
* Kakar, Sudhir (1984) ''Shamans, mystics and doctors: a psychological inquiry into India and its healing traditions'',
* Coney, Judith (1999) ''Sahaja yoga: socializing processes in a South Asian new religious movement'', (London: Curzon Press)
* H.P. Salve
er brother ''My memoirs'' (New Delhi: LET Books, 2000)
* Gregoire de Kalbermatten, ''The advent'' (Bombay, 1979: reprint: New York: daisyamerica, 2002)
* Gregoire de Kalbermatten, ''The third advent'' (New York: daisyamerica, 2003; Melbourne: Penguin Australia, 2004; Delhi: Penguin India, 2004)
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Srivastava, Nirmala
1923 births
2011 deaths
Sahaja Yoga
Indian spiritual teachers
Founders of new religious movements
Indian spiritual writers
People from Chhindwara
Deified women
20th-century Indian educators
20th-century Indian women educators
Female religious leaders
Indian yoga teachers
Scholars from Madhya Pradesh
20th-century Indian women educational theorists
20th-century Indian educational theorists
Women educators from Madhya Pradesh
Educators from Madhya Pradesh
Marathi people
Modern yoga gurus