Below are real stories written by people who either practice Sahaja Yoga regularly (whether for many years or just months) or those who have just discovered Sahaja Yoga. Some are short notes, and some are astoundingly personal letters describing events in the lives of the authors which took our breath away.

If you wish to share you expereinces with us, please send us a message by filling in the form on the 'contact us' page.

>> Select any photo below to read their story:

Paul Caffrey "The lights were switched on and I felt alive"	Rosemary Hume "Peace in my heart and mind"	Anonymous "My heart felt lighter and I started to enjoy life more and more"
Nigel Powell "I just thank God for allowing me the privilege of enjoying my life in this glorious manner"	Jan Waterfield "This subtle and utterly non-invasive yoga opened my heart and continues to do so"	Mark Daniels "My life has been given back to me. I have returned from the shadows"
Mark Beaven "With Sahaja Yoga meditation I have been able to maintain the experience of a clarity of mind and great depth of inner peace"	Anonymous "I thank Life for leading me to this path"	Anonymous "Incredible surge in my spine, third eye and crown"
Anonymous "Rising above suicide: believe me, Sahaja Yoga works!"	Anonymous "Never felt this good after doing other techniques like Reiki"	Anonymous "You bring light to this world in more than one way, you are the speakers of truth and true knowledge"
Anonymous Without SY, I would have probably died by now	Anonymous Healing back problems through vibrations	Anonymous "Hope and joy became a part of my life again"
Anonymous "A sense of peace like never before"	Anonymous From drug abuse to purity and social integration	Anonymous "Deep feeling like it was all I ever wanted"
Anonymous "I feel extremely fortunate to have Sahaja Yoga as a vital part of my life"	Anonymous From drugs and darkness to light: a story	Anonymous "Sahaja Yoga has transformed my life"
Anonymous "After only two months of Sahaja Yoga I feel like a new human being"	Anonymous "When I do it regularly, I enjoy it and it is extremely rewarding"	Anonymous "during the meditation that night, I felt like a tornado of energy circulating on top of my head!"

Paul Caffrey - professional carpenter

On the 11th march 1991 I went along to a Sahaja Yoga meeting held in Coventry England, it was there I had the most unforgettable and uplifting experience in my life I received self realisation, an awakening of my spirit, the lights were switched on and I felt alive.

I was twenty five years old then and had a very difficult life already, suffering from behavourial problems in early childhood progressing into hardcore drug abusing /criminal lifestyle all through my teenage years and beyond.

Just before receiving self realisation i was in very poor condition physically ,mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I felt pretty hopeless, desparate just to feel normal whatever being normal was, confused about my own wellness and my place in life. I tried many times to 'sort myself out' changing locations, meeting different people and seeking help from sources that have limitations when comes to helping a person understand what he really is. Frustratingly I always ended up back in the same street, stuck in the same cycle of self destruction and emptiness.

During this difficult period I had a deep instinct of the exsistence of some power within that could liberate and balance you 'sort you out' and the origin would be divine or spiritual not psycological or physical. I started reading books on meditation and enlightenment and often noticed references to kundalini energy which aroused interest, It became clearer that this energy is perhaps an interface between the mundane human exsistence and the real experience of the divine in your everyday life.

I saw a poster for Sahaja Yoga one day while eating a bowl of goulash in a cafe, it seemed to say all the right things, also that its free when everybody else wanted your money 'suspect' this meant a lot considering I had no money anyway.That evening I received realisation in a small meeting house and began to meditate at home, the change and transformation started immedeatley.

After meditating for seven weeks and with genourous loving help of the local Sahaja yogis working on my subtle system there was dramatic improvement in my overall health, one unforgettable experience was staying with sahaja yogis for a week end and sharing with them some of my adventures in life and just having such a roaring laugh , i mean the kind of laughing that makes you cry and makes your sides hurt for days after. This was such a blessing after having a heavy heart for so long.

I went to visit my family, when i walked through the door they couldnt beleave it was me because i was so well from the last time they saw me, it inspired the whole family and cousins to go to a sahaja yoga programme the next day I didnt have to say anything . They got realisation, they dont practice meditation but my mother has the upmost respect for sahaja yoga because she has witnessed how it has helped her son get allright , she is quite proud now.

There is so much more to share with you about sahaj experiences it would take much longer than this brief testimonal,words alone cannot express the joy and knowledge and importance of sahaja yoga for the whole human race, this is only become possible with the grace of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi whos heart is big enough to love the whole planet and more .I would like to thank you from the deepest part of my heart for giving me my life back and spreading so much love to every nation.

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Rosemary Hume

In 1982 I was introduced to Sahaja Yoga - a friend came to tea and told me a little about it and I was so interested she promised to take me to Caxton Hall in London where Shri Mataji Herself used to come every week.

We travelled to London on a Monday with the boot of my friend's car packed with stems of lilac that I had picked from my garden to present to Shri Mataji. I didn't know what to expect but was comforted by the introduction talk when it was explained that our Lord Jesus Christ was a crucial part of Sahaja Yoga - this made a deep impression - and when Shri Mataji came onto the stage I was aware of a light cool breeze all about me.

Being a C of E Christian I had spent my whole life believing that Christianity was the only way to God and that all other faiths were not even to be considered. After this first meeting and remembering particularly Shri Mataji telling us that ALL the great faiths are part of Truth and Reality - I determined to read the ancient scriptures of other faiths to see what they said for myself.

To start with Sahaja Yoga was an intellectual pursuit for me - I meditated from time to time but concentrated mainly on reading the Bhagavad Ghita, the Koran, the Dhammapada, Lao Tsu, Socrates, the Nag Hammadi Library, the Bible and was completely bowled over by so doing. It was a great experience to study these beautiful texts and to see for myself that what Shri Mataji had told me was true.

I was very slow in starting to practice Sahaja Yoga and in l985 at last went to Diwali Puja in Rome - the entire airoplane was full of Sahaja Yogis and Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Herself flew with us. Again I didn't know what to expect - over the past three years I had had little contact with other Sahaja Yogis and traveled all the way from Scotland by myself to join the flight from Gatwick to Rome. What a brilliant weekend it was. I didn't expect to be so filled with joy and confidence - I didn't expect to come back home with peace in my heart and mind and such gratitude that I had been lucky enough to find Sahaja Yoga.

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Personal Experiences - the effects of Sahaja Yoga on my Life.
The death of my father when I was a child left me with deep insecurity and lack of confidence - these problems being buried so deep that I never considered the possibility of being able to change the way I was. But after Self Realization I found I was able to feel the damaged Chakras on my fingertips and this enabled me to stand back from myself and see why I didn't feel confident and secure.

Being able to separate myself from the problems made me know that they were not part of myself at all and with the simple techniques of Sahaja Yoga I gradually started to feel incredibly different. My heart felt lighter and I started to enjoy life more and more.
Looking back over nearly twenty years I can say that my life has been transformed by Sahaja Yoga and that it is a wonderful treasure to discover the Truth that we ALL have a Subtle System within our Spinal Cord and that the gentle and loving Mother Kundalini energy really is there in our Sacrum Bone to look after us and bless us with Her Love and Grace.

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Nigel Powel

I received my Self Realisation and began practising Sahaja Yoga meditation via a totally unremarkable process. It was January 1992 and I had been feeling increasingly restless for a while, and so – unusually for me - I corresponded with an astrologer to try and obtain an indication of how I should proceed with my life. He sent me back not a chart, but a suggestion that I start to meditate. I remember ringing him up and explaining that I was not into ‘that kind of stuff’ and his reply that I should just try it (any meditation, he didn’t specify which) because it would help me get myself together. As a result of his suggestion, I bought a copy of the Time Out magazine (a hippie rag, as I called it) and sent off to all the new age and mediation courses advertised in the back. Amongst these was Sahaja Yoga, which of course was free. And to be honest it was simply the fact that it was free that encouraged me to try it, I was not too keen to spend up to £200 just to try out some form of meditation.

My first visit to a Sahaja Yoga meeting was also unremarkable, mundane even. I remember sitting down in an empty room (I always arrive at new venues early) whilst the meeting was being set up. I became a little uneasy when I saw what looked like too many new age artefacts being assembled – chakra chart, incense and a picture of an Indian lady, but determined to stick it out to the end come what may. At least then I could say I had tried! I suppose that I had in mind that meditation classes would be sort of like a formalised or conventional tutorial, a sort of MBA for the mind!

The meeting seemed to pass quickly and I received my Realisation in the conventional way. Interestingly, I remember thinking how cold my hands were as we were going through the process of saying the affirmations, and nobody had mentioned about the cool breeze! It was only afterwards when I heard another new person mention their cold hands that I remembered my own sensation. After the Realisation, there was a video of a talk by Shri Mataji. She made me laugh several times during the talk, which I took as a good sign. I remember thinking that anyone with a sense of humour can’t be bad.

Finally there was a meditation workshop, where we were ‘worked on’ by another person, which was quite pleasant. Not incredibly profound or anything like that, just quite pleasant. The meeting ended with tea and biscuits during which we had time to ask questions, and my chat with Alan (the person who had worked on me) was just what I needed to hear. No hippie or new age type talk, just a nice sensible guy who seemed to be very down to earth and normal. I went home quite relaxed.

I tried to meditate over the next week, and it was very difficult. I remember sitting in the bathroom (didn’t want to upset the family you see) trying to understand the instruction sheet that I had been given. ‘If you are still troubled by thoughts, try raising the left and lowering the right’. So there I was, photograph perched precariously on the sink behind the taps, with candle spluttering merrily away, lifting my left foot into the air and trying to work out how to lower the right leg!

Needless to say, my early meditations were not superb.
Another interesting fact from these early days. I was due to watch the Super Bowl American football match four days after my Realisation. It was an annual pilgrimage that I paid to a sport I enjoyed a lot at the time. The matches were usually late at night because of the time difference, and I always set myself up beforehand with beers, popcorn and suchlike, so that I could watch it in a ‘proper’ American style. Now strangely enough this time - just four days after my Realisation, note - I decided totally ‘spontaneously’ whilst preparing for the game, that I would watch the match ‘straight’ this time. I remember thinking, ‘hey, it might be nice to see the match without being totally blitzed’. And so I did, and enjoyed it immensely. This was my first experience of the gentle and natural way our spirit will guide us whenever it is needed for our benefit -a small voice that I now listen to with the utmost respect and attention!

Anyway, I was sufficiently intrigued by Sahaja Yoga to return to the meeting the next Tuesday, and it was then that I was shown just how powerful Sahaja Yoga can be. I was being worked on by Chris, and I just dissolved into a glorious bright light in my head. No thought, no worries, no nothing. It was incredible. It was better than any drug induced high that I had ever experienced. I went home that evening on cloud nine and from that moment on I spent my time trying to reach that state again. There is no doubt that the early days of Sahaja Yoga meditation were the most intense for me, in fact from what I hear a lot of people have their most incredible experiences right after their Realisation. Everything became so much more vivid. Trees stood out in glorious green as though etched in 3D on the roadsides of London. I remember standing, washing my hands in the sink and staring in wonder at the beauty of the water running in rivulets down my palms.

I also quickly determined that if I drank any alcohol I would ‘come down’ from this incredible high I was on, and so without even a second glance (although I was never a great drink lover) I gave up drinking alcohol. I tried to meditate as often as I could, even rushing down to the toilets in my office at lunchtime to try and meditate and keep the feeling going. And all the time, I was realising things about myself, about my family, my relationship with my mother, partner, boss etc. It was a most amazing period of several months. In fact I quite often look back now and realise that I have absolutely no recollection of the weather, events or conditions in 1992. I don’t know whether it was a great or terrible summer, or whether it was cold or rainy in the autumn. Nothing. That is how absorbed I was with the new experience of Sahaja Yoga.

Of course no one can continue at that kind of intensity for ever, it would just wear you out, so gradually I have ‘settled down’ to a life where subtle Joy has become a daily companion, without being artificial or forced. Joy as in contentment, as in peace in oneself and as in enjoyment of the flow of life within and without. But I will never forget those early experiences.

Within a few months of starting to meditate, I had also begun to visit the homes of Sahaja Yogis on a social basis, and I also spent a lot of time at the office of Nick, one of my new found Sahaja friends and guides. We must have discussed everything under the sun and Spirit during our chats. I used to rush round to his place bursting with questions, and sometimes be taken completely aback as he handed me a sheet of paper or a tape with a talk by Shri Mataji that answered my questions perfectly – even before I’d asked them! I remember also several fleeting instances during my meditations of the time where I experienced - could actually sense - an incredibly infinite and yet benign power, guiding and comforting me. This I took as yet another clear sign that this was a path far deeper than anyone could imagine.

Since the early days of my Realisation, life has returned to what could be termed normality. Except that it is, in fact, supra-normality. I have an immensely enjoyable job, doing something creative which I love doing. I travel the world and in material terms, although I am far from rich, I want for nothing. That’s not to say that I live in some rose coloured utopia, where nothing ever goes wrong. Far from it. But the sense of balance, purpose and wonder that I have been lucky enough to gain from this amazing Yoga appears to be strong enough to overcome just about every negative eventuality. It really is like being able to create your own benign universe!

Sahaja Yoga is a fantastic and never ending adventure. Just when you think that you have ‘settled in’ to a calm period in your life or spiritual journey – WHAM - up pops some new opportunity or test, or you have such a profound Realisation that your whole being alters course, perception or attitude. Sahaja Yoga to me is the ultimate adventure. Beside it, everything else pales into insignificance. Nothing can match the richness of experience that it provides, and there is nothing which to me comes close to offering such meaning to life.

In fact, although some of my friends and family were initially rather worried about my new found ‘meditative’ life-style, I believe they now realise that I am experiencing some of the most incredibly enjoyable and productive times of my life – and it is clear that a few of them are even starting to question their own goals and attitudes to life as a result.
I just thank God for allowing me the privilege of enjoying my life in this glorious manner.
N. P.
London, December 2001

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Jan Waterfield - professional musician

I remember, aged four, asking my Mother who was God and who made him. She had to confess that she didn't know. The dissatisfaction that I felt with her answer continued for a very long time and the desire to understand what was truth never left me. How should human beings treat each other? How could they access what was best about themselves without hurting each other or resorting to religious fanaticism? How could they find their true identities without resorting to external props or disguises like money or fame? What was true love, that didn't depend on flighty emotions or ego?

I come from an English family of academics, very used to finding the answers to questions in the thousands of books that they cherish, yet strangely unable to sustain marriages or practise the tolerance and idealism that they would argue for politically. I became determined never to become really close to anyone or believe in anything unless my instincts were satisfied and at least some of my questions could be answered.

An externally successful life acted as the cover for internal despair. Nothing was truly satisfying, not relationships (however many), not money, not travel, not music, not solitude, not therapy, not company, not alcohol, not drugs, nothing.

In 1995, my then flatmate heard an advert on Jazz FM for a meditation programme at the Royal Albert Hall. She heard the words 'you are not this body, or this mind, but you are the spirit' and she knew that she had to attend. I was typically cynical, expecting it to be another instant fix, like the latest diet or clothing.

A year later, I reluctantly attended the same programme, where Shri Mataji was speaking. I remember nothing about what was said, and I certainly felt absolutely nothing when people were asked if they felt a cool breeze. All I did feel was a very quiet reassurance somewhere deep inside that Shri Mataji was speaking the truth (although I couldn't have told you what it was she said). I didn't attend any other meetings for at least six months. I was determined not to feel pressurised into some sort of collective hysteria, and I also felt very strongly that if this was true then it wouldn't be in a hurry to sell itself to me and I could take my time about it.

I went to the Sahaja yoga meetings in Covent Garden and very very slowly understood that the peace and silence achieved in those meetings were settling something fundamental inside me.

Satisfaction was to be found in this extraordinarily simple method of meditation that was open to anyone, and depended only on that person's genuine desire. Slowly I began to enjoy my life and to my intense surprise and joy was able to get married to someone (without fear, doubt, panic and the instant desire to escape). I slowly understood that my noisy thoughts and anxious questions could be gently dissolved into the vast expanse that is God's love, and most importantly, that I could still be true to myself at the same time. This subtle and utterly non-invasive yoga opened my heart and continues to do so.

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Mark Daniels

As a young and fairly precocious teenager it seemed the world was my oyster. I won prizes for my academic success. I achieved recognition for my prowess on the sports field and enjoyed home life in the bosom of a large, loving family. But all that was to change.
Whilst undergoing my 'A Levels', I became ill and suffered the first breakdown of what was to become a recurring nightmare over the next 20+ years. What followed was a Helter Skelter ride of severe depressive moods, lurking in the shadows of human existence, followed by all too brief periods of calm normality and then the sublime highs of an indestructible mania. The ride was turbulent, tortured and often too much for those around me.

I knew somewhere within me that there was so much more to this existence than the relentless struggle of keeping up appearances, so much more than the drug-induced monotone of sensory deprivation, and so much more than the inverted social hierarchies which praised the material and spurned the spiritual.
Salvation came from an unlikely source - a chance encounter in a troubled moment, a picture on a library wall, a subsequent telephone call and an invitation to a Sahaja Yoga meeting in someone's home.

For me, I had no great initial revelation, no strong sensation, no earth-shattering, mind-blowing experience but an intuitive knowledge that I had come home. My heart felt open for the first time in ages and it dawned on me that I, like so many in England, had been running away from this experience.

A year later and I was in Bombay, India, attending a clinic which specialised in Sahaja Yoga treatments. This was the breakthrough, the moment of sublime realisation. It was to be my 'time'. I had the experience of real 'Kundalini' awakening. I could feel this energy, which lies within each of us, coming out of the top of my head as a cool breeze.

I then knew that what had been referred to by the great prophets in their scriptures and by many evolved souls was a living reality, and it was happening to me! I could not deny it, even though my background was that of an atheistic Physics Undergraduate. I can't say that my life was now completely free from moods and altered states but that, at last, I had a mechanism for coping and that this mechanism had been lying dormant within me.

Once awakened, this Kundalini, which lies within the Sacrum bone, can gradually cleanse our problems, both physical and emotional and burn away the layers of detritus that we build up through our lives. We are restored to innocence and purity and love, and all of those higher qualities, that we know to lie within us, start to manifest.

When I look around at my fellow Sahaja Yogis, I look at a reflection of my own salvation. I look at these lovely people who, like me, pilgrims, have travelled far but are reaching our destination. We're coming home. Sahaja Yoga is not a sanctuary for the few but a simple system of Meditation which takes only a short time each day

When done with love and devotion it will change your life and the lives of those around you. It represents the highest ideals of the human spirit and its practice unlocks the beauty within you, that is often hidden from view.

My life has been given back to me. I have returned from the shadows. I am very grateful. Above all I am sure this is something we have to share.

We all have the same origin and the same destiny. We are connected in ways which are not yet understood by scientific endevour. Evolving, as we have, from Amoeba to Astronaut, from simple beginnings to great complexity, was not by chance.

The emergence of our realisation through Kundalini awakening carries us to that next plane of evolution to transcend the intellect and conditionings and take our place upon the next great stage.
I have my seat and the play is about to start. I invite everyone to come and enjoy the show !

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Mark Beaven
How Sahaja Yoga changed my life

About 20 years ago I went to Caxton Hall, St James Park, London to hear Shri Mataji talk to a full hall of spiritual prospectors about Sahaja Yoga and to receive their Self-Realisation.
I remember it well because I only had 5 pounds to my name and that was the cost of the train fare from Brighton to London. It was all I had - the best 5 pounds I'd ever spent!

From that day on I've had a tremendous life. I've had no confusion as to who I am and what my purpose in life is. My life - like all people who have taken to Sahaja Yoga has become a tangible reality. It's like a childs complete recognition of it's Mother - you know exactly where you stand.

With Sahaja Yoga meditation I have been able to maintain the experience of a clarity of mind and great depth of inner peace - genuine inner peace.
- Mark

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I thank Life for leading me to this path
i am a writer and i have written three books: Truth, Freedom and Knowledge. i have devoted my whole twenty years of living to these books. i have studied anthropology, philosophy, psychology, children, human biology, music, arts and by writing and painting i try to understand Life, the Soul, the Heart and the Mind...but i now know that these four are represented in everything you do.

I find people such as leonardo da vinci, einstein and isaac newton a few of my most inspiring influences because of their Love for the universe and its secrets, and now Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi...

Apart from these men, i have never come closer to anyone who has had the same beliefs and purposes as i have. i admit i have a long road to travel, but nothing can stop a real dream. my whole life i have been searching for Divine Truth and Divine Knowledge, amongst these people and my dreams, i believe i have found my release...

I thank Life for leading me to this path..... i will be glad to recieve any new information from you, and i will be visiting the nearest centre closest to me for inspiration.
yours truly
v.
V.L.,3/1/2000

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