Founder - Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, the founder of Sahaja Yoga Meditation was born on the 21st of March 1923 in the central part of India in a Christian family. From a very early age, Shri Mataji was drawn toward spirituality and ways to help humanity. She lived at Mahatma Gandhi's ashram from a very young age and later actively participated in the struggle for India's freedom. As a result, she had to discontinue her medical studies in the final year.

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Shri Mataji got married and lead a family life until her children were grown up before starting the Sahaja Yoga movement at the age of fifty.

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In the year 1970 on the shores of the Arabian sea in Nargol (state of Gujrat), she devised a technique to give amass realisation to emancipate humanity. Since then she tirelessly traveled around the world giving self-realisation to thousands of people in many countries free of charge. As part of her teachings, she showed people how to pass this valuable experience on to others and how to sustain it using Sahaja Yoga Meditation methods.

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Shri Mataji received numerous recognition for her selfless work and lifetime achievements. These include being awarded the UN peace medal, being nominated for the Nobel peace prize, official guest of China as a keynote speaker at the Beijing International Women's Conference, being granted a one-hour nationally broadcast television series by the Indian Government, being given a Proclamation by the US Congress, given Unity Award for international understanding, declared Personality of the Year by Italian Government  Mayor of Brazil's capital gave keys to the city and sponsored all her programs, officially greeted by North American Mayors of Los Angeles, New York, British Columbia, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Berkeley and invited by officials of many countries to address their people.

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Shri Mataji passed away peacefully on the 23rd of February 2011 in Genoa, Italy, aged 87. Her work carries on via numerous Sahaja Yoga Meditation classes and meetings organised in over 100 countries worldwide, free of charge.