For the period of about a year-and-a-half after I finally found out how to actually meditate in April 1982 (having put in much effort already for eight years, without benefit) and I moved away from the party neighbourhood of my youth, there seem to be no photos of my amazing progress. Now, by chance, I saw THAT Ed, exactly thirty-four birthdays ago, strolling along with a wedding procession in the heart of New Delhi!
I had arrived alone at 2:00 a.m. in humid Bombay two weeks before, after an exhausting series of flights, with an overweight suitcase and a phone number. It was the first international journey in my quarter century of life on Earth. (Little did I guess then that I would return to India more than twenty times!) Someone back home in Vancouver had just bought my ’65 Chevy panel van, enabling me to join my new yogi friends on the India tour. A kindly airport police officer helped me reach the others, already a huge, international group of pilgrims, and that very evening I met Shri Mataji, the founder and teacher of Sahaja Yoga meditation, on the first of many joyful occasions over the coming days, years and decades, in various countries.
Among the many memorable events in Delhi was our viewing of the new Gandhi movie in the cinema that it had world premiered in just nine weeks before. (As a girl, Shri Mataji had spent time with Gandhi at his ashram, where he would sometimes implement Her advice on spiritual issues.) I remember walking out of that air-conditioned building and looking up at the hot, wide blue sky, realizing that those historic happenings had taken place not long ago under this very canopy.
I was lucky to be among those few of us from Canada (at that time there were only a handful of people practicing Sahaja Yoga in North America) that were invited to stay for a few days with Shri Mataji in Her daughter’s house. Several massive public programs were held throughout the city, and I attended my first puja, which celebrated Shivaratri at that time. At the compound where we all met each day, someone organized a cake and candles 🎂, and some new friends sang Happy Birthday to me that third day of February … so long ago, now! I drank lots of yummy chai there, discovering too late that the caffein was brutal on my sensitive liver. We also travelled up to the Himalayan foothills, where I saw some Indian girls enjoy snow for the first time. I spent that wonderful month in India without getting sick, a bit of a miracle (although as soon as I got back to the West I cleared out quite thoroughly!)
I still feel all that as a solid building block in my evolution, and this unexpected window view now brings a fresh breeze to grownup Ed.💨
(And, adding an interesting twist to the perspective: I happen to be turning 59 now, the same age Shri Mataji was when we first met back then!)
Shri Mataji gave each of us a present that afternoon (6 Feb 1983)
They were original Indian artworks. Somehow I managed to hold on to mine (the only thing I have left from my early twenties). It now hangs in my little art-studio in our homestead in the Vienna Woods:
You know the scene at the end of Back to the Future when the geeky dad is transformed into a cool dude, and the boxes of his new adventure novel are delivered to their home? … I feel a bit like that today!
stay tuned …
(official public release soon to be announced …)
Thousands of years ago, when cavemen still roamed the rest of the world, kingdoms and advanced technology thrived in the mysterious East. The oldest surviving story on Earth tells of a king who was forced to banish his beloved son to the wilderness. This noble heir to the throne is believed by some to have been a benevolent deity incarnated in human form, who came to teach mankind the highest qualities of selfless love. But our science could find no evidence of the fantastic events of that lost culture, when men and beasts spoke with each other and demons stole flying machines from the gods. There was no proof until a little boy from modern times stumbled back through the thick curtain of time, into the most thrilling period of prehistory, to participate in events that would shape the entire human race. At last, we know the truth….
In a few hours I’ll embark on a journey into deepest (lightest) Indian culture.What once took weeks can now be done in just seven hours.Visit here again in early April for the insights.THANKS!Till then, best wishes,Ed Word
(I just finished writing a two hundred page novel about a little boy who journeys back in time to ancient India — now I’ll go work on the drawings, steeped in that magical atmosphere)
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I’ve just had the great and amazing privilege to attend an unprecedented event in the center of India. On the 2008 spring equinox, just as fellow-human beings all over the world coincidentally enjoyed their annual religious celebrations ~ which happened to fall on the same day this year ~ I found myself surrounded by thousands of joyful faces out in an
ancient, rural landscape, all drawn together for one of mankind’s most universal of celebrations: a birthday party! And this was indeed a very special birthday party, as it marked the eighty-fifth year of a universally benevolent person who has become loved and respected throughout he world for her ongoing efforts to integrate humanity: H. H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
The rustic living conditions and the atmosphere of mutual affection seemed to bring out the real insides of the countless doctors, students, lawyers, artists, accountants, social-workers, secretaries and all the other international visitors gathered there to honor the highest that we know: the spirit of unconditional love put into practice.
As if called together by Mahatma Gandhi to his ashram (located nearby), we, of all religious backgrounds, came enthusiastically to participate in something that would sincerely unite us above our trivial, mundane concerns. The cooling, dramatic winds, rain and lightning that manifested there, most uncharacteristic for this time of year, inspired awe in the heart of the beholder.
The moving felicitations for Shri Mataji ~ known affectionately the world over as ‘Mother’ ~ featured messages of acknowledgment and honor from many dignitaries, including the U.S. president and his wife, and the prime minister of Canada.
I came away from that timeless moment of joyful music and celebration with the feeling that we are, after all, naught but small children involved in our games ~ and that the house of our Parents has yet to reveal all the glory and wonder in store for us … one family under one roof.
at and amazing privilege to attend an unprecedented event in the center 
of India. On the 2008 spring equinox, just as fellow-human beings all over the world coincidentally enjoyed their annual religious celebrations ~ which happened to fall on the same day this year ~ I found myself surrounded by thousands of joyful faces out in an
the atmosphere
of mutual affection seemed to bring out the real insides of the countless doctors, students, lawyers, artists, accountants, social-workers, secretaries and all the other international visitors gathered there to honor the highest that we know: the spirit of unconditional love put into practice.
the prime minister of Canada.
Self-Help 