Newspaper Interview with Stan Bostock
Newspaper Interview before the up-coming USA Tour with Stan Bostock published in Zireus on May 1983
The aim was to talk to Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi about her forthcoming North American tour. What happened was something that is only now, a week later, starting to make sense.
I telephoned the number Shri Mataji’s followers in New York had given me, and found myself, an hour later, knocking on the carved door of a five storied terraced house in London’s classy Knightsbridge district.
The door was opened by a young Indian who ushered me into a reception room as ornate and rich as a jewel box. Furniture covered with rose silk, tables inlaid with ivory, carved and gilded wooden screens, pale pink crystal chandeliers.
I heard Shri Mataji before I saw her.
“How are you? How is America?” Then the lady appeared, short, plump, with long dark hair falling free, and a smile that chips away all the defenses.
Tea was ordered and I was asked to sit down.
Before I could get the first question into gear Shri Mataji asked, “Do you know what the chakras are?”
I mumbled something about subtle energy centers along the spine. “That’s right,” she said, and tapped the base of her neck with her index finger. “This one is called the vishuddhi. In the universe the vishuddhi is North America. Australia is the lowest chakra, the mooladhara. India is the kundalini. which can link all the chakras together,” she traced a line from the base of the spine to the top of her head, “but America is the vishuddhi, isn’t it? Such an important chakra.”
Shri Mataji then touched the red spot in her forehead. “This chakra,” she said, “is the agnya. It is presided over by Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t it? The agnya is forgiveness. It shows that the spirit cannot be destroyed, just as Christ could not be destroyed, but rose again, didn’t he?”
Shri Mataji quietly contemplated the risen Christ for a moment, then jabbed her fingers towards the base of her neck again.
“The vishuddhi, its presiding deity, you could say, is Lord Krishna. The vishuddhi stands for diplomacy and sweetness and self-esteem and communication and collectivity – like your Abraham Lincoln, he stood for collectivity. Abraham Lincoln was a saint – did you know that? – a realized soul. You have had many great men. Roosevelt now, he said, ‘poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere’. So clear he saw it. So clear. America is so great. It is protected by Lord Krishna’s discus.”
Shri Mataji held up the index finger of her right hand and twirled it. and I swear I could see a bright glittering disc whirling round.
“As long as that discus is there,’’ she said, “America can never be invaded.”
“Could that protection ever be withdrawn?” I asked.
Shri Mataji shrugged expressively, and raised her eyebrows high. “Perhaps,” she said. “If the land of diplomacy stopped being diplomatic, the land of communications communicated bad things, the land of sweetness turned bitter, then yes. perhaps Lord Krishna might withdraw the protection.” Suddenly she laughed.
“On my tour I shall tell everybody how to stop that from happening.”
I asked Shri Mataji if she was visting North America just to sound such a warning.
“There are seekers of money, seekers after power, seekers of physical gratification,” she replied, “and then there are people who have done all those things, and are now seeking the truth, seeking their spirit, seeking God. There are many, many seekers of truth in America. Great, great seekers. Oh so great. I want to meet them. Show them how they can get what they have been looking for for probably ages. Lifetimes even. Their self realization.”
“What is that exactly?” I hadn’t yet asked one question from my carefully prepared list.
Tea arrived. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, the spellbinding visionary, turned into Mrs. C.P. Srivastava, the attentive hostess. Did I have the right amount of sugar and milk? Would I have a biscuit? (Which turned out to be a cookie.)