I got my Realization when I was seven years old in ‘75. The first time I met Mother was quite a marked memory. My father, sometimes used to bring me up to London for the weekend as I lived with my grandparents until my father remarried. He first met Shri Mataji about that time, so he said I was going to meet this very special Indian lady. I had never actually met an Indian lady of any description before that point, which made it a little bit daunting, coming from a middle class commuter town just near Brighton. Shri Mataji was very different from what I imagined because an Indian lady, to me, would have been a distant person in a sari. And there was this quite remarkable lady who was very friendly. Instead of being anxious and not knowing what to do because it was a strange adult, it was really rather fun.
She asked me questions and Her eyes lit up and there was a huge smile and for some mysterious reason — being an adult now, I can’t remember why, I decided I had to be an elephant. It was in this flat in Gower Street where there was seventies-style furniture, including some wickerwork drink things to put your drinks inside. I turned these things upside down and stuck them on my feet and legs and kind of roared around the room and pretended to be an elephant.
When I did this, Mother just pitched Her head back with laughter and laughed and laughed. My father was horrified, sort of “Oh no, what’s he doing?” But Shri Mataji really brought the situation alive and made it all rather fun. And there was no sort of anxiety or anything like that. It’s great being a kid with Shri Mataji, you don’t have to think, “Do I have to be this or that?” You just sort of are.
93