Life and Biography of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Nirmala Srivastava (Nirmala Salve ) (21 March 1923 – 23 February 2011), also known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi , was the founder of Sahaja Yoga , a meditation technique. She said "You cannot know the meaning of your life until you're connected to the power that created you". She claimed to have been born in a fully realised and spent her life working for peace by developing and promoting a simple technique through which people can achieve their own self-realization. Shri Mataji was born in Chindawara , Madhya Pradesh, India to a Hindu father and a Christian mother Prasad and Cornelia Salve. Her parents named her Nirmala, which means "immaculate". She said that she was born self -realised . Her father, a scholar of fourteen languages, translated the Koran into Marathi , and her mother was the first woman in India to receive an ho...