Vijayananda:- Ram Alexander has been kind enough to tell me you want to know about my background… well… you see, there are two people: one who died on 2nd February 1951, the other who was bern on 2nd February 1951. Now do you want about the dead man or the living man? Could we try the dead man first? The dead man has no great interst—he happened to be a doctor interested in spirituality. He already has one guru in France where he had been, & had practiced meditation fro 16years before coming to India. You see, from the age of 10 he was rather religious—he was a Jew by birth—so this boy, instead of playing like other children, was thinking: What is the nature of God? And it was a big problem & it lasted many years. Finaly he decided that God not being material, the mind or spirit did not exist. So he became an atheist. This lasted until he was 17. He was being trained as a rabbi. He had eaten, devoured all Western philosophers but came to the conclusion that religion was a humbug. He was only enthusiastic abot Nietzsche. Melita Maschman:- First… I never came to India looking for gurus. Ma I met accidentally. How?—you will ask. Then it is for you to listen. In 1962 I was working in Afghanistan as a journalists have hoilidays, so I wanted to spent three weeks with a German family in Mussoorie—that’s where you live, right? Right. We starred from Kabul—all fine—but by the time we reached the nice Himalayan foothills, the rains washed away the rode. That meant their Mercedes couldn’t move. I got out, took my bundle & went to Dehra Dun, making myself independent. Sfter passing a boring hour there I asked somebody what would be interesting to see. He said: Take this bue standing at the corner, it goes to Haredwar—that’s a lovely palce of pilgrimage. I looked round Haredwar… not so interesting, so I asked someone else on the street. Is there something really nice to see? Much, much –I was told—take a rickshaw to Kankhal: it was an old Shiva temple, & a fair is going on. O.K… right… fine. There I found a children’s picture-book temple: it is near Ma’s ashram. I remember this was the first impression of Indian poverty. The fair was going on but there were hundreds of beggars sitting along the lanes, among them many lepers. A little time before, I had changed a 100 rupee note into a clean bundle of one rupec notes; I started distributing them.1 this caused five thousand beggars to jump at me. Simonetta :- I keep telling & nobody is believing—when will someone write the truth?... that ashram life is hell! I am also telling—but I know you will never write this—it is not one hell: it is five hells—five! And I can name them all—I have experienced them all. Through all the ashram hell regions have I passed! Is your recorder taking all this down, it’s working? Brahmacharini Atmananda:- When I met you last month at Kankhal, you were reluctant to give me an interview—you said you didn’t want any personal publicity. When at last you agreed, we found much to your amusement nothing had been caught on the cassette. I know you have lived in India for nearly 50 years & that you are one of Ma’s oldest & first western discioles. But can you first tell me something about your early life & what brought you to India. My mother died when I was 2 years old so I brought up by my father & greadmother. He was Polish, but we lived in Vienna. I was interested in religion very early, but I went through many phases. At school I learned about the Jewish religion, and I got very Jewish. I remenger saying to my grandmother: I can’t stay here, you don’t keep orthodox rules—I’m going away! All right—she sied—but where will you go? I was 7, so I began to think I better wait.But by the time I was 10 I was an atheist. When the First World War started, I got interested in politice—this lasted a year or two. But I was still religious-minded & began to read Tolstoy when I was 14. That impressed me very much. CONTENTS:- 1.VIJAYANANDA 2.MELITA MASCHMAN 3.BRAHMACHARI GADADHAR 4.BILL EILERS 5. SIMONETTA 6.SWAMI JNANANANDA 7.BILL AITKEN 8.BRAHACHARINI ATMANANDA 9.JAMIE SMITH 10.MARTHA SMITH 11.RADHESHWARI 12.OMKARA DAS ADHIKARY 13.GOPI JAI KRISHNA 14.ELLEN SCHECTOR 15.PAUL IVAN HOGGUER 16.GIORGIO BONAZZOLI 17.ANIL BHAI 18.RUSSELL BALFOUR-CLARKE 19. PETER HOFFMAN 20.DHRUVA 21.MAGGI LIDCHI 22.BARUNI ete.