A Town Hall for the World
Where Hearts Meet
Caxton Hall lies in the City of Westminster in central London. It was built in the mid-19th century and named in honor of William Caxton, who established the first printing press in England, an innovation that revolutionized access to knowledge. It has a long history as a place where bold new ideas have been exchanged and explored.
Originally Caxton Hall was an edifice of government; a town hall. However, it has had a dual role over the years. Civil ceremonies and celebrity marriages have taken place here, alongside noisy meetings, rallies, petitions, and calls for social reform and political activism. It was from the doors of Caxton Hall that many great ideas and movements of the 20th century spilled out into the global arena. The voices of the women´s suffrage movement, socialism, and the first Pan- African conference dealing with the aftermath of slavery, are just some examples of what took place here.
So, it is interesting that this was the hall which Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi chose, when in 1977 she decided to take her message into the public arena. Between 1977 and 1983 Shri Mataji held the stage almost one hundred times here, marking a significant shift to a wider public. Her words were for everyone. The invitation was open. The admission free.
The great Bengali poet and Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore had held a series of successful lectures here in the summer of 1913. The lectures were with titles such as, “The Relationship of the Individual to the Universe”, “Soul Consciousness”, “Realization in Love”, and “The Problem of the Self”. These were themes that Shri Mataji would directly address herself some seventy years later. Like her predecessor, she wished to share an ancient Eastern knowledge with a Western audience and take them on a journey within themselves.
"Within us we have that where space and time cease to rule and where the links of evolution merge in unity."
Rabindranath Tagore
However, in the case of Shri Mataji, the aim of her lectures was not to simply explore a new idea but actualize that idea. Her lectures always came with an added bonus. At the end of the evening, she always offered the people the experience of self-realization. Guiding them in the stillness of a deep meditation, the audience were given the opportunity to feel their own depth. Tagore´s “Realization of Brahma”, had become Shri Mataji´s “Experience of the True Self”.
Once again, a revolutionary movement had been launched from the steps of Caxton Hall. A fundamental step in man´s capacity to ascend on a spiritual level was taken and many felt a profound change in themselves and a shift in their world view.
For six years Shri Mataji spoke to people in Caxton Hall from all walks of life. She took time for all their concerns. She addressed those big questions; “Why are we here?”, “What is the purpose of my life?”, Why has God created us?”, even “Is there a God?”. At the end everyone was invited to connect with their true selves.
Thus Shri Mataji´s public ministry in the West truly began. Here in Caxton Hall, everyone was welcome, and that which was most valuable was freely given. Many of those who received their self-realization remained at her side and supported her efforts in reaching out to as many people as possible who were seeking the truth.
In 1980 Shri Mataji herself said, “The search is on (for the truth) and many shops have opened (people promising the truth). This is not a shop. This is a temple, and a temple in the market place has very little value. If you have to climb up seven mountains to go to the temple it has much more value. But only a few can reach there alive. So, the temple had to come down to London, to Caxton Hall, to talk to people”.
Shri Mataji welcomed and embraced everyone with her gift of self-realization.
In the words of Tagore, “It is the high function of love to welcome all limitations and to transcend them”, and Shri Mataji´s love and gift of love transcends all obstacles to enlighten the heart and the world.
