This special issue contains a forty year history of Sahaja Yoga, primarily told through the words of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. From the opening of the Sahasrara in 1970, each year is a stepping stone in our collective story. Each of us is a thread in the fabric that is Sahaja Yoga, all those years in the making. Of Sahaja Yoga, Shri Mataji is the author. Of our ascent, She is the artist.

I have written this book for the benevolence of the people, with whatever English I can use, with whatever literature I can use, with whatever style I could adopt. Mataji Nirmala Devi

Shri Mataji writes that “India is a very ancient country and it has been blessed by many seers and saints who wrote treatises about reality and guidelines on how to achieve it.” This is just such a book. This book is both an introduction to Sahaja Yoga, describing the nature of the subtle reality within each of us, and a step-by-step handbook on how to be a good Sahaja Yogi, the nature of Sahaj culture, how to be a leader and how to raise children. “The knowledge of Sahaja Yoga cannot be described in a few sentences or one small book, but one should understand that all this great work of creation and evolution is done by some great subtle organization, which is in the great divine form.”

"Sahaja Yoga is not so simple as you think," Shri Mataji told us in 1998. "It is full of temptations." Over twelve pages, in a collection of short quotes, Shri Mataji clearly tells us what Sahaja Yoga is not. The magazine also includes several other articles created from her words. She speaks of collectivity, beauty, fear and incarnations. She speaks at a 1982 Shri Durga Puja, calling it "the Day of the Goddess" and she assures us that there is no problem because there is a special grace.

This collection of sixty-four stories, all told to us by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, includes The Creation of Shri Ganesha, The Sanyasi and the Rain and Padmini and the Palanquin. They are tales of inspiration, guidance and humour, "The stories are there," she said, "but behind these stories, you have to see the subtle things."

On 5th May 1970 Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi introduced a unique method of inner transformation called Sahaja Yoga. Within the following years Sahaja Yoga grew dramatically and transformed the lives of thousands all over the world. the Ascent is a sequel that records the process of that transforming force and how each individual can ascend to his own ultimate collective being.