I grew up in London with my brother and parents who were very traditional Hindu parents – I say traditional but they must have been quite open-minded to come to London in 1957.

Gradually I understood that the very basic differences between India and London were something I needed to sort out in my own mind, in terms of my own life and life choices. There was the permissive society in London, the mainstream UK society, the Hindu society and then there was the spiritual path which my mother was following with The Brahma Kumaris. It wasn’t part of mainstream Hindu society, but she had the courage and the insight to be able to follow her heart.

I had known Dadi Janki throughout my childhood in India and she had always been someone very, very important to me. Dadi was the one who inspired me to go back to London and start a Centre. She was the seed of the service that is now happening and later on, when she came to live in London, I became her translator.

I found that it wasn’t enough to give a literal translation of the words Dadi was using, but I had to translate the cultural context of the language and many of the concepts she was using. I continued to gain many insights into how to work with different personalities and situations, and use spirituality as a tool in life…

Spirituality gives you a very clear picture and a guideline of what you can do for yourself but also what the contribution is that you can make for the world.

Our affiliation with the UN has helped enormously in giving us credibility in certain circles. In 1986 we received seven Peace Messenger Awards from the UN for our work for the International Year of Peace and our project ‘The Million Minutes of Peace’. We now hold General Consultative Status with the UN which is the highest level that an NGO can achieve.

A lot of our work in recent times has been related to climate change with the COP conferences, biodiversity, environment generally, but also in other areas that the UN works in – and so it’s been a very beautiful partnership.