The story of the messages known as Whispers from The Brighter World

These words are from a poem found in a rare treasure of writings known as Whispers from The Brighter World, which emerged within the fold of the Sahaj Marg tradition in the early 1990s. The Scribe who wrote them dedicated herself to receiving and recording a spectacular anthology of messages throughout many years of her long and arduous life. She recorded them in the silence of the mists of time, with a loving and open heart, and they shine with the radiance of pure love. They are a gift to the world, and they are unique in the history of spirituality.

Since time immemorial, the flow of sublime vibrations coming from higher spiritual regions – often from highly elevated souls – has been received as revelations by saints and sages of yore. As they tuned in to the vibrations, the inter-dimensional communications would settle in their pure and receptive hearts, and they would then render them into words for the benefit of others. Many ‘inspired’ writings have thus been transcribed over the ages, as is the case with the ancient Indian scriptures known as the Vedas. This form of direct knowledge is referred to as Shruti in Sanskrit, and while it is given different names in various cultures, it always refers to the capacity to tap into the field beyond the limit of human sensory perception and translate it into human language and form.

The story that I share here stands on a pedestal of its own. Let’s take a journey back in time to discover the life of an extraordinary woman who was born to fulfil a rare destiny – Madame Hélène Peyret.

She was a courageous soul who made it her life’s work to be the scribe for these messages from the Brighter World. Charged with the vibration of divine love, these messages operate at a higher level of consciousness, showering Grace on thirsting hearts who are nourished and awakened with each word therein. For Hélène Peyret, they became her very own raison d’être (reason to be, purpose of existence).

She was born as Simone Hélène Bisiaux in St-Aubin-en-Bray, a small town in the region of Picardie to the north of Paris, on 18 September 1928. From the start, her life appeared to be a dreary landscape of mountainous difficulties at every turn, which this brave soul scaled every time with an unfailing and cheerful faith.

Early on in life she lost her father and her own health to tuberculosis. I can only imagine how it must have been growing up in such dire circumstances, in the aftermath of World War 1, which wreaked devastation on Europe, and during The Great Depression that followed. This bright, energetic little girl faced a long life-threatening illness at the age of six. Later, she would often say that those initial difficult times trained her to face many more increasingly challenging difficulties strewn across her path later on in life. Her mother worked hard to take care of the family. Little Hélène had to stay home during her illness, and was often left to her own devices at the tender age of six or seven.

Resilience became her second nature, as the innocence of childhood fled in the face of severe hardship. She began working at the age of thirteen and her spirit was the livelier for it. In fact, nothing dampened the thirst for spiritual awakening that had begun to blossom in her heart. Her grandfather had shared with her his unique gift of mediumship and healing and she was aware that she too had been thus gifted in her own way.

When her illness abated, a young Hélène would take long solitary walks in the woods and fields near her home, inspired by her tryst with nature. She would converse with God in her heart, with faith, little knowing that it was a forerunner to the extraordinary events to come. Even then, she made notes of her encounters and conversations with God.

A fall from horseback at that time did great damage and forced her to stay in bed for many years. Pain obliged her to spend a year in the cloister of the nuns of the Dominican order, who recognized the pure soul she was and even hoped she would choose to enter their order of her own accord.

She would keep saying that each tragedy fashioned her unique abilities to face the worst of circumstances possible in order to prepare her soul and heart for the immense destiny she would live.

She grew up to become a self-educated, accomplished and highly cultivated young woman for her times. Her studies led her into the world of fine arts and culture. She worked her way to finding a very good position in the early ’60s in the Comptoir des Entrepreneurs in Paris, taking on responsibilities that seemed rather important for such a young woman to shoulder in those times.

While working in Paris she met her husband, François Peyret. After their marriage, he would inspire her to explore her natural curiosity for intellectual pursuits and artistic studies. Her striking watercolour paintings of flowers and plants would later grace the publications of the Whispers from The Brighter World series.

The faraway land of India intrigued her and beckoned her, and she felt connected to India and its people in some mysterious fashion. She fell sick again, this time with a terrible cancer that ravaged her tall and beautiful body, so that she was practically bedridden for ten long years. François cared for her in the most devoted manner possible, and although the couple were not blessed with children, the family they created with mutual respect and deep love for each other flowered into a harmonious life despite such calamities. They decided to shift to a warmer climate and left the grey skies of Paris for the sunny Riviera, finding a beautiful apartment in Cannes that overlooked the azure Mediterranean Sea. By now, Hélène Peyret was engaged in spiritual pursuits with diligence.

She would one day speak of those times, simply saying, “There are two things one is born with or without: love for God and being a channel for communication with the Divine.”

Her favourite saint, Thérèse of Lisieux, would communicate with her. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was a Carmelite nun who was canonized by Pope Pious XI in 1925. She was also known as ‘The Little Flower of Jesus’. A common bond of suffering had perhaps drawn the two souls close, for Saint Thérèse of Lisieux entered the cloister at the age of fifteen and died of tuberculosis at the tender age of twenty-four. Together with Saint Francis of Assisi, Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the most popular Roman Catholic saints. Pope Pius X called her “the greatest saint of modern times.”

To Hélène, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was a dear companion who was always present in her prayers. Hélène was convinced that it was the divine intervention of Saint Thérèse that had cured her of her previous illnesses. Her heart was now set with growing fervour on her quest for higher states of consciousness. Love for the Divine blossomed in her as her sharp intellect became an able instrument to walk the path in search for God. She joined the Yogananda school and practised Kriya Yoga for two years, until the day when Swami Yogananda himself appeared to her saying that he was not her Master and that she would meet hers some day.

Hélène then joined the Rosicrucian order. The roots of Rosicrucianism go back to the mystery schools of ancient Egypt and Europe. Perhaps her attraction to ancient Egypt triggered her interest in this mystical school of ancient knowledge and spiritual practices.

With her husband Francois, she collected antiques from ancient Egypt that adorned her apartment. Her clairvoyant vision had revealed to her that she had lived in ancient Egypt in significant incarnations. She almost achieved the level of full mastery within the Rosicrucian order when she found the path of Sahaj Marg.

While still in Paris, her colleague and friend, Madame Jeanine Lancien had gifted her a book by Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, India, also known as Babuji, who founded the Shri Ram Chandra Mission to lead seekers on the path of Sahaj Marg. In 1972, Jeanine met Babuji while he was visiting Paris for spiritual work.

This great spiritual path of modern times came straight from the land where Hélène’s heart lay – India. Many years later, while living in Cannes, Hélène was formally initiated and began to meditate according to the method of Sahaj Marg. She never looked back, and from that moment onwards she followed this path with all her heart and soul. Giving up her communication with other spiritual Masters, she dedicated her heart to the one she would always refer to as her great Beloved, her Babuji.

By the time her husband departed this world, at a time when she herself was again very ill, she was already receiving regular messages from her beloved Babuji. She recognized his vibratory signature, because even before she began meditating under his divine guidance she had been communicating with him, without knowing him as Babuji. Those early messages were lost in the obscurity of time when she shifted to Montpellier, in a series of unfortunate events that often mar the beautiful history of such writings. How many times has humanity lost priceless treasures due to the actions of those ignorant being who do not recognize their worth. It takes the quality of heart to recognize the presence of the sacred, for without our inner compass we are incapable of perceiving the loftier things in life.

Now, well established in her practice of Sahaj Marg, she would regularly receive and note messages from Babuji Maharaj. This work was carefully concealed by her, as she knew that such phenomena were not easy to accept by all and sundry. In some way she was a study in contrasts: She radiated such powerful love from her heart, soaring high in her visions, and yet there was a down-to-earth part of her personality that was so grounded, so anchored in day-to-day life. Whereas many would have become embittered by such extreme physical suffering, instead it etched and carved her heart so deeply that it became capable of all the more love.

Then came the years of waiting before her writings were accepted for what they were. She would note down in pencil on paper the messages received from Babuji Maharaj. Theirs was a story of hearts that sang the love of the Divine that has since lifted those who would later come to read the messages into the rapture of a world that lies deep within us, waiting for the Master’s Grace and our own aspiration to be revealed.

She was advised by Babuji to shift to Montpellier in the south-west of France. It was a difficult move for her, as she left behind in Cannes so much that was familiar, built over the years with her husband François. Nevertheless, she obeyed her beloved Babuji’s instructions, as she did in all things. She shifted to Montpellier, a few blocks from the ashram where many seekers of Sahaj Marg gathered to meditate together every Sunday.

Her apartment was on the third floor of an inconspicuous building in the city’s centre. It would become her world, as she would hardly ever leave the apartment, except on rare occasions, because of the spells of infirmity and sickness that constantly assaulted her. For almost two decades, as her health steadily deteriorated, she dedicated herself heart and soul to becoming her beloved Babuji’s scribe. She was ‘his pencil’ as she liked to call herself at times.

The vibratory alignment needed to receive such messages is that of extraordinary inner purity. The energy she would dispense while taking down the messages would take its toll on her, leaving her incapable of much else during the day. Every day, for years on end, at 8 a.m. and then again at 10 a.m. she would sit at her desk ready for Babuji Maharaj to begin his dictation.

By then, a few dedicated companions of the Sahaj Marg community had begun to look after her needs, helping her out with day-to-day life. She took down the messages in her rich and lyrical classical French. The words came alive with the vibrations of Babuji Maharaj etched as codes in her phrases, quickening the reader’s inner state. Because her heart radiated pure love, in her apartment there was always a very special sacred atmosphere. She could not receive many visitors as she would tire easily, yet even as she mustered all her energies to devote herself to the task, while battling infirmity, she would still go out of her way to help each one who called upon her. Like a mother to all, she was ever ‘Momma’ to me and we spoke often over the phone when I was unable to visit her.

Her one disappointment in life was that she did not have the opportunity to visit India, the land of her heart, of her dreams. In 2005, the revelation descended on me from Babuji Maharaj that she had been none other than the disciple of Swami Vivekananda, the strong and iconic Nivedita. In 2008, when the news reached her that this knowledge had been revealed to me, she became very curious to know who this person was who knew about her past life, for she was already aware of her past. She asked dear Babuji about it and I was called to meet her. Thus began or, it would be more accurate to say, was rekindled one of the most amazing relationships, nurtured on the wings of love for the great Babuji, who was ever our Beloved.

In her last years, when she would pine for India, those of us from India who could visit her did all we could to take simple things like guavas, mangoes, pictures and mementos from India, much to her delight. With childlike eagerness, she wanted to hear even about the littlest of things that were happening there, especially in the newly-constructed ashram of Kanha Shanti Vanam, about which Babuji communicated to her in his messages. She would often say that Kanha Shanti Vanam would someday would become the high place of spirituality.

When she met some of the children who were going through the Brighter Minds program, she predicted the coming of a new race of the future. Soon, her words, her visions, her very being blended into that of her beloved Babuji. She could not tell herself apart, so utter was her surrender. She greeted every visitor with her bright blue eyes, impeccable elegance, beautiful smile ever matched with a ready wit, and amazing revelations, as she was always eager and generous to share her life’s work. An old-world hospitality was kept alive as she would instruct her companions to serve her guests with every comfort and delicacy she could think of. Like a queen, she ruled over hearts with a touch of endearing innocence, unaware of the sway she held.

At times, when she was told that the messages were now published by now in several volumes called Whispers from The Brighter World and were being read by millions around the world, she would be astonished.
“Are you sure?” she would say. “The messages I scribble? The ones from my beloved Babu?”
And she would have to be told that, yes, it was indeed true. “And those who read them are so grateful, they all love you very much Momma.”
Then she would dazzle us with that smile, and for a few minutes emerge from behind the clouds of doubt that marked her path every now and then. Even the great Babuji would have to reassure her in his messages that she was indeed an authentic channel for his words; that her work mattered, as it would mark the path of Sahaj Marg, and indeed humanity, in a most unique way in the future times.

Towards the end of her life, the messages she scribed numbered over 10,000, and were being read all over the world in languages such as French, English, Russian, Tamil and Hindi, amongst others.

Her last years were terribly difficult. She had become very special to all of us who received the gift of her life’s work. How could we ever thank her enough for her work, her dedication, even with the intense suffering borne with such grit that moved us to tears so many times. Writing these words, to build an intangible monument to this towering icon of motherhood, moves me anew as with each memory of my meetings and conversations with her.

She was a poet, a loving wife, a skilled healer, a scribe, a devotee. She was ‘Momma’. With her life’s work, she has left a significant mark on the history of the world. Though kept for the most part hidden, it is a most singular contribution in words, meaning and feelings. It is something that only a woman’s heart could conjure, filled with the strength of a mother’s lifegiving force - the love of her tender heart. She was an extreme example of sacrifice and total love.

I pray that we all can appreciate the beauty of her messages, dive deep into them, let the music of this unique love sing to our hearts, its quintessence nourishing our very souls, allowing higher meditative states to flower in our consciousness.

Dear Momma’s yearning, her pure receptive and yielding heart, her cheerful acceptance and utter surrender to her Beloved, is the altar that invites us to join her in this amazing journey through these Whispers from The Brighter World.

I invite one and all to pay homage to dear Momma and her beloved Babuji, my great Master, who has gifted us with this unique treasure. May the flame of love in these messages set our hearts alight, so that together we can become love and unite with the ultimate source.

Kamlesh Patel
Kanha Shanti Vanam
30 April 2021