Ganga Mira - Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview
Also see https://batgap.com/ganga-mira/
Geneviève De Coux was born in
1947 in
Namur, Belgium during her parents’ holidays. The family lived in the
Belgian Congo. Geneviève and her brother enjoyed an idyllic childhood until 1960, the year of the
Congo’s independence. The family emigrated to
Belgium.
Their paradise was lost. Geneviève found herself in
Brussels, this radical change of scenery stoked the fire of her ontological search and she found refuge in art. In
1968 during her second year at the university while studying her philosophy paper, she stumbled upon a saying of
Socrates which hit her straight in the heart: “
Know thyself”! Realising that this was precisely what she had always been looking for, she instantly dropped her studies and set out for
India by road in search of a living Socrates or
Buddha.
On reaching the
Himalayan foot-hills, she led a meditative and ascetic life by the
Ganges in
Rishikesh, waiting to meet her master. The locals called her
Mira because of her devoted renunciation.
At the end of 1968, in circumstances well worthy of
Indian mythology, she met a man with whom she had an awakening experience. He left the following day without Mira knowing anything about him, neither his name nor his address.
The one certainty was that finally she had found her master. To give herself the best chance of seeing him again, she decided to live at the exact spot of their meeting. For eight months she waited for him and meditated under a little tree on the banks of the
Ganga river.
One day, her master,
H.W.L.Poonja, a disciple of
Ramana Maharishi, came back for her. She became his disciple and wife and started to travel with him. In
1971, H.W.L Poonja was invited to give Satsang in
Europe and Mira accompanied him. Their daughter
Mukti was born in
1972 and the little family went on travelling the world. For the education of her daughter Mira returned to Belgium. In
1990, H.W.L Poonja, also called
Papaji, settled permanently in
Lucknow where he gave Satsang every day until he passed away in
1997.
In
1998, Mira was invited to give satsang, which she continues giving to this day all over the world. She decided to call herself
Ganga. In 2004 Ganga Mira moved to
Portugal. She lives near the wild ocean of the
Algarve with her daughter Mukti and her grand-children,
Arun and
Satya, and gives satsang four times a week.
Website:
http://gangamirasatsang.com
Interview conducted 5/21/2016