Editor
The Vishuddhi Chakra is the place of our communications and our relationships. It is situated at the throat and is a complex centre for receiving and sending. We understand that waves have vibrations, like TVs and mobile phones, and that routinely these instruments pick up these invisible waves and make sense of them. Likewise, to a much more subtle degree we are empowered to pick up and send vibrations, waves. This happens through our Vishuddhi Chakra.
The Sahaja Yoga affirmations for Vishuddhi Chakra are, “I am not guilty,” “Mother, please make me the detached witness and part and parcel of the Whole,” and “Mother, verily You are the sweet countenance of all my words and deeds.”
After Self-realisation, the Spirit is able to interact with our consciousness much more directly. When our Vishuddhi Chakras are clear we can put attention on people, things, ourselves, and get accurate direct knowledge of everything at the vibrational, subtle, actual level. This is a new state of Vibrational Awareness working through our hands and awareness. The whole cosmos both within and without begins to open up to us and we begin to see more of the grandeur and essential nature of the creation. This facilitates our enlightened understanding and we witness things, events and people in a more detached and knowing way.
The Vishuddhi Chakra picks up on the etheric vibrations from wherever we place our attention. This is a very good reason to be careful where and how we place or direct the attention, including the attention of others. The Vishuddhi can and does transmit vibrations, not only in the gross sense of speaking, or arm movements, but by placing our heart-felt and focused attention on people we can literally bestow qualities on them. We soon realise we get our own transmission back, and so we determine, as best we can, to be an instrument of Divine Love. We also have the power to evoke feelings in others, like guilt, anger, jealousy or love, through our speech.
Ideally, we see everyone as a pure spiritual being, a part and parcel of the Whole, of which we are part. This means everyone is sacred, and worthy of the same respect and loving treatment as we would give our sister, brother, child or parent. One of the most dear relationships is the sweet love between the brother and sister. Unfortunately, in the West this relationship is poorly valued. Likewise, the idea of sweetness and diplomacy as an ideal is also almost lost, with the idea of aggressiveness or sarcasm taking its place in order to get what we want. The brother-sister relationship is felt on the left side of Vishuddhi and sweetness is expressed on the right.
The Vishuddhi and accompanying Hamsa Chakra at the top of the nose work as filters. Smoking, anger, guilt or inability to witness are some of the things that can cause this chakra to “catch”.
The personification of this principle is the Lord Krishna and his consort, Shri Radha. His incarnation principle was to clarify our eternally spiritual nature and to urge us to see and witness the divine drama of creation as a play. He was Yogeshwara, the God of Yoga who urges the practice of yoga. “When the mind of the Yogi is in harmony and finds rest in the Spirit within, all restless desires gone, then he is a Yukta, one in God” (Bhagavadgita).
Essentially, in Spirit we are all connected. This connection is felt through our Vishuddhi. Vishuddhi is the hollow flute which expresses the sweetness of the Heart. The sweet music delights the sender and receiver. This whole manifest creation is known as the Virata. The Virata is reflected in all its power and glory within us as the subtle body. We can know absolutely that we are part and parcel of the Whole.
Pavan Keatley
(Photograph: writespirit.net)
The lights of your heart together make a greater light for the world to move in a proper direction. It’s a day of great joy, and those who join in this, are spreading also great joy.
But the problems are there, as they say, but for us there is no problem because there is no darkness. We don’t see any darkness anywhere; we see lights, and lights, and lights.
Then what is the thing missing? Missing is our sincerity. We have to be very sincere with ourselves, because it is not just a borrowed love or borrowed joy, but it is from within the source; it’s flowing and flowing and flowing.
So that is to be awakened, and that love should flow, and our small petty things like jealousies and competitions and all those things which spoil us, must be washed away. And it can be washed if your heart is full of love. Today is a day of spreading that light of love, so that everybody feels enlightened and happy and forgets these petty problems…
You are already blessed people; there is no doubt about it. And we should not worry about small things and small matters. It will all work out very well, you will see, if you just leave it to your destiny, which is very high, very great – in this your own destiny you will go very far.
This is the Promise of Diwali to you all, that you will reach the highest and the noblest way of life.
Every word I say will be there to prove what I say is there. Whatever petty problems you have, they’ll all be washed off. All these are the messages from the Divine. You don’t have to worry about petty things, about money, about jobs. That’s not your job. Your destiny will work it out. You have a promise that you’ll be looked after. I hope you believe in that promise and are joyous in the highest way. I bless you all from my heart, all of you, for a very happy and prosperous Diwali. Thank you very much.
Shri Mataji, Diwali 2003
Everyone is now familiar with the stereotypical image of a yogi sitting cross-legged chanting the sound, “OM”. But what is the real significance of “OM”?
OM is the primordial sound of the universe, the first sound, the sound that was made at the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe, and it resonates within our being. OM has the power to take us into meditation, to make us one with the universe, to take us into the the silence and the peace that is the vastness and the power of the universe, like the stillness of a bottomless lake that has no ripples.
The sound, OM, was made when matter first started to divide and differentiate and to recombine. OM is actually made up of three separate sounds, A-U-M, that together make the sound, OM. The first is “A” which sounds like “ar” as in “car”. The second is “U” which sounds like “oo” as in “book”. The third is “M” which sounds like “m” as in “man”. These sounds can help to keep us in balance. How?
Human beings have within them a subtle body which consists of three channels and seven chakras. The three channels are connected to our emotions on the left, our physical and mental activity on the right and our integration and balance in the centre. If we are over-emotional we are operating too much on the left side, and if we are thinking and planning too much or are over-active physically then we are using our right side too much. These situations cause the imbalances which lead to physical and mental health problems.
The central channel is generally activated only when we achieve our Self-realisation. This happens when the residual life force (called the Kundalini) which resides in the sacrum bone in every human being rises up through the spine, through the limbic area in the brain and out the top of the head at the fontanelle bone area. It then connects us with the All-pervading Power of the universe, the force that created us, the force that keeps the planets in their orbits and makes the seeds sprout in the Mother Earth.
Once we have our Self-realisation we can go into “thoughtless awareness”, the state of true meditation in which we are awake and alert but we are not thinking. In thoughtless awareness the Kundalini flows through us, balancing our subtle systems and clearing our chakras, giving us good health and feelings of well-being. As we continue to meditate and to strengthen this connection, the Kundalini flows more strongly and we are able to enjoy the silence, the space between the thoughts, to be the pure consciousness, to feel one with the whole of creation.
After our Self-realisation, when we have that connection to the force that created us, the sounds of the OM (AUM) can help to clear and balance our channels. If we use as a mantra the sound, A (“ar” as in “car”), it will help to clear the left channel, the sound, U (“oo” as in “book”), will help to clear the right channel and the sound, M (“m” as in “man”) ,will work on the central channel. As a result, the whole system will come into balance.
The sound, OM, also has the power to clear each of the chakras when sung at the pitch which resonates with the particular chakra, and it can raise the Kundalini when sung up the musical scale.
So, sit comfortably, on the floor or on a chair, hands palm upwards on your lap. Take a few deep breaths, and relax. Now sing, “Aaaaoooommm,” and let the sound take you into meditation, into the stillness and the silence and the peace that is the vastness of the universe where you are at one with the whole of creation and are nothing but pure consciousness. Enjoy!
Kay Alford
(Illustration: affirmations.goingon.com)
We have to understand that life has to be enjoyable. Life should be a blessing. It’s not to be a misery. We create our own miseries by these false ideas, by our own conflictions we have in our mind, mental projections we have in our mind or our own obstinacy, whatever it is.
All these things can be cured if you take to Sahaja Yoga because you become a balanced person, level-headed, wise person and you become a witness. The whole thing becomes like a show, like a drama and you become fearless. You start seeing the whole thing like a drama. And this is what a human being has to achieve.
Shri Mataji, 1986