This song of mine will wind its music around you,
my child, like the fond arms of love.
The song of mine will touch your forehead
like a kiss of blessing.
When you are alone it will sit by your side and
whisper in your ear; when you are in the crowd
it will fence you about with aloofness.
My song will be like a pair of wings to your dreams;
it will transport your heart to the verge of the unknown.
It will be like the faithful star overhead
when dark night is over your road.
My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes,
and will carry your sight into the heart of things.
And when my voice is silenced in death,
my voice will speak in your living heart.
Rabindranath Tagore
In Australia, today is the last day of National Youth Week – an initiative co-ordinated by the Australian Government. It is now officially listed as the nation’s biggest youth event, celebrating young people between 12-25 years old. So, what better time to recognise the youth in our meditation community here in Australia!
We are fortunate to have the company of many young people who are actively participating in Sahaja Yoga meditation. They come from wide-ranging backgrounds and cultures and we would like to acknowledge the significant role they play: with their commitment to personal growth, contribution to helping others and generous community spirit when volunteering to share pure meditation and enlightened music with the general public.
So, we took this opportunity to ask them to share their perspective, to express their feelings about being part of our diverse community. National Youth Week celebrates what is great about being a young person in today’s world. This prompted us to ask, “What is great about being a young person in Sahaja Yoga? How has it helped you?”.
Within hours, we had many responses. The replies give great insight into how our young people are helped to deal with and overcome challenges in their daily life.
James (21): It helps and allows me to be the person that I strive to be, where my complacency is able to be lost and my morality is not forgone.
SV (16): I get through my day more easily and it makes me feel strong enough to confront any situations that come up in my day, compared with some friends from school who tend to stress out a lot about simple things.
Avi (20): Even if you are not practising it, it still plays a major role in your decision making, helps you see the right way to lead your life, even if you aren’t necessarily seeking. You are able to tell what is true and pure from false and misleading influences.
Madhavi (15): Sahaja Yoga makes me feel more joyful, positive and in a state of peace. I have experiences where Sahaja Yoga was the only thing that helped me get through bad days. I am very grateful to have it. I don’t know what I would do without it. I have met so many beautiful people through Sahaja Yoga.
Kabir (20): Sahaja Yoga has given me many important things. It has given me meaningful relationships that are defined and fulfilling. I feel close to the people I’ve met here; we are honest with each other, and I feel a great sense of security in knowing they help me to realise the truth about myself. Sahaja Yoga is a continuously evolving personal experience. It’s not a doctrine set in stone; we are constantly growing through introspecting and meditating. Growth, not stagnation. Sahaj gives me this, and I feel blessed.
Shridevi (15): Sahaja Yoga to me is not like any other everyday experience. It is being happy every day, feeling joy within and peace in my surroundings. I feel calm and satisfaction with what I have and what I’m doing, every minute of every day. This is only the beginning of how I could express my feelings…
Michael (13): Sahaja Yoga is a very nice and peaceful meditation and it’s very good if you are studying for exams or playing a sport etc…
Sadhana (16): For me, Sahaja Yoga meditation is a form of stress relief from school, home or anything else causing tensions in my life. I find that when I’m with the Sahaja community I tend to be more positive and carefree. Also, Sahaja Yoga has introduced me to many people from all over the world which has helped me form new friendships.
Ash (14): I like Sahaj because of the collectivity. Being together and enjoying the moment brings out the best in people and in me. I love how Sahaj is so spontaneous, it makes it a lot of fun. It has helped me to become a better person, more open and more relaxed.
Anastasia (15): Sahaja Yoga is a way for me to find quiet and peace within myself, where nothing negative can interfere with my joy.
SD ( 24 ): My experience of Sahaja Yoga meditation: I feel complete on the inside. The emptiness I felt inside my stomach seemed to fade away.
Nira S. (15): Of all the things that I love about Sahaj Yoga, it is the calm peace I experience each time I meditate that makes me feel completely connected with my inner self.
Madhu (14): Sahaja Yoga isn’t like any other yoga… it’s the real experience! One of the many things I like about this unique way of life, is that Sahaja Yoga helps you to become the best person that you can be. It’s like one big family spreading across the world, and sharing it so that everyone else in the world can experience it too.
Jasmin H (12): I think Sahaj has helped me enormously and I don’t see how I could have coped with life without it. It has kept me calm through life’s obstacles; mentally, physically and spiritually. The people are so kind and caring and everyone is free to be themselves and not have to worry about anything. Support is always there for you and you can’t be in Sahaj without having heaps and heaps of friends. Everyone is one big family.
We hope you enjoyed their answers as much as we did.
If you would like to enjoy the peace that true meditation can offer, please come along.
• List of our free weekly meetings (Australia and international)
Kind regards from Sahaja Yoga Australia.
What the great learning teaches, is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.
The point where to rest being known, the object of pursuit is then determined; and, that being determined, a calm unperturbedness may be attained to. To that calmness there will succeed a tranquil repose. In that repose there may be careful deliberation, and that deliberation will be followed by the attainment of the desired end.
Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.
The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.
It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered. It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for.
Confucius
“Now I would like to tell the secret knowledge of our inner being which was known in India thousands of years back. For our evolution and spiritual ascent there is a residual power within us which is located in the triangular bone at the base of our spine. This residual power is known as Kundalini. Though the knowledge of this power was available thousands of years back in India, the awakening of the Kundalini was done, traditionally, on an individual basis only. One guru would give awakening to one disciple. As a result of that awakening, what happens is that you achieve your self-realisation, your self-hood.
Secondly, when this power is awakened, it rises and passes through six subtle energy centres in your body, nourishing them and integrating them. Ultimately, this power breaks through the fontanel bone area called as the Talu or the Brahmarandra and connects you to the all-pervading power of Divine love, which is described in the Bible also as the ‘cool breeze of the Holy Ghost,’ also in the Koran as ‘Ruh’ and also in the Indian scriptures as ‘Paramchaitanya’. Patanjali has called it as ‘Ritambhara Pragya’.
Whatever the name, this is a power which is all-pervading, which does all the subtle works of living process, of evolutionary process. The existence of this all-pervading energy is not felt before realisation, but after self-realisation you can feel it on your finger tips or at the centre of your palm or above the fontanel bone area.
Moreover, this process has to be spontaneous, ‘Sahaja’. ‘Saha’ means ‘with’ and ‘ja’ means ‘born’. That means the right to get this union with the all-pervading power of Divine love, is the birth right of every human being.
Our mental energies are limited. Our limited mental energy, which is linear in movement and has not sustenance of reality, reaches a point and stops. From there it boomerangs, and all that mental, linear movement comes back to us as a punishment sometimes. So now we need more energy, higher energy, deeper energy, and for that this happening has to take place.
The consequences of the awakening of the Kundalini and thereby the attainment of self-realisation are numerous. First and foremost, such a person is constantly in contact with or is in fact a part of the all-pervading Divine power. He seeks the truth by using his new awareness. And truth is one; all self-realised persons see this same truth. Thus conflicts are avoided. Purely mental activity without self-realisation, leads to conflicting ideas and even wars. All this is avoided after self-realisation.
Now, let us see how many other things happen in a person who gets realisation. Firstly you start feeling the cool breeze of the Holy Ghost on your fingertips, which represent the subtle energy centres. Thus you know the truth on your finger tips. You transcend all the limitations of race, religion and other ideas and you go beyond your mind to see and feel the reality and understand it.
The next thing that happens is that you become thoughtlessly aware. We live in the future and the past through our thoughts. They come to us from these two areas of time, but we cannot be in the present. While these thoughts are rising and falling we are jumping on the cusp of these thoughts.
But when Kundalini rises She elongates these thoughts and thereby creates some space in-between which is the present, which is the reality. So the past is over and the future doesn’t exist. At that time you have no thoughts. You reach a new state as you become thoughtlessly aware, about which Jung has written clearly. At this moment whatsoever happens is recorded in your memory well and you enjoy every moment of this in reality. When you become thoughtlessly aware then you become completely peaceful within yourself.”
From “On Global Problems Facing Women Today,” Address by Shri Mataji to the Inter-regional Round Table Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, September 13, 1995