So, now a New Age has started which is called the Age of Aquarius, meaning the pitcher carrier of spiritual holy water that is the work of Kundalini. (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)
Since the 1960s and ’70s there has been much talk about the Aquarian Age, especially due to the song, “Age of Aquarius”, from the musical, “Hair”. The words, “New Age”, refering to the Aquarian Age, have also become commonplace and seem to refer to a wide range of alternative philosophies, music, therapies, meditations, exercises and diets. But what is the real significance of the Aquarian Age?
Western astrological thought indicates that we have just come out of the Piscean Age and have entered the Aquarian Age. Each Cosmic Age lasts about 2,000 years and has its own atmosphere or world view due to the influence of the prevailing zodiac sign on all of the planets during their transit, as well as their configurations and the relationships between them.
Dan Costian PhD, author of “Bible Enlightened”, relates that in each Cosmic Age a new avatar or incarnation of the Divine took birth on the earth in human form in order to reveal another aspect of spirituality to human beings. In the Age of Gemini (c6000 – c4000BC) this Divine incarnation was Rama, in the Age of Taurus (c4000 – c2000BC) it was Krishna, and in the Age of Aries (c2000 – 1BC) it was Abraham, Moses, Zarathustra, Confucius, Lao-Tse and Socrates. In essence, the planets “set the scene” by providing the atmosphere or mood of the time to harmonise with and to reflect the message of the incarnation of the Divine of that Age.
The Age of Pisces extended from about 1AD to about the year 2000. The avatar or incarnation of the divine in this Age was Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The early Christians used the symbol of the fish, the sign of Pisces, in order to recognise each other. The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem had been foretold by the prophets and was heralded by a star in the East, which guided the Three Wise Men to the baby in the stable.
Various predictions about the date of the beginning of the Age of Aquarius have been made. The Adi Sahasrara, the seventh and last chakra, was opened on 5 May 1970. This cosmic phenomenon was witnessed by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and she has described it in one of her lectures. This event has paved the way for the spontaneous awakening of the Kundalini energy so that people en masse can receive their Self-realisation, their connection with the Divine. I believe that this is the date of the beginning of the Aquarian Age.
So what can we expect the Age of Aquarius to be like? Eccentricity, originality, independent thought, love of innovation and contempt for tradition are all strong traits of Aquarius. So we can expect that there will be a shake-up of the old order and a questioning of all ideas about society, religion and relationships. This will lead to a search for new ways of being.
This time of questioning started happening in the late 1960s and ’70s when a lot of old ideas, traditions and indoctrinations were examined and thrown out. It led to the sexual revolution, a lot of experimenting with drugs and experimenting with new religions mostly from India, including ones promulgated by false gurus who saw an opportunity to make money. So it had quite a few negative consequences, but it was necessary for people to move beyond the staid, narrow ways of looking at things that had prevailed for some time and to become “seekers of truth”. Under the influence of Aquarius people will not accept what others tell them and like to learn through their own experimentation and experience.
Aquarius encourages the progress of humanitarian and social causes. So the Aquarian Age is one where pure love and altruism prevail. People work selflessly for the good of the whole, without exploiting or manipulating others.
Unity and integration are themes of the Aquarian Age. We can look forward to a truly multicultural world where individual differences are valued and respected while at the same time we are able to work co-operatively for the good of everyone. The sign opposite Aquarius is Leo which has an ennobling and enriching influence.
Originality and innovation are qualities of Aquarius. So we can expect inventiveness and creativity in all spheres of life.
The truth is another important aspect of Aquarius. All falseness and corruption should disappear. The appearance or exterior will be less important while the essence will be of utmost importance.
We can look forward to an end to “blind faith” in religion and to a time when the mystical knowledge that has been hidden and kept secret will be revealed – a time when people will be their own gurus, and know the truth within themselves, with the rising of their Kundalini.
Now very interesting it is to see that this Kundalini is the one which is called as the Kumbha – in Sanskrit language, means the Aquarius. We call it Aquarius, as one of the signs, and is the same as Kumbha in Sanskrit language. So it is the Age of Aquarius, is the Age of the Kundalini. Secondly is the Age of the Kundalini which will nourish, which is the Mother within you, which will rise, will give you the completeness of it, and which will connect you with your Spirit which ultimately gives you the enlightenment by which you become collectively conscious. (Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi, 1983).
All of these positive changes will not happen if we sit back and do nothing. The time is right for them to happen, but we must desire the change and take steps to bring about the change within ourselves. The first step is to desire to have your Kundalini awakening. The second step is to go through the process of attaining Self-realisation. You can do this by going to the link:
Sahaja Yoga Meditation – Self-realisation
The third step is to meditate regularly, preferably with other Sahaja Yogis as the meditation is easier and more powerful in a collective situation. So that means contacting the nearest Sahaja Yoga centre and attending the beginners’ classes, which are always free. By doing this you will be helping all the positive aspects of the true Aquarian Age to manifest on our earth.
Kay Alford
(Photograph: beyondthelookingglass.org)
So as a child Rama was studying with a very great saint, Vishwamitra, and he had an ashram where Rama and His brothers studied, and they used to come for holidays to their father’s place. Then He had the capacity to kill a demon with only one arrow. One arrow of Shri Rama’s was sufficient. And He was a small little child, say about seven, eight years of age and people were surprised how He could do it.
Now these Yagnyas [ceremonies] were created to evoke the deities within the spinal column, actually. And for these Yagnyas they used to sit down and do all these Havanas the way we do it. But at that time the rakshasas [demons] would come and try to spoil the Yagnya. Because Yagnyas are to be done with a pure heart, and with cleanliness and with purity. It should not be insulted. There is a protocol about it. While they thought that, “If we insult the deities there, then the deities will disappear and their Yagnyas will be spoiled.”
At the time of Rama also there were some rakshasas who took a special pleasure in spoiling these Yagnyas, and Rama as a child would go and protect the rishis [saints] from the demons. And the demons would take on some sort of a funny form, and come like miserable creatures and put some bones of animals and things like that in the Yagnya, and that would spoil the effects of the Yagnya. And Rama would protect that, as a child. Imagine, as a child He used to do that. They would be doing the Yagnya and He would be sitting outside with all His small brothers around Him, and they would kill the demons who would try to destroy the Yagnya.
This is the early life of Rama in which you see how as a child also He showed an amount of expertise in arrow and bow. So any time you see a statue, how to make out if it’s a Rama statue is to see if there’s an arrow and a bow – then it’s Rama’s statue.
Now His coming on this earth gave us the development of the right side, and so the Yagnyas were also on the right side. Because first of all when human beings came on this earth, they were frightened of all the animals who would invade them and all kinds of horrible rakshasas and all those people, and negative forces would trouble them. In that state they needed to create a king, a ruler who was an ideal king and who would rule according to the laws of dharma [right conduct]. So He was the one in charge of that.
He was here in Treta Yuga, and Krishna came at the time of Dwapar Yuga. When I came it was Kali Yuga, but now today the time is of Krita Yuga. The Yuga where work will be done – Krita Yuga. This is the time where work will be done. So far things have moved from one to another.
Now in the Treta Yuga when Shri Rama came, the idea of kingship and rulership started, so the greatest emphasis was on the goodwill of the people. The people had to have goodwill, for the people and for the king, and for the betterment of humanity. The will: that is the right side. So how to create the goodwill? First the leader has to sacrifice, and show how far he can go on sacrificing to keep the moral and the goodwill of the people. So the right side was created by the advent of Shri Rama, because He showed a path of creating among people the awareness that they should be ruled, that they should not be anarchists. There should be one head who should be able to organise, coordinate and work out a collective thing.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, 1982
(Photograph: infobankofindia.com)
Musical therapist and teacher of Sahaja Yoga, Celeste Jones, is set to attend the 2008 World Youth Congress in Quebec, Canada. Kurrajong Heights’ Celeste Jones is one of a select group of youths meeting in Canada later this year, to search for ways to combat the many crises facing our modern world.
In August she will join 600 young leaders from throughout the globe, to participate in the fourth World Youth Congress, “ReGeneration 2008”, in Quebec.
The World Youth Congress is a project funded by Peace Child International, which aims to bring together young people from the age of 18 to 30 who have a passion for sustainable development.
A total of 15,000 youths applied to attend this year’s congress.
Delegates will join forces with young Canadians to undertake hands-on community action projects across Quebec.
They will help shape international policy by documenting and showing governments what young people are doing to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which include halving poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting gender equality and reducing infant mortality.
Ms Jones, 25, will attend the congress along with a group of friends, as an advocate of Sahaja Yoga.
“A group of us applied as delegates so we put in our application as the Sahaja organisation,” she said.
The group travel internationally teaching Sahaja Yoga meditation techniques, which promotes attributes such as inner balance, peace and “self realisation”.
“It’s just a very simple meditation technique that takes a few minutes, and once you’ve learnt it you can teach anyone,” she said. “Whatever we do is always free — it’s just for other people’s benefit. We get a lot of joy out of it.”
As part of attending the World Youth Congress, Ms Jones and the Sahaja group were asked to submit a development project illustrating the ways her organisation is taking action.
They plan to spend time in Rome working with Gypsies, teaching Sahaja Yoga and musical therapy, and helping them re-establish their cultural roots by empowering the youth.
But the project is just one of many for Ms Jones and her friends, who have established meditation programs around the world.
“A lot of my other friends, they live in all different countries,” she said. “They organise various events and then we go and join them and do all sorts of things.”
The trip to Canada will be her second encounter with the World Youth Congress.
Ms Jones is a trained musician and musical therapist as well as an accomplished artist, and attended the last congress in Scotland three years ago as a cultural performer.
For the 2008 World Youth Congress Ms Jones has applied as a delegate, which will give her a greater role in the discussions and decisions made at the event.
For more information on the World Youth Congress, go to www.wyc2008.qc.ca
By Tegan Osborne, Hawkesbury Courier
The problem is this greed. It is some sort of a inner defect in a human being. He becomes greedy – greedy because he has deviated from dharma [right conduct]. He thinks he can get pleasure out of things. He cannot and goes on accumulating and buying….
Just think of it. What is all this for? What pleasure does it give us? I can understand if you want to give somebody a present or you want to give somebody some happiness, joy. You should do it, but just for yourself … how much can you digest it? You cannot.
Joy is much more in giving to others. It’s not a thing that gives you any understanding of the fundamentals. And the fundamentals are that you are dharma. Within you is that. That is your valency and this materialism is absolutely against it because it creates all kinds of people – mafia, the Swiss banks, cheats…. They have no spititual sense….
In the nature it’s so matching – nothing gross, nothing loud. It’s so beautiful. This is red, but it has green to match it. This Mother Earth knows everything. She does everything, but what do we do for the Mother Earth…?
Anything that you want to use also should have its maryadas [boundaries]. Don’t go beyond it. If you take to swimming, you’ll go on swimming until you get sick. If you are horse riding, you’ll go on horse riding until you fall down. You see, this is also a kind of a life which has no maryadas, like greed has no maryadas….
What is the solution to get rid of this greed? It is to try and give it to others and see the joy. Give something to others, share and see the joy you feel by giving something…. These small, small things can give you great joy in giving to other people, not yourself….
If you don’t have greed, you get what you want…. But if you have greed, then God makes you dance…. Whatever you want, you can get it, if you don’t have greed about it. That’s such an enslaving thing within us, that we have greed… If you don’t ask for anything, you don’t desire for anything, you get what you need. Whatever you need, you get. But if you go on desiring, then go mad after it. Go there, get this and get lost. And then the thing also gets lost. That’s why it is said better try to develop a detachment. It’s all right. If it is there, well and good. If it is not there, it doesn’t matter. Then you’ll be surprised. your attention will be so subtle….
So you should go in for solutions and not for problems. Greed is a problem. How to get rid of the greed is the point. And to get rid of the greed is that if I buy something … for whom should I buy…? If you train your mind on these lines – not for yourself, but for others – then you’ll be amazed. This greed will run away and you’ll have joy…. If giving is there, then this greed goes away and you get what you want. It’s a very simple mantra.
Shri Mataji, 1997