Sahaja Yoga, first of all, is for personal improvement, is for the inner improvement as far as the personal side is concerned. This means your intelligence must improve, your temperament must improve, your heart must clear out, your feelings must be all right, then your health should be all right, then your relationship with others should be all right, your ego should go away, your superego should go away. All these things are there. But this only helps a personality, just a personality that is very limited, that is yourself. But now, this personality can become an instrument, if you can develop that depth within yourself.
But normally what happens, people are very much still worried about themselves, about their wives, about their children, about their husbands or their household … we have to be those instruments … We have to develop that depth within us. That depth is possible and you can really cure many problems of your country if you could just meditate on them …
My working style is different because I have very sharp and effective instruments. Now for you also, it is important that you also develop those deeper feelings within you, deeper sense within you.
Shri Mataji, 1987
“Lotus & Phoenix II” will be presented by Nayika Indian Dance which features again in the City of Sydney Chinese New Year Festival 2008.
This is a unique concert with both traditional Chinese music and classical Indian dance inspired by the symbolism of the lotus and phoenix, not to be missed by the Asian arts connoisseur.
Versatile musicians of the Sydney Sizhu Ensemble led by Tony Wheeler, and Indian classical dancer Vimala Sarma, celebrate Chinese New Year in a unique concert featuring Chinese traditional music and classical Indian dances inspired by the symbolism of the lotus and phoenix. The lotus is a symbol of purity and beauty in both Chinese and Indian cultures. This show provides an opportunity for Sydney Chinese traditional music-lovers to hear Chen Hong Yu, an inspirational vocal artist. The Indian classical dances featured include pieces performed by Vimala in the recent dance festival in Chennai.
Date: Saturday 23 February 2008
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Macquarie Street, Sydney
Cost: $35.00 plus booking fee
Bookings/Information: Tickets from www.moshtix.com.au, 1300 GET TIX (438 849) or on your mobile www.moshtix.mobi and all moshtix outlets.
There is joy before Realisation and after Realisation, but before Realisation there is no capacity to enjoy. That capacity to enjoy comes to you after Realisation and the main thing that happens to you is the discretion. Then, like the swan, you just take the milk of eveything. Your attitude towards everything becomes very different. You start seeing things from a different angle.
Once we had to go to a very ancient temple to see some art. I, My son-in-law and My daughter were walking about. We had to walk for miles up the hill and then, when we were very tired, we went into a temple and just lay down. They were so tired.
At that time I said, “See these elephants here, how beautiful they are. Every one has a different type of a tail and a different type of a trunk. All the poses are different. So many of them are like that.”
My son-in-law said, “We are so tired. How can we look at these things?”
Because My attention didn’t go to My tiredness, but to these beautiful things, same thing – you start sucking in the milk. There is joy, but you cannot feel the joy because the power – that subtle power of divine discretion – is not there. Once that comes in, you start enjoying everything.
Things are just the same. Life is just the same. Nothing has changed. Same house, same family, same city, same environment, but you start enjoying because the sensitivity of your Hamsa chakra is now only for divine discretion and you immediately know and then you don’t want to do anything with the thorns. You only want to gather flowers and you know how to gather flowers and you are in joy.
Shri Mataji, 1992
All around us, penetrating all space and all beings, exists a conscious energy, a living power. This all-pervading power (the Paramchaitanya) is an energy of love and joy and is the ultimate basis of reality. If we can experience this energy, then we will experience a pure joy that is completely independent of life’s circumstances.
Although this power is all around us we are not aware of it, in the same way that we are surrounded by radio waves and yet we cannot hear them. We need an antenna and the electrical components that turn the received signals into music in order to experience it. To feel and experience this divine energy we need the proper instrument.
Now, thankfully, inside of us we already have the instrument capable of receiving and transmitting the all-pervading divine energy into our consciousness. We do not have to invent some new device. It does not depend on human cleverness or invention. Every human being has placed inside of them this special instrument which is our own spirit, our Atma. Physically, the Atma is located in the heart and it is like a mirror that can reflect the Paramchaitanya into our consciousness.
Human suffering is a result of not being able to feel this energy. We are all the time bathed and surrounded by God’s love but we cannot feel it. We are buffeted on the surface of a tumultuous ocean which is our perceived reality, and yet all the time beneath us is the silent immense depth. If we are still we will slide away from the surface which is unreal and experience the joyful reality.
Our consciousness must merge with the Atma. Only then will the spirit be able to transmit the energy of the Paramatma, “the universal spirit”, into our awareness. “You should first realise your Atma because man cannot reach Paramatma without knowing his Atma.”
What is the Atma? “It is said that Atma is the reflection of Paramatma in our heart. This reflection is like that of the sun in water.” The reflection of the sun is seen in the water, but it is not there. The sun is in the sky sending its light everywhere on all things. But not everything is a good reflector of this light. “For any reflection to be clearly visible the mirror which is the cause of that reflection must be clean. If the mirror is not clean, or instead of a mirror a stone is there, the sun’s reflection will not be seen in it.” In the same way, if your mirror is not clean then you will not be able to see the reflection of the Paramatma within yourself, nor will you reflect this light to others.
“The reflection of the Atma appears to be absent or it just shines for a moment and disappears, in the person who is full of sin and wickedness or whose heart is loaded with false ambitions and desires.”
“Sahaja Yogis must know that they have come to Sahaja Yoga primarily to clean their mirror, to wash their sins and past deeds, to become purified of all the dirt that has been accumulated within.” This cleansing is done by the Kundalini. She is that “current which passes through the Chakras and awakens them.” As the light comes onto your chakras you become aware of which chakras are damaged. You can then use simple Sahaja Yoga techniques to cleanse these centres.
“This virgin power (the kundalini) makes us clean and pure.” The greater our purity, the more we reflect God’s light. This light shines both into our consciousness and outwards towards others. As our awareness merges into the silent meditative oneness of the stillness of God we project this light. A light to dispel darkness.
AR
(All quotes in this article are taken from a translation of a lecture given in Hindi by Shri Mataji, the founder of Sahaja Yoga, on 18 August 1979 in Delhi, India.)
(Photograph by Vishnu Bonneau)