Sahaja Yoga
Sahaja Yoga was founded in1970 by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Shri Mataji developed a method by which people en masse could get their Self-realisation, in which they feel total peace and tranquillity, absolute oneness with nature and the universe and complete psychological integration. Self-realisation has been called “individuation” by Carl Jung, and “self-actualisation” by modern psychologists and psychiatrists. Previously, people wanting to obtain their Self-realisation had to spend many years with a guru in the Himalayas going through many hardships and privations in order to cleanse their chakras to reach this height of spiritual attainment.
Shri Mataji’s method, called “Sahaja” which means “spontaneous” and “born with you” takes just ten minutes and is very joy-giving. Self-realisation takes us into a state of meditation known as “thoughtless awareness” in which we are awake and alert but are not thinking and are not affected by what is happening in our environment.
During Self-realisation the residual life force which resides in every human being in the sacrum bone at the bottom of the spine rises up through the limbic area to the fontanelle bone at the top of the head. The limbic area is the “old” brain which controls our heartbeat, our digestion, our breathing – all the work done by the autonomic nervous system. This limbic area becomes enlightened and works more effectively, calming us down and normalising and slowing down our physical processes, so that everything functions more smoothly and efficiently.
After Self-realisation, in thoughtless awareness, we become more perceptive and are able to feel subtle differences in the state of our own being and in the beings of others. Shri Mataji calls this new awareness “vibratory awareness”. We are able to feel the state of our chakras on our fingertips. Each of the seven chakras corresponds to a different finger or part of the hand. When there is a problem with a particular chakra it manifests as a tingling or heat in the corresponding position on the hand. Problems with the chakras, known as blockages, can be cleared with simple techniques using the five elements. When the chakras are cleared the heat is replaced by a feeling of coolness.
Each chakra has a different sphere of influence in our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual lives. Any imbalance or blockage in a chakra will manifest as a problem in one of those four areas. For example, the chakra at the throat, known as the Vishuddhi chakra, corresponds on a physical level to all the organs governed by the major nerve plexus in the throat, that is, the neck, sound-box, mouth, tongue, teeth, lips, inside the ears and hearing, as well as the shoulders and fingertips, as the nerves from this plexus also travel down the arms to the fingers. So, a problem with this chakra could manifest as a physical problem with any of these organs, or it may manifest as an emotional, mental or spiritual problem.
On the emotional level, this chakra is concerned with feeling connected to others, self-esteem and feeling guilty. On the mental level it is concerned with feeling respect for others and being diplomatic. On the spiritual level it is concerned with maintaining purity in our relationships with others.
In effect, with Sahaja Yoga we are able to feel imbalances in our systems and to correct them before they get to the stage of developing into major illnesses. If we already have an illness Sahaja Yoga is helpful in the treatment of the illness and in alleviating symptoms. Sahaja Yoga also helps us to see ourselves clearly, to see our faults and failings as well as our positive traits, and allows us automatically to become better people, get rid of our bad habits and addictions and resolve our problems.
All of this information is freely available at Sahaja Yoga beginners’ classes. Everyone can achieve Self-realisation and the state of thoughtless awareness, and everyone can start to feel the vibrations on their hands and learn to decode the signals. According to the wishes of the founder, Shri Mataji, Sahaja Yoga is always taught free of charge.
Kay Alford
For information about Sahaja Yoga programs, please follow the link below:
http://www.sahajayoga.com.au/level_1/Free%20Lessons.shtml
The following is a beautiful talk by Baba Mama, Shri Mataji’s beloved brother who brought the creative arts, especially music, to the forefront in Sahaja Yoga. He encouraged and inspired Sahaja Yogis to greater and greater creative heights.
You believe that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and all-pervading. In fact, you believe that He is in every atom. As natural corollary of this belief, you must also know that God knows what you want or what your need is. If the first proposition is true, then second proposition has to be true. It would follow, therefore, that those who know that God is omnipotent and all-pervading are bound to accept that God is all-knowledgeable and therefore is aware of all your problems.
In spite of this fact, we always go to God with certain expectations. Expectations can be of various types, but are basically self-centred or are pertaining to people or relations you are attached to, and then you pray to God that He should grant you a particular relief, or a job promotion, or some benefit to you or your near ones, etc. When you go with this frame of mind, then most of the time you are disappointed. Hypothetically speaking, if your expectations are symbolised in A and what you get is, let us say, B; then A minus B is your disappointment. And then you have to attribute this disappointment to someone. The pessimists will attribute it to their bad luck and will always curse themselves for not being worthy of God’s favour.
The optimists will straight away blame God Himself, and they say that this God is not good and that we should shift to some other God. In this way you keep on shifting from God to God, but disappointment is always there. This may even make you anti-God and an atheist, ultimately. Now take a case where you do not go to God with any expectations. Therefore, the expectations are zero, and let us say that you get B as the reward. Therefore, B minus zero is B which is always surplus.
You should also distinguish between your expectations and desires, and pure desires. Pure desire is always for the benefit of the other, and therefore you are entitled to carry pure desires to the Divinity. I once remember, I was travelling with Shri Mataji from Sydney to Canberra, and it was very hot and the air-conditioning of the car was thoroughly inadequate. Shri Mataji was sweating and I was fanning Her with a newspaper, but I somehow felt that the heat was oppressive and that the weather should give some respite to Her. Reading my mind, She asked me a question as to what I was thinking, to which I told Her frankly that I was unable to see Her suffer because of heat. So She told me that I should make a pure desire and the weather would change. So I closed my eyes and made a pure desire that the weather should change.
Within five minutes, dark clouds gathered from nowhere and it started raining, and the intensity of heat was thus reduced and Shri Mataji said, “See, if you make a pure desire then it will always be fulfilled.”
Coming back to expectations, I may mention here that once you are connected to your Divinity through your Self Realisation, you should feel assured that you have been admitted into the Kingdom of God, that you are His subject and therefore He is duty-bound to look after you, irrespective of what you expect of Him. So please do not expect… Only pray to Shri Mataji that She should make you what She wants you to be.
Baba Mama, 1999
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)
Before our physical birth we experienced a continuing sense of nourishment,
connectedness and security. After our physical birth we then experience our selves as separated, and so it is only natural that we seek and long for that sense of connection, nourishment and security.
This seeking finds expression in many ways. Sometimes we seek for gross, physical pleasures and external and material satisfactions in the world. Yet, these invariably do not fully satisfy us; they prove to be stormy, transient and therefore illusory. Perhaps this leads us to understand that the means to really satisfy ourselves, the Kingdom of Heaven, lies within us and so we may begin seeking in earnest for our inner or ultimate fulfilment.
There is a gap, between the separated and conditioned sense of self we experience ourselves as, and the eternal, spiritual core of our being which is completely secure, connected and joyful. This divide, between the illusory and relative nature of the world and the ultimate Reality, is manifest in a physical gap in the central channel, within the para-sympathetic nervous system. This gap actually exists physically between the sacral outflow and the vagus nerve, encompassing the Subtle area called the Void or the Ocean of Illusion.To cross this gap, this Ocean of Illusion, we need to develop balance, self-mastery and pure desire. We also require the help of a true Guru – someone who will awaken the Kundalini so that we can discern the correct Path and cross the Void to the heart, wherein lies the true Self, the eternal Spirit.
It is in this state of disconnectedness that seekers may search for a guide or Guru to help them to find the Way, a Path or process to cross the Void, the illusions, and connect with that Source of all satisfaction, joy and fulfilment – the Divine, the Source, Tao, or God. There have been many great incarnations of the principle of Guru or Spiritual Teacher who have incarnated to guide groups of sincere seekers towards their Self-realisation. The personifications or incarnations of this principle include Abraham, Moses, Muhammed, Zarathustra, Lao Tze, Confucious, Sai Baba of Shirdi, Guru Nanak, Raja Janaka and Socrates. Also, there have been false gurus who have plundered and damaged the seekers. The goal in Sahaja Yoga is to help the true seekers to find their Self-realisation so they can become their own gurus.
Most often for the seekers, so far, the only assistance has been to receive a set of guidelines, or rules, a dharmic way of behaving, that will help maintain individual and collective balance. So, we have sets of rules in the religions such as the Ten Commandments. Moses, as an example of the Guru principle, led his people out of slavery, across the ocean and to the promised land. Shri Mataji in this modern era holds a unique place in the tradition of Gurus because She has created a method for en masse Kundalini awakening and so facilitated the creation of so many potentially enlightened Gurus.
Only the Kundalini can bridge that great divide between illusion and Reality. On first awakening, Kundalini ascends the Sushumna (centre) nadi up to the Agnya chakra. It covers the lower plate (moordha) and then descends like melting clouds on the Ida (left) and Pingala (right) nadis to the Void. It fills the Void area, and then the three combined powers re-ascend the Sushumna nadi to open the lotus petals of the Sahasrara. The Spirit, which is said to be watching through the manifold subtle auras of the heart, has its seat at the top of the head in the centre. When the individual spark of the Spirit is raised and reunited in Union, or Yoga, with the all-pervading and all-powerful Source at the apex of the Sahasrara, then the Reality of the essential core of existence is realised. This enables a person to start to become his or her own Guru, based on a new enlightened awareness.
(Photograph courtesy of fromoldbooks.org)