About Sahaja Yoga

Sahaja Yoga is a method of meditation which has resulted in a breakthrough in the evolution of human awareness. Sahaja Yoga was established by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi in 1970 and has since spread all around the world. Self-Realization is the key to self-knowledge, and occurs when a dormant energy at the base of the spine is awakened and travels through the subtle energy centres within the body. When it pierces the fontanelle bone area it results in a cool breeze flowing out of the top of the head and on the hands. One feels very relaxed, and experiences a very peaceful meditative state known as thoughtless awareness.

In this state one is able to bypass the constant bombardment of thoughts in the brain. In addition one begins to feel sensations on the finger tips and feet which correspond to energy centres in the body. These sensations could consist of heat in the case of a problem in an energy centre, or coolness when there are no problems in that centre.

If you are able to attend one of our centres we can help you to cleanse these energy centres and to show you how to do so yourself. In this way you become your own master and are able to keep yourself in a balanced state.

What is Sahaja Yoga Meditation?

Sahaja Yoga Meditation is best understood as a state of 'mental silence' in which one is fully alert and aware but free of the unnecessary thoughts or worries that lead to many of life's day to day stresses. This state of silence occurs spontaneously when one learns how to focus on the experience of the present moment, leading to a state of peace and calm. Through a simple process, known as Self-Realisation (kundalini awakening) this meditative state can be quickly established, maintained and, most importantly, enjoyed!

About our meetings

Attending one of our Sahaja Yoga meetings, or Sahaja Yoga workshops, will allow you to experience this meditation. You will learn how to meditate at home and how to keep in balance. The techniques are easy to learn and practice. No physical exercises, postures or special clothing is required. Course participants have a choice of sitting on a chair or carpeted floor.

All Sahaja Yoga meetings and courses are offered free of charge and are conducted by experienced practitioners. There are many centres around the world that offer these meditation classes.

Sahaja Yoga is different from the other yogas because it begins with Self realization instead of this being the unobtainable dream of a distant goal. Her Holiness Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi makes this possible, for in being born Self realized She is able to pass on Her gift of Divine Revelation to others. She derives infinite wisdom, love and power by being connected to the main power supply of the Life Source Itself whilst all others must rely upon the pitifully inadequate potential contained in their own personal batteries.

Spontaneous realization of the Divine mysteries is the first of three fundamental differences between Sahaja Yoga and other Yoga paths. Self Realization is the key which unlocks the invisible barrier which blocks the life force of kundalini and this makes the kriya techniques of purification and the asanas of hatha yoga quite unnecessary as this work is already accomplished. Because the Divine Grace shines forth from the very beginning, the ego does not develop in its seekers and the major obstacle to attainment never emerges in their awareness. This destroys all sense of separation as the enlightened ones merge together in a sea of love.

Finally, the Mother Shri Mataji, unlike other gurus, opens up Her heart to all who seek Her Grace and turns away no one, whatever their transgressions and shortcomings may be.

From a small, small seed a big tree grows. In Spring, there is blossom and in Summer, the flowers become fruit. Our own spiritual rebirth is as simple and natural a process. Within us all there is a seed, a residual knowledge of self called Kundalini.

When the breath of divine love gives life to this seed, we find ourselves reborn into the dimension of spirit,we discover the tree of life that exists within us, we feel the divine breath as an all-pervading vibration. Like flowers, we feel our own fragrance. We mature, like fruits, into wholeness.

We have evolved from our origins in primeval matter, to the stage where we can formulate complex theories on the nature of evolution and existence. But, beyond our analysis, do we realise that evolution is still a living process, quietly and continually working towards our eventual fulfillment? Or do we, in our arrogance,see ourselves now at the pinnacle of human development, with providence our hireling, and nothing better to become?

Journey implies arrival. If so, where are we today? Is this the new Jerusalem? How can it be? If it is God’s plan to establish his kingdom on this earth and in our hearts, then it looks as though we still have some way to go. We live in a world of suffering and confusion, slaves to matter and expedience, our moral sense shattered. For centuries, we have struggled for a solution through every external agency; enough to realise perhaps that the answer must lie within, with the transformation of the individual.

Many today are experiencing this transformation, evolving into the conscious awareness of spirit, seeing within themselves that vital spark which connects them to their absolute, watching the fear and confusion of the relative world fall away, like the old cocoon of the bright new butterfly.

In the past, there have been many great men and women who have tried to raise man’s consciousness to the level at which he might know himself, and men have used their teaching to engender faction and hypocrisy. The simplicity of the original tune was too simple for their ear to carry.

Today, another is spreading the universal message of divine love, integrating the music of past singers in a dynamic new harmony. Her audience has a more sympathetic ear. They participate as instruments in her song. Through the realisation that she manifests, they are experiencing knowledge of self for the first time, and they are seeing the self in others. Her Holiness Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has opened the door to collective consciousness, the ultimate evolutionary jump, where man finds union with himself and with his source.

Yoga means union; union with something beyond ourselves, with something essentially divine. Sahaja means spontaneous, and it means ‘born with you’. So by Sahaja Yoga, we mean that the means to spontaneous union with the divine is born within us all. To achieve this union all we do is ask and let it happen. We cannot achieve it by any effort, it is spontaneous, it just happens. It is given as a gift.

Before realisation, Kundalini exists within us in the dormant state, coiled inside the triangular bone at the base of the spine, When awakened, it rises through the subtle channel in the spine, eventually piercing the fontanel bone (Bramharandhra) and passing through. Here at the topmost chakra, the sahasrara with the thousand lotus petals, is the point of yoga, where the individual consciousness is united to the all-pervading power of collective unconscious. At the same time Kundalini awakens the spirit which resides in the heart, where it beings to pulsate. Thought ceases as Kundalini passes through the agnya centre in the brain. The spirit, which is now alive within us, manifests itself as a flow of cool vibrations, moving across the hands and over the crown and temples like a cool breeze. We begin to feel different sensations in the fingers, as here the Kundalini signals to us the condition of the various centres (chakras) within. This state we call vibratory awareness, in which we actually feel the self, as it manifests itself, through the vibrations, to the central nervous system. Since the self, which is the spirit, the essence of our being, now enters our conscious awareness, this is also called self realisation. The whole process begins when H. H. Shri Mataji awakens the Kundalini. It rises automatically when touched by the vibrations that radiate from Her Being, and fills you with a sense of peace and bliss as it is guided upward under Her care and expertise. As she says so often with Her characteristic humour, ‘Kundalini is my job. If I know the job, why should you be upset ? You know other jobs, I know this one …’

H. H. Shri Mataji has been teaching Sahaja Yoga and sharing the experience of self-realisation since 1970. She was born on 21st March, 1923, in Chindawara, a small hill station near Nagpur in the heart of India . Today She is the wife of a U.N. diplomat with two daughters and four grandchildren. Although born into a Christian family, She has embraced the truth of all religions in Her universal teaching.

In spite of Her undoubted powers and profound depth of spiritual knowledge, H. H. Shri Mataji remains a person of extraordinary humility, a fount of wisdom and common-sense, and a constant source of laughter and delight. A personality with as many facets as a brilliant crystal, she is yet, at the core, one with the spirit of her teaching; the pure light of love that glows in the heart of that crystal.

On 5th May 1970, She witnessed the sahasrara chakra of the Virata open. The Virata is the Universal Being, God’s manifested aspect in whose image we are made. Each chakra’s opening in his spiritual instrument heralds a new stage in our evolution, as it creates the same potential in our own. The last chakra to open before this time was the agnya, which opened with Christ’s resurrection. With the opening of the sahasrara, H.H. Shri Mataji knew that it was time for man to rise into his destined station, into the glory of God’s kingdom.

The first thing to realise is that in Sahaja Yoga, ’something’ actually happens. The experience of self is real, not random or undetermined, but consistent and verifiable.

Enlightenment in the form of thoughtless awareness (nirvichar samadhi) takes place when Kundalini reaches the sahasrara. When she pierces through, the cool vibrations start to follow. Surprisingly, vibrations from the photograph of H.H. Mataji awaken Kundalini in the same way as from her person. By following this procedure with an open mind, you may experience self realisation, granting complete relaxation and the elevation into the witness state of collective consciousness. Again this experience is actual. Neither the invention of an exalted imagination nor the projection of an external power, it is your own realisation, taking place within you.

Be comfortable at all times. First remove shoes and loosen tight clothing. Place the photograph of H. H. Mataji so you may sit before it in the most relaxed way. It is best to sit on the floor to have greater contact with the earth, but you may use a chair if this proves too difficult. Try to sit with a reasonably straight spine and in a respectful frame of mind. Kundalini has her dignity, which must always be respected, as must the attendant protocol of the Divine. With your eyes on the picture, hold your hands towards it, palms upward. You may rest your hands on your lap. Close your eyes and let the mind be quite still. If there is any flickering of the eyelids or you begin to see any lights, colours or visions, then it means there is a problem in the agnya chakra and you should keep your eyes open and on the picture. Attention should be loose, not fixed at any point. If there are still thoughts, try to detach yourself by watching them until they fade. Forgive anyone who has ever harmed you or made you unhappy. Ask yourself, ‘What are you thinking ?’

If you have led a reasonably normal life so far, you may not feel any physical sensation, only a gradual relaxation of the inner being. You may feel the Kundalini moving up the spine to the crown of the head. When it reaches the agnya chakra in the centre of the brain, thoughts cease spontaneously, without effort. Thoughtless awareness does not mean you cannot think, but that you see yourself outside the flow of thought in a state of pure awareness.

Try to remain as a witness to all that is happening, watching without thinking. There is no danger, nothing to fear; the nature of Kundalini is protective and maternal. As your mother, she only does what is best for you, her only child.

As the Kundalini enters sahasrara chakra and passes through the fontanel area of the skull to merge with the universal unconscious, you may begin to feel cool vibrations like a breeze on your hands. This is the divine breeze that is mentioned in so many scriptures; as the wind of the Holy Ghost in the Bible, as the Hebrew ‘ruach’, as the ‘chaitanya lahari’ described by Adi Shankaracharya. We discover many more references in our literature, as for instance in Wordsworth’s :
‘mild, creative breeze,
A vital breeze which travelled gently on
O’er things which it had made,’*

or in Blake’s :

‘Still the breath Divine does move,
And the breath Divine is Love.’**

If the breeze flows evenly in both hands, you can be sure that your instrument is in good shape and that your Kundalini is rising all the way through. Now just enjoy your realisation in meditation, ‘because you cannot meditate but have to be in meditation, through a happening’.

Although this sounds a lengthy process, for those who have spent their lives in the paths of righteousness, realisation takes just a split second. For some of us it takes a little longer.

Sometimes you may feel cool in one hand only. If it is on the right you may place it on the heart while keeping the left towards the picture. This gives support to the weaker left side. Alternately you can hold the right hand away from the picture, as a channel for problems in your system to escape. If the cool breeze is on your left hand you can place it on your liver (just below the ribcage on the right hand side) and keep the right towards the picture. Or you can hold the left away. Continue until the two sides are brought into balance and the flow is even in both hands.

You may feel heat, tingling, heaviness or numbness in the hands, or may be nothing at all. This means there is an obstruction in your instrument. We call these obstructions ‘catches’ or ‘baddha’. When Kundalini is working in an obstructed chakra, the subsequent friction gives rise to the heat you may feel. You can use the elements to disperse these obstructions. To use the fire element (Tej Mahabhuta) to light a candle before the picture. Then dissolve some salt in a bowl of warm water and sit as before with your feet in the bowl. Obstructions will be burnt in the flame and absorbed in the salt (earth element) and water. After fifteen to twenty minutes, dry your feet, flush away the water in the bowl, wash your hands and again check your vibrations.

There are many clearing techniques apart from footsoaking, including the use of appropriate mantras and bandhans, and Mohammed’s methods using flowers and lemons and even your own shoes. All this knowledge is received after realisation and must be put into practice if it is to be sustained. For once Kundalini has risen, she soon descends in difficult cases, to those chakras that need her attention. While the realisation is effortless, to sustain it demands a certain degree of self cleansing and self-understanding. With this understanding, we sustain ourselves that we may manifest the powers of our spirit, discovering in Sahaja Yoga, our own beauty and how to enjoy that beauty in ourselves and in others.

H.H. Shri Mataji says, ‘how much you meditate is how much you love.’ Try to meditate daily, early in the morning and in the evening after work. First clear yourself as thoroughly as possible using the appropriate methods, then try just to sit in thoughtless awareness, which is where meditation should begin. Regularity is more important than length of meditation at first -  the effect is cumulative. It should never become ritualistic or formalised, but always be from the heart.

The most powerful meditation is usually experienced collectively with other realised souls. With such loving and dynamic people, the vibrations are proportionately stronger and you too develop the same qualities. Meetings with other Sahaja Yogis also give you the opportunity to work on others which is the quickest way to accelerate your own ascent. As you clear them you clear yourself. Her Holiness Mataji says ‘Sahaja Yoga is not meant for a few individuals. The whole has to be awakened.’

This article comes from www.sahajayoga.com.au

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