SAHAJA YOGA - AN INTRODUCTION

Personal views of a South Africa Yogi.

An Introduction



The reason for writing this article is to introduce the spiritual knowledge being taught through Sahaja Yoga to you, in a straight forward uncomplicated manner and to present these teachings as plainly as possible.

To start with you will find that Sahaja Yoga makes some rather surprising claims. We ask that you keep an open mind and suspend your judgement until you have finished reading what we have to say. Sahaja Yoga is able to explain everything from the purpose of our lives to the fossil record and the theory of evolution. The Divine was behind every development.

The starting point of our story is that there is a God, the nature of whom forms the major part of what this article is all about. Atheism is just not tenable. How could there not be a God, the uncaused cause of the universe? Ultimately atheism depends on statistics for credibility but the numbers are against the idea. A chance of 1 in infinity that the Big Bang and all that followed, happened by chance without the designing hand of the Divine? It is far more exciting to believe in God and try to work out how he reacts within the world rather than trying to defend atheism by attacking religious fundamentalism.

The person, born in 1923, who started Sahaja Yoga is Shri Mataji. She did this in1970. She is an an extremely high spiritual person who can be said to be a messenger from God, comparable in stature to Mohammed, Abraham and Moses. The ultimate test of this statement is the knowledge that She has brought with her. It is knowledge, which can easily be understood by the modern world but the the conditioning of people is a major problem to their acceptance of these teachings. People tend to stick to the teaching of the religion into which they were born. Shri Mataji says that what the major spiritual teachers of the past such as Jesus, Mohammed and Krishna taught, was all in accord with each other. Sahaja Yoga both confirms and adds new knowledge to their teachings. We have structured this article by touching on a number of subjects which are intended to sketch out the broader framework of the knowledge that Shri Mataji has imparted to us. We will not be dealing with the specifics of Sahaja Yoga in this article. These are taught in the newcomer classes held by the Yogis. They are always free of charge. The website at www.sahajayoga.org is also a source of information as well as country websites shown on this site.

Sahaja Yoga is a great new spiritual movement, which is purely meditative. It does not use the physical postures of Hatha Yoga.

The first question to be answered is who do Sahaja Yogi's worship? There has only, ever has, been one God. The yogis call Him Sadashiva and it is he that they worship. God however has many facets - just like a diamond - and the yogis worship these different facets or deities depending on the situation. Some of the different deities are the Adi Shakti, the female power of God; Jesus Christ and his mother Mary; Mohammed, Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Lao Szu and Confucious. The different situations referred to are the mantras or prayers offered to the different deities during daily meditation, during havans and during pujas. Shri Mataji says that the teachingsof all these great spiritual teachers was all in accord. Sahaja Yoga is the intergration of all these teachings. This is the reason why Sahaja Yoga can claim to be the universal pure religion, Vishwa Nirmala Dharma, which is the alternative name for Sahaja Yoga. It is because of this universal nature that everybody can easily start doing the Sahaja Yoga meditation.

How does God operate in the world? This of course is the great mystery, which has concerned the religions, philosophers, mystics and seekers of all kinds down through the ages. It is the fundamental question. The view presented by Sahaja Yoga is comforting and alarming; comforting because He is a God of Love, and alarming because He is also a God of destruction. The simple truth is that if you love and obey him and live a dharmic or righteous life, as laid out in all the great religious texts, you will reap all the benefits that His love can bring. Disobey Him and He will cause havoc in your life and ultimately destroy you if you don't come to your senses. You ignore God at your peril. Destruction comes in the form of disease or perhaps through nature as 'an act of God', Tsunamis, earthquakes and other things of this ilk. Do I/we hear any voices being raised in disagreement? Then consider this. God is omnipresent and all powerful. He knows when something is about to happen and could stop it if he wanted to. Consider the common-day scourge of HIV/ AIDS, for which, to date no cure has been found. Could this possibly be a consequence of the licentious lifestyle of so many of us? Sahaja Yoga believes that it is. This brings up the question of free will, what does it really mean? In terms of what we have said so far it means one thing and one thing only. Follow the rules of righteous living or suffer the consequences. Is this really free will? I don't think so. Whenever men neglect the authority of the Lord, nature and her laws are there to penalise them. (Srimad Bagavatam 1.1.1)

Sahaja Yoga having an eastern source confirms that there is reincarnation and that we are all subject to the law of karma. This used to mean that you could bank on a number of lives to workout your problems in your quest for perfection. The quest for perfection is the main purpose of your existence. It didn't matter too much if you died in unpleasant circumstances, due to bad karma, as you could always count on further lives coming up to improve your position. Shri Mataji says that you should not worry about what you were in previous lives. It is the present life which is important. Sahaja Yoga teaches that the more perfect you are or the greater degree of spiritual growth that you have achieved, the greater your chances of making it into heaven on the day of judgement. Judgement used to be thought of as coming sometime in the far distant future. Shri Mataji however teaches that we are living in the time of the revelations now, and that the judgement is already taking place. Time is now short. How short we do not know. This means that you had better consider doing something about trying to grow spiritually in your present life if you want to make it into the kingdom of heaven and not be lost forever. That's the bad news. Doesn't this sound delightfully biblical and old testament-like at that?

The good news however is that you can now get your self realisation simply by asking for it. 'There is still time brother'. I may be writing in a jocular vein but I can assure you that I am deadly serious.
Self realisation is the awakeningof the dormant kundalini energy within each one of us, which resides in the sacrum bone. All you have to do to get your self realisation is to ask for it. This is the consequence of Shri Mataji having taken birth on the earth. She has revealed the way for en-masse and spontaneous self-realisation to modern people. The Divine has now granted human beings the right to get their self realisation in this manner. Previously one had to go to the mountains or the forests and meditate for a lifetime, or perhaps two or three lifetimes, before getting it.
Getting self realisation means that you can achieve the state of yoga; that you can now be connected to the Divine through the collective unconscious, that Carl Jung wrote about. That is what yoga essentially means: being connected with the Divine. Previously you were not. Couple this with learning the simple Sahaja Yoga meditation which is getting into a state of thoughtless awareness, beyond your mind and ego and do this for five to ten minutes a twice a day and you can then expect to start accruing the benefits of the meditation, which are many. You will start to grow spiritually, which is the main purpose of the Sahaja Yoga and any mental or health problems will radically improve. Your state of welfare including your financial position and your relationships with other people will all improve. The power of your prayers will increase a thousand fold because you are now directly connected to the source of everything; to THE Source.

The implications of Sahaja Yoga for humanity are huge. We are all connected to one another through the collective unconcious and once large numbers of people have achieved their self realisation most of the problems in the world are going to disappear. There won't be anymore need for war and our planet will be able to once again establish equilibrium. Global warming will be a thing of the past. A long time ago the Chinese sage, Lao Tse, said: “There will always be the sound of war and thunder and death until man achieves God and enter into his tranquillity”.
The way for this state of affairs to be achieved is for large numbers of people to get their self realisatiion and to start practising Sahaja Yoga's thoughtless awareness meditation. Kundalini awakening, and the consequent awakening of the spirit, such that it starts informing your ego conciousness is how everything works. It is the next stage of the evolution of human beings.

Well, have you managed to stay with me so far? I did say in the beginning that you should keep an open mind and suspend your judgement. Shri Mataji does say that you should be skeptical about her teachings until you receive the proof. I can assure you that there is proof a-plenty and I hope that you will decide take your self realisation and embrace Sahaja Yoga.
Perhaps your starting point for further information on Sahaja Yoga is the internet where one can find information at www.sahajayoga.org - And to look for the answers in your heart.

Huntly Reid
February 2009