Everything You Need to Know About Sahaja Yoga
Birth of Sahaja Yoga
Sahaja Yoga was established by Shri Mataji when she experienced Kundalini awakening and wanted to share that experience so that others can benefit as well. This practice is referred to as a living experience that eventually leads to an elevated state of consciousness for both mind and emotions, known as thoughtless awareness to its practitioners.
Literally, Sahaja means spontaneous and if you were to combine that with the term yoga, which means union, it could mean a spontaneous union of the physical, mental, and spiritual body. You can call that spiritual evolution by many things including second birth, awakening, baptism, self actualization, or self realization.
Sahaja Yoga Meditation
Meditation is the brain thrust of Sahaja Yoga practice – this is the centre of all practices involved in this yoga style. During deep meditation, you must force a light inside you to bring about a new dimension in spiritual awareness. When you achieve this light, you become your own spiritual guide. This is how Self Realization happen and it can certainly take place without effort, thus the term spontaneous happening.
You know when you have reached this stage as you will feel a gentle breeze enter the fontanel area of your head and hands. Also, you become aware of the placement of your chakras. At this point, you have reached a deeper phase known as collective consciousness. This self realization is also considered as a first step in Sahaja Yoga, instead of being the end point of all practices. All other meditational activities and yogic practices are intended to nourish the soul and facilitate for a continued growth of the spirit and mind.
Sahaja Yoga- Self realization
Principles of Sahaja Yoga
Below is a descriptive outline of the basic teachings in Sahaja Yoga:
- The focus on spirituality requires practitioners of Sahaja Yoga to follow a middle path. Meaning, one should devote themselves to live the righteous life that is aimed towards spiritual growth instead of embracing material and other worldly things.
- It does not espouse the need to switch into vegetarianism but insists on maintaining a balanced diet and nutrition.
- Vices such as drinking or smoking must be prevented as it can damage one of your subtle energy system, which impedes the process of spiritual growth.
- It believes in the existence of a Divine power of which you must try to create a connection with as an important prerequisite to spiritual evolution.
- Since spiritual growth cannot be measured quantitatively, all methods in Sahaja Yoga practice are aimed at eliminating the following blockades to spiritual progress: lust, anger, materialism, lack of detachment, vanity, and competitiveness.
Concept of Kundalini
Kundalini is something that is innate to every individual upon birth. It is an individual manifestation of the presence of Divine power in one's life and is merely awakened through the process of meditation. All the process involved in Sahaja Yoga is therefore intended to awaken that Kundalini from within your body through the various energy systems known as chakra.
This awakening is a simple process, though. All it takes is a short guided meditation lasting only for a few minutes.
Sahaja Yoga Music - meditation music with Dr Rajam
Sahaja Yoga Meditation - The center of innocence
Sahaja Yoga Meditation... Short meditation with instructions
Benefits Derived From Sahaja Yoga
The key to experiencing benefits through the practice of Sahaja Yoga is in the consistent efforts of the practitioner to seek self realization or Kundalini. All forms of meditation and practice aim toward a state of thoughtlessness wherein spontaneous energy take over the body and facilitate in the meditation process. In this case, meditation happens naturally and the participant is no longer required to exert mental or physical effort for it to happen.
One distinct advantage of practicing Sahaja Yoga is a holistic array of benefits that include physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental benefits as outlined below.
Physical Benefits
The tapping of spontaneous energy during meditation is responsible for coordinating various organs within the body to improve function. Therefore, any form of blockage that is causing dysfunction on various organs of the body is removed through this process. The methods used in Sahaja Yoga requires you to confront the causes of such ailments and recreate balance in your overall system. In fact, performance of yoga is often considered more effective than synthetic type of drugs or medicine.
Spiritual Benefits
This is considered as the ultimate benefit that can be derived from Sahaja Yoga. When you reach the stage of complete spiritual progress, an individual creates a strong relationship and recognizes the presence of a Divine Being that is the center for truth, contentment, and awareness. In fact, it is a necessary stage in the evolution of a human being into deeper level of awareness or spiritual essence. Unless you are able to gain that self-knowledge, you cannot purify the Self.
Emotional Benefits
Aside from producing balance in your physiological and spiritual processes, the same effect can also be produced in your emotions through Sahaja Yoga meditation. Any form of obstacle that is hindering a person from expressing his/her true sentiments are eliminated in the equation. In the process, negative form of emotions such as anger, jealousy or greed are removed in your system to fully emancipate an individual emotionally.
Mental Benefits
The state of meditation is very beneficial for your mental health. It enables any form of negative thoughts such as worries, anxiety, and depression abandon your mind in the process of meditation and help you focus on the present. At this stage, your senses also become sharper and enable you to perceive the world as it is instead of being a misconstrued image.
Sahaja Yoga vs Other Spiritual or Yogic Movements
Unlike what others believe or perceive it to be, Sahaja Yoga is not a religious movement. It is an established form of yoga that is based on a spiritual focus as the key to attaining the ultimate goal of practicing yoga. In a way, it is innovative in its approach as compared to other schools of yogic thought. It works in reverse such that self realization, the endpoint for other yoga practices is an important prerequisite to Sahaja Yoga.
Considered as a spontaneous happening, Sahaja Yoga is therefore a method of nourishing that self realization and spiritual awareness you have gained.